Meet The Teacher was last night.... and cha-cha-cha changes... (Long and Rambling)

So, the welcome walk was last night. Yes, they come to the house. There are joys to having a small community elementary school (350 students in 6 grades - plus Pre-K). How cool is that? Both seem very very nice, which helps seeing as I'm handing them my babies for 7 hours per day. And no, I didn't scream "baby stealer!" at Cassie's Kinder teacher.

Cassie's teacher came first and we had to call Cassie out of Jamie's room - they had been in there for an hour or more playing with legos. Earlier that day, we had made a pencil craft (with a pinwheel on top) and Cassie gave it to her teacher as a gift (something we started last year and appears to now be a tradition). She was very surprised and will put it in her room to show it off. Cassie was, of course, beaming. Cassie was a bit shy but I think she's fine and the teacher shook her hand and told she would see her Monday for supply drop off. We found out later that a kid she knows will be in her class so she's feeling pretty good about it all.

Jamie's teacher came a few minutes later. The lady was pretty nervous, but I have to admit if someone told me I had to go visit 18 kids at their home with their parents asking me random questions, I'd probably pee my pants and then go hide. I thought she might start crying when Jamie gave her her pencil. That has ended up being a pretty good ice breaker. The little girl next door won't be in his class like he wanted, but his bully will NOT be in his class (we requested it ahead of time), and he knows a few kids that will be in his class, so it's all good.

For those of you that don't know, Tom is moving to a limited capacity working with me. He's found that he really wants to see people during the day (well, more than just me). He took a contract job over the Summer and is considering substitute teaching a bit this year. I'm okay with that, but it will be a huge change. I actually really like working with Tom and while we have our moments (seriously? you didn't do that? You know it's like - OVERDUE - now, right?) I think we have worked super well together over the years. Having said THAT, it will nice to eventually have insurance that doesn't suck and other benefits.

He should hear soon about the substitute teaching. He had an issue with getting fingerprinted. Tom has palmar hyperhydrosis (which basically means his hands sweat a lot - and nearly all the time). They had some issues with the prints coming back as altered because when your hands sweat a lot the whorls and ridges aren't as pronounced due to the swelling or whatever. Anyway, we haven't gotten the final results yet so we are in a holding pattern until we hear back.

I'm very proud of Tom in that he will graduate this April (or June? I cannot remember) with his bachelor's degree. WooHoo! The degree is in Business Marketing. So, of course, he wants to be a teacher now. *laugh*

Actually, he's not even sure what he wants to be when he grows up (yes, my 36 year old husband is trying to find himself). I'm all for the teacher thing because you can't beat the hours or the time off - PLUS it has a great benefits. Frankly, that's becoming more important than the salary to me. He's also thinking of a starting a small hosting business for QuickBooks and Sharepoint, but he doesn't actually know what he wants to do at this point.

I'm going to really feel weird the first few weeks. I've had someone here while I worked for the past 5 years. But I'm also looking forward to a more focused work-time. It's going to be REALLY quiet! Not such a bad thing :)

So, there you have it... the update on our lives right now.

Work to do and a couple of kids are coming over for a last hurrah today to play with our kids. (I truly believe the more the merrier - they keep each other busy so I can work - plus I secretly smile when I hear them all playing nicely together). We are so lucky to have great kids in our neighborhood that get along so well. It's like stepford without the freakiness. *grin*

(Hey! I typed stuff and no pictures!)

When the kids hide and the dogs run...

I practice on Tom...



Such a good sport. I looked outside and saw the light and knew I had to take a picture of someone - anyone or anything. Just something! Poor guy is out there trying to put the tarp on the pool (this was last week) in case it starts to rain and blowing wind... and I'm asking him to stop moving and smile.

Poor dude can't get a break. At least I found an "outlet" I guess. I bet they are wishing it was like oil painting or something right about now.

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The "other" man in my life...

So, Tom came into my office today and said "So JAMIE is the one man, eh?"

Hehehehe.... Tom is SO easy...

