Grace's 3rd and Emily's 6th Birthday...

We planned on leaving Friday night, but something was up with my car battery wires (corroded or something) and my car was dead. Todd fixed whatever needed fixing Saturday morning and off we went to the Coppell Aquatic Center. It is only like 15 minutes from my parents house, and maybe 10 from Lisa's. We got there with about 30 minutes breathing room. I was exhausted, so I stayed in the party room and Todd swam with the girls. All the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves. Gracie has really started talking a lot and she is so matter of fact when she is talking to you that it is hard not to laugh. When she is working on something she shhh's you! "shhhhhh! Hush, Mommy, Otay?"

We spent the night at my parents but spent Sunday afternoon at Lisa's. They just got a new REGULATION size air hockey table so Todd spent his time on it with Scott and Jacob. I played on their pinball machine. I usually suck royally at pinball. I get around 40,000 points a game. My second game though, I got 198,000 points on my first ball!!! I was so excited that Lisa ran and got the camera. My 2 and 3rd ball were typical, and I finished the game with like 201.000 points! We came home and were just dead...but we will be back up for Thanksgiving, so I'm not too sad!

Whistle While You Work!!!

Kaytlynn has officially learned to whistle. It happened sometime this week. She has been practicing for some time. She will blow through her persed lips and say over and over again "Can you hear me" and we would say yes (not specifying whether it was her air, or an actual whistle that we heard!)

Now she goes around the house whisteling away. It is quite adorable.

Veteren's Day Parade

Kaytlynn's class had a Veteran's Day Parade last Thursday. I didn't get a note that I was supposed to and I "found" it in a pile of Todd's stuff on Wed. morning. It stated that she needed to make a patriotic hat for the parade on Thursday. Well....I have MOPS on Wed nights so I told Todd he was going to do it. As he stood there with his mouth agate, I instructed him to go to Michael's and get a foam hat and just decorate it with glitter glue.

He did as advised and one upped me! He found a foam #1 GIANT HAND for her to decorate as well. They decorated both and so did Delaney. He took off work ( I couldn't, as usual) and went to pick Delaney up from Ms. Carmen's and they went to watch Kaytlynn in her parade! In the pictures she looked so cute! She wasn't allowed to have her foam hand because she had to hold and wave a flag, but Delaney had hers!

Kaytlynn's First Report Card!

She got it last week and she did really well. She now knows more than 30 of her site words and knows all the sounds and the letter it goes with...except U. It stated she could only count to 19, but actually at the time she could count to 30, so I don't know what that is about. There were no negative comments, except the fact that she couldn't spot rhyming words well. I am so glad that we have her at Spring Baptist Church. I don't know if she would be nearly as successful in a public school setting. I am loving the fact that she only has 9 kids in her class, where there would be 22 in a regular state school.

Halloween...

We had Halloween at our church this year and it was a really fun night. I went as my usual Juliette and Todd was the Cat in the Hat, but the girls were Barbie and the Island Princess and although I wasn't thrilled about the costume choices (I was pulling for Madeline), they turned out looking adorable. They had tons of games, moonwalks, slides, rock climbing walls (we passed that one up), and best of all, a large petting zoo. The girls had a lot of fun petting the llama, goats, rabbit, and chasing the turkeys and looking at the gigantic turtle.

The Girls Are Sick!!!

So Kaytlynn had the croup last Wed. She missed school Wednesday and Thursday...and so did I. She stayed home with Todd on Friday. By Friday, the croup was gone, but she now, rattled when she coughed and had a fever. Todd took her to the doctor again, after she went into a coughing fit and could not stop...she was the color of lavender. The doc wasn't concerned and sent her home with a decongestant...Delaney too, because at this point, she is showing the same symptoms...just not as bad.
She gets worse...last night she was coughing and Todd felt her and said she was burning up. Her fever was at 103.7. This morning it was 104.5. We took her to the emergency room...and the doctor said she needed to take Kaytlynn's blood to see if we were dealing with a virus or bacterial infection. Kaytlynn of course was so sad to hear she had to get a shot. I told her that we could get anything she wanted if she was brave...clothes, a new movie, shoes, whatever. She said she wanted a fan...a paper one. I told her we would make one as soon as we got home. She was brave...she only cried when they were actually giving her the shot and she was nice and still for the nurse too. It was viral...both girls have bronchitis...Kaytlynn's was still worse than D's. We are keeping them on the decongestant that the 2nd doctor gave her...this Doctor also prescribed cortisone spray for the nose and breathing treatments for Kaytlynn. Now we just sit and wait for them to be better!

We did make a fan when we got home though. She chose it from my scrap paper. We just folded it back and forth and stapled it at the bottom...and she was SO proud of it. How easy to please is she!!!!!

On a side note...Last night Todd pulled out Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It was really neat going down memory lane watching that movie again. It was the first movie Sean Connery was in and I used to think he was so gorgeous...and still do! The girls enjoyed and it and so did Todd. It was all of their first time to watch it! I love it when we all pile on the bed and watch a movie together as a family...everyone is so happy, gigglie and content.

My Misplaced Hands

So....I'm friends with Linda Ellis. She's is at least acquaintances, if not good friends with, anybody who is anybody in the reading community. She invited me to dinner with Dick Allington. Richard Allington has been researching good teaching and learning within the reading and total classroom for about 40 years...literally. So, as people say, "He's the Man"! After dinner, I ask if he will take a pic with Linda and me. He agrees, and searches for a good background. He decides on a park bench under gold lettering that says "Saltgrass Steakhouse" with a picture of a longhorn underneath it. So we sit on the bench...one girl on either side of Dick. He has his arms around both of us and we are talking a giggling. I am at a little bit of an awkward position leaning into him...and I'm always very clumsy when I get gigglie! The girl takes the picture of us and hands the camera to me, so that we can view the digital image...so that we can approve, or disapprove of the shot just taken. Well, as I lean over more, so that both Dick and Linda can look at it...I drop the camera. In my reaction of not wanting the camera to fall, I reach and grab it. At this point my hand and wrist is literally resting on HIS CROTCH!!! I just about died and he is joking around and laughing...in a split second of all this laughing...I drop the dang camera again...and catch it AGAIN!!!! He is really laughing now...the people standing around us, and Linda are bent over with laughter. I am completely red faced and he says "I've heard of aggressive Texas women...but Wow!
The next day at the conference (it is the reason why he was in town)...he always had something to say to me and then ended up signing his new book...by first asking "Just who will be looking at this book" and then wrote....Watch those Hands!
The conference, by the way, was incredible. He is absolutely so knowledgeable about different research and the research that is called research, but is really profitable garbage. I wish I could listen to him more often!