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.

A Week in Review (Jan 20-26)

A Week in Review (Jan 20-26)

Watched: Looper.  It's very rare that Nick and I take the time to sit down and watch a movie together.  We are usually watching sports, playing with the boy, or each doing our own thing.  It was nice just to take the time and be together.  The movie would get a B- from me.  It wasn't a half bad premise, but it felt like it was something and seemed pretty predictable to me.  However, the acting was okay and so I'd say if you are in the mood for a sci-fi action than this one is for you.

Read:  Finished Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter.  It really moved me.  It is a very honest look at life of a parent of a child with a disability.  If you know of anyone going through this struggle, I would highly recommend it to them.  I would recommend it to all teachers and child care providers too.  I also started and finished Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories.  I can only imagine the horror that Capote must have felt after seeing his short novel turned into a romantic comedy.  If I were a fan of the book, I would have been super upset to see the adaption.  It just went to show me that Hollywood has been messing up on book adaption for at least 60 years!  I began Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3), but haven't gotten very far as I seem to just collapse when I go to bed.

Listened: To not stop talk about Harry Potter.  Jack is currently fascinated and we spend a lot of time reading the books, watching the movies, and playing the game.  When we aren't doing one of those, we each had to be a character from the series.

Made: The template for Jack's Harry Potter themed valentine's.  We are going to turn a valentine pencil in a broom and rubberband a little rubber heart dude as the rider.  Than we are attaching a snitch made from a bouncy ball, some gold foil. and a paper background.  Let's hope I don't go insane before we get them all made and I can get Jack to give me a bit of help.

Felt:  Relief knowing that I made it through my 6 month check up without needing any dental work done.  This makes almost a year since I have had any cavities or needs for new crowns.  I know it might not sound like a lot, but that's been a very rare case for me and I am so glad :)

Planned: On getting Jack's picture taken, but it still didn't happen.  They are closed on Monday's, so I will keep my fingers crossed that we get them done on Tuesday.  The rest of the week is looking pretty full.

Loved:  Playing Bunco with my gals.  We added several new women for this Spring session and I am excited that they will be become permanent additions.  It is so good to get out and have fun and not have to worry about anything beside which yummy thing to try next!

The picture of me is at Bunco with my earmuffs that Jack made for me before I left. He wanted to make sure I was protected against mandrakes.

My Week in Review (Jan 13-19)

A Week in Review (January 13th through January 19th)

Watched:  My little man take his 5 year shots.  It was a lot more dramatic than in previous years.  It caused a huge crying jag that put a huge snot bubble onto my shoulder. Luckily, he had no adverse reactions to shot, but I am still so glad we are done with immunizations until he's a teenager!

Read:  Finished up Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman which I gave 3/5 stars.  I thought it was filled with tons of neat trivia and would be great for any fans of Hollywood, the feminist movement, or late 50s trivia.  I began Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter which is a very powerful book.  In case  you are wondering Schuyler is pronounced Skylar and is the traditional German spelling.

Listened:  I started an audiobook, The Dressmaker.   It's been okay, but the narrator has the oddest British accent which sound so fake it throws me for a loop every time I start the car.

Made: New brochures and enrollment forms for preschool.  If there is enough interest, I will be teaching an enrichment class on Friday mornings.  It is fairly expensive option, but the area seems to have a higher income, so we will see if it takes off.  At our Open House on Friday, we had six sets of twins in the building. Only four of siblings were touring while one pair were older sisters to a singleton and the other pair were the younger brothers to a pair of older brother twins!  Crazy huh?

Felt: One saying kept coming to mind "The days are long, but the years are short."  I am still not sure where I heard it, but when I googled it turns out that it was from a book that I am going to read in February called 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  We will have to see if I enjoy the book as much as I did the quote

Planned: On getting Jack's pictures taken, but it just never worked out.  He wasn't interested on his birthday and then my to-do list just always seemed to get in the way.  I ended up getting a coupon for it a free mug, so I guess it was better that I waited.  I will spend more than I should, but they do such a great job on his pictures, its hard for me to say no.

Loved: Watching my boy celebrate his 5th birthday.  I gave him a yes day, which he he loved and will look forward to next year too.  It was interesting to see what he chose.  He is already planning next years birthday.

A New Blogging Style?

