Happy Halloween!

Beautiful fall weather expected here today.

We're planning for lots of trick-or-treaters,

not to mention a gaggle of girls for the

princess' birthday sleep-over extravaganza!

Bring it on!

Sing it, Sister!

Can you spot the princess in her fall choir concert?

They did a great job!

Can I Get A Witness???

Is it just me, or has this been the longest week EVER??

Can I get a witness? And how about an "amen" from the choir?

And the hits keep coming...

I lost my man, Russel, last night on the Survivor pool! And like the princes' guy, he wasn't voted out but left due to injury. We're doomed. The princess' gal, Monica, is still in it, but not for long as she was the girl they were going to vote out until Russel went down. She'll go in the next week or so. So long, big money!

Dance Trip Final Day

The girls had 3 dances in the morning. After that we met for lunch and then headed home. We started out at the end of the pack but somehow (maybe my awesome driving while all 4 of my passengers were sleeping) we pulled to the front. We got back to the dance studio about 15 minutes ahead of the rest, and these three entertained themselves with some "drumming" on someone else's car!

Dance Trip Day Three

Last night Val, who is everyones' favorite big girl,

led the girls in pool Simon Says!

Really, the girls worship her!

This is the best I could do while sneaking to take this photo of the princess in a ballet class! Through the door, while she wasn't looking--no flash--and the teacher turned in the other direction! Gotta be cool when you're breaking the rules!

During our "fancy" dinner at Macaroni Grill.


We went to a dance show and had a group photo taken afterward.

Dance Trip Day Two

After dancing pretty much non-stop from

8:30 until 5:30, these ladies were still

able to pull off cheesy smiles.

Great Job today, ladies!

The princess, workin' it. This was a Jazz class (I think). Ballet was brutal for the older girls. All but 2 of them came out crying before the class was over with a sore this or a pulled that. The princess and the other girls in her group were able to tough it out though. I'm so proud of her!

Dance Trip Day One

We arrived safely in Dance Town, USA,

and after a quick bite at Micky D's,

we were off to the pool for a dip.

Goof balls!

We're Off!

The princess and I are off on a road trip to a dance workshop half way across the state. She's very excited because we'll be taking 3 of her friends with us on this 4 hour journey to the mountains. There will be 2 and a half days of dance workshops for the girls, and a lot of sitting around and waiting for me! But I am taking my sweats and tennis shoes just in case I decide to BUST A MOVE with the girls. What could be more embarrassing for the princess? We'll see how she treats me, which will determine how much dancing I have to do! Hope we all survive the next 4 days of togetherness!

Congratulations Madam Co-chair!

You are looking at the new, sixth grade, co-chair for middle school student council! The princess ran against 3 other girls and won the seat. Her term will run through this year, and somehow (because ultimately everything is all about ME) I think this will mean more shuttling and driving for me!

Rock on! Princess Girl!

Happy Birthday Marty!

Have a great day!

I enjoy your birthdays so much more

when we spend them at

Disneyland.

Let's do that next year!

Happy Birthday Kathi!

Happy Birthday to Cool Aunt Kathi!

Have a great day!

Happy Belated Birthday

Happy Birthday Robin!

Sorry I'm a couple of days late here.

But your card should have been on time!

Cute vs. Sweet

Cute

VS.

Sweet

You decide.

Chilly

And you thought nothing could top the "chainsaw" story today!

It's currently, with the wind chill, 9* right now.

I'm just sayin'...

Chainsaw

This is the funniest thing that's happened to me since I went to work at the school; I just hope it translates in writing. If not, you'll have to trust me that I giggled all day long after this happened.

Yesterday we had a fire prevention assembly. It was presented 3 times--once to each grade, and it was given close enough to my room that, if my classroom door wasn't closed, we could hear the louder parts of the presentation.

My 6th graders (about 7 boys) were quietly working away when the fire people started demonstrating different alarm sounds such as the fire engine siren and smoke alarms. Then I heard what sounded like them demonstrating a chain saw. I was thinking to myself, "that's weird, but I suppose...if they had to cut you out of something..."

