she's much cooler

My sister, always trying stuff that I was too chicken to try:

• pierced her ears like in 3rd grade with a safety pin and some ice from her juice,


• snowboards,


• went on a mission trip to Haiti,


• gauged her ears (I'm not even sure if I'm using the right verbage),

and now, she got an AWESOME tattoo.

Too much TV

Michael went to get the pizza out of the freezer for dinner. As he was decending the stairs, he was singing, "Free credit report dot com, free credit report dot com"

Too good to last...

Things were kind of quiet and I was able to catch this great picture of them snuggling and watching TV.

Less than a minute after this peaceful picture, the familiar sound of arguing and picking on each other returned.

Cold Walk

I took the kids for a walk up the road this morning.
It was pretty chilly.
They had fun walking on the snow bank along the side of the road. Then they broke up the ice on the potholes.

There was some evidence of spring: buds on one tree and turkey foot prints. I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING

Exercised again

I did it! I got back on the treadmill today. After a 2 hour nap (I know a little lavish), I jumped on for a full 30 minutes. I sweat quite a bit more than the other day. Then I did a Fitness on Demand exercise of squats and leg lifts (OUCH!).

You might be thinking, WHY?! Well here it is... my scale says I'm 144. And, my scale is close to 10 pounds lighter than the Dr.'s scale. So, that's a little bulgey and jiggley for me to wear a swim suit, a dress without some slimming spandex, and maybe even shorts depending on length.

We have a wedding to go to at the end of May. That's my deadline. (thanks for the motivation Sarah and Ryan)

opposites

So I found out today that the opposite of a genius is a "don't knower." For example, when SpongeBob said to his cousin Stanley Squarepants that Patrick was a genius, Michael said, "He's lying, Patrick is a don't knower."

Pearl of Wisdom

My sorority has a thing we do for seniors when they are inducted as alumnae. We gather pearls of wisdom from alumnae, read and present them to the new inductees. Here's mine:

Laugh a lot,
Give and don't expect to get,
Love unconditionally,
Forgive and really mean it,
Cry at goodbyes,
Remember your sisters and keep in touch.

Bare feet

Rachel LOVES having bare feet. Within the first few miles after leaving the babysitter's house, she has boots and socks off and has her feet all curled up in her blanky sitting in her carseat. She announces when the boots come off, "boots, off." Then, I hear, "SOCKS!" And they are off. Occassionally I'll hear, "HELP! SOCKS off!" when one gets stuck. And then, "toes! Ah, toes"

Exercise, bleh

bleh.

Why do I have such an aversion (is that a word?) to exercise? I really NEED it! So, tonight, after the kids were asleep, I got on the treadmill. Then, I got some hand weights and actually used them, while on the treadmill. I was feeling pretty good, I went for 25+ minutes at a brisk walk with weights. I sweated, a little. Then, I turned on the Exercise in Demand channel and did a 10 minute ab routine. WOW! that has to be like a 5-year record for me! (TOOT TOOT, own horn)

Ok, so start bets on when I'll have my next burst of exercise.

Bubba and Sissy

They get along pretty well most of the time.

And more CHOCOLATE!

Both Gramma and Aunt Rudy brought more chocolate.

Gotta perm...

Michael met me at the back door, then ran to Chris in the living room and said,
"Mom's hair is wicked funny."

Easter

The Easter bunny is so practical! Character garbage cans worked out great. They had a small egg hunt. Rachel divoured her M&M's.

Hats and Shoes

So my husband has a fetish with hats. He has bags full of old hats in the basement, a closet shelf full of them in the bedroom and a closet shelf full of them in the kitchen. Each new style that comes out for his teams needs to be evaluated and most likely bought. They are usually retired to a shelf at the end of the season to be replaced by the new season.

So, again, we were at the major sporting goods store. As we pass a clothing section I hear, "Wait I want to look at this rack." It's a Mets section of hats. Ugh. I couldn't resist and gave a sign and rolled my eyes, which did NOT go over well. They volley of snide comments went back and forth and ended with my comment "then I don't want to hear anything about my shoe collection."

I went directly from there to the shoe store and bought a fabulous pair of Madden Girl. http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/34580852/c/2084.html

Exercise

We were at a major sporting goods store. Michael was admiring a long line of treadmills. "MOM, you should get this one!"

I said smartly, "because it will be better and getting me on it than the one I already have?"

"No, Look, it has water bottles!"

Ah, yes, that's why I don't use my treadmill, because it doesn't have water bottles.

Nick names

I don't know why, but we started calling Rachel "Sister" early on. It's sort of transitioned to Sissy. Rachel said this morning as we were getting ready, "Sissy's Coat" when it was time to go.

Michael we started calling "Brother." It has shortened to "Bubba."

Since we are so used to using "Daddy" and "Mommy" when we talk to the kids, we've started calling each other by those names.

So, We are a family, Bubba, Sissy, Daddy and Mommy Hewey.

Glove Power

Michael was distraught Friday at the thought of having to wear his gloves to school again since they were ripped. "People will laugh."

It's no use explanning to him that we don't care what people think, and they won't laugh because of a little rip and all that stuff. Besides, his gloves REEK! I don't know if it is the material, or that they've been wet and sweaty, but they are down right gross.

So we dig through the end of winter sale gloves and find a pair. After a couple of errand stops, he was getting into the van and said, "these glove give me the POWER! Did you see how I opened that door? You should get a pair like these so you can have the Power, too."

