Crazy lady in slippers!

Well, this morning I took the girls to swimming lessons. We have to be there at 10:30, and usually we zoom in at 10:29, tires squealing. Well the last couple days I have been doing great and have gotten there around 10:20! This morning was the same, we casually found a parking spot, I didn't have to say my usual, "hurry it up, we're running late!" I step out of the van and something just feels a little weird...I look down and guess what I have on my feet, MY BRIGHT GREEN SLIPPERS!!! I debated whether or not I should go back home, but then I would break my "1 billion to 2" record, with 2 in a row of being early to something. So here is what I did...

I stole Jenna's shoes and made her go barefoot! What else could I do?

Has anybody ever wondered...

what a typical car ride is like for the Tackaberry family? Well, I am going to fill you in. First a little background information. Haley, our 4 year old, really NEVER stops talking. From the moment she wakes up to the moment she falls asleep she is talking. (Duane and Lynn, Brittany and Alyssa, when you come on Monday, you will get to experience her! :) ) Well ok...so here is our car ride this afternoon on the way home from errands.

We are happily driving along and for some reason I start in this big long lecture about how I was so tired of telling the girls to put their stuff away. "Put your shoes away, clean off the coffee table of all your stuff, why are the band-aid wrappers all over the living room floor?" I went on and on and finally I said..."I just get sick of hearing my own voice!!" ......And then it all begins...Haley pipes up from the back seat of the van. (She has "graduated" to the back because she has learned, as of this week, to buckle herself, this was the criteria to her being able to sit in the back seat) Anyway she pipes up from the back seat, "Well Mom, I just get so sick of MY own voice too!!!" You can just about imagine the reaction to that one. We all burst into laughter. Jenna said, "Haley, I'm just "spitballin' " here, but if your sick of you're own voice, QUIT TALKING!!!" Haley then for the next 10 mins. took the word "spitballin' " and put it into every single sentence she said from then on out, until we got home!!! Ok, that's not all...

I notice Jenna watching me...(she has graduated to the front seat now)...I look over at her and give her the look like, "why are you looking at me?" and she says, "Mom, you have a double chin!!!!!!" I gave her a look of disgust and said, "Jenna, you are so good for the self-esteem." And she said, "What, double chins are good, it means you can yodel!!" So I guess if I ever take up yodeling I have the chin for it!

Meanwhile through all of this, I notice that Mikayla is strangly quiet, I look back and she is pouting over something. I have decided that I have had too much conversation on this car ride and decide to ignore it!

I am now dropping the kids off at home, paying Jenna WHATEVER she wants to babysit the younger 2 for 1 hour while I go to my classroom and work in solitude! As you can imagine the car ride there won't be quite as funny (or humiliating).

Mikki put Scooby's tail in pony tails.

Mikayla and Haley use chocolate pudding as fingerpaints.

I know, I know...It's been a couple days since I have updated my sight. I don't have much to report. The last several days haven't been that exciting. Swimming lessons started Monday so that is what we did in the morning, then we went home for lunch. Haley had Ramen Noodles, Mikayla had spaghetti with Parmesan cheese on it and Jenna had a cheese pizza, and I had a homemade taco salad. Am I crazy for making four different lunches? Yes, I am but when you don't have anything planned and you make the casual comment, "What do you want for lunch?" You get 4 different answers. After our 4 different lunches we went back to the pool, met lots of people from the school and the girls had a great time playing with them.

Today Mikayla, Jenna and I all got haircuts. Mik and I got trims and Jenna got a couple inches taken off, layered etc. She looks quite stylish! The rest of the day we just hung out. I worked about 4 hours on Curriculum Guides for School. I am about half way done with History. My room is coming along. I worked Monday night for several hours. I cleared off my back table where I hold my "book clubs chats", I have about 3 or four more piles to go through! When i started out Monday night my desk was totally clean, now it is piled very high. Did I just move the piles from the back table to my desk?!?! :(

We are off to see Lucky again tomorrow. We have been told that he got his feet manicured but will probably be sore for a few days but the girls are anxious to get on his back and see if he will take even one step! They would be thrilled with that!

