Teacher Appreciation Gift

Hello everyone! I'm back. I have been a very bad blog friend, and haven't posted in quite a while. And here is one of the reasons why I have been so busy . . . baseball. Looks to me like all the running around is worth it.

May and the first half of June are very busy for me. We started with an annual business trip at the beginning of May, then lots and lots of baseball, gardening before the heat sets in, and finish it up with end of school activities. Whewww! To be honest, when things get busy for me, the wheels come off the wagon really fast. So I bugged out of blogging to keep up with our lives (not really an intentional choice, just kinda happened). Case in point, my house is a total pit right now and what am I doing? Blogging. This morning I choose to ignore the mess, or at least tackle it in baby steps.

The last day of school was this week, and I delivered teacher gifts to the classrooms. I like to get something for teachers that they can use for themselves, not the classroom, and I had been thinking about some type of gift with summer items (flip flops, beach towel, etc.). Then I saw Heidi Swapp's blog and she did the same type of gift for teacher appreciation day. So what did I do? I totally, completely copied her cute idea (btw, Heidi is one of the most adorable people on earth!). And here is the final outcome:

I was very pleased that after I bought a hot pink towel, I went to get O Magazine, and it had lime green on the cover. *Perfect.* Since I am chronically self-doubting myself, I wasn't sure if the gifts were good enough for the fabulous teachers my kids had this year. That was totally unnecessary because the teachers went absolutely nuts about their gifts. I mean, they really went nuts. It was cool, because I really wanted to give something they liked.

I peaked in O before I wrapped it up, and there was an article on Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line. I apparently missed the Oprah show on it. Anyway, the clothes are really cute, and everything is under $20 or something crazy like that. The nearest store to me that sells the line is about 30 minutes away, but I think I might go down there and check it out. I like you Sarah Jessica Parker! Thanks for cute clothes that moms-who-are-putting-3-kids-through-college-in-the-near-future can afford. Oh, and thanks for clothing that doesn't make me look like an old fart or a 19-year old!!! I'm 36 . . . not dead yet!!! (that was a shout out to all department stores and any other store to whom the statement applies).

Alright, now the towel gift reminds me of something else I have needed to do. I was tagged by two lovely friends: Elizabeth Hill Cottage and Notes From A Cottage Industry to tell some random/quirky things about myself. I was actually tagged a long, long, long time ago (actually last month), but better late than never. One tag was for 7 "things" and one was for "10", so let's see how many I can come up with.

1. I *love* reality tv. Don't know why. Survivor started it and I am still a die-hard Survivor watcher. I also love Top Chef, and Rockstar (INXS and Supernova) and my new absolute favorite reality tv show, just discovered it and I can't believe I missed the first 2 seasons, is . . . So You Think You Can Dance (You know what I'm talking about Martha. Wow! Those kids can dance. Sooooo much better than Dancing With the Stars. One of my other favorite shows is Jon and Kate Plus 8. I wish I was as organized as Kate. There are other shows, but I won't go into the entire list.

2. I *love* the smell of Baby Magic and Dreft. It beams me back in time to when my kiddos were babies. Sometimes I have a hard time letting all that go, so I just get a little fix with baby soap.

3. I gave birth to Baby Bunyan. He wasn't the biggest baby in the world, and I don't have anything on women who have twins (or more), but my middle child was 10 pounds 14 ounces. I kept telling the doctors he was big, but I knew they finally believed me when the doctors and nurses were all hanging around *after* their shifts just to see how big he really was. He was a tank.

4. Ok, here's a yucky one. If I push my shoulders back, my shoulder blades pop out so much that I can actually put my fingers under the blades. I love to gross my kids out with this one.

5. I really, truly hate the sound of eating. Not just smacking out loud, but if I can hear a person chewing food at all, even if they are being polite and quiet, I can't stand it!

6. I am very, very happy when the carpet is vacuumed. I just love it. It makes my house look so neat. I am really a neat-freak at heart, but there is some kind of defect in my brain that keeps me from being as neat as I would like.

7. I am anal-retentive about how my towels are folded. Lengthwise, I fold in each side, then I fold them in half, and roll from the edges in. I'm sure that doesn't make any sense, but if I fold it wrong I have to start over. It even drives me nuts. ocd????

8. I could spend an entire week in a book store or a library.

9. The beach is my favorite place in the world. I don't really care for swimming in the ocean. Just standing on the beach is good for me.

10. I am the most scatter-brained person I know. I forget everything (everything!), lose everything, and half the time, I can't even remember the words in the sentence I'm saying. My kids have learned to fill in the blanks. (Good thing they help me out, because I think being a mother is what killed some of my brain cells.)

There you have it. I'm going to tag just 1 of my beautiful blog friends. Trish at Harmony Hill Music.

Now I have one last thing to say. I am not a computer genius, nor am I a complete moron either. BUT, I have spent most of my time on this post messing around with stupid things that Blogger software is doing, eg, too many returns, not enough returns, difficulty getting pictures in the right spot, etc. Is it just me, or is this a frustrating editing software to use?