Long overdue

Wow I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated my blog. I can't say it's been because I've been relaxing or staying off the computer. I can say that it's been because May is always an extremely busy month at my house.

Since my last update:

Don and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary.


Brian turned 16.




Don and I went to St. James Farm the dairy and horse farm from the McCormicks who were the orignal owners of International Harvester.







and Don and I went to the zoo.

We are also trying to get ready for a big garage sale. I have 9 more days of school.
I'm trying to pack my entire classroom because we are getting air conditioning (YIPEE), I'm changing classrooms, I've been working on putting together a movie for a co-worker's retirement party this Friday, trying to keep up on grades, and trying to get some movement in each day aka exercise.

If I'm not back until June, you'll know why!

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and here it is such a gloomy, rainy, windy day. It's pretty yucky actually. It's so dark, not the day you want to spend doing something fun in the warm weather. I don't know if our long, cold winter is ever really going to loosen it's grip from our weather. We get a warm day or two then a string of cold days. I have one window in my classroom that opens, and I've only really needed to open it maybe 2 or 3 days. We're in the middle of May and still we've had only a handful of nice days. I keep seeing flowers for sale everywhere and they are tempting but I don't usually buy flowers until my anniversary. So I can start looking at flowers on Friday. I'll probably only buy a couple of hanging baskets because flowers are so darn expensive and I really can't justify flowers when Don's not working.

Doug will be finished with school this week and he's started bringing stuff home. I'll be glad to have him home but that means double the food bill and more garbage. Those are the two things that we significantly noticed by having him gone. The food lasts longer, we eat healthier (he won't eat fish at all, and is a very picky eater), and we only have to take the garbage out every other week. We do put out 3-4 recycling bins each week though. He will be working, hopefully a few days a week and for sure weekends.

Brian wants a job too, he can start looking after Friday, when he turns 16. Friday is Brian's golden birthday. He turns 16 on the 16th birthday. That is he'll turn 16 on the 16th if I don't kill him this week first. He's on the bubble of earning driver's education for first semester next year. He could have had it this year,
2nd semester, but he decided that the number of credits he earned last year wasn't important enough and the school punished him for not having at least 7 credits before taking it. He will have enough if he passes all his classes this semester, but now he's failing 2 classes and d's in two more. He's got 2 weeks left of school and he'll have to raise all the grades AND pass all the finals to pass. We also found out that he's been ditching his last period resource. A mandatory class, but since his advisor was out on maternity leave with his wife, that Brian felt that meant it was optional and blew it off. Don said last night that Brian should be sent to summer school without any choice but again, here goes that money thing. For a whole semester of summer school it was $360 last year. One semester is $180 and last year we made Brian pay for most of summer school as his punishment. He was right on track to NOT to have to go but again he's totally screwed up passing school. This whole thing makes me sick, but Brian is Brian and he'll never change to be the responsible kid that Doug is. Can I feel safe letting him behind the wheel of my car? He doesn't get that it's a responsiblity thing. Don also feels that Brian isn't going to put in the effort to study the Rules of the Road book to be able to pass his test on the 20th. They want kids to have some driving time over the summer since they'll need 50 hours of behind the wheel practice and have successfully passed the class before the kid can get the license.

Oh well, we missed our normal 2nd church service so we've got to get going to make third service. Then we are going out for lunch somewhere, I haven't decided yet.

So I hope that if you are a mother, that you have a Happy Mother's Day.

I'm not a counter...

but today I did count how many more days there are of school. There are 19 days and 18 with students. I sat down with another co-worker to figure out what we were doing the last week of school. Then I worked out next week's lessons. After that I'll have 2 short weeks to plan for. Next week will be end of the year testing to show progress. I've also planned a couple of fun things for next week. We'll be starting a project that has kind of evolved out of several projects, and a science activity that is more like a game of rolling dice.

So my activity. When I student taught we did these comic strips that got copied onto transparancies then colored and each student did a presentation on the overhead.
My first year at Roosevelt, we made shadow puppets from cardboard and went behind the sheet so it looked like a play and we did it with fairy tales and reader's theater scripts. Last year I don't remember if my class did a big end of the year fun project, surely we did but nothing as sophisticated. Well I read in the Reading Teacher about doing shadow puppets in a smaller scale and put on popcicle sticks for the overhead.

