Heartbroken

I just want to take a moment to dedicate this post to my Dad Tom, who passed away on Friday morning. He was the most wonderful Father, Grandfather and Husband that one could ask for. One of my most fondest memories I will always treasure is how he would put me on my Mom's dresser when I was a very little girl and sing "Daddy's Little Girl " to me. I was the only daughter and that is a very special mantle to carry and everyone has told me how he always bragged about his Paula. I love him dearly and will miss him terribly, as we all will.

For The Teachers

Well, the end of the school year has arrived again! Where in the world does the time go? I can't believe another summer is just about upon us. With the end of the year comes gifts for teachers, and this year I decided to give a little of me to them.

One of the swaps I joined was an altered paint can swap. I loved the idea, the way it came and how it looked, so that is what I'm doing for 2 of the teachers, and for 1 teacher I altered a crayola crayon box, which was done by one of Memory Makers magazine's Masters, Melissa. Inside I will put a Barnes and Nobles gift card, a little brag book that they can keep in their pocket books and some sweets as well.

Here is the crayola box -

After the basic cutting and mod podging I embellied it a bit -

This is the brag book I put together for them. The top is the little pages for the book, the bottom is one assembled. They will each get one-

These are the paint cans that I made for MaryAnn and Sophia's teachers. I didn't go crazy with embellishing, I think they look fine the way they are. On very very rare occasions, I do feel less is more -

For their patience, love, and dedication, our children's teachers deserve our thanks!

A Little Detour

I am going to take a slightly different route here. With summer coming, I just wanted to talk about one of my other passions...reading!

I find reading a wonderful way to escape the everyday doldrums. It is also a very good way to increase your vocabulary as well as help your mind stay sharp and hold on to the vocabulary it has. During the summer, most Libraries, and, since my local Barnes and Noble does, I would think all of them do, have summer reading programs for the kids. It is important for them to keep up their reading and be able to grasp vocabulary and putting together a sentence, that progresses to an essay. This is stuff that they will have to do in school, right through college. Fostering a love of reading is a great thing!

Okay, enough of the soap box for today. Let me tell you what my latest reading obsession is. I was hooked on all of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles, I also loved her Mayfair witches as well. I fell out of reading for a very very long time. Various reasons, but one of them being, I couldn't sit "still" enough to free my mind so I could get lost in a book. I would read one here and there, usually during my 2 daughter's tennis lessons, which would be once a week for an hour. Needless to say, a book would last me months. This past September, I watched HBO's True Blood, if you scroll to the bottom of the blog you will see I am anxiously waiting season 2! My 21 yr old daughter Desirae told me they were based on the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris and she wanted them for Christmas. Well, that was it, hook line and sinker we have fallen in love with all of them, which are 9 so far. Number 10 will come out in May of 2010, boo hoo!

This has lead me to other vampire series that I am just loving. Now, the ones I have been reading are not for the faint of heart. They are violent at times, and quite risque as well, but this is a genre I have loved since Ms. Rice first blessed us with dear Lestat and Louis, who quite frankly was played irresistbly and stole Tom Cruise's thunder, by Brad Pitt. Alas, I degress. I have read all the Twilights, and to be honest, and this is only my opinion, I know there are hundreds of thousands of tweens and their mom's who loved all of them, but after the first 2, well, peeyoo. 3 was not good, but 4 was torture for me to finish. I don't know if Ms Meyers was put on a schedule from her publishers to get them out, but I didn't like the book at all. Not the writing style, the storyline, none of it.

Reading the reviews of other people has lead to me finding other authors and series as well. Right now I am just loving the Anita Blake series by Laurel K Hamilton, The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward, and of course, the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris -

My most wonderful husband also bought me the Amazon Kindle, which is like an ipod for books. It holds 1500 books on it, and I love the gadget. If you are a gizmo kind of person, go to Amazon and check this little wonder out. Here is a pic -

No lie, in the last 4 months I have devoured at least 12 nice size books. Now shush, don't be thinking, "how in the world does this woman take care of all her kids, her home, cook wonderful dinners, keep her hubby happy, do her scrapbooking and have the time to read this much too?" Well, a girl has to have some secrets, doesn't she ;) ?