Ingrid Michaelson's Happy Tune

I love the Old Navy commercial where they are advertising sweaters... it's not the actual commercial that is so great, but it's the little jingle they play. Brooklyn helped me find the name of the artist so that I could find the song. Here it is... Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am":

Thanksgiving 2007

Oh how full I am! I suppose I could go at least the next week without eating a morsel after all the wonderful foods I indulged in during the Thanksgiving holidays. Fried turkey, sweet potato casserole, breads, pies, dressing, honey-baked ham, baked spaghetti, and the list goes on and on. The most unusual dish that I enjoyed was a pineapple cheese casserole that my sister-in-law cooked up. It was so sweet that it could have subbed in for dessert... yummy! I did manage to avoid the Black Friday crowds Friday morning, but WD and I strolled the mall Friday evening after most of the crowds thinned. We also started the Christmas decorating, which truthfully I had been dreading. Once WD got the kids excited about setting up our Fontanini nativity collection, I couldn't help but to catch a glimmer of the holiday spirit. WD, Erin, and Dylan got me motivated to struggle through the mazes of lights and garland as well. It's all coming together to look more like Christmas around our house.

LineRider

This afternoon, I walked into the office to find Dylan mesmerized by the computer. He was making sounds like he used to do when he played with his hot wheels cars and was really enjoying himself. He said that his cousin, Caden, showed him this really cool online game today. It's called LineRider and is actually pretty addictive. I haven't been able to form a perfect track yet for the little rider guy. You've got to try it!

Enjoying Survivor China

This season, Survivor is set in China. It's been a very physical season so far. I don't recall the challenges being so vicious... as the participant I'm sure that's not so great, but as those being entertained, it makes for quite a season. My favorite player this season is James, who just so happens to be from Louisiana. He's a gravedigger by profession! I think the most entertaining thing about him is the way he tries to make other players see things through common sense. He's a really interesting person!

Dylan's "Mars" Project

Well we made it! The planet project is done. It was so hard not to do it for him, but DYLAN did his 3rd grade Mars project. He had to make a poster, then prepare a speech as if he were a real estate agent trying to "sell" his planet. The speech was actually easier than the poster... he really has a fun personality so he made up the speech and wrote it on notecards. I had a hard time sitting back and letting my little lefty boy produce a "neat" visual... neatness is part of the grade. I ended up letting him use my scrapbook stickers, printing photo of Mars, letting him type his facts, then he drew in a few "martians" for fun. Take a look at him here this morning when we were outside waiting on the bus.

New Coat of Paint

I have procrastinated and procrastinated in painting my bathroom upstairs. It was plain jane white for nearly a year, then my neighbor offered to give me this gorgeous "parchment" colored paint (she painted her whole downstairs with it). When I painted it on our bathroom walls it ended up looking like I had smeared mustard all over them! I never finished trimming it out because I was so dissatisfied with the look. My darling WD offered to go with me to Home Depot this past weekend to choose a new color. He even offered to do the work! I absolutely love it now... we chose a color called "Magic Spell" by Behr... it's sort of a bluish/purple color and it looks great with the white trim! Now I'll need to decorate.

Christmas Layout for Board of Designers

I have completed my final project for the Scrapbook and Co's Board of Designers this quarter. The theme is Christmas! I dug around in my photos to discover that I had not put Erin and Dylan's Christmas class parties from 2006 on pages yet. I ended up using some of these photos here on my project! The glittery accents don't reflect well in the photos, but I have fallen in love with a product called "stickles". It's like glittery glue in a million different colors (well not a million, but enough to please any scrapbook artist).
I love it!

Erin's Fall 2007 Dance

We experienced our first middle school dance... no asking each other out, no boys, no formal dresses... just nice clean pre-teen girly fun! Erin rushed from the dance studio where she had dance rehearsal to the middle school gym. It was so funny to see her at the dance studio jamming out to the hip-hop routine, then walk into the fall dance just to stand around and giggle with her friends. No jamming out in front of her peers ;-) It was a great time for me (with the exception of having to listen to Soulja Boy at least 5 times), because she was perfectly comfortable with me volunteering as a chaperone and photographer. Check out a couple of the photos.

Working in our Country's Capitol

I had a great opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. last week (for work of course). One of my coworkers/dear friend, Barbara, and I headed up to DC Monday morning. We were there for a conference, NCCTQ (National Comprehensive Conference for Teacher Quality). The conference keep us clammed up in the hotel for most of the 3 day trip. The sessions lasted from sun up to sun down... they even had us working in groups while we ate breakfast and lunch! Although the hotel was gorgeous, The Fairmont, we were ready to escape to see a few sights. We got to see part of the Smithsonian Museums, the capitol, a few of the memorials, and of course glimpses of the White House. Funny story... we walked up to the White House (apparently we got turned around and were approaching from the side) where we saw a small little guard shack. All the guards on duty seemed to be so "stuffy", but we because it was getting dark and we wanted to see the White House, we approached one of them. I asked the guy where we needed to walk in order to get a good picture. He looked at Barbara and I, and replied very seriously, "Pictures are no longer allowed of the White House." Our reply in unison was, "They're not?" The guard lost his very serious demeanor and cracked a smile saying, "Nah, I'm just kidding... this is still America isn't is?!?" What could he expect from a couple of small town Louisiana girls?

Pocket Knives

This weekend, WD took his cub scouts group camping, which included Dylan of course. The boys had been working on earning pocket knives. The scouts require extensive teaching in order for a boy to be able to carry and use a pocket knife. The boys made train whistles out of dowel rods and sticks of wood using their dad's pocket knives. Very cool! During the campout this weekend, the boys earned their very own knives! WD arranged for a "presentation" ceremony where the dads gave their sons their knives. Dylan was proud. He has demonstrated all of his scout knife's features multiple times since he got home. Another indication that he's growing up everyday!

Trick-or-Treat

Well we enjoyed another fun Halloween at our house. The kids dressed again in their costumes and went out for treats. No "tricks" were played, but they came home with lots of "treats"! Thanks to Dad Roddy for cooking chili for all of us. I'll make sure to cook the fiesta pasta for everyone very soon! Photos here are of the pumpkins that Dylan and Erin carved Tuesday night (yes, all by themselves with sharp knives!)... notice mine is in the middle- uncarved :-( I'll have to do better next year! Other photo is of the "moms" of the "trick-or-treaters" (Brooklyn, Me, Brandi, and Jamie). Other photo is of part of the clan... Dylan, Caden, Blaise, and Erin. We also had Zann, Zackary, Madelyn, and Nickolas join us for the fun!