Yay for summer vacation!

Last Tuesday was my last day of school! I really enjoyed the classes I taught and the students I had but just like my students I am ready for a break!! I don't have a whole lot going on, which is fine with me! Last summer it was filled with work, bachlorette parties, bridal parties and weddings. I only had 1 wedding which we attended this weekend. Needless to say, this summer will be pretty easy going.

Somehow, I convinced Todd that I do not need to "technically" work this summer. I still get paid all summer (love being a teacher!) and in my mind I already worked two part time jobs during the school year with coaching volleyball and softball. Even though the payout is a whopping 70 cents an hour (don't quote me on that). I definitely don't coach for the money. I do it because I love it and the girls I work with, they keep me young. 

I plan on being a great housewife and learn to keep the house clean on a daily...every-other-day-basis. Let's not kid ourselves, we know I am not capable of keeping something clean for more than a day. 

 Learning how to cook some new meals is also on my to-do list. I am great at ordering food, baking, and macaroni and cheese(the kraft kind, not homemade)  but for Todd's sake, I feel like I should bring something more to the table.  

Basically, I am just going to enjoy my summer with my family, friends, Todd and of course Lou :)

Lou and one of his favorite toys the Beaver

Lou's first walk of the year= BATH

Was today not absolutely wonderful? 60ish and sunny. My kind of weather! Today I decided I was going to get off my lazy rear end and go for a walk! I always feel bad for our pup Lou in the winter months around here because he can't get all of his energy out which means Todd and I are playing with 15 different toys with him, tug of war or fetch about 23,234,233 times a night.
Since it was such a great day, I decided to take Lou for a walk too. We started off just walking down the block but I thought it would be a "cute" idea to "suprise" Todd and walk to his work with Lou! Lou was a trooper and did a good job walking for my standards. Good job to me means he only stopped and smelled things 105 times instead of a 106.
On this walk, being that the snow just melted the ground was pretty sloppy. Lots of mud= thats where Lou would walk.

By the time we made it to the Bank of Rantoul we were both muddy, cold and tired. Thank goodness we made pretty good timing so Todd would drive us back home... don't know if I could have walked back to the house or not!

Needless to say, Lou got a bath when he got home, which means I basically got one too..
Hopefully I can continue walks with Lou if it stays nice out!!
Go away winter weather so I can break out those flip flops!!!!!!!!!

I'm blogging about a blog...

I love reading postings from other people, most of the time it's people I don't even know. This forum posting in the "Nest" application on face book caught my attention.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Teacher-Suspended-for-Blog-Posts-About-Students-115655164.html

This is the video about a teacher who was suspended who wrote a blog about her students and administrators. I mean come on now... Posting some of the things she said on a public internet sight is just plain ignorant.


Here is a "snapshot" of the actual post. The teacher had to take it down.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s … google.com

I guess a student found it and posted it as her status or on her wall and then it just went out of control from there.

I can't imagine this woman being hired back to her school, she would have zero respect from her students...

Poor choices.

Update: Pottery Place artwork!

Yesterday I received our works of art!!

***Disclamer***
I have never claimed to be an artist! However, I am really happy and proud of how it turned out!

My artwork for my puppy Lou!

Paige's artwork for Lou's brother Miles!!

I seriously can't wait to go back!

The Pottery Place

What a great GDO...(Girls Day Out)  Paige and I are always taking about how we wanted to ditch the boys and go out and do something fun! We finally got around to going to paint pottery at the Pottery Place. This is located in Champaign by the round barn center.

This place is amazing!! One, it is owned by my fellow colleague Laura Billimack. Two, you get to paint pottery!
Three, it's really affordable! You only pay a low fee of 7 dollars to use all there supplies and paint colors.
Next you get to choose from many different items to paint. Paige and I loved our pups so we painted dog bowls. We already have like 5 other things picked out to go back. They have plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, cute shoes, frames, and Christmas decorations to choose from.

While we were there, there were birthday parties going on for a little girl! I already told my sister she should do this for my niece's 8th birthday! Best part is, they clean up your pottery mess when you are all done!!


Here is a sneak peak of what I made.



Just Kidding!!! I "borrowed" it from their website..I think that's a cat dish anyway

Mine should be done Wednesday, so hopefully I will remember to put a picture up soon!

