i am considering blogging again... katelyn {and the rest of my life] leaves me with more than enough material :] wondering if anyone would read.....
thoughts...?
in the meantime...
March 18, 2011
September 23, 2009
katelyn is as naughty as i am!
when i was about 16...and mom was about 40....i decided to tell her that age wise...she was "on her way out".
apparently katelyn has the same sense of humor and asked dad today...in light of his upcoming birthday... "how old would you be if you were still alive". yikes! happy 50th dad!
apparently katelyn has the same sense of humor and asked dad today...in light of his upcoming birthday... "how old would you be if you were still alive". yikes! happy 50th dad!
May 5, 2009
April 3, 2009
February 8, 2009
remember me......
katelyns new haircut...
so it definitely has been a minute since i wrote last and since i feel so bad about that, you would think that i would write a huge post....but no...i am just gonna post a picture and see if any of you still check this site........
January 15, 2009
November 14, 2008
new orleans
yeah. dad and i are in new orleans. for business purposes. it's a different world down here. but check it out....i caught a leprechaun!
October 23, 2008
helping where i can
since i am not really working outside the house, i feel i need to be extremely vigilant about my spending. I am pretty good at not really spending money these days, since i am mostly home anyhow. it isn't like i need to eat out or need clothes. Since it is holiday season soon, i do get to start buying Christmas presents, which definitely helps...since i really do enjoy shopping!
The one place where i will always get to shop.....the grocery store! This isn't my favorite thing to do and i had started to go to the grocery store....alot. To pick up what we needed for just the next couple days, getting some groceries when i went with gramma, or just grabbing some things after soccer practice. This was not a great practice for our checkbook, not terrible, but not fantastic.
so i decided to overhaul my grocery shopping process.
my first experiment was to try and shop only two times per month. my theory was two paydays a month=two grocery trips. This went okay. I had a hard time thinking that far ahead as far as Katelyn's lunches, and we ran out of milk; I bought way too much american cheese, but i did remember to buy some bread and put it in the freezer. We lasted just short of two weeks but i definitely was not loving this process.
my second experiment was to actually do the coupon thing. I had long shied away from serious couponing, with the idea that some generic brands were cheaper or that i would be buying things not needed just because i had a coupon. Well. I have really gotten on the coupon bandwagon. it takes alot of "planning"...scouring the Sunday ads and adding coupons on top of those sales. It does take a bit more effort. I felt like i was walking back and forth through the grocery store a bit more than usual, and spent alot of time calculating whether or not the coupon made it cheaper than other brands, or other brands on sale. i ended up saving a whopping $54.00 (more than 33% of my total). I was pretty proud of myself and if nothing else, it encouraged me to continue on with my newest plan, since at this point in my life i do have the time to save money in this fashion.
The one place where i will always get to shop.....the grocery store! This isn't my favorite thing to do and i had started to go to the grocery store....alot. To pick up what we needed for just the next couple days, getting some groceries when i went with gramma, or just grabbing some things after soccer practice. This was not a great practice for our checkbook, not terrible, but not fantastic.
so i decided to overhaul my grocery shopping process.
my first experiment was to try and shop only two times per month. my theory was two paydays a month=two grocery trips. This went okay. I had a hard time thinking that far ahead as far as Katelyn's lunches, and we ran out of milk; I bought way too much american cheese, but i did remember to buy some bread and put it in the freezer. We lasted just short of two weeks but i definitely was not loving this process.
my second experiment was to actually do the coupon thing. I had long shied away from serious couponing, with the idea that some generic brands were cheaper or that i would be buying things not needed just because i had a coupon. Well. I have really gotten on the coupon bandwagon. it takes alot of "planning"...scouring the Sunday ads and adding coupons on top of those sales. It does take a bit more effort. I felt like i was walking back and forth through the grocery store a bit more than usual, and spent alot of time calculating whether or not the coupon made it cheaper than other brands, or other brands on sale. i ended up saving a whopping $54.00 (more than 33% of my total). I was pretty proud of myself and if nothing else, it encouraged me to continue on with my newest plan, since at this point in my life i do have the time to save money in this fashion.
