Five For...Saturday?

This week has been cray cray! Like seriously, cray cray. Here's how my week went down.

Monday: Teacher workday

Tuesday: Veteran's Day --> No School

Wednesday: A normal school day

Thursday: "Snow" day --> No School 

Friday: A normal school day

Needless to say, my whole routine is all thrown off. 

BUT...

I've managed to get it together (a little bit) for my five for Friday. Or really Saturday. Don't worry, I'm going to take your through my week right now!

Monday: Teacher work day. Is it just me or are these the least productive days ever? For some reason I always struggle to get motivated on these days. I planned my week, organized my classroom, watched a lot of Top Model and then ran some errands for our upcoming PYP unit. Overall fairly successful.

I was also able to get in a run (the only one this week). And it was the longest run that I've had in a long time! Progress!

As you can see I'm a little behind this week on my miles. How are you doing?

  

Tuesday: Appointments, appointments and more appointments. Seriously, so many appointments. I had to take all 3 of my pets to the vet, my husband to the doctor, and then had an appointment for myself. Phew. Grateful for the time to get them all done!

Thank you Veteran's! You help keep my family healthy and safe in more ways than one this year!

Wednesday: We spent all day Wednesday learning about Veteran's day. Our current PYP unit is on celebrations and holidays around the world. Our planner focuses on winter holidays like Diwali, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc. I thought it was also important to talk about Veteran's day and why people celebrate it, especially since it results in a day off from school.

We made vocabulary flip books, acrostic poems, mystery pictures, and so much more. Integration at it's finest! 

Thursday: Oh snow day. We had some pretty chilly temperatures on Thursday with snow and freezing rain in the forecast.  I woke up at 5am to a text saying 2 hour delay and then a text at 7am saying school was canceled. And thank goodness because look at all the snow. We really dodged a bullet there.

I laughed way too hard at this. So true. But the unexpected day off was much appreciated!

Friday: One of my students brought me a present today, well a snack really. She decorated a paper bag and inside place this note along with an orange and a snickers. 

The note says:

Have a good snack!

Taste my snack and

1) Circle if it is good or bad. 

Yes     No 

2) If it is yummy or yucky circle it. 

Yum! or Yuck!

3) The heart means it's good and the triangle means it's bad.

(I don't know how to get the shapes on here)

And now we are in Eugene for my husbands birthday. I also set up a Price is Right game for him! It turned out so much better than I expected. And he loved it!

Well now I am off to log some more miles for my running challenge. Thank goodness our hotel has a gym!

Wanna link up your Five for Friday too!? Head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching for all the deets!

Five for Friday!

Is it really August!? I refuse to believe it. No no no no no no no no no.  

It has been awhile since I linked up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! So now that I am done pouting about it being August already, I am excited to share about my week!

BTW, Kacey's blog just got a makeover, and holy jealous. It's SO cute!

The last 2 weeks have been a little rough. I am in my 2 week waiting period to see if this round of treatment worked. And I have to be honest, this last round of hormones really kicked my butt. Because of that, my work out routine has really slipped.

Most days I will have limited time periods where I feel okay enough to work out. But by the time I get dressed for the gym, the moment has passed.  So I've decided to cancel my gym membership and purchase a treadmill. 

I am hoping that having it in my house will help me get my work outs in when I can without pushing myself! I am pretty excited! It is getting delivered on Monday! 

Since it's August, I guess it's time for me to start thinking about my classroom. Not that I haven't been in teacher mode all summer. Let's be honest, do our teacher brains ever really turn off!? But I really haven't gone back to school shopping or really envisioned what I wanted my brand new room to look like! 

This week I started some shopping and I am now getting excited to get back into my room! I am kind of going on a spray painting rampage. I am painting everything to make it feel more cohesive. My theme last year was rainbow polka dots, but this year I am going for more of a simple vibe. 

My new classroom has a chalkboard (WHAAAAT!?) and not a whiteboard, so I am going to play off of that and use chalkboard in my new theme along with this lovely bright fun colors!

I think the project I am most excited for I saw on Instagram thanks to ms.hollands_happenings! Individual white boards!

You just go to Home Depot and get a giant (4'x8') piece of tile board. Have them cut it down into 12x12 squares (fo' freezies) add some tape around the edges (they tend to get kind of rough post-cutting) and Voila!

Awhile back I saw someone post about the Dr. Seuss exhibit on Instagram (seriously, what would I do without Instagram!?). So my friend Sarah and I decided to go and check it out! It was really cool! If you are going to be around the Portland, OR area, I definitely recommend checking it out! 

The best part was getting to see the progression of his artwork. Did you know that he went through and expressionist period? 

I loved this one! I really loved that you can still tell it is Dr. Seuss! He still has his characters just with an expressionist twist! LOVE!

Did you know that he did a lot of political pieces during WWII? 

In this photo it shows him as the puppet master. He is controlling General MacArthur. MacArthur is controlling Emperor Hiro Hito and Hiro Hito is controlling the white horse! So interesting!

During WII he also wrote and illustrated and informational booklet that was passed out to soldiers warning them of the dangers of malaria! This was by far my favorite! I wish I had taken a picture of the whole pamphlet! I did get a picture of my favorite piece though ;) 

 Words of wisdom from Dr. Seuess: Don't run around like a strip teaser.

 I will say the exhibit was a little smaller than I was hoping for. I didn't want it to end! But I did learn a lot!

