Thursday Randomness

Look at me blogging three times in three days.  I deserve a cookie.

Or maybe a bundt cake.  ;)  Because these June featured flavor ones are soooooo amazing!!!  We bought a variety of the bundtlets for Leigh Anne and Matt's baby shower and the strawberry cream flavor was part of that variety.

Um.  Wow.

As Leigh Anne said, "It tastes like summer!"

So I might have just had to get one the other day before I headed to my parents house to help plan their Disney FastPasses. (Oh, I'm a Disney vacation planner too, but that should for sure be another blog post.)  I bought both my parents one, one for me, one for K, and one to take home to Cody later.

So yeah.  I was the girl that went and bought five bundtlets with lots of people in line behind me probably judging me.  I don't even care - they are soooooo good.

Okay, I think you get the idea.  ;)

I mean that icing!  Come on now!!

Darcy got her normal summer haircut too.  We usually cut her "skirt" off once a year just to restart it and because it's just more comfortable for her when it's super hot.  I think it's safe to say that Darcy hates going to the groomer and the groomer hates Darcy being there.  Her progress report this time said she was very difficult and they recommend we take her to the vet to get groomed next time.

Awesome.  We have THAT dog.  

Good thing she's sweet at home!

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Last night Cody (after devouring his bundt cake), K, and I headed out to a local concert.  Arlington has this really fun pavilion called the Levitt and in the summer they have a free concert series.  There was a group called Vocal Trash performing last night and all their instruments were made from recycled materials.  They weren't anything amazing, but it was a fun night out.  I even saw one of my sweet first graders and her family out there.  The weather was perfect and it was fun to be outside as a family.  

K really wanted to use her binoculars even if we were pretty close to the stage.

We giggled about this picture because my arm looks weirdly skinny because of the way it is against the chair.

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Today K and I headed to the local children's theater with Candy, Cadie, and Chloe to see their production of Sleeping Beauty.  The cast was all 9-12 year olds and it was super cute!  We walked over to Fuzzy's for lunch after, and later ended up at our house so the girls could play together some more.  They are moving back to Paris (Paris, Texas friends - don't get too excited) and we will miss being able to get together like this! 

Give these girls some crayons and paper and they are good to go!  Notice the dance costume on K and the Elsa costume on Chloe.

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K has also been trying to be very independent in pretty much everything she can lately.  While I love some of it, some of it just breaks my heart because I know she won't need me for as much once she gains that independence.  :(

One thing she's been trying to take on is putting her hair up.  She's even practiced her ponytail skills on me.

Oh my ow!

But today she was practicing in her bathroom and then skipped out so proud of herself with this hairstyle.  She was so cute with all her proudness!

Apparently Darcy wanted to show us her backside too.  ;)

Cody was later coming home today because he went to help his mom get a new piece of furniture from an antique store.  I tell you what, there is nothing more attractive than a man who comes home with his dress shirt from work all untucked with the sleeves rolled up after he has helped his mother move something heavy.  I so love him. 

I digress…

Since I didn't know what time Cody was coming home, I needed something quick and easy for dinner tonight.  I went to one of my go to dinners and thought I would share it for the blog world in case anyone else needs a quick and easy dinner as well.  

I'm not even sure you consider this cooking.  It's really just heating things up.  All you need is:

*A bag of your favorite frozen meatballs

*A jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

*A can of Rote

Dump it all in a pot and cook it until the meatballs are finished.  So simple and so good!  Put some parmesan cheese on top, make a side salad, maybe some bread, and you're good to go. 

I don't normally take pictures at the table, but I know one day I'll want to remember moments like this, and because blog.  ;)  Also, don't judge the pot on the table.  It's one less dish to wash by not plating the meatballs on something else!

Tomorrow is when K finally competes in Nationals.  I honestly don't think her mini group will place.  It's their first year together and the competition is tough!  I'll be thrilled if they do, but my main hope is that they will have a blast tomorrow!  I think their line dance with the entire company has a really good chance of moving on.  We'll see tomorrow!  

Tomorrow also happens to be my groom's birthday!  :)  Happy early birthday Cody Bush!!!  I love you so very much!

Office Supplies and a Little Music

Office supplies and music aren't normally lumped together are they?  Oh well, it's my blog and I can write if I want to, write if I want to, write if I want to, you would…..

Okay, I'm stopping.

Back to office supplies and music.  Those are two of my favorite things in the world.  One of the saddest parts of teaching is that you can't listen to "your music" during the day.  I sometimes envy people who can listen to whatever they want at work.  But then summer comes and I can listen to music all day long!  Happy Dance!!!

