Locks of Love

B's Haircut

B has been growing her hair out forever to cut for Locks of Love and finally cut it today. She found out that Pantene will take two inches less for the same cause so did it. She is trying to adjust to the much shorter hair but we think the look is a success. So what act would be complete in our household without corny pictures to go with it. Enjoy!

Rob with his instructor jump buddy.

Sorry for the long wait between posts. Lots has happened but the most exciting thing today was that R took his first tandem jump from a plane. It's called buddy jumping to laymen, tandem jumping in the"biz". It was great to share this special day with him. Today I'll post the pictures I shot. We bought the DVD and stills package of him actually up in the air so I'll post those later after we have them developed. I'll try to describe each picture.

The advertising hearse that met us as we arrived. It says "If it can't kill you, it ain't a real sport!"

Signing his life away, waivers and such. It was weird that he didn't need my signature anymore.

Practice jump in the hanger training area.
Dive position training.



His videographer/photographer complete with cool handsfree camera helmet.

Strapping on the gear.

Taking off.

Way up there as they were landing.


Shortly after they hit the ground.



A sign in the training room.


We have asked a lot of God this week. B totaled her car when she hydroplaned in the rain on the way to the orthodontist Wednesday morning. She is okay. Just one little scratch and soreness but we are now in the market for a car again. We are very thankful that though the car ended up in a fenceline way off the highway on the drivers side, God sent wonderful people who helped her out of the car and over the fence and stayed with her until the police and us arrived. We couldn't have asked for more.

Between the accident and skydiving, it has been an eventful spring break. I'm ready to get back to school on Monday to see if life slows down.

Snow! We finally have snow!

Yes, we had several inches last night. The kids are in the middle of the Wizard of Oz and here comes a blizzard in TN. The show did go on, although most of the munchkin's parents took them home right after the munchkin scene. It was slow going on the way home but we got home safely, even Becky who had never driven on snow before. Rob was working in Jackson and I prayed a lot for him to get home safely, which he did.

Today we went out and took pictures and now are all snug and warm in the house reading Harry Potter, watching movies, drinking hot chocolate and eating snow ice cream. Enjoy the pictures of our house in the snow.

Answers

The answer to the question I posed at lunch on Tuesday about "I wonder if my car can go for three days after the gas light goes off" is NO. Right in the middle of the spelling word drill on the commute to school I discovered this answer. Not only was I treated to this bit of knowledge but I also found out that a sliver of battery on my phone will make two phone calls. I called the school saying I would be late and I called Cliff to bring gas. Then, the phone went dead. I got distracted last night before I plugged it in to charge.

B's (dear daughter) HS chorus came and performed for us at school this morning. She even directed one of the songs! She was so good. She seems a natural for directing. As if our school day wasn't thrown off enough, we had some readers from FHU to come and read to our classes. This in the past has consisted of one book and then out. Much to our surprise, they were to read for 30 minutes! To elementary school children, no less! And that's not all, we had two different students assigned to our room with 30 minutes each to read. Plus I found an underachiever wandering the hall because his class wasn't in the room. He said that he only found out about the assignment today and so only had one book so I had him join my readers. They read for a total of an hour and a half. So much for the science test and the math lesson we were supposed to do. I'm writing an email to their professor, Marie Johnson, to see if I can find out what went wrong on the information giving. This was terribly disruptive and caused the kids to be a mess all day.

So after school, I take my three Munchkins (JM and two friends) to play practice, drop them off and go straight to in-service. I get home about 6 and Cliff drops by for a quick meal and then off to the play tonight. I get a call to come pick up JM and when I get there, he is crying in the middle of a huddle of adults and B and other kids. Some kids pushed him down the concrete stairs for "no reason". I have no idea and no adult seemed to be forth coming with the story. I considered stitches but finally decided it probably wasn't deep enough but he has one pretty bad cut on his knee and two on his elbow. He had a rough day. I saw him right after a kid in his class tripped him on the concrete trying to cut in front of him on the way to the concert. That made the other knee swell. I saw him do that two more times before his teacher nailed him down. He has not had the best day.

