Happy Halloweenie!!!

Love, 

the one, the only,

furchild 

ASPEN!

Grateful

I am grateful.

With all that is brewing on the east coast right now with serious weather conditions, I am just so grateful I live the armpit part of the country where we really don't have do deal with much. (Other than the occasional haboob) 

I can't even imagine being scared to go outside or to stay inside your home knowing the roof can be blown off in a matter of seconds.

Cleveland got hit HARD last night. Several of my FB friends posted pictures and status' that made me really worried about my husband flying home in 2 days. I really would prefer him to stay and wait till the mayhem is over. 

Here's a picture of Lake Erie that a friend took while she was driving. Totally Freaky!

I haven't been blogging much simply due to being a new home owner has kept us quite busy.

Financially, we've taken a nice beating to our wallets. Minor little things all of a sudden add up to big expenses and I have definitely felt like our new home was drowning me! 

As most have said to me, 

WELCOME TO BEING A HOMEOWNER.

GAHHHH

Anyway, prayers and thoughts to all who are on the East Coast. I know if anything happened to our home I'd probably crawl under a rock and cry my eyes out since we have invested so much already. I can't even fathom having to pay for any more damages or repairs! 

Grateful.

I am grateful that 2 positive school related things have happened for me.

If you follow me on instagram, then you've already seen these.

On Saturday night while at work, I served a family of 4 that wrote me the kindest message on their credit card receipt 

God bless good people like this. And they were a young couple probably a few years older than my husband and I! 

Then yesterday upon arriving to work I had this put in my school mailbox:

It was a form saying that one of our teachers had donated $$ (tax credit stuff) to my art program. I was so touched. A little like this, goes a long way in the art room! 

Grateful.

Today I am just so grateful for good people in my life or good people I have encountered. The sad part is, there are so few left in the world that are willing to help others no matter what.

That scares me.

Be Grateful.

Happy Tuesday friends.

DressInterest

We've all heard of pinterest, but have y'all heard of DressInterest??

Similar concept, cept the pins are all of outfits!!! 

Here's a screen shot

Check it out here! It's like a collection of Polymore outfits!

My only vice about this website is after you pin something, the page takes you RIGHT back up to the top, forcing one to scroll all the way back down to where they were which is kind of a pain! 

Safe Haven Official Trailer

Confession:

I still have NOT seen The Lucky One starring my underage crush Zach Efron!!! Say What!?!

I've been that busy!

I saw that they finally released his new trailer for "Safe Haven" and to be really honest, does anyone else think/feel that even though Josh Duhamel is easy on the eyes, I felt the acting was super cheesy! Like there was no emotional tie to the character?

Please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed it!

Art Room Happenings October

I have to admit, I've been super busy and to tired to update on blogger. Apologies.

Here are some current art room happenings!

These skeletons were taught to my after school art class grades 2nd and 3rd. Originally I got the idea from Pinterest, which was of a plain q tip skeleton, so naturally I had to give it my own spin and jazz it up more! 

We used construction paper crayons (MY FAVE) to add awesome details in the background. We used oil pastels on the frame patterns. 

These were a hit with the teachers!

My kinders made these fun Happy Cats for halloween. Focus was cutting their own SHAPES out for the ears and eyes, nose, mouth etc etc. Overall they turned out cute! 

My 4th grade JUST started to create their own rendition of Edward Munch's famous painting "The Scream."

So far the kids are loving it!

My Weekend...

I went to my very first concert last night. That's right folks. I'm 30 years YOUNG and I've never been to a concert until last night! 

(Unless you count seeing Jason Mraz back in 2003 when he came and sang at my college BGSU for free!) 

It was SO good to have a girls night out! 

So who did I see??

I did Pink Lou Lou proud (Alison if you are reading this I saw your girl, CARRIE!)

Carrie freaking Underwood. 

I was literally no joke, "Blown Away" by her amazing vocals!

When she talked, she did sound hoarse poor thing! 

Her legs were um there best ever. So toned so gorgeous. 

But her voice was seriously heaven. 

Hunter Hayes was her opening act. Mid way through her concert he popped out and sang a very mini short duet with her! The young girls went wild over this 21 year old guy!

This was her opening song! :) SO great!

Her closing song!

NOT my voice that you hear picked up on the sound ( bruised my vocal chords a few years ago and have never been able to sing since :( )

And with that my friends, I must leave you since I have to be up and ready to teach in 6 hours eeek!

Show & Tell

Linking up with a new blog today!

1. When you were 17, tell us what kind of car you drove, where you worked, and what you were usually up to on the weekends.

I was 17  THIRTEEN years ago! EEEK! Do the math, this means the year was 1999-2000
I graduated HS at the age of 17! 

