It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL before Winter Break! Can't. Wait.

I've been fighting the flu, a cold, and two UTIs!  I really need some time to rest! However, resting while trying to get ready for the holidays is nearly impossible.

Since I never got around to posting our Thanksgiving pictures.....I thought I'd sneak these in quickly!

 Our little family

 My Veggie Tray - Look closely - it's a turkey!

 I love my paper score board - I created this rosette turkey for a centerpiece decoration.

I was able to persuade everyone into taking a family picture! 

It turned out most of us were wearing matching colors!

 I purchased a new tree after Christmas last year at Michael's - there was no display, so I was eager to see how it would look all set up this year.  

Keeping with tradition, Ryan received his ornament.  This year it was a drum set, commemorating his very first "band gig"! 

I've been busy wrapping.  All 145 Christmas gifts that I've purchased are currently wrapped and waiting to be transported to their destination!  It took several weeks and many hours - but I'm READY!

 As in the past, I designed several different Christmas cards.  There are four different designs this year.

 These adorable snowman were created with my score board. I've made about ten of them to give as gifts.  They've been a big hit -Notice how the easel they sit upon looks like the snowman's boots!

 Each of the third graders in 3M (and a couple "special" friends) will get one of these adorable Santa bags with a scented marker and bookmark.  The marker has a note attached that says - HAVE A 'SCENT'SATION WINTER BREAK!

 I decided to take the family photo from Thanksgiving and make Christmas Cards for my parents to send out - I love how they turned out.  The colors really look great with the clothing.

 I went to a friend's house for a cookie exchange last week - check out her Christmas Tree!

SO UNIQUE AND FUN!

I've been doing a little boot - gym shoe shopping - 

LOVE THESE!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday!!!!

 After tomorrow - SIXTEEN DAYS OFF IN A ROW - not that I'm counting or anything! ha!

The Past Three Months

WOW! It's actually been three months since my last post.  Sure miss those carefree days of summer!

Here's what's been happening.....

The compressor in our central air conditioning went out - thank goodness the temperatures weren't too hot - since it was MID AUGUST!  We had to wait FOUR days to get a new unit installed - I really don't know how people survive without air conditioning!  We ended up with a new furnace too!

Here's the new units!

Ryan was Chester Cheeto one day at work.  His second grade teacher captured him when asking him where something in the store was located without knowing it was him!

Ryan and his friends have created a "band".  They played a benefit in Aurora for a friend who has brain cancer.

He sang.....

and plays the drums

We visited Cantigny for a Revolutionary War reenactment, so I snapped a couple of pictures of Ryan since the grounds are so beautiful

My dad had shoulder surgery a week before his birthday.  They were able to repair more than they originally thought they would be able!

Happy Birthday Dad!

(A cedar bird house with a different gift card in each section of the house!)

Ryan and I taught a Pokemon enrichment class after school - for the final day, I made the kids each a bookmark.

Even the Big Kid got one!

Some of my latest creations for my students and for my store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Interactive Calendar that I mounted onto a cookie sheet and made all the pieces magnetic.

All the extra pieces are stored in this organizer!

Interactive Clock mounted on the front of a binder

Inside the binder are Velcro analog clocks and digital time pieces that allow the students to match the time with the clock. Along with some extra interactive clocks for the kiddos.

I got the iPhone 6 plus. - It is considerably bigger than my last phone, which makes it much easier to see the screen!   I even designed my own case on Zazzle.com.  I couldn't find a paisley case I liked, so I found a scrapbook piece of paper and scanned it, then uploaded it to the site and it arrived a few days later!

I also made a couple "reusable" shopping bags through Shutterfly.  The Black Hawks bag is for my nephew's birthday.  I'm using this as his gift bag.  (The Black Hawks Sweatshirt fit's perfectly inside!

Had to make one for myself!

I have been designing cards for Christmas Gifts.....here are a few of the ones I've made.

Today I ordered Ryan's ornament for this year.........a drum kit to commemorate his first "gig" with the band!

That's just some of what's been happening around here! Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Projects!

Where has the past month gone???  The summer months go way too fast and there is only 5 more weeks until school starts up again - BOO!

We've been doing some more projects around the house.

The shed needed some new paint and......

we needed a new roof.  The roof was a brownish color and we decided to change it to a dual black.

We are happy with how it turned out!

and now the shed roof matches the house! 

I've started making Christmas gifts and one of the projects is a reusable grocery tote.  I made this design for several of the teachers. They can use it to tote things to and from school!

 Ryan hasn't had his picture taken in a while - so I convinced him to let me take some pictures at Naper Settlement.  These are a few of my favorites.

The biggest and most time consumer project I have been working on this summer is scanning

 in all my NON DIGITAL photos.  Which is pretty much everything before 2004.  What. a. chore!  It's been fun reminiscing and seeing all the fun things we've done over the past years.  Last count was just under 10,000 pictures - NO JOKE! (This is a project I've been wanting to do for the past couple summers and would get overwhelmed just thinking about it!  So I really feel I've accomplished something that needed to be done!

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Here's some of the fun photos I've come across

This was our first apartment.  The Fairways of Naperville 

This is the second apartment - Brookdale at the Park Apts.

I even found the pictures that were taken the day we were married (June 4 1993) at the courthouse!

This is from the day we closed on our home!

We totally miss how our backyard was a farm field.  Now it's all town homes.

December 1994 - Ryan's ultrasound.  We never knew if he was a boy or girl!

February 7, 1995 - Ryan in the NICU - so much hair - so tiny!

Our first "family" picture at one week old.

I've been scanning pictures/baby books/toddler book/certificates for weeks!  I'm almost done and hope to make a few projects before returning to school!