My Luv!!

My Luv!!

Monday, June 30, 2008

good morning,
i returned home just in time to run out to dinner with the family and collapse in bed exhausted from my weekend away.

i had a very nice cropping weekend. i was productive, got to see some long time scrappy friends, make new ones and learned and saw so many new techniques. there were some fabulously talented women in that room. OMG. there were also some very generous ones, donating items to my ms crop 4 hope and asking to make donations in the future. BRING it on :)

amanda and i also did some store hopping and i went to a truly amazing scrap store that i have never been to before. wow. my car is still full and it needs to be unpacked, but i really had a great time and i am thrilled that i decided to go.

now i need to unpack, do laundry and begin packing for our road trip up to the mountains in north carolina for a week.

before i do that, i would like to ask any and all of you who do, to please pray for my teaching partner charlotte and her family. her father was perfectly well on friday, less a scratchy throat and by fri night had a fever of 107 degrees in a coma. the outcome is scary for this man of 56 years old and all prayers will be greatly appreciated.

Friday, June 27, 2008

preparing

I have been trying to perpare for my TWO upcoming trips for the last couple of days. The crappy weather continues, which gives me inside time to do so.

I compiled most of my scrapping stuff and put it back in one locationa & then attempted to pack some page kits etc. I always over pack for crops. I bring way more than I can actually complete, but I am always afraid that if I bring only one or two projects that I will be bored with them or complete them and then what will i do? so, I over pack page kits and 'stuff'. In the middle of doing all of the page kit planning, I got a bright idea, or so I think. I will let you know when the weekend is over and see if I got any of it accomplished.

I have been reading a new book about organizing my photos and to let go of scrapping chronologically. I LUV it and it has been very freeing to work on what I WANT to work on. I used to be so very date oriented, most esp. because I used CM albums which required that. It is nicer for me to have the freedom. I did still feel like I had to scrap last year's pumpkin patch photos before the following Oct when we went back to the Pumpkin Festival (right Dawn and Amanda??) LOL.
I can happily say that I do not care if I ever scrap another Pumpkin Festival and that is okay. (said while repeating it over and over again-ha). So, back to my original thought. I packed up several storage containers and most if not all of my unscrapped photos from the last couple of years.

My hope is that perhaps I can actually get them organized at least by year and/or theme and feel much relaxed about it all. In between, i can scrap a page kit or so.

That is my plan and we shall see. I have the inflatable bed and pump in the car already. I paid some bills and now I just need to finish up some laundry so that i can pack a bag of my clothing and toiletries(after a take a shower).

So, I am off to have a birthday crop weekend and I can really use the time away. Joshy and I are driving each other up a wall literally as we have pretty much been indoors and that isn't any fun at all.

Have a great weekend,
Scrappin' Jax

Thursday, June 26, 2008

tired

i woke up at 6am to dh's alarm clock going off for seven minutes. for some unknown reason, it was not quite loud enough for HIM to hear it and turn it off, so I got up, walked over there and hit snooze. being one who is a self defined NON morning person, this was not a good way to start the day. it proceeded to get even worse when snooze was up and it began ringing again. this time, i did NOT hit snooze but hit HIM to turn the blasted thing off. URG.

so now, joshy and i have returned from a $200 shopping trip to super wal-mart(hate that place esp. with a 3 year old that manages to load my cart with stuff i would not even consider purchasing ever) and now i am listening to MORE thunder and rain.

i swear, i am OVER the gloomy rain. actually, i am exhausted and if said 3 year old would cooperate, i would def. take a nap, but hmmm, that isn't likely. so, here i type and gripe about being tired of the gloomy weather. it is seriously beginning to make me down and out and i do NOT like feeling that way.

of course, i have not ONE thing packed for the weekend, although I am in the middle of laundry load number 3, so at least I will have clean clothes. I just can't figure out what I wanna scrap or work on, so I am putting it off. I swear that if the sun is brightly shining the entire weekend, i will be scrappin outside just to see it.

i guess i better go and search for the air matress and wash some sheets/pillow cases and a lite blanket to pack too. i would much rather go take a snap, but, oh well.

rain rain go away, come again some other day PUHLEEZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

twice in one day

can u believe it? lol.

i have gotta tell ya that iam way sick and tired of this gloomy, rainy weather. i am not complaining cause there are areas in the country that are being much harder hit than we are, but my raincoat and umbrella are working overtime the last couple of weeks. jeez.

okay on to better things. i returned from my neuro appt with better than xpected news. i had been dreading going for my MRI follow up cause I really had a bad feeling about it ........like I said before, it started while waiting nearly two hours for the procedure and I have anxiety for the last ten days.

