Wanna Be Startin' Something...

Re: the title of this post...I put my music on random and chose the first title that came up. Quite fitting!

This week I did a bit of self-reflection in light of appreciating my blessings...and I realized that I really quite missed blogging. It's nice having a record of goings on and happenings, and I guess a year-long break was enough time to see that. :)

I must admit that really not that much has changed in the past year. Below are a few of my current faves...

• Tone it up
• Below Deck
• Pinterest
• Etsy (for serious...it's a borderline addiction)
• Sweat pants (just keeping it real...)
• This version of Halo from Jordan Smith
• Emjois
• Snap Kitchen
• anything Erin Condren
• My husband living in Katy again!
• inflatable yard decorations

And a few pictures (because I'm a visual learner, so why not?)...

 Visiting my bestie in Nashville...oh, how I miss her!

 My team! 

Pretty much only saw this guy at football games in the past six weeks...so glad he's back (especially because two different sinks in our house decided to break/leak all over the floors while he was gone)! 

Oh hey, sometimes we hang out in 30 degree weather to see the Aggies play football. 

My parents and I at my home church's grand opening of their new building!

Project Life 2014 :: Week 44

Hello! I am back (already!) with another week of Project Life catch up! I am not keeping track of how much I have left because that would be way too depressing.

Not a lot of pictures to choose from. Apparently I was more focused on relaxing than documenting. But that is okay because I was able to get it done! I'm not a fan of going back in time, but it will definitely help me to remember to take more pictures this week!

Project Life 2014 :: Week 45

I'm back! Again…and finally! Hooray! I am procrastinating grading some essays and had forgotten how quickly I can do a Project Life week. So I'm glad for that.

I loved last week! I took Friday off, met one of my favorite authors, and Tyson put an inflatable turkey in my parents' yard. It's getting through this week that is challenging…I have an allergic reaction to something going on all over my neck and don't get me started on coming back from a long weekend. Perhaps today will be a better day!

Project Life 2014, Week 38

I had to google what week this was...because for now I am starting with the freshest in my mind and working backwards! And I am okay with that.

I realized that I will have to switch to doing the 3x4 cards as dates because I really don't know where I will end up on left vs. right side of the page. I think it will depend on what I have for pictures and if I do a monthly review or what. All I know is that Vegas will get its own two page spread.

I am a fan of these pictures from last week. I used to hate selfies, but they really are fun! I was bummed that I forgot the front camera on my phone takes much smaller pictures...I'll have to remember that in the future! I also love the picture of my cheerleaders under the rainbow, but it makes me wish I had lugged my real camera out for a better shot. Next time! Tyson's BBQ from Saturday was exceptionally tasty and merited recognition. The small pieces on the bottom right are trimmings from the ribs--he calls them meat candy, and they are oh.so.delicious. They are always done a couple hours before everything is actually ready, so they are a perfect appetite-whetting delight.

All in all, it feels great getting back on the "documenting life" train. I have quite a bit of the summer to catch up on, but I will definitely be glad to have it checked off. I might have to give myself an incentive to get it done though...

Here we go again...

I don't know what it's been about this school year, but it has been absolutely insane on my campus this year. I've talked to several teachers and coaches about this, and the general feel has been frenetic and stressed. I finally settled into things this week (week 4), so now I'm ready to catch up blogging and Project Life-ing.

So, what's new with me? I don't think I've mentioned that this year I'm teaching 8th grade...and one class of 7th. It's been good for me to change things up (new curriculum, new room, etc.).

We've also been enjoying a little football season! It's the last season before the big season ticket holder move, so have been enjoying heading up to College Station for the games. We will be in a new section next year...but sometimes change is good (as I have discovered this year at school)!

I got a Fitbit for my birthday and have been enjoying tracking my movement and daily rhythms. I've definitely been taking the pups out more--which I know they love! I have recently hit a plateau on the weight loss and have started re-evaluating what I do, especially after reading this article.

When Tyson barbecues, he takes our bedroom TV outside so he has something to do besides watch a fire for hours. Last night he got the idea that afterwards he could put both screens in the living room so he could keep tabs on multiple games...and it's still like that today. Brody gets stressed when football is on, so I think now he is double scared. 

That's all for now...I will start working on Project Life here soon and hope to share later this week. Adios!

Catching up...

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated. I feel like I turned around and summer was pretty much over! I have also been neglecting Project Life, so I will have quite a few updates coming up. In the meantime, here's a list of my current faves.

1. Tyson, as always! Especially vacation-mode Tyson. More specifically, Vegas-mode Tyson.

2. My puppies. This was my first day at home with them after dog sitting for a week and a half. I think they missed us!

3. Myfitnesspal app. I have tried to get into this several times, but something about seeing the scale tell me that I've gained 21 pounds in the past two years helped me to rededicate my efforts. I've been using it for the past two weeks along with the pedometer in my phone, and I've really enjoyed the accountability. I even like it more than the game on diet (I blogged about that here) because I can eat what I want and easily see how much I can eat.

4. My cheerleaders. We held practice to learn cheers this week, and it reminded me why I do this. I just love getting to know students better and investing in their lives.

5. Carrots.

6. Composition notebooks.

7. Vacuuming.

8. Rain!

9. Cuddle time with my little monster. Still working on taking a good selfie.

10. Keeping up with Kyle Field construction updates. My husband shows me the most exciting parts, so it doesn't take much effort on my part. I really enjoyed seeing it in person last weekend!

Project Life 2014, Title Page

I finally got around to making a title page! I figured it was easy enough to come back to, so I just never thought much about it.

2013 title page here

Project Life 2014, Week 18

I've still been under a blog coma, but I worked on a little Project Life this weekend while procrastinating some grading I needed to get done. After I decided to just do a "rest of April" page, I had May remaining. Here's the first week!

