Take a friend to work day.

Since the kids aren't able to visit AIG until they are 10 years old, I've come up with my tradition of bring one of their friends to work. I take a few pictures and then tell the kids a story about the friend's day at work with me.

So I took Nanna our Gorilla webkinz friend to work with me and I have to say it was really fun. I got lots of questions from my co-workers, but we have so much fun playing webkinz in the evening that I think I even sold a couple moms on getting one for their kids to play with. Webkinz is loads of fun even for me. I play games on the site to help Zee buy furniture and food for his babies. I love the typing game, the pizza parlor game, and the atom color bomb game. It's a great way to think of the kids during the day and talk about my day at work when I get home, without boring the kids to tears.

Sleepy Beautiful

This isn't really what I wanted to talk about, but I just had to post this picture. I love sleeping children. I've never liked it when I had to wake the kids for any reason.

It was a busy day today. The highlight of my day was visiting Courtney. She is my cousin by marriage. She is expecting a son and she is on complete bed rest. We're going to see if she likes to crochet or knit better. Hopefully this will help pass the time and she'll have something beautiful when she's finished.

Both the kids are in bed. I will be heading there shortly. I'm tired. More on another day...

It is so much better to give!

Zee and Zane

Zee had so much fun today when I showed up at class. They were working hard on their butterfly cycles when I came in with the big box of Yoda cookies. They were gluing pipe cleaners on paper plates.

Once the class had cleaned up their tables, Zee handed out each cookie to his class. Mrs. Culp's class was working hard on the same cycle project. Zee asked Mrs. Culp if he could pass out cookies to everyone in her class too. It's really one big First Grade, but with two teachers (four if you count the assistant teachers too).
Mrs. Wittlake and Mrs. Culp got cookies too!



We were having so much fun that I forgot to pull out my camera until the end.

We even had enough to give Yoda Cookies to Mrs. Armbruster and Mrs. Witacre and Mrs. Goldsmith too.

It was so exciting to see how happy Zee was. He is happy most of the time, but it was a treat for me to get to share in the fun.

Thank you Laurie! You are the best!!!

Zee's 7th Birthday Party

Zee had a great birthday party. Thank you to everyone that helped to make it the great success it was. I could not have done it without you. He is currently totally wrapped up in playing with his new games for his DS.

I struggled trying to come up with the exact pattern I was going to use for his birthday cake. I started sketching some ideas and came up with using Light Sabers to spell his name Z. It was a simple concept but I think it worked.

I uploaded almost all of the pictures we took of the party on MySpace. www.myspace/j9zspace.com
I still need to get some more pictures to show all the fun the kids had at Jump & Jive. Linda's camera has all the jumping and jiving photos.

Tomorrow I'm planning on taking Laurie's gift of amazing Yoda cookies to Zee's class to celebrate his 7th birthday. I'll take my camera for that as well. Check out Laurie's blog for all the hard work she put into that wonderfully generous gift.
http://myownbrandofcrazy.blogspot.com/

Too much grey!

Well, I was trying really hard to avoid coloring my hair, but the grey was taking over. So I colored my hair this weekend. It's still a bit harsh because it's only the first few days, but I've done this color before so it wasn't too much of a change.

Toasties

This Thursday's Toastmaster meeting was quite exciting. I asked one of our newer members to take my picture while I was doing Table Topics. I was more nervous than I normally am during our meetings because we had a lot of guests. I'm not a big fan of change, so when two of my three speakers for the week canceled last minute, I was a tad freaked out.
It all worked out well. We had one speaker, we were honored to have our district Governor install our newly minted officers for 2009, and we had a great business meeting where I was given the opportunity to present information and an agenda outline for our first Table Topics Contest.

We have the goal of attaining Presidents Distinguished Status for 2009. It's quite a feat to meet all the requirements, and we're over half way there! One of the requirements is for at least 4 of the 7 officers to attend officer training twice a year. This year we have officer's training in Plainview TX. We were thrilled to learn that we have commitments from all 7 of our officers to attend this almost all day training event, which will not only help us get the word out about our successful club, but will also gain us International Recognition (and a beautiful ribbon to go on our Banner).
If you can't tell, our club is extremely GREGARIOUS and ECSTATIC (the words of the day for the past two weeks in a row). I get so much from this extremely brilliant group of people and learn so much from the Toastmaster's program.
I have a speech next Thursday and I'm sure this next meeting will be as exciting as the last!

