Feeling the Love :)

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas holiday and found themselves surrounded by love and happiness! I know my husband and I did! It was a busy rush to complete our holiday tasks, in which some -making sugar cookies- were never accomplished. However, the important-everybody will know if you didn't do it-tasks were finished just in time!
Last years Christmas, due to the weather, consisted of Mitch and I sitting home alone with the pets because no one could travel. Now don't get me wrong. I love my husband and his company but after so many years of Christmas with family, it just wasn't right. This year was how it was supposed to be. Christmas Eve with the in-laws and Christmas day with my family at the farm. We were especially excited to see everybody since it was our first time to see everybody since sharing the news. It was verified that our baby is so loved already with the gifts we received. It was pretty exciting and as my husband put it "Wow, its getting kind of real" as we were holding a baby pajama set. Kind of nuts yet so exciting!
We ended up having a long holiday stay at my parents because Mitch got sick for several days. We pushed through him feeling icky to drive back home because of a huge rumored storm coming this way. Fast forward a day..............
Yep its here and in full force!! Absolutely blizzard like and impossible to travel. Glad we got our Christmas in and even better we hadn't made any New Years plans because they would be cancelled. Just looking forward to bringing my husband back to good health so that I can have my helper back. Its hard taking it easy when you are the only one who can walk around.
So back to baby: As if baby didn't get enough goods for Christmas, I went to Kohls for another baby purchase. I have been very good at limiting any baby purchases but this one had to be done! For the nursery I am planning on doing an Eric Carle Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and Kohls has some of the books and animals for sale this month. It could not have been more perfect. Here is a picture of my theme collected baby goods.

Also included in the picture is the book and a puzzle. Might try to put together a crafty type project with the puzzle. Not exactly sure of the plans....

Until I figure out another project and / or it stops sounding like a blizzard outside I am going to take the advice of my kitty Jade....

Everything feels better with a nap, right? :)

A Very Special Announcement. :)

This (on mulitiple levels) is what I have been waiting for. The chance to make a very special announcement.

We are expecting our first child!! So exciting to be pregnant although I can imagine it gets more exciting as the nauseousness passes and as my body hopefully adjusts to being pregnant since I feel exhausted constantly. Either way, I feel very fortunate and excited!

Here are some things I have realized about myself since becoming pregnant...

• I can be a left-side sleeper (through a week of night sleep training) 
• My belly has always shown food immediately upon digestion and now apparently a baby too. 
• It is possible to look cute and buy cute clothes when pregnant.
• It is completely possible to develop a food obsession (eggs) in which you devour them constantly and then the next day you are repulsed by the thought of them.
• My pregnancy irony is that I am so hungry all the time but really disgusted by the thought of most solid foods. 
• For the first time in my life....I am not crazy about candy and/or pop. It feels so unlike myself. Kind of odd. Oh yeah and I can't always sleep. Also not like me.
• I can push myself to go about my daily life while feeling icky. Go me!
• I have an unbelievable husband: This was that topic I touched on a few weeks ago but said I would talk more about of course when I could explain why. When I was obsessed with eggs, he would get up at 3/4 AM to make them for me to eat because I was too hungry to sleep. He also had to put up most of the Christmas decorations this year which believe me is dedication when I put up four giant trees with decorations and several mini trees. Most of them up on top of my kitchen cupboards complete with the lighted garland on top of them. He has been a trooper so far with meeting my crazy and annoying demands that aren't completely up to me (in my defense) :) 
• I have learned that so many people could not have been more excited to find out we are pregnant. Apparently being together for 11 years without making a baby makes people just think it wasn't going to happen haha. The best things come to those who wait.
• Also, its fun to check out my tummy constantly in the mirror just to see if it has gotten any bigger. As a girl, this is a rare opportunity to celebrate :) I am enjoying it so much and love having a photographer husband. 

Speaking of a photographer husband:

Here are some pictures from our photoshoot tonight that we quick took to make our "facebook" announcement. We thought we had another night to make the announcement but it seems as though our Christmas cards were received faster than expected ;)

Here are some shots that we took: (All images property of www.mJoyPhotography.com)

Belly Shot (12 Weeks)

Non-Fur Family Member Shot

Mac wanted to be held...

