Style

Our girl's got style - she picked these PJs out all by herself:

Composition - en español

I had to write this for my clase de español this week and am pretty proud of it - especially considering I knew no Spanish (other than what Dora and Diego had taught me) a little more than a month ago!

(For those of you that can read Spanish, please keep in mind, I only know about 10 'ar' verbs and a handful of expressions and had to reach 1 page in length!)

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Me llamo Robyn. Soy de los Estados Unidos de Pensilvania. Gusto miro la televisión, y hablo con mi familia.

Mi familia desayunamos a las seis y media de la mañana. Tengo dos hijos. Mi hijo se llama Julian y mi hija se llama Kathryn. Julian tiene siete años y Kathryn tienes cuatro años. ¡Ellos estan inteligentes y simpáticos y bonitos! Todos las días de le semana, llevo mis hijos a la escuala a las siete y cuarto de la mañana. Mi hija regresa a mi casa a las ocho y media de la mañana. Mi hijo regresa a mi casa a las dos y media de la tarde. Mi hijo trabaja en la tarea a las tres de la tarde. Mi esposo se llama Jason. ¡Él esta guapo y trabajador! Mi familia cenamos a las seis de la noche.

Trabajo en mi casa con la computadora. Miro la computadora todos las días. Trabajo a las mediodía hasta las dos de la tarde y las treis de la tarde hasta las cinco de la tarde. Trabajo veinticinco horas por la semana.

Tomo tres materias éste semester. Los lunes, los miércoles y los viernes tomo el español, las matemáticas y la salud. Los martes tomo la laboratorio de español a las ocho de la mañana. Mi primera clase los lunes, los martes, los miércoles y los viernes es a las ocho de la mañana. No hay las clases los jueves. Mi clase de matematicas es a las ocho de la mañana los lunes, los miércoles y los viernes. Mi clase de español es a las nueve de la mañana los lunes, los miércoles y los viernes. Mi clase de la salud es a las diez de la mañana. Estudio mucho de la noche. Tengo muchas tareas en las clases de matemáticas y español.

Todos los domingos, mi familia y yo vamos a la iglesia a las nueve de la mañana. Regresamos a las dos de la tarde. Nosotros vamos a la iglesia otra vez a las cuatro y media por enseñamos los niños a AWANA. Regresamos a mi casa a las siete de la noche. ¡Mi iglesia esta lejos de mi casa!

"New" clothes!

Hand me downs are the best thing ever! In going through clothes to give to Courtney and Billy, I found some "new" ones for our little ones....nice surprise!

The eclipse

Did anyone see the eclipse? This is not a great picture at all - Jason took some that will hopefully come out well. It was pretty neat to see - they say the next one will be in 2010...just around the corner!

Christmas in February

The kids spent this morning with Jason's mom and dad, and, as usual, came home loaded down with new toys. One of the new toys is this track, which they both loved and wanted to play with as soon as we got home. Kathryn got a very cool "lapatoppa" - a Disney princess laptop.

They also went bowling for the first time, and it seemed to be a big hit.

Thanks again, Grandma and Grandpa - even without the new stuff, they had a great time!

(a side note: Julian is sick again and looked so sad/unwell in the pictures I took before this one - so I asked him if he could look like he didn't feel yucky, and this is what he did! So funny)

Test update

Well, for those of you who were wondering, I have gotten 2 of my test grades back:

In Math - 82. I'm a little disappointed, BUT, my professor did say in class yesterday that a lot of people did really badly, and he was going to let people re-take the test if they wanted a 2nd chance. He said he did not recommend a re-take for people that had scored above 60 (the score of the re-take is the final grade whether it is higher or lower). Well, when the list of re-takers got around to me, there were already 6 or 7 names on it (and there are only about 15 people in the class!). Anyway, I am not re-taking. I'm satisfied with my B. And I feel a little better that I did as well as I did, considering....

In Health - a 97!!! I'm not going to let it bother me that he totally gave me points I didn't deserve. I know without a doubt that one whole essay type question was wrong - in no way correct - but he gave full credit for it. I guess taking AP classes in high school and learning how to BS on a paper are still serving me well!? Most likely, he was just feeling generous....

