At last...Spring Break is here!!

Tweet

It seems every other school district in America has been on Spring Break all this week, but ours just began at 12pm yesterday. We are off until Monday, April 8th. Woohoo!!

On Thursday after school we ran a few errands, one which included buying our egg-dying kit and then came home to dye a few eggs.

In between egg-dying, I did some major clean up in Ethan's room in preparation for an upcoming consignment sale.

I've also been trying to get things tidied up in my home office as we'll be moving the furniture around in there on Friday.

We have been contemplating moving for quite a while and it became a more serious discussion after the bullet came through my neighbors house a few weeks ago, so we'll probably go look at a few houses this weekend. I found one that I'm in love with but of course I'll probably lose out on it since our house isn't even on the market yet....or even ready to be put on the market. Yikes!!

And we are really looking forward to the Easter Egg Hunt after Mass on Sunday which will be followed by lunch with my mom and her husband...celebrating my mom's birthday as well...which falls on Easter Sunday this year.

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Easter!!

20 Questions

Tweet

I have missed blogging and in an effort to do a bit more...I went over to my trusty friend Dawn's blog to "borrow" one of her "20 Questions" lists...She is always so helpful like that! :)

1. Name 5 things you don't care about.
1) watching the news. 2) how many & what color quilts a certain blogger who I thankfully no longer follow has made. 3) whiny people who do not seem to know just how good they have it.  4) rap music. 5) celebrity gossip.

2. I wish I could stop:
making poor eating choices. I did SO well Sep thru Dec, but cannot seem to get back to 100% good choices. the ONLY positive, I haven't gained weight...I've maintained...but I really need to lose a bit more. 

3. What is your favorite kind of peanut butter?
Jif Extra Crunchy. I accept no other.

4. Pick a color that best represents your mood today.
Blue...for the ridiculously freezing cold & snowy (supposed-to-be) Spring weather we are having.

5. Look to your right. What is the first thing you see?
Scrapbook supplies.

6. What is your favorite "fair food"?
Cotton Candy. SOOO bad for the teeth, but oh so yummy.

7. Who was the last person to send you a letter in the mail?
Oh goodness. It's been years & it wasn't pretty...so I'm gonna plead the 5th on this one.

8. What did you order the last time you went out to eat?
Shrimp tacos...last Friday...no meat on Fridays in Lent-->always a challenge for me.

9. How good are you at delaying gratification?
Not too good.

10. What was the last thing you baked?
Chocolate cake. Out of the box. Not that exciting, but it does taste good.

11. What did you last receive in the mail?
Athleta catalog. LandsEnd catalog. Pottery Barn Kids catalog. Too bad I don't have enough money to buy even one thing from any of them right now. 

12. Are you a good speller?
Oh yes...not to brag, but spelling is my strong suit, (unlike Math) though there are still words that I get stuck on every now and then. Misspelled words is  a pet-peeve of mine actually.

13. When was the last time you went sledding?
Whoa...long time ago...pre-1997 since that's the year I left Michigan and I know I haven't gone sledding anywhere else. I miss it too...sledding is so fun!!

14. How many times have you been called for jury duty?
Never. {knocking on wood now, so hopefully it never happens}

15. Scrubs, ER or Grey's Anatomy?
I watched ER until it ended. I DVR Grey's now but I am 5 episodes behind...I suppose I don't make it much of a priority. Oh well.

16. What do you try to stay away from?
Cacti-especially after living in AZ. I think I'm safe from them now that I live in TN. :)

17. What is your favorite magazine?
I've always enjoyed PEOPLE but I haven't read or purchased one in at least 6 months (maybe more). I subscribe to Family Fun so I guess that's my favorite right now - they usually have some cute activity ideas in there that I can do with Ethan. 

18. Do you set your alarm clock on the weekend?

Definitely not...unless I really have somewhere to be, but O is usually my alarm clock on the weekends...either intentionally or not.

