how cool is this???
how 'bout this one?



If you wanna make a name for yourself :)
then you should go here.

It's Friday. A short week at school. I pulled my back out at tae kwondo on Wednesday, so I'm especially glad for a few days of rest this weekend. However, I really MISS karate, so I may try to go in the morning, depending on my back. If I can't bow, I won't go. That's my litmus test. You have to bow in and out at karate, so if I can't do that much, then I have no business doing the in between stuff. 

Should be a quiet weekend around here. With Christmas decorations put away and my van smelling fresh and clean (thank you, Curt!), I'm ready for some regular weekend house cleaning and hanging out with the boys. Curt and I will watch the Bourne Ultimatum tomorrow night. Santa brought it for him in his stocking. Good old Santa! 

I leave you with this:

This is the absolute best reason for snow. Dad's snow cream.
I made this in photoshop elements for my Christmas art journal. Man, I'm gonna miss this journal once it ends on Jan. 6, Epiphany. Guess I'll have to get back into my regular scrapbooking in a big way. :)

Happy New Year!
Here's #1 in what I hope will be 366 days of photos for this year. (Hey, it's a leap year, ya know?) I love this pic because my favorite candle in the entire world is here - a Candleberry Candle Co. candle bought in Virginia during the Thanksgiving holiday. This scent is praline dreams. And it's really dreamy. Plus, the shot of my Mary Engelbreit Home Companion magazine really energizes me. I want this year to be about creating. Creating art. Creating inspiration for my family and my students. Creating spiritual connectedness for me with God. Creating. Creativity. For ME. For my family. 
This brings me to my word for the year.
Energy.
That's it.
Energy.
Spiritual.
Physical.
Mental.
Energy.

I'll need plenty of it to keep up the artiness I've had going on for the past week or so. I have risen each morning completely energized with a sense or art. Art with a lower-case a, mind you. I just can't wait to sit down and create. I visit Claudine's blog every single day for inspiration. And then I do my art journal entry from Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class. Then I just surf for inspiration. And I create. That energy is just amazing. I pray that I can sustain it during the school year when I have to rise before the sun and begin a day with first graders and papers and books and noise.

Energy.

Yes.

I think it's a fine word for 2008.

We actually went out for New Year's Eve last night. Yes, really.
We went to the Kuhns where we met up with the Pouliches and the Urams. What fun. We mostly hung around Staci's kitchen where the food was, eating her chicken salad and countless other dishes. We tried dancing with the dancing machine thing that hooks up to the TV, but apparently we're too old to figure that out. And we watched the kids - 7 of them - run around the house with empty water guns and Star Wars light sabers and Barbie dolls and happy screams. It was a good ending to 2007.

Oh my goodness, I'm in love!
I just made this
on this site. Wowie wow wow.

I can't wait to make more of these next year. :)

My boys are nuts for Star Wars. 

They will play with their trunk full of Star Wars guys for hours at a time. 

They fly the Millenium Falcon and Imperial Shuttle and the Y Wing Fighter all over the house.

They grab their light sabers in an assortment of colors and do battle in the basement. Benjy always asks Camden who the bad guy is. It's usually Benjy.

Most recently, the dynamic duo decided to put on a show for Curt and me. We sat in the living room for more than an hour watching them reenact all six Star Wars movies. Here's the intro they gave us. Curt has the rest on his computer. He's doctoring it up and making it fancy and fun so we can burn it to a DVD for the boys. They'll get a big hoot out of their Star Wars show. I know we sure did. :)

Oh, since it's nearly the end of the year, I've been thinking about 2008:

As much as I HATE new year's resolutions, here's what I'm hoping to accomplish in the coming year:

* Start Tae Kwondo and don't quit. (I could be either a green belt or a camo belt by year's end, depending on how many testings the studio has.)
* Learn to cook a few good-for-you meals that my kids will actually eat. Our new cookbook by Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica Seinfeld, will definitely help here. 
* Simplify! So many areas here: our family spending, our home, the TOYS, our schedules, our wants. Cindy's Porch will be my inspiration here. Check it out if you have similar goals. 

Not quite the new year.....

But I'm trying to start early on a resolution to keep up the old blog at least with a note or two throughout each week.



This is the piece
Claudine Helmuth made for me for my Christmas present from Curt. I am totally in awe of her work. Absolutely completely head-over-heels in love with her talent. She took emailed pix of my family and some generic ideas of the beach, Hatteras Island and Star Wars and turned them into this. Isn't this the most awesome piece of art you've ever seen? I've hung it over my desk in the office so I can admire it each day as I do emails and surfing and dreaming and my scrapping. What inspiration and a constant reminder of my happy little family and a wonderful trip we had at the beach one summer.

