Janaury's 12 on 12 . . .

And without further ado here are my 12 photos that I took yesterday . . . .

The pictures include (L to R, top to bottom rows):

1. the time I got up on Saturday morning . . . Hey, I'm an early riser!
2. my scrapping clutter as I "created" Saturday morning
3. our new treadmill
4. Mark in the middle of his weekly Saturday afternoon nap . . . he looked at this picture and asked when the funeral was . . . funny guy!
5. the entrance to our condo complex
6. our patio . . . note the lack of snow . . . it all melted within a week of our last big snow fall
7. my car parked right next to the cart corral at Ray's . . . What, I might add, is what I consider one of the best parking spots in the lot . . . especially on a cold or rainy day!
8. my odometer . . . . 95,704 miles driven since my purchase in April 2002
9. the counter top in the guest bath . . . the picture and the arrangement are new
10. the price of gas at the corner BP. . . $2.99/gallon
11. the wine aisle at Ray's . . . love the look of this department. The store has been remodeled recently and I am amazed at the huge wine section they put in . . . and I don't even drink wine . . . go figure!
12. one of the three arrangements Jude made me for the condo when she was here for Christmas . . . I love its simplicity!

So there you have it . . . my first "12 on 12". Next month the 12th is on a Tuesday, so I should be able to take a number of pictures of "professional" side of my life.

Happy to see the Green Bay Packers win yesterday! Could you believe that snow? That first quarter drove me crazy . . . couldn't believe the Packers were down by 14 points within the first 3 minutes. Great comeback Brett Favre and company! Went to bed before the end of the Jacksonville - New England game . . . I wanted to see Jacksonville pull off the upset, but no such luck.

Another busy week ahead. One of my two new students arrives on Monday, another IEP meeting on Thursday, and then off to Archiver's at Easton in Columbus on Friday to scrap the weekend away! Picking Lori up at 8:15 Friday morning so we can stop by Cord Camera before settling in at Archiver's for the long haul. We are going to be staying at the Residence Inn right behind the store . . . should be a great weekend!

I have really gotten into reality TV over the last couple of years . . . The Amazing Race is one of my favorites and I absolutely LOVE Dancing with the Stars! Also hooked on The Biggest Loser, Survivor . . . can't believe that the 16th one is about to start . . . , and am currently enjoying the dynamics of Celebrity Apprentice . . . talk about having egos . . . my God, Gene Simmons takes the cake! American Idol starts this week so that means I have yet another show to record. Really don't like the first couple of weeks of the show, but I will record them anyway just in case there is something of importance to watch. Like it better when they finally get down to the final 12 . . . it is amazing how the cream always rises to the top on that show.

Well folks, that's enough rambling for today . . . need to finish up a layout and still have to wrap some gifts for this afternoon. Have a great day one and all!

A Sunny Saturday . . .

and all is well in Limaland. Up early this morning and actually got a layout complete this morning. It is a scraplift of a layout by Miranda at Lifetime Moments called Text Me. Took this picture January 2 when we had our first snow of the new year. Hard to believe but the snow didn't even last a week. By the next Monday it was upwards of 60 degrees here in Lima and every last inch of our snow melted.

Since today is January 12, I have decided to take part in a monthly challenge of sorts called "12 on the 12th". The idea is to take 12 pictures on the 12th of every month. I've already taken 8 photos, so I have 4 more to go. Decided that there are 4 pictures that I want to take every 12th; price of gas at BP, my car odometer, time I got up, and the entrance to our condo complex. It will be kind of neat to see how things change throughout the year. I'll try to get my "12 on the 12th" pictures posted in the morning before we head on down to Columbus.

Guess that is about it for today. Still need to get the boy's gifts wrapped and hope to scrap some more this evening while watching football. Started my preplanning for next weekend . . . need to kick it up a notch. Beautiful blue sky and bright sun today . . . loving it! Have a great one everyone!

Oh, My Greasy Lover Bacon . . .

My favorite meal of the day is definitely breakfast and one of my favorite places to eat is a restaurant that has a breakfast buffet, especially one where they make your omelet right to order. But what I really like best about such a buffet is the amount of bacon you can put on your plate! I really enjoy good bacon and even though I know it is not the best thing for you to eat, I can't help but load up on it whenever it is available . . . . hum, maybe that is part of the reason I need to diet. So with my confusion of my love for bacon, please enjoy the following video I found on YouTube . . .



Things are going real well with my new aide, Joyce. It is amazing how much we think alike when it comes to the behavior of our students. I am definitely glad to be working with someone who believes that all behaviors have consequences . . . no matter if they are positive or negative consequences. Now if we could just get our students to realize this, our job would be much easier. We have a new student arriving on Monday. It will be interesting to see how he fits into the classroom mix.

