Thursday, May 31, 2012

quote of the week

(from Corey 2 weeks ago because I forgot to blog it)

"If you find a flashlight don't turn it on."

P.S. OCTOPUS LOVE SEARCH is by saraschalliol.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

swim day

Since Jake's in town we had to have a day of swimming. Captain Skippyjon Jones gladly went for a swim, Caprica Six took her first swim of the season, and Stellaluna got in on the first step of the pool for the first time. I think she liked it! We love watching them run around like crazy as soon as they get out.

P.S. Captain's diving cousin came from Little Friends Photo.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge

I chose this book as an Early Reviewer, drawn in by the unique title of course. Don't be fooled by the title and cover like I was though: this is not Chick Lit!

The story begins on December 31, 1999 with God telling an elderly Faith to sell all her valuable/priceless belongings in a garage sale because it will be her last day on earth. Even though she hasn't talked to God since her son died twenty years ago she begins dragging everything outside and telling people to pay what they can. Word gets around her small town quickly and everyone starts showing up to see what's been inside that mansion all these years while getting a sweet deal to boot. My favorite part is when she refuses to sell a Tiffany lamp to a neighbor she has feuded with for years. If you've ever quarreled with a neighbor you probably understand why even the fear of God can't force her to mend that fence.

The fun ends quickly when it becomes clear that Faith actually has Alzheimer's disease. Her husband and son have been dead for years, and her daughter ran away with the family ring when she was a teenager. Suddenly Faith is seeing them all again as dementia clouds her mind and various items spark a memory. My favorite quote is, "'Without our memories, who are we John Jasper?' Faith's gaze wandered again. 'I'd rather not have some of my memories, and God knows it's been a small bit of grace not to remember them for long stretches of time. But good or bad, they're mine, they're who I am.'"

It was sad to read this story and consider dealing with memory loss, but the joy of the story is assessing the true value of the items we gather to make our homes.

P.S. I googled the html code to make a paragraph! If you're having the same problem as me, it can be found here.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Project Life: Week 15+

Since my page protectors hold 6 photos and there are 7 days in a week I have become a little congested with the week numbers. Time to play catch up.
Not too much exciting going on this week: 2 pack walks, a bridal shower, watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (awesome), reading Stones from the River (not so awesome), and the first day of Spirit Week: Pajama Day! The first pack walk is designed by one of my students who made a paper doll of me and of my dog. Cool! Also I read Stones from the River for more than one day so I put the date I wrote about it, but instead of using the year on my library stamp I rolled it around to the abbreviation for Entered.
Here Spirit Week continues with Twin Day, a day one of my students made a giraffe when we were doing geometry, Reader's Theatre, some flowers my students picked for me, dinner with Corey, and date night to see Sucre. I had 3 vertical photos so I arranged my pictures a little different this time, from bottom left to top left, then bottom right to top right. I tried using a strip of star patterned paper to guide the eye in the right direction. The day we did Reader's Theatre we acted out The Puddle by David McPhail. My tip to other teachers is to use those Zoo Pals paper plates, hole punch them, add yarn and you have a costume. We used a pig oven mitt as a puppet and we pretended the watering can was a sailboat. Reading is fun again!
Here's my favorite from the week (2 tiny pictures with the corners rounded of course). Don't tell but I got the Sucre picture off the internet because my pictures were crap. She was wearing the same dress the night we saw them and we were sitting from the same angle. I guess my scrapbooking tip of the week is piracy, but I'm not profiting from the photo...I'm being creative!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

guinea pig fun

guinea pig + thug humor = good times

Monday, May 7, 2012

Happy Belated National Scrapbook Day!

Not only was Saturday Derby Day, it was also National Scrapbook Day! Just like last year I hauled the card table to the living room and scrapped and watched Derby coverage for 7 hours (and watched Bodemeister come in 2nd!). I was trying to catch up on my Project Life album and I got a lot done, including one of my favorite weeks visually so far. But I will share those another day, because I still haven't shared this week:
This week documents a trip to Target, watching Survivor, watching the Muppet Movie at our friend's house, a visit from my parents, Stellaluna getting a pedicure, and Captain with our backyard flowers blooming.
a closer look...
My new favorite thing is slicing my photo and journaling into separate zones and rounding the corners. Fun! Ever since Blogger has updated the format, I have the ability to link but I can't make a new paragraph. So sorry for the continuous sentences. Anyway...Survivor and the Muppet Movie poster came from the internet. I used a leftover strip from some patterned paper called Wild Asparagus on Muppet Movie night because our friend made dinner with cooked asparagus which was yummy. I knew I saved that scrap for some reason. The painting of me with my parents was painted by one of my students. Another reason I like this Project is because it's a nice place to display at least some of the thousands of pictures my students make for me. P.S. Here is Nerd Nest's Week 15.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Happy Derby Day!

My bet would be on Bodemeister because I like his jockey, Mike Smith, and he's trained by Bob Baffert who was born in Arizona.
P.S. Wine Jockeys is by Ricardo Cavolo. P.P.S. Bodemeister's picture came from here.

Friday, May 4, 2012

May the fourth be with you.

Corey and I sometimes call Stellaluna "Black Yoda" so I had to chuckle when I came across this photo. You can buy the Yoda hat for Stellaluna here.