YIKES!

Ok, so I had to log onto here to post a comment on another blog I started following, and whoa! I realized my last post was over 2 years ago. Guess that goes to show that I have been a bit busy. Let's see, since then I, um...met the man of my dreams, dated him, and then married him! How life can change in a short time. I will have to get back on here and fill in details. I posted new pics, but will type more later.

I'm back!

So, I never posted pictures from Spring Break, or typed more info. Oops! It's a busy time of year and things have been crazy. I've been doing other things--it's that time of year where yard work takes up lots of the spare time. :( I will be better this summer--I promise! If anyone is actually reading this.
I am winding down with the kids as the school year comes to an end (yahoo!!), and gearing up for VBS again. I'll be glad when that is finished and I can enjoy summer and relax.
In the mean time I am doing lots of walking with Lucy, and a little reading here and there.

Sorry, this is not much, but I felt some kind of post was necessary after more than a month. More to come...

Please tell me why...

Why do we live in Fort Wayne? I'm trying to remember. What I do remember is why I don't usually go away for Spring Break...it's too hard to come home!!! I'll post more tomorrow with pictures, but West Palm Beach was beautiful, and today, being home in the Fort stinks. It's cold, and gray, and did I mention cold??
I'm trying to remember the good things about this lovely place...hmmm.....

I'm a slacker!!

I know, I admit it. I've been a blog slacker! I'm sorry (if there's actually anyone that reads this). I have gotten very busy all of a sudden. Between starting to gear up for VBS, a BeautiControl business that's just taken off, and my normal job...things have started to keep me hopping.

On the BeautiControl side, I've finally started doing spas (actually started in late January). I have gotten bookings at every spa I've held so far, and sales have been better than I would have hoped or imagined. I'm not surprised though. The products sell themselves. I'm just there to give them to the women. I'm using them, and loving how my skin is looking and feeling. It's a fun part time job with no set schedule.

On the VBS side, Heather and I have already met to start planning how we're going to change things up this year. So far we've decided to bring the registration process into the 2oth century. We're going to do an "online" registration for adult volunteers. Anyone who wants to help at VBS will come visit us at the table and we will type their information right into our laptops. That way we will not have so much paperwork, retyping, and all of that. It will be much simpler. I'm hoping that next year we will be able to have the children's registration similar. Gotta love the technology of today!!

The countdown is on! Just about 3 weeks until SPRING BREAK '08! I'm ready for a break, and so are the kids. We need some time away for relaxation so we can gear up for the last haul. I can't believe we're only about 10 weeks or less from the end of the school year. Wow! Another year down. (All it makes me think is that I'm closer and closer to the end of the braces!!)

Picture Catch Up

It's been a long time since I've been on here. Time flies when you have things to do, I guess. I have started doing BeautiControl spas and have several scheduled this month (due to a competitive nature and a contest last weekend). I have tried to keep that stuff up to date and stay on top of the paperwork and such. I'm also trying to stay on top of my grading this quarter instead of collecting piles and piles of stuff that will stress me out when it comes time for report cards. I guess that, and some reading here and there, is keeping me busy lately.

I actually thought of posting because I had some pictures on my camera that haven't been on here. Random, miscellaneous pictures...but here goes!

Last Friday, Feb. 1 when school was closed because of the weather (which didn't end up being as bad as they thought), I met up with Gabrielle and Alaya for breakfast at IHOP and some sledding later. I took some pictures at breakfast.


Alaya was trying to play the "pick a hand" game with her crayons. She would put them in one hand, ask me to pick, and then open them. I thought it was cute, though, because as you can see in the picture, her hands are so small that the crayons were sticking out. Oh well...nice try.




We had taken some pictures at the Chinese buffet a few weeks back, and they were all on Gabrielle's camera...which she knows nothing about (so I'll never get them). So, we tried to replicate one of them. This turned out kind of cute. :)





And this...what more can I say?! Lucy has discovered that the toilet contains water...one of the reasons I'm so picky about always keeping toilet lids down. Well, now when we are upstairs and she is thirsty, she has figured out that if she goes in the bathroom and paces around in front of the toilet, I'll lift the lid and open her "big drinking bowl". The only reason I let her do it now is that my cleaning lady keeps the toilets much cleaner than I ever did!

