Back up!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm back! I have been out of commission because the ole laptop crashed! We lost everything, though we, luckily, are pretty good at backing up our stuff! I think I only lost about 30 pictures and some journaling and old files. Joe lost a few songs from his itunes, but most were already on his Ipod...thank goodness...so the message for the day kids is to BACK up your stuff...go, right now, stop what you are doing and back up!!!! :-)

How can I pick just one?

She is too cute, and what can I say, takes awesome pictures! Here's my little miss...I am itching to buy some actions so I can play more with the photos...I need to spend time with photoshop lightening some of these, but hello, don't have much free time lately...so there's a few for you to peruse...have about 30 more...seriously!

It's hot today! I took the kiddos to the park and we were all sweating...even in shorts! This is not typical November weather. Global warming is really happening! I finally watched Al Gore's doc on that and man, it was good...even though I have heard so many say it's a hoax and not true....I believe it!

Green girl

OK, trying to still go green...it's a process! Done most of the easy things I can do: lighbulbs, conserve energy, recycle, reusable bags and bottles, chlorine free wipes, green cleaning products, personal products, etc...but now have to go a little greener, especially in the food area. I checked out from the library, Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about her year living off the land, so hopefully that will inspire me more! It's just hard with all that is going on to clear out the quick food options, but it's sooo not helping my children and my children are the ones who inspire me! :-) Going to institute the "green hour" and make sure we go out for walks everyday!!!!
I also picked up Deidre Imus's book Greening Your Cleaning from the library, and it's really good! She has some good ideas in it! I tried the toilet bowl cleaner: vinegar, baking soda and lemon, which you make into a paste, spread in the bowl and let it sit for at least a half hour. Works great! Seriously, using natural stuff is way cheaper! And I'm going to a Shaklee party next week. They make good green products that I have heard many people rave about! Sally, if you want to come, let me know! :-)
So, anyway, just an update...though it's not always easy...Joe got laughed at with his Whole Foods reusable bags at Savemart! Oh well....my sister has found some makeup options she really likes, I'll have to remember to post what kind she likes...
And sweet Patti, who must be so thrilled her kids are moving back to CA, bought me a kids' green book! I am so excited to use in my class! That was very, very thoughtful Patti!!! I love it!
no pictures...I was bad this week and didn't take pics...poor K had her first baby cold and she looked miserable. She's almost all better...thank goodness! It's hard to be a working mom with a sick baby. Even a part time working mom!
Have a great weekend!!!

Crafty crafty

On Sunday evening, I got to go have some girl time and some creative time! Yippee! Sally had a fun evening planned with her friend Jen. You have to check out Jen's blog since she is starting her own craft business.

Here's the clock I made. Fun! (Also made 2 picture frames, but I need to add the finishing touches to them first!)

And for Sally, here's pictures of my First Days of School lunchbox. Each year, I'll take a picture of my kids on the first day of school and make a small card with the picture and some notes from the day. Got the idea from someone on Two Peas In A bucket scrapbooking site...sorry that I cannot give credit to the exact person!

We're fine here...Kendall got her first tooth yesterday! We also had the day off and went shopping with my mom. She's brave to take on me and my 3 kiddos! It wasn't a very long trip, luckily!

Excited that Thanksgiving is almost here...though we will miss Jenny and Justin!!! We'll eat a turkey leg for them! :-)

Back and better and long winded

OK, I'm cheered up...it's the weekend! :-)

Made scrambled eggs with mushrooms and pepperoni and cheese for breakfast...yum! Kendall slept in until 7:30...go baby girl!

Got my organic onesie I won from http://www.zoeandsprout.com/ It says "My stroller is a hybrid". I'll have to post a pic of her wearing it. The site is pretty cool, and I have a code for 20% off if you want to order anything, let me know!

