Our trip to OCC...

The kids like to visit Orange County Choppers Motorcycle shop and showroom each time we visit family in NY. It's actually quite close to where my parents and sister live. They've moved quite a few times and now the shop and showroom are together. You can even view the shop where they make the bikes and film the tv show. All around the showroom there are bikes and merchandise. here are some of their favorites....The NY Giants bike, the NY Jets bike, POW bike, spyder bike, a cool blue one (can't remember who sponsored it), the Livestrong bike, the holiday bike and of course the firebike. The firebike is displayed against a 9/11 memorial wall. The entire back wall is full of fire department badges. The floor and surrounding walls are decorated with fire fighting gear. I had a lot of pictures, so I posted them small, but to see detail, click on the photo and it will enlarge....

Christmas

Sorry this took so long, but we went to visit family in NY the day after Christmas. Obviously the boys were quite excited for Santa's arrival. Santa brought Hot Wheels, Webkinz, socks (& yes both boys WERE smiling when they opened the socks), some clothes, books, assorted items ......AND......Santa brought the Wii! Anyone who knows us knows we don't have videogames in our house. All games are board games or learning computer games that we supervise. Yes we're mean and we were hoping to keep these things out of the house for as long as possible. I'd like to say I'm not against them, but I'm really only against sedentary, solitary play with electronics. The wii allows them to play together and MOVE! Here are some highlights...

Let it snow , let it snow, let it snow...

It snowed today and here are the first pics...
The one picture is from a week ago, but I thought latte & Timmy looked so snuggly!

Santa Paws...

Last Saturday we took Latte to have her photo with Santa. We go to Phillips in Bath because all donations go towards a vet tech program (the pics are free, but I always donate). I especially like the quality of the photos and they give you 2. 'Course I had to use PhotoBooth just to post it, since the photo is a just that...a photo.

Santa Clause is comin' to town...

This morning we had a surprise visit form Santa! the Upper Nazareth annual Santa Run was today and he came by in a firetruck. He gives candy canes to any boys & girls on he sees as he drives by. Timmy was excited, but suddenly nervous when Santa came up the driveway. Lucky boys & girls (who have parents who support their FD in a financial way) even get toys! Amazing! Santa gave Austin & Timmy the new Hess truck!

Collections...part 2 "Some Seuss"

Here are some of my Seuss items, I have many and they are everywhere including my closet...er, classroom. If you want to see them up close, click on the photo to enlarge it. These items are in our basement on display. Yes those ARE Seuss baby booties-one is cat in the hat, the other is Green Eggs & ham-both were worn by Austin & Timmy. The stool used to be a central part of my classroom when I was a classroom teacher, now it no longer fits-so I keep it at home. It was an old stool I rescued and painted. I did the same with a dining room chair (turned it into Horton), but I'll save that for a later posting. The picture was a part of Austin's baby room-which was...you guessed it Seussical! He had red & white striped curtains & baby bumpers that I made . He also had a beautiful HUGE quilt of The Cat (I'll post this one soon), which I hang in school for special days. The room included other furniture that I'll post soon. 'Scuse the spackle-we haven't painted that room...YET! For now check out what I have....

Collections....

Everyone collects something (I think) in my case it would be Dr. Seuss-I've got some at home and some at school, BUT...... maybe you'd like to see another of my favorite collections....my mice! Perfect for the Holidays! Yep that's right I have been collecting Annalee mice since the 90's (?). I think my collection started with the mouse in the Santa hat (he's in the front of my display). I usually purchased or was given one from my Mom each Christmas. My latest mouse (got it last year) is the Christmas reading mouse-you can see her next to the caroler mouse in the black top hat. She's holding a teddy bear and book-The Christmas story and she wears an adorable old fashioned cap. There are lots of santas, elves,some throw snowballs, and an angel.


My sister has a bunch too- I have a few "kids", but they're not as cute as the mice. I even used the wedding couple on my cake top. (First picture) This was a feature in Annalee's doll collector magazine in 1996 when I got married. My sister helped me to make it-she made the groom's cummerbund and bow tie match my theme. I also have Easter mice and non-holiday kids(2nd picture).....my favorite kids are the reading kids-one is sitting on an ABC block, another is in a running pose with an apple and books. And when I got my master's degree.........Ray gave me graduate mouse! (2nd photo-mouse in cap & gown)

Maybe you'll want to see the Seuss collection next?????????

Old Fashioned Elfin Around- & keep going there's more...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Country elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our favorite! Just Elfin Around

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

fall school pics!

