Happy Birthday, Steve!!!

Steve informed me the other day that he was not aware that I had a blog! How is that possible that I would have told everyone else but him? I'm still dubious. Another comment that he made was that he doesn't feel he's mentioned in my blog enough. So this post will be devoted to my wonderful husband, Steve.

Steve's birthday is on Tuesday, and he'll be having his own "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He'll be going to the Chicago Institute of Art, and a Cubs game at Wrigley Field (and they play the Pirates - his team). He's in Chicago for the International Reading Association's Reading Conference.

UPDATE! Steve made it back fine from Chicago, and he had a good trip. The best day was his birthday. He went to Wrigley field for a Cubs/Pirates game and caught a foul ball! He was very excited. To top it all off, the Pirates won, too! He didn't make it to the art museum, but he did go to Shedd's Aquarium. He said it was awesome.

Just an update:
Steve is teaching 5th grade this year at Fern Creek Elementary. He loves working for the principal that is there, and will stay there next year.

He hasn't had much time to play his guitar lately, but he'll be taking it with him this summer while he's working for Dr. Janet Allen again doing Literacy Institutes. I don't think they're calling them Literacy Institutes this year, though. He will still be training teachers.

Steve has still been finding time to do pottery, however. Here are some pictures of a pit-firing he participated in back in January. . .

These are his pots before firing:

















This is during the firing:














This is as the firing was ending:

And this is what they looked like after the firing:















So now you have an update on Steve. I'm sorry you felt slighted, Honey, and Happy Birthday! =) xoxo

Teri is AWESOME!

My friend Teri, who is more like my sister than my friend (we've known each other since 10th grade), made this for me. These are pictures that we had taken last year, but we all still look the same. Except Carissa has braces now. You can make the picture bigger by clicking on it.

Cool picture

It's been forever since I've posted anything, and I've received a ration of grief about it. I just haven't had any pictures to add to my blog. I think it makes for much more exciting posts to have a picture to go with my blog. I did find a cool picture of myself online during a cheerleading competition. Check out my mad skills.I'm in the first picture on page 4, and the last picture on page 6.

https://www.universaleventphoto.com/ShoppingCart/SelectThumbs.aspx

That's me doing a pike jump (I think it's a pike jump) at TD Waterhouse on page 4. I'm in the back on the right. Haha!

The exciting news is that the parent team is continuing to practice over the summer. I went to a very small practice tonight with about 7 or 8 other people. I GOT TO BE A FLYER! They got me up in a stunt to chin level, which is as far as I'd let them take me. Truth be told, I was afraid they wouldn't be able to lift me higher than that and didn't want to be embarrassed! So now I'll be dieting so I can be a flyer next year. It was soooo much fun.

So what is Carissa doing? She has been going to tryout clinic this week. We don't know what squad she'll be on yet. I know they'll keep her on Youth because of her age, but the coach from the next squad up, Juniors, has been watching her very closely. They could ask her to do both squads. She wasn't interested in that before, but is entertaining the idea now.

She's been working on her standing tuck and her full. I'll try to figure out how to get my digital camera to take video of her doing it and upload it. That is my project for this weekend. In the meantime, you can view these skills on the Cheerleader Nation website. Click on the link below, click "skip intro," click on "Cheerleading 101" and then click on "standing tuck" and "full." If you want to see what I did tonight as a flyer, click on "Elevator."

http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/cheerleader/index.html