I've been cooking a lot more lately. We got in a bad (and expensive) habit of not planning our dinners very well, and then having to go pick something up. I've been making meal lists for the past 3 weeks and doing better. We haven't eaten out in awhile...actually can't remember the last time we did. I make the meal list, Joe does the shopping, sounds good! I've been wanting to try a new recipe a week, as well as eat our standby favorites: spaghetti with meatballs, tacos, etc.

We've had new recipes: lasagna soup (a hit), mac-n-jack salad (pasta salad with pepper jack cheese...it was OK), mushroom egg souffle (needed more zip, chiles, maybe? But Spence dug it!), and what else...hmmm...can't remember. I've been getting recipes from the pre-school cookbook. You know those are pretty easy and kid friendly. I've also put two mom and kid friendly cookbooks on my library hold, so I'll be sure to post reviews.

So excited that it is November...Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming....love these times of the year! Plus, lots of school vacations! My little hitter was still out yesterday. And now another student is gone after his mom made a threat to our office manager. Crazy...I actually work at a good school, not sure where these drama kids are coming from! He actually isn't in the school boundaries, so he goes to "his" school on Monday...whew...luckily all of his drama happened in the afternoons, so I was out for those times! Maybe things can settle down...sure you want to be a teacher, Michelle??? A lot of veteran teachers are thinking of leaving because we keep having to do more and more...like more testing the kids, more paperwork of the testing and strategies, more things they need to know...if we each had a personal secretary, we could maybe get it all done, but we don't. As it is, my Fridays are full of assessing, which I then take home and copy the results into an Assessment Binder and onto weekly progress reports for the parents, and some of those results get copied again onto forms to turn into the office...thank goodness I have only 20 kiddos...19 now! But it truly is about the kids...I love 'em! and to see them reading already, wow! I love it! Next step is to focus on the writing. First graders think they have to spell everything correctly, which of course they don't nor do I expect them to! And I want them to use words like "suddenly" or "horrible" and not follow me around asking me how to spell it...I read somewhere (think it was Lucy Calkins) that we praise our babies for their first steps, which includes lots of falling and tumbling, and first words, which means lots of babbling and incorrect grammar, but when it come to kids' writing, we expect them to be perfect right off the bat! I told my class that analogy to make them feel better. Spelling is only one part of the writing! They seemed to understand that (sorta) and wrote more. I'm trying to help Spencer with that, too, as he begins writing. He's doing great at it! Always uses his spacing! :-)

OK, off my school soapbox now....if you're still there...

OK...GIVEAWAY...not on my blog, silly, I don't have anything to give away that you'd want!...but one of my FAVORITE blogs... http://www.simplemom.net/ is giving away this printer combo that looks awesome! She's picking the winner soon so check it out if you are interested! Keeping my fingers crossed!

And my 7 month old!

Love feeding her in the bumboLove eating when my big brother helps!
And somebody got a cute new haircut!

Mood: So-so

Maddie, this is for you...you wanted an update....

Feeling so so right now....loving the cooler weather and early bedtimes...7:30 now for the boys!

Loving my happy mail from Charleen...another book! A sequel to a mystery book she sent me a while ago...THANK YOU! :-)))

Loving that I re-discovered the "hold" system at my local public library. I just went down my wish list at Amazon and put 17 books on hold for me through the Valley's library system. Save some money! Now, I just have to make time for them when they come! Ha! I'm number 141 for Tori Spelling's bio...that'll be a while before that comes.

But I am also tired...and tired of being tired...and broke and hoping this doesn't mean I have to go back full time next year...argh!

Tired of the ants in our house...just a few here and there...but they won't leave! We've done all the tricks to get rid of them, but then there's one or two on Kendall's changing table (ewww!) and there's a few in the bathroom sink (???) and there's a few on the cutting board....go away!!!!

