My Love-Hate relationship with fondant

Sooooo. . .I see pictures like this:

and I think. . ."Hmmm. . .those look awesome. I can follow directions. . and I'm fairly crafty. . .I should try dipped fondant" Yeah, well. It didn't work out. . . I gave up on the "dipping" idea, and made this:
It's cute. . .I think. . .lol. . .but definitely not the kinda thing that I initially had in mind. I added the face just to have something on it. Didn't plan on making faces. Oh, well. I might try the dipped fondant another time. . .grrr.....

Nice-ness from today. :)

So - I've not been feeling well this week. Today was no different - and for part of the day I could barely breathe! Jacob went home sick around lunch time (Grandma took him home). I stayed the whole day. Anyway - so, tonight I was reflecting on what a good day I actually had, despite my "under-the-weather-ness." Here's the things I remember that helped me have a "Bright Happy Day":
1. Saundra told me that she had bragged about me to her pastor at church - they were talking about 1 Corinthians 13, and she told him about the stories I share about things I've done with Jacob - showing love to him, and that she told the pastor that even though I am younger than her, she listens to me, and sees me as an example in these things. I almost started to cry. There _are_ things that I am super proud of myself for doing with Jacob to show him my love, and I wish I could be more full of love more often.
2. I had the children do an activity I read about on-line (see the video below). It's similar to musical chairs, but nobody gets out. Each chair has a paper, and each kid has a marker. When the music starts, the children walk around the chairs. When it stops, they draw on the paper they are at. They were allowed to draw anything at all. Several children from several different classes wrote things on their papers like, "I love Ms. Hatcher." This makes me feel good, of course.
Ok - it seems like I had thought of other things, but . . ..hmmmmmm. . .can't anymore. Lol. :)
Oh - I remember another one.
3. I ate lunch with JD and LH. LH has a daughter in 3rd grade and talked about how much she liked music, and how much more excited the kids were to go to music now that I am the music teacher compared to in the past. :)

Video from Elderton's Birthday

Elderton's Cake

The day we painted. . .

Check out this video: Painting Fun

Blues Are. . ..

According to a personality inventory I took. . . .I am a "blue." Blues are:

Analytical	Committed
Compassionate	Dedicated
Deliberate	Dependable
Emotional	Loyal
Nurturing	Seek Quality
Respectful	Sincere
Thoughtful	Well-Mannered

For the most part - I agree with these. I'm not sure how well-mannered I am, but overall - yes. :) Definitely analytical (gets me in trouble sometimes), compassionate - yes, committed - yes, dedicated - to what I care about, yes, emotional. . .yes. . .etc.

Tonight. . .

So. I went to dinner (Sam's final supper before officially going to college) at the Sterlings'. We had a VERY fun time. . .like. . . almost too much fun! HOWEVER - I kinda lost it at one point - and it's actually related to the last post - kinda: follow me here. SO - as part of my whole working-on-my-self-image thing, I've been taking LOTS of pictures of myself. Unfortunately, I have not been deleting them very quickly - partly cause I forget to, and partly because my camera disk can hold a lot, so it's not that necessary. On the way over to the Sterlings, I figured I outta start deleting some, b/c Oberg always wants to look through the pics on my camera. But alas, I did not have time/patience to do it. Sure enough, they were there and he started looking through pictures. This stressed me out. I knew I should be fine about it. Yeah - so he was gonna see LOTS of pictures of me, but that's OK, right. Well - it stressed me out, and I went and sat behind Anderton while Oberg was looking at them. Well. . . even though I had clearly explained what I was stressed about. . . Anderton voiced that he thought I was all nervous/stressed about somebody else - and because 1)I was stressed out cause of the pictures 2)I had already gotten annoyed at somebody for bringing him up 3)I was actively trying to not think of that person. . .I slapped Anderton on the back. . .more than once. . .rather hard. And felt EXTREMELY bad, guilty, awkward, etc afterwards. . .for awhile. GRRrrrrr.

BUT - anyway - we all got over it, and had fun, playing Pictionary among other things. Here's one video. . .

Journey to a happier ME!

Sooooo. This post is a little awkward for me, but recently I have been really working on my self-image. The picture on the left is of me three years ago; the pic on the right was taken yesterday. I have done lots myself, and also accepted and even welcomed suggestions and advice from friends. I also love watching shows like "What Not To Wear" and "How to Look Good Naked" - where the hosts constantly tell the people on the show to love their bodies as they are. I am beginning to learn and accept and embrace the fact that it's not about size - but confidence, fit of clothes, and so forth. For me, this is remarkable - not only for me to realize, but also to be willing to post!

So far, so good. I have taken an abundance of pictures, and am becoming more and more satisfied with what I see - which encourages me to proceed. What's also amazing, is that the more I work on this, the more I know that it's not about appearance. . .it's about learning how to feel positive about myself on the inside (cliche, I know) - and being willing and happy to show that feeling on the outside. Before - I hid. I did not want people to think that I tried to look good. . .so most often, I did not (try or succeed). I did not want compliments on my appearance, because I felt that they were not sincere - because I did not believe that I was deserving of that. BLAH BLAH BLAH. I'm beyond that. . .and welcome all compliments. LOL! :)

First day of school.

School started back today - - with kids, I mean. It overall went really well - - considering it was a first day of school! The morning was amazingly-stress-free!!! The afternoon made me start to have feelings of self-doubt, but pushed through it and am determined to plan more engaging, hands-on, activities for the kids for tomorrow!! I think my classroom looks good. . . I am committed to incorporating lots of reading instruction into my music instruction. . . so far so good with what I did today - recognizing narrative elements (plot, characters, setting) of a song. The picture on the right is me and my friend/parapro, Saundra. We were together the year before last during my second year teaching self-contained SPED.
This past week has been very thought-provoking, a little confusing, but overall very good. Saturday evening proved rather . . .um. . .surprising as I was informed of thought processes from a friend that I was not aware existed. This was awesome. . .but leaves me wondering what am i supposed to do with that information???

I have also realized this week that I don't have to be messy. Crazy, huh? So - - little by little I've been working on cleaning up my house - - starting with my room. . .and with more resolve to just keep it clean, rather than telling myself and others, "Oh, well; I'm just messy"

Must make Jacob some food. . .

Unicorn Cake

Made this cake for Elder Anderton's birthday. . . I think it turned out super cute, and he and his companion (Elder Oberg!) were totally excited about it. :)

PAINTING and such

Last year, I painted 3 walls of my classroom during pre-planning. Unfortunately, the 4th wall never got painted. . .until yesterday. The Elders came and finished up - mainly the "high ups" that I couldn't reach. Then, I taught them (and Sam) a couple songs on the Boomwackers. YAY!
Jacob videoed this. . .so. . um. . .it's kinda shakey. :)