Graduation 2008

School is OUT FOR SUMMER, Folks--and I couldn't be happier! Graduation was really great this year, and I will miss a lot of the seniors. I received the "Spirit Award" at Graduation, and so my Mom and Dad came to the ceremony so see me get my award. Dad took this picture of myself and Melaina Daniel. This is the first time that I have gotten this particular award, so it is pretty special. It is voted on by the senior class and is given to the person that they think supported them and went above and beyond to make things better at CHS. Pretty cool that I wasn't even there first semester (I was on Maternity leave) and they still remembered me.
I had to give a short speech with this award, so I left everyone with some valuable "Scots-Irish" advice:

If you always think that the grass will be greener on the other side of the fence--
Then MOVE THE FENCE. :)

Good words to live by if you ask me.

I really appreciated my parents coming to support me STILL (I am 36 years old and I have always been able to look out and see my mom and dad there sharing in my moments.) WOW--how special is that? I am definitely aware of how lucky and blessed I truly am.

Happy Mother's Day!

What an amazing ride. I am just elated that I get to CELEBRATE MOTHER'S DAY!! The whole family came over to the house for dinner. We always feel so lucky that we have family that lives so close and can share in special moments like these...

In this picture, Grandpa B is showing all of us how smart Carson is. He asks Carson "where the moon is", and well--you get the idea...Carson points up and is SO SMART!! :) The moon really was in the sky...I thought it was pretty funny, but I pretty much love Dad's sense of humor most of the time!

Here are the Moms--and Carson. Carson doesn't look very happy in this picture, so we tried again...

This is a little better...

But the best picture was Carson with Grandma Sue and Grandma B. This kid LOVES his grandparents!

It was a wonderful day, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I can't wait to celebrate many more Mother's Days as Carson gets older--but every day is a lot of fun being a mom :)

Birthday Update

Jeff and Mike have birthdays that are about one week apart--so from April 29-May 7th, life is pretty festive around here. We always go out to dinner for birthdays. Here is Jeff at his birthday dinner at Mimi's Cafe. Mimi's just opened at the brand new outdoor mall that is very close to our house. It is so fun to have a big mall so close all of a sudden! I tried to capture Jeff "making a wish" before blowing out the candle :).
Mike decided that he wanted everyone to come over to our house for a home-cooked steak dinner for his birthday. Here is how our conversation went:

Me: Are you SURE you want to cook your own steak dinner for your birthday? (yup, I didn't even offer to try and cook. Definitely sad, but everyone was better off for this decision)!

Mike: Yes--I want to cook steak on my grill outside and just hang out--nothing too crazy.

Me: Ok, tell me what I can do to get things organized. (See? Teamwork!! And I DID get the cake from Dairy Queen!!)

It was a beautiful spring evening, and Bob, Big John, Jeff, Chad, Crystal, and Darin all came over to celebrate Mike's Birthday on May 10th:
Such a cute picture of Jeff and Carson!

Carson enjoyed walking around with Crystal. He is SO mobile now!

Here is everyone chilling out on the deck. We didn't have anything really set up yet for Summer, but it didn't matter.

After a delicious steak dinner, we all came inside and started a Marbles game tournament. For those of you who don't know about the Marbles board game, it is a favorite past-time of ours and A LOT of our friends. It is kind of like the game "Sorry"--but with marbles and 2 decks of cards. Mike's dad makes the boards, and they are beautiful! Mike and Darin ended up being the Marbles Champions of the night!

Since Big John and myself lost in the first round, we were bored--so I dressed him up in some of Carson's hats just for fun!

Ok, so remember when Mike said that he didn't want anything "too crazy" on his birthday? Well sometimes you just can't plan things--and as soon as Carson went to bed, this night took an epic turn...

80's metal rock started flowing on the Ipod, and out came the broom "air guitars" and pure magic happened! I won't lie to you and say that this was the first time that air guitars have shown up in my social group, but I will tell you that there was some furious playing on this night...