I won!!!

Silly and gaudy as it may look, this silly trophy means a lot to me. I moved to team one from my original team last year. I was nervous about fitting in well with the group of strong personalities. There is a team trophy that is awarded to peers by peers. I was awarded the trophy today. I even got teary eyed. My job can be pretty monotonous and at times be rather stressful, but this helped more than I can say. It started out as a BMX bike trophy and then as each team member won the trophy, they added something personal each time. I added the hot pink post it note it says our team's motto," We set the standard" Team One!!!

I'm not sure who I'll award it to, but it'll be fun to return the favor.

Have you ever???

Copy this list and put it on your blog.
If you've done it, change it to bold print.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (or Disney World!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not sick
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Tzipporah's new school

First Tzipi goes to her cubby and takes her coat off. Then she puts it on her hook. Her name is on her cubby and she knows her name.

Her teacher's names are Wormsbaker and Meyers. Believe it or not, Tzipi can say Mrs. Wormsbaker.



Then Tzipi goes to the sink and gets all soaped up and washes her hands while Eema signs in.











Then she finds the chair with her name on it and sits for breakfast. Eema kisses goodbye and then we both start our days. Abba comes to pick her up and we have to rely on Tzipi and any information the teachers may give to fill in the blanks.

Yesterday they brought a horse to school and the kids had the opportunity to feed and brush the horse.

It's only been a couple weeks, but Tzipi seems to have made a good transfer from Early head start to Head Start.

More to come!

The Force of Motherhood

Azariah is having a Star Wars Themed birthday party. So I just couldn't help myself. I had to make a costume for him. There are some great websites on how to make them without shelling out so much cash for a pattern. Thankfully there was still plenty of Halloween fabric on really great clearance. So it took about two hours to put together the pants, belt, obi, and Jedi cloak.















Azariah's cousins Blake and Ethan were here when I finished, so of course they were thrilled to play with my little Jedi. They spent most of the day playing Star Wars Lego on Gamecube. They only have a couple more blocks to unlock before they get to the final bonus: LegoLand, so they have been using my computer to strategize while going to Star Wars sites for hints and walk through tips.

My nephews are big Star Wars fans and they always seem to have tons of fun at our house!

I did it!

I woke up and walked this morning at 5:30am. If I can keep this up for a few weeks, I'll have formed a great habit. I need to stay active even in cold weather. I can't just wait for warm weather.

I need to do this for physical fitness, emotional well-being and mental health. Let's hope I can find a rhythm and keep this up!

More to come...

A New Year... kind of.

2008... I know I'm supposed to look back and reflect on the past year, but it was a hard year for everyone. I don't want to look back. It hurts too much. So in the spirit of positive thinking, I'm going to look ahead and think about all the things I'd like to do this year.

I want to make the effort to eat lunch with Zee again. That was one of my favorite things about Zee's first year of school. The first graders eat so early that it kind of makes my day longer, but if I do it on a day I get off early, maybe it won't be so bad.

Tzipporah will be going to Big Girl school (Head Start) so that means that I get to take her to school in the mornings and they are very adamant about parental involvement, so I'll be working with her teachers.

I'd like to get up at 5:00 am and go speed walking for 30 or 45 minutes. I can't afford a gym membership and the YMCA is too far from my home and I can't do YOGA with my cat climbing on me and my kids and hubby watching and teasing me. I'll start tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

I enrolled in a bunch of business writing courses at work. I have the blessing to be able to do them at home too. I just have to start doing them after the kids go to bed. With the work load being so light, I did 6 management courses in one day. I was so excited to be able to sit and learn without interruption. With the situation at work being so precarious, I'm trying to cram as much into the time I have as I can.

I need to schedule time for just Avi and I. We have a great babysitter, but it's just hard to make it happen. We have a party to go to next week, and that should be fun. Marriage is work, but it's worth it.

So with all that said, let's hope that 2009 is much better than 2008.