An attempt at a full family shot. Wish we would have had this for our Christmas cards. HAHA Doesn't help that the cat and dog don't really like to be up close and personal with eachother. 

Anyways it feels so much better to have the news out. Hopefully that explains some of my behaviors for those of you around me who didn't know.
Yes, my belly is growing rapidly because there is a baby inside.
Yes, I am hungry all the time and it is necessary for me to shove little snacks in constantly.
Yes, I really do have to pee that often during the day. I am not escaping my classroom of kids just to get away. (Well maybe sometimes haha but I do also go to the bathroom during that break)
I look forward to sharing this crazy, yet exciting journey with you as I go along.
12 weeks today. Only 28 more to go ;)

Cookie Exchange Recipe.

So Christmas is less than a week away and I can't believe it. I am getting excited to go home but haven't really felt the Christmas "magic" feeling yet. Hopefully it will hit after my three days of school this week. Tomorrow at work I have a cookie exchange which is a clever way to get lots of Christmas goodies. People sign up to participate and then you bring 6 goodies for each person on the list. I chose to make peanut clusters. Typically a popular treat that I share at my workplaces.

Here is a picture:

In all fairness, it is hard to make a big pile of chocolate look super special. Regardless, they taste amazing!

Here is the recipe:

Super easy to make. My type of baking! Hoping the baking bug hits me later this week so that I can make some other yummy treats. Haven't felt like doing too much lately so we'll see. Guessing the sugar cookies with frosting will call me name :)

Preschool Winter Gear Idea.

Ughh. Starting to feel like I have a ton to do before Christmas and yet not long before its all due. We did get the last of our indoor holiday decorations up finally and that feels awesome. There is something about the glow of the lights that makes it feel warmer. All I have left outside is to hang up my wreaths around our garage lights which with the temperature in the negatives, will take about .9 seconds. Believe me. It is survival mode with it being so cold outside.
I was going to post something I accomplished in my preschool room the other day. I am pretty proud of it because the kids are using it. Anything that catches on to a 3/4 year old and better yet helps them get dressed in their winter gear faster is worth sharing!! (I hung these out in the hallway by their cubbies)

Here is a picture of the charts I made. (Clip Art found in a Winter clip art book by DJ Inkers titled: Serendipity Soup--Winter)

The top pictures list the items in order, one-by-one that need to be put on. The bottom picture shows the bear as he gets dressed and ready. I reviewed the posters before hanging them up so that the kids understood the process and what they were for.

Christmas Wreath Craft.

I had found this project a month or so ago and had put it on my to-do list. 

I realized two things which prompted urgency to complete this project....

1. If I wanted to complete and hang a Christmas wreath, I best do it soon since Christmas is two weeks away.

2. Yesterday I realized I still had a Thanksgiving turkey hanging on my door. Embarassing and clearly a need for an "in-season" decoration.

So here another one is. This is the last Christmas craft I think that I have planned for the season....

Here are the supplies needed:

*Ribbons of all sizes and colors for the represented holiday (Found most of mine pretty cheap at Wal-mart)
*Stick pins to avoid having to deal with the glue gun
*A Styrofoam wreath
--The rest are optional

Here are a few pictures of the supplies to hopefully clarify.

I started out my project by wrapping the whole wreath with a wide, see-through ribbon just to cover the whole wreath to make it easier for wrapping individual colored ribbon strips.

Here is it completely wrapped.

Then I cut several pieces of each color/type of ribbon and started combining the ribbons to make stripes. To secure, I pinned them each in the back of my wreath. I continued all the way around until it was completely wrapped.

Completely wrapped and with a bow added at the top for hanging.

Then I thought it needed a little extra so I rigged up a bow and pinned it on. Then I cut the letters "JOY" with my cricut out of cardstock. To get them to lay flat on the wreath I glued them to two ribbons directly across the back.

Here is the finished product!

Isn't it just too cute? I love it!

Here is the original idea that I used. Click here to see their wreath version

From this project I learned a valuable lesson and honestly I should have known better.

