Good Things

It's not real often that I point this out, but I've had a great few days.

1. Friday morning. Had coffee a la Starbucks with the Autobahn Fraulines (my carpool) before facing the school day.
2. Friday night. Nicky took me to her friend's house for a pizza dinner. It was baby central. There were 2 little boys less than 2 years and Natalie. Had a great time, but was exhausted.
3. Rented all of Sex and the City Season 4. Have only watched 1 disk.
4. Saturday AM. Found the new Basic Gray papers. SOOOOOO cool. If anyone feels like buying me a random gift, I would gladly take ANY of it.
5. Saturday. Went to Endless Creations. Spent too much. Purchases include: BG Notch Tool, lots of cardstock, some random embellies, and some cool paper from Urban Lily. Went to Artsy Crafter. Got a very cool book of card ideas. Apparently, I'm a card maker now. Spent more. Went to Hobby Lobby for card supplies. Spent a little more.
6. More of Saturday. Crafted with Ang and hung out with Mike all day. I finished Emily's CJ and Ang and I worked on a special project. I'm so lucky to have such great friends. They even cooked me a steak dinner. Onion rings and all!
7. Saturday PM. Got home to find the copy of The Big Picture that Aunt Amy picked up for me. I'm one connected scrapped. And she's one lucky lady. Her craft room (aka "studio") got remodeled this weekend!
8. Sunday AM. My little bro started a blog. MUST READ! He's hilarious and one helluva writer.
9. Every day. The weather here is awesome. Although it's raining, the temperature is like 40. This rocks!

Where, you might ask, was Bradley during all of this excitement? He's ice fishing with his poker buddies somewhere far away from here for the weekend. It's just been Memphis and me to enjoy all this fun! Hopefully, the fun carries in to the week.

Soft Spot for Grandmas

Every day I start every class with a student reading something to the class. Today a student in my very first class of the day read a poem called "Grandma's Room."

I knew from the title I was in trouble. I just kept telling myself, "Don't listen to the poem. Think about something else." But, before I knew it, the tears were welling up in my eyes.

The student just kept reading about the Grandma's special room. The Grandma in the poem dies, and the little girl loves going in her room because she can feel her Grandma there.

I just kept crying and crying. I'm not just talking eyes welling up with tears. I'm talking actual tears rolling down my cheeks. There was no audible gasping, but there certainly was no hiding this. Big tears in front of a room of 25 14-year-olds.

The poor girl who read the poem felt awful, and one of her friends brought me Kleenex. I eventually composed myself enough to say that I was only crying because both of my Grandmas are gone. But, that only brought on a new round of tears.

Then, I composed myself again and tried to explain that I was only crying because the poem reminded me of my Granny's sewing room. But, you guessed it. More tears.

Then, I tried to explain that I never cry like this in front of students. One girl was kind enough to point out, "You just cried last week when you read us that story! I saw you get teary eyed!" In my defense, a grandma died in that story, too. And a little girl thanked her teacher for helping her learn to read.

Am I a basket case or what?!? One might argue that the tears make me more human. But, twice in two weeks. Come on! It's time for me to pull it together.

Since my Granny died (15 months ago), I've been ultra-sensitive about all things grandma. I just start missing her at the times I least expect it. So, tonight a tribute to all things grandma. Hug yours or send a special message!

P.S. The pic is my Granny as a little girl. A personal fav of mine right now.

Quick Recipe

Was just reading Michelle's blog (Check it out! Her LOs are AMAZING!). Her weekly challenge is to post your favorite quick and easy recipe.

Turkey Sloppy Joe
(Got this one from Nikki a few years ago. It's been a staple in our house ever since.)
1 pound ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 C diced green pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
8oz. tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. Worcestire sauce
1 Tbsp. Tomato paste
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Buns

1. Saute onions, pepper, and garlic for about 3 minutes.
2. Add turkey. Cook until browned.
3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve on buns.

This is one of Brad's favorite meals. Especially when accompanied by corn and baked beans. That man could and would eat baked beans and corn with every meal!

The True Me

I first saw this cool site on Ali's blog. When I saw that Em tried it too, I was starting to feel left out.

