The Newest Member of our Family

Welcome to the newest member of our family...Rudy "Ruettiger" Siegert!

Mickey (turning 15 on Friday 3/22) is actually, to my surprise, quite tolerant of his young charge (age 6 weeks).  

 Ally, Cy, and their dad went puppy shopping (without my knowledge) this weekend.   Rudy is really cute and hopefully will learn to potty train soon. ;)

 Everyone is quite smitten with him.  I guess we needed another boy in the house, huh, Cy? (He's in the house till he gets older...the dog, not the boy.  Although I'm not sure which one is cleaner at this point!)

 Happy kids with their dogs!

 Nap time without the whimpering.  Always a nice thing.

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.--Proverbs 12:10

SuperDuper Slumber Party Spectacular!!

Paige and Shae have wanted to host a slumber party for a long, long time.  I've held them off for quite a few years, but now that they're turning TEN next week, I caved. 

 Sydney, Anna, Shae, Paige, and Katie take a break from rollerskating at Rainbow Palace!

Most of the girls weren't too experienced on the skates, but it only took a few laps to get everyone most comfortable and having fun!

 Okay, this time, Lexie joins the gang for a photo op.

 Most of my pictures look like this:  blurry and butts.  I can't seem to get the picture to snap quickly enough!

 Paige is really quite a good skater, but Katie (in purple stripes in other pics) was the real pro.

 Is it just me, or does our little Shae-shae growing up into a big girl/young lady too soon?? This picture really makes it obvious to me.

 Hi, sweetie!

 Gotta love the Hokey Pokey!

On the way home, we crashed the church youth lock-in.  It was for elementary and middle school kids, and 81 kids showed up!!  The party was really hopping.

This is one of Wynne's expressive dance moments (on the floor).  I'm a little bit scared for her teenage years.!!

Night-night, girls!  (Of course, they picked the room RIGHT ABOVE their parents' room.  Not much sleep last night!

Happy Early Birthday, Chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. --Ephesians 2:10

Adventures in Education

Haven't been on in a while...here are some pictures of the last 3 weeks at school and Sunday School!

In the middle/high school library, we wrapped up books and gave students the incentive of a Valentine's treat for reading a book without knowing its title, contents, etc. (We did put a little description on the wrapping paper.)  Here are Ally and some of her friends who participated in "Blind Date with a Book" for Valentine's Day!  It was gratifying to hear "This is a really good book" and "I would have never read this if I had seen its cover."   Life lesson, perhaps?

This was about a week before we knew found out that Ally's diet would be restricted from gluten, dairy, corn, rice etc....so the chocolates are a big no-no now!  (unless they are dark chocolate with no milk)

My 8th graders wrapped up reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry with a trial of one of the secondary characters in the book.  I took lots of pictures, but of course being her mom/teacher, I had to share the one of Ally working for the defense team and asking a witness about her testimony.

In Sunday School, Mark and I are teaching the big and little kids from the book of Judges.  Judges tells about the recurring theme of God's people wanting some leadership, disobeying God, suffering punishment through rival nations, repenting, and being delivered by God.  Mark is having the kids make marble mazes to signify the many choices (and directions) we take in life and how the only true way to the "finish" is with God.

 It's a very cool project and the kids are making some very cool mazes!!

 We just finished up Dr. Seuss week at school.  Kids dressed up every day, including Theodore Thursday where everybody is encouraged to dress up as a character from his/her favorite book.  Here are some of the elementary grade cuties including "Fancy Nancy" in the middle, complete with her tiara and tap shoes.  (Sorry, Mrs. D, for the twirling, tapping, slipping and sliding little girl all day long!)

 My old class from last year (now 4th graders, including the twins) showing off their awesome character outfits.

 Paige didn't want to join Shae as "Thing 1 and Thing 2", so Anna was glad to do the honors.  Paige was a girl from Summer Camp Secrets.  (sorry I didn't read it, so I can't remember her name right now!)

All kinds of stuff going on.
In Mark's P.E. world:  He is busy working on writing a big PEP grant.
In 8th grade news:  We are going to working on civil rights-into-contemporary problems "social action projects" (Yes, this is how the new Common Core State Standards words things.  If you know how to teach this, let me know ASAP.)   We are also now entering our Forensics Unit!  Pray for me.
In graduate school news:  We are reading about the flattening of the world (where everybody is on the same playing field, no matter if you are in India, China, Timbuktu, or Kansas).  We are learning how to use digital tools/Web 3.0 which is ever-changing and ever-overwhelming.  Sure wish I could use this blog as part of my assignment in that class!
Nothing like trying to multi-task.