The holidays

details to come, for now just some pictures!

Bah Humbug

We took Anna to see Santa this past Sunday. I didn't realize that these days Santa cost (for the cheapest choice) $25!!! That exorbitant cost does not seem to be in the Christmas spirit...arrrggghhhhh. I remembered it wasn't exactly 50cents for a photo, but I was not expecting $25. And if I recall correctly they used to allow you to take your own pix if you wanted. Not at this Santa--no personal photography allowed! This was no place fancy either...we did not trudge to Bloomingdale's for our Santa picture...just the regular old middle of the mall Santa. And you would think for that price they'd at least put all the pictures they took of Anna onto he CD, but no...just one...they were nice enough to let us choose. I opted for the CD, so at least I could email the picture to everyone I know. I may email it to some people a couple of times, just so I feel got my money's worth. The lady tried to upsell me...for another $10 I could have one 4x6 and 3 wallets. Um, no thanks, there's this place called Target or proex where I can do that myself for about $1. Santa must be making a haul on the deal. I am not bitter though ;) Steve joked that there must be some site on the internet like cheapgas.com (where you can track the lowest gas prices in your area), only for Santas (cheapsanta.com) We are definitely going to go a different route next year! But she does look cute!

Basket Update

Still working on it. I decided to wait until after the Holidays when it wouldn't get lost in the shuffle. My wonderful big sis was kind enough to follow up with some contacts and get me an autographed bat by Joe Mauer--sure to be a big draw for the kids!! My mom was kind enough to donate a game to my family night basket as well...so it is looking good for a drawing prize as well. Speaking of which, I got the ok from my principal to have a drawing, but not a raffle. So, I am considering putting names in the drawing for every $5 of donations my students, or anyone interested, brings/sends in. I look forward to how it'll all turn out...should be interesting!

Becoming the Griswolds

I will admit, I've never seen Christmas Vacation all the way through (*gasp*) However, I know enough about the Vacation series to know that we had a very Griswold-ish experience as we went to pick out our Christmas tree. We thought it would be such a great idea to cut down our own tree this year, so we piled into the car (late of course) and headed out to Champlin to the Rum River Tree Farm. I had visions of sleigh rides, santa visits, a nice family hike, in my head...

We decided we should stop and get food because it was after 1 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast...and if you know anything about Alix you know you do NOT want her blood sugar to drop ;) We pulled into Mc Donalds (a rare treat since I detest the place) and we sit at the drive through for a few minutes. We say "hello...hello" to which we get no reply. So crankily we drive around to the window to see a closed sign on it. When does McDonald's ever close in the middle of the afternoon??? Of course we should have known it was an omen and headed back right then, but no such luck. We go on our way vowing to stop at the next place. Off we head, all's looking well until the sign over the freeway tells us that the freeway has been shut down and we must exit...nice. Traffic is at a standstill and so we sit, hungrily waiting to get back on our way...and we sit...and we sit. Finally we start to move and luckily we get to the spot of the closure and they are letting us past! Hurray! Food is sure to be just around the corner. Fast forward a half hour--still no food. It seems remarkable that you could go that long without passing a fast food place...but that's just what happened. Anna is starting to get fussy now...she's hungry too. Finally we find a "fast" food place in a DQ. Well, apparently DQ falls into the food category, but not the "fast food" category. 10 min later our food comes to the window. I have since traded seats with Alix and have begun feeding Anna in the back seat. She is quiet. We are all fed...and happy. Until Anna starts to wail just seconds later. When we get to Rum River area we are once again diverted due to an accident, but at least we keep moving and arrive at the tree farm...whew!! We get our saw and head out into the field. Now we are driving around the fields...wondering what to do. We've never done this before and we aren't sure if we look for a parking lot, pull over the side, or what. To top it off we see no twine around, so we call back to the main building and they tell us we have to return to the gate to get twine...Ugh, we're never going to get our tree! Then the tide turns...we see people pulled over on the side of the road, so we stop. We see a bucket of twine, so don't have to go all the way back! We pile out of the car...stuff Anna into her snow suit which she loves--NOT! We put Alix in charge of the dog, who is now trapsing all around in the snow--including over the saw which I had thrown there...luckily no blood was shed. We did not need a trip to the animal ER on top of everything else. We are yelling at Alix about getting the dog off the saw, we are trying to buckle Anna down enough so she doesn't roll out of the car seat as we put it on the sled, and we are trying to figure out what kind of trees these are all at the same time (we never do find out...we figured at this point we'd cut down anything if it meant we could go home.) We stumbled through the snow, pulling the dog and Anna along as we go. Steve pulls Anna into a tree branch that dumps snow all over her faces...wails begin again. We can't agree on a tree...no too big, no too small, no crooked, not enough branches, looks like it has too many dead needles...Finally we just give up and settle on the nearest one. Then begins the chore of cutting it down. Steve lays down in the snow and begins cutting. After a many minutes the frustration sets in and I offer to try. I cut for a while, but very little progress is being made. So we decide that I'll hold Anna in one hand while pushing the tree with the other, all as Steve cuts. A matter of minutes later we hear the "cracking" of the tree as it thumps to the ground. Who knew all it needed was a push?! We haul it to the car, tie it on, try to get feeling back in our hands, look for the camera which dumped out of my pocket somewhere along the way, brush all the snow off it once we find it (and hope it still works). After we pay (for which i forgot the coupon at home), we head out on our journey home with no smiles on our face...not anywhere near being in the Christmas spirit. We bypassed the petting zoo and Santa...we were all ready to be home...and NoW. The ride back consisted of plenty of 11 year old whining (I apparently should not be singing my own words to the songs, and on top of that if we had listened to her we wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere cutting down a christmas tree anyway)...some adult yelling...followed by silence. Gooooooood Times!! At least we got a good story, a beautiful tree, and some family memories that won't fade for quite some time. I should mention that the night was saved by the decorating. Our tree looks beautiful!

