Staying after school

I'm probably one of the only bloggers out there who is not posting about Halloween today, but this is what's on my mind, so this is what it's about today!

If you ever stayed after school with me on a Thursday, chances are you were here for cheerleading practice. Yesterday was most likely our last practice this year. The regular season is over and we are starting playoff games this weekend. Tomorrow we play against a team who killed us, 30-something to 0 when we played them before, so I'm not planning on us winning this time, either.

Yesterday's practice was a LITTLE crazy, to say the least. Out of 23 girls, I had 9 show up for the majority of the time. 4th and 2nd grade were on field trips, and the 6th graders rolled in about 3:40 from the middle school bus. So from 2:45 to 3:30, those 9 wrote on my white board, read cheer magazines, and played. They were crazy wound up from Crazy Hat day of Red Ribbon week and classroom Halloween parties. Here they are with S crowning each one Queen of whatever they wanted to be Queen of...

Apparently, S already thinks she is Queen of the Nile...
Then, we headed down to the gym to work on our half time cheer for Sat.'s game.

We also worked on our stunts, but trying to connect a pyramid with only 9 girls is a little tough.

Yes, that's my BigGirl on top of the elevator in her princess costume!

I was a little sad to say goodbye to my "seniors" after practice. These are my oldest girls who will be trying out at the middle school in a few months. They are in charge if I can't be there and really are super leaders for the younger ones. You can tell they were having fun with the crazy hat day...

D, on the far left, was super shy before she started cheering with me 3 years ago. Now she is obviously as far from shy as it gets and loves being in front of the crowd. M, in the middle, has cheered 2 years and is my sophisticated diva. She informed me on day 1 of practice that she only came back to cheer again this year because it was fun and she wanted to see the football players. She does not plan to try out for middle school cheer because it might be too much like work! M, on the far right, has also cheered 2 years and wowed everyone on her first day last year with her super tight arm motions and how she could pop right up into a stunt without ever cheering before. She is also the best booty shaker!

Second from the left and second from the right are C and C (same name, different spelling). These are my favorites, although I'm not supposed to have favorites. Both of them have cheered with me for 5 years and are really special to me. C on the left is silly, funny, loud, and the only other red head besides me. She once played the role of me in a school play! She has been so much fun to cheer with. C on the right is my most motivated cheerleader. She has been taking stunting and tumbling classes for over a year now and is the sweetest thing. She and I always make sure to watch the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Making the Team reality show and compare notes on who gets kicked off. She cried at the end of practice yesterday. I will probably miss her the most. I love these girls to pieces!

And here is what BigGirl did back in my classroom after practice...

Yep, that's a bubble map of US presidents. I did tell her some of the names, but not all. I was not really paying attention to what she was doing, so when I turned around and saw this I was pretty impressed! Here's a close up...

That's called inventive spelling, folks! Pretty good for 1st grade!

Halloween pics and post tomorrow, I promise!!

It is October 28

It is October 28. Our contract with our realtor runs out today. Our house has been on the market for exactly 6 months and we have probably only had about that many showings. We had 2 open houses that we asked the realtor to arrange. The last one was in August and she has not mentioned having another one. The questions we are pondering at this point: Change realtors? Take it off the market until spring?

It is October 28. This morning as I was opening doors for the car riders at school I wore a scarf, my warmest playground-ready coat, gloves, and my hood was up because of the wind. It was 31 degrees!! I live in North Carolina! It is October 28, not January!!

Its Sunday night

And I'm sitting here in my cozy pants with some chardonnay, so it's time for a post! Watch out, this one might be a big one!

I never did post about last weekend's wedding. We had a LARGE time, too crazy for my current state of being. Bars on Friday night after the rehearsal dinner, clubbing on Saturday night after the wedding. I'm too old for that crap. There was champagne before the wedding, wine during cocktail hour and dinner, shots at the club, and beer later. Sunday was NOT a good day. Here's some pics...

OK, Blogger is doing some weird things with my pictures, so you'll have to see them above! There's the hotel- very modern and clean (YAY), us girls with the groom (see the evidence of the drinks in my half closed eyes?), and the group of us (B's fraternity brothers and wives) before the damage.

This Wednesday, B went with BigGirl on her first grade field trip to the local Natural Science Center. They have a zoo area and all kinds of animal exhibits that went along with their current Science unit on animals. Lucky for B, BigG's teacher put him in charge of D, the craziest little boy in the class. He definitely needed a daddy figure for the day. B said that at lunch, D cut a flip over a railing and landed on his head on the concrete sidewalk. He cried his eyes out but never bled. B said he was watching him all afternoon for blood coming from the ears or throwing up because he was sure there had to be some head trauma. Somehow, he was fine. He also said that D was much quieter after that. When he hit the sidewalk, he broke the rock keychain he had bought at the gift shop so Daddy B took him back and bought him a new one. How sweet!

