Calling all Pioneer Women!

Hey everyone! First I can't believe it's been 4 months since I posted last - how embarrassing! I'm really gonna be mad when I get to scrapbook this period of time and I have no idea what happened :-( Honestly I thought I posted at Christmas. Anyway....My dear, dear friend Debbi Robertson (who I met while doing PartyLite) recently got the opportunity to go to a book signing and she's doing a GIVEAWAY of a signed copy of The Pioneer Woman's new book! Here's the greatest news - it's not only signed by PW, it's also signed by the Marlboro Man and all of her Punks!! You can read about Debbi's adventures here and also find out how to enter into her drawing.
Don't know who the Pioneer Woman is? You're missing out! She has an amazing love story, she's an excellent writer, an incredible cook, photographer, mom, and so much more! Check out her blog and become a follower. You won't be dissappointed.

I hope I win!!!

Moving right along...

That's how this year is going for me. Just moving right along. The first two months of school have been great. Tanner was A/B Honor Roll, and Grace was A Honor Roll for the first six weeks. Tanner was voted by his peers to represent his third grade class in Student Council. He is very excited and I'm so happy for him!

Baseball is almost over - only one more game. I'm ready. This season has been a real struggle. Tanner is a little behind the learning curve on the new rules this year and is not hitting the ball like he did last year. Mainly because he is not swinging the bat. Hard to hit it if you don't swing, huh? I think he's just nervous. This is the first season for kid pitch and let's face it. Some kids throw some wild pitches, and some batters get hit by balls. Tanner's always nervous about new things. I hope he gets over it by spring or it's going to be a miserable season then too.

Grace is doing very well. This has been a very frustrating season for us because her coaching situation is less than desireable, but her team is very young and she's one of the best players on the team. Unlike last season where "baseball is boring" because she spent the whole season in the outfield, now her main positions are short stop and second base. Baseball is definately fun for her now and she is excited to play.

In order to remedy the frustration on our part CJ will likely coach both teams in the spring. Say a little prayer for us because it will be CRAZY, but we will be happier being in charge :0)

We bought season passes to Six Flags this year and the kids are loving it!! We've been 5 times so far and intend to go back for Holiday in the park in December. Yesterday Morgan was standing behind me and just out of the blue he says "More Fun, More Flags, Six Flags!" hahahaha Tanner is starting to get a little braver - two weeks ago he finaly rode the Shock Wave (which has two upside down loops in it) I think uder peer pressure because he couldn't stand that Grace loves it so much. Whatever works, right? Morgan does really well too. He walks the whole time we're there and will ride anything he's tall enough for. It's been so much fun. We always go with our friends and it's pretty cheap considering we're a family of 5. There's not too may places we can go and have fun ALL DAY for $60. Heck, we spend $60 to go out to eat!

Grace had to decorate a pumpkin for school this week. It was fun. She kept saying, "my friend Jacey hopes I get first place and she gets second place. And I hope I get first place and I hope she gets first place and I don't know what to do." I assured her it was OK for her to hope that she gets first place. :0) We'll see at the end of the week if she places.

This week...

We're back to school! We had meet the teacher night last Thursday August 19th, and the first day was this Monday August 23rd. Tanner is 3rd grade and Grace is 1st grade. Both of their teachers seem awesome and they like them a lot. They have both had wonderful weeks. Tanner had homework every night but not Grace. I guess hers doesn't start until next week.

Oh, and we have a temporary house guest :-)

CJ caught him last night down at the little lake in our subdivision. He is clearly someone's pet that either escaped or they got tired of taking care of him and let him go. I've sent out a mass e-mail to everyone in our subdivision to see if anyone claims him, but if not Monday I'm hoping he'll have a good home as a part of Weatherford ISD. He's pretty big (I think). His body is about 16" or so and tail and all he's somewhere around 3 feet long. He's pretty friendly. He pretty much just let CJ catch him. As you can see he is living in our dog kennel until he gets a real home. The dog is very confused by the whole situation. haha

Have a great weekend!! We have baseball tryouts on saturday but a pretty slow weekend otherwise. Enjoy!

