Secretly, Joey and I were planning to surprise them with the trip, just like the commercials on TV.  We were set to leave on Tessa’s birthday, so it seemed like a great plan. 

We woke the kids up at 4:00 am and told them that mom wanted to see Tessa open her presents before she left for Disney Land.  When Tessa reached into the bag, she pulled out a t-shirt.  Nate read what it said, “It’s my Birthday…”  and then the back, “and I’m going to Disney Land”!  She also pulled out $50 from grandma for spending money.  Nate then started to cry…an ugly cry.  Then, we pulled out his t-shirt and money.  (His birthday is a week later)  We then went straight to the airport and flew to California. 

Needless to say, the kids had a great time.  They were especially cute with my students.  They had a lot of fun “showing” them around and riding rides with them.  I think they were better “peer buddies” than the actual peer beddies.  I think it will be a birthday they’ll always remember. 

Each year, a major award is given at Viewmont High School.  The PTSA takes nominations for the “Viking Service Award” to recognize people that have contributed and served the school in various capacities. 

I look forward to this awards night each year because it’s a great opportunity for me to nominate my staff, peer tutors and students to receive an award.  I’m proud to say that my nominations have been chosen every single year…until THIS year!

I nominated several people for the award this year, but much to my dismay, none were chosen.  On the bright side, I was chosen to receive an award this year! 

Two of my students nominated me for my awesome-ness and were able to present me with this major award.  Although it felt strange to receive an award rather than give one, it felt good just the same. 

It’s also fun to go around saying that you’ve won a “major award”.

Fundraising.  What a pain in the !@#$#$# it is!    I made a lot of mistakes a long the way, but learned a lot of lessons.  Lesson #1:  Start early.  Lesson #2:  Enlist help from others. 

We started with suckers.  Lots and lots of suckers.  We sold them for $1 each, which was about a 90% profit.  Not bad.  I made nearly 1800 suckers and my students sold them during lunches. 

We moved on to a bake sale.  Not as profitable, but brought us a couple hundred.

We tried Rubios.  Got a wopping $57 from them.  Lame

We held a car wash with Firehouse Car Wash.  We ended up with nearly $500 from that.

Our last attempt was working to sell Mrs. Cavanaughs chocolates.  We were able to sell enough to make nearly $2000. 

With our fundraising and some generous donations, we were able to take our trip.  Every one of our buddies (students with disabilities) had their trip completely paid for.  I was very proud.  The students had a wonderful trip and  it was so much fun.  It was definitely worth all of the time I spent making those damn suckers. 

You see, I’m fat. 

I’ve always been fat.  I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fat.  I was even born fat! (10 pounds 10 1/2 ounces)

Some of my fat can be explained (rationalized) by the fact that I have a thyroid issue and PCOS (polysystic ovarian syndrome).   I could blame it on my three pregnancies (but truth be told, I actually lost weight when pregnant).  I might want to blame my genetic code, or my parents for making me go on weight watchers when I was 10.  I could blame them all.

But, the truth is that I have no one to blame but myself. 

I have an eating disorder, only not the kind that makes you skinny.  The other kind.  I eat too much.  I binge and don’t purge.  I can’t stop myself.

I have done unthinkable things at times.  I once hid a cake in the bathroom.  I’ve eaten food from the top of the garbage can (just like George on Seinfeld).  I have kept secret “stashes” of food. 

I eat when I’m happy, I eat when I’m sad.  I use food to celebrate, I use food to make me feel better.  Oh, and I also use food just to stay awake.   It is a huge problem.  Sometimes I wonder if I’ll really ever be free from it.  It is an addiction of the worst kind. 

I’ve tried many different “diets” over the years.  I’ve lost quite a bit of weight on some of them….but the weight always creeps back on.  I just can’t seem to get this monkey off my back. 

I’ve never really talked about my monkey publicly.  I guess that it’s hard to admit that you have an addiction.  I’m wondering if this might be the key to keeping me accountable for my actions.   I need to go through all 12 steps, I imagine. 

So, step one:  admit you have a problem.  I do.  I really really do.

I also love to be creative and make homemade Valentines.  That’s right, no store-boughten Valentines for my kids!

Goldfish crackers were on sale, AND I had coupons, which made them very cheap.  I decided to attach a fish valentine to a baggie full for Miles to take to his daycare buddies.

Tessa decided that she wanted to do some little flowers.  We cut hearts from cute paper, punched holes, and inserted a dum dum for the center.  She had fun making them with me, and signed her name on the petals. 

Nathan gave some glow sticks mascarading as arrows through his heart.  The caption read, “You make my heart GLOW”.  He did not enjoy making them, and I had to plead with him to get them finished.  He did them, eventually. 

For the teachers, I bought some heart magnets at the dollar store and packaged them up.   Then, we called them “love magnets”. 

Did I spend way too much time making these Valentines?  Yes.  Were they fabulous?  Yes.  Are you jealous?  Probably.

The very most challenging part of this ropes course was called the “Eagle’s Nest”.  It’s a 50 foot pole with a lazy susan on top.  About ten feet away from the pole was a trapeze bar.  Each person was to put on a very uncomfortable harnass, climb to the top of this pole, stand on the “Eagle’s Nest” at the top, and then jump to the trapeze and hopfully hold on to it. 

