B.S.C.

I amaze myself and how did a penis get in that picture?

I finally found some blog inspiration.  It's not that I haven't had stories to tell, I just haven't felt like putting my thoughts down.  My feet issues have been kind of like a black cloud hanging over me and it's usually rainy.  It's definitely made me crankier than my usual cranky. But enough of my whining...

Today, I did personal yearbooks in Annie's class.  The feature was "Leprechaun Traps." The kids get a picture of themselves with their classmates and traps and then they have to write something about what happened that day. On the other page they get to draw a picture about the topic.

Annie wrote a great little narrative in which she used the "..." (yes, she used ellipses) .  She cracks me up. 

One little boy at her table is learning English as a second language so he hasn't quite mastered the grammatical aspect of the language. He gushed on and on about how well she draws..."you are such a good drawer...I amaze myself." I'm pretty sure he meant to say SHE was amazing. 

A bit later, one of the sweet boys called me over to his desk.

"Heather" he asks, "what is this in the picture?"

I lean over and look at it, not sure what he's talking about. "huh?"

"This right here," he says to me, pointing.

I study it for a bit and say, "It's xxxx's hand."

and then I look at it a bit longer, wondering what in the heck he thought it was. And, then it dawns on me.

It looked like a penis.  A teeny, tiny penis in the middle of the picture.  

I am too stunned to say anything but I look down and he's got this half grin on his face.  

"Yep, it's his hand I say," and walk away.

I can ALWAYS count on the kids for a good laugh. 

Yesterday, I did art docent in Gracie's class.  Apparently, all you need to make 3rd and 4th grade students happy is fresh drawing paper and new oil pastels.

 I always find it interesting who follows the directions but still maintains some creativeness and who doesn't follow the directions and ends up with a completely different product.  Needless to say, I made one kid start over. I don't know how I missed it, but at the end of the lesson (the kids were supposed to re-create VanGogh's sunflowers in a vase but with a variety of flower shapes) I looked at his paper and he had taken it upon himself to not only draw the vase with flowers but also a portrait on the wall behind the flowers.  Not the rules.  Try again.

 

craft mania, new years and resolutions

I've been trying to get some things checked off my craft list that have been hanging over my head

1. finishing my Christmas photo card album-which you will note I put the wrong date on the cover. SHOCKING!

2- making the title page to my project life album

3. I finished my project life 2011 and sent it to be printed.

done, done and done.

next up. finishing the 2010 december daily.  geting there.  I picked it up again this evening.I just WANT IT DONE.

For new years eve, I found these cute printables on line.

This kids filled them out to variying degrees. I will keep them in a secure location (meaning I won't forget where I put them) and hand them out next new year's eve. I set them on the kids table, at each place setting.

Us adults didn't have any on our table.  Apparently our resolution was to get through 8 bottles of wine.  Uh, there were six of us.  You do the math. 

the girls and I made some gluten free cupcakes, our favorite gluten filled salted fudge brownies and some cheater cranberry bliss bars from starbucks.  If you haven't tried those yet, you should.

 

Resolutions:

Gracie has been home the last two days.  sick. sick. sick.  poor thing.  She stayed with my dad this morning while I went to work.  When we got home, we played an exciting game of SORRY.  Being one to multi task, I whipped out my foot file and went to town while playing.  Gracie asked why I was doing such a thing and then she answered her own question.  "OH because you have lizard skin."  Gee, thanks honey.  I told her it was my new years resolution to keep my heels baby soft. We'll see how long that lasts. 

resolution 2- participate in a sprint triathalon

resolution 3- finish a craft once I start it

I'd also like to be more organized, forget less, bake more, cook more, craft more and find a way to fit hot yoga into my workout routine.  

for now, I think I'll just start with keep my heels as soft as a baby's bottom. 

someone get the belt sander...

 

DD 10:christmas cards past

The girls LOVED looking at the two albums of christmas cards from 2010 and 2009.  We did too as a matter of fact.  

