Spanish Commercial

Megan and her Spanish group came over tonight to film their Spanish commercial at our home. They have been here several times writing the commercial and rehearsing. Tonight, the video camera came out and the action began! Notice the cue card in Megan's hand. It is all written in Spanish. The girls did not want to forget their lines.

Even Michala got in on the action. She was given the part of the French girl who needed her hair done. This is a shampoo commercial.


Here are the girls posing and yes, arguing over how to produce the video.

Here is a close-up of our French girl. Would you buy the shampoo? I would love to be there at school to see the finished products of all the commercials. I am sure the Spanish teacher cringes at the lack of correct grammar in the commercials, but laughs at the humor and attempts the kids made. Adios Amigos!

Grammar Rock Prepositions

This is a fun way to learn about prepositions. This video has sure made a difference in the students I have been tutoring. Take a moment to check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4jIC5HLBdM&feature=related

They also have videos on verbs, adjectives, and nouns.

Cars and batteries

I go out to my car this morning to take the kids to school and it will not start. It is early (7:00 a.m.) and I need to get the kids to school before they are late. I think to myself, "Why does this always happen when Rich is at work and I can't get a hold of him?" I go to the neighbors house and Lars is extremely helpful and jumpstarts my car. I must tell you he is laughing the whole time. We cannot get my car out of park to roll it out of the garage, so we try to get his big suburban inside the garage next to my van. It is only a two car garage and I had parked a little far over into the middle of it. Lars crawls out the back window to get out of his suburban and we finally get the cables hooked up and started. I drive the van to the dealer, because it is under warranty, and when I get there I immediately turn the engine off. As soon as I do, I remember the battery is bad and say out loud, "Oh , no!" All the guys at the shop just start laughing and then one guy brings out the spare charger and starts hooking it up to the van. He tells me I am not the first to do that. What a funny morning. I would have taken a picture of everything, but I was afraid Lars might not help me again if I started taking candid pictures. He would have been afraid of being the next 'You Tube' sensation or something.

Painting

Michala wanted to redecorate her room and paint it a different color. I put her right to work and taught her how to paint. She worked hard and did a great job with the help and supervision of her parents.

The color is a nice soft camel and goes perfect with her bedroom set she got for her birthday. I will blog the finished results when we finally get the room put back together. For now it just looks like this...

Flat Stanley

My niece Jordan sent us 'Flat Jordan', AKA (Flat Stanley, so he could have some adventures in Texas. I took 'Flat Jordan' to school and took a picture with the all the other 'Flat Stanley's' in third grade. The kids loved that this one came from Utah. They were thrilled to tell me all the adventures Flat Stanley had in their class and that he got married to someone on Valentine's day and I should go see the pictures in the hallway. (Way to go Stanley) If you look really close you can see that the Texas Flat Stanley visited the SLC temple.

'Flat Jordan' received a ride in a T-6 airplane yesterday. Rich had the crew chief take some pictures and then he wrote a nice letter to Jordan telling her all about the ride and where he took her 'Flat Jordan'. She will have some cool pictures and stories to hang on her bulletin board at school in Utah. We love Flat Stanley and always enjoy getting him in our home and taking him on adventures.

"Magyk"

This is a fun book that the girls have loved reading. Michala sums up the book with "the number 7 is hidden in this book in a lot of ways. The biggest one is that this book is all about the seventh son of the seventh son." It is a great read.

Happy 16th Birthday Megan!

Megan had the best 16th birthday party. She woke up to this beautiful sign in her room. It was Sunday, so she got ready for church, and then she was so lucky she got to sing in the choir. :) When she came home she had many presents waiting to be opened. She loved the book, "Magyk", and was thrilled to get it and the sequel to it. She got perfume, jewelry, AE gift card (American Eagle for those who have no girls in the house) and many other fun things girls love. But her favorite gift was a giant rock her mom and dad gave her. She was a little confused at first. "Why would mom and dad give me a rock?" Rich and I got a weird look and then she saw the phone number written on the rock and started screaming and getting all excited. She ran and got the house phone and dialed the number. Yep... another phone started ringing, yet she could not find it, thanks to Rich's ability to hide things well! She looked and couldn't find it and then enlisted Michala's help. Between the two they found the phone and Megan is a proud new cell phone owner. She thought for sure her birthday would pass and we would never buy her one. Especially after she did not get one for christmas. But all is happy here and she is thrilled. The real gift comes next month when we take her to Hawaii as her present. She will love that and now she has a phone to text all her friends how great Hawaii beaches are when she is there.

Happy Birthday Megan!! We Love you!

Mrs. Pickle

In school today one of the little girls accidently called me Mrs. Pickle. I just chuckled as she kept right on with her story, not realizing her mistake. It reminded me of the first day I was ever called Sister Pickle by little Katie at Laughlin AFB. It brought back so many fun memories. Kids frequently call me Mrs. Pickle, but I also get called Mrs. Penny, Mrs. Quarter, and several children have asked if I wish my name were Mrs. Hundred Dollar Bill. I love having a memorable name that no one can really remember?!!!

Steve and Becky's Wedding

Here are some cute pictures of Steve and Becky's wedding this last weekend. These are all the grandkids on the Nichols side, except Matt, Kristine, and Kelly. They sure enjoyed seeing one another again.
Here are the boys, their dad, and of course, Becky. What a handsome crew! It will be fun to have another sister-in-law in the family.

Steve and Becky look so happy. It was such a fun day for them and it was fun to see all of the family together again. Becky looked so beautiful in her dress.

Our Trip

We had the opportunity to go to Utah this week for my brother-in-laws wedding. As we were leaving Dallas, late at night, we had to get on the sky link to get to our terminal. Rich, Michala, and I all made it on and when we turned around the doors were closed and Megan was still standing outside the skylink looking in at us very sad. Rich yelled, "Get on the next train" and you could see the panic in her face. There was nothing we could do and she did not have a cell phone on her body. We got off at the next stop and waited. Shortly, the next train came and there was Megan, standing all by herself and thrilled to see her family again. I just had to get a picture.
Here is my brother Dave and his daughter Regan. We were able to spend a few hours with them and it was fun.

It is always fun to see my mom and the girls loved it! Of course she bought them books (a lot of them) and they were thrilled. Megan had all four books read by the time we got back to Dallas. Thanks for a great time and for letting us crash at your house.

This picture cracks me up every time we go to my brothers home. He has this playhouse in his backyard for his kids and he put up deer antlers on the front of the house. As you drive by his house, which is on a main road, you see the antlers. It is how I find his house every time I go. It makes me laugh! I guess I would never think to put antlers on a playhouse, or anything for that matter, but the kids sure do love them!!!

This is the end of our trip. When we got back to Dallas we ate at Chick-Fil-A, and of course there is this bull in front of the store. I laughed so hard at Dave's antlers on his playhouse and then realized it was really no different than the bull in front of the Chick-Fil-A in Southlake. Same concept, different state. :)