Weekend Fun

It was a great weekend. My sister came home from DC, along with her husband in the background, and Betty their dog. It was so great seeing them. I can't wait for Christmas because all of my family will be home. Here a few pics from the weekend. I really need to take lessons in photography.

The girls in my family on Thanksgiving. We were looking at the ads for hours plotting our course and enjoying some cocktails.

My niece Maya and Emma..the highlight was dancing to the Jonas Brothers at the half-time show of the Dallas game. Other than that the football games that day really sucked.

Brandon decorating the tree.

Emma decorating the tree. The girls having fun in the tree decorating mess.

Emma in front of the tree. What is missing? Yes, the topper. I can't seem to remember what I did with it. I think it may of broke, but I don't know for sure. So, this week I will go shopping for a new one to finish off the tree.

Tis the season. I have lots to do, but will enjoy the season and the reason for all of this madness. We were suppose to get a huge snow storm tonight. They predicited between 6-9 inches. It is all rain now, we'll see if I wake up to a blanket of snow and who knows a snow day?? I think that is wishful thinking. I could use another day off. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

I Did It!

Yesterday I ran the Thanksgiving Day Turkey 10K run. I have been anticipating that day for weeks. I was a bundle of nerves up until the gun shot start yesterday morning. It was a great day for a run. The temperature at start time was right around 30 degrees, no wind, lots of sun, and it was a pretty flat course right along Lake Michigan...just beautiful. ( a couple minor little hills). My husband, sister, BIL, and some friends all finished STRONG!!! My goal was to finish in less than an hour and I DID!! My time was 56:19. My sister finished at 56:00 and husband around 49 minutes. I think BIL was around 45 minutes. Anyways, we all did it and no matter what the time was, we had a great time. I am not sure if I am up for a half-marathon. I will consider it, but would like to run a couple more 10Ks to make sure that is something I can do.

I treated myself to a couple Hook and Ladders. I am not a pie eater so I didn't indulge there. So I just had a few cocktails and called it a day. It was a great day to be with family.

Snow

My husband went on his mission tonight and found boots and snowpants. He had to go to a couple more stores. Thank you Payless Shoes and another Target. It was snowing on my way home from school tonight. The kids will have what they need for the next round of snow and it is only the beginning.

The white spots in my pictures are snowflakes. I still am learning my new camera.

Sold Out

I sent my husband on a mission today to find boots and snowpants. He told me he went to 3 stores and NOTHING!! It was the first snowfall of the year and NOTHING!? I can't believe that tons of people went on a mission over the weekend and bought everything up. WTH? So tonight he is on a mission to go to more stores to find what he needs. I promise no more slacking on the necessities for the kids. I will get things ahead of time. I swear!

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like...SNOW!!!

I woke up this morning and what to my wondering eyes did I see? No, it wasn't Santa and his reindeer, but a beautiful blanket of white snow. It was covering the trees, the grass, and the rooftops. It was a measurable snowfall. It was about an inch or more of snow. I took some pictures this morning, I will have to post them later. I forgot my camera at home.

Anyways, with this beautiful snow comes realizing that I should of checked the box with the kids snow stuff. Emma had no boots that fit her. I felt like such a bad Mom. I called some neighbors to see if they had some boots we could borrow for today. Thank goodness for nice neighbors with girls. I felt a little dumb doing that, but hubby will be stopping at the Target and picking up boots for Emma and snowpants for Brandon. I use to be so organized and prepared for the seasons. My husband informs that I have a different focus now. No, it's not ignoring my family. I really like to exercise and run. In my free time that is what I choose to do. I also am constantly doing laundry, picking up clutter, oh, I do work full time, blog, and love to do Facebook. Damn those friends who made me sign up. I am so addicted to it. Even hubby signed on to do it too. I feel like a nut sometimes looking for people I knew in college and high school. It is crazy.

I will post on my wine party and a few pictures from it. It was a lot of fun. Also, I will let you all in on a secret. It is called the dolphin. I will explain that later too.

I have a very busy 2 days at school. I have 12 hour days. It is Parent-Teacher Conference time. It should go quite smoothly. I love my class and all the kids are so nice.

Wine Tasting

Tonight off to do some wine tasting with some friends. I know I said I would be dry until Thanksgiving. I can't pass this up...tasting wine and being with great friends. I will let you know what wines were good. I hope the consultant who is coming knows her stuff. If I drink the reds...it will match my new hair color. I colored it red. I wanted to do chunky streaks, but since I was doing it myself, I opted to dye my whole head. It looks okay, I will post some pictures tomorrow of the wines and my hair.

