Worms and Noses

Tonight I made a worm cake for my class. We have had a real worm bin in my room this semester, so I thought it would be fun for the kids to eat a worm cake tomorrow for our class party. It's a chocolate cake w/chocolate icing, then a layer of chocolate pudding, then crushed Oreo-type cookies, and gummie worms on the top. Too fun!

Close up

Pretty nappy pic of myself, but I just took it to put on my Yahoo Messenger account - debgarton. (Boy, I really DO have a big nose!)

The Princess Is Three!

My niece, "Princess," just turned three! Where does the time go? Here are some pics from her special day...

Before (in curlers)

After (such a cutie)

My handsome nephew

I only have two school days left, and boy am I glad! I don't think any of us teachers have any more patience and the students lost their control a week or two ago ... I am feeling really stressed right now with school and home repairs. I normally don't stress about finances, but it's been on my mind a lot lately. Almost like it could become an overwhelming fear if I let it. I suppose I need to have a good crying/praying time to just let it go. I think I am a super hero sometimes and can handle everything...

Ants, Ants, Go Away

We have carpenter ants!!!!! The two trees in the front of our yard are the worst, our pest control guy said, but we have them in several places. He treated them ($270!), and he will come back on the 6th of June to check again. Problem is our next door neighbors have them too, along with termites, in their two front trees which are dead. If they don't treat them, we will just keep getting them no matter how many times we have them treated. The neighbors' house is for sale, and I am hoping someone will buy it soon and fix the problem, but that's not likely. It is a fixer-upper on the inside from what we hear, and no one seems interested in buying it. It's cute on the outside, it but needs updating. Anyone want to be our neighbor?

Random Things

The post office worker may have been an ignoramus, but the government is awesome! I got my passport after only two weeks!!!!!!! I was so excited that I almost cried. At least now I can for sure get on that ship in June! (And get back to America!)

My roses just bloomed this week! It is so fun to have plants...bushes...whatever they are :)

I think this one would be pretty in black and white ... I must get my picture taking ability from my mom!

I asked Cleo if she wanted momma to take her picture, and she came over to me wagging her tail. So this one's her pose.

We spent this morning working outside. Roy had to wash off egg that had been baked onto our house. (Yes, I know a stove is more practical for frying eggs, but I just couldn't resist.) Then he fixed a part of our roof and cleaned the gutter. I planted some new flowers right beside my vegetable garden, hoping to draw some bees to pollinate my squash. I haven't seen a single bee in our yard. Afterward we mowed and edged the lawn, trimmed some branches, watered the lawn, and turned the dirt in the horseshoe pits. Whew! What a morning! Why I am sitting here typing? ... I need to go eat and nap!

"Gradulation"

My adorable nephew graduated from pre-k this week. He said he wanted a "gradulation" party, so that's what he got. I wanted so badly to be there, but again, distance... There is no way I am going to miss when he graduates from high school, which will come before I know it. Happy "Gradulation" JJ!

The finale

After three coats of red paint, this is the final product. Don't you love it?! We do. It is such an easy fix for the dingy paneling. I still have to paint the opposite wall in the kitchen, and I am going to paint the cabinets and trim a bright, glossy white. Oh, and yes, that is a towel on our ceiling. It is covering a hole that has been there since Oct., I think, when our friendly neighborhood mouse decided to chew threw a rubber connector and cause a leak.

I can hardly wait for school to be out! I have three boys that are making me crazy (though the margarita on the rocks helped me deal), and a group of snobby girls that are making each other crazy. I am so glad I am not in middle school anymore. It's easy to forget how hard it is at that age. They have to make so many decisions about friendships ... I don't look back at my middle school years as good ones, for sure, but I did learn much about myself.

I Got a Present!

Today Roy came home from work and asked me to put my shoes on and help him unload "this thing." I thought it was just wood for a framing project he's been working on, but it wasn't. It was a covered swing! I was so excited. Then he spent the next couple of hours putting it together and fighting mosquitoes. What a guy.

