Death of a Computer

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.

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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

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

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

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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

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.

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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!!

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

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

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!

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

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Peace!!!

Here it goes!

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

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!