A Birthday to Celebrate!

Mrs. Brady is Back...

Well, kind of. After David and I chatted about our hobbies last month, I realized that two of my big ones are traveling and teaching. As David knows, I've kept up with the travel pretty well. (don't bring it up to him. haha.) The teaching one, however, is a bit difficult at this time (aside from teaching my little one)... so I came up with a new idea. TUTOR! I jumped in and contacted a few of my past students (well,their parents)-- they were quick to respond and bring them over. I called it the "Refresh the Memory" tutoring session, being a month ahead of school starting again. It has certainly taken plenty of my time, keeping me out of trouble. haha. I've enjoyed doing it 3x a week, 1 hour each. Time flew by VERY fast.

School starts back up on Monday, so today we did a finale tutor session. With the Olympics going on, I decided to put the through a relay race. I invited 2 of my nephews over to join in (a bit of a thanks to their fam for letting us have our little girl's Bday party there tomorrow). I had 4 spots and each had a "test" question... It wasn't your normal way to answer questions.

1- Using a waterballoon, hit the correct card--ea. had 4 answers to give me

2- Using your feet, dig throughthe jell-o to find your answer-- answers were written on foil or saran wrap... they had to choose the correct one. Some were tricky.

3- Using your face, find your answer... true or false-- Some of my friends/family have experienced this one... hands behind the back, face and nose digging into a big bowl of flour to find the correct answer (candy). I had the answers wrapped around mini hersheys.

4- Use the slip n' slide to get to your answer-- I had answers taped to shish-kabob sticks. Each was stuck in the grass at the end of the slip n' slide.

There were all sorts of right and wrong possible answers, so they had to pay attention!

At the end, when they received the results of their tests... they either:

1- stuff a big marshmallow in their mouth for each wrong one and then sang the alphabet

2- sit on the grass while one breaks an egg over your head. 1 egg for each wrong question.

I was nervous about the result effects... could go bad. It was a test though. I figured the marshmallow was mellow enough. I wanted to do the egg though because it could be a big hit. Let's just say that each one purposely got one wrong so that they could experience the egg. Not a normal everyday thing. Of course I insisted that they clean themselves up by sliding along the slip n' slide! :) Lots of good laughs.

I sure had fun being Mrs. Brady! I plan to carry on with the tutoring through the school year. We'll see what else takes place. he, he, he.

Fun and Play

Well, the Brady's were sure lucky to have the Wilson's come to town. Woo Hoo!!! We enjoyed lots of swimming at my neighbor's awesome pool: waterfall, diving board, slide, and hidden area. We put my yard into good use. We also created a new dessert... "Picaso Cookies," Rikki and Natles will know what I mean (a not quite right turn out of cookie cups). Brett's awesome actions while playing "Psychiatrist"- on the BALL, boy! Shane experiencing, "Hefty, hefty, hefty. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy," while taking the challenge to eat dinner. Finally, we actually made it down to the strip to see the Bellagio garden and the unbelievable Fountains. Shane is sure that the fountains shoot even above his dad's head! =)

Our little Gidget definitely, undoubtedly, surely loved her time with her cousins. Talk about a spoiled girl when her extended family comes to town! Her interest in "chase Gidget" started while they were here -- I had never seen her crawl so fast--and her first word (aside from Dada and Mama) came out while she played with her dolly around her cousins, "Baby." Rikki was right there with me to confirm it. They all sure made her crack up.

The few days went by quickly and we were all sad to see them go. Hey Wilson's, here's an idea... how about you move to Vegas? Even St. George would be OK. Hmm. It's a thought. =)

growing by the day...

David gave me a camera for Mother's Day and my mom introduced me to Picasa2. I think it is online through Google. Nice stuff. You should check it out. Well, our little one just hit 11 months. Already. I had fun playing with some of the photos. I love the outfit. My mom and I found it at Kohl's with a great sale!

No Excuses

In June I received a Jury Duty letter for the end of July. I kinda laughed, "Of all times to get the order." I was mixed on the "hmm, interesting" feeling and the "oh boy" feeling. It's one thing to do it for a day... another if it turns out to be a week or a month long! Yikes. That was the scariest about it. Regardless of my preferences, I knew that I shouldn't--I don't think they'd give the jury a break every two hours for me to take a nice nap. No problem getting out of it... brain surgery. Who turns that down?
Apparently, the jury dept. turns excuse of brain surgery down. I contacted my doctor for a letter of excusal from him. A week later, I got a letter of denial from the Dept. office. Ouch. Talk about "come rain or shine!" With all of the department's contact info. there was no one I could chat with. Being a proud American citizen, I went. I had grabbed anything that could prove my surgery (aside from the nice gash on the side of my head-- actually, my inch long hair covers it and the scar is quite smooth). Needless to say, I spoke with them and they informed me that they hadn't received my doctor's fax and had sent me the denial only because I had inquired about it over the phone. So, I called my doctor and was sent home... I took a good nap.
Learned: Interacting with a computer over the phone isn't perfect.