Days 116-120

Thursday, April 23rd - It's Madison's soccer night and Andy is home from Kansas.  Yeah!  Grant loves it when his Dad launches him up in the air and catches him.  Andy's done this with all three kids when they were little, much to the dismay of my mom who watches him do it. Luckily, he's never dropped or missed...yet! 
Friday, April 24th - Tyler's bike chain is having problems again, but Tyler can fix it with a little help from his neighbor friends.  
Saturday, April 25th - It's school carnival time again and of course, it's cold and rainy.  The carnival had an outdoor train ride that even adults like Scott, Laurie, Jesy and Doug enjoyed. Sorry the picture wasn't a better one, but that's what you get when it's taken by Andy!  :)
Sunday, April 26th - Tyler is playing YMCA Recreation soccer this spring (Team Ice) and here he is getting a direct kick on goal and missed.  BUT, it was just barely!  Bummer deal!  
Monday, April 27th - It was a cool, rainy day, but I still said let's go check out the park by the library and took our neighbor friend with us.  It was chilly enough that I was ready to go in 15 minutes.  Where's our nice spring weather?  

Old Scrapbook Pages

Tonight, I was reminiscing over some old scrapbook pages that I did some 8-9 years ago of Tyler and Madison.  This is when I was into creating 8 1/2 x 11 inch layouts and have switched to 12 x 12 over the last 6 or 7 years.  It's amazing how my scrapbooking style has changed as much as my children have.  Oh, they were so cute and so sweet!  Sniff, sniff, tear, tear!  

I must say, it's a lot easier to scan these layouts since they fit my scanner than my current 12 x 12 ones that require some "stitching" to post them.  

Still

I saw this idea on another scrapper's blog and I thought I'd give it a try.  She wrote an entire post around the word "still." This pretty much describes my life right now...

Still enjoy watching my two year old eat ice cream (I had to post pictures with the blog, it's just what I do.)

Still don't like seeing Tyler's bedroom floor covered in dirty clothes, sports gear and gum wrappers.

Still love being a mother and a kindergarten teacher.

Still am proud of Madison who got a 100% on her spelling test this week! 

Still can't keep up with all the laundry.

Still love the Twilight series and wish for a 5th book.

Still am behind on filing papers in my room. 

Still think about what the next photo of the day will be. 

Still am grateful that Andy is employed, even though he works in Kansas (seems like permanently).

Still am going to Disney to see Mickey. 

Days 111-115

I just haven't run out of ideas of what or who to take pictures of for this project.  I almost anticipate what to take for the next day.  I am loving the outdoor shots!  It's my favorite time of the year!

Saturday, April 18th - We are in Elkhorn for Tyler's first ever baseball tournament.  Grandpa Oogie is tossing around a soft baseball with Grant and I caught Grant's throw in mid-action and love the look of the scenery around them.  
Sunday, April 19th - We are back for one more game in this Elkhorn tournament and it's freezing and windy for a 10am game.  Brrr!  Tyler's team lost all three games, but this last one was the best (coldest too).  They were up after three innings and it was 6-1 and then they just didn't "show up" for the remainder and lost 10-6.  Good news...no more games for the day! :)
Monday, April 20th - I asked Madison if she'd vacuum out the dirty van after all the baseball weekend fun and she agreed.  Nice work, Madison!  
Tuesday, April 21st - The kindergarteners experienced their first field trip to the BNSF train yard.  The kiddos got to see a turn-a-bout in action, tour a train engine and take a short ride on this mini train.  Each child also got a take home bag of goodies that included a cool train whistle.  
Wednesday, April 22nd - Tyler had a scrimmage tonight in Waverly against the "Rattlers".  The game was short (1 hour 20 min.) because they weren't doing well.  The score 10-2.  I accidently took this picture on the wrong setting, but after looking at it, I liked the artistic feel of the photo.  I think the fencing centers Tyler at bat....cool effect!  

