Thankfuls

It's been while since I posted. Since the election and economy shut-down frantic-ness, life has pretty much evened out. It's like the post-Y2K sigh of relief when the world didn't explode, or even worse,;) all the computers shut down. We actually bought gas the other day...can you believe it... under $2. I know, I know, don't pass out!
It just goes to show that all the frenzied hype usually turns out okay, and people get all worked up for nothing. Not that we aren't still in a recession and money is still tight, but Obama won and we are still living.
I hate going along with the crowd, but I thought today would be a perfect day to count my blessings and be "Thankful". It will be kind of a new twist for me to be optimistic instead of pessimistic. So here goes my (*deep inhale)...spewing of the thankfulness...
1) My kids: My one year old has a cold and has only wiped his nose on me twice... pretty good since he has a consistent snot river running out of his nose, and (I Know) he could have wiped on me a lot. I'm grateful for his thoughtfulness. Also my other two have actually asked for a couple of things for Christmas that I can semi-afford. (I mean using a credit card of course :O)They are very patient with a forgetful mom who doesn't always remember to pack a lunch or take them to practices on time. I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of mom and they roll with it.
2)My husband, who actually wants to go see the new 'Twilight' movie with me. (As an aside, I think he's just hoping to get lucky afterwards, but still the 'thinking-only-of-his-lovely-wife is still there).
I also feel grateful that he still finds me attractive enough to still try these underhanded things to be with me. :)
3) Weight Watchers. They taught me how to balance my food intake and helped me lose 30 pounds in this last year. Without them I would still look like this...
Oh wait, I ripped up/burned/threw out those pictures. And I really didn't mind counting out those cashew, peas, kernels of corn, grains of rice...too much.
4)Student Teachers: I have an awesome student teacher right now, so I am getting paid and basically doing nothing. Heaven Bless great student teachers...Thanks Camille! Tomorrow I think I'll do some online Christmas shopping while you are teaching math.
5) We finally finished our basement this year and have an awesome place to store more of 'stuff we don't need'. Plus the flat screen t.v. isn't bad, and I have been able to decorate it the way I would decorate the rest of my house if it didn't have green pile carpet.
6)Having stuff we don't need. Now this seems crazy, but I feel grateful that every once in a while I can go to the Dollar Store and purchase things I don't need simply because they are a dollar. That is living the high life when you can buy things you don't need and still survive. :)
7)A Crazy family, that is still in the normal range. My family is quirky, opinionated, out-spoken, insert foot in mouth kind of people. BUT... they are loyal and stand by you no matter how big of an A** you make of yourself.
8)My church calling. I play the piano for the primary at my church. I love sitting back, watching the 'sweet spirits' (kids) yell, talk out, talk back, squirm, and poke, and I don't have to do anything about it. It's nice to not be in charge of the kids for once and just be able to watch others do it.
9)Great neighbors! They don't judge when I go out to get the Sunday morning paper or take out the garbage with my hair sticking out like Einstein and a hole in the behind of my favorite pajama pants. Or at least if they do judge, they are still nice to my face, which is all I really care about. :) (Also really awesome when they took my kids in after they were locked out of the house 2 different days this week when they got home from school)
10) Facebook,blogging,etc. After teaching kids all day and then coming home to hang out with only kids all night, it is nice to be able to "talk"/IM with some grownups once in a while. It is a sanity for me to pretend that I am chillin with adults, even if it is my cyber friends.
11) Kids Shows: I know it is wrong to do it, but I am grateful for those great shows through the years, like Barney, Teletubbies, PB &J Otter, Rolie Polie Olie, and Charlie and Lola that have kept my kids entertained when those summer days were seeming too long to fill (6 hours isn't that long to let your kids watch tv is it?) :)
12) Books-I have loved books my whole life. Even when I was younger, I would go to my friends house and want to read the books they had at their house. Reading is a wonderful escape. When I was younger, it was imagining that I could be magic, or find out I was a princess. Now it is reading depressing books that make me glad that I don't lead those people's lives (Thanks Jodi Picoult for always reminding me that life could suck so much worse than one would ever think).

