Kabobs!!

I think Matt has cooked more meals on the grill than I have in the kitchen since we moved in. Granted, I still use the kitchen-- but Matt has been in grill with drawl for the last three years and has all this pent up grilling inside he's just GOT to get out. I'm not complaining.

The other night we made kabobs for dinner, yum. This is, by far, one of the easiest meals to prepare.Here are the fixin's... chopped pineapple, cubed onion (for Matt, not me), bell peppers (of the green and red persuasion), and, of course...STEAK, which I doused in olive oil and Worcestershire sauce.We each assembled our own, oh and we added some maple bacon we acquired from the butcher (yes, a real, live butcher in his own store... not the guy behind the butcher counter in the grocery store).I'm waiting for them to come back from the grill...and Matt is grilling!My mouth is salivating... fresh from the grillVoila! Dinner is served... with a side of mashed potatoes (not pictured). So we had a little bit from each food group: meat, veggies, fruit, starch, grain (we had toasted bread too), and I had a glass of milk for dinner.

ps. I love my new granite counter tops.

More than Mundane

To most, yesterday might have seemed a bit mundane, but to Matt and me, it was perfect!

Granted, Matt woke up at 6:20--unable to sleep, but after I was up... we ran a few errands. I had to take some lamps back to Tuesday Morning and Matt wanted to stop at Home Depot (how very "his and her shopping" of us!) to get an outside storage bin for our deck among other things. On our way home, we stopped at Publix, grabbed some sandwiches, and actually planned ahead for 2 meals!!

After some friends stopped by for a brief second, the grass was mowed, blinds were hung, bathroom ceiling was painted, pantry was reorganized, cookies were made, kitchen was cleaned, and laundry was put away. For dinner, Matt grilled some corn and BBQ chicken. I added some toasted bread, cherries and pineapple. This was our first meal at the kitchen table in our new home! (we have been eating dinner in front of the TV on trays, oh well)

I know it sounds like an ordinary, and to most- boring, day, but like I said earlier-- it was perfect. Waiting for the chicken to cook, Matt and I stood out on the deck, in the setting sun, looking at everything we have, and we are thankful.

God is good.

So Long, So New

I KNOW it's been a LONG time since I last blogged, but so much has been going on. I also know that means it's the perfect time to blog, but with all these things happening, I had to take them all in myself. So here's all the news...

I said goodbye to my work family of 3 years at Griffin Middle School last week at the end of post planning. I have been offered, and accepted, a position as the second art teacher at North Paulding High School-- Go Wolfpack!

Being at North Paulding will keep my commute short, since we just bought- and moved into- our first (and hopefully only) new house. I posted pictures earlier, so I know that's not really new news, but we have officially moved! Matt did a whole bunch of painting (I helped a little) and now we have a very saturated house. I even have my ORANGE room-- don't freak, it looks great! Matt even loves it!

Though one of the rooms won't be painted until August or September... when we find out the sex of our new baby! That's right, Matt and I are expecting. We are due Dec. 21, but I am convinced that baby will come on Christmas. My mom and sister will be in the delivery room with me-- and Matt will be anxiously waiting in the waiting room. He has every right to change his mind and come into the delivery room-- but he says he wants the doctors to focus on me and the baby-- and not on him passing out. No really, he WILL pass out. This is all completely okay with me (so please don't send me hate mail). Matt will be there up until the very last minute though.

Many people think that one event lead to the other(s), but actually I have been wanting, looking, and praying for a high school position for a very long time and whole I got to a bunch of interviews, none of them panned out. There was something bigger and better for me.

Matt and I had already started looking for houses once we got our lease renewal letter and decided that we didn't want to live in an apartment anymore. We weren't even really looking in the NPHS district-- we were just looking in Paulding County since houses are plentyful and priced right. We had made an offer on the house before I even interviewed at NPHS.

Of course the most surprising news came AFTER the house and AFTER the interview... the baby news. Needless to say, we were schocked and incredibly happy.

