snack time

At my school, Kindergartners have snack every afternoon. They can bring a healthy snack from home, or they can bring money and buy one from the cafeteria. If they want to buy one they have a couple of choices: munchies, dolphins, teddy grahams, scooby snacks, or popcorn.

They unpack, bring their money up to me, and indicate which snack they would like to order. Today, one little boy brought me his money and started walking away. I ask him what he wanted for snack and he mumbled something, but it sounded like he said "dog treats."

I MUST have heard him wrong.

"What did you say, buddy?"

He came back a little closer to me and said, "Dog treats." Just as normal as could be.

I am holding back hysterical laughter as much as I possibly can and ask him again, "You want what for snack?"

"You know, scooby!"

Oh RIGHT they are shaped like dog treats. Kids are the best!

Crazy night

Last night was a weird one!

First we decided to go to a minor league baseball game during tornado warnings. In our area we are not blessed with any major league baseball, but we do have a minor league farm team of the Orioles. Last night was opening night. We've been to opening night for the last 4 years and it has become one of the things I look forward to each spring. We weren't going to miss it last night!

We were smart about it though... we watched the radar and waited for the big storm to move away from the area, THEN headed over. The tornado warning was still in place, but it was a BEAUTIFUL night after the storm passed. But we ran into a *tiny* problem. When the storm passed over the area it dumped a TON of rain on the field and even with excellent drainage and the infield covered, there was no way they could play with the condition of the field.

We payed $50 for tickets, parking, and food... but saw NO game :(

On the way home we ran into major traffic. To get to the stadium from our house you have to go through a tunnel (or two) and the storm had flooded a tunnel creating a major backup. We stopped at Wal-mart to avoid sitting on the interstate for hours on end. By the time we got back on our side of the water it was close to 10PM! On a school night!

But... our night was not over yet....

As we pulled into our street I saw a dog standing in our driveway. Not just any dog... a Great Dane! We spend so much time with foster dogs and having play dates with other dogs that it actually took me a minute to make sure that he wasn't one of ours who had somehow gotten out of the house. :/

I jumped out of the truck before it was even stopped to try to catch the big guy (we live close to a busy road) but he was afraid and bolted behind our neighbors house. GREAT! It's 10pm, our neighbors are asleep, and we are going to go nosing around in their yard setting off their motion sensors. This could be good.

The dog was so scared that he was staying in the back corner of their yard except if we tried to corner him... then he ran. We were having NO luck so I called my friend down the street (and woke her up) to ask her to come help us. After another 45 minutes, her husband finally caught him. WHEW!

Did I mention that there were 4 milkbone dog treats piled neatly on our porch? Yea, well they didn't help. This dog didn't like treats. But because of the treats we are thinking someone dumped him. What wonderful folks... dumping a dog during a storm (there was still lots of lightning in our area) when there wasn't even anyone there to bring him in. UGH!

Tonight was much more uneventful! What will tomorrow bring?

the long awaited quilt - I hope your expectations aren't too high!

My house has NO natural light! And I'm beginning to figure out that we have apparently not added enough artificial light, because I feel like all my pictures are turning out super dark. Well, no light and an old camera didn't help anything! So please forgive me for the quality of these pictures. That's right, I'm finally sharing it with you. Now I'm just worried that I talked it up too much and it won't be as wonderful as you are expecting! ha!

I haven't been quilting long, so there are tons of things I still have to learn. On this one I did several things that I've never done before. I used a pieced back. I used a pieced binding. And I used a different batting then I've used previously. I really like the way it all came together. It is a little bit smaller than I thought it was going to turn out (31.5" x 43.5"), but its still a great size for youngins!

the front... the colors are much brighter in person, we really have no light in our house! The fabric is Paula Prass - Flights of Fancy

the back... I'm really liking all the white! Don't pay attention to the fact that the strip of fabric from the front is not straight!

folded up. It has a really nice drape and folds up so pretty!

So now I'm off to clean all the clutter off of the dinning room table so that I can get the sewing machine out and get to work on my next project. I've got one project already cut. I just need to sew it up. And then I got more fabric last week for my next project. Ready, Set, GO!

2 years ago today

2 years ago today I was working at a preschool. (I'll have to tell you about it in another post because it was awesome, but its not really what I have to say today.) The director was super laid back and we were allowed to have our cell phones on in the room. Even though it was accepted, it made me uncomfortable, so I always left mine in my purse. Hubby called or texted me sometimes, but he would always just leave me a message or wait for me to text him back. He had never had reason to call the main preschool line to get in contact with me quickly.

So when the phone rang and the director answered (her office was in the 2 year old room I worked in) I thought nothing of it. Until she ask me to come to the phone. She said my husband was on the phone and kindly stepped out her office area to let me talk to him privately. Hubby tends to over react to things and consider them emergencies when they are really not, so I wasn't too worried.