Another fave this Christmas......



Mom got me this fabulous purse from her pastor's wife who makes these awesome things! She's amazing. She's more amazing than Vera!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to her studio and picked out every last piece of fabric for this bag. And even the elephant zipper pull! Then I got to tell her what pockets I wanted, how big, how tall, how many. So many details that go into a handbag that I have never even thought of before. Wow, this woman rocks. And she's just the sweetest person to top it all off. If you need a purse, let me know. I can hook you up!


And to end this post, I leave you with this: my favorite Christmas decoration of all. The vintage tinsel tree. Truly old. Truly silver. Truly sharp if you're not careful when putting it away. And that's exactly what I did today. I put away all the Christmas decorations. Truly, I hate doing that. I spend so much time looking forward to decorating and enjoying the twinkle and sparkle of the tree lights and all the other lights I manage to plug in during December. And then when Christmas Day has ended, I'm over it. Ready for it to go back into the 6 giant green Rubbermaid containers that hold them all. I do miss the sparkle of Christmas.

Dec. 15

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Day 2

Day 2's prompt in Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas is all about the weather: what kind of weather do I have in December? My journaling is all about my annual wish for snow. I start wishing in early December and carry on till, oh, around April. I wish for blizzards, feet of snow, snow days home from school. I get really angry when the weather forecast calls for a nice total of wintry precip and nothing falls from the sky. I spend so much time wishing for snow that I rarely notice what's happening outside when it's NOT snowing. On the other hand, I do pay attention to nearly everything else. So I'm not that hopeless. :) hohoho 

As promised, the ornaments we made yesterday. All were a large glass ball that we filled with whatever caught our fancy. Benjy put about 10 tiny candy canes in his. The mostly empty one is him. :) Camden put some cute tiny foil-wrapped "packages" and a few buttons in his. Curt packed his full of curling ribbon. And I put a handful of Christmas-colored buttons in mine.  Nothing anybody else would buy, but definitely keepers for us. 

And, here's day 2 in my Advent calendar. I just love this thing. Wish I could make more for my friends, but I have no idea where to get the goods anymore. 

Dec. 1

It's official: 

25 

days 

till 

Christmas.

That means it's time for me to start Shimelle's online class to  Journal Your Christmas - my 2nd year doing it. The coolest thing: Because I took Shimelle's online class last year, the rest of her JYC classes are FREE for me!!! How cool is that?
Day 1's prompt was to write a manifesto of my intentions with this project. Here's mine.

Dec. 1 also begins our annual countdown to Christmas. I'm so excited to use the advent calendar we bought last year. (I'll post a picture of it tomorrow.) I've stuffed activities behind the doors so that this year we can DO stuff together instead of BUY stuff. :) Cheap, huh?! And probably more memorable for all of us, too.

So, on Day 1, we made ornaments for the Christmas tree. All four of us. And we had fun. :) Pictures to come; I promise.





This Advent Calendar telling the Christmas story from the book of Luke is my favorite homemade decoration. I made it when we lived in Ohio after spying some ladies making it in my favorite scrapbook store. They were booked full, so I couldn't stay, but the instructor was so kind to direct me to the supplies needed to put this together. I think I probably had more fun making it at home anyway, where I could be in my pjs, surrounded by my Christmas lights and tunes, and near the chatter of the boys. I just love to hold this, feel the Modge-Podged pages, and turn the days over to read the next little bit of the miracle of Christmas. 

We have a purple belt in the house!
Camden nailed his form tonight at testing, earning his purple belt. This puts him a blue belt, brown belt, and red belt away from his black belt. We are so very proud of him. :)

I got this from my friend Kristen today, a forward in an email. It's hysterical, especially if you need to brush up on your Bible history. Enjoy!

Subject: The Bible, in a nutshell
Kids are the most honest.
In case you're a little foggy on your biblical history, let our junior
church students help you with this complete overview of the Bible, compiled
from their essays.
This is one clever rendition of the "Bible in a Nutshell"!

Enjoy!.....laughter is a gift from God!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God,
darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, "The Lord thy God is one," but I
think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, "Give me a
light!" and someone did. Then God made the world.

