Happy Halloween from Storybook Land...

The Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood would like to wish you a very Happy Halloween! :)

Colby's party

This pic was taken BEFORE the party...

Brynna's friend, Colby had her birthday party this afternoon. She turned 3 and her real bday is on Halloween. It was a costume party and she had a great time! Baylen stayed home w/ daddy and we came back to pick them up b/f we went trick or treating.



In the back: Madigan, Gavin; Front: Brynn, Colby, Elsa
*Hudson was missing from photo b/c he was upset.

Seriously...

I thought our luck was changing when I won $110 on penny slots the other night at the casino until...

1. cammy had to have 12 teeth pulled.

2. our heater coils were leaking...had to be replaced. That costed us mucho dinero.

3. we are in a flood zone area and the green river could flood us out.

4. we don't have flood insurance yet. (still working on that)

5. flood insurance takes a month to kick in.

6. my car had to get two new front tires.

7. and new windshield wipers.

8. an an oil change.

9. we had to buy a new toilet for our "new" bathroom (that was not in original plan) b/c it had a crack in it.


But, here are some exciting things happening in our household as well:

1. the floor was laid yesterday in our bathroom. it looks great.

2. the new toilet has been installed.

3. it's halloween and the kids are really excited to go trick-or-treating

4. brynn has a costume birthday party to attend on sat. afternoon and she is super stoked about it

5. my volleyball season just ended tonight and we tied for 2nd in the district. :)

6. christmas shopping begins SOON. :)

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Probably no one. This wolf's too cute and cuddly. :)

At our daycare each year, they have a costume party right before Halloween. Every class brings treats for everyone and the kids exchange. They learn how to say TRICK OR TREAT! :) They also have a fun tradition where one of the classrooms sets up a photo booth and everyone gets their pictures taken in their costumes sitting in front of a cool Halloween/Scary background. This year's was really neat. I'll try and have Dj scan the pictures sometime when he has a moment. This is one of my favorite things our little daycare does b/c all of the kids show up in their costumes and it's just fun to see what everyone is dressed up as.


Pics taken at daycare today by his teacher today. :) Apparently, he wore the costume no problem...no crying, nothing. What a trooper considering his wolf head is a little overwhelming. He was grinning from ear to ear this a.m. when we put it on him. The other night when we tried it on him, he hated it. Good thing we practiced. haha

Even Teachers Can't Seem to Follow the Rules

I have been coaching middle school sports since I began teaching back in 2001. I love coaching kids. I love the relationships we build and how I can show different emotions on the court vs. in the classroom. I love showing my passion for playing. I love sharing my knowledge and giving tips on how they can become better servers, passers, hitters, shooters, ball handlers, rebounders. I love the excitement of the game. I love teaching girls how to be role models to others, leaders on the floor, and all around responsible student-athletes. And most of all, I LOVE winning. When life became too busy, I gave up coaching basketball. It wasn't something I necessarily wanted to do, but felt it was time for me to move on and focus on things that were a bit more important. But I had to keep at least one sport, so I chose volleyball.

Each fall, volleyball begins the second week of school. We have intramurals for 3 weeks when anyone can try out or just play. Kids who want to work hard and compete to try and make the team must show up to at least 90% of the practices, have some sort of knowledge of the game, and have some skills. We get to pick 18 to be on our team. This year, we had a FULL gym of girls trying out for both the 7th and 8th grades. The district rules state that intramurals are to last 3 weeks and then lists the exact date that cuts are supposed to happen. Not any sooner. So when I find out that a HUGE RIVAL of ours made cuts at least a week earlier than they were supposed to, it pissed me off. Why? Because this coach is not playing by the rules. This coach is one of the reasons I stopped coaching basketball. I can't stand him. He's a punk. He's a weasel. He's greasy. He's a jerk. And he walks around acting like his shit doesn't stink. And he has ALWAYS been that guy who tries to read between the rules or cheats. He always tries to find loopholes in the rules or claims he doesn't know the correct rule. And now he's picking his team a week earlier so he gets 2 FULL weeks to get them to gel? F to the NO. IT just makes me so mad. This is the same guy whose team we beat a few years ago in basketball, killing their undefeated season, who wouldn't go through the line at the end of the game and shake hands. This is a guy who used to get technical fouls every single game we played against him. Sometimes he'd get kicked out. He is a terrible role model for our students. For our girls. And now he's figured out a way to pick his team much earlier than he should have been able to do.

