Baseball at MSU

Today we went to a Mississippi State baseball game to hang with my sister who lives in Lousianna. My brother in law's nephew was playing baseball and they came to see him. We all went out to eat afterwards, where this picture was taken. Rocky, brother of the baseball player, is in the picture, as is Grandaddy, Karen's husband's Bob's, father.
Funny Cameron!
We were at the very, very cold baseball game and Karen, Jonathan, Cameron and I left early because Karen felt Cameron's feet and they were freezing! So we headed to Barnes and Noble for a Starbucks. As we were trekking through the wind for the car, Cameron said, "My feet are so freezing, I can't move them! All I can do is pick them up to walk." When we got to the car, Cameron was playing with her fake pink cell phone. She said, "Mom, I need some more minutes for my cell phone. When can you buy me some more minutes?" She was such a trooper today. She only mentioned two times at the game that she was cold. When we were leaving, Cameron looked up at me and said, "I didn't get to hug Uncle Bob! I have to go find him!" I found that surprising because Cameron does not like to talk to people and did not talk to him all night, even though he tried several times to talk to her.
A little more about Grandaddy: Karen got married when I was around 8 years old. I feel like I grew up with her husband Bob's family. They are like family to me and they even came to my wedding, which was at Mississippi State. He is such a kind southern gentleman, and he always makes children feel so at ease. That's what I remember about him. I love it when my kids get to see him because he talks with them like I remember talking to him.

Crazy car rides

We spend a lot of time in the car on trips. Today we drug the three youngest with us for 3 hours scouting out a town we may be opening a gym in. Then we drove to Starville to pick up Raeley. All this in the rain. After grabbing a bite to eat, we head home, late, full, and sick of driving in the rain. So we play the Itunes game. Mark started this with the boys and what amazed me was how fast they knew some of the songs. Our family is not quite the musical family, and I, being the talk radio junkie, have lost touch with music. That's quite a shame in itself because music is a powerful medium. The I tunes game is simply just putting your I tunes on a random playlist and we see who can name the song first. Raeley was complaining on who loud it was and I told her we were getting her ready for high school parities - which Mark quickly corrected me to say college parties. It was one of those you had to be there moments, but it was pretty funny! I learned tonight, though, that I'm shortchanging myself by not embracing music more. I also have come to realize that I am beind the times not having an Ipod. ANd most intriguing to me is the fact that the boys can pick up information so quickly enoter in it t eh kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkksorry. fell asleep. Goodnight!

A Good Day at Work

It is nice after a long day of work to be able to sit down and put my thought down and visit my favorite blogs. Even if I don't have time to keep up with the real world face to face, I can still remotely connect. Today was a really good day, which was like a cool breeze on a muggy day. Because I forgot to set out soccer clothes before I went to bed, I left for work a little late but my meeting was rescheduled and everything just fell into place like clockwork. I even got to visit one of my favorite chiropractors, Dr. Wooten, in Russellville, AL. He has great rates and his staff also massages you before and after your adjustment. Nice touch!
Since my meeting was rescheduled, I also had a little extra time to stop by my father in law's work where he was grilling hamburgers, eat lunch and hang out with him, my sister in law Sandi, and their friends. I also made it by my mother in law's gallery to pick out a few frames for some artwork and visit with her for a minute, run upstairs to the loft to hug my brother in law. He was too busy to make it to lunch, and honestly, that made me feel better that other people are sometimes swamped, too.
It was nice to see family and have a great day with staff. The staff worked hard all week and made good progress. We had some creative ideas for the upcoming months and creative brainstorming sessions. Truly inspiring! It puts me in the mood to throw a party for them! I have some creative ideas for that, too. Oh, not to forget my husband, but he brought me flowers last night with a sweet card. For no particular reason. Wow. Did I mention it was a good day?

Raeley at Mardi Gras

Raeley is having fun with her cousins in Lafayette. They went to Mardi Gras parades and she got to spend the night with baby Mackenzie, Michael's baby. In the pictures are Luke (my sister Karen's son), his wife Kerrie, and Raeley.

