Happy Day

I am so thrilled today. Mind you, it has been a rough week with dh gone to VA and Aunt Sue in Colorado, but it has been productive.

I have 25 boxes packed at school-a mere percentage of what needs to get done, but you can tell in my room now that it is the end of the year. Our grade level celebration is tomorrow and my entire group earned the priviledge. The best part of the week thus far is my adorable lil one at school that hadn't passed the FCAT did, in fact, pass her portfolio and I could tell her that she was comin to 4th grade with us. WOO HOO.
Her face was worth every ounce of stress that I have complained about this year cause it was priceless. I am sooooooo happy.

I even got to scrap a bit tonite while ds was playing choo choos. They are alllllllllllll over the playroom floor. He tends to spread the tracks EVERYWHERE when Nanny is here, but that is okay. He enjoyed having her here and she was an absolute lifesaver for me this week with no one else to watch the kiddo.

BTW, did I mention that in the last week, since being sick, he has decided that going poopy on the toilet is not so scary after all? YEAH. I think that I might FINALLY be through with buying pull ups and diapers.

I am so ready for the weekend. Tom. night is back to the theatre to see Brighton Beach Mem. My job share partner, Lauren's younger brother is playing the lead and his review in the paper was glowing. I will report back in over the weekend. A certain lil guy needs his last dose of antibiotics and a bath.

Have a great evening all.

Monday/Tuesday

so which one is it? LOL. I hate Tuesdays that feel like Mondays. It usually gets me all confused. This day last year was the ONLY one in nearly three years that I just totally forgot to take my shot on shot night cause I didn't remember that it was actually shot night.

So, memo to self, tonite is TUESDAY and it is shot night. Ohhh yeah. That means I get to eat ice cream. YEAH.

We had a nice weekend. DH got over his stomach bug in about 30 hours of running to the bathroom. I am NOT going in there til he cleans it. ROTFLMAO.

DS is not coughing much at all and he has been happily playing with his choo choo's for hours. We had a nice bbq yesterday and spent the day in the pool. very nice. He and i went back to Aunt Sue's again last night and will continue to do so until she gets home from Colorado.

I took the day off of work today since I had no sitter and I am enjoying a quiet relaxing catch up kinda day. The rest of this week will be chaotic and craziness so peace while I can.

The last few days of school are always NUTS, but I will be stir crazy soon enough.

I did go to Michael's yesterday and used one of my 50% off coupons. I threw a bunch away too :(
So sad, but I truly don't need anything. I bought the 12x12 SEI black orchid album in an hour kit and I think that I might just start to assemble it while i can. I already did the 6x6 one that I bought a few weeks ago. I am going to use it for the MS Couples Retreat that we went to back in Feb.

Hope that everyone has a nice holiday.

what a week UGH

well, all i can say is i am glad that it is nearly over. what a crappy week, however, i KNOW that it can always be worse, so NOT complaining.

had a very tough week at school. the last few weeks are always difficult.........soooo much to do and keep kiddos somewhat on task-yeah right. fcat reading scores came in and my kids overall did amazingly well. however, i got a huge zinger when one of my lil ones did NOT pass. she was hysterical. so, now i have three days to get a portfolio done on her to get her to pass as we are all going to 4th grade together and i will NOT leave her behind without us.

spent the better part of 5 hours on the phone with India this week trying to talk to someone that I could possibly understand at HP. Yeah, right, that did NOT happen either. Suffice to say, that I have come to the conclusion that desktop computers are designed to be DISPOSABLE now and I am so overly disgusted by the entire thing that I will NOT type about it all. Let's just say, that I was without a computer that functioned since last Sunday and there WILL be a funeral for the 2nd HP desktop puter that has dropped DEAD for me in the last 14 months. UGH.

Of course, it wasn't completely dead until the second phonecall to India and not until I had paid $105 to have them walk me thru completely KILLING it. So, I have a lovely paperweight on my computer desk right now that may someday become a toy for Joshua if the recovery disks ever arrive, but I lost some documents(I know I Know BACK IT UP) but jeez, how often do you have to back it up???????????? I can survive the death of them and losing them, but it is the principle fo the whole thing. Even if I had backed it all up, how xactly do you backup your inbox in outlook? Other than printing every single email that you think will someday be of some importance.......
If someone knows the answer to that one, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me, cause I do not have a clue on that and honestly, some of the most impt things I lost were in my inbox folders.

Okay, done with that. My crappy week also included ds to the dr and almost to the ER with bronchitis that was nearly walking bacterial pneumonia. Add in the stomach bug that Aunt Sue had, I had and that dh is experiencing as I type.(mind you I was down for two hours and as bad as he has it he has already said he has NO idea how I went to work with it)-me either, cept Mommy's don't really get to be sick do we? NOPE.

