2008 in Review

I have been thinking about doing a LO like this for the past couple days and tonight decided I needed to sit down and do it. It took me FOREVER!!! Man! I am really glad I am done and pretty pleased with the result. The great thing about it is that Brett actually helped me a little with it. How great is that? He helped me decide where to put a few things. I like being able to ask his opinion and know that he will give me his honest opinion and some ideas. What a great husband! =) 2008 was a good year. Lots of big changes and not all were mentioned. I might need to do one with more journaling so that I can go into more detail. We'll see how it goes.

I used Amber's Sophisticated Grudge Kit again. Can you tell I love the ivy? It just adds such great color! I love the whole kit!

My Little Cousins LOs and a quick vote....

I have been working on a few LOs of some of my cousin's kids and thought I'd share them with you.


This one used two different kits. "Look Mom" by Just Passing Through Designs and "Building Blocks" by Margie Lundy. The background and all of the legos are from Margie's kit. The handprint, puzzle piece, journaling block, and paint splatter are all from Barbara's kit (I think!) The font is PeaNoodle from Amanda's Scrapbooking Fonts.

The next LO used Amber's kit called Sophisticated Grunge. You can find this GREAT kit at her blog. It is so versatile! I am so excited to have it and use it for different LOs. I do have a problem though. I can't decide where to put Teagan's name. I have seen many LOs done with just one picture and then several elements around it and loved those. I decided to try it, but just can't decide if everything should be down in the right hand corner or not. I asked Brett and he told me it looked unbalanced with Teagan's name down there. I kind of like it. So let me know which one you like! 

#1 smaller, but on top

#2 Fills the whole top

#3 down in the bottom right hand corner with everything else! 

Thanks!

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!

Anyone seen the movie "White Christmas"? I love that movie. Anyway, I love the song, Snow, Snow, Snow from that movie and that is what I was hearing as I typed the title. This is my third post of the night, so if you want to be really informed about my December, scroll on down! 

We have had the craziest weather!! This is totally not normal for us. We have had snow for the last week and a half. Weird. The storm this last Sat night was really cool. We got about 8 inches by the time it stopped snowing on Sunday afternoon. We had a ton of wind on Sat that blew it all around. So cool. I have some neat pictures of the snow piling up against our door. Our deck is covered and it is much deeper against the house and sliding glass door. 

I really wanted to go out and play in it, but Brett and Vicki didn't want to join me. I was pretty sad. Finally, I just went out by myself. I tried to make a snowman, but the snow wouldn't pack very well. I think if I had help it would have been ok, but it was hard by yourself. Since I couldn't make a snowman and I didn't have anyone to throw a snowball at, I did the only other thing I could think of...I made a snow angel. My mom took pictures for me and then just laughed at me as I struggled to get back up! It was hard! 

Here are some pictures. I just love snow! (I would like it to go away soon though. I am tired of being cooped up in the house because I don't HAVE to go anywhere)

Here are some pictures in no particular order!

Week from H-E-double hockey sticks!

I am trying to update everyone on our happenings this month. This is my second post of the evening. So look below if you want to hear about Comcast Jeopardy and our trip to Denver. 

On Saturday I could feel a cold coming on and the plane ride home did not help. My throat hurt so bad and I was pretty stuffed up. I skipped church on Sunday and slept in as long as I could. 

I had to go to work sick on Monday because I had already missed a whole week. It was an ok day, but I did have to ream out some of my kids who caused problems for my sub. One of the things that really ticked me off was that I received a referral back from administration with a note saying "Thanks for letting me know. Continue to document behavior." This about a kid who was flipping pencils around the room! Talk about dangerous behavior! That really made me angry and also made me realize that I couldn't count on administration for any help with discipline any more. I decided to hold my own after school detention for those who caused problems. The first day I could do it was Thursday, so I had every kid call home and let parents know that they had detention and why. I felt pretty good about doing this as kids were complaining about having to stay after school. Boohoo! Respect my sub then! 

