Brainwashing at its Finest

As I was trying to get Grady and myself out the door to go to Gran's house this morning, I heard Grady singing a song in the garage. I swore I heard him "sawing varsity's horns off". Indeed I did. It was one of my proudest moments as a father.

An Aggie Thanksgiving

Gig 'Em Aggies!  This year we drove down to College Station to spend Thanksgiving Day with Todd's family and to do a little brainwashing.  When we pulled into town, we drove to a few of our favorite places, including the famous trailor park where Todd and I used to live.  We told stories, and pointed out some totally Aggie landmarks along the way.  After setting up camp, we walked over to Kyle Field for Yell Practice. The kids weren't immediately impressed, but as the night wore on, and they heard stories from the Yell Leaders, and participated in the traditions, of course-they were hooked. 

Thursday morning the grandkids ran amuck around West Campus.  Becky coordinated the meal; Todd fried the turkeys (after many trips to the grocery store for additional oil).  I tried (and liked!) a Bloody Mary, while I made my plan for Black Friday shopping.  As game time rolled around, we took Madison and Grady on a walk around campus, hitting our favorite spots and marveling at how much the campus had changed.  Tanner scored a ticket to The Game with his Aunt Michelle, so he missed that walk down memory lane.  I think he was ok with it though.  :)  After we got back to camp, we huddled around the TV listening to the cheers from Kyle Field as they delayed through to the satellite feed.  The Aggies ran out of time, but it was a good run. 

Friday I was up at 5 a.m. shopping, and Todd was supposed to have the kids ready when I returned around 8 a.m.  He almost made it, if he had been out of bed to start the process.  Apparently, all the beer in College Station had called his name Thursday after the game.  Despite that, we were on the road by 8:30 to head to my mom's house.

When we pulled up, my dad was busy frying more turkeys, with Patti, Tony, and Mom as his cheer squad.  Madison practically leapt out of the car to go see Skeeter (the recently acquired horse, which I will post pictures of, and blog about soon), and the boys ran to the backyard to see the dogs.  Busy five minutes.  As usual, it was a beautiful table, with a beautiful meal.  The kids slurped up their "Sparkling Wine," and we slurped up some sparkling wine of our own.  I think it was the first holiday meal in 8ish years that we weren't chasing a baby or small child for whatever reason.  We even had time to list our thankfuls. 

After dinner, we decorated the tree-as is Miller Tradition.

We also watched the first Christmas movie of the season, Home Alone, which was a big hit with the kids.  They loved it when the "bad guys" got their faces smashed with something painful.  Should I be worried?  After all the festivities, we crashed in our own beds and actually slept late Saturday morning.  We spent the rest of the weekend decorating the house (inside and OUT) for Christmas, and are now in full Holiday Spirit around here.

Tomorrow it's back to work and school, but just 3 short weeks until we break again to retreat into our Holiday Lives.

Bad Marley!!!

the first feast of the season...

Todd has taken up "Mommy Duties" this fall, and has been doing a fantastic job.  Friday, he even went up to the school for the kids' Thanksgiving Feasts, and I'm pretty sure he had a ball while he was there.  :)  He texted multiple times letting me know what I was missing.

Tanner was assigned to bring a chocolate pie, which I quickly commissioned out to Todd's mom.  The first grade teachers apparently had great confidence in my abilities, but the thrid grade teachers knew my limitations.  For Madison, I was assigned lunchmeat roll-ups.  No problem, and Madison even helped me make them.  Double bonus.

Elementary teachers are little angels to do these fun days for the kids.  They had a blast celebrating with their friends, and getting a head start on the holiday partying.  :)

Celebrations

Big Week!

Grady finished out his soccer season, and earned his FIRST TROPHY!

Well, EARNED might be a big word, but he did finish out his soccer season.  It took the entire fall, but he did manage to stay on the field for MOST of the games, and he even kicked the ball 2-3 times in there somewhere.  :)  He was happy though.  He even wanted to sleep with his trophy.

In other boy news, Tanner was chosen as the Extraordinary Eagle for his class this six weeks.

This is so huge for us.  Tanner is having a superfantastic first grade year.  He LOVES his teacher (which really isn't that shocking, he still hugs his kindergarten teacher almost everyday), but he also seems to have internalized classroom expectations.  He hasn't pulled his card ALL YEAR.  Last year, we were hopeful if we made it through THE WEEK.  I'm not saying we have it all down, because I'm not going to jinx myself like that. But, yay Tanner!  :)

Guest Post-from Madison

Today me and daddy were playing tic-tac-toe at Grady`s soccer game and he said "I bet I can beat you at every game of tic-tac-toe". But he didn`t. I guess he isn`t smarter then a 3rd grader. First, we had a stalemate. Second, I won but daddy won 2 more times then we had another stalemate. Then we started playing hangman with mommy. First, daddy went. His word was three letters. Me and mommy tried our best but just couldn`t guess it. It was car. Next it was my turn. It was 4 letters. It took them a while but they finally they guessed it. It was four. Then daddy went again. We guessed it. It was be. Next it was my turn again. It was 6 letters. Daddy guessed it when he only had a smile and an eye left. It was Tanner. Next it was my turn to go again. It was 7 letters. Mommy guessed it right off the bat. It was Madison. Then I had to leave to go to my girl scouts thing called meals on wheels.  It was fun day.

