And before I knew it....

I'm a mom to a teenager!

Jup, my baby turns 13 today.

Wow.

13.

Happy Birthday, little bear!

Enemies become friends

Kimchi caserole

Chicago trip korean lunch

quotable

"The old man and his trophy wife...." he says with a smile....

"hmmm, except, you're not that old and I'm no trophy." ....says me.

What a week we've been having. We've been working hard to pull together 4 days of testing, and cooridnate the big tournament coming up in less than 2 weeks, getting together the demo team, organizing the Little Dragons final class and testing night this week, talking with my other supplier about all these re-breakable boards that have been cracking on my customers....

Aaack. It's no wonder, when you're doing 120% and something goes wrong, you feel like a failure. Even though, as Kurt pointed out, 'you're still going above and beyond, giving more than 100%.' Sigh.... Thank Dog, testing week is over! But, still, so much to organize. The trophies are here, all 4 boxes of them, we'll go to Chicago tomorrow to pick up 18 boxes of breaking boards and some other miscellaneous items from our supplier. I'll need to get all the 'sale' items to school, make sure everyone has their own sparring gear, get the Tee Shirts ready for sale at the tournament! Aaack.

On top of all this I'm planning a party for a handful of teenage boys next weekend! Crikey!

I need a serious vacation! 4 more months! Woohooo! Keep that Wiessbier cold boys!!!!

The Italian word

Regatta.

Well, there were 9 students tonight. Two of them 5th graders this time and the other 7 were middle school kids. These 9 students arrived after 42 schools in the county competed at their own school level, then moved to the district competition, then the regionals and finally, these top 9 spellers in the entire county were sitting up on stage. After a quick google search, it turns out there are well over 100 schools in our County!

Wow.

So, there they sat. The top 9 spellers. Only 3 would move to the suburban spelling bee which is the step right before the national spelling bee in Washington DC.



The first round was tough. Indeed, it took out 4 spellers. Little cee was one of those who'd be going home with tears.

Round 1

ecclectic - spelled wrong
belladonna
pentathalon - spelled wrong
affinity
incredulous
flotilla
nemesis -- spelled wrong
dungaree
regatta --- spelled wrong

But, I get ahead of myself. Before the actual competition, there was much pre-Bee celebrations, with award plaques going to each of the 9 for making it this far, this level so close to national.... The top 3 tonight would receive big prizes, and the other 6 of us, recieved $100 awards as well as our name in the Chicago Tribune, Tee shirts, and the plaque.

What an evening! The winner was the girl 6th from the left. So, next year is another Bee. I hope she'll participate again!

5 mins to go

Spelling bee about to start

Clementine - Spelling Bee continued

So, it's been over a week since we were in the Region 3 portion of the Bee!

The competion began with 14 students from grades 5 (like Calli) through grade 8. She was contestant #12. I'll put her words in blue, her favorite color!

Round 1
cosmos
burrito
safari
liverwurst
xylophone
idiom
retrospective
sequin
dissect
inferno
adios
Siberian (she remembered the capital 'S') ...but they paused the competition here to state that capitalization was not a required rule....

keelhaul
hazard

Round 2
chinchilla
wanderlust
diorama
herbivore
mohair
stethoscope
ramen
typhoon
gardenia
fathom

Round 3
acme
biopsy
grotto
prairie
topography
spritz
diagnosis
chronology

Round 4
lunatic
algebra
protaganist
formidable
alcohol
conjecture

Round 5
implement
carmine
endemic
patriarch

Round 6
discipline
analysis

Round 7
cauliflower
ominous

Round 8
intractable
geranium

Round 9
slaughter
capitulation

Round 10
stucco
eulogy

Round 11
tantalize
clementine

Round 12
benefactor

The winner, another 5th grader!

