Currently September

Can you believe it is September already??  Two weeks of school down, lots more to go! I LOVE my new school and my students are awesome.  It is a bit of an adjustment to have 106 students instead of 24...but I like it!  Anyway, here's my Currently, and then I'm off to follow the rule of 3!

Currently July

I love doing these Currentlys!  So, for the "Reads" section, the first book is my favorite book to read aloud.  That is a really hard choice but I absolutely love The Great Gracie Chase by Cynthia Rylant.  It is about a dog that runs away, and let's just say I've had a few Great Toby Chases in my days! Not to mention Romeo, Lucky, and Daisy chases!

The second book is supposed to be my go to educational book, but I have to say that even though I've ordered and read many, there isn't one that I really go back to or love.  I LOVE researching teaching things on my favorite blogs and getting lesson ideas on Pinterest though...

linking to

A few things

The first thing I have to share is a little project I worked on last night!  I made a camera strap cover! I found the tutorial on Pinterest (of course)! It took about 2 hours and I only had to rip out the stitches once, which is pretty good for me!  Here is the masterpiece:

This is the blog where I found the tutorial, which made it pretty easy:  Everything Etsy.  I would definitely make another one if I actually needed another one!

Next, I ordered my dog, Toby, a new collar and leash.  I really wanted one that has his name and my phone number on it.  Even though he is microchipped and rarely gets out, I still want to have that extra security.  I ordered it from Mimi Green, and even though it took forever for it to get here, it is so adorable! I just had to take pictures and share!

By the way, it's really hard to take his picture because once I get on the floor with him, all he wants to do is come sit on my lap or play!  I blurred out my phone number on the last one, but you can see how cute his name looks!

And lastly, I have been very into fishtail braids lately! I saw this You Tube video (found on Pinterest!) and learned how easy and quick they are to do! Here's a braid I did on my sister Karlie's hair and one I did on myself (did you know it is really hard to take a picture of the back of your head??)

I've got more to post (about some home stuff and school stuff) but that will have to wait for another day! Time to cuddle with my little doggy! :)

Joining Addicted to Decorating's party!

Summer Reading

One of my favorite things about summer break is being able to stay up as late as I want and READ!  I've already started my summer reading and I've read two books:  On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves and Easy by Tammara Weber.  I have to say that On the Island was such a fun read!  It was romantic and completely far-fetched, but it was entertaining.  I'm still reading Easy, and it is good, but not as riveting as On the Island was.

So, for my summer wish list:

• I'd like to finish the Restoration series by Terri Blackstock. I started reading it years ago and never finished it, and from what I remember those books are so good!

• The At First Sight, Best of Me and Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
• The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

That's a good start! I need to figure out how to check out Kindle books through my library to save some money! I'm linking this to Clutter-Free Classroom and now I'm off to find more books to read through her website!

Favorite Fonts!

Being a teacher, I LOVE fonts!  Gone are the days of every activity and handout being printed in Comic Sans or (heaven forbid) Times New Roman.  I will type a hard copy over just for the sake of making it look cuter.  So here are some of my favorite fonts to use on newsletters, note guides, and whatever else I'm typing up!

I'm having so much fun downloading so many other cute fonts I've found from Teachery Tidbits Linky!

Here is my new favorite:

Currently!

To explain the last category, I WISH I could go to Bora Bora! Just look at these pictures! (From this website.)

I WENT to the Biltmore this year with my sister, her fiance, and my mom.

And I WANT to go on a cruise this summer! I don't even care where it goes!

Linking to Oh Boy 4th Grade. :) 

Random thoughts from my reading

- the standard of holy living has been so low among Christians that the least degree of real devoted ness of life and walk is looked upon with surprise
- followers of Jesus are satisfied with a life conformed to the world
- this should not be so, we should seek God first, surrendering everything that would interfere with his call on our lives
- we must be gentle, meek, yielding, doing things only for the glory of God not ourselves
- cross, anxious, gloomy, cruel, selfish, self-indulgent Christians are not Christlike Christians
- we must be peculiar


- from The Christian's Secret by Hannah Whitall Smith


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPado

Characteristics of believers

I just got a new Bible and I thought I'd do a study of what the bible says Christians should be like. I thought I should put it in first person so that I could apply it better. Here goes...

