February Honorable Mentions

It was a busy month!  I have already shown you the highlights, but here are the other fun things we had going on during the month.

February 2nd was the Superbowl and we had the Jensen join us for a night of fun. We laughed and had snacks and watched the game and laughed some more.  It was a really fun night.

Valentines Day was fun.  Jeremy came home with a surprise.  Someone sent him a candy gram at school that said, "I have been watching you and you are hot!"  He was pleased and scared at the same time, but I think the pleased won out in the end.  It is nice to know you are thought of on Valentines.  We had a spaghetti dinner that night and spent time as a family.

February 15th we had our faulty windows replaced under warranty.  It is really nice to be able to see through them again.  I am also very grateful for companies that honor their warranties because if they hadn't it would have cost us anywhere from $5,000.00 to $30,000 to replace the windows.  YIKES!!

February 16th was day of the never-ending shower project.  We noticed that the shower had been leaking onto the drywall outside the shower and traced it to cracked caulking.  The house is almost 11 years old so we were expecting some repairs to start surfacing.  I got into the shower to clean out the area and get it ready for a recaulking job.  Simple enough?  That's when I noticed that the seal around the glass was coming off because of the mold underneath.  It wasn't holding it's seal anymore.  We had to take the glass out, clean both the glass and the seal and put it back before we could even start on the actual leak.  When we removed the cracked caulking we noticed that the builders had filled the space between the shower and end of the drywall with plaster which was actually causing the leak in the first place.  We were amazed that it lasted for 11 years.  All in all, the shower is back up and running in perfect and water-tight condition, and my glass is really clean as well.

That afternoon was the first day of soccer practice, but it was cancelled because of the snow storm that was forecast for the afternoon.  Naomi and I decided to take the time to hit the mall in search of the perfect dress for the Daddy Daughter Dance in March.  She found her dream dress at Macy's.  It was on sale for $86.00 and she REALLY wanted it so I bought it only to suffer buyer's remorse immediately afterwards.  When I got home I did some searching on the internet and found the EXACT same dress on sale at Kohls.com for $53.00 and I had a 30% off coupon on top of that.  In the end, Naomi got HER dream dress at MY dream price ($52.00 with shipping!!!).

February 21st I got another call from Lake Norman Charter School asking me to bring a complete change of clothes for Nicholas because he had fallen in a mud puddle during recess at school.  He really was a sight to see when I got there with his new outfit.  I had to laugh because Mom told me this would happen.  I could never stay out of a puddle after it rained when I was a kid and Mom told me that someday I would have a child who would do the same thing.  The Mother's Curse works!!!

Jeremy's Birthday

Jeremy's actual birthday fell on a Tuesday which is our busiest night of the week because of scouts so we decided to celebrate on Monday which worked out well because the kids were out of school for President's Day.  Jeremy arranged a "cyber party" in which his friends all logged on to the Minecraft server from their homes and they were able to play together for the afternoon.  He really loved it.  We even had rootbeer, Chex Mix and Oreos to add to the party atmosphere.  He had a great day playing with his friends.

That night we had Mandarin Chicken for dinner and caramel cashew cheesecake for dessert.  Jeremy opened his presents and had a great time goofing off until bedtime.  He went to bed one happy kid!!

The End of an Era

Nicholas crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts on Tuesday, February 12th. We no longer have a boy in the Cub Scout program.  It was bitter sweet, but the smile on Nick's face made it all worth while.  He had been looking forward to this for months.  He is so excited to finally be able to go camping and do "real" stuff like the big boys.

 Out with the old...

Saying goodbye to the Pack

Nick crossed over with his buddy Drew.  Their birthdays are only a few days apart.  

In with the new...

Meeting the Troop

 Getting decorated in their new scout finery.  Brothers helping brothers.

 

Scoutmaster Cannon introducing them to their new leader, Brother Shinn, and fellow troop member, Joshua

Happiness is...ice cream

Apparently ice cream makes ice cream happy as well!

