Theres a Reason I am Fat....

and its called I just ate a cheeseburger and order of onion rings from this awesome place called the Habit. OMG YUM! And I dont even like burgers. Can't be going back there or I will never lose an ounce, let alone a few dozen pounds.

Crying Buckets Over Here

My first ever blog read, my very favorite blog read, the reason I have this stupid blog, TKW has decided to ride off into the sunset (or snow drift...I am not sure which) and leave me without suitable reading material before work every morning. Now I know the world is full of bigger problems then what I am going to read...but wow... I am sad, sad, sad about this. It makes me kind of snicker at myself because I dont even know TKW's real name... and yet I feel like a friend is leaving. sigh. I read lots of blogs...I comment on a few... I have had "favorite" bloggers drop off the blogosphere before, I have even been sad about it, but not like this. This is depressing. Clearly I am too attached, but feelings are what they are. And so today...I am going to go off and sulk in a corner for awhile.

soda POP!

I dont know if I shared that I am a science teacher. I teach science grades 1 to 6. I love it...I mean LOVE it. I love sharing the need to question everything. Today we shook up soda and then opened it and watched it go everywhere. Kids LOVE this. I urge you to do it. Take your kids outside (or borrow some kids) get some cans or bottles of diet (less sticky) coke and go for it! So much fun. Oh and heres a tip. Get a bottle of soda, shake it up, open it....ooh...ahhhh. Ok now pour out a little bit, put the lid on and shake it again....now you will really get an explosion! Enjoy!

Wild Card Wednesday... Wayback style

I give you sorority fun. I believe this was some kind of serenade. Clearly we were all suppose to wear black. I am the idiot in the front, sort of squatting, wearing a hideous leather jacket (stolen from an old boyfriend) and an insanely huge black bow in my hair. Sad as I look in this costume, sorority life provided hours of entertainment! (and a multitude of reasons to drink!)

Soccer Saturdays

So I have officially, once again, become a soccer mom. Let me say for the record, that I HATE sports. Hate to play them, mostly hate to watch them (the exception being NBA basketball- Go KINGS!) I never, ever thought in a million years I would have a girl child who liked sports, I never thought in a million years said girl child would be any good at sports (after all she has half my genes and I suck at all sports, I even suck at walking in a straight line, I am a natural born klutz...even at the age of 34 I still fall down and I am not always intoxicated at the time!!) BUT I do have a sports loving girl child and she loves soccer. LOVES it. And she is good! I know she is only seven, but she is awesome. I am in awe. And so every Saturday morning I get up, dress the boy, and we head out to the soccer field to watch the girl play....and heres the thing... I actually enjoy it!

Joyous Bathroom Fun

My friend the comode.... I have been hugging him for the past two days. That is hugging him when I wasnt cleaning up vomit from my two children. God decided I wasnt having nearly enough fun and gave me and my children the stomach flu. ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!! Extra fun.... you get to throw up, then clean up puke, then console sobbing children, change bedding, puke again, then the kids puke again...then you repeat! Over and over again. Its been a long couple of days.

Rosemary for Rememberance

Hard to believe its been 6 years. My thoughts are with those who paid the ultimate price and their loved ones who are still paying. May God Bless America

MMMMmmmm Lovin' From the Oven!

These are my annual welcome back to the first day of school cookies that I make for the rest of our teaching/support staff. I had so much fun putting these together. Especially making the little tags because I got to use my new toy. It is a die cut machine called the cuttlebug. It works fabulously, a million times better than my big red sizzix!

Wild Card Wednesday

Whumph!!! Thats the sound of me hitting the floor when i saw these....

