Marshmallow Lollipops!

This isn't going to be a long post... I've been a blog slacker lately.

This month has been crazy...
conferences...
being observed by my principal...
just trying to stay afloat (and so far doing so successfully!)...

So anywho... here are the treats I made for my 2nd graders for our Halloween party.
I got the idea from Grace Violet when she made these ones last Valentine's for her daughter's school party.

They were SO easy and SO cute! The only changes I made were that I used the pre-colored chocolate melting circles instead of almond bark and I put 2 marshmallows on a stick.

The supplies:

The marshmallows on sticks:

The first few dipped:

All packaged and ready to go to school:

I am sooooooo doing these again for Christmas!

It's getting there...

Some more of my classroom...

Mom came to school with me on Saturday and helped me cover a few eyesores...

Before:

After:

All put together!

Note to self... time to learn how to put a watermark over my pictures.

Anyone know how?

(Somewhat) Wordless Wednesday!

Today I start:

I'm so excited!!!!

Mama Diana... This one's for you!

Saw these at Hobby Lobby today and thought of you!

And look!!

50% OFF!!!

Pictures I've Been Meaning to Put Up...

A random smattering of pictures I've taken with my cell phone and been meaning to post lately...

Let's start with this one. Me in Westin's airplane apron that Mikey's mom made for him:Mom and I were frosting my birthday cake and she was wearing my strawberry one, so I had to wear his airplane one!

Here's my cake all frosted and ready to eat!!
(BTW, it was DELICIOUS... and is almost gone already!)
Here's Emily's birthday/Easter present all finished (finally!) before I gave it to her a couple of weeks ago:
And here's a picture Jenn sent me of Emily playing with the basket and letters! Yay! She likes it!!
Third Grade Field Day at school...
"Flag Tag"
"Sponge Races" (Had to fill the buckets as much as possible!)
"Long Distance Relay"
"Outdoor Dodgeball"
"Tire Races"
"Tug-O-War"
Some pretty field flowers that Westin picked me when we went for a ride out in his mom's great big backyard... I took a picture right away because I knew they wouldn't last me long!
The pink scooter at work that I told Mom she needed to buy...

then I crashed it 5 minutes later!

No worries... just a few pieces missing.

Should've taken a picture of my bruise!!!
The *NEW* Ducati Streetfighter... I love how mean it looks. Too bad I didn't get a better picture of it!
And one of my favorites...

My kids really peeved me off a few weeks before school was out and I made them all write about why I should ever do anything fun with them again. (They can't follow directions to do anything fun to save their lives...)
The bottom line of this one was the best... "because we love you." (From one of my boys!)

Ok... that's all from me for now... I still have pictures (and video!) from the Wisconsin/Chicago trip to get put up... I'll do it soon... I promise!!!

The Wordy Part of Wednesday **UPDATED**

Good thing I made that "manly" looking heating pad cover the other day.It held ALL of the heat in and did absolutely NO good.

Back to Target I went...

for kitchen hand towels this time.
(They're thinner!)

I was smarter this time too!

I sewed in the velcro first!!

AND...

I pinned the velcro in place before sewing
so I wouldn't have to concentrate on keeping in lined up AND straight
at the same time!
Believe me... this was necessary!

I may have had to rip out the first try of the velcro sewing job because I was going too fast and couldn't pay attention to both things!

It's a learning process... right?!

Here it is!
A little less manly this time... oh well!

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One of my girls in my class brought me these yesterday...
LILACS!!!

How did she know I loved them?!

I think I had my nose in them for the first 15 minutes!

I may have told her she could bring me some everyday if she wanted to!

She definitely brought me more today!!!

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At Borders the other night Westin was working on his paper for finals week...

This is the cover:Well... it was the cover for about 2 minutes.

Figured he should probably scale it down to just his name in order to turn it in!

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If you're curious... I had my interview Monday after school!

In all, it lasted 25 minutes.

Mom was shocked when I called her so soon.

I think it went pretty well though.

