What has the John Deere Mom been up to?

Trying to teach, mentor a student teacher, prepare for science fair, and gear up for yet another round of state testing. It's not looking too promising.

Counting down to the end of school.

Praying for this little guy.

Making my way through this stack. Almost done!

Fighting and losing this battle.

Registering this guy for kindergarten.

Going on field trips.

Laughing at this.

Watching my sister and Jackie the Cow make out.

Making these.

And these. They taste great, but how does she make them look so cute?! Mine look like they have measles. Or worse.

Gearing up for a giveaway! (Check back later this week for details.)

What have YOU been up to?

Photo Shoot with Little Miss

After Little Miss discovered the daffodils growing behind the house, I had to take advantage of such a cute moment for some pictures. Surprisingly, she cooperated.




Cute, no?

Channeling My Inner Martha

When I read this post about making glass magnets over at my bloggy friend, Forever Daisies, I knew I had to try it! She is very crafty and always doing cute little projects. Me? Notsomuch. But, this looked like something even I could do!

I got all of the supplies I needed at Hobby Lobby, came home, and went to town. And guess what? It worked!

I.was.crafty. Who knew I had it in me?!

You need: scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, glass marbles, foam brush, and magnets.

Look at this scrapbook paper. I was in awe walking down the aisle. I don't scrapbook, which I think is a very good thing. I could have spent my life savings (all $40 of it) on paper alone. You know how much I love anything office-y and this paper was calling my name!

Put the marble on the paper over the design you want.

Trace and cut out.

Put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the back of the marble.

Place the paper (design side down-yes, I kept doing it wrong!) on the marble. Let it dry completely.

Once it's dry, place a thin layer of Mod Podge over the back of the marble to seal it. Let it dry.

Now for the magnets. I bought cheap craft roll magnet. It isn't quite strong enough to hold the marbles...all evening we heard them falling to the floor. I will make these again with stronger magnets. But for now...look how cute!

Wheeee!

The kids and I spent a few hours at a "new to us" place called Bouncertown yesterday.

Think Chuck E. Cheese without the mouse.

It is a large building full of inflatable bouncers, slides, games, and a snack area complete with overpriced food. Luckily we had already eaten different overpriced food at Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Here are the 3 areas my two monkeys spent the majority of the day...2 really big slides and a large obstacle course type thing with a slide at the end.When we first walked in and saw the big slides I thought, "There's no way they are going to climb up those."

But I was wrong. Without a moment's hesitation, they bolted up the steps and slid down.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Luckily we had our trained operator on duty. I am not sure what this operator was trained in. Sliding? Bouncing? Tuning out the screams of 20-some kids?

All in all, it was another great day of Spring Break. It's hard to believe the week is coming to an end. Why can't work weeks go this quickly?!

A Thousand Words Thursday-My First Time

Trying to look like a badass covered in blue sucker...

is almost as hard as trying to look like a princess with dirty little pigs.

To see more Thousand Words participants, click here.

Let's talk TV

When I watch a show, I watch it religiously.

Until 9:30.

Then it's bedtime.

But until 9:30, I am totally into it. We are currently watching American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and The Amazing Race. We will sprinkle in a little House, Bones, Anthony Bordain, and any of the 26 logger shows that seem to be on these days.

Let's talk American Idol.

I love Alexis, Danny, and Allison. I can't stand Megan. The rest? Eh.

Dancing with the Stars.

Every year there are more and more serious injuries. Jewel and Nancy were out before the show even started. And now Steve-O? I think they might have trouble getting celebrities for the show next year at this rate.

I love Shawn Johnson, the Bachelor chic, and Gilles. And seriously could Julianne and her boyfriend be more beautiful?! They are so blindingly gorgeous it's a bit hard to watch. Well, my husband doesn't have any trouble watching her. But still.

And lest we forget about him...
*sigh*

Moving on...

Amazing Race.

This is our first year watching this show and I am hooked. Initially, I liked the lawyer siblings. But after the episode when he got them lost and got all drama queen...I can't stand them. They are conniving, uber-annoying, and a little too "close" for my liking.

Margie and Luke are funny although I wasn't impressed when they U-turned the couple. Not cool. I think the stunt guys would do well if they had a couple extra brain cells to rub together. Not the sharpest tools in the shed.

I think my favorite couple (yes, I know they are father/son but aren't they still a couple? As in a couple of guys? A couple of people on the show? I didn't mean to imply they were a romantic couple) is the ambiguously gay duo, Mike and Mel. I am loving them... complete with Mel's ever-present groin injury. And is it me or did Mike play Ned in School of Rock. It's him, right?!
So that's pretty much how I spend my evenings. What are you watching? Who's your pick to win these shows? What did you think of Adam's rendition of Ring of Fire?

How to annoy John Deere Mom in a few easy steps

If you are looking to annoy me, try one of the following activities. It's guaranteed to work.

1. Walk all hunched over with your shopping cart, pushing it with your arms with your big ol' butt sticking out. Do you not have the energy to walk upright through the store?