So, she made 2nd place!! She was so devestated, as she got lost in her letter order, couldn't remember if she had said the 'M'.... forgot that she could start over using the exact same letters, she then would have remembered that she said the 'M'. Instead, she repeated the 'M'.... oooh, I felt so sad inside... knowing that she would be disappointed in herself.... even though she did so wonderfully! Part of the Bee is being able to spell under pressure! She was so sad, because that was such an easy word... she just lost her place... I even heard it, she stopped after the C-L-E-M----big, silent pause.... "oh no.....!!!", I thought.... Then she just sighed, and finished... M-E-N-T-I-N-E... She knew it was wrong, you could see it on her face.

Anyways. It was a great evening. She's finally comfortable with her 2nd place win!

And now, she gave me a letter for the next portion! Oh my goodness, I thought we were finished. Oh no, since she's the first runner-up of Region 3, she has qualified for the County Final Spelling Bee this Wednesday at the local college in town. AAck! Back to the studying! How fun! We meet at 6:15pm for the conference to discuss the procedures and rules... and then the competition begins at 7pm! Oh my goodness.

Now, even though it's testing week at the karate school, I'll have to miss Wednesday's testing... to be with Cal at the early meeting.... Kurt will head straight over to the college after the test is finished and join us for the 7pm County Spelling Bee Final!

Aack! Eeek!

My Love, Lovely Bed

Finished up in time for the Love Day... aka, St. Valentine's Day.

The middle step where Kurt painted the wood with a base, white coat first. Meanwhile, we slept on the floor where the dog usually has her bed! She thought this was just fantastic! Hooray! We're one big happy family, doggie, daddy and me! hahahah

Ah, but alas, the fun and bonding wouldn't last. Kurt next added 2 coats of a luscious deep red paint. Although, it was not as purple-y, or bluish as we originally had thought it would be. I think with all those windows and our red & orange & pinks bedding... it really brings out the orange in the paint. Of course, it's very possible I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to color. In fact, that's the more likely explanation. So nevermind on the color. I LOVE it! It's awesome!

Well, this afternoon in the bright sunshine, I thought the photo and color would turn out good. Seems I have much to learn.

Now, it may not be obvious from the photos, but this is a really tall bed! At 5'10", I have to jump to get in bed! Kinda makes you feel like a kid again! "Hop in bed"! hee hee... right, Kurt?!

Even Tabi approves of the bed!

Thank you, my Kurt! It's a great addition to the room!

New found yarn store

Hmmmph

Snow day, schmoe day. Feh. What good is it? You 're already up out of bed, awakened from a restless sleep... you woke the kids up... then you find out there's no school. Ja, thanks.

So the frigid cold is gone for awhile. Now it's snowing. Hmmm. We had about 4 inches or more yesterday.... and it's coming down again. Depending on which weather guy you listen to, we're in for 1-4 more inches. Then the artic air is due to blast down one more time from Canada.... then perhaps we can start the mushy, messy thaw into spring. I s'pose we're making up for the lack of winters over the past several years now.... sheesh. I liked those better.

Well, someone is sure in a cranky mood already! heh. Re-reading my little rant, again, on the weather. Let's see.... how to cheer myself up.....? .....

Oooh new camera!! I've been in the mood for a nice, big, honkin' Digital SLR! I'm ready!! I'm really itching to go buy my new camera! I've just about finished my research. It's always been between the Nikon D70 or D80 ... and the Canon Digital Rebel XTi !!! MK, what SLR do you shoot with? I've pretty much made up my mind... still some more reading to do! This would be great weather to photograph... to play around in with a new camera!!! Oooh, see, that cheered me up!!! Ah, it's nice to collect a paycheck again.... and have more money to turn around into the school! Getting us better toys ... er tools to train with, buying the In Focus movie projector (well something like this one) so we can host awesome movie nights at the karate school! Ahh, what a concept, getting paid for your work!

The RED bed project is nearly finished! I'm enlisted for the 2nd and final coat of RED paint today! More pictures to follow shortly!

Is it wrong

...to ask a guy what scent he's wearing?

