It was a great week for mail!

I got this in the mail yesterday...Tania had a contest on her blog a few weeks ago, and I was very fortunate to have won! The neclace was made by Lisa Leonard, and I think it's so pretty! :)

And I adoped a Little Traveller! Her name is Finna. These Little Travellers are made by women in South Africa affected by AIDS...the proceeds go to the women who make them, and to the Hillcrest AIDS Centre, which provides, among other things, medical care, education/awareness, and income generation for families affected by the disease. Leigh-Ann made them available on her blog for adoption. Tania is doing the same, if you are interested in adopting one.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I only have to work two days next week! Woo hoo! :)

A photo-riffic post!

Fun day -- Christina came to my class to speak to my students about photography careers. She and her fiance did an awesome job, and it was so great to see her again! (btw C, I seriously want to find a day for us to go out for coffee!) It's great to see someone her age with such amazing plans -- and great things in store for her!

Wait -- did I just say "someone her age"? Sigh. I sound old. :)

While talking blogs this afternoon, Christina reminded me today that I've posted more scrapbook pages on my facebook account than I have on my blog! Ooops...let me fix that!

This one is my "This is Me Journal" -- favorite shoes. Mike calls them "granny shoes"!

This one is of my friends' baby boy...such a cutie. Love this photo of him with his mom and dad!

Our homecoming was this weekend. I haven't had time to edit photos, but I wanted to post a few anyway!

This is Sandy. Otherwise known as "college mom".

The class of 2002...well, not all of us. And I'm pretty sure this photo won't wind up in the Alumnus magazine. :)

Jeannine gathering candy after the parade!

After homecoming, I went to Jenny's 25th birthday sleepover! So much fun! I hadn't been to a sleepover in years!

The birthday girl!!!

Jenny had a pillow fight tournament...complete with brackets! :)

And the winner was...

(that's me without my glasses, in case you didn't know!)

Have a great day!

Stressed

I found out today that I'm losing my classroom sometime after Christmas break. I was not expecting this. Now I need to restructure what units I will be teaching next semester, because I'm sure I will have less space and less access to my supplies. I'm not sure how long this will last...my guess is for the remainder of the school year. I don't know if I'll still have a computer lab next semester...kind of a necessity for a technology teacher. I don't know where all my classroom stuff will go. I'm pretty down about it right now, especially since I thought I was getting my entire classroom back at the end of this week (the Ag class is moving out of my woodshop on Friday). Now it seems pointless to move my junk pile out of my room and into the woodshop when it's all going to be moved out in a couple of months.

I know the situation could be worse, but today just left me feeling as though one door opened, but another one got slammed in my face. I'll confess that the idea of looking for another job has been tempting me, but there is no way that I will NOT be teaching in the renovated building next year, after all I've put up with this year! :)

Thanks for letting me vent. I'll be better tomorrow. :)

Birthday shoutout...

to my Mom! She really doesn't like to have her picture taken, so I think this is the photo she would choose:


But since this is my blog, I get to choose the photo!



Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Feeling pretty good right now...

#1 - I have a day off tomorrow! Hooray for election day!

#2 - I'm doing pretty well with my soda-fast. And yeah, I will go ahead and own up to having a cranberry Sierra Mist. But I'm drinking so much more water, and it feels great!

#3 - Our college homecoming is this weekend. I can't believe it has been five years since I graduated college...time has flown. Hopefully we'll get to see people we haven't seen in awhile. At the very least, I'll get to harass my little brother while he works at food service. (Just kidding -- that has to be one of the most difficult jobs on campus -- I'm so proud of him for having such a good attitude about working there!)

#4 - I did a little scrapping. This time, I used a really bad photo from Mike's graduation. I think it works, though. :)




#5 - This is a big one -- I am curbing my personal spending! I'm becoming more analytical about my purchases (Mike and I have a personal spending allowance every month, and in the past, my tendency has been to blow through mine rather quickly). It's amazing how being honest with myself about why I want to buy something can make me set it back on the shelf! I've done this so many times over the past couple of weekends, when normally I might not have. It's a hard habit to break - I don't make many big purchases, it's the little ones that sneak up on me and cause me problems. I'm still not where I want to be, but I am certainly improving!