It's almost here!

Vacation that is! Tomorrow is the last day, FINALLY. Today we went on a field trip and OMG note to self, think twice before scheduling a field trip the day before a vacation/party day and also reconsider taking a "few" gems on the field trip next time. I swear field trip days are more exhausting than any normal week at school.

I've given the office staff their gifts yesterday. I gave my custodian his scratch-off lottery tickets tonight so I wouldn't forget. I'm done wrapping the student gifts. For a few friends at school, I've made Buckeyes for a small little gift. What you don't know what buckeyes are? If you do...you're Ohio State fans, I'll post the recipe below. In the mean time, here is a sneak peek. Now we believe that a real buckeye candy still has the hole in the top! ;) I have all my gifts boxed, and they are ready for the giftwrap. I just need to get a huge burst of energy tomorrow night so I can get wrapped, get the laundry done, and get all packed before we leave for Wisconsin on Saturday morning.

This is our first year that we've not spent Christmas with our families. Don, the boys, the dogs and I are headed to a chalet cabin in Northern Wisconsin. We were hoping for a bunch of snow but we've heard there isn't any. Bummer, the kids were really looking forward to snowmobiling.

Well I think this will be my last update until after Christmas. I really hope that you have a fabulous holiday and that Santa brings you everything you've wished for.

Have a Merry Christmas!


Buckey Candy Recipe

CANDY:

1 stick softened butter
1 3/4 c. (1 18 oz. jar) creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
About 1 lb. confectioners' sugar

CHOCOLATE COATING:

1 (12 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening

Cream butter, peanut butter, and vanilla together, adding confectioners' sugar until proper consistency is reached. Roll candy into 1-inch balls and place on wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Melt chips and shortening together in top of double boiler. Keep chocolate mixture in double boiler over low heat while you dip each candy. Using a toothpick, dip each ball, covering about 3/4 of candy. Place candy on sheet to cool.

Who wudda thunk

that snowflakes are so darn addicting. It's a creative thing I just know it.
Snowflakes are ultra creative outlets.

I've found this terrific site called make-a-snowflake

I've made about 20, no maybe 30. I've even gotten Don addicted.

Here are just two samples of what you can make.

Yea!!! The fun has been moved to another site!

You've got to check this out for a smile.
It will help eleviate a bit of stress in
your busy hectic schedule.

This is the link..check it out!

Another day closer to break!

Only 7 more days until that elusive winter break!
I can't wait!

Got a bit more Christmas shopping done tonight.
Not done but I can see that there could be an end in sight.

So far this week I've accomplished a couple important things:

Finished my class, yesterday.
Made it through the writing presentation, today.

Still to come:
Choir concert tomorrow
Volleyball tourney Saturday/Sunday
Volleyball luncheon Saturday
Wrap gifts, finish shopping, laundry, etc, etc, etc. Sometime between now and 12/22.

That link for the song that makes me smile was taken down. I think too many hits and it might have crashed the server. Too bad it was seriously a cute thing.

Thanks for reading!

For a little enjoyment and your viewing pleasure!

You've got to check this out!

This is the funniest thing!


You'll smile if not laugh.

Have a great night =)

We think we're getting an acceptance letter!

Some of you know that I'm almost finished with my master's degree in reading from Northern Illinois University. Well my son is a senior and we've been going through the college application process. Let me mention that he put this off until the last minute too! I think it's a boy thing. Well because I know a little about maneuvering around the NIU website, I found a link to check on freshman application status. We've been watching because we had to have the application in around Halloween. Every other time its said application incomplete. We figured they were making the determination, entering things into the computer, waiting to see if a better ACT score came through, things like that.


Well today when I was checking on information for my class, I decided to hop over to that page and check the status again. Well today it said ADMITTED Incomplete. Which after looking it up means you've been admitted, but your paper work is incomplete. It also probably means they don't have final transcripts and of course $$,$$$!!!

So although Doug is not one to show much emotion, you can tell he's just a tad bit excited. He HAD to retake the ACT and had to score at least 3 points higher. He did and now it looks like it's paid off. He's waiting to see if he gets accepted into Eastern Illinois too before he makes his decision, but for now, he'll be stalking the mail lady every day.

Now I can be just a little relieved and whisper...
go huskies!

Two weeks and counting!

I've got 2 weeks and counting before we leave on vacation. We are going to a chalet (cabin) we've rented for Christmas. I've also got 2 more weeks of school before our break. Most would think I'm like ARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH but believe it or not, I'm relatively calm. I do have lesson plans written for 2 weeks. I should be productive and write for the week we get back too. I have not shopped at all. I don't even have the lists sent to relatives. Tonight we have our small group for church, tomorrow the boys have a volleyball tourney tomorrow...luckily and finally at the same location!

Today I've cleaned a bit, swept and mopped my living room floor and kitchen floor. The kids helped with the dishes and the bathroom. I also worked on a scrapbook page. This is a new kit called Carol's Calm by Cindy Simon available here at NDISB.

So here's my newest page. It is a photo from my spa trip at Miraval. Miraval is a spa where celebs hang out! I'll let you in on a little secret......I won this trip when I was on Oprah. Maybe I'll elaborate more in another post.