Eggshell Mosaics

After a few months of saving eggshells (I didn't realize how mnay eggs we ate!), we dyed eggshells and set to work. It was lots of fun! This was part of our unit on Ancient Rome with Learning Adventures.
Raeley and Jonathan used large shells symetrically.
Robert used small and large eggshells according to color to add dimension through the sizes.

Cameron (picture coming soon) crushed the eggshells and used them like glitter. Her way was the fastest!

Wordless Wednesday - Just the Dogs!

One of the kids took this picture and I thought it was cute!

Pinewood Derby

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from the Pinewood Derby. The boys made the cars with Big Daddy and painted them by themselves (with my help). When we got to the Derby, there were some great looking cars and most of the cars used stickers to decorate. That really made a big difference. As you can see, it was very hard for the boys to ge the lines straight without bleed through. Robert was really psyched for the race and he didn't place. It was very dissappointing for him, especially since Jonathan got third place. The two boys who got first and second were the two boys that beat Robert. It was a good learning experience for him. One of the boys even styled his car very similar to Robert's with the flag theme and the shape. They had a great time making the cars. Jonathan was very excited about getting 3rd place which made it so hard for Robert. He tried really hard to be glad for Jonathan, but he couldn't stop the tears. Even though it was so hard to watch him be disappointed, it was a good life lesson for him.

A New Unit

Today we are starting a new unit! We will be covering medival times and botony, learning a medival craft (boys: whittling, Raeley: Calligraphy), disecting plants, planting an herb garden, studying on the health benefits of herbs, and doing the unit extra fast since there's really not that much history (hence the dark ages). Raeley is visting my sister this week so she can play with my new great neice, Mackenzie (sister Karen's son Michael's 7 month old baby girl)! We will miss her and as resident kitchen cleaner and babysitter, it will take some juggling on my part to adjust! She's going to have a great time, but I'm already lonely with out her to visit with.

Not Me Monday - Expensive Jeans

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I was visiting 3 of our fitness centers in one day last week. Suprise visit! I love those! I walk in to club #1 and I was walking around inspecting the cleanliness. We have mirrors that line the walls in our free weight area and I almost feel like I'm following myself as I walk by wall after wall of mirrors. So, as I am following myself around in the mirrors I notice that my jeans are so yesterday! I was horrified. My favorite two pairs of jeans were terribly wrinkled in the laundry basket waiting to be folded, so I donned on an old favorite. The length was all wrong, the knees faded, the tapered cut unflattering. UGH!
I did not call my husband and ask if I could go buy a pair of expensive jeans. He did not say,

Sure, if they look good on your butt.

I did not high-tail it off to my favorite women's boutique, Audie Mechel, that was conveniently located on the way to the next club. Luckily, the fashion savvy owner was in and we picked out a huge stack of jeans for me to try on. 30 minutes later, she cut the tags off and rang me up, and out I walked, looking fashion savvy myself, in my new expensive jeans. When I called to update my husband, I did not learn that "expensive jeans" need to be defined to husbands! I really did not do all of that, because that would be too vain of me!

Moms Night Out

I wish I would have looked at the street last night, because friends said they had to park at the end of the street and walk down to get to our house! We had a great mom's night last night, and although I only quickly did a head count, I think there were 30 women there. What was all the excitement about? We had the Queens there - Penny, the Coupon Queen, and Anita, the Batch Cooking Queen. If you are like my husband, asking "What is batch cooking?" it's cooking a lot of one dish at once. It's different from once a month cooking in that you don't cook lots of different meals, but when you cook one meal, you make a huge batch and divide it up. For instance, Anita makes her own spaghetti sauce but only cooks it two or three times a year. They eat spaghetti quite a bit, and she has a big family, so when I say batch, I mean think big. Both ladies gave us lots of great tips, inspiring us to be smart at the grocery store, stay organized, and save money! Penny doesn't cook lots at once, she buys lots at once, often getting stuff for free!
What did I take away from it all? I want a Bosch (whatever that is), it pays to be organized, and I'm missing a great opportunity not cooking in batches -it's REALLY easy! Anita freezes in her casserole dishes, novel idea. I may scout out the Salvation Army and garage sales for more dishes. Reality check, with what time? I'll ask Mark's parents to help out there!
Penney's great tips are all on her website. Click on the cents off banner at the bottom of her blog. No need to play the grocery game if you check her blog!
It was a great night, and good to see so many friends. If you haven't hung out with a friend in a while, just pick up the phone! Tonight was very easy to organize.

