A Week in Review (Feb 17-23)

A Week in Review (Feb 17-23)

Watched: Mostly just Jayhawk basketball. With my new schedule, there hasn't been a lot of TV watching time. My DVR is filling up. I have got two shows of Smash to watch. Maybe once it's fishing season again?

Read: Didn't finish up anything this week. I did begin Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. It has been an intriguing book. I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends.

Listened: I started listening to the audio book of Foundation (Foundation, #1). This is one of Nick's favorite books and he is always recommending that I read it. I am having a bit of problem listening to parts over twice because my phone keeps losing the place where I am and it comes as one of Nicks 8.5 he long tracks. I made some decent progress though and am about half way through. I do like it better than, which is the only other Asimov book that I have read.

Made: Snow Slushies with Jack. This is the only thing he really looked forward to about the snow. It has been easy to find plenty of snow with the 13" we got with this snow storm.

Felt: Glad that it warmed up enough that we were able to get out and play in the snow. It's pretty funny to watch Jack trudge through the snow which had drifted even deeper than the 13" in parts of the backyard. The snow was so deep that I was able to pick him up and throw him in it and never have him hit the ground. He wanted a snow fort, but it just wasn't sticking together so I took two of our lawn chairs and put them together for him. Not exactly what he was looking for, but it was good enough to make him happy.

Planned: A super fun lesson about Dr. Seuss for my new class and was bummed that I didn't get to use the majority of it with the aforementioned snow days. I am sure the parents were as chagrined as I was.

Loved: That I convinced Nick to stay home and take a snow day with us on Thursday. We played the hat game for 12 hours (only taking a break to fix quick meals). We watched the snow just dump buckets on us for hours. We also watched someone get stuck in front of our house. It ended up being quite a pain because it meant we didn't get the plow down our road at all. But we were able to stay in and enjoy a nice warm fire together!

Below are some of the pictures for the week. Please note that Jack still doesn't wear glasses, but loves to have them on so he looks more like Harry Potter. If you look to the chair on the left, you can see his little body peaking out from them.

A Week in Review (Feb 10-16)

A Week in Review (Feb 10-16)

Watched:  Catfish,the TV show on Demand.  A friend had asked me if I had watched this and told me about the premise, which is that Nev (the host) helps people who have internet romances finally meet in real life.  The only had three on demand though. It is a pretty interesting show if you have ever done a meet-up with an internet buddy.  I would like to watch the movie that this TV show spawned from which is Nev's own story.  Maybe someday!

Read:  I wrapped up P.S. I Love You.  I was not as big of fan of it as everyone else was. Several of the people I exchange ideas with on Goodreads had this book rated at 5 stars.  I only gave it three.  I felt that the characters were very one dimensional.  I am still working on the The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. It is due back at the library on the 18th, so I don't think that I will finish it.  My goal is to make it through June.  I have put it back on hold so that I can wrap it up.  It's a good concept, but it doesn't inspire me to read in long snippets.

Made:Listened:  Basically just to my audio book again this week.  I wouldn't have been able to wrap up my book if I hadn't!

Felt:  Proud of my boy.  We had his final preschool conference and found out that he continues to grow in classroom skills.  He got all high marks except for speech.  If you have known me long, then you will know this has been a struggle for Jack.  He has a had time making blends.  Last conference, they thought that they might me able to take him for some informal speech therapy (if he began it formally then he would need to be removed as a peer, which neither the teacher nor I want!); however, the speech path's work increased too much and so she will just be passing her notes to the speech path at his elementary school so that she is aware of his progress.  He will mostly likely have some sort of speech class in Kindergarten.

Planned: A wonderful Valentine's dinner with my hubby.   I recently found out that a local bar as 2 for 1 drinks on Thursday night, so we went there for a little cocktails and appetizers before coming home to a yummy homemade dinner.  Nick grilled us up steaks and Killer Artichokes.  If you like to grill and like artichokes, then these puppies are for you.  They are soooo yummy.  The combination of the shallots and artichokes is just divine.  I have attached a link for the recipe if you are interested.  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Killer-Artichokes/Detail.aspx

Loved:  My new paint color.  Nick gave me the gift of repainting our living room and hallways for Christmas.  I repainted them to a color I wasn't crazy about almost 8 years ago, but have been living with it because 1) paint is expensive and 2) there are high ceilings and several doors to trim around.  We aren't quite finished with it.  It is such a major project and we had the Jayhawk game on.  We were lucky because my Mother-in-law was able to take Jack so that we didn't have to worry about entertaining him or having him try to help.

Below are pics from the week. The one of Jack and I was requested to be taken by him while we were screwing around waiting the hour for our food. So just an FYI, if you don't eat the buffet at Beto's cafe, be prepared to wait a long while for your food. Overall it was yummy though!

Next was taken by Jack's teacher. I love the way he looks in this picture. I think it's a combo between the do-rag and his lean that just cracks me up.

Then you have a pic of my valentine cocktail. Pretty, right?

Last is poor Nick on the ladder. Since I had quite the bad experience last time, I'm not allowed up on it. As you can see, that meant he had lot more work to do than me!

