little things....

little things that have made me happy today.....

1.  spring break is here!

2.  i got the laundry folded and the living room vacuumed!

3.  spencer and i got to have some time together, just the two of us.

4.  i talked to my brother on the phone for 45 minutes.

5.  i went to 2 scrapbook stores with my amiga, gina! {and we challenged each other to create  something with scrapbook supplies tomorrow and  bring it to church sunday to share!}

6.  i found two teeny, tiny little dice in this jar of marbles i bought today!

photo of the day #72

happy little dice

quote of the day:"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."  ~Antonio Smith

god definitely has a sense of humor!

photo of the day #71

spring break begins

i couldn't believe it was snowing today!!!  god definitely has a sense of humor!  i guess we teachers complained too much about how crazy the kids would be today so he tossed in some snow to show us it could always be worse!  it was beautiful while it fell, but it was too warm to stick.  when i stepped out to get this picture i had a whole little clan following me!!

we had parent-teacher conferences tonight, and i had very few parents schedule a meeting.  my lesson plans for after spring break were already done, my copy requests were turned in AND my gradebook was already set up and ready to go.  so what did i do while i waited for 8:00 p.m.?  i knitted using pencils for needles and watched survivor!!!  {i know it's a terrible picture of the tv, but you get the point.}

quote of the day: "A cross-eyed teacher can keep twice the number of children in order than any other, because the pupils do not know who she's looking at."  ~Four Hundred Laughs: Or, Fun Without Vulgarity, compiled and edited by John R. Kemble, 1902

too cold

it's the day before spring break {almost} and there is a chance of snow tonight!!!!!!  geez! i want warm weather for spring break!!!! it was 80 degrees here a week ago!  i think i'm sleeping in my hoodie and sweatpants tonight.

today was spencer's first playing test in music.  i don't know how his teacher bears to listen to nearly 200 kids playing their recorders!!!  that sound drives me nuts, and that's just when spencer is the only one playing!  he can play the notes just fine, but the tone of that recorder literally makes my ears hurt.  but since i'm such an awesome mom, i actually let him practice for his test in the car!!!  i drove with one hand on the wheel and the other one over my ear...

photo of the day #70

"jingle bells"

this evening on the way to church, my car was still full of noise!  the rolling stones were singing "satisfaction" on the radio, spencer and i were shouting, "slugbug, red"..."slugbug silver"...etc. {i won, by the way!} while colby was singing "alice the camel has 5 humps, alice the camel has 5 humps, alice the camel has 5 humps. so go, alice, go. boom, boom, boom."  he just kept going and going all the while getting louder and louder.  this is a picture of him SHOUTING  this song in my ear!!!!  i know i will miss all this noise when they are grown and gone, so i have to keep telling myself that.

since we got to church early, i needed something to do.  i was feeling like coloring with crayons, so i did.  here's my little creativeness for today:

quote of the day:  Boys are beyond the range of anyone's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.  ~James Thurber

and it starts....

soccer season is here.  spencer's first practice was tonight, and boy was it cold!  their coach was so cold that he cut practice time in half!   {which was totally fine with me!}

photo of the day #69

soccer season begins

i just finished watching american idol, and this season there is no one i absolutely hate!  my favorite is still danny gokey {i voted for him 23 times!}, but i also like jasmine.  i felt sorry for anoop....i wanted him to do well, but he picked the wrong song.  and simon said there's been a BIG rule change that involves the judges, but we won't find out until tomorrow night!  can't wait!

want to hear a dumb joke that i made up myself?  of course you do!  this is my creative project today......i'll even provide a picture to help!

what do you call a duck dressed as a chicken wearing a four-leaf clover?

a lucky chucky ducky!!!

quote of the day:  "With a rubber duck, one's never alone." ~author unknown

new bed!!!

check out my new bed!!!!

photo of the day #68

new bed

kind of looks like a couch, doesn't it?  that's because it is!!!!  i have moved out of my bedroom and set up camp in the living room!  daryl is still sick, but thank goodness, he finally went to the doctor today.  it's DEFINITELY not mono, but the doctor isn't exactly sure what it is.  he did blood work testing for a really BAD case of food poisoning, hepatitis or malaria!!!!  holy cow!  so the doctor isn't sure if he's contagious or not, but i'm staying as far away as possible!

my creative project for today was a writing assignment! {it wasn't really an assignment, just a challenge.}  today our students took a benchmark test.  while they are testing our team of teachers usually ends up emailing back and forth the whole time.  and usually we email about stupid things!!!  i was eating my morning snack, so i shared my experience with them.  one of the writing teachers said my description lacked details and she couldn't quite "get it." {in case you don't know, saying "i don't get it" is like cussing to a teacher.}  so here is the original version followed by the revised version, which by the way got a 4 by the afore-mentioned writing teacher! {highest score on state writing scale, again more teacher stuff...}

My banana is crunchy/chewy on the inside. L

My perfectly lightly-brown-spotted banana which has a heavenly sweet aroma was not pleasing to my palette.  When I took my first bite, I was expecting my teeth to glide easily through the soft fruit but unfortunately, they encountered a slightly crunchy-chewy texture in the middle.  At first I thought I had bitten into a worm or something because the sensation was like biting through a tender meat.  The taste was fine, but I just couldn’t get over the texture.  So now my happy lightly-brown-spotted banana is resting, unfinished, in the bottom of the round file.

