It's Here!

The prince's driver's license arrived yesterday. It is so different from our. Where ours are read horizontally, his is read vertically. His photo is on there twice. There are tons of hieroglyphics that make it really hard to read. It expires on his 21st birthday, when he'll get a horizontal card. Things has sure changed since I was his age, and I'm sure they are much harder to duplicate now too...not that I ever did that.

Homonym

Homonyms: Two words that sound the same but mean different things.

For example, the teacher says, "It's catch-up day."

The student writes in his planner, "Ketchup day".

True story. I just read it in his planner.

Holiday Concert

Last night the princess had her holiday choir concert. It was GREAT! Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade band and choir made for much holiday merriment. (I'm not sure why this is underlined, but I can't seem to fix it!)

This is the seventh grade choir.

They are small, but they are mighty.

At the end of the evening he combined all 3 choirs

for a nice rendition of "Little Drummer Boy."

I love that song.

44*

It was 44* when I drove to work this morning. Slush and water all over the place. Let the melting continue!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

On Friday the prince and princess hauled all the Christmas stuff up from the basement. As hard as it might be to believe, we actually have less stuff with each passing year, as I try to get rid of something each year. Not sure what it'll be this year though. We've whittled it down pretty well.

The stockings are hung, the nutcrackers are up on top of the kitchen cabinets (the prince put them up there...even though they've not gone up there since the first year we lived here), and the princess decorated almost the entire tree by herself. I do have two bags full of ornaments the kids made when they were very young that are just to "precious" (read UGLY) to go on the tree. The princess didn't know why they were in the bags so she put all the ugly--I mean precious--ornaments on the tree this year. If you live in town you should come take a look. It's a beauty!

I'm very thankful for the help of my sweet little elves this year. Gifts are wrapped, boxes are put away, and we're ready to revel in the season.

Jury Deliberations

Deliberations start this afternoon for the trial the king has been attending all week. He thinks he might be made jury foreman, and he is quite excited by this prospect. I hope his dream comes true!

Day Off!

I took today off. Let the Christmas wrapping begin!

That's More Like It

Only 14 kids in OTC today!

I love this girl!

Yesterday she was making a beautiful picture that she was trying to decide if she should send to me or to her other aunt (her mother's and my sister SHELLEY). Finally she said to her mother, "I'll send it to the queen because she's a bathing beauty."

Now, if that ain't the truth!!!! I love Ariana. When I texted Shelley to say, "Neener, neener, and where does she get this stuff?" Shelley's response was quick, "FROM HER MOTHER! She's just like her."

We love them both. And from now on, I'd like to be referred to as "Her Royal Majesty, the Bathing Beauty."

That Darn Frosty!

"Right in the middle of the produce aisle, Frosty gets caught picking his nose!"

Licensed Driver!

Excuse the almost closed eyes (it's hard to tell what the photo looks like on the little cell phone screen), but here is the prince at about 4:30 yesterday, new license in hand! He passed his test! It was a worrisome few days. Other kids from his class had already taken the test this week, and one of them had failed. There is still lots of snow out there. We drove by a girl taking the test and trying to parallel park in a snowbank. But it all went fine (he did bump the curb parking, but she still passed him), and he'll be driving to school today all by himself. He might need to get up a little early to scrape his windows. Those of us who park in the garage don't have to worry about that!

44

Forty-four is my new record for OTC (Opportunity To Complete--your homework, you big dummy!) My previous record was 32. I have 27 desks in my room. You do the math!

They were sitting on the floor. Some of them were in there only to finish a test, so I was nice and let them go when they were done. Eventually I got down to about 30, and then boy were those kids not very happy when they heard that they weren't going to be let go when they finished their work like the other kids had been!

We'll see what today brings.

R.I.P Halo

I stole that title from the princess. She used it as her Facebook status update the other day. On Sunday the princess and the rest of the studio danced at a holiday event. The girls all did a great job. When the princess and the other ladies did Halo, the dance director announced that this was the last time we'd see it. She is retiring the song. It's a beautiful piece, but I'm a little glad to be moving on. The princess is really glad to be moving on! Good job, ladies!

Jury Duty

Not me this time. The king. And he was chosen for the 5 day civil suit. But he loves this stuff so he will have a good week!

Polar Plunge

Yesterday about 10 people from our school took the "Polar Plunge"! Brrr....It's a fundraiser for Special Olympics, and there were over 100 plungers yesterday. We cheered them on, and the prince even thinks he might like to get some cheerleaders together next year to do it too, since they do a camp each year for those kids. We will cheer him on!!

Barb and Christy.

I work with them.

They look cute dressed up like lions!

Special divers and firemen cutting out ice to make a spot for the divers.

I read that it was 18* outside,

and the water was in the 20*,

but you wouldn't know it to look at them when they got out!

Cheer section!

More cheerers.
There's always someone not looking at the camera!

Our school group right before going down to the lake.

The plunge!

I'm so proud of them!

Stolen Photos

Stolen from other peoples' Facebook accounts:

photos of my children

The princess in a spring dance photo I did not purchase. I now have a copy.

Nice group shot from "Pack the Place In Pink" that I wish was larger.

Happy Saturday!

Cheer Dance Off, Um, I Mean Dinner

I am pleased to announce that the cheer dinner appears to have been a hit on all fronts. The prince and crew ate all the pasta (lots of sauce left over), the last of the ladies didn't leave until after 9:00, there was much laughter, screaming, DANCING, loud music, and merriment. And best of all, NOTHING was spilled on the carpet! Phew!