Well in my afterschool reading group, I merged the two activities. The students got into pairs, they wrote stories, then they drew the characters and setting. I ran them off on transparancies then they colored them in and read their plays with the stick puppets. I'm going to have my classroom students do the same thing. They will pair up and write a story and kind of turn it into a play/puppet show for the overhead projector. I haven't decided if I'm going to do the transparancies or if I'm going to do it as solid shadow puppets. Both are cool, the kids love to see how the transparancies evolve, but to have them all color them takes forever because I only have one set of Sharpie markers. Those are the only ones that work, and they are expensive.

Ok so now that I've totally rambled on about a goofy school project, I've got a couple of pictures to share. LOL, I don't know if you've heard but the ladies of our bunko group (we don't play bunko, and we get together as couples) we've been having a traveling martini bar. We've been trying a lot of different flavors, even mixing our own "purple" martinis. I bought good vodka this time and the 4 or 5 martinis kinda put me in a happy mood! So I thought I'd give you all a good chuckle with these pictures.







I have to clarify the last picture. My girlfriend, Carmen, and I came across this car once not too long ago that all of a sudden the window was cracked open and a gloved hand shot out and pointed. We looked at each other shocked and just laughed. Then we got behind that car, it happened again. We figured out that the guy was using hand signals because he had no turn signals. While both cars were driving in the left lane, the gloved hand popped out again and signaled to change lanes. By then we were dying of laughter in the car. Well a few weeks later, my friend Carmen emailed me saying she saw the same guy using hand signals again. Well we were reliving the story at my house last Saturday and this picture clearly shows I know how to hand signal! Yes a bit sloshed, and you definately can tell, but yet still signaling.

This group of people have been getting together for about 13 years. Each month we move to another house and have so much fun. There are certainly some subjects that we reimeinice about more than others, but there is always fun and laughter.

Ok on to other news: It appears that although U-Haul tried to fight Don's unemployment, the adjudicator seems to believe our story and we're pretty sure he's ruled in our favor. He said if there were any more problems he'd call back and he never did. Also, Don's been cast as an extra in Johnny Depp's movie "Public Enemy". He'll be a prisoner. My brother, who is also out of a job, other than waiting tables, has also been cast too. It's a period piece so costumes are given and sizes were very strict. I'm going to try to get Doug to apply too. The director Michael Mann hand picks his extras so Don's picture got him selected.


If you read my post and said prayers for us about unemployment and other things thanks so much. I won't even get into the fact that a man who was angry that I wanted in his lane to turn left threw a big rock at my windshield tonight. I'm just so glad that it didn't break. I swear how has our morals got to the point that if you're mad at someone you throw a rock at someone's windshield. So I said a prayer for that man.

If I'm not back here over the weekend....please mothers, have a Happy Mother's Day.

Almost to Hump Day

Yes, I've been known to refer to Wednesday as hump day. Not my favorite name for it, but sometimes just making it to Wednesday and getting over the middle of the week hump is so exhausting and this week has been one of those weeks.

This is my last week of extended day reading so I'll be free from students one hour earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We still have mandatory teachers' meeting on Wednesdays but I think something is cooking for tomorrow's meeting. We were told to bring socks. We're thinking sock hop or bowling since it is teacher's appreciation week.

I've got a million and one things on my schedule and it seems like not nearly enough time for it all. I can't even imagine how I ever got things done when both boys were in sports, I went to school, and worked. Now there is more free time, or time that I allow myself to slack. I have a zillion papers to grade, and I'll tell you that is the absolute WORST part of my job. I hate to grade papers. Usually I have the students correct their work as part of our period but there are just some assignments they can't. Of course they are usually the big projects that are so subjective and take forever to read and grade. Well there are about 3 big stacks of those in my school bag tonight. I'll let you guess how many I'll actually be grading tonight!