What happened to May?

Field Day at school: Here is a pic of Tanner doing the obstacle course. In most events the class participates as a whole and which ever class has all the students finish the event first wins. Tanners class did well and I think finished in the top 3 in all 5 events. Tanner did exceptionally well in the 50 yard (or however long it was) dash. He was the #2 boy in his class and he was the best wiffle ball hitter.

Here is Grace winning the 50 yard dash for her class. I felt bad because they take all the #1 finishers from all the classes and put them in a final race. Well, Grace's class was the last one to race so as soon as she won her race she had to go right back to the starting line and race again. She finished last in the final race but I'm blaming it on she had to run two races back to back and all the rest of the girls got to rest! :0)

We finished up spring baseball in May. Tanner's team did very well despite a terrible mid-season slump where they lost 5 in a row. That was awful. But they came back strong and finished third in their division. Way to go Angels. This pic is CJ pitching and Tanner hitting.
Honestly, I'm not sure how Grace's team finished in their division. Middle of the pack I assume. Half way through the season Grace told me she wasn't going to play baseball next year because it was boring. I said, "you mean you aren't having any fun?" she replied "the snacks are the funnest part." hahahaha. She has come back around though and may play again in the fall, we'll see. She will still be T-ball but Tanner will move up to Mustang (first level kid pitch) in the fall.

The kids both earned awards at school this year. I was so proud of them both. Grace got certificates for great handwriting and mastering all kindergarten math skills, a Terrific Kids award, and a ticket to Six Flags for their reading program. Tanner got a certificate for an "A" on every spelling test, the Terrific Kids award, and a ticket to Six Flags for their reading program. Tanner also got a medal for A/B Honor Roll, and they BOTH received the Presidents medal for their class for being outstanding citizens.

Grace's kindergarten music program was right at the end of the school year. It was a jungle theme and she wanted to be a lion....ROAR!
And to top off the month we went on our 2nd annual Memorial Day camping trip. 5 super fun families (10 adults and 10 kids from 3-9yrs), and 3 birthday celebrations: Erin 8, Grace 6, Hayden 6 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

We are so blessed with a small group of GREAT friends. Life is good.

What is up with today's discipline system?

My wonderful, generally well-behaved son has been threatened with ISS twice in two weeks. Mind you, with his class discipline card still on green. Here's how it works: Cards start off white and everytime you do something wrong they change, to green, then yellow, then orange, then red. When you hit red you are sent to the principle's office. Tanner is white/green kind of kid. (and honestly green is only maybe once a week, if that)
Week before last he got in trouble because he was sitting around with two other boys giggling under their breath and singing the words to the "I like big butts and I cannot lie" song. One of the boys had the words written down (and not all the correct words mind you - an 8 year old interpretation). Mrs. Adkins made Tanner copy them and bring them home to me. When confronted he didn't even know most of the words and he certainly didn't understand the undertone of the song. To him it was just a song about big butts and that was funny. Well, of course it's funny! He's 8, it has a catchy tune, and it's a song about big butts. Duh. Appropriate, no. Funny for an 8 year old, yeah. Mrs. Adkins said if he sang it again it would land him in ISS.
Then Tuesday he comes home with a discipinary note (his card was on green for the day still) that said he had been asked several times lately by the teacher supervising recess not to run down the slide. His excuse was just that he couldn't remember (which is a sorry excuse). She said if he did it again maybe a trip to ISS would jog his memory. What? Really? That's an appropriate punishment for that? I realize running down the slide is not acceptable behavior, and that when given instructions by a teacher he should follow them, period. But really, ISS is the right solution for that? What happened to losing your recess for a couple of days, and doing something really sucky like cleaning the chalk boards, or scrubbing the floor, or something?
I just don't get it. Maybe some of my teacher friends can give me some insight. My memory of ISS when I was in school was that only the "really bad" kids went there. I mean you had to be throwing punches or something, and honestly I don't even remember there being ISS in elementary school. A good friend said to me, "if that's what you throw at them for minor stuff, what do you do when they really do something bad? What is there for them to be afraid of?" That's all I'm saying.