He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't
embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed
God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.
Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who
lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of
his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and
some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said
they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his
brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some
pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston.
Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh
after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included
frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every
day with manicotti.
Then He gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include don't lie, cheat,
smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of
one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use
spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the
town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a
slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500
porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to
me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was
Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore.
There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to
worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New
Testament. He was born in Be t hlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in
a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, "Close the door! Were
you born in a barn" It would be nice to say, "As a matter of fact, I was.")
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees
and the Democrats. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas
Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some
Germans on the Mount. But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on
trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just
washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up
to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is
foretold in the book of Revolution.

Halloboo - the Halloween version of a weekend at Idlewild.
We took the kids today for trick-or-treating in Story Book Forest and rides in the amusement park and a train ride through the entire park. This park, by the way, is rated #2 among children's amusement spots in the WORLD. Pretty cool, huh? Mr. Rogers, himself, lived down the road a bit and has an entire corner of the park devoted to his Neighborhood.
The temps dropped about 10 degrees while we were there. By the time we were sitting at the top of the ferris wheel, we were freezing, but happy. Camden's favorite thing today was bumper cars with Curt. Benjy's was a tie between the spider ride and the Tilt-a-Whirl. Mine was definitely the Spider and racing zip lines with Camden when he introduced me to the zip-line workers with a hug and a "This is my mom. We're gonna race!" That hug was priceless. Curt's fave today was the bumper cars and just "hanging with the boys, just, you know, bumper cars, the ferris wheel, which threw me for a loop." That was Curt's first ever ferris wheel ride in his 39 years. ;)

I am blessed.

Joanie sent this to me, and though I usually don't do "forwards", this was just too fun. OK, so I'm cheating by blogging it and not emailing my responses. I know. I'm a cheat. But this is still fun this way. For me anyway.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30 am - and that's late - I usually have to get up at 5:30

2. Diamonds or pearls? pearls

3. What was the last film you saw at the movies? Ratatouille (sp???)

4. What is your favorite TV show? The Office and CSI Miami and Burn Notice and Law & Order SVU

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? coffee and blueberry yogurt with granola

6. What is your middle name? Leighann

7. What food do you dislike? brussel sprouts

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? The mix I made from iTunes - Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band, Maroon 5, and way more

9. What kind of car do you drive? Ford Windstar van

10. Favorite sandwich? fried balogna on white bread

11. What characteristics do you despise? lying, hypocrisy, evil

12. Favorite item of clothing? pjs, esp. my new cherry pjs from Target's clearance rack - 12 bucks

13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? Camden, Maine

14. What color is your bathroom? a crazy mix of florals - nope, not wallpaper. A mural of sorts the previous owner painted. I usually love it.

15. Favorite brand of clothing? Eddie Bauer

16. Where would you retire? Roanoke, Va.

17. Most memorable birthday? my 38th at school when a parent brought me my favorite breakfast of REAL oatmeal, the slow-cooked kind, and a humongous cake and my class sang and did the congo line around the room

18. Favorite Sport to watch? golf

19. Furthest place you are sending this? blogger.com

22. Favorite saying? holy moley

23. When is your birthday? 9/29

24. Are you a morning person or a night person? night person. though I don't get to stay up late anymore.

25. What is your shoe size? 7

26. Pets? Emma The Dog

27. What did you want to be when you were little? architect

28. What are you today? wife, mom, teacher

29. What is your favorite candy? chocolate covered anything

30. What is your favorite flower? daisies

31. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Saturdays - sleep in

32. What church/synagogue do you attend? Christ Church (orthodox Episcopal)

33. What are you listening to right now quiet: something on moonshine stills on History Channel. Ever had strawberry damson's???

34. What was the last thing you ate? bbq chicken wrap from Red Robin

35. Do you wish on stars? no

36. Do you believe in Angels? yep

37. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Yellow or periwinkle

38. What is your pet peeve? those cards in magazines that fall out as you flip the pages, tufts of Emma The Dog hair on my bed, spam

39. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my friend Carri

40. Do you like the person who sent this to you? yep, wish I could see her more often. Almost visited the area this weekend, but too much going on here. :(

41. Favorite soft drink? diet Pepsi

I did it. I drove to Richmond, Va., and back. Just me and the boys. While Curt was at his leadership training with the Boy Scouts, Camden, Benjy and I made the 6+ hour trip to Richmond for my cousin's wedding. I had been overly anxious about it for weeks, dreading the drive and the stress of planning a trip virtually alone. I had let it slip to Camden that I was nervous about it, and he promised he'd pray for me. His teacher said he'd asked her to pray as well. :) Sweet kid.

