2nd Grade Math Homework.

First of all, let me start tonight's "reflection" with this....I don't recall Sister Euphrasia sending me home with homework in Second Grade ever. Now that I am nearing 39, I could just be forgetting it, but I swear, there was no homework.

I work all day...and I would like to think that I work hard all day. Then I come home and about 4 nights out of the week, I open Danielle's red Homework folder and there it is. SECOND GRADE MATH HOMEWORK. (Accelerated Math....not sure if that means its really third grade math or just really fast second grade math, but whatever...) I get that sense of panic every time I see that paper in the folder. It's just more WORK.

And tonight, it was 2 PAGES. UGH. One page takes like a half an hour (or in Danielle terms, one TV show).

Tonight we were solving "function boxes". We had to figure out the function of the box...addition or subtraction. And then we had to decide where the numbers on the box should go, and of course there was ALWAYS a missing number that we, according to Danielle, had to "think really hard to figure out". AND THEN, we had to make up a story problem about our function box. They would give us a topic, and we had to make up a problem.

(And tonight, one of the story problems was about bananas. All I could think of is that Cousin Zoe doesn't like bananas.)

So, we spent some time tonight with addition and subtraction...we borrowed from the tens place and moved it to the ones place...just because you can. (Danielle asked me "how come we can just do that?" several times tonight and "Just because you can" was all I could come up with to answer her.)

We wrote stories about bananas, and M&M's, and apples and shoes.

And then Danielle asked the age old question...."Mommy, do you use function boxes at work?" I honestly had to fight back the giggles on this question....because I too was trying to figure out when the heck she will ever use a function box. So I told her that "Yes, Baby, I use function boxes at work all the time. They are very important."


One night down for this week, hopefully only 3 nights of math homework to go....

Rolling pin, Schmolling pin

So, I decided to make "Michigan Meatballs" for dinner tonight. We only really have meatloaf or meatballs here if we have ground pork and veal from home to make it with.

As Danielle sat and did her homework, I decided to throw together the meat. I always tell myself that "One of these days, Im going to buy myself a rolling pin to crush the crackers with". I never seem to actually buy said rolling pin though. I usually end up putting the crackers in a zip lock baggie and just squishing them with my hands.

Until today. I was standing at the pantry looking for the zip locks when I had a light bulb moment. I literally said out loud..."I don't need a stinking rolling pin". Brian and Danielle looked at me a little more oddly than normal, but they figured it was better not to ask.




Cracker crumbs anyone?

Whitewater Meet

BJ was back in action this weekend after taking last weekend off with IT Band issues. He competed in the mile. This time today was a personal record...

I tool the liberty of posting the results here for you..you will not have to look very far down the list.....

CHECK OUT #2


Men 1 Mile Run
=======================================================================
Name Year School Finals Points
=======================================================================
1 Baran, Tom Carthage 4:30.04 10
2 Fuller, BJ Carthage 4:41.19 8
3 Wetzel, Russell Carthage 4:42.38 6
4 Garvey, Andrew Edgewood Col 4:42.49 5
5 Ackelsbrug, Louis Beloit Colle 4:42.74 4
6 Stein, Tyler Uw- Whitewat 4:44.89 3
7 Koenig, Eric Beloit Colle 4:45.70 2
8 Boushon, Connor Edgewood Col 4:47.50 1
9 Rate, Cameron Milwaukee Sc 4:48.76
10 Kolavo, Joe Milwaukee Sc 4:57.82
11 Colona, Nick Carthage 4:58.74
12 Jungers, Matt Milwaukee Sc 4:59.52
13 Coursey, Matt Milwaukee Sc 4:59.70
14 Zambetti, Joe Carroll Univ 5:01.72
15 Langner, Francisco Edgewood Col 5:01.87
16 Unangst, Keenan Milwaukee Sc 5:02.73
17 Meyer, Kevin Carroll Univ 5:05.21
18 Kim, Matthew North Park 5:05.47
19 Nyquist, Kaleb North Park 5:06.88
20 Jefferson, Nick North Park 5:07.09
20 Olk, Mike Milwaukee Sc 5:07.09
22 Williams, Jacob Beloit Colle 5:27.00
23 White, Steven Beloit Colle 6:02.40
-- Colbert, Steve Wisconsin Tr X4:34.94
-- Hall, Kyle Wisconsin Tr X4:35.52
-- Parker, Eric Greater Milw X5:05.62


Not bad for a freshman, is it? GO BJ!!! Perhaps DzizDzia can tell us how fast some other freshmen ran this same race in other meets in his free time.

