House Sitting and Pintrest Palooza #2

Woooooo hooooo for the weekend! It has been a long week. Five full days back to school from two full weeks off, and cold temps. Now we didn't have as cold of temps as a lot of other people in the country, but we did have our heater go out, giving fourth grade two and a half days with out even the slightest amount of warmth. By the end of the week, everyone was ready to be finished and looked towards the weekend.

This weekend I find myself house sitting on the ranch again. Last time I house sat here, the place flooded. I am surprised that they let me come back!

It has been an interesting day (as they always seem to be when I am here.) I went for a walk with the dogs which I probably should have known better since when Oscar goes for a walk, he usually needs a bath afterwards. This time he needed the ultimate bath. As he took off after a cat or just wanted to sniff a blade of grass off the beaten path, he got into a burr patch and had burrs all over him. I tried to pull them out, but since he was also wet from the snow, it wasn't happening. So I got to try my hand at dog grooming today. No worries, I will not be giving up my job of teaching and going into dog grooming. When all was said and done, I had to change my clothes and texted the owners that both the dog and myself were going to need a drink after all that!

Then it was nap time. Oh how I love Saturday afternoon naps! Oscar was still mad a me for the bath, so he wasn't cuddled up with me, (he would rather lay in the chair shivering than cuddle with me) but Hobbes was laying on the floor next to me. It's nice to take a nap with friends.

For dinner (really the whole point for this post) I made crock pot chicken teriyaki. I would put a picture of at least where I got it, but it isn't my computer and I am having issues with pictures. This dinner adventure was part of my Pintrest Palooza goal for the year.

My chicken teriyaki looked nothing like the picture. It was good, but based on looks, you would think it wouldn't be very good.

The Pintrest pin didn't take you to a website with a recipe, I hate that, so I had to go by what someone had written in the description.

• put whatever typed and what ever way you want to cut your chicken into a crock pot
• 1c chicken broth
• 1/2 teriyaki or soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• cook it as long as you want to on whatever temp you want to

I then made some brown rice and ate up while working on a puzzle. Not a bad project, but not one that I would do again. Maybe with a different recipe.

Tonight was mostly a "I want to write" kind of night, so thanks for hanging around my ramblings. Stay tuned hopefully this next week for the first Random Act of Kindness of the year!

I am having personal computer issues, so this may cut down on my blogging for awhile.

1/40 Before I Die

I did it! I finished my first book of the year! Also my first book off of my Sweet Summer Fling list (are you tired about hearing about these? I feel as if I have talked about this a. lot.)

Anyway, since this is the first one, I am going to give my thoughts on it. I will spare you and not do this for all 40 books!

"Tessa has just a few months to live.

Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It's her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is sex.

Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up.

Tessa's feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out." -- From Goodreads

I liked this book ok. There were a few things that I didn't like about it that I am not going to get into here, but overall, it was a pleasure to read. Since I am a thirty-something adult, there were some things that I didn't understand since I am not a 16 year-old girl dying. I found that Tessa's list was not a good one. There were things on her list that I felt were selfish and silly. Maybe it was her way of being angry. Her list did get better as the end came closer, but for me it was a little too late.

I enjoyed reading it until the end. I didn't like the way the end was written and was a little confusing. I didn't feel much after I closed the book and set it down. Could have been a better ending.

So, I thought that I would make a list of things I would do if I knew I only had a few months to live.

• Visit Ireland
• Spend as much time with my family and friends as I could
• Climb a mountain
• Go to the Melting Pot
• Write letters to each of my family members and close friends to tell them what they mean to me
• Eat as much of the foods I love as I can
• Visit the ocean
• Spend as much time as possible in the mountains
• Try to meet Reba 

I am sure that if the time came down to it, this list might change, but sitting on my couch, cuddled up, this is what I came up with.

What would you put on your list if you only had a few months left to live?

Blogging Goals

The other day I blogged about my personal goal for 2014 and have decided to participate in more random acts of kindness.  Over at Finding Ninee the topic for Finish the Sentence Friday is goals we have for blogging, so that's what I am going to write about!

To be honest, hadn't really thought about what my blogging goals are until I sat down here on the couch with "Big Bang Theory" playing. Still not sure if I have any.

I want to participate in Top-Ten-Tuesdays over at The Broke and the Bookish and Finish the Sentence Friday. Other than that, whatever makes my *heart flutter* I would like to maybe add more to the look of my blog, but that may have to wait until this summer when I have more time to sit down with someone who knows what they are doing!

I just want to have fun and blog what I think.

