Underbite

Phew, one room finished.  Though it is the smallest, it is quite possibly the grossest to clean, so cheers to being done!

A quick trip to Home Depot, a few simple tools, a dip in the toilet tank, and VOILA! My toilet flushes again!

Before

After

So, in a previous post, I had mentioned that I had a special guest(s) in my house.  Today, we met.  Turns out that the "Mice" was actually a rat that ended up jumping out as I pulled out a poop scoop bag before I walked Darla.  Luckily, my trusty feline was there at my side to assist.  Here's the breakdown of the situation.  8:20 AM:

Nugget, the fearless feline + Me, my new manicure, and my broom = One large brown rat chased (or shooed) safely out into the backyard.  Good work young Nugget (High Five... do cats have 5 little fingers on their paws... hmmm... I'll have to check)!!!

This is my example of what the rat looked like.  I feared for Nugget's life.

So, the rat lost his home and I was able to rush to an appointment I  had at 9:00 AM this morning in Germantown.  I wish him well on his journey, however, like I said, if he had respected my space, I would have respected his.  Farewell, Rattie!

Pre-New Year's Winter Cleaning Time!!!

Darla is a bit apprehensive.

So, the goal is that I'm going to get the house cleaned and organized by the end of the week in order to start the New Year off properly, with a clean house and mind.  I'll post before and afters as I finish.  One thing though... please don't judge... the house is unusually messy this time around.  So, even though it's usually a bit messy, this particular season has been particularly unruly and therefore presents a greater challenge.  Wish me luck!

The Living Room

Last night, the power went out in my duplex as well as the duplex next door... but not completely.  See, I had two sockets working (one in the kitchen and the socket for the TV), and the kitchen light still worked, so, though it doesn't make a lot of sense, not all of the power went out.  The dryer, fridge, and the majority of the rest of the power left me alone in the dark scratching my head.  So, it's Christmas Eve, and I have spent the day wrapping presents and drawing in the dark.  Don't worry, I'm not complaining, just reliving the day.   It was kind of funny the amount of times I went stumbling through my bedroom due to the humongous pile of clothes that I have not yet gotten around to sorting.  MLGW had to send out a man to look at my electrical meter (he came out relatively soon after my call!), who then had to send out 2 men to check it out, who then had to send out for 3 huge electrical trucks and a group of men to come turn my lights back on.  When they finally came on around 4, I thanked them with a pack of coke to split.  Hey, it's Christmas Eve, it's nasty, grey, and rainy, and they had been working on it all day long.  I was pretty grateful for them.  So, for once I'd really like to say "Thank you MLGW, you did a wonderful job!"

Fun, huh?

     First off!  My nephew now has a name!!! (Drum Roll.............)  From hence forth (hence being from whenever Lindsey and Blake actually decided on the name), the little firecracker shall be known as Augustus William Hill!!!!!!!  He will be going by the name of Gus for the majority of the family, but I believe for Joey and I, he will go as Augie Bill Hill or Augie Willy Hilly (Joey prefers Augie Bill Hill).  As far as I know, my dad will be called "Pop", my mom has not decided on her name yet, Joey will be Uncle Joey, I will be Aunt Wheezer, and I really want Bowe to be Uncle Bodozer, but of course that decision will be his to decide.  We all eagerly await little Augie's arrival!

    Second, I wanted to show everyone what my students (K-4) at school have been working on.  We have been studying warm vs. cool colors, collage, and Eric Carle, and have been creating Under the Sea Collages.  They are coming out wonderfully so far.  I know I'm biased, but I think they're doing a great job.  So, here are a few of the collages, I really just chose some that were easy to grab as I have a serious overload of them as all of my grades are doing one.

This is one of my second grader's collage.  The collaged fish have not yet been added, but it's going to look awesome when they are.

I have stacks and stacks of these collages.  I am extremely ready for this week to come to an end so I can begin organizing my classroom again.

These photos are my examples of how the project should go.  You start with the background painting, using cool colors, and then collage manilla paper as the sand and different shades of green tissue as seaweed.  Using crayons to add details such as sand texture, texture in the seaweed, and other small objects like crabs, seashells, and schools of fish, etc. spice up the artwork a bit.  Then, the class creates "texture sheets" using crayons and creating patterns and then painting over these "textures" with watercolors, creating a crayon resist painting.  Finally, the students take their "textures" and cut out underwater sea objects such as jellyfish, sharks, octopi, mermaids... whatever they can come up with, and Voila! You have an awesome Under the Sea Collage! 

There are so many awesome collages that the kids have done; I haven't had a chance to really rifle through and pull out some of the more creative ones... plus, none of them are quite finished yet.  So, I'm going to make it a point to start taking more pictures of them as the students complete the project.

I'm going to post more photographs of the students work as soon as I organize and shoot more pictures of them. So, stay tuned.

And, lastly on this long post of mine, I wanted to show the design for the Save the Date cards that Joey and I are going to use. I did it with pen and ink and I'm going to play around with using some color throughout to see if I like it colored or in black and white. I would like to hear other opinions too when I actually get around to tinkering with it. Anyway, here it is...

Goodbye for now and love to all!