Here's why my son isn't getting a Nintendo DS anytime soon

My children do not have the latest in popular entertainment and video devices. While we don't live under a rock and my boys do watch TV, we have not yet jumped on the bandwagon of digital gadgetry in our household. Yes, my laptop is my BFF. However, I am not on Facebook or Twitter. I don't know how to text (I know that is VERY lame...........I just haven't needed to learn yet), and my phone is a Motorola Tracfone which I buy minutes for when my minutes run out. It doesn't even have one of those cool little keyboards that slides out. Usually I just use it to call DH with an item to add to the grocery list. (Yes, he does our grocery shopping. I am very blessed.) And believe me...........if someone walked up to me today and offered me one of those really cool phones that does everything, I would not hesitate to accept.

So..........before I go any further, please know that in no way do I judge others for their relationships to digital devices. Nor I am opposed to or "against" the use of said devices. To be honest, we just haven't purchased some of these gadgets because as of yet no one in our family has felt a pressing need to have them. It doesn't make sense to us to buy something for our children that they are not asking for. That would be like introducing an ice cream sundae to a child who consistently and contentedly eats a variety of healthy foods. If they're happy eating healthy, why mess with it, right? Likewise, if my children are happy and occupied with books and toys that don't beep or light up, why mess with it?

Recently, however, my youngest son (he's 5 1/2) has been telling me he REALLY wants a Nintendo DS. I have explained to him that these cost a lot of money and that he will have to really save his money (which he earns by keeping his room clean) if he wants to buy one. The chances of him saving up enough to buy one are slim to none; money kind of burns a hole in his pocket and is usually used to buy more LEGO sets. And I love it when he buys LEGO sets because they are hands-on, open-ended, constructive and will get lots of play time in our household.

Today, however, something occurred that pretty much convinced me that none of MY hard-earned cash is going to buy him a DS anytime soon. There's a bit of a backstory here. Today (Tuesday) was a no-school day for me and my sons. We also had the day off on Monday for President's Day. On Monday I took the boys to a local museum where they were having President's Day activities for families. I also bought the boys lunch at the museum. My youngest son had an orange cream soda to drink. It came in a glass bottle. He didn't drink it all, but when I asked the restaurant employee if they recycled the glass bottles, she said no. I am a pretty dedicated recycler, so I took the bottles into the restroom, dumped the remaining soda out, rinsed the bottles and hauled them around in my huge purse the rest of the afternoon. My youngest son was very excited that we were saving his bottle. He said he was going to make something with it when we got home.

Fast forward to this morning. I decided to clean out the junk drawer in our kitchen. While doing this project, I had the contents of the drawer spread out on our table. My youngest son spotted a round metal lid that was missing its handle. He asked if he could have it. Knowing there was a good chance I had no use for the lid, I agreed. A little while later I was sweeping the floor. My broom dislodged a circular piece of heavy wire from beneath our couch. My youngest son spotted it in the pile of pet hair and dirt just before I swept it into a dustpan. He asked if he could have it. I agreed, but cautioned him to be careful with it.

Later in the morning I rounded up the boys to go to work with me. They often accompany me when I have to get things ready in my preschool classroom. As we headed out the door I noticed that my youngest son was planning to bring the empty glass soda bottle, the metal lid and the ring of wire along. Not wanting to deal with that, I urged him to leave them behind. He persisted, telling me he was going to make something with them. I gave in. We went to my school. While I busied myself with the tasks I needed to accomplish, my youngest son played with the bottle, lid and wire. He showed me all the different things he could do with them. At one point, he used them as a catapult to roll a globe from my classroom across the floor. Another time he showed me how the curved wire could be used like a hook to pick up the lid.

Much later in the afternoon, the boys and I had to stop at my parents' house to pick something up. Again, my youngest son insisted on bringing his bottle, lid and wire with him. My mom greeted us at the door and remarked about the strange assortment of items my little guy was carrying. I told her that he had occupied himself with these three items for much of the day. The boys played at my parents house for about an hour while I went back to work. Although he played with other things, I know my son continued to enjoy his trio of "junky" treasures at their house as well.

At one point today he told me he wants to collect lots of bottles so he can make lots of things with them. It reminded me of his Valentine's party at school last week. I had brought juice boxes for the children. Instead of throwing his juice box away when he was finished, my son asked to bring it home. He wanted to make a boat out of it.