Christmas Questions

I've been tagged by Angelina. Thanks Ange :)~

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? House none. Large tree-colored, but this year is a small tree, I want it white.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No

5. When do you put up your decorations? When ever we get around to it.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Cheese ball

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I remember always drinking 10 cups of water on Christmas eve because then I was guaranteed to have to get up and to go to the bathroom and be able to see if Santa had been there yet.

8. When and how did you learn that Santa isn't real? Hmmmmmmmm I'm a firm believer that there is a Santa, in someway shape or form.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. Just one.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lights first, then ornaments in random places. It is a lot of different ornaments, then the little heart ornaments get to fill up all the tiny spots.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it while it's falling and there is that peaceful "snowy silence" but could live without it.

12. Can you ice skate? Nope.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I remember the Barbie town house, a Care Bear most of all.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Seeing the excitement in my kids eyes.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I love a lot of the cookies my mom makes, Anise drops, homemade carmel, buckeyes, Lebkukhian(sp) a German cookie, Pizzelles.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? When our kids were little we started a contest with my parents. It is called the decorated car contest. We start at Thanksgiving and go until Christmas. We count decorated cars, those that have bows, wreaths, Christmas lights etc. The winner gets a little trophy for the year.

When we were young, we used to draw names and you would have to keep it a secret who you got. Your job was to do nice things for that person without them finding out. As you did nice things, you would put a piece of straw into the manger. The goal was to fill the manger with straw before the birth of Jesus.

17. What tops your tree? A old fashioned looking santa

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving gifts? Not sure, depends upon the year and to whom

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Sleigh ride and Chestnuts roasting by an open fire. They must be the Johnny Mathis versions. Although Rob Thomas and BB Wyans have a really great duo too.

20. Candy Canes on the tree? No

That's it for me! I'm tagging Ursula, Christine Smith, Mary Canavan

SNOW DAY!!

It rained, it sleeted, it thundered and there was lightening, and it snowed. It is that very heavy snow and I had to shovel as much as I could because the guys left for the airport at 6:30 this morning. Well if you've heard the news, they said bad! It was bad. It is bad! So I didn't get all of the drive way shoveled.

My family is just landing in Philadelphia. The first flight was 9:35 am and they are finally arriving at 9:46 pm central time.

Anyway, here is a page I worked on tonight. Al elements are from Krafty Girl from Christine Smith available from the Digichick.

A new layout

I've got some layouts I've got to get done in the next few days and with all my guys leaving Friday morning for Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game I think I'll have a bit of time alone to work on some.

Here is one I've created with some new things coming out by Christine Smith.



Credits: Paper and elements from Christine Smith's Basically Krafty, Krafty Boy, Krafty Elements, Rick Rack, Painters Dozen all available at The Digichick Template, Blog gift from Christine Smith. J Sprague corner rounder brush, blog gift, and font is Pea Tracy

Great opportunity to get stuff!

Cindy Simon is having a terrific sale over at Natural Design in Scrapbooking

If you need to shop, check out this sale and earn chances to win a $10 gift certificate.



Here is my newest page using Cindy's Frameworks Classic which is available at NDISB.


Credits: Gold Frame from Framworks Classic by Cindy Simon available at NDISB
Paper from A Beautiful Mess by Lisa Whitney available at ScrapArtist

Big Ole Toots!!!

I found out last night that I was chosen onto two new Digital Creative teams!

First I applied to the call for Christine Smith's creative team and I made it! I'm so excited. I have so much of her stuff and it works terrifically with so many of my photos. I've been a fan for so long! Christine's products at The Digichick

Also, I was invited to join Tracy Rivera's creative team. What an honor to be invited without even applying! Tracy Rivera's products at SBB

I would have to say that changing from paper, scissor, and glue scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking has provided me with a cleaner workspace, it has taught me loads about Photoshop Elements, and has provided me with more creative opportunities than I had before.

Here are a couple of new layouts using Christine Smith's products.


All products from Christine Smith's Kit Completely Krafty and A Bit Boho element extra kits available at The Digichick.


All products from Christine Smith's Freedom of Expression kit available at The Digichick.

Adios and Peace out!

a few more pictures

Moldy Oldie Vegas pics

So long overdue, yes I know! I know but beter late than never right?
This was my first time ever in Vegas. We took the boys with us. Doug said I can't wait to come back here when I'm 21. I think it was a bit boring for the boys, but they were great sports!

So here is a sampling of the hundreds of pictures I took.

I'm a horrible blogger

I'm never in the mood to update my blog. I'm even convinced that no one comes to visit so this post will tell me if the blog stays or goes. No comments then it goes, I'll know that no one visits.

Anyway today I've been doing a few scrapbook pages instead of homework.
The paper and elements are from a kit called Blessing available at ScrapArtist.
Don's page was created with a template from Christine Smith.
Doug's page was a scraplift of a digi scrapper, Susan Toon

What do you think?

Week in Review

This was a crazy week. Monday I was scurrying around making sure all the information I needed for my presentatin on Tuesday's class was done.

Tuesday work and class and my presentation went fine, thankfully.

Wednesday I woke up with a splitting headache and sore throat. It was a full blown sinus infection. It was only a half day for the students so I called in sick. I was wondering if the stress of my presentation played a part in me getting sick the night it was finished.

Thursday I went back to work feeling only half as cruddy as the day before, but the kids were fairly sympathetic and were behaved.

Friday, such an exciting night Don and I did nothing and then Brian came home and got in a heap of trouble. Needless to say, he's grounded and who knows for how long.

