TBG Happenings Weekend Update!

We started our weekend off celebrating Ben’s 12th birthday! It is hard to believe that he is already 12 years old. He will be going off to college in 5 years!!!! Ben decided that he wanted to go to a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner; you know the kind where they cook at your table. Chris’ Mom and Dad joined us for dinner and cake at our house after. This was the first year of no big birthday party for Ben. He had a friend come over on Saturday to hang out and play video games, shoot aero soft guns at squirrels from the roof(don’t ask), and to eat as much junk food as two 12 year old boys could in one afternoon.

Here is a picture of Ben at work as a telemarketer....just kidding :)


Here is our 12 year old son playing with his birthday present XBOX Live. He can only play it on the weekends and it is only hooked up in the family room.


This weekend also marked the transition from one sport to the next. Ben finished up basketball Saturday and starts lacrosse next weekend. Hannah finished basketball last Saturday and started soccer practice. There is no rest….

We received out fingerprint appointment for next weekend. Our fingerprints expire in April. Wait, let me rephrase that: Our fingerprints are still the same as they were last year, our fingerprint approval expires in April. We will be heading to Charlotte after we drop the kids off at their respective practices!


On Saturday some friends that we have not seen in forever stopped by for a quick visit. They have decided to join the ranks of smart Yankees and are moving to NC from the chilly north. We had a great visit and it will be nice to have them close by.

Sunday was cold and rainy. So we hung around the house most of the day, I did laundry and putoff working on a presentation that have Monday after school. Hannah and I are looking forward to watching the Oscar’s red carpet fashions. I only saw one of the nominated movies, Little Miss Sunshine, which I highly recommend by the way.


Our agency is hoping to receive the next group of children the first week of March. I am trying not to be too nuts. LOL! If we don’t hear from them this week I am hoping for a call next week. I am so ready; I could leave for China with 5 minutes notice!

Hope everyone has a great week. I'm hoping to hear good news for all of you with end of October Lids and early November Lids. Especially for you Colleen and Jim !! We are all pullin for ya!

Oh one more thing...Hello to my visitor from Iceland!

I had this lovely faith inspired post to mark the beginning of Lent. Talked about the opportunity for forgiveness. It was quite inspiring. Why not post it you ask???? First let me say it takes A LOT to tick me off. I am more of a big picture person; I try to focus on things I can change or influence. Ok having said that I was so mad today at work that I could not teach my writing lesson in my inclusion class. I was so mad that I was in tears. I was crazy pissed! I had to hide in the printer room/closet down the hall. I was still crying tonight while I tortured my husband with the play by play of the confrontation at school. I should mention I am not much of a crybaby or a confrontational person. I was crazy pissed…..something that rarely happens. I am going to have to pray a lot to get through this one!

You Know It Had To Hurt A Little.......

I want to thank Tracy for the super cute Florida Gator's outfit she sent for Sophie. Tracy is a die-hard Buckeye fan and in case anyone has forgotten the Gator's chomped on the Buckeye's for the National Championship this year. This is a sign of a true friend, one who can put a side an embarrassing loss.....and still show some love to the winning team:) Thanks Tracy, I know it was hard walking around Target with that cute little Gator looking up at ya! This will be our secret....I promise not to mention it to Jason or the boys:)

Guey Hay Fat Choy!

Happy New Year everyone! We are off to celebrate CNY in Raleigh this weekend. The Trianagle Area Chinese American Society of NC holds a huge celebration on the NC fairgrounds. We are looking forward to seeing many different performances, and eating lots of yummy traditional food! Here are some CNY facts.

The CCAA is closed from 2/17-2/25


For the Chinese, the color red represents happiness and joy. If you wear red clothes, you bring more happiness and joy to the people around you.



The Chinese buy gifts for friends and relatives to show their respect for them. If you visit them without any gifts, they will consider you as impolite.


"Guey Hay Fat Choy!" means you wish that they have plenty of wealth in the coming year. The Chinese also follow this custom during the New Year.


The Chinese prepare their candy box for their family. Each fruit and candy in the box represents the good luck and good wishes from their family. If you take fruit and candy from the candy box, it means that the luck and wishes have been delivered to you.


Inside the "red envelopes" is some lucky money. The purpose of the older people giving out money to the younger people is to let the younger people buy something that they like on their own or let them save money for the coming year.

Guey Hay Fat Choy!

Get Lost!

You would think with all the running around that I do that when I stopped going to the gym it wouldn't make much of a difference.....WRONG! I decided to weigh myself today….my pants have feeling a little tighter lately. I have not been going to the gym because the family stuff has me on the run! I did not like what I saw. I knew I had put on a few pounds because I have been much more tired lately, stressed and have not been going to the gym. About 2 years ago I lost about 35 pounds, just from changing my diet and going to the gym 6 days a week. I felt great. I had tons of energy. But the trick was I had to be first on my list. This is the hardest part of dieting for me. I can watch my calorie intake, I like to exercise most of the time, it’s the making sure I get dinner on the table before 7:00 as well as my othere Mommy stuff that gets me every time. Now Chris doesn’t care when or what we eat, and he will help me any way that he can. This is self-imposed expectation. I just need to figure out the best way to get everyone to where they need to be and get myself in order so our evenings are not insane. Exercising in the morning just won’t work for me; I am not an A.M. kind of girl. So with that being said Monday is the day. Back to writing down everything I eat, counting calories and going to the gym. Both kids have games at the YMCA tomorrow night. We will just have to go early so I can workout first and then catch their games. I am sure they will live. I am off to go make my healthy low calorie lunch and get my snacks together for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

TGIF

TGIF! It has been a crazy busy week. We had hair appointments, orthodontist appointments, basketball, and games, practice and I went on a field trip with Ben. The last field trip I will ever go on with the middle school. I had such a headache I couldn’t decide if I needed Motrin or a drink!!!