BabyGirl had to put in her humor on the trip. Before B dropped her off that morning she said, "Play with the monkeys, Daddy!" When they got home that afternoon, she asked him if he saw a purple cat, blue horse, white dog, or black sheep at the zoo. Guess we've read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See a few times too many...

Well, its almost time for my guilty pleasures Desparate Housewives, the Girls Next Door, and Kimora. Have a great week! I promise not to be such a slacker blogger this week.

Here's what I did yesterday...

1. Overslept by almost an hour (whoops).

2. Took BigGirl to the pediatrician with a croupy, wheezy cough and had inhaler prescription refilled.

3. Took 2 items back to Tar-gay, picked up a Market Pantry PB&J for BigG and a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte for me.

4. Back to school - taught 2nd grade and 4th grade.

5. Teacher meeting about progress monitoring (zzzzzz....)

6. Parent/teacher conference with BigG's teacher- the BEST conference I have ever had as a parent. Everything she said was positive and my girl is doing awesome things in first grade. I'm SO proud of her!!!

7. Picked up BabyGirl from the sitter and new inhaler from CVS.

8. Made omelets for dinner and egg salad for lunches.

9. Ran dishwasher and a load of clothes.

10. 2 baths, 2 books, 2 girls in the bed.

11. Facebooked awhile and went to bed myself!!!

Who says moms don't do it all???

Busy= sustaining much activity

At least that's what answers.com calls it. This weekend is the first of the two weddings that correspond with the two bachelor weekends B went on last month. This wedding is for K, who was one of B's best friends in college. They were big brother/little brother in their fraternity and roommates for 2 years. My first impression of him was not a good one- he was screaming at a ball game on tv and I hate that! We ended up being really good friends and I remember many nights of me, B, and K going out to dinner and parties together. He dated one of my college roommates for about a year, so there were lots of double dates too.

The wedding will be here. Last week I read in Southern Living that this is the greenest hotel in America right now. It's only about 30 minutes from our house, but we decided to go ahead and stay at the hotel both nights since most everyone else attending is from out of town and we don't want to miss the fun stuff! K's fiance is a buyer for a major department store so it should all be very chic! Tonight the rehearsal dinner will be here so I'll have to do some elliptical-ing next week to work it all off!

I'll still have to come home tomorrow morning for the football game. We also rescheduled the huge family photo shoot for Sunday afternoon after cheer pictures. Busy, busy!! What are your plans for the weekend?

As promised

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

Homecoming at the high school...

BigGirl's stunt group... she LOVES flying...

Sometimes its hard to be mom and coach at the same time but it sure is fun...

The girls slumber partying with cutie pie R...

I'm really not a slacker...

I've just got a lot going on!! I think about posting a lot more than I do the posting... I want to do better, really I do.

You know you live in small town North Carolina when a high school football game is your idea of Friday night fun! It was homecoming for the high school that my students feed into and where the girls will probably end up attending. Note that this is a rival school of where B and I went. Several of my former students were on homecoming court (including Kylie from 9/11), so we went to give support. BigG's friend C and his little sister H were also the crown bearers, so we had to see that! It was too cute.

After BigG's football game Saturday morning (great picture coming soon) we went to Raleigh to help give a cookout/shower for a great childhood friend who is FINALLY getting married. He is the one we thought would never do it. Or he might be 40 by the time he found the perfect girl. Yes, he is a little bit picky. Maybe I should call him particular, but I guess that is a positive quality b/c he has finally found a great wife to be. We had to celebrate!

The fam and I stayed with theRups and had a great time! Camping out on the playroom floor with R's GIANT fish pillows was the highlight for the girls- I'll attach the picture later. On the way home Sunday we stopped at SuperTarget (AKA heaven) and picked up a GPS for the car. Supposedly, you just hook it up and go. For us, notsomuch. It could not find a satellite so it had no idea where our current location was. Not gonna be able to get us to the house 2 hours away if you don't know where the current location is! We went back to our local Tar-gay last night and exchanged it for a smarter system that does know where we are and works like a charm! I can't wait to tell it to find a Starbucks!

We also stopped off in Durham to say hi to my "little" (read 10 years younger but 4 inches taller) cousin E. She was my maid of honor and might as well be my little sister. She graduated in June from Wake Forest and is now working for the Durham convention and visitor's bureau. She loves her important new job and her cute batchelorette pad!

Yesterday was B's dad's birthday, so we took him here for dinner. Food was good, but not worth the $75 bill for my family of 4. Merlot was the best part in my opinion!

This week we have meetings today in the afternoon and evening for me along with another family birthday, after school meeting and gymnastics tomorrow, BigG dr. appointment Thursday after school, and a wedding weekend Friday and Saturday. More on that excitement later!

A little late

For some reason, I have had 9/11 on the brain this week. Maybe it was the debates the other night?

In any case, I remember where I was when I heard the news very well. I was teaching 5th grade Reading when the principal walked in and told us what had happened. Talk about a teachable moment. We got out the globe, talked about terrorism ( a little ) and tried not to speculate too much. What I remember most is the looks on the children's faces. They were 10, so they were old enough to be afraid, but not mature enough to understand. A teacher friend's daughter, Kylie was sitting in the middle seat, front row, and she told me a few weeks ago that she always thinks of the LOOK she and I exchanged when she remembers 9/11. I totally agree with her, it's something I will never forget.

