What I'm Pinning Wednesday

Wow-ee! Today I did something that I have been wanting to do for AGES! I went to the gym and worked out for over an hour! I know that for most of you this is no biggie, but I haven't gone to the gym in forever... and by forever, I literally mean forever! I had a personal trainer give me a workout routine and show me the ropes, then I got on and did 45 minutes of cardio and 5 of the weight machines! I loved every bit of it! But now, I am hurting! I am going to ignore the pain the most I can, because my goal is that I will lose 75 lbs by this time next summer, although several people have told me that I should be able to lose that 75 lbs before Christmas. :) That would be exciting!

Then today I got home and got on facebook and found out we (Mid-TN bloggers) are having a short-notice get together tomorrow in Nashville because Mrs. Erin Eberhart is coming into town! There will be some faces there that I have already met (Laura Starnes, Kinder Kraziness) and some there that I have never met before! I'm super excited about meeting new people and seeing old faces! I will have to post some pictures or something afterwards!

I also went to Hobby Lobby today, I've been wanting to go there for about a week now, and I finally found the ribbon that I have been looking for!

It is plain, but I think it will be perfect for the project that I'm using it for! I will be sure to share some pictures of that sometime soon! I still have several projects that I am working on for school! I can not believe that I only have 2 weeks of summer left. Is it just me, or does it feel like summer has FLOWN by?!

And now for the namesake of this post, What I'm Pinning Wednesday!

This FREE activity from Kindergarten Smiles is a great beginning of the year (B.O.Y.) resource!

One of my favorite bloggers, Abby, has some great poetry journal ideas! You can check them out here!

This is a great "All About Me" activity from First Grader...at Last! Super cute!!

This last one isn't really an activity for the kids, but a tool they could use to rate their work! I love it and need to make me one! (Sorry I could not find the original posting for this one!! If you know who posted this originally, please let me know and I will give credit where credit is due!)

The rest of my pins this week have been clothing, Fall/Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations! I know... summer is not even over yet and, just like Hobby Lobby, I'm ready for Christmas! (I've even been singing some Christmas tunes! eh!)

On the road to a pot of Gold (freebies!)

Hey!!! I'm still feeling the puppy love! I think I might have a problem! I already have two dogs, Ms. Molly and Mr. Bagel. (As you can see Ms. Molly loves to sleep on the couch beside me... and Bagel loves to have his belly rubbed!)

                                 (Ms. Molly sleeping)                                          (Mr. Bagel getting a belly rub)

What is the problem, you ask? I want one of the puppies. I'm a sucker for cute things. A puppy is a "cute thing." And then there is the thing that 2 of the puppies look exactly like Mr. Bagel (their daddy). How adorable would it be to have a father/son combo.... not that either would know thats what they were to each other... or care. BUT I WOULD KNOW!!!  Eh.... my family tells me I'm crazy... and.... it is probably true.

So... moving on --->

Since I still have puppies on the mind and I came across a great linky party today TBA is celebrating/just celebrated "International Blog Hopping Day" and Kreative in Kinder is hosting

 so I created a new freebie just for you! Yea that's right! Just for you! Because I like you THAT much! :) Or because I was bored.... or maybe because I wanted to be creative. But yea... mostly because I like you AND appreciate all that you do and all of your support THAT much!

(If you enjoy this activity, I'd love it if you checked out my "Dog House Literacy Packet"!)

Head on over to Kreative In Kinder's website to check out more wonderful freebies!

Fish, Puppies, and a FLASH Sale

Wow! What a crazy couple of past days! Monday I woke up to my boyfriend telling me that we were going to head to the lake and go fishing. Although I was not quite ready to wake up yet, I was super excited about the fishing!

  

It was a gorgeous (although my phone picture above does not do justice!)  overcast day. Although we didn't catch any fish I really enjoyed the day at the lake. 

Tuesday was a great day as well. I spent most of the morning just chilling and then I got myself pampered. It was a well-needed pampering session. Then I had a great night out with some friends. Went to a free concert and then we headed downtown Nashville.

Yesterday I spent the day shopping with the boyfriend. Headed to Murfreesboro, then to Smyrna, then to Nashville, then to Oregon... oh wait! Thats right! We didn't want to drive 1 day & 16 hours to Hillsboro Oregon (we were supposed to be going to Hillsboro, Nahsville when the boyfriend typed in the address to the GPS and didn't realize it was taking us to Oregon!) So we ended up in Mt. Juliet. But we did get in a little bit of shopping and home decor browsing done. We found lots of cool items that we'd love to have for our house, when we get it. But while at Haverties we found a little treasure that only cost $6 instead of the original $25! What a deal!  Oh! And it will go great with our beach themed bathroom when we get into that new home! Isn't it gorgeous?






And Finally for the crazy, beautiful, sometimes awful-ly great week.... Ms. Bella (my sister's dog) has given birth to 10 puppies this morning. I've been up since 6:30 this morning watching and assisting in her labor process. Sadly two of the pups have not survived. 1 was still born and one didn't make it out of the sac in time. (I hadn't gotten in the room yet.) We all feel so guilty about this one. Because we could have made a difference. But the other 8 - 6 boys and 2 girls- puppies are doing great. Ms. Bella is EXHAUSTED of course! But who wouldn't be after having 10 babies? In case you are wandering, the puppies are 1/2 beagle, 1/4 bassett, and 1/4 terrier. Most are white with brown spots, there are 2 that are completely brown just like my Mr. Bagel (my dog). Sadly the two that passed looked just like their daddy as well.

