Bitten by the Christmas BUG!

You know that I am on a decorating kick, right? The result of said "kick" is that I'm in the Christmas decorating frenzy. There ARE a few roadblocks hindering me, however...

1) Wade... my 21 month old, one-man-destruction-crew.
2) Not enough "flat surfaces" (Chris lovingly told me soon after we were married that I had 'doileys' on every 'flat surface!') that are out of the little man's destruction path.
3) Wade.

Buuuuut, regardless of my roadblocks, I am forging ahead while this burst of Christmas inspiration is upon me. I love decorating for Christmas, but it is so hard not to think about the soooooo short time that all these lovely things will be up. Before you can even blink, Christmas is over, and all those beautiful things mock you until you take them down!

I have some things that I've had for several years and some things I got new this year!! Whoohoo!

This is my Snowman Cookie Jar from Beau and Nicole about a million years ago... okay, maybe 8 or 9 or so. Chris still likes to refer to it as a South Park character as opposed to the adorable snowman that it is...

My poor, cute, little snowman has survived all these years, and three moves, but he finally met his match... Thankfully, it's in the back so all is not lost. I am, however, very sad about it! :( Boo hoo.

I love this mitten too! The bright colors go so well in the kitchen...

This was a new purchase this year... I love these colors... bright and fun. We'll see how many times I get to put this back on the oven. One of Wade's favorite games is whipping down my dishtowels as fast as he can and immediately flashing his wicked smile at me.

My candle with ribbon accents... This is one of the ideas from thrifty decor chick... No brainer really... Take a candle. Take some ribbon. Wrap the ribbon around the candle. Use hot glue to attach... Well, unless you don't own a hot glue gun, and all you had to use was duct tape. I'm sure that would be fine too. Especially if you live in the south. :)

Okay, now we're getting to the good stuff! Isn't this spuh-lendid??

I am literally in love with lighted garland. Why have I not been using this for the past 10 years?? I took my ribbon and bow that I had used on our tree and used it here. I also got these beautiful stockings at Walmart marked down after Christmas last year! Beautiful and cheap!
I have wanted to 1) Have some sort of outdoor Christmas decor since forever! 2) Have garland on my door! I am seriously doing the happy dance that I have a lighted snowman and matching wreath and garland on my door!! It's only taken 10 years, folks!

**Now I just need to add some lights to my wreath and garland!** Hee hee, I am addicted now, for real!

Don't you just love seeing your Christmas tree lit through the window when you pull into your driveway... Ahhh... just makes me feel warm and gooey inside, and all... Christmasy!

And, last but not least folks is the TREE! We have a small living room, so we opted for a skinny tree last year to save on space. Our other tree is ginormous in diameter... seriously. So this one fits our room much better.

It's up... pre-lit is so nice... No fighting with tangled lights!!!

Haylee getting in the pic... Is is just me, or do her wide leg jeans make her look SOOOO old??

Stage, um... 3 or so in the decorating process.

Haylee did all the balls but 2 or so. I hardly had to change much. I mainly had to move some to the top. I was very surprised at how well she did at spreading the different sizes and colors out...

Here is her "re-enactment" of putting the ornaments on. Her idea.

Take one with the silver bow, which is now on the lighted garland... and Take two with the mah-velous red bow!

Take three and four trying to capture the glowing allure of the Christmas lights... Somehow it's just so hard to do with my camera. Or maybe it's just me.

So, that's it. All my Christmas inspiration thus far. I do have a feeling I am not done yet. :0

Merry Christmas!!!

My new favorite blog...

Found this totally fabulous blog recently and I just love it! It's thriftydecorchick.com. My friend Christy recommended it, and I immediately added it to my blog reader. There are amazing ideas and creativity abounding, and she does it all for cheap... which I love! :) She has great decorating ideas and a lot of the posts recently have been about decorating for Christmas, yippee! She describes the easiest diy Christmas wreath ever, and it's SO cool!

She also has a link to all her organizational posts which are always so inspiring to read... Makes you think about how you can de-clutter and rearrange things to reclaim your house back from the piles of "stuff" that constantly threaten to take over!

She is a Goodwill super-shopper who does amazing things with spray paint! I need to learn to have her eye for what things could be with the right "enhancements."

Best of all, she is very funny (imo) and is very entertaining to read...

So check her out and get inspired like I did!