Best not to leave your project unguarded with a puppy around to investigate. Here is what I came back upstairs to find.... (notice the completely chewed and ripped apart ribbon carton)

A picture with the culprit included....

He was wearing this shirt during "the incident". I think we know which one...

My husband is the best!!

No neglect meant. But after my hubby read my ABC blog list, he felt a little left out. I said that I didn't have a letter for him but included him in on the family/relatives subject. He is a little more special though to be clumped into the big category and really he has been a super hubby for the past few weeks. More about that in a later post :) Anyways, because he rocks and I maybe hadn't mentioned it enough I thought of some awesome things we do as a couple.

The first thing we started a few years ago was buy these little mailboxes that we keep on our bedside table everyday. I found them at Target in the dollar aisle when they had out all of the Valentines Day items. Whenever we feel like sharing a special gift or writing each other an extra special note, we simply place it in the mailbox and put the flag up to know there is something in it. Always brings a smile to my face to read some kind words written by the love of my life.

The next extra special activity we do is just during the month of December and really my husband does all the work. We have an advent calendar in which, he places special gifts and/or coupons in for me.

Here is a picture of the calendar how it sits now....I have collected all through the 9th. Check out that awesome Hello Kitty ring I got on the 8th :) 

Here is a close-up of one of the coupons. Read it. Thats love right? Those of you who have hubbies who play video games know its love for him to give up a whole day of black ops (my choice which day) Big time coupon!!

Hopefully this post didn't make you too nauseated. Feel free to pass this link along to the man in your life to get some ideas :)
But let's face it. My husband is pretty awesome. I am VERY lucky and my husband and I pretty much rock ;)

Just a Little Holiday Spirit to Spread.

In light of the holiday spirit I posted a video for you to enjoy. You may recognize the "stars" of the short show. :)

Click here for Our Holiday Video :)
It will take you off of my blog, but its ok. Just come visit me again soon. :)

-mJoy

ABC Edition: Joys of Life.

Was trying to think of what I could write about tonight and then realized I should reflect on what I love. I mean what makes my world go round. I love reading on other peoples websites, blogs, information random facts that are unique to them. So here is my list....

List of Loves 

A: Amish. Ok, so maybe this is a weird fascination and really i wish they didn't start with the letter "a" since I didn't want to admit this one right out of the shoot. But I guess this blog is about honesty. There you have it. I am fascinated as to how Amish can survive amongst our world while still holding onto their way of life.

B: Birthdays. Mine in particular of course since its usually a special day filled with some fun events. But I do love when others have birthdays since it means I have been blessed with another year of their company.

C: Candy. Blog title. Need I say anymore :)

D: So odd because I wouldn't guess this to be the hardest letter to come up with but after much brainstorming. No idea what my "d" joy is.... Hmmm. Dang. I wanted a complete list. I will have to keep thinking.

E: Experiences. Good or bad, they make you into the person you become.

F: Fur. No I am not big on animal killing but I LOVE fur on anything. Especially on my pets seeing as though we have a persian cat and pomeranian dog.

G: Games. They always bring people together to have fun and memories are made guaranteed.

H: Home. Its always good to be home where you are most comfortable.

I: Internet. It is filled with so many good resources and also provides me with a way to connect to my family and friends.

J: Joy. The word has so much significance. My mom's middle name, my middle name, and now part of our photography business's name. Plus, it meaning feeling great. Who doesn't love to feel great?

K: Kids. They provide you with such insight and humor that hasn't yet been tainted by the outside world. Plus they have so much love to give that its hard not to just love them!

L: Lists. Love them and really run my life with them :)

M: Movies. Love being able to chill and watch movies of all kinds. More so, the type of ones that I don't have to think real hard about though.

N: Naps. Didn't like them as a child but love them now.

O: Opportunities. I see these as choices that are given to you and you decide if you want to participate. Typically they are positive in nature.

P: Prizes/ Presents. Even as a child I would always want "prizes" when my parents would go shopping and even still I love them :)

Q: Quilts. All of the ones I have received have been made by people who love me very much.

R: Relatives/ Family. Love. Support. Enough said.

S: Sprinkles / Sparkles. Anything glitzy and girly is very cute.