ICE (and not the frozen kind)

Wow! Talk about Colts mania! If you come to Indy, you are pretty much surrounded by the Colts in everything from food (Steak and Shake has a blue and white shake in honor of the Colts) to building lighting (there is a building that had it's windows lit up blue in the shape of the horseshoe). Coop wanted to do something goofy to show what really happens at ICE.
I'm in Indy for a conference (Indiana Computer Educators) and have another day tomorrow full of learning. We're staying at The Canterbury, a historic 4 star hotel downtown. The nice thing is that pretty much everything down here connects to each other by way of some sky bridge or walkway or something. We really haven't had to go outside much, which is great because the temps were below zero today! BRRRRR!!
Today we went to a workshop called "I didn't know you could do that with an iPod" and walked around the exhibit hall. Tomorrow are more smaller and shorter sessions. It's been fun. I'm enjoying all the technology, and sure wish my school had unlimited funds to be able to get some of the cool stuff. There's so much out there to use with kids to make learning fun and interesting. I decided that I don't need all the "freebies" that I'm getting from the booths and decided that I would take "surprises" back to my kids. I'm on a mission to get at least 20 things by the end of the conference so that I can give each kid a special treat from my trip--geez! Does that sound like a mom, or what?! :)

Seeing Double?

I have doubled my beagle population this weekend. Jackson is here for an overnight visit while his parents take a quick trip to Indy. He makes me laugh because he's SOOOOO lazy. He pretty much has been in one position, in one location most of the time he's been here. I don't know if he's pouting and sulking or if he's normally this lethargic, but it doesn't take much to "watch" him. Lucy, on the other hand, is still pretty energetic, and loves to play. This morning it didn't matter that it was -19 degree windchill. She wanted out and decided to get stuck under the deck so that I had to come out an rescue her. Thanks girl! She did decide to cuddle up with me and the electric blanket while I read and napped...ok, more napping than reading, but whatever! What are Sunday afternoons without Sunday afternoon naps?!

Speaking of beagles, I took a couple of my students to see the family movie night at church on Friday. They were showing Underdog. I wasn't too excited about it, but I have already taken girls once, and thought I should go again. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a cute movie, with lots of funny parts. My favorite line from the movie is when Underdog saves the city from the bomb because he digs deep into the earth to bury it. When it explodes it sends him into outer space where he encounters an astronaut working outside his spaceship. The astronaut then says, "Houston, we have a beagle." :)

Who Could Resist?!

Another crazy Friday night with Gab and this time she brought PUPPIES!! What fun! These guys are so cute and I just wanted to keep them. She had "borrowed" them to take and show her dad to see if he wanted to buy them.
One was a girl and one was a boy. We kept giving them all kinds of crazy names. She really wants to name the girl Ruby, and I thought Henry was a good name for the little boy. Not sure if she's keeping either, or both, but I enjoyed them while they were here. I think I'd be in the market for another some day, but would like to do it at the beginning of summer so I have time to spend with it and train it. Lucy was unsure and acted kind of curious and shy at first, but after she got used to them getting all the attention she got kind of snobby.

End of Vacation Woes

So, I thought I'd be a better (more regular) blogger in 2008...guess not! I'm thinking the reason for not blogging anymore this week is that I haven't done anything. It's the end of Christmas break today and tomorrow is the slap in the face, rude awakening of reality, bright and early. Actually early, but not so bright--it's so dang dark at gettin' up time! Hate that!