So there it is. Our incredibly new life (changes).

ps. my doctor said that I could help paint as long as we used laytex and kept the rooms well ventilated (which we did)

Dot Dot Seurat

Georges Seurat was a French born painter during the 1800s. What made him unique was his technique... many tiny dots close together, coined pointillism. He had a love for science, as well as art, and blended the two together when he worked with his traditional technique. He would place dots of different colors close together and let the viewers' eye actually blend the colors together, instead of having to mix the paint himself. I know this just brushes the surface of Seurat, so if you are looking for some more information, check out these sites: webmuseum, the artchive, and wikipedia. There are many site online-- this is just a sampling!

Now that you know a little bit about Georges Seurat, you'll understand what my 7th graders are doing right now. They select a picture of a flower (I have a bunch of samples), draw it with pencil on an 8x8in. paper. Then they will use a Sharpie to create different values while stippling-- using dots, of one color, to create value. The closer the dots are together, the darker the value. The farther apart the dots are, the lighter the value.

My stippling sample

Then They have a choice: they can draw the same flower again (or trace their first drawing) or they can draw another flower for their pointillism picture. It's about 50/50 how the students have chosen so far. About half, or a little more, are done with their stippling and have started on their pointillism, so it will be interesting to see how they finish.

My pointillism sample

Student Art Work

This year has come and (almost) gone extremely fast. HOWEVER... my students were able to make a bunch of wonderful artwork-- which made the art show great! I do wish more people showed up-- parents and teachers, alike, but in every one's defense, there was a bunch on really bad weather last Thursday night. Hope you enjoy the student work below.Students used line to create value for their self portrait 7th Grade

Torn Paper Self Portraits 8th Grade

Andy Warhol Color Theory 6th Grade

Water Color 7th Grade

Tessellations 6th Grade

Linoleum Block Printing-- emphasizing "Line" 8th Grade

Panty Hose Sculpture 8th Grade

Plaster Masks 8th Grade

Crop Circle Paintings 8th Grade

Students used grids to draw portraits of their "Hero" (favorite teacher) 7th Grade

Students drew portraits of their friends and then used color to help express emotion. The used a Batik resist method, cut their project into many pieces, reassembled to create a relief-batik-portrait! 8th Grade

Good Golly Ms. Dolly

I have a special place in my heart for Dolly Parton. Maybe it's my Tennessee roots showing here, but she's just swell. I read her autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, this summer and just fell in love with her. Her book talks about her life growing up in the "holler" in the hills of Tennessee-- less than dirt poor. It dives into her relationships with family,Christ, and her tumultuous relationship with Porter Wagoner. I was captured by her humor, wit, and wisdom.

For some, I know, Country is not your cup of tea-- but Dolly has something for everyone-- she is an AMAZING songwriter and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and American Idol featured her songs on last year's show. David Cook sang Little Sparrow,

So if you don't like country, maybe you can still like Dolly if someone is covering her songs... This is my favorite cover-- Jolene, covered by Mindy Smith

And on the flip side, this is one of my favorite songs that Dolly covers-- Shine, by Collective Soul

She Was Ask'n For It

Leela loves being shaved! When her fur gets a little too long for her, she will let you know when it's time for a haircut. Since we shave her ourselves in the guest bathroom, every time we walk by, she will dart in front of us, jump up on the counter, stick her head out of the door and literally cries. She repeats this, daily, until we actually shave her.

Sometimes if we've taken too long in between haircuts, it's harder to shave her since she is constantly rubbing her head against our hands in appreciation-- one time Matt accidentally clipped one of her whiskers because she turned into the clippers to rub on his had unexpectedly.

We started shaving her about 3 years ago because she is fairly hefty and can't clean her back end very well. She also gets kitty dandruff on her back where her tail meets her body-- this is because she can't quite reach. The shaving has helped keep the dandruff to practically nothing and there are no more dingle berries!!

Today, Matt gave her the cut-- he's much better at it than I am, so I usually just help by giving her treats to lift her head or petting her so she stays in one position, making it easier to clip her neater. Today was one of her better cuts, she looks so pretty! She has what's called a lion cut, where she has her head of fur, full tail, and leg warmers.

I think she knows how good she looks. Usually after she gets a haircut, she's more social and seems to "prance" around the apartment-- showing off her new 'do.ps. she doesn't always take good pictures-- she looks like a mean cat, but really, she has HUGE eyes, which are very sensitive to the flash-- so she squints, making her look mean... but she's not.