I love you too, Tom. Plus, the kids will eventually move out and get lives of their own and hate us because we were horrible/weird/whatever parents. And then what? Yup. I'm stuck with you.



But, seriously, ladies... he is one hot dude, right?
(you can look, but no touch!)

:-)

What a fabulous dinner...

Sometimes dinner doesn't go so well (like last night when I tried to make a non-crockpot recipe into one and we ended up eating sandwiches). Sometimes it does... like tonight. We are playing in a Recipe Zaar game where you "tour" different areas of the world. This week we were doing Central America... we had the most amazing dinner tonight... I am not really big on steak, so I made shrimp in addition to the steak. We had some friends over and had a great time (wine too!)

Black Bean Salad - http://www.recipezaar.com/213207


Peruvian Rice - http://www.recipezaar.com/310204


Beef & Chimichurri Sauce - http://www.recipezaar.com/307536


(same recipe, just a view of the sauce after I made it - yes, me, Candy, made the sauce - and the bean salad actually!)


Shrimp (I'll link the recipe when it posts)


Jamie, I think, was the only one at the table that liked it ALL. That child will truly eat anything :) And yes, he drops food on himself -- just like mom. I'm forever making a mess. LOL

Tom's new ride...

... well, new to him anyway... it's a 2006 :)

My new theme song...

I hate car shopping (Tom needs a new one). They tried to flip us at closing - Tom goes up there and gets it settled and I just come up to sign. Apparently they think I'm going to stay there. No. I'm there to sign papers. If you change it, I leave. So Tom wasted a few hours of his time yesterday. Ugh. I think because I know what goes on behind the door and when the sales people say "I'll be right back, let me talk to the desk" I get annoyed too easily. Working in finance for a sales place probably ruined me. LOL.

Soccer Team Party

The Spring soccer season is over. Tom coached this year and Cassie loved it. We had a team party at CiCi's Pizza and the kids had a great time.

Here's Cassie getting her medal from Coach Tom


The kids at pizza


And we did the cute photo cake thing again (kids loved it!)

Slideshow of the kids cooking french toast...

Tom and I do this contest for charity each year on Recipe Zaar. It's called the Zaar World Tour. Basically, a group of 10 (well, 16 groups I think) cook dishes that are from various countries. It's a lot of fun and a chance to try different things. This year, there was a Kid-Friendly Challenge and we had the absolute BEST time tonight... here's a slide show and more of the story under it...


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The story here is that Tom is the best Daddy ever and decided to let 5 year old Cassie crack the eggs. She made a huge mess, but it was so worth it. After the first one we were quiet while Tom cleaned up the shells from the bowls and you saw her little head peer over the lip and say "oops!" - we all cracked up laughing. Her big brother, Jamie, helped her in the bathroom to wash up after all the egg cracking was done.

Jamie is 7 and he got to cook - this is the first time we've let him actually cook something. He did great, even flipped them half way through! He also read the recipe to us and helped mix the sugar/cinnamon. We had a great time with a lot of laughs and this was truly a great memory - we all had fun.

The Man Cave - and Happy Early Father's Day

Tom has been griping about his video card (one blew out - yes, apparently he needs 2 for his system - whatever. So, I gave it to him early so he would just shut up already.

Make sure you click this to go to flickr to see my snarky notes and commentary :)

Sleepover Time!

I grabbed some quick pictures of the kids last night. Their friend, J, came over for a sleepover (honestly, I think she's just gonna move in for the Summer - you should hear all the grand plans going on in this house!). We are very lucky to have good friends like J and her mom, D, in our lives. They make us laugh and don't mind watching a movie they've already seen :) Here they are hanging out watching Alvin & The Chipmunks and dozing off...


Cassie spent the night there the night before, so I think she was a bit tuckered out:


... and Tom's biggest secret is that he likes for J to come over because it means that they usually behave (or else we separate them and they don't like that!) so he gets some game time in...

Silent Auction

I had a Mom's night out Saturday night. Tom took the kids to a silent auction and dance (yeah, first graders, okay, I think that's weird) at Jamie's school.

