famished

The Famished ATM

Author: KBenge

Illustrator: Google

In a small town in Iowa, where the sun shines, the wind blows brisk cold air, and the snow is falling but is not sticking! There is a drive through ATM machine, where the line is non-existant and all the people wave.

The machine is cleaned and thoroughly checked every morning. Birds create nests next to the camera that tapes every person that drives through the ATM, and the birds are happy because no one disturbs them up in their little nest. 

Mr. ATM is wide, and about as tall as a car, it has one small screen. Four buttons on the left and four on the right. The keypad below the screen has 16 buttons! Wow! So many choices. It has a slot for your card, your receipt from the transaction, a slip for the money to come out, and a deposit envelope slip. 

Mr. ATM was content with his life. He never had to move the only interaction he had lasted maybe 2 minutes at the max, and he was happy.

Until one afternoon Mr. ATM had a visitor from a girl in a little white car. This girl has a bad cold and has used the ATM many times before today. Yesterday was just one of those days that this girl woke up and knew she should stay home. Her equilibrium was unbalanced and she feel like she'd been hit by a train. 

But she KNEW she had to be at school, because of her book study, it just wasn't a choice. So the girl took the day step by step and hour by hour and finally it was 4PM and I could go home to her handsome puppy. 

This handsome boy was ready to get going when his mama got home. He loves to go to grandma and grandpa's and taking car rides with his mama. So mama bear and her handsome puppy load up in the car. 

Mama Bear heads to the bank small town bank, and pulls right up to the ATM. No one was around, the bank was closed and the town was quiet Wednesday afternoon. 

Mama Bear inserted her card into the ATM, she got some money out of the machine and then took the receipt from the slot in the ATM. Mama bear turned to her purse and opened her wallet she was looking at her other receipts and putting the money away in the wallet.

Mama Bear started noticing the ATM beeping. Mama bear just sat there in park next the the ATM organizing her very unorganized wallet. Then the beeping got louder and faster. Mama Bear kept sitting there very unaware of her surroundings, but realized the beeping kept getting louder.

Beep.

BEep.

BEEp.

BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!

Just as Mama Bear looks up she sees her debit card and reaches for it.

As soon as she notices it is still in the ATM she grabs for it and right as she grabs for it the ATM sucks it back into the machine! Just as if it hadn't eaten in months and needed nourishment for the long cold night! 

 Sadness fell over the girl and her handsome puppy. 

The girl was unsure what to do sitting there in awe what had just happened. Could it be? Not just a minute ago she had a card and now she did not. If only that girl was holding a remote she would have hit the REWIND button within 2 seconds. 

Now after several calls to the bank Mama Bear has had to wait 2 nights to pick up her card..... 

The story will be continued....

(based on a true story) ;-)

Another delicious and easy recipe:Twix Bars

1 C. butter

1/2 c. sugar

graham crackers

Hershey squares

(optional) Pecan Halves

Line a cookie sheet with sectioned graham crackers. Combine butter and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Pour mixture over grahams and bake in 350 degree oven for 5 min. Remove from oven when mixture over bars begins bubbling. Remove from oven and put on cookie sheet quickly. Let cool and enjoy!

Hope everyone is staying free of sickness. I've been fighting a head cold for the past couple days and would love to have a IV drip of Vicks!! 

Good Night!

letting the creative juices flow....

In order for give you the whole picture of craftiness I have to give you a little background. Growing up  the first born of a preschool owner,  I think I was born with puffy paint in my hand. My mom is my role model, I wanted to make things like her, write like her, read/tell stories like she did, smile like she did, and most of all sing like her!  I remember learning to use scissors from a very early age, and even winning a coloring contest at my dad's work when I was like 8.  My brother and I spent many weekends I remember at my grandparents and my grandma being the loving patient woman that she is taught me to cross stitch and play games like a pro. These are beautiful Godly women....

One out of many of the reasons I chose to teach resource is creative challenge that my students bring to me everyday. If they don't understand something, then its my job to figure out how they learn and give them more support to learn the content they need. I love making up games or learning about new ones, or playing our own fun game of BINGO for my students....

