Stephanie's Weekendpalooza!

OOH! This could be the most action-packed weekend EVA!!! (or ever, for you grammatically correct people!) So last night I went to Herbie's Braroque flute recital...I love Herbie. Obviously. Because Baroque music is like some sort of fancy torture. It all sounds the same!! But Herbs did an AWESOME job!
Then I went with Jill to hang with the Frenchies at Beezer's house. She had made a super yummy dinner and dessert. Yay! I was starving.
Then we all went to the Longbranch to see the Truckstop Preachers. The boys were their typical entertaining selves. Nathan was especially animated last night. He was hilarious! And the people-watching there was amazing. All I can say is SHAMWOW! From the girls in the skirts that would not have fit my one-year-old niece to the five hundred pound man to the dude whose belt buckle was as big as Jill's face...it was out of control. I almost never say this about myself, but I was lookin' pretty good last night in comparison!
With the exception of the really bad music from the DJ between sets we had a great time.

More activity to come! I'll post later about my fun time at the CIRCUS! I'm editing the pictures right now. I've got to hurry so I can take a nap before dinner! And Sunday....RENT!!!!

So far, I'm lovin' Stephanie's Weekendpalooza! :)

Best. Dog. Ever. (with comments by Sadie)

i wuz a reel cute puppee.

i luvved dadz soks.

steph sed i wuz reel prettee in the sno.

steph luvs this piktur...

whut ar yu luking at?

napp tyme, y'all.

ha. i gott thee reemote.

i hate takking a bath.

i luv watching teevee.

i'm a gud gard dawg.

um...therz a tree in thee howse...

i luv steph. and she reely luvs mee.

Happy Birthday, Sadie!!!

Today is my Sadie's birthday!!!! Eleven years ago today, a litter of adorable cocker spaniel puppies was born. Eleven years ago this March, I brought the most beautiful one of those puppies home to live with us. She was so cute and tiny!!! She used her sweet puppy face on Mom and won her over very quickly! She has been and continues to be the best dog ever. Check back later in the week for Sadie's retrospective.

Sadie started her day with her least favorite activity. I made her take a bath on her birthday. I know that was mean, but she really needed it so she would be beautiful and clean for her birthday party. She was mad at me for a while...

Then she got to go for a ride in the car. I dropped her off at Mom and Dad's and went to church. After church, we had Sadie's birthday lunch! Colin came over to pet her. Brenna decided to get in on the act too. Sadie was very sweet and let them both pet her on her back.

After lunch, we had Sadie's birthday cake. Yes, it was real cake. Eggs, oil, sugar, butter. Real cake. She's a special dog. I was trying to show her the cake, but she wouldn't come out from under the dining room table. Mom tried to get her to come out too. Then we realized that we were on the wrong floor. Sadie is very particular about what floor she walks on.


When we realized we were on the wrong floor, we moved to the carpet and she came right over. Silly dog.

She got to eat a piece too!



She was a very happy dog. She got to spend her day with her family, she got to eat cake, and Meredith brought her a box of cookies!!

Children's Choir...Week Three

Wednesday is children's choir night! I got some more (and I think better) pictures this time. It was FREEEEEEEZING in our room, so we started with Father Abraham to get our blood moving! Here are a few pictures from that.



We sat down for a few more songs, including the Arky song, which I'm confident they'll all be able to sing soon!

We were so cold, we decided to go down to the fellowship hall for game time. They were having Bible study right down the hall, so we had to tiptoe!

We played musical chairs for fun.

It got us all warmed up! After prayer time, seeing that it was almost time for dismissal (or so we thought) we headed back to our room. And waited. And sang. And waited. And sang. And waited. Apparently, there was some serious Bible studying going on...
So we opened the door. And sang (VERY LOUDLY) Father Abraham again. With all the wacky movements. Parents began showing up shortly thereafter. =)

Hey, you do what you gotta do...

Hangin' with B

Yesterday during the snow day fail, I went over to Meredith's to hang out with Brenna while Mere and Colin went to the dentist. Well, the original plan was to go over there and play in the snow with Colin and Brenna, but...well...you saw the pictures.

Anyway, Mere and Colin had an appointment with the dentist, so I went over to watch Brenna so she didn't have to go to the dentist too. (There's not much need for her to go. She only has the two teeth.)

Colin and I made some pictures before they left. We were apparently having bad face days, so it took awhile to get a good one.

Colin and Meredith took off and Brenna and I had some fun time playing together. She was being super cute. She played with some of her toys. She took off to the kithcen to play with her fridge farm. I gave her some of her puffs snacks, mostly because I like the look on her face when I hand her one. SO cute! And we played our game with my "shiny". For some reason, she finds it hilarious to take my necklace and shove it in my face. Whatever. It makes her laugh. I took some pictures while she was doing that. =)





Good times. =)

Snow Day!!! (but Weather. Fail.)

So all day yesterday, all we heard was "the snow is coming". Get ready for the snow. Two to six inches of accumulation. Does this look like two to six inches to you????