i just wish i could teach writing.  it really is fun IF you like your topic!

tonight the boys got me again with the "come look at the beautiful moon" thing.  they really just wanted me to get on the trampoline again, but i just took a picture of the moon instead!  what's great is the picture is fuzzy looking, but so was the moon tonight!  {in case you don't know or remember, i have trouble getting happy moon pictures and it really bugs me!}

quote of the day:  "I'm sorry for earlier Mrs. Hayes." ~said by a student that i absolutely love but i never thought those words would ever come out of his mouth.  little things like that are what make teaching AMAZING...

something to make you laugh out loud....hopefully

avoidance

today the varmints and i stayed gone ALL DAY!  we left for church around 8:30 this morning and didn't get home until 7:30 tonight.  we're avoiding daryl.  he's 99.9% sure he's got mono, and we are staying far, far away!

so between church services, we played!  we had lunch at tin star (yum-o) and then we went treasure hunting (antiques) at river city trading post.  we all found some treasures....an awesome jar full of buttons, some sparkly rocks and more rubber duckies!!!  we were on our way to the park when i saw another antique store that was open, so i literally dragged the boys in there!  i'm glad i did, though, because i found the {happiest} clock:

we finally made it to "the park with the big blue slide" after that stop.  we were way out of our "area" being in jenks, so i didn't expect to see anyone.  but as i was walking to the playground, someone said, "amy hayes, what are you doing here?"  it was trish!  she was there with zack and drake.  small world....so colby had two buddies to play with!  it wasn't long before spencer was saying he was bored.  i don't think he was too bored because he kept going back to this slide.

photo of the day #67

big blue slide

quote of the day:  "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."  ~George Bernard Shaw

cloudy

today was a cloudy, warm day, and i LOVED it!  sunny days are fine, but a good cloudy day just makes me smile!  speaking of smiling, check out my creative play for today that made me smile and giggle!

this table was covered with rubber duckies!  so the varmints and i began difficult search for the perfect rubber ducky.  the one i chose was a ducky dressed like a chicken!!!  so i named him chuck {chicken + duck}!  these are the six we came home with.  chuck is the one on the right.

when we got home, i wasn't ready to be inside, so i went looking for signs of spring down at the ponds.  it's just a field at the end of our street that used to be a golf course many years ago. now it's become a place to ride four-wheelers and go fishing.  the boys and i spent about an hour down there.  

spencer found a guy who was fishing and just hung out with him.  i told him to come on, but the man said spencer wasn't bothering him at all. 

so colby and i went photo hunting.  each of us had a camera.  i love that he likes to take pictures almost as much as i do!  

  

here are some of the pictures from our hunt:

green is my favorite color!

we saw this bird many times

i nearly stepped on this little guy

at the end of our search, i finally found the signs of spring i was looking for:

this tree in bloom

photo of the day #66

coming soon....spring

quote of the day:  It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

never...

can you believe i've never read this book?

so tonight our creative playtime was spent reading some books aloud.  i read cat in the hat to the boys, and then i started reading skippyjon jones.  but spencer loves this book as much as i do, and he kept reading aloud with me!!!  so i finally just asked if he wanted to read it to us.  i barely got that question out of my mouth, and he already had the book in his hands!  if you haven't read skippyjon jones, you should!  it's about a little siamese cat who thinks he's a mighty chihuahua!  so of course when i read it aloud, i use my best taco bell dog voice!  one of my favorite lines in the book is, "the dude just wants his beans back."  don't ask me why!  it just makes me laugh!
apparently two books weren't enough so colby brought chicken little to read also.  it's not as good as the other two, but i'm just glad they still like to hear mom read to them!  as long as they'll listen, i will definitely read!

photo of the day #65

story time

quote of the day:  "If I had a weenie dog, I would name him Oscar." ~random thought by me today!

impromptu photo shoot

photo of the day #64

my varmints

these two little varmints know exactly what to say to get me outside with them!  tonight they wanted me to get on the trampoline SO BAD with them, but i kept telling them no.  finally they said the magic words, "but mom we just want you to lay down on the trampoline and look at the beautiful moon."

i am a sucker for observing the beauty that god has given us ESPECIALLY when they notice it, too.  the other evening, colby came running in the house shouting, "mom you gotta come out and see this beautiful sunset!  it's like orange and red all running together!  come on, come on!  get your camera!"  i can't tell how much my heart smiled when i heard that.  they weren't kidding about the sunset...it was amazing!

so tonight i crawled on the trampoline with them and stared at the moon for all of 2 seconds!  they started being silly, so i started taking pictures!  pretty soon, i was in the pictures and then rocky got in on the action!

"eww...who tooted?"

bubble cheeks!

diggin' for gold

{spencer wouldn't do it!}

shh.....naptime.

LET'S GET ROCKY UP HERE!

{aww....he's so cute!}

poochie smooch #1

poochie smooch #2 (for spencer)

poochie smooch #3

poochie smooch #4

right up my nose!!!

then he stepped on my head!

aren't they sweet?
it looks like spencer just punched colby in the jaw!

so my daily creativity was this impromptu photo shoot with varmints 1, 2 and 3!  we were laughing so hard and loud, that we probably disturbed our neighbors!  oh well!

quote of the day:  "There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between a mother and a son."  ~unknown