Missing Ms. Cooper

This past weekend a very special person in our families' life passed away after a short battle with cancer. Nancy Cooper was the principal at Jack's school. But she was so much more than just a principal. We have known her for more than 20 years but only in the past few years since our boys started school have we truly been able to realize what an amazing lady she was.

Every year, we attend the Illinois School Board Conference in Chicago. It sounds dull, but after the meetings and politics, and such, it's just a really fun time to hang out together and socialize. Travis was on the school board before Parker even started school and I can vividly remember sitting at the House of Blues telling Ms. Cooper all about Parker and what an amazing kid he is. (Probably the same stuff every parent says to her!) She listened attentively and asked me questions about him and then she told me which teachers would be a good fit for him. Of course, she was right on the money. Her grandson was in Parker's kindergarten class and she would often pop in to say hello. Parker thought that made his kindergarten class pretty darn special.

Last year, it was proposed that we turn our 2 elementary schools into "Attendance Centers" which means that one school would have pre k, kindergarten and 1st grade and the other school would have 2nd and 3rd grade. This was a hotly debated topic in town and in order to get a feel for the two schools, Travis visited them and was given a tour by the each school's principal. While he walked with Ms. Cooper, children would run up to her and give her a hug. She knew every child by name and could tell Travis something unique about each of them. The kids LOVED her and so did her staff. She never ever had a bad word to say about any child (even the ones that she could have said a lot of things about!) One of my friends has a child who had a lot of discipline issues as a kindergartner and spent a lot--I mean A LOT--of time in Ms. Cooper's office. He loved her. When told that she had passed away, he was crushed. I think it speaks volumes about her and the kind of principal that she was that even the kids that knew her because they got into a lot of trouble just adored her.

If you haven't had a principal like Ms. Cooper, it's hard to imagine just how wonderful it is to have someone like her running your child's school. She was ever-present. She was the first face the kids saw when they got off the bus in the morning and the last one to send them out the door in the afternoon. She was always walking the halls and visiting a classroom and talking to parents and teachers and most especially--students. She definitely didn't hide out in her office punching in numbers and charting performance on a graph. She didn't have to. She knew everything that went on in the school.

She leaves a simple legacy. All she did was make a whole lot of students feel very special, make a whole lot of parents feel comfortable sending their precious children to school, make a whole lot of teachers and staff feel like their opinions and experiences were valuable assets and helped McGaughey win a whole lot of awards and accolades on a state and national level. And I'm so glad my kids had the opportunity to know her and be guided by her. She will be missed.

MTZ Homecoming

This was Homecoming Week in MTZ. As always, the best part is tailgating! Not sure what Jack is doing here.
Parker playing a game on my phone before his friends arrived.

Awww....aren't they sweet!? You have no idea what I went through to get them to sit together in this chair and pose for a picture!

And here is their haul from the parade. They are sorting it. No need to go trick-or-treating this year. Oh who am I kidding? This will be gone by the end of October! For the record, for a few days, I let my kids eat whatever candy they want and by the 3rd day they have completely lost interest in candy and don't even want it anymore. Of course, they don't exactly gorge themselves those first two days. If they ate until they barfed, I might have a different theory!

And just for the record, Mt. Zion won big time 49-6. We are undefeated and will meet up with the other undefeated team in our conference next week. Fun, fun!

Purplicious!

Jack had to miss school Tuesday because of some minor tummy trouble. He was pretty sad to miss purple day since he actually does have a purple shirt. We took a picture of him and e-mailed it to his teacher who put it on the smart board so Jack could be there in spirit. Isn't that cute!? Oh how I love Mrs. Fitzgerald! It's a wonderful thing to have complete faith in your child's teacher!

My Mirror is Wearing a Necklace!

Remember this mirror that I nabbed from my sister's garage sale stuff. There was nothing really terrible about it, but it wasn't my style. Luckily, the metal part screwed off. However, the frame looked a little wimpy then, so I wanted to bulk it up. I got some moulding (crown moulding because that just ended up being what I liked best) and made a frame to fit inside the original one. I just hot-glued it down which is not the best adhesive for this, but it's what I had.

Looks pretty good, huh?

