Wordless Wednesday

Finding Out & Telling the Hubby...

So let's go back to Sept. 26th...
For some reason I could not get to sleep that night. I was rolling around thinking about how unprepared I was for school and my endless to-do list wouldn't stop running on repeat. I decided to just get up, go watch T.V. and mess around on the computer. Knowing that my scheduled visit from Aunt Flow was due that day and she never showed, I thought, "What the heck, I'll just grab a test just to see." Brent was sound alseep and I headed into the living room, now on a mission. (I should preceed by saying that we had decided to start trying for a baby, and this would have been my first monthly visit after stopping the pills.) Anyhow, I was definitely hopeful, but not too convinced that it could possibly happen so soon... until the 2 mins were up and I saw this:

Now, I know what you're thinking...jump, scream, cry, then go wake up the hubby, but I just couldn't do it! I'd always imagined me telling him in some fun and creative way, and I just didn't think waking him up from a deep slumber would do it. I also knew he schedules very little time for surprises in the morning. This meant I had to wait until the next day when he got home from work (longest day of my life). That night I started cutting out letters from scrapbook paper that spelled out "Welcome Home" and then I used a digital scrapbooking kit to spell out "Daddy." As soon as I got off work the next day, I ran into Walmart to get pink and blue balloons. I rushed home and quickly start blowing up balloons, hoping he wouldn't get home until I was done. I hung up the letters and scattered the balloons all over the floor. When I heard the garage door go up, I stood in the middle of everything holding the 2 positive tests (yes- I took a second one the next day just to be sure).

Needless to say he was quite surprised and excited! We both couldn't believe it happened so soon, and we thank God everyday for his timing and blessing. June is such a perfect time for us since I will be off school! Stay tuned for how we told the rest of the family! :)

In Case You Haven't Heard...

We are expecting a new bundle of joy on June 5th, and we are absolutely ecstatic!! We found out we were pregnant on September 26th, well actually I found out and then began plotting how I would tell the hubby. It had to be super cute and creative...that's just how I roll! ;) I will post later on how I told everyone, but for now just know that we are overjoyed! We find out the gender in January, and it couldn't come soon enough. I have some serious nursery planning to do, but I need to know pink or blue! :)

So far, I have had a great pregnancy!! I had many days of waking up feeling queasy, but it generally went away as soon as I got to work. I've been tired, but I haven't really turned in super early because of it, and I'm still awaiting the belly bump. I'm keeping my regular jeans on as long as I can, though I do admit to wearing a few maternity clothes already due to some serious gas and bloating! Brent would probably agree that the gas has been the worst of my symptoms, no beans for me! ;)

My mom came up to go to our appointment with me and Brent today. We got to hear the little June Bug's (nicknamed by Grandpa Kurt) heartbeat and see him/her kick and squirm...active already! :)

 
Stay tuned for updates, sharing the news with family and friends, shopping, painting, and partying!!

Super Hero?

So this week at school we had our bi-annual Book Fair. We wanted to make this the BEST Book Fair ever, so our librarian created events for each day of the week under the theme, "Reading Saves the Day!" (sounds super-heroish, right?) On Monday, we decorated our door, and though we did not win the contest *tear* I still think ours was the best (a little biased, perhaps!) I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'll get one. The title was "Our Reading Super-Heroes," and the kids drew pictures of super heroes with reading sayings like "Everyone can read if u believe" and such. I had some of them popping out in 3D to add effect. 3D was made by rolling index cards and taping them to the backs of the paper. Very easy and very cool effect! Tuesday was Open House and a late shopping night for parents. Wednesday was grandparents day where we invited parents and grandparents to have lunch with their children and then go shopping at the Book Fair. Thursday was community heroes day, where we got to meet some great local heroes. And then came Friday. The day we (Lisa W, Lisa H, Jessica, and I had been waiting for all week!!) It was hero day, which we turned into Super-Hero day! We were asked to dress up as a hero. We creatively turned that into dress up as a super-hero and made ourselves super-teachers. (Could be considered a bit egotistical, but we wanted to have fun with it.)

