"Give her something that says I'm not a woman anymore... I'm a mom!"

I've been so busy/tired with work and the end of year madness at school that I haven't had time to sit down and do some blogging. School is rapidly coming to a close and while I'm looking forward to a break, I will be sad to see my students go. I think in many ways, it would be nice to just follow them through elementary school. I've had a great class this year, which was very nice considering it was my first year. I had my first incident the other day of thievery in the classroom. A present that was given to me by one of my students was stolen. I took it really personally but I had no proof and no confession was forthcoming, so I had to let it go. Valuable lesson learned, you can't even let 6 year olds into your classroom unsupervised.

Whew! I won't be a grandma at 36
Coincidentally, Grace was caught lying to her substitute teacher last week. She's had a rough year. She has taken the move harder than the rest of us and her teacher, who was great, became ill and they've had a substitute for over a month. Grace was caught forging my signature on a note, giving her permission to stay inside at recess to look for a missing book, American Girl: The Care and Keeping of You. Hanna's been very moody and needs to refer to the book to figure out "WHY?!" I wigged out, thinking this was the start of the slippery slope that would lead to lying about her whereabouts and eventually teenage pregnancy. I was also embarassed since I work there. Ryan works with a man who specialize in interviewing children and we learned that this was not a big deal. That considering all the changes she's been through this year, it's perfectly normal. He also told us that how she is acting now, is in now way an indication of how she will be as a teenager. Whew! Our very kind principal offered to talk to her after I told him one morning that she was in my coatroom crying. She's seemed much happier after that. Plus her teacher came back for the last three weeks, so all seems well in Grace's world. Here she is with her very excessive makeup before her dance recital.


You heard it here first
I heard a new candidate for most crazy baby name: Coyote. Discuss.

Are my jeans too tight?

I have a pair of jeans that I love and have been worn so much they are kind of worn thin. I know not to dry these jeans because I don't dry ANY of my jeans. If I'm going to spend $100+ on a pair of jeans, they will not be dried. That's right, $100. I told Ryan the reason I went back to work is so we can buy grated cheese but really it's so I can justify my jean addiction. Ryan, not knowing my jean rules, dried my jeans a couple of weeks ago. This required me to do extra stretching maneuvers when I wore them for the first time. You can see it coming, they ripped. Right in the crotch (Oh how I hate this word) area. In a beautiful coincidence, I found a replacement pair of jeans the very same day at a store that sells them discounted (Downeast Outfitters). The pair I found wasn't damaged and they were even the right length! You know that's meant to be when you're 5' um, 1". They might have been a little tight but my other pair stretched out so much they were almost too big. Well guess what? They aren't stretching! They are made out of the same material but they just seem to stay all tight and junk. In fact, I think I felt my legs pulsating as I was wearing them around the house yesterday. Are they cutting off my circulation? Perhaps. If my legs start to turn black, I will stop wearing them.

My name is Shea and I'm a cardigan addict

It's a toxic relationship and I don't know if I want out
My mom was here this weekend for a short visit but any visit is welcome. My mom and I like to shop together and I used to feel kind of bad that it was the thing we like to do most. Now I just think it's great that we have things we like to do together because some mothers and daughters don't even have that. The whole family took a trip to Park City for some fine day of outlet shopping. I have a problem with cardigans. I think you can never have enough and no two are alike. I have two drawers stuffed full of cardigans and I wear them almost daily. I like to think that cardigans never go out of style but I might be very, very wrong. When I go shopping, I inevitably see a cardigan that I think I need to buy. It needs to stop. With the help of Ryan, I'm trying to stop the addiction. When we were at the outlet malls I saw a really great cardigan at Banana Republic but Ryan told me I need to go cold turkey, so I resisted. Wait, what am I wearing in the picture below? A new cardigan? Thanks Mom!

Kids like me!
My mom came today and taught my class for me. I did do some of the work but she did a lot of drama and music with the kids. It made me wish she lived nearby so she could come once a week and teach the kids more. I bought her secret drama book and have been trying it out on my class. They seem to really like it. My mom snapped a photo of me reading a book about the Olympic mascots to some of my class. We have been talking about the Olympics and I'm trying to get the kids excited about them.

A student brought me flowers for Valentine's day! The parent helpers asked me if it was my husband and I laughed. Coincidentally (and if you know Ryan, ironically) Ryan had bought me flowers and they were there when I got home.

Too many pictures of the cat
Lucy discovered Kelly and she has been obsessed ever since.

Things I'm glad I bought

I spent the night with Ryan in West Valley City last night. Yes, I know you're jealous because West Valley is the first place people want to go on a romantic getaway. I guess I'm just lucky that way. The truth is, Ryan had training and they got him a hotel room so I decided to join him. Today I decided since I was in the big city, I was going to take advantage of it's shopping. I looked up addresses of the stores I wanted to go to and entered them into my GPS because I don't know how to get around Salt Lake County very well. I from Utah County so me not so smart. Let me just say, if you don't have a GPS you should get one. Ryan bought ours from Cabela's with the gift card he won at the UHPA banquet and we've used it a lot since. I was able to go every place I wanted today with relative ease. I got Ryan this killer Ben Sherman sweater at The Rack which goes nicely with his scooter. As I was navigating Salt Lake, I was listening to my iPod and it got me thinking about things I've bought which I'm really happy with. So I thought I'd make a list.

*GPS-We use it on vacation or in the city. We have the Tom Tom because it came with Canada.

*iPod-I sold things on Ebay a few years ago to buy Ryan the 20G and it's been the best purchase ever. Now I have a Nano and so do the girls.

*iMac-Ryan's family has been an Apple family since the 80's and our new iMac is our 4th. Our first was a Mac Plus that Ryan's parents gave us to use when we were at university. I think I married mainly Ryan because he had a car and a computer. Oh yeah, I loved him and all.

Our first baby.


*DVR-Oh sweet DVR, how I love thee. When Ryan was a road trooper and working shift work, he would ask me to record his favourite shows. I would do this by recording them onto a VHS tape just like cavemen did. I can't tell you how many times this didn't work or I'd forget and Ryan would be sad/mad. Plus, it sucks to watch anything recorded off the tv onto VHS. Now Ryan can only blame the DVR. My favourite thing about it is that I can watch a show in record time. I can probably watch two hours of "The Biggest Loser" in 22 minutes. Attention. Span. Getting. Smaller.

These are mainly electronic things I'm glad we've bought but I'm fond of other purchases. I was going to write about how I love cardigan sweaters and own almost an entire draw full of them but what can I really say other than, "I love me a nice cardigan sweater".

I bought something at The Gap!

If you're looking for a swimming suit that (in my opinion) looks good and doesn't cost a lot, The Gap is having a great sale right now. I bought a couple of their Essential Tankini tops and Essential Hipster bottoms that I really like. The top is padded which is very good for us small chested women, plus the pads are removable if you are lucky enough not to need them. The bottoms are full-coverage and I like the wider sides. You can order them on www.gap.com and they fit pretty true to size. They also don't have as big of a space between the top and the bottom as they show in the picture. Well, maybe if you're six feet tall but on me they touch. I got the one below and the polka dots.