Yesterday, we spent most of the day staying cozy at home-making christmas cards for the girls to pass out to friends and I spent some good time catching up on december daily.  

In the evening we had the privilege celebrating the safe return (from the middle east) of one of our neighbors.  it was great to catch up with some of our neighbors we never get a chance to see.

Today, the girls and I went to church.  Before the service we turned in a toy we bought for the giving tree. The girls begged me to get another tag, which I couldn't turn down.  I mentioned to Annie that I thought the toy had to be turned in today because the toys needed to be delivered.  She looked at the tags remaining on the tree and fell apart.  "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER TAGS? HOW WILL THOSE KIDS GETS TOYS?"  

I'll admit I cried through most of the service thinking about the children who have nothing and Annie's tender heart.  Fortunately, there is still one more week to take tags and the deacons will make sure they all get taken care of. Annie was so relieved to learn this.  

Today the girls advent activity was to make presents for friends to go along with the cards they made yesterday.

cute, no? 

I *heart* martha.  

cuteness

I'm always trying to think of little gifts to give to people the girls interact with on a weekly basis-spanish teachers, piano teacher, dance teacher, music/pe/computer lab/librarian and office staff at school. But, when you are buying for that many people, it can get a little out of control.  I found these soap wrappers while perusing pinterest one day. I purchased some soaps on sale at the Body shop last weekend and voila...

LOVE.

more from the files of bsc

the girls spent the night at gram and papa's last night.  i was like "sweeet. i can sleep in go to the gym, run errands and go to my dr appointment. ALL. BY. MYSELF."  

that mostly happened but i think there is a law of balance that for every pleasant interaction there is an opposite and unpleasant reaction.

i got up early because anxiety about the dirty master bath shower was coursing through my veins.  

i scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed that grout. as i was scrubbing i thought about setting up playdates for the girls this summer. which led to thinking about one of annie's friends in k. which led to thinking about the girls' grandma. which led to me wondering if i had her home email cause the little girl lives with her.  grandma works at the front desk at the girls' school. so then i thought about whether or not i'd see her this summer. which made me remember...THAT I  WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE SCHOOL TO HELP SET UP FOR A STAFF BREAKFAST- i was supposed to make the serving table look nice.  

this was at 8 and the breakfast was at 8:30.  i jumped out of the shower threw on my workout clothes grabbed the stuff and made it to school by 8:15.  threw some stuff on the tables, ran to get flowers at albertson's, ran back and shoved some daises into jars on the eating tables.  so not proud of my performance on that particular task.  

so i get to go to work out. yay. the i run to costco and run home to drop everything off so that i can head back out for a routine dr appt. 

long story short, my car was seriously overheated. i made it about a mile from my house and it was running loud, not accelerating and scary warning messages appeared. i called eric and he called the dealer.  they advised me to stay where i was, call the roadside assistance and have my car towed to the dealer.  so i did all that.  called and cancelled the dr appointment and called my mom to tell her she had to bring the girls to me...and to come pick me up. fortunately the truck didn't take long to get there and my sweet jen drove by and stopped to see if i needed a ride home. i had to stay with the car so she went and got me a coffee. by the time she got back the truck was there and i hitched a ride home with her. 

once home, i finished cleaning and then set to work on printing the bridal shower invites for my future sister in laws shower.  of course i couldn't find a template on-line for the invites, so i had to create my own and then line up the invite on top of the template and tape it down then run it through the printer.  the first time it jammed majorly.  i fixed that problem and got about 3/4 of them printed.  every time i printed an invite though, the next piece of paper jammed. so 3/4 of the way in i forgot to take that jammed piece of paper out.  i hit print for the next invite and the instant the printer jammed, it shut down. completely. stopped working. wouldn't turn back on.  

i don't know about you but i REALLY don't have much patience for printers. i was ready to put a sledgehammer to it. i had to call customer service which always makes me yell into the phone at the automated voice.  