But when the first thing he said to me was, "Lucy (my sister) is okay." I started to freak out a little bit. Why wouldn't she be okay? That's when he told me that there had been a shooting at Virginia Tech and a resident advisor had been killed along with one of the residents on the floor. Lucy was an RA at VT. I hadn't heard anything about it since I was at work. But as soon as Hubby heard about it he had called Lucy and (surprisingly) been able to get through and confirm that she was okay.

Just a short time later we got the news that 30 more people had been killed in another shooting across campus by the same gunman. This time we couldn't get through to Lucy. The phone lines were so busy in the small town with limited cell phone towers that the system was crashing. We finally got through to her on facebook and were relieved that she was still ok - physically - but she was very shaken and emotional.

It wasn't until the next day that we found out that another RA who worked with Lucy, and a high school friend who played on the soccer team with Lucy had been killed in the second round of shootings.

Virginia Tech, while a large school, is a very close knit community. Alumni, like Hubby and I, are fiercely loyal to the school, and we visit frequently. At the moment I found out, all I wanted to do was be on campus. I just needed to be there. To mourn the tragedy that had occurred with others who understood my love of the school and all the people who are associated with it.

We had been planning on visiting the very next weekend for Lucy's birthday, and even though students were released and encouraged to go home and be with family, we all decided to be together on campus. Many other people did too.

We spent a lot of time in the campus chapel, signing giant message boards, reflecting quietly at the makeshift memorial set up on the Drillfield, taking pictures, and taking comfort in the sense of community. The memories of those days are stamped forever in my heart and I still tear up and cry when someone mentions those days. On the way to work today, someone called in and dedicated a song to Lucy's soccer teammate. It's a GOOD thing I didn't put eye make-up on this morning! I wore school colors to commemorate the day and I've been praying for the families of the fallen all week.

the trees on the Drillfield were all tied with school colors.

the giant message boards filled with messages from folks all over

a line of state police cars. it was so nice to feel their presence.

the make shift memorial. there is a beautiful permanent memorial there now with an individual stone for each of the 32 people killed that day.

#683765628962717 on my project to do list

I like to create... anything. It doesn't matter if I'm making a quilt (the pictures are COMING!), scrapbooking, doing crafts with kindergartners, writing, or trying my hand at drawing. I HAVE to have a creative outlet in order to keep the jitters away. Some have called it a disease.

My husband has given up on having an elegant dinning room because ours is more like a table in a sea of craft supplies. My husband also knows better than to go into craft/fabric stores with me or if he does, it's best not to rush me... it only makes me anxious and it takes me even longer... if that is possible.

Of all the crafts I like to do, and really I haven't found one that I hate yet, the one I'd love to improve (right now) is my photography skills. I'm amazed by women like Jodie, Tara, and Nicole who can capture such wonderful moments.

I don't have a great camera. Mine is old and very dated. My eye for interesting detail is NOT developed. And I don't have ANY photo editing software... which I hear is a must. However, I want to get better. I want to be able to take beautiful pictures. I want to be able to capture moments that can bring back vivid memories years later.

And what better way to hone my skills than to practice? So I've decided to start my Project 365. For this project I will trick myself into a false sense of security by convincing myself it is a scrapbooking project. And truth be told... it is a scrapbooking project, but it requires me to take a picture EVERY DAY for a year. That's a lot of practice!

I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to share these pictures with blog world on a daily basis, but I'm thinking maybe a weekly recap on Saturday or Sunday? I've been wanting to add more pictures to this here blog and I think this will be a good way to get started. Now if I could just get over my perfectionist tendencies and get you some pictures of my quilt!

ladies lunch date

*still working on the quilt pictures... I haven't been able to get a good one due to the lighting and I really want to show you GOOD pictures*

Today is my last day of spring break :(

I decided to spend it with some friends. We decided to have a girls lunch out and only then did we realize that it had been 2 whole years since we all went out to lunch together. You see, 2 years ago my friend Maggie had just become a mom and we went out to celebrate. Her daughter Erika was 2 months old then. Erika is now a walking, talking adorable toddler. Now my friend Dana has a beautiful 2 month old daughter, Brooklyn.

So here we are, 3 adults, a 2 year old, and a 2 month old at a new Mexican restaurant in town. We had a great lunch, and if it had ended right then, I'm positive that I would have wished we spent more time together. However, there is a saying about leaving them wanting more, and I think there's something to that.

All through lunch I was painfully aware that I was the only one without a baby. (Did I forget to mention that Maggie is 5 months pregnant?!) But I was holding it together and not even getting upset when Maggie dominated all the baby holding time even though Erika was screaming in jealousy.

