Samantha's Third Grade Music Program at School

I think I've said a time or two: I love Samantha's teacher! And, I don't know if I've ever mentioned before, but, she's really tall!

These are the songs they sang...

Samantha had a special parachute part...

Mr. Norris, Samantha's music teacher is in the background...

It took me over an hour to get these beautiful curls into Samantha's hair...

My Husband...

My wonderful husband has started a blog... I would love it if you all would go by and leave him a comment encouraging him to post more... he only has one post... thanks!

April summed up in photos...

My dear, sweet, adorable husband! Notice the tattoo. Neither of us are big fans of tattoos but this one is a badge and then the dates of the shootings he's been in...

Samantha planted some seeds... Lavender and poppies... I have only tripped over them once!

Beautiful yellow Forsythia...

Our little gnome we got at a garage sale last summer made it through the winter...

We are going to move these 2 Boxwoods to the play area...

View out the back door onto the deck and the Eastern Redbud tree that is blooming.

The view out our front door. The flowering pear trees are so beautiful but boy do they stink. When the petals start to fall it looks like it's snowing. John recently dug up the pathetic little red maple in the background out by the road. I had kept hoping that it would start looking better but it just got more and more pathetic looking. When Skip (neighbor across the street) made fun of it I knew it was time or it to go.

Kelly's "Big Dog" is so sweet. He looks almost little when he curls up on their couch. And, I love how he has his head on the pillow...

I love Susie's new shoes. She got them at Land End and I want them... they'd be perfect for walking since I hate wearing traditional sneakers...

I was washing dishes one afternoon and looked out the kitchen window where this little guy was perched on the neighbors fence about 3 feet away. MY MARSHAL KITTY HAS COME HOME! I swear it looks exactly like him right down to the 3 white hairs on his chest. I tried to catch him but as you can see he didn't want to come home to me... Samantha rolled her eyes the whole time...

Arlene's 3 caret ring...

Samantha makes the best cookies. Here she is waiting for the oven to pre-heat. I hate those surround speakers in the background.

I love how Samantha climbs up on the counters to get stuff... I used to do this when I was little. I remember climbing up onto the counter in the pantry to reach the cabinets because that's where Mom used to hide candy. One time I broke something. I don't remember what it was but I do remember Dad got blamed for it.

Mom gave me this Airedale and I love him, he looks great in front of my fire place and reminds me of home. Shortly after he came to live on my hearth Mom called and said she misses him. Well Mom, he has a message for you: "I am happy here..."

The other night Samantha and I took a walk at Chestnut Ridge... just the 2 of us. As we walked deeper into the woods I kept thinking about how Anjie got chased by a mama deer last year and it kind of freaked me out a little. When we came down the last hill we heard a little commotion and there, high up in the trees were 15 turkey vultures! I was so excited that Samantha was finally getting to see what they looked like outside the pages of a book but wow... there were 15 of them and everyone knows I am terrified of birds...especially huge black birds with grotesque red heads! Tammy came along the trail a few minutes later and she tried to take a picture of them with her cell phone. I felt better with her there because she is way taller than we are so if they were to attack they would attack her first...

Organic Square Pants

This morning I couldn't help but think about how lucky we are to live in a place where we are free and life is good. When I dropped Samantha off at school this morning her friend Gwen, Samantha and I had a pretty in depth conversation about which characters are the smartest on Sponge Bob... yes, really, we chatted at great length charting the order of their intelligence. I would give you the run down but I can't remember.

I have slowly been making a switch to using organic products... for our health and for the environment. I don't think we will ever be a totally organic family but I do want to switch for the things that really count. So far we use organic milk because it is better for us and for the cows. We use cage free eggs. I have read that organic eggs vs. regular eggs are not that much different in terms of health benefits so we do this one for the chicken's happiness. We eat organic apples for our health and locally grown apples when they are in season. We use organic dishwasher soap and cleaners for the environment. And we recently switched to organic beef for our health as well as for the cows well being. My next step is going to be to switch to organic coffee and organic laundry soap. I want to switch to organic coffee because most of it is grown on farms where the workers are paid a fair wage and where deforestation techniques are not used. Samantha has really been into the whole organic thing too. I love involving her in shopping and cooking because I have found by including her she is much more willing to try new things.

Here is the picture I was looking for of the turkeys! They were the coolest things. Dad always mentions that there are turkeys that gather in their front yard and now I have my own. They aren't in my yard but that's ok... I don't think I'd want them in my yard.

Samantha took this picture with her camera with Tara... I was actually trying to add the picture of the wild turkeys I took on the way to work...

We went to Eden for Easter... John went with us too and we all had a wonderful time... Above is Samantha and BaBa reading...

Samantha and MaMa played the piano... It is great how much Samantha remembers from visit ti visit.... Dad said he would buy us a piano... I wish we could take him up on that but we have nowhere to put it... I have thought about this at great length but there is really nowhere one would fit... So, I love everything about our tiny house except for the lack of space for a piano!