Well, I feel pretty good about some accomplishments during my time off. Besides sleeping in REALLY late most days, staying up pretty late most night, hanging out with friends a lot, I have actually gotten some things done around the house. I did finally take down Christmas things and put those away the other day. But before that I went through my dresser and closet, doing some much needed purging of unworn things. I have a huge stack of t-shirts and some sweatshirts to go to school tomorrow. The dresser wasn't as huge of a success--I mostly rearranged, so now I have three sock drawers instead of 2, but they are so much more organized. I can find the socks I need much more quickly now, and won't waste much needed time in the mornings while getting dressed. :) I also organized my desk and the shelves behind it. Did some purging there, too. I cleaned out my pen/pencil cups--which doesn't sound like much, but if you knew me and office supplies--whoa! That job took me about half an hour one night. I had 4 containers of pens, pencils, markers, highlighters, etc. Some of them didn't work well, some I don't like anymore, and so I cleaned that out. Now I only have 3 pencil containers, and they are much better organized. (I hear some of you saying, "get a life") Sorry, it's just me. But I'm sure if you come over, you'll appreciate the ease at which you will locate a writing instrument.

And as usual, anything I don't want goes to my students. They get excited about my rejects. I hate to throw anything away, so why not give it to some kid who can use my junk?!

One other beneficial thing I did was clean out kitchen drawers. I took everything out of them, washed out the drawer, and then put things back in a neater, more organized fashion. (Are we sensing a theme here???) I washed the silverware holder and I feel much better now that that is done. What would I do without Christmas break?! Yikes!

So, back to the grind tomorrow. I went in on Thursday for about 3 hours to try and make the entrance back into the "real world" easier on myself tomorrow, but I wasn't very successful. I still have things to do before the kiddos return tomorrow. Give me a day or two and I'll be back on track, but tonight it looks pretty grim. I want to hold on to every moment...get every last ounce of fun in...savor the time off...accomplish tasks...
I'm off to organize my medicine cabinet!!

Christy and Rachael's New Year's Rockin' Eve

First let me say, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! It's officially 2008, and thank goodness I didn't set any resolutions, because I'm sure I would've already broken them. No major life changes to feel depressed about when I flub up, no lofty dreams to feel bad about not attaining. I think my "goal" is just to be a better person, in any ways that I can. Basically I want to spend more time reading, learning, being a better friend, being a better Christ follower, and just being a better me!

So, my "Rockin' Eve" consisted of Chinese and crafting. Rachael and I had some Chinese take out and then jumped right into the making of many projects. We began around 7ish last night after dinner, and finally pooped out around 8:30 this morning. But boy, did we make some rockin' projects! Here they are, in the order I made them. I started to loose the gusto and fizzle out by the last card, until we decided to make the minis.

Card #1:
Rachael and I totally CASEd (copied and selectively edited) this card from the new Stampin' Up catalog. I took the exact same color scheme and ideas, and she changed it up a little. We were both totally pleased with our end result. It's almost hard to part with them after all the hard work, but digital photos are my new way of keeping the memories alive!



Card #2:
I wanted to make a really awesome thank you card for a good friend who will deserve one soon. She keeps telling me how much stuff she got me for Christmas and how she kept seeing things that she thought I'd like and so she got them. She's a great friend and a super gift giver, so she deserves more than just this card. I hope she likes it!! (also, you can't see it but the inside has the word gratitude and the definition. It's cute!)


Card #3:
I CASEd this idea from the catalog, too. It had the word "welcome baby" instead, but same colors and layout. I like the way it turned out. You can't really see it (and the pic is blurry on top of that), but there are three blue circles on the top for some dimension. Another thank you, but I'm big on thank you notes!






Card numero 4:
This is another CASE from the book. Same color scheme, similar stamps and idea...my own style. I like how it ended up looking. I love the little saying on it. It says, "just 'cause I like you". That will be for any kind of occasion.





Card #V:
This layout is from one of the catalogs, but I chose totally different papers and made it totally my own. It is ok, but this card was probably around 5am, and you can kind of tell I am getting less creative at this point. This one says, "you make me smile".







Card #6: (aka the "I've gotta have at least one more card to show for 12 hours of crafting, card!")
This was one of my last efforts and you can tell. It's not horrible, but also nothing I'd enter in a contest or anything. It was ok, but I added the brown ribbon and it became much more acceptable.




