On mountain mornings the wood smokes curls round and round

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Summer School

After all these years I am going to summer school again. I need hours to renew my teaching certificate one more time. I am taking a Spalding class called "The Writing Road to Reading". It is a really good class but it is so labor intensive. Scads of homework every night. Right now I have a B in the class with three more things to be graded plus the final exam on Friday. This has been a two week class running from June 8-June 19. I have also been participating in a challenge at Jessica Sprague.com. We do a LO a day for each day in June according to the "rules" of each day's challenge. Below are three of the challenge LOs that I think came out nicely.

Well, this blog had a definite delay in it. I had difficulty posting my LOs and then I had lots to do for class. Class was over last Friday and my instructor emailed my grade. WOOHOO I got an A by the skin of my teeth. One less point would have been a 89% B. I just kicked it yesterday. Went to breakfast with the kids and grandkids so that grandson Jake could celebrate Father's Day with grandpa. Jake will be with his Dad today. We are going to meet Kurt's parents in Camp Verde for lunch at his Dad's favorite restaurant, Johnny Rocket's. He just loves their hamburgers. Here are the LOs I promised.








I leave you today with this thought in honor of Father's Day: Families are like fudge, mostly sweet but with a few nuts!

Have a good one.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Winding down the school year

Hi again my dear friends.

Since the last week in May I have been participating in a challenge a day at Jessica Sprague's
www.jessicasprague.com. This is really fun. The challenge will continue until the end of June.

My last teaching day was yesterday (June 2). The kids are out of school tomorrow (June 4). It is finally starting to warm up here. I think it reached 70 today and no rain!

My daughter and eldest grandson left today for San Diego. They are joining her aunt and and her two boys at Mission Beach. Her aunt is from Colorado and since her boys were out of school before Memorial Day she just assumed that Jake was too. Duh! Could have picked up the phone or sent an email before she booked everything. Oh well, he just missed today and the half day tomorrow.

I am going to summer school for the next two weeks (June 8-19) from 8 to 1. This will seem like a major undertaking since I only work Monday and Tuesday during the school year.

Ummmm.... seems like I'm whining tonight. Guess so.. not feeling too well. So let me just share with you a few of my lay outs that I've made for the challenge.

The top page is of my children from a picture taken in 1981. It was fun to do.

I will leave you with this thought:
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21 inch long tongue.

Have a good one!

Friday, May 8, 2009

What a trip down memory lane!

I went to a sorority (Kappa Alpha Theta) reunion last week in Scottsdale, Arizona. I graduated from ASU (Arizona State University) in 1966 and haven't seen most these gals since. Forty of us gathered for three days and just had a ball. When I first heard about it I almost decided not to attend as I had gotten too fat. LOL several of us had and you know what it sure didn't make any difference. We had such a great time. We stayed in the Camelback Inn a AAA diamond resort
www.camelbackinn.com. If you ever get a change to stay there jump on it. The rooms, the service, the ambiance..oh la la supurb! I was official photographer and I took 217 pics. whew! still editing them and gonna post them at shutterfly for folks to buy if they desire. I am making a 20 page digital scrapbook and will send copeis of the pages (8 x 8) to those that want them for just my cost of priting and the mailing. The can get their own albums. Here is one page I made. These are all members of my pledge class. We pledged in 1962.


But, now it is back to reality. I have five more weeks to teach this year and then I'm going to summer school for three weeks. So, getting into a busy time for me. Our weather here in the mountians is starting to warm up. The trees are leafing out and so flowers are right around the corner.

It's in the high 60s today so we are going to the park with my daughter and the boys around 5pm. Is not too windy to fly the kites today. Last time we tried it was too windy and it broke the kites. Poor little guys were heart broken. But, today should work.

Here are some inspirational thought for you today.

The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

Have a good one.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Where have I been?

Good question. I just don't know. I have not really been doing anything so earth shaking to keep me from blogging. I just got out of the habit and time sure flew by. I have been scrapbooking. I have made some hybrid pages for the first time. I have done Episodes 1 and 2 at Jessica Sprague. Episode 2 I followed a tutorial to scan my 12 x 12 page in two parts and then stitch it together so I could post it. I also was able then to print it as a digital 8 x 8 for my daughter-in-law. Here it is:




I have made four others from episode 1 but I just took a picture of them and posted them that way. They do not post as well. Here are two of those:




They are fun to do and I like combining the two aspects of my scrapbooking.

