Color me red

Kyle has a couple of markers in his church bag. On the way home from church yesterday he got the red marker out and began coloring his arm red. Now he sits behind me so I can't see him. Finally Kailtyn says "Mom, look what Kyle did" (a favorite phrase of hers). He had colored almost his whole arm red. I asked him why he was coloring his arm and he says "I was trying to look like spiderman"

First Soccer Practice

Kyle is going to play soccer this spring with Bartlett Soccer. Last night was his first practice. There are 6 kids on a team, his has 4 boys and 2 girls and the 2 girls had played before so they were looking pretty good next to the boys. All Kyle wanted to do was kick the ball in the goal or tackle the ball. Then when they were waiting in a line for their turn to kick the ball he would come over to where we were sitting and say he was thirsty. Of course the battery on my camera went dead so I only got a couple of pictures.

The top 10

I did not give my critique of last weeks American Idol show but I will give it this week. The show as a whole was good. Here are my thoughts:

Ramiele -- "Alone" -- She really needs to go home. They keep talking about this big voice she has but I have yet to hear it. She was screaming the notes last night. I have never liked her and if she could move down further on my list she would.

Jason Castro -- "Fragile" -- I am not a huge fan of his but he is okay. He needs to quite smiling so much while he is singing. I understand what Simon was saying about taking this seriously. I think he is but his facial expressions appear otherwise.

Syesha -- "If I Were Your Woman" -- She is pretty good and in my opinion is getting better each week.

Chikezie -- "If Only For One Night" -- This was not the best performance of his or of the night but it was not bad either. He is growing on me.

Brooke White -- "Every Breath You Take" -- I forgot to vote but she is the one I am voting for this year. She is my favorite. I don't think at this point that she will win but I really like her.

Michael Johns -- "We Are the Champions" -- He was good last night. I thought it was entertaining too.

Carly -- "Total Eclipse of the Heart" -- One of my favorite songs and I thought she did really well with it. I like her and I think she should go pretty far. I do not think she should have been in the bottom three last week by far.

David Archuleta -- "You're The Voice" -- He picks the oddest songs for him. He did okay but I do not think he should win and I know I am in the minority on that.

Kristy Lee Cook -- "God Bless the USA" -- This was a great song choice for her. Not only did she sing it well, but who is going to vote her off after singing that song. She is Kaitlyn's favorite. Every Tuesday she wants me to call and vote for her.

David Cook -- "Billie Jean" -- He did great! I really think he can win the whole thing.


And that is my opinion for what it is worth.

Picture taking

I took tons of pictures while we were walking from event to event at the Opryland hotel of the kids. Sometimes they cooperated and sometimes they did not. I wish I had thought to take Kyle some nicer clothes so he would have matched better with Kaitlyn but I didn't. Here are some of the better shots I got:

Sunday afternoon activities

It seems like we were so busy yesterday, I did not have a chance to stamp anything (even though I planned on it). After eating and the egg hunt, the boys played some basketball (the brothers against the in-laws).



Then Kaitlyn went for a ride on the 4-wheeler with Richard and the motorcycle with Scott. Kyle would not ride while I had my camera, Andy finally got him to ride later on and then he did not want to get off.





We had a pool tournament while watching the Memphis game. I beat John (he hit the 8 ball in before it was time) and Scott (even though I think he let me win) and made it to the final game where I almost beat Luke. It was down to who hit the 8 ball in first. Then it was Rockband and American Idol time. A fun day for all.

New clothes and egg hunting

Here are the kids new outfits for Easter:







And then we are out at Luke's this afternoon and Susan got some easter eggs and we hid them for the kids.

Please join me in

We went to the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville this weekend. For those of you who are not familiar with this program you can find out about it here. Kaitlyn participated in oral bible reading and song leading. The K-2nd graders do not compete, they just participate. Once you get to 3rd grade you compete against others in your level. Kaitlyn did a great job (if I do say so myself). Actually all of the Bartlett Woods kids did really well (the ones I saw). Here is Kaitlyn reading her scripture and singing:





I took a ton of pictures of the kids. I will have to decide my favorites and upload those later in the week.

