Miscellaneous

1. With the rapid rise of gasoline prices, thought I'd share this little gas saving tip someone shared with me: When parking, try to pull through when you park. Backing up to pull out of a parking space uses more gas. It may seem small, but every little bit helps, right?

2. While wanting to take McKenna to a walk-in clinic, or to a "doc in a box" this week, we first visited a place called "Urgent Care", only to find it closed at 5 pm.....good thing it wasn't "urgent". Then we went on to a second place. It was called, "Express Care", two hours later, we left with prescriptions in hand for her earache.....good thing we weren't in a hurry.

3. After lots and lots of hours of work, the student art show is up!
Woohoo!
So, kindergarten's evening will be Wednesday and first grade's evening will be Thursday.
It's nice that we will have Friday off. :o)

4. I bought a new top and a new skirt today....mmmm, new clothes feel wonderful.....but the new skirt also needed a new slip and new shoes......mmmm, that wasn't as much fun....

5. And thanks to Scott's decisiveness looks like I'll be going to NYC with him in June to attend his friend's wedding. It's only a four day trip....he wants a ball game, I want Lion King, with the bachelor party on Friday night, I wonder which we'll choose.

Love to all,
hopefully many more photos on my next post....
Melle

Uneventful.....

Thankfully, we've had a little break from all of our activities.....
For Andrea, tennis is all done;
For McKenna, she had one short performance after school with her school choir;

And I have shorted through each one of my students' piles of art work; matted and labeled and will be ready to hang the student art show in 5 days.....
uneventful (for us) indeed. :o)

Things I am looking forward to:
Friday, April 22nd, the day after the student show is done!
Friday, April 22nd, Disney's movie African Cats comes out!
Saturday, May 21st, Karen Russell Photography workshop!
Tuesday, June 7th, I'll be on summer vacation!
Friday and Saturday, June 17 & 18 Donna Downey will be at She Scrapbooks!

Love to all! Thanks for the comments last week :o)
Melle

There's no place like home.....

As I sit here tonight, cuddled up in my bed, I can happily say "there's no place like home"....
We have returned from Oz and I feel as if I walked the yellow brick road myself!
The high school students put together a great show! Four shows in 3 days to be exact and McKenna was fortunate enough to be among 14 of the elementary students who were invited to be part of the show. They had three parts: the Munchkin Landers, helped in Emerald City and the Jitter-bugs, who were used by the witch to capture Dorothy. The addition of the little ones was a big hit!



Our Dorothy was AMAZING and oh so sweet to all the little ones.

Although not looking this way, McKenna is the fourth from the left. The little ones got to come out and take their bow first.

McKenna with Andrea

McKenna with one proud mommy!!

Was just thinking.....

This morning I was just thinking about how Wal-Mart doesn't sell exercise equipment.
Then I was thinking about how the junk food such as chips, sodas, cookies and candy are all so cheap.
Then I was thinking about how the fruits and vegetables at Wal-mart are awful.
My eating is an addiction, I am a junkie, and Wal-Mart is my supplier.

Then, while I continued to worry about me and my family's weight gain and poor eating habits, it has always been uncomfortable, but I can't help but think of the visions of obese people in the Disney movie WALL-E.........and then, then is occurred to me........WALL-E.....Wal-Mart......
I knew WALL-E was full of subtle messages, but that one didn't hit me until today.

So, on that note, I've now confessed to you all that I hate my weight gain. I hate that my kids are overweight. But I obviously don't hate it bad enough to do anything about it, right? It's not true. I try. Thus the addiction. The more the stress, the stronger the urge to eat.

Thankfully, the stress of our school yearbook is behind me for now.
The stress relief is temporary though. Next is the student art show, however, that might seem like a walk in the park or even like riding a bike, since I have a few of those under my belt.

With the relief of that stress this weekend, I found myself with a new energy.
I tackled a few piles of clutter without frustration.
I bought fruits and vegetables (at Publix) and made sure Andrea AND McKenna had salad (well lettuce) with at least one of their meals.
I did not buy McDonald's for breakfast for myself AND the girls today. (McKenna was crushed.)
I did play 4 games of tennis with Andrea this afternoon and I held my own.