T: Teeth / Towels. Ok, so I had a hard time coming up with a "t" word. But these are practical items in which I am grateful for. I mean think of trying to eat with no teeth or showering without a towel to dry off with. No thanks.

U: Uranus. Ok so I have no joy in the noun itself haha. But can anyone seriously say the word without even a silent chuckle? Always good for a laugh and laughing is good.

V: Vacations. Particularly those to Mexico in which we were married almost five years ago.

W: Warmth. I Love to be warm. Blankets, baths, heaters all have my name on them.

X: Xerox copiers / Laminators. All teacher tools that I love being able to use :)

Y: You. Let's face it. Without readers, there isn't much of a reason for a blog. Thank you!

Z: Zoos. I love animals and zoos that provide a good form of living to injured animals are some of my favorite places to go. Omaha Henry Doorley Zoo. I heart you.

I challenge you. Think what would be on your ABC Life Joy list and even better. Share it :)

I heart Mascots.

Fact or Fiction: I was a mascot in high school because I didn't make the cheerleading squad. Fact :(

Here's what I have to say about it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger......

Yep, that's right. It didn't kill me (physically anyways) to be this scrawny girl in a giant Tiger costume. However, I did endure emotional damage, not to mention physical damage with kids cornering me in the stairs to pull on my tail and hit my head. A lot. Which is why I quit a few weeks later after hiding in the locker rooms.
p.s. Sorry Kool-Aid man for pulling the same stunts on you before I knew better when I was very little.

Pause. A moment of silence for the moment in which my pride died.

Which brings me to my blog topic. Roundabout I know. Bear with me.

So scouting youtube for a video to post tonight made me realize one thing. I love mascots. I should have picked up on this before considering just looking at this computer alone, there are several photos of myself with random mascots. And now that I think about it, I have been stopped dead in my tracks to admire two different animal mascots in the past two weeks. A lion in the winter parade and a moose at the hockey game last night. What is it about mascots that makes them so irresisistible?I just don't think about what possibly could be inside of the costume. I would rather cuddle up with them for the photo opportunity :)

Since I am admitting my addiction, I will share the pictures that document it.

I just realized my facebook profile picture includes myself with two mascots. HAHA. I confess. I am a nut.

Finally, the very random youtube video that I came across tonight. I repeat. Its random and in fact in a different language so I dont even know if its appropriate. But I LOVE IT! How could you go wrong with Crazy Chubby Bunny as the video title???



Another p.s. Another reason why the video caught my attention. Have you ever heard of the Chubby Bunny game? The title of the video also reminded me of the Chubby Bunny game that I had to play at my wedding shower. I had to answer trivia questions about my husband and when I got any questions wrong, I was forced to shove a big marshmallow into my mouth and continue to play the game. Each question wrong would add another marshmallow into your mouth. It was a gagging mess by the end but good times. Feel free to use the game idea to torture any future brides to be at their showers :)

Styrofoam Cone turns Christmas Tree.

Here is the promised craft idea I teased about a few days ago. Thanksgiving hit and of course the Christmas fever happened causing me to disappear a few days. Many decorations were put up and some shopping was done to help avoid the last minute shopping stress. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
To the project...

Styrofoam Cone turns Christmas Tree

Supplies Needed:

Styrofoam Tree (Any size works)

Yarn (to wrap the styrofoam with)

Stick Pins

Sequins

Sewing Pins to secure the sequins with

A star for the top of the tree

Here are some pictures of the supplies...

A Close up of the pins...

My advice for wrapping the tree. I wrapped the bottom of the tree once and stuck several stick pins along the yarn line to secure the first string. Then I continued to wrap around the cone. At first I tried to wrap it securely and thoroughly but in the end figured out it is easier to wrap it, leaving some gaps all the way to the top. Then, go back and rewrap the tree, wrapping all the gaps that were missed. It makes it a little more secure and textured with more dimension. 

Here is a picture of the final project on display...

P.s. Those are the same stars I used on the clay terra cota pot project found at Walmart in the cheap dollar ornament aisle. I just stuck them into the top of the styrofoam. The sequins were matched to a sewing pin with the big pin head matching the sequin. 

