Krause Family Blog

Snow Day

2012-02-13T18:18:00.000-06:00

This time last year, I had had several snow days. It seemed like the snow will never stop. Clint got stuck trying to get out of the sub-division during one of those snows, and couldn't get to work. A normal 20 minute drive from my school to Dade's school took almost 1 hour and a half and resulted in me pushing the car at one point while Clint drove.

This year however is a completely different story. The first snow was on December 6th, and I wouldn't really call it a snow. It was a mere dusting and somewhat pathetic. If it's only going to snow a bit, I'd rather it didn't snow at all. That was it, until a few weeks ago, when again we got another dusting. I was beginning to lose all hope of a snow day. Teacher's love them just as much as the kids do. It's a nice surprise getting that early morning phone call (or text message in my case) that we don't have school. When this year's school calendar was being created, we put in ten extra days to account for all the possible snow that we might get this year. Yeah, those won't be necessary.

So today, Feb. 13 of 2012, was my first official snow day. And what did I do? Well, besides going outside for about 20 minutes to help build the first snowman of the season, nothing. The medicine that I'm on for my mishap last week (I sliced my thumb open on a glass while doing the dishes) has literally made me want to do nothing but sleep. I'll be glad to have that stuff out of my system in time for Dade's bowling party next Sunday. I was happily watching Dade play with his cars and race track this morning, and next thing I know I'm waking up 30 minutes later. I then went back to bed and go up around 1pm when a neighbor kid knocked on the door thus creating chaos in the house between Slinky barking and Dade yelling at him to stop.

Here are some pictures from our little snow day fun!

For Christmas my co-teacher Patrick and his family gave us a snowman building kit. Inside the red hat was the scarf, pine cones, nose, and buttons. It also had the original Frosty the Snowman movie, and some yummy treats. We've been waiting since then to use it. We made a simple head (mainly because Clint and I didn't have any gloves), but it turned out quite nicely. Dade was rather excited about it.

Dade is always wanting to shove the driveway, so Clint gave him the snow shovel. He felt very big because we let him help clear everything out.

Dade got tired quickly after shoveling the driveway. Luckily, Clint was there to lend a helping hand.

It was nice to have an extra day off and spend it with Clint and Dade. The next two weeks are going to busy around here. Our 6th wedding anniversary is the 18th, Dade's birthday party is the 19th (Robot Themed Bowling Party), Clint's big 3-0 is the 24th, and then Dade's actual birthday the 26th.

Fun filled times ahead.

My Almost 4 Year Old

2012-02-05T08:01:00.001-06:00

I cannot believe that in a few short weeks Dade will be four. That is just mind blowing. I am not exactly sure where the time as gone. It feels like not that long ago we were bringing him home from the hospital for the first time. We took him yesterday to get his pictures taken. He doesn't particularly enjoy posing ( you cannot tell this from the pictures, but it is true), so we had him pick out his own outfits and let him bring some of his favorite things. He picked out a really cute outfit that had dinosaurs on it, and decided to bring his "baby". Then Friday night while we were at Target, he got all excited because they had a shirt there that looked like a shirt Clint would wear, but for little boys. He said he had to have that shirt for his pictures. He then told me that he wanted to take his drum sticks with. He actually wanted to take his whole drum-set, but we told him that he couldn't do that. Here are the results of the pictures. The results were too cute, even though we had a breakdown between the first outfit and the second.

My little baby boy is turning into a very handsome young man!

To Sell or Not to Sell: That Is The Question

2012-01-08T18:17:00.001-06:00

Everything I look at in the house has this glow around it. The glow is whether to sell the piece of furniture or to keep it because I can use it where ever we end up. Last time we moved it was a literally a few blocks, and we went into this purge and burn mode. If we had not used it since living at the Summit House ( all of our homes are referred to has the street name it was) then we got rid of it. Trash diggers in the KC area loved our house for like a month.

I guess I should back up a few here. This move won't be somewhere else in the KC metro area, it will either be across the country or across the big blue pond. It's been a dream of mine since I started teaching to get into the DODEA system and teach on military bases. It is a long process to get into. I started the process in August in 2010. After a year and a half, my account went into the "active" status and I have interviewed for a several different jobs. The first job was for a job in Italy. That job went to someone that was already in Europe and could get their quicker. The second job was for Puerto Rico. Finally there was the Alaska job interview. Both the Italy job and the Alaska job were for the Base Youth Center, not in the classroom. I actually would like something out of the classroom. After being in the classroom for 6 years, I am ready for some sort of shift. I don't want out of education, just something new.

I check the USAJobs.gov website daily to see if there are any new postings, as well as the DODEA website now that it's getting into the hiring time for next school year. We really want Europe. It would be an amazing chance to live as cheaply as possible and then travel all over the place with Dade. Once you get into the system you have a better chance of getting the "dream" jobs in Europe.

Okay, so back to the beginning of this post. Clint and I seem to be on the same page with what to keep and what to sell. What it will come down to in the end is if we have to move ourself (state-side) or if we will get moved by the government. Most of the large furniture will go. Mainly because we won't know the size of the new place. Dade's stuff we will keep, his bed, toys, etc . . . We already have a list of things we are ready to let go of, now I just have to get pictures taken, and the listings put on Craigslist. The nice thing about moving is the adventure of getting to the new place and setting everything up how you want. It is always fun to decorate a new place.

In the coming months, there will be a new adventure for our little piece of the Krause Clan. I plan to blog about it along the way. 2012 brings us into a new adventure!

Somewhat Therapeutic

2012-01-08T16:03:00.001-06:00

I am writing this while I watch my laundry spin in the dryer. I am not exactly sure what makes coming to the laundry mat relaxing and calming. In all honesty, I LOATHE doing laundry. It takes so much time to wash everything, dry everything, then fold it, and finally put it away. I would much rather be doing something else. However, coming to the laundry mat is a very different experience in and of its self from doing laundry at home.

First of all, if you come at the right time of day ( which for our laundry mat is weekdays and Sunday mornings) there is hardly anyone around. You get your run at the machines, and can wash five loads ( or more) at once. That right there makes my day. Nothing like unloading all your baskets to get them all washing at the same time. Second, its rather quiet. Again that goes along with number one of knowing the right time of day to come. I can last Saturday in the morning and it was a nightmare. Everyone and their brother was in here doing their laundry, and I had machines going throughout the entire laundry mat, which makes it difficult to watch your stuff. Lesson learned: only come Saturday morning if completely necessary. Finally, you see an eclectic group of people at the laundry mat. When I was here last weekend a mom was teaching her son math by playing UNO. She made him count off the left over cards and keep track of all the scores. Today a lady was working on a hand stitched quilt while her laundry was going. Then you have people like me who come in with their iPad and write a blog about doing laundry at a laundry mat, how profound.

Like anything, there are pros and cons of doing your laundry at the mat, but for us the pros seem to out weigh the cons. With moving in our very near future, we don't want to invest in a new washer if we cannot take it with us. For now, we will make our little trips to the mat a few times a week to get what we need done. It's always an adventure, that's for sure.

Reading Goal

2012-01-01T19:57:00.001-06:00

This time last year, I made a challenge to myself. Clint purchased my NookColor as a Christmas gift, and in less than a week, I had read the entire Hunger Games trilogy. I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had graduated with a 4.0 from Baker with my second Masters, and was blowing through books. I challenged myself to read 24 books. I figured I could attempt to read 2 a month, and see where it took me. Although I didn't reach my goal, I still feel pretty accomplished in reading 21 books in 2011. Here are the books that I read this past year. As you will see, I enjoy reading YA novels, and that the majority of them had something to do with vampires and/or werewolves. No, none of them were the Twilight Series. I was forced to read books 1 and 4 for a graduate course on Vampires in Literature, and they are trash for vampire literature, not to mention how the portray women to be helpless as well. (Didn't mean to go on a tangent there, sorry!) Without further ado, the books I read in 2011. Feel free to ask questions about the books. I will give you my honest opinion about them.

1. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

2. A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick

3. Fallen (Fallen, #1) - Lauren Kate

4. Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) - Maggie Stiefvater

5. Torment (Fallen, #2) - Lauren Kate

6. Marked (House of the Night, #1) - P.C. Cast

7. Jane Goes Batty (Jane Fairfax, #2) - Michael Thomas Ford

8. Betrayed ( House of the Night, #2) - P.C. Cast

9. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

10. Chosen (House of the Night, #3) - P.C. Cast

11. Untamed (House of the Night, #4) - P.C. Cast

12. Hunted (House of the Night, #5) - P.C. Cast

13. Tempted (House of the Night, #6) - P.C. Cast

14. Burned (House of the Night, #7) - P.C. Cast

15. Awakened (House of the Night, #8) - P.C. Cast

16. Witch & Wizard (Witch & Wizard, #1) - James Patterson

17. The Gift (Witch & Wizard, #2) - James Patterson

18. 11 Birthdays - Wendy Mass

19. Destined (House of the Night, #9) - P.C. Cast

20. The Secret of Zoom - Lynne Jonell

21. The Help - Kathryn Stockett

These are the books that I purchased, but still haven't finished yet. They are the first in line for this year.

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman

2. The Awakening (The Vampire Diaries, #1) - L.J. Smith

3. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg

4. The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen - Eric Berlin

5. Passion (Fallen, #3) - Lauren Kate

Currently I am reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. This year I am challenging myself to read 23 books. It's two more than last year, so we shall see! If you have any suggestions on what I should read, let me know. I am always up for suggestions. Believe it or not, I do like reading adult books as well, and stories that aren't about vampires.

*This was my first post using my iPad, and I am pretty excited about how easy it was!

Cookie Crazy

2011-11-12T18:30:00.001-06:00

I'm getting ready for my 3rd Annual Cookie Swap in the next month, and I've been on the hunt for a different type of cookie for this year. I found 3 potential cookies for the swap, and will be using Clint's family tomorrow as my guinea pigs. Here are the recipes that I've made tonight to try out:

Caramel Corn Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups coarsely chopped caramel popcorn
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
1 cup peanuts or chopped, toasted almond slices

PREHEAT oven to 375° F

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in popcorn, morsels and peanuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

** I think if I make this one for the Cookie Swap, I'll be purchasing Topsy Popcorn instead of the microwave Caramel Corn. **

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pudding Chip Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 pkg. (4 serving size) instant vanilla, butterscotch or chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

COMBINE flour and pudding mix in small bowl. Beat butter in large mixing bowl on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in brown sugar and baking soda until well combined. Beat in egg and egg white. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool on baking sheets 2 to 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

*** I used chocolate for this batch***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweet and Salty Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
2 cups coarsely broken rippled potato chips
1 cup small pretzel twists, broken into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup unsalted peanuts (optional)

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels, potato chips, pretzel pieces and peanuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

***This one really grabbed my attention with the combination of potato chips, pretzels and chocolate chips***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All the cookies are now cooling on my wire racks, and I'm interested to see what is liked the best tomorrow.

I really like the pudding ones because they are simple, but the Sweet and Salty have a pretty good taste too.

Choices, choices, choices!

Halloween!

2011-10-31T15:01:00.000-05:00

It's Halloween! In the spirit of the day, I thought I'd blog and post pictures of Dade's costumes over the years. I say over the years, but I for some reason cannot find pictures of Dade's first Halloween. I know that they must be somewhere digitally, but I cannot locate them. So without further ado,

Halloween 2009

EWOK Dade

Halloween 2010

Train Conductor Dade

Halloween 2011

Box Robot Dade

I am extremely happy with how his costume came out this year. Last year we asked if he'd like to be a train conductor, and he said yes. This year we asked what he wanted to be, and he said a robot. When asked what kind of robot he wanted to be, he responded with "A Box Robot." There's a game on the xbox that I enjoy playing called Costume Quest. He wanted to be the robot from that video game. Here is a picture of that robot and Dade's costume side by side

I'd say that Clint and I did a pretty good job of getting it to look like the original version. In the video game when the little kid in the costume knocks on a door of a house and there's a bad guy inside he turns into this

I firmly believe that Dade thinks that if there's a bad guy at a house tonight, that he will turn into this guy, and defeat them for candy. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens!

Happy Haunting from The Krause's!

Crock Pot Queen!

2011-10-02T17:24:00.001-05:00

Since starting back to work, I haven't had the energy to cook a meal after working 10+ hours. Clint has been amazing at helping with the cooking so I can come home and relax. We've been trying out a variety of crock-pot recipes so that he can get them ready in the morning, and then not worry about it until I get home. The recipes have been so delicious that I feel like I'm not being nice and sharing my yummy finds!

Easiest Dinner Ever!

Bag of frozen chicken tenderloins
8 oz. cream cheese
Can of black beans (rinsed and drained)
Can or corn (drained)
Can of Rotel

Put everything in the crock pot in the order they are listed above. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. Serve over rice.

I will say that this recipe is better the second day because it's thicker. I particularly enjoy this on a flour tortilla.

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1 can of stewed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato sauce

1 can of kidney beans (drained)

1 can of corn

1 package of taco seasoning

Small onion (diced) (optional)

Brown the ground beef on the stove. Mix all ingredients in the crock pot. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on High for 2 - 3 hours. Serve with cornbread and chips.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4-5 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1 large can of diced tomatoes

14 oz. can of enchilada sauce

1 medium onion, diced

1 can of chopped green chiles

1 tsp. minced garlic

32 oz. chicken broth

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

10 oz. frozen corn.

Place diced chicken, diced tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chilies, minced garlic and corn into the crock pot. Pour in chicken broth, add cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Stir. Cook on low for 5 - 6 hours or high for 2 -3 hours.

With 30 minutes or so left to go. Slice corn tortillas into strips. Lightly brush them with olive oil. Cook 10 - 15 minutes at 400. Garnish with tortilla strips, sour cream, cheese, or fresh avocado.

All of the above recipes came from this site.

Take my word that you will LOVE the above recipes. The following recipes are on deck for this week. I haven't tried them yet, but they sound delicious!

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons butter

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 onion, finely diced

2 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Place the chicken, butter, soup, and onion in a slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover. Cover, and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High. About 30 minutes before serving, place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker. Cook

until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

Beef Stew

2 pounds cubed beef stew meat

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 cubes beef bouillon, crumbled

4 cups water

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces

4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons cold water

Cook meet in oil over medium heat until brown. Transfer to crock pot. Dissolve bouillon in water and pour into crock pot. Stir in rosemary, parsley, and pepper. Stir. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and add into stew. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Recipes are from here.

Right now I have a Chocolate Fudge Pudding Cake in there. I found a very simple recipe. And I hope that it tastes amazing. I've been craving a chocolate cake. It smells delicious.

That's it for now. When I find more yummy crock pots recipes I will share them as well! If you've got some that are yummy, let me know!

I think I'll be putting one of these on my Christmas List! Think of the possibilities!

Philly

2011-07-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

Now that I've been back a few days from my trip to ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia, I can reflect on what I did and what I learned. I arrived on Friday before the conference to have a HUGE fiasco with the hotel. I was lucky enough to have the school pay for my entire trip. Hotel, airfare, and conference. I called the week before I left to make sure the reservations was set and that I didn't need any sort of documentation from the school for the hotel. I was assured that everything was okay. However, when I got there they said I needed the card from my school that I didn't have. I quickly started making phone calls to my principals, building manager, and the school's administrative assistant. I was able to get a hold of Savannah, our administrative assistant. She talked to the hotel person, who refused to take the credit card over the phone.

The kicker is, that they had the credit card on file on the computer, but she refused to run it. This went on for quite awhile. Finally, the hotel clerk, said she'd take all the cash I had plus my drivers license and give me a room for the night, but if they didn't get some form signed and faxed back to them by noon then I would have to leave. Talk about being completely and utterly frustrated and exhausted. I finally got to my room around 11pm and crashed. My principal wasn't happy about what happened, and he quickly took care of everything in the morning as well as talked to the hotel manager. I was able to get my money and ID back the next morning. For the rest of the trip, the 2 ladies that worked the desk at night were not very cordial with me, but I don't care. How do you take reservations over the phone? I mean don't you have to have a credit card to reserve the room. Lesson learned. Even if you call and confirm that everything is okay, take the authorization form anyway.

On Saturday I got up and headed over to the convention center. My hotel was right at City Center, and the convention center was a block from the hotel. Now, this place was HUGE. I later learned the 15 football fields can fit in this building, and I believe it. It's 3 floors of massive floor space. It was 4 city blocks long, and 1 city block deep. The thing was just massive. I walked the entire thing looking for the registration booths. My first two seminars that day were amazing. The first one was integrating technology into your lessons. I learned how to create bookmarks and flip-books in Word. Massive Posters in Excel, and puzzles in PowerPoint. My second seminar was about Geocaching for the classroom. It was by far one of my favorites of the whole conference. We went caching in Philly and found 2 caches in downtown.

