Sorry to be so late in posting...it's been a stressful few weeks! 

School ended with a bang....literally. A couple of well-meaning but over-zealous teachers at the high school decided to show their class the video of the American having his head sawed off by Iraqi terrorists...my district made national news, unfortunately.  Neither of the teachers lost their job, which is god - they did not mean any harm, both had spotless records, and this was just one of those unfortunate errors in judgment (although this was a DOOZY of an error, let me tell you!).  I, of course, had to go watch the video since my curiosity got the better of me...I sure wish I hadn't.  It DID look fake, as the conspiracy theorists have deduced, but it was none-the-less totally disturbing.  I can't imagine showing this to any student of mine, no matter what the age.  SOOOO, the district responded by basically locking down the computers at every school in the district.  Get this - Xanga is now banned thanks to our firewall!  Apparently, the video was downloaded off a blog (not even a Xanga blog), and so now the district has blocked all blogging sites.  Nothing like a knee-jerk reaction.

Meanwhile, school ended - WOOHOO!  Shelby got 8 awards and straight A's.  Also, her dance recital was this weekend, and she just looks like a professional already - I am so proud of her!  She danced her little feet off, and her teacher made a special point to come tell us how proud she is of Shelby - she's the youngest in her class by a couple of years, and she keeps right in step with the big girls. 

Meredith is so funny - the latest entries into the "Meredith speak" dictionary - 1) She heard a commercial on the radio from Dairy Queen, advertising their new chicken salad "with crispy chicken strips, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese....".  She now calls all food related commercials "lunch radio", and even requests to listen to lunch radio when she gets in the car now! 2) While working on the short "a" sound, and asking her, "Does 'tiger' say 'a'?" she insisted that tigers say "roar". LOL!!!!

Julia had her 6 month check up - 19lbs and 28" long!  We have caught her on several occasions getting up on her hands & knees and rocking....oh my!  She's only 6 months old!  I'm not ready for crawling yet.  I like setting her down in one place & knowing I'm going to find her in the vicinity when I return - for now, she scoots around backwards in a circle, for the most part!

We saw Shrek 2 today - it's WONDERFUL!  I thought it was hilarious - I'm sure a lot of the humor went over the heads of my girls, but it was really cute & clever.

I have put together some summer learning packets for the big girls - they are working through them as time allows, but I don't want their summer to be all about work, so we're working in a few pages between outside activites.

I guess that's all for now - I will try to get back her & update more frequently, but it's a BUSY SUMMER, folks!

Things that TICK me off....

1. Milk prices - $2.79 a gallon at Sam's.

2. Gas prices - $1.69, I think, at Sam's.

3. Most drivers in the Metroplex.  I unfortunately taught Meredith the word "idiot", and now there are "idiots everywhere".  Who can argue?

4. Children who cannot, or rather WILL not, think for themselves.  For example, the child who sits at the front of the room, facing the calendar, who asks EVERY DAY, "Mrs. B, what day is it?"  "It's Open-Your-Eyes day, sweetie."

5. Journalists.  Well, not all of them, but the ones who have decided they must save the planet.  Get over yourselves; in most cases, you cannot even save your own butt.

6. Michael Moore, I think that's his name.  The Bowling for Columbine director.  Granted, I have not seen the film, but I have no desire to.  Now his latest, Farenheit 9/11.....gees.  Dude, move to France.

Can you tell I'm in a bad mood?!!!

8 days of school!  8 days of school!   I'm so ready for summer to hurry up & get here!

Nothing much is going on with us.  The inlaws came to visit this weekend, so I didn't get much done.  Shelby had dance recital pictures taken on Saturday - I hope to have the proofs back in a few weeks.   Her costumes are really cute this year.  Meredith was such a sweetie this weekend - I can only hope that continued at the babysitter's house.  And Miss Julia is starting to warm up to the idea of solid food.  She actually tolerated eating solids more than once yesterday.  The girl loves her bottle, what can I say?!

