What I'm Up To This Week

Looking forward to a MUCH less crazy, hectic, stressed week this week. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot going on! Hoping my face clears up! EEK!

Monday after school: dentist appt. (cleaning)
Monday night: Class
Tuesday: nothing (whohoo!)
Wednesday: Kindermusik (yay!)
Thursday: Bunco
Friday: nothing (whohoo!)
Saturday: Travis work during the day and date night to the movie Saturday night
Sunday: HOMEWORK I'm sure!

Somewhere else in there I'll have to fit in more homework (the usual reading, as well as the reading (b)log, AND my assignment that will be due next Monday the 21st). It is called an Instance of Practice. I have to have a photo or a short video documenting the activity and then will have to explain how the activity supports a chosen theory AND present it to the class (luckily there are only 9 of us in class). I am thinking I am going to try to do Reading Buddies, since this week's reading discussed that activity as supporting the Social Learning Theory. We'll see. I am awaiting responses from any teachers that might be doing their Reading Buddies this week. If they aren't, not sure what I'll do!

I also have the ISU student coming to my classroom starting this week every Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning to help out, demonstrate, hang displays, etc. YAY! She seems really nice. She will do her student teacher next January so this is just a requirement to get her into the classroom for one of her classes.

At this moment, I can't think of anything else! I am just glad my evaluation is D.O.N.E. for 2 years! Woot woot!

WAW

...What A Week

Well, sorry, ladies, but my WIWW just isn't really happening this week! Here is my ONE picture that I snapped last week. We had THREE snow days last week and a major blizzard so I really didn't have any worthy outfits to take a picture of. I think one day I had on candy cane pajama pants, a green and hot pink pajama shirt and hot pink and white socks. I guess I should have snapped a pic that day. LOL...I think I got this one the day we ventured out for manicures. This sweater came from Target---it was on clearance for like $6! It might not be the most flattering thing but it is warm and COZY so oh well! Paired with my Uggs, I must say I was in heaven. I did have a cute outfit on Monday but I've been toooooooooooooooo preoccupied to take pics I guess. Here's what's been on my mind...

• Class (Monday night) and a gazillion different theories about reading, theorists, blogging for that, BLAH-ging, I should say!
• Homework...more reading
• Paying my bill for class (had to drive around ISU's campus for about 15 mins to find the Student Accounts office). I should have just called but I was using my phone GPS (luckily I only have to pay the fees since my district does a tuition waiver!)
• Figuring out my bill for class. I was charged $25 because I apparently didn't get my immunization records to ISU by the deadline...that I didn't even know about... Supposedly I received a registration packet (that I don't recall)..and it's in my ISU email that I hadn't even ever checked. ICK...
• Getting evaluated this week
• Getting a supply order ready for art supplies--this is a bit time consuming when you have 800+ students!
• Preparing books, images and Smartboard documents for a few new lessons I'm doing (one is Giraffes with 5th grade. Super excited about it!)
• Meeting with our realtor last night (WE ARE PLANNING TO LIST OUR HOUSE IN MARCH!!! YEAH!)
• Kindermusik with Ava tonight (FUN!)
• Dentist on Monday (I got a new crown to replace one that I have NOT been happy with since I got it 5 years ago)
• Email special education teacher regarading an autistic student that comes to art and is very low functioning to discuss accommodations that could be made
• Plan accommodations for this student
• Met with an art professor from ISU and a college student today who is going to be volunteering in my classroom for the remainder of the semester (will be awesome though!)
• Found out my sis Tammy is going to be home from MN this weekend so looks like we'll be making a trip to my mom's to see them...need to prepare for the 2 hour trip home
• Laundry
• Working out - P90X is still going. Travis and I work out when we can. Some days I feel better about myself than others. The fact that Travis and I just sat here and ate Oreo's out of the bag M.I.G.H.T. have something to do with that. hehe!
• Keeping the house in order

Uh...and it's only WEDNESDAY!

