Utah!

My camera is on the fritz again - so I don't have pictures from the last couple of weeks. I finally finished Claire's quilt (yeah!) and it turned out well, if I do say so myself. For my birthday, Laura and Jason were kind enough to give me a ticket to fly to Utah for a week to see Joseph, Katie and Claire. It was a great week. I had some down time from the whirl wind of the end of preschool and before the whirl wind of Daniel's last week of elementary school. I am becoming an old pro at the flying thing....no flutters as the plane took off and landed this time. I was most excited that I could take some crocheting on the plane. I finished a swaddling blanket for Garrett and another one to sell!

Claire was so much fun. I so enjoyed getting to know her little personality. She is crawling and is everywhere. She really likes to stand up best and she gets to her feet on her tippy toes. That unfortunately means she falls sometimes and usually bonks her head. One time Katie pointed to the back of her head as she crawled away from us and it was covered in little red places where she had hit her head on different things. I was worried when I first got there if she would like me. I had heard she didn't like new people at first. I decided to sit next to her as we left the airport....but she started screaming, so Joseph pulled over and I got in front. By the time the night was over, she could look at me and not scream. The next day, we were buddies. She let me feed her, change her and put her to sleep, and she would crawl up and give me hugs. That is always the best! We went shopping to several places....I was very upset when we went to Wal-mart and found out THEY STILL HAVE FABRIC! The stores around WS made us think all Wal-mart were getting rid of fabric. I saw some bee fabric and had to by some. (My class is the Busy Bees at preschool). I also gather fabric from places I have been....so what better than bees from the Beehive state? Joseph took me to where Lindsay (Katie's sister) works and I saw where she designs scrapbooking paper and things.
http://www.pebblesinc.com/main.cfm?categoryoid=27&productoid=247.
I keep hoping she will design some fabric that I can make something from. That would be exciting. On Thursday while Katie was at work we went up to Bridal Veil Falls and a point, whose name I can't remember. It was beautiful up there. I had to laugh because on the way home Joseph decided to take Katie something to eat and we looked up something close on his GPS. It said there was a Sonic near by. When we followed the GPS to the address....it was a house in a neighborhood. We thought we should go up and ask for an extra-long Coney with a Slushy! Friday we went up to SLC to see Sara, Shawn, Nathan and Ashley and we stopped at Ikea on the way. I have been hearing how great this store is......and I am sold. I can't wait to land some cash and head to Charlotte. I want to organize my sewing/computer/office room and found the solutions at a reasonable price. Can't wait to get there! It was great seeing the Dunlap kids too. My last day we got up early and went up to THIS IS THE PLACE monument and had a picnic. We made a quick stop at a great fabric store that Katie and her family have found. It was wonderful. I could have spent hours and lots of money there....but thankfully I didn't! I had a great ride home....empty seats on both planes. Thanks Joseph and Katie for a wonderful time. I also got to see Joseph play softball. It was great to see him hit.....I kept waiting for the slide across home plate during a pitch....but thankfully I didn't! That always made my heart stop!

Another year

It is hard to believe that this is the last week of preschool. This is my first "whole" year in a long time....and I never taught 5 days before. The first part of the year was very challenging...but it did have a happy ending. We had a little boy who was so smart and cute but was such a handful. I prayed and prayed and read to know how to help in. His family moved away in February after a very emotional departure from our class. The happy ending part is because we stuck it out and worked with him, he was diagnosed with Aspberger's Syndrome - a form of Autism. He has moved to an area where they can help him. But the children are so cute and I enjoy their different personalities so much. As always, I am looking forward to the change in routine, but I am sad to see them go. They never quite remember you when they move up. They look at you and smile, but it is never the same as the hugs you get everyday. Goodbye, my Busy Bees.

Spring!

I love the colors of spring in North Carolina. Some years the azaleas get in trouble with the frost and a few did this year - but one of my bright pink bushes has been beautiful. Rick gave me a pink dogwood several years ago and it has finally gotten big enough to bloom and you to be able to really see it. It has been wonderful to see. I have a lot of things I would like to do to my yard, and each year we plan for this to be the year, but it is doubtful once again. Maybe in the fall....but for now I am enjoying my azaleas and dogwoods. I have wild white ones spotted around the perimeter of our property.

