Received this today via email and thought it was good enough to share...enjoy!

According to a news report, a private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleanedthe mirror with it.Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers.... and then there are educators

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh........

The Police will reunite to open the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 11, fueling speculation that band is planning a reunion tour. I have seen Sting live in concert 3 times and to see the Police would be AWESOME!!

So far all members have refused to confirm rumors that the band is planning to reunite in 2007 {OH PLEASE BE TRUE} for dates in Britain and the United States, with this year marking the 30th anniversary of the release of "Roxanne." The last time they performed together was in 2003 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

You can bet that I will do everything I can to make it to any concert, if it happens, anywhere near us. Heck, I will go anywhere to see them ~ can't wait to hear more!!

National Potato Day

As the title states today is national potato day here in the UK!! {who comes up with these ideas?} Anway, in honor of this GREAT day :-) Here is what we are having for dinner tonight.

Broccoli & Cheese topped potatoes

Ingredients:
4 large baking potatoes (6 to 8 ounces each)
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup fat-free (skim) milk
1/2 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Preparation:
1. Pierce potatoes several times with fork. Place in microwave oven on paper towel. Microwave on HIGH 15 minutes or just until softened. Wrap in paper towels; let stand 5 minutes.
2. Bring water to a boil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add broccoli. Cook 5 minutes or until broccoli is crisp-tender. Drain. Add milk, cottage cheese, mustard and red pepper flakes to broccoli in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; remove from heat.
3.Combine 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese and flour in medium bowl. Toss to coat cheese with flour; add to broccoli mixture. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until cheese is melted and mixture is thickened.
4.Cut potatoes open. Divide broccoli mixture evenly among potatoes. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese.

Sorry about such a silly post but there really is nothing new to report on here at the moment.

ps..thanks Ellen for pointing out my typo ~ it has been noted and corrected :-)

Ahhhhhhhh COFFEE ~

Spent the morning with friends at Starbucks and it was SO nice. There is something about sitting in a Starbucks with friends and just hanging out ~ It is an opportunity to forget about the errands you need to do, cleaning that has to get done etc.

Andrew had a cross country meet this afternoon and ran a 3.5 mile course. Out of the 80 participants he came in 10th!! He says that cross country is his favorite sport and wants to continue with it when we go back to the states and run for the high school.

Winter has arrived....

The weather here has finally gotten cold enough for SNOW!! We had a rain/sleet mixture this morning so we have nothing here on the ground ~ BUT the hills have snow which is a good thing. Usually, once the hills get snow we get snow on the ground shortly after. The weather forecast is calling for snow overnight and again tomorrow....we will wait and see. It looks like it is currently snowing over the hills and is moving our way!!

The picture is of the hills from our back yard.

Shipwreck

A ship carrying cargo was damaged last week with the terrible weather that was across the UK. The ship was later intentinally grounded on a sandbar as it was leaking fuel and oil. Since then hundreds of people have foraged among containers washed from the vessel on the southern English coast on Monday.

Television footage has shown people inside shipping containers or carrying away items such as gearboxes, steering wheels and Bibles. The report said at least 15 new BMW motorcycles were taken away{ each worth 15 Grand), one of them by people using a small tractor as they raced against the tides to grab what they could. A couple of Land Rovers have been taken too!! The report said that taking the goods is not illegal, the people are to report what they have taken to a local authority

{yeah right, these people are not going to report what they stole}

Super Bowl Bound!!!

YAHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOO........the Colts have finally made it to the Super Bowl. After years of disappointment and losing games so close to the end they have done what they've set up to do....play in the BIG GAME. When it looked like the game was over, the Colts staged an amazing come from behind rally......Final score 38-34

What a GREAT game!!

Burns' Night Party

Friday night the boys' school PA held a Burns' night party at the school.

Robert Burns is Scotland's most well-known and best loved poet famous for writing "Auld lang Syne," which everybody thinks they know and nobody actually does. Each year around his birthday, January 25, Burns' suppers are held to celebrate his life and poetry. At the start of the meal, the haggis is brought into the room preceeded by a piper. Then a poem written by Burns was read, To A Haggis, and then cut it open and everyone toasted this with their drinks. It was really quite interesting and quite fun. The haggis was not the main course, but mainly a side dish for the evening. There was a great Scottish string band for the remainder of the evening for dancing ~ think, barn dance and you get the idea.

It was really a great night but it made for a very long day...we set up from 2pm-5pm, the event was from 7-midnight and I finally made it home a little after 1am. It was worth it when it was all said and done.

Busy...Busy..Busy

Here is current photo of Maggie's chia tree. This thing is so silly ~ why are they still available for sale??


