One little word 2010

With January quickly approaching, I was reminded that I need to pick my word for 2010. The idea comes from ali edwards, one of my favorite all time creative people. She has picked her work for this year, which is STORY. Her words in past years are Nurture for 2009, Vitality for 2008, and Peace for 2007. (You can read her original post on "one little word" here.)

I picked my first word in 2008 after reading ali's blog. My word in 2008 was CREATIVE. I really wanted to focus my energy on being creative that year; in fact, starting a blog was part of that creative process.

Last year I picked the word MINDFUL for 2009.

As I started thinking about my word for 2010, and about writing about it on my blog, I was going to come up with a list of words I might consider. ali has people post words they are considering, so you can see all kinds of words that might resonate for you. But as I started to think of words to consider, one popped into my head, and I can't let it go. So, it will be my word for 2010.

My 'tag line' on my email signature at work is this phrase: "Be the change you wish to see in the world" by Gandhi. So the word change is important to me. And as I thought of 2010, I thought about my need to change my eating habits, to keep the weight off that I lost this year. And I also know I want to change the way I think about some things, like letting negative people zap my energy. So there was my word . . . one that I think will be important to me in 2010 . . . CHANGE.

I'm excited for that to be my word!

Hope you pick out 'one little word' for 2010 that will help your year be a great one!

I hope you all had a great Christmas.
Mine was fabulous.

I'm still enjoying looking at my Christmas tree and all the decorations in my house. (No, the picture above is not of my tree; the picture is courtesy of Country Living. But I love the way this red & white looks in this picture!)

We also enjoyed watching our Chargers win on Christmas night!

Next, we're cheering for a Super Bowl WIN by our San Diego SUPER-Chargers!!!

Not a creature was stirring . . .

Countdown . . .

Egad! How did that happen?!?! And I have not sent out one single card nor present. Ugh! I'd better get busy!

Hope you are having a good time preparing for Christmas! : )

Aaawwwwhhhh!!! What a coincidence!

It was quite a coincidence when I received this lovely ceramic Starbucks mug from one of my students, just an hour or so after I posted my fondness for Starbuck's cup philosophy on Friday morning. : )

I LOVE it!!! What a nice treat . . . and so timely! Guess the 'universe' was listening to my thoughts. : )

Coffee cup philosophy

I've got to admit that I get not only my caffeine but also some motivating thoughts from my Starbucks coffee.

Okay, so we're still playing 'Bah, humbug' here at our house, and not succumbing to decorating for Christmas yet. (The scarecrow & cornstalks are still out in the front yard!)

But if YOU are in the holiday spirit, here are some of my current favorite blogs to check out:


brown paper packages

320 sycamore

eddie ross

be different . . . act normal

nesting place


Enjoy! Oh . . . and ho*ho*ho!! : )

more THANKSgiving thoughts

As my neighbors all seem to be outside furiously putting up their Christmas lights and decorations, my mind is still on Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day, and Dave and I continue to think about ALL of the things we have to be thankful for! : )


The picture on my post of 11/25 was not of my table. Just thought it looked pretty and conveyed the right thought. (That picture was from Country Living.) Here's a peek at my table:


Very simple. Left lots of space on the table to be filled later with platters of FOOD!




Here's a look at one place setting, with the cutest fall napkins (from Target).





And for seating arrangements, I made these little placecards for each family member. They were quick and easy to do, and everyone liked them . . . in fact, most took theirs home! (I got the idea from a blog where someone did a similar thing with pinecones and material, but they were too intricate for me. I forget which blog I saw it on, but will post the site (and directions) when I find the one I used --- I want to give credit where credit is due!!)



Anyway, each placecard read "We are thankful for" and then was followed by the person's name. I printed them out on vellum, then attached each one to some cardstock (so it would stand up) and tied the two attached the two pieces together using a piece of ribbon. I was so happy with the way they turned out.




And speaking of THANKSgiving (I mean, really, it's not even December 1st yet!), here are some quotes to leave you to think about . . .




"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it." ~Fyodor Dostoevsky




"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you'?" ~William A. Ward




"If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get." ~Frank A. Clark




"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." ~Abraham Lincoln




"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the tings which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." ~Epictetus




"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude." ~Cynthia Ozick





Thanks for reading my blog today! : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!