October 22, 2008
parent visitation day
Last Thursday was parent visitation day at Katelyn's school….and it was so fun!
When I went, obviously I didn’t really know what to expect…kind of like the first day of school! There were two sessions. A 9am-11am and 1pm-3pm session. I went to both. In the morning, they do their calender, complete with day, date, month, season, year, number of days they’ve been in school, and weather. They had station time. Katelyn's station was whisper reading. It consisted of Katelyn reading into a pvc phone. It was a 4 inch pvc pipe, with two small 90% angle pvc pipes, so when she read into the bottom part, it was “read” to her through the ear piece. There were five different stations going. The teacher was “supposed” to be with Katelyn's reading group the most…I think. Well, the lady who was supposed to be running the one station didn’t make it there on time and the computers for the computer station were majorly acting up. So on a normal day, without parents who are visiting, how in the world does one teacher do it all?! That’s nuts!
I came back after lunch, they had gym class, where they were hitting balls of different sizes and shapes with a plastic paddle. After that they read a book called Hold the Anchovies! Then cut out and decorated their own pizzas. After that we had music class, which was tons of fun, the kids got to play a two tone beat on the xylophone. Then the parents got to perform for the kids. Our two tone beat was much more coordinated, but not nearly as adorable as them!
I came away from parent day with a newer appreciation for Katelyn's wonderful teacher. I cant imagine having to take charge of 16 five year olds for an entire day. Also I figured that the teacher probably had about a million projects that she did with the kids each day, just to keep them busy. This is not the case. It is more of a slow and steady atmosphere.
I thoroughly enjoyed being in Katelyn's class room with her, it was really great to see her in HER element, interacting with her friends and teacher.
October 15, 2008
tonight we were kitties
every night before katelyn goes to bed, we crawl to her room with her on my back. we pick what animal we are. some nights we are camels, dogs, some night maybe we'll be snakes...that would be interesting, right?
well tonight, katelyn plopped down in our usual starting place with the cutest/orneriest face ever....in MY position. so i played along and "sat" on her back. (my thighs burn) we kept it up all the way to her bed where she was more than pleased with herself that she was being the mommy cat. you probably "had to be there" in order to truely appreciate the hilarity, but it sure was fun!
October 11, 2008
Book-It!
book-it makes me teary.
apparently the book it program has been around for about 20 years, which is obviously accurate, because i remember doing it when i was in first grade. when i was a kid, i read everything i could get my hands on, and i am pretty sure that i was reading above my grade level too. anyhow, the point of that is that i never had any problem meeting my quota, in order to get the free pizza from Pizza Hut. and this pizza was a big deal. we never had money to eat out, so this was quite a prize. my biological mom and i would walk to pizza hut (i have no idea how far that was) and proudly carry back our tiny pizza=D i think they might have given out certificates too. i have no idea if i shared it with my mom or not, but my guess is that she probably let me eat it all. i was always so proud of myself for being able to "provide food"....such as it was, especially by doing something that came natural to me, reading.
yesterday in Katelyn's take home folder, there was a book-it form, honestly i didn't even realize they still had that program. Katelyn also, loves to be read to and is making huge progress with her own reading skills. needless to say, like her mommy, she wont have any problem meeting the monthly quota of ten books, she'll be just as proud of herself for earning that pizza, and no, her mom wont let her share her pizza either =D
apparently the book it program has been around for about 20 years, which is obviously accurate, because i remember doing it when i was in first grade. when i was a kid, i read everything i could get my hands on, and i am pretty sure that i was reading above my grade level too. anyhow, the point of that is that i never had any problem meeting my quota, in order to get the free pizza from Pizza Hut. and this pizza was a big deal. we never had money to eat out, so this was quite a prize. my biological mom and i would walk to pizza hut (i have no idea how far that was) and proudly carry back our tiny pizza=D i think they might have given out certificates too. i have no idea if i shared it with my mom or not, but my guess is that she probably let me eat it all. i was always so proud of myself for being able to "provide food"....such as it was, especially by doing something that came natural to me, reading.
