Rory the Writer!

We are finishing up week 4 in school these days. In Language Arts Rory is learning how to write paragraphs. It's actually a pretty cool system to teach it. The child is given a baseball diamond. They are given a subject on the pitcher's mound, and then have to name their favorite thing of that subject (drink, movie, etc.) and put them on first base, second base, and so on. The home plate is the sentence to summarize what you have on all the bases.

We've been working on this process and today, Rory wrote her first paragraph. Let me write it out for you. I even took a picture. :)

I wish I could go to Nickelodeon Hotel. The water slides are really loopy. The beds are soft and fluffy. People are always trying to catch the lizards that are outside. There are many fun things at Nickelodeon Hotel.

Isn't that great! She's in third grade, and I love how she grasped this concept so fast. She turned two other baseball diamonds into paragraphs too. They were just as great. She didn't like all the writing, but it had to be done. Tomorrow is a light day for school, so she's finishing the last paragraph then. All in all I'm pleased with what we're doing. I've only had to tweak here and there. Logan loves school, so that helps a lot. Maybe he'll be a writer too. :)

By the way...I don't know why the text gets better here at the bottom. I put them all on the same font. I just can't blog on the Mac. It's too hard.

Some Thirty-One Pictures from Conference

So I went to a Thirty-One conference in July. Most of you know that I won the shopping spree which was (in a singsong tone) AWESOME! I haven't shown anyone any pictures from there, so I thought I would post them now...to show all of you...at once. You get the point.
This is Karlton with a K. Yes, that's how he introduced himself. :) This was after he read my name as the shopping spree winner, hence the ginormous grin on my face.
This is me under the Thirty-One sign. I won a pink hard hat signed by the President of the company.
Yeah, about that picture. So...my hair is half down, and I'm wearing a rather bright pink (which we all know is my favorite color...ahem), and lest we forget the crown on my head. Talk about being out of your comfort zone. At least I wasn't alone. These are people on my team...we have the same Thirty-One Mama.
The lady all the way on the right is that Mama. Her name is Christie.
These were my roomies. Two of them are on my team. The one all the way to the left is on my team, but has a different Mama. We were all glammed up for the reward show.


I would show more, but you can't really make out the picture. It's in the arena, so it's all dark. It was a very interesting time. Kevin did great here with the kids, of course, and it was really weird not being with them for four days. It's not anything I would like all the time, but I think I can do it once a year. :)

The Many Faces of Logan turning 5

We had many different birthday celebrations for Logan this year. First up because I loaded the pictures backwards is Grandma and Grandpa's. My sister and her family were in town from Canada. Her son, Dale's, birthday is on July 8th. Her other son, Drake's, birthday is on July 4th. Logan's is July 6th. :) They normally visit for the month of July, so Logan and Dale have had their birthdays together just about every year.

Next up again in backwards fashion is Logan and Jackson's birthday. Jackson's birthday is July 13th, so we had a get together for them. We went to the Bounce About in the mall, then back to Jackson's for some swimming, cake, and presents.

Jackson's mom made a cake with a special picture of Iron Man and Wolverine (Jackson and Logan's Super Heroes for the time being). It was an awesome cake!

Then there was Nana and Papa's. This blue inflatable ball contraption was really cool until my niece, Nicole, got hurt in it. There are handles inside for the kids to hold onto while being rolled, but the had problems holding onto them and ended up being bruised by then instead. It sure was a hoot getting it blown up without an adequate air pump! You don't want to know!


So...It's August 28th, and I'm just now posting pics from Logan's July 6th birthday. Stay tuned....more to come!

Grateful

I have't posted in a while. There are so many things to talk about. Be patient. I will try to keep up. I want to start back by listing some things I'm grateful for. Here goes...

-staying up past bedtimes tonight to finish a "school" book

-a new to me computer :)

-the person who gave up the new to me computer

-friendships

-forgetfulness that adds to our budget

-good decisions

-surviving an earthquake...HA!