This is where we found one of the caches. The container was magnetic and looked like a bolt that was part of the statue. We had people from all over the world in this workshop, and I met some wonderful educators that were eager to get the kids out of the classroom and to the outdoors. I spent the rest of Saturday resting and relaxing in my hotel room. I was extremely exhausted and ready for some rest.

On Sunday I had 2 more workshops before the official kick off for the conference. I went to a workshop on Technology Time Savers for Teachers, and Google Earth. Both of these gave me some much information and ideas for my upcoming school year that my brain was exhausted by the time I got done. I took a little nap before heading to the keynote speaker. The keynote for the opening was Dr. John Medina. His keynote was very powerful and thought provoking. Here's the full video from the opening keynote. It's long, but I would highly recommend watching it. (Start the video around 30 minutes, up to that point is music and slides with information for the conference).

Monday was the first day I was disappointed in one of my workshops. I enjoyed my Empowering Students to Write With Digital Tools. I learned about several programs that would allow my students to create their own comic book, photo book, and pictorial essays. The guy who lead this workshop was amazing. During my Differentiated Instruction with Technology workshop I got a little put off. I didn't pay for a workshop to not listen to you speak. I didn't want to work in groups to do research on D.I. I already know how D.I. works in the classroom, I wanted tools and resources to make D.I. somewhat less time consuming. While I was in that workshop, there was a flash mob going on! I would have rather have been involved in the flash mob!

On Monday night I had my "Darker Side of Philly" Ghost Tour. It was pretty exciting. I hung out with a bunch of ladies from Superior, Wisconsin and they had me cracking up. One of my pictures had an "orb" (dust) in it and the ladies went nuts. We went to the location that "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe was written, Eastern State Penitentiary, and one of the oldest cemeteries in Philly. Here's some of my favorite pictures.

This is Clark. I LOVED his outfit. The ladies from Wisconsin wondered where his lederhosen was.

Ben Franklin's grave. His grave-site last year raised more than $50,000 last year. It was all in pennies! A penny saved is a penny earned!

Oldest street in America.

The ladies from Wisconsin went nuts with this picture!

Edgar Allen Poe wall mural. This was down the street from the Edgar Allen Poe Historical Museum. The museum is located in the house where he wrote The Raven.

Eastern State Penitentiary. I really wanted to skip a workshop and go back for the self guided audio tour.

I conquered the Rocky steps. Little known fact, Sylvester Stallone only ran up the first 4 steps! A stunt double ran up the rest.

Night time picture of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Tuesday was the last full day for me to be in Philly. My workshops that day included using Google Apps for Education for the classroom, and iLearn to iTeach with Apps for the iPad. I was really excited about the Google Apps workshop. I have talked to my tech guy from school and we are going to turn on email for my students as well as apps, and have the learn how to use them this school year. I also want to be a Google Certified Teacher, and attend the 12 hour Google Academy for teachers next year. I'm going to watch the submission information like a hawk. Now the ipad workshop I was disappointed in. Not because I didn't learn anything, but because they charged $110 for me to sit there and download free apps to look at for 3 hours. REALLY?! I guess I was saved time in not having to search for them myself because I was given a wiki-site to go to, but come on. Was that really worth $110 from 30 people?

Tuesday night I went on a tour of Philly on a double-decker bus. My co-worker Scott (our tech guy), went with me. We finally managed to get into this really yummy Italian restaurant. I had the best gnocchi in a vodka basil sauce! We went to the historic government square where Liberty Hall is located, the US Mint (where I learned it takes 3 cents to make a penny. Is that even worth it?), The Franklin Fountain, and many other places. Here's some of my favorite pictures from that tour.

This is city hall. My hotel room looked out onto this beautiful building. Each side of the building told a different story with it's statues.

The Comcast building was designed to look like a USB drive.

Scott and I on the tour bus.

Over look of the Schuylkill River.

Looking tough at the Rocky Statue.

This is in the art district. The lights on the buildings change colors every 90 seconds.

Inside The Franklin Fountain. This is the place to go for ice cream in Philly. It was so bloody hot in the building. I felt bad for the workers in their old time outfits.

On Wednesday I went to my last workshop on interactive websites for the classroom. It was taught by the same ladies that I had my first workshop with. It was a wonderful way to end my conference. On the way to the airport, I had an amazing conversation with my shuttle driver about the public education system in Philly, and how private schools are becoming the choice for the average Philadelphia household. I explained that in KC it's the charter schools that are taking the place of public schools.

I couldn't get on the plan fast enough! Nor could I get off the plane fast enough. Dade laughed with excitement as I got off the plane, and he didn't leave my side the whole night. It was nice to get away and have some time to myself, but the longer I was away, the more I missed Clint and Dade. I loved Philly so much, that I want to go back. There was so much that I didn't get to do. Clint and I are talking about going during my spring break next year. I hope that we do!

I'll try and post again in a few days with some of my new favorite sites that I discovered while I was there.

Quick Post

2011-06-26T07:11:00.000-05:00

Good morning! I see in KC that it is muggy and going to be a hot one. Not so much here in Philly! The high today is in the upper 70s! I have a few spare minutes before my first workshop of the day starts, so I figured I could do a quick tidying up of the blog.

If you didn't notice, I changed the blog design. It was long overdue. I really want to try and blog later about my trip so far. So check back later tonight for that blog. (That is if I'm not to tired from staring at a computer screen.

I will say this. The ISTE Conference is very much the GenCon for Teachers. With one exception. They have already thought out all the worse-case scenarios and have back-up plan after back up plan already in place. I think that GenCon could take some pointers on that.

So for now I bid you good-bye!

End of Another Year

2011-06-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

The last day of school for the 2010-2011 school year is finally here. By here, I mean Monday, however, my room is ready to go. In August, I did a post about my "Monster Room" and how please I was with it. Here's a refresher of what it looked like.

Here's what it looks like now. My room is sad and white. Mainly because it's no longer my room. For my 5th year now in a row, I will have a different room to teach in. Before long, I will have taught in every room on the Blue Floor at DTA.

I've already moved a bunch of my stuff into my new room, and as you can see in the second picture the teacher that will be in this room next year as already moved her stuff in. What is left of my own stuff is the nice pile in the first picture. Today is a half day, which means a release at 1 pm. Monday is the big "World's of Fun" Trip, for those that qualify. I had 3 out of 19 that qualified. It will be interesting to see who all shows up for school on Monday who doesn't get to go to WoF.

Even though school is out on Monday, I won't start my summer break until Wednesday afternoon. I have a big conference in Columbia that I am presenting at. I'm nervous, but I know that it will be okay. I'll have to blog about that Tuesday evening.

For now, I enjoy what little time I have left with my amazing kiddos!

See ya later 2010-2011! It's been nice knowing you!

365

2011-06-05T11:38:00.004-05:00

There's a creative movement that is going on right now, and I'm trying to decide how to get involved. It's called 365: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life. It was started by Noah Scalin in a Richmond, Virginia based artist & designer. He is the creator of the Webby Award winning art project Skull-A-Day.

I have a friend that has taken this challenge and is doing "The Dragon Project". She is finding very creative ways to discover dragons for 365 days. Noah Scalin has a blog were people can post their creative projects. People are doing creative and amazing things from all over the world.

Now I just need to figure out what do to.

Cake Balls

2011-05-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

In my classroom, when the kiddos receive 50 compliments they earn a homemade treat from me. I've been wanting to make cake balls for a while, so this was my excuse. Here's what you'll need in order to make them.

1 box of cake mix (your choice)
1 can of frosting (again, your choice)
Almond bark (white or chocolate)

Step 1: Make the cake as directed on the box. It has to cool completely before you go onto the next step. Thankfully, my mom has a double oven and I was able to bake all 3 cakes at the same time. I choose chocolate, strawberry, and carrot.

Step 2: Crumble the cake into a mixing bowl. It is extremely important that the cake is cooled before you do this step.

Step 3: Take your frosting of choice and mix it into the crumbled cake. Make sure it's mixed well. Once it's mixed place it in the freezer for several hours. I had mine in the freezer over night.

Step 4: Take the cake/frosting mixture from the freezer and roll into balls. I used a small cookie scoop. I also lined my cookie sheets with wax paper, so that the balls wouldn't stick to the cookie sheet. When the cookie sheet is full, place in the freezer for several hours. These are strawberry and carrot cake.

Step 5: Melt the almond bark in the microwave until it's melted. I did mine for a minute and half, stirred it, and then another 30 seconds. Get something to use to help dip the balls. Once the balls are dipped, place it back on the cookie sheet, and put into the freezer. These are both strawberry cake balls. It is VERY important that the balls are as cold as possible when you dip. If they are not, it becomes difficult to dip.

Step 6: After a few hours in the freezer take the cake balls off the cookie sheet and place into a zip-lock baggie. You can keep them in the fridge or freezer at this point.

If you are going to try this for the first time, I would stick with one batch. I ended up with almost 200 cake balls with 3 different cake mixes. Which means a lot of dipping! I would put something on the TV to watch while you roll them out, and while you dip, otherwise you might go nuts!

I'm pretty stoked on how these turned out. Here's the combination that I made. If you make these, let me know what you tried!

Devil's Food Chocolate Cake w/ Chocolate Frosting covered in Chocolate Almond Bark
Strawberry Cake w/ Vanilla Frosting covered in Chocolate Almond Bark
Strawberry Cake w/ Vanilla Frosting covered in White Chocolate Almond Bark
Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting covered in White Chocolate Almond Bark

Enjoy!!!

Photos!

2011-04-28T19:03:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd do a quick photo collage of the last few months.

With all the snow this winter (we had A LOT), we took advantage of the hill in front of the house and went sledding. Dade rather enjoyed it.

This is my favorite picture that we had taken for his 3rd birthday. He looks down right mischievous.

We had a party at Dade's school for his birthday. My mom had this train cake made. It was the cutest cake that I've seen. All the teacher's at Dade's school liked it too.

A few weekends ago we took Dade bowling for the first time. He was hooked right away. This summer we will be participating in Kids Bowl Free.

I hope you enjoyed the pics!

Krause Update

2011-04-27T22:26:00.000-05:00

Same ol' same ol'. It's been MONTHS since I blogged last. There's a lot that has gone on in the Krause Household since then.   I'll start with Dade.

Dade
Of course, we had Dade's big 3rd birthday. This year we went with the zoo theme. We rented out the education room at The Kansas City Zoo and had his cousins and little friends come out to enjoy an animal presentation. It was a lot of fun. I'm a fan of going to local places for birthday parties. We have had every party at a place that's not our house, and it's made my life SOOOOO much easier. I don't have to worry about clean-up, snacks, party favors, etc. . .

With the big birthday, came his big change at school. He moved from the toddler room to the preschool room. This change was not an easy one. The teacher that he had had since starting at KinderCare left suddenly, and the new teacher and Dade did not really get along. He was fighting us not wanting to go to school. Me being the teacher mom, talked with the director of the center about it. I'm glad that I did, because other parents were noticing the same thing with their kiddos. That teacher was let go, and another one brought in. Dade loves this teacher, and we are back to a happy kid going to school.

He is officially out of pull-ups now, and I'm happy about that. We wake him up a few times during the night to go to the bathroom, and it does the trick. He loves wearing underwear and will tell anyone within earshot that he has on "X" kind of underwear.

He starts soccer in May, and I'm excited to see him "play." It's through the YMCA. The first 3 sessions will teach them fundamentals and then the last 3 are games. I'm not sure how much playing will get done in the games, but it will be super cute that's for sure. I think he's more excited for the baseball this summer than the soccer, but he's excited nonetheless.

Me
School's almost out. I believe there's 6 weeks left. I'm going to be teaching 4th grade next year. I get the opportunity to co-teach with a special education teacher. I'm really excited about it.

I got really sick in February, and the doctor's couldn't figure out what was wrong. At first, Clint and I thought I was pregnant. For about 2 weeks I couldn't eat and I was sick all the time. Pretty much like I was for Dade. My doctor even thought that I was, but not showing it in the tests. When it turned out that I wasn't, I was referred to an OB/GYN.   More tests were run, and we figured out what was wrong. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Which basically means that I have cysts on both of my ovaries, thus causing my body not to produce eggs. I'd been having pains on my sides and found out that was caused by the syndrome. If the pains got worse, or if I started having more problems, I have to go back to the OB/GYN for more tests. As of right now, I don't have to have surgery to remove the cysts. We'll revisit that when I go back in July.

I've started working out again at Curves. I really really enjoy it. I get my stress out there, before heading home. I've felt better since working out there. I have my first measurement day tomorrow. It's the end of my first month. I'm excited to see the results. I can tell that some of my pants fit differently in just that first month. We shall see how it goes.

Clint
Clint has been plugging away on his current project. We are nearing the end of the project and he is very anxious to see the final outcome. He's still working security at the condo. The winter months were very quiet because most of the residents went to warmer climates. However, now that it's Spring Time, things are starting to pick back up.

I got him an Xbox 360 for his birthday, and he's been waiting patiently for Brink to come out. It comes out in 2 weeks, and I'm sure that it will consume any free time that he has. I have to admit, I rather enjoy playing on the Xbox, however, most of my time is spent while he is working.

~~

I think that's it for the bi-annually update. Once things are school come to an end for the year, I will be able to blog more.

Cassie Krause: Reading Machine

2011-01-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

I am embarrassed to say this, but I cannot remember the last time I had read as much as I have been since Christmas.

AND I LOVE IT!

Clint bought me a NookColor for Christmas and since then I have been a reading machine. Here's what I have read since Christmas.

Book # 1

Book # 2

Book # 3

Book # 4

Book #5

Book #6

I'm pretty happy with that list! I looked at the number of pages (mainly because I'm a data nut) to see how many pages that is and what my daily average would be.

Hunger Games = 267 pages

Catching Fire = 275 pages

Mockingjay = 288 pages

A Reliable Wife = 214 pages

Water for Elephants = 300 pages

Fallen = 271 pages

Total Pages Read = 1,615 pages

Average Pages per day = 77 pages

I have not read every day over the last 21 days, but I have read almost every day. One thing I find interesting is that the page count is drastically different on an ereader than in print form. Fallen for instance in print form (because I have both) has 472 pages, in digital form is only 271. I also feel like I have been reading faster. I don't know if that's actually true, but after taking with other people that have an ereader, it's a common feeling.

Needless to say that I LOVE my Nook and love how it is designed. I use it for quickly checking my email and Facebook when I need a quick break, and I have all my books neatly organized on shelves depending on what it is. I keep the books that are waiting to be read on my "home" shelf and once a book as been read, I move it off that shelf.

Currently I have 4 books on my "home" shelf and they are:

My reading wish-list on the Barnes and Noble site is rather extensive now. I've limited myself on how many books I can purchase at a time. My personal goal is to have no more than 4 books at a time on my "home" shelf. I don't want to just purchase books and then not read them. There's no return policy on an ebook (hehe). Watch for more updates on my 2011 reading adventure! I challenged myself to read 24 books this year (at least 2 a month). If I keep my current pace up, I might just do that early!

On a non-reading note. Dade's birthday is next month and the planning for it has been going on for awhile. I booked the Kansas City Zoo's educational building on his actual birthday (which happens to be a Saturday) and ordered the invitations today. I'm super excited! I cannot believe that he's going to be 3. It just seems like the other day I was waiting for him to come into the world.

Clint's birthday is also next month, as well as our 5th wedding anniversary. February is a busy month in our household. I'll try and keep the blog up to date with the happenings of it all!

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T19:33:00.000-06:00

Here we are again. Another year behind us and another one in front of us.

2011 will bring the following:

11 years with Clint (5 of those married)
Dade's 3rd birthday
Clint's 29th Birthday
My 28th Birthday
The unexplained and the unexpected.

2010 brought the following:

A new house is KC. (It came with a better landlord!)
My 5th year of teaching
Clint becoming a security guard (I still find this funny)
A new car
Life without my grandmother (I find this difficult. The 1 year anniversary is in a few days)
Dade's humor and personality blooming.
Dade going to school 1 day a week, then 2 days a week, and now 3 days a week.

I've looked at all of the pictures that we took over the past year and picked some of my favorites. I have also included some of my favorite videos as well.

January

The makings of a true knight in shinning armor.

February

The obsession with tools began with this birthday gift.

March

Our sweet new ride!

April

The start of our very first garden. We had plenty of green beans to go around!

May

Just another day at the zoo!

June

T-Ball training

July

Our first family vacation!

August

The end of our spray-ground fun.

September

Playing with his dadda's train set.

October

Mr. Train Conductor

November

Getting ready for our Thanksgiving!