November News

What a wonderful Turkey Day! We had the pleasure of celebrating with both of our families on the big day, and it was well worth the busy schedule and tired eyes once it was over. The only downside was that Uncle Mike, Aunt Lindsay and Marek were not in town to share the day, but we look forward to sharing some time with them after Christmas!! There is nothing better than being surrounded by family and friends that you love...This time of year proves that!

Here are some pix from the big day as well as other misc. Anna pictures...

Fun at the Penz's

The Bellus Clan's Thanksgiving





Did her daddy or big sis teach her that?!

Smiles all around!

Sweet Potatoes are YUMMY! I am still getting a hang of the whole spoon thing...

snooze city

Anna's new trick...Can you do this? would you want to? Ewwwww....

I look good in hats!

Look at me...standing on my own!!

Scholarship Update...BUMMER!

I just chatted with my principal about the idea for my $40. He was very excited and we both thought the more we could get the kids involved the better. It is very important to me that my students realize how important life-long education can be...even if that means starting that process by hooking them in with a basket full of goodies. All was well...that is until he remembered that we probably can't do a school wide raffle. Apparently there is some gambling rule and raffles fall under it as a no-no. BUMMER! I could still do a raffle with adults in the building, my friends/family outside of the building, maybe even my church...but I wouldn't get the kid buy in which is what I was really hoping for. My principal is going to double check...and also check on whether or not if the parents made a "donation" we could put their names into a drawing. I'm not sure how that's different, but I'll hold onto a little hope. I would welcome any other creative ideas on how to make this work, so that I can make it a school-wide project. Argggh, of course it would've been just too easy if it had worked out without issue...

The beginnings of a plan

As you may have read in my last post...my church handed out money to each family that was in attendance a few Sundays ago. My family got an evelope with $40 in it. Our mission was to try to find some way to use the money to help our community in what they would hope to be a meaningful and sustainable way. This was about a month ago...enter life, school, baby...and as you can imagine the grand ideas that were rushing through my head when I first received the money soon got overtaken by what to make for dinner and trying to figure out the sixth grade math homework that Alix brought home.

This past week at church they read a couple of the ways people had "spent" their money. One teacher put it toward a fund for her more needy students to help them buy sketch books for their projects. Another family sent it to their local school district to help fund field trips for kids in need. It reminded me that not only had I not followed up with my plan, but honestly I didn't even remember where I had put the money. I decided that if I verbalized my plan in a public forum (like here!) I would be forced to follow through...so here I go...my plan...

I began by thinking about what was most important to me, and the rest of my family. Of course the first thing I thought of was education. I am a firm believer in life-long education. And yet, when I ask my students how many are thinking about college I at most get a hand or two. Almost all of my students would be the first in their family to go to college, or for that matter to undertake any educational pursuit past high school, so there is no example set for them. As a matter of fact one of the biggest challenges I face is the fact that education is not a priority for a lot of my families. Many have probably had bad experiences with education, or their lives are in such turmoil, that they come to parenthood without knowledge of how to help their students with academics, or the willingness to do so. So...I have always been impressed when I run across parents who are going to school at night and speak of the example they hope they are setting for their students. I hear parents mention that they hope their fourth graders watch them do homework, go to class, and strive for success...all in hopes of creating a better future for their families. They hope the example they are setting is a powerful one for their students...and I'm sure it is! I also imagine how hard it must be for them...many of extremely limited budgets...to find the funding to make continued education on any level a real possibility. I want to support this example. I think it is a powerful gift to their children, and will be one step toward their student wanting to follow the same path of making education a priority in their life. OK, now for serious, I am ready to share my plan...

