Libby's jack-o-lantern

Tonight we carved Libby's jack-o-lantern. She wanted to do it this past Sunday but with our temperatures still flirting with 90 degrees I knew that wasn't a good idea. The pumpkin would have been a mound of goo by today and definitely wouldn't have made it to Halloween on Saturday! As always, she drew on the face and I did most of the carving because my main goal every year when we do the jack-o-lantern is for Libby to finish with just as many fingers as she started out with!

We got the cute pumpkin all carved up and the seeds are drying on the counter top for us to roast soon. After her shower tonight she put on her costume that she is going to be wearing tomorrow. School is out on Friday for a teacher workday (or something) and so tomorrow they can dress as storybook characters AS LONG AS they bring the book with that character. For Halloween Libby is going to be a witch but for school tomorrow she is going to be Cleopatra. However, she immediately nixed the idea of wearing a black wig so she is going to be a blonde Cleopatra. :-)

Chocolate apples

Tonight Libby and I followed our annual tradition and after dinner we made our chocolate apples. I really like caramel apples, too, but I've never cared all that much for candied apples...I don't like risking breaking my teeth for anything! :-) But anway, as much as we like caramel apples we just prefer chocolate apples and that is what we always make. We decorated them with candy corn.....

M&Ms.....................

and cute little autumn leaf sprinkles..............

Yet another fall festival (and the rest of my day)

This morning started early. MUCH too early for a Saturday morning. There are very few things that can get me out of bed at 6:00am on a Saturday morning and the McIntosh Fall Festival is one of those few things. I got up, got ready, and met Karen in Gainesville. We made a mandatory stop at Starbucks (where I had a delicious pumpkin drink and pumpkin muffin!!). We headed to McIntosh and met up with some friends and spent a couple of hours walking around the fall festival. I got lots of loot today! :-) I was very satisfied with my new treasures. From the fall festival we all left and met at a restaurant that we love - Mildred's. We had some delicious lunch and for dessert I had a slice of pumpkin cheesecake! Yummy!

After lunch I had to head to my eye appointment that I had this afternoon. I made it through the eye exam (which is always a big deal for me. I dread the eye doctor. I can fall asleep in the dentist's chair but the eye doctor really freaks me the heck out). They did the glaucoma test today - and I misbehave very badly during that test. I don't mean to...I just can't handle that puff of air on my eye. I start flenching and jerking back and scooting my chair all around. It's quite an ordeal. After several minutes the girl was finally able to get it done. I nearly walked out the eye exam during that test but I made it through. I didn't want them to dilate my pupils (mostly because I just have issues with things happening to my eyes...case in point: the glaucome test) but also I didn't want them to dilate my eyes because I was driving. So, instead they did a retinal map of my eye - which made SO much more sense. However, they failed to tell me that I would have a blinding bright green light in each of my eyes! After that I headed back to see the eye doctor and he came into the room and saw the bracelets that I was wearing. I was wearing my one orange bracelet and my one brown bracelet that I got at the High Springs Fall Festival a few weeks ago that I posted a picture of. Anyway, he said, "Do you have two children?" I gave him a confused look and told him that I just had one child. He said, "Oh, I saw the two bracelets and thought one was for each child since one bracelet is pink and one is blue." WHAT? I immediately began to wonder if HE should be examining MY eyes and not the other way around! :-) He mistook orange and brown bracelets for pink and blue! We made it through the eye exam and afterwards I picked out some frames that I liked. I will go back tomorrow to finish up. I wanted to think about it for a little while before I ordered the glasses so I'll go finish everything up tomorrow.

