yesterday, january 7 and today, january 8

i know i said i was back to blogging every day, but last night i had a good reason for not blogging. i spent several hours last night inputting grades on the computer so that my report cards would be ready to upload this morning by 8.

colby patiently waited for me to finish using the computer so he could use it. i kept telling him it wouldn't take long and i would be finished in a few minutes. well, minutes turned into hours and i thought he deserved the computer.

my picture of the day for yesterday is actually of colby. he went back for his post-op check yesterday, and the doctor said his ear is healing well. the most exciting news for colby is that he could take the fluff {cotton ball} out of his ear! colby also had the option of having the doctor remove his stitches or letting them dissolve on their own. guess which one he picked.........dissolving the stitches! he didn't want anything else done to him that might cause the slightest bit of discomfort!

photo of the day

1.7.10

look mom, no fluff!

school was cancelled for the 3rd day this week due to frigid temperatures. this is a first for me! i understand why they cancelled.....they don't want kids to freeze while waiting for the bus or walking to school. but i wonder how kids up north make it to school everyday. they are always much colder than oklahoma! although, i just heard our actual overnight low could possibly make it down to below freezing!!! yikes!

needless to say, i haven't been out of the house the past 2 days! i don't do cold weather. the boys are about to drive me nuts, though. i may have to give in and take them somewhere tomorrow just to get them out of the house! cabin fever has definitely set in with them!

it hasn't bothered me yet. i slept late, ate lunch, did some laundry and knitted while watching afternoon talk shows. pure laziness, i know!

photo of the day

1.8.10

happy slippers

daryl's mom gave me these slippers because they were too small for her feet. i think they are cute, but spencer and daryl said they're ugly! what do they know? :)

daily grateful: yarn

today, january 6

since there was a heat wave today.......

i stopped by the park {where all the ducks are} after school today to take some pictures! i have to warn you.....there are a lot of pictures because i couldn't choose my favorites! i liked too many of them!

when i got there, this lady was at the water's edge feeding the ducks and geese. i said hi and told her how nice she was for coming out in the cold weather to feed them. she said her husband buys a bag of corn for her to bring to the park every time he buys feed for their horses. she said she enjoys her time with the ducks because it's peaceful.

lady feeding the ducks

this leaf picture is for you, lisa!

i love how the orange of their feet stands out against the white snow!

duck prints!

two little birdies

the shape of these seeds it just cool looking to me

as i was leaving i stopped back by the ducks and geese to see if i could get anymore pictures. this little guy was the only one brave enough to come visit with me. he wouldn't look straight at me at first....he kept one eye on his buddies and one eye on me.

goose buddy!

may i help you?

happy orange feet!

got anything to eat?

daily grateful: photo opportunities

today, january 5

no snow day today. bummer.

it was so hard crawling out of my nice, warm bed this morning! there is still so much snow and ice everywhere!!! and we are expected to get another inch or two tomorrow night! yikes!

i've been wanting to get out and take some snow pictures, so when i got home from work i snapped a few around the side of the house.

photo of the day 1.5.10

this tree is sad because it's so stinkin' cold!

daily grateful: a warm house with hot running water

today, january 4

well, today was supposed to be the first day back to school after our christmas break, but instead we got a snow day! woo hoo! i needed one more day of doing nothing before i get back to work!

while i was supposed to be finishing up my lesson plans for the week, my mind began wondering. that tends to happen a lot when i write lesson plans because i despise doing them! i mean, come on! i've been teaching for 13 years....i know what i'm supposed to be doing! why should i spend so much time writing down what i'm going to do?

photo of the day

1.4.10

lesson plans

how many other professionals have to write out their entire day down to the hour for their bosses to see? and what happens to them if they aren't doing exactly what they wrote down they were going to do at that exact hour? do they get reprimanded?

seriously, let's think about this...a bank teller has been ordered to plan out his day. so he writes down that he's only going to accept deposits from 9:00 to 10:00, but someone comes in and wants to make a withdrawal. if the teller makes the transaction then he's not following his plans and could get in trouble. but the person really needed that money right then! do you see where i'm going with this? it's not like the teller isn't going to do his job if his week isn't planned out on paper! he knows what to do, and he does it. if he doesn't, then he gets fired. simple.......ok. done griping. :)

anyway, while i was working on lesson plans, my mind began to wonder thinking about what other career opportunities were available for someone with a teaching degree. so i decided to look online. i didn't find what i was looking for right away, so i decided to take a career aptitude test to see what else might be suited for me. after 100 questions of choosing what i'd like most and what i'd like least, this is what i found out.

as far as my personality, i scored high in these areas: doer, artistic, server.

