Summer Fun!!

Well, the girls have been spending Wednesday nights this summer with their mimi. They love their mimi time so much. Tbey went swimming, but sadly I have no pictures. They are participating in my mom's church summer program that they do. Emily is all about this acting stuff lately. I think that is great. She does a really great job. She will be trying out for one of the main characters next Wednesday. If you think about it pray that she will do her best job. They were suppose to have a fun night out tonight at a bouncing place, but we had the day wrong, and that is next Thursday night. I was going to take lots of pictures, but that will have to wait till next week. I will try to post (WITH PICTURES =)) tomorrow. Bye....

More Pics!!!

I guess a certain someone was not happy that I did not put more pictures on my blog. =) So here are a few more from our day on Sunday.

The beautiful view from atop the state capital. My brother actually made fun of me when I said that it was pretty. So maybe it's not beautiful, but it is at least a nice view.

Kali hates to have sun anywhere near her eyes. She

would not, even when offered bribes, take her hands off of her face. Yes, I use bribes at times.

My Summer Thus Far...

I am now able to say that I am almost recovered from my wonderful surgery. I would have to say that this surgery recovery period was not fun. However, my doctor informed me that my tonsils were some of the bigger ones that he has seen. And, he proceeded to tell me that I was probably in a heck of alot (his word, not mine.) of pain. What I wanted to tell him after that, was that I might have chosen an even more colorful word than that one, but I refrained. I just said you don't even know. During this recovery, I have felt more pain, than I had ever felt. I know that more painful things are out there, but I sure haven't experienced them. It was not fun. I can however, see the light at the end of the tunnel. While I am still waking up with a pretty bad sore throat, it does ease up during the day. He said it would take 6-8 weeks for complete recovery. I am now also able to say that I am glad I had it done. Never thought I would say that.

On Sunday, I was able to go to church, and afterward we went to the state capital. We took lots of family pictures. The girls have never been to the top before, so we went up there as well. Emily was unsure, but we made her do it. I thinked she enjoyed it even though she pretended to not like it. Kali is doing very well. She even read a little book the other day. She did have a little help, but I was amazed at well she did on her own. Yes, I am her mother, however, I am a teacher as well. She is one smart little girl. Let's just hope her behavior will be good. Well, I probably have no readers anymore, because of my lack of blogging. That is fine. I will do this for me then. However, if you are reading this, please comment, and let me know. Thanks....... Bye.....

I need to know how to bottle this up....

Chris called me last night and told me to go look at Kali. This is what I saw. I know that this next line is going to sound crazy, but I absolutely love, with a capital L, watching her suck her thumb. From birth (and I mean day 1) to about 3 and a half, she was a avid thumb sucker. She loved her thumb. I mean all day every day. At 3 and a half, she developed a sore that had some kind of staph in it on her thumb. She had to go to the doctor, and the doctor used a needle to drain it. The doctor said that she would never suck her thumb again. I laughed and was like okay. Very doubtful, but okay. Well no kidding, but I mean no more thumb. However, I have discovered that at night while she is sleeping she still puts her little thumb in her mouth. I mean come on people she is my baby. I want to keep her that way forever. Just to be clear though, this is not something that I encourage, but it is something I love. She is so precious!!!

This was Emily's first special practice for her program. She has had many large group rehearsals, but this was the first small group practice. I told her I wanted to take her picture, and she was like WHY????? What, my daughter does not want her picture taken. I thought this day would never come. I guess she is too cool for pictures. I mean none of her friends were around, but I still got a cute shot.

So I need to know how to bottle this up to keep forever. If you have any ideas let me know. Bye....

YIKES!!!!!