Here is there website: http://www.potteryplacechampaign.com/

The Things Game

Things that fish think when they are swimming in an aquarium.
Things you shouldn't do in public.
Things you wish your parents told you.

You can only imagine at some of the "clever" responses that my friends Corey, Kyle, Adam and Todd thought of!

This are just 3 of the questions that the "Things" game offer. All you need is just 5 friends, a night with nothing to do and paper and pencils! Last night it was game night at the Lewis'. Apples to Apples, Taboo and the things game.

For those who don't know. The "guesser" reads a question to the group
for example mine was "What do fishes think about as they swim in their aquarium"  the other players write down a response to the question. Now there is some strategy involved here.
When you are playing with guys, they always say dirty responses, so the females of the group could be clever and write something that a guy "would say." The person sitting next to the guesser, reads the responses for the "guesser" so they don't look at hand writing and get tipped off. The goal is to guess who said which, that's when clever answers come in handy.
I am a horrible guesser, but I know how to write clever responses that people won't think it's me!

Last night, after two rounds, the winner was.... Lindsey!!!

The game has probably over 200 questions, so this game can definitely be played more than once, and even if you repeat the questions, you can still think of creative responses!

It's Finally HERE!!!

The wait is over... our new table and dining chairs are in! It felt like it took forever, but in reality it was only three weeks!

Here is the before.

Here is the after! 

The kitchen redo is almost complete! All we need to do is replace the counter tops....That might take a little while... Good counter tops are not cheap!!

I need ideas for Summer Vacations!!!

For the past week I have been trying to think of vacation spots for Todd and I this summer. Todd gets two weeks off and we want to go somewhere, within the U.S. Although we would LOVE to go back to St. Lucia, it's just too much money, and I would like to save money for bigger purchases...and whatever else that may come along. :)

Todd and I thought about going up to Lake Michigan and renting a house for a week. We thought it would be a lot of fun to have other couples to come on vacation with us. I thought it would be a relaxing vacation!

A house I found for rent!

www.homeaway.com is a great website for house rentals

We thought of doing a road trip! Just getting in the car and choosing a direction and driving! Of course we would plan out a little before, like which way we should travel... 

The problem is Todd has been like EVERYWHERE in the United States, so there isn't anything he thinks "Oh hey I've never done this, let's go there." 

Me on the other hand... My parents are beach people so we went to a lot of warm places in the summer.. Florida, California, Pennsylvania. I know I am forgetting some places...

I have never been to Texas....or Colorado. Hmm we have some friends there....maybe we could make our way out there :)

Birthday: Part 2

Memory Lane: RTHS Tourney JV Champs!!

This Friday I received a text from Paige, she said that she was looking at her sister in law's pictures of high school and was missed those days of seeing everyone and playing sports! How fitting that this weekend I had a chance to spend time with friends who we hung out with.
My birthday was Monday, so I wanted to "celebrate" with my friends too.
One of my best friends, Adam was back in town. He's in the Air Force and we just had to get the group back together and hang out. Honestly, I know some people hated their high school years for whatever reason, I absolutely loved it! Why wouldn't I, I was able to see my friends everyday, hung out with each other every weekend, played sports with my friends, and of course met my wonderful husband there. As complicated as it may seem, life was so much simpler then.
It is crazy that we will be out of school for 7 years. All of our lives have changed so much! Some of us are married, some are parents, some are doing amazing things with their careers! I had amazing group of friends and I am blessed to have them in my life. Although we might not see each other often, hopefully they know I am there for them...No matter what! A little trip down memory lane....

Kara, missing her more everyday
This picture was taken at my 16th birthday

My 18th birthday!! 

Around my 22nd birthday

We decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, I guess that was a popular choice because there were more Rantoul people there too!

Frustrated with airlines.

I wanted to be a good wife and get Todd a present for his birthday. a couple years ago he bought me tickets to vegas .I figured I would surprise him and return the favor for his 25th birthday.this morning I looked online and found a great deal for basically 800 dollars total flight and hotel .We like staying at the flamingo so we thought it was a pretty good price. flamingo in a decent hotel and it is in a great location for walking everywhere. I thought okay well I would search around a little more online on my prep period.now that it is 9 o'clock am I look in the prices increased by 200 dollars. it's so frustrating it's not even 2 hours later in the price went up to 200 dollars.I know the prices fluctuate but still I think it's ridiculous prices go up so quick. I looked at southwest, orbitz, expedia ,cheap tickets, allegiant air, no deals.
I guess I'll just have to keep an eye out his birthday isn't until february 21st so I still have some time!
Todd always guesses surprises anyway so I told him this morning tell me look for tickets. not much in surprise but could be a great birthday present.

