Fix-it Friday #12

(Original)

 

 

  

 

If you care to know what changes I made to my photo, head on over to I ♥ Faces.

 

This was a challenging photo, so I’m excited to see what all the participants do with it.

I ♥ Faces ~ Reflection ~ Adults & Kids

  (Adult’s Entry) 

Basically, my son and I are reflected in a bubble.  :)

 

 

(Kid’s Entry)

This is my son reflected in a CD.  His response to seeing this was, “Hey!  Am I supposed to look like a rainbow?” It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping to capture, but Nathan wasn’t sticking around to help me out in this little project.

 

Time’s almost up, but there still a little more time to enter. As a contributor, I’m just entering for fun.  Go check out all the much more creative entries at I ♥ Faces!

Fix-it Friday – Cooing Baby

(Original)

It’s another fun Fix-it Friday. The run-down of my fix-its are here. I actually came up with a couple different edits. Below is one of them.

Can’t wait to see all the other great fix-its!

Lists of 8

I was tagged by EL at Through My Own Lens. I have to admit, I gave her a hard time for tagging me. As a teacher, I give homework several times a week, but you best not be giving ME any homework. {smile} I'm glad I was tagged. It was fun to accept the challenge.

Here’s what 8 THINGS is all about: - Mention the person that tagged you. (Check) - Complete the lists of 8's. (Check) - Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends. (Skip) - Go tell them you tagged them! (Too lazy…although I’d encourage any of my friends/family to give this a try.)

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO (in order of occurrence):

1. End of OAT testing. I’m a scribe for one of the students, and let’s just say following the state’s rules on scribing is one tedious job!

2. Trying out my light scoop. It should be here any day. From the recommendation of someone on I ♥ Faces and great reviews online, I have high hopes to be able to use natural looking flash in my cave of a house. I’ll keep you posted on my experience.

3. Jordyn’s first birthday. My, did that year FLY!

4. The installation of the long-awaited fence. After years of begging and a ridiculous amount of effort to get a permit approved, the fencing is finally bought. Here’s to hoping it will be installed before the next item on the list.

5. Ben’s third birthday. Being the big meany I am, on Nathan’s third birthday, I took away his binky. Not sure how I’m going to take away Ben’s thumb! I think that boy outsmarted me!

6. The end of the school year. I ♥ my job, but I ♥ summer and freedom even more!

7. Getting the full version of Adobe Photoshop for my birthday…sorry, Angie. It had to happen one of these days.

8. My brother’s wedding. My baby brother is getting married in September. Woohoo!

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY

1. Overslept by a half hour. Let’s just say, I was not looking my best for work!

2. Scribed for the lovely OAT test mentioned earlier.

3. Ate two Smuckers PB&J uncrustables thereby demonstrating my great sophistication in food choices.

4. Called up my sister and discussed the usual topic…I ♥ Faces. We are loving the creativity for this week’s entries!

5. Left work an hour early to take Jordyn to the doctor. Despite being a Ms. Cranky Pants, her ears are actually doing much better.

6. Went shopping at Target and bought an absolutely frivolous item…a hummingbird feeder. I really, really want to catch some pictures of hummingbirds this year. Why do I get the feeling I’ll instead be getting pictures of bees and wasps?

7. Found out what I’ll be teaching next year…3 periods coteaching language arts and 2 periods coteaching math. Language arts should be with the same teacher; math will be new to me. There hasn’t been any clear confirmation on who I will be teaching with for either class.

8. Wrote yet another IEP. I’m slowly getting these finished up. I finally have more completed than need to be completed!

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO

1. Play the harmonica. Is that weird?

2. Lose tons of weight to get back to at least my college weight. That would be awesome! (Irony is that I thought I was fat in college.)

3. Get my Master’s degree done. I’ve taken classes, but I’ve never gotten serious enough to just go for it!

4. Sing like an angel. I can hold a tune, but I want to be the type of singer that sends shivers down the spines of the people in the audience. I’m pretty sure God did not give me this gift because he knew it would totally be wasted. I’d never have the nerve to sing in front of people!

5. Quit chewing my fingernails. It is an awful habit.

6. Learn how to make a flash blog header where the pictures change. While I’m at it, learn all the ins and outs of web design beyond the very basic knowledge I have now.

7. Keep my house clean. It is always messy. I just can’t (or don’t have the desire to) keep up with it.

8. Lead my children to Christ. I pray every day that they will accept Christ as their Savior. In the end, I can’t think of anything more important than that.

8 SHOWS I WATCH

1. Blue’s Clues

2. Diego

3. Thomas the Tank Engine

4. Baby Einstein

5. Fox News

Yep, that’s pretty much it, either what the kids want or what hubby wants. Now if I had the time and inclination, I would watch:

6. Anything on TLC

7. Anything on HGTV

8. A few select shows on BRAVO.

8 BLOGGERS TAGGED

Whoever wants to take up the challenge! Let me know in the comments if you do it, and I’ll be sure to head over to your blog to learn more about you!

