Books 142, 143, 144 and 145

Sent from the publisher, a win at giveaways on Goodreads. It was okay not really my thing.


The Bride Quartet was fun and sweet, even without much happening. Shopaholic was a bit long this time(this number 5 in the series).

Black Friday what a long day

Up at 3:40AM to go shopping with Vanessa, Bonnie and Meredith. (this is a secret, I'm staying home next year and just going out to eat breakfast.) I didn't need anything, I got a few things for the house and only one thing for Christmas. After shopping and breakfast, I jumped out at Hyvee and got the best deal. Glade candles, spray and plug-ins were on sale and after my coupons I got 14 items for 8 dollars. I love smelly things.(that is how I have a household of boys and stand it.)

At home I cleaned, did some laundry, got ready for the evening. At 4 we had dinner and then off to Christmas in the City, Cenny was in a parade, Gunnar sung with the Austinaires and Qatar was in the play with Cenny at the Paramount. It was cold, we saved our seats at the theatre and then off to hear Gunnar. The play started at 7:30, the parade at 5:30 and Gunnar sang at 5:45. After the play we went to a wedding reception. I climbed into bed exhausted, after ten.

What a day!!!!! Happy Holidays to you all.

Macy's display - disappointed, it was the same as last year.

We have seen, Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, Paddington Bear, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one more I can't remember well and The Day in the Life of an Elf(now two times in a row.) It is a cute display, but I enjoy seeing the different stories, not the same one again. Gunnar didn't come last year, so it was new for him. This is his last trip(if everything goes well and he gets into college) we will miss him, but maybe if the display is different we can stop by on our way home from the airport next year.

While at Macy's we needed to get up a floor and had a hard time finding a way. Gunnar jumped on an elevator and we all followed only to find out when we hit floor two that we were on the express to the 12th floor. Oh well, we rode it back down and finally found the escalator up one floor.

Public Transportation, why don't we have more?

The kids on the train. About 30 minutes to Maacy's from the mall, it cut back on the fights of were to park and it was cheaper.
It adds a bit to the adventure, now they have been on BART, and the underground in DC.
What a beautiful couple...... a couple of whats?
We drove up to the Mall of America on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It's a family tradition and not always is the whole family together(work, plays, etc.) This year we were and we had a great time. We parked at the mall and then wondered around until we found the train. The light rail took us to Minneapolis. We try to get up to Macy's every year to see the Christmas display they put on there.

This is how Lisa and friends spent their morning

Plays

Cenny in her crown before her dress was on.
Gunnar in his next outfit, the prince one.
Qatar and Ethan, Qatar is wearing rip off pants so that the princess can rip them off to show his pink, heart covered long johns.

Gunnar in his meek mouse costume, he did pretty well with the meekness.
Zeke in his wolf costume I made, I love sweats.

The plays are almost over for this year. Gunnar played Dantless from Once Upon a Mattress, Qatar played a knight, and Cenny played one of the little girls having the story told to them in the beginning. Zeke played a wolf in The Jungle Book.

When it came time for the curtain call, Cenneidigh came out and pulled the two boys she was with back and then raised all their arms and bowed. She is quite the boss. I guess if I look at it from her point of view I would see that it is tough keeping all of us in line. I rarely do what I'm told and David likes to tease and the four boys. What can I say, she had her work cut of for her.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Have a great day!!!!!!! I'm thankful for you all.

Eyes and age

By Calvin Klein-Groucho Marx's collection.

David went in for an eye appointment because he has had a hard time reading. He is now going to be sporting glasses. I on the other hand look better then I did last year and I hope to look better next year then now. I figure why fix a good thing, if it ain't broke and everything. I don't want to see clearly if it means I look like the lightly frosted lens is replaced by the real sharp angles of a real lens. I like the way things look, I can read fine and as long as I hold the items I'm reading at a distance I'm good.(remember Moonlighting when Cybil was lightly frosted every time the camera was on her? Thats what it's like in my bathroom mirror) Life is good, rose colored, frosted lens is what I sport.

This is Lisa not David.

Funny so funny!!!