I came home for a few hours and then tonight Ryan and I had to attend a benefit for Hospice. Luckily his company really wanted him to go so they paid for the tickets - which was nice because we weren't interested in spending the $75 ticket price! It was a nice evening...the weather was BEAUTIFUL tonight (I might even say that it was almost cool tonight!) and we had a fun evening. Add on top of that the fact that my Gators won our game tonight and that was a pretty great day!! :-)

Gooshy grips

So, just before school started in August I bought Libby a pack of gooshy grips because she said last year that when she would write the pencil would hurt her finger. I bought her a pack for $1 that contained 10 gooshy grips. Well, apparently for Newberry children you can only get gooshy grips on the black market or something. I've found out that kids are giving Libby just about anything that they can get their hands on so that she'll trade them for just one gooshy grip. Several children have brought her Littlest Pet Shop toys (that are nearly $6 each!). Some children bought Libby lip gloss to trade for a gooshy grip. One little girl just handed over six bucks in cash for one gooshy grip. Are you kidding me? When I found the money in Libby's backpack I made her take it back to the little girl. Libby took it back (although she was NOT very happy about it) and she gave it back to the little girl. Two days later the money was back in Libby's backpack. What?? I asked Libby what was going on and Libby said that she gave the money back to Avery and Avery took it home but Avery's parents told her that she needed to give the money back to Libby for the gooshy grip. DANG! If PARENTS are willing to have their children spend $6 on a gooshy grip when I paid just $1 for a pack of 10 then I know what I'm stocking up on the next time I'm at Wal-mart! Libby is turning out to be quite the little entrepreneur!! ;-)

Gator Homecoming!

Tomorrow is Homecoming for my beloved Gators and that means that today was the Homecoming Parade! To remind those who have never lived in Gainesville...Homecoming is a H.U.G.E deal. Schools were out today for homecoming but luckily for me my new firm has a daycare available in the back so I brought Libby to work with me today. But that wasn't the best news...my wonderful new company gave us off from 11:30am until 3:00pm today to go to the parade if we wanted to go!!!! How great are they??? So, Libby and I left right at 11:30am and headed over to watch the parade. It was stormy weather this morning, then it cleared up just in the time for the parade, and then just as I got back to work it started storming again! While we were at the parade the sun was blazing, though. We were absolutely baking. My nose and arms got burned...so I have a pretty bright farmer's tan going on. How cute. The picture doesn't pick up the true contrast between my normal skin color and the burn I'm sporting on my arms right now but just to prove my point when Ryan got home from work tonight the very first thing he said when he opened the door was, "What happened to your arms???" Eh, it was a small price to pay to ge to be in a sea of orange and blue today! :-)

Peer pressure

Have you ever done something under peer pressure that you immediately regretted? I have...in fact, I did that very thing today. At my new firm we have childcare in the back of the building. After school today the grandson of one of my coworkers came into the building carrying a very familiar box of chocolate bars. I was standing up front with several coworkers and as I stood there this 10 year old came straight up to me (acting like he didn't even see anyone else in the room) and looked up at me through his smudged glasses and asked me if I wanted to buy a chocolate bar to help him raise money so that he could go to Washington. Everyone, of course, was watching this take place. I immediately felt pressure - especially since I'm the newbie and don't want a bad impression of me at the office. So, what did I do? I bought 7 candy bars. Dang it! Why did I say 7?? 7? Seriously, who blurts out, "I'll take 7!"??? Everyone else bought one...one lady bought two...but me? I bought 7.
Anyone want a chocolate bar?

My first day!

Today was my first day at my new job! Today went very well...the day definitely flew by! Today I started getting the hang of one of the operating systems that I'll be working with and spent the day reconciling bank statements for two businesses who are our clients. Everyone at the firm was so friendly...they already made me feel like I was home! It was a great first day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow - so that's a good sign! :-)

Camp Crystal field trip

Today the 2nd graders took a field trip to Camp Crystal. I had not been to Camp Crystal since 7th grade!!!! We got out there and broke up into groups of about 25 kids each and went with a camp guide. Our group first visited the museum that has some animals that you would be able to find around Camp. After question and answer time in the museum we went on a hayride around part of the camp. After the hayride it was time for lunch and after lunch is when the "real fun" began. We went on an hour long hike. It was 94 degrees outside (not including the humidity) and we went on an hour long hike. The children were barely standing upright at the end of the hike and each and every one of us was absolutely drenched in sweat. Gotta love Florida in October! :-) We got back to school about 1:20 and school gets out at 1:45 so I just checked Libby out early and we went home.

