First days

Today was AJ's first day of Pre-K, but we'll get to that in a minute. DJ goes to the year-round school where I teach, so his first day of 2nd grade was 3 weeks ago, but that's not what I want to talk about first either. Because if I don't mention it first, you'll get lost in the cuteness of my kids, and you won't read the extra blurb about ME at the bottom. Today was a first day for me too. Not for teaching or anything school related.

Today was my first day of ballet!!!!!

Yep, and I had a blast! I danced for 13 years, from 1st grade through my sophomore year of college, but that was almost 13 years ago. So when we found a studio we liked for AJ to begin ballet again, I asked about adult classes. I don't have a picture to share of me (that would be scary), but I wanted to tell everyone about it. Ok, on to the kids...

The morning of DJ's first day of school it was POURING down rain, so I had to take a picture inside. It took several tries before we got a real smile.

By the afternoon it was sunny and warm. I captured this shot of DJ and his teacher in the carpool line after school. DJ is tall for his age, but Mrs. Leonard is supermodel tall.

And as I mentioned, today was AJ's first day of Pre-K. The schools around here have this weird staggered enrollment thing to get kids acclimated, so she went today, she'll go again Thursday, then she'll go M, W, F of next week, and finally be full-time the week after that.

Here she is with her teacher, Miss Kim. Btw, I didn't even cry!

Sweet wishes!

I got to stamp too!

Michael and I have begun our Total Money Makeover. Dave Ramsey is our hero. If you are not familiar with Dave or his program, I highly encourage you to check out his website, radio show, and/or books. We have a completely new outlook on life thanks to the common sense he got us to listen to.

Anyway, we've been trying to pass our newly discovered good habits on to our kids, and one suggestion he makes is to put their money in a jar so that they can see it adding up as they save to buy something. So we've been meaning to get jars for them, and of course a plain old jar just would NOT do.
For DJ's this was the first time I had used my Scallop Square bigz die, my So Many Stars builder wheel, or the star stamp that coordinates with our Extra-Large Star Punch (although the stamp set is retired), so I got to play with some new toys.

For AJ's I had the Whisper White oval frame already cut out, so I added the Rich Razzleberry center. Then over on Splitcoaststampers, today's Technique Lover's Challenge was to make a flower embellishment (Paper Posies was the title). I viewed several tutorials before settling on this flower to make.

It is super simple. You take the Scallop Circle punch and punch out 8 scalloped circles. If you desire, sponge your edges [it is important to do this step NOW...ask me how I know]. Then you crumple each one up individually. If you use DSP, then your fine; however, if you're making your flower with cardstock, spritz it with water before crumpling so that it is easier to work with. Next you uncrumple your circles, and stack them all together. Use the paper piercer to punch a hole through all 8 layers and attach with a small brad. Then starting with the top flower, scrunch it together around the brad, continue scrunching each layer until they are all scrunched together in the center. Finally fluff the layers out to your desired shape. Voila! A gorgeous handmade paper flower. (If you still have questions, leave me a comment, and I'll find a video tutorial to link.)

I actually started my paper flower making today with a new daisy for AJ's headband. A red, white, and blue daisy simply would not go with her pink gingham top. I used two of each size flower for this one. More petals and a sturdier embellishment to work with.

I actually stamped a card for my grandmother's birthday too, but I'll save that for another day.

Sweet wishes!

Let the celebration continue...

So tonight we finished off our sparklers. After having so much fun with the "fireworks" setting on my camera last night, I decided to give it a try with our sparklers tonight. It worked!

Here's AJ making circles.

DJ doing squiggles.

Me making a star.

Michael doing his initials (super cool!).

And finally me, again, drawing a heart.

Sweet wishes!

It's Independence Day

...Let freedom ring; let the white dove sing. Let the whole world know that today is the day of reckoning. Let the weak be strong; let the right be wrong. Roll the stone away. Let the guilty pay; it's Independence Day. ~Martina Mcbride

Hope your 4th of July was a great one. Ours was. Here are my kids outside playing with sparklers.
Even my big kid.

All in their red, white and blue.

Okay, so all day I've wanted to post a holiday-appropriate project, and when we got changed out of our VBS t-shirts (we had our program during church this morning) and put a plain white headband in AJ's newly cut hair--which I cut myself!--I had to add this little flower made with the Daisies #2 bigz die and a corduroy brad. Now that was the perfect accessory for her adorable hair cut.

We finished off the night by going to see the fireworks after the Greeneville Astros' ball game. We didn't make it to the game this year, but we found the perfect place to catch the post game show.

Here's one I took with the "fireworks" setting on my camera. Go figure. Very different effect, but very cool.

When we got home we did our own "grand finale."

Sweet wishes!

