Magic Mushroom

Wow!

Just when I was determined to "be back" I went MIA again. I am having a lot of trouble getting back in the swing of things. I am certainly not in summer mode yet because I am busy doing a pre-school dance camp this week. I am also feeling totally overwhelmed by the mounting housework that needs to be done and my complete lack of motivation to get to work on it. I am sick of hearing myself complain and am contemplating starting another blog just on that subject altogether. I will say that I have at least been taking the pictures for this photo a day project, but I am slacking off on blogging them here. Bear with me a little bit longer and I will get my head back on straight and start sharing them again....

She's Back!

I cannot believe I haven't uploaded a picture or made a post since May 12th-YIKES!!!! I have been taking pictures, but the month of May kicked my butt and there has not been any extra time to make blog posts. I know I don't have a huge following that this effects, but I have missed it terribly. I am not going to go back and upload that many photos but you will have the opportunity to see them in my finished Project Life pages when I have the chance to catch up on all that. As for now, I happily welcome the month of June and all the bliss of summer break. We'll start with my photo from Memorial Day, my children's last day of school.

Tue. POD

Happy Anniversary, baby! Tuesday we celebrated our 14th anniversary! I don't teach in the afternoons so we planned a little date night. It was perfect! We went to see Date Night at 4:55 in the afternoon and had the entire theater to ourselves-it was a really cute movie, especially for an anniversary date. Next, we headed over to Outback (one of Jim's favorite restaurants that we rarely go to-he always chooses places for me so I picked this for him!). We were there before 7:00 and home around 8:15. Perfect for a school night and still some time with the kids...

Sun POD

The Jabali African Acrobats performing on the Lakeside stage on Mother's Day. Read more about LEAF in schools and what LEAF International is all about...

Sat POD

LEAF is all about the music! This photo is at the Duhks concert at the Lakeside stage on Saturday afternoon. It was a great show which we were fortunate enough to be standing front row for. I even won a tshirt that was thrown into the audience. We also watched them at the barn later that evening for a dance party-more great fun!

Fri POD

Pictures of my kids with their friends who went to LEAF with us. These are at the campsite once we got settled in about 3:00 in the afternoon...

FoxgloveThurs. POD

We've got a lot going on in our perennial beds right now and fat bumble bees buzzing all about. It is so fun to watch how the garden grows! I tried really hard to catch a shot of the bee, but couldn't so this is about the best I could do to capture the lighting at mid-day yesterday. Notice the hairs on the flowers!

I am packing up for our LEAF weekend so I am very busy and frazzled this morning-I wanted to post yesterday's POD before I forgot all about it. I will be leaving about 2:00 this afternoon to head up there for the weekend. Have a great one and Happy Mother's Day to all! Will have lots of pics to post on Monday!

Feeding Time-Wed. POD

One of my hubby's hobbies is fish. We've had numerous tanks all over the house from time to time. We now have it down to 2, one in his office and a huge 75 gallon freshwater tank in our living room. We have angel fish, pleco, catfish, golden algae eaters and a blue crawdad. This particular photo was taken at feeding time. It is especially entertaining to watch the crawdad eat but I couldn't get a picture of him.

Catching up

Unfortunately, I don't even have a picture for Sunday. I forgot to take one and will just have to come up with something cute to stick in the blank photo pockets! The Monday picture is of a dinner we had to celebrate my BFF's birthday. She is the cute little blonde seated 4th from the left. We had a fun girls night out at Mezzaluna's!

The second picture is from today-I got my first ever citation and was so bummed out about it-because it was soooo stupid. My driver's license expired on March 29th and the DMV office where I need to renew it is located at the bottom of the road I live on! How infuriating that I haven't bothered to renew it. Next, my tags on the back expired in March also-I didn't even know that! Last but not least, my inspection was out and I didn't even know that NC was doing those anymore. Since we don't have stickers for them, I thought they had done away with it all together. What is worse, is that after he gave me the tickets we discovered we had all these local connections-starting with his wife! I probably could have sweet-talked my way out of them all together if I had done the chatting before he wrote me the darn tickets. At any rate, I am glad I bought that bottle of wine at the grocery store this afternoon!