13) I know I just said books, but I want to do a special shout out to Twilight. This book make it cool to have pale skin again. Being one who burns, peels, then freckles, this is very important to me. I still live in a fantasy that pale white skin will be all the rage again. I'm holding out putting on a swimsuit again until it happens. Thanks Twilight for taking us one step in the right direction. It also made me feel like a smitten teenager again, which I appreciate since my wrinkles have staged an all-out assault on my face recently.
14) My I-POD. I know it isn't right to be grateful for such "wordly" things, but I love my IPOD. I love that, instead of purchasing a whole CD and only listening to 3 songs on it, I can just buy the three songs. My IPOD has actually saved me a lot of money in not having to purchase CDs anymore. (Now if I could just get my husband on board. He is very anti-technology. I think I could post anything about him on here and he would never read it...not from the "Devil Computer". Just kiddin' babe. I luv ya)
15) Learning and Knowledge: Where would we be without it? I seriously love learning new things. I get a little obsessive when I have something new to conquer or puzzle out. I love taking the lessons I need to teach and finding a new way to teach it that is better. I love watching TV channels that make me learn something I didn't know before (thnx NatGeo, TLC, Discovery, Food Network, etc) I mean it really is fascinating to me to see how glass bottles are made, and watch as they discover the long lost wreck of famous pirates. This is my geeky side coming out.

Well, that's it. It's all I got. I could keep going and going, but if I don't stop now, I'll miss Thanksgiving altogether. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Just Like My Mom...(Did I just say that?)

Following in his mothers footsteps, Ty went and got glasses today. Sniff, Sniff, my little guy is growing up. It seems like I was about his age when I got my first pair of glasses. Of course my glasses were not as cool. They took up half my face and were pink (think the early 80's here people). I did everything I could to lose, smash, hide, or scratch them, but they endured...and thus I became a...gasp... "GEEK".Tyler looks so good in his glasses. Like he was born to wear them, not unlike Bella being born to become a vampire:). I'm kinda jealous of his ability to still be cool and be a four eyes. Now he will be able to play basketball and football and see the board. So he'll become a double whammy...smart and a jock!

Tyler's New Glasses...What a hottie!

Myself, on the other hand, has never quite "grown into" my glasses. They still sit there on my face as an atrocity. This latest pair I call my "Pam" glasses. I spent as little amount as possible on them and they definitely look like it. I can just imagine Michael saying to me..."Oh Margie, ugh, ew, you look so...ugh...ugly". But oh well...what can you do? Once you turn 30, it's pretty much downhill from there.

Lovin' the "Geek" glasses


On the up side...my daughter, Micky, is also following in my footsteps with becoming a dancer. She can bust a move and strike a pose just as well as I can. She sings and dances all over the house. Sigh, I've taught her so well. Someday she will be able to become as cool of a mom as I am. That is when she decides she loves me again. Right now she currently "Hates" me. Also like me, she yells really loud when she gets mad, stomps around so that the house shakes, and slams a door like she really means it. Unfortunately, this is also how I was as a child. (Of course, I never do those things anymore :) Oh why can't we choose the traits we pass on to our children?
Dancing Queen...She's that girl...


Andy, so far, has inherited two of my very best traits; my cheesy smile and my thoroughly upbeat, totally not sarcastic, very, times infinity, positive attitude:) Actually he is much cuter than I ever hoped to be, but I guess you have to take at least something from your dad,Right?
Cheeser


For those of you out there considering ever being a mom,take this from me: Your kids will drive you crazy. (Mostly because they act exactly like you:) They will "hate" you and ask you for money and complain how you are the "meanest" mom in the world. BUT...For some reason (maybe I'm a masochist) you will love them more than anything else in the whole world. So bring on the following in my footsteps. There are worse things in this world than becoming like your mother. Did I just say that again?

The End is Near!

You gotta love being a teacher during election season. Today was a great day for gossip of the 'National Enquirer'-kind. According to my fifth graders, because Obama won the election, the following things are GOING to happen:
-All illegal aliens are going to be rounded up in a gigantic sting and sent back to their home countries
-World War III is starting tomorrow and it is going to be a nuclear war
-All the troops are coming home from every country they are currently stationed at (this is going to be the cause of the nuclear war)
-No one is going to have any health insurance anymore, except illegal aliens (interesting since all illegal aliens are being sent back to their home countries)
-Obama killed McCain
-Obama is a terrorist and is planning on bombing the White House as soon as he moves in (this seems like a strange move to bomb your place of residence, but he is crazy right :))
-Obama is going to be assassinated in exactly 17 days (don't ask me how this student knows this- Should I be afraid of said student?)
-Obama is changing the name of the United States (they didn't know what he was changing it to though)
-Obama is going to burn all U.S. Flags
-Obama is inviting terrorists to stay at the White House where they will murder the senate and John McCain
and my #1 favorite rumor of the day is... (drum roll please)
-Barack Obama was flying one of the planes that hit into the World Trade Center Towers. (Here is the proof...) :) They were caught a little off guard when I asked how he was still alive today, if he was on one of the planes, but of course that just started more rumors of "magic" and "ghosts".

