it's time for war

photo of the day #109

ants

ants as a species are not bad.  they are industrious little fellas.  but when they invade my house, especially my kitchen, that's a whole different story.  i guess the rain must have brought them in because they just showed up a few days ago.  i have scrubbed the counters at least 3 times since saturday thinking there is something sticky on them.  i even sprayed the ants with the cleaner!  but they just keep coming back!

it's time to go to the garage and bring out the big guns....ant killer!

quote of the day:  "Ants never sleep." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

socks

how is it possible that we have 25 missing socks?  

photo of the day #108

socks....m.i.a.

quote of the day: Although she has no proof, she wonders if socks are made specifically to disappear, or whether there's a conspiracy between the weavers of socks and appliance manufacturers. "It's all about buying new socks," ~unknown

today

i just sat down to blog tonight, and it started thundering.  do you know what that means?  it's time for the troops to relocate to headquarters. even rocky moves in!  i think the varmints secretly enjoy nighttime storms because they know i'll let them move into my room and sleep on the floor.  they claim to be scared....  

i don't question it because when i was their age i was definitely afraid of storms!  i remember standing in my doorway in the middle of the night waiting for the lightning to flash and then i would sprint down the hallway to my parents' room trying to get there before the next flash of lightning.  i was afraid it would get me.

today started off way too early for a saturday.  colby had soccer pictures at 8:20 this morning. what is wrong with people scheduling pictures that stinkin' early???  then colby had a game at 9:00 and spencer had one at 11:30.  when it wasn't colby's turn to play he came up in the bleachers and sat in our laps.  i love that he still likes to snuggle with us.

after lunch at cici's, daryl went to the church to work on his sermon.  i convinced the varmints to go with me to the flea at the fairgrounds.  the last time we went,  a man was selling rubber ducks, so that's why they were so eager to go today.  unfortunately, the rubber-duck man wasn't there today.  bummer.  so they each got a rock instead.  colby got his from this man who is all about the power of rocks, and told colby that his rock helps fight fear, anger and jealousy.  yay! we got a multi-purpose rock!!!  spencer decided to go with a less-powerful rock and got one that had been carved into a turtle.  it's very cute and spencer noticed "it has green eyes, like you, mom!"

i took the long way back home because i really wanted to go to the admiral flea market, but when we drove in front of it the varmints started protesting!  i don't blame them!  they were still in their soccer uniforms, and we'd been gone all day.  i guess i'll go back some other time!  

on the way home i decided to go down route 66 where i found this really cool brick at an abandoned schoolhouse.  when the smors went on our road trip back in november, i found this brick down in the cellar, and i carried it all the way back up and out to the street.  i really thought about taking it with me, but i just couldn't do it.  that would be stealing.  so i propped it up by the fence near the street.  i've thought about going back many times to see if it was still there, but today was the first time i actually did.  and guess what....it's still there!

photo of the day #108

the brick

{photo by colby hayes}

quote of the day:  "Mom, it's thundering.  Can we sleep with you?" ~the varmints

it's over

today was the last day of oklahoma core curriculum test.  thank goodness!  5th grade took tests for 4 days, their easily-distracted brains were fried!  one of my kids was griping about having to test today while the 3rd graders next door weren't.  so another girl said, "we're still testing because we're older and smarter."  a boy heard her comment and replied, "well, i don't know about older, but we're definitely smarter!"  wow.  {and this was before we started the last test!}

i knew they couldn't handle anything too difficult today, so i made my students part of my creativity project today!  i was planning on showing them a movie this afternoon while we had our popcorn and dr. pepper {that was our reward for having the cleanest classroom last quarter!} i didn't want to be showing a movie just to be babysitting, so we added some art and writing objectives.  i had the students draw a picture of themselves as monsters.  they had to give themselves a new monster name and write a description of themselves as a monster.  some of the monsters were really awesome while some were just gross {imagine that with 5th graders!}  

so now i'm going to take all the pages and put them together into a book and call it mrs. hayes' little monsters!  of course i made a monster, too.  i am a bright yellow, shaggy monster named pluffy.  i have an extra set of arms because i like to give lots and lots of hugs.  i'm a happy monster, not a scary one.

and i wore my happy socks today!  for some reason my day usually seems better when i wear happy socks!