 

Every part of our outfit besides the shoes were hand-made! The mask was cut out of sequin material. As was the Super T for the back (which was glued on with patch attack glue) The cape was sewn by the wonderfully talented Lisa H (I was excited enough just to sew my elastic strip together which thankfully did not bust by the end of the day.) The tutu was made by tying tulle in knots around an elastic band. It took a couple hours but was EXTREMELY easy...a child could do it ("hint hint"). The T-Shirt was made using iron on letters. We added AVM to our sleeves (for Alta Vista Montessori) to make it into a school spirit shirt that we can hopefully wear more often! The process took a few nights after school, but the outcome was more than worth it! The kids absolutely LOVED it, and yes, we taught in the WHOLE get-up ALL day!!

By the way, we ended up selling over $5,000- our BEST Book Fair ever in the history of Alta Vista!! We are a SUPER-school!

Back to School!

Sorry I've been MIA for so long! Back to school time means back to doing nothing but getting the classroom and curriculum ready and surviving the first couple weeks! Well, as you can see, I did survive the first week! Whew! As some of you know, I switched from teaching 1st-3rd grade to teaching 4th-6th grade. It's proved to be quite a change, and though I am enjoying it, it comes with many new challenges. One such challenge being that a sticker or stamp is not really a meaningful reward anymore. :( bummer! Instead, I am going to set up a classroom economy system and see how that works out. If you have any ideas, please share! :)

I hope to take pictures of my classroom this week. I had a great time setting it up and would love to share some of my fun little corners of the room. I also set up a class website with blogger. I'm really excited about it and have already had some parents comment on how much they like it! yay! If you are into newsletters, Teacher's Clubhouse has some super cute templates that don't have to be used just in the classroom! I'll be back soon to post some of my other school files and finds that you might enjoy.

Until then, I'm off to grade papers and make more classroom materials! It's a never ending job that I really do love! (I also love help, so if you are interested...)

Wordless Wednesday

Sip & See for Manny!

For anyone who does not already know, I love to throw parties! I don't often get the chance to host them, but when I do, my creative juices just can't stop flowing! One of my very close friends, Sarah, had a beautiful baby boy named Emanuel William Martin this past May. Isn't he a total cutie?!

Sarah and I worked together as teachers in Waco. Sadly, she moved away so we hardly get to see each other. Since she still has many Waco friends, and I couldn't wait to meet the new baby, I threw her a Sip & See party with another friend. Here are some of the details of the party. The invitations, hanging ornaments, and all the other things made of paper were made on my computer using mostly the Monkey Do Kit from DesignerDigitals. Anything else not in that kit was made with other digital scrapbooking items from that site.

Invitations:
I forgot to take a picture of the invitations so here is the digital form of them. On the left is the invite; the banana was loose inside the envelope, which is on the right.

Gift and Favors Table:
All the frames were dollar store frames that we painted. The monkey jar was for people to write down messages for the baby and mommy (jar and materials were 50% off at Hobby Lobby). The "I am a Child of God" was also found at Hobby Lobby for half off! The favor bottles and boxes were found at a local party supply store, and we filled them with blue jelly beans and yellow banana runts. Yum! The info-pops were made with the digital scrapbooking kit (those are the decorations that look like big popsicles).

Food Table:
This was a very popular table! ;) The cupcake decorations were mini versions of the large info-pops. I ran them through my Xyron sticker machine (a must have for scrapbookers) and them stuck two together with a toothpick in between. They worked and looked great! The water bottle labels were one of my favorite decorations. I made the labels, printed them out, ran them through the sticker machine and then stuck them over the label already on the bottles...super easy and added a very nice touch to the table!

Party Decorations:

I wanted to hang as many pictures of Manny as I could, since he's such a cute kid and all, so I hung various pictures from ribbon which was draped across the ceiling. I also hung letters across the windows to spell out his name. I pieced together a few pictures to get a close up, that's why the long picture looks a little funny.

I hope you enjoyed checking out Manny's Sip & See as much as I enjoyed throwing it! Here's a picture of me, Sarah, and Manny (I think he's busy watching SpongeBob in this pic.) Can't wait to see them again soon!! :)

First Post!

Well, I've finally made it to the blogging world! Thank you Sarah for all the encouragement and help getting started! I decided to become a blogger since I have so many family members and friends who are out of town, and let's face it, keeping up with each other is tough no matter how hard you try.

My blog posts will mostly be about things going on in the Grygar household, crafty projects I undertake, and family/friend events that are too good not to share! I promise not to spend my time telling you how many hours of sleep I got or what I ate for dinner (unless I cooked it- that's an event worth documenting!)

I hope you enjoy the site and the updates! If you blog, I would love to keep up with you too! :)