Since Rayna began going to school, she has had the tradition that on her birthday, she skips school and she and I do some special mother-daughter thing together. Last year we went to Branson to the Butterfly Palace. This year her birthday fell on a Saturday so we picked an alternate skip day--one when I didn't have classes or work and the weather would be lovely! Today, Rayna, her Grandma, and I (and Ransom) went to Springfield for a walk around the lake at Nathaniel Green Park (it was a lovely 72 degrees!a0. Then we walked the streets of Springfield near Missouri State where there are all kinds of eclectic little shops. We browsed through Cricket in the Room and then dined at the Aviary Cafe and Crepery ( http://www.aviarycafe.com/index.html ) and then wandered over to The Cup to look at the cupcakes. Later we stopped off at WalMart and shopped for a hummingbird feeder for Mom and found a wonderful patio swing she will buy later! It was a fun day!

Grant's group (Red Letter Edition) played at the Cowboys's Church at the Springfield Stockyards this evening, but Darcy couldn't go because she was scheduled to work at Jasmines (the Chinese Restaurant she's been working at for a month now) and I couldn't go because I was suppose to have a meeting with the other two people in my Economic's class presentation group (cancelled five minutes before meeting was to have begun). Mom (who's been living in Bolivar since August 12th) took Doug, Rayna, and I out to eat at Jasmines to finish out our fun day!

changed fb status

Well, they finally made it official...
Darcy has spent nearly every free waking moment with her best friend, Aric, since last summer. Tonight, he asked her if she would like to date. Not really sure how anything will be any different now from what it has other been--other than Darcy's facebook status, which she wasted no time changing from "single" to "in a relationship"!

I pointed out to her that this new definition of their relationship is just in time for Valentine's Day...to which she replied, "Oh. I hadn't even thought of that! I hope Aric doesn't do anything for Valentine's Day. Do you and Dad want me to babysit for you?!"

(photo taken moments after she got home tonight...she told us her big news first and then chased her dad off the computer so she could change her fb status, while excitedly talking on the phone to Jadyn!)

Martin Luther King Day weekend.

Darcy has been so excited all weekend long, because Kevin Patrick McPartland was going to be coming to visit her from St. Louis today.  I have not seen her this excited about anything, ever!  Kevin is her "best friend from M.S.A.".  Their goal is to consume a 24 pack of Mountain Dew by themselves today.  Considering that Kevin was already drinking Monster drinks (way caffeinated) all the way down here, I imagine they will both be bouncing off the walls by this evening.

Kevin arrived around 11:30 today and will be driving back to St. Louis in the morning.

At least since he came HERE to visit, we will SEE Darcy today!  Her norm since school started has been to spend nearly every waking moment at Aric Gooch's house (her "best friend in Bolivar")--to the point that his parents even make jokes about clearing out a room for her so she can just move in.

We never see Darcy except when she is needing the keys or money!

I just finished my Field Experience at Bolivar High School this Jan. term and I had strict instructions from Darcy before-hand that I was NOT to tell ANYONE I was her mother!  She mellowed during the week, though, and even waved and called "Hi!" to me (albeit after she had already passed--kind of an afterthought!) the last minute of the last day I was there as I we passed in crowded the halls.  The fact that she had successfully conned me into making a Sonic run for her, to bring her a plain cheeseburger and tater tots for lunch might have played into her sudden decision to acknowledge knowing me!  Maybe she was afraid I might have second thoughts about my delivery errand!

The kids actually get tomorrow (MLK Day) off from school this year for the first time in five years.  Always before, they have had to cancel being off on MLK Day to make up for snow days, but we haven't had a single snow day this year.  Only saw a brief dusting of snow last week and no ice at all this winter.  It has been unseasonably warm and mild and I for one am NOT complaining!  I love January days in the 60's!!!

While Darcy practically lives at Aric's house, Rayna practically lives with her Grandma.  Her routine has been to go over to Grandma's immediately after school every Monday and Wednesday evening, spend the night, and Grandma takes her back to school the following morning.  In addition to that, she finagles getting to stay with Grandma frequently on Friday and Saturday nights as well.

Doug has had a rough go of school this year, with learning to be appropriate with his behavior and since he requires closer parental supervision to keep him in line, he has not gotten to be over at Grandma's as much as he would like, but lately, he has been going over after school on Tuesday and Friday's to spend the evening with her and have supper with her.  His grandma has been tutoring him in reading and math.  (She also has been helping Rayna and Rayna's grades showed it!  Rayna made all A-'s and A's this semester--bringing her math grade up from a C to an A-!)