A Week in Review (Feb 3-Feb 9)

A Week in Review (Feb 3-Feb 9)

Watched:  A movie at the theater with Nick!  I am sure that doesn't seem exciting enough to warrant an exclamation mark, but you should know that there are very few occasions that I will pay for a babysitter, plus the high ticket prices.  I thought that the movie Identity Theft looked hilarious and so Nick used some of his gift card money to take us out.  It was a good movie and we each laughed almost the entire way through it.  I would highly recommend to all adult audiences, but don't watch it with your kids (which there were plenty of people doing at the theater) as there are parts I don't think you'd want to explain to your kids!

Read:  I didn't finish either of the paper books that I had started.  I did finish the audio book, but I will tell you more about that next section :)

Listened:  I finished the book, Still Alice.  Sadly, last week, I told you the name of another Alice book that I had recommend to me.  Sometimes when you have all these books in your head, they get mixed up!  I was correct in that I would need the paper copy of the book to help me finish it.  The book was read by the author and while she did an excellent job of writing her characters, her auditory telling of it left something to be desired.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who knows someone suffering from Alzheimer's or would be interested in learning more about the the psychological impact of this debilitating disease.  If you do happen to read this, I would love to discuss my feelings about the end with you.

Made:  Jack's Harry Potter themed valentine's. We turned valentine pencils into brooms, put on a small rubbery heart person riding it by rubber-banding their legs together.  Then we made snitches by wrapping up small bouncy balls in gold with red heart foil candy wrappers   We then cut out wing shaped cardstock and I wrote "Valentine, You are a Great Catch" on one side and Jack signed his name on the other.  We then hot glued the ball to the middle.  Then he matched up the snitches to the correct broom riders.  I am sure his classmates will have no idea what it is, but he will and that's what mattered to me!

Felt: Disappointed in our Jayhawks.  They  dropped two more games and just don't seem to have their head in the games. The TCU game was the worse game that I have ever watched as a fan.  I know everyone wants to blame Elijah Johnson, but I think that is an entire team failing and I hope that they can get it corrected shortly.  I can hardly believe the Wildcats will be ranked above us this late in the season.

Planned: On spending 108 hours with a PreK class.  And as any good teacher know that means 216 more hours outside of the classroom and since this is PreK instead of my usual level of Preschool, I will be spending at least 50 hours trying to figure out how to adapt!  This will be a big change for my family, but I felt that these students needed me to commit to them rather than having to go through another teacher change.  I am so thankful that I have the support team around me to help me with this.  I know that I will have to adjust things, but I hope to make sure that things at home don't suffer because of my new commitment.  I just have feeling that Read and Watched categories above will shrink!

Loved: Playing with Jack's made up game, which he titled Harry Potter (surprised, right?), with our whole little family.  It kept growing more complex, but the basic rule was that you had to get your bouncy ball to land on a stair.  The higher the stair, the higher the points.  He also then added blockers (Jiffy blueberry mix that I had bought earlier for some Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies I will be making in the following week).  It was quite a bit of fun and entertained us for hours!

A Week in Review (Jan 27-Feb 2)

A Week in Review (Jan 27-Feb 2)

Watched: Another movie with my hubby!  We had Jack in bed early (well at least earlier than normal lately!) and were flipping through the channels when we saw that Hall Pass had just started.  I mentioned that I thought it sounded funny and Nick had never heard of it.  He is game for most movies though and so we watched it. We both laughed several times throughout the movie.  It was definitely a raunchy kind of comedy, but we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Read: I finished up the The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott.  I only listened to this on the audio book and thought it was decent.  I used it to help me to motiviate myself to stay in my home office/guest room/shit catching room and clean it up while finishing up the last 2 discs out of the car!  I also blew through Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3).  While I recognize that these books are pure trash as literature, I am starting to enjoy the story.  Glad I stuck with the series.  :)  I also began P.S. I Love You.  I am doing a To Be Read pal with book club and this book that she chose from my list.  I haven't gotten far, but it seems like it will be a good read.  I must also tell you about Jangles: A Big Fish Story .  Jack loves David Shannon as an author and so we selected several titles from the library that we hadn't read before.  This book has become a sure fire hit.  If your kids enjoy fishing than I am sure this one would delight them too.

Listened:  I began another audio book, but am having a hard time getting into it.  I feel like I will need to be reading the paper copy of What Alice Forgot  to help me get into the book.  Luckily, I am only 2 or 3 in line at the library so hopefully I can get them caught up.

Made: An appointment to get Jack's pictures taken.  Knowing that I was going to Wichita and could save on postage was a big factor.  Now I just need to get them all cut apart and sorted :)  He took some great pictures (but not that surprises me!)

Felt: Proud of all the stuff I accomplished during my "day off".  I asked my mom to give me a check for Ms. Beth to watch Jack one day while I didn't have to work.  I used it to clean up the office, make his sports calendar whose voucher I'd bought before Christmas was set to expire, caught up on the few Days of Our Lives I had on my DVR, balanced the checkbook, etc.  It felt nice, but not as leisurely as I had planned when I asked for it.

Planned:  My workout days with Nick.  I have been making good strides on the machines at Curves and don't want to get behind on them because of my schedule.  Therefore, I made him commit to help push me out the door even though he is home and I know the evenings will be harder for me.

Loved: Celebrating my nephew's 5th birthday.  It was great to see him having so much fun out skating and it was great for me to see Jack really give it the old college try (although he still really stinks, it was a much better experience than when we tried a year before!).

Below Quentin reads Jangles to his brothers' and Jack.