LET'S GO TO THE BAHAMA'S

Last week, my daughter brought home an assignment for a project to be due this week. Her class is learning about different countries around the world, and each student was assigned a specific country to gather information about and put together a project on a half sheet of poster board detailing facts and information about that country. On friday, they are having a "tasting party" where each student is to bring in a food that is commonly eaten in the assigned country. When Megan brought the assignment home, we both were excited about it. I have actually looked forward to her first "major" assignment like this. I LOVED doing projects like this when I was a kid. I remember doing one specific project on the Pueblo Indians, and though I don't recall one single fact about them at the ripe old age of 33, I do remember getting an A+ on my 3D project of a Pueblo Indian village! (not to brag, haha). So I promised Megan we'd get started on her project the coming weekend, and I laid the assigment sheet down on the dining room table to read it later......


FAST FORWARD to today. Here is the conversation I had in the car on the way home from school:
MOM: How was your day?
MEGAN: Good...you know what?
MOM: What?
MEGAN: My project is due tomorrow.
MOM: What project?
MEGAN: You know...the "BE-HOH-MAAAAS"
MOM: Oh, I almost forgot, you have to take food for a tasting party. OK.

Then Ryan starts talking to her and we move on to a different conversation. At this point, I am thinking all I have to do is go to the grocery store and buy a few "Carribean" types of food to pass off as a Bahamian delicasse! FAST FORWARD to the conversation I had at 7:00 tonight.

MEGAN: MOM! Are we going to do my project now?
MOM: Yeah, I'm going to the store to get some Bahama food for you in just a few minutes.
MEGAN: OK...but my tasting party isn't until Friday.
MOM: (confused), OH! Well, do you have to take the food to school tomorrow? (which wouldn't make sense if they weren't going to eat it until Friday...so that was a stupid question!)
MEGAN: NO! I have to take my project tomorrow.

Suddenly, there is a slight memory if a project beginng to take form in my mind. I knew about the food....but couldn't remember about the other.

MOM: Megan, where is the assignment paper you brought home about your project and we'll read over it to be sure we know what we're supposed to do.
MEGAN: I don't know...I gave it to you, what did you do with it? (She says, with her hands up in the air...all sassy-like. Normally, that might irritate me, but hey...she's got a point)
MOM: I don't know where it is...lets look.


She tries to help me, but unfortunately, my daughter has inherited "man disease" when it comes to looking for anything! You know...the MAN comes to the WOMAN who did not wear his belt last, and asks "Have you seen my belt?". It's a constant scenario in our home...man loose belt...wife must have done something with it. Man says he looked everywhere...even in the floor. Wife walks to his side of bed and finds belt. (Sorry to any men reading this part of the post...it's just a sore subject in our house).


ANYWAY...BACK TO THE ORIGIONAL TOPIC.


Once I find the sheet, it's nearly 8pm, and I realized Dad has to go out to the store after all, but not for Carribean food....for glue, posterboard and construction paper. Megan and I head to the internet and print off pictures relating to the Bahamas...the contry flag, the scenary, the currency, a map of the islands, etc. Megan had the best time cutting, and gluing and I snapped a few pics. Her project turned out fine for a first timer, and she was very proud of it. She did most of the work...I did have to help her a few times. But here is the Project:























Hopefully, this isn't going to set a bad example for getting future projects done. I really didn't intend for my childhood days of procrastination on school work to spill over into my child.

A chuckle from the good ol' days...

Does anybody remember these commercials before Jim Varney's "Ernest" character became popular enough to make movies? Jonathan and I were talking last night about commercials and TV shows we grew up on....Benson, SOAP, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Aire, etc. We had a blast looking up clips from all of these. In my search on You Tube, I also came across these old commercials from Ernest aka "Know what I mean Vern?". I just wanted to post a few of the ones I remembered most...have a laugh.

The Hands in the window Sprite Commercial....look at the can!


The short in the wire commercial..."My Daddy used to work on 'em!"

The "I like your little DUCK!" commercial...

WAY TO GO BABY GIRL!

Well, we got report cards again today....Megan got straight A's once again! For a while there, I really was getting concerned because she had begun to slip a little bit in her math grades that were coming home. They have math drills once a week in class, and she was taking too long to answer questions, therefore not making it to the end of the drill in some cases. Then, after talking about it, she started blurting out anything that came to mind...most of the time being off by one.
Here is an example of our practice drills at home:
Mom shows flash card 8-4=
Megan shouts: "........3!"
Mom: "No, try again"
Megan: "....uh....{counts on her fingers}, OH,4!"
With many conversations like this...it gets frustrating to both her, and me. But hey, at least this is the kind of homework I can actually HELP her with! When she gets to prealgebra, it's over...we're calling tutors. I'm helpless...and Dad has NO patience with her when it comes to homework. So here's hoping that she continues to make straight A's, becomes much more "book smart" than her parents, goes on to college, and majors in something that will provide her with a lucrative paycheck so that her parents will be taken well care of in their elderly years. That's what every parent hopes for, right?
By the way...we celebrated like last time by taking her out to eat to the restaurant of her choice, or, by spending $36 on a meal at Red Robin. Not only is it really too expensive, but it's also completely full of fat! Makes it hard to loose weight when you are given virtually no low fat choices. I did my best, but failed yet again. I've really gotta get on the ball, or I'll be the only one on my team to NOT loose the required $10 pounds for the Scale Back Alabama program. If you haven't heard of it...click HERE for more info...
No pictures from tonight...but I'll take some this weekend.

