[ happy birthday! }

Happy Birthday to Samson!

Samson is 3 years old today! He makes me laugh everyday and I'm so glad he is mine!

[ wow a wee ah ]

Wow! I hit 10000 visitors today! (probably about 400 of those were me, but whatever!)

So, I promised a contest and a contest you will get. I just can't figure out what to give away.

So - post a comment, give me a (reasonable) suggestion, and I'll pick a random entry on Wednesday, June 17th (my first day of summer!!).

Sound good? Go!

[ my new favorite ]

A few weeks ago, I tried a knock-off recipe for Starbucks' Passion Tea Lemonade. I'm proud to say I was pretty successful. Since then, I've been making jugs like this each Sunday and shake it up every morning to enjoy at school like this:

So delish. Since I've been drinking it, I've lost my taste for pop and sometimes, even coffee. Oh, the horror. !!

So, you want to try it too? You should - it's refreshing & amazingly delicious.

Boil 2 qts of water. Add two Passion Ice Tea bags from Starbucks ($4.95 for 6). Cool.

Mix 2 qts water, 1 c. lemon juice, 1 c. sugar.

Combine.

When you're ready to enjoy, put a few ice cubes in a shaker, add lemonade mixture, shake shake shake (10 times is recommended by Starbucks), and pour into a glass with ice. ENJOY!

[ CHS Class of 2009 ]

Congrats CHS Class of 2009! You did it! You graduated!

These little squirts were just sophomores when I came back to CHS and I have loved getting to know them and love them. This class is full of knuckleheads, but loveable knuckleheads. I am going to miss them.

I'm so proud of all that they've accomplished and all that they've set their sights on. We have college bound athletes, prospective doctors, protectors of our country, and faithful employees. About 1/2 of this class visited my office on a weekly, if not daily, basis...I'm afraid I'm going to be quite lonely for a while!

At least I'll get a little bit of a fix this week as they come to get their diplomas.

(I took these pictures from Tri-City Herald [dot] com...thanks!)

DJ receiving a well-deserved Principal's Award.

Debbie & Felisa

Aaron & Joel receiving their salutatorian and valedictorian awards from Mr. Peterson.

Check out Marisa right in the middle - so her!

The graduatiom crowd...

I was lucky(?) enough to get to celebrate with them at their senior all-nighter party. I think they had a pretty good time. It was fun to spend those last few hours with them as a group.

Class of 2009. I will miss all of you! Don't be strangers!

{p.s. AND I got to see Coriann...what a day!}

[ contest ]

I entered this table runner:in this contest:

There are some super cute quilts in the contest, so VOTE!

and if you vote for mine, I won't be sad!!

(Click on the Piece n Quilt logo for the link.)

Speaking of contests, I'm inching closer to 10,000 visitors and I'm thinking about doing a little giveaway since they're all the rage on blogs lately. What do you think?

[ goodbye goodbye goodbye ]

Today was the last day of school for the seniors. This day always brings mixed emotions for me. By this time, the seniors have worn out their welcome, so to speak (they get awfully sassy and beligerent) - but despite that, I will truly miss the seniors. This class is full of great personalities. The hard work is done and now's the time to celebrate accomplishments. Congrats Class of 2009!

[ a grand new day ]

This past weekend, a big group of women from Connell went to Women of Faith at the Spokane Arena. The theme was "A Grand New Day" and we had a great time! We had concerts from Steven Curtis Chapman and Mandisa and heard from great speakers, like Lisa Whelchel (Blaire from The Facts of Life).

Mom & Karen

Kate and her Mom, Karen

We tried a few times to get a nice picture, then my friend Jody photobombed it! Hello Jodes!

Seeing Jody was one of the highlights of the weekend. She & I went to Whitworth grad school together and we definitely don't get to see each other enough! We got to have a great talk and spend some time together. Love her!

Here's our good picture:

Candace, Kate, & myself

Part of our group:

Amy, Zoee, Me, Melissa, Candace, Kate, & Karen

The group of us at Anthony's!

Sunday, I skipped church (hey! I'd already had 2 days of it!), enjoying the leisurely morning, then headed downstairs for a marathon quilting day! This was just in 9 strips of 8 blocks before Sunday around noon. As of 7pm on Sunday, it is 6 strips from being fully quilted. I'm excited to finish tonight and start sewing the binding on. This quilt rocks my socks off. I love it!

Today was a particulary tough day at work. A freshman student drowned on Friday in Basin City, so it was a day of mourning at CHS. We had the library open for students to come and be together to remember him. There were 30-40 students there pretty much the whole time. He was well liked by so many. It is difficult to loose a friend, especially at such a young age. There were many students with him at the time of his death, so that's particularly hard.

On the way home, I saw this:

Spring Football Practice! YES!!! I love CHS Football!

[ another giveaway ]

I've been all about entering blog giveaways this week. Here's another lovely opportunity to dream about. Go to laniejanie's blog (http://laniejane.typepad.com/see_jane_run_go_jane_go/2009/05/a-sunburn-and-sand-in-my-pockets.html#comments) for your chance.

[ nothing exciting ]

Hmmm...it seems I haven't had a real update for a while.

Last week, we planned to go to Priest Lake to open it up for the summer, but my Mom's uncle passed away on Friday, May 22nd around 5pm. Uncle Alvin's passing is a huge loss for our Heider family. He was my Grandpa Walt's younger brother and to my cousins & I, he was like our fill in Grandpa after Grandpa Walt passed away. The weekend was filled with planning and preparations for his memorial service on Tuesday. Mom & I went to Spokane with her cousin Wendy on Sunday to get everything for the potluck that was planned for after the service. It was a nice time to spend with our family, even if it was under such circumstances. We treated ourselves to dinner at Anthony's after we got the groceries. We sat on the patio overlooking the Spokane Falls. It was a beautiful afternoon!

Mom and I were able to run to the Tri-Cities on Monday to take advantage of the Craft Warehouse 40% off coupon. We both got caught by the scrapbooking bug while we were there, so we bought some fun paper and raced home to play. I got five pages done!

This week has gone by fairly fast. The kids are counting down the days, well, maybe hours now. Tomorrow, our soccer, softball, tennis, and track teams are at the state tournaments, so I'm guessing school will be pretty sparse. Everyone was pretty excited today to get going to their respective corners of the state for the tournaments.

Tomorrow, Mom, Melissa, Grandma, and I, along with about 15 other women from Connell UMC and 15,000 other women from around the region, are going to Women of Faith in Spokane. I'm really looking forward to it - I haven't been since I was in college. I'm also excited that I get to see my friend Jodes from grad school.

Tonight, I was determined to get some quilting done...check it out!

I got it quilted and the binding sewed on, so now I have to hand sew the rest of the binding on. It's a good size, but folds to a pretty small rectangle. I'm thinking about taking it with me to sew at the conference, but maybe not. Once it's done, it will be my largest completed project!

P.S. Jessica, don't worry - your blog is definitely my fav, but I'm trying to brown nose Camille a little bit so I can win that cute fabric!

[ giveaway ]

I've entered this giveaway on my favorite blog:

http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/simplify/2009/05/moda-love.html.

By her:

To win this:

So, if I post a link on my blog, I get three more entries...

go ahead girls, enter...I dare you!

(A newsy post will come in the next 48 hours...promise!)