photo of the day #107

more happy socks

quote of the day:  One can never have enough socks. ~Albus Dumbledore

not an exciting day...we took the state science test today.  the kids are getting antsy because they have to sit still and silent all morning.  so i think we're all glad that tomorrow is friday.

i was so wiped out when i got home that i laid down on my bed and fell asleep watching tv.  when i woke up i didn't feel like cooking so colby and i went to sonic while daryl and spencer were at soccer practice.  we shared my fries with this guy.

photo of the day #106

hi bird

today's quote comes from a print hanging in my friend gina's kitchen.  i love it!

quote of the day:  Today I will be happier than a bird with a french fry. ~unknown

missed photo opportunity

ugh.....i was so mad at myself this morning for NOT having my camera ready!!!

as we were driving to school this morning there was a ginormous beaver just strolling along the side of the road!  it was so cool!  i've never seen a beaver outside of the zoo before!  i should have turned around and taken a picture, but i didn't want spencer to be late for safety patrol. 

so here's the only picture i have of the beaver:

photo of the day #105

big beaver

quote of the day: "I was just thinkin' what I'd do if I was a pig eatin' peoples ribs."~Beaver Cleaver, from Leave it to Beaver 

a boy and his grill...

well, daryl passed another torch on to spencer tonight....grilling.  don't worry, he's not going to let spencer anywhere near fire unsupervised!  but spencer grilled his first hot dogs on the grill tonight, and they were yummilicious!  mine were even well-done, just like i like them!  way to go spencer!

photo of the day #104

cookin' dogs

quote of the day:"I'm a man. Men cook outside. That outdoor grilling is a manly pursuit

has long been beyond question. If this wasn't understood, you'd never get grown men to put on those aprons with pictures of dancing weenies on the front, and messages like 'Come 'n' Get It!' 
~ William Geist

bring it

the pencils are sharpened.  the students' brains are loaded.  the desks are aligned.  i say bring it. my class is ready to ace the oklahoma core curriculum test tomorrow.

photo of the day #103

bring on the test

colby quote of the day:  "It's amazing how I'm only 6 years old, but I've been alive for 8 years." {yes, that is pretty amazing.}

happy easter

it was cool and rainy here this easter, but it was still a great day.this man had a wonderful sermon {as always} this morning about god loving us just the way we are.  i noticed i wasn't the only person with leaky eyes during his lesson.then we had lunch with our friends, the howes and the stewarts, at this yummilicious italian restaurant called napolis.  i could have made a meal just on their bread! {our waiter's name was rocky. giggle}

photo of the day #102

easter lunch

after lunch i went shopping for all the food for the dinner after church.  i prepared sloppy joes for 80 people.  i was panicking tonight when i saw how many people actually stayed to eat.  i was afraid there wouldn't be enough, but we had just the right amount...only 1/2 of a bun was left over!

we watched the movie fireproof at church tonight.  i had never seen it before.  we are starting a marriage seminar next sunday night, and the elders thought this movie would be a great kick-off for that.  the acting in the movie isn't that great, but the message is POWERFUL.  i was bawling by the end of it.  if you haven't seen it yet, you should.

quote of the day:  Marriage isn't a contract.  It's a covenant. ~from the movie Fireproof

super saturday

the boys and i just finished watching the movie marley & me about 20 minutes ago, and colby is still crying!  i feel so sorry for him.  this is the first sad movie for him, and it's really bothering him.  he doesn't even want to go to bed alone.  wow.  note to self....no more sad movies for colby.

other than that, we had a great day!  both boys had soccer games this morning.  spencer scored a goal after several close shots.  one even went in the goal, hit the pole on the inside and bounced back out!

this afternoon we colored easter eggs!  easter isn't a major holiday for us, but i absolutely love coloring eggs.  the colors are so amazing and it's just plain FUN!

the boys got all the plastic eggs they could find and dumped them on the trampoline!  who knew oval shaped plastic could be so much fun!

photo of the day #101

eggs everywhere!

for supper we had breakfast!  i put my little sous chefs to work with me in the kitchen and cooked a yummy meal.  spencer was the pancake man and table decorator while colby scrambled the eggs.

it was a nice day.  i even had time for a little nap!  it just doesn't get much better.

quote of the day:  "Mom!  I gave myself a wedgie.  Wanna see it?"  ~Colby