Mooses Unite

long time...

2010-06-17T17:23:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time since I've posted an update on my blog... A lot has happened since December...

My brothers spent the spring playing soccer. I spent the spring going to their soccer games. Miguel played Challenge and went to a tournament in Williamsburg. Ivan played Varsity and his team made it to the semi-finals before losing to Western. Both of them tried out for travel soccer for the fall and both made it to the highest level teams. Ivan will be playing for SOCA Lightning and Miguel for SOCA Express. This is me at Miguel's game taking a video of him scoring a goal.

I went on a treasure hunt with Chaos the dog and Brian. We looked for treasure in three places but we only found one treasure. We found a cool lake too that we got in to cool off.
My little sister graduated 5th grade. She's excited for middle school year next year and she's going to do so well! She has all A's and B's and was taking math at the highest level that she could!
We've spent a lot of time already at the pool. It's our favorite place to go. The kids are all swimming really well. I've been really sick so it's been nice to take them to the Charlottesville water park and let them just play and play while I rest on the chairs. I get in the water a little bit when I get really bored and hot, but right now while I'm sick, I usually just sit out and watch.
The doctors don't really know what's wrong. I've been sick for a month with a recurring fever, cough, lots of body pain, tingling and pain in my left leg, etc. I've had 4 MRI's, 2 chest x-rays, over 20 tubes of blood taken, and about 2-3 doctor visits per week to my regular doctor, a neurologist, and an infectious disease specialist. I missed the last 3 weeks of school. The only thing definite that I had was pneumonia way back at the beginning a month ago. That put me in the hospital for a night. It was scary for a while because my white blood cells dropped very low, way below normal, along with my red blood cells, platelets, calcium, etc. Also I had elevated levels of anti-nuclear antibodies which are antibodies against my own body, an indication of an auto-immune disease. But since then, my antibodies have gone back to normal and so have all the blood levels as well. Tomorrow I have another doctor appointment with my regular doctor to see if I'm finally getting better or not.

December Snow Pictures

2009-12-24T10:47:00.005-05:00

Here are a ton of pictures from the past snow days! Enjoy!!!

Here's Edith as the snow was falling!

Tons of snow!
Completely covering the car - we had over 2 feet!
Miguel, Edith, y Mama making their way through the snow!
Miguel thinking he's going to play soccer right now.
Me snowboarding down the street! There's still snow covering our street - 5 days later!
snowboarding down the street:
Ivan snowboarding down the hill by our house
Me going down the hill
Miguel snowboarding down
The 3 of us snowboarding down the street
Me with my brothers snowboarding
Ivan jumping off the roof
Me jumping off the roof
Me with my brother's snowman.
Lucero fixing her snowman's flower
Edith and me making Edith's snowman
Edith loving the snow
The 3 of us with the 2 snowmen. Look at the eyes on Edith's snowman! They're really cool!

Only 2 days until Christmas!

2009-12-23T13:04:00.002-05:00

We've been rolling in the snow! Building, playing, having fun...snowboarding down the street...shoveling...cleaning roofs...pushing stuck cars up hills...etc. It's amazing how 2 feet of snow changes the daily pattern of your life. Our lives have just revolved around snow - driving in it, cleaning it, moving it, playing in it, slipping in it...

I haven't seen this much snow since Colorado and it's awesome! It's still everywhere...no grass in sight and it's not going anywhere any time soon because the temperature doesn't get out of the 30's.

Work is still great and I've paid off one credit card completely and one student loan in the past month!

AND IT'S ONLY 2 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Great snow day!

2009-12-20T00:34:00.002-05:00

We have more than 2 feet of snow!!! We've been saying for a long time that we wished we had more snow around here...well we really got it now! The forecast says it even might snow on Christmas!!! We had a great day playing today! My brother and I walked a couple miles to get our snowboards and then we snowboarded down 5th street to get back home. Whoever thought we'd be able to snowboard down 5th street! We snowboarded for about an hour more when we got home and finally went home at 9:00. Tomorrow we're going back out for more!

new job

2009-11-14T20:48:00.002-05:00

So I have a new job now. I work at Best Buy! I'm really excited about it! Everybody there thinks I'm weird because I like EVERYTHING in the store. Apparently employees usually prefer EITHER working with customers or doing the sorting, unpacking, shipping, organizing part of retail. None of the managers understand how I can like doing both. They say they've never met anyone who equally liked doing both things. There's also competition among other employees and other departments for points and prizes. But everyone's really nice about it and totally willing to work together at the same time. Today I got 39 points (which is A LOT) and 4 prizes! I have a pretty full work schedule - almost every evening and weekends - but it's okay for now. I really like it! Come get a reward zone card from me, people! That's how I get points!

Collin's dance routine at the Cale talent show

2009-11-14T20:46:00.000-05:00

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T13:14:00.004-05:00

Wow we had a great Halloween! My sisters were asking me all day if I was taking them trick-or-treating. At 11:00, they got dressed in their costumes and were begging me to take them early. Finally at 6:00 they couldn't wait a moment later, so we went out. We went trick-or-treating for FOUR HOURS! Okay so we saw a ton of friends and spent a lot of time stopping to talk and visit, but still... four hours. That's a lot of candy. Zorro came too and was dressed in his own costume. Here's a picture of me and Zorro with Zorro's bag of candy:

Me and my bro organizing his candy:
Lucero selling me her chocolate bars. She's always interested in making a deal.
Me and my sister Lucero with her candy
Lucero totally happy with her mountain of candy
Edith and Zorro with Edith's pile of candy!
Zorro in his costume with his own pile of candy
trick-or-treating
me and zorro with his costume
Lucero
Lucero getting prepared for trick-or-treating
Edith with Zorro, ready for trick-or-treating
Edith in her costume
My little sister putting make-up on
Edith the little witch
miguel in his creepy costume
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

update...the good and the bad

2009-10-30T18:35:00.002-04:00

Wow it's been...a bad, bad month. There are some good things that have happened too, but it's definitely not been a great time. Between the crash, my grandpa dying, my car breaking down in VA Beach, and financial issues, it's been a long month. School has been great. My kids are doing really well, learning what they need to learn, making me laugh, and passing their goals. We've been doing a lot of goal-setting, practicing, and assessing to show their progress towards meeting their goals and they've become obsessed with "results". They constantly ask me to test them again to see if they've improved. It's actually pretty cool because they don't see the tests as something to stress about. They see them as evidence of how much they've grown and achieved (WHICH IS WHAT TESTS REALLY ARE!).

My car was basically unfixable in VA Beach - needed $3,000 worth of repairs and I only had $200. So I had to trade it for a different car. I got a really good deal on the "new" car and I'm happy with the car. But it has made the situation harder because now I have a car payment. The purchase of it was cool though because I totally played the car salesman before he realized what had happened. He spent so much time trying to manipulate the numbers with me that he didn't realize I was manipulating the numbers right back at him. He picked the wrong person to play a numbers game. I quickly signed before he realized what happened and when he realized how much he had lost on the deal (after it was too late), he was so angry. He even threw papers at Ivan and I and kicked the trashcan. For real. It was hilarious.

We had the memorial service for my grandparents last weekend. That was hard because my sister and I are kind of mad at each other right now. My aunt spoke at the service and she said something really cool that stood out to me. She was referring to us (the grandkids) and she said, "Our children grew up thinking that everybody's grandparents had trains that run around the pool and a red teddy that greets them on the front porch with a message..." She mentioned other things too, and I thought about how right she was. When I was little, I really did think that everybody's grandparents must be just that awesome. Now, I know differently. I know everyone has grandparents that are special and awesome to them, but I truly was blessed to have the absolute best kid grandparents in the world.