I think Bob has a golf club in this picture. This is so "in the moment"--I think to ACDC "Thunderstruck".

Chad always has a special solo when Joe Satriani's guitar masterpiece comes on...

In all, we made some great memories, and Mike's birthday extravaganza was a big success. All that was left was to eat cake!

Here is Mike doing a birthday dance up on a chair before he blows out the candles. This is definitely something that you DON'T see everyday!! :)

Good times!!!!!!!

Kilroy is here!

One night, Kava had assumed his normal position by Carson's crib at bedtime, and I was sitting in the recliner thinking that Carson was dozing off to sleep...
Only to hear laughter from the crib and find my son staring at me over the top of the crib bumper!

He is so proud of himself--and now he actually stands up in his crib whenever he gets put in it. But I will never forget...

seeing little Kilroy for the first time! :).

Things just keep on getting better and better as Carson gets older. We are so lucky to have him in our lives!

Sarina's Bridal Shower

On May 2nd, I hosted a evening Bridal Shower for Sarina--who many of you know is my "Little Buddy". :) She is getting married on June 7th-- (06-07-08--pretty cool, huh?) and I am the Matron of Honor. Side note: does the word "Matron" sound like a gruff prison guard to anyone else??? We had a fun weekend planned with the Bridal shower on Friday night, and the Bachelorette Party on Saturday night. Sarina's sister-in-law flew in from Chicago to take part in the festivities, and there were 23 people at the bridal shower!

Here is Sarina:
Here are the Little Buddies:

Sarina and I are holding a stuffed mushroom in our hands that Mike made for the event. Yes, sadly I don't even cook when I am the hostess--my wonderful husband cooks everything and then scatters before everyone arrives. Anyway, he made some homemade stuffed mushrooms that were the hit of the night! SO good!!

The party was still going strong when Carson and Mike came home so he could go to bed--so Carson joined the party and had some fun with Grandma Sue like he always does!

Sarina opened her presents just like she always does--one piece of tape and ribbon at a time!! She got a lot of nice stuff, though.

Since I am pretty good at hosting a bridal shower at this point, two of my favorite ideas are below: the first is to load pictures of the bride and groom on a digital photo frame and have the frame located at a prominent point where everyone can see the pictures. The second idea is to actually get a cute AND useful party favor, and I found a website (beaucoup.com) that specializes in travel candles that you can personalize. I am a BIG fan!

This is picture worthy--we actually had a cupcake tower! I prefer cupcakes to cake at any event. They are less messy and make it easier to serve dessert. You can arrange cupcakes in cool towers, too! :)

Here is the Travel Candle party favor--not a great picture, but you get the idea. These were a huge hit, and something that Sarina can keep as well.

The bridal shower was a huge success, and the Bachelorette Party was a great time as well. Pictures will be posted at some point...

I am really looking forward to Sarina's wedding!

Milestones for Carson

In the span of 3 days, Carson has started to crawl (forwards--he has been crawling backwards for awhile now), he is eating actual chunks of food, and he now pulls himself up to a standing position both in his crib and to get to his favorite toys.

He is so excited about figuring out how to stand up in his crib, that it has actually been pretty hard to get him to sleep at night. He scared me a few nights ago when I was sitting in the chair in his room relaxing, and I looked over to see "kilroy" staring at me over the crib bumper. The next day he pulled himself all the way up to a standing position.

He is just exhilarated about eating actual food. I could tell that he was getting frustrated with baby food, and now that he has chunks and biscuits to chew on he is one happy camper at mealtime! (As if eating has ever been a problem for him :) )
Time to fully babyproof the house, people--Carson is on the move!!

School News

For the last few years when I am teaching about the Vietnam War, I like to drive the point home about the draft system and the sacrifice that people make to serve their country. I actually hold a draft for my classes--"The Republic of Centaurus", and I draw 120 dates randomly to select my draftees. If a student's birthday is on my list, then they are drafted and must write a paper that all non-draftees don't have to write. Drafted students are REALLY upset--and many resort to protesting this unfair system where they must write a paper and their friends don't have to. Here is some documentation of this year's draft--and the BUSY protesting that has been going on outside of my classroom for the past week!