So........now you know why he isn't getting a Nintendo DS anytime soon. Who needs a fancy video game when you can be happily entertained for hours with a bottle, a discarded lid, and a piece of wire? Why mess with a good thing?

If you read nothing else today.........

.........read THIS. You won't regret it.

Where has the time gone?

I know I've been lax about writing on this blog for a while. And I'm even worse about keeping up on Random Acts of Reading. Don't give up on that project if you were initially excited about it. I am really hoping to find the time to pick back up where I left off very soon. It's been so hard to make book drops with the yucky, cold, snowy weather we've been having. I plan to be very inspired and motivated to get going with those again soon.

Anyway..........you may wonder what's up with our invalid hen, Sarah. We were able to reintroduce her to the flock on Valentine's weekend. She was getting around on her foot and was not very happy in her Rubbermaid "cell" in our bathroom. I was not sad to see her back outside with the other chickens. However, last week I noticed that her "bad" foot was turning black. My little guy and I took her to the vet on Monday and he confirmed that her foot is, indeed, dead. So...........amputation is an option. Since I am not Bill Gates I had to inquire about the cost of this surgery. The vet told me, "For your $5 chicken it would cost you around $150 to do surgery." However, he kindly assured me that even Warren Buffett would have wanted to know the cost and that my asking didn't necessarily imply my indifference to the plight of sick animals. Sarah, for her part, seems as perky and clucky as ever for now. So..........we are opting to wait and see what nature will bring. There is a chance that her foot will shrivel up and fall off on it's own. (I know that sounds very gross...............and I'm not looking forward to going out to the coop one morning and finding a detached chicken foot lying on the ground.) I have heard from other people that they have had chickens or ducks with one foot who survived just fine. So we will see.

In other news, I've been doing pretty well (until this past week) keeping up with my running. I usually run 5K on the treadmill 4-5 times per week. I am really looking forward to running outside very soon. I'm considering entering a 5K race in early May. It will be my first race ever, so it should be fun. I now know I can very easily do a 5K so it's not intimidating from that standpoint. And I think it will motivate me to train for a longer race later in the summer.

Work is keeping me VERY busy but very happy. I cannot imagine any other job that would make me happier than my current job. I love working with preschoolers.

Well............that's what's up around here. I haven't done anything crafty or creative lately though I wish I had so I could post a cute photo or two. Until next time...........

Buzzy is a Blog Star!!

I'm so excited to finally be able to tell y'all that Buzz (our dog) and I have been interviewed over at Coffee with a Canine. Marshal, who writes the blog, contacted me a few months ago asking if I would be interested in being featured with Buzz on the blog. I loved the whole concept and he published our interview today. CLICK HERE to read it.

(By the way, someone should really do something similar with cats. Lee? Are you reading this? You would be PERFECT to start a cat/owner blog. If you decide to do it, count me (and Nina, Macy and Prince Bob) in!!)

I'm really not scared of mice & My first blog interview

I feel like a horrible mother. Today after preschool my little boy and I were getting ready to leave the classroom and I glanced over and saw a live mouse on the tile floor near the kitchen of my classroom. I knew we had a mouse because Michelle, my assistant, had also seen it. However, without thinking about what I was doing I SHRIEKED very loudly when I saw it. I'm really not scared of mice. They just startle me when they appear so unexpectedly and move so quickly. You know what I mean? Anyway............simultaneous to my shriek my little guy started bawling in a more terrified manner than I've ever heard him cry and he BOLTED through the door of the classroom, down the hallway, past my assistant and her son, out the doors to the outside and when I finally caught up to him he was in the parking lot standing beside our van sobbing. With much prodding (and dragging) I convinced him to return with me to the classroom where I had left all my belongings, all the while trying to convince him that Mommy didn't scream because she was scared of the mouse. Rather, I screamed because I was SURPRISED by the mouse. I assured him that mice can't hurt us, etc. Well, he talked about little else all night so I'm sure I've instilled an irrational phobia of mice in him, completely unintentionally. When relaying the story to DH he asked me why I had screamed. I told him that I think it is perhaps part of my female genetic make-up and that it just happened without me even knowing it was going to happen. And that's true. Because I am NOT scared of mice. I just don't like to be startled by them.