We will be back in the stands next weekend to watch BJ back at another indoor meet in Kenosha.

FLASHBACK....

I am not sure how many of you know, but tonight is the Miss America Pageant. My daughter is VERY excited. (Don't tell her Daddy, but she is secretly cheering for Miss Michigan.)

She heard that she could play along while we were watching TLC. She found out that she could print out a ballot and judge the competition along with the real judges. When she heard it, she literally dropped what she was doing and RAN to the office to print off her ballot.

This made me think back to my days at 1712 Michigan Avenue, sitting in front of our TV watching the Miss America pageant when I was little. She is literally counting down the time until tonight's show starts. Just like I used to...SO SORRY to my Mom for all the times I asked if it was going to start yet. Since I woke up this morning, I bet its at least 25 times. Not only does she want to know how many hours, but also how many SECONDS. Currently, its One hour and Fifty five minutes til show time.

Room Makeover

So....Danielle had a sleepover at a Water park for her best friend Sarah's birthday this past Saturday. About midweek my husband sends me an email asking if I wanted to go for dinner and a movie that night since she will be gone. I'm not quite sure what came over me, but my reply went something like "how about if we surprise her and paint and redecorate her bedroom while she is gone?" And he said "Absolutely".


(Should that email ever come my way again, I will just reply "Absolutely".


But anyway. Danielle has recently switched rooms of the house...she has taken the old playroom on as her new bedroom. We had been discussing changing it for her for a while and she just couldn't settle on a color scheme. We went through a whole bunch of options....and we spent plenty of time searching on line for the perfect bedspread. She finally settled on a pink and black and white color palette.

BEFORE.....you can see the previous owners of the house had it painted a baby blue color....with a decorative fake fence....







AFTER....

It's a big girl room now. (Almost too big girl for Mommy)






We still have some wall space to fill, but you get the basic idea. We started work on Saturday morning at about 10:00 and finished up about 3:45 on Sunday afternoon. Danielle is happy so far. Hopefully she can grow with this room and we wont have to change it for a little while.

The Apple Story

Sunday is grocery shopping day. I try to get up early and get to the store while Danielle is still sleeping. Well, this weekend, I got a little bit of a late start. So Danielle got to help me write the grocery list. She decided amongst the many other things that she NEEDED to have, the most important was apples.

Since I have been old enough and responsible enough to purchase my own food, I have bought green apples...you know, Granny Smiths. For 7 years of her life...as long as she could eat them, Danielle has been eating my green apples.

Until today. "I want Busia and DziaDzia apples," she said.

"Huh?" I replied.

"Red apples. FRESH ones. Like Busia and DziaDzia have at their house." I think to myself that she is thinking "DUH MOM" as she is telling me this.

A quick text to my Mom and I now know what a "FRESH RED" apple is.

Danielle has eaten four of them since we brought them home yesterday.

THANKS to MY Mom for always having the right answer.

First College Track Meet

BJ had his first Indoor Track and Field meet today. We braved the snowy weather to arrive at Carthage around Noon.

BJ was scheduled to run in the 3000M. He did a GREAT job. He went out quite fast and just a few of those 3000M caught up with him. He finished in 5th place with a time of 9:55.

Thanks to Busia and DziaDzia for being there to cheer him on.

Looking forward to next weekend and another trip to Kenosha.

Keep your eyes here because I am certain that DziaDzia will have some fun facts about BJ's time once he compares it to others across the internet.

As a side note...Danielle has become quite fascinated by the women's Pole Vault.