I have a new kid from Mexico in my class. She has cerebral palsy and has never been to school before. She speaks no English and has many limitations and needs. She is sooooooo sweet. She just smiles and laughs all day long, so happy to be here around all the kids. She loves Zorro and carries him in her lap in her wheelchair. Yesterday she was using the computer in the computer lab with us and I put Zorro on the keyboard of the computer next to her as if he was typing on it. She saw him and laughed and laughed and said, "Zorro no puede escribir en la computadora! Es un zorro!" (Zorro can't write on the computer! He's a fox!) She thought it was the funniest thing ever. My kids love her! They spend a lot of time trying to talk to her in Spanish and making her laugh with smiles and pictures. She's pretty cool.

Today I got a new job! I had my second interview at Best Buy and I'm going to start working there. I'm really excited because I really want to work there! And I threw out an idea to the manager during the interview for a new technology item that could be useful with kids. I was simply asking him if he'd ever heard of anything like it and where I could get one if he had. He said, "Wow, I've never heard of anything like that before, but it's brilliant! You need to not spread that around and instead try to develop it and patent it. It would be brilliant!" So...now I have a new challenge ahead of me. Like I need another one.

stuck.

2009-10-12T09:11:00.002-04:00

So now after missing 3 days of school last week because of my grandfather, I'm missing another day today because I'm stuck in Virginia Beach. My car won't go out of first gear. I think it's related to the damages from the accident 3 weeks ago... The problem is that the earliest time the shop down here can look at it today is 1:30. That's going to possibly be a problem because of how long it might take to fix the car. I mean, at least if I'm stuck somewhere, I'm stuck at the beach. I guess...

Dolphins and Waves at Virginia Beach

2009-10-10T15:45:00.003-04:00

My brother and I are in Virginia Beach this weekend for his soccer tournament. We were looking outside this morning when we saw DOLPHINS! Lots and lots of dolphins! There were like maybe 20 or more. We even saw one JUMPING! He jumped completely out of the water! We got in the water to play with the dolphins. They were really, really close but they stayed away from us. Here are pictures of the dolphins and us playing in the water. Now we have to go to his soccer game...

Here's my bro trying to squish my head with his fingers. So nice.

More dolphins!

wet money

2009-10-10T11:32:00.002-04:00

Here's Ivan trying to dry off my money after I mysteriously fell in the ocean and all my money got soaking wet. I'm not sure how I ended up under the waves...lost my balance or something...

the winning car

2009-10-08T10:24:00.002-04:00

Here's a picture from 1987 of my grandparents when they won a car at Disney World. It was for the 15th anniversary celebration there and they said that when they walked through the gates sirens started going off and balloons and confetti were falling everywhere and they were told that they won a car! There they are with Mickey Mouse with their car behind them.

semi-pro basketball star

2009-10-08T10:02:00.002-04:00

We just found a record that says that my grandpa played semi-professional basketball. It says, "The roaring Cincinnatus Merchants Semi-Professional basketball team of Cincinnatus has become an invincible team. The Merchants have smashed every opponent they have played this year... The team has been greatly bolstered by the return of Daley and Tice from Baltimore, Maryland, sensational basketball ALL STARS..." (the original had "all stars" written in all caps.)

Who knew?

An award describing my grandpa

2009-10-08T09:19:00.002-04:00

Here's the description of my grandpa from an award that he received:

"A gifted Scouter richly endowed with the qualities of leadership and possessed with natural ability and talent for working effectively with and for boys. He is above all else a man of God and so dedicated to the high purposes of Scouting that nothing less than his spectacular success could satisfy his demanding conscience. Whenever he undertakes an activity of planning, recruiting, provision of facilities is always completed in excellent fashion. He becomes personally involved in bringing a good Scouting Program to boys and he works harder and longer than most in this pursuit."

I have never seen this before and I thought it was so well written. My grandpa won the Silver Beaver award which is the highest honor received by Scoutmasters in a leadership position.

Goodbye Grandpa

2009-10-07T10:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday my grandpa, the best grandpa in the world, passed away. I'm in Baltimore right now. I'm sad, of course, but right now I'm more angry than anything. I'm not angry at anybody or anything. I'm just mad. I don't understand why though, because we knew this was going to happen and I know that my grandpa is happier now. He wanted to be with my grandma. He didn't want to be here anymore. It's better for him. I get that. I understand that. But under everything I'm still just mad.

Summer Pool Video - Edith and Esther

2009-10-07T10:20:00.001-04:00

Esther and Edith at the Pool - July 2009 from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Here's a video I've been meaning to make for a while... It's of little Esther and Edith playing in the pool from back in the summer when Katie, Niklas, and Esther came over to visit from Sweden!

Beautiful Butterfly

2009-10-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

One day last week, a butterfly emerged from its chrysalis and my class and I went to set it free but it didn't fly for a while. It climbed on all the kids and let the kids hold it. In the end it flew away. Here are some pictures of it:

Pascracio

2009-10-07T10:10:00.000-04:00

Here are some cool pictures of Ivan and me holding Pascracio.

More funny kids

2009-09-30T23:18:00.002-04:00

The top funny things said by my kids today:

1. "I'm sorry I wasn't here yesterday, Miss Tice. I had pink eye, a cough, a sneeze, and lots of other stuff."

2. (We had to do the lock-down drill today to practice what to do if there's a bad guy in the school. We had a conversation about why we go outside during a fire drill, to the hallway for a tornado drill, and hide inside our locked classrooms for the bad guy drill. Afterwards a kid said this:) "So what would happen in the rare situation that we have a fire, a tornado, and a crazy guy all at the same time? Since all 3 are certain disaster, do we just run around in circles screaming?"

Beach Skimboarding

2009-09-30T23:17:00.001-04:00

Untitled from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

A Video of Pascracio Eating a Cricket

2009-09-29T13:49:00.002-04:00

Here is an incredibly entertaining video of Pascracio eating a cricket. It's mostly in Spanish, but you can still see the awesome little lizard being a mighty hunter!

Baltimore Weekend

2009-09-28T17:10:00.003-04:00

Miguel and I went to Baltimore this weekend to visit Uncle Barry, Aunt Pam, Laurie, Carter, Ariel, Amy, Pierce, and Grandpa. Kathryn went too, but she went to visit Grandpa and go to a Ravens game with Mike. Miguel and arrived late on Saturday and we went with Amy to visit Grandpa in his new assisted living facility. It's really nice, with beautiful grounds and lots for the residents to do. It's too bad Grandma can't be there, because she would have loved it. On Sunday morning, Miguel and I went to one of those indoor inflatable playgrounds because it had been raining since Friday and we wanted to run around and play somewhere. Here are some pictures of it:

When the employees announced that it was time to leave, Miguel didn't want to go, so he stuck the masts from the inflatable pirate ship through the exit doorway to barricade himself in:

But the lady came over anyway and told him he had to remove the masts, unblock the exit,...and leave. You can see her in the exit door. So sad for Miguel. It was a nice try though.

Then we went to Ikea which was great fun. We had fun trying out EVERY chair, sofa, and bed in the entire store. We picked something out as a surprise for everyone. For Edith, we found a little stuffed cat wearing clothes. For Lucero, a rabbit. For Miguel, a big dog pillow that he has been carrying around with him everywhere. For Mama, a plant (she loves plants) in a beautiful pot and an ice cube tray that makes ice cubes in the shape of fish (she loves fish too). And the best was for Ivan, a white stuffed rat. He's really beautiful. Here's a picture of the white rat:

The white rat became my favorite thing of the day and I carried the white rat around everywhere. He even sat on my lap during the whole ride back in the car. We ate Swedish meatballs and princess cakes in Ikea, and then left to wander around the other stores in White Marsh. Here's me walking down the street with the white rat:
We found a corvette car show so we stopped to take pictures and get inside the cars! Here's my new car:
Check out this engine!!!
Finally we stopped back by Grandpa's to visit a little more. We watched the Ravens game and showed Grandpa pictures of what we've been doing the past few months. He's doing okay, he's just very weak. He says he's exhausted all the time. We don't know how much longer he has because his doctor has just diagnosed him with lung cancer that has gotten pretty advanced. It's already spread to his ribs. It's really sad and I want to try to spend as much time as I can with him over the next couple of months because I know he doesn't have much longer. I'll be heading up to Baltimore again really soon.

ooooowwwwwwww!

