Fun With My Phone And A Dog

I have been having a lot of fun with my new iPhone apps lately. I really enjoy Boggle, Bananagrams and Tap Farm. I also have DoodleBuddy and Glow Doodle, both drawing apps. Then there's Days Until (an app that counts days for you). This app is perfect for me. I am running three countdowns at school-school days until MLK day (2), school days until Spring Break (53), and school Days until school is out for the summer (102). Tons of fun! The app keeps track of total days though, counting the weekends. It's still pretty fun though. 154 days until we see U2! See how fun? Kevin has a fun Samuel L. Jackson app, that's not entirely appropriate for small children, but it's really, really funny.

I created this in Glow Doodle. Pure talent huh?

Sorry for all of the doggie posts, but look at her. She's so cute. Her eyes are open this time. I noticed I have a lot of pictures of Maya asleep. That's when she's the calmest. Otherwise, she's a little spaz, and I am unable to get a good picture. It's so funny.

Glitter and Beads

I don't have anything clever to say in this post. It was a fairly normal, rather boring day. I went to work. Kevin went to work. The boys went to school. I stopped at the crap mall (that's just my name for our horrible mall) after school and had a yummy yogurt-a place called Orange Tree. I think that's my new favorite treat. I went to Target at the crap mall. It was uneventful. I walked away with nothing, which is a little unfortunate, because my dad's birthday is tomorrow, and I really need to find a gift in time for his party on Saturday. I picked up Quinn. I played with a really cute dog. I went to my PTA meeting (did I ever mention that I am the Parliamentarian at the boys' school?) It was a nice, short meeting. Nobody comes to the meetings. It's like I was saying the other day. It's the same people that do everything all the time. The most exciting part of the day though is right now. I am watching the auditions for American Idol. I love these!

I did manage to string this necklace today. I bought the colorful beads at the BABE show in November, and the matryoshka pendant from etsy. I can't decide if I like this cording or not. I'll wear it awhile and see.

As promised, here are a couple of the winter scenes the kids did at school. Can you see the glitter? It didn't fall off, so using glue was a good call. Yay me!

Look at the colors of these two! I especially love this bottom one. The creator of this one is quite a drawer.

I am addicted to Words with Friends on my iPhone. If you have it, and you want to play, my name is Juliebeane.

A Little Bit Crafty at Home and School

I was kinda crafty at school and home today! School was weird today though. The kids were off-really, really chatty. I hope that doesn't mean there's going to be an earthquake (another one). One hysterical thing happened though. I gave my students the comprehension test for our Unit 2 in Reading-that's not the hysterical part. When I collected the test booklets, my para noticed that one of my students signed their name as "Mr. 8 Year Old." We laughed and laughed. We knew who it was, because he had a birthday last week (same day as mine), and he's been very excited about his birthday ever since. When we stopped laughing, we had him add his given name. You have to love 2nd graders, even if they are chatty.

Here's the bracelet I made, with my paper beads. I like the beads a lot. I have some blue ones finished, and a couple of black ones as well. They are so fun to make. Go. Now. Go get yourself that book. ORRRR, pop on over to Amazon and purchase it from your couch.

The kids made winter scenes in class today. These are not those. These are the ripped snowmen the kids made last week. Aren't they cute? I will post pictures of their winter scenes tomorrow. They were still wet and glittery. Yes, I was brave and we used glitter. It's all over the place. I can see it on my nose too. Drives me nuts. Oh well, they are pretty cute, so it was worth it-that is if the glitter stuck to my paint/glue combo.