So, Joshy is on the mend, but still coughing. He is much better and almost finished with the oral steroids. I managed to eat dinner tonite for the first time all week. DH is on a liquid diet but getting better.
Saw Lion King last night. Not so very impressed. It was good, but not what I NEEDED if ya know what I meah.

Aunt Sue and Mom leave for Colorado in the morning and DH leaves on Tues for Roanoke which is another crazy week for me trying to get the kiddo watched while I try to wrap up things at school. I did manage to pack 10 boxes this week, but still have about 80+ more to do. I HATE moving classrooms nearly every year, but I am so glad to be going to 4th grade, I will deal with the packing and unpacking. At least my wonderful head custodian is going to do the actual moving. He is awesome.

So there is the wrap up in a nutshell. So glad to see the week ending. Also thankful that my family in Colorado was safe from the tornado that hit there. My niece and bil were on a field trip with her school and had to hunker down in a basement on the field trip and Windsor is the xact town they were going to be moving to about six months ago. TOO close for comfort there.

Got some fabulous donations this week for the crop too. That helps to make the crappy seem better.

Hope that everyone has had a better week than we did over here but it certainly HAS got to get better!! Nite Nite to all.

Good Morning Sunday

Hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend. OMG is it humid and sticky here this morning. UGH. Sky looks pretty threatening and dreary. Wish we would get some rain, but we can only hope. We NEED it badly round here.

Saturday was a BUSY BUSY day for us. Our kick off to summer block party was poorly attended, but I have to say one of the best ones since we moved in 4 years ago. The food was xcellent and the prizes amazing!! Our neighbor, Rich, donated everything for the raffles and the auctions and I must say, he outdid himself this time.
The Durning clan was richly rewarded with our names being pulled numerous times. My car is still FULL.
My lil man was on the gigantic inflatable waterslide for nearly 3 hours straight. He was not happy when it was time to go as we had another shin dig to attend.

Off to Helen's house for a birthday party. We had a wonderful time. My lil guy even convinced me to get in the pool and SWIM. YIKES. But, her pool has a black bottom and it was actually not too cold and almost refreshing. Joshy and I had a blast and I will proudly share, that I BEAT JR in a race across the pool!!!! Helen couldn't believe it as she has known me for 15 y ears and commented that she had never seen me do anything in the pool other than float on my raft. Mind you, I would much rather float than race, but it was 7pm and there were no rays to soak up.

We didnt' get home til nearly 10pm and we were all xhausted from a very busy day. Sadly, my lil guy woke me up puking once again at 3am. What is it about 3am?! He was sick again between 7-8:30 am and is now FINE. Weird bug he is fighting off.

Big thanks to the triplets for playing with my guy and esp. for all of the clothes(w.tags still on them) for my Joshy ............woo hoo.

DH even had time to go and wet a line off of the dock. Didn't catch Mr. Snook, but I am sure he will be back to get him.

More laundry to do and put away as my basket was invaded by ants yesterday morning so I am re-washing and re-drying it all. I HATE laundry so doing the same loads for a second time is NOT fun. Then have to wash my sheets for about the 3rd time this week. Hope the stomach bug is gone-SOON.

Have a great Sunday everyone.
JD3

Made it to Saturday

It was a crazy busy week but we made it.

My lil man was puking his guts up and sick as you can imagine from 3am Thursday morning til about 10am and then POOF, before I could even finish stipping the beds, he was FINE. Thank goodness, but sure makes for one tired mommy.(daddy slept thru the whole thing-of course).

Then I stayed up wayyyyyy too late Thurs night to watch the ending of ER. OMG was it an awesome finale. Of course, NOT too thrilled when I had to wake up to the alarm on my phone Fri morning. Most of you know, that I do not wake up to an alarm ever. But, I had agreed to work all day yesterday for Lauren. So, I did and let me tell you, I now know why I only teach part time. I was xhausted by 11:29 am which is the time that I usually come in.

So, I made it thru. Watched many of my shows, logged in a BUNCH of crop donations(trying to put them all away right now), made flyers for the community party today, bridal shower, 3rd grade snack n share, retirement party, family DRAMA in St. Pete, and working all day.

Today we have our kickoff to summer community party. Need to go and buy some food to make an international dish to share and then we have a birthday party for bff Helen's lil guy who turned one yesterday.

