Is it Time Yet, Is It, Huh, Huh...Is It

Mac and I are going with some dear friends to see Annie tomorrow...I mean today...why am I awake at this time?? Jeez. (I am actually waiting on Sheldon to come home from work)

Mac has never seen a play like this. She has been to our local high school for plays, but that is the extent to it. Annie on Broadway is going to be so cool for her. I hope she likes it as much as I think she is going to.

Annie...many many many years ago, I remember watching this movie with my mom. I absolutely loved it. I am probably more excited to see it than she is, just because I know how big it will be. She has no concept.

Lucky and I got haircuts today. (Lucky is our toy poodle) Is it strange to anyone but me that I paid more for his haircut than I did my own??? I guess I did not get my nails clipped, a bath, and a cut...okay, I will stop complaining now that I think of it that way. Poor dog. He had gotten pretty fuzzy. Now that he is cut, he is cold. He has buried himself under the fleece pj's at the bottom of my bed. And he is less that half the size he was when I took him there. For the first few days, he sort of looks like a rat. I am sure he is cussing me out every time he has to go outside. It doesn't help that our temps here are way below normal. Today was only in the 30's. I don't think we really see this until December or January. It is down right cold.

Since I got about 2-3 inches cut off my hair, I imagine my neck will feel the cold as well. But I really like the cut, so it is worth it.

He has also been sleeping since he got home. There was a man there that I have never seen before, he told me he had whined all day. He said he had to hold him. So, yes, he is spoiled rotten, thanks to Mackenzie. He is sort of like a baby. She holds him so much, carries him around on her hip like he is a baby, she is constantly patting him and making over him. Now I guess he expects that from others now.

I started the whole cleaning up for company today. I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner again this year. I really enjoy it. My whole family will be coming. I will do all but the ham, D2 does the ham. Sheldon has to work, which is a bummer, but I cannot complain since he worked it out to be off so that I can go shopping on Black Friday. He knows how important that is for me. Get out of my way, here I come!!! I love it. The crowds, the grouchy women, getting up in the wee hours of the morning and driving to my first destination...I absolutely love it.

I want to put my tree up early this year too. I am always late getting it up, but I would love to do that the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which means I have to get up in the attic at D2's and drag it all out. That is the worst part.

Okay, so I have went on and on about really nothing at all, so I will stop here. Sheldon text'd me about 30 minutes ago, so he should be pulling in the driveway soon. I should pretend to be sleeping so he does not fuss with me about not getting sleep. He worries when I don't sleep, or maybe he is just scared of the sleep deprived Michelle....either way, gotta go.

News at the Perkins House

Hi Readers!!! It has been a busy week. Well, now that I think about it, not so busy, just a little stressed.



My work has been a bit busy this week, probably because I had to be at a meeting on Monday morning, preventing me to getting to my office until close to 11:00am. Then on Wednesday we had training for our new computer system. I will not even get on that subject, I have enough praying to do for all the ugly words I said Wednesday afternoon and yesterday morning, trying to work with it.



Sheldon and I have had a lot of heart to heart talks this week. I life is about to change once again...(and for all of you that are on the edge of your seat wondering if that means we are going to have another baby...HA HA). Sheldon was approached and asked to consider a new job. He was asked on Tuesday mid-day, and was asked to give his decision on Wednesday. We did not sleep any on Tuesday night.



Sheldon accepted the job. He will now be over the Juvenile Crime Investigations at the DPD. It will be a tough job and has some pretty hard jobs he will have to carry out. I have no doubt he can handle it, but I, and he knows that there will be times that it will be very emotional days.



Everyday he makes me proud. He has really worked his way up in the police department. It is a big deal when you are approached for a job as big as this.

The job has its perks as well. He will stop the rotation schedule, and go back to the 9-5 (even though it is more like 9-6/7pm, for a while at least. He should be home every weekend, unless there is a case that evolves that he would need to be there. The other perk is he will have a take home car, which will certainly help with our gas expenses. He will not have to be in uniform everyday, instead he will be all dressed up, looking very handsome if I say so myself.

Well, that is a quick catch up, I am sure I will think of more and will be back here this weekend.

Happy Friday.

My Kids Rock

I will start this blog out saying that Sheldon passed the state exam for Instructor School on Friday. Not only did he pass, he had the highest score in the class. I am so proud of him. It was two weeks of intense studying, preparing lesson plans, and presentations. It was quite exhausting for all of us, but mostly him.