2. Pull out in front of me only to immediately slow down to turn. Could you not just wait until I was past you?

3. Forget to give me napkins and/or straws in the drive-thru. There are certain guarantees in life. Getting napkins with your food should be one of them.

4. Give me a dirty look when my kids are b-e-g-g-i-n-g in their most annoying voices in the seasonal aisle at Wal-Mart. I am sure your kids never acted in such a way. Think you could do better? Try. I would be more than happy to let you shop with them for an hour.

5. Bag my groceries with no rhyme or reason. My greeting card with my frozen pizza and frozen broccoli? Um, no. It was wet when we got home, thankyouverymuch. 16 canned goods with 3 glass jars of jelly in one plastic bag? Hello?! Chasing cans of soup through the parking lot when the bag bust is not exactly what I had planned for the day.

6. Calling my cell phone by mistake and getting all pissy with me as if it is my fault. Seriously. You called me.

And now for a funny. When I was at my sister's house this weekend, I may have had an entire bottle of Oliver Soft Red wine all by myself in a short amount of time. And I may have started a post entitled,

Spring Break Tipsy

of which I have no recollection. I apparently passed out before I could really get much typed but I kind of wish I had typed more. That would have made for a very funny read. We'll have to settle for the title which is cracking me up.

Spring Break doesn't suck this year

So far Spring Break 2009 is a thousand times better than the last two Spring Breaks. The worst thing that has happened so far is when I dropped my sunglasses in the toilet, right after Little Miss pooped. Note to self: Buy new sunglasses today.

Last year I spent the entire week sicker than I had ever been. Turns out it was strep throat. Ugh. I hope I never get that again.

Spring Break 2007 started early. The Thursday before vacation started, I had carried a sleepy Little Miss to the car for daycare and had gone back in for Cole. He was yelling and kicking, so I was kind of carrying/dragging him to the car. I stepped on a big rock he had piled up next to the car and went down. It immediately looked as though I had grown a door knob out of my ankle. We went to the ER thinking it was broken. Just sprained. Badly. Was on crutches the entire week.

This Spring Break is going great. The weather has cooperated and we have enjoyed playing outside and sleeping in.

On Sunday, the kids and grandma and I took a 2.5 hour road trip to visit Aunt Susie. We had lunch at Olive Garden where I dumped an entire glass of iced tea all over Cole. Luckily none of it hit me and he was wearing lined athletic pants. He had JUST been saying how if he spills on those pants it doesn't go through. Luckily, he was right!

Aunt Susie had made ABC sugar cookies spelling out all of our names. We decorated and ate WAY too many cookies!
We spent the night and had a great time. We chalked on the driveway and Cole even got to do a little farm work in her mulch. The next morning Aunt Susie made a Starbucks run and cooked us breakfast! We headed out and were home by lunchtime.

The 2 best inventions of our time? Garmin and ipod. Hello. Yesterday was the first time I had ever used any GPS anything. I was amazed at how easy it was to use and understand. SO easy.

And the ipods?! Who knew they would entertain 2 kids better than movies? Cole listened to "She thinks my tractor's sexy" for literally 3 hours. And Claire used Grandma's phone which doubles as an MP3 player. The music was way loud, but as soon as she put it on she was quiet and immediately went to sleep with random crazy music blasting in her ears. Methinks the kids need ipod shuffles in their Easter baskets.

I changed things around here yesterday. I am loving the new header! If you are using Firefox, I think you can see the cute coordinating background. I don't think Explorer users can see it. Poor, poor Explorer users. :)

Today is supposed to be the warmest, sunniest day of the week so we are staying home and playing outside. Tomorrow the kids are having a daycare day while Mommy gets a pedicure and goes shopping. How excited am I?!

Hello Warm Weather

Long time no see.

Spring has finally sprung in Indiana, if only for a few days. We wasted no time going out to enjoy the sunshine, 74 degree temperatures, and warm breeze before winter rears its ugly head again.

There was a lot of digging in the dirt, swinging, sliding, Gator riding, and daredevil chainsaw maneuvers.

I got a chance to experiment with the continuous picture taking option on my camera with Little Miss. It was so fun scanning through the pics, looking like little movies.

Cole had fun digging in the dirt, plowing his "field" and flipping me the bird from the swing set. (Well that's what it looks like, anyway.)
I caught this romantic moment between Bear and Jackie the Cow. Look! They're holding hands. So cute.

Little Miss choreographed several pictures. "Now take this one. Let's try this. I'll do this, then you take a picture."This would be my husband on top of a ladder sitting precariously on the back of the Gator with an uneven bed liner wielding a chainsaw. We'll file this under,

"What's the worst that could happen?"

These are my new favorite pictures of the kids. I've obviously played around with some new effects on Picnik. I will keep trying effects until I find just the right one. I see a new header in the near future.

How was the weather in your neck of the woods this weekend? Did you take any new favorite pics?