Would luv to think that I could just take the day off tomorrow and scrap but i KNOW better. I will try to peek in at the cyber crop at KNK this weekend. Their new June kit is amazingly adorable. Great job Gerri-anne.

Have a fantastic weekend all,
Jackie

aren't you........

so, yesterday i ran off to big lots on my way home from school in search of a bar and barstools for the patio . i found one that i liked immediately and was amazed at the price. i promptly paid for it and while the very nice kid was loading it on the top of my suv, he says to me, "are you a school teacher?" to which I replied YES. "isn't your name Ms. Tinsky? " he asks. " I think you were my 3rd or 4th grade teacher..........

So, I quickly glance at his name tag and lo and behold, this 20 year old WAS one of my former students. Now this isn't a big surprise, as I have been teaching for 17 years and 15 of those years have been at the same school that I am still at, which is only blocks away from said store.

What shocked me is that 12 years later, he NOT only recognized me but remembered my name. WHich only tells me that at age 40, I guess I don't look tooooooo bad-LOL.

And since I am the ultimate, admitted Pack Rat, of course, first thing when I arrived at school this morning, I pull out every class picture that I have ever had taken(including the one that I was absent for) and I was both his THIRD and FOURTH grade teacher!!

A nice memory. He was a good kid back then-very quiet. Working at BIG LOTS, I told him NOT the aspirations I would have had for him, but glad to see he wasn't in jail and even happier to hear that he has NOT fathered any children and has NO plans to at this point. That is always a good thing.

Have a great night. I am off to log in some donations. I LUV this point in the fundraising process as every day I come home to envies, boxes and great goodies. I envision baskets and raffles all afternoon long.
The MS Crop 4 Hope is going to be absolutely incredible this year!!

pool glorious pool

well, i can finally say that i have been IN my new pool. okay, so it is not so totally new anymore as i wrote the final check in december, but this weekend i was finally able to brave the not so warm water and get in. granted, it was almost 80 degrees, but i could DEF. stand for it to be a bit warmer.

we had a very nice weekend and i enjoyed mother's day soooooo much. i will share some pics soon.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope that everyone has a wonderful MOTHER's DAY!!
Take time to allow yourselves to be spoiled rotten!!

Scrappin Poll of sorts

If you are a scrapper, do you remember the very first layout you ever scrapped?

I do remember being a "scrapper" when I was just a teenager. Of course, those were NOT safe albums and I journaled on scraps of paper under each photo, but I guess you could say that it was always in my blood.

I scrapped safely for the first time back in ohhh, '93-ish. I attended a CM class hosted by an old friend, Amy. I then hosted a CM class with the same consultant and signed on to become a Creative Memories consultant myself for almost 10 years!!

That first class consisted of cutting circles and ovals with templates and using heart shaped die cuts. Oh it was AWFUL but way back when, it was perfection.

So, when did you first scrap and what is YOUR story? Please share your responses,

Happy Saturday.

Flying by

I can't believe that it is Thursday already. Where DID this week run off to? Not complaining, just can't believe it.

It has been pretty busy round here........life in general. I remember a few years ago saying to dh, "when things calm down we should do so and so". I came to the realization not long after I said that, however, that our life is always going to be chaotic and hectic and that's perfectly fine with me.

Our school carnival is tomorrow evening, so I have been helping PTA get ready for it, esp. the raffle basket portion of it. And, with only 17 days of school left, there is TONS to accomplish. This last few weeks is usually the most difficult as the kiddos are ready for it to be over and I have to somehow keep them focused amidst doing paperwork and packing to move to ANOTHER classroom once again. I have been at my school for 15 years and I think that this will be something like my 18th move(or so, but who is counting)? The one good thing about moving so often is having the opportunity to purge and pitch stuff each time. Last year I got rid of sooooooo much stuff it was wonderful. I am very thankful that I hung on to so much of my 4th grade stuff and didnt' go crazy buying third grade items, cause it is back to 4th for me. YEAH.

SO, if you find yourself with little to do to occupy your time in the near future, feel free to stop by and I will toss a box at ya to fill up. LOL.

Great tv night tonite so enjoy everyone.

Good Morning

to everyone. This weekend has been so much fun thus far. We had NO school on Friday and I got to scrap and run to Wal-Mart to pick up some photos and assorted other "stuff". Spent a very nice day with my lil man.

We met Daddy at Nanny house for dinner in St. Pete and lemme tell you, the dregs of society were out and about. Drunks, cussing teenagers walking in front of our car on a busy road, skateboarders and enough to make me ready to come home.