Earlier tonight, we, Don, my mom and I, took the money and donations over to the family shelter. It is a brand new facility that has offices, counseling, and a live in facility. It is really nice and for women who need that time to heal and get on their feet, the facility allows someone to live there up to 6 months. We did get to go into the living quarters, but we didn't go upstairs to the bedroom areas. I talked to the head of the facility about my volunteering idea and she loved it. It probably won't start until July, they said they'd like me to go through some training and I need to get through school and then take my well deserved vacation. My idea for them is that I would come in and read the kids a story and do some type of activity that is related to the story. I also figure I could ride my bike there and get some excercise in too. I've got some time to sort this all out but if things work out, this is something that could even last through the school year.

Last night I went to a friend's house. We played "beauty shop." It was quite relaxing. I put highlights in her hair and she helped me color the gray out of mine. Mine is slightly lighter and a bit more red. No one even noticed so I think we did a good job.

This post does sound all upbeat doesn't it?? Well in an earlier post I mentioned that Don was fearing losing his job. He did in fact lose his job and we are waiting to hear the outcome of unemployment. We should find out tomorrow. I hope it comes through because this is his pay week and we are used to having a paycheck each week. Please say a prayer that he's able to find something he enjoys and pays what we need.

Well I need to go take a picture of Don, he's applying to be an extra in the new Johnny Depp movie that is shooting locally. My brother already has an extra part so he told Don about it.

Hope you have a good hump day!

News Article about the Little Give

Yesterday the photographer came to the school for the newspaper article, today it was in the paper.

If you're interested in reading a bit more about my experiences with the little give, the Downers Grove Reporter has published an article. You can read it here!

200th Post

Who would have guessed that when I started this little ole' blog that I'd have 200 posts. I didn't that's for sure!

Let me give you a bit of an update on my Little Give Experience. It has been quite a week. I was on the radio again Tuesday morning to report how much money I was able to raise. You can download the April 22, Eric and Kathy Podcast to listen to me on the radio here!

I can't remember if I mentioned how much I earned in my last blog post, but I was able to raise $4,000!!!!! In 24 hours I was able to do more than I thought I could. People were amazing. This even caught the attention of the local newspaper and one of the ministers at church. Today he brought up my email and the amount I was able to raise in church.

I need to finish collecting the money, just a few people more and a couple more schools to collect from, get everything together and go to the facility.

Things are getting crazy-busy at school. It always does between April and June. I have am volunteering at the book fair tomorrow for a bit, then into a meeting (all after school), Reading group for 2 more weeks on Tuesday and Thursdays afterschool, Wednesday meeting too, and I've got to start getting organized to pack up my entire room. I wish I knew if I was staying put in that room or moving. I have requested to change rooms to the front hall but don't know yet if I'll be moving. We should be knowing soon, usually by Memorial Day.

We also have a difficult situation facing us, Don has the feeling that his time with U-haul is nearing an end. Often the case with middle management when a new president comes in, he tries to bring in his own people and with Don being so qualified and really should have gotten that job, the new 24 year old boss feels that Don is a threat and has demotted him and has told his new manager to get rid of him. This is truly an unfortunate situation but I feel that God will reveal a plan and somewhere a window is open for Don to find. Thankfully the college and high school tuitions are paid and we have a bit of reprieve from those. If you are the praying type, please keep us in your prayers that Don can find a job that pays pretty decent that will help us stay afloat, and that it is something that he likes and can do well.

I've got to go start on some papers to grade or starting my grocery list for a quick trip to the store. Tons to get done because we are thinking of volunteering at St. James Farm. This was the private, farm retreat of the McCormicks, of Chicago and International Harvester riches. Their farm has been purchased by the county's forest perserve and it's about to open to the public for the first time ever. You can read more about the interesting history of this in this newsletter. I was quite surprised at how much I learned about Illinois and Chicago history that I didn't know.

I hope you've found something intersting in this 200th blog post. I guess that is about an average of 100 posts per year or once every 3.5 days. Hey not so bad when you consider that the title of my blog is "My Busy Life." I think I sort of let you know that I'm pretty busy. I hope you're not too busy to leave me a little comment.
Thanks!