December

Drumming is in the blood.

Here are some of my favorite videos from 2010.

Dade the Dancing Machine

Dade is Heavy Metal!

The Little Drummer Boy

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2011!

Homepages for Homerooms!

2010-11-19T17:42:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone!!! Many of you may already know that I have several projects on the DonorChoose.org website for my classroom. They just announced a program that they are doing called Homepages for Homerooms. Follow the directions below to help me out. This promotion starts today and ends the 23rd of December. Each week, projects that drive the most homepage sets will receive a donation of up to $600. Here's what to do:

Visit www.yahoo.homepagesforhomerooms.com and click "Find a project to support."
Click on Project ID and type in one of these numbers (both are projects of mine) 421208 (Creative Writing Journals for my class) or 469666 (Reading and Math board games)
Follow the instructions to change your homepage to Yahoo.com. Each person can take this action (called a "homepage set") once during this five week campaign.
Spread the word! Ask parents, colleagues, friends and family to take action.

It's a simple thing to do to help out a great cause!

THANKS!

Funny Thing

2010-11-15T21:43:00.001-06:00

Here's a funny and interesting (very true I might add) thing. When you blog, people read it! Huh!? Check this!

This is a screen shot of my google analytics account. It is dated back to August 11th to, when I installed Google Analytics to my website. Notice all the spikes. Guess what, I was blogging on those days. See the non-spike areas. Yep, you guessed it, those are the days that I didn't blog! That huge spike on the right is from this past weekend, when I logged in and actually wrote something. Pretty amazing thing!

Also interesting my rating as gone up as well. Of course it has to do with me blogging again and people visiting my site, but an increase of 264% is pretty awesome. See! It's in BIG GREEN NUMBERS!

Also, notice I'm using Safari. Not sure how I'm feeling about this quite yet. Firefox is being weird and not playing videos. It will give me sound, but no picture. I noticed it this morning when I was trying to get something to play for my students. I'm switching to Safari for right now, until I can figure out what is causing it.

In cuteness news, incase you missed Dade singing Heavy Metal, here it is for your viewing pleasure

Today at some point while Clint and Dade were picking up the toys, they started singing the clean up song. You know the one:

Clean Up
Clean Up
Everybody Everywhere
Clean Up
Clean Up
Everybody do their share

Oh, yeah! That one. Well Dade sang it heavy metal style. We were pretty excited about that!

Back to Normal

2010-11-14T18:15:00.000-06:00

Things are starting to get back to normal. Mom and Dad brought Dade back home this afternoon. He was rather excited to see Clint and I. We were waiting for him at the window. When he saw us he yelled, "I'm so happy to see you!" Made my heart melt to pieces! He was extremely hyper even through lunch. All he wanted to do was play football with Clint.

I convinced Clint to put lights up on the house for Christmas, so we took off to Lowes to get the lights after lunch. I ended up only needing 1 box of lights, and they are the LED less energy lights. Dad is going to bring up some clips, extension cord, and timer when they come back next weekend so we can hang them.

Dade wanted to watch some football, so we got our jammies on, grabbed a pillow, and blanket and laid down in the couch. He was out within 2 minutes. I tried to wake him up for dinner, but he said he just wanted to sleep. Poor guy was exhausted from spending all that fun time with his nana and papa that he just wanted sleep.

It's now 6:15, and again I'm in for a quiet night because Clint's at work and Dade's already in bed asleep. I might try to get the last few papers I need to grade finished, or I might just crash on the couch. Haven't decided yet. I do know that I cannot wait to get all my Christmas stuff out and up for the holidays!

Oh, and for snow!

I Need EVERYONE's Help!

2010-11-11T20:45:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my previous post today, I'm working on my final course for my Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Baker University. This final course is The History of Rock and Roll. Over the past few weeks, I'm been knee deep in music from the good ol' days and we are working our way to the present day.

We are required to write a research paper. I proposed to write a paper on musical tastes. I have created a survey for people to take. In order for me to write this paper, I have to have plenty of data to do so, I need everyone's help.

When you have a chance, click the link below to take the survey. It has several open-ended questions about music, you are asked to rate different genres, and finally take a look at the music you listen to in different types of moods.

Please pass the information on to your friends. The more information I can gather the better.

If you have any questions, please ask me via a comment on the page. Someone else might have the same one.

Music Survey

Thanks!!!

Really?!

2010-11-11T08:12:00.000-06:00

The last few months have been a whirl wind for the Krause household. Just shortly after my birthday, we found our new place to live. It's located on Sleepy Hollow Rd in KC. It's pretty sweet! Everything is on one level, except for the garage, and it's awesome! Dade loves "his new house." We moved last month during my fall break, and we are so glad that we made the move.

We actually hired movers this time around, because we didn't want to ask our friends for the hundredth time to help move us. It was money well spent in our opinion. The only negative thing that happened was that the movers couldn't get the box spring mattress out of the house. Clint had to go back a few days later with a saw and a hammer to bust it up. We basically made it like a folded piece of bread and slid it down the stairs.

Somewhere between signing the lease for the new house and moving day, Clint got extremely ill and ended up with pneumonia. He was pretty much knocked off his feet for several weeks.

We had a great Halloween! Our friend's Scott and Sarah came up to visit us. Scott is now at basic training, so it was his last bit of freedom, and he spent it with us! Dade was happy to see his Uncle Scott and Aunt Sarah, and wasn't happy when he got home from school to find out that they had left.

Since Halloween, I haven't really being feeling too hot. Yesterday was by far the worst. I lost by voice by 10am, and made a call to the doctor. Turns out I now have walking pneumonia. Awesome! My voice is slightly better today, due to not talking for like 12+ hours, but I'm home from work now until Monday.

Dade is spending the next few days with my parents in order to allow me to rest up and get better. The house is very quiet, except for my consistent goose cough. My body is tired, however my brain didn't realize that I could sleep in and woke up at 6am this morning. So I've been lying on the couch watching the news, of all things! I heard the slight mention of snow later next week, and I got slightly excited!

I am in my last course for my Master's in Liberal Arts. The History of Rock and Roll. It's pretty awesome. I'm going to be conducting survey shortly about music preferences. Look for a link soon. The more people that take the survey the better. I need lots of data points!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I'm going to get back into this!

Happy Day

2010-09-11T16:51:00.000-05:00

Today has been a wonderful day. When compared to yesterday, anything is better than that. I took Dade to Children's Mercy last night after work. He wasn't feeling well, and had nasty accidents all day. I stopped at the Wal-greens clinic and she thought he should see an ER doctor because he seemed to be slightly dehydrated. Thankfully I had the car, and an awesome friend, Shannon, who came with me. Dade did really well, there was only one fit and that was during the exam. The doc said he had a viral infection that had settled in his stomach and it should work itself out in a few days. She gave Dade some juice to make sure he was drinking and sent us home with some stickers and a brand new sippy cup.   I was relieved that he wasn't going to be admitted, because that's what the clinic said would most likely be done.

Dade slept really well last night and didn't wake up when I get him out of bed at midnight to get Clint. He slept until 7 and started asking for juice and cereal. He had 2 bowls this morning, and that was the most he had had in days. Clint hasn't been feeling well either, and he was going to skip out on hanging with his buddies to get some sleep. However, he woke up feeling better and decided to come to the circus with Dade, Shannon, and I.   My school received discounted tickets for the Ringling Brother's circus and Dade was feeling better, so we headed over to the Spirit Center for the 11am show. Dade really enjoyed it. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time, and it was much needed. I'm always in awe of people who have those abilities to do crazy stunts or train the animals. I wouldn't know the first place to start.

When we got home, we went and looked at a new place to live. It's that time again to move. This new place that we found is pretty cool. It's on Sleepy Hollow Rd and it's not to far from where we currently are which is nice. It's in the Center School District instead of KCMO so we might be able to get Dade into their early childhood program. There's 3 bedrooms, family room, living room, dining room, huge sun-room and backyard. Dade could have a play-room and a bedroom and Slinky could run free in the backyard. We could also use the family room as a gaming room and get the giant ping-pong table back. I don't want to get my hopes up, but it would be a good house until we go overseas. There was someone else that was looking at it after us at 3, but the landlord said he would give us preference because we were a family, and the other people where friends. It's the same price that we pay now and half the deposit, and no pet deposit (which is nice as well). We shall see.

Clint has gone off to work and I thought it would be a great time to clean Dade's newly acquired used train table. It looks really good now that all the dirt and grime are gone. I must possess super human strength because I was able to move it upstairs by myself to Dade's room. We are sitting outside now on the porch enjoying the nice weather, but after our dinner arrives and we eat, Dade will be going up stairs to play on it for the first time.

I've got loads of things to grade and grad school homework to do. I've got Dexter Season 3 to watch and 3 new Netflix movies that arrived today to keep me active while I grade. I'm glad that fall is officially here!    Everyone (mom, dad, Chad, Marci, and Aidy) are meeting us in Lee's Summit tomorrow for my birthday lunch.

27 on Monday and that just seems nuts. But the thought of Dade being 3 in February is even weirder.

Pizza just got here, so it's time to eat and then head upstairs with the Dader Monster!

Fast Update

2010-09-09T21:46:00.001-05:00

1. My table is covered with papers to be graded, and RPG books that Clint is using for reference on his current project.

2. Dade is excelling in potty training.

3. Dade is impressing kindergarten teachers and anyone that he comes across with his "stop" sign knowledge.

4. A visit to the circus is in store this weekend.

5. My birthday is in 4 days!!!

6. My students are amazing and doing very well!

7. I'm over due for my 2 week blog for my face. I shall get to it this weekend (fingers corssed)

8. My graduate class is something to be desired.

9. Dade had his first "test" in school this week. It was on naming body parts. He could name 3 of the 4 parts on the test (head, arms, and legs) but he didn't know shoulders. But he knows elbows, hands, toes, knees, eyes, nose, ears, mouths, teeth, etc. . . just not shoulders. Clint and I have worked with him on shoulders. On the bright side, he now knows shoulders!

More this weekend I promise.

Lack of Motivation

2010-08-26T21:03:00.002-05:00

I am lacking motivation to do just about anything. However, what I don't seem to be lacking motivation in is blogging. I thought I would update the Google Analytics from my previous post. You can click the link and it will take you back to the original post to compare. Here's some new screen shots.

As you can see I am now up to 5 countries. Those countries are: The United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, and South Korea. That's pretty exciting!!!

Heck yeah!! I have almost 1/2 of the states covered!!! I'd say that's not to shabby for 2 weeks worth of posting!!!

I'm still very interested in knowing who my readers are and where they are from. I'd also like to know how you got to my site. My link, a link from somewhere else, searching, or a friend.

Let me know!!!

Mixed Emotions

2010-08-25T22:25:00.000-05:00

I've been toying with the concept of this blog for several days now. I feel like it's going to come across as a shady salesperson, but that's not my intent. Take the following post with an open heart and open mind. So here it goes. . .

The state of Missouri cut funding for schools this year, again. In the 2009-2010 school year The Derrick Thomas Academy, took a 2% pay-cut. We as the teachers did not see that reflected in our salaries, however we did see it reflect in the money that was available for activities. Fewer field trips, fewer supplies available to the teachers. For the 2010-2011 school year, the school saw another 6% pay cut as of right now. The majority of that came from summer school funding. It's just not there. The state of Missouri feels that it's not important. For the first year, DTA will not have a summer school program. We use our program for a beginning of the next school year. We build the relationships with our future students, and gives us a 3.5 week advantage with our kids. What this means to teachers is that we had to take a 6% pay-cut. Summer school was a requirement at DTA for teachers, thus it was part of our salary. With no summer school, those days were taken off our contract and a mandatory pay-cut was put into effect. Along with this means that we still have a slight problem with money for supplies. Another cut is expected at some point from the state, and that could mean some teachers will be without a job. Maybe not at my school, but somewhere it is likely to happen.

Teachers spend a lot of our personal money to purchase supplies for the class. This could include basic supplies, supplies for crafts and activities, or basic needs of the students. With the pay-cut it makes doing things like this very hard. As a mother and a wife, I have to make sure the needs of my family are meet first before I look at purchasing things for my classroom. It breaks my heart that there are all these things in the world that I want to do with/for my students but the funding is not available. I was fortunate last year to have some good friends donate money so that my students could publish their own story book. It meant a lot to my students and me. I was humbled by the whole experience that random people (some of whom I had never met, just known through the internet) would give their money to make the learning experience in my classroom go up a notch.

I was introduced to a website called DonorChoose.org It is a website where teachers put projects up on the site and ask for donations for the needed supplies. I am not lucky enough to have not 1 but 2 projects on the site and I'm looking for people that care about the education of our youth to fund them.

The first project is math related. I am trying to make Math Tool Kits for my students. I have about half of the supplies needed and no funding to get the rest. I get $150 to spend at the school for all supplies that I will need this year. Most of my $150 will go towards basic supplies like pencils, erasers, dry erase markers, staples, etc. . . You will notice that to finish my kits, it will cost more than the $150 that DTA give me to spend.

My second project is writing based. I feel that it is very important that we express ourselves in writing. My students struggle with this piece, but once they get going, their thoughts are provoking and show you that they want to make a mark in the world. The journals I have asked for will provide different exposures to the different writing styles.

This means a lot to me, and I value the education that our children get. To some these things seem pointless and not useful to the educational process. I disagree. Children need different exposures to the same content to learn it. If you have $5 to give, please pick a project and help out my kiddos. If you don't have $5 to give, believe me, I understand. Help me get this around to people that might be able to help. Just go to the site below.

Thanks!

http://www.donorschoose.org/cassie.krause

A Tale of Two iPods

2010-08-22T14:45:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, Clint had an amazing thing. His very own iPod! One year for Christmas his mom decided that he should get things to go with the amazing iPod. So it was that Christmas that Clint was supposed to get an iHome, Boom Tubes, and several other iPod accessories. At the same time, Cassie was sad that she didn't have a nifty cool iPod of her own. It was 2005 then, and it was the thing to have. Clint seeing that she was sad, went out and purchased her the new model that had color video and 32G worth of storage. She would be able to have all her music and then some on the nifty little thing.

His iPod became jealous of the new shiny version sitting in the box on his front seat. When Clint got out of the car to go into work, his iPod somehow flew out of the car and landed on the ground. Clint began to panic. He inspected the iPod and turned it on. A wave of relief came over him when it turned on and played some music. It was only a scare, it still worked! Glad that it wasn't busted, Clint went into work and did his duties. Upon coming out of work several hours later, Clint plugged in the iPod and began to select his music. It was then that he realized that the fall had done more damage then he previously thought. His poor iPod was dead and beyond repair. His gaze turned to the iPod in the box on his seat. It was Cassie's Christmas present. At least they would still have one. Clint returned home and told Cassie that he had dropped his iPod and busted it. Sadness was great because she really liked the iPod and she knew what his mom had purchased for him. Maybe they could save up and get another one soon.

Christmas came and Cassie was excited beyond belief to get her iPod. Clint was happy too, because they could start to copy all the music over to hers. This iPod went with them every place they went. Cassie was kind and let Clint borrow it when she wasn't using it. The iPod was their starting point for wedding music to give to the DJ. They wanted to make sure the music was special to them. While Cassie was getting dressed before their wedding, the iPod was there with her, playing music and keeping everyone calm. On the drive to Eureka Springs for the Honeymoon, Clint and Cassie jammed to music singing loud and happily. It played music in the Bed and Breakfast and at the Haunted Hotel. When Cassie was in labor, the iPod was playing her favorite music to help pass the time while they waited for Dade to arrive. When Dade was upset, the iPod would play music that would make him dance, smile, and have a good time. Every once and a while the iPod would take a jump, but everything was okay. This version was durable and built tough! Clint and Cassie even thought of the iPod when purchasing their new car. They wanted to make sure they could connect it to their stereo system. There was a scare with the new car because Clint had accidentally left the iPod in the old car. They were lucky to save the iPod within a day of leaving it.

Then one day, 5 years later, the iPod decided that it wanted to lay out in the sun. The problem was that the spot it picked was on top of the car after Clint and Dade had a nice breakfast at Winsteads. That day wasn't too terribly hot, but it's black outer coating got extremely warm. When it came time for Clint to go to work and drop Dade off at Cassie's work, the iPod was sleeping and didn't notice that Clint was getting into the car. The poor iPod had a ride of it's life! He journeyed down Wornall Road and then Main street in Kansas City to Cassie's school. It was too scared to speak when Cassie got Dade and the car seat out of the car. When Clint left for work from Cassie's school the poor iPod noticed that there were storm clouds moving in. Clint made it to work, but didn't notice the iPod's cry for help.