Here is the Draft Notification board posted outside my classroom. I procrastinated posting it on purpose just to make students wait. :) A couple days after this was posted, someone wrote "is stupid" next to the title. Silly protesters!!

This peace sign showed up outside my door on Wednesday.

These annoying signs of a scary clown were posted all along the hallway. It says "Down with the Clown, Down with the Draft". After studying this to figure out the message, it was explained to me that being "down" with the clown is good ("I'm down with that, dude"), but the draft is bad.

It was a bad, bad idea many years ago to reveal my fear of clowns to my students. This information seems to be passed down from generation to generation, and in this case clowns are used to intimidate the Government (ME) in draft protests. Some students even stuffed some trash bags and made a clown dummy that they taped to my classroom window when I was teaching on Thursday. It really startled me, actually!!

This might be my favorite protest poster of the year: This draft really cheeses me off--now that is funny!!

The Peace Panda is saddened by the draft. Good attempt at pulling the heartstrings of the Government (ME) who likes animals.

Stop with the clowns already!! Ronald McDonald is one of the scariest out there. And apparently he thinks the draft is super lame. :)

This sign is on my classroom door. It is direct and to the point--except this Government is a WOMAN!!!

Once again--not a bad attempt to pull at some heartstrings with baby seals. This propaganda is alarming, because of course writing papers doesn't harm baby seals. Good try.

What I love about an assignment like this one is how learning occurs when you aren't even expecting it. By experiencing the unfairness of having to write a paper because you were drafted, students begin to really think about the big picture, and what they would do in that situation. The protesting just naturally occurs when the lightbulb goes on--I do not encourage it at all! It is not a bad thing for high school students to mobilize and stand up for something... I just play the role of the Government until these papers get turned in.

On Thursday, the Senior Senate suprised me with some really cool news. I have been chosen to by the senior class to receive the CHS Spirit Award at Graduation this year. I have never gotten this award before--so it is always nice to be recognized for something new :). Anyway, the seniors decorated my classroom to tell me that I got the award. How cute!

They made a big "L" with balloons on my floor. It was really cute.

School is over in 2 weeks. I am only teaching part-time next year, because Carson and I want to hang out more. I do enjoy teaching "the big kids" in high school, though. It is a great job!!

The Denver Zoo + some cute pics I found

Mike, Carson, & I purchased a Family Pass for the Denver Zoo this year. We plan to go a lot this Summer, and I have a few friends that also have passes so we will take the kiddos as well. It was so much fun to take Carson, even though he was much more interested in the trees and flowers than animals...Mike and I enjoyed it all!

Here is Carson enjoying his sippy cup and a ride around the zoo in his stroller
Who doesn't love hippos???

Carson and Mommy are looking at some pretty flowers right next to the very interesting Gorilla exhibit. When Mike and I were first dating, we went on a date to the zoo and I somehow ticked off the Daddy Gorilla. He punched the glass and flung poo around the room. It was not romantic, but quite a memory. He is still at the zoo, and I just never make eye contact with him :).

Carson just couldn't get enough of all the trees. Here he is on Daddy's shoulders soaking it all in:

It is just the simple things in life...we could go to a park and he will have the same thrills!!

I found these pics on my camera--they are some of the last pictures of Joe, Ryan, & Maryn Shellberg before they moved to Cleveland. Joe and I always used to play "hoops" in the basement. Here is Ryan and Joe shooting a few. We actually got rid of this basketball game a few weeks ago during the annual bulk trash pick up--we will replace it with a new fun toy!

Here is Maryn--Carson's first girlfriend. She is enjoying Carson's car!

Here is the cute couple playing with some toys and checking each other out (Carson especially)!!

Good times, Great friends!!