Melt My Heart

My girls are able to just make my heart melt without even trying. Last night Melodye was downstairs playing Guitar Hero. Brooke decides to go downstairs. Brooke tells me "I go downstairs, you be good." You think she's heard that before. Then I went downstairs. Melodye tells me that she is putting her name in as "Mel2". I, of course, ask her why. And she responds with "I am Mel, but your mom that died was the first Mel so I am Mel2." All I could do at that point was kiss and hug her.

We visited Toni this weekend for her birthday and gave her the afghan/throw I made her. But of course she couldn't use it because it was 82 degrees in the nursing home. We thought we were dying. All weekend Mel played Guitar Hero and Brooke played with her Fisher Price Pirate Ship
Tommy vegged after having homework overload on Friday. I knit on Juliet. I got far enough that I could try it on and it was TOO BIG. So I frogged the whole project. I have not restarted. I think I might cast on for Jason and Denise's baby blanket instead. April is coming up fast in order for me to finish it.

I bought a new Firm workout video that comes with a resistance ball. It's a 30 minute workout, but it kicked my but tonight.

Common Occurence

Since Christmas this picture is a common occurence in our household. One wonderful part of the Wii is that the girls are active as evidenced in the scond picture. I also like it because all four of us can play as a family.

Tonight . . . Tommy's at school, I am folding laundry, the girls are getting baths, and Brooke is cranky like she did not get a nap today.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday

Today was a productive day. I got up, got ready, and took the girls to daycare. Then I finished my reportcards and miscellaneous work for school that I put off all weekend, but wasn't too bad to finish. Then I started knitting on Juliet which does not seem like it will be that hard or take that long to complete. Which also means I met another goal for the month. Woohoo! Then I went to work in my scrapbook room. I did not do any cleaning or organizing like I wanted. But I did watch 7 episodes of Gilmore Girls and I put all of our photos into photo albums. They are preliminarily labeled just by month. Later I will go back and label people and such. But I am just excited that they are in albums, which is one more goal met for the month of January. This is just 4X6 size not the portraits. I still need to go through and sort those. One task at a time.

I included pictures of the first five dishcloths I knitted. I need to take a picture of the last five.


This is the picture I took of Brooke's shoes that I love. I really do need to start taking more pictures again. I started slacking when I ran out of time to label the pictures and then the laptop started acting up and it just wasn't worth the headache to deal with it. Now that I have the laptop working and I have all my pictures labeled and sent to Costco to print (which I forgot to pick up today) I am guilt-free and able to take more photos. Once the pictures are picked up from Costco I will put them in the photo albums and will be completely up to date with that.

I might have already posted that photo of Brooke's shoes. I just wanted to figure out how to put more than one picture in a post. And I have done that. This learning curve is not turning out so bad. Back to work tomorrow. I hope I am feeling better. I have the whole sinus, sore throat, and voice threatening to go out thing going on. Hopefully the voice holds on. One of the other kindergarten teachers had to take two days off because her voice went out. So I hope I don't have waht she had or has. I also hope I don't have strep throat like one of my students(the downside of teaching).

I Did It!!

2008-01-13 Toni's Blanket
Originally uploaded by jlniksich

Here is a photo of Toni's completed blanket with her name added. The photos not that great. I went outside to take the photo but even then it wasn't great because it was an over cast day.

I have met some goals for this month.
* I have completed 10 dishcloths.
* I reset the laptop back to factory settings and it is working wonderfully now!!! I am just exstatic about that.
* I have labeled all of my pictures from October through now.
* I have printed out the photos that I like.
* At school I did about 80% of my filing.
* At school, I consolidated and unpacked two boxes.

It sure does feel goood to have met so many of my goals for the month.

This weekend was a busy one. Mick, Darla, and Sami came into town on Saturday. So we went there to visit. The girls had a blast. Sami ended up staying the night with us. We let the girls stay up late since they don't usually get to spend time with Sami. Then Sunday morning we took Sami back and stayed to visit because Erika, Sean, Logan, Katie, and Tucker also came to visit from Iowa. It was amazing how well the kids played together even though they either don't see each other that often or that had never met before. Then of course we ran errands and went to one of our favorite places Costco. While there we picked up the girls' Easter dresses. Had to get them now before they sell out of the sizes we need.

Tomorrow I do not have work for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. After dropping off the girls I am hopin to get some things done around here. I would like to watch some episodes of Gilmore Girls (just started watching season 1 from the library), knitting, scrapbooking, and organizing the scrapbook room. As you can tell I really want to spend some quality me time. At the same time Tommy doesn't have school so we are going to spend some time together. I think that maybe we should go to Chipotle to eat. That just sounds so yummy right now.

Found

I looked in my purse four different times for my camera. Could not find it, but this morning when I got to work I went in purse to get something out and lo and behold there is the camera. I do not know how I missed four other times. Maybe the elves were finished with it and returned it.

Melodye brought a paper home about sign ups for soccer. While we were talking about it Brooke ran to her room. She came out wearing her soccer shirt, shorts, and socks ready to go to soccer. She was quite disappointed when I explained to her that she souldn't be playing for a few months still.

My class is driving me crazy with their talking. It seems to be nonstop lately. I am tired of repeating myself. I am tired of writing notes home and nothing happens. I am just tired of the talking. So I changed their desks. They are in three groups. I am giving out group points. The group with the highest points will get play-doh on Friday. Hopefully this will motivate some to be quiet and the peer pressure will help with the others.

