New doggie friends!

I love Spring Break! Oh wait ... my Spring Break is already over ... but Julie's break just started! She decided to come home for the entire week & that makes me happy, because it's always fun to catch up! Julie was brave and made the trek home WITH Hayes, her sweet pup! I met Hayes last summer when I was visiting Mike & Julie in Ohio. She is definitely still a puppy & this was highlighted tonight! Her high energy wore 4-year-old Minnie out in just a matter of minutes. (P.S. Minnie turns 4 on March 31st! I can't believe I've had her for four years!)

Getting a picture of the two pups sitting still was just as hard as you'd think it would be. I'll call this picture a success, even though neither dog is looking at me! Minners & Hayes almost look like they could be related.

An action shot. Both dogs seemed to be tired before we even left the house. When they weren't walking right between us, they were pulling us and getting their leashes all tangled up.

This is my new favorite angle for photos. I read a great blog by a woman who lives in rural Kansas, Whatever, and the writer just went on a Mission trip to Africa. She said that she was worried someone would be upset by her taking pictures of the people, street scenes & living conditions, that she frequently took pictures by holding her camera at her hip, aiming & shooting. I wondered if I could do this & how the pictures would turn out ... and in the past 2 weeks, those have been some of my favorite shots. Maybe because you can't over-think the picture! Try it!

Thanks for the walk, Julie & Hayes! I'm glad the dogs got to meet and we got to catch up. I'm mostly glad that Spring has decided to show up in Kansas! :)

There's no place like home

Oh look! A pretty goose. Sitting on her eggs. She found a nice spot now that it's Spring and the snow is (hopefully) gone.

Wait a minute! There is a sign to warn you to leave Mother Goose alone. That's strange.

Now do you see her? There she is! Right in the middle of a median in the Macy's parking lot. If you happen to see Mother Goose & her babies crossing 119th Street in a few weeks, please be polite. She's worked hard to take care of her babies and all she wants to do is get them to a pond across the street!

I think there's a joke in here somewhere ...

Why did the goose cross the street?

To make a nest for her babies at Town Center??? Surely one of you can come up with a better punch line!

Thanks to the snow, I got this post finished!

Take a peek back to June of 2009 to see how much Ellen has changed this year!

Talking up a storm!

Ellen spent all Tuesday with her Aunt Betsy! I took over 100 pictures during the day so that I can do another recap of our day like I did last June. It will take me a while to sort through all those pictures to pick my favorites ... so for now, here's a little taste of how we spent our day.

I learned a long time ago, that the Photo Booth program on my Mac is good for hours (okay, maybe minutes) of entertainment with Ellen! Yesterday, I used the video feature for the first time. The first video I took showed Ellen's sign language that she's learned, but for some reason the sound didn't record. This one shows some of the words & sounds she knows.

Enjoy!

I would love to be in this room!

I've never watched Jimmy Kimmel on TV ... I'm more of a Fallon/O'Brien fan. Somehow, when I was flipping through channels last night, this was on and I stopped to pay attention as soon as I saw the beginning.

The clip is a bit long, but I think it's HILARIOUS! Check it out! :) "Show of handsome!"

If I had an extra $98 in my bank account ...

... I would TOTALLY buy these cute terrier book ends from the Mission Road Antique Mall.

Unfortunately, I have lots of other things in my world that could use that $98, so they are still there. If any of YOU want to buy them (aren't they cute?), then could I at least puppy sit for you sometimes? Tee hee!

What a great visit!

Last week at school, we were lucky enough to have Susan Stevens Crummel visit our building and give an author presentation. We used to have an author visit every year and we've since decided to save up our money and splurge on a really great author every two or three years. When our librarian, Jill, told us that Susan was coming to our building, I didn't know much about her. Jill read one of her books each week when my kids came in for library check out.

Many of her books are about dogs. Of course, I liked that! Her presentation was over an hour long & the kids were engaged and excited the entire time. That's hard to do! I was laughing, I was interested in hearing what she had to say ... and I walked away wishing that I had some writing and/or illustrating skills!

Here is Susan with one of the many puppets that she brought to act out parts of her stories. Susan is the author and she partners with her sister, Janet Stevens, or Janet's best friend, Dorothy Donohue, to finish the artwork in her books.

Aunt Betsy & cousin Minnie were nice enough to get some books for Ellen. We took them over yesterday & she was happily flipping through the pages. Both books had doggies on the covers and Ellen waved hi to the dogs! :)

Here is the first book, Help Me, Mr. Mutt! It's a book where dogs have written to Mr. Mutt to ask for advice on all their "people" problems. Check out the autograph!

Here is a sample of one of the letters. Overdressed in Oklahoma writes, concerned about the amount of clothes that his owners are dressing him in.

And here's the funny reply. Be sure to click on the picture to look at the graph that compares the breed of a dog vs. how often they are dressed up!

I loved the illustrations in this book! The yarn in this illustration looks so real, that I actually touched the page. Janet punched holes in her original artwork & laced the yarn through. Then it showed up like this in the book!

Minnie got City Dog, Country Dog for Ellen. It is about a book about 2 dog friends (based on City Mouse, Country Mouse). The City dog, Henri T. LaPooch lives in Paris and his friend, Vincent Van Dog lives in the country.

The book has lots of French in it, which I thought would be fun for Ellen. This book has illustrations made out of all cut paper. They also looked like they were 3D.

Here is an example of the "real" artwork in the book and the letters that Henri & Vincent wrote back and forth.

Here are the two dogs visiting in Paris, at the Moulin Rouge. In the end, they realize that they like their lives better in their original homes, but they will continue to be pen pals.

If you're looking for new books for your little one ... or a dog lover ... be sure to check out Susan's books! Some other great ones are The Great Fuzz Frenzy and All In One Hour!

Enjoy!

This is why I love Target!

You don't have to twist my arm too hard to get me to go on a shopping trip to Target, or the Red Circle Boutique as Jilly calls it. :) Thanks to my teacher salary, most of my clothes/accessory shopping happens at Target, Old Navy, Gap, Kohl's, TJMaxx, and Marshall's. If I made more money, I'd probably be shopping at those places anyway. I like their stuff, and it's cheap enough that when things start to be worn out from wear or I don't like them anymore ... I'm okay with getting rid of those things.

A few years ago, I found a super cute pair of gray & white zebra print ballet flats and I've worn the stew out of them. I think they might have even been on sale for $10! They need to go in the trash, but I wear them so much, that I needed something to replace them.

Then, I saw these cute flats on a co-worker & asked where she got them. I was afraid they might be out of my budget. I don't think I've ever spent more than $60 on shoes. I'm a shoes bargain shopper!

She told me they were from Target! Yippee! Remember the last time I found cute, comfortable work shoes at Target? I told you all about them ... I think a few of you even got them. I wear them all the time, and actually wore them yesterday!

I was at Target Monday night and was lucky enough to find a pair in my size! Everytime I go to Target to get a specific pair of shoes, it's like every woman in Johnson County wears the same size, because they are all gone. And guess what else? They are just $13.00! Perfect for me.

I wore them to school today because I had a feeling we'd be having indoor recess. I don't have any socks (or not-socks) to wear with them. They were VERY comfortable & didn't rub on my toes or the backs of my heels. I noticed as I was walking a lot today through the halls, that it seemed like my feet were pounding on the hard floor. They don't have the best sole support, but I'm not planning on wearing them every day.

Just wanted to pass the good shoe news along to my friends ... be sure and let me know if you have other shoe suggestions for me!