New Favorite Dessert

Last night I had my yummy chicken pockets for dinner! (and I have 1 left over for lunch today- which is great because it's one of my top ten favorite lunches)

Chicken Pockets are filled with chicken, cream cheese, butter, milk, onion, salt and pepper. The baked to a golden delight! YUM!

The chicken pockets are made with crescent rolls, and sometimes there are a couple left over without the chicken filling. This summer I decided to get creative with those, and now I have a new favorite dessert. Well, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a favorite dessert- but I don't make dessert often, so it's a favorite just because it's dessert.

Presenting My Chocolate Croissant

First, unroll the crescent roll and add 10-15 chocolate chips. Press them in lightly so they stick.
Next roll it up.

Place on baking sheet, and bake for at 375 for about 10 minutes (if your oven is super hot from baking dinner already, then shorten the baking time and watch so they don't burn.)
Place the golden, chocolately delight on a plate, bring to the dinner table! Two: perfect for me and hubby :)
Savor the delious chocolatey goodness.
The End.

Lunch Fun

So I'm sitting at my desk, eating my lunch... normally I go and eat with the school nurse, but Wednesdays and Fridays are too busy- not enough time to go down and get back. So, I thought I'd take the last few minutes to describe some of my favorite lunch foods.

I take a lunch every day, and these things make me happy...

1. fall apple with peanut butter

2. leftover chicken pockets (which I will have tomorrow)

3. chicken salad sandwich

4. pimento cheese sandwich (made by Mrs. Grifford)

5. pepperoni pizza lean pocket- they are good, I promise!

6. springtime/summer time strawberries

7. trail mix

8. reduced fat cheez its (but today they were not as exciting as normal)

9. whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and italian seasoning- delish! almost tastes like pizza, but healthier

10. and for dessert: crumbled graham crackers with strawberry cheesecake yogurt. yum!

Things I don't like:

left overs for the 2nd lunch - blah!

That's it for now.

What is your favorite thing to bring for lunch?

The Gift

One of my all time favorite students gave me a gift the other day. OK, actually all my students from my 3rd grade classes are my all time favs!

So, I have Gabby-cakes in Spanish year- so at least I get to see some of my former students. First Chaney (another fav) comes in and says "Mrs. Sawyer I got you a gift, but I left it my backpack in the hall, can I go get it?"

Now Chaney is definitely a gift-giver and she

always gives me sweet gifts. So I told her go get it and she came back with a box of hot tamales because she remembers I ate them once and really liked them.

So Gabby-cakes says "I have a gift too, can I go get it?" Sure Gabby, go ahead.

She comes back with this box of cube gum- my favorite! the only thing is- she says "here it is, but it' s kinda smashed and I ate some of it" I look inside, there are only 3 pieces left. :) And that picture is exactly what it looked like when she handed it to me.

I love it! Oh how I love those girls! That smashed box and hot tamales have made me smile for days :)

The "THE's" of the Wedding

all THE GIRLS (bridesmaids and friends)


THE FLOWERS - I loved her flowers, and I love this picture (yes I took it, I'm a little proud of that :)

THE CHLOE SMILE/SMIRK - I fell in love with this little smile she does- who wouldn't?

THE RECEPTION SITE - awesome- bales of hay for tables an chairs, a tractor pulled up the stage for the band, a tent for the food, and pails of flowers on the ground- love it!

THE DUB GIRLS - (minus Kelly and Jen-E) Dub stands for W in UNCW- duh. PS- it's been said that I look like a head and a hand in this picture. Either I'm really little or Chloe is really big, or a combo of the two- but either way, how awkward will I look as a mom??
THE COUPLE - Jen-E and Jon-E (we said that she may have inherited his last name, but he is inheriting her -E)

THE FOOD - clockwise from top left - barbeque pulled pork, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, roll in the middle and sweet tea on the side! we call this the delicious brown meal!! Jen-E's mom made the beans and potato salad- incredible!!

THE BAND - bluegrass and fun! stage is still connected to the tractor, love it!

THE CAKE - chocolate, my favorite! with beforementioned tractor in the background. They also served lemon cake and red velvet. The groom's cake was ice cream cones. No lacking of sweet things here :)

THE BROTHER - Jon-E's brother is in Iraq right now, so his sister (pictured here) made a life size top half to carry around. So really he was at the wedding :) THE DUB GIRLS (minus the bride) - again, with the famous tractor

THE BUBBLES - yes my outfit is terrible, dress, flip flops, blue fleece, black scarf- and still cold.

Well, that was the wedding- it was fun!! hope you enjoyed!

Where's Grayson?

The wedding of Jen-E and Jon-E was fabulous last weekend! Great times with all my sweet college friends! I will make another post with all the fun things of the wedding, but for now... the man who stole the show. I like to call this "Where's Grayson?" as in "where's waldo?" because Grayson was always in the background and always causing trouble.

But let's begin with the first (and only) sweet moment... (notice the super cute J and S wreaths on the doors- I want to make an S for my door!)

What a beautiful bride!! Look at his face here, the rebellion is beginning!

Now- the fun begins... picture time. I believe his expression here says "Why me?"

After coming down the aisle at the wrong time and running back and coming down again, he stood still with his dad for all of 2 minutes. Then the crying and talking began. Eventually dad was left with the pillow and Grayson stood with mom.

But the "standing" didn't last long. After crawing in between the couple and the pastor, mom took action.

And Grayson spent the rest of the wedding in Grandma's lap after being drug across the floor mid-service.