Nick's Birthday

Nick turned 11 on the 11th of February.  We wanted to celebrate his "golden" birthday in style.  He started off my  handing in his "hookie" pass.  I give the kids one day a year where they can take the day off without being sick or having any other reason except they don't want to go to school that day.  Nick chose his birthday.  Once we got his siblings off to school I took him to the dentist.  I know, not the most fun, but he had been complaining about his teeth hurting and I noticed that one of the teeth had turned pink which was a sure sign that the adult tooth wanted in and the baby tooth was refusing to vacate the spot.  The next available time happened to be on his birthday.  It turned out to be a great thing.   Dr. Neidan took one look and decided to pull the baby tooth.  He grabbed some pliers (or whatever the dentist calls that particular tool) and checked how loose the tooth was.  Nicholas was so worried about possibly having to be numbed that he didn't even notice what the doctor was doing.  Nick yelled "ow ow oW OW OW -- hey, you just pulled the tooth, didn't you?"  Dr. Neidan showed Nick the tooth and Nick smiled and thanked Dr. Neidan repeatedly.  Dr. Neidan laughed and said that he hasn't been thanked so much for pulling a tooth.  He is the best dentist!  Now Nick had a great story to tell his friends in school the next day.

Afterwards I took Nicholas to Cold Stone for some frozen yogurt.  He piled it high and deep with several different kinds of yogurt and toppings.  We also went to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make homemade oreos and to get some Totino's pizza for lunch.

Back at home he chilled and did whatever he wanted while I made the oreos for his class the following day.  He would surface every once in a while for food or drink and then disappear back into his room.  He said it was the best day ever, even though he had to have a tooth pulled.

That night we had Papa John's pizza for dinner with doughnuts for dessert.  After he opened his presents he told us he was tired and went to bed.  He had a wonderful, amazing, fun and exhausting day.

 His favorite gift was his Arrow of Light plaque.  I found a gentleman online who cut the plaque and Steve made the arrow.  

 Nick with his booty. 

His doughnut cake

Fast Forward 93 Years

For the 100th day of school, the first graders were asked to dress up as a 100-year-old person.  Naomi had a great time creating her look.  My scarf, sweater, some old eyeglasses and too big stockings (so the would bag at the ankle) started out her look which she completed with her skirt, sneakers and pet cat.  We did her hair in a bun and used baby powder to make it look white.  A little eyeliner in the typical wrinkle spots and ALACAZAM!...  She had a great time pretending to be old all day long with her friends.

Multisyllabic words

Every afternoon I drive to the golf course parking lot to pick up Jeremy from school.  He truly dislikes riding the bus with a bunch of inconsiderate, seemingly uneducated and rude pre-teens and teens (imagine that!!???!) I don't mind because I get to hear all about his day during the ride home.  He always has something interesting to tell me.  On this particular day he got into the truck in an agitated state.  After a moment of silence he told me what was bothering him. Apparently, one of the boys that is in the group with which he walks was teasing him for using such high and mighty language.  This boy, whose name is Nathan, was teasing one of the girls and was sticking grass, leaves and sticks in her hood.  The girl didn't like it and Jeremy helped her empty all the stuff out of her hood.  Nathan told Jeremy that he was being a suck-up.  Jeremy told Nathan he was being considerate.  Nathan then proceeded to tease Jeremy about using words that belonged in the 17th century.  "What does that word even mean?" he yelled.  Jeremy told him it meant being a gentleman.  Nathan teased even more until one of the girls spoke up and said, "Nathan, it means being nice!!"   I couldn't help chuckling a bit during his narration because Nathan obviously did not understand the meaning of either word which was readily demonstrated by his lack of either skill.  I told Jeremy I was proud of him for being a considerate gentleman and suggested that in the future he not use multisyllabic words with Nathan - excuse me Nate (wouldn't want to confuse him with more than one syllable!).  By the time we got home he was laughing and coming up with single syllable - I mean one sound - words to use with Nate in the future - I mean time that has not come yet!

Here's to all the considerate gentleman out there - your efforts are greatly appreciated!  Continue your demonstrations of manners!  If you don't understand what that means, well....

Roller Skating with Friends

Naomi loves parties!  She loves roller skating!!  She loves being with her friends!!! She got to all three at once!!!!  Julia (Naomi's BFF - Best Friend Forever) had her birthday party at Frye's Skating Rink and Naomi was in seventh heaven.  She skated with her friends and had a blast.

 Skylar, Naomi, Julia

 Skating with Julia and Skylar

As if all this fun weren't enough, Naomi also won the "Pick a Number" game.  She was the last one on the floor following the final roll of the dice.  She got to take the fuzzy dice up to the prize counter, spin the wheel of winning and collect her prize (200 tickets!!)  It was a stellar day!