To my bloggy friends:

I just wanted to let my blog visitors know that if you leave a comment for me and you have your own blog, I ALWAYS come and visit you. I have been trying to leave comments, but my crappy computer keeps kicking me off whenever I try. So, please know that I absolutely love getting comments and I love "meeting" new people in the little (or big) blog world! Thanks everyone!

Almost 5 years ago..

I thought I would put up some oldies but goodies. Jack will be 5 years old in less than two weeks! Hard to believe!

Sigh.....

So, the decision has been made. McGaughey Elementary (currently K-3) where Parker goes now, will become a preschool, oops, I mean Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade. Mt. Zion Grade (currently preK-3) will become 2nd and 3rd grade. Then on to Mt. Zion Intermediate for 4th, 5th and 6th. Next comes Junior High for 7th and 8th. Finally, high school for the last 4 years. Whew....are you exhausted because I sure am. In my head I see a big pinball machine where my children are bounced around from school to school for the next 10-12 years. They will not be in the same building until Parker is in 6th and Jack is in 4th. While I certainly don't like the inconvenience that will cause me, that isn't what has me upset. It just doesn't feel "right" to me. This just isn't what an elementary school looks like. I believe that schools are about so much more than curriculum and vertical articulation. School is more than test performance and technology. A successful school is a sum of all it's parts. By limiting children's exposure to only two grade levels at a time, I believe you limit their possibilities. Anything that puts limits on my child's educational opportunities doesn't feel like an improvement to me. I will be the first to admit that there are benefits to this change. The biggest will be that all the kids in their grade will be in the same building. Obviously, with 200 kids in each grade, there is no way in the world they will get to know everyone--or even half--of their classmates, but they will meet kids they might not have met otherwise. It will be nice to put an end to the "competition" between the schools but that has always been a parent-fueled problem and didn't have anything to do with the kids or the teachers. It will be good that families will not have to choose which school their child should go to. Everyone has always agreed that our lack of school boundaries was just nuts. So, I am going to give myself a few more days to be angry and sad and then I will move on for now. I want to see this concept work because it is my children who will pay the price if it doesn't. I'm sure that most of us who have children who are being forced to leave the school they love will adjust and do everything in our power to make it work. Here's to hoping.....

A Very Girly Christmas Indeed!

My friend Joni is the mother of 3 daughters and she mentioned that they have a white Christmas tree with mostly pink, girly ornaments. That inspired me to create a girly Advent calendar. The pictures just don't do this one justice because I used glitter paper on every square. It is just so sparkly. I don't get much opportunity to make girly stuff, so I had a lot of fun with this. Dontcha love how these look in a picture frame easel!? Of course, I have a boy version in the works too! ;-)

Some fun stuff

I was inspired by the uber-cool Jenna and her uber-cool sisters who all have one of these. I bought this pretty cloche at Hobby Lobby (on clearance for $10.00)and I have visions of all the pretty stuff I will put in it. However, somebody else got to it first and put a treasure in it. *EDITED to make Jenna uber-cool too!
I was asked to make an album for one of the kindergarten teachers. The idea is that she can put a snapshot of each year's class in the album. I love the idea and I like how it turned out. Hopefully Mrs. Orris doesn't read my blog. :-)

I have made several of these tin boxes for people. This one took forever because I had to hunt down the box itself. It took months! It's very sparkly in person which Miss Kayla will love.

A Blog and a Prayer

One of the neat things about reading blogs is that you really feel like you know people. I like know that most of us have the same struggles and challenges and the same triumphs and joys. Today I came across a blog that has really touched my heart. KELLY'S CORNER Kelly gave birth to her daughter, Harper, less than two weeks ago and Harper is very ill. She is fighting for her little life and improving day by day thanks to God's healing powers. Anyway, please say a prayer for Kelly and her baby and all the other mother's out there who have babies that need healing!

Blog potpourri

Jack, who never wears a shirt and rarely wears pants when we are at home regardless of the sub-zero weather, was very proud of his Mega Block build so, at his request, I took a photo and blogged about it.
We love these pretzel "hugs". Couldn't be easier and they are just so good. I usually put 4 M&M's on each one, but I think these looked kind of cupcake-ish with just one little M&M! In response to the comment from Anonymous: Here is the recipe. Place mini pretzels on a baking sheet. I use square "waffle" pretzels, but regular pretzel shapes or circles would work too. Place an unwrapped Hershey's Hug on each pretzel. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes at 250 degrees. DO NOT BAKE THEM ANY LONGER!!! Place M&M on top of the Hug. The Hug will be very, very soft so you have to be careful not to make a big mess. Now comes the hard part. Leave them alone for many hours while the chocolate sets up. It takes quite a long time. I don't recommend putting them in the frig because it will discolor the M&M's. Yummy!!!

Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and let your little ones "help" even when you know it will end up making more work for you and might even affect the end result. This is a perfect example. Yes there was paint everywhere. Yes, in the right light you can still see some of their handiwork. BUT, they loved every minute of helping and they are proud to show off the new paint job. That, my friends, makes it all worth it. I know it looks white, but it's actually a very creamy shade of yellow which I LOVE!

