Spring Break!

Ahhh it's been a busy start to the new year.

I am currently enjoying my spring break and am so happy that there is still almost a week and a half to go.

I have a lot of grading to do - research papers- but I've been able to get a few fun things put into the mix as well.

Had lunch with Nicole and her sisters yesterday, and then planned a craft day with Nicole and Gina for Saturday.

The big event in April is going to be my 30th birthday party.

The Nerdy Thirty. I am going to have Harry Potter themed food, Star Wars decorations and Rainbow everything. I was pretty much in love with Rainbow Bright when I was a kid, so I'm reclaiming it in my adulthood. I've invited a lot of people (right now I think we're hovering around 30 people, but there are a few more to add to the list).

I've been working on the house slowly but surely to make sure it looks nice for the party. Thank goodness for Pintrist. Holy cow are there a ton of great ideas out there for partys, cleaning and various other amazing things that clearly need to be in everyone's life.

I am going to attempt to complete a few craft ideas while I'm not at work so that I don't have to stress when it gets closer to the party. I'll be sure to take pictures of it as I create the wonderfulness that will help create 'the Nerdy Thirty'!

Loss

I’ve wanted to write about this for the last month, but I don’t know how. There aren’t enough words to explain the situation. There are not enough tears to cry. My Best Friend lost her beautiful boy just a month before he was due to come into this world. It happened in late October but I’ve been unable to wrap my mind around it. I’m not sure that I know how to talk about it now. But I’m going to try. It’s something I’ve been having a hard time with. And when I have a hard time with something I have a want, a desire to write about it. I guess it’s the English teacher in me.

She went to the hospital because she didn’t feel him moving. When they did the ultrasound they couldn’t find a heartbeat. And the tears overflow. Even seeing this ‘on paper’ hurts in a way that I can’t explain. I was able to go to the hospital the day it happened. I needed to be there. I know I’m not family but I just had to be near her somehow.

I’ve had loss in my life – but this is beyond compare. There are no words for this.

The next day I went to work. Looking back I don’t know how I made it through the day. But again – I needed to be with people. I knew if I sat at home I might just implode. I work with amazing people. They are wonderful friends to me. We were able to cry together and pray together and hold each other and cry some more.

As the hours past and the reality set in, I just kept asking why. I’m not someone who attends church – but I do believe in God. I pray to myself often. I talk to God often. But I have not talked out loud to God in a long time. Over the past six weeks, I’ve talked to God often. I’ve asked for strength. I’ve asked for guidance. I’ve prayed for healing.

I know that baby is in heaven. I know he’s with God. But I want to know why he can be here with my beautiful friend and her amazing husband. I want to know why this had to happen. Bren and I have talked a lot and we know that we’ll never be able to understand what happened. I just hope that I can find peace. I hope that My friend will have peace and healing, and that she and her husband are able to move forward in life without the devastating pain that has been placed upon them.

I know that this will be with them forever. It will be with me forever. It will be something that I think of everyday for a very long time. I know that when I am blessed with a baby of my own I’ll be afraid. I know that there is nothing I can do to stop that fear from coming – but I do know that I can find a quiet spot in my mind to get through that fear and that anxiety. I hope that when She is blessed again with a pregnancy that I can help her find a place of peace and healing.

To be honest – I’m angry with God. I know he’s okay with that. There have been some days when I have felt like I couldn’t get out of bed, and this didn’t happen to me. The strength and faith and peace that she has been able to find in this has been awe inspiring. She and I have cried together but we have also been able to be our normal selves together – laugh and joke and be us. But at the same time I hate that our normal life has been able to come back to us. I wish that her little boy was here with us while we laugh and play. Her strength of character is something that overwhelms me. I know that when I’m having a hard time I think about her strength and it gives me strength to get through whatever sadness overwhelms me.

I know that this is a long journey. I know that there are rough days ahead. She is coming back to school in January and I know that it’s going to be important for me to get strong and prepare for whatever she might need.

Sometimes I feel bad for wanting to help. I don’t want to overstep my boundaries as a friend. She has two sisters who are amazing and I would never want to push my way into somewhere I don’t belong. This is my insecurity, because when I talked to her about this issue or fear or whatever you want to call it she was amazing and said everything a best friend should. She is a source of strength for so many people and I want to be able to be that for her.

A mutual friend of ours said that she and I are “Girl Soul Mates”. I think it must be true. She and I can just look at each other and know what the other one means. There are days ahead that I know I will not see coming. It’s going to be little things that trigger sadness. It’s always that way with loss. Just when you think you aren’t going to be the woman in Target crying in the isle way – something happens and there you are blubbering like a crazy person. Those are the days that make me most nervous. Because I can’t always be there to protect her. I couldn’t protect her from this pain. When you love someone you want to protect them and there is no protection from this.