I had to be back at school at 4:00 for a PTO meeting which lasted until 5:00. Once that was over we came back home and Libby and I played with the frisbee outside for a while and then came in for dinner. After dinner she and Ryan played Wii for about 30 minutes until it was time for her bath and then bedtime.

Now I'm just relaxing and being excited about my first day at my new job tomorrow!!

Here is our group in the museum with our camp guide talking to the children...

Here is Libby with her very good friend Diana...

Here is the closest thing we got to a group shot today. :-) We were missing about 10 children from our group when we took this picture...and only a few children were actually even looking at the camera...oh well...I tried!

Here is one of the bridges that we crossed on our hike. It was barely wider than a balance beam and lacked hand rails! I was quite nervous taking a group of 2nd graders across this!

I realize this photo is not flattering whatsoever to anyone in this picture but it is just to show how everyone felt during the hike. Everyone was hot, sweaty, and grumpy! :-)

Here is our group down by the lake interested in all of the algae. Eww! :-)

As usual, the weekend has just flown by. Actually, my entire week last week flew by! It was my last chance to have a week off and just relax for the next eight months since I'll be starting my new job on Tuesday and then we immediately start the "busy season" but instead of getting to totally relax I stayed busy all week. It is impossible to completely relax when you stay at home! There is always something that needs taken care of!


Friday night we went out to dinner with Ryan's parents since it had been a few weeks since we've all been able to get together.

Saturday morning Karen and I went to a fall festival. It was pretty small...it only took us about 30 minutes to look at all of the booths but we were glad that we went. We both picked up some jewelry that we liked so it was worth the trip!

Last week at the fall festival that I went to I picked up a pair of earrings that are perfect for my fall outfits. I was so pleased with my earrings!!! I also couldn't help myself and I picked up another orange and blue beaded bracelet to wear on Fridays and Saturdays with my Gator gear.



This week I found a super cute pair of earrings that I'll wear during the winter. At first they just look like earrings with Swarovski crystals but when you look again you notice that they are snowmen!!!!! CUTE! I also bought a brown bracelet and an orange bracelet to add to my growing amount of fall jewelry! :-)


Later on Saturday I went to get my hair cut. At first I was just going to get a few inches cut off and get it all cleaned up, etc, but then I decided to get quite a bit more taken off. My hair really could use a new start...I was finding lots of split ends, etc, so when I got there I decided to get 8 inches taken off. Even though I told her to take that much off I was still a little freaked out when she was finished. But that's okay, like I said, my hair really needed it and it won't take it long to grow a few inches and then I'll be happy.


Saturday night I joined Ryan over at his best friend's house to watch the Gator game. The Gators played LSU - at LSU! This was our first real test of the season (playing LSU always makes me nervous - especially when we are playing them in Lousiana and when LSU is ranked #4 in the nation). And we didn't know until Saturday if Tebow would even be playing in this game. Tebow did play, and the Gators of course won! We aren't the #1 team because we are lucky - we are the #1 team in the nation because we are a great football team!


Since I was barely home yesterday I had to spend a few hours today doing my thorough cleaning of my house and once I finished that I've just been relaxing and enjoying the last few hours of my weekend!

