Oh What a Week it Was

Oh what a week it was last week...I seriously could not be any more worn out than I already am and Christmas isn't even here yet. This week ain't looking to promising either with a SNOW day today. It has been hectic, but I sure am proud of our children, they have been running around all week long and last week they had TESTING of all things.

**Have you ever seen that section on SNL's weekend update called Really (with Seth and Amy), well if not, google it. But here's my REALLY version:

*Really, Plano you decided to GRADE and GMADE testing this week, the busiest week of the year, why not test the kids the week after school begins--Oh, you do that too.

*Really Plano, you decided to do testing the week of the school Christmas program, couldn't have done it another week like the first of November when NOTHING is going on, REALLY.

*Really Plano, you decided to schedule WKU's dental team to do sealants at school this week--really, don't you know how many kids HATE going to the dentist and would play hookey from school to avoid this, really.

*And, really Plano, could you have come up with a better lunch menu this week at school besides BBQ, soup n' sandwich and burrito day. Really, schedule testing during a week with pizza, chicken rings and cheeseburgers not a week where every kid will bring their lunch to school, REALLY.
** Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I just think it's funny that Plano decided to do their important testing during last week of all weeks. I bet not a kid one got in bed early any night this week with all the craziness going on and certainly didn't have nutritious diets with all the holiday baking going on. Someone needs to rethink the testing scheduling next year.

Not REALLY sure where that outburst came from, probably stress induced, I just hope the kids did well on their testing, and I do believe they did or at least, Isaac did. In fact, I had emailed Isaac's teacher about the testing because I was concerned his anxiety level might be high. Surprisingly he loves a consistent day at school, change kind of throws him off. I tried to prepare him for testing but was afraid he might be a little "freaked" out. She assured me that he did fine and emailed me at the end of the week to tell me that he missed 0/96 on the reading portion and 1/54 on the math. H-E-L-L-O smarty pants. I'm very proud of him!!! And, this ends the bit on testing at Plano....I'll start with our hectic week.

I'll start with last Sunday, we went to Louisville after church for the annual Pogue Christmas. We had an extra special time this year because my cousin Monica went into labor. She doesn't live in Louisville so we weren't able to see her or her family but were very excited for them all. She gave birth to a precious baby girl named Madison.

We arrived in Louisville around 1 p.m. and were all STARVING from the trip there. We left right after church (so around lunchtime). I could've eaten a horse. My aunt Lois was in charge of the festivities this year and man, oh man, she did a fabulous job. She had the crock pots full and the food ready to go. We gobbled down our food and did some visiting. I love seeing all my family especially now that our family is expanding. Almost all of my cousins are married and many of them have children. I sure hope we keep this tradition going for years and years to come.

My cousin Jackie dressed up as Santa and brought all the kids gifts. My kids knew it was Jackie because someone called him Jackie and they said "Santa looks just like Jackie." Oh well, it was still cute and the littler cousins didn't have a clue. After a nice visit, we left Louisville around 6 p.m. with all our loot and happy kiddos.

Monday was business as usual with the exception of Karson getting dental sealants at school. I didn't say anything to her about it that morning because I didn't want to make her a nervous wreck. I received a letter a couple of weeks ago stating that WKU's dental team would be at Plano doing FREE sealants for children in the 2nd grade. Very cool (for me)--maybe not so cool for my daughter. I called the number on the sheet of paper and talked to a kind lady on the other end for quite a while. I wanted to give her a little background on Karson. She assured me that NO WKU student would be forceful or make the children do anything they didn't want to do. All they would do is clean and do the sealants. Karson came home that Monday and didn't say anything about it and was jazzed to show off her new electric WALL-E toothbrush. She said she and one other student in class were the only ones to get the dental sealants. We are making HUGE progress in the field of dentistry thankfully. Monday night, we had basketball practice. I could tell the girls hadn't had recess in a while. They were all so wiggly, giggly and jiggly. Their focus level certainly wasn't the best, but hey, they were able to burn SOME energy off.
Oh yeah, and sometime on Monday, we found time to build the gingerbread house we won at the Pogue Christmas (dirty Santa) the day before.

Tuesday was an eventful day as you can see from my prior post. Not only did I have preschool that morning, I then spent the afternoon trying to be a "beautician" which caused my day to become even more stressful running around trying to catch my sweet sister in law so she could fix my "bangin" mistake. To top it off, Plano had their Christmas program that night. Let me brief you on the programs at Plano. The children in 2nd grade and under are the only ones who do a Christmas show. The 3/4th grades do a spring program and the 5/6th grades do a veteran's program, graduation, band, etc. The kids who are in the 2nd grade get the speaking parts in the Christmas program. Well, since Karson is in a 2nd/3rd split, she had told me that they weren't going to get to be in the show, and her teacher later confirmed it at the parent/teacher conference in the fall. How sad for all those 2nd grade kids. Apparently many parents had a problem with this, so it happened that Karson and the other 8 students in the split were allowed to participate and pulled out of class here and there to practice. Funny thing is, is that almost everyone of the kids who had speaking parts were from Karson's class. Check out the video "How the Penguins Saved Christmas".

Karson and her friend Kayla. I attempted to get one of Karson and Isaac, but he was ready to skee-daddle after the program. He did a great job singing though. I did catch him a couple of times trying to poke his buddies next to him in the face with his beak =).

Can you spot Isaac? He's in the center, front row right next the girl turning around and looking.

After the program, we went to Zaxby's with Shannon and Paul. Isaac's buddy Donovan was also there. I got the cutest picture of them.

Wednesday, much like Monday, was business as usual~school, homework, dinner then church. However, the kids were excited about going to school that day because they got to do some shopping at Santa's Workshop. The 5th and 6th grade students do this as part of their economics unit. The profits are used to help needy families. Our kids took money out of their piggy banks to do some shopping. They were tickled with their purchases.

Thursday we had the opportunity to go see Evan and Elizabeth perform at their school's Christmas program. I forgot my camera so I don't have any shots from the night. I knew we were in for a long night when Miles starting asking to leave right when we sat down. You get to programs early for the best seat, ya know. So, we got there about 30 minutes early and the whining began. I bet I heard "is it time to weave yet?" at least 100 times before the show even started. I think he was just about worn out from all the running around. Fortunately, his buddy Samuel came to the program and entertained him for bit. Isaac entertained himself the entire time with a slap bracelet.

Friday after school, I took my basketball team to a clinic at WKU. I think it's neat that the Lady Toppers do this for the girls. It's free and gives them an opportunity to meet the team and get their autographs.

All my girls came to the clinic. I just love my little team!

Saturday, no sleeping in for us, we had to take team pictures at Briarwood at 9 a.m. followed by a game at Cumberland Trace at 10:30 a.m. After that, Matt and I did a little Christmas shopping and then went to my dad's Caveman program at 2 p.m. And, after that, we went to an adult holiday party at our friends the Vernon's home. I opted out of dragging my camera around all day. Lots going on, lots to blog about...not sure how many I'll do this month???

Yesterday was somewhat a day of rest, we decided to take the kids to the mall to see Santa after church. They took such a nice picture--if only Santa could come to more of our photo sessions. It was cute, Miles thought Santa was actually going to give him his present yesterday. He had a melt down when we left and he didn't have his DSi in hand.