Money Madness

These tickers are here to encourage me on my journey to financial peace through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Normal posts below!!!

Thankful Tree

I found a cute Thanksgiving project over at Amy's blog and tweeked it a tiny bit for my classroom. I knew I should do some type of Thanksgiving craft with my kids, but since I'm not working all of next week, it had to be something simple- so this was perfect!!

Over the course of a few days, my students shot out things they were thankful for. Among the usual my family, my friends, my dog, God, etc., I picked out a few of my favorites-- and added a picture of our finished tree. With 50+ kids through my door on any given day, about 35 of them chose to participate in this project. We like it!!

I'm thankful for:
Liv- snowballs
Nina- sleeping at the beach
Rava- kangaroos and ice cubes
Adam- trains
Dylan- monsters and pancake face
Luke- eggs and bacon
Ayla- everything except bad guys
Maxim- cake
Charlie- chicken wings
Maile- you being the best teacher (AWWW!!)
Karden- windows
Ava- my twin brother and sister

What are you thankful for??

And with that, I'm over and out for the weekend. I'm off to visit one of my best friends, her new baby (& the rest of her family of course). From what I understand, the plans include lots of cuddling the new babe, catching up with each other, probably eating lots of junk food, and apparently going to see some movie that is coming out...something about Twilight..?

http://images-1.redbubble.net/img/art/size:large/view:main/194789-11-baby-feet.jpg

See you next week!!

Roses & Thorns

I saw this idea on another blog (I don't remember where, or I'd link!) and thought I'd give it a try :)

-My coworkers have been fantastic this school year- so many of them pitching in when Jessa's been out so much. I'm so thankful for them!

- I had my oil changed and they didn't find anything else wrong with the car

- My emergency fund has grown a lot in the past week or so- many babysitting jobs!

-I'm going to visit one of my best friends this weekend

- I'll get to cuddle her new baby and get girl time, something that's been sorely missing lately

-After the visit, I have a week off of work for Thanksgiving!

-My grandmother is visiting for Thanksgiving, and I don't think we've ever had her visit for TurkeyDay before!

-Once I return to Big City, another good friend of mine is coming to stay for a few days. Hopefully we'll be able to fit in some good girl time, because I miss her!

- Jessa's been out SO much and it's stressful

- The emergency fund has come to a grinding halt until December's first weekend arrives. I'm sure it will be here fast but it's been nice being able to add to it every few days! ;)

- The visit this weekend could never be long enough- Stevie and I don't get to see each other much!

- We have our staff meeting Thursday and I'll have no time to pack...

Obviously, the good outweighs the bad... =) How's your week?

Take Me Back Tuesday Vol. II

I started "Take Me Back Tuesday" last week and people seemed to like it so I present week two! If you have any ideas for future weeks, let me know. I have a nice list going, but it will run out if I keep this up (which I hope to!)

photo from: http://mattogno.com/MattognoGirls/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/slinky2.jpg

 What else is there to say? Slinkies are an awesome invention and I have so many memories of watching them fly down flights of stairs both at my parents' house and at my grandmother's! I wish they could find a way to make them bounce back to their original shape after being twisted by small children, though!

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Photo: http://luzyvidaministry.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/chalk2_list_view.jpg

Sidewalk chalk was a favorite of mine growing up, and the children at my school still enjoy it! We write our names, play tic-tac-toe, trace each other's bodies, draw pumpkins, airplanes, ducks, and about anything else you can imagine. One of my favorite memories is of a warm, sunny Christmas Day spent in Massachusetts. The weather was in the 60s or 70s, very unusual for that time of year in the Northeast and my aunts, uncles, siblings and I spent the holiday drawing all over my grandma's slanted driveway with all the colors of the rainbow! I couldn't have been more than 8 or 9.

Photo compliments of me, myself and I, from my time spent in Belize. Proof that sidewalk chalk usage doesn't all have to be in English! ;)

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The Care Bears!!

Always friendly and ready to help, I have a soft spot in my heart for these cuties. We had (or my parents still have) the Care Bear Nutcracker movie. Growing up, I thought the theme of the Nutcracker was parallel with the Care Bears, something my dad would probably *still* cringe over if I told him!

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I was homeschooled after fifth grade, but prior to that I went to a public school for a few months. As a member of a large family, I qualified for free school lunches and I absolutely LOVED it. After years of packing my lunch daily, it was like a dream come true, especially on square pizza days! I'm not sure I would enjoy it now, but it tasted great at age ten!

Photo: http://open.salon.com/blog/rwnutjob/2009/04/22/school_pizzayumyum

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This one is bound to drive one of my blog readers crazy if she pays close attention! Before Lyn lef this summer, she and I went kayaking and when leaving the park, we came across tire swings! I spent hours upon hours swinging on one in my rural yard growing up and getting a chance to swing again was SO MUCH FUN!