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought that I might be able to follow through with it.  They suggested for using it for the current week, but I am changing it up so you get a week in review.  I am telling myself that I will try to be very free association with it, but not sure I will be able to to do that.

So here it is:

A Week in Review (Jan 6th through the 12th)

Watched: About 15 Days of Our Lives.  I know, it was a little crazy, but for some reason I just had to get back on track.

Read:  Finished up Bright Young Things (Bright Young Things, #1) by Anna Godbersen and started Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

Listened: Mostly Pandora Radio.  I wanted some upbeat music for my first day back to work and I couldn't figure out why my station was playing such slow songs.  Turned out it hadn't gotten switched to my sleep station.  Made much more sense after I bit of investigation.

Made: 50 Superhero Cookies for Jack's party.  After he realizing how yummy Grandma Teri's sugar cookies are, he requested them for his party.  It was quite the challenge since I had managed to avoid rolling any cookies in my baking life!  But I prevailed and the kids enjoyed them.  I think the packaging helped make them much cuter!

Felt: Sad that my Donkeys lost in their first playoff game.  I was glad that my brother was here to watch it with me so I had another fan to commiserate with.

Planned: The majority of Jack's party games.  I think that all the kids had a great time and what I planned as an obstacle course turned into a free for all.  Jack's favorite game that we played was Follow Flash.  Basically, everyone just had to copy the leader and everyone got to be Flash with a mask.

Loved: Celebrating my boys birthday in such a grand style!

Wii Sports

Every once in a while, something smacks you upside the head and makes you realize your kid is quickly growing up. Today's event was brought to me by Wii Sports. When we last played this, he was inept at best. Now he can play quite decently and really understands the flow the game. Just watching him play amazed me. I'm so glad that we took the time to play a game that made me my boy in a whole new light.

Thankful November

Following the spirit set by Facebookers, I am going to try and record what Jack and I are thankful for each day. I normally would ask Nick to participate in something like this, but seeing that he's working at least 60 hours a week, I think his usual answers would be either coming home or sleep.
I now see this post needs broken down into a few shorter posts.

Day 1:
Kara: My sweet boy who exhaust me thoroughly but makes sure that I laugh at least 5 times a day.
Jack: That you (being me) played football with me.

Day 2:
Kara: For having enough change in my pocket to be able to afford eating out. It's nice to not cook after a long day.
Jack: For Joe playing football with me. He was the Sooners and I was the Jayhawks and he beat me.

Day 3
Kara: For good books. When life gets too stressful, books provide an awesome escape to another reality. It's hard to think of the problems of the day when you head is in a book.
Jack: For Jarett and Callum. We are all blessed to have the Beane family in our life.

Day 4
Kara: A relaxing day. Nick knew it was shaping up to be a long week for him at work with him having to report for jury duty and so he made sure that I took the day to do very little. It sure felt nice.
Jack: Playing Wii Bowling with family.

Day 5:
Kara: Jack's school. I'm so glad that he has a place where he is happy and learns the rules of school behavior. While I feel like I am missing some of the things I was hoping for out of his preschool experience, he loves it and that's what I want the most.
Jack: School. Today's highlight was playing Tornado. It's a PE game involving a circle and a big ball.

Day 6:
Kara: Medical insurance. Without this, we would have a hard time affording the dental care Jack needed today. It will be a challenge, but we will manage because we have at least a portion covered.
Jack: Snuggling with mom while we watched a movie and recovered from above mentioned dental work.

Day 7:
Kara: Trinity Lutheran Preschool. Even though I just sort of fell into this job, I really love it. It provides me with the joy to continue to reach children and their families even if I am not in the classroom.
Jack: Art class at his preschool. He really has came a long way in his desire to draw/create.

Day 8:
Kara: Beautiful Savior Preschool. Even though my time there ended on a sour note, I am continually reminded of the awesome people that I met during my time there. I have a wonderful support team and I blessed to call many of the mothers that I met there friends!
Jack: Music class at preschool. His teacher describes it as PE with songs.

Super Hero Camp

My dear friend Laurie found this camp on one of the days they had off from school. I know he had a great time because he keeps wanting to know when they are having it again. Here are some pictures from the two little plays they put on--As The Butter Churns and The Dark Night Lights featuring the Revengers.