What I Love about Sundays

Teddy Bear Picnic

COUPONS!

I attended my first coupon class today and it was so much fun!! I have been more of a voyeur than anything of the local couponers and have really wanted to get involved but I needed a push. That came tonight when I was picking up Chloe from the library and saw a cute little sign saying "couponers this way" so I followed the signs and found a whole room full of women exchanging coupons. Little did I know, the meeting was put together by a super cool gal named Jamie from Chattanooga Cheapskate. They meet in the Cleveland Public Library every other Tuesday to swap coupons and tell about the latest deals they have found. All it took is one meeting and I'm hooked. Two weeks seems like such a long time to wait to meet back up with everyone! If you like to save money at all, you should def. check out her site. She has tons pf great information on how to make the most of your money plus her blog is really cute. So I have already met two sahms who want to get a moms group together in the Cleveland area and I met yet another one tonight. I am so excited how things are starting to come together. I have been stressing lately and have really felt the need to find some friends and get out of the house. I have been cooped up with Harrison for a while, I hope these ladies can handle me. So if there are any Cleveland ladies out there reading along, we are looking for some stay at home moms who want to get together and let the kids play while having a little grown up conversation. Hopefully we can get some sort of schedule soon with times to meet. Let me know if any of you moms out there in blogger land have any tips on putting a group like this together. Thanks!

What I Love about Sundays

BABE

Harrison's new favorite movie is babe. Surely you all remember the one about the talking pig? He calls it the "kig movie" and I always have trouble figuring out what he is saying. I don't really understand his obsession with this movie but he loves it. Its better than watching spongebob I guess. We actually are trying to wean him off that cartoon. One of the trials of having such a gap in age between the kids is that Chloe is into things that Harrison just isn't old enough to partake in. One such thing is the choice of television programs. I was very careful once Chloe started watching T.V. to monitor everything she watched and for the most part, she only watched VeggieTales and PBS. I did not allow anything having to do with magic or anything violent. I still don't allow her to watch PG13 movies unless I have seen them and okayed them. I have relaxed a bit on the shows I let her watch now that she knows what is real and what is fake.

The problem I have run into is that Harrison is usually in the living room while she is watching her shows. I don't want her to have to go to her room just to watch television but I can't just ban Harrison from the living room either. What generally happens is that he ends up watching the shows with Chloe and now we have to face the fact that he loves Spongebob,Hannah Montana & icarly. Now I don't really have a problem with these shows but I don't know if it is good for Harrison to watch them. Is it hurting him at all? I know he picks up on things quite easily so if he is going to watch t.v. wouldn't his time be better spent watching something educational? Monty and I have just recently realised that we need to be aware of what we watch while Harrison is in the room. I know that I am not going to watch Greys Anatomy with Chloe in the room because the content is too mature for her but I didn't give a second thought to Harrison being in the room. After all,I thought, he is just a little guy and has no clue what is happening. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I read somewhere the other day that children even as young as Harrison who are exposed to adult programming(im not talking x-rated! just fighting,violence,sexual innuendo,yelling,etc.)grow up with a different perception as to what is acceptable. They almost become desensitized to it. They may not be watching everything that happens but as they are sitting in the floor playing with cars, they hear it all. Soooo, we have tried to remember that and hope to be more aware of the background noise.
Any thoughts on this bloggers? Anyone have any experience with this or advice they want to share?
I am open to suggestions!

Obama's School Speech to Kids with Transcript & Text

Today, President Obama made a speech to school children across America. If you're curious about the transcript and text of his speech you can view it in full below as his prepared remarks were released by The White House Media yesterday. The very idea of his speech has caused a bit of controversy, but I'm impressed with this effort.

I attended public school my entire life and my memory may be failing me thanks to Mom Brain, but I don't ever remember a Presidential address aired in our schools. I find his message inspirational and I like how he is trying to share the value of an education with everyone across America despite the varied circumstances or hardships many aspiring students may face.

Here are the prepared remarks taken directly from the White House Media release.

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Here's one for CakeWrecks

This wonderful concoction of sugar and flour is available for purchase at our local bakery. Now this place makes a great cake and have produced some amazing looking desserts but if this is the new trend for the baby shower, count me out. lol.

All I'm saying is, how do you cut this thing? I'm wondering if the guest of honor will want to be the first to dig in to it? It gives a whole new meaning to the term "baby cake." Who wants the head?!?!

slip n slide

Chloe and her best bud Leah had a blast the other day on the slip n slide chloe received from her grandparents. I used to have so much fun on those things when I was a kid. We got it all set up, unfortunately we don't have any sloping areas in our yard, and got the hose attached to it. Chloe took off running and looked like she was going to get some real distance. You can imagine our surprise when she only went a foot or so and came to a quick stop. Apparently you have to grease those things down to get some good action.

We sent Monty inside to fetch the dish soap. we got the whole thing coated down with some Dawn and it was nice and slick. 

                                       They were tired of waiting and were ready to go!

Chloe was up first and took off, she was cracking me up with her tongue sticking out.

pure joy!

Leah tried it surfer style but still ended up on her belly. She almost flew off the end!

Those two are always acting crazy. I think they both are starting to feel the stress of being in 6th grade. Leah's mom and I talk often about the mood swings and "attitude problems" the girls seem to have every single day. Chloe and I have always been pretty close and I have always been more of an ally than enemy but lately we just can't seem to get along. I think the battle of the hormones is about to ensue. I have been spending time in prayer about this especially as she is so vulnerable and impressionable right now. 

I know that I can't control who she talks to and what she is exposed to all the time but I am shocked at some of the things I hear are going on with kids she knows. The number of pregnant girls at her MIDDLE SCHOOL is insane. I am torn in how I feel about these kids being allowed to continue going to school while their little bellies are growing more and more. I know that more than anything, these girls need to be encouraged to continue their education but I don't like the idea that my child is spending time at school with them and is offered the idea that if you get pregnant, everything is o.k. and you get to just act like nothing has changed. If anything, it is a novelty to be pregnant, everyone paying attention to you and giving you special treatment. Pregnancy is a time to be pampered and taken care of but it isn't something a teen should be dealing with. anyway, enough of my ranting. Have a great day!