Give Big with a Little Give

Today was an emotional roller coaster. But before I can tell you the story I've got to give you some background. There is a radio station here WTMX 101.9 that did a promotion the first week that Oprah's Big Give started. Eric and Kathy, the morning show hosts, I think DJ's are not the appropriate job title any longer, did something called Eric and Kathy's Little Give. They gave 3 "players" $100.00 each to do something good with; donate it or help someone else out who could use just a little. Their objective was to do a similiar thing to what was happening on Oprah's show. After hearing them give away the money and hearing the outcome of the three people's gives I felt compelled to write the radio station to compliment them and tell them that this should be something to continue. A week or two later, I heard they were going to continue it but were changing it slightly and were picking communities to focus on. Jump ahead to today. I got up and on my way to work earlier than normal. Next they, Eric and Kathy, were talking about it being the last time they were doing their Little Give project. They were taking text messages to determine the community but I missed that part. Low and behold the community that was selected was mine, Downers Grove.

What a coincidence that just last night I was spreading the virtues of this great program with my mom. We talked about it so much that I actually missed the finale of Oprah's Big Give. Well after they announced my town and they said they were looking for 2 callers, I called. First I got a busy signal so I hung up and tried one or two more times. Sure enough, I got through and was selected!
I was put on the radio and one of the two people who were going to be given $100 to use and try to grow to make more. I was picked and now I had to scramble to figure out what organization. I selected the Family Shelter Service

Once this was actually put on my shoulders I immediately felt I wasn't going to be able to do as well as some of the others have done. I had to teach all day. How could I make this $100 turn into more in 24 hours? I swear do you know how quickly 24 hours is? I started to freak out and one of my close friends at school told me just do what you can. I called my family and asked Don and my mom to help me out. My mom called my brother whose field of work is donations! Geesh how could that have slipped my mind? I think it was a foggy, Monday morning brain. So I started sending out emails to everyone I knew. Sure enough I started getting some back saying I'll give you $25 or $100 or some other wonderful amount.

I got the kids in my class involved. Hey we did a bit of spelling, reading, and math today. I figure they got a chance to go above and beyond a "normal" day at school. They got to be involved in something big that was titled "little." It wasn't little. Can you believe that all my students went room to room collecting donations from all the teachers at Roosevelt School? After that my class worked all afternoon and popped popcorn to sell after school. We popped close to 200 bags. Try keeping some sanity with 18 kids and 200 bags of popcorn! I laugh now thinking back. Well tonight I came home and had over 40 emails from teachers from other schools.

Jump ahead to right now, I've finished calculating how much we've earned. I say we because I could have never done this without my students, the staff of Roosevelt School, the teachers of Cicero District 99, my mom, dad, brother, and husband. I have such wonderful friends who are willing to go above and beyond. The ladies who work at Beauty Company of Chicago who graciously donated $175 after my haircut. The people at my Weight Watchers meeting tonight gave over $50.

Ultimately, as of right now, I am going to be able to tell the Chicagoland area that my peeps were able to provide Family Shelter Services almost $4000.

To my peeps, YOU ROCK!!!! I cannot express my gratitude and thanks. If you feel you can contribute and the first 24 hours is over, keep it going because this shelter can always use "stuff" besides money. They can also use you. Consider being a volunteer there. Give them some time, sometimes that is worth more than money.

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

A Saturday and a layout

I took yesterday off earlier in the week as a personal day because Don was going to be off and we were going to have a garage sale. The week got crazy and they kept calling for rain on Friday and Saturday. So we decided on Thursday when they kept saying rain, rain, rain that we would hold off for a couple weekends. Well yesterday was beautiful and although it rained a bit last night it's been cloudy but dry again today. I guess the weather people aren't always capable of predicting God's weather. So I'm thinking I should go out and price stuff to get ready for when the right weekend does come along.

I have been such a slacker with my Creative Team duties. I've been so swamped with work, which only gets busier from now until the end of the year, that I've not been doing much scrapbooking. Well today I was feeling super guilty and instead of going out, or actually going to my girlfriend's to scrapbook on her monthly scrapbook day, I just sat and did it in my quiet house.