So yes, the yearbook's last page with submitted at 2:44 on Friday afternoon. I experienced a new emotion for the first time. That one where you feel like screaming "woohoo" and throwing up at the same time. Oh my gosh. I don't even want to know what I feel like when they are passed out to the masses.

With the submission of our last page, I treated myself to a trip to She Scrapbooks AND to Hobby Lobby. I treated myself to an afternoon of crafting time in the studio.
This is actually the one I finished last weekend, which I love.

This was with one of my new stamps and green....green is out of my comfort zone.....but yellows and oranges, definitely give me comfort.

This one ain't really nothin' special, but I like the flowers. It's the first chance I've had to play with the new Tim Holtz die I've only had for about 2 months.



Coming up this week is McKenna's big debut as a munchkin (and a jitterbug) in the high school's play of Wizard of Oz. I anticipate we'll have a lot of fun, but it will make for a very long week.
I'll update next Sunday.....on both my addiction and on McKenna..... :o)
Love,
Melle

Spring Break 2011 in review...

WARNING, it's a long one....
Hello Readers!
Before I recap our week, can I just thank the Heavens above: this week's weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was amazing; it was perfect! You can bet that any spare moment I had this week was spent in the studio and the garage door was open making last year's purchase of a sliding screen door oh so well worth it!

Ok, well, as I reflect back on the week, with all that I got accomplished and all that I got to do, can you believe that knot that begins to grow in the pit of my stomach when I still have so much to do before I go back to work feeling has already started....yuck! Go away! I refuse to pay attention!

Just before we left for break, I didn't get to share that the high school had their student art show. Andrea had 3 pieces in the show! One was a pencil drawing, another was a comic strip and the other was a piece the students were asked to draw a chess board and illustrate people on it. Andrea really wanted to do Beauty and the Beast characters, but her teacher said no (i imagine because of the disney thing...she wanted something original?), so Andrea did characters inspired by her favorite Manga drawings. But in the end Andrea said she didn't like the piece because "Manga isn't supposed to be in color".....anyway, I loved them all and think it's so ironic that she doesn't want to pursue art when she has so much support around her to do it! (Unlike her Nana and I.)(which I should clarify - MY MOM (Nana) was VERY supportive of me. It's just other "factors" were not.) .... oh my goodness, I digress.....

Anyway,
Andrea had 3 pieces of art up at the student art show. I am so very proud.

Andrea's is the one on the very top. I believe you can click on the photo to enlarge.

Okay, Saturday, March 12th began with a full plate. McKenna had a skate party with her friend Kaycee at noon. She got to hang with Kaycee after the party for a much anticipated play-date while Andrea and I attended a surprise party for Uncle Paul.

Uncle Paul is Gail's brother-in-law and he admitted "he was surprised" (thus why he wasn't dressed up for the occasion....but in the end, his hunting camo was exactly what we loved seeing him in!). He is pictured here with Gail (my mother-in law) and the newest addition to our family; sweet baby Aidan, Paul's great-grandson.

While at the party, I did snap this photo.

Emily, Paul's great-granddaughter, is on the left. The other two little girls were guests at the party. This photos just sums up so much. Can you remember what it was like to meet a new friend and then play for hours like you'd been best friends forever? And again, the weather was so beautiful. No sweating. No mosquitoes.

Andrea and I then left this party a little early to take McKenna to another party. Here it would be a sleepover, Scott was at work, so Andrea and I high-tailed it to the movie theater. She wanted to see Beastly. Which was a modern day version of Beauty and the Beast. It wasn't too bad. I mean, it won't win an Oscar and I knew how it was going to end, but it wasn't Twilight (sorry Twilighters!! And it wasn't Rango! Rango - I'll get to that in a minute.)

