Expensive!

I found these euro pillow shams at Crate and Barrel and fell in love with them. I just didn't want to have to pay $50.00 for them. My mom offered to help me make them for my pillows I want to use on my new couch and chaise. I just hope that I can find some fabric that is really, REALLY close to it.

Another day older and less in debt.

Today is a good day to look back at the past year. Today is my birthday. I'm another day (year) older and still feeling good. I'm also a little less in debt. I paid off my car. I've been working really hard to get our finances in check and it is working. Now from what I learned a long time ago is that I take all of that payment and move it to another debt.

So my goal is to pay off our debt by my next birthday, if not sooner. My motivation is that I'd like to go on a small vacation this summer and I really need new furniture. I've got the urge to start looking, but don't want to find something and be disappointed if I can't afford it.

Well anyway, I'm glad my car is paid off and I've got my health.

Putting the New Year in a positive perspecitive!

Today, I read a blog from The Scrap Artist. I stumbled across a blog post on their Feel Good Monday theme. I found the post called "The Paradoxical Commandments" quite interesting. It somehow puts into perspective that even if you're trying to live a positive life by doing good things that there will be those to bring you down, but just do good anyway!

Here they are.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.


Does it help you feel good about all you do? I don't know why, but it helps to confirm to me that all I'm doing is really the right thing, so I need to try to keep doing all I can.

Happy New Year!

Getting in that Christmas spirit!

Already, this isn't usually me not at all. I'm usually a bah humbug, but not this year, I'm wanting to do so many fun things with my students and I'm getting in that crafting mood too. I want to sew myself a fleese coat. I'm searching for some fun, inexpensive decorating projects too. I found one I really love today on Martha Stewart.


I've got a pass through window from my kitchen to my living room. I can just imagine this little decoration sitting on that little windowsill.

I'm trying to get my Christmas list of items to buy all planned out. There isn't much extra cash here this year, so I want to make my gifts extra special.

Hope you're getting in the gifting and decorating mood too!

Be happy, stay healthy!

A great beginning to a school year

the first quarter of the year is over. 1 down, 3 to go. I'm quite a lucky girl this year, I've got a very managable class size, 20 now and I've got really, REALLY nice kids. People are amazed how nice, polite, and kind they are. A total 180 from last year. Last year there we so many low kids who had so many needs. There were bullies, horribly misbehaved students, clicky girls who would get their older sisters to beat the other girl up.

This year, I'm trying to be home earlier, keep my mind on other things rather than school. I'm enjoying being home at night and not having to run from one teaching job to another. That being said, not teaching at the college this semester has put quite a dent into the ole checkbook though. I keep trying to believe that God is telling me that less is more sometimes. Use what you have and enjoy people and not things.

It has been a stressful start to the school year in other ways. Don wound up with a kidneystone. He needed surgery and was in the hospital almost 3 days. He had two other surgeries and we still think there are still stone fragments in his kidney.
After that, he was getting out of his car and his foot slipped on some wet pavement and leaves. He reached around into the car to try to catch himself from really falling. When he reached back into the car to grab inside, he ripped his intercoastal muscle and dented the cartledge between two of his ribs. Now after visiting the urilogist again for a check up, they found he has double hernias and he'll be headed to the surgeon next week for a consultation. We need to have this done before the end of the year for deductible purposes. So it appears that sometime soon, he'll be having another surgery.

Ok, so I know you take the good with the bad. I think that it's just crazy. When something slows down in my ife that something else gets crazy. I've been trying to knit to keep busy and now I've also pinched a nerve in my hand. I'm trying to not knit quite as much to try to let the swelling go down. It's been a couple weeks and it's not working either.

So now that you've gotten an update, I want to say thanks for stopping by!
I'm always glad to see a comment from a friend or two!

Peace people!

It's that busy, busy time of year

That time of year from the last week of August through December seems to always be busy. Then it is again from April through mid June. But right now, I'm busy but not crazy busy. I know, so unusual for me.

I've been extremely tired lately. I mean on Friday night, I was falling asleep at 8:30 with the laptop on my lap. I can't stay awake past 10 on any night. I don't know if I'm trying to fight off any germs floating around, my diet, or something else. I know I just worry a lot about tiredness because of my previous experience with a close call with lymphoma. That was one of the symptoms I exhibited.

I've got a ton of papers to grade and the first quarter is almost over already. We, my grade level team, is in charge of planning October's positive behavior celebration, and report cards are due soon.

Well I'm going to split. I think I'm going to get a jumpstart on getting ready to go out tonight with Don and some friends.

Also, I don't think I mentioned that it's been about a month since Don had a kidney stone and finally, just this week he's been almost completely pain free.