The Birthday Cake

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but this cake is bubble-looking, smooth, kinda futuristic. It's a cake covered in fondant icing(you know, what Ace of Cakes uses). If you like to bake, like play dough, and you are not a perfectionist, you really, really should give this a try! I have lots of fun making these cakes. Here is the recipe I use.

Tips: When there is more than one layer that you want to cover separately with fondant, you need to put a support in between the two. I use cardboard covered with aluminum foil in the shape of the top layer, cut smaller so it is concealed. Then I use straws cut to just above (almost flush to) the surface of the bottom layer that is already covered in fondant. The top layer sits on the cardboard which is on the straws, but you can not see a gap. When you cover the second layer, I put the cardboard and the cake elevated (sitting on cups or an overturned bowl) so I can tuck the fondant underneath the cake (and cardboard). Then I carefully transfer the cake to the top of the straws.

When you are laying the fondant on top of the cake, and it gathers in the corners, or overlaps, keep gently stretching it so the gathers end up below the cake and you can cut them off. A pizza cutter works great for cutting the ends of the cake. Make sure you leave enough around the edges. Take your time putting the fondant on the cake. I make the most mistakes when hurrying to lay the fondant on top of the cake.

If you look closely at this cake, you can see that it looks wavy or mottled. One reason is because I used store bought cake icing instead of a firmer homemade buttercream icing. I also totally forgot to ice the bottom layer! The top layer didn't have the fondant tucked underneath smoothly because I had to cut it to get it in the hook of the question mark. I cut the fondant into the thin strips and laid them on the bottom of the cake. The strips do not go together perfectly, that is why I say don't do this if you are a perfectionist. It would take too long to get that good in my opinion!

Wordless Wednesday - Just a moment at our house

I thought this picture summed up what you might find at our house at any given moment. Joanthan and a neighbor just hanging out. But take a look around. Can you find the mini barbie? The weather looks nice. I'm glad it's warming up. Look at the floor. You can tell I've been working more. Who took the picture? I have no idea. You never know what you'll find on the camera these days. Right now this was hidden among 30 pictures of flowers from creative angles. The kids are into modern photography. Is that such a thing?

HealthWorks

Jonathan trying his leg strength.
Blurry Cameron because of my camera setting. She stayed in the young kid area, not as overwhelming! After a while she ventured out into the big room.
Raeley and friend playing a game.
This was the hit - virtual dodge ball!

We took the kids to HealthWorks for Robert's birthday and it was great fun! HealthWorks is a new interactive health museum for kids. Three families met us there, but it wan't kids play and moms chat, because of it's interactive nature, you really need to be with the younger kids. The kids were not ready to leave after two hours! It is cheap entertainment for them and I look forward to bringing them back there soon.

Not Me Monday

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WOW, what a week I've had. lots of ammo for a Not Me post. I was in a mood last week, which, unfortuately coincided with Valentines Day. Oh well. Enjoy, and may we all have a better week!

I did not skip planning my sales meeting, ignore getting the #s for the week together, or put off grading school work and use that time to blog, watch tv,or play on the internet. That did not include looking up cool hotels for a vacation I might just not decide to go on in a few weeks. I don't need to get away, and Mark really doesn't! Vacations are a total waste of time. When we were discussing open weekends, I did not totally forget about the month of March, meaning we may go sooner than I thought we possibly could. Not Cool.

I did not get mad at Mark and gave him a card and gift for Valentine's Day. I also did not stop talking to him during dinner. Stay tuned for the make up for that one! After our romantic dinner, I did not ignore him at Barnes and Noble and then insist we go grocery shopping because my favorite web site alerted me to a too-good-to-pass-up-deal. My sweetie, choosing to let it affect him (Not-what a great guy!) quoted the David Letterman interview Joaquin Phoenix (which was so not funny. I did not watch it four times!) Sorry you couldn't make it tonight! HAHA! My frustrations did not stem from vain origins over him running late, leaving me to straighten my hair by myself. Being angry while straightening hair equals a wonderfully smooth job!