In other news, I'm excited to announce that Shannon from Letters, Numbers and Books Oh My! has interviewed me over at her blog about my Random Acts of Reading project. CLICK HERE to read the interview. I was really excited that she wanted to interview me. It's my first (published) blog interview. There is another one in the works that I'm excited to tell you about when it goes online. That's all I'm saying for now though.

Art class

This afternoon the boys and I met my friend, Krystal, and her two boys at a new local gift shop that has art classes on Saturdays. We had fun although my little boy got pretty rowdy. The boys did print-making, spin art, and played with clay. These photos show the spin-art. For only $5 per child it was a pretty good value. We will probably do it again but my little guy may stay home next time. We'll see! :0)

Other than that, we tried to stay warm. It is FREEZING here. Actually, if the temperature was at freezing it would feel balmy. It is below zero right now. My toes were frozen after a 5 minute ride in the car. UGH! I hate the cold of winter when it's too cold to even go out and enjoy the snow. My husband, however, did his daily run OUTSIDE today. He is crazy! Actually, I admire his dedication. He has been running for decades now and knows how to dress for all sorts of weather. Still...........I was pretty happy on the treadmill this morning. :0)

Happy New Year!!

Hope your festivities last night were joyous or peaceful, whichever you prefer! I am typing this at 11:04 p.m. on New Year's Eve, but posting it on the morning of New Year's Day. My oldest son and I just watched the "ball" drop in NYC on TV. He is still going to try to stay up until midnight here. I am the parent designated to help him accomplish this. :0)

Today I am revealing the project I've been working on. Yay! It's a new blog!! It is called Our Random Acts of Reading and you can check it out by clicking on the link here or on the sidebar. I know I may be crazy. My oldest son just said tonight, "Mommy! Now you have 3 blogs!" And he's right! I'll let you click over to read about my new blog adventure. I am pretty excited about it and would love to hear what you think.

I've decided to reveal myself to you this year as well. You may or may not have noticed that I now have a photo of myself in my blog profile. It about killed me to do it as I hate to be photographed. But I also felt that the time had come...........I've been blogging now for about a year and a half so it was time to come out of the closet so to speak. I had my husband take a bunch of photos of me so I could choose the least hideous one! haha!

That's all for now! Have a great New Year's Day!!

Facelift

Hello! I just wanted to let everyone know that I've been messing around a bit with the blog and have given it a facelift. So if you read the blog through a feed reader, take a moment to click through and tell me what you think of the new look. Otherwise, just tell me what you think of the new look. I found the background on Shabby Blogs. I love it so much. I was long overdue for an update. Best part of it? It was FREE!!! Now I'm trying to figure out how to install a customized header. I've found one I really like on Shabby Blogs but can't figure out yet how to add text to the image. If you've done that and can give me advice I'd love the help! Thanks!



PS: I'm working on a new BIG project that I'm hoping to reveal soon. I'm really excited about it! Can't wait to share!

New beginnings

As of tonight I am a Cub Scout mom!! I love it. My oldest son who is 8 had his first Cub Scout meeting tonight. One of the most exciting things for him was getting his uniform. His little brother is already asking when he can be a Cub Scout. After the meeting my little scout took off his belt and my youngest son tried it on. He said, "Well, Mommy. I tried on that belt and it fit so I think I CAN be a Cub Scout!" It was very cute. I am excited for my big boy. I remember very clearly my first Brownie meeting when I was a little girl. I was so excited to have my little brown beanie and my Brownie handbook. Having a sash and being able to earn badges for it was awesome too. It is fun to relive the joy of new beginnings through my sons. I am looking forward to many great experiences as a Cub Scout mom. My husband will be really involved with it as well. One thing I really like is all the great activities we can do together as a family. Here are a few anonymous peeks of my son in his uniform.






He was also really excited to receive his official Cub Scout handbook at the meeting tonight.

My Halloween treat

When the boys and I went to my parents' house to trick-or-treat on Halloween night my mom surprised ME with a paper bag labeled "Happy Halloween" and "Merry Christmas". I was surprised and delighted to find a little autumn teapot and two matching teacups inside. I had seen this at my favorite local thrift store and had left a shameless hint about it in this post. Just like with the chicken quilt, my mom came through! Thanks, Mom!! I love them so much!