And after the wedding it's picture time again, people getting into position and Grayson slumped in the corner...

Oh- a full wedding party picture... are the kids looking? No. Are the kids play/crying/rubbing their eyes?? yes.

Grayson and Chloe playing nicely (Maybe?) Grayson is the bride's nephew. Chloe is one of my best friend's sweet daughter! She was the flower girl, he was the ring bearer. This is not a match made in heaven meant to last forever. don't even start thinking that way.

We had one more funny picture from photo time... I need to get that from Kathy....

As the toasts begins, Grayson is of course in the background. Oh and yes that is his mom giving the toast. Nope, he's not interested in that...

Now the best man's turn- and where's Grayson? oh yes- on stage.

And shooting a gun no less! His prize for doing a "good job" as ringbearer.

Another gun shot.. bam!

Mother - Son dance.... so sweet... but wait... who's that in the background? oh yes, it's Grayson!

I love this picture! It screams "I'm innocent, I didn't do it, look I dont' have a gun!"

Eyeing the big shiny tractor, I can only imagine what happened next.

And just to wrap things up here... one more with the gun... while the band plays on....

Yes, one highlight of the wedding was watching for what he'd get into next... oh kids in weddings...always good for a laugh. (of course Chloe was perfect :)

Carolina on my Mind....

Well, I'm headed to lovely NC! After school a sweet teacher friend is taking me to the aeropuerto (that's airport in Spanish) and it's off to Carolina!

One of my dear college friends is getting married this weekend and I'm going to celebrate. I've been told the leaves are just at their peak right now... so stay tuned for new pics early next week! yay!

Heart Attack on a Stick please :)

Well, yesterday we went to the Texas State Fair!


Last year, we way over ate... so Ty and I made a pact... I was only going to eat a soft pretzel with cheese (my favorite) and try one new fried food, the fried smores! That sounds awesome!

Ty was only going to eat 2 corn dogs from Fletchers, his favorite! We were going to hold each other accountable to this... no if, ands, or buts! (by the way, I did not take my camera, so all of these pictures are just from the internet - not ours, sorry!)


We started off well. Starving since it was after church and definitely lunch time. So we hit the corn dogs and the pretzels right away! Ty only had one to start with.

We went with some friends, Ben and Parris. As we were walking, we noticed Jack's French Fries. Now, fries are not something we were planning on eating, nor are they worth the 5 million dollars they cost at the fair. But Parris knows Jack, he was her step-father's friend. So she decides to say hi. Turns out, Jack is very generous and he owns half of the food booths. Next thing you know, we are walking to a table with...

2 sets of fries
2 taco salads
2 chalupas (I think that's what it's called)
2 bottles of water
2 funnel cakes
1 order of fried apple slices with ice cream


these are supposed to be the apple slices- they did have raspberry sauce and ice cream too. But like I said, I didn't take a camera- this picture is from the internet.

So... needless to say- we blew our pact. Free fair food... free hand made fries... fresh taco salad with homemade salsa... delicious hot funnel cakes... and one heart attack please!

Jack also took us behind the scenes and taught us how to make his french fries- it was incredible! They go through sooooo many potatoes a day- ridiculous! And we got to work the machine- it is hard! I have a new respect for fair food workers :)

We continued to walk for a LONG time, trying to work off the hundreds of calories we just ate. But I was on a mission. I was determined to try the new fried smores. So, I decided to be hungry no matter what and eat it when we found it.

By the way... the Texas State Fair has a competition for new fried foods every year. It is ridiculous the stuff they come up with. Here's a link to the list of this year's winners- be prepared to be blown away by these! If eating the first one listed wont' kill you, then you have superior genes! http://www.bigtex.com/foodlocator/

Finally, we found the smores. Here's a picture from the internet, but that is basically what it looked like. They were good. Fortunately everyone with me ate some too- but it was worth it! Kinda tasted like chocolate chip pancakes- plus a lot more fat. Maybe next weekend I'll just eat some chocolate chip pancakes :)


Then it was time to hit the road. We said good bye to Big Tex and headed to the car... had to get home for the Cowboy's game.

¡Bienvenidos a Español!

Welcome to my Spanish classroom!! This room is where I spend most of my waking hours during the week! Let's go for a tour...

This is the view when you first walk in the dooor. I actually have rearranged the tables into 4 straight rows since taking this picture, but you get the point :)


This is looking toward the front of the room. The door to walk in is directly to the right of the board. Up front we have the lovely calendar, board, and birthday bulletin board... Feliz cumpleaños to you!

Here's my little office area :) I love all of the pictures and happy things I get to look at. You can see the door to the hallway on the left.

Facing straight out from my chair, you'd be looking at all the tables where the kids sit. But, if you look toward the back of the room you'd see the view below...

center cubbies, bulletin boards, computers, and my rug and rocker... love it!

Another view of the back of the room... look how happy it is!! Notice the blanket on the rocker- I use this daily because my room is the temperature of Antarctica. Fabulous!

Across from the cubbies is a pole that was covered with disgusting nail holes and paint scratches and just gross. So I turned it into this cute little scene... much nicer.
And on the other side of that pole is this bulletin board below. I decided to alway put up a proverb or psalm on the board in Spanish. This is the one from the beginning of the school year. It's probably time to change it... any suggestions for verses?
And that is basically my classroom. Thanks for joining me on the tour! It took a lot of work, and never looks quite this neat anymore (I took these pictures before school actually started). But it is a happy room, even if it is freezing cold.