Breathe in...Breathe out

What a day! I was looking online for a good scream picture. Then I remembered that I had this one of Aaron from last Christmas because he didn't want his picture made in front of the tree. It's that time of year again, time for the sychronizing of Christmas schedules. So far plans are in progress for Christmas Day.

School was painful today. I can't even talk about it right now. I am taking a long bath when I finish this post. When I got home the dishes I needed to cook dinner with were in the sink. When I turned on the water to wash them, water splashed in the handle of the pasta strainer and onto my shirt, on the counter, down the cabinets, and onto the floor. My shirt was soaked! Then while the hamburger patties were cooking in the skillet a splatter of grease shot up into my right eye! My eye watered and burned. Then I spilled milk on the counter when I opened the new gallon and tried to pour it. I sloshed mashed potatoes on my pants and up on my arm. I wasn't even stirring them hard! Not a good day. Coy said that maybe the hot bath will burn all the evil out of me. I guess maybe I've been a little hard on him in my current mood.

Sela's Birthday Party

We went to Sela's 7th Birthday party today. It was themed fairies and pirates. There was a scavenger hunt, pinata, and a loooong game of duck, duck, goose.

Sela, the birthday girl!
All of the kids at the party: Maddox, Elliot, Ethne, Aaron, Josh, Sela, Brycen, Natalie, Tanner, Augustyn, Zain, and Zoie
My team for the scavenger hunt. We had to put on our pirate tattoos before we could look for the treasure. We were hard-core pirates. Aarrrrh! PS We were the winners!
Amy got agitated with us because Augustyn told Nat to read Clue #5 instead of Clue #3. Clue #5 was the last clue and the one with the big treasure box. Oops! We went back and found Clue #'s 3 & 4. This was "Here we go round the Mulberry ___" We had so much fun!
This was in the Big Treasure Box! Aaron thought it was too cool!

Aaron the photographer

On our way to and from the dentist's office Aaron wanted to take some pictures. He took lots of pictures of his sister and all it did was make her madder and madder.
Here is one of the shots of Natalie giving a particularly angry look toward Aaron and the camera.
Finally she got so fed up that she put her hand in front of the lens. Did that stop him? Nooooo..
Since Natalie wasn't being a good sport, he decided to take some scenic shots. Here is one of my favorites.
No photo session is complete without a few shots of yourself. :)

Another trip to the dentist

Natalie had plenty of time to ham it up for the camera. We waited at the dentist's office over an hour before he came in. He said he had a loooong day with lots of patients that were hard to deal with.
Dr. Roberts was making her teeth impressions in this pic. He said that Natalie was the best patient he had all day! She did so well. :) In two weeks she will get her appliances. I don't know if she really knows what she's in for.

My new class pet...

Meet my new classroom pet. Her name is She-Ra. She is super fast and hard to hold on to. She accidentally got loose when I tried to move her from the Petco box to her new cage. She ran across my classroom and under the computer tables. I even acquired a bruise on my knee from the whole ordeal. Now she safely resides in her cage.

Little Rock Convention

Wednesday and Thursday I had to go to a Reading First Convention in Little Rock. It was fun and I learned more about teaching kids how to read. It was also sad because it was officially my first days back to school.

Here's me, Heather, Jenna, Corrie, and Michelle standing in front of the entrance to the main hall.

Cathey and Mrs. Boone
It's my favorite Reading First Pal, Jackie Roberts. Who is a super big-whig now! I was so glad to see her, she used to come to my classroom but now she has bigger fish to fry.
The infamous Debbie Miller. She had an awesome presentation.

Aaron can write his name!

Look! He wrote his name all by himself! He said, "Mom, I can write my name now." He got a pencil and paper and wrote it. He said Mary Jane taught him how. I'm so proud of him. :)

Holy Crap!

This afternoon Natalie went for her expansion device consultation. She had to have panoramic x-rays done as well. After we waited about 30 minutes they finally called us into the office to let me know how much everything was going to cost. Her expansion devices (one for the top and one for the bottom) are going to cost me $800! That's after insurance pays $1000. I have to pay up on Tuesday when she goes to get her impressions done. I'm setting up a collection jar. If you would like to donate to the Natalie's teeth fund let me know.

Summer...Where have you gone?

I can't believe that school is going to start so soon. :( I'm going to miss my pool time. We went to Mom's yesterday for a cookout and a swim. The kids had a blast. Aaron has learned how to swim underwater. He can even swim all the way across the pool and tread water! He stopped using floaties this summer. He's growing up too fast. *sniff*

Natalie and Aaron had a scuffle over who got to use the tube.

This pic was taken as soon as we left Mom's house.

This one was taken 5 minutes later.

Shannon, Roy and Emily finally got to come see us. We missed Emily's birthday party in June because Aaron woke up vomiting. (Don't you just love kids?) So she finally got to open her present from us on Saturday night. She was more excited about playing in Natalie's room. :) I took a pic of Shannon opening her gift as well, but I will respect her wishes and not post it. It was a good one though! :)

We were too late...

We were too late to Brycen's birthday party. We got there just as they were loading the presents into the car and cleaning up. :( I'm going to blame it on Becky for telling us the wrong time. I swear she told me 2-4!! LoL Anyway, since we didn't make it to the party we went to Braums! Yum!