First Day of School . . .

Well . . . my summer is officially over . . . today is the first day of school. I finally get to meet all of the 24 kids whose names I've been madly writing everywhere! I'm excited and nervous as always. This will be my 9th year of teaching . . . I can't believe that I've already done this 8 other times . . . it's so nerve wracking! Wish me luck . . . oh and I will try to put up the Graples purchases tonight while I'm "relaxing"! Have a great day . . .

Graples . . .

Yes . . . I know this means two posts in one day . . . I think it could be a record . . . the Flakes and I scheduled our own time at Graples this FANTASTIC home decor store in Nampa . . . I wanted a large mirror so that I could make sure that I haven't tucked my dress into my underwear or something before I go out the door for work . . . I have EXCELLENT news . . . I found it!! I'll take a picture of it tomorrow and post it . . . I love it! I also got a tin ceiling tile that is green/red . . . very cool to hang in the down stairs bathroom . . . now I just need some sepia pics and it will be a fab. decoration . . . I shall take a picture of that, too! Good night and I'll type some more tomorrow!! Oh . . . and I could have some fab. shots of the girls at their first ever jump house/ pool party!

Pink & Brown Photo Frame Kit Project

Okay. . . Hello everyone! Jo, Leslie, & I got these fabulous kits from Heidi Swapp and this is one of the projects that I created using her products!! It's so cute in person . . . pictures really don't do it justice . . .

This is the whole project spread out . . . the different frames are held together with various ribbons.

This is a picture of the title page . . . Summer Smiles really should be in pink or cream but I didn't have that color of paint pen . . .

2nd page . . . Emma doing what she loves to do when she's outside swimming . . .

3rd page . . . Sophia with a hand full of dirt . . . this is not surprising . . . what is surprising is that the dirt is not in her mouth!!4th page . . . a picture of both girls . . . I love this one!!

5th page . . .Sophia offering me a drink of the girls' pool water . . . I declined this wonderful offer!!

I did this on Sunday night after the girls went to bed!! It was a lot of fun! Thanks for looking!

In other news, I went to school yesterday for an all day meeting . . . what fun, what fun!! Today, the girls and I are just hanging out. They will be spending the night with Nana & Papa tonight while I venture to Graples {a FANTASTIC home decorating store} to hopefully spend my gift certificate money from my birthday from Patrick and the girls!! Yeah! Talk to everyone later!

Pearl Jam Guy

When I went to Seattle . . . I also got inked!! Now don't freak out because I think that there is a really cool story behind this stick figure . . . Josh & Monica {my younger siblings} both have this same image inked on their body somewhere . . . Josh has his on his calf and Monica has her's on her lower back. Now I can join the club with the tat on my upper back! I think it's cool that we all have a liking of Pearl Jam . . .in various degrees . . . we are very close siblings . . . thanks to our good personalities, our parents, and living 15 miles out of town basically forced us to like each other . . .


The above picture is another shot of the Pearl Jam Guy . . . I added an E & an S above each hand for my babies . . .and Pearl Jam isn't tattooed on my back either . . .So there you have it in a nut shell is my newest news!! Happy Sunday . . . grocery shopping was FANTASTIC . . . and it also rained here today!

Desk Organizer & New Layout

On Friday, Leslie, JoNell, and I started to craft these great desk organizers from Archivers . . . I think mine turned out pretty good . . . I love the patterned paper and I actually painted my organized lavendar instead of cream colored . . . I also added some more flowers and a little bling. The only thing I have left to do is make some labels!

Close-up of the pics I put in . . .

Close up of the stuff I made that went in the organizer . . .

The above layout is one that I did for a challenge . . . I think it turned out pretty cute. I had to make this layout using a sketch that an artist did . . . 2 patterned papers and that was it!

Well, it's Sunday morning . . . next week I have to go into work . . . my classroom is pretty well set to go. I have a few things that I still need to do . . . write out my welcome letters, laminate some name tags, etc. I'm pretty excited to start . . .it should be another interesting school year. The girls will still be going to their grandma's houses which they love. Patrick will have them every Friday and he will also pick them up on Thursdays when he gets done with class. This year, Emma will be going to pres-school . . . she's so excited . . . she picked out her own back pack. I'll keep you posted on that later . . . take care . . . and Happy Sunday!

Sleeping in Seattle . . .

No . . . I didn't go visit the Space Needle . . . there was construction on I-5 . . . no, I didn't go downtown . . . there was construction on I-5 . . . basically I didn't go anywhere near Seattle because as you guessed there was construction on I-5!! But why would I go there anyway when there was this for me to hold:

This is Kelisa Saffold . . . isn't she precious?! She was skinny, quite, teeny tiny, and I loved meeting her!! Her mama is my best friend from college Mary {Ryan} Saffold!! It was so great to see Mary, Dave {her husband}, and Kelisa! They let me stay in their guest bedroom and I got to hang out and be Mary's slave! It was awesome to see her and I can't wait until next summer for Kelisa and Mary to come to Idaho!!

Yawn . . . I snapped this picture of Kelisa yawning . . .

In this one she is of course . . . sleeping . . . during the day instead of at night as Mary wants her to be doing . . .Hang in there, Mary . . . she will sleep through the night soon!!

Found art!! Monica took me around downtown Tacoma to see the sights and we happened to find art on the street . . . I believe it was done with pastel . . . cool!

