Not so quiet anymore

Well I should've known that last week when I posted about how quiet things had been around here, that they would start to get exciting!!! My district has been in contract negotiations for almost 2 years now. We finally got an offer this past week, and I was so hopeful it would pass and we would be done with this mess. People had questions about it though that they wanted clarified before they voted so we go back Monday to hopefully hear answers to the questions and then vote. I just want this to be over -- hopefully soon!!! Due to the state budget though, the district is making deep cuts and have voted to eliminate 13 positions. Two people at my school were already let go this week (they'll finish the year off but not be back next year). I don't know how many other people around the district were told that as well, but the axe is starting to fall. I'm waiting for my paperwork to come. Hopefully it will just be a "if there's a position we'll ask you back" paper and not a "thanks, but no thanks" paper. I wasn't there Friday though, maybe that was when they were going to talk to me. : ) And the reason I wasn't there Friday was.......I had to take Adam to the doctor. Wednesday night he was in a lot of pain. Thursday he seemed okay, but I just couldn't take off that day since I already had a sub coming so I could do assessments. So Friday I took him in, and sure enough, he has a hernia. His doctor said that's a pretty good party trick, but it still has to get fixed!! He he!! He'll have surgery Thursday to get it repaired. While they're in there they'll check the other side as well. Luckily, little boys recover quickly, so he should be back to his normal self within a week. We just have to keep him from doing too much until Thursday. Don't want any trips to the ER before then!! : ) It should be a quick operation - two small incisions, one on the belly button and one on his side. We'll take him home that day. Let's hope this is the end of surgeries for us this year!! We're hoping things just go back to being quiet again.

Been pretty quiet around here

Not a lot has been going on around here lately. Just doing the same old, same old. The big news is that Briana lost another tooth last night. Once she started losing teeth a couple of months ago, the first three came out fairly quickly. Then we waited and waited for her to lose that other top one. It FINALLY happened last night after months of hearing that it was "almost" coming out!!





Adam wanted to get in one the picture taking too, so I guess I'll include one of him too! His teacher informed me this week that he knows more letters, sounds, and numbers than many of her pre-K kids, so that was nice to hear. He finally decided he was over pull-ups and is all potty trained as well. He's just getting so big!!!! Where did our little baby go? : ) (I guess the tattoo gives it away that he's not a baby anymore! He he!)

Kiah's hair cut

Kiah is now half the size she was last week after getting a hair cut a few days ago. Bret freaked out when he saw her, but she still looks adorable. Now if we could just get Bret to get a hair cut!! : )


Snow day called

So, I know many people were hoping for a snow day today, but no such luck. Off we headed to school. As the buses were rolling in and parents were dropping their kids off, it started to snow! Just small flakes, but as the morning went on they got bigger and didn't stop. An hour into school, they called a snow day. It took a little bit of time to get a district-wide message out to all parents and get buses rolling, but my first parent showed up about 10:00 and buses took the final students home at 11:15. I got to Cool Care about 11:30 (because of course they closed Adam's school too) and was home by 11:45. Now that's what I call a work day, and the best thing is we won't have to make it up in June!!!



Here are my students and me before they started leaving!

Kissinger Family Visit

Bob & Jenn and the boys came and stayed with us last week while Jenn was in CA for work. It was a lot of fun, but I keep avoiding posting anything because how can I choose from the 100s of cute pictures I have?!!?!! I just decided I need to do it. I'm also working on putting together a DVD slideshow of the pictures and videos I have, but I just got new software so I'm trying to learn it as I work on the project. Unfortunately, it's taking a while because I don't know what I'm doing! : ) They arrived at our house Sunday evening. Monday and Tuesday I had off from work, so that worked out well. Monday we went to my parents' house and did some sledding. Tuesday we took the kids to Bounceopolis. They had a great time and it wore them out (okay, it mostly wore us out, but it was still fun!). The rest of the week just kind of flew by. We had lots of visitors throughout the week. We hung out, ate lots of food, and just had a nice visit. Here are just a few pictures from the week.




It must have been exhausting having so much fun with their cousins, because the day after they left my kids needed a little pampering. They got themselves all set up with foot spas, chairs, and of course the essential reading materials!!!

Finally!!!

As I'm sure everyone knows, the shower in our master bath has never been finished. We have always used the "kids" bathroom, but it has started to need repairs too. So, I believe in one of Bret's attempts to drive me crazy [ : ) ] he tore the shower apart the day before Bob and his family were expected to arrive from Virginia for the week. Now we're down to NO showers and 8 people. Not a good combo!! So.......big drum roll here.......I actually showered in my shower yesterday for the first time!!! Okay, okay, so it's not actually all the way done, but done enough to use. Yea!! It's fabulous, although a little strange at first. I felt like I was showering in a small room. I guess it's like my own personal locker room. The other one is usable now too, but definitely a construction zone. Typical McComb/Kissinger situation!!

Random New Year's Day shots


Just lazed around all day. Here are a few pictures.....

The caravan


Adam & Kelton (notice the lovely outfit on Adam - no

pants and Briana's cardigan)

No, I want the tractor!!!


The cooks

Kiah







The chickens (yes, we still have 2) checking out what was going on

I tried to upload some video (twice!!), but blogger keeps erroring out. I guess I'll post this without them. If I can ever get it to work, I'll put them in a later post!!! Hope everyone is having a great new year!




It's snowing!

We got our first few snowflakes of the year last night. Nothing significant, but fun nonetheless.

Christmas Day






Christmas was a loooooong day. We spent the first 12 hours or so driving. When we got home, we unloaded the truck, got a few things ready, and headed back out the door to Dennis' house. We opened more presents, ate, and got home about 8:00 at which time we had our own "Christmas morning" and opened gifts from us and Santa. Whew.....what a day!!

Portland for Christmas






This year we headed up to Portland to spend the holidays (well, sort of!). We left about 6 pm Saturday night after the train ride. We made it about to Shasta at 12:30 am and finally had to stop. It had definitely been a full day!!! We stayed the night at a hotel and got back on the road in the morning. We arrived at Linda and Mike's house in the early afternoon. It was great to see the family. Gramma Jeanne and Brian had flown up earlier that day, so they were already there. Jeff and his wife and daughter were already there as well, so it was nice to see them too. We visited, checked into our hotel, and then went out to dinner at a nice Mexican food restaurant (who do you think picked that!!?!). The next day was Christmas Eve, so we headed back over to their house. We opened presents, ate a delicious meal, and just visited. We turned in early, since we got up at 1:45 that night/next morning to get on the road and head back home. Bret's family was having Christmas at Dennis' at noon (we pushed it back a bit!!). Needless to say, it was a quick trip but lots of fun. I guess it started snowing there later in the day after we left. Sorry we had to miss it, but it definitely would have made driving more difficult (especially over the pass!). Here's "Santa Mike" handing out gifts.....


Gramma helped babysit the dog.
Briana and Mattie got matching outfits! They looked too cute!


Bret and some of the gadgets he got.








Once the presents were done, Adam got serious about playing the drums!!!

When we first arrived, I popped Kiah's crate open to put her in it. But before we could get her in there, Mattie put herself in instead! It was awfully cute. I'm sure Kiah was relieved to have her freedom for a while longer!
And finally, here are the cousins. Briana and Adam had a great time with Mattie. Here she is trying to figure out that wild one Adam though. "Can I possibly be related to him?" she must be thinking!! Hopefully they will get to see each other again soon. Maybe we'll make it back to Tennessee next time! : )