I did overextend myself and plan a birthday party for 20 boys and then plan a dinner party for an hour later, including a 93 year old woman, who although the party overlapped for 30 minutes, was so overwerwhelmed with the action, couldn't eat when dinner was ready. Brilliant! By the way, the birthday party was not cool at all, and was very difficult to plan. I am not patting myself on the back for that one and I'm not showing pictures of the cake to everyone.

This one takes the cake: I did not go to the wrong location for the basketball game, causing the team to forfeit. We did not have grandparents in town for the only game of the season they would be able to make. The kids did a scrimage and Robert scored a basket, but no real game for grandparents.

Scavenger Hunt

Robert's Scavenger Hunt birthday party was Saturday and it was great fun! I will get more pictures later. It didn't take much planning on my part and didn't involve too much time keeping during the party so the kids had free time to play. Scavenger Hunts can be time consuming, but I got everything off the internet. We had two hunts, one around the neighborhood, and one around the house. Here's another link I liked but didn't use.

When I did the indoor hunt, I numbered the clues on the master sheet and under the #, I wrote the place before. Then I numbered the envelopes. On the back of the envelope, I put the place before because that is where the current clue is to be hidden, and put the clues inside. For instance, if a hiding place is the shower, and the next place is the garage, the clue with the write up for the garage will go into the envelope with shower written on the back. Because we had so many boys, I divided them up into teams, each team a color. I had two different "tracks" and the envelopes had either a blue or green star on them. I hid the clues when they were on the neighborhood scavanger hunt. The boys knew they could only open the envelopes with the right color star on them and with the numbers in the right order. They were timed on how fast they found all the clues.

For the party favors, I took another short cut. I just got a certificate from Baskin Robbins for each kid. The certificates come in $2 increments and the kids were so excited!

Stay tuned for pictures of the cake. It turned out great!

Parkway Pregnancy Center

Mark and I attended the local pregnancy center banquet last night. We were a little involved with a pregnancy center in a major metro area where we used to live, so moving to a small town, their banquet was on a smaller scale. We were looking forward to the opportunity to see what services they offer. I was pleasantly surprised with how large the turnout was. When Mark and I were talking about the events of the evening, and how good it was to do something with a pregnancy center again, I made the comment, "Yeah, but I wish I knew more statistics. How many women did they help? How many women even pass through their doors?" Mark immediately replied back, "Does it matter if they save 100 or 300 or 500 babies? They are still saving babies." At that the tears fell from my eyes. Even if it's one baby, it's one sweet little life. I'm glad we went. I'm going to clean out the attic some and see what they can use. I can use more space, anyway. What can you do? Anyone can find a way to help.

Wordless Wednesday - Buster the dog

Buster busted! As you can see, Buster got caught getting his head caught in a box of dog treats!

Lately Buster has been our escape artist. We finally put up an electric wire along the inside of the fence to shock the dogs when they try to get out. Yesterday, however, Buster shocked us all by jumping over our 6 foot fence! He jumped at the fence then climbed clawed up and catapulted himself over. Still the escape artist!

Random Daily Happenings and COOKING!

Today was another good day with the kids. I think they are getting used to working hard - I call it the pressure cooker approach. When things get busy with work, I have to rely on the kids more and they always pull through (I know that's what you are thinking - gee, ya think she'd learn - See post from Sunday).
Here's the pressure cooker approach: things get under pressure for a little while, but when the steam is gone, everything is tender, nicely seasoned, and so much better than it was before. In addition to me working more, we've been doubling up on days in school and the kids are handling it like champs.

Tonight I am preparing three meals (grilled chicken and pork chops, and meatloaf) I'm also making extra meatloaf to freeze. Raeley is also going to cook one meal this week. She decided on Chicken Noodle Soup and toast. I grilled extra chicken for Raeley to put in her soup. I have some left over chicken broth I'm ready to get out of my freezer.

