Rambling on about various things...

Gah... I stayed up/slept way too late this weekend. Now it's 11 and I'm wide awake. Getting up tomorrow should be a disaster.

I need a few cards for different things, so I pulled out my stamps and papers over the weekend and got busy. I actually didn't end up making any of the cards I will need soon (typical), but I did make these: It's not totally clear, but the card base is black. It gets lost against the black table. The onesie was my first attempt at using the blender pen.

You can't see very well from the picture but the top part is grey cardstock dry embossed polka dots leftover from another project. I did a few different variations of this one with different sentiments. The sentiment stamp was a buck from Michael's.

(this one kind of drives me crazy if I look at it too long because nothing on it is cut straight or centered. But I really loved that stamp-- another dollar bin find at Michael's.)

I had a great weekend. Friday night my parents were kind enough to keep Isaac overnight so I could have another date with Perfect on Paper guy. Then Saturday Isaac's dad asked if he could take him for the afternoon/evening even though it wasn't his weekend because he wanted to take Is to a birthday party. So I ended up with an unexpected Saturday night to myself too. I went to University City and (after trying to park for seriously like 40 MINUTES) I met up with my friend The TrueDeeva... and we had a great time catching up. I will go into more detail about my date and my visit with her in a another blog post. Oddly, they will be somewhat related. It was great fun, but on the way home I got a text message and was reaching for my phone to glance at it. I must have swerved off the road a bit when I was reaching it and the next thing I knew, there were lights behind me. It's actually been quite a while since I've been pulled over. I got off with a warning, thankfully. I definitely left my phone in my purse and threw it in the back seat for the rest of the way home.

In other news, how adorable are these:

shoes that we got for Isaac's baby brother? I know his dad will like them, because he used to buy Isaac ones that were very similar. I used to get so mad at him when Isaac was a baby, because I would need diapers, formula, etc and he would always show up with fancy sneakers. When we were at the Puma outlet I couldn't resist the chance to bring it full circle.

Hey..

Check out my sister's blog to see some great pictures she took for Isaac's Flat Stanley project. Just do it, OKAY!

good news

Isaac is a big brother.

Yeah, that was how I found out too. He gets in the car today and says "Good news mom! Auntie {what he calls dad's gf} had a baby, so I'm a big brother!"

I was shocked, because for various reasons his dad had decided not to tell me she was expecting, and simply left Isaac to deliver the news, but I'm happy for them. I have always hoped that Isaac would have a sibling, and Isaac has always wished for a little brother. If I can get his dad to take some pics of the two of them I will post them.

So yeah... kind of a mix of a ton of emotions.... I may or may not blog more about this in the future...

well....

Bad news:

I just started classes again for the spring semester. Six hours a week of night class (plus a 40ish minute commute each way twice a week) is looking like a bit more than I can handle without a serious hit to my sanity. It's going to be an exhausting semester.

Good news:

Both of my classes are really interesting. I have Strategies for the English Language Learner which is taught by someone who is actually an ESL teacher. The other class is a math methods class which is taught by a principal in a local school district. I really think I am going to enjoy both of the classes and take away a lot from them. Also, as much as I love being a teacher, I also really enjoy being a student. I'm glad that teaching is a profession that requires you to be a lifelong learner.

Good news:

I have lost ten pounds since Christmas from cutting out sweets, eating more veggies, fruits and whole foods and working out.

Bad news:

I didn't work out ONE TIME this week. And I had a serious brownie binge this week. I swear, it's like when one thing in my life gets out of balance (for example, starting up classes again) everything else just goes to hell.

Good news:

I have a fabulous first grader who is a star reader. He even went and read to some kindergarteners as a special reward the other day (he choose a book about hockey to read to them. I'm sure they were thrilled.) We seem to have gotten over the phase of terrible behavior at school we were going through, which is such a relief.

Bad news:

He has been sick for more than ten days. He is better now than he was last weekend, but lots of coughing, runny nose, sore throat, etc. etc.

Blah...

Tee-hee

My mom picked me this cute little Valentine's Day Decoration:

Someone in my house gets a kick of rearranging them on a regular basis... =)

New Year's Resolutions?

So one of my New Year's resolutions was to start eating a healthy breakfast. During the week I almost never eat breakfast. That leaves me famished by the time snack rolls around and then I end up scrounging in my desk drawers for stray Hershey Kisses or picking random stuff from the vending machine the faculty room. When I did eat breakfast before school, it didn't fall even close to the "healthy" category. So I picked up some yogurt and some instant oatmeal packets determined to learn to like something healthy for breakfast. And since then this is what I've had for breakfast pretty much every day once I get to work: Yogurt was just okay, but my friend Jami suggested mixing in some granola and I LOVE it. I'm a weirdo in that I don't mind eating the same thing every day, so this works. I debated picking up one of those ones with extra live cultures or whatever for digestion, but I was worried it would taste different or something. Is that true? How have you been holding up with your New Year's Resolutions?

Walking the Ben Franklin

Sometimes I dread Sundays because after church is over there is nothing really to fill up the rest of the day except sit around and wait for it to be Monday. The Sundays that Isaac is with his dad, we've starting swinging into the city to visit Joe. A couple of weeks ago Joe had the idea to go for a walk along the Ben Franklin Bridge. I have driven over that bridge a thousand times going back and forth from Philly to Jersey but I had no idea there was a pedestrian walkway along it. It was actually really beautiful. We had a great view of Center City and it was kind of dizzying and fun to be walking along so high above the traffic. Every once in a while a train would rattle along underneath us. We walked about halfway across and then walked back. I was surprised even in January how many joggers, bikers and photographers were up there. I would love to go back in the spring and summer when it is a little warmer.

Sometimes I think Joe is more like Isaac's big brother.

Those signs are attached to little walkways. They were closed off to the public obviously, but it was pretty amazing to think of walking so high above all of the traffic on a bridge which is already so high above the Delaware River.

Joe with the city behind him.