The fruits of my labor are here:



Credits here

So I hope that you are having a funfilled weekend. I'm happy to see spring is here. We finally have some dafodills and a few tulips. Next week the tulips at the mall should be in full bloom and might deserve a little trip to see them, and maybe some shopping.

sometimes you feel like a nut...

and sometimes you don't! Well I decided to figure out what kind of nut I really was! Some will say I'm seriously cracked, some know I'm just a bit nutty. Then there are my close friends who I love to be around and the nuttier the better!

You Are a Brazil Nut

To most people, you seem exotic, unusual, and even a bit scary. But you're really quite normal. You're just hard to get to know. If people leave you alone and let you do your thing, you really shine. But you tend to get lost in a crowd, especially if it's filled with big personalities.

What Nut Are You?

Thinking about your thinking

is one of those wonderful educator things. We call it metacognition. It truly is thinking about your thinking. It gets deep and kind of weird because it can keep going. Anyway, I digress because I was just coming to post about my own thinking and what kind of thinker I am.

Your Thinking is Abstract and Random

You are flexible, adaptable, and creative. There's many ways that you can learn - and you're up for any of them. You relate well to other people, and you do well working in groups. You can help people communicate together and work with each other's strengths. You don't work well with people who are competitive or adversarial. You prefer to work toward a common goal... not toward conflicting goals.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

I guess I have to say that I'm not surprised. I'm kind of a go with the flow, then get down to business when urgent. I want my stuff to show my creativity and my unique personality and to blow others away, yet I want it factual.

So after reading about my thinking, and thinking about your thinking, take the quiz that tells you about your thinking!

I'd love to win this contest

that is if I wasn't already a member of Victoria's creative team!



Victoria is giving away this beautiful kit for free at here at her website! Besides the freebie, that was part of the Little Dreamer Design appprentice contest, Victoria is also holding a contest. If you create a page with 80% of the Chirpi products, post it in the gallery, and win, you'll receive 3 months of new product for free!
The details are at the website above!

Hurry and get your submissions in because Victoria's stuff is really beautiful and versitile! I'm sure you'll love it!

Sadness in our family

My Uncle Dick was diagnosed with esophaguial cancer just after the first of the year. He'd been having radiation and chemo to reduce the tumor in order to have surgery to remove it. It was localized and wasn't any where else. Then earlier this week he wasn't eating, drinking or sleeping too well. So when he went for the chemo they checked his heart and things didn't seem right so they took him for an EKG. They admitted him into the hospital then his lungs shut down. They assumed that cancer had migrated to his lungs although it could have been fluid or a blood clot. Later that day they were going to do a CT scan to confirm what was wrong with his lungs. They told my aunt and cousins to call hospice because he probably had a week or so. They took him down for the CT scan and he died during the test. This was so sad because everything seemed to be progressing forward towards remission and then his heart just didn't make it.

He was a gentle man who cared about nature and doing the right thing. He taught my boys a lot. My boys really enjoyed spending time with him. He was like another grandfather to my boys and I know this is really difficult for them. My aunt is going to have a real tough time I can just feel it. She and my uncle had spent 50 years with one another. They were finally both retired and before now were supposed to be enjoying their time to do things and relax. Unfortunately God had other plan.

Here is my aunt & uncle at their 50th anniversary.

Ever know what you're doing is right but it just doesn't feel right?

I'm kinda right there, right now. I know that if I'm going to make more money and use my new reading specialist certification and master's degree I will probably have to change school districts. Problem is, I'm not totally sure I want to move, but there isn't the "perfect" job there for me. Don't get me wrong, I work my butt of and do make a fairly good (for a teacher) dime. I am finding that as each year passes the amount of problems that arise with the kids keep getting more and more difficult. For example I have one student who doesn't do homework, lost a library book, had a younger sibling rip pages out of his science book, and now has to work off the money owed to the school because mom avoids meeting with us at all costs. She doesn't return phone calls, she doesn't come to conferences, she won't return notes, nothing. So her son will have to work with the custodians for 2 months to work off the debt.