I am very happy to report that there are NO changes on my current MRI. that was such a HUGE relief. I guess my rebif is doing the job that it is supposed to do. Thank goodness for the chinese hamsters!! If I could say thank you in chinese, i would.

My blood results were not as bad as I expected which was a nice surprise. Now mind you, my cholsesterol and triglycerides are almost double and triple what they should be respectively, but hell, I have been off my meds for like 6 months. So, I have an appt with my PCP on Monday to review my neuro's rec. of going back on something for the cholesterol. Genes are powerful and I apparently am a TINSKY(not that there was any debating that). However there are studies that say statins and interfeurons don't mix well and neuro wants me on something else.

So, she is sending her rec. to my primary care doc and hopefully by this time next week I will be on Zetia or something............who knows.

I FEEL good and I am guessing that should be what I go by and not my nerves or anxiety about unknowns.

All is well, Yes, I have MS, but so what are a few white spots on my brain. Apparently, i can live with em just fine.

Off to make something for dinner. Woo hoo. LIFE IS GOOD.

Mid week already

This week seems to be flying by already. WOW. Hard to believe that it is already Weds. Which means that in exactly two days I will be scrapping and I have not one thing compiled to bring with me......yikes.

I literally have scrappy stuff on the kitchen table, the dining room table, the dining room chairs, and all over the scrap room. I am guessing that I have my work cut out for me to get organized and packed up. Then I also have to pack clothing and air matress/bedding.

I am guessing I will pretty busy the next couple of days doing so. It won't be done this afternoon though, as I have an appt with my neuro. I had my yearly MRI done last week and my appt today is to go over the results.

I am a bit apprehensive, but I am not "going to worry til I really have something to worry about" as my dad always said. Now, I DO have MS, that could be something to worry about, but I don't. I will be sitting on the edge of the examination room table/bed awaiting the possible changes that could/would typically occur from year to year. The meds that I take are only used to slow down the progression of the disease. So fingers, toes and everything else crossed that there are no new lesions and little if any progression please.

One has got to be hopeful that shots that hurt as much as mine do(very painful) surely stop something, right?

I will report in later for anyone who is interested. I also DID get my bloodwork done yesterday-FINALLY. I have walked out of that lab 4 times prior due to the wait. Yesterday, no wait. And although she wont' have my results by my appt. today, I am sure I will get a phonecall telling me when they do arrive to neuro and primary doc.

Ugh too much medical jargon. I need more coffee.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Back from Sebring

just returned from a day trip over to Sebring and a long visit at the Kenilworth.
BIG thanks to Amanda for driving over there with me and to Tenille for helping answer my gazillion questions.

I am so glad that I spent the time and did this as I have a MUCH clearer picture in my mind of the "plan" and the layout. Being an extremely visual person, I NEEDED to do this.

Amanda and I mapped out the whole room and did wonders with the tape measure that I brought.
I now know xactly how I am going to lay out the room with tables, where the vendors will be etc.

So, all in all, despite the NUMEROUS turn arounds for fast food for Miss Amanda, it was a VERY productive day.I am getting so very xcited about this. It is going to be phenominal.

Another year

Well, another year older. I am not certain how xactly I managed to arrive at the ripe old age of 41?! Although I am quite fond of having the opportunity to be another year older(it sure beats the alternative), I just don't know how I got here.

I remember when I was a little girl(okay, I am still "little") , a YOUNG girl, attending the 30th birthday party of my birthmother and as a 6 year old, she was OLD. So how did I manage to hit 41?! and for the most part, not feel old???????????? If anyone has a valid answer, please feel free to jump in here.

My birthday was of the gloomy sorts. My mood tends to be inspired by the weather outside and as much as i know that we NEED rain, it truly does NOT have to rain NON stop for two entier days straight, esp. on the weekend and esp. on my birthday.
So, yesterday was quite uneventful. Despite Johnnie's efforts to do something fun, it really just wasn't a fun day whatsoever.