At the same time, one of the boys looks up and says, "what was that?" I look around the room, thinking he heard something else and see a boy in the back of the room who is beat RED. His shoulders are bouncing up and down. It dawns on me that he's trying to hold in laughter.

I am on it!!! I quickly tell the other boy to go back to work (the others haven't even looked up) and I try not to make eye contact with the boy who is now heaving in his seat. No...he wasn't choking...that loud chainsaw noise that I thought came from another room was him TOOTING!!!

He really tried to keep it together. I decided he must not want the other boys to know because he hadn't made a laughing sound, but he was still shaking in his seat and still bright red in the face! It was so funny, and I was really have to try hard not to laugh myself.

Finally he got it together--sort of. He quit laughing, went back to his normal color, and almost looked like he had been crying, which he hadn't been. I was going to go over and quietly ask him if he was alright, but I feared the smell, so I hollered across the room, "you alright?" He nodded yes and went back to reading his book, but every once-in-awhile, when I looked up, his eyes were pointed at the book page, but his shoulders were shaking again!

I couldn't WAIT for class to get over so I could go tell some other teachers! When I told the story at home last night, the prince assured me that the proper way to handle that would have been for me to say, "Good One!" as soon as I figured out what was going on! It is middle school, after all!

Code of the West

I have probably posted some of these before, but with hunting season upon us, I thought they were worth repeating!

Code of the West

1
Pull your pants up. You look like an idiot.

2
Turn your cap right, your head ain't crooked.

3
Let's get this straight: it's called a 'gravel road.'
I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter
how slow you drive, you're gonna get dust on your
Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

4
They are cattle. That's why they smell to you. They
smell like money to us. Get over it.

5
So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have
$250,000 combines that are driven only 3 weeks a
year.

6
Every person in the Wild West waves. It's called being
friendly. Try to understand the concept.

7
If that cell phone rings while a bunch of geese/pheasants/ ducks/doves are comin' in during the
hunts, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better
hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

8
Yeah. We eat trout, salmon, deer and elk. You really
want sushi and caviar you can get them at the bait
store on the corner.

9
The 'Opener' refers to the first day of deer season.
It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to
the first of November.

10.
We open doors for women. That's applied to all women,
regardless of age.

11.
Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water
hazards -- it spooks the fish.

12.
We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and
Marines than all of you put together, so don't mess
with us.

Yikes!

It seems only fitting that after those beautiful flower shots, I should tell you that we woke this morning to snow! A winter storm is covering the area and should continue until midnight. It's sunny here right now, but it's cold!

Fall Blooms

Our September was so nice that some of our flowers had a second generation of blooms!

Enjoy!

Our neighbor's sunflowers.

The grass in the corner was only 12" tall when we bought it last summer.

Beautiful!

Even these daisies are blooming again, and I didn't even dead-head them.

I love this guy!

Of course, now we've had some near freezing temperatures, and it might even snow a little today, so the geranium is back inside, and the rest will have to give it up until next summer.

Getting the Band Together

A couple of weeks ago the prince had a couple of friends over to spend the night. They met, jammed a bit, went to the homecoming football game, came home (since the dance was cancelled) and jammed some more. Before the game I had them set up in the garage so they'd have more room--yep, that's the king's scooter on that shelf behind them. The garage door was open as it was pretty warm out. Our new, elderly neighbor wasn't enjoying the noise--oh, I mean MUSIC--but didn't want to come over and ask the boys to turn it down. Instead she had another neighbor come over!! I was in the house. I would have dealt with it. Whatever. The boys were polite and closed the door.


Now, about Reed's hair...or "Skunk Boy" as I like to call him. He had the white streak painted in there at the football game. The plan was to go have the sides painted blue to show school spirit, but alas, when he got to the people with the blue paint, they had just run out!!! HILARIOUS!!! He even showered the next morning, but it wasn't coming out!!! Did I mention HILARIOUS????? :)

I snapped this photo in the morning. After a hard night of rocking, there's nothing better than a strong cup of joe out on the porch! They look so grown-up.