My big project this weekend is preplanning for my scrapping getaway down in Columbus next weekend. Think I will preplan pages for my Summer 2007 album I am working on. Really enjoy working on the 8" x 8" pages. Also heading down to Columbus on this Sunday afternoon to celebrate a belated Christmas with Logan, Skyler, and Grayson. They were Texas over Christmas visiting their mom, so they did not spend Christmas Day with us. Should be a fun time . . .

Well I am off to preplan. Hope you enjoyed the video. Have a great Friday evening everyone!

So What Would Your Names Be?

Found this on-line this morning and it cracked me up!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & first car) Dum-Dum Volkswagon
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Mint Chocolate Chip Oreo
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) Ccar
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Dog
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) CarCa
6. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Yellow Pepsi
7. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Elmer Leon
8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Johanson Juneau
9. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower) Summer Tulip
10. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Peach Sweaterie
11. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Oatmeal Maple
12. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Scrapbooking Clear Skies Tour
13. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Ann Royal Oak
14. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Mae Noel

So what would your names be?

Oh by the way . . . Everyone at work liked the new haircut. I'm still not too sure . . .

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Hump Day . . .

Middle of the week . . . it is downhill from here! And to top it all off . . . today is an early release day which means students leave at 12:55 PM! Staff still has to stay until 2:55 PM, but the time to get work completed, uninterrupted, is heavenly. Also on the agenda this afternoon . . . I am trying out a new salon/stylist to get my hair cut. Even though Steve has been cutting my hair for over ten years now, I am in the mood for a change. Hope I am satisfied . . . .

My new aide, Joyce, starts this morning too. Got the room are all arranged so she can have her own area. She has been working for the county for just about a year now and has had an assignment at our off site severe behavior unit. Hope she likes coming over to Elida . . . I think she will be pleasantly surprised with how quiet it is in my room. Knock on wood . . . I honestly don't deal with a whole lot of negative behaviors in my room, mainly just students being stubborn. Seems as if once they realize who is running the show, we have very few, if any, physical and verbal altercations.

Thought I would post another layout I did over the weekend. I think this picture of my dad was taken sometime in the mid to late 50s. Since his birthday was December 24th, we always had a big family get-together on Christmas Eve. Loved those family times together! And it never seemed to fail, but my dad would always fall asleep before the last guest had left for home. Take note of the beer cans stacked in the bottom left of the photo . . . sure hope those were placed there for the picture and not what Bob had consumed for the evening! But then again, even though I hate to admit it, he probably could have drank them all on his own anyway.

Hey everyone, have a great Hump Day!

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Best Memories from 2007 . . .

Since I am back in the blog business, thought I would start right back in with Ten On Tuesday again. This week it is "Best Memories from 2007" . . . actually it was best moments but I like memories better, so here goes . . . .

1. This is an easy one . . . watching Aiden being born and seeing how much he has become part of our family in nine short months
2. Having Kate tell me that she passed the last part of her Praxis exams . . . so now she could become fully certified to teach in Ohio
3. Eating dinner at the Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits restaurant in Newport Beach, CA . . . possibly the best meal I have ever eaten in a restaurant in my life
4. All the traffic jams we managed to sit in while vacationing throughout the summer . . . not really fun times, but memorable nonetheless
5. Staying at the Beachcomber Motel in San Clemente, CA
6. Returning to Maine with Cathe and revisiting the Kingsleigh Inn in Southwest Harbor and Acadia National Park
7. Having my brother Dick visit for Thanksgiving . . . Now that he is living in Indianapolis hopefully this will happen more often
8. Spending Christmas right here in Lima with my sister Judy and her son Josh flying in from San Diego
9. Having the rental agency cancel our Outer Banks rental because the house was not finished yet, 10 days before we were supposed to leave on vacation
10. The last day of the school year when all the teachers stand outside and wave good-bye as the buses pull out of the parking lot . . . Let the summer begin!

So there you have it, in no particular order I might add, my most memorable memories from 2007. So what are yours?

Woke up to 59 degrees again this morning! Can't believe it. Yesterday we broke the record high temperature for January 7 here in Lima . . . wouldn't be surprised if we did it again today. The rain and thunderstorms are supposed to move in later today and then they are calling for snow again this weekend. Oh, the joys of living in Lima!

Time to begin thinking of my Tuesday school day activities. Both of my students were back to school yesterday and for a Monday, it was a pretty smooth day. Oh by the way, Ohio State lost the national championship game to LSU last night . . . should make for an interesting day of moaning and groaning at work today.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Monday Morning and All Is Well . . .

Or as well as it can be for a Monday morning. Yester-day I scrapped the day away while watching football on TV, which I haven't done in a long time. Really enjoyed myself and got two layouts finished for my "Book of Me" album. Did the above layout about my favorite movies. I was inspired by a layout that my friend Lori did about both her and her husband's favorite movies. Real happy with how it turned out. Love the color combination of the pink and brown and how I was able in incorporate some way too old KI paper (October 2005) from the Beautiful collection. Also made the title using my newest font for my Revolution cutting system, Beauty Queen. Love it! Oh by the way, glad to see San Diego win their wild card game. Also, bummed to have Pittsburg lose on Saturday night. Looks like "Big Ben" almost ecked out a win, but no such luck this year.

