Sunday, December 07, 2008
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!
December 7,2008
Monday: I had to work and Marisa had school, but the rest of the kids had the day off. Trimester grades were due and I was able to get them done pretty quickly. Then I was in meetings to differentiate instruction according to NWEA scores. When I got home, the younger kids had cleaned the house, made brownie cupcakes, and made jello-beans! I was so touched!!
Tuesday: The morning started out with a knock-out…literally. The kids were playing “Kung-Fu” after watching Kung Fu Panda. Kayla karate chopped and hit Alaynas mouth, partially knocking out her already very loose tooth. I was able to help it out the rest of the way.
Then Kayla, Tyler, and Alayna came and helped me get new bulletin boards up, reorganize my room, make a new check out table and outline a beehive. Well here is how the day went:
I woke up, Alayna got the tooth knocked out, we went to my classroom to work for over an hour, ran and got my eyebrows waxed, dropped Tyler off at Hunter’s for Lego League research (competition is in a few weeks), did the dishes while I ate my lunch, grabbed 30 minutes nap, picked up Tyler, took kids across town for flu shots, went to learning ladder for school stuff, came home and gave kids Tylenol. Ran Alayna to gymnastics, and then Bob and I finished all the food shopping. As you can imagine, I was out cold by bedtime!!
*I started this newsletter before Thanksgiving and never got it done! So, now I have to go by memory. Yikes!
Bob’s Birthday: Happy 40th to Bob!! We celebrated by dragging him to Twilight (which he liked!)and then went to Happy Joes (his traditional birthday dinner). Grandma Hart arrived in time to go see Twilight with us and Grandpa Hart was sweet and took Alayna to see “Bolt”.
Thanksgiving: Debbie and family arrived in the morning. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! In the afternoon, they even played a “turkey bowl” in the backyard.
I don’t remember much about the rest of the weekend. It was just an enjoyable relaxing weekend that I think we all needed! I also finished reading “Midnight Sun”. Now I am frantically reading through all the books for Battle of the Books!
Saturday: Bob and his dad decided they could fix the washing machine on their own. They ordered the part they needed and put in on Saturday. They actually seemed like they knew what they were doing. Now it works just like new.
This Week:
Kayla took home the “baby” for her Family and Consumer Science class. These babies are AMAZINGLY advanced compared to the silly egg I had to bring home!! She had a bracelet that had some kind of computer chip in it. It recorded every time she got near the baby. Sometimes when she went near it, it cooed. When it cried she had to try and change the baby (it had a sensor), try to feed it (lips and bottle have a sensor) or rock it (again could sense it). She had to try whatever she could do to make it stop crying and do it until the baby cooed. She had a VERY long night (She was up around 10 times). She was almost in tears by morning- brought back some sweet baby memories for me. Dang glad we have moved past that stage!
Monday night we had our annual put-up-the-Christmas-decorations- along-to-Christmas-music night. Our house is all decked up and ready to go. Now if Bob and I could get our act in gear and buy some presents, we may actually be ready for Christmas!!
Tyler had his first basketball game. He should hop on here and let you know how it went. He is excited to play basketball this year.
Alayna has been taking gymnastics and can do some really cool stuff. I took some pics I will include.
We finally got a quiet family night at home last night! We all worked real hard yesterday cleaning, grocery shopping, lesson plans, etc. Bob made this incredible pioneer bean/ham soup from scratch, honey wheat bread from scratch and some chocolate covered peanut butter balls (again from scratch) He and the kids rocked!!! Then we cozied up in pajamas and blankets, put the fire on, and watched “Prince Caspian”. I love quiet nights at home! They are my very favorite!!
Our first massive snow storm hit this past week and we have another one headed in tomorrow. Today it was 1 degree. Yep, you heard me right, 1 degree. The snow flakes were so huge you could see the individual design on each one. It was incredible! Not loving the slick roads with the ice, but I guess we have to hunker down and accept that winter has most definitely begun!!
Coming up this week:
Marisa’ orchestra concert
Tyler’s Lego League robotics competition
Tyler’s choir concert
Marisa’s chamber concert
Marisa’s bowling meet
The ward Christmas party.