The bad parts to this was that I actually had a parent email me and tell me that they will not be taking care of this at home (meaning they won't speak to their child about his behavior) because she needs to pick her battles. It was just a substitute and I need to get a sub with better classroom management. Ouch! I just had to let that go because she is normally very supportive. 

I was sick until Thursday so I was barely making it through each day because I was not going to stay after school when all I wanted to do was sleep! I was hoping to use my detention hour as a way to get some work done, but that didn't work. Guess what happens when you put all your bad students in one room where they don't want to be? They act up. It was frustrating!! I was trying so hard to keep them working, but they just didn't care. The teacher next door ended up coming in and yelling at them. They were pretty quiet after that, but it still was a horrible hour. After I dropped them off at the activity bus, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing! I was not even able to make it back to my room before they started. I think I cried for about 20 minutes before I was able to control myself. In that time, I totally thought about quitting. I almost started an email to Pat letting her know, but stopped myself because Brett cannot completely support us right now. It would be pretty tight.

The other thing that made me cry that day was an email conversation I had with Pat that day. I have a student (we will call him Jason to make this a little easier. I do not have any students named Jason.) 

To Me From Pat: Jason's mother has requested that Jason not attend lunch and have lunch detention as a study hall until winter break. Her concern is with his failing grade and she doesn't feel he is getting enough support in the classroom. I've agreed to assign this study hall but I need work from you Juli in order for this to work. I'd like to assign this tomorrow and next week so the sooner I hear from you the better.

My response: The reason Jason is not doing well is because of his tests. His IEP indicates that he should have them read to him, but I can't get any support on this. His case manager teaches a class during the time he has me for science. She suggested I send him to Kathy's room so that they can pop in on him from time to time. I did this a couple times, but Jason doesn't like it. I don't know what else to do.

Her response and then my response to that in red: A couple of things come to mind: first, gather his most recent tests together and we will assign him lunch study hall and see if we can get those tests read to him then. I will do my best to get those to you.
Second, is there a reason you can't read the test to him during class time when the test is given? I don't think I understand that part. Some students would find that distracting and I am monitoring and assisting during a test. I can't do two things or be two places at once.

Her response: I guess what is puzzling to me is that you can assist others during a test, but can't assist Jason? Multi-tasking is usually what teachers are able to do best.

Are you kidding me? She wants me to sit down with Jason and read him the test. So I am supposed to ignore the 26 other students in the room? Whatever. I didn't respond and I don't intend to. That was rude and totally uncalled for. Incredibly unprofessional. I emailed it all to my union rep and she helped me out. I stopped talking to Pat and just started talking to the mom. I hope I made it clear to her that I want to be contacted by her if there are problems and NOT by my principal. I had never even heard from the mother. Why didn't she contact me? And why didn't PAT tell her to contact me? BTW, after my first response to Pat about his tests, I realized that his tests are not the only reason Jason is failing my class. He has not turned in several assignments. That drops your grade pretty fast. 

So that was the second week of December. Goodness gracious I was ready for Winter Break, but I still had a whole week to go! Luckily, the snow arrived on Saturday and made it nice. We had late arrival on Monday and Tuesday, and then school cancelled for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, FW didn't build any snow days into our schedule, so we will have to make up the three days in June when we were supposed to be on Summer Vacation. Yuck! 

Comcast Jeopardy

I feel like I haven't given you anything but LOs lately, so I will give you more of an update post. I still haven't told you about our trip to Denver, my week from H-E-double hockey sticks, the snow, our ward Christmas Party, and then family stuff! Man, this post will be a doozy if I fit it all it in. I guess I will just go in order and see how far I can get tonight. 

Edit: Comcast Jeopardy is a LONG post, so I think I will separate them...