In honor of these pups, I have created my "Dog House Literacy Packet" and posted it for sale in my TPT site. It will be selling for $6.00... BUT it is on sale for 3.50 for the next... well, until I take it off sale tomorrow sometime. It is 39 pages, aligned to CCSS, and has several Literacy Activities, including: CVC word building, Scrambled Sentences, and Rhyming Word Pairs (plus other great activities)!! Plus... because I'm feeling nice the first 2 people who leave me a comment will get this as a freebie!

Adventures and Awards

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th on Wednesday. We didn't do much to celebrate. The boyfriend and I stayed around the house and just hung out with one another. Due to the excessive heat here in TN (temps have been 100+ for the past week), and the fact that our bedroom is currently housed in my mom's garage with no insulation, we finally broke down and went to Lowes and got a window AC. Although we still haven't installed it. *insert sad face* While I was there I looked at the the "teacher toolboxes." I have to admit that they are MUCH smaller than I expected.... but I still can't wait to get mine! We did go to Dollar General and I found a bunch of awesome stuff that I can't wait to use! It all matches my new theme so well! (I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of my purchases!)

Then we went on a "date" and saw Ted. Hilariously-awesome movie!! My advice, if you have kids DO NOT take them to see this movie! It is not kid-appropriate in my opinion. Let's just say Ted is not a teddy bear you would want your kids to have.

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I have to say a big THANK YOU! to a few bloggers for awarding me with The "One Lovely Blog" award and the "Versatile Award"

Thanks Ladies!

So since I am a "go with the flow" type of girl... I am going to be following the rules.
Here are the rules for this award are: 
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you. (check!)
2. Include a link to their site. (check! -click their buttons!)
3. Include the award image in your post. (check!)
4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.  (Keep on reading!)
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award. (Down below!)
6. When nominating, include a link to their site. (check!)
7. Let other bloggers know they’ve been nominated.(check!)

Seven Random Facts:
1) Usher reminds me of my youth. (One of my favorite songs from when I was like 13 just played on this movie I'm watching.)
2) I have two dogs that I call my children. Molly-girl; German Shepard/Lab and Bagel-boy; Beagle/Terrier  
3) The boyfriend and I have been dating 4 years this September 17th. (I'm expecting a ring soon!)
4) My favorite candy bar is a kitkat (this is newly discovered!)
5) I am ADDICTED to sweet tea!!
6) I want to be a published author "when I grow up." 
7) My favorite movies of all time is Grease and Pretty Woman

Okay and now 15 other WONDERFUL bloggers that deserve this award!

Kindertrips

Going Nutty

Kinder Kraziness

Eberhart's Explorers

Under the Alphabet Tree

*Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge*

Apples and ABC's: Adventures in Kindergarten 

Heather's Heart

Kindergarten Lifestyle

Sharing Kindergarten

Hello Mrs. Sykes - Resources for Teachers

Peace, Love and Learning

Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Wolfelicious 

A Differentiated Kindergarten 

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On a side note, Erin over at Eberhart's Explorers is having a giveaway worth $500! Go check it out! 

 

July Currently and Randomness

I feel like such a slacker. As Staci (Going Nutty) would say, I think I have PTT. But I feel so guilt about it. Like to the point that I woke up last night in a sweat after dreaming that someone told me that my blog had disappointed them because basically I haven't posted anything lately with real teachery substance. Now I know that this was just a dream, but if you do feel like this I am sorry. I have the Diving Into Common Core series planned, I just haven't done anything with it...

My personal life has just been so crazy this summer.... like you honestly wouldn't believe. I'm just praying that everything comes together and that things continue to stay calm for a while.

I do have a packet that I have been working on, but I can't get it to save in a PDF document correctly... which stinks! Because it is by far my best packet yet! I did get it saved in a locked word document, so no changes can be made besides from me. Do you think I would be safe to publish it in the locked word document? What do you think I should do!? It's over 150 pages. However, I could easily keep going and make it much larger? What do you think is TOO big?

I'll leave you tonight with my favorite thing from the beginning of the month.... Farley's Currently!

The fan is blowing and for the first time in what feels like forever, I am cold! I love it! It has been terribly hot this past week! In fact there was one day last week that the only place hotter than where I live was in the middle of the desert... and that was only by like 1degree! Lets just say 113degrees is H.O.T. HOT!

Loving... I am absolutely loving that I am about to go to bed. I have been watching my sister's son for the past couple of weeks... while her and her husband work... lets just say he is a handful. I want children, I really really do... but he is making me rethink that option. It has been said several times that he is "hitting his 'Terrible Two's' super early!" But he's a cutie... and when he smiles or lays his head on my chest, it makes it all worth it.

Okay... so one of the books that I was introduced to in college was Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan. I love this book! It is a great book to use when teaching adjectives... or teaching about how we are all equal no matter what we look like... or even for talking about illustrations (and then having students make their very own pictures using just construction paper)! I love it and I definitely recommend it as a read-a-loud for your classroom!

Okay ladies... and gent... that is all I have for you tonight! To all of my new followers, welcome! I can't believe that I am almost at 200 followers!

Remember... if you don't mind... let me know what you think/would do about my Alphabet Packet problem! I would be ever so greatful!