Random Happenings

I had some images and stories I wanted to share but I didn't have enough to dedicate a whole post so here we go! I combined a few photos! Enjoy!

Beautiful "Baby"

I snapped this photo of a beautiful little lady. Erin is growing more beautiful each month and I was thankful to catch this moment. 

Thank You

I complained about the intense heat we got this summer but I was aware that many people had it worse than I did. I left a little note for our Mail Carrier to thank him for all he does! 

Ben said he talked to the Mail Carrier the next day and he said the note was so nice and made his day. I really want to start doing more of these random acts of kindness to others! 

Bye Truck

We said goodbye to Ben's truck. It was time for an upgrade! 

Craft Time

It had been a long time since I got crafty but I had a good excuse. Addison's 3rd birthday! I made her a tutu! I used this piece of cardboard to cut the tulle in equal pieces. 

A work in progress!

The finished project!! I loved how it turned out but would have done more tulle and longer tulle if I did this again for this age group. 

The back. 

Added a cute little boa!

Farmer's Market

A good haul from the Farmer's Market: pickling cucumbers, bagels, peppers, tomatoes, flowers and sausage. 

A fridge full of delicious fruits and veggies!

Scrapbooking Keepsakes

Embarrassing secret time... 

See the plastic drawer organizer on the far right. It is huge and heavy and filled with keepsakes (mostly paper keepsakes). 

As part of my attempt clean and organize the office I want to work on clearing out this closet. 

I decided to use the scrapbooks located in another closet to scrapbook all the keepsakes. I had hoped to print all the pictures I have and scrapbook them super nice along with the paper keepsakes (ticket stubs, cards, letters, etc.) But we all know that life isn't that simple so I decided to just move forward and scrapbook the keepsakes and then hopefully later do something with the pictures. 

 I started off with my college years. Every semester I had a separate folder for my keepsakes. I started off by separating and organizing all the keepsakes from the beginning of the school year through the summer. For example; Freshman year includes August 2006-August 2007

Then I got to work! I did things simply and didn't spend a lot of time on each page. 

My goal was to get as much done as possible.

These pages are from my Freshman Year. 

This was my work station! How I Met Your Mother Marathon, cucumbers, ranch, chocolate,  and tea could usually be found on my work table! I am currently in the middle of my Junior year and hoping to get the college years done before summer starts. Then I have keepsakes from birth through high school to scrapbook. But there is less materials from those years then my college years. 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week!

I appreciate the teachers who spend 8 hours with our kids and I appreciate the teachers on my staff who spend the next three hours with our kids. I wanted to let these teacher's know I do appreciate their hard work and patience.

The Milky Way, M&Ms and 100 Grand were put into two bowls for the two schools I oversee. I put a sign next to it explaining why I picked those 3 chocolate bars and the staff signed the Thank You Sign. 


1. M&Ms because you are "marvelous and magnificent."
2. Milky Ways because you are "out of this world."
3. 100 Grand because no amount of "money" could replace all you do!

All the goodies!

For my staffs I put goodies into a bag and labeled them. Each day they get to open one and receive their treat. 

Monday: Thanks for sticking to the PRIDE pledge!

Tuesday: You are o-FISH-ally awesome!

Wednesday: Thanks for helping Champions to shine!

Thursday: You deserve an extra PAYDAY!

Friday: You are one in a million. Each staff member got a lottery ticket. (not pictured)

All ready to surprise my staff!

Easy Easter Baskets

This year I made my first Easter baskets! I made two types but unfortunately didn't take too many pictures of the process! But here are two fun ideas for only a few dollars each! 

Target Basket

I bought these baskets in the dollar section at Target. 

At the same time I bought an eight pack of foam eggs (including 4 glittery ones!), also in the dollar section.

Using paint I already had I added a big A and E on each basket for their names and painted some flowers on the sides. 

I also shredded pink and white paper to add to the bottom of the baskets.

Then added in the eggs! 

My little friends love stickers so I bought a pack on clearance for a few dollars, wrote an Easter message in a plastic egg that I already had and added a chocolate butterfly (bought in a five pack at World Market)

Each Easter basket only cost about $3 and took about two hours (with drying time in between paint coats) to construct. 

Paper Baskets

This was an experiment. I had no template but just drew out a design. There are templates you could find on goggle to make this project easier! I folded the template in various directions making sure the template was as even as possible. I folded down flaps on two of the sides. 

It doesn't matter if your template is messy, it is only a template! Mine was all cut up and held together with tape!

