A "Dear John" letter

Dear Coldstone Creamery Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Perfection,
This is a difficult letter to write - but I think we need to see other people.  I know I have been devoted to you for several years now, and we have had a nearly exclusive relationship.  But, things have changed.  It's not you, it's me.  I need variety.  I need freedom.  And...I've met someone new.  He's sweet, and smooth...

I think it might be love.  But we can still be friends.  And don't worry, I'll still order you sometimes.  After all, a girl needs to have options.

A Short Long Weekend

I can't believe it is already Sunday night!  This "long" weekend is just a regular weekend for me - all teachers in the county have professional development tomorrow. 
As usual, we packed the weekend full of fun & activities.  On Saturday we went to the mall in Toledo.  After enjoying some delicious Olga's snackers,

I spent my coupon at New York & Company (love that store!).  I got some awesome deals on the clearance racks...8 items for only $50!  Here's a little peek into my bag...

And a picture of some amazing earrings I picked up for only $1.99 each!

I don't want to reveal too much, or it will spoil the next "What I Wore Wednesday!"
Then Owen spent his Barnes and Noble gift card.  Sticking with his current (annoying) obsession, he picked out several Max & Ruby books, along with some Curious George and Walter the Farting Dog to round out the choices.  I'm just glad he loves reading so much!
Sunday we re-celebrated Jason's birthday with a trip to Chuck E Cheese's at Owen's request.  Of course, that's where all Daddies like to celebrate their birthdays, right? ;)  We also made a stop at Target (at Owen's request - do we see a pattern here??), and picked up some Valentine supplies, along with a birthday present for an upcoming party, and several things from the Dollar Spot.  We love the Dollar Spot!  I could spend days in Target...
And last but not least, we did our annual pop can & bottle return (and I am not kidding - we only do it once a year!).  $39 richer, we finished out the weekend with some quick grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  Now that is a full weekend!
I'll be back soon - hopefully with some photos of my latest Plumdoodles creations :)  Here's a hint...they would make perfect gifts for the little Valentine's on your list!

New Hair!

There's nothing like going to the salon - relaxing, sitting under the warm dryer, leaving with shiny, yummy smelling hair.  I got a chance to go tonight and have the fabulous Ashley work on my new color & a snazzy trim.  I tried taking a self-pic, but someone snuck in the photo...

Love that little guy!!
On a more school related note, we had a great day again.  The students love their new seats, and we changed classroom jobs as well.  It's always fun to start the New Year fresh!
Today we began our social studies unit on families.  We read "Me On the Map" by Joan Sweeney, then students recorded our country, state, and city on a map. 
I also took a picture of our New Year's Eve bedtime graph from yesterday - it turned out wonderfully!  Thank you Mrs. Perry for the great idea.  We discovered that our class is full of night owls :)  Most of the students stayed up later than I did!!

Stay tuned for pictures of our game day - our class bucket is full, and we are ready to celebrate!

Happy (belated) New Year!

Today was the last day of our Christmas break - it went by so quickly!  Instead of spending it relaxing at home, I took Owen to school (he started back today) and spent the day working in my classroom.  I took down all of the Christmas decorations, and worked on turning my pile of "to be filed" from this:

into this:

As organized as I am, I really, really, really HATE filing.  But it is finished!  It feels good to start the new year with a nice, empty filing tray :)
I also used my time today to prepare some New Year activities to do with my class tomorrow.  We will be doing several activities from a blog I just love, Primary Perspective.  So while I spent my actual new year like this

tomorrow my class will spend the day writing New Year's goals, graphing what time they went to sleep on New Year's Eve, and playing a New Year Memory game from Really Roper, another great blog.  I'm looking forward to a fun-filled day of learning!

New Year, New Blog!

I am so excited to write my very first blog post!  Creating a blog has been a goal of mine for quite a while, and finally over Christmas break I was able to do it.  It has definitely been a challenge, and although it does not look exactly like I want it to yet, I'm on my way!
I'm hoping that I will be able to use this blog to share ideas from my first grade classroom, showcase my little recycled crayon business endeavor, and just share day to day occurences and events.  For those of you who know me - you know that this little cutie will be making his share of appearances in the blog as well :)

So here's to a wonderful new year, with new goals, new opportunities - and a new blog!