Oh but first - office supplies.

I worked the first week of summer "deconstructing" the math TEKS for first grade.

I'm just that fun y'all.

Honestly, it was one of those things where the math coordinator asked me to help and I really don't like saying no to people in those types of positions because I want them to keep asking me to do things in case one day it's really super fun.  Well, as much fun as working on any type of curriculum can be I guess.

Anywho - several other teachers from all of the grade levels met and we worked all week on the standards.  It was some of the toughest work I've ever done with curriculum, but in the end I was pretty proud of what we accomplished.

The best part of the week was I met my new favorite markers.  I have a love for office supplies, and man, the markers we used just made my heart happy.

I am such a teacher nerd.  So much so that I actually texted my best friends about said markers.  Yep.

Cody was at youth camp with our church and K had been at dance camp and staying with my parents during this week so that I wouldn't have to drive her over there super early in the morning before going to work each day.  So I wasn't really feeling the summer loving just yet.  All my other teacher friends were posting pictures of their lunches out, their time at the pool, or their vacations.  Props to those teachers who can plan a vacation right after school is out.  You go with your awesome self!

I checked the mail the afternoon before my last session and found this from my precious, precious friend Nicole.

You know you have found some of your people when they bring office supplies to your mailbox.  That is true friendship in my book folks.  

My next discovery isn't exactly an office supply, but more of a crafty type utensil.  :)

I know chalk markers have been around for a while now, but I hadn't bought any until last week.  I finally bought some thanks to some Amazon gift cards from students.  (I'm getting better at not keeping my gift cards for so long!  That is such a bad habit I have!)

I read a bunch of reviews on the various types and finally decided on these.  

I love the colors so much and the pen size is just right for the type of things I need.  I used them to decorate two chalkboards for a baby shower we had at our house for Leigh Anne and Matt.  Then I did this one to celebrate Summer.

As you can see, even though it says all it takes is wiping it off with water, I can still see some of the last writing I did after several attempts at washing it off.  The funny thing is the colored chalk came right off, but the white didn't.  It could just be my chalkboard, but it still frustrated me.  Not enough to not use my chalkboard though.  :)

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Now to music.  I just had a few thoughts about it when I was driving home from dropping K off at dance practice this morning.

1.  Spotify is about the best app ever invented.  Add songs from your favorite artists (unless you like Taylor Swift because she won't share her music there), create custom playlists for your moods, people in your family, events, etc. and you can even play a radio station based on the songs in your playlists.  I love you Spotify.  Thank you for being born.

2.  Dave Matthews Band music will always make me smile.  It will always remind me of junior high and high school.  Thank you Lance Ray for being the cute 9th grader who I liked when I was in 8th grade, therefore I decided I needed to share common interests with you.  I went out and bought Dave Matthews Band cds after you told me how much you liked the band.  Our few month "dating" relationship might not have worked out, but Dave and I are still very happy together.  

3.  I could never be a radio dj with today's music.  Sure, some of it is fine, but they would want me to play all the new stuff and I would probably be fired.  That, or my ears would die.  When somebody called in and requested a horrible song I would probably tell them they should not consider it good music and suggest alternatives.  Again, I'm pretty sure my chances of being fired would be high.  I realize that people are going to like what they like.  Hey, some people may hate Dave Matthews Band.  I am sad for those people.  But I just wouldn't be able to do that job every single day and watch our culture spiral downward.  

So there you have it.  My random thoughts on office/craft supplies and music.  I realize they have no real value or merit to basically anything, but that means I'm not busy with teacher stuff and I'm truly starting to enjoy my summer, so I kind of love it!  

Summer Update

It is once again summertime where I can update this sad little blog with random happenings.  Let's face it, during the school year, it seems this blog is only updated when I REALLY want to share something importantish.  I say that with the -ish, because it's important to me and others could probably care less.  :)

But I still kick myself for not journaling more about what is going on in our family because I LOVE LOVE LOVE looking back on posts from years ago.  You think you won't ever forget the details of certain things, but my goodness you do!

So here we go again with me trying to keep up with the blog.  Let's pretend it will last longer than the summer, but we all (and by all I mean the two people that actually read my blog when I don't post it on Facebook) know that won't happen.  ;)

I had another birthday last week.  33 this time.  For some odd reason it doesn't sound as old as I thought it used to.  :)  I was so blessed by sweet friends early in the week who gave me sweet presents and even took me out to lunch.  Then on my actual birthday it rained buckets.  I would have loved to stay in my pajamas and just curl up with a book and enjoy the rainy day, but K had a dentist appointment and we were in serious need of food at our house so we had to go to the grocery store.  The perk was I got to rock my cute rain boots that morning!

