“What the world of tomorrow will be like is greatly dependent on the power of imagination in those who are learning to read today” Astrid Lindgren

“What the world of tomorrow will be like is greatly dependent on the power of imagination in those who are learning to read today” Astrid Lindgren

I found this quote at work this week and it is so true. I see every part of the spectrum from kids who check out and read 3-4 books a day to ones that haven’t been in the library all year and “hate to read” which absolutely breaks my heart.

Once again, we have had a CRAZY week. We are all ready for Spring Break, yet it is so far away! I think this is when that winter sluggy sets in.

Highlights (or disasters if you will) of the week:

Flowers Bob got me to get me out of the winter sluggy!

 

The Day NOT to be repeated. Ever!

Sometimes I worry about Tyler. How is it that so many crazy things can happen to one guy? Several people this week suggested he write a book. One even said, “he needs to write and illustrate his own books patterned after the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (those cartoonish illustrations) only just call it the Life of Tyler Hart. Best seller. Truth is stranger than fiction and it sells!” So true!! So here is what happened:

In gym he "accidentally" ran into another a kid. I guess they both thought the other one would move. I bet that was comical when they smacked into each other. What wasn’t so comical is that as a result of that head-on collision, Tyler tripped and fell on the pregnant PE teacher and in the process actually broke her leg! Tyler had to race to get the nurse, an ambulance came, and she had to stay in the hospital for 2 days! The good news is that the baby is fine and she was worried the whole time in the hospital about Tyler and hoping he wasn’t feeling bad.

Then, Alayna told us that she accidentally kicked her art teacher while trying to parkour around a table...thank goodness that teacher only said “ouch”.

Then, Kayla tripped on the way to the dinner table and splashed stroganoff sauce into Alaynas hair and all over the dogs, which made Alayna cry because she HATES meat (no clue why). Really? So, it made her cry? The dogs LOVED it! (not the crying, but being covered in meat sauce!)

THEN, Tyler was teasing Kayla, Kayla kept poking him with the colander, and it broke. What a day oh what a day!

He looks great in his new glasses!

Dog-sitting

We are watching Whitney and Taylor again. They sure love Alayna and Tyler. It does make it a little nutty around here though because its almost like we have two extra kids….that bark…

Metro

Marisa had her final metro concert last night. She made 4^th chair, but she actually beat the other 3 in all-state auditions so as far as I’m concerned, she is the best 1^st violinist in all of Cedar Rapids! The music was tough and she was amazing!

This week we have to go get her a formal gown for her upcoming Senior solo on Valentines Day. Everyone is invited to come!

Merit Badge Clinic

Tyler and Bob attended a Family History Merit Badge clinic last night, so hopefully Tyler can work on completing that Merit Badge.

Snow Day

We did get our long-awaited for snow day this week. However, it was not comprised of me studying my inner eyelids for 5 extra hours and not having to get dressed or function in any way. Instead, Tyler and I got up to do our workout at 5am. Then, Kayla came in and told us school was delayed. Me, being the smart, intelligent person that I am, decided to go to work early and get stuff done (and paid for the extra hours) while students weren’t actually present.

I carefully slid my way to work and it took 45 minutes. The parking lot was a sheet of ice, so I figure-skated my way to the entrance. Then I had to track down the keys to the library and no one has the key to the lights. There were already kids there who didn’t know school was delayed. I let them come inside and warm up only to find out a few minutes laster that school was cancelled. So, I painstakingly made my way home, got in warm pjs and we watched movies all day.

Family Time

Linn Grove had their dinner/open house this week, so we got to go see some of the fun things Alayna has been working on in class. She kicks butt in social studies. I wonder where she gets that from? Lol!

We also went to Pancheros as a family to celebrate Tyler and I kicking booty on our 5AM workouts.

Proof Im becoming senile and loopy

Anyone see whats wrong with this blog book (the yellow one)?

“I deserve a bonus…for making it through the week without stabbing someone with a fork”

“I deserve a bonus…for making it through the week without stabbing someone with a fork”

My Mom sent me this saying this week which sums up the week perfectly! We got a HUGE snowstorm and once again, we had school! I HATE driving to work on icy roads. It scares me to death. It also scares me thinking of my kids driving in it.

We had to shovel and I am more irritated than ever that we don’t have a snow blower. Everyone else on our street has one. The kids went out to shovel but didn’t last long, so I went out and shoveled for an hour an a half and was quickly reminded why I hate winter and how old im getting. Oh, my aching back! The cool thing about my new camera is I can now get close up shots from INSIDE the house. So much better!

We did have a bullying incident that happened to Tyler this week. My inner mama bear came out in full force like never before. Im always surprised at that instinctive protective instinct to guard our children. He is doing much better now and he will have his new glasses this week. I think he looks pretty sharp.

Speaking of which, I am SO proud of him for getting up with me every day at 5am to workout with no complaints. This week he finally got to see some progress and was so excited. He is getting stronger with more endurance. Plus, we gave him a cool haircut and with that, his workout watch and his his new pfiten, he says he has upped his cool factor by 80%! Supposedly it keeps him on “balance”.

Oh, and we finally got to see “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and we loved it!

Happy Pig Day

Alayna created and organized Happy Pig Day for our family just for fun!

We did coloring:

We did puzzles:

Alayna sang the song she wrote (lyrics and music!)

