Bachelor Recap

I'm a little late in recapping this week's episode, but I just got done watching it! 

First and foremost, Ben.

Ben the proclaimed "Christian." If there's one thing I know about real true Christians it's that they don't proclaim over and over how "Christian" they are to try to "prove" it to others around. Followed by a slur of F bombs and cuss words. How very christian of you Ben. Good riddance. 


Next up Bryden.

I had "heard" and read online that the reason he left was because he was still hung up on a girl back home. Hmmmmmm reminds me of Frank from Ali's season. 



Whether or not that is true, who knows. 


How cool was this water on water hot tub?! I've never seen or heard such a thing till I saw this on the show! Who ever came up with this idea--genius! 


Then there was Mikey who also went home. Poor guy, nice athletic italian guy just just had one of those over boisterous personalities that just isn't for every one. 

Speaking of italian men...



Love my althetic italian hubby!

  He is definitely the extreme opposite in personality compared to Mikey the italian on the show! 



I thought she made all the right choices this week with her picks of sending guys home. 
What did you think?

You are Fired!

In Donald Trump's famous words, "You are fired!" 

Poor Paula Deen. 

First, I must say that saying the "N" word is NEVER acceptable. Never acceptable if you are black, white, brown, blue etc you get the idea. Just as it's not acceptable to call a Mexican the "S" word (rhymes with ick) and or a white person a cracker. All are offensive and have terrible connotations to them. 

But boy does this photo have a point!


We all know what's coming next. The Food Network will replace Paula with a Black Chef, who we ALL know, won't have "racial" issues. Watch and see. Has anyone ever watched Hells Kitchen? He calls women "Fat Cows", and worse. Half of his comments, are bleeped out. Talk about firing someone! 

What is it about double standards!?!


Thoughts? 

Sunday Fun

This was on my facebook feed this morning and I gotta hand it to Jimmy Fallon he's really good!!!:) 
Happy Sunday Friends!

North. The Name?

I hate to be negative. I do not live my life around negative people or being a downer to others that's for sure. However, in this exception of famous people and naming their kids....



If you've followed me for the past 3 years you KNOW how I do a name post each year of the most wacked out or creative names I get for students over the years.

If you missed those posts you can read it here and here


image via google 



Naming a child NORTH because their last name is WEST?

 (In case you were at work or sleeping when Kim K and Kanye revealed their baby's name last night) 

I mean Is there a secret 'Baby Name Book' for celebrities called 'Stupid Names that people will talk about to make you relevant!?


I've only heard of one instance where the name "North" has been used for a first name and it was for a boy in a movie called North! The star was Elijah Wood! Anyone else see the movie? I swear I'm not making it up!



Let me just say this, as a teacher of 9 years, I can tell you that their kid will get picked on for her name. Fact-kids are cruel. And as for us teacher folk, we think you parents are ridulous if you name your kid this. Seriously. I mean where's lefty and Righty Hand? Get where I'm going with this?




I rest my case.


This ranks right up there with Blue Ivy (Beyonce's kid)
Egypt (Alicia Key's son)
Denim (Toni Braxton's son)
Tennessee (Reese Witherspoon) yes even the beloved Reese's kid makes the list.

On a happy note, I just hope that little baby girl is loved. Could of been worse right?

Book Review!

I just finished my first Kindle book and I have to say I really enjoyed reading on my Ipad mini so much more than I thought I would!

I read "Tangled" by Emma Chase.

First and foremost, this was written by a woman, but from a man's perspective. The book was hilarious. It couldn't of been more dead on from how a guy or most guys think/act/behave.  

Goodreads synopsis:
"Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, he makes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed?

He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true."


Great read, really enjoyed it, if you like a little romance and cat and mouse chase then this book is for you! 

Art Overload: Summer School Edition

I am fortunate enough to work for a very Arts supportive school district that actually offers ENRICHMENT fine arts classes for the summer. Say what!?!? Yes you read that right. The music teacher and I split 40 kids (20 each) for 2.1.2 hours M-Thrs then switch kids after the 2.1.2 hour marker. It's awesome! We have the MOST ENROLLED kids out of the whole summer school program. That's right! We trump all the other enrollment for regular Math, science, reading help classes! Woot woot!