Well, yesterday I went to the ENT. I have been having tremendous amounts of problems with my tonsils. So, after much urging ( Or Forcing, but urging sounds much nicer) from my husband, I decided to go to the ENT. He came in and immediately said, "Oh this is for you this time"? Yes , yes, I cannot let Emily have all the fun. I need attention too. Well, that is not exactly what I said, but you get the idea. He felt my glands and immediately told me that I have mono. WHAT?!?! He gave me alot of reasons that led me to trust what he was saying. They were all in medical terms, so I could not even begin to list them here. He furthur told me that my tonsils, definitely need to come out. In fact, he called my tonsils Motel Sixes, in the fact they were housing bacteria. (Not sure if sixes is a word=)) That was different. He said they were definitely larger than most and even showed me a picture of what mine look like compared to normal tonsils. Definitely larger. Well at least mono would explain why I am constantly tired and have no energy. I have been thinking I was just the laziest person on the planet. Well, my surgery is scheduled for May 27. I get about 4 days of summer vacation and then bam!!!! Out come those tonsils. He told my girls they were going to have to wait on me hand and foot. They just smiled and laughed like they always do when someone talks to them. Then in a very serious, firm voice he said he was serious and that mommy was going to be very ill!! Hence the title of this post. YIKES!!! VERY ILL!! That's a little too scary for me. Thanks doc for making me feel better about this. Oh well, it will hopefully be worth it all. Well sorry if this bored you!! Bye.....

Happy Easter!!

It was always a tradition in my house, when I grew up, to get a new dress for Easter. I have continued that with my girls. I love dressing them up on Easter morning. I am not sure how much longer that they will enjoy this, so I will do it while I can. They looked so cute, and they got lots of compliments at church.

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love the Easter story. I love hearing it and telling it. I especially love telling it to children. Being that I am a teacher, I get to tell this story alot. My students are always amazed at the price that Jesus paid for them on the cross. I love to see it through their eyes. They really seem to grasp it, even at their young age. Even though they may be children, I love to see them realize how much Jesus really loves them.

We had a great Easter in our household. Chris made a beef tenderloin. It was excellent!! If I have not mentioned it before, I love having a husband who cooks!!! I am not ashamed to say that he is a much better cook than I am. We really enjoyed our day together. Here are a few pictures of the girls. Bye....

My Girls!!!

I was so proud of my girls this week. Kali had a performance at our church. She got up and sang her little heart out. She looked so sweet up there. When she was done she immediately asked me if I saw her. I said yes that I did. I mean she was looking at me the whole time, and so she knew that I saw her. But she needed that recognition from me that I was looking. She did so good. On Monday, Emily had a school concert. She also received the award for Christian character in second grade. To me, this award far exceeds all else. Just a while back, I had let Emily know that it doesn't matter what is on the outside, but rather what is on the inside. I told her that it was more important to be beautiful inside rather than have outward beauty. I was truly pleased that her teacher awarded her this award, and I pray that Emily will always strive to be a truly beautiful Christian woman. However, all that being said, I think she is pretty beautiful outwardly as well. But I am her mom. Here is a picture of her in her dress. She would not smile too much because her friends were watching.

Should I... Shouldn't I ...

Sometimes it is so hard to know whether or not to keep your child home from school. Well, only if they don't have a high fever. Then it's easy. Well, last night Kali threw up one time. A LOT!! But only once. I immediately called my boss and told him that I would not be there. Well, then the rest of the night, and throughout the night she was fine. When I got her up, she said her stomach hurt, but she still had no fever. Hence my dilemma. Should she go or stay. Well, after much deliberations, I opted with the staying at home option. Guess What??? I made the right choice. At about 9:30, she had started with fever. Right now she has Tylenol in her, so she feels okay, but I am glad I kept her home. Now, it was also the right decision for me. I am also feeling really lousy, and couldn't have been much of a teacher to my first graders. Oh well , enough complaining. Hope I didn't bore you to much. Bye....

P.S. This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I hate doing a post without a picture, and none of us look good enough to take a picture today.

I LOVE FIRST GRADERS!!

I am a teacher, and really enjoy teaching the first grade. I have done kindergarten, first, and second. But first grade, by far, is my very favorite. They are not so little, that they can't do anything, but they are little enough so that they still love the small things.
This week in my class of 19, we had a teddy bear slumber party. They all brought stuffed animals to school. They got to take them everywhere on Thursday, and then Thursday night the bears stayed at school. When the kids got to school Friday morning, they were shocked to see that the "bears" had, had a major party the night before. There were juice boxes, chip bags, cookie bags, toys, a pizza box, and many other things thrown around the room. Here comes the best part, all nineteen students just knew that their bears had done this. It was great to see their expressions, and to feel their excitement.