the customer service man was actually very helpful and got me back on track.

then i had to print the envelopes.  at that point i was seriously considering cracking open a beer, but i was having a hard enough time crafting sober. 

this whole debacle took about 3 hours with the kid interruptions and what not. 

when i finally finished the invites, it was time to move on to making "welcome to" posters for summer bible camp at church.  i had all the materials and had die cut all the letters that i needed...or so i thought.  i neglected to punch out the "T's" for To.  and then i realized that the wording that was to come after the "welcome to" would not fit on the sign.  

sigh.

well, the signs are done now.  they look fairly nice. though i am feeling majorly incompetent and completely BSC  at the moment.

 

teacher gifts

 finished the teacher gifts today.  movie tickets, red robin gift card and a little ticket to get some fro yo. 

and little fro yo cards for the specialists, office staff and principals

i had been wanting to make pen pal kits for the girls and lo and behold gracie met a little girl this weekend with whom she wanted to correspond.  so i grabbed some stuff today and put 4 kits together. one for each of my girls and then one for each of them to send to a friend.  

you can find the inspiration and the letter to include in the kits here.

 

this and that

haven't been too crafty as of late.  just a little bit here and there

made this little bunting banner for some bundt cakes that i made for a staff appreciation last week

that my friends, is wine cake- not necessarily a visual wonder but seriously so good i could polish off almost a whole cake.  ok, i've never really tried to do that but i am sure if i set my mind to it...

a little running themed birthday gift for a very dear friend.  heaven knows i love a good theme.

it has my favorite running things--socks, hat, kind bars for pre race fuel, shot blocks, i tunes for music, pre race java, and a little chocolate for after. plus some birthday candles.  it was fun to package it all cute like. 

personally i am hoping that my favorite post race treat on june 25th will be the dick's burger and fries that i scarf down...i might even make it two, provided i'm not puking and pooping my guts out like the last two times i ran a half.  

is that too much information?

apparently it's more commonly called runner's colitis.  who knew?

i really wanted a burger after the cinco de may half.  i was so bummed that it wasn't going to happen for me that day. 

and finally because i really like to make my morning crazy, i loaded the girls in the car early, ran them to FROST doughnuts, starbucks to get another lunch and then to gram and papa's house to take papa some get well cards for his foot surgery, father's day cards, a father's day gift

THAT my friends is a gift card holder.  i couldn't have made it that stinking cute if i had tried

AND some father's day/get well treats

i *heart* free printables. 

i *heart* my dad too.  

and then i ran the girls back to school in the nick of time and dashed to work. while on the way i still had to stop for my coffee (priorities you know) and i had to stop to get popsicles for some very sweet students that i saw this year making me approximately 30 minutes late for work.  

so if they fire me...DAD,  it was all for you and it was worth it.

stick a fork in us

we're done. 

i was so excited for the sunny day, but man it's exhausting. 

11.5 mile run this morning, grocery shopping, coconut chocolate pie making, pate brisee making, vanilla pasty cream making (both for a fruit tart for tomorrow), bbq'd shrimp and scallop dinner making, easter egg dying, lots of kitchen cleaning, laundry (always laundry, right?) and finally easter basket stuffing. 

i'm so glad i'm not fixing dinner tomorrow.  thanks gram!

forgotten that i'd taken a picture of the cookies i made this week.  um...i also forgot i had that totally cute plate from last year.

dying easter eggs

annie was super excited about the beautiful green.  it's her favorite color.