Where were you?

The Fab Lane

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I watch Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane on a sometimes-regular basis. Some of the things she says really crack me up. I regularly use her "bring in the next child" line when one of mine is being difficult. But she is way too over the top for real world people like me. What I get out of watching it? The wish for an entourage like hers. I could really deal with having a chef, hair person, makeup person, full time cleaning staff at the house, and an assistant to plan every detail of my child's birthday party in a week's time. Apparently she works really hard at her multiple jobs, but don't we all? I don't want my kids not to understand the difference between wants and needs, but I wouldn't mind having that bedroom-size closet, either. What is your celebrity wish?

My first and 16 years of B

I saw this meme on another blog and thought it would be appropriate to post since my BigGirl is growing into such a fabulous little lady...

Me and My First Baby

1. Were you married at the time? Yes, we had been married for a little over 2 years.

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? Excited, Scared, Nervous, Happy all in one

3. How old were you? She was born 2 days before my 26th birthday.

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? We had been trying for about 3 months and our good friends/neighbors at the time were also trying. Heather (neighbor) bought herself a package of 2 tests and gave me the extra one. Hers was positive, mine looked negative. We went to the dr. and they said yes, we were pregnant.

5. Who did you tell first? Same neighbors and other friends- told our parents the next day (in person)

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes

7. Due date: July 23

8. Did you deliver early or late? 3 weeks early

9. Did you have morning sickness? Just a little from about 8-12 weeks. I felt worst when my stomach was empty.

10. What did you crave? CHEESE. Also, any potato foods and Arby's roast beef & curly fries.

11. Who irritated you the most? There was one particularly difficult (read: psycho) parent in my class that year. She did not care if I was pregnant or not. Her focus in life was to give me a hard time and tell me daily what horrible children I had in my class (not hers), when I really had a fantastic group that year.

12. What was your first child’s sex? Female

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 35

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I wouldn't call major itching for a few weeks in January a complication, just an annoyance.

15. Where did you give birth? Women's Hospital of Greensboro, NC

16. How many hours were you in labor? 11- water broke at 8:00am, delivery at 7:00pm.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Ben

18. Who watched? B was the only one allowed in the room.

19. Was it vaginal or c-section? Emergency c-section. Her heart rate dropped from around 150 to 60 after the epidural, came back up, and dropped again to 33 after the pitocin a couple hours later. I will never forget the sound of that 33 heart rate on the monitor. Talk about scary. On the way to the OR the nurse pushing the bed kept telling me to get my hands inside, but I was holding onto the rails for dear life! We knocked over a trash can!

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Epidural- had to be turned up when we got to OR (heart rate had stabilized by then). I kept feeling the test pricks and they kept turning it up. I was so numb it took almost 4 hours in recovery (1-2 is supposed to be average) before I could move the legs.

21. How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs, 10 oz

22. What did you name him/her? Sydney Taylor. We thought of Sydney while watching the 2000 Sydney olympics- just loved the name and did not know any other Sydney's at the time. Taylor was after B's grandpa who was battling cancer when she was born. He passed away 2 months later.

23. How old is your first born today? 6 years, 3 months, going on 16!


Different topic- today is the 16th anniversary of my first date with B. That means I have been attached to this man in one way or another for exactly half of my life! Apparently, he is a keeper. Our life has some type of drama every day, but I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else!

He is going to Raleigh for bachelor weekend #2. He'll be drinking, tailgating, going to the NC State game, and eating at really good restaurants. The girls and I will be doing cheerleading pictures and game in the morning, shopping (!!) in the afternoon, and movie night later. Wonder who will have the most fun?

Personality dis-order

This is the unit that I am finishing up with my 4th and 5th graders. They had to take several surveys to figure out their learning style and personality style and then devise a way to present themselves to the group. It involved them learning something about themselves and tons of big vocabulary words (go me).

I did the surveys along with them and confirmed that I have a verbal/linguistic and visual/spatial learning style, meaning I learn best from reading and seeing information. My personality style turned out to be a combination of Adventurer and Peacemaker. This is not new information. I have bungee jumped twice and am a procrastinating, impulsive, go with the flow type, not a plan ahead person. I am not one of those teachers who writes down every little thing I will say or do in the plan book. I also don't enjoy arguing and would rather say what I think you want to hear sometimes than offend you. I guess this is the peacemaker in me.

Which brings me to my question: why do some people insist on telling the whole truth, nothing but the truth, when they know that it will pi** people off? I can't stand it when someone thinks they are better than me because they always tell it exactly like it is. I do not consider myself a "fake" person, you know where you stand with me, I just don't like confrontation. Wouldn't the world be a more peaceful place if we all followed the If You Can't Say Something Nice... rule? Wouldn't we all get along better if we were all peacemakers?