Enjoy!

So thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving All. Headed to a family gathering to celebrate what we are thankful for and to enjoy a delicious meal. Tis the season for yummy meals and treats :)

I am very thankful for many things....
*My husband who is always there for me and helping out
*My cat and my dog
*My family
*Our house that is always warm
*My job that I love
*My health
*All the wonderful things this next year holds
*mJoy Photography (it has given us many opportunities and provides an income)
*My AWD car...Necessary in Fargo

And just for a little extra on the post I will include some pictures because they always make it better right? :)

Mac's mini pre-thanksgiving meal. So cute right?

 How about some Cran-Slam scent in light of Thanksgiving? Yummy. 

 Mac was sitting on Mitch's back the other night and I had to capture what I saw when I looked at Mitch. HAHA. 

Also, I finished a Christmas craft last night so I will be posting pictures in the next few days to come. Depends on how crazy we go Black Friday shopping. May be tired :) 

Holiday Light Parade.

Went downtown for the holiday lights parade. It was perfect. Oh yeah except it was FREEZING! 5 degrees to be exact, and with wind -6 degrees! Nuts! The good part was that they were throwing candy (which I LOVE). Bad news is i had giant mittens on and trying to pick up a fruity tootsie on a snowy road is next to impossible.
In the beginning I was trying to pick up all the candy by me but then as I was getting colder I started to weigh the value of the candy thrown at me. I mean I was cold and was it really worth it to bend over and pick up a small blue frooty tootsie? Nope. But then when a bag of skittles came my way, I was definitely bending over to pick it up. After a while I think people were feeling bad for spectators because they were just dumping handfuls of candy into my cupped palms. Or maybe they too didn't want to have their hands out. Either way it was a success.   Wish I had some pictures to show you but my fingers were numb about five minutes into waiting for the parade to start.
Since I didn't take any pictures but I LOVE CANDY, I will show you another venture I took on a few weeks ago. Found this yummy puzzle and decided to experiment with pictures and putting it together. Check out the video to see what I mean.
(Thanks hubby for putting the pictures into a video) :)



--mJoy

Christmas Tree (Stacked Terra-Cotta Pots).

Well another project crossed off my long "hope to-do" list. This one turned out pretty great!

My mom explained to me the original project idea and I searched online to find an example of it. I found the example here House of Hepworths .

I did mine a little differently than hers, adapting it more to my style.

Here are the supplies that are needed for the project:
* 3″ pot
* TWO 4″ pots (one for trunk, other for middle part of tree)
* 6″ pot
* 6″ saucer
* A glue gun
* I used acrylic paints since our weather doesn't allow for much outside spray painting (Acrylics in green and brown)
* A bag of multi-size and colored sequins
*Found my star in the cheap ornament section at Wal-mart for $1.00

After painting, I assembled into a stack with the saucer upside down at the base of the tree (on top of the trunk)

Then I hot glued sequins on. I didn't glue any of the parts together since I would like to take it apart and store it in a stack to conserve space in my Christmas decoration storage. I would suggest gluing it together if you have kids or put it in a place where it might get bumped.

Here is the final result!

-mJoy

Don't mind if i do. :)

Sorry I have neglected you. I feel bad. Honestly.

Life has been a little crazy but good has come from it.

Saw my parents this weekend. Love them. Had a good time and glad I got to see them. p.s. We picked up a lot of craft supplies for the multiple projects I have on my to-do list so I should have some projects to show soon :)

Got a bunch of preschool cubby decorations colored. They look super cute. I know will be ready for two-three months worth of decorations. Ahh I love working ahead.

Turned on the X-mas lights a few times this weekend. Broke the "no xmas decorations before Thanksgiving" rule and my hubby ok'd it this year. Yes.... We will see about putting up the tree. I am itching for them to go up. Or at least one? We'll see. We do have a few photoshoots this week so we will be busy.

By the way, I mentioned the Xmas lights. I no longer have to feel guilty about the Xmas/Christmas word debate because I googled it. X because of some language translations stands for Christ. Yep. You heard me right. It's ok to say Xmas and not feel bad about it. Although others don't know that so get the word out so that they don't silently think we are being incorrect.
Here is the explanation if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas

Found out there is going to be a "Little Fockers" movie in theatres December 22. LOVE Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers. Can't wait to see this movie.