Even when that same guy is your OB/GYN? Heh. Yes, even Kurt knows I've had a decades long crush on my doctor. He's hot. He's built like Kurt, he's smart like Kurt, he's even got a great bedside manner when delivering 2 of the 3 kids! Try finding that in a doctor! ;)

Yup today's the "yearly" boobs & tubes check (he coined that phase). I put it in quotes 'cause it's been more like my 2 1/2 yearly... oops. Hey, at least I went in for the baseline mamogram at age 35.... er... 36.... oh, ok, so I was 37. heh. Yes, I had put off going to the doc because I gained 20 pounds and was waiting for myself to lose it. Feh, FAT chance! Pun intended. So nevermind, I'll just go in and tell him I'm just like all the other 40 year old women with the thick middles.... gah!

Yeah... so is it indelicate or just plain weird to then ask your doctor what that lovely fragrance is? Perhaps I'll get up the nerve after all these years and ask him what his cologne is!

the bed project

For awhile now we've talked of a different bed, one with the storage underneath. It's time to take down the old black, faux iron bed.

So, Kurt draws up a plan....

we shop for the wood, clear the loft

...and using these cold vacation days he sets to it, making us a really cool new bed!

This Saturday he'll add the lovely, dark red paint we bought, then add some doors with some Oriental brass hardware and the bed project will look great!

Spelling Bee - round 3

We're all a jitter over here. The spelling bee is tonight, 6pm. Last evening while the boys were at karate, the girls sat on the couch, cup o' warm cocoa for her, warm tea for me and studied. And studied.... and studied! Nearly 2 hours of drilling words! She did quite excellent. She would get frustrated towards the end, but that was only because I was purposely selecting the hard words from the book of hard words! Then I'd throw in the ones that I knew she'd get.... just to boost the spirits, and to give the noggin a rest!

Interestingly enough, the Spanish words were the toughest, oh, and the Slavic words. The Greek and Latin were hard early on... but she's been over and over the Greek words in school so those are easy now, and the Latin ones she finally got the hang of the 'ious' endings! Oooh, and then she spelled Autobahn incorrectly... aack! But, the other German words she did ok on, like umlaut, and wienerschnitzel! The words they'll be spelling are just incredible for 10-11 year olds! Amazing!

A fun fact we learned last night.... Italian only uses 21 or 22 of the 26 Roman alphabet letters! There is no 'K' and "W", "X", "Y", and I forgot what else... Oh, maybe it was also the "J" they don't use! Came in handy, as one of the words she was spelling she wanted to add the Y to the end... but remembered the rule!

So, 6pm tonight and we go up against all the kids in Region 3. I don't know how many schools that is, but I'm sure it must be more than just the 5 elementary schools in our town. She's worn her lucky clothes today.... and is a bit edgy from nerves. Still I reassure her... She has done so well. So very few kids come this far, so already she has won! I'd have to say she's the best speller in the family!

It's certainly heavy on her mind, as last night as I woke her up to test her blood sugar, she mumbles to me... "did I get it wrong?" ... sigh.....

No matter the outcome, we will make this a great, fun evening for her tonight!

'Ey, Canada

Shut your door! You've left it open and all that artic air is blasting down here!

heh

-13F/-25C

...but at least the Bears lost.....

oh, and the furnace. She's ok... just old. Running the wood stove helped emensely, took some of the burden off the old heater! The old furnace still limps along, last night was warmer!

good grief.

not only...

Not only is it record setting, the f*ing coldest day ..... -9F/-22C real temperature....
Not only is it Super Bowl Sunday.... the day America shuts down, unless it's The Big Game, chips & Budweiser....

This is the day our furnace decides it's worked hard enough..... this wont cost us too much to fix today...

I woke up now, 4:30 am to the sounds of Kurt starting the wood stove.... and for good reason. It's 59 and falling on our side of the house. Thankfully the kids' furnace still works.

Yet another reason on my long list why I "love" winter.

gah.... I'm climbing back under the blankets...