I came home to this in my living room:


Good thing we like games! Lotsa cool stuff in there!

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The Fort/Playscape is Completed!

We had a great day yesterday. I give Tom a hard time, but he did a great job with the playscape. He did it all himself, no plans, just used the old one as a base and went for it. Pretty impressive, I think :)

These pictures were taken before he added some extra bracing underneath. I'm sure it was fine, but it's my job to worry so he added some more. I tried to push it. It's not going anywhere. And hey, if something starts to fall apart, it's pretty easy to fix it since he did it himself with real wood and not the crap we had before. I think he probably spent about $200 in lumber, not too bad!

The kids wanted to have dinner up there (see, a table and 3 chairs fits up there with enough for room a dance floor *laugh*, so we made kabobs, invited the neighbors over and had a great relaxing night. We ate outside, it was wonderful. There's no mosquitoes out yet so the only thing that bugged us was the leaves falling - entirely doable. The kids had a blast and I did too. As an added bonus, the little girl next door got to sleep over (which is, apparently, the ultimate in fun times).

So, now the pictures... did I mention that we hit 90 here in Austin the past couple of days? It's cooled off now, but the kids were hot, so we broke out the little pool...

Putting the roof on...

I think he's stopping for the day once he gets the roof on it. The only thing I'm worried about is the bottom. He says he's going to put some more bracing in there, but of course, I'm all worried.

Where is Wendy and Lofty when you need them, Bob Tom?

He can build an entire fort for the kids, but I STILL haven't gotten my mini-blinds up and it's been almost TWO YEARS.

Heh.

.

Bob Tom Hard At Work

This should give you some idea of how big this thing is...



And we are working on breaking a record high today. It's like 90 degrees outside. It's not even Spring yet.

Ugh.

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Can He Build It? ---- Yes, He Can!

So, the kids old fort/swing/playscape is starting to fall apart. The beam that holds the swings is all bent and it's just a mess. And the kids are getting bigger. Tom had already rebuilt the ladder up to the monkey bars thing so he decides to re-build the whole thing and be done with it.

Oh, but we aren't JUST going to rebuild it. No. We are gonna make it bigger (insert Tim The Toolman Taylor-like grunts here). This fort is freaking HUGE... dude. He's still building it... here's an in progress shot and one of the kids in the old fort. I don't think this picture even begins to explain how big this thing is.





And yes the swings and slide are all gonna go back on it. In theory. I wonder if we are breaking a deed restriction or two... I'm so not gonna go look.

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Anniversary, Tooth, And Rapper

Today makes 15 years that I have been putting up with Tom. Yes, we got married 15 years ago today (see that little "family since" thing at the top? Bet you thought I was making that up!). Even if you are a pain in my tushie, I still love ya, Tom - and expect to have to put up with you for at least 50 more! Love ya, doody-head!

Six months ago, we took Jamie to the dentist for a regular check up. We noticed that his teeth were crowding a loose one, but weren't worried. The dentist wanted us to see about braces. Dude, he's SEVEN. So we waited. Went back to the dentist recently and noted that his teeth had moved around to not crowd that loose tooth that WAS STILL IN HIS HEAD. He came home today with a necklace - it was a plastic tooth that opened up... inside was THE TOOTH. About time that sucker came out!



Cassie is apparently gonna be a rapper when she grows up. Yo!

A family of entertainers...

It's a good thing I have a marketable skill or we'd all be in the poor house...

I think Julie's WTF look kind of says it all:


Cassie's "Rock Show"




Jamie's "Dog Show":




... and Tom thinks he is a Guitar Hero (ca-thunk is NOT a note):

Mr. Overachiever Daddy and the Errupting Volcano Cake

My house is a complete disaster, but everyone at the elementary school is fully in a sugar coma :) Make sure you scroll down to see the erupting volcano cake.... seriously, people. He needs a hobby.