And I had a student hit me today...yes, a little 1st grader. The last two years I've had some really awesome kids...and some real stinkers....not sure why...yes, she is suspended after I carried her kicking and screaming all the way to the office. Then I come home and carried in a kicking and screaming Cooper in the house. Man, I have a headache now. He's asleep now on the couch...and my 7 MONTH OLD TODAY (can't believe that!) is napping, too. I am going to make some tea, and something to eat and veg...

So anyway, Maddie, is that what you wanted??? Sorry if I seem grumpy...I better go recharge and relax...I'll be back when the mood is Happy, or at least, positive! :-)))))

Happy Halloween!!!

Yay, it didn't rain after all! :-) We all enjoyed our day. The kids all had parties at school, and even Kendall got a whole bucket of treats that she won't be able to enjoy! But we will...

In the afternoon, we went to Grammy's to make her special tortilla cookies and play. I got these cute pictures of my jack-o-lantern. Kendall is wearing the same costume her brothers wore on their first Halloween! It's a tradition!

In the evening, after a quick dinner of hot dog mummies (the picture is blurry...),

we went trick-or-treating with the Adrians (another tradition). Kendall stayed home with Grandma. The weather was warm, and thank goodness, dry! The kids had a blast, but boy, it sure tired them out! (And us!) Monica was a trouper, 8 months pregnant and she kept up.

Here's the gang before we started: my doctor and fireman and Indiana Jones (Aiden) and Yoda (Kyle).

The Dads carried the youngest by the end of the night!And how was your Halloween?

Pumpkins again....

So we hit up another patch today...it was OK, though we really enjoyed the corn maze! Then set to carve some pumpkins. The boys ended up wanting to paint their pumpkins...so we only got one carved. Oh well!

Looking forward to Halloween, but very afraid it's going to be a wet one! It sprinkled today and thundered...love it! Another random fact about me is that I love weather! I should have been a meteorologist. I watch the Weather Channel like regular TV. And here I am, stuck in an area with little weather. Warm, clouds, cool, rain...that's the extent of our weather. Love when Vicki posts the pictures of the stormy skies in their Texas area on her blog!

Love my Cooper...who is going to be a fireman for Halloween. He's looking forward to his "Halloween Birthday Party" at his babysitters! He thinks it's a birthday party, too...after all, isn't that when we party???

Tag...you're it!

So Jennifer from Little Green Secrets tagged me...(Hi, Jennifer....fellow Depeche Mode fan!!!)Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six (6) Random Things about me in no particular order:
1. I cannot drive stick. Sorry, Joe, I know you hate it...

2. I was bilingual as a toddler. I spoke English and Hungarian.

3. I was an actress in high school! I even did one show in college (not at UCSB, here in town) with a tiny but very funny part in Midsummer's night Dream! That was fun!

4. I met Joe in high school, and we became good friends that would joke we would get married because we had the same last name. The first time he brought me to his house, he introduced me as his future wife (we weren't dating, it was a joke!)....but how true it really was! :-)

5. Green note: I haven't used a plastic bottle since at least the beginning of August. I use my reusable bottle and love it. Only used plastic bags once since about then, too...

6. I love disco music. It makes me happy!

OK, now I am tagging...

Laura (the hottest scrapbook designer out there...check her blog and see!), Vicki, Sally, Kelli, Patti, Michelle, Steph....and anyone else that wants to do this!

And by special request, the pics of my boys climbing that that tall, weird statue out on the way to the pumpkin patch!

Pumpkins!

We went out to the pumpkin patch today...seriously the best one around since it's waay out in the country! We've gone there every year...and we'll be back since we didn't check our wallets before we left and only had $2 cash on us (who carries cash anymore these days...if you have it! LOL!)...so we only brought home one pumpkin...but it's a good excuse to go back!

The kids love it...of course. I didn't get any good pics of the 3 together, but got some cute individual shots, I think.

Not much else is new...the hot weather has returned...lucky us! Here's a shot of my Mom with her grandkids when we had her over for dinner last weekend.

Love you, Mom!