Favorite Pins Friday and a flash FREEBIE!!!!

I know it's late and it's almost not even Friday anymore

 but I wanted to link up with First Grade Parade 

to share my favorite pins of the week!!

My Five Favorite Pins of the Week - 

1.  A recipe which is kinda funny because I CAN'T cook.....like not at all......

Click on the picture to go to the site. 

This is for Bourbon Chicken.  We LOVE Bourbon Chicken from the little restaurant at the mall.  I am just not sure we would love it if I cooked it.  Besides it has about 20 ingredients so this is probably a "pin and never do".  Do you have any of those?

2.  For my classroom decor - 

You can click on it to go to the site but it doesn't go to the how to, just to a main page.

I have two old TV stands like the top and I hope to be able to redo them before school starts to look cute and stylish like the bottom although I may leave the wheels on it.

3.  For my home decor -

Sadly, this link is for a session at a store on how to make it and not instructions.  

I need to find instructions on how to make this and make myself one for my front door.  This is perfect for fall!!  I would change the green ribbon at the top to more green mesh stuff though.  

4.  For my classroom lessons - 

Oh my goodness!!!  This is the cutest game ever!!  Mrs. Prince tells you all about it on her blog if you click the picture.  I can't wait to play this game with my kiddos this fall!

5.  For my classroom lessons during the first week - 

Oh isn't this the greatest thing ever!?!??!?!?   I want to make one and leave it up on my wall YEAR ROUND to remind my students of how a great classmate acts!  

Thanks for hanging out with me tonight as I looked through my pins this week!  

As promised, your flash freebie is my Apple Alphabet Bingo!  It will only be a freebie until tomorrow night around this time so hurry over to TPT and grab it. 

This game comes with 26 alphabet bingo cards for the students to use as well as 26 apple cards with each letter of the alphabet on them to use when calling.

If you do download my Apple Alphabet Bingo, please leave me feedback!  THANKS!!! 

Have a great weekend!

Liebster Award

I was nominated by Meghan over at First Grade Hugs and High Fives. I was very excited to be nominated but with all the craziness in our lives this week I hadn't been able to accept my nomination until today. 

So according to Meghan, here are my "rules" for accepting this nomination:



1. Link back to the blog that nominated me


2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers


3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator


4. Share 11 random facts about yourself


5. Create 11 questions for your nominees


6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them

Meghan's questions for me

1. Why did you become a teacher?

As far back as I can remember, I have "taught".  My mom says that I used to line up stuffed animals and I would teach them.

As I grew older, I found a deeper calling and purpose in reaching children that  others couldn't reach.  As such, I teach in a school that is high poverty and high minority.  We ensure that they succeed and don't slip through the cracks.

2. What is your favorite children's book?

Oh this is a tough one.  I love love love The Giving Tree but I think it's a bit too deep and dark for young children.  It's definitely not something I would read to my students.  

For my classroom, I think anything at all by Dr. Seuss is great!

I love the way these books rhyme and use language that is easy for children to read. 

3. Who designed your blog?

Well I used bits and pieces from all over!!  I used a circus kit from DigiScrapKits to make my cover as well as a background from HotBliggityBlog.  

4. Where is the coolest place you've ever visited?

I'm definitely not a world traveler by any means but the coolest place I've ever been is DisneyWorld.  I'm slightly obsessed with the ability to go there and leave the whole world behind.  It's a yearly must for our family to "get away from it all" at Disney.

5. What is your favorite TV show(s)?

My new favorite TV show is Once Upon a Time.  I didn't start watching it when the series first began, but once I found it (in March of this year) I was hooked!!

6. Did you have a favorite toy or stuffed animal as a kid?

Hmmm....that's a hard one.  I don't remember having anything that was a favorite.

7.  Do you have a favorite exercise you do regularly (or not so regularly)?

My favorite form of exercise is a tie between walking into my favorite restaurants or walking around Disney.  Other than that, sadly, I don't exercise much.

8.  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

I love mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, and chocolate chip cookie dough (just not mixed together!!!)

9. What is your favorite way to incorporate technology into your teaching?

I love to use my Promethean board with my kiddos!  There are so many games, videos, interactive manipulatives out there that your students can get excited about!

10. Are you a Mac or PC person?

I'm a PC person!!  I've used Mac's in the past but I rather a PC.

11. What is your favorite sport to play or watch?

At our house we are major soccer fans!!  My DS11 plays goalie on a travel team and we love to follow him around.  We also love our Houston Dynamo who finally came out of their recent slump to win a game recently!!  