We have a joke about toast! To digress for humor's sake: One day I told Raeley I wanted her to start fixing breakfast for everyone while I am working out in the morning so the kids wouldn't eat cereal every day and so I could have a protein-full breakfast after my workout. We decided to start with dinner so she could cook when I was home. One morning I walk into the kitchen and there are crumbs all over the counter and a pile of toast on a paper towel. It sat there and sat there, so finally I inquired to who felt so compelled to make toast and not eat it or clean it up. Raeley said, "Mom, I don't know how to fix breakfast, but I can make toast!" I think she did it so I wouldn't ask her to fix breakfast again! Sweet Raeley, for some reason (maybe because she knows she can, or she has a thing for toast), likes to make toast for everyone. She has realized, though, that no one likes cold toast and the other kids LIKE to use the toaster. We have a funny story about toasters, but I'll save that for another time.

I ran into my friend Penny at the grocery store. She bought Cheerios for 69 cents a box! I had a coupon for them in my purse (for some strange reason) so I bought a few boxes, too. I only saved around $2.50 a box. She saved more than $3.50 a box! She tells you how she does it on her website, and no matter where you live, these tips can help you. They are not regional.

I started reading The Shack today. It forces introspection. So far I really like it. I'll keep you updated on that.

Not Me Monday

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I did not skip every workout this week, stay up late every night working. I did not work way too much. I did not do anything else worth mentioning this week because I was just too busy, totally neglecting my blog.
However, I did not open the gate to the back yard right as I was going to go out to eat. I did not notice that my dog was in charging stance and do it anyway, thinking karma was with me because we were about to go out! I'd never admit to that, anyway. I did think it was hilarious that we had to wait and wait for him to come home so we could leave (NOT!) Where was my brain on that one?

Expectations

As parents, we work hard to give our kids so much: a full belly, warmth, a happy childhood, good memories, fun experiences. But these days it seems like we shortchange our kids. We don't really ask for much out of them. We feel like we have a good day if they get ready for the day on time with out much complaining. We don't set goals for them that really challenge them, except maybe to be respectful and not lazy.
My husband, Mark, was talking to his dad today at the old homeplace. Mitchell remembers when he would watch the chickens under the house through the floor boards. He remembers how cold it would get at night. And we are glad if our kids just get along with each other.
We have been working to bring up the status of our house from pigpen to orderly. Reaeley made a great suggestion a few weeks ago that we decided to give a try. The kids each have an area of the house to keep clean; Raeley's being the kitchen. She has been doing a great job, even helping wash dishes after dinner, leaving me with a huge feeling of freedom! It's been a struggle with the other kids so it hasn't been smooth goings.
I was out a few days this week working and I immediately noticed how nice everything looked when I got home. The kids were in bed, and Mark just calmly and nonchalantly said they cleaned their areas. The difference was what I expected clean to be and what he did. I was looking at bare minimum. He had them clean the whole area, floor and all. Ingenious. Expectations. I really feel we shortchange our kids. I would love for them to get a bigger picture of the world and a vision to tackle the world, not just tackle their rooms and get out of the house on time.

Funny Figuring

We went out to dinner last night. You know how it is - I cleaned house all day (meaning picked up junk and rearranged it to make the house appear cleaner)and was not going to mess up the kitchen cooking. Mark's dad, Mitchell was working on the old homeplace so he drove over to eat with us. We ate outside to enjoy the nice weather and avoid the hour long wait but Cameron and Raeley were in short sleeves. PawPaw grabbed a few jackets out of the car to help them keep warm. I thought this was a cute picture!
When the waitress brought us drinks, she mixed up Cameron's sprite and Raeley's water. Raeley took a sip of her "water" (which she ordered as diet water - haha) and made a face -oh! not water! She doesn't like drinking high sugar drinks and carbonation which I attribute to all the hard work of the organic, no sugar diet she ate when a little one. At least, until #2 came along. Cameron missed that interaction because she took a sip of her sprite and made a face - oh! not sprite! She doesn't like drinking water which I attribute to all the convenience of the processed, high sugar diet she eats. Reality trumps ideals.
Back to the story, Raeley switched the drinks and several minutes later, Cameron said "I guess it needed to sit. It just wasn't ready yet." OK, that needed an explination. "The water is sprite now. I guess it just needed a little more time." Glad she figured that one out.

