Silenttowr

Updated as of 10/20/18: Took a break for awhile while doctors figured out diagnosis and treatment. And then my dad got sick. He died in June.

Hello,

My name is Stacey. I'm a high school sciences teacher in Baltimore, MD, and absolutely love it! I'm not married and have no children; I do consider my students "my kids"!

I was raised in Norfolk, VA (my dad was in the Navy). I've lived in a lot of places in the US (VA, FL, WA, MD, RI). I really enjoy traveling and hope to add more to my passport.

I enjoy reading, writing stories/poems, watching sports, swimming, and crafting. I love going to theme parks whenever I can (SeaWorld, Disney, and Universal Studios), :)

I enjoy volunteering and am heavily involved with Adopt a Family for Back to School and Holidays. I love volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House. Hoping to volunteer at Give Kids the World Village during the summer--if I ever get the summer off long enough!

I am Christian but not overtly religious. I won't send religious things to people that don't want them but am ok with receiving them.

I know it's lengthy, but I like to give options.

Colors

Blues, Teal, Purple, Dark pink, Dark pink with brown, green with purple, green with pink, blue with silver

Movies and TV

Action/adventure, science fiction, fantasy, comedy...I love Star Wars, Star Trek (2009), Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, Galaxy Quest, The Princess Bride, Harry Potter, Les Miserables, X-Men, The Avengers, and The Labyrinth

NCIS, Burn Notice, True Blood (Eric Northman is my favorite!), Dr. Who, Hannibal, Outlander

Music

Rock, classical, Broadway, Christian rock

Sports

Baseball, hockey, football

GO RAYS, LIGHTNING, BUCS!!

Books

Shakespeare, anything by Raymond Feist, The Ranger's Apprentice series, The Brotherband Chronicles (need book 3), Percy Jackson (and others by the same author), The Glasswright's Apprentice series, Outlander series. I also enjoy vampire stories of most any kind...I prefer vampires that don't sparkle. I especially love the Sookie Stackhouse books. I enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy.

Edibles

*Candy: chocolate (white or milk), Peeps, or fruit-flavored stuff. I love chocolate with peanut butter. Gummy candies are yummy. I especially love Ghirardelli's Peppermint Bark. I do not eat dark chocolate unless it's paired with raspberry or is Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark. I LOVE Reese's Pieces! I do NOT like caramel except Twix.

*Snacks: Roast Chicken Crisps (though they're very difficult to find in the US--I make my own), Sour Cream & Onion Pringles, cookies (cranberry & oatmeal, raspberry & white chocolate, Thin Mints, and Tagalongs), Cheez-its, kettle corn, popcorn with different flavors (not caramel)

*Flavors: raspberry, white chocolate, milk chocolate, apple, gingerbread, cranberry, blueberry, grape, cherry, blackberry, mango, pineapple, strawberry, lemon, lime

*Hot cocoa/chocolate--especially Raspberry and Candy Cane! I love to try new ones too.

*Hot spiced apple cider

*Tea--flavored especially (see above)...black is my favorite, but flavored white and green teas are good too. I'm not fond of plain green tea.

Themes (things that feature these would be welcome)

castles, butterflies, the ocean and sea creatures, myths and legends, Snoopy, Any characters from any of my favorite movies, tv, or books

Disney--especially Disney pin collecting! My favorite characters are Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Chip 'n Dale, Winnie the Pooh, Star Wars, and Marie. I also collect for the Narnia movies and the Pirates of the Carribean movies. I have a lot of pins that I'd love to swap--just ask and I may have it!

Animals, especially owls, polar bears, penguins, dolphins, puffer fish, and wolves. Ducks (and ducklings) hold a special place in my heart.

Holidays--Christmas is my favorite holiday besides Halloween. I love the scents of cookies baking, making candy, decorating, wrapping presents, and best of all, time with my family. I love making gingerbread houses and have a thing for gingerbread men, snowglobes, snowflakes, and snowmen for stickers, ornaments, etc. I also enjoy Halloween quite a bit--I love to decorate for it and dress up to pass out candy or take kids around. Easter is fun too--Peeps! and coloring eggs.

Wishlist (in no particular order)

*Candles--scented (see below) or cool, fun, or unique designs

Scents--vanilla (favorite #1), apple, pumpkin spice, cranberry, apple cinnamon, or cinnamon (favorite #2). I like most fruity or "baking" scents. Floral scents tend to make me sneeze. Though I do like nature-oriented scents such as ocean breeze.

*Stationery (featuring a favorite is awesome!)

*Bookmarks--I've been collecting them for years.