Facts about me

1.  I have been teaching for 12 years now.  

2.  When I first started teaching, I taught 7th-12th grade math for six years.  I still LOVE to teach math and would gladly do it all day long if they let us have departmentalized first grades!!

3.  I love sewing, embroidery, applique and digital designing.  

4.  I'm not much of a clothes or purse shopper at all.  In fact, I have been known to use the same purse for a couple of years before replacing it.

5.  My dream is to live by Disney and work at a school near there so that I can visit Magic Kingdom on the weekends.

6.  I have a sweet pup named Fudge who was hit by a car earlier this week.  No worries, it looks like he will make a full recovery luckily.

7.  I have two sweet boys.  Here they are in our favorite place!

8.  Even though I started blogging last year, I've only really kept up with it for the last month and it has really grown.  

9.  I can't cook!  Nope not at all.....can't do it.  

10.  I'm a messy person.  I try very hard to be organized but more often than not, it just seems messy.

11.  I love stalking other people's blogs!

The blogs I want to nominate

Smiling and Shining in Second Grade

Full Circle in 2nd Grade

Miss Lifesaver

Secrets of the Second Grade Sisters

The Teacher Talk - OOPS! She was already nominated.

My questions for the blogs

1.  What is your favorite subject and why?

2.  Do you have any pets? Any children?

3.  How long have you been blogging?

4.  What is your favorite food?

5.  What teaching resource have you found the most helpful?

6.  What is your best vacation spot?

7.  Tell about your best lesson ever.

8.  What do you do when you are not teaching?

9. What's one thing you would change about schools in general?

10.  What is the most frustrating thing about blogging?

11.  Do you create your own classroom items or do you buy items from other teachers?

Thank you again, Meghan!!!

Warning: Completely Random Thoughts with a little of school, home decor, and real life

I could really use a "Sunday Smorgasboard" linky today.  I really want to blog but my mind is a bit crazy and I haven't done anything really school related all week except actually going to school.  

On Monday, I went to say hello to everyone at school and scope out my room for next year.  I'll be staying in the same room so it will be nice not to have to wait for all of my stuff to be moved.  The floor wax LITERALLY stopped AT my door's threshold.  The hallway outside my door was waxed.  The classroom inside my door was not.  Since I can't touch anything until they finish, I figured I would take my before pictures and dream about what I want my room to look like this year.

Yes, this is what it looks like right now.  An island of tables, chairs, and boxes.....  Oh yeah, see that purple circle?  That's  a new bookshelf!!!  I now have 4!!  Not sure how I got that lucky but somehow I keep getting new ones.  AND NO, I didn't steal anyone's.  The janitor (sweet guy) was very proud and came to show me that he had given me a new bookcase! lol...

More of my "junk".......bare bare walls......oh boy, do I have a lot of work to do.....

Whew, excuse my finger....my kidney table is at the bottom left.  More of my junk in this picture with a view of the back corner.  My other "full" bookcase is right under my finger.  That makes two tall bookcases and two short ones.  I really need to figure out where to put them.

So since I couldn't get rid of my energy by working in my classroom at school, I decided to tackle a remodel project in my office at home.  We just purchased our home after renting it for two years so we are finally able to redo it and make it our own!  

My poor husband left on Monday morning thinking that everything was normal and all was well in the world.  He came home to stuff all over our bedroom and living room with the carpet and padding pulled out of this room.  He was a WEE bit shocked to say the least.  After the shock wore off (I even moved a 6 foot tall hutch by myself), he was happy that it was done and he didn't have to worry about it.  

The before pics.....I really didn't like the pepto bismol pink on the walls.  I'm not a "pink girl" to begin with but this was too much!

It looks different depending on which light you are standing under......pink or peach??  Either way, it's now gone!

After my husband climbed over numerous piles in the living room and bedroom, this is what he saw.   

More of the end of day 1 pics.....

I painted the first coat of new paint yesterday and LOVE it but yesterday was a disaster so I have no pics of that. In the middle of painting, our pup got loose and got hit by a car.  He survived but ran away for about 6 hours.  We thought he had died because we could not find him and he would not answer our call.  

After spending a couple hours looking for our dog, my oldest started complaining of not feeling well.  He's not one to complain so I knew something was really wrong.  Yep, fever and all so off to Urgent Care we went.  

My boy is 5 feet tall at 11 years old.  He's going to pass me up in NO time.  This makes me sad!  Look at those feet people!!  He's going to be a big'un!!   lol.....