Now my wonder in all of this is where in the world are they getting this information? At first I just had to laugh as the stories became more and more ridiculous, but after a while, I felt mass hysteria building. I hate these crazy emails that get sent around about the candidates. What was being talked about in elementary school today shows that some people actually believe these crazy things.

So in honor of the crazy political emails, I am starting one of my own. You'll have to let me know if you actually get it. It is going to mention that McCain and Palin are robots which Obama programmed himself just so he would win the election. He got the money for building the robots from the Russians who he is in a secret plot with to destroy the potato crop in Idaho, thus making millions of Americans perish from starvation. I think if I attach a 'God will hate and destroy you' or 'If you love America...' message at the bottom it might actually get sent to every person in America.

Seriously though, I think everyone who is so worried about Obama being President just needs to calm down. All through history we've had good Presidents and bad Presidents and yet the nation has still managed to survive somehow. We have checks and balances in place so that a dictatorship doesn't happen. Everyone take a deep breath and chill.

As for me, I am going to do what I always do when something stresses me out or makes me depressed. I am going to pop in my old episodes of 'The Office' and just be happy that I don't work for Michael Scott or have a desk next to Dwight. Although I would love to hear what Dwight would have to say about all this Obama stuff...

Halloween 2008

We just got back from our trip to Disneyland on Halloween day, so the whole Trick or Treating thing was not quite as exciting as it usually is. We decided to go and hang out at Teresa's house for the night because I wasn't quite ready to be home from vacation yet. The whole family met up at Teresa's and all the kids went Trick or Treating together. Andy loved it! He wouldn't let go of his treat bucket the second he realized all these people were giving him free candy. He didn't complain once as he ran from house to house. Ty and Micks had just had a lot of walking practice from being at Disneyland, so they were all ready to walk miles to get more candy. There was delicious food, great company, and good conversation. It was a perfect way to end a wonderful vacation. Now to load you down with some cute Halloween pics.
Ty and Andy playing on Teresa's Porch

Andy's Light Fascination

All the Cousins costumes

Grim Reaper/Zombie Tyler

Tinkerbell McKayla

I love Halloween candy and costumes!

Our little 'Squirt'

Disney Recap

My only Disney complaint...My Hair is Hideous!

