Welcome summer!

I've been a total slacker when it comes to this blog. Ugh. I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month. I'm still posting daily on the photo blog for those of you that don't check every day.

The View Across Town

I'm just about 10 full days into summer, and I've had plenty of time to relax and be lazy. Of course, this happened after I spent my first official day of summer studying for my National Boards exam. Then, I took said exam on Saturday the 4th. I'm now ALL DONE with my Boards for this year and have to wait until early December to find out if I've passed. After that, I had two days of a Leadership Team conference for the district. When that was over last Wednesday at noon ... I've caught up on lots of relaxing!

My DVR is officially caught up and is down to 0% full ... it hasn't been that way since I first got it 3 years ago. This means that I can upgrade to my fancy HD-DVR to show off the nice picture on my fancy, new TV. I also have taken time to catch up on sleep. I've done a little bit of reading. A little bit of pool time. A little bit of shopping. And lots of time with friends.

I don't have any more requirements this summer ... I decided to take the summer off from tutoring. I felt I deserved it after working harder than I ever have this year. This will also allow me to get a few projects completed around home and make more time for family and friends. I'm going to work on getting back in the groove of writing for this blog. I have a few posts already planned, so they will be scheduled to post soon. I just wanted to let you all know that I am still around ... I just needed to take a little hiatus from the blog. Glad to be back in this creative world.

Too busy to post about the last few weeks, but I can do it quickly with pictures!

I started back to work (unofficially) in my classroom early in August. It takes a lot of time to get things unpacked, uncovered, and organized. I was happy to head back in with my new camera, to share my room with better photographs. Here is my new calendar set ... may not be exciting to most, but I was happy to have something fresh this year (even though it was a hand-me-down)!

Here is my new, FABULOUS, fabric banner that the author of one of my favorite blogs, Whatever, made for me. I found a picture of this banner on one of her blog posts & knew she was the creator. I left a comment & she emailed me later that night! After much encouragement on Megan's end that I could make one myself, I thought it would look better if I could pay her to make one for me. It arrived just in time for school to start! It was the perfect way to tie in my current, bright decorations. The kids really love it, too!

Here is poor Minnie after her day of shots with Dr. Jed. This year wasn't as bad as years past, thanks to antihistamines the day before, during and after her vaccinations. She sure was tired, though :(

The unbelievable sunflowers in Jill's garden! Look at how much taller it is than Mitzi. There were beautiful orangey pink ones, too!

I needed a change & asked for your advice. Molly sent me the link to this idea. I liked it, but had another idea instead.

Jill helped me one night to empty out the jars, clean the jars and then fill the jars with various glass pebbles. I LOVE the way they look now!

I finally got to put my Jayhawk license plate on my new car. I bought it the year that I got my VW Bug, and minutes after I bought it, I realized I didn't have a front plate. Now I can share my KU pride!

Enjoyed my last official day of summer at the pool. This summer, I was fascinated with the clouds and the reflection lines in the pool water. I didn't have my camera with me at the pool very often, but I did make sure to take some final pictures.

As a family, we went out for a "Going Back to School" dinner the night before my meetings started. I picked Los Cabos in Mission Farms because of their giant patio outside and because the weather had finally decided to cooperate a bit. This little one was begging for "moe sasa" (translation: more salsa) during the entire meal. She even liked the spicier ones that I couldn't handle :)

At the end of our meal, we saw three vans that held hot air balloons. We stuck around long enough to watch them inflate & take off. Quite the experience for Ellen!

Great night for picture-taking, too. I was sad I had just removed my new Canon from my purse and had to use my point & shoot for these pictures, but they still turned out.

This year at school, we voted on a Western/Cowboy theme. We've never had an all-school theme before, but it was really fun to see how everyone decorated. I just did a few things here & there, because I really like my regular decorations. Becky, down the hall from me, created this mural out of bulletin board paper & wrapping paper. SO FUN!

The first weekend after school started, some KC friends flew out to Columbus, Ohio to surprise Julie for an early 30th birthday party! We went straight to the party from the airport and she was BEYOND surprised!

The next day, Mike & Julie opened up their house to all the family and friends for a BBQ. My camera was passed around the table for everyone to play. Becca changed some settings for me, and took this great picture. I have a lot to learn!

Here's a picture of all the girls. Exactly a year ago, we were together for our 10 year reunion. Glad we got to celebrate together!

I hope to have more updates this year, but it's going to be a busy one. I'm going to be working towards my National Board Certification, which will mean about 300 hours of work (outside of my job) between now and March when my portfolio is due. If I become a hermit and have a hard time keeping in touch this year, now you'll know why. Writing here and continuing with my 365 photo blog have been easy ways for me to keep in touch with others, even though it's not face-to-face time. Keep checking back from time to time!