Too Many Thoughts in My Head Today

It seems as though everyday when I wake up it is the same routine. You leave the house to go to work and you are on auto pilot. At least that is what I do each day. No thinking at all about how to get somewhere, you just know and you think about your day, what you did last night, or what kind of adventure will lie ahead that day, or sing like an American Idol in your car. Same ole everyday.
However, today was different. I set out on my normal way and remembered oh sh... I left early for a reason. I needed to get money at the bank for a party that I am going to tonight. The bank is less than a half a mile up the road I was on and I was in the far right lane and that would mean I would have to cross 3 lanes of traffic, cut people off, probally have people flip me off, and drive like a crazy person. I was thinking should I do that or just opt to go to an ATM later and pay a fee. No, I am not paying a fee. So I decide to cut 3 lanes of traffic and cut people off. I know that is bad of me. I usually swear at people that do that to me, but had to do to get the cash. The party I am going to is one of those purse parties and if I decide to buy something, you have to pay cash.

On a different thought....the midnight showing of Twilight was this morning. There were a huge group of students from our school that went. They are 8th graders. I really want to find out if it lived up to it's hype. I am going to see it in a couple weeks. I bought the CD and really like the music. I started New Moon and hope to do a lot of reading this weekend.

My turkey race is coming up. I am starting to get a bit nervous. I went running last night...opted not to run outside...the windchill was in the teens. I went to the Y and ran on the treadmill. I haven't ran on a treadmill in so long that I felt like if I looked to the side I was going to fall and make a complete a$$ of myself. Running on a treadmill is not my favorite, but after a while I got into it and did a little over 3 miles. Sunday is my long run. I am going to do 6 or more. The temp should be around 40 degrees. That is tolerable.

I also have to pick out paint colors for our bedroom and bathroom. It has been 3 years since we moved into our house and when we painted the rooms, I thought the colors would be fine, but they are NOT. My bathroom is this sunny yellow color. It is bright and wakes you up every morning, but it makes you look jaundice when you are putting make-up on. I then seem to cake it on and the I look like a clown. Our bedroom is a sort of greenish color. It is also horrible. I am thinking like coffee colors. I am excited to watch my husband paint...I hate doing it, but he looks hot!

Have a great weekend. I am still dry and plan to be until Thanksgiving Day when I cross the finish line...I hope my Hook and Ladder is waiting for me. No, I am not an alkie, I just like a beer now and again.

The Key to Great Sex

I have a way that everyone can keep their spouses "wanting" you so bad they want to throw you down on the bed that very minute and rip your clothes off.

• It is NOT wearing sexy lingerie.
• It is NOT dressing up like a sexy maid.
• It is NOT walking in the room already naked.

What could it be you ask?

Plan the dinner menu for the family for a week and BAM you are in business!

Going Dry...until Thanksgiving

I went running yesterday with hubby and bf Cari. Let's just say it was mighty cold (windchill around 20), my face was frozen, my pants kept falling down, and my stomach was in knots (too many Hook and Ladders the night before). I did run 5 miles. I did okay..48 minutes. The turkey run is coming up. I want to do great, so no more Hook and Ladder until after the race. What kills me is that Cari ran 4 more miles than me ( 9 total) and she drank just as much as I did. WTF?? I will say that she is way younger than me so maybe that is why. Saturday night was a celebration of the Wisconsin Badger win over Minnesota. Go Badgers!!

I went to buy the book New Moon yesterday and it was gone. I was so bummed about that. I really wanted to start the book. So instead I bought the soundtrack to the movie Twilight. I listened to it on my way to work today. I really liked it and will download it to my MP3 player. That should help on race day.

I took the girls to the mall this weekend. Alyssa had money burning a hole in her pocket so I took her and Emma came along too. I knew I had another reason to take Alyssa shopping...it was time for the sex talk. There has been some recent discussions within her friends, that I thought it was time to find out what she knew and how much I needed to explain. In a nut shell she told me sex is getting naked and rubbing your body parts together. I told her you kind of understand and she thought doing that was nasty. I guess people call it doing "The Nasty." I continued to tell her it really isn't gross or anything and that you need to make good choices and should fully understand the meaning. I asked how old you should be and she said 24. For now, I will leave it at that. We will talk about this again I am sure of it and hopefully she still thinks 24. My little girl is growing up and she is only 12.

Why Wasn't I Notified

I went to my OB today for my yearly exam. I don't look forward to those at all. The questions about your health history, anything new or interesting in the health of your family, etc. I hate the questions " Do you drink alcohol?" or "Do you exercise and if you do how often?" If she only knew my obsession with fitness and exercise. I know I love my alcoholic drinks a couple days of week, but still health conscientious and like to stay in great shape. I say yes of course. I feel like such a lush or like drinking alcohol is evil or something. I look forward to my beer on Thursday, a couple drinks on Friday routine.

