My cousin Ally had this on her blog, and it sounds like it would be fun to try.

The Rules

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me – something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments!

If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along.Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

SO, REMEMBER…Pay It Forward!

*EDIT* Since people seem a bit hesitant about this one, let me explain. First of all, do your best job- really- I’m not THAT crafty; (though, thanks for your vote of confidence, Aunt Linda!) it’s more about giving it a good try. Second, if you are worried about distance, let me do the worrying on that one. As long as I know you in real life and you want to try, I will get you something “crafty”.

SO COME ON PEOPLE, POST! 🙂 That is all.

This is a fun post I saw on my friend Rachel’s site that she stole from somebody else, and now I am completing the stealing cycle! Feel free to steal it from me.

How it works: You google your name, and then the word needs after it. So I googled “Elisabeth needs…” and this is what I came up with:

1. Elisabeth needs a coffee.
I don’t drink coffee. It smells okay in the bookstores, but really, I think if I did end up drinking it, I would be more psycho than I already am!

2. Elisabeth needs a lobotomy.
Ouch! But… hmm…. Do you think that would help with my headaches?

3. Elisabeth needs to have the last word.
Yes, yes I do–but it just so happens to be because I am usually right!

3. Elisabeth needs to go!
This one could be taken in a variety of ways. Like…. do I need to go to the bathroom? Go to the theatre? Go outside? Go away??? I think this one meant the last one… but who knows.

4. Elisabeth needs to wake up and have a severe reality check!
Hmmm. Okay. Time to see my shrink.You know…. most of these are pretty mean. I wonder what Elisabeths have done to get so many angry people at them!

5. Elisabeth needs to move along to something different that fulfills her.
Huh… I thought the teaching thing was going pretty well, myself.

6. Elisabeth needs to email the new excerpts to Mel so she can post them…
Okay. Somebody find me a Mel and some excerpts so she can post them for me!

7. Elisabeth needs to stick to what she knows about: being a Republican and making babies.
Ouch. I am not really a full Republican and I definitely have no intention of having children anytime soon. Thank you.

8. Elisabeth needs ‘cooling off’ time.
After that last comment… well, yes, a little.

9. Elisabeth needs to learn to listen to the views of others rather than presenting the attitude of “I’m always right”.
Okay. Tolerance is always a good thing. I can handle that.

10. Elisabeth needs protection.
I feel threatened now….

( BTW: Most of these were for Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View. Apparently she has A LOT of haters out there. I think it’s a stupid show to begin with… but wow! Poor thing…)

Anyways- Enjoy! Happy googling!

This is just to say….

I just found out I passed ALL MY STUPID TEXAS CERTIFICATION TEACHING TESTS! The English 4-8, the English 8-12 with it’s lame essay, and Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC-12.

Yes, it’s lame that I had to pay about $400 and take 3 additional tests to replace the ONE that worked for Utah. Yes, it’s frustrating that I was sick the day off the 8-12 and P&P EC-12 tests, the two harder ones. But in the end, I still did it!

Take that, Texas!

I’ve been kinda bad about updating… I do apologize about that. I haven’t had anything that exciting to say, or when I do, I forget to post them! So… here you go…You know, the usual info dump:

–Health: is the same. Ups and downs and the monthly doctor visits, experimenting to try and successfully make me a healthier, happier, and headache pain free person someday. *cross fingers*

–Jobs: Jared and I are both extremely grateful for our jobs… especially with the economy’s recent pitfalls. Jared’s company has taken some hits, unfortunately, but at least he still has his job. I also do love my job, but applied to the high schools in the area and am hoping to hear back from some of them in the next month or so (district politics).

–Teaching 7th grade: is going. Actually, there are some good things going on at work. We’ve been reading The Outsiders as a class, and that has been a huge success with the kids. I read it to them and then pause and talk about it with them. They have really enjoyed the book- it’s been a really motivating factor for the whole classtime. 🙂 That definitely makes me happy. Downside has been preparing for the HUGE Texas state writing exam this Tuesday… Tuesday will not be a fun day. Oh well.

Cooking: is adventurous. I’ve taken a liking to Rachael Ray. 🙂 I know, I know, some of you may not like her, but I’m a huge fan now, and most of her recipes are easy and affordable–I’m just a lot slower than she is when it comes to the finished product. 🙂 Jared likes the variety too, so that’s always good. However, I’ll be honest- I don’t cook every night. Working with these 7th graders from 8:00-4:30 can be exhausting, and sometimes I just come home and we have leftovers or cereal!

Housing: We are hoping to get a house sometime this summer…We’ve been saving up and are keeping our eyes peeled for the homes in the right areas for the right price. We will just see!

Anyways, that’s all for now, folks!

So here we go. I am on some new medication and the doctor said specifically to take it in the morning, not at night, but that means weird side affects come on strongest during the middle of the day. So I am home sick during church again… I am hoping this will pass by Tuesday (hooray for 3 day weekends!)

As I was playing with the camera, I found some fun pictures other than the characters, so I am going to share those too. First up, some Christmas pictures!

I bet you can’t guess what’s in that ginormous box that Stevie’s checking out. 🙂

Then…. The Truck! This is our new monster friend that I can hardly climb into (because it’s so large). Dodge Ram 1500 4×4. Guess Jared spent some quality time with it one day when I wasn’t paying attention to take these pictures. 😉

I like that second one so much because it looks like it is backing that naughty car up against the wall. 🙂

Lastly, my students’ projects. These are SO neat. I love these things. The pictures don’t show them as well as I had hoped they would, but take my word for it, most of these are so neat in real life, and are the size of real people. 🙂 The kids had to look up quotes on how their characters looked and passed those off to me BEFORE they could start on the character.
Meet Stargirl- Made with bulletin paper, colored pencils, and real cloth for her clothes (I love her- she might just be my favorite)

Then there’s Bella, from Twilight, drawn with pencils,

Then Annabeth, from The Lightning Thief (with REAL JEANS!!! LOVE IT!), Sunny, from Series of Unfortunate Events:

Then Jacob Black, literally 6’5″ and very pretty. I told the girls they made him look so good I could almost kiss him!

Then Jasper… and I love the details they did- I tried to do a close up of his arm (think of Eclipse, Twilight fans!)

Then couple of characters at once: Alice, (cloth clothes and yarn hair) from Twilight Saga; Massie (Cloth clothes and yarn hair) from The Clique Series; Tyson from The Lightning Thief Series, and Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter Series. And another Alice…

And last but not least, Gilderoy Lockhart, from Harry Potter. I love that they put glitter on his teeth to make his “gleaming smile,” as the quotes say. 🙂

Aren’t my kids so clever? Most of them did their best work. 🙂