Tyson and I went to the opera--definitely out of the norm for us, so it warranted mentioning. I had to also include an in-progress shot of Tyson's pit as well. It's come a long way in a month for sure!

Here's how it looks with the previous page:

I just realized I need to redo the left side; I forgot to clip the photo of Iris and that will totally bug me. I guess that will have to be added to my summer to do list!

Project Life 2014, "The Rest of April"

Hello, laziness! This is my attempt at not spending a lot of time "catching up" on the weeks I have been skipping. I am strangely fine with it...not that much happened anyways. 

Project Life 2014, Week 15

Another page done for 2014.

This was two weeks ago...mostly weekend fun because I haven't been taking pictures during the week. And Vortex was seriously good. I feel like my list of books to read is getting longer than my to do list! 

I have not been the best blogger lately...generally I can post more if I write them over the weekend and then set to publish through the week. But lately I've been a little sickly, a lot tired, and trying to spend my time either resting or tackling my to do list. I am going to work on that though!

DIY :: enamel dots!

source

So in the scrapbooking realm, enamel dots are all the rage (at least for me!). The downside is that a pretty package with about 40-60 dots usually costs $4-5. Not highway robbery...but I love to put a nice little cluster on a card or scrapbook page, so as a result I tend to hoard them. Anyways, on instagram I noticed that some people were making their own with perler and pony beads. I decided to give it a try this weekend.

I bought this package of perler beads from Michael's for about $10. That's 11,000 dots for $10 plus the electricity to heat my oven. Yes, please. Of course, you can't get the variety in sizes...but that's okay.

before...during...after

They make me so happy. Now I just need to find maroon beads!

Here are a few tips from what I researched and experimented. This worked for my oven, but I'm sure everyone's is different.

• Put down parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay them out. I like to arrange by color because it's prettier to look at. :)
• 280-285*F for 30ish minutes. I put a timer on and rotated the pan halfway through because they seemed to cook a little unevenly.
• At first I tried dark colors and light colors separately because I heard they took different amounts of time...but I did not find that to be the case. Black, white, grey, and clear beads all seemed to take longer than the rest of the colors though. On the last batch I did a variety and just kept those four colors in the back the whole time.
• When the dimple disappears from all of them, take them out and let cool to the touch. Mine didn't stick to the paper, so I was able to funnel them into a container easily.
• In my experience there was no smell at all, but I didn't try any pony beads (I read differing reports on smell between the types of beads).

Project Life 2014, Week 14

Last week was kind of brutal. I just had no motivation to blog! I worked on this over the weekend in between cleaning and watching Pioneer Woman. Unfortunately my laziness extended to taking very few pictures last week, so I'm not sure how I'll work that one out...

I might add text over some of the pictures. I will have to keep looking at it and see if it needs something else. Also, I must admit that the picture of Brody is from earlier this year that I never used. I've been taking more Sophie pictures lately, so I felt he needed a cute picture in the Project Life book. :o)

Project Life 2014, Week 13

Look out Oscars selfie. Our cheer selfie is pretty awesome! Last week was a really strange week--I took a half day off work for a nap, I had some weird stomach bug on Saturday, and Tyson was super busy running.

Weeks 12 and 13 together. Hizzah!

Project Life 2014, Week 12

I did not take many photos this week...I even had to go back through my texts to remember about this week. How sad, considering it was only a week ago! Seems like a really long time. My photos seemed so very beige, so I needed a little pop of something in my cards. I choose pinky red from the cut & paste kit. I think I am liking how it turned out!

Enjoying...

I read We Were Liars last Saturday. It was amazing and thought-provoking and strange and I loved it. I knew nothing about it when I started, and I think that's the only way someone would enjoy it. My librarian got an Advanced Reader Copy of it and said she needed someone else to read it so she could talk about it. Best book I've read this year. It comes out May 13th. Get it before someone lame spoils the ending for you.

I'm still working on The Here and Now. It's interesting in the fact that it's time travel, but there's still a small element of dystopian (to me, at least) because there's a society that has traveled back together and they have rules to coexist with the time natives. Reserving judgement until I finish.

Project Life 2014, Week 11

Project Life, Vegas edition! Little on journaling...the photos can speak for themselves. My plan this summer is to compile photos from all our Vegas trips in a minibook (which will probably turn out not-so-mini), so this is more of a highlight reel.

I picked up a new brush set on sale last week...I love geotags and it was only 99 cents!

I decided to represent the "bests"of the trip. At first the bottom picture bothered me because the Wynn was reflecting my image...but then I decided it was kind of cool. :o)

Random Photo Wednesday

Project Life 2014, Week 10

I could have made this a two-pager, but then Vegas would have needed to be three pages. Or I guess I could have put in a February "currently" page, but I wasn't thinking quickly enough for that. As it is my "currently" feature will have to be a bi-monthly occurrence due to the way my pages turned out.

Anyways, this was just a blur of a week. Pretty much every time I take a day off and need to get a bunch of things done in preparation for a substitute/life/whatever, the week flies by and I have no time to do anything. But I wasn't unhappy this time because it was the week before spring break, which is notorious for dragging by super slowly. The big thing on these pages was Galveston for my father-in-law's big birthday bash! Hizzah!

And in context with the other page. I love all of the green!

Random Photo Wednesday

Project Life 2014, Week 9

I skipped another week...I should have just combined 8 and 9 because not too much happened, but hopefully I go back and finish. Normally I would be sad not to do real Project Life because I liked the coaster from Baker Street, but my friend Ashli pointed out that I could take a picture of it to represent happy hour. So I complied, and the result isn't too shabby!