Week in Review

This has been the craziest week.
I literally have not cooked one meal at our house since last Saturday!  
Until tonight.
Talk about slacking!

But, I had good reasons!
Saturday- pizza with the Zahn's.  Good food.  Good friends.

Sunday- we celebrated Grandma's and Chad's birthdays in Salina


Monday- with Daddy out of town, what else would we do but eat out!  I thank Burger King Play Place for keeping me sane that night.

Tuesday- celebrated Chad's birthday with the Burkholders at On the Border.  Got my ab workout that evening with all the laughter!

Wednesday- we took Chad to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday.  It started off with a weird KU gnome gift... turned no-Childs children-liking-their-food... turned dance party in the aisle... turned riding saddles with no horse!

 Thursday- Applebees with the Ashers.  We got smart this time and put the older kids at a table to themselves.  Jada was so tuckered out from her day she fell asleep in the booth.

 And now it's Friday.  Did I cook?  Did I actually make a meal for my family?  

Yes.  Yes, I did.
Hamburger gravy and mashed potatoes.  And peas.  mmmm...

But, here's the kicker~  after this busy week with friends and birthday partying~ we celebrated Kansas Day at school today!

We made butter in baby food jars.
We colored Jayhawks.
We sewed with needle and thread on an old quilt.
We drew our favorite Kansas symbol on a quilt patch.
We had a Twinkie snack that was the shape of a sunflower.
We read a great book about famous people and places in Kansas.

Right now I'm feeling like this:

 I guess it could be the energy it took to get through KS day.
But, maybe- just maybe- it was the the energy it took to make that supper I made this week.  

In that case- where we eatin' tomorrow night, y'all?

My husband is so cool that...

My husband is so cool that...

*he can wear tall black socks and still look good.

*he can make us all laugh just by saying one word.

*he wanted to get my attention so he posed in

my pictures of the house.

*he makes up dumb cool song that get in our heads:

like, "We are fam-i-ly.  We are fam-i-ly."

*he gives the kids "horsey" or "bear" rides on his back.

*he can draw anything you ask him to, and it's awesome.

*he can make up words that sound like other words,

and then for the next 12 years you say that

instead of the real words. (Manx, Sherpa Pet)

*he lets me pick out the new furniture,

even though he thinks it looks too cowboyish.

*he'd rather play with our kids than let them watch tv.

*he does the laundry.  

Every week.

For all 5 of us.

Need I say more?

*he gets to celebrate his birthday today!

Happy 35th Boo!

DIY for Grandma

My Grandma Hanchett's birthday is Monday.

It's sad, but I can't remember the last time

I actually gave my grandma a PRESENT

on her birthday.

Sure, the occasional card.

A phone call.

So, I decided this year, with Grandpa in the nursing home,

I thought Grandma could use some cheerfulness at her own home.

Since Pinterest is in my life now, I can find any kind of

DIY yourself project I want.

And I did!

The kids and I made this:

 First, I painted a canvas.

 Then, I cut hearts out of scrapbook paper I thought 

my grandma would like.

I enlisted the help of child labor to glue the hearts

to each other so that color was on each side.

I hot glued the hearts on, and then attached tulle.

Did you know that tulle is AWFUL to work with?

Awful.

 I can't wait to give this to her tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Grandma! 
(Don't worry- she won't see this.  No computer)

Quietest Sharpener Ever

 I'm joining a 4th grade teachers linking party to hopefully win the "Quietest Pencil Sharpener Ever."  Wouldn't that be great? I think my students try to sharpen their pencils 90 times a day because the pencils that are made now don't stay sharpened like they used to.  

Or, maybe it's the crappy sharpeners in the building.

Either way, this is totally worth it.
And, it's making me happy to think I'm lazy-ing my Saturday away.  Something I don't do often enough...

This is why I teach

For Christmas I got many cards from my students.
Some homemade, but lots of ones that were bought from a store.  

