Spring Break, How Great

Hello!

Yep, I've been missing.  Went under the radar for Spring Break.  It was kind of nice.

Here's a recap....

Monday I did all the errands I needed to do for the week (post office, grocery store, etc) and then I swung by the Verizon store because my new-every-two was up and I decided to use that $30 credit (WHAT?! booo) toward one of these bad boys:

And they aren't kidding.  I was actually kind of nervous about getting one (BIG CHANGE from the Crackberries I've had for the past 4 years) but I knew I'd love it.  And I do.  It's awesome.   I immediately downloaded:

Words with Friends.  

And I haven't stopped playing since I got it.  I am in, literally, 20 games with different people.  (Ok, 3 with my brother).  But it's awesome because I get to "play" scrabble with people all over the country!  Californians, West Virginians, Virginians, people from the District... it's a blast.   Super addicting but it also challenges your brain.   Love it.  So much.

This is currently my game with Joy.  Now she will know some of my letters.  But I'm ok with that :)  **also, I like that it says that I played flute for 8 points.  I've heard my flute playing.  I'm no Ron Burgundy.  8 points is a lot.

Tuesday... I had a very lazy day!  I know I slept in, cuddled my pup (that's her, the little spoon):

And took Pheebs for a walk while testing out my new camera:

The day ended with Trivia and Kelly.  It was great!  I actually was able to identify "calcium carbonate" as the main component of eggshells.  I felt like Joey Tribbiani "Hey! I'm a dork!!"  :)

Wednesday, I woke up and baked Joy's 30th birthday cake:

Then I went to the dentist on the most beautiful, warm and sunny day.  I was definitely a grumpy gus.  I ran a few more errands then I met my friend Jaime at her place on the river in Alexandria and we took her pup, Lovie, for an hour walk along the water.  It was EXACTLY what I needed.  Jaime is really good at advice and she was just the person I needed that day.

Later that night, I drove out to Dulles to pick up Mandy!  She was flying in from Albuquerque (having visited her most quotable grandparents) and we got to spend some hours together catching up, eating, sharing stories, cameras and laughs.  I miss her!  We then proceeded to get locked out of her in-laws house and needed to wake them up at 1:30am.  Oh, teachers on Spring Break.  Yeah, Peep!

Thursday, I went out to West Virginia.  I got to be with my Joy and the little person who I fall more in love with every time I see him.  He is just so EDIBLE:

He has the most expressive eyebrows.  And he smiles at me every time I look at him, like he knows that one day we'll be laughing together while causing mischief.  He also thinks he's grown (yes, I'd love some ginger ale, mom):

He went down for a nap and Joy and I sat outside in the sunshine, chatting and sharing and iPhone apps. :)  Of course, I took some pictures.  They aren't great, but somehow I managed to catch some Joy (and also my finger. Hey, I'm learning):

I left Joy's around dinnertime and then headed to Fairfax to visit Mayrides and Matt.  Matt cooked a yummy Moroccan meal for us (there was ginger in there!) and then we just chatted and caught up for a few hours.  Lots of laughs.  It was nice to see them!  And Phebe loves their house because they have an amazing backyard for a dog.  There's a hill so she can spy on all the neighborhood dogs and alert us when they are walking past the house.  Thanks, Pheebs, we appreciate that.

Friday, I.... did... nothing.   And it was awesome.  It was a gross, gross, gross rainy day.  Cold and blech.  I stayed inside with my sewing machine and worked on some crafts that I am not at liberty to share yet because the recipients have not received them yet.  Will post later.   Also, I made a case for my iPhone.  Duh.  I'll post that later, too, because the fabric is used pointedly in one of my other crafts.  Vague, vague.  But 5-6 hours on my sewing machine was really fun!   Later in the evening, Lou's parents were in town so we played some card games and laughed. A lot.

I like that laughing was very common this Spring Break.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty low key.  I made William his birthday carrot cake and sat outside in the yard because it was warm and sunny.  Even got my first light pink sunburn. Just very easy going.  And of course, I played with my iPhone a ton.