Saturday means homework. I actually submitted it about 5 minutes late. I should have done it on Wednesday when I was home, or Friday night when we didn't have any plans, but I just didn't. I did laundry all day.

Sunday..today.. we have my nephew's birthday party. My excitement level is a bit lacking these days. I need to do more laundry, and have already done some, but gosh it never stops piling up.

I have tried to use a bit of my creativity this week. I worked on two scrapbook pages. Here they are.





Off to get ready for the party. I still have to wrap the gift and shower.

A little redecorating

I added a new header. Not sure if I like it...there is a lot of blue and white going on. I think I'll leave it for a bit then create a fallish looking one.

Any suggestions?

Fun weekend, finally pictures

Over the weekend, we had family in from out of town.
Don's mom and step dad were here from Mississippi.
Also my aunt and two cousins were here from Ohio.

Thank goodness that no one was staying with us
because our house is so teeny, tiny.

On Saturday I drove my cousins to the Scarecrow
Festival in St. Charles, Illinois. We walked
a lot and stopped into a few of the antique
stores that are there too.

I took a few pictures of some of the better
scarecrows.

After we left, we were almost hit by some idiot
who turned on a red light. Then we are coming
up to the next red light with the idiot driving
beside us and BAM! He ran another red light and
hit a car that was in the intersection. He
didn't even slow down. Thankfully no one was
seriously injured, but what an idiot!

Ok, here are my pictures.

Down to the final 4

We've narrowed the senior picture choice down to 4. The final 4! It was not easy. We've looked, sorted, laid them all out and started narrowing them down and picking them off and although the formal one is in the yearbook, it is not necessarily my favorite. Don thinks we need a "formal" one.

I'm asking for all of your opinions one final time. Note, that the one that is black and white can easily be converted into color, which is what we'll probably do if we go with that pose.

Please leave me a comment with your most favorite and then your second choice.

Top left is #1, top right is #2
bottom left is #3, and bottom right is #4.

Thanks so much! I'll let you know what we finally decide upon when we go and purchase on Thursday night.

Was it the storm or is it a full moon???

Last night we had some awful, horrible storms.
We had storms for at least 6 hours last night.
Luckily we didn't have much damage, but what
we didn't know is that our crawl space holds water.
It is going down, but Don needs to call someone
to take care of that. Nothing of ours was lost
because of the water, thankfully.

My mom had about 3-4 inches of water in her basement.
She lost power around 10:30 last night and they are
saying that it won't be back on until probably
Thursday night. What is that about?? She has her
sump pump hooked up to the neighbor's generator because
we are due for some more major intense storms again
tonight. You know when you watch the radar and the intensity
is marked by colors? Starts at green goes up to yellow, orange,
red, pink then purple. Well the radar clearly showed Purple
over my area.

Now if you think that's weird enough, let me tell you the
rest of my crazy day story. Next crazy thing is that
my inlaws are coming tomorrow. They have stayed with us in
the past, but our house is too small now and they'll have to
stay elsewhere. We don't even have the slightest clue where yet.
They haven't told us.

My aunt and cousin arrive at my mom's house on Thursday. Let's
hope that there is electricity by then.

Finally, I talk to Don after school between work and going to
class and he said did you hear the news? I wasn't going to call
you unless it was serious. Ears perked???? Mine sure were.
He tells me they found a pipe bomb at the highschool where the boys
go and that the school was on lockdown. The police had to detinate
it twice because the first one didn't help it to explode.
This bomb was within 250 yards of my mom's yard. Probably 300-400
yards from the school building and about 2 blocks from my house.
Bomb sniffing dogs were in the building. The driveways were
all blocked by police cars. There were a lot of police cars and
paramedics in the area. Now this is serious. Not a joke and
the only thing you get from the school is that a "suspicious package"
was found and it turned out to be nothing.

Well the scary thing is was that the first two of my mom's neighbors
went to the police and they said pipe bomb. The third person got the
"suspicious package" answer. But if it was nothing, then why were
there 2 explosions????? Hmmmmmmmmm???? Why on lock down???? Why
so many police???? AND WHY ARE THEY HIDING IT?????????

I'm not believing their story. What if someone had intentions of bringing
it into the school and they chickened out? What the hell would they have
done??? Don called the school and the deans weren't talking. The
principal called and left a message after Don called, but of course
the boys deleted the message before we heard it.

You know it is one thing to find it, deal with it, and admit it but when
they do not have the odasity to fess up to the truth it really
irks me because there are well over 3000 people in that school and
the power was out in the neighborhood adjecent to it.

My next idea is to file for a freedom of information act
about the incident. I can't wait for things to get
back to normal. Oh wait...this is my life,

THIS IS NORMAL!!!!!!!

Senior Pictures

This is also another long overdue post.

Doug had his senior pictures taken in early
August and it took forever for us to get them.
Yes, their mistake because we told them to
change our address in their system and they
didn't. You may think these are good, and a
few are, but most I didn't even bother to scan.

We had retakes done last Monday and we're still
waiting for those to arrive. We've got to make
a choice for the yearbook and we are certainly hoping
that the retakes are so much better, and arrive before 10/5.

Anyway, leave a comment and let us know which you like the
best.

Long overdue update and I've been tagged

I've just got to say thanks Ange! Yeah right :)~

She tagged me to post 5 weird things about me or
my pets
Ok here goes...

