Weather

Whenever, I think of the word weather, I want to start singing the Veggie Tales silly song that deals with homophones. ("Whether, weather, whether, weather, weather (whether?) it's cold or it's hot.") Well as many of you have seen or are experiencing, the weather around here has been crazy! We are currently in the midst of a major snowstorm. We are supposed to get around a foot of snow today. We had our third snow day of the year, which I have to admit is kind of nice. It would be nice if it were possible to have a snow day in April because I think that is a month when we have no days off. The kids and I walked over to a friend's house that lives 2 blocks away. It was pretty brutal. It made me wish we hadn't left our sled at church! The wind was blowing the snow pretty hard into our faces and it felt like we were getting pelted with little ice balls. Walking home 2 hours later, there was no evidence that we had gone out at all. Our footprints were already covered. We had a good time playing. They have two boys, one a year older than Maya and one that is about Zeke's age. We had a good time visiting. I felt a little bad because we got out the door so late. They called at about 8:30 to invite us and we didn't leave our house until 11:00. Which is an awkward time because I didn't want to impose on them for lunch. They invited us to stay anyways, but they forgot I was a vegetarian. I felt horrible about it, but they eat a lot of vegetarian friendly dishes and I got to eat some delicious leftovers. They always cook great healthy meals. I wish that I had the time and money to make healthier things from scratch. Kevan and I tried for about 4 months and it raised our grocery bill considerably. Which, put a damper on that idea. It also is difficult to find the time to cook from scratch all the time. I've started buying whole grain and wheat pastas and we're trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, but that gets pricey too. We have to limit ourselves to baby carrots, apples, and bananas. Then I just use frozen veggies for dinners. I did splurge this week and bought a few mangoes, which Zeke really liked. Ahhh, the plight of the working mother again. I hope you all are warm and cozy. We are doing our best to stay that way. (Kristen if there are any spelling errors, I blame blogspot because their spellcheck tool is not working.)

ARGGH!

As if motivating children to read and write were not hard enough, Soulja Boy has come out with a song about getting all F's and then taking his report card to his teacher and saying, "Put some D's on it." At the end he says something like, "I was just kidding I got all A's. Stay in school!" Which really does not delete the rudeness and disrespect he paid to teachers and the fact that it is the very end and most of the song is "Put some D's on it." The 20 seconds where his message is a good one will be forgotten. This just really gets my goat! He creates one song with a cute little dance and disgusting double meaning lyrics and he is a hit. Maybe I need to start creating cute little dances and my students achievement will be higher. However, the unfortunate thing is that parent involvement is the number one factor in student achievement world wide and we just don't have it at our school. Our parents are just trying to make ends meet and working all sorts of jobs and do not have the time to sit down with their child to help with homework or volunteer at school. Don't get me wrong, some do and I applaud them. I have seen this first hand. At our school students are leveled by reading level and the teachers of the higher students see more parents for conferences. It is not just an odd coincidence. I wish there would be some sort of reform to help these parents get regular jobs that makes them able to provide for their families, while being there to support their children. I know that a lot of parents are stuck in a cycle of poverty, but there has to be something that can be done to assist these children. So, if there are any children that actually read this, "DON'T think that just because the dance is cool that the song is a good one and the person is someone you should listen to and trust. Try your best and work hard. Not everyone can make it by dance moves that they didn't choreograph themselves alone. (I'm willing to bet he didn't write the song himself either.)"

That concludes my rant for the month. (By the way, I have taken the Soulja Boy link off of my site. He fooled me at first too.)

Wedding and Shower preparations

This is a picture that Maya drew of her Uncle Mark and Aunt Mariella getting married.
This is Maya, the flower girl. She came up with the creative idea to cut pieces of paper to look like the petals that she will "sprinkle not throw."

The three pictures above are Maya posing in her flowergirl dress. It will probably need alterring. But, we'll wait until it is closer to the wedding.

The Invitation for the m and m theme wedding shower for my brother and his fiancee.

(wine bottle in background not included.)

I made about 4 different primary colored cards with different colored m and m's and different colored lettering.

Craziest weather I have ever seen!

Well, yesterday our temperature dropped 48 degrees in about 3 hours. It was crazy! (A new record by the way.) The temperature today was a high of 10, but we had a wind chill temperature of -30, so school was cancelled for me.) I am very proud of our president for making that decision because Milwaukee Public was not off. They asked the news channels to announce that they were open and parents could choose to keep their children home today and the absence would be excused. What a ridiculous thing! The weather people were saying that if you were to stand outside for more than 10 minutes you would risk hypothermia or frostbite! Many children wait on a bus much longer than that. Many of the children that I teach do not have proper hats and gloves. I just think it was irresponsible on their part. Kevan left a message for the school board president and the principal at Maya's school. So, yay for my school for making that decision on their own! Good job new president!

So our family spent the day at home. I am embarrassed to say that we didn't even get out of our pajamas. I spent part of the day working on the invitations for my brother and his fiancee's wedding shower. They are turning out really nice. I am pretty proud of them. I hope to post a picture later.

Maya spent the day drawing pictures of Mark and Mariella geting married. (A picture of this will also be posted.) And herself as the flowergirl. She is very creative and cut paper for the flower petals and glues it on. She said that she was going to sprinkle the flowers this time and not throw them. I guess that is what comes with experience. (She was the flowergirl for Kevan's sister's wedding in October.) Her dress comes tomorrow and she is very excited. She keeps asking about the logistics of the wedding. She wants to know who she will walk down the ailse with, where we are staying, when it is, what she will wear in her hair, what I am wearing, what Mark and Mariella are wearing. She has wedding fever. She even helped me a little with the invitations.