That is why I love first graders. They still are young enough to appreciate the small things. Here are a couple of pictures of the room before the kids cleaned it up. Yes, of course they cleaned it up because it was their bears that made the mess. Just like a mom cleans up after them, I told them. They loved even the clean up event. =)

Friends for Now...

Sometimes my girls get along great!! However, these times, seem at times, to be few and far between. So whenever it happens I hope to have my camera nearby. On this particular night, Kali wanted to do the tango. I am not sure why, but Emily was more than happy to oblige. When these times happen, Chris and I are very happy people. Bye....

Long Time, No Blog!!

Well, I am not even going to say that I have been too busy to blog. I just have been too lazy, to try and come up with something to write about. I am not as talented with that, as someone else I know. =) I hope that my family, that lives out of state, has not stopped checking the blog altogether.

I had Emily's teacher take a couple of pictures of her in her classroom. The second graders have some hermit crabs as their class pets. Emily as taken it to be her personal responsibility to be the sole cleaner of their habitat. I think this is hilarious!!! Especially if you saw the pictures of her messy room. However, it is her primary concern to make sure that those hermit crabs have the cleanest habitat around.

Kali is doing very well in school. She is so excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. I cannot believe that she will actually be in real school. She already knows the lady who will be her teacher and is so excited.

Well hopefully I will post again soon, but no promises. Bye.....

Family Fun Day!!

It is not often that Chris and I get a day off together. In fact, it only happens on Sundays, and since that is church, we are usually pretty busy. So today, we both had off. We started the day with breakfast at Coffee Call. Yummy!!!! The girls and I love this. I love their cafe au lait. I could drink that everyday. Then we decided to go to the LSU lake and walk a little. Oh, did I say a little, what I meant was 3 1/2 miles. Even the girls, well Chris carried Kali some, but not much. Emily did almost the whole thing walking, except for one very short stretch. My muscles will be sore tomorrow. It was a beautiful day however, so that helped. Plus, my wonderful husband, is in the kitchen right now preparing us a wonderful meal of stirfry, and fried rice. I absolutely love having a husband who can cook. I am also not at all embarrassed to say that he can cook much better than me. Well that is about it. I loved getting to spend the whole day with my family. Bye....

New Bedrooms!!!

I tried to post the after pictures yesterday, but blogger was not being kind to me. However, they can have clean bedrooms. Believe it or not, those are the same rooms. I was shocked. Emily has decided she likes her room a lot better clean. We'll see how long that last. I was very happy with the results. They both made their beds this morning, and were very proud of themselves. I will post some pictures of our walk that we took this morning at the LSU Lake, later today. Bye...

Who Lives in These Rooms????

Can you believe that these bedrooms belong to my two little girls?? Well, they do. Today we will be cleaning these bedrooms, and hopefully I will have the cleaner pictures soon. I told you that I needed to do housework and I was not kidding. Now if you are expecting to see pictures of any other area in our house, think again. That, my friends, will not be happening. Hope to post some cleaner pictures later. Bye!

SORRY!!

I am sorry that it has been so long. Emily is doing really well. Today was her first day back to school. She did really well, with only a little pain. She actually is probably feeling a little better than me. I have been having a lot of sore throats lately. Oh well, why don't I go ahead and have my tosils removed. I will try something else first.
Next week, we get two days off. I, along with a few other teachers I think, am very excited. I can hopefully get some housework done. I love housework about as much as another teacher friend of mine, who will remain nameless. :):):) I really do need to do a lot of cleaning and laundry.
My camera battery needs to be charged so we will go pictureless. (Did I just create a word??) I will try to post pictures tomorrow, but my track record for blogging, means that it will probably be next week. No, really I will try to be sooner. Bye

