Friday, April 19th, 2014

HF4F!!!

Happy week's end!!! Overall, it's been a pretty uneventful week here at Keeping Up With KC, but that's not to say there hasn't been any standout moments. And, as such, I am linking up with Lauren Elizabeth to share my week's standout moments.

-1-

Helped host a special program at our library Monday evening that featured an informational session on service dogs (which are completely different from therapy dogs) to kick off National Library Week. The handler, her dog, and her husband did a phenomenal job engaging my library's young patrons as well as us adults. We learned so much and had a blast. Supervisor and I called it a huge success.  

-2-

Participated in a vegetarian cooking class Tuesday evening at a neighboring county's library. The class featured a plethora of demonstrations and tons of sampling. Awesome!

-3-

Finished my April book, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare, on Wednesday. It was kinda a cheat because I loved the movie, but couldn't get myself into the book after trying to read it a gazillion times. I finally settled on listening to the audio of the book on the way to and from work and knocked it out in a week. Just ordered the second book in the series to "read" on my way up to the GA this weekend.

-4-

Wanted to get back into felting because I miss it so much, so I whipped this up Wednesday evening. I think I'm going to make another tea bag and a couple of felt cookies to go with it to make it a set.

-5-

Finally finished my Easter shopping and put together my family's collective Easter basket. I hope they like it.

Wishing you and yours a phenomenal Easter weekend!!!

Monday, April 14th, 2014

Weekend Recap

Monday Monday... (she trails off humming the Mamas and Papas song). Another fantastic weekend in the books here at Keeping Up With KC.

Friday evening, I had my Movie in the Park date with my niece. Our evening featured a trip to Chick-fil-A, Wreck-It Ralph, and Hershey's ice cream. It can't get any better than that.

Saturday late morning I headed to my sister's bridal shower tea/brunch. The MOH truly outdid herself because the venue was so cute and quaint, the food was to die for, and the party portion was amazing. 

After the shower, I met up with the cuzzo for an afternoon of haircuts and thrifting. Found some really great stuff for super cheap. Score!

On Sunday, I spent the day with a friend celebrating her birthday. We went to Palm Sunday mass that morning (definitely not what I'm used to at my church, but definitely an experience worth having) and went to lunch that afternoon.

Yep, a fantastic weekend!!!

As for the kindness mission...

Kindness mission #14 was to thank someone. My "someone" was the people in receiving at a local hardware retailer that donated boxes for us to use to build our castle for out Pirates and Princesses Story Time. Without them and their donations, there was no way that I could have brought my vision to life for the kids to enjoy.

To thank them, I bought a nice little card and put a picture of the castle in it. Since the retailer is so close, I walked it over to them and hand delivered it, which they enjoyed completely. Thanks again guys!!!

Mission #14: Completed.

Mission #15:  Draw/color someone a picture.

Friday, April 11, 2014

High Five for Friday

Oh Happy Friday! (Oh Happy Friday!) Happy Friday! (Happy Friday!) As usual, I am linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday to share my top five moments of the week.

-1-

Finished planning, writing, and prepping for ALL regular story times through the end of April when we take a break to focus on summer reading stuffs in May, June, July, and August!!! It's so nice to check that "little" task off of my To-Do List.

-2- 

On Tuesday, headed to the local froyo joint to catch up with a friend of mine. Had an absolute blast despite the icky cold weather.

-3-

Let's see, Wednesday's highlight was finally getting around to purchasing ALL of the 500 million greeting cards that I had to get for the 500 million events coming up. Now to get the gifts to go with the greeting cards...

-4-

Nixed Zumba Thursday evening to go shopping for a dress for my sister's bridal shower this weekend. Way to wait until the last minute right???

-5-    

Been counting the days for my dinner date and movie the park with my niece this evening. I don't know if she is more excited or I am. :-)

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!!!

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

Aaaarrrgg!!!

I've been pondering about writing another blog post and have decided to start doing a Wednesday post (the second Wednesday of the month for now) about the "miscellaneous" of the KC. Meaning, I guess, that I am going to write about whatever's on my mind at the time. It's a little deviation from the norm weekend and weekly recaps that I do on Monday and Friday. (Whispered to the side: They are nice, but straight up run-of-the-mill BORING!!!) So, here goes...

A couple of weeks ago, ALL of our local schools (that's four counties worth of schools) were on spring break. That meant complete and utter craziness for the library's youth services staff (i.e. me and awesome co-worker). That also meant a heap a lot more kids for our weekly story times, too.


In an effort to curb the crazy, awesome co-worker and I created a super fun story time for our youngest patrons (and their older siblings) to enjoy including castles and treasure maps. Say what? Yep, we hosted a Pirates and Princesses story times over spring break.  

Of course we invited the kids (and caregivers) to dress the parts in the weeks leading up to the pirates and princesses story time event. The day of, the story time started with the norm songs, stories, and action rhymes. Here's what that looked like:

Opening Song: If You're Happy to be Here

Story: Not All Princesses Dress in Pink, by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple

Action Rhyme: Little Princess (tune: Frere Jacques)
*Note: This one is a Miss KC original because I couldn't find any princess action rhymes. I sang the first line and had the kids repeat the line back to me for uber participation.

Little princess.
(Little princess.)
Curtsy low.
(Curtsy low.)
Curtsy to the front.
(Curtsy to the front.)
Little Princess.
(Little Princess.)

Little princess.

(Little princess.)

Dance around.

(Dance around.)

Dance to the front.
(Dance to the front.)

Little princess.