A room with a view

We are in Nashville today staying at the Opryland hotel for the Lads to Leaders convention. Kaitlyn did her bible reading today and she will do song leading tomorrow. I have always loved the greenery inside the hotel and have always coveted a room with a balcony that overlooks the atrium. Well we have one. I think it is pretty much luck of the draw for that as 98% of the hotel is booked with Lads to Leader people. Here is our view and Kaitlyn and Kyle sitting on the balcony.







Also they are auditioning for Nashville Star here in the hotel. I am going to try and sneak a peak of that later. I will upload Kaitlyn's pics of her reading and singing tomorrow.

I am also getting a lot of good portrait type photos of the kids in all the scenery. I hope to get many more in the 24 hours that we are here.

Hat Parade

Kyle's school has an Easter Hat Parade every year on the Thursday before Easter. I usually don't get to go because I am at work and it is not worth driving 20 minutes each way for a 10 minute walk around the parking lot. However since it is Spring Break this year I got to go. He decorated his hat at school and was so proud (even though it doesn't appear that way in the picture).

So Sad

I have learned today that a good friend of mine is finalizing plans and moving to Illinois. We have been friends for almost 9 years now. I still remember the first day I met her and the conversations we had. I am so sad to see her and her family move for selfish reasons but I am actually surprised they have been in Memphis this long. She does not like Memphis at all and so I am excited for her to finally be able to get outta Memphis. But our friendship has grown a lot in the past few years. We have so much in common. We are (or were) both math teachers, we have sons the same age, we scrapbook together, etc. I foresee many girls night outs in the next month or so. I know we can keep in touch and she is better at keeping in touch with her out of town friends than I am, I just haven't had that much experience with it. But email and blogs will help.

Spring Break day 1

It was such a pretty day today. Kaitlyn stayed home with me while Kyle went to school for a while. I cleaned up some things in my house. Then after we picked up Kyle we went for some ice cream. We sat outside and it was so nice out that the ice cream almost started to melt.

Intrigued by the cats

We went to eat with Pat and Mom McGuire at Pancho's. I haven't been there in a while and love their cheese dip. I do no allow myself to buy the tub of it at the grocery store because I will seriously eat all of it. Then we went back to Pat's house. They had gotten Kaitlyn and Kyle some clothes for Easter. The really liked the new sunglasses.







But for some reason Kyle was fascinated by her cats. My stepmom has 4 cats. One has to be put away when people come over, one will walk around and see what is going on and the other two mainly hide under the bed. Kyle had the flashlight trying to find them and asked a thousand questions about them.

The Top 12

Those of you who know me well know that my favorite show to watch is American Idol. I did not watch the first season of this show (that was back in the day that we had satelite and they did not have local channels on it) but I have watched every other season. In fact this show is the whole reason why I wanted tivo in the first place. We got tivo right before season 3 started. Which is great because last nights show was 2 hours long. So I started watching about 45 minutes into it and finished right on time. So I thought on Wednesdays I would give my rundown of what I thought about each contestant. Some of you don't care and may find this boring but again I love it!

Last night's theme was Lennon/McCartney songs. I was really excited about this theme, I love Beatles music. However I was a bit worried that they would try and change the songs too much. You really shouldn't mess with these songs. Here is how it went:

Syesha -- "Got to Get You into my Life" -- I thought she did pretty good with it. It was a good start to the show but she did seem real nervous.

Chikizie -- "She's a Woman" -- I have not been a fan of his and thought he should have been eliminated long ago but I really liked him last night. He is growing on me and probably was in the top 5 last night.

Ramiele -- "In My Life" -- She is my pick to go home this week. She will definitely be in the bottom three. I have not liked her for a while but this is one of my favorite Beatles songs and she ruined it. The performance seemed long and drawn out.

Jason Castro -- "If I Fell" -- This was okay. I kinda like him, not as much as others seem to like him but he does have a unique manner and voice about him.