(this was a 3x3 square, but the squares don't show up)

George Washington	30,000	High Taxes
1799	FREE	Red and white
July 14th, 1789	1783	1775

1.     What year did the revolutionary war start? 1775 started by the Americans

2.     Who was the leader of the American Army? George Washington

3.     What year did the Americans win the Revolutionary War? 1783

4.     Why were the American’s angry?  Didn’t like to pay high taxes

5.     When did the French Revolution start?  July 14, 1789

6.     What year did the French Revolution end? 1799

7.     How many people died in the French Revolution? 30,000

8.     What types of clothes did they wear? Red and white

In Whatever you do it's important to make it fun and interesting for all kids. When my good friend, T, and I were in high school. We spent a lot of time together on the weekends. We would have our own craft nights. I don't really think you would consider us popular, but I've been out of high school for almost 8 years and honestly didn't really care if I was popular or not. We had a good time going to Wal-Mart and picking out our crafts for the evening. 

Anyway it all began with the family scrapbooking party!!

The front of my book.

My favorite page. :-)

Main dishes!! :-)

Which next led to the creation of a new wreath for my front door. I think the Christmas one needed to come down and to the help of my yarn basket I found some red yarn that I just wrapped around a  green floral holder and then sewed on a wool flower I made and sewed on the red fabric.

Close up view. 

******************
Sorry this is random, but I loved the flowers my husband sent me at school for Valentine's Day! Aren't they beautiful!!! :-) I love the roses and lilies.

Then, this last Friday I spent some quality time with my friend painting pottery! What a neat and fun place, and we wore our jammies! :-) We sat and created and painted together for 4 hours and closed the place down! We had a blast!

The back of the plate. 

Front:-)

Don't you ever wonder how animals are creative? I think that they are as playful and have imaginations like kids. Kirby will lay and roll with his animals like they are attacking him, which they clearly do not, but he is just so playful with them.

Plus I think it helps when we get all of this warm weather. He laid on the deck for almost 4 hours on Saturday before we left for the cousin get together, which was  a blast! This is what the weather looked like not just 2 weeks ago...

And now we have this....

Isn't it amazing, it doesn't even seem possible, but we did get a  couple flurries today I guess but nothing stuck.

Kirbster loves car rides!! :-)

Hope everyone had a great Monday! 

dear VALENTINE....

The beginning of our journey...

To my Valentine, we have had many things to celebrate...

We're ENGAGED!!!

We're MARRIED!!!

We're HONEYMOONERS!!!

We're parents to the smartest, most handsome boxer!! :-)

We're best friends!

We're Twins fans!

We share the love of water and the need for SPEED!! :-)

We share the love of travel and ADVENTURE!!!:-)

We golf together! :-)

SKI!! :-)

Make silly faces! 

But most of all, I simply celebrate the simple, everyday milestones that may not be considered milestones, but they make our life together so happy. You are my prince charming, my Daniel Boone, my Hunty. I love you so much! I love you and Happy Valentines Day today and ALWAYS!! 

And of course I must declare my devotion to my OTHER permanent Valentine!! I love you Dad!

Sending everyone lots of love today!


1 John 4:19 "We love him because he first loved us." 

a Daniel Boone Birthday! :-)

This may be a Hefty, Hefty, Hefty post so grab your preferred drink of choice and a comfy reading nook....

Saturday February 5th we celebrated the 26th year of life for my sweet hubby/best friend/rockstar. He is my everything. 

The day was planned:

He wanted to open his gift when he woke up, so I wrapped it in two large gift bags and when he woke up I sang to him and had him open his card and gift. LOML has been talking about ice fishing almost every time we pass a pond or see ice fishing tents so he got a beautiful red Eskimo red auger for his birthday present(complete with his own Daniel Boone hat), and I could tell from the moment he opened it he was in love. He put the hat on and began talking about ice fishing TONIGHT! Hey, I'm in! :-)

Then, we get ready to meet up with some friends to go to the 

UNI vs. DRAKE game:

Nolan's scooby doo candy plane...

Can't you see the little propellers moving:-) He loved it! :-)

Then our first trip to the Knapp Center...

We found our seats, and nestled in for a nail bitting game, which to my dismay Drake won. 

UNI is my Alma Mater and I love it, would recommend it to anybody and wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else! It was a perfect fit for me! I graduated from UNI almost 4 years ago and now when I see students there I feel really old, but I have so many memories in good ol' Black Hawk county. :-)

Pics from the very nerve racking game...

UNI missed a lot of free throws that really cost us the game.

