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!