Color blind?

It's late, and I know I need to be asleep, but I am online researching color blind tests. Now, anyone who knows me well would know that I know my colors and am big on matching - things have to be just the right shades to go together, and I feel that I am quite good at my color matching skills! Anyhow, recently I had my eye exam for contacts, and I get a bit stressed every time I have to go. Since my first eye exam when I guess I was in 7th grade, I have failed the color blind tests. You know those circles of dots? Well, in many, I see nothing. And once again, I failed it. So I got online tonight to try to figure out why I fail those tests. I made Marc come over and look at the dots, and he saw things I didn't. It really frustrated me, to not understand why I see nothing, but seem to know and see all my colors well. It's a lot less common for women to be color blind than men. I know there are lots of variations of it, and I read that it can be inherited. So family members, anyone else out there ever fail it? And if you're not sure what I'm talking about, then you must have good vision. You can go to the following site to take a mini-test. Let me know if anyone else has issues... I'm just frustrated about it all right now!!


http://colorvisiontesting.com/online%20test.htm#demonstration%20card

Easter

Ok, so I'm a late with photos. I know. We went to church in Killeen, and then drove to Brenda's for brunch and our annual egg hunt. We had a bad day of photos though - noone wanted to cooperate much, so there's not really anything where everyone is looking. Oh well. :)If you look closely at the one of Luke adn Mia dressed for church, you'll notice her teeth are blue. The only way she'd sit quietly without crying was if she was eating blue peeps!!

Spring Break Hilights

So I know break isn't quite over, but the majority of our outings are done since mom, dad, and grandma leave tomorrow morning. We have kept busy this week. Sunday Marc and I took Luke to Houston to the Rockets game (Marc's birthday present) and spent the night there. It was good to have that time with just Luke. We went to the Aquarium for dinner and had a great time there. Yesterday we went to see Horton Hears a Who, and I hear it was a great movie... I only caught about 40 minutes of it since Mia was fussing and I had to keep leaving with her. Luke summed it up for me today - I asked him if there were tiny people in the speck, and he said "It doesn't matter how little you are -we are all people." So I guess he got the underlying message of the movie! (If you haven't seen it, that may mean nothing to you!)Today we all went to the zoo in Waco, and then hung outside at Brenda's enjoying the sunshine, and unexpectedly got our first sunburns of the year. By the way, another very exciting moment this week when was we got our replacement Samsung TV! We only had to call them for 8 months and complain before they did something about it. And Mia had her 1 year appointment yesterday. She is still at 18 pounds, and went from being in the 80/90th percentiles to the 10th! Not sure what is going on there. She looks great to me and the doctor, so maybe she's just watching her figure and doens't want to gain too much weight. The girl sure does eat enough though!

At the Rockets game, with his new Clutch bear


Hanging out outside the Aquarium Restaurant, waiting for dinner


On the balcony of the restaurant



Leaving the hotel


Luke and Carsyn, outside of the zoo, waiting for everyone else to arrive. They found this little pile of leaves and were so happy playing in it! We don't get piles of leaves around here much.


Checking out the stinky elephants (they argued on the way to the zoo about whether they were stinky or not... and they sure were!)


Mia, checking out the elephants from the stroller view


I wanted to make sure we got a photo of the kids with great grandma, and we found a great spot out of the sun at the end of our zoo trip. Thanks grandma for making the trip to see us!!

Oprah's Big Give

Does anyone watch the show? I have heard negative reviews, but I like it because people are actually helping someone else for a change, not being selfish. Anyhow, I called dad from Houston last night and talked him through the process of recording it on my DVR for me, and I'm glad I did! I watched it tonight, and they were helping out two Texas elementary schools. The one school, Velasco, wanted a Christmas celebration because its kids are so economically disadvantaged and they wanted them all, for once, to get a gift. The neat part was that Velasco is in Freeport, TX, where Marc and I taught 5 years ago! I interviewed to teach and that school, and of course they loved me and wanted to hire me, (seriously, they did!) but I didn't like the principal at all. He seemed nice enough when he got a 50 inch TV though! I just thought how neat it was that I could really picture those kids, as that school was maybe 2 miles from the one I taught at, and I know the kids are quite poor - many are even from migrant families. Now I appreciate the efforts of the show even more as I can personally identify some of the people affected by unselfish generosity.