Tuesday Toddism

"Mom said no more candy!  Put that back or I'm going to get that candy out of your stomach!"


mmmk...let me know how that works out for you.

Chrissy is a genius cat.

She pees in the shower.  True story.  Enough said.

Ever Googled yourself?

Kinda weird.

My students are all about Google.  They think it's the answer to everything, including (I guess) the answer to who they are.  They Google themselves constantly, which sounds strange but really isn't.

I guess if they Google me, there are cats out of bags as far as blogs go.

Tuesday Toddism

"I'm gonna kill the person who made me do this."

--on taking Madison and Tanner to the Reading Rally at school tonight.  I don't think it was as superfun as he thought it might be.

this is just bragging, but I can't help it

I'm not sure where the line is on bragging and just informing the world of my children's greatness, but I think this blog is a fair medium for actual bragging-should it be necessary.  So, here goes.

Last week, Madison wrote a song for her class for Red Ribbon Week, inspired by "It rocks to be drug free."  When she read it to her class, her teacher was so impressed she asked Madison to read it for the school during announcements.  She did, and then the counselor asked her to sing it for the school at their Monday Sunrise Assembly.  Madison was really nervous, but we practiced over the weekend, and assured her it was a great song.  She got up there this morning, and albeit tentatively, sang her song for the WHOLE SCHOOL (that's Pre-k-4th grade!!).  That took some guts.  Todd and I were sure to be there for the performace, snapping pictures and videoing the whole time, perpetuating the nerdiness of the Scroggins Clan.

I was so proud of her!  Proud of her song, her guts, and her performance.  :)  Here is the song she wrote:

Proud to Be Drug Free

Playing sports all day long

Even as I write this song.

I'm proud to be drug free

Because I like being me.

Reading books to pass the time,

Because my life is mine.

I'm proud to be drug free

Because I like being me.

Sitting down to write this song,

maybe even all day long.

I'm proud to be drug free,

Because I'm ME!!

Happy Halloween!

Last night, we went out on the town with two Darth Vaders and one Hermione Granger.  We hit Jason and Jenn's house to hook up with a Ninja, Anakin Skywalker, and Princess Leia-and tons of others.  This makes the sixth(?) year we've tricked and treated with them, so I think we can call it a tradition.  :)  We changed up our routine this year, and stuck with just their neighborhood.  We thought since Halloween hit on a Saturday, we could relax with an orange plastic cup filled with our own treat. 

There were a few tense moments waiting for dark, so the trick or treating could begin.  Because our morning was filled with soccer and baseball, Grady didn't get a nap, and we had to continually talk him off the ledge-promising that he WOULD get candy.  I think the concept of going from house to house with people just GIVING YOU CANDY was just too much for him.  When we finally began the walk, he literally bolted from house to house. 

Our adventure brought us back to Jason and Jenn's for more candy extravaganza-only this time to pass it out.  It was an intricately involved process to ensure everyone took turns passing out the candy AND the candy was rationed appropriately for all the incoming trick-or-treaters.  In fact, it was so intricate that at one point, I lost Grady when he wandered next door to chat with the neighbors about the footballs they were giving out.  Yes, I lost one of my kids.  I am unfit.  In the time I lost him, and the neighbors found him, the police (monitoring the street) had been contacted about the lost little boy.  I freaked only for a few minutes after we found him again, but for those few minutes I did lose my mind-thinking that OF COURSE he was kidnapped on Halloween.  What a perfect time for a crazy person to steal a precious bundle.  At that point, Halloween did seem very scary, and I made mental notes for future Halloweens...It took a while, but I did finally recover, and was able to enjoy the time spent with friends-very Happy to Be Here. 

God Bless us Every One-wait, that's another Holiday, but it fits anyway. :)

Outta Sight!

Todd and I went to a costume party Friday night.  I think I've seen Todd in costume twice in all my years of knowing him, once as a pimp, and now as an Outta Sight Dude.  It was fantastic.  Especially when we walked out the door, and the kids asked what we were.  We tried to explain that we were Grandmom and Grandad when they were our age-ish.  They didn't believe us, but they did think we looked groovy.

The party originated with a 70s theme, but as we searched the internets, we found that 60s was way easier to find, dude.  So, the results were a combination of the two decades.  I actually had plenty of "hippie" in my own closet, but Todd would not have it.  If he had to be "in costume," then I dern well better walk on the wild side with him.  So, I was on the search for GoGo Boots (the best shoes ever invented). On a sidenote, if you do happen across some REAL bellbottoms, fringe, or flowered shirts, buy them up.  I think all the thrift shops have been picked over in the last 40+years.

For fun, I edited these two pics on http://www.picnik.com/.  There is a "60s effect," and I just couldn't resist.  I think it works for us, especially with the fringe and white boots.It was a superfun party, and I think everyone had a fantastic time.  I was definitely in the mood to let my hair down (or put it up in this case), and of the 89 (!!) pictures someone took that night, everyone is smiling ear to ear.  Either we know how to party down, or the 60's gave us a great reason.

We tore ourselves away from the fun about 1 in the morning,  but promised a new tradition:  a Halloween Decade Party.  Next year, the Roaring 20's.  We're making our own history book!

Peace.