Suprise....

There are some surprises a girl likes.  Flowers at work from her husband, just because.  Money in the mail, an email from a long lost friend...  Here is one surprise that THIS girl does not enjoy.  Surprise house guests.  It is not that I am not flexible, or that I can't "pull it together", however, when I called Chris and said, "Did you know that they were coming, TONIGHT?"  and his answer was at first, I told you, but you did seem a little distracted.  By the end of the night it was, "Well, maybe I did forget to tell you."  You think?  I don't forget things like WE ARE HAVING HOUSE GUESTS!!  Oh well, it all worked out.  The girls helped pull the house together, there were clean sheets on the bed, and there were clean towels in the linen closet.  

When I get those flowers at work, I will know it isn't "just because", but I will love them anyways.

Abby is in bed.  I just had to threaten her with the 4 b's and that was that.  Thank you very much!

Emma texted me today with some exciting news.  She was one of the students accepted to be part of the yearbook and newspaper staff!  That little girl is SO excited.  I am excited for her.  She is a writer.  She has a 'style' to her writing.  She loves photography.  I think this is going to be right up her alley.  She is probably the MOST excited about a writing workshop that she has the opportunity to go to in Washington DC in the fall.  "Can I go, Mom?"  I told her I had to talk to dad.  (hell yes, of course she can go)  She has to keep her grades up, turn her work in on time.  Emma is such a nice kid.  I am excited she has this opportunity.  I am excited that she is excited about it.  I am excited that she has something that I think she is going to really shine at!  Plus, it is something to put on her college application!

What I love about Denver is that you can have a blizzard one day with 18 inches of snow in your front yard and the city basically shuts down, and 2 days later you can be sitting on the patio enjoying lunch with 6 inches of snow surrounding you in your shirt sleeves!  That is what I love about Denver!  

I am sitting here tonight WISHING that Abby would go to bed.  I am thinking of re-implementing the 4 B's that saved my life when Abby was a toddler.  What are the 4 B's?  It was the regimen that I put her on after putting that child back to bed 40 times one night.  And I am NOT exaggerating.   This is how the 4 B's work.  First, you must commit.  NO MATTER WHAT!  The 4 B's come before all else!  Then you pick a time for them to start.  Let's say 7 pm.  Here is the order:

1.  Bath

2.  Brush (teeth and hair) 

3.  Book  (one book of child's choice)

4.  Bed  (lights out and in bed by 8 pm EVERY NIGHT!)

The 4 B's saved my sanity, and it probably saved my kid.  Do you think that it would be over the top to start it on an 11 year old that won't stay in her bed??  

"Spring In Denver"

You have to love it, Spring in Denver!  We have at least a foot of snow on the ground and it is still coming down.  I guess I should not complain.  If it was February, we would have 4 feet of snow on the ground.  When I got up this morning, it was sprinkling.  By the time Emma left for school, the grass was covered with the "white stuff".  The drive was slippery, but doable.  Thank goodness for the gas guzzling 4 wheel drive monster SUV.  As the day went by, the flakes got bigger and bigger.  We even had thunder snow!  School was called off at 11:30.  Seriously, could they not have just let the kids stay home?  It is a bigger pain to have all of those parents rushing to school to pick their kids up!

Emma is having Olivia spend the night tonight.  I guess Chris pummeled the girls with snowballs on the way in the house.  As revenge, Abby, Olivia, and Emma built him a little friend on the hood of his car!  They had a fabulous time building a snowman in the dark!  The screaming and laughing and all in all fun was great to watch!  With the WET, WET snow, the girlies were sopping wet by the time they came inside!  Good times!

It is April 16, my daffodil's are in full bloom, my tree has cute little baby leaves, and spring is in the air.  So is a only seen in Colorado Spring BLIZZARD!  They are calling for 2 feet of heavy wet snow at our house by Saturday morning.  When I picked the kiddo's up from school today they were doing the "Snow School Tomorrow" dance.  Pretty cute.  The kids actually stated that their teachers were doing the same dance inside the building...  Imagine that!  I usually don't get too excited when the weather "people" here in Denver call for snow.  They are usually wrong.  Somehow, I get the feeling that we will be doing some shoveling tomorrow...  I will take a picture of the snowman we will make for the front yard!

