Snow Day #2 and #3!!!

Well, this has been an interesting week. We had THREE snow days. We had a great time hanging out together and doing fun things together. I just love being with my family and this week was fun having "us" time.
We let the kids sleep on the pull out couch after snow day #1 and we knew snow day #2 was a done deal:



Tim and Luke headed out on a long hike in the ice and snow to the park to sled while Lauren and I stayed inside and watched a movie on the pull out couch. Here are the boys venturing out:


Then we made snow ice cream, that was fun to do too. Here is Luke gathering a bowl of snow for our creation:



Here are the kids mixing up the ice cream:




Then last night we got a call that I was on a delay and Luke and Lauren were cancelled for day #3. My call for today came early this morning. Our streets are still like thick skating rinks - they just can't get the ice off. We did venture out together today though for a nice lunch at McAlisters and we saw Paul Blart Mall Cop, that was a funny movie - I love Kevin James- he reminds me of Tim : )
Then today I was soooooooooooo excited because this came:

MY iPHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sooooooooooo excited! Tim got one a few weeks ago and I slowly was sucked in and saw it's potential and wanted one of my own. I was so thrilled when Fed Ex pulled up tonight and I have one of my own now.
Well, we have a 2 hour delay tomorrow so back to school for a 1/2 day and then a weekend, gotta love teaching : )

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was such a wonderful day, I just looooooooooooooove snow days.
We had big plans to go to a neighborhood school and sled, but when we got all dressed and looked outside we realized that our street hadn't been plowed and it was still coming down pretty hard so we just walked up to a neighbors house to sled down their hill in their front yard:


We each took turns sliding down, it was a fun time:

It was Mickey's first time out in the snow and he LOVED it. I remember Loomis (our Golden Retreiver we had to put to sleep in May) absolutely loving the snow so I was happy to see Mickey enjoying it as well:


Luke continued to sled and Tim, Lauren and I headed back the house to start shoveling. Lauren started complaining she was cold so she headed inside and Tim and I finished up the driveway. We kept piling snow on Mickey as we shoveled:



Then some neighborhood kids came out and Luke was thrilled to have kids to sled with. Lauren, Tim and I headed inside for warm hot chocolate and soup, ahhhhhhhhhhhh, talk about your comfort foods : )
Luke lasted outside for another hour and a half outside with the neighborhood kids before he came in for his soup and hot chocolate.
I enjoyed a nap this afternoon, and playing "dance class" with Lauren.
We just took the garbage out but now we are being pelted with tons of freezing rain so our driveway will be a skating rink. Looks like we may get ANOTHER snow day out of this storm, incredible. I just love this time of year!

The "R" Word

Most of you who read this know that I am a special education teacher. I also have an aunt who is very close to my heart who has Down Syndrome. This is me with Holly:

In 2008 a WONDERFUL senior honors student, Soeren Palumbo gave a speech during Writers Week at Fremd High School in Wheeling, Illinois. He has a sister with special needs and was offended when his friends used the word "retard" or "retarded" so casually.
Here is a news clip from it: (take a moment to hit "pause" on my music player to the left before viewing this clip so you can hear it properly)

After I viewed his speech for the first time, it gave me a higher awareness of the "r" word and I have vowed to remove it from my vocabulary and spread the word about how hurtful this word can truly be. Please take the time to watch this incredible speech:

I hope this will change your awareness a bit about how important these members of our society are, how we should try and watch our use of this word that is used too often flippently in our society. I hope that maybe, just maybe this post has opened your eyes a bit, I know this speech opened mine : )