Hope all is well with you. Enjoy this fall season. The trees have been beautiful. Some trees have been two colors, one color on the outside and the inside close to the trunk is a different color. I've seen trees that look rose and pink colored and just a wonderful mix of colors. We've had winter weather already and there wasn't any heat at school all week. I attribute that to me also being tired. When I get warmed up, I think I just get extremely tired.

Well hope you have a good week!

We interupt your regularly scheduled life...

to help you remember that God's in charge...not you!

I found that out Friday. We had discussed dinner and a video, a quiet Friday night at home. A trip to meet my dad at the stained glass store Saturday, and just a calm weekend. That didn't happen. A wrench, or should I say scapel and a kidney stone got thrown into the mix.

I got a call at lunch that my wonderful hubby called the school office to report he was on his way to the hospital. Not sure why or by whom, but he was on his way. The message was to call on his cell. Good plan if the dumb hospital would have had cell signals. So after a phone call to the hospital, transfered to the ER, then to the triage, then to a nurse's phone, I finally found out what I suspected...a kidney stone.

I've never seen anyone in so much pain, personally. I do have to say that I'm a little horrified that when they give someone a drug and it's not working, we got the answer, "Sorry, you have another hour before the next dose." Obviously, although super strong, not effective on the pain from a kidney stone. He went about 7 hours without effective pain control. I would liken it to heavy labor without any pain drugs. That I have done twice, so I do understand the pain of that. Many who have had babies and kidney stones say however, the kidney stone is worse.

After a good dose of new medicine from the urlogist, the pain was gone within 10 minutes not to return for over 24 hours. Now that was some good stuff!

So Don had surgery, a stint, half the stone come out, and is now finally home after almost 3 days in the hospital. I then had to juggle my house, my son, my dogs, the trips to the hospital, the phone calls all around, and then the trip to the pharmacy for all the drugs. Thankfully, Don's home and on the road to recovery, tomorrow is Monday, and I can get back to my regularly scheduled life.

This makes me Very happy!

Ever since I saw these wind turbines in Copenhagen, for some reason they make me happy. I guess it's green energy and sustainable.



Now in Illinois there are two large wind farms. They are about an hour west of Chicago. I was shocked at seeing them as we passed them on our way out of town, and knew I needed some photos to add to my wind turbine photos from Copenhagen. These were not active yet. Some had no blades, some had 1 or 2 blades, and some were fully built, but not yet active. I can't wait to drive down by there again when they are doing their thing.

I kept looking around thinking...a turbine could be there. Now, I understand these photos are far from professional. They haven't even been edited. They are sotc or straight out of the camera. Also note...they were taken while driving 85 MPH. Not be me...I took them, but wasn't driving! OMG that would be scary to think I was driving that fast AND was looking off the road taking pictures. Enjoy!

a last weekend before school getaway

Last weekend we dropped the dogs off at my mom's and headed for a short weekend getaway to somewhere in the midwest. We went to see Don's dad's grave since it was the 5 year anniversay of his death. We saw his only living male relative from his dad's side of the family. We also went to see a national monument. Here are some pictures. Guess to see if you can figure out where we went.









We were in St. Louis. Don's family has lived there for a very long time. His uncle has actually lived in his house for 45 years. I had only been to St. Louis for his dad's funeral and burial. In all the times Don's been there, he's never been to the Arch. The three of us got to enjoy a little afternoon of fun seeing the Arch together for the first time.

Some photos to share

I still don't have any photos of my kitchen redo, but I have a few fun other photos. First are a few of where my son lives at the university. He and 2 other guys have moved into an apartment.






A great shot from out the back door of the place where he got a job YES!!! I said got a job! Also of one of the taller university buildings.


Here are two helpful movers taking a rest, Brian and his girlfriend.

Wow...has it really been that long??

Yep, it's been nearly a month since I've been by to post up the daily happenings of my life. Well, I guess that I've been trying to lay low. Some may say that I've fallen off the face of the earth. Not really, but I have been immensely bored and haven't been doing much. I've been thinking about school, and how I want to try new things this year. I've been thinking of how I didn't like the teacher I was last year. But last year is over and luckily, each year, I get a brand new start.
Just like each year brings me brand new students, I get a chance to be a brand new teacher. Luckily, one with more and more experience. So I did my very best with what I was dealt last year, and now I get a chance to do my very best again, and also get to recreate myself into someone with more experience. Someone who is able to try new ways, better ways to help students learn more and love learning.

Ok, so much about my private soul searching and personal teacher recreation. What have I really been up to. Well nothing. Absolutely, really, nothing. We have gotten the kitchen 95% finished now. It is painted, appliances in and working, new shelves up, new rails up (wall rails) and we are trying to decide what else we need to do.