Samantha had a great time sledding... I took the first run with her and we almost went in the creek! Dad said he'd never seen anyone go that far... I know I sure never have! The snow was a little icy though... So, Samantha was only allowed to go down the front hill with an adult... She could go down the side hill by herself but she didn't care for the side hill... She said it was too difficult to avoid the dog poop...

BaBa pulled Samantha around in the sled like he used to do when I was little...

Above is the view from the creek looking up toward the garages...

Off in the distance are BaBa and Samantha...

Here is Samantha and Ba Ba skipping rocks in the creek... John had fun throwing rocks and skipping them too...

I loved this tree... when I was younger I would have tried to climb it... no I am just satisfied to take it's picture...

Samantha had something in her eye and BaBa was trying to scare her...

I thought I would take another run down the hill... I hadn't brought any socks and had to borrow some from mom...

BaBa went down the hill with me... We tried to get Samantha to go too but she wouldn't... I think she knew BaBa would try to dump us or some such thing...

Yeah, we made it without going in the creek!

On Friday Samantha and I went to a play at the Columbus Children's Theater. We saw "The Magician's Nephew". It is the story of how the land of Narnia was created. The play was so imaginative. It had a few parts that were amusing but overall the play was not funny. There were these women two rows behind us that kept laughing like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen and talking throughout the play. One of the woman must have had a cold or something because she kept... I can't even think of a word for it... sniffling in a really mucus-y way. It was so gross but they didn't ruin the play for us, it was great.

Samantha is reading the book "Flat Stanley" at school. It's about a boy who gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him and he discovers all sorts of ways being flat is cool. The kids all made paper dolls of themselves and have to take them all sorts of places and write about it. So, Samantha took Flat Samantha to the play. Before it started she set up Flat Samantha in the seat and set her up with the program to take her picture. The family in the row behind us asked if it was Flat Stanley. They had a relative in Austin, TX send them a Flat Stanley for a weekend. How cool!

The Blizzard of 2008

We got tons and tons of snow! It started on Friday around 10am. We were in our weekly meeting in the conference room at work and watches the snow start out as a few flurries and by the time we were done it was snowing hard and blowing horizontally! Around 11:30am I got a call from Samantha's school that they were dismissing 2 hours early. It took me 40 minutes to get to school because the roads were a sheet of ice. When we got home I shoveled the driveway and then Samantha and I made a snow bunny. The snow wasn't the really good packing kind that you can roll so the snow man looked like a bunny instead.

On Saturday I got up with John while he was getting ready for work at 6am and looked out the window to see everything covered with snow, lots and lots of snow. Our street looked so pretty because there were no tracks in the street yet or any footprints... it was all a beautiful blanket of white.

Samantha played with her stuffed animals all weekend...

It snowed all day and we were under a level 2 snow emergency. Samantha and I stayed inside up until about 6:30pm when we had to go out to try and clear off the driveway for John. John worked overtime and had to deal with two separate dead people. He is always in a strange mood after dealing with dead people so we shoveled the driveway and had dinner ready when he got home close to 9pm. The driveway was awful to shovel! I don't know how my dad shovels the tons of Buffalo snow all winter! It was almost knee deep and incredibly heavy. It took me over an hour just to get John's side of the driveway sort of clear. I did part of my side but my back hurt so there is still a snow island in the middle. I hope I can get out on Monday! While I shoveled Samantha made a snow fort. I gave her some jello to play with, peach jello to make snow cones. She had a blast.

The Buffalo socks Dad sent kept our feet toasty warm...

This picture speaks for itself!

Okay, I am having the writing urge again. I get the urge to write fiction a few times a year when I come up with a great idea, start writing and then get bored and never finish. At first not finishing bothered me but now I am okay with the whole thing. It's about the process and not actually a finished product. Maybe one day there will be a finished product but in the meantime the process is fine, it's not broken so there is nothing to fix.

I can't believe absolutely nothing is going on. Samantha is still sick. John and I are both well. And, that is pretty much all that is going on. These past few weeks it seems I have gotten into a routine of Samantha and school, work, home to watch TV and work on whatever craft project I have going on. I've been watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Martha Stewart Show almost every day. And, I never get tired of Law & Order re-runs. We have also had quite a bit of snow. It snows and then melts, snows and then melts. When it is cold and grey out I just don't feel like doing much of anything. I would say that it's boring but even though it sound boring git really isn't, I am quite enjoying myself.

Sick!

We are all sick... I am getting over a cold, Samantha just got antibiotics for her crud and John just got sick last night... It seems like everyone at work and at school is sick... And I'm sick of being sick! I wake up and feel fine but then by the end of the day I don't feel so well...

Vanity Fair

Ah, the great Vanity Fair incident of 2008... It began when Mom asked me to get her a copy of Vanity Fair, the issue with Katherine Heigl on the cover, and mail it to her on account of her not being able to go out much lately. She had sent Daddy to the store for it but he had said he couldn't find it. That might have been because he was looking for Harper's which I found out later. Anyway, I looked at Wal Mart and they don't carry it. I looked at Kroger and they don't carry it either. The Kroger employee who helped me look for it was great by the way... he checked every check out lane for me... I was so appreciative for the great customer service even thought they didn't have the magazine. Next, I called Daddy at work and begged him to help me and we came up with a plan:

• He was going to go upstairs to the pharmacy and look for it...
• If the pharmacy didn't have it I was going to go by Walgreens after I picked Samantha up from school...
• If Walgreens didn't have it Daddy was going to go by Wegman's on his way home...
• And, if he didn't find it there I was going to go to Boarder's the next day...