2009-09-23T00:04:00.003-04:00

oooowwww my tongue my tongue! i cut my tongue! i was just opening a beautifully scrumptious cup of yogurt and i licked the foil top. IT CUT MY TONGUE!!! I grabbed my tongue and started screaming, "MY TONGUE MY TONGUE, I CUT MY TONGUE!" except I was kind of kidding. Then I took my hand away and tasted blood in my mouth and when I looked at my hand it had blood on it! I really cut it on a yogurt container. Now I'm in so much pain. I can't talk. I can't eat. It hurts to laugh and smile. My brother thinks the whole thing is the most hilarious thing he's ever seen in his life. He keeps bursting out laughing unable to control himself for like 5 minutes. He keeps shouting between bursts of laughter, "Where's the camera???? Tell me where the camera is!!!" My tongue is throbbing. Now the pain is spreading to my eye. It even hurts to walk now. Seriously I think I need to go to the hospital. I don't think I can go to school tomorrow...

funny kids today

2009-09-22T16:43:00.002-04:00

The kids said some hilarious things today! Here were the top two:

1. At lunch in the cafeteria: "Miss Tice, I need you to help me eat because I'm about to go through puberty and I need to eat more."

2. While practicing multiplication flashcards: "Miss Tice! I have a great example of how failure can help you!"

That one made me laugh and laugh simply because he was so excited about his failure! Hahahahaha!

Washington DC!!!

2009-09-21T21:39:00.003-04:00

My stepmom Diane, who lives in Maine, came down to Nothern Virginia this weekend for her high school reunion. She called and asked if I could come up and visit. Miguel wanted to come so we decided to have a weekend in Washington! We had a great visit with Diane (who I haven't seen in 3 years). We spent the night there and had breakfast with her the next morning. Then after taking her to the airport for her return trip home, I asked Miguel what he wanted to do. He said, "Let's go see the White House!" I don't think I've ever actually seen the White House so I was like, "Yeah! I have no idea where it is...so let's go!"

Here's the White House! It took us like an hour to find it, but then when we found it, we were like, "WHAT??? It was right there the whole time????" We didn't see Obama but we looked for him.
Miguel took random pictures of everybody walking with us on the way to seeing the White House. Here he is with the White House in the background.
We also went to the World War II Memorial and I explained to him why it was built and we went around and read all the states and quotes that are carved into the stone. We also saw the wall of stars with the carved stone that says, "Here we mark the price of freedom." We talked about what it meant and Miguel thought it was really cool.
Then we went to see the Washington Monument and the circle of flags.

He couldn't believe how tall the obelisk was! I told him it was even taller than the ones from Egypt.
We went to the Museum of Natural History too because he wanted to see the dinosaurs. He took a picture of me in front of a prehistoric moose!
In the museum, we saw some cousins of zorro!
Miguel really liked the lion and tiger models!
Here's a picture of us with Diane! We had a great weekend and it totally came up at the last minute! Miguel had never seen Washington before and I had never seen the White House. We wouldn't have gone if it hadn't been for Diane coming down! So thanks, Diane, for a great weekend!

More reasons (see post below)

2009-09-21T21:30:00.003-04:00

Here are two more reasons:

9. Edith commenting about the order of our brothers: "Ivan is our first brother, Miguel is our last brother, and Zorro is our middle brother."

10. Miguel and I were talking about why one of his friends is a pretty good kid, but gets in to trouble a lot and doesn't make good decisions. I was helping him understand why he needed to be careful around that kid, to not get sucked into bad decisions as well. Finally Miguel said, "You know, I think he IS a good kid, he just doesn't have anyone to express it with." I asked him what he meant. He said, "Well, like me, I have Ivan, and I have you, and I have Mama. I have 3 people who I know love me and teach me how I'm supposed to be. You guys support me. But he doesn't have anyone. His mom's never home and his dad's hardly ever home and he's always drinking. He just doesn't have what I have." I thought, Wow. He was able to figure that out... Smart kid...

reasons why i have the best family ever:

2009-09-19T08:30:00.003-04:00

Here are just some of the latest funny/sweet reasons why I love my family!

1. Kathryn was over at a friend's house when she saw her friend reach out towards her and she automatically ducked to protect herself. Her friend was like, "What's wrong with you?" She said, "I'm a younger sibling, what do you think?" (Sidenote: Contrary to popular belief, I did not attack her THAT MUCH when she was little.)

2. On the day of Back-to-School Night (the night when parents go to their kids' classes to meet their teachers), Edith came and asked me if I would go at 6:30 to meet her teacher. I told her I already knew her teacher, but she begged me to go anyway, so I went. When I got in her classroom, all the kids had written letters to their parents, starting with "Dear Mom" or "Dear Dad". I looked at Edith's and it said, "Dear Beth".

3. Lucero spent TWO HOURS telling me about how evil her teacher is. TWO HOURS. And what did I do? I politely sat there, listening to every word for TWO HOURS. Finally Miguel walked in and asked if I would take him and his friends to the Ice Park and I got up to put my shoes on. Lucero was outraged and said, "What??? You're not even going to listen to me??? I'm trying to tell you something!" I was like, "Dude, I just listened to you for TWO HOURS!" She said, "And I'm not done yet."

4. Even in stressful situations, Kathryn can find the humor. For example she's having yet another problem with her HP computer (DOWN WITH HP!!!) and she's very frustrated. Yet when she received an email from HP asking for her current address and potions, she was able to separate her frustration from the ridiculousness of that typing error. (Sidenote: We still have not figured out what HP meant by "potions".)

5. Edith came running in secretly to me with Mama right behind her. Edith whispered to me frantically, "Beth! If you tell Mama that YOU taught me to draw hearts, I'll give you a chocolate." hahahahahahaha

6. Mama bought me a leopard gecko after I was so sad that my blue-tailed skink and northern ringneck snake escaped somewhere in the house.

7. When I was having a particularly bad day, Ivan could tell that something was wrong. He asked, "Are you okay?" I shrugged and said, "Yeah." He said, "Yeah like yeah? Or yeah like there's something?"

8. On a rainy Thursday when my abnormally loud children were eating snack, Kathryn texts me with this message: "Just listened to bagpipes playing in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs." I looked at/heard the rain outside and my 20 noisy children and looked again at her message. I thought, "That's great. Just great."

car update

2009-09-18T18:13:00.002-04:00

Okay my car has $5000 of damage, but it's not totaled! That's the good thing. The mechanic offered to buy my car from me so that I could buy a new car, but I don't want to do that. I would still need to have a loan and I don't want to owe more money right now. So they're going to fix it. They said it will take 2 to 2-1/2 weeks.

Pascracio

2009-09-16T22:37:00.002-04:00

So it does seem like his name is going to be Pascracio. He ate 10 crickets tonight. It was his first time eating at home. We watched him eating all the crickets and it was totally cool! Here's Edith watching him. We are fascinated by him and we spent almost 2 hours watching him tonight and talking about him!

my beautiful car

2009-09-16T22:31:00.001-04:00

Look. Just look. Look what happened to my beautiful car today. Too sad for my little car.

Leland's Birthday Party

2009-09-14T23:25:00.001-04:00

Leland's Birthday 2009 from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Here's a video of little Leland at his 2-year-old birthday party! His party was at a cool park in Waynesboro.

My leopard gecko!

