Days with the Dorans

 I still can't believe our baby will be going to high school next year. We had a parent/student night where we learned about the school, registering and more. Joe will be part of the largest class to go through WLN at 470! Still, we left feeling really good about this newest adventure. After the large presentation in the auditorium, we went to learn more about band (since we know for sure that will be one of Joe's electives) and choir (since he's recently started doing that and... well... it was next to the band room). I have fond memories from high school and it's exciting to see Joe looking ahead to a great future! So proud of this kid. I don't know if WE'RE ready, but he is. He actually said he was excited- and Joe Cool doesn't usually say that... about anything! YAY!!

Al had another Religious Diversity journey. This time she went to learn about Sikhs. I had never even heard of them before so I'm learning something too!  HERE is a brief explanation in Wikipedia of what Sikhism is all about. Ali has really enjoyed learning about those who are different than she is. There was also an article about the Religious Diversity journey that you can see HERE . I'm so thankful that people are sending me some pictures since I'm unable to chaperone. Maybe Z can do this and I can go on a journey then!

Zach had to do a science project this year. He originally was going to do a project about mold. He was going to see how long it took for mold to form on bread that had been touched by dirty hands, clean hands and no hands (we used plastic bags to move a slice into a new bag). We thought white bread would show mold better than our usual wheat~ but what we didn't take into consideration was that bread is loaded with preservatives! After over a month and still not a spec of mold. So while this still stays in our pantry as a science experiment, Z came up with a "Plan B" with his dad. The new project was about reaction times. He had all of us (minus Al because she seemed to never be around) do this app on dad's phone to determine our reaction times. We were thinking the young and old would be slowest- but Papa turned out to be pretty quick on the draw! In the end I was super proud of him for doing this project all by himself. It wasn't blinged out and we mad...

Well, dad was back at school and today was a day the rest of us got BUSY! After a run (and some reading of course) we did some good old cleaning (Sean was funny and suggested we have people over now... he knows that when people are coming over I like things clean). The Littles decided to ride over to the Gazebo to play and look for frogs and a while after they left I convinced both Bigs to go on a walk with me and Marty (I know... AWESOME!). Well, we ran into the Littles on our walk and I asked if they caught any frogs (their reason for going). They didn't but they did find some trash! They had loads of old bottles and a milk jug. They even found an old charger and a dollar (see... it pays to do kind acts)!! I was super proud of them!! Al decided to head back with the Littles (who promised me they'd wash their hands immediately) and Joe and I continued our walk (which I treasured). Acts of kindness sure do have a way of making your day! Well done, my Littles! Well done!!...

We Dorans love NO SCHEDULES! Mid-winter break is the best because we have just that- no schedule (except for piano). We did hang with friends over the weekend playing our favorite (euchre) and of course we had a blast visiting Grandma and then Nana and Papa but other than that~ let us hang out at good old home-sweet-home. The kids and I had 3 days off from school while dad only had two. On his last day off we decided to go on an "adventure" (as Seany called) it for family time. Originally we were thinking Airtime, but Joe Cool was not keen on the idea since this was family and not friend stuff... We settled on a little mini-golf and had fun braving the windy rain for some indoor glow-in-the-dark fun. I don't even know really how we did... just that we had fun and Sean never counted his scores~ though he did have a couple legit decent holes and Jeff had a couple holes-in-one. After golf, we hit Buddy's pizza (kids had never been) and enjoyed an early din...

I love midwinter break! It's about this time when I don't think I can teach another day and a little break from it all is always just what the doctor ordered! We were excited to get up to visit Grandma! We left around noon (I ran EIGHT MILES in the morning- my longest run so far) and brought Grandma some flowers. She made a WONDERFUL dinner of lasagna, bread and salad (Did you know that Olive Garden sells dressing at Kroger?! Yum!!!). Of course she had delicious desserts too! The kiddos played games and broke out an old favorite (CANDY LAND!!). It was fun watching them. Jim was able to stop by too and it was good to see him. We didn't leave until late and when we got out, our car was covered in snow! We had no idea the snow was coming, but boy did it make a mess of things! We called Nana to let out Marty (and she did - THANK YOU!) so we could take it nice and slow on our drive home. We went between 40 and 50 the whole way and saw four accidents which was scary...

