Cricut Love!

I just realized that I never gushed about my Cricut. I had been going back and forth for several months about whether or not I should buy the Cricut Cake. It was really expensive and I wasn't sure if it would even work on my homemade fondant. I read lots of reviews about people raving about what it can do with the highly over priced Cricut frosting sheets, and lots of bad reviews about people complaining it didn't do well with homemade fondant.

I decided a long time ago (about the time Braysen was born) that Braysen's 1st birthday would be pirate-themed. I was having a hard time with the decor. A lot of the pirate stuff for little kids was very babyish (I know, he IS a baby, but if you've seen the way I dress him or the way I decorated his nursery, you will know, I'm not really into the babyish stuff). So the kid stuff was too babyish and the adult pirate stuff had scary-looking skulls. I decided a lot of his decor would need to be made, so I started on my huge to-do list of party decor in January. It was about this time that I decided a Cricut would be wonderful to have, because my cutting skills are not the greatest.

So there was my dilemma. I wanted BOTH the Cricut Cake and the regular Cricut. I obviously can't afford both if I don't want to shell out the money on ONE of them! That night I posted something about wanting a Cricut on Facebook, and magically, Valerie text messaged me less than a hour later saying she had just gotten home from buying a Cricut. She scored a great deal on  it and she also told me I could borrow it at any time.

I waited about a week and then decided I needed one too! I did a lot of research, and as it turns out, the cartridges are interchangeable, so I can use any of the regular Cricut cartridges in the Cricut Cake. I also found out that I can cut paper with the Cricut Cake, as long as I change out the blade and the mat. It was decided. The machine was 50% off and I still had my Christmas money that I hadn't spent a dime of yet. So I bought it. And I am so glad I did!

I have been putting it to use to make a few gifts and a lot of stuff for Braysen's birthday party. There is one banner that I made without the Cricut, but if you are coming to his party, please don't point out which one it is, it will be very obvious with my less-than-fab cutting skills.

It took a lot of practice and trial and error to get it to cut my homemade fondant without snagging it. But I think I've figured it out, and I know I will get better every time I use it. I used the Cricut Cake to cut out the lettering and the hearts for Zoe & Mia's Hugs and Kisses Birthday Cake.

The Worst Week, but for the Best

This has been one heckuva week. It started off ok, but the last two days just completely made it for me.

I knew Wednesday was going to be a rough day, simply because we had our science fair. Not only did we have a hectic schedule, but at some point during the day, I needed to find the time to grade my 86 students' projects and folders. Good luck with that, especially since I'm a teacher, so really I need to spend my day, well, teaching! I had no idea what was in store for me when I left that morning. That day also happened to be the day that I had to contact all of my 1st period's parents because of some inappropriate information that a student included in their history presentation. That day also happened to be the day that a student had a medical emergency during my 3rd period and had to call 911 and have them wheeled out of the classroom on a stretcher and with an IV. Are you kidding me!?

I had so many parents that emailed me and told me that I needed to take Thursday and relax a little bit after the craziness of the day before, so I thought, "Cool. Maybe this means I won't be getting a ton of emails or phonecalls today from parents because they know what yesterday was like." And I was right, both my email and work phone were pretty quiet all day.

But then I had a personal incident that pretty much screwed up the rest of my day until it was put into perspective for me. I always considered FaceBook a place to keep in touch with friends, never a place to air your dirty laundry or talk crap about people. After all, we are no longer in high school. I know you may be looking at my blog and be thinking the same thing, but this to me is a creative outlet and a place to write my feelings. Besides, I've been explicitly told by this person that they are too busy to read my blog anyways.

Anywhoo, after many phonecalls and text messages I officially lost a friend. I want to thank Tony for going to bat for me yesterday, as he should have. He stuck up for me because I was being targeted as punishment for a mistake he made. What's funny is that he was the one who screwed up, but he is still in contact with his friend. Go figure. I also want to thank my mom for keeping me sane throughout everything that happened yesterday and for helping put everything into perspective for me and for putting a positive spin on the outcome. I also want to thank my friends for all the supportive text messages and phonecalls I received yesterday. You guys made me feel so much better!
In the end, everything happens for a reason and this was probably for the best anyway.

Oh! One more person I forgot to thank! I want to thank this little guy for at least starting off my Thursday morning right!

His favorite thing to do with his Valentine dinosaurs? Throw them on the ground and step on them!

11 Months Old!

Almost every month when I go to take this picture, I have such a hard time getting Braysen to cooperate. His 11 month picture was a little different. I realized that I think he is purposely not cooperating. See for yourself.


When the camera comes out he is all smiles. I missed some great shots right before this because I still don't know how to use my very expensive camera and the first shots were really blurry. I actually had one of my students offer to teach me how to use my camera. Thanks, but no thanks. How embarrassing is that?

 Once you put the sticker on him and try to get him to take the "official picture", the cooperativeness goes right out the window.

 Posing

At 11 months, his walking skills are continuing to improve. He started taking some balanced steps just before he turned 9 months and then moved on to walking to things that were just a short distance away. He did that for a very long time. Now he just takes off without a destination. 

Mealtime hasn't been that fabulous. If he's tired, he's very lazy and will refuse to eat any food off his tray unless I put it on a spoon and feed it to him.

He will still eat pretty much anything that you put in front of him though.

We are working on weaning him off the bottle. He now takes his breakfast and lunch formula in a cup, so we're down to just two bottles a day! 

And THIS is what happens when you let daddy dress him. The poor child can't even walk because his pants are so long!

 

Ahhh, much better!

Happy 11 Months!

Braysen went down early tonight because he was a grumpy bear. By early, I mean 7. His bedtime is usually 8. Needless to say, I didn't get the chance to take his 11 month picture today. I didn't really get any time with him this morning because I had to drop him off at my mom's today because Tony had to go in to work early. By the time I got him home he was not a happy camper, so he ate dinner, took a bath, then went to bed. We'll try tomorrow.