The Ticker Don't Lie!!!

Holy Crap! 3 days left until "Summer Freedom" and I am in denial. I can't believe, even though I really can if I stop and think for 5 seconds, that this week is it. Two of my cherubs left on Friday due to family vacations. It was bittersweet since I really enjoyed having them in class. Monday will mark the other 20 leaving me forever....forever.....forever. Wow, that just sounds so permanent. Like I said, bittersweet. I will miss them, and it has been an interesting year, but to think that they are on their own from now on is humbling. I hope I served them well. I hope they have all the tools they need for the next grade. I hope I see them again even though I will be at a different building. Luckily, I will be able to check up on most of them returning to 5th grade in our building. The others though, I wish them good luck and farewell. I hope they make me proud somewhere along the way. One of my kids I have had for two consecutive years now. I will miss seeing her next year the most. Man, she isn't even mine, and I feel like she is leaving for college or something. I am not looking forward to that moment in 17 years, let me tell you!!!!

Well, two missions today.... 1. Kitchen clean up. I still have things out of place from our Memorial Day BBQ. That coupled with the fact that we have ANTS EVERYWHERE! I can't stand it anymore. I am spraying TODAY! If that doesn't work, we are calling a pest control company. Having a toddler is not helping the cause to rid the house of ants either. We can't keep up with him while he eats. Food just lands on the floor.

Second mission....2. Start looking at the garage. Cleaning is a must! Now that my classroom is in there, I need to really prioritize some space. My classroom junk will be gone on Tuesday or Wednesday. We can't even get our bikes or strollers out right now hardly at all. It would take some work.

Okay, lastly the Sauter family is currently taking donations. I'm joking, but we found out how much our adoption finalization and citizenship costs are going to be. We are looking at $1,600. I about crapped and fell off my chair yesterday. This whole thing has been such a financial undertaking. This is like the icing on the cake of debt. Please don't get me wrong. We have been ultimately blessed and am so glad that we took this path. I wouldn't have it any other way. However, it does dent the bank account and that hurts from month to month. We were really talking about starting the process over again, until we realized yesterday, that isn't possible yet. The "new homestudy" would cost $2,000. Now we need to concentrate all of our funds on our finalization, not a start up. That is okay, but I just hope that we can start again in the next couple years. Right now I just want a SSN so we can have a legal DEPENDENT and our adoption tax credit next year. That should replenish $10-12K in our account. Thank God the government pays for almost half of this process.

Have a great weekend!

Peace be with you Parkersburg.....

and may you never see this degree of destruction ever again. Last night at 5:00 a major tornado ripped through this innocent Iowa town located near Cedar Falls. It took the lives of 7 people and injured dozens of others. It even destroyed the high school there.

This situation makes you realize that we are mortal. Our homes are cable of being destroyed. All of our belongings could be vanished in a matter of seconds. What would you do if this were you? All the citizens were carted out of Parkersburg last night to stay at a facility with cots and food. The citizens were able to pack what they could. This makes me question what items I would take with me if, God forbid, this ever happened to our town. It is such a horrible thought it almost makes me sick as I type this. The displacement alone would be horrible enough. I would feel ultimately blessed if I had all of our household members still standing.

I guess what it boils down to is that life is fragile, belongings are meaningless, and like Ecclesiasties 3 states...there is "A Time to Rebuild." I pray that all of the people of Parkersburg rebuild and have all of their needs met in the coming months.

If you are curious to see pictures of the aftermath they can be located on our local news channel's website:
www.whotv13.com

Our Critique So Far...

Olympics......SUCKS! Don't waste your time. It gives you a headache.

Lego Star Wars......Would be good if all you wanted to do was read and or get lost. I can see where kids would find it cute, but overall it stinks.

