Currently Excited

Hey everyone!

When I saw Farley's Currently pop up this month, I was uber excited. Because it was my design. Yay Farley!

    I'm obsessed with Downton Abbey. I may or may not have watched Seasons 1-3 for the first time ever and all in a week. Or less than a week. Um yeah. #nolife

    I'm loving that I don't have to go back to work until the 8th!

I'm thinking about all the things in store for 2014. This summer will be epic, but what else will happen, I don't know!

    I did well with my weight loss and then it tanked. I need to get focused on it again. Along with blogging. I've got some good posts coming up for my substitute preparedness series!

    My memory for this Christmas...car problems! 'Nuff said.

You can go link up too!

14

Past and Future...

Hey everyone!

   Hope you all had a great Christmas. I took a bit of a break teacher and creating wise, but then decided to get back into gear and create products and mapped out my monthly series for 2014. Yes, my monthly series will be going again 2014! I'm already working on a freebie (hint: You'll need dice!). I'll talk more about what's in store for my series next month :)

     I had an interesting Christmas Eve. I rode with my parents to go to my grandparents' house (literally over the river and through the woods). However, stuff started shutting off in the SUV. The radio. Then the interior lighting like on the dashboard. So we managed to be in a town when this happened and Fred Meyer was still open and we got a new battery. Thought we found out it was the alternator, so we were hoping we'd be able to make it back home.

     Well we get to my grandparents at 6 and the house was black. Pitch black. No lights on anywhere. And did I mention this was fog (where was Rudolph when you needed him?). And so we are sitting in the SUV, turned off because we don't want to waste the battery. In the dark. In the fog. Cue the creepy horror music. And I had to pee. Not a good combo. And we don't have a key to get in.

     A half hour later (I was thinking about going behind a bush at this point), my aunt pulls in. No key either. Apparently the grandparents decided they wanted to go to a church service. And didn't call us to tell us this.
Anywho... Christmas Eve commenced and all was well.

And I received a lovely present in a secret gift exchange.

Coffee! And a cute ornament :)

And my parents know me all so well (ok, maybe I hinted).

Duck swag :) This I didn't ask for, but I love it! 

Washi!!! It came with all that tape :) And it spins.

My Kindle Fire will now travel in comfort and protection!

Also, a local shop had a 50% off sale the day after Christmas, so of course I had to go get me more Kelly Rae Roberts stuff!

It says different things like create, wish, dream big, soar, shine, imagine. It will most definitely go in my future classroom!

I already had some of those...I got hope and dream big this time. 

I had a great Christmas Break...I went to an ornament party, went to a girl's night and watched movies, and just relaxed. And I realized I don't go back until the 8th, so I have more time to relax. Especially since I realized I could watch Amazon Prime videos and tv shows...see you next year! Haha, I love how that sounds :)

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13 in '13

Hey everyone!

I'm linking up with some of my buddies to recap this year.

First, in January, two of my friends married each other. It was so beautiful!

Then my blog got a fabulous makeover by Tessa!  It was time to brand myself and I love it!

Along with that, I started a monthly series, Substitute Preparedness. It's to help teachers get ready for subs and for subs to be prepared. I definitely want to continue with it in 2014!

I was invited to blog with some other ladies, for a collab blog focusing on 2nd and 3rd grade.

I finally met up with some Oregon bloggers! It was a great to meet them! 

L to R:  Nicole (Teaching With Style), Me, Michelle (3rd Grade al Dente), Laura (Teacher Laura), Laurie (Chickadee Jubilee), Sarah (Sarah's First Grade Snippets), and Nicole (Teaching's a Hoot).

I went to Vegas for the DI conference and to meet up with bloggers. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait for next July. It'll be bigger and better!

I got to meet my pals that I've talked to online for a year or more and finally got to meet in person! I do consider these ladies my friends. They have dirt on me haha! (Teeny Tiny Teacher, Falling For First, Miss Kindergarten, Teacher Idea Factory, and me)

My Reading Activities pack was a featured product and whoa boy, that was an amazing experience! 

I subbed. A lot. And I'm thankful for that. It means that I've got to help teach many kids and hopefully make their day go by smoother.

I tried my hand at creating vlogs and did a vloggy Friday every once in awhile. I may do some more next year, I don't know. It's fun, but a lot of work!

I created sub plans, K-5. And now I have back to school, fall, and winter themed plans. I use them myself as they are content material and not just fluff work. Some of the greatest feedback I got on them were that principals were impressed with the content!

I guess I should have titled it camping/friends. I always go camping with a group of friends. We go to a lake and we usually have about 20 sites. It's always a blast and I truly have fun and relax. Some of my pics of camping are on instagram. My name on there is teacherjourney. I post things around school, home, etc too!

Appropriately, number 12 is the same age as my cat Checkers. As she grows older, I notice she's slowing down a bit more. That sometimes it takes longer for her to get up if she's been sleeping for a bit. I've tried to spend some more time with her this year.

I went to Texas over Thanksgiving break. I met up with Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

I went to the Alamo, the JFK Memorial, the book depository, Dallas, and went to the Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day. Great memories!

My word for next year? 

I need to believe in me, what I can do, and in what can happen. As long as you believe, there is hope!

4

Christmas Came Early

Hey everyone! Christmas came early for me! I love getting boxes and packages and office supplies and stationary.

I received three things, all different, but all useful.

I'm loving these microfiber gloves and the fact I can use my Iphone with them too!

This rolling wrist rest (say that 5 times fast) allows you to move from your mouse to your keyboard in one push. I don't have a mouse with my laptop, so I borrowed my dad's computer (but his mouse is up and keyboard is down, but it still works). He likes the support he gets too. And it's comfy!

Finally was the furniture touch-up kit. It came with several color markers (mahogany, natural, etc.) and some filler crayons. As you can see above, I used the natural touch-up marker on the spot on the table and it totally fixed it!

Christmas came early and all stuff I can use!

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