i scored medium on organizer and helper, and i scored low on persuader and thinker. the test suggested that i look into the clerical field, writing field or creative field. the next career it suggested was in the food industry. teaching was near the bottom of the list. interesting.......

is it time for a career change?

daily grateful: no school today!

colby's surgery

monday, december 28, colby had surger to repair a hole in his eardrum. he was not thrilled about this at all. i couldn't blame the little guy.

the nurse wrote 'no' on his left ear so the doctor wouldn't operate on the wrong one!

colby just kept mumbling, "i don't want to do this."

colby wasn't thrilled about having to wear this hat, either!

we didn't have to be at the surgery center that early, but for some reason we were both tired! so while colby was out, so were we!

it only took about an hour before they called us back to sit with him. when we first walked into the recovery room, a doctor or nurse {i couldn't tell.} was holding colby and he was squirming and crying. he didn't have any tears, but he was making this horrible sound. the man holding him said he was just confused and not to worry. the recovery area had recliners instead of beds, so i held colby until he was alert enough to drink some juice.

photo of the day

december 28, 2009

after we got some juice in him and put his clothes back on him we got to leave. he was still to disoriented to walk, so daryl carried him to the car. he slept the whole way back to grandma's. then he slept for a few more hours at her house.

when he finally woke up he was convinced it was no longer monday! it took about 30 minutes to make him understand it wasn't a new day. once that was settled, he was ready to play some band hero!

new year's eve

what better way to end the year than removing "head-wound harry's" bandage?

today was the day colby finally got to take that wrap off of his head and take a bath! the boy was getting pretty stale!

since we were staying in broken arrow for the week, daryl bought an antennae for our living room tv. i knew he couldn't make it a whole week with no tv! the main reason he got it, though, was he HAD to see the OU game today! he got it all hooked up, got the channels finally entered, and the sound wouldn't work on 2 of the stations. and guess what one of the channels was.......the one showing the OU game! LOL!!!!

thank goodness for the heinen family. they let daryl and spencer come over and watch the game with them. while they were doing that, colby and i had lunch with lisa at q'doba. {yum.} after that we had just enough time to go to an antique store and look around.

awesome clocks!

i just liked the arrangement of these old jewelry boxes.

after a delicious home-cooked meal prepared by wonderful me, our family bonded for many hours in front of the wii. there were some jam sessions by the rock monkeys, but mostly we played super mario for wii. that is the extremely fun, extremely frustrating latest version of mario brothers specifically for the wii. all 4 players are playing at the same time.

it took a while for us to get it together. we had a little trouble cooperating. some were too slow for others, some kept eating the other players, and some were pushing their teammates into boiling lakes of lava or off the edge of a cliff!

we finally retired the wii when it was getting close to midnight because i wanted to see the ball drop in times square. to me it's not officially the new year until i see the ball drop on tv!

i even managed to get some new year's smooches from the boys!

daryl smooch

this-is-as-close-as-you-get-smooch from spencer

photo of the day 12.31.09

poochie smoochie from rocky

another poochie smoochie

colby smooch

mom smooch

and yet another rocky smooch!

Blessing of the day: smooches from my all my boys :)

today, january 1

bunco!

tonight i played bunco for the first time! {i mean for cash!} lisa invited me to play with her bunco group. i didn't have any idea money was involved until i got there.

i had a great time. that group of women who play together is a hoot! some of them are as different as night and day, but they still get together once a month to play. the oldest member of the group is in her 80s, and she's a serious bunco player!

lisa told me that the new person usually wins a bunco prize, but i didn't believe her. at the end of the 4 games, they started shouting things out like,

"who had the last bunco?" ~not me

"who had the most buncos?" ~not me

"who had the most wins?" ~guess what! not me, either.

"who had the most losses?" ~that would be me....15 losses and 9 wins. and who knew there would be a prize for the biggest loser??? i won 10 bucks for playing such a lousy game! how awesome is that?

photo of the day: january 1, 2010

bunco buddies

Blessing of the day: Lisa Howe....i love you! you're an amazing lady and friend.

today, january 2

today i slept late. ahh......

then i spent the day knitting, playing Wii and doing laundry. i was supposed to meet nellie for antiquing and ice cream, but that didn't work out. {sigh.} in a way that was a good thing because i didn't have her christmas present. hers was the first one i finished, but i messed it up too much to give to her. so now i have time to redo it!

we had one last meal together at our BA house...chicken tacos. yum!

the boys and i watched many, many episodes of the hit 80's show, Alf!

he's hysterical! it's too bad the rest of the actors on the show were so terrible!

photo of the day, 1.2.10

happy yarn

Blessing of the day: heated mattress pad!