At Zeke's play, The Jungle Book, the kid playing the bad tiger(Sha Kan I think), kept ad-libbing his lines. Mogly was going to kill him at the end and knocked him down. The tiger, lying on his back, started singing, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, by Culture Club. The whole audience was in laughter and JT kept hitting me. Mogly couldn't get his lines out because he was laughing so much. He was funny, I'm sure it was difficult on the other kids, but enjoyable for the rest of us. He also kept making us laugh with silly comments like, he was fighting with one of the animals and he tossed his gloves to the ground, "This is serious, the gloves are coming off." Funny kid, maybe he didn't know his lines, but he will be fun to watch in the future. The part he sung starts at about 42 seconds.

Subbing

I love special ed usually, but the other day I did a special ed class that was more behavior issues. I don't enjoy behavior issues. The day was moving along, when I had a child jumping around and I asked him to sit several times. I pointed my pencil towards him and that exact moment he sat and threw his head into the pencil tip. Really....I mean Really... He was fine and just sobbed for a bit before he finally joined the group with a pencil mark on his cheek. I tried to get him to stand up and go to the nurse, but he refused. He was fine after all. His head did not knock the pencil out of my hand and I wasn't holding it tightly. He returned an hour or so later with a huge band-aid on his face(a bit overkill I think.)

Some days I feel I should pay them for all the fun and others I think I need twice as much money. That was one of those later days.

Really I love turkey.

I love the week off from school and the fun things we do during the week. Off to Ikea for breakfast and then Macy's for the Christmas display. The mega mall for Lego land(advent calender a must) and Underwater world. Back to Ikea for dinner(love those meatballs) and finally home again.

This is of course is after teacher conferences to see how the kids are doing and who we may need to ground forever. And the best things is that I know I don't have to work....yea! Also after Friday the 26th we will be done with plays for awhile, lets hear a big HURRAY!!!!!

I love Thanksgiving, but.....

Books 140 and 141

Funny and yet it made me made, especially at the government and dumb people(one in the same I think).
Cute romance, but still not much happens. Happily ever after is not action packed.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been kept pretty busy this year and a few days ago I was called for a class I love. Jane told me the teacher had requested me because I had done such a great job the last time. Well it was someone. I sort of know so I didn't take that as much(I had told her I would love to be requested). At the high school, Gail handed me my folder and smiled saying. "Special request." I smiled and nodded. When I got to the class several para's told me how happy they were I was there. They had told the teacher to request me. Now I felt better about the extra attention.

I do love that class, it's special ed and the kids are so unique. Each one of them makes me grin. I love to see and help them clean the cafeteria and listen to their stories. It's a great bunch of students.

Two plays this week.

Gunnar and Qatar are playing parts in this musical at the high school, Thurs. the 18th, Sat. the 20th and Sun. the 21st. Gunnar is playing the main prince and Qatar is a knight that loses his pants and is left standing in pink long johns covered in hearts(I drew every heart with a dark pink sharpie) Come and see them. 7PM at the high school.

Zeke is playing a wolf in this play at Ellis, Thurs. the 18th, and Friday the 19th at 7PM. I had to make his costume and it turned out OKay I'll post pictures later. The director asked the kids if their costumes were made and the kid before Zeke said no and the teacher yelled. When she got to Zeke, Zeke said yes his was done.(I hadn't bought a thing yet) When he got home he told me we needed to get it done and fast.

Girls, Girls, Girls

By the way you don't want to Google 'girls' I got lots of interesting things even with the safe search on.

Ok, Gunnar has had more girls over the last few weeks then ever before. Everytime I come home their seem to be girls in my house, in my kitchen, bringing things over and thank heaven he has a cell phone or they would be calling and believe me the phone rings off the wall anyway. Yesterday Selena brought over a box of Rice Krispies so Gunnar could make her his famous bars with the 2 jars of peanut butter instead of the two cups. He made them and then off to play practice they went with the other two girls who showed up a few minutes after Selena. I would like to think that after the play is over that this will stop, but the girls over yesterday are all in Austinaires with him, so I guess I need to get use to it.

Veterans Day

Cenneidigh is in the student counsel at Banfield this year and was very excited about helping with the Veterans Breakfast. Each year all the schools hold a breakfast for the veterans in town. Cenny had to be at school at 7 am to help set up and I had to work at the high school, so the logistics of car rides was interesting. She got there and after school she told me how interesting the stories were that the veteran told them.