I believe only one person was missing from the dinner. That's a good turn-out, and I counted, there are 23 of them.

They all went downstairs to dance, and when I came around the corner, I saw this. Why some of them left their cell phones on the desk is a mystery to me, but I thought it was funny.

We offered to have them put their coats on the bed. They all declined. Cheerleaders are kind of weird.

Funniest conversation I heard all night:

Cheerleader: Prince, I like your window treatments.

Prince: My what?

Cheerleader: Your window treatments.

Prince: I don't know what that is.

Cheerleader: Umm...those things (as she points to them).

Prince: The drapes?

Cheerleader: Drapes?

This went on for about 30 seconds. Too funny. I call them curtains.

Where did you come from?

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago. It's the pot on my front porch. That there was still a little green foliage was weird enough since it hasn't had water since September, but what was really weird was the bloom (center, right). Too weird. It's all dead now (since the snow and frigid temps), but it sure hung in there a long time. Yesterday a friend posted on her site that she found a lizard--still alive--in her garage. Yep, go ahead and insert the theme to The Twilight Zone now.

Happy Birthday Jeanette!

Should I repost the photos of you eating pop rocks? I'll spare you! Eat some chocolate, though, and think of me, thinking of you! Happy Birthday BFF!

Team Dinner

The conversation went like this:

Monday:

Prince: There's a team dinner Thursday at Jessica's.

Me: What do you need to bring?

Prince: I will find out tomorrow and let you know.

Tuesday:

Me: What do you need to take to the dinner at Jessica's?

Prince: Dessert.

Me: Great. We have a box of brownies in the cupboard. Make them Wednesday so they are ready for Thursday.

Prince: OK.

Later Tuesday:

Prince: Jessica's mom just bailed. Can we do the dinner at our house?

Me: REALLY??? What is being served (besides brownies)?

Prince: Spaghetti

Me: GREAT!

In my head I'm thinking that A: Spaghetti is easy. B: The king might not be able to deal with all that red sauce possible falling on his carpet.

Luckily the king is still with us today--no stroke or heart attack when his blood pressure spiked at the news, and we'll be squeezing 30+ cheerleaders into our kitchen/living room area tomorrow night. Someone's going to have to clean the bathroom before that though!

STUCK!!!

It took 2 weeks of snow, but it finally happened. I got stuck this morning coming out of Mary Beth's driveway. Luckily she, Christian, and the princess were able to push me out. I'm starting to hate winter. Monday, when I was hoping for a snow day, 40 school buses in town got stuck. FORTY! Enough already.

Snow Fun

As much as I dislike our road conditions of late and the fact that is was minus 3* when I left for work yesterday, the snow isn't all bad. There is fun to be had if you can venture out and bundle up!


The prince and princess spent the night with Grandma Friday night and did some shoveling for her on Saturday. Such nice children.

I'm pretty sure someone helped Andy with this cool snow fort!

Maybe it was this guy! Marty, you're a great dad!

That's a lot of snow!

According to "official" sources, we got 4.5 inches of snow Sunday. I don't think they were measuring in my part of town. And I'm pretty sure I scarped about that much snow off my car when I left the movie Sunday night. I know, I know...they are measuring moisture content, not depth, but depth is what we have to drive in.

These photos are at Mary Beth's house. Her husband (Super Brian) dutifully shoveled all weekend. Love the pile of snow on the corner. Though it's not evident in this photo, that pile is about 5 feet high! Wowzer! That's a lot of snow!

Let's Try This Again

Here is a much better photo of the newly engaged couple! May 20th is the date! Wahoo!

Snow War

I rolled out of my garage yesterday to find that the neighborhood boys (we have lots of boys) had set up their sleds as forts across our driveway and were heavy into a snow war. They were having tons of fun, and the weather was GREAT! One of the moms stopped me to say, "I don't know why they chose your driveway." My reply, "We're cool like that!" It's snowing now. Just what we needed! :)

Thanksgiving 2010

Awww...

It only took 3 tries to get one with everyones' eyes open.
It was too much to hope that they all be looking in the same direction.



Kathi claimed, "We'll kick their a$%es at Monopoly."
She meant the prince and princess.

As it turned out, the princess ended up with the most money!

Averting Trouble

I'm too tired to download the photos from yesterday, but I didn't want to be in trouble with my sister, who is waiting for a post, so...

Got up at 2:45 to be at the Target parking lot at 3:30 to carpool to Sears by 4:00. MB got the washer and dryer she wanted and we were at Walmart before 5:00 am to get "gifts" she needed. We were at the mall by 6:00, west end Target by 7:00, Starbucks in Target by 7:05. Back at the Heights Walmart by 8:15. Breakfast at 9:00, and home by 10:00. I walked in the door, and the king said, "You're home already?" :)

I got the Princess about handled. I've still got a long way to go with the Prince. Most years it's the other way around. But it'll all be a Merry Christmas, any way you spin it! Perhaps I'll get those photos posted tomorrow. For now my nap has worn off, and I'm headed to bed!

Happy Thanksgiving

To friends and family: we wish you a happy Thanksgiving spent with those you cherish. Eat some delicious turkey, and as the prince and princess will be saying repeatedly today, "Please pass the stuffing."

Friends

Everyone needs a friend,

even if the best you can do is stinky ol' uncle Rich!

The Basket

I believe this move is called "The Basket". I'm not really sure why, except that they catch her in a "basket". This was filmed at cheer practice a couple of weeks ago. Watch it a couple of times--it's fast--to appreciate how high up she flies and the splits she does in the air!