I can see it now...

Mom's letter to teacher next day

Dear Mrs. Jones,

I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Smith

So I can see having to explain something equally embarrassing....I tend to be too honest with Wes and it has come to bite me in the butt in the past and I'm sure it will in the future too. Oh well....at least now I know for sure that I am not the only one....hehe. I hope that you enjoy the humor and it makes you chuckle!!

Cooking with the Casper's

Wes is sporting Klara's Statue of Liberty hat

The Yummy Valentine's Muffins....I was tapping into my

inner Rachel Ray!!

Klara was documenting that I do cook for the fam.

Dr. Lewis operating on the poor Jalapeno

Lewis loves the bacon wrapped jalapeno's at the Hollow Moon
restaurant.

Our family is trying to save money, by cooking more and eating out less. We have been browsing the internet finding recipes for some of our favorite goodies at our favorite restaurants. Thank goodness that people out there feel compelled to share "secret" recipes for the whole world to enjoy.

I love to cook, but I hate the clean-up. I have had fun making yummy treats and stuff that you get charged an arm and a leg for when you go out to eat. The only downfall to all this cooking and saving money is....I have found that I need to remodel my kitchen and make it bigger and better organized!! Does that still make this a money saving adventure??LOL

I need extra space just for my cookbook obsession alone!! At some point I hope to get them organized and make our own Casper Family Cookbook!!

My kids have too much fun when I drag out the camera.... they begin to think that they are in some kind of photo shoot. If they only knew that I save the goofy ones for future blackmail pics....muhwahahaha!!

I love that we can sit around and tap into our inner dorks, and at our house we do this quite often. I always wish that I didn't have to actually drag out the camera, or video camera to record these moments....I wish that there was a better way to get those fun and precious moments. I tend to miss out on many great opportunities to catch those magical moments on film....so until they invent a way to make you memories be downloaded directly from your brain....(and I'm sure that there is someone out there working on it) I'll keep trying to remember to run and get the camera!! Say Cheese :)

P.S. I didn't get flowers, Klara made dinner which was yummy, and I finally suggested that we go to the movies...so once again the hubs forgets....even watching "The Breakup" didn't affect his thinking....I have even had the arguement about flowers with him. Maybe next year....Never give up!!

Valentine's day = Anniversary

Okay...I know that the tackiest day for me to get married was Valentine's day, but you have to understand the inner workings of my husband Lewis. I knew from day one that this guy would never remember dates the way that I would like him to.

I come from a family who celebrates everything...I mean a tooth coming out is almost a party....we have to call all the grandparents to tell them the news. Okay, so back to Valentine's day.

You'd think that this huge lovey dovey holiday would invoke at least flowers and a dinner date...right??? Not Lewis, he'd forget his own birthday if I'd let him. So having high hopes once again (you'd think I'd learn) I am hoping that he will at least remember to pick up a card and say happy anniversary....I'll let you know how it goes:)

The Hardest Part....

Right now Klara is gone for a week. Lucky girl went to Washington D.C. and New York City. I am so happy that she is able to experience this while she is here....and speaking of here, I really miss having her around.

This is like a small version of what it will be like in June. She already has her date to leave. I grow to love these guys so much and they become part of the family. It is so hard to think about not having them here. She has grown very dear to my heart for her own special reasons, and just like Niklas, Nadya, and Hezha, I have so many memories about their time with our family.

Klara is such a sweetheart and anyone who has had the opportunity to meet her just think that she is a doll....granted a harder to understand at times doll...heehee. I hope that in a way she will leave here with a love for us like we have for her.

I hope that she has a blast on her trip, but she is getting a BIG hug from me when she gets off that plane on tuesday!!!

Grandma Barbara

I LOVE my grandma. I have all my life. She is more like my mother and the one that I share all my moments with. When I want to talk to someone I call her, and laugh with her or cry on her shoulder.

She has taught me so much about life and happiness, crafts and cooking. I want to share my most recent moments with my grandma with you. This past week we have been working on a blanket for Ryann's move into her own room.

Now why this is important is because every time in the past....grandma has always done all the work for me. This time, I did the sewing and tying, and grandma just helped with making the binding, but she made sure that I cut it out. I am very pleased that I didn't make a complete mess of the whole thing.

I hope that all these things that she has taught me stay with me forever!!

I added the picture of the amaryllis, every year she gets these to bloom. This one was so beautiful on the day that I was at her house working on the blanket. Ryann was watching all the chaos we were causing. It was an awesome day at Grandma's!!

What is up with the French?

So I am an area rep. for the organization that I get foreign exchange students from. I represent other students, and right now I have two boys in Price. I hope that this next year I can rep. kids in our area, so that I am closer and can keep a better eye on the kids.

My student from France is being crazy down in Price. He has had way too much freedom from supervision, which was corrected quickly by a family move. I have spent the past two days on the phone trying to get things fixed. I also hate the fact that the weather around here is crappy, and I can't just jump in the car and be there in person to get things under control.

My French student is quite the smooth talker...I cannot say whether this is a cultural thing or what, but this boy can talk his way out of alot. Hopefully he will straighten up his act, because I really hate to see him go home, because of poor choices.

Generally these kids are really great kids, but as with anything else a few stinkers get through the cracks. If anything I hope that my overbearing personality scared him into being a good kid the rest of his stay here. Unlike popular opinion about me, I actually don't like to be a meany, but when kids force my hand I can dish out some severe consequences to bad behavior. I hate to see good kids getting out of hand, because popular belief is to try and be nice and sugar coat everything in life as to not cause issues to develop later in life.

If everyone hasn't noticed kids now days are getting worse, not better. I totally believe that it is a lack of respect for adults, people in any type of authority position, etc. So this leads me to believe that being passive all the time is getting kids nowhere. Rules, boundries, consequences, and following through with what a parent says, I have found that these things have worked better for me and my kids, better than time out and giving my kids too many choices.

Anyway, I got a little lost there, sorry. I hope that I got through and that things will settle down. Next week when I call to check on everyone, I am hopeful that I will hear that things are going well.

I am thankful that Klara is doing really well and that she has been able to adjust to our crazy family!!