Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Warning: there are lots of pictures in this post.

We took the boys, and the dog, to the Fremont Hub for Trick or Treating today. It was super crowded. We've gone some years and there's been hardly anybody, but perhaps because it's a weekend, people came out in droves.

My cute werewolf and gangster.

We took Maya along, in her Halloween costume, a banana split. She doesn't mind the dress part, but she kept shaking the banana hat off of her head. She was a big hit.

Quinn, picking his werewolf nose. I live with boys, what can I say?

LOOK! California has fall-there it is, 4 trees!

The Ghost house was already all packed up for the year. They are only open for two weeks, and are never open on Halloween.

Trader Joe's was part of the Trick or Treating at the Hub. We also found Vinnie Bacon and Kathy McDonald, both running for Fremont City Council, outside of Trader Joe's. We are all for the two of them-they are against housing development in our city. We have no room for more housing, as the students won't fit into the schools near the proposed site.

Gourds. I just love the look of them.

This is Maya's Halloween toy. We have been tormenting her for days with it, but we let her have it today.

While the boys were Trick or Treating, Kevin let Maya play with her pumpkin.

Maya "carved" her own pumpkin. The squeaker is gone, and so is every bit of stuffing.

We also took the boys out Trick or Treating in the neighborhood tonight. They got a TON of candy. Quinn couldn't even carry his bag. I need to invent a rolling Halloween bag. It would be much easier. We kept tabs on the Giants game as we Trick or Treated. Who had the idea to play a baseball game on Halloween night anyway? We got home in time to watch the last pitch, and see the Giants celebrate their win. One more to go!

A Saturday Without Soccer

No soccer for us this morning! Quinn's last game of the season was on Thursday. He is playing in a tournament Veteran's weekend, and then we are officially done. I don't think he wants to play next season. I think he would rather stick to baseball, which I registered him for on Wednesday-yay! So, we had a rather lazy Saturday. I was up and out early, meeting some friends for coffee, then I took the car to get an oil change, and made a little trip into Niles to check out the Christmas stuff at My Friends and I. I came home and then watched the Giants play. Not so good news for them today. They lost. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

Quinn tidied up his room, and made his bed. Do you like how he has some of his stuffed animals reading the yellow Wimpy Kid book?

I got these two pumpkins at My Friends and I today. Cute!

While I watched the Giants lose, I beaded these spiders, using THIS TUTORIAL.

Quinn played around with Photo Booth, on his computer today, and took these pictures. This one reminds me of Beetlejuice (which we watched this evening).

The Scream a la Quinn! Weird or disturbing?

Strange morning at the Oil Changers place. I was sitting there and this man before me came in to pay for his car. From the side, he looked JUST like my dad! JUST LIKE HIM! So much, in fact, that I had to keep staring at him. I knew it couldn't be him, as my parents are at Disneyland this weekend. It was so strange and very distracting. I did take some pictures of the man, and texted them to my mom. So as if that wasn't distracting enough, there was another guy, and he was in a hurry-had to be somewhere, so he stood a lot. Then a youngish kid (12 or so) came in with a sort of youngish man-I don't think they were related. The kid was pretty good size, and he was all dressed up in cultural clothing: a white dress sort of thing with a bright orange scarf, over a gray vest. Very cool looking, but not what the teens are wearing. Usually it's just a head piece they wear, not the full attire. I asked him if he had some sort of celebration today, and the man with him said no, he just liked to wear the cultural clothing. Ok, whatever. We are all pretty used to it, but mostly it's the women, not the teens. Good for him. It looked pretty cool, and also rather comfortable. So this biggish in size kid, dressed in cultural clothing, then proceeded to eat several full size (not the fun size) candy bars all in a row. He had a plastic grocery bag, full of treats-Twix, Milky Way, etc. About this time, my "fake" dad comes back in and sits right next to me. I am cracking up at the texts between my mother and I, and Kevin and I, and my school friend Kay and I, so they must have thought I was very strange. Whatever. It made for an interesting morning. I got to leave before all of them though, well except for the late guy, and I wonder if that kid ate through his entire bag? I guess I'll never know.

Treats!

I tried several times to do this post last night, but Blogger had something up its butt, and I wasn't able. Today is a new day, and SUCCESS!