Have a good one!

Homecoming

Jenna and Jeff returned home yesterday afternoon. They returned one day earlier than originally planned. Melissa Algrim who along with her husband, Dustin, were vital members of our church right at its beginning for several years, her father died from cancer Friday night. So Jeff cut his conference one day short to come home and be with the family. He will preach the funeral tomorrow night.

Jenna came home very very tired, but full of many stories of all the fun she had. They swam every day and did archery and went canoeing. She had an egg smashed on her head and got to "shave" her counselor. She is already planning on going next year. The camp theme was Spiritual Gifts and how sometimes you have to wait until God reveals his gift that he has "planted" in you. She came home with seeds of some kind that we are to plant and then it will be revealed what kind of seed (gift) was planted. I thought that was an excellent hands on lesson for them. Jenna has said that she thinks one of her spiritual gifts might be music as she loves to play guitar and has thought about becoming a worship leader. We will see what God has in store for her as she grows and develops.

Tomorrow will be another fun day as the girls have swimming lessons (all 3 at once!- I get to sit in peace and quiet for 40 mins!) and Jenna has guitar lessons. We will probably go swimming in the afternoon. They wanted to go today, but I felt Jenna needed some down time.

I will have Jenna give me a picture of camp that she took on her digital camera and I will post that tomorrow. (p.s. She changed her underwear 3x during a 6 day camp, well...it could be worse!---If you think that this is a really weird thing to report than-shame on you- you haven't been keeping up on my posts and you will need to read some past ones to catch up!---Oh, and also. Thanks to all that sent cards and notes, she had to sing every single day!!! One day she got 7 cards!!!)

Have a good one!

Meeting Lucky

Yesterday was the day that the girls have been waiting for for months now. They got to meet Lucky! Lucky is a "pony" (who is rather large for a pony) that Grandpa Dale is borrowing from its owner for the summer, or longer, probably as long as Grandpa wants to keep him. He is 20 years old and very gentle. He loves to eat carrots and apples. Grandma Jo already has him spoiled! Lucky has been rather unlucky as his previous owner didn't take very good care of him and has been neglected. His hooves are so long that he can barely walk! Grandpa is going to ask the Amish neighbors who they get to take care of their horses hooves. We are hoping that is not too late to help him. If they get so bad, there is nothing that can be done for his feet.

In keeping with their personalities, Haley wasn't shy and marched right up and fed him carrots and apples, and Mikayla hung back and had to be prompted to pet or feed him. She eventually warmed up and spent lots of time out in the barn with him. When she didn't know I was there, I "caught" her just talking up a storm to him. And like the first picture shows she eventually got on his back, but that didn't last long, as she was pretty scared. They don't have a saddle yet, but his owner says that he is so gentle you can ride him bare back, therefore we just have a rug thrown over his back.

The girls spent all 7 hours petting Lucky, jumping on the trampoline, checking out the neighbors pond watching the frogs jump, and swinging. It was truly a wonderful day! When we got home I put Haley right to bed (after a bath of course, you could barely see her feet from all the dirt, because of course you can't wear shoes outside in the summer) and she was "out" almost before prayers were said.

We had quite a few storms last night so eventually both girls and both dogs were sharing a bed with me. We are supposed to get more storms today so our plans to go to the pool are off. Tonight we are going to Godfather's Pizza with Kris, Bill and Mackenzie Dawkins and then hopefully if it doesn't rain too much our churches softball game.

Mikayla has informed me that she misses Jenna. She said, "I miss fighting with her!" Oh boy, look what I have to look forward to when Jenna returns on Monday. Jeff and Jenna both return on Monday as Jeff is in Indiana right now (Wed.-Mon.) at a "boot camp" for church planters. Most of the church planters in attendance are either just starting out or are thinking about starting a church so much of the information he already knows, but it is a good refresher. He is exhausted he says. He will drive from Anderson, Indiana (the boot camp is on the campus of Anderson University) to Goshen and pick up Jenna late Sunday night and then they will come home on Monday.