1. I have a glitter phobia! Yes you read it right I
hate glitter, will not touch glitter, and will usually not
buy anything that has glitter on it. It also drives me
absolutely bonkers when girls put glitter in their hair and
cannot get it out after washing their hair. ((((shudder))))

2. I sort my m&m's into piles of color. I eat them in the
order of least to most. Sometimes I put them into color patterns
if I have the same number of different colors and then I must
eat all of the color patterned groups together.

3. My last three dogs have been adopted from the pound.
Coincedentially they all have been black cocker spaniels.
Now what are the chances of that?

4. I have never EVER been on a roller coaster. I will probably
never go on one either.

5. I guess the last weird thing about me is that my husband
owns a hearse and has nothing to do with the funeral business
yet anyway.

My class started 2 weeks ago and it seems to be going ok so far.
Each classmate is tutoring a student for 10 weeks. We'll be
doing reports and such about the progress that each student is
making.

School has been quite difficult to say the least. I've got
a group of students who are not used to being so structured
and two that I've been dealing with behavior issues.
Some nights I feel like I've had the life sucked out of me
and go home and literally vegitate, nothing else.

Now I'm supposed to tag 5 others:
unfortunately most of my blog
readers have already been tagged.

Nancy M.
Shellie J.
Cindy Simon
Douglas
Brian

Is it Winter break yet?

Yikes my class has just been difficult. Kids who are way below grade level, kids who need social work, kids who need speech, kids with behavior issues, kids who don't do their homework, and a smattering of a few good kids thrown in. All of that and we've only finished like the 3rd or 4th week of school. To top it off I'm getting a sinus infection and my Masters class began this week too.

I've been working on getting Brian a 504 instructional plan set up at the highschool. They were to have a meeting on Thursday and haven't heard any outcomes from that. He needs these modifications set up to help him have success. He's already on a downhill slide with grades. I'm supposed to not push about homework because he says I'm on his case all the time. Yep I am but I'm a mom and a teacher so where does it say not to push? It is more than push, it is fight. If the kid doesn't begin to take it seriously, he'll be putting himself on the 5 year plan by the first semester of freshman year. He needs these modifications, they'd better see it too; and fast!

Club team volleyball tryouts are tomorrow night, Doug for sure will try out and probably make it, Brian is undecided but Don said he'd like to see him play so he'll have been playing up until the highschool season starts.

Doug has senior picture retakes on Monday. I hate having to retake them, but seriously the first ones were just not good. The yearbook pictures were rotten. There actually was only 1 or 2 that I would even consider buying.

I've continued to go to water aerobics. I feel better when I go, but I'm getting a sinus infection and I with that and pictures on Monday I hope I don't miss the Monday class. I also have loads of homework. My next masters class started. UGH it's like tutoring a student for 1.5 hours for 10 weeks on Tuesdays. The class is worth 1000 points. I can't believe 1000 points it is quite extensive and I'm just ready to quit. I'm so tired of working and going to school. I know I can't complain it is a free masters degree, but this is my 3rd year in the program and it's just burning me out, me and probably the other 25 students too. It is to the point where it is about jumping through hoops. That is the one thing about college and teaching, how many hoops you've got to jump through. Continually there are hoops, do this, do that, document this, document that, blah, blah, blah; change my name to Teacup the Hoop Jumping Poodle and hold up the hoop! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh right now my life is just to crazy and out of control for me. Does that mean that I'm a control freak?

Well I'll just keep plugging along trying to keep my head above the water, holding on for winter break.

I feel great!

I really was concerned that I might be a bit sore after
yesterday's water aerobics but nope, not an ache or pain
anywhere. My joints actually feel a little less stiff and
I thought I should do some exercise today and technically
I did. I walked up three flights of stairs, down a flight,
around to the next hall and up or down again. It was
open house/curriculum night at the high school.

Don and I went to some together, some apart and to some
not at all. Found out how to use the online grades and
got the passwords. AAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhh now I'll know
all the grades with no surprises! Unfortunately there are
already a few not so good ones for one of my sons.

OK...stop right there Laura, you've been told this is no
longer an area you are to worry about.

Ok self, I know that but it's hard!

Ok, I realize that sometimes it might just suck to
have a mom who is a teacher, smart and very, VERY
Nagging and sets high expectations.

So I'm trying to work through this, he's getting older
and must do this on his own. Geesh, I could have
used another exercise class instead of the stress
of open house. Oh well, I'll be over it by tomorrow,
I hope.

Anyway as of today, I'm an advocate for water
aerobics. I almost can't wait to go back
for the next class.

Trying to be good

This week I've trying to be good and eat more healthy.
Don and I have been taking walks and I try walk a little
further each day.

Well we've had Y memberships for quite a while.
Maybe a year and a half.
Well we were gong ho for a while; then like most
exercise programs it went kaputz.

Well today we went back to the Y. Don and I took a
deep water aqua aerobics class. I was so proud of
going and of Don for going with me to support me.
Although Don was the only man there, we saw two
people in the class that we knew. One of our friends
even said her husband comes. Maybe that will encourage
Don to keep going. It felt very cool and envigoriating.
I think I'll go back again.

I also found out since the last time I'd been there that
they put in a quick workout like a 40 minute circuit
similiar to curves. Geesh a lot changes when you
don't go for a while.

Any and all encouraging words accepted on this weight loss
journey.

Did I mention...

