It Was This Kind of Day

Hectic from start to finish!

4:30 - designated wake up time (usually it is 6:45 but knowing the day ahead was going to be BUSY, I wanted to get up and get a jump start on cleaning the house and laundry). 

4:31 - decide it's just too early to get up and reset alarm

5:25 - curse myself for not getting up at 4:30, roll myself out of bed, strip my sheets and throw a load of laundry in.  Take a shower, make coffee, let the dog out, blow dry my hair, and get dressed.

6:30 - wake up Zack so he can also take a shower (normally we do showers at night, but we were in Manawa last night for basketball and did not get home until almost 10:00).  While he gets ready I empty the dishwasher, transfer laundry to dryer, throw another load in the washer, and clean the bathroom upstairs.

7:15 - almost ready to walk out the door. Transfer my coffee to a commuter mug, feed the dog,  and get lunches ready while Zack gets his uniform out of the dryer and packs his bag for his basketball game tonight, gathers his schoolbooks, and puts his shoes on

7:25 - out the door (normally we do not leave this early but Friday morning is Burger King breakfast so we leave earlier)

7:55 - get to school and check e-mails, finish project for 4th grade class, and breathe!!!

8:45-9:30 - 4th grade class.  We did an excel sheet counting family members using a simple autosum formula and the fill handle.  Everything went well except some tears from one of the girls who included a sister who had died in her family members.  Poor thing.  

9:55 - 10:40 - 6th grade class.  More excel. This time formatting a planet spreadsheet learning how to change change font size, font color, background color, change column width, row height, add borders, and merge and center

10:40 -11:30 - Free Period. Skip math with Zack to help him study for a geography quiz.  

11:30 -12:15 - grab a quick lunch of carrots and an apple while simultaneously wiping down keyboards with sanitizing wipes and doing my weekly vacuuming. 

12:15-1:00 - 8th grade.  Working in Microsoft Publisher fixing up some brochures and flyers they made in a Bible Camp project they are doing right now.

1:00-1:50 - Run home to pick up Jon and Ollie. take load of sheets out of dryer and transfer blankets from washer to dryer.  Throw Ollie's blankets in the washer.

1:55-2:40 - 7th grade class.  Working in excel and publisher fixing maps and brochures they made for a Zoo project they are doing.

2:45 - drop Zack off for the one on one writing help he gets every other Friday.  Run to Starbucks while he is working to pick up a gift for his basketball coaches, run to Walgreen's to pick up card and other things

3:30 - pick Zack up and back to school to chaperone a valentines party for the 6th and 7th graders.

4:30 - valentines party over... after clean-up I go in the gym to watch the B team girl's basketball game.

5:30 - make a quick Taco Bell run for food...shovel it in my mouth and watch the second half of the A team girl's basketball game

6:30 - work admissions for the B team boy's basketball game while talking to a friend the whole time!

7:30 - watch my son play in his last basketball game ever as a Warrior. Sad and proud. The game was an awful...they won 47-4 but that is a post for another time.  

8:45 - go to Christiano's with the basketball team for pizza.  

10:20 - leave Christianos and drop a friend of Zack's off at his house and Jon off at his friend's house.

10:45 - finally home.  take my blankets out of the washer.  Put Ollie's blankets in the dryer, and throw Zack's blankets in the washer. Put the sheets and blankets on my bed.

11:00 - took a quick bath

11:10 - collapse onto the sofa and turn on a movie. While writing this.

It is now 11:30 and I have no hope of getting into bed until at least 12:30 am waiting for bedding to dry.

The Perfect Evening

Watching a Florida Gator basketball game with my boys

A fire in the fireplace

And, of course, the stalking dog is never from me

Gators win...making it double perfect!

TV Watching

Even after a year, Ollie is still confused when a dog or cat appears on our TV screen.  

He whines, barks, and tries to smell the TV screen because he believes they are real.  

Sometimes, when we aren't paying attention to what is on the TV he will just start whining and then we will rewind the TV and see there was a dog or cat in a commercial.

Yesterday America's Funniest Home Videos featured two dogs in their $100,000 grand prize show.  We kept rewinding the TV to keep him interested and I got out the camera.

He is a crazy dog.

Sochi Has Problems

Okay...I confess.  I did not even realize that this was a winter Olympic year until this past Friday when one of the 6th grade girls asked me if I watched the pairs figure skating event the evening before.

***At which time I really showed my age by showing them youtube videos of the greatest figure skating duo of all time - Gordeeva and Grinkov.***

But, I digress... today I was watching some of the Olympics and I became aware of - shall we say issues - that have occurred within the Olympic venue.

Twitter lit up with pictures and captions that were simultaneously hilarious and terrible at the same time.

Some one was stuck inside the bathroom with no phone so he had to break down the door

Light fixtures falling from the ceiling

Welcome to my room...have a seat in one of my chairs.  Very comfortable

Doorknobs falling off

Curtains falling down

No comment needed

Again...no comment needed

Water is restored,,,drink at your own risk. On the plus side - at least I now know what dangerous water looks like

Forced to play basketball with a waded, used piece of toilet paper

Do the motels have wireless internet?  Maybe.

It's not an Olympic event so seats are still available

Um....speechless

Something's just not right.

Just Pictures (and a couple words)

Zack's team had a tournament today.  They took 4th place out of 8 teams...which isn't too bad considering it was a D-1 tournament and they are a D-4 school.

It was an emotionally tiring day - and night...so...not in the mood to write about it. 

Just a couple pictures taken by our good friend

Photo credit: Bill Holtz

Conversation with A Seven Year Old

Talking with a 7 year old can be rough...trying not to damage their burgeoning and fragile psyche is tricky...

As I found out today:

The first graders were working in a drawing program on the computers

Child: "How do you like my picture, Mrs. S?"  

Me:  "That is a beautiful cat"

Child: "It's not a cat"

Me:  "Oh... yes...I see that now.  I was just looking at the ears" (as I point to two pointy things on top of a mis-shapen oval head).

Child: "Those are not the ears...those are the eyes."

Me: "Yep...uh-huh, I can see that (NOT)!  Once I looked at it a leeettle longer I could definitely tell those were eyes and not ears." 

At this point I thought it was best to keep my mouth shut so I subtlely start to back away...and then:

Child: "I love frogs"

Me:  " I can see that...you drew a beautiful frog."

Child: "Thank you." 

YES!!!!!  Conversation over.

Rugged Cross

Another basketball game tonight.

On the line was the "Old Rugged Cross" trophy that travels back and forth between our school and New Hope Christian School depending on which team wins the game.  

New Hope has had the trophy for the past two years.

We'll keep this safe for a year

This year the trophy comes back to Valley Christian. 

see the ball stuck up there?

They did not really play that well...but still won.

Oh yeah, and as a team they had 7 fouls in the whole game.... compare that to the 31 fouls that were called on them on Saturday night.