My prayer has been and will continue to be to find peace and healing, to find a quiet place in my heart for that little boy to live on. He will live a life through the memories of people who love him. I and I do love him so.

I'm alive I promise. I've been busy. Grading papers and spending time with friends.

Baby Blankies

I was super excited to make two little blankies for my friends upcoming babies. So I googled ribbon blanket and found this AMAZING tutorial

I looked at it a few times and went for it.

First I found all of my ribbons. I like to scrapbook and so I went digging through my stash to see what I could find.

So I made sure I was clever enough to put the right sides together. It was a little hard because I am a beginner sewer. Flannel is hard to figure out people! Both sides are soft!

Once I figured out the fabric, I made sure to set out all of the ribbons. That was the fun part. Cut the ribbons to 5” strips. Fold them in half and then pin them in the right spot. Remember to put in markers so you have a spot to flip the piece right side out.

Here are all of the ribbons pinned in place. I put 5 ribbons on each side. So there would be an amazing 20 ribbon pieces total.

Then I sewed and sewed until my heart was full of joy.

I flipped it inside out – or right side in. This one is for my friend Sunny’s little girl. We don’t know the name yet. Sunny won’t tell us. I have had two dreams about the name – So far if I’m right the child’s name will be Cherry Zuzu or Concept Zoe. I’m sure whatever Sunny ends up picking – it will be wonderful (and I’m sure cooler than my weird dream names)

Here is what the finished edging looks like. I went all the way around the blankie again so it would sit flat. It also re-enforces  the ribbons.

I can’t wait to hear how the little pumpkins enjoy their blankies.

Showered with Love

I have two wonderful friends who are having babies.

I love them so much and so I just had to throw them a shower. Because Sunny is having a girl and Nicole is having a boy I wanted to have a theme that would cover both genders. So my friends came to Fall in love with their little pumpkins.

We had dips for apples and veggies. and I made some of our decorations. I used an amazing Tutorial that Tasha put together over at Creation Corner. She made it so easy to get these done! And she is right – you will want to make about 100 of these. So fun. SO FUN!

We had chips and the amazing buffalo chicken dip that our friend Jess makes. Jess helped with the shower and I couldn’t have done it without her. Really I feel so lucky to have these kind of friends in my life. Speaking of friends this next picture is of my friends Ellen, Lesly and Andrea. Andrea now teaches at another high school in our district so we don’t get to see her that often. Boy is it a treat when we all get together. These women are so wonderful to each other. It’s so nice to have kindness come into my home and be wrapped around everyone in the room.

Our friends are so generous. Sunny and Nicole were surrounded by friends who showered them with love. It’s amazing to see how my friends are going to develop into Mothers. It fills my heart to know that I’ll get to be a part of their lives and soon their children as well.

Here are their baby bellies. It’s amazing to me that there are four people in this picture!

I still exist

I’m not like Santa Claus who only comes around once a year.

It’s just been hard not to spill the beans on all the projects I’ve been working on.

Let me share a few pictures with you and you’ll see why I’ve not posted in a while.

 

Nicole and I worked on a baby sling for our friend Sunny.

 

We also made Amish Friendship Bread. It’s this crazy amazing process where you have to leave out a ‘starter’ and add flour and milk during the days leading up to the actual baking day. It’s something I’m not sure I understand but it did make very yummy bread.

This is what our directions looked like. As you can see – I was mashing the bag often.

My husband’s brother Liam was able to come and stay with us for two weeks. It was wonderful to have him here. We don’t get to see him that often so it was great to have him stay with us. We went to Disneyland and had a super fun time. I took a day off of work – I know it’s unheard of – The park was empty and we were able to get onto the new Star Tours ride 4 times!!

You can see my very excited face in this picture. I wasn’t feeling well but Disneyland has a great way of making people feel better.

ohh and this little guy showed up in our back yard the night before Liam had to go home. Yes friends, that is a rattle snake. Tonka was out in the backyard barking her brains out and I went to see what she was going on about. I went a little mental when I saw how close she was to this very scary snake. Lucky for us she did not get bit. Bren and Liam killed it and made sure it was very dead.

I have a few more things to share with you but I’m off to go grade thesis statements.

Playing on Pintrist

So I'm super new to Pintrist. But I'm already in love.

Check out what I'm up too.

Please ignore the fact that I currently only have 5 pins. I'm sure that will change soon.

I have some interest

in Pinterest.

So the craft world has a new place to play. And I'm thinking that I would enjoy sitting in this sandbox a while.