My six cent tip

Today I worked the book fair again. First, though, I had the meeting with the representative from the company that I'm looking at using for our catalog fundraiser that we are about to have. It was a pretty short meeting...I just really needed to get some numbers from him to make my decision. After I finished with him I headed over to the book fair at about 10:15 and I worked there until 1:45 when the bell rang and I went out front to meet Libby. During Libby's lunch time I went into the cafeteria and got her and brought her out to the book fair to eat lunch out there. I wanted to share her lunch with her but I didn't have time to go into the cafeteria and sit with her so instead I brought her to me. :-) While she was in there eating lunch one of her friends, Tess, came in. Tess is one of the twins who had a pool party back in September that Libby went to that I mentioned before. Anyway, Tess is a hoot. She is so funny. She found a book that she wanted and as she emptied out her bag of change that she brought there was a gold Presidential dollar coin in it. She handed it to Amanda (who was working the register since I was sitting over with Libby) and said, "Well I certainly can't use this...it's French or something!!" Amanda and I both started laughing. Where in the world did she get that it was French? :-) After she bought her book she was waiting for her classmate who she came with to the book fair. I looked down and noticed that her shoes were untied so I said, "Tess come here and let me tie your shoes for you." I leaned down and tied both shoes and I started to look up when I was finished and I saw a nickel and a penny centimeters from my nose. She said, "This is for tying my shoes. Thanks!" Again Amanda and I started laughing. I'm telling you, Tess is a mess! :-) I didn't take the $0.06 but if I had been paid six cents for every time I've tied a child's shoe laces in the last three years while at Libby's school I'd be a rich woman! It seems I'm always on the ground tying someone's shoe laces! :-)

After school Libby and I came home for 10 minutes which was just long enough for Libby to change because she started her art lessons again today. After her art lesson we went over to see her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Whitehead. Libby absolutely adores Mrs. Whitehead and misses her dearly so we had to go pay her a visit. We talked with her for about half an hour and then had to get going to head back home.

After we got home we ate a quick dinner and then it was time for us to head to the softball field because Ryan had a game tonight. The game was a blow-out...his team won 15-0!

Oh, by the way, Tanja - in response to your comment on my blog from yesterday: The last two days that I've worked the book fair I've taken in a few one dollar bills and a bag of change and if a child is trying to buy a book (and like you said, it happens nearly every time that they have a book that is marked $19.95 and they dump out $1.57 in change on the counter!) I take them over to the $2 books and help them find a book that they like. Then I pay the difference for them because I'm all about helping children get books. BUT, if they bring over bendy pencils, scented erasers, and other junk I turn them away right away and tell them that they just don't have enough money. I'll help buy books but I won't help buy junk! :-)

Are you the Book Fairy??

This morning I worked at the book fair from 9:45am until 1:00pm. I was trying to get the hang of it before I have to be in charge of the next one all by myself. Students trickled in throughout the time that I was there. At one point a little Kindergartener came in and I could see from where I was sitting his eyes got as big as saucers when he saw all of the books. He turned around from the spot that he was standing in to take in the whole room and that's when he saw me sitting over by the cash register smiling at him. He came over to me very slowly and with his eyes still big as saucers he asked in a near whisper, "Are you the Book Fairy???" It was very cute. I couldn't help but laugh.

Tomorrow I have a meeting at school at 10am about our next fundraiser. We weren't going to do a catalog fundraiser this fall but we only have 1/3 of the budget that we need and teachers are already asking for the funds that we put into the budget to help off-set their costs. So, it was decided that we absolutely have to do a catalog sale before the holidays. They didn't like the company that they used last year so I'm interviewing a new company tomorrow.

My pumpkin in the pumpkin patch

This morning started off with us going to school early. We were at the book fair last night and Libby got a few books but on our way out she found two more that she really wanted but the PTO meeting was about to start and we had to get over there. So, because SHE wanted to go back to the book fair she was up the instant I walked into her room and she got ready in record time. She was actually pulling me out of the door this morning instead of the other way around! :-) We got there and she got her two books and I talked for a bit with the lady who did the fundraising for the PTO last year. I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 7:39...the first bell rings at 7:40, and the tardy bell rings at 7:45. I always have Libby in class at 7:30 so I grabbed her hand and we started rushing across campus to get her to her class.

We get there and the door to the classroom was closed - which was odd. We opened the door and only one set of lights were turned on - also odd. However, all of the children were sitting at their desks and working on worksheets. I looked around and didn't see the teacher and one of the girls in class said, "We don't have a teacher today...do you want to be our teacher?" I stepped across the hall and got the teacher over there and she said that she knew that Libby's teacher wouldn't be in today but thought the sub would have already been in the class. The office sent someone down to sit with the children until the sub arrived and I headed home.

