Design team submission

I made this layout for Pazzles Design Team using cosmo cricket papers and my pazzles pro cutter. Normally I don't take pics of my layouts, but this one I like. Well, I would change things now, but it is done. The picture is from saturday night. Becca went to her Winter Formal. She did not get her hair done, buy an expensive dress, etc. I a actually glad - she is less materialistic now. She does not fit the mold of everyone else. I was stressing about it last week as she would be underdressed, but was told that was what kids were supposed to do (choose the best dress in their closet). Why call it a Winter FORMAL then? Oh well. She had fun!

Green Christmas...

Alright, I already have a pile of presents under the tree. We have a loose budget. Wouldn't it be great if we just did tradition without the spending. I can't help but think of Little Women and Amy saying that "I am desperate for drawing pencils" but then they are still so thankful anyway. I know it is a different time and era but if the kids weren't around, it would be different. So why can't we just stop buying? Because it is not normal. I ran across Don't Buy anything for Christmas. Once you get to their ideas it is really great.
for example, my in laws are always a gift problem. Not only do thy have everything, they probably have two of everything! I may get them the stuff they would have to go out and buy on a shopping trip instead. Maybe throw in a few things they might not consider. Still workng on that list - I guess I need to hurry!

Also visit Ten thousand villages. Helping the environment and changing the world are ideas I discuss in my classes but do not completely follow. By buying from companies such as Ten thousand villages, you give a hand up to some of the poorest areas of the world. On top of that, you start to change society by giving value especially to women where they have not been valued before. Not sexist but true: If the value of women around the world were to change, then many of the problems that exist there will begin to change.

Christmas party pics

Celebrating the holidays in style!

I had the best time at my husbands Christmas party last weekend. He works for Reliant Energy at the Keystone station. The party was held in the London Ballroom at Chestnut Ridge Resort in Blairsville. It is a beautiful place, tastefully decorated, and an unbelievable facility. I need to make my way back there some time in the future. Now that I see you can go eat there, it would be a new place to try and a great change of pace.

We had beef, chicken (which was wonderful), a great assortment of vegetables and sides as well as a chocolate mousse cake. Dancing was great and the DJ emceed many of the games that night, played our requests promptly and was very attentive.

But most importantly was the attention to detail provided by Paula and Cheryl from Keystone Station. I have been in charge of Christmas parties before and know the work required. These ladies' outdid themselves. I really want them to know how much their efforts, time, and talent that they put in to the event was appreciated. I hope everyone had a wonderful time - I know I did! I really want them to know what a great job they did.

Everyone I met was warm and wonderful and I had the best conversations with those at our table. I especially am glad that everyone was so good about getting out there to dance. It was a fantastic evening and would love to get together with them again. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of us - especially since I was all dolled up in a knockout dress! Next time, I'll bring the camera - but doubt I would have as much time to have fun.

Happy Holidays everyone!

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Happy Thanksgiving. It is hard to believe it is already here and that Christmas is just around the corner. It has been a tough fall emotionally. Too many things going on in and out of the family. I look forward to moving on and this is a great time to do so. I want to stop and truly appreciate what has been given to me.

1. Unconditional love. Lord knows I have tested my husbands patience and yet he still does all the little things that shows he loves me. He is such a great guy and I love him. I need to say that more often!

2. The bridge between past and future. AKA, my kids. It is exciting and challenging to watch them grow up. They change and sometimes I am not sure if the change is good or not. But they are their own person and will always remember the bigger lessons from the past, I hope. I remind myself when faced with the teenage challenges that they are actually put here to teach me something.

3. True friends. I have a lot of contacts but have just a few really good friends. That is all you need.

4. My health. Lately that has been a complaint but I am also at my lowest in fitness. Seems to me there is a connection. I had less sicknesses and ailments when I was fit. Time to get started again (oh, age really does not matter).

5. My SIL's. As I don't have a sister, I do love them like one. I wish we lived closer and we did not have so much going on all of the time. I can't wait until Christmas to see Jen and in February I see Sunni!

More reflection to come...

So now we have a problem, where have you been?

I hear a lot of people talking about prices of gasoline, fuel oil, electricity, natural gas, etc. The next logical increase is the cost of all of the goods that are made from fossil fuels (90% of what we use daily is made from oil) and have to be trucked across the country. My only response: Where have you been?

My beef? Those who for decades talked about how all of the conservationists were out of their minds. How they discussed the downfall of the environment and their solution would destroy all of our ways of life and raise taxes. Are you kidding me? When are we going to learn to be proactive and stop the nonsense? The cost of changing/cleaning up, etc. is enormous.