Come on in!

Tomorrow morning is the first day of school! I've been up in my classroom for about 2 weeks, even though our official work days didn't start until last Friday. As always, things really started to come together in the last few hours.

Tonight, we had our Popsicle Pop-In where I get to meet kids and parents for the first time and they get to see the classroom for the first time. The third grade classrooms are right next to ours, so some kids I knew really well, and some I hadn't ever seen. They all seemed excited to be there!

My room finally came together. I have some new decorations, new bulletin boards, new name-tags, new books, new rules ...

... and a new mess! Way to start off the 2010-2011 school year, Betsy!

UGH!

Off to Chicago!

** Pretend Julie is in this picture, too! **

Yippee! Time for a vacation. Today, I left for Chicago with Kristin. Julie is joining us from Columbus. We'll be staying with Emilie! It's been so long since I've visited Chicago ... I'm almost embarrassed. This picture was from July of 2007 (I CAN'T believe it's been that long) when I stayed with Em & KK for close to a week over the 4th. Then in May of 2008, I went again for Julie's bachelorette party. Since 2008, I've been basically stuck in Kansas City with a lack of funds for plane tickets and pricey weekends out of town. Paying a mortgage really cut into the travel/fun category of my budget :(

However, I started saving up again & planned a trip out this summer. It is just what I need!

I'm taking my laptop, simply so I can upload pictures each day and hopefully get my daily photo posted on the other blog. Keep checking back there to see what is happening in Chicago.

We have dinner plans, tickets to a Cubs game (my first), plans to head to the Taste of Lincoln Avenue street fest, we'd like to squeeze in pedicures and pool time, and mostly we're just excited about having time to talk and catch up.

Hoping the weather is neither beastly hot nor full of thunderstorms like it has been here in Kansas City. I'm taking my new Canon Rebel with me; I think that will be a great opportunity for me to get used to the settings. I can't wait to report when I get back ... stay tuned for pictures!

Your day

Happy Father's Day!

I chose this picture for my Father's Day post for a few reasons.

1) It is a great family picture ... minus our additions since it was taken (Erik, Minnie, Ellen).

2) It is summertime and this was taken in late July many years ago.

3) It is funny to see us in old pictures.

4) It is a picture taken from Camp Waldemar, the camp where Molly & I each spent 7 summers between the ages of 9 and 16. Today for Father's Day, I gave Dad a book called P.S. I Hate It Here! It is a compilation of hilarious notes home from summer camp. Dad was the KING of sending us mail while we were at Waldemar. They even got us to record 1-sided conversations on blank tapes & send those home in addition to letters.

Thanks for being such a great dad, and for being the KING of so many aspects of our lives: planning family road trips, teaching us to keep our cars clean & gas tanks filled (even if I had to meet you in DeSoto for cash to fill said car), helping us with school projects (like staying up late to bail me out when I've procrastinated too long), sending us to great colleges, taking care of your Granddog & Granddaughter when needed, providing lots of laughs, sharing your love of photography with us AND supporting us in whatever we do!

Love you, Dad!

Tie-Dying is NOT for perfectionists!

What? You don't think I'm a perfectionist? I guess I don't think I am either ... but when it comes to crafty things, I don't have a lot of patience with a difficult learning curve.

When I want to start a new craft, I jump all in! I buy all the materials at once. I think this new craft will become my new favorite hobby & it's okay to spend all my time and money on it. P.S. DON'T ever look in my craft closet at all the yarn, stamps, scrapbook supplies and paint that haven't been touched for months.

When Mom taught me how to knit, I learned, but that was it. Just knitting. Don't ask me to turn my stitches around to purl. Don't ask me to read directions. Don't ask me to follow a pattern.

Then I thought I could easily pick up crocheting in a short amount of time to make a baby blanket for Molly when she was already about 5 months pregnant. I became so frustrated with my hands that were stuck in knitting mode and I almost stabbed myself with my crochet hook. That was the end of my crochet craft time. It's a good thing Mom convinced me NOT to buy the yarn & pattern books I wanted to when I first walked into Michael's.

And here we are to the new (to me) craft portion of this story.

Jill mentioned that she had tie-dyed some t-shirts with her yearbook students as a fun end-of-the-year activity. She then bought a few tie-dye kits since summer was quickly approaching. I've never tie-dyed before ... or if I have, I don't remember it.

