Notice anything different about me?

She didn't want her picture taken because she'd just gotten home from dance and was all sweaty, but I did snap a quick one of her in her new glasses. She's been telling me she needed glasses off and on for about a year. I figured until she was insistent I'd ignore it. That worked for awhile. This summer she started complaining again so I decided to make an appointment, but then she decided she didn't want glasses AND braces! Heaven forbid! The braces came off and she came home from school one day to tell me, "I missed a question on a science quiz because he added a second part but wrote it really small, and I couldn't see it." She does sit in the back in science and sometimes the florescent lights glare off the white board to make things difficult to read. But she said she was ready to see the eye doctor. So we did. She has the weakest prescription you can have and still need glasses! He told us she didn't really need them if she just moved a little closer to the board. "What? Move away from my friends???" So we got the glasses. She only needs them for distance and usually only wears them for English, Math, and Science. And with our GREAT insurance, they only cost me a $30 co-pay, so I'm okay with that! :)

What???

What? Did no one think the previous post was funny? Read carefully, people!

Spelling Rule

Rule: "i" before "e" except after "c"

Weird?

"Pants on the ground, pants on the ground"

"I've Got The Music In MEEEEE"

It might be more impressive if he were actually WEARING the tuxedo, but here is the prince with his suit he'll wear for his new gig--tenor in the school's highest choir. He really lucked into this class. He dropped a class a week ago. Your options for picking up a new class are limited when you drop a class 1 month into the semester. We thought he'd probably end up in a study hall until next semester, but we decided to check and see if there was a choir he was qualified to go in to. Unfortunately, the choir that period is the highest, with strict qualifications and by audition only. But I was brave and emailed the choir director (who loved him last year) and asked if it was too late for him to audition. Sometimes things are meant to be because she emailed me back, told me she had just lost a tenor, thought he'd be able to handle the rigors of the class, and wouldn't even make him audition. Gotta love her! So now he's singing "gleefully" again, and everybody's happy!

As a side note, the princess was also going to have to give up choir this year due to scheduling issues, but there were some last minute changes made, and she was able to stay in. Even better is the fact that she REALLY likes the new choir director. (It's very important that the 8th grader is happy. It would make for a long year otherwise!)

Jagger

I guess I should have told you sooner...the princess has a baby. Well, the princess HAD a baby. On Tuesday morning the princess was assigned the care of Jagger. Jagger is pretty cool. He's a doll, but he's full of sensors that tell how well he's being cared for. This is one of the projects available to kids in their FACS class (Family and Consumer Science). There are 3 babies. The kids named them and then signed up to care for them for 24 hours. Here are a few fun facts about the babies:

1. There are 2 boys and one girl, and yes, they are anatomically correct.

2. They have sensors in their chest, bum, and mouth.

3. Mom (or Dad) wears a bracelet with a sensor. Anytime the baby cries the parent has 2 minutes to get to the baby and connect his/her sensor with the baby's. The teacher later gets a printout of how well the parent did. This is how they are graded.

4. Once the baby starts crying and the parent has touched the sensor, the student has to figure out why the baby is crying. There are diapers with sensors in them that must touch the baby's bottom sensor. It knows which diaper the baby had on and so keeps crying if you try to put the diaper on that is "dirty".

5. It might be hungry. The bottle has a sensor too. It must line up with the baby's mouth sensor or he'll start crying again. It makes drinking noises while drinking, and the feeding can last for 15-20 minutes!

6. Sometimes he needs to be burped. This involves patting him. He knows if he's not being patted.

7. Sometimes he just coos, which is sort of cute.

8. The teacher has the babies "shut off" from 7am-8am and from 3pm-4pm. This is the prime time for most of these kids to be on the school bus, so the teacher takes pity on the poor bus drivers. She will also watch the babies for the kids while they are in PE and at lunch so the babies don't have to go outside in bad weather. With these few exceptions, the kids have the babies for 24 hours. Parents, siblings, friends can't take care of your baby because they don't have the 2 minute sensor. It is banded to the parent's arm, and can only be taken off by cutting it off. If anyone other than the teacher cuts the sensor off, the student loses points.

9. The student chooses from 3 settings for the baby--easy, medium, and hard. The princess chose easy.

10. Babies will wake up at least once/night. Jagger woke the princess up at about 1am to be fed, changed, and burped, but she did say it was only about a 5 minute feeding that time.

11. When the baby is returned, the teacher does a read-out to see how the parent did, and their grade is based on that. The princess hasn't seen her printout yet. It is very cool though. Kids often fail this assignment because they shake the baby (or a friend does), or drop them. Jagger almost fell off the bleachers while in his car seat in the gym while in the princess' care. She would have failed if she hadn't caught him.

What the princess learned:

1. It's no fun to take care of a baby when all you do is the hard stuff with no reward of smiling and being able to interact with him.

2. "Real babies don't take 20 minutes to eat." Yeah, they do!!!! We set her straight on that one.

3. My personal favorite--"Real babies don't poop twice in one hour." Yeah, they do--sometimes 4 times in one hour, and often right after you put the clean (expensive) new diaper on, and if often leaks out of their diaper so you have to bathe them and put clean clothes on...better do another load of laundry.