Age, weight, and fall decorating

I know, what do those three things have in common? Well, read below . . .

Here's what 54 looks like:

Not bad, I think. (Dave took this picture of me on Nov. 12th, the day after my birthday.) You can't really tell from the picture, but I am letting my hair go gray, so that's definitely a hint that I'm getting older. But I think it's not too bad for a fifty-four year old!

And those of you who know me well can see that I have recently lost weight. How much? A lot. In fact, while decorating for fall, I realized I had lost the equivalent of three of these:

Yes, I've lost the weight of three (of this size) pumpkins. Feels pretty good. For a fifty-four year old! : )

Scarecrow cuteness

For the Fall Festival at school, each teacher was asked to create a scarecrow, to be raffled off to raise money for the PTA. I must say, I was so happy about the way my scarecrow turned out! I had seen one like it in a magazine a few years ago that was made with a real pumpkin. I used one of those fake ones you get at places like Michaels. The one in the magazine had sticks for hair, but I used some cute fall 'pics' that I found (on sale) at Michaels. And special thanks to my hubby Dave, who let me use of his old shirts for the scarecrow . . . just the right color for a fall scarecrow!

Quotes

Saw this quote in a Character Counts! mailing that I got today and thought it was a good one:

"The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers." ~Martin Luther King, Jr., minister, civil rights leader (1929 - 1968)

Then, in the same mailing, was this wonderful quote, which I just had to share as well:

"You can live life as if nothing is a miracle; you can live life as if everything is a miracle." ~Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist (1879 - 1955)


(Didn't know Einstein was that deep!) : )

9_11

That time of year

Yep, it's that time of year . . . Back to School!
I survived the first two days!
I have 33 students in my 5th grade classroom this year.
I think it'll be a great year --- if I can get used to waking up at 5:00 AM again!

Halloween in August

You've probably heard of Christmas in July.
Well, now I give you Halloween in August.
My good friend AJ sent me a box of goodies with some of her
handcrafted Halloween decorations.
LOVE THEM!!!
They are so cute, I can't seem to put them away.
Oh well, October is only two months away.
I think they'll stay where they are until then.
(Unless Dave totally loses it before then; he's not that into keeping Halloween decorations up for a couple of months --- obviously a character flaw of his!)

AJ has a store in Oregon, which she is in the process of closing.
BUT, I think she'll be selling more of her items on-line in the future.
When she gets it going, I'll link to her new site.
Such cute stuff!

Love it!!
Happy Halloween! (a little early)

Last night, Dave and I went to the Padres game. Not that we really wanted to see the poor last place Padres play. But some friends invited us, and we figured they'd have some good seats, so we said yes.

But they didn't have good seats.

They had INCREDIBLE seats!!!

Unbelievable seats!!!

You've probably have seen the seats before on TV. . . the ones right behind the plate.
Field level.
They call them "dugout seats."

But, that's not all.

These tickets get you entry into a restaurant. Where you get to see
players practicing in these underground batting cages. Right next to you

when you're eating.

Oh . . . and you can have all that you want to eat --- salads, steak, ribs, pot stickers, stir fry, mashed potatoes . . . AND, you can have all that you want to drink ---
water, soda, iced tea, beer, wine, tequila, vodka, whatever.

FREE.*

THEN, you go down a hall to another area. Where there is more food.

Boar's Head meats, sandwiches, hot dogs roasting, desserts galore --- cakes,
cookies, crepes they make for you to order.
As much as you want.
FREE.*


And of course, private bathrooms you
can use throughout the game.

THEN you head out to your seats. So close you can touch the players (or so it seems).
And the seats are padded. Actual comfortable seats at a ballgame!
And if you haven't had enough to eat or drink yet, you can order something from

the waitress, who brings it to you ---- for FREE.*

* Okay, so not quite FREE.
I mean, it's part of the cost of the tickets.
Which cost $ 325.00.

Each.

Three hundred twenty-five dollars, each!

So, on a beautiful summer night in San Diego,
I got to sit at a ballgame and enjoy a wonderful treat.

Even the fact that I'm on a strict diet didn't keep me from having a great time.

