The Randomness that was Friday

While I did learn so many neat things about blogging at Blissdom, it doesn't really help if I don't BLOG! That might be easier if I was a mother who had funny or frustrating stories to tell about my kids or if I was a famous singer and could tell stories from a 50 city tour.

I am neither.

So in an attempt to at least get something on this blog, I present to you (all 5 of my loyal readers) the randomness that was my Friday.

-The big story here in GA is all the snow!

This is actually a lot of snow for us!

-I had off of school yesterday! Which puts a damper to the aforementioned snow because our day off was planned...not because of the snow. As a teacher, I still love a good snow day more than ever!

-I'm still cleaning/organizing from Blissdom. One of my predicaments was deciding what to do with all the cute business cards I got. I mean, you are some really clever women! So I didn't really want to throw them away. Then I came across our cute bag tag we got from Mabel's Labels
I just punched a hole in the corner of all my business cards and strung them on our cute Blissdom '10 tag. [Some other blogger posted about stringing business cards together, but I can't for the life of me remember who she was!!]

-I finished a birthday cake for a friend of a friend.

The cake has now been postponed because of the snow. Here's hoping the cake will still tasted good!

-I started to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. That is probably one of my favorite parts of the whole thing. I'm all about pomp and circumstance and it doesn't get any bigger than the Olympics. It was so neat to see all the athletes march in and to see them just swell up with pride as they march behind their flag. Whether they be a country with 100 athletes or just 1, they get the awesome honor of representing their whole country.

I get all tingly every time I hear our national anthem!

So my Friday consisted of some snow, a cake, a craft and the Olympics...random.

What was random about your Friday?

Top Ten Things I Loved About Blissdom

As I try to decompress from my weekend at Blissdom, I'm taking a light spin on things and listing the top 10 things I loved about the weekend:

1. Harry Connick Jr
Still waiting for the picture of Harry and I...with his arm around me. Oh yeah!

2. Meeting Laurie from Tip Junkie
3. Hanging out with Jill from Diaper Diaries...

4. Tricia from Once a Month Mom...

5. Christine from Christine Satterfield...

6. Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife...

7. Jo-Lynne from Musings of a House Wife

8. Meeting George Duran from the Ultimate Cake Off
I kind of have a thing for famous people!!

9. Finding the hatch in our hotel!
10. These girls here

I just am so excited for Blissdom '11 :)

For more TTT, go check out OhAmanda.

Blissdom Recap

Wow...what a weekend! I got to attend the Blissdom conference in Nashville, TN. And to top it off, it was at the beautiful Opryland Hotel. My mind is still reeling from everything I learned. I have to be honest that I totally felt like a fish out of water. {splish, splash}

I loved all the things I learned, but now the question is how to implement it all! Before I left, my blog for me was just a hobby. I was really looking to get some direction on where to go next. I've had my blog for about 3 years now, but have just been in a plateau lately.

As far as the conference...it was a blast! I loved all the parties, events, and especially all the new friends I made! I was expecting to meet a lot of new people, but I didn't expect to actually become such good friends with them.

I'm so glad I got to go with my Sisterchicks.
We just had the best time! We can make anything fun...seriously. That's kind of what we're known for. On our drive home, we had a Sisterchick brainstorming session and it looks like a Sisterchick blog is in the works! I will say that most of that brainstorming session involved a lot of belly laughs! Stay tuned!

I was also surprised at the sense of community there was. Everyone loved everyone! Sounds kind of cheesy, but it was really true. The opening session with Kevin Carroll was so inspiring. The closing session with McKmama was so heartfelt. And everything in between was just fabulous!

There were lots of goodies from the sponsors of the conference. I'm surprised we were able to fit it all in the car!

So hopefully, you'll see some progress here at Simply Staci. Albeit slow progress ;)

Rhythm. Not Balance.

We've all heard it over and over...

"Find balance"

This Sunday, I learned that we DON'T need balance! We need RHYTHM!

{Don't you just love it when God shows you something in a new way?!}

Here's what it means.

If our life is represented by this pie chart,
then each piece represents a section of our life: work, family, friendships, faith, etc...whatever the pieces are of your life.

According to this chart then, we could only devote about 25% of ourselves to each section.

Do you want to give your family only 25% of yourself?

No! That's why we need rhythm..not balance. Balance says that all of those pieces are going on at the same time and we are wearing ourselves out trying to be all of ourselves to all of the pieces.

Rhythm says that there is an ebb and flow to life. Focus on one thing at a time. In other words, when you're at work, be there! In every sense of the word. Do your best, work your hardest, put your all into it...

...but then be done with it! You DON'T have to finish it all in one day! Leave it!

Then when you go home, be there! In every sense of the word. Give your family your undivided attention, make dinner, wash clothes, do homework with the kids, whatever that looks like for you. Don't bring your work home.

A life in rhythm focuses on one thing at a time.

Go here to more about living a life in RHYTHM!

Happy Birthday Brothers!

Happy 28th birthday to my twin brothers!!

Abstract Puppet Cupcakes

That's some more of a title?

My friend, Oh Amanda, was celebrating her daughter, Lydia's, 4th birthday with a puppet party! She and I were both on a puppet team in high school. Yes, we were that cool.

