Friday, January 30, 2009

Next week calculus...

REQUEST:  If you're here for the blank Venn diagram like so many others are, send it to me at amanda at 4molnars dot com, I'm now publishing some of my favorites.

UPDATE:  This is my most popular post to date.  I get at least 50 hits a day (whoa big time :D ) looking for "Blank Venn Diagram".  I'm thrilled to have everyone here!  Welcome.
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Do you know what a Venn Diagram is? I'm sure you do. They look like this:



According to the all knowing Wiki, "they are diagrams that show all hypothetically possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets (groups of things)". The above is a simple one and the example that my five year old explained to me.

The kids have a great Gifted Resources Specialist in their school that spends time each week with all the Kindergartners. Yesterday she spent time showing them these diagrams. Skyler drew it all out for me last night. This is the example she showed me:


Then she carefully showed me where each shape should go:

She was so proud of herself and used her "teacher" voice as she taught me. I had so much fun learning about Venn Diagrams with her and slightly amazed at how easily she picked up this concept. I'm wondering when they're going to introduce calculus. I think the spongy little five year old brains are much more likely to get the hang of it than the teenager brains!

Oh and just for fun, my friend Ashley who is a hundred weeks pregnant with her third bundle of joy, shared this Venn Diagram on her facebook page:




Thursday, January 29, 2009

Matt's got the sickies...

Hi! Remember me? I know, I know. I haven't written at all lately. Things have been a bit hectic in our house.

Matt's been sick. At first it was a sinus infection for which I took care of him but did a lot of internal eye rolling and thinking "NOW you know how I feel four times a year". Then Tuesday night, after being on antibiotics for 6 days, he spiked a fever and got the chills, couldn't get warm enough, and felt like his head would explode while he was having a coughing fit. I brought him back to the doctor and YIKES, he's got the beginnings of pneumonia. Poor Guy! I know how that feels too and it sucks big time. He can't get comfortable, isn't sleeping well, and is just generally miserable. I'm trying to take good care of him, but have the immune system of a newborn baby so I'm trying to keep my distance too. I'm bathing in hand sanitizer and diving for cover every time he coughs or sneezes.

SO I'm just trying to keep my head above water while trying to do all the homework and crafts and activities that keep the kids happy while keeping them from bugging Daddy too much.

Last night, while Skyler and I were in the shower we lost power. At first I thought that Zack was being a wise-ass but nope, there were no lights. I had to feel around for towels, get the screeching Skyler calmed down and get us both into jammies then go looking for flashlights. Thankfully I put the big one on my dresser last week when we had that "snow" storm (and put it's backup battery on the charger). I found some candles for the living room where the four of us hung out and told stories. That lasted for a few minutes and then we were all staring at each other. We aren't exactly an electricity-free family. It was just about eight o'clock so I took my little cling-on to bed with me and got her to sleep. Zack came up shortly after complaining that his Nintendo DS was out of battery power. Well kid, you're going to have to rough it. We chatted about school for a little while and then we were both out. I can't complain about a good night's sleep. I wouldn't mind losing electricity once a week or so!

That's where we are and what we're doing. It isn't pretty. I wouldn't visit anytime soon! I'm thinking come Sunday or Monday I'll be hit with it which means the whole house will go to hell in a hand basket!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Before and after...

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Sky's been begging to get her hair cut and with the winter making it so dry and difficult to brush I finally gave in. She's only ever had three "trims" in her little life. I wasn't really excited about getting it all cut off but she was pretty persistent. She looks adorable and most important, she LOVES it!



Enjoy the rest of your weekend and hope that your child doesn't come down with this, it's a bitch to get rid of:



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

January 20th SNOW...

I was dreading working today knowing that I'd want to be parked in front of the television watching all the doings in D.C. but not wanting to actually take a day off, when I got a special little Obama treat this morning. Our entire area has closed all schools for a snow day. As of this writing, 10am EST, not a flake has fallen from the sky.

I'm thinking someone in the school administration wanted to stay home today and has an in with the weather forcasters. Whatever the reason, the kids and I are parked in front of the television, ready to watch history unfold!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Don't you love Christmas treats in January?

For Christmas, Matt's mom got me a gift certificate to order a ring I really wanted. It finally came and I was SO excited.

When I opened the box it smelled strongly of lavender. There was this pretty treasure inside:



The source of the lavendery goodness:





I LOVE it, one band says "Zachary" and the other "Skyler".


Can you say "water retaining fingers?" YOWZA!

I found this little bit of gorgeous at Nelle & Lizzy. They have a beautiful website and obviously nice packaging.

Thank you so much Mom - I love them!

Hopefully not the last we've seen of McHowie and Julie K...

Bye George!



Friday, January 16, 2009

Birthday Girl...

As soon as Christmas is over and she notices that it is January, Skyler starts talking more seriously about her birthday. She has been planning it since the day after her birthday last year. She makes lists of potential attendees, changes her mind a thousand times on the venue, and dreams up "games" for her guests to play. She was in full birthday planning mode Tuesday evening and wanted me to take notes.

We decided on where she wanted to have her party (this week), which room it would be in, what she would need IN that room, what she would serve, who she would invite, what music would be played, the colors the decorations would be and then when we started to run out of things to write down, she decided that there should be a list of things that should NOT be done at her party. I will share this list with you in case you are attending any six year olds' birthday parties, you will know just how NOT to behave.