So, dinner was truly the only highlight for my special day. We went to Kado. I luv that place and dinner was delicious, although not quick. Joshy did well for the first hour and a half, but into the second hour, he was BORED and doing a bit of running around. Now being potty trained completely, he must have visited both bathrooms a dozen times and Stacey will appreciate this, came running out of the men's room at one point naked from the waist down. LOL. I swear that kid will be a nudist someday...........ROTFLMAO. Thank goodness I had given in when getting dressed for dinner and allowed him to wear a shirt(size 5T) that truly was wayyyyy too big on him. However, for these purposes, it worked just fine.
what a trip.

So, all in all, I am now another year older, a bit more tired, but still STUFFED from my amazing dinner. Thanks for all of the warm birthday wishes from everyone. They made me smile on an otherwise gloomy day.

This morning I am off to go have my bloodwork done for my neuro appt on Weds.-trying NOT to think about the MRI report and then off to Sebring for the day.
I am meeting up with Amanda in Brandon and then we are heading over to the Kenilworth to measure out the room and vendor space. Being a very visual person, I NEEEEEED to do this so that I can map it all out both in my head and on paper.

So, the sun is shining. DH has reported for Jury duty as summoned and I am going to drink another cup of coffee, even though my bloodwork is supposed to be "fasting". Fasting to me included coffee and my neuro knows that unless someone will do the blood draw from my bedroom, there is NO way I am going anywhere without some caffeine in my veins. I figure if I always have coffee, then the results should be comparable each time I have it done-every 3 months.

Have a great Monday. Sad to hear of the passing of George Carlin, comedic icon. Gosh, I had NO idea he was 71, but boy has he left his mark on the world.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Catching Up

Like I have said before, I often feel as if I do nothing but try to "catch up". Catch up on laundry, cleaning, paying bills, picking up......whatever it is, I am always behind and trying to catch up.

I gave up on trying to catch up on my scrapbooks. It was truly a revolution when i decided to scrap out of order and just work on what I want to. I luv that feeling and find myself working on the latest photos that I receive in the mail while the memories are still the freshest. Some day (maybe not) i will catch up on the rest of them and if I don't, oh well.

I had a very nice day today catching up with my ex-sil as she cut my hair. It is amazing how awful one can look when u walk into the salon and how much better when you feel as you walk out with pretty hair :). I also luv that she didn't charge me for the cut as my birthday present. Thanks Aixa. She is amazing. Even better, now that I didn't spend the $65 or so on a haircut, I can spend it on something else for my own birthday gift or get another haircut before returning to work in Aug. Hmmm, I am th inking that I can certainly find a new atg tape gun for my scrappy room and not only give it a new home, but a GOOD home too.

Speaking of catching up. I had received a missed call on my cell yesterday. I ultimately listened to the messages and was pleasantly surprised to hear ex-dh number one and his north carolina drawl........now it was pretty unusual to hear from him on June 19th cause he does call every single year on June 22 to wish me a Happy Birthday but I think that it is more to remind me that at that point in the year, I am OLDER than he is(at least until Aug. 19th). LOL.

Turns out that he is in Florida this weekend and he was driving to Tpa from Jacksonville to see some old friends. Since I didnt' have anything planned for this afternoon, he came over to Aunt Sue's and we all caught up. We talk twice a year at least and email here and there. All in all, we have really never lost touch. He is a good man and there is NO animosity at all between us. I KNOW that he is truly happy for me and the direction my life has taken. We married VERY very young and we were in different places in our lives. I would give him the shirt off my back if he needed it and he has donated to my MS team and supports me 100 percent.

I think that he has stayed away for so long in part because he didnt' know what to expect when seeing me. As for myself, when first dx with MS, I didn't know what to xpect either, so I could understand his apprehensions. Well, he seemed pleasantly surprised to see that I am still me, nothing has changed, cept for a loss of about 50 lbs on my part and many of which he seems to have found (HIS words not mine). He looks xactly the same, but it does seem during 'catching up" that he has found his way and has grown up. That was always our"issue" way back when in 1991.......he just couldn't seem to do that.

