Furry, Fuzzy Bunny Feet

I just typed out a big post and then something happened and it all deleated.  I'm tired and it's 9 and I'm ready for bed and still have things to do.  So I'll retype tomorrow.   But for now, here are the pictures that went with the post.  Mimi sent her a package in the mail and it contained these.......

(Her newest trick!)

And just because my camera can.....

Tomorrow is her first Easter Party/Egg Hunt.  I can't go because we are MCT2 testing, but Sid and Nene will be there.  Be on the look out tomorrow (or soon) for post over load because now I have to go back and repeat the ever so important info from this post that got deleated AND the new material from tomorrow!!!

TUTU:Take 2

I love this one!  If I remember correctly, she had just counted one, two, threeeeeee and thrown a rock!

Yes, we were outside!

No, it was not freezing!

Yes, I thought I would have some sort of onsie to go along with this tutu - but I don't!

So, yes, she is naked!

Yes, she was in a much better mood!

No, I'm not a professional!

But, yes, I do have lots more from today to edit and upload!

But now????  I'm going to snuggle with my little easter bunny wearing tutu!

Tutu: TAKE 1

I wanted an Easter tutu to take pictures in and it came today.  But it was freezing cold this morning and by the time the afternoon rolled around, I didn't realize how nice it had gotten.  Sid is gone to the races with his dad and some other people, so me and Nene and Mami and Bailey went to a local shop in town and did  a little shopping, then out for pizza.  By the time we were done with pizza, Bailey was on show out mode and I was on "getting ill" mode because I don't know what was wrong with her, but didn't expect her to be ill and cranky way before bedtime on a night we would be spending just the two of us.

But she was.....

I just didn't realize how tired and sleepy she was way before bedtime until I decided to get a few shots of her in the tutu, just playing around. 

It ended with snot being smeared on one or more faces and one or more people crying themselves to sleep!

Maybe the next tutu photo shoot won't go so bad!  And by the looks of this face, I'd say that the teeth are the culprit!

Hope your Saturday night is more tutu'n fun than our's has been!

Perspective

You might remember this post where I talked about this fight (except I just looked and the news station has taken the actual video of the fight down).  Well, the week after that post and fight, the Superintendent of my school system was fired.  The school board has since over-turned the "firing" and let the man "resign with a settlement".  No one has ever heard exactly what lead to the firing that I know of, nor do I really care as long as I don't get fired, but I believe that there were just some mounting issues and the fight that was ok'd for TV/news was the straw.  That videoed fight, in my opinion, should have NEVER been ok'd to be put on the news.  But it did and we all see what happened next.

Anyway, as of right now, the board is looking for a new superintendent, but in the meantime have named the special education director as interim superintendent.  I have no idea of the man wants the job for real, but today, we got the following in our email inboxes:

From the Superintendent’s Perspective:







Good afternoon all,


This afternoon, I found myself thinking about the students that will be taking the tenth grade writing assessment tomorrow. After a few minutes I found myself praying for the students and that they will use all of the tools in their tool chests that were provided by their teachers while taking the test. I’m sure that our teachers have done all they can to prepare our students. But often, even when we are prepared for a task, we convince ourselves or allow others to convince us that we don’t have it in us to succeed. This phenomenon reminds me of a lesson in a book by Zig Zigglar.


In Zig’s book, Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, he talks about a golf outing in which he walks up to the tee box, hits a drive, and slices into the trees, making a terrible shot. He backs away and says to himself, “I knew I was going to do that!” That raises the question, ‘Why did you hit the ball then?’ What we have to do is back away from the ball, reprogram the brain, ‘DOWN THE MIDDLE’, and hit the ball onto the fairway. We have to visualize our self succeeding. We must believe we can.


Often we are our own worst enemies. Not only do we listen and engage in negative talk about our community, our schools, and our students, sometimes we even listen to our own negative self-talk about our own capabilities.


I wonder what Zig would think of our potential if we would take accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative from lip service to practice. We would start to believe in ourselves and so would our students. There is no limit to what the Wildcats can accomplish. Good luck to our tenth grade students Wednesday.






