Busy Day, Busy Life

I forgot to post yesterday! I have a few papers due this week and I finally got the gumption to take the Michigan Basic Skills Test that all teachers have to pass to get certified. Before I can be admitted into the Master's Program I have to pass this test. It is a five hour test on Reading/Writing/Math. I have the study guide, and I have to say, if this is basic skills I missed something the first time around in school. Once I pass this test I have to take two more. One on Language Arts and one on Elementary Education. They really want to make sure their teachers know their stuff...I guess. So, in all my studying, I forgot to blog. The kids are about to start spring break. P will be out of town all week, so the kids are going to the YMCA spring break camp. They are not really happy about that, but it will probably be a lot better than staying at home with me all week. We have had the most beautiful spring weather for weeks now, and now they tell me it is going to snow on Mon and Tuesday. Up to six inches. I wish I had more to chat about, but I do need to get back to my papers. More next week....I promise!

Our new family members are a hoot! Pardon the pun! H is holding his bird Balto and G is holding her bird Rocky. We have had them a few weeks and I am now certain that birds are the best pets ever. They are super easy to care for and they get really excited when you come home, however they don't jump on you and ruin your pantyhose. We have gotten them a bunch of bird toys and it turns out that birds love toys. They really love mirrors and bells. The kids love them and are not afraid to take them out and hold them.

Life here is pretty good. No headaches for P. He is doing fine. The kids are doing fine in school. I totally bombed a test this week, but I hope my paper makes up for it. It was the Morphology exam. The teacher postponed it for a week, but that still didn't help. I don't think I was the only one to have a really hard time with it. I have two papers due this week and I am really starting to feel the pressure of school now. I have signed up for two classes this summer. i am taking "Teaching Literature to Children" and "Teaching Reading to Children". Both classes I am very exctied about.

I am the newest assistant Daisy Girl Scout Leader. We are finishing cookie sales. I am getting used to taking a backseat and not being the leader. I kind of like letting someone else be in charge. No responsibility!

Dinner this week:
Burgers and salad
Frito Pie
Pot Roast
squash pasta
soup and salad

Nothing new on the IPOD, however I am loading up my TiVo
Grey's for the last three months (I am going to watch this summer when I am out of school)
Desperate Housewives (see above)
CSI (the original)
AX Men

And, in other news. I have a summer trip already planned (not as exciting as Disney) but still a good time. I am taking the kids on the trainto Chicago to meet up with my mom and nephew J. We are staying downtown and we are going to see all the sights. I have been to Chicago once for a job interview, but didn't see a lot of the city so I am pretty excited. We are going to go to American Girl. The boys will have to suffer through it, but G and I are looking forward to it. Amtrax goes almost from our door to Chicage, so there is no need to take a car. Yahoo!

Melissa-I think Gokey should win, because I like him best. Adam was ok, but when he slaughtered the Johnny Cash song I gave up on him. The girl that made the obnoxious crowing sound was ok, but that did it for me with her as well. I also don't like how she does te weird twisting thing while she sings. Anoop doesn't do it for me either. I liked the guy that sang the Garth Brooks slow song last week.

Amy-Survivor! I am pretty jazzed I am watching it in 10 mins.

Amazing Race for those of you watching is sooo good this time. i kind of like all the teams, so it is hard. I think the dumb blonds need to go. They bug me!

Homeland Security? When, oh When is a new episode coming?

That's it ladies. Have a good week!

New Post! Can you believe it!

Happy Birthday G! Here are pictures from G's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, and my favorite picture of G. This was taken on the cruise when we were in the Bahamas. She is wearing Granos hat and we are off to get our hair braided (which was closed so we didn't get it done). She had a great time at her party. All the little girls from her class came, 11 in all, and they had two hours of fun, while we watched them and didn't do a lick of clean up. I have to say this is the best kind of party. No set up, no clean up! I think my kids are going to have Chuck E. Cheese parties until they are 15!

In other news...I am registered for my classes for the summer. I am pleased because now I get to take the fun classes. I am registered for Teaching Reading to Children and Language Arts for Teaching. Way more fun than Brit Lit. I have three papers due next week and exams coming up again. I forgot that school wasn't just listening to lectures (it would be much nicer if it was) the professors actually expect you to read and write!

The kids are doing great. Paul has not had any more episodes of headaches, so opefully they are in remission for a good long time (forever). The golf course opened up here so Paul and H have been golfing everday this week. G and I are on our own for everything after school, including dinner. We eat together and the boys eat when they get home. Who put a golf club in that kids hand anyway? He has it bad. Everything is about the golf game. I am registering both kids for the swim team this summer and H is worried it will cut into his golf time. I assured him that swim team is during the workday when Paul is working, so he wouldn't be golfing anyway. H is also writing a book. He has developed a character, Bryan Air, that he has going on all kids of adventures. He is working with his teacher to polish it and get it off to Scholastic to see if he can get it published. It is going to be a picture book with the illustrations done by him as well. G has her artwork being displayed in the City art show this week. We are going to the artist reception next week. The art teacher at her school sent in her catapiller picture and she got a little award for it and they are including it in the show. Can you all stand how much I am bragging this week about the kids! Disgusting isn't it? Well, after the weeks we have had with H it is nice to be bragging a bit.

