Mel's Box of Chocolates

Today is my last day of summer vacation ((sniff, sniff)). Tomorrow it is back to school! The first three days are just teachers and tomorrow is just a work in your room day, which is always my favorite. I love to put up the bulletin boards, decorate the room, organize everything, and get ready for the year. Tuesday and Wednesday are meeting days though, which isn't quite as fun. There's nothing like going back to school and then having to sit all day. Although it is a great reminder of how the students must feel if they are asked to come and do the same thing!! Not in my room though. They will consider themselves lucky if they get to sit for a few minutes because we are go, go, go, the first few days as we practice routines, get to know one another, and just have some fun. The first few days are always so exciting. I get to meet all my students who are excited about being in 3rd grade and learning "multiplication" and "cursive writing." They are curious to...

Every year I treat myself to a back to school something or other. I've been known to get Vera bags, but since we broke up , look what I got instead... Oh yeah. The Voyager has landed!! I had the Chocolate phone (are you surprised??) and at first absolutely loved it, but by the end we were pretty much enemies. It wouldn't let me text and when it did would end up sending my message before I was finished, it wouldn't let me browse my contacts without going crazy, and it was, well basically, possessed. Don't believe me. Let me tell you a story. The other night we decided to have Chinese for dinner because if we didn't we weren't eating anything because I was refusing to cook. Anyways, that's not important. Once I gathered everybody's order I called it in and was told it would be ready in about 20 minutes. 20 minutes later I went to pick up our food. Of course, I grabbed my phone because I don't go anywhere without it and I sat it on the seat next to me ...

I got some new glasses! Am I ready to go back to school or what? I haven't updated my profile picture so for the before, check out my sidebar.

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I only have 7 days left of summer vacation. Let me repeat... 7 DAYS LEFT OF SUMMER VACATION? Could somebody tell me just where on earth all the time went? I swear school just got out and I was thinking of everything I was going to get accomplished over the summer. What did I get done? Hmm...well...let's see...not much!! My house is still disorganized, the weeds are still prospering in my gardens, the scrapbook is still unscrapped , the carpets still stained, shall I go on, and it looks like it will probably stay that way until Christmas break or maybe even next summer vacation. At least, we did sneak in many beach days, a few fishing days, a couple waterpark trips, and a mini vacation to Hershey Park. I know we still have the evenings and even long weekend days to play, but I can't help get into a funk at the thought of going back to school. I will miss the lazy mornings, afternoon naps, blogging, twittering, and just hanging out with my kids. Of course another part of me is ...

If you are relatively new to my blog then you may not know that I have recently lost over 40 pounds using Weight Watchers Online. I began in January 2007 after I decided that I was over being big and I was going to do something about it. After many conversations, I decided to try Weight Watchers. I knew that any type of "diet" that made me give up something like carbs, chocolate, ice cream wasn't going to cut it for me and WW didn't do this. So it was online I went to sign up for Weight Watchers Online and their Flex Plan. The Flex Plan gives me so many points a day depending upon my weight and movement throughout the day, plus I get 35 extra to use throughout the week as I please. Perfect!!! Anyways I stuck with it for about a year (you can follow my journey by clicking on Weight Watchers from my chocolates varieties list in my sidebar), lost 40-some pounds and then found myself becoming very comfortable with how I looked. I could wear a size 8, run without being wi...

A couple nights ago Dave's parents offered to babysit as a belated anniversary gift. Of course we are never one to miss a chance at free sitting so we decided to do dinner with some friends. Here we are ... What's that you say? You can't see my shoes? Oh my gosh, they are one of my favorite pairs. Here's a close up. Isn't the detail of the flower carved on the heel so cool? Sorry, back to the date. We went to a local seafood place that never ceases to have awesome food. We started with some nachos that were piled high with lots of good stuff and crab. I could definitely have had that for dinner. Instead for dinner, Dave enjoyed some Mahi with crab salsa that was delicious and I had some scallops in a rich cream sauce that perfectly complemented them. Both of our friends had the crabcakes which were thicker than any crab cake I have ever seen. Yum. My mouth is watering just remembering it. Oh and the Mojito and Sangria was awesome too! The best thing about the night...