*Snapshot Saturday*

I almost forgot! In fact it is technically the 29th but I haven't gone to bed yet so it counts!

Today was a lazy day with some work, but should have had a little bit more work in it. As I laid down to go to sleep, I thought of all the things I didn't get done today that I should have (hence the reason I am still up thinking about it.) Oh well.

I did get some laundry washed, dried and put away today which was a huge accomplishment. I also spent some time reading in bed with my freshly washed sheets and blankets!

Not a bad Saturday!

What is your *snapshot saturday*?

Friday...finally!

Thank. You. Sweet. Jesus! It has been a long week.

Not only is it Friday today, but the kids have the day off and I get the chance to catch up! We are scheduled to have ILP (Individual Literacy Plans) meetings today and between those meetings, we are free to do what we would like. For me that means tackling my giant pile of papers to grade. So I am going to put in the disc of Law and Order: SVU that I have had from Netflix for weeks and get my grading on.

We are also having a potluck as a staff today. So who is up and cooking at 6:00 this morning? This girl.

I found a corn casserole recipe in my favorite four ingredient cookbook (although this had five, so not sure how it snuck in there.) I have never made it before, but it smells good! I really do need to stop trying new ones and just find one that I always make.

AND I am one lucky girl to again participate in Breakfast Burrito Friday! Love Fridays and celebrating getting through the week!

Do you have a potluck dish you fall back on? If so what is it?

Happy Friday!

Erin Molly

28 years ago I was a happy, cute two year old who had the whole world in my hands. I had the love and attention of my parents and my grandmother, life was good. AND then.... I got a stinky, smelly, screaming little sister. All hell broke loose that day and it hasn't slowed down since. Thanks for shakin things up Erin Molly! Happy birthday!


This was my Facebook post this morning (it kind of cracked me up!) My little sister turned 28 today. I don't feel old myself until I think about how old she is and then I feel old! I can't believe that she is 28! Where does time go?

Here are a few things that I love about my sister:

 

She looks good in EVERY hat she puts on.

 

She is the aunt with the sense of humor.

 

She is an good hiking buddy.

 

She can shoot a gun like it was her job.

 

 

She is a determined little fart.

 

And most of all, she loves me.

 

 

Sunday Soup Week #2

Technically it is week four, but the last two weeks weren't soup making days. Even with a busy day, I was able to get a soup made.

This morning my dear friends, Jane and Henry, asked me to help them at their "flood" house. Last week they were affected by the flood and now the clean up stage has begun.

 

 I made the hour long trip with them to their house and on the way we just had to stop and celebrate the birthday of the ice cream cone!

 

This is why we had to drive an hour around.

 

Both sides of the bridge look like this and there isn't much of an idea of when it will be fixed. So until it does get fixed, the drive will be about an hour to get to the house.

 

We arrived and started packing stuff up in order to clean and replace cupboards and floors. They had already moved out most of the furniture and personal items the past week. Today the focus was the little things that you just aren't sure what to do with them. If you have ever moved, you know what I am talking about.

 

I helped as much as I could, even if it was providing comic relief and taking their minds off of their ruined home. I mean who wouldn't laugh at two people fighting over if a mosquito bite was really there or not?

 

Once we got the truck loaded and found a spot for Hobbs (my big dog boyfriend) and me in the backseat we headed back to the other side of the river to unload and have some soup.

 

I tried another recipe off of Pintrest and made Jalapeno Popper Soup.

 

 

 It was alright. Seconds were had, but a second making probably isn't going to happen.

 

I enjoyed my day of being with friends and helping them out, even if my body might be saying otherwise and I was attacked by several mosquitoes. (Really I was!)

 

P.S Happy First Day of Fall!

Books, Chinese Food and Friends

Officially today is the last day of summer, which means that tomorrow is the first day of FALL! Thank you Sweet Mother of Moses!

I have been able to sleep with the window open at night and cozy up. Now I just need to get more chai and my fall is set! It is also time to get started on that fall bucket list!

Even though today wasn't really fall, it kind of felt like it was and my heart was fluttering with each event the day had to offer.

I started the day with Cassie at the book sale at the library and Goodwill for 50%! Jackpot! I was able to buy several books for my classroom and a few for a good friend who likes silly mysteries. Didn't really find any for myself but that is ok because I have so many books on my bookshelf that need to be read.

 

I was b-bopping around on blogs and visited Sheila at Book Journey and she has participated in "Saturday Snapshot " from West Metro Mommy. I liked it so I wanted to play along too.

