Year in Review - Happy New Year!

January- I couldn't find any pictures. Only the bag I made for Heidi. February-Not a good idea!
March - Shan's Wedding

April- Special Olympics
May - Danny reads to Nikayda
June - Disney World
July - Oh so good!
August - Family reunion

September - Brad & Riss' Wedding
October - The nerds
November - Dad and his laptop
December - Whatever.....

Happy Birthday Brett

Happy 18th birthday Brett! Hard to believe you are "an adult" and a senior in high school! Enjoy your day in duh U.P.!

Christmas Eve Pictures

Jeanie was all excited Christmas morning and had to show me "Santa's sleigh tracks". The Christmas Eve party turned out real well. I was afraid we were going to be pretty crowded but it wasn't too bad. The pizzas arrived at 6:00 and we started eating right away. So as the next group arrived, the previous one was done. There were some lively ping-pong games going on in the basement so that took lots of big bodies out of the living room! We played a few lively games of Guesstures. Dad, Chuck, myself and even Auntie Linda did a couple rounds! Kim was the winner. She was amazing. I swear she guessed before they even starting acting out the word!!

365 Days Until Christmas

After all the hustle and bustle, it's all over. Danny put a little reminder on the board yesterday of what this celebration is all about. We had a very nice Christmas. We hung Danny's "Snow Monster", I mean Snowman.
A few of the usual Christmas morning pictures. Danny actually "loved" everything he got. Even his clothes!! It was kind of funny though, because he was hoping for a X-Box 360. Before every gift, he would cross his fingers, legs, arms and eyes for good luck and say, "I hope it's a X-Box 360......It didn't matter the size of the package. From the smallest to the biggest. Needless to say, he didn't get one. He was a tad disappointed but got over it pretty quick.

Dad was excited to get his Trail-Cam from you kids. LOOK.....the very first "animal" captured with the trail-cam!

4 Days to Christmas

Random thoughts-

-doing "Crisis Cleaning" via flylady.net. You set the timer for 15 minutes and hit one room hard. Then do it again for 15 minutes for another room etc. I'm working on the kitchen, living room, bathroom and office in 15 minute intervals. It puts a little "fun" into cleaning. We all have a little "child" in us somewhere. It's fun to race the timer. Also, you don't get burned out cleaning the same room. Then 60 minutes later......you're ready to finish tackling the job. Every hour I take a 15 minute break. I know it may sound crazy to most people but it works for me. I am having in-laws over for a Christmas Eve Party. A good incentive to get some light fixtures, heating grates, etc. cleaned! Not that I really worry about them coming over. After 31 years of being part of the family, they have come to realize that I am no Mrs. P but I think they accept me as I am!

-I still have three gifts to purchase

-I still have my Christmas grocery shopping to do

-I do have everything else wrapped

-I'm hopeing to get the cleaning done today so we can "party" (eat) the rest of the weekend and plan some weddings

A Danny Story

First of all, my meeting with his teacher went pretty good. The reason I had seen no papers from him was because his mailbox was FULL. He had not been taking them home. (I'm not sure why the teacher didn't notice, though.) He has been having speech, mostly in the classroom as a group. The speech teacher did call me and said she had been pulling him out of class for speech once a month but per my concerns, will start pulling him out once a week. As far as the library. In middle school you don't have a "library hour". You just go at lunch or recess or homeroom on your own. The teacher said most of the books are above her students level so she has a "library" in her classroom for them. When I mentioned how much he loves "going to the library" and usually gets nonfiction books, which the school library should have, she said she will start to let him go. They do their "time cards" during homeroom. She said Danny use to take the whole period to get it done but has started to get it done much more quickly so she will use that as an incentive for him to go to the library during homeroom when his "timecard" is finished. He has two teachers. I sent the email with my concerns to both. I have yet to "hear" from the other teacher.

Now for the story. At the meeting his teacher mentioned that they had had speech that morning and related this story:

"The speech teacher came in with wrapped gifts for all the kids. But when they opened them, they were cans of peas, tuna fish, etc. The kids were quite disappointed except Danny. He got a can of green beans. He got all excited and pumped his hand in the air and said, "Yes!!!! I LOVE green beans!!!" Well, the point of the exercise was to teach them gift opening manners. That even if they are disappointed they are to be polite and not let it show. So they took Danny's green beans away from him and gave him some Ramen Noodles. He again said, "Yes, Ramen Noodles are my favorite!!" So I guess it didn't work with Danny"

I chuckled and told her about his past presents of clothes and how unhappy and disappointed he was with them. And of course SHOWED the disappointment. She said she was glad I shared that with her because he obviously did need to learn the "lesson".