Have a great week!


Terry


What I would like to say is WOW!  Do you know that in all my years of teaching I have never had anyone in any type of administration posistion speak so normally nor so pep-talky in a real way than this that you  have just read.  For a system who has sure seen some negative times the past year or so, I say kuddos to Dr. Larabee for stepping up and not only just doing the job, but doing it to the point where we might actually see some change. 

And what I'd really like to say even more than that is, what if we applied this to our own daily living and not just those of us teaching children in today's times?  What kind of difference would we have in our attitudes if we did so?  Try it!  I am!  And I might be surprised!!!

On a different note, it's been difficult to get back to work after that week off.  The week was not near long enough and although sleep was not on the agenda, it's just hard to get back at it. 

The End

of Spring Break that is! 

I don't know why this picture of Bailey popped up first but since it did I'll leave it.  It's not her best, but I love the look of "who me?" or "WHAT?"  We were playing out on the patio Thursday afternoon after having gone to get all of her 12 month shots (except the MMR) and all of her 15 month shots.  I will take her back in 30 days for the MMR.  Long story there and I'll be more than happy to share should someone want to know.  Just ask!  Anyway, she had been on her second day of oral steriods and third day of extra breathing treatments which equals no nap, plus we had just gotten back from getting all of those shots.  If you had taken a picture of me, it wouldn't have been me at my best either.

She is loving to climb over, under, in, on top of things.  Especially outside.  My little monkey is just growing so fast.  Speaking of growing so fast, I just realized that tomorrow she will be 15 months old.  Don't expect a post or anything though because we go back to work and daycare tomorrow and I start the week off with morning duty, AKA a bang!!

Since we are talking about growing up, I'l throw this little gem in.  Bailey loves cleaning stuff like cleaning bottles, which we now keep locked up tightly, and the mop and broom and such.  She also has gotten so big we can give her trash and tell her to go throw it away and this is what we get.  It's the picture above in case you were wondering.  She just goes on over and puts it in and waits for the claps and moves on.  I'm waiting on the day she decides to stop and play in it.  That will be not good!

While we were at home and had supper at Erin and Andrew's, Erin was showing off this great award.  It's called the Principal's Award and kids are nominated for it by showing good manners and following extra good directions.  A random teacher at school noticed Erin was the only one in line the other day following line directions and turned her in, so whala. she got her award she was working so hard for and so proud of.  Just look at that smile.

And in case you were thinking I was exagerated the attack on sweet Andrew, check out the scratched up look on this dude's face.

Bless his bones!  And here's one of the acttacker, looking all cute with her cup!

Hard to believe that sweet face would hurt anyone.  But I have noticed that she goes straight for the face when she wants something and is not getting it.  Yeah, we are working on that.  Case in point, she wants in my lap, I'm typing and trying to hurry, she just picked up her empty bowl from where she was eating cheese balls and threw it at me.  Now she is scratching my arm.  Yeah, I'm ignorning, but it'll be a complete break down before it's all over!

  (Oh, thank you sweet Jesus, I just heard her daddy pull in the driveway!)

Friday, while we were on a nap strike, the weather was beautiful, so we took advantage of it and went out to play, get a little sunlight.  She wasn't feeling it much.  But I did snap a few good pictures.  Later on Friday, we went out to eat, where I was told she would be a politician becasue she visited everyone there and told them hey.  Then we went to the park and then came home and played in the yard a little more.  Thankfully, Friday night, she crashed and slept 12 hours.  It's the last of some sweet sleep we have seen since.

Yesterday, it was ok out.  Not great, not bad!  We rode with Nene and Mami to a store up the road in the next town, looked at a few antiques, and ate lunch.  I got a little nap and Bailey visited with Mammaw some while that happened.  Like I said, sleep was bad last night.  So we are tired and ill today. 

And this, my friends, is how we ended Spring Break in Mississippi.

Because the pics aren't that great, let me explain.  The top one is a little bit of hail on the pine straw.  Yes, it was hailing.  The bottom one is a picture of snow/sleet/hail mixture. 