2009-09-14T17:15:00.002-04:00

Here's my new friend! I have a leopard gecko! Elvia (my second mom) and Miguel bought me a leopard gecko yesterday because we were so sad that the snake AND the blue-tailed skink escaped. Isn't he beautiful? He's really easy to take care of and he can't escape because he can't climb the walls of his tank. He eats crickets so we have to go buy him some tomorrow. He needs a proper leopard gecko name but we haven't thought of one yet. We're just calling him Pescracio for right now, but that's just a temporary name.

williamsburg to richmond

2009-09-12T21:14:00.003-04:00

Ivan lost his game in Williamsburg today but who cares! Well he cares. And I care. And his team cares. Okay a lot of people care. We had a great time afterwards! We went to play laser tag and his team beat my team twice. It was awesome! Laser tag is cool cuz it's like you're IN a video game and you get to shoot people but nobody gets hurt. That's cool! I tried a great strategy to get more points and I ran to the other team's base to shoot their base. I waited until it was unprotected then I jumped out to shoot it. It was great except my gun was out of shots by the time I got there. So then I had to run back to recharge my gun. So that strategy didn't work. Then I decided another strategy would be to hide in the corner next to my team's base and wait for the other team to come over and then I can shoot them and they can't shoot me because I'm hiding behind a post in the corner. So I waited and waited, but nobody came. So sad. My strategies didn't work. Ivan did a good strategy though. He got 14,900 points and I only had 6,000. But I beat him 6 times in basketball and 4 times in air hockey, so we're even. Tomorrow he has a game in Richmond, so we'll see if his team wins tomorrow!

my poor poor lizard

2009-09-11T00:53:00.002-04:00

so you know my snake that i caught? he escaped. we are so sad now. and then lucero caught a blue-tailed skink for me (which i had been wanting for like 3 months). and he was doing great, living a life of hand-delivered crickets in a climate-controlled environment. but then he escaped too. so i guess now we have a snake and a lizard running around in the house. so sad.

Random Recent Pics

2009-09-07T10:10:00.003-04:00

Here are some random fairly recent pictures of events that have happened over the summer:

First, me and one of my little "bros" wearing our twin shirts:

Ivan beating me at a pinball game while waiting for a pizza to be ready:

Totally cool massage chair that costs $2000, but is free to go try it out! They even give you a free bottle of coke to enjoy while you get your 15-minute massage!

Edith chillin in the mall:

Me with the big Chic Fil A cow! I love the cow!

Lucero picking raspberries:

Ivan in his new office. He's going to be a lawyer.

Edith with bamboo and my hat:

Greensboro, NC

2009-09-07T10:02:00.002-04:00

We spent the weekend in Greensboro, NC for Ivan's soccer tournament. Greensboro was pretty cool... Our hotel had an indoor and outdoor pool that was connected. You could swim from one to the other. It was right next to a 3-story mall. His team lost the tournament, but we still had fun! Next week we go to Williamsburg and Richmond. Here are some pictures from this weekend:

sweetest dream ever

2009-09-03T18:10:00.002-04:00

Last night I had the sweetest dream ever! It was possibly the best dream of my life...even better than when I dream I can fly or when I dream that I can do 540's on a snowboard or even better than when I dreamed that a crocodile bit my arm off (really...it was awesome).

I dreamed that I was stuck inside a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! I couldn't escape because the peanut butter was so sticky and this giant guy was trying to close the sandwich with a gigantic piece of bread and I was screaming, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!" and pushing on the bread with my hands to keep it from coming down on me. Then I woke up.

Totally cool! I really hope I dream that one again!

SCHOOL ROCKS!

2009-08-29T16:34:00.002-04:00

okay so all of my enthusiasm for being at school has been completely restored! it's now a place that i can't wait to go to again! some of you know what i'm talking about. it's not that i didn't like school last year, it's just that i was getting bored with the curriculum and i didn't realize that was the problem until about half way through. i decided to loop up with my class and it's been awesome! when school gets out, i can't wait for it to start again the next day! it's been great starting the year like we never left! i'll tell more about it later but right now lucero and i have to go to a party down the street so later people!

Happy First Day of School!

2009-08-24T22:58:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the first day of school! I'm really excited because I'm moving up with my class to third grade. I already know all the kids and parents and that means we can start the year off rockin! It's going to be a great year! A lot of stuff will be different, and that's a great thing! To all the kids who start school tomorrow:

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Never touch the white pieces

2009-08-17T11:08:00.002-04:00

Yet another reason to remember not to touch the white pieces if you ever have the experience of playing Settlers with John. We played perhaps the most uninspiring game ever of Settlers last night. We were trying to teach two new people who had never played before but between the new puppy eating and pooping, the five kids that we tried to herd into bed and coerce into going to sleep, and the neighbors who came over to tell us that all of John's work in burying an invisible fence line was in vain because he buried it halfway across the neighbors' yard, it was a little difficult for all of us to concentrate. It was uninspiring, but hilarious!

Upon looking back...I suppose it was a rather typical game for us...

Welcome Home Lego!

2009-08-15T22:18:00.002-04:00

Lego is Kathryn's new horse. Kathryn went to Raleigh today to get him and bring him to my parents' farm in Scottsville. Here's a picture of her walking with Lego in the pasture.

Lego introduced himself to the other horses, and everything was going okay until the horses broke through the fence after dark. Everyone ran out there to repair the fence, and fortunately none of the horses escaped!
Edith came with me to see the new horse and we went for a walk down to the lake. On the way, she said she wanted to throw some rocks into the lake and make wishes. I told her that was a good idea and I suggested that we pray for Mommy's job. She picked up a rock, handed it to me, and said, "Yeah! Have a rock!" Then I said, "I'm going to pray too for Miguel - that he will do his homework when school starts." Edith picked up a huge handful of rocks and said, "Here. Have lots of rocks for that wish." Hahahahahaha! Here's a picture of her throwing the rocks in the lake.

We went for a boat ride too in the canoe. She had never been in a boat before and she was so excited! She didn't know what an island was, so we paddled around the little island 3 times so she could see how it was surrounded by water. Finally she said, "Ohhhh, so the only way to get here is with a boat. Or if you know how to swim. But you can't walk." I said, "Right! Unless you're Jesus. He can walk on water." She did the confused puppy look with her head turned to the side so I put the paddle down and told her the story of Jesus when he walked on the water. She thought that was really cool!
Before we left, Edith gave all the animals hugs and told them she'd see them soon when we come back! Here she is with Baxter:
And here with Calabaza:

Happy Birthday Leland!

2009-08-14T19:30:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my nephew Leland's 2nd birthday! My sister Cameron had a little party for him at a park. My niece Payton was there, and my parents, my brother Ryan, and some of Cameron's friends. It was really nice in the park, with lots to do! The top picture is of my stepdad Mike with his two baby grandkids, Leland and Payton. Here's a picture of Leland with his dad by the river. They were looking at little baby ducks and Leland was saying in the cutest voice, "Baby ducks! Baby ducks!"
Here's Leland with his Transformers cake. He didn't care about the Transformers part. He just wanted the truck that was on it. Ryan went to wash the truck off and Leland was very worried about its location. We couldn't continue on with the blowing out of the candles, cutting of the cake, or eating of the cake until Ryan returned with the truck!
Here's the cool wooden train that Leland got from his grandmom and grandpop! It's very cool and he liked it so much. He was so good about saying thank you after every present and going to give a hug to the person who gave it to him.
Here's Grandpop reading a book to Payton and Leland. Leland thought the lizard's tail was a snake so he kept pointing to it saying, "SNAKE! SNAKE!"
Look at all the ducks and geese in the river! The kids loved seeing them all!

so close...

2009-08-14T19:25:00.002-04:00

So we almost won the championship! We made it to the playoffs where we had to play against the first place team (we were 4th place). We were missing our main pitcher and two of our best players, and we lost by one run! One run. So close...

The fall season starts in two weeks and then we have another opportunity at the fall championship in October. We can do it!