I also am sending condolences to my brother-in-law whose mother passed away. Last week we went to the wake.

We also moved my oldest back to school. He moved into an apartment with 2 friends this year. There were very few slotted dates to move in so he had the early one or two that were after school started. So he's moved in, living there alone. One other guy has been out there a couple times, and the third came to help move furniture and hasn't been seen or heard from. We've been on a hunt all summer for things for his apartment. Thankfully, we have some really good friends who have 2 older sons who have finished college. They kindly gave Doug a matching couch and love seat, a captain's bed that he built for his son's dorm room, and a tv. Then they've also been on the look out for other things and called with a chair he got. We were able to find silverware, dishes, a desk, and other things to get him started.


We've also (especially Don) have been having fun with keeping our pond. Unfortunately, we had a raccoon get into the pond and snatched out our turtle and now several of our fish. At garage sales, I found a fish tank that I was going to use to take the turtle in for the winter. I'm either going to have to give up that idea or buy a new one. Haven't decided on that yet.

I've also found a lot of good stuff for my classroom at garage sales. I actually found a retired teacher garage sale. I got classroom/school related chair pads, some great posters, books, teacher books, plastic bins (which you can never have enough of, and 2 easels. I've already looked up the lexile level of my books to have a jump start on getting them leveled and labed for my classroom library.

So now as summer is ending, I'm patiently waiting to find out if I'll have enough students enrolled into my college class. If so, they all usually register the last week as a prerequisite class that they don't know they can't take other classes until they register for this or pass the test. I have 2 now and usually they require between 10 and 20. I also start back on the 24th for 2 days of training. I also have a full day of training on August 20, then we will take a short weekend trip to St. Louis that weekend before school starts.

Anyone been to St. Louis? Got any must visit locations? We will for sure see the Arch. I'm thinking maybe the botanic garden or the zoo. I'd love to go to the Anheiser Busch brewery, but with Brian going, all tour members must be 21.

He starts school on the 26th so this will be his FINAL year. Finally, locked up, secured to be a senior. We've had to fight and make up class after class but he's got all the credits he needs to be able to finish this year. This will be quite a year, the year that all of my kids finish public school. I'm getting excited about that!

Well it seems like I've been able to ramble on about a bunch of nothing really. Considering I feel that I've been laying low, this seems long. Maybe I'll snap a few shots of my finished kitchen and add on here before school starts too!

The summer's ticking away

Yesterday was a fun and yummy lunch at The Olive Garden, with coworkers from school. Some I've gone to class with, taught with, and other staff members from my school. Of course the food was good and I even splurged on dessert. The conversation was the best part. You know gossip of the position changes, and what others have seen and heard, and what's happening with everyone over the summer.

I've not really been doing much, but have been getting things done. I've cleaned and decluttered my bedroom, deep cleaning, like I tore the bed apart and cleaned out the under the bed boxes. I've been working my way through the book, The Kite Runner.
I'm happy that Harry Potter is out in the theaters now and we're planning on seeing it rather soon. I'm actually considering seeing it at the drive-in theater.

Today we also got some good news, Don has a job interview. If this jobs works out, this job will allow Don to also continue with school.

Well it's July 15 and i've already been to the teacher store to get a few things for the beginning of the school year. I have 1 month and 5 days before I have a beginning of the year workshop. I hope we will be able to still have a few fun weekends. I can't believe summer is flying by.

4th of July Weekend

At first it looked like our 4th was going to be a rainout. We were empty nesters. I guess this is practice for what is soon to come. As my boys get older, I can only expect that their independence will keep them away from home whether they live away or not. Both boys were at different lake houses, with friends. One in Wisconsin, the other in northern Illinois. So that left Don and I with time on our hands.

It did rain 90% of July 4th. We went out around 7:00 and tried to do a bit of geocaching. The mosquitos were horrible and kind of ended that. We got up early today and decided that instead of working on things like the kitchen or laundry, we would go out and enjoy the weather. It was another day of geocaching. What is funny is that with more and more loaded into the GPS, we are finding less and less. With the mosquitos, we have been refusing to do any bushwacking.

I've been playing farmtown on facebook. I've been planting and harvesting my crops and finally decorating my farm.

It seems like I've been reading less, and just doing less. I've become accustom to sleeping in more and more. I'm worried that when it comes time to go back to school that I'm going to have a hard time getting up. I guess just enjoy what little bit of sleeping-in time I have for now and cross that bridge when I get to it.