I mean, when else can I go to a ball game and order a shrimp cocktail
and have it delivered to me at my seat.
For FREE.**

(**FREE to me --- thanks to our friends who got tickets from someone
who obviously has lots more money than we have!)
$325.00 each seat.
Incredible.

Ouch!

Okay, so my face is sunburned and looks about like Kim Kardashian's did in this picture:

I don't have quite as large of a sunglasses mark as she does, but my cheeks and my forehead are super red. Can't remember how long it's been since I've been this sunburned. Probably back in the days when we put baby oil and cocoa butter on our skin and baked in the sun as teenagers. Ah, gotta love the '70's. But I was floating in the pool at my friend's house, feeling relaxed, not remembering how the reflection off the pool helps accelerate the sun, coupled with the fact that I didn't get out of the pool for 2 hours to apply more sunscreen. Hence ---- sunburn! Ouch! But since I've been mostly stuck inside working on the (stupid) classes I have to take this summer, it was SO nice to be outside!! I really enjoyed it . . . but next time, I'll remember to apply (and reapply) plenty of sunscreen! Happy summer!

Ridiculously Hot!!!

It is ridiculously HOT!!! And it looks like it's not going away anytime soon! Ugh!!

Hi !!!!

Hi! Here I am, still tethered to my computer all day, doing WORK to get my CTEL certificate! (CTEL stands for California Teachers of English Learners). UGH! I think this is more work than getting my Master's was!!! Oh well. It needs to get done.

On the bright side, I HAVE been getting some scrapbooking done! Hallelujah! I'm still working on my Greece photo albums, though --- from our trip 2 summers ago!! Well, it is a lot of pictures, and I'm doing a ton of journaling. But I'm trying to get them done so I can move on to our Santa Fe, New Mexico trip from last summer. So I guess it's a blessing in disguise that we're not going anywhere this summer, because who knows when I'd get a chance to scrapbook any more pictures! LOL

Okay, I admit it . . . I was on "Team Jon" --- until his latest antics. Yes, I'm talking about Jon Gosselin from TLC's Jon & Kate Plus Eight. I loved to watch that show --- until the marriage fell apart. Now I feel like I was just watching a train wreck the whole time. I do think Kate treated Jon like her 9th child, which was not conducive to a happy marriage, but Jon's stepping out with a wild 22 year old is not looking good for him! And of course, it leaves us all feeling sorry for those eight adorable kids!!

We're having a heat wave here in Southern California! Of course, Dave loves it and I hate it. God help us when the gas & electric bill comes in next month, because the air conditioning is staying on for as long as it needs to!!!

Well I've got to go watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding on t.v. What a funny movie --- and so true! Just had two of my Greek relatives come out from the east coast to visit --- and man, does the movie ring true! : ) My cousin Beth came out, and her son's name is Nick, and he got along well with my son Nick, and of course my dad had a brother named Nick.... well, you get the idea! Here are some memorable quotes from the movie:

Gus: "There are two kinds of people -- Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek."

Maria: "Nicko! Don't play with the food! When I was your age, we didn't have food!"

Gus: "Welcome to my home. Over here is my brother, Ted, and his wife . . . and children, Anita, Diane, and Nick. Over here, my brother Tommy . . . and his children Anita, Diane, and Nick. And my brother George . . . and Nick. And their children, Taki, Sophie, Kari, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, uh, Nikki, and I am Gus."

Happy Independence Day!

Have a fun and safe 4th of July!

Back to posting! : )

Thanks to those of you who asked, "WHERE ARE YOU?" and "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO START POSTING AGAIN?" Well, here I am --- can't believe it's been since APRIL that I've posted! I'd love to say I was off on some exciting adventure, but alas, no. Just working.

But now, I'm feeling just like this Mary Engelbreit poster:

It's summertime! Vacation time! So why can't I just hurry up and relax, already?!?!?

It could be because I have to take some classes online this summer. Yes, I know, you'd think I'd be DONE with school after getting my Master's last year, but I have to fulfill a California requirement for working with "English Language Learners." I have to take 2 courses by October 1st, and then another 2 courses within a year from that. So I am officially a "Phoenix" now as I am signed up through University of Phoenix to take the online classes. Oh joy!