19. When you attend a wedding do you tend to give cash or buy something off the registry?
I buy off the registry.

20. Have you ever shot a bow and arrow?
In PE class back in high school. I wasn't very good at it. I don't care to try again either.

A few of my favorite things...

Tweet

The silly adorable faces he makes in pictures lately.

That when I pick him up from school he has a "bouquet" of flowers picked out just for me.

 How completely adorable he looks in his baseball clothes.

Absolutely everything about this boy!!

And yet again, how he has to make silly faces for the camera every.single.time.

Gotta love it!!

8 Books I Want to Read Right Now!!

Tweet

Saw this great idea at Sophisticated Dorkiness and thought I'd put together my own list of "8 books I want to read right now!"

Lately my reading has come to a snail's pace...either no time or no energy...I've been falling asleep at 9:30pm lately...so unlike me.  Anyway, I'm hoping that with next week being my Spring Break, maybe I can knock out a couple of books...wishful thinking anyway. I cannot believe how full my schedule is already next week.

Without further delay, here is my list of 8:

1) The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesy - I heard SO much "hype" about this one last year and when the price dropped recently, I grabbed myself a copy. Maybe I'll tackle this one next week!!

2) The Ambassador's Daughter by Pam Jenoff - I have LOVED everything I've read by Jenoff so far and since she writes primarily WWII historical fiction, I'm a huge fan. I purchased this one recently & the only thing keeping me from "jumping in" is that my mom already read it and said it started off slow for her...I will still read it of course & hopefully it moves along good for me.

3) Playing Dead by Julia Heaberlin - pretty sure I bought this one around Christmas time w/my giftcards...not my usual genre, but sounds good.

4) The Art of Keeping Secrets by Patti Callahan Henry - I bought this one a while ago...I think it's another that I got with my Christmas gift cards...I really need to read it. It sounds really good!!

5) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I've heard so so SO much about this one that I just really need to buy it and read it. I've been holding out solely because it's above my self-imposed $9.99 e-book price limit and it's not available as an e-book at the public library either. It was also a 2012 Goodreads Choice Winner!!

6) The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott - this should be in the #1 slot as I am "dying" read it...the hang up is the long, long waiting list at the public library...I'm finally moving up the list at #4...started off around #30 back in January!!

7) An Unexpected Guest by Anne Korkeakivi- I wish there was an easier way to re-number-order the books on my To Read list on Goodreads...because I would move this one way to the top. If there is a simple way that I'm unaware of, please share, but from what I've gathered, it's a cumbersome one-at-a-time numbering process. 

8) Crossing on the Paris by Dana Gynther - with my newfound obsession with Downton Abbey and in it's absence, this will be a nice one to fill that time!!

So, what are the books you are wanting to read RIGHT NOW??

I Want Wednesday...

Tweet

I want: this adorable pencil holder. The best part...it's super cheap ($2.50) and I'm going to IKEA in a couple of weeks. Woohoo!!

And while I'm there, might as well pick up this cute coordinating stapler. Hey, it's a space saver anyway since it stands up on end. :)

I want: this awesome Martha Stewart wall organizer collection. This is the perfect solution for getting stuff OFF my desktop & making more scrapbooking space. Hooray! I love it...and it's super affordable!! Win-Win!

I want: for Spring to really arrive!!! 25 degrees is NOT Spring!!

At last!!

Tweet

Over the past few months, I managed to teach myself Photoshop Elements enough to create some journaling cards for Project Life. 

I'm excited to share them and have set up a little shop at BigCartel!!


This is my first set and I have plans to make a few more, probably sticking with color themes as I have with this one. 

Monday Blues

Tweet

*These past few weeks have been full of icky-Mondays. In other words, Mondays that haven't been so great. Nothing huge, just an overwhelming sense of BLAH! Today is no exception.

*I have dismissal duty at work this week. While it's not a lot of work, it's just an extra "thing" to do.