Blizzard 2011

Our Story

I am not sure if anyone was really sure what to expect regarding the Blizzard of 2011!!!! We got 'wind' of the storm late last week (I think!?). We knew that the storm was supposed to hit us with a LOT of snow, possibly ice, and really low temps!!!! And they weren't LYIN'! We had school on Monday with a little bit of snow during the day. Later in the day/evening it started getting kind of bad out *but not blizzard conditions or anything. =) It was bad enough that my masters class got cancelled. YAY! My professor has to drive from out of town, as well as a few of the girls in class. So, anyway, once I found out I didn't have class, I decided to run to Walmart to get a few things. It was pretty comical the amount of people out...it was like people were really preparing for WEEKS or MONTHS of being trapped in their homes. I was early enough to get milk before they ran out and got one of the last 2 containers of regular eggs left. The rest were brown/organic. I just wanted them to make cookies---b/c I figured with some snow days, I might get in the mood to do some baking. =)

Tuesday morning arrives (no school!! Snow Day #1) and nothing yet. By about 10am, I was starting to get a little antsy with all of the anticipation!! And still nothing was happening yet. I decided that Ava and I would run out to Target to get diapers (aka---get out while I could!). By the time we checked out, it was SnOwING! We got home safely, but the snow was definitely coming down. The snow continued pretty much all day. I took a few photos throughout the day though none of the pictures really do this storm any justice.

Ava thought her puppy wanted to see the snow!!!!

It continued to snow and snow and snow and snow. I think there was one point where it did actually let up but that only lasted for a short while. Travis was at work all day (didn't miss a single day for Blizzard '11!). He got home around 4:00. At around 5pm, WE LOST POWER! It wasn't fun...but luckily it wasn't dark yet. I called the power company and they were aware of the outage and said that about 300 people were without power in our zip code and it was apparently due to a tree limb or something of that nature affecting the transformer. Thank goodness for laptops and cell phones! We still had a charge on those. My good friend Kim offered up their house since they still had power. We just weren't sure what to do because we knew it probably wouldn't be safe to drive over there especially as it got dark. In the meantime, Travis talked to a co-worker of his that has a 4x4 truck with a plow on it and he said he could come get us and take us wherever we needed to go.

Sure enough as he gets here, we see the Ameren truck on our street so we wait a few minutes. The truck leaves...still no power. So we make the decision to go ahead and go to Kim and Craig's. As we literally get to their neighborhood, we get a call from Ameren saying the power might be on and we call our neighbor who says that YES it is! Soooooo----we turn around and come home. Luckily, Travis' co-worker was a sport and didn't seem to mind at all! I think he was just having fun out there. It waas pretty freaky though...especially since we had a 1 1/2 year old in the backseat of a pickup truck with NO CAR SEAT. She was really cute though and seemed to enjoy the ride! I was afraid we might lose power again but we were in the clear! I just couldn't really imagine being without power with a little one and an older home with 1/2 of our windows being OLD! So glad it all worked out ok. I know others lost power for 24 hours!

We have a detached garage and a driveway that is on a slope so when I got home from Target, I couldn't get the van all the way up the driveway so I just parked halfway up. When Travis got home with my car, he just parked behind me. I was kind of like..."We are DUMB for not parking in the garage!!" but when you see the after pics, you might see why I'm glad that we didn't now!

Here is a pic of my the vehicles at around 11pm Tuesday night.

And my boots, of course!

I thought the design the snow made on the window was pretty cool! It wasn't that high though...LOL!

The AFTERMATH

See why I'm glad we didn't park in the garage??? We both have remote starters on our vehicles so we actually haven' t even been using the garage, as crazy as it might sound. (One of the reasons I can't wait to move!). It is not convenient at all to walk down the steps, out the back door around the house and through the driveway to get to the garage, so I'd much rather just park in the driveway and be close to the front door...now that I have a child. I HATE taking more than one trip out to the car or in! It really has been a pain but anyway, that is another story! Back to Snowmageddon!

It's pretty hard to see, but if you look closely, there are footprints where the road is supposed to be...and those belong to my husband. On Wednesday morning, he really needed to be at work so his friend with the plow came to pick him up but was afraid to dome down our street so he made it to the nearest crossing street and Travis had to hike it there (a total of about 3 houses...) but that was in tennis shoes. The poor guy doesn't even own a pair of snowboots!

Another view of the cars...

The huge drift next to our driveway by our neighbor's house...

I had to take Ava out in the snow of course. I mean, what kind of mom would I be if I didn't document this historical event!? Well, needless to say it took us longer to get snow gear ON than the amount of time we were actually outside. When I put her down, she kept saying, "mommy, mommy, mommy!!" Not to mention, it really was FREEZING! When we were walking back in, a HUGE gust of wind about took my breath away so I can only imagine what she thought! In this picture she is sitting on top of a huge drift.