And I only have 35 (weekdays) left of summer before I have to go back to school. UGH! (I'm not counting weekends, just actual "vacation days" that I don't have to spend in the classroom). NOT that I WON'T be spending lots of time in the classroom this summer --- especially since I am moving from teaching a 2nd/3rd grade Multiage class to teaching 5th grade again in the fall. That means I'll have to spend time rearranging my classroom to fit in more desks (at least 10 more students) PLUS spending time planning how I am going to teach the curriculum, some of which is new from when I taught it over 4 years ago. I know people think teachers are so lucky that they "get to have the whole summer off" but the truth is, most teachers spend a lot of their summer preparing for the following year. In fact, the week after school let out, I spent that Monday through Friday in class from 8 AM to 2 PM learning about Responsive Classroom, a type of classroom management. (Teachers never stop learning!) : )

But back to "only 35 days" of vacation . . . I want to be sure I have lots of fun and relaxation this summer. Since I have these on-line classes, it looks like we won't be going anywhere for an official "vacation" this year. (I had been thinking England would be nice . . . oh well.) I'm looking forward to adding to my calendar the days I'll go to the beach, meet friends for lunch, scrapbook, etc. etc. But I do feel like I have almost turned that into a 'job' --- looking much like the woman in the poster, looking at her watch and hoping to relax! So, here's to 'being in the moment' and enjoying my time off!

Hope you're enjoying your summer too!

What Color are You?

Scrapbooking friends, try this: "What Color Are You" posted at CreatingKeepsakes.com by Beth Opel. It's a quick quiz about your scrapbooking style, and at the end, it tells you what "color" you are. Kind of fun. I was a cross between red and orange, with a little blue thrown in. I don't know if that's good, or just shows how scattered I am about my scrapbooking. : )

Yes, I'm alive and well . . . . : )

I really can't believe how quickly the days go by, and I haven't blogged.
I'll blame it on what I'm doing with my spare time . . . taking a class from



to help me








and to take my zillions of photos from this

to this:
all organized and color coordinated and sitting on my shelf!

I've been kind of freaking out . . . "Oh no, I'm behind on my scrapbooking homework!!" until I talk to myself and tell myself this is supposed to be FUN, not stressful! But it is taking a lot of my "extra" time, as soon as I get home from school, I am trying to get caught up with my projects. It is nice to see progress . . . slow, but sure! : )

In the meantime, I try to keep in mind what Stacy Julian (who teaches the class) says:

So, I keep on plugging away, so I can be ORGANIZED to SCRAP and enjoy preserving our memories! : ) Soon, I'll be able to say:

PS - But I will try to blog more often!! And you all . . . you need to leave me a comment or two about what you'd like to see, hear, etc. : ) Thanks in advance!!

enough said

Saw this quote and it SOOOOOO sums up how I've been feeling lately. Enough said!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

pink slip Friday

Yep, I wore my pink shirt today to show support for the teachers who are being pink-slipped. (Okay, not the one in the above picture! The only pink shirt I had was my Charger's t-shirt, with LaDanian's #21 on the front of it.) It's a frustrating process to go through. And while I know that not all of the teachers who got a pink slip this week will ultimately lose their jobs, there will be a lot more teachers unemployed next year . . . the economy in California is just too bad for things to stay the way they are. (Luckily, I've been teaching long enough---thirteen "contracted" year now---that I won't personally be affected.) But we are going to lose some great teachers, and class sizes will probably increase by 50% in the grades I teach (currently, a 2nd and 3rd grade Multiage class). Teaching is a really hard job --- and I can compare it to all the jobs I had in the business world before I became a teacher --- and when you're dealing with kids, there is no one way to do things. So, show your support for a teacher. . .write a note to your child's teacher thanking them for their hard work! A nice note goes a long way!!!

Checking in

Hi all, it's been awhile since I've blogged--- AGAIN! And tonight, I'm too tired (I've been working on report cards) to think of anything coherent to write, so I'm going to direct you to another blog to read her post entitled, Living Without Regret. It's a good one.....check it out: http://joysofhome.blogspot.com/

Holy smokes! I knew I hadn't blogged in awhile, but now I see my last post was on February 5th! Wow! And now it's the END of February!! Hard to believe so much time has passed!