Sunday, March 13th began with Daylight Savings Time, and me draggin' my behind over to pick up McKenna from her sleepover. That went well and she said she had fun. Once we got home, we quickly got ready 'cuz Nana was treatin' us to a Special Day! Gotta love that! She gave each of us a very special and thoughtful gift, (a book bag filled w/ school supplies for an American Girl Doll for McKenna, iTune gift cards for Andrea and a beautiful new art teacher type blouse for me!). She then treated us to lunch! A Special Day indeed. We made it home in time from that to pick up daddy and head back to the movies. Ya'll know how I love going to the movies and getting to see 2 movies in 2 days....well, Spring Break couldn't be anymore perfect then that....
Grandma and Grandpa were even available to meet us there.....well, Rango, I couldn't wait to go see it....I mean the lead character's voice was narrated by Johnny Depp! and it was a western, how cute is that? Well, it was just weird. Weird and disappointing. I mean $37 in tickets, plus $30 in popcorn and soda, well, it was disappointing. I will say, almost as disappointing (and almost the same cost) was our dinner out to Kotobuki's. That hardly ever happens. And although we were seriously ready to complain (I mean, share our constructive criticism), I'm glad we refrained. Although the chef and the waitress (who disappointed us) had nothing to do with the owners, we did learn that the owners Ishi and Susan have family in the Northern area of Japan. Sunday had only been about four days after the worst earthquake, tsunami and now nuclear fallout ever in history just happened. We haven't been back yet; we don't know if they have heard about their loved ones, but our prayers go out to them.

Monday, March 14th meant yearbook time for me. "Yearbook time", hours and hours; not difficult, but hours and hours......hours and hours......hours and hours......
luckily for me, later that day, I would be rescued by the opportunity to go camping!

Yep, camping the only way I'd ever consider it.

One, with a family member. Hmm, hmm, McKenna will do and her American Girl Doll, Chrissa.

Two, in the backyard of Kendra's house.

Three, with an experienced outdoors person like Karen. She figured out how to pitch this unique tent (it has two small "rooms" with a "courtyard" in the center) and was super kind in letting me think I helped!

Four, by watching a movie on the big screen, in Kendra's backyard, with freshly popped popcorn drizzled so lovingly with real melted butter and perfect weather, a little cool, but still perfect.

Five, with plates and plates full of the goods needed for perfect s'mores.

Six, with a bonfire, perfect for roasting marshmallows, perfect for taking the chill off of the night air and perfect for keeping away the one or maybe two mosquitoes who ventured our way.

You know my amazing friend Kendra. I am, we are, so blessed to know her and I am so grateful she is part of my life. She has these wonderful get togethers during the summer for our girls. Activities that are inspired by the American Girl Doll books. We had hoped to have gotten to this camp out and movie about Chrissa last summer.....well, God works in wonderful ways, because I think this past Monday was the perfect time for it. Thank you Kendra. It was so much fun.

Tuesday, March 15 meant waking up and having a yummy breakfast in Kendra's warm kitchen. It also meant about an hour of just us mommies talking. That felt good.
Once we got home and showered (oh my heavens, how did the pioneers ever make it without a shower), I headed off to work in my classroom for a few hours and Nana came over to play some Monopoly with the girls. Thank you Nana!

Wednesday, March 16 meant Spring cleaning and......sneezing....
McKenna's room; Andrea's room; the laundry room.....the rest of the house looks like this too, these were the 3 we worked on this time.
BEFORE


AFTER


McKenna's dollhouse:
McKenna's American Girl Dolls:

Wednesday's efforts were well rewarded. Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner; I provided the food and Grandma cooked chicken and dumplins', yum, yum. Thank you Grandma!

Thursday, March 17 meant some more cleaning for the girls, but I was able to get an early start on the yearbook and the yearbook Gods were with me 'cuz I was able to get the book just about finished. The deadline is in 3 more days. However, the yearbook rep told me we really have until the Saturday after our "deadline". I told her she never should have told me that, but she said she didn't want me to spend my whole break on the yearbook. (Funny, traditionally I spend my whole break on the student art show. Sure glad break fell earlier this year......course that still means I gotta find time to get ready for my student art show.....I digress.....again!)

Friday, March 18th finally meant some real play time for me in the studio. I didn't really care what it was, but I was paintin' somethin'.