Well, I am glad to see that catching up can be a GOOD thing. We had a really nice afternoon together and at this moment, I am all caught up.
Have a great Friday night all.
Jax

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Happy Hump Day

I can't believe that it is Weds. already. I spent the ENTIRE day yesterday being scrappy and I luved it. Okay, in reality, I cleaned up choo choo tracks more times than I care to count, or should I say I HELPED clean them up, but I got alot accomplished........and I don't mean just moving and making piles of crap either.

I bought a BO BUNNY grade album from Linda and I cut the "E" off of it to turn it into GRAD. I spent a good portion of the day decorating it in purples, teals, and lime greens(used a TLC kit I had laying around) and I will give it to Johnnie's neice when we see them in two weeks up in NC. She graduated from 8th grade last weekend and I thought that if they give me the pics or bring them to NC I can finish it up for her while we are there for a week. I am DEF. going to bring scrap stuff with me so that will be perfect. It was fun to do it and she will luv it I am sure. I do anyway. lol.

Last night I went to an HOA Board meeting. Nothing xcting, but it was nice to be with that group again. We have a very good Board this year and I enjoy seeing things get accomplished w/o spending any $$ that is xtra from homeowners. The traffic light is a go and although it might take a year or so to have completed, it is so necessary as our intersection is truly deadly. I can't tell you how many times I hold my breath waiting to hear the dreaded crash after tires and brakes squealing.

I got up VERY early for me this morning and headed almost twenty miles east to a writing training offered by the county. I can't say that I have ever really gone to a writing training that I learned anything at prior to today. This one was excellent and I walked out with some fabulous materials and great ideas. Now, if I only remember them when school begins again-LOL.

John took his father to the airport while I was at the training this morning and I can't say that I am sorry to see him leave. I know that is not very nice, but I can't even put into words the angst I am physically feeling from everything going on in his family right now. It is literally making me sick to the point that I just might have to call one of my drs before the day is over . I discovered last night when i was at the BOD meeting that feeling wasn't there and it only returned when I got home, which leads me to believe it is stress related. NOT good for this MS patient. I do NOT want this nonsense bringing on an exacerbation.

I am going to sign off now and read one of the 3 books that I brought home from the training. They all look good and I have follow-up work to turn in via email to earn all my points. So might as well take advantage of a few precious moments when lil man is snapping and daddy is working at the kitchen table.

Happy Hump Day all.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Sure is soggy out there

It has been raining on and off almost the entire day here. Very blah and dreary too, but that is okay. It is very similar to my mood today anyway.

Father's Day was unbelievably STRESSFUL. I will be happy when fil dearest flies back to Philly on Weds. He tends to bring out the worst in several family members. DH enjoyed his day and the pool was refreshing and relaxing. DS luved it. The shishkabobs were gobbled up and we stayed up way too late chatting at the kitchen table. It was nearly midnight by the time I went up to bed.

I woke up at 4am sick to my stomache. Guess I won't take my shot so early tomorrow. This morning I arrived for my yearly MRI at 10:30am and they didn't take me back until almost 12:30pm. Mind you, the guy was very nice and appologizing left and right for the machine having issues today. Whatever......it wasn't his fault. Thankfully, Nanny was willing to stay later and watch Joshy so I didn't have to reschedule the whole thing. I am not typically clostrophobic, but I will admit that I had a VERY rough time today. Perhaps it was because I had to wait so long and I was getting increasingly anxious. I felt VERY anxious for about 2 hours afterwards and i think that I will DEF. ask my neuro for something next year.

Now I am feeling anxious about waiting until the 25th to see her and go over the results. If I had something, I would take it today.........however, regardless of what the films say, I feel GOOD and that is what matters.

TOok Joshy to see the Jewish pediatrician today(the one with MS)........he has some kind of infection on his cheeks causing a lack of pigmentation. I was very worried that it was vitaligo-you know what Michael Jackson has?! Thankfully, it is NOT. Vitaligo is auto immune as is Multiple Sclerosis and my sister does have it. Fortunately, my son does not. So three weeks of cream on his face and he should be just fine. What a fabulous pediatrician this man is. I am so very impressed with his mannerisms with my son and Joshy was wonderful. YEAH.

So, Nanny and Pop Pop have returned to St. Pete for the night........JD and I are home relaxing and dinner is in the crock pot. I think that I will go and watch the Backyardigan's with him and try to unwind.