The lid of the teapot has a cute little acorn-shaped handle. So adorable!!

Clarification

Very recently a reader of this blog pointed out to me that my post about the book, The Shack, may have implied that I have discovered something very awful about my husband. Please let me assure you that that is definitely not the case. And I want to publicly apologize to him if that is what anyone thought. I knew it was going to be hard for me to express in writing what the "skin of knowing" quote meant to me and now I am sure that I did a chop job of explaining it. I'll try again here.

As most of you know, I am a teacher. I am currently teaching preschoolers who are just about the most fun and joyous type of people to be around. However, preschoolers tend to think about things very literally and to see things in black and white. This is why you may often hear a preschooler say, "You're not my friend" or the infamous, "You're not invited to my birthday party" (stated indignantly even when the birthday is 9 months away). To a young child, if their friend does not behave in a certain way they think they can no longer be friends with that person. In my classroom this happens when their friend plays with someone else, sits by someone else, etc. Thankfully, as we grow older we become more flexible in our thinking. This flexibility allows us to accept and even love people who don't share our beliefs or who don't look just like us or act just like us. In fact, as adults we are often very willing to overlook the annoying or aggravating habits of those we love due to the very fact that..........we love them. So what I was TRYING to say in my previous post is that I find it a beautiful fact of life that our love for others is able to grow over time even as those we love do things that surprise us, upset us, or disappoint us. I am the first to admit that I have done many things to surprise, embarrass, upset, and disappoint the people in my life who claim to love me. (My previous post may be just one of many examples of this.) And sometimes I do those surprising, embarrassing, upsetting and disappointing things over and over even though I know they are surprising, embarrassing, upsetting and disappointing. How wonderful that the people who love me are able to "grow" their love even in spite of this. Am I making any sense now? I hope so. And again, my sincere apologies if anyone thought for even one second anything negative about my DH. I love him........he's a great daddy, a great husband, and an all-around great guy.

Perfectly mismatched

Last week our whole family went to see the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs at the theater. This was kind of a big event because we have rarely gone to a big theater to see a movie. We are more of the movie-rental types. Anyhow.........as we sat in theater before it was darkened I looked over and noticed that my little boy had on mismatched socks. My gut-reflex instant thought was, "Oh crap! I should have noticed that and had him change before we went OUT." Immediately on the heels of that thought came another thought........."I love it that his socks don't match. I love how it reflects his uniqueness and originality. Someday I will look back remembering when he was little and sweet and we sat together in a dark theater and I will wish for more days of perfectly mismatched socks." Just thinking about that moment almost brings tears to my eyes as I write it. I love my boys so much. I am so proud of them and have loved watching them grow up. But I HATE the thought of them getting so big that I can't carry their sleepy heavy little bodies to bed when they fall asleep on the couch..........so big that they won't beg to be spun around in the kitchen or tickled under the covers...........and so big that they won't look at me in the dimness of a nightlight-lit bedroom as we snuggle under the quilt and say, "Mommy, I love you." I live for those precious moments..........they are truly treasures in my heart.


I'm glad I remembered to snap a photo of Mr. Mismatched that night before he went to bed. Isn't life better with one red sock?

Umm.....it's still fall, right?

That's what the calendar says anyway. I think Mother Nature is pulling a fast one. We woke up this morning to about 2 inches of snow. My boys were VERY excited and have already been out playing in it this morning. It's a strange juxtaposition of two seasons in our area today. Just before I started typing this post I went back to my bedroom to check on my boys..........there were loud noises that warranted a quick peek. As I listened to them explaining that they were taking turns being the "tiger" and the "deer" while wrestling each other on my bed......the unmade bed with a pile of laundry to be folded.........I looked out the window and saw fall leaves slowly drifting off one of our trees while light snowflakes gently fell. It was a really cool sight! Below you can see the snow on our little maple tree in the front yard..........fall colors still evident beneath the white stuff.



This is the scene that awaited our chickens this morning. They are lucky to have a covered chicken yard so they don't have to get into the snow much. However, when I opened their pop door so they could go out, they were quite uncertain about venturing out. Just a few minutes ago I noticed that a few had finally decided to go outside.



While I was out with the boys earlier I checked in on the cooped up chickens and found three of them on the shelf (where I DON'T like them to be)..........