That's ok Scooby says, "Thumbs up, better luck next time." :-)

Then, since LOML had gotten the auger that morning the man needed a tent and a heater. So we hit a couple different places to check on things. (Home Depot, Walmart, and Scheels) All this time knowing that we still had to make it to our 6:45 dinner reservation at:

(the birthday boy's choice of course)

And after much deliberation LOML purchased a beautiful ice fishing tent that we found on MAJOR sale! Now we can be fishers year around! :-) And we headed off the the restaurant... we were a little, no a lot under dressed compared to everyone else there, but they still take your money and it was a great first experience, and the birthday boy ate Imperial Longfin (pan-seared, baked, stuffed with shrimp, scallops, crab meat, and lemon caper butter) 

A very happy birthday boy!

Complete with a candle and chocolate covered strawberries! Delightful!! :-)

It was finger-licking good!

We head home and packed up the car to go ice fishing, LOML was so excited!

Do you like the hat?

The new tent all set up and ready to go! :-) 

The Auger!

We worked really hard to get through that ice! My apologies I shouldn't say we, LOML worked really hard to get through a foot of ice! :-)

Inside the tent...

To my husband...

With you by my side, everything in the world seems better. With you to hold my hand through life, I know that I have someone who sees life a lot like I do, someone who shares the same values, someone to share our crazy dreams with. :-) I know that I have someone who understands the parts of me that other people don't even know exist. With you in my life I know that I have everything. 

You are the jelly to my peanut butter. :-) Sorry this song has been stuck in my head...

Song about how to make a PB&J Sandwich 

The next morning I woke up early to make LOML's birthday MONSTER COOKIE BARS!!!

And with some encouragement from my SIL, it was now complete:-)

Here is the recipe for you to make and Enjoy:

1/2 C. butter softened

1C. sugar

1 C. brown sugar

Mix in:

3 eggs

And 1 1/2 C. of Peanut Butter :-)

Add 1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking soda

4 1/2 C. oatmeal

Stick in 1 1/4 C. chocolate chips:

I just crush up a cup of M&M's and put them in:

Pat down lightly in a greased jelly roll pan:

Bake @ 350 for 15 min. * Don't over bake.* 

Enjoy!

Playing in the snow!

We also went sledding, which was a blast!

LOML tried to smoke a pork loin, but it was so cold outside they couldn't get the smoker hot enough, so we ended up putting it in the oven and watched the Superbowl. Once we were done our cute little nephew sure was ready for uncle Nolan's birthday cake! :-)

This week has been fast, but very special to me in that I received a special piece of paper in the mail Tuesday night. I have my full standard teaching license PK-8th grade!! WAHOOO!!! (btw: this is the one you get after a 2 year initial license and you have proved to your administrators your a good teacher for the state and have meet every state of IA standard as well as your districts! :-) I was glad it is finally in my hands!:-) Yippee!! I've wanted to be a teacher because my mom was such a great role model to me and my 3rd grade teacher inspired me as well! I've wanted to be teacher for a long time. I didn't always know I wanted to teach Special Ed., but here I am and I love middle schoolers! 

I got to celebrate with my 2 favorite teachers. I couldn't have gotten that piece of paper with out them! They are the best and I love you both! :-)

Then, when I got home last night! Kirbster thought daddy's Daniel Boone hat needed to be chewed....
Can you say naughty boy....

Things that make me content on this Thursday night...

Visit with good friends and my beautiful one of a kind Giraffe gord! :-) It's beautiful!

My husband purchased me a BRAND SPANKING NEW VICKI!!!! (aka. a vicks vaporizor) That fog you see is steam! It is FAB and I'm obsessed with VICKS!!! My old VICKI died a couple weeks ago and I had her for almost 5 years! LOML knew how important it was to me and that I had been waking up all dried out, and I hate that feeling of first off being cold second being so dried out you can't even think.

A couple of people have mentioned to me that they like my new purse. I got it from my mom for Christmas, but I found the website so you can learn more about it and how to help women in Africa.

Timbali Bags Click HERE!! 

The hat my SIL made and I adore it!!! She crocheted it herself, I only hope to one day be as good as her, but for now here is the progress on my blanket!

So admist these negative degree temps. and snow and ice, when all we want to do is stay in the house because it's to stinkin' cold to go outside and we can't get enough of the vitamin, how do you keep relaxed? Because that thoughtless state of pure relaxation must come periodically to recharge our senses.