I want to take the $40 and buy gifts for a gift basket--perhaps a Blockbuster card, some candy, sodas, maybe a board game. How will that help you ask? Good question. I hope to sell raffle tickets ($1 each) for a drawing for this basket. I have hopes that if every family in my school bought even one ticket we would raise several hundred dollars for a scholarship fund. The money we made would go to a parent of one of our school's students to help support their ongoing education. Heck, what if my church let me sell tickets? What if I could get my sister's school to sell tickets? What if friends and family members jumped on board and bought tickets? Together we could turn $40 in hundreds...but more importantly we could impact a family in a very meaningful way. Why would anyone do this for someone in a community they don't even live in? Because one day my students might be your neighbor...or pass you when walking down the street...or serve you lunch...and I can almost guarantee you that the person they will become after seeing their parents reaching for the stars and bettering themselves, is a much better person than who you might meet if they had to watch their parents live a life without meaning and hope. To make the scholarship sustainable, I will take out the first $40 and set it aside for next years basket, the rest will go directly to one of the parent applicants in our school community who requests funds for ongoing education needs.

So, what will really happen with this? I guess God only knows...only time will tell. But I can dream big...and even if I only raise $50, I know it will go toward a good cause...a cause that will pay dividends for their family for many years to come.

Now to put the plan into action...stay tuned...

A little of this, a little of that

For once I am not going to write an update about Anna or Alix. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, with the election and all. I must say that it's been a long time since I've been as moved by something as I was by this election. Honestly I usually go into election with an attitude of--heck, how bad could one person make it in 4 years? (Is Julie cringing right now?!) Sure, I always wanted "my guy" to win, but I never felt despaired if they didn't. This time was different though. I felt this election deep in my soul. It wasn't because of the tough economic times, or the fight to keep our rights, or even the war. It was about my need to feel proud of my country...and the lack of that feeling in my life right now. I wanted to be proud to be an American...not because we're the biggest or the strongest, but because we are a land of hope for people. I knew that Barack offered that hope. I hate to even use the word, "hope", since that was his buzz phrase and has been so overused...but I can think of no word that describes it better... what I felt was indeed "hope". I saw this hope when people of all races, economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and religions joined together in very grass root ways to support the candidate. I felt that hope when I watched the masses and masses of people waiting in line for hours to hear a man they couldn't even see (because they were at the back of the crowd) speak. I felt that hope when we moved beyond race to nominate him as our democratic choice despite concerns that the race hurdle might be too tall. I felt that hope when I heard my students talk about politics like they actually cared. I felt that hope when I read that one of my friends children looked at Obama and said mommy look, he's my color. I felt that hope when I began to look at Barack and not even notice that he was black anymore...all I saw was the future of our country and the promise that it held. I only hope that everyone else who felt this hope doesn't let it dwindle in the aftermath of the election, but instead takes to heart what they can do to make our country a place that is worth being hopeful about...not just these next four years, but for a lifetime.

Speaking of what we can do to make the hope survive...Our church gave out money to it's congregation about a month ago. Our family took an envelope out of the offering that had $40 in it. We were asked to use the money in a way that would allow it to give something back to the community in a meaningful and hopefully sustaining way. I had big plans for our $40, but then I let the ball drop. I think it is time again to get the ball rolling. I will post more about my plans soon. Please check back and offer any input/ideas that you might have.

OK then...

Apparently at least 3 people read my blog...life is good!!

I must post my thoughts on the new president elect, but my students just walked through the doors. I'm not sure I can wrap my head around it right now, so I'll let it sink in and get back to it in a little while. For now I'll just leave it at...Wow and Yea!!!!!!

Does anyone read this?

I wonder if I'm wasting my time or if anyone really reads my nonsense...did you know you can hit the comment button below each post and post a comment? You are welcome to do that at any time...

BOO!