This has been quite a busy week and I am looking forward to the weekend so I won't be running around as much.

Andrew has been selected to play on the football/soccer team so he has been busy with matches. His match yesterday afternoon was away so I did not manage to get to it. He has another on Friday {at home} but I can't go to that either. I will be in the school setting up for the Burn's night party that evening. I have been busy with this all week ~ washing 36 glasses for pints of beer, shopping for food items and other items for Friday night. I will have photos from the event and will post them over the weekend.

X Factor Winner.....

I have recently been asked about the X Factor and what happened with it. This is the video of this years winner ~ Leona! I will say I think she was the best and truly deserved to win.

Only a few more days until my other favorite talent show, American Idol, begins again.

Sunday Walk

Since the weather today was brisk with clouds and sun we decided to go on a long walk today. We went on one of the routes published in the area to take advantage of the countryside.

Our walk took us to the Sockburn an area where Lewis Caroll {best known for writing Alice in Wonderland} got his inspiration for his 'Jaberberwocky' poem. According to legend, a dragon was terrorizing this area during the medival times. Anyway, we thought we would do a shortened version of the walk but ended up doing almost the whole thing. We walked 8........yes 8 miles today. I, of course, was wearing my crocs {BAD idea, I never said I was a rambler} and my feet got wet and muddy. In fact, they got stuck in the mud too!! They really aren't the best shoes for walking in the countryside, oh well....lesson learned. Here are a few other photos from the LONG walk today.St. John the Baptist church was seen along the way. We had never seen it before and it was very pretty from the outside. This was near the end of the walk and the way I felt ~ I could have been left behind in the cemetery :-)

Flooding Again....

Millie and I just returned from our morning walk {later than normal due to heavy rain, but now it is windy and sunny} and I happened to look out the window and this is what I saw.........The river is flooding again. We were just walking on the path that is now covered with water~ the past few nights have had gale force winds and torrential rains and it is expected to last a few more days.

***click on photos and you can see how high the water is by looking at the trees and kind of gauge the speed of the water by the splashing on the trees...the dots in the background are sheep.

Cha Cha Cha CHIA!!

The Chia pet has been available in the US around the holidays for as long as I can remember. The concept is easy ~ have this clay pot, soak it in water, add seeds and watch it grow! Well, they are now a source of humor in our family and we just laugh at them. My mom received one as a gag gift this year and did not want it {imagine that} but Maggie, on the otherhand, thought it was cool so we are now the proud owners of said Chia Tree. We brought it home and have started the process of growing our OWN Chia Tree!! Here it is in the packaging and then day 1 after we started it. We will keep you posted on its progress.

A Puzzle For You...

A man stopped his car opposite a hotel and immediately knew that he was bankrupt. HOW did he know this???

Don't you just hate that you can spend the better part of the day cleaning the house only to have to do it all over again in a couple days? The house is in such a state since our return from the states and I MUST get it done but I am not motivated in the least. I have everything unpacked and laundry done but still have SOOOOOOO much more to do.

There’s not enough coffee in the entire world to motivate me enough to move away from the computer. Nope, no way, forget about it.........ok, I really need to get it done.

Humor for today

I received a great email today from a friend listing George Carlin's new rules for 2007 ~ what a laugh. I am posting a few of the best ones!!

• New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days--mowing my lawn.


• New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're a dope. If you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. If you're a grown man, they're pictures of men.


• New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing "Enter," verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want cash back, and pressing "Enter" again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.

Yahooooooooooo!!

The missing camera has been located. I went and spoke to the hotel manager and he went to the head housekeeper to ask about our camera...well she had it. They put in in a bag with the room it was found in and that was all. I guess they were waiting for someone to claim it rather than ask the person who left said room at 2 am and were in another room in the same hotel!!

The kids and I are back at home safely in the UK. The flights back were uneventful and all of our luggage made it back too { all 8 bags}. We picked Millie up on our way home from the airport and she was VERY excited to see us. She has been keeping us awake today which is good as no one slept on the plane overnight.

Have You Seen Me??

Well, not me but my camera? It is missing :-( We last remember seeing it last Saturday prior to switching hotel rooms due to the mouse. While packing things up tonight we realized we did not have the camera...we think we left it in the other room in our rush to get out! Of course, it was not turned in to the front desk {no surprise there} I plan on seeing the head of housekeeping in the morning to see if they know anything about it. I am not holding my breath and really do not expect to see the camera again.....I don't care about the camera as much as the memory card that was in it with the photos.

Oh well.....time to get a new camera I guess.