Hooray... and other news...

So proud of my sweetie! Earned Principal's list (straight A's) this quarter and received the Good Conduct award for her class!

Last year, they didn't give out letter grades. The report card was more of a "mastered", "not mastered" type thing which is fine, but that didn't really translate concretely like A, B, etc. First grade is somewhat different with real quizzes and tests and things, which so far we seem to be handling okay. Not that straight A's are the measure of all things good, but we are proud of her for her accomplishments! She actually earned Good Conduct with the same boy she earned it with 1st quarter last year! *Good Job, Trent!*

Tonight we had an interesting convo...
Haylee... "What's for supper?"
Me... "Frozen pizza."
Haylee... "Why does it have to be frozen?"
Me, trying to curtail her complaining... "Why can't it be frozen?"
Haylee, confused... "Well, then it will be... cold."

:)

This is at the Junior Jamboree at School last Friday... basically a carnival type fundraiser for the Junior class. She is showing off her painted nails and face... :)


Wade is doing well too... growing like crazy and keeping me ever and always on my toes! He has this devil-ish twinkle in his eye right before he sets out to conquer and destroy whatever is in his path. Mom and Dad are here to visit for the week and B and crew came down as well. We had fun Saturday night eating and talking and letting the kiddos play their hearts out. Wade was in his dream toyland with all of Jared and Jacob's toys.. like, cars, trucks, and balls and all things boy! At our house, it seems the majority of the toys are either girl or just neutral. Lest you feel sorry for him, he does have PLENTY of toys of his own that he manages to get strewn about the house. Sometimes I think he loves the dumping of the toys more than the playing with the toys.

But, we are so happy to have the whole week to see Grandma and Grandpa!!! We have missed them so much!
B even brought me an overflowing boxful of Eli's hand-me-downs! Lots of jeans, and cords, and polos, and jackets, a suit and a couple pair of oh-my-goodness-so-cute shoes...

I laid out his outfit for church today... l/s dress shirt, sweater vest, and cords (most of which was from Eli), and as I was about to change him, he reached down and touched it and said, "Daddy!" I think he thought his clothes were like Daddy's clothes.




In other news, our church has FINALLY called a pastor with a 98% vote! It has been 2.5 years since the former pastor resigned which ironically was the 2nd or 3rd Sunday we visited the church! I am excited to see what good things are ahead of our church and school with Pastor Boyles...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Trick or Treat!

My little trick or treaters!

I love my cuties!

It was supposed to rain so we headed to the mall with B, Ryan, Eli and Reagan.... Wade was LOVING his sucker!! Every time he got a piece of candy in his bucket, we had to give it to Haylee to carry, because he tried to stuff it in paper and all. :)

'Fall'bulous, dahling!

Fall is here, and has found it's way into my Computer Lab. I tried to do a good mix of fall type things along with Technology which was a bit of a challenge and of course something new for me this year...

I added leaves to the CD's on the door... (the cd's have all the teacher's names on them)

This one I adapted from one of the teacher's here... It says "'Fall'bulous Computer Programs." Then it lists a few programs... Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Kidpix, etc...

This one says, "Fall into Technology..." :)

I also figured out how to enlarge things in Print Shop so I had some fun blowing things up... These are the hands that show you which finger should type what letter...

This is my behavior rubric that I give to the classroom teacher when she picks up her class that lets her know about their behavior. I like having a visual reminder for the students...

I also started a new incentive by having a contest between the boys and the girls with the winner earning a skittle. I know... big thrills! It does seem to motivate the little ones especially. I even had one kindergarten boy after my "motivational" instructions to be good and to be quiet who very seriously and dramatically said to me, "I can't be quiet, because if I'm quiet, it hurts my tummy!"

Haylee and the Frog

The joys of 1st grade are fully upon us as this mommy realizes that the carefree days of Kindergarten are far, far gone. :)

Haylee's 1st project was due coincidentally one of the days she was out with the flu, but she was able to make it up upon her return... She had to pick an animal, make a 3D model of it and memorize 3 or 4 facts about it to present to her classmates.

She chose to do a frog, and I know that Grandma (with her love of frogs) will be so proud! It was very simple...


... unlike a few of her classmates' projects!!

She had a fabulous time making it and even enjoyed presenting it, I think... Here's a video of her redoing her presentation just for me...



Here's to 12 more years of projects! :)

Harvest Blog Party!