Here's what we've been up to in the past 2 weeks! (2 weeks left to go!)










































1. Summer Selfies--Had the kids draw themselves eating a summer time food. Most chose watermelon--some chose corn. These were inspired by the commercial artist Ben Javens who actually follows me now on twitter since I posted a picture of my kids work inspired by him! how cool is that!? heeh :) 


2. Coffee Filter Radial designs. I told the kiddos they could make ANYTHING as their background, and the filters just had to be completely made out of dots! They loved this lesson!

3. Lady Liberty

We talked a lot about the artist Peter Max (if you don't know, Peter Max is a pop artist who every year on July 4th, paints a picture of Lady Liberty's head)

I taught 2 separate lessons for Lady Liberty. 1-2nd graders did the tissue paper Lady Liberty
3-5th graders did the Painted portrait of her. 

4. Suit and Ties plain and simple these were for Fathers Day. kids really loved making these as so often moms get most of their artwork this was something specifically for Dad!


5.The TP tube owls are mine, I forgot to snap pics of the kids working on this one! They had their choice of making/using just sharpie, scrapbook construction paper or just paint on them. 

Look at this photograph..

So yesterday in lieu of it being Fathers Day and all, it was also my brother's 26th birthday. I always try to dig up an old photo each year and post it on his FB wall for the world (not really the world, but his friends) to see! He was such a cute kid when he was little!
This is what I posted on his wall this year 








This was last year (thank you Facebook timeline for allowing me to quickly recall back to over a year ago's post!)I honestly like the timeline, I remember when everyone was freaking out over it, but if you don't have anything to hide, then what's the big deal about being able to scroll back to old posts? Just sayin....



So the top picture is of me reading to him when he was just born. This is the photo I posted on my wall yesterday wishing him a happy bday.









While going through photos, I discovered that this exact photo was hanging on our childhood fridge in another picture I had also pulled out to post on his wall. I mean what are the odds of that!?!

Obviously these pictures hold deep sentimental value to me since my mom's passing in 1995 of cancer. My brother got less time with her than I did. He was only 9 when she died. 



 Anyway, back to the story. The point is, I LOVE old photos. If my house were to burn down tomorrow, I'd probably do everything I could to take those and my dog out of my house. They are items that cannot be replicated since these photos were before the digtal years and all the computer technology we have now to scan and back things up. These photos served as a visual or record in time if you will as to what was life like when we were that small. 

I must of studied the fridge in the background of the fridge for a good five minutes. All my memories came flooding back. In the picture there is a school hot lunch menu from elementary school, I can see a another photo posted on the fridge of my late grandma who passed away when I was 2 years old. I see all the magnets that my parents collected from their travels when they were younger. My mom always liked to pick one up from where ever they had been to.  I noticed the avon magnet which made me giggle remembering how much my mom loved their products back then! Right behind her left shoulder I can see that there was some homework of some sorts, probably a good grade on a paper from either my brother or myself, but judging from the handwriting and BLUE ink (I'm pretty notorious for only signing and writing anything in blue ink never black) it's probably a paper I did well on and my mom posted it as a way to show she was proud of me. I see that the wall in the background was sponge painted...Yes that was the rage back then after wallpaper was on the fritz.

It's so important to take photos. One day you may not be able to "remember" as much as you want to, and pictures serve as a great reminder to help us not forget our lost loved ones. 

Fathers Day

I don't talk about my parents on here much, mainly because my parents are NOT technology people. No facebook no texting. It's like they live in the stone age! Actually, I resepect them a ton for not letting technology rule their lives.


Anyway, here's to my Dad, a man who had to raise me alone through those terrible teen years right as we lost my mom to cancer.  

A man who did the best he could, and that's all a daugther could ever ask for. 

Summer Jam

They say the retro beats that once filled the airwaves of the 70s and 80s are returning to music today. I can't complain. I love those eras/genres of music.



My top jam is this little gem

Other beats that sound like this?

download "Treasure" by Bruno Mars (swoon! So good)
also Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke feat none other than Ferrell Williams

Happy Friday loves! 

Hawks Win!

GAME ON!

What a game last night! As a girl being from Chicago and all, I was glued to the game at work watching Boston battle it out with the Hawks. It's nice to see a team go all the way. Our Bears didn't do so well last football season, and The Bulls did great up until the end, and due to many of our star players being injured, that kind of crushed any advancement to the finals.
Do I dare mention my Cubs?  hahah can't recall the last time we won much of anything, but never the less I'm still a loyal fan! 

