Thanksgiving Day (Yum)

Once again this is Mariah ;)

Today was super fun, it started out with this cool idea my mom (Andronica) came up with. So, we open this box and pull out a slip of paper, on the paper it said "Make butter" so we made ourselves butter, by shacking these glasses that had the right ingredients in it. Anyway, everyday we will be doing something new, on the slips of paper. When my grandparents arrived we played Wii Sports and then had dinner.Dinner was a success, and our butter tasted pretty good. After dinner we played Phase 10 Amy even played with us it was really fun! I'm just so thankful for my life, family, and friends.Without them, where would I be?

Unavailable *wink wink*

Unfortunately, Andronica is unavailable (cleaning) so her wonderful daughter Mariah (that's me!) will be telling you how the day went...

It all started at about 6:10 this morning when my mom came down to wake me up, basically while I rolled over and went back to sleep while my mom dashed back upstairs. Going down the hallway she continued to wake my sisters (Amy and Erica) and turned on the movie, Robin Hood (the cartoon one) for them. Right now they really like Robin Hood, anyways about 20 minutes later I still haven't even tried to get up, but some 2 minutes later I get dressed and all, the fastest I ever had! (so I wouldn't miss the bus) Finally at 7:20-ish we all headed out the door and off to school.

"Hey mom," -That's me talking

"hm?" -That's my mom

"How was your day at work?"

"Busy, I walk a lot"

Continues to clean the first aid box

After school we rushed home, I put on my volleyball gear and we headed over to my 5 hour long practice (which, was pretty good.) My dad then came and got me and we just had to stop at 7-11 (he he) While I was playing, Mom and my sisters went to Win-Co to get food for thanksgiving(yum) :)

This is what real time events are going on at 10:43 p.m :
Our new kitten Annie, and Jenny (my poodle) are running around chasing each other, my dad is on his computer (which has a huge screen!) and looking at some map thing, and my mom is like I said cleaning. Oh yeah! Amy and Erica are of course sleeping. Well that's all for now, thanks for reading.

~Mariah

Picking up speed

I hope to be "picking up speed" and posting more on the daily events in our house so family members can enjoy the chaos, I mean fun, along with us. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the week and everyone is excited to be having 4 days off. I am getting ready for the Advent Calendar to countdown the days until Christmas. This year I am doing something new and you can check back each day to see how it goes. I printed a different activity on 30 pieces of paper, then I numbered them for each day until New Years. The way it will work is one of the girls will pick the top paper and we all get to do the activity listed. I think they will have a lot of fun and it will help get the whole family into the Christmas Spirit.

Rocky...

This is the first posting update and I hope there will be many more....I was outside in the yard this evening and heard the awful sound of the bees coming for me. The flailing of my arms did not deter them and before I knew it one had stung me right above the eye. After laying on the couch and fully beginning to know how Rocky felt after a fight I am trying to figure out why it hurts so much. I think the shot of Benedryl I took is starting to take affect so I will post more on this tomorrow. A

Team Armstrong News

Team Armstrong Wishes you the Best!!!

What a wonderful year it has been. We are happily settled in Brownsville and love every minute of small town living.

Eric -- He now works for Pioneer Pacific College as the IT Program Director and a teacher. He loves the hours because he now gets Fridays off and the two weeks at Christmas as well as a week in the summer. It works great for the family to have a three day weekend (every weekend) together. He is still racing and this year he won Best Male Competitor. He is also the current president of Willamette Motor Club.

Andronica -- I graduated with my AA Degree and Paraprofessional Certification. I have also attended additional classes on Autism and Children with high needs. I am now working at Central Linn Elementary where Amy goes to school and Erica will go next year. It is great to have the same hours and days as the girls in school and I LOVE the work. I am assigned to work with 2 different high needs kids during their day to day activities in class. I also raced this year and won Best Female Competitor.

Mariah -- She started 7th Grade this year and moved up to the middle school. She loves her teacher and our house is a revolving door of sleepovers and social get together. She spends enough time on homework to currently hold a 3.8 gpa while; texting on her phone, emailing, posting on her MYSpace and playing games with her sisters. Mariah played volleyball this year and had the best time. She improved with each practice and the coach is already talking to her about next year.

Amy -- Ever tender hearted Amy is VERY happy to have a wonderful teacher this year who understands her completely. Amy played soccer this fall and had a great time with her friends and exploring the new world of “girl gossip” too cute. She has a group of friends they call themselves the posse. It is so wonderful to see her exploding in reading and writing, she has the best penmanship.

Erica -- Although Erica turned 5 at the end of the summer her dad and I thought that she would do better to attend a year of preschool and then go to kindergarten next year. It was the perfect choice. She loves being home with Nana (my mom) and the two of them have fun walking downtown and getting this and that, going to the thrift shop or library. Her favorite thing is to go with Nana to the bakery and pick out donuts for everyone after dinner.

We hope this gives you a glimpse of what we do and want to wish you all the best for 2009.

Family time in print

I was going to make different blogs for the different aspects which are happening in our lifes...however, I realized LOL I can hardly keep up with one let alone anymore than that. So, here is where you will find all the happenings of Team Armstrong, the happy parents, the drama for a tween ager, the innocence in 2nd grade, the opinions of a preschooler and the arrival of our newest member. I hope everyone feels welcome to post comments, I love to get them and it keeps us in contact with each other.

Mariah is home

It has been a week now since Mariah came home and I think we are getting used to things again. I has been a whirlwind of sleepovers, tweens coming and going and laundry. Now on to bigger news. Tomorrow is Erica's birthday she will be 5 years old. WOW how time goes by I can't believe it. She is very cute, obviously, but so stubborn...hum I wonder where she gets that from. She will begin preschool in the fall and I think it will be great for her. Amy is having a wonderful summer and would live at the river if I let her. We go down there quite often and she is the first in the water when we get there and the last to get out.

On the adult side Eric is loving his new job, how can you blame him when he has a 4 day work week now. Which is nice because I accepted a full-time position with the school district this year and it is also only in session 4 days a week. I am also still coaching on Fridays which I love because I can plan what I would like for the classes. I will also be graduating with my AA and Paraprofessional Certification October 12 this year. Time went by fast I am so glad I went back to school. I was going to continue with my BA right away but, Eric is looking at going back to school for his MA and I think it might be a bit too much with both parents working full-time, both in school and the girls sports and..oh yes Amy and Erica both in Girl Scouts.