A New Recipe and Then Some

10 days until Thanksgiving Break. 10 days. It seems like it's 10 months away! I'm in need of a break, as are my sweet little 1st graders! I enjoy every minute I get to spend with them.

The boyfriend can tell you that I spend A LOT of time on Pinterest (you know, finding new teaching ideas and other professional development. Maybe one day they will see it and give us those CEUs we always need.) I don't think he minds as much when he sees I'm pinning recipes to feed him. I recently pinned this recipe on my Winter Food board (it's barely fall here in good ole Mississippi, but wishful thinking has me cooking up a storm).

Tonight I decided to give that recipe a try. I failed miserably and did not get one picture of me ACTUALLY making the casserole, but the end product is really what matters most, right? This was the result:

It was delicious. Next time I'm going to sautee some onions and maybe put some bacon in it. Everything tastes better with bacon.

October

I mean, is it REALLY almost the middle of October?! Where has the time gone? I am such a slacker when it comes to this little blog. Seriously, my last post was in August. SO much as happened since then. For starters, my sweet boyfriend is back home from his internship with ESPN. I missed him terribly, but it was such a great experience for him. We are both praying that it will open doors for him when he graduates in May.
My sister moved here to start her graduate program at Portland State:

I have since moved downstairs to her old apartment.

I bought one of these:

And am now officially in debt.

I celebrated my 25th birthday (Yikes!) with the one I love (who presented me with some awesome gifts, though he really didn't have to.)

I have also been busy doing the craft things for my church's holiday bazaar in November. Jewelry, wreaths, etc.

And I've happily watched as my MSU Bulldogs have become 6-0 for the first time since 1999. (That TN game last Saturday was a nail biter!)

In between all of that I've been teaching my little first graders everything they need to know. (Really teaching is a large part of what I do, but I think it's just as much fun as all of these other things.) I LOVE 1st grade. We have been hard at work with subtraction, which is very difficult for my little bunch if I must say. Thursday we leave for a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. I'm so excited about this trip. I have my batteries charged for my Canon, and I'm going to be doing some picture taking. I thought it would be great to give parents pictures of their babies picking out a pumpkin.

It is late, and I have to be up at 5:30. Now that I am caught up with this blogging deal, I hope to get better with updates. 

Almost time!!

School has officially started! I'm sitting here on this gorgeous 81 degree weather writing lesson plans and grading assessments. The life of a teacher. This first school week was absolutely one of the best! My sweet little first graders are so precious! I have fallen in love with each and every one of them! I'm very excited to see what this school year has in store!

I'm also very excited because on Monday when I get home from work I will finally be seeing this face

I am beyond excited and counting down the days and hours (1 day 10 hours). I went to the beautiful state of Connecticut to visit for a few days in July. He signed us up for a tour of ESPN. Once that finished up he bought me a late lunch at the ESPN Cafe, where he introduced me to a turkey, avocado, and fried egg sandwich. Don't knock it. It was actually pretty good!

We went to NYC for 2 days and enjoyed every minute of it. We have found, however, that living in the city is not ideal for us, but living just a train ride away is divine. While there he graciously let me get my teacher fix here

Seriously. A teacher's dream. AND teachers get an extra 15% off every day. Needless to day, I was pretty excited. We also stopped to get a Crumbs cupcake to share. 

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge and into the beautiful neighborhoods of Brooklyn where we came upon a small Italian bistro. We fell in love with it. Homemade pasta and wonderful people was what this bistro was all about.

Then, to indulge Stefan we went here where we spent about 2 hours just walking through the store and viewing all of the photography and cinematography equipment. We're tech nerds of course. 

My boyfriend is handsome, and I am very ready to see him Monday. I'm even making him a welcome home cheesecake (his favorite dessert). I'm such a good girlfriend!

School Is Near

I go back to school officially next Thursday! Where has summer gone?? I am happy to say that I will be teaching 1st grade in a new school district this year! I'm a little nervous because of my experience from last year, but I have decided that I'm not going to dwell on last year. This is a new slate, a new district, new friends, new everything. I'm going to be a Positive Polly. I have been diligently working in my classroom for the past few weeks, but I still feel that I have SO much to do before August 7th when the kiddos come back. My classroom hasn't been used as an actual classroom for a few years, so when I first saw it it looked like this:

I can't even begin to tell you what kind of things where in those cubbies.