1. I should listen to Jesus' voice - John 10:3-4 the sheep know their shepherd's voice

2. I should be humble - a word study of this word showed that the Greek didn't exactly have a word for this concept, but in the study notes of my Bible it says something like, "humility is the antidote to self-love that poisons human relationships." Boy, is that good stuff. Another word the Bible uses that is similar to humility is meekness. "A gentle attitude that is patiently submissive in every offense while having no desire for revenge or retribution." (from the notes on Galatians 5)

3. I should be gentle. This goes along with humility. Matthew 5:5 - blessed are the gentle...gentleness is the opposite of being in control, and giving control to God.

4. I should live at peace with others - Romans 12:17-21. Overcome evil with good. Gosh is that hard to do sometimes. It says in verse 18 "if possible, live at peace with all men." I take that to mean that I should do EVERYTHING possible to be at peace with others. I can't control their actions, but I can control mine.

This is just a start, and plenty for me to work on!

Baby Shower!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of a baby shower I had for my bff Kelly and her baby Marshall!  I had just a week to plan the shower and get everything together!  It was rushed but it ended up being a great party.

Pantry Re-do!

So a couple of weekends ago I finally decided to tackle the wreck that was my pantry.  I clean it out probably once a year but it soon gets back to a mess because (I'm passing the blame here) it's a really poorly designed pantry.  The shelves are so deep that you can't really tell what is back there.  I think it was originally a broom closet that some previous owner changed over.  Here you can see the before picture, which shows the top and bottom of my pantry.  (I was too lazy to change the lens on my camera so I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot!)

So after taking the before pictures, I unloaded everything onto the kitchen table.  It was FULL and I don't really even cook!  Soon I filled up two garbage bags of expired canned goods, opened containers that had been open too long, and food that I don't know how it got in there because I would never eat it!

Then I categorized all the food into groups:  spices and seasonings, paper goods (left over from parties and such), canned veggies, canned soups, etc.  After browsing pinterest I decided I would buy plastic containers for each thing.  I already had a two drawer rubbermaid container in the bottom of my pantry, that I would reorganize.

I went to shopping and got lots for about $20.  When I arranged them in my pantry I KNEW this would be the key, because now I can see exactly what I have without having to move things around.  The last step was to make labels.  I found a template and copied her style.  And made some new labels on cardstock. I taped them to the containers, and I was done!  Now every time I open my pantry I do a little happy dance!

If you would like the file of the labels you can click here!

reminders

This has been a tough school year.  Definitely a lonely, thankless one without many of those sweet, cute moments that keep you going.  But God knows me and knows I need my reminders of why I'm doing this.  One of my students from last year brought me a copy of a story she had written in class to get ready for the big state writing test.  I thanked her and at that moment didn't have time to read it.  But when I did...

 

Here is what she wrote:  

Presents from different people all make me happy. No matter what they give me, I'm thankful for getting it, but there's one present that's really special to me.  Do you have one very special present that made you really, really happy?  Well, I had one.  It was the greatest joy of my life.
 

It all started on the week before Christmas break.  Everybody was really excited for Christmas day to come so they can receive presents.  I was different.  I never felt what it was like to get a present since I didn't celebrate Christmas, until that week.  I was really close to my teacher, she was my favorite teacher of all times, and she made a great difference in my life.  At the end of school that day, she handed me a colorful, wrapped up box.  I asked her what it was and she told me that I would know when I opened it.  I felt an urge to open it,  I was really eager to open it , to see what was inside but I knew I had to wait.  I was going to my friend's house that day, so when I finally arrived to her house, I grabbed the box and opened it.

When I opened it, I gasped.  Inside the colorful wrapping was a purple color cover, and flowers on a thick book.  One the cover, it had the word Bible on it.  I never felt so happy before.  I felt tears that were about to spill out.  It was the first Christmas present and the best present in my whole life.  I held The Bible close to my heart and thought about all the good things my teacher had done for me.  I knew that it was going to be the best present. Even in the future.  I still remember it like yesterday.  I the feelings I had felt and how I had felt so thankful for the best present ever.

Can you really ask for a better reminder?  I mean, I had already forgotten about getting her a Bible.  It didn't mean that much to me, it wasn't a huge sacrifice or something I spent a lot of time or money on.  But that is the key:  The things I do matter.  They have an effect on my students.  They will remember.

Currently

SUYL from Kelly's Korner!

This post was written by my wonderful friend Jill!

