Affton Hockey Pictures

The kids had their annual Hockey All Star Game this past Saturday. They have been playing floor hockey for years and they love it. This year, Hannah and Justin played for the Stealth. Adam played for the Mowhawks, coached by Bob. The Stealth finished in 2nd place and the Mowhawks finished last, but they still had a great time playing. Did I mention that this league has been around for over 30 years? Bob and I both played when we were in grade school and junior high. It's probably one of my favorite sports for young kids because it requires very little equipment, it's fairly cheap to play and the games only last about 45 minutes but they are super fast paced. We love to watch them play!

Another negative thing about January

SICK KIDS!

All three of them seem to be under the weather. My mom took Justin to the doctor yesterday and he has a sinus infection and asthma flare up (hence the hacking cough and clogged nose) This morning Hannah woke up with a fever and said her throat hurt, so she's home sick and hopefully my mom (who's off work cause she herself had her gallbladder removed last Friday) will take Hannah to the doctor. Adam was blowing his nose this morning and wheezing a little (just love asthma) but I sent him to school with a dose of allergy meds and a puff off the inhaler. I think Bob is okay although he always has some kind of sinus thing going on and I am feeling fine (knock on wood) except for a backache that has turned into a chronic thing. Every winter it's the same thing.... BLAH!!

But I do appreciate the fact that my mom is home this week and able to help out (as she always does). Thanks mom!!

1 reason to like January

Okay, there is one reason to like January... Hannah playing basketball!! Just got home from an AWESOME game. She was kinda sluggish in the first half but came on hard in the second. They were behind 21-10 at the half and Hannah scored 4 baskets. At the end of regulation play it was tied up 23-23. They went to a 2 minute overtime, Hannah got a basket and they were up 23-25 when the other team tied it up with no time left so they went to another 2 minute OT. The girls were playing tough defense and holding on to the tie. At 11 seconds left in the OT, her coach called a time out and then with 7 seconds remaining Hannah came up with a rebound from someone else's missed shot and put it in the net!! It was AWESOME as the clock ticked the last few seconds!! What a fantastic game!!

BUT>> I forgot my dang camera! :( ARGGGGGGG.. oh well still have 10 more games to go.

Halloween Bliss

Another fine Halloween was had by all at the Geiler grandparent's house. Mom made her famous stuffed pepper soup and white chicken chili. It was a perfect night, temps in the 60's, glowing fire in the pit, roasting marshmallows and hotdogs, candy, kids, there's nothing better.

But alas, October is over. Now begins the countdown to Christmas, BAH HUMBUG! Adam made out his Christmas list today and is already wanting to make a paper chain to mark off the days till the big day. Yuck, too soon.... The older I get the more I can't stand Christmas.

Here are the Halloween pics

Adam the WWII soldier

Bandit the devil dog (sitting on my dad's lap)

Hannah the nerd.

Justin was too cool to trick or treat.

A new season, a new sport~ HOCKEY

Yep, that's right, Fall is here and so is the latest sports season, Hockey. No not for the St. Louis Blues, sure they play, but I'm talking about the Affton School Hockey League. It is a floor hockey league for kids in grades 1-12. Justin starting in 1st grade, Hannah has played for 3 years now and Adam is also in his third season.

The first games of the season were held on Saturday. Justin and Hannah play on the same team it's called the Stealth. They won 7-2 with Hannah scoring a goal!! It was great because she is the only girl on the team and she feels a little intimadated by all the boys. So we were totally psyched about it! Adam's team, coached by Bob, lost 5-1. The Mohawks are probably going to have a re-builing year as they moved up to the midget division and they are now the youngest team in the division. It's a fun sport thought, fast paced, short games lasting about 40 minutes.

Both Bob and I played when we younger too. The league has been around for 30 years. We can't wait till next week to see how they play.

School Daze

It's been really hectic this last week with the kids starting school Monday, Bob starting his new job and me in my first full week of school. I have been totally exhausted! We had open house at my school Thursday night and except for leaving for an hour to grab some dinner I was at school from 6:45am till 7:30pm. What a long day!

