BRRRRRRRRRR

It's freezing cold here, snow, and more snow on the way.

How is it where you are?????

It's Coming...

The trip of a lifetime is coming...

Sharmi will leave the boundaries of Billings, her family, and her work and set sail for the Mexican Riviera. No kids, no husband, no work, no responsibility. What could be better than that? I can't think of a thing.

Only 10 more days left!!!!

Kids make me laugh

Yesterday, driving to work, we were talking about the upcoming national election.  The 6th grader I shuttle said, "I'd vote for anyone who's not in favor of school uniforms and can make sure bad guys from Iraq don't invade our company."  I thought, "Yep, me too!"

UFO siting

I saw a UFO this morning--not aliens--just a UFO--Unidentified, flying object.

I got up about 7 this morning and was sitting in the livingroom. I noticed a light out my diningroom window and at first I thought it was my canned light, reflecting off the glass. But the more I looked, the more I decided it wasn't a reflection. After a couple of minutes, if rose up and over my house. Mind you, it was way up in the sky, and I live on the flight path for a lot of small aircraft, but this thing headed AWAY from the airport, and the light it was giving off was too bright to be a normal aircraft.

Just thought I'd let you know...we might not be alone!

Happy New Year

From our kingdom to yours, have a very Happy New Year!

Four EYES

The prince, looking studious and oh, so handsome in his new specs! He's loving them, but then, he hasn't been to school yet and gotten any razzin' from his peeps!

Dancing Queen

Here's the princess, looking HOT HOT HOT in her cool dance outfit and also a photo of her in action. This sistah has got it goin' on!

Final (hopefully) Moped Update!

As the photo indicates, the king is too big for the moped. Although it says it'll support 250#, and he SWEARS the problem was that there wasn't enough air in the tires, what you're looking at is a sad, sad day--really, I had tears rolling down my face as I took the photos (okay, I was laughing my butt off, and the tears were a result of that...)--as the king had to push his moped up the hill the way a toddler would "peddle" a trike up hill. The prince was also too big for the moped though he could get up the hill. It really only "fits" the princess! Se La Vi!

Drunken Daughter

I'm at work today, and the princess is doing a VIP presentation. Totally in her element. All about her. She's showing the medal she got for singing in a talent show on the cruise ship. She tells the kids that the kid center is where you go, and I quote, "WHEN YOU PARENTS WANT TO GO TO THE BAR." Her teacher was cracking up laughing.

She then points to a picture of herself, holding a strawberry daiquiri, and tells the kids, "It didn't have any alcohol."

A couple of hours later, she gets in the van and gets very excited to hear her FAVORITE song playing--Whiskey Lullaby.

I give up!!!

Royal Treatment

The king is currently in "sunny" Florida--well, maybe not so sunny. When he arrived he called to say it was only 60* there. At the time, it was 58* here. I said, "So you flew 2000 miles for 2 degrees!" It's warmer there now and much colder here so I guess he's the winner, anyway!

Speaking of winning--his Boise service center was named "Service Center of the Year"!!! He knew he was in the running for it, but didn't find out until Wednesday night when they handed out awards!! YIPPEE for him. One of his employees in Billings was one of the top Employees of the Year too! It's very nice for him to get some recognition for all his hard work.

They worked at a YMCA Camp Service Project yesterday. He said he's never seen cockroaches that big except for in display cases!! Meetings this morning and a tour of the area this afternoon. More meetings Saturday, and he flys home Sunday. He's got to be up at 3 AM FL time to catch his flight. He'll be sleeping in his chair by 5 PM our time!!

Low Rider

If Rich's knees--in relation to the size of the bike--aren't enough, the tall boy should give you an idea of just how "LARGE" this beast is!!

I was able to get him to pose for you--on the bike. He's nothing if not politically correct!

Too much snow to fire this baby up. So sing along with us instead:

Slow Ride...

Take it Easy...

or maybe

Low rider, take a little trip, take a little trip...

or maybe

I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid...

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A sad tale to tell

The king is having a midlife crisis.

How do I know?