It was my day to bring treats at school yesterday. The librarian and I got together to discuss what we would bring-we had to try and outdo last week's treat contributors! We were semi-successful. All was eaten, but it wasn't nearly as great as the previous week-we didn't fix a TURKEY like they did.

I made a pumpkin cheese ball. There's no pumpkin in this cheese ball, just cream cheese, cheddar cheese, green onions, and red peppers. I got the idea from HERE.

I made these spiders-also from the internet, but I forgot where. Ritz crackers with peanut butter filling, four pretzel sticks for legs (too lazy to use the requested 8), and I used cran-raisins for eyes-attached with peanut butter. Super easy, but after I did these (while trying to watch the spectacular Giants game and the inning where they got a trillion runs), I got bored with them. I took the fixings to school so that people could be creative and do their own!

I also made these wormy burgers-also from a forgotten location on the internet. Nilla Wafers, chocolate frosting, and a gummi worm. Super easy. I even sent some to school with BOTH boys-even the 7th grader! His 7th grade buddies were interested in them too!

A treat for me! Look at the cute Captain Underpants picture one of my little girls made for her book report. Isn't it adorable? I hope her parents save it. It's so cute! Oh and please note Justin Bieber peeking out-lots of kids forgetting their folders again. I sent all FOUR Justins home one day last week! It's so annoying.

Also a treat: My number one pain in the butt was absent from school yesterday. RELIEF! Do you know that the rest of them were so much better with him gone? Amazing how much he affects the others, and how much easier it is to control the bad behavior of my other "superstars." Starting Monday, I am no longer allowing him to have that affect on my other students. I didn't realize-he's ALWAYS at school. I will shorten his rope even further. I will do it without much parent support-the mom talks a good game, but she's pretty much useless, and can't control him. She'll regret that when he's in jail-it's THAT serious. He was doing really well for quite awhile, but the last week, he's been really obnoxious and mean-tons of complaints from my other students. It stops Monday. I am prepared for the fight.

Glasses and Giants

Wednesday already! There is finally a rhythm going on at school, and the days are starting to go quickly-mostly. This week has been fast, but it's been super busy too: school meetings, correcting, Scouts, appointments, correcting, dinner with friends, homework, correcting, World Series.

These are my newish old glasses. I got these in September, but they had these screws on the inside of them, that I could see when I wore them. They were uncomfortable, and the screws were driving me nuts. I called my optometrist's office to see what they could do. They could send them back, but doing that voided the lense warranty. I can handle that-I've never had to have the lenses replaced. So, as cute as those glasses were, I took them back...

and got these! I went to pick them up today. MUCH better. No screws, and a lot more comfortable on my face. The frames are all plastic, so they are light on my face. I LOVE them. Do you know what color they are? Black? Nope. They are blue. I love that they are blue, but are so dark, they look black. I LOVE them.

I love these guys too! My two Giants fans. Game one of the World Series goes to the SF Giants, 11-7! Hummmmm Baby! Looking forward to game two tomorrow-after Quinn's last soccer game.

Pre-teen Wolf?

Tonight was the Cub Scout Pack meeting, Halloween edition!

There were all kinds of people at tonight's meeting-lots of new scouts! There was a costume contest, and a pumpkin carving contest. Quinn won a ribbon-Best Ugly/Scary Face. We are so proud of our little pre-teen wolf!

Tomorrow is the first World Series game! Go Giants! I bought Giants shirts for the boys to wear tomorrow, and throughout the series. The excitement around here is unreal. Everyone is talking about it, and everyone is super excited.

I made some bracelets late last night. I was surprised I wasn't asleep on the couch, and that I was able to stay awake for the entire Saturday Night Live show! Go me!

I made all of these last night, except for the fabric button one-5th from the top. I made that one last week. I need to get decent pictures of them, and then I'll put them in the shop. It needs to stop raining, so that I can take advantage of the outside light.

Here's a different view of them. I am keeping that first black/white one you see, near the bottom. I love it.

These are some of my favorites.

We braved the rain and the people, and went to the Halloween store. Riley is going to be a gangster for Halloween, and Quinn is going to be a werewolf. We are all set for Halloween, now if only it doesn't rain-it's supposed to sprinkle.

What an exciting evening! The SF Giants won the Pennant, and a trip to the World Series!

Let's go Giants!!! It was a nail-biting game. I was so nervous watching them, as Giants baseball really is pure torture. In the end, they pulled it off thanks to Juan Uribe!