Chat continues between me and the NP (Doc was too busy). So, I see you turned 40 this year. Thanks for reminding me. She begins to tell me about all of the lovely things that could or could not happen. Along with my age comes endless amounts of tests I guess. So, she writes up orders for a mammogram, cholesterol check, and of course my migraine meds. I did tell her about my surgery that I had in August and how apparantly when you do turn 40 and you have surgery they want to make sure you don't croak on the table. I had a chest x-ray, eeg, and a ton of blood work done. With all of that I am sure to keep the Health Care business booming.

Now on to the exam...it is almost done...I just hate the uncomfortable feeling of being exposed like that. That has to be hard to look at vagina's all day and swab them. She proceeds to tell me ..."Now I must insert my finger into your rectum." I thought me telling her no I don't see blood in my stool was enough for her. OMG.. I wasn't expecting that at all...WTF I was thinking. Her response is "The Joys of turning 40." If that is a joy what is the yuck!? It's over for another year.

I know what to expect and NO I AM NOT GOING ON THE PILL. She offered it to me to help my cycle every month. I am so irregular...another joy of 40. I don't want any part of that. The pill made me crazy when I was on it. I got my tubes tied so I wouldn't have to deal with all of that business. No matter how crazy my cycle is or gets... I WILL NEVER GO BACK ON THE PILL.

Unbelievable Talent??

Please report to the Library at 8:05 for a brief meeting. That was the annoucement this morning. Whenever you hear an announcement like that and it is not a scheduled meeting you are left wondering what is going on.

For the past few weeks our network has been experiencing problems and our wonderful tech guy has been working so hard to get the problem fixed. It all came to head in the last few days because yes the network was having issues and yes we use computers these days for just about everything. This morning it was brought to our attention that some hackers got into our system and stole our passwords, changed grades in our online grading system, and were screwing around with teachers files. Now we need to change all of our passwords...no problem, but every 45 days we need to change them. I may go crazy trying to keep track of them all.

Just in case you were wondering about the culprits....


No, they weren't some high tech thieves, they were 11 and 12 year old kids.

That's why the cops were here yesterday interviewing these kids. Can you imagine doing those things? I wouldn't even begin to know how to break into networks and get passwords. That is so crazy.

Why I Love The Jonas Brothers Today

My second graders are working like angels as they sing away to The Jonas Brothers. They brought peace and serenity to my day. I thought I would never say that! Even my 2 wonderful 8th grade student aides were singing too! I thought I was going to start performing like a rock star.

Happy almost Friday!

Wordless Wednesday

The Storm has Passed

I feel so much better than I did earlier today. I let someone's petty crap get to me. I have since decided to let my hurt feelings go and just realize that is the way some people are. I am over it and am glad to be home.

To celebrate my new sense of calm, I am going to finish reading Twilight tonight. I have about 30 pages left in the book. The movie comes out next week and I really want to see it. I am going to sit down with a glass of wine and savor all of its wonderful flavor.

Tomorrow is a new day and it will be all good. I will act as though nothing truly P***ed me off. I will move and and do what I am suppose to do each day...TEACH KIDS and not WORRY about STUPID petty SH.. and have a great day.

One more thing....want to run so bad, but it is so crappy out...rainy, cold , damp, that I will just get over that feeling and enjoy my wine.

Sweets, Sweets, and more Sweets

I have cake on the brain this morning. I really want some sweets and keep thinking about how many we had this weekend. The wedding I went to on Saturday was all about the desserts. Each table had a centerpiece...it was a different cake at each table. How I wish I would of taken pictures of these cakes. We had this chocolate cake with an icing that looked almost fake. The cake tasted like a slice of heaven. There was a note at each table that said feel free to sample your neighbor's cake too. There were cheesecakes, banana cakes, pumpkin cakes, spice cakes, and many more. The kid's tables had cupcake towers, suckers and nerd ropes for them to eat. (They really loved all that sugar.) There was a cookie table that had hundreds of different types of cookies piled high. I wish there were goodie bags for me to take these home because after all of the cakes and the 5 course meal we ate, I was stuffed full. Oh and later there was pizza too. I passed on the pizza but got a little box of chocolates to take home.