Next, I had the honor of attending award ceremonies for both kids. Thursday morning, Mackenzie had the Character Trait awards. Her ceremony wasn’t until 9:30, so she talked me into coming in and sitting in her class for about a half hour. Her teacher is amazing, I knew this before, but watching her interact and teach the children was pretty outstanding. She has so much patience.

I moved on to the gym close to 9:30 to find my seat. Eventually the kids started to file in class by class. Mackenzie seemed to be beaming. She looked so cute wearing her To the Pointe (dance) polo shirt and her little khakis. Mac received the “Responsibility Award.”
Each nine weeks there is a ceremony where certain kids get a character award, such as Responsibility, Courage, Preservation, Self Control, etc. The kids get a nice metal that is on a ribbon necklace. They look sort of like the awards that Olympian’s get upon winning. I was proud, and I took bunches of pictures, as I always do.

Friday morning, at 7:30am, Chase was invited to an A Honor Roll breakfast. It was really nice. I got to eat school sausage…been awhile since I had that, and little cartons of slushy juice. (The juice should not have ice in it, but for some reason it always had.)

We sat at a table with his best friend and his parents, shortly after we sat down, one more of Chase’s friends joined us. The principal called each child’s name out and gave them a very nice certificate. Of course these kids are getting to the “I am too cool” stage. They walked up, took the certificate, walked back to their seats and basically dropped it on the table in front of their parent. Chase was no different. Nonetheless, It was an honor to be there. I also noticed how many/few kids were in there, realizing that it was a lot, but not really when you think of the amount of students there. I was even more proud to know that Chase had earned his way to this very special breakfast.

You know, I don’t care what anyone says, my kids rock!

Report Card Time

The kids got their report cards this past week. They are both doing really good. Mac's teacher told me that she was a little teacher in the classroom. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. She assured me that Mac was a big helper and she loved her being in the class. Mac's academics are right on track. She had a few areas that were a little week, however her teacher said that most of the kids were weak in these areas, since 2nd grade reading and writing are SO different than 3rd grade. Very good Mac. We are proud of her.

I got Chase's report card this morning. Not that his was any better than hers, it is just with all the issues we had at the beginning and the previous concerns we have had with his reading, seeing his report card filled with grades starting at 93 and going up...I was reduced to tears. He has been working so hard, and it paid off for him. I feel like this will be a huge boost in his confidence. He is proud of himself.

His grades: Literature Arts--98, Math--96, Science--94, Social Studies--96.

Wow is all I can say.

A Very Special Moment

This weekend was pretty good. The kids had a great time trick or treating. Later I will have to blog about Chase’s adventure. It is quite comical.

The purpose of this blog is to share a very special moment I had this weekend. You see, my Mother was a master at cleaning, (wish I would have gotten that gene). I decided that I was going to do one of those cleanings in my office area that consist of making a bigger mess than it was originally, then getting everything organized. After about 4 hours of “this” cleaning, things were starting to look much better, I had a very strong thought of my Mom. I remembered how she would come help me do cleanings like this, and how in the beginning of these projects I would get so overwhelmed. I mean, really? I had asked her to come help me because is was such a mess and she was making a bigger mess. But in the end, my house would be so organized and beautiful. So, here I was, everything everywhere. Everywhere. So when things started falling in place, I felt such a sense of pride, and also, I knew that Mom would be proud of me.

An hour or so later, I had one last thing to put away. I said to myself, put that folder in that cabinet, and you are done.

There is a picture of my mom that I took before she was sick. It is my favorite picture, there isn’t another picture that I like any better. I like this picture so much, I have one in my living room on a table, I have one on another wall somewhere else in our house, and I have one in my room on a dresser mirror. I also have one at my office that I look at numerous times a day. This picture was also the picture that sat on top of my Mom’s closed casket. So many people commented on it. Half of those people ask for copies of it. Which, selfishly, no one got a copy. This was my happy memory, just mine. Selfishly mine.

Sometime shortly after her death, I lost the negative. This was extremely traumatic for me. I looked everywhere, many, many, many times. I never found it. I found some other negatives that were taken on the same day, but not “the” negative. I looked in every envelope with no luck.

Back to my story, my last task, I am about 1 inch away from the trash bag with an envelope that was in my hand. I opened the envelope, put my hand in it. There was a negative. I put it up to the light, it wasn’t it. It was the one that I had found so many other times, and found it lonely in its envelope. This negative had pictures taken the same day...but...once again, for some reason, I checked the already checked 137th time envelope, and yes, the negative was there. I cried.

I could not think of anything else to do but look up toward heaven and thank my Mom. She gave me a prize cause I was a good little girl and I had cleaned up like she would have.

***By the way, that is my Mom with my daughter, Mac was about 18 months to 2 years old.