I'm in love with a good tutorial. I enjoy the fact there are people out there who are willing to put their intellectual property out there for others to enjoy. I think part of it is because I'm a teacher and so I believe in sharing knowledge.

I'm not sure how it works, and I'm worried that it will cause me to spend more hours on the computer and less time grading papers... but the crafts... THE CRAFTS!!

blurg.

We shall see my friends.. we shall see...

So much going on

So my Brother-in-Law Liam arrived this week from the land down under. My Husband is thrilled to have his brother here and the two of them are staying up late playing video games and enjoying this visit together. I am very lucky that I love my in-laws. They are awesome, very funny people. And the fact that we have been able to see them frequently (at least once a year) makes it a lot easier for Bren to be away from them.

I've also been quiet the crafty little bee around here. My dear friend Nicole (who's having a baby boy) came over last weekend and we decided to get our craft on. We make something for her and something for our other dear friend Sunny who is having a baby girl. I wish I could show you the tutorial we made. BUT I can't. Our friend Sunny will be having her baby shower in a week and she knows about my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise.

And for those who don't know. I'm bad with a secret. When I get excited about something I want to share it with people. Especially with the people I love the most. But sadly the tutorial will have to wait a little while to ensure that we don't let the cat out of the bag.

But as soon as Sunny gets her present I'll show you what we made.

The Pumpkins are coming!

Fall is here.

Or at least September is here. After all it was a very cool 98 degrees out today. And MUGGY as all get out.

Two of my VERY dear friends are having babies. Three weeks apart. So I am going to throw them a joint shower.

One is having a Boy and one is having a Girl. So I can’t go mental with one particular color. So I was googleing baby shower ideas and one of the ideas for a fall shower is to talk about the mommy’s lil’ pumpkin.

So Cute! And this Blog has amazing ideas. I stumbled upon it when I put Pumpkin Baby showers into the search engine.

It looks like we are going to have it on a Friday night. I’m going to think about some ‘non game’ games to play. As there are a lot of people who don’t like baby shower games. I love a game, but I want to make sure everyone has fun.

I cant wait to celebrate these two awesome mommas!

You can be sure there will be pictures of all the crafts I get up to!

Friday, I’m in love!

Why is it that Friday can always make everything better?

Friday and a Sonic Cranberry-Limeade - That makes it ten times better. Especially when I'm sitting in the 100+ heat with one of my best girl friends talking about her upcoming baby shower.

Now I won't talk too much about the MILLIONS of craft ideas that I have floating around in my head. I know that she sometimes stumbles onto my blog and I don't want to ruin any surprises. But I can tell you that I want to make almost everything that comes from Creation Corner.

There is nothing like a good craft that can't lift my spirits. I am going to attempt to arrange my craft room a little better because right now it's a pig sty  a little unorganized. I am very lucky that my mom is letting me borrow her sewing machine.

A couple of weekends ago Joann’s had a major sale and I got some items that will help me create wonderful little treats for Nicole’s little boy. They also had patterns on sale. I had no idea how much patterns cost. Holy Cow! I am so glad that I live in the time of the internet tutorial. But thinking about it for a moment, I think 50 years ago I would have taken a home ec. class and learned how to make my own patterns.

I also have some very clever friends who make their own patterns. I’m telling you – AMAZING stuff is just within my reach.

Nicole is going to be a wonderful mother. She has been a fantastic friend to me over the last 7 years and I feel so blessed to have such a friend in my life. I can’t wait to meet her little man. I know that the fun we have had over the years will only continue – we’ll just have her baby in tow.

Time management

As I sit here avoiding those papers sitting on my kitchen table, I am thinking about time management. How do I use my time? Am I happy with all of the things I can get done in a day?

The answer is most often - I haven't done enough. There is not enough time to do everything I want. I want to be able to spend time on my lesson plans. Spend time grading papers and getting assignments into the gradebook. Clean the kitchen, take the dog for a walk, write in my blog, do some laundry. All of the things I would like to be great at.

But how do you find the time to be perfect? I always feel the need to be the best wife, friend, teacher, daughter, granddaughter, all around great gal.

But alas it's not to be.

Recently I have felt overwhelmed with all of the little things I need to do during the day. Verses the things I would like to be able to get done. I would like to be able to go and visit with my gramma. I would like to sit with her and take care of her so my mom can have a break.

But there are papers to grade. lessons to write and so many other 'things' that need to be done.

The school year has started out well. I like all of my classes so far. I have a lot of students that I had last year. So that makes it a little easier to remember names. I have almost everyone down, except a few girls that always seem to look a like.