Comcast Jeopardy

First off, I would like to say that I am very pleased with Comcast. They really are a great company and they really treat their employees well. That said, I do have some complaints in this story. Just wanted to make sure to be thankful first. Seems like I am a better person than I really am. =)

Ok, so Monday, December 1st was the start of our adventure. Our plan was to leave around 6:30, arrive at school around 7ish so that I could drop off the DVD the sub would need, go to a good breakfast place, and arrive at Brett's office around 9. Sounds good right? Wrong. We discovered that the place we were going to for breakfast was not open on weekday mornings. Sad. So we ended up at Jack in the Box. I don't really like fast food breakfasts. Oh well. We arrived at the office much sooner than we planned, so we hung out with his co-workers and discovered that while Comcast is a great company, they make mistakes. Lots of them. The first one is that the 8 person limo they were supposed to order turned out to be 2 town cars. These two town cars are supposed to fit Brett, me, Eric P, Eric's wife, Liam (Eric's 2 year old son), Liam's car seat, Mike, Eric S, Eric S's girlfriend, AND all our luggage! Eric S ended up driving his car and leaving it at the airport. 

While driving to the airport, I freak out because no one has given us instructions on what to do when we get to the airport. We don't have tickets and I wasn't sure how that would all work! Turns out it wasn't a problem. We just stuck our credit card in and recognized we had tickets in our names. I had never done that before, so glad it all worked out. We get our tickets and realize that none of us are sitting together. The airline can't change them for us, so we try to do our own switcharoo and it doesn't work out as well as it could have. I ended up sitting in the row ahead of Brett. 

When we arrive at the Denver airport, Eric S calls the guy who is supposedly driving an 8 person hummer and is picking us up. Well, it is not an 8 person hummer. Another screwup! It ends up being a suburban and we don't all fit! Sue ends up sitting on the console thing between the driver and passenger seats all the way into downtown Denver which is a 45 minute drive! That was annoying. Details apparently weren't important. 

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Denver which is an amazing hotel! Beautiful! Our room was very nice with a nice view. We were pretty hungry at this point, so we all met at the 1876 restaurant (*BTW, anyone know the importance of that year for Colorado? I will tell you at the end of the post!*) in the hotel to have dinner. This restaurant is very nice. It is expensive, small portions, and lots of food you can't pronounce. The food was very good, but like I said, small portions. The guys weren't too happy with this. They paid about $100 for a meal (that is for two people) and were STILL hungry. So they went out and found a fast food restaurant. 

Brett and I were pretty pleased with the meal. I eat small portions anyway and Brett liked it because it was cooked very well. We went back up to our room and enjoyed each other's company. We did end up going to a little bar the hotel had and ordering some appetizers later on that night, but that is ok. We charged it our room. Gotta love expense accounts!! =) 

Tuesday morning: I knew the guys would refuse to eat in that restaurant again, so I asked the concierge for a good breakfast place. We walked to "The Delectable Egg" and really enjoyed our breakfast. The guys decided to do a little studying, so I went out to the 16th St Mall and talked to Jessica on the phone. It was quite enjoyable. I really thought the weather was going to be bad, but it was in the 60s on Monday and Tuesday. 

We all met for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe around 2 and then met for dinner around 5:30. Let me tell you, I was stuffed on Tuesday. The entire day revolved around food. Dinner that night was at a really nice steak restaurant attended and paid for by the head of the Washington Market Len Rozak along with other management people.

Funny story about Len. I am walking to the restaurant and Vicki texts me saying, "my friend's dad is going to say hi to you tonight." I had forgotten that Vicki is really good friends with Len's daughter Megan who also goes to Willamette. Vicki asked me where the team would go if they win on Wednesday and I told her we didn't know because we had heard three different locations. She told us to wait a second and Megan would text her dad to find out. Isn't that funny? So we get to the restaurant and introduce ourselves to Len by saying, "So you have a daughter at Willamette huh?" That started a nice conversation and Len ended up sitting next to me during dinner. I was a little nervous! I was sitting by my husband's boss' boss' boss! Kind of scary! It went well though. I tried very hard to keep talking which is hard for me to do sometimes. I really like to stay in my shell in situations like that. I did it for my husband. 