Busy with work

Just wanted everyone to know that I have been very busy with work but I haven't forgotten about you. Did you notice my counter passed 1000 views? I'm excited about that, and I haven't checked in so long, that I missed it getting near the roll over!

I need to be more in touch with the business and I think that me stepping back in has been and will be a good thing. I guess I really needed the break, and I was even thinking that The Juggling Act wasn't as much of a good fit. Well, I'm back to juggling work and school again, and trying to fit life in there somewhere. I am also trying to find my new role as I visit the clubs. I think my role will be to make sure our staff have what they need on a marketing aspect. This takes planning and has quite a bit of responsibility because if I'm late or forget something, or don't plan far enough in advance, the marketing just doesn't happen.

I'm trying to think of any updates from the kids. Raeley really wants me to accelerate her school work so she can work ahead. She has a late birthday so she's the oldest in her grade and she wants to move up. I'm trying to wrap my brain around that since in homeschooling, I don't believe in firm grade lines anyway. It's more about expectations. I will be working with her more on Literature and Geography and encouraging her to read fictional books on a higher level. She's stopped reading the last three I got for her. I will be testing Robert and Raeley this year.

Cameron is really enjoying me reading aloud to her from The Little House in the Woods. We had to miss several nights. Oh, and she doesn't want to read for anyone but me. Power play at hand that we are working through.

Robert wrote a journal entry on how much he loves his new teacher, Mrs. Farmer. He really enjoys the new art class she's doing with them and he says that everyone loves Mrs. Farmer.

Jonathan has been working much better independently, which is good since I've been so busy lately. One thing that has helped has been the fact that he's out of long division and three digit multiplication right now.

Tonight was game night with the teens and tweens from the homeschool group and it was great seeing Raeley have fun with kids her age that are homeschooled, too. She doesn't get that alot and gets tired of feeling "different" which is important for a young lady her age. There was a good turn out and the parents had fun, too. Mark stayed home with the other kids and when I got back, he had no voice left. No, it wasn't from yelling at the kids!

On a sad note, our best friends here in Tupelo will be moving in a few months. We did lots of school stuff together, so we will REALLY miss them, and they are lots of fun! I am sad about that one.

For other great Not Me's check out McMamma's blog!

Do you ever cringe when your kids do something that affects their appearance? Do you put off family portraits for that reason? I didn't worry when I found a clump of my daughter's hair on the floor last night. I also didn't worry about it when I got a phone call from my daughter's friend's mom saying that she found some of my daughter's hair on the floor, but not to worry, she couldn't find where it was missing on her head. I forgot all about that conversation because she looked fine to me. UNTIL a month later when it looked like she had new baby hair growth at the top of her hair line. Upon further investigation, her friend cut her hair because it was too tangled. There were a few small clumps randomly cut in other places since it was tangled there, too. 4 months later she has bangs, not spiky wisps. Now this. The band was stuck. Big sis was busy, so hello scissors! I'm not worried.Do you ever have the urge, homeschool moms, to read as fast as you can when you read aloud to your kids? Not me! Or what about finding you are a month behind on grading? Or wait until the end of the semester to enter all the grades in? Oh wait, it's past the end of the semester. I better get busy!

Do you ever wonder if your kids notice when you ground them for not cleaning their rooms but theirs is cleaner than yours?

Just wondering if you do, but not me!

Meeting the Governor

My niece Jordan was invited to meet Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Her parents, my sister Suzanna, and brother in law David, and my mom and dad accompanied her and they all had great things to say about how nice the governor was.. She was invited with other paralympians from Texas to Austin. It was a great trip for her. Jordan is visually impaired and went to the Paralympics in Beijing in Judo. She is now training for 2012 in London. Check out her website here. Jordan has had some great experiences, such as training at the Olympic Center in Colorado Springs and being on the Oprah show. There are clips on her website.