Sherri posted this link to the Harvest Blog Party and I thought I'd throw my hat in! :) You can too!!!

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging?
Hmmm... don't really have a "blogging snack" but these days Sprite zero and something low cal...

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?

Well, prolly my iphone. It's truly amazing!

3. Beach, Mountains or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?

Mountains... love the view and trees, etc. Love the beach too, but living with the sand would get old!

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?

Cleaning the tub! My sweet hubby does it for me sometimes which makes me sooooo happy!

5. Who do people say you remind them of?

Jackie O... The high cheekbones and prominent chin does it... When I traveled in college I heard it a lot... But really I think I have one of those faces. I feel like people are always telling me I look like someone they know...




6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying at home with the fam?

This is a hard one because I love to do both! Partying with a people you can be yourself with is the BEST... but staying in with my hunny and vegging on the couch can be pretty cool too...

7. What's your all time favorite movie?

I am not a fan of making all these choices! Making decisions gives me inner turmoil, ha! Okay, lemme think... My favorite in high school was Wild Hearts Can't be Broken...


Also love Princess Bride and epic kind of movies like Emma and Jane Eyre. Chris would rather stab his eye out than sit through a Romance movie where they speak with an English accent! :)

8. Do you sleep in your make up or remove it like a good girl every night?

Never ever remove it... guess I'm not a good girl!

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a
chance to learn? What is it?

Just was talking about this today since we were walking on the track after school while the cheerleaders were practicing... I never got to fulfill my "lifelong" dream to be a cheerleader, lol! We moved from Florida to NC the summer before my 7th grade year to a brand new school that thought cheerleaders were sinful because of the beat in cheers. Poor me! :)

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?

I don't know if this is "strange" enough, but I think I'm good at "crowd control" with kiddos. I like to come up with little things to get them excited about good behavior... :) Most of us will control our urges if we can win something, you know!
My hubby is amazed at my ability to be online... facebook, google reader, etc AND watch a show with him... I think it's the typical girl thing... We can multi-task much better usually!

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?

Well, I first met him when we were in high school at our church. I thought he was cute, of course, and I loved that he played the guitar and how he talked about his mom.

12. What is something you love to smell?
Brownies!! Mmmmm.... would love me some brownies with walnuts right now!!!!

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.

Yikes.... probably a lot of things. I tend to be too analytical... translation... critical of things sometimes. I think it also annoys Chris that I am often reluctant to try new things... I must get that from my mom! :)

14. When you have extra money (HA!) what's the first thing you think to do with it?

It probably changes based on what's going on at the moment... and I guess how much money we're talking about! A little extra maybe shopping and dinner out!

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?

Usually silent but occasionally loud... I laugh at my kids a lot, and I can't help but laugh at America's Funniest Home Videos. :)



16. Where is your favorite place to shop?

Love Ross and Target as well as Gap and Banana Republic

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?

Have to agree with Sherri and say SCRAPBOOKING! :( Haven't even started Wade's baby book, and not sure it's going to happen before he starts Kindergarten! I do have 5 or 6 finished 12x12 albums to show for my hobby, but not a whole lot recently!

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?

I like to think I'm frugal! I love to find great deals!

19. Who is your favorite character of all time (from a movie or book)? (Can't be real)

Don't think I can pick this one!!!

20. Would you want to be famous?
I don't know... don't think so. I wouldn't like the constant spotlight that celebrities are under... Wouldn't be a fun life...

Okay, I'm done! Now it's your turn! :)

Heavenly Harmony... Amazing!

Listen to this amazing 3 part harmony by a group called "Sisters." I love Ladies trio harmony, and theirs is harmony at its best... might give you chills!

I found out they have a Christmas CD coming out soon! :)

Spirit Week '09

Monday was Tacky Day...




Tuesday was Decade Day...



Wednesday was Princess/Sports Day...



Thursday was Cowboy Day...

Friday was School Colors Day...



Much fun was had by one and all....
go Knights!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Mom's 60th Birthday! Wish we could be there to help her celebrate, but since we can't, we sent her our video Birthday wishes!



We love you!

Marley & Me **** Warning! Spoiler Alert!****

If you know my husband at all, then you know of his unwavering love for dogs. He had several growing up, back when he was a cutie-patuty little youngster like this...