I'm a mom to two high school boys? I know you're probably
thinking geesh you're so young to have 2 sons in
high school let alone one who is a senior. Well you know
you're absolutely right! I am too young to have two high
school sons. LOL I know your eyes are rolling cause I'm
having a little laugh myself. Although I truly can't believe
that the boys are in high school.

This is so nice to have them together in one school again.
Poor Brian though, he's going to have the Jan Brady syndrome.
You know "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha". It's already started.
Some of Doug's friends, especially the boys from volleyball
walk down the hall and say "hi little Doug!" I tell Brian
that it's not too often that seniors pay any attention to
new freshmen, so that's a good thing. Hey can I help it
that Brian and Doug look alike to a lot of people? Good genes
I guess. He also says Doug taps him on the shoulder. I say
that he's your brother and at least he's acknowledging you're there.

So as we deal with looking at colleges, back to school issues, open
houses, senior pictures (don't even ask about those, that's a whole
nother blog rant) football games, homecoming and such we are just
hanging on for the ride. Don and I will be empty nesters way too
soon. I can't even bare to think about that yet. I am way too young
for that.

So this is another short week of school so after this week, we're full-tilt
and headed into a school year of many changes. I hope and pray some are easier
and less traumatic, and the year goes smoothly for all four of us.

Peace-out

Today I saw something miraculous

Today in church I saw something I would have never expected to see.
We have a bunch of friends who are in our small church group. Some of these friends
are the reason we started going to church again. Some are friends we met specifically because of our small group. These are the people who will stop and pray for you if you need it. I truly believe this group to be a strong reason why I continue to go to church. Well one man who comes to the group comes because it is a social gathering. He comes because he wife is a believer. This man comes to church to support his wife, period. That's all. He's told our group that he's a self proclaimed heathen. A Heathen.

Well today I've seen it all. This man, who calls himself a heathen was baptized. A full immursion baptism. There are so many people who know him that it was a total shock to so many people. Only 4 people knew it was going to happen. I swear it caused many people to cry. Jaws dropped. It was truly a miracle. I wish I had my camera.

If you believe in the power of prayer, this man told Don and I that he needs a lot of prayers right now. If you possibly could say a prayer for Dave that he continue to believe and feel the spirit in his heart. I know he would appreciate that.

I have to say, God works in mysterious ways.

OMG how could I forget???

At our meeting today, we found out that our school met AYP!!!! We met with 100% test takers. We met in reading and we also met in Math!!! This was a huge undertaking, but we met in all of our 9 subgroups!!! We had been on "the list" of schools not meeting AYP, on year 4 of corrective action. Year 5 brings restructuring, so since we met this year, we don't move on to year 5. If we meet next year, or with this year's test..we come off the list all together!

Believe me...this was a schoolwide undertaking and a huge accomplishment. I need to tell all my Road Runner friends...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the grindstone

Today it was back to the grindstone. Yep, today teachers had to report and students come tomorrow. First for one hour, then more meetings. Wednesday it is the full day and then from now on. Thank goodness for Labor Day! I'm sure I'll need it after this week.

This is where I teach. Roosevelt Elementary in Cicero. We are a very high minority school, and district. There is not any school in the state with such a high Hispanic population than our district.



I have to say though, for as many looks as I get when I tell people what town I work in, these are just kids. Many tear your heart out with some of their stories, but all in all, they're just kids. Many people don't understand that. They are usually the ones who have some prejudice and can't look past nationality. I really enjoy working here. I don't think there is any other district in my local vicinity where I would be getting a free Master's degree and for each year, ending with my fifth year, one of my student loans is forgiven. I receive a specific percentage each year, but I only have 2 years left. If I had not worked in this district, I would have never been asked to be on the Oprah Show when they did Oprah's Favorite Things for teachers.

After asking myself for years, "what do I want to do when I grow up?" I finally figured it out. It's amazing how much you can do and how things come to you when figure out God's plan for you. I have always felt like it took a while to find my calling, but now I'm there.

I guess reflecting on how much I've gotten from teaching, it's really hard to consider it "the grindstone".

Wednesday already??

Wow this last week of vacation is flying by. I guess I've put off way too many things and now I'm trying to cram them all into this week. All of that and the regularly scheduled stuff for this week too.

Ok, today I went to school, took Brian, to take some stuff in and started working on reorganizing my classroom. I am no where close to being done either.
I went to pick up my new glasses. I don't know that I'm happy with them, but thankfully Lenscrafters has a 30 day guarantee. I got transitional lenses, but I my old glasses were as thin as they could be and had an anti-reflective coating on them.



I'm working on my portfolio again. I also need to write out some postcards for my new students and also would like to work on a new scrapbook page.

So I'm going to finish eating my General Tso chicken with shrimp fried rice and try to get my stuff done. I guess I should consider laundry and watering the flowers outside, but they were calling for rain.

Ok, I admit I have a bit of a shoe obsession

But I'm not Amelda Marcos or anything. I just like to find some really cool and comfortable shoes and go with it. I'm certainly picky in heel height, color, style. You know like almost any girl is. Well in Vegas we went to the outlet mall. I walked into the Clark store and started looking. I've never worn Clark's before. I do think that my grandmother used to wear Clark's. She always wore clogs or mules. Well I was strolling through the 8.5's and I found a pair but they were too big. Wow these must either run large or true to size and others don't. I found a pair sitting on the endcap and thought those look cool. Well I swear they were made just for me. They fit like a glove. Like I stuck in my foot and they melted right onto my foot. Well melted is a good word, it was Vegas after all and it was about 105 degrees.