(Little princess.)

Little princess.
(Little princess.)
Wave goodbye.
(Wave goodbye.)
Wave to the front.
(Wave to the front.)
Little princess.
(Little princess.)

Story: Do Pirates Take Baths?, by Kathy Tucker

Action Rhyme: Ten Little Pirates

Ten little pirates stand in a row,
(hold both hands up with 10 fingers raised)

They all bow down to the captain, so.

(bend fingers down, then up)

They march to the left and they march to the right,

(move hands to left and right)

They shout “Yo Ho!” and give their captain a fright!

(shout loudly and clap hands on “fright”)

Story: Pirates & Princesses, by Jill Kargman

Closing Song: The More We Get Together

Before we sang our last song and closed out the "norm portion" of story time, we surprised our patrons with a treasure hunt, complete with treasure map and treasure chest, in the story hour room. It was a blast trying to get everyone to guess where the treasure chest was located according to the treasure map (it was "in" the castle).



After we found the treasure chest and divided the "booty," we did the special craft, a pirate hat or princess crown. The kids and parents really enjoyed personalizing this simple craft.

To finish out the story time, the young pirates and princesses got to sample "Pirate Hardtack" and "Princess Cookies" (sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies).

I daresay that it was an absolute and total success. Now onto planning for our next big event...

Monday, April 7th, 2014

Weekend Recap and Kindness Mission #14

Wow... Never thought I'd say this, but I'm kinda happy to see Monday. It's been quite the weekend.

Friday day day, my day off, was devoted completely to the boring and mundane household tasks that unfortunately needed to be done (i.e. clothes, cleaning, detailing, etc.).

Was also introduced to Japanese plums as there is a tree across the street. If you've never tasted a Japanese plum, they taste like a strange mix of lemon, orange, and grapes. Super weird, but super good.

Friday evening was spent in the ER as my g-mizzle had a bit of a fall as we were walking into a restaurant to have dinner. She has a fractured arm, a nasty goose egg on her head, and needed to have a couple of stitches on a deep cut on her thumb. So scary and sad, but she'll be alright.

Saturday started with a new 5-minute workout before grabbing a shower and  heading to work. 

Sunday started with church (of course). Walked again and it was so nice. Then, headed to the fair with a friend to take in the livestock (the real kind). It was nice to walk around for a couple of hours.

And, to close out the post, the kindness mission from last week and the new kindness mission...

Last week's kindness mission was to ask someone how you can help them...and help. It was another one of those douzey missions that you could make as big or as small as you would like to which was kind if nice. I really like those missions.

There were so many little instances when the task was completed, but the instance that stood out the most came during service yesterday morning. During service, an announcement was made that one of the families at my church was going through a pretty rough time. Of course, the first question that pops into anyone's mind was "How can I help?" The only thing that the family asked was to watch over the family's kids and to pray. So, prayer it has been and prayer it will be until the family's situation is resolved and even beyond.

Kindness Mission #13: In progress.

Kindness Mission #14: Thank someone.

Friday, April 4, 2014

High Five for Friday

Happy HAPPY Friday!!! As per the norm, I am linking up with Lauren Elizabeth to highlight some of my fav moments this week.

-1-

Headed to the Elks Monday night with the G-pizzle and the G-mizzle for their spaghetti supper. The spaghetti was OKAY, but the company more than made up for it. :-)

-2-

At my women's bible study meeting on Tuesday evening, we went over two of my favorite scripture verses. 1 Peter 3:3-4 (CEV) 3 Don't depend on things like fancy hairdos or gold jewelry or expensive clothes to make you look beautiful. 4 Be beautiful in your heart by being gentle and quiet. This kind of beauty will last, and God considers it very special. It was such an awesome experience discussing those verses with the more mature women in the group (Note: I am the youngest one by at least 20 years).

-3-

Tuesday night after bible study, I was blessed with a carton of Kemp's Fat Free Caramel Praline Crunch Frozen Yogurt. If that isn't a weekly highlight, I have no idea what is.

-4-

Wednesday evening, I participated in a Twitter party. It was my very first one and I had a BLAST!!! I even won a $20 gift card. Score!

-5-

Headed to Zumba again Thursday evening AND had an inspirational praise dance workshop right after. Boy, it was a busy night, but full of learning, fun, and fellowship.

Buenos weekend!!!

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Weekend Recap

Happy beginning of the week!!! I know I missed posting yesterday. I suppose I'll make up for that today (and still post with yesterday's date). :-)

The weekend was pretty low-key which was absolutely AMAZING. Really just hung out and spent quality time with the family. Got in on Friday night and toured the upgrades to the house. They have done such an awesome job making it their own.

Saturday we got up and waited for the rain to move out before heading to Douglass to visit the WWII Flight Training Camp and Museum there (1). It was so cool!!! One display broke down "The Aviation Cadet Program" explaining the different levels and sequences of trainings (2). Another display had a flight simulator from the WWII era, which was one of my fav thing exhibits in the museum (3). One of the feature exhibits was a beautifully displayed 48-star flag (4). Breathtaking!!!

Sunday was all about making Ma's veggie soup for my lunches to hold me over until I can get back up there over Easter weekend and traveling back to Florida.

Hoping for an awesome week!!!

Oh, and Kindness Mission #12 was to compliment a friend. Sent a rave review to my high school bestie telling her that she did an awesome job planning her little boy's first birthday. I should have taken a screen shot...

Kindness Mission #12: Complete.

Kindness Mission #13: Ask someone how you can help them...and help.