And the other two were just hanging out. Although "she" hasn't started crowing yet, it's become pretty obvious that Dixie is a rooster.




On another note...........I was thrilled to arrive home from work yesterday to find a package addressed to me. I was mystified to see that it was from my mother-in-law as I wasn't expecting anything from her. I was so surprised and happy to find a ceramic hen and chick inside. And even more pleased and touched to find out that she had hand-painted it just for me. Thank you SO much, Donna! I love it and I love you. You are so thoughtful. Here is the sweet little hen perched on my baker's rack. I love the little chick on her back and her wing angled protectively over it.

This has become our latest family treasure. What a talented mother-in-law I have!!

Finally, I'm sorry for not posting over here. I didn't realize it had been so long until I started this post. I've just been so busy with school and the boys that I haven't gotten around to posting over here very often. Hopefully that will change and I will make time to write here more. I like having this place to document what we've been doing. Hope you all are having a great fall!

Small town country folk are the best!!

I grew up in the small rural farm community that I now live in. I moved away to attend college and lived in that same college town for 14 years. I LOVED living in a college town. I loved the ethnic diversity, the cultural opportunities, the vibrancy and energy..............so many things. I loved sitting in a coffee shop and being able to hear people speak in different languages and to eavesdrop on "smart" conversations about topics and concepts I didn't understand. And sometimes I really miss that atmosphere. There are times when I wish we lived in a larger community and, especially, in a college town again. With that said, today I want to write about a few things that happened to me recently that illustrate how great it is to live in a small town. I am, after all, a country girl at heart.

First of all, you know if you've been reading for a while that we are soon to be chicken farmers. We have been turning a shed into the chicken palace of the century (at least people are teasing me that it's the fanciest coop they've ever seen). And I've become a little Backyard Chickens fanatic, browsing the forum daily for ideas and advice about building a coop and raising chickens. One piece of advice I've taken from the forum is to put vinyl flooring in the coop to facilitate cleaning up the chicken poop. So I've been on the lookout for a remnant piece to put in. We are having new tile put in our basement this summer and the man who is installing it just happens to be someone I was in an honor band with in high school. After having no luck at Home Depot or Menards in finding a vinyl remnant, I asked this guy if he had a remnant that I could purchase from him. Not only did he have one, he gave it to me for free. I offered to pay, but he wouldn't take money for it. Perhaps that would happen in a city, but it is one example of the generosity that you often find in a small town.

The next story of generosity also involves my chicken project. I have been on the lookout for a product called diatomaceous earth (or DE) to use in the coop. Most people on the Backyard Chickens forum swear by this product and sprinkle it over the bedding inside the coop to keep down the odor and to repel flies. In fact, everyone who uses it says that their chicken coops are virtually ODORLESS! Well, I had chickens growing up and let's just say, our coops were far from odorless. So I was really committed to trying to find this product for my chicken coop. However, I have been trying for weeks to find it locally. Our local feed store has something with this ingredient, but not in a form that is safe for animals. Tractor Supply and Orscheln's hadn't heard of it. I literally went through the yellow pages and called every farm supply store in an hour's radius and none of them had even heard of DE except for one. This feed store is in a town about an hour away from me. They had one bag in stock. I asked if they would hold it for me until I could drive over and get it. That is when the lady on the phone offered to bring it to me last night since she was heading to the airport for a flight out the next morning (I live only about 30 minutes from the airport, on her way). I would never have asked someone to do that for me and I told her she really didn't need to, that I could drive to get it. She insisted it was no trouble at all and last night I met her at our local McDonald's which is right off the highway and she loaded the 40 pound bag of DE into the trunk of my car, and I gave her my check and an extra $5 cash for her trouble. She didn't want to take the money saying that I would do the same for someone else. I told her to take it and buy herself a drink on her vacation (she's flying to Mexico City!). So..........there you have it. Small town service with a smile. I am her customer for life. She made sure to tell me to let her know if I need anything else for the chickens and offered to mail me a catalog. It turns out this feed store in a tiny little rural town has more products and variety than most "big box" farm stores. You just never know. I was so impressed with her friendliness and generosity. And as I drove home with my 40 pound bag of DE resting comfortably in the my trunk, I felt happy to be living in a small town where people willingly go out of their way to help their neighbors.