But I got a phone call at 3:30 this morning. "No school today!" Woo hoo!!! That was believeable. When I looked out the window, it was snowing really hard. Then at 5:00, another phone call. "No school today!" Um, yeah. Got that message. Thanks! So I looked out again. Still snowing really hard, but there was no more on the ground than before. Um, ok. I got up around 8. These pictures pretty much show the extent of my snow. And then came the messages from others. About their two inches. Or their three inches. And how it was still snowing. It was still snowing at my house too. But there was never more on the ground than this. And then came their pictures. And my angry eyes.

I was very glad to have the day off. Snow days are great! They're better when there's actually some snow to play in!!!

I can only assume that there are yard gnomes in my yard that stole my snow.

The light.

Don't worry folks! The light in her eyes is back. The weather dude said the magic word. SNOW.

He'd better hope he's not wrong! Seriously!

Here's a few things to let you know the writer of this blog is feeling better:
sunshine
puppies
rainbows
cupcakes
babies
pink
macaroni and cheese
snowmen!!!! (or snow dwarves, as the case may be around here...)

There. Didn't want anybody to worry. =D

why growing up is un-fun...

i'm writing in all lower-case. this is serious. no time to use proper punctuation and grammar.

i hear my kids at school all the time saying things like " i can't wait to grow up" or "just wait til i graduate". i just want to shake them and say "no! stay little!!!!" sure, there are great things about getting older. there are things you can do as an adult that you can't do as a child. for instance, if want to go into my kitchen right now and squirt the cool whip directly into my mouth from the can, i can do that because a) it's my house and there's nobody here to judge, and b) i bought the cool whip, therefore i can eat it however i want. but when you grow up, there's bad stuff! there are bills and there's work and there are people that make your brain hurt. when you're little, people pretty much leave you alone and let you be little. you can play and have fun and as long as you're not psycho, people don't mess with you. things get complicated when you get old. relationships are difficult. your best friends can even mess with your head. it's aggravating. and when you get older, you start to lose people you care about. when you're a kid, in your mind, people live forever. they'll always be there. but then you grow up and have to deal with the fact that people don't live forever. and then you realize that you don't have forever either. it's depressing. seriously.

stephanie is quite glad that she doesn't have to go to work tomorrow. (un-fun grown-up activity that it is) perhaps i'll be in a better mood tomorrow.

blog. fail. i'll try to be happier later. =)

thots frum sadie

hi. it'z mee. sadie the dawg. i stole thee komputur. i just wanted two say that it iz reeeeeel kold! i meen, REEEEEEEEEL kold. lyke freezing or sumthing. it's so kold, i kan't even look!






steph thot i wuz reel kute pushing my blankit into thee sunshyne, so she tuk my piktur.




i also wanted two say that i'm reel sorree that i bit steph. i'm sorree abowt hur brooze on hur face. i luv hur, and woodn't byte hur on purpose.

thats all.

luv, sadie

Children's Choir...Week Two

Ok, so I didn't blog about this last week because I wasn't sure what to say yet.
Now, here goes....

Several weeks ago, our minister of youth and children asked me if I would be interested in leading a children's choir at church on Wednesday nights. Sure. I've kinda wanted to do that for a few years, but didn't really know when we could do it or whatever. Will wanted to replace the Wednesday night children's activities with a choir, so off we went!
Last week was our first week and I had no idea how many children to expect or how old they would be or anything! It was kinda hard to plan!!! But we did a few songs, found one they liked, ate some snacks, and played a game. Fun.
This week, I decided we would really work on the song they liked last time. So we started working on "Rise and Shine" (or The Arky Arky Song). We want to sing it for the church in a few weeks. I love that song. Then Darlene read them a story and they had a snack. It was almost time (I thought!) for them to go, so I had them stand up and practice singing the Arky song with all of the movements and everything. Yay! Good job. But then their parents weren't coming for them. So I had to come up with something else for us to do. Enter Father Abraham. I love that song too. So much fun with the crazy movements!! And The B-I-B-L-E. And This Little Light of Mine. Ok, I was seriously ready to go at that point. =)

I took a couple of pictures during story time.

The Acorn and the Oak Tree


Mikenna

Kaiden

Catie

Here Comes the...Bridesmaid...Again...

Yay! Krystle and Chris are getting married! =) On April 4th! I'm sure there will be lots of wedding related posts to come. This is the first.

Today, Krystle took Susan, Tara, and me to David's Bridal to be fitted for our dresses. We had an appointment and it didn't take much time at all. Tara had to try the dress on in a terrible champagne color that I can't imagine would look good on anyone. She was in and out of hers before I got the camera out. Susan tried on the dress in black. She looked lovely.

I was fortunate enough to try the dress on in a charming shade of green. Well, charming if you intend to look like a celery stalk. According to the tag, it was "Clover". I just think it was vomit green. Seriously. You tell me. Is this a color you would wear??? On purpose??

The dresses, I am pleased to say, will not be champagne colored and they will not be puke green. They will be "Apple". Translation: Dark Red. We picked up Kelly's dress while we were there. (She ordered hers earlier and it was already here.) The dress is lovely in the right color. We're gonna look super cute!! =)

Random acts of kids...