Hyvee Holiday Party

 

Sometimes My Brilliance Amazes Even Me

Sometimes My Brilliance Amazes Even Me

Ok so I have done some things this week which I think can be lumped into a category of brilliance on my part.

1. Have you ever wondered what to do with the end of the cereal when your kids leave like ½ a cup and it always ends up getting thrown away cause no one will eat it? Well, for some reason I was thinking of these cookies my Grandma C used to make for us when we were little and I loved them. So, I decided to try and recreate it with leftover “stuff”. So, I cooked 1 cup caro syrup with 1 cup sugar (stay with me, it gets better) and I mixed it with 1 cup cheerios, 1 cup rice chex, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup mini marshmallows, and I cup rice krispies. They were amazing! Kinda defeated my workout but hey, its was brilliant.

2. Tyler has NO IDEA how lucky he is to have me as a live-in-trainer! Its like he has his own personal Bob in his home, who comes in at 5am and says “Rise and Shine its exercising Time!” And I even say, “Don’t slow down, pretend you are right next to Lara Croft and the bad guys may get you. Run, Tyler, Run!” See? Pure Awesomeness!

3. So, I work with books and paper stuff all day (which I love by the way!) But in this weather my hands get so dang dry. This week the skin started to crack. So, a great idea popped into my head. Kayla had bought some aloe-infused gloves. I bough this heavy duty Vaseline lotion for baby bums and I coated my hands, put on the gloves, and slept like that. I might have looked super-weird, but it works!

4. I have also come up with and created an almost flawless chore chart for the kids. Yep, awesomeness abounds here!

Moments where my brilliance was…um..underwhelming.

1. Ok, so one day this week, it got up to like 50 degrees and I actually wore a t-shirt to work!! It was amazing and beautiful. That night, a terrible storm hit. I thought for SURE we would have a snow day. But no such luck. {idiots!} It was -5 when I left for work. So, I had to drive and it took me 45 minutes to get there. The roads were solid ice, the wind was like 45 miles an hour with drifting slamming snow, and which way do I choose to go? The windiest (as in twists and turns) road! I felt like a bumbling elephant on roller-skates! The only reason I didn’t fall off in a ditch is because I didn’t drive faster than my guardian angel could fly (which in case you are wondering was 15 miles an hour which thrilled all the people behind me to no end!) I almost rear-ended a cop and a school bus fish-tailed behind me. I am so grateful I survived. And 1 HUGE question….why didn’t I get gas when it 60 degrees warmer??

2. Coming home on Friday I noticed our road had been plowed which you would think was a good thing. However, they make a giant pile on the front of the driveway. So, I, in my mini car, try to make it up the driveway. I kept spinning wheels and got stuck. Stupid snow. Thank goodness for kids you can force to shovel you out while you make them hot chocolate. That’s what they are for right?

Other People’s Brilliance

1. Pocketblue- “Pocket BLU® enables your mobile device to communicate directly with your Blu-ray™ player to extend your movie experience in ways never before possible”. Have any of you tried this before? It is so dang awesome! We watched a movie and it does all this cool stuff while we watch. Although, when you get old like Bob and I, then its tough to keep up with all that “input”.

2. Alayna LOVES the ipad. I hope Bob can attach some of the clips she has made. But the best part? Right before bed, she can read her scriptures and watch BOM videos that the church just released. How cool is that?

Extras

The girls attended the Hyvee Holiday Party. (I’ll post pics as soon as I get them)

Alayna finally got to have a friend over and they played in the snow and built an awesome snowman.

Roses in January, a panoramic view, and the “Year of Change”

Another crazy, busy week has come to pass. I would tell you how awesome it has been to have NO SNOW and how the temperature actually got up to 60 this week, but then I would jinx us and we would get the storm of the century….so I am not telling you.

(Flowers Bob and Tyler got for me)

We started off the week with lots of individual and family goals. I told them our family motto this year is “The Year of Change”. When I started looking for a vinyl of that phrase to go on our wall- the kids really thought I had lost my mind (I didn’t find any). Anyway, Tyler has been getting up at 5AM every day to work out with me. And even though we are both dead tired, we have been working hard. We watch fun SyFy movies like “Swamp Shark” and “Anaconda”. This week we are doing disaster movies, cause we are cool like that.

I started experimenting with my new superawesome camera, so all the pictures I took this week are from that. I love that it can zoom in so much farther than my old one. I am not very good at it yet though. It doesn’t help that I shake like a leaf in a tornado…but how totally awesome is the panoramic feature??

Bob and I went on another date night to see Marisa perform at the NEISTA honor orchestra. She did a wonderful job! Now she is practicing for upcoming performance where she will be featured as the soloist.

Bob, Tyler and I watched “Apollo 18” this week. I’m not exactly sure what my response is to it? It was a little scary, I jumped like 3 times. But I was intrigued enough to watch the whole thing. When it was over we each looked at each other like we weren’t sure how to respond. Have any of you seen it?

I almost drop-kicked Tyler over the house this week. I had taped a scary movie and told them they could watch it with me and ONLY with me so I could fast-forward and they wouldn’t see the scary parts. He and Alayna started watching it without me one day when I was gone. Alayna has been in tears and sleeping by my bed since. Argh!! There is a reason you should listen to your parents AND a reason why we don’t tape scary movies. Just in case any of you were wondering.

And I finished my puzzle!

AND apparently our family is having Happy Pig Day next week…