Shopaholic

For those of you who know me well you know that I'm always reading something. This is a fun little series of books that I started and would recommend if you are looking for something to read for enjoyment. Being somewhat of a shopaholic myself, I can relate to some of the funny things that happen to Becky Bloomwood, the main character. And the best part is there is a movie currently being filmed staring Isla Fischer that is set to be released on February 13th.

Want to find out if you are a shopaholic. Take this quiz I found online. I guess I'm not as big of a shopaholic as I thought I was. Although Jeff might not agree!!!

So far I have read these books in the series. There are a few more that I need to look for next time I'm at the bookstore.

What A Night

So this morning when I got to school and reached in my purse to get out my set of school keys I realized my wallet wasn't there. I took Jeff's truck down to the gas station last night to fill up the lawn mower gas can and remember having it then. I knew it had to be in his truck so I called home and told him to grab it for me. When I got home tonight he informed me it wasn't in his truck. We turned this house and garage upside down looking for it. I even went through the trash becase a few weeks ago I accidentally threw away all of the mail (that's a whole other story). Anyways I finally decided I must have laid it on the back of his truck and when he had driven away this morning it had fallen off. I ended up making a list of all of the important things that were in my wallet. After making several calls to report stolen/lost cards I went outside and tried to retrace my steps one more time. Finally it came to me. My wallet was laying on the deck steps. You might be thinking that is a crazy place for me to put my wallet, but when I got home from the gas station yesterday our dog Spiro had run off chasing another dog and was back on the golf course so I laid everything in my hands down and went after him.

On a more positive note tonight Grant had another soccer make-up game. It was originally scheduled a few weeks ago when we got all of the rain. Jeff took our big camera and the tripod and got some pretty good action/night shots. He is much better at figuring out how to use all of the settings on the camera. Here are a few of the photos he took.

Grant got to be the goalie tonight for the first time and he scored 3 goals!

Week Wrap Up

Last week Jeff was in Portland and I had parent/teacher conferences until 8pm on Wednesday night and then again from 12-8 on Thursday. Thank goodness Grant has so many great grandparents who live nearby and like to spend time with him. They all really helped me out during those late nights at school.

Luckily we got the day off on Friday and Grant and I were able to sleep in, spend some fun time together playing outside and cleaning up around the house. Although I think his favorite part of the day was having Dani the babysitter on Friday evening. I got together with several of my friends for our monthly "Girls Night Out". We had dinner at Uptown Bistro in Old Town and then went to the Pumphouse for drinks on the patio. Unfortunately Grant had an early morning soccer game on Saturday so my neighbor Amy and I had to call it a night before everyone else was ready to leave.

We also watched Molly the new puppy this weekend for Hank and Debbie while they were out of town. I forgot just how much work puppies are.

My DVR worked over time this week. I love premier week. Every night after Grant was in bed I found myself curling up on the couch and watching my favorite shows until the wee hours. Here is what my recording schedule looked like. Kind of sad huh?

Monday - Dancing With The Stars, The Hills
Tuesday - Dancing With The Stars, 90210, Priveleged
Wednesday - Dancing With The Stars
Thursday - Grey's Anatomy, The Office

Time to go now Desperate Housewives is over and Brothers & Sisters is about to start.

The Scoop On Poop

Over the weekend Grant and I went to Exploration Place. One of the new exhibits was called "The Scoop On Poop". It is based on the book by Dr. Wayne Lynch, which investigate what poop is, how animals use it to build homes, hide from enemies, attract mates and more. We actually went to see the blockbuster national traveling exhibition "Our Body: The Universe Within". Jeff's dad and Debbie went a few years ago when there was a similar exhibit in Phoenix and then again when it was in Dallas. They bought a DVD and we had watched it so I kind of knew what to expect. Grant has been asking to go for awhile so Saturday afternoon while Jeff was in KC we went to see it. I was still a little nervous about what his reaction would be, but he seemed to really be interested in looking at everything. I could have definitely spent more time reading everything but he kind of wanted to hurry on to the next thing to see. We made it through in record time I think!!!

The Newest Bumgardner

Meet the newest Bumgardner. Isn't she cute!!!! Hank (Jeff's dad) and Debbie got her on Friday afternoon from one of his patients who breeds Shih Tzu's. As of Friday evening she didn't have a name yet, although Hank kept calling her Piglet. They already have another Shih Tzu named Pooh so they were looking for a name that went along it. I suggested "Winnie".

I wonder if Spiro would like a new little friend? They still had a few more.