My favorite one that I got at Christmas was not homemade.
It was one that's blank on the inside.
But, in the inside, it simply said, "I love you," in my student's handwriting.  

As some of you know, last Friday I had an emergency appendectomy.  I should NOT have gone back to school today, but I did.  Writing lesson plans are so much work.  

Yesterday when I was gone, the sub disregarded what I put in my lesson plans for writing, and instead had the kids write "Get Well Soon" cards for me.  


They were all homemade.


This one is by far my favorite.

Now, I don't know who "Peter" is, or what I'm supposed to "fill Peter" with.  But, this sure made me smile AND laugh out loud. So, I would say this card made me "feel better." 


Kids are the cutest ever.  Especially 2nd graders.

DIY

So, I've recently discovered Pinterest.
If you haven't, be warned now... it will make you want to make things for your house, buy new clothes, make new recipes, and possibly make you happier.

I found a Do It Yourself project on there that I wanted to try.  It involved finding large windows.  Chad's cousin, Kristin, had some, and so my first DIY project began.  

I had something else in mind for this window, but I'm happy with what I came up with.  I have one more window that I will eventually get to and make into my original project- after ALL the other ones in my head right now! 

What I did was buy very pretty scrapbook paper in colors that my living room pillows are in.  Then, I borrowed a butterfly punch and punched out a ton of butterflies.  Originally, I was going to put all these butterflies in a group to the left of the window and then have a few flying away.  But, the more I organized them onto the window, I came up with the idea of spelling out a word.  So, I got to work folding the butterflies in half so the wings stick out, and found my daughter's low temp hot glue gun and went to town.

Lots of people come up with a WORD for the New Year, instead of resolutions.  So, my word I came up with is DREAM.  

I know it's not amazing, and if anyone has ideas on what to add to it, let me know.  I promise I won't be offended.  I'm knew to this- making your own decorations.


But, it was fun.  And, I just might have a new hobby.  :)

tomorrow

Tomorrow ends my Christmas vacation.

waaaaaahhhh....

I have so many projects I want to get done yet.
Silly Pinterest.
Making me want to decorate my house all cute.

I'm gonna need about one more week before I'm ready to go back to school.  How am I supposed to get my nap in now?  At school, I don't think my students could do writer's workshop on their own while I sleep.  Because right now that's nap time.

Oh well.
It's been a wonderful, relaxing break.

On to the next one...

New Year's Eve

We took a mini vacation for New Year's Eve.
5 minutes from our house.

Did you know you can actually relax and have fun when it's not your place you're staying at and you don't have to clean up after yourself!?!?
(Before checkout the next morning, Jada got really excited when she found out she didn't have to put anything away before we left the room.  It's the little things in life that excite this family!)

After a supper at Applebees where I had a $25 gift certificate and free kids meals coupons, our bill came to 43 cents, plus tip.
Not bad.

We headed back to the hotel.
We played games.

We love the game, Mastermind!

 Because we had Jasper with us, and because the front lady said they had two complaints of a loud dog, therefore, they had to move people away from our room while we were out eating for almost free, we had to swim with the kids in shifts.  But, I'm thinking Chad minded that about as much as I did while I sat back and watched channels on cable that we don't have at home!  

Then, we came back and watched movies we rented.  

Veggie Tales: the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

and Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer.

 Even Jazzy enjoyed this part!

We made and brought several snacks (7 layer dip, humus, cheese and summer sausage, little smokies, Christmas candy), and were all completely full by 10 p.m.

Jasper didn't make it past 10:30.

Poor guy.

Even though there were protests and, "I'm not tired yet!" through some yawns, we made the kids go to the couch bed next to our KING sized one at 11:00 p.m. and Chad and I watched the New Year's Eve shows until midnight.

Overall, we give this mini-vacation a tired-looking, just-swam-in-a-swimming-pool thumbs up-

 HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL!