Once again it's that time of year when we put our shoes out and hope that St. Nikolaus comes to fill them.
As you can see, we must have all be good this year because our shoes aren't empty. Alas I admit, my shoes would have been empty had I not filled them with a few items myself.
This year I went to both of the children's schools and talked to each class about our traditions and about putting out our shoes before giving each child a small treat bag to take home. I think both Alyssa and Tristan enjoyed being in the spotlight among their classmates and enjoyed sharing something with their friends. I, of course, enjoyed being back in the classroom, especially in this capacity, rather than having the full responsibility of teaching.
As I was walking through the halls of the school it struck me again how all schools have the same, very distinct smell. It's like that smell takes me back on a flashback of all my school experiences, both as a student and a teacher. I know I always loved that "school smell" and sometimes wonder if it wasn't what lured me into becoming a teacher in the first place. I doubt I'll ever go back to teaching but hope that I can continue to volunteer regularly and get my school fix that way.
Did you remember to put YOUR shoes out tonight? If so, I hope they were filled with something wonderful from someone you love!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Life lessons 101
Sometimes the person you have a crush on doesn't feel the same...
Translation: I love you Clay. Love Alyssa
It seems her love goes unrequited however...
Translation: I love you Clay. Love Alyssa
It seems her love goes unrequited however...
Monday, November 3, 2008
Menu Plan Monday
Monday - Rotisserie Chicken, Mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables
Tuesday - Tilapia Fillets/Fish Sticks, french fries, coleslaw
Wednesday - Homemade Chicken pot pie
Thursday - Chicken and wild rice soup, beer bread
Friday - Left-overs
Saturday - Dinner out?
Sunday - Pork Loin French Dip Sandwiches
Friday, June 6, 2008
Organization
Slowly but surely I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on my organization in the house again.
When I was alone with Alyssa when she was an infant and Michael was working in Alabama my house was spotless and fairly organized. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. I certainly could have had people over to my house at any time and felt ok about it. My laundry was done and put away in a timely fashion. We had a pretty strict schedule (thanks to Alyssa's sleep schedule requiring her to be in her OWN bed in order to actually nap). My bathrooms were clean. Alyssa's few baby toys fit in a single basket I stored on a shelf of my coffee table in the family room.
Then Michael came home.
How is it that one more person can create so much more mess?
And if one more person was enough, I got pregnant and added another person to this household.
It would be very fair to say that since Tristan's arrival I never managed to catch back up with the cleaning and organization. Heck, the laundry alone for 4 people overwhelms me daily. I NEVER seem to be done with it. Let alone sorting through clothes that are too small to give away, or too big and need to be stored for the future. Yes, clothes are an issue. We simply have too many. I need to address this issue soon. One part of that is going to be turning Alyssa's closet back into a closet and using a closet system to help keep it organized.
The other huge organization project I have constantly hanging over my head is photographs. I have prints and digital photographs coming out my ears. I actually have about 40% of my prints organized by month and year, but when you have boxes and boxes and boxes of prints (and negatives) that last 60% comprises a lot of photos. My digital prints are actually well organized by Year, Month and Week, which is great in some ways, but is a pain in the neck when trying to find a specific photo and not knowing when exactly it was when it was taken.
So my next big project is going to be to backup and re-organize the photos. This time I'm going to go back and actually organize by topic and year. I recently ordered (and partially read) the book Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian which really opened my eyes to a new way to look at organizing, storing and scrapbooking photos.
What I really need to do is go back and really read the book so I can apply her concepts to my own organization. I think this will help me a lot with moving on and actually getting things in albums, though I seem to be moving further away from artistic scrapbooking and simply getting pictures into albums where we can all enjoy them. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who can sit down and be creative when there is a mess around me. My head is a jumbled mess of ideas already, so I need my creating space to be fairly organized in order to focus on my project.
It doesn't help that the space I've started to carve out for myself to "create" might be undergoing a major renovation soon which would certainly put a crimp on my creating and organizing, but I'm determined to get it "work ready" while I can.
This is just one of the many things that are taking up my thoughts, attention and time at the moment. I have to squeeze time into my already busy schedule to work on them little by little. Speaking of which, my time here at the computer is up. I have vacuuming and laundry calling me.