Spring has really started here. We really do get four seasons. Everyone is wearing flip flops and is on the golf courses. I love the weather, but the people need help. Everyone in this state is so dog-gone nice, but they are only surface friendly. I have yet to really make a good friend. How is that possible. I moved to Hammond and met Becca and Monica super fast. I moved to Astoria and met Melissa and became super buds super fast, I lived in Port Anegeles and becamse super friends with Maureen and Katrina super fast, but not the case here. Everyone is nice, but no one wants to open up and be friends with an outsider, or maybe I just smell.

Dinner this week:
Sausage with mix veg
BBQ beef sandwiches with coleslaw
Parm Chicken
Pizza
Chicken salad sandwiches left from the parm chicken
that is as far as I have planned.

I have loaded the new Kelly Clarkson song on my Ipod, but that is the only new song I have added.

That is all for now, I have to leave for school.

What a Week!

Last week was a pretty intense week. On Tuesday Paul called me at school and asked me to come home and take him to the ER. Henhad a really severe/intense headache that he couldn't get rid of. I came home got him to the ER and they did a CT scan and an angiogram. At first they thought it might be a brain anyurism or a tumor. I didn't think a person could ever be that frightened, but I guess you can be. All the tests came back clear and they called it a migraine. We came home, the next day he was wiped out and on Thursday it happened again, but the pain was even worse. On a pain scale on Tues. he said it was a 10, on Thurs. he said it was worse than a 10. Now to really understand all of this you all need to know that Paul has never been to the DR. other than his anual physical with the CG, and he had not been to the hospital except when he had his appendics out when he was 18, so for him to want to go to the ER and for him to rate it off the pain scale we knew it was bad. They did another CT scan and a spinal tap and finally figured out they were "Cluster headaches", otherwise known as Suicide Headaches. They are a neurological disease that affects only .01% of the population. There is no cure for them, but they can be treated with oxygen and meds. Best we can figure is that he may be in remission now for years or he may get another one tomorrow. It really is a wait and see. So our house has been pretty tense. On top of all that he caught some nasty bug during all of that and was sick as a dog all week. Probably from the ER germy areas. The kids were troopers through all of it. I fed them almost 20 dollars worth of vending machine food in two days and prayed nothing was going to really freak them out in seeing Paul so sick. A few things I learned about all of this.

1. Make sure you have these phone numbers in your cell phone

your in-laws

brothers and sisters for both you and hubbie

command

HS

ombudsman

church person

school

2. Keep a copy of hubbies tri-care card in your purse, give him a photocopy of yours and your kids for his wallet.

3. Be nice to the ER ladies.

After a pretty crazy week. Kathy came to visit. I am on Spring break, so we are running around checking out all local fun things and neighboring towns. We went to downtown Hollan, Muskegon and Spring Lake. Today we went Wine Tasting, Cheese Tasting and Chocolate Tasting. We are going to have a feast while watching survivor. Tomorrow we are going to Saugatuk. It is a small town with a lot of little shops and art things. Saturday is G's b-day party. Tonight she is going to a girl scout troop meeting to see if she likes the girls and wants to join. Her bestest friend in the whole world is going as well, so maybe we will be hocking cookies too. (Melissa, you can keep the thin mints, just pass the samoas over this way) I heard from Kathy that the best places to sell cookies when they come in is the college and in front of home depot. Kids love the cookies and men won't say no to the little girls.

Laurie-I hope H isn't going through shunt failure. I also hope he doesn't barf in the car!

I am off the drink wine and eat cheese. Have a good week everyone.

Chinese Fortune Cookies

Have any of you noticed that fortune cookies of late have become more statements than fortunes? Paul and H are famous for getting statements, I usually get a fortune and usually a double in my cookies. We have finally found a great chinese place in town. We like the food and the girl that runs it is very nice. The food is not as good as Golden Star, but I think it is still yummy. I am bringing all of this up because I got a statement in my last cookie, and it was so good I taped it to my computer so I can see it while I am studying.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

What a great thing to read every morning. School is going very well. I have just finished my mid-terms and I think I did fine. I already got back my Brit-Lit exam and got an A, so I am feeling pretty confident now. The kids are on mid-winter break this week, and they still get a spring break in April. I am on spring break next week, which is nice because I will get to go do fun stuff with my mother when she comes to visit. We will have oodles of fun while the kiddies are in school, and we won't even let them know we left the house! In other news, my car is back in the shop. It is stalling again and the trannie is going (I think). I love the car, but hate the problems I have had with the car. I am driving a tin can on whells until I get it back.

American Idol-I did really like any of the singers last night, except the hippy girl in the white dress. My fav to win it is still Gokey. I think the boy that sang last last night may get the little girl votes and could be a contender.

Survivor- I still love the redneck boy JT, and hope Coach gets his just desserts. He is too cocky for me.