So everyone is complaining and I know that we can't change the past, but what are you doing now? Are you going to continue to complain or are you going to do something to make a change for the better, model a better way of life for the future, and teach the younger generation that you do care. By the way, they think you don't. There are a lot of very angry young people upset about the state of the world. The problem seems enormous but everyone working together can accomplish much. We all have to give up a little now or we stand to have to give up a lot more in the future. It is all too easy to think it will just work out by itself. Ask yourself, what do you believe? What will you do?

So what do I do? For me, I have been concerned about this since the 70's. Sure, I still consume my share but take a definite stand on many issues. I have used my own cloth bags for shopping long before it became popular (is it where you are?). As a matter of fact, certain family members did not want to be seen with me when I used those bags. I have recycled as long as well (BTW I do not live where there is curbside recycling), I limit trips in a car (one with better gas mileage), combine my trips, grow my own produce and even make our own dog food. I can go on and on about computer use, using resources and electricity, but will actually be doing this for my high school classes soon.

As for my classes, I educate. We are researching, we are understanding viewpoints and problems around the world, and we are hoping to make change. The same message here I am giving to them. They have a voice and they want to be heard. I am encouraging thoughts turning into action. I hope it becomes contagious.

Well, I started out gung ho with the blog – I think I made 3 entries the first day. What has happened since? Perhaps life and a little attitude has happened – it is summer by the way. Let me explain. As I have been sitting and thinking about who cares if anyone reads what I have to say and who cares if I read what anyone has to say, my school email has filled up with edtech emails and blog entries I have subscribed to. Now that I am finally reading them it has occurred to me that I have not really faced my own attitudes about blogging.

Writing about what I am thinking is somewhat self-centered, don't you think? I am obviously the only one in my brain and if I write it all down, am I stuck on myself? Not really. That is just what I think others are thinking and I should not have that opinion toward anyone else either. If it is not meaningful to me, I don't need to read it. But someday it may be and the great thing about electronic communication is that it will be there for some time (another reason to be very careful).

Mostly I think that no one cares what I think (oops – there I go talking like one of the teenagers). Vicki Davis says it best in her blog:

It is about improving communication and facilitating effective, meaningful, educated, civilized conversation. And when it gets students excited about communicating and learning, then it just becomes a number one friend of a good teacher.

Even if your blogging is not tied to education, it is all about communication. The focus is not only on sharing but also connecting. I learn a lot by reading about the thoughts and experiences of others. It is important to make meaningful communication and use it constructively and just as thoughtfully. Even blogs or posts that polarize people are useful (this is a scrapbooking message board with passionate members): 2 peas

My hope is to use the blogs as a tool for not only my learning and communcation but also for that of my students. By thinking differently about blogs in general, I might just learn something after all.

I think we have finally recovered from the weekend visit to Jen's in Manassas. What a blast! After we arrived, I took the boys, Jake, and Hardy to the playground while the girls went to get manicures. That evening we went to a Stampin Up class and made the cutest card and tin. On Saturday, we went to Target (wish we had one of those near us). We spent the afternoon at the Mall before playing a Laser tag game and then being entertained at the Japanese Steakhouse. It was a great show. Topped off with Coldtone Creamery for dessert, it was a great day! I had cake batter ice cream and it was so good. On Sunday, it was Jen's birthday. We went to a birthday crop and Jen was queen for the day (with regal clothes to boot!). Afterward we had a cookout but we had to leave early to get home! Too much fun and a great way to celebrate her 39th birthday.

I am fascinated by the web 3.0 tools that exist out there. My kids are familiar with it. Xbox Live and World of Warcraft are web 3.0 tools. I have visited the virtual world Second Life and think it is cool that you can take classes there and actually walk into a virtual classroom or a virtual shop and buy items there. Maybe the wave of the future? I think it is too unregulated yet to be safe but I looked around and then created my own avatar in photobucket to feel part of this new world. You can actually create one that looks like you at a different site, but I might have to pay for that. I might try that next. I am finding these things while doing research for using technology in my classroom. I don't think it keeps me focused though as it seems to divert my attention. Does this happen to the kids too? Either I have ADD or I don't multitask on the computer as well as I thought.

Speaking of getting things done, I no longer make an item like "clean the house". I now say specifically what cleaning the house is. Sweep the carpet, scrub the tile, etc. Seems weird to do that but it is hard to see how much time a big item like "clean the house" can take. Breaking it down means you can do little parts one at a time. Now to apply this to my lesson planning. If I write "plan my lessons in Academic Biology for September" I will spend time thinking "What does that mean?" I would be more focused overall to break up the tasks into actual actions and then have great fun crossing off the list as I go. This is my new goal.