Yes, that is why we are all sick!  Oh, and Sid just reminded me, we do plan to end Spring Break with some pizza tonight, too! YUMMY!!!!

Happy end of Spring Break everyone!!!!

Sort Of Like Crack (But NOT really)

Want to see what happens to 15 month olds when they wheeze and cough all the time?

And they already get two breathing treatments a day and another medicine by mouth once a day to cut down on that coughing and wheezing?

But when those medicinces don't do the trick, you get an oral steroid added to the one you already inhale twice a day and the "as needed" medicine that you inhale every 4 hours when the wheezing and coughing become to much?

You really want to see?

You get your usually, otherwise calm 15 month old standing on her piano stool....

You get every book and toy you own that were neatly stacked and put away thrown all over the place...

And your otherwise calm and easy to handle 15 month old sitting on her piano, smiling away.....

You get this look of "hmmmm, let's see what's next?".....

I have no idea what this look is....

Ahhh, she found her most prized book among the rubble..Old McDonald Had a Farm....

And finally, you get a quack quack here and a quack quack there!!!!

We rolled watching her and her expressions and babble as she climbed and did her thing...after four breathing treatments and a dose of oral steriods.  They say it's like crack and I guess I believe it!!!!

Not to mention we are now 40 minutes past bedtime.  I think it's going to be a long 5 days!

I posted two times today so scroll down and read the other post if you haven't read it yet!

Hump Day of Spring Break

What have we done?

Made it to Alabama on Saturday - CHECK

Made it through the entire Wizard of Oz play at a mere 15 months of age - CHECK

Had awesome dinner at The Cheesecake Factory aftewards - CHECK

Bailey and Mimi had lunch with Poppy T on Monday while Aunt Maggie and Mama went to the dentist - CHECK

Where guests at Aunt Leslie's for supper Monday night - CHECK

Played Attacked both Erin and Andrew by scratching their faces til they bled -CHECK (with a little plays and bathtime thrown in for good measure)

Spent some time with our friend Rosemary and their sweet new baby Charlee Ellen, who is a miracle (and I cutie pie if I do say so myself)- CHECK

Went to Poppy T's office to see him and Uncle Bo with Aunt Maggie - CHECK

Poppy T wrote on my hand and it said "Poppy T loves me" but it sort of threw me off my game - CHECK

Mama got a good ol Alabama hair cut by our new friend Ms. Erica - CHECK

Met Mama and Aunt Maggie's friend, someone they kept calling Davis - CHECK

Got a sweet hug from my Pappaw Self - CHECK

Screamed my guts out and destroyed Mom's car on the ride home Tuesday night because I did not want to be in the back seat strapped in my car seat - CHECK, CHECK and more CHECK

Learned to say "One, two, three!" while throwing the ball to Macy over and over and over and over again - CHECK

Learned to sing "rock a bye baby" with Mimi - CHECK

Woke up Wednesday morning wheezing like a freight train -  CHECK

So we cancelled the dentist appt we had rushed home for and exchanged it for a trip to the doctor - CHECK

Oral steriods added to the daily med regimen - CHECK

Go back for vaccinations later in the week - CHECK

Have we left anything off? 

We did get to have supper at Leslie's Monday night to let the kids play for a bit.  But Bailey decided to be a little monster and scrathed both Erin and Andrew on the face pretty bad, Andrew multiple times.  I was horrified and embarassed and Bailey got in big trouble.  I really really think she was either A. taking up for herself from the day before when Andrew kept pushing her at Mimi's or B. was trying to just say hey, I'm here, to them and didn't really know how.  Whatever her intent, I was mortified and never want to see her act that way again.

We did get to sit and hold little Charlee Ellen for a little bit Tuesday afternoon and she just smiled and smiled at us, sweet baby girl.  I was a little nervous after Bailey has scratched both Erin and Andrew til they were bleeding, but she did great.  She touched her little eyes and nose and ears and rubbed her head and tried to feed her a bottle and even held her.  So sweet.  But still not sweet enough to make me want another one. 

I did get to meet Erica and she did cut my hair and it does look great.