Ben started Cotillion this week. This is his second year and it cracks me up that he wants to do it again this year. The boys are too cute in their preppy uniforms! The girls all look so pretty in their dresses and white gloves. Yep, the girls wear gloves! This is what it says on the cotillion information sheet “Each class will provide and opportunity for the students to dress appropriately for a formal setting, to make courteous introductions, to participate in receiving lines and to sit and stand properly. They will practice serving refreshments, escorting and seating a partner and offering or accepting an invitation to dance. Other pertinent social behavior will be covered. Dancing class is the ideal place for a child to learn and to practice social amenities.” The kids all love going. I can’t figure it out, but they all walk out of class laughing and looking like they had a good time.

Hannah and her good friend Emily started going to a yoga for kid’s class on Wednesday's. They both really liked it and will keep going until school is out. I have been looking for a yoga class for Hannah and some how missed that our park and rec offered classes.


We are all looking forward to the weekend. Early basketball games tomorrow, but the rest of the weekend should be pretty quite. And I think it looks like some “winter weather” is heading our way. Maybe a day off from school next week :)

I Made More Money Working at the Gap...but It wasn't Nearly as Much Fun!

I am a special education teacher and work with kids with disabilities and kids without disabilities. I wanted to share a few things that help me ignore my very sad W-2.

In the first grade class that I co- teach the students decided to write about me. They wrote things like Mrs. G loves to laugh and have fun, she is pretty, and she loves to wear bracelets (I wear a jade bracelet and two red thread bracelets one for me and one for Sophie). I looove first graders they make me smile every day! They laugh every time that I say “your out of luck Chuck” when they ask for extra snack.

One of my first graders made me a Valentines Day card and wrote in it that he loved me. He is going through a hard time; he is just six and can’t figure out how to talk about it. I am hoping that he can find the words…..

A little boy that I serve who has a significant health impairment laughed when I called him handsome the other day, but he was sure to let me know that he was wearing cologne. To which I replied, “you’re not only good looking you smell good too!” He just smiled and said, “Yep, I’m the total package!”

Some of my kids have a hard time behaving in class. I love walking down the hall and having them smile with pride that the day is half over and they are still on green! (This is a big deal for lots of them, like Kermit said it’s not easy being green!)

I have a kindergarten student who winks at me to try to get out of doing his work.
My other kinder says “oh, my bad.” When he makes a mistake, Cracks me up every time!

I love the look on a kids face when they “get it” during math centers!

I was walking around the classroom during writing and one of the students was
daydreaming and I asked him what he was doing. He replied ‘gitn r done!” The other teacher and I almost died laughing!

I have two pre-k students with the same unusual first name, one is a little round guy with red hair and the other boy has curly hair and a ponytail. The red head loves when we sing the Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. The other little boy hates it, says that it’s nasty, why would someone swallow a fly and want to sing about it!

Thanks for letting me share some of my gems with you guys! Hope they made you laugh!

Need a Baby Fix???

Click Here if you are in need of a serious baby fix! This list Public China adoption blogs in all different phases of the process.
Have fun!

Logged in after 3/22/06 and Need a Laugh......

TGIF Friends! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Congratulations to those Marching Panda's out there who are out of the review room. For my Panda's after the 22nd I'm hangin with ya!




Harlan was fixing a door and he found that he needed a new hinge, so he sent his wife Mary to the hardware store.

At the hardware store, Mary saw a beautiful teapot on a top shelf while she was waiting for Carl, the manager, to finish waiting on a customer. When Carl was finished, Mary asked how much for the teapot. Carl replied, "That's silver and it costs $250!"

"My goodness, that sure is a lotta money!" Mary exclaimed. Then she proceeded to describe the hinge that Harlan had sent her to buy, and Carl went to the back room to find it.
>From the back room Carl yelled, "Mary , you wanna screw for that hinge?"
Mary replied, "No, but I will for the teapot."

This is why you can't send a woman to a hardware store.



A man and his wife are dining at a table in a plush restaurant, and the
husband keeps staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sits alone
at a nearby table. The wife asks, "Do you know her?"

"Yes," sighs the husband, "She's my ex-girlfriend. I understand she took
to drinking right after we split up seven years ago, and I hear she hasn't
been sober since."

"My God!" says the wife, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating
that long?"

I'm So Excited!

First let say me say congratulations to all the families who are seeing their babies faces for the first time this week!

Now on to what I am so excited about..... Check out Sophie's new car seat! I looove this carseat. It is too stinkin cute, and of course very very safe! Pink and green with white daisies, I can't wait to look in my car mirror and see my little dark haired princess in her car seat! I was able to pick this up on ebay, and for less than I would have paid in the store, including shipping costs!

It Doesn't Take Much...

This is what a snow day looks like in NC. Now those of you who actually get snow....stop laughing!!! Seriously we don't have school today and I am sure that all evening events will be cancelled. We are supposed to get a mix of ice and snow later today. But I have to be honest it doesn't look like it! My kids want to go play in the snow, are they kidding??? You can still see the grass! I am originally from Massachusetts and Chris is from Wisconsin this is not what our snow days looked like! This is March in Wisconsin :)

I hope to get as much of my housework done as I can so I can actually enjoy my weekend instead spending it cleaning. And maybe even see some referral news today. I hope they can further than we expect!!