yesterday in Katelyn's take home folder, there was a book-it form, honestly i didn't even realize they still had that program. Katelyn also, loves to be read to and is making huge progress with her own reading skills. needless to say, like her mommy, she wont have any problem meeting the monthly quota of ten books, she'll be just as proud of herself for earning that pizza, and no, her mom wont let her share her pizza either =D
October 7, 2008
the last of the mass blogging
i leave today with two questions....
1. we are reading pippi longstocking at bedtime...any idea how to explain to a 5 year old what a cannibal is, without giving her nightmares?!
2.what mother lets a kindergartner where a bra, a kid bra? a few of Katelyn's friends do, and of course she wants one(wont get one) and apparently it isn't an undershirt. that also was a fun explanation of when she could wear a bra. bizzare.
1. we are reading pippi longstocking at bedtime...any idea how to explain to a 5 year old what a cannibal is, without giving her nightmares?!
2.what mother lets a kindergartner where a bra, a kid bra? a few of Katelyn's friends do, and of course she wants one(wont get one) and apparently it isn't an undershirt. that also was a fun explanation of when she could wear a bra. bizzare.
obviously i am not a fan of alarm clocks
since school has started, i have had to set my alarm clock every day since aug 26th. this is new for us, since previously, we have just woke up, when we woke up. with school, soccer, and church, we've had to be somewhere in the morning every day. last saturday our soccer game was cancelled, so obviously i didnt set the alarm.
that night i woke up in the middle of the night and as i was.....in the bathroom i started praying " dear God, thank you for waking me up since i forgot to set the alarm for school tomorrow, that would have been a disaster, etc" well a few seconds later, i realized that i was crazy and didnt set the alarm on purpose since in fact the next day was not a school day. if God ever thinks people are crazy...i definatly got his vote that night!
that night i woke up in the middle of the night and as i was.....in the bathroom i started praying " dear God, thank you for waking me up since i forgot to set the alarm for school tomorrow, that would have been a disaster, etc" well a few seconds later, i realized that i was crazy and didnt set the alarm on purpose since in fact the next day was not a school day. if God ever thinks people are crazy...i definatly got his vote that night!
katelyn loves......
Katelyn loves kindergarten! she never complains about going and often doesnt seem ready to leave. She's made friends with the girls in her class and is learning so much. she loves to tell me everything that is going on with her friends, and what she is learning (any chance she will keep that up through 12th grade)
her biggest love is writing. the whole way home from school she is writing words, names, anything she can sound out or get me to spell. she takes her notebook and pencil just about everywhere. last week at soccer practice, before i noticed, she even had it on the field trying to write everyones names! she is also making leaps and bounds with reading. mostly words like to, on, my, me, like, book, will, etc. she reads a book to me everynight and then when we are reading together she often interupts by pointing out words in the book, last night she picked out "teacher".
i am so proud of her, she is learning so much so fast. did i mention tat i was proud of her.... =D
when i show up at her school on volunteer days, like picture day...it is always so nice to see her, because i do miss her so much throughout the day. But i can also rest easy knowing that she is completely happy being in schol.
her biggest love is writing. the whole way home from school she is writing words, names, anything she can sound out or get me to spell. she takes her notebook and pencil just about everywhere. last week at soccer practice, before i noticed, she even had it on the field trying to write everyones names! she is also making leaps and bounds with reading. mostly words like to, on, my, me, like, book, will, etc. she reads a book to me everynight and then when we are reading together she often interupts by pointing out words in the book, last night she picked out "teacher".