Knick-Knack Paddy-Whack.........

................give a dog a home. Yep, that's what we did today. Meet the newest addition to our family...........Buzz. Isn't he just the cutest ever? You can't totally tell in this photo, but he has a little stripe of longer fur on the top of his head which you can fluff up into a faux-hawk (AKA....a mohawk). Now let me tell you the story behind our newest pet.

The boys and I headed to Target today because I wanted to pick up a few items for my home makeover/decluttering projects. I have been doing a bunch that I will post about soon, but today's post is about Buzz. Anyway.........I told the boys that after Target we could go to the new PetSmart store that just opened. My plan was to just look at all the different pets. What kids don't love an outing to the pet store? As we neared the entrance to PetSmart I saw a little sign stating that it was Pet Adoption weekend. Right inside the door a table was set up manned by volunteers from a local pet rescue agency. Since our dog, Magic, passed away just a few weeks ago, DH and I had decided we'd wait a while before getting another dog. However, I decided to just INQUIRE about any dogs they might have for adoption. We had definitely agreed that our next dog would be an adopted pet. One of the gals said they had the cutest black and white dog with a mohawk. I spotted said dog sprawled out on the floor napping. I crouched down to pet him. He was so calm and sweet. The shelter people said he had been found running the streets a few days ago and that he was very mellow and sweet. I took one look into those soulful brown eyes and was hooked. The boys liked him too, but I told them we had to ask Daddy first. (I made a desperate phone call home to talk to him but he was outside and didn't answer.) So, we made the 20 minute drive home and told him about Buzz. My husband is a total softie when it comes to pets and he agreed to get back into the van with us to go meet Buzz. When I left the pet store I had told the adoption people that I couldn't make any type of commitment without checking with my husband, so if another family came along in the meantime, they should go ahead and give Buzz another home. When we pulled back into the parking lot with my husband, my oldest son and I ran ahead into the store to see if Buzz was still there. It was so cool because the faces of the adoption ladies lit up when they saw us come in. Buzz was STILL THERE and stood up and started wagging his tail when he saw us. (BTW.....he has a totally cute little tail that curls up over his back. I will take a picture of his tail to post later.) Buzz was the last dog left to find a family today and I was really impressed with the adoption people and the PetSmart employees. They were all so excited that we were taking Buzz home. I am thankful that we have found another good dog to share our home with and am looking forward to many happy years with Buzz.

The Before and After

A few days ago as part of Amber's photo challenge, I posted the picture below which showed how my oldest son's art/work table looked on that particular day. I have been planning to get him a system in place to organize his overwhelming stacks of paperwork. He is 7 1/2 and, therefore, old enough now to use a file system similar to what adults would use. I looked at an office supply store for a filing box on a cart to place next to his table. The only one I found that was what I wanted was almost $40 and I didn't want to spend that much. Instead, I decided to repurpose a scrapbooking file system that I've had for several years. I bought something (for $17) to hold all the scrapbook paper I had been storing in my file box and helped my son set up his own filing system.

This morning he and I spent a bit of time going through the mess shown above and organizing it into the appropriate files. I am trying to encourage him to recycle (get rid of!!) some of his beloved papers. However, that is a battle that won't be over anytime soon. For now I am just thrilled to have cleared off the top of his table so he can actually work at it. And I will be able to keep on him about getting his papers filed as soon as he completes them. The first photo below shows his pristine work area. MUCH improvement over before, huh?

The next photo shows the categories we came up with to organize his many projects and papers. Quite a while ago I had read on an organization website or seen on an HGTV show that it is most efficient to have your file labels all on the left side instead of spacing them out. Does that make sense? Also, it's best to organize them alphabetically so you can quickly find the file you need. I had always organized files alphabetically, but prior to getting that tip I had spaced my file labels out in a staggered fashion. Now I always have them lined up on the left and it is MUCH faster to quickly find the file you need. Your eyes don't need to scan back and forth which makes it more efficient.

So now I can check off another organizational project from my LONG list! It's all about making BabySteps and staying the course. I'll write more later about my progress with Flylady. I am LOVING it!