Many of you have asked about an update on Jenna, here is a email that I got from my sister this past Wed. when she went to pick up her son Quinn from camp:

Leah said...
"I had a "Jenna sighting" tonight when we picked up Quinn!! She looked so fresh and clean. I guess all the girls took showers...with their swimming suits on. Jenna said she didn't really think she needed to change into clean underwear though... so she just put her old ones back on. Ha!!! ...seems she's learned a few tricks from Madison (who assured me that she changed her underwear after her shower!). She's happy, healthy and says she's gotten lots of mail and has had to sing at lunch the last 2 days. She said, "My mom must of told every person she knows in the world that I was going to camp!" "

Thanks to all of you that have sent mail to her!

Have a good one!

p.s.-Jeff- The girls say hello and they miss you. At 4:30 a.m. during the thunderstorms here, Mikayla, also in keeping with her personality, was very concerned that you were somewhere safe from the storms! I assured her you were. :)

Water Slide Party #2

Here we go again!!!! Today was Haley's water slide party. She had originally invited 2 girls but when we went to work at my school this morning we saw the principals daughter who is going into K next year. We then invited her, to make 3. The afternoon started off shaky as I couldn't get the water slide to work, and 4 year olds aren't very patient. Finally, after a frantic call to Jeff (who was on his way to Indiana for a "church planting boot camp"), he told me all the things to try, and finally it worked. Whew!

None of these girls liked root beer floats either( refering to yesterdays blog post) so they settled for ice-cream in a bowl. They played very well, but I was still glad when the door bell rang with the first mom.


At 5 tonight I am meeting my friend Kris to exercise, we have been trying to do that 3x a week, then I have worship team practice at the church at 6:30. The girls want to order a pizza, so I will probably pick up a cheese pizza for them and take it home after the practice.


If you will notice, one of my goals for the summer was to cook better meals. I will admit that I have not a done a very good job. Last night Mikayla and I had a conversation, it went like this. "Mom, what's for supper?" " I don't know, what do you want? A grilled cheese sandwich?" "No, I want something real! Can't you go and catch a rooster or something and cook it!?!?!" That was a clue to me that I need to cook better. It is just so hot in the summer that I don't feel like cooking, and during the school year I am too busy. These poor girls. They love it when we have company because I cook lots of food. I promise, my girls do not starve, but I AM going to do a better job of this!


I haven't had any reports from Jenna. I am sure she is having a blast!! At this camp last year Madison, my niece, went for the first time. She had a great time... but... she also came home with only 1 pair of dirty underwear, and lots of still clean underwear, after a 6 day camp! After investigating, it turns out that Madison took one shower and changed her underwear only once!!! (She was just too busy to take the time to do otherwise)(Sorry Leah, for divulging this information about your daughter!) This year, during packing, Madison packed only 1 pair of underwear because she just planned on changing her underwear only 1x, so why even take more?! My sister made her take 7 pairs- with strict instructions to change them more often. It will be interesting to see how many clean/dirty pairs come home with Jenna. (she would kill me if she knew I was writing this!)


Have a good one!

Backyard Water Party

SCENE 1:

Well, on the windiest, coolest day of the last couple weeks we planned a backyard water slide party for Mikayla. As I am setting up the water slide the wind in tipping it over and making it float across the yard. This is a big water slide, so the wind is pretty strong! So I had to hunt down the stakes that came with it and a hammer and hammer it into the ground. I had planned it to last from 1-3;30, but as parents are dropping them off I am saying, "Let's end at 3, because of the wind." Well, after 1/2 hr. the kids were huddled in their towels declaring it too cold to water slide. Now what do I do?

SCENE 2:

I brought out tons of different snacks to divert their attention from the cold.

SCENE 3:

Turn on a little "Go Fish" that will keep everyone's spirits high with their high energy music.