And last but not least...(drumroll, please!) The early morning new year craft of the day. The assembly line produced, fits in the palm of your hand, lovingly placed in a great handmade paper bag...mini card sets:

These are like an idea in the book. They are 3"x3" cards using the same papers, but mixing and matching them. Then after we finished making the cards we were wishing we had something to put them in, either to store them, or to give as a cute gift. So, I began cutting, scoring, bending, & folding...and voila! I created these cute little bags to hold the cards and their envelopes. How cute is that?! Seriously, I can't get enough of these little baby cards. It will be very difficult to give these away--even with digital memories!!

So, that was my entrance into 2008--what a crafty start! And now it's time for me to retire because my 2 1/2 hours of sleep just aren't cutting it right now. Again...Happy New Year! I hope it will be the best one ever for you!

Playing with new Christmas toys

Before









After









Guess what new Christmas toys I was playing with today?! I asked for hot rollers and Santa (aka Mom and Dad) got them for me. Since my hair is getting longer, I wanted to have some options with doing different things to it. Lately I've perfected the ponytail, and that's about all I do to it. So today I decided to give the curlers a trial run and see how well I could do on a day when I don't need to go anywhere. As you can see, the results are obvious. They give me much more body and bounce. I'll keep practicing during break, and perfect it before I go back to school.

Christmas evening greetings!

Since we decided (or Mom decided) that we would do brunch as our main meal we were finished early and I'm already home for this Christmas evening. Yesterday in my excitement to take pictures of my fabulous trifle, I decided to take some pictures of my little tree and some of my fave ornaments. I have a small 4' tree that I got when I first moved out into the Osborne's house. I have never upgraded to a larger tree for a couple of reasons. One reason is that I kind of like my little baby tree. It's cute! Another reason is that I worry that I wouldn't have enough decorations to fill a large tree if I got one. So, in the meantime I just keep collecting and collecting, filling up the little tree, hoping that when I do decide to get a normal sized tree I will have enough to make it look decent. Another reason is that they take up so much room. I put my tree in my dining room this year so that I wouldn't have to rearrange any furniture. It's always a dilemma for me. I liked it where it was this year. I could see it from the couch or from the dining room, where I sit at the computer a lot.
My tree is a themed tree and is decorated in all snowman or snowflake decorations. Many of them are homemade and came from craft shows. I went to Frankenmuth one year with Rachael, Mom & Dad, and we got a ton of ornaments at Bronner's. That's one place that you need to visit if you are into Christmas stuff. Here are a few favorites:

This was one of my first snowman ornaments. I got it at a craft show and it's made from one spoon. He's unique and kind of cute.











This is another craft bazaar ornament. It's made from a gourd. He was painted and received a scarf.










I don't quite remember where I got this guy, but he always makes me laugh. I'm not even sure why I bought him, because I'm not a cowgirl, or anything, but his hat and dangling legs with boots caught my eye. He's kind of bigger, and heavy, but very fun!








This is a new ornament this year, but I like this one because she's definitely a girl snow"man"(?) and is pink. She brings some color to the tree and is a cutie!

Watch out Rachael Ray!

Usually the words cooking and Christy don't tend to end up in the same sentence very often. But around holiday time I'm typically asked to bring a dish or they might even trust me to attempt two things. I'm not sure why I've never decided that cooking was fun...I learned pretty early that eating is fun, and since cooking is the predecessor to eating, I should try to work on that.
Well, after attending a Christmas party with great food on Friday night, I decided to try and recreate one of the fancier looking desserts for tomorrow's celebration. This is how special this is...I had to go buy a special bowl to put it in. I'm not sure about a dessert that has a special bowl named after it so you have to go drop money to purchase a container just for this, but that's how Trifle has ended up, I guess. I was pretty proud of the work, and the end result, so I took a pic by the Christmas tree and thought I'd display it. I hope it's good when we eat it tomorrow. If so, I'll have to attempt another trifle--at least I've already got the bowl this time! :)

School's Closed--let's craft!