Here they are! Austin & Timmy's fall school photos! I usually don't get them because their school also does them in spring (&I like those better) with class photos. Since Timmy's soccer team opted out of photos, I thought I'd better get them. Timmy is in kindergarten and Austin is now in third grade.

Stupid People...

This was sent to me and I just had to share it....
These 16 Police Comments were taken off actual police car videos
around the country:

16 "You know, stop lights don't come any redder than the one you just went through."

15 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while."

14 "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

13 "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

12 "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."

11 "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?"

10 "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?"

9 "Warning! You want a warning? O.K, I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket."

8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop."

6 "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."

5 "In God we trust, all others we run through NCIC."

4 "How big were those 'two beers' you say you had?"

3 " No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we can."

2 "I'm glad to hear that the Chief (of Police) is a personal friend ofyours. So you know someone who can post your bail."
AND THE WINNER IS....

1 "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't. Sign here."

My favorite song

I LOVE this song by Matthew West. You tube has the most beautiful video of it posted
You've got to check it out! I am considering using it to dance for our school's talent show as a surprise to the kids.

Germs everywhere!

Timmy and I are home sick today, so I thought I'd post some interesting facts. I have the number one germ-iest job in America! It doesn't help that I am also in an very enclosed space working in the kid's faces more or less. I love my job, BUT....anyway... Read on......

Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, whose nickname is "Dr. Germ," spoke to ABC News recently, about the germiest professions in America:

1. Teacher/day-care worker
2. Cashier, bank employee
3. Tech support/computer repair
4. Doctor or nurse
5. Lab scientist
6. Police officer
7. Animal control officer
8. Janitor or plumber
9. Sanitation worker (AKA garbage man/woman)
10. Meat packer

NOW....GO WASH YOUR HANDS!

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.....

Recently,Austin failed his school eye exam so we needed to visit the eye doctor. At first he was devastated and tried hiding the notice, but then he warmed to the idea. The exam went well though there is concern over a freckle marking on his retinal nerve-which is to be monitored over the next few years. He will need glasses for distance such as copying form the board, assemblies, viewing movies, etc. He doesn't need them for reading-sort of like me-'cept I didn't need glasses till I was in my late 20's. Here 's Austin (Timmy too doing HIS Elton impersonation) ....

Our official photo-(standing)Miss Chief,Miss Hap, Miss Tea, Miss Guided, Miss Read
(kneeling)Miss Calculate,Miss Analysis, Miss State, Miss Spell Missing: Miss Understood, Miss Print, Miss Behave, Miss Fit, Miss Step, Mis Judged, Miss Managed and a few more ....

Last day of soccer...

Austin's last day was Sat. He did very well this year-coach said he was most improved. His favorite position was goalie. We hope that he gets the same coach in spring. The coach is British and they play a British style, a "tackle" meanss to get the ball. It's funny to hear the other teams responses when we all yell "make the tackle!" He's done a great job with the kids.

Trick Or Treat...

This year Timmy was a policeman and Austin wanted to be (he chose the idea) an FBI agent. Here are the pics: Click on the picture to make it bigger. Look for the ID badge!

whoo.....oooh Halloween is almost here....

Nothing like waiting till the last minute for faculty Halloween costumes. Our school really gets into it. Well I had a great idea...more of a brainfart actually...we could all be beauty queens (simple get it? Tiara's & banners-easy) well then I decided we'd have to do a play on words so I came up with a few then got together and the meeting of the minds created an explosion. Here's what we came up with:

Miss understood (-reading teacher)
Miss read (me-reading teacher)
Miss Chief( our principal in a wig)
Miss guided(-guidance counselor)
Miss Tea(Our secretary who drinks tea)
Miss take or Miss behave(-behavior interventionist-she can't decide)
Miss Fit(-phys ed)
Miss step(Her student teacher-phys ed)
Miss conduct (Security guard in a wig)
Miss Hap (Cathy Happel-)
Miss inform(-student's aide)
Miss print(-librarian)
Miss calculate (math specialist)
Miss translate (-ESL)
Miss State (she wanted to be a Penn State grad)
Miss spoke (speech)
We'll have more by tomorrow I'm sure and I'll try to get pictures!

Pumpkin carving...

Tonight we decided we'd better get our pumpkins carved since Halloween is two days away! The kids drew the designs and we cut them out. After awhile, we let Austin try to do some cutting. I let Timmy try too, but we did the job hand-over-hand. Keep in mind we did use the safety pumpkin cutting tools, but they still have pointy edges. Our results are in the next entry below......

Jack-o-Lanterns!

Her are the finished results...