Although it seemed as if I had disappeared off the face of the earth,(truthfully it did seem weird to look at my blog and see that it was so long since my last post)I was not kidnapped by aliens! (Weird coincidence that my last post was about aliens and then I disappeared :)) I have instead been on a family vacation.
Jerry and I have had this Disneyland trip planned since summer, which seems kind of pathetic when other people seem to just have a whim and go. We left Andy with my mom and dad and just took Ty and Micky. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about a stroller or diapers for a few days, even though every little kid I saw that was Andy's age made me miss him. This is all you need to know if you don't want to be bored stiff. Fair warning, I am going to go into a lot of detail because I am using this kind of like my journal, so just know that it is going to be long and boring! If you want, skip ahead, to my slide show with some of our fun Disney Pics.
We left on Saturday, Oct. 25th, not early in the morning, because that is just not our style. We borrowed Jerrys dad's car, so we had to stop and pick it up in Monroe. It added about an hour to our drive, but was worth it when we figured out that we traveled the entire trip on what would have be one tank fill up in our car. The first day we just went as far as Buffalo Bills Casino, which is on the Nevada/California border. Needless to say, we couldn't gamble with the kids, so we ended up renting, 'Get Smart' and watching it that night in our hotel room.
The next day, Sunday, we traveled the rest of the way. We had decided to splurge this trip and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel (no regrets, the service was awesome, the room was clean, and the park convenience was amazing. Kayla fell down and skinned her knees and I went to the front desk to get her a bandaid. Not only did they fix her up, but they gave her balloons too, which I didn't even have to pay for. Now that's service!- I seriously think Disney owes me some money for this free advertising on my completely popular blog :0)) We went into the parks that day. It was busy, but not crazy, and we watched the Fireworks show. I have to say at this point that I love Disneyland at night. It does seem kind of magical with all the twinkling lights and yummy smells and music playing. We were also able to walk on to a few of the Disney must-rides (Dumbo, Tea Cups, etc.) that night.
On Monday, we woke up a little late, so we decided to go into the California Adventure park first since it was just opening. We made two mistakes this day. Mistake #1- Ate 2 doughnuts for breakfast. Mistake #2- Rode California Screaming two times in a row. Enough said, except that Jerry got sick enough that he had to spend a few hour in our hotel room. The kids and I were gung ho (I don't even know how to spell that) and decided to stay and ride what we could. We went on the new Toy Story Mania ride and then explored places that are kind of hidden in Disneyland. We had a blast going to Turtle Talk with Crush. Crush actually picked Tyler out of the audience to talk to (I knew that red hair would help him in some way in his lifetime) which meant he also had to talk to me. Embarassing! I always sound like such a dork on a microphone. Afterwards we found the 'Beasts Library' and took a quiz to see which Disney character we were most like. Kayla was being grouchy, so the quiz told her she was most like Malificent, the evil queen on Sleeping Beauty. We laughed about that one, because she really is evil when she gets hungry. Not so funny though when the character I was most like was 'Lady' from 'Lady and the Tramp'. Yes, I am most like a dog. Then we went to Ursula's lair, where she steals your voice and puts it into a cartoon. We played on that for a while and had some good laughs when we figured out you could say whatever you wanted and it would dub it in. Jerry was better by then and met up with us for lunch. At this point, I must give a shout out to Disneyland food. It is expensive, but so worth it. I didn't eat a yucky meal the whole time I was there. This was something else we decided to splurge on also. I didn't want to have to sit eating a peanut butter sandwich again while other people walked around with churros. We ate pretty much every meal in the park, and it was so worth the 5 pounds I gained. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent in Disneyland park. It looked busy, but we ended up walking on to every ride. Our longest wait was like a half hour, so not bad at all. That night we watched the 'Parade of Dreams' and the kids loved it. Ty, Kayla, and I had spent the entire day in the park from opening to closing, so we were exhausted, but happy.
Tuesday morning, when I woke up, I felt like I had run a marathon. Every muscle in my body hurt. It was a major wake up call that I am no longer young. I felt a little better when Ty and Micks also said their legs hurt from the day before. (Aren't I a mean mom?) We spent that day riding rides (walking on again). I saw so many kids freaking out or having to be forced on to rides, and I felt so grateful for my little daredevils. Micks and Ty rode every ride. They loved the scary rides the most (California Screamin' was their favorite ride). It was also a highlight to meet Jack Skellington and Sally from 'Nightmare before Christmas'. The actors sounded just like the characters and spent about 5 minutes talking to the kids, which is a lot when there is a huge line of people waiting behind you. Jack was horrified (a thing he loves) when he found out humans eat something called 'scrambled eggs' for breakfast, and Sally was fascinated by the swinging jewel on Micks pen.
That night we met Jerry's sister, Joelle, and her family for dinner. We were going to meet somewhere else, but ended up running into them in Downtown Disney. We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe and then played in the Lego Store. It was nice meeting up with them. Their twin girls are darling. Every time a "thunderstorm" hit it the restaurant and then ended they would say, "Whew, I made it". Afterwards, we decided to take the kids to see High School Musical 3. It was ten o'clock at night, so Kayla fell asleep during the opening credits, but Ty loved it. (And okay, I've already admitted to being a geek, so I guess it won't hurt, I kind of enjoyed the dancing and singing too). We had to pack Kayla back to the hotel afterward, so it was a good thing our hotel was right next door to the movie theater.
By Wednesday we had rode everything, so we just recapped our favorite rides. That morning we decided to do a Character Breakfast. It was also a major highlight of the trip. The kids thought eating with the characters roaming around and teasing them was great. Ty got this vendetta going with Captain Hook. Hook took Ty's hat and threw it across the restaurant and made him go get it. One of the workers told Ty that you only had to say 'Tick Tock' and Hook would run away. Ty decided to try it, and it worked. The second he said 'tick tock' Hook took off running and hid behind a counter. Every time he would peek over Ty would say 'tick tock' and he would hide again. I have to give a shout out to whoever was in that costume because it made Ty's day. Plus, it was really entertaining for us. We met up with one of my old friends that I used to work with that day. She taught with me last year, but quit at the end of the year to work at Disneyland. I wish I had those kind of guts. Her and her husband went around the park with us, and gave us the inside scoop on things. It was really great to see her again. We watched the Pixar Play parade that day and got wet. The kids went swimming in the NeverLand pool that night. (which Kayla claims was the best part of the entire trip). They had tried to go swimming the day before, but one of the other guests at the hotel had left a little present in the pool and it had to be evacuated (all I can say is EWWWW).
I have to say that I was really sad to walk out of the park on our last night and leave the twinkling lights, the yummy churros, and the Jiminy Cricket music behind. My friend told me that she smiles every day as she walks into work in the park, and I have to say that I would too. I love Disneyland. It is seriously the happiest place on earth for me. I can't wait to take Andy back when he is big enough to ride everything. Our kids were the perfect age. They could ride everything, but they were still mesmerized by the characters and the magic.
Anyway, sorry for the novel, but you didn't have to read the whole thing :) Maybe I wouldn't be all that sad to have been abducted by aliens, if their home planet was a gigantic Disneyland. I would go back tomorrow if I could.

Disneyland Pics