Then we finished out the weekend with a meeting for Help Portrait. My husband, along with other photographers is coordinating an event in Fargo/Moorhead for less fortunate people/ families by supplying them with a free photoshoot. Its an amazing event on December 4th that happens in cities all over the US on the date. We are still finalizing details on what organizations will be participating.
Read about the event here: http://help-portrait.com/ 
If you would like to contribute any help to the event we are putting together, join our event on facebook. Help Portrait : Fargo 

Better head to bed so that I am ready to take on the classroom kids again this week. Although with Thanksgiving on Thursday, it gives me one more thing to be thankful of. Only two days of work this week!!!

Thank you Thanksgiving :)

Love. Memory Monday Edition

Ahh. Love in many forms. 

Our wedding day. 

Mexico. 

Enough said.

Cricut Love.

Finished a few projects tonight and they turned out great! One of the projects is for a silent auction my work is having in a few weeks. It sounds like a great fundraiser for our organization/work without having to hound people to buy stuff from you. We all bring in items we have made, bought, or having lying around that others may want. Then we all bid on the items. We win items for cheap prices and we make money! Anyways, after making the candy dish the other week, I figured I should make a cute one for the auction. It turned out pretty cute. I actually may redo mine to look like this.

Here it is!

On the bottom ring of the candy dish, it says "1 for you & 2 for Me".

I kind of continued to go Cricut crazy (cutting vinyl with my Cricut machine). Here is another project I LOVE!

I used one of those ice cube blocks (sold at Hobby Lobby) and printed the information of our wedding day. Inside the cube is our wedding unity sand we had in our ceremony. I had been trying to think of a unique way to display it without it being at risk of being dumped by our pets. I think I finally figured it out.

Thought it might be a great time to show off our other projects we have created with our Cricut.

 Words reading what seems to be an obvious suggestion yet people weren't doing it :) 

We personalized our laptops :)

Hope you all had a great weekend! Here's to a great week :)

Gobble Gobble

Busy last few days. Its already super late but figured I should quick check in again. Hockey game last night and flu shot this morning. Then I locked myself in my preschool classroom's closet for the day and cleaned a ton! It felt amazing. Then I came home to finish more school projects. The most time consuming task was coloring turkeys for the kids' cubbies. Probably should have had these ready before this week but you know how it goes. I can always use them again next year.
Here is a sample of the turkeys...

The turkey is from DJ Inkers clip art. Love their stuff! So cute!
p.s. Sorry its blurry. Evidentally my eyes are too tired and my mind is rushed to focus with my point and shoot. 

Better get some sleep now for parent conferences (more again) tomorrow morning....

Oh its love.

Today was a great day filled with lots of joy!

First, awesome weather (and its November!)

Second, I had a few parent teacher conferences and the parents were just SO grateful for what we do as teachers. Feels awesome to be recognized and thanked :)

Had a staff meeting. Not real fun. But in the end I realized something.  I am grateful to work with nice people who are all there for the same reason. They love kids and want to better their lives.  I am glad I found an awesome place to work. 

The last one is a HUGE one! Christmas is a huge deal for me and just a magical time of year. Christmas lights on our house has always been a priority even though I am not the one who gets up on the roof. Well tonight I pulled into my driveway after my staff meeting (dark outside of course with time change) to find my husband up on the roof putting up lights. Sheer delight to have lights on the house. Such an act of love for two reasons: He doesn't like being high up on the roof AND he bought the new Black Ops Xbox game last night at midnight. (Yes a die hard fan.) Which means he passed that game up tonight so he could put up my Christmas lights. Any of you with significant others who are gamers know what a big deal this is and for that I am truly appreciative.

You have been chosen.... (memory monday).

Seems like life has been busy lately with hardly enough time at home to write a short blog. Glad for the memory monday idea because its already way past bedtime and here I am trying to post.

