Sunday, November 22, 2009

What to do with a skinny little girl


Jenna has recently gone through a growth spurt. So, while she has grown a couple of inches, her waist has stayed the same. This summer she was still able to wear capri's that she wore when she was 2. Up to this recent growth spurt, the adjustable waist pants were fitting ok. Well, now with her new growth, the adjustable pants for her height are still too big around the waist. My poor child walked around in floods for 2 weeks while I figured out what to do.

Last year I discovered that American Eagle had a children's line, it's called 77 Kids. While there are no stores for the children's line near by, there is the online store. I refuse to pay full price, especially at a store where I feel full price is too high. ($30 for jeans for a 6 year old is too much in my eyes.) So, I've ordered some clearance stuff here and there for Jenna, but since she has been able to fit in some regular clothes, I haven't ordered a ton. Well, her recent growth spurt changed that.

I found that the slim pants will stay up on her. I ordered her 2 pairs of pants that were on clearance (and then I used a 40% off coupon as well). They both fit pretty great. I had also found 2 pairs of levi's in the clearance in the next size up. Along with that, the long sleeve shirts have long enough sleeves and are long. Did I mention how cute the clothes are?

Well, I ordered some more pants for her and a really cute puffer jacket for Christmas. Hopefully she won't go through another growth spurt before the winter is over.


Michelle

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Wordless Weds...stolen from Evonne


For those of you who don't know who these men are...watch Fox on Wednesday nights. Thanks Jen for the pic
Michelle

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

So Excited

There is something I've always known I wanted to do. Ever since I was in 3rd grade, Mrs. Godfrey's class and wrote my first "play".



Since that time, I've known I wanted to be a writer. In 4th or 5th grade, I won an award for writing a poem about an ant. I continued to write through junior high and my goal was to be the yearbook editor. Ironically when high school came, I didn't want to be a part of the year book. Instead, my senior year, I wrote for the school newspaper and was soon picked up as a sports and features editor. I also joined the school's debate team. For those of you who know me, it comes as no surprise that I rocked at student congress.

When I got to college, I put my writing on the back burner, to become a "business woman" who would break through the so-called glass ceiling. I even thought about international business. What grand dreams. Well, I managed to land a scholarship on the school's Forensic's Team. Now, for those of you who don't know...I'm not talking CSI, this is forensics, as in being able to prove things through speech. Needless to say, while my intentions were good, I was never very good at the college level. I tend to blame it on the trauma I went through during that first year of college: my best friend was killed in an accident, I had major knee surgery that included cutting and screwing a bone together, followed by a second surgery to tear the scar tissue (in between the 2 surgeries were months of agony while the physical therapist tried to tear the scar tissue without surgery)....

But, the Forensic's team made me realize how much I loved communications as that's where the public speaking classes were. I soon found myself writing again as part of my degree, this time for the college newspaper. I wrote feature articles for the WSU Signpost for 2 semesters. Some of you may have been interviewed by me.

Well, that was in 2002-2003 and it has been 5 years since I've done much journalistic writing. I've been busy, but have really missed it. So, when one of my favorite scrapbooking sites, Scrapjazz, was looking for some new writers, I jumped on the chance. Yes, life is crazy busy, but I think that this will be a great outlet for me. I'm tired of writing academic papers and want to be able to have a little personality.

It will probably be a couple months before you see anything from me, as you write in advance, but I am so excited to be a member of such a great group of writers/contributors. My articles will be on Scrapjazz and also Scrapbook.com.

And the best part....I'm paid in scrapbook supplies!

Michelle

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Dancing Diva

Jenna loves to dance. So, when soccer was over, we promised her we would sign her up for dance. Lucky us, one of the most awesome little girl dance teachers and someone I've gotten to know over the past 5 years, had spots available! Jenna was so excited that she got to be in Nicolette's class.  Not only that, but she's not required to wear a dance uniform, like her other studio did. This leads me to this...



Sorry about the blurriness, I told her I just wanted it for my phone. She seriously said, "mom, you won't email this? And you won't put it on Facebook." If you can't tell, she has bright pink leggins' underneath. It's quite a cute outfit actually.

