I have been blog-tagged by Rita!! Seven random things about me:
1. I love buying Barbie clothes for my daughter so I can play with them.
2. My favorite online game is puzzlepirates.
3. I have a lot of shelving in my scrapbook area and still have stuff all over my table.
4. I planned a very successful Girl Scout meeting last night and I'm proud of myself.
5. I am lonely for my laptop while waiting for its new power cord.
6. I am bummed I am missing a homeschooling field trip today because I have to work.
7. If I don't leave for school now, I'm going to be late!

This photo seems so long ago now...last night's layout.

When I was about 10 years old my dad bought me a white bookcase for my bedroom. Over 20 years later, those bookshelves made nine or ten moves through moving with my family, my college years, and moving with Ethan. They made their final move from my basement scrapbooking room to my guest room scrapbooking area. I put all my cool supplies on them, but they were leaning in a serious way. Ethan suggested that I find something new before they crashed to the ground, taking all my gemstones, textured paints, and silk flowers with them. On my brother's advice, I got some cool gently used Ikea Expedit shelves. Charles recommended the 4 cube by 4 cube set but I was lucky enough to find the 5 by 5 set on craigslist. All of a sudden I have sooo much space! I am enjoying filling my cubes up with all the crafty stuff I love. I would highly recommend these to any scrapbooker - they hold a ton of stuff, and fit 12 by 12 papers and albums easily! My old shelves will get nailed together and won't be so attractive, but they'll make good storage for our camping gear in the basement.

I just finished an incredibly interesting book. It wasn't just about the cholera epidemic of the 1850s, but about how epidemiology was developed. It told the personal story of two men who we can thank for a major advancement in medicine. As I type this, it sound a bit dry, but believe me, it was fascinating and suspenseful! This book was both entertaining and extremely educational - a great read! I'd highly recommend it!

I had a harder time choosing who to vote for this year than usual. I was okay with almost all the choices, so it made it hard to narrow down a final candidate to get behind. I finally decided - good thing, because I had to vote today! Our family is going for Barack Obama! I'm ready for a really intelligent president, and I like his ideas, so I finally committed and gave him my vote! If he is the Democratic candidate for president I even have some signs ready to hang up on my fence.

I can't believe how busy I've been since I finished my long-term assignment! I thought once I stopped working every day I would have tons of time on my hands. I guess I forgot what real life is like, and how quickly days fill up! I have been doing a variety of different things. Our Girl Scout troop is finally up and running, I've been working on homeschooling lesson plans, finally seeing some friends, cooking more, etc.

I was excited that I lost approximately 16 pounds during my long-term assignment. I have a new doctor who was very encouraging. He gave me good advice about what I can do to stay on the same track. The most major thing I'm doing is giving up having soda at home. I've always drunk tons of soda, and when the doctor and I sat down and added up the calories I take in every week just in soda, I was amazed. Also, watching Super Size Me really opened my eyes to how bad soda is for you! So NO MORE soda in our home. We're going to try to teach Esme not to get hooked on the stuff either.

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.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We've had a wonderful vacation together - I am bummed that we only have one day left. We've got more family time and couple time than we have in months! I have a short two and a half weeks left of my long-term work assignment, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time with Ethan and Esme.

Lisa and I braved the Black Friday sales to get new computers, so Ethan and my gift to each other is a brand spanking new laptop. (Thank you Staples!) We are loving being able to access the internet, our music, and our pics anywhere in the house!! It is changing the way we use the internet in general. I also got a free printer, and tonight I am going to try printing photos on it for the first time.

I haven't done too much scrapping since I've been working full time, but now I am happily getting back into the swing. Ethan got me an ATG for Christmas and I am feeling inspired to stick lots of little pieces of paper together. Stephanie invited me over to scrap and I did most of a couple pages over there. I have so many great photos to work on - Esme at Christmas, Charles and Kim's wedding, etc. Hope to post more pages here soon.