Wednesday was the LONGEST day ever! It started around 6:45 when Brett had to be at a breakfast/meeting for all the teams. When I got down to the room where they were holding the competition, I tried to sit down next to Brett, but Mike (one of his teammates) told me those seats were reserved for the team. I moved and sat two rows behind them. I stayed for about 5 minutes and decided this was completely pointless! I wasn't going to stay and listen to this game that Brett wasn't in and ESPECIALLY if I couldn't sit by him. In Brett's defense, he didn't know that is what Mike said to me...So, I just left and went back to the hotel room. Brett came up between the first and second games and asked why I had left. I told him I wanted to sit by him and I wasn't going to sit there unless that was going to be the case. He made sure that he saved me a seat and then I was happy. 

Brett's team played 3 games, won their second and lost the first and last. It was sad. Oh well. There is always next year. The second game gave us hope, but the third game was a killer. Brett said that it was poorly written with some really outdated information. The final game was between Colorado, California, and Oregon. Oregon won which made a lot of people happy. No one wanted to see Colorado win. They had won the last two years and won nationals two years ago. This time, the won their 3 games quite handedly and were so cocky about it. I am glad that they were knocked off their high horses. Brett was also happy because they beat Portland in their second game. 

Thursday: We woke up to a lot of snow, so Brett's parents had a harder time than we planned picking us up. Sorry you guys! We still went to the temple as you saw in my Denver temple LO. That was great. The rest of the weekend was great! We went to the Garden of the Gods again, went shopping, and just hung out. We had a great time.

Saturday: We flew home and this time Brett and I were seated together with a seat to spare! It was nice to be able to spread out a little more. When we landed we were supposed to call the town car that dropped us off on Monday to come pick us up, but that wasn't going to work. Eric P, his wife, and son were on the same flight and needed a ride as well. The five of us were not going to fit in the car, so we called my mom to pick us up. 

That was our trip! My complaint is if you are going to make a big deal out of something, do it right. There were several things that I would have done much differently if I had been in charge of this event. Brett excuses the mistakes by saying that they have better things to do and that is true. I come back with the thought that they spend a TON of money on this event and then don't make it as good as it could be. Don't make it such a big deal if you aren't going to plan it out like it is a big deal. I mean, they sent 5 teammates and guests, along with a coach and guest, and most of corporate to Denver. They put them up in a hotel, paid for ALL expenses, spent money on prizes, decorations, meals, etc. They did all that and then didn't make sure their games were accurate, well written, etc. What is the point? What do you guys think? Think I have a point?

They gave us these things to shoot the paper out after the winner was announced. They were pretty cool! And they made a huge mess...

A few shots of Brett and I. Don't you just love those shirts? Ew!

These pictures show you the setup.


These balloons fell down as Portland beat Colorado!!! Woo hoo!

Hopefully that will be us next year! =)

*Bonus question answer: It is the year Colorado became a state*

double!

So I just tried my first double template from Midnight Scrapper. She is great! I used Putting on the Glitz by Vicki from A Work in Progress. I don't know if I am completely sold on this design, but I am tired of looking at it! =) 




I am kind of frustrated right now. We have our ward activity tomorrow night and I emailed one of the counselors to see if they thought we should cancel because of the weather. In the email I also mentioned it would be nice to have more time to put together the program if we postponed. Anyway, he emailed back and said that they are not going to cancel because not enough people signed up for the program. I am so annoyed at that response. I didn't say that is why I think we should cancel. ARGG! I replied and basically said that is not what I meant. I meant that I wanted to have our ward attend and not five people who are willing to brave the snow. We put a lot of work into this and I don't want people to feel pressured to attend, especially those who are making the food for the activity. We'll see how he responds to that. I said it nicer than here. It really frustrates me when people take something I say, interpret it wrong, and then say something mean or degrading back to me. I guess this is a problem with email. If you talk in person or on the phone it is a little easier to clarify what is meant by your comments. Oh well!

