He is the reason...

...for the season. Needed to share this. May you find hope and peace this Christmas, and may it last all year long.

The warmest and brightest to you and yours...

Just wanted to quickly post this...we will not be getting our cards out in time for Christmas but here's a peek. We love you all. So much. Our hearts are full this Christmas. We know we are blessed beyond measure and look for ways daily to share with others. Hold your loved ones near this Christmas. Count the many blessings in your life, not the least of which is His unconditional and boundless love for you. May it be merry and bright at your house all year long...

P.S. Just noticed this. We will definitely fit some time in over our Christmas break to share some love and some snowflakes. It seems like such a small thing, but I think it could have a big impact for good.

First day of 4K!

Well, school has been in session for a whole nine weeks now.  I know this because not only am I a teacher (which is still the best. job. ever. thank you very much. other than motherhood of course, but that goes without saying) but because Sweet Pea is in school now. 4K. It's the big time. She's not full days yet but she's every day and she is into it in a big way. And I am glad. I hope she keeps that "I'm so happy to be going to school because learning is fun and I love my teacher" feeling for as long as possible. I work with too many kids who have decided to quit. At everything. Yes, I do work in a high school and some may say that high school students, teenagers specifically, are like that. But I think that's still way to young to give up on life and your future. Maybe I should take this picture to school with me. I could project it on the smartboard. Maybe they could take a lesson from my Sweet Pea. School is AWESOME. Learning something new is FANTASTIC. It's okay to LOVE books, and numbers, and letters, and playtime, and craft time, and gym, and friends, and teachers, and even homework! It's COOL to know things! YAY for school!

Happy Halloween I think

This year, and I knew it was coming, my little Pumpkin found her voice. She did not want to be one of the Three Musketeers, or Yoda to our Princess Leia and Hans Solo, she didn't want to be Red Riding Hood to our Big Bad Wolf and Granny. This is our all time favorite Halloween to date:

We got the lobster costume online. We made the lobster bibs and even designed a little restaurant logo for "Pumpkin's Lobster Shack" in photoshop. How the heck can it get any better than that??? I should have known it was going to be all downhill from there. It may even be the end of "family" costumes for good, eh?

At the ripe old age of four she has her own ideas, her own plans. She asked if she could be a Lalaloopsy. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But here she is, and she IS sort of cute I guess. Crazy girl.

She's also attached herself to a very large, hairy spider decoration from Walmart. It's like her new best friend. She treats it like a stuffed animal. No, she treats it like a pet. It's so weird. Or horrifying. The other night I went in to check on her before I went to bed and she was asleep, looking like a perfect little angel, except for the big, black, hairy spider she had resting on her chest. So creepy...

Attention, attention

I interrupt your regularly scheduled Sunday evening activities to inform you that I am going to try this posting thing again...you know the old adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"? Does this hold true with blogging? I also want to inform you that I am going to try to make small changes here and there to this ol' bloggaroo to make it easier to navigate and view on various web browsers. I've found, and this has also been a source of my apathy in regards to posting and updating, that it doesn't look right on all web browsers. Right now I'm on Google Chrome and it looks great. If I look at it on any other it's terrible. Frowny face. I'll figure it out. In the meantime, hang in there. I really like visiters. Here is a a tiny taste of some fun we had this summer:

It was wonderful. And I have lots to say about it. Summer I mean. I just haven't had the motivation or the time to tell anyone about it. So sad. But, as I said above, I'm ready to try again. And I'm ready to get creative again as well. That is all. Returning you back to your regularly scheduled Sunday evening activities. 

Why I stink at blogging...

I don't post.

Anything.
 
Ever.
 
Nothing.
 
At all.

Okay, slight exaggeration but almost exactly spot on.

And today I'm posting something but it's not anything that I've worked on recently and some of this isn't even mine. I'm trying to update a google site that I use at work and am having trouble with the video in my google docs. So I am going to try the "embed" gadget. Hopefully this works. Here goes. Whether or not it works for me, you will still be able to enjoy some videos and artwork that my students and I have worked on. Cheers.

 

 

 

 

Can't resist a steal

We'll be traveling this month and we're excited.  We really haven't been on many vacations, Superman and I, in the 11 years we've been married.  Maybe three?  And I don't count our honeymoon.  Which was like a two day thing a few hours from home.  

We'll have others with us on this trip including littles so I decided to make some "busy bags" for them for the long car ride.  

I found these bags at Best Buy of all places.  They were UGLY, to say the least.  But sturdy and perfect in every other way, including the fact that they were a penny.  Yep, one little cent each.  So great.

They are made of an extra heavy-duty felt.  I have lots of felt, fabric, ribbon, and buttons in my stash, so when I discovered that I couldn't remove the icky embellishments off the bags I just hot glued stuff on top.

I started with large rectangular pieces of felt that I glued fabric to.  These were glued to the bags.  I cut out big felt letters and glued those to the bags.  Then I made some felt flowers and glued those to the girly bags, and added ribbons.  I glued some colorful buttons to the boy bags. I think the kiddos will love them and probably use them the whole week, not just in the car. I spent a whole four cents.  That makes me smile.  That means that I can use the money I saved to fill them up.