We will be gearing up soon for homecoming and various other events during the school year. So the train of work will keep on chugging along.

I'm lucky that I have a wonderful husband and good friends to keep me afloat.

Baby Shower Mobile

My dear friend Nicole has a sister who is having a little girl this fall. For her upcoming shower Nicole and I did a craft that will double as a decoration and then as a hanging mobile in the baby’s room. Here is a simple idea anyone can recreate. AND the great thing is that it’s budget minded. The whole thing was around 10$. But I bet you could do it cheaper if you had a curly-willow (or equally cool tree) in your yard.

As all good crafters do – we looked to the wonderful Martha Stewart for inspiration. Her Bird Mobile was so cute – and we wanted something similar.

Here is what we ended up doing. At Joann's they have these large bunches of twigs. We bought one bunch and some fake flowers – manned ourselves with glue guns and hit the ground running.

I was able to undo the wire that held the large bunch together and divided them into two bunches. Used the wire to regroup the twigs and began to glue on our flowers.

Nicole’s sister’s shower is pink, yellow, and peachy orange – so we bought a sprig of yellow hydrangea and a sprig of cherry blossom. We also got a branch of green leaves as the flowers didn’t have much greenery to them.  After taking them off of the plastic branches we began to glue them down.

We tried not to over do it because we liked the simplicity of the branch Martha had created. We also tried to glue the flowers at every angle that way if Nicole’s Sister decides that she wants to hang it above the crib the baby won’t be looking at the boring side of the branches.

Here is the finished branch before we put the birds on them. We got fishing line at Walmart to use in order to hang the birds. Because the shower was still a few weeks away we didn’t put the birdies on. Last year when we had a polka-dot themed shower for our friend Kristine we made polka-dot garland. Well – if you aren’t super careful it will get all tangled – so we decided to error on the side of caution so the birdies won’t be flying until the day before.

We printed the birds from Martha’s website on purple and pink card stock. I’m sure if you are crafty enough you could cut them out by hand but who doesn’t love an easy cut out! I know I do.

Happy Crafting!

School Dreams.

So yesterday two of my good friends and I went down to Ikea to enjoy some Swedish goodness.

We didn't have any meatballs. But we did act like goofballs.

Last weekend I went with Nicole to the salvation army store in town. I got a lamp for 5 dollars. Because it was half off!!! AMAZING! But it didn't have a lamp shade. So when we were in the lighting section Nicole pointed out a very cool lamp shade.



I got this lovely shade and it's very happy sitting on my bedside table.

While we were enjoying a wonderful Mediterranean meal we were talking about school. My friend Jess mentioned that she had a school dream and then I said "watch - now we're all going to have school dreams."

- Sure enough last night I had a dream about school. It was the first day of school but I didn't know what classes I was teaching and was also late getting to work so when I walked in my classroom they kids were already there. It was awful.

I don't have to go back to work until August 9th but I'm already having dreams. This isn't a good sign for my sleep habits.

Mini Vacation

So this past weekend I drove out to see my best friend Casey. She lives in Phoenix. So I packed up my little honda and got on the road. I enjoy spending time driving. It's about a five and a half hour drive and I rocked out to some mixed cds I made, and looked around at the beautiful, dry scenery.

We have been friends for over ten years. We met while going to NAU. She works in marketing, and so when I got to town I was able to meet her in her office. I don't work in an office, and have never been in that kind of work environment. It was fun to see her in her element. Casey is really good at what she does and that company is lucky to have her.

After the office we went and got some yummy Thai food for dinner and visited her community garden plot. She has sun flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some herbs. A man in her mom's neighborhood gave the community land (when he passed away) and requested that a garden be created. Each person pays a yearly fee for up keep and water. There is a food bank plot and a box for extra food that others have that would be given to the food bank. It's a really awesome program. Who doesn't love fresh fruits and veggies?!

Saturday we did some shopping and then watched My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. That was part of plan for me to go out and see her in the first place. Casey had DVR-ed the six episodes and so we had a mini marathon. It was great.

Then we went to Bingo After Dark (BAD Bingo). It was soooo much fun. Eight Dollars got us 11 rounds of bingo and a lot of glow sticks. Half way through the sessions they stop and have a dance party. There had to be 500 people in the room. AND on the last game of bingo - I GOT A BINGO! I won 150$ It was awesome.

Sunday we enjoyed some samples at Costco and a trip to the pool. The high on Sunday was 111 - soooo hot!

Monday I packed up my bags and headed home. It was a great weekend!

Summer Housewife

Why is it that when I am on summer vacation I want to be a housewife. Like full on butcher, baker, candle sick maker.