After a pretty bad snowstorm this weekend and a 2 hour delay called last night, we ended up being closed today, due to weather. I got up at a decent time and took advantage of the day to get some errands run. I went to a friend's house to pick something up, took Lucy to get her nails trimmed, to the post office, to the bank, and then to Rachael's to craft.
I have this party that I go to every year and it requires that we bring a homemade gift for an exchange. I always try to come up with something pretty creative and crafty to take. Two years ago I took one of the nativity sets and it was a huge hit! This year I decided to go easy, but cool. I made chocolate candies and then wanted to put them in some kind of fun container. Here's what I came up with. It is so cute in person! It's an empty gallon paint can, decorated with scrapbook papers and ribbons. I think someone will really like it...and there's chocolate inside--how can you go wrong?!
I also made some little decorative things to put on the top of other chocolate baggies I'm giving to some teacher friends. They turned out really cute, also. Here's just one of the five designs I did. They were all different. I think they'll make a small gift seem really nice.

Pomp and snowstorms

I'm finally officially finished with IWU! (All except paying the money I borrowed--minor detail!) Last night was the commencement in Marion. I had always wanted to walk, but had to talk several of the other cohort members into going. We had 7 out of 13 people there, and we had a blast! We were so glad we went. They really made us feel special, and made us feel proud. It wasn't a formal, stodgy ceremony, as I had thought it would be. They encouraged the crowd to cheer for their people and show their pride in creative ways. Too bad all my friends bailed because of the winter storm warning. I could have had some "creative cheering" when my name was called for sure. : )
So, the weather was fine heading down there. Coming back was beginning to get bad, and it took us a little longer than usual to get home. It continued to snow overnight and most everything in the Fort was canceled today. I got up and shoveled the driveway, not knowing that I didn't have church. Heather was planning a party for me this afternoon, and we went back and forth over what to do about it. We finally decided to have it and let anyone who wants to come out, come and party with us. It's looking like at least a delay tomorrow, and it would be great to sleep in. Hopefully it won't continue snowing. I'm beginning to see a snowblower purchase in my future...Merry Christmas to me!

Cozy by the Fire

After a few weeks of up and down temperatures, today finally feels like one of those cold, beginning to get wintry days. I came home with a headache and sat with ice to get rid of that. After becoming cold from the ice, I decided to see if I had any dry wood so I could attempt to make the first fire of the year. I must have actually been thinking ahead last year, because there was one piece of wood in the fireplace. I grabbed some others from outside.
Now, the making of the fire wasn't as easy as I had remembered, so I must have had wet wood. I used these fire starters that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I used 5 of those, and about an hour later I finally had something decent going. The problem is that I have to sit directly by it to actually feel the warmth...so I grabbed the mail, a magazine, some hot tea and snuggled in for the night next to the fire. I love the smell of a fire! I think a rearranging of the furniture might be in order to get a comfy seat close to the warmth.

Whew! (big sigh!!)

Today, November 3, 2007, is a day that I thought would never get here!  And now here it is, come and (almost) gone.  I am officially finished with my course work for my masters degree and am a grad school graduate!!  Wow!  

Today at our last class we reminisced about that first day and how intimidating it all seemed to us.  We saw some people at our break who were just finishing up and we were asking them all kinds of questions.  And now...a short 18 months later, that group finishing up is us.  Who would have thought we'd ever get here?!  

So, unfortunately today was pretty anti-climactic.  We had presentations and did a short group assignment.  Then we watched two videos and that was it.  No big finale.  No hoopla.  Just a whoop and a holler from us as we exited room 202 for the last time.  Luckily we had planned to go have a fun celebratory lunch at Bandido's.  We have already planned to get together for breakfast in about 8 weeks to keep in touch.  

So, here's the kind of dorky part...I'm actually going to miss it.  Not just the people, but the schooling.  I don't know if I discovered that I love learning, if I was happy to have something to keep me busy, or what, but I am a little sad that we're done. (Don't let the other cohort members know that!)  I think that I have enjoyed knowing that I had something to do, except during the extremely busy periods, and that I enjoyed the social aspect of it.  