Saturday Morning Soccer

So this morning Grant finally had his first soccer game of the season. The past two weekends the games have been cancelled due to rain.

Soccer is kind of a new sport for me because I never played as a child and Miles never showed any intrest in playing when he was younger. We have had Grant involved in sports (football, basketball & baseball) since he was about 3 years old and this is the first year that he has shown any intrest in soccer. So Jeff and I decided to just sign him up to play through the Maize Recreation Commission which is far less competive than any of the other leagues around town and it only last for 8 weeks. When I filled out the enrollment form it asked what grade he was in and I of course marked 2nd. Grant was very excited when he found out he got to be on his friend Alec's team. Alec's mom Becky is the counselor in my building and she and her husband Andy are some of our good friends. What came as a shock to both Becky and I was that it is a K-2 league and they would be playing 4 on 4 with no goalie and no keeping score. Had we known this we would have probably signed Grant up to play somewhere else, but we told him that this was just a learning year and that it was important for him to just have fun and learn some of the fundamentals.

So back to this morning. On the way to the game Grant asked me if I would keep score in my head. He ended up scoring at least 10 goals, if not more. I lost track because I was busy trying to take pictures and talking to other parents. He claims he scored 14 goals???? From some of the pictures you will notice that he is much larger than most of the other kids out there. He is a very strong competive little boy but he did a great job passing the ball to other kids so that they all had a chance to try and score. I was very proud of him!!!

Check out Grant's fancy footwork!!!

Does it really seem fair for Grant to be playing against this little guy?

Grant and his buddy Alec were all smiles after the game.

Another CAbi Party

So tonight I went to my third CAbi party of the season . . . that's right third. Needless to say, I bought a few more fun fall/winter items. Even though the clothes are all a bit pricey, they are such great quality and wash up so nicely. The party was at my friend Cathy's house. She booked a party for the fall back in May when I hosted my first party and as a little thank you I got a 1/2 price item tonight. Yea for me!!! Plus after losing so much weight I am in need of new clothes for the season and kind of feel like I deserve a treat!!!

For those of you who don't know, I started Weight Watchers back in January with a group of 25 teachers from my district, and as of this morning when I weighed in, I have lost 43.7 lbs. It's kind of hard for me to believe!!! I was really down in the dumps this morning because last night when I got home from work I weighed myself like I usually do (I am a little obsessed right now) and I was up 2 lbs. Usually I try to be extra careful on Wednesday's in preparation for Thursday morning weigh in so I was shocked at the weight gain. This morning I was still weighing 2 lbs more. I was feeling really frustrated the entire time I was getting ready for work and was having little internal conversations with myself the whole way to school and finally talked myself into just going to weigh in despite my bad mood. I don't know what happened on the drive, but when I stepped on the scale I had lost .6 lbs. Now I know that is not a lot, but it came as a total shock to me. I even stepped off the scale and made my friend Ginger weigh me again because I was sure there was something wrong with the new fancy scale. But, nope I was a loser this week, which is a good thing.

Happy Birthday Grant

Today we celebrated Grant's 8th birthday. It's so hard to believe that our baby is getting so old. This afternoon we had a detective themed birthday party with several of his school and neighborhood friends here at the house. We did a relay race where the boys had to dress in a "disguise". I went to the goodwill store and bought skirts, shirt, heels & hats with flowers and they had to put of the clothes and run to the end of the sidewalk and back. They thought this was SO fun!!! It was hilarious watching them try to figure out how to get in and out of the skirt and walk in the heels. Then we went on a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. After returning back home Grant opened all of his presents and then we enjoyed a cake shaped like a magnifying glass with a fingerprint on it that my friend Paula made. We had a little extra time before parents were due back so we set up a soccer game in the backyard. The kids all had so much fun.

After we got the first party cleaned up it was time to celebrate with all of our family. We ordered pizza and then let Grant open his gifts from all of us. He has been taking drum lessons for the past year so Jeff and I got him a snare drum that has a golf ball style look to it. It is really unique. He scored lots of Bakagun toys and games and controller accessories for the Wii. Jeff has really been enjoying the fishing game and fishing pole controller all evening. He also got a globe from Jeff's grandma that you can connect to your computer and get information about anyplace in the world. We ran out of time tonight so we will have to try it out later this week.

I seem to be experiencing alot of formatting problems tonight so I will try to post some of the fun pictures from the party tomorrow.

When It Rains It Pours

Literally!!! I have never seen so much rain. It began raining here in Wichita yesterday around 2:00 pm and I don't think it has let up yet. Since midnight we have gotten almost 8 inches of rain (according to the 5:00 news). These photos were all taken from areas within about 5 miles of our house in various directions.