i am so proud of her, she is learning so much so fast. did i mention tat i was proud of her.... =D
when i show up at her school on volunteer days, like picture day...it is always so nice to see her, because i do miss her so much throughout the day. But i can also rest easy knowing that she is completely happy being in schol.
going green
people who know me know that i like to save energy, recycle like its me job, take care of the world, be thrifty, etc....
well. this last week i FAILED miserably. and katelyn passed with straight A's! usually i unplug unused appliances, like our microwave, unless we are using it, only use lights if it is darkish and we are in the room. I've gotten pretty good at this.
so for the first time since school started we were driving home in the dark, from bible study and as we got to our house i realized that our basement lights were on. this is bad enough but these lights had been on for days! gross.
the day before though, when we were grocery shopping i let katelyn pick out a cereal. usually she picks something like lucky charms and then i grab the generic brand. well, she walked over to me with the generic brand of fruit loops and i was so proud.
i know it might seem silly, but these little things do end up mattering in the long run.
well. this last week i FAILED miserably. and katelyn passed with straight A's! usually i unplug unused appliances, like our microwave, unless we are using it, only use lights if it is darkish and we are in the room. I've gotten pretty good at this.
so for the first time since school started we were driving home in the dark, from bible study and as we got to our house i realized that our basement lights were on. this is bad enough but these lights had been on for days! gross.
the day before though, when we were grocery shopping i let katelyn pick out a cereal. usually she picks something like lucky charms and then i grab the generic brand. well, she walked over to me with the generic brand of fruit loops and i was so proud.
i know it might seem silly, but these little things do end up mattering in the long run.
the golden egg
so the only part of our morning routine that doesnt go too smoothly on a regular basis is breakfast. the first day of school she ate part of a banana and string cheese. (another mother thought this was terrible, but isnt it better than handing her a poptart?) anyhow, she tends to eat like a bird in the mornings and it drives me nuts cause her behavior is greatly affected when she is hungry. somedays all i can cram down her is a tiny piece of toast. but last thurday and friday she ate cereal so well. i figured maybe we were on the way towards her eating normally. well the news is that its only gotten better. she woke up sat morning and wanted an egg sandwich. and she has eaten that for the last couple of days. i am so glad that she is eating better, that way i dont have to worry about her being hungry in the morning....when she gets out of school she is starving though =D
September 23, 2008
picture day!
so...today is picture day at katelyns school. thinking back on it now, i should have realized that what that really means is that our morning routine is more likely to go awry today as opposed to any other safe, non school picture days=D
thankfully it wasnt too traumatic.
this was the first day that breakfast wasnt eaten....i think she has a fourth of one piece of toast in her stomach!
she managed to drip toothpaste all down the front of her.......apron. yeah i have her wear an apron that my grandma rhoda made for her while she eats breakfast AND brushes her teeth. to avoid precisely this type of disaster! thankfully she has no problem wearing it.
and yes, my kindergartener has the worlds tiniest whitehead....but it is there on her face. i have no idea how a five year old has a pimple, but this one showed up just at the most "opportune" time~ ha
so this has been our bizzare day so far. my guess is that since we thwarted all disaster attempts at home....she will either get splashed by a puddle....even though it isnt raining, get paint on herself, even though she doesnt have art, or fall on the playground, even though she doesnt have recess before pictures. but she's my child, so one of these things are likely to happen to my poor child. but even so, she'll still be pretty, and that one second smile is all that really counts for picture day.