*Bells--I've been collecting them since I was three. I like a variety...as long as they sound nice and don't have that awful thunking noise, they're all good :)

*Socks--especially LittleMissMatched (best sock brand ever!), or fuzzy ones, but not toe socks. I love wearing mismatched socks!

*Rubber Stamps--I use these a lot in school, but do not need any more teacher stamps.

*Stickers, but I have enough teacher reward stickers to last a lifetime! I like the unique ones--poofy, glittery, 3-D, etc. Any theme is okay as I use them for a lot of different things. Repositionable stickers are my favorite.

*Postcards--especially of scenes and landmarks from around the world

*Penpal letters--the longer, the better! :)

*Themepark souvenirs--especially from parks that I haven't been to! I collect the bells, keychains, and postcards from themeparks.

*Jewelry--bracelets, anklets, and necklaces only. I prefer magnetic closures because they're easiest, but any will work. I wear mostly silver and am not a fan of gold (except white gold). I do not wear rings and have had negative reactions to every pair of earrings I've ever worn. Handmade is love! :)

*Wrapping paper--I love to wrap stuff! :)

*Paper dolls--I recently received a few in a swap and forgot how much I loved them!

*Craft supplies--clay (prefer air-dry Crayola Model Magic or Sculpy), foam, felt, glitter, glue sticks, hot glue sticks, scrapbook stuff, beads, designed/colored duct tape, clay tools, etc. Supplies for new crafts with an example/instructions would be great too!

*Foreign money

*Pressed pennies

*Surprises for one of the kids

*Cool pens and pencils

*Magnets--I've been collecting for a few years now. I like all sorts, but especially ones that have sayings on them, have landmarks/scenes from around the world, or have one of my favorite animals on them.

*Quality hand-made things, especially doll clothing (18" for my nieces), pillows (I love decorative pillows!), blankets (any size), artsy stuff (I am a tactile learner...I'm interested in making some things, but really need to hold it in my hands to figure out how to go about it. So surprise me with a craft that you like doing!)

*pop tabs (I collect this for Ronald McDonald House)

*WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE: Game boards such as Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Sorry!, Clue, etc. and game pieces such as the men, pie pieces/pies, etc. The kids and I create a lot of games and alter the boards to fit the units. Along the same vein, if you have any biology-oriented game that you no longer need/want/use, please, send it along.

*Things for teaching science (this year is Anatomy & Physiology and Forensic Science), or related items that I can give as prizes, or to decorate my room. I'm a fan of science toys.

I'm not an amazing artist, but I like to craft with clay, foam, felt, cardboard, glitter, beads, etc. I also like to paint.

I enjoy decorating treasure chests in particular themes.

I like to sew blankets, pillows, and doll clothes, though the non-sewing blankets and pillows are fun to make too.

I love to scrapbook.

Duct tape crafting is a lot of fun!

School: notebooks, stickers, school supplies, cool pens/pencils, fun erasers, stuff to be given as prizes

Svitlana--my dad and I hosted her 2 summers ago. She is now 10. She is the sweetest kid and if I was allowed, I'd be exploring adoption. (Ukraine does not allow single women to adopt anymore.) I send her care packages every so often. I like to include things for her foster siblings as well. They range in age from 2 to 16, so pretty much anything for kids is good. She has 10 foster siblings! Also, basic items like toothbrushes and toothpaste, clothing like warm hats and gloves, etc.

Things that have been exposed to smoke (allergies) (or at least warn me as we have a system for this)

Themes with spiders or snakes (unless very cartoonish)

Items with the color yellow in large doses--small doses are fine

Earrings

Recipes, candies, drinks, etc with: *coffee anything

*butterscotch anything

*caramel, except for Twix

*pecans--other nuts are fine though not preferred

*dark chocolate unless it's paired with raspberry

*seafood anything

*licorice (anything with anise)

*candy corn

*Food/drinks containing aspartame

*Mushrooms

I want to thank @skippysmom for angeling the Holiday Socks and a Surprise/Newbie swap that @jessicamarie14 flaked on. Thank you again, @skippysmom for sending an awesome package!

I want to thank @gwillisinc for angeling the Made from Scratch Valentines swap that @SandiInTexas flaked on. Thank you for sending it without me even asking!

I want to thank @wygirl for angeling the EDITED Owls and More Owls swap that @PikePaperCraft flaked on. The USPS did mess up (Jennifer originally did send it--the USPS sent it back to her after 2 days. I asked my PO and they said all she had to do was go back, showing the tracking information. After weeks of PMs, it never happened.) Thank you for such a wonderful angel package. I really liked the stickers, postcard, notecards, notebook, and magnets!

Would love an angel for: Wacky, Silly & Unusual Holidays-February that I was flaked on by @ladonnatwinmom who has been partially suspended and hasn't been on since 1/25/13.