And this just makes me laugh. We have a costume for every conceivable scenario. On this particular day, they were obviously pirates. Don't you love it when your kids play nicely together. I'm sure this only lasted for a few minutes until one of them stabbed the other with their sword.

This and That

Parker always wants me to paint his face with some camo stuff we got around Halloween. So, I comply. Then two minutes later he wants it all off.
I bought this adorable cake plate at the Target after-Christmas sale. I paid $7.00 for it. This is a terrible picture because it is sooooo cute and it only looks sooo cute in the picture. I don't know exactly what I am going to do with it, but I don't think it will holding any cakes.
This is how I displayed my Christmas card pictures this year. I like it. I just tape them up with a little roll of painters tape on the back. No damage to the walls and plenty of room to keep adding them as they came in. Christmas cards with pictures are one of my favorite things! (Just in case you are the type that notices details, I am in the process of updating the pictures of the boys which is why one of them has a different mat. This process has been ongoing for about 6 months.)

Version II

Remember my muffin tin Advent calendar? This is my second version which is a little more traditional. I have a few other versions in the works too. I'm hoping to sell some of these in the future.

Kitchen Makeover

These are going to my "before" pictures of my kitchen. Of course, they will probably be "current" pics for quite a while because it always takes me a long time to ACT on my projects! It doesn't look too bad in these photos, does it? Well, don't be fooled. It is. It is a big yellow box. Yellow floors, yellow walls, yellow table, yellow chairs and yellow counters. That's a lot of yellow. It used to have red walls but with the yellow counters and such, I just couldn't get past it looking like McDonalds. I hate the floors--I loved them when we put them down, but they are looking pretty beat up. A perfect example of "you get what you pay for."

Getway

I'm trying to think of something fun to do for our 4 day weekend. I think it needs to involve getting away from here. But not too far because the weather is going to get terrible. Hmmmmm.......I think it should involve a swimming pool.

My thoughts

Travis is headed to the school board meeting and I am nervous. He isn't, but I surely am. I found this quote and I thought it fit this particular situation perfectly. I mean, it could have been written specifically for this--even though this is not a national crises and the fact that Abraham Lincoln said it over 100 years ago.

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

For better or worse, this will all be interesting.

**Edited: The board won't be voting until Jan. 26th (I think)so we will have a few more weeks of waiting before the final vote is taken. For what it's worth, if and when this happens, I will try to be supportive. Like many people have said, kids are resiliant--they will adapt. It's just that I loathe deliberately putting my kids in situations where they NEED to be resiliant and adapt--especially every other year. That's just the kind of mom I am and it's just the kind of kids I have. No matter how much I make these changes sound like they will be the next best thing to Chuck E. Cheese (which I have been doing), they aren't idiots and they aren't buying it. I will keep trying to sell it to them and just hope for the best. It will all be fine. Big sigh.

Update

I have joined the ranks of the many folks on Facebook and now I never have time to blog. I didn't see any reason to join but now that I am on there, I am hooked! It is so neat to catch up with people you haven't seen in a long while and I am also getting a big kick out of how many people I have in common with other people. Did that make sense? It's sort of the whole "6 degrees of separation" thing. Pretty cool.
The boys and I got hit with the flu on Saturday night and spent all day yesterday in bed. Today we are in recovery mode. Parker is home but feeling well enough to be a brat.
Tonight is the big school board meeting. If you are not from Mt. Zion, you don't know what I'm talking about. If you are, you definitely know what I'm talking about. This is a perfect example of how you can convince people to do anything if you only give them selective information. That's all I'm saying. Well, that's all I'm saying here anyway.
This is Jack and his new BFF, Peyton. They are "JUST FRIENDS" he says!

One Word

One of my favorite scrapbook people, Ali Edwards, adopts a word each year and uses it as her theme for the year. You can see her 2009 suggestions HERE. I haven't done this in the past, but I think I am this year. And I think my word is......ACT. Not acting, silly! Act--like "to take action." I am full of great ideas. I have great ideas in every aspect of my life. Unfortunately, I very rarely seem to follow through. So this year I am making a committment to ACT. Stay tuned to see if I do it.

Extreme Home Makeover--Foreman Style

This is not my kitchen, but I want it to be my kitchen. I found a link to this pretty little kitchen HERE. As soon as Sherwin Williams has a sale, I'm going to go buy some black paint and paint my cabinets. I already painted them white almost 7 years ago so I do have some experience. I will have to post a before picture so you can see why I need this kitchen. I'm also going to try painting my laminate countertops. Yep. You heard right. I have researched it, and it is doable. It doesn't matter what you paint it with, it's the sealant that is important. I figure I can't make them any worse than they already are. I have lots of plans for my house this year. It's time for changes around here so I'm going to try to do amazing things with a tiny budget and a lot of paint!