Juan Uribe hit a homerun in the 8th inning, putting the Giants ahead by one, and the Giants were able to hold off the Phillies for the rest of the game. Oh man, what a game!! Looking forward to the World Series-they are home on Wednesday, for game 1. I so want to go. We may go, just to see if we can get into the out of stadium viewing. We'll see.

I borrowed these pictures from a news site and from images of the team logos over the years.

Well, Hello There!

Sorry for the extra long absence. It's been crazy busy. Things are just not settling down at school, so I come home and after homework, meetings, boy events, appointments, etc. I crash. Exhausted. I really don't know how I will make it to the end of the school year. This is a tough school year both kid-wise and workload-wise. I struggle daily with behavior-NEVER had a group like this, and organization of kids AND their parents-the parents are the hardest part! Clueless. Not all of them, but enough of them. It's been one frustration after another, and the bottom line is, I am not enjoying my job at all. I can't teach the way I normally do. I am disappointed that my style has to be so different this year, but when I have kids that can't sit still and listen, and parents who can't seem to make them, then I have to change my style. It's not working for me. I want to work at Target. Anyway, there's been no crafty stuff going on, and my house is a wreck, but we did get out last night...

This is the sky over Fremont, last night. Cool huh? Yes I took this while I was driving. I am a bad bad girl. It was worth it though, because look at that sky!!

We went to Halloween City and the Spirit store last night, for Halloween costumes. I put a quick end to Riley trying to saw his brother in half-that kind of behavior just won't be tolerated.

The Spirit store had Toy Story 3 cut outs, and costumes. I want to be Mrs. Potato Head, but they don't have an adult costume. We get to wear costumes to school for the first time in forever. I think I will dress up as a Target employee. Red shirt, khaki pants, name tag.

Lately, all I can think about is this place. Disney World.

Ahhh. Kevin and I will be going in December, for our anniversary, and we are so mean. We are not taking our children.

Oh, we did get out Thursday night. We went to my sister in-laws house for birthday dinner. My two nieces and my mother in-law have October birthdays. We had a really good time. It's amazing that 5 kids can play together without any fighting at all. The boys love to visit with their girl cousins. The only bad part was that the Giants lost game 5, so they have to play again-actually tonight! Go Giants!

I am heading to a baby shower now, and Quinn's at his soccer game. Perhaps I'll be back later. Have a great Saturday.

It's FALL, Finally!

It rained today! It was cold! It was a first sign of actual fall weather! It's been so hot lately, it was nice to have a break, even though people out and about were freaking out about the rain. I loved it-the rain, not the freaking out. It was slippery on the roads-the first rain always is-but I liked wearing pants (instead of capris) and a jacket!! It was also great baking weather.

I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from a recipe on allrecipes.com.

YUM! I had a warm one, and the chocolate chips were all melty inside.

A tower of muffins! I think next time, they would taste yummy with frosting.

Quinn went to a birthday party today, a gymnastics party. He had a lot of fun, but I think the highlight was the goody bag, containing these vampire teeth.

He can use the teeth to be a werewolf for Halloween. We must make time to visit the Halloween Superstore.

Oh, and in case you were panicked, Macy's is ready for Christmas.

Tomorrow is Monday. Boo. Where do the weekends go anyway? The Giants lost today. Boo. They are home on Tuesday though.

A Day Off For Me

I played mom today! Instead of going to work, I got a sub, and I went to Quinn's school to help out with their Bronco Gallup (a walk-a-thon). It was lots of fun. There was a DJ, and lots of happy kids. I hole-punched lap cards as kids came around. I was there from 8:30 am until a little after 11:30am.

You can barely see Quinn in this picture. He wouldn't pose for a picture for me! I know shock of all shocks!!

Here are some new pumpkins to add to my collection.

My order of vintage rhinestones arrived today, all the way from Australia. Aren't they pretty? Can you see them on my owl plate? I love this owl plate.

After I was finished at Quinn's school, I went to Nordstrom Rack and Ikea! Fun times! I actually left Ikea with only one item-well, two really, a set of boxes that came packaged together. $6.92! I think that's the least amount of money I have ever left at Ikea. I'm going to use one box for my prize box at school, unless I can find a cardboard treasure box.

Tomorrow is Saturday, it's soccer for us, and the Giants play tomorrow!! Go Giants!

Doggone Fun!

