No More Spring Regret!

Ok....every spring I say to myself......"I love daffodils. They are my favorite flowers. Why didn't I plant more of them last fall?" I will not be saying that next spring! Natalie and I just planted these.

She is smiling and happy to help. She obviously had NO IDEA what was involved with planting 60 bulbs. She toughed it out through the WHOLE process and was a great assistant.
She thought that it was funny that they looked like little onions.
Can't wait to see what will come up in the spring! We are already planning to plant 60 tulip bulbs next fall!
Happy Autumn Everyone!

N&N

I have been busy this month getting EVERYONE in the family back into the swing of school but wanted to share a quick tidbit about N&N!

Natalie is LOVING 4th grade and enjoying being the one of the "big kids" in her school. they only go to 4th grade in her elementary so next year I will have 2 middle-schoolers. I am looking into how I can afford therapy. This is a self-portrait that she drew and I have to say....It does kind of look like her!

Nathan is LOVING playing on the modified volleyball team. They are learning a lot and won the last match that they played. Dave and I are adjusting to being sports parents. I wish that it went all school year so that he could keep playing! GO SAINTS!

Hope that everyone out there is doing well too!

Never Forget

My mother says that she remembers the day that Kennedy was killed. 1963. I bet that she remembers the clothes that she was wearing, the class that she was in and the hours and days following the assassination. I bet if I talked to others in her generation, they would be able to tell me the same thing.

I was talking to a friend at lunch about this and she was telling me that she remembers what she was doing and where she was the day the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. 1986. I remember too. I was a junior in high school and I remember my teacher crying while we watched the coverage on TV. She was crying, no doubt, for one of her fellow educators that was on that voyage.

1990. I came home from a dinner out with friends to find my Mom and Dad glued to the TV watching as Desert Storm began. I remember thinking the my Dad, an Army Reservist at the time, would not be called up and months later I was home from college helping him pack.

2001. I was a substitute teacher that did not get called in to work that day. I dropped my 2 year old son at Daycare and went home to watch Good Morning America. As I was driving home I remember thinking what a beautiful day it was. As I watched the events of 9-11 unfold LIVE on television, I could not believe my eyes. I cried for days. To this day I can pull up the exact feeling that I had when I watched those towers fall. I remember going to St. Helen's Church the next day to join with strangers in a novena for peace.

Every year when the coverage of 9-11 comes on TV I am jealous of my children. My children, one of which was born 9 months to the day after 9-11 ask me "Why would people fly those planes into the buildings if they knew that it would kill people?" How do I answer that? Is there an answer that?

As I write this, my wish for my children and the children of the world is that they will never sit and write a post like this. That they will never cry at the thought of events that occurred 10 years ago. That they will never have to endure the pain and sorrow that so many Americans endure today. That they will never have to stand in a church, hold hands with strangers and say a novena for peace.

Never forget? If you were alive and old enough to understand.........it is impossible to forget.

The Ballad of the Cluckwagon

Below is a progression of Facebook Posts based on my car incident....enjoy!

September 5 – 10:22am

is procrastinating....N&N were asked to bring the groceries in from my car Thursday and we discovered last night that they forgot a jumbo package of chicken in my trunk.......it smelled as disgusting as you are imagining it did....maybe worse. I need to go open up the car.....

September 5 - 12:23pm

Phase 2 of car de-stinkification is complete. EVERYTHING is OUT and baking soda everywhere. It is sitting in my driveway with all the windows and the trunk open. Already smells a little better.....a special thanks to Mother Nature for keeping precipitation to herself for now.

September 5 – 2:59pm

.....is afraid that "Phase 2" of de-skinkifying the car is going to take a lot longer than I want it to....****wimper**** Need to go run errands but will go later when Dave is home with the other car....

September 5 - 8:26pm

I have a new plan for anyone who would like to supress their appetite. I will come and pick you up in the chicken-mobile and we can drive around for a while and talk about it. David is taking the car to Delta Sonic to have the professionals deal with it......a good man indeed.

