Spring Break........Flew by

It's hard to believe today is the last official day of Spring Break. I didn't accomplish everything on my "to do" list - but with only 42 days left of school - I'll save those things for Summer Vacation I guess!

Since my fall post - we celebrated a couple birthdays!  Bill's and Ryan's!  Ryan turned TWENTY-THREE in February!

and my friend, Carolyn had a birthday.  (Love these calendar gift bags I found at Marshall's - I bought one for Ryan and Carolyn's birthday and personalized them with their special date).

In March I bought a new car!  I've wanted a new Impala for a while and one FINALLY became available in the color I wanted! (Pepperdust)

For Valentine's Day, I made these mint tin gifts for little Valentine's gifts at school! 

 Bill recently went to the Orthopedic surgeon for his yearly checkup from his Total Knee Replacement Surgery.  He was released as MMI (Maximum Medical Improvement).  He will need to go for a checkup yearly unless something were to come up.  Since he is still unable to crawl and kneel comfortably he most likely won't be able to do so ever. 

In addition, he is still seeking relief from his recent diagnoses of Rheumatoid Arthritis. They have tried several different medications (dosage and types) - He visits the specialist for labs and monitoring of the medication to see what needs to be changed or tweaked.  We are hoping the latest change will give him some relief without any side effects.  Next appointment will be in May.

 While on Spring Break I was asked to take Communion pictures for my friend's daughter.  We went to four different locations and I think they turned out adorable!

I did some crafting for Easter decorations.  I saw some wooden block bunnies and chicks on Pinterest.  I thought I could recreate them by reusing old fabric bolts. - They turned out soooo cute!

These yarn bunny and chicks are Pinterest inspired.  These little guys gave me a reason to use my new pom-pom maker!

Ryan may be 23 - but I still make him an Easter Basket!

Little Gift Bags (and cards) for my friend, Carolyn's kids.  She is always doing nice things for me, so I wanted to show my appreciation! 

And since Earth Day is right around the corner, I had time to create a little Earth Day treat for school.  I purchased these pens at the beginning of the school year - they are made out of recycled water bottles!  Perfect for Earth Day!  I purchased some "globe chocolate balls" while at the mall and I'm in the middle of trying to figure out a cute way to give those as a treat too! More to follow!

These are my latest Skechers added to my collection:

Hoppy Easter!

February Happenings

Oh where does the time go?  Ryan turned TWENTY years old on the 7th of February.  Sure is hard to believe he's no longer a teenager!  He even SHAVED OFF HIS BEARD (see Christmas pictures)!

This is Ryan's girlfriend, Amy - She made his birthday extra special with a trip downtown to the Shedd Aquarium.  He enjoyed some Sushi along with some 

special gifts and a surprise breakfast!

This year for Valentine's Day I wanted to use my We R Memory Makers paper punches and scoring board.  So I made these lip balm holder Valentine's for the third graders.

These gift bags were made out of scrapbook card stock (as were the lip balm holders).  They turned out so cute!  The double sided card stock is fun to work with!

I've been wanting to make wreaths out of the paper drinking straws.  I've seen them all over pinterest and wanted to change the decoration on our front door.  When I found gray and blue straws at Target I decided it was time to create. 

I added the pewter "S" ornament and it looks so nice on the front door.

I liked it so much I decided to make one for our bedroom wall.  Instead of putting the ornament in the center I glued a mirror. (It's hard to take a picture because of the reflection - the first one is a photoshopped version, without a reflection!

This is my Dyson 15 - the ball.  I inherited from my aunt and LOVE how well a Dyson vacuum works.  It's over 10 years old and still works, but I knew it was getting time for a new one.

I was at Meijer and they were just resetting their Dyson displays to make room for the newer models and I immediately grabbed this Dyson 65 Animal Complete -  when they marked it down 50% off!!! It is an awesome vacuum and even though I had vacuumed the day before with my "older" model it still managed to fill up the container! So I guess it was time for a new one! 

Enjoying a four day weekend before heading back to school for PARCC testing!  Counting the days until Spring Break!!!!

4 Months Into 2013

We're already FOUR MONTHS into 2013???  How did that happen so fast? 

Here's some of the things that have happened in our family since my last post

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~JANUARY~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ryan turned EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD!!!!

We just had a small family get-together with Grandma and Grandpa at their new home.