Carly -- "Come Together" -- I thought this was great! She is definitely in the top 3 for me. I really like her and she seems to get better every week. I do think she should wear long sleeves but that is just a personal preference.

David Cook -- "Eleanor Rigby" -- He may have had the best performance of the night. It was definitely in the top 3. I really like him too and hope he goes far.

Brooke White --"Let It Be" -- I was a bit worried when she said in her interview that she was singing this song, it is a powerful song. But she did a great job and pulled it off nicely and she sings with such conviction. She is my other in my top 3.

David H. -- "I Saw Her Standing There" -- He was one of my favorites but this was not very good. I kept waiting for him to start taking his clothes off. I just can't get past the whole stripper thing with him for now. He is good looking though!

Amanda -- "You Can't do That" -- I am not a fan of hers and have not liked her from day one but this was okay. She still needs to go home soon.

Michael Johns -- "Across the Universe" -- I like him and this was pretty good. He is about half way up my list.

Kristy Lee Cook -- "8 Days a Week" -- She tried to put a country vibe in this. Now granted the judges have been saying they wanted to see some country from her but come on, this was so not the week to do it. The Beatles and Country don't mix. I knew when those violins started playing it was going to be bad. And I am sad because I liked her. She will be in the bottom 3 tonight and may be going home.

David A. -- "We Can Work It Out" -- I have not been so enthused about him like everyone else. He has a good voice and can sing really well but I just have not been as moved by him as everyone else seems to be. He really messed up last night. It doesn't matter how old you are kid you should have heard some Beatles songs by now. Come on! And then he forgot the words, that is a big no-no.


And that is my opinion. You can take it or leave it for what it is. In my next life I think I will be a song or movie critique.

What do you think? Agree or diagree?

I don't think it is that warm

So over the weekend it snowed. Yesterday the temperature was about 60 degrees. When I got home from school this is what I see in the driveway:



Yes that would be Kyle in his bathing suit helping his Daddy wash the car.

Building a Snowman

Building a snowman is something my kids don't get to do very often living in Memphis, especially in March. But on Friday it started snowing about 2:00 and did not stop until that night. We had several inches of really pretty bright white snow.



We waited until Saturday morning to go out and play in it. The kids had fun throwing snow at each other.



Kaitlyn liked to eat the snow and Kyle found a patch of ice and said he was skating.





Then they started building the snowman, at first we could not get the snow to stick together but finally Kaitlyn just packed the snow together very well and we could roll it. Here is the finished product. Luckily I had won this scarf at bunco in January and we used one of Kyle's hats for him. I cut out the eyes, nose and buttons out of paper.

Snowball fight stitches

We had lots of snow fall in Memphis yesterday. The kids went out this morning to play and build a snowman. I will upload my snow pictures tomorrow but what our day consisted of mainly was a trip to the Minor Medical Center. I spent 3 hours of my life today there with Kyle. My kids and some neighbor kids were throwing snowballs at each other and one of the girls next door picked up a massive snowball (seriously about the size of a soccer ball) and chunked it at Kyle. It knocked him into the side of the house and his head hit the bricks. His head really did not bleed that much but it sorta looked as though it might need a couple of stitches so I took him to the minor med place just to play it safe. The nurse came out immediately to look at it and said yes, he would need a few stitches. So even though I did not want him to have to have stitches I was glad he told me that so I didn't feel like I was wasting my time. Here is a picture of his head (it's not too bad):



I was smart enough to take Kaitlyn's nintendo to keep him busy while waiting. He did good and didn't act like it hurt him at all. He was also singing and dancing in the room.





While he was getting the stitches put in his head the guy doing it was telling me "it is okay mom, here is what I am doing" and he was starting to describe to me what all he was doing. I said "I'm good with it, this is the third time he had had stitches". And it was by far the least dramatic of the three instances.