Now while I was at my scrapbook weekend I made a motivational thing for my aunt who has breast cancer again. I'll end with a few pictures of that. This was made from 4 Martha Stewart coasters, a couple motivational rub-ons, flowers, flower gems, and ribbon.

busy doesn't stop over the summer

It seems like the past 2 weeks have not only flown by, but they've been really busy. What else would you expect from me? Well it has been productive busy. We've got the countertops ordered, the sink is in the garage, the refridgerator is changed out, the wallpaper is completely off, the old stove is out, the walls are cleaned and ready for spackling holes and then a coat or two of primer, then paint. The new counters will still take another 2-3 weeks. Bummer, but new and finished will be worth the wait.

I've also been asked to edit the literacy standards for my school district. That has been a lot of work also. I'm working with 2 other colleagues, and they hopefully want them next week. I've been reading, editing, moving things to different order, and then I've said I would type and change the edits. The bad thing is my laptop is giving me fits. It had better not have a virus.

Last weekend I also went on a well deserved, scrapbook weekend. I should have finished a project that is about half finished (yes, the Oprah book,) but decided to start on the photo carousel project for my Baltic Capitals trip from last summer. This is really a "right up my alley" project with all the little doo-dads on it. I'm afraid that I'm actually going to run out of the different elements I want to use. I guess then a bit of shopping will be in order. A lot have been things I've been collecting and holding on to for years.

I also worked on a little spirit lifter for my aunt who had surgery for breast cancer. I have photos of that, but as I said, the laptop is having a temper tantrum.

It's been a flurry of activity here, but I've managed to maintain my Farmtown farm on Facebook. I guess since farming is in my blood, I'm doing pretty good. In one week, I'm almost to level 25. Do you play Farmtown on Facebook? If so, I'd love to see your farm. I'm saving coins to upgrade to the largest plot of land then I plan on doing some major decorating. There are so many great farms on there, I hope I can do my own farm justice.

I've also been reading need to update my book blog with all my newest titles.

Hope your weather is not as scorching as it is here. We went from 60's to 90's overnight. So many people were complaining about it not feeling like summer, well it does now and the air is running all the time. Hope it cools down just a tad.

Take care everyone and enjoy these lazy,hazy summertime days.

If I only had a hammock

I'd be hanging around in hammock heaven. Today's weather has been gorgeous! Absolutely perfection! Around 80, soft blowing breeze, sun most of the day, with some shade, and the best kind of hammock day you could ever imaging. I had to do just that, imagine. We used to have a hammock, that was until it shreadded to pieces. Rope does that you know, but today, I can remember the bliss of a snooze, a cold drink, and a good book while gently rocking back in forth under the shady trees.

Ahhhhhhhhhh to have a hammock again.

Do you geocache?

If you ever look down the sidebar of my blog, you may have seen this little icon. If you've looked closely lately, you might have noticed that the number of finds is on the increase.

Today we stopped, and finally found one that had been eluding us for about a month. Third time's a charm though, I found it and we didn't even have the GPS with us. It was the elusive nano cache. A nano is as small as a pill capsule. Probably about the size of an ordinary Tylenol caplet. Tonight we actually loaded up a few new caches into the GPS and found 3 of those microscopic nanos! 4 was our total finds tonight, but we found a travel bug too. Now it is our responsibility to get it moving to a new cache and closer to its goal of making it to Florida. It originated in Wisconsin. It has made it one state closer.

Anyway, if you have a portable GPS or even I think a blackberry or Iphone, I think there are now aps available to use that to geocache. Get out there and have fun. It's a treasure hunt. It's cheap, once you have your supplies.

6 and counting

6 scrapbook pages in less than a week??? Yes! Can you believe it??? I certainly can't. It is almost starting to sound like the title of a TLC television show. I haven't seriously scrapped since either spring or winter break. Probably more like winter break. I think over spring break I helped my girlfriend get ready with packages for her scrapbook weekend; of which I am going to be lucky enough to attend.

So I guess I'm trying to get my groove back, and 6 pages is quite a start. So here is another for your viewing pleasure.

plus one

Another simple page. If I keep up with Jacque Larsen's idea that no page should take over 1/2 hour, I could get a lot of pages done. She also suggests that using white or light backgrounds because it focuses on the photos. This one I just love. Could it be the adorable little animals or the handsome man in the photo with me?

two more

This is our church's softball team. They play in a christian softball league and my son has been playing for a couple years since finishing high school. Each August there is a tournament.


A quick page to document a wonderfully, peaceful koi pond at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

another page

This has been sitting on my hard drive for a while. I was looking through my layouts file and saw this title and thought, why don't I have a preview picture of it. That's because I only had the 3 images in it, I didn't have any paper or elements with it. I guess I was supposed to be waiting for the perfect paper. I got that perfect paper in a kit called Triple Dog Dare. The whole kit has been retired, but you can get Jacque Larsen's pieces at the lily pad

So 2 pages in 2 days, vacation is good!