Halloween is about my least favorite holiday (right after St. Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve), so it came and went without much fanfare from me. It was however Anna's first Halloween so we dressed her up as good parents do--she was a butterfly? a bug? some such thing with antennaes and wings. It was a gift when she was first born and fit the purpose, so we just went with it. She sure looked cute whatever she was. Alix went as the devil (no costume required...but we bought one anyway ;) She went trick-or-treating with her good friend Anna (thankfully!!) Then they came back, ate lots of candy, watched some movies, and Anna slept over. Steve and I drank wine and passed out candy to the neighbor kids (for a neighborhood with lots of kids we sure don't get many! maybe it's all the steps?!) I do enjoy seeing all the little ones dressed up (so proud that they get to be batman or a princess for the night) and too shy to say "trick-or-treat" as they knock on the door. All in all, not a bad Halloween.

Baby girl is changing so fast!

I just got done putting my little one to sleep for the night, and as I swaddled her up I realized that she is no longer that little lump of a baby that used to lay on my chest for hours on end and find joy in life by just sleeping it away. Sure she's still a baby to most passerbys, but to me she is my little peach who smiles and giggles and like to have conversations about all sorts of nonsense. She's my big girl who rolls over and tries to stand up and finds pure joy in the simplest things. Each day that goes by she grows and changes and becomes more of a little individual...it is so fun watching the person she is becoming. I am not certain yet what will come as each day passes, but I truly hope she never loses that beautiful smile that comes so easily and for what seems to be for no reason at all...

My little punkin's picking pumpkins

OK, so we didn't actually pick the pumpkins...we got lazy after the apple orchard and decided to go to the local nursery to get out pumpkins. We found just the right ones to help us celebrate Anna's first Halloween! Unfortunately Anna was less than enthusiastic about the adventure--she's not feeling well--so no smiles to remember the event. We did stay away from tears just long enough to get a few photos:

Apple Orchard and Loose Meat

The gang, minus a few...not naming any names, Julie Ring and Amy Cook...all went to our annual apple orchard fest, followed by the famous maid-rite sandwiches at Chad and Nicole's. I must say this year I was underwhelmed by the actual orchard. We got about 5 min on the tractor after at least 3 times that long of waiting, followed by one apple stop, and then a walk past the broken down tractor to another waiting one for the last 2 minutes back to the apple lodge. After browsing the goods in the "market", we got a not so good deal on some honeycrisp and then we finally got smart and headed off to the Mc Guires where things took a turn in a positive direction. It was fun to hang out with everyone and catch up after what seems like much too long of an absence. The two pregnant ladies had cute little bellies (maybe not even as large as my non-pregnant one...sad but true) and it's always fun to see how much the little kiddos have grown. I hadn't seen Beckett since he was born a week after Anna and it was fun to see them together again...they grow so fast! Beckett is kickin' Anna's butt in the rolling over department...Anna seems content to just lay on her back and look up at the ceiling fan or lights...but they were both adorable and are sure to grow up enjoying each other's company at group gatherings. We finally headed home after a great afternoon of fall fun. Here are a few pix:


Sawyer eating his apple in front of the tractor

Alix picking the best apple on the tree

The Schloo girls...cute as ever!

Anna's first tractor ride

Anna's so advanced...picking her first apple

the kids

the kids...and the adults holding the kids

Jump Anna Jump

For Christmas Steve and I received a wonderful gift...a video camera! Unfortunately it turns out we are not so techie and the video format used by the camera is not compatible with most internet programs (like blogger), so I've never been able to get the video off the camera and share it with you all. Well, yesterday I decided to sit down and spend part of my day off figuring out how to convert my videos to a different format...and voooila...here we are. I am now a video conversion maniac (OK, not quite, but at least I can do it.) I posted my first video yesterday and had to keep the ball rolling today...

Our video du jour is titled, Jump Anna Jump. Miss Anna loves her jumperoo, but up until recently she wasn't really tall enough to make it go for any bit of time. She'd be able to get a small push and make it bounce one, but that was it. Now her tippy toes touch and she can make it go like crazy...this is just a short sampling...enjoy!

Anna Speaks

Anna shares her first story with you all...

Steve's first business trip

I believe that Steve is on his first business trip since Anna was born. She misses him very much...as a matter of fact a little bit more each second...but then again we all do.


I miss daddy


I miss him more


I really, really, really miss him!!

New Kitchen Floor

We are in the process of picking out some new kitchen floor. We will go with a stone looking laminate b/c there is no heat in the kitchen (darned old house) and we think tile would be too cold in the winter time. We are down to two--Steve and I like one, my mother (who has impeccable taste) likes the other. So, I decided I must put it to a vote. Choose which one you like and vote on the sidebar!


SIDE BY SIDE (TILE #1 ON LEFT, #2 ON RIGHT)

ANOTHER SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON

TILE #1

TILE #2


DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!