Bailey did wake up not breathing too hot this morning and I needed to take her in for her shots anyway.  But we left with no shots and some oral steroids instead.  I think I'm supposed to take her back Friday morning for her shots. 

Bailey did push me to my limit on the ride home last night.  I really don't know what her problem was, but whatever it was, I hope was just a one time thing.  She screamed from the time we hit the interstate in Birmingham until the time we pulled into the driveway, save the one hour she was asleep.  It was horrible.  I even tried to give her some Dr. Pepper in her bottle, which she threw back at me, and a baggy of cheerios, which she threw all over the car. I texted Sid and told him to have the vaccuum cleaner hooked up outside when I got home.  He texted back and said he would just take it to work this morning.  This morning he texted to tell me he just finished getting a bag of cereal up out of the backseat.  haha!  He was so right!  I text mom and told her if she wanted to see Bailey again before she was 15 she better get to packing and heading our way because I would not be back in the car alone with Bailey anytime soon!  And I meant it.

As always, my time at home was too long, but not long enough.  Always happy to get their and happy to get back to my own bed and to Sid, but sad to leave my family. 

Spring Break is half over with and we plan to do a whole lot of nothing the rest of the week!

Oh and one more thing, Bailey so did LOVE Macy, the dog.  They got along great and it was so sweet to watch Bay play with Macy!

Are You A Good Witch Or A Bad Witch????

That's the question of the day!

We ended up getting to come to Alabama yesterday and going to see the play Wizard of Oz today in Birmingham.  Can you believe my sweet 15 month old sat through a little over 3 hours of a broad way play?  Well she did, but then again, who wouldn't when you had the seats we do.  Mom and Dad get season tickets to the plays each year for the Birmingham Broadway plays.  We just lucked up this go around and we all got to go.  It was me, Sid, Bailey, Mom, Dad, Erin, Maggie and Bo.  It was wonderful.  Me, Sid, Bo, Maggie and Bailey got the season ticket seats.  You could literally see the spit coming out of the actors mouths as they were talking.  Unfortunatly, you can't take pictures during the show, but here are some from right before the show.

Can you tell I had the point and shoot camera and not the big camera?  It was hard for me to even use the little camera after getting used to the big one!

Dad and his usual chipper self.  I think him and mom were just excited to have two grandkids along on this trip.  They love this sort of thing with them.

In case you didn't believe me, check out Poppy T with his two girls.  I still can't believe my 15 month old sat through it!

Here's the group, minus me.  Someone has to be the photographer, right?

Bo, Maggie, Poppy T, Erin, Mimi, Sid, and Bailey

And just a random one of Bailey before the play started.

The visual effects for this play were probably the best of any play I've ever seen.  And I've actually seen two plays on real Broadway in New York, so that says alot.  The tornado was amazing and the witch's fire was even more amazing. 

I've been singing "ding dong the witch is dead, the wicked witch of the east is dead' since the play was over.

Oh and after the play.  After the play we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  Yeah, half of my food and my entire piece of cheesecake is in the fridge waiting for tomorrow to come.  I am stuffed from the other half of my meal.  That place always amazes me when it come to atmosphere and food.  Sid had never been so that was another fun thing we got to do with him.  I didn't take any pictures because i'd rather eat than take pictures in a place like that. haha!

I would have to say that of all the family trips we've had since Bailey has been here, today takes the top place.  She so loved the play.  She watched the stage the entire time, watch their every move.  She clapped and she danced and she sang a little.  And we all loved the Cheesecake Factory.  It was just all in all a great and wonderful day. 

I'd just like to say thanks to Mimi and Poppy T for giving us their good seats and taking a side seat so we could have this experience and for the great meal afterwards.  Precious family memories that we hope to make many more on days like today!!!!!

MIA

We aren't!   We are here, just living a very busy life.  Not much interesting going on.  Everyone is finally better.

Well, I had to take Bailey to the pulmunologist Thursday afternoon becasue she had developed a really bad cough that was making her choke and gag.  I didn't feel it was a flare up of asthma, but since I had the time and they could get us in, I took her.  Sure enough, just a yucky cold, not much we can do for it. 

