Summer 09

Summer has definitely come and gone. It's freezing here today and is supposed to snow on Monday! However, here is a very short recap of my summer.

June 09

-Picked up our new puppy, Winston

It's been quite an adventure, but he is cute!
-Celebrated my 26th birthday

My parents got me a Cricut for my birthday (which is the reason for the picture!). I love it!

July 09

-Happy One Year!


-Calgary

We went to Calgary to visit our good friends from college.

August 09

-Got ready for a new school year

So, obviously there was a lot more stuff that happened this summer such as afternoons at the pool with my sister, mom and nephew, or discovering that our house had termites, or participating in an art fair with my sister, or receiving weekly e-mails from my mom on tips to clean my house. But, the main events are here and I'm sure I'll get around to writing about the rest when it is winter outside and I'm wishing and longing for summer.

I'm baaack!

Has it really been since Mother's Day since I have blogged? Well, yes. Yes, it has been.

Somewhere in there life got a little too crazy for me to fit blogging into it. Not exactly sure with what. No life changing things happened this summer.

Anyways, school is back in session. I'm on a somewhat regular routine again. And...I'm ready to start blogging again!

I've missed you all! I think I've caught up with most of the blogs that I follow, now I just need to caught you all up with my life. Another post will follow with that- just wanted to let you know that I'm back to blogging and excited about it!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day a few days late! My family celebrated on Saturday night with dinner and dessert. My sisters and I went in on a gift for her mom and got her this lovely Toss tote:
In school, we made these gifts for the moms in our class. I have to say that my kids were overly excited to give these to their moms. We first made to flower pens, then painted the pots, added a bit of ribbon and wah lah!

Here is what our classroom looked like during the project:


And here is the finished project:
Isn't this the sweetest note:I've posted quite a bit about school stuff...don't worry there are only 3.5 weeks left!
Then I'll move on to a new topic. :)

Campout

Last week at this time, I was apprehensively looking forward to a camp-out at our school. 3 other teachers and myself auctioned off a sleepover at our school's auction.

Well, the night was a hit! The kids really did have an awesome time- really, how could you not when you get to run around the school all night! We set up their tents in the hallways, ran them around in the gym, and had a Super Sleepover Scavenger Hunt, and watched A Night at the Museum. Around 2 am, the kids finally started going to sleep. 8 am come around quickly!

In the morning, the kids sleepily went home...and so did the teachers. I just wore my pjs home, but was greeted by many cars lining our street for the neighborhood garage sales. I quickly tried to sneak in our house without being seen in my pajama pants! Hopefully this Friday night, I will get a bit more sleep!

Thursday Night...Oh So Close to Friday!

This post may be very random, but oh well:

1. I bought the 30 Day Shred last week since so many of you had written good things about it. So far I've only done one workout- I need the motivation to do it everyday.

2. 10 more days of coaching tennis- yeah!

3. Does anybody else who loves scrapbook/craft things love checking PeachyCheap out every morning? It's been a new addition to my morning internet checklist.

4. Wish me luck tomorrow night. I will be having a giant sleepover at my school with 24 kids (and 3 other adults).

Have a wonderful Friday!

P.S. My google reader is bursting at its' seams- I will get to all of your posts this weekend- sorry for the lack of comments lately.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

ugg, so I coach the JV tennis team at our high school and it has it's up and downs. Today was a down. It was looking like it was just about to rain for most of the day and I had a tennis match after school. I was hoping the whole day for one of two things- either rain before school got out or wait until we play for it to rain. Well, neither happened.
The tennis match was about a 40 minute drive away and today was the dreaded day...the day I had to drive the huge passenger van. It was sprinkling when we left school. I saw the Athletic Director and asked if we should still go. Yep, it wasn't raining there- YET! Half way there it is pouring rain- I called and asked if it was cancelled- nope. Anyways, we finally made it there in the pouring, pouring rain and turned right around to drive another 40 minutes back in the rain. I wouldn't have wanted to drive 40 minutes in my own car by myself in that rain, instead I was driving an enormous van going 60 mph on the highway with a group of high school girls.

On a better note, last week I went to go visit little Winston...

Ideas for Book Character Day?

This past weekend was fabulous- fabulous weather, good time with friends, my sister's birthday party and just an over-all relaxing time. Thank goodness that it is almost the weekend again. Although, I am sad that I already know I won't be able to sleep in due to a tennis tournament that I have to coach for on Saturday morning.

I need your help. Friday is Book Day at school and we have to dress up as a book character. Any ideas?

Puppy Love

You might remember my post on whether or not to get a labradoodle. Little did I know that we actually would be serious about getting a dog.

Last Friday, the puppies were born! We had said that we would only get a dog if a cream one was born. The puppy we were hoping to buy was from a girl's family in my class.