Kids Against Hunger

Sunday afternoon Tyler was able to take part in a wonderful philanthropy project that our church and many other organizations in our community do called Kids Against Hunger.  This non-profit organization is based out of Minnesota, but there are 18 states with satellite programs working for this great cause. 

It's so neat seeing all the kids work so hard to feed children here in the United States and around the world.  I saw on the Kids Against Hunger (KAH) website that they said, "Every hour of every day 12 children per minute die of starvation or malnutrition related diseases."  So the solution is to create packages of fortified rice that are developed by food scientists from places like Pillsbury, Cargill and General Mills.  Since it's launch in 1999, KAH has provided over 100 million meals for children and their families in more than 40 countries through the efforts of over 200,000 volunteers.  What a wonderful thing!  

I forgot my camera (can you believe that?) and quickly went home to get it just to capture a few photos of Tyler's youth group partaking in this worthwhile task.  Unfortunately, I was too late, so I didn't get any "action" shots, but did make Tyler put the hair net back on just for the picture.  I am just the meanest mom!  :)

St. Mark's filled 2,480 packages like the one above in only a few short hours.  Each one of these packages feeds 6 people and costs only 23 cents a per package!  Amazing!  Just think of that the next time you eat out, huh?! 
Here's my darling son sporting his apron and hair net, just to make mom happy for a photo. Thanks, Ty!  

No smoking, please!

Today we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, T.G.I. Friday's, just outside of Douglas County in Omaha.  We once had a Friday's here in Lincoln, but to my disappointment it closed several years ago.  I decided that after Tyler's baseball game today we would have lunch somewhere in Omaha that we cannot eat at in Lincoln, so Friday's was a great choice.    

Then we walked about two feet into Friday's when it hit me....cigarette smoke!  Gasp, gasp, cough, cough!  Ugh, I instantly realized that smoking is still allowed here until the statewide ban goes into effect mid-June.  Now this is not true for businesses in Douglas County, but this holds true for this restaurant that is just blocks outside the jurisdiction of the ban.  Wow...I realized quickly how nice it is to live in Lincoln.  Lincoln has had it's smoking ban since January 2005.  We thought it was just two years ago that this changed, but I "googled" it and it's been over four glorious smoke-free years!  Hallelujah!  

Do you recall the outcry in 2005 from local businesses, bar owners and smokers that we were taking away their civil rights to smoke?  Or when they said that we would be putting lots of bars out of business because smokers would go out of town to drink and smoke?  Outlandish? Justified?   

As an asthmatic, I truly love the fact that Lincoln is a smoke-free community.  I feel blessed that I can walk into any business without needing to grab my inhaler, feel the burn in my eyes or having my clothing smell like an ashtray!  So, a belated thanks to the 62% of Lincoln voters who made it happen!

Days 106-110

Monday, April 13th - Madison had the day off from school, so Grandma Betty came to Lincoln to have a "Girls Day Out".  Madison got to a new outfit from the Children's Place and lunch with Grandma.  What a fun day!  
Tuesday, April 14th - It was one of those hectic nights with Madison's soccer practice and a meeting for the new middle school that we (Mom, Tyler and Grant) decided to eat out.  It is a lot of fun watching the two interact with one another.  I have to say Tyler is very patient and loving with his little brother. 
Wednesday, April 15th  - Andy needed a dark suit jacket to wear at Abe's funeral on Friday, so we went to JCPenney's after dinner and found one. 
Thursday, April 16th - Grant threw up repeatedly last night, so it was a day off of work for me.  Here he is in Madison's bedroom eating her chocolate bunny, unfortunately.  I was doing laundry when I couldn't find him.  He apparently was feeling a ton better!  Oh, I decided not to Photoshop the sore on his nose out that he got over Easter weekend.  It was caused by rubbing his nose on the carpet!  Long story!  Ugh!
Friday, April 17th - Today was our long awaited Farm Program.  The kids were adorable and they did a fantastic job singing.  My kiddos were chickens and the other rooms were turkeys, horses, pigs, sheep and cows.  