...and we even had an amazing golden retriever, Abby, right after Haylee was born. She was the absolute best dog ever, so incredible with Haylee. She was practically Haylee's pull up toy, and she always sat ever willing to endure this abuse. We were soooooo sad when she was hit by a car when Haylee was around 18 months old.

One day we plan to get another dog when we have a house with a fenced in yard...

So, all that brings me to the other night when we finally rented Marley & Me. We cracked up at all the funny dog antics, but when we watched Marley hobble up the steps, Chris let out a "Uh oh. This isn't a bad movie, is it???"

I had found out the ending way back when it was in the theater, so I grimaced a bit, and let him know to expect the worst. I had neglected to share the bad ending with him prior to that, because I didn't want him to back out of watching the movie! It was only downhill from there, watching poor Marley as she got more and more pitiful. I wish you could have heard my tough, no-kind-of-scary-or-disturbing-movie-affects-me, husband.

You would have heard statements like, "This is the worst movie I've ever seen!" and "Ahhh! This movie is horrible!" I looked over at one point to see him pitifully wiping away tears over poor Marley! He did finish it, but the rest of the evening and even the next day he made sure I knew how much he hated that movie!

I find it so hilarious and somehow wrong, that we are so different. He can watch anything no matter how scary and seem to be totally unaffected while those kind of movies stay with me, and I often am lying in bed trying to go to sleep thinking about the characters, etc.

When we were dating, he was soooo excited to show me his favorite movie. What is it, you ask? Only one of the most disturbing movies ever... "Seven." It's with Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. Spacey is a serial killer and the ending is horrid. An important character dies and the good guy ends up getting arrested, and the middle is full of incredibly horrendous murders. When it ended, I sat there and cried. Poor Chris was not sure what to do with me at that point. I wonder if in that moment he realized that our lifetime of movie watching was NOT going to be movies like the one we had just watched! :) I think we ended up going to Cracker Barrel in an attempt to lighten the mood and get my mind off the wretchedness of that movie. :)

Maybe him experiencing Marley & Me will make him appreciate how the scary movies affect me! A little empathy can be a good thing...

As for me, I let him know that I was soooo blogging about this...

Cruise!

We recently booked a cruise for our 10th anniversary coming up in March! Woohoo! We've been talking about going on a cruise forever, so it seemed fitting to do something special like this for our 10th. Hard to believe it will be 10 years...

Renee ♥'s Chris... 4ever! :)

Giggles

A month or so ago, we were in Walmart looking for shoes. Chris got a call and Haylee started playing around. Wade started cracking up at her antics... :) There is nothing like baby giggles!

Welcome to my Lab!

Here is my Lab Rules presentation I showed to each class the first week of school... This is the one with the photo of the family that snuck up on Haylee! :)



My lab... didn't quite achieve all the goals I had in mine for my room decor, but I think it turned out pretty well!

Full Speed Ahead...

Haylee's first day of FIRST GRADE!

Our year is in full swing and things are rolling along at a swift pace. Haylee is thoroughly enjoying first grade, and I am adjusting fairly well to her more regular routine of nightly homework and real tests! It's been nice having her right across the hall this year as well as in my Computer class once a week! The first week of school I showed all the classes a picture of our family up on the screen, and when she saw it she kind of looked at me with a start with a stricken look on her face! I wasn't quite sure what she thought about having Mommy as a teacher, but later she said that she did like it. That's good to know... hopefully, it will last a few more years at least!

Haylee and her buddy Anna on their first day!

Wade is miraculously adjusting to his new class and teacher for which I am so very grateful. He is going right into his class in the mornings without a fuss and seems to be doing great. We have been fighting sickness with him already which is not fun, but I know that is par for the course. They have a cute little playground that they go out every day and play on, and I never get tired of seeing his face light up and his little legs running when he sees me in the afternoon.

My year has been crazy as I'm figuring out my new role and all that it entails. I feel somewhat like it's my first year teaching since it is SO different. Some things I've planned have turned into the moment where you realize, "Well, that didn't work. Won't try that again..." Ha ha!

