Deck the halls with fuzzy kittens...

Here are photos of a few of our Christmas decorations. No tree photo yet...I need to straighten the living room first. :)



This is the nativity scene I made a couple of years ago with some tiny flower pots and large wooden beads.



I gave these cute little mice to Ma a couple of Christmases ago. They sing. :) She really enjoyed them. Mom gave them to me at Thanksgiving.

The Santa hat on the clock was Mike's idea -- he's brilliant! But he took this down last night. If I could reach it, I would totally put it back up there! :)

Incredibly life-like, isn't it? Yep, she's real and her name is Lola (because we are fans of the movie, Run Lola Run). Another kitten found in my classroom (seriously, who finds kittens in their classroom?) I knew about Lola being in my room for a couple of weeks, but said nothing because I didn't want anyone whisking her away like they did to the other kitty (who is doing quite well, btw). I kept her secret as long as I could so she could be with her momma, but one weekend she found her voice, and made everyone aware of her presence that Monday. As much as it pained me to take her away, my classroom was no longer a safe place at that point. Right now, we're treating this as a rescue (because I'm allergic, but thanks to the miracle of modern science, no big problems so far). She's growing on us every day. I think she's a keeper!

Lola must think she is part of the decor...she spends a lot of time under the tree! Waiting for Santa, perhaps?

Found out about this site tonight. If you guys try this, please leave a link in the comments below -- I would love to see your results. Pretty happy with mine, except that Mike is no fan of Katie Couric - lol! This was so much fun!

Lisa, we must both have blogging on the brain...I was writing this when you emailed! :)

Blogging again!

It's good to be back! I've been so busy lately -- just a little too much on my plate at the moment! With work, design team, extra school stuff, and grad class, this is the first night I've been home before 8:00 all week.



I updated my Flickr account tonight. I had to get some photos on there so I wouldn't waste my 100 MB for the month -- I got in right under the wire! Lots of stuff on there from the last couple of years.



I managed to do a little bit of scrapbooking since my last post:

My little brother started college this year...shaving has become less of a priority for him. So much so, that people started asking him if he was observing "no-shave November". Zack said he was participating in "no time to shave November". :)

And, of course, I had to scrap the pumpkin. This one didn't scan so well, though.

Since Ma passed away in November, Thanksgiving was tough. We would always go to her house, and she would fix so much wonderful food. We tried to keep that tradition going this year by having dinner at her house (it's what she wanted). It was the first time I had been there since she passed away. The food was good (because my Uncle Greg is awesome!), but it was so hard to be there knowing she wouldn't be busy working in the kitchen, showing off her quilts, or telling me I didn't have enough food on my plate. It just didn't feel right. So I've been down this week. Another reason why I haven't felt like blogging. Sorry to sound all depressing, but it feels better to get this out there. Hopefully future Thanksgivings won't hurt as much!

We're going to decorate for Christmas tomorrow. I'll share some photos later. I'm excited -- we didn't put the tree up last year. We put the gifts under Mike's bike. :) I thought about putting a few ornaments on it, but never got around to it.

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!