Overheard On The Way To School

(In order to protect the innocent no real names were used in the posting of this blog.)

youngest daughter: That girl, "Mary", from my basketball team moved into my advanced math class this week.

person drving the car: I didn't know she was smart.

youngest daughter: No one would think I was smart if they talked to me either!

(TRUE)

Has Anybody Seen My Tiara?

Me: Next week ends my reign as teacher of the year. Guess I'd better find my tiara.

Kayla: Do you know where it is?

Me: Where what is?

Kayla: Your tiara. I can help you look for it.

(Really Kayla? Really???)

Me: Kayla, I didn't really get a tiara it was just a joke.

Kayla: (in all her blondeness)...Oh

Later that night...Kayla comes downstairs and hands me a pink paper tiara that she made.

Kayla: Here's your Tiara mom. I made it for you.

Me: Thanks Kayla. It's beautiful, but you can give it to Mr. Day. (her teacher that just won TOY)

Kayla: Ok! (and she put it in her backpack)

I'm telling you the girl is NOT RIGHT!

The Trouble With Tapioca

Apparently Tapioca is not only a bad influence on Kayla, but is now corrupting her little cousin as well. It was reported that Tapioca has been sneaking into little Griffey's room at night to play with him. The other night they were caught red handed sneaking cookie dough out of the fridge. Griffey isn't even allowed to eat solid food yet. I think we may have to do something about Tapioca.

State Cup Update

Anna's soccer team, Banat '96 Gold, is in the middle of the state cup championships. They have won both of their games so far, but just barely. (2-0 and 1-0) Anna's team won the state league so they had top seed going into the tournament. The two teams they played were lower division teams and by all rights should have been easy wins, but nothing about this championship has been easy. The teams they faced came to play and they made it tough for our girls. Add that to the fact that Anna's team looked a little flat and it made for some very stressful afternoons. They are down to 8 teams right now and will face Nike Rush on Saturday. Nike Rush is a lot tougher than the first teams and we are all hoping that the girls step it up. (It is a double elimination tournament.) The biggest competition will be Sereno White who they would face in the next round. They have never beaten Sereno and what an upset it will be if they do. If the girls finish state cup in 1st or 2nd place then they will play Regionals in NM in June. Cross your fingers!!!!

Kayla's team got eliminated after 2 games. Bummer! She has left her current team, the Stars, and will be joining the Banat 98 team who is still in the running for state champions. They finished third last year.

Tapioca...Not the Pudding

Kayla has an imaginary friend named Tapioca. (Don't ask me why...the kid is strange.) Apparently Tapioca got in trouble at school for chewing gum and had to serve detention. Then, because detention was after school, she missed her ride home and had to walk. I think Kayla's imaginary friend may be a bad influence on Kayla.

So Long Insecurities

On Saturday, our church is hosting a Beth Moore Simulcast based on her new study...So Long Insecurity. We were talking about it in the car on the way to soccer yesterday. The conversation went something like this.

Anna:"Why are you going to that? You don't need to go. You don't have any insecurities."

Me and Ryan: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Anna: "Wait! What are insecurities?"

Kayla: "When you are worried about what people think of you!"

Anna: "Oh...well then you better go. You've got a lot of those!"

No kidding! Have you met me?!

ps: I'm not really sure which is funnier. What Anna said or the fact that Kayla actually knew what something meant.

Too Much Chatter

I understand that in softball, chatter is part of the game and back in the day I could chatter with the best of them.
"We want a pitcher...not a belly itcher!"

"Our team is red hot, your team is dead shot. Our team is on the ball, your team takes Geritol!"

And my personal favorite...
"Don't mess with the best, don't fool with the cool. Don't mess with the best cuz the best don't mess, don't fool with the cool cuz the cool don't fool!"
(Yep, I was that good!)

The team Anna played the other day took chattering to a whole new level. It was absolutely ridiculous! They had one cheer (yep, pretty much had one cheer) and they kept repeating it over and over and over. And they didn't just yell the cheer...oh no...they SCREAMED the cheer! Their ringleader was a bored benchwarmer and to this day I can't get her screechy voice out of my head. I wish I had a sound bite because it loses a lot in translation, but it went something like this.
"Rally in the front...Rally in the back...Let me hear you growl...Let me hear you growl!"

Yeah, I didn't really get the whole growling thing. Their team was the Stingrays.

Anyway...at one point the umpire even asked the girls to quiet down because it was so annoying. You know what their coach said?? "It isn't in the rules that you have to be quiet...be as loud as you want girls!!" And believe me, they were.
Way to teach good sportsmanship. I am soooooo glad this season is over. No more softball for us. Soccer is a lot quieter!

Lucky Number 7

I just realized that 7 is my magic number...when it comes to sleep that is. If I get a good solid 7 hours of sleep I'm good to go. Any less and I'm as grouchy as a bear the next day. Any more and I'm like a zombie. Not sure why it is that when I get more sleep I feel worse, but I do. Considering there are only 6 more weeks of school, it took me long enough to figure it out. I will probably have my sleep regulated just in time for summer break.

Anna's Softball Season

Anna didn't really enjoy playing softball. Ok...she hated every minute of it, but she hung in there and improved every game. Playoffs are this week. Here are a few pics of her season.

Kayla's Track Season

Kayla finished the season with a 3rd place finish at the district track meet. She ran the mile in 6:03! Great job kiddo! We are so proud of you!!

