Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for fall
Ahhhh…
Today was seriously one of the laziest, most relaxing days we’ve had in a very long time, and I enjoyed it very much. Since we set the clocks back an hour last night, the kids were of course up super early, but we all laid around in bed watching cartoons for about 45 minutes before technically starting our day by getting up and ready for church.
After church, we came home and did very little the rest of the day. Both of the kids had a lot of fun working in their new Halloween coloring books from Aunt Theresa, and Ben worked especially hard on some sticker puzzles she gave him. Emma had a three-hour nap, which was desperately needed, and Daddy got a short nap in for himself, too. I enjoyed watching the Bears game without interruption for once. It was great, and they even looked good and won! We had a couple of battles over wanting more candy, but Ben didn’t beg for it too much, so I was happy with that.
It was one of those days where Dave and I look at each other, smile and say, “This is the good stuff, Honey.” The kids were in good moods and had fun playing with each other. The crying was at an all-time low, I think. Ok, sure, Emma did fall off the back of the couch downstairs, got a big lump on her head and cried really hard for a few minutes, but hey, no day is completely perfect, right? Overall, there wasn’t a ton of chaos in the house, and we all spent some really enjoyable time just chillin’ out together.
Halloween fun
The weather made us nervous all week, but luckily it pretty much cooperated in order for us to have a very fun Halloween night. It was a tad bit chilly, but thankfully the rain finally stopped.
We started the night with pizza, and Grandma & Grandpa Kerber joined us first. Then Aunt Theresa came, and finally Auntie M, Salina, and Bella rounded out our group. It didn’t take anyone long to finish eating…the anticipation of trick-or-treating was on the forefront of everyone’s mind. 
So after we ate we changed into our costumes (which luckily were big enough to leave room for a couple of extra layers underneath) and headed out. Ben the panther, Emma the lion and Bella as Magenta the dog made up our costumed group. 
Since Auntie M and Salina both came with us, the adults outnumbered the kids for once, which is never a bad thing!
We started down the street and the kids were into it right away. Emma had not napped this afternoon, so after only a couple of houses, she was getting droopy and was pretty far behind.
But Ben was very patient with both of the little girls. He would wait out on the sidewalk and I can’t remember him complaining once. After about 40 minutes of trick-or-treating both of the girls were ready to head in. Neither of them really knew what any of the candy was in the first place, and they were pooped from walking. Plus, Bella had other stops to make, so Auntie M and Salina were off.
Ben, however, was still ready to go. So Dave took him around one more block. Needless to say, his pumpkin was very heavy by the time they got home a half hour later. He was so excited about some of the things in there. It was too funny. By this time Grandma & Grandpa had gone home, but Aunt Theresa still had a bag of goodies for the kids. They both loved opening these, and we had to have just one more treat before bed.
Both kids had so much fun trick-or-treating. 
We ran into almost all of our neighborhood friends and saw some pretty cool Halloween houses. While Halloween is certainly not my favorite holiday, I have to admit that a smile came to my face on more than one occasion tonight. There’s not much more you can ask than that.
Oh wait, icing on the cake…the Illini football team beat Michigan tonight, too! Woo HOO!!
Off to ISLMA
As I type this, the car is packed and I’m ready to head to Springfield for the annual Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA) conference. While I’ve attended the conference several years in the past, this year is different. For the first time, I’m presenting at ISLMA. Friday and Saturday are filled with what we call concurrent sessions. That means there are like 7 or 8 different sessions going on at once, and conference attendees can choose whichever one he or she feels will be the most interesting and beneficial. My colleague Ellen (who is one of the media specialists at West, the other high school in our district) and I are presenting together, and it’s the very first session of the conference. We’re anxious and very excited to see how many people we get for ours.
As always, there is some guilt attached to leaving the kids and Dave for a couple of days. But this time it seems like I’m handling it a little better than usual. Maybe that’s because I’m actually going to be working while I’m gone instead of just playing with my friends. I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends there, but it’s so much m ore about networking and getting some fresh ideas for the IMC.
Wish me luck with this new professional endeavor. Maybe this will become something I do every fall…like teaching the ISU class did.
We just can’t wait!
Today when I picked Ben up from preschool, the first thing he said to me was, “Mommy, next time we come to preschool it’s our pumpkin party!” There was so much excitement in his voice, and he had one o f the biggest smiles I had ever seen. So I decided that we should try on our costumes tonight to make sure that everything was all set. As soon as I got the coats on each kid, they were crawling all over the floor roaring (that would be Emma the lion) and rawring (from Ben the panther) all over the place. It was hilarious.
While I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween, it is definitely fun to anticipate something with the kids. While Ems is still not really sure what’s going to happen Saturday night, Ben remembers it well and is just so psyched for the big event. Let’s hope that Mother Nature cooperates with us so we can have all the fun we think we will!
Carve-o-rama
Tonight was pumpkin carving time! We had gotten a perfect carving pumpkin this afternoon, and after dinner we cleaned off the table and embarked in our adventure. It was decided by the kids that they wanted a happy face, so I drew the face on the pumpkin, and Dave cut the top off. 
As we expected, Ben wanted nothing to do with the “gross part” and Emma dove right in to scoop out the guts. 
So typical! It was cracking us up…she was totally into it. She said things like, “It’s digutsing” (which isn’t a typo…that’s phoentic Emma talk) with a huge grin on her face.
Since Ben was pretty much doing nothing during the entire “gutting” of the pumpkin, he decided he wanted to draw on his with a marker. He wanted very little help with this, and I was actually surprised at how awesome it turned out. 