I have to remember to be flexible and adapt as I need to. One other "new" thing for me is working with the little ones. Most of my experience has been with middle to upper elementary, and let me tell you... there is a big difference between Kindergarten and fifth graders! :) It was somewhat comical really as I'm trying to do things with the Kinders and 1st graders, and I have the rowdy little boys who are paying me NO attention while they jump up and down trying to make hand animals in front of the screen! :) I have learned and adapted and realized I need immediate consequences for the little ones, or they will continue to pay me no attention! (Now, I point out my "green chair" in the back of the room in a grave and sad voice, while I let them know that my green chair doesn't have a computer with it, and if they can't follow the computer rules they will have to come visit my green chair and that's no fun is it... you get the point....)

My other extreme is my Middle School class which is a mixture of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. I have 26 of them that I see every day. We are working through a book about Microsoft Word as well as working on their Keyboarding skills. It's a big class, but they are a good group of kids, and I am surprised that I am enjoying it! :)

I have also developed a website for my computer class that K-5th visits that has the links and other info they use during class. I made a page for each grade level, so they can go to their grade, and find the lesson we're on. After they finish that lesson's assignments, they can click on the links at the top of each grade's page for more learning fun. :) It has seemed to work well so far, and I am hopeful that at the end of the year I will have the whole year's lessons ready to go online.

In other family news, Chris has finished his Masters degree! Whoohoo!!! It has really gone by fast... just two years of one night a week class time and then one night a week study group time. I am very proud of him and hope that he can be okay with no more school for a while. Okay, Honey?? Please! :)

Hopefully, I will be better at updating. I have been a very bad blogger of late. Don't know what's wrong with me! :(

Death by PowerPoint!

We've all sat through mind numbing Power Point Presentations right? This guy has some hilarious yet very true insight into using presentations...

Behavior Rubric... feedback pretty please!

I need feedback puh-lease.

I'm working on a rubric to be able to pass on to the classroom teacher about how well his/her class is doing behavior-wise in computer class.

I'm basing the idea on another fab computer teacher's system, but I don't have hers with me...

Any other suggestions for categories to be included on the rubric? I would love for it to be something catchy, ie... rhyming, alliterated, or an acronym or something, but I think I have given up on that unless someone comes up with something fantastic that inspires me to try again... :)

P.S. I do realize that I'm addicted to slideshare. It's a new toy though, and I can't stop playing with it. ☺

Shoot For The Stars Behavior Rubric

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Dum, Dum, Duh-Dum

Had to share this video I got in an email... Sooo funny. Would love to have been a guest at this wedding!

Computer Stuff!

This is a "Technology Alphabet" that another Tech Teacher shared that I adapted to fit our school... I plan to cut each sheet in half and then put up in the lab in lieu of a traditional alphabet.

Tech AbCs

View more documents from rcauth.

This is a PowerPoint presentation that I'm working on for the first week of class... It's also part of a HW assignment for one of my classes I'm taking this summer.

Internet Safety Rules

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Heehee... do you like my avatar?? :)

Retraction....

I made a very adventurous shopping trip yesterday to a few stores... though it's always adventurous when I take the kiddos AND try to go to more than one place. :) We did manage to score the $2 markers at Walgreens which were $3.50 at Wal-mart btw!

I was very disgusted with Target after making the trip all the way there with kiddos in tow. The $9 backpacks weren't even marked for one thing and I don't think there were more than five or six styles to choose from at that price...

Plus that fabulous marker board was nowhere to be found. Don't think they ever even had ONE in stock... :( Boo Target. As we arrived at the b2s section a target employee was attempting to help another customer locate the marker board. After the employee left, I asked the customer about it and she said the employee had just spent 30 minutes trying to help her find it from one end of the store to another. How irritating is it that something prominently in their weekly ad is nowhere in the store and the employees don't even know about it? Sounds suspiciously like a gimmick to get me in store to buy your other products!

Went to Wal-mart too... found a lunchbox and also thermos Haylee liked back in the regular section not the b2s section. They were both priced cheaper than in the b2s section, but when I price checked them they rang up the b2s price. The lunch box went from $6.34 to $8 and the thermos from $12.88 to $13. I was irritated that "low prices always" Wal-mart blatantly RAISED their price on the exact same products b/c demand was higher.

I took a picture of the shelf prices with my phone and then showed the cashier when I rang up. She kept laughing in this condescending laugh that awkwardly went on and on and on in that "if I keep laughing I may you look stupid and I feel good about myself" laugh. :) BUT they gave it to me for the lower price....




I do feel like I should email complaints to both stores... but somehow I think that may be pointless... I'll just chalk it up to lessons learned.