Needless to say I was quite overwhelmed. I immediately got to work and tackled the clutter. I have since turned it into this:

My cute little writing center table. It had outdated contact paper on it and it just looked gross. So I went to my friend TJ MAXX, and found this super cute Laura Ashley contact paper.

My computer center with my math shelf. (I like things organized by subject. It makes me feel better.)

 The front of the classroom, minus the touch point numbers below.

 My touch point numbers! I used my handy dandy Cricut to make these. (Seriously, if you're a teacher, and you don't have one of these babies, it's worth the investment! I got mine at Dirt Cheap for a hundred bucks!!) They actually have a Christmas in July Special deal right now. You can get a Cricut Expression with a Quilted Christmas Cartridge for $169. Check it out here. I didn't get a chance to use touch point math when I was teaching 4th grade, so I'm excited to be able to use these.


The Desk Fairy will be visiting my classroom this year. Thanks to Sarah Cooley's super cute desk fairy template, the Desk Fairy will be ready to hand out those awards. Check out the rest of Sarah's blog First Grader.....At Last for some really great ideas!



Well, the boyfriend will be back from his internship at ESPN August 13th!!!!!! (Can you tell how excited I am?!?!) I went to visit him earlier this month, and so this post isn't any longer, that will be a separate post later today.

What I've Learned....

2 and 1/2 more days then I am finished with my first year of teaching! I can honestly say that this has been a learning experience. I've learned about the kind of teacher I want to be, and the kind of teacher I don't want to be. I've learned the reality that although I want every child to succeed, some will succeed more than others. I've learned that you can't help a student who doesn't want to be helped, and who has no motivation to learn no matter how hard you try to motivate them. I've learned about each of my students' little personalities and quirks. Things that make them sad and happy. I've learned that even the most troubled of students will find their way into your heart, and then will make you want to pull your hair out the next minute. No matter how mad you get at them because they just won't sit down and stop dancing around the room, you can't help but love them for who they are and the way God created them to be. I've learned how to be more organized. I've learned that sometimes you just have to shut your classroom door and teach the way you've been taught to teach. I've learned that having other teachers who support you and encourage you can make all the difference in your year and how it turns out.

Overall I have had a good year. It's been REALLY tough though. Between teaching to the test and being called in for meetings because things just aren't working the way other people think they should work, I've learned to look on the positive side and still keep my desire for serving the Lord through teaching His children. So I look back on this job with all of its ups and downs with nothing but gratitude, because if I had not had the down parts, I wouldn't have learned so much.

Pickle Week 2012

We finished our 2nd day of state testing! Hooray!! My little fourth graders worked so hard this morning. Tomorrow we tackle the Math portion of the test, then we will be FINISHED! They are as glad as I am. To celebrate the end of testing AND because we have one more full week of school, my sweet class and I will be participating in Pickle Week 2012 which will be May 17- 28. I know what you must be thinking: There's a week devoted to pickles?? The answer is YES! I mean, who doesn't think this is a nifty idea?? Now, I didn't just magically find this out. I owe the credit to my fellow teacher friends. 

Next week my class will be learning all about pickles: where they come from, how they are made, the different types of pickles. They will even learn about their birth month pickle (seriously, there's a pickle for each month of the year. Now for the best part: Kool-Aid Pickles. I like Kool-Aid, and I like pickles. So imagine my surprise and happiness when I was given a recipe for Kool-Aid Pickles or Koolickles as the recipe calls them. In order to make these happen you need a few things:

1 gallon jar of pickles 

(obviously, from the pictures you will see I could not find a 1 gallon jar of pickles in Wal Mart....this is why I HATE Wal Mart....but that's another story for another day)

1 pound of sugar

1 packet of unsweetened Cherry Kool-Aid

(it calls for Cherry, but I couldn't find regular Cherry, and sometimes I like to deviate from the recipe so I bought Black Cherry.)

Drain the pickle juice into another container.

 Pour the packet of Kool-Aid into the container of pickle juice.

Add the sugar to the liquid.

Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Pour liquid back into pickle jars or jar...depending on which you find. There will be a little liquid left over. Just make sure it covers the top of the pickles.