Now, I am off to search for a new blog background since it is a new month and I need a change of scenery around here.

Fri & Sat POD's

These are actually in backwards order right now...

It has been a crazy busy couple of days and I am so beat! Friday was only a 1/2 day of school for the kids. We had our read-a-thon party and the kids got to dress up all of the staff in silly costumes. This picture is of our school principal (on R) and our Learning Center director (on L).

Saturday was our school's Spring Fling fundraiser event. After months and months of planning and meetings (and more meetings) the event was hugely successful and such fun. The weather was very iffy, but managed to just lightly mist us a couple of times throughout the day. We had entertainment, food, inflatable bouncy things, craft vendors, pony rides, a plant sale, and a bake sale-lots of things to see and do, and as I said before-such FUN! It was a lot of work and took tons of volunteer effort, but so worth it. The picture is of me and my dear friend, Lori, who is the school's office manager (she doesn't often pose for photos so I feel lucky to have one!).

Thurs. POD

For some reason, I just felt inspired to take pics of the kids this evening. Tripp had on this black and gray shirt that had orange numbers on it and Libby was wearing black shorts with a gray camisole...they just looked so cute together and were being goofy and sweet all at the same time. Of course, most of the pictures were not perfect because Tripp had bug eyes or his tongue out or something like that! This shot I thought was just great, but the weird part is there is a mattress in the background that just bugged the heck out of me. Libby said it made us look "trashy" and I was just dying laughing at that because those were my sentiments exactly...yet here the picture is posted for my little blog world to see!

Now, why is there a mattress standing up behind them you might wonder? It is because my husband decided to undecorate my old office which had this lovely little antique bed in it with a black toile coverlet, etc. and instead put a honking huge massage chair in it's place! Now, I am thinking about putting the old bed up in my craft room area as a daybed or something. So that is why the mattress is sitting up against the wall in the kid's den.

Happy Hump Day!

Wow, what a pleasant day! I had fun working on my Project Life album, getting the journaling cards and photos from last week in there. I also sanitized the upstairs bathrooms and did a few other household chores before heading off to teach. I always call my hubby so I can speak to the kids for a few minutes after he picks them up from school (since I am at work by the time they get home). Today, my son was elated to share his Mid-Quarter Progress Report with me. This is the first report since he began the Focalin for his ADHD on March 26th. You may recall from a previous post that his last report card left A LOT to be desired. If he weren't an incredibly smart kid-I'd not even be bringing this up, but we knew he wasn't reaching his potential. This progress report is much more indicative of what we expect from him.
He got a B in Language Arts, Science, and Study Skills, but got A's in Math, and Social Studies! His Math comment was this "WOW! He's moved to the accelerated group." Science comment "He's doing so much better!!" Additional comments were: "Tripp has amazed me these past few weeks-focused, organized, motivated. Keep it up!"
This just made my day (whole week really) and he is so proud- I just had to share!

The second picture is of the amazing sunset we had this evening. You never see the same one twice and they are a sight to behold.

Project Life Slideshow week 16

Family Time

So, I spent the entire afternoon looking at all the awesome blogs of other folks doing Project Life. Namely Project Life Tuesday over at the Mom Creative. What a great group of talented photographers! I was feeling a little sad that I no longer have little pre-schoolers-instead I have kids that are almost as tall as I am and that I can no longer hold in my arms. (Well, I can, but not too comfortably). At any rate, we were hanging out on the couch after watching our nightly episode of The Wonder Years and I grabbed the camera to try to snag a few pictures. The ones I took were not the best, but we were having fun and it is pretty obvious on all of our faces, so that is worth remembering and adding to our book. Laughter and snuggling is the best way to end the day!

Project Life Tuesday Week in Review

I could really use some ideas for more pictures, so if you drop by from Jessica Turner's blog, please leave a link to your blog so I can go check out your pictures, too. Have a blessed week and thanks for dropping by!

Couch Potato

My hubby and I have a few shows we like to watch together...24, LOST, and Fringe. Unfortunately, we are very far behind in all of these series so we are trying to catch up on episodes one show at a time and are dvr'ing them each week as they come on. Last night we watched double episodes of 24.

