Read, Cara, Read

That's quite a stack of books, wouldn't you say?

Well I agree. And let me tell you, that stack of books makes me mad.
And ashamed.


Why, you ask. Let me tell you why. That stack of books is something that I discovered this week. A discovery that makes me bow my head in shame. Those are the books that I OWN, that I have NOT read. I have either started them and not finished, or never even opened them. Yes, I know, I am a READING teacher. I am a person who tells children to finish what they start, to not give up, to read, read, read. And here I am with a mini-library of unread books!

I have removed them from the dark corners in which they were hidden and placed them out in the open. I will not rest until they are ALL read. Also, I will not purchase or check out a single book until I am finished. With you and the rest of the world wide web as my witness, those books WILL be read.

Catching You Up to Speed (really quickly)

Hannah cheered.



Rylee was an Ice Princess.


Anna & Hannah were Rosalie & Alice from Twilight.


Avery was a Lady Bug.


Rylee caught a fish...


and lost all her teeth.


Lindsay wrote a song.



Hannah, Anna, & Cara waited in line for New Moon.



Kevin set the table.



Joey made potatoes.



We were hungry.


Kevin made me laugh.


Avery hung ornaments...


and more ornaments.




That about sums up the past few months. Well not really. But it's a small glimpse and it'll have to do for now.



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Christmas Comes Early for Sherpa

Tonight we bought Sherpa one of those 'dog stockings' that they sell this time of year. It was a over-sized plastic stocking full of Christmas themed toys.

It took about 5 minutes for Sherpa to start his typical destruction process.







Merry Christmas Sherpa. Your other gift will be a new vacuum cleaner.

Hello Old Friend

My Dear Blog,

I would like express my apology for neglecting you these past few months. My lack of attention is inexcusable. I have failed you for many weeks now and I am well aware that your forgiveness is not easily achieved. I can only hope that you will accept my apology and forgive me for my selfishness.

I understand that in order to regain your trust I have hours of stories to type, pictures to post, videos to upload, and jokes to tell. I am willing to work diligently in order to prove my commitment to you. I WILL make you proud again.

Just know this my dearest Blog: these past few months, it wasn't you, it was me.

Yours Always,

Cara

C.A.R.A

This video was made by my brother Joey. The suprising thing is, he actually does love me.

I'm questioning that though. You decide.

Christmas Battle Royale

So my family has interesting and unusual ideas of entertainment. For example we have a Christmas tradition of competition. (aka bringing it on) Last year, we hosted a family karaoke competition. This year, we are taking it up a notch with a commercial contest. Everyone is required to create a product or use an existing product, then we have to write and perform a commercial. There will be no judges but somehow we all think that ours will 'win'.

Here is the commercial that my brother made in order to promote the making of commercials. However, he says that it is a "warning".



In case you cannot read the words, here they are:

Cooley Christmas Battle Royale 2009

You can see the fear in the eye.

It will pit brother against sister.

There will be blood.

Not even reindeer are safe.

There is no mercy for the weak.

Only the strong will survive.

It will play with your mind.

It will stop at nothing.

It will steal your youth.

Trust no one.

December 24, 2009

The Epic Battle Continues

Are you ready to fight for your life?





And to answer the question at hand. Yes, I am ready to fight for my life.

Flu Season

Having the FLU is not all it's cracked up to be. Sure you stay home from work and you are bundled up with covers. Someone brings you a cool glass of water and puts a cool washcloth on your head. It looks great on the commercials; but commercials lie!

Having the Flu is miserable. You sweat and then shiver and then sweat and then shiver. You talk like a crazy person and no one understands you; then you get frustrated because you have to repeat yourself and it hurts to talk in the first place. EVERYTHING hurts. Everything. And nothing makes it feel better. I won't even go into detail about the vomiting. I will just say: Vomiting, lots of vomiting.

Your parents won't even come into your house because they don't want your germs. Your husband sleeps in the spare bedroom because you used all the pillows and rolled onto 'his side' when you were napping during the day. Apparently, their love IS conditional.

And now on day 2, you are forced to drink gallons of liquids because on day 1 you were so afraid of the vomiting that you didn't drink any. So now, instead of being afraid of vomiting, you are afraid of dehydration. Your husband actually gives you a timeline: "Drink one whole bottle of Gatorade before 12:30."

Speaking of day 2, I am so proud of myself for accomplishing a few things today, things that were impossible yesterday. I can type. I walked to the door to let Sherpa in. I poured my own Gatorade. Currently, I am working up the courage to take a shower. But standing for more than a minute or two, frightens me......See! The flu lowers you to an embarrassing level. I am proud of myself for walking. Walking!

So, I guess what I am saying is: Don't wish for this. No, I will not cough on you so you can miss work. Get your flu shot. And oh yeah, don't be a teacher. Those kids are nothing more than germ-spreaders.








*The last comment about not being a teacher is not true. It's the flu talking.

Slacking on the job.

I got this email this week:

You have a blog? Really!?!
You haven't updated it in a month? Seriously? Really?!?
It takes a rabbit thirty-three days to go from pregnant to momma! Really!!!
But you can't even log on to your own blog and entertain us! Seriously!!!
Really! Your blog should be named "Ancient Memories"!! Because that's all I see!! Seriously!!!