For V-Day Tom made the teacher's a double heart cake - can we all say "awwww..." now? *laugh*



Suck Up!

And now the eruption. The lady who had the camera didn't know it was recording so I spliced it together as best as I could... Do you hear those kid's screaming? OMG... it was so loud. I'm almost glad I had to stay here and work on those never-ending stream of tax forms.

Famous Last Words

"I'm going to make a volcano cake for Jamie's class... Yeah that erupts... No just a simple one... No really!"

WTF? This should be interesting... stay tuned on Thursday!

.

Happy Birthday, Tom

Tom's birthday was yesterday... Happy Birthday, Tom!



We actually celebrated it on Saturday and I had a couple of friends over for a girl's movie night, plus Dy came over with J, so we had dinner - one of Tom's favorite meals :) Anyway... here's some more pics...

Ewwww... there's a reptile in my house...

The crabs are small and bury themselves... this thing... it's a freaking lizard. In my house. It has to stay in Tom's room. It's his birthday present. It better not touch me.

Welcome, Dakota... I refuse to so much as buy you a cricket. The kids are all excited and Tom's trying to figure out how to get the tank into the house while this thing sits on his desk staring at me.

I'll let Tom give the full scoop, but Dakota is a bearded dragon, about a foot or so long.



It's a freaking lizard.

IN MY HOUSE.

Surely this grounds for divorce, right? Sigh, but Tom has wanted one for forever and some friends were looking for a new home... and holy crap, they just brought in this things tank... do you KNOW how big 75 gallons is?

I must go murder my husband immediately.

Wild Hairs (or lack there of)

Yeah..so I got a wild hair...I realized that I had never been shaved bald and not had a beard and stache....sooooo



Hmm...kids sure are gonna be surprised in the morning muwahahahaha

Xmas at Great Granny's House

We had Christmas at Tom's grandmother's house today... it was actually kind of nice. Sometimes it's so chaotic that I feel so overwhelmed that I am not able to relax, but either I'm getting used to it (lol - finally) or everyone was calmer, not sure which one ;)

We had shrimp and so many side dishes and pies I lost count and Tom and I brought the chocolate fountain. We bought it a year ago on sale and never used it. Let me tell you that if you want to have one of those whisper fights with your spouse at a family function, decide to set up a chocolate fountain together for the first time. *laugh*. First, the chocolate wasn't melted enough, then he cooked it, then we didn't add enough oil, then I had globs of it all over the table. Oh man, it was CRAZY. Luckily we quickly realized we were arguing over a stupid chocolate thing, read the directions again and realized we didn't put enough oil in the stupid thing and we didn't turn it off to let the bubbles settle so it would "sheet" down in a fountain-like way.

Eureka. We have also decided this thing will only come out on special occasions ;)



Here's Jamie playing with the tinker toys he got...





Cassie was in one of her moods about pictures today, so we didn't get many of her, but here's one of her playing with her Daddy :)



And one of "baby" Jack, playing with a ball, with a little editing help from Auntie Candy...

New Appliance For Tom...

When we moved into the house from the apartment, we lost our microwave over the stove. I loved that thing, but alas, it belonged to the apartment. We had a great little microwave, but it still took up counterspace. Then it started dying. We wanted to get another over the range ones, but couldn't afford it right then, so we got a little cheap one. OMG. Do not EVER buy a little cheap microwave. It sucked so bad... but finally, we have a new microwave.

Oh wait. I didn't tell you why it was so expensive. Tom cooks, we all know that. He cooks a lot and he's always wanted 2 stoves. But there not enough room for a wall oven or anything, so we found these convection/microwave range hoods. We ended up going for the speedcook, which is kind of the same thing, you have to use microwave safe stuff in it, but it can grill, brown, fry eggs, all kinds of stuff.

They installed it late last night.

Tom, being the manly man with a new kitchen appliance that he is... is currently grilling steak. In the kitchen. In his range hood thing-a-bob.

Here's what it looks like installed over the stove:


See the steak in there?


Oh, but to make the geek in him sing, it also has a LCD touchscreen. Seriously!