Later at Walmart buying groceries and things she told me more and then stopped. She opened her eyes wide and yelled(she never does anything quietly). "Harlen was a veteran, I remember. We need to get flowers mom." She ran back to the flowers and picked out a bunch. The problem was that it was after 6PM and it was dark. We got to the cemetery and got out the flashlights. JT swore he knew right were it was, but Cenny and I didn't follow him and we could not find the stone.(The last time we were out there it hadn't been placed yet.) JT walked right to a stone and called us over. It was Harlen's. Cenny laid the flowers and almost in unison we whispered. "We miss you Harlen." We got back in the car and drove home to make dinner. I told the kids my Dad and my Grandpa were also veterans. It was a hectic day, but the experience with Cenny and JT made my day.

Graduation Preparation

We had to order Gunnar's cap and gown this week. The company sells everything you could ever want for a Senior. I kept it pretty cheap and it was still over 60 dollars. The easy order form was over 170 dollars so I looked at the long form instead. I wonder how many people just order off the quick form and end up with things they really do not need.

Books 137, 138 and 139

So much like the show, its was easy to read these books.
This is the book I was sent from Goodreads, I enjoyed it. I love the romance and the paranormal stuff. It doesn't come out until sometime next year.
The first in a quartet of stories, cute and sweet but nothing really happens besides the romance.

Visit

These two women came to visit the other day. They are from the family that lived in the house before we did. The one on the left is older and she lived on Kenwood Ave. and the one on the right is the youngest and she lived on 4th St Sw. Same street, same house, things got changed many years ago to make finding an address easier. They both lived here until going off to college, the youngest was only in her 2nd year when her parents sold the house. They were back in town to see a lawyer, their father past away in October.

I showed them through the downstairs and then they wanted to see the basement. The basement was the most unchanged place and they were so pleased to go down there(no one here wants to go down there) They talked about how much they loved this house and all the things they used to do. It was really fun to talk to them and to listen to the reasons they loved this house. Lots of fun stories and it made me appreciate my home all over again. I got to relive my favorite moments from growing up here.

ACT

Gunnar got his last ACT score and I told him to get in the 30's, yeah!!!! He took me serious, he got a 30. So a 26, then a 28 and now a 30. Great job Gunnar. College here we come!!!!

Time can stop right now!

Man the kids are getting so old and it is freaking me out all of the sudden. Watching Qatar's concert the other night made me think of Gunnar's first concert in HS and now he's a senior. WOW!!!!! Time just moves so fast, I need it to stop so I can take a breath. At least once in awhile.

I was watching an old family video and many of those people are not even with us any more, what happened to all those years. I'm the age my parents were when I was in HS and I thought they were old then.(sorry, love you.) This was brought on by my scanning old photos of Gunnar as a baby. He has grown up so much and it has been a great journey, and a personal blessing to walk with him these past 17 years. I know it is hard when all the kids are little, you feel like you can never so anything. But, that changes in the blink of an eye.

Qatar, Ezekiel, Cenneidigh, and JT are all growing big and doing wonderful things with their time. We have our problems, but thank heaven, when you look back you only remember the good things. I love and cherish you guys, it had been my pleasure to be your mom. Now time stop, for a little while, please.

Unedited senior photos

Perfect moments....

I have to keep this in mind more often. The other day in the 4th grade class I had a perfect moment. The day had been busy and some of the kids had acted up and had to turn their cards, but for one moment the clock stopped and everything was perfect. We were reading a story about a cowboy in the old west and everyone was following along with the reader and knew where we were when I called on them to read. The questions they asked were appropriate and on topic. I stood there and marveled, wow if this is what it was like to teach everyday I would kill to have this job. It's amazing what a perfect moment in time can feel like.

I had another one while listening to Gunnar play the tuba in the band and then while watching him sing a spiritual later in the same concert. He had the look of pure joy on his face and I realized how much I'm going to miss him next year. This was the last fall concert of his high school career. He will have many more lasts this year, each one bitter sweet for him and me. But, I have to keep in mind that they will only lead to more firsts for us both.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

Election judge

Gunnar applied to be an Election Judge during the election on Tuesday. He was pretty excited about the post. He is very conservative in his views, he's concerned about the economy and the future of the Dollar. He's more conservative in some of his views then my father(which is hard to be.) He can't vote until next year, but he enjoys voicing his opinion to anyone who will listen.

He loved the night, it got boring when no one was there, but he talked to and met quite a few interesting people. Many remembered him as Jay in Hormel Girls(a play this summer he did.) He was surprised.