Grease 2

I'm not embarrassed to say I've had this song in my head ALL day. It makes me laugh out loud.

One of my 7th graders told me she "got" this song- and I had to look her straight in the face and promise her that she didn't. But she would one day. And we would laugh.

Enjoy. Sing along!

Polyvore

I just found out about this fun fashion website called Polyvore- it's so cool- you can create outfits and wardrobes. Very fun. Very cool. Check it out!

houndstooth by camismith featuring Alexander McQueen accessories

Want to Help?

This is Clarkdale Elementary School in Austell, GA- which is a part of the school district where I teach. It was flooded this past week during the rains in Atlanta. I can't even imagine if this was my school. I would be devastated. So much lost.
But, the kids are headed back to school tomorrow. They won't be at Clarkdale, but rather split between two nearby schools.

Obviously, the recovery is gonna take a while. Not only does the physical building have to be restored, students and teachers lost all of their supplies. (Last time I moved classrooms, it took 12 boxes to move all of my stuff!!)

If you live in the Atlanta area, you can partner with 11Alive and The School Box will be taking donations at any area School Box during the week of Sept. 26-27.
If you're not in Atlanta or just don't have time to go by The School Box, you can give online. You can give here. All gifts are tax deductible.

Stuff Christians Like!!

I know I just blogged about Jon and SCL the other day, but this is BIG news!!
You can now pre-order your copy of the Stuff Christians Like book from Amazon. It's gonna be hilarious- no doubt. You'll like it. It's not available until April, but what a good thing to look forward to!

Confessions.

I watch too much TV. This is what I'm excited about this fall...

cooking extravaganza

I read about this AMAZING cake on Amanda's blog. Chocolate cake. Peanut butter icing. Reece's peanut butter cups on top. Saw this and KNEW I needed to try it.

She has an amazing cake and icing recipe- which I'll try some day. But this weekend, I decided to do a cheap imitation of Amanda's cake.

So, I used Duncan Hines Butter Fudge Cake Mix and Duncan Hines Buttercream Icing. I made cupcakes instead of a cake- mainly because I like them better. And then mixed the icing with about a 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter. Iced them normally- and then covered them with chopped Reece's Peanut Butter Cups.

They were amazing. Seriously. Life changing. They are all gone. UH-mazing.

my weekend... in pictures.

carbs. for dinner. mmmmm.

watching football with my dad. baxter just wanted to watch dad. :)
high school football. Go Mustangs. And Will.... #15 in your programs, #1 in your hearts...

hey, it's raining.

sitting at a red light this morning. wipers on high. outside my classroom window.

bone bone bone bone

Most of the blogs I read are written by people I know. However, there is a section of blogs in my life written by people I have never met. It's sometimes weird for me that I know all of this personal info about someone and I don't ACTUALLY know them.

One of those strangers/friends is Bone. He's my favorite. I absolutely love his writing. It's witty. It's poignant. It's sarcastic. All great things. And most importantly, he's an Alabama fan. We're obviously soul mates.

His most recent post took the cake. Hilarious. And true.
Do you read him? You should. Now. (Especially if this is President Obama reading right now... he has some good ideas!)

babies

whoa. not me.
but my friends have babies! i like them! I haven't gotten to meet either one of them yet, which isn't awesome. But, I will soon. And I'll love them. Because I love their parents :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is baby Claire. She's 5 months old. Her mom is my bff Katy- she's just adorable. Claire, I mean. Katy is adorable too, but this isn't about her.
This is my bff Jesse- and his baby boy, Jake Ryan- he was born on August 27, 2009 at 7:24 PM
He weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches long. I love this picture of Jake and Jesse- just precious :)

random sports stuff.

I hate Charlie Weiss. And Notre Dame. ugh. times a million. Seriously? Take your loss like a man. Don't blame officials. Take it. Own it. I already hate you. So complaining about a loss like you're a spoiled brat isn't gonna help your case. Tool.