Mr. Iamderby bought me flowers....for no apparent reason! Flowers for no reason! Now this might be the normal way of things at your place. Maybe your Mr. writes you sappy notes, brings you flowers, buys jewelery. If that describes your Mr. than you are a lucky girl and I hope you are counting your blessings. My Mr. has not a romantic bone in his body. He deems jewelery and flowers a waste of money. Why did I marry him you ask? (Aside from the fact I was in LUUUUUVVV) Well he reeled me in with jewelry and flowers (Kinda like I lured him in with promises of homecooked meals and clean house) Yah none of those things continued on after the wedding vows were said.
Anyhow.... I came home from work and there they were, flowers for no reason at all. After I got over looking at him like he had grown another head, I thanked him profusely and moved those flowers to a prominent postition, where I plan to gaze at them until they are dried up little stalks, because who knows when I might get more!

September??? How did it get to be September???

So here we are, September! Time for me to go back to work and enjoy another year educating our nations' youth! I love my job, I love teaching. I just hate getting up for work everyday! Gone are the days of hard indecision...such as should I go to the gym now or after lunch? Should I take the children to the pool or just turn on the hose? Oh well, all good things must end sometime.

I leave you with some pictures from my pretty new calendar. This is the calendar I hang in my classroom. Its fairly small, 6x12. I love making these things!

Score at the Big Lots!

Are you all aquainted with Big Lots? This is a fabulous place...like a giant treasure hunt! Everytime you find something new, and its so cheap you simply must have it! I usually go there in search of scrapbook supplies. Currently I was looking for american crafts ribbon that was rumored to be there. (I hear these rumors at the Creating Keepsakes Message Board (CKMB) where I spend entirely too much time.) So anyway I had been to my local Big Lots where there was no ribbon to be had. I was sad! I kept thinking of the ribbon. It was so cheap! At the scrapbook store 10.75!!! But at Big Lots... 2 bucks!! So today on my way home from my work meeting I decide to stop off at the other Big Lots, this one in a rather scary part of town, but I am brave and of course I was on a mission! When I pulled up I ignored the cop car (engine running...pulled up on the sidewalk) I quickly walked the store looking for the craft supplies. I had gone through most of the store, getting more and more depressed. Then just when I was about to give up.... light shone down, angels begin to sing.... well not really but my heart did start to beat fast because there it was!! The object of my affection (ok, ok obsession!) I bought 6 rolls....because really people I am SAVING money here! I saved nearly 50 dollars by my calculations! Oh and as a bonus they had these little tins of felt flowers...regular about 6 bucks...big lots price: 3 dollars! So I had to get one of those as well. As I was paying the cops in the back of the store started shouting and it appeared some kind of arrest was about to go down, so I hurried to the car and drove off with my prizes!

Big Fun

The California State Fair! We imposed a no ride rule on the kids this year. This earned me a sulk worthy of any teenager from my seven year old. However once we got out of the ride area the kids had a lot of fun, and Mr. Iamderby and I had a much more enjoyable time. This year we had time to look at all the animals, hit the freebie kid stuff, do the jungle walk and see all of the exhibts. The girl enjoyed seeing a baby quail hatch. Well lets face it I enjoyed that too! It was amazing seeing that little bird peck its way into the world. The boy enjoyed sucking down a huge icee and eating an enormous corn dog. He also enjoyed petting the goats, sheep, and especially the chicken. The Mr. enjoyed parting with all his money... well maybe enjoyed isnt the word, but part with it he did. Someone is getting rich and it sure isnt us! The California State Fair runs through Labor Day, if you're in the area you should go!

First Day of School

My babies on their first day of school. Baby girl is headed to second grade. Baby boy is on his second year of preschool.

TAG...I am it!

I have been tagged by Erika a very nice, scrapbook obsessed, Journey Fan.