The Dreaded Stomach Flu

I just had to add this above picture to show you Grant in action this morning.  By the title of this blog, you might have thought I'd use a different, less attractive picture, but I wouldn't do that to you.  What I witnessed last night is not something I'd want anyone else to have to see! 

So, here's Grant putting in his favorite Thomas the Train video on his own.  The kid is a pro at electronics!  Really, he's managed to disassemble three tv remotes in his first two years of life.  Unfortunately, he did not manage to put them back into their original, working condition.  But, I am sure he's a genius in the making.  Andy and I are hoping he's the next Bill Gates and can set his mother up in a nice, comfortable nursing home someday.  Anyway, I wanted to point out that this child is capable of running a DVD player, but can not vomit in a trash can or begin to potty train.  It's truly a wonder!  

Here's how our eventful night began....Grant demonstrates that he has the flu bug at about 10:30pm all over his bedroom carpet, which requires the Rug Doctor.  I am so happy we own one of those machines!  Then he got sick three more times during the night, which required me to change his bedsheets three more times, of course!  Lots of laundry!  I then began writing out my lesson plans at 11pm and went into work at 5am to get the classroom set up with sticky notes everywhere.  I got home at 6:30 so Andy could go to work and Grant soon woke up and crawled into MY bed and threw up AGAIN!  More laundry!  

Well...I got the two older kids off to school (thanks to the help of nice neighbor Tracey) and talked to Christi (Grant's daycare provider) to learn that two other children from two different families also have the flu bug today.  Go figure!  Highly contagious!  Let's just hope that Andy doesn't get it tomorrow since he's a pall bearer for Abe's funeral or me who has the Kindergarten Farm Program tomorrow afternoon! 

Grant just ate a bowl of Trix cereal.  Glad to see that he is feeling better!  I am hoping I won't be seeing a rainbow of fruit flavors all over my couch!  :)

Days 101-105

Wednesday, April 8th - Here we are 14 years later looking much older and not so much wiser on our anniversary.  We went out to eat with the kids tonight at Carlos O'Kelly's.  A great night since I didn't have any cooking or clean up to mess around with.  
Thursday, April 9th -  Madison and I went for our yearly pedicure at Krystal's Nails.  Last year I took Madison for her first pedicure and she loved it.  She couldn't wait to go today!  She loves the attention.  The technician even painted her finger nails for free to make her feel special.  
Friday, April 10th - Good Friday!  We spent the day dyeing Easter eggs.  Grant loved it and made a huge mess.  So, it was more like watch Grant create a disaster while we clean it up.  
Saturday, April 11th - We went to Kearney for Easter and to partake in Hanna Vance's baby shower.  Hanna is Andy's cousin who lives in South Carolina where she teaches Kindergarten. We had some great teacher conversations.  Hanna is expecting a boy in late May.  
Sunday, April 12th - Easter - I tweaked the color on this photo for a change and gave it an "antique" appearance.  Here the kids are with their Easter baskets filled with candy.  

Easter Candy

Here are some interesting facts about Easter candy:

Did you know that the following will be consumed this weekend?

*90 million chocolate bunnies

*16 billion jelly beans  

*700 million marshmallow Peeps

The Easter holiday is only second to Halloween in candy sales.

Also, 76% of Americans say they eat their chocolate bunnies' ears first!

I am wondering what percent buy their Easter candy at the last minute?  No data on that one.  However, I'd be one of those.  Gotta go buy my candy!  Happy Easter everyone!  

Good Friday

I thought I'd share a local story about a man named Abe (Andy's co-worker) who is battling terminal cancer at this moment.  Andy just got back from visiting him today and his condition is worsening. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers this Easter weekend.  

Also, I saw this idea on another person's blog and thought I'd copy it.  I don't know if I'll get around to trying it this year, but I think it's a good one.  