We FINALLY found time to get together for a belated birthday BBQ and to try out our dying skills. Adam was our resident expert since he was apparently a tie-dying fool in his former life :) Jill pulled out all the dyes and a giant handful of rubber bands. And we were off!

Jilly & Mitz working hard to get the perfect twists & bands on their shirts.

Adam & Heather, doing more of the same.

Here I am with finished product #1. Leggings for Ellen. My title refers to the fact that I had a VERY difficult time understanding that there is no right or wrong way to band up your fabric. There also was a serious amount of dye mixing! COLORS MIXING UP! Me no likey! I like things to be just so! I used yellow & blue on her pants with the hopes they would mix up just a bit to form some green bands.
This is the second shirt I made, and I did a bulls-eye pattern for Jill's shirt.

Here's all our equipment. It was messy ... also something I don't like. Good thing Jilly came prepared with gloves. That is my other tank top in the ziploc baggie on the bottom left of the picture.

Jill was dressed for the evening. This is the shirt she made with her yearbook kids. She had great tips for us after seeing how her first shirt came out: wet your shirt, because the dye seems to soak in better, and continue to squeeze dye on the fabric, even when you think you are done, because the insides need to get color, too! This picture also shows her breaking Adam's cardinal rule ... and cutting the rubber bands off BEFORE her shirt had dried! She gave it about an hour.

I think it came out great! She then was able to hang in on their clothesline to dry over night.

Here are my finished products:

Ellen's leggings. I'm hoping she'll grow at some point in the future so she can wear them! They are pretty cute with the ruffles on the bottom. I wished I had picked other colors, because I didn't realize the yellow would be that bright. I also thought the colors wouldn't mix as much as they did. The biggest challenge will be finding a shirt to match these pants.

And here's the tank-top I made for myself. I haven't washed it since it's dried, but I LOVE the way the pattern came out!

Not too bad for my first attempts at tie-dying, huh? Who wants to join us for round two?

Too pretty to pass by without taking a picture

Found right outside the door at school. A sign that Spring is here ... oh, and we have just 6 more full weeks of school! :) You can find teachers all around the country counting down the days!

It's happened so fast!

Tomorrow marks the day that I officially report back to school. This weekend is my 10 year high school reunion. My students (26 this year!) start on Monday. Next week will be crazy while I try & get settled into a routine and then before I can blink, we have Meet the Teacher night on Thursday.

Basically, what I'm saying is that if I didn't see Ellen today, it wasn't going to happen for almost 2 weeks :( She's at the point now, that she's changing so much and doing so many new things ... I don't like to go too long without seeing her because I'll miss something. I know how lucky I am to be able to live 15 minutes away from my niece. My friends that have family across the country ... well, I don't know how they do it! I think Ellen is really starting to recognize me, which makes a really long, crappy day a zillion times better! It may have something to do with the high-pitched, "Ellen! I've missed you! How's my baby?" that I give her every time I walk in the door. That is also paired with waving my arms above my head and clapping for her! Surely she's thrilled to see ME ... not the dog & pony show ... right? ;)

So anyway, tonight Minnie & I went over for dinner, a bit of crafting and to hang out.

Look at this big girl! She doesn't look like much of a baby anymore :(

And look at why she was smiling so big! She's standing up ... almost all on her own! No, she's still not a fan of tummy time, rolling over, or thinking too hard about crawling ... but she seemed to love this! We know that Ellen is the perfect product of her two parents because of her large head & short body. You can't really tell this is the case when she's laying down or sitting up. However, when she stood up for the first time, I couldn't stop laughing because she looks like a little lollipop ... big round head on tiny torso and legs! :)

Here she is chewing on her gums. The poor thing is getting a tooth & you can tell she's feeling it!

Ellen is finally to the age where she likes to hold onto a lovey. She even gets one in bed with her. Molly, if you aren't too careful, she might grow up sleeping with a baby blanket far into high school ... and college ... and her adult life! :)

So excited to see Minnie that she just about flew away! You should have seen her bounce & wave her arms & giggle! Ellen is so stingy with her laughs ... of course, Minnie was the one to get her to squeal time after time after time!

Now you get to see the two of them in action! We know that the girls have played very well together this summer ... however, now Ellen has a love of grabbing things around her. {You should click through to the link above, I'm amazed at how much Ellen has changed in just 2 months!} It's one thing when it's sunglasses or earrings, but Ellen's Mommy was starting to get worried when she was grabbing & pulling on Minnie's muzzle. She's got a pretty strong grasp. We tried to split them up and after a while, Minnie was pretty cautious about getting too close. I guess it's MUCH better that Minnie be afraid of Ellen than the other way around.

