second grade reports

My report card from second grade has a lot of notes from my teacher, Mr. Larsen. He was an awesome teacher and I was lucky to have him twice in a row. No, not because I repeated a grade. He was my first grade teacher and then moved to second grade when I did as well. Here are his messages to my parents (signs of future performances).

2/12/93:
Amanda is still "daydreaming" too much and not focusing on completing assignments during study time. Daydream and quiet conversation is fine after assignments are complete.

6/11/93:
Amanda has improved in her use of study time but she still needs reminders. Amanda and I were both sorry she did not qualify for the Homework Award because she had too many late and incomplete homework assignments especially in paragraph writing.


2/12/93:
Amanda is making good progress in all cognitive areas but I don't think she is working to her full potential. Amanda needs to improve her concentration, her rereading skills and her exgeting(?) attention to detail. Amanda seems to work at things in a slow and relaxed pace. Amanda's concentration might improve if she can speed up her work rate.
Amanda's test scores in math and reading have been in the 80%-89% range. She has the potential to be working in the 90%-100% range.


2/12/93:
Amanda is still a pleasure to teach and real positive member of the class.

6/11/93:
We will miss the Reichelt smile and pleasant personality at Burroughs. Amanda and all Reichelts have been great to teach & work with.
(this was the year we moved from Minneapolis to Lakeville)

Second Grade class - I am in the top row - far left

I always had problems with that "turn homework in on time" thing. I still have issues with it (obviously not homework, but like bills and the homework of the adult world), it's my procrastination!

my first year

The last item in my box of memories was my Baby's First Year Calendar. I found a few things really great, especially the letter my mom wrote me, thanks mom!

Born Monday September 10, 1984 at 8:05 am, 10lbs 5oz, 22in long

Letter from mom at five months (on a page that was originally for recording my height & weight):

Dear Amanda,

I decided to write you a letter instead of filling in your height & weight. You are five months old this month and you are such a joy to the whole family. Daddy loves to hold you and play with you. He sits you in his lap when you're tired and you are so content that you fall right to sleep. Rebecca adores you. She carries you, holds you, bounces you, climbs into your crib with you. She even tries to change your diapers. She gets upset when I need to feed you because she can't be holding you. She teases you about looking like a "lizard." You're getting your first teeth and you stick your tongue out to massage your gums - that's when she calls you a "lizard." Ben thinks you are very special also. He likes to have you sit next to him on the couch and always asks Daddy to take your pictures. You are just starting to sit by yourself now and you love to roll around on the floor. Sometimes you roll right under the coffee table. You are the most happy baby we've ever seen. You hardly ever fuss, you always have a smile for us and you eat & sleep very well. We all love you very, very much Mandy, you are truly a gift from God.

Much love,
Momma



Sleeping habits (I didn't know about the singing, which I think is cute :) this was on the eight month page):

You always wake up happy. In the morning you are singing a song. That wakes up Rebecca and the two of you play until I come get you. You sleep all night and are so precious.

the scare

The Scare
Written by: Amanda Reichelt
11-7-95

(DISCLAIMER: 5th grade - I cannot be held responsible for misspellings, lack of creativity, and many many technical errors)

It was the night before Halloween. Nancy, Steve, Helen, Rob, Andrea, Dan, Anna, and Katherine all were power rangers. They gathered at Rob's house to plan who they were going to be. Nancy was the pink ranger, Steve was the blue ranger, Helen was the yellow ranger, Rob was the black ranger, Andrea was also the yellow ranger, Dan was the red ranger, Anna was the white ranger, and Katherine was the pink ranger. They all slept over at Rob's house that night. The next morning they all helped Rob decorate their house. After that they decided to go to Nancy's house. "Mom," said Nancy.

"Yes," yelled mom.

"Steve Helen, Katherine, Dan, Rob, Anna, and Andrea are here," she yelled.

"Lets do our homework since we all have it here," Dan said.

"Do you have enough pencils for all of us?," asked Anna.

Finally they got to go trick or treating. They all got in there suites and went out. First they got Twix. Then they got to chose whatever and how many of what they want. The next house was spooky. It had two jack-o-lanterns in front of it, the paint was coming off, shingles were broken, and the shutters were coming off. They went up to the house. There was a letter on the door. It said I'm gone there's some candy inside. So they went in. Out from nowhere popped out a clown and said, "Have some candy kids." We all jumped towards Anne's mom and screamed. Sorry I didn't mean to scare the little cridders so much. Here have a few pieces.

After a few more houses we went to Katherine's house to trade candy. Then her dad brought all of them home but Katherine. The next day at school they all were talking about how scary it was. "My mask fell off," said Helen.

