Children who have truly suffered (sigh)!

So, I finally set out to do something I have been meaning to do for a very, very, very long time: have a garage sale. Basically, since my kids were born, I have kept every scrap of clothes and toy they ever had. And as Mark and I started going through this stuff (to put it G-rated) last Christmas holiday, I realized how badly we needed to try and actually profit from this. So I arranged to have Juju (my stepmom) help me organize a garage sale. Next weekend is D-day (or should I say, G-day).

Here is the problem with trying to do this with children in the way. They want to play with everything you pull out! Including every baby and toddler toy. If I had a nickel for every time I heard, "I remember this..." or ..."this was mine", I could forget the garage sale, put it all out by the curb and book my spa vacation!
For example, see pictures below:

In this picture, Emma is sitting in the rubbermaid container of beanie babies (yes, I went through this phase...) Oh, and this wasn't the only container or the little collectibles.


And this picture, shows how truly deprived my kids have been, and how they never got anything they ever asked for. And, by the way, this isn't even everything we eventually got down from the attic. This was Saturday afternoon, and Mark and I got more stuff down Sunday morning.

At least the weather was amazing for this. I actually enjoyed sitting outside and going through this. The only problem was my aching body after climbing up and down the attic stairs. (...so out of shape)

Here is what Jovi thought of the whole ordeal:

Lets hope it goes well next week! Come on by. If you need some toddler toys or car seat, I've got about a thousand! (Buy two things, get a beanie baby free!)

Sorry for the delay!

Okay, so I obviously haven't posted anything in a while. Can you say "School has started!". We are pretty much running our hectic day to day schedule with school, football practice and now gymnastics for Emma and dance for Katie. I have some new responsibilities at school which are keeping me pretty busy, and it seems like Katie's school work is requiring more study time than ever.

The only thing I can think of that we have coming up is Nutcracker tryouts for Katie again this year. She is wanting to do that again, and I am excited about it because she really enjoyed it last year, and the time commitment is not too great. She has tryouts next Sunday (the 26th), so keep your fingers crossed about 2 pm that day.

Also, my friend Julie and I are planning our school trip to Disneyworld this year! Yeah! After an absence last year for the birth of her daughter, Sarah, we are ready to take students across state lines! (I know, we are nuts!) Hopefully, things will go smoothly with that also. We have such a good time on that trip.

I think that's about it. I'll report back later, with any new news at the Carroll house. I'm off to finish my lesson plans and make some dinner!

It's Friday night in Jacket stadium!

So with the start of school, also comes the start of football season, which I greet with mixed emotions. Its true what Mark says.. there's nothing like the Friday night lights. As much as we love baseball season, you just don't get the same feeling without the band and some cheerleaders! And as much as I hate Mark's practice and game schedule, its WAY, WAY, WAAAAAAY better than his baseball schedule!

So we begin another season in Jacket stadium:

Our mascot, Butch the yellow jacket (... I always want to call him Buzz):




There are always a lot of kids to play with, especially girls. Here are Katie and Emma with some other coaches / teachers kids at the game:



Here are the boys running out:




... and here they are getting reading to break through the sign:




Here is Emma and Buzz, I mean Butch, with Faith, our head coach's daughter. She is our "mini - buzz"

Lastly, here is our band, feauring the Jackettes and everyone's favorite babysitter, Tiffany (2nd from the left). As mentioned before, my kids adore her!:

Notice, no pictures of Mark. He was there, but I guess kinda busy. I'll try next time. Oh, by the way, we beat Broadmoor by a whole bunch. I don't watch much of the game, too busy socializing and watching kids...sorry honey!

Mrs. Jordan's first STAR STUDENT of the week!

Who knew that Emma would turn out to be so like her mama?

When Emma got to my classroom Friday after school (for those of you who check this and didn't know, Katie and Emma ride a bus in the afternoon to Mark and I's school and then we go home when I get done), she was so excited b/c she was chosen as her Kindergarten teacher's Star Student of the Week! This means that she gets to take their class mascot, Leo the Leopard home for the weekend and write about what they did. We also send pictures of Emma and her family and write a little thing all about her.

Here she is at home:



Here she is playing on the Starfall (educational) website with Leo:



Here she is riding in the truck with Daddy:




... and here she is reading her bedtime story with Leo.




She was so proud of herself, and so were we. This sound like a good sign of things to come!

.... As one door closes...

So Emma made a monumental step this week: the start of "big girl school". It seems as though we have talked about this day for years. She has always wanted to ride a bus to Katie's school, and today was the day. But more about that in a second.

These pictures didn't come out so great, but here is Emma in the van getting out at her last day of daycare or as she says "kids school paradise". I'm not sure where that one comes from b/c her daycare is called Children's Paradise, but anyway. I took one standing in front of school, but my lens fogs up sometimes in morning, and it didn't come out that great.