Here's our MARVELous son!  He's into DC comics, so I tried to stick with that theme!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~FEBRUARY~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

These are the favors I made for the students for Valentine's Day - They each got a personalized bookmark and some lip balm and deck of cards.

 

My teacher friends got a little surprise too.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MARCH~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Easter was the last day of March! - It was also the last day of spring break : - (

Ryan asked that I still HIDE HIS BASKET!

He found it, went to work, and then we drove over to my parent's house for Easter Dinner.

(somehow, I forgot to take pictures)

 

 

There aren't many days left of school.  Hard to believe, but Ryan is off to college in the fall.  He received his letter of admissions to College of DuPage:

 

 

The BIG news is - he won the scholarship from his union Local 881.  He was the Northern Illinois regional winner!  He will be presented with the scholarship on Saturday..... stay tuned for pictures!

 

Lastly, I have had several teachers tell me I should "sell my stuff" I make for school.  I thought about it for a while and then decided to take the plunge!

 

I have been pleasantly surprised at the success I am having at selling "my creations"! It's addictive! I have the app on the iPad, and every time someone purchases something you hear a cash register sound!  It's so exciting to hear it and to try to figure out who purchased the item and where in the world the students will be using the item.

Besides all the USA sales, I have sold many things to Australia and Canada. It's amazing to think of children all over the world using items I've created during their school days!

You can visit my store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Sadler-9956

 

Hope to post a little more often!  It's amazing how fast time flies!

 

(this signature tag is appropriate for today - we've had major flooding in our area - school was canceled due all the road closures! FYI - 31 more school days left, not that I'm counting or anything!)

 

February/March Update!

WOW! Once again, it's been awhile .....
Here's the latest scoop since the last update:

The beginning of February was Ryan's 16th Birthday! Still no Driver's Licence! He still needs to meet more requirements to actually go for the test. (Believe me, we are in no hurry!)

At the end of February, I was asked to present/instruct at the Teacher's Institute Day. I was the only teaching assistant asked to present in the entire district! I taught three classes to 74 elementary school teachers on how to incorporate blogging in their classroom. Afterwards I received an email stating I recieved such great evaluations and was asked if I would be interested in teaching more classes. Currently I am scheduled to teach several classes on blogging, Voki, and photo editing. I'll be teaching after school at the Professional Developement buidling and then again over the summer. I was told by the LMC Director today, that the Professional Developement Department is looking into their budget and the possibility of creating a position for me! In addition to the staff developement classes, I am teaching 8 technology classes to students after school in an Enrichment program offered by the PTA.

In other news, Ryan went to the turnabout dance in February. Although he met the girl (Kayla) at the dance, I managed to get a picture of him in his suit!

Ryan has had a couple of great recognitions this past week. First, he was one of twenty-five students selected from the entire student body to participate in a multi-cultural leadership academy. His application has been submitted and we are waiting to hear back! He also recognized by the Sophomore house as a student who displays Integrity. We so proud of our boy!

In other GOOD NEWS, Bill is back to work on a regular basis! YEAH!!! Hoping the trend continues.

Check out our new television:

Our plasma TV stopped working a few weeks back. We had purchased it at Costco in 2005! I recalled the sales person telling us about how Costco has such an awesome return policy on their televsion. I dug out the old receipt and Bill took the TV and receipt back to Costco and even though the televsion was purchased over 6 years ago - we received this brand new VIZIO LED 47 INCH RAZOR for a grand total of $0.00!!! We were told that Costco changed their policy, however, we were grandfathered in and were entitled to the replacement!

This is my new toy:

My new Canon Rebel T1i! LOVE IT!!! My other Canon still takes beautiful pictures - but I couldn't pass up this deal. Bill, Ryan and I were at Target and when I passed by the electronics department I saw a red CLEARANCE sticker. I've been wanted this camera for so long and it has been priced well over 1000.00 for so long - couldn't pass up a good Target Clearance!

Another February event was that we had a "famous visitor" at Brookdale - WEIRD AL YANKOVIC! I let Ryan "ditch" school in the PM so he and Bill could come and see him. Little did we know that he'd actually get to meet him! (It pays to be the school photographer sometimes!)

We also went to one of Jacob's Basketball games:

Hope to update soon! Thanks for stopping by!