Pumpkin Carving

Lynn sent this picture of Royce and the pumpkin he carved for the kids-not bad Royce!  There's definitely a cat there, not sure if he used a pattern or not but either way it's pretty impressive.

Thanks for sharing, Lynn!  Happy Halloween everyone!

Snow on Oct. 26

Snowy view on Sunday, definitely not ready for this.

My Class

Here are the kiddos I hang out with all day...they are a great group.  Aren't they cute?  Some of you will recognize the little guy in the front!
Here they are enjoying a story on the Smartboard about making bread.  You can see that it's snack time-last 15 mn of the day.  I usually read to them, introduce new poems,  or jokes during this time.  It's a nice way to end the day.

Halloween Pugs

Tim and Deb sent pictures of their little pugs all dressed up for Halloween.  I wonder if I could get any of our cats to wear something....kidding!  Mollie is wearing her bat costume above and Tootsie is sporting a witch costume.  Aren't they sweet!  Thanks for the pictures Tim & Deb!!

Sarah and Shadow

We have Sarah with us this weekend!  She and I worked at the Bargain Bazaar yesterday afternoon and then hit some thrift stores in Fergus too. It was a lot of fun having Sarah there and I hope she can join me again now that she knows where everything belongs.  We organized clothing, priced and put new merchandise out.  Of course we shopped while we worked-that's the best part of working there!  We picked up a Artichoke/Chicken/Bacon pizza from Papa Murphy's to have for supper as it's Sarah's favorite and we really liked it.   They have good salads too.  When we got home, we read some magazines we purchased and had tea by the fireplace.  Shadow got cozy with Sarah and took a little nap with her.  We are bringing Sarah back to Alex this afternoon, can't believe how terrible the weather is today but I guess they warned us.  I had to mark down the date of the first snow in my nature journal-rather depressing but I hope the weather takes a turn for the good this week-sounds hopeful.
Shadow in her new kitty basket-so far she's the only one who uses it.  I like how she rests her chin on the edge.

Miscellaneous

The last flower from the 2008 growing season-a white geranium.  I am trying an old fashioned method this winter-I will pull the geraniums out shake out the roots and cut half the plant down and store in a bag all winter.  You are supposed to spritz them with a little water a few times and then in the spring re-pot them and magically they will grow again.   Amy Johnson and her mother in law swear by this method.
Here's a picture of my good friend and colleague-Shirley Kassenborg.  We're posing because I'm wearing a skirt that her twin sister Sheila used to own.  Shirley generously gave me a huge bag full of Sheila's hand me downs.   We wear exactly the same size and have similar taste.    Most of the clothing was from Anne Taylor Loft, Banana Republic & JCrew-nice stuff!! There were 7 skirts in that bag and I love wearing skirts to school.  We're going to send this picture to Sheila.

Mom and her cute apron

Here's a cute picture of Lorraine working at the produce area at the Cyrus Trinity Bazaar.  She is wearing a vintage birthday apron from Shari.  I told her that it would be perfect to wear since they were supposed to wear red anyway.   Mom and Dad have their internet up and running so she can read my blog now too, which is a very exciting thing you know.  :) 

Sam's Decorating for Dan

Sam decided that Dan should have a kitty at their house too, so he bought this little one and decorated the bathroom for him.  The pressed leaves are from his Boy Scout project.  Sam's such a nice little guy!!!   Thanks for sharing, Shelly!

MEA break in Cyrus-Kids

Smart board

Here it is...all ready for school tomorrow.  It's going to be a fun day!  Hope you had a good weekend.  I have lots of photo's to post later this week.

Boucle'

Thank you Amanda!  The mystery fabric is Boucle' and is pronounced Boo-clay. Fabric made from yarn with a knobby texture.   You learn something new everyday.  I also learned that Loretta is a seamstress from Elbow Lake and donated quite a few items to the store.  I'd like to see what else she donated!!  It would be fun to meet Loretta.

SMART talk

The SMART board is up and running and is it ever cool!  It is actually nicer than the one in the photo as my speakers are bigger  and I have a DVD-VCR player as an accessory.  Mine is a Generation 2 600i if that means anything to those of you who are familiar with them.  Shelly asked how we got them and we didn't all get them, just three classrooms.  There is currently one in the HS  (math) and one in each elementary building.  It sounds like the plan is to use grant money for 2 more in the HS soon.  I was selected because I have been using a digital projector for about 5 years now and they know I'd make good use of it.  Other teachers are beginning to use and request their own digital projectors and our hope is that we'll be able to get more SMART boards in the future.  Our education foundation purchased the first three to get the process started.

My lucky day!

$3.50

It's vintage...made by Loretta...who knows when!

Just look at that texture!!!

Anybody know what this kind of fabric this is called?

Here it is on me, just perfect with the outfit I happened to be wearing to school today!  It's a bolero wrap jacket, satin or silk lined, with velvet in the cuffs...I am a very happy girl.  I barely made it to the Bargain Bazaar today with two big bags of donated fall and winter items from my closet-that alone makes me feel good.  I decided to shop for the last 5 mn the store was open and found a candle, while waiting in line(yes, we have lines now!) I popped my head into what we call the boutique room and the texture of this jacket caught my eye, I quick tried it on-checked the amazing price and said, "this is mine!"  It's my new favorite piece and I think it will go with many of my dresses and dressier pants.  

SMART!!!