And This Concludes the Weekend

Ah, another Sunday. The end of a weekend, and the start of a busy week. Oh how I love/hate them. Ours was busy-ish. Maya had puppy school this morning. We worked on sitting, and the "come" command. We also worked on a down position, for taking treats. Maya did not get that one. After puppy school Riley and Kevin took off to pass out fliers in an area of Fremont. They were gone FOREVER. It's what happens when the other boys don't show up to help, and it's left up to 7 kids. I'm beginning to get annoyed with scout families that don't show up for anything, leaving the work for the boys who show up for everything. It happens in both of our troops. It's not such a big deal in cub scouts, but in boy scouts, they are earning money for the troop, so the work of a few benefits ALL. See my thinking? It's annoying. It's really the same at school too. There are the same parents who do everything, and everyone else just coasts along. Anyway, after being gone nearly four hours, we let Riley pick the restaurant for dinner. He chose well, Chili's. I do love their buffalo chicken salad. While enjoying his french fries, Riley lost his loose tooth. Yay! That thing has been hanging there forever. He's very happy to have a tooth fairy visit tonight, since the tooth fairy has been visiting Quinn a lot lately.

I started my new "World's Smallest 1,000 Piece Puzzle." Riley asked why it was called that, since the first one I built was also called "World's Smallest 1,000 Piece Puzzle." His reasoning being, there should be only one. I can see that. I told him it was like the movie Elf, and the "World's Best Cup of Coffee." "Congratulations! You did it!"

I made two lasagnas tonight. The secretary at school had knee surgery. My grade level friends, and I, are providing her and her husband with meals. I haven't made a lasagna in forever. It has too many carbs and calories. Kevin really likes it, so I made one for us as well. I'll just have a little. Actually, I think it's the one meal that all four of us will eat. Even Mr. I-don't-eat-anything, will eat it...I think...I hope.

I watched "Brace For Impact" tonight on TLC. It's a documentary about flight 1549, the one Captain Sully landed in the Hudson River. It was really interesting. That guy is amazing.

If I were still doing the Word of the Day, my word today would be forever. I said it many times this post.

The Weekend At Last!

We are at the very beginnings of the baseball season. Quinn had to go for his tryout today-all of the kids get to play, but the coaches are there, watching the kids, and they have a draft. Soon we will find out his team, and practices will be under way. He came home long enough to have a drink, change his clothes, and then he left again to work on his Pinewood Derby car, for scouts. When he got home, we were off again, with Riley this time, to a birthday party. There was a bounce house. Oh how my boys love a bounce house. They didn't use to though. When they were younger, they were terrified of them. It was a nice day.

I spent a lot of time on the couch, with Maya. Here you see her completely passed out. She was even sliding off of the couch, and it didn't wake her up. Look at her little tongue hanging out. I just have to say, "I LOVE this little dog!" Yes, even after she ate my rather expensive shoe. She brings pure joy to us. She is so happy to see us all the time. She loves to cuddle next to someone, and I don't think she peed or pooped in the house at all today. Why didn't we get a dog sooner?

This is the only crafting I did tonight. I got this book for Christmas, from my SIL. I LOVE it! Remember making paper beads as a kid? We used to make them out of wallpaper pieces, when I was in elementary school. This book/kit comes with everything you need to make the beads and string them, and has ideas on how to put them together. The paper is already precut too! I love the little rolling tool as well. This is a book for kids, and if you have girls, I highly recommend it. Super easy, and really cute.

I had dessert for dinner tonight, and then had soup for dessert! Kevin and I went to get yogurt, after a friend's status update on Facebook indicated that she had gotten yogurt. It just sounded really, really good. I had to have some. We went to this new place, Yogurtouille. It's self serve, and sold by weight. You grab a bowl, pick your flavor, add your toppings, pay. I had tart apple and pina coloda-yes, in the same bowl. I added almonds and some wafer cookies. Yum. If you have a Red Mango near you, that's really yummy too-I have had their pumpkin spice yogurt with graham cracker crumbs. I've also had their pomegranate-double yum.

Teri from Let me Think on it, if you are reading this post, I have a fun request of you, but I don't see an email for you. Would like to contact you. :-) It involves Flat Stanley.