There will be:
NO flying kicks to the stomach
NO splits
NO lawn mower dancing
NO ripping your dress
NO kicking or pushing out of the drink line
NO grabbing
NO digging into stuff that isn't yours
NO food fights

You have been warned!


Saturday, January 10, 2009

Jan 1-8

I decided to turn Project 365 into a scrap project so I can just upload and print a book at the end of the year.

Jan 1


Jan 2-5


Jan 6-7


Jan 8



Sunday, January 04, 2009

Bed Bugs...

HA! I got them. Both of them.

My Aunt Shelly and Uncle Rene got Zack this great book called Bug Blast about bugs for Christmas.

It was especially cool because Uncle Rene is an Entomologist (I think that's right). Anyway, the book comes with a bunch of plastic bugs that are pretty lifelike. The kids were playing with them this evening and I could hear them whispering and then they went upstairs and came down and told me that they had made my bed for me. I knew exactly what those little turkies had done so I pretended to go up and get the scream scared out of me. They thought they were OH SO funny. As soon as they went downstairs I put a bunch in each of their beds.

At bedtime tonight, I was in Sky's room when she got in bed and I'm lucky she didn't pee. I wish I had set a camera up to catch her reaction. It was PRICELESS. Zack came up a few minutes later and I had the joy of catching him too. They were shocked and giggling that I got them back and I thought it was hysterical that they both fell for it not an hour after they did it to me!

FUN!

Sunday Sunday...

As soon as I cracked an eyeball Skyler begged me to take her to Walmart to return something she got two of. She had big plans BIG. She wanted a little trash barrel for her room, some of that sticky puddy to hang things to her walls, some beads, and a treat (meaning candy). So we took off with her repeating her list thirty thousand times. She helped me grocery shop after we chose her items. I haven't shopped at Walmart in months, having sworn off the evil corporate giant ages ago plus they're usually a complete nightmare anyway. I was pleasantly surprised that the lanes were all open and appeared to be under the watchful eye of Assistant Manager Butch who gave Skyler a smile and a wave. Hmmm, maybe things are turning around at this location. They're still an evil corporate giant.

I got home and proceeded to bake a chicken in the middle of the afternoon with the plan to put the kids to bed early. I'm still working on that. Skyler chattered my ear off:

Sky: Hey Mom, is this your right arm *said while pointing to my right arm*
Me: Yup.
Sky: HEY COOOOOL. That's MY right arm too.

I stifled a giggle. This kid is the master of the obvious. Which reminds me of another story I didn't tell you. A couple of weeks before Christmas Skyler and I watched Nate for Mike & Amy. Nate wasn't thrilled with THAT idea as he's starting in on a bit of separation anxiety and so Skyler and I decided to go for a drive. Not having anywhere in particular to go, I drove over to this house that every year corresponds it's flashing lights to music that is pumped in via a radio station. So we're sitting in the car watching and listening. We've gone here maybe three years in a row now. So, after a good ten minutes or so Skyler says to me "Hey Mommy, it's like the lights are going to the music." She just cracks me up this one.

ANYWAY, we had a nice dinner and I even baked a cake.



Then we took the kids to ride their skates at one of the local schools:

Safety first!


First there was fun...


Then there was a race...



Then there was pouting...


and tears...



Sometimes you just can't win.

oh P.S. - Skyler helped to put Nate to sleep upstairs last night. Aren't they cute?



Saturday, January 03, 2009

Thanks Mom...

I told Zack he couldn't have a sleep over until he cleaned his room. He closed his door and produced this:




He's lucky that A. I love him and 2. He gave me a big fat "Thanks MOM"





Friday, January 02, 2009

Project-365...

The blogosphere is a-buzzing with talk of Project-365 starting up again. I'd like to try it, but I know that I get all gung ho on something like this and then I fizzle (phizzle?) so I wasn't going to say anything for fear of you rolling your eyes and thinking "There she goes again, another kooky idea she won't follow through with. HELLO does she think we forgot about Couch to 5k?" But, what fun would it be if I didn't tell you?

SO for today, here is what was on my mind:

My hair is just barely long enough to put in a weak ass ponytail. I wouldn't necessarily go out in public like this, but OH is it nice when my hair is driving me crazy. This is a new hair development. I was just lazy about getting a haircut but now I think I'm growing it out again. I'll keep you updated!



Happy New Year...

We spent New Year's Day being lazy! We watched the Rose Parade on the Travel channel because no one else had it live. The host was Bob Eubanks. That was fairly painful. Matt got annoyed with me when I got annoyed with the Parade. At one point they commented that there were 40,000 roses on a particular float. That was just ONE of many different flowers. Then they said that each rose comes in it's own vial. That's 40,000 vials for ONE flower for ONE float. I said "what a waste". Matt asked why I couldn't just enjoy it. I kept thinking of all the plastic vials sitting in landfills.

Later we got our tushes moving and head over to Mike & Amy's. We hung out, made dinner, played Guitar Hero, and made goofy faces at Nate. Here are some pics:















That about sums it up. Zack won't smile for the camera. Skyler hams it up every time I aim at her. Nate doesn't know enough to hide when I stick a lens in his face yet.

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