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was a fairly new teacher, teaching first grade. I was married with no kids.
What were you doing 1 year ago? Getting ready to go back to school. Pretty much what I do every August.
Five snacks you enjoy: Chocolate, ice cream, chocolate, watermelon, chocolate (I see no pattern)
Five songs you know all the lyrics to: Know to the point where I could sit down and write them out sans music? Happy Birthday, Wheels on the Bus, Its Still Rock and Roll (Billy Joel), 5 Little Pumpkins, ummmmm yeah music is not my strength.
5 Things you would do if you were a milionaire: New House, College Fund for kids, Donate to my elementary school, new car, try to get my brother going in some kind of business.
5 Bad Habits: that I actually have? leave crap all over, procrastinate, forget to wash dishes, bite my nails
5 Things You Like To Do: computer, scrapbook, read, play with my kids, paint
5 Things You Will Never Wear Again: mini skirts, legwarmers, teal mascara, aqua eyeshadow, granny boots
5 Favorite Toys: MacBook laptop, video camera, interwrite board (at school), craft supplies
Where will you be in 10 years: I am hoping for a bigger house, probably teaching somewhere else, hopefully parenting two lovely teenagers.

Wild Card Wednesday.....S is for shoes

My current favorite pair, under my barstool where I frequently leave them.

Must wear these to the gym every day. Hate the gym, not real fond of the shoes..but they are a must. sigh. I like to leave them by the chair.

The bottom of my closet...which is obviously a disaster. I dont care, I hate housekeeping and my husband wont let me get a maid. Closet is the last thing on my list. Most of the shoes here are summer wear.

These are my neglected shoes, thats why they are still on the shelf. some of these have not been worn in a long time...notice the dust on the black heels...yeah I dont get out much. The others are work shoes and since I teach I havent been to work in about 3 months.

There you have it, my shoes, sad and pathetic I know.

My first "tag" ever...I feel like one of the cool kids now

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. ***IF you have already done your middle name than do the State that you live in with new adjectives!*****
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts. ***Or state if you have already been tagged before!***
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.Here is mine:

Lea (pronounced Lee)

L: Lice- I had some as a kid.... No kidding (well I did have lice but jeez it was the 3rd grade!) Loud- sometimes, ok many times, I am way too loud!
E: Energetic (most days anyway)
A: Artistic (I wanted to be an artist... I ended up a school teacher. I probably would have made better money as an artist! LOL

Now comes the part where I tag someone but I have no idea who to tag so hey if you wanna play, consider yourself tagged and let me know so I can come visit!

Scrappin' My Chicago Trip

This is the first page of an album I made for my friend of our trip to Chicago. I am addicted to Heidi Swapp bling! (For you nonscrappers that would be the sparkly circle).

This page shows us at the John Deere museum. My friend, AJ, had to take me there because I stupidly said I thought corn was picked by hand. Yes, apparently there is a large expensive machine for that. Then she laughed even harder when I asked her if the machine bruised up the corn. Apparently this corn is not for eating, its hard and yucky and used for corn syrup, corn oil, and ethanol. Now before you think I am just a dumb city girl.... I come from an ag town. I grew up surrounded by fields of lettuce, onions, strawberries, spinach, etc. and all of it was picked by hand! How was I suppose to know super hard corn can be thumped down by a machine??

This page is all about Wicked! Oh it was excellent! If you get a chance to see it go!!! I was very impressed.

Lets Talk Toll Roads

This is an "oasis" on some toll road (sorry no clue which one) in Illinois. The whole concept of the oasis being (if I understood it correctly) that you could get a bite to eat and not exit the road and thus not pay any money. Ok, paying money to drive on the road. I so do NOT get this concept! Here in beautiful Northern California (I cannot speak for Southeren California as I rarely go there and its like a whole different place) we do not pay to drive on the freeway...ever. You want to go somewhere you hop on the freeway and you go... provided you have gas you are good to go. There is no tossing in change every other mile, there is no handing over 1.90 everytime you get on or off. And whats up with that? 1.90? Why the hell dont they just charge the two bucks and be done with it? Are they trying to irritate people?

We do have tolls on bridges but ya know I can hang with that (especially since they are all in the Bay area and I never need to use them). What I cannot imagine is having a full ashtray full of change just so you can drive down the freeway, excuse me I mean, interstate.

My Baby is 7!

My baby girl, my first born, is 7 today. Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital enduring the labor from hell, having her! She has grown into such a sweet and caring little soul. (And no I am not the least bit biased!)

No WCW today.... instead I give you a lil sumthin for your listening pleasure