The princess was looking at mopeds online the other day and the king SHOVED her off the computer (not really, but you know what I mean) and started looking. Next thing you know, he's telling me he just put a bid on a snazzy, silver moped.

And not just any moped, either. This baby has speeds of up to TWENTY miles per hour. That's right, baby. SPEED!

The item still had 5 days of auction left so he and the princess waited...and waited...and waited.

Alas, with 2 days left, the king decided he didn't really want the moped, hadn't thought it through, buyers remorse, mid-life thingy on hold...

"Too bad," I replied a little snottily. "You have entered into the EBAY contract (theme music to Jaws should be playing now). A bid, once placed, can not be undone." He came up with all kinds of plans to renig. But I wasn't going for any of that as he'd bid using MY user-name! I can't have my good Ebay reputation tarnished!

Alas, he was the high bidder. Our shiny, new moped--with speeds of up to TWENTY miles per hour (incase you didn't catch that the first time!) will be here in the week. The king assures me he'll ride it to work...just as soon as it's licensed, insured, and he gets himself a helmet.

I guess I should be glad he didn't see a Harley there--or maybe I should be unhappy--at least he might look "COOL" on a Harley. Ain't happenin' on the moped!!

Driftin' Along with the Tumblin' Tumbleweed

Oh how I wish I had a photo to prove it.

We had a terrible wind storm blow through Sunday night and all day Monday/Tuesday. My neighbor's truck caught on fire at 4:00 am on Tuesday morning (I'm not quite sure how that happened, something electrical), but he called the fire department, and we didn't even hear the sirens whaling because the wind was so loud! Scary. Luckily, the fire didn't spread to the field the truck was parked in front of (directly across the street from me), his house, or my house. We're very lucky, because those winds were fierce.

Along with the wind and the fire, came the tumbleweed. It's an on-going battle, and we laugh when they invade a neighbor's yard and not ours. Well, they were laughing at us Tuesday afternoon. I kid you not, our entire front porch was FULL of tumbleweeds. Ten feet high and 6 feet square--or whatever my porch measures!

A neighbor brought the prince home from school (because I was at school late with the princess), and he couldn't get through them to get in the house. He called me later to tell me he was back at the neighbor's house. It took the king and the kids over 15 minutes to dig it out later and haul them across the street to the empty lot! Unbelievable!

We had a little more wind last night so that the tumbleweeds are no longer in that lot. I'm not sure where they went, but they aren't in our yard either! Don't get me wrong, there are plenty more in our yard, but they were already there before last night! Go figure.

Does anyone out there know what a tumbleweed really is? What was it before it died, dried out, and started drifting????

Halloween

It was a night like any other night at the White House. George and Laura were celebrating Halloween quietly until George got a wild hair...(so to speak!)

Check out George dressed up like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and George dressed up as Kotter from Welcome Back Kotter!

Happy Halloween!

Birthday funny!

The king and I went to have lunch with the princess today in celebration of her birthday. I invited another boy from her class to sit with us as he was his birthday too. We were talking about parties, gifts they hoped for, and whatnot when I asked the boy what kind of cake he was going to have.

He promptly and confidently said, "German Shepard."

"What?" I was sure I'd heard him wrong.

"German Shepard."

Now totally confused he said, "You know, the kind with the coconut."

"Oh," I said, "GERMAN CHOCOLATE?"

A smile slowly dawned on his face and he said, "Oh...yeah."

We're back!

We had a great trip. No photos of us with Mickey. I don't know what happened, but we seem to have missed him somewhere along the line. We did see Shrek, Cruela Deville, and The Mummy, so enjoy those photos instead!

Let the fun begin!

Magical DREAMS!

Counting in hours

We'll be in sunny California in 26 hours--yeah, we get there at 9:30 AM and have to get out butts out of bed at 4 AM!!!

TWO MORE DAYS!!

Two more days until the Disneyfest begins!!! Happiest Place on Earth, here we come. And we are more than ready to have you spread a little happiness on us!

Mom always liked ME best!

Disney Update

It's getting closer and closer--only 17 more days until Disney!

