Winter Break......Finally!

TWO DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! Here's what has been happening in the Sadler household!

 

Ryan received his Varsity Letter at the Football Awards Night.  The team also gave me a

gift for taking photos over the past four years.

I received a gift certificate to a local photographer.....to take OUR pictures!

 

 

My friend, Carolyn's daughter turned SIX!  She was having a Taylor Swift birthday party and Carolyn asked if I could make a special shirt to match the party theme.

This is what I came up with.  It started as just a plain white t-shirt.

 

Reilly LOVED it! Soooo Cute!!

 

I've been making some "fun" cookies for the holidays

Here are my "Nutter Butter" Reindeer cookies:

 

 

A white fudge dipped Oreo Snowman Cookies:

 

For the student gifts this year - I made these snowman Hershey bar wrappers:

(the larger snowman are pencils for the children with allergies)

 

 

I also made each student a pictures bookmark/ruler:

 

 

This year Ryan's ornament is a "drivers license".  He received his driver's license back in March.  Keeping with tradition, he receives an ornament that memorializes an accomplishment or

interest he had during the previous year.

 

Also, keeping with tradition, I wrapped and stored gifts at my brother's house.  These gifts are only gifts for school, friends, Mom, Dad, Brothers and their families.

THESE GIFTS DO NOT INCLUDE RYAN'S, BILL'S OR MY GIFTS

(those gifts are located in a separate location!)

BIG NEWS - My parents FINALLY closed on their new house two days ago! Movers come TOMORROW - YES CHRISTMAS EVE!  We've been there all weekend moving the smaller items and organizing the kitchen, hooking up the computer, cleaning. etc....... Bill's been painting..... Here's a sneak peek.....more pictures to follow!

 

 

November??!!??!!

WOW - It's been quite a while! Time keeps slipping away! Going faster and faster.....We've just finished the first quarter of school....

 

  Here's what we've been up to in pictures!

 

Mother Appreciation Night - We walked our boys onto the football field and then posed for a pictures! It was a fun evening!  I took pictures of each player with their mom during the dinner and then stayed on the field to take pictures of the game. 

 

 

We celebrated my Dad's 70th Birthday.  We ate at the Crystal Restaurant in Westmont and went back to my parent's house to open gifts and eat cake!

 

 

 

My parents sold their home and are moving...at least that's the plan! They were supposed to close back in September, but there has been numerous delays..... I made a sketch of their current home - so when they FINALLY move into their new home, they can hang this photo that shows where they have lived and raised their family for the past FORTY years!

 

Ryan went to homecoming with a group of friends

 His date was with a girl named Tori

 

Senior Night was in mid October - It was a bittersweet night! We are sure going to miss our Fall Friday Night Games next year! Love this Kid!

I bought a TON MORE necklaces! And YES, I'm starting to run out of space in my Armories!

 

We celebrated Jacob becoming a TEENAGER!

 We had a very tragic event happen in our community this past week.  A little kindergartner who lives in the townhouse/condos connected to our street was murdered by her babysitter.  She attended Brookdale School and was in my very good friend's class this year.  I created the Tagxedo Word Cloud.  The school then framed it and had her classmates sign the mat around the picture.  It was then given to the mother of the victim at her memorial service.  (This happened a week after a football player from Ryan's school was killed in a car accident when "joyriding" with 3 other 15 year olds in the middle of the night). 

 

Monday is the Football Awards Night.  I created an hour long picture slideshow with video for the team.  They will be playing it at the event!  If you'd like to check it out, I have uploaded it to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5TIJIC8HXQ

 

Until Next Time.............

 

 

New School Year

I wish we could roll back time to my last post - it was mid-summer! 

 

Ryan started his senior year of high school! Hard to believe this is the last year of high school - time is going by way too quickly!

I landed in my friend's second grade classroom this year. (She's in red below):

I have three supported ed students - I am enjoying working with them.....so far! 

I was asked to create a couple displays/signs - This is a classroom sign for a teacher in second grade:

 

 

This is the bulletin board in the faculty lounge.  We have many new staff members this year - so to welcome them and for the staff to get to know them, I created a movie themed bulletin board.  Each new "cast member" answered questions about themselves and I wrote the information on a movie clapper - their photo and name (in lights!) appears next to the movie clapper.  The board had the black polka dotted material already  -  it sort of resembles theatre lights!  Along the edges of the bulletin board is each staff members yearbook picture with a sticker showing their name and position in the building.  This way the new teachers can get to know the "older" staff!

