Top Ten reasons

Those of you that know me well know that I LOVED teaching kindergarten! There is nothing more invigorating and fun that a "fresh crop" of 5 years olds so excited about their "first day of school!" It is truly a feeling like no other... and, kindergartners adore their teacher and who wouldn't love to experience that??!

Now, with that being said, today would be my first day of school if I was still teaching kindergarten, but a few years ago---when my first grandchild was born---I decided it would be a good time to step away from teaching. I still miss (most of) those sweet little faces and the hugs that flowed so freely, but it's also been wonderful to "be the boss of my own time" and have the freedom to do anything I want---and not have to wait for Christmas vacation or spring break! :0) SO......

These are the "Top Ten" reasons I'm happy that I'm not going "back to school" today:

1. I can go to Starbucks at 10:00 AM

2. I don't have to go to the long, boring district meeting this morning :0)

3. I can go to Michigan next week to play with Landen!

4. I can go to the mall ANY time I want

5. I don't have to wait until spring break for my trip to Phoenix to visit Jean

6. I can scrapbook all day long

7. I'm available at a moment's notice if Keelyn, Anders, Ryann or Kate need me

8. No more teacher's meetings

9. When I wake up early it's to go to Anytime Fitness, not my classroom

10. I am the boss of my own time!!!

Ready....Set....SHOW!!

Just taking a little break from cleaning to do a little blogging!! This "real estate game" is a crazy one, but it's been exciting, too!! Having the house "show ready" at all times is a challenge for us, but in a way it's has been kinda nice because it forces me to not let things slide in the housecleaning department! :0) As soon as I get lax about it, our fabulous realtor, Jeff (our son) will call and say someone wants to show our house in 3 hours!!! Usually I have a day or two notice, but it's those 1 or 2 hour notices that keeps me on my toes! There are 3-4 interested buyers out there, but for one reason, or another, their waiting on offers. As Jeff says, we just need someone to "Pull the trigger" and make an offer and we will probably see a few others come in! OK, so will someone please pull the trigger!!
We LOVE this house, and actually are in no big hurry to move, except now our good friend, Tom Wood (the architect that designed this house) has done our new house for us, and we are getting very excited to get it going! But, what will be, will be, so for now we are just biding our time cleaning, mowing, looking at our new plans, and cleaning some more! Here is the drawing that Tom just sent us of our new house!

Coming soon.....

Coming soon....September 19th, I will be teaching this "ABC 123" school-themed mini album. I used "Adornit" patterned papers, bright coordinating cardstock, and lots of fun embellishments, quotes and poems. Today is another busy "creating" day...I'm working on a "Sisters" mini tag album....it is looking cute! :0)

"Summer Fun" mini album class

I'm busy today "prepping" for my "Summer Fun" mini-album class for tomorrow night at Paper Pals. This finishes up my summer classes, and I'm already creating some fun classes coming up in September and October--a "school themed" mini-album, a "sisters" tag album, altered clipboards for a "to do" list and "grocery" list, and finally an adorable "princess" mini album! Check back later for more details and sample pictures.

Fantastic!!!!

Our "anniversary weekend" in Seattle was FANTASTIC!!! The highlight for me was definitely the Josh Groban concert at Key Arena on Saturday night. If you like Josh Groban, you MUST see him "live and in person!" He has an amazing voice, and is a superb entertainer. He was on stage for over 2 hours...and, after 3 encores I still was so sad to see him go! INCREDIBLE!!
Other highlights of our weekend were the Seattle Street of Dreams home show and, a morning at Pike Place Market...one of our very favorite places! The picture above is taken at the market---if I lived in Seattle I would have fresh flowers from Pike Place all over our house!

A date......

We have a date Saturday night with JOSH GROBAN!! This is my year to plan our anniversary celebration (we take turns), so.... I got on the internet looking for Josh Groban concerts and VOILA! I found one in Seattle on August 18th...which just happened to fit in perfectly with our little anniversary "get away" to Seattle August 16th-19th!!!! I have loved Josh Groban since the first time I heard him sing (on the Ally McBeal TV series a few years ago) and Jim is looking forward to it also (I think!) We have lots of fun things planned for our weekend besides the concert....Pike Place Market, the "Street of Dreams" home show, shopping, walking along the piers, eating...all fun stuff we love to do in Seattle!!!

A day at the beach....

What an incredible summer we have had this year...lots of WARM, beautiful summer days! (Global warming??) Kate is old enough this summer to really love playing on the beach and in the water. I took this pictures a couple weeks ago while we were all enjoying a day at the beach!

4 Hot Chicks!!

Even seen four such "hot chicks" in a convertible??? One night last week I decided that Jean and I needed to go pick up Ellen and Tricia and take a little ride in the convertible---we needed to go to Starbucks for our "daily double" anyway! We didn't pick up any guys or have any young college guys honking at us :-), but who cares...we had a great time!
Jean had to leave on Friday and I miss her already...we had a super, great, fun time!! We did lots of movies, lunches out, shopping, "blogging" and just had fun getting to be together. I'll be on the Southwest Airlines website tomorrow booking my reservations for my trip down to visit her in Phoenix the end of October! I do love my "sister time!"

3 weeks from today!!

Just three weeks from today we leave on our trip...yipee!! It's alway a treat when we get to spend some time with this little guy...Landen...and his Mommy and Daddy, Sarah and Jon. Living so far from them is difficult, we miss them like crazy, but we will make every second count while we are there!!

Exploring Pullman...

We had a fun day yesterday exploring some of the fun places in Pullman. One of the neatest was the Washington State University Bear Research Center. It is amazing to get to see the grizzly bears up so close...two were playing in their "back yard" and one was having so much fun in a big (huge) tub of water with a ball---what a great way to cool off on a hot summer afternoon!

No Reservations!

What a fun movie!! Jean and I LOVE to go to movies, and when we visit each other we usually go to a movie every day...or at least every other day! We went to see "No Reservations" a few days ago and it is wonderful!! We like to come out of movies feeling happy---not sad, scared, or depressed---and this is definitely a "happy, feel-good" movie!! So, get out of the heat and go see "No Reservations"...we recommend it!

"SHE"mini album

Just a couple spaces left in my "SHE" mini album class that is scheduled for next Thursday, August 9th. This little album is one of my "all time favorites" and celebrates the women in your life. I have used lots of pink, black and white cardstocks and patterned papers....inspired by all the great pink and black that Heidi Swapp does. If you're looking for a great gift for any special women in your life, this would be perfect!! I plan to keep mine for myself to celebrate all the great women in my life!!!

Sam......

Today is a sad day at our house...we had to have our dog, Sam, put to sleep this afternoon. For those of you who didn't know Sam, he was an incredible dog, one of a kind!! We adopted Sam from Jamie's nursing school friend, Ronda, when she and her husband were sent to England with the military. They knew that Sam would have to be quarantined for 6 months before he could join them in England, and they didn't want put him through that, so we gladly brought him into our lives. He was such a fun dog and amazingly well-behaved (our friends always commented on that!) His best trick was saying "Ma Ma"---honest, he did!!! I brought him to my kindergarten classroom for "show and tell" and the kids were totally amazed by his talents! He was a great companion and wonderful pet, but he was growing very old and weary. We will miss him, but know that he is not suffering any more and for that we are very thankful. This is a layout that I did of Jim and Sam in Sam's younger years!