 Put the top on those jars, and put them in the fridge for about a week (this is what I was told).

Voila! Koolickles!

P.S.- The leftover liquid is sitting in my freezer to make pickle-cisicles per the boyfriend's request. I've never heard of these things, but apparently they are good according to his stories about having them at the baseball fields. I'll find out tomorrow.

P.P.S- Pickle juice is also good for stopping hiccups. FYI.

Peace, Love, and Happy Pickle Week!!!!

Cinco de Mayo Wedding & A Storage Locker Surprise

I know this is quite an unusual title for a blog post. They have nothing in common, except for me.
My weekend started on Thursday last week when the boyfriend & I went to the wedding festivities of our two close friends who got married on Saturday!! (Congratulations again, Lindsay & Will!) They are now on their honeymoon in St. Lucia. The wedding festivities began Friday night with the rehearsal dinner and didn't end until late Saturday evening. There was dancing, cake, wine, and more dancing. It was truly a fairytale wedding for my very best friend who deserved nothing less. Stefan and I had a wonderful time. (I'm also just glad I didn't trip on my bridesmaid's dress walking down the aisle, and that I didn't cry during the song Ray and I sang.)

The beautiful bride & me.

Now on to the Storage Locker Surprise. My wonderful father (who is retiring this year after 30 years of teaching! WHAT?!) watches is addicted to the T.V. Storage Wars, and I'm not going to lie, I enjoy watching the show as well. Do I have any other Storage Wars watchers? Anyone? Anyone? Anyways, he bought this storage locker earlier in the week and found that it was FILLED with teacher stuff! Mostly K-1st grade things (which I will be able to use next year because I will be teaching 1st grade!!!) He immediately called me and asked if I wanted the things in the lockers, and of course I said yes! (Who would say no to free teacher things???) I offered to pay him for it, but because he loves me so & I'm his favorite daughter (shhhhh...don't tell Camille) he said I did not have to pay for it. I'm still giving him money though. 

Here is a picture of the front of the storage locker. 

I went through some of it today, but it is freaking HOT in Mississippi right now. In fact, I think we skipped over spring entirely this year. Needless to stay, I didn't stay very long.

Going to leave you on that note to watch GCB with the boyfriend! Season finale tonight!

Count Down: BFFFL's Wedding, MCT2, and End of School

BFFFL's Wedding: 12 days. MCT: 11 days. Last Day of School: 21 1/2

My life has been utter chaos the past few weeks. Preparing for my best friend's wedding, getting my sweet 4th graders ready for the state test, and helping Stefan get things in order for is internship for ESPN this summer (I'm SOOO proud of him!!!) I'm trying to come up with some super fun things to do with my sweet babies after all their hard work after testing. I am now welcoming ideas. I have a few pinned to my Pinterest board. 

Photography Show, Spring Break, and Crayon Art

It's FINALLY Spring Break!! I thought 3:20 on Friday afternoon would never come. But it did and I am one happy lady.

Last week, Stefan and I attended an art show at our friends' studio. Renee and Will Reedy own a studio in downtown Columbus. Renee is a photographer (like myself) and Will is a cinematographer (like Stefan). Stefan and I met this lovely couple through our church. Will is our new worship leader in our contemporary service, and Renee plays the keyboard in the praise band. When we found out that both Will and Renee were into photography and cinematography we were ecstatic! Since then we have had many chats about church, faith, and the arts. Stefan and I are both looking forward to what God has in store for this new friendship.

I have been meaning to be more crafty lately, but time has been something I have not had. I took the opportunity on this beautiful day to do something crafty after my sister and I came back from shopping. I have seen this crayon art deal going on through Pinterest (where else?), and I thought I would give it a try. I apologize that I didn't take picture throughout the project. You'll just get to see the finished product. The one on the left is the version that is seen on Pinterest. I used an 8 x 10 canvas and just chose different shades of the same crayon. (I bought a box of 96 crayons just for this occasion!) The one on the right is a different version of crayon art (Stefan's idea but my work.)

As seen on Pinterest.

 Stefan's idea of crayon art. I did the work.

I know this picture isn't crayon art. I just like it. Stefan doesn't like pictures so I rarely get one with him in it. 

Writer's Block

I'm still here, just with a bad case of writer's block. I hope to have some things to post soon.