I can tell we're back to work!

I can tell we are back to work because it has been a whole week since I posted. There just isn't as much time to keep up with things! We had a good week at school - in many ways it seems like we never left. MJ has a pretty decent class this year which is a major blessing compared to the class from hell that she had last year! I am in the midst of fall testing for the entire school, so I don't get outside of my room very often. That takes the whole month of September and then I get to start my "real" teaching.

We had a great weekend this weekend. Yesterday we spent a large part of the day with my parents celebrating my birthday (it's Monday the 14th). They bought me some new shoes for work, a Li.fe is Go.od shirt and drink glasses, and took us out to lunch. It was great to spend time with them! We also stopped at a jewelry store while we were out and MJ got me a new charm for my Pan.dora bracelet.

Today we did a major organizing of the scrapbooking room - we went through all of our stuff and we have three bags of paper and stickers that we are bringing to work tomorrow to give away. It is stuff that we will never use - some of it we looked at and wondered why in the world we even bought it! We also got all packed up for the 12 hour crop we are going to next Saturday.

So, a nice mellow weekend being productive and celebrating my birthday - can't ask for anything better!

Fabulous Weekend!

We had such a great long weekend! Three day weekends just can't be beat! We went to our scrapbooking and quilt clubs on Saturday and then when we got home my mom called and needed us to help them put up hay. So, we grabbed the dogs and off we went - we ended up putting about 350 bales of hay in the barn with help from the neighbors as well.

On Sunday we took a trip to Jo.Ann's Fab.rics to check out their La.bor D.ay Sale - we had a little too much fun. Let's just say that our receipt was 90 inches long! Here is the pic to prove how long it was:




Sunday night and Monday we had lots of fun sewing. We did our quilt blocks for September so that those are all done and ready for next month. Here they are, however, we are not real excited about the pink fabric in them. I don't know what the person was thinking when they picked that!






We also got a pattern for these adorable little wallets. We made a couple of those on Sunday night too.

Here is MJ's:





And here is the one I made:





On Sunday afternoon MJ made herself a sewing maching cover and I worked on making a tree skirt for our Christ.mas Tree. I have ALWAYS wanted to make my own tree skirt, and finally found a pattern that I liked, so we picked out the fabric for it!

Here is the fabric we picked (you'll have to wait until I finish it to see the whole thing!

Summer Quilt Blocks

In addition to our Scrapbook monthly club, we also do our Quilt Block club on the first Saturday. So, today we'll share our quilt blocks from the summer time. We got both of them done last week so that we are all caught up and ready for the September block. We have been really enjoying doing this!

Here are our July Quilt Blocks:





And, here are our August Blocks:

First Saturday Page Kits

We were on a scrapbooking frenzy last weekend and got five months of 2008 finished - YAHOO! So, we really aren't as far behind as we thought we were! Only about a year!

This Saturday is the first Saturday of the month which means Scrapbook Page Kit Club. We have missed the past couple of months because we were on vacation and we are very excited to get back. We went and picked up the kits we missed so that we could get August's kit done before we go on Saturday. We actually really liked the kit this month. Here are our layouts from the August Kits.

MJ did a nice layout of rafting in Colorado from last summer.







I scrapped some Disney pics from last summer:


Can't wait to see what our next kit will be!

1 down.....179 to go

Well, we survived our first day of school! Here we are all dressed and ready to go this morning. My mom thinks it is the funniest thing that we take our First Day of School pictures still. I think it is just what you must do on the first day! We both had a great day and are still trying to get back into the routine of things!

Here we are - with our lunchboxes of course! Isn't that what you are supposed to have in your first day pic?!?!





We made these cupcakes for our staff as a treat - 8 dozen of them. Then we made 2 dozen more for MJ to give to her class. We are making 2 dozen more tomorrow for me to share with the staff at my other school on Friday ( I work at 2 different schools).



Here's a closeup of the cupcakes - they really are cute!