That evening there were very bad storms in the area. The thunder rattled the poor iPod stuck on the roof of the car. The rain drenched the iPod and water began to get into the inner workings of. 8 hours later, Clint was ready to head home after a very quiet night at work. He drove home in the thunder and lightening. Cassie left the porch light on. When Clint stepped onto the porch, he turned to push the lock button for the car. It was then that Clint noticed a shimmer on top of the car. There sat the iPod.

Clint just knew that he had killed the iPod after the heat, the riding on top of the car, and finally the water damage from the rain. He went inside and woke Cassie up to tell her. She brought up the fact that he had already broken one iPod, and this would be his second. Clint wanted to put the iPod in rice, but alas there was none in the house, so he used oatmeal instead. The iPod was glad to be back in the safety of the house, but wasn't feeling very well. When Cassie and Clint woke up, Cassie went to work on getting things going on the iPod. Still with very little power, nothing happened. Cassie said that she would take it with her and see what she could do while visiting her parents.

Cassie placed the iPod in rice when she got to her parent's house. Every once and a while she would pull it out and plug it into the computer. As the day progressed, things began to look up for the little iPod. The inner working seemed to be getting drier, if only the computer would understand that it was plugged in. Finally on Sunday morning, it had enough energy to plug into a fancy stereo and get some charge. It told Cassie to to contact Apple support and showed a sad face on it's screen. That was the last thing it said. Several hours later, it still refused to play music and just said to contact Apple Support. It's life was nearing an end very quickly. The rain had gotten the best of it.

Cassie has little hope left for the 2nd iPod her family has owned. She will continue to work on it and see if anything can be saved, but her thoughts are now on which version is best for her family.

Thanks little iPod for 5 years of musical enjoyment!!!

My Face and the Journey Within: Day 2

2010-08-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Today marks the end of the 2nd day of using my new facial stuff. After talking with Sarah, about wanting to blog my journey through this new adventure, she suggested that I do it in 2s. Meaning 2 days, 2 weeks, and 2 months. 2+2+2 deal!!!

Here are my initial thoughts and/or reactions that I've gotten. Clint didn't notice that I had make-up on. That's a good thing in my book. Clint's not a big fan of the whole make-up thing, so the fact that he didn't notice was good. He also said that my face was rather smooth (after I made him feel it) My face already has shown improvements in the smoothness factor and overall softness. The biggest plus for me is the fact that the huge dark circles under my eyes are slightly less noticeable. The first picture is what my face looked like before I started. The second is this evening.

I know I'm not smiling in the second picture, but if I smiled you wouldn't be able to see the lack of dark circles under my eyes! I had a couple of my male co-workers tell me today that I was looking good, and one said that I looked really really pretty today. That made me feel really good about myself. I feel like I've turned a new leaf! New hair style/color and taking better care of my face.

Alright, that's it for now. I'll blog about my face again in 12 days. I bet you can't wait to see the results. I know I can't!

Routine

2010-08-14T21:05:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a fast and simple post, because I have a major migraine going on right now, but I feel like I need to continue to blog everyday in order to set my routine.

I got my new Mary Kay stuff today from Sarah. I was overwhelmed at first because I couldn't remember what the darn order was. Sarah, like always, took care of me and sent me a text telling me the steps that I needed to take. I then created a cheat sheet to put in my bathroom to help me remember. Here's what it looks like

I printed it off and then cut it into 2 squares and taped it to my bathroom mirror. It was nice and reassuring to have the reminder there when I was doing my first night application. Once I get going and used to my new nightly routine I won't need the sheet anymore, but I need it now for sure!

My face is very smooth tonight and I like it!

Sorry this is short and sweet but this migraine isn't going to let me type anymore tonight.

Google Analytics

2010-08-13T21:48:00.002-05:00

I installed Google Analytics onto the blog the other day, and after much fiddling, I got it to work. (I'm not that great at html) This is a wonderful thing! If you have a blog and you don't have it, you really need to. My favorite function of it so far is seeing who is reading my blog from not only other states, but the cities within the states as well. I then play the guessing game on who is reading my blog in said state.

Here's a shot of the page I'm referring to. The states that are colored have people viewing my blog. Notice that Missouri is the darkest. Duh! I live in Missouri, most of my friends are in Missouri. Kansas is the next color. Again, I have friends that live in Kansas and I'm literally 4 blocks from the state line. Here's where the fun kicks in! The other green states have views as well. I can click on the state and get a picture like this:

I can now see that the one blog reader in Oklahoma came from the Tulsa area. I'm going to assume that person is my Aunt Kay since she is in that area, but I could be wrong.

Here's what the Missouri page looks like:

I have multiple readers in Missouri in 7 different cities. Kansas City has the biggest views so it has the biggest shaded area. Since I have multiple cities in this state I get a second report that looks like this:

I can now see that the view break down goes like this: Kansas City (9), Warrensburg (5), Branson (2), Lee's Summit (2), Jefferson City (1), Independence (1), and Blue Springs (1). Pretty spiffy if you ask me!

I'm flattered that someone in Oak Grove, Kentucky is reading my blog because as far as I know I don't know anyone that lives there. So thanks reader!

Even better I have a reader from CANADA! A very special hello to you, my international reader! I hope that you are having a wonderful day! I don't know what the weather's like in Dartmouth, but I'm sure it's cooler than it is here in Missouri!

This application is pretty sweet in my book. I'm going to work on getting people from around the world to visit my blog. I'm just not sure how I will go about doing that, but I like the challenge. I want more countries to be in the green on my sign-in page. The world is a big place and I'm only reaching a very small portion.

Seeing that people are reading my blog fuels me to do more posts and more often. I love blogging, but before I never knew if I had readers. If you read my blog and have something come to mind, let me know. I enjoy getting comments and hearing what others have to say about what I write. My posts have been sparse because I wasn't feeling the love (hehe). I now know that the love is out there, and I feel like posting more!

Comment on this post and tell me where you are from, let's see if Google Analytics is getting the locations correct. As well as the number of views from each city.

Keep reading readers!

My Face and the Journey Within

2010-08-13T16:32:00.000-05:00

My poor face this summer has taken a huge beating. Not literally or course, but figuratively speaking. I've been lucky growing up that I haven't had issues with break outs or oily spots. I get the occasional zit/pimple, but with all the heat this summer my skin has taken a turn for the not so great. My good friend Sarah McElfresh sells Mary Kay and has been dying to give me a facial. While I was at my parent's in July she came up from Branson and helped me figure out what I needed.

I'm not a HUGE fan of wearing makeup (especially mascara) but if I needed to wear any I prefer the mineral make-up because it's natural looking and feeling and you can't really tell that I'm wearing it. I used Bare Minerals for a while, but it's so expensive and even that sometimes felt like I was wearing too much. I've used Mary Kay in the past, but was always sad that they didn't have their own mineral line. That is no longer the case. They have a brilliant mineral line and when I saw it I knew I needed to try it out.

When Sarah gave me the facial I was shocked at the fact that I couldn't feel the make-up. I was super impressed. I ordered some stuff from her and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow before I start back to work. I say this because I have 2 huge zits on my face and I'd like to conceal them before I go back to work. I'm going to put up a before Mary Kay products face shot and then as I progress through everything we should see changes in my skin tone, and overall appearance.

Let the journey begin!!!

Ugggg! Good-bye splotchy skin and oily face!

(BTW if you didn't already know I cut off over 2 inches of hair!)

Monster Room

2010-08-12T17:41:00.000-05:00

I have been working in my classroom this week. I don't officially go back until Monday, but I like to go in and get as much done before hand as possible. Our first week back is usually spent in meetings and the like. This marks the start of my 5th year of teaching, and that just strikes me as weird. I'm not sure where all that time went, but it's nice to know that I've been doing what I love for a while now.

I've gotten a lot accomplished in my new room, and with the help of our awesome janitors, I was able to get all the unnecessary furniture out of my room today. Having wooden bookshelves in the room has helped it feel more classroom like and less office like. I put all the metal shelves and cabinets in the back by my area.

Here are some pictures of what I have done so far. I still have loads of things to do. For instance: in the math wall picture there are empty pencil boxes that are waiting for math supplies to be put in for "Math Tool Kits." I also need to level my classroom library and go through my new reading curriculum.

I'm pleased with how my monster room looks! I say monster, because that is the theme that I went with.

The start of my game shelf. I still have some that I need to bring from home.

My reference area. Dictionaries and writing guides to come shortly.

My diagonal wall with white board. My MAP Words are being held up by monsters.

Writing wall and calendar area. I'm excited about having the computers in my room this year.

Math Wall. All my math curriculum is going to go on the shelves. The tool kits are ready to be put together. My bulletin board has my "monster jobs" on it.

Again, I'm pleased with how everything looks right now. As the year goes by these walls will become covered with even more material. I usually cover as I go. As the year progresses I'll need to update this pictures.

Obsession

2010-08-10T22:31:00.000-05:00

Dade has an obsession. And I'm okay with that! Ever since we rode the train to St. Louis he has become obsessed with trains. We bought him a tiny battery powered train in St. Louis, however it's very fragile and if Dade touches it, it falls off the track and then a panic ensues.

While Dade was at mom and dad's last week, my dad bought him (and Aidy) a wooden train set to play with. Dade was in heaven. He played with that train all week and watched my dad's train DVDs that he has. Needless to say that Dade was sad when he came home because he didn't have a wooden train set to play with.

Clint is very forgetful and the fact that he remembered this next piece of information is beyond me. While watching the train DVDs this evening (thanks dad for sending them home with us!) Clint suddenly remembered that we had his wooden train set in the basement. You would have thought it was Christmas in the Krause house. Dade was so excited about having his own wooden train set. Even better, he was watching Papa's train while playing with dada's train. The kid was has happy as a kid in a candy store.

Here are some pictures of the train madness that took over my living room.

Pulling out all the pieces.

Building the track

Over the bridge!

Around the bend.

One happy kid!

Caesar

2010-08-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

My dad called just a little bit ago to let me know that he was going to put Caesar to sleep tomorrow. Caesar is my first dog, and I got him in November of 1996. I'll never forget when they brought him home. Our neighbors across the street brought him over and I thought they had gotten a new dog. It took me a few minutes to realize that my parents had finally caved and got me a dog. He was a pound puppy, and very well trained. We have no idea how old he was when we got him. At the most 2, but more than likely he was maybe only a year old. I named him Caesar because he was a little dog and he needed a mighty name. He let me pretty much do whatever I wanted with him. I took rolls and rolls of pictures of him in little hats and sweaters by a backdrop of a curtain. Yeah I was one of those people in my early teen years. He slept with me every night, even when I had my loft bed in high school, my dad would lift him up at night.

When I moved out and got a place of my own, my dad was happy that I couldn't have pets because he didn't want me to take Caesar. As the years have gone by, Caesar was always excited to see me when I came home for a visit. It's going to be weird going home to mom and dad's and not have Caesar there waiting for me at the top of the steps. It's going to be rough tomorrow knowing that he is being put to sleep, but his health has gone down hill very quickly over the last 6 months. He was diagnosed with a heart condition and the vet informed my dad that even with the medicine that they could come home and he might be dead in his kennel.

Caesar will be greatly missed by everyone in the family. I look forward to telling the "Remember when Caesar did x thing" stories in the coming future.

Caesar in the window at mom and dad's house.

Caesar with Dade shortly after he was born.

Thanks Caesar for 14 years of being an awesome dog!

Reading

2010-08-03T00:15:00.000-05:00

I really should be in bed considering that it is now 12:04 AM and I have a lot to do tomorrow before we head off to GenCon Wednesday morning. However, I wanted to share some of my current favorite sites as of lately.

I've been making a more conscious effort to read this summer. Clint reads all the time, and gives me a hard time about not reading as much as I probably should. I recently joined a Book Club with some of my friends. We meet the last Thursday of every month, enjoy a lite dinner and wine, and then talk about the book at hand. We rotate between houses, and who ever is the host picks the book. My only problem is that I cannot go now unless we have a sitter, because Clint will be at work. I really enjoyed the book club and it made me sad that I had to drop out.

I began to search on the internet for a book club that I could do and still have meaningful discussions with women. My searching brought me to the website Good Reads. I immediately fell in love with the site, and found a group (Chicks on Lit) on there that fits what I'm looking for. I can track my reading stack (what I want to read, what I'm reading, and what I have read) as well as track my progress on my current book I'm reading.

I also found a pretty awesome website that allows you to enter for a chance to win a non-proof copy of a book that is about to be released. The hope of this website is that people will read the book before it is released, and then help generate a buzz on the internet about it. This website is called Read It Forward. I have been registering every month since April for a chance to win. I have received a book now every month since May. It is an awesome way to get a new release for free and a safe way to read a book without any cost to the reader. Sometimes it's tough to branch out and try a new genre when money is involved. Sticking to what you like is safer! I will say that I'm excited to recieve this books, even if it takes me a while to get through my stack.

Well, that's about it! Check out those sites and see if you find something that you like!

Happy Reading!

Favorite Summer Pictures

2010-07-31T00:01:00.000-05:00

On the train to St. Louis. Dade enjoyed watching Mickey Mouse and Cars on Clint's computer

Again in St. Louis. I just love that Dade is so bright and cheerful in the picture.

At the spray-ground at Sunnyside Park.

One of our many painting projects.

Learning how to play T-ball

Riding his bike at the park.

Dade showing Adrian how to play T-ball

Clint and Dade fishing

Headed to school with milk and beak (cereal) in hand.

Where Did My Summer Go?

2010-07-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

I just looked back at this blog a few days ago and realized that my last post happened in April!!! It's now the end of July. Opps! I don't even know where to start. I guess from my last post would be the ideal spot. I really need to do this more. Time to write it in pen in my date-book, because that seems to be the only constant thing in my life anymore. We are crazy busy these days.

In May our principal informed us that we would be taking a 6% pay-cut to our salaries for the 2010-2011 school year. The state cut funding for summer school and since we are required to teach summer school in our salaries, we lost this money. At least we didn't have jobs cut! To some households, this might not be a bad thing. However, my income was (at the time) the only money coming into the house and it was what we lived on. We made it pay-check to pay-check but just barely. This was a huge slam to our budget and the way we were living. Let me just say that Clint is a rock-star and saved the day!

Clint had been thinking for awhile that he wanted to get a part-time gig in the evenings to spice up his daily routine. When I told him about the pay-cut, he kicked it into gear. Everything fell into place, and it was truly amazing. Here's how it went down. We found out about the pay-cut on a Tuesday. Clint applied for a night security job that morning, and received a phone call that afternoon for an interview the following day. He went in for the interview on Wednesday, and was told they had the perfect spot for him. He had a second interview the following Tuesday and was hired practically on the spot. Within a week, our previous worries about money went out the window. Clint would be making enough to cover my pay-cut and then some. We ended up on top!

He now works for Allied Barton here in Kansas City at an upscale condo on the Plaza. He works Thursday - Sunday 4pm - 12am. It is the perfect job for him in so many ways. His boss told him to bring his computer and whatever he was writing to work on because it gets rather quite at the condo after 8 or so (most of the people that live there are older) and it's during his prime alertness time. Being a night owl has it's benefits! The only down side is that when he goes off to work, Dade and I are stuck at home since we only have 1 car. If I want to go out, we take Clint to work and then pick him up. Dade likes picking up Clint from work. He goes to bed like normal and then I wake him up. He gets very excited when Clint comes walking towards the car.

Since Clint is working 4 nights of the week now, our whole bedtime routine has changed and I rather enjoy it now! Before I put Dade in his jammies and Clint finished up putting him to bed. Now I get to do the whole thing. I know that doesn't sound like much, but when you don't get to see your kiddo that much during the school year any moment you get is a precious one.

Most of the summer it's been me and Dader doing things. Clint has taken advantage of me being off work to get a lot of writing done. I've enjoyed this. We have done paintings after paintings, put puzzles together, taken naps together, worked on our ABCs, coloring, racing beep beeps, swimming, reading, and cuddling. This makes it rather difficult to think that in 2 weeks I'm back to work. He's growing up so fast that it's ridiculous.

His speech is becoming easier and easier to understand. Just yesterday he told my dad, "D [that's what he calls himeself] is sad. Mama took [away] my cup and yum [food]." What he didn't tell my dad was that he was playing with said food and cup and wasn't eating. He knows how to wrap people around his cute little finger! He loves going to his "school". He goes 2 days a week and loves every minute of it. He learns so much from his peers and his teacher that I'm glad that we are able to do this. Just today when I got there to pick him up he was singing the days of the week song. I asked him what is today he said "Frog-day" (which made me laugh). I then asked what came after Tuesday and he replied "Wednesday momma." The look on Clint's face when he said Wednesday was priceless. He was like "No Way does he knows that!"