I was swamped this past semester.  I was taking 15 hours at SBU (having started back last summer) as well as working M,W, and F afternoons at the Home Health office.  All but one of my classes were upper level classes and it was baptism by fire!  We all survived though, and an older, wiser me, dropped back to 9 hours for this coming semester!  Hopefully I will be able to substitute teach some, too.  I've applied at Halfway and plan to apply at Bolivar High School, too.  I scheduled all of this semester's classes for MWF, so that I will have Tuesdays and Thursdays free to sub.

I really enjoyed my week of Field Experience at Bolivar High.  It cemented in my mind that teaching really is a goal worth pursuing.  A doubt that had begun to creep into my heart after seeing how much sacrifice last semester required and also facing the cold hard fact that I am knocking myself out and spending a small fortune (student fees, books, loss of current normal income) to earn a teaching certificate so that I can pursue a job that pays half as much as the career I'm already qualified for and employed in!  Field Experience breathed a strong fire from that dwindling ember in my heart!

Enjoying Fall!

Last night, Rayna remarked wistfully to her cousin, Bri, "I've never been to the Ozarks!"

(She has LIVED in the Ozarks for four and a half years now! Guess we forgot to tell her!)

Last week, Grant was checking over Rayna's math homework and found that she had put as the answer to one of her word problems, "Not enough information given." In her mind that was that!

Rayna remains the tooth pulling champion of this family! The minute she notices she has a loose tooth, she YANKS it right out. No dawdling for her! No lingering loose teeth--EVER! It is almost worrisome how quickly she will pull them out. Last month, she pulled THREE teeth in a single week and a fourth tooth the following week! (or something close to that!) I remember when Doug was her age, he was so zealous about pulling his own teeth that I feared he was possibly pulling out permanent teeth to get his dollar. I seriously worried over that! His never came out as quickly as Rayna's though...he would work them for several days before getting them out.

Rayna, cuts right to the chase. She mentioned a few minutes ago that she had discovered she had another loose tooth, then, a minute later, she happily came to me, tooth encased in a baggie to trade it for the traditional dollar. She told me that she didn't want to take the tooth with her to Lake of the Ozarks tonight to put it under her pillow because she thought I might lose her tooth before we got back home again (I save their teeth--don't know why!), so, she suggested it would be best if we just do the transaction in daylight before leaving home today! So much for the tooth fairy and the mystery of childhood!

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Last night, Doug went to a Fall party that everyone from Mrs. Young's class was invited to. It was nice for him to have a social event for once. Seems like Darcy is always on the go with her friends, but Doug doesn't get as much opportunity for socialization with his friends. One of the mothers of a student in his class organized the party and pulled off a really fun evening for the kids!

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Today we are off to "Lake of the Ozarks" where Darcy is meeting up with a lot of the friends she made last summer at Missouri's Scholar's Academy for their first reunion. The kids really BONDED with each other, those three weeks they lived together on the MU campus last summer and Darcy has remained in almost daily contact with many of her friends from there, since then, thanks to SKYPE and Facebook. They are all really excited about seeing each other again this weekend. Darcy's group has decided they are all going to dress as a character from Toy Story. Darcy is going as "Jesse".

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Grant joined a newly formed Bluegrass Gospel band this past summer--Red Letter Edition. They have played at a number of churches recently, including the Cowboy Church in Springfield.

(I'll get photos added in this post soon! Need to e-mail them to myself off my phone, first!)

Covered with Love

Monica Cochran posted on facebook:

Covered with love...and found it it bright yellow!

Oh...maybe that's MUSTARD! LOL!

Doug just wandered into the living room with a plate bearing a huge mustard drenched brat and said sweetly, "I love you, Mom" and leaned over to hug me...of course his plate tipped and the brat, freed from the bun, fell pell mell bouncing off each of my arms, down my chest, across my computer keyboard and came to rest in my lap...leaving a trail of gloppy plops of mustard all along the way!

It's nice to be loved! ...and a little messy!!!!


Tracey Barlow Blake commented: haha....love that Doug man !

Solitude

Monica Cochran posted to facebook:

Entering my second day of solitude...

Grant and all the kids left for KC at 7am yesterday morning to be with Grant's parents because Dad is in the hospital. I couldn't join them because I had my final exam in history to take at 10am and a doctor's appointment with an ENT specialist at 2:15 that I was hesitant to cancel. They were on an early time-table thinking Dad would be released that morning and would be needing a ride home from the hospital. He didn't get to come home yesterday, afterall, but, hopefully will get to, today. He's had a really rough time of it, but seems to be doing better now.