 

yay for dying eggs during the day so i could get some natural light for photos.  

we'll see how this tastes tomorrow

anxious to see how that tart turns out too.  my first tart.  love an excuse to by a new pan.  :)

looking forward to celebrating tomorrow.  Happy Easter Everyone!  

now i pass out in 3...2...1...

st. pat's continued

yesterday the girls took a treat to school for their classmates.

i heart cute, free printables.  

i don't make bread other than the occasional banana or zucchini bread, but i had seen a recipe for irish soda bread that made me want to try it.  in looking at different recipes, i ended up with an Ina Garten.  i heart her.  i watch her show quite often while i am on the treadmill.  in fact costco just had a bunch of her cookbooks on sale and i am kicking myself that i didn't buy any of them when i should have bought all of them! here's her recipe.

anyway, it was delicious.  i skipped the currants and the orange zest, though.

we had quite a bit left over because neither of the girls would eat it--their loss.  i put it in a bread bag thinking it would be as hard as a rock today.  nope.  i got home from my class (continuing education sucks!) today and it was delicious with a dollop of butter on it.  i made it during the day yesterday so it had cooled down by the time we got around to dinner.  next time, i'm serving it just out of the oven.  

we also ate shepherd's pie.  i used a different recipe this year.  i have always made a cooking light one.  boring.  so i made this one. it was absolutely delicious too-used ground beef rather than lamb.  the thyme and rosemary give it so much flavor.  i didn't even use fresh herbs.  i used my penzey's spices that i got from my m-i-l for christmas.  

and for dessert we had chocolate stout cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting and caramel drizzle or in this case "clumps."  someone needs to work on her drizzling a bit. i'll tell you what though, i absolutely HEART my new extra large decorating tip.  who knew a $2.00 purchase would bring so much joy?

not a huge fan of the chocolate stout, but it was fun to try.  i didn't care all that much for the cupcakes yesterday, but i think my tongue was totally sugared out.  i had one when i got home from my class today and it wasn't too bad.  yeah, a cupcake and a piece of buttered bread...the picture of health.  got a nice little carb overload going.  totally canceled out the all-organic salad loaded with veggies that i got at whole foods for lunch today.

we're gearing up for the husky basketball game this evening.  have a great weekend. WOOF!

lucky day

today was actually not lucky, but in light of recent events it was nothing.  just the testing of parenting skills in all directions. can i get a three cheers for eric being out of town, too?

***before i forget, gracie LOST her tooth at school today.  very exciting, of course.  that's never happened to her before.  "please Dear Lord let me remember to put money in her pillow"  i think the tooth fairy has forgotten for the last four teeth.  once time the tooth fairy forgot for something like 3 days in a row.  i don't know, i am sure i blogged about it.***

we kick off the day before st.pat's with some lucky petite vanilla bean scones.

later in the day, mama crafted from items for the girls and school. and by crafted i mean printed some pre made tags and stuck them on bags.  

a pot of gold for the staff room at the girls school:

a little treat for mrs. macdonald and mrs. russell because we're so lucky to have them.

and a treat for the girls.  it's supposed to have rainbow colored licorice in the bag with the coins at the end, but when you look for something like rainbow colored licorice the day before you need it, the odds are that you'll go to three stores and still not find it. oh well.

and finally, the leprechaun trap.  the paint was a little gloppy and it was still drying but again, when you wait until the day before to get the materials...

i actually had nice, die cut tiny shamrocks, but the girls wanted to draw their own.  i can't argue with that kind of craftiness. 

we found another use for the die cut shamrocks.

sprinkled in the "grass" to attract the leprechaun, along with a little pot of gold.

they set it up by the front door. 

when they come downstairs in the morning they are going to find a box of lucky charms (they rarely get sugar cereal, and they certainly only get lucky charms once a year)

and this note:

Oh I see you’ve crafted a leprechaun trap.

I figured it out when the lid went SNAP!

But you tricky girls can’t catch me.

I’m a very fast leprechaun, you see.

I’ve left you some of my lucky charms

since you did not bring me any harm.

And now I’m off with a big cheer:

“Wishing you better LUCK next year!”

 

You didn't know I was a poet, did you? er... i mean, the leprechaun.

stay tuned for more irish goodness tomorrow.