The first day back to school was pretty good.  I'm exhausted right this moment because I need to sleep to readjust myself but I have to share this song...

This is my Favorite hymn.   And this country girl absolutely brings the house down singing it... whether you're spirital, religious and or none of the above, listen... it's pretty darn powerful.



Spring Break and Life... How Great

Decorating with Seasons

I had a Pampered Chef Party at my house on Saturday. It was a sweet mix of work friends and home friends.

I did some decorating before the show. Phebe and I went on a long walk and did some collectin'...

The Pampered Chef stone pie plate!

Another pie plate!

The Pampered Chef pizza stone!

It was a beautiful day for a gathering and it was fun to have work friends over! :)

Getting Crafty

I had an idea to make a craft for my classroom.

But, of course, mine look very different and incredibly homemade.

Here are the high-quality ones from a popular teaching goods website.

Here is one of mine: (fabric courtesy of Alison Schoew, benefactor of goods to my classrooms since 2004)

The stitching around the velcro. I like to measure and make sure things are straight. :) (please know that I'm joking)

Here's what it will look like with a book in it.

I had fun, I made something for my classroom and now we can be a little greener (hopefully) in room Q-6.

No prejudice, just a little bit of pride and zombies.

WELL! Tonight was the book club discussion for the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Since this book was technically my pick, I was in charge of hosting the party.

I had a LOT of fun planning the menu.

I made some Bones. Zombies love crunching on bones to get to the brains.

We had some delicious Brains and Brain matter.

Mmmm. Man.

I made some Eyeball Sangria. Check out the eyeballs at the bottom of the pitcher.

We turned the tables on the zombies and ate their heads. They were delicious.

Gruesome. But a successful night and lots of fun with my girls.

Also, it's a good book and I recommend it.

Oui, Oui!

My wonderful friend Kate likes holidays. Most holidays. Nope, all holidays. American or not! She's also very patriotic and loves red, white and blue. She got us all excited about Bastille Day (July 14) and invited all the girls over for brie cheese, wine, champagne, etc. I love Kate's enthusiasm for holidays. A LOT. So I got on board.

I decided to make a dessert. Truffles. So I googled "easy truffle recipe". One popped up. I also thought it might be fun to make little french flags to put in the truffles. (**I don't care what anybody thinks about France, I'm indifferent and I like crafts, so zip it) I decided to make the flags first, thinking the truffles wouldn't take too long.

In Word, I made some little french flags and then printed them out. I gathered some toothpicks and some scrapbooking double-sided adhesive tape. I cut out the flags and left a little extra white paper on the side next to the blue part of the flag. I put the tape on that part and then wrapped it around a toothpick.

Success!

So I made 24 more.

When they were finished, I gathered all the materials that I would need for the truffles. Most important: the cookbook macbook with the recipe.

My sous chef was ready to lend a hand.

My favorite part of the recipe was blending together cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Mmmm. I could eat it all day.

Then I melted 3 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave (not cool enough for a picture) and added it to the cream cheese/sugar mixture. It started to thicken immediately and definitely had what I would call a "truffly" texture.

Now time to gather the fun toppings in which to roll the truffles. I had a bag of sliced almonds (they were on sale) so I grabbed the magic bullet and pulverized them.

Success!

Then I gathered cocoa, coconut and more confectioners sugar.

At Michael's, I found some red and blue baking cups! I lined the traveling tupperware with them.

My first truffles!!

Viva la truffles.

Truffle Recipe:

Easy Decadent Truffles

Prep Time:
1 Hr

Ready In:
1 Hr

Original Recipe Yield 5 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until well blended. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla until no streaks remain. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. Shape into 1 inch balls.

Footnotes

• Roll truffles in ground walnuts (or any ground nuts), cocoa, coconut, confectioners' sugar, candy sprinkles, etc.
• To flavor truffles with liqueurs or other flavorings, omit vanilla. Divide truffle mixture into thirds. Add 1 tablespoon liqueur (almond, coffee, orange) to each mixture; mix well.