Another Spring Break...

That's what I'm wishing for!! This one was great, but it went by way too fast!
I've decided I'll write about my favorite things Letterman-style.

Spring Break 2010 Top 10:
10. Seeing the Hogs win against LSU (one game, anyway)
9. Michael: "The Judds, Brooks and Dunn, none of those singing pairs have anything on us!"--as we sang horribly after getting lost in Louisiana
8. Painting the front portion of my house a new color (eventhough it gave me painter's-arthritis in my hand the next day--and I'm still waiting on Michael to finish the rest)
7. Watching so much ID tv that I feel like I could solve any cold-case murder in the tri-state area
6. Enjoying the beautiful sunshine in Louisiana and missing all the yucky snow at home
5. Friday night BWW with Jordan, Mel, Bryan, Amy, Michael and the spoiler table behind us
4. The Myrtles Plantation
3. Waking up last Friday (3/19) morning and knowing I didn't have to work for over a week!
2. Spending time with my Mama and Paige Saturday and Sunday
1. Hearing Paige say, "Thank you, Mama!" after we went shopping

*Notice the triple mullet didn't make the list???

Friday nights and little boys

Friday night I kept my nephew, Zayne, while my sister was in class. Z is hilarious on a regular basis, but Friday night, he took the cake. He tries so hard to act like a big kid (he's only 3 1/2) and has quite an impressive vocabulary for a little guy. Paige, Zayne and I pulled in to Clarksville to drop Paige off to go to her dad's, and Z spied a Wendy's. He piped up from the back seat, "Aunt Jody...on special occasions I get to eat at Wendy's." Paige and I both looked at each other and smiled, and I said, "Oh really?" Z replied, "Yeah, and sometimes Nana lets me get a coke on special occasions." Now, by this time, Paige and I laughed out loud. Less than five seconds later, Z blurts out, "Can I have a coke?" faster than I have ever heard him talk and with the funniest little grin on his sweet face. What a little hinter.

Later while we were still driving, he was telling me his whole name. I asked him if he knew my whole name. His reply: Aunt Jody Gruff.

Oh, I love that kid!

Gotta love those 5th graders who make A's

This week the lesson with the fifth graders was about learning styles. After they did a self-inventory and figured out which way they learned best, I asked the kids to use an exit ticket (fancy word for scrap paper, cut into squares) to tell me if they were going to use any of the study strategies they learned about for their identified style. One kid wrote, "Yes, I will because I want to get a higher A'ss." :)

Warm fuzzy

I decided that I'd take full advantage of my snow day today and get my puney rear to the doctor (my REAL doctor this time, not the walk-in clinic quack who had on sandals-in January!-with dirty toe-nails) to find out why I can't shake this junk I've had for three weeks.

He decided to check out my throat after he discovered my lymph nodes were pretty comparable in size to little Cuties oranges. He looked in with a light, backed away quickly, and said, "Looks like you have some strep to go with those infections." In my mind I was thinking, "man, that's odd...he's not going to gag me with the extra long q-tip?", but not daring to ask how he knew for sure without doing a culture.

Out of curiosity when I got home, I looked in the mirror at my throat. It was quite interesting...my throat was more than a little furry. It looked like I had a cross between those warm fuzzies (from the send-someone-some-flowers commercials) and moldy bread hanging around my tonsils. No wonder he jumped back so quickly!! Needless to say, the humor in it all has helped me feel better already today!

Ice cream from the sky and a sassy little snow-woman

We've had such a fun time in the snow yesterday and today! Last night Paige and I went out while it was still snowing to collect some fresh snow (before the cats could jump all over it) for snow ice cream. It was such a sweet little treat! Paige nicked-named it "Ice cream from the sky".

Paige and I ventured outside today to attempt to assemble a snow-woman. We froze our bippies and knees off rolling up snowballs, fighting off the dogs, and trying our best to make the perfect snow-woman. Well, she was a little less than perfect...she had one large hip, so we decided to make her pose like our niece, Alyssa, in the famous "hips" stance. We scrounged up some twigs for arms and a mouth and stuck on some rocks for eyes. Man, she's a beauty! Paige informed me while we were building that she'd never made a snowman before...what a neglectful mother I must be! Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the sassy snow-woman and Paige.

Kid germs and more...

So, I was eating lunch earlier this week with the kindergarten teachers, and one of them told me something funny her little kids said. The way our school schedule works out, I only see kids once every 12 days for 30 minutes each, as a whole class. So the kids were bugging her about where they were going that afternoon for their specials. She told them they had computer and counselor, and their reply was, "Who is the counselor, again?" One little boy piped up and said, "You know, she's the girl that teaches us about our feelings." Yes, he called me a girl...and feelings is all he got from me? Glad I'm sooooo very effective!
On another note, one of my biggest fears has finally happened...
I'm not the sickly kind of girl, when it comes to things other than self-induced personal injuries, maybe, but not the "I'm just feeling gross" kinda sick. Well, I've caught the crud, and I'm blaming it on the little kid germs! I guess all their funny little mannerisms and sayings make it OK, though. I just hope they don't breathe on me on Monday!

It's 2010!

A new year, a new decade! How exciting, but not quite sure what to call it...two thousand ten, twenty ten, oh ten...whew, its exhausting me just to think of it. Kind of like the house full of girls we had over last night. We chose to stay home and let Paige have some friends over to ring in the new year. She invited 10, but only 3 showed up. They were loud enough to be mistaken for 10, though. They were funny...they celebrated by making themselves sick on sparkling grape juice and taquitos and throwing confetti everywhere upstairs! It was cute, but I definitely made Paige clean it up today as soon as she was fully awake (actually, she cleaned it up on her own, without me telling her to...I guess she could tell from my face last night that she had better get it cleaned up quickly today)! I can't wait to see what 2010 (whatever we call it) has in store for my family...hopefully it will be full of love, laughter, and fun times!

On another note, I wanted to share a really good recipe (if you like Italian food). I don't have a picture of it to share because we woofed it down so quickly!
16 big shells, cooked according to package directions
1 lb of ground beef, cooked and drained
1/4 onion, diced
1/2 block of cream cheese, softened and cut into pieces
2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 egg
8 oz of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 big can (28 oz, I think) of spaghetti sauce (I used Hunt's Zesty)
1 tbsp oregano
1. Brown the beef and onion, drain
2. Cooked the shells, drain and set aside
3. Mix cream cheese, meat and onion, spinach, 1 cup of mozzarella, the egg (beaten), oregano, and all but 1/2 cup of the spaghetti sauce
4. Stuff the shells full of the mixture and place in a baking dish with the shells facing upward
5. Cover the shells with the remaining 1/2 cup of sauce
6. Bake covered for 25 minutes at 350 degrees
7. Remove from the oven and cover with sauce with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella
8. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes more
9. Let it cool for about 5 minutes before you dig in!