Tomorrow is another day,
Jax

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Day? We shall See

Good Morning to all,
Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there. Mine is not here to celebrate with me, but he is here. So, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY-O. I sure do miss you esp. on special days.

For those of you who have known me for awhile, you might be astounded to read the following:
Not only is it Father's Day today(okay, so THAT is not astounding) but our litter of puppies are all SEVEN years old today!! Happy Birthday to the puppies: Baylee(Little B), RJ(Winston), Scrappy, Ramsey and Blizzard(Blizzagoat). They are all up in Tpa at the moment, two with Aunt Sue and the rest here. So, thinking back to when they were all tiny lil 6 and 7 ounce "rats" it is surreal that it was seven years ago. I cut the cord on two of them.....Blizz and Ramsey. Oh what fun it was those little buggers climbing out of the baby pool in my family room. Glad I decided to NEVER do that again, but oh how happy my Daddy was to pick his puppy. He called me almost every day for two years to say, " I luv my puppy". Oh did he ever.

Happy Father's Day and Happy birthday to our pups.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

overdosing

on the outlaws, as my dear friend valerie is known to call them.

i am totally overdosed. do not get me wrong, dh's family is dh's family and i do love them all but separately. the last five days have been entirely too much togetherness!!

i am thankful for a 'break' this evening as his parents just left for st. pete to hang with the sisters and i am guessing they will all be back to celebrate father's day tomorrow. in the meantime, i am going to enjoy the silence and the fact that i am already feeling MUCH less stress.

FAMILY!! OY,

Friday, June 13, 2008

Back from the BEACH

and what a lovely time........however, I am here to tell you that one should NOT go on vacation from Weds to Fri cause you have absolutely NO idea what day of the week it is. Seriously feels like Sunday to me right now, but thankfully, it IS only Friday and I will have the whole weekend to spend with dh as it is Father's Day coming up on Sunday.

Speaking of Father's Day.....most of you know that this is NOT my most favorite day of the year anymore. In fact, I cried like a BABY yesterday but it passed quickly. You see, not only were we at the beach for 3 days, but we were staying at the hotel that Johnnie and I got married at and had our reception at. Daddy died just 3 short months after that wonderful weekend in October '03 and it brought back a flood of joyous memories to be back at the Sandalwood.

Joshy could NOT have had a better time if he tried. OMG. He met kids(some were "RUDE" according to my sassy 3.5 year old), some were "shy" and other's he just enjoyed swimming and chasing around the place(of course he acted as if he owned it). By far the elevator was one of his favorite pasttimes and I swear that I am waiting for him to ask for one at our house-lol. It was a riot actually.

We had a few great meals at a place called Conch Republic on Gulf Blvd. The food was amazing and our service was xcellent.. It was quite similar to Bally Hoo's here in Tpa, but much better. Johnnie told them it was my birthday(okay a week early) but they sing and blow into conch shells........very cool. Didn't know he was doing that and didn't have my camera out for it, but it was something I tell you.

Glad to be home and although I have tons of laundry to do and two cars that need to still be unpacked, I caught up on nearly 200 emails, numerous phonecalls and ordered my photos from the trip already. I have already pre-made some pages for them and I was so thrilled to remember that yesterday was the 12th of the month(actually Johnnie remembered) but taking 12(gazillion) photos on the 12th of this month was NOT at all difficult. In fact, I will leave you with a few.

I was very sad to read of the untimely passing of Tim Russert. I am not a big fan of politics, but he like many other newscasters become a part of your "family" of sorts when they are constantly in your bedroom. Working part time allows for me to watch the Today Show at least for a bit each morning and being an election year, he was prominently on in the first half hour several times per week. So sad and surreal. Like I am known to say-often, live each day as if it were your last, cause you just NEVER know if there will be a tomorrow.

Have a great evening and enjoy.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tuesday Morning Update

Just figured that I would catch up while I had a moment. I spent the better part of yesterday straightening and organizing. Heck, that truly is my entire life these days. Well, I was pretty happy with the way things looked. I don't "clean" truly clean. But surface clean is what my house was. One of these days I will get another cleaning girl who will do the dusting and deep stuff that I just don't care about ...........one of these days.

