Another Crazy Week

I am so looking forward to Winter Break. No gymnastics, minimal TKD and no school. I am certainly looking forward to the break. Poor Jacob was home with strep on Monday and, at about 4pm, he looks at me and says, "we weren't home at all today!" He was, pretty much, right. Between dropping Daniel off at school, taking Hannah to gymnastics and then to preschool, taking Jacob to the doctor and then picking everyone up again, I think we were home for about 1 1/2 hours on Monday (during the day). The ice storm on Tuesday slowed things down a little since it cancelled school and MOPS...it would have been nice to have a couple of days like that.

The boys found out yesterday that they earned their high green belts. Mike already has the blue markings for his belt (that's how they designate high from low) and the boys should get theirs on Tuesday. They are pretty excited. They have one more round of testing to go before they have to start breaking boards (and two before they test for their low brown belts)...that should be interesting. I'm just thrilled that Hannah is now in the boys' TKD class on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Maybe now I won't feel like we live there.

We got about 3 inches of snow yesterday...a lot less than the 4-8 they were predicting. That's just fine with me although the kids weren't too happy about it. They wanted that 8 inches. It was still enough to play in, and they did for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday afternoon. They came in for a brief hot chocolate break and then headed back out. I don't know how they stood the cold. It was 20 degrees with a wind chill of 8. They told me that they weren't cold...and I believe them. I remember playing in the snow for hours and not feeling it until I came in. I just can't remember the last time they were able to get out and play. The weather's been so bad that we haven't been able to go out.

Daniel was getting upset with his teacher about the fact that they were only doing Christmas stuff and no Hanukkah stuff. Leave it to Daniel to not let that happen. Wednesday, he convinced his teacher to dedicate a whole day just to Hanukkah. She even asked him to bring in a menorah so that everyone could see it. I guess he ended up showing the whole first grade (not just his class) how to light it and what prayer to say (he actually remembered the prayer). I was pretty proud of him.

Last night was the TKD Christmas party, hosted by the black belts. Members of our school and of our parent school were there. Roxanne and Stephen hosted it at their auto shop. It's not your typical auto shop. Stephen runs a Porche place...they fix and rebuild Porches. The cars he had there were amazing, and the place was huge. At some point, Roxanne forced a big plastic cup of wine into my hand and, not long after, I found myself doing the Electric Slide with her as Master Johnson acted as DJ. After the Electric Slide, YMCA and a couple of other dances, I decided that was enough and walked off the dance floor. Roxanne came up to me and asked me why I wasn't dancing anymore..."I'm too hot," I told her. "Yeah, me too," She said. "I'm afraid I'm getting stin-kay!" She says as she throws her hands in the air and heads back onto the floor. She cracks me up. The kids had a great time and so did Mike and I. I love our TKD school. It's just such a family atmosphere and everyone really cares about you...and misses you when you're not there.

I should really stop blogging right now...Mike's invited a few work friends over to watch football and I need to finish getting the house ready. Then, I get to look forward to another busy week (2 gymnastics classes, 3 TKD classes, 1 Cub Scout pack meeting, 2 Christmas parties, a MOPS meeting and a birthday party). I may just collapse when we arrive in Peoria next week!