At first i thought that picture day was such a big deal, i had to pick out her clothes, etc. but realistically, i have ten-ish scrapbooks behind me, filled with her pictures, i can take a picture of her in whatever outfit i want, at any time, for way cheaper. also that way, i may avoid that cheasy smile we are bound to get on the school pictures=D
i get to go help with picture day at the school today. i am glad to be going down there. i figured that i would basically be walking classes to and from, but apparently our job also includes censoring....like boys who desperatly try to create mohawks in the bathroom minutes before picture time....ha.
this should be fun............
thankfully it wasnt too traumatic.
this was the first day that breakfast wasnt eaten....i think she has a fourth of one piece of toast in her stomach!
she managed to drip toothpaste all down the front of her.......apron. yeah i have her wear an apron that my grandma rhoda made for her while she eats breakfast AND brushes her teeth. to avoid precisely this type of disaster! thankfully she has no problem wearing it.
and yes, my kindergartener has the worlds tiniest whitehead....but it is there on her face. i have no idea how a five year old has a pimple, but this one showed up just at the most "opportune" time~ ha
so this has been our bizzare day so far. my guess is that since we thwarted all disaster attempts at home....she will either get splashed by a puddle....even though it isnt raining, get paint on herself, even though she doesnt have art, or fall on the playground, even though she doesnt have recess before pictures. but she's my child, so one of these things are likely to happen to my poor child. but even so, she'll still be pretty, and that one second smile is all that really counts for picture day.
At first i thought that picture day was such a big deal, i had to pick out her clothes, etc. but realistically, i have ten-ish scrapbooks behind me, filled with her pictures, i can take a picture of her in whatever outfit i want, at any time, for way cheaper. also that way, i may avoid that cheasy smile we are bound to get on the school pictures=D
i get to go help with picture day at the school today. i am glad to be going down there. i figured that i would basically be walking classes to and from, but apparently our job also includes censoring....like boys who desperatly try to create mohawks in the bathroom minutes before picture time....ha.
this should be fun............
September 10, 2008
our newest stage of life..kindergarten
So…kindergarten! Wow. It has been crazy, but probably in the way that it should be. We’ve been inducted into that new elite group of back to school shoppers. Which wasn’t really too exciting….kindergarteners don’t need that much! Just a lunch box and back pack. Thankfully Katelyn let me get her a cute pink star jansport bag (on sale!!!) as opposed to a plastic princess backpack that might not make it past this grade! I did give her free reign over lunch boxes though….thus Tinkerbelle.
We had kindergarten orientation for about 30 minutes the day before school started. Katelyn got to meet her teacher, color a picture and I got all the information that I could ever want. It was good.
The morning of kindergarten, we were prepared. We had our new routine practiced and in place. Thankfully everything went smoothly….first day of school pictures, no spilled milk to cry over. I drove Katelyn to school. I was under the impression that a lot of parent would be driving their kids. But I was one of few. When we got to the school zone…you know, where the yellow lights flash for you to go slow…I started to say something like “here we go” to Katelyn and that is when I started to get choked up. But I totally got control of myself. She got in line with the other kids and I started to tear up again when a parent asked how I was holding up…once Katelyn was in line, I was pretty much ok, in that I knew that crying in front of her was not a possibility.
……so I waited. I waited until after she got in her class line and DIDN’T look back at me.
…..and I waited until she was out of sight walking into the school.
….and I waited until…..just kidding, once she was out of sight I was sobbing like a baby. It was rather pathetic, but it really did feel better. I managed to sob the whole twenty minutes home, plus at least fifteen more inside the house and while hanging laundry. I was basically stopped crying while I was hanging laundry until I turned to look at the porch to make sure Katelyn was in sight while I was working outside….well DUH, she wasn’t……..because my baby grew up and went to school!
The good and the bad news is that I was crying for myself….i felt really alone now, I would be more lonely, more time on my hands, way less quality time with my little girl, etc…. the good part is that I wasn’t crying for her. Thankfully she didn’t cry, and I knew that she would be fine and that this is a normal part of life.
Since school has started, she’s done well. She rides the bus to school, and seems excited when I pick her up after wards. She has tons of little friends and seems to enjoy school. All the papers that come home seem to be right on track. Honestly she’s even done better than I expected.
So that is our kindergarten journey so far. And I will try to keep posting more regularly, a new computer might be in our future……..