This is my snapshot of the books I got today.

 

After we hauled our purchases back to the car we headed to Little Bamboo for some tasty lunch and conversation.

 

The afternoon was ended with a Scentsy party at another friend's house. I have some good nose tickles coming soon!

 

Not a bad day for the last day of summer. It is about to get better because this kid is going to go take a nap!

 

Goodbye summer, hello fall!

Flood 2013

 

This is where I was supposed to be all weekend. It was a foot underwater.

 

My dear friends, Henry and Jane, were supposed to be out of town for the weekend and I had big plans of a weekend retreat at their house out on the ranch. I was armed with several books (just in case) and wine in the fridge.

 

Then the river decided to run wild  all over the ranch and ruin my weekend!

 

I was able to take care of a few things at the house, get the dogs to safety and head to my house, not knowing how much damage was soon to follow. An hour after I felt, the water crested and it was all over from there.

 

Sadly, the whole county was affected this weekend by the flood waters.

 

 

To the west of me

 

To the east of me

 

The waters have subsided, and now the clean up has begun. So many people have been affected by this flood from almost one side of the state to the other.

 

Henry and Jane did make it "home" but aren't in their home yet. It takes them over an hour to get from where they are staying (maybe half a mile as the crow flies over the river) to their home. The clean up has begun, but it isn't going to be a quick process.

 

ALSO! My kitty Atticus made it! I heard that he and his brothers, sisters and cousins all were holed up in a tree waiting to be rescued. It didn't sound like they were very happy, but they are alive! You can see a picture of Atticus at the end of this post.

 

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected and that are picking themselves up by their bootstraps and going forward.

 

P.S. None of these pictures are mine. I got them from email and then off of Facebook. Not sure who posted them, so can't give them anymore credit than this.

Sweethearts

The computer fairies came last night and as of right now, my computer is fixed!

It has been very busy around here and to top it off, my area of the state is flooding. More of that to come.

I have finally found some time to catch up a little bit on blogging, so here we go!

Last weekend my dad had his annual Grand Sessions for his Masonic group. My sister, Molly, and I are my dad's ladies and so we were there to help him out and represent him. We are by far the youngest there by probably a good 25-30 years but we have a lot of fun.

This is also what we made the rice bags for a few weeks ago as gifts from my sister and I to the other Ladies.

Molly and I got down to Colorado Springs Friday afternoon in time to get ready for the banquet. Fancy dresses, fancy food and lots of speakers and a few awards.

After dinner the awards and speeches began. Now to be honest, I wasn't paying very good attention since I wasn't 100% sure of what they were talking about (I am still learning) until I heard, "this award is given to sisters this year." Well I knew right away that those said sisters were in fact Molly and myself!

We were awarded with the Sweetheart Award given to a Masonic Lady each year.



Sweetheart Award

The General Grand Chapter has introduced a new award for the Ladies of our Royal Arch

Masons. The award was developed by the General Grand High Priest, Emory J. Ferguson,

and is available to Royal Arch Masons as a way to show their appreciation for the support and

encouragement their Ladies have given them throughout the years. The award consists of a

jewel and certificate.

 

(source)

 

This was such an honor to receive. The High Priest, Peter Doumont, was the one who choose us to receive the award and the most honoring part was that he also choose for my step-mom, Sandy, to also receive the award. My step-sister, Ali, was also there and accepted the award on Sandy's behalf. This is where the tears started to flow. It is nice to know that she has not been forgotten and still was making an impact on people.

 

 

It has my name on it! That's all I could think of to say as my acceptance speech! There is a reason I am not getting any Grammies or Oscars!

 

My dad (in the middle) at his installation to now be the High Priest.

 

Another fun part of the weekend was seeing my other sisters, my nephews and my mom. Marcus, my five year old nephew got to have a sleep over with us at the hotel. He succeeded in making us feel old! He is so full of energy!

 

 

 

It was a successful weekend even though we were tired by the end. Next year we will be there all four days instead of just two. We get to be in charge! Look out!

 

Thank you again to Peter for the honor of being a Sweetheart.

 

Dad,

I am proud of you and all that you have accomplished. Here is to the upcoming year and all the adventures that come with it!

 





Dead

I am super behind on blogging so I sat down to catch up and my computer has gone on strike! That means I can't read your blogs and I can't write on mine. NOT a *heart flutter*

Of corse my first thought is, "I can't afford a new computer! I could barely afford this one!" I am hoping that I am jumping to the worst option but after talking to my personal tech guy I am not seeing the ray of sunshine.