-ok, maybe I was getting a little upset-

But after lunch we went over to Maggie's new house to ohhh and ahhh. Her house is really cute and I'm so happy for them that they got out of their apartment. As we sat down in the living room to chat it became painfully clear that of course it was going to be non-stop baby talk from then on. And we were there for 3 hours! (I was riding with Dana so I didn't have much say in when we left/ how long we stayed.)

A perfect lunch turned into a torture session and I left feeling completely drained and deflated. I love those girls, but it might be awhile before I can spend long periods of time with them again. At least until I am feeling stronger about being around lots of little ones.

And tomorrow I head back to work *woohoo*

- sorry for the downer post on a Monday... I'll be back tomorrow with something more upbeat... I promise!-

sorting through the dirty laundry

After an Oprah episode about the nitty-gritty parts of being a mommy several blogers aired out their dirty laundry. From what they say, its very therapeutic to get everything out into the open. I'm all about free therapy, so I figured I'd give it a try. Obviously I'm not a mommy, but that certainly doesn't mean that all my laundry is clean!

1. I hate to hand wash dishes! We don't have a dishwasher. SOOO there are ALWAYS dirty dishes in the sink.

2. My least favorite part about washing dishes is the silverware. Sometimes I will wash all the other dishes and leave the silverware in the bottom of the sink. Consequently, we have completely run out of clean forks, spoons, and knives on more than one occasion.

3. I have overdrawn my checking account by buying crafty things on-line twice!

4. I try very hard not to let others see it, but I'm an extremely selfish person. Sometimes I wonder if I'll even be a good parent because I'm so selfish.

5. At any given time, I have multiple bags/boxes of things to take to the thrift store, but they sit there for a l.o.n.g time because I get anxious about actually taking things in there to donate. I have NO idea why?! I've never had a bad experience, I'm just always worried.

6. We have two big dogs and that leads to a lot of dirt being tracked in from the back yard, especially when its muddy outside. It would take so much energy to clean their paws or the floor every time they come in that I don't bother. I wait until the outside mud has dried up to wash the floor. Sometimes that could be a week or more! eek!

7. To me a clean house has more to do with clutter than dust. I consider our house clean when all the clutter is picked up and put away... even if there is dust an inch thick on the shelves.

8. I'm not exactly caught up on the clutter OR the dust at this very moment.

9. I don't cook 'real' food. It scares me. Most of our dinners are something from the frozen food aisle. Unless its soup, I can make good homemade soup!

10. On my days off I still get up (at 5:30) with hubby, pack his lunch, and fix his breakfast. But the moment he leaves I hop back in bed or curl up on the sofa and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. He's never ask and I've never confessed, but I *think* he thinks I stay up and get on with my day.

I think that's enough for now. I've got more, but I don't want you to think I'm a complete slob. Once this post is a distant memory, I'll hit you with part 2. :)

I hope it is sunny and beautiful wherever you are like it is here.

all thats left is the barky seal cough

I had blog guilt while I was laying on the sofa dozing in and out. I could see the computer and it was calling my name. My husband says that is what happens when you are addicted to something. And I guess he is right, I am a little addicted to checking other people's blogs (yes, even people I don't actually know) and seeing what's going on in the world. In a way being sick was good for my addiction because I could step away and see that I was spending a lot of time checking blogs. But I really missed it too! So I'm sticking around and checking blogs like before, but I'm going to start limiting my time so that I don't spend quite as much time as I use to.

And that will leave me more time to be crafty! I finished a small quilt yesterday. YAY me! I will take pictures of it to share as soon as it comes out of the dryer. It's getting all soft and crinkly as we speak. And if I can brag just a little... this is my favorite one so far. Now I just wish I had made it a little bit bigger. Wait till you see it!

Today I ventured out and restored one of my childhood Easter memories. I got a brand new pretty Easter dress. When I was little my mom use to make me and my sister coordinating Easter dresses. I remember one year she was still putting the finishing touches on my dress while everyone else was eating Easter breakfast. I haven't gotten a new dress for Easter ever since we've been married but I found a nice classic versatile dress that will work for many other occasions AND it was 50% off so I could not pass it up. But you know what always happens when I get new church clothes? I realize that I need new shoes! :)

Several other blogs I read were airing their dirty laundry this week. They had some great lists and no body threw stones at them... as far as I know. So I've got one of those posts coming up as well. Stay tuned.

My Spring Break Adventures - HA!

Checking in real quick just to let you know I haven't disappeared, I've just been sick. It sure is hard to use the computer when your eyes feel like they are going to pop out of your head and you get dizzy just by sitting up.

There's nothing like spending spring break on the couch wishing that you could just pass out until your body has fought off whatever you seem to have contracted. I'll be back as soon as I can stay awake more than 15 minutes at a time but now I'm going back to bed!