Sun. POD

Today was part 1 of dance class picture taking day. There were 5 classes scheduled to attend. They were all coming in early and therefore finishing early which was a wonderful treat since the weather was so beautiful and I didn't want to be stuck inside all afternoon. I was ready to unwind with a glass of wine, a stroll around the yard, and some TETRIS playing. My hubby just put a new version of this game on pc that he downloaded from here. I am a total Tetris junkie and have been since the early 90's when I used to play it on some sort of game system-maybe a Playstation my boyfriend at the time had. My son, who was on another laptop right beside me, said he bet I was the only person in the world who drank wine while playing Tetris so I just had to have that for my POD!

Sat. POD

Libby had 2 friends sleep over after the dance and Tripp was spending the night away, so we had a leisurely morning in our pj's. After Tripp was picked up and the other girls dropped off we went to a late afternoon showing of How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. It was really cute and a perfect way to spend a lazy, rainy Saturday afternoon.

Thurs. & Fri POD's

My Thurs. POD is a shot of Kevin Arnold from the Wonder Years. We have begun watching this series as a family and usually see two episodes a night. The kids are both really enjoying it since he is 12 at the start of the show. I think they have already learned a lot historically about this time in American history. It is so nice to have shows that the entire family can enjoy watching together. You know it used to be like that when I was a kid because there were only 3 channels and everything that came on at 8:00p.m. seemed family friendly. Not anymore, so we have always found our favorite shows to share with our kids-we did The Little House on the Prairie series with them years ago.

There are two pictures for the Fri. POD. The first one is Libby (on L) with some of her girlfriends getting ready to enter the dance. This was a middle school dance sponsored by the Builder's Club. Since they are in the club, they helped decorate right after school. Then, I took them home so they could get dressed. They almost refused to go in because everyone else was dressed very casually. The girls looked so beautiful and grown up...

The last picture is of my hubby and I with some of our best friends at the restaurant Mezzaluna. We went out for dinner while the girls were at the dance. It was so nice to get some couple time with good friends because we haven't had a date night in ages!!

Quiet Time

I've had a pretty darn productive week thus far. After finishing up some household chores I took the time to indulge myself by sitting on the couch with a cup of hot tea and some new magazines. That is a therapeutic to me as having a massage or getting a pedicure sometimes. I love to have the house all to myself, especially when it's clean, and to just act as if I am a lady of leisure. Two of my favorite magazines are BH&G and Victoria.

All Tied Up!

The kids and I went on some thrift store runs this afternoon looking for a soft briefcase satchel that Libby wanted to do a craft with. Instead we found a ton of awesome ties that Libby fashions into neck wraps. We are heading to the Lake Eden Arts Festival in a few weeks so she has been working on crafts to sell there. Each of these ties cost only $1! She plans to use the fat end of the tie for the "collar" part of the necklaces and then use the ends off the ties (the skinny part) to make into headbands. They are adorable! I'll definitely be uploading some how-to's for both of these projects and some finished images as we have time to work on them.

Project Life Tuesday

I'm getting a jump start on Project Life Tuesday for week 15 since I have missed weeks 12, 13, and 14. Here is my slideshow with all the updates. I didn't add in special pages of my birthday party so it is not really featured here except in one uninteresting photo, but rest assured I have lots of great pics from that event! Also, I have great pics of our Charleston trip over Spring Break which aren't added in either. Thanks for taking a look!

Mon. POD

What things do you have that make you smile each time you wear them?
This purse is that current "thing" for me. I got it off of etsy to celebrate winter's end. Isn't it cute?!?! It's officially my "spring" purse, since I haven't been very good about matching them to my outfit...

You can get this style purse in the fabric of your choice here.

Sun. POD

Finally, caught up on my Project Life. Not only have I neglected blogging as of late...I've neglected everything! As I said in my earlier post-it was a crazy week. I still haven't folded that giant pile of clean clothes that was last Sunday's POD! I had planned to do that this weekend, but instead I have been outside. My hubby got off on another yard project today which resulted in my going back to Lowe's and purchasing an additional 10 plants and planting them. Hubby bought about 6 for his project and put those in, too. It was much cooler today, but still sunny and beautiful. Perfect yard work weather. The kids have also spent lots of time outside riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, and helping to clear out the weeds from our vegetable garden plot so it will be ready for planting soon.