Here is to what 2014 brings in the wold filled with the little things in life!

Pintrest Palooza #1

Pintrest.

Possibly one of the biggest “time wasters” ever created. I can spend hours on that site looking at anything and everything. I have found some amazing things, including other blogs that have helped me get started in the blogging world. I love Pintrest.

Here is another thought I have about Pintrest: it is just a place to dream and where nothing ever gets done. I have over 900 pins and have only tried/done about 70 of them. I have good intentions of doing them, but I fear it is just going to be another To-Do list that gets over looked.

Soooo, I have a plan. I am starting Pintrest Palooza!  I am going to try at least once a week (or by the end of the year) completing/cooking/crafting whatever 52 of the things I have pinned.

The Urban Dictionary describes palooza as “an all-out crazy party; partying at one place with a ton of people like there's no tomorrow”

Now I doubt that there will be a ton of people, but I am going to Pintrest like there is no tomorrow for sure!

The first Pintrest Palooza event is salted caramel popcorn for book club. Since I got my fancy new popcorn popper, I thought it would be a good snack to munch on while we talk about our books.

Thanks to my OMM for helping me out with preparing for book club tonight!

I didn't take any pictures of my caramel corn, but it looked pretty close to this:

You can check out the blog I got this from
here.

First Book of the Year 2014

It is finally the new year and I can start on my Sweet Summer Fling! I have been in such a reading slump this past two weeks because I have been waiting and waiting to start this challenge, that nothing would satisfy me!

Let the reading begin!

Over at Book Journey Shelia has invited us all to join in on the “First Book of the Year” fun and I happily joined in!

I am reading “Before I Die” by Jenny Downham. I discovered this book from the preview for the movie starring Dakota Fanning. It looked good and I wondered if it came from a book so I looked it up. Success! So I ordered it from Paperbackswap and put it at the top of my TBR list.

Shelia asked for a picture of us reading our first book of the year and here is mine.

My sister thought that I looked like I had been crying and it was a depressing book. Ok fair observation, but I had already made up my mind that this was going to be my first book. Next year I will make sure that I pick a more upbeat book. Who knows, maybe this one won’t be all that sad!

Reviews of the book to follow.

What is your first book of the year?

*Heart Flutter* Funnies

Ok these commercials CRACK. ME. UP! I love how real they are! This one might be my favorite because it reminds me of one of my *heart flutter* students that I had last year.

I love teaching fourth grade, but they just aren't as funny as the first graders I taught my first two years. They try to be funny, and think they are funny, but....sometimes the miss the mark. First graders don't try and are often serious and then you get in trouble for laughing!

Thankfully I have some friends who have little kids who can keep me in the laughing world. I have two stories to share about one of my friend's four year old son.

Before Christmas I was talking to his mom about our up coming book club white elephant Christmas party. I was telling her that she needed to bring a white elephant gift and he very concerned cried out, "But we don't have a white elephant!"

Today we met for lunch and I asked the kids what they were going to do to ring in the new year. I was greeted with blank stares, here is our conversation:

Me: Today is 2013 and tomorrow will be 2014 and people stay up until midnight and count down then yell "Happy New Year!"
Boy: That sounds like a good idea. Mom, we should do that!

It just cracked us up! (It may have to been one of those things that you had to be there to fully understand the beauty of the conversation.)

Do you have any "kids say the darndest things" moments? I'd love to hear them!

TTT~ Books I Read in 2013

Brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish

Last Top Ten Tuesday of the year! Crazy that the year is over but I am looking forward to 2014!
Looking back over my year of books, I was a little disappointed. It started at our book club Christmas party where we vote on our favorite book of the year and the person who picks it wins a present. No one really liked many of the books we read. Sadly, looking back at my list, I had the same thoughts. There were a few that I enjoyed, but some that I don't ever even want to admit that I read! Many of the ones that I did end up liking were jFic books that I read with my students or read in hopes to recommend them to my students.

Here is how things shook out for the year:

• Dragonfly in Amber/Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
• Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maude Montgomery 
• The Dark Zone/ Cosmic Storm by Dom Testa
• A Year Down Yonder/ A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
• So B. It by Sarah Weeks
• Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
• Dead End in Norvel by Jack Gantos
• Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
• Soup on Ice by Robert Newton Peck

The books that I really did not like were:

• Forever by Judy Blume 
• Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsglover
• State of Wonder by Ann Pachett

I really like how Goodreads keeps track of books that I have read and they did a handy "Books of 2013."

What were a few of the books you read in 2013? Favorite? Worst?