However, this photo has been doctored, and no one knows how or why, although one of my friends had a silly guess this summer...if you can figure it out, I'll send you a homemade candle. Seriously! I'm a candlemaker, didn't you know?

Feel free to join in with your own childhood memories!!

Ice Cream, Part II

Please check out the poll on the sidebar. It's in relation to this post of mine and I'd love your input! (Also, my students will thank you...)

Prologue: Read this post on ice cream. C'mon. It's a post on ICE CREAM. Not scary at all, I promise.

That's right. Click right here.

Well if you didn't read it, that's your own fault, but this post probably won't make sense. Just sayin'! ;)

Onwards.

~

I plan to visit said ice cream place next weekend and pick up some more deliciousness for Cara. So far, she doesn't know *where* I'm going, just that I'm taking a trip. If I can keep quiet for four more days, and if the top secret destination location of my destination (haha) is kept off Facebook, I'll be home free- I'll buy the ice cream and bring it back to BC with me to gift her with after our wonderful Turkey break.

However, I was thinking that it might be fun if I could find a goofy way to give her the dessert, rather than just, "Oh hey, brought you some ice cream!"

So- here's what I'm thinking. Yes, I know it's dorky, but I think (hope) she'll h=find it at least a little fun and maybe a little exasperating (because I'm mean like that!). I found random letters of "(store name) vanilla ice cream" on Google and pasted them to a word document. I'm going to print it at work, so it's all colorful and then I was going to cut up the letters, put them in an envelope, write her name on it (or even better, have one of the kids write it!) and slip the envelope in her work closet during her lunch break. She's going to know it's me pretty quickly because I'm the most likely to play jokes on her and Hope, but that way, she has all afternoon to work on the puzzle and hopefully finish in time to receive her prize, waiting in the freezer, by the time she goes home.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Yea, I'm weird I know. Get over it. ;) It's more fun that way.

Keep Back!

Please check out the poll on the right hand side-- vote!! It's in relation to this earlier post of mine. Thank you!!

One of my students was wearing this shirt at the beginning of the school week and I couldn't help but take a picture, especially because the shirt is true for this particular child!

Little did I know it would also be appropriate for myself on Friday- which happened to be the 13th. Friday the 13th. I'm not really a superstitious person, in fact I don't consider myself superstitious at all.

However, I will say it was the worst day I've had in a long time. I'm not a fan of Fridays anymore to begin with, seeing as I fly solo for most of the beginning part of the day at work with Jessa out. My boss is to step in and help with lunch, but without typing a book, I'll just say she has a lot on her plate being the boss and all and, while she has the best intentions, she is never with me for ALL of lunch time, the most stressful part of my workday even on a good day.

So, cut to about 11:30 yesterday morning and you'll see me running around my classroom like a chicken with its head cut off. I had dismissed all the kids to find a seat in my lunchroom, but I had (spontaneously)

14 kids who were actually sitting, like they were supposed to (thank goodness for them!)

1 girl whining because she wanted to eat with her brother,

1 boy whining and crying because he wanted to eat with his sister. Sitting next to her just wasn't good enough for him,

4 boys waiting halfway patiently for me to direct them to a spot since we had more kids than usual (of COURSE!),

1 boy walking/running through the room with (kid) scissors because he is independent and wanted to open his yogurt RIGHT then,

1 boy spilling juice all over the floor/his shirt/pants/the table, and

2 kiddos waiting for the bathroom, which was already in use by another student, so they were fooling around...

so, as a teacher who usually has Patience...

it was "KEEP BACK 200 FEET!"

the patience was at about 5% and rapidly falling.

There was even more drama later in the lunch period, but I won't bore you with that.

That was my Friday the 13th drama. How about you?

*I do have to give props to my coworker Cara, though. She's the type of person who just helps out wherever she's needed, without being asked. She came in my room to drop off some papers right as all this was going on, and she stepped right in to help. I think even if she was a mean person who did that, I'd love her...of course, she's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet which makes it easy to love her anyway. Cara also told me she'll be stepping in to help EVERY time Jessa's gone just to make sure I'm okay- as if she doesn't have a class of her own to manage already! I love my co-workers.*

Quick Poll!

I hope this works!!

I don't have any updates on the baby (from the last post) but the meeting with my boss went really well! My idea was accepted with a LOT of enthusiasm, and my boss is already warning me that my co-workers will want me to present in their classrooms as well. Yikes.

Here's what we'll be doing beginning in December!

I was fortunate enough to travel to Europe and live there for four months when I was 19. I was technically there for school but also had the opportunity to travel to many countries and explore- so beginning with one of those countries, plus Belize, Mexico and Canada, you all have to help me decide which one I'll be learning about with my students! Hopefully, we'll expand on the photos and memories I have and include books like this one, implement music from the country, make (and try?) their foods, draw their flag...it's not all sorted out in my head quite yet but I'd love your opinion and ideas...it's going to be a fun ride, and I am positive much of the information will also end up on my blog!