Made my menu for the week and did grocery shopping early this morning. Here's what my family is eating:
Sunday-Burgers and fries, Boca salad for me
Monday-Turkey tenderloin, tiny peas, squash casserole
Tuesday-Pork chops with Fennel and lemon, Brussel sprouts, Baby carrots
Wednesday-Beef with Asparagus & Mushrooms, Mashed Cauliflower
Thursday-Salmon, Spinach salad with pecans
Friday-Kielbasa sausage with cabbage soup, cornbread muffins
Saturday-Greek meatballs, egg noodles with garlic herb sauce, French style Green beans

Tues.-Sat POD's

This has been an insane week back after Spring Break! I did remember to take pictures every day, but I just couldn't find any spare time during the day to blog or read my favorite blogs for that matter. I was barely checking emails which is totally unlike me!

The first photo is from today (Sat.) and it shows some of the plants that are coming up and a couple of new ones. It was a glorious day to be outside and that is just where I was. I went to Lowe's for plants two separate times!

The next photo down is from Girlz Game night on Friday evening. It was a small group, but we still had fun. No game playing, though, just chatting and munching on snacks til after midnight. I was so tired this morning!

The next picture (which is totally off in scale) is also from Friday. My dear friend, Ellen, was celebrating her 49th birthday and we had a kind gentleman take a picture of us in front of some dogwood blooms outside of our favorite restaurant, Bluewater Seafood. Unfortunately, the ground was very uneven, so it makes me look like I am even shorter than I am compared to the other girls.

No picture from Thursday-yikes!

Wednesday's photo is my $1 unsweetened ice-tea from McDonald's...almost a daily indulgence of mine.

Tuesday's photo is of a favorite restaurant of mine, Never Blue, in downtown H'ville. I went out with some of the PTC officers and teachers after our meeting that night.

Mon. POD

I finished the book, One Second After, by William Forstchen last night. The book is about EMP and fallout from a terrorist strike in our country. The setting is a small town north of Asheville called Black Mountain. It made the story much more intriguing simply because it was somewhat local. The book has made me want to start buying extra emergency goods every time I go to the store! Most Americans really would "crumble" if we lost all power and had to resort back to living like the pioneers did. Makes you think...

Sun. POD

I had several goals for Spring Break, one of them being to get caught up on my laundry. I did tons of laundry and left it sitting in the theater chairs waiting to be folded. I had all day today to work on it, even thought about trying to find a good chick flick to watch and bust it all out at one time, but that never happened. I pretty much sulked about all day since it was the last day of break.

After looking over the calendar, I felt pretty overwhelmed by the next 7 weeks. Dance recital is Saturday, May 29th, but there are a million other things that me and my family have going on between now and then. I know the time will fly by and that is part of the problem. I feel like I need a few more weeks to get ready-yet at the same time I am counting down til summer break.

I have been at a strange crossroads regarding my business this year. I realize that my children are only here with me for a few more years and I am tired of not being home with them in the afternoons. I love working, I love what I do for a living and all the wonderful little girls I get to teach everyday, but I miss my own kids terribly. That is why I am considering going back to school for my teaching license. I am trying to figure out how to do that and still work and be able to take care of my family at the same time. Thinking about all of this makes me a little nuts and one of the other things I had hoped to achieve during this break was a real plan for how to go about this. Unfortunately, that never happened either.

I feel a little bit of dread about the break ending and what I have to do over the next few weeks, but the good news is...I LOVE MONDAYS! I am one of those rare people that do and I am sure that what seems overwhelming tonight will all seem conquerable tomorrow!

Sat. POD

 


Oh, I know this is not a great photo but it will serve as a reminder of our Mediterranean-style dinner party the Chet's had this evening. Unfortunately, one other guest isn't in the photo since they had already left and we didn't get a photo of us all sitting around the table enjoying the wonderful food, either...

Our menu consisted of hummus and pita chips, cheese with honey, walnuts, and crackers for appetizers. The meal was Mousakka, Gyros, Greek Salad and a couscous salad. It was so yummy! We also had an assortment of pastries, including baklava.