Why Brooke Can't Go to Bed

She is just too darn cute!

Usually she is better about singing with me, but she was having too much jumping on the bed.

Showing off some of her cute words and phrases:

I hate to write this, for fear of jinxing myself, but so far the two's haven't been so terrible (granted, we're only 2 months in). Yes, there are definitely times when I want to scream because Brooke has smeared poop (again) all over crib during nap time or that she loves coloring so much that she decided to color all over the kitchen table (thank heavens for magic erasers) but she is also so much fun! I love her little songs, her curiosity, that we can drive by a farm and she sees the cows and says "moo" that she will bring me a book, sit in my lap and say "read it", that whens she spills she hurries to get a towel to wipe it up, that she has a poster of the Disney princesses that came with her Valentine's and she wants to open it up to look at "toody" (sleeping beauty). I love that she knocked me in the head with a toy last night and she came over, kissed it, gave me a squeeze and said sorry, that when I get her out of her crib in the morning she says "dreams?" meaning she wants me to ask her if she had any dreams. And there are so many other things she does on a daily basis that just melt my heart and shake my head that this sweet little girl is mine...how did that happen?

I just have to remember these things when the temper tantrums strike.

Home Away from Home

This President's Day weekend was a kind of "staycation" for us. It was a chance for Brooke to get some quality daddy-time and Zac's kids J. and I. came to visit as well. We spent a lot of time at Grams and Pinch's house since Blake was doing a lot of sleeping. I do not how Brooke and I would survive without them. In the summer when Blake needs to sleep, Brooke and I can go to the park or someplace and it's no big deal. But in the winter?! It's so nice to be able to go over there until Blake wakes up.Friday night Blake and I talked about taking Brooke swimming on Saturday. Brooke heard us and kept saying "swimmy? We go swimmy?" Then she ran and tried to put her swimsuit on. She wanted to go right now!We did end up going to the pool on Saturday. Blake graciously got in with Brooke which was good for me on 2 levels: 1) It gave them some quality time together and 2) I saw like 5 of my students at the pool...so glad I wasn't in a swimsuit!
They had lots of fun playing togetherIn the lazy river...Going down the slides...And Brooke's favorite part was playin in the fountains...
Just the outing we needed to shake off some of these winter blues!

Brain Turning to Mush

My Father-in-law and I when he surprised me at school on Valentine's Day.

I think you know you have hit an all time low when you start blogging about the weather, so that is exactly what I am going to do. We are in an ice box here! It's freezing and a couple Sunday's ago when it hit 30 degrees it seriously felt like a heat wave! People were going outside without coats on and saying how warm it felt. Because it's been so cold, we've done a lot of movie watching at our house. The library has become our new Netflix--I have so many movies on hold there that almost every other day they are calling me telling me something has come in for us to watch. Brooke is obsessed with Monster's Inc and Finding Nemo--she asks for them by name. She also likes "Bear in the Big Blue House"--and watching that with her got me thinking: How do they get a person inside that big bear costume? Is it two people in there?

I also think this weather must be turning my student's brain's to mush too. I took my kids to the computer lab to type their essays and after one student printed his paper he asks "So, how do I get my paper now?" I looked at him and said, "You get out of your chair and go get it!" Seriously?!! Then as if that weren't enough, part of this assignment is to teach kids how to do a works cited page. I have kids trying to tell me that "google" is the name of the website where they got their info. NO!!! And finally, at parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday night another teacher was trying to explain to a parent how his son is always starring off into space when the teacher tries to talk to him and the dad starts doing the exact same thing! So the teacher (honest, I am not making this up) just starts mumbling jibberish and then says "okay, do you have any questions?" and the dad goes "Nope, see ya later" The dad did not even realize what the teacher had just done!! I guess the apple didn't fall very far from the tree on that one! I was laughing for like 20 minutes after that. Even if I start thinking about it I start laughing again. That is priceless!

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! In a little less than 30 days, Blake and I will be relaxing afloat one of these

and sitting on one of these:

Ahhhhh....I can't wait!! Anyone want to join us?

Ghosts of Valentine's Past

So I think I've shared this photo before, but I can't help to share it again. Valentine's Day always brings back tons of memories for me. Valentine's Day 9 years ago was one of mine and Blake's first dates. We went to an institute dance together and the rest is history! Last night Brooke and I made my famous (well, famous to me since I pretty much only make them once a year) sugar cookies for Blake. It was so fun to have her be my little helper.