When I was alone with Alyssa when she was an infant and Michael was working in Alabama my house was spotless and fairly organized. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. I certainly could have had people over to my house at any time and felt ok about it. My laundry was done and put away in a timely fashion. We had a pretty strict schedule (thanks to Alyssa's sleep schedule requiring her to be in her OWN bed in order to actually nap). My bathrooms were clean. Alyssa's few baby toys fit in a single basket I stored on a shelf of my coffee table in the family room.
Then Michael came home.
How is it that one more person can create so much more mess?
And if one more person was enough, I got pregnant and added another person to this household.
It would be very fair to say that since Tristan's arrival I never managed to catch back up with the cleaning and organization. Heck, the laundry alone for 4 people overwhelms me daily. I NEVER seem to be done with it. Let alone sorting through clothes that are too small to give away, or too big and need to be stored for the future. Yes, clothes are an issue. We simply have too many. I need to address this issue soon. One part of that is going to be turning Alyssa's closet back into a closet and using a closet system to help keep it organized.
The other huge organization project I have constantly hanging over my head is photographs. I have prints and digital photographs coming out my ears. I actually have about 40% of my prints organized by month and year, but when you have boxes and boxes and boxes of prints (and negatives) that last 60% comprises a lot of photos. My digital prints are actually well organized by Year, Month and Week, which is great in some ways, but is a pain in the neck when trying to find a specific photo and not knowing when exactly it was when it was taken.
So my next big project is going to be to backup and re-organize the photos. This time I'm going to go back and actually organize by topic and year. I recently ordered (and partially read) the book Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian which really opened my eyes to a new way to look at organizing, storing and scrapbooking photos.
What I really need to do is go back and really read the book so I can apply her concepts to my own organization. I think this will help me a lot with moving on and actually getting things in albums, though I seem to be moving further away from artistic scrapbooking and simply getting pictures into albums where we can all enjoy them. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who can sit down and be creative when there is a mess around me. My head is a jumbled mess of ideas already, so I need my creating space to be fairly organized in order to focus on my project.
It doesn't help that the space I've started to carve out for myself to "create" might be undergoing a major renovation soon which would certainly put a crimp on my creating and organizing, but I'm determined to get it "work ready" while I can.
This is just one of the many things that are taking up my thoughts, attention and time at the moment. I have to squeeze time into my already busy schedule to work on them little by little. Speaking of which, my time here at the computer is up. I have vacuuming and laundry calling me.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Dream Houses
Bah, my "Blog a Day in May" isn't going so well. The fact is that I don't spend much time in front of the computer and when I do I tend to read blogs not write them.
Last week was kind of exciting and disappointing at the same time. I discovered that a home was up for sale in my dream neighborhood. This is a neighborhood I drive through frequently just to look at the houses and dream. It's been my favorite neighborhood here since we moved in and every time a house goes up for sale (which really isn't that often) I pick up the flyer and check it out.
Well, recently one of the houses went up for sale and for once it wasn't SO prohibitively expensive. I showed it to Michael and he said I should make an appointment to go and see the house. I was pretty excited because usually Michael's not so keen on looking at houses (he always finds something to criticize and therefore won't even go look). So we made an appointment and went to look with a realtor.
For the first time, since looking at houses since we moved here, we really couldn't find anything we really didn't like about the house. In fact, we LOVED the house, loved the yard, loved the neighborhood and loved the location. We could even imagine ourselves living in this house. It isn't that much larger than our house, but it has an extra bedroom and an office. Just what we were looking for. In fact, it's not all that different from our house (which we do love) but more like our house improved upon. It has wainscotting, crown molding, nice wood doors, hardwood floors, extra storage and a 3 car garage (what Michael's always wanted).
Sadly, it's simply just out of our reach financially. We are SO close to being able to afford to make an offer, but just not quite there. As Michael said, it's like we are 2 years off of being able to do it. If we just had more of a cushion in the bank, we could swing it and not feel completely strapped. It's hard for me to let it go. I honestly couldn't think of a better house or location (it's SOOOO private -- backs up to our favorite park!!) for us. I think when I see a "sold" sign on that house I'm going to cry a little.
Last week was kind of exciting and disappointing at the same time. I discovered that a home was up for sale in my dream neighborhood. This is a neighborhood I drive through frequently just to look at the houses and dream. It's been my favorite neighborhood here since we moved in and every time a house goes up for sale (which really isn't that often) I pick up the flyer and check it out.
Well, recently one of the houses went up for sale and for once it wasn't SO prohibitively expensive. I showed it to Michael and he said I should make an appointment to go and see the house. I was pretty excited because usually Michael's not so keen on looking at houses (he always finds something to criticize and therefore won't even go look). So we made an appointment and went to look with a realtor.