Accelerated Reading Goal

Danielle has been working all year long to meet her Accelerated Reading Goal. She is supposed to read for 20 minutes a night, in addition to the ridiculously difficult 2nd grade math homework sheets that she has almost nightly. Have I mentioned that Mommy or Daddy doesnt usually get home til almost 6. Then there is the obligatory evening meal, bath and maybe some catching up on the days events. 2nd grade math is a lot harder now that I am 38 then it was when I was 7. But I digress...the math is a blog entry all on its own.

When the year started, she was slated to reach her year end goal of 10 points. See, after each book that she reads, she has to log on to the computer in her classroom and take a test. Most of the books for her supposed age range/reading level are worth anywhere between .5 to 1 point. She gets .1 points for each question she gets correct. It really stinks that she will spend two days reading a book with close to a couple thousand words and all she gets is a stinking point, but that's just my opinion.

Anyway...we finally met our goal after a reading frenzy over the holiday break. Now we are hopefully free and clear until 3rd grade. I am waiting for a curve ball to be thrown. But, hopefully, now we can just read for fun...no pressure.

And the reward...we get to decorate a paper fish. Despite Danielle's noted excitement over the ability to decorate the fish, I find myself feeling a little let down at "OUR" reward. I figure if i have to monitor her reading, i too should be included in the reward system. I was really hoping for something that WE didnt have to DO after WE just read all those books.

And I continue to wonder why a fish? Why not something that has something to do with reading, like say a BOOK...or perhaps a BOOKMARK?

Happy New Year!!! Here comes 2009!

Danielle has been asking for a New Year's Eve sleepover since the summer....maybe I am exaggerating. It seems like summer, but I think the girls have been cooking this one up since Thanksgiving. I didn't take much time off this year around the holidays so I waited until the week of Christmas to finalize the plans. We invited our friend Angelina to be our guest for the evening.

Danielle was very excited to plan. Well, she thought she was. Each time I asked her what they were going to do, she said "we are going to stay up PAST midnight". To which I replied "ok, but what are you going to do?"

SO, with no real plan (again, flying by the seat of my pants "fullerstyle" is not something I am completely comfortable with), I headed to the party store. I got hats, boa like necklaces, horns and clapper noisemakers. After all, they are only 6 and 7. I figured the champagne could wait a few years.

The girls wore their matching Hannah pajamas. (We bought Ang hers for her birthday this year and Danielle thought it would be fun to have matching ones for sleepovers...)



Can anyone tell me where my BABY went? Doesnt she look grown up with that straight hair?




And don't those little "party-ers" look wide awake? WAY PAST BEDTIME by this point. I think the girls fell asleep around 1 to 1:30. And I think i fell asleep about five minutes later. I haven't seen midnight on NYE since right after I got married. I hope that doesn't mean I'm getting old.




THAT photo is for the faithful readers....You KNEW it was coming. That poor dog.


Bj goes back to school today. Life returns to some sense of routine on Monday. YUCK. A full work week. Timber wanted to make sure she got some quality time with Bj before he left. Seems like he just got home really....



Bj's indoor track season starts January 10th. There are several home indoor meets this year. I am looking forward to getting some Carthage attire and cheering from the stands. (Danielle wants to holler "pick them knees up" with her DziaDzia). We are not yet certain what indoor events he is going to be a part of, but we have our eyes on some long standing Carthage records.

We haven't made any real resolutions here on Elderberry Lane...just trying to get through every day and do everything we needed to do. And maybe keep the house a little cleaner in the process.

We are switching Danielle's bedroom and redecorating for her. Giving her a "older girl/tween" feel to her room. I never thought i would say this, but I miss the Disney phase. Where are the Princesses? Where is Winnie the Pooh? What happened to the Wiggles? Now its all about Cheer, and Barbie, and Bratz, and American Girl, and old girl stuff. Time flies.


Stay tuned for that one. I can tell you that so far, it took Daddy 7 hours to put in the closet system. (Being fair to him, he did it for the most part by himself and the closet is the size of two reach ins...But it looks GREAT!!!) I stopped putting clothes and toys away yesterday after 3 hours of work. We need to purge some things. Today we are going to get boxes to label for donating. Danielle said she wants "someone else to have fun, too". What a sweet girl.

I better get busy. Sundays are never relaxing around here. Happy New Year!!!