Now things like that tell me I can't stress over it and maybe should move. The commute of 45 minutes to an hour every day is tedious. I have to leave about 1.5 hours early on a snowy day. The lack of substitutes in our district often makes us internal sub and lose planning periods. I'm unsure about other things too.

Now I know this is where God put me for a reason, and that he's had me get my master's degree in reading for a reason. Now I just need him to tell me what the next plans are. I know, not an easy request; sometimes it's even harder to hear the answer.

Well I know that this is probably the time to move districts and change jobs primarily because if I stay too much longer with my education and years of experience that I won't get credit for my experience and I'll be too expensive to hire. So I've been revamping my resume and I've been starting to fill out the online applications. I'll tell you, most of these are 13 pages long! That's including the pages of questions. Each of the two applications I've been working on have 10, yes 10 essay questions. Luckily you can start the application and return to it. You can also cut and paste your responses from word to the application. Well, that is where I am. I've been trying to come up with the strongest, yet concise answers that showcase the best of me. Not easy I'll tell ya.

This is just one of those things I hate doing. I'm usually a really loyal employee. I do what ever I can to make it the best place to work. I'm a team player and there are people I love working with. The atmosphere where I work is sometimes like a roller coaster though. We are under the microscope from the state and that's hard because we keep jumping from here, there, to someplace else to find what is best for the students. But that leads to doing so much "extra" stuff that there's hardly time to teach what we need to teach.

I guess I just need someone to tell me, Laura you're doing what you need to do, or Laura this is the time. I need to listen to God because he's got the plan, but I don't hear what he's saying. I know he's probably doing some talking through others and I'm trying to listen but the words are clear. What do you do when you're trying to listen but can't tell what is being said?

I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed I think because there is so much to do and when looking for teaching jobs it is quite often like jumping through hoops. That is what I call it and it almost perfectally describes what happens. You have to do this, then do that, then do this again, then do more of that. We need this and that and then even more.

If you are my messagener please shout it loud and clear as to what I'm supposed to be doing! God you know my hearing is going so please make my sign loud and clear.

If anyone has any suggestions or words of wisdom, please let me know.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Spring Break

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Spring!

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! More snow. We are under another winter storm warning and the forcast says around 5 inches. What is going on here Mother Nature?

Today is Good Friday! As a Christian I cannot be thankful enough that Jesus died for my sins. I've been so blessed and I'm so grateful I live in a country where I can believe what I want, express myself as I want, and can openly practice and discuss my religion. There are so many that can't.

Today is also the first day of spring break! Ahhhhhh, yes it's been a very stressful time at school since we returned from winter break. We are finished with ISATs (state testing) and I'm hoping to get around to more science and social studies. Last week we did a TIMS science investigation and disected flowers looking at all the parts. Drat, I forgot to bring home the flowers we didn't use, bummer.

I also stayed at work late yesterday, so late I almost forgot and was almost really late for my eye exam. I did get all the tedious papers graded and the scores entered into the computer. Yahoo!! With the eye exam, nothing's really changed in the last 2 years but I think I want new glasses. I was also talking about Lasik. Both are quite expensive. Unfortunately I know which glasses I want, but at the eye doctor, with my prescription, and including my meager discount, they would be over $500. I have flexible spending health care money set aside, but last year I didn't have enough to cover everything and in late March/early April, I'm afraid to take $500 out. Now granted, Don and an ER visit for the seizure, Brian had an ER visit for a skateboard incident, Brian's therapy, my surgery in August, and Doug's 3 hospital visits. Luckily his last 2 were covered 100%. I also used over $400 for new glasses last year too. I'm just a worry wart I guess.

This will be a week of calm and relaxation. I will work on my sweater, I want to do a couple of scrapbook/spring decorating projects, and I hope to get to the Y a few times. I want to scrapbook with my girlfriend, Marybeth. I want to go back to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the glass blowing exhibit. We didn't pay extra to do that with the students last week. Could you see 9, fourth grade classes going into a glass exhibit? I thought it would be like a bull in a china shop. My mom has also never been there so I offered to take her with.

