Beautiful Day

I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful this day was! I went to a party today for a friends daughter. She had her Sweet 16. It wasn't as big or outrageous as the parties you see on MTV, but it was pretty close. She was happy and he was proud and a good time was had by all. She was given a day that she will never forget and I guess that's all that matters.

I actually put this wordart together a while back, but today seems like a good time to post it. So, you can pick it up here.

To pay or not to pay?

Well, I found my car this morning and survived another Monday. The weather is taking another cold turn and it's supposed to drop into the 50's tonight. YUCK!

Here's my dilemma---Do I pay to drive in the express lanes on the interstate or not? Milage wise it's better for me to drive up Collins Avenue to get to work every morning, but time wise it's much faster to take the interstate. On Collins, I have a slower speed limit and lots of stoplights. On the interstate, I have lots of traffic and if there's an accident forget about getting anywhere.

Last summer, Dade County opened up express lanes on the interstate. Those lanes have come in handy in the mornings! Starting Friday, you will have to pay to drive in those lanes and the amount you will pay depends on the amount of traffic at the time. It may cost as little as a quarter or as much as $6.00.

Now, I do have the advantage of going in the opposite direction of most traffic. In the mornigs I head north while most people are heading south and in the afternoons I'm coming south while the heavier traffic is heading south. But, if you've ever driven on Interstate 95 in Dade County, you know that even if you're going in the opposite direction of the heavier traffic---you're still in heavy traffic. LOL!

Now, I've spent the last five months using the express lanes for free and it's been really nice! I've gotten used to it, but I just don't know if I really want to pay money to go to work. What do you think?

OK, enough about that! Here's today's wordart. Again, there is no special reason for this. I just like it! Click here to download.

I'm off to take a shower now. Have a great day!

The end of November

Man, this long weekend sure went by fast. It's ending now that means that November is ending too. (sigh) Now, my birthday month is ending and I have to go back to work tomorrow. (double sigh). That's OK though, cause now I get to start MY CHRISTMAS MONTH! LOL!

I've already pulled out my favorite book How Murray Saved Christmas by Mike Reiss to take to school tomorrow. Do you know this book? Santa gets hurt and Murray, the Jewish diner owner, has to deliver the Christmas presents. LOL!

We also have to start planning for our annual trip on The Polar Express. That means we put the chairs in aisles like a train and read the book to the kids while they drink hot chocolate and eat cookies. LOL!

A couple of years ago I had a student that insisted to his mother that we REALLY were going on the REAL Polar Express. He told her all about how I had gone online and bought the tickets. LOL! (I designed and printed them ) This year I have his little brother. Somehow, I don't think he will be as easily fooled.

I finally got the new tags put on my car this morning. The old ones expired on the 15th. LOL! I had been riding around with the new one on the seat beside me in case I got pulled over. LOL! Trust me, with the way I drive, it's a miracle I didn't get pulled over! Anyway, I went out this morning determined to get the new tags on. I took two different screwdrivers and a butter knife with me cause I couldn't remember what I used the last time I had to change the tags. LOL! (It's so much easier when they just give you the little stickers!) It turns out the the screwdriver I threw into my purse at the last minute "just in case" was the one I needed.

It's supposed to rain so I pulled the car up to the top of the parking garage so that it would be outside and the rain could help wash some of the dirt off of it. LOL! Yeah, lets see how much luck I have remembering that when I go out in the morning and can't find my car! So far no rain, just lots of clouds and wind. The sky is getting darker though I sure hope it's not raining when I have to go to work in the morning!

Today's wordart is for everyone (like me) that needs to explain to Santa why they just couldn't be good this year. You can get it here

Now, I need to go concentrate on the football game. Miami is currently beating St. Louis 13 -9!

Disappointment

Well, I saw Twilight and I am so sad. I know that the books are ALWAYS better than the movies, but they really didn't do a very good job with this movie. They left out lots of things and put in things that didn't need to be there. The actors were all too stiff. Of course, Edward did get to say some of the best lines from the book and the theater full of teen girls screamed everytime he did. LOL!

I'm glad I saw the movie and I'm sure I'll go see the others when they come out, but I feel sorry for the guy the went on Ebay and paid $200 for opening night tickets. He got ripped off! I have to say that the best part of the night was dinner at The Cheesecake Factory after the movie. I love their bacon & shrimp club. Yummy!

Now, I guess it's time to move on from Twilight and think about the holidays. Starting tomorrow, you can drop by here and get one of four bragbook pages that I've put together using graphics from April the Scrapolic. Here's a preview for you...



And since we're thinking about Thanksgiving, we have to think about shopping on Black Friday. LOL! So, here's the link to today's wordart for all the Thanksgiving shoppers out there...

Eat & Shop

Now, I'm going to bed. Enjoy your weekend

Another request

I had never heard this saying before, but I like it! We all should laugh at ourselves more.

http://www.4shared.com/file/70465387/2ccb6d1a/Sanity_11-14-08.html?

Laughter

I spent several hours on the phone Saturday with an old friend that I hadn't spoken to in years. It was nice to touch base again. We relived our college days and laughted until our sides hurt. It was a great call and I feel just as close to her now as I did back then.

It's true what they say...there is no friend like an old friend!

http://www.4shared.com/file/70357020/baaa2c89/Laughter_11-9-08.html?

Birthday surprise

Well, I'm moving very slow this morning. I will be out of town next weekend when my actual birthday arrives so my friends gave me a surprise party last night. I have the best friends in the whole world!