Monday: I had to work and Marisa had school, but the rest of the kids had the day off. Trimester grades were due and I was able to get them done pretty quickly. Then I was in meetings to differentiate instruction according to NWEA scores. When I got home, the younger kids had cleaned the house, made brownie cupcakes, and made jello-beans! I was so touched!!
Tuesday: The morning started out with a knock-out…literally. The kids were playing “Kung-Fu” after watching Kung Fu Panda. Kayla karate chopped and hit Alaynas mouth, partially knocking out her already very loose tooth. I was able to help it out the rest of the way.
Then Kayla, Tyler, and Alayna came and helped me get new bulletin boards up, reorganize my room, make a new check out table and outline a beehive. Well here is how the day went:
I woke up, Alayna got the tooth knocked out, we went to my classroom to work for over an hour, ran and got my eyebrows waxed, dropped Tyler off at Hunter’s for Lego League research (competition is in a few weeks), did the dishes while I ate my lunch, grabbed 30 minutes nap, picked up Tyler, took kids across town for flu shots, went to learning ladder for school stuff, came home and gave kids Tylenol. Ran Alayna to gymnastics, and then Bob and I finished all the food shopping. As you can imagine, I was out cold by bedtime!!
*I started this newsletter before Thanksgiving and never got it done! So, now I have to go by memory. Yikes!
Bob’s Birthday: Happy 40th to Bob!! We celebrated by dragging him to Twilight (which he liked!)and then went to Happy Joes (his traditional birthday dinner). Grandma Hart arrived in time to go see Twilight with us and Grandpa Hart was sweet and took Alayna to see “Bolt”.
Thanksgiving: Debbie and family arrived in the morning. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! In the afternoon, they even played a “turkey bowl” in the backyard.
I don’t remember much about the rest of the weekend. It was just an enjoyable relaxing weekend that I think we all needed! I also finished reading “Midnight Sun”. Now I am frantically reading through all the books for Battle of the Books!
Saturday: Bob and his dad decided they could fix the washing machine on their own. They ordered the part they needed and put in on Saturday. They actually seemed like they knew what they were doing. Now it works just like new.
This Week:
Kayla took home the “baby” for her Family and Consumer Science class. These babies are AMAZINGLY advanced compared to the silly egg I had to bring home!! She had a bracelet that had some kind of computer chip in it. It recorded every time she got near the baby. Sometimes when she went near it, it cooed. When it cried she had to try and change the baby (it had a sensor), try to feed it (lips and bottle have a sensor) or rock it (again could sense it). She had to try whatever she could do to make it stop crying and do it until the baby cooed. She had a VERY long night (She was up around 10 times). She was almost in tears by morning- brought back some sweet baby memories for me. Dang glad we have moved past that stage!
Monday night we had our annual put-up-the-Christmas-decorations- along-to-Christmas-music night. Our house is all decked up and ready to go. Now if Bob and I could get our act in gear and buy some presents, we may actually be ready for Christmas!!
Tyler had his first basketball game. He should hop on here and let you know how it went. He is excited to play basketball this year.
Alayna has been taking gymnastics and can do some really cool stuff. I took some pics I will include.
We finally got a quiet family night at home last night! We all worked real hard yesterday cleaning, grocery shopping, lesson plans, etc. Bob made this incredible pioneer bean/ham soup from scratch, honey wheat bread from scratch and some chocolate covered peanut butter balls (again from scratch) He and the kids rocked!!! Then we cozied up in pajamas and blankets, put the fire on, and watched “Prince Caspian”. I love quiet nights at home! They are my very favorite!!
Our first massive snow storm hit this past week and we have another one headed in tomorrow. Today it was 1 degree. Yep, you heard me right, 1 degree. The snow flakes were so huge you could see the individual design on each one. It was incredible! Not loving the slick roads with the ice, but I guess we have to hunker down and accept that winter has most definitely begun!!
Coming up this week:
Marisa’ orchestra concert
Tyler’s Lego League robotics competition
Tyler’s choir concert
Marisa’s chamber concert
Marisa’s bowling meet
The ward Christmas party.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Concerts, Madagascar, concerts, and a broken appliance??
Concerts, Madagascar, concerts, and a broken appliance??
November 23, 2008
Last Saturday: My washing machine broke!! It’s not even that old. I had a load that washed for almost 2 hours before I realized that the knob wasn’t turning like it should be. Sears said they couldn’t come look at it til Thursday.