I then traced the template on three different pieces of paper. Then taped the basket together using double sided sticky tape.

I then added a strip of paper for the handle with the scraps. 

I also added a little name tag with the scraps and tied it on with colorful ribbon!

My favorite part was filling the basket!!

Each basket had some green shredded paper in the bottom.

The finished baskets!

My dad got Twizzlers and snickers.

My mom got a notepad, thank you cards and chocolate butterflies.

Ben got Kool-Aide, Pringles and Snickers.

I forgot to share what I got from Ben! He blew our $4 Easter budget.. by quite a bit and surprised me with..

NEW TOMS!! It was an Easter/thanks for working so hard gift! I love them!! 

Ben looked for a HUGE Easter egg to stick them in but couldn't find one so in true Ben style he gave them to me a few days before Easter instead! :)

Easter Wrap-Up

Easter at our house was a fun one this year! Last year my parents visited us while we were in Sioux Falls and hid eggs all over our apartment! We were up until 11pm searching for the eggs after Ben came home from work! This year we were lucky enough to have my family here again for Easter! This Easter was egg-stra special (haha) because we spent it with both sides of the family, the Boye family, and the DeRuischers! We are so blessed!! 


A few weeks before Easter I spent some time preparing! I had a few craft nights and did crafty things while on long boring conference calls for my job! :) 

Easter Cards
Idea from here

I made some Easter Cards for the kids in our lives and my little cousins. 

Easter Baskets

I made an Easter basket for my dad, mom and Ben! (left to right)

My youngest friends, Addison and Erin, got a basket too!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a big Easter egg hunt at work with all our kids!

We celebrated Easter with the girls by giving them their baskets and taking them to the park. Inside their personalized baskets were foam Easter eggs, stickers to decorate their eggs, chocolate and an egg with a secret message inside!

Of course, we were spoiled too! My parents gave us (and Tia/Justin and Tia's brother and his friend!) an Easter basket filled with goodies! Ours included gummy worms, Cliff Bar Granola Bars, Snickers for Ben and Reese's Eggs for me and other yummy chocolate and candy! 

My brother, Justin, slept over on Saturday so we were able to spend Easter morning together before my parents and Justin went back to their respective homes. My mom hid plastic Easter eggs for us to find and I hid baskets. We spent some time laughing and eating candy (for breakfast!) before everyone left. Ben and I went to church then had lunch with this family! It was a blessed Easter!! 

Brief Date Night Jar Tutorial

The Date Night Jar I made in a previous post was quite simple and honestly I contemplated putting up this tutorial at all. But here it is! 

I looked at a few different places to get an idea that I liked. 

I liked this one because you could decide the price range for the date night. 

This was another fun one because you could use the couples wedding colors to decorate the jar. 

I choose to do a date night jar similar to the second one but still used the first one as inspiration. I grabbed a Mason jar from our kitchen (they are everywhere!)

Cut strips of colorful paper and added date ideas. I also googled "cheap date night ideas" and got some inspiration from there. Some date ideas included Iron Chef Challenge, geocaching, indoor picnic, lay under the stars and I also wrote, "Ben cooks" and "Carrie cooks" as a date night option! 

Then make a cover for the lid to explain the jars contents. Tape it on top!

Fold the strips of paper and toss them in the jar!

  

 I also made an instruction manual to better explain the Date Night jar. I encouraged the couple to pick one, two or three ideas if they so choose and to also include other couples on their date nights. Making this date night jar gave me some ideas and I am anxious to have some date nights with my hubby!

I also put this together.

Bought the frame and got the pictures from this flicker site.

Have fun!

I Do!

I love weddings! I love seeing the bride's hard work come together. I get emotional watching the bride walking down the aisle to her groom. I enjoy meeting their family and friends and partying the night away with them. I love the colors, food, dresses, dessert, and sounds of the day. This past Saturday was a special day. My dear friend got married and Ben and I were there to watch the union of two terrific people! 

Before their wedding day I got crafty.

Date Night Jar

A mason jar filled with ideas for a date night.

Some goodies for date night. 

Everything was individually wrapped with an explanation included. 

Inside was candy, popcorn, cookie dough mix, and candles. 

I also got the images online and made this picture frame for the couple. 

Easy, fun, and unique gifts!

And of course a wedding post would not be complete without a few pictures from the big day. 

Ben and I before the wedding. 

(I was laughing.. whoops)

The head table

Each table was labeled with a place and an explanation about the importance of the location. 

The BEAUTIFUL bride and a few elementary education pals.