It's been a glorious weekend!

This has been such a beautiful weekend. The sun is out, the weather is warm and the flowers are blooming!! I have azaleas blooming in the front yard and this picture reminds me of my friend Beverly who loves the color pink :) I did notice today that the irises have spread so much that they are taking over too much of the little patch of garden in the front yard. I need to share some with my friends and thin it out a bit.

I was up early yesterday and headed out for an oil change. When I left one of the gentleman working at the Saturn dealership asked how many miles on my car. (I think because it's so old LOL!). I bought my car in 1997 and it was a used 1995. It runs too well to get another. I do know that my next car will also be a Saturn :) Speaking of my Saturn, Timmy washed the car for me today, as best as a 7 year old can. He wanted an extra dollar for his allowance and he thought it was a fair trade. Who am I to argue LOL!

I even found time today to read! I haven't read a book for enjoyment in way too long. I finally picked up Nicholas Sparks' True Believer. It felt good to read. I've begun lining up my books for summer vacation. Only 17 more days of school to go!

I even had the chance to digi scrap. The papers are from Michelle Coleman's Summer Whimsy kit. The swirls are Shawna Clingman I can't remember where the overlay came from.

Take care,
Dawn

The countdown begins!

The countdown begins! I have 19 more days of school before my summer vacation begins! I love school but oh do I love the summer off!!!

Besides the actual teaching part of kindergarten we still need to make the incoming class lists, the outgoing class lists, do our budget for next year (the way things are getting cut that doesn't take too long lately!), assessments, report cards, grant writing and packing up the classroom (that is hours worth of work!)
Can you see why I need a break LOL!

take care,
Dawn

Today I am the meanest mother!~

What is it with my children and their messy rooms! Brittainy had the worst room ever and Timmy seems to be following in her footsteps!

Today I spent over two hours helping him clean his room. I took three garbage bags of JUNK out. Between the cleaning, the crying and the frustration on my part we finally got it done!

What I don't understand is that we keep 90% of his toys in bins in the basement and he doesn't have that much in his room so how does it get that messy!

I took a big bag full of books to bring to school. He hasn't read them and they are beyond his interest level now. I also took some of his toys that he doesn't play with to bring to school.

Wait until he finds out that the basement "toy store" is next on the list! The wailing might be heard clean across the country!

take care,
Dawn

Stuff Portrait Friday (on Saturday!)

1. Something Discarded
2. Lay down on the ground and find something ugly and make it beautiful.
3. Take a picture in the style of the person that inspires you.
#3 is wide open - meaning if you took a picture that you wouldn't have normally taken, but you thought, 'hey so-in-so would love this'. Share with us your inspirations!

Something Discarded.

This is the old highway department where my dad worked for more than 20 years. A couple of years ago the town built a new department of public works building. This one has just been sitting vacant for years!

Lay down on the ground and find something ugly and make it beautiful.

I don't know. Can you make a weed beautiful?

Take a picture in the style of the person that inspires you.

At the new highway department the town planted this tree in memory of my father. I took the picture looking up at the sky thinking that at the same time my dad (I sure hope!) is looking down at me!

This is just an added extra. It is the plaque under the tree. For obvious reasons I've deleted the last name .

take care,
Dawn

What is that bright ball in the sky????

I saw this bright ball in the sky today and wasn't sure what it was! I have a vague memory of something similar called the ....what was that name....oh yes the sun! It's been 8 days since we've seen it.

This week has been so rainy!!! I don't remember seeing so much rain! Fortunately Cape Cod was spared the flooding that we have seen in the northern part of the state!

The upside, my lawn is nice and green in the front yard and the new grass is coming up in the back (after the recent septic work). I still need to spread some more seed I think!

I also liked the fact that we have had indoor recess at school and I haven't had to do outside recess duty. I've been able to work in the room while the kids played :)

I will admit that it feels great to have the sun out again and I am hoping to see lots of it this weekend. Thanks to Debi for checking in to see if all was well here on the Cape after the recent rains!

take care,
Dawn

Limber I'm not!

This morning I woke up feeling just like this lady here!!! I can't walk! My hip is aching and each step is a bit of pain accompanied by a limp! I managed to go grocery shopping but came home to rest! Still no relief! As I was waiting for Rich to cook dinner it finally came to me! I know the reason for my pain!!1


Each spring we meet the incoming kindergarten children and spend a "mini" day with the children. We let them play, read them a story, do an art activity and a little song and dance before they go home. We do this for five different groups of children. It is a long day but exciting at the same time! This year was no exception. We had a chance to meet all of the children. We read a story called "Cookies Week" and then make a cat puppet. The hour ends with a song of Hap Palmer's called Sammy. We had a little extra time each session so we also played the song Touch. It starts out saying touch your fingers to your toes, touch your wrist to your knee, touch your elbow to your stomach (no trouble there!) and touch your nose with your toes. Here I am 45 years old so proud of the fact that I can still touch my nose with my toes...so proud in fact that I did it about 8 times throughout the course of the day! Today I am paying the price. It is not pretty getting old LOL!

take care,
Dawn

Stuff Portrait Friday (late again!)

This week was :

BODY OF WATER

Timmy just loves playing with water balloons and he'd use them everyday if I would only fill them for him. Oh, the fun!

SOMETHING WITH FLAVOR

I had the pleasure of spending my weekend alone (*joy*) and this was my lunch and dinner yesterday. They are the best nachos (a little heavy on the raw onion here though!

PLANT YOUR *BACKSIDE* WHERE YOU PARK IT!

This is where I spent ENTIRELY TOO MUCH TIME this weekend, in my computer room on my backside!!!

take care,
Dawn

I do know how to use paper LOL!

I'm beginning to wonder if my friends think I've given up paper scrapping! This is to prove that I still scrap with my paper supplies. It's not the best scan sorry! I still don't feel comfortable with the way I use patterned paper. Everyone else seems to really have a knack for it. I'm not sure I come by that easily.

These pictures were from last year and I already see how much Timmy has changed in such a short time. I remember how excited he was to decorate the eggs. The funny thing is we don't like hard boiled eggs so we decorate them and give them away. The fun is in the creating!

take care,
Dawn

I made it myself

I don't know what it is about me and a challenge? I always feel the need to prove I can do it LOL! Yesterday for NSD there was a mini class at 2Peas on creating digital papers. I followed Rhonna's directions and came up with these two papers (the striped and the background). I also used a DDE doodle and Jenn Star chipboard alphabet and a scrapartist inked overlay.

Now while this is just a baby step I am so excited that I figured it out! And what better topic to scrap than my favorite drink!!!!

take care,
Dawn

National Scrapbook Day with an hour to spare!!!

Wow, talk about cutting it close!! Imagine a national scrapbooking day coming and going without doing a layout! I did get to clean my scraproom! I even pulled out some pictures, papers and stickers to work on a page but I couldn't do it. So I pulled up some kits and did a digital layout! The kit is from Shelle Puka and the overlay is from scrap artist. This is another picture of my granddaughter, Mackenzie. I'm tired and I'm off to bed...with my goal complete!

take care,
Dawn

10 Favorite Romantic Movies

1. The Notebook
2. Sleepless in Seattle
3. Must Love Dogs
4. Love Story
5. You've Got Mail
6. When Harry Met Sally
7. It's a Wonderful Life (my favorite all time movie)
8. Little Women
9. Groundhog Day
10. Mystic Pizza

take care,
Dawn