The Best Llhasa Ever!

Please forgive my indulgence...but how could you not love this face!?!?!? What a sweet mess-pot Lolly Belle Rose is! She's such a cutie and I just adore her! Bet you couldn't guess that though, huh?

Tea Time for Two!

Melody and I had so much fun going to the Vintage Tea Room on Saturday! Doug and Mel came up for my Fifth Grade Musical on Friday. Then on Saturday, patient Doug (the best brother-in-law in the world) waited for us while we had a "sister day". It was awesome! We went yard-sale-ing (I totally made out like a bandit!) and then for high tea. We tried TEN different pots of tea and made notes about which ones we liked and didn't like. Needless to say...we floated home! We also met some new friends who are believers (they work at IBM). One of them took these pictures as ARGHHH! I had forgotten my camera as did Mel. Don't we look posh?!?!

Where has the summer GONE?!?!?!?!

Once again the summer shadows shorten...

(sob, sob, wail!)

As the shades wain, the anticipation of smelling once again that evocatively redolent crayon bouquet endemic to all elementary schools thrills and titillates the senses of my memory.

OK, enough of the poetic...um...garbage. Wanna see just a little of what I spent my summer vacation doing?

The summer began with the apartment management stripping the wallpaper off of my kitchen walls (there were FIVE LAYERS!!!!), texturing and painting the walls bright white...and when I say bright, I mean "wear sunglasses" BRIGHT! Of course, my floor is also white. White on white. What in the WORLD can you do with a white on white kitchen with brown cabinets?

Weeeeellll....you see, my darling sister sent me a talavera teapot for my birthday this year. When I looked at that teapot and then looked at that blindingly stark kitchen, I knew exactly what it needed! So I spent many (ok, more like scores) of hours painting plates to mount on the wall. I was even able to use a $50 gift card from this year's fifth grade class to buy a talavera clock! What a nice thing to remember them by! So here is what I painted....

Kate, did I do you proud?!? Below is the cute little chalk board that Melody painted for her new kitchen when she was visiting and the clock I bought. It was so much fun getting in touch with that artistic side that comes through my Momma from the Lord. It brought back so many wonderful memories of evenings spent in her studio painting and hanging out while she painted. What a joy it was to do these projects! And now my kitchen is absolutely beautiful with these brightly colored pieces displayed on the white backdrop of the walls. It looks so clean and crisp and totally different from what I had before!

Only 10 days of summer left for me. But I do have a brand new piano waiting for me at school...more on that later!

Lolly's "family"...

Lolly has always treated her brown and white toys very differently from her other toys. Her very first one (the little white and brown teddy bear) was called “baby” because she would carry it around in her mouth, sleep with it and scold it by putting it on the potty pad! Once, she even tried to give Baby a drink by dunking him in the water bowl! She was distraught that I had to put Baby in the clothes dryer after that incident. She never dunked him again!

As we acquired more toys, I noticed that she was very protective and careful with all the toys that were her brown and white coloring; whereas, with other toys she was very “rough and tumble”. So we started calling them by “family” names.

She knows each one’s name and will retrieve from her toy basket whichever one I ask of her. She also treats them differently…Baby is to be gentle with. Brother is to be tossed gently so she can catch him. Sister is to be thrown past her so she can retrieve her. With Cousin we play “keep away” and Trevor Baby is to be cuddled with in the crate during rainstorms. She constantly amazes me with her creative sensitivity!

How beautiful a day can be

When kindness touches it!

~George Elliston

My New Classroom...

After 12 years in a trailer it is so wonderful to have my very own, brand-new, sound-proof Music Room! Did you notice the storage closet door back there?!?! It runs the width of the room...ah, bliss!

This picture (as every teacher will attest)

show's a teacher's "best friend"....my very own thermostat!

Those wacky 3rd graders!

The Lollster

Why do you always assume I am going to eat them? Just because I've done so before doesn't mean I'm going to do so this time!

My Very First Pie!

Truly, it was! I had never made a pie before and here is my first effort. We are NOT going to be nit-picky about the fact that it was a boxed, mix-up crust and canned apples, RIGHT?!?!

ah HA!

Years and years of "school" pictures...once again they took my picture this year...and lost it! Which wasn't too bad because I looked REALLY bad in it. So they retook it on a day when I had a honkin' huge fever blister and I threatened them within an inch of their lives that they were not use that one in the yearbook. So they took it a 3rd time! And BINGO! Probably the best I have ever had! You know what they say about practice...never makes perfect but always makes better! I do declare though, that my hair really doesn't look that red in real life! Mel, can you see my pretty brown "opal" that you gave me for Christmas?!

From the Christmas Chronicles of Lolly...

Why CAN'T I pull the sleigh?

In Order to Keep Up...

with my cool neice, neice-in-laws, and nephews, I decided that I must also become techno-savvy (sp?) ! So here it is! Hee-hee-chuckle-chuckle-giggle-giggle!

Check ya in the blogs!