All done!

I finished one more of my ECE classes on Saturday. It was a lot of work to prepare for but it all came together & was a very easy day overall. We even got done a couple hours early. We stayed overnight in Green Bay on Friday night so I could be at NWTC at 8am. (Damon had to take me there & help unload, etc - he was great about it!) Our group did a great job setting up our space. Another girl & I have family day cares so we had tons of material to work with. I enjoyed making some things for our environment since homemade items are recommended. Egg shakers (what I needed those plastic easter eggs for!) with rice/beans/macaroni in them, a wind chime center (the little ones love this!) & ribbon streamers for dancing to music with. Here are pictures of our finished space if you're interested (although it probably doesn't look like much to most): Music & Movement. I also turned in 8 assignments & was prepared to present 6 activities but only had to do two. Mine was an art activity & a flannelboard story. Not the two I would have picked, but no big deal. Final grades are not done yet but I'm not worried. I have the summer off & my last 3 credits for the preschool credential (18 credits) is the capstone class, where we make a portfolio, starts in September. It's amazing how much time I have in the evenings when I don't have to think about school work!

Unexpected Guest!

I really do have friends.....one came to visit today! It was great to see Sarah, it's been a long time. Thanks so much for stopping by & having dinner with us! What a treat!

Scrapbook Page Printing

I haven't printed any 12 x 12 scrapbook pages yet, but plan to. I did a little research & I'll share it here for those of you who have asked: Shutterfly will print 12 x 12 pages or 8 x 8 prints. The pricing for 12 x 12 is:

12x12
Page	Price (per page)
1-9	$6.99
10-19	$6.59
20-49	$6.19
50-99	$5.99
100+	$5.59

Kinda pricey. I believe you can pick up your Shutterfly order at Target stores but I'm not sure about the 12 x 12's. This site looks cool & their pricing is great! I haven't checked to see about shipping yet, but Polka Dot Potato has prints for $3.50. Scrapbooks Please has Value Matte 12 x 12 prints for .99. You can choose other papers for a little more. So I'm not sure where I'll print them yet, but if anyone has a better source, let me know!

Fushia

I love to look out the front door & see flowers again! It was very dark & stormy this morning. Then it was sunny & beautiful for a while after lunch so we got outside to play.

Squiggly Wiggly Worms

Brett loves worms! He picks them off the driveway & puts them on his bike. The girls run away from him & he tries to convince them they won't hurt them or do anything. All boy. (It's jammie day here again.)

Bilibos

Anyone have these? I need to get a few! It's one of those things that one or two wouldn't be enough. I think my kids would love them. Too bad they're kinda pricey so maybe I'd have to get one or two at a time. Bilibo video.

Rose

Brett drew this beautiful rose for me yesterday so I found a place in our bedroom to put it.

It's True Love

On Saturday, for my Early Childhood Education class, my group is doing the music & movement environment & we're supposed to have a spring theme. I feel we need some homemade musical items so I was planning to make these egg shakers & thought I had some leftover plastic eggs in the basement from last year. The kids love to play with them but I didn't buy any this year. I didn't find any in the basement so I wondered where I was going to find some now that Easter is over. I went on Freecycle & posted a message. Several people replied. One said she just bought some at Dollar General & they were priced as $1 but at the register came up as a penny! I don't know why they would bother selling them for a penny?? Damon said he would stop there on his way home from work last night & get some. He didn't find any so asked at the counter. She said they just threw them away but he was welcome to go get them out of the dumpster. Even better, they're free! LOL I emailed the lady who told us about the eggs at Dollar General & told her what happened. She replied: That is really funny. You are so lucky to have a husband willing to dig in the dumpster! It must be true love. Good luck with your project. Ha! Well she's right, it is true love! I thought it was sweet that he did that for me too.

Brett Pictures

Yep, more of him! We take pictures nearly every day.

Happy Earth Day!

See the updated template for 2012 - CLICK HERE 

 The kids loved picking up trash around the yard. We didn't have much but it was still successful!

Plane Cute

Already shared this picture but thought this page turned out cute! (so easy in Smilebox!)

These Moments

A fun one-

More pictures

On Thursday we went on the Dolphin Runner boat trip to see dolphins. We hoped to see more but it was worth it to even see just a few!

Shells

These are some of the shells we brought home from FL. I put them in the beach bag as my carry on with my purse, camera, etc and was it ever heavy! We had to bring lots back though because someone little with us thought every single one was beautiful so no ugly shell was left behind! Well, when he wasn't looking I whipped a lot of them back in the water. Mean mommy that I am. I washed these up & bleached them-they smelled so bad! Many of them were still living so guess that's why. I won't tell you the gross story about cleaning one out-it ended up with me having to shower & wash my hair. I'm glad we have them though, they look nice in the house. Great use for a deviled egg plate too!