Everything he asked me about I have experience with.

I'm supposed to know by the end of the week if I get a second interview...

...this time with the superintendent!!

And he wants to have whoever gets chosen on the Board agenda in May so it's all ready to go!

In 19 days (or less) I should know if I have a job for next year!!!

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In 19 (school days) it will be SUMMER!!

I've got about 30hrs. lined up weekly at my new summer job! WOOHOO!

I may also be able to work Summer School since I don't go in until noon on week days!

But I haven't heard anything about the Summer Schools I applied for yet...
so not sure on those yet.

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**UPDATE**

I just remembered a conversation from last night that made me chuckle and I wanted to share...

Westin: I think I might go see Wolverine Friday after my last final.

Me: Without me?! I have to work then...

Westin: Someone has to support us!

(Oh... just wait til you have a job!!!)

**Wordless Wednesday**

Heating Pad *Facelift*

A couple of months ago when I was feeling under the weather...
and my back was aching, too...
Westin ran to Target for me and got a heating pad.This was also the same night that he changed the brakes on my car...
after getting home from school at 6:30pm...
and didn't get finished until 11:30pm.

I ask again... isn't he such a sweetheart?!

Yes, yes he is!!!

This amazing heating pad...
(with 4 heat levels... and a self-shutoff!!!)
had such a hideously awful cover to it!

And if you know me... you know I have texture issues.

The original heating pad cover didn't have a texture so awful that I couldn't touch it,
but it was pretty bad.

My original thought was to pull apart an old pair of flannel pj's that I had come across at Mom and Dad's house.

After a night of seam ripping...

and only getting one section off...

I gave up on that idea.

I was wandering around Target again tonight and saw these super-cute hand towels:
Really, how could you pass those up?!

Cute and funky enough for me!!

And "Manly" enough for Westin!!
(Just in case he ever needs to use it!)

The towels were double sided.

Rectangles on one side... squares on the other.

So I set the heating pad on top of the towel and gave myself a "dotted" outline with blue painters' tape. (I wasn't really sure how else to mark it on a black towel?!)
Then I made an outline of the heating pad with more blue painters' tape.
Now, the outside edge of the blue tape lines (not dashes) are the outside edge of the heating pad.
This is now the moment when I had a "duh!" moment.

I don't own pins.

Like... none.

I looked at them at Wal-Mart and Michaels the other day.

But they were SO expensive for a small pack of pins.

Needless to say... I didn't buy any.

So I had to get creative... which I'm pretty good at lately!

I used my "craft needles".

(And I'm proud to say I only poked myself ONCE with them while sewing!)
Here's one in action:
And LOOK!

I threaded my needle and bobbin on the first try!!
Then I sewed around the blue tape edge.

I didn't take any pictures of this step, because it was black thread on black towel.

It didn't show up real well.

After sewing it all together I needed to sew the velcro on.

Another "duh!" moment.

Should've sewn the velcro on FIRST!

Next time I'll know.

This was kind of a pain... trying to sew it on when the "bag" was already sewn together!

I tried to zig-zag stitch it and kept running into problems.

My top thread came out half-way down the velcro.

My stitches were super close.

My stitches were really spread out.

I think I went over the velcro 5 times with the sewing machine!!

Here's how it turned out... hopefully it stays!!
I then went back out into the living room to cut off the excess towel from my new cover.

I cut...

And I cut...

And I cut....

And when I pulled the scraps away and held up the bag the couch and I were covered in little towel pieces!

I'd forgotten what a mess it made to cut a towel.

Just call this "duh!" moment number 3.

I flipped the bag right side out...

SQUEEZED it onto my heating pad...
(it was just a little tight!)

and...

TADA!!!!
JUST how I wanted it to look!

Then I flipped it over and saw...
Yep.

I made the sides the opposite design.

Not even on purpose.

My plan all along had been to do rectangles on both sides.

But...

I still think it's super-cute!

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this thing!

*KatyPie*

Not ME! Monday...

