The Faces of Kenny

Every few months I get the urge to scrapbook my pictures into an album. I've been sifting through pictures for about a week, deciding which ones to use. I've come to the conclusion that my man cannot just SMILE for a picture. He makes goofy faces for EVERY picture taken of him. Clearly, you can see in these pictures. Whenever he is getting his picture taken, he's told to smile nicely, and rarely does that happen. He makes the silliest and sometimes annoying faces for the camera, no mater where we are...my cousin's wedding on the dance floor, Christmas with my family, or vacationing in Tawas with Derek & Monica. The list goes on. This is why I love him. I never know what to expect, and I'm always pleasantly surprised!

PJ's, Duke Boys, and Cleaning

This weekend has consisted of mainly 3 things.........the first 2 are my PJ's and The Dukes of Hazzard. About a year ago KAL introduced me to the Dukes. I hadn't watched them as a kid. But I had heard plenty of things about them. So when he brought over the boxed set of the 1st season last winter, I was hooked immediatly. When the 2nd season came out, he was at Best Buy that day, and the same for season 3. For Christmas I unwrapped season 4 (I know it was one of those gifts that he really bought for "us" or maybe just him) and we finished that one Friday evening. So yesterday we ventured out in the 8 degrees that it was outside to get season 5. The 3rd part of the weekend is the cleaning. Today I woke up with motivation to clean and organize (translation: everything will end up in the dumpster). The Dukes are playing on my DVD player, I'm comfy in my favorite clothes, and with the faint sound of Kenny's snore drifting up from the depths of the couch, I'm in that cleaning mode. Look out dumpster, here I come!!! (in my jamies)

Valentine's Day

There are a few different theories of how Valentine's Day came about. Here's my favorite:

Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire, when February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno, the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses (aka the Goddess of women and marriage). On February 15th the Feast of Lupercalia began. During these times the lives of young boys were very seperate from the lives of young girls. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry. Emperor Claudius II of Rome did not like this because men were choosing to fall in love and have families instead of serving their country. So he canceled all engagements and marriages. Saint Valentine was a priest during these times and believed in Christian marriage, so he secretly married couples. Emperor Claudius found out and had Saint Valentine killed, ironically on February 14th, which is why we celebrate Valentine's Day.

Just think ladies....you could be forever coupled with a man who drew your name from a jar. Kind of exciting, kind of scary.....

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day!

Table Tale

Since BG has moved here, her apartment has been mostly bare. After 3 months of shopping for diningroom tables, she FINALLY found a suitable one. This was almost more exciting for me then for her because I have to buy something immediatly when I want it. BG can shop and shop and shop for the perfect one, and it doesn't matter how many times she comes home empty handed. This drives me crazy, and in the last 3 months, it's happened about a zillion times. So when I got the call that she had found The One, I made her promise to wait until I could come with her to buy it. I needed the satisfaction of watching her buy it after all this!

Friday night I head over to her place and we get into her truck and drive to the store to get the much needed table. We head straight to the table, I fall in love with it immediatly, and the salesman has it taken up front for us. While we're waiting, we browse at purses and girly things. I made a pit stop, and when I come back to the purses, BG is gone!! So I continue looking, and then I hear myself being paged to customer service, about 25 feet away from where I'm standing. Turns out BG just wanted me to actually WATCH her purchase the table because I've been so anxious for this moment. How thoughtful!

In all the excitement, we completely forgot one important thing: How are WE going to get her new, unassembled, still in the box, HEAVY table upstairs into her apartment? And the other important thing I had not counted on....the table has to be put together by us! The ride back to her apartment takes us to Sears to grab the essential set of tools. As BG parks her truck, it dawns on us how heavy this thing is. I briefly thought of calling my man to help us, but then I decided that we could do this thing man free. After all, BG and I are country girls (now removed from the country), but nonetheless, we can handle this situation.

We decided to take the parts upstairs piece by piece instead of the whole box, which would have injured us FOR SURE. I was aching just thinking about one.........A piece at a time, up the stairs, and about 20 mintues later it was all assembled ready to go!! Ha, just kidding.

We began with the directions, and following them to a T, things went well up to a certain point. The screw driver didn't fit....it was too long to use on the bottom of the chairs. We tried a few other things, nothing worked. At this point we were both frustrated. We had been working on this for almost 2 hours, and making good progress, really didn't want to stop until we were done! BG suggested we get another screw driver, a shorter one, so off we go to Meijers, the only place open at midnight.

This screw driver worked, thank goodness. About an hour later, the whole project was complete. The table and chairs are beautiful and very much worth the wait, even for me!

The only complaint (and there's always a few) I have is that I woke up yesterday morning with my hands in an achy state. They hurt! BG, you owe me a manicure and hand massage!

Letterman's Top 10

Top Ten Cool Things About Having the Super Bowl in Detroit

10. No need for Homeland Security as entire audience is armed to the teeth.
9. Every place you go are plaques stating "Madonna Slept Here."
8. Commemorative bullet proof vests for all fans.
7. Finally, a chance for Lions fans to watch a professional football team.
6. Burning cars in the street make it feel like Miami.
5. Sounds of heckling fans drowned out by gunfire.
4. 30,000 Ford pink slips can be reused as confetti.
3. According to James Frey, "It's great to have the Super Bowl return to the Motor City where I quarterbacked the New Orlean Saints to their first World Championship in 1973."
2. Sudden death is a real possibility.
1. Buy two hotdogs, get a free Ford Focus.

Innocent, well, sort of

One of the little people I work with today amazed me yet again. As we were talking and working one-on-one, she says to me, "I know why they (referring to the "people" who create question and answer worksheets) ask these silly questions after every story. They want to see if you're paying attention." Right on Little One! It's the moments like this when I just smile and feel happy to be doing what I'm doing. I could write about a hundred different things that the little ones have said in the last few years. "When I'm in high school, will you still be alive?" seems to stick with me, as well as "Did you take a bath this week?" Those are some extreme examples, but I'll keep throwing them out there as they come to mind. These innocent questions keep me laughing at work, which is sometimes they only way to make it through!

Down Town Pictures Before Super Sunday

Pre-Super Bowl Pictures

Crazy Week

So the big game is only 1 day away.....thank goodness I don't have to go to work on Sunday! Super Bowl XL is great, but working downtown this past week has been nutty. As I looked out the window of my classroom, I saw the grand face of Ford Field, and all the big white tents set up next to it for partying, then a huge line of camera crews and satelites from local and cable stations. When I left to drive home there has been a dead-stop line of traffic coming into the city. There are limos everywhere: hummer ones, regular ones, escalade ones, and I think I even saw a Cadillac limo. Scattered on every corner are police cars. EVERYWHERE! The good thing is, they're not looking for speeders this week! Because so many streets downtown are blocked off, many of my students didn't make it to school yesterday, so Friday was a breeze! I will have to take pictures on Monday as I roll into the city...who knows what that's going to look like. Could be pretty scary!

On another note, Kenny just recently received some pretty prestigous awards at the Michigan State Auctioneers Association Convention in Mt. Pleasant. Check out his website to see all the details along with some pictures. www.AEauctions.com Way to go honey!