Next Week at this Time.......

I will be laying right here! Leaving Friday at 3:30 pm for San Juan, Puerto Rico..... ah, the sun and the sand and some R & R~!

By the way....

I have figured out why people could not comment on my blog before and have fixed the problem, so feel free to comment away!!

Weekend at a Glance

Well, good news- everyone is feeling better in our household! Yay! Friday night was relatively low-key. Derrick had to go to a training seminar in Akron, so the boys and I went out for subs. On Saturday, the boys played baseball in the "field" with their friends all morning while Derrick and I did laundry and cleaned. Saturday afternoon, Derrick took Taylor to see the movie "Knowing" and Peyton and I had quality time bonding at the grocery store- he was thrilled! I did bribe him with a trip to Game Stop and an Icee! Saturday night, we went to El Campesino for dinner and then had "dance night" at home- our neighbors must think we are all crazy!
On Sunday, we did a ton of work.... finishing up all of the laundry, cleaning some more, the boys worked outside with Derrick for awhile, we cleaned out both of our cars, Derrick took an online test, and we finished the evening off with one of Derrick's yummy cheeseburgers on the grill, baked beans, potato salad and strawberry shortcake. We also had quite the excitement yesterday with a hail storm. It was 60 and sunny on Saturday and hailing on Sunday- gotta love Ohio!
Added a picture of the boys from camp last summer- oh how I long for nice, warm summer days!

Happy Birthday this week to Mom!

I didn't get to post this on Monday, but Happy Birthday to my lovely Mother! We already celebrated this past weekend, but just wanted to send my well wishes!

The Heebie Jeebies

...have taken over our house. Derrick was really sick last week. In fact, he was so sick that he had to use his first sick day in years last Friday. As much as I tried to stay away from him, I still somehow ended up coming down with the same flu this week. I made it to work and Zumba on Monday night but started feeling a bit off. Tuesday afternoon it hit me like a ton of bricks. I came home from my workout and collapsed. I didn't move at all on Wednesday, but had to come to work and go to an administrative panel review last night for a grad class. Needless to say, I pushed myself too hard yesterday and feel crappy again today. But, I am at work toughing it out. Taylor was complaining this morning when he got up that he wasn't feeling so hot. Hopefully after a weekend of R & R, the nasty stuff will be gone from our house for good.
In other exciting news, Peyton lost a tooth! He was sooo excited. I wonder what the tooth fairy left for him?
Taylor got to meet one of his new principals from Edgewood for next year. He is super nervous about the whole changing schools thing next year. I thought maybe some of his fears would be alleviated during the 6th grade trip to Camp Nuhop when he could meet kids from the other buildings, but I guess that each elementary goes separately. I think he is going to have a pretty hard time saying goodbye to Cornerstone in the next couple of months.
Well, not too much else to report. It has been a rather dull and humdrum week with everyone feeling ill. Have a wonderful weekend!

Say It Isn't So!!!

Oh no! What has happened to this great country? I just heard on the radio this morning that the Greenbrier Resort has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and are in the works of selling out to Marriott. How sad...... I absolutely loved that beautiful place and was hoping to someday take the boys there for a weekend.

T.G.I.F.!!!

Yay! It is finally Friday! This has been yet another hectic week for us. Taylor is busy working on fundraiser ideas for his sixth grade trip and both boys have hardly been seen since Monday when the nice weather hit. Apparently, they have been having more "Block" elections and kickball games. I have had a crazy week of OGT testing at school and Zumba classes & the gym at night. Poor Derrick has had the flu. He has been really sick. Derrick NEVER calls off of work.... literally, he would go to work on his death bed. He was so sick yesterday (104 fever) that his boss had to force him to go home and wouldn't let him come back in until Monday. So, he has been at home sleeping thanks to Nyquil.
Tonight, the boys are going over to mom's house to help her do yard work for the evening and tomorrow morning and I am looking forward to the yummy creation at the top of this post! There is a new BBQ restaurant opened close to my work and it is absolutely delish! It is called Old Carolina BBQ Company and it is very remniscent of the great BBQ haunts of the South.... some old classics like the Hickory Pit and Rib City come to mind when dining there. I told Derrick that I would bring us home some take-out pulled pork sandwiches with Southern style mac-n-cheese tonight and we are just going to stay in and watch movies.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy St. Pat's!

Are you wearing green today? Wishing you the luck o' the Irish.... and, I actually made a couple of new posts today for your reading pleasure, or pain, depending on how you look at it.

Zumba

I have been taking a new Zumba class at the YMCA for the past two weeks, and let me tell you, it is a KILLER! It has been a long time since I have worked out that hard.... and I work out five days a week normally. The class is a dance class that incorporates mainly Latin dance such as the cha-cha, samba, and salsa, with hiphop and reggaeton. It is very intense and fast-paced, but the music is great.... ala island flavor, and the workout is amazing. I actually look forward to excersing with this class.