We had kindergarten orientation for about 30 minutes the day before school started. Katelyn got to meet her teacher, color a picture and I got all the information that I could ever want. It was good.
The morning of kindergarten, we were prepared. We had our new routine practiced and in place. Thankfully everything went smoothly….first day of school pictures, no spilled milk to cry over. I drove Katelyn to school. I was under the impression that a lot of parent would be driving their kids. But I was one of few. When we got to the school zone…you know, where the yellow lights flash for you to go slow…I started to say something like “here we go” to Katelyn and that is when I started to get choked up. But I totally got control of myself. She got in line with the other kids and I started to tear up again when a parent asked how I was holding up…once Katelyn was in line, I was pretty much ok, in that I knew that crying in front of her was not a possibility.
……so I waited. I waited until after she got in her class line and DIDN’T look back at me.
…..and I waited until she was out of sight walking into the school.
….and I waited until…..just kidding, once she was out of sight I was sobbing like a baby. It was rather pathetic, but it really did feel better. I managed to sob the whole twenty minutes home, plus at least fifteen more inside the house and while hanging laundry. I was basically stopped crying while I was hanging laundry until I turned to look at the porch to make sure Katelyn was in sight while I was working outside….well DUH, she wasn’t……..because my baby grew up and went to school!
The good and the bad news is that I was crying for myself….i felt really alone now, I would be more lonely, more time on my hands, way less quality time with my little girl, etc…. the good part is that I wasn’t crying for her. Thankfully she didn’t cry, and I knew that she would be fine and that this is a normal part of life.
Since school has started, she’s done well. She rides the bus to school, and seems excited when I pick her up after wards. She has tons of little friends and seems to enjoy school. All the papers that come home seem to be right on track. Honestly she’s even done better than I expected.
So that is our kindergarten journey so far. And I will try to keep posting more regularly, a new computer might be in our future……..
August 12, 2008
i'm not ignoring you.....
...my computer has chosen to actively demonstrate its hatred towards me. it's decided that it no longer wants to charge itself. which is why you havent heard much from me recently.
our next huge step in life is kindergarten. katelyn starts in two weeks exactly. this is incredibly huge and i have so many thoughts to write about, but i am pretty sure that i have used up my time on my parents computer....so i will write more later...but i dont know when. in the meantime, feel free to pray for US during our upcoming transition.
our next huge step in life is kindergarten. katelyn starts in two weeks exactly. this is incredibly huge and i have so many thoughts to write about, but i am pretty sure that i have used up my time on my parents computer....so i will write more later...but i dont know when. in the meantime, feel free to pray for US during our upcoming transition.
July 29, 2008
july
Its been a long while since I’ve blogged. Life’s been busy, which can be good.
We’ve had bible school...which left me exhausted and napping most afternoons. Which is pretty ironic since my 86 year old gramma was all but running the show and she didnt seem as crazed as I felt!
we attended a wedding on my dads side of the family and this weekend we are attending one on moms side of the family.
I had a root canal that was interupted halfway..it’s a long and disgusting story...but hopefully it will be finished tomorrow morning.
We also enjoyed a vacation in maryland at my cousin’s home. While we were there we got to enjoy a private beach, an inflatable house playland, a small zoo and large playground. Katelyn and I got to go to a place where we could paint our own pottery. They will glaze it and we will pick it up when we go down to janell and jeff’s wedding. We got to spend some quality time and some relaxing time with my cousins who it seems like we never see. I officially got to meet meghan, which was very nice. I didnt realize how big of a difference in ages there would be between katelyn at 5 ½ and aliza at 2 ½, but wow there was. Thankfully there havent been any terrible repercussions from the age difference. Hopefully carla doesnt mind aliza saying AWESOME. If that is the worst that we left them with...thats not bad, right?=D
So, this is what we’ve been up to, nothing too crazy=D
I think that I am finally going to be able to upload a photo....we’ll see. It is of katelyn at the zoo in salisbury.
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