I also have some filing to do here. I should get bunches of stuff on ebay. The dogs go to the groomer on Tuesday. Doug's home to start his new job at Uhaul this weekend. I offered to cook for us and my mom for Easter. I want to hang out with Marybeth one day. I know Brian will need taxi service. Just the same old mom stuff.

I am just glad to be off and to let my head relax. This will be a difficult week foodwise with WW because of the holiday and I tend to eat while I'm bored. I need some help in that area. I have a list a mile long of things I want to and need to get done, but for some reason my body is never motivated to get it done. Why is that? If you know the answer I'd love to hear it. I have the urge for my body to move. I know losing 25 pounds is the reason for that. I just can't get my head and my body into sync.

Anyhoo I'm about to go see if I can find part of the elements for my spring decorating project. I loved whatAli Edwards did with chipboard butterflies
and I want to do something similar and hang them off of my chandelier in my dining room. I think they'll look great flying over my purple hyacynth. They smell absolutely devine and wish I could youtube the smell and send it to you.

I also forgetting to tell you all that I've finally been invited to join the knitting/crocheting site Ravelry. It took at least 10 days to get my invitation. I'm so excited to find a site that will help me be a better knitter/crocher. I'll be having fun meandering around there this week.

Anyway I've written quite enough and I've kept you reading probably longer than you wanted. I'll hopefully be back later in the week with new layouts with the new Chirpi tape alpha and lucky products.

I wish everyone an excellent weekend and joyous Easter.

Monday..and we got more snow

Late this afternoon we got rain/sleet/snow all at once and now there is white again on the grass and driveway. The weather changed again and I'm sure the air pressure dropped bigtime because when the weather started changing I got a killer headache. It was so bad I couldn't stand my glasses sitting on my face. Bad thing since I was at work and had to drive home. Believe me, you don't want to be on the roads if I drive without my glasses! It was so bad that I had to call and cancel my hair appointment. Believe me, after 5-6 weeks I don't ever cancel a hair appointment if I don't have to. It's going to be at least another 2 weeks before I can get in, I'm sure. My hairdresser will be out of town next week during spring break.

So are you wearing green today or did you get a little pinch? I wore green!

I also report that I lost another pound. Pound schmound. I worked my butt of at the gym this week to lose a pound. Considering my PSA about skipping Steak & Shake, I'm glad I lost a pound.

More health news to report, Brian called me as I got to work saying that the school was kicking him out. Nothing serious, just some pink eye. More health concerns, but he's been out and about while he was still recouperating from the "flu" or something close to it. He probably never got totally over the virus.

My last post talked about a huge stack of papers to grade. After school I took that stack, spread them out on my big table at school and graded several stacks. Now I have a ton to put into the computer but the papers will be graded. After getting these into the computer I'll start working on the big animal report project, but I've read through so many rough drafts the biggest part won't be so bad. I'll keep plugging along this week and get done what I can.

Ok, I think I've rambled on enough. I think my brain needs to rest. Knitting seems to be calling, a mindless activity where I sit without stress.

Ughhhhhhhhhhh papers

I have so many papers to grade and I absolutely HATE grading papers. It's just that for each assignment I give, the kids do it once, I have to do it 25 times. Ok so if we do spelling, math, and science in one day, and there is homework, I have 75 different papers I have to touch. Don't get me wrong, whenever possible I have the kids grade their own papers and I enter the scores into the computer. There are just sometimes they can't grade the papers.

What puts the pressure on is the fact that the end of the quarter is this Thursday. I really want to have all my papers graded and entered into the computer before spring break so I don't have that hanging over my head. Right after we get back we have to work on grades so the report cards can be printed. I thought that could be my job after spring break. Report cards, that is the second worst thing about being a teacher.

