NYC

Here's the view of the Empire State Building just around the corner from our hotel.

Here are the boys heading down into a subway station in Battery Park.

The boys and I at the Statue of Liberty.

On the Big Piano in FAO Schwarz.

Cheesy photo op in Central Park.

We got to the Bronx Zoo an hour before it opened!

Here's my favorite picture from the trip. This was in Times Square.

The whole week was sooooo much fun! We already have a list of things that we want to do the next time we go!

brrrrr

We are in NY and I am wondering ... who forgot to turn on the sun? Actually, we did see the sun today for about 3 hours. Yesterday we saw it for about 5. It got all the way up to 72 degrees. Woo Hoo! Heat wave!

They loaded up the truck...

For some reason the Beverly Hillbillies song keeps playing in my head as I go through my checklist:

Gas: check
Bags: check
Maps: check
Snacks: check
Kids: check
Dogs: check
Cats: check
Hamsters: check
Fish: check
Sanity: ??????????

Survival: Texas Style

I got this forward from my friend Amy B. in Germany and thought I'd share it with y'all:

Due to the popularity of the Survivor shows, Texas is planning to do one entitled Survivor: Texas Style. The contestants will all start in Dallas, then drive to Waco, Austin, San Antonio, over to Houston, and down to Brownsville. They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Odessa, Lubbock, and Amarillo. From there they will go on to Abilene, Fort Worth, and finally back to Dallas. Each will be driving a pink Volvo with bumper stickers that read "I'm Gay", "I Love the Dixie Chicks", "Boycott Beef", "I Voted for Obama", "George Strait Sucks", "Hillary in 2012", and "I'm Here to Confiscate Your Guns". The first one to make it back to Dallas alive wins!

Mr. Energizer Bunny

My dad just left yesterday after a two week visit. First off, he drove here from NY in a little less than 35 hours. Straight. According to google maps the trip is about 1770 miles. When we go home for our vacation it's going to take us three days. He did it in 35 hours. He'll tell you that he stopped to sleep for a while, but I don't think 45 minutes behind the wheel of a tiny little pick up in a rest stop parking lot really counts for much of anything. During his visit he completed every single thing that was on my "honey-do" list that I had started for Brian. He even fixed a few things that broke while he was here. Here's the list: he replaced all five filters in my reverse osmosis system, repaired plumping under the kitchen sink, repaired two door handles, fixed a light fixture that hasn't worked since we moved in (that one required numerous hours in my 130 degree attic), fixed an outlet in Kenny's room that hasn't worked since we moved in, rerouted the central a/c condensation system so that the water empties on the side of the house that we don't even go near (if you've ever been to my house and had to avoid the pool of water by my back door you'll appreciate that one), repaired the metal fencing stuff that holds the gravel around the outside of my privacy fence (that the garbage men ran over with their truck while he was here), placed door stoppers behind my interior doors so that we don't make any more holes in the wall when the doors get opened too far, fixed my lawnmower, fixed my dryer, hung my extremely large ladder on the fence so it isn't sitting in the grass any more, aired up the tires on my truck, and planted some nice pretty bushes in the back yard. I am sure there is more, but I just can't even remember it all. He was busy and productive every single day he was here. To top it all off, he left yesterday morning and took one of my dogs with him to make my trip easier on me. Somehow in all of that he found time to hang out with the boys and help me with everything that I did to support the Ludwigsen family while they were here. He kinda reminds me of someone else I know.

Chase & Austin

Good Times

Because Six Wasn't Enough

You all know that I have two dogs and three cats. We also have a Beta fish. When we went to the Rodeo Carnival in February Chase won two goldfish. Actually, he won one, but the carnival guy was generous enough to give him two. Gee, thanks, buddy! That put us up to eight pets.



Then after I let the boys bring home a puppy, which I returned the next day, I bought them hamsters to appease them and ease my guilt. Here they are. And yes, that is a hamster litter box. Believe it or not they use it. They are pretty easy to take care of considering the fact that we are all scared to touch them because they bite so viciously.

So that put us up to ten pets. TEN! I thought it would be overwhelming, but it seemed fairly easy. And it was a nice even number. Recently one of those goldfish died so I am thinking about a yorkshire terrier puppy. That's not crazy of me, is it?

Talent Show (Pogo Stick Dude)

Big Day :)

Just a Normal Day

So today I am graduating. And I spent the last two or three days getting ready for a small get-together at my house. I did it on such a perfect schedule that I went to bed at a decent hour last night and anticipated a good night's sleep before my big day. Apparently I forgot to let my dogs, cats, and hamsters in on that plan. Because they kept me up all night with licking, scratching, squeaky wheel turning, etc. That was not fun. And now instead of margaritas, all I can think about drinking is pepsi after pepsi after pepsi ...

Day One

Today was day one of my summer vacation. Well, it might be day one of my life as a stay at home mom again if I don't get a job, but let's not dwell on that just now. Today I took my own kids to school, mailed three packages to Brian, went to the gym for a step aerobics class, had lunch with Kenny, chatted on Skype with Brian, took a nap, cleaned the livingroom to near perfection, finished a book, picked up my own kids from school, went to Chase's band concert, and watched a little television. I did all of that in one day! Can you believe it? That is more than I have done in the past four months. I wonder what I can get done tomorrow? The possibilities are endless...

Done!

I am done student teaching. I feel a mixture of relief, excitement, and sadness (because I miss my students!) Mostly I feel glad to be going on to the next chapter of my life. After I graduate on Saturday I will be eligible for my teacher certification and I will be able to officially call myself a "real teacher" ... Hooray!