I ♥ Faces ~ Self-portrait ~ Adult

  

You should have seen what a dork I looked like trying to capture a picture of myself at the park.  After about a hundred attempts or so, I figured there had to be at least one decent one in the bunch.  I had some really goofy ones, but wimped out and chose the “serious” one.  So, here I am in all my Photoshopped natural glory….

 

 

Go meet all the other great participants at I ♥ Faces.  It’s self-portrait week…a great way to see the person behind the camera!

My little sweetie!

 

    

A real blog entry complete with grossness that Danielle loves so much!

Nathan.

Let me tell you about this boy.  My, oh, my!  He has been something lately. 

First, shouldn’t a 5 year old know how to take a bath without covering the floor with water EVERY time?  The newest incident involved me walking in to check on my boy only to find him in the bathtub with an umbrella.  Of course, being the curious boy that he is, he had to test that umbrella by pouring water over it which in turn rolled off the umbrella on to the floor.  I’m not talking a little splash of water.  No, this is a cover the entire floor use every towel to soak it up type of splashing.Geesh!

******

Here’s another one.  Mark and I have been noticing that Nathan rarely wets in his pull-up at night any more.  The boys and I were up in their bedroom the other day playing the worm game that Jeff and Danielle bought Nathan for Christmas.  I happily mentioned to Nathan, “Wow!  You know what, Nathan?  Pretty soon, I don’t think you’ll need to wear a pull-up any more.  You barely ever ‘leak’ at night.”  (We have to refer to it as “leaking” because Nathan does not like to admit that he wets the bed….intead, he leaks.)

With great pride, Nathan proceeded to share the secret to his success.

“I’m not leaking any more at night, mom, because I have THIS!”  He went over to the closet and pulled out a water bottle FILLED with PEE!

“Nathan!  Get that out of here!  The bathroom is right next door!  Why in the world are you peeing in a bottle?”

“Oh, mom.  The bathroom is just too far away.”

Sad thing is, I’m thinking if peeing in a bottle is Nathan’s motivation for not wetting his pull-up, maybe it is worth it.  It’s way better than what my co-teacher’s brother did when he was a kid.  His mom kept smelling something strange in the room but couldn’t figure out what it was.  She came to find out that her son just used the closet as his own personal urinal.  Yucko!

******

On a cuter note, Nathan has started quoting from the ever insightful movie, Winnie the Pooh.  I was out shopping with him a few weeks ago, and said something complementary to him.  Nathan, in an impressive Eeyore imitation, responded with, “Thanks for noticing me.”

Then, today, Nathan decided to help me out by cleaning our windows with wet wipes.  (Probably not the best strategy, but he was busy and happy.)  As he was cleaning, he announced to me.  “I’m good at cleaning cuz that’s what Nathans do best!”  (If WTP is a distant memory for you, Tigger likes to say…That’s what tiggers do best!” ) It’s fun to see how kids can apply things they observe into their own lives.

*******

I’ll close with a few updates on Jordyn:

• She is now on her 6th antibiotic of the year due to an ear infection.   We actually took her to the pediatric emergency room last Saturday where they discovered she had a double ear infection.  Despite being on a very strong antibiotic, Jordyn reverted back to her restless, non-sleeping ways last night.  I called the doctor and they took a look at her still red, still infected ears.  Antibiotics are just not cutting it.    In addition, Jordyn is now on breathing treatments three times a day because the doctor noted that she was wheezing.  Hopefully this will all clear up soon.  This is pretty much Jordyn’s last chance to get past this ear infection stage, or she will be getting tubes.
• I think we can officially say that Jordyn is walking!  She tends to take 5-6 steps and then give up, but she definitely is taking steps and getting better at it every day!
• She just sprouted her seventh tooth, and the eighth tooth looks to be on its way.

Once again, I’m up way too late.  Time to close up shop and head to bed.  I’m really, really going to try to get back to blogging.  If not now, summer should be here soon.  I know that you all are suffering withdrawal symptoms from lack of poop, puke and goop stories.  Don’t worry, I have a whole arsenal of stories stored away for the summer!

I Heart Faces ~ Easter/Spring ~ Amateur

Someday I hope to move past being an amateur.  Something about a full-time job and 3 little kids tends to hamper the time available to hone my photography skills.  That’s one huge reason why it was so intimidating to give constructive criticism this past Friday, especially since many of the participants are more experienced than me.  :)  My photo this week isn’t the typical Easter photo because, frankly, I don’t have many good Easter photos.  I’m betting, though, that the scene above was similar to what many of you saw as Easter celebrations wrapped up.  My nephew fought off sleep with all his will and made sure to protect his Easter basket until the end.  How sweet is that? 