No segue. I am going next week to Scottsdale, AZ and the famous Camelback Inn to stay for two night with 30 or so of my college sorority sisters from 43 years ago. My sorority sister Merrilee Bean Buchanan put this all together with other's help and now it is a reality. I am really so excited. I am going to be the official photography and archiver. My problem is this: In my mind they all still look 20 years old. I am going to walk into the room and say,"Who are all these old ladies? Where are all my friends?' LOL

I will blog and post about it.

I leave you with this food for thought:
The average person has 1,460 dreams a year! Dream big!

Have good one.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

If Only.......

If only things had gone differently in that superbowl game the Cards would have won....well duh!

If only is a strange expression. We all have if only(s) in our lives. We tend to take them as negatives, but they could be positives too....like, "If only I hadn't flown the day before, I would have been on that flight...". You get the point.

I think things in our lives happen for a reason. Will we always know the reasons? Well...no!

It's snowing again for what reason, I don't know..seems like we've had enough. I went to a very nice Valentine's luncheon with my lady friends yesterday. If only our Valentine princess hadn't fallen and hurt herself the day before she would have been there too, to get all the good presents we brought her.

I try not to think of If Onlys these days. I just like to enjoy each day as it comes and try to see the good in it. I am taking an afterschool class to get hours to renew my teaching certificate. It is held at the high school. On the wall was a big sign that some kids had made it said, " Make each day your masterpiece". How great is that? huh? I will use that as a digi scrapbook page quote one of these days soon. If only I hadn't gone to that class I would never have seen that sign.

When George W left office he said something like this, " While the days can be long, the years are short." I like this too and will think of it as I put off things I want to do. It will be a reminder that someday I will run out of time to do them. Don't want to reach the pearly gates and have to say..."If only".

If only I wasn't so philosophical today I could have written a blog with more humor. Oh well.....

Here is just a little somthing to think about as you go about your long day and short year. If only you'll remember it!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Have a good one!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Waiting for......well, the Super Bowl

As an Arizonan I am waiting for the Super Bowl. Our Cardinals finally get a chance at the BIG ONE! I am not a serious football fan. Either is my husband. But,.......well it's the Arizona Cardinals. I am really into basketball. I used to coach it. I love watching it live or on TV. Never bother me when March Madness comes around. I am glued to the TV, brackett in hand on the road to the final four. I love college ball and I cheer for the Phoenix Suns too. I see that former Sun, Kevin Johnson is now the mayor of Sacramento. Who would have thought as he scooted around being a great point guard.

Sports in general are interesting in a wacky way. We played them as children and like to watch them played as adults. We pay big buck for the pros to entertain us and follow the local high school on the local sports page. I don't think this blog entry is really making a point but, I digress.

I am waiting for the Super Bowl. I have lined up my recipes on the counter and gone over the ingredients. I have planned my menu and bought my paper plates. I have choosen my serving pieces and planned out my time. The game will start about 4:00 pm in AZ. I will clean my TV screen and set out the napkins and drink mixes and pull out my old Cardinals jersey.

Umm let's see there must be something else I need to do to get ready. Can't think what though.

Here is a good football scrapbook page I made for Type+writer at Jessica's . It's a good one for waiting.

I read this the other day, "Reindeer like to eat bananas", as long as they don't want to eat my Super Bowl snacks they are welcome to come on over.

OH MY GOSH wait, wait wait....I forgot to invite my friends.

Have a good one.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Happiest of New Years

Happy, Happy. Already the 10th of January. Time flies regardless if you are having fun or not! My youngest grandson will be 3 years old tomorrow....speaking of time flying. School has resumed (last week) and I'm still working my two days a week and liking it. I have continued with my water areobics classes three days aweek and have added a strength training class for beginners. Went to the first one this moring. I am somewhere way below beginner. The class lasts for one hour and will continue for three more saturdays....hope that I do.

While I'm thinking of it...here are a couple of pics of my grandsons at Christmas:

Well, I guess I'd better lie down and recover from my weight training class today. We did a lot of exercises some with weights, some without weights, some standing up and some on the floor. I did find out that I can't jump. Which makes this little piece of interesting info that I came across not true!

The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump. That needs to be amended: The elephant and fat old ladies are the only mannals that can't jump!

When I start feeling just too, too fat I think of this statistic: The earth weighs around 6,588,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo tons and I am thankful that I weigh a few tons less!

Have a good one.