Two funny stories from Teacherland...

Yesterday, I was teaching my first grade class like normal. We were doing this little poem called "But The Critter Got Away". (I don't know, folks. I don't make this stuff up. I just teach it.) So I told the kids the name of the poem and they all dissolved into giggles. I couldn't figure out what they were laughing at. And they wouldn't stop laughing. I finally said, "What is so funny?" By this time, I was laughing too, because they were all so cute giggling. One of them said, "Why is his name Butt?" And then I lost it. And I couldn't stop laughing. Bless their hearts. They thought I said the name of the poem was "Butt, The Critter, Got Away". Punctuation is a funny thing.

Today, I was teaching my third graders. We were doing a song called "Throw It Out the Window". If you're not familiar with the kid song repertoire, basically, the song takes common nursery rhymes and changes them. For example:

Mary had a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
She threw him out the window.
The window, the second story window,
And everywhere that Mary went,
She threw him out the window.

Go ahead...try it with another nursery rhyme. You know you want to.

Anyway, we learned the song as it was written in the book and then, to fulfill the standard about creating, the plan was to have the students think of other nursery rhymes to use in the song. They had to think of a nursery rhyme and then see if it would fit into the song. Some of them do, some of them don't. So I asked them to think of all the nursery rhymes they could think of and try to decide if they would fit into the song. I ended my directions with the words, "No talking. Put on your thinking caps." And, honest to Pete, this one child said, "But mine don't got no batteries."

I can't make this stuff up people. I thought I was going to have to leave the room. Sometimes my job is hilarious.

What's Up With Your Hair?

Seriously. It has been raining FOREVER. Geez. Enough already. The weather has actually been stupid crazy. It's warm...and raining a lot...and it was so windy last night and today that if I had stayed outside long enough, I probably could have gone to Oz. Hm...that could have been fun. I am saying this about the weather to make a comment about my hair.

I allowed my hair to be curly today. It was pouring rain this morning and I didn't think that spending a whole lot of time blow drying and flat ironing my hair this moring was worthwhile. So I sprayed some magic stuff in it and left it alone.

ALL DAY....kids. Sigh.
"Ms, Jonas, what happened to your hair?"
"Why is your hair curly?"
"How'd you make your hair do that?"
"Is your hair wet?"
"Did you dye your hair?" (?-I don't understand that one.)

Even adults...
"You iron your hair everyday? Really??"
"Is this a permanent change?"

Geezerie, people. Have you never just felt like your normal routine is a total waste of time so you just skipped it????

I apologize in advance for this picture. It's 10:00 and it's been a long day. I've been through a day of work, an hour of children's choir, 3 wardrobe changes, and SO much wind.
And oh yeah, please disregard the fact that it is January 7th and my Christmas tree is still standing in the background with the Christmas cards. I'm kinda slow.


And now I ask you for your thoughts. Leave a comment.

Back to School...Pinky the Wonder Bird Strikes Again!

Ugh. Back to School. Seriously. I did NOT want to go!!! My alarm went off at 5:30 this morning and I was like, "Are you kidding me?" Having three weeks off was wonderful! I love that part of year-round school!
The morning was pretty uneventful. My kindergarteners were great. They did such a good job learning their new songs and we had a little time left over at the end for the Chicken Dance. =)
Pinky the Wonder Flamingo is now sporting her winter gear. I took her Santa suit off this morning. I figured it was time, though I never like saying goodbye to Christmas. Here she is...

As if to welcome me back, my first graders provided me with this little conversation:
T: "Ms. Jonas! The pink goose is wearing a scarf!"
D: "It's a domingo, she said!"
A: "FLA-mingo. It's a FLA-mingo!"
At least one of them is catching on...

Ah...how I've missed my job...

Birthday Parties!

Saturday was Colin's 7th (!) birthday, so we had a combo party for his birthday and for Brenna's 1st birthday. I spent lots of hours making two cakes. For Colin, a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets cake.

And for Brenna, a Fisher Price Rock-A-Stack.

Colin and Brenna nearly lost their Aunt Steppy to a heart attack or a stroke when she was driving the cakes to their house, but she made it. I HATE driving cakes. I don't mind if they're plain old sheet cakes, but plain old sheet cakes are not good enough for these kids!
We had lots of yummy food. My sister makes the best hamburgers in the world. Seriously. Corey cooked them on the grill. =) He cooked some hot dogs too. And we had chips and dips and everything was yummy! (I was STARVING! I'd spent the whole day in the kitchen and not eaten anything!)
Colin opened his presents first. I gave him a Galactic Heroes set. Pretty cool. His parents gave him tickets to the circus for the end of the month. Aunt Steppy gets to go too!!! =)

Brenna was more interested in her first birthday card than in any of her presents. I gave her a Penny Piano. I have no idea what kind of animal she is (everybody else said zebra..I thought she was a giraffe..) but she plays music and teaches musical stuff. Very cute.

Cake and ice cream time was fun. I had to chop up the cakes that I had worked so hard on. *Sigh* Chocolate cake for Colin, vanilla cake for Brenna. Brenna was so cute eating her cake!