Visit The True You. Create an account. Click on any part of the banana split. Then choose QUIZ on the right of the screen. Complete the quiz and you'll be emailed your profile.

This is my profile.
You have a high degree of talent, but are frustrated by a lack ofopportunities to fully express yourself. Subconsciously, you are angry about this, but have learned to suppress your urges to alternately pull all the hair out of one side of your head and binge on lemonpound cake. You are principled, but feel that high standards in design are more important than high standards in personal hygiene. You look younger than your age, but sometimes lie about it anyway. You are a brilliant multi-tasker, but you frequently over-commit to the point oftemporary insanity. You try to blame others for this, but no one believes you. The aspect of your personality you love the most is your optimism. You have a passionate but unresolved relationship withpaper, which requires further investigation.

Not sure just how accurate this is, but it was fun!

Pjs and Stress

It is my belief that no matter how stressful life may be, you always feel better if you're wearing your pjs. This is where my story begins.

In case you don't know, I'm finishing my masters in May. Rather than a thesis, I have to present this enormous Binder of artifacts that prove that I've grown and changed as a educator. I've done a good job of keeping it up-to-date, but I'm down to the wire. I have to present it to my advisors in March to get a thumbs-up for graduation.

I set today aside to work on nothing but the Binder, as I need to meet with my advisors soon to check-in.

Here I sit, at 2 in the afternoon, pjs on. And stressful it is. I could literally feel my heart-rate increase and my chest tighten as soon as I took out the Binder. I've gotten almost nothing done and now I have a headache. Ugh. I need to put it away and do something else.

Twice in less than an Hour

Thanks for the food for thought, Reagan. (Check out the links for her fabbity blog. )

1) Tell me about the best pet you have ever had?
Current dog-pal, Memphis. He's the cuddliest big dog you'll ever meet. Unfortunately, he only likes to cuddle on his terms. He wants to be petted 24-7 and whines when he can't be.
2) What is the one place in this world you want to go to more than anywherelse?
Inspired by my colleague's radio station, I'm sort of hot-to-trot on the Seattle area right now. I'm not the exotic vacation type.
3) With all the news these days - like from Mr. Osama - Do you feel safe?
I just don't think about it much. I seem to think it will never happen to me. I worry about other people's safety. People in big cities. Soldiers.
4) Friends (reruns) last night made me wonder this - Is there really such a thing as a "self-less good deed"? - you can elaborate or not.
Psyched about this question, as I love this episode. I say no. All good deeds make you feel good and are, therefore, not self-less.
5) What is the one scrappin tool or thing you want, but can never seem to find?
I'm a new patterned paper junkie. My LSS can never get it fast enough for me and that's assuming they get it at all.

Finished Product

Had a great time @ Angie's crop last night. I love how other people's friends become your friends, too. I've met all the other chicas at the crop last night (Shanen, Jodene, Christa, Donna, and Dorinne) at other Ang-sponsored events, and it was great to see them again.

Plus, I love the sharing spirit at crops. There were so many great ideas (and so many great supplies) flying around the room last night.

Here's my finished products. My most avid readers will remember that one of my resolutions is to scrap a page each month without buying anything. Well, both of these bad boys required absolutely, positively no purchasing!

Scrapwhore

Ang is having a Stampin' Up party tomorrow night.

I've been trying hard to stick to my personal budget, which doesn't have a lot of wiggle room for purposeless spending.

But. . . I've had my eye on this super-cool set of time-related stamps since like November.

So. . . I made a little deal with Brad this week. I would do him favors and just be generally pleasant (something I will admit I sometimes struggle with) all week in exchange for some cold, hard cash to spend at the party.

Tonight was my true Pretty Woman moment. "I left the money by the door for you," he said and set the money by my huge stack of stuff to carry to work tomorrow.

Oh well. I'll sacrific my dignity for some cool new stuff. Does that make me an addict?

Truthiness

Was watching CNN tonight and heard that linguists voted "truthiness" to be the word that best describes 2005.

It can be defined as:
"quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts"

I'm totally intrigued and plan to use the word all the time now.
Your pick for 2005 word of the year?

