I guess sometimes they do grow up quickly

Today felt like a big race to get clothing and shoes to keep up with Tara. She is growing like a weed, right into that hard-to-fit zone between child and adult. Some days you definitely know when your kid is running the show.

Her royal majesty

You know those motivational sayings like "live each day like it's your last!" ? Ummm, yeah that's not really possible as a parent because some of your days will have to be lived in total sacrifice to the needs of your child.

I think today we finally got caught up with all of the kids' clothing needs. Although it is possible Emily is planning to thwart this calmness. She has stayed the same height and size as she was a year ago - remaining in a holding pattern, if you will. What will likely happen is just when we get all the winter outerwear she needs, her body will rise up in defiance against it all by growing a foot taller. Then the entire merry-go-round repeats itself.

But of course this is all said in a spirit of gratitude. Well, actually it's being said in a spirit of exhaustion. but gratitude should be there once we all have adequate sleep.

Real actual websites I visited today.

(Post being entered by Jay)

Fun on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Time to review websites I visited today. Try 'em!

ODDCAST
I had endless fun typing phrases in this and watching
virtual humans say it back to me. Changing the language
won't actually convert what you type but it makes the
person say it with an accent from that country!

CELEBRITY SOUNDBOARDS
Celebrity Soundboards is old but fun. The idea of a
soundboard is to call your friend and press the buttons
so it sounds like the celebrity is talking to them. Make sure
to check all five pages to find someone you like. My favorite
was Napoleon Dynamite at the bottom of page 1.

CUTE OVERLOAD
Nothing but cute animal pictures! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

JACKSON POLLOCK
Make your own Jackson Pollock painting! Clicking your mouse
will change the color of your paint.

FALLING SAND
Falling Sand Game. Wait for it to load then go ahead and draw
things to divert the falling sound. Very pretty. I still don't understand
what the options at the bottom do (wall/fire/water/oil) but it looks fun.

WORD FIND
Free word find! Click 'New Game' and everything is done with your mouse.

CHURCH SIGN GENERATOR
Oldie but goodie. Put any words you want on a church sign! After you select the
style, you have to type in what you want it to say using the boxes on the left.

Danse avec les étoiles

(Post being entered by Jay)

Joann is watching Dancing With The Stars. I am not.

What more proof would you ever need that she is female and I am male?

Anyway, in playing with translators to write the title of this post, I thought it would be fun to do the old trick of viewing the blog in different languages. So for our massive international audience out there, here you go:

This page in French

This page in German

This page in Italian

This page in Polish

This page in Arabic

This page in Hebrew

This page in Japanese

On a MUCH lighter note

(Post being entered by Jay)

I was glad I could cheer up Joann the other day. I found a web page that makes your page get interrupted by rapper Kanye West, just like he did at the recent VMA awards. You simply put http://kanyelicious.appspot.com/ in front of your webpage URL, and voilà!

This is what made Joann chuckle:
http://kanyelicious.appspot.com/http://www.joannc.blogspot.com

Update on the family

(Post being entered by Jay)

Sadly, Joann's mom passed away on August 7. This should at least explain the lack of updates here on the blog. We knew that her mom (Faith Scriver) had been getting more ill, and all of this on top of the stroke she had 14 years ago. However, we're still grieving over how much it hurts to have her gone. We miss her laughter and her warmth. She really had a way of making everyone feel good. We miss you Faith.

The Kitty

I'm still here

Emily's note to the Easter Bunny.

• My mom is a constant trooper. She has been very weak but still with us. She even came over for Mother's day and saw Millie, which is what she said she wanted for the day.


• I am waiting to see if I still have a job for next year. I'll know by the end of next week.


• The girls are doing well. Both are getting bigger. Tara grew two shoe sizes this year alone!


• Emily went to camp and told us about getting a tick and being rained on.


• Tara had a barium test today at Children's hospital to rule out stomach troubles. The latest theory is that her stomachaches are a result of 1 in 5 girls getting stomach pain as a result of rapid growth. We just want to know how to make her tummy feel better.


• I think about my blog but don't have the energy to make it nice right now.


• Jay is fixing the tractor as I type this. I wish I could just buy him a new one.


• Our new cat is a wonderful addition to our family. She is, however, ornery as all get out.


• I still want to paint my living room. I settled for painting my nails.


• One day at a time.


• I am excited to start summer, hopefully with a job intact. If I'm still gainfully employed, we will go to D.C. and show the kids the museums, monuments and the White House.


• Stream of consciousness.


• It's hard to get the students motivated at this point in the year. During testing week, I had a student exempt from some tests so we worked a little and played a lot of board games. It was so fun.


• The cat just walked in front of the computer. I hope I am typing correctly.


• Now she is licking my fingers and laying across the desk, keeping an ever watching eye on Millie. Millie would like to play with her. Sheba would like to hiss and try to scratch Millie. It's quite a zoo around here.


• Dancing with the Stars jumped the shark a little for me.


• Tara will be 8 in a couple of weeks. She wants to go bowling. Isn't that cute? When we bowl, we use the bumpers and Emily weakly rolls the ball. SLOWLY the ball inches to the pins. Every time, we have to hit reset because the machine doesn't register that anything has happened. That makes me laugh.


• Well that's it. My head is empty. ha ha