2 hours is better than nothing

Well I was really hoping for a snow day this year and today looked as though it would be the best chance but this morning the alarm goes and nothing - no schools closed. Then we get an email about 8:00 saying the schools will close 2 hours early. I guess that is better than nothing. At least I don't have to deal with 5th or 6th period today. But the kids are crazy. And of course they knew about getting out early before we did because all their dumb parents text message them to tell them. Seriously, why do you do this? It is Friday with a possibility of snow and you text your kid to excite them even more knowing we have to spend 4 more hours with them. Use some sense! But hopefully it will actually snow the 1-3 inches they are predicting and I can have some snow pictures to share tomorrow.

I live for the 1st Thursday of every month

Holly had posted on her blog earlier this week that she lives for the first Monday of each month. Well I know what she means because I live for the first Thursday of every month. Why you ask. One simple word -- BUNCO! We have our very own bunco blog (silly sisterhood of the traveling dice on the right side in the links) and always have a blast. Last night Michelle and I rolled big buncos at the same time. And I won the most buncos prize.

Make up your mind

The weather was so gorgeous over the weekend, I even got out my flip-flops.


And then yesterday it was snowing. Now the flakes were not big enough for you to see in a picture (or at least I could not get a good picture of them) but here they are accumulating on my jacket.

I go back

I was just listening to the song "I Go Back" by Kenny Chesney on the radio and it made me think of the songs that make me 'go back'. Here are some that a few of you will appreciate. Anytime I hear these songs this is all I think of.

Dazey Dukes by 69 boyz -- I cannot help but think of that White truck with the blue neon under it riding up and down stage rd. and summer ave.

Tubthumbing by Chumbawamba -- I think of Dax Torey and Chris making those stupid movies.

Respect by Aretha Franklin -- I think of Amy singing Karaoke at Sharky's in Panama City.

Cotton Eyed Joe by Rednex -- I think of Prom, they played this song at least 3 times that night. And really the whole CD (which I still own I think) makes me think of Matt and Holly.

Hippy Chic by Soho -- Makes me think of Laura Hume and hanging out at the Bartlett 10 (now we are really going back aren't we)

Last Kiss -- makes me think of Mrs. Sheila and Mrs. Glenda at church camp. They would sing this song to us all the time.

In My Life by the Beatles -- this was our senior class song and I think of Senior everything when I hear it.

Shoop by Salt n Pepa -- makes me think of 5 girls driving around in Shannon Jarrett's tercel. Windows rolled down and us singing at the top of our lungs. We were so cool!

Ride that Train -- makes me think of Chi Beta Chi and "The Place"

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice -- Chris used to sing Rice Rice Gravy, it was hilarious. He was always making up different words for songs.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun -- I think of my bunco group. And this is the ringtone for when any of them call my cellphone.

Anything by the Bangles makes me think of my first concert with my dad at Mud Island. I was in the third grade and I remember everything about that night.

And finally the whole Jock Jams volume 3 makes me think of riding the strip in Panama City, FL. We drove the strip for about 2 hours aimlessly playing this CD over and over looking for members of the opposite sex, never found any. Looking for guys does not work when there are guys in the group with you.


What songs make you 'go back'?

Sing it girl!

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that we spend most Sundays at my BIL's, aka Uncle Luke's. He is always getting new video games for us to play with. The latest addition is the American Idol game. This one is so cool. It has lots of good songs on it that you can sing too. Lora and I played a contest, I won. We sang Too Little Too Late, Jessie's Girl, Unfaithful, Irreplaceable, You Can't Hurry Love, Copacabana, and others. Now none of us are good singers and that is probably what makes it so funny. Here is Kaitlyn and Kyle singing:

A day at the park kinda day

Today the weather was so pretty. We went to the park this morning to meet Noah and the rest of his family but when we got there Noah had to run back home and ended up staying there. Abbie was there with Leah and Elijah but they are not really "playground age" if you know what I mean. But Scott and Ryan were also there and the kids had a good time playing. Kaitlyn was pretending as though she were cooking and telling Kyle and Ryan to eat and go to bed. They were happy to play along -- funny how that works when you are just playing to eat well and go to bed. Then later on Lora called and came and got Kaitlyn and Kyle and took them to the park in Arlington.