There are already tons of really great entries on I ♥ Faces.  With all that inspiration, you’ll want to grab a pen to write down some must-capture photo-op ideas for next year!

(My entry is just-for-fun since I pretend to be an expert each week as a contributor for I ♥ Faces.)

He is Risen!

 

 

He is risen, indeed! 

 

I thought I’d post a rendition of the song that our choir sang today.  It is one of my favorites, and the guy singing it in this video has an incredible voice.  Enjoy!

I ♥ Faces ~ My Friend and I ~ Kids

 

These three cousins, all born within two months of each other, have no choice but to be best friends, especially when their moms are best friends too!  :)

 

For other great friends photos, check out I ♥ Faces!

Wardrobe Malfunction

Last Friday, Mark and I got a call from a friend at church wondering if we were busy or if we could come over to play board games that night. Despite our high-flying, action-packed, always-exciting Fridays, we gave up our big plans (aka washing, drying and folding clothes) to have a fun night with our friends. As I was getting out of the car to head into their house, Mark got a puzzled look on his face.

“Did you know you have a hole in your jeans?”

“I do?” I said as I looked back at my derriere. “Oh, it’s just a tiny hole. My shirt will cover it.”

“It’s pretty big. Don’t you think you want to go home and change?”

“Really? You think it’s that big? I could probably get a safety pin for it.”

“A safety pin is not going to take care of THAT!”

It was about this time that I realized we must not be looking at the same hole. This is what Mark saw:

(The entire side of the back pocket was ripped exposing my lovely granny panties beneath.)

I got back in that car so fast!

“Do you think they saw it? Oh my gosh, I bet they saw it. I’m going to DIE of embarrassment!”

“They didn’t see. We’ll just go home so you can change.”

“They had to have seen us pull in! How in the world are we going to leave without them noticing? What are we going to tell them if they call?”

So as Mark and I were trying to cook up a good lie, Mark’s phone started ringing.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you just pull IN and then OUT of our driveway?”

“Um, ya.”

“Is something wrong? Did you forget something?”

“Kind of.”

“What did you forget?”

And then I spilled the beans. Let me tell you, our friends had enough fun just hearing about it on the phone. I can only imagine what I would have gone through had I walked in like that! Or if they had spotted it while I was playing charades. Oh, the horror!

I am so grateful Mark noticed. He saved us from church hunting because there is no way I’d be able to face them again! :) I also promptly bought 2 new pairs of jeans. I like shopping, but my means to get there was NOT worth it!

Nathan’s Birthday

View Full Album

I have been neglecting my blog like crazy lately.  IEPs have taken over my life!  I guess that’s how it always is.  Because of this, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to edit my pictures.  I decided not to let that hold me back on sharing them.  In the  album above are pictures taken on Nathan’s birthday. 

We celebrated Nathan’s birthday by riding a train from Akron to Peninsula (and back) with my 2 sisters and their sons.  On the way to Peninsula, the cousins (Nathan, Weston and Craig) enjoyed claiming houses that they saw outside the train windows as their own.  Once we got to Peninsula, we had a picnic lunch.  Nathan blew out the candles on his cake all the while wearing his birthday hat that had become a permanent fixture on his head since preschool the previous day.  We then started walking into town with the intention of getting ice cream cones.  Instead we went into a shop.  They had a special session for children which included story reading in a tent at the top of spiral stairs in a tree (hard to describe…but it was really neat).  They also learned about and colored a frog.  This used up (quite nicely, I might add) all of our time, and we headed back to the train. 

After our arrival back in Akron, we headed over to Friendly’s where Nathan opened his gifts.  We had a wonderful day and were very impressed with all the volunteers on the train and in the town of Peninsula. 

I’d highly recommend the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad…especially for the train lovers out there.  It was only $10 per person round trip.  (Ben and Jordyn were free.)

Skinny Sister Fix

Do you have a sister who manages to stay half the size that you are?

Are you that sister?

(If so...leave now! I don't like you!)

(My perpetually skinny sister, Angie)

If you're like me and tired of always being the chubby sister, grab that liquify tool and give your sister a little junk in the trunk. Heck, give her a whole lotta junk in the trunk plus some thick ankles and big ole' wide thighs.

Ah, that's much better. My self-image just increased exponentially.

Okay, before you chew me out for my cruelty towards Angie, let's just say she asked for it. Literally. Head over to I ♥ Faces to see where this inspiration came from.

I'd love for you to join in on the fun too!

Hey, I'm even okay with everyone taking a stab at making my sister fat and ugly.

In fact, I'd appreciate that very much!