Bloglift!

In case you didn't see, the lovely Aubrey over at Kinch Designs revamped my blog for me!

I wanted to clean it up, in my book, less is more, so I tried to do away with as much clutter along the sidebars as possible!

My husband took some awkward selfies of me this weekend for my new blog updated picture. Somehow, his phone took this mini movie of me moving lol and for fun I thought I'd share me and the fur child in it. 

Thank you Aubrey from the bottom of my heart! Folks if you are looking to redesign or revamp your blog, then Aubrey is your girl! 

Something to Ponder

Do you ever stumble upon something so simple that resonates so deeply with you?

This quote for me is a great reminder of who I strive to be, and how I expect all my students to take from me as their teacher. 

Bachelorette Recap!

She sent Brandon home! Noooo! 

I was so sad when she did, but you can't force something that just isn't there. Poor guy, he fell hard and fast in all the wrong ways for Desiree' and there was no stopping him.

Anyone viewing on TV could totally see when he kissed her, she was just not "feeling" it. Trouble is he couldn't seem to see what everyone in America was seeing!

Moving on,

douchebag Brian with the girlfriend who came on national television to dog him. We've seen this before on previous seasons, have we not? 

Let's take a walk down memory lane shall we?

If memory serves me correctly these knobs all had girlfriends while trying to be on the show!

Remember this guy from Ali's season? 

Justin Rego, the wrestler on the show who goes by the lame nickname “Rated R.”  He SO totally had a girlfriend!!

And we can't forget Frank from that same season since he "wasn't feeling Ali" towards the end of their run due to still having feeling for an ex girlfriend. 

There are actually more to this list, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Rumor has it that a fella right now on Desiree's season is going to pull a Frank and bail on her because of a girl back home...Hmmmm...


Thoughts?

Book Review x2!

So now that school has officially ended, I was able to read two books in the past 2 weeks!

First up

This book wasn't as good as I was hoping it to be.

You can read about what Goodreads says about it here

Basically a girl named Brooklyn seeks revenge on a few specific boys that attend her best friend's high school. That's all I can say without saying to much! 

Second book which I just finished was this one

I absolutely LOVED this book. This was my first book by Kristin Hannah, and if any of her other books are this riveting than I dare to say I've found a new favorite author! :)

The book deals with 4 main characters. A mother, her two twins a boy and girl, and then a girl named Lexi.

You can read what goodreads says about the book here

I am sad to say that this was my last book I'll be reading as a hardback! On my birthday this past Sunday, the hubs bought me a Ipad mini which I am thrilled about, just simply because I can now read books digitally. 

This is a plus just for the fact that I don't have to "store" real books on a bookshelf that take up space in our home. Typically, I am not one who re-reads books over and over. 

I won't lie and say this transition is probably going to take me a while to get used to. I've been such a book snob for years, but the fact is I save a few bucks by digitally downloading the books too. Saving money? A plus in my book! 

Lennon and Maisy/Sunday Tune

I just adore these two girls.

Lennon & Maisy

 It didn't dawn on me that these two girls that were on this viral video were the same actresses in Nashville! 

Did I mention that they are sisters in real life? Ages 12 and 9. So sweet.

Joining the bloglovin world

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

How to "save" all your kids artwork

A fellow art teacher posted this on her blog, and thus, I am happy to pass along the information on how all you art loving parents can totally save your child's artwork with the click of your finger!

 "Don’t throw your child's art projects away or stuff it in a box...try this new app, Artkive, that I was turned on to recently by a parent.

Artkive is the fastest and easiest way to take, tag, share, and chronologically store kids’ art and school work, and then have it turned into a hardcover book with little more than the touch of a button.

Artkive has agreed to give all Art Projects For Kids readers a $10 credit towards the purchase of your first book when you sign up for a new account.  To get the credit, simple install the app from iTunes or Google Play, go to the Account Section of the app and in the Group Code box type "APFK".  Your $10 credit will then be placed in your account when you go to check out after buying your first book. (Credit valid through 7/31/13). Most books cost just $20, so you could save 50% right off the bat. Try it out and let me know what you think. For more info, see www.artkiveapp.com."

*Blurb taken from the lovely Kathy Barbro Art Projects for Kids blog! 

So there you have it fellow mommies and daddies who cannot seem to have the "space" to save your kids art work now you can! No Excuses! :)