Hubby texted me while at Urgent Care that our pup returned home and looked fine.  I was so excited!!!  When I got home from Urgent Care, I took the pup to the Emergency Vet clinic.  HELLO DOLLAR SIGNS!!!  Geez louise!!  They think he will be fine and that he didn't even break a bone!  We have to watch him for three days to make sure nothing inside is "leaking"....yuck!

I took this picture at about 2:30 a.m. this morning on one of my many scheduled wake-ups to check on the dog and my older boy.  The dog was actually sleeping on the side that got hit so that he could rub his nose on my youngest son's face.  It was so sweet!!!

Well that's all I have for today!  I wish I could tell you that I had these great new products or that my classroom was ready but that's not the case......for today at least!

Have a great rest of Wednesday!! See you tomorrow!

Monday Made It

Well today's the day.....I'm going back to school to see my classroom and start designing next year.  It's been a great summer but I can't help but feel that it's pretty much over.  So this past week I took off from working too hard on my school work in order to make something fun for my house and finish some orders from my very small side business.  It was a great week and I got a lot done!!!

  Here are a few of my made-its from the last week.

I love those sock monkeys!  I have quite a few more onesies to make this week so they may be part of next week's Monday Made It.

My next made it is almost finished.  I feel that this one needs some "picks" in it to make it cute.  This is the beginning of my door wreath.  I plan to go to the Dollar Tree today to get some little wooden decorations to add to it.  This was my first try in making this kind of wreath and it's very easy!!  I finished the green part in about 10-15 minutes.  Much MUCH easier than paying $50-80 for one.  

Well I need to get going so that I can make it to my classroom and drop off all the boxes I took home at the beginning of summer.  I'll take pics of it while I'm there to share a before with you.  Have a great day!!!

We have a winner!!!!

Check out this cutie!!!  

He's seven and embarrassed that he has no teeth so he smiles really a little weird.  I made a deal with him that he could pick my number IF he let me take his picture which is rare!  

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# 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That means Mandi Moore of Moore Fun in Kindergarten won my pirate writing center set!

CONGRATS!!!  

Check your e-mail for a link to download it!

July Currently, What I Won, and Giveaway Reminder

What?!?!?  It's already July?!?!  I know...I can't believe it either!  I just couldn't bring myself to link up with Farley at Oh Boy! Fourth Grade early on this Currently linky.  I had to wait until it was actually July because I am certainly NOT wishing my summer away!  I'm enjoying it way too much!

LISTENING:  We were listening to Tom and Jerry the cartoon as my kiddos ate their gourmet lunch of sandwiches and cheetos.  They love summer as much as I do - lazy days of TV, DS's, and board games - which is good since we are hitting 100 degrees most days here and it's brutally hot!  

LOVING: I won!! I won!!  I was so excited to win!  My goal for next year (which you have heard me say a thousand times and which you will get tired of hearing about) is to create better writers in my students.  I don't feel I did enough writing activities this past year.  Therefore, I've been working on writing centers in great detail all summer long.  Also, I've been looking for ideas to use each day for writing journals.  That's when I came across Smiling in Second Grade's blogpost this past Thursday!  Her throwback Thursday post was about writing journals and boy, did her work look amazing!  You can check it out in her TPT store here.  

I plan to use them a little differently than she did.  I am going to have the prompt (which I will pick) ready to go after we return from lunch.  This will help my kiddos readjust to being back in the room after our adventures in the lunch room lunch period.  I'm so excited about using her kit this year!

THINKING:  I need printer ink.  Can you relate?  I always find amazing things on TPT that I need to print, print, print and those little cartridges definitely do NOT last long enough!

WANTING:  I want to go work in my classroom because decorating is the "fun" part but I need to focus and get all of my work that can be done at home finished first.  It's boring but it has to be done.  I'm going to try to wait a couple more weeks before I head off to school.

NEEDING:  So I've finished a few of my writing centers but I have SOOOOO many left to go.  I really need to settle in and work on those.  It's repetitive and semi-boring but it will be such a big help once I'm completely finished!

TIPS,TRICKS, and GIVEAWAYS:  Well I'm fairly new to routinely blogging but the biggest help so far to me has been to participate in giveaways and linky parties.  This seems to draw the most people to your blog.  

I hope you all have a great Monday!  I'm off to finish another writing center and hopefully get some printing done!

OH YEAH, don't forget about the giveaway here on my blog.  My boys will pick a number Wednesday!

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