On to other things, when I picked Emma up from track practice today the comment she made was, are you sitting down...  "I LOVE TRACK"!!  Yes, she LOVES track.  She signed up to run the 100 yard dash and throw the shot put.  They ran a mile to warm up and she is sore, but, did I mention, she LOVES track!

Abby is working on her spelling!  She is NOT a speller, or a math girl.  If you want a wink and a smile with some attitude, she is your girl.  If you want cleaning and organization, she is your girl.  If you want math or spelling, well, keep going.  We are working on those things though.  It is a lot easier to learn spelling and math than organization, as I can tell you from experience with daughter number one, not to mention any names!

I will take pictures of our weather and let you know how it is going! 

I have had my blog EXACTLY 4 days, this is my 4th post, but guess how many posts I actually have?  Three.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe if I would quit messing around on this thing and just post and write thing, my stuff would not disappear.  Urrgh!  So frustrating!

We did not do a lot tonight.  Abby was tired.  She had a fit after school when Chris made her work on her math and she rushed through it and of course did not get it right.  She had to sit at the table until she got it right.  She did not think that was too much fun, as she continued to rush and try to make up her own rules.  Did you know that there are 'set in stone rules' for multiplication?  You can't just do whatever you feel like doing like add, or subtract.  She ended up doing it right and then she took a nap.  She is trying to wink and smile to get out of math and it just is not working this time.  Especially not on Dad.

Emma had her first day of track practice.  I love that Chris works from home and is able to pick her up from practice.  Her is what I heard about practice.  She hated it.  She fell over 3 hurdles, she had to run 1/2 a mile and a 100 yard dash and walk the cross country course.  She doesn't want to go back, ever!  She would rather DIE!  She hates to run.  She is too clumsy for track, she just isn't good.   She wants to do tumbling to get ready for cheerleading.  This is what I told her ...  It takes 3 months to really know if you like something or not, running is good for you, practice makes perfect, think of how good you are going to feel, you can still take tumbling to get ready for cheerleading, think of what good shape you are going to be in for CROSS COUNTRY next fall.  She didn't laugh. 

 I need to remember, she is going to be picking out my nursing home, the prospects today are not looking good.

Kids.. Grades... Mean Mom...

1.8  That would be Emma's Social Studies grade, barely a C.  NICE.  Especially for a kid with a nearly photographic memory and who has a knack for random historical trivia.  Why isn't she doing well in social studies you ask?  Well, she doesn't like it, it is boring, it won't help her later in life.  Ok, THEN the next day she asks me for a book on WORLD CULTURES.  Yes, wouldn't that be...  you guessed it...  SOCIAL STUDIES!  Then tonight, at the dinner table, she informs me that the ancient egyptians were not the oldest civilization, it actually the Mesopotamians located between the Tigras and Euphrades rivers in what is now modern day Iraq...  What the heck...  Is that not Social Studies?  Then she spouts off some random dribble about the Roseta Stone.  Did I know that that was an ACTUAL TOOL they used to decipher hieroglyphics?   Yeah, Emma, I did know that...  Guess where I learned it?  Social Studies!

Emma will be minus her cell phone and basically anything with a screen until her social studies grade is a B, and on it's way to an A.  I don't think it will take long.  She is so smart, and there is nothing like a little technology deprivation to get a teen motivated!  My office mate actually told me as I was on the phone with the school counselor today that "I was a mean mom".  I didn't know whether to be hurt or proud...  I opted for proud.  I had my own mean mom, and it is because of her I am the person I am today!

It is Easter...  I have felt like yuck all weekend!  The girls still managed to color Easter eggs, the Easter Bunny still came. leaving a spattering of Easter treats, our friends took the girls to church this morning...  I don't like to be sick!  I feel a little better now.  I managed to fix "Easter Dinner". A ham, potatoes, deviled eggs, (I think that is sacrilegious when you make them out of Easter eggs?) broccoli and rolls.  The girls enjoyed the meal, as did Chris.  

It is a rainy cold Easter...  Glad we were not planning on an outdoor Easter Egg hunt.  This is so unlike the Easter's when I was a kid.  When I was a kid, we lived in Austin, Texas.  I remember we spent our Easter's with outdoor Easter Egg hunts, boating and picnic dinners for Easter.  I look outside today and think "I would rather be in Texas, boating on Lake Travis" today.  

I hope you have a VERY HAPPY EASTER!