Then this morning I saw this posted on a friend from Indiana's FB:
"saw the best thing ever today! There was a middle school-aged child holding a sign on the side of the road that said "I am a THIEF! I stole rings and $130 from my MOTHER!" What looked to be his dad was standing a few feet away. This was on the side of Raceway Rd during rush hour. I thought it was awesome!"

What ever happened to stuff like this? I'm sure that this made much more of an impact on this kid than corporal punishment, or grounding, or taking his favorite things would have. Who knows, those things might have come in conjunction with that, but all I'm saying is that is classic! We need more of stuff like that!

I've been struggling with whether I should call his teacher and let her know that this has really been bothering me or just let it go. It's almost the end of the school year and I know he won't do it again. Hmmm.

Frazzled

Seriously, can't keep up. I feel like I'm about to be in the middle of a complete emotional meltdown but I'm trying to hang on. CJ is equally as frazzled as me. We have GOT to sell our house. The contract with our current realtor was up today. We decided not to relist with him and I'm going to go on a search for a new realtor this week. I have taken several hundred pictures over the last couple of weeks and don't have a minute to upload them. I've been very busy with the mowing business. Switching schedules around. Calling people to confirm. Trying to figure out how exactly to pay a real employee because now we have one. (I have to figure that out by thursday.)
The kids baseball schedule is about to kill me and CJ both. CJ desperately needs to work a normal day but 3 or 4 days a week he has to quit at 4:00 to be at practice or a game. The work load is piling up. People are getting frustrated.
Last week Grace was home Tuesday and Wednesday with a mystery fever. Thursday both kids had practice. Friday I was running errands in Forth Worth and they called wanting to show the house. Can you say, "um, no." Why? Because it's a disaster! I have 3 kids and a very busy life. I can run around like a mad woman and make it presentable in 2 hours, but you can't call me at 11:45 and want to show it at 1:00!! I can't even get back home in that amount of time. And, I don't care what anybody says. There is no way possible I can live my life in such a manner that would demand that my house be spotless 100% of the time before I walk out the door to go do anything. Can't do it. Feel really bad that I had to say no, but I guess they didn't want to see it that bad. I told them they could come after 4:00 or anytime over the weekend but they never called back. We desperately need to move but oh well. It's all I can do.
Friday night Tanner had a game down in Glen Rose. We scored 5 runs in the first inning and then lost 11-6. Can you guess how mad CJ was?!?! Smokin'. Not because we lost. Because we lost because they were playing like 4 year olds. Seriously, some of the kids on Grace's team could field the ball and throw it to first base better than they were doing it. It was ugly. Saturday we spent 5 hours at the ballpark for two games. Tanner's team lost again but they played much better. I have no idea if Grace's team won or lost. Is that sad? It doesn't matter. It's tee-ball. I love tee-ball. They're all so cute.
After Grace's game we headed to Becky and Otis's house to help them build a covered deck area for their pool. Had a sleep over and finished it on sunday. Glad we got started on saturday or it would be incomplete at this point. It's super cute though and I can't wait to help her hold it down this summer!
Did I mention that sometime saturday evening my allergies kicked into high gear? Today I feel exhausted, achy, stuffy, and just plain miserable. Oh, and instead of resting tomorrow I get to go to the Zoo with Grace's kindergarten class and then to Tanner's baseball game tomorrow night. Ugh.
I hate that I feel like this. I am generally an almost annoyingly optimistic, happy person. I just can't find my happy place right now.

Victory!

The cake turned out great. I know you can't tell from the picture but this is a GIANT cake. 16 inches square and two layers tall. Once I got it on the cake board I almost couldn't fit it in the refrigerator. Had to take apart part of the shelf on the door of the refrigerator. Note to self: Can't make cakes any bigger than this. And Grace's team won their game on saturday 20-19. And to top it all off had a wonderful time helping Becky celebrate her birthday. Went to a wonderful Mexican restraunt (fancy mexican not Don Pablos mexican), then went and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D which was good, but nothing was better than the company!

Grace doesn't have a game now for two weeks, but Tanner has two this week. I'll let ya know how they go. Have a GREAT week!