Clint and I are headed to GenCon on Wednesday. I consider this my last summer fling and am quite happy to be ending it in such a manner. I haven't been to GenCon since 2005 and I'm super excited to go. It will be nice to get away with Clint for a few days and enjoy being a kid-less parent. I made Dade give me loads of kisses tonight before he went to bed. I'm taking him to Knob tomorrow so he can spend the night with his Grandma Barb and then she'll take him to my parent's Sunday afternoon. We don't leave until Wednesday for our trip, but this was the only time that we could get him down there before we leave. I'm going to go crazy without him in the house because it will be quiet. I might just let Slinky bark at every living creature that walks by the house just so that I have noise! The longest I've been away from him is 4 days. This will be 8 days. At least I'll be busy in Indy and won't miss him until I'm slowing down. I plan on bringing him loads of huge dice for his dice bag.

I think this post is long enough! I'm also uploading pictures to our Web-Gallery and plan on doing a post that involves some of my favorite pictures from this summer.

Veggies!

2010-04-13T14:51:00.000-05:00

Dade and his veggies

Getting things ready

Carefully putting in the bell pepper seeds

Watering the Seeds

Round 1 of Beans, with Round 2 Beans in the background (green pots)

Round 1 of peppers in the orange pots.

New Car

2010-03-26T09:36:00.000-05:00

I said good-bye to my Saturn on Monday and the 97K miles I put on her from the time I got her at mile 7. I was sad to see her go, I had her for 6 years. We have now upgraded to a newer, bigger car. Clint never really fit into the Saturn, even when I bought it in 2003. Our new car, 2009 Mazda5, is really sweet! I think my favorite aspect of the car so far is the fact that it still drives like a compact car. I do not get the feeling that I'm driving a boat. We sold Clint's Dodge Intrepid this time last year because it felt like I was driving a boat, that and it had over 100K miles on it.

Here's a picture of it outside the house:

Of course, it's not all shiny and clean now because we've driven it and it rained the other day, but it still is clean on the inside. I'm making it my top agenda right now to take out everything when we get out of the car. Inside of the car must stay clean now!

Yesterday was the first day I got to have the car all to myself. Clint had to have it Tuesday and Wednesday because of Jury Duty and a death in the family. I am itching to take it out on the highway, but haven't been able too. I have to go into Lee's Summit this weekend, so I'll get to try it then!

Here's a picture of the roomy inside:

It's nice because Dade can sit behind the driver and still have plenty of room regardless of who is driving. That's a plus, because we were constantly having to move his car-seat around in the Saturn. Dade wasn't too sure about the car when we were leaving the dealership on Monday. I guess he thought we were leaving him with strangers, since we put him in the car first. Once Clint and I got into the car though, he was fine. He can see all the "beep-beeps" as we drive along.

I'm thankful that I now have a car that is going to start every morning when I leave to go to work. No more getting ready 20 minutes early in case it doesn't want to start.

That's one less stress I have now in my life! Now if I could just remove a few more!

If you are reading this. . .

2010-03-18T22:59:00.002-05:00

Become my follower. It's a small sacrifice to pay for the crazy antics of my family.

Thanks!

Cas!

Week Ending

2010-03-18T17:27:00.000-05:00

As my week of Spring Break comes to an end, I'm finding it harder and harder to want to go back to work. It's weeks like these, where I get to spend ALL my time with Dader that I want to be a stay-at-home mom. I think about all of the things I've missed out on working 10+ hour days 5 days a week, and then the occasional Saturday School. He's growing soo fast these days, and learning so much, that it makes me sad to know that I haven't been there for a lot of his firsts. Yes, I got to be there when he started crawling, walking, running, and all the major milestones. But I haven't been there for the little ones. I'm thankful that Clint has been there through the whole way though. He's gotten the chance to be the one that does witness the firsts, and I'm glad that it was him, and not a daycare worker, or a nanny.

That's the benefit I see, of having an income where one person can stay at home and take care of the child and not have to pawn them off on some childcare professional. I'm thankful that Clint has a career that can allow this sort of thing. His career has suffered since having a kid, he can't work as many hours on the computer as he could before, and his product amount has slowed quite a bit, but man if he isn't one of the best fathers that I know. He's there for Dade's bumps, bruises, and falls (and there have been loads!), as Dade gets older, it becoming easier for Clint to get work done, but I wish we could switch the roles, so he can do more of the things that he loves.

Being away this week with Dade, has given him the chance to be "single" again, and I know that he's gotten loads down. I also know that the stuff that's he is working on right now is some of the BEST stuff he's written. I know that you get better as you go, but the ideas that he has coming out of his brain right now, and making it very streamlined, and easy to run is simple brilliant. I can't wait for the world to know the Clint Krause material that I've seen in the last year. It's simply going to blow people's minds off their head! I've also noticed how much my life is incomplete without Clint around. Yeah, I can make it through the day alone with Dade (and still have energy at the end of the day), but not having that special someone to say goodnight to, or eat dinner with, or simply watch a movie with at the end of the day kinda sucks! In our 10 years together I can safely say that my love for him has only grown. Sure he can drive me crazy (because his minds it always running in game mode), but it makes for a fun and interesting life!

Here's to my WONDERFUL week with my son! And my AMAZING husband!

Drawn to Life

2010-03-14T20:19:00.000-05:00

I just spent the last hour playing Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter on the Wii. It's a fun little platform game that has you drawing various pieces of the world that have been stolen. For example, I had to draw a bridge for the town in order to cross a giant cliff. There are aspects of it that are difficult (at least for me), but for the most part, it's a lot of fun. One of my biggest grips about it has to do with the looks of the main character. You are hand drawn (either by yourself, or you can use a template), and placed into this cute little world. I'd much rather be this cute little creature instead of a cartoon drawn hero, but that's the whole premise of the game. If you can draw ( I can't), this would be an awesome game for you, because you can customize the different pieces of the world that are missing. If you can't draw (like me) they were kind enough to include templates to use for all the missing pieces. I still really like it for playing the first 2 levels.

I'm now sitting here getting ready to watch The Lost Boys for my Vampire Lit course. It's the last film I need to watch, and then it's time to finish up my homework.

Dade's been in bed for a little over an hour and a half or so, and it went rather well. I was worried because Clint usually puts him to bed, and the routine of everything worked out so nicely. But he gave me no fits or anything of the sorts. He told me good-night, gave me a kiss, and rolled over and went to sleep.

I'm going to turn in somewhat early because I'll have Aidy tomorrow with Dade and I'm sure that I will be exhausted by the end of the day. I already miss Clint and he's only been gone for a few hours, I'm sure come tomorrow night and Tuesday I'll really miss him. Who knows though, I could be wrong, I might not miss him at all, once I get used to being alone!

Alright, I'm off to watch this movie!

Much Needed

2010-03-14T09:00:00.001-05:00

I'm housing sitting for my parents this week, while they are on their cruise. I'm so jealous right now, because they are on a plane to sunny Miami, and here I am in Knob Noster where is cold, rainy, and dreary! At least I get a solid week with my Dader!! He's growing up so fast that it's mind boggling. I wish that I could just get inside his head to see what he's thinking. Everyday he's learning so much. His vocabulary seems to really be taking off. I'm thankful for that, because it's nice to be able to carry on conversations with him finally.

So, while my parents are on their cruise, Dade and I are going to be hanging out at my parent's house taking care of Ceasar and the house in general. I'm super excited though, because my parent's have been building their animated movie collection, and they have some Disney movies that I have yet to watch. Clint's not a big fan of sitting down and watching animated movies, so I will get my fill while I'm down here.

I'm also on Spring break from graduate school as well. I start my next class on the 22nd. It was supposed to be a class on Shakespeare and Film, however, the class didn't take (meaning not enough people signed up for it), so I'm taking a Stress Management Class instead. I'm going to miss my Vampire Lit course, it was awesome reading all the different vampire books in the genre (even the ones I didn't much care for), because it opened my eyes, to a new genre within a genre.

I'm going to be watching Aidy, my nephew, Monday with Dade. The boys play really well together, it will be a great day for pictures I'm sure. If the sun is out, we might try to go to the park, but that's not likely.

I'm going to be tired tomorrow night that's for sure!!!

S to the O to the R to the E

2010-03-12T21:15:00.000-06:00

Sore is good. That's what I keep telling myself.

No Pain, No Gain!!!

Sore means my body is working the lazy out!!!

Night 2 of new workout, and I'm still sore, but it's worth it!

That being said, hot showers are my friend!

Getting Away

2010-02-11T21:13:00.000-06:00

Clint and I are getting away this weekend. I'm excited about seeing some good friends, and spending time with Clint. We've been together for 10 years at the end of this month, and married for 4 years a week from today. It's hard to believe where those years have gone, and all the moments that we've spent together, but I wouldn't change the last 10 years for anything!

Dade is going to visit his Nana and Papa, and spend some time with his cousin. This week has been long because of the upcoming mini-vacation, but I'm glad that tomorrow is Friday. Hopefully the day will go by fast.

Mystery Solved!

2010-02-05T11:35:00.000-06:00

After going to the doctor yesterday afternoon, it was decided that because I'm a woman (meaning I have estrogen) that with the combination of the Vitamin D deficiency, the massive dose (50,000mg/weekly) of Vitamin D was inducing migraines. I guess my body can't handle that much Vitamin D at once. I now have to take a 1,000mg pill of Vitamin D per day, and slowly build up to the 50,000mg weekly dose. It will take longer to get my levels back up, but at least this way I don't have the migraine. I also took some Advil Migraine yesterday and it helped quite a bit! I can now feel it starting to wear off, so I'm going to have to take another pill tonight.

----

We are getting Clint new computer today after work. I'm super excited because that means I can now have my laptop back, and the desk top will be taken out of our bedroom tonight!!! However, it's going to be replaced with Clint's drum set. Maybe one day I'll have an "adult" room with no extra features.

--

I just called Dade's school to see how he is doing. This is week 3 of his visit to school on Fridays. Clint really enjoys dropping him off. We've also noticed a huge language jump, his word rate is growing rapidly. It could be that it's because he'll be 2 in a few weeks, or that he's around the other kids. Not sure yet, but we shall see.

---

My students are doing amazing! I am really going to miss these guys next year. I've had them since the summer before 3rd grade, and in a few months I'll be letting them go to 5th grade without me. Which means I get a new group of kids and parents =)

---

That's it for now. I'm watching it snow out my classroom window while my kiddos take a test on the Order of Operations. It's really pretty outside!

Headaches

2010-02-04T12:38:00.000-06:00

I've been having really bad headaches for the past 3 weeks. I've figured out the pattern, and have determined that I am having a major side effect to the 5000mg Vitamin D pill I take once a week. I'm off to the doctor this afternoon to see what can be done, because I cannot function with the pain for another day. Hopefully I can just take a Vitamin D pill every day instead of the massive dose once a week.

Clint on the other hand doesn't seem to have any side effects from the same pill. Lucky me!

Eggcellent Child

2010-01-25T20:53:00.000-06:00

Dade has a fascination for the carton of eggs. 2 weeks ago he woke up Clint with a carton of eggs. Mind you, they nap upstairs in our room. Dade, having awoken before his daddy, opened the bedroom door, walked down stairs to the kitchen, opened the fridge door and grabbed the carton of eggs. He then walked all the back upstairs with the full carton, and set them on the night-stand next to Clint. He then told Clint to "wake up." Imagine Clint's surprise when he saw the eggs next to him. Luckily, no eggs were harmed in this instant.

Today, however, it was a different story! Dade again, being rather sneaky, got into the fridge and got the carton of eggs (different carton I bought a few days ago), and took them to the couch. Now, Clint was literally out of the room for a minute or so. What Clint first noticed was the soy sauce sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. He put it back into the fridge and then went into the living room, where he found the carton completely smashed on the couch. Eggs everywhere! Thank goodness we paid the extra money for Scotch-guard when we bought the couch. Clint was able to get the gooey mess cleaned up, and at one point Dade helped wipe the couch down with a damp rag.

I now have to figure out how to lock my fridge from Dade. The kid is going to ruin all our food!

Seriously?!

2010-01-24T19:22:00.001-06:00

I used to be all down with this blogging thing, and now a days I can't seem to get with this silly picture! Grr!!!!

As always things are so crazy in the Krause household that I very RARELY get time to just relax and surf the net. Mainly because we are down to my school laptop as the primary source for computing. We have our old desktop in the bedroom, but we try to use it as less as possible, because we'll it's old and loud. Fingers crossed, Clint can get his new computer (we are going to a MacBook) sometime in February, so that means I won't have to give up the school computer upon returning from work.

In other news, my grandmother passed away on the 4th of this month. It was a crazy time. She was literally fine until just a few days before she died. I was at least able to say goodbye to her before they gave her medicine to make her comfortable. I told her to tell grandpa that I blame him for Dade's crazy behavior and she laughed and told me that it was true he was a lot like his great-grandpa. Of course that was the week where the weather was crazy here in MO. Because of all the snow, we couldn't bury her until the following Monday. Luckily for me I was out all week on snow-days so I was able to spend lots of time with the family.

I'm officially 1/2 done with my second Master's degree. I'll graduate in December, and then I'm done. I think Clint might go back once I'm done, so we'll see how that goes. We are committed to paying off this darn loans until well I'm sure Dade will be in college when we get close to paying them off.

Dade turns 2 next month! Holy cow!! I can't believe my little monster is going to be 2! It seems crazy to me! We have started him in daycare one day a week for a little social time. Clint will now have Friday's all to himself. I have a feeling that he'll be getting LOADS of work done of those days!

What else??? Oh! Slinky cracked a disk in his back about 2 weeks ago. Poor dog has been kenneled, except to eat and go to the bathroom since then. We thought we were going to have to put him down, however the ER Vet said it should heal in 2 weeks. He's doing great! So as of this Wednesday he'll be a free dog again! I feel bad kenneling him for that amount of time, but being a dachshund they are prone to back injuries and he's almost 10.

If you want to know what's going on in the business front with us, check out our blog Red Moon Medicine Show. Clint's been super busy with everything on that front. I've been lining up local Missouri cons for him, and helping him get ready for Gen Con 2010. I get to go this year because it's earlier than normal. I haven't been since 2004, thanks to being a teacher!

I think that's about it! Time to go watch Police Academy with Clint!

Where did October and November go?

2009-12-06T20:16:00.000-06:00

Really? It's December 6th? How in the world did that happen? I can't believe that Christmas is almost here, let alone the end of another year. I honestly can't believe that the past 2 months have flown by so quickly. There's been so much going on in our busy world, it's hard to know where to start.

I guess I'll start with Halloween, since I didn't blog about it. Dade really enjoyed it! By the end of the night he was knocking on the doors saying "Thank You" when he got his candy.

Here he is in his costume. No, he's not a bear! He's an Ewok. He even corrected someone while we were out and about.

Dade was very excited over his pumpkin! He didn't want to stick his hand into the pumpkin, but he did like playing with the "guts" inside a bowl.

Here' we are walking up to one of the houses in Knob.

Notice, that we've lost the hood at this point! But he still had a great time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for our every day life for October and November! There's been some pretty EPIC sword fights going on in the house between Dade and Clint! So EPIC that one night, I was able to capture some pictures before being taken hostage by Dade!

These sword battles are EPIC and involved A LOT of yelling and screaming (as most battles do). Dade tends to be the winner in most battles, but sometimes, Clint gets lucky and wins!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, now November!!!

Dade wanted to make sure that Clint ate all of his salad. Dade loves salad, which is good, because I don't!

Again, Dade the helper, he was making sure that I was doing my homework, and that I understood my assignment.

Enjoying a fun time at a birthday party for his cousin!

I'm pretty sure if Clint would have let go, Dade would have went flying over the nursing home.

We were not impressed with the Merry-Go-Round (if we were on it) or Santa Claus!

Thanksgiving was a rough one! He was so tired that he fell asleep on the chair.

By rough, I mean Dade was rough with a pup that isn't used to small children. Notice the bite mark on his face. No worries though! He recovered once he got a cookie!

Our Christmas tree! We like it simple! No ornaments on the trees! No big decorations. This is the extent of our decorations, with the exception of the lights outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With my graduate classes done until the end of January, I know will have time to do some blogging! We have almost all our shopping done! Just have a few more people to buy for and then we are done. I have 2 weeks of teaching left. My last day of work is the 18th!

I have a cookie swap next Saturday (December 12th), then Krause Christmas the next day. On the 19th, Clint and I are finally hosting our Murder Mystery Dinner, and then off to a Chili Christmas the next night. Our December, as always, is full and busy!

I hope that everyone's holidays go well!

New Template

2009-12-01T15:16:00.000-06:00

Silly, silly blogger. I'm trying to update my template to reflect the season of things. But I can't seem to get it to work right now. I'll try again once I get home from work.