My third grade is not back yet - unfortunately my Spanish teacher has the flu - or something like it. Hopefully she'll be well soon and we'll be able to get our tests back. She has kids the same ages as mine, so I hope her kids don't get it too! This flu is really getting around. I am praying my extra zinc and vitamin C will help me not get it!!

Time to take a breath ...

This morning, I took a test in each of the classes I'm taking. I was surprised at just how stressful it was for me to have all 3 fall on one day. I did not feel as prepared as I wanted to for any of them, and when I finished this morning, I didn't walk away from any of them thinking I had aced it. The good thing is they are now behind me, and there's nothing I can do at this point to change the grades I earned on them.... So, now I can take a break, give myself permission to not open a book today, and since I'm in a lull at work as well, I plan to take some time to "smell the roses" today. Well, not roses since they aren't in bloom, but pine trees maybe. They smell pretty good :) I have been craving outside time, so I plan to indulge in that today - it is such a nice day!!!

Just a cute picture of the kids...

(And maybe you can't see in the picture, but Lucy actually seemed to be enjoying this!)

Happy Birthday, Emileigh!

My niece, Emileigh will turn 15 this Friday, and we got together Saturday to celebrate with a Fiesta! We are so blessed to have a wonderful person like Emileigh in our family, and I really enjoyed our get together...I was not in top form with picture taking, but I did take this one for Ronda

And this one of little Vivy with Aunt Ronda. I love the red hair, which we saw for the first time at this visit. She is so beautiful and has grown SO much since we saw her last at Christmas.

Finally SNOW!

It's funny that all of the predicted snow events this winter have either completely missed us or didn't end up the way they were predicted (getting much less snow). But last night we got "thunder snow" which was not predicted at all and was a wonderful surprise! Finally there was enough to play in - we got almost 3 inches of snow. The kids got to sled and make snow angels and even got to play with Jada, who we have not seen at our house since the summer. The snow was not the right kind to make snowmen, but we still had a lot of fun, and as tradition says we must, we ended with hot chocolate.

I'm not sure Lucy remembers past snows - she doesn't seem to know what to make of it. I am so thankful it came on a Thursday when I do not have any classes, so I didn't have to decide whether to skip class to play with my kids in the snow or be responsible and go to class. And I'm thankful Jason was able to stay home for a little bit to play before going to work. Now I'm excited to let the sun do its work and melt it, so we can all have safe travel tomorrow!

A long week...

It has been a long week, and I know Julian is not fully recovered because he didn't complain at all when I asked him to lay down and close his eyes for "just a couple of minutes". And then, of course, Lucy had to join in - no one can take a nap without her.

Back to school

Julian went back to school today. I was torn whether I should send him or not, but finally decided he could go back today. He had a fever yesterday afternoon (none since then) and still has a really yucky nose, etc. BUT, he also had a field trip today. He met his A.R. goal and his school was going to the movies as a reward for the ones that met their goal. While a part of me thought he should stay home one more day, I felt terrible making him miss that field trip. I just pray he doesn't get any of his friends sick. Their school policy is he should have been fever free for 24 hours before sending him back - I hope I don't regret sending him back too early. The flu really takes it out of a person, and I suspect he was only telling me he felt better so he could go on his trip today.

Anyway, he is much better and Kathryn did not get the flu, although she does have some kind of something - sinus flare up or URI, who knows. It looks like we'll be making a trip to the doctor for her today.

Our family doctor told me one time that the average elementary school child gets 2 viruses per month (on average). I believe it! But if little viruses and sinus issues are our biggest problem right now, I guess we're pretty blessed.

Poor thing...

Julian has the flu. Poor little guy, he just looks miserable. We went to the doctor today and he just took his first dose of tamiflu, so hopefully, he'll be over it pretty quickly. So far, the only symptom Kathryn is showing is the stuffy nose and cough - no fever, no body aches. I am praying she will not get the flu too (but the doctor did give us a prescription for her for tamiflu - just in case!). I know for sure next year we are all getting a flu shot....

The water cycle and other weather

Julian is studying the weather in class right now, and I thought these drawings were very good....

CANDY!!!!!

Does anyone else have this problem? This is the amount of candy the kids got yesterday - in one day!