Princess Mia's Birthday Bash

Today we celebrated Mia's birthday with a princess party. Thanks to everyone who came - grandma and grandma Davis, great grandma Davis, Nonno, Nonni, and Michael, Brenda, Marcus, Carsyn, and Payton (and a brief visit from Scott), Doug and Jill, and Malcolm, Adrian, and Kennady. Once again, my cake lady came through with an awesome crown cake. Mia received many great gifts, but seemed to enjoy her spoons from her tea set the best for now!

Good morning! I'm ready for my party!!


Mommy and Mia pre-party


The cakes


The princess, posing on her throne with her gifts


Blowing out the candles (with help from big brother Luke)


Mia enjoying her smash cake


After a bath and a costume change, Mia took some time to check out her American Girl Doll of the Year, MIA!


Luke and Mia playing with her new little people house


And towards the end of the party, she just couldn't take it anymore. Within a minute of laying her down, Mia was sound asleep and snoring!

Happy Birthday Miss Mia!

It's hard to believe little miss Mia is already 1 year old. She started her day off by getting her new chair, which she loves! After school we took her out for ice cream since it's her favorite thing ever. She will get the rest of her gifts at her party on Saturday.

At one year old, Mia...
... has 8 teeth, including a new molar
... eats everything and loves big people food!
... walks holding onto things, but not on her own
... waves and smiles at everyone, and is learning to blow kisses
... knows "eat" in sign language and looks to the kitchen when we say it!
... can find mommy, daddy, Luke, and Molly when we ask her where they are
... and her favorite trick - opening her jar of puffs with her teeth!


Here she is, in her new big girl chair, taking the lid off her puffs as mentioned earlier, and wearing her birthday tshirt (compliments of Aunt Brenda!)


Enjoying her ice cream


Not the best shot, but Luke had cookie monster ice cream... blue with cookies in it. Nice. I believe his hands and face are stained blue still.

Random photos from the past weeks

Baby "Linus"


Sound asleep...


Last game of the year, kicking the ball in


Luke celebrating the end of soccer and showing off his medal


Mia stealing Luke's hat and soccer medal!

Quote of the Day

In the words of one of my third grade girls...

"Mrs. Minatrea, you look like you just came from Las Vegas, like one of those girls that shakes everything."

Um, is that a compliment?
(For the record, I wasn't wearing anything sparkly or with a feather headdress!)

TAKS Time

Tomorrow is the much anticipated TAKS day for my third graders. I can't believe how hard we've worked the past weeks to get ready. I'm not as stressed this year, but it's also the first year that all my kids have a shot at passing the first time, so my hopes are a bit higher. I can't wait until Tuesday afternoon when it's over!!

In other news...
This week is sure to be busy! Tomorrow is TAKS. Luke has 3 soccer games -Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. This is conference week for me, so I have some pretty much every day and quite a few on Thursday. Marc is balancing soccer and being in Austin for the state basketball games Thursday-Saturday. On top of all this, I'm preparing for Mia's birthday party, and battling illnesses. I woke up early Saturday morning very sick, and finally felt better last night. However, today at school it all came back but I made myself stay to get the kids ready for TAKS. Luke had a fever Saturday and Sunday. We did what any good parent would do - shoved him full or Tylenol and sent him on to school today - and so far, no call that his fever came back. Hopefully he's done being sick!

I'm excited about Mia's upcoming party. It's not a huge ordeal, but it's princess themed and I also found out mom, dad, and grandma Davis will be making the trip down for the party. Now my biggest stress is what she'll wear, and getting her 1 year photos taken by someone other than Aunt Amy!

February seemed way too crazy - with TAKS prep, soccer, basketball season, birthdays, valentine's day, sick people, family job situations and doctor visits... so I sure am glad to welcome in a new month. Hopefully March will be full of positive experiences and good news for everyone!

I know I have some photos to post, and will try to put them on in the next day or two.