I am not only scared of heights, but I’m also extremely clumsy.  I still haven’t gotten over this experience…obviously. 

I climbed the dang pole, I even stood on the top of the “nest”, and then I jumped.  Too bad I closed my eyes, or might have grabbed hold of the trapeze.  Instead, I fell, until the harnass caught my fall. 

I did NOT feel like an eagle.  Just saying. 

Last week, we had the opportunity to see some real eagles nesting at Farmington Bay.  It was “Bald Eagle Day”, so we thought we’d check it out.  It was a fun little outing. 

Nate did not appreciate the fact that these birds were out in the open.  He wanted to see a caged one…up close and personal.  Perhaps next time, we’ll bring some binoculars for him.  They did have a few telescopes to view the eagles, but neither of my children know how to close the correct eye.  They kept closing the eye that was looking into the telescope!  Then, they complained that they couldn’t see the birds.  They were un-impressed and wanted to leave.  I took their picture first:

The kids felt better about the whole experience once we found our way to the visitor’s center.  Tessa made an eagle finger puppet and Nate got to stretch out his arms to measure them against an eagle’s.  We finished off with a little nature walk where Tessa complained and complained about walking. 

Despite my children’s unamusement with this free family outing, I still have to say that it was a lot better than my first experience with an eagle’s nest.

I know that it’s not good to combine Christmas with birthday, but what the heck.  I went with a Christmas activity/theme.  I figured that he’s too little to know any better.  So, I may as well take advantage, right?  Here’s a picture of the invitation.  The caption reads, “My mom swears this is the ONLY Christmas-themed party I ever have to have”.

I had everyone meet at Christmas Village in Ogden.  I had prepared a travel mug, marshmallows, and a candy cane for each participant in which they filled with some delicious homemade hot chocolate.  We sipped our hot chocolate while browsing through all of the light displays and paid a visit to St. Nick.  The kids had a blast.  They loved looking into all the little houses and seeing all the cute displays.

After the lights, we all traveled to my in-law’s condo, which is nearby.  We let Miles eat his very own little snowman cake. He loved it, but he only ate about half of it.  I used two bowls for the cakes.  I decorated it with white frosting, white chocolate shavings to look like snow, and orange slice for the nose, two junior mints for the eyes, licorice for the mouth, chocolate licorice for the arms, a fruit roll up for the scarf, and gumdrops for the buttons.  It turned out very cute, if I do say so.

After Miles was done demolishing his cake, we served the bigger version.  I made this one almost exactly the same way, except I made it an ice cream cake.  I used mint chocolate chip ice cream and white cake.  I also made the buttons a bit bigger by using starlight mints beneath the gumdrops.  Should you ever attempt this cake, you should measure your freezer space and plan accordingly.  I had to run to the store for dry ice so that this guy wouldn’t melt.  Luckily, it turned out great and everyone liked the cake a lot.  It was very yummy.

Miles opened his presents while we ate our cake.  He had a great time and slept well that night.  It turned out to be a very fun (and fabulous) birthday party.

And I might add that those 365 days FLEW by!  It’s hard to imagine that little Miles could be a whole year old already.  But, it’s equally hard to imagine life without him.

As many of you know, Miles was a little “accident”.  We were just planning to have two children.  I always kind of “felt” like I needed three, but I resisted that feeling and we decided that Joey would get himself “fixed”.  And so he did.  Get fixed.

Joey was still sitting on frozen peas when I found out that Miles was on the way.  His fix was too late.  Miles had snuck in there, under the wire.

I don’t know if I believe in “meant to be” or not, but if there is such a thing, Miles is it.  He completes our family and I love him so much. I feel so lucky to be his mom.

Miles is a happy, healthy, and crazy one year old.  He is pretty wild and every diaper change is a WWF challenge (or so it seems).  He hates to sit still, to get his nose wiped, and napping for very long.  He loves to climb, crawl, stand, dance, and wrestle. He likes to growl and knows how to wave.    He has eight teeth, but not a lot of hair.  His favorite food is sweet potatoes.  Some of his nicknames are Milo, Milosh, Miles D. Diles, and Suebick (Tessa’s).

It’s been a very fun 365 days.

Often, people wonder how it is that I have time to do all of these fabulous things while having three young children, one older child (Joey), and work full time (in a difficult job). 

Well, today’s your lucky day.  I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

I have a sweat shop. 

You see…I have peer tutors throughout the day.  These are regular education students that take my class to learn how to work with students that have disabilities.  

Periodically, I have special education students that are absent.  When this happens, my peer tutors have nothing to do. 

Because I’m a nice teacher and wouldn’t want them to become bored, I make them my slaves.  They put together invitations, mail my Christmas cards, construct Valentines and decorations.  It’s wonderful, really. 

Don’t judge me.  They like it.  Honest.

We have been wanting to get together ever since the infamous trip to Vegas, and we FINALLY made it!!  We took Ge Ge to a movie, to see “Secretariat”. 

We ate a lot of popcorn, smuggled peanut m&ms, and Coke Zero.  Ahhh, my favorite combination. 

We laughed about how I like to have a “BM” popcorn…butter in the middle.  Then, Amy let us all know how a BM popcorn usually gives her an AFR…accidental fecal release. 

I always have a bit of a stomach ache from laughing too hard when I’m with these girls.