Monday: Kayla had her fall band concert. Bob took Tyler to the concert while I took Alayna with me to Marisa’s violin lessons. I think her concert went well.
Tuesday: After Alayna’s gymnastics class, we raced to Tyler’s 5th grade musical production. It was an incredible Veterans Day concert. They sang some beautiful pieces along with some incredible slideshows. They also posted all veterans from each kids family on a giant “brick” wall. Tyler and Alayna had Grandpa Cunningham, Grandpa Salinas, Great Grandpa Ribera, and Grandpa Ribera! It breaks my heart that I wasn’t able to get a picture of Tyler in front of it. We had to literally race out when the concert was over to get to his band concert over at the high school!! It was his very first band concert and it went great!
Wednesday: Tyler had scouts and the girls had a game night for YW.
Thursday: I had to get Tyler to the bus at school by 5:45 AM. Their rehearsals started early for OPUS and went all day in Ames. As soon as I finished teaching (Actually my students earned National Treasure, so we watched that this week), we raced off to Ames, Iowa (2 hours away). We arrived at the Iowa State University to attend the OPUS concert in the main concert hall. It was HUGE, even had 3 balconies! Tyler was in the 5th-6th grade group. Only 180 were chosen out of all the kids in Iowa, and Tyler was one of them!! When the concert began, we all sat in awe. It was one of the most beautiful children’s choirs I have ever heard (4 part harmony)! Tyler did such a fantastic job! We weren’t allowed to take a video camera or regular camera inside, so I don’t have anything to share from it.
We went to Carlos O Kelley’s for dinner while Tyler told us about his cool day. Then we had to drive to Ankeny to stay in a hotel (all hotels in Ames were full). We arrived to the hotel with perfect timing- just in time for Survivor!! Then Bob was sweet enough to go track down some ice cream for us.
PS- Oh, and Sears came by to let us know that the part we need for our washing machine to get fixed is almost the same as buying a new washer!!! SO, with company coming this week, I guess we will be hitting the Sears appliance section-major ugh!
Friday: Bob ran Marisa up to the ISU campus bright and early for her full day of rehearsals for Junior All-state. When he got back, he went with the rest of us up to the mall. I found a Hot Topics store and went CRAZY with all the new twilight stuff. I got the girls t-shirts (Team Edward of course!) and I should have gotten Team Jacob for me, that would have been funny for this coming Wednesday when we go see it! I did finally get a poster for my classroom and I am one of the coolest teachers in 6th grade because I have read the whole series! (I got a key chain too-hehe!)
The kids got to play at the arcade, we had lunch at a little pizza place, and then we got to play the coolest game!!! It was an entire miniature golf course all under black light! The kids LOVED it and we had the course all to ourselves so we got to go through twice. It was pretty funny watching Alayna’s 24 strokes be counted as “4”. She would drag it all the way and drop it in the hole. Hilarious!
Then we went to Hobby Lobby, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. Bob dropped Tyler, Alayna, and me off at the Movie Theater. I took them to see Madagascar 2, which turned out to be pretty adorable. I was so glad we had the theater pretty much to ourselves and weren’t out in the long line waiting with the freezing twilighters! In the meantime, Bob and Kayla attended Marisa’s junior all-state concert. (We were only allowed 2 tickets so there is no way both Bob and I could attend) So, hopefully Marisa can tell you about her experience with that. Then we headed for home.
Other info:
*Marisa joined the bowling team at the high school. (insert giant chuckle here) She tried out and made the JV team. She really enjoys it!
*Tyler was asked to be one of 2 researchers on his lego league team. They have a competition coming up in December. They have been working with some guys from Rockwell to build and program a robot. I should get Tyler to hop onto our blog and tell you all about what he does and what he is researching.
Coming up this week:
*Twilight!! On Wednesday!! The count down begins. Anyone else want to go with me and a giant bunch of teenage girls?
*Bob’s 40th birthday celebration on Wednesday (yes, I am dragging him to Twilight!) and Hart Grandparents arrive.
*Debbie, Trent, and family arrive and we have Thanksgiving.
*Note to self: MUST start thinking about Christmas. Yikes!!
November 23, 2008
Last Saturday: My washing machine broke!! It’s not even that old. I had a load that washed for almost 2 hours before I realized that the knob wasn’t turning like it should be. Sears said they couldn’t come look at it til Thursday.