Back to life......

back to reality....I guess I've been listening to 80's on XM too long! That's all I know of that song & it's stuck in my head - it's so annoying!! (Soul II Soul) But true-we're back to life here at home & reality is: piles of laundry. It's not too bad really, I have it all washed and the rest will be dry soon. I really need a clothesline. This works ok but if it's windy they fall down. I've been hanging up most of our laundry to air dry for a while now. I don't know, it just feels good. I don't have to run the dryer non-stop & I seem to get it done faster since I'm not waiting for the dryer to finish with the last load. I still use the dryer for socks/underwear/towels most of the time or will finish them up in the dryer. It's so nice outside that it's much more enjoyable to do laundry outside so why not? This winter I hung everything in the basement & most things dry fairly quickly, by overnight at least. We hang a lot of our clothes anyway so it's not much more work. I'm going to get a retractable clothesline to put somewhere. Today started off slow & I should have a quieter week than normal with a couple kids going to be off so I can't complain. Damon helped clean up Saturday afternoon & again last night so it's not so overwhelming to me today. I'm still tired to early to bed tonight. After I get some class work done...last face to face class is on Saturday in Green Bay and it's our big event day so plenty to do. I'm not stressing yet, nothing like the last minute! Damon got a job lead while we were on vacation. He's not looking for a new job but got a call from an associate who referred him to this company that's looking for someone in transportation. It would be related to farm machinery so kinda different than mattresses or car parts but all along the same line. He's going to check it out cause why not? Never know what it might be. I can't imagine he'd leave his current job but he knows he doesn't want the next job up from where he's at now-too much garbage to deal with & he has no desire. Regardless, it's nice to get a good referral from someone!

Our Last Sunset

Our time has gone so fast! Tomorrow we leave already. We decided tonight that it doesn't matter where we are as long as we're together. (I know, I know!) We got our share of sun today! We were out at the pool (where Damon & Brett participated in the belly flop contest!) & then went on the Dolphin Runner boat trip. We did see some dolphins but we had hoped to see more. Then we got a few things at CVS and ate at Crabby Bills. We went back to the Pass a Grille beach area & looked for shells. We enjoyed our last sunset back at "our" beach. Brett is sooo tired. I'm sure Damon & I are too so we're glad we have the weekend yet. Tomorrow we're going right out to the beach for the last few hours before we have to be at the airport. We fly out about 4:20 I think. Just this picture for tonight.

On the Beach

Today we saw dolphins from the beach! It was much warmer today & we're looking forward to another beautiful day tomorrow.

The resort from the beach

View from our balcony

One of the pools

At the resort coming in from the beach - there's a webcam too if you want to check it out (assuming it works). You can actually see it on the post on the sign on the left of this picture.

Pool at night - where we swam today

Sunsets like we've never seen at home

A few pictures from today

Day at Seaworld

It was fun! We got there about 11:30 & stayed until closing at 7pm. We saw the Shamu show "Believe" and the dolphin & bird show "Blue Horizons". The birds were beautiful in that show! Loved Shamu too & he gave us a big splash so we got a little wet. We were sitting in the soak zone but farther up so it wasn't too bad. Damon covered Brett with his sweatshirt so he got it the worst. Brett cried a bit when we left the show because he wanted a Shamu puppet. Guess who got a Shamu puppet? We ate at the Sharks Underwater Grill at the Shark Encounter. It was a cool restaurant but pricey and my food was OK. Damon really enjoyed the red snapper. We didn't make it to Happy Harbor until late in the day so we only went on three rides but Brett was thrilled with that. Damon had enough after the Swishy Fishy ride! Pretty minor stuff so I had fun with Brett on the last two. I think we enjoyed feeding the sea lions the best!! They are so cute. Damon & Brett fed some stingrays too. The weather was cool but sunny. Really quite comfortable for a day at Seaworld but I did have a long sleeve shirt, t-shirt & a jean jacket on. Today were going to the DeSoto park/beach, drive over the sunshine bridge that Mom enjoyed and spend time on the beach! Just talked to Karla via Skype! We'll upload all our pictures & videos to Flickr eventually.

Crabby morning sky

Shamu's big splash that got us wet

Brett with a big stuffy Shamu (that we didn't buy)

Very pretty hibiscus - some of my favorite flowers

At the Underwater Grill

Snack time! (for the sea lions that is!)

Cute sea lions!

At the seaport

On Ocean Commotion ride

Hi & Goodbye Seaworld!

Luck of the Irish

This morning we met an Irish couple on the elevator. We were all complaining a bit about the cool temps. He said "Well that's the luck of the Irish. We say if it were raining soup, we'd be out there with forks." So I guess we have the luck of the Irish! This morning (okay, it was after noon!) we went out on the paddleboats around the waterway. We went out to the beach but it's too cool and the sand is whipping everywhere. Waves are too rough to swim and it feels cold by the water. The sun feels good if it wasn't so windy. The forecast isn't much different til the end of the week. Damon & Brett went down the High Tide Slide twice & then we laid in the sun for a while before going to eat lunch. We were going to go to Fort DeSoto park/beach. It's supposed to be one of the best beaches. Not sure if we feel like it now, I guess the lack of sleep is catching up with us. It's too rough for the dolphin watch trip. It's more protected and the sun should feel good down by the pool so I might go down there while. Brett has a cold & is tired so he just wants to watch TV so we're letting him do that for a while. Thursday night Brett is going to the kids club from 6-9pm & Damon & I are going to have dinner somewhere. Seaworld tomorrow!

Sunday

Today was cloudy & much cooler with some rain. The sun came out in the late afternoon. After meeting & dinner we drove through Pass A Grille area and walked on the beach. There was a lot of shells there! Since we were still dressed up we went back to our room & changed so we could go back out. We walked a long ways down the beach looking for shells. I found 7 sand dollars & want to take one back to each of the kids (better find a few more!). Brett loved chasing the gulls! We came back to the resort & ate at the Flying Bridge. Tonight we spent some time on the hammocks/play area and then down on the beach for sunset. It's amazing how fast the sun goes down! By the time we were headed in it was feeling cold. Another great day! Here's a few more pictures for those of you who are keeping up with us.