 

I've been doing quiet a bit of shopping!  I purchased over 50 necklaces at Kohls last weekend!  They were having a great sale......couldn't pass up those deals!

  Football season is under way. The varsity games are on Friday night and then Saturday mornings are the Jr. Varsity games.  I am the team photographer, so I'm on the field until late Friday night - come home, edit, upload, share links and get up and do the same thing the following morning!

This Friday's game is Mother Appreciation - can't wait to see what the boys have in store for us! 

 

My brother, David, decided to upgrade his Smartphone - so I "inherited" his Droid 3.

 We figured since we were upgrading to a data package - Ryan would also get a Smartphone - He got the Droid Charge:

 

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

 

Schools Out!

Yesterday was officially the LAST day of school!  Ryan stayed home since it was only for an hour - I had to work for 3 hours and then went to our staff party at Lou Malnati's Pizza. We had fun celebrating the school year.  There is much uncertainty for the next schoolyear, as we have had many people transferred or let go due to reduction in staffing. 

But for now.....it's time to enjoy the summer!!!

I made several book page wreaths for teacher/friends.  They were a big hit!  I personalized them in with their family name in the center.  I made cards that had old books on the front and then kindergarten stationary in the inside. - Here are some of them:

Each Kindergartener got a goodie bag personalized with their names.  A second grade teacher has been transferred to fifth grade, so I made her class sign for next year.  The flower gift bags were for other close friends - I made personalized pencil holders for each.  There were Cubs shirts, decorative sissors, garden flags, necklaces and other fun goodies in each bag. The large pink bag was for the teacher I worked with this year.  Each gift inside was something she collected or enjoyed.  Minnie Mouse watch, Cubs T-shirt, Snoopy windsock, etc.....

We had several teachers either retire or transfers - For the teachers retiring I made memory boxes with the school picture on it.  I made personalized note pads for the principal who will be at a different school next year and Brookdale Note Pads for our new principal.  The support teacher I have worked with for the past three years collects birds and salt/pepper shakers - I was able to find 2 sets of Birds Salt and Pepper shakers!

Ryan requested more hours at Jewel for the summer....It appears they have honored his request and have doubled his hours for next week! He will also begin summer football camp at the end of next week.

Next week Ryan will be ungoing a medical procedure - without sharing details, we are hopeful that the procedure will help ease our minds to some issues he's been experience.  We've had several other test done over the past months, all tests have come back normal. We'd appreicate your keeping him in your thoughts and prays as we wait on the results!

Getting Ready for Christmas

 Thanks for stopping by to check up on us!!!

I've been wrapping Christmas gifts for three Sundays for a total of about 12 hours!  My brother, David has a spare room off of his living room - this is what it looks like right now!!  These are the gifts for school (friends/students) along with my parents, nephew and something small for my brothers/sister-in-law! 

Ryan and Bill's gifts are in Dave's spare bedroom hidden in bags for transport to our house on Christmas Eve! This way no one is tempted to peek!!

 I got an amazing deal on gifts for the Kindergartners.  Jewel sells Gingerbread House kits in their bakery department.  They are normally 10.99 a piece.  Ryan noticed they were ringing up TWENTY-FIVE CENTS!  He did mention to someone - but they never fixed the issue. When shopping at Jewel, I scanned them and they were still ringing up .25 cents! They had 21 of them left, so I was able to buy one for each student!  The entire class cost only 5.00!!!!  I needed a cute, practical way to wrap them, since I need to stack them.  I made a black sash and a snowman gift tag - Didn't they turn out cute???

While shopping at Anderson's Book Store - I saw wreaths made from old book pages - I've made several for gifts, along with decorations for Brookdale School.  I've made several different designs - this one is my favorite!

 Today was a friends birthday.  I placed a Starbucks gift card in an empty glass and placed tissue paper to make it resembled a drink! So adorable!

 The teacher I was with last year had a baby a few weeks ago.  She named him Ryan! I wrapped his gift in polka dotted paper and stamped his name inside each dot!

  You can see, I made a bow from the left over gift wrap!

Ryan received his Junior Varsity letter in Football.  His jacket is currently at the sporting goods store having the letter sewn on!

I designed a poster print of Ryan's pictures throughout the years.  This poster is printed on a fabric-like material that had adhesive on one side! I placed it on the wall of our entry way.  I think it turned out great!

Enjoy the holiday season!!! Looking forward to two weeks off!!!!!