Snow days

Another day off today. I am happy right now, but will be annoyed come June when we have to make up the days. Oh well. Enjoy the moment right? =)

So a good friend of mine helped me out with the text problem I was having. Thanks Stephanie!! Here is my LO with the date the way I envisioned it. And, here is another LO I did last night, lost, and then re did this morning. I used a template from Midnight Scrapper and Funky Retro kit by Vicki from A Work in Progress.

EDIT: I do know how to spell bicycle and the date is Summer 2005, not 2008. I am too used to writing 2008 right now. What am I going to do next year? I fixed this on my copy, but didn't bother to update it here. I am a little lazy...

Another One!!

I am enjoying my day off. Brett is occupied playing video games with Jason and I am enjoying myself digi scrapbooking. Love having time for this. Here is my latest. I used one of Nicole's Beach Bum "Insta-Scraps" and a font called Pea Noodles from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/scrapbook/fonts/fontsforpeas/. The "Great" is Nicole's Beach Bum Alpha. Let me know what you think! I played around with the journaling on this one a little. I think I like it. It has way more journaling than any other page I've done. That is what is important though. I want to remember details years from now.

journaling on a path

This morning I got the phone call saying that school was going to be 2 hours late around 6 AM. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. I decided to get up and do another LO. While I was hard at work doing that, I got another phone call saying that school was now cancelled. At that point, I was almost done except for the date. I really wanted to write the date around the inside circle, but could not figure out how to do it. I searched and searched for tutorials, but none told me exactly how to do it. I decided to go back to bed and try to sleep. It didn't work. I hate that!! Anyway, I decided to give up on the date right now and when I learn how to do that I will go back and change it. No harm, no foul. Let me know what you think. I used Amber's beautiful Painter's Quilt and a template from Jen Caputo. 

I am so proud of myself...

So I just worked for the last little while trying and trying to figure out how to recolor an alpha and keep the glitter. I FINALLY figured it out and I am proud of myself! =) Here is my finished layout. It is a quick page from purely pixels and alpha from Digi Designs by Nicole. 



Here are a couple others I finished tonight!

QuickPage by Scrapping with Lori and I think the kit Lori used for this was from Nicole. 

Another Purely Pixels QuickPage. WordArt by Bethany. She is great! 

let it snow, let it snow!

I love the snow. It is so beautiful outside when everything is covered in a white blanket. Our church wasn't cancelled this morning, so we decided we would brave the drive. It didn't go too badly. We will not be going anywhere else though. Oh well. I have plenty to do here to keep me busy! =) Hopefully that means I will get more time to scrapbook. I have started several pages, but get stuck. So last night when I actually finished a page, I was very excited. These pictures are from our trip. I really wanted to go to the temple while we were in Denver since the Seattle Temple is the only temple we've been through. Thursday was the best day for us to go, but we woke up to a snowstorm. Brett's parents weren't intimidated, so we went anyway! I am so glad. It was a great experience.

This was made from Vicki's Bright Christmas kit. I loved this kit when I first saw it and wanted to use it. I didn't have any snow pictures I really wanted to scrap, so I didn't use it right away. When I was going through my pics from the trip, I saw the ones I had Kathy take and decided that I could use them. The bright colors help with the all white backgrounds in the pictures. Let me know what you think!

oh, the calendar strip is from Nicole's (Digi-Designs by Nicole) Beach Bum kit. I love these and will probably be using them quite a bit! =)

I need to shut my mouth sometimes!!!

Oh goodness. I have had this lesson before, but apparently I haven't learned it yet. I need to keep my mouth shut and be happy with the way things are.

