10 Days

Only 10 more days until we leave for Disney.  I think I have finally figured out how I am going to tell Kaci we are going.  Since our flight is early in the morning, I decided to tell her Sunday night (of course, now I won't be able to get her to fall asleep).  I bought her a new Cinderella dress (Sleeping Beauty is her favorite princess, but I didn't like the off-the-shoulder number they had, plus we're eating at Cinderella's castle so I thought it would be appropriate), I wrote a little poem full of clues about where we are going, and I'm going to get her a princess balloon.  I'm going to put it all inside of a large box wrapped in princess paper.  That way, when she opens it the balloon will float up and reveal the poem and dress.  There will also be a trail of new princess items (tiara, bracelets, necklace) leading her to the box to hopefully build some suspense.

Now I'm just hoping she'll react the way I envision.

17 Days

17 days...yep...just 17 more days and I am finding it harder and harder not to tell Kaci we are going to the place where dreams come true.  Now off to research how I exactly I am going to surprise her.

A to Z

I saw this on my friend's cousin's blog (makes me think of that scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off...My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid...you get the point) and thought it was a cute idea, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

A {age} 32

B {bed size} queen

C {chore you hate} cleaning floors

D {dogs} 1 shih tzu named Bella

E {essential start to your day} shower

F {favorite color} black is my favorite to wear

G {gold or silver} white gold

H {height} 5'1

I {instrument you play} I played the flute and piccolo in middle/high school

J {job title} I get paid to be a teacher, but I'm also a mom, wife, chef, chauffeur, maid...you get the point

K {kids} 4-Kaci, Kelsey, Jordan, Justin

L {live} Northern Kentucky

M {maiden name} Zacharias

N {nickname} don't really have any

O {overnight hospital stays} when I had a c-section

P {pet peeve} when people leave the lights on and they aren't in the room, when they burp and don't say excuse me

Q {quote} God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference

R {righty or lefty} righty

S {siblings} little sister, Becky

T {time you wake up} Ugh, I hate waking up!  On school days, I wake up at 6:45

U {universities} Miami University (undergrad), Northern Kentucky University (grad)

V {vegetable you hate} cooked spinach

W {what makes you run late} not wanting to wake up and Kaci moving slowly

X {x-rays you've had} teeth (at the dentist), ankle (high school injury)

Y {yummy food} tacos, pizza, Coke-a-Cola

Z {zoo animal favorites} monkeys

Beware of the Little White Pill

See this pill?

Know what it is?  Does this help?

Please beware of this little white pill.  This stupid sleeping pill resulted in a 911 call from my home this weekend.

Jim was prescribed this medication months ago and he was very leery to take it because of all the side effects associated with it.  I even have a friend who had suffered from hallucinations while taking it.  Well, his Advil PM wasn't cutting it so he decided to give it a try Sunday night.  Bad idea...Terrible idea...Horrible idea...100% the wrong decision.

At 2:00 AM, Jim came down the stairs with his shirt on backwards, shoes on his feet, and was carrying a baseball bat.  I myself have been suffering from terrible insomnia so I was still awake on the couch working on schoolwork.  He gave me the blankest stare when I asked him what he was doing.  Next thing I know, he's out the front door and began roaming the streets.  I tried to chase him down, but he had no clue who I was and kept swinging his bat talking about the 'people' he had to get.  I ran back in the house, checked on Kaci and woke up Kelsey.  We proceeded to try to drag him back to the house and when he still wasn't coherent, I sent Kelsey back to call 911.  Six minutes later, an officer (whom Jim knows) showed up and managed to get the bat away from him.  Next came the life squad and took him away on a stretcher.

At some point in the squad, he began to come back to himself but had no clue how he got there and what had happened.  Lab work at the hospital showed nothing, so the prognosis was a bad reaction to the medication and at 7:00 AM he was finally discharged.  The little white pills were disposed of at the hospital.  No way were they coming back into my house.

So, let this be a lesson to you all.  The little white pills are bad, bad news.

Back to School (for everyone)

Well, it looks like we are ALL back in school.  Kelsey started her senior year, Jordan started his freshman year, Kaci started preschool, and Mommy started graduate school for another degree.  Yep, school life is back into full swing and the stress is working it's way back into our house.  Now, if I could just find the time to get the house cleaned, papers graded, lessons written, all while giving Kaci the attention she needs and deserves, we'd be great.  Life's little balancing act...stay tuned.

Happy Birthday Baby Sophie!

I would like to send out a very special Happy First Birthday greeting to our dear, sweet, not to mention tiny, Baby Sophie.

My little sister, Becky.

Notice the shirts...Sophie was supposed to be a September baby but the doctor's had other plans for her.

Me getting to hold Sophie the day she was born.

Kaci was so excited to finally meet her new cousin.

One year later...and yes, my daughter has a princess dress on over her jammies (we are obsessed).

Happy First Birthday Sophie!  We love you!

Back To School

It's my last official day of rest without students but if you ask my husband summer for a teacher definitely is not all about total relaxation.  From tweaking plans from the previous year, creating new projects for the upcoming year, to meetings, reading professional books, and everything in between I seemed to always be doing something school related.  Since I've had Kaci I've never felt that I did enough with her during the summer.  As I was mentioning this to Jim the other night, he reminded me of all the fun things we did do this summer.  We began with a trip to Montana to visit Justin and his new son Landon.

Kaci holding her new nephew, Landon

 

 

 

 

 

 

A month later, we got to go on a trip to Coldwater, Michigan with my family and Kaci got to hang out with her favorite second cousin, Malena.  She loved being at the lake and started to greatly overcome her fear of water/swimming.

Kaci and Malena looking at the full moon

Catching fish with Daddy

We also participated in the library's summer reading program and the weekly story time/craft sessions.  She also kept up with her weekly gymnastics classes.  Amazingly, after we got back from Michigan she totally got over her fear of swimming (as long as she's wearing her vest) so we wound up spending almost everyday at Grandma's pool.  A massive heat wave took over our area during July, so the only time we spent outside was at the pool, but we still managed to play lots of indoor games, read lots of books, and discovered new found loves for old Disney classic moves (namely Peter Pan).

All in all, it was a great summer and I need to quit feeling guilty about not doing enough.  I guess the lesson to learn is that it doesn't matter how many trips you take, how many programs you participate it, what really matters is that you are spending time with the ones you love.