I bought a few flowers this weekend and planted my hanging baskets and other planters on my porch. I have more I hope to do another day. I can only get so many flowers at one time when I go to the nursery. On Friday there was so many people they couldn't get the flowers restocked fast enough. People were waiting in line for them to bring the flowers from the back greenhouses!

Always a Teacher

I love my daughter Laura (and all my children). I appreciate what a great job she does with the children....not just hers. I tried to capture (but they moved) a moment at the aquarium where she was showing things to her children and mine. She does a great job of being patient and "always a teacher", even when the situation and the children are challenging. Thanks for being such a great example!

Spring Break

Spring break was last week - a much look forward to change of pace. Daniel had to make up two of the days but preschool doesn't make up snow days unless it is more than five. Hooray! I know preschool Mom's don't agree. After MUCH coaxing - Laura and Jason ran away to the mountains for a couple of days and let me watch all three kids. It was the first time they had left Paige overnight. I kept them at their house so they were able to sleep in their own beds. Daniel and Rick "Bached" it for two days. Daniel always thinks that is fun. The kids and I had a great time, even though we didn't do anything exciting. We got out some eggs and hid them in the back yard for an hour. We finally quit because Sierra would hide them and then tell Jamison where she hid them and he got upset because he missed out on the "finding" part. Tuesday morning we went to the Children's Museum for a couple of hours. It was packed with some school groups from Davie - but the children had a blast. I decided not to take it personal when I got Paige up Tuesday morning and she took one look at me and threw herself down in the crib and started whining....I wasn't Mom. Sierra was fine when she came down, but Jamison came down stairs and saw me, and then he laid down in the floor and started crying. Oh well, I know they love me anyway!
Wednesday I did some sewing...still putting Claire's quilt together. Thursday morning we got up early and headed out with Laura and the children to Carolina Beach for a quick trip. Laura was kind enough to let Daniel and I come along. It rained all the way down there. The hotel had an indoor pool, so everyone had a good time. Daniel was into the 2nd book in the Twilight series and had his head buried most of the time. Friday morning we headed out to the beach where the wind was whipping the sand. We had more pool time and headed for the Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The children had a great time seeing the fish, turtles, alligators, etc. We went out to the beach at Fort Fisher where the sun was wonderful....but it was still windy. Jamison and Daniel played at the water's edge while Sierra dug in the sand until she couldn't stand the stinging anymore. It was a quick trip but a lot of fun. It was a busy week...but at least it was different. The last break until the end of the school year will be this week for Easter.....then 6 weeks steady.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

I can't spell success without doing in a "cheer" form in my mind. I think I went to too many basketball and football games at one point in my life :). Since I have been Activities Committee Chairman at Church - since June of last year-I have been worrying about the Teacher Appreciation Dinner we do annually in our ward. Last night was the big event. These events are scary when you are furnishing the food, and you are never sure how many people are coming. The numbers changed daily, and in the end, hourly. I told the Ward Correlation Committee - that if my committee was in charge, it was going to be a ward event. It turned out great. Everyone helped. Our theme was "It's Magic". Wayne Bills, a wonderful speaker, came and entertained us with a magic act. The children loved it. At one point we were expecting over 100 people, but people got sick and we ended up with about 80. We had over 20 teachers there, so that was great. We had youth do some "dinner" music as well as Marie Roth. We had planned to do Chicken Cordon Blue, but I bought the wrong chicken and ended up doing an Italian breaded chicken, an Asian Broccoli Salad, roll, and my(or should I say Jan Eckholdt's) Cream Cheese Potatoes. For dessert we did large brownies with a scoop of ice cream and drizzled chocolate syrup. It was all yummy. The youth served and did a great job. We ended the evening with the children standing up and telling something they liked about their teachers. The Activities Committee has had an event every month since October. We are taking a break. Next big event will be Pioneer Day. Today I am trying to recuperate....I should have taken the day off - but I forgot temporarily how wiped out I am after such events. Spring break starts tomorrow!! The clown is from something we did in preschool this week. The circus came to SPP.

Katie's Challenge

So my daughter-in-law Katie put this thing on her blog - the first 5 people to comment get a homemade gift from her. The catch was we had to put it on our blog too - so I like to make things for people, so that is okay. I have lots of baby things made now - so if you have need - that would be easy. Katie put a year time limit to get the gift there - I can go for that too. Ready, set, go.