A Smart board pretty much like this one will be installed in my classroom tomorrow over MEA break!  I am VERY excited about how this will impact my classroom and help to engage students.  It's hard to tell from this picture but the screen is 77 inches square so it covers a big wall in my room.  At the end of the day I had the kids move their desks so that they will face this screen instead of the overhead screen.  I had to do some other re-organizing and moved a big file cabinet out of the room to free up space, it felt good to get rid of some of those papers that either belonged in 4th grade or I hadn't used in years.  I will take a photo of it in my actual classroom next week.  Tomorrow, I will meet the tech coordinator so that he can show me how to turn the thing on!! :)  Wish me luck!

Apple Dip Tested

For those of you who have been waiting to try the cream cheese apple dip until I actually tested it, it's a thumbs up for sure.  I made it last night and brought it to school for our first grade apple day.  I used Kris's Honey Crisps and the kids LOVED them.  Thanks again Kris!  I gave them each about a teaspoon of dip to try if they wanted and get more if they liked it.  Of the 16 in class today, about 8 liked the dip quite a bit including two who would have licked the bowl if I would have let them!  That's not bad for 6 year olds.   I may have to do some more cooking with them.

On Sunday evening, I made apple crisp with the tart apples and it is so yummy.  I'm eating the last of it right now and even reheated in the microwave without ice-cream it's delicious.  Dan requested apples with caramel dip so I'll make that on Wed night when he gets home from the cities.   I'm making Paula's Round Steak in the crockpot tomorrow so we'll have an easy dinner.  It's in the Cyrus Trinity Cookbook if you have that on hand-so is the apple crisp recipe that I use.  

Speaking of the cities, first graders are so funny, I had to clear up an argument between two of them last week.  A little girl came up to me and said that another child said her grandparents lived in Minneapolis or St. Paul, not "The Cities" like she said.  She was very unhappy about it so I told her that she was right since they are cities.   First graders say some very interesting things and I really should be writing a book.

Table Before/After

I did like the table in white but was ready for a little change.....
Here it is...all finished in black.  I like the way it looks with all the red in the room.  I might add a little detail painting later-enjoying it plain for now.
I just picked up this book this weekend, it's called Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.  It's on the NYTimes Best Sellers list this week.  Dan was telling me about this cat last week as he heard the story on the radio and when I saw the book I had to get it.  Isn't the cover darling?  Dewey lived to the ripe old age of 19.  Our public library would be a nice one for a cat with it's big windows and sills.  Our director said she would like one but some patrons would hate it...they're no fun.

Cats Read!!

I found this on another blog and love how the cat patiently reads all wrapped up in a blanket.  In addition to it being just darn cute, it also happens to look like Big Kitty's twin.  Skittles probably reads too, am I right Jen?  Cats are smart.

It's that time of year....

Color along I-94

More of Munsinger Gardens-St. Cloud

It still looked like summer there last weekend.

More pictures of the babies

Royce found Timber as a kitten living under his wood pile.  He sleeps in the porch now and is a member of the family.  He's a very nice cat.
Gracie loves Timber and so does Ollie even though he looks sad in this photo.  Ollie is great with Gracie and she is very comfortable around him too.  Timber is a good mouser who actually kills the mice, unlike our resident felines.

Book ideas requested

Many of my blog readers are avid readers and I am asking you to post some of your favorite reads from the last couple of years.  My book club needs some new ideas for 2009.  Whether they were book club reads or just on your own, please share. 

 This book, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is definitely worth your time.  It was our Sept/October selection.  A young woman is institutionalized  for 60 years and this short novel tells her story through the voices of 3 women.  The story stays with you because you know this kind of thing actually happened to many women.  The details of this story slowly unfold and the ending hits you hard.  A book that really makes you think and feel.

This and that...

Sorry, this is kind of rude but very creative and funny.  How did they make the legs do that?
This table has inspired me to paint the one in our fireplace room black instead of white.  It's a coffee table that I picked up at Ron's Warehouse for under 50 bucks and it was actually fire damaged.  So I cleaned it up and painted it white, soon it will be black.  Doesn't this look so inviting and rich with the dark colors?   This picture came from the Ralph Lauren Home site and there are some neat photo's there if you are looking for some decorating ideas.
This cute little pug caught my attention because it looks just like Deb's pug Mollie.   She looks a little frightened.  Do your pugs dress up for Halloween Deb?  Maybe they should!
Well, I will never have a party like this with Mn's unpredictable weather in the fall, but wouldn't it be fun?!  

So, I stopped in at the BB after school to pick up some books for a book game at book club on Thursday and one of the managers told me that so far the BB has earned 2,800 since opening day last Tuesday.   That is only 7  business days people!!  Wow!!!!  Keep it to yourself though since I'm not supposed to tell anyone. :) I had to wait for two people in line and the woman in front of me spent 40 bucks on mainly decorative items plus an antique wicker laundry basket that I coveted...oh well. I did talk her out of painting it.  I signed Sarah and myself up to work on the 25th, the new store is so awesome. I will have to post some pic's soon.

Pico de Gallo

I made a batch of pico de gallo tonight- a huge batch in fact so I plan to bring some to school to share with a bag of tortilla chips. It is so fresh and tasty!  If you have lots of tomatoes to use up take a look.  I added fresh lime juice and also used fresh garlic instead of powdered.  The link is here.  

Decorating-Fall

This pantry is to die for!!!