January 21-23, 2011

The next scrap/craft weekend is scheduled for January 21-23, 2011 in Watertown at the Holiday Inn Express. Contact me for more info.

Kicked in the...

Last Saturday Maddy played in her last soccer game of the season. At one point, early in the game, she got hurt. I had my back turned, watching Micah's team and hadn't seen how her injury occurred. All I knew was that there wasn't any blood and she was up running around in no time at all.

At half-time, Maddy came running over to me and asked me to help tie her shoe. As I did this, she said, "Mom, did you see me get hurt before? I got kicked right in the nuts!"

Trying not to burst out laughing, I simply replied, "Maddy, remember, girls don't have nuts, they have vagi..." and she cut me off in mid-sentence with, "I know, I know, but that's where I got kicked!"

Micah's Future Career

Micah wants to be a parking guy at Disney. He takes his parking very seriously. He just motioned me into the garage with a great deal of enthusiasm. Body language - hand motions, head bobs, and the ever needed "whoaa" when you have parked as far up as needed.

Water Bottle

Today was the JC Elementary School Field Day at UW Whitewater. Micah and Maddy were both very excited about it. I feel the need to share this story in hopes that you can all say a little prayer for me now and for the next, oh, let's say 15-20 years...

Maddy was up very early this morning in anticipation of today's trip. As we were packing lunches, she grabbed one of her cold water bottles, looked at it and said, "Mom, just my name on the bottle is not enough. We need to write 1-OD. Let me get a Sharpie." The kids are trained to label everything at school with their grade and the first letter of their teacher(s) last name, hence 1-OD. Anyway, Maddy goes to the cupboard to get a Sharpie, picks up the water bottle, which is very sweaty, and says, "This damn water bottle is too wet. The Sharpie won't work."

Of course, I respond by asking, "What did you just say?" And Maddy responds, "This damn water bottle is wet and the Sharpie won't work."

I try not to laugh and explain to her that "damn" is a swear word. She proceeds to cry...

Just another nice normal morning at the Garvey's.

Pitch Hit & Run

A couple of weekends ago was the Aquafina Pitch Hit & Run competition out at the Farmington ballpark. The plan was that as soon as Mike got back to town, he would stop out at the soccer field so that as soon as Micah's soccer game was done they could race out to Farmington for a regular practice and then the competition. Maddy decided to go with, which gave me time at home to work on my final semester projects. Yipeee!!

Mike called after the competition to let me know that BOTH kids participated and they had a great time. Wow! I was surprised to hear that Maddy did it because she has never had an interest whats-so-ever in t-ball, little league, or softball. But I thought to myself, what the heck, more power to her.

This evening I was going through school folders and in Maddy's was a sealed envelop with her name on it. Odd....it looked like an adult's hand-writing. So, being the curious mom that I am, I opened it, only to find two blue ribbons and a letter indicating that Maddy had won her division as All-Around Champ and Running Champ. Those of you who know Maddy know that she's just about as athletic as you can get. She was born an athlete.

The dilemma...other than Micah being crushed when he finds this info out, is, do we take her to Middleton for sectional competition????? My gut instinct says "no".

What are your thoughts on this? Please let me know...

It's only been seven months...

Seven months since my last post...that's not soooo bad!!!!

Once again, my friends keep telling me I need to write down some of the crazy stuff that goes on here at the Garvey house....

My mom once said she thought that some people (those who don't know me real well) might read some of these posts and think less of me or of my family - really, mom, are you serious!!!!?!!!!! Read my previous post (March 3, 2009), if you really want to know how I feel about that comment and how this blog began : )

Earlier this week Maddy was having a fit before school(pretty typical). It went like this...

"Moooommmmm, please help me get dressed, pleaaaasssseeee! Mom, if you don't help me NOW I will get sick and die!! Moooommmmmm, I don't want to die!!!!!"

In my head I said, "Whatever little brat!" She continued on for approx 30 minutes. she finally got dressed, she was as healthy as can be, and is alive to tell about it.

Pebble Up the Nose

Oh my, it's been a long time since I posted anything here. I had received a little pressure from my friend J.C. a couple months ago about this, but I blew it off. I'm hoping now that my family is settling into a routine with me working and the kids are back in school, my blogging will pick up : )

There's an excellent story to be told...a Maddy story, which seem to occur more often than not!

I first must give you a little background information, which Mike and I believe is NOT related to what Maddy did yesterday. Over the course of the past few years, basically since Micah was in 5K in Sauk Prairie, where he was in a team-taught classroom (2 teachers and 30 kids in one large classroom), Mike and I have been huge fans of the whole team-teaching concept (when done the right way). So, as the needs arose, Mike began talking with the elementary staff here in Johnson Creek about team-teaching, the benefits of it etc. In '08-'09 two teachers approached Mike indicating they would like to learn more out about teaming. Mike and the teachers set up a day to go to Sauk Pr. to see first hand what it was all about. The teachers came back very excited and implemented all kinds of strategies and techniques into their team-taught 5K classroom last year, which Maddy was in. As staff members began to hear more about how these teachers were really liking the experience and the students were benefiting in so many ways, Mike began to talk more and more with people. One of the examples he would give as to why teaming is good is that with two teachers actively engaged in teaching the lessons, if there is some sort of "crisis", Johnny has a break down, Suzy has a skinned knee, or someone gets a pebble stuck up their nose, the whole class does not need to come to a halt, rather, one teacher takes over the lesson while the other one deals with the "issue". It all makes perfect sense! Mike said these things to staff members, not to students or his own daughter : )

Anyway, I was at work yesterday, and remarkably, did not hear any word of Maddy's day until after school, which is weird in itself.

Long story short, Maddy is in a newly formed team-taught classroom this year in 1st grade (taught by two of my dear friends). Maddy came in from recess yesterday and went up to one of her teachers and said she had a pebble up her nose. I haven't talked to either of her teachers yet, but I'm sure they were like, "Oh great, the superintendent's kid has a pebble up her nose." I'm imaging that they check my schedule first, saw that I was at work, then called up to Mike's office. He said he'd be down, but that he was in the middle of something so it would be a bit, and that they had definitely not called the sympathetic parent. Maddy's teacher (which ever one was dealing with this "issue") told her that her dad would be down in a little bit to take a look. Upon hearing that Mike was going to have to come down from his office, Maddy covered up the nostril that was pebble free and began blowing out the blocked one really hard. Eventually, she blew that pebble right out!!!! Mike was called off and everyone's school day continued.

When I asked Maddy about this she told me that someone had KICKED the pebble into her nose!!!!!!! I later found out that that's also what she told her teachers. Whatever!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team teaching is a great thing - especially if you have kids sticking pebbles up their noses!!!!!!