Professional pride.

Mini-rant. I promise. It'll be mini.

My job is a gift. I know that God allows me to be in this position, that He chose the best place for me to be, that He surrounds me with special people (Phyllis!) who help me be the best I can be, and that there is a reason (which I have seen clearly!) for it.

I love my job. LOVE my job. Would it be for everyone? Well, of course not! But it's totally for me. It saddens me when others don't feel the same way, not only because it must be miserable for them, but because their misery rubs off on those around them.

And for a small dose of THANKFULNESS, I am also so so so so thankful that I work specifically where I do. As a special education teacher I am particulary blessed to have my Superintendent, High School Principal AND Elementary Principal each be a former special education teacher. Such wonderful perspective and advice available from so many places. Serious blessing. Plus I'm just a short walk away from Quinn at any moment, in a building of people who know and care about him. Maybe I sound like a sap today, but as I was walking down to get Q for his dentist appointment I couldn't stop thinking about what a special gift it is to work where I do and with such amazing people.

Okay, rant over.

Puppy love

The next to last of Clementine's puppies went off to her new home today. She was definitely the pup that looked and acted the most like her mama, and I was a little sorry to see her go. A little. Leanie (my fab MIL) had two other pups that were ready to meet their new owners, so we made a day of it. After meeting all three buyers, we spent the rest of the day doing some light Christmas shopping and chatting. It was such a lovely day.
I have quite a few of my "12 days of Christmas" presents out of the way for the boys, a couple more stocking stuffers, something I know my husband will love, and some little girl stuff for my niece. And because the Halloween costumes were 90% off, it seemed wrong to not buy the adorable Snow White costume that would fit a 6 month old baby next Halloween...
Not that I know if I'll need a Snow White costume next Halloween, but for $3, I'm prepared just in case.

Giveaway!!!! Holy smokes!

Looking for the most amazing Christmas present ever?!?!?!

Well head on over to No Big Dill and check out her review of the new HP TouchSmart 320 Computer. I follow Katy's blog obsessively regularly and am so excited that she and her many little ones got to use this bad boy and show us all how awesome it is.

And yeah, I'm really hoping we win!

The best of intentions...

When I purchased these fabrics this Spring and decided what I was going to do with them, I fully planned to give this quilt as a gift. I used 5 fabrics that I bought to coordinate, and another three that I had leftover from other projects and I LOVE how it turned out.

As a side note, I fell off the chair, onto the table, and nearly flipped the table while I was taking this picture. Apparently my center of balance is more "off" than I'd realized. Oops!

Okay, back to the quilt.

So I want to be a generous soul. I really do. And I know this quilt would be appreciated. But...

I. Just. Love. It.

Sooooo much.

The mere possibility that this little life growing inside me MIGHT be a girl is causing me to hoard this quilt like fabric is suddenly going to be rationed and I won't be able to get any. It's silly. I know. But maybe someday I'll have a beautiful photo of a sweet little girl of my own on it. Maybe.

Of course, I should probably get started on something for a sweet baby boy. Just in case.

Tutorial used for this quilt: http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/2008/09/zig-zag-quilt-kit-tutorial.html

Kennedy's quilt

Ben's cousin had a baby (over a year ago... shhhh) and I FINALLY got around to finishing her quilt. I used this tutorial at Moda Bake Shop.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/07/his-hers-personalized-baby-quilts.html

I hope she likes it!