Old TOY New TOY

I am sad to report that my reign as Teacher of the Year has almost come to an end. On May 5th I have to hand over my "tiara" to another very worthy educator. Sad I know, but I'm super excited that the next TOY on the block is Kayla's Language Arts teacher and track coach, Mr. Day. He's young and handsome, has gages in his ears (that alone raises the cool factor)and Kayla absolutely loves him!

I sent him a note congratulating him today. I asked if by any chance he'd been rubbing Kayla's head because she's a real lucky charm. Her 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grade teachers have all won teacher of the year (and her mom too). What a weird co inky dink huh? So listen up all you secondary teachers out there. If you want to be the next TOY on the block, give the munchkin's head a little rubby rub.

Track and Softball

Well Kayla finally had her track meet yesterday. This time everyone showed up. For her first event, the mile, the coaches decided to save time and had the boys and girls run together. There were a lot of kids on that track. Kayla came in 3rd for the girls and 8th over all. She beat her best meet time by 2 seconds. In the 800m there were about 20 girls. Kayla had only run this race once before, but yesterday she beat her 1st time by 8 seconds. She was 5th over all. At one point during the race she got boxed in and couldn't get around the bigger girls. She's a natural runner and with a little training she could be really good at it.

Anna had a softball game at the same time as Kayla's track meet so Ryan had to go to that...uh...I mean got to go to that. I was really glad it was his turn because going to those games is painful. I was a softball player and loved it, but...I don't know what to say....it's just bad. One game it was like watching the Bad News Bears and the Worse News Bears. Anna's team is in 3rd place. There are 2 teams a lot better than them and 2 teams a lot worse. Yesterday they played an "a lot worse team" and won 27-0! They won't call the mercy rule (10 run rule) until the 4th inning so needless to say it was a long game. Anna got two hits, her 1st hits of the season, and I missed it. Bummer! Anna really hates playing softball. It moves way too slow and even though she does well...I don't see her getting a scholarship out of this game.

Will post pics this weekend.

Yogurt Chronicles (episode 1)- IT'S A STICK UP...HIT THE FLOOR!

When I was in high school I worked at TCBY. One night while I was washing dishes in the back, I heard on the radio that there was a bank robbery on the other side of town and 4 men had escaped in a white van. I went back to washing dishes and didn't really think much of it at the time. Fast forward a few hours. Right after we closed that night I heard a knock on the door and I looked up to find a man standing there. Behind him was a white van...He began shouting at me through the window. I thought he was shouting..."It's a stick up hit the floor!" so I quickly dropped down on the ground and army crawled my way to the back of the store. I started screaming at the girl working with me to run out the back door and save herself. As I was on the phone with the 911 operator I heard the ding of the front door and a man appeared around the corner. Truthfully I nearly peed my pants! He looked at me and calmly said, "We're here to do your floors!" Just then his 75 year old grandfather came around the corner. Apparently they were the floor cleaning crew for our building. I felt like a complete moron!! If that wasn't bad enough the cops showed up a few minutes later and I had to explain to everyone what was going on.

Now I admit...I was a little paranoid back then, but in my defense...I had good reason to be. Every store in the stip mall, except ours, had been robbed and I thought it was finally our turn.

Barbecue Special

Reposted- Originally aired 2/5/09

A few weeks ago my garage door opener went kapooie and I forgot my house keys. Ryan wasn't going to be home until late so he hid a spare set of keys inside the barbecue grill. When I got home that afternoon my garage door opener miraculously worked so I never even gave the hidden keys a second thought... Until tonight when Ryan turned on the grill. When he went to check on his dinner he noticed a big glob of something stuck to the side of his steak. It was pretty dark so he couldn't tell what it was, but he flicked it off and it immediately caught fire. Wanting a better look he went in to get a flashlight. The substance appeared to be some sort of plastic. That's when he noticed the charred keys dangling from the gooey mess and realized that he had just barbecued his keys.

ps....Ryan still ate the steak....I hope he doesn't die from battery poisoning....the chain had a keyless remote that blew up when it was barbecued

Postponed Until Further Notice

Yesterday Kayla was supposed to have her 3rd track meet at Cactus Shadows High School. For those of you that don't live in Phoenix, Cactus Shadows is in the middle of the desert in the middle of no where. It takes about 45 minutes from our school to get there so Anna and I headed out as soon as school was over. We drove and we drove and we drove, and just as I thought we had made a wrong turn somewhere...like a mirage...there it was...the high school. We pulled into the parking lot and asked directions to the track. Well apparently the track (football stadium) isn't right there at the high school...so we had to get in our car and drive some more. FINALLY we saw the familiar lights of a football stadium and turned into the parking lot with 5 minutes to spare. Only the team wasn't on the track warming up...they were all gathered around the buses. Seems that the school sponsoring the track meet forgot to tell our school that they postponed the track meet. How nice of them. So now we have to do the whole thing over again on Thursday. Well, at least I know where I'm going this time.

Back In the Saddle Again

Last night I went running/walking for the first time since my knee surgery! I wore my spiffy red brace and new running shoes. I walked about 2 to 2 1/2 miles and was surprised at how good my knee felt. I thought it might swell a little but it didn't and although my muscles are sore today my knee feels great! I guess I don't have an excuse to sit on the couch now. Gotta start getting the ole bod back in shape. It has definitely gotten flabby in the past 6 months. Now if I can just get some sun on these pasty white legs....

Silence

Well I know you're out there, but I guess you don't read and tell.