Meanwhile, I found myself, after my afternoon appointment was finished, just rattling around in a strangely quiet, empty house. It was awful! Which surprised me because I was always very good at living alone. I ended up running all sorts of errands--just to fill the time. The last errand I ran was up to the SBU bookstore to pick up some of the books required for my "Young Adult Literature" class this Fall. That wound up being a very good idea! I came home, dug out some comfort food (yummy left-over casserole that Darcy had made the night before), got a cold Pepsi, and curled up in my recliner with "The Giver" and read it cover to cover without a single interruption! Deliciously decadent of me!!! Then, about 1am, I put my iPod on the speakers (instead of privately listening through ear buds like I normally do as I am falling asleep) and cranked up my favorite station out of Taiwan with no kids around to complain about the Chinese language spilling forth(!) and melted my favorite wax in the scent warmer with Grant not there to ask, "What's stinking?" and considered bringing my dog inside for the night...but, surprisingly, decided against that. You would think I would be in hog heaven. Instead, I just was baffled...I kept thinking, "Wow! Was it THIS LONELY those ten years I lived by myself before Grant came along?" and I went to sleep so happy that my family will be back soon.

Another School Year Almost Over

Darcy and her friend, Ryan, dressed up for the sports award ceremony tonight at the high school. (Darcy borrowed her dress from one friend and she had her hair fixed by another friend.) After the ceremony, Darcy and Ryan plan on going to Mister Wings for supper. (Ryan was on the track team this year and Darcy was on the soccer team. I think both of them are on student council together, too.)

The school year is quickly winding down. Next week is the last full week of the year. Doug is scheduled to go on a field trip with Mrs. Young's class on Tuesday to Branson for a double feature at the IMAX and lunch at Pizza Hut, on Thursday, he is going to Bennet Springs for the 6th grade field trip, and then on Friday he is headed back to Branson (leaving at 8:00am and returning at 9:00pm) for the Triple A school reward trip to Silver Dollar City. (To qualify for Triple A, students have to be on the honor roll all year (A's), not have any office referrals (Attitude), and not have missed any days of school (Attendance).)

It promises to be a busy summer. Darcy is spending three weeks at Missouri University in Columbia for the Missouri Scholar's Academy. Doug is eager to go to summer school (all kinds of fun activities planned!). And, plans on attending Soccer Camp. I've enrolled in SBU and plan on taking a four hour biology/lab class through June and will just work a couple days a week at the home health office. Grant may be joining a newly forming blue grass band, so, he has reason to look forward to summer, too!

(Oh, and Doug has his own facebook page now, too!)

Quote from Facebook:

Rayna Lin:

I'M HAVING GOULASH.IT'S KINDA LIKE MAC AND CHESS ONLY YOU TAKE OUT THE CHESS AND AD MEAT AND TOMATO SAUCE.

(And, yes, Rayna DOES have her own facebook page these days! She's been happily "tweeting" (her misused term for posting!) for about a month now! She's been driving Darcy nuts by spamming Darcy's wall with multiple posts and going through commenting on each and every post Darcy writes. The fur has flown more than once over this!)

Now She Wears Her Boots!...Go Figure!!!

Okay...remember the teenager who wore SANDALS to go tromping through 22 inch deep snow last week because her tennis shoes were wet and her boots weren't cool enough? ....So, why should I be surprised this week when I come home to discover her busy making mashed potatoes and baking potato wedges for friends I was bringing home...matter of factly standing in our kitchen WEARING RIDICULOUSLY LONG SOCKS AND HER WINTER BOOTS?  (Cause you know there is SO MUCH SNOW in our KITCHEN!)

COUGHI Mean, Good-bye!

I HATE automated phone systems! This morning I was trying to rectify my checking balance and coughed after saying "deposits". The voice on the other end said, "Goodbye!" and HUNG UP ON ME!

So I dialed back again and coughed while she was telling me what my last auto deposit from work had been, so I couldn't hear what she was saying.

So I called back a THIRD time and once more, was overtaken with a cough during her "listening phase" and she replied, "Did you say 'goodbye'?"

"NO!!!" I screamed, "I COUGHED!!! I DIDN'T SAY 'GOOD-BYE'"

Click. She hung up on me a third time!!!!

So, a few minutes later, as my three children and husband lined up at the door to leave for the day, they all turned back to look at me and in unison, they COUGHED loud and long and then, without a word, they left!

It took a moment for me to "get it"...they were saying 'Good-bye'!

Heaven Forbid She Not Look COOL!!!