Ann and Alicia

2009-08-05T21:49:00.002-04:00

I GOT TO SEE ANN AND ALICIA!!! On Sunday I went to Harrisonburg because two of my bestest friends were in town! We met at a Mexican restaurant there called Doña Rosa. It was supposed to be really authentic Mexican food but almost all of the workers there don't speak spanish. That was weird. And they didn't have really, really spicy salsa. Their version of spicy salsa didn't do anything. No me pica. But all the other food was really good! Then we went to Barnes and Noble to look for a new bible for Alicia. Alicia's doing this pottery class in North Carolina where she lives and she makes really amazing pottery. She should seriously sell it for money. She's really good. I gave her a challenge - to make a piece of pottery of Zorro. I want to see how she does with that one! Well it was really cool seeing them again! Here are some pictures of us from our visit on Sunday:

Me and my buddy

2009-08-01T22:12:00.002-04:00

I got to hang out with my buddy Brian tonight cuz his grandma and grandpa got married today! I was the photographer and videographer for the wedding! It was really beautiful and we had a great time! Brian has really cool grandparents!

An afternoon with Georgia

2009-07-31T21:42:00.002-04:00

Kathryn had to work long hours today so I went to her house to rescue Georgia from sure boredom at home. She was a little confused at first about why I was entering the house instead of Kathryn, but then she went along on some adventures with me! We found cool sunflowers to take pictures next to. Here are some of the pictures:

And Georgia found a snake too. The snake was caught in a spiderweb and two spiders were about to eat him. I rescued him from the spiderweb. He's a northern ringneck snake. There's a video that shows him in the post below this one. Check it out!

Georgia and I found a northern ringneck snake!

2009-07-31T21:41:00.001-04:00

We found a baby northern ringneck snake! from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Georgia the dog and I found a baby northern ringneck snake today and we rescued him from imminent death! Here's a video that shows the little guy!

Extreme Beach Jumping

2009-07-31T11:08:00.001-04:00

Extreme Beach Jumping from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Ivan, Miguel, Hector, and Nestor doing crazy jumps into the pool at our beach house and at Jockey's Ridge in the Outerbanks!

The Adventures of Greg the Frisbee

2009-07-31T10:35:00.000-04:00

The Adventures of Greg the Frisbee from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Yes, the frisbee has a name. No, we did not name him. He came with that name. Here's a video of Greg the Frisbee enjoying time at the beach. It's a nice peaceful video with a nearly tragic ending.

Kings Dominion: Anaconda!

2009-07-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

Kings Dominion: Anaconda from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Sweet roller coaster video of the Anaconda ride at Kings Dominion

Kings Dominion: The Drop Zone!

2009-07-28T11:54:00.003-04:00

Kings Dominion: Drop Zone from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Miguel and I riding the Drop Zone at Kings Dominion

Charlottesville Water Park Video

2009-07-28T11:54:00.001-04:00

Charlottesville Water Park from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

The new Charlottesville Water Park is AWESOME! There is so much to do there - waterslides, a lazy river with a fast current, a diving board, a park to splash in, and floating obstacles to try to cross. Here's a video that shows us playing there!

Undefeated

2009-07-26T21:12:00.002-04:00

We played A LOT of basketball. Ivan and Nestor were super frustrated because they couldn't beat me. The whole week we played one-on-one and whoever won (me) had to play the next person. And so it continued. We ended up playing for about 2 hours each day. I was so tired by the end because I never stopped playing. One time Nestor was really close to beating me. It was 8 to 2 and we always played to 10. But I came back and beat him 10 to 8.

Finally the last day, Nestor beat me and then the next game I beat him 10 to 1. Ivan still couldn't beat me and Nestor couldn't do it again, so they got really frustrated and picked me and threw me in the hot tub. I climbed out and they threw me back in. Then they threw me in the pool twice. So I went for a bucket of cold water and chased them. Ivan ran for the street and right at that moment a guy was walking by, heading to the beach. I shouted to him, pointing at Ivan, "Excuse me, sir! I'll give you 5 bucks if you get him for me!" He was like, "It looks like he already got you. What did he do? Throw you in the pool?" I said, "Yeah, FOUR TIMES!" He said, "FOUR TIMES???? Oh, he deserves it then!" So he ran after him too. It was so funny! We caught Ivan and I drenched him with cold water.

Here are pictures of us playing basketball:

We sort of combined a little soccer with it too. Who says you can't kick the ball when you play basketball?

Hanging out at home

2009-07-26T21:05:00.002-04:00

Here's a bunch of pictures of us playing at home in the beach house. Ivan was in the middle of an apple juice photo shoot and didn't see me sneaking up on him with the broom, ready to attack him.

Still suspecting nothing, he posed nicely. Later when he saw the picture, he was not at all happy that I destroyed his perfectly wonderful photograph with my evil broom! hahahahahaha!
Here's Edith looking ridiculously cute while Ivan and I were playing basketball.

Cute picture

2009-07-26T21:03:00.002-04:00

I love this picture of Miguel giving Edith a ride in the little wagon. You can see the ocean way in the distance behind us. It was a long walk and Edith was always too tired to walk back so we had to carry her. Until Miguel found the wooden wagon in the storage room! Then she had her own ride!

Jockey's Ridge

2009-07-26T20:41:00.003-04:00

We went to Jockey's Ridge to play on the sand dune. The top picture is of all of us together. Here are Nestor and Ivan posing for cool pictures:

Ivan was pretending to be goalie and dove for the ball.
And Nestor diving for the ball:
Nestor practiced his scorpion kick.

Look at Ivan's face. This is how he always looks at me when I'm talking. He's always like, "Eh? What are you talking about?"

Miguel made a super hole...it took him like an hour and then he climbed in it. He made the whole thing with his hands.
The hole was way to big for Edith and Miguel had to pull her out by her feet.

Just a Day at the Beach

2009-07-23T12:16:00.007-04:00

Here are pictures from the beach... Miguel with his umbrella and chair:

Me skimboarding:

A wave wiping me out when I was skimboarding:

Nestor skimboarding and falling into a wave:
The boys waiting for a wave
Nestor and the skimboard
Nestor skimboarding
Me and Ivan buried in sand

Ivan and Nestor buried in sand

Ivan skimboarding
Ivan waiting for a wave with his skimboard
Edith and her shells that she found (I love this picture!)
This is a cool picture too because you can see the water behind Ivan's hand:
Riding a BIG wave
Ivan and I took Lucero and Edith in the waves! They LOVED it! The waves were kind of strong, so we taught them how to dive THROUGH the waves instead of trying to jump over them. They loved the idea of going abajo instead of over and it made it a lot easier for us to hold them as well. We just scooped them up with us and dove through all at the same time! Here's Lucero in the water:
And Edith:

Hunting for Sand Crabs

2009-07-23T11:57:00.003-04:00

Usually when we go crab hunting on the beach at night, we have a doggie with us to do the hunting and digging. The bad news this time was that we didn't have a doggie. The good news is that we had Miguel! All of the rest of us were scared to touch the crabs but Miguel didn't care at all, no matter how big it was. He just threw himself on the crabs and scooped them up. It was so funny! Everybody was spread out looking for crabs and you could hear from all over the beach, voices shouting, "MIGUEEEEEEEEEL! I FOUND ONE!!!!" We caught about 30 of them and brought them back in a box to study them. Here's Nestor, Lucero, Miguel, and Ivan with our crabs:

Here's a bunch of the crabs:
Miguel and I had actually gone out the night before to go crab hunting because nobody else wanted to go. We had such a good time and we caught 2 crabs. We went racing back to the house to tell everybody what happened and when we got there, Ivan was already in bed asleep. Miguel and I looked at the crabs, then at Ivan, then at each other and we instantly knew we were both thinking the same thing. So we snuck into Ivan's room and woke him up with a crab in his bed! hahahahahahahahahaha!