Stressed

2009-10-08T19:36:00.000-05:00

I'm super stressed out. Work is stressing me out, and I'm tired all the time. I can't seem to shake my cough nor my sniffles. Dadey is going through a growth spurt and getting his 2 year molars, which means he screamed for about 15 minutes when I put him into bed. He didn't want to lie down and go to bed. I took the CD player back upstairs and put on Republic Tigers, and he calmed right down and went to sleep.

I feel for him, on the not feeling good. He just wants to cuddle up with mommy or daddy and feel safe. Problem is that this time last year he was super sick and we started letting him sleep with us. It lasted for months, he wouldn't sleep in his own bed, and we ended up having him sleep with us. I don't want this to happen. Neither Clint nor I sleep well when we sleeps with us, so I let him cry until he went to sleep. Broke my heart, but I had to let him know that he had to sleep in his bed like a big boy.

I don't have to work tomorrow!!! I get an extra day off, and it's much needed. I've been pulling 10+ hour days at school plus doing work at home and I still can't seem to get caught up. The quarter is ending next week, which means I need to have all my grading done and in the system. I'm starting to do the thing where I'm picking and choosing what is getting graded and what's not.

The kids are getting better at doing the grading on their own and telling me what their scores are. That's a whole lot of stress off of me. By allowing them to grade their own I have to grade less. I'm starting my reading groups next week. Hopefully they will go smoothly. I need to get them back in the groups. They did so well with them last year.

We have a super busy weekend planned as usual. Pumpkin Patch tomorrow, Ren Fest again on Saturday with Clint's Mom, and then a work day with Clint's family on Sunday.

Time to go fold some laundry, grade some papers, and get ready for my shows.

Blogger x2

2009-10-02T14:00:00.001-05:00

I've been doing some blog posting for Red Moon. I've been working hard on setting up different local cons for us to attend. Last night everything looked so promising. This morning was a rough one.

Dade decided that he was going to break Clint's glasses. We've been "milking" the glasses as long as we could until our insurance rolled over to the new period. Which is just so happened to do that yesterday! Anyway, Clint tried to superglue the piece that broke, but it wouldn't stick. So I made frantic calls from work trying to find an eye doctor that he could go to before the Con today. Find out, but by the time he got there they didn't have time to see him. He is currently running a game of Unity Underground with glasses that have only one side that sits on the ears. I did manage to find an eye doctor down the road from the Con tomorrow that he can go to between games. At least now he'll have contacts lenses. No more worries about Dade breaking his glasses.

Tomorrow we'll be headed toward BobCon. Dade is spending the day with both sides of grandparents. Then on Sunday we are headed towards the RenFest. It will be great to take Dade to the RenFest because he's never been! Jon and Shannon are going with us. I'm super-duber excited.

Here's a quick re-cap of September!!!

If you want to check out more pictures, head to our gallery!

Pumpkins

2009-09-16T13:28:00.000-05:00

Clint and I agree that fall is officially here!! On our daily walk to the store to get dinner, we got extremely excited to see HUGE, and I mean HUGE pumpkins outside Price Chopper. We are looking into our calendar to see when we are going to take him up to the pumpkin patch to pick out his pumpkin. He got so excited when he saw them.

I can't wait!!!

Whirl Wind!!!

2009-09-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

[Pandora Station: Tegan and Sara Playing while I write this!]

Oh man! So my birthday weekend was a whirlwind. I do mean whirlwind. I had such a great time with friends and family that it was just crazy.

Friday night Zach, Geoff, Chris, Clint, and I hung out and played board games. Clint decided to pull out some games from the closet upstairs. Here's what he emerged with:

Key to the Kingdom

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Board Game

Clint has had Key to the Kingdom since before we were together. I had heard stories about the days he, Randy, and Bryan used to play this game, and how it could last for hours! I soon learned this first hand. Even though the game didn't last for hours and hours we did play it for at least 1.5 hours and that was only one game. When then switched to the Buffy game, and played several games of that. Overall it was a good night.

Saturday was spent getting ready for the awesome KICKBALL party. It was epic. We had about 20 people or so hanging out and playing kickball. We played kickball for several hours and then ate and hung out. Once it got dark we started playing board games and kickin' it. Scott came up from Branson for the weekend (poor Sarah was at home sick) and Aaron came up.

Sunday (my actual birthday) was spent recovering from the night before and having lunch with my family. Mom, dad, and grandma come up for lunch. We went to 75th Street Brewery and hung out. Since it was sooooo nice, we sat in the yard when we got back. Dade was running around playing and riding his tricycle while we sat there. After they went home Clint, Dade and I took a nap because we were all super tired. Later that night a play-test went down and things were learned. (Not giving any information away!!! Check RMMS if you want info!)

Last night I just wanted to curl up on the couch and watch movies, but I had class. We did watch a pretty stellar movie though! Enemy From Space (Quartermass 2 in the UK). I'm digging this class. I'm learning ALOT about Science Fiction films. In a few weeks, we shift our focus to Horror!!

Tonight Barb came up to celebrate my birthday. She had a meeting in Lee's Summit, so Clint and Dade took me to school today and then picked me up so we could get there faster. We ate at On The Border, had some tasty food. I also got to hang out with Shannon tonight. It was nice to just hang out with her and chat about things that are going on in our super busy lives, and to help each other figure out ways to make things go better, or brainstorm new and fun things.

Sitting in a peaceful house, listening to small great music is something that I needed. Clint's out editing MECHA at a local Coffee Shop (I believe One More Cup), Dade is asleep, and Slinky is perched on my shoulder looking out the window that is blowing in wonderful fall air! It's only 9:20, but I'm going to take myself upstairs and put something on NetFlix to watch.

26 feels like 25. Nothing new.

I feel like I'm starting to come into a new person. Ever so slowly. I feel like getting the tattoo at the beginning of the summer was a stepping off point of the person I've always wanted to head towards. I've taken a huge role into the Publishing Imprint with Clint. I've got several local cons lined up in the next few months for Clint to head to. We have sooooooo many projects in line for Red Moon Medicine Show, that it's crazy!!!

I looked into Dreamation 2010 and compared the dates with what my school calendar looks like. It looks like that I might be able to take off and go with Clint this year! I'm anxious to run a game of his current project, and help with that arena.

Ahhhh. . . so many things to do. Alas, so little time.

Kickball Party of Awesomeness!

2009-09-12T04:54:00.000-05:00

After a month of waiting, today is the day! It is GORGEOUS outside too!!!

Clint and I are going to go get the burgers and buns, and then come back home to clean-up.

This is going to be AMAZING!

10 Things I Love About Fall

2009-09-04T08:09:00.000-05:00

10. Rainy drizzly days!

9. Brightly colored trees

8. Back to school

7. Pumpkin flavored things

6. Football

5. Cool days

4. Brisk nights

3. Fall Festivals

2. Halloween

1. MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Just sayin'

I Need A . . .

2009-08-31T08:24:00.000-05:00

Pepsi!!! I thought I had some dollar bills in my wallet, and then I remembered that Clint took them yesterday to make some copies at Kinkos! BLAST!!!!

18 Months and Counting

2009-08-29T15:14:00.000-05:00

It's crazy! I know that it's crazy, but Dade is already 18months old. He's getting to be quite the character. It's all about buckles, helping, and putting himself to bed. If we bring the stroller inside the house, he will climb into it and try and buckle himself in it. When we come home from the store, he wants to carry something from the car (or stroller) and put it in the kitchen. He also likes to help me more the clothes from the washer to the dryer and then turn the dryer on. Finally, he pulls us to the stairs, then to his room, and then to his bed when he's ready to turn in for the night. Most nights he will wave bye to you and say, "Bye."

He had his check-up on Thursday and I think the shots he got caught up with him today. He was cranky and running a fever for a good chunk of it. After his bath he was ready to turn in.

I'm super tired too, hope to turn in before too long.

New Site

2009-08-16T16:20:00.000-05:00

I just worked on my classroom website. I'm stoked about it. I uploaded my lesson plans to the site, as well as some PBS handouts and mini-posters that I made. Here's the link:

Mrs. Krause's Classroom

I plan on using it as much as possible this year, encouraging my parents to go there for information and lessons when their child is sick. We shall see.

I'm excited about tomorrow. I have a good chunk of the same kids from last year. It's half days all week, which means the kiddos leave at 1. Which is somewhat weird and not really a half day because we get out at 2:30 this year, but oh well. Truly it's like a 3/4 day.

----

On the Dade front he tried to climb onto the cabinet tonight while I was doing the dishes. He successfully climbed on top of the first handle of the bottom drawer while pulling up on the counter top. I'm sure in the days/weeks to come I'll come around the corner to find him on the counter.

New Classroom

2009-08-13T02:44:00.000-05:00

Quick post. I'm standing in my classroom, looking at the LOADS of stuff that I still need to accomplish before my kiddos come walking through my door on Monday.

Normally this isn't a problem for me, however, I have the same kids that I did last year since I looped, and I don't want them to have the same stuff so to speak on the walls. Which is a big challenge considering it is the same stuff.

It is coming together very nicely. We have lunch on our own today, so I'm going to stay here and work instead of going out.

As soon as I get things up and going around here I'll take some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

---

Side note!!!! Clint has his new imprint website up! There's even a free pdf download for his current project. For all you gamers out there check it out!!!!

Red Moon Medicine Show!

PlayDay

2009-07-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spent the day with Dade and my nephew Aidy (Adrian). It was a fun and exciting day. I've uploaded pictures to my Web-Gallery through SmugMug. But here are some of my favorites.

Both boys were "talking" to each other at this point. I'd like to believe they were plotting something.

I acutally managed to get them to sit still next to each other long enough to take a picture!

Aidy: 13months Dade: 17 months

My attempt to get a picture of the three of us.

Our first adventure was to the park. Who knew my car could get 2 car seats in it!

Well . . . you gotta start sometime!

Aidy learned that you can hit the pole and get a funny sound!

----

Needless to say that the boys had loads of fun yesterday together! The both crashed for about 2 1/2 hours after playing all morning, visiting the park, and meeting everyone for lunch! Next time Aidy will have to come to Dade's to play!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-07-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I only have 2 weeks left of summer break. Well, honestly I can believe it, but it has gone by soooo fast!

I've been keeping super busy with Dade, going to different places during the week so that Clint can have a super silent house to do his work. This week I've decided that I'm going to go down to Knob on Tuesday morning sometime and spend some time with mom and Grandma. Dad's going out of town, and mom doesn't like staying by herself. Neither do I frankly, so i understand how she feels. I'm going to come back up Friday night for our gaming session and then we will head back down Saturday morning. My cousin is coming up a week from tomorrow, and it will be fun to spend some time with him as well.

Clint is lying down with Dader now, trying to get him to sleep. He's had a busy day today! He spent the day with my parents and his cousin Aidy. I guess they are becoming good buddies! I think I might watch both the boys one day next week. Should be fun and interesting! 14 weeks really isn't the much of a difference!

After Dader goes to bed we are going to watch Watchmen! We didn't get a chance to go see it when it was out in the movie theaters, so now it's our turn! I've got pizza in the oven, and Pepsi ready to go!

Who watches the Watchmen?

Free Cookies?

2009-07-21T03:52:00.000-05:00

It seems as if every time we go somewhere, Dade is offered something for free. He's received free cookies from McDonald's, Panera, Einstein Bagels, and now Wendy's.

I wish I were cute enough to get free stuff!

On His Own

2009-07-18T15:58:00.000-05:00

Dade was playing in his room a few minutes ago while Clint and I watched him. Clint was rocking in the glider and I was standing by the window. On his own, Dade went to his bed, grabbed his blanket and dino, and then climbed into the glider with Clint. I guess he was ready for bed.

Graduate Classes

2009-07-15T03:58:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for my classes this Fall for my Liberal Arts Masters! My first class is Science Fiction and Horror Films. My second class is Human Sexuality. Both should be wonderful!!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

2009-07-14T18:46:00.000-05:00

Are uploading now as I type this. However, I doubt you'll be able to see them for a little while yet. Since we are down to using the desktop with a USB wireless card, the process is taking a heck of a lot longer than I would like.

On the bright-side, I'm uploading our Chicago pictures, as well as some pictures of the kiddo!

Enjoy!

NaBloPoMo

2009-07-12T17:29:00.000-05:00

What the heck is NaBloPoMo? National Blog Posting Month. This is a version of NaNoWriMo.

How is this different from NaNoWriMo? Well each month there is a theme, and the task of the blogger is to post everyday something about the theme. Now doing the theme is optional, but it looks like it will challenge me in a good way.

The actual NaBloPoMo is in November and bloggers that are apart of the thing will get the chance at winning prizes. If you are a blogger and want a challenge! SIGN UP!

Chicago Trip

2009-07-12T17:11:00.000-05:00

It was good! It was nice to get away, even though I sat inside for most of the day listening to war-horse teachers tell me their strategies in the classroom. I only second-guessed my choice on two seminars. Mainly because I had heard the information from one presenter here in KC and it was a 75 minute version of the all day seminar. The other one had GREAT information but the speaker spoke in a monotone voice for 75 minutes.

As soon as I can find my camera cord, I'll upload pictures to the Gallery. Clint went through and "cleaned" up the many pictures that we took to a crisp set.

It was so nice to get home and be with Dade! We let him sleep with us on Friday night when we got to Knob. I didn't sleep very well, but I didn't care. I wanted to be next to my kiddo!

I'm super tired right now, and I should go to bed. I was going to watch Netflix instant, but ALAS, the website is down. I guess Ghost Hunters will have to do!

Death of a Computer

2009-07-06T03:46:00.000-05:00

I guess when a computer decides that it's time to go, it goes in a fashion that suits it. That's exactly what my computer did on Friday afternoon. It's somewhat ironic that it went when it did because Clint and I 45 minutes earlier were in the Apple Store on the Plaza pricing his new computer that he's going to get this fall. When we got home Clint and Dade were lying down for a nap, so I got on the computer to play some games.

The computer froze and went to the blue screen of death and starting yelling at me like computers can do. Beeping really loudly! What the beeping was trying to tell me was that the hard drive could not be detected. I panicked. I knew how important the computer was because

1. It was the only one we have right now

2. Clint needed to start layout on a project.

I heard Dade crying upstairs so I went to tell Clint what happened. He looked at it shocked and started to think about what was lost. Luckily we only lost a few important documents that were not backed up somewhere but none of the current manuscripts for projects.

With some super quick thinking, I got everything arranged to get my desktop computer here at the house. Our buddy Ethan had to pull everything out of the CPU and put it back in because it hadn't been used in a while, but it's up and working!!

ADDED BONUS! I now have a computer for school for the kiddos once we go back. I was planning on using the desktop in my classroom for educational games and what not for the kiddos. Now that it's ready to go I can take it this fall.

---

Clint and I are leaving for Chicago later this afternoon! I'm so excited!! Everyone will be shocked and amazed to know that I'm not checking any luggage (it costs extra) and managed to get all my items in a carry on bag!! We are all packed except for the last of the bathroom items (my Chi and some of Clint's items) and our satchel bags.

Clint's got some errands to run this morning, so when he gets back I'm going to head into the school and grab a laptop from there and get an open PO so I can purchase books at my conference.

I'll try and post some stuff from Chicago if I get a chance!

Hair Cut

2009-07-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

Took Dade to get one! Went to Brookeside Barber. He was fine once he got a sucker to eat! Go figure! Meanwhile Mom is covered in hair, and sticky drool!

Vacation

2009-07-02T09:46:00.000-05:00

Clint and I are leaving on Monday to head to Chicago for a little mini-vacation without the kiddo. Now don't get me wrong I'll miss Dade, but we need some Mommy and Daddy time. The sweet thing about the deal is that my portion of the trip has been paid for (hotel, airfare, food) compliments of Edison Learning/Derrick Thomas Academy. How is this possible you wonder in your head. Simple. . . I'm going to a conference. I will be attending the Midwest Conference on Differentiated Instruction. I'm extremely interested in the whole Differentiated scene, and have been to several one-day conferences and taken several graduate level classes on it. My principal was nice enough to approve this trip.

I'm super stoked. My schedule looks a little something like this:

Tuesday July 7th

8:45-10:00 Tapping into Learning Styles

10:30-11:45 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

1:15 - 2:30 Differentiated Instruction: Walking Through a Lesson from Scratch

3:00 - 4:15 30 Hope Building Strategies to Help Your ADD/ADHD Boys

Wednesday July 8th

8:45 - 10:00 CSI: Creating Student Investigators

10:30 - 11:45 50 Marvelous Management Strategies

1:00 - 4:00 Differentiating for Phonics & Spelling

Thursday July 9th

8:45 - 10:00 Fantastic Calendar Math

10:30 - 11:45 Rules and Classroom Management Strategies for RTI

1:00 - 4:00 Anchor Activities Action Lab

-----

On top of that during the evening Clint and I have some friends coming into Chicago on Monday and Tuesday that I haven't seen for at least 4 years, and a year for Clint. Plus, one of Clint's fellow game designers just moved to Chicago this past weekend from Boston, so we'll be able to see him for a bit as well.