Well anyway I bought 2 pair, but this pair I would consider getting in another color. I've had so many looks and comments. I actually have a pair of pants that almost match them perfectally and I had a shirt that I had bought and never wore that looked super with the pants too. That was my outfit today!

Ok, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. The brand of my shoes is Privo. They write it like this Pr!vo.



Anyway I just got to say I LOVE these shoes!!!!

Vegas was Good!

We are home from Vegas, yes I know I didn't blog that we were going to Vegas, sorry, sometimes things get a bit hectic and the blog gets put on the bottom of the list.
We stayed at the New York New York. We had air conditioning problems and had the maintance man up and after it started blowing warm air, we called and told them move us and upgrade us too! We had a bigger room, so nice too.

We did not see any shows because I the ones the boys could see were very, VERY expensive and the one Don wanted to see was 18 and older. I just didn't think it was fair for us to see a show and leave them to fend for themselves. I felt we did that enough when we went to the casinos and they went to the arcade, pool, roller coaster, The Palms to get autographs of the tattoo artists on tv show Inked. That made them happy. I know they didn't get to see the Dizzle, the one person they really wanted to, but one guy was nice enough to come out and give them an autograph.

We walked and walked and walk several different days. We made it into almost every big casino on the strip. We didn't make it into the Aladdin. We didn't head much further north on the strip beyond the Wynn. That place is amazing. My favorites where I'd love to stay again are Mandalay Bay, Mirage or the Wynn. They all had lush plants, and seemed so relaxing not hyped up like some of the others. The New York was non-stop action, flashing lights and lots of walking around all the time.

We went to Hoover Dam. That is so remarkable. It was HOT! Hotter than almost any heat I'd ever expereinced. It was amazing to think there were men with belts hanging from ropes and had a few tools and a helmet and that was their equipment to work on building this. We rubbed the toes of the winged men, but I think it took my luck away. I was winning before we went and losing after. Don on the other hand, he turned into the big winner.

So were home. Don got an email from one of the casinos offering a deal with our member points and asked, "Can you take a couple days off in October?" Ummmm No not if we want to go on the 10 day Carribbean cruise over winter break. Not book but believe me, I'll keep ontop of that one.

So now that we're home, I have laundry to do and I have 2 days of training for school on Monday and Tuesday. We have a union meeting to go over the tentative contract Monday night. I should also get my classroom put back into some order, we'll see 4th graders are always good about wanting to help.

Ok way too much in this blog entry. I'm done.

Razr Bling

Ok, I've had this in mind for about 2 weeks. I made these three little bead charms one Sunday morning and had to find the cord. I found the cord late last week and after making a comment on Holly's Blog about my pink Razr or what my dad calls my "Sissy Phone", I mentioned I was putting some bling on my phone. Well today I got a nudge to get it put together from Holly herself. So I put the bead charms on the cord and the cord on the phone. Now I've officially pimped by phone! I'm sorry the photos stink, I used the point and shoot digital not the Rebel. You'll get the idea. Maybe I should sell these so you all can pimp your phones!

I've got a little bug in my ear!

It's not a bug, although it does look like a little silver beetle. It is my new bluetooth hands free device. Well I can't say it's exactly mine; Don got it, he couldn't get it connected with his phone. Well neither could I but since I'm a female I didn't mind looking up some directions. I found them and found out that this little ear piece needed paired up with my phone. I offered to fix it up with Don's phone but I don't think he really cares. Hey, I offered once I'm not offering again. This one has black, mine had a darker silver more peuter color than black. I would have LOVED it to be pink! Pink to match my RAZR. My dad calls my phone the "sissy phone" because it's pink! Hey I'm the only girl at my house I deserve a litte pink here and there!

I found out that if I record names into my phone, I wouldn't even have to dial, I could say something like "home" and it would dial my home number. Hmmmmmmm if someone really ticked me off I could record something quite obscene as their voice tag. Nahhhhh that's not too nice, I wouldn't really do anything like that!

So now I'll be one of those people walking around and it will look like I'm talking to myself. So just don't think I'm a bit wacko, I'm probably using my little silver beetle.

I've been working on adding some bling to my phone, so when I get it done, I'll take a picture and add that here too!

Spilling my secret

At the beginning of the week, I was honored to have received a p-mail or private mail at one of my favorite hangouts, DigiShopTalk. The email was an invitation to join Cindy Simon's Creative Team. I was excited! I cannot tell you how that made my day. I hesitated to toot anywhere because I didn't know if I should shout it to the world yet or not, so I quietly put up my little banner in several of my siggys at several digital boards where I hang out.





I thought I'd post my newest scrapbook page created with Cindy's Manhattan Loft digital kit. Thanks Cindy I am so honored and excited that you asked me to join your team.

About me

How much do you really know about me?

A lot, a little, none??? Well last night I found a bunch of questions on Katie the Scrapbook Lady's typepad. I thought wow, that would make a great page, then I see she says these would make a great page. Well they most certainly did.




I wonder how many actually knew any of these answers.

Hope you learned a bit more about me.

Ok no more torture

I'll tell you those 4 little words I heard last night that I thought I would never hear.

They were...."I got a job."