For the first time, since looking at houses since we moved here, we really couldn't find anything we really didn't like about the house. In fact, we LOVED the house, loved the yard, loved the neighborhood and loved the location. We could even imagine ourselves living in this house. It isn't that much larger than our house, but it has an extra bedroom and an office. Just what we were looking for. In fact, it's not all that different from our house (which we do love) but more like our house improved upon. It has wainscotting, crown molding, nice wood doors, hardwood floors, extra storage and a 3 car garage (what Michael's always wanted).
Sadly, it's simply just out of our reach financially. We are SO close to being able to afford to make an offer, but just not quite there. As Michael said, it's like we are 2 years off of being able to do it. If we just had more of a cushion in the bank, we could swing it and not feel completely strapped. It's hard for me to let it go. I honestly couldn't think of a better house or location (it's SOOOO private -- backs up to our favorite park!!) for us. I think when I see a "sold" sign on that house I'm going to cry a little.
Monday, May 5, 2008
May 5 - Sick Boy
We have a sick little boy on our hands. Since Saturday night he's been running a temperature in the 100's and it has spiked a few times to 103.5+ and didn't seem to be going down even with Tylenol and Motrin, so off to the doctor we went.
Poor darling has strep throat. I admit to being ignorant about strep throat. I've never had it, that I know of, and Alyssa hasn't ever had it either. Poor little guy did say his throat hurt and we could tell it hurt him to talk and eat. He hasn't eaten hardly anything since Saturday except a popsicle and some jello and drinking some juice. At least now we have some antibiotics and I hope he gets better soon and his fever finally goes down.
So now he can't go to school for the next 3 days. Of course, now I'm feeling like MY throat is starting to hurt. I'm hoping it's just psychosomatic and not the beginnings of strep.
The doctor also told me to throw away his tooth brush in 3 days so he doesn't reinfect himself! I would never have thought about that.
Poor darling has strep throat. I admit to being ignorant about strep throat. I've never had it, that I know of, and Alyssa hasn't ever had it either. Poor little guy did say his throat hurt and we could tell it hurt him to talk and eat. He hasn't eaten hardly anything since Saturday except a popsicle and some jello and drinking some juice. At least now we have some antibiotics and I hope he gets better soon and his fever finally goes down.
So now he can't go to school for the next 3 days. Of course, now I'm feeling like MY throat is starting to hurt. I'm hoping it's just psychosomatic and not the beginnings of strep.
The doctor also told me to throw away his tooth brush in 3 days so he doesn't reinfect himself! I would never have thought about that.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
May 4 - Opera High
I’m still riding on an unbelieveable high from the most amazing opera performance I’ve ever seen in my life! Seriously, it was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a performance when ALL of the singers were of that high calliber. The feeling was electric in the opera house. Of course, it was even more exciting since our friend was singing in it and everyone back stage was on such a high. The opera critic review was equally positive today. Too cool!
I know not man people who probably read my blog are opera fans, but I grew up with it and even sang in the children’s chorus for the opera a few times. Anyway, it was the Seattle Opera Production of I Puritani. Here is a link for the video preview. The male singer in the picture at the top of the page is our friend, John Relyea (Barritone-Bass). Video Preview for I Puritani
You can read the review here.
The only think the review didn’t really cover that I also found amazing were the costumes. Absolutely gorgeous. I even got to see them close up backstage and they were stunning. The lace on them was so beautiful and the fabric!!!!!
I’m trying to talk my husband into going next week because I doubt we’ll have a cast like that again here in Seattle for a while.
Definitely a memorable night. The only small mark on it was that our friend's wife wasn't there to hear him sing and watch him perform.
I know not man people who probably read my blog are opera fans, but I grew up with it and even sang in the children’s chorus for the opera a few times. Anyway, it was the Seattle Opera Production of I Puritani. Here is a link for the video preview. The male singer in the picture at the top of the page is our friend, John Relyea (Barritone-Bass). Video Preview for I Puritani
You can read the review here.
The only think the review didn’t really cover that I also found amazing were the costumes. Absolutely gorgeous. I even got to see them close up backstage and they were stunning. The lace on them was so beautiful and the fabric!!!!!
I’m trying to talk my husband into going next week because I doubt we’ll have a cast like that again here in Seattle for a while.
Definitely a memorable night. The only small mark on it was that our friend's wife wasn't there to hear him sing and watch him perform.
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