Half Marathon!

Okay!  My daughter, Haley called and told me about her new challenge for herself.  A half marathon in April!  Well, if you know Haley she is very persuasive, exciting, and encouraging.  She had me all excited in .  no time.  I asked Ken if he was interested, but the nice shorter answer is no.   I called my sister and got her involved.  So Janet and I were on board to walk the half marathon.  Now, I heard through the family grapevine that Kayla was not all that interested in the half marathon.  So since I know how competitive my girls are I texted Kayla and Haley the next morning about their Aunt Janet and I joining the challenge and sure enough she is on board!  So, now it is becoming a real family affair.  Haley, her husband, Kayla, her husband, Janet, possible Austin, his fiance, possibly ex--husband #1, and I will all be doing the half marathon in April.  I am excited about Austin and his fiance, I can't wait to learn if they will join us.  Sunday I completed week one of training with a 3 mile walk.  I do not enjoy the training, but it is good for me.
I sold the pink and yellow chevron quilt at the store.  I took a blue and red quilt with cars, planes, trains, and bus embroidered on it to the store.  I have another pink quilt almost ready to go it just needs to be bound.  So, as soon as I can find the binding I will get that to the store.
I downloaded two new apps on my phone.  One helps me with my walking.  It keeps track of the laps I have walked.  Haley keeps telling me it is all about the gear, maybe she is on to something!  The other app is a countdown app.  Everytime I turn on my phone I have a reminder of how many days until we go on vacation!  Life is good!

Great Weekend!

After

Presentation is everything!

Ken made such a great meal.  He was hungry for Mexican and he had seen this recipe somewhere, he couldn't remember where, so that is what he made.  Oh my gosh it was so good.  I had seconds.  The black olives were a good garnish.
The unhappy downside was that I had to weigh on Saturday morning.  I forgot that each of the crescents were like 5 points or more.  Sadly, I gained .2 Saturday at weigh in.  My sister, Janet, who is so supportive of my efforts tried to make me feel better by texting that is just s poop!  Of course, she lost 1.6.  I am so proud of her.  She is doing a super job tracking and losing weight.
My daughter, Haley, called on Saturday and told me her new fitness plan or idea.  She has decided to jog/walk a half marathon.  I had talked about doing one last year, but that is all it was.  Now it looks like I will get the opportunity.  Anyway, I talked to my sister and she wants to do it with me.  Now, Kayla, who is as competitive as Haley, wasn't real interested in the half marathon.  When she found out the three of us are doing it she decided to join us!  Woohoo!  Now, I understand that both Haley and Kayla's husbands are joining us.  What a family affair.  Which reminds me I need to see if Vicki wants to join us as well.  She should be staying with us by the end of March.  Training starts tomorrow!
We had a great day today.  We met Kenny, Sara, and the kids for lunch.  Then Kenny, the boys, Kevin, Nichol and Grandpa all came over to watch the game. Nichol left after a bit, she had other things to do. I enjoyed the boys, all of them!

blue and red  transportation quilt

This is one of the quilts I worked on Saturday.  I have it quilted, but I still need to put the binding on it.  I have a pink quilt that needs to be quilted and bound also.
There is a baby shower next weekend at our church that I am making some burp rags for.
No school in honor of M.L. King, Jr. tomorrow.  I will probably go work at school for a little bit so I will be ready on Tuesday.
I am also trying to organize the sewing room, the new scrapbook area, and clean out the red room.  I need to get it cleaned out because it will be needed soon.

New Centers Are Great!

I was working on report cards yesterday and found a few students that I needed to screen.  So, I got those kiddos screened and thought I was in good shape for finishing the report cards.  But, while I was working on the report cards and the behavior reports I realized there are three more kiddos I need to screen to more items.  Rats!  Just as I was feeling like I was on top of the situation my bubble was burst!
Tonight is old man night.   It was my turn to cook, so we went out to Billy Boys.  Luca went over to a friend's house after practice, but didn't know about it until I had waited on him for two hours.
It is very very cold here.  The high was only in the mid 30's.  If it is going to be this cold we should have something to show for it.  On the other hand, I don't want to miss any school.
I have a boy and a girl blanket in various stages of completion.  The boy blanket is a blue background with cars, boats, and planes embroidered on them.  I need to find a material to put with the blue.  The girl blanket is a pinwheel in several pinks with a pink with multi color polka dots as the main fabric.  I am really liking the pinwheel blanket.
The new centers are really going great.  We have a 30 minute literacy center time in the morning and they are keeping the kids busy, which I am happy about. They are practicing beginning sounds, short and long vowels, putting words in a sentence in the correct order, and inventive spelling.  In the afternoon they are going to  math centers and they are practicing addition using dominoes, addition using dice, number patterns, and decoding numbers.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  I know already 9 days into it, but the thought is there.  I have been busy.   First I was getting Christmas down so the cleaning ladies could clean Christmas away on Friday.  That was a big job and two days of hard work!
Next my project was to get my room ready for school.  I had been mulling a new plan over in my head for a while about centers.  Since we worked so hard learning our letters and sounds the first semester, I decided it was now time to do some independent practice and reinforcement of the skills we have been and will continue to learn.  Children need to practice many times to learn new skills.  So, I printed up literacy numbers for each center, I printed up math numbers for each center, worked hard at rearranging my room to find enough spots to put out 11 literacy and 11 math centers, and then the task was finding the centers that would occupy the students for at least 20-25 minutes.
We went back to school on  last Thursday, so I spent 2 days teaching the new centers and the expectations at each center.  Some needed no teaching and some we did as a whole group so they would have some experience with the new center.  We started on Monday.  It is going great!  I am loving it.  Now I am really stressing how when they are working they need to stay on task and complete their activity.  That will take a bit longer for them to understand.  On Friday all the incomplete work will go home!
Let's see updates.  The shower upstairs is still unfinished, sewing room is a bit further along, Christmas is all put up, broken garbage disposal has been replaced, and the wire that was first strung from outside through the window and into and across the dining room is now run in through the roof somehow and over to the other side of the dining room, there is still some issue with a wire in the pantry, but no more wire across the dining room floor!  Ken is working nights taking down Christmas at the mall.  Boy does that mess up his internal schedule and I sure do miss him.  

Luca ready for Snowman Dance

Luca went to the Snowman Dance and got to ride in a limo.  He and his friend's went to OKC for dinner at Zio's and then to the dance.  He seemed to enjoy it and said he danced a lot.  So, once again I got to deal with the tux stuff.  He sure did look handsome!

We are healthy and enjoying the new year.  Oh, I actually was at a friend's house on New Year's Day and I ate black eyed peas for the first time in my life.  I hear that it will bring me good luck.  Let's hope so!