My booty

Ha! I bet that title caught your attention. Before I decided to use that title for this post I checked Wikipedia to be sure I wasn't totally out of line with my intended meaning for the word "booty." I was reassured to find that one definition of "booty" is, in fact, "treasure". More specifically, it refers to nautical treasure. So I am using it a teeny bit out of context. Another meaning (and most likely the one that first popped into YOUR head) is......."the American slang for buttocks." Rest assured that there will be none of THOSE types of booty photos in this post. I just wanted to check back in and let you know I'm still here. I also wanted to show off the booty that I found at the local thrift store today.

At times I am really happy that I live in a small rural town. One thing that makes me feel that way is my local thrift shop. I was talking to the owner's mother about a month ago (this is a woman in her 80s who has known me since I was a little girl) and told her I was looking for buttons. It turns out that she owned and ran a fabric store in the same location back in the day and has a ton of leftover buttons. She offered to bring them down to the shop for me to look through. I usually go there on Fridays while my oldest son is taking his piano lesson, but for various reasons I hadn't gotten over there for several weeks. Yesterday my friend, Amber, went there and told me they had a bag of buttons they were saving for me. That is small town service at its finest. So today I headed over there to check out the merchandise and pick up the buttons. The next two photos show the huge Ziploc bag full of buttons and a close-up. They wouldn't take any money for the buttons so they were FREE!! I am planning to use some to make some button rings. I'll post those when I get them done. Otherwise, I just like having them on hand for various projects. I am probably going to sort them by colors because the idea of that just really appeals to me. Plus it's super-fun to mess around with buttons.





I also picked up an ice-cube tray with little tiny compartments. This will soon find a spot on the Practical Life shelves of my Montessori preschool classroom. My friend, Amber, bought one of these yesterday and I was excited to find an identical one for only $0.50. I also picked up the little bunny basket (also for my classroom) and the rabbit cookie cutters (again, for my classroom). Total score!!



Since I go to that shop a LOT, I've had my eye on this pair of matching..........I'm not sure, they look like the teacups you find in a Chinese restaurant. So I bought them today. They will be used in my classroom for a pouring or spooning activity. They are just the right size for little hands and are nice and sturdy.



I also bought a skein of brown yarn for only $1. I am planning to use it to make yarn nests with the boys to decorate for Easter/spring. However, I don't have any white glue in the house, so I'll have to get some before we can do that project. I'm excited to do a project with my boys.........we haven't done anything in a LONG time. I really hate how hectic life gets sometimes, but whaddaya gonna do? Anyway, it's good to be back posting here..........hopefully I'll have more to show soon.

Girls Only Weekend

This weekend I met my friend, Beth, for a girls only weekend to celebrate my recent 40th birthday. Beth and I joke that we are soul sisters. We are both elementary education teachers, both love sewing, rubber stamping cards, scrapbooking, reading good books, and the list goes on. We met in grad school at the University of Iowa. She is one of my very best friends and I don't get to see her enough. So it was GREAT to get together. We met at an Archiver's store to pick up supplies since we planned to scrapbook into the wee hours.





After shopping a bit, we ate lunch at P.F. Chang's. Neither of us had eaten there before but we both had heard great things about it. We were not disappointed. We tried the famous lettuce wraps since I'd heard about them from another friend. They are AMAZING!! I can't wait to get back there and try them again. Below is a photo of one of my lettuce wraps before I wrapped it. SOOOOooooooo good!





After lunch we checked into Embassy Suites and set things up for a late night of scrapbooking. I got a lot done and was very happy about that. I hadn't scrapbooked for almost a year and it was really good to get back to it. We worked for a while then partook of the complimentary happy hour that Embassy Suites provides. Then we scrapbooked some more before taking the hotel shuttle downtown for dinner. We ate at a really great Italian restaurant and dined on wine, Mojitos (Beth had the Mojito and I had the wine), pizza with fresh basil and mozzarella, and a really amazing chocolate cake with raspberry sauce for dessert. Then we headed back to the hotel for more scrapbooking. The next day we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast before heading out for a little shopping before we parted ways.


Beth gave me the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett for a birthday gift. I have already started it and love it. I love it when people give me books as gifts because I love to read but rarely buy fiction books for myself. And I love to go to the library but our local small town library doesn't always have the best selection and I don't get there very often to look for myself.






So there's my weekend in a nutshell. Thanks, Beth, for helping me celebrate the big 4-0 in a really fun and great way. Oh.........I also bought a new tote bag to haul my stuff back and forth to school. I'll take a photo of it and add it later.