My email is juliebeane at yahoo dot com

Family Game Night and an Earthquake

Tonight was Family Game Night. It was an activity that Riley had to plan for us. He wanted us to play a game, eat Cheez-its, and drink water. We played Monopoly City, which Riley got for Christmas. It's a really, really long game, but which Monopoly game isn't? It was ok. Riley is no Donald Trump. He made a bad 13 million dollar investment, and then couldn't pay the 6 million dollar rent he owed. He had to mortgage some of his properties to pay, got upset because he had just purchased a stadium, and couldn't pay the next rent he owed so we ended the game. Perhaps banking is not in his future, and he would be horrible on a committee trying to get a new stadium-49ers beware.

Here's a glimpse of the game board. You buy districts, and if you buy all of them of the same color, you can put a skyscraper in your district, which drives up the rent. You can place hazards on people's properties as well, to mess them up. It is an interesting game, but very long, and you deal with really large sums of money.

Riley and Quinn and their Cheez-its. I had a Diet Cherry Pepsi, instead of the water. We all had pizza. Quinn ate three pieces, which is a HUGE amount for him.

We had ANOTHER earthquake today. I didn't feel it. It was 3.8 in the SAME PLACE as yesterday's (and the one on Wednesday night as well). I don't know. It makes me nervous. We will check our earthquake kit tomorrow. Oh, and on a completely different note...Maya ate her first shoe today. One of mine. One of my Keen shoes. If I were a pirate, missing my right foot, it would be perfect. BUT...I am not, sadly. She ate right through the strap. How sad. RIP little black shoe. RIP.

Some Random Stuff and an Earthquake

I woke up on time today! Yay! Uneventful morning. We had a safety assembly at school, but if you ask me, the wrong audience was there. They assembly was given to the students, but really all of the parents should have been invited. It's the parents that don't follow the safety rules. It's the same at all schools. Crazy drivers. People crossing the speed bump, instead of the crosswalk. People making u-turns in the middle of the street. People dropping their kids off in the middle of the street. Parents parking in teacher spots, or blocking the entrance/exit, or parked in a fire lane, or in the teacher's lot, or parked in front of a hydrant, or stopping in the wrong place. I can go on and on. We have seen it all. Yep, wrong audience this morning, but hey, I didn't have to teach anyone or answer questions for 15 whole minutes! So we make it to recess. At recess I am in the office, discussing with my principal, the stupid policies regarding our second language learners. All of a sudden...EARTHQUAKE! It shook a little, and then sort of stopped, and then started again. Creepy. Needless to say, recess was cut 5 minutes short, so we could duck and cover the kids. They got their 5 minutes back at the last recess, only too bad for me, because THAT's the recess I had duty! Aw man! Anyway, the earthquake gave the kids something to talk about all day long. When we got back into the classroom, I began searching for the magnitude (4.1 on the Calaveras Fault). I showed them where the epicenter was, and talked about another map I saw that had every earthquake, in the past 7 days, noted with a pin, all over the world. We talked about how we have them every day, but most of them we don't feel. They didn't freak out. They were interested, but then again, they were not alive for the Loma Prieta one!

Anywhoooo, Quinn came home from school earlier this week, with this. He drew it. Cool huh? I am thinking about putting him into some drawing classes, although, perhaps he doesn't need them. He's always been an excellent drawer. Riley can draw too, but doesn't think he can. He has to write a book for the Young Author's contest. He is working on an idea, and it's a good idea. More on that at another time.

This is my great bargain. I went to REI yesterday, to look for a hat. I was checking out the clearance rack when I spied these beauties. They are dansko. I have wanted some dansko shoes, but just can't pull the $110.00 trigger. How much were these, you ask? GREAT question. They were $54.93!! Plus I have the REI member card which gives me a little discount. Awesome find. They are a size 37, which someone told me could be a size 6 or 7. They fit, so I guess they are my size.

In the mail today...this really, really cute candle necklace, from Anthropologie. I get the cute necklace, and I get to save myself 15% on my next, in store, purchase!! Awesome!

Stay tuned tomorrow. It's Family Game Night. Riley had to plan a family activity for scouts. He has planned for us to play Monopoly City (which he got for Christmas), eat Cheez-its, and drink water. We have talked him into letting us have other options for beverages, and we are going to order pizza, for dinner, not that Cheez-its are not completely yummy.