In light of the recent Toy Story 3 release, I thought I would post my biggest art project accomplishment so far to date. Myself along with two other friends constructed one of the aliens from Toy Story for a paper mache final project.

Here it is....

Everything you hoped, right? And don't you love my glasses. haha Oh awkward teenage years, I don't miss you one bit :)

In case you are checking, I am still here :)

I have been meaning to post a new blog but didn't think I had much to blog about. Figured I could at least have enough courtesy to tell you what I / we have been doing then at least.
Saturday was spent lounging around a bit but then my husband and I went downtown for a photoshoot.

mJoy Photography Facebook Link (be sure to hit "like" it if you like what you see)

mJoy Photography Site   The official website.


After having fun downtown, we headed home. I cleaned the house and did laundry. Fun, right? Not exactly however I do like finding time to mop with my Swiffer WetJet :)

Today brought upon a visit from a good friend. Always love seeing people you haven't seen for a while. It also brought upon a visit to Five Guys Burger and Fries restaurant. Something else we love.

Tonight I have managed to get lost in the blog world while searching for more details on a project I want to complete. However, I must go buy a few supplies to do the project. It will be great though.

Since I don't have a project to show for all my internet searching, I will share a few of the blogs  I have managed to get lost in tonight. They have a lot of good stuff packed in them.

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/    Free fonts for your computer. I love these!

http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/

Looking back it seems funny I got lost for so long amongst these blogs but I confess. I did. They have good stuff. Something I am striving for. :)

Candy Jar.

Kind of a late night post but I have been busy working on a craft I found a while ago on another craft blog. All I used was a planter and a fish type bowl. Here is the end result...

Taken with red tissue stuffed inside so you can read the jar. (Used my cricut and vinyl for the writing)

Then a picture with candy inside (the intended purpose)

Love what you see.

Need to head to bed but dedicated to not missing a post. LOVE the idea of this video and how cute it is!

Age is beautiful.

I experienced something great today. My preschool class and I took a field trip to a retirement home today and it was a wonderful experience. Each generation had something to offer each other and really enjoyed the company of the other. Then it was brought to my attention that one of the residents was 104 years old! Incredible, right? She was coloring a picture right alongside of a four year old. 100 year age span?!? Remarkable. Truly a beautiful thing. I googled a picture that I felt captured somewhat of the moment.

 ( I have no idea who this photographer is but found this picture in google image search. I am leaving her name on the photo to give her credit though because as photographers, I would definltely want credit for my photo. )

Memory Monday

Well its Monday and for someone who works Monday-Friday work weeks, Monday means ugh. Tired, exhausted, and yearning for the weekend (already). Mondays in a preschool classroom are especially rough because the kids have been away from school rules for a few days and you have to get them used to the routine. Then add Halloween festivities and candy eating from the night before and you get one outrageous Monday.
I am trying to be dedicated to having a rant-free, postive blog which leads me to my new Monday blog idea. Memory Monday. I will post a picture of the past that makes me happy :)

In light of Halloween just happening, here is a picture of myself one Halloween MANY years ago. This was my FAVORITE costume that my mom made for me and I demanded to wear it for several years.

Enjoy!

Halloween 2010

Today was a very special day for two reasons: 

Its Halloween and its my little pup Mac's 4th birthday! 

We first had to do some yard work and get the pumpkins outside for trick or treaters.

 Wouldn't you love to be greeted by that? 

I pulled my flowers out of the planters and placed the pumpkins on top.

Look who snatched a pumpkin decoration. He snapped the stem off with his teeth.

Onto the costume portion of the pictures...

 Skunk Costume

 Jade in a photo opp. She looks real happy right?

 I thought she needed a photo for the pictures. She didn't think that was necessary. (Golf Caddy costume)

 Costume Switch. Although Jade looks like a grinch she is a skunk and Mac is a bumblebee.

 How the photo shoot really went.

 Figured he would put some of that rusty hockey gear to use again.

 Waiting for trick or treaters to ring the doorbell.

To end my blog today I will post a picture of Mac with his birthday present from us.

(At the end of the day no matter what he does we will still love him 

and label him a "good dog.")

Love you Mac and Happy Birthday. You make me happy (most of the time). HAHA

--mJOY