Later the crab ran into the kitchen and found a hole in the cabinets. He ran into the hole and wouldn't come out. We all thought he was going to die in there and then it was going to smell really bad and we wouldn't be able to get it out. But all of our worry is for nothing because the next night after ALL of us went crab hunting, we found that crab scurrying along the hallway, running into Miguel's room. Miguel and all the kids were already asleep because they had been running after crabs and pouncing on them for over 2 hours. So that meant Ivan and I had to catch the crab by ourselves. It was scary and creepy but we did it! Here's Miguel and the crab that we put in Ivan's bed:

Just for Ann

2009-07-20T12:41:00.000-04:00

Ann look who's here! He says he's Mr. Mouse's cousin! Small world right?

quesadillas, among other things

2009-07-20T12:20:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was a great day! Miguel and I spent 3 hours at the beach in the evening, riding waves, skimboarding, fighting the ocean (the ocean won...it even ate his goggles), and playing with Greg the Frisbee. When we got back home it was like 9:00 and we were so cold and hungry. So we jumped in the hot tub and shouted to Ivan to come. When he got there we requested that he make us quesadillas and deliver them to us in the hot tub. We also ordered refreshments, ice cream in wine glasses, and plates of gold. When we mentioned the last request, Ivan gave us "the look" and then went for the garden hose and sprayed us with cold water. But he brought us everything we requested! Minus the plates of gold...

Here is in the kitchen making us quesadillas while we waited in the hot tub!

Here we are waiting ever so patiently for our quesadillas and other requests...

And finally...everything we asked for!

Here's Miguel jumping in the water from earlier in the afternoon
Miguel showing how tough he is before going to fight the ocean.
Playing with Greg the Frisbee. We almost lost Greg several times and we cried. But then we found him.
Miguel riding the waves!
Miguel walking out to catch a big wave
Lucero and her copa (wine glass) of ice cream!
Ivan and his ice cream en una copa
Ivan and Edith playing in the hot tub

Me riding the boogie board across the pool
Me jumping in the pool

First Day at OBX

2009-07-19T09:26:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we drove ALL DAY and arrived in the Outerbanks at 6:00. There was no traffic until the last 30 miles. We were SO ready to get out of the car. Our beach house is really cool and it has a hot tub and a pool and lots of pool toys. As soon as we got here, we jumped right in the pool and hot tub. Then we went to see the ocean and play in the waves! Here are pictures from our first evening here:

Ivan and his friends Nestor and Hector waiting for a big wave to jump through.

Ivan running from the waves when we first got to the ocean. The water was a little cold at first and he was trying to not get wet. It didn't work. He fell all the way in.
Lucero playing in the sand
Nestor doing a scorpion kick to kick the ball in the pool
Edith playing with pool toys in the water
Miguel with a very determined look on his face. He's up to something...

Futbol and Fireworks

2009-07-15T22:51:00.002-04:00

Some cool pics from the first half of July, minus me working in Richmond and going to Kings Dominion (see posts below for those pics). Here's Ivan doing a sweet a header in his soccer game.

Ivan totally blowing away the opposing player.
Sweet fireworks from the 4th of July:

Kings Dominion 09

2009-07-15T22:35:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we went to Kings Dominion for three days! We rode tons of rides, but we liked the waterpark the best. That's where we spent most of our time. Here's a picture of the Eiffel Tower thing that Ivan took.

Miguel with his Kings Dominion map that he insisted on getting every day even though we knew where everything was already.
Me pointing at Miguel walking off into the sunset while Ivan insisted on taking pictures.
My favorite ride - the Drop Zone! Miguel's the only one who will ride it with me!
Me and Miguel waiting under the Drop Zone sign.
Ivan and Miguel playing in the water. We went on every water slide in the park! We liked the wave pool best though!
Miguel and I waiting to ride the Dominator. I think Miguel might be praying.
No wait...we're screaming. But the ride hasn't started yet. We're just practicing.
There we are!

Miguel on the upside-down boat thingie. Ivan and I wouldn't ride it with him cuz we don't like spinning things. So he decided to ride it by himself over and over again.
Crazy, crazy Miguel

Working in Richmond

2009-07-15T21:27:00.003-04:00

I'm working in Richmond this week and staying at the Wyndham hotel while I'm working. It's a beautiful place with tons and tons of delicious food. I'm kind of bored however since I'm here by myself. I've been entertaining myself by playing Club Penguin with Lucero and Miguel. I also go to Coldstone every day and get an ice cream. Even though Elvia, my "second mom", calls me at least 3 times per day to check on me, I still miss speaking Spanish with my brothers and sisters, so yesterday I went to a Mexican restaurant in Short Pump. I got to speak with almost everyone there in Spanish and they were all really surprised that I knew Spanish.

Today I went back to the same restaurant and everyone there was like, "Hola mi amiga!!! Como estas?" We talked more today and they were like, "You know A LOT of Spanish! What part of Mexico are you from?" And today at work, I was speaking Spanish on the phone to Elvia and when I got off the phone, one of the people I'm working with said, "Where did you learn English so well?" I said, "English? You mean, Spanish?" She said, "No, I mean English. You speak English so fluently." That made me laugh. Anyway here's me at the place where I work and at the hotel, which happen to be the same place:

I'm talking on the phone to my sister. She had a lot to say. I listened to all of it. Really. Except for the part when I hung up because this lady asked if she could take my picture. But I called my sister back. I did.

Talking again. This time to my second mom.
Important building to know. This one houses all the food!

Georgia Meets the Chickens

2009-07-05T12:58:00.001-04:00

Georgia Meets the Chickens from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Georgia Roo the dog doesn't quite know how to hunt chickens. She is learning though.

Important Note: No chickens were injured in the making of this video!

Ivan vs. The Pinata

2009-07-04T12:44:00.000-04:00

Ivan vs. The Pinata from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

We went to get a pinata for a birthday party but the pinata was too big to fit in the car, so Ivan had to hold the pinata out of the window to get it back home!

Birthday Video

2009-07-04T12:43:00.000-04:00

Ivan and Lucero's Birthday Party from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Here's the video from Ivan and Lucero's birthday party! The kids broke pinatas, ate cake, and opened presents. Ivan successfully avoided getting his face shoved in the cake!

Happy Birthday Ivan and Lucero!

2009-07-01T16:40:00.004-04:00

Saturday was Ivan and Lucero's birthday party! To prepare, Ivan and I were sent to get a pinata. It was so huge it wouldn't fit in the car so Ivan had to hold it out the window.

It almost flew away a couple of times!

Here's Ivan's cake - a soccer field!Lucero hitting the pinata!
Edith hitting the pinata!
Here are all the kids scrambling for candy after breaking the pinata!
Lucero with her candies!
Edith with two cones filled with candy!

Lucero blowing out her candles on her mermaid cake!
Lighting the candles on Ivan's cake
It's a tradition for the birthday person to take the first bite of the cake and when they take a bite, everyone tries to push their face in it. Here's Lucero and Miguel trying to get Ivan to do it. Somehow Ivan ended up doing it without getting his face pushed in. Lucero wasn't as lucky!
Here's Lucero opening her presents!

Hiking at St. Mary's

2009-07-01T16:06:00.006-04:00

This past weekend, Peter, the Adams', Brian, and I went hiking at a place called St. Mary's near Stuarts Draft. It's an awesome hike...one of my favorites. We had a great time and we definitely want to go back! Here we are at the map at the start of the trip. Peter's showing us where we're going.

