Celebrate 100!!

Here it is...post #100. Who would have thought that I would actually stick through this blog-thing? And without children to post about...#100 posts of randomness. Thank you for joining me in this crazy blogging journey.

So here it is - your chance for way cool prizes! Prizes may include, but are not limited to:

*100 nickels on a Starbucks card
*100 Hershey's kisses (your choice, all have to be the same)
*100 Flower seeds
*100 random scrapbook items
*100 sour patch kids (for those lurkers out there - I know who you are)...

Contest rules: You must post a comment anytime before Sunday noon, PST. You may post one comment per day to increase your chances. Winners will be drawn from a random selection. Prize winners will be notified via my blog Sunday evening.

**Disclaimers: Quality may vary. Some assembly required. You do not need to be present to win. Action figures sold separately. If rash, redness, or swelling develops discontinue use. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. For recreational use only.

Good luck!

Surprise, Surprise!!!

About a month ago, Matt called & asked if we could come to ID to surprise Andrea for her 30th birthday. So...we booked a flight & I have kept this secret the entire time. (Good job, Jessie). A few lies later, leading Andrea to believe we were off to Black Butte this weekend, we boarded a plane.
Of course, our flight was delayed on Friday night & I was having a fit. We weren't going to get into Boise until 11:00 pm & I knew that Andrea would see right through Matt's 'lie' to get him out of the house to come get us. I'd all but given up on surprising her.
Luckily for me, Matt is a great liar & she believed him when he said he had to run to a friend's house & would be back late. He told her when he got home, she could come see her surprise in the garage. So...we pulled into the garage (11:30 pm) & he went into the house to get her, we were to wait in the car. Tim was in the front seat & I climbed from the back towards the front so I could see her face when she opened the door. When she came out she only saw Tim. She was confused & said 'Tim, what are you doing here?'. I was peeking through next to Tim - but decided to just get out of the car & ran over to her. It was a perfect surprise. We stayed up until 1:00 am chatting, then decided we should go to bed for our day ahead of us.

Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we had to leave shortly after we arrived, but we all made it home safely. At Andrea's house that afternoon we painted toes, played with Ethan, chatted with the neighbor, & even went to visit my parents where Andrea met the governor. He even offered her a cold beer for her birthday. :)

That evening, it was time for surprise #2. Andrea thought we were all heading for PF Changs for dinner. Not so much...

Matt blindfolded her in the car, drove around a lot & we ended up at Idaho Pizza Company where 20 members of her family & friends were waiting to surprise her. We had our own 'party room' & it was fantastic. Matt did a great job of completely knocking her socks off with this surprise. The food was great, it was so good to see everyone, & everybody had a great time. (Except Claire when the loud party poppers went off - poor baby!). Here are some pictures of our weekend. Happy, Happy Birthday Andrea - I love you!!

My Andrea & I

Andrea in the car...

Party time!

Matt & Andrea

Quick strawberry update: When we returned home, we found two more delicious strawberries ready to eat. Yumm...

And...be sure to come back later this week for the next post #100!! There will be prizes involved...

Strawberry 'Short-fate'

Look at this!! I actually grew 'a' strawberry (you may remember the 'a' broccoli from the fall - what is with my very small garden?!?). I went out to water my hopefully substantial garden tonight & found this beautiful berry. When Tim & I bought our house 3 years ago, I planted two strawberry plants...they have never produced fruit until this year. I plucked this delectable specimen from it's bush tonight, brought it inside, sang it praises, and then ate it (after the photo shoot). Isn't it perfect?! There are a few more promising berries growing on the plant - stay tuned for more strawberry goodness!!

Pretty little berry
...it was delish!

And...coming soon - post #100!! Be watching for your chance to win prizes! Happy Thursday (or if you're Andrea, Happy 30th Birthday!!).

Happy, Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear 'My Andrea' (Perpandrea), Happy Birthday to you!!!

Happy 30th birthday to one of the most amazing people in my life. I hope that your 30's are years filled with love, laughter, excitement, celebration, happiness, & joy. You deserve all of the best! Thank you for your amazing friendship, I can't wait to see where the next 30 years take us! Happy Birthday My Andrea!

Flowers Make Me Smile

This weekend has been filled with flowers. I love flowers, they warm my heart.

Thursday night I gave my final 'big' performance at school for the year. It involved almost 150 2nd graders. We presented our program two times that day, which makes for a very tired, but happy music teacher. The kids were adorable & did all of their actions, songs, & solos just right. At the end of the performance, they brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers - but more on those in a moment.

Yesterday morning after a delicious trip to Starbucks & Great Harvest Bread Co., we went to the Saturday Market. I was eyeing some flowers & decided it was a perfect way to relax from a hectic week. So I purchased 6 Gerbera Daisy plants, (my absolute fav!!) 2 Geraniums, 6 Petunia Waves, 2 Tomato plants, & a small Boxwood bush for the side yard.

After 6 hours in the yard of weeding (front & back), planting (I already had 4 flowers at home waiting to also be planted), digging up the side yard area - a smaller area that was a complete mess, & planting tomato plants in the backyard garden, I was finished. Here are some pictures of the finished product. Of course, it looks better in person - so if you want to come by...
We are planning to have 'the bark man' come sometime in the next two weeks - then our yard will be officially ready for summer!! 17 days & counting...