Weekend Happenings

The whole family got dressed up this weekend. We had a family wedding. It was a super fun wedding. The kids danced the night away. Brandon was cracking me up. He was break dancing and very comical. It was like he was performing for everyone. Emma enjoyed hanging out with all her cousins and dancing too. Alyssa caught the bouquet. She was nervous about the boy who was going to catch the garder. Relief...sigh...her cousin. They just got their photo taken, no slow dance. They were both relieved. They are only a few months apart in age...missed my photo opportunity. Alyssa was a bit surprised when she saw her orthodontist at the reception. She was nervous to chew gum and eat things she shouldn't. She was being teased like crazy. After her dance with the doc, he took a picture with her. I'll have to make a copy and give it to him this week when she gets her bands changed.
Alyssa and her orthodontist.

John was so not in the mood to take this photo. He hates it when I make him take our couples photo when the kids are wired and I want Alyssa to use our new camera with no experience.

Sibling hug.....

Alyssa

This is one photo for the record (they rarely hug like this)

The three before we left for the reception. Emma told me she looked like an American Girl Doll. I think it was the "pretty" we put in her hair.





My sister Tricia and I .

Tricia, Dad, Mom, and me! We were missing my brother and other sister. We wished they could of been there. Distance sucks sometimes. I will look forward to the holidays this year when we are all together.

That was it for our weekend. It was a mighty cold one too. It felt like Old Man Winter blew through for sure. I did go for a 5 mile run today. It was a chilly one. There were a few snowflakes floating in the sky. It was a good run, but I need to get better pants for this type of weather. My legs were frozen! I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day. Cozied up with some coffee and some TV. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

A Bunch of BS

For months I have stressed about these 6 grad. credits and worked hours and hours to complete the work the best I can. I sent them off on Monday and today I receive an email saying they have issued my grades.

Are you kidding? Did anyone read my stuff? No feedback...nothing. I guess I will not be taking graduate classes online anymore or the work at home kind of class. I have come to realize I would rather attend a class and learn from others than do this crap. I am seriously ticked.

On a positive...I will earn 6 graduate credits...I can renew my teaching license and I will be able to move up or over on the pay scale. So no more complaining.

WHEN IS IT BEER THIRTY!!! ?? (In one hour!!) Anyone want to join me for Happy Hour?

My Space? Really?

What should I do? Last night my oldest daughter asked me to open a My Space account for her. Last year it was her own email account, this summer a cell phone with unlimited texting, now a My Space? I can't believe that she is growing up way too quickly. She almost can fit in my shoes. (seriously fit in my shoes and is always taking my socks). HELP!

I Lost It

Emma lost her front tooth today. I came home from work and she gave me a big smile and there was a hole. She lost her tooth while eating lunch today. Not at school...they had a half day so Grandma took the kids to Subway. It came out in her sandwich. She was real excited for the tooth, not the tooth fairy. She will not leave her tooth under her pillow or even in her room. She is afraid of the tooth fairy. No convincing her either...I've tried. I guess the tooth fairy will get to save her money this time. Emma decided to color herself with sidewalk chalk...that is why she is so ashy.

This is why Emma has been wearing a whistle around her neck. She is the referee!

Cheesehead Race

On my way home from work today my friend calls me and says...."Guess what I was thinking I should do?" She shouts to the rooftops....A FULL MARATHON! Yikes I say...I think I need to think about my 10K race in a couple weeks first. I do however want to run a half marathon next Spring I tell her. I think that is something I could try and succeed at.

I was going to travel to the Mini-Indy in Indianapolis, but I just found out that our town will be hosting a marathon that same weekend!! I won't have to pay for travel expense, take off of work, or ask my SIL if I can invade her for the weekend. I can stay home! This is the first year for this event. It sounds wonderful because the course will be along Lake Michigan and pretty flat. That is good news for someone like me that has never done something like that. So after the 10K turkey race, I am going to sign up for that marathon...not the full, but the half. That is a start...you never know what I will want to do after that. Maybe a full someday, but for now just a 10K and the half next spring. So while I am running my first half marathon, my friend will kick a$$ at the full. Then we can celebrate together and buy bumper stickers for our cars so we look really cool.. :)

If I Were President...

This is the poster that has been hanging in our classroom the last couple weeks. We've been talking about the voting process and learning about government. It's not to in depth. The kids are second graders and today is the day we voted. We are doing a school wide vote and we did our own classroom vote. Today the students did a writing project...If I Were President...

• I will give people jobs so they can work for money.
• I would have safer streets and more crossing guards.
• I will make sure people eat good foods and drink water.
• I will give you a job.
• Treat people nice.
• People shall be safe and not break the law.
• I will give people money that have no money.
• I will make sure there is no robberies.
• I will make sure the Earth is clean.
• The parks will be clean and have no rappers. (wrappers..that is how they spelled it)
• Neighborhoods will be safe.
• People should be able to eat good food. (hot pockets, milk, and water)
• I will make sure no one will die.