All this was after we had been round about who was on the cover which went something like this... Me: It has to have Katherine Heigl on the cover... Daddy: Who?... Me: Katherine Heigl... Daddy: Who the hell is that?... Me: I don't know, some actress... Daddy: How the hell should I know... Me: That wasn't a question, I was telling you, she's an actress in some movie I think... Daddy: Ok, some woman on the cover of Harper's... Me: NO! Vanity Fair... Daddy: Ok, some woman on the cover of Vanity Fair... Me: It has to be Katherine Heigl, write it down... Daddy: I'll call you back [click]...

So, he calls back and said that they did not have it but as he was exiting the magazine aisle there was a magazine lying on the floor which he stopped to pick up... Someone leaving a magizine on the floor is totally unacceptable... Anyway, it was Vanity Fair but with a man on the cover... He bought it anyway and when he called back we determined that the January issue must have had Katherine Heigl on the cover and being well into February the January issue was long gone...

So, I called Mom to tell her that Daddy was bringing home the Vanity Fair even though it was the wrong one. I asked her if she would please not mention that it was the wrong one because he had gone to so much trouble to get it... She said she most certianly would point out that it was the wrong one because after all, it is the wrong one... I mentioned that that might hurt Daddy's feelings and she said that the fact that it was the wrong one needed to be pointed out... I think he gets that but whatever... I told her that the issue she wants is no longer in stores to which she pointed out that her grocery sometimes has magazines that are 6 months old... Ok Mom, but most don't so it's fine that you sent me out for a magazine that was from the previous month... Whatever...

I told John all about the Vanity Fair escapade when we got home... And, while we were at Skyline he called and said that he found it on Amazon and was having it sent to Mom... I called Mom and told her and then I called Daddy and told him...

At Skyline I began to tell Kelly and Tacey and when I said Vanity Fair Tacey immediatly said: Oh, the one with Katherine Heigl on the cover in the big floppy hat?... That was too funny...

Several days have passed and Mom received her January copy of Vanity fair with Katherine Heigl on the cover but she never got the February issue with some man on the cover that Daddy found on the floor of the pharmacy... I wonder what he did with it?

I remembered...

Of course I remembered as soon as I signed off what else I wanted to write about... Samantha told me that her teacher, Miss C, pulled her and Olivia aside and asked them if some Saturday they would like to go out to eat with her... I am so excited, my baby is a favorite! Of course she is my favorite but I love the idea that she is someone else's favorite too... At least she is not one of the nose pickers as Miss C calls the bad kids... And speaking of nose pickers... Everyday I write a joke in Samantha's agenda book... Today's joke was: What do you do if your nose goes on strike? A: You pick it... Haa haa haa...I thought it was a perfect joke for Miss C... This morning Samantha read the joke and we had a discussion about what a strike is... She knew a lot about what it is thanks to Sponge Bob... I never thought I'd actually say that she learned something constructive from Sponge Bob but she did... I guess one time they boycotted the crusty Crab and there was a pickit fence... Hey, it got the idea across to them!

Misc. Happenings

I almost killed my nephew yesterday... I stopped at the craft store after work to get some things for Samantha to make her Valentines... As I was getting out of the car I saw a figure crouched down toward the back of my car... A second later the figure jumped at me and said, BOO... Ok, so I am the one who almost died from a heart attack... It was only Kyle but I diddn't realize that until after my heart hat exploded out of my chest and was flopping around in the parking lot... I was still shaking when I got inside the store when they had an announcement saying that they are required to test their emergency alarm thing of some sort and for customers not to be alarmed by the subsequent alarm... The alarm was so loud and lasted for what seemed forever making it difficult to calm down from my parking lot experience... Oh my...

This morning Samantha and I were giggling over how she used to call it: Valemeimes Day... She makes me smile!

I had several other things that I wanted to write about but can't recall them now... oh well...And, for some reason spell check is not working so I apoligize for the many spelling errors I know I made...

Parent Teacher Conferences

Yesterday we had Samantha's parent teacher conference... Miss C had sent a note home saying that we should only schedule a conference if our child was having trouble of some sort... Samantha is not but I do know that everyone always schedules a conference anyway so I emailed Miss C and asked her if we should come in or not... She said she would schedule us for Thursday at 5:45pm as long as we brought chocolate cake... We did and Miss C and Miss Raymond were very happy since they had been stuck at school through dinner time... Samantha is doing really well... She got all A's and A+'s... And, she made the honor roll... We also got to go in and talk to Samantha's music teacher, Mr N... Samantha has been feeling awkward in music because she is timid about playing the instruments and because she thinks Mr N is mean... Mr N is not warm and fuzzy but he is not mean... I'm glad we got the chance to talk with him so we could tell Samantha how nice we think he is, to set her mind at ease... I do have the worlds biggest worry wart for a daughter...