Yes, my microwave is smarter than I am.

Great.

Update: Yeah, apparently we have too much electricity in this house or something, someone printed to the printer, which is on the same circuit as the new microwave and we tripped a breaker. Nice. Tom's gonna move some stuff around.

Decking The Halls -- and the Tree Topper saga...

---> I've been blogging like crazy this week, so keep going, there's lots here! <---

So, today was the day we promised the kids we would decorate the tree and house. We also said we'd do outside, but it's bitterly cold and raining, so they had to get disappointed there - we only have a few things for outside anyway.

So, I (even though I'm sick) take the kids to Target while Tom unpacks the stuff in peace - oh trust me here, if they had been here they would've driven him crazy - plus I think I got the better end of that deal. We were on a mission for a tree topper... the kids found one. I thought it was going to be WAY too big. It was. We get home and we were all dying laughing at this thing bending over and swaying back and forth. We don't have a tiny tree, but that thing was made for a Texas-Sized tree for sure!

So, we decide to ALL go back to the store and the only one we could find is this hideous silver thing, but whatever... it fits. Well... more on that story below with pictures to guide you. *laugh*

So, here's the pictures to share...

While Tom fussed around with getting the big tree set up, we got the kids busy decorating the little tree..

The stocking were hung with care (notice I have stocking hangers! I've always wanted them but never bought them) - Yes, Julie gets a stocking.

This is new this year... I thought this was a cute set... Daddy and Son bears going fishing. They are outside the door...

Another new one... look! It's Tux! On our fireplace!

Tom puts on the garland...

And the kids decorated it (with our help)

And the kids put on their santa hats to show off the final product...

Now, let's talk tree toppers... we have yet to have a good one. We have had a few hideous stars through the years. This horrible angel my mother gave me (sorry, mom, it was hideous). You'd think in FOURTEEN years we'd find one we like! But no. We are tree topper impaired. So, after the laughing fits that the big one entailed, we ended up with the hideous round star one that was a whopping $4 at Target. Whatever. The kids liked it and we have given up. BUT getting it on the tree was an adventure... what is wrong with us? What about those pictures with the perfect family with the smiling dad with a cup of cocoa putting the tree topper on with a flourish and the adorable kids standing by looking up in awe? Yeah, that's not us...

Here's Jamie showing off the atrocious thing...

So here's Tom "this will be easy, just sit it up there"... um... not so much, the base was too small for our tree...

Tom asks what we have to hold the damn thing up there. I go and get a binder clip (hey, it sounded like a good idea, stay with me here)... and Tom celebrates because it looks like it might work...

... and then it fell over.

By this time, Tom and I are laughing so hard we have tears just flowing down our cheeks and Jamie is doing his eye-roll thing which is supposed to be "my parents are so weird", but whatever...

So, we finally got it... how? Look closely. Yeah. Tom wrapped the top of the tree around it. *laugh*

But it's up there. And it's staying. And we have another hideous tree topper. But that's okay because we had a really good laugh about it all. Maybe next year we can find a purple one with gold leafing!

Fun at Target

Tom decided to try out one of those V-Rocker gaming chairs and promptly fell over... the kids were DYING laughing (I wasn't, I would NEVER do that... *snicker*)

Play Play Play All The Day Day Day...

---> I posted a LOT of posts today... scroll down for more! <---

Thanksgiving was a good time, but the kids just had endless amounts of fun... I don't think Tom has had so much in a LONG time - Jamie, Cassie and Cousin Olivia got 'em!

He's outnumbered...

He's outwitted...

He's outplayed...

... but... He Won! (we're gonna let him keep believing that)

Jamie and Cassie are so cute together, I swear... I don't think my sister and I were EVER this nice to each other.

And just a really cute picture of Olivia peeking out of her closet. Cutie!

Daddy's little girl...

We were at Jamie's game over the weekend and I caught this shot of Cassie with Tom. I absolutely love this picture. It was overcast but the light was great for a shot of them under the umbrella. I have to look at it and wonder though... what was Cassie trying to talk him into doing?