Here is what happened. Brett and I moved into our ward in July and were pretty much immediately called to be in the Activities Committee. In the last couple of months I have come away from the meetings kind of frustrated with how little was actually done during the meetings and how the activities seem thrown together. (They do seem to come together at the last minute, but I am a total control freak. I like to know ALL the details.)
Anyway, I was just discussing this situation with my VTs on Sunday and explaining that I am having problems being under someone else's command so to speak and how I like to be more organized. You can probably guess what happened can't you? Tonight was Enrichment and our appointment for tithing settlement. I was called out of Enrichment by the second counselor in the bishopric...and we are now the co-chairs of the Activities Committee. I wish I had learned this lesson earlier...oh well.

Don't get me wrong, I think I will like this calling, it is just one more thing on my plate. Work is keeping me pretty busy, and when I get home, I don't want to do anything! I basically am so exhausted that I go to bed early. It doesn't help my mood that right now I am fighting a cold that just wont go away. I can't take more time off of work because I was gone all last week for a trip to Colorado with my husband. I need to blog about that...I will do that when I am feeling better. I just wanted to share my despair with all of you! =)

Trying to stay awake....

Vicki and I decided to go brave the crowds on Black Friday. Not because we really want something, but because we want to be out in the craziness! We are so excited! JC Penny's opens at 4 AM, so we decided it would be easier if we didn't go to sleep. So to keep myself awake I am drinking caffeine and digi scrapping! Here are my latest layouts!

Lesson 4 in my class

These two pages are from Ahh Scraps Cool Dude Brag Pages.

Moment of Thanks

I just want to take a moment and say thanks so much to Amber from Stolen Moments. She is a fabulous designer with some of the best kits I have seen and they are free (for a little while)! I really love her stuff and anxiously look for pictures that will work with her kits. When I first started looking around for kits I ran across her Star Crossed Kit. (Unfortunately, this kit is no longer free) This kit is GORGEOUS! As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for scrapping my best friend's wedding and mine. I didn't know how to do anything in Photoshop at that time, so I put it on the back burner for a little while until I learned some more. I am definitely still learning, but I was able to create a nice page from her star crossed quickpage.
The reason she is so wonderful (other than her talent!) is that she helped me by altering her quickpage to make it a little easier for me. Her red doodle was blocking too much of my picture and since I couldn't zoom out the picture, she moved the doodle over. How nice is that? I don't normally like to ask for help because I don't like to be a burden so it is nice to know that people are so willing to help you. Thanks Amber!

Here is my page. I have so many pages I want to scrap about the two weddings. This will be fun!

Another LO

Here is my latest LO. I am not sure if I am completely satisfied with it so if you have any suggestions let me know. I decided to fool around with a template.


This is a template from Moriginals. I used some papers from her and various others from other kits.
Mocha Latte Swirls Page Kit Created & ©2005 by Valeri Brumfield
After Dusk by Fairy Dust Princess
I think that is it. I hope I didn't forget one!

Behavior Plan or Lack Thereof

Things around work have been REALLY tense. Basically, our administration sucks at everything except helping kids "feel good" about themselves. I don't really even know how to explain what I mean. I will do my best to make this coherent for you.

Administration is not following our contract in two ways. (That isn't to say that they are not violating it elsewhere, but right now our union reps are working on these two) 

1. The first one is that at the moment, we are not getting our full planning time. By the end of the year the time lost equals 12 hours. 

2. The second thing has to do with the sub rotation. If a teacher is gone and no sub takes the job, the staff have to give up their planning period to cover the absent teacher's classes. This sucks, but it is part of the job. Anyway, the contract states that all certificated staff are to be on the sub rotation. The Administration, all three of them, are certificated staff. They refuse to be put on this rotation under the excuse that (and I quote!!!!) "someone who has power needs to be in the office. You don't have the authority to take care of the issues that come up." Isn't that a nice statement coming from your principal? Now, I understand the need to be in the office, but for crying out loud, P can be on rotation 1 for 1st period, O can be on rotation 1 for 2nd period, and C can be on rotation 1 for 5th period. That way, only ONE is gone from the office at one time!!!! That isn't so difficult.