I'm no Michigan fan. But Forcier did look like a stud on Saturday. And they beat Notre Dame. So that'll earn you points in my book. I don't care if it's the University of Hell- I like you if you beat Notre Dame.

Love these "What We Learned" Articles- always so entertaining. Especially this truth- "Alabama has options on offense". PTL. It's about time. And. This bit of wisdom to knock the Kiffin fans down a notch- "Now we know. Western Kentucky was just that bad." Ha. Love it.

This makes me so sad. I can't even imagine the Atlanta Braves without Bobby Cox. He's been their manager for as long as I can remember. It may be time for him to retire, but it makes me so sad.

smacked in the face

I read Stuff Christians Like. You should too.

Today's entry was all about forgiveness. And Kanye West. And how I expect and receive it for myself easily with no problem, but I am super quick to withhold it from people I don't deem worthy. Maybe they've done too much. Or gone too far.

But mostly.
They just got found out.
And I'm still hiding.

Years ago my uncle left his wife for her best friend. And it destroyed me. I could NOT understand. Didn't understand how he could cheat. Didn't understand what the best friend was thinking. It was horrible. My aunt and I were very close, so it was even harder. I had a horrible time even talking to my uncle and his new wife. I could barely think about looking them in the face, much less forgiving them.

Then it happened. I found myself caught up in a similar situation- where I was the bad guy. No, he wasn't married. No, he didn't leave her for me. But, I got so caught up in my sin that I wasn't thinking about anyone but myself. And it was at that point that I realized that I was no different from my uncle and his new wife. God is so gracious. And luckily, so are my family and friends.

God, teach me to forgive like you do. To love unconditionally like you do. Because you love me. And I am so undeserving. And so unworthy.

Not Soap, Radio

I just found out about Not Soap, Radio this week. It's such cute stuff! These are my favorite things....


Body lotion gift set- I love sets. And gifts. And lotion. So a win-win-win sitch.

One of my favorite things is all of the greek stuff- had to call my sister asap and tell her- perfect gifts for littles or pledges or alumnae. presh.

But this is my favorite. I love bronzer- and these pallets looks amazing. I'm gonna have to get one of these jokers!

everyone loves monograms!!

I am a big fan of Monogram and Me- and they're having a Giveaway- you need to go play!!! And shop!! You won't regret it!

This is my favorite thing over there right now.... but it was really hard to pick one thing!!

shameless promotion

my bff Adam is an amazing photographer. you should have him take pictures of you.

His website is www.youtopiaphoto.com

Check him out- you won't be disappointed!

Daddy Likey

I am a big fan of fashion blogs- even though I wouldn't really call myself a fashionista. I wouldn't actually call ANYone that, but that's beside the point. One of my favorite fashion blogs is Daddy Likey. Best summarized in its own tagline, Daddy Likey is a blog about fashion. But sometimes I write haiku about chlamydia.

Seriously? That's funny. And the fashion stuff is very interesting.
This was the post today... and I liked it to much to not share. And TOTALLY agree! Enjoy!

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How I Dressed Like a Sitcom Husband and Lived to Tell the Tale: A Semi-Serious Essay About the Power of Personal Style

My favorite class in college was media literacy. I loved it because I've always loved media studies, plus my teacher was amazing and we got to write academic papers about the latent messages in Dixie Chicks music videos.

One of the many things I learned in this class was that media both affects and reflects reality. For example, most sitcom husbands are lazy, immature oafs because in real life a lot of men are lazy, immature oafs, but maybe some of those guys act like lazy, immature oafs because they watch shows like According to Jim and think that's how a man is supposed to act. And maybe their wives accept the oafish behavior because all the wives on TV just roll their eyes and smile when their sitcom husbands, like, set the house on fire. (Hopefully none of my readers are According to Jim fan club members, but if you are, I apologize, and I swear I'm getting to my point.)

