Samantha Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands

Samantha took the plunge into bangs. She loves her long hair. It has plenty of body & some waves when it's wet, but, she likes it long & straight. This week she decided she wanted bangs and cut it herself. Yes, herself. Dad later straightened out her line. Voila - Samantha with bangs.

We think it looks great.

Seventeen Again...

James and I had a huge night! We were seventeen again. Thanks to ebay, we scored two tickets to a concert that neither James nor I had seen before - the one and only, AC/DC. We were even able to snag a ride with some fellow "seventeen year olds", our friends Matt and Megan. Together we experienced an awesome show - AC/DC, the Black Ice Tour.

AC/DC has a new album out and after more than thirty years as rock icons, they were amazing. As I was standing on the concrete of the first risers, I could feel every joint in my body pounding with the intense music. The guitar solos were long and driving and just straight amazing. I have been to many, many shows in my life, but, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like Angus Young. Wow. Brian Johnson's voice sounded clear and solid and it was as if we stepped right inside the music. Loud doesn't begin to explain how high the volume was. Wow, loud. It was fantastic, and for the night, we were lost in the music and the show.

We were seventeen again.

Squeaky Kids ...

I love my kids at times like "these" (I use the word these to substitute for what you, my reader, can obviously see and for what I want the unknown Google-er to not see...). I love the togetherness, the fun and the nurturing of the "I'll take care of you" attitude my ladies have for their little baby boy. And man, that's a lot of water in the tub, right? :)

Ten Minute Switch

In the ever constant battle of teaching my children to love work, respect property and generally be helpful, kind citizens....I have implemented yet another system of chores. We called it the 10-minute switch. It went something like this: First, we take a "tour" of the house. We go from room to room as a group and talk about what needs doing. Then, each child (me included!) chooses a room. For ten minutes, you clean up in that room. When the ten minute bell rings, you switch rooms and pick up where the last person left off. When a room is finished, the person who would have gone to that room joins someone else in another room, until all the rooms are done. Besides a few glitches, like sharing the vacuum and don't take out the trash until everyone is finished, it went pretty well. I think it helped that we were not tied to a room, so you always had that prospect of moving on to motivate you. Ten minute works well, too, since it is enough time to get into something without having too long to get distracted. We'll keep this system up until they get complacent, again, and be off to the next one. What do you do?

SnowMan?

We had the play-doh out the other day and I this one one won the contest for best design - especially with Rachel's comment attached to it - "Ma, look, this might be the only snowman I get to make this year!" So true, Rachel, so true. At least it's a great one!

What comes around, goes around ...

We had a big day for the tooth fairy today at the Ball Team house...First - Charlotte lost her first tooth! It has been loose for about three days, and she has fiddled with it plenty. Today it was just hanging on, so I told her to pull it and out it came. Yeah! She already has one other loose one. Second, Jay has pushed his first tooth through! It's on the bottom and he uses it with vigor, so don't put your fingers in his mouth! He didn't co-operate for a picture of the tooth itself, so we'll just take this cute one with big sister Samantha.

Need A Laugh???

I received this e-mail and thought I would share: (thanks, Sonia)

Life Lesson - Always check your

child's homework before it gets to school!
When asked to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up, second-grader "Sarah" turned in the lovely drawing shown below. Needless to say, the teacher was a bit surprised -- Mrs. Smith had always seemed like such a conservative woman. So she sent a note home to the girl's mother asking for clarification as to the picture's meaning.

(read Mom's reply below the picture)

(Here's the reply the teacher received the following day)
Dear Mrs. Jones, I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check Sarah's homework more thoroughly before she turns it in. Sincerely, Mrs. Smith