New & improved Front Yard

These are the flowers my students & their teachers gave me at the end of the performance on Thursday. Friday, I had two of the classes involved in the performances & they had made me thank you cards. One of the cards simply said "Dear Mrs. A..., I love you. Love, Emma" How sweet is that? It melts my heart. :)

Some of the cards were a little more difficult to interpret, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?!

Look! It's another Gerbera...

Ahhhh...

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week at school. I was showered with flowers, candy, hand-made cards, & compliments from all ages of my kids. It was so sweet & kind of them. I still have flowers all over (inside & out) at home & at school from my kiddos.

Which leads me to the 'cute kid story of the day'. I was walking down the hall today with four 2nd graders, three girls & one boy. One of the girls looked at me & out of no where said "Mrs. A. how do you get your hair so curly everyday?" I replied that my hair is naturally curly - & it just does it on it's own... "one day, I want to get a perm so my hair is as curly as yours."

Isn't that cute? I love my kids.

20 days... :)

Bird Adventures...

This morning began around 9:00 am after a wonderful sleeping in session. Tim & I had decided we would go to the cool knitting store in Silverton today so he could show them the work he had done on their website - check out the link, my husband created it!! :) I took my sweater (now on row 16) with & happily knitted away & chatted with people in the store. After he finished, we decided to check out the Farmer's Market. It was here we found our new friend Taz. Taz's owner asked me if I wanted to hold him and at first I was hesitant - then I decided to go for it, so I held my first bird. He is a beautiful bird & was very content on my arm. Tim held him next and we had a lot of fun petting & calling to the 'pretty bird, pretty bird'.

After our Farmer's Market adventure, we went for lunch at a local Thai restaurant. It proved to be a delicious decision, and one that sent me straight to a 2 1/2 hour nap when we got home. Since I woke up from my lengthy nap, I haven't been terribly productive & I'm okay with that. I'm quite enjoying my lazy, quiet Saturday.

'Make ya wanna...'

jump...jump...' Remember that song? Everytime I hear it I think of dancing after school in Andrea's livingroom. So I guess it's only fitting that we are into jump pictures these days. :) This is from their visit a few weeks ago. I think Ethan is going to be jumping higher than us next visit - I'd better work on my skills.

Not much to report this week. Only 23 days of kids (but who's counting, right?!?) & 5 concerts left. Whew! The biggest one (100 2nd graders) is happening next week, so it will be nice to get that taken care of. I've resolved to go to bed early tonight - probably after American Idol. I'm guessing that LaKisha goes...

Weekend Wrap...

I thought I should start this post with some spring fun that's happening around my house. This week, my dearest Erin sent me a surprise package. She made me a little board book of photos from Disneyland. So adorable!! It is a perfect little memoir from our vacation. Erin is so thoughtful & creative - I love you Erin!!

The other fun pictures are from my backyard - my Clematis is blooming & is gorgeous! I love this plant. We planted it last year on the green trellis & it will be needing a new home soon as it's almost twice as big as the green trellis. Nice problem to have. I am enjoying our flowers & yard so much already. I love spring & summer.

This weekend was concerts galore. We had our final Willamette Master Chorus concerts of the season. We performed Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. A fantastic work that we've done before - very challenging to sing & SO SO cool. I was asked to conduct the children's choir for this performance so my kids along with some other kids in the district have been working together on this. We had a 2 hour dress rehearsal Friday night (the kids were so great for this length of time) & then two performances, one last night & our final one today. Being the conductor & singing was extra challenging but very rewarding, I LOVED it. This is the kind of stuff I live for - weird I know, but I just love it! The kids sang very well & were well behaved, all 35 of them! I will sleep well tonight!! In fact, bed seems like a good option right now - g'night!

Friday Fun Facts...

Wow - has it really been 5 days since my last post? I had better intentions of blogging this week than actually happened, I guess.
What a week. In my last post, I commented on how quiet the house was. It was just me & the kitties for a few days, while Tim was out of town. I was a lonely girl, but luckily I had lots of extra school activities to keep me occupied while he was away. And...a couple of people to call me regularly to check in with me - thanks you guys (well, girls actually).

You may have seen on Andrea's blog that she likes this magazine. I saw it this week on the magazine stand in the store, so I picked one up (Tim wasn't there to tell me 'no'! - He LOVES it when I spend money on magazines...). :) I read it while on the tread mill at the gym this week & I'm hooked! So, so fun. If you haven't already checked it out - do so!!

And for the update on the sweater. Here's the story...when Andrea was here we started the sweater at the same time. We were careful to wait for each other as we completed rows to stay together & see how far we could get. 5 rows...at 5 rows I decided to double check to make sure I hadn't twisted it. I know better - I was sure it was fine. It was twisted. So I rechecked. Still twisted. One more check. Twisted. Passed to Andrea. She gave me the sad nod...twisted. Blast it - so I pulled out 3 hours of work. While she was at the beach, she knitted up a storm. I on the other hand, did not. When she came back last weekend, I re-casted on (is that a phrase?) & am now proud to say that I'm on row 12. Only 20 behind Andrea. And guess what?!?! It's not twisted...