908th Awards Banquet

      Over the years, we have attended several military events. Some have been casual while others were  dressier. By now, I know when Carmel has to pull out his Mess Dress, I need get fancy. Since I have learned I can never go wrong with black, that is usually my choice of attire. 

     

Sadly, there was nothing in my closet for such an event. I HAD to go shopping! My husband always tells me to go out and buy something nice but the saver in me has a hard time following through. Don't get me wrong…..I like to shop. I just don't like to pay full price. I figured it would be hard for me to find something nice this time of year. A few days before the event, I went to Belk hoping to find something. I headed straight for the clearance rack. I loved seeing the sign that said, "Take an additional 50% off the ticketed price." There were many dresses hanging on the rack so I am thinking I may possibly get lucky! I had my evolving fashionista with me for a second opinion. As I looked, she gave me several "ew…mom…no!" and "definite never!" This girl was sweet when she handed me some beautiful dresses in a size 4. Sadly, I had to turn those down since I…. am ….no….. where…. near…. a size 4! 

I was about to go to the dressing room with my slim pickins when I noticed a pantsuit. The tag said a small but the price tag said $12(after the addition 50% off). I figured a girl can dream about squeezing her rump into a small. I tried on the pantsuit and much to my surprise it fit! So after the % off and my Belk reward, I ended up paying $1.36. That made this momma very happy!

We tried to get a picture in front of the lake but the lighting made it dark. We had to settle for apartments in the background. I don't know why I didn't take any at the banquet.

 Carmel was excited he could still fit into his Mess Dress after 15 years!

I thought he looked handsome!

It's getting close!!!!

WE WILL BE CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE IN A FEW WEEKS!!! 

I am very excited to finally be in my own home with all our stuff under one roof again after almost 2 years. Living in 2 different states and now out of boxes has not been our ideal way of living but we managed to make it work. I have to admit as much as I am excited to move in I am dreading the moving part. Between homeschooling, my graduate classes, training, co-op classes, softball and being out of town for 2 weekends doesn't leave a whole lot of time for moving. Luckily, we don't have to be out of the apartment for another month.  

 I had every intention on posting pictures throughout the building process but as you can see….…. life got in the way. Believe me when I say we have plenty of pictures. I think Carmel went every other day and took at least 15 pictures each time. Today, I will show you just a few of those many pictures Carmel took.

 Breaking ground

I will skip the foundation and framing pictures. They are not very interesting to see.

Here are a few of the inside before all the good stuff was installed. We have chosen a open floor plan since we like to entertain.

The next few pictures will show you some of my favorite features of this house. My absolute favorite place in the whole entire house is definitely my kitchen!!!!!!! 

I have never had an island so I am looking forward to using it! In every house we've owned, there was an electric stove. I can't wait to try gas!

The best part about building a house is being able to pick out everything to make it unique and fit your style. Since we have lived in so many homes with several different features, I knew exactly what I wanted and didn't want!

This is our separate laundry room where I can shut the door and hide the piles of laundry.

 My Our shower

I love having a front porch. It's not my ideal wrap around porch but that can wait for my dream home!

This was just a glimpse of what we will be moving into in just a few short weeks. Once we get settled(whenever that will be), I will take you on a tour of the house.

Creative book report ideas

I wanted to do something a little different with Ella's assigned chapter books this year. I want to retell the story in a creative way. Here are a few of her finished products.

Lego Littles

She used her legos to recreate a scene from her book The Littles.

 Biography Bottle

She had to create Cora Frear using a 2 liter coke bottle. 

Canned Character

She decorated a can to resemble a dog.

Cereal Box TV

She took her story and turned it into a tv show.

Shadow Puppet Theater

We turned a shoe box into a theater. She had to make characters from her story and reenact the story. A flashlight turned the story into something magical. She has already used the theater to come up with other stories.

The only problem we are having is Ella loves to keep everything. She is starting to run out of room in her bedroom.

It's a plane…it's a bird….no its Batman's sidekick Robin

Last night, we went to Jamboree to watch Griffin and all the rest of the clubs perform. Griffin and his club did a Batman act which included Batman with several Robins and Catwoman with several of her sidekicks. On the evil side, there was the Joker with his bad boys and the worst of them all…. ivy girl. It was a very entertaining battle but the good guys came out on top. 

Griffin and my nephew were both Robins in the act. Although I don't think they will be majoring in drama, they did a good job. It was funny to hear them talk about wearing tights, split shorts with attached undies and makeup.

If your ever in a jam, these two would be happy to help just don't make them come in costume!

A Valentines Day Surprise

Before I begin, can I just get a hip hip hooray??? I just turned in my final for one of my classes. I am so glad to have 2/3 of my classes finished. The sad part…….this was not my hardest class!

Carmel called me about a month ago and said, "Block Valentines weekend because I am taking you somewhere and its going to be a surprise." Normally, I don't like surprises but since I have been mentally brain drained lately, I accepted the surprise. 

Fast forward to the day before we are supposed to leave. I have no idea what to pack!!! I am the kind of girl who usually packs for all the…... just in case this happens on the trip. I had to know what to take. I asked the hubs and he said, "Casual and maybe one nice outfit." That didn't tell me much. Casual to me would be wearing my pajamas or a workout outfit. I finally had to show him the outfits to get the approval. 

The next day we loaded up and started heading north. We reached Elijay,Ga and I thought... I've always wanted to pick apples here. We drove right past it. As we entered into North Carolina, I was clueless. I knew we couldn't go to far because we had to be back by 2:00 on Sunday. We finally pulled up to a place called John C Campbell Folk School. He had made plans for a tour of the place to see if we would be interested in coming back. This place offers classes from cooking to blown glass. We stepped into a class where they were knitting their own socks. Carmel's interest were at the blacksmith shop.