I really want to get a sewing machine this summer. I have two very dear friends that are both pregnant and I want to make almost everything from Creation Corner!

I also really want to try and bake bread. My grandmother is a wonderful baker and every year on major holidays she bakes these amazing bread loaves. Her best are her egg breads. I'm not sure of the official name but they are light and fluffy and wonderful. I really want to try these rolls. My friend Carly is an amazing woman and mother. I pretty much want to be her when I grow up. Always have.

So I'm off to attempt a few of these house wifey projects of mine.

Here are a list of things I would like to tackle this summer:

Clean out and organize the garage
Bake bread
Bake a cake from scratch
More crock pot cooking
Clean out my closet
Organize the Pantry
Craft various craft things

It's going to be a great summer!

Alive and tired

It's been a few weeks. I know.

A lot has been going on around here. I'm now down to 19 days until the end of the school year.

I'm tired and stressed. And have a few hundred papers to grade and enter. Two books two finish teaching.

It's all insane really.

But - I'm going to be crafting up a storm this summer. I am interested in investing in a cheap but reliable sewing machine. My Gramma has two amazing machines that she payed big bucks for in the 80's when she was making wonderful dresses for me as a petite little girl. I go over to her house for bigger projects - like when I made some friends aprons for Christmas. But an old friend of mine Tasha over at Creation Corner has so many amazing little projects that I think I could tackle if I had my own little machine.

But who am I kidding. Who wouldn't want to hang out with Gram, and use her sewing machines. Which she says are the equivalent of Cadillacs in the sewing world.

All I know is - I need to get to June 8th.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Don't Worry I know when I'll be back. Friday Night!

Today - well tonight really. I am going to Georgia to visit my dear friend Cuirstaun. She and I have been friends for over 15 years. She was a brides made in my wedding and really just an all around amazing person.

Here were are when she visited at Christmas time. You see Cuirstaun lives in Georgia now because she picked up her stuff and moved there almost two years ago in order to make her dream of getting her masters in public health happen. She will be graduating on May 7th. I won't be able to be there for her graduation but because I am on spring break - and we got a good tax return this year I am flying out to see her.

When she moved to GA we all joked that she would finally fall in love with a Strong Black Man. As you see from the picture below - she fell in love, but with a dorky white guy. We all adore Calvin and I hope that some day soon we will be toasting to their happy future.



I look forward to our late night trips to Walmart, picking peaches in the orchards, a day in Atlanta, and eating at Paula Dean's Restaurant.

The last time we went on an adventure to my friend Michele's wedding. We ended up having one wild adventure. From trying to find cheep parking and then subsequently being terrified by walking in a creepy parking structure - to being sung to by a homeless man. We are quiet the pair and I can't imagine what we will get up to.

Two Down!

So I finished The Glass Castle I have to say that it was not my very favorite book. And as far as my book club books have gone, it's way better than Three Cups of Tea*. But it was certainly no Book Thief! the biggest hurdle I had to get over with this book was that it was really about how horrible her early life was and then in the last 60 pages she was able to tell how she was able to get away from her family. It's one of those books where you have to keep asking "How could it get worse?!" And then it does.

Before I finished The Glass Castle - I plowed through The Hunger Games. WINNER WINNER WINNER!!! Wow was this good. It's written for a younger reader and so the first 50 pages do a lot of the traditional exposition strategies that a younger reader would need. A few words are defined that an experienced reader might not need. But please do not let that deter you from reading this amazing book. It is a book that I keep thinking about. It's the first in a three part series. I loaned the first book to a friend of mine and she said that she already bought the second book, and said I could read it after she is done! So excited. It's a post-apocalyptic tale of a young girl who goes into fight for her life in "The Hunger Games". It has everything you would want in a good quick read. Romance, Bad Guys, Intrigue, Honor and Glory. I can not say enough. It's 384 pages of edge of your seat storytelling. So Glad I picked it up, and I think you should too!

Happy Reading to you!

*This is a great story. Don't get me wrong - I am all for giving back to the world. But the writing was just too dry for me. Mountain Mountain Mountain - Oh yea - I also built a school.

Spring break books!

MMMMmmmmm books.

Here is my list I would like to finish over spring break

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Even though I should have had this book finished on Friday for book club - I have about 60 pages to go)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I have heard people rave about this book and I got it today at Marshall's of all places. Who doesn't love a cheep book!

Ordinary People by Judith Guest - I have this on my supplemental reading list for my juniors.

Bossypants by Tina Fay - Bren just picked up this one at Target. Also on sale!

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - our next book club book.

Cheers to two weeks off and a whole lot of reading to enjoy!