I can definitely say this has been my hardest week as a sub. Hasn't been an easy landlady week either I'm afraid. Also, with the holidays coming lots of friends and family seem to be freaking out - we're all overtired and overbooked and it doesn't bring out the best in most of us.

Luckily I am so excited about Christmas that these problems seem insignificant next to the joy of celebrating with my family and giving Ethan and Esme their presents! On Christmas Eve Esme is going to be in her very first pageant! She even gets to do a special dance! I can't wait to see her on stage! Also Ethan and I are very lucky to be on vacation together and have a chance to see each other for the first time in weeks! Also I love making the big meal for my family, and having everyone over to our home.

Sewing turned out to be hazardous to my health. At least to a small part - my fourth toe on my left foot. A few days after finishing the nightie pictured below in progress, I dropped a needle onto my carpeted bedroom floor and couldn't find it. I meant to go back and vacuum it up to find it later, but I got distracted and didn't find it until I tripped and fell and it got jammed into my foot. I yanked it out and went about my business. When I woke up the next morning (11/26) my toe was swollen and hurt like heck. I went to the doctor - he gave me a tetanus shot and an antibiotic to get rid of the infection. I hobbled around painfully for a week and by Sunday I realized part of the needle was still in there. Tuesday night I couldn't take it anymore and went to the emergency room, where a physician's assistant tried to get it out in the office unsuccessfully and referred me to a podiatrist. My podiatrist turned out to be awesome - he's a great doctor! But he couldn't get it out the next Thursday (12/6) because since I'd had xrays at the emergency room on Tuesday, the needle had moved. I had surgery with a live xray and sedation to take it out on Friday. All this trouble over something so stupid!! Now I have to wear a surgical shoe, I'm on my third round of antibiotics, and the doctor says I only have a 5% chance of losing my toe. My mother in law offered to bring over the sewing machine and teach me how to make doll clothes but I had to say no thanks - it sounds like it is probably too dangerous for me.

I recently started trying to hand-sew some outfits for Esme's dolls. I was inspired because I found a Bitty Baby at our local flea market for $1, and I thought she'd like to have some clothes for her to wear. This photo is the beginning of the first nightgown I made all by myself! I took photos to get advice from a friend on how to do the neckline.

I visit my gargoyle friend once a year in October.

I am currently a second grade teacher! From a couple weeks ago til the end of January I have my very own class in my first ever long-term sub assignment. I am so lucky that it is at one of nicest schools in the district I work in! I am so lucky to work with super supportive teachers and an awesome para too! I never thought I would want to do a long-term gig, but this one is definitely a great fit.

I am currently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and not getting much scrapbooking done! I am toying with the idea of entering HOF this year, but I'm not sure I could ever actually get all those assignments done while working every day, so I might just save my good ones for MMM this summer.

I finished The Red Badge of Courage. I am not surprised I was not motivated to read this book in high school. I found it very unsatisfying. Henry Fleming had difficulty holding my interest even as an adult. I can say begrudgingly that I was somewhat enlightened on how it felt to be a soldier in the Civil War, but overall I can't say I liked the book very much.

I also just finished reading a new book (against my current policy of reading classics), The Wreck of the Medusa. The story of a nineteenth century shipwreck wouldn't normally catch my interest, but this book told the very interesting story of the wreck, the after-effects on the survivors, the life of an artist who did a famous painting of the life raft, and French politics of the time. It grabbed my attention right away and kept it through the entire book! My description does not do it justice. It was a compelling story and I finished feeling a little more educated about art and French History. If you enjoy history at all I highly recommend this book!

Have you ever visited Scraptalk? It is my favorite scrapbooking site, and I am lucky enough to be be on the DT. The message board is the friendliest one I've ever been a part of, and they have a great gallery too. If you haven't ever been, check it out.

This was a tough week for me emotionally and it culminated with an unpleasant incident Saturday night. I am so glad this is a new week and full of new possibilities. The one thing I was really excited about from last week was that my crazy altered flamingos were picked up for publication! They will be in the Paper Trends February/March issue.