It really was a surprise too! As a matter of fact, it was such a surprise, I almost didn't go. I was tired and just wanted to go to sleep. I got talked into just showing up long enough to say hi to everyone. Well, I stayed a lot longer than that. LOL!

Want to know something funny? I think they are planning some kind of surprise for me at work on Monday. That's the only day next week that I'm actually showing up to work. LOL! The kids in my class are in on it and they spilled the beans. They told me everything and then told me not to guess. LOL!

Here's to surprise parties...

http://www.4shared.com/file/70268450/267dabb1/Birthdays_11-08-08.html?

What a day

Saturday was a wonderful day! I slept till 10:00 (one of the advantages of living alone) I didn't leave the house until 5:00 today. LOL! I had trouble finding my car in the parking garage again. (It was on the third level this time.)

Thank goodness there are only two levels to the parking garage at the grocery store. Any more and I'd never be able to buy ice cream. It would always melt before I found the car. LOL!

I caught up on the episodes of Dexter that I had missed. Love that show!

I went across the courtyard for a cookout with my friends. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine so I took the catwalk in Jimmy's honor. We went out for a ride on the boat and watched the sunset from the water.

We took a walk down to Collins Avenue for a few drinks. With weather like we're having the walk and outside table were a must.

A couple of the guys decided to get tattoos in Jimmy's memory. Us girls watched as they endured the pain and claimed that it didn't hurt at all.

I have no tattoos. I'm way too big of a chicken for something like that. I tried to talk them out of the tattoos. I thought they should wait and think it through a little more. Maybe let a little more time pass. I asked why they would get a tattoo to honor someone that didn't have any tattoos and they answered, "because we can." LOL!

They were happy with themselves for their decision so I had to support them and I must admit that the tattoos looked great. I just hope they're still happy with their decision a couple of days, weeks and years from now...

http://www.4shared.com/file/69328850/488962fd/Foolish_things_11-2-08.html?

It's my birthday...

Well, OK, so it's not really my birthday yet, but it will be my birthday soon and everyone that knows me knows that I believe November belongs to me. LOL! A couple of years ago I had a student in my class whose birthday was the same day as mine and I tired to tell him that he needed to change his birthday to sometime in March. The poor kid! He just laughed and said that I couldn't change his birthday, only his mom could do that.

I never work on my birthday. I tell everyone that I don't work on any other national holidays so why would I work on my birthday. This year my birthday falls on a Saturday so I won't be working. However, I decided that I'll take off some workdays as well and have an even longer celebration.

My firends indulge my month long birthday becuase they love me and know that they only have to put up with it once a year. So here's to my month long celebration....

http://www.4shared.com/file/69261425/3d6cc33e/Princess_11-1-08.html?

Just a quick post

I just wanted to make a quick post to share a Halloween goodie that I needed. Am I the only one still working on Halloween? This always happens to me!

Enjoy your day and here's the goodie if you can use it...

http://www.4shared.com/file/68470869/ac5e1509/Broom_10-26-08.html?

Blonde Moments

Yes, I am a natural blonde. When my friends tell me a blonde joke, I try telling them that it's the fake blondes that give us a bad rep. However, mornings like this tend to prove me wrong.

I didn't have to go to school today so I got to sleep in and it felt so good. I woke up and immediately wanted to get my day started. Getting all kinds of things out of the way today means I don't have to worry about them over the weekend. Going to the grocery store was at the top of my list. I hate fighting the crowds there on weekends. When I tell you that there is a crowd at the grocery store I'm not kidding---one of the downfalls of living in a tourist area.

It took me about five minutes to find where I left my keys. Of course, they were right where they were supposed to be. LOL! Then I didn't have my resort pass that lets me get inside the gate where I live. I know I used it last night to let myself in one of the walking gates and it should have been where my keys were, but it wasn't. After searching the only places it should have been, I gave up. I decided to take the chance that when I was ready to return home, there would be a guard at the back gate that remembered me from one of the other thousand or so times that I didn't have my pass.

I go to get in my car and it wasn't parked where I thought it was parked. You see, I forgot about running out last night and returning to the parking garage to find that someone else had taken the spot I had vacated. When my car wasn't on the second level of the parking garage where I thought I had last parked, it took me some time to find it on the fifth level.

A friend told me several years ago that I should always try to park somewhere on the same level so that I'll always have some idea of where my car is. Of course, as today proves, I haven't taken his advice yet. LOL! But all is well, I made it to the grocery store and returned home to find a friendly guard on the gate that knows me. Now if only I could find that resort pass.....

Here's a goodie for all of your blonde moments...

http://www.4shared.com/file/68160238/c614ec0f/Blonde_10-24-08.html

I can only make a quick post today. I've got lots of things to do and I am behind on all of them.....by that I mean that I haven't started any of them. LOL! I have candy bar wrappers to design for a 10 year old's birthday party, Halloween treats to make for my friends, patterns to trace for tomorrow's art center, a Halloween bragbook page to make for a swap I'm in and I need to design voter registration cards and ballots for the great GPES election of '08. I wonder who will win----ice cream or pizza. Thank goodness I've got a long weekend coming up!

After reading back over my last couple of entries here it looks like I've been in a very serious mood, but it's actually been quite the opposite. Have you ever noticed that it's when you are the busiest that you are the happiest and the most creative? Right now I'm so tired that I don't know if I'm coming or going but I've got a hundred ideas flowing through my brain. Maybe I'm coming out of that creative rut I've been in.

Enjoy your day! Here's a goodie for you...

http://www.4shared.com/file/67879449/6bf071f7/Rules_10-22-08.html