"So did mine," said Dan.

"I fell over on Rob," Steve said.

"I got piled on," said Rob.

"I ran into six people," said Katherine.

vintage goodies

While etsy is mostly known for its handmade goods there is also a large section of vintage sellers. Enjoy these finds and click on the image to see the item in it's shop!

goals for a lifetime

Wow, I found an interesting piece of history. Well, my personal history. In eighth grade my history teacher (Mr. G) gave us a task which I think a lot of students do at some point. We were given a sheet of paper with instructions to list goals that we would like to accomplish in life. It would then be mailed to us the next year to remind us what we always wanted to do, and to continue pursuing those goals. I just found my list in a box of my stuff, wow, that's all I can say.

The twelve things I want to do in my life (c. 1998) and how I'm doing on them.

1. Bungee jump - haven't done, and would still like to do this
2. Read bible - I remember at the time wanting to read the whole bible in order to really understand the religion I was a part of. Never happened.
3. Sky dive - relates to the bungee jump, also haven't done it and would LOVE to cross this one off
4. Fly to another country, stay there for a month or two - let's see... I've never been outside the US (not even to Canada). This is like the DREAM vacation, too bad real life gets in the way of this goal.
5. Hold a world record - yeah, never gonna happen
6. Win lottery - with weekly powerball drawings at least this one is in the works!
7. Be famous at something - HA! (hold on to your cotton panties, it gets better!)
8. Take a road trip - DONE!!!!!!! Several in fact! Once in college I just wanted to get away, so a friend and I drove as far into Iowa as we could, went to a restaurant for dinner, then drove back. It was hilarious, especially since at the time my car didn't have a CD player so I put batteries in my boom box (yeah, I went there) and my friend held it on her lap the whole way.
9. Find Chris - long story, don't ask
10. Go to (a good) college - apparently I added the "a good" as an afterthought, with one of these ^ - can we call this basically done? I started at a GREAT college, and then graduated from a party school, but I did it.
11. Start and finish project you know what for art - uhh.... I don't know what for art... Maybe I just meant an art project? In which case - DONE!!! :)
12. Be in a singing group - WTF 14yr old Amanda? Have you REALLY heard yourself sing? Seriously - does being in choir in school count?

Well, a lot has changed since 1998. I still haven't accomplished all of the goals I set out for myself, and definitely won't finish this list based on the crazyness of some of these. My handwriting and spelling skills are much better :) (I spelled "country" as "contry"). Still, it's nice to look back. At the end of the paper, this message:

"Good Luck. Life is awesome - enjoy every second" - Mr. G

Go Graphic - 50 Photo Projects

One of my new years resolutions is to work my way through the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost. The first project I've posted photos for is Go Graphic. Here is the beginning excerpt from this chapter:

Striking photographs don't have to be of anything in particular - it's the way you compose them that counts. Bold shapes, strong lines, vivid colors and arresting camera angles can turn the most everyday subjects into exciting abstract photographs. And the further removed from reality they are, the more successful they tend to be, simply because the viewer is left wondering exactly what it is they're looking at.

Here are a couple photographs I've taken with this project in mind. Although I would like to also find something even more graphic, this is a good start.

mysterious interest

When I first made my Magnifying Glass Notepad for my etsy shop, it was just another idea on another day. I liked it, but wasn't as excited about showing it off to the world as I was when I made the Fist Bump Notepad. That one was an idea well before manda marie designs became real. Well people seem to really like the Magnifying Glass, which proves that I will not be able to predict what will do well.


The first time it received some nice promotion was when the image (and link) were included in an etsy sellers email. I was really excited upon receiving this email and immediately thought a sale would be made on the item. It wasn't, but that's ok.

Now just the past couple weeks it appears to be generating some buzz again. I will admit that I didn't work as hard on my shop during January as I should have. Without going into all of the details of running a shop on etsy, I will say that what came last week was a huge surprise. Three orders were made for the Magnifying Glass Notepad!

This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but let me put it into perspective. In the entire month of January I made one sale - to my father. February 1st comes along (I didn't suddenly start doing anything different) and I get four orders in the first week. Two of these were for multiple items, and three of them included an order for the Magnifying Glass.

Next step - take a look at Google Analytics to see if I can find out where all of the interest is suddenly coming from. I did end up finding that the notepad was featured in a blog on Friday. (if you go to the blog you won't see the picture because it links to a sold listing, but it is #8 on her Fawned Friday list) However, this doesn't explain a whole lot because all of the orders took place before Friday. I checked where the blogger lives and she isn't one of the customers who ordered one either.

That's all I can do at this point, I'm very happy for the exposure, even though I can't tell how it happened. That's the way it will have to be.