Kalahari

This past week has been very hectic, hence the no posting. I have been working hard to prepare my students for the OGT tests this week and haven't had a whole lot of time to do much else on my breaks at work. We ripped the last of our carpet out of the house last weekend and are ready to start refinishing the hardwood floors as the first project in our remodel/addition undertaking. On Sunday, we all headed to Sandusky with Peyton's basketball team for a day at Kalahari. The boys went in to the waterpark, but Derrick and I had no desire to do so. We decided to hang out in Sandusky for the day and spent the day shopping, eating out, and playing in Kalahari's huge game room. We were all exhausted by the time the day ended, particularly the boys after a long day of water-sliding. A player on Peyton's team has a very generous grandfather who always does stuff for the kids. Last year, he treated them all to Pizza Hut after the game and this year, he took them to Kalahari for the day, followed by dinner at East of Chicago for all of the players, coaches, and families. He is also taking the kids to Lake Erie for a weekend on his boat in July. I told him that he was a mighty brave soul to spend a whole weekend on a boat alone with 8 young boys. He is just a very good-hearted person. Peyton is going to be sitting down after school today to write a nice thank-you note.

Student O' the Month

Guess What?? For the sixth year in a row, and a standing record of 100% over his school career at Cornerstone, Taylor was selected yesterday as February's Student of the Month! Yay! Congrats to Taylor! He has officially been selected every year of his career at Cornerstone. Peyton was selected back in the fall, and he too, has been selected every year. I couldn't be more proud! We celebrated last night with dinner at Bob Evans.

Hard Work pays off.... well, sometimes...

Poor Mr. President. Taylor has worked relentlessly to host the first-ever Cornerstone Student Council school dance & dance competition. And when I say relentless, I mean relentless. He has had meeting upon meeting, made numerous signs on the computer, made flyers to hand out, recruited kids for the dance contest, organized committees, found charities to donate the proceeds to, etc., etc. Nonetheless, the dance was supposed to be Monday after school. When I left for work on Monday morning, he was sooo excited that his "big day" had finally arrived. I told him goodbye, bid him good luck, and said that I would see him at 6 anxiously awaiting his stories. FYI- I also had forewarned Peyton that he would be sans fingers if I heard any stories that included him dancing with girls. Have to watch him at an early age.
Anyhow, back to the story. After detention, as I was driving home, I was envisioning what the boys were doing at the big dance and couldn't wait to hear stories of how it went. That is, until my phone rang and the caller ID said "HOME". Derrick and I never use the home phone, so I knew it wasn't him. I then began to panic- was some stranger in my house calling my cell phone from my home phone or did something bad happen to one of the boys? I hastily grabbed my phone and answered, only to hear Taylor's disappointed voice on the other end of the receiver. Apparantly, only 24 kids had signed up for the dance from the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. Now mind you, there are 18 kids in the student council who were hosting the dance, and of course, Peyton was signed up.... so, that leaves a total of 5 other kids out of 4 grades who signed up. Taylor was very disheartened. Poor guy..... Needless to say, he was holding an "emergency meeting" today to figure out how to resurrect the idea and promote it more for the next time.
Just had to add this old picture of the President himself for fun!

And the Seasons Finally End...

This weekend was Peyton's last basketball weekend for the year. Derrick and I were talking, and we don't think that we have had a weekend without a game of some sort since the beginning of August when football first started. While we thoroughly enjoy watching Peyton's little talented-self play, a weekend or two of rest will be nice before baseball begins.
Peyton's team played Smithville in the playoffs on Sunday and won by a landslide. The game started out extremely slow.... I believe it was still 2-1 near the end of the second period, but they eventually started actually playing, and we won by 22 points. Peyton was a bit off on Sunday, but still managed to get 12 points in. He had a guy come up to him when we were on our way out to the parking lot and introduce himself. The man told Peyton that he had been watching him play a few times this season and he just wanted to compliment Peyton on what a great player he was. He said that Peyton was "in a league above the rest of the kids his age". Not that Peyton's head needed to be inflated any more, but after a rough game, it was nice for him to hear something encouraging. He works hard at basketball and absolutely loves it. He plays with Derrick and his adult friends 5 nights a week and Derrick said that he can actually hold his own pretty well and even score some points in those games.
Anyhow, it has been a long two basketball seasons, but both of his teams have faired really well and while we have enjoyed going to all of the games, a little R & R will be nice for a bit. Because his Parks & Rec team did so well (they finished 2nd place overall)- the grandfather of one of the player's is taking the whole team to Kalahari waterpark for the day on March 15th and then out to dinner at Ryan's on the way home. He is super excited about that!