Tiger Woods Golf.....My new favorite video game next to Guitar Hero! WOW what a fun game! Much better than the Wii Sports golf game. There are endless possibilities with play. You could literally spend hours, even days, playing this game. Jamie and I are tied 1-1. I am getting the hang of it now and am a force to be reckoned with! (ha ha)

Party Games....They would be fun if you had a group of friends over and had a couple drinks, but I prefer the real thing when it comes to air hockey, darts, shuffleboard, etc.

Brunswick Bowling......Really good too. A must have if you own a Wii. Like Tiger Woods Golf, there are many possibilities for play. Wii Sports bowling is good, but this is quite a bit better.

Well, got to go. We need to eat so we can continue our weekend free trial of this thing. I also want to go back to school and get the power cord for my PS2 since I accidentally left it. I feel like a little Guitar Hero tonight.....Still by far the COOLEST game ever invented!

To Wii or not to Wii That is the Question

Well, we borrowed Karen and John's Wii last night for the weekend. Being the "techy" person that I am, I want to see what all the buzz is about. Well, after having it for one evening I can say that Jamie's Wii age is 49 and mine is 62. Jamie has found SOMETHING (game/software) that he is good at....Wii Golf. It is cute to watch him play it and he even gives me pointers. (This from a man that can barely get through the easiest song on Guitar Hero.)

Today we rented some new games. Karen and John's choices didn't really impress us. They are interesting, but we need more games suited to our tastes. We definitely aren't "Resident Evil" fans. That game scared the crap out of me last night. I am not good at shooting people and there is a ton of gore to it as well. We rented Bowling, Tiger Woods Golf, Lego Star Wars, Party Pack, and Olympic game between Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

I will rate the games for all of you later. Have a happy Saturday. If you are in Iowa stay warm and dry! Nothing like an Arctic blast to get you through a "Start of Summer" weekend!

TGIFF!

Well, tomorrow will mark my second to last Friday at my current building. After this week I am counting it as a huge blessing. This has been an odd week, full of ups and downs, good and bad. I can't wait for tomorrow for more than several reasons. The biggest being that my husband is going to be HOME! That's right, I said it...HOME!!! He can help pick up the house and take Mr. T to the doctor. For some strange reason I think he has ear infection again. I don't want it to escalate over the holiday weekend.

So, this week I have been packing like crazy. My whole world is in disarray. My house is a freaking mess, my classroom is 1/4 in boxes in my classroom, 1/2 in boxes in my garage, and 1/4 scattered around my room. The kids are doing a good job packing and loading my truck everyday. Only 5 and a half more school days left! I have to be out June 3rd. I get to move into my new room across town on the 4th.

Our vacation is set for June 25-27th in Chicago. We are taking T to a Cubs game at Wrigley. We are also going to visit Koreatown. This should be quite the experience for all of us. We have never traveled with a toddler before. We are actually staying in Skokie which is closer to the stadium and Koreatown. We will take the subway to the game. I hope he doesn't freak out on us.

Well, I need to keep cleaning. Happy Friday to you.


P.S. I talked to Justice's new owners this week. She has eaten 5 pairs of flip flops, a baseball glove, and most of the flowers they have planted this year........AAAAHHHHHHH, It wasn't just us!!! She is going to start her training this week for them. I know she will do good. They also said that when the 3 kids go to school she just goes from window to window looking for them as they get on the bus. (This would be the type of loving behavior that I miss greatly, just not the destruction part.)

Supper....

Mmmmmm.....Pizza and beer. What a delectable combination. It comforts me after another day of craziness.

What A Weekend!

I am happy to report that I survived the 5K and the 1 Mile events on Saturday morning. I wasn't last and had a really good time. My in-laws were here on Sunday. We got to grill frozen hamburgers....ooops. Teegan was a ham and very social.

Today I realized more than ever that the countdown is on for the end of the year. My kids are checking out left and right. I am struggling to keep them engaged. I also have many boxes to pack and move home. :-(

I need to keep it short tonight. I have to get checking papers so I can record them tomorrow. Have a great day!

Ali