Doug is now the cashier at Nancy's Pizza. A job he applied for in early June, they never called, he went in to talk to the owner after a week and a half, in which she said well they aren't really looking for anyone right now. WHAT???? Then why have the sign up in the window??

Well yesterday he went to my mom's house and when he came out to the car, he had a missed call, no message so he called back saying someone from this number called me, and viola, he got the job over the phone. He even worked last night for 2 hours.
He works tonight for 2 hours, tomorrow for 2 hours and Friday a full shift!

Yipee now I can hear those words Ursula thought...I don't need money!
He can buy his gas, pay his insurance, and pay us for the car. Well the money was his from an inheirentance, but he will pay himself back. Shhhhh don't tell him that!

Ok, I've done two loads of laundry and a page. I'll show you. This was start it, leave it, come back and get some inspiration kind of layout. Not my best, but definetly a done page! Well no I can't, again blogger is funky with photos. I insert it and only get html code, not the picture.

Here's a stress reliever

It's bubble wrap. Go and pop some. You know you want to. You know you love to pop those little bubbles when you get them in a package. You know you've even thought about buying a package of bubble wrap just to have them around to pop!


bubble wrap

It is quite fun actually...I've had to save them into my favs!

My son said something today...

that I thought I'd never hear him say.

It was four little words that was music to my ears.

Can you guess what they might have been???

Huh, can you guess...remember he's only 16.
No, there wasn't any profanity involved.


Oh come on you can guess!
I should see lots of comments with your guesses,

Is the photo option working??

Yesterday I just wanted to add one photo, just one and after several attempts it just wouldn't work. I'm trying again today.
These are a few layouts I got done yesterday and today! I love "The D's" most of all.

Busy weekend

Wow, I didn't realize how busy I was until I got up today and had absolutely no energy.

Thursday I had a splitting headache, but had to work on cleaning my house and make a batch of homemade waffle cone bowls for our Saturday night party. Then I picked up my girlfriend Pam from the airport. We met up with Margert and had dinner. Wow what a fun night. I even showed them how to do the "pencil sharpener, the sprinkler, and the lawn mower" dance moves. I doubt they've ever laughed so hard in their lives!

Friday I met Pam, Margert, Ursula and Suzie at CHA, the craft and hobby industry's trade show. I walked around, made a new pin for my id lanyard, and a bracelet. When I went to Polar Bear Press's booth, I was the first to say "I saw your paper on your blog" and got a whole set of Ursula's new paper. There is a link to Ursula's blog on my sidebar.

OMG I walked around so much that my feet were absolutely killing me. I even wore my Nike walking shoes. Saw Jen Wilson's great paper at MME. OMG I may have to get me some even though I've gone digital.

Ran into Rhonna Farrar. She is so cute and talented. I've seen her there each of the past 3 years.

After I came home, I wrote my last 2 papers and then I was really, totally finished with my summer courses.

Saturday the boys helped me finish cleaning the house. Doug actually mopped the bathroom, kitchen and the living room. Well I'm so grateful and you may be thinking wow, but really it took him 15 minutes. My house is tiny. So even though it was small, it was a big help. He also went to the grocery store with the promise that I would let him pick out the cereal and the cookies! Oh and that he could get what ever he wanted for lunch. He got hot chicken tenders and tater baby potatoes. LOL

So I came home, unloaded groceries then started cooking & cleaning. Oh I found this most delicious and fast salad. Romaine lettuce, drained black beans, corn, salsa, shreaded cheese, ranch dressing then put some restaurant style tortilla chips on top. Seriously 15 minutes, start to finish. Next time I'm going to add some chicken before I put on the beans & corn and make it a meal for my family.

We'd been watching the weather all week because we wanted the party outside. After the beginning of the week being as hot and humid as the tropics, it cooled off and it was beautiful all day. Seriously just as the guests pulled up, the clouds opened up and started storming. After the terrential downpour, it did slow down enough to get the tables & chairs into the garage, dry them off, get the food outside and move the grill and umbrella over so we could cook. It actually cooled off again and wasn't bad. No bugs! So although it was rainy, it wasn't all lost. It just would have been cramped if we had been inside.

Ok, so after a busy weekend, I totally had no energy to move my butt off the chair. So I found the cord to my older digital camera, downloaded a bunch of pictures. Before I did that, I did this layout.

Ok, so I lied...blogger won't upload my photo. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Tiki took the funk away!

I can't say for sure, I do really just want to stay home and do nothing, but I have gotten things done the past couple of days.

Yesterday I had to convert my teaching certificate from an initial to a standard teaching certificate. That means I've officially gotten the nod from the state that I'm not a loser teacher and I've successfully completed teaching 4 years. This is the year I'm up for tenure. UGH that means 2-3 observations this year. Even better than that, we found out that our principal was transfered and our assistant became principal. Not sure yet about a new assistant, but things will definately change this year. I guess I should feel confident because she observed me last year and things were great. Just the fear of the unknown and this year holds a lot.

Ok, enough of my tangent. So yesterday I also stopped at the bead store. I decided I was going to take apart my Heidi Swapp badge holder and the flower that was on it because the flower was way beyond wilted. I had planned on making a beaded badge necklace last year but got the HS one so I held off. Well this year I did it, I made a new badge holder. I also bought beads to make a second one. The girl at the bead shop showed me a way that I could put the rings on the holder, and use 2 clasps on the end of my wires and make the beaded part interchangeable. That girl was smart! I love that option! I have only made the clear one, and I don't feel like getting out the camera right now but I'll put a picture of it up soon.