Since it was very cold, we did not spend much time walking to each building. I did snap a couple of pictures of the scenery.

My husband did slip up and tell the lady in the office where we were heading next. After we hopped in the car, the GPS was taking us to Helen, Ga. I have always liked this little town. It may be because my grandmother is German or that I wish to travel to Germany one day. It is a small town with a German feel. 

We arrived at a bed and breakfast(definitely a good surprise) and settled into our African room equipped with a heart hot tub, flowers and chocolate.

It definitely brought out the wild side in us!

Enjoying chocolate while watching tv. That is what I call relaxing…...

or so I thought! Couples message was definitely the highlight for me!!!!!

It was so relaxing….we had to go back to the room to relax and wash the oils out of my hair. Eventually, we got out to do a little window shopping and finally lunch.

Notice a pattern????

Why would we want to stop someone to take our picture when we can keep taking close up selfies! Can you guess what we did after lunch? Yep…..more relaxing(and no its not code for something else).

We did finally get out one more time for dinner. This time it was German food.

This was definitely a much needed break from life for the both of us! Wish we could go somewhere once a month……maybe when we retire!!!!

Note for hubby: Thank you for the wonderful weekend!!!!!

Roaring 20s

This past Saturday, we attended The Annual Primetimer Awards at church. Each year a theme is picked and we have the option of dressing in that theme. This year's theme was the Roaring 20s. Whether it is a race, Halloween or an awards party, I am not going to give up the chance to dress up. I started looking for outfits a couple of months before the event. Since my husband had a pinstripe suit and I had nothing, I decided to go in the direction of a gangster and flapper style outfit. I refused to pay the prices for a dress online so I began bargain shopping. I found a brand new dress and shoes for me and a black shirt for Carmel at Goodwill for less than $15. I found a headpiece at the Dollar Tree and added a feathery piece from Hobby Lobby. I was doing really well with not spending much until I stepped foot into Party City. They had a huge selection of accessories for Carmel and I which would complete the 20s look we wanted. Instead of explaining everything I found I think I will show you the pictures from the evening.

I did have to show off the new bling my gangster husband got for me.

Here are the guys. We had a lot of gangsters!

Here are the ladies.

Each couple was given an award. Carmel and I were given the On the Run award since we have moved our stuff 4 times in the past year and a half……..or it could have something to do with that big diamond on my finger. We are currently hiding in an undisclosed location while we are waiting on a more permanent location!

We had a very enjoyable evening and can't wait to hear what next years theme will be!

How do you know your an Early Childhood student?

Your book bag looks like this……

I have not been posting much due to all the schooling that has been taking place around here. We do school during the day while I go at night to learn how to better school them. That's a lot of school! I think I am leaning more now than I ever did during my school days. I am either grasping the concepts better or the information is just way more interesting than it used to be. I am actually enjoying working my brain. If you ask me that come April when my research paper is due, I might just feel differently!

I am taking 3 classes…….

*Curriculum and Teaching Language Arts

* Advanced Curriculum and Teaching Reading

* Curriculum and Teaching Preschool

The above bag was holding 5 projects which were due last week. To be honest, I loved doing all of them. I would much rather create something than do a research paper! I thought I would share with you a few of the activities I took to class.

We had to bring a cooking/food activity to share with our small group.

I have used this activity many times and my students always loved it! Basically, a child will take a piece of bread and paint something using colored milk. Once the bread is toasted, the colors will become vibrant! This activity is so versatile it can be used in so many ways!Here are some ideas I have used in the past:

* We had a science lesson on mixing colors and the class could paint anything. We also made homemade butter to spread on top. Another science lesson for changing a liquid to a solid.

* I read The Way I Feel and had the class paint a face of the way they were feeling on that particular day.

* During a counting lesson, the child was given a number and had to paint that many dots on the bread.  For older students, they could make dominoes to use for addition, subtraction or multiplication.

*Students could paint a scene from a book.

The possibilities are limitless!

Another assignment was to make a story box. I chose the book The Very Lazy Ladybug.

A story box is an interactive activity to allow students to retell the story. I took a shoe box and spray painted it. I added felt leaves and a ladybug made from construction paper. The white vinyl letters were made using my cricut machine. On the inside…..

I hot glued a piece of felt to the top and made all the pieces to the story with either construction paper or felt. The felt pieces will stick to the big piece of blue felt. For the construction paper animals, I had to place a piece of velcro on the back in order to make them stick. This story box only cost me $1 to make because I  had everything but the felt. Teachers or homeschool parents have to get creative sometimes in order not to empty their wallets. In case you haven't checked lately, teachers make a very poor salary and as for homeschool parents……our payment is made with love!!!

We had to research Math Their Way and create a box of manipulatives. I used this method in my classroom so I already had plenty of supplies. The problem was…... they were all boxed up sitting in our garage somewhere(we are moving in 2 months.) I was not about to search through 50 boxes looking for something I could use. Luckily, I had some pompoms that were readily available. I dumped them in a container and created a Math Their Way activity. 

 Younger students can explore the pompoms on their own. As they get older, they can use them in many different ways. For example, a counting activity as you can see in the picture above.

You can use them to teach addition,

 grouping

or patterns. 

If you are a teacher or homeschool parent, hopefully this will inspire you to look around your house and use what you have on hand. Teaching children can be cost-effective. Now, let me get off of here so I can be better at time management and tackle that long list of things that needs to get done!