She was INCREDIBLE!!!

Well, we made it through the first two days back to work and the kids come tomorrow. We are ready! Two days of boring workshops is just the worst!!!

Anyways, of course, the highlight of our past two days was the Melis.sa Eth.eridge concert last night. As the title implies, she was incredible. The show was absolutely fantastic and our seats were equally as fantastic. A box with bathroom literally outside of it and the bar another three steps down- but we also had a waitress so we didn't even have to get up if we didn't want to. We definitely scored on that deal!

Here are our tickets:

We got 2 wrist bands - on that said we were old enough to drink :) and one for the sky box.

Melissa played for 2 hours non stop - just she and her guitar - AWESOME. She also did 2 songs at the piano. I like going to shows at this place because it is more of an intimate setting - only seats 1800.

Here are some pics for you:

And, for your viewing pleasure, a couple of "illegal" video snippets that I took:

One last one - my favorite:

All Good Things Must Come to an End

AHHHH, Summer Vacation has once again come to an end. The 10 weeks of bliss that we had off are now a thing of the past! We've had a great summer once again. Tomorrow we go back to work - Monday and Tuesday are our invigorating (haha) staff meetings, keynote speakers, and teacher workshops. Kids come on Wednesday for the long awaited first day of school.

Yesterday we baked 8 dozen cupcakes to bring in for the staff tomorrow and we'll decorate them later today. We are also going out to lunch with Mom and Dad and our friend Becky today to celebrate Becky's birthday. Of course there is laundry to do and lunches to pack as well. Gotta get back into that routine, you know!

Tomorrow night we get to go see Mel.issa Ether.idge which will be really fun. I'm looking forward to our free skyb0x seats as well! We'll be tired Tuesday morning, but it will be well worth it!

That's all from around here - nothing too exciting...

The Simple Things

Just a few of the simple things we enjoyed today.....

**Went to lunch with teacher friends and enjoyed good food, good conversation, and ice cream!

**On the way home we stopped at a Lemonade Stand and bought some lemonade from a little girl sitting on her front lawn - hand drawn signs and all. We even got to choose "what color" lemonade we wanted - best 4 quarters we gave up all day!

**Had BLT's, corn on the cob, and sliced cucumbers for dinner. I think that is the perfect summertime meal! The best part is that the veggies were all fresh picked from my dad's garden, corn from a local farmstand, and the bacon is from my dad's pigs!

Sometimes it's important to relish the simple things in life.......

Total Bust

So, this cycle has turned out to be a total bust! My estrogen level actually dropped yesterday to a whopping 75 - this after 19 days of stims. So, we made the decision to just cancel this cycle. We think that my body is just too out of whack as we did the D & C in May and then almost immediately went on birth control for 3 months. We just suppressed my system too much. The good news is that I don't have to sit a cycle out, so as soon as af arrives (probably in 10 days or so), we'll be aready to go again!

My stress was alleviated when I called Joanne at Mid.west Sp.erm Ban.k ready to beg and plead for her to let us send back the vial. She was super nice about it and said absolutely we could send it back. She told me that "I always tell my girls that they should send the sperm back instead of wasting it on a bad cycle. Wait to use it until it's going to work!" She made my day! So, I just talked to the doctor's office and they are going to get F.ed E.x to pick it up today!
All we have to do is call Joanne when we are ready next cycle and she'll ship the vial back to us.

So, that's the news from here - a little disappointed that we had to cancel, but not as disappointed as we would be if it were a BFN.

Painting Fun...

After we went to the farm on Saturday, we came home to do some painting. Olivia had picked out 4 twenty five cent wood shapes to paint when we got home. We also have bags of letters that my grandfather cut out when he used to make wood crafts. Olivia painted her shapes while we painted the letters in her name.

Then, we glued everything onto a board that I spray painted for her. Here is the final product!

And one last picture of her right before we took her back to meet her moms.

We had a good weekend with her and look forward to the next time she comes to visit.