Well, we are home and hope that tomorrow holds a little more promise than today did. On a bright note however, the last report card is in and we have three children on the honor roll. I can't remember the last time that happened. We are going to reward them in some way, probably a family evening out, maybe Olive Garden. See, the day can't be all bad.

Birthday Surprise

I have the best adopted college kids around and the best family! So I turned 47 yesterday. I was about 2 chapters behind for class that night and had a big presentation (my first case conference presentation). I worked like a dog getting the reading done and then Travis (study partner in crime in this program) came over to do his critique of the session that had to be turned in with the video and then we dashed off to class. No time for birthdays.

They sang happy birthday to me as I took the podium to begin the case conference. It was great but did throw me a bit. Presentation went great, better than I thought it would actually. Then I went home, intended to send off a couple of emails and then soak in the tub. Becky got me to go help her find something in the kitchen and there, singing really badly, but still singing nonetheless, were a host of college kids, many of them ours, some were their friends. They had a huge card and balloons. Then Cliff enters with a cake. This cake is a Grande Marnier cake from La Baguette Bakery in Memphis. He used to buy one for me every year as it was my favorite. I bet I hadn't had that cake in 20 years. It tasted just as good as it used to. He had to go to court in Memphis for a ticket they dismissed but he managed to get the cake. They had sold out when he got there but when he told them his story about my birthday and all, the woman, who was leaving to go home weakened and told him to come back by after court and she'd have one for him. It was wonderful.

Other gifts include a pretty glass trio of votives from the "grannies" at school, a huge bag of Hershey's nuggets from Lisa, a Besso's gift certificate from Jean, a Mother frame from Becky, a teapot and earring/necklace set from Mom and Dad, a check from my brother and wife, and about 50 (literally) birthday wishes posted on my facebook wall. It was a great day. Cliff is getting me a bluetooth/handsfree for my cell phone but he wants me to pick it out so that it will be comfortable in my ear. I've gotten several cards and ecards. All in all, an enjoyable day. Oh, got an A+ on my presentation to boot.

Saturday night was our school's Relay for Life event and I worked about 6 hours on it. We did a dodgeball tournament and made about $2200. I did the money at concessions the whole time. If you are interested in the pictures of the event, check it out at http://ccdodgeball.googlepages.com/.

It never stops here. Becky and JM are in rehearsals for the Wizard of Oz coming up. Becky and Robby are earning fundage which is always a good thing.

More later.

Saturday already?

These are our precious college kids that we "adopted". This morning we are recovering from a great night of games, chili, pictures, and fun. We had PJ Game night and everyone came in their pajamas, ate chili, and we played Nertz, the Train Game, and Apples to Apples until about 2 am. Everyone crashed on couches (except a couple who were ultra responsible and went back a little earlier because of commitments today.

We so enjoy these kids. They are some of the best kids out there.

Here are some more pictures from the night for your enjoyment.

Day 1 - Trying it on for size

Okay, okay... I give in. My friends have been telling me the advantages of blogging so I'm going to give it a try. The thing that won me over was the ability to post something once and all my friends and family are able to view it. With being in graduate school and the three kids and a husband and full time and part time job thing, my time is a bit short. This way I can post pictures and moments of our daily lives and everyone from Mom to my best friend in high school can read it. I like that. So, now it begins

Today is President's day and the kids and I have the day off from school. I slept late, which was great since I was out late at an intermural basketball game of one of our "adopted" college kids. Then I met with the "girls" for lunch at Jason's Deli in Jackson as Amanda was passing through town on her way back home. We hired Becky to sit at the kid's table and babysit and we got to visit. It was wonderful. We exchanged Christmas gifts (yes! On President's DAY! I said life is busy!) and talked and talked.

By two we were home and Jon Michael and Becky headed off for Munchkin practice in the Wizard of Oz. Robby had just been to funeral for a friend's dad (wow! he looks so good dressed up in his suit!). He read a book and I read chapters for class tonight. I suppose I should look and see what is for Dinner before they all starve.

See, that wasn't so painful, was it?