Okay, there's what--22 inches of snow on the ground?--and my 15 year old daughter tries to leave the house for the evening wearing the skimpy, thin shorts she normally wears at the beach over her swim suit. When her father and I object loudly in unison and send her right back to her room to put on JEANS, she thinks she has the squarest parents on earth.

Traumatized by the entire shorts thing, I don't even notice UNTIL I HAVE DROPPED HER OFF & MY DAUGHTER IS WALKING THROUGH THE SNOW DRIFTS AWAY FROM THE CAR, THAT SHE IS WEARING SANDALS!!!! AARRGGGGG!!!!!

I called out the window, "Are you KIDDING??? WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU WEARING SANDALS???"

She matter of factly repiles, "My tennis shoes were still wet from yesterday."

"SO WHAT IS WRONG WITH WEARING YOUR NICE BOOTS??????"

She just looks back at me like I am totally clueless. Obviously, if you are a teenager, you would look like a total dork wearing BOOTS when stomping through snow that is NEARLY TWO FEET DEEP!!!

Wow! We have really gotten hammered with the snow this month! We got about another 3-4 inches of snow between Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon. The kids were out of school again yesterday (Wednesday) and today...making EIGHT snow days so far this year! (And about 22 inches of snow fall over the past week and a half!) They have a half day of school tomorrow (pre-arranged "early out" day due to scheduled teachers' meetings).

Doug has been pretty sick with a really nasty head cold, so, it was nice that he could stay home the last couple of days and take it easy and guzzle anti-histamines. He gets so lethargic with the antihistamines that I don't give them to him when he is going to be at school.

More Snow Days!

We have had a blast this week! Monday night (Feb. 1st) a record breaking blizzard blew through. (Reported to be worse than the previous record holding one of 1912!) We were under a blizzard warning through Wednesday. By Tuesday night, we had been blasted by 15 inches of snow and our temperatures were plunging to -10! (Springfield, to our south, got less, but got a coating of ice prior to their snow--ours was ALL snow, thankfully!--and some neighboring towns to the north got 17-20 inches!) On Friday evening we had lovely, fluffy flakes floating down--giving us yet another two and half inches! The kids had snow days Tuesday through Friday! Even SBU, who had only closed down ONE DAY out of their previous 130 year history, had to cancel classes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our mail didn't run for three days and most businesses in town were closed down several days. My work canceled me on Tuesday and Wednesday (the only two days I was scheduled to work). It was fun being snowed in! We had plenty of supplies (though our microwave is broken) and it was so much fun just having time to relax and be together as a family with no where to go and nothing to have to do!

On Wednesday afternoon, we did brave the roads and went out for a late lunch at the only restaurant in town that was open (El Rodeo's...where most of the workers live over the restaurant). The new Mister Wing's and our other favorite, Jasmines, were both closed because of the weather. On our way home from El Rodeo, we picked up Darcy's friend, Jadyn, and they had a sleep-over to celebrate yet another snow day ahead! They stayed up until about 2 am watching "I am Legend" and "Mall Cop" while they made chocolate cupcakes with "from scratch" sour cream frosting that they mixed with food coloring to custom decorate their cupcakes!

The kids have played hours of Wii together. I went in to work Saturday (even though it wasn't my weekend to work), out of pity, since they had 6 admissions scheduled and 2 post-hospitals and several discharges....all Oasis intensive paperwork events! The patient I admitted was delightful and it was a really easy admission paperwork wise...so, I got home in good time. Grant and the kids were watching Ben Hur (had just begun). They put the movie on pause, though, and we all went outside to build snow creatures and igloos! When the snow had first come down, it was so dry that it would not pack...but, on Saturday, the temperature was above freezing and the snow packed better than any I have ever seen...and we had TONS of it to work with!

Doug started out building a snow man and soon Grant joined in, building an attacking polar bear to threaten the igloo that the girls and I were busy building! It wasn't cold at all and we had a blast. Unfortunately, after only an hour and a half, it was getting too dark to continue. After we came back in, we had hot chocolate and watched more Ben Hur until it was bedtime. We finished up the rest of the movie today.

Today was also above freezing (37 degrees) and Grant's polar bear was significantly smaller and had lost it's gumball burr eyes...and the walls of our igloo were noticeably thinner...but, Rayna wanted to go out and work some more on it, so, she and I went out and worked another hour or so on the igloo. Hopefully, it will freeze really hard tonight! (Doug's been fighting a cough for a few days, caught from Rayna, no doubt, but, this morning he had a head-ache and felt too sick to go to church, so he had to stay indoors this afternoon when Rayna and I went out.)