Please pass the Bon bons

Today was the first day back on track. I definitely deserved a slower paced day than yesterday, or the whole weekend actually. But I like busy.

Friday way skiing, and boy was it frigid. We do go prepared for the cold. We have neck and face warmers, and everyone has little hand warmers in their gloves. The good part about it being so cold is that the lift lines are very short, and that is NICE! We skiied non-stop until we had enough. We skiied a different part of the resort than we had skiied before, and Kamryn and Anna did fabulous, Kamryn was usually the first one down the mountain taking steeper terrain faster than I like too. I really had to ski fast to keep up with her. Derek and I went to the top of the mountain one time because it had a couple of blue runs that we could manage, but I accidentally went the wrong way and had to go down a black diamond mogul hill. Boy did my thighs burn after that run.

Yesterday was another school holiday, but not a day off for David. We started it off by going to get Kamryn's early birthday present. She got her ears pierced now so that they can heal before soccer starts.

When we got home around lunch time the craziness began. First there was a strange car in the driveway. A girl and her mother were there to pick up Derek to take a group to the movies. A bunch of kids in the seminary class- I gathered. He had done everything I had asked him to do, and they were waiting so I didn't have much of a choice. I guess there were 2 boys and 4 or 5 girls so not too bad of odds for him. Then Maddie who also got her ears pierced with Kamryn came in to play. Pretty soon another friend also came over, and then another. The 5 little girls wanted to craft, so I got out the craft bag and they went to town assembling what else -bridesmaid dresses, complete with flowers. A short time later Mikaela and her friend returned from "Savers" a goodwill type store where they had purchased clothing to wear on Plaid Day at school. Then 2 more friends showed up to tye dye shirts and socks for "tye dye Fridye". Then 2 more friends showed up to make t-shirts for the Sadie Hawkins dance. Then 2 more showed up because they heard about the gathering and couldn't be left out.

So what was I supposed to do on a bitter cold day with 15 kids in the house? I made spudnuts. They didn't get to raise like they should have, but they were yummy and the kids liked them, and they were so amazed that you could actually make homemade doughnuts.
Needless to say I was sort of grumpy by the end of the day. So that is why I was ready for today.

SPELLING BEE day! Kamryn was pretty nervous sitting on the back row of about 20 students. Only 3 were from the 4th grade. Her first word was "scribble" and she got that right. Her 2nd word was "unpleasant". She was very nervous and she spelled it INPLEASANT. She knew it wasn't right after she said it, but she couldn't change it. She knew many of the words that came in the rounds later, so I'm sure she will make a great showing next year.

Anna had a hard time going back to school today. When ever she has a break for very long, she hates going back. She says she misses me. She came to the spelling bee, and she cried when it was over, she didn't want to go back to class. She might be the one to never leave home, and I will probably be okay with that :-)

Spelling Bee-er

One of the joys (and by that I mean annoyances) of year round school is that they are STILL home from Christmas break. I have to admit that up until today I have not minded the extended vacation time, but today I hit the wall. They go back on Tuesday, and Friday we are going skiing, so really we just have tomorrow. Yay!

We have had a pretty good time while they have been off-track. Some of our adventures since the new year started have been to the ice skating rink, a really nice rec center with 2 indoor water slides, a beading store to make necklaces, bowling today, and Friday we go skiing. In the midst of it all there was plenty of time to play with friends. If I were a kid I think I would like year round school more than I do as a parent. They get breaks all year long and not just in the summer.

Kamryn found out last week that she qualified for the school spelling bee which is next Tuesday. She is one of only three 4th graders to be picked, so I told her that was an honor right there, even if she doesn't get very far against the 6th graders. She has been rattling off words all week like mnemonic, pnemonia, and bureaucracy. They have been teasing me because I thought hamster had a "P" in it. Don't you say hampster. Sort of like "torlet" I guess.