How did I find this out? Girls from that school are friends w/ some of my girls on my team. They told me. I was so pissed. I went to our VP and talked to him about it...how it's unethical, how it's unfair, how they should not be able to count their wins when they can't follow the rules. And he tells me I need to let it go. I don't need to go to the Athletic Director and say anything. We don't need any bad blood between us. And now here I sit boiling mad about it still. To me, being a good person and a good role model COMES FIRST. Not winning, not showing everyone we're the best team, not being cocky. But being a good person and showing our kids how important it is to follow rules and find rewards in doing what's RIGHT. And all I am supposed to do is sit back and watch some yahoo do whatever he pleases and get away with it. SO. NOT. OKAY. I don't want to be quiet about this. But what can I do when our VP tells me to walk away?

I guess what gets me is he does not see his coaching experience as one where he is building relationships with kids and establishing a sense of pride, responsibility, and citizenship. Instead, he's treating it like it's the NCAA. I tell ya what, if it was college ball, and he was not following the rules, he'd sure be fired by now.

Funny Things Heard in the Classroom Today

8th graders are so freaking hilarious. Today they were talking about girls who go from guy to guy and then Marady says, "Well, Mrs. Fitz, don't you know, those kind of girls are called Homey Hoppers." I about lost it. Seriously funny.

Then, another kid, who's new to my class and Mr. Motormouth... he was saying "Once you go black, you never go back." Then he says, "Well but I guess also, once you go white, your game is always tight!" haha we all had a good chuckle over that one.

Preview of their Costumes...

Here's a preview of the kids' costumes. :) As you can see, they are yet again another famous duo from storybook land.

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight, we spent the evening carving pumpkins. Brynn was pretty into it for quite awhile, and Baylen was sort of into it. He would not stick his hand inside to grab the guts, but Brynn dug right in. She loved it!

Getting Ready for Halloween...Goin' Green

This year for Baylen's class, his teacher asked for no candy and instead to try and "go Green" for Halloween. So, the kids in his class are each getting a little pumpkin filled with bubbles. :) I worked on putting them together today and their party is on Thursday.

Funny Convo #678

This conversation took place while I was gone...

Daddy: Brynna, go pick out a book to read.

Brynn: Okay Daddy, I want Puff the Magic Dragon.

Daddy: Okay.

Brynn: But daddy, you just read it. Don't sing it.

Daddy: That's not very nice.

Brynn: Yeah, because you can't sing it like mommy.

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

Nikki's shower was this weekend and it was so much fun planning, decorating, and preparing for her big day. It's so fun to see everyone else pregnant! The shower was a Dr. Seuss theme and I didn't get a chance to take pics of all of the little details that we included for the shower, but it was a great theme. Amanda made the cupcakes you see below and I made some baby invites that were in the shape of the cat in the hat hat.

Fire Safety Week

This month is Community Workers Month at daycare and the kids are getting to meet all sorts of fun people like a doctor, a nurse, a fireman, construction workers, a dentist, a vet, and more. Last week, the firemen came to visit and the kids learned how to stop, drop and roll. They also were able to walk down and see the fire truck up close. Baylen's class was able to see the fire truck from the deck this year. (Baylen is in the navy/orange Chicago Bears shirt looking through the deck)

Reunited

Saturday we went to the ISU Homecoming game. Finally, we won a conference game! We went to tailgate around 1:30 and the game started at 6. We had lots of great food and conversation. I started out with my parents, brother, sister, and our really good friends from Florida, Alex & John Hoyle and his wife. My Uncle Paul also came up for awhile and that was fun. I also went down to tailgate with the Theta girls, including Megan, Abby, Nikki, Amy Runkel, Ann Van, and Velo and Sculfort also showed up! It was fun to see them all.