I've noticed that all throughout the day (and week) I'll think of little things that I want to write about on here when I get home.

Then I forget by the time I get home and on the computer.

Now I'm jotting down notes throughout the day of what I want to talk about! I've really gotta work on this memory thing... I'm too young to forget so much!

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Last week was OAT (Ohio Achievement Test) week at our school. (I guess technically this week is also, but not for Third Grade, so it doesn't really affect me.) During testing week we have to take down everything cover anything on our walls that may help the students out on the test. This was my fun cover-up job!
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One of the testing days Mr. K next door sent over cookies to all of the rest of the Third Grade teachers. They were soooo yummy and had my favorite glaze sugar frosting!! Seriously... this man will make a good wife someday! Ok, ok... teasing!

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While Westin and I were grilling up dinner Thursday night... ok, ok. I'll stop making things up. While Westin was grilling (and I was making pasta in the kitchen) on Thursday night the Goodyear blimp went right over top of us! It's housed a few miles away and we see it often... and hear it even more often... but this is the first time I've seen it so close on top of our apartment. You can even see our gutter in the corner of the pic - that's how close it was!!
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Today about 3 of my kiddos decided to pick me weeds beautiful flowers at recess. Aren't I so lucky? They're slowly dying on my desk and I'll need to pitch them somewhere hidden before my kids show up in the morning... hmm... teacher's "lounge" trashcan?!

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About a month ago or so... maybe the weekend of Mindy and Brian's wedding??... I made sure Mom heard me loud and clear briefly mentioned wanting to learn how to sew. I've been checking out all of these really cool craft blogs and other crafty websites and have this newfound desire to sew.

Fast forward to two weeks ago.

Mom calls on Monday... "I have a present for you!"

Mom calls on Tuesday... "I have a present for you!"

I call Mom on Thursday and she says... "I have a present for you!"

Seriously, it was killing her more than it was killing me!!!

We got home last Friday night and on the counter... under a blanket (because "It's not your birthday yet, Katy!") was....

A NEW SEWING MACHINE!!!
These are my first practice stitches from that night... not bad for a beginner!!

I finally had a chance to play with it again tonight and I filled the bobbin on my own the very first time!!!!
Mom and I used to it work on Emily's present... yeah, still not finished. My fingers are all healed now I think. I need to finish it and get it to her before she's TWO!

I used it today to do the top-stitch on the coffee cozy wraps that Mom and I threw together this weekend!

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Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

(Note: MckMama has not been participating in Not Me! Monday for the past few weeks due to being in the hospital with her beautiful Stellan... who.... got released from the hospital today!!! He and MckMama will be heading home to see Prince Charming and her other Many Small Children tomorrow!! You can still clicky on the link to her page and read the whole story!)

Onto what I didn't do this week... and maybe a few things from last week.

I did NOT forget to hand in the bags upon bags upon bags of chocolate and "spa" items for the basket raffle last week. Nope. Not me!

I definitely did not hide this fact from my students and bring all the stuff home.

I then did not take the chocolates to Westin's study buddies last Monday since I know we don't need so much junk at our place!

I first did not sort out the good stuff (you know... Peanut Butter Patty GirlScout Cookies... Dove Chocolates... Hershey Kisses...) and leave those at home for Westin and I!!! I would never do that!

On Friday I most definitely did not let my class watch TWO movies in the morning before lunch. I would never do that. I am the most responsible and educationally-minded teacher ever. I also did not let them stay out at recess an extra 45 minutes with the other classes because it was the first nice day all week and they had worked so hard on their OATs! There is way too much to get done to let them play outside and watch movies all day!

I did not feel as if I'd missed the "Get a haircut this weekend." memo when SEVEN of my students showed up today with haircuts. (That's nearly a third of my class!!)

And there is no way in heck that the thought crossed my mind that one (or more) of my students could possibly be home with Swine Flu today becuase I had FOUR kids out all day and the case in Lorain County has been officially confirmed!! I would not think such things!

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*KatyPie*