On Monday morning, she walked in:
Me: Hey, M! I heard your puppies were born this weekend!
M: There were no cream ones.
And on she walked into the room.
Later that day, she says in a very sad voice..."Does this mean that you won't buy one of my puppies?"

Anyways, they had 2 brown ones and 7 black ones born. We decided to go ahead and visit the puppies and look at one of the brown ones.

It was love! So small and adorable!
Here is what our puppy looks like (although we forgot our camera, so it isn't actually ours)We still have time to back out if we change our minds, but it is looking like we will soon be bringing home our new puppy, Winston.

Oh, Night! Where did you go?

Seriously, where did the night go? I told myself that I would do things tonight- like grade some papers, design scrapbook pages, laundry...! Tennis practice was even canceled due to rain so I had extra time.

In my defense, I did try to make-up one of my pilates class at the gym, but it was full when I got there so my drive to be productive sort of went down hill from there.

As soon as I sat down on the couch, I think I was done for the night...plus there was American Idol AND The Biggest Loser on TV tonight!

I also told myself to get to bed by 10 tonight- opps! I'm already not looking forward to dragging myself out of bed in the morning.

Tomorrow is another day, perhaps my list of things to do will be accomplish then. (although, honestly- I doubt it!)

Easter Recap

As promised, here are the pictures from Easter...

To start- here are the goody bags I made for my nephews and niece. They were stuffed with some candy, socks, bubbles, egg chalk, and other goodies. They were so excited to get them!


Next up, these lovely cake pops that my sister and I spent most of Saturday making. I got the recipe and idea for Bakerella's blog. (Really, they look much cuter on her website!)


We also made this fun fruit chick! We tried to make something that looking like the baskets from Edible Arrangements. Ours didn't exactly turn out that way and we both decided that we would never want to work there- this was hard work!


Here's our Easter picture...yes, we somehow color coordinated with Dan's tie and my sweater.


My parents ended up having 24 people over for Easter between relatives and friends...so it was a party in their dining room! Here is one of the tables- I love how springy it looks!


My nephew wanted me to take a picture of his jelly bean wand/tower.


On to the egg hung!

There was about one thousand eggs to find. The person who found the most won this bunny and poses for a picture with my grandpa.


Here is everyone counting up their eggs... there was some tough competition! We had a great Easter! Hope you did too!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

I adore Easter! I just got back from our church service which ends with everyone singing the Hallelujah Chorus! What a wonderful day to celebrate what Christ did for us!

We are just about to head out to my parent's house for a Easter dinner and the annual Easter egg hunt. My mom spends hours getting hundreds of eggs ready for the hunt! I'll post pictures later...

He is not here; for He has risen, just as He said!
Matthew 28:6

Hello from the Sunshine State!

Just writing a quick post before heading out to the sun! So far it has been a wonderful vacation and just very relaxing which is just what I needed.

Dan was down here for the weekend and I think even he ended up having a good time despite his dislike for laying out in the sun. Mostly, we have just been laying on the beach and reading books and then a bit of shopping before dinner. Perfect vacation in my eyes.

Yesterday was a bit cooler, so after laying in the sun for a bit we headed out for some outlet malls. And deals were found! I will have to share all of my finds later...but they were good!

Hope everyone is having a good week! I'll get caught up with everyone's posts soon!

April Fool's Day

I'm always thankful when April Fool's Day lands on a weekend or over spring break. This year I wasn't so lucky. I had sort of forgotten that it was April Fool's Day...well, I definitely reminded when the bell rang at 8am. It was then that the jokes started and just kept coming. Here's a little snippet of it:

Kid #1: I'm leaving early today. APRIL FOOLS!

Kid #2: I didn't do my homework. APRIL FOOLS!

Kid #3: My desk is clean. APRIL FOOLS!

Kid #4: I love broccoli! APRIL FOOLS!

Kid #5: I put something on your desk, Mrs. S. APRIL FOOLS!

Kid #6: Merry Christmas! APRIL FOOLS!

I have 25 kids in my class...so you can imagine the other 19 jokes. :) and then add another 20 more for those who needed to do one every hour. The best part was that they never waited for my reaction- they just shouted APRIL FOOLS!

And then there was:
Me: Okay, for math today you need to finish page 184 and 185.
Half of the Class: APRIL FOOLS...right! right?
The other half: What? April Fools? I don't get it!
Me: No, it's not a joke. You really do need to do those pages.
Class (all at different times): Oh, I thought...

Yeah, okay. Really? All day this has to go on?

Thank goodness that is over. And tomorrow is our last day of school before Spring Break! :)

"Spring " Cleaning

Yesterday, we woke up and decided to do some cleaning. I'm not going to lie- my pile of clothes in our bedroom had gotten ridiculous and I'm surprised that the dust bunnies didn't come alive, there were so many of them.