Blast from the Past

Okay. After Em's inquiry about my harping, I figured I'd lose the last shred of my dignity and post this pic.

I like to call it: Me @ 14 w/harp

I played harp when I was in middle school and high school. I even thought, for awhile, that I'd go professional. Or as professional as any harp player can go. I was totally in to it. I went to harp camp. I went to a jazz harp convention in Arizona. I even commuted from Eau Claire to Mineapolis for harp lessons. I used to load my enormous harp in to my mom's wood-paneled station wagon and play at all kinds of weddings and dinner parties.

I guess I just kind of got over it, though. I still have my harp at my parent's house. My mom begs me to play Silent Night each Christmas. Maybe someday I'll go back to it.

I've Been Tagged by Dawn

4 Jobs You Have Had in Your Life
1. Reading Teacher
2. Worked @ a Drive-in Movie Theatre
3. Played harp @ weddings
4. Answer phones @ American Girl

4 Movies You Could Watch Over
1. Dirty Dancing
2. Shakespeare in Love
3. Sweet Home Alabama
4. Bridget Jones's Diary

4 Places You Have Lived
1. Milwaukee
2. Eau Claire
3. Stevens Point
4. Appleton
Guess I should think about leaving WI at some point, huh?

4 TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Friends
4. Sex & the City

4 Places You Have Been on Vacation
1. Germany
2. London
3. California
4. Boundary Waters (Had to list one wildenress vacation!)

4 Websites You Visit Daily
1. Two Peas
2. Blogs (lots and lots)
3. Barnes and Noble
4. Variety of Scrapping Stores

4 of Your Favorite Foods
1. Ice Cream!!!!!
2. Cherry Coke
3. Spaghetti
4. Broccoli

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Anywhere warm and sunny
2. Taking a nap
3. On a sailboat
4. Archivers

Resolution Update and Other Junk

Alrighty. I've been MIA all week. Have been EXHAUSTED and BUSY. But, I can't remember even one really important thing I did this week. Other than touching the lives of a hundred students by teaching them to read. Blah, blah, blah.

Had a big meeting in WI Dells today to prepare for a presentation at the state reading convention in a few weeks. What a great bunch of dedicated professionals! Had a fab time gossiping about books and all the cool stuff we do in our classrooms.

So. . . I was driving through downtown Waupun to get home. I thought to myself, "It would just make my day if there was a scrapbook store here!" I got stopped at a red light and, sure enough! There was a LSS right next to me and an open parking spot in front of it. I didn't buy even one single thing, but chatted it up with the owner and her cutie-pie son for awhile.

RESOLUTION UPDATE:
1. Cooking.
Made RR recipe # 282--Ginger-Lime Chicken with String Beans and Wasabi Smashed Potatoes. Love, love, loved the chicken. Discovered that I don't {heart} Wasabi. Have you ever tasted something so gross that you can't get the taste out of your mouth? Wasabi is apparently like that for me.

2. Reading.
Am reading Reading Lolita In Tehran. Has been on my shelf for-eva. At Ang's urging, finally decided it was time. Have been thinking about this fabbity-fab-fab quote all week:
"As soon as I discover a new word, I have to use it, she said, like someone who buys an evening gown and is so eager that she waers it to the movies, or even to lunch."

3. Sending cards and letters.
Should REALLY send my brother's CHRISTMAS GIFT sometime soon! Am doing bad with this resolution. But, the twin nephews are turning 1 at the end of the month. I totally plan to send their birthday gift on time.

4. Scrapping
Haven't submitted anything for publication and haven't made any pages this week. But. . . I haven't made even one scrap-related purchase this week. Am saving up for all the cool new stuff post-CHA.

Latest and Greatest LOs

Can't believe it, but my nephews will be a year old in just a few weeks. Got these awesome pics around Christmas time. The scrapper in me just couldn't control myself. So. . . I scrapped them three times. Ugh. It's out of control.

P.S. One of my res0lutions is to scrap a page a month without buying anything. The top page (with the BG paper). Didn't have to buy one darn thing!