While there, I also decided I was going to make a couple beaded bookmarks, one for me and one for my mom. I also found these cool little stone tiki head beads and some little budda beads. Now I know what a combination. Well the story goes like this. One year, my oldest found a pair of boxers at Old Navy that had tiki heads on it. Well I found another pair and kept them for his stocking. Now each year, he gets something "tiki" for Christmas. Well sometimes it is difficult to find tiki stuff, especially at Christmas so I decided to make him a tiki keychain. Something simple and not too tiki apparent, but something I knew would make him smile. So now Brian has always gotten something Elmo related since he was a baby, but now that he's 14, it is getting a bit babyish to keep up the Elmo gift. So this year, I thought we'd give him an Elmo gift and a Buddah gift and then switch him over to Buddah. He already has 2 Buddah figurines so I think it's appropriate. So he'll be getting a little Buddah keychain.

Well I finally made it to Target too. I felt like I was going kicking and screaming, but it came down to dire necessity. We did not have any, yes I mean ANY toilet paper in the house. Not even one square. So I had to go. Well while looking for some shampoo, I saw this lady carrying a 4 foot high, black, resin Tiki man! OMG I thought my eyes would pop out and I didn't want her to think I was staring, but I was. So when I made it to the back of the store, I found them! There were the tiki men. 12 of them sitting there with a red clearance tag on their foreheads. I'd just found the ultimate Tiki gift! Doug would DIE! See sometimes he says he doesn't like tiki but I know he does. So here I am pushing my cart with 24 bottles of water, detergent, toilet paper...triple roll ;), a huge bag of dog food across the top of my cart and a Tiki man! They helped me out to my car and while taking the cart down the ramp, tiki shifted, the dog food fell off and OMG I thought tiki was a gonner. Thank heavens for a 40 pound bag of dog food, it saved tiki's life! He rolled off the top of the cart and fell onto the dog food. Although there were 11 left in the store, they were all damaged. They were tacky tiki's. This was the best one. So now I'm driving around with a 4 foot tiki in my trunk covered by a blanket.

So I guess I'm sorta out of my funk, wouldn't you agree. It's kinda scary how some beads and a tiki could wipe away the funk. Oh well, I must go clean my leather furniture, company comes in 2 days.

Have a great day, I'll be at CHA all day tomorrow hanging with my Tipster girls! Can't wait!

How do I get out of a funk?

From the day school let out for the summer, I was in classes 4 days a week and working on a big project in almost every other waking moment. Last Thursday classes finally ended. I emailed the answers to my final but I still have 2 mini papers to write and have submitted by Friday.

Since the classes ended, I have not really done anything. Last Friday and Sunday I got out of my pj's. But last Saturday, yesterday and today I'm not out of my pjs. Big improvement is today I showered with the intention to going to Target. I mentioned going to Target yesterday, but didn't. I've even made my list, so maybe I'll get up and go. I have a ton of stuff to do but for some reason I cannot make myself get going. I was up early, it's not that I'm just sleeping and not getting up, I've been up since 7:45.

My mom told me I'm decompressing from such a busy year. Last year I took classes too and it took almost the whole month of july to unwind. Well this year, classes went 2 weeks longer and now I have to be back for training at school on August 21. I'm worried that if I don't get out of this funk, I'll spend my entire remaining vacation in my pjs.

We've decided that we're going to Vegas. I'm excited, I've never been there. I'm not excited that we'll be there in August. Well I'll see if there is a difference between a dry hot and a humid hot. I guess I'll be out of my jammies that week.

I'm going to CHA on Friday. Hope I get to see some really great new stuff. I am picking up my girlfriend Pam and we'll get to hang out Friday. My friend Suzie will be there too shopping for her store Scrapbooking Outside of the Box in Bend, Oregon. Thanks to Suzie, I've got my pass. I'll also get to see my other tipster friends Margert and Ursula. Ursula has designed a line of paper for Polar Bear Press http://ursulacpage.blogspot.com/

Ok, please give me some love and tell me how to get out of my funk. Maybe I should have a get me out of my funk contest.

Decisions, decisions

I can't decide which I like better.

Seems my life has taken a turn

to the not so busy life! Quite enjoyable, quite a shock to the system. I need to clean my house, and I've been working on laundry for the past 2 days. About 3 more loads I believe. We are having 1o friends over Saturday night so if I start today, I can have it cleaned and ready
by then. My plan is to make some of the food Thursday evening and go to CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) trade show on Friday to hang out with some good Tipster friends. Then Saturday I can finish up the food and a bit more cleaning and getting the outside ready. Since I moved,
my house isn't really conducive to entertaining any more. It's tiny, it's ok for us, but with 10 other friends it will be cramped if we cannot hangout outside.

I'm looking to grill everything and make some cool salads I think. Quesdillas are in order and I think some kabobs, both sausage & veggies and shrimp kabobs. Anyone have any good recipes for some fresh summer salads?? I'm also making waffle cups and we'll have ice cream for desert.

I have to go to Target, I need tp, detergent, a few other things and the bicycle streamers I totally forgot until today for my friend Susanna. OMG Susanna I'm so sorry. I'll go today or tomorrow.

Ok, here is what I've been working on lately.