SCENE 4:

Water guns, still fun, but not quite as cold. Ok- we only have 2, they'll have to share!

SCENE 5:

Root Beer floats! Ok-so 3 of the 4 guests don't like Root Beer floats. WHO doesn't like root beer floats??? A 6 year old that's who! "Do you want orange pop, or grape pop in it instead?" "No, thanks." Ugh,,,I served them lemonade or water. I put the ice-cream away, scoop etc.

SCENE 6:

Doorbell rings. A little girl is 45 mins. late because mom forgot! Ok, come on in. She wants a root beer float. I get everything back out and serve her with a smile. I then put it all back away again.

SCENE 7:

Knock on the door, another little girl is 1 hour late because HER mom forgot! What is up with these moms, ever heard of a calendar? So out comes all the root beer float stuff again. I serve her with a smile that is not quite as big as the first late girl received before her. Is it time for their moms to come yet? Another 20 mins. for most of them but I didn't have the heart to tell the moms that were so late to come back in 1 hour and get their kids, so they will be here another 50 mins.

SCENE 8:

Well, the wind died down so the kids weren't so cold. They did fairly well. At the end I did have kids inside in the basement playing ping-pong and in the playroom. I was very glad when the doorbell rang for the first mom. The last girl to leave was the last girl to arrive. She was 1/2 hr. late in leaving. I need to extend some grace to moms who don't quite have it all together.

I asked Mikki if she had a good party and she said she did, that they had a lot of fun. I guess that is all that matters! Guess what!? I get to do it all over tomorrow for Haley! (It will be on a much smaller scale as she is having 2 friends over, instead of 6.

Have a good one!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Father's Day to the 2 best fathers in the world. My father, and my girls' father. Here we sit down to a wonderful homecooked Sunday dinner at our house. Jenna is absent because she left for camp yesterday. She called bright and early to wish him a happy Father's Day though.

We had a great fathers day. Jeff's whole goal for the day was to eat a big lunch, watch the cubs and take a nap. He was able to accomplish all those things. After his nap the girls convinced him to take take them swimming at the pool, so at 4:30 we headed for the pool until 6:30. We then went to the movie store and rented the girls a movie and us a movie. I can't remember the last time we have done that. We rented "Walk the Line" for us, it was good. I am sure you have all seen it, we are always behind the times. The girls surprised Jeff with breakfast in bed. They do this every year and he has to suffer through it. He doesn't like breakfast in the morning, but he will eat breakfast for supper. Weird isn't he? He ate his eggs and toast anyway. They then gave him a new belt, a massage gift certificate (could they be tired of him always asking them to rub his back?), and a pink t-shirt with "Chicks Dig Pink" on it. It will be used in our next family picture with all his "chicks" wearing pink beside him.

Here are a few "facts" that I thought you would want to know about Jeff this father's day that you have never known before. I posed a few questions to them.

Q: What is your fathers name?

A: Haley- "dad", Mikayla-"Jeffrey Tom Tackaberry" (its really Todd )

Q: How old is dad?

A: Haley- "29", Mikayla- "35" (she is correct)

Q: What is his favorite color?

A: Haley- "pink,purple, and red" Mikayla- "green and brown" (those were the colors he was wearing at the time)

Q: What does he like to watch on t.v.?

A: Haley- "the Bears", Mikayla- "football, he cheers for Iowa"
(both answers are interesting since he watches the Cubs none stop and we were watching the cubs at the time)

Q: What does he like to do for fun?

A: Haley- "eat supper" Mikayla "spend time with us"

Q: What does he "do" (as in for a living)

A: Haley- "works on the computer" Mikayla- "lays around and watches t.v. and mows the lawn"

Q: What is his favorite food?

A: Haley-"chicken and roast beef" Mikayla- "Paprika Chicken and Chicken and Dumplins"(correct answer)

Today I took the girls to the pool again(summer pool passes are worth every penny) after I made them help me in my classroom for a few hours. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in my room! We dodged a couple rain showers today and then after 2 hours declared it was time to go home. Haley has now climbed into my bed and has fallen asleep which I hate because then it is hard to get her to go to sleep at night. Swimming wears her out, so I feel bad waking her up. We will just have a late night tonight- oh well.