Hehehe....

Ring Light Part 2

When we last left our hero, I had a RED ring flash. Yeah, not so good. So since he had to redo it, he decided to improve the design with an HEB dip container, some tin foil, even more lights (white this time - imagine that!) and some purple duct tape...


It DOES work okay. I'm still playing with it. Getting it on to and off of the camera lens is a bit of a pain, but so far, so good... it's still not as bright as I like it, but I like my close up pictures to be bright bright bright... Anyway... A for effort! And I have used it!

Tom really does mean well...

My new camera has issues with lighting - well, actually my house has issues with lighting. Not a big deal for snapshots of the kids, but for my macro (food) photography, it's a problem...

So, I go looking... looks like a ring flash is the answer. No problem - until I see the price *gulp* Ouch! Yeah... lookit http://tinyurl.com/yoe3xv - Yeah, so that's going on my wish list for some long lost rich uncle to buy for me.

They make some cheap knock offs, but I've seen a few reviews of people saying it blew their hot shoe out and one day I want to learn to use external flash, so no way...

So, I show Tom. And remember, we just went to MakerFaire so he's all hyped up with wanting to tinker and make stuff. He proclaims "I can make that!". Off I go to look up people that have made them and sure enough... people have made them. Little ones for what I want and big ones for portraits. Serious hardcore people out there.

Okay, so Tom goes to the store with his friend and 4 hours and some soldering and monkeying around later, they proudly present me with this...


Here's a tip to all you maker dudes... READ THE LABEL

Update: Okay, one of my friends actually sent me a "huh" note... it's red lights. He bought the wrong kind. It should be clear lights to take photos - get it? Is this only funny to me?

Look! Quick! We're famous again!

We're famous again! We are major Recipe Zaar-a-holics and we get entirely too excited when we are featured in any way on the site. We have the photo of the day today! It's the Halloween bones that Tom worked so hard on last year for Jamie's party! How cool are we?

Check us out at RecipeZaar.com

The flickr badge you see on our sidebar is mostly our RZ photos :)

And if you missed it, of course, dork that I am, I took a screen shot!

New Survival Webtool for Men

Ok, I admit it...I'm addicted to StumbedUpon.....

If you don't know what that is: GOOD FOR YOU!!!

So yesterday I stumbled into http://screamingjane.com/home.php

And you thought schedule tracking tools were just for work. This one could save your life!

Sleep Angel and Suck Up Dad

I took this of Cassie asleep the other night... awww...

... and today was Jamie's teacher's birthday. Tom, room parent and suck-up extraordinare, organized for the parents to give gift cards for her and he put them into a flower arrangement, there were about 12 cards total to all kinds of places - 3 to Starbucks though! Awww...
Happy Birthday, Mrs. H!

Oh, and do you SEE the HANDMADE card he made for her with all the kid's signatures inside? Do you know when the last time *I* got a card was? Hurumph! *snicker*

Mommy Pajama Party & Kids Will Play

My friends and I have a mommy's slumber party twice a year (well, that's a new tradition we started earlier this year). It's a lot of fun. No kids, just us, lots of alcoholic beverages, snacks and board games. Nothing too wild ;)

Anyway, as you can see from my mobblogging, that was last night. A good time was had by all. :) Many thanks to my good friend, Crystal :)

As part of the deal, her 3 kids and husband had to leave *laugh* so they came over here to stay with Tom. The husbands are such good sports - no really, 5 kids, 2 guys and 4 pizzas. *laugh*

Anyway... this morning I came home looking for pictures. I had 7 that were totally black and this one, which is blurry and has the little girl next door in it but no other kids. Thanks, Tom. In his defense, the camera is making a weird noise. Sigh... I want a new camera, but I'm trying to save up for the one I absolutely want. LOL. So everyone sending "hang in there" vibes for my little crappy camera! ;)

Always knew I'd make a cool cyborg

Get Your Cyborg Name