It was a good lesson for her. It's a very cool baby! I hope it deters many of these kids. And I pity the kids who chose the medium or hard setting! The princess could not wait for 7am yesterday when she knew he would be turned off. She was giving him back at 8am. When he cooed in the car on the way to school she yelled, "You're NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON!" Sleep deprivation--it ain't pretty!

Jagger and all his paraphernalia!

Awwwwe.

Welcome Home Mike

This is my friend, Becky's husband, Mike, coming home after being deployed on the USS Reagan for 7 months. Among their other duties, they were sent to Japan earlier this year to help after the earth quake. His main job is to train Navy pilots. We are so grateful to him and other men and women for their sacrifices. And how about the photo of little Thomas saluting his daddy? So awesome. Thanks to Becky for letting me share!

Grandma Retires!

After 40 years at the same job (bus driver extraordinaire), Grandma retired. The princess, king, and both of Grandma's daughters came to attend her retirement party!

There was cake.

There was food.

And there were presents!

Fun!

One last school bus shot.

It was also garage sale weekend, as we finished emptying out Grandma's house.

There was some rain early, but it cleared up, and I was able to take this nice shot in the backyard before Lynelle headed home.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday!

You are simply the best,

and we love you!

Sunday

Since it Sunday--and we're doing laundry, I thought I'd post this. I stole it from Karen S.. Thanks, Karen!

Royal Wedding

I meant to post this photo much earlier...like in May...but there were better posts out there. Now it seems a little late, but I'm going to post it anyway, if for no other reason than to get it off my desktop! It's still kind of funny.

Wrong name!

Someone just called me Mrs. Legacy. :) Love it.

Twins

The prince and Kooter were first in line for some new cd that came with a free t-shirt. Here they are, posing at Best Buy after the successful purchase. They actually tried to buy the cd the day before but were shut down because they aren't 18. The cd has explicit lyrics. Can someone explain to me why you have to be 17 to go to an R rated movie but 18 to buy these types of albums???? It all makes no sense to me! On this day Kooter's mom went with them and took the photo.

Leapmeister

Last night, at ballet as I was sitting in the waiting area, I heard, "thud, thud, thud--pause--BOOM."

"You'd better do it again. I didn't get it."

Thud, thud, thud--pause--BOOM

"One more time."

Thud, thud, thud--pause--BOOM

"Okay! I got it!"

The photo was "it".

Little ballerinas make a lot of noise, but the flight in air is soundless. :)

And for those of you who are surprised Betty would allow that to go on in her ballet class, rest assured, this was taken after class was over!

September 11

This photo of metropolitan New York City was taken by an Expedition Three crew member onboard the International Space Station on Sept. 11, 2001. A smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area where the World Trade Center was destroyed. The orbital outpost was flying at an altitude of about 250 miles.

I started to write out my memories of 9-11 with the intention of posting them here, but I changed my mind. The prince was 7 and in 2nd grade. The princess was almost 5 and in preschool. The king was working in Boise, ID and became stranded there for several days. It was sad, scary, and lonely. Our kids do not remember it. We should never forget, but today I'm not willing to relive it.

Happy Birthday Broski!

Happy Birthday Blake!

Enjoy a little fun in the sun!

We love you.

Happy Birthday Tyson!

18!!!!

Where has the time gone?

Have a great year.

We love you!

1984ish

Stand back, ladies!

He's all MINE!

Green Eggs, No Ham

Are you tired of hearing about the neighbors' chickens yet? Tonight Conner brought over the green egg. He assured us they are as delicious as the brown ones. He thought I was hilarious quoting Dr. Seuss but said the yolks aren't green. I guess we'll see. Try not to be too jealous of our new-found free egg resources!

Florida Trip

I arrived Tuesday afternoon. Jeanette took me to a nice restaurant on the beach where we dined and watched the sun set. What follows is a chronicle of all my fun. I spared you some of the best stories because, well, Jeanette would have made nasty comments on here. I had to protect myself!

Wednesday Morning--Beach

It was beautiful and warm, but not too hot.

The waves were nice to me.

Scaring the birds is fun.

Florida Wednesday Night--The Concert!

Got to see Matt Nathanson, Maroon 5, and Train--LIVE!!! It was a GREAT show, and I loved every minute of it, except for the obnoxious couple in front of us...and that's all I can say about that in blog format, but feel free to ask me about it.

Matt Nathanson

Maroon 5

Train

Pat Monahan--lead singer of Train.

He walked right by us!

Thursday--Lunch

We spent some time in the morning on the beach, and I'd be lying if I didn't say some mean waves knocked me on my butt--more than once. But lunch made up for it. You can't tell because I drained it, but that's the best margarita in the area, according to those in the know.

Florida Thursday Night

Jeanette had to work a shift at the putt-putt. I amused myself by making a fish aquarium with plastic fish, getting J to pose with her...GOLF balls, and helping little girls cheat at mini-golf. All in all, a good night. Plus the weather was GREAT!

Florida Friday Morning--Boat Trip

Friday morning we went on a boat tour of the Sarasota area before it got too warm. (Not sure why this is underlined or blue. Weird blogger, weird.)

Marina for rich people.

Beautiful homes in distance for rich people.

Birds to poop on the rich people.
Hee hee.

Florida Friday Night

Sign a dollar--your own, of course--and tape it on the wall. "Montana is in da house!"

Hello, Carbolicious goodness!

I refused to post the one of Jeanette giving me "the finger" behind my head!

It was a GREAT trip! Hope to do it again soon!