This is her "I just took a bite of the dough and it was yummy" face.Then she just decided that eating the dough was more fun and that was the end of helping me.
While we were working, Brooke fell off of her chair and she was upset. I knew just what would make her feel better. I almost started tearing up watching her enjoying it. I have the best memories of cooking with my mom and getting to lick the beaters or the bowl. It feels good to be making those kinds of memories, however small, with my own child.

I'm not sure what the rest of V-day will have in store for us--probably a quiet family dinner and a couple of chick flicks afterwords. My father in law volunteered to help deliver flowers for a local flourist shop and low and behold he and my MIL showed up during my first hour class with a rose for me! It totally made my day.

Over the weekend Brooke was really sick. I got a call from my sitter Friday afternoon saying that B. had a temperature of 103. I quickly called Blake and had him pick her up and take her to the doctor. They think she has a sinus infection and got her on antibiotics. It was so sad to see her just laying around. She just wanted me to hold her. We took her home and she just laid by us all day. By Saturday she was feeling better and I kept her home from church yesterday just to give her another day of rest. She was obviously well enough by Sunday night to eat cookie dough and all is well again! This was B.'s first major sickness and I'm sure not the last!

Hope you all get some lovin' today! Happy Valentine's Day!

Some more "Happy Days"

On Wednesday I turned another year older (and hopefully got a little wiser too). In the words of Brooke: it was my "happy day" It was funny because the night before I was thinking that even just 10 or so years ago I thought my life couldn't get any better than this. I had friends, was dating, doing all sorts of fun things and thinking about being the age I am now meant I was going to be old....and boring. Oh how your perspective changes! Now at this stage in life I can't imagine life being any better than this. I have a wonderful family, a good home and am, for the most part, happy and content with the way things are. I defintely don't feel old, still have good friends, and although to some my life might seem boring, it still keeps me plenty busy and I have been blessed with more than I deserve.

Usually I shy away from being the center of attention. But my birthday is the exception to this! Blake sent flowers to my school. My in-laws sent cupcakes for all the teachers at lunchtime, and the counselors interrupted one of my classes to have my students sing to me and brought me a Dr. Pepper and a Twix bar (my favorite treats). After school my in-laws watched Brooke for us so Blake and I could go have dinner on the mountain at one of the lodges. Blake got me a really nice certificate to a salon/spa to get "the works" done before our vacation in March. Then I got home and opened this awesome present from my sister. She has become quite the crafty lady and everything was handmade. I have been admiring her handy-work for a while so she sent me a goody-bag of some of her projects.
I had to model the cute hat, purse and slippers: this is my attempt at posing. Hand-knit slippers! Who knew you could make such a thing?! I am majorly impressed, sis!

We went to my in-laws for cake and icecream. Brooke helped me blow out the candles and thought singing was really fun. And she loved sticking her finger in the icing, but really wasn't so interested in eating an actual piece of cake. Then on Thursday was another happy day. It was Brooke's Valentine's Day party at H.'s house. I am always so impressed with H. For this party, the kids decorated bags, exchanged Valentine's, did a craft and frosted sugar cookies.Brooke and her bag (somehow we lost the B.)
A little heart- butterfuly craft

And last, but not least, Brooke having a grand time with grams and pinch:Can you tell that Brooke loves stickers?
Brooke is a little performer and is singing along

And of course, play dough..

What a goofy girl!

In It to Win It!

Do I really care about the superbowl? Um, no. But what I DO care about is the party food: we did BBQ ribs, shrimp, and meatballs with Blake's parents. Not too much was going on in the fruit and veggie department, unless you count the strawberry shortcake for dessert! I also cared that every year Blake and I bet on the winning team. This year my team won and I get to pick out new patio furniture. If the Steelers would have won, Blake could have gotten a "barka-lounger" and no I didn't make a typo--not a parkalounger, a barkalounger. You know, a seat to sit on while you are coyote hunting. This past Sunday was also extra special because Blake was actually home the whole day. Not working, not sleeping, but able to come to church and help me...it was so nice! In the morning we played hide and seek. Brooke was so cute and kept giggling as Blake got closer and closer. Here we are hiding in Brooke's playhouse. Then when it was time to get ready for church I asked Blake to help me out by getting Brooke dressed. I told him her church clothes were sitting on her dresser. All of a sudden I hear Blake yelling "How is this supposed to work?!" I go in, confused as to how putting on clothes was proving to be difficult and find Brooke wearing all three of these outfits: Apparently, Blake didn't hear that he clothes were on the dresser. Instead, he selected clothes from the pile of laundry I had been folding ealier. Brooke was wearing the pink dress with the striped sweater over it. Blake was holding the leopard print dress trying to figure out how to get it over Brooke's head (I guess he thought I was doing some sort of layered outfit). I was on the floor laughing so hard! Seriously, tears were streaming down my face--Brooke looked so ridiculous! Blake still insists that I told him her church clothes were in the pile on the floor.

