On Thursday Lisa and I got sewing lessons from Edwina, and for the first time ever, I finally feel like I might get the hang of a machine. Edwina is a former professional sewing teacher. Lisa and I have been hand-sewing doll clothes for weeks, but now that we want to graduate to a few simple outfits for our daughters, Edwina recommended the strength of the machine stitch. My MIL was nice enough to give us each a used machine. Now that I'm gaining a little confidence, I'm also looking forward to making some cool stitched scrapbooking embellishments!

On my last day the second grade teachers gave me a gift certificate to Olive Garden. Yesterday was my monthly scrapbooking day with Lisa, and we'd missed our annual birthday dinner, so we met and had our mini party! Lisa is the most wonderful person - I love spending time with her. We ordered three entrees so we could sample each and bring Ethan home lots of food too. Then we got to come back to my house and scrap for a few hours - this was my kind of night!

I am a teacher for one more day. One more day of actually having to prep during my prep periods, one more day of seeing the same little faces I've seen for the past three months, one more day of correcting, disciplining, and working with some great people.

Well, it's not exactly like I'll be gone forever. In fact I already know several dates I'll be back at the same school. But it won't be the same. One of my girls cried today because tomorrow will be my last day. I couldn't look at her or I would have cried too.

On a brighter note, tomorrow by 3 I will have returned to my true calling of the last four and a half years - SAHM. Esme asks me every day how many days I have left. I can't wait to take a more active role in her homeschooling, and I'm especially excited about getting to know more homeschoolers in our area. We're ready to write our first narrative on her progress and I know it will be a big undertaking, so I'm eager to get that started too.

I'm also looking forward to having more creative time again! Teaching takes so much energy, it's hard to be jazzed enough to come home and really want to work on detailed projects. This is something I've missed to much, especially since now I'm scrapbooking and sewing and altering. Ahhhh time for me again. That will be so nice!

I could never have finished this outfit if it wasn't for my friend Edwina. She told me how to sew in the elastic, and explained how to put the bloomers together. This is my third completed outfit for Esme's Bitty Baby, who she named Emily. Esme chose this fabric. It's a little old-timey for me, but she loves it. I have the next outfit in the works out of a soft pink star-patterned flannel.

I spend quite a while tonight reorganizing and cleaning off my scrapbook table. These Mrs. Grossman cowboy stickers have been floating around my desk since I received them free at CKU about 4 years ago. They never got the boot because my mother-in-law likes old westerns and I always held onto them with the possibility of doing something for her with them. Tonight as a reward for all my hard work I gave myself some creative time and made this card.

Have you seen Enchanted? Esme and I love this movie so much! We are already fans of the other Disney princess movies, and this one was very fun and the music was outstanding! Esme is obsessed. She has been playing poison apply, steal-my-crown, and singing the songs since she saw it. Her dad got her the CD and since Grandma took her to see it a second time, she's really all about playing Giselle. I an old-time musical fan and this movie definitely combined the big production numbers with and modern story.