Hat change...(had to dig it out of the van!)...still not a fan!

So, we decided to bring the snow inside where it's warm. I put some in a bowl and was trying to get Ava to take a bite but she still didn't really want to eat it. I think we'll try the snow ice cream I have seen most of my friends talking about on facebook. =) Sounds yummy! I don't think the snow is going anywhere anytime soon.

It's much more fun to play with the snow INSIDE!

We made a teeny tiny snowman. We tried adding sprinkles but once I packed the snow, it really was like ice!




Goofy girl!

Silly girl...this face was actually about the leftover cookie she noticed on her tray!









Looking out the kitchen window (and admiring her owl from her b'day party!)




Travis snowblowing the driveway!!! Thank goodness for a coworker that GAVE this to us a few years ago! We spent $80 this year having our neighbor fix it...well worth it, I'd say!




We had a lot of fun painting our nails, watching Dora, playing with baby dolls, reading books, watching Toy Story 3, making Valentine sugar cookies (eating said Valentines cookies), and filling out our Valentines. I also organized all of my mail, paid my bills, vacuumed (several times), did ALL the laundry and put it away (with the exception of the small load sitting next to me!), blogged,had a Valentine photo shoot with Miss A, made her Valentine photo card with my Creative Memories software, and even had a little time in there to relax! (You didn't see working out OR doing homework on that list did you?? I guess I'm more of a creature of habit than I realized. Oh well, my friend Becky said that none of the calories consumed on the snow days counted! So there!)

Since I could actually get out today, I took Ava to the sitter for a few hours while I went to lunch with friends Karen and Brooke, as well as got a manicure and shopped at Ann Taylor (be looking for a few more cute shirts from me...hehe)!

We thorougly enjoyed our 3 snow days!!! But I guess it's back to work tomorrow (but hey, at least it's Friday)! Looking like our last day of school will be June 3 or 4!? Boo! But oh well! We still get our week long spring break and that is always a break I look forward to. This year I'm hoping it is used getting our house on the market so maybe next year we can actually go somewhere.

And in the words of my hubby..."And it's not like you aren't off all summer!"

I guess he's right!

What I Wore Wednesday - #3

WWW - #3

I'm linking up with Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy



I only have a few photos. Not sure what happened! =)





Above: I returned the 'baggy' pants to Ann Taylor and got this really cute shirt (though it's hard to see what it really looks like in this picture. I'll have to remember to take multiple shots. It is ruffled and has sequins on it. I also got the really cute bracelets. Nothing too exciting! =) I have had these gray pants from Kohls for several years and love them. Forever 21 - cream cardigan and my Steve Madden brown shoes.




Above: Navy dress - Old Navy

Belt/Necklace - Ann Taylor (LOVE THIS THING!)

Gray tights - Old Navy (hope they look ok. A coworker asked me why I chose to pair the brown boots with gray tights (I had my coat on and she couldn't see the rest of the outfit). I thought with the belt it all kind of came together. ??

Boots - Naughty Monkey <3 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNMFaqoiEEN81N4jFErrXrHmLzG9cNLtCc14yU9TxLwqLo2Zok56NByyxobHdYM97F96wYLpHsT3le5MV7FlFaXvpjtJVp8UvuhdxXLQweSZ4O3dMqf2Jmj-tBOC1UJ9_18qavyw1NytZ/s1600/WWW7.JPG">

Above: Casual Friday (or maybe it was Wednesday...we can wear jeans on both days. On Wednesdays we have to wear our "Spirit" wear for our school and on Friday we can wear whatever we want. Feeling pretty thankful about that!

Jeans - Old Navy

Rain boots - I picked these up at Meijer one day while I was filling a prescription for Ava. I didn't wear them all day but I do LOVE them for this lovely winter weather we're having here in IL. I hate getting my pants or socks wet!



And what Ava wore Wednesday:


Look at the camera? Are you kidding me?
Owl dress: Target (clearance...it was under $3)
Gray leggings - Gap (garage sale find)
Pink socks - Old navy (clearance!)
Shoes - pink sparkly Pumas

Green Basket

I bought this cute green basket last summer at a garage sale for 25 cents. If you know me, I'm a sucker for GREEN and for any type of basket and organizing! Problem is, I can't figure out what to use this for. I imagine it probably came with some kind of cup/container when it was originally bought so I thought maybe if I could find some little cups that would fit, maybe I could use it to organize Ava's little art supplies. BUT I am not sure they'll all fit or that we have enough yet. She pretty much has the basics right now: crayons, markers, paint sticks (brushes with paint in them), watercolor paints and stickers.