I had a plan

I had blog entries lined up for about a week while we were away at camp. I took my computer along and had all my pictures conveniently organized in folders, so all I had to do was upload the pics, write a brief explanation, and post. But I was at camp, and we were at a new location, and the group I was with was responsible for planning worship each day, and we didn’t worship in the same place twice, and I had an allergic reaction to something and spent one whole day doped up on Benadryl, and we had over three times as many youth in our group as we did last year, which was awesome, and I just didn’t get around to posting.

Other than the allergic reaction, I had an aboslutely AMAZING week at AFFIRM, which is where we were June 18-25. We got back home Saturday, June 26, had a Christian rock concert on Sunday, June 27, at the church's community center, and had VBS this past Monday-yesterday. It's been crazy.

Anyway, when I was looking for a picture of AJ in her cast from last fall for my post a few weeks ago, ***NO, this is NOT a new picture!*** I came across this one, where you can sort of see where we used some of Stampin' Up!'s rub-ons to decorate the cast. She loved it. Hey, if you've got a broken arm, you might as well make the best of it. But please, AJ, NO MORE!!!!!

So there you have it. No stamping, but still SU! related.

Sweet wishes!

ps. The 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog was released on Thursday. I recently received a bunch of new goodies, so when I have a moment to catch my breath...and stamp...I'll try to post some new stuff for you. I've also got to get an open house planned, so exciting things are coming soon. (I hope!)

We Saw Rock City!

So the day after we went to Ruby Falls and saw the cool rock formations under ground, we decided to venture out to Rock City and see the cool rock formations above ground. Again, I took tons of pictures but limited myself to 10 for this post.

We got to meet Rocky before we even went in the gate.
Let me just say that posing for pictures is A LOT easier when you're not in a group of 40 people passing through some tiny caverns hundreds of feet below the earth's surface. So we posed for several today!

More posing.

And more.

Oh here, this one isn't posed. It was the first of a few VERY NARROW passage ways.

Uh, back to posing. I think this is my favorite, though.

Here, we're crossing the stone bridge. Jo and I decided that this was good enough, and we let everyone else try out the swinging bridge without us.

Another narrow path. This one's called Fat Man Squeeze...I promise. Zoom in on that sign above DJ's head, and see for yourself.

Another pose before entering Fairyland Caverns.

And one final pose for the day.

So now when we see those "SEE ROCK CITY" signs we just say, "We did!"

Sweet wishes!

I suppose it's about time

...for another Stampin' Up! post. I realize that some of you who may still happen to stop by my blog from time to time aren't all that interested in seeing pictures of my kids or hearing about our summer adventures. And I'm okay with that. So for those of you who are my stamping friends and customers, I thought you'd like to see some stamping projects.

Back in February and March I hosted a series of Stamp-A-Stack (SAS) classes. My main goal was to introduce Stampin' Up! to my co-workers at school. However, I had two other ladies (non-co-workers) attend the class when I originally scheduled it. Then I rescheduled it, and had three other non-co-workers attend and one more pay for the class who couldn't make it. Finally, I offered a day-time make-up date for one of my co-workers, and she was able to attend that alone. Plus, after those three classes I owed two other customers a class, but we couldn't coordinate our schedules, so I made up a few samples for them and gave them all the supplies so they could complete the cards at their convenience. All that to say, I don't think any of the classes had exactly the same 5 cards, but these are the ones I have pictures of.
I CASEd this first card from coriefoster. You can see her original card here. I actually used Basic Black where she had used Chocolate Chip, but this was my favorite card of all.

carole_k was the original creator of the card above. Click here to see her version.

This was my second favorite card. I CASEd Debbie's card, but I didn't have enough Pretty In Pink CS for all my classes, so half way through I switched to an Old Olive, Orchid Opulence & Rich Razzelberry combo, which was just as beautiful, but I don't have a picture of that version.

This Dusty Durango & Soft Suede card was inspired by Dawn Olchefske's card, which you can see here. Since I had ribbon on all my previous cards, I decided to use another stamp from the set instead of the Soft Suede ribbon.

The supplies used for these cards were left over from a workshop I had done in the fall. The original cards used the A Rose Is a Rose stamp set. And while I'm sure I CASEd someone, I don't have access to the file to find out exactly who; however, here is a card by ruthyoung that may have been my inspiration.

Sweet wishes!

First Camp Adventure

Last week DJ went off to camp for the first time. He spent the week at Lutheridge, which is a Lutheran camp just outside of Asheville, NC. He had an awesome time. Below is a picture of him with his counselor, Vincent.
Michael was also at the camp, but was an adult leader for a Campfirmation group of confirmation-aged kids (mostly 6th-8th graders), and had little interaction with DJ throughout the week.

