i LOVE my life!

so let me just humor you for five minutes on my day yesterday at school. Fridays are half days so whatever you read/hear/think... just imagine it happening all over again in the afternoon on a regular day :) i never realized how much teachers multi-task... while going back and forth telling two kids how to spell different words, i was tying a boys shoe, telling a girl what rhymes with pink and telling one kid with ADHD to stop jumping off his chair and grabbing his feet in the air!

It sounded like this... "okay Linda "there" is spelt T-H... Amanda you spell "happy" H-A... Natasha listen... pink... sink... link... Linda E-R... Amanda P-P... Jimmy please stop jumping off the chair! I have asked you multiple times to stop! Linda E.. Amanda Y... Natasha.. rink...dink.. Jimmy! Sit down Now!"

I start the day with 25 six and seven year olds calling out "teacher, teacher" and end the day with a kid in detention twice and he still comes back and jumps off his chair and grabs his feet in the air! I also had one kid crying so loud today i swear the whole school could hear him! he was weeping and wailing because he was mad that kids wouldn't play with him at recess! two boys were chasing eachother around the room and one boy tripped and fell dropping a huge stack of papers i had asked him to give me! weeping, wailing boy is still crying, jimmy is jumping off his chair and kids are coming up to me left and right handing me their poems we just wrote! I am now kneeling on the floor helping four or five kids with rhyming, asking weeping wailing boy to "please hold it together" and agian asking jimmy to "stop jumping!"... i find one boy putting my magnets in his pocket, tell one boy that he can't rhyme "fine" with "fell" and thank two sweetheart girls for sitting quietly and just doing their work!
between rhymes i say.. "ahh i love me life" and for a split second.. the crying stops, the jumping stops and i really do realize how much i LOVE my job! I LOVE my kids and teaching! It is the greatest!

craft ideas

I am always looking for new and fun craft ideas! I love making things for my bedroom and house, and making hair/jewelry accesories. Here are a few fun ideas that I have done that are super duper easy! My style is a little Shabby Chic (NOT pronounced Chick as Jimarah (Jim and Sarah) so kindly corrected me!) :)


I bought these white canvas boards and then went to JoAnne and got 4 different kinds of fabric that matched (not exactly) and they look great hung up next to eachother!

And then remember those picture frames I bought at D.I for my room? I bought some cute scrap book paper to go in each one and then I collect buttons (not really sure why) but then I randomly put a button on each picture frame! I love how they turned out! I love buttons becuase they are all so different and unique! I also think two of the buttons I glued on belongs to my Grandmas (from each side of the family) who have passed away.

Okay last idea.. these are super easy. I found some old shirts, and cut them up in flower shapes... Cut a huge one, then one a little smaller than that, than one alittle smaller than that... and so on... until you can stack them on eachother and then sew! So easy.. I glued clips onto them so you can put them in your hair or on your clothes! I also glued on a few buttons that I had too!

growing up....

so I guess when you finish college, you are supposed to grow up into the real world and get a job and buy a car. Well let me just tell you that I must be growing up because i just BOUGHT A CAR!! It's so exciting and I don't know if I should cry, laugh, or hug someone! Well lets start with the first thing.. I did cry after I left the Honda dealership after I had signed papers and had the keys handed to me! It's a big thing, a big payment, and a big commintment.. and I had been there for 6 hours so I was ready to leave anyway!

I also laughed many times as I arrived at the Honda place alone feeling very small in this world and didn't want to be taken advantage of... there were about 10 guys standing out on the curb just waiting for people like me to come ... but my wonderful dad probably called me about 15 times helping me out and telling me what to say and my Awesome, Amazing, Fantastic brother-in-law Jim came to my rescue when he showed up and told these guys what was up!

Seriously he was soo good at talking to them and getting them to lower the price and throwing in extra things!! And it was like a movie, because the salesman wasn't going down to what Jim wanted him to and so Jim was just like "K, well we will keep shopping for a car.. come on Madz" and we left!!!! I was soo sad and scared and didn't know what was going on, so i followed him out the door and all Jim said was... "just wait Madz, they will come..". I was thinking.. yeah right! They won't come running OUT of the STORE back to you telling you they lowered the price... but that is EXACTLY what HAPPENED!!!! We were literally getting in the car and the salesguy comes running out, saying they would throw in an extra year of maintanence work on the car!!! OH my goodness I just wanted to scream and hug everyone! That is some faith people! Jim had them pinned down so tight and really did squeeze everything out of these guys! I really do get the biggest smile on my face just thinking about how he talked them down so much!

I am totally impressed and amazed at his skills! So thank you again Jim!

I am now a proud owner of a cute little 2004 Four Wheel Drive Honda CR-V!!!!

Now i just need to name her..... any suggestions?