September 6 - 7:55pm

For anyone interested on an update from the cluckwagon.....it still smells foul. (Couldn't resist) We tried vinegar. Fail. Charcoal. Fail. Baking soda. Fail. Delta Sonic can take care of it for $80 and 6 hours but not until Saturday. May need to go borrow my parent's car til Saturday.

September 7 – 8:36

Cluckwagon update: Delta Sonic just called to say that they have shampooed the seats and carpets twice and run the "special machine" in it once and the car still smells....they are going to try the machine again. Guess I was quite an idiot to think that vinegar and charcoal would do the trick! Not sure what to do next if this does not work!

September 8 - 7:12

2 shampooings.....2 ionizing treatments......2 odor "bombs" and we are going to get the cluckwagon.....they say there is still a little bit of odor left....we will see. They said there is nothing more they can do. Cross your fingers!

September 8 - 9:15

Dave says that the cluckwagon just smells like the shampoo now......

Does that make it the "poo" wagon? (Thanks Becky)

For Natalie

Well I have been trying to get some of the summer projects done before school starts again on Wednesday and this is the one I wanted to do for Natalie. The last time that I was at Re-house with the double O girls, I picked up some old wood trim for a couple of dollars. I cut the trim into a bunch of pieces and primed and painted. I had made some door handles at Splatter's Pottery Studio back in June and had wanted to make necklace hangers (and still will....) but when I was at Hobby Lobby over the summer, I found the perfect handle for Natalie's. It is painted in her newest favorite color and is already full of necklaces. Fun!

First post revisited

Just over a year ago I started this blog. As I was sitting on the sunporch today I was looking out at the flower that started it all. In this post, I remember that I was excited to see 1 flower. It has grown SO much in just a year that I have had to move things out of that flower bed to give this Japanese anemone some room! I will spare you from ALL of the reflections on how much I have grown as a blogger. But there are few that I am going to mention.

I now am the author of 3 blogs total. I have this nice, fun personal blog. I have a blog for my students and their parents Mrs. Faas' First Grade (original title, I know) and I just started my new blog to share the things that I do as a teacher with other teachers (Bee the Change).

Thanks to all of you that follow me and comment on my posts!

Here is the anemone today.

HUGE! (and beautiful)

Couldn't resist posting some other late-summer bloomers from the garden!

black-eyed susans

Russian sage

This delphinium is a spring bloomer but it re-seeded and re-bloomed. A nice surprise!

Busy bee.....

Nate

12 years ago today was a miraculous day. Nate came into the world......6 weeks early. He was only 5 pounds and had a great deal of medical problems. It was a joyous and very stressful time.
The doctors kept telling me throughout the pregnancy that he was going to be a "big baby". He probably would have been if he had gone to term. I had only been buying 0-3 month clothes and was not prepared for a preemie. Thank goodness for Mom who went out to buy some clothes that would fit him. Preemie clothes were actually too big. This is the outfit he wore home from the hospital.
sniff....sniff......
His foot and my foot......going to start saving money for shoes......love you little boy!

Lucky Me!

Here are some pictures of my NEW coffee table that my Dad made for me. I LOVE it! He is so talented.

Last fall he sent out a "request for projects" email to the family to see if there was anything we might like to have. This was my pick. I need to make/buy some coasters for use on it and have threatened the children within an inch of their lives that if they EVER set anything wet on it......

Dad just sent out the "request for projects" email again........so.........

Maybe an end table to match?

These are my new Tupperware bowls. I am in love with them. I have left them stacked like this for quite a while just so I can look at them. They stack so nicely and they are such pretty colors. Maybe someday I will actually put something in them. :)

Volleyball

My heart is a little broken.

I have always tried to encourage my kids to work hard and do their best. I have always hoped that they would be able to do whatever they set their minds to do. That being said, Nathan (going into 7th grade this fall) wanted to try out for modified soccer. He has been playing house league soccer since he was 5 and while the scouts from the MLS have not been knocking down our door, he has had fun.