Excuse me, is this the TWILIGHT ZONE???

Sorry. I just had to document this.

I'm sitting at the computer doing my usual daily surfing of the net (and procrastinating with regards to ANY housework that I should be doing), when suddenly...my sweet, and semingly happy little girl bounces in the room and announces that she would like to help me by cleaning something. She then asks me if it's ok that she cleans the bathroom! I honestly didn't know what to say. I stammered around for a moment and probably gave her the biggest shocked look ever.

"Yes Ma'am, you absolutely may clean the bathroom"

I showed her where the clorox wipes were, and away she went. She was very proud of herself when she finished and couldn't wait for me to come view her work. So, I just had to document this remarkable event, because it couldn't possibly ever happen again!~!~!~!~!~!

The Traditional Family Pic

Every year (for the last 4 years) we have taken a big family picture on Christmas day while we are at Mom and Dad's house. This year was no different. To get everyone smiling at the same time, we decided to sing "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE" really loud until the camera flashed. It got to a point where we were laughing so hard and it was increasingly difficult to keep the pretty smiley face for the photo. And, every year, my dad sets the video camera up in the corner of the room and tapes us doing this! It is hilarious to watch footage from the past years of us doing the same thing. I know in years to come, that photo, as well as the video footage, will become PRICELESS to us! In some ways it already is! But, here is this years photo....

THE HOLIDAY BLAH'S...

I love Christmas.

I LOVE Christmas.

But I hate after Christmas.

I hate taking down the tree,

putting up the lights and decorations.

It's just so depressing.

So, I'm protesting!

I'm keeping the decorations up forever!

Just Kidding! Seriously, I hated taking it all down, but I'm glad to have the house back. With such a small home, and such a large tree...it eats up our space. But this year, we've got more space than ever! We have officially moved the kids into their own bedrooms, and all of the toys have now left the living room (plus or minus a few they keep bringing back), and the toys are all in their own rooms now! I almost feel like I have a new house with all the walking space! It's awesome!

So how was your Christmas? Ours was great. Although, we had a lot of sadness surrounding us this year. On the Friday before, Jonathan lost an Uncle. He was elderly, but it's one of the last Uncle's he has, so it's sad. And on that same day, my cousin, Ricky, was killed in a car accident. He was in Calera, and apparently had a seizure while driving, and the accident killed him instantly. He had just started having seizures, and his neice was just diagnosed with epilepsy the same day, so we're wondering if it's all related in that part of the family now. I had not seen him in at least 15 years, but it was so sad to see him at the funeral. Please pray for that family, as they are having a hard time dealing with the sudden passing of Ricky.

Then on Saturday, a friend I work with lost her dad to pancreatic cancer. He fought a long hard battle...but the Lord healed him forever with a perfect body on December 22. It's definatly been tough for my friend, and my heart goes out to her. I pray you will lift her up as well.

Between all of that, I had to take my son to the doc on Christmas eve because he got so sick with "the crud" as the doc put it. He was running a low grade fever, and had major congestion. He was plain miserable. But we soldiered on through and he was actually much better on Christmas day....just a little groggy. On the way home from the doc on Christmas eve, I witnessed a massive car wreck unfolding before me, just 3 cars ahead on the Expressway. Cars spinning, flipping, and lots of smoke! I was praying the whole time "God please spare us from this!!!!!" When everything came to a rest, a SUV was lying upside down on the side of the road right next to my car. Miraculously, everyone was ok...thanks to seatbelts. When the car came to a rest, I really thought they were dead because all I saw were arms hanging out the windows. But then they got up and walked away! AMAZING! After witnessing that, and loosing my cousing in a wreck a few days prior, I was so rattled! Needless to say, we drove very cautiously the rest of the day and even now!

But, at least we made it through the holidays. My kids are spoiled beyond measure. They love all of the toys they got, and my hubby even got me a great gift this year! A new camera! YAY! He did good!

Here are a couple of pics from our holiday....

Here's all the Grandkids my parents have...They're all getting so big.

Granny gave Ryan his own bible...and he loves reading-uh-MOMMY reading it to him.

Another of Megan's favorite gifts...a picture frame that says "Brother 4 Sale". She specifically asked for this after seeing it at the Justice For Girls store....I can't convince her that he's not for sale! Go Figure. After opening this, she said "Oh Yeah! I am SO putting Ryan's picture in this!"

Megan leaving the reindeer food out on the lawn. Poor Ry was so sick, and already asleep, so he couldn't do it.

THE BIG ONE! The kids were so surprised to get a trampoline! They never expected it. We've ALL had a lot of fun jumping on it!

So now, to you and yours, I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2008 bring you peace, happiness, love and luck! May you find yourself in the center of God's will, and surrounded by his grace!