-new pants that are two sizes smaller than my old pants

-zumba (it had to be said)

-having three weeks of school done

-finding our home school groove

-confidence in my home school decisions

-Kevin's help picking out extracurricular activities for the kids

-a calm amid medical uncertainties

-determination that I didn't know I had

-a welcome easiness in trusting God

I'm sure there are many more I can think of, but I know you want some pictures too.

Wow. This is all I have for now. All the other pics are related to some other topic. Stay tuned!

To Keep You On Your Toes...Get It?!

I know. I haven't blogged in forever. Blah, blah, blah. Speaking of keeping you on your toes. The picture that brought me back to blogging...besides Nicole's birthday.
This is Marley sleeping. This big white thing in the picture is a mattress that is butted up against her closet doors because we have no other place for it right now and can't throw it out because it's a good mattress. Anyway, this is how Marley sleeps...with her feet through the slats of her crib. Kevin says she's just like me. I don't know what that means. Maybe that my feet like to breathe at night and find their way out from under the covers. Maybe because she's weird. Who knows?! For now, this is just the cutest thing, so I had to share it. It's going to take a while for full swing. This post is happening because Kevin and I were too lazy to go to the gym tonight. :)

Sorry, Nikki, and Happy Late Birthday!

My niece, Nicole's, birthday was July 22nd and I'm just now doing her birthday blog. I crapped out on my blog when everything got entirely way too busy thinking that something had to give. It wasn't until tonight when she sat down in front of me, brought up the blog, and mentioned she still didn't have a birthday blog. I didn't think the blog was anything anyone would miss, but I guess I was wrong. People like to hear warm, fuzzy thoughts about themselves, so Nicole, here is your birthday acrostic.

N-NOTORIOUS. When I first thought of this word, I thought of apparently what is the second definition of the word which is "publicly or generally known, as for a particular trait." The first definition of notorious is "widely and unfavorably known." :) That's funny. Anyway, Nikki is notorious because in my own world I imagine that kids and teachers at her school can say, "Do you know Nikki Bucy?" and the answer is always yes. She is a particular kind of person that is not easy to forget. Read on for explanation.
I- INTELLIGENT. When Nikki was younger I tutored her because her teachers thought she wasn't up to PAR. At that time, I thought I was awesome because I was working at the grade school as a teacher's aide. My one on one time with Nikki was anything but some time to help her learn something. Instead we all learned something. Nikki was manipulative. ;) That little girl didn't do her work or answer questions because she already knew it, and I believe she was bored. She could understand things that were being read to her, answer all the questions I asked correctly, but then go to school and pretend she didn't know a thing. Maybe it was because she found out the teachers didn't bother her when they thought she didn't know something. Whatever it is or was, to this day, Nikki isn't first in line to do her homework or work on an assignment. She knows her stuff and has a great "act" as if she doesn't.
C- CARING. Nikki is a very caring person whether she wants you to know it or not. She cares a lot about people, animals, flowers, grass, you name it. Some times she comes off flippant, but then turns around and asks where her birthday blog is. :)
O- OBNOXIOUS with a side of OPINIONATED. Nikki's "act" is to be obnoxious. I have to admit that she is a lot of the time with some things, but Kaelyn tells me she's different when she's not around people. She likes to push people and see what breaks them or drives them crazy. She's very good at it. :) If you try to have a conversation with her, you can find out that she has a thought on most things. Sometimes they are really bright thoughts that throw you for a loop. She's pretty much a constant surprise, but her name doesn't have an "S" for that.
L- LOVING. I really see this in Nicole when she gets around the littles. You can tell she loves her cousins. She constantly wants to play and love little Marley and will entertain Logan and Rory easily. She knows "kidspeak" because they are enthralled by their older cousin. I had to choose between "loving" and "laughs" for this one because where Nikki is, there is almost always someone there laughing.
E- ENERGETIC. I think that once Nikki is up, she's ready to go. However long it takes her to make that step out of bed may be a different story, but once on her feet...watch out! She's high energy, high maintenance, lots of fun, almost always laughing, and generally an all around good time to be around.

Happy Birthday, Nicole. Sorry it's late, and I hope you like your blog!