Busy week ahead of me. IEPs to write, new aide arriving, and meetings to attend. Thank goodness Wednesday is an early release day . . . students go home two hours early but the staff has to stay. I never seem to get as much as I would like done on these days but it is great to have the time to myself.

My computer/Internet Explorer has been acting for the last couple of months so Mark spent a good four or five hours uninstalling and reinstalling everything this weekend. Now it seems to be working like a charm. It is definitely a plus to be married to a guy who earns his living 'fixing' programs on computers . . .

Woke up this morning and the temperature outside is 59 degrees . . . craziness for the 7th of January! All the snow we got last Wednesday is gone, including the snow piles around the driveway. Guess that is it for today . . . Ohio State plays for the national championship tonight. Hope they win so I don't have to listen to a rehash of the whole game tomorrow at work. But then if they lose, at least I can say that Michigan won their bowl game!

Have a good one everyone!

Sad but True . . .

Yesterday my sister Cathe sent me the following joke . . .

"Last night my sister and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, 'I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.'

So she got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my Pepsi."

I guess, if the shoe fits, I must wear it. This is so me!

Scrapping the day away for the first time in a long time. Gotta get back to creating. Hope you are having a great Sunday!

I Could Eat Him Up . . .

said the loving Nana! Thought I would post this layout I did at my weekend crop I went to in November up in Novi, MI. It is a layout for my Autumn Leaves/Basic Grey 2006 album that I have working away on for the last 2 years. I had hoped to have the album done by the end of 2007, but sadly to say, that is not to be. Anyway back to talking about the actual layout, which by the way was inspired by a layout made by Leslie Lightfoot, whose style I absolutely love . . . Boy, that girl can work with embellishments! . . . is a picture of Aiden that Leslie took back in September. Isn't he the cutest little boy you have ever seen? I even used this photo to make stamps from photostamps.com up for Mark's mom, June, for Christmas. (Shh, don't tell, but my mom will also be getting a sheet for her birthday in March too.) Love, love spending time with him and actually watching him grow, right before our very eyes!

My sister, Cathe, has really taken off with my, via Ali Edwards, idea of having a single word to focus on during 2008. She is getting a number of her friends to also embrace the idea and it has been interesting seeing what everyone is coming up with. After hearing about all the different words that people are choosing, I thought about possibly changing mine, but I have decided to stick with calm. Actually, it is working quite well for me. Yesterday, I was in the middle of a phone conversation with a parent, and the parent simply did not want to listen to what I had to say. So after mentally telling myself to remain calm, I was able to refocus our discussion . . . Didn't help with our discussion, but it sure as heck helped me out. Check out some of the words in the sidebar, that some people I know have chosen as their word. So come on, think of a word . . . It is amazing what a difference one word can make! Let me know what word you come up with and I will add it to the list.

Well folks, time to get it in gear. Have to head off to the grocery store . . . the cupboard is bare . . . and get some things accomplished around here. Also hope to get a ton of scrapping done for Lifetime Moments WinterFest Challenges . . . gotta earn those discounts, you know! Overcast, rainy, and a high of 39 degrees expected today. A perfect day to scrap! Have a great day everyone!

A Historic First . . .

of sorts. First, let me set up this historic event for you. Yesterday, after a 2-hour delay, I actually made it into my classroom 20 minutes earlier than normal . . . not a "first" but I have certainly gotten a tad lazy lately and have been squeaking into my classroom right under the wire. One other little fact needs to be mentioned here, and just to let you all in on my dirty little secret, so far this year I have gone from having 3 students on my roster, to having 4 students, back to 3, and finally, about 6 weeks ago, down to 2. So low and behold yesterday, by 9:45 AM I had received a phone call that one of my students would be spending a short vacation at our local juvenile detention center . . . definitely not a "first" since I teach kids with behavior problems and this happens at least once a year to one or more of my students. Then by 9:50, when my other student should have arrived, he was a no show. Folks, that meant I had zip, zero, nada students to educate yesterday! So that's my first for you, not earth shattering or anything major like finding a cure for cancer, but a historic first for me nonetheless.

Now don't think I sat around playing with my thumbs all day, I actually got a whole lot accomplished. Over the next couple of weeks I will be getting 2 more students and because of some of the disciplines these 2 students will be bringing with them, I am once again going to have an aide. So most of yesterday was spent rearranging my room, moving bookcases, and generally getting ready for 3 additional bodies. Over break I was wondering when I was going to have time to get this work done and lo and behold, there it was!

Well, I had best get moving. Friday is always Jean Day at work, so it's already shaping up to be a great day! Have a good one everyone!