"I suck at reading"

A 4th grade class was working in my lab, testing in math and reading the other day. One boy raised his hand and said, "I'm done with my math test."
I looked at the test and said, "You mean you're done with your reading test."
He looked at me and said, "Yeah, I suck at reading."

I guess so!

Black Widow

The king was helping to blow out the King Mother's sprinkler lines today, and put his hand in a hole in the ground where out crawled this Black Widow Spider. That bright red spot is her hour glass spot. YIKES! She's about as large as 1/3 of my index finger! She's dead now but was alive when the photo was taken. The princess is taking her to school tomorrow. I hope to never see her, or her kind, again!

Wake Up Call

What did you wake up to this morning?

Your alarm clock? The phone? Your kids fighting? Your spouse tooting?

I woke up to geese honking today.

But a couple of days ago I woke up to cows mooing.

A few days earlier, it was the middle of the night, and coyotes howling woke me up.

It's odd to live in the country IN THE CITY!

We watch the antelope play regularly. Horses and cows pasture behind us. Deer are also our neighbors, and lets not forget the skunk I saw crossing the road the other night. I didn't SMELL him, just saw him!

Funny Story!

We've been back at school for a couple of weeks now. Our school went to all day, every day kindergarten this year and had to find the space (we are very over-crowded right now) for several new classrooms. We are in the process of building a new Middle school, which will open next fall. Meanwhile, there are rooms all over the buildings that are sort of out of place. For example, in my building of 3, 4, and 5th graders, you'll find 3 kindergarten rooms, offices for the Yellowstone Valley Coop (they run the Special Ed. services at our school including speech therapy, physical therapy, etc), and offices for the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch (a mental health facility which helps out-patients in our school). Also, next door to my lab is the Middle School computer lab, and finally, the Family Resource Center--a community outreach/support program. Lockwood has definitely got it going on!

So when the kindergartners moved in this fall, we were looking forward to lots of fun with and stories to tell about those little people. Turns out, though they run away sometimes and are really noisy in the bathroom, they aren't all that fun!

So I then turned to my current 3, 4, and 5th graders for good story material, and again, they mostly just bug me. No great stories to share yet.

Fortunately, I was saved by one of the teachers. She teaches 3rd grade and caught me in the hall on about the second day of school. This was her story:

"You know, I came into school the week before school started, was fixing my room up, and thought, 'I love teaching. I'm so glad I'm a teacher.' I got my room ready, got excited about the upcoming year, made a class list, and was ready to go. Then school started, the kids showed up, chaos was everywhere, my room is full of ADHD children (most of them undiagnosed), and I thought, 'I don't love teaching. What I love is SUMMER VACATION!!!'"

So there you go, only 171 more teaching days until summer vacation!

Countdown to Disney!

We're starting to get excited! Only 6 weeks until our Disneyland adventure begins! Look out Micky, here we come!

First Day Of School!!

The prince has his schedule, the princess has about $1,000 in school supplies, and my lab is not even ready for children because I've been busy with meetings and testing incoming students for 2 days! Here we go...

Hairspray!

The kids and I took in Hairspray yesterday. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!! I even had to go out and buy the soundtrack, and I bet I haven't done that since I was in high school and had to have the Grease and Saturday Night Fever soundtracks. I don't know, maybe it's a John Travolta thing!! I am pretty sure I smiled or laughed through the whole thing. I'm strongly hinting to my kids that they give me the DVD for Christmas!

A New Castle

We've moved. Thanks to the royal sister for coming many miles to our rescue and getting our house in a presentable condition. There is still some unpacking to do, and we're waiting for new furniture to come in a month or more for our living room, but mostly, we are sooo excited. The king likes the master bedroom best and says it feels like a hotel room. Guess that's because the queen doubles as the maid right now. She's not feeling the whole "hotel" thing so much! The kids have made the transition nicely--so far. They will continue at the school they went to before, so the whole "new school" anxiety is not there. I'm back to work for a bit today and then start "for real" next week in the mornings. The kids come back August 29. We had a great time in Utah and Arizona--didn't even melt in AZ, but we did spend lots of time in the pool and even had a fun morning on the jet skis! Come check out our new castle. We'd love to see you all!