Here's me and Zorro. Of course my little fox wanted to come hiking.
Collin, Marryn, and Brian climbing rocks:
The trail is really cool because it goes right up the sides of cliffs sometimes. There are big drop offs and rocks to climb and lots of stuff to make the hike exciting!
Here are Brian and Collin on the trail! Yep, that's the trail
The trail also crosses the river a couple of times. Peter helped all the kids get across so they wouldn't slip!
Here's Brian by the waterfalls!
Collin sliding down the rocks. The water was SOOOOOOO cold!
Marryn sliding down
Father/son picture in the freezing cold water:
Here's me, Brian, and Collin on top of a big rock that happens to be in the middle of the river.
This is a little swimming spot where we jumped in from the rocks around it.
Marryn was the FIRST of the kids to jump off the rocks. She jumped right to Peter, who caught her, and brought her over to the edge. She inspired everyone else to jump in too!
Group shot!
Jeff jumping off the rocks.
Me jumping
Me jumping again. It was so much fun! Cold, but fun.
Jeff got even braver and climbed up that side of the cliff and jumped off.
The kids and I climbed up another cliff to go really high. Here we are about halfway up.
Now in this picture, you can see the rocks that we climbed.
Brian
Crossing the river

Onesty Water Park!

2009-06-21T00:58:00.002-04:00

The new waterpark in Charlottesville just opened today and we went this afternoon to play! It's a great park, with something for everyone to do. There's a big slide, a lazy river, a water playground for little kids, a diving board, and floating things to try to pass from one side to another. The kids had a great time playing! Here's Lucero on one of the floating things that you have to try to climb on.

And the lazy river with a good, fast current!
The big green slide!
The little kid playground with lots to do
The boat slide that goes way faster than you think!

Greenleaf Park

2009-06-20T11:25:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we went to a totally cool park that I didn't even know existed! Greenleaf Park has a sprinkle park with lots of water fountains and things to play in to get wet. It was bien caliente so we went to the parque to cool off en el agua.

Here's me and Edith jumping por el agua!
Yo y Lucero
Yo y Miguel
Yo y mi hermanita Edith
Katie and Esther and Niklas came too!!!! Here's Katie flying Esther toward the agua!
Esther LOVED that!
Here she is, ready to get wet...or maybe to eat cookies...quien sabe?
Katie y Esther jugando en el agua!
Mis hermanitos playing on the giant purple dinosaur

Esther scoping out the parque before playing
Edith dancing en el agua

summer

2009-06-18T23:27:00.003-04:00

aaaahhhhh the summer....relaxing, staying up late, playing all day....

wait. that's no different than the school year.

we've been having a great time en realidad, fixing our carros, playing juegos like Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, and Settlers, jugando Club Penguin, atrapando lightning bugs, life es buena.

today, edith and i cleaned up all of green park. we went there to take a walk and there was trash all over the place, so we went back home for a bolsa to put all the basura in.

i kept thinking today was saturday because today's actually the first day that i didn't have to work. but i'm excited for tomorrow because i know today is NOT actually sabado, and that we have the whole summer of days para jugar! and i get to jugar al futbol with katie and niklas and esther tomorrow! and that makes me really, really, REALLY feliz!

the current state of the U.S.

2009-06-16T22:16:00.003-04:00

hahaha so I was looking at the news today and these two stories got me:

1. In Toledo, Ohio, people are getting $25 parking tickets for parking in their own driveways! It's just because there's a law in the city saying that people can't park on unpaved surfaces and their driveways are gravel, so they got a ticket. And the police didn't even hand the tickets out. They were handed out by the garbage collectors! Be glad you don't live in Toledo.

2. Be glad you don't live in Chino, California either! There, the school division made a slight mistake during the school year and they're being penalized big time. They had 34 half-days during the year where the schools dismissed students FIVE MINUTES earlier than they should have. FIVE MINUTES. So apparently last week was supposed to be the last week of school, but the state said they have to be punished for being dismissed 5 minutes early, so they have to go to school for another 34 DAYS! What the heck???? Why isn't it just 34 x 5 minutes? The state said if they don't do it, the division has to pay $7 million as a fine. Poor kids. POOR TEACHERS.

Recent Attack

2009-06-15T00:20:00.002-04:00

Today I got attacked by a Christmas tree. Seriously. My arms are covered with scrapes and cuts to prove it. I made it out alive, but let me tell you, it was rough.

Who's your family?

2009-06-12T23:33:00.003-04:00

A quote I just read today in a totally awesome book - this quote reminded me of the friendship I have in my sister as well as the family I have in my hermanigos:

"You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn't depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family."

As told to Reynie by Mr. Benedict in the Mysterious Benedict Society.

Big Saturday

2009-06-09T23:12:00.004-04:00

Saturday was a big day! I went to two graduations, a party, and then to a huge celebration of a friend's 15th birthday! First I saw Zach graduate! I've known Zach since he was born. In fact, his parents have known me since I was only 7. They used to live right next door. I can't believe he graduated from high school! Here's a picture of him walking out at the end!

Then I watched Ben graduate! I've known Ben since he was only 1 and he was like part of my family until he was 7. He practically lived with us and for about 4 years, we were inseparable! I absolutely can't believe that he graduated either! I went to his graduation party after the ceremony!

After that, I went to one more graduation, for a friend named Marshall. He's a really great kid, amazing basketball and soccer player! Then a friend of Ivan's had her huge 15th birthday. In the classic Mexican tradition, her family and friends threw a HUGE celebration for her, complete with a limo, suits and dresses like you see at a wedding reception, an enormous cake, and dancing, music, and food! This kind of celebration is called a quinceaños ("15 years") and it's a BIG deal. There were a couple hundred people there. I knew a ton of the families and all the kids there. Here's a picture of me surrounded by some of the kids.

How Much Watermelon Can 4 Kids Eat?

2009-06-03T23:43:00.000-04:00

How Much Watermelon Can 4 Kids Eat? from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

The kids gobbled down an entire watermelon in a matter of about 5 minutes. We loooooooove watermelon!

Zorro Acquires the Ability of Levatation

2009-05-31T23:21:00.001-04:00

Zorro Acquires the Ability of Levatation from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Zorro falls almost to his death after being chased by the evil Zorrote but is saved by landing on a magic bag containing a creepy green plant thing. When he sniffs the creepy plant he is given the power of levatation.

Zorro Discovers the Camera

2009-05-27T22:19:00.000-04:00

Zorro Discovers the Camera from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Zorro realizes that he's being watched, but he can't figure out what is watching him. He finally gets his friend named Collin to solve the problem by suffocating the "watcher" with a kitchen glove.

Zorro Defeats the Evil Pizza Cutter

2009-05-26T18:44:00.000-04:00

Zorro Defeats the Evil Pizza Cutter from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Another Zorro Adventure

Zorro and the Result of a Pollen-Infested Spring

2009-05-26T18:42:00.000-04:00

Zorro and the Result of a Pollen-Infested Spring from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

A Zorro Adventure

In this episode, Zorro has severe allergies and experiences uncontrollable sneezing.

Richmond Tournament

2009-05-25T13:31:00.002-04:00

Miguel had a tournament in Richmond this weekend! His team played SOOOOO hard, beating teams that were way above their level. They play challenge level soccer which is like the intermediate levels. They were playing against advanced teams that travel and play in tournaments all year round. They were in first place after the first day. But then they lost the game right before the finals that knocked them out of the competition. The team they lost to had won the whole tournament last year and was a very good team. Miguel's team fought hard and did their best. It was a great tournament! Here are some pictures from it:

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-24T21:30:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we went to a Memorial Day party at my mom's house! Miguel had just played two soccer games in Richmond at a tournament, but that didn't stop him from playing and playing with all the kids there! Here he is in the kayak, playing with Marshall and Daniel.

This is him clearly concerned after hearing the alligator that DOESN'T live in the lake.
Peter came too, which made me and Miguel really happy!
Kathryn went fishing and caught the smallest fish EVER. I honestly don't know how she did that. Es asombroso. Debe ganar un premio o algo.
Here's another fish that she caught. Un poco mas grande than the other one.
Here's Miguel pescando. He's a pro de verdad.
Here's yo, mi sobrina Payton, y mi hermanigo Miguel!
Y Kathryn's perro Georgia who desperately wants to catch a chicken. She doesn't understand why she's not allowed to.
Payton and I also wanted to catch a pollo, but they were a little suspicious of our intentions.
Georgia almost caught uno. Or so she thinks.