If only gloves really did that.

Pink/Blue

I had to get windshield washer fluid for my car. I tend to like the more expensive type because it doesn't freeze and washes really well. We were at the auto parts store getting a new rear wiper blade. The expensive type was pink.

Michael asked, "Pink instead of blue?"

"Yes, because it's a girl car instead of a boy car," was my explanation. I know, not politically correct, but he totally understood and we received some snickers from the men shopping for manly auto parts.

Yum

Had to take a picture... you know, in case we all got sick.

LOL

Good thing he was wearing his safety glasses...

"Mom, there is a frizbee and a ball stuck up in the pipes in the basement."

We don't have a ceiling in the basement. Apparently, while throwing the frizbee, it landed up in the pipes. To get it down, he threw a ball at it. The ball landed in the frizbee.

"Show me your muscles"

It's a mealtime game we play.

Laundry day

So I'm enjoying my dinner with my husband, finally. Michael and Rachel have finished their's and are cleaned up and off playing. Michael comes running into the livingroom yelling, "MOM, you have to get washing some clothes because the underware I had on were my last pair."

I look up, half snickering, to find Michael looking very serious and... naked. So, I ask, "why are you naked?"

"I'm not naked, I have one sock!" ... and he did.

Graduated

I think we've graduated Rachel to sitting at the big table. I converted the booster high chair seat to just a booster seat and pushed her up to the table. She LOVED it!!!

PTSA & BOE, cont...

So, there were more attendees at the PTSA meeting. I roped one of Michael's classmate's mom into coming and she said she will remain active. YEAH!

I went to the BOE meeting last night. The teachers were there in force and were excited to see community members. The meeting room was very under utilized. The board was around a bunch of tables in the form of a square taking up about 66% of the room (wide open hole in the middle of the square). They had about 30 chairs for visitors. There had to be close to 100 visitors, so people stood for close to 2 hours during the meeting.

Is it odd that the board goes into closed executive session as the first agenda item? It might be standard for BOE to do that in all schools. I just think it is rude to publish the meeting time then kick everyone out for 30 minutes. And make them wait.

The room was HOT! No air flow. And the one window that was open about 5 inches was closed about 1-hour into the meeting by a frail guy on the board. I almost yelled out to make him open it again.

So, they did cut the 5-1/2 positions saying that it was due to a declining enrollment (didn't really see a compelling case from the chart), extremely high tax levy increase if they didn't (16.8% vs. 5%), and having to balance due to 5/8 of the last year running in the red.

Sentimental

for those of you who pledged with me, you know how I can get *sniff, sniff*

So the newest new member class drove out to interview me today. They ask the usual stuff, nothing that they will remember, nothing that matters to college pledges: my major (14 years ago), my pledge sisters and pledge mom (even longer ago), birthday, blah blah blah...

At the end of the questions, I asked them why they chose AST (for those that don't know me, that is my sorority). I got some really great answers and felt really good about our recruiting (nice job actives!).

Then I told them why I pledged AST... (Mimi, step in any time) *sniff, sniff* Love you guys

PTSA & BOE

I'm getting myself all in a lather about the lack of involvement in PTSA (parent teacher student association). I couldn't make any of the fall meetings and when I did go to the first one of this semester, I was the 5th person there. THAT'S IT! 5 people at a PTSA meeting. Our district has about 1200 students K-12. 5 people!!!

On top of that, our teachers have worked without a contract for 4 years! 4 YEARS!

I keep hearing rumors about the BOE meetings where they are making all these decisions and no one is attending to question them. So a bunch of us mothers are headed to the PTSA meeting and the BOE meeting this week. The agenda that the BOE posted online is recommending eliminating 5 teaching positions and dropping a 6th to part time! 5-1/2 teaching positions in one meeting!!!

So, wish me luck, and I'm open to any and all advice if you've been PTSA or BOE active attendees.

(man, I'm so wound up right now I don't think I'll be able to go to sleep... time for a glass of

more SNOW...

This picture was taken before our big snow storm. Notice how much of the lawnmower and barrels are showing.

This picture is taken after having the plow guy come 3 times in the last 24 hours and $60 later. Notice: no more barrels, and the lawnmower is almost buried.

This is off the back porch. There are supposed to be 3 steps total before reaching the upper plateform.

Snow

This was the amount of snow that we had before this weekend.
Today, I had the friendly plow guy move snow at 8 am. We ran some errands, went to a birthday party and when we returned home at 5 pm, I could not get back into the driveway. I instead when to the plow guy's house and asked if he could please remove the snow that had arrived since his morning visit.

I'll add new pictures in the morning of the new snow.

Fries

My son asked to dump out his milk from BK. Thinking that was odd, I looked into the bottle.
"There's a fry in there," I said inquisitively.
"Not A fry, FRIES," Was his reply.

Really Super Heros!

My son said out of the blue, "I know two superheros; Super God and Super Jesus!"
I asked, "What are their powers?"
"Super LOVE!" was his response.

Fast Food

The idea of fast food gets thrown out the window when you have to drive through twice to get what you ordered, then find out when you bite in that it still isn't right! I've been a fast food employee, IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!!

Dinner

I'd written a very nice and somewhat humorous event, then there was an error posting it and it's lost. I don't have enough energy to write it again tonight.