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.

Hooky Thingy

This hook thingy used to be hanging in my landing. It is actually a mirror but I had it hanging so high that no one could see into it and it wasn't reflecting anything but blank wall. Soooo, I took the mirror out and painted the back of it with chalkboard paint and put it back in place. Then I hung it right inside our garage entry. I'm hoping this will be an easy place for the boys to hang their backpacks and coats. Now if I could just find a way to wrangle all the papers they bring home! Actually, I have something in mind, but I have to find the proper pieces to make it work.

Back to school has been crazy! Everyone keeps asking me what I'm doing with all my time now that the boys are in school. Honestly, it hasn't felt like I've had a lot of free time. I try to be involved with their schools and several days have been spent working on projects for teachers, etc. I seem to manage to keep myself busy!

A few little projects

This is the amazingly, wonderful, beautiful flower arrangment that my sister put together for me. I got the planter at Michaels for $5.00 (75% off) and I already had most of the flowers from an old arrangement. I really love it!

For a long time, I have wanted to make a window treatment for the sliding glass doors in my living room. I gathered fabric samples and tried to figure out which would look best. I knew which one was my favorite, but I thought it might be too light. I finally asked my sister for her opinion and she voted on my favorite one. So I waited for it to go on sale at Hancock Fabrics for 50% off. And last Saturday, it did! So the boys and I headed off to Champaign (about and hour away) and I was crushed--really, I felt like crying--because they didn't have my fabric! And it was a one day sale. And I really love it. So today I traveled to Springfield (about and hour away) and went to their Hancock and they did have it for 40% off. I wasn't taking any chances so I bought some. I also bought some cute pom pom fringe that was on clearance for $.80 a yard. Whoohoo! I came home and got to work on my project and I am quite pleased with my mistreatment. I only used one yard of fabric which I cut in half length-wise and bonded it together with Stitch Witch. I also "hemmed the side edges with Stitch Witch. I attached the fringe with fabric glue and managed to put that puppy up all by myself! I'm thinking the whole project cost about $25.00 and $20 of that was fabric. The board was an old beat up salvaged piece from my dad and the brackets were less than a dollar each.

First Day Blues

This second grader was up and at 'em and ready for the first day of school.

Wondering when the bus is going to get here.

This kindergartner is NOT ready for school and would rather not go.
He also did not want the paparazzi taking his picture.
This is the kindergartner on the first "real" day of school. He looks happy now.


Uh oh. Not quite as happy now that we are at the bus stop.

So it seems that Jack is fine with school, but he hate, hate, HATES the bus. I hated it too when I was a kid. I'm hoping that once our confused bus drivers figure out the system, Jack will feel more confident. (Our school district is experiencing some mighty big bus problems right now.) Meanwhile, I am trying to keep busy so I don't notice my quiet, lonely empty nest.

Parker' Egypt Party

Here is the birthday boy. This Egyptian theme ended up being a whole lot easier than I thought it would be! Thank goodness for web sites like http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/ and my friend Michelle who give me great ideas! My friend Angie came over and took pictures for me. It is so, so helpful to have someone other than yourself taking pictures. It doesn't hurt if they have an awesome camera too!
Michelle told me about the website: http://www.cakesandthings.com/ . They have chocolate molds in every conceivable shape. It was a fun little touch to add to the party. The only problem I had is that Decatur was completely out of royal blue and yellow candy melts so I had to go with navy and white. Did Maroa/Forsyth have some big event I didn't know about!? (local high school)

The party was late so we could do flashlight tag. The flashlights are from the Dollar Tree and they were the kids party favor. I wrote their names on them and painted the little diamond shapes that were already on them. Of course, all the "D" batteries cost way more than the flashlights themselves.

These little pyramid boxes were from the Dollar Tree and they held the treasures that the boys had to dig for....you will see them in a minute.

All these golden doo-dads are leftover from Parker's Indiana Jones party last year. I bought them on 90% off clearance at Hobby Lobby. The urn and the bowl are from a garage sale and that golden cake plate is an old candle holder with a gold plastic plate taped on top. Classy, I know. The papyrus picture was an antique store find when my parents took the boys antiquing one day.

Michelle found the recipe to make dinosaur eggs so I converted it to make a glob with a skeleton inside. It is dirt, sand, flour, salt and water. It took way too long for them to dry so I put them in the oven at 200 for hours and hours. I just hoped it would melt the skeleton and it didn't. I gave the boys a popsicle stick to excavate whatever might be in the glob. This was a big hit. As you can see, Jack will never be an archeologist....not much finesse here.

I do NOT make cakes but our family friend, Cindy, does and, like Parker said, "It wouldn't be a party without a Cindy cake." I totally agree.

Each of those little pyramid boxes held a set of these treasures. Each boy took a turn finding their treasures. When they had them all, they could go find the clue. When the clues were all together, they said, "The mummy is waiting in the garage." I used chicken feed instead of sand because the texture makes it a little harder to find the treasures. It is also very dusty and very hard on cuticles. And makes a big mess that mice will surely love to come and find on my deck and surrounding grass.

They went to the garage where the sarcophagus was waiting. I had some blacklights and painted the box with white paint hoping for the glowing effect....I even borrowed a smoke machine from a friend, BUT, the lights didn't put off enough light and the boys pretty much couldn't see anything. Oh well. The anticipation was fun.

Parker wanted Tut's death mask so he and my dad made this one. Pretty darn good, don't you think!? You see that I come by my craftiness naturally.

Then we played the good-old mummy wrap game. I bought rolls of crepe paper and they each took a turn wrapping and being wrapped. It was very funny and the boys had a ball.

Then it was time for flashlight tag. We never really could figure out the actual rules for flashlight tag, so they just ran around the cul-de-sac chasing each other and freaking each other out.

Somebody thought a ghost story was in order.

And then we brought out the sparklers. Is there a boy alive who doesn't like fire?

I know Parker had a great time and I'm pretty sure his friends did too. Still can't believe he's EIGHT though!