She has some of the biggest teeth I've ever seen coming in.  Bless her heart, they have to hurt.  They hurt me just to see!

We are on the downhill until Spring Break.  It starts Friday at 4:00 pm and we are so ready.  No plans written in stone as of yet, but we do plan to relax and have some good ole fun!

I finally got a new phone.  The Samsung Impression.  So far I'm liking it.  Not as neat at the iphone I wanted, but much more practical money wise.  I can't see paying $30 a month to be able to use that phone plus the cost of interent at home too.  So, I was smart and for-went that extra expense for a phone that is just as cool and serves just as much purpose.  I sure hope I have this discipline when Bailey gets older.  There is absolutly no reason for a pre-teen or teenager to have a cell phone that costs the cost of a cell phone package for minutes and then $30 extra bucks on top of that to text and use the features of the phone.  No way, no how!  

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I will try to do better. 

Oh, and one more thing.  My Bailey girl has offically almost moved up in daycare.  Her new teacher sent me a picture text this afternoon of her napping on the floor on a nap mat instead of in the baby room in the baby bed.  She went to the playground with her new class on Friday and went again today.  That is where she was when Sid picked her up.  Breaks my heart in a way, but at the same time makes me a proud mama.  It tickles Sid to death to see her growing up like she is.  His philosophy is, at least she is growing.  If she wasn't something would be wrong.  And he's right! 

Mom called this morning and she is supposed to be finding us some extra tickets to the play on Sunday.  I can't remember if it's Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland, but at a mere 14 months old, Bailey will so enjoy it.  Her new thing now is to bark at dogs when she sees them.  Well, it's not a true bark, sort of like "uh uh" or "ah ah" but it's better than what we had a few weeks ago, hey!!!!!

It's been a week or so since I have gotten some new pictures so I will try to do so at some point this week and post for you to see.  In the meantime, we hope you are having a great week and can't wait to see everyone over Spring Break!

The Park

We were able to make it the park yesterday.  Perfect weather.  Great time.  Bailey LOVED the swing.  It was up kind of high and when she would swing up, she would just watch all the other kids that she could see from way up high.

Wonder what these two of thinking about?

See that blue streak above her eye?  Yeah, I forgot to mention that in the last post didn't I?

I was trying to get her to look me by singing "patty cake" and like always, she started doing it, and then she fell down.  Sid was right beside her so he caught her, but the look on her face was like "what the heck?"  We both laughed at her.

She spent forever trying to pick the rocks out between the cracks.  I love watching those little fingers work!

This was the first time we went to the park and it's sort of new and really big and neat.  They had these chimes that the kids could play, but they were up high so Sid had to hold her and then squat so she could reach them.  She loved them, of course.  She loves anything with music.

That's the look she gave when we got to the truck and she saw it.  She was actually looking at the truck when I looked up and saw her so I snapped her pic.  She was NOT happy that we were leaving and about to get back in the truck.

Sid did something to catch her attention though and she must have thought it to be clap-worthy.

Then she found his hat!

Ok, so you can see Sid's fever blisters extra good in these pics.  It never fails, he always gets on really bad after he has been sick and run fever.  Thankfully, his doctor let's him keep a script of the medicine that he knows he can start taking immediatly so that they don't flare up and get really bad.  I've seen his lip bust all the way open before with them.  So he actually did pretty good this go around.

And last, if you notice in the picture below, Bailey has a huge blue mark on her head above her eye.  She fell off the couch Saturday morning, but not just the couch.  She was actually climbing up over the arm of the couch and fell head first on the hard-wood floor.  Scared me to death!  She cried and cried but thankfully there was no bold so I figured she was ok.  I hate not knowing when you should and shouldn't run to the Urgent Care when things like this happen.  I mean, she seemed alright, but it was WAS her head after all.  We didn't go, but I worried about it for some time after it happened.  Tonight in the tub, I noticed even that side of her shoulder is bruised.  She took a pretty hard fall, but it isn't stopping her.  Tonight, I caughter her trying to climb up over the back her little rocking chair!  AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

This sweet little face though,  I just love her so much!!!