My Little Tween

 

I was watching the Today Show this morning while Grant was getting ready for school and saw a segment all about Tweens.   I’ve heard this word several times but never realized that I am actually the mother of a tween.  For those of you who don’t know what a tween is don’t feel bad.  According to the Today show it is a child between the ages of 8-12.  They are in the pre-adolescent stage.  Not really a little kid anymore but not quite a teenager.  Thank goodness because that would really make me feel old!!!  It’s hard for me to believe that he is nearly 10 years old.  Gosh time flies by quickly.

After the segment ended I went into Grant’s room to see if he was almost ready for school and after taking a good look realized just how grown up he is getting.  He is so independent these days and as you can tell from the pictures very picky about what he wears.  It’s VERY important to him that he looks cool.  Note the black Converse and two necklaces around his neck!!!  He also wants to make sure his hair is spiked and he has on a few sprays of his cologne that he got for Christmas before we leave the house.  I have to admit it makes me a little teary eyed to see him growing up so quickly.

But then there are the little things that he does [like asking me to tie his shoes, tuck him into bed, read him a story, cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie, lay with him before he goes to sleep] that reminds me that he is still my little boy.

A Trip to Hell

Jeff just called to tell me he went to Hell and back today


Hell, Michigan that is.  It's really a town in Michigan, no kidding!!!

He's in Michigan this week for work and the trip actually got off to a rather hellish start. After arriving in Chicago yesterday he found out his flight to Detroit had been cancelled and the earliest flight they could get him on was this morning at 10:00. He attempted to a rent a car and just drive to Detroit but he couldn't get his luggage and it was going to cost almost $1100 for a one way rental.  So he spent the day in Chicago with no luggage. Then this morning at 6:00 am he called me to say his hotel was on fire.

Thankfully he safely arrived in Detroit this morning and his luggage was there waiting for him.  Now it's time for my hell to begin.  Grant's baseball team has concession standy duty so that means I get to work the 7:45 - close shift.  The things we do for our kiddos!!!!

All Grown Up

Today I feel like I officially became an adult.  I discovered how much I liked coffee and it’s all thanks to this new little gadget we bought at Sam’s Club. 

It’s the Keurig Coffee station and it is AMAZING.  Jeff has mentioned that he would like to have one several times, but I have just ignored him because the thought of another appliance in my kitchen didn’t sound appealing.   Today however he wore me down . . . and boy am I glad.  I’ve already had 3 cups.  The one we bought came with 72 k-cups in a wide variety of flavors.  They even make iced tea and several flavors of cocoa.  After reading the book that came along with it there were several other flavors I wanted so we headed to Bed, Bath & Beyond with a few of our 20% off coupons and bought four more boxes AND this handy little turning display rack.  {This was Jeff’s idea, not mine!}  He’s just like a little kid organizing and then reorganizing his k-cups.  It’s so cute!!! 

Now I will have something to look forward to every morning when my alarm goes off.

Cardinals vs. Cardinals

This morning Grant’s 9 year old team played a 10 year old team who are also called The Cardinals.  Luckily we wore our blue jerseys since they were dressed in red.  This season we are one of two 9 year old teams playing in the 9-10 age group so we are getting to face some new teams. 

Taking a few practice swings before his first time at the plate.

Grant hit another HUGE ball into center field.  For a moment I thought it was going out but it landed just inside the fence again.  I know he’ll get one sooner or later.

Leading off 2nd base

3rd base

Leading off 3rd base  

Leading WAY off 3rd base . . . he’s getting pretty brave!!!

Coming home!!!

Getting a little talk from Coach Dreifort on his way back into the dugout.  It had something to do with his great hit!!!

The boys pulled off a victory {11-3} in their first regular season game.   Here they were after the game in the outfield having a little team meeting.  I always love these shots!!!

We’re Still Here

Don’t worry . . . we are still here.  It looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.  We’ve had so much going on the past few weeks with birthday celebrations and baseball games and just life in general.  Not to mention most of my spare time has been taken up with homework.  This whole master’s thing is really a lot of work!!!

I celebrated by 32nd birthday on April 7th.  We enjoyed a nice dinner out at Timberline where I had a delightful loaded sweet potato.  Gosh I love sweet potatoes!!!  The boys surprised me a few weeks ago with an early gift.  I was in need of a new little camera so they got me this  Nikon.  So far I’ve been really happy with it.  It’s very small and fits nicely in my purse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then beginning on Thursday, April 8th Grant’s baseball team played in the Hardball Classic which is the annual pre-season tournament at Westurban.

Here are some pictures I took with my new camera.  Grant is behind the plate playing catcher.

Here’s Grant at bat.  He had a HUGE hit on Thursday night.  I really thought he had a home run but it landed just inside the fence. 

Don’t be confused by the uniforms.  The boys got new navy blue shirts this year so they wore them for their games on Thursday and Saturday and then wore the old red ones on Sunday. 

Here are a few pictures I took with our Nikon DS80 before the battery died on Sunday.  It only lasted for about 15 minutes.  I still don’t know if there is a problem with the battery or the charger.  It’s been having problems for a while.  I guess I need to find a camera store here in town and go talk to them.  Even though it’s a HUGE camera to drag to the ballpark I love the quality of the pictures.

Miles also came down over the weekend to visit.  It was so nice to have him around.  We don’t get to see him nearly as often as we would like.  We had planned to have family pictures taken on Saturday in Winfield but had to cancel at the last minute due to our baseball schedule. 

Here’s the boys in the backseat on the way to the game.

Between games on Saturday we celebrated my birthday and Miles birthday.  He turned 16 on Wednesday {April 14th}.  My mom and dad, sister, grandma & Nana all came up to visit.  We opened presents and had my traditional Neapolitan birthday cake. 

Grant with Nana and Grandma Norma

The boys being silly.  I attempted to take this picture several times and could never get all of them to look at me.

Granny was being silly too.  Here she is trying to wear Grant’s baseball cap.

New Classroom {Sneak Peek}

Today I got the first official peek at my new classroom and I have to admit it left me with mixed emotions.  As you can see by the pictures it is a very odd shaped room.  It’s kind of like a trapezoid!!!  It was not originally designed for K-1 students and unfortunately very few renovations were done to make it suitable for small children.  There is also very little storage so I’m stressing out about where I am going to keep all of my stuff.  On a positive note it does have nice new carpet and freshly painted walls.

This is the view from the doorway in the hall.  The back windows are a little deceiving because they don’t actually look directly outside.  They look into a hallway that has exterior windows.  Crazy, huh!!!  At least I have a glimpse of sunlight.  Several of my friends have no exterior windows.  Theirs just look out into the hallway.  So sorry Diane :(

Here’s another view from the hallway door of the front of my room.  The door that you see in the middle of the back wall leads to a pod that I will share with the 3 other teachers on my team.  There is additional storage in there that we are planning to use to store items like paper, textbooks, craft supplies, etc . . .  My Promethean board will be mounted on the flat empty wall by the door as well.  I’m planning to buy a fun zebra or leopard print rug to put in front of it.

This is a picture of the storage area.  It is all along the back wall. It’s a little hard to tell from the picture, but most of the gorgeous maroon trim is completely missing from the shelving.  They say it’s on a list to be repaired before school starts,  but I am not holding my breath.

Ok, it’s time to be positive because I have to move at the end of next month whether I like it or not.  So here’s my grand plan. . .   I’m going to go with a fun jungle theme with lots of leopard & zebra print decor.  May not look great with all the red cabinets, but oh well!!! A friend of mine’s mom is going to paint me lots of cute monkeys to hang around on the bulletin boards and I am going to look into buying some monkey/jungle wall decals to spruce the space up a bit.  Once I get everything moved in and organized I’m sure it will feel like home.  It’s just a little overwhelming trying to imagine the final product.  Wish me luck!!!

Weekend in Winfield

Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed down to Winfield.  Grant was invited to Hunter’s skating birthday party.  Hunter’s mom Amy and I have been friends since our freshman year at Southwestern.  I have to admit I was a little excited about the skating party too because it’s been years since I was last at the skating rink in Winfield and from the looks of things it doesn’t look like it’s changed very much.

Here’s Grant and the birthday boy.  They are both 9 year old now!!! 

Grant got to play the number game.  This was always one of my favorite things as a kid when I went to the skating rink.  I have to admit I was a little jealous.  Grant won on his very first time playing.  What a lucky boy!!!  I don’t think I ever won as a kid.  

He won a free skating pass.  We knew we wouldn’t be back in town to use it so he gave it to Ava (Hunter’s little sister). 

Grant also got to play the limbo.  He didn’t do so great at this game.  I managed to snap this photo right before he knocked the pole off.

Thanks Jones family for a fun afternoon at the skating rink.

After an afternoon of playing Hunter and Ava came over to my parent’s house for dinner and a little tennis.

Sunday morning Grant was up earlier than expected to see all of his Easter goodies.  This year the Easter bunny didn’t bring him lots of candy.  Instead he got a new shirt, a digital copy of The Blind Side to watch on his iTouch, sidewalk chalk, super bubbles and sugar free bubble gum. 

While Grandma was busy making lunch and mommy was working on homework Papa took Grant, Daddy & Aunt Karen out on the farm to see Paul’s new border collie puppies.  Aren’t they adorable??  I think Grant was secretly wishing the Easter bunny had brought him one of these too.  Spiro might have been a little jealous though.

Happy Easter from our family to yours!!!