Well, by the time I'd come home from school on Friday, I was calm and relaxed. I had a real peace about the trip. And before we hit the road, I pulled out my book of scripture by Joyce Mayer - scripture to speak over any situation. I turned to the chapter on "confidence" and read out loud each scripture on the page. The boys at patiently in the back, listening. Camden, I do believe, appreciated this new little ritual. I believe he's really understanding the power of prayer.

The most amazing thing happened on this drive. As we headed down I-95 in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I knew I needed some spiritual uplifting, so I ejected Counting Crows from the CD player and popped in Wow Worship. (Really, that's the name of it. hehehe) The praise and worship tunes really set my mind at ease in the heavy traffic. And I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that my van was surrounded by angels. I felt totally safe. Totally kept. Wow. It was really cool.

Here are some pix of our trip - all taken on the night of Tonya's wedding to Jeff. I must add that she was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. Just like a princess. I cannot even express how much it meant to me that we made this trip. Not only to meet Tonya's husband, but also to see family for something other than a funeral. A short trip it was, but a blessed time.

Just a few pix.

I haven't bothered to take many photos since, oh, around July.
Here's a few from the past couple of weeks.

I'm a bad blogger.
I've said it before, I know. But I really, really mean it this time.
Bad.
Bad.
Bad.
But happy!
Tomorrow's my 39th birthday. I felt like a princess today at school. (Perhaps a matronly princess, not quite queenly.) As with all birthdays in my tiny Christian school, our administrator announced, "We have a birthday today!" at our school opening. Of course I was expecting this. We celebrate every single birthday and half birthday for the summer folks. We always do this after our pledges to the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible. We do this after we've sung a patriotic tune and prayed. What I wasn't expecting was the din of clapping and whooping and hollering that echoed in the gym. As I walked up to the front, I felt such love. I hugged my dear friend as she handed me the card. I could feel my heart swelling with joy. Then the birthday ritual began, the great singing of the Happy Birthday song with a few Wooooos tossed in for good measure. My own personal second grader, Camden, was the loudest, out-singing everybody. Still, I could even hear the ultra cool seventh graders singing to me. Me! And to think I was terrified of the big kids when I arrived here a year ago.

God has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams here at this school, in his ministry. A few years ago I thought I'd never teach again. Too much No Child Left Behind (No Child Gets Ahead). Too many days spent practicing for tests. Too many bubbles to fill in. Too many statistics. Not enough time spent learning how to read and write and think. Not enough focus on what children need to learn. Not enough faith that we could do it for the right reasons. Not enough support.

I've come to realize that God has blessed me with a gift for teaching young children. I may not have all the answers, but I know how to find them. I know where to go to read the latest research on teaching reading and writing, developing number sense, drawing and singing and playing and being a 6-year-old in this big wide world. And today God patted me on the back with the voices of these children and their teachers. He reaffirmed my life's work. I am a teacher. I make a difference. I am where I belong. And daggonit, even the 7th graders like me.

I remember where I was 6 years ago today when I first heard about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Mrs. Casey pulled me out into the hall from my suburban middle class 2nd grade classroom. She quietly let me know that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. They didn't know why. They didn't know anything else, but that the crisis team was letting teachers know. "Don't tell the children," she said.

After I dropped the kids off for lunch an hour or so later, I met the other teachers in the lounge where a TV had been plugged in and tuned to NBC's Today Show. We sat dumbfounded. The art teacher was crying. The other second grade teachers were in shock, eyes glued to the TV. Before long, most in the classroom-turned-staff room were in tears. Then, our lunch period over, we dried our eyes, put a smile on, and retrieved our classes. We acted like nothing had happened. Some parents arrived to pick their children up early that day, and we allowed them to go. We sent the rest of the students home in a perfectly normal dismissal. Then we quietly packed up our things and made our own way home to our own children, husbands, families.

The sky was a clear, bold blues blue - a perfect late summer day with low humidity and puffy clouds. Nothing appeared wrong in the heavens. Then, as CNN played for hours on end, we gradually learned that, indeed, everything was wrong.

Now, 6 years later, OBL is still alive, threatening America and Christianity. I don't have a clue if the war is the right thing or the wrong move. I don't have any answers. I don't even know who to vote for to find the right answers. All I have is prayer. And so I pray to God for wisdom, strength, courage and a holy boldness for America. We will never forget.

The Steelers beat the Brownies tonight 34 to 7. Cool, huh?