So, who knows what's in store next for this graduate.  First things first...I've got to figure out how to change everything on this blog that says "grad student".     : )

Field Trip Funnies

So we took our students (both 4th grades) to The History Center and the Courthouse last Friday. I was thinking about the trip this weekend, and remembered this funny story from the orientation part. At the beginning we meet in a large room and talk about the history of Fort Wayne and look at some memorabilia (war clothing, old records, etc.). One of the other things we look at, and discuss are different pelts that might have been used around here. She shows us a raccoon pelt, which is usually pretty easily identified. Then she shows a beaver skin, a deer skin and one other skin. This one is smaller and is long and narrow. When she asked what kind of animal they thought that it was, one of the students (not mine) actually shouted out "hamster". I thought I might wet myself!
**Oh yeah! I almost forgot...the real answer is-- muskrat.**

Random Acts (of kindness?)

So tonight at family game night the topic of Christmas came up. Normally we do some type of exchange with each other to prevent people from spending on everyone. We've tried to mix it up at times by doing something like a "service exchange" or something. My aunt suggested that we somehow donate to a family friend who is going through a rough time and is in need of many things, especially financially. So, at first I was like my younger cousin and thought, "Hey! I want gifts!" But then I got to thinking about it and realized we should do something like this. We all have so much STUFF and usually get people more STUFF that they don't need, but that they put on a list so someone knew what STUFF is least likely to annoy them. I'm all in favor now, and think that it would be great if we all at least donated the amount we would have used in the exchange (about $25 each) to this friend. How thrilling for her to feel better about being able to pay a few bills, and how fun for us to help.

Something else that happened this week...I took on the task (with my friend, Christie) of trying to boost the morale at my job. Yikes! I'm not sure why I decided I should be so bold as to tell the whole staff they suck at being happy and grateful, but I did. I read a book (Have You Filled A Bucket Today?) to them, and then explained that our staff has grown apart. We have started having cliques, being very whiny and had way too much complaining. We made a bulletin board with buckets for every staff person and made drops to put in them. It's just a way to try to start something positive amidst the negative atmosphere. The wild part is that so many people thanked me for doing that. Everyone said that we needed it, and evidently no one was willing to step up to the plate. Guess it's that IWU teaching me to be an "agent of change." : )

Gilmore Girls and Announcements

Since I really have nothing to share, and am feeling bad about not posting in over a week...I decided to have a Gilmore Girls update. After a brief hiatus from the show, due to season 6 not being available right away (come on! I watched 5 seasons in just under a month!), I'm back to my viewing addiction. Fortunately for me, after the break, I'm now able to refrain myself to watching just one episode and actually getting some school work (Nebraska or IWU) completed.

On that note...only 3 Saturdays to go!! And boy, they are going to pump every last bit of studying out of us that they can in this last class. Each week we have about 3-4 assignments due, plus reading, which is never priority for me. I just can't believe that it's this close to the end. I ordered invitations online, and actually shed a tear when I saw the preview of them on the computer (not a surprise for most of you).
Speaking of invitations, here's a good story: So, the invitations come in the mail last Saturday. And since I had nothing to do that evening (ha!), I decided to sit right down and start addressing them so I could send them whenever I wanted to. I got out my little address book and started writing addresses on them and sealing them all up to send. After about 8 or 9 I went to lick one and seal it up and it didn't stick. Upon second glance, I realized that it had no sticky stuff to lick. And upon even further looking, several of my envelopes were defective! Great, I thought...now I'm going to have to call customer service. After a few minutes of thinking about what to do, I made the brilliant realization that there happened to be 25 sticky envelopes, AND 25 non-sticky envelopes! Hmmm...then suddenly it hit me. This is one of those fancy occasions where you put the card in one envelope and then into another (sticky) envelope. Hey! I've never gotten married--I don't know all these things! So, now the decision...do I redo all the messed up ones or leave them. After thinking about it for a minute, and realizing that all formality was probably lost when I put a sticky note on some of them, I chose to be my casual self and send out...heaven forbid I say it...improper announcements. So, if you're one of the few lucky ones to receive the graduation card...just remember, just because I'm getting my masters degree doesn't mean I now know everything! : )