June, 2009 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives June 2009

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ABC meme time

Posted on June 30, 2009 1:48 pm by TheAngelForever

Lazy day of summer here and wanted to do something fun and quick. Found this on Sunday Stealing, thanks to Fairy Blog Mother. If you play along please let me know so I can stop by.

A – An advantage you have – Live near a lot of family members so there is always someone close by in case of an emergency.

B – Blue or brown eyes – I have neither of the two. My boys all have blue eyes and are my personal favorite.

C – Chore you hate – Loathe cleaning toilets and with three boys using them soon it will be worse.

D – Dad’s name – The same as a famous Disney dragon.

E – Essential start of your day – Checking the weather on the news.

F – Favorite color – Red, Green or purple.

G – Greatest thing you’ve ever done that made you feel really good – Decided to stay home with the boys instead of going back to teaching for now.

H – Habit you have – Blogging

I – Issue you hate that the world tries to make you pursue – Religion, I will leave it at that.

J – Job title – Stay at home Mom and teacher at heart.

K – Kohls or Target – Like both of them for different reasons.

L – Living arrangements – Live with my three boys. . . hubby, NHL and JSL.

M – Music you like – Like a wide variety of music. About the only type I am not a fan of is rap.

N – Nicknames – Wouldn’t you love to know!

O – Overnight hospital stay – Stayed each time I had one of the boys. Also stayed in the room with JSL when he was in the hospital for 4 nights in February 2008.

P – Pet Peeve – People that feel they can own others.

Q – Quote that you like most – Not sure. Would love some ideas on this one.

R – Right or left handed – Right handed and could end up being the only one in the house.

S – Siblings – A younger brother.

T – Time you wake up –.Way too early thanks to the boys!

U – Underwear – Have them and wear them.

V – Vegetable you dislike – Not a fan of cooked peas.

W – What makes you run late – My boys, other wise I am usually very early for things.

X – X-rays you’ve had – Teeth, knee, wrist, chest and possibly others.

Y – Yummy food you make – Apple cake, bon bon cookies, cake balls, matzah ball soup

Z – Zoo animal – Giraffe and polar bear

Categories:
me moments web fun

Family photo spots

Posted on June 29, 2009 10:13 am by TheAngelForever

As a child I recall going to both of my grandparents houses and staring for hours at all of the family photos throughout their homes. I still find myself doing this when I visit my grandmother. It is amazing to see all of the family members at different points of their lives. Even NHL looks at them and names people that he can recognize.

My mother and father now have locations in their home that house photographs of family. The other day while visiting I had to take a photo. This is in the back family room where their cockatoo lives, along with my great-grandmother’s piano.

On one side of the piano there is a photo of everyone from my family at our wedding, along with photos of our boys and us. Note to self: Update Nana’s photo of NHL (he’s almost 6 after all) and give them the family portrait that was specially made.

On the other a big family photo from my brother’s wedding, photos of his daughter and his family.

The digital photography era has it’s perks and drawbacks. We can click away photos to our hearts content and not worry about wasting money on printing photos that are not worthy of processing. On the flip side, we could also store all of the photos and never print out real copies for family and friends….or ourselves. I admit it, we are 110% in the last grouping. Tons of photos taken, but hardly any made into prints for ourselves. We try to get them made for our family, but often are slackers at that.

I am trying to get better with this since I hardly have any printed photos of JSL and he is two years old!

How do you handle printing of digital photographs? Are you good about getting them made for family, friends and yourself? Any hints or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Categories:
decisions family looking back photos

Grilling Goodness – Take 19

Posted on June 28, 2009 8:27 pm by TheAngelForever

This was posted on Friday, but we were on the road. Just got home from a long weekend visiting my brother, SIL and sweet little niece. Now we are home and getting the kids ready for bed and hoping back into EA Sports Active. I will be finishing up my 30 Day Challenge tomorrow!

1. When you were growing up dreaming of having children…dreaming of what their names would be…did you stick with those names? – In my family (and hubby’s too) we follow the Jewish tradition of naming after special people that have passed away. Names of my future children were never really in my head, just knew I would have kids. However, a name I loved growing up is the name of my niece.

2. Are you affected by the death of Michael Jackson? – I will admit that I was stuck watching Twitter and online media as things were unfolding. I grew up with MJ and it is very sad to watch how his life unfolded.

3. Do you use your dishwasher and your fireplace? – Definitely use our dishwasher, but no fireplace here. Even if we had one I would never use it since the smoke bothers my lungs and asthma.

4. Have you ever been on a mission trip? – No, but a lot of my former students had.

5. Will your kids participate in a Vacation Bible school this summer? – We’re Jewish and do Hebrew School all year.

6. What about the economy is affecting you the worst? – Worrying about savings and the future, especially for the kids. Thanks to increasing costs of everything the day to day tasks can really get to you.

7. Do your kids do chores? – We are starting to give chores to NHL (almost 6 and going into 1st grade).

8. Do you use energy efficient light bulbs? – Yes, I think there are only a handful of bulbs (in places we rarely go) still have the regular bulbs.

Head over to Golden Goodness to play along!

Categories:
Grilling Goodness me moments web fun

No cherry picking this year

Posted on June 27, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Eating cherries in summer brings back a lot of childhood memories. I remember going to the store and picking pounds of cherries and taking them home to gobble up. I also recall when cherries cost under a dollar a pound. *sigh*

Last summer we went to visit my brother and his family. While there we decided to try something new. We went cherry picking. We had an amazing time wandering the fields and picking 22 pounds of cherries.Yes, you read that correctly, just check out the buckets of cherries below.

Did I mention the cherries were amazing? The variety, size, sweetness and price of the cherries made it even better. We ate a ton of them over the time we were visiting and brought lots home to share with family and friends. We had hoped to be able to go cherry picking again while visiting, but sadly the crops are not ready. Instead we will find something else fun to do in the area (perhaps the zoo) and of course make another attempt at getting a cousin photo. Once again photo mission impossible remains. Here is one of them from last year:

So hard to believe that all of the kids have grown up so much. Memo to the kiddos –> stop growing up so quickly!

Categories:
family looking back photos road trip summer weekend

Teacher gifts 2009

Posted on June 26, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This year I had a dilemma. NHL was in a multi-teacher classroom. There was a regular education teacher, special education teacher and two aids in the room. Obviously, I could not afford to get them all something big and exciting. In December I organized a collection of money for gift cards to give each of the teachers in the room. Once again several of the parents expressed a desire to do this, so I agreed to send out a note. Only a handfull of people sent money in, so I purchased each of the teachers a gift card to a book store where there is a myriad of possible items to purchase. As a a teacher I loved giftcards that allowed me to buy something special that I may not have otherwise purchased.

In addition to these adults, NHL has PT and OT where I wanted to thank them for all that they have done. I wrote in NHL’s communication log asking for the six adults to tell me their favorite colors. My plan was to knit them some wash cloths to have. Something a little more personal. In addition to this, I went and bought them some notecards and mini-notebooks for their purses. Here are some photos of what I purchased for them.

This is how I wrapped them to send in with NHL:

In addition to this, I bought the school nurse a gift card for some coffee. She went out of her way helping us with allergy and pinkeye issues throughout the year. What I did not do was purchase/make anything for NHL’s Music/Art/PE teachers or the librarian. As wonderful as they are, there has to be a line and that was mine this year.

So my question to you this week:

What do you usually do for teachers? Do you give something to all of the individuals that work with your child/children, or only certain teachers?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.