These are just some of their reasons. We all have our reasons on why we vote the way we do. I told my students that and if they didn't want to tell their friends who they voted for that was okay because it is personal.

So I tallied up our ballots in our classroom.

McCain= 8 votes

Obama= 10 votes

*** I will announce to them before we leave today. They get really crazy with things like this.

Who will be the winner? Just glad to know that we will have a new one soon enough. I will be at the polls later today..waiting my turn...hours I am sure. Hubby voted...waited 40 minutes. I am sure mine will be double that. Around here if you wear your "I Voted" sticker you get some free goods. So after I vote tonight, I will head to Starbucks for my free coffee, go to Krispy Kreme for a free donut, stop at Ben and Jerry's for some free ice-cream. With all of that...it will be worth the wait.

Happy Election Day!

Where Was I?

Apparently I have been cooped up and living in a cave. I was talking to my Mom on my way home from work complaining about how the lines for the election are going to be ridiculously long and I have other things to do like run, coach my Battle of the Books team, make dinner for the family, and finally finish reading Twilight. Tammy she says I voted 3 weeks ago, so did Dad, your sister, and BIL. WTH? Why didn't I know about this? I would of voted. My mind is made up...why didn't anyone call me and let me know? So, I call my husband and ask him if he knew about this? Dah...it was in the paper and the news. Seriously I am thinking how could I've been so out of touch about all of this. Usually I am all over things like this.
I have come to the conclusion that in the morning I am running around like a crazy person getting things ready I don't have time for the paper. In the evening I either go to a class at the Y or go running. Finally, the biggest reason yet. I've been working on 6 grad credits and have been spending hours and hours writing papers, reading books, and typing out lesson plans that I don't watch the news anymore (very depressing anyways). Today, I finally finished my 6 credits and have sent all my materials to be graded. I am so thrilled to be done with this, I told another teacher today I was ready to do cartwheels down the hall. If she would of dared me, I would have done it. I am crazy like that.
My lesson learned that the next election I will vote beforehand and I will make sure to keep in touch with people who seem to know more about politics than me.

November?

It is November already! Today feels more like Sept. I love it. It suppose to be 70 today and for the next couple days until reality sets in and we have normal temps around 45. I'll take it!

I am preparing for my first 10K race on Thanksgiving morning. Just a few short weeks and it will be race day. I've been doing so good on my training. Yesterday I ran 6 miles in 57 minutes. It felt so good. I was almost in tears because now I know I can do it. (or hormones talking..who knows). My husband ran with me yesterday and now my two oldest kids are going to run in the race. They will do the 2 mile. Brandon did great when he ran on Saturday He did 8 minute miles...awesome.

Friday I got my haircut. I got bangs...hard to get use too. I had Alyssa take my picture this morning so you all could see. They are subtle bangs...

Yesterday my Mom asked about Christmas...yikes I can't think that far ahead quite yet! She wants to know what the kids want/need. She loves to get it done early. I however see to wait to the last minute on things.

Not Just Any Friday Night...

It was no ordinary Friday Night...it was trick or treat night. Our subdivision changed the normal city hours of trick or treat. It normally is held the Sunday before Halloween and is in the middle of the afternoon. So this year a few of us decided to see if others in our neighborhood would agree to switch. It was a huge hit and had almost 100% participation. Trick or Treat at night is so much better.


Way to show your team spirit Alyssa...We love the Brewers!

Carter the Prince...Brandon the battered Packer and Emma the glamour hippie girl.

Emma and her Prince

Emma has a new hair do...Friday we went to the salon and cut off 6 inches. I got bangs...hard to get use to. I'll have to post a picture to see what you all think.

This next section is totally unrelated to the Halloween Fun, but I thought I would share my new favorite drink. I really enjoy my beer. I like and enjoy Summer Shandy in the summer, Honey Weiss in the winter, but now I found a new beer. It is called Hook and Ladder. I went out with my girlfriends on a Wednesday night to have a glass of wine. I had my one glass of wine and wanted to try this beer they were advertising...to my bad luck they were sold out so the bartender recommended this beer. I tried it and loved it. It is so smooth and has a super flavor. I was on a mission to find this beer. It was found and now I found my new winter favorite ( at least for a little while...until the next taste test I do). So tonight I am going to catch up on my shows on the DVR and enjoy me one of these...maybe more!

The Golden Ale is what is so tasty to me. I will have to give the other flavors a try too.