CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

Here are some photos to show how we spent our Christmas!

At our house BEFORE

At our house AFTER

A little "LOVE" note in the box the varsity jacket was wrapped in!

2 More School Days Until Winter Break!

We FINALLY got the Christmas tree up tonight. This week has been very busy. Last Friday I went to the staff holiday party held at my friend, Mary's house. We went on the Naperville Trolley as a group and saw all the top notched decorated houses throughout Naperville. Then back to Mary's were about 35 of us gathered for a catered dinner. I'm so glad I went it was a lot of fun! Although I was careful on what I ate, I did have the worst glucose reading I've ever had!!  Then on Tuesday I went to dinner (Front Street Cantina) with some of my former coworkers from GOGO. (At 10:15 we realized the restuarant must be closed; as we were the only ones in there and they started turning off the lights - we asked when they closed and they said 9:00!!!) Listening to all the garbage they are dealing with right now makes me sooo happy I'm not working there!

I was asked to make a DVD for a teaching assistant who will be moving away during Winter Break after working at Brookdale for 12 years! I've put in close to 12 hours making digital scrapbook pages with "shout outs" and staff and student pictures - I am very happy with how well it turned out. If you'd like to take a peek at it - you can do so here: http://vimeo.com/17944864

I am SO close to being done Christmas shopping and wrapping. I have purchased 143 items to be wrapped- for a total of 26 people (plus 23 students) The 143 items does not count the items I am giving each of the students. With those items for each kid (pens, candy, personalize bookmark, etc... - it is a grand total of 237 items! Here is a picture of where the presents are currently stored - However, this picture was taken before I had everything in there!

(The gifts in the plastic bags to the right that are sitting on the floor are the gifts that need to be placed under our Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve after a certain someone goes to bed!)

I did allow Ryan to open one gift tonight - it was this year's ornament for his collection.  He really liked it!  I'll post a picture of the tree and him hanging his ornament in my next post. (There is a picture of the ornament in a previous post.)

Bill was off work today and it looks as if work is going to slow down until the end of February.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that something will come up........it's going to be a long winter. WINTER YUCK! 

(This was our backyard about a week ago)

Ryan was excited to see all the snow because shoveling the neighbor's driveway can be very profitable!

Until next time.................

December!

December already! Seems like school just started and we're almost through the first semester.  Christmas is right around the corner.  I'm about 75% finished with my shopping.  Everything I've purchased is wrapped and tucked away waiting for the big day!  Christmas cards were mailed out today and the Christmas lights are hanging outside.  But still NO TREE!

What's happened since my last post? Fall has come and gone in a blink of an eye.  First, my nephew, Jacob, turned 11!

Here we are on Thanksgiving before going to my parent's house for dinner:

We attended the Football Awards Night where Ryan received his Sophomore Letter for his  (future) Letterman's Jacket (Christmas Present)!

A teacher from school asked me to create a graphic announcing her pregnancy.  I designed 5 different versions, she chose to use the "school-related" graphic!  It's a "smartboard" attached to a blackboard - all our classrooms are equipped with a smartboard:

Next Friday is our staff Christmas party.  We are taking the Naperville Trolley through the neighborhoods to look at the lights and returning to my friend Mary's home to have a get-together.  It should be fun!

Once the Christmas tree is up - I'll be sure to update with some more pictures! Stay Warm! We are expecting our first measurable snow tonight - YUCK!



PLAYER OF THE WEEK!

Just a quick update! Ryan came home from football practice this week proudly carrying this T-Shirt:

Yep, He's the "PLAYER OF THE WEEK" for the Sophomore Offensive Line! CONGRATULATIONS RYAN!

Keeping with tradition, Ryan's yearly ornament arrived! Each year we choose an ornament that coincides with what his interest or what accomplishment he made that year.  This year - he became a driver!  Although the ornament is officially called "licensed driver" - he still has a permit.  

These are the ornaments I'm looking at for 2011 when he actually will have his license!

This Friday is the last football game of the season! GO MUSTANGS!!!!

 Hope to update again soon! ~Lisa

Happy Fall Y'all!

WOW - as usually time keeps slipping by and now it is OCTOBER! After having the entire summer off, it sure takes a long time to get into the swing of things.  Football season is almost over.  This year our team isn't doing as well as they did last year.  Unfortunately, the took the "best" sophomores and put them up to varsity.  Since this is the first year for varsity and we have no seniors - they have only won one game so far - MAYBE NEXT YEAR!

I've began my Christmas shopping and have found the perfect Christmas ornament for Ryan this year.  We pruchase an ornament that best represents the events of the year.  Here it is:

This past week we placed the order for Ryan's class ring.  This is the design he chose. (His name will actually be raised letters similar to the 2013 on the side).  The other side of the ring is the Mustang Head and class of 2013.  He also chose to get a black onyx stone instead of his purple birthstone! Now we just need to make sure he doesn't LOSE IT!