We got to the closet and my husband had the grand idea of really cleaning it. So, now there is a huge pile of clothes ready for Goodwill/E-bay. Too bad our "Spring" cleaning of the closet didn't bring us spring- it started snowing again here!

Anyways, I'm now checking the bids on the clothes I put up on e-bay every 10 seconds- not a very productive use of time. I also ended up binding on a jacket, so now I'm just hoping to earn that money back! :) But, really- it was a good deal- I promise!

Sunny-side Up

Well, we made it to Friday! Only 1 more report card to pass out for the year, no more parent-teacher conferences until next November, 4 more days until Spring Break...
things are looking good!

Speaking of Spring Break...here's where I will be in one week from today...


FLORIDA!!! I can't wait for that bright, sunny sun to hit my pale face!

Enjoy your weekends!

Sonic Saturdays

A Sonic resturant opened up in our town around Christmas time. The place is still crazy busy. It's pretty exciting that we have a Sonic since there are not any others anywhere near us- which probably sounds strange to those of you that are from other areas of the US, but really- it's quite exciting. Now, I don't have to see the Sonic comercials on TV and be angry that I have to watch it even though there are no Sonics by me. :)

On Saturdays, when we aren't busy, we've made our little treat to go have lunch at Sonic. I've tried a few different things which have all been delicious, but I really want to try some of their special drinks and/or desserts. There are just so many of them though and I don't want to pick the wrong one, so I always chicken out and just get a Diet Coke.

So...my question to all of you is...What is your favorite drink/treat to get from Sonic?

I think I'm losing my mind

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Here's a brief run down of my life.

-Tennis started this week. I don't know that I've mentioned that I coach JV tennis, but anyways, it started this week. I love coaching but I really dislike the logistics of everything. Thankfully, the weather is cooperating so far.

-I've become addicted to Veronica Mars. My sister-in-law let me borrow season 1 and I just didn't have time to watch it for a while. Then, on Friday night- Dan was out and I was home "working" on school work, so I decided to pop it in. Ah, how did I miss this show when it was on!

-School has been crazy lately. Every time I turn around, there is something else to add to my never-ending list of things to figure out and do. We have 4th grade chapel to organize for Friday, report cards are due on Monday, and conferences are next week Wednesday/Thursday. You can pretty much guess what I'll be working on this weekend.

-Count down to Spring Break=9 1/2 school days!!!

Productive Saturday

Yeah! We got our new coffee table this week. Instead of our table that had a wobbly leg, we now have this table:
Today has been quite a productive day! I cleaned out my whole car. I have a really bad habit of leaving my car a complete mess. I'm pretty sure that I could live out of my car for a week or so. Or I could...but now it is completely clean!

I also went out shopping with my mom. We wanted to hit up the 30% sale at GAP/Banana Republic/Old Navy. I found some cute shirts for spring!

Now all I have to check off my list is 25 report cards...

Hey Mister DJ

I just had the best ride home in the car. Every song that came on the radio was a song that I love! Thank you DJ for reading my mind and playing my favorite songs all in a row while I was in the car.

We've Made it to Tuesday

I know that a ton of people have posted already about The Bachelor, but I'll add to the list...
I love the show. It has it's issues, but since my suite mates and I bonded my freshman year of college by watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette- I've been been hooked to the drama.

But really?! Was last night necessary? I had heard what was supposedly going to happen, so it wasn't so much a shock. I just can't believe that I spent 3 hours of my life watching that happen. Grrrr. I've heard that rumor that ABC set the whole situation up which is even more sickening.

Enough of that.

I'm now watching American Idol/Biggest Loser and trying to grade papers. I say trying since I have this horrible habit lately of leaving school saying that I will do the work at home and then the morning comes and the papers are still left ungraded.

Three more random things:
1. My keyboard works again! Yeah! Well, actually I got a new computer and have to send the other back...either way it is fixed.
2. I had my first taste of poutine while we were visiting Dan's family this weekend.3. I also saw my first bit of curling. Two very Canadian things and finally after 5 years of dating a Canadian I did these things. :)

Brken Keybard

My keybard is brken which makes it hard t tye mst wrds. Tw keys are brken. Can yu figure ut what nes are?
A relacement is sused t be cming sn! Crss yur fingers that this is true! :)

Puzzles

So, I needed something in my classroom to beat the winter blues and add some excitement...the puzzle table was created:
It's a big hit. The puzzle is a bit tricky- it's an I Spy puzzle, but with a little help to get started, they are really into it.

And after being at school last week, I caught the puzzle excitement and made my husband go with me to buy a puzzle for our coffee table. I think he picked the hardest one. We spent the weekend working on a 2000 piece puzzle of Las Vegas...and are still working on it! Sounds like fun, huh?

mmm...

I'm just about to bite into this little piece of goodness...
my chocolate letter from my Christmas stocking

It is a miracle that it has lasted this long. :)

Spending the rest of the night savoring the taste and watching The Bachelor!