If you are reading this and have an idea for how I could use this, please share! :)

Here's a pic to give you an idea on size.

20 Months

Ava - One year ago!

Miss Ava - 20 months (or wait, is it 19 months?? LOL). I've been having a hard time keeping track lately. Never claimed that math was my strong suit.

Feeding the baby. (Note to self: We need to get some baby doll toys!)

My pig-tail girl!

Playing with baby Jackson. He is growing and changing so much too!


Ava is getting funnier every day--and especially with seeing baby Jackson, I'm realizing she isn't a baby anymore!! She will always be my baby, though. I will pick her up and hold her like a baby and she will say "Baby?" and I'll sing Rock-a-bye-baby." She still loves to play "Ring around the rosie," too, and anything related to music. She loves to dance. I'm super excited about Kindermusik starting this week!!

She has started using the word "No" more in response to questions. It's pretty hilarious *most* of the time. Last night I asked her to take a bite of her green beans (which she does love) and she said, "No." Today she noticed me putting out some coasters I got at IKEA a while back. She picked up the pile and then said "Here" as she was handing me one. As I went to take it, she wouldn't let go. I asked her if she was going to share to which she repeated "Share?" Then I asked her again "Are you going to share with mommy?" to which she simply replied, "No." Very matter of factly, too! We had a couple little crying fits over that one because I made her give me one. ha!

She has started to say several little sentences like "Where'd it go??" and "I don't know" and "Here you go." It's kind of like all one word when she says it. Funny. She also says "Right back." We are getting a little somewhere with the potty. She will still tell us "poopin" but I think she think peeing is the same because half the time we'll check her or try to get her to the potty quick and she has just peed. She will, however, sit on the potty a little longer than before and will grunt. It's pretty cute. She will also say "Big Girl."

I have noticed her going around saying, "1...2..." but that's about as far as she gets. hehe!
She has the Dr. Seuss ABC book and somehow she hasn't forgotten and will go around saying "ABC," too. One day she repeated the whole alphabet with me. I was pretty impressed just that her attention lasted that long. She at least gets the concept of colors and shapes though most things are 'lellow.' She will repeat all of the other colors, though. I think she kind of knows...PINK! =) She also (Kind of) knows triangle, circle and square. We love to use the bath crayons. I will make shapes for her. She has one of those little teapots that came with desserts in the shape of a triangle, circle and square. One day we couldn't find the triangle and so I started saying "Triangle! Where are you?" and she was repeating that and remembered that the next day. I think that helped her learn the triangle as well as the Melissa and Doug puzzle that her daddy got her with all of the shapes and colors on it.

Some of her other new/favorite words to say are:
pocket
tissue
walk (she likes to walk to the car when I pick her up from the sitter)
read (she asks us to read her books now)
keys
remote (mote)
hug and squeeze (she will wrap her arms around you and give you hugs)
pillow (she got a flower pillow for Christmas)
Brrrrr! and cold





She continues to amaze us every day. Her manners are great. She consistently says please, thank you, and bless you when you sneeze. LOVE IT!

What I Wore Wednesday...Take 2!

What I Wore Wednesday...Take 2!
I'm linking up with Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy! =)


Above: Casual Friday
Ann Taylor Loft lavender ruffled jacket. MY ABSOLUTE FAVE!
Ann Taylor Loft purple and gray t-shirt
I just had this paired with skinny jeans (Gap) and my gray slouchy boots.
Tiffany bracelet
Rings from Forever 21
Lovely picture, I know!




Above:
Tank from Aeropastal
Pink cardigan from Express
Gray pants from Maurices
Necklace and earrings from Premier (love them both!)


My 2nd grader's interpretation of me. LOVE THIS!


And by night. I switched it up to head out for my hair appointment.
Navy t-shirt from H&M
Jeans from Gap
Brown Uggs



Above:
Pants from Ann Taylor Loft (not sure but thinking they look kind of big/baggy!?)
Ruffle Tank from Kohls
Shoes from Steve Madden
Cardigan, you guessed it, Forever 21
Necklace from Premier

Again, I apologize for my poor quality pics. Please pay no attention to the mess in the background of most of the pics. =) And most of these were again at the END of the day!!!! ha!