This one was created in my Inspiration Journal. The one Donna Downey encourages us to work in as often as possible. The red poppies were inspired by her too. It is a favorite flower of hers and she makes them look so easy. It is just a red blob, how hard could it be? But she makes them better. I got lucky this week! She has provided her fans with a weeks worth of Inspiration. What a treat that has been to wake up and watch a new Donna Downey video each day. I did also realize tonight while working on another canvas piece, that she has been at this (this being multi-media) a whole lot longer than me.....of course her poppies look better! Just wait. I haven't finished practicing yet!

This is where I was last night after some play on a canvas.
Tonight, I've sort of combined these two ideas.....so far, I'm not sure.....I had hoped to include the finished product in this post.....however, this post, along with crafting and fixing dinner has taken several hours (I'm sure it's taken you several hours to read it!)......and it is late, although on vacation for one more day, it looks like we might head down to Orlando early tomorrow for some putt-putt and one more Braves game at Disney's Wide World of Sports......

man, I never did grades.
man, I never did come up with teacher appreciation gifts.
man, I never did print those yearbook pages i finished.
man, I never did see Sue....or Michele.....or Barb.....
man, I never did get to shop at Kohl's or Ikea or She Scrapbooks.....

but man, I did have a wonderful week, and am so grateful to the dear Lord above for all of my blessings.
Night, night ya'll.
Love you.
Melle

Sunday

It was a productive weekend.
Whew.
Feels good.

Still a busy week ahead, but at least I'm not as monumentally behind as I usually am.
Instead, I'm only a little behind.
(Ha! I wish I had a little behind.)

By the by, last Sunday was gorgeous!
The four of us actually made it to a Braves Spring Training game at Disney's Wide World of Sports. My camera died while we were there, but I did manage a few fun photos on my cell phone:

"...give me some peanuts and cracker jacks....."

Andrea and mommy....

Mommy and McKenna with daddy catching a few zzzzzz behind us :o)

This weekend, the car got washed!

Woohoo!

For those of you who follow my classroom blog, it is updated too. :o)
Now I'm hungry.
It's 10:34, way past my bedtime.
But I'm still hungry.
Thin Mint Cookie anyone?

Night all,
love you.
Melle

Saturday

I'm thinking about blogging this morning.....

because I am more than a week behind in my posts,
I'm so sorry to my (6) faithful readers....you know who you are!
As mentioned already the next 8 - 9 weeks are chalk-a-block full of deadlines. The days have been full, minute to minute with plenty to do. I'm not complaining...it beats the alternative.....unemployment or death! It's just the timing of all these deadlines....I keep telling myself to just prioritize....

because I love Saturday morning bacon,
Have I ever shared my story about bacon. Bacon, ironic, as you know, I don't care for much meat other than chicken and salmon. Don't care for cow and I especially can't stand the thought of eating pig. But, bacon. bacon is special. Well, it was special when my grandfather made it and by some good fortune it's the one thing I can cook, thanks to my grandfather's very specific standards. You have to cook it slowly. You can't be in a hurry. And turn often. I recently recalled that he also cut his pieces in half and snipped the edges as they started to curl. I regret that I don't remember why he cut them in half. I imagine, thinking of the era that he grew up in having a tiny piece of bacon to savor was even more special.

because I am procrastinating.
As mentioned (over and over again by now....sorry) I have a lot I hope to accomplish today. One of those times when there is so much you don't know where to start so, in my case, I just procrastinate. Procrastination, too bad there isn't a job out there that demands a good procrastinator 'cuz I'd be really good at that! Look at me, procrastinating while I'm writing about procrastination - see I'm really good at it!

Okay then,
now I have focus
now my fingers are all warmed up
now let's hope the internet Gods are with me today 'cuz I got yearbook pages to finish.
Just think, after March 22nd you won't here me say those words ever again......well, not until next year's yearbook anyway.

Love ya!
Hope I'm back by Sunday to let you know how it all went.
If not, don't worry. I'll be back by summer vacation :o)
Melle