Catch Up

I haven't been near the computer for days. Tommy has used it for homework or Melodye has been on Webkinz. We really, really need to get the laptop up and running again. Figured I would do a quick catch up post.

• I cannot find my little camera. I keep it in my purse. It was not there when I went to use it this weekend. I know I had it after Christmas, but I don't remember when I saw it last. I am still holding out hope of finding it. Although the little gnome or elf that has Melodye's DS probably has my camera.

• Brooke still does not want to sleep. . . . ever!!!!!

• Had a meeting after school today for THREE hours. It actually was a good meeting, just a really long time after working a whole day and on a Monday.

• I now have 7 dishcloths knitted. I am loving knitting the ballband dishcloth pattern. It is super easy.

• I scrapbooked a new layout and used my new portable printer (HPA626) to print out the picture. I know, I know I have plenty of pictures that still need scrapbooked. I just really wanted to get this story down.

Happy 2nd Birthday

I have to send out birthday wishes to my nephew, Jalen for his second birthday. Happy, happy birthday dear boy. I'd include a picture of him, but all my picture are on that darn laptop that will not cooperate with me. But enough of that this is all about the birthday boy. We have aspecial present for you when we see you next.

Random Quotes

Sometimes Melodye and Brooke do and say things that I want to remember always.

• Tonight while playing Mario Party 8, Brooke was not happy that she was losing the mini games. Melodye started telling her "I don't know what happened, we all tied." She then got Brooke to agree that they should gang up on the computer players.

• Brooke was in bed and I heard her singing with Spiderman. So I went to check that she really was in bed. She was and told me "Spiderman is my best friend and so are you."

• We were talking at dinner about crazy food choices. Melodye could not believe that she used to dip her pancakes in ketchup or her broccoli in mayo. Crazy things that she grew out of and now at 7 she is just too mature to consider eating either of those combinations.

Bedtime Craziness

I am getting extremely frustrated with Brooke not going to sleep at night. She does everything she can to stay awake. We are constantly chasing her back into bed. Nothing seems to work. She is still up until about 9:00 or 9:30. Tonight I even tried cuddling with her on the couch and in bed, but no difference.

But on a positive note, I did complete my third workout for the month. I completed my favorite workout which is The Firm Body Sculpting System. The lindk is as follows. http://www.firmdirect.com/firm/p/FIRMBodySculptingSystem3WorkoutsOnOneDVD.html

Doctor's Visits and Such

I went to the doctor and had my thyroid checked. My thyroid is visibly enlarged and the results came back abnormal, so I will be starting thryoid medication. Here is to hoping that this will take care of some of the problems I have been having like being tired all of the time.

On another note, I think sharing my goals for the month here is going to help me accomplish them easier. It's as if I am being held accountable. For example, I have 4 1/2 dischcolthes completed, I started one scrapbook page, I read one book, I filed 3/4 of my papers at work. All good things I tell you.

Tomorrow my brother has surgery. I am sending good thoughts and prayers his way that the srugery will go along wonderfully, recovery will be fast, and he will still be able to smell now that he finally can. Yes, his surgery is on his nose. It's been broken many, many times. He just did a real number on it this time.

I really need to figure out what is going on with my laptop so that I can start putting pictures in these posts. But it is frustrating me so much that I just don't want to turn it on to even look at it. For right now I am taking a Scarlett Ohara stance "I'll think about it on another day."

New Years Update

New Years has come and gone. I seriously meant to get more things done, but there is not enough time in my day. Don't get me wrong . . . I did get a lot done. I just plan to get more done than is humanly possible.

Over Christmas Break I:

• built a computer desk and filing cabinet
• moved said desk and filing cabinet and set them up
• cleaned out filing cabinet, shredding, updating file folders with all new labels (I should take a picture because it just looks beautiful to me)
• took down Christmas decorations
• organized scrapbooking embellishments that my dear husband was quick to point out were already organized and that I probably will go back to that particular organization
• enjoyed time with my family
• played a lot of Guitar Hero 3 and Wii
• typed up a list of everything each individual student in my class needs to work on and then took that list and retyped it by skill and listed each student under it. This took a lot longer than I thought it would. Isn't that how it always goes.
• Knitted two dishcloths
• almost finished Toni's knitted blanket. I just need to add her name on it and weave in a few ends.
• started getting papers together for taxes
• worked on the computer - still working on it - it's slower than molasses now and I cannot get my favorites, but maybe that will change when the MSN cd comes in the mail
• decided last minute to host New Years Eve (decided night before). My parents, Tommy's parents, Noel, Jill, Maddie, Nonnie, Karlee, Nick, and my kids were there. We had Italian Beefs and spent the night playing Guitar Hero, Wii, and pool. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. And of course having people over motivated us to get more cleaning done that we had planned. : )

New Years Resolutions - I am going to make general resolutions. I think I am going to try instead to make goals for myself for each month.

Resolution 1: Organize scrapbook room - okay reorganize.

Resolution 2: Exercise

Resolution 3: Lose the stress

Now for the goals for January:

Work Related : downsize two boxes, file, clean off back shelf

Knitting related: finish Toni's blanket, finish 10 dishcloths, start Juliet

Scrapbook related: Put pictures in albums, name pictures, save pictures on external hard drive, print out pictures, make something

Reading : Read at least two books

Exercise: At least 12 times (already completed one on 1-1-08)