Have a great evening everyone.

Amy

Cubs Win!

Jeff puts his "rally cap" on and crosses his fingers. The Cubs were behind 4-3 and Jeff likes to take the credit for the Cubs 5-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

Alfonso Soriano

Derek Lee (who while I am writing this just got into a HUGE fist fight against the Padres pitcher who just almost nailed him in the head!)

Jeff and I had a wonderful time in Chicago at the Cubs game. They won!

We had terrible traffic getting to and from the game, between going and leaving we sat in 4 hours of traffic! We decided that although we love the Cubs they do not deserve us wasting 4 hrs. of our life in traffic. It was just great to be together though. When we were actually moving in the traffic we zoomed through a couple toll booths because we were in the far left lane and the cars paying cash needed to be in the far right lane. We zoomed through the I-pass lane. Oh well. At every other toll booth we expected the booth operator to recognize us from a "Most Wanted" poster that came up on their computer screen for not paying the toll. Jeff is pretty honest and will get online and pay it. So don't worry!

I got Jenna off to camp this morning. She was riding out with a family from Kalona who is traveling to Goshen, Indiana where my sister lives. She and her cousin will then leave for Michigan to camp on MOnday. Remember is you are sending a card to send it SOON!

Nothing new to report. The girls and I have spent 2 days this week at the pool, Monday and today. I would have just given them the 10 min. warning that it is time to go and another friend from school would show up! I finally got them to leave after 2.5 hrs, both days. I got burnt to a crisp on Monday because I was so worried about the girls not getting burned that I kept forgetting where I had put sunscreen on myself and where I had not. Well, I found out where I had not. It is painful. Today we went back and I used 1/2 a bottle just on myself.

Jeff and I are going to a Cubs game tomorrow. My mom is coming early in the morning to watch the girls. They are excited that she is coming. Jeff and I are excited that she is coming too! :) I will write more and include pictures of Jeff and I at the game when we return.

CO CUBS!!!

Weekend Update

Haley waits for candy on the curb! Believe me, her bag might be empty now but it was overflowing by the end! Jeff has found the secret to getting lots of candy for his kids. When every float walked by he would yell as loudly as he could, "HILLS BANK ROCKS!!" and they would just shower Haley with candy. He said this to all 3 banks in town, and even to the float touting Hillary Clinton! (Doesn't that just sound like something Jeff would do?) Haley's preschool that she just graduated from came up and put hand-fulls of candy in her bag!!!

Jenna, Mikayla, and her friend, Ginny, pose at the parade Friday night.

Hello all! I hope you all had a great weekend. We did, a busy one like I referenced in my last post. We had fun walking in the parade and then went back to friends house to make smores in their backyard.

Saturday we had our all church yard sale, we raised app. $600 for the children's playground fund for Heartland. It wasn't as much as I wanted, but it was ok. We have about 2k in our account and we need about 10k. We have a long way to go!!! It is hard to raise large amounts of money when we are working with about 10 kids. We'll keep plugging along. When we finally get that playground, after the new church is built, there will be many tears shed from happiness.

Sunday morning was spent at church, resting in the afternoon, (Jeff had to work at an open house) and then back to church for a cook-out and all church meeting. We got home around 7:30, watched the Cubs lose, and then sat out on our patio and watched the North Liberty fireworks. We have a perfect spot to watch them away from bugs (screened in patio) and the crowds, plus the girls can be in their pj's with teeth brushed and then jump right into bed afterwards. It is perfect!