Of course I had to use some serious persuasive skills to talk him out of drawing animals on it, and I also convinced him to put his name on the back so he wouldn’t write all over his pumpkin’s face. Once Emma saw him doing this, she wanted to do hers, too. I tried my best to help her draw a face, but of course she let me help with one eye before she yanked the marker away from my hand and said, “No, Mommy, I can do it myself!” Little Ms. Independent pretty much just drew some straight lines all over her pumpkin, but she was thrilled with it. In the meantime, Daddy was busy carving away on our big one.
Things definitely got a little hairy at times, and Mommy’s patience was tested big time, but overall, we had a great time, and the results were awesome.
Off to the pumpkin farm
Between the weather being crappy and a couple previous commitments, we were not sure that we’d get to a pumpkin farm at all this fall. Luckily, though, the rain subsided for awhile this afternoon, and we were able to hit Rader’s Family Farm for a short time. Our main goal was to have some fun and to get a good carving pumpkin. We had two smallish pumpkins sitting on our porch from the kids’ visit to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott’s, but they were smashed in the street last night, so situation had instantly become more urgent. We needed a pumpkin to carve, darn it! So after church and lunch, we were off.
Since we’ve had so much rain lately, the place was a total mud pit. The owners had done as much as they could to help with the mud situation…there was straw laid down all over the place out there, but it was still a muddy mess. Nonetheless, we played on the straw pile, in the big trough of corn, ran around the play area a bit, and even stopped at the photo spot.
You’ll probably notice how talented my kids are at posing for a staged picture. (Yes, that is written with a great amount of sarcasm…look at that picture!)
As the clouds started to roll in, we decided that the play time could wait and we had better pick out a pumpkin quick! 
Daddy found the carving one, and Ben and Emma each picked their own that they could carry. As Dave paid for our treasures, the kids and I quickly went through the barn and looked at the animals, and then we headed for the car. The first sprinkles were coming down as we loaded up.
It was a short, but profitable trip. The kids were thrilled with their pumpkins, and we were home in time for Emma to still get a nice nap in. A win/win situation, if I do say so myself.
Battle of the Bands ‘09
As much as I whine about Homecoming week, I do have to admit that there’s one event I love…The Battle of the Bands. This takes place each year, and there are auditions for student bands held weeks before the show. I have been to the show for the last four years, and I’ve been a judge the last two years. I have to admit that I’m always blown away by the talent of some of our students. Sure, some of the bands are simply good guitar players and drummers with kids basically screaming at the top of their lungs, but others are so good! It floors me. I can not even begin to imagine playing in a garage band when I was a high schooler, let alone playing in a good one!
One of the biggest reasons I love this event is that it gives kids who often don’t participate in other events a chance to be in the spotlight (no pun intended) for once. Homecoming is so often about school spirit and sports that sometimes the artsy alternative kids have no place to fit into the week. Battle of the Bands gives them this opportunity, and I love it!
Winning door
Each year at Homecoming, the Orange Crush organization (NCHS’s answer to Pep Club) sponsors a door decorating contest. I’ve never really been able to get any of our student helpers interested in participating, but finally we had a monitor (the technical name for our student helpers) who was into it. So the IMC’s doors got decorated.
We started late, and frantically threw stuff together, but by the time the judges saw the doors it looked pretty darn good. In the end all of the hard work paid off. The judging was last night, and our door was given the Iron Pride Award. Iron Pride is our parent-teacher organization, so I’m not really sure if that means they picked their favorite door or it means that our door showed the most school spirit. whatever the criteria for that award…we’ll take it! The kids were so proud of their work, and we loved being a part of the Homecoming celebration in a way we’ve never been before.
Homecoming ‘09
It’s Homecoming week at NCHS this week, which means a lot of fun for the students and a lot of headaches for the teachers. This year’s theme is “It’s A Jungle in Here” and this morning when we gt to school the atrium was decorated really cute. The student council had worked hard on their day off of school to get the building looking festive for the week.
They even taped green film over the lights to give the entire atrium an eery greenish glow. For a minute, when I walked in and saw all this, it made me smile and think, “This will be fun.” But it took me about five more minutes inside the building to retract that thought. Even though it’s only a four day week this year, the kids will just be totally nuts, and all of us adults in the building feel like we’re just babysitting. Every night has an activity happening, and the kids will get crazier each day closer to the weekend. To top it all off, the weather is supposed to be crappy all week, so there is very little chance of us going to either the parade or the game on Friday, which stinks. I swear, Homecoming seems to get less and less fun every year! Does this mean I’m getting old???
Illini Saturday the sequel
For our birthdays in August, 
Theresa got us tickets to the Illinois vs. Michigan St. game, which was today. It was Homecoming in Champaign, which is always a fun day, and Dave and I were really looking forward to going to the game. But since we had been to the game last week, and saw how badly the Illini looked then, we had trepedations about our chances today. We had hope for an Illini victory, though, and looked forward to the game.
We were way too optimistic, I’m afraid. The Illini are awful. And really…using the word awful is being too kind to them. They didn’t do anything well today. Truly, the highlight of the game was when two fighter jets flew over the stadium during the pre-game show.
However, it was certainly not a wasted day. We got to see Ryan again, and he even went to dinner with us after the game at Papa Del’s, our very favorite place in Champaign. There is nothing better than enjoying a Pop’s pizza on a Saturday afternoon. There is just something about that pizza that is indescribable yumminess. I liken it to Mystic Pizza…one may never know what’s in it that makes it so good. But we do love it, and both Dave and I look forward to getting there at least once a fall. We were happy that we could take Ry with us to keep the torch for Pop’s burning on.
We’re still holding on to some hope for the Illini, but it’s very little. I can hardy remember a time when we were this bad at football. Honestly, I’m not sure that we’ll win another game this year. It’s a sad day in Chambana-ville. 