Surgery Day

I bet you didn't know that my girls could be cute even before a surgery. Well here is proof. Now after the surgery, that is a different story. Kali did great before her surgery. From the time she woke up she was in the best mood. Thank God!! In fact, when the nurse was walking her back, I didn't think she was going to even say good bye to me. She was more than happy to go with them. So much in fact, that they told us that while she was breathing the gas she was just laughing and laughing. However, that quickly changed. When she got back to us she was none too happy. She wasn't crying, but she was mad. If looks could kill, Chris and I would be goners. I did not know that my sweet, cute little girl could give such mean looks. And this was only because I ask her if she wanted a drink. You should have seen when we tried to put her shirt back on. YIKES!!!=) I am not exaggerating. I would have loved to take a picture of this, but it was way to scary for the average person to view.=) Emily, on the other hand, was not happy when they took her. However, her tears were those really sad quiet ones. Her surgery went well. The doctor said her tonsils were very large. She was in a lot of pain when she came back to us. It was hard to convince her to take her medicine. Thank the Lord for mimi's. She threw up a couple of times. Since then we have been able to keep her pain under control. For the first two days, she has to take the pain medicine around the clock, but after that it is only when needed. She is pretty comfortable right now. Thank you so much for all your prayers.

Build a Bears and Audition Results

Well, here are the girls beautiful animals. They really seem to like them a lot. One bit of exciting news!!! Emily got the part she wanted in the musical. It was the solo part that she tried out for. She was so excited and we are so excited for her. I have much to do before their fun times on Wednesday. And yet, I am sitting at the computer typing out a blog. Oh Well!!! At least I am enjoying myself.

Being a Mom

I love being a mom. It really is a wonderful and sometimes crazy adventure. Just tonight, me and my girls went to the mall. Because they are both going to the hospital on Wednesday, I wanted to do something special for them. I got them each a cookie and then we headed to the Build a Bear store. They had no idea that they were each going to get one tonight. When they found out they were so excited. They were both acting like I was the greatest mom ever. If only moments like these could last forever. Oh well, it is times like these that make being a mom wonderful. I will post pictures of them and their bears tomorrow.

Fun Times!

Well, we just found out today that not only Emily will be getting her tonsils out next week, but on the same day, Kali will be getting her ear tubes out. YEA!!!!! Two kids with anesthesia on the same day. Can I get any luckier?? Well, I guess it's better than having to miss more work. Oh, I just realized something. I use way, way, way to many exclamation points!!!!!!! Sorry, about that. I guess I just get a little carried away. Oh well. Bye for now!!! OOPS I DID IT AGAIN.

Earthworm Fun!!!!

Emily loves bugs about as much as I do. I thought this picture was so funny. Thanks to her teacher for allowing me to use it on my blog. They are studying earthworms in science. Her face says it all. She is not impressed!!! Oh well, at least I don't ever have to worry about her bringing them in my house.=)

Great Job!!!!!

The title of this post says it all. Emily did a great job!!!! Whether she gets the part or not, I hope she knows we are very proud of her. It takes a lot of nerve to do what she did. This will really help her the next time she tries to do something like this. Kali really wanted me to put a picture on here of her as well. That was really easy to do since she is soooo cute!!!!!!

Audition Update!!!!!

Well, last night about 8:00 I got a call from our children's choir director at our church. She wanted to let me know that they would like to do a call back for Emily on Monday night. This is for the solo and small speaking role that she really wants. I was so excited and so was Emily. So we will see how it goes on Monday.

Exciting Saturday!!!!!!

Emily had auditions today for our church's children's musical. She looked very cute, and was only a little nervous. She is trying out for a solo part, and a couple of small speaking parts. I think she did awesome of course. I am her mother though. =) When we find out which parts that she gets I will post them.

Isn't she just the cutest dog ever??? Chris just loves her so much. =)

Ohio Christmas Trip

I know Christmas was over a month ago, but here are some pictures. We had an excellent time with Grammy, Uncle Brian, Aunt Molly, Will, Nate, and even Jake.=)=) We can't wait to visit again.

Pictures are coming!!!!!!!

I have just started this blogging. I hope that it works out better than my last try. I will be adding pictures very soon!!!!!! Hopefully this blog will help our Ohio family and our Vermont family to keep up with what our children are up to.

Hopefully, this will be the start of something good.