Around 10:00 this morning the district offices announced that we would be releasing early. Everyone was excited until we read further down in the message that it was at 3:00 (which is only about an hour early). It took us nearly an hour to get home from school and there was only one way into my neighborhood by late this afternoon. Currently almost all of the major west side intersections are under 2-3 feet of water. I can't imagine what it will be like if the rain continues to fall like it has been forecasted too.

State Fair Fieldtrip

Today Grant went on his first fieldtrip of the year. All of the 2nd grade classes at his school went to the state fair in Hutchinson. "Grandma" Linda volunteered to go along with his class.

Some of the highlights Grant reported were:
1. Watching a man wrestle an alligator.
2. Seeing a 652.7 lb pumpkin.
3. Seeing the butter sculpture.
4. Seeing an 80.9 lb watermelon
5. Eating a funnel cake (Shhh!!! Don't let Mrs. Hobbs know. It was a special treat that Grandma bought for Grant and the two other boys she was responsible for. No one was supposed to buy anything.)

Grant milking a cow.
















Grant driving a motor powered tractor at Papa's exhibit.















Grant, Austin & Deriq















Grant on the bus ride home. Go Jayhawks!!!

A Comfy Place To Sit

Back in early June I was out walking early one morning and spotted a big floral chair at a house in my neighborhood in their garage sale. I've been wanting a big comfy chair to put in my classroom and got the big idea to go back later that day and see how much they wanted for it. It was priced at $50 and I offered $25 but the owner informed me it was a Broyhill (which I could have cared less about) and she told me she couldn't take less than $30. I thought that sounded fair enough so I wrote a her check.

Before I tell you next part it is important to let you know that this lady was not super friendly and wouldn't help me load the chair into my car, so I had to go home and get Miles. As we were loading it, a reloadable giftcard from All Star Sports fell out. I was going to just throw it away but Miles really wanted to keep it because he was sure it still had money left on it. Later that week I took the kids to All Star to play video games and Miles remembered that we had that card. Believe it or not, there was $25 on the card. Now I know this is going to sound awful, but had the lady been nicer I would have probably given it back, but I didn't . . . So, my chair really only cost me $5.

So, I was so excited about my chair but hated the floral print. It was the same print as what is on this couch. Sorry, I should have taken a before picture of the chair.

I called around to a few upholstery stores here in Wichita and the first place quoted me $800 plus the cost of fabric. Another place quoted me $350 plus $32 a yard for fabric (I needed 7 yards so that's an additional $224). I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into because I would have never guessed it would be that expensive to recover the chair. I even bought a slipcover at Target, but I just couldn't get it to fit right so I returned it. A few days later I decided to check the internet and see if there was anyone in Winfield that did upholstery because things seem to be cheaper down there for some reason. Lucky for me there was one person and I called and she quoted me $125 plus the cost of fabric, which I bought at JoAnn Fabric for $28 total. It took quite a while for her to get my chair done, but here is the finished product. My mom and dad brought it up to me over the weekend and we put it in my classroom. It ended up only costing $117 plus the $28 for fabric. Can you belive it????

I thought the denim with red trim would be cute and it I ever get tired of it, which I can't imagine I will, I could always put it in Grant's room. Now I have a comfy place to sit and read stories to my kids at school and my kids have a comfy place to sit while they are at the listening center.

Birthday Celebration

Last night we all got together to celebrate Jeff's birthday. My mom has a tradition of always making me a Neopolitan cake for my birthday. It's three layers of chocolate, white & strawberry cake with lots of chocolate icing. Jeff decided he wanted a similar cake but he always has to be a bit difficult. Here is a picture of the cake my mom made for him. It was a layer of banana, chocolate and peanut butter cake with lots of chocolate icing. The first two layers were super yummy but I think we would all agree that peanut butter didn't make a very tasty flavor of cake. Everyone must have enjoyed it because this is all that was left.

Miles came down on Friday after school and even though he wasn't feeling very good all weekend we all still had a fun time together. We rented a few movies and a game for the Wii. Miles and I watched 21 and then my sister came over on Saturday afternoon and we watched What Happens In Vegas. Then on Sunday afternoon my mom, sister and I all watched Charlie Bartlett which was kind of an odd movie.

Here are a few pictures from the birthday celebration.

Miles, Grant & Grandpa did a group hug for the camera.

Miles was all smiles!!!

Grant wasn't getting all of the attention so he was a little pouty.
Poor Grant. It's a good thing his birthday is in two weeks!!!