One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure

Remember these items that I got at the thrift store earlier this week?

An assortment of items. 3 candle holders and the big vase. The small vases were from school. I purchased spray paint...

and I painted all of them. In addition, I painted one of the bottles from my IBC black cherry soda, and I repainted the birds and the tall candleholder-they were blue.

Happy Father's Day tomorrow to all the Dads out there!

Thrifting and Popsicles

The second day of summer has been a success (well except that the Giants lost tonight). We got to sleep in just a little today, because Riley had piano lessons at 10:00 am. After the piano lesson, I went out to the thrift store.

Success! I got a few of these things the other day, when I had to buy sheets to cover stuff up at school. I went back today, because I wanted the third little vase with birds at the base-the biggest of the three-see next picture. I also got that big candelabra today, for $2!! I have plans for that!

These three are my favorite purchases. Aren't they cute? I think I am collecting this type of etched glass-although I believe these pieces are lead crystal. They are so sweet with the little birds at the bottom.

My Zoku machine was ready to use today. It was semi successful. I think it takes practice. I made three, and was only able to successfully remove one of them. I will continue to practice.

Quinn was all about trying the cookie dough popsicle. Riley got to enjoy pieces of one-he didn't like it. Quinn DID like it though.

Yummy!

We also made a trip to Target today!! Yay for summer!

It's SUMMER!

We are officially on summer vacation! I have never been happier to see a group of kids leave my classroom. I know that sounds horrible, but this year sucked. I had 9 really great students, and the rest of them were pains in my butt. The behavior was horrible. NOTHING worked with this group of kids. Even up to the last day I was having to fight with kids! The parents of those kids were not much better. Most couldn't do anything to change their child's behavior. Most didn't believe there was even a problem (even though it was noted on past report cards). I was accused of saying the F word in class (by a parent who didn't even EXIST on my list of parents-fake name and email). I was accused of grabbing a kid (crazy mother who came in a couple of Fridays ago and yelled at me, with students present). I was harassed by parents. I was asked to get homework together for absent kids and then it wasn't picked up. I was asked to conference and then was stood up. I was lied to. I was unsupported. I was not appreciated. I could not work hard enough for most of these families. It was a daily struggle with this group of kids, and unfortunately the bad behavior of most completely overshadowed the 9 very sweet kids I did have the fortune to teach. Oh and I loved those 9. I was not allowed to be the teacher I like to be. It's over now, and I am still trying to recover. I'm exhausted. I'm hopeful it will be better in the fall-I figure it really can't be any worse. 16 years of teaching and this was the worst year I've ever had.

My classroom is packed up. I had to toss lots of things since this group completely destroyed my things.

I have no more space in my cabinets, so I have to stack stuff and cover it in sheets.

The boys are happy to be out of school too-especially Riley. I came home from school yesterday with two extra dogs. My friend went on vacation, and we are watching her two dogs. Those dogs love me. I took a nap yesterday, and again today, with all three dogs plastered to me. They seem to like the boys too. Each boy had a dog in bed with them last night.

Quinn's got all three dogs here.

We had to take Riley to his endocrinologist appointment this morning, at Stanford. Afterwards we went to Sprinkles and had cupcakes. It doesn't matter that it was 10:30 in the morning.

This is my cupcake: chocolate coconut. I love coconut!

After cupcakes we went to Williams-Sonoma and I bought the Zoku maker I've been wanting. Lucky for me, they are now making a duo version (cheaper!), so I bought the cookbook too! I have the machine freezing now and tomorrow I will make cookie dough pops!

I am going to be really low-key at home for the next week. I have to get caught up on my sleep. I'm just so tired. I can feel the stress slowly leaving though. I am conserving energy for our upcoming vacation.

Reno Weekend

Riley and I are home from our weekend trip to Reno. We are ready to finish this school year on Tuesday, and get summer under way!

Riley, sitting where the chips lie.

Riley and a really cool fountain. I think this is inside El Dorado.

Isn't it pretty? I like the lights on the ceiling too.

We stayed at Circus Circus. Pretty nice rooms, and not very expensive.

Riley and the boy elephant at Circus Circus. The girl was wearing a bikini. I should have taken a picture of her.

Games! Riley had a great time playing the carnival games in the midway, and he was quite successful at them too!

The view from our room.

We went to Reno for my cousin's high school graduation. It was in the Lawlor Events Center. It was a very nice ceremony.

On the way back to the hotel from my cousin's house, last night, we stopped at Scheels.

There was lots of snow in the mountains! I'm not sure why nobody was skiing. Looks to me like there's plenty of snow.

Here are some pictures from our drive to Reno...



Snow! It's June!!







Lots and lots of snow! People may be able to ski all summer!


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Feathers and Reno

I got feathers in my hair!


I went to my salon on Wednesday and had the hairdresser put feathers in my hair. Lime green, aqua and black & white. I love them.




Riley and I are in Reno, NV with my parents. My cousin is graduating from high school, so we came to help celebrate. We had a buffet dinner last night, and as you can see, Riley broke the rule.

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U2 360 Tour

Kevin, the boys, and I went to the U2 show last night!! We've had the tickets since October of 2009! The show was supposed to be last June, but Bono injured his back, so it was postponed. Finally, after a 356 day wait, it was time!

This is the stage! A "spaceship", also referred to as the "claw." Awesome.

The boys, sporting new U2 shirts, posing in front of the claw. We had awesome seats!! Can you tell I like the word awesome? It's awesome.

There were two opening acts, Moonalice (some hippie band), and Lenny Kravitz. Lenny Kravitz was really good. He's super cool.

Here's all of us and the claw! Some nice lady saw us discussing picture opportunities, and she offered to take our picture.

As the stage was being prepped for U2, this was on the big screen. That screen goes all the way around, hence the 360 Tour.

Showtime!!! They started with the lights on, playing David Bowie's Space Oddity. Hence the spaceship. The lights dropped and they played Even Better Than The Real Thing.

Bono! I thought the big screen was super cool. So is my new camera which took all of these pictures. I am very happy with it. It's a Canon PowerShot sx230. It has 14x zoom and it fits in a pocket! It takes some cool pictures too!

The stage set up was, you guessed it, AWESOME!

When they sang Beautiful Day, they showed a special message to us, from astronaut Mark Kelly. He actually said "Hello Oakland," from the space station. He also quoted Space Oddity by saying, "tell my wife I love her very much (she knows)." They filmed it while he was in space! How cool is that???? The astronaut's wives get to pick the songs that they use to wake the astronauts up in the mornings. Gabby Giffords (Mark Kelly's wife) picked Beautiful Day by U2 to wake them up on one of the mornings. They are not in space right now, they are back, but it was still really really cool that the U2 people were able to make that happen.

The big screen stretched! Can you see that??? This was awesome, big lights up to the sky. Super cool. To see the rest of my pictures, click HERE.

It was an awesome show! It was a late show. U2 didn't take the stage until 9:30, and they played until almost midnight. We left at the second encore, to beat the traffic. We got home a little after midnight. We had some tired boys today, but they are in bed now.

I guess we were very lucky to actually get to attend the show. Apparently lots of people who drove to the show, couldn't park anywhere. The stadium parking was full, and they were directing people to other lots, but those lots were all full. Some people sat in traffic for four hours, on freeway off-ramps and never even made it inside the stadium! Some didn't get into the show until 10:30 or later! The attendance at the stadium last night was 69,000 people. The stadium did not plan very well for parking. Thousands of people are really angry, and there's been some talk of lawsuits. Somebody messed up. I am sure glad we decided to go early!