*Like many, I am totally bummed that Google Reader is shutting down. Ugh!! Looks like I'll use Feedly, but I'm not loving it as much as GR. :(

*I'm pretty sure I'm fighting a case of the "can't wait 'til Spring Break is here" syndrome.  I am SO glad that there are only 8.5 school days left until the break. The downside: they are packed full of classroom lessons, in other words...very busy days. 

*Looking SO forward to Spring Break. Ethan, Mom and I will be heading down to ATL for a couple days. Planning to enjoy the Lego Discovery Center, Zoo Atlanta, IKEA, Archiver's & a stop at Athleta. Woohoo!! So much fun!!

*Other than that...behind by 2-3 weeks on Project Life, though I'm making more scrapbooking layouts than I have in the past year. Enjoying going to crops at our LSS. And oh so ready for some time off of work to catch up on my Project Life. :)

random

Tweet

*its' been a while since I've blogged. I've missed it...just can't seem to find the time these days. 

*i went to my 2nd monthly scrapbook crop (miracle!) last Saturday night. Had a blast!! I had to make at least 3 items for the store to display since I am on the Design Team. I was so excited that the mojo was working for me and ended up completing 4 layouts. Woohoo! 

*it's been crazy-cold here the past few days & the weekend will be the same. I plan to stay inside as much as possible...after I get a pedicure after work today. Hee!

*Work has been interesting lately. The entire first semester, things were eerily calm & quiet with very few kids having "issues/problems"...that's a good thing...well, the tides have turned and we seem to be making up for that calmness of days past...it's the approach of Spring that does it - I am convinced - my office needs a revolving door installed. 

*I'm still working on losing weight though I've been at a hardcore plateau since Christmas. I will admit to being a bit less strict with my eating, partially due to needing to change out some food items, but honestly, I'm just happy I haven't gained anything back. I'm just bopping back and forth within a 2lb range. I'm still 2-3lbs from that 20# mark and I really want to get there before Summer. I'm confident that once the cold weather leaves for good, things will go better for me as well as I have skipped a few YMCA visits due to icky, cold, wet weather...Ethan and I just don't need to be out in that. I did attend a great Yoga class last night though.

*Excited to share that Ethan has "eaten breakfast like a Kindergartner" for the past 3 mornings...what that basically means is that he has been up early enough to (want to) eat breakfast at home. I've been telling him for a while that he won't be able to eat breakfast at school when Kindergarten starts. Right now, in preschool he is able to do that, so every morning I am packing his breakfast which he eats around 8:30am. This change has been solely motivated by him and I love it!! I had planned to wait until the summer to work on this so I'm really excited to see him taking charge of it on his own. Hooray!! 

*for those not on my Facebook, last Monday night a bullet entered my next door neighbors home, going through a back window, through rear bedroom, hallway and landing in her front bedroom. We do NOT live in "the hood"...though we do live on the city/county line, just inside the city. There are some idiots who live in the county behind our subdivision who regularly fire their guns on their property -which is stupidly allowed and legal in the county- of course this moron denied shooting our way, which is the complete opposite way that he "supposedly" fires when shooting in his yard. The bullet goes in for ballistics testing on Monday which will confirm the type of gun it came from (.38 or 9mm) and then the police are supposed to go back to his house to match the bullet, but here's another stupid legal snafu for you...he can simply say he doesn't have that type of gun. So essentially there is nothing we can do. Furious!!

*we are now somewhat considering moving...we've talked about it a few times before this happened anyway, we have outgrown our house and I am completely "over" our stupid steep inclined driveway...can't even park in it...nightmare. Of course while we've found houses we would love to buy, the struggle will be selling ours thanks to the lovely neighbor 5 houses down who has abandoned her home and it is listed for $10k LESS than what we paid for our house almost 6 years ago...and the house is basically the same size. It sounds like we DO live in "da hood" now, doesn't it?