Unfortunately, this is a problem I have every week. I guess I don't mind them getting it - but what do I do with it?! I try not to eat a lot of candy - a piece here and there - and usually only eat it when it's spread out over the counter like it is here. Jason doesn't eat a lot, and I only let the kids have a piece or two for dessert after dinner, so what do I do with the rest of it??? This picture doesn't show the 2 gallon size Ziploc bags I already have in the cabinet to store candy. Sheesh! They bring it home from school, from Sunday school, from birthday parties; not to mention every holiday under the sun!! I don't know, I guess it's a silly thing to get annoyed over, but really it just represents one more thing I have to add to my ever expanding "to-do" list - find a spot for the new candy....

Trains

Julian and Kathryn had a nice morning spent with Grandma, who was wonderful to watch them while I was at school this morning. And almost as soon as she walked out the door, this was created...

The joys of having a train lover in the house :) Some variation of this track normally comes out when the kids are out of school for the day, since it does take some time and effort to put it all together. Both kids have a lot of fun with Julian's battery powered Thomas trains - sending them down the track and back. I try to let him keep it out at least a few hours, but that is about all I can take. Our house is so small that you end up stepping on or over the track to get anywhere. It is fun, though, to listen to the stories they play-act with the trains.

Our little princess

In the spirit of making the most of days off, Kathryn and I decided today would be a "hair day". She told me a couple of days ago that she wanted her hair to be curly (she is always fascinated when we take her braid out and her hair is wavy...) And she is always a little jealous when I cut Julian's hair, which I did just the other day. So today was her turn...

We took most of the morning to do this - we tried a curling iron first, and it just didn't do anything...so out came the rollers. She said she looked like "a curly haired person" with them in. :) She was so patient with the drying and brushing and hair spraying and curling. I think she loved it.

Here is how it turned out - I'm afraid her hair is just too heavy to hold much of a curl, but she was pleased with it!

(She called this her "curly hair" dance)

I got an A!

I took my first exam today - health - and got a 93% - an A! Woohoo! Ok, so I'm a little surprised I didn't get higher, but I guess it is OK for my first test in over 10 years :)

Family vehicles

Just to share our funny morning...

The kids were delayed 2 hours, and my school was on regular schedule, so we had to decide what to do with them until it was time for their school to start. Jason decided to just stay home with them and take them when school opened...the hard part of that is we only have one vehicle that can carry both children. So I drove Jason's truck to school, he drove my car with the kids to take them to school, and then he had to drive to my school to get his truck to drive him the rest of the way to work while I was in class - this way I would be able to pick the kids up at their regular times. Thank goodness my school is on the way to his work. I guess we may need to give some thought to a 2nd "family" vehicle???? Yeah right - Jason will never get rid of that truck (which I learned this morning is ridiculously bad when going over speed bumps!) I'm sure there was a more efficient way to do this, but it ended up working out. I guess I've taken for granted that I was always available for the kids when they were sick or there was a snow day - or even a holiday. The next challenge will be next week when they are out 3 days for MLK day, and I am only out one day. Let's see how creative Jason and I can be on arrangements for that one!

Snow Day pictures ...

A snow day

Today has been a slow day for us. School was cancelled because of the nasty weather, so we have had a nice day of not having to do anything in particular. Well, kind of. The bad thing about working from home is work is never closed because of bad weather!

We got maybe an inch of snow last night. It was beautiful to wake up to, but the sleet started as Jason was leaving for work and the rain shortly after that. Now the beautiful snow has turned into a slushy mess and the kids are so disappointed that we did not get to play in the snow while it was still snow. Now when the rain stops, it will be like walking through a slushy. We did not get more than a dusting of snow last year, so Kathryn really has no memory of what playing in the snow is like. She was 2, I think, the last time we got enough snow to make a snowman and do a little sledding. She has been grumpy all day...poor little thing. Hopefully the rain will stop soon so we can have at least a little fun.

My first day of school ...

Well, today was my first day, and while I don't have time for a long post, I wanted to let everyone know that it went very well. Julian and Kathryn were very good this morning about getting ready on time without playing so we could leave a few minutes early for me to get to my 8:00 class on time. I found all of my classes and I am still excited about my decision to do college...again.