Life Changing Information

I am not very good with swallowing pills. They get stuck in my throat and I do all kinds of weird gagging before I finally choke them down. When I started student teaching I began a regimen of four vitamins a day in an attempt to stay healthy. One of my vitamins is actually some kind of herb that was impossible to swallow without all kinds of swishing and gulping and gagging and praying. At least that's how it was until my sister in law told me a trick that has changed my mornings forever! I am going to share it with you so that it can change your life as well. Ready? Here goes ... if you have a pill that floats all you have to do is take a swig of water, tilt your head forward so that it floats to the back of your throat, and swallow. Easy! No swishing, gulping, gagging, or praying involved.

You're welcome.

Decisions, Decisions ...

Feed the kids or take a nap? I know that should not be a difficult decision to make, but right now all I can think is that I haven't taken a nap in weeks (maybe months) and I feed the kids dinner every single night. Doesn't that count for something?

Lunch Lady Land

TAKS testing is this week at most of the schools in the state. Student teachers aren't allowed to be in the room with the tests because they haven't been through all of the state mandated training that is associated with the security and validation of the tests. Yesterday I got to cover a 2nd grade class and I just loved it! They were a wonderful group of kids and I think I have finally found my favorite age group. Today my school has differerent plans for me. It should be interesting!

Must be Summertime

The boys found this in the back yard today. It must be summertime in Texas!

Catching Up

As usual, we've been pretty busy around here. So busy, in fact, that I put a calendar on my refrigerator and told the boys that they were responsible for writing their own activities on the correct days because I just can't keep track of all of it by myself. In an effort to get Sammy's pooping picture off from the top of my blog I am going to write a boring 'catch up' blog posting. Don't feel like you have to continue reading at this point ... it's not really very interesting!

I have three weeks of student teaching left. It has gone very well so far. I started out in kindergarten for the first seven weeks and have already spent four weeks in my second placement, which is in a 4th grade class. Both of my cooperating teachers are wonderful teachers and I have learned more from being in their classrooms than I think I learned in all of the time I spent sitting in classes at the college!

Chase started swimming lessons. They are not your typical cutesy swimming lessons like we used to take the kids to when they were smaller. These lessons are four days a week at the high school pool, with the high school swimming coach. He works the kids hard, but he is really good. Chase is enjoying it and hopes to get to the point where he can make it onto the 7th grade swim team for next year. He tried out a couple of weeks ago and didn't make it (by 5 seconds).

Kenny is preparing for his school's Spring Talent Show. He is going to do pogo stick tricks with the Cha Cha Slide playing in the background. He's having lots of fun with it. His practices end at 5:00, which is the exact time Chase's swim class starts. They happen to be 4.9 miles away (through 5:00 traffic it takes me about 12 minutes) so that is a bit of a challenge.

A couple of weekends ago we went to a Chalk Walk/Fesival downtown. It was a lot of fun. The weather was sunny & warm and I enjoyed the fact that it forced me to slow down and take a break from cleaning and doing schoolwork for a couple of hours.

Last weekend we went to our friends' house for dinner. The kids colored easter eggs while the grown-ups had drinks and socialized. It was a lot of fun and really good for me to get out to actually talk to adults about something other than teaching.

Chase has started volunteering at our local Nature Center. Last weekend he got choked out by a python and stayed calm the entire time. His face was somewhere between bright red & purple by the time he decided he needed to ask for help from another volunteer. Yesterday, after he got some additional snake handling tips from his supervisor, he worked their booth for the Community Days event at our mall. Although he enjoyed talking to people all day about the pythons I think his favorite part was the four middle school girls that continuously came back to flirt with him all afternoon.



I decided to start reading the Twilight series again. I read them all over Christmas break. Then several of my teacher friends at the school where I am student teaching started reading them and I got interested in it all over again. If you haven't read them yet, you should. (ahem, Mandy)

We are starting to try to plan our summer vacation. We are thinking of taking a mini-trip to NYC. If you have any ideas or tips for me about visiting the Big Apple, please send them my way.

I think wrote enough to get Sammy's picture to go way down on my page. That was my main goal, you know. Hope you all are well. We are busy, but doing great. Thanks for asking ;)

Bad Timing

First off, sorry about the picture. It's my most recent of Sammy. I thought Brian would be amused (and he was). That's not what my posting is about though. Well, it's about Sam, but not about Sam going potty. It's about my bad timing with Sam. I decided to put him on a diet. As you can see, he's getting a little hefty. In his prime he weighed 105 - 110. If we went to the vet and he was above 110 I would get a stern look and severe words of "advice" from the vet about how to help him lose a few pounds. Now he weighs 133. He's getting older and sleeps about 23 1/2 hours a day. So I thought some diet food might be good for him. I waited until all of the good food was gone and started him on the diet food on Sunday. For the first couple of days he thought it was great because it tasted different. By Wednesday he was following me around begging for more food. On Thursday PJ went into heat. Now Sam can't hardly stand being in the same room as her. And she follows him around nonstop. So not only is he hungry, but he's crazed with emotions he can't understand. It's going to be a long weekend!

San Antonio

Last weekend Chase, Kenny, Mom, and I went to San Antonio so that Chase could participate in the state science fair competition. We had a great time even though he didn't win. He was up against some pretty tough competition ... you know, like the kid that has a theory about how to cure Alzheimer's Disease. And all of those other kids with projects whose titles were not even understandable to me. Yeah, the competition was pretty tough. But we had fun. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the weekend (there are more but I took them with Mom's camera and forgot to transfer them to my computer before she left to go back to NY):

Mom's first margarita! Awwww...


Chase, Kenny, and Chase's friend Ben drinking virgin Strawberry Daiquiris.

Chase & Kenny on our way to the Alamo.