Our Spell-a-Thon Reward

Grandmas, Grandpas, Nanas, Poppas, aunts & uncles contributed so much to my kids' Spell-a-Thon experience this year.  The munchkins studied their little tails off & collected so much money for our PTA fundraiser that we reached our school-wide goal of $10,000.

 

$5,000 raised meant Mr. Petty the PE teacher got slimed.

$10,000 and we got to include Mr. Wood the principal!

 

And when I say that you contributed, I mean that in all seriousness.  The students only topped the goal by about $100-200.  So if you hadn't all pledged, we wouldn't have gotten to see Mr. Wood get in on the action!

 

Thank you!

 

 

The kids were absolutely riveted.  They started chanting "Slime!  Slime!  Slime!"  And when Mr. Petty & Mr. Wood came out, the children were almost beside themselves with excited hysteria!

 

To add to all of the mania, while our intrepid PTA president Allison was announcing the top earning kids, the fire department pulled into the back parking lot & started unrolling their hoses. The kids sitting by me were literally rolling around on the grass in excitement!

 

 

 Mr. Wood all decked out & ready for his "reward."

 

 

Our 2 brave men gettin' ready for the show.

 

And here it is:

 

 

The woman you see hugging Mr. Wood is Emma's teacher Mrs. Livingston.  Today was her last day at Acacia, so she got to get in on the sliming action.  Our family is absolutely devastated that she's leaving, but grateful that she could help Emma grow so much already this year.  We finally found out today who Emma's new teacher will be & I have high hopes for the rest of the year.

 

I have a feeling that if the PTA does a challenge like this year we'll raise even more.  The kids were SOOOOO crazy with excitement!

(And a lot of the grown-ups too!)

Dear Andrew,

Dear Andrew,

I hope you don't mind, but I bought my own Christmas present this year.

It was just sitting on the shelf at Target- lost & alone in the clock department of all places.

Its red clearance sticker called to me & I couldn't help myself.

 

 

I know that it's only September and that I'm going to use it tonight, but don't worry- I'll save the box & wrap it back up in December.

 

Love, Kris

Indecision

 

My white chicken needs to make up her mind.

 

You can't tell fron this pic, but they're all white.  Weird.

 

Anywho-  the one on the left is a "whiff" or a "fart" egg.  No yolk.

It looks kind of like a snake egg!

 

Her normal one is in the middle.

 

And that monster on the right is a double-yolker.

 

I guess she thinks that mediocrity is boring.

Signs of Success

This has been a good week.  I've been working my little tushy off- literally, and it's starting to show!

 

Case in point:

3 weeks ago on Sunday I put on a skirt before church.  To my dismay, it was too tight around the middle & was rolling in the waistband.

 

Boo.

 

I was so sad that I took it off & left it at home.

 

2 days ago I tried on that same skirt before church.  To my absolute delight & SHOCK, it fit!  And not only fit, but was 2 inches too big around the waist!

 

SUCCESS!!!!

 

I'm all the way up to Week 4, Day 3 of the Couch 2 5K program & it's going great!!  I am a little scared, though, because apparently Week 5 is brutal.  Yikes- pray for me!

 

Our triathlon is coming up on November 5 & I can't wait!

Tooth Fairy Musings

It must be exhausting to be the Tooth Fairy!

I mean really, let's consider this.....

 

1.  He must stay up late enough that the toothless child will be REALLY asleep, & not just lying in wait to surprise the person sneaking into their room.

 

2.  He has to always have the appropriate change/dollars on hand.  Who carries cash anymore?

 

3.  He has to REMEMBER that he needs to go to work on the appropriate night!

 

4.  He has to be very quick with his hands & super-sneaky.  Stealth is obviously an acquired skill.

 

5.  He has to fool not only the loser of the tooth, but all of the siblings sleeping in the room as well.

 

6.  He has the pressure of carrying a child's fantasy world on his shoulders.  'Cuz seriously, who wants to be responsible for destroying a child's innocence when they wake up & realizes the identity of the person with their hand under the pillow?

 

Poor Tooth Fairy.  It must be a lonely road you travel.

Every Dime Counts (for me & the school!)

In my new capacity as the Box Top for Education coordinator for our school, I've been noticing things I've never paid too much attention to before.  Like the fact that there are Box Tops on the bottom of my Kleenex boxes.  Who knew?

But one thing I ALWAYS pay attention to is the Safeway Buy 4, Get $4 sale at Safeway.

 This sale makes me happy.  Coupon happy.

Today we hit the JACKPOT, as I scored like never before.

We got:

13 boxes of real fruit juice fruit snacks

11 boxes of granola bars

8 boxes of protein granola bars

8 boxes of cereal

Total:  Around $20

Wahoo!

Vail has a Community Food Bank now, so I can make a good donation & still have enough treats to placate the 1 year old during Sacrament meeting for months to come.

Also- the big bonus. 

There are 2 Box Tops on almost every box!
We got 62 Box Tops for the school!

That's $6.20!

I feel good today.

Starting a New Phase

I've been kind of twisting in the wind for a long time.  I feel like I have all sorts of things that I want to do, but just no motivation to get them done.  So I was THRILLED to get an e-mail from one of my bestest friends last week.

Wendy is awesome, & has decided to train for a triathlon in November!  Being the thoughtful girl that she is, she invited a bunch of her buddies to join in.  I was jumping right on the bandwagon, but after I thought about it realistically, I figured out that I don't have the TIME to meaningfully train for a whole triathlon before November.  OK, yes.  I have tons of time.  I'm not one of those women that presumes that she is all-important & has no time for the world around her.  However, I do NOT have giant blocks of time every day that I can leave my house to go swim or bike.  Hey- my hubby's not home & I don't think that I'd get the "Mother of the Year" award if I left my 1 & 3 year olds home alone (or hanging out on the pool deck while Mommy swims laps)!

Keeping all of this in mind, I committed to be part of a relay team for the triathlon.  I am teamed up with 2 good friends & we'll combine to get it done!  Kristi M will swim, Katie F will bike, & I'm gonna be running the 5K at the end. 

So I have begun!  Leaning on the awesome Couch 2 5K program, I have started to get this tushy back into shape & into fighting form!  I've got 2 workouts down- only 25 to go!

Pray for me folks- it's been a LONG time since I've been in any sort of athletic shape!