Of course, I didn't see the game. Instead, I've been home with two sick youngins while Curt played Bear Scout at the local Scout Reservation Camp Conestego this weekend. He had a blast. I had a quiet weekend running to the pharmacy to get antibiotics and praying I don't wind up with strep throat like them. I felt sorry for them, too. Especially in the middle of the night when Benjy awoke in tears whenever he coughed and when Camden spiked his fever and could barely walk. Pitiful things. They're so strangely still and quiet when they're sick. So unlike the rambunctious boys they typically are.


So, instead of watching the Steelers and eating Curt's homemade chili, I made beer meatballs and beer bread and watched Sprout all day. Our favorite: Jakers. Those sheep are a trip. And, yes, the beer flavored the meatballs and bread but completely burned off the alcohol. So, nobody was flying around this house tonight. :)

Blog?
What's a blog?
Since I read Harry Potter and the Ghostly Hallows, I haven't blogged. I've read plenty... Reading With Meaning, About the Authors, Growing Readers, First Grade Writers (all school literacy books for teachers - no surprise there). I've also managed to read some Lee Child crime fiction novels and more magazines about country primitive decor and scrapbooking than I can count. So, let it be known that I've been a bit busy. Yes, that's the ticket. But, I haven't even considered blogging. Until now.

Kristen emailed to ask if I'd fallen off the earth. Mom wants to know what's happened to the blog. That's it. I don't think anybody else reads me. But hey, 2 for 2 is not bad. So, the blog is back. For now. :)

School has been back in session for 2 weeks. And, naturally, I had to call in a sub today because Benjy has a croupy cough. He's on a steroid now that he refuses to take. HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET YOUR CHILD TO TAKE MEDICINE HE REFUSES TO TAKE??? Benjy's gag reflex is so strong that he can throw up anything within a minute of ingesting it. And though we tried to coax his medicine down his throat, he ran to the trash can and spit it out, then gagged out everything else. Yuck. I'm calling the dr. tomorrow to ask for advice. Benjy's one tough cookie. And he's going to school tomorrow as far as I know.

I took this pic at the Colonial Arts and Crafts Festival last weekend. The boys were enjoying some fresh-squeezed lemonade and a funnel cake (yum!!!) in 90 degree temps. Aren't they so cute?!

Camden's first Boy Scout summer camp was "SWEET AWESOME" in the words of my Cub.
He and Curt spend the weekend camping, hiking, fishing, boating, swimming, shooting, eating, crafting, learning, and sleeping. I'm sure I've left out something, but that seems to be the jist of it. On top of all that, Camden picked up a bit of respect. Imagine that.

On Sunday night we were invited to the family dinner and closing campfire ceremony. Camden and Benjy raced to hug each other when we got there, and then Camden walked his little brother around the campfire ring and nature shelter, telling him softly of all the cool things he did. It was sweet. For all the racket these two make when they're NOT getting along, they sure do love each other.

I had this theory growing up with my sister Michelle: siblings fight sometimes. Mom always insisted that if she'd had a sister growing up, she never would have fought with her. She liked to say this when she was sick and tired of listening to us bicker. Michelle and I loved each other, but we could disagree heatedly and often. Still, we were solid, paired as sisters and friends for life. I told Mom that if she'd had a sister growing up, she would have fussed with her because that's what sisters do!!! Now that I see this in my boys, I know it's true. I guess you can't be that close without a degree of "I'm right and you're not...It's mine and not yours...You're a big baby!" Then, always, in the next breath, we were best pals again, spreading our Barbie dolls across the room, using library books to make giant mansions for them to play in. This lasted a good while until one of us would tease, "My Barbie is better than yours."

You know the rest.

I may not be able to take a permanent vacation, but this picture will do until next year.

10 favorite things about my three day trip to the beach in no particular order:

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns - I couldn’t get my nose out of this book. And so I finished it in three days!
2. My iPod - and my favorite tunes at the end of my earphones
3. Jodie - catching up shouldn’t be so much fun!
4. Evelyn’s salsa - recipe to come
5. Hushpuppies - really good hushpuppies. Melt in your mouth gooooood
6. Old friends - nobody’s really changed. Just the stories and situations. But friends are still friends. Again, catching up is the best part.
7. Naps
8. Phone calls home - nothing makes you miss family like being away.
9. A new purse - Life IS Good!
10. Sudoku - completing four puzzles without cheating.

Oh yeah, and number 11 - outdoor showers!