HiLaRiUm

My little sister Brittany and her husband are in town for the weekend so we went over to my mom and dad's house last night to play games with them.

We played this new game with them called "Hilarium."


Here's the gist of the game: Each player starts with 5 cards and then you all begin to act out what it says on your card. The key is: ALL. Every player is trying to act out their cards so they can try to find the other person who has their card. For example, "A bellydancer", so I had to act out belly dancing and try to find someone else who is acting out this same card. You can talk and make noises, you just can't say what's on your card. Apparently Brittany didn't understand this concept the first couple rounds, lol. (We love you Beej!)
Brittany would act out the card and say it at the same time. So she had a card that said "Digging a hole" and so she acted it out as she said, "I'm digging a hole, digging a hole." The funny thing is, it didn't click for the rest of us what she was even doing until after the first couple rounds.
Maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny. I was laughing so hard at some points that I was crying. Just imagine trying to act out the card: "A constipated chicken"

Dinner

The other night I cooked up a Family Size Skillet Meal. (I really am a good cook, but have not had the time to whip up something that requires more effort, so this is what we had.)

The directions said to put all items into the skillet, except for the bag of chips which you would put on when the meal is complete. Remember this is "Family Size"

Need I say more? That is the skimpiest portion of chips! They might as well say on the package "Fritos not included, buy your own!"

Anyhow, it was still good. I did cook up some of our own meat to put in it as well, which was a good thing, because their portion of meat was also pretty skimpy. So I cooked it up and dished them into tortillas. It was good, just make sure you are prepared to buy a bag of Fritos if you want chips on it!

What's sleep?

I love the olympics, but I need them to be over so I can go to bed at night! It will probably be another late night because Michael Phelps is swimming for another gold tonight! Go Mike! (We're close, I can call him that. :) (Have you seen the AT&T commercial with the Phelps Phan? I enjoy that commercial.)

And can we discuss for a minute the age controversy of the Chinese gymnasts? I'm with Bela and I really don't think they are of age. There is no way that one they brought in as a last minute sub is 16, or "in the year of turning 16." I don't believe it. Regardless, I still love watching gymnastics!

No pictures

Apparently I have misplaced our USB cord for the camera so can't get to any pictures because my laptop does not have a memory card slot, I could use Kenyan's, but that requires more effort and that is asking a lot right now!!

So as many of you know I am in school....let me clarify, yes-I'm teaching and going to school. :) I've been taking math classes, which is my emphasis for my Master's Degree. I have loved these classes and have been learning a lot of great ways to teach my kids math. Let's just say it is very different from the way we learned math-it uses a lot more discussion, exploration and explanation from the kids! (I know, we actually expect them to think now. It's asking a lot!)

The class that I am right now is a Geometry class, doesn't sound too bad. As a class of teachers today we were attempting to come up with definitions,that everyone agrees on, for some geometry vocabulary. Give it a try, define:

Vertex:

Point:

Face:

Let me know what you come up with, no cheating!

Olympic History

This week I started teaching my class about how to read nonfiction books. I used a printable book that is on a medium level for them that was about Olympic Legends. The book talked about 5 legendary athletes. We had a big discussion about the Olympics in my class, here's the shocker...none of them knew they started today!

Anyway, they were all very interested in it and I was able to find clips on You Tube to show them about the Olympians we read about. We even talked about the Jamaican bobsled team (Cool Runnings....that's next on our Netflix list now!)

It was very fun to talk about it with them and to see how amazed and excited they were about it, hopefully they'll watch a little of it too. I've now gotten more into the Olympic spirit myself and have been reading up more on Beijing on the official Olympic site. I love the mascots and what their names mean:



Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace -- and good wishes from China -- to children all over the world.

Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals -- the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow -- and the Olympic Flame.

Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name -- a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.

When you put their names together -- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni -- they say "Welcome to Beijing," offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.

Last, but not least, I'll leave you with one of my favorite Olympic moments:(Apparently I'm retarded all of a sudden and can't figure out how to link a youtube video, the blogger link is missing. Oh well, if you want, the link is below.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsQcwHc1Jfw

Update

The carpet finally dried out, we shampooed them, and I thought all was well. We came home tonight and Kenyan says it still smells. I can't smell anything, stuffy nose, apparently my students are getting me sick already. :) Hopefully we don't get any mold! We'll keep our fingers crossed. . . .although maybe it would give us an excuse to start house hunting sooner than planned. :) I wouldn't mind that!

Airing Out

So after we had the West Jordan monsoon come through the other day Kenyan and I were left with wet carpet. We were blessed in that it wasn't anything more, but we both came home from work yesterday and it smelled!

So our life has been pushed to one side of our house so we can get the front room aired out and this morning I had to move the bedroom furniture to pull up the carpet. Apparently it was a little more wet than we thought! I've got the fans going, the door open and the scentsy candle is on!