Long Awaited Update

Today was Thanksgiving, which means Christmas is getting closer and closer!!! I've been wrapping for the past two Sundays and I'm happy to say I've got everything wrapped that has been purchased so far!  I'm done with about 75 percent of the people I buy for!   I found a great deal on personalized memory boxes and have designed A TON of them!  Federal Express Ground has visited our house many times in the past two weeks!  I even designed one for myself:

Most of the ones I designed for my friends/teachers look like this:

My mom and brother have had me design some for them to give as gifts also:

I finished Ryan’s ornament for this Christmas.  Each year he gets a new ornament that coincides with what he was doing that year.  I actually ended up making three different ornaments!  First, I figured I would make something to do with Jewel, since it is his first job.  So I asked him to get an extra name tag and I thought I’d make something out of it.  On the back I put a picture of him and the associate of the month sign.  But I wasn’t really “thrilled” with it.

So, then I found this boy sitting at a desk with a computer when I was looking online - and thought I could make something like a “cashier” out of it:

BEFORE:

I painted the shirt – purchased some doll house groceries, and made a mini name badge – then handmade a paper bag  from scrapbook paper that I printed with the Jewel logo. After hot gluing all the grocery items, this is how it turned out:

After purchasing the groceries off of ebay – I received some that were way too big in comparison to the size of the counter and the boy, so instead of throwing them away, I made another grocery bag – bigger -  and put my “extra” groceries in it. When printing on the paper I was using to make the bag, I but “associate of the month “ .

So, now he has THREE FIRST JOB ornaments to hang on the tree:

I hope Ryan likes them as much as the people who I have shared them with!

We tried taking a family picture today - to throw into our Christmas cards ( since a couple people mentioned we have a family picture ALSO)  – but I’m not too happy with how they turned out:

So I am going with the one we took over the fourth of July:

This is one of our Christmas Cards this year:  (Folding Card)

Front:  

                                 Right Inside                                  

The other version is a flat card:

I’ve been busy making A LOT of gifts for people – I made Ryan his Varsity Football book.

There's a player whose parents are unable to attend any of the games – We give him a ride sometimes and I make sure to take “extra” pictures of him – so I made him a book too.

I made my brother a book of his Racecar Experience:

On Wednesday, Ryan has his football banquet – I was asked by the coach, to create a DVD of the pictures I took throughout the season.  I took 10,000 pictures – so I went through and picked out the best of the best and burned EIGHTY copies for each of the players. There should be over 400 people watching it prior to the presentation!!!!!

I’ve uploaded it to YouTube and Vimeo – but haven’t released it to the players until after the ceremony.  I had to break it up into five parts because it was a huge file to upload! Take a peek and look for number 64!!!!

PART ONE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QzLoaSHjS0

PART TWO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beqtfE-Fi-0

PART THREE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Ui-21XBcQ

PART FOUR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZNequWxGZU

PART FIVE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBZjszdETqQ

That's it for now!  Happy Holidays!!!

Lisa

Looking Back - a month or two!

Among all the blog updating I've been doing for work and school, I've sort of let my personal blog fall off to the side! Football season is now over. Ryan's team had a awesome year, only losing 2 games. His coaches gave him many opportunities as the season went on. I'm sure the highlight for Ryan was having the entire team chanting his name as he was placed on offense and was handed the ball in hopes of completing a touchdown. Sadly, no one blocked for him on either play and he was tackled immediately - but still the memory of hearing SADLER, SADLER, SADLER by the coaches and teammates is the football story he will be sure to share with his kids someday!

With football season behind us- Ryan has now become a member of the wrestling team. He really seems to enjoy it - although I don't know why. It seems so primitive to me. He lost his first match - but so did every other boy except two! I haven't had the opportunity to see a match - but hope to do so soon. The matches are on several different weekdays - and Wednesday will most likley be the only day I will be able to cheer him on.

School has been hectic. Being responsible for FIVE supported ed kids can be stressful at times. Although it can be quite rewarding. Two of my students have come from intercity schools and scored ZERO's on standardize tests at the beginning of the year. They both could not read a single word- had no phonics foundation what-so-ever, and did not have any math concepts at all. They are actually making progress and although struggle even with the modified work - it is so heartwarming to see them stand so proudly and smile over their accomplishments. I even been getting "love notes" on my desk. Sadly, I've never worked with so many children from needy families. At our school, the majority of families are well off......since the restructure of our boundries, we have aquired some children that are part of a a different economic level. Ryan and I went shopping one evening and as I walked through the store all I could think of was how some of these kids don't have hats and gloves to stay warm at recess - where others have many different name brand coats, matching hats and gloves, boots and snowpants. I purchased some hats and gloves and brought them to school the following day. One boy was so grateful, it was as if he had won the lottery! Each year I contribute to the holiday outreach program for the families at our school that may be going through a difficult time. At one point, our school had a total of 35 families. Last year, I believe it was 15 families. This year alone, in our classroom there are 6!!! I am hoping to contribute to each of the 6 families - more specific for the second grade child of each of these families. A "wishlist" should be released soon.

Speaking of Christmas, I've begun to wrap the gifts I have purchased so far. I have a total of 41 people to buy for (not including the 24 students I will purchase something small for.) I've completed 31 people!! Once the holiday outreach list is released there will be 6 more gifts to purchase. I'm hoping to finish shopping/wrapping soon, so I'm not so overwhelmed with the holidays.

I've made several photo books through snapfish for that "special" gift. I just finished creating a book for my uncle and two cousins, in memory of my aunt who passed away a few months back. I'm sure this holiday season will be very difficult; as it is the first without her. I hope they appreciate the sintament and thought that went into it.

I've been trying to find out a way to post or embed the collection of photobooks I've made......stay tuned!

~Lisa