Due to budget cuts, our district has eliminated freshman soccer and now only has 1, instead of two, modified teams. This has greatly increased the number of boys that are going to try out for one team. Many of the boys that are going to try out have played travel league soccer for many years. Despite having all these facts gently and repeatedly explained to him, he was still determined to try out.

I had to let him, right?

I was all set to let him try out when at the last soccer game of the summer league season, I was talking to some other Moms who mentioned modified volleyball. At their urging, I convinced Nate to go to a week-long volleyball camp a couple of weeks ago. He had fun and even made Dave go out and get him some knee pads (very official). His next dilemma was which sport to try out for (tryouts at the same time, of course). I though that volleyball was toast.

Today he told me that he wanted to try out for volleyball instead. I am happy that he came to that decision and has a good chance of making the team but I am a little sad for him.

Does he feel like he is settling?

Cross your fingers that he makes the team. I told him that he will be really popular with the girls when he goes to the beach and can kick butt in beach volleyball.

He rolled his eyes and gagged.

A new potential addiction

I got my first pedicure this week. Yes. My first. I have never had one before for many reasons but that is behind me for now! This was great. A couple of friends and ice cream sundaes afterward was the perfect afternoon.

My week in Cell Phone Pictures

OK...I am a little delayed in my use of technology. I do not have a data plan for my phone......I know......the injustice of it all! While talking to my buddy Heather, she was telling me that I could upload my photos to my Verizon account and deal with them from there. I actually can do that now! I am cool. Thanks Heather. You are cool too.

Anyway....enough bragging. I decided to make this post using my newly-found tech skills and show you what I was choosing to take cell phone pics of. (Mom.....read this! You could get a phone that could do this for you too! I am SURE that the tech-guru that lives in your house would get you one!)

So here is my week in cell phone pics.

Headed up to school to collect a few things so that I could start **thinking** about the 21 little ones that will be joining my life soon and we stopped in to see how summer reading/writing club was going. They hatched chicks this year and Natalie got to hold one. This little chick (the feathered one) even fell asleep while Natalie was stroking his feathers. Too cute.

I was lucky enough to get to celebrate another birthday this week. One of my friends brought me this beautiful bouquet of sunflowers and lovely things from her garden. So pretty...wish that they would live forever!

I was at school to set up for the next 2 weeks of summer school that I will be teaching and wandered into my new classroom. The classroom was previously occupied by one of the double O girls so it has great karma. Hanging on the window shade is her shade pull (pictured below). I love it but I am sure that she will be around to collect it in the next month or so. Maybe now that she is a Tupperware consultant.......she could find another one.....maybe.

Speaking of double O girls, the other one had wrist surgery this week. Yuk. The thing is......her hair still looks great event hough she is one-handed. She and I spent some time on her deck watching kids swim and cruising through my new cricut cartridge book. I think that if I was there without kids, we could have sat on that deck and chatted for a few more hours.

POLKA DOT DUCK (duct?) TAPE! ...........enough said.............

August

Well...I have done a pretty good job this summer of enjoying myself and not doing TOO much work in the month of July. I did not realize how easy that would be. LOL! But now that July is over and August is here, I have to start thinking about school. I decided that the only real work that I could handle today was to get the covers of my binders done. They are done. If only that was the hard part!

Guess I ought to go and figure out what I am going to put in them!

A project for me....and the stuff.....

I am a blog stalker. I love to sit on the couch/sunporch and look through the many home improvement/decorating/craft/first grade teacher blogs that I follow. All of the ladies that I follow are SO creative and I now use Pinterest to capture as many of those great ideas as I can always thinking that "someday" I will make something. Well, after rummaging at a church sale a couple of weeks ago, I came across this gem.

As soon as I saw it and saw that it was very sturdy (and $2) I knew that it would be the perfect item for a project that I saw Natalie at Johnny in a Dress create on her blog. I painted mine a "buttermilk yellow" and went to work! The letters are vinyl cut on the cricut and I am hoping to get a larger black and white polka-dot bow for the top but for now it will do!

My hope is that it will catch all of the electronic "stuff" that collects on my counter! Evenif it doesn't, it will look good!