The most amazing assembly is coming to our school...

http://www.amazingheroart.com/NewFiles/Be_Somebody_Demo%20Reel.html



I begged the PTA to fund this, and they did, and he is coming to our school tomorrow! I am so excited! I can't wait to see his show, I can't wait to see the kids see his show! I watch the demo and I get choked up, yes I am an emotional person. It is just so cool to see his talent and creativity being put to such a good use. Kids being told they can use their own individual talents and skills to change the world, well they can't be told that enough.

Tagged by my friend E

Rules: Each tagged person must post 8 random facts or habits about themselves on their blog. At the end of the post, choose 8 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment telling them that they are tagged and to read your blog. Have fun!

Let's see how this goes, I feel like the people that read this blog probably already know quite a bit about me!

1. I need alone time on a regular basis. Call me selfish, call me what you want, I need it. Maybe it is because I am an only child and grew up having a lot of time to myself, I don't know, but if I don't have it on a regular basis I become very unhappy. I think that is why I was so excited about my kids all being in full time school this year. 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, I am alone if I choose, my day is mine and it makes me happy.

2. My dad died when my Mom was pregnant with me. That in itself blows me away. I can't imagine being 21, 6 months pregnant and widowed. She is a strong woman. Anyway I truly think not having a Dad shaped my attitudes toward men and all I can say is I am so glad my girls have a loving, involved Dad and that they will grow up with a healthier view than I had in my younger days.

3. I love giving gifts, love it so much. I would rather give a gift than get one. It makes me feel so giddy and if I may say so I am a pretty darn good gift giver. I remember what people comment on, what they like and I will find it. Once I searched forever for a certain type of Baking Soda tin because it was from my best friend's favorite childhood book. I eventuaully found it, on ebay of course.

4. I love experiences. I would rather go somewhere and do something than have a material object. To me the experience is what it is all about, and the memories that follow.

5. I always play this game with my family of "Guess what we were doing this very moment last year on this day?". I have an uncanny ability to remember things like dates, what we were wearing/eating/listening to, etc.

6. As techno as I like to be I still prefer to use a paper wall calendar and just my head for my schedule and appointments. I also refuse to enter any phone numbers in my cell phone or email addresses into my email address book. I usually remember those things in my head for people. If I don't, chances are I really don't need to call or email you very often.

7. I despise cell phones. I have one just because my work pays for it. I think that as a society we have become so rude, always placing the phone over the live people in front of us. I hate to break it to you but no one is so important that they must be available 24/7. Turn off the phone once in a while. Even at home I will let it go to voicemail if I am engaged in something at the time, especially if I am reading with the kids or doing something with them. A friend told me once that if you are doing something with your kids and the phone rings and you answer it the message you send is that whoever is on the phone is more important than they are. Now if you are awaiting a call of the utmost importance of course I suppose that is an exception but that is not what I am talking about.

8. Friends are almost as important to me as date nights with my husband (see earlier blog post). I have been blessed with the most amazing friends. Again perhaps it is due to being an only child and not having sisters but my female friends mean THE WORLD to me. I have some from childhood, college, church and adulthood. I have a new friend (well last 6 months) who is such a forever friend to me already. Our friendship, and that of our families, is just amazing and the most wonderful blessing. I love my friends and would do anything for them.

Okay, whoever wants to be tagged, consider yourself tagged!

Ugh Ugh Ugh

C was down for the count all day yesterday with a stomach bug. She actually slept most of the day, very unusual for her. Today she felt 100% better so thankfully it was just a 24 hour thing. The past few years someone in our house has a stomach bug on Christmas so I was kind of thinking maybe we'll get it out of the way early this year. Though how nice would it be if no one else got it?

Tonight at 11pm J got up out of bed with a stomach ache and had to use the bathroom. Here we go again...

Gingerbread House Making

Believe it or not we've never done this at home. My kids have done it at someone else's house before but we have never done it together at home. Inspired by my super creative and true definition of "The Fun Mom" J, we attempted this today. I saw hers yesterday and she gave me the shopping list for what I needed and the instruction.

Today we are in the middle of our first BIG snow. School was early released at 11:45am so what better time to make this. I did all the hot glueing of the graham crackers to the box and then we went to town. We drew slips of paper to see who got to do the front, back and sides. It was fun, they actually got along while doing it and the end result WAS cute (more on this later).


And of course leave it to my girl to make a Mickey Mouse type figure on the front.




Now I say it WAS cute because we came in after being out in the snow and the dog, yes the crazy dog, had LICKED off all the goodies off one whole side. GRRRRRRRRRR!

Expo TV

Expotv.com has been good to me this year. Real good to me. At first mention it sounds like a scam. I know, I thought so to. But it is not. It is legit, costs nothing, pays out big time and is really quite fun! I discovered it the last week of July this year and have "expo"'d all year. I have made just shy of $1800 in the last 5 months. Talk about fun money! Plus I won a $25 Amazon gift card from them as well as a T shirt and just this week I found out I was a winner in their Thanksgiving contest and I won a Webcam!

I turned my friend J on to it and we expo together. She won a webcam too. We felt pretty special. ;)

You can see some of my recent videos here if you want to.

And if you are looking for a little extra cash, do try it, it is completely legit!

20th Class Reunion

This was a few weeks ago. I was not too excited to be going come that afternoon but it was too late. I went and I really had a much better time than I thought I would. It was nice to see some people, some I had not seen since Graduation Day in 1987. Aside from maybe 2 people I recognized everyone and didn't feel anyone had really changed very much. It was really like walking into a time warp.

The day of I heard from a close friend that she was in fact going. She and I were very close friends all through Jr High and High School. She was in my wedding. We had not seen each other in 4 years or so and had sporadic contact. It was nice to see her and catch up. Here is a picture of my friend T who I see regularly and B who I had not. T actually married my high school sweetheart. During the slide show her husband and I had a few laughs as there were quite a few pictures of us together from Senior Year.

And M was there. It was really fun to see him again and we talked for a while. He makes me smile.

I do hope there is another reunion down the pike for us. It really was a nice to see how people were doing and catch up. Tender Years, our class song!

13 Years

I failed to blog last week about an important event. Well important for R and I. We had our 13th wedding anniversary last week. 13 years. A blink of an eye really.

I think anniversary's should be celebrated. BIG TIME. In today's day and age it is quite an accomplishment each year that you can pass together. We had a lovely dinner and toasted our own accomplishment.

We have had a great marriage, fantastic really. I can probably count on one hand, if I try really hard, the number of times we have had what one would call "a fight". We disagree, sure we do, but we don't "fight". We discuss, we talk and we even have periods of "the silent treatment" but sooner than later one asks the other for forgiveness and we move on. I know I am lucky, I am blessed. I am with a man who values me and places marriage in high regard.

For us I think the key ingredients are humor and time. We laugh alot, about everything. R is a very laid back guy and very funny. With humor infused in your life you can sort of get through things much easier I think. And time. We love to spend time together. We love our kids but we LOVE to spend time just the two of us. We like to do things together, no suprise that is why we got together in the first place, we enjoyed each others company. So to nurture that and keep it alive we spend a lot of time together. A wise friend told me years ago, put your date nights in pen on the calendar. Treat them like a dentist appointment, you can't just cancel or blow them off. And we don't. We have very regular date nights, it is like air for us, our relationship needs it. And a happier R and A translates to a happier Mom and Dad in my book.

So there you have it. 13 years of happy marriage, lots of laugh and time spent together. I'm looking forward to many more years.

This is the song we danced to at our wedding. Just doing a little reminiscing today!