I am officially growing tomatoes in my first garden! Can you see them?

Puppies are Practice

I suppose what they say is true: Puppies are practice for having children. We went to Target tonight, and I saw these cool apple flavored dog treats that I just had to get for Cleo. She totally knows what, "Momma got you a present!" means, and I love seeing her excited when I say it. She begs (like in this picture) until I give it to her. Roy says I can't get our kids presents all the time when we have them. I told him I won't, but who knows? I have done many things while raising Cleo that I said I wouldn't do (let her drink after me, lick my face, sleep in my bed, and so on), and I have been told that the way you raise your puppy will be the same way you raise your kids. Scary. I guess as long as I don't bring home apple flavored dog treats to my kids, we'll be okay.

Roy and I saw Spiderman 3 today! It was great. A very complicated plot compared to the first two, but well worth the money to see it. Have you noticed that Harry looks like James Dean? The resemblance is uncanny. I cried, of course, whenever Tobey Maguire cried, but he has always brought me to tears.

I finished most of our walls in the kitchen today. I hope to paint the walls behind the fridge and stove this week. The red sure brings color to the room.

School will be over in about 2.5 weeks ... I can hardly wait to be free at last.

Age and Impatience

I think being 30 makes me impatient. At least, it seems the older I get the less patience I posses. Today we went to the post office to take care of our passports. The guy helping us had no idea what he was doing and was quite the ignoramus. He even told us - 4 times - he didn't really know what he was doing. Why can't people take pride in their work? My parents always had great work ethic, and so I guess I just grew up thinking you do your best at all times no matter how you feel. I was so frustrated today with this guy that I gave my husband the checkbook to pay and just walked off to cry. Then all the way home I cried, and when I got home I laid on the bed for about ten minutes and cried some more. True, I have had an incredibly stressful week at school, and Roy says I expend all my patience on my students which leaves me little for anything/anyone else, but I seem to be more impatient now that I'm older than I was at, say, 25. Well anyway, our passports are in the mail, and we hope to have them w/in 6wks so we can go on our cruise. By the way, Roy took me out for dinner since I was stressed, and I had a drink called an Electric Lemonade from Chili's. It was sooooo yummy! I feel much better now! Funny how alcohol helps with that. The next best thing would have been shopping!

Lightening Bugs and Pouting

Cleo is just enamored with lighting bugs! She runs around the yard trying to eat them ... wonder what she will do when she DOES eat one! Yuck. I got the second coat of red paint on my wall. It is glossier than I would like, but I think it looks pretty. The other walls aren't painted yet, so this pic gives a good idea of before and after. Just talked to my mom and she told me my sister is going with my dad to the movies to see Spiderman 3!!!! I am so jealous! Sometimes living far away from family is just terrible. (pouting)

Paint Paint and More Paint

One wall in my formerly drab-white kitchen is now red! I am so excited! The actual color is "ripe currant," but what do those paint names ever mean, anyway? I plan to take a pic of the part of the kitchen that is still white, and then of the newly painted wall, so I can post before and after pics. I am hoping to get the walls done this week and start on the cabinets and trim this weekend. My mom is coming down on the 31st, and I would love for her to see my new kitchen.

Only 15 school days left - hurray! My students are just as ready for summer as I am. I am having to pull out all the tools from the bag in order to keep them settled until the end of the year. The boys are now getting the mind of teenagers, so I hear giggles and the words "weiner" and "nuts" nearly simultaneously. What's really funny is that they don't think I know what they're talking about!

I smoked a spider to death while grilling burgers tonight. It was so entertaining. It was sliding on the grease on the lid - until I closed the lid...

(I've been with 5th graders all day, okay; humor me.)

Okay, so having a blog makes me young, right? I am so out of touch with technology, having this blog makes me feel like I am on top of the game. We'll see how well I maintain this new youthfulness...