Homeland Security-My FAVORITE new show. Thanks to Amy we are watching it. I never even heard about it until I saw it on her blog as her show to watch when the season started. THANKS AMY...very cool show.

Amazing Race- I like the asian brother and sister and the boy and his mom. I don't know how well any of them will do in the great destructor INDIA. Everyone seems to fall apart there, and I laugh my butt off.

Bachelor (SP?)-I hope he pick Melissa, but I think something big is going to happen, but not with Deanna. I have heard some rumors, and wonder how true they may be.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Read my extra post below to see how H did in the State Championships for Swimming.

Proud Mommy!

I posted about H going to 2008-2009 State Championships for swimming, well the meet was today, and H did a bang-up job! He took 1st (YUP, that is FIRST) for all three of his heats. Even thoogh he came in first for his heat, he still had some tough boys to beat. Overall he came in:

13th out of 33 for 25 meter freestyle

18th out of 44 for 50 meter freestyle

12th out of 44 for 25 backstroke

He will get a ribbon for placing in the top 12 for backstroke, but no ribbons or medals for the other two races. He is very proud of himself for winning his heats. If you all don't know what that means, they have 33 swimmers and only 8 can swim at a time, so they have 5 heats in order to have all 33 swim, so H beat out 7 other swimmers in his heat to get the first ribbon. He is turning into a fine little swimmer, but this summer it looks like he is going to work with the diving team. I hope I will be able to breath when I see him up on the high diving board! Hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Late Again!

I am posting late due to a big exam in my Linguistics class on Thursday. I was all ready for it and had a few extra hours to spend studying for it on Thursday morning, as well as, post my blog entry, until we had a snow day. Around here it has to be a pretty big weather system for them to shut down school, so you should all know we had a nice big storm. I think I did OK with my exam. I did get my paper back for the class and got a nice 94 (A) on it! YAHOO! I turned in a few more papers this week and I have mid-terms next week, so I am a bit stressed, but nothing that a nice glass of red wine can't fix. Friday's are my down days. i am finished with class for the week. I don't have to get up early the next morning, so I usually reserve Friday nights for a glass of wine, people magazine, some yummy snacks (Chinese Cracker and Nut mix from Costco) and chill out. I start studying again on Saturday for the next week, but I get Friday night. I also get the hours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, that my favorite shows are on. One hour a night to watch. This school thing is really cutting into my night time TV schedule. I promised some pictures, so today I will post a few. The first is the Valentine Mailbox H made for his school project. they had a contest to design a box to put your Valentine's in and H got FIRST place for his! The next is one of the kids with their icicles from the house. Now I know you have all seen pictures of my house, so you all know it is a two story house, so how did I get these bad boys down? I opened the upstairs bathroom window, removed the screen, leaned way out (don't worry Moms I held on to the towel bar so i wouldn't fall out, besides if I did I would just land in snow. Right?) and grabbed them with a towel. The kids had the best time playing with them. I was pretty sicked out that they kept licking them, but hey if they eat hot dogs a little roof tar can't hurt them. In the picture of G, she was just passed on to the next level of gymnastics. She is now a "flipper" level 4 girl and she is very proud of herself. I asked if she wanted to have a gymnastics party for her birthday in a few weeks and she declined saying instead she wanted a Chuckie Cheese party. Good Golly Miss Molly! I thought we had almost outgrown that place! The last picture is one from our dinner earlier this month. There is a place in G.H. that makes a 24" pizza. Yes ladies, you heard right! 24" inches of pure gooey, cheesy, delight! That is two feet of pizza, and we had to get one to try it. VERY GOOD. and, if any of you come for a visit (moms included) we will order one just so you can try it. Now, on to some shout outs....

TARA-you rock! Thank you for my favorite Valentine's Day present. I wish my hubbie had thought of Starbuck's! Also, I love looking at L's pictures. She is getting so big and she is so beautiful. I remember meeting her for the first time at Kathleen Tabors house when she was a few months old. How far she has come!

AMY- JT is my pick. There is just something about those southern guys. I also kind of like the boy that just went to Exhile island. He played that whole thing off really well.

MELISSA- I am watching American Idol, so you don't have to be left out of the TV talks. I am thrilled that Tatianna is gone and hope Gokey goes all the way. (he was the guy that sang Hero the other night)

MICHELLE- Thanks for all the info on boys that you keep passing on. We feel really lucky that H seems to be back to normal(?) for him and it was the meds. I'm counting down for you and Matt here, and hoping oyu all pass by G.H. on your way back east.

LAURIE-I know you have a motor home and I also know gas prices are way down, so if ever there was a time for you to think about a trip to MI now is it! You could all come out for the summer. You and Michelle and hubbies and kids and we could all have a big reunion. Maybe Tara and her family could plan a trip to OH and make it up here as well. Melissa you guys could even plan a trip to see if MI is where you all want to come next.

OK, I am off to watch Friday Night Lights. I love that show and it's not just because Riggins is nice to look at!

P.S. I think Johnny Depp is HOT!!!!!!! Even as a Pirate.