Backing up a little bit, on Saturday while I was doing my own cooking and cleaning, I set up a station for Brooke to do some of her own. I gave her three different sized bowls and cups, some kitchen utensils and a bit of water and let her go to town. It was a big hit--Brooke loved it!
I realize these videos probably aren't interesting to anyone but family, but I couldn't resist posting them. I love Brooke's little voice and seeing her imagination at work.

Then she found one of Blake's calls and decided that was more fun

A Little Bit of Everything

No new videos or pictures to post. Just some rambling thoughts that have been going through my head the past few days.

This semester of school has been crazy. As a teacher of 3 different subjects and about 120 total students, the office decided it would be fun to mix it up a bit and make it so I flip flop back and forth between subjects all day long instead of grouping my classes together. I am constatly shuffling through worksheets and powerpoint slides to quickly set up for the next class. This makes it really fun when I get worksheets and lesson plans confused and have to ask my students "what class is this again?" I also showed that video in my previous post about Savannah. I linked it with a writing assignment. I think it went well. The middle school years can sometimes be the hardest and my hope is that my students took something away from that video and will extend friendship to those who need it most.

I've been called to be the weeblos assistant, which so far hasn't been too bad. But now I have a dreading feeling that I'm going to be called to be the actual leader. The current leader has been doing it for 7 years and has been giving me these cryptic hints indicating she might be released. Then yesterday I got a crash course on recording all the boys badges. Why would an assistant need to know that?! I only pray they call Blake in to do it with me. I have no idea how the scouting program works and if I'm being completely honest, I really am not at all interested in the scouting program. I kind of see this going in the same direction as when I was asked to teach 6th grade PE: me sitting on the bleachers while the kids played a game. "Mrs. Millecam, so and so just fouled me!" Me: "Oh really, I didn't see it. Keep playing!"

I am trying something new this month too. I was reflecting on my marriage and thinking how after 7 1/2 years I feel like there are a lot of things that I take for granted. I've gotten comfortable in my marriage instead of making efforts to improve it. So starting today (February 1) I am going to make a conscious effort to show more appreciation for Blake. Each day I'm going to remember to tell him thank you for something he did (like doing the dishes, taking care of Brooke etc...) and just letting him know I love him. I know this sound silly, but I sometimes I forget to say thank you for the small things or I forget to to call just to tell him I love him and not about something I forgot at the grocery store. I took an institute class where we read an article entitled "Change yourself--change your marriage" The jist of it said that so many people focus on the things they want to change about their spouse instead of looking inward. So I'm going to take this advice to heart (many years later) and see how it goes. I'm excited to see what changes take place. With Blake and I both being so busy, I feel like this will help keep the focus on us, our marriage, and our family and not let those outside sources of stress influence us as much.

And I can't end a blog post without mentioning some things that Brooke is up to:
*She wakes up in the morning and we can hear her singing in her crib. Then when she hears us also up and moving around she goes 'Hello?...Hellllooowww?" and then "Mommy? Daddy?" It makes me smile everyday.
*She loves the movie "Finding Nemo" and will say "Nemo. I want watch Nemo." And she will actually sit through most of it.
*Last night she wanted to dress up in her fairy wings, put her socks on her hands and dance around in the basement.
*On Saturday I was vacuuming and left Brooke at the kitchen table with a coloring book. When I finished I came back into the kitchen to find Brooke was nowhere to be seen but the cuboard with the cleaning supplies was open. I did some searching and saw that Brooke's bedroom door was closed. I opened it and Brooke immediatly runs over to me says 'here go!" and hands me a bottle of febreeze (luckily that is all that it was!) that she had been spraying all over her room. Naughty girl, she knew she was in trouble!