AJ and I took them over last Sunday, and went back to pick them up on Saturday. In the time between we had what DJ called, "girl branding time." I explained to him that it was "girl bonding time." Since AJ had witnessed this exchange, she proceeded to ask, EVERY TIME WE SWITCHED ACTIVITIES, "Is this girl bonding time?" "Is this girl bonding time?" "Is this girl bonding time?" Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our girl bonding time, but it included playing with playdough, painting pictures, attending VBS at a Lutheran church in town, going for walks, playing on the playground, playing games, and the most girly thing of all, painting our finger and toenails. After all, what's girl bonding time without a good manicure and pedicure?!?

Sweet wishes!

Ruby Falls

Last weekend, June 3-6, the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) had their annual Synod Assembly in Chattanooga, TN. Since my step-dad is a pastor, he and my mom were there too. We also met up with some friends from seminary.
My friend Julie homeschools her girls, J0, BB, & JB, and they've been studying cave formations, so we just had to go to Ruby Falls. So Friday afternoon, while the dads were in meetings and it was raining outside, the kids and moms ventured into the depths of Lookout Mountain for an amazing adventure.

Now before you go any further, I must issue the disclaimer that I took 94 pictures while we were there, and I've narrowed it down to 10 for this post. You should be proud.

But aren't they amazing? If you've never been to Ruby Falls, it is a must see. Of course, if you are claustrophobic it is not recommended, but it is so awesome. And perfect for a hot, rainy, or cold day because the caverns are always a constant cool temperature.

There are tons of "named" formations that look like certain things like steak and potatoes, bacon, a fish, the rear end of a donkey, etc. The one below is the mirror pool (I think).

And here's the culmination of the tour: the falls themselves.

My mom took this pic of the kids and I walking around the path behind the falls. I wish I had taken the camera with me and gotten a pic from behind looking straight up at the falls coming down, but we only had the one camera, and I didn't realize how cool the other shot would have been until I was back there.

On the way to the falls our guides were rushing us through like a heard of cattle, but on the way out there was more space between the individual groups in our tour, and I had the kids pose for pictures a few times.

Here are all 5 kids over 260 feet under ground.

And here they are again several stories above ground.

Sweet wishes!

Eleven posts & Eleven months ago...

Think Abraham Lincoln, "Four score..." ;-)

Anyway, I was looking back over some of my previous posts, and 11 posts before this one, I had a list at the end of things to stay tuned for:
-both kids are back in school now
-they have both started gymnastics
-my August Big Shot Club meeting featured the Beautiful Butterflies bigz die {not to mention I have several other SU! classes to catch you up on}
-DJ's starting his second season of YMCA T-ball
-and AJ is currently sporting a bright pink cast on her right arm

Now I started that post on July 30, which is when it's dated, and where I got the "11 months ago" bit. However, because of when the things listed above actually occured, I know that the post didn't get finished/posted until sometime in September. Either way, I decided it was time to fill you in on some of these things. I've been so bad about blogging this past year, and there is no way I could catch you up on everything, so I'm not even going to try, but I figured a few things couldn't hurt anyone. :-D

Here's DJ on his 1st day of 1st grade...OMGosh, he's HUGE compared to this pic!
I can't find a pic of AJ on her first day (our main computer has been out of comission since January [excuses, I know] and I'm sure there's a pic on there), but here is a pic of her on DJ's first day of school outside of my classroom.
The next item on the list is gymnastics, but again, the pics--and I know I have TONS--must be on the other computer.

So onto my August Big Shot class. It featured the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die...probably my favorite die. The projects also use some current In Colors and the Razzelberry Lemonade DSP. Three of the current In Colors, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, and Dusty Durango, are retiring at the end of this month, as well as the DSP. If you're interested in ordering any of these items, contact me ASAP. The yellow things on the two outside edges are paper baskets, but I hadn't attached the handles when I took the pic.

DJ was lucky enough to have the same coaches and many of the same team members in his second season of T-ball with the YMCA. We were excited that he was #7 because that was Jeff Francoeur's number...at the time...but we won't get into that. >:-

This is great...here he's playing Tic-Tac-Toe in the dirt with the director of the youth sports programs at the YMCA. Mr. Danny is GREAT with the kids!

And last, but not least, here's AJ with her cast. Yes, another broken arm. Well, she obviously only has two arms, but between the two she's had three broken bones, and 3-4 dislocated joints.

But she doesn't let any of that slow her down a bit!

The above picture is of the two kids on an inflatable obstacle course at our school Fun Fest, an annual fundraiser. They needed volunteers for the dunk tank. Guess who I volunteered?

Yeah, he's covering up his face (actually, he's wiping the water out of his eyes), but that is Michael. Don't worry, he went down plenty of times during his 30-minute slot. What a great sport!

Well, that's all for now, but I'm not actually finished playing catch up yet, so once again, stay tuned...

Sweet wishes!