Easter Story Eggs

Materials

12 plastic eggs

Egg carton

Sharpie Marker

Piece of palm leaf or similar leaf

Small piece of cloth with perfume on it

Small piece of cereal or bread

A couple of dimes or nickels

Small cross

Thorn or small thorny branch

Piece of burlap

2 nails

Small piece of sponge

A couple of cloves or other whole spice

Small rock

Small piece of linen

Little slips of paper to write Scripture references on

Use the Sharpie to write the numbers 1-12 on the eggs, and then put the eggs in the carton.  Inside each egg, place the item and Scripture reference written on a small piece of paper.

Egg #1  

Message - Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  The people waved palm branches.

Passage - Matthew 21 1-11

Item - Piece of palm branch or similar leaf

Egg #2

Message - Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus' feet

Passage - John 12:2-8

Item - Small cloth with perfume on it

Egg #3

Message- Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples

Passage - Matthew 26 17-30

Item - A small piece of cereal or bread

Egg #4 

Message - Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver

Passage - Matthew 27:3

Item - 2 dimes or nickels

Egg #5

Message - Jesus carried His own cross

Passage - John 19:17

Item - A small cross

Egg #6 

Message - Soldiers placed a crown of thorns on Jesus' head

Passage - John 19:2

Item - A thorn or a piece of a thorny branch

Egg #7

Message - Soldiers parted Jesus' garments and cast lots for His coat

Passage - John 19:23

Item - A scrap of burlap and one of the nails

Egg #8

Message - Jesus was nailed to a cross and pierced in His side

Passage - John 19:18, 37 & John 20:25-29

Item - The other nail

Egg #9

Message - Jesus was given vinegar mixed with gall on a sponge to drink

Passage - Matthew 27:34

Item - A small sponge

Egg #10

Message - Spices were used to prepare Jesus for burial

Passage - John 19:40

Item - The cloves or spices

Egg #11

Message - The stone covering Jesus' tomb was rolled away

Passage - John 20:1

Item - A small rock

Egg #12

Message - All that was found was Jesus' burial linens.  He was not there.  He has risen!

Passage - John 20:6-7

Item - A scrap of linen-type fabric

Days 96-100

I've made it to 100, so I only have 265 more to go!  Yeah!  I am so having fun with this daily picture taking thing!

Friday, April 3rd - My classroom made rabbit ears that the kids had to trace, cut out and glue. Of course, I had to do all the stapling to get them to fit their heads.  If you haven't read my blogs before, yes, they have faces!  No, I don't show them due to confidentiality reasons. They are cute kids!  
Saturday, April 4th - It was a bitterly cold day with huge wind gusts.  We still made it out to the annual Easter Egg Hunt at St. Mark's Church.  We collected our eggs quickly and made it back inside for some other activities like games, crafts and a blow up jumping thing.  
Sunday, April 5th - It's Palm Sunday and I asked Grant to show me his palm.  He covered his face with it and wouldn't give me a better picture, so there you go!  
Monday, April 6th - It's one of those crazy Mondays and we can only find two shoes and they don't match.  He only owns two pairs and we found one of each.  Luckily, we were able to locate one more, so Grant didn't have to go to daycare with mismatched shoes on. 
Tuesday, April 7th - This was the first day that I forgot since December 28th to take a picture for this 365 project.  Not bad, huh?!  I have a good excuse...Parent-Teacher Conferences this night and yesterday.  That kind of consumed me!  So, I am using a picture I took a month ago of the nice man named Merl, our custodian.  Merl works full-time at Isco and this is his part-time job.  I don't know Merl's last name, just that he doesn't spell his name with an "E" at the end.  I think very highly of Merl!  He never complains about the mess we make and goes the extra mile to clean up our rooms.  Thanks Merl! 