My new haircut

2009-05-18T22:52:00.002-04:00

I got my hair cut tonight and I got highlights in it. I like it a lot, but I wanted it to be green instead. I was told that blond highlights were better than green however, so I went with blond. Maybe another day I'll get green.

Golden Apple Award

2009-05-18T22:50:00.002-04:00

Last Monday I won the Golden Apple Award for my school! I went to the ceremony with Zorro and he went up front with me to receive the award. The announcer even said Zorro's name for everyone to know who he was! The newspaper reporter came over to take a special picture of him and ask details about him. I thought he was going to end up in the newspaper and be really famous, but the next day he wasn't in there. Oh well...he's still famous!

catch up from the past month

2009-05-10T16:25:00.003-04:00

so it's been a really long time since i've updated my blog...life's been crazy! first of all we only have 19 days of school left. i'm getting a new student on monday. he's from mexico and speaks spanish so i'm really excited! i'm going to be teaching 3rd grade next year and i'm going to get my same class again so i'm excited about that too. i went to visit my mom last weekend because i needed all of my pictures of my friends ben and zach who are graduating from monticello high school this year. i'm making a graduation present for them from all the pictures i have! when i left my mom's i got about 5 miles down the road and then i started to hear a buzz. a bee was in my car! it lived in my car for 3 days before disappearing again. last night i had a dream about a bee too. bees are haunting me! ok that's pretty much it right now. happy mother's day to all the moms out there!

Ivan's dominadas parte 2

2009-04-19T15:05:00.001-04:00

dominadas from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Ivan haciendo dominadas en el camino por el bosque

Ivan's dominadas

2009-04-19T15:04:00.001-04:00

Ivan's dominadas from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday and we went to the path behind my house to practice dominadas. Here's a video of Ivan doing 112 or something.

Playing at the Adams' - Summer 2008

2009-04-19T15:02:00.000-04:00

Playing at the Adams' - Summer 2008 from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

hanging out with my hermanigos in the summer of 2008

Georgia at Petsmart

2009-04-14T23:59:00.001-04:00

Georgia at Petsmart from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Georgia Roo's first trip to Petsmart was an exciting day for her! She went shopping for food, accessories, footwear, toys, a bed, and even entertained guests along the way!

Beautiful...and Not-So-Beautiful... Easter Pics

2009-04-11T20:32:00.005-04:00

My hermanigas, Lucero and Edith were all dressed up for Easter today, so we did an Easter photo shoot! Along the way, Lucero grabbed my camera and decided to do a photo shoot of me. Somehow the pictures of me didn't turn out nearly as beautiful as theirs! I'm not sure why.

Here are Edith and Lucero's Easter pictures. They are 100x more beautiful than me!

Lucero told me to wear this for a picture. Here's me looking very confused, trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with it.

I have a better idea. Much better.

Lucero knows that I'm infinitely scared of the llorona and she was pretending to be the llorona.
At least the flowers help a little...
I was trying to be nice and pretty for pictures and then I just couldn't take it anymore. I just had to break the stick.
Unfortunately I broke the stick right next to a bunch of thorns, one of which poked me.

Do you see it? That's the thorn that poked me.

Here's me and another stick, trying to be calm.
Tranquility can only last but so long.

I must say, Lucero did a great job taking pictures...considering she didn't have much to work with!

All of my hermanigos!

2009-04-10T14:10:00.003-04:00

Here are all of my hermanigos at the Short Pump mall! We went to Cold Stone to eat the most deliciousest ice cream in the world and we managed to get a picture of everyone all in one spot!

Here's Lucero!

My second mom! She calls me her scaredy-cat kid because I'm scared of vampires and the llorona.

Marryn!Collin!Ivan and Miguel!Ivan!Edith!Collin!Miguel!

Richmond Zoo

2009-04-10T13:56:00.003-04:00

It was such a beautiful day yesterday and all my hermanigos and I went to the zoo in Richmond for the day! We loved feeding all the animals and getting to touch zebras, giraffes, and lots more!

These bears were fighting!
Here's Miguel touching a zebra!

Edith and Ivan feeding the baby zebra!
The beautiful tigers were really active because the bears were fighting...I guess the tigers thought they could get a bear dinner or something.

Ivan, Collin, and Edith feeding the giraffes.
A cool looking lemur!

Taking a Family Picture

2009-04-07T23:05:00.001-04:00

Attempting a Family Picture from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Trying to take a family picture with the horses and dogs...

soccer. 100% skill. april 4, 2009

2009-04-07T16:23:00.001-04:00

soccer. 100% skill. april 4, 2009 from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Ivan, Mario, Brian, and Marshall winning their soccer game 5-0.

Teaching Roo to Eat a Monkey

2009-04-07T16:22:00.000-04:00

Teaching Roo to Eat a Monkey from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

Kathryn hates monkeys. HATES monkeys. She is currently working on teaching her delightful dog, Roo, to eat monkeys. Along the way, we find out that she has something against creepy purple pigs too...

Leland and the Olives

2009-04-07T16:20:00.000-04:00

Leland and the Olives from Beth Tice on Vimeo.

My sisters Kathryn and Cameron, Cameron's son Leland, my mom, and I all went to eat at Ragazzi's. Leland entertained us all with funny 15-month-old olive stunts.

Hide-and-Seek Warriors

2009-04-05T10:14:00.004-04:00

We've been enjoying the 48 hours of a break from the rain. We made up this new version of hide and seek that involved undetectable hiding spaces, cups of water, and painted faces.

catch up from the past week

2009-04-01T22:33:00.003-04:00

whoa what happened to the time? how has it been a week since my last post? i don't even know what we've done in the past week... rained out soccer games on Saturday. Ivan's varsity soccer team won 4-2 on Monday. Miguel can't play soccer for another 3 weeks because of his broken collarbone. We went to the doctor and his doctor is American but can speak Spanish and is HILARIOUS! He had Miguel's mom and I rolling over in laughter. um what else...I got 100 on my Spanish test... I am learning how to use Final Cut Pro to do video editing now. It's sort of melting my face off right now because it's much more complicated than iMovie and Sony Vega, which are the two programs I usually use. But it's AWESOME! I have my first baseball game of the season tomorrow night, assuming it doesn't get rained out. Blasted rain. That's all it does now is rain. I hope all those "the-drought-is-killing-us-all" people are happy. They did their little rain dance and now we're getting it. And all my kids did REALLY well on their reading assessments this quarter. I miss Chaos the dog. And Calabaza the cat. Oh my mom got her bees. all 60,000 of them. insanity. that's what i say. she's getting chickens at the end of may. 6 chickens. and then a donkey. i like donkeys but I don't really know about chickens. My grandpa is coming up here tomorrow. He's moving to an apartment in Baltimore and he has to go check it out this weekend. Hopefully I can get up there next week cuz it's spring break and visit him! maybe we'll go to the zoo. too bad there's no mooses there. i wonder if there are zorros.

Forget spring...this is Bolt season!

2009-03-25T20:32:00.003-04:00

I just spent the afternoon with my good friend Marryn! This afternoon I realized it's not spring around here...it's BOLT season. Marryn and I bought the new Disney movie Bolt for $3.14! Then we went home and watched it and her dog Max wants to be Bolt now. He told us. My sister Kathryn said that she was going to see Bolt tonight at the movie theater and she's gonna love it! Then I showed Ivan the Bolt DVD that I bought and he shouted out, "I LOVE THAT MOVIE! IT'S SO FUNNY!" And all the kids are talking about Bolt at school... Spring really only lasted 4 days here and now it's Bolt season. I told Kathryn that her dog Georgia looks like Bolt and she said she's gonna paint a lightning bolt on Georgia's fur with a sharpie marker. I can't wait to see it!!!