After Scrapbooking for over a decade, I have reached another plateau of being burnt out. Why? All the stuff! At heart, I really hate all the stuff I use and wish I did not want more. I have actually not created too many scrapbook pages of late (design team, business and life interferes) and think that it always proceeds a change in style, etc. This brings me to the top 5 scrapbook tools I like, need, covet, etc.

1. My computer. I upgraded last year to a Toshibe Portege M400-S4031. I haven’t even unlocked its potential yet. My friend Klo Oxford played with it for 10 minutes and did things with it I haven’t yet (there is the technophobe in me coming out). I should learn from my son and just play with it. It is a tablet PC and I can draw, create my own elements, and do amazing things with the computer and its software. I am hoping to learn how to Digital Scrapbook as well as use it to its tre capacity with the Creative Cutter.


2. My Pazzles Creative Cutter. I have the Pro. I can do amazing things with it. It not only makes great titles and die cuts that are truly customized to what I need, but it can also emboss, engrave, draw and write, distress, make stamps, etc. I have been a member of the design team for the past 2 years and it has been wonderful in improving my proficiency with the cutter and my ability to design. This last year I have been given some great materials to play with including iron on material of which I made this great tote (Thanks to Jen Sizemore for the inspiration). This has really taken me out of my comfort zone and made me use the cutter in different ways.My biography
   My Projects 1 My Projects 2
   My Projects 3
   My Projects 4
   Ad in Memory Makers
   


3. My wide format printer HP Photosmart 8750. I now take all digital pictures and only print the ones that I need when I need them.


4. Cardstock. I am pretty basic at heart and you can do a lot with it – especially with my cutter.


5. My Susis cutter. I wish I had bought the 14 inch style but otherwise love that it is self-sharpening. It is a workhorse.
   

Other runner-ups: My ATG 700 tape dispenser – large but very economical, stamps and stamp pads, ribbon…

So I will start with the basics: My family. I love my family. My husband Mike is very hard working and the epitome of what it means to have goals and work for them. He is very successful and a good example about how to work hard now and steer yourself for the future plans. My daughter Becca has entered those wonderful teenage years (read: 15). That is not just meant to be sarcastic but wonderful in that she is trying to find herself though it has managed to give her parents more gray hairs than we are supposed to have at the age of 42. She is talented musically, athletically, and pretty smart as well. I hope she comes back to some of these things as there are many kids who would love to have some of that talent. My son Ryan is now officially a teenager and not a technophobe like his mother. He is a gamer though he doesn’t take it seriously like others. He is very talented musically and loves animals and nature, especially if it is a reptile or amphibian. He is very laid back normally so maybe we will be spared more gray hairs.

The other members of our family are the four legged kind. We have 2 ferrets. A boy named Sebastian (Becca’s) and a girl named Sabrina (Ryan’s) provide plenty of entertainment. They are full of personality and are fun to watch when we let them run around the scrapbooking studio and they steal items frequently. We also have 4 dogs. We rescued all of them from a pound. I love that. Sure, they may still have found there way to a good home, but people who know us know that our dogs are just plain spoiled. Hardy is a Pomeranian and is Ryan’s dog. He rules all the others. Anyone who has a Pomeranian would agree. Murphy is a poodle/terrier mix and is the family dog. He is very laid back, somewhat lacking upstairs and gets along with everyone and every dog. He is the dog that everyone wants to take home with them. Duke is a Great Dane and a very loveable dog and very well behaved for his size but has to be watched that he does not get too carried away as he is still a puppy (at 105 pounds)! The last is Jake, who is a long haired Chihuahua. He is the sweetest and actually not as high strung as the short haired varieties. Jake and Duke are quite a sight together as their size is definitely an extreme and they are also very protective of me as they are mine. They can be quite a handful at times especially those days when they won’t walk the way they should or at mealtime. But they are loving and definitely members of the family.

I have been wanting to blog for some time. Why haven’t I started? Simply, I am somewhat of a technophobe. Really. The truth is that I have always jumped into the new technologies after some period of sweating it out internally. What if it is just a fad? What if no one agrees or likes what I have to say? What if I fall flat on my face? At some point I just decide to do it and jump in. Usually it is after thinking that I need a lot of time to get it started. It is usually not the case. Of course, I have spent plenty of time mulling it over in my brain. But actually creating the blog (or insert whatever technology it is today) was easy.

Now I am excited. After all, I have a lot to say. Don’t I tell my students that they have a lot to say and should say it? I am also an average writer. By blogging, my writing will improve. That alone is reason to do it. This may be a better alternative to that paper journal I never seem to keep up with. I really should have started long ago.

So here I go, entering the blogging world. Thanks for bearing with me hearing my views of education, scrapbooking and all that I am passionate or thinking about at the time. Now that I am here, I keep asking myself, what took me so long?