Our Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary.  Wow!  It is so hard to believe that fourteen short years have passed us, unless you take into consideration the following:

*Andy has worked for two companies in that time

*Andy passed his SIT and his LS license during these years

*Amy has worked for LPS in 5 different buildings

  *Amy has influenced the lives of at least 136 students 

  (hopefully in a positive way)

*We've experienced the birth of three beautiful children 

   & the loss of one angel

*We've lost five grandparents during this time

*We've gained one niece and four nephews

*We've gained a sister in law and gained and lost a brother in law

*We've lived in three apartments and three houses

*We've owned five different vehicles

*I've gained at least 20 pounds (can't speak for the hubby :) )

*Also, gained more wisdom about life and love than 14 years ago! 

Wedding party:  Tim Claver, Denise Stevenson, Kim Moreland, Andy Schmidt, Dale Broeker, Chad Kassmeier, Andy & Amy Broeker, Todd Vest, Jill Vest, Doug Brown, Cari Brannen and Jai Andrist

Hello World!

Hello World!  I wanted to give a big shout out to whoever comes across this blog and visits for a split second or for a minute or two.  I know many have come here simply by accident by google searching "spring break to do list", "Twilight...the end" or even someone got here by googling "coffee-mate and dog urine".  Who would have known that googling THAT you could get to my blog?!  I guess when you talk about anything it can come up in a search.  If you are curious, I didn't talk about dog urine and coffee-mate in the same sentence, but I am wondering what the two have in common?  How do I know this?  Well, I added a live feed about three weeks ago and this is what I've learned....

My blog has been to many fabulous countries including:  Chile, Australia, Kenya, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, New Zealand, China, Italy, Norway, Argentina, Sweden, Ireland and France along with thirty-five of our states.  Oh, if only I could say I've traveled to half of those places.  

Also, with my live feed I have found bloggers from right here in Lincoln along with finding blogs on cheap deals, craft projects, religion, politics, etc.  I've seen it all...well almost.  I did find a fun blog that I've tagged on my blog list called "Little Birdie Secrets".  It has some very clever ideas, so you should check it out too!  

Days 91-95

Sunday, March 29th - Today was a nice quiet Sunday, so the only picture I could think of taking was Andy with the Top Banana Trophy that he made for me.  Dorky?  You bet! 
Monday, March 30th - This was the first day that I ALMOST forgot to take a picture.  Can you believe it?  Luckily, I remembered at 10pm, so I took a picture of Grant sleeping with one of his favorite blankets. We have three in case we can't locate one.  
Tuesday, March 31st - I am busy finalizing report cards on the computer and Grant and Madison decide to watch "Kung Fu Panda" for the umpteenth time.  

Wednesday, April 1st - I told the kids that we were going to my classroom to get some projects done.  They probably thought it was an April Fool's joke, but it wasn't.  I had Tyler cutting tails for horses out of yarn and Madison was in charge of stapling math books together. Tyler has this "how many more?" look on his face.  Just remember Tyler, don't marry a Kindergarten teacher or you'll be doing this for years! 
Thursday, April 2nd - Madison had her third soccer game of the season and they did great.  Well, they didn't win or score for that matter, but they did a wonderful job on defense.  They also had terrific attitudes about the game.  This is the year that they are playing older girls, so it's a true learning and growing experience.  

Mine! Mine!

Do you recall the really annoying seagulls from the animated movie "Finding Nemo"?  These birds said only one word "mine" every time they found something edible.  Their chorus of the word "mine" makes me think of my two year old, Grant.  This is his favorite word lately.  It was cute the first (maybe) ten times I've heard it, but now it's just irritating like those seagulls.  This is what I hear in a typical Grant day....

Grant, go get your blanket for Christi's.   Grant grabs it and responses with, "Mine!"  

I am hanging up Grant's clothes in his closet as he watches me.   "Mine!" is his proud reply.   I say, you don't suppose they're Tyler's do you?  "No, mine!," states Grant.

Or when he hugs and gives his favorite parent (not me) kisses...Grant joyfully says, "My Daddy!"  

All I can say Grant....this too shall pass and I do love you every minute of every day and I'm sure glad to say you are MINE!