The wrath of Lou

Dinner? check. Clean kitchen? (for once) check. Clean living room? Not possible with our tiny terror around. Each day I pick up his toys... each day his pulls them back out. It's a never ending cycle. I even started putting his toys in a little bin for him, that lasted until he started to use the bin as a chew toy.

He has way too many toys, it's not my fault though...its's hard to say no to him.

As you can tell he has about 10 chew toys/bones... He plays with everyone of them too!

I am bored, if you couldn't already guess, I am watching the Illini suck it up... oh well.


Tomorrow's Friday...my students in the Independent Skills class are going to be making pickle wraps...yum!!!

Zelma's Pizza > Monicals Pizza??

Todd and I had to get some groceries tonight, I was running out of Eggo Waffles.  Our preferred grocery store is Schnucks because of their awesome produce and meat section....so needless to say we drive 30 minutes to get groceries when we need steak!
Although it is quite ridiculous to drive that far to get groceries, it does give me the chance to get out of having to cook a meal, by eating out. Todd and I were over by Windsor, so we decided to try Zelmas. For those of you who might not know, Zelma's was created by the people of Monical's. While I love Monical's pizza, I have to confess that Zelma's pizza is REALLY good. It's just like Monical's except it is cooked thoroughly, and it has a lot more flavor. Needless to say... it's delicious. Best of all...a large pizza is only $7 for dine in!!! $7? That's amazing!

Although, the service was a little slow
(there were 2 tables and it took like 45 minutes to get our pizza) but really you can't beat 7 dollar pizza and just look at it! It's delicious... Yeah I can't believe I took a picture of a pizza either..

Update: Cory's crew picture!

Our amazing staff!!

Day 5: 25 years young!

\\I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful support system of friends and family! I felt extra special today, I had so many friends and family call, text, email, facebook a happy birthday message to me. I love you all.
It was a great day from start to finish! Todd gave me my amazing presents last night. I couldn't want any longer and I "accidentally" looked in the back seat of his car the other day and noticed a bag, unwrapped of course, from Dicks.He gave me a lot of "coaching" clothes, basically athletic wear but its all purple and gold. I love my Eagles!!!
In the morning, my amazing coworkers wished me a happy birthday and so did the kids too! My homeroom students even sang happy birthday! I was pretty surprised because teenagers are sometimes "too cool" to do that kind of stuff. None of the students guessed my age older than what I really am.
The best part of the school day was when my teacher's aid came walking in  3 minutes late ( I was annoyed and was going to mark him tardy) however, he was carrying a homemade birthday cake from my mom with candles!!! It was so cute! I have the best mama!

I already took out the candles! It was delicious!

When I went back up to my classroom, my students tagged my board. I felt "loved. "

My parents, Todd and I always go somewhere to dinner to celebrate my birthday. This year we chose Olive Garden, when I say we, I meant me. This is MY favorite restaurant!!! I was so stoked they would even go there because my mom really doesn't care for Olive Garden.

My parents even got me a present.....






oh yeah!!! My parents got me an Ipad! I couldn't believe they bought it for me! To be fair, I didn't get a  Christmas present, because I didn't even know what I wanted. So this was my Christmas/birthday present.

Love you Mom and Dad...and Todd...and Lou!

Day 4: 0 for 2 on my teams this weekend!

I leave Lou with my parents and this is the result!!

I want to apologize for all the Bears and Illinois fans... I am bad luck! I went to both games, and we lost both. I am pretty sure I was the cause. Todd says it was because I washed his lucky under shirt that he wore for the Illini games and it wasn't dry in time. It definitely didn't have anything to do with Demetri McCamey not coming to play. As for the Bears...what can I say...when your starting quarterback is a big wussy and can't finish the game because he "tweaked" his knee...There isn't much hope. All I have to say is Go Steelers.

At the bears game,I was absolutely freezing! I had on long johns, tall fuzzy socks, under armor, my "lucky" bears shirt, a sweat shirt, a coat, ear warmers, knitted hat, gloves, mittens on top of gloves, hand warmers inside of gloves and toe warmers to boot! I was still cold!!! I spent the whole first quarter trying to put my scarf around my neck to keep out the wind!!!