The party was so cute. Kids made several different types of puppets, watched old Muppet videos, and took home cute little finger puppets as party favors. All the kids had a blast!

I've been doing Lydia's birthday cakes since her first birthday. This year, though, proved a challenge with the puppet theme. Of course, we all know some famous puppets: Kermit, Big Bird, Elmo and all their friends. But it wasn't a Sesame Street or Muppet party...it was a puppetry party.

So, what I decided to do was take all those familiar and lovable characters that are so recognizable and use aspects of them.

See if you can figure out who these characters are:

These would the lovable Elmo. I made the texture of his fur by spreading a generous amount of icing on the cupcake and then did a sort of spackling technique by lightly slapping, for lack of a better word, the icing and then pulling it up.



These are Ernie. They are the same color stripes as he has on his shirt. Please ignore the shoddiness of my stripes.


This is Bert. Again...turn a blind eye to the stripes.



The infamous Cookie Monster!



Here's Oscar the Grouch. His garbage can lid is an Oreo wrapped in tin foil.



"Kermit the frog, here". I liked this one because the icing, batter, and cupcake liner were all green.


And last we have Big Bird. I used a leaf tip to make a feather like look. For the "feathers" on top, I melted candy melts, dyed them yellowish and put them in a ziploc bag. I cut off the corner to make a very fine point and just made the outline on wax paper.

And here's what they looked like all together at the party!

It's the time for goals, resolutions...and all that.

Last year, I was so on top of this. I had a post up on Jan. 1. This year, I thought about it, but just could never really finalize anything as far as resolutions are concerned. Last year, my resolution was to try something new each month. I think I did 11 out of the 12 months and I'm actually still working on the last one. Woops!

As Jan. 1 came and went, I was still left with...nothing. I hopped around and read lots of other bloggers' resolutions and then things started to come together.

What I realized is I'm more of a list person. I love making lists, but what I love more is crossing things off of a list!

So here it is, albeit 8 days into the new year, my New Years "To-Do" list!

• Finish reading the Bible! I started last year reading one of those "read-through-the-bible-in-a-year books and did really good up until about November. I'm still at Nov. 6 right now, but I am determined to finish it! Even if it takes me 2 years!!
• Tone up! I could probably lose about 10 pounds or so, but what I really want to do is tone up. Get rid of the jigglies! Know what I mean?!
• Organize my pantry! This pantry is what inspired me! It just doesn't get any cuter than this! I love the glass containers that hold the cupcake wrappers. Mine are shoved in the back of a cabinet. So my goal this year is to organize, complete with containers, labels, etc., my pantry. It needs a good cleaning out, too, but it sure would be nice to actually FIND stuff I was looking for!
• Go see a chiropractor! My back has seemed to have gotten worse and worse. I know I need to get it looked at, but my unusually freakish phobia of doctors has prevented me from doing so. But sometimes I feel like an 80 year old so I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I get older. I really need to take care of it now. Ugh...
• Pay off at least 1 credit card! I wish there was only 1 to pay off, but unfortunately this is not the case. I think Uncle Sam is going to help me pay off at least one. I really just need to win the lottery!
• More crafts! I've always been a crafty person, but have just kind of let fall by the wayside. And I don't like that! I have got SO much stuff (ribbons, buttons, paper, stickers, etc.) I really shouldn't have to buy much stuff. Just want to use what I have and create masterpieces! My goal is to make at least one craft a month. We'll see...
  
• Blog more! Hoping to get some inspiration in a few weeks at Blissdom! So excited to get some good ideas and spend a girls weekend with my gals! As much as I would like to blog everyday, my goal is to blog at least once a week. That's doable for me I think. Mainly because my life is about as exciting as the mating habits of wombats.

So there you have it! Should keep me busy this year!

Go to Kelly's Korner to read more.

Top Ten Tuesday

It's back to work for me today in a new year! I always love the beginning of a new year because you just never know what's in store. I'm hoping for only good things this year!

So to start this year off right, I'm going share with you the top ten things I've accomplished before the bell rings at 8:15 this morning!

1. Woke up - Being on break really messes up my schedule so the fact that I actually had to set an alarm and get up was an adjustment.

2. Pick out an outfit...a work outfit. I just know that if I could wear jeans to work everyday, I would be a better teacher! Weird as that may sound, it's so true because half my battle in the morning is finding something to wear. Yuk!

3. Check my facebook and twitter. They're blocked here at school so I can't get on. It's probably a good thing because I would tend to be a wee bit distracted!

4. Made some hot chocolate. I'm not a coffe drinker but I can drink my weight in hot chocolate!

5. Packed my snack for the day. I take my class to lunch at 10:50 so by the time 2:00 rolls around, I'm STARVING! Especially when I've been used to just rolling out of bed at 10:50 (just kidding...I can't sleep that late!)

6. Put in for a duty day. They're giving me a half day off to work on some science stuff. Can't complain about that!

7. Got a lab demonstartion set up. I'm teaching the water cycle today, so I'm starting off by doing a demonstration that shows the water cycle in action.

8. Went to the bathroom. I won't get another chance until lunch today.

9. Got my face on. Well, actually just my lipstick. I don't really know why I bother because it's off in about 10 minutes.

10. Say a quick prayer for the Lord to help me get through this day! I do love my job once I get started. It's just the getting started part that is sometimes a pain!