Thanks for a GREAT night, Molly, Erik & Ellen! It was the perfect end to a long day ... and it helped me relax before the next few full work days! Hugs & Kisses!

Burgers & Bowling!

Two weekends ago, we decided to go out to dinner & then to enjoy a few games of bowling.

We started out at Blanc Burger. ALWAYS a great meal, but that night the restaurant was filled with smoke (from what we assumed was something that burned in the kitchen), and the diners that were waiting for a table have very little room to stand, so they started spilling into the tables area. I've since talked to 2 other people who also said Blanc was smokey when they were there. This means a) their cooks need more training or b) their ventilation system needs more work.

Here is Adam's burger. See the GIANT onion ring on it. Yummy!

And, of course, we got shopping carts full of fries & rings. This time we got the truffle fries (not my favorite, but everyone else likes them), the sweet potato fries (definitely my favorite) and the beer-battered onion rings (first time to try them, and I liked them)!

Then we headed over to College Lanes to bowl. Other than the grandparents that were there with their 6 grandkids, we were the only people in the entire place! I had a coupon for buy one game, get one game free, so that was nice!

I was happy that the pink bowling balls were the perfect 8 pound size for me. Mitz has her own bowling ball & shoes. I'm jealous :)

Great pic!

Something about this picture cracks me up.

"Lefty" Adam getting ready to bowl. None of us did particularly well, but we got better as we got into the second game.

I'm pretty sure this is our first time. We totaled our points from both games & Mitzi kicked our asses!

Finally, some other people started coming to bowl. This was the lanes next to us with 6 college-aged kids. Thank goodness they came & were buying food & beer, because we were starting to feel bad for the waitress that worked the bar there.

It was a fun night! I'd like to play more often, and maybe improve my skills before next year's Turkey Bowl at work! :) I took tons of video on my Flip, with the plan to practice my editing & make a bowling montage. That hasn't happened yet, but when (if) I figure it out, I'll be sure & post that, too!

Momma! I don't feel too good :(

It's August. That means 2 things to me. 1) It's time for summer to end and for me to go back to work. 2) It's time for Minners to get her yearly shots.

Neither are particularly good news, but Minnie having to get her vaccinations has NEVER been an easy thing. This is year 4 and we've always had issues since she reacts poorly to all her shots, I think mostly she's allergic to her rabies shot.

Last night, she knew something was up. She refused to lay down on the couch with me & instead found this spot on the staircase. Giving me the stink eye ... .. .

And then this morning, she didn't want to come downstairs, even when she heard me pour her food. She's a smart pup!

The car ride is normally a huge treat for her. She loves to sit on my lap (please refrain from lectures about how this is an unsafe spot ... I'd rather have her still, here, than jumping all over the car) and watch for the neighborhood landmarks she knows.

And, she's normally very excited when we pull up here, but this morning, I had to literally drag her out of the car & carry her inside. She used to love coming here because all the employees are so friendly & they know EVERYTHING about Minnie. However, the last time she went, I dropped her off for the weekend. First time to be there for more than a day.

I went inside to fill out paperwork, and I was doing my best to be positive & not let Minnie know how nervous I was. Every time she gets her shots, I get all worked up. She is my baby & I don't like to see her hurting. When I left, she tried to follow me out the door. One of the girls had to pick her up & take her in back.

While Minnie was getting her shots & staying so they could keep an eye on her, I decided to head up the street to get some more work done in my classroom. I worked very hard, from about 8:00am until 4:45pm. I did take time for a lunch break with my friend Chelsey AND a break to hang out with Amy & Griffey!

Finally, it was time to pick the girl up. They said she did great & if she had any reactions, to give her some Benadryl. I had to pull my car over on the drive home to put the little girl in the grass so she could get sick. Then, as soon as we got in the condo, her eyes started puffing up again. Poor thing!

Here she is telling me she doesn't feel well. You can't tell from this picture, but her eyes were swelling up, ears bright red, muzzle was puffing up, too.

Then, the Benadryl kicked in and she got a little nap in. The puffiness in her eyes went away, too.

She woke up & was panting to go outside & see the neighbors. I was on the phone with Mom telling her that Minnie seemed to be feeling much better & then she got sick again. She finally laid down on the chair & she's still sleeping away.

It's been a very big day for my little Minners & a stressful one for me. Every year, I hope that she's outgrown her allergies to the shots, and every year it hurts more and more when she feels crummy. Just wanted to share about our eventful day! The good news is that I made so much progress at work, that I'm not going back until Monday which means that I can stick around here & relax with Minnie!