I can't be a total idiot because tonight I found out I was almost smarter than a 5th grader. I only missed 2, which was better than 4 out of 6 people in our family (Mikaela didn't take the test) so I was the winner. I only missed that monkey's originated on the African continent and not Asia, and 1 is not a prime number (trick question). Even Anna did quite well. She guessed that George Lincoln was the first president of the United States.

Three cheers for Mikaela, she got herself a date to the Sadie Hawkins dance today. She is so brave. Especially after putting up with her mother. Her first choice was a boy from last summer's EFY. He lives close by, but doesn't go to her school. He didn't want to go because he wouldn't know anyone in her group and it would be too awkward (in other words chicken). Choice #2 was already going to another school's Sadie Hawkins with another girl. She was ready to give up after that, but I went into overly-helpful- mother mode and rattled off a bunch of other possible choices. What was I thinking, that was the WRONG thing to do, of course she won't ask who her mother suggests. So last night she said she thought of one more to ask, and voila!

The week has been a full one. Hopefully I will be able to write more next week when school starts. Stay tuned for Spelling Bee results on Tuesday!

Anna Funnies

Anna is the sly comic in our house. Every once in a while she says the most random things that make us all giggle. On Sunday at dinner she says "Okay dad, your'e not going to like this" and then she giggles. She says, I want everyone to go around the table and say who their best friend is. We are all wondering where this came from, and why dad won't like it. She says, "Because you don't have any friends." This may not seem very funny to you who are reading it, but it made us all bust up laughing, because she sees things from a 6 year old perspective. Then she wouldn't let the process go, we had to go around the table a few times listing all of our friends, and yes David did manage to come up with a few of his own.

Anna, I hope you always keep your unique perspective like the day you asked me while we were driving in the car if butterflies always look down. I'm not sure. I hope you always care about everyone as you do now.

These little tidbits are some of the things I don't want to forget so we can laugh about them when you get older. You funny girl.

It's about Time

I am not a trend setter. I am more of a follower. When I find something I like... I go for it. Especially if it is good for me. I don't back down from a challenge. I love challenge. Above all I like to step back and look at what I have done, and when I do, I am usually amazed at what I did. Especially if it is something I never thought I could or would do.

So here I go... I am embarking on a new hobby. I was only introduced to the whole blog thing less than a year ago. I didn't even know what a blog was before that. (Not a trendsetter remember). My blogs may not change anyone or anything, but they are here for me, to record my daily small and simple acts that eventually accumulate into something rather big and something great, At least I hope they do.

Today was a very unusual day for me in that I didn't have a plan. My kids are still off-track from year round school, so we slept until 9:00. That is not a trend with me, I usually like to go work out before they get up, but something about snow lying on the ground outside makes one lazy to get out of bed when it is still dark. As for the rest of the day I caught up on a lot of phone calls that I tend to put off to some other less stressful time, which never comes. I arranged a swim day with other kids who are also off track. I called a long lost acquaintance who has lived in my home town for 6 months and I have never called, but a letter from my mother in law reminded me that I hadn't gotten around to it, so I did, and I'm glad. She needed some help finding pre-schools in the area.

A blessing came this afternoon. I was picking up my kids from high school, and as I was turning left into the parking lot, a kid pulls out of the parking lot also turning left and runs into the side of me. He wasn't going fast, but he couldn't stop even when he finally saw me. I could see him coming, and it was weird, things kind of went into slow motion. I tried to speed up so he wouldn't hit me, and I wanted him to stop, so I tried to honk, but I couldn't do all of that fast enough. I haven't been in a lot of accidents, so I was kind of at a loss of what to do. I waited for my kids to get in the car, and then I turned back around to where the other car parked. He waited (I had written down his license plate in case he didn't, I did think of that) Here is the blessing part, when I looked at the car, the only thing I saw was a few scrapes in the dirt (winter in Colorado is very dirty) I had gotten his name and phone number and everything, so after I examined the car and decided my tank had worse scratches already on it, I called him and told him not to worry about it. Maybe I am stupid, but hopefully he learned to pay more attention to traffic before he pulls out, and that is all that needs to be done.