I had a great Mother's Day.  Nothing special, but it was quiet & relaxing.  Shelby wrote me a GREAT story - I'll try to post it later, but it sure made me feel good!   Meredith drew me a picture - basically an egg with eyes and stick legs & arms, with a BIG frowny face, and said, "That's you Mommy."  Oh great.......until she told me that I was "rawring" at the "giants" and scaring them away & protecting her.  Well, at least I'm good for something.  Julia spit up on me...that was her contribution to the festivities!

I then spent the better part of the morning transferring my Portugal pictures to the computer....now I just have to upload them to my Yahoo site.  Everyone will hopefully get to see my trip to Portugal before NEXT spring...

We then went to Mom's & the kids swam (yes, it was freezing, and yes, they're kids & don't care about that sort of thing), we grilled, and we all enjoyed each other's company. 

Anyone watch Survivor?  What did you think?!

Yesterday was an eye-opening day...and it came at a time when I was thinking the worst about humanity!

After a WRECK of a field trip, one where "chaperone" meant little and children ran amuck at a corporate office building, I left school feeling extremely angry with the world.  Why do some parents think it's amusing to watch their child run SCREAMING through a crowded lobby, knocking men & women in suits out of their way, because someone with "cooties" touched them? (This is 4th grade, mind you, and cooties should have disappeared long ago).  Why are these same parents, after being told numerous times to NOT leave the children unsupervised, spotted sitting on the patio while their charges are climbing trees and having water bottle fights somewhere else on the property?  How pitiful is it that parents have to show up at said business during the lunch break to say hello to their children, LYING to security & saying that they were a chaperone so they could get into the building - could they have called us first, or what?  It's questions like these that drive me to drink.

Anyway, Meredith, Julia and I dropped Shelby off at dance lessons, then proceeded with our weekly shopping.  Our first stop was Sam's, where a nice lady passed me in the frozen food aisle, smiled at my children (Julia laughing, Meredith singing), and said, "You're doing a great job, Mama."  I thanked her, then noticed that she went to the end of the aisle where there was another young mother, also with two girls, both of whom were screaming & crying & quite upset.  She said the SAME THING to her, "You're doing a great job, Mama."  As I passed behind them, the lady looked back to me & said, "I say the same thing to all you young mothers - someone needs to tell you now what a wonderful job you're doing, before your babies are grown & gone & no one says anything to you."   Wow, what powerful words.

On to Walmart....a Russian woman, I can only guess by her accent, literally GUSHED about my beautiful girls, how lovely they were, how sweet & precious.  She told me that her only child, a grown daughter, was still in Russia - how she longed to see her & touch her....she told me to hug my babies.

On to Kohl's....I had Julia in the store stroller that is designed to hold a carseat, and there's not much room for anything else.  We were on our way out to the car.  Meredith was hanging onto my purse strap to keep "the bad cars" from running over her, I had a huge Crock Pot box tucked under my arm, pushing the stroller with one hand...a balancing act, for sure.  A woman and her teenage daughter were coming out of the store exit at the other end of the building...she spotted me, and she & her daughter came RUNNING, offering to help me carry my things out to the car!    She said, "I've been there, done that - you've got your hands full, so let us help you!" 

And finally, to Long John Silvers, where I ordered a family pack of chicken planks for dinner (our fast food night).  I also ordered "Krumbs", those little crunchy bits of fried batter....cholesterol nightmare, I know, but I could eat Krumbs only & be a happy woman....well, we pull out of the drivethrough and I peeked into the bag - NO KRUMBS. The horror, the horror.  So I whip the car around & head back for my second trip through the drivethrough, where I politely stated that I was the woman who ordered the family pack, where are my krumbs, and can I have some hushpuppies, too?  When I pulled up to the window, they told me there would be no charge for the hushpuupies, since they'd screwed up my order.   OK, it was only $1.00 worth of fried batter, but hey, it's the little things.

What a lovely day!