Monday: Kayla had her fall band concert. Bob took Tyler to the concert while I took Alayna with me to Marisa’s violin lessons. I think her concert went well.
Tuesday: After Alayna’s gymnastics class, we raced to Tyler’s 5th grade musical production. It was an incredible Veterans Day concert. They sang some beautiful pieces along with some incredible slideshows. They also posted all veterans from each kids family on a giant “brick” wall. Tyler and Alayna had Grandpa Cunningham, Grandpa Salinas, Great Grandpa Ribera, and Grandpa Ribera! It breaks my heart that I wasn’t able to get a picture of Tyler in front of it. We had to literally race out when the concert was over to get to his band concert over at the high school!! It was his very first band concert and it went great!
Wednesday: Tyler had scouts and the girls had a game night for YW.
Thursday: I had to get Tyler to the bus at school by 5:45 AM. Their rehearsals started early for OPUS and went all day in Ames. As soon as I finished teaching (Actually my students earned National Treasure, so we watched that this week), we raced off to Ames, Iowa (2 hours away). We arrived at the Iowa State University to attend the OPUS concert in the main concert hall. It was HUGE, even had 3 balconies! Tyler was in the 5th-6th grade group. Only 180 were chosen out of all the kids in Iowa, and Tyler was one of them!! When the concert began, we all sat in awe. It was one of the most beautiful children’s choirs I have ever heard (4 part harmony)! Tyler did such a fantastic job! We weren’t allowed to take a video camera or regular camera inside, so I don’t have anything to share from it.
We went to Carlos O Kelley’s for dinner while Tyler told us about his cool day. Then we had to drive to Ankeny to stay in a hotel (all hotels in Ames were full). We arrived to the hotel with perfect timing- just in time for Survivor!! Then Bob was sweet enough to go track down some ice cream for us.
PS- Oh, and Sears came by to let us know that the part we need for our washing machine to get fixed is almost the same as buying a new washer!!! SO, with company coming this week, I guess we will be hitting the Sears appliance section-major ugh!
Friday: Bob ran Marisa up to the ISU campus bright and early for her full day of rehearsals for Junior All-state. When he got back, he went with the rest of us up to the mall. I found a Hot Topics store and went CRAZY with all the new twilight stuff. I got the girls t-shirts (Team Edward of course!) and I should have gotten Team Jacob for me, that would have been funny for this coming Wednesday when we go see it! I did finally get a poster for my classroom and I am one of the coolest teachers in 6th grade because I have read the whole series! (I got a key chain too-hehe!)
The kids got to play at the arcade, we had lunch at a little pizza place, and then we got to play the coolest game!!! It was an entire miniature golf course all under black light! The kids LOVED it and we had the course all to ourselves so we got to go through twice. It was pretty funny watching Alayna’s 24 strokes be counted as “4”. She would drag it all the way and drop it in the hole. Hilarious!
Then we went to Hobby Lobby, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. Bob dropped Tyler, Alayna, and me off at the Movie Theater. I took them to see Madagascar 2, which turned out to be pretty adorable. I was so glad we had the theater pretty much to ourselves and weren’t out in the long line waiting with the freezing twilighters! In the meantime, Bob and Kayla attended Marisa’s junior all-state concert. (We were only allowed 2 tickets so there is no way both Bob and I could attend) So, hopefully Marisa can tell you about her experience with that. Then we headed for home.
Other info:
*Marisa joined the bowling team at the high school. (insert giant chuckle here) She tried out and made the JV team. She really enjoys it!
*Tyler was asked to be one of 2 researchers on his lego league team. They have a competition coming up in December. They have been working with some guys from Rockwell to build and program a robot. I should get Tyler to hop onto our blog and tell you all about what he does and what he is researching.
Coming up this week:
*Twilight!! On Wednesday!! The count down begins. Anyone else want to go with me and a giant bunch of teenage girls?
*Bob’s 40th birthday celebration on Wednesday (yes, I am dragging him to Twilight!) and Hart Grandparents arrive.
*Debbie, Trent, and family arrive and we have Thanksgiving.
*Note to self: MUST start thinking about Christmas. Yikes!!
Sunday, November 02, 2008
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