I was bored, waiting for the game to start so I took a picture of our boots! Todd was really warm with his snow boots!

Day 3: Was hoping to post about Illinois' win over OSU but....

Today, Todd and I were all pumped up for the Illinois basketball game, the team had new jerseys that they were debuting, and we had a chance to beat the # 1 team..however I am mad because I didn't get to post a picture of the Illini fans rushing the court because we beat them! Maybe next time Illini. I guess I have to rely on the Bears to pull out a victory tomorrow. I am going to be at the game and don't want to freeze my butt off for a loss!

On the upside of today, I had a hair appointment with Miranda, she is pretty much awesome. She works at Rod Sickler's Salon and Spa and she rocks. Miranda and I first met last February when she was my assistant coach for JV softball. Boy did we have some fun times with our team. Teenage girls saying the funniest things.

Anyway I asked her to chop off my hair, color it dark, and put a few highlights in it... the results are exactly what I expected.  She never fails me!

A Before....

The After!

Day 2: Cory's Crew!

Happy Friday! Today at school was another great example of the school pulling together to support a fellow coworkers son and his battle vs. cancer. The amazing team who organized Cory's crew made shirts and bracelets to help raise money for Cory Wagner. For casual Friday we all wore our Cory's crew shirt and took a picture to show our support for him! I even saw a lot of students sporting the blue!!!
My picture will be quickly replaced with the group shot as soon as I can get my hands on it...
They are having a cash bash for Cory on February 26th at the Knights of Columbus in Rantoul to help raise more money for the family. I just bought a ticket today!  They have a long battle ahead but it sounds like Cory is a fighter and he has an amazing support system with his family, RTHS (where his dad works), the Rantoul City Schools (where his mom works) and their church family. Just like Mr. Wagner said....They are going to take it one day at a time. (Mr. Peters even held up a sign with that saying in our group picture!)
It is amazing to know how a community can pull together to support a child and family in need! It gives me one more reason to be proud of my town!!

Pictures Day 1: Owls!

In my Independent skills class we have been working on sewing skills since the beginning of the semester. The students have been doing a really great job following directions...they have learned how to do a running stitch and a backstitch and they can sew on buttons too! The wonderful Mrs. Lindsay at school found a project for us to do. (We will be starting with sewing machines very soon!) Today we did a project that worked on following directions and sewing on buttons!  We made owls out of felt, and had buttons for eyes. I think they turned out really cute and the students could take home a project to "put on the fridge!" These owls are to put our hand sewing needles in, so we don't loose the needles! 

These remind me of those pictures of when some people see one image and and others see something else. (The old lady and the young woman with the hat, remember those?) 


Like I said before, they are suppose to be owls...but...when I look again it looks like 2 birds "kissing" I think the yellow one at the top shows it best.


Okay, the teacher in me is giving a extra credit question.... I made one of these...


Which one?????

Pictures....Pictures...Pictures...

So...I absolutely love to take pictures, mostly of my dog Lou nowadays but nonetheless I love photography. I have seen where people have done a 365 challenge of taking one picture a day and continue for a whole year. I love this idea! I think I might try it! Too bad I didn't start on January 1st, but hey better late then never. Maybe I will get better at taking pictures. I envy those people who can just pick up a camera and take such beautiful pictures effortlessly..okay I'm sure they had to practice too..

They say practice makes perfect....I might be the exception to this saying....I'll start tomorrow...

BEAR DOWN...CHICAGO BEARS!

Yesterday, I was given an amazing chance to experience the NFL playoffs...That's right..I got to go to the Chicago Bears game! My father-in-law is a season ticket holder, and he was out of town so he gave two tickets to Todd and I, and two tickets to Bret and his girlfriend Tara.
Now, don't get me wrong I was so excited to go to the game, I love the Bears, and I like hanging out with cool people like Bret, Tara and I guess Todd too. However, I am a WIMP when it comes to cold weather. When I drive, I have to have the seat heaters on high, with the heat cranked. I just like being warm. So football+January weather= me very cold.
The good part about our seats is that we are in the United Club seats so there is a nice warm inside part that Tara and I spent a lot of time trying to warm up. 

Martini Bar

When we walked into the United Club they had this awesome Martini bar with the Bears ice sculpture, of course I had to take a picture of it, but it was too early for Martinis. Besides, if they charge $10 dollars for a plain vodka/sprite how much do you think a Martini is going to cost? More than I was willing to spend, that's for sure.