I drove an 89' Oldsmobile and I have to be straight up honest, I don't have a single photo of the car. It was a Beast (old rusted and I seriously left it running at random places hoping someone would steal it that's how much I HATED my first car)

My first job was working here, at Taco Hell Errr I mean Taco Bell. I walked to work until I got my drivers license. I DID NOT want to work here, but my dad had decided it was "time" for me to get a "real" job. I was completely embarrassed that I had to work here, and I told NO ONE at the time that I had a job here. That's how mortifying my first real job experience was. 

Thank goodness, I finally did get my license, and was able to get a job at the mall (Hooray!) and worked at Hallmark for 2 years! 

See the hallmark logo in the back of us ladies?! This was my hallmark crew! :)

What did I do on the weekends? Well I worked every weekend during the day as much as possible to keep me "out of the house" so to speak. When I wasn't working, I usually was out on date nights with my then high school boyfriend! Dates usually consisted of going out to dinner and a movie or back to his house (parents had to be home of course!) 

I did NOT party in HS nor even go to a single party due to the very tight leash my dad kept me on. 

2. Show us a picture of you when you were 17 {roughly}.

Yes we wore uniforms to my High School. Yes, that's a portable in the back of us ( My HS was getting ready to add on and housed a few classes in temp classrooms)

3. When you were 17, tell us what you 
wanted to be when you "grew up."

I had no idea what I wanted to be when I "grew" up. The tender age of 17 for me was a time in my life where I felt VERY lost and alone. We had moved across town, where I had to restart high school as a Junior.

Note to future parents: unless your spouse or yourself is in the military, NEVER move or uproot your kids in the middle of their high school years. It's extremely difficult to "Make friends" as a newbie when you are a JUNIOR in HS and cliques and friendships have long been established!

4. When you were 17, tell us the kind of boys that you dated. Did you have a type? Do you have a relationship you remember well? Tell us about it.

I only dated one boy when I was 17. I dated him seriously for 2 years (jr and sr year of HS) and then made the grave mistake of trying to continue to "date" when I was leaving to attend college at an out of state university while he attended school in our home state. 

Don't do this kids! LOL 

5. When you were 17, tell us where you pictured your life 10 years from then. Did it turn out the way you expected it to?

I totally thought I'd be married by 25 and have kids by 30.

Whoops.

Boy, was that view skewed! 

No way I would of ever been ready to marry at 25. Marriage never came to my mind till I turned around 28 and started to "Settle" down. Going out out to bars every single friday and saturday night became very unimportant to me. 

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that sometimes certain things fall apart, so better things can come together. I thank God everyday that somehow despite me living in AZ, and my then unknown husband in Ohio, that fate somehow brought us together!

Sunday Dinner with..

Remember Scott Wolf? Aka Bailey Salinger on Party of 5?

He was also in the movie White Squall 

I totally forgot that he married Kelley from "The Real World" New Orleans

I was such a real world junkie when I was in HS and college. I think I stopped watching after The first real world San Diego cast aired. 

Does anyone remember her season? It was the first time ever that MTV showed Julie and her "mormon" beliefs. Back then, that was a HUGE deal! 

Anyway, how cool is it that Scott married pretty much a normal girl as in not famous actress.

You can read more on how they met here

I'd have to say I LOVED The Real World Chicago Cast--They were always picking on Tonya! 

And Kyle (the guy in the middle of the picture red shirt)

Anyone recognize him from day time tv? He was on Days of our lives for a while! He played Phillip! 

And I loved The Real World San Diego the 2004 cast.

Can anyone recall BAM BAZOOKA JOE!?! LOL

Classic

Third place fave would have to be The Real World Seattle

This cast was crazy!

Did you know....

That Sean from the Boston cast married and is STILL married to Rachel from the San Fran season?

True story! I see Sean on TV all the time! He went the politics route!

This photo was found via Google.

Danny and Melinda from the real world Austin married in 2008!

But sadly I read they recently divorced...:(

Also Season 3 vets Judd and Pam married too!

I'm not sure if any other cast mates have "Married" if I had more time I'd research it a bit further!

Which cast was your favorite!?

The Teacher Files

 I went  into school on my fall break (GASP) and spent 3 hours working on my "SUB TUB."

What's a sub tub? 

It's a binder of directions and plans for when I'm not at school. 

Note to others:

It's way more work to be ABSENT than it is to just be present at school.

FACT! 

*binder is from Target (new)

 All the sub tub sheets I purchased off teacherspayteachers.com

a great website run by TEACHERS! Everything offered on the website is EXTREMELY affordable as all us teachers can attest we don't make much! I did it this way, because it's a lot of work to hand write all your basic 411 info for a sub. This sub pack I bought was pretty much spot on aligned with my schools procedures, and what ever was different, the whole file was completely text editable! Winning! Yes! 

 I keep my sub tub underneath my front table. It's easily accessible to the substitute teacher as well as my students knowing exactly where it is. 

I also whipped up this little lesson for my After School Academy Art class.

 And here are their clay fish from a few wks ago! I am loving the new glaze colors I ordered! I just wish glazes weren't so dang expensive!