A few things I learned today:

1) contacts and my eyes don't agree first thing in the morning...I know, doesn't seem big, but I just don't normally try to do contacts as soon as I wake up, but I wanted to today for my new ID and well, just non-practical, vain reasons. I won't do it again. Who am I trying to impress?? I am the "old lady" in all of my classes, after all (see below)...

2) Half.com is awesome for buying textbooks, and I saved about $150 on 2 books using it, BUT I fear there are going to be some problems while I wait for them to be shipped via media mail...expected arrival date is 1/11 - 1/25!!! Please pray that God will work on the USPS and get them here ASAP. My math prof. was very understanding when I explained I don't have my book yet and actually went as far as making a copy of the assignment pages for this week for me. I certainly don't want to make a habit of that, though!

3) I am the oldest person in ALL of my classes. The stats on the college web page says the average student age is 28, but that does not apply to the classes I am enrolled in! There must be some really old people throwing that average off! In Spanish, we had to introduce ourselves, give our age and tell a little about ourselves...the closest student to my age was 21. The teacher, I would guess, is around 40 - she has a child in 2nd grade and one in Kindergarten. For maybe the first time, I am the oldest in something I do.

4) I have hope for the math class I am in - precalculus. Most of you know of my outstanding failure in calculus in college, so I was nervous about this, but today's lesson was something I already knew, so I left with hope!

Well, that's it for now...time to get to work for a couple of hours before I get Julian...I am so thankful my day was a good day.

Some pictures

We got 4 rolls of film developed this week (there were actually some pictures from our beach trip in July included, it's been so long!).

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Meeting Vivian ...

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Dad's 60th ...

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Thanksgiving ...

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Christmas ...

Julian's helicopter

Julian and Jason worked on this helicopter last night and today (after Billy and Julian started with the battery compartment a couple of weeks ago) and here it is finally finished. Pretty neat.

And here are the pictures I had to choose from to post of Julian and his creation. I just couldn't decide:

And of course Kathryn had to have her picture taken with it too (complete with doll from her "Barbie is an art teacher" collection).

A New Year

I have not posted anything about our New Year celebration because I did not take any pictures of it - I know hard to believe. It seems lately that my little camera is attached to my hand with our day to day events!

We brought in 2008 as a family, which was actually a lot of fun. Jason, Julian, Kathryn and I played lots of games - Hi Ho Cherry-O (really fun when you're 4), Sorry (really fun when you're 30!), Memory, a Thomas bingo-like game, and Uno while waiting for the big ball to drop. The kids were semi-well behaved and everything went really well until about 11:30 when I started to get grumpy from being sleepy...

We also watched a Barbie movie - Barbie Nutcracker I think it was called. Surprisingly, it was a decent movie as far as Barbie movies go. Not great, but I think they used actual ballet dancers to simulate the movements of the animated characters, which was pretty cool to watch. I enjoyed it. I have never seen the Nutcracker, but almost have a desire to see the real thing now - almost.

At 11:30 when the kids starting getting hyped up and I started getting grumpy, we decided to take a tea break and the kids and I had Raspberry Zinger herbal tea. Jason not being a fan of herbal teas had hot chocolate. The kids thought they were so big - staying up late and drinking tea from real mugs.

We switched back and forth between Fox and NBC for their coverage of the Times Square celebration, but I was fairly annoyed with the half naked performance of Mimi right after the ball dropped? I don't know who she is, but she was wearing next to no clothes in New York in winter at midnight....not a smart lady, as far as I can tell. So, we flipped back to NBC and stayed there. Julian was pretty impressed with the Ball as it was dropping and was excited when 2008 arrived. (Now he can use his Sports car calendar with the BIG numbers he got at an Awana store several months ago and has been waiting anxiously to use!) Kathryn was excited to be up but probably didn't really understand what we meant by the New Year because when she woke up the next morning, she asked if it was Christmas again. She did ask once we were all up if it was still the new year. Maybe next year she'll know what years are .

The celebration ended shortly after midnight and we were all in bed by 12:20. My staying up late days are definitely a thing of the past! It was nice to sleep in to 8:15 the next day....I was hoping for later, but you take what you can get, I guess.

Anyway, I have high hopes for 2008. Each day (and new year) is a blessing from God and I can't wait to see what He has in store for me this year. Happy New Year to all 5 of you who read this :).