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
With warmest regards,
All my best,
Your brother,
Supremely handsome,
Infinitely talented and wise,
Joey

P.S. I also want to see more pictures of Rylee and Avery. Please comply.





I guess I need to get to work. =)





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Exploring at Nana & Papa's

This weekend, my nieces and I went on a 'hike' around my parents yard. The girls spent time looking at butterfly's and rollie-pollies, collecting acorns, leaves, & rocks. Here are a few pictures from their expedition.





There is a tiny spider in the tree


King of the Mountain


Pockets are for collecting...


Bug shells for example


"Look, it's orange & black! Just like OSU" Atta-girl!


Finding Rollie-Pollies...


And catching them


18 eggs + no basket = we improvise


And of course, use our pockets





Little ones can make an adventure out of anything! I love that about them.




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Gigi's Birthday Extravaganza

For my grandmother's 80th birthday, she asked that all her family members (who have talent) perform at her church on her birthday weekend. The church program referred to us as "The Glenna Long Singing Group" =)

As a family member with a lack of musical talent, I chose to read a poem that I had written for her. As with anything I write, I went for two things: laughs & tears. My mission was accomplished. =)

However, there are a few members of my family who do in fact have some talent. So here are a few videos that I took. Copy & Paste the links into your browser bar and it will take you to YouTube where you can watch the videos. Sorry, I am still perfecting how to load videos; as you can see I haven't mastered it yet.

Here is Taylor, my nephew, singing & playing 'God of this City' by Chris Tomlin. Please keep in mind that he learned this song the NIGHT BEFORE he played it. He seriously impresses me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnFzgAsMXAI

Gigi wanted Rylee, my niece, to sing "You're a Grand Ol Flag", which she learned in Kindergarten last year. Rylee agreed, but none of us were certain that she would do it. See, she has never sang in front of anyone before, much less a congregation and her entire family. However, she did it without a second thought and surprised all of us. She was really cute too. And when asked later if she liked singing, she said yes and that she is all ready for American Idol.



What a little cutie!

Taylor's second song was, as always, a crowd pleaser. It is 'How Great Thou Art' and he did the arrangement himself.





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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lgMJ1xDzA4

Gigi was one proud grandma! And her birthday celebration could not have represented her any better. She is also, always a crowd pleaser.

Current Thoughts

So tired...

Don't want to move from this spot.

Not even certain that it is physically possible to move from this spot.

Don't think legs will work.

Using this post as a reason to prolong sitting.

Ugh! Can't prolong the inevitable.

Bye.



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Building a LEGOcy

Kevin has a new hobby/obsession. Legos!

He is currently collecting the 'Lego City' collection. He has the fire station and various trucks, the police station, the entire coast guard set, and the police helicopter.

I just thought you might want to actually see proof that 'boys will be boys' & apparently, that never changes, no matter how old they get.

The Coast Guard: Notice the blue 'water'; in the water is a shark eating a diver and a diver is partialy submerged in the water. He also created 'sand' and the atv is going over dunes. See the tilt?






The Fire Station: These little guys are adorable! They are washing the truck and one of them has a coffee cup in his hand. (I think he's the captain) The fire truck is how this whole thing started. He bought it at the Lego store at Disney World. And the obsession began!







The City: The helicopters are suspended from the ceiling; he is serious about this stuff!



He has run out of room and is working on a larger space. Oh boy, what have I let him get us into.....

"Sorry kids! I know you hate sleeping in the garage but Daddy has to use all the bedrooms for his expanding Lego collection."

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Happy School Year!

Today was our first day for the students. And boy! What a day it was! I think it'll be another great year!

Discoveries of the day:

1. My feet are not in 'high-heel shape'. They are in 'flip-flop shape'. And they are fighting back right now. I think I actually heard them breath a sigh of relief when I came home and took my shoes off.

2. I don't talk much during the summer. My voice was cracking by 10:00am today and I am not talking for the rest of the night in hopes that it will be fully recovered tomorrow morning.

3. When you meet a child at 'Meet the Teacher' night and their parents are next to them, do not assume that is how the child actually behaves. When they show up to school, without parents, they are totally different creatures.

4. Doing a class survey, with the following questions, will depress you.

'How many hours of TV did you watch last night?'
'How many books did you read this summer?'

The answers are not something that a teacher wants to know.



We're off to an interesting start =)


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Kevin = Good Times

`


Happy Birthday Kevin!




He is so wonderful in so many ways. He makes everything fun. Kevin is as good as they come.


I am so blessed.



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Resourceful

Avery ate some cake.
Avery got icing on her face.
Avery needed to have a clean face.

But Avery didn't have anything to wipe her face with.


Or did she?


1st wipe


2nd wipe


Oh, there's still a little more


3rd wipe


4th wipe


And a final wipe for good measure...




Faces don't get more perfect than that.


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Say Cheese!

I realized that it had been a while since I had taken photos of all of our nieces and nephews together. So, with a little teeth-pulling and some classic-Cara-bossiness, I got them all outside and in the correct location according to the sun.

What happened next was beyond my control. Getting all 6 of them to smile (appropriately) at the same time is beyond my abilities. I just snapped continuously, hoping that I might get a few good pictures. The result was, A LOT, of goof-ups and a few really cute shots.

However, I am pretty sure that I captured their 'true selves' on film.













And my absolute favorite shot (maybe of all time):





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