first week of school
Have you seen this on pinterest or at a craft show yet?
That is what I have been telling Jay lately. This happened to me when I was pregnant with Charlotte. I normally can not fall asleep at night due to my creative juices flowing about what project I can jump into next. When I am pregnant all my creative juices dry up. It is like all of my creativity goes into making a little person. Sounds weird, but totally true. I have many projects that I should probably start and one that I must start (antwi family your beautiful little family's quilt is coming, just slowly), but I have no passion or umph to me at all these days. Add on top of that the first week of school and I have been doing a lot of dead beat mommy-ing and going to be at seven-ish every night this week. Add together my lack of creativity and my complete exhaustion from those fifth graders and you have someone that can barely have enough self control to peck out a blog post to show our moms back home my classroom this year. I have finally done it though, I have:
1. remembered the camera
2. taken pictures that were not fuzzy
3. opened my laptop with the intention of writing a blog post
It looks like I am well on my way, one blog post down! Anyways, here is my new classroom this year. It is way bigger than last years and I am loving it! I have a lot of the same stuff as last year and some new additions. Take a look!
I think above is my favorite part of the room. I got cute lanterns that were pennies marked down at michael's and then took photos of the kids on the first day of school. Matted them on paper and put them up. I like the look of it, and the kids like to gaze admiringly at them selves! 
Writing Station
Library Station
Front of the room.
Maps and my desk.
So, these weren't the best pics and of course I had the 50mm lens on so I could not zoom in or out at all, but you get the general idea. I am also working on a classroom blog that I will share when it is up and running and on its feet. Hope all my midwest teacher friends are loving their classes and my east coast friends are recovering from their long first week!
-melissa
san francisco
So, it has been a long time. A real long time. Neither one of us has posted for almost a month now. We have had one crazy month, with traveling all over the place, dealing with our house being on the market, summer colds upon summer colds and little C popping a whole mouth full of teeth at once, we have been busy. I can honestly say that I have ignored this blog, all the blogs I usually read, facebook and the internet all together pretty well for the past month. If I could not do it from my phone, it did not get done. I know my poor laptop feels neglected. I am normally pretty adamant about trying to do a post a week, but I will admit it has been kinda freeing not worrying about it. One of our biggest highlights over the past three weeks or so has been a trip that Jay and I took to San Francisco, by ourselves, without baby! We had a great time and really fell in love with the city, got to try some fun restaurants, see some great sites and catch up with an old friend. Here are some of our favorites from the trip...
The city was prettier and cleaner than I think either one of us was expecting.
We got the best tour in town from Stephan.
Stephan was a groomsman in our wedding and Jay has been talking about going out to see him for years.
He even had three bikes that we could ride around town, it was perfect!
The first time that I had seen the Pacific, it was a bit chilly!
Some credit should go to Jay who offered to ride the bike with no gears through this very hilly city.
For the most part we rode through Golden Gate Park and saw all of the interesting sights. At one point we were forced off of the streets because a Hare Krishna parade was coming down the street. I didn't mean to be disrespectful, but it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The people seemed to be really into it though!
Some golden gate shots.
And our standard hand shot that we take everywhere we visit for the past eight years. 
I was surprised at how windy it was. There are no pictures of me that were acceptable because I am wrapped up like I should have been in that parade at Golden Gate Park. 
We love visiting as many national parks as possible. Checked off our list...Muir Woods and the redwoods.
They were actually so big and close, they were difficult to photograph. Here is a shot of Jay with some of the big girls, so you can see just how big they are. They really were very beautiful.
On the top of both of our lists was of course, Alcatraz. We knew that we needed to get tickets at least a week in advance. When Jay went to order them they were sold out about a month out. We were both totally bummed, but because Jay is totally awesome and persistent he somehow scored us two tickets one morning.
They ship you over on a huge boat.
And we had to sit on the very top to get the best views. Good thing I came prepared with my windbreaker. It was needed and used.
Views from the boat ride.
Old apartment buildings and homes where workers of the prison and their families once lived.
A standard cell.
Ruins of where the warden once lived with a great view of the city.
One of the cells that actually had a successful escapee! 
A street car ride was a must, more expensive than a taxi, but a experience that I had to have!
A view of the super cool gears that run these things up and down the hills.
Manly men of Fishermans Wharf.
Sea Lions on the pier. My favorite was the one on the bottom right.
I named him Freddy Mercury, he reminded me of him, don't you think?
Although our summer has been jammed packed, it has been a memorable one! Hope you are having a summer full of memories as well. I forgot how much I enjoy blogging and chronicling our little lives, I think my sabbatical is over!
-melissa
relaxing at the NACC
Jay was hard at work this week at the North American Christian Convention in Orlando Florida. As for me and Charlotte we did anything but work hard! My mom met us down there and we got to spend some fun girl time together. Of course we got to chit-chat, work on some sewing projects, spend some time at the pool and go to Downtown Disney (thanks for the advice Vera!) while Jay was hard at work in the convention hall. We had a great time!
Pooling it up with Grammy!
Chillin' in the hotel with her monkey (thanks Foshey's) and her water. What more could a girl ask for?
Running the streets at Downtown Disney in her first ever Disney printed clothing. I always said I would never let her wear things like that, but she was just so cute in it!
Taking a stroll with Tiki.
We had a great week, the NACC takes place in Louisville next year, it is going to be very different than Orlando! Thanks for coming down and spending time with us Mom, love you!
-melissa