That's the latest on the home front! Looking forward to our day off on Monday - 1/2 day on Wednesday and literally counting the days to our Thanksgiving break along with the Winter Break! (Sad but true!)

Happy Fall Y'all!

UGH! Back to Work!

Well......I knew it was coming sooner or later  -  Its time to go back to work on Monday! UGH!!  Sure not looking forward to getting back into the routine of getting up early and sitting in a non-airconditioned classroom with 25 bodies in a confined space!  I've been enjoying the relaxing days sitting outside on my new swing or in the yard! Now I'll be eating lunch (10:55) when we were just getting out of bed!!!

This year I am going to be in third grade.  There were major budget cuts and we were cut in the number of teaching assistants allocated for our building.  I will still have the 2 boys I assisted last year in second grade, but then an additional two high needs students.  Its going to be a real "fun" year! I boy is MR and autistic, the second is autistic and stubborn as a mule, one ADHD with an IEP in reading, and a brand new student we know absolutley nothing about but seems to have many areas of need.  The first few weeks are always agonizing! (I'll just keep thinking about how many more days until the NEXT summer break!!!)  I've been keeping busy by doing "favors" for many of the teachers. Many of them are using blogs to communicate with the parents - so I've been designing blogs, designing bulletin boards and make MANY classroom signs.  The teachers hold up signs on the playground the first week or two of school, so the students know where to line up.  Here's what they look like (this one is sticking out of her gift):

The secretary at school's daughter asked me to make a DVD of pictures for a wedding gift for her friend.  I must say it turned out awesome.  I uploaded the video to YouTube if you are interested in watching it. The beginning menu wouldn't upload but the picture slideshow itself did.  The pictures were old and some were very small - so I scrapbooked each photo in my scrapbook program to give it a personal touch.  Then I created a disc for all 10 girls in the wedding party and packaged it like this:

See the cute "ring" card! 

Here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_zQQ30feg0

Summer Football Camp is official over and the season two a day practices ended today! Nothing like practicing from 2:30 - 8:30 everyday in the 90-100 degree heat! (No pads on this day; as it was the team picnic and they were playing a little razzle dazzle:

Tomorrow is Ryan's first football scrimmage - hard to believe he's a sophomore!  Today we decided to walk up to a restuarant called the "Spicy Pickle" for our final summer vacation lunch. We had a delicious lunch and afterwards we walked to the bank and back home. On the way back Ryan was telling me he can't believe he's a sophomore and how fast time is going by. I told him my dad always said the older you get the fast time goes.  He asked if it really does.  Of course I had to tell him it seemed like yesterday he was the little boy that I had to lay down with every night to get him to fall asleep......boy, what I wouldn't do to turn back time!

Before returning to school each year, we make it a habit to get Ryan's portrait taken for our Christmas cards.  I love having the photos done in the summer because everyone looks "healthier" with a tan!  This year we went with the "sophomore" theme!  I entended to go with the Chicago Blackhawks theme and having a "winning season" card, but when my mom and aunt saw the Sophomore theme they agreed it was a better choice. Here are some of the pictures from our sitting:

That's it for the update! Hoping to be posting some game photos soon! It appears I will be on the field again this year taking photos of the Sophomore games  - and Bill will be working the chain gang. Until then.......

JULY ALREADY??

June has come and gone........one month off of work has just flown by. We had fun celebrating the 4th. We went to the neighborhood parade and to Lisle's Eyes to the Skies for the fireworks.

Bill and Ryan did some landscaping on the side of the house. Grass has a hard time growing there because of all the trees our neighbor has. After replacing the grass with new sod - they redid the walking stones that lead a path to the backyard.

Ryan's last driver's ed class was today, we should receive notification from the school within 2 weeks stating if he passed the classroom portion along with the behind the wheel portion of the course. He was verbally told he passed the behind the wheel portion, and believes he passed the final exam in the classroom portion - but until we received offical notification - we 'll wait to celebrate!!

I just finished my first official paid "job" of creating a memory DVD of pictures. It was for the secretary at school's daughter. There are 9 girls in a wedding party and as a gift they gathered pictures of themselves with the bride. I scrapbooked the pictuers and then created a DVD. It couldn't have turned out any better! I can't wait for her to preview it. It was worth the 30 plus hours it took in organizing, creating, tweaking and burning the disc.

While uploading pictures off my camera, I came across the picture I took of the three Dad's during our Father's Day get together.

Here's Bill (Ryan's Dad), My Dad, and My Brother, Dan (Jacob's Dad):

Happy 4th of July!

Lisa