I picked up Libby after school and we came home and she did her homework. After a while we left to head out to the pumpkin patch. I found two cute pumpkins that I really liked and Libby found two tiny pumpkins that she really liked so after some pictures we got our pumpkins and came home. And Libby had just informed me that it's time to go play Barbie Dreamhouse so it looks like that's where I'm headed...

Officially voted in!

Tonight was the first PTO meeting since I was asked to be the Fundraising Queen. Tonight was also the kick off to the Book Fair (which I'll be in charge of organizing the next time we have a Book Fair). We got to school at 5:15 to give Libby time to shop at the Book Fair and then at 6:00 we headed over to the PTO meeting. There were probably about 100 parents there which I thought wasn't a bad turn out. The PTO President got up to start the meeting. The first official business of the night was for the entire PTO to vote on approving the new by-laws. It took her three tries to get a majority of the room to vote on approving the by-laws. :-) I don't think people actually opposed the new by-laws...I think they just didn't feel like raising thier right hand to actually cast their vote. :-) Once she finally got a slight majority vote she announcd that the next business at hand was to vote in the newest board member...the Fundraising Coordinator. She announced that I had graciously accepted the position and needed to have a vote in regards to voting me in..and then she had me stand. I wanted to hurl something at her but I didn't have anything nearby so instead of throwing something at her I stood and smiled. She then asked for everyone to please cast their vote by raising their right hands if they supported me becoming the Fundraising Coordinator and everyone in the room raised their hand! How funny! She looked at me and said, "You got more votes than the by-laws...you are now officially a board member!" :-) Libby was thoroughly embarrassed, as well, having her mom stand up in a room full of people but she got through it just as I did. :-)

It's October!

I'm so glad that it's finally October...my favorite month of the year! We've been keeping busy in October - even though it's only the 3rd. :-)


October 1st: Thursday morning was my farewell breakfast at work. I'm not sure why they chose to do it Thursday morning...maybe they weren't sure if I'd actually show up Friday! :-)


October 2nd: Friday was my final day as a SunState employee. The day was very surreal to me. I just couldn't believe that I'm not going to be back in there on Monday morning! After working there nearly 1/3 of my life it's sort of hard to not associate myself with that place.


Friday night Ryan and I went to dinner with our friends Jordan and Amanda to celebrate with them our big week...Ryan's promotion last Friday to branch manager and to celebrate my last day of work with SunState and most importantly to celebrate my new job!! We had a great time with them and after dinner they came over to our house to hang out for a bit.


October 3rd: This morning I met Amanda at a fall festival. That's what I love about October...there are fall festivals every weekend!!!! I actually didn't know about this particular one until last night when Amanda asked me to go with her. We met there early and walked around looking at everything. I found a cute pair of earrings which are now my official fall earrings. :-) I also found another cute orange and blue beaded bracelet to wear with all my other Gator jewelry when I'm wearing my Gator gear.

After the fall festival I made a stop at Target to get a few things and then headed home. I checked my email when I got home to find that the toy that is at the top of Libby's Christmas wish list was back in stock at Walmart. For some unknown reason one of the hot toys this year are the zhu zhu pets. They are fake hamsters with all sorts of accessories. Stores just can't keep them in stock. I am set up for email alerts any time they come into stock in the toys stores in Gainesville, Jacksonville, and Leavenworth Kansas. I had some friends on the look-out with me looking for these things and they couldn't ever find what I needed in stock, either. Well, I got home this afternoon, got the email that the toys were just placed in stock at Walmart so I headed back to Gainesville. And...I FOUND EVERYTHING THAT I NEEDED!!!!! Whew, I am so happy to not have to be looking for those silly things anymore! Libby better like it as much as she thinks she is going to like it! :-)