Oops............I did it again!

I bought another new pair of shoes. I couldn't/didn't resist. On Tuesday evening, my good friend, Amber, and I made a spontaneous trip to a new Target store that has opened in our area. I had to buy some birthday gifts, so it was a good excuse to go shopping. We browsed the shoe area and I fell in love with these green sandals. Green is my absolute favorite color. At first I wasn't going to buy them because Amber wasn't buying a pair she liked. Actually, I think she was thinking of buying the same ones. Then she told me that the reason she wasn't buying them is because she was buying a $70 mop. That clinched it for me. Since I wasn't buying an expensive mop, I decided another pair of shoes in my favorite color was a justifiable purchase to add to my spring wardrobe. Now that I have my new shoes, I have been scouting out dress patterns. I am itching to sew a few new dresses for spring/summer. I'll be sure to post the details here once I decide on something.

The post-birthday splurge

Well, yesterday I was a little down in the dumps about turning 40. Today I feel much better. First of all, when I got to work this morning, my assistant, Tenita, surprised me with a champagne cake from a swanky bakery. I don't think I've ever gotten a cake from a bakery in the white box and all before. I haven't tried it yet.........the boys and DH and I will have some later tonight. But it was such a special treat to start the day with. Below is a photo of it before we dig into it.



Although I've said before that I don't like shopping, I do manage to pull together some enthusiasm for it if I have a gift card. Saturday night we all went to Applebee's for my birthday, then we went to Kohl's afterwards. I had a gift certificate from Christmas to spend. I was looking for a winter coat on sale but I didn't like any of them, even though there were great bargains. Instead I bought a new spring coat..........bright red. I LOVE bright colors. It is pictured below.



I also tried on some super-cute shoes. The display shoe was the only one in my size; however, I could NOT find the match to it. The salesperson looked and looked and he couldn't find it either. So..........I didn't get the shoes. I was really bummed.

HOWEVER..............today after I taught preschool in the AM, I went up to the "big city" to meet DH for lunch. His university is on spring break this week. We met at Panera and had lunch. I also had a leftover gift card from Christmas to use........so it was a free lunch. Gotta love that. Afterwards we went to Borders bookstore, then to Kohl's. I had some birthday money from my parents and decided to buy some jewelry I had seen on sale Saturday night. We went to a different Kohl's store than the one we went to on Saturday, however. When we walked in the DH reminded me that I should check to see if they had the SUPERCUTE shoes in my size in that store. And........they did! YAY!! I couldn't believe he remembered it and I didn't. He's awesome! The shoes are pictured below. Aren't they so cute? And they'll go with so many things. Love the denim!



I had also admired (drooled over) another pair of shoes on Saturday night but couldn't bring myself to buy them even though they were on sale. I looked at and tried them on again today and the DH told me to go for it, so I did!! They are pictured below. They had these shoes in brown and black also, but I couldn't pass up the hot pink. Maybe there's hope for me to develop a sense of style in my 40s after all.



I also bought some new pairs of pants (to bring into the rotation of 3 or 4 pairs that I've worn all fall and winter) and some cute jackets that were on sale. After all, they are always pushing jackets on TLC's What Not to Wear. I got one jacket for $8.40. It is really cute. The others were on sale, but not that cheap.

AND............I bought three necklaces that were on sale. I paid less than $6 for each of them and two were less than $5. I took photos of them which are shown below.

So tonight I'm dragging everything out of my closet and going through things. There's not that much to go through because I have kind of a pathetic little wardrobe. I'm going to get rid of a few things and take an inventory to see what else I can add (inexpensively) to flesh out a great spring and summer wardrobe. I think with 2 new pairs of heels and 3 necklaces, I'm doing pretty well with my turning 40 list........remember the "wear more jewelry" and "wear more heels" goals?

DH DID slightly question the practicality of wearing heels as a preschool teacher since I spend lots of time on the floor and supervising recess on a playground (unpaved) every day. I may have to change into "recess" shoes on the days I wear heels. But I can guarantee this: my little preschool girls will be LOVING those pink shoes if I ever wear them to school. They are quite savvy about noticing my fashion, or lack thereof.

Amazingly, my turning 40 doldrums disappeared quite completely after my shopping spree. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm