Weather Woes

The ice storm is out of the state here, but we had rain all day yesterday and the temp was at 34 so no snow. But the temp dropped to 12 last night so all the rain froze and we don't have school/work today.

Yesterday, Canyon's aide called me a t 1:15 to tell me the kids were getting out at 2. I figured the weather was getting worse. When I got home Sahara told me it was because of the Jr. High (her school) It was without electricity all day. They had a generator running the lights and the cafeteria, but no heaters and the generator conked out 4th period. Soooo, lunch was tossed (sloppy joes that weren't all cooked yet) and they gave them cold sandwiches and they sat there with only emergency lights for the next couple hours.

Well, at least we will get to enjoy today off :)

The cub scouts have been working on their pinewood derby cars every other Saturday this month. First Sat was sanding (which I didn't get pics of). Next Sat was painting. The boy next to him chose florescent orange too! But when they are finished they will look completely different.

Next Sat is decals and hopefully wheels and done. The whole thing could have been done in 1 weekend if we did it at home, but they wanted the boys to work together and make it more of a 'project'.

success........sort of

I managed to figure the VCR to get LOST to tape, but I set it for 2 hours (because it was a 2 hour show) and only got the 1st hour taped because the first hour on the tape was Jimmy Kimmel (sp). I guess the game went into overtime. But I watched the rest online (thanks Mel for that info).

FrUsTrAtIoN !!!

It was just announced that the season premier of LOST, because of a basketball game, will be aired at 12:35 tonight. Great! That means since I do not have TIVO or a digital recorder, I will have to find a tape and figure out how to get the VCR to tape it for me. I have a feeling I will just get to miss it :(

lesson learned...........I hope

Last night, the boy decided to shave. He now has razor burn under one arm and just about tore all the skin off his right knee cap. We managed to get the blood to stop and put band aids on, but this morning the band aids were all off. I don't think he will be doing much crawling around for a few days. And hopefully no more shaving either!!

Shopping Spree

Sahara and I used our gift cards from my sister.

Sahara's complete Aero outfit. (and can you believe she spent less than $30 for jeans, tee and bag?)

I got a long sleeve and a short sleeve tee. (spent less than $20)

Aero is our new store! We have to go back to spend the rest soon!

What is it with boys and mud?

After going out to dinner with a friend of mine who was in town for the holidays, we went for coffee and she bought Canyon a MudLife magazine. He loves it! Here he is enjoying the magazine for 1 1/2 hours after we came home from coffee and he has taken it to school all week as well.

Thanks Wendy!!

New Year's Resolution

Sahara asked me this morning what my New Year's resolution is going to be and without batting an eyelash I said 'I want to lose 40 pounds by my 40th b-day.' Then I thought that that would be totally doable. That comes out to 3.33 pounds a month. So, I thought if I made that a public announcement, I might have better luck than just trying to do it. Plus, I am only going to weigh myself once a month at the end of the month and post how I am doing here so everyone and anyone can keep track with me.

Good luck to me!!

News from my hood

Middle school vandalized
Story date: Dec. 31, 2008Perpetrator: ‘School is for chumps’By Michael FordReporter

Santa may be considering some repossessions after an unknown perpetrator gained entry to a local school and caused an estimated $2,500 in damage Monday, a week into the school’s Christmas break.The perpetrator(s) gained entry to Russellville Middle School, located at 1203 W. Fourth St., through an unlocked window, causing damage to both the building and electronic equipment, according to a local police report.The Russellville Police Department (RPD) received a 911 call regarding the incident at 12:56 p.m Monday. Upon Officer Clay McBryde’s arrival at the school, principal Al Harpenau advised him that someone had broken into Room No. 621, the parent center.McBryde’s narrative indicated that once the perpetrator(s) gained entry, they “ransacked the room, smearing peanut butter all over the tables.” It also stated that a computer and printer were damaged, as well as the security door to a music room.According to the report, the cost of the damage to the room itself was $400; the computer, $1,200; the printer, $800; and the security door, $100.The perpetrator(s) wrote a message on a chalkboard that read, “school is for chumps” — followed by an obscenity — then signed the name “Blood.” McBryde’s narrative indicated it could not be determined how much property was missing at the time of the report.RPD Public Information Officer Josh McMillian said the perpetrators were probably juveniles since nothing was stolen.“We don’t tolerate anyone doing damage to school property whether they are an adult or juvenile,” he said. “The incident is still under investigation at this point.”

The Russellville Courier

My classroom is the next hall over

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Merry Christmas to me

Got myself a new toaster over and coffee maker. They both seem to work great. Really wanted to go with white this time to match the stove, micro, and dishwasher, but they are both black. The only white toaster oven was the same one we had and I didn't want to go that route again. I also got basically the same coffee maker that I had before because I love that you don't have to use a carafe (sp). The Brew Station is cool.

Ok - it always happens in 3's they say

which scares me because the fridge has been making weird noises for months and months. But, today I tried to toast up some bagels in the toaster over and it would not work. The timer ticked away, but the power light didn't come on and the bake and broil elements never heated. So, today I get to shop for both a toaster / toaster oven and a coffee maker. I guess I might find them on some good sales because of the time of year. But I also may not find what I'm looking for being the time of year.

Close call

I went into the kitchen at 6 tonight and realized the coffee pot that is supposed to turn itself off after an hour was still on from the morning.
I could not get it to turn off by pushing the button and it was very hot. So I proceed to unplug it from the extension cord. maybe coffee pots should not be plugged into extension cords, but mine was along with the microwave. I have very limited outlets in the kitchen and the 2 have been plugged into that extension cord for many years. Anywho, this is what the extension cord plug in looked like.


I could not get the coffee pot cord out of the extension cord so I unplugged it from the wall and had to break it apart to find this:

The coffee pot cord is melted into the extension cord plug in. I have tried to pull, twist, yank, hammer, and use a screw driver to get it to come out and it still wont. Now even if I did get it out, I wouldn't trust that the coffee pot plug in is in the best shape to reuse. So, the whole pot is in the trash now. I got $50 from the teacher I work with for Christmas. I guess I know what I will be getting with it :)

More Santa pictures

After half of the kids left, we were listening to Christmas music waiting for our picture with Santa to develop. Canyon got to visit Santa 5 or 6 times in the 2 hours we were there.

He really wanted to check out that beard and his glasses and the hat too.

Finally, Canyon just planted himself on Santa's lap for the rest of the time as the other kids had lost interest and we waited all most to the very last to get our picture. The lady behind is is using one of those camera docking station printers. Took forever!

Santa finally

Took Canyon to the library to see Santa. Mistake! Too many kids and the camera printer only printed out 1 picture every 3 minutes. So we waited for 45 minutes to get the picture. I had to 'doctor' it to make it look like he had eyes because they were way rolled to the side in this shot. I took a few with Sahara's camera too. Will get them up later.

Snow today ~ Swim tomorrow

Only in Arkansas. We had freezing rain yesterday and last night. Found out at 10 to 10 last night, school/work was cancelled. Yea!!! Not supposed to get above freezing today, so we don't know about school/work tomorrow. Saturday it is supposed to be 70. We will all be sick for Christmas most likely. But, having fun today. Got 3 batches of cookies done, cleaned the house delivered a b-day gift to the neighbor and we are going to attempt to go to the grocery store in a few because Sahara needs a gallon of milk and hot chocolate for tomorrow (if there is school) for Teacher Appreciation Day. Plus, the neighbors son broke his finger and his mom is too scared to take him to the doctor/hospital to get it checked. It's his pinky and it is bigger than any finger he has on his hand right now. It looks pretty bad. Wish us luck on the roads!!

Pictures by the tree

He is so excited this year.

Canyon has 1 gift under the tree right now. And it is all he cares about. (Nana's!) He wouldn't care if that was the only one he got. He can't wait to open it.

sorry sorry sorry

Have I not posted anything for 10 days??? Bad me. Really nothing is going on to report right now. Christmas shopping is nearly complete. Cards are sent out. Gifts to mail are mailed. Hadn't had time or desire to bake cookies at all this year. But have to make something for a pot luck at work for Tuesday.

Well, off to Wally World now for regular shopping (kind of worried about another bomb threat while we are there). 3 in the last 2 weeks there plus one at the court house.

Christmas tree Catastrophe

We put the tree up last Sunday as usual the weekend of Thanksgiving. But come Monday morning, half the lights were out. Monday after work, after trial and error for over an hour, we decided to take all the decorations down and the lights and start over. New lights and the ornaments where put back on and the tree fell over. Breaking a few and loosing a few branches out of the sockets. So, we started over again. And again it fell over. Now I am about to take the tree out and light it up. We went to Hobby Lobby and Walmart to get either a new tree or at least a new stand since the stand was the main problem. I wasn't very excited about the trees I saw or about spending $200 or more on a nice one so we got a new stand. Came home and found out it would ONLY work for a real tree and not an artificial one. So, stand is going back and the original stand is now 'working' for the tree. I went to bed at 10 after 6 hours of non-stop tree doing on Monday and really couldn't move a muscle any more. Note for next year: if the lights go out, tough ****!!!!