The Bears tunnel

Once we made it through the never ending crowd of people and to our seats, we were pretty pumped for the game to start. They started off with the introductions by the starters running out of the big Bear tunnel with awesome fireworks and just getting the crowd hyped up. Needless to say they everyone was excited and ready for game time. Then the icing on the cake was that they had the guy who sings the national anthem for Chicago Blackhawks. Jim Cornelison, former Opera singer and totally amazing. The crowd went nuts during the entire national anthem, whooping and hollering. Pretty unusual, but nonetheless awesome. From that point on, we knew it was going to be an awesome game.
When the game started, it started to snow, it was those big chunky flakes, which I think looks so pretty! I had numerous texts, and Facebook posts concerned about my well being asking if I was still alive, or if I froze to death yet. I love my friends. 
I didn't know the cold when the game was going on but when the Seahawks players were carted off the field both times, those 20 minute delays were brutal. Tara and I had to go for a hot chocolate run, to keep the blood circuluating. 

Tara and I freezing!!!

Needless to say, I don't have to say how the game turned out, but we did leave when it was 28-0. We were frozen and Bret and Tara had a 5 and 1/2 hour drive back to the 'Ville. 

Hopefully, by next week I will be posting about going to the Bears vs. Packers game. Who knows if I will have the tickets or not. People have offered to buy them off of me already (although they aren't even mine) or been offered their first born child in lieu of the Bears tickets...Just kidding Ben J. :)

Happy Birthday to Jessi...and Erica...and me...and Anthony!

25 years old, can that be possible? I am turning 25 in a week. I know that 25 isn't old, but man time flies! It felt like not that long ago, Jessi and I were volleyball teammates...Now we are celebrating her 25th birthday! I absolutely love birthdays, not just my own but anyones, I love being able to have that one day of the year, when the day is about that person.
This weekend I was able to spend some time with some amazing ladies that I don't have a chance to see that often and celebrating Jessi's 25th birthday! These ladies and I all have something amazing in common. Epsilon Sigma Alpha, our service sorority, that we were involved in at ISU.

Celebrating Jessi's birthday!

We all met up for dinner at one of my favorites, Texas Roadhouse. Delicious! It was great catching up with Sara,  Lisa and Erica! I don't get to see them often, so getting together was extra special! Even Jen came down to celebrate Jessi's birthday. Jessi is a pretty awesome gal, so it was no surprise that when Jessi asked us to dinner, we all came.

After a delicious dinner, we decided to continue our night bowling! Since I am obsessed with taking pictures, I just had to get a picture of all of us with our big balls. Some of us suggested had some interesting places to put the balls, but Todd was tired of waiting for us to figure out how to strategically take the picture so we took a "normal" one. Not to brag or anything, I was pretty awesome bowler in the 2nd-5th grade. Back then I had a mean  curly mullet, that matched my mom's. Thankfully, I no longer sport the mullet.
The first game I came in 4th place with an amazing score of 100, I even beat my husband! I owe it to my amazing teacher Mrs. Runyon back in the day who taught me to shake hands with the pins. I still think of that when I bowl. I know people can spin the ball, but I have not mastered that skills yet, let alone attempted it.
The 2nd game we decided to have some more fun. Each frame we challenged each other to bowl in some crazy way. The first frame was bowling left handed, proud to say I had 3 frames of bowling gutterballs! We stepped it up the next frame by Jen suggesting that we try to bowl between our legs, once again. I failed.
We rolled the ball granny style, and used our opposite foot first
as Corey demonstrates. Overall, we all sucked, but laughed our asses off watching everyone make a fool of themselves, all in the name of a good time.

Jen's idea to start with the opposite foot.
Pretty Awkard pose, as Corey demonstrates.

After our time expired for bowling, we weren't about to spend another $55 dollars for an hour bowling. We decided to go downtown Champaign and see how many people we know. January 16th just happened to be Erica's 25th birthday so we had a drink together! Todd refused to take a picture, the first 5 photos he
"accidently" closed his eyes, or turned his head...so this is all I could get from him.

Having a drink for Erica!

My yaya. 

Ladies, thank you for an amazing time! I don't get out much, but I am glad I got to spend time with all of you! Too many more amazing more years of long last friendships!!!

My Bestie!