Spent all day yesterday at an NSD crop where I laughed until I nearly cried several times. Great group of ladies and a WONDERFUL Bo-Bunny door prize. My guys headed over to Orlando to Bass Pro Shops while I cropped. Thank goodness I did not have to go back there. Twice in one week would have sent me over the edge. They, however, enjoyed themselves.

Now wanna hear a funny? My father, oh Daddy, I am sorry, but I could hear his voice ALLLLLL day yesterday. The above mentioned NSD crop was held in a church-a lovely little church in Ruskin. My family is attending a celebration for our favorite set up triplets today. The kids will be having their 1st Holy Communion this morning. While I am truly honored to share this event with them, many/most of you know that I was born and raised in the Jewsih faith. Okay, NOT at all religious but a Jew nonetheless.
So, here I sit in a cute little church trying to alter some items. What are they you might ask??
3 wooden crosses for the kid's gifts. I am using Jesus stickers and bibles.
So, can you hear my Dad now? I still can.

I did experiment with Tim Holtz's Crackle paint on the above mentioned wooden crosses and I think they came out pretty cute. I personalized each one for the kiddos and I am quite proud of myself. Thanks to Kathy for the Crackle tutorial. However, I KNOW that the triplets will be MUCH happier with the money I put in the envelopes, it felt good to be crafty. I also made Mom and Dad a very nice altered picture frame for the professional pics they had taken. Thanks to Mel for the advice and to Kip.............Diamond Glaze IS better applied with a brush!! LOL.

Hope that everyone had a nice weekend. I came home last night to THREE autographed pieces of artwork for the MS Crop 4 Hope.
What a FANTASTIC day.

A Proud Moment

Each week for the last few months, I receive a newsletter via email from the NMSS promoting the walk ms events and giving shout outs to the highest team totals and individual totals each week.
Every week they highlight someone from the Chapter with a photo and little bio of "why they walk".
At one of the committee meetings I remember hearing Jamie ask so and so for their copy so they could be in the upcoming week's issue. So so and so knew about herself being featured.

Well, to MY complete and total surprise, I was the person highlighted this week. It was pretty moving for me to see the photo they chose and what was written(guess they ran outta impt. people to highlight). Good thing walk season is nearly complete. I will leave you with copy from the newsletter and the photo.

Thanks to all who help to inspire me,

Why We Walk...

Jackie Durning was awarded the Perpetual Idealist award at the Mid Florida Chapter Annual Meeting in 2007. This award is recevied by an individual who embodies the Mission of the National MS Society through activities such as; fundraising, raising awareness of MS within the community and other means.

Jackie's husband wrote to the Chapter, "Since her diagnosis of MS, Jackie has been a pillar of strength when most wallow in despair. Usually being a Wife, Mother, and Elementary School Teacher she does enough for more "Unaffected Adults", yet she seems to draw energy and passion from unknown sources attainable to mere humans."
Jackie channeled this passion and energy to help move the mission of the National MS Society, Mid Florida Chapter. Jackie hosted two Annual MS Crop 4 Hope Weekends. A weekend long scrap booking/fundraising event that she created and at current count raised more then $5,600! Jackie also led "Team Durning" for the walkMS event raising over $4,000 in 2007 and over $9,000 in 2008. She recently joined the Chapter's Mission Committee to help implement crucial programs for people affected by MS in the Tampa Bay area.

Thank you Jackie for your commitment to creating a world free of MS and spreading MS awareness in your community!

gorgeous just gorgeous

that describes the weather the last couple of days. omg, glorious. the humidity is so low and the sun shining. wow. this is why i live where i do.

although only thursday, today is really MY friday as we have no school tomorrow. yeah.
dh is training a new person in sarasota and has been there a BUNCH this week. tonite, he will stay in st. pete so going back to sarasota tom. will be a closer drive.

my house is a disaster but who cares right? too much else going on to worry bout cleaning floors. the laundry IS put away and after watching wife swap last night, i feel MUCH better about my messy house. at least we just have some clutter and not laundry overflowing on the pool table(that we don't have-ha ha).

i received a graduation announcement in the mail yesterday that actually brought me to tears. when i was teaching 2nd grade at my current school FIFTEEN years ago, I was introduced to the tiniest of lil girlie girls at Meet Your Teacher Night. The family was super sweet and I immediately fell in luv with said blondie and her curls. Well now, 15 years later, Miss Amanda will graduate tomorrow from the Univ. of Central Florida-cum laude.

What makes this so very special for me is that I had her two years in a row and can honestly say that I have NEVER lost touch with this special one. She has grown from blonde curlie girlie girl into an incredible young woman............CONGRATS to you my special Friend. I am so very proud of you!!

Have a great Thurs/Friday everyone.