Today is my Friday!! It's so exciting! I am going to help at Quinn's school tomorrow, for their Bronco Gallup (a walk-a-thon). I am scheduled until noon and then I have the rest of the day to do what I want! Yay!

The sky was amazing this morning! Look at those clouds! It was so surreal. As it warmed up, they all broke up though and shifted away.

Went to Target this afternoon...

Got Maya her Halloween costume! She's a banana split! She doesn't hate it either! In fact, she wore the ice cream part for quite awhile, and even went into the backyard with it on-she FREAKED the cats out though.

She was quite spoiled today as she got a new sweater, and a doggie scarf, and a new flat squirrel, which she promptly destroyed. All of the stuffing is out, and the squeaker, of course. It HAD rope all around it, and she's currently working on getting that apart. She has one end free.

She may go to the soccer game this weekend, wearing her banana split costume. Are we mean or what?

By the way, all three photos from this post were enhanced using my Camera Bag app, on my phone. I like the way they turned out.

Around the House

It's been a busy week. Meetings, soccer, glasses, scouts...same stuff different day, I guess.

I managed to make a button bracelet (and the buttons) yesterday. I am going to make some more of these and get them listed in the shop.

Quinn got this little root beer mug at A&W. He wanted to drink from it tonight. It's ridiculously small. He is acting drunk in this picture. I wonder how he knows about being drunk? We have not been drunk in front of him. Let's blame TV.

TA DA!!! Did you know those were Riley's first words? Funny. Anyway, Riley FINALLY got his replacement school ID card! Yay! Now we just have to figure out how to get a new ASB sticker since he LOST the receipt I got at the school.

Maya does a lot of chilling in the afternoon. She's been all over me tonight, sleeping. I am sure I am annoying her since I have been all over the place, and she won't just stay in one place and sleep. She has to follow me around.

I got this book in the mail today. It has some really cool jewelry ideas inside.

Things have been really crazy at school the last two days. It's been hot, and that is affecting the kids (at least I HOPE it's that). It's the middle of October. I always have my classes on a routine, on track, on task at this time of the year, discipline under control. This class has other ideas. It's nuts. Most days I think I could lose my mind-I probably already have. Here are some highlights of my day today-keep in mind the kids went to science for 30 minutes (without me), and it was an early release day...

8:30-I have a crier. Why? I don't know she won't say-asked her 3 times. She just stood in the corner with her sweatshirt over her head and cried. I sent her to the office. Turns out one of her "friends" pointed out that she was wearing a tank top and that's against dress code. Address said "friend," that it's not HER business, and have her pay crier a ticket, apologize, and turn her card.

8:40-Tell class they are not the teacher. They can't tell someone what to wear. It's not their job. It's mean, and it makes people cry. I am the teacher. I will handle things. Mind your own business.

9:05-A different girl tells another girl that she's not wearing spirit colors today. REALLY???? She pays the girl a ticket for trying to be the teacher, apologizes and flips her card.

9:10-Repeat 8:40 talk.

Talking

Talking

Off task

Tapping

Rolling of pencils

Playing with glue sticks

Talking

Playing with hats

Calling out

Talking

Phone rings (it rang 7 times today!!)

This was before recess at 10-and I was trying to do Reading!

After recess:

10:15 One of my students can't remember where she needs to return for a language assessment, and she had just come from there before recess. Sent someone who could remember with her.

Insert more bad behaviors here as I try to continue the unfinished Reading and Workshop.

10:37 (this one is the best, THE. BEST)-I am teaching about adverbs. One of my girls raises her hand to answer a question, but has to take the TAPE off of her mouth first! Side note: I didn't tape her mouth shut-she did that all on her own.

10:38-ban said student from touching my tape. Ever. Again.

Noises

Talking

Off task

Send one child-the same child-away from me SEVEN times. I didn't need to see that she wrote a period at the end of her sentence 7 times, while I was trying to gather scores for AR tests and manage behavior. While it was FASCINATING, it was not the time or place.

LUNCH! My parent helper shows up early, during my lunch, to work in class.

After lunch

Broken glasses-I ask the child how they got broken. She said they were stepped on. I ask, "How could they get stepped on if they were on your face? Were you on the ground?" Her answer: "They fell off my face." Turns out she put them on the ground when she didn't want to wear them anymore. Her and I have lots of issues with her glasses.

I could write a book.

Am I just mean? How was YOUR day?