OK, so here's where I'm going with the long winded Jim Belushi analogies: fashion is a lot like media in this way. How we choose to dress ourselves each day both affects and reflects our reality, which includes our mood, our self-image, and our self-esteem.

This isn't a groundbreaking idea by any means, but I've been thinking about it a lot since earlier this year when I fell into a bit of a fashion funk. The backstory is I was regularly staying up all night working on my book and another big project, and a lot of those overnight writing fests involved donuts, and during the days I wasn't exactly feeling my best. Specifically, I was feeling bloated and exhausted, so I started dressing to reflect that: wearing loose, generic clothes that didn't reflect my personal style.

My boring clothes were a reflection of my attitude, but they also affected my attitude every day--I felt boring and frumpy when I should have felt energized and creative. Looking in the mirror, I didn't see a beautiful, unique, stylish person. I saw someone who was trying to blend in, to hide a few extra pounds of maple bars and some ever-darkening undereye bags. I felt bad, so I dressed badly, and then I looked bad, so I felt worse. Capiche?

The fact that I fell into a fashion funk while working on a style book was an unenjoyable irony, but it actually ended up being my salvation. I found myself getting genuinely emotional while writing about how dressing better can change your life (corny but true), and realized I needed to take my own advice. I committed to wearing the colors, fabrics, and cuts that made me feel good. I took the time to choose a bold necklace (or 3) in the morning, and I put on my favorite bright blue eyeliner even if I was feeling more blue than bright.

When I put effort into the way I looked, it changed the way I saw myself.

The dressing frumpy/feeling frumpy cycle is a vicious one, but it's an easy one to interrupt. If you're in a tough emotional space, or feeling bad about your body, putting a little extra effort into your appearance can absolutely improve your outlook. You don't need to spend a lot of money--just throwing on a silk scarf you found in the back of your closet, or a $5 floral headband from Forever 21 can lift your mood and change your perspective. Dressing for the life you want is a profound step toward making it happen.

This is what I love most about fashion. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

Look What I Made!

I love Alabama. I love decor that supports this love. I've never seen one of these, so I decided I would be cute and make one. I like it. I'd make another if you'd want to buy it. May even consider making them for other schools. But only if you ask really nicely. After all, Alabama did win Saturday :)
(by the way. some of you need some assistance. RTR..... Roll Tide Roll..... Just in case.....)


One of the admins at my school defended her doctoral dissertation a few weeks ago- this is the gift I made for her. Just painted on a piece of wood. My first attempt in hand painting something. Kind of impressed with myself. Just sayin.

Window (Browser) Shopping at Anthropologie

my GLORIOUS weekend

FRIDAY NIGHT!!!
Britney Spears at Phillips!
Box seats- AMAZING.
She was SO SO SO good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK FOR REAL.
ALABAMA.
Rough start to the day- but fought hard- and earned that win!
It's gonna be an awesome season!!!
McElroy!
Maze!
INGRAM!!!! SEC player of the week!!
Touchdown!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday Night.
NAVA.
Favorite restaurant in Atlanta.
Sonoma Jack Cheese Fritters?
Scallops and Grits?
Key Lime Pie?
Don't freaking mind if I do.
And I love the girls I went with- they make it even better :)

no wonder!!

I've been freakishly tired. And freakishly sickish.

Finally went to the doctor today.
Sinus infection.
Double ear infection.
Acute bronchitis.

Way to go, body. This is a good start to the school year.

Good grief!

business cards

I don't use business cards. I'm a teacher. Be serious.
But, I have a friend who has them with her contact info on them- and has them available at open house for parents to pick up. And I've always loved this idea, but wasn't about to actually PAY for them.

But.
then.

I found FREE business cards!
Maybe you already know this?
But it's at www.vistaprint.com

Free business cards! All you have to pay for is shipping (which is pretty reasonable). There's other free stuff- like rubber stamps :)

But they're super cute! And now I'll be super-on-top-of-everything teacher for open house!