Then it was time to head out to the grocery store. That is one chore that I have hated for quite some t ime. I actually agonize over which one to go to, what coupons that I have etc. I usually end up at Super Center cause it is so much cheaper, spend 30+ minutes in the check out line cussing under my breath and realizing why I HATE shopping there. However, yesterday was quite a different experience. First of all, it was a weekday in the mid morning. Not nearly as chaotic as the weekends-go figure. LOL. And shopping at WM where the toy dept is larger than the produce is not really my idea of a fun outting with a 3.5 year old. However, the last week or so, Joshy has REALLY been listening and picking up and in general like a lightswitch has gone on......amazing. SERIOUSLY. So, off we went to WM.
We bought groceries, he sat in the cart til it got too full, he helped carry bags in and it was not at all stressful. WOW. Well, it was stressful when my total was revealed, but other than that a good outing.

My 3rd grade team arrived just before 3pm for our end of the year get together. Joshy had a blast playing with all of the kids and swimming. He was so wiped out that when everyone left just before 7pm that he promptly passed out on the couch while watching some tv show and never woke up til 7:30 this morning. I cleaned up yet again and went to bed at 10 myself.

Today, Big John arrives ........oh let the fun begin. I am planning for the worst visit ever and maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed he will surprise me. But let's face it, with all that is going on in that side of the family, it is less than likely.

The highlight for me will be the few days that we are spending in N. Redington Beach. We have a couple of rooms reserved at the condo/hotel that John and I got married at in '04. We have not been back there in many years and I am so looking forward to that part anyway.

I will pack a Battle Book and some scrappy stuff and plan to do a whole lotta relaxing. Having the grandparents around with the kiddo will be very helpful in ME getting some downtime-I hope.

So that is life lately in the nutshell. So far, I am seriously enjoying my first real week of summer vacation and will check in when I can.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

What a beautiful day

Sun is shining so brightly.......it appears to be a lovely FL day here, although it is going to be HOT HOT HOT.

I was off bright and early to Nordstrom's yesterday with Aunt Sue for an "ANGEL" private party. I have worn Angel perfume since it was introduced over 15 years ago. It is pretty much my signature fragrance and due to the cost for many years i ONLY wore it on special occasions.

Well, after being diagnosed, I realized that each day that I wake up and everything "works" the way that it is supposed to IS INDEED a special occasion. So, I do wear it nearly every day now.
They have come out with other fragrances in their line over the years, but I am a blue star Angel kinda gal and apparently so are at least 180 other people that were there at 8 am. LOL.

They gave us a nice bag of goodies and bkfst was good, although not great. I saw a few people that I knew (big surprise there) and Aunt Sue and I had a nice morning/afternoon together. I miss getting to spend time with just the two of us so this was nice.

Went to dinner in St. Pete last night.......I will NOT say anymore about that.

I also came home to a very nice surprise from my scrappy friend Jan. She sent me two more adorable K & Co OCEAN albums. What a sweetie. There was also a 50lb box from Fiskars packed FULL FULL FULL with donations for the MS Crop 4 Hope. There were some absolutely gorgeous double sided papers and the embellies from Cloud 9 WOW. I luv receiving products, esp. ones that I have not seen before.

Well, I am going to get some laundry done and finish up a father's day frame that I am altering for dh's father.

I will end by wishing Jules and my cousin Mitch a very happy birthday!!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