This week I have been off from school (we get a week off in February by combining the Presidents' birthday holidays with some district recess days), so I've been trying a new way to organize my (thousands of) photos. It is based on the book Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian:

I signed up for an on-line course based on this book. It actually runs through the end of May! We 'meet' online once a week. So far, we have been asked to organize our photos into chronological order, and put them into a certain type of binder for temporary storage. My dining room table was covered with pictures all week! I'll have to post some pictures of how it looked! Stacy calls her system the Library of Memories system:

Look at how neatly she has all of her albums lined up!! Hopefully, this big mess on my dining room table will turn into a better way to keep my pictures and my creativity flowing.

"Trust me," Stacy says. Okay, for now, I will. I'll trust that her system will give me "freedom" from trying to scrap every single photo I have, from being overwhelmed by the number of photos I have, and from getting too bogged down by all the photos to enjoy the process of scrapbooking. Photo Freedom --- sounds good to me!

My Civic Duty

This week I've been doing my civic duty. On Monday, I reported for Jury Duty. By Tuesday, I was listening to a criminal case.

I can't wait for it to be over, so I can talk about the case. It's quite interesting. We've been there all week, but have yet to start deliberating.

I found this article on Sign On San Diego about Jury Duty in San Diego . . . so funny and so TRUE!!! Here's a portion:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

. . . I learned a whole bunch of other things too. So please continue.

Deductive reasoning made me realize that although the summons says you have to be there by 7:45 a.m., it's okay if you show up by 8:45. No one seems to care. In fact, if you show up 5 days earlier or 5 days later than your summons date, the jury office apparently doesn't care about that either.

I now know that jurors are special people, although they can get sore sitting around all day doing very little. I figured out the soreness can be abated if one walks around imagining what each person would be doing if they weren't doing this.

It is against the laws of nature to fall asleep in the small seats, yet miraculously, some people figure out a way.

I also learned that you mustn't put coffee on the metal detection ramp in the lobby.

Because I am a hiker, I was happy to hear from a brief film about jury service that somehow the great peaks of Yosemite have something in common with the process of coming to a verdict.

In a particularly interesting discovery, I learned that the large jury room "cattle call" seats perhaps 500 people, who spend their time knitting, embroidering, talking on the phone, working on their laptops, reading books and newspapers or getting dates. Because there are many television sets, one can watch Wolf Blitzer talk about something while simultaneously watching Paris Hilton get out of jail and hug somebody.

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(Read complete article Jury duty - the inside story by clicking on this link).

Small world . . .

In a "it's a small world" moment, I met this woman at a recent class I took at Stamping Details. (More about the class I took in another post). We were talking about TV shows, and I mentioned how excited I was that LOST was back on, and I was told that I just had to talk to a fellow scrapper who would be coming to take a later class ~~~and I found out that she is Hurley's sister! (For you non-LOST fans, Hurley is a key character!) As Donna Downey said on her blog. . . it was a one degree of separation celebrity encounter! It was so fun to meet her . . . she looks exactly like her brother!

another eventful day . . .

LOST . . . returns tonight!!!

I can't wait!!!

Happy Inauguration Day

2009 word

After a lot of thinking, I've come up with my word for 2009:

Mindful . . .
. . . as in being mindful of what's really important in life,
. . . as in being mindful of each moment,
. . . as in being mindful of the words I (and others) use when talking about someone else.

"Mindfulness, simply put, comes down to allowing yourself to be in this moment."
This quote is the beginning of an article titled Mindfulness meditation and the law of attraction by Tracy Connery. Check it out here.

Have you picked out your 2009 word yet? A fun article to read about it is Shout Out Your Word and Create Your Year Starting Right Now… on Christine Kane's blog. She talks about the positive differences in choosing a word for the year rather than going the make-a-resolution route. And, she has a list of words for you to look at in case you need more suggestions.

I've got a lot on my plate over the next few weeks, which I'll be blogging about soon (can't believe my last post was on January 1st, and it's already the 17th!!! Speaking of which, I have said good-bye to meat, haven't had any in weeks, and even had TOFU for lunch on Thursday!!) Anyway, I hope to keep up my blog a lot better than I have so far this year! I'm still working on changing it around a bit, too.

(And yes, AJ, being mindful does include being mindful of when someone's birthday is coming up, and not missing it by a month or more!!!) : )