Taking a deep breath . . . .

Here's why I haven't been blogging:

• Friday was the last day of school for kids and Saturday was the last workday for teachers for the 2008-2009 school year
• Reading Specialists are in charge of organizing summer school for all of the elementary schools in town
• Meagan finished her first year of middle school
• Meagan's birthday is coming up in just a couple of weeks
• Garrett finished kinder - sob, sob
• I helped to make a scrapbook for a staff member who left our school after 8 years
• I finally moved all of my stuff out of my old classroom
• I spent about $2500 (not my money!) on books/supplies for next year
• our kickball team had 5 or 6 games in last three weeks
• our kickball team won the last 10 games they played
• our kickball team won their 10th straight game in the bottom of the sixth inning to become the JUNIOR CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I've been a little busy. I have kept up (well, a little anyway) with my Twitter posts so I will have to reread them to work on blogging all of the things that have been going on around here the last couple of weeks.

All I've done the last couple of weeks in my house is the bare minimum. You know, washing spoons as we need them, making sure we have a clean uniform for both kids for the next day, making sure people have socks and underwear, and washing our kickball uniforms repeatedly.

Today I am cleaning house and then going to a meeting with Jimmy to pick the ALL STAR JUNIOR TEAM! Because, as the coaches of the team who won FIRST PLACE! we get to coach the All Star team and take them to the state tournament in Austin, Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. But, I promise, I will try to start blogging with some sort of regularity (is that even a word?) soon.

(I'm a little excited about winning first place in kickball - just in case you can't tell.)

I won a prize!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I entered a drawing for a huge assortment of wedding scrapbook materials and I just found out today that I won!!!!!!!!

Dahrlin' at Hello Dahrlin' hosted the giveaway. Click on the link to see what I've won!

I can't wait to get the materials because ever since I started scrapbooking I have wanted to do a wedding album. I even started on one time and HATED the way it looked. Winning this package has renewed my interest in finally getting a new album and getting started!

Thank you so much Dahrlin'!

I'll post about the package when I get it and keep everyone posted on the progress of my album.

I won a Pay It Forward Contest!!

So, I got an e-mail a while back from Clarabella at Living and Learning telling me I won her Pay It Forward contest! Fast forward a few days and guess what I saw on my porch the other day??

This box!
When I opened the box I found all sorts of goodies! There were some really cute flip flop candle holders and yummy pear votive candles to go in them. They have a new home on my dining room table. There was also a cute little journal, pen, and bookmarks that will be perfect for when I start back to school. The photo album will be great for showing off my vacation pictures. (I like to show my students places that I visit.) The kids also hit the jackpot! For Meagan there were sparkly pony tail holders. For Garrett there was a set of magnetic alphabet letters that we promptly put on the refrigerator. These will be perfect for quizzing him on his letters. He is already sorting them by color. The outside toys (airplanes, Frisbee, and chalk) will be great as soon as it stops raining. (We have had an unusual amount of rain around here lately.)

Thank you so much Clarabella! The prize box was just what I needed to cheer me up. (I'm a little sad about my summer ending.) The goodies for the kids were perfect for those I'm bored and I've played with everything in my room end of summer blues.

Stay tuned because I will be holding another contest of my own during September to keep the Pay It Forward game going!