Zeke spent the day being the family tornado and throwing everything he could. We have DVDs everywhere and blocks under the couch and all over. He also spent a good part of the day walking around with his favorite wooden spoon and banging on things. He even constructed his own drum set out of a play bucket, his wipes, and the table. I really think he will be a drummer. Hopefully, when we buy a house it will have a nice garage for him to practice in. :)

Kevan spent the day sleeping in the morning and at meetings all afternoon.

Well, I have a ton of cleaning to do and Kevan and I are going to watch that Chuck and Larry movie with Kevin James and Adam Sandler. I'll let you know what I think of it later.

Quick Update

So, not too much is going on here. We were sad to watch Green Bay lose last week. When I asked Maya if she had kissed any boys today she told me, "How could you suggest that?!" Where did she get that from? Zeke is killing me! He refuses to sleep in his own bed for an entire night. He will sleep for about 2 hours and then wake up screaming and saying, "Mama's bed," which Maya thinks sounds like Mama's butt. :) Kevan has been on a whirl wind this week. He has had church stuff and was working at Obama headquarters this week. Comic Book Club is going well. I am really enjoying it! Karaoke club had to disband for a little because the kids were getting to rowdy and after having a child chip a tooth last week, I needed a break. We'll start again after spring break. So, that is a quick snapshot of my current situation. I know have to go clean Zeke up from his spaghette dinner. What a mess!

Finally some time to Blog!

Kevan is in the midst of the end of the term crunch and has about 40 pages or so to write by tomorrow. (I think he will take an incomplete in one class and finish the paper next week.) So needless to say, I haven't been able to be on the computer.

Out children have been a little nuts lately. I think that it might be cabin fever. Yesterday Maya was having a 4 year old, I want to do things my way kind of night and had to go to bed a little early. Well, to draw out her getting ready she was in the bathroom for a while. I finally went in there and saw gobs of soggy toilet paper in the toilet and the toilet was wet. She had been "cleaning" the toilet with the water that she had went to the bathroom in! Disgusting! I don't know why she didn't realize the gross nature of her cleaning, but she was rather tired and I am going to blame her poor judgement on that. So, I had to clean the toilet.

Then, this morning Zekey was in our bed because he was a stinker and slept with us last night. I thought Kevan was awake and watching him as I retrieved my clothes from the closet. I even said, "Kevan watch Zekey to make sure that he doesn't fall off the bed." (Twice.) Little did I know my heavy sleeping husband was not awake! So........Zekey fell off the bed. He had two bloody lips and a bloody nose. I was fearing that we would have to take him to get stitches. But two episodes of Jack's Big Music Show and one popsicle later, he was fine. He had a bit of a fat lip, but seemed okay. When I picked him up from daycare, you couldn't even tell that any of that had occurred. Phew! It's a good thing he is built like a linebacker. He is sturdy stuff!

Not too much else is going on here. I am trying to keep our house clean and prepare for Christmas. Mother Nature gave me a hand with that by giving me a snow day on Tuesday. Maya and I were able to tidy up our house! It was nice to spend the day with the kids.

My job has gotten a little more hectic, but I am enjoying it. Comic Book Club is still really successful and Karaoke Club is a hit! I just wish we had more time and a larger space to do it in. I don't think the kids are getting the full impact because they are eating and singing and we only have about 20 minutes to do both. The concentration on the singing is a little laxed. Oh well! Maybe I can structure it differently next year.

Snow more Flu!

Well, our previous weekend started out with Zekey home sick on Thursday after being ill all the previous night. I went to Discovery World on a field trip. It was a lot of fun, but it's no COSI. The field trip was a little long and the kids got a little bored. I resorted to telling my entire repertoire of knock-knock jokes even the ones with potty humor. (I was desperate!) I am waiting to hear from the principal or a parent about it. But, in my defense I told no jokes that Maya has not heard before, so they are 4 years and 11 mo. old approved. We went and saw Enchanted on Saturday morning. It was pretty good. I was impressed, it had some "girl power" moments. Maya now wants the soundtrack. We had to make our stop at the Disney store. It is amazing how Disney conveniently planned their location right next to the theater! We got out of there without spending any money. When we left it was snowing like crazy, but the roads weren't too bad. I got home and Kevan told me that our friends Martin and Melissa invited us over for some pizza and tree decorating that night. (They live 2 blocks away, so weather was not a factor.) So we got the kids bundled and had a great evening at the Scanlans. Then, in the middle of the night the "master puker" woke up with a stomach ache. She threw up that night and the following day about 12 times. I think that Maya now may hold the world record for number of times vomiting in 24 hours. I stayed home with the kids on Sunday from church and cleaned as best I could. I have been drinking the Walgreen's generic version of "Airborne" as much a possible to try to keep from getting sick. So far, Kevan and I are healthy. I am not saying that it is not coming our way though. So, please keep us in your prayers. Kevan has one week to write about 60 pages and then he will not need to write another paper until he begins his dissertation. And I just don't want to be sick when I have to take care of two children while Kevan writes papers. The one good thing is that for the beginning of the week, I have been at a training that starts at 8:30 and have been able to sleep in. Hooray! However, that will end tomorrow. So, like I said I am praying hard that we all remain healthy and I hope and pray that you are able to do the same. I do not want a repeat of last year's Christmas this year! So, Happy Hanukkah!