Katie and Jill

I have been a follower of Kelly's Korner for a few years.  I'm not sure if I'm drawn in by the day to day mothering aspect or the fact that she resides in my home state.  Woo Pig Sooie!!!  :-). I have always enjoyed her SUYL single day, and I shake my head...I have one of the best singles in my own circle of friends why, oh why am I just now introducing you to her!?!

I count it a privilege to introduce you to my friend Katie.  She is a beautiful person inside and out!   I have known her for almost 5 years, and she has been a huge blessing in our church’s life, in my life, and in my family’s life.  My girls LOVE Ms. Katie!  She is so many things, but in the end she is simple.

She loves the Lord and serves Him faithfully.

She loves her family.

Katie (on right) and her sister at the Biltmore

She loves her friends.

She loves children.

 She has a heart for missions, especially for Thailand.  She has spent three of her summer breaks in Thailand teaching English to children. 

And last but not least, she loves her four legged furry friend Toby!  Such a lucky dog. :-)

This is a girl who deserves the best.  If you’re not the best, I will kindly ask you not to contact her.  Yes, I'm that serious. :-)

Thank you Katie for allowing me to occupy your blog and introduce you to the SUYL single day. :-). I love ya!

Golden apple

Today in the middle of my math lesson I was surprised by my principal coming in the room with a camera man!  She said I had won the Golden Apple Award.  One of my fantastic students from last year wrote in to a local news program and nominated me for the award! I was so shocked and overwhelmed!  During the whole filming process I was crying!  They are playing the piece tomorrow night.  Here's a picture of the nomination essay and the basket they gave me.  This totally reminds me of why I love teaching:  being able to make a difference in kids' lives.

New Years resolutions update

I thought I'd take a look periodically to see how I'm doing on my goals for 2012!  Some of them are just tasks that I want to finish, but if I don't keep looking at this list then I won't get them finished!

1. Decorate and paint the laundry room. nope
2. Decorate and paint my bathroom.  started painting my bathroom grey today
3. Begin a new classroom management plan so that I can go less crazy. (I already picked one out. More on this later.) Done! It's going ok.
4. Blog  Doing pretty well at this, haven't blogged everyday.
5. Clean the garage and paint the inside wall. Did the first part!
6. Lose lbsssss (and go to the gym). Been going to the gym and eating better, but no weight loss yet
7. Fix up my lighthouse picture frame so that it better matches my living room colors. Nope
8. Finish my current Beth Moore Bible study and at least one other one. Nope
9. Save $$ each month for a new car. Nope
10. Use more green/homemade cleaning stuff. Made my own clothes detergent, bought spray bottles to make cleaning spray

 Not too bad for only being 17 days into the new year! I'll keep working on it!

In Asheville, part 2

We had such a great time together in Asheville. It was a perfect kind of getaway and a way to celebrate Kristen's birthday without being sad.  We saw dragonflies everywhere and we were constantly saying, "what would Kristen think of this?" and "Kristen would love this!"  It was fun. 

I have to share one story that perfectly illustrates our relationship (me, mom, kelly)!  Saturday morning we were headed out to see the Biltmore.  I was driving Karlie's XTerra, which she can't use because she's a freshman at college.  First, I had to do about a 13 point turn in the snow and ice to back out of our cabin parking spot.  So we start driving toward Asheville, following mom's trusty GPS. We get about 3 minutes down the road, and I start getting hay fever, you know when the top of your mouth starts itching?  Then, my nose starts itching, and I tell them that it feels like I'm inhaling cat hair! (I'm really allergic to cats.)  So, I'm driving and I start hacking and sneezing and my mom is telling Kelly to be ready to do a trach on me.  It was getting really bad and we couldn't figure out why I was having such a bad allergic reaction.  So I pull over at the next exit and we pull in to a really sketchy looking gas station.  Before I could even get my car door open, mom was at the door of the gas station. I don't think I've ever seen her move so fast!  Unfortunately,  all that store had was bendryl (which would put me right to sleep) and drug paraphernalia. (I'm serious!)

So mom made Kelly drive and we got back on the road. At the intersection, Kelly yells out, "Which way?? North or south?" and for some reason I adamantly yell, "North!" Which of course wasn't the right way.  So we had to turn around at the next exit.

Eventually we got some daytime allergy medicine for me, I felt better, and we got to the Biltmore! But not before mom told me her plan if I actually did stop breathing (she was going to stab a pen into my neck to create an airway.)  Such adventures!