Here we are in the afternoon, saying goodbye to Miss Chelsea



... and to Miss Whitney, who not only is one of my former students, but is also the lone individual responsible for potty training my second child at 2 years old. (I did not get this one accomplished with Katie until 3 and a half!) Her mom owns the daycare and Whitney runs it. We have truly been blessed with this daycare (I'm tearing up writing this, what a weenie). They have truly loved our children, and we will miss them (although, not the bill! --woo-hoo, mama got a raise!)





Now, here we are on Emma's first day of school. All the boys went on Thursday, and then all of the girls went today (Friday). Here she is in her tiny little jumper:





Here she is with her Tinkerbell booksack (its as big as she is, but having said that, so was Katie's - hard to believe, I know!):

Katie, the great big sister, who really did take care of Emma that day (no, really, no fighting and everything!)

The proud Daddy and his girls:

And here I am with my girls. And yes, if you're wondering, I did boo-hoo a little that morning. I was okay, until I told Katie to take care of her and make sure she got to class okay. (then I lost it again at my school, when I was telling my friend Julie about it! Gosh, I need therapy!)

Her are the girls getting off the bus at the high school after a great day of school:

And here is my baby after the first day of "big girl school", a little worn , but still adorable.

"..... down in Sugarland."

So, several weeks ago, I got an email from the River Center about a presale for tickets to see Sugarland. We didn't know they were coming to Baton Rouge, so I surprised my family (mainly Mark and Katie, who listen to them all the time in the truck) with tickets for all of us! This was a very special treat for the girls who had never been to a "real" concert, unless you count the Wiggles or the Doodlebops (remember them?). Funny story... during the concert, Emma told Mark that this was the "best concert she had ever been too"... then she leaned over and asked him..."Is this my first concert, daddy?" Too cute!

Here are my cowgirls in their new San Antonio hats. First, typical Katie-inspired pose:




Now, a normal one:



The journey to and from the concert was not the best we have ever had. I desperately need to do some research on other options for parking besides the garages right by the River Center. It took us an HOUR once we got off the interstate to reach the parking garage. This is how Katie dealt with the situation:




The opening act for Sugarland was the Indigo Girls, which may not mean a lot to most of you, but for my college friends (especially Eleanor), this was a big group for us in college. I had already seen them twice while we were at LSU. Because the traffic was so bad parking, I only got to hear them play a few songs, but the last one was Closer to Fine, which is the best! They still sound as great as they did almost 20 years ago.

Here are Amy and Emily (aka, the Indigo Girls):





Our seats were kinda far back, but they has this amazing TV screen in the middle so we could really see what was going on. Here is Jennifer (Nettles) singing her heart out. She sounds amazing and is very "peppy" on stage:





Jennifer and Christian:

This was a kind of "campfire" (as she put it) style version of one of our favorites:

This is how Katie spent most of the concert, dancing and singing. It was priceless, but the best part was that after every song, Katie would stand up and do the rocker fingers (you know, with the pointer finger and pinkie up, two fingers down in the middle) and give the Mrs. Julie "woo-hoo" as loud as she could. (too funny!)

I love this picture of Katie at her first "real" concert:

I should also say the Emma told me she was going to scream "I love Sugarland" at the end of a song ( kinda like she was "gettting crazy"), and she would after every other song or two, and it was so funny b/c you could barely hear it over the applause.... "I love you Sugarland!" My wild child!

When we were on our way out, we spotted the equipment trucks with the big "Sugarland" on the side and I was about to take a picture of my family with the trucks in the background, when someone offered to take a picture of the four of us. It turned out to be a great picture, but you can't really see the trucks in the background. Just take my word for it!

In summmary, a great time was passed by all!

As summer comes to an end

So as soon as we got back from San Antonio, we hit the ground running with events. Unfortunately school is now started, and I wish I felt more rested!

The Saturday after we got back from vacation, my college group and I got together to eat and drink because our "distant" member, Lesley was in town from Denver for a few weeks. After we coordinated all of our schedules, we decided to eat at Portabello's (very good) and then have a few drinks afterwards at Sullivan's? I think it was. Going to a bar type establishment made me happy I am out of the dating game. I think if I was ever single again ( God forbid), I would just adopt cats and become the "weird cat lady". Dating at 40 looks like way too much work for me!

Here is the only picture I took:

Anne Marie, Susan, Eleanor, Missy and Lesley




Wednesday night both of the girls had Open House at Northside. Here is a picture in the new All Purpose facility of the girls with Charleigh, who's mom teaches with me at Denham:




This is Katie and Emma's principal, Mrs. Anderson, who also happens to be our down-the-street neighbor:





Here is Katie on her first morning of school this past Friday. I can't get over how old she looks:



... and her is Katie and Emma. Emma is going back to her daycare for one week b/c Kindergarten doesn't start for another week. Check back for pictures of Emma in her "big girl school" uniform next week!