A Report (sort of)

So I definitely jinxed myself with saying so far the 2's with B. haven't been so terrible. HA HA! This week she got her stool she uses to wash her hands with and took it into her room and got into the hand sanitizer I use after I change her. She poured it all on her head and it got in her eye. That's how I knew about it...she started screaming "OWEE!", I went to deliver cookies to my neighbor and Brooke locked the front door behind me. Luckily the back door was unlocked but I only realized that after I stood outside for 5 minutes trying to coax B. to unlock the door with her giggling behind it. She got a pen from the junk drawer and drew all over her step-stool and one of her toys. I still need to see if a magic eraser will get it off. Then last night B. dumped an entire bottle of baby wash into her bath to make bubbles. (I know it sounds like Brooke isn't supervised, but I swear, she is the sneakiest little thing ever!)

But then this morning I went to get her out of her bed and she looks at me, gives me a huge grin and says in a soft, sleepy voice, "Good morning, mommy" So of course I give her a big hug and tell her she's my sweet girl again. Doesn't take much to get back on my good side.

I also wanted to report on how my experiment with showing more gratitude towards Blake was going. I based it off of this article. I have to admit that I haven't been very good about remembering to say "thank you" to Blake the past week or so, but I have noticed a difference in our marriage this past month. I feel a lot closer to Blake. I feel like we are more patient with each other when disagreements arrive, and are easier to forgive. It would be easy to say that this was all just coincidence, but I don't believe that. I really feel like by making a concious effort to have a more grateful attitude that we've put the focus back on us and our marriage and serving each other instead of each of us just cohabitating under the same roof. This is definitely something I plan to keep doing. It's such an easy thing to do and has made a huge difference for us.

And finally, an antedote from my school (this is a true story): Students were asked to fill out a questionaire about bullying.
Answer this question: How do you think we could decrease bullying at our school?
Student's response: We just shouldn't have school. If we don't come to school we won't have to see the people we hate, duh!
Oh thank you, what a thoughful response. Why didn't I think of that?!

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