Look, Look! I grew something! I have never had a garden before and today I got my first zucchini! And it is massive. I am hooked! I can't wait to have a big garden next year!

 I know what I'll be making for dinner ;)

Okay, okay, I think I died and went to heaven! Apparently, there's a food cart in downtown Portland that makes grilled PB&J sandwiches. Talk about the ultimate comfort food! 

I met a friend of mine downtown for lunch today. We had both heard such great things about this place so we decided to give it a go! I am so glad we did. I want to live there. And I might have to because these things definitely add 1870924572 lbs just looking at them. Worth it.

I got The Joy. It was peanut butter, chocolate ganache, coconut and almond butter! It tasted exactly like an Almond Joy! To. Die. For.

Messy, but oh so worth it!

I also got my husband the Cynthia. It was more basic (he wasn't quite as adventurous). His had peanut butter, raspberry jelly and nutella! I didn't try it, but he appeared to love it!

Well that was my week! I kept pretty busy if I do say so myself! I can't wait to link up and see how all of your weeks went!

Five for Friday… Er, Saturday

AHH! How is it Saturday!? I used one of my personal days yesterday and now I am all kinds of thrown off! I thought yesterday was Saturday (because it felt like Saturday) and I forgot to do all of my Friday to-dos, including linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! So here it goes! 

This week has just been crazy, in the best way possible! We are full swing in our last 10 days of school countdown. Field trips, field day, class parties, it has been exhausting but so much fun!

This was probably the highlight of my week! During "Marker Day", part of our countdown, a couple of the girls in my class started a "station" on their own for kids to make me giraffes. They know me so well :) They plan to glue them on to a large paper and make a background for them. I can't wait to see it all finished!

Okay, so I'm going to vent for a moment. Remember last week when I showed the before and during photos of my backyard in progress? Well I spent $150 on soil, fertilizer and grass seeds. Spent countless hours in the backyard pulling weeds, laying soil and planting grass. Only to find that our hose doesn't actually attach to the spigot, because of this stupid attachment.

I have no idea what this attachment is. We have also spent money trying to find ways to either remove it or in the wise words of Tim Gunn, "make it work". Nothing. I am so frustrated. The grass didn't grow and is dead because we can't water it. And now we have to start all over. :( 

Does anyone happen to know what the heck this is!? Or how I could make it attach to a standard hose. I don't wan't my vegetable garden to die next!

As part of our countdown, we are making an ABC book of advice for next years 1st graders. This is by far my favorite!

"Good people say nice words. Great people let you play" Look out Confucius, we have a new philosopher in the house. 

I spent my personal day yesterday going downtown to the Rose Festival. I love Portland, it is such a beautiful city. I had so much fun walking around in the amazing sunshine, riding the rides, eating the delicious foods and enjoying this GIANT snow cone. It took me over an hour to finish it! #snowconesfordays 

Perfect way to spend a day off!

I finished these end of the year gifts for my kiddos! Remember those compliment stars we did? Well, I typed them up into these word clouds and framed them! They turned out even cuter than I had hoped. 

It was so sweet typing/reading the compliments the kids left for each other. SO sweet. It is nice to focus on the positives. Great way to end the year :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I am checking many things off my list this weekend! Feels great to be so productive!

OH! And I ordered Guided Math: A Framework for Mathematics Instruction and Daily 5 (Second Edition) this week as well. Can't wait to join the book studies that are going on this summer! Anyone else doing those book studies!?

Five for Friday {Linky Party} - And also, can I sleep yet?

Hey hey hey! It's finally my favorite day of the week! And not just because it's Friday, although might I say thank goodness, but because I get to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and all of you other fantastic teachers out there for Five for Friday!  So let's get the party started!

I warn you now, this post is going to be all over the place, much like my brain right about now.

I am so, so, so excited that So You Think You Can Dance is back! And you best believe that I will be dancing around my house like I'm auditioning for the show! *fingers crossed* In all seriousness though, I love this show. The dancing is so inspirational, and the bodies aren't bad either! ;-) They are just so strong, fit and beautiful! 

After a month of waiting, I finally got my stitch fix and I must say I was super disappointed. I have done it once before and looooved everything I got. But this time, the price wasn't in my range and nothing fit right. The dress was too big, the capris were about a million inches too long and they sent me a bag even though I specified no accessories in my profile. I am pretty bummed. 

I think that with their big business boom they did not have the inventory or stylist power to support their new found success. Maybe I will try it again once they get through their "growing pains". 

I am almost embarrassed to post these photos, but I figured that in order to be impressed by the after photos that I need to show the before. Since my husband and I recently signed another year lease (to give us some more time to find the perfect home) I decided to redo our wanna-be backyard. Those weeds were literally almost as tall as me, which doesn't say much since I am only 5'1'' but still! I tore them all out with the help of my younger sisters and then laid soil, fertilizer and grass seeds. Now we patiently wait. 

Here is a little sneak peak of the graduation party I am helping plan for my beautiful friend Claire. She has busted her butt the last 2 years in nursing school and I couldn't be more proud of her! I can't wait to celebrate all of her accomplishments. :) 

And last but not least, Friday Fun Day! The kids love playing sight word hangman! I am sure going to miss these kiddos! I am sad to be switching schools! 

My brain is so frazzled. My to-do list keeps growing. I am ready for a break! 

I saw this floating around the internet world and it is so spot on I just had to share. 

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!