Toothless Wonder

Cammy had 11 teeth pulled this afternoon in surgery. The Vet found lots of infection in many of them, and just couldn't leave them in her mouth. She will come home with her canine teeth on top and her front teeth, and that's it. Cammy has stitches in her mouth which will dissolve but overall, is doing fine. We'll get to see her tomorrow and DJ will probably be picking her up and bringing her home. Zoey is going nuts tonight wondering where she is. The kids are worried about her, especially Brynn, who has been crawling around on her hands and knees tonight meowing like a cat.

Her bloodwork came back clean pre-surgery, so we decided to move forward and get the teeth pulled. After consulting with a friend who's a vet and my cousin, both said this was very normal and that she would lead a normal, healthy life afterwards. Plus, they both agreed she'd be happier and could even still eat "hard" food since they swallow it whole anyway. So, to surgery she went.

I cannot imagine what she'll look like without so many teeth, but I am hoping her breath will improve, as the vet has promised, as well as her not sneezing near as much. (all the bad teeth were causing huge issues with her nasal cavity and she basically ran around here for 5 years with a permanent sinus infection....poor cat!) I am excited to see her, though, as we have been worried about her. She is such a sweet, sweet cat.

Sad :(

This is sad news. :( Our cat, Cammy (the fluffy one) was apparently having problems closing her mouth when Dj arrived home this afternoon. He knew something wasn't right so he, with two kids in tow, took her down the street to the vet. Vet looks in C's mouth to discover she has some severe issues with her teeth. One tooth is pulled. Vet says she will probably need all of her teeth pulled b/c she has horrible, diseased teeth. They are running some blood tests on her overnight (they kept her) to see if anything else is going on, but I am just sick about it. Why? She is one of our first pets. She is so sweet and I am worried about her. She is probably freaking out wondering what's going on. She is all alone. I know she is just a pet, but she's been a part of our family for the last six years. The problem with all of this is, it's very expensive to get all of her teeth pulled. Very expensive. Vet says it's normal to have teeth pulled like this and she'll probably be a much happier cat and won't be in pain anymore. She has had such horrible breath since she was born, so she's probably lived with this for years. Poor thing! :( Vet says that the teeth pulling will help her stop sneezing and hacking so much. Vet says she'll be fine and it won't affect her quality of life. Vet says she'll probably have to move to soft food though. We'll know more tomorrow after they get some test results back. But the whole thing just sucks. To those of you who read this blog: would you pay $ to fix your pet? Why or why not?

Yep Yep

I'm in Iowa for the weekend and I am stoked! I experienced smooth flying today on both of my flights only to arrive in Des Moines without my luggage. This is like the 4th time this has happened to me flying into DM. It pisses me off. Luckily, we waiting about an hour and picked up my luggage safe and sound. Thank God it arrived at 6. I had baby gifts in that suitcase, my clothes, glasses, makeup, everything.

This is the first trip I have taken without both of my children. Usually I have at least one. Not this time. This time I am flying alone. I felt naked. Like I was forgetting so many things. I never just pack for myself anymore. It felt weird. I felt a little bored on the plane. This is the first time I will be away from Baylen overnight. He's 18 months old. I cried when they dropped me off. Brynn cried too. Baylen didn't notice.

So this kid-free weekend schedule includes:

Tonight: went to JSPC football game to watch my brother play. This is the first time I have ever been able to see him play. He's a Senior this year. It's pretty sad that this is my first time, huh?

Tomorrow: ISU Homecoming game. SO excited about that. I might go peruse campus before the game. I wish my kids were with me for that part so I could get some pics...But, nonetheless, it's a night game, which means LOTS of tailgating. :)))))))))) It's gonna be sweet. Pre-game, I want to stop at a little specialty shop in Ames.

Sun: Nik's Baby shower. It's going to be a lot of fun. Then to visit one of my dearest friends and her new baby. :) Then back home to see my family.

Monday: Return to WA.

Short trip, but fun to be here even if it's for a short short time.

Busy week

So much is going on here...not much time to post this week. We have volleyball games this week on T and Th. I have sub plans to write. I need to write my list of items to pack. I have papers to correct. I have journalism passes to make. i have laundry to do. we haven't been to the grocery store yet this week. i need to exercise. there is not enough time. ever.

A preview...

Here is a preview of the pics we had taken yesterday. We are just thrilled with how they turned out! :)