This one is a picture of a bridge in Tacoma . . . I thought it looked pretty cool . . . the dome shaped thingy in the back ground is the Tacoma Dome {I think!}

Monica walking . . . ooohh . . so glamorous . . hee hee!!

This is a pic from the Dale Chihuly Museum!

This is the Chihuly Bridge of Glass . . . yes the blue things are made of glass . . . very cool!

This was at the Bridge of Glass also . . . there were thousands of glass creations in this overhead bin thing and this was a picture that I took looking up . . . very cool!

Oh ya . . . I got another tattoo! I've always wanted the Pearl Jam guy . . . and now I have him on my back! Photo curtosy of Monica!!

It was a great visit and I'm sooo glad that I got another chance to see the Saffolds! They are truly a beautiful little family! Thanks so much you guys and thanks also to Southwest for having cheap tickets: $59 each way!! When I returned home, I was able to sleep in . . . glorious! Then I went and picked up the kiddos! It was so good to see them. We played in the pool in the backyard . . . in actual swimming suits for once and here are some pics:

My big baby . . . I missed her a lot!

The dirt queen . . . with as you guessed it . . . more dirt!!

The girls actually running to go get more dirt!! Apparently it's a hot commodity around here!!

And finally . . . Emma running over to wipe down the sliding glass door with her water toy! So helpful!! Thanks for letting me share a small fraction of the pics that I took! Happy Friday!!

Summer School is OVER!!

So . . . Summer School this year wasn't the relaxing and fun time that it has been in the past. It was actually quite stressful and kind of long for 16 days of work. But today . . . it changed. One of my students apparently had a very bad year and did not like going to school. His mom said that she couldn't even get him to talk about school. Then he walked through the doors of my classroom, and me just being me apparently changed his whole outlook on school. His mom said that he actually likes coming to school . . . talks about everything that we do . . . she is just so happy that he got the opportunity to have me and have a positive attitude about school. Wow! That just made my day . . .and I'm glad to say that he'll be in my room in two weeks . . .and I'm really looking forward to it! That is after I have my 11 days off!! Later, Gators!!

Summer Evening . . .I love those!!

Came home today after a particularly rough day, cooked some tacos, drank a Corona, and chilled outside with the girls! It was very relaxing. While I was outside . . . I noticed that our mammoth sunflowers are starting to become bird food for the birdies . . . that's pretty cool . . . I was able to snap this photo of a yellow bird in the midst of all the sunflowers . . . it's not the best . . . I tried to get closer but those birds are skiddish . . .




I loved this one of the sunflowers that have "passed" and are now food . . .




I also caught Sophia in a moment of grace . . . she had been "running" and stumbled . . . I love the look on her face . . .

And this wasn't actually taken tonight . . . a couple of days ago but it's still funny . . . what a freakshow she is . . . I think she gets it from Patrick!!

Enjoy all the pictures . . . oh and I got all of the shower invites done . . . YEAH!! Only two more days of Summer School . . . YEAH . . . and in 4 days I'll be meeting Kelisa . . . YEAH!!!

Heaven on a Plate!!

Okay . . . so it looks fake . . . like I probably found this delicious meal on the internet . . . but I actually made it for my dinner tonight and it was FANTASTIC . . . it was the perfect meal . . .





I fixed my invitation card problem . . . it was actually a simple fix . . . all it took was a kitchen knife!! I just have to print out the wording, do a little cutting and pasting, and the invitations will probably be finished tomorrow night!! Yahoo . . .until tomorrow night . .. Happy Monday!

Sex and the City Marathon

Aaahhh . . . I love summer . . .the kids take naps . . . I listen/watch my show while I scrap. I'm currently making bridal shower invites for my husband's cousin . . . I'm having a little snafu but I think that I'm getting the problem cleared up from a new friend that I met on a website called Label Tulip!! Anyway . . . I haven't gotten to this episode yet . . . but I have to finish by Fri. because I have to give the DVD's back to their rightful owner {thanks so much, monica}!! I'll see her sometime in a little over a week or so!! Until then . . . hope you had a great day!!

Quick Layout this A.M.

Good Morning everyone!! The kids are watching Curious George and I am creating art. I finally scrapped some photos of Monica and I that had been taken of us when I went to visit her in Denver last summer!! I have to finish the journaling, but I don't remember the name of the restaurant . . . it was so much fun though. All of the waiters were actually waitresses!! We waited for quite some time to get our waitress' picture so long that he took off his wig so you don't get the full effect!! It was fantastic people watching though . . . Have a great Saturday . . . My goal today is to try and keep Em from hurting Soph!! Wish me luck . . . we've already had drama over books and the couch and a blanket . . .

Bees . . .

So yesterday the Tuttle family was outside playing in the pool and relaxing in the shade when all of a sudden . . . BAM . . .I was stung in the toe . .. on the toe directly next to the big toe!! All I have to say is that damn bee stole my scrappin' mojo! I took out the stinger, but it hurt really, really bad! Em was a sweetheart because she asked if I wanted some water poured on it so that I could feel better. I said sure so she grabbed her little yellow bucket and filled it with pool water then happily dumped the water all over my foot! It sort of felt better . . . this morning it's swollen, but I think my mojo will be back in working order so that I may complete another DT entry!!

Love ya all and Happy 2nd day of August!!