So as of now I will fall a little more behind until I find a fix. Please don't forget about me during this time! 

Pick Me Ups

I read somewhere (Pintrest, a blog who really knows) that as a teacher one should have a file, notebook, whatever of all those happy moments of teaching. It could have letters from students, parents, or things people have said, whatever makes your *heart flutter.* The purpose is for when things aren't going well, you can go back, read them and hopefully get reminded of why you became a teacher in the first place.

 I would like to share a few things from the past week that made me smile and laugh.

On Friday I asked the students to write me a letter and they could tell me anything that they wanted to. My plan was to write back to them and at the same time get in a little writing assessment with a little bit of getting to know you. I really enjoyed doing this and would like to do it at the end of each month.

There were two that stood out to me.

"Anyway, I think you come up with amazing ideas, you're artistic and have great methods."

 

This was nice to hear because I don't feel as if this statement applies so much to me at the moment. So to get that feedback from the ones that are reaping the outcome of the ideas and methods was reassuring.

 

"My first wish job is alligator wresting. Sounds scary doesn't it?"

 

 

 

Oh my goodness, I laughed about this for a good five minutes! This coming from a sweet little girl who doesn't say much and looks as if she doesn't get dirty often. She then told me that her second dream job was being a teacher. Good thing she has a back up plan incase alligators aren't her friends.

 

I need to remember these moments often and look for more throughout the day.

 

What do you do when you need a pick up and a boost?



Sunday Soup Week #1

As I stated earlier today in my Fall 2013 Bucket List, I really like fall and with fall comes some soup! I came up with the idea to make some sort of soup every Sunday during the months of September thru December. Today kicks this adventure off!

I started with chicken tortilla soup and am very pleased! Most likely I will be trying a few recipes until I find one that makes me super happy.

I found a recipe through Pintrest and it took me to Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour.

Here is her recipe and picture:

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

1 can chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 tbsp taco seasoning

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can black beans

1 can whole kernel corn

1 can diced green chilies

3-4 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded

 

She used a rotisserie chicken and I did too. It was a lot easier and now I have some left over for another recipe. I didn't realize until I had dumped the tomatoes in that I had gotten a basil, oregano and garlic can and let's face it, those aren't really tortilla flavors. Thankfully, it all worked out just fine!

 

I added some cheese and tortilla chips and enjoyed! I would add this recipe to my box since it was easy and had common ingredients. Also made enough to freeze some and have some for left overs.

 

Until next week!

Fall 2013 Bucket List

It is September and in my opinion it is the start of fall despite what the weather says. It has been so hot here lately that even some schools in the state have called off school because they don't have ac and it is too hot. My school is blessed with ac so we were learning away.

Fall is my favorite season. I love pretty much EVERYTHING about it. Growing up in western Colorado I was spoiled with fall colors, cool nights, crunchy leaves and the town was flooded with strangers dressed in blaze orange and smelling like they hadn't showered in weeks.

For being such a beautiful place in the fall, I had a really hard time finding a picture.
I guess I am just going to have to go home and take some myself!



I get very homesick for home during the fall. Where I currently live just isn't blessed with as many trees, mountains or as cool of nights.

Since the season has changed, I thought I would make another bucket list since I had so much fun this summer with checking things off. A few items from the summer are being carried over to fall.

Fall 2013 Bucket List

• Go "home" to Hotchkiss and cure my homesickness
• Explore Frisco, Colorado
• Fall will be the perfect time to do this since the colors will be grand and it won't be so hot! We will be able to sit outside to eat, drink and be happy!
• Make some sort of pumpkin recipe
• Have you been on Pintrest and typed in pumpkin?
• Cut out, cook, frost and devour some fall cookies
• Drink my weight in pumpkin lattes
• Try to navigate a corn maze
• Wiggins actually as a corn maze and I have never been! I will not be going to it at night or when scary things could pop out at me!
• Fall craft
• I don't have one in mind at the moment, but know that I want to do one
• Soup Sunday
• I love soup and fall/winter is a great time to consume soups. So I came up with the idea to make a soup in the crock pot every Sunday and hopefully freeze some of it for those nights when I just don't know what to have for dinner.
• Pumpkin adult milkshake
• Go on a fall hike
• Do some sort of physical activity for 21 of the 30 days of the month
• Go shooting with the Epples
• Watch a play
• Watch "The Great Pumpkin"

So let the fall fun begin!

What is on your list for this fall?