We had a wonderful lesson this past week in, "If its not broke, don't fix it!" Jeff switched our cable, phone and internet provider b/c they were offering a super deal! Well, the second we switched, the internet became slower than mollasses and the phone was all wacko! It took them 4 days to get back to our house, after giving us the "we will be there between 1-5" schpeel for all 3 days, then on the 4th day they said, "ok we will be there between 8-5!!!" So after carrying around my cell phone attached at my hip all day, they finally called and said they were on their way! Guess what time?!?! 5:15!!! We were due to leave the house for our pre-parade supper at 5:30. We were not happy. I left and went ahead with the girls and Jeff stayed behind. As we arrived home late Friday night we thought "oh well, at least the problem is solved!" Wrongo! We picked up the phone to make a call Sat. morning and guess what, NO DIAL TONE AT ALL!!! So we had to go through a whole weekend with no phone service! I have a family that I am on call for to come at any minute when she goes into labor! Not good! Jeff was on his cell phone at 8 a.m. this morning with the phone company! I will have to keep you updated since you are all so interested! :)

I am off today to buy a pool pass so I can take the kids swimming all summer long. Just what I love to do, be in public with a swimsuit on. Isn't that one of my goals for the summer, to not worry about that.

Have a great Monday.

Question of the Day

Here Haley shows off her newly painted fingernails.

Good afternoon! This morning Haley asked me a very interesting question. She asked me, "Mom, can you turn the fan on so I can stick my fingers in it?!" It caught me off guard but I quickly went into the lecture (again) about how fans can cut your fingers etc. She said, "No mom, I mean, I just painted my fingernails (which I knew) and I want to hold them up to the fan and dry them off!" I chuckled to myself over that one.

I will have more pictures as the weekend goes on. It is going to be a busy one. Last night we met at the church with a bunch others and set things up for our all church yard sale. This weekend is North Liberty Fun Days and so we are having a yard sale on Saturday to raise money for the Children's Dept. We are raising funds to purchase really nice playground equipment when we build our new church. After we finished that task of course we all had to go for ice-cream, and then we heard the band playing across the street at the Fun Days and so we had to go listen to that, then we saw the Pork Burger stand and had to get one with a Pepsi, then the kids spotted the funnel cakes stand and we had to get that. We didn't get home til late and the kids were FILTHY, so then baths.

Tonight we are eating pizza at our friends Bill and Kris Dawkins house, then we are all going to the parade. Jenna and Mikayla and I are walking in the parade for our school float. I bought a HUGE bag of candy for the girls to throw. Jeff will sit in the crowd and get candy with Haley who is soooo excited, she is a candyaholic. I will send the camera with him to get pictures.

Jenna got her glasses today and is excited. More later.

We knew it would come to this

We knew it would come to this. We got failing results from the vision test at school for Jenna, so we took her in today to the eye dr. thinking, hoping, praying, that they made a mistake and she wouldn't need glasses. Nope! Our thinking, hoping and praying didn't work and she is near-sighted. She needs glasses! She will be getting them next Tuesday. I must say she is much more excited about it than we are. Probably because Jeff and I have both experienced a lifetime of glasses and knowing that the newness wears off and they become a royal pain. Haley wanted her to choose the first pair but we decided on the third pair.

Can you say "Overwhelmed?!?"

I I

Mikayla enjoys her graduation cake.

(top left)-We planted a cherry tree this year and they said we wouldn't get any cherries on it for a few years, we were all thrilled to watch this one cherry grow. When it was time to pick it we all shared it, it was very yummy!

(top-right)Haley made her own graduation cap at her 3-year preschool because she "graduated" into the 4 year old class.

(below) These 2 pictures were actually pictures that were on a display board at her graduation. It is her at 6 months and her at 6 years. Awww...

Did I mention in my last post that my classroom is having to be moved down the hall. This is exciting in the fact that I am down by all the other "fun" teachers and not kind of off by myself, but bad for 2 reasons: I won't get anything done after school because I will be chatting and also I am now farther away from the bathroom in the office. There were many many days where this bladder was exploding and I had to tell my kids, "I'll be back in 30 seconds, work quietly!" and I ran to the bathroom. Now I am far away from the bathroom! It could create some problems.