Bob so far is enjoying his new department and the change of scenery. The kids liked school this week and seeing all their friends. Adam wished he could be home schooled so he didn't have to get up so early :)

But, for me it has been hard dealing with my change. I miss the familiar territory of my old school and I miss all the really great friends I had made. Although they have reported how crazy SLPS has been in it's first week, I still wonder if I have made the right decision. With 150 kids in my classes at Buerkle, there is a ton more grading. Plus I feel like I don't know anyone, I haven't even met the whole staff and only know about 1/3 of them by name. I do really like the two ladies that I team teach two of my classes with, one is the speech pathologist the other is a special ed teacher. Both are very young and enthusiastic and we have a good working relationship in the classroom. I also have been getting to know the woman next door who is new to Buerkle and has children about the same ages as mine. We have a lot in common and we have started to depend on each other for information when needed.

Justin is playing football and practicing two nights a week, Hannah is playing fall softball with practice once a week, pitching lessons once a week and double headers on weekends so we have been going non stop!

Vacation Pictures/Tales

I haven't really talked much about our vacation to Branson and the Lake of the Ozarks last week. So here goes. First off it was HOT! We were still in Missouri in July for gosh sakes so what did we expect. We started our trip off by stopping at Lamberts just outside of Springfield, MO. It is the Home of the Throwed Rolls. They literally throw hot rolls to you from across the room. It's a very homestyle place with rolls of paper towels on the table and servers walking around dishing out extra portions of what they call "pass arounds" which were fried potatoes, macaroni, black eyed peas, fried okra, and molasses for your rolls. (no it's not figure friendly) But needless to say it was a big hit with kids. At first they were a little scared to ask that a roll be thrown from way across the room but they really got into it as the meal progressed.

After that, we made our way to Branson and our hotel, the Grand Victorian. Lets just say the hotel was nothing to write home about. It was clean but very small, had and indoor and outdoor pool that were also really small and an absolutely terrible continental breakfast. But my kids didn't care they still swam and ate donuts from the breakfast. That evening we went to a new attraction called Branson Landing which is Branson's equivalent of Downtown Disney. Lots of shops and restaurants and ways to spend money. They do a have a Bass Pro shop which was fun with everyone getting t-shirts or hats in Adam's case. Justin bought himself a hunting knife and Adam enjoyed "riding" on all the ATV's parked all over the place.

The next day, we rode the Ducks, which are vehicles that go in land and water. This was probably my favorite part because I sat with Adam and this was something he really wanted to do and then when we got into Table Rock Lake, they let him drive. He was so cute up there.

Later that afternoon we went to Silver Dollar City at about 4:30 because if you go after three the next day is free. But we didn't' realize that the park closed at 7, so that didn't leave us a whole lot of time to do anything. But we rode some rides, ate funnel cakes (the whole reason to go to Silver Dollar City) and watched the glass blowing demo. Not too bad. I for one was pretty much done. But ofcourse we had to go back the next morning. So we did. Well it was HOT, I would guess the hottest day of the year so far. And Silver Dollar City is all black topped. Yeah, you can guess how miserable we were. We split up because Hannah suddenly decided that most of the rides made her stomach sick?!? So she and I went to a couple of shows, explored the overpriced craft areas and hung out in a super cold ice cream parlor while the boys rode all the water rides that got them completely soaked and miserable. At about 3pm we had all had enough. However this was Wednesday and we had already checked out of our hotel so there was no where to go and we had Dixie Stampede tickets for 5pm that night. So we did end up going back to the hotel during their tea time to eat cookies and go to the public restroom and just sit in the lobby where it was cool. Bob's parents who also went spent the day shopping because his mom isn't too good on her feet. (not sure how she did shopping with her knees but?) We met up with them at Dixie Stampede.

