My first post...regurgitated.

The SITS girls are hosting a week long Back to Blogging event, with a washer and dryer set as a prize!

The contest is sponsored by Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliance.

Since I am such a HorRIBly inconsistent blogger, I'm going to participate in Back to Blogging Day to get myself in the groove.  Goodness knows I don't have any kind of groove, not anything even resembling a groove, but maybe I'll get a little bit of a beat this week.

So, I'll start by regurgitating - uh, I mean revisiting - my very first blog post on April 25, 2007.  Wow, that seems so long ago!  There were no pictures because I didn't know how to load them yet, and I didn't have anything to write about, but I had two comments!  Woo-hoo!  My husband, who critiqued the post, and my friend who called him a stinker for critiquing my post.  It's been a fun, if often sporadic, journey since then.  Here it is, freshly regurgitated just for you:


Birds of a Feather...or the Early Bird gets The Worm!

I woke up before sunrise this morning to the most amazing sound of dozens of birds twittering back and forth to each other. I couldn't believe how loud they were! I'm not sure why they were all out there, but my best guess is they were after all the little wormies that might be above ground after the big storm last night.

We had lots of lovely thunder and lightning, had to even make sure the computers were all unplugged-just in case! My parents have had a couple of lightning issues with their computers in the past.

Emily had her house ready in case of frightened family hunkering down in her basement during the tornado watch until 2a.m. this morning. We didn't end up over there, but it's nice to know we have an alternative spot to the smelly basements of the Presbyterian or Baptist churches in town. Not that I wouldn't be happy to be in those basements in case of actual tornadic action, mind you!

Thought I'd take this early morning time to actually start my blog that I've been threatening to start for a while now. Also thought this could be a good way to keep in touch will those of you far away. Keep checking back! I want to update this often, and maybe I'll have some surprise guest bloggers on once in a while!

***It's me in real time again.  So, maybe I didn't keep the "I want to update this often", but I have had a guest blogger, my daughter "Nutella".  She writes a pretty good post, too.

So buh-bye for now, I'll be write back tomorrow!

The honeymoon is over...

I'm not talking about MY honeymoon with my honey, but the honeymoon of the first days of school.  You know, when a child is still well-behaved because he doesn't know quite what to expect from his teacher.  When he doesn't want his fellow students to know just how darn mule-headed he really is.  When he still cares what people think of him.  Oh, yes, I'm mourning the loss of the honeymoon period of 1st grade.

Yesterday I received my SECOND call from the school:  I had an uncooperative child.   A child who snuck a mini-maglite in his backpack and began to tap it on his desk.  A child who then wouldn't quit tapping it when his teacher asked him not to. And when his teacher took the flashlight away from him, he then used his fist to pound on his desk instead.  This led to another teacher being asked to come help, and then snowballed into having the principal come get him for a nice and cozy talk.  Thank goodness for her that the office is two doors down from his classroom; it will save a LOT of time this year.  {Last year his class was at the opposite end of the school.  The principal had a hard time and a great workout trying to wrestle him down to the office.}

Today he went to school with a note in tow..."Dear Mrs. G_____,  I'm sorry I was bad."  That's a direct quote.  Short and to the point.  Then he drew himself with a happy face.  I'm assuming that's how he's going to be looking and acting today, but you know what they say about assuming.

Scrapbooking With A Budget In Mind

If you are a regular reader of my not too regularly updated blog, you probably know that I dabble a bit in the art of scrapbooking. Well, I'm now the Scrapbooking Expert at Experts123.com.

Read my first article here and tell me what you think: Scrapbooking With A Budget In Mind

Catching my breath!

We're in our new house, still looking for some furniture, still unpacking and trying to find this and that, and now school has started. Wow. It has been pretty crazy around here, but the dust is starting to settle a little bit.

School started today, and I felt like I was throwing the kids into a den of lions. I SO remember what it was like to be the new kid in school, not knowing ANYbody, not having a history or shared past with a single person on the campus. It's a scary feeling, and they were a little bit anxious. Do they look it? Fez must have been nervous, cuz he NEVER cooperates in pictures, and I have stacks of crazy photos to prove it.



Luckily, they were all sporting their Cons. Sally's weren't her actual Converse (she's got a pink pair) but they were reasonable facsimiles.

Homeless

We made it. We’re here. Whew! Now we’re getting settled in at Nonni’s, just to (hopefully!) find a house in the area that we need. Summer break is so much fun, but the kids are just darn worn out from the lack of schedule and being late to bed and early to rise. Mario had a skinned up knee that needed attention from the keeper of the band-aids (that would be me) and I set him on the edge of the bed, bandaged him up, gave him a kiss and headed back to the kitchen to finish making dinner. In all of the commotion, I didn’t realize that he wasn’t back out with everyone else until we were sitting down to dinner 15 minutes later. I walked back to the room and he was literally passed out, flopped back onto my open book that was laying on the bed, and snoring away. We tucked him into the bed, still wearing his swim trunks, and he was konked out for 12 hours. Wish I could do that!

We’ve been visiting with friends and family, and eating tons. Why does any and every get-together involve food?

I’ve seen some really interesting (read:crazy) things since being here.

1. There are more Prius’s here than I could even begin to count.
   
2. While spending a nice evening at Lake Mendocino with friends, the neighboring group, which included children in the group, kept lighting up their “medicinal marijuana” while letting their pit bull, who was sporting a nice studded choker chain, run rampant all over the area.
   
3. Strange Missouri-ish weather: clouds, rain, cool weather
   

I’m sure there are more, but I’m not remembering them at the moment!
Grandpa has an AMAZING patch of lettuce in his garden and we cut a whole garbage bag full. It lasted all week, and I even gave some away to a couple of people. YUM!

The cousins here are all having fun hanging out, but we miss the Missouri cousins a ton.
I talked to Abrahm on the phone last week and he says, “Aunt Annie, you’re not my best friend.” Sounds mean, but he just cracks me up!