From my friend Peggy

1. Do you like blue cheese? Not so much
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No !! Never even seen it other than on tv
3. Do you own a gun? Never!!
4. What flavor do you add to your drink? Lemon
5. Do you get nervous before going to the doctor? Depends which dr. and for what I am going in for.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I would rather starve to death
7. Favorite Christmas movie? Charlie Brown Christmas
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee
9. Can you do push ups? I would be afraid to try and hurt something
10. Age? 40 for 17 more days
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My engagement ring and the ring that I had designed for my dad that I received last year on my 40th birthday when his estate was FINALLY settled
12. Favorite hobby? scrappin'
13. Favorite Actor? George Clooney
14. Do you have A.D.D.? No but I live with some who do
15. What's one trait you hate about yourself? my hair again. i liked it when i worked full-time and had the money to have it straightened. i hate it again now that i am broke and it is curly curly.
16. Middle name? It was Michele when I was born and now my maiden name, Tinsky, is my legal middle name.
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I think Joshy fell asleep, it is shot night, better go take pre-meds and what the heck am i going to make for dinner.
18. Name 3 things you love to eat: coffee ice cream, lobster and pasta
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, coffee and ice tea
20. Current worry? not a one
21. Current dislike right now? dh's family
22. Favorite place to be? in our new pool with joshy
23. How did you bring in the New Year? asleep
24. Where would you like to go? Alaska
25. Name three people who will complete this Not sure
26. What shirt are you wearing? dressy navy blue tank top(had a luncheon to attend and it is HOT)
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? No
29. Can you whistle? Yes
30. Favorite color? Purple
31. Would you be a pirate? Not sure bout that one, but it is our theme at school next year
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? None
33. Favorite girl's name? Jordyn(Jordi)
34. Favorite boy's name? Jacob(Jake) but don't tell Joshua that-lol. That was NOT my first choice name.......lol
35. What is in your pocket right now? My cell phone
36. Last thing that made you laugh? Joshy
37. Best bed sheets as a child? that was 40 years ago, who would remember that?
38. Worst injury you've ever had? Went thru my windshield in a head on collision in high school. Zillions of stitches in my head and ended up hurting my knee pretty badly. I had surgery on it and now perfectly fine.
39. Do you love where you live? YES, but I would luv it more with a housekeeper to pick up behind a certain 3.5 year old who doesn't.
40. How many TVs do you have? 4
41. Who is your loudest friend? Patty Roo
42. How many dogs do you have? 5
43. Does someone have a crush on you? I doubt it seriously
44. What is your favorite book(S): I Love You Forever
45. Where were you born? New York, NY
46. What is your favorite candy? Luv chocolate and Twizzlers
47. Favorite Sports Team? Not a huge fan of any really
48. What song do you want played at your funeral? Not thinking bout that
49. What were you doing at 12 A.M.? Sleeping
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? School's out for SUMMER!! Woo Hoo.

I tag Linda, Miami Dawn and Kip

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

it is OFFICIAL

school is out for summer and I am officially on SUMMER VACATION!! Yipee.

I used comp time for tomorrow and will attend our end of the year luncheon and then I am FREE for the whole summer. I am going to attend a workshop or two, but that is it. YEAH.

As glorious as that sounds, it also means that I am OFFICIALLY broke as I will not get a paycheck either-LOL. I opt NOT to do EYP(extended year pay) as that is simply loaning my money to the school board interest free for the year.......no thanx. I do enough for them without giving them my money too. LOL.

So, it will be a low key, low spending kinda summer, but that is GOOD. I am ready to relax. Doing the happy scrappy dance.

Tootles.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

It's Almost over

We have today and tomorrow left of the school year and therefore, it is ALMOST over. Yesterday was an incredibly busy day at school for me. My kiddos have been WONDERFUL considering they are more than ready for impending vacation too.

I got all my grades entered on the puter-I REALLY miss the days of handwriting our report cards. I printed one set and they will be checked this morning with Lauren taking them in. Then I will print the second set today to go in the cums. I finished all said cums yesterday . They are in perfect order. Packed a few more boxes and should be nearly done with that. I know that I have three file cabinet drawers to pack up and I will do that today but I need some more small boxes. All I had left were humongo ones and files will not work in there.

Aunt Sue took Joshy over to Orlando for the day and most of the night too. They didn't get home til well after 9pm and he was crashed. He had a wonderful day on water slides and playing with his new "friends". John got home very late from work in Sarasota, so that actually gave me a couple of hours at home by myself. I didn't get to scrap anything but I did finish putting all of my ribbons in my new ribbon purse. It is so adorable and I could just kick myself for not inventing it.

How many times I see a product and wanna smack myself upside the head cause I sure could have thought of something like that. Darn IT!!

We have to eat lunch with our kiddos today as the 5th graders will be comandeering the cafeteria for the next two days. That means NO break for me so I just might have to find a cute movie for mine to watch and get my neighbor to cover my class for a few.

