Days 86-90

Tuesday, March 24th - Madison and I made a "healthy" snack for a Brownie Scout project.  Madison was so proud that she found a recipe at school that we just had to make it.  I didn't have the nerve to tell her that her Chango Bar recipe wasn't that nutritious.  It required chocolate chips, butter, margarine and loads of sugar.  They did taste pretty good and all the boys in the household had no problem finishing up the pan.  

Wednesday, March 25th - Tyler spent much of his spring break riding bikes around with his friend Jalen, so I thought it was appropriate for that to be Wednesday's picture.  
Thursday, March 26th - Here's Cindy, Sherri and Krista at Anthropologie in Omaha.  It was a day with co-workers and friends shopping, eating and just having fun!  Cindy did end up with the darling skirt, which she had misgivings about purchasing it.  It was very cute on her, so we talked her into getting it.
Friday, March 27th - A fun day at the Omaha zoo with the family.  It was bitterly cold, so we did all the indoor exhibits, which did take a few hours.  We saw the Desert Dome, Rainforest, Aquarium, Gorilla Complex and the new Butterfly Papillion.  
Saturday, March 28th - Yes, another Scrapfest at SCC.  Oh, happy day!  It's always a good day when it's a scrapbooking day.  I didn't get as much done as usual, but I did enjoy the day talking, eating and cropping!  

Top Banana & Spring Break List

First of all, I wanted to show you that I have a wonderful husband.  I asked him to take a plastic banana and attach it to an old trophy we had lying around the house and he did...probably a little reluctantly.  My "Handy Andy"!  Now I am able to have a "Top Banana Award" for my classroom.  I decided that I would place this motivating and fabulous award on the table that looks the neatest...with pencils and crayons put away and chairs pushed in.  I have been trying to instill in my students that they really need to become more responsible for their belongings and leave the room a little neater.  I know Merl, our custodian, will appreciate the effort.

I had a "Top Banana" award when I was in 1st grade and remember it well.  The award went to the classroom that was the quietest in the lunchroom.  I recall walking into the lunch room daily and looking to see if the poster of a banana was sitting above my table from our day's before performance.  Oh, to be top banana.  What a great memory!  Of course, we never had a cool plastic banana trophy like this one!

Second of all, I wanted to share with you that I ALMOST completed everything on my Spring Break list.  

 1.  Paint the walls  (As you saw, I modified this...painting the walls was overrated, so I chose Mixed Media instead).  

*2.  Vacuum out van  (Done, but now needs to be done again. Ugh!)  

*3.  Barnes & Noble with Sherri  (Yes, we went with many much younger and very gothic Twilight fans) 

 4.  Project 365 kit up to date (Kind of, I did get a lot of it done, but there's still lots of journaling left)  

*5.  Dog groomed (Yup!  Ranger looks like a schnauzer again instead of a sheep dog)

*6.  SCC Scrapfest (You betcha!  I had a great time!)

 7.  Report card done (I stress out about these until the last minute, so until that deadline is up, I can't ever consider it done.)

*8.  Bathrooms cleaned  (I scrubbed three bathrooms from top to bottom and for what?!  They need cleaning again!)

*9.  Shrine Circus (The kids had fun and I enjoyed seeing them take it all in.)

*10.  An outing with my co-workers (We were going to Raette's lake house, but plans changed, so we went shopping in Omaha and hung out at Cindy's.  I had a great time and didn't get home until 3:00 am.  Isn't that nice to enjoy hanging out with co-workers?  A wonderful thing!)

*11.  Baking with Madison (I helped Madison make a Mexican dessert for a Brownie patch and we did it!)

*12.  Sleep in until 7:30 (I slept in this morning until 8:00, so that one was met too!)

That sums up my Spring Break...I had a glorious week and wish that I could get a repeat! I guess all good things must come to an end! 

More Painting Pictures

Here are the other two mixed media pictures I created.  I did put a hat on Grant's head and now I think I like it this way better.  Oh, well!  They are pretty darn funny looking!  It's now time for me to tackle cleaning bathroom #3.  

Painting with Mixed Media (Amy style)

As you may recall, I said that painting was on my list of things to do over Spring Break.  However, painting my living room walls means that I have to move furniture, tape off the trim and lay out the big plastic sheet to catch all the paint I spill.  That just didn't sound like any fun, so I scratched that idea and tried painting of a different kind.  

I was inspired to try my hand at working with mixed media.  I won't tell you the artist off of Etsy who inspired me because you'll go there and realize how wonderful hers looks.  She uses a lot of bird heads on her people, while I wanted to use my kids' actual faces.  It didn't turn out too bad.  Tyler's is a little too wrinkly, but I did use a large amount of tissue paper on his.  I did learn a few things what to use and what not to use.  I think Madison's is my favorite because I gave her a crown and wings.  I'll post both Madison's and Grant's later.  I still have a few finishing up touches to do on them.    

Andy's comment...."They are kind of cool, but you sure know how to waste a lot of time."  I kind of feel the same about him and television. 