I picked her up from dance today and here's how it went:

Me: What did you do in dance today?
Her: Danced
Me: Oh, well like what kind?
Her: different kinds of dance
Me: Ok, well, did you do tumbling
Her: Yes
Me: What did you do in tumbling?
Her: tumbled

I see my future with her as a teenager coming too soon.



Michelle

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I admit it...I'm a Gleek


Only other Gleeks will understand the trauma I have gone through the last 2 weeks while this so-called National past time called baseball World Series takes over my air waves. I found myself getting a migraine last weekend, and I'm pretty sure I can nail it down to Glee withdrawal. I am now wondering if the Swine Flu outbreak in my classroom coincides to when this ironically funny tv show was taken (and I mean TAKEN) off the air. I am now waiting not-so-patiently for the new episode to show up on www.Hulu.com so I can watch it.


I do have to admit a few things here: I know their voices are way over "synthesized" while they are singing, I also know unless you are my friend Erin from the great state of TX - no class is like that in real life. I also can tell you what definitely addicted me was Mark Salling's (Puck's) performance of "Sweet Caroline". That is what made me feel the overwhelming need to take my lunch to run to the store to buy the soundtrack. It's not even a full version of the song...but man oh man, what small things can make me happy.



In between SEP's (Parent/Teacher Conferences), I have been shamefully listening to songs I don't think I would've ever listened to before, but when Matthew Morrison (aka Will) sings "Bust-A-Move", it makes me smile and laugh and forget about the long day I'm having. Lately I have really been grooving to Kevin McHale's (aka Artie) "Dancing With Myself".

Yes, Lea Michele - aka Rachel Berry, still drives me nuts, most of the girls in the group still do. Thankfully, the guys on the show make up for it. I haven't had great TV eye candy since Noah Wyle left ER.

I guess it all comes down to the fact that I can now embrace my nerdy/geekiness and proclaim my love for musicals, all while feeling cool.

If that's not enough of an endorsement for you, Jason likes it - it's on his Hulu queue. He doesn't even like musicals or any of the music the sing, but he finds it quite entertaining.

So tell me,
Are you a Gleek, too?

Monday, November 09, 2009

Halloween



wait, we had Halloween? I didn't even post any pics from Halloween? Jenna was so adorable (as she always is). She was SilverMist from Tinkerbell. I didn't one a re-do of the last few Halloweens, where it's a nightmare for her to decide what she wants to be, so I called her from Walmart. The question was simple, which fairy do you want to be for Halloween. She told me the water one with the blue hair, so that's what I got. No tears, no fighting, no arguing over what she could get. On Halloween day, my mom told Jenna that she had some blue hair spray if she'd like to use it, of course Jenna was so excited. I was a little nervous, remembering our last outing with hair color - long story short, her hair was pink for 8 months. Thankfully, the blue washed out in time for church the next day.

Jenna was also bugging me to get a costume, so, on Halloween day, I went back to Walmart and instead of picking out a costume for me, I picked one out for Shaggy. Funny thing, he had it on for a few hours and never once acted like he cared.

As for the other characters in this picture: there's Princess Ariel, aka Alia.

Monkey, aka Tai

Landon (I can't remember who he was)

and a "Buck-an-ear" - inventive Brother-in-law, Jared

Thursday, October 29, 2009

19 is close to 20...right?

I'm not going to put off the drawing until finding a 20th follower. I have found finding 19 is hard enough. I know you all have been dying to be chosen, right? Yeah, I thought so.

Now, before I announce the winner, let me tell you what they win....drumroll please...
your choice of scrapbook stuff or some glitter flower hair barrettes
and the best part, your very own autographed picture of Jenna

I know anyone would be excited for that, who wouldn't be? After all, getting anything free is always great.

So, without further ado, I put numbers 1-19 into the randomizer at random.com (I was going to have Jenna draw a name and record while she does it, but she's asleep and I'm not going to wake her up). I'm looking at my followers from left to right and numbered them. The number than came up was 1. I promise that it is honestly the number that came up.

Misty Choate, you are the grand prize winner.