Wanna hear the highlight and funny/wow story of yesterday? If so, read on. I am walking to the fac. lounge after dropping my kiddos off at the table yesterday and I see a 5th grader with a wad of cash counting it. I walked over and asked him why he had that much money at school. He gave me some lame reason-I am opening a bank account, cd blah blah blah. I told him to give me the money to keep safe so that no one took it/stole it and so he wouldn't lose it. He was destroyed.........wanting to know what I was going to do with it etc. I assured him that there were no vacations with his money in my immediate future and that he would find it in the office at the end of the day.
So, I go into the lounge and find out which teacher he belonged to and then had him count the cash. Okay, would you like to know how much cash this precious 10 year old had flashing around a Title One school? Take a guess: you won't believe it. I nearly fell out when we did count it. I only saw a wad, some 20's.

This CHILD had one thousand, six hundred and sixty dollars that he is flashing and counting at the lunchroom table!!! You read that correctly-$1,660.00!! That is a whole lotta money. I gave it to both the Big P and Little P and they couldn't believe it. It went into the safe and kid's dad picked it up very nonchlantly apparently. Hey, where is my REWARD??????? Oh well.

Now, i have to wonder what a 5th grader is doing with that kind of money and what might be going on at home for him to even have access to it. Geez, I am in the wrong profession. Word is that his mom is a dancer that involves a little bit of clothing and a pole............oh well. It was nice to hold that much money if even for a few moments.

So, I am off to my last full day of school(still a half day for me though), and hopefully, it will go by quickly.
It has been a really great year and I am almost sorry to see it end. I have my homework for the summer. I brought home a large totebag of books to read to prepare myself for next year's BATTLE OF THE BOOKS. I am going back to 4th grade and have to be prepared.

TTFN

Sunday, June 1, 2008

part two

I also realized that if you leave a certain lil blondie alone and NOT stress over certain things, they will come.

So, you hope and pray and say outloud in your head each time that you stand in the baby aisle contemplating........"this WILL be the last package of pull ups that I buy" that if you just model the behavior and encourage, he WILL eventually NOT be afraid to poop on the toilet!! and I may have indeed purchased the last package of pull ups. In fact, I bought big boy underwear instead.

I also realized that if I do NOT worry about him every learning his alphabet in English and not Josh-a-neese, that too will come. We are now happily identifying letters by sight and correctly correlating their sounds.
For those of you who don't know-being a teacher, I want him to learn. Being a Mommy, I want him to learn, but he does NOT go to pre-school(for numerous reasons) and I was starting to feel that he would just NEVER get it.

So if you give it time, he WILL learn.
Realizations are a wonderful way to start the day.
And the final one, as he screams for someone to help him "wipe",

My BABY is not a BABY anymore. :(

Realizations

Sometimes people can NOT be happy unless they are completely and totally unhappy. That is fine if that is the way that they want to live, but it is incredibly draining to be around. It is all that I can do to bite my tongue and not scream what I really want to: "OPEN YOUR EYES AND TAKE A LOOK AROUND YOU AT THE PEOPLE THAT REALLY HAVE TROUBLES!!!!"

I had an incredible day yesterday. I drove down to St. Pete and had a very nice visit and shopping trip to WSD. There I met my newest friend from the Choo Choo scrappy trip. We had a great visit and I am so happy to have her as a new scrappy friend -SMILES to you Miss Jan.

Last evening I sat in awe in a tiny tiny, did I mention tiny, little theater at the TBPAC. It was quite intimate and could NOT even believe the talent on the stage just a few steps in front of me. WOW. The cast of Brighton Beach Memoirs was absolutely INCREDIBLE. I concur with the person who did the review for the Tpa Tribune saying that Ricky Cona could rival Matthew Broderick for a Tony. WOW does that kid have talent. We waited at the stage door after the show so that I could introduce myself and I could tell him how impressed I was, but none of the cast exited that door.Now I do have gumption, but I would never normally do something like that. However, I would have done so if given this opportunity since Ricky is the younger brother of my job share partner at school, Lauren. So, we got to see all of the cast from the Lion King(which we saw last week). They were a lovely talented bunch as well, especially the lil ones. They couldn't be more than 9 years old and I can not even begin to tell you how talented they are.

It just truly amazes me to see what some people actually DO with what they are given. Incredible.

So far a gloreous sunny FL day outside. I am going down for another cup of coffee. Have a great Sunday and do SOMETHING to make someone smile today.