Days 81-85

Thursday, March 19th - Madison had her first Spirit soccer game of the season. Go Wildcats! They did lose 6 or 7 to nothing, but who's counting? I liked this picture of Tyler challenging Madison to make a goal on him after the game.
Friday, March 20th - It's Shrine Circus time again! We go every year and I think the show is the same every year. I do enjoy watching Grant's expression during the performance. He loved the elephants. The clowns he did not...as you can see by this photo.
Saturday, March 21st - It was Twilight night at Barnes and Noble and Sherri Macfee and I went to compete against all the fifteen year olds in Lincoln. Here we are doing multiple choice Twilight trivia. The looks on our faces are hilarious! Of course, Sherri scored a perfect score and I was tied for last place. The gal who was running the trivia, is my former librarian at Lakeview, Beth McCracken. It was fun seeing her there!
Sunday, March 22nd - Madison took out a homemade kite she created last year at Girl Scouts and took it for a test run. It worked beautifully! How impressive...to get a kite made by an 8 year old to fly!
Monday, March 23rd - We went to a "Diva Girl" purse party at Lisa Ford's house. I had Madison pick up a few for a fun pic! I did find a cute polka-dotted one that was calling my name.

Naughty, Naughty Doggie

A recent photo of two members of my household that are both cute and naughty.  I have a true and hilarious story about naughty #2...the dog named Ranger.  

Andy and I have recently had a discussion about getting Ranger's barking problem under control.  It's especially troublesome when people approach our front door or when we are outside and he is not.  It's just excessive, loud and high pitched that really grates on one's nerves.  I am sure our neighbors agree.  They are just too nice to say anything.  

Tonight I was out on our front lawn with Grant, when you could hear Ranger's continuous, annoying bark while he was still inside.  So, I said, "Let's go take Ranger with us to *Naughty Dogs R Us and get one of those Citronella bark collars.  I'm an willing to try anything to get this under control."  I thought we probably should take Ranger along, so we could get the right sized collar, which I knew would be a challenge.  

When we entered *Naughty Dogs R Us, I instructed Madison to hold Ranger tight on his leash as to not give him any freedom to jump up on people or any other dogs that would be in the store.  Ranger loves other dogs, but generally, they don't like him due to his aggressive nature.  Maybe he has ADHD for dogs?   That would be my guess.  I do know, my dog does not play well with others.  

Anyway, Madison had Ranger and I had Grant by the hand and we just rounded the corner where they sell collars and Ranger quickly found a display of raw hide bones in a huge cardboard box and he lifts his leg and wizzes on the display to "mark his territory".  Madison quickly points it out to me and I gasp and say...give that dog to me and (Madison) quickly clean it up before anyone notices.  *Naughty Dogs R Us does provide paper towels and bags to clean up dog messes.  However, he's wizzed on cardboard, so that's a little difficult to fix.  I said, "Madison, let's quickly find an employee who can direct us to the barking collars."  I wanted to get in and out before anything else goes awry.  Shopping with Ranger is about the same as shopping with Grant during a temper tantrum...best to get out of the store quickly! 

I found a nice man who directed me to this locked cabinet a couple isles over to the bark collars.  They are around $100, so that's why they are under lock and key.  By now, I have Ranger very close to me, so as to not get into anymore mischief.  I was even proud of myself when I told him to sit and he listened to my command.  The employee was showing me the three kinds of collars when...you won't believe this....Ranger lifts his leg AGAIN and pees right in front of the employee on a display of plastic covered dog bed covers.  Now, I couldn't ignore this incident and apologized profusely.  I even asked if I needed to purchase the product.  Heaven knows, I would have made me pay for it.  The very nice gentleman, kindly said, "Oh, don't worry about it.  It happens all the time."  Then he adds...."In fact, we just passed a center display where another dog did the same thing."  I just didn't have the heart to tell him that was my dog too!  

Let's just say... I couldn't get out of there fast enough with my bark collar purchase and Ranger will NEVER be allowed to go back again.  

*Name changed to protect myself from incriminating evidence of dog urine. 

My Favorite Foodies (right at this moment)

I thought I'd add a few of my favorite things to eat, while I am enjoying my spring break.  I should be cleaning the bathrooms, but blogging is so much more fun! 

Beer Bread - This is my favorite product from Tastefully Simple, in fact it's their number #1 seller too.  If you haven't tried it, you are missing out.  It not only tastes fabulous, but it smells the house up with that "I've been baking all day scent".  It takes only one beverage (beer, apple juice, pop) mix it and bake it.  How simple is that?  If you'd like the name of my consultant, email me.  
Hot Tea - I've just started drinking tea when I stopped drinking pop, this was a nice change. I went to a "Let's Do Tea" party at my friend Tammy's house and discovered all there is to know about tea.  I love this Carmel Rooibos tea!  I, of course, like to mix it up with Vanilla-Carmel Coffee-mate, whipped topping out of a can and carmel topping that goes on ice cream.  Delicious!  So, my zero calorie tea, becomes a zillion calories before I am done.  Go figure! Also, if you don't know of a Let's Do Tea dealer, ask me too.  
Tomato Herb Soup - I've never liked tomato soup until now...this soup is upscale!  It's made by V8 and I believe it's a fairly new product of theirs.  I also tried their other flavors, but this one is the best.  Better yet, it sells for only $2.48.  

Milk Chocolate Macadamia Cookies - This is my favorite kind of cookie that you can find on the store shelves.  Girl Scout cookies are better, but those aren't located in supermarkets. So, I can easily say that I could eat the entire bag in one sitting.  Yum!  
Natural Peanut Butter - I just recently discovered this kind of peanut butter.  It's located at HyVee in their organic foods area and at Wal-Mart it's with all the other kinds of peanut butter.  This PB doesn't have the shelf life like regular peanut butter and does need refrigeration, but it's sooo creamy, spreadable and tasty.  It's a little pricer than "regular" ones, but I am almost certain that there's no Salmonella in this expensive kind.  LOL