I'm going to have to pack light because we are flying United Airlines, and they charge for you to check luggage. Which means no checking luggage for me! Carry on only.

Where is Dade going you ask? Nana and Papa's! This will be the first time we've been away from him for longer then a few days. I believe they are going to come get him late Sunday afternoon, and then we'll head that way once we get back from Chicago on Friday the 10th!

All that's left to do is to pack and get through the 4th!

Dadey and Me

2009-07-01T03:33:00.000-05:00

I LOVE SUMMER! There's no doubt about it, I love it for many reasons!

1. Spending a lot of time with Dade.

2. Swimming

3. Daylight until after 9

4. Spending time with friends.

----

For far we've been staying pretty busy. Grandma had surgery on Monday in Lee's Summit, so Dade and I went and visited her for a while yesterday morning. We've been going swimming a lot and spending time at the park.

Dade has been doing pretty good in my book in his big boy bed. Last night he kept getting up at first and it was rather comical because I'd put him to bed and leave the room. As I left I would shut the door. After about 10 seconds the door would fly open and Dade would be standing there. I wouldn't have to say anything, just point to his bed. He'd run to the bed, climb in it, and then lie down. This repeated for a while. I finally just went it there and sat on the floor next to the bed until he fell alseep.

He's so darn cute the it hurts sometimes! Check out this pictures!

I guess this is what I get for bringing them to my classroom. Meter stick fights!

Dade loved to feed the deer at the zoo!

Dade chased the sheep around the pen in the Australia part of the zoo.

Please, no pictures!

All teeth!

Lining up the ducks during bath time.

He lines them all up in a row, and then one by one throws them into the water.

Dadey and Me!

Good-Bye Crib!!

2009-06-28T16:02:00.000-05:00

Dade is officially sleeping in his "big" boy bed for the first time tonight!!! Clint I decided yesterday that it was time for his crib to be changed into a toddler day-bed. I did that today while the boys were watching the Ducky Derby and visiting family. I was supposed to be working on my paper, but hit a snag when I realized I needed book sources on top of my internet sources.

So in recap: Dade says good-bye to his crib, Mommy gets her paper finished in time to play 4E DnD with Aaron, Ethan, Clint, and Geoff!!!

Duck Derby

2009-06-28T04:17:00.000-05:00

I'm going to miss it this year because I've got to write a paper. I know I should not have put it off, but I did, so now Dade and Daddy are going to the Duck Derby and mommy is not. =(

Goal is to get my paper done before Aaron gets here, let's hope that I can at least do that!

Smug-Mug

2009-06-27T13:01:00.000-05:00

I worked on our web-gallery all afternoon, and have found a new permanent location for all our photos. I uploaded several albums already. I did a condensed version for Dade's first year, and then began working on it month by month for 2009. Here's the link. Let me know what you think.

Smug Mug Site

This will replace my Picasa Web Albums.

Hello Summer!

2009-06-27T06:41:00.000-05:00

Today is my first offical day of summer vacation! I'm super stoked to be spending time with the kiddo! Clint got to experience A LOT of firsts with Dade while I was teaching this school year. Although I'm glad Clint got to experience them and not someone I was paying to watch Dade it's still rough on momma!

Dade dressed himself yesterday afternoon for the first time. It was a rather comical 30 minutes or so while he tried to get his shorts on and pulled up, and then finally his shirt. The shirt looked like a toga though. He put one arm through the head hole with his head. It was rather comical.

We bought him a Bilibo (his is green though)He seems to be enjoying it so far. If you want to know more about what a Bilibo is check out this site. Clint found it, explained what it helps with, and I was hooked. Target age is 2-7 years but he got it anyway. Dade loves to have one of us spin him in it.

We've been going to the pool, and the more we go, the better Dade is. He's fine as long as he is inside his safe rubber turtle, outside he's still not so sure. Could have something to do with the fact that I dunk him in the water whenever he's out of the turle to keep his whole body wet. We've also discovered that he got my skin!!! Which means he tans very nicely like his mother, and doesn't burn like his father!!! However, Clint is actually tanning this year and not burning so that's a plus.

I know I haven't updated the web-gallery in a long time, and I have a good reason for that too. My space is full. I need to go through and delete pictures and condense. Maybe I'll start that today. We'll see.

Here's a list of Dade's current favorite things though:

Movie: Mary Poppins

TV Show: Fraggle Rock

Stuffed Animal: Dino

Fruit: Bananas

Music: All!

Activity: Going to the Park

---

Peace!!!

Here it goes!

2009-05-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

The last actual post was MONTHS and I mean MONTHS ago! I honestly can't remember the last time I sat at the computer and did one of these things. Seeing that one of my high school friends just had her baby (Congrats Jessi!!) I thought I should get back in the swing of doing these again. I was looking through some of Dade's baby clothes, and I do mean baby clothes, Friday night and I can't believe how small he was. He's changed SOOOO much in the last 14 months.

Here's a picture from the hospital

Here's a picture of him from this past weekend!

The crazy kid is as active as one can be. He's walking, no, running everywhere that he can. He's jiber jabbing ever chance he gets, and is well on his way to talking. Every once and awhile he'll get a word out that we can understand. He says his name, duck, pup, up, Dada, Abba (which Clint claims is father), Papa. However he thinks that it's funny when we ask him to say mama. One day Clint asked him to say mama, and he looked right at him and said, "Nope"

He takes after his dad in looks. However, as Clint states, he never shuts up like his mother. I guess he did get something from me after all.

I offically took the bottle away from him. Earlier this past week he was drinking out of it so hard that he was making it collapse. He was only using it for his milk, but now he's not even getting it for that.

I bought him a potty today. He's been squating when he pees or poops in his diaper, so I decieded that it was time to start slowly working our way to the no diaper route. I'm sure it's going to take a while, but if we can get him to go atleast once or twice a day on there, that's one less diaper I'm going to use in a day. He went twice for me today, which I was super excited about.

Dade loves to go to the park across from the house to play, and with the weather starting to get nicer, he and Clint take nice walks over there while I'm teaching.

I'm almost done with my 3rd year of teaching (second year at DTA). I still wouldn't change it for the life of me. I love my students, and enjoy watching them grow! Just a few more weeks before the regular school year is out, and then summer school. I honestly don't mind teaching summer school, I will get my students that I will have in the fall, so it's a great time to get to know them and have fun!

Clint is working on LOADS of creative projects right now. He decided to make a huge business change, and KNRPG is no longer. He has a new company in the works, and hopefully within a few months everything will be up and rolling. I'm in love with one of his current projects. It's by far my favorite that he's done. No secrets out of me though. Shhhh! You'll just have to wait and find out. He's currently outside of Detroit, Michigan hanging out with some guys from Palladium Books. He took the train from Kansas City to Detroit. He said it was a nice relaxing trip.

With him gone this past week, Dade came to visit Nana and Papa, and go to Baby School with his cousin Brant. The house was SOOOOO quiet that I didn't know what to do. Even Slinky was being super peacful. I left school so fast on Friday to get Slinky and head to Knob to get Dade that it was crazy!

Clint and I both finished our Masters Degrees this past December. One would think that I would stop there. NOPE! I'm currently working on my 2nd Masters. This one is a Masters in Liberal Arts (like Clint's). Clint is sad because I'm going to be ahead of him in schooling, but he plans on getting a doctorite as soon as he finds the program that he wants. He found the perfect one at MU, but we don't want to move to Columbia. We love our house in the city, and want to raise Dade there.

That being said, I need to watch The Lonesome Dove for my Western Film class, and then write a paper on it. I'm going to try my very best to update this more often than I have been!

AHAHHHHHH

2009-04-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

Why is it that I never have time to blog anymore? Maybe because I'm super busy with my full time teaching job, part-time tutoring job, and taking care of my now 13month old!!!

CRAZY! I have so many things that I need to tell and so many pictures to share.

Soon, oh so soon!

Absent Minded

2009-02-02T17:26:00.000-06:00

When it comes to my blog. HOLY SMOKES!!! December 18th? Really that was my last post! So many things have happened in that time frame.

I'll try and update tomorrow. In the mean time check out my web gallery for recent pictures! (Link on side margin)

Things that Make Me Smile

2008-12-18T03:21:00.000-06:00

1. Dade walking across his bedroom for the first time.

2. Watching my students play musical instruments in Music Class.

3. Watching the "light bulb" come on when a student has struggled with a concept.

Snow Day!!!!

2008-12-16T05:25:00.000-06:00

This is the second day in a week, that we have had to cancel school. The twist is that the first snow day I didn't get to fully enjoy. Why is that? Well, after trying to get a student of mine that was throwing a fit out of the classroom, I threw my back out. It was not a lot of fun. Rode in an ambulance to the ER at St. Lukes on the Plaza, because my legs were tingling. That was last Tuesday, then Wednesday we had no school. I was on the couch all day trying to rest. Thursday I tried to go back to work. Keyword "tried" however I was still in a lot of pain. So I went to another doctor, we suggested I do some Physical Therapy. That helped out A LOT. I felt some much better after that! Had a second session on Friday, and felt even better.

Saturday was a fun and exciting day for Clint and I. We both graduated from Baker University with our Master Degrees. I received my Masters in Education, and Clint received his Masters in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Religion. It's nice to be done with my Masters, however there is so much more that I want to learn about. That being said, I'm going to start my MLA in February. Call me crazy, but I am excited.

Here's some recent pictures of the kid!

From 12-9-08

He fell asleep in his high chair while Clint was trying to finish his portfolio for his MLA.

From 12-9-08

In his snow gear ready to go play for the first time in the snow.

From 12-9-08

He seems excited in this picture. So we let him try to walk. He ended up face planting into the snow.

From 12-9-08

Here's the result of the face plant. So, he just sat in the snow and ran his hands through it.

From 12-9-08

This seemed like a much better choice.

Dade saw Santa for the first time. He did really well. He then saw Santa again at Krause Christmas.

From 12-9-08

It's crazy to think he'll be 10 months old next week! He is a brave little guy. He's cruising a lot throughout the house, and is starting to let go of objects. He'll be running before too long!

Books

2008-11-16T15:17:00.000-06:00

Clint spent all day Saturday at the Library working on his new campaign, and reading. He wants to make it a Saturday routine that we go to the library and check out books. Of course as Dade gets older this will benefit him as well.

I read at school a lot. Pictures books, chapter books, etc. . . At home, it's a different story. I don't read, unless it's to Dade. Even to Dade it's gotten few and far between. With no rocker in his room he's been lying with me in bed until he goes to sleep. As soon as we get our couch, the rocker can come back upstairs, and we can get back to reading at night.

What am I getting at? I have a ton of books here at the house that I want to read, and I'm going to make an effort to read more before I turn in for the night. Dade's currently asleep in his room, Clint's downstairs with Aaron and Chris talking KNRPG, and I've got Dexter on the DVD player. Oh yeah, and Slinky's in his kennel for the night.

I've got Seeing Me Naked by Liz Palmer next to me. She also wrote Conversations with the Fat Girl and I loved it. I've had this book for awhile now and haven't started it. I'm going to as soon as I finish this blog. Going to read until my eyes nod off.

When did I post last?

2008-11-10T16:54:00.000-06:00

Can't remember. That means it's been awhile. Time for photo blogging. Enjoy!

When we got the house!

From House on Summit

After we painted

From House on Summit

I need to take a picture of the bedroom (when it isn't covered with clothes). As you can see we did ALOT of painting before we moved in. The only big piece of furniture we are missing is our couch. No worries though, it's on order from Nebraska Furniture Mart. We should have it sometime before the New Year!

Now for pictures of the super mobile, crazy, tons of fun DADE!

From Dade and Gaming

Dade did not want to go to bed the other night when we gamed. We put him in his highchair, gave him super big dice, and he was set. We sat there the entire game (3+ hours) and finally crashed around midnight.

From Dade and Gaming

Here I am trying to get him to go to sleep around midnight. Daddy wanted to take pictures though.

From Dade and Gaming

Even at midnight, those big eyes are wide awake!

From Nov. 9, 2008

Here's one piece that proves Dade is my son! He LOVES and I mean LOVES to watch Will Ferrell. It doesn't matter what it is. SNL Best of, Talladega Night, Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. You put that on and you are golden. I think Clint has watched Best of at least a hundred times if not more. Dade laughs right along with the audience. It's something to watch!

From Nov. 9, 2008

I can't believe that my baby is 8 months old! He's such a big boy! Here is he at Grandma Barb's in his booster seat at the table. We are trying "adult" foods now. He does not like refried beans (however we enjoy watching his face), and rice. He does like jello, veggies, and sloppy burgers. Tonight at dinner he was upset because he didn't get to try my food. Who does he take after in that instant?

From Nov. 9, 2008

Yummy icing from Brant's cake! Won't be too much longer before it's his turn to get good and dirty with a cake!

From Nov. 9, 2008

Dade's a bit of a bully. Brant, however, was not very happy to be pulled on. The picture says it all.

From Nov. 9, 2008

MY FAVORITE!!! Dade thinks that it's funny to bite the spoon, and then to laugh. We of course start laughing as well, and then he starts laughing even harder. As a result whoever is feeding him gets sprayed with baby food.

He's almost walking. He loves to walk along the wall holding onto whatever he can. Clint says that during the day he starts in the living room entryway into the kitchen and works his way into the dining room and then into the kitchen. I think think he'll be walking by Thanksgiving. If not then by Christmas.

I need to blog more often so that they aren't so long!

Poor Dade

2008-10-16T16:26:00.000-05:00

I took Dade back to the doctor tonight. His cough has gotten worse, and his nose is running again. I was sent home with a breathing machine and a script for the medicine for the machine. He did not like having that thing attached to his face, but I'm hoping that he'll sleep better tonight. He has to have a treatment every 4 hours. If that wasn't enough, I have to use saline in his nose to get out all the gunk. Let's not forget the eye drops either. Poor kid, thinks I'm gonna hurt him =(

He's passed out now in the pack and play. I set it up right next to the bed so I can see him when I wake up. He spent the day at the daycare and is so tired now. Clint can't go paint tomorrow during the day because of Dade being sick. I've already used one sick day this week, I can't use another. So he's going to go finish up at the house tomorrow night when I get home.

I'm super tired too. Kids are being crazy because of the weather change, but I know they'll straighten out. Tomorrow is testing day so it should be pretty laid back.

What would you do?

2008-10-16T11:32:00.000-05:00

My class has been studying about the government. It's perfect timing with the election right around the corner. Who's a good planner? LOL

Anyways today I posed the questions, "What would you do if you were President?" I didn't get the responses I thought I was going to get. Here's what I got instead!

1. I would help the poor.
2. I would make laws.
3. I would stop people from doing drugs.
4. I would give money to charity.
5. I would help people survive.
6. I would rule the world and tell people good things.
7. I would change things.
8. I would make a speech about how we should live our lives.
9. I would let the homeless live in the White House with me.
10. I would give money to the homeless.
11. I would keep the world safe.
12. I would lower taxes.
13. I would give houses away for free.
14. I would provide food and water.
15. I would make people do the right things.
16. I would make the USA a better place to live.
17. I would lower gas prices.
18. I would make everything free.
19. I would clean up houses.
20. I would give houses to the homeless so they wouldn't be homeless anymore.

Out of the mouths of Children!

I'll give a Krause update soon!

Krause Family Update!

2008-10-05T16:24:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already heard, we are moving!!! I'm super excited. We'll be a whole 7 miles from my school, living in the city, in the Waldo District. Here's some pictures of the place:

Here's a picture of the living room.

This is a picture of the living room. The door on the left is the front door, doorway on the right goes into the kitchen and then the stairs go to the bedrooms.

Here's another shot of the living room.

Honestly, these are the two best pictures that we took the first time we saw it. I'm going to turn in the lease tomorrow and get the key, so I'm going to take some more pictures, plus measure to see how much paint we are going to need. We picked out some awesome colors for the rooms. The kitchen, living room, and dining room are going to compliment each other very well.

If you want to see the outside of the house, use google maps and type in the address 8400 Summit, Kansas City Mo. You'll want to use normal map view, and then click street view. It's scary how close you can see the house, and the park across the street!