Why am I overwhelmed? Well by this afternoon I had to have every single stinking thing out of my old room and moved into my new room. ( I got that done yesterday by working long long hours) The problem...nothing is out of my new room. So I basically had to just dump my stuff and now wait until all the books and other teachers stuff is out so I can organize. It is truly a daunting task. It is like taking the contents of a small house and dumping them on top of the contents of another small house. I had to have my stuff out because they are dismantling my old room and turning it into another pre-kindergarten room. I can't be upset because that is where my baby Haley will be, right down the hall from me. How cool is that? It is still overwhelming. I went in a little this morning, and became so overwhelmed I left after an hour. I do not know when I will have the courage to go back. If I don't work on it consistently I am sure I will get a call from my principal wondering what is up! Plus I have a myriad of curriculum stuff to worry about this summer.

I came home today and took a nap, got up and began to clean up the kitchen where Jenna promptly spilled a whole pitcher of tea in the fridge. Took me about an hour to clean that up. Can you say overwhelmed?

Last Day of School!

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with this blog I am just trying to practice adding pictures! This picture is of the girls on Easter morning.


I finally get a turn on the computer at 9 p.m. at night. Between Jenna and Jeff it is rarely my turn. I told Jeff I HAD to get on the computer and update my blog or my blog audience would be upset, that you all were waiting on pins and needles for my update. He rolled his eyes!

Friday was the last day of school. I was so ready for Friday to come, not because I needed time off necessarily, which I do, or my classroom full of kids was driving me crazy, which they are, but because the last week of school is worthless. We have to have grading/report cards done by Wed. and so nothing much can be done that whole week or we have a whole lot of grading to do so we can even get ready to do report cards. The whole week is pretty much "filler" stuff, review games, etc., trying to find something to do to keep these kids that have already checked out for the summer to not drive us up the wall. Jenna is now officially a 5th grader (!) and Mikayla a first grader. Next year Haley will be at Heritage 5 days a week, right down the hall from me, in 4-5 year old pre-kindergarten. We will all be at the same place every day of the week, except Jeff. He will have to get a third job and start working there as well doing something. Serving hot lunch? Playground supervisor?

Jenna was awarded on Wed. afternoon 3 Honor Roll awards at the Awards Ceremony. She got on the A & B honor roll first trimester and the A honor roll for both the 2nd and 3rd tri. We are quite proud of her.

Friday morning was the all school talent show. Jenna played her guitar and she and Mikayla, along with 3 other girls sang 2 songs. They were very good. And then Jenna was also in a skit where she had several pies thrown in her face and then in the end got to throw a pie in the 3rd grade teachers face. They asked if I would be in the skit but I declined!!!

School got out at 11:30. My classroom is moving down the hall so I enlisted all my kids' help in moving TONS of stuff out of my room. I have meetings all day Monday and Tuesday and by the end of Tues. I have to have EVERYTHING out of my classroom. I am not sure when that will get done. I mentioned to another teacher that I am glad that I teach 4th grade b/c the kids are at the age that they have figured out that life will go on after the school year and that they don't need to bawl all over their fellow classmates and teacher. I do not think there was one tear shed, lots of hugs, but no tears, which is fine with me!

Friday night I hosted a faculty and staff "Last Day of School" Party. About 30 people came over, and thankfully it didn't rain! We had a great time of playing badminton, bache ball, horseshoes, and some "washer" game. (don't know the name) We roasted hot dogs on the bonfire and had lots of yummy food. The kids enjoyed going down on the big inflatable water slide. The second grade teacher even went down it and then proceeded on hugging us all and getting US soaked. It was a great time!

Today (Sat.) we went to a few garage sales, and then hung out all afternoon. I think that have pretty much caught you up on our lives. I am still working on downloading pics. I did find the one above on the computer, now I have to work on a more current picture. You will all be so glad when I figure it out so you can quit hearing me complain about it. Jeff and I got new camera phones since our contract is up on the other phones we have. Now I will have a ton more pictures on my phone to figure out how to get off my phone and on to my computer! Yippee!!!