Later in the day I had the best tea party ever from the cutest daughter ever!

She is always into creating parties for any and all occasions, so she was extra pumped that it was actually my birthday.

Later in the day, after Cody got off work he spoiled me with gifts as usual.  He didn't use to be great at giving girly gifts, but man is he good at it now!  Love that man!

We also went out to eat at one of my favorite local Mexican restaurants and then went to Lowes to get a new fan for our bedroom and K's playroom.  You know you're a total grown up when you get excited about picking out fans on your birthday.  I love doing anything to update our house so I was seriously giddy when Cody told me he was going to put one of the fans up that night.  I love being married to such a handy man.  He seriously can do anything in our house and I think that is just so darn sexy.  (Yes, I said sexy and it's weird, but I'm talking about my husband so I'm totally allowed to.)

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In other news….I am a total dance mom now.  Seriously.  I can make a nearly perfect bun with or without an accent braid in about 4 minutes flat.  I used to cry over those stupid buns and now it's not a big deal at all.  Now, those fake eyelashes that I have to put on K for every competition and I aren't exactly the best of friends yet.  They just tick me off more than any other inanimate object.  I hate them.  There, I said it and I don't care that they know it.  They have caused me to yell at them like an idiot in front of my husband and daughter so they deserve my hate.  And don't give me tips if you have them.  I've googled and read them all.  I'm just not good at them.  We all have our strengths and I'm telling you putting fake eyelashes on my kid is not a strength I have.  

But K has LOVED dancing on the competition team this year.  She didn't like all the practicing at first, but once they actually started competing she was hooked.  It's a crazy world at competitions and those episodes of Dance Moms aren't too far off from the truth for some studios.  But mark my words, I will never be one of those moms who lets my kid get up on stage in less fabric than a Barbie doll wears and scream, "Work it girl!"  If you ever see me doing that, you have permission to beat me over the head with something.  I mean, for the love!  It's so sad to see what some of those girls are encouraged to do!  I am so stinking thankful for our studio with our awesome director and teachers.  I just didn't realize how thankful I needed to be until I saw what else was out there.  

K went to dance camp the first week of the summer and now we're in the middle of Nationals.  She has practiced twice this week and has practice again tomorrow.  She competes with the mini company this Friday.  Here she is about to leave for practice Monday.  

My goodness she keeps growing up too fast.  I hate it - maybe even more than those stupid eyelashes.  

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K's cousin, Cadie, invited her to twin day at her church's VBS today and they were so very cute.  So you get another picture because cuteness.  

13 days apart and the best of friends!

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Now on to what has taken over my daughter's heart as far as toys go.

These guys.

Meet the Shopkins.  

I don't know where they came from, but man they came in strong.  I first saw them in my first grade classroom when a few of my girls started bringing them to school.  K eventually found out about them and was hooked.  She actually got two books about them before she even had a single Shopkin, and she learned all there was to learn about each one in the book.  Then we gave her some for kindergarten graduation.  She LOVED them and I loved that even though they were small, you didn't have to put anything together or change parts, etc.  She uses her imagination to play with them all the time and I love it!

Whoever made these things is very, very smart.  They make some really hard to find, they make the same ones in different colors, they put mystery ones in packages, and even get you (I totally mean your kid) wanting to find the super hard to find special edition ones.

So then K yells at me from the other room the other day, "Mom!  Come quick!"  Thinking there was some kind of emergency I ran to the living room only to see that K was watching a Shopkins commercial on tv.  Now they had "fashion spree" ones and one of those was even a ballet set. 

Oh, come on now!  K loves dance.  K loves Shopkins.  Guess what she really, really, really, really wanted??  

This might be a good time to tell you that I have zero will power when something is hard to find and my kid wants it.  I become a hunter and the hunt thrills me.  Judge me if you will, but I just call it a hobby of mine.

So today after dance I drove my kid to Burleson.  Now, Burleson is not exactly that far, but I usually won't drive 25 minutes to get a toy.  But the Target there had it in stock according to the website, so to Burleson we went.  When we got there, we immediately looked for the ballet set, but we didn't see it anywhere.  We almost left the store, but the silly mom in me went to customer service and asked them if they might have it somewhere else. 

Three incredibly nice and helpful employees later, this happened.  

All the way home she was giddy.  Seriously.  

"You are the BEST mom ever!"

"Oh look!  The lipstick is pink!"

SQUEAL!!!

"Seriously Mom.  You are the best!"

Totally worth every mile we drove.  

So, there you have it.  Summer update #1.  We'll see how long it lasts.  ;)