Anyway, our union reps have talked about these issues with them and they refuse to budge. This means that we are grieving them. They are going to the higher ups in the association and we will see what happens. Hopefully things get resolved quickly. 

Unfortunately for our GREAT union reps, they are now getting the cold shoulder from administration. Isn't that ridiculous? We (the teachers) are looking at this situation as a win-win situation. Either we get what we want, or the wording in the contract is clarified. P is looking at it like one is going to lose while the other wins. P takes everything as if it is an attack against her. It is so annoying. 

The next thing I want to discuss is in my title. Our behavior plan or more like it, the lack thereof is frustrating as all get out as a teacher. I just don't understand what is going on in the office!! I have heard of several instances where students were throwing manipulatives or shooting rubber bands around the room and not getting into trouble! One kid intentionally shot a rubber band at a girl and hit her on the side of her face just missing her eye! Guess what his punishment was....a talk with O, the assistant principal. That is it!!! The referral was given back to the teacher to wait until it is done 2 more times.*

*Note: In our current behavior plan, we can write up students, but they have to do it 3 times and have a phone call home before we can turn it in to administration. 

What the heck? And get this...one of my favorite students was caught stealing a book at the book fair and was suspended for three days! I bet you anything this girl is home crying because of this. She is such a good girl and student. A firm talking to and maybe after school detention would have been enough for her. But the kid who almost shot a rubber band into a girl's eye is still in school.

Something is seriously wrong when this is happening. If I knew that girl's mom well, I would definitely tell her to go into the office and demand that the boy be punished! 

You can probably tell then why work is so tense. Students are not being disciplined and all of you who know kids know what happens when they can get away with just about everything! I am so frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait for my break, but I know I will be dealing with behavior issues while I am gone and when I get back. Unless there are some drastic changes at this school, I will not be coming back. 

Vicki Don't Read This!!

I don't think my sister reads this blog right now, so I think I am safe in sharing this with you. Last night at dinner Brett and I were discussing funny gifts and the idea came out to give my sister "Schrute bucks" for Christmas this year. We are big fans of the TV show The Office and Vicki would really enjoy the joke. If you haven't seen this episode you really should. It is pretty funny. I am pretty sure it is one of the last episodes of season 3 when Michael thinks he is getting a job at corporate and appoints Dwight as the new manager. Here is a picture of a "Schrute buck."

Here is the exchange rate: 1000 SCHRUTE BUCKS ARE REDEEMABLE FOR FIVE EXTRA MINUTES OF LUNCH BREAK. CASH VALUE OF 1/100TH OF A CENT. NOT EQUAL TO THE RATIO OF UNICORNS TO LEPRECHAUNS.

Hehe. Funny. 

The purpose of me bringing this up is that this was Brett's idea and as soon as he said that, I thought of something funny I could do for him. I don't know how I remember this, but way back when we were dating he mentioned something he wanted. We were watching the "Stark Raving Dad" episode of The Simpsons where Homer is put into an insane asylum. He is eventually released with the following conversation.

Psychiatrist : Mr. Simpson, after talking to your wife, I’ve concluded that you’re not insane.
Homer : That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Could you give that in writing?
[The psychiatrist hands him a certificate saying that Homer Simpson IS NOT INSANE.]

Leon alias Michael Jackson : Which of us is really crazy?
Homer : NOT me. I’ve got this. [shows his NOT INSANE certificate].

Brett really loves that scene and mentioned that he would like one of those someday. So last night and today I found the episode, took a screenshot, and started playing around with it in photoshop. I am pretty pleased with myself! Here are the results. Brett really liked it by the way.

It went from this:


To this!