DADE UPDATE

He's a mad crawling machine. Trying to walk now. I think he'll be walking by Thanksgiving. Today he was standing by himself for about 5 seconds or so. He had his first major cold this past week too. I don't think I've ever worried so much about one person in my entire life. There's something about having a child sick when they can't tell you what's wrong that will make you feel bad yourself. I actually stayed home last Monday because Clint was sick as well. On top of that, he's teething LIKE CRAZY!!!! He's cutting four teeth at once, both front teeth, and the tooth to either side of them. He went to the doctor several times last week, plus a call to the on-call doctor. He's doing much better today. He's sleeping in his crib right now! Which is super awesome because with the whole mice thing, and then his cold, we had him sleeping with us. I'm looking forward to not having a baby in the bed.

MICE WAR

Count to date of total mice caught inside the house is 7. OMG!!!! If I never see another mouse inside my house again I will be greatful! We caught 4 in the "humane" traps. The ones we never see inside, it just says house caught, then you throw it away. 2 mice were caught on glue traps (on the fireplace hearth and in the garage), which our landlord gave us when he was having the house sprayed for winter bugs. 1 mouse found dead at the bottom of the steps. Wierd place to find one personally. I think Slinky found this one, and left it for us in the open.

Poor Slinky. During this whole mice war he went insane. One night we had to pin him in our room with a baby gate so that he wouldn't spend the whole night trying to find them.

SCHOOL UPDATE

School year is going good to date. I'm way behind on grading, but when am I not. It's almost the end of the quarter, so that means time to meet with the parents. I go in about 6:15-6:30, and get alot of stuff done in the morning, which is nice, because a lot of the teachers don't show up until 7:15 or later, so I can run copies without waiting. I also have been going in for a few hours on Saturday to do the majority of my copying for the week.

----

I'm super tired, I should turn in now. Once we move, I'm going to try and be better about blogging again. I miss this aspect of my life.

6 1/2 Miles of "Death"!!!

2008-08-31T14:55:00.000-05:00

That's what I like to call a section of Arkansas 62 Hwy. The curves are so dangerous that it makes me nervous. I drove the entire way to Eureka Springs UNTIL we reached the area before the curves. I turned the car over to Clint, and he brought us into the beautiful town.

Again, the BnB is amazing!!! There are so many places to stay here, but we LOVE this place. We are in the same room as we were for our honeymoon. We got here late Friday night, and spent all day yesterday walking around the town shopping and taking in the arts of the town. Town was a more of a "Let's Relax" day. We didn't leave the B n B until almost 11:30. Went and at lunch at an underground cafe, then bought some gifts for the family, and came back to the B n B. Dinner was nice, however we were slightly confused when we sat down to eat. When we got to the restaurant, they said it would be a 30 minute wait. Which was fine. We waited about 45 minutes the night before. What was crazy was when we were seated, we spotted at least 5 empty tables in our section alone, and at least three in another section. We didn't know why there was a wait when their were so many empty table. None the less it was good.

The rest of the night is going to be chilling out together. My hand is doing better. I burnt it last week when I was transferring water from one pot to another. It was a huge second degree burn. I look like I have a disease or something. It itches, but it's healing so that's good.

I'm going to go grab some fresh cookies and brownies. Maybe a brownie!

Crawling Baby!

2008-08-23T15:21:00.000-05:00

He's getting there. It won't be too much longer before he starts going. Right now he brings both knees up at the same time, and then slides almost. He's doing the same thing he's cousin Brant is doing, crawling up on his feet more than his knees. It's super cute.

The first two bottom teeth and sharp! But cute to boot! Watch out when he tries to stick your fingers in his mouth. He has his 6 month check up on Thursday. Yeah for more shots.

We were just at the doctor last Monday. He had a nasty diaper rash that we could not get rid of. Turns out he had a yeast infection. I know it's common, but I still feel bad. The doctor said that babies get it all the time in their "fat" rolls. Dade was put on medicine for it, and after 6 days of using this ointment, it's almost cleared up. Have to use it for another week or so just to make sure.

Clint and I are going to Eureka Springs for Labor Day weekend. I didn't get the Friday of Labor Day weekend off, because it's the first two weeks of school, but oh well. Just means that we'll get their really late. Dade is going to Day Care next Friday when he's with my parents. Should be good for him. He likes to play now. We'll pick him up Monday from Mom and Dad when we get back.

I'm looking forward to spending time with Clint. He basically locked himself away for my 6 weeks off, so I didn't get to do a lot of stuff with him. He finished right before GenCon so there was no relaxing time. I'd be perfectly fine with locking myself in our room and just hanging out. Hopefully it won't be too hot next weekend.

Well, I'm super tired. Dade has been asleep for a while now. He didn't take a nap this afternoon so at 6, he became really cranky. Oh well, he'll still sleep all night.

What's a Mama to do?

2008-08-13T16:58:00.000-05:00

When you have the WHOLE HOUSE to yourself? I'm not exactly sure. Now Dade has been gone before, however not like this WITHOUT Clint being here. Clint's gone to Indy for the week (In fact this blog was interrupted by a phone call from him). He's already having a good time, and he's informed me that he has met ALOT of important awesome people in the gaming industry (Thumbs up!!!) Empire of Dust (EoD) is going to be released tomorrow. I have a good feeling about all this!!! It's the most expensive game that he has ever done, let alone the biggest. But it's awesome!!

I found myself coloring this evening and it was a nice relaxing end to a long day.

I've decieded that I need to start gaming more often. I really want to, but I've been using Dade has an excuse not to. We usually don't start until after Dade goes to bed, so there's no real reason why I can't. We shall see.

Slinky and I are going to hand out upstairs here in a few minutes. I feel bad because he was alone all day. Aaron is going to come over tomorrow for a bit to let him out. He'll enjoy that.

I think I hear Taladaga Nights calling my name from the bedroom. Slinky looks on the tired side, and I'm sure if I look in the mirror I'll see a tired Cassie.

Sitting Baby

2008-07-31T16:10:00.000-05:00

Dade has recently starting sitting up on his own for longer than 20 seconds. He sat up for about an hour yesterday with out PAT (Parents As Teachers) person playing. He doesn't like lying on his back as much anymore. He prefers to be on his tummy, or sitting up. I've spend most of the afternoon loading videos to our YouTube Account of the little guy. The first one is Dade playing with a kitchen towel. Of all his toys that he has, when he gets ahold of a towel or blanket this is what he does:

This one is just a typical play time with Dade:

He's getting so big, so fast!

Gymboree Play and Learn 1 Class

2008-07-27T06:07:00.000-05:00

I signed Dade up for the Gymboree Play and Learn 1 Class today. The first class is free. It's geared towards babies that are 0-6 months old. I'm super excited. I got a postcard in the mail that other day about it. I wasn't sure if there was a location close to us, but low and behold there's on over by Sylvan!

I'm going to wait and see what the class is like, before I make any decisions, but they have music classes starting at 6 months old. I think it would be good for Clint and Dade to do something like that during the week, and then I can go the Play and Learn classes with him on the weekends.

Our PAT person is coming Wednesday morning, and then at noon Dade and I will go to our Play and Learn Class.

Mom and Dad have Dade until Monday afternoon. I love my kid to death, but I needed a small break to do some homework and relax before I go back to work in two weeks.

My timer just went off for the laundry, so I better go check it!

Dade update

2008-07-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

I've been HORRIBLE at blogging lately. Even now I've got some stuff that I need/want to get done, but I'm forcing myself to do a blog. I shouldn't say forcing, but you parents know how it is, once the little one is down for the night you can get some stuff done.

Dade's front bottom two teeth are coming in, and it's creating an uncomfortable baby. He's still being his normal awesome self, just a little bit more fussy than normal. I noticed early this week that he was pulling his ear. At first I thought he had just found his ear, but he continued to do it. He's been running a low fever because of the teething, but I thought maybe he had an ear infection. This morning his normal routine did a huge change when he didn't want to play, and just wanted to be held and sleep. When Clint got home we took him to see his doctor. I LOVE our doctor's office because they have urgent care EVERYDAY!!! So even though it was a Sunday, we still could take him in. The doc said that he doesn't have an ear infection, it's just the pain from the teething moving up his jaw line to his ear. When he pulls his ear he relieves some of the pressure. The doctor said we are doing everything right, meaning Baby Orajel and Tylenol about every 6 hours of so to help with the teething. He seemed to think that Dade's front bottom teeth will break through the gum line very very soon.

Dade is a rolling machine. I rearranged the living room yesterday and we gave a friend of ours, our coffee table. Dade has a ton of room now to move around in the living room without getting hurt. He's starting to get his legs underneath him to crawl, but can't seem to get the front half up at the same time. It's very cute to watch. I'll have to video tape it sometime.

Alrighty. Now I don't feel so bad about blogging. If you want an update, shoot me a comment and beg for a blog, then it will get me going.

OH YEAH! Before I forget, I've already found one of Dade's Christmas presents. Check this out!

It's the Retro Rocket by Radio Flyer: With realistic astronaut and space sounds, the Retro Rocket from Radio Flyer puts kids "in the driver's seat." The rolling wheels that activate lights and sounds, and additional features include a clicking nose cone, and cool retro styling.

It's going to be an awesome Christmas!

Crazy Cleaning Lady

2008-07-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

That would be me. I was informed earlier this week, by my mother, that she was having a garage sale later this month, and that if I had anything to sell, I needed to bring it to there house, and help work the sale. I guess that's a fair price. So today I tackled the downstairs closet. I should have taken a before and after picture of what it looked like. Let's just say that now I have a location that all my scrapbooking supplies are now accessible. I actually want to scrapbook now. The main reason why I haven't been is because all of my things were piled in Dade's closet and getting to them would have been a nightmare. Not anymore!

My crazy cleaning didn't stop there. For some reason I decided to move a huge cabinet across the room, and rearrange my cooking things. Again I should have taken pictures. But I didn't. Those that come over to my house a lot will notice a big difference in the dining room. I believe Clint and I can now eat off of our pub table instead of the sofas.

Dade is rolling from tummy to back, and back to tummy now! He's a crazy rolling machine. I need to seriously get the baby gates installed as soon as possible. I want to get the ones that you screw into the wall and that have a latch. Safety never hurt no body.

Dade's tummy has had the tastes of sweet potatoes, sweet peas, carrots, and green beans. Plus we have introduced apple juice. He gets a veggie in place of his noon time bottle, plus 4 oz juice. I've found that if he gets a sip of juice before he's finished his veggie, he won't go back to the veggie. He throws a huge fit until he gets the juice. So today he didn't get his bottle with apple juice until he ate all his carrots. It worked very nicely.

Tomorrow I'm going to tackle more random things that will be sold, plus a doctor's appointment. Now I'm going to relax and watch some Harry Potter.

First

2008-06-27T16:43:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my first motorcycle ride. WOW!!! CRAZY SCARY!!!

My friend Danielle's dad, Gene took me. I got neverous on the s-curve just past my parent's house, but I was better on the return trip. I'm super exhausted. Dade was up several times last night, and I was on the go all day today.

We are going to try and leave about 8 tomorrow morning. We'll see how that goes. I'm going to miss Clint, and I'm sure that he's going to miss Dadey more than me. LOL! But it will be nice to get away. We are staying at a hotel in Oklahoma because my Aunt's AC went out. Bright side is that it has a pool, so Dade will get to try swimming! He loves his bathes, so I'm hoping that he's going to like the pool.

He got Sweet Peas and Apple Juice today for the first time today. He seemed to like it. I tasted the Sweet Peas before I gave it to him. They were bland compared to the Sweet Potatoes, but still yummy!

I'm super tired, but Chad and Dad are downstairs playing the Wii. Dade is sleeping in his pack-n-play down there too. I'm going to have to boot them out so I can go to sleep.

I'm driving to Oklahoma, Dade first long road trip. I'm excited!

Milestone Chart

2008-06-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here at my parent's house, using my dad's computer. Dade is passed out on the floor asleep. I was looking up a milestone chart to see how Dade's doing compared to other kiddos. Here's the chart (curtosity of Baby Center)

Child's Age	Mastered Skills (most kids can do)	Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)	Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
1 month	• Lifts head when lying on tummy • Responds to sound • Stares at faces	• Follows objects briefly with eyes • Vocalizes: oohs and aahs • Can see black-and-white patterns	• Smiles, laughs • Holds head at 45-degree angle
2 months	• Vocalizes: gurgles and coos • Follows objects across field of vision • Notices his hands • Holds head up for short periods	• Smiles, laughs • Holds head at 45-degree angle • Makes smoother movements	• Holds head steady • Can bear weight on legs • Lifts head and shoulders when lying on tummy (mini-pushup)
3 months	• Recognizes your face and scent • Holds head steady • Visually tracks moving objects	• Squeals, gurgles, coos • Blows bubbles • Recognizes your voice • Does mini-pushup	• Rolls over, from tummy to back • Turns toward loud sounds • Can bring hands together, bats at toys
4 months	• Smiles, laughs • Can bear weight on legs • Coos when you talk to him	• Can grasp a toy • Rolls over, from tummy to back	• Imitates sounds: "baba," "dada" • Cuts first tooth • May be ready for solid foods

So I did this up till 4 months, since that's what we are getting ready to head into. I can't help but say this, but Dade falls into the last column. That makes me happy.

Here's the rest of the chart for months 5 and 6

5 months	• Distinguishes between bold colors • Plays with his hands and feet	• Recognizes own name • Turns toward new sounds • Rolls over in both directions	• Sits momentarily without support • Mouths objects • Separation anxiety may begin
6 months	• Turns toward sounds and voices • Imitates sounds • Rolls over in both directions	• Is ready for solid foods • Sits without support • Mouths objects • Passes objects from hand to hand	• Lunges forward or starts crawling • Jabbers or combines syllables • Drags objects toward himself

I can see some things in month 5 that he is already doing. He LOVES his hands and toes already. We'll see how everything goes!

Super Dadey Baby x2!

2008-06-15T07:38:00.000-05:00

Too Mant Titles for One Post

2008-06-14T17:33:00.000-05:00

So many things are running through my head right now, and I have a possible billion titles for this post. Okay maybe not a billion, but here's a few:

My Parents, Gamers? or Dadey Super Baby or Sickness Becomes Her or Two Weeks Till Freedom or Graphic Novel Nerd In The Making

How's that. Well I'll start with the first title possibilty.

My Parents, Gamers?

While on our way to Sedalia, my mother promptly tells me that she and my father had purchased a Wii! Yes, my parents, after playing my brother's Wii, have gone and purchased one for themselves. They don't physically have it in their hands, my brother does. But they will next weekend. I was floored, but excited at the same time. I want a Wii very badly, and my parents now have one. Oh well! That just means I'll get to play it when I come home, and the week that I'm house sitting in July while they are in Chicago.

Dadey Super Baby!

What's this about? How nothing, except the fact that he rolled from tummy to back today, not once, not twice, but three times. He had a blast doing it. I grabed the digital of course after the first two times and started recording. I'm uploading the video to YouTube right now. I'll post it when it's uploaded. He's amazing. He's easting cereal now, and I got him sweet potatoes, and sweet peas to start on here in the next few weeks. He's getting so big, so fast! Our next appointment in on June 26th.

Sickness Becomes Her

My raspy voice offical turned into a sickness between Thursday night and Friday Morning. My voice has been raspy for two weeks or so. Thursday night I started coughing, and when I woke up Friday morning I felt icky. My 11:30, my lead sent me home, saying I looked awful. I slept from noon until 4:30. I got up because I was feeling better, but by 7:00 it hit me again like a big truck. I went back to bed and didn't wake up until 6 or so this morning. I'm feeling better. I'm back on stuff for my sinus problems, which helps a lot believe it or not. All this silly pollen is really messing me up.

Two Weeks Till Freedom

I have two more weeks of summer school and then I'm free until July. 6 weeks of glorious freedom. What will I be doing in those 6 weeks you ask? Hanging out with Dadey, house sitting for my parents, and oh yeah getting ready for my third graders. I'm teaching third grade this summer, and this fall, and I'm super excited. I LOVE my new team, and can't wait to get to work with my kids everyday!

Graphic Novel Nerd In The Making

I'm loving my gradute class right now. I'm enjoying reading comic books for class, even if they take me a while to read. I've got a list of ones that I want to get, and I'm sure that Clint does too! It's awesome to back in a physical class instead of it being online. Plus it's awesome to have class with Clint again. I'm thinking about starting another Master's in January. Liberal Arts. We'll see.

---

Okay, now I think I have everything out that I want. But who knows, there might be more later. Tomorrow is Clint's first Father's Day afterall. Time to go read.

Quick Post

2008-05-28T13:26:00.000-05:00

Here's Dade at my grandma's house in the Exersaucer.

He also had cereal for the first time this weekend!

More later!