Well I have all that blah to look forward to this weekend and this week but tonight we are going to a St. Patrick's Day party at a friend's house. We went last year and had a great time. I love corned beef and cabbage. They've found the best way to cook corned beef, in the pressure cooker. They've found the best way to cook all those veggies too, they boil them all in their turkey fryer. They fill it up with water, start it boiling and put in the veggies. No fat, no big danger of fire like there is when frying a turkey. I thought that was absolutely brilliant!
I'll need to be eating a lot of those veggies because I totally blew all my weight watcher points on a naughty dinner on Thursday. We got steak and shake. Let's just say DON'T EAT STEAK AND SHAKE WHEN YOU DO WEIGHT WATCHERS OR ARE ON A DIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is the end for now. Enjoy your weekend! We have family portraits today and I want to do a couple of fun things and Don says, we should just do the normal pictures. Well I'm going to win, I hate those photographer sit this way, pose this way kind of pictures. I want fun and unusual. They make such better pictures because they're so much more natural. Today's photos are for the church directory but what I'd really want is for my friend Ursula to come to Chicago and take my family's pictures. You can check out Ursula's photography website here and then check out her blog too. She takes such fun and interesting, yet casual photos. I'm sure if she'd come up she'd find some really cool and exciting backdrops for some pictures. I do have some really photogenic boys! Oh did I also mention handsome??

Ciao!

Just worked my butt off

or at least a bit of it. I actually just got home from an hour workout at the Y. It was actually a bit relaxing. Yeah right, for those of us who hate exercise, I'm right there with ya, but when I was sitting, pedaling on that bike for 30 minutes I didn't have to think about anything that I had to do. I sat and listened to my ipod and watched Wife Swap and Deal or No Deal. I read those captions while listening to the music.

Well anyway I started on the eliptical for 15 minutes and went .95 miles. Then to the bike were I numbbed my but and feet but rode for 4 miles in 30 minutes. After that I thought about leaving but a treadmill opened up so I thought ahhhh, what's another 15 minutes. So I walked, even put some incline on the tread mill. Then I got brave. For the last 40 seconds I pumped up the speed to 4.0 and jogged for 40 seconds. No big deal for those of you who are in shape and run, but I don't run. Actually my body's been feeling the urge to move. Today Doug went to school with me and taught the kids how to play blob tag and at the end I linked hands and ran around like a school kid. I ran, then tonight I ran/jogged again.

I'm mighty proud of myself for that! I think it meant even more that I got up my gumption and went alone. Nobody made this body fat and overweight but me, so I guess nobody can make it skinny and more healthy except me too. Just it would be fun to have a workout buddy.

So this week, Don and I walked down to check out a house that caught on fire on Sunday, so we walked about a mile. Monday, I took my ipod and became a "hall walker" at schoool and did two laps of each of the 3 floors including the 3 flights of steps two times. Then today I did all that exercise at the Y. I actually have 5 activity points I can eat on my Weight Watchers account, but it sure would be nice not to have to. I have 2 points left today so there is my skinny cow snack then I think I'm done. We do have a St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday night with friends so I know I'll use more points there then I should. Although I'd think cabbage and boiled vegetables should be free!

I want to give my good friend Marybeth a shout out! She's decided to get healthy and she's started a blog. You can check it out here!

Ok so I've written enough for today. I think my skinny cow's calling my name.

Some Blog Redecorating

Not only did I update my header, which still could use a bit of shrinkage to fit in the template but I upgraded my blog so that I can use the new basic drag and drop, easy upload, easy changes format.

Although I've had to make a few changes and updates, I love the ease of making changes now!

Thanks for that Blogger!

I've finished my little knitted bag. I need to do just a bit more work on the handles but I've already done the yarn swatch for the sweater I'm going to start on. My first sweater!

I also jumped on the Ravlery waiting list. Maybe I should start a knitting blog. I doubt I could keep that updated because my other blog has kind of been neglected. I really need to get myself on a schedule and integrate exercise in that and time to reflect and pray daily.

I'll just keep working because I can only get better if I keep trying.

Another Layout

Credits Here

Today's a day for a new layout!

This is my newest scrapbook layout. Everything is by a great new designer Victoria Greenlees who owns her own store Chirpi. The great new kit is called Moroccan Sunset and can be
found here.

I highly urge you to go and check out her great new stuff.