Well, upon closer inspection, you can see that I had to do quite a bit of filling with wood putty to make those corners look half-way decent. They were still a little rough, but I don't really care.

And then I decided I wanted to add a little bead detail. So, I glued on plastic bead necklaces. Yes. I said plastic bead necklaces. Isn't this just a lovely look!?

Up close. How beautiful!

There. That's better. I spray painted the whole thing with oil-rubbed bronze paint which is just a shade different than black. She's looking better by the minute!

Then I added just a little tiny bit of silverish/goldish metallic paint onto the beads. And this is the final result. It turned out pretty much how I wanted and I'm thrilled that I only had to spend $6.00 on moulding to get a "new" mirror. It's hanging in my kitchen now and the mirror I had there before has been relocated to my entry.

Finally....some pictures!

I found an old memory card so I managed to snap a few pictures of some new things around here. I had all the parts and pieces to put together this fall arrangement for my door. I have the ugliest ghetto door ever, but it will have to do for now.

This cube thing is on sale right now at Target for $35.00. It is sitting right inside our door on the landing. It's purpose is to corral all our shoes. You can't tell, but the top three cubes are holding fabric drawers (on sale at Target for $5.00 each). They will hold ball caps, stocking hats and gloves. Now if I could just get everyone to actually put their shoes in the thing...... Oh, and the top needs lots of work, but I'm not sure what I want to put up there. I'm working on a mirror re-do to put above it too.

This is on our entry wall. It still needs a little tweaking. I cut out the "Welcome Friends" on my Cricut. Not sure how long it will stay.

- I'm playing around with my blog and I just haven't found a layout that I really love yet. Bear with me while I experiment.

- I have added some conditions to my purse hunt. It must have easily accessible outside pockets--no snaps or magnets or buckles. And it has to have a zipper top--not a flap. I think I found one, but it's $40 and I said my limit was $30. I will watch for a while to see if it goes on sale.

- I feel like I've been doing my make-up the same way since high school and it is about time for a change. I found http://www.makeupgeek.com/ and I have learned so, so much. I took her advice and bought THIS and I cannot believe how well it works. It was definitely a splurge at $17, but a it should last a long, long time and it truly works.

Dribble

I can't find the memory card for my camera so I need to get a new one and take some pictures of a few little projects that I have managed to get done around here. In the meantime, how about some random dribble?

- I am on the hunt for a new purse but I am going to be very, very picky. It has to have a flat bottom and be structured. No more slouchy purses for me--they drive me crazy. I would prefer one strap. MUST, must, must have an outside pocket. Needs to be less than $30. Must be medium sized--not too big, not too small. So far, no luck.

- It finally feels like it's summer now that it's almost fall.

- I am still a little shocked at how busy I am. I don't know what I do all day but it takes all day to do it and I rarely get it done.

- My most favorite Candy Corn Hershey Kisses are back at Target. Mmmmm.......

- The boys and I will be traveling to Nashville next month and I can't wait!

- Jack got in trouble yesterday at school. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Hopefully it won't happen again.

- I saw stirrup pants at Walmart. That is one trend that should definitely not get a second go-around. Gross. I do, however, think I will get a pair of leggings this year. And a very long sweater to hide my booty.

- I need to get back to Weight Watchers before I'm back where I started. I fell off the excercise wagon and the weight started coming back.

- What in the world did I do before blogging and Facebook!?

- I am determined to get stuff done around here but it just never seems to happen.

- Jack has more homework in kindergarten than Parker has in 2nd grade. Of course, Jack's homework is stuff like coloring and reading 5 page books, but still.

-I promise I will get back to posting some pictures and projects as soon as I get a new card!

Be Back soon

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just super busy and not feeling well either. We've been hit with some weird coughy, phlemy, annoying virus. It just won't leave us!

Not how I thought it would be!

So now that I am a stay-at-home mom with no kids at home during the day, my life was supposed to be an endless opportunity to get things done. Ha! That is a myth. I am soooo busy because now I have a kindergartner and a 2nd grader at two different schools (don't ask) and I really enjoy spending time in their classrooms and helping out their teachers so......that just takes up a lot of time. I wouldn't have it any other way though. However, all those big projects that I was going to tackle are definitely going nowhere fast.