 I was a new teacher. It was 1999 and I remember being glued to a TV as something we could not even conceive had happened. Two students went on a shooting spree at their school. Here we are almost 20 years later and these stories no longer shock me- In fact 18 school shootings have happened in less than 2 months (since the first of this year) and most of them I've never heard of. But it happened again on Valentine's Day and scenes of Columbine were on our screen again and I got angry. But perhaps (maybe) this time will be different. The students this time seem to have had enough and they are speaking out! For them, they grew up with school shootings being part of the news. They were born AFTER Columbine. I've skipped posting my thoughts on my own FB page, but I have strong thoughts and have hidden many people who have been posting things about how guns need to be in school... etc. But perhaps this time will be different. These kids have (sadly) seen the devastation...

Jeff went above and beyond again this year (he's going to be bummed that he's started these traditions of blowing my socks off! I don't know how he'll keep it up). I went to my car on Valentine's Day morning and there was a box and card on my seat. No one knows me as well as my husband. Not only did he do something that cost virtually nothing (which this frugal gal loves), it meant more to me than some jewelry or another gift because it took thought and time. I asked him if he looked at Pinterest or something for the idea and of course he had no idea what Pinterest was. He said he had worked on it in the basement when I probably thought he was working on guitar stuff. I read each of them at school during my prep because I couldn't wait until I got home. He made 100 unique ideas of things that we can do together and I can't wait to start checking things off that list! I also got cards from the Littles (Joey... I know you will read this for s...

 It was time to give my people a "Heart Attack" again. Since this is a tradition that I know they know is coming, I didn't hide the planning like I once did. They saw me working on the hearts (not what I wrote on them) but this year just seemed much faster and easier. I got the hearts at the dollar store again with some fun dollar store extras. Dad helped me out by getting the balloons this year. I told him four but he got 8~ which meant I took four to my classroom and later brought them home for Nana and Papa to surprise them when they got home from their trip.  Dad also got some chips for each kid and I picked up some cupcakes to go with it. I also picked up flowers for the Littles' teachers and some treats for the PTC teachers since the Littles have been going there the last couple weeks. On Valentine's Day, I had a busy morning- ran my 5K, spent time with the kids, walked Marty, dropped off the Littles at PTC after the Bigs were on their bus an...

 The Doran kids love their traditions~ especially Grandma's! Each year (for each holiday) she sends them a box of goodies and they always look forward to opening it. Dad said that they should wait until it was closer to Valentine's Day to open this box, but someone had other plans... The night we got the package, we headed over to the Gearys to play cards and just hang out together with friends. It was a fun night and Sean and I actually walked home around midnight because we were tired but realized we were locked out so waited (a few minutes) until the rest of the family got home. When we got inside, we all stopped. The floor was a mess!! MARTY HAD OPENED THE BOX!!! Now panic set in a bit for me because Grandma always sends her homemade goodies which includes CHOCOLATE!!! Shockingly, many of the chocolate treats were still in the box as were some no-bake cookies! Something was clearly missing but since the bag was empty- we had no way of knowing what it might be...

So I have realized that I am a horrible mother. Went back to look at my other kiddos when they were in second grade and therefore dressing up as if they were 100 and I can only find Joe's post which means I forgot the middles (praying something pops up in FB or something...). Sean had fun playing bingo and looking old for his 100th day of second grade (which really was much earlier than the 100th day- I know because we count them in my class). We couldn't find the many "fake" glasses we have so I popped out the lenses in one of my old pairs and that's what he used. Also couldn't find the gray hairspray dye (which I bought for this years ago and swear I just saw somewhere) so I went to the old "baby powder" trick which was something I had from when Joe was 100. I'm glad this was my last "100 Year Old" because clearly I'm too old for this and losing my mind... He is cute though! ;-)