The Stampede was fun, I for one will never go again as I discovered that I must be allergic to either horses or hay because what I thought was me having a claustrophobic panic attack turned out to be an allergic reaction to something there. The food was pretty good and the show is like a rodeo with songs etc. But it's hard to clap and get into it while you are trying to also eat. Kids liked it though.

From there we drove to the Lake which took about 2 hours and didn't get there till after nine by which time we were all EXHAUSTED! We did they usual lake things like swim and shop and except for a mayonnaise incident that I won't mention here, it was fun. WHEW, can you tell how tired were where by Saturday when we came home?


(Justin enjoying a roll at Lamberts, his favorite part of the trip)


(Hannah at the Bass Pro on Branson Landing)


(Adam outside of Bass Pro on an ATV)

(Adam drives the Duck)

(Posing with our tour guide)

(The cop goes to Silver Dollar City Jail)


(everyone on the suspended bridge at SDC)


All in all we had a good time but Branson has become somewhat rundown since the times I went there as a kid. Plus there are no big name entertainers there anymore, just a bunch people I've never heard of. Bob and I both agreed that the next time we go to Branson and Silver Dollar City it will be with our grandchildren. (hopefully about 20 years from now)

2 4 1

2 4 1, get it Two for one! Clever eh?

Anyhow, as the boredem increased today I decided to go ahead and make a slide for Hannah's birthday and for Kim's baby shower so I made two separate ones the first is of Hannah. Note that the picture of her entitled texas hannah is taken with my cell phone camera and cropped etc with picnik a photo editing online software that is pretty cool. But the quality of that pic is pretty poor, the rest are cute though.

This next slide is of the only three pics I have of the baby shower, Kim's mom took lots more and maybe I can get her to send me some of those. My friend Kim and her husband Larry are expecting their first child a boy, to be named Ethan in August. The have also asked me to be the Godmother.

(note the really cute baby shower favor I made filled with hershey's kisses that say it's a boy> thanks Elise for the help)

Happy Birthday Hannah

July 1st was Hannah's 12th birthday. She celebrated a couple of weeks ago with friends at Happy Joes which is a local pizzeria that we've been going to since I was a kid. It's a family favorite for birthdays. Hannah and the girls went to Whitecliff pool first then spent the afternoon at the pizza place. She had a fun time with all her friends.

On her actual birthday we had some dinner with the Geiler grandparents and tonight went to the Texas Roadhouse with the Nixon grandparents because Hannah's favorite food is steak (hmm... wonder where she gets that from)

All the grandparents and Bob and I pitched in and got her a Nintendo Wii. She either wanted that or a coach purse and since I don't even have a coach purse we opted for the Wii. (although they are both about the same price)

We've been doing a lot of swimming and I have been catching up with friends this week.

(have pics but blogger isn't letting me post them right now)

Update

First off, I want to thank Pam and Andrea for the comments under my Pink Eye post. And yes it has just about cleared up, still a little runny at times but no pain or redness etc. I took my praxis on Saturday and for the most part it went well. I used every bit of the 2 hour time limit though. There were 90 multi choice questions and 2 essay. I think I nailed the essay questions and did pretty well on the other ones but I felt that a lot of the time I had narrowed the choice down to two and then couldn't make a decision about which one was right. But we will see in a month if I passed or not. I will still have a job at Mehlville if I pass or not but I really don't want to pay to take the test again so hopefully I did well.

Summer has been slow, there isn't a lot to do right now. I haven't been a stay at home mom in a long time so I need to get back in the groove. We are planning a lake trip next week and then a trip to Branson in July. No big trips this summer unlike last year's Disney trip. We had originally planned to drive to Williamsburg for a week in July with the in-laws but due to the high gas prices we have decided to do Branson instead.

We've been to the pool a few times and seen Hannah play a few softball games but other than that not much else.

The carpet in the basement finally got installed today and it looks wonderful. Furniture comes on Friday and we should be able to move everything else in over the weekend. YEAH! I plan on taking pics of the finished product ASAP and posting them here.