Friday 5: Shapes

1. What is your favorite shape of pasta?  Lately, Penne
2. Which of the Lucky Charms marshmallows is (or was) your favorite? The clover!
3. Of people you know who are older than forty, who’s in the best shape? Umm, my grandma? I have no idea!
4. What shape is one of the more interesting scars on your body? The one from my burn is kinda cool!
5. Of a human’s internal organs, which you think has the most interesting shape? I've always liked the heart :)

Friday 5

Quick Prayer Requests

The meeting I was supposed to have with my boss Tuesday was pushed back to this afternoon- what is decided will determine the course of the remainder of the school year. I have a few ideas in mind to mention to her, but ultimately the two of us together will decide what my stretching goal will be! Hopefully it will go...I'll be back tonight to let you know!

Also, one of my good friends from college has a baby daughter who is very sick. Clln's Madi is about 15 months and has been sick her whole life with various issues. They live just a few short hours from me, but the last time I saw Clln was a week or so before Madi was born. Madi is currently in the PICU on oxygen and may have to be intubated. I don't have many details as they are waiting for confirmation from various tests, but they have diagnosed her with pneumonia-- so any prayers you can send their way would be great.

Have a wonderful Thursday! Two weeks until Thanksgiving...

Whoops

It's been an interesting few days here and blog reading (and posting!) has just taken a backseat to normal, everyday life.

School is going well, although Jessa was out again today and will be Friday as well- every Friday, that is. I think I wrote about that already, so I won't repeat myself. LOL. Yesterday was a particularly awesome school day- the kids and I had long circle discussions about consequences  and quietly lining up- and my afternoon group has lined up quietly (as in DEAD quiet...) the past two days-- YAY! The kids are all ages 3-6, so I'm excited about that- of course, we'll have to reinforce every day...haha!

The other thing I've been working on non-stop is my school's webpage. We launched it at the very end of last year and it was time for some new updates and photos- meaning photo brushing light posts, faces of children who are not allowed on the website, removing dates from some pictures, compiling which photos to actually use and the order of them all...I worked on it for five hours yesterday and three hours today-- and still have more to do!

One of the issues I'm having is the program our website is built with is EXTREMELY hard to use. Granted, I don't technically have programming experience (technically...haha. I don't have ANY at all). Anyway- attempting to edit the site is such a pain. There is no option to center pictures, so I had to manually make a fake photo with our logo on the right side, then position it on the left side to actually center it. Makes no sense, right? Yeaaa....

So- I'm not sure if any of you can help me out, but I'd be glad for some help. We have a webpage, we have the domain, but I need to find a way to host it somewhere else so it's easy to edit. What would happen if I left my school at some point and my boss had to edit part of it?! Any ideas??

Well, I'm off. I'd post more photos of my trip west, but I can't really stand to check out any more pictures right now. My brain's on overload!!!!! Hope you're having a great week :)

Take Me Back Tuesday Vol. I

I'm actually hoping to start this as a series, but we'll see!! I've been noticing (and reading!) things around my world that are just complete blasts from the past...aka my childhood.

Fozzie Bear!!!!

Okay, so I had one of these when I was very little. My sister Shae had a Miss Piggy one and I had Fozzie. I LOVED him. Somewhere in between all of our moves, my bear was lost. I have no clue what happened but I thought of him over the years. When I was in Scotland in '04, it was a rainy, blowy day. My friend Anna and I randomly entered a Disney store and I found a new Fozzie- I knew I had to have him! My sister Rachael also fell in love with my Fozzie, so I found one online for her- we have (almost) matching bears to this day!

Sesame Street- How Crayons are Made

I watched hours upon hours of Sesame Street as a child and for some reason, this is the one thing that sticks out. I have NO idea why.

Candy necklaces!

Um...yummy and sticky, as a kid the best thing ever...'nough said!

Tootsie Roll Pops

Haha, oh yes. The Indian shooting! When I was about 10-11, a rumor circulated within my circle of friends that if you had a tootsie pop wrapper with a WHOLE Indian shooting, you could send the wrapper to the TR company and they would send you a free lollipop. I tried it..a few times (haha). Didn't work, but I think I did get some nice letters & coupons from the company. LOL.

Stencils

I remember using these for hours upon hours. I claim them from my parents' house once Rachael gets too old for them and/or once I have my own kids. Two weeks ago, I was SO excited to find these exact ones at my school- I demonstrated how to use them to my students and they are enjoying them too :D

and of course, the books of my youth....which were honestly and truly taken away as PUNISHMENTS because I loved reading so much...

What are your favorites? Remember any of these???