Day 13: A Fiction Book

Ok, I am beginning to wonder if this 30 Day Blog Challenge is really for me. The last few days have offered challenges that really don't apply to me. I mean FICTION! What is that? I am a mother, wife, teacher...I haven't seen the likes of fiction is many moons.

I used to read Nicolas Sparks- but then he got predictable.

A book that I really loved was The Great Santini by Oh Shoot, What's his name? From South Carolina...wrote The Prince of Tides...hold on, I'll go Google it...I rememberd just before Google told me...Pat Conroy. This book had just enough history, realistic happenings, and humor to attract me. In fact, when I was pregnant with Jenna, we had to dress up as a favorite character for school. I dressed as the Marine in this book and I wore Grandad's Marine uniform. I will try to pull a picture and add to this post. I was 7 months pregnant.

I read and really enjoyed the entire Left Behind series. This was fiction, but based on the book of Revelation. I didn't take every little detail as fact, but I thought the authors made a nice interpretation, and I am glad that I won't be around to live to see if they are correct. I will watch from my heavenly mansion and really won't care how accurate the book was. :)

Just like with movies, I do not enjoy Science Fiction. I prefer biography, realistic fiction, and humor.

At school, I teach reading and english, so I am exposed to a lot of adolescent books. Some of my favorites are: The Giver, The Outsiders, Diary of a Whimpy Kid, Stargirl, and Twilight.

A couple of summers ago my arm was twisted into starting the Twilight books. I read the first two and then stopped part ways through the third book. I am not opposed to the books, they just didn't captivate me.

Happy 9th Birthday Jenna!

On Monday, the 24th, Jenna turned 9. Her party was not until the 28th, but we celebrated on her real birthday, too. Here are a few pictures of what we did to make her day special…
First, Jeff went to school with her ALL day and was a Watch D.O.G in the Watch D.O.G.S. program. What is  that ? It’s Dads of Great Students and it is a program where you sign up and spend at least 1 full day at school with your child. You are given a schedule of tasks to do at certain times. Jeff spent like an hour in Jenna’s gifted class, went to PE with her, ate lunch with her, and spent a little time in her regular class. HE also did car duty, patrolled the perimeter of the school, walked the halls, and other little things. (When we got home that afternoon, he watched TV with Jade, and FELL ASLEEP! Uh, huh, teaching is harder than it looks, eh



 
After school, Jenna opened a couple of small presents from us, presents from relatives, and visited the Macs.

Aunt Carol and Uncle Joe gave her Bop It and some  beads….Isn’t her hair pretty? I braided it and she slept in it.

Uncle Todd, Aunt Caro, and Victoria gave her some Justice shorts, Justice sandals, and that grey Justice shirt she is wearing.




MeMe and Pappy sent her a Justice card. Uncle Shawn and Uncle Seth sent her some nice glass Peace necklaces. The pictures from the Macs’ are on my phone so they will be in a post to come.
Jeff and I gave her a case for her iPod Touch and a screen cover for it. Her big gift is her party and taking her and a friend to World of Coke soon. Nonni and Pop gave her money for college and spring clothes.

After presents we took her to dinner. She chose, of course, Japanese.

It was a nice day and I was in awe all day that she is really 9! I still feel like a new mother!

Day 12: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy- A Sleepover

Friday night Jenna had her sleepover. There were 13 girls at the house for the party plus some family. 11 girls spent the night. I have avoided  this type party for a LONG time, but this year it was the cheapest route and would be fun for everyone (except the adults) so we went for it. I knew in advance it would be that last sleepover, and I still believe this. 

This was early when only 6 were here. After the 4th kid arrived I looked at Jeff and said, "this was a BAD idea. Let's turn out the lights and cancel the party now. " I wasn't exactly joking either. 

 The noise level in my house was ridiculous! I have a video I will post later to give you an idea. So LOUD!

Jenna was SO excited to open presents. She normally is kinda reserved about gifts, but not this time.

We had lots of family come for about an hour to enjoy presents and cake. They were probably scarred for life. 

After presents I brought out the cake. Jenna designed the cake but forgot what she ordered. I kept it hid from her until time to eat. She loved it and it was SO cute. 

 That's the back of the cake. I have some other pics on my phone for another post.

After cake the girls playes Just Dance. It is the best video game ever. So many people can play at once and it is good exercise, too. JEff and AC joined in. 

Then one of the girls brought out a facial mask and did facials on everyone. 

 Then another girl brought out her nail kit and did the girls' nails.

 I had everyone lay out their sleeping gear and we FILLED the living room.

 At 11pm, I had everyone lay down and we started a movie.

 This picture was taken in the dark. You can see all of the iPods being used. I ended up sleeping on the couch. It finally got totally quiet about 1am. The first set of girls woke up at 6am! I sent them back to sleep until 7am.

Saturday morning Jeff and I made pancakes. By 9:30 everyone was gone. Thanks to a Girl Scout event in town, the party ended early. I spent the rest of Saturday morning cleaning out Jenna's room. It was a HUGE project that needed to be done. Jenna was so sweet and appreciative when she saw my hard work. That made it even more worth it.

Again, this will probably be our last sleepover for a while. I guess I will do one for Jade at some point. I amd GLAD this is over.

Day 11: A Photo of Me Taken Recently

This one was also hard. I am always driving the camera and rarely in front of the camera. In fact, I even took this picture. This was a recent snow day....no make up, no hair, Just me!

Day 10: A Photo Taken of You Over 10 Years Ago

Today's post on the 30 day blog challenge is to post a picture of me taken over 10 years ago. I was probably about to turn 6 in this picture. It was taken in Florida at my grandparents house. My grandmother died just before I tuned 7, so I am thinking I was about to be 6 here. She used to make me pose in all sorts of ways. (usually in front of her mirrored wall.) Ha!

Day 9: A Photo I Took

Well darn...this topic was dumb. I took almot every picture ever posted on this blog. I'm just gonna choose a favorite and move on...how bout that?

I took this picture on our honeymoon in Jamaica. It is not the  best picture ever, but I love it anyway. I remember the first time I ever saw the sun melt into the ocean (I was in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico) and I had NO IDEA what I had been missing. You know, I had always seen the sun RISE over water being the East Coast girl that I am . The west coast is breathtaking at sunset. We were staying on the west side of Jamaica in Negril I took this picture from a moving boat and I had just jumped off a cliff and was in really bad pain. (story for another day!) It's a wonder the picture came out at all.

A Continuation from Yesterday

Yesterday's blog challenge was a picture that makes me smile. You already saw that I chose 4 pictures that make me smile. Well, as I was looking through old pictures today, I ran across one that never fails to make me laugh out loud. In fact, if I ever even think of this picture, I laugh. I had to post it.

HAHAHAHAHA! Uncle Joe just cracks me up in this picture. If he kills me for posting this, it was nice knowing y'all.

Day 8: A Photo That Makes You Angry/ Sad

This one stumped me. I mean I considered doing a screenshot of my online bank account, but then I decided 1) that was unsafe and dumb, and 2) I have money to meet all my needs with deposits from two good jobs. Nothing to be sad/ angry about there.

Then, I considered a few people that make me sad/ angry. Can't you just see me posting some big, cheesy mug of someone who makes me sad/ angry? Oh, that makes me laugh. I would never do that- too mean spirited.

This is what I decided upon:

Divorce causes SO much pain and it has really hit my friends hard recently. I am tired of it and it make me angry/ sad. It hurts families; it hurts children. So there.