Also did this super-cool LO of my resolutions this weekend. LOVE the new KI ribbon and the MaVinci number stamps. Guess there might be a stamper in me yet.

Have almost finished the CJ, too. But, am keeping that a secret.

??? from Reagan

Check out the link to Reagan's blog on the side. These ??? are from her blog.

1) What color makes you smile? Red.
2) What is your food related pet peeve? Loud food. Really crunchy. Really slurpy.
3) What is your favorite web site? Barnesandnoble.com
4) What did you do on your last date? Fancy dinner at home and a rented movie
5) What is your favorite slang word? No idea.

Week in Review

The first work week of 06 is almost over. I'll catch you up:

1. Got not one, not two, but THREE boxes of scrap-related things in the mail today. "Honey, are there three boxes in your craft room?" Brad innocently asked. Stamp mounting supplies, stamps from MaVinci, and some (more) American Crafts ribbon.
2. Have almost finished reading the AWFUL book for my book club next week, Christmas Train by David Baldacci. Am wishing the main character would fall off the train and die!
3. Finished 1 LO (see below)
4. One student professed their hatred for me. At least he didn't use any profanity.
5. Brad passed his 80 day review and is only 10 days from having a real postal uniform. Although, I think I'll have to wait a few months for him to bust out the shorts.
6. Celebrated Mike's 29th with good eats @ Famous Dave's
7. The sun hasn't shone even once this week. Not even one single ray of sunshine.

Love this LO. I totally hit the jackpot in marrying Brad. He's awesome, and his great-big family is too. Love that there are so many things that just aren't quite perfect about this picture; it makes it so much more real. We're both still bumming about not being able to enjoy the Rowe Family Christmas. Always a little chaotic, but always a lot of fun!

Culinary Adventures: Week # 1

Last night Brad suggested we eat Spicy Hot Beefs. Everytime I attempt this crockpot-concoction something seems to go wrong. Last night was no exception. Totally charred beef (in less than half the suggested cooking time) is no fun to eat. I ended up making Brad throw it away while I ripped up the recipe card and bitched about how it never turns out. Needless to say, we had to eat an alternate meal.

But, with the assistance of Rachael Ray the No-Lahner-vak culinary team totally redeemed themselves tonight!

Recipe # 303 in Ms. Ray's latest cookbook, birthday gift from Kevin, Jess, and fam, (365: No Repeats) is my official keeping-my-resolution new dish of the week. We enjoyed a feast of "London broil with buttered potatoes and carmelized zucchini and mushrooms" tonight. I'm sure the entire bottle of wine that accompanied it made me a bit biased, but it was fab-u-louso. Cannot wait to make it again!

Last LO of Vacation

Effer 17. Use an old/hideous piece of PP with a new/fav piece of PP. This has been one of the funnest Effers to look at. Everyone is doing such awesome and original things!

And then there's mine.

So, this isn't stuff Miss January is made of. It isn't fab-fab-fab, but, I had fun doing it. AND, I finally managed to use a few of my Prima flowers.

Believe it or not, playing Don't Break the Ice has become a bit of a "thing" for Ang, Mike, Brad, and I since the night these pics were taken. I think we might be due for a game or two sometime soon.

Vacation Summary

Hope everyone had a fantastic New Years Eve. Our celebratory dinner with Miranda and Jb was great. The four of us haven't had a dinner together since we moved from Point almost three years ago! We totally need to do it more often.

I've had the have-to-go-back-to-work-tomorrow blues all day! In an attempt to cheer myself up, I'm trying to think about everything I did over my ten day break:

1. Completed 10 LOs
2. Went to my LSS 4 times
3. Went out for coffee 4 times (2 Starbucks and 2 Gloria Jean's)
4. Spent $100 at Target on life necessities (How do we do that?!)
5. Vacuumed the house at least 4 times in preparation for various visitors
6. Watched 2 discs of Friends Season 10 and the entire first season of Sex and the City
7. Visited lots of family and friends (the pic below is from when Dan, Amy, and Jen came to visit this week)

Since Desperate Housewives isn't new tonight and Grey's Anatomy isn't on, I will have plenty of time to do one more LO tonight.