Mae's Bday

Everyone knows that I'm OBSESSED with my dog. & my precious pooch's bday was the 24th. Can you believe my little girl is 2?? I found an easy recipe online to make cup cakes, or as I like to call them - pup cakes! Every birthday girl needs to have a special treat on her B-day!

Peanut Butter Dog Birthday Cake 

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour (or substitute rice flour)

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda 

¼ Cup Vegetable Oil 

¼ Cup Organic Peanut Butter 

1 Teaspoon Vanilla 

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Honey 

Combine Flour, and Baking soda then add your remaining ingredients. Mix well, pour into 8 inch round pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

  Pup-cakes as party favors to the other 4-legged guest. :)

Then, I iced it with peanut butter (you could also used vanilla yogurt) & decorated it!

Birthday princess with her pup-cake - ready to pounce & enjoy!

Getting inspired at home & in the classroom

So I've been introduced to pinterest and have been inspired by so many great DIY crafts for home & my classroom. 

Some crafts I want to work on for home-

make your own dry-erase board

old door, blackboard paint

magetic makeup holder

dresser with fabric modpodged to the front

magnetic monogrammed boards

Crafts I'll be working on for my HS Spanish classroom:

how smart!! to keep the comp cords all easily accessible

would love to frame this and put it on my desk

stamps I bought

bought some new posters

bought this pocket calendar, the months & weather are in Spanish on the back side

I'm going to label my popsicle stick cup "victimas" (victims) - I always ask for voluntarios, but 9 times out of 10 I have to call on victims. This is an easy way to remember who I've called on and who I haven't in a 90 min block

This is how my desk was set up last year - now I'll have my own classroom :) Time to rearrange!

chilipepper lights & "word birds" to demonstrate location - These were in English, but I pasted and lamonated the Spanish on top of it - genius!

I have a week left of summer to craft my little heart out! Time to get cracking!

Working? During Summer? Who me? HA!

 So my beloved father has an ice cream/water ice store in Corolla, North Carolina. He's had it for 5 years and my sister and I worked here for the first 3 before deciding we'd rather just toast our bods on the beach than "chill" with the ice/ice cream. We always had a good time playing "store" and snacking on the delicious treats. The summer help has returned to college so now I'm back behind the counter.

Michelle made this for us 5 years ago -- it's still the used tip jar ha ha ha

Mae gets paid in vanilla soft serve

Lifevests!

The girls love their life vests! 

Mae is an excellent swimmer now :)

...so I'm a little obsessed with my dog. 

OBX

Shortly after arriving home in the wonderful world that is the US of A, Kim and I dipppppped out to our beach house in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Its nice to be back in a normal routine-

1-wake up

2-go to the beach/sound all day

3- long walk with the pup at sunset on the golf course

4-bed

5-lather, rinse & repeat

The past few days have been full of sunshine (go figure).

My precious pup, Mae, learned how to swim! My sister's dog, Cameron, & my brother-in-law were excellent teachers. 

Everytime I was in the water though, Mae would have to be out there too. The problem was, she would swim out, get tired, swim back in, realize she really wanted to be out...so she was doing 3 times as much work. Kim & I ordered (pink!) doggy life vests to help them stay out in the ater without getting tired so quickly. They should arrive today! Will update with pictures later. They're going to look so stinkin' cute!

and my Dad might be one of the biggest goobers on the planet.

Party in the USA

This morning, I woke up feeling brand new and I jumped up feeling my highs, and my lows...ok, enough of old Talib Kweli songs. But I really did have one of those mornings! I have to first say, I love-love-loved Costa Rica, but I am 100% over-the-moon happy to be home. It made me start thinking of why I love the USA, so I wanted to write it down all the things that got me super excited to be home before I start taking it for granted again. :)

1.) My puppy! My glorious, purebred, groomed, well-fed, spayed and not stray dog (the dogs in Costa Rica were the mangiest of things)

2.) MY JEEP that I drive on paved roads, but can offroad if need be (the roads in CR were dirt & had crater-sized potholes)

3.) My IPHONE & 3G service (wifi was readily available at 90% of the places, but it wasn't the same)

4.) Down pillows, comforters, pillow-top mattresses, Egyptian cotton sheets...etc. (the linens in CR weren't the same...)

5.) Not having the need to put barbed wire around my house (which was around everything in CR. Apparently, if it's not bolted down or outlined in barbed wire, it's stolen.)

7.) Days like today where you can drive around blasting B.Spears, sunroof open & huge designer sunglasses on (the 20c bus was clean & easy to use but it's just not the same)

8.) mani/pedis 

God bless the USA!

Day 23

The.Last.Day. Sad. Depremida. Bienvenidos a Depressionville. 5:30 wake up, 6:15 taxi, 7:10 flight to San Jose. 9:00 shuttle to International airport in San Jose. MK departs on a different flight. Liz & her bf arrive. 12:10 flight to Miami, 2 hours going thru customs/border control & an hour to spare before our 9pm flight to IAD, whew. Arrival 11:20. Liz scurries into a cab, Susan's mom and sister scoop her as soon as we leave the terminal while Kim and I wait for Brett. It's funny that we left in the order that we arrived. First, it was just me. Then Kim, then Susan, then Liz, then MK & Kaiti.
16 hours of travel. & it all comes full-circle. 

tin roofs in San Juan

only security we've seen & this happened AFTER the flight

Last photo in CR :(