Five for Friday

So glad that Five for Friday is back!  I haven't started back to school yet, so this is a bit of piece-meal, end-of-summer- mixture of events from the week.

1. Last Friday found me in Oregon visiting with my bf and 4-month old niece! Isn't she the cutest?! I had the pleasure of babysitting her for a whole day, and shortly after this picture was taken, snuggled with her until she fell asleep in my arms. So smitten!

2.  I went in on Tuesday to help my roomie out with her new classroom!  She was just hired as a band teacher at a nearby private school. So excited for her! After the many, MANY hours she has selflessly volunteered and helped in my classroom, it was the least I could do.

3. My new tumbler came today! So excited!  I think it's my new favorite cup.

4. This happened this morning. Ugh.  Allergy scratch test. 61 of those needles scratched my back and I have the hives and welts to prove it. So itchy!!!  But the good news was that there were no huge surprises. My last allergy test was about 7 years ago and not much has changed since then, though some thing were worse this round. Immunotherapy starting sometime next week. Yay?

5.  I finally get the keys to my new classroom on Monday!  I called yesterday and they were officially moving all of my boxes from the old room to the new.  With only seven work days until school starts, I think I know where I am going to be living all next week...

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Currently

Holy moly. It's August.

Don't know how that happened.  Wasn't the last day of school last week?

The countdown is officially on. I still have about 2 1/2 weeks before school starts, so the panic isn't completely setting in yet. But I sure am aware of exactly how many days are left before the kids arrive.

I'm so excited to be playing along with Farley again this month for August's Currently! I figured a few days late was better than not playing along at all. :)

Wanting... Mr. Mailman and Mrs. Condren to work together and get my new Bentley of a lesson plan book delivered! I'm SO excited about my splurge purchase for this school year.  I usually just use Lakeshore's free plan book, which has been wonderful. I think it's been my go-to for the last 10 years.  And then they CHANGED them this year! 

What is with THAT?  As a teacher supply store, aren't they aware of how much teachers hate, dread, abhor change?!  Their gorgeous horizontal layout with tons of room to write is now vertical with little tiny boxes. And no room for notes. I was so inconsolably upset after my annual Lakeshore visit. I didn't know what to do with myself! How was I going to lesson plan?!  Erin Condren to the rescue! 

Isn't it purdy?! Of course, it will have my name and not the random sample name. It should be here in about 8 more days!

Needing... To get into my classroom!  I'm moving rooms this year, which is always a pain, but I keep telling myself that this is for the best. I'm moving to a much bigger classroom that actually has storage! My old room didn't have any counters, no cabinets... It made storing things away a huge pain in the rear.  Just envision tubs upon tubs stacked in the corners storing art supplies, science, manipulatives... Yeah, it wasn't pretty.  But I made due for three years.

Now I'm moving! Yay!  But my school takes our keys from us in June.  Meaning, there is no work allowed to be done on campus until the office opens back up in mid-August.  MID-AUGUST! AH!  Back in June, my principal was guessing I might be able to get in there around the 9th.  Not too bad.  But of course, that is if the currently occupying teacher has finished moving out.  

Maybe this is where the stress and panic begins...

BTS Must Haves...
1. Mr. Sketch Markers. I finally grabbed my first box last year.  I can't believe it took me 8 years of teach to discover the brilliance of these amazing markers! Smelly. Bold. Colorful.  My anchor charts were my best anchor charts EVER!  I'm definitely restocking this item yearly!

2.  The first day of school just brings out the kid in me. Having a great, brand-new, first day of school outfit is a must!  First impressions are everything! ;)

3. I used Abby's Fun with Firsties pack for the first time last year, as well, and absolutely had a blast!  From Jitter Juice, to the surveys, to the stories... So much fun!  AND she recently updated it!

Now I need to wrap my mind around the fact that the next Currently will take place two weeks into the school year. Ugh...

Thanks for stopping by!

Five for Friday (on a Saturday)

Good golly it's been a busy few weeks!  We all know just how crazy the end of the school year to be, and the mile-long to-do list that has to be conquered in record time.

Add Open House to that, and you have my week.

So, without further ado (and a day late!) my Five for Friday!

1.  Open House. Check!  We had our Open House on Wednesday and it was a success! It's always so much work to pull everything together, but when I see the proud faces of my firsties as they run around my room, dragging their parents by the hand, it's all worth it.  I had a great turnout, and a HUGE wave of kindergarten shoppers.  Those little tiny guys always make me smile (and freak out slightly at how tiny they are!).

2.  We lost the lottery and had to have our Open House on a Wednesday, which made for a very, VERY long Thursday and Friday. Needless to say, we most definitely planned a movie day for Friday. Which ended up being perfect because my teammate's sub (and my shared doorway buddy) didn't show up! I had 40 kids in my room for most of the day! Movies = instant crowd control.  And it let me get tons of work done so I could leave pretty quickly after school ended. Winning!

3.  We have 12 days of school left. 12! So close and yet so far!  In those 12 days, my to do list looks something like this:

• report cards
• pink and blues
• class assignments for 2nd grade
• cumulative files
• benchmark testing
• tear down classroom
• pack up classroom for move
• pack for England (yay!)
• field trip
• plan end-of-the-year party

And I'm absolutely sure that I have left something off of that list.  I may be freaking out slightly.

4. I'm moving rooms. We're increasing class size a bit and my current room is tiny and literally has no storage. I have tubs and boxes stacked in the back corner to hold all our my supplies. We barely fit with 19 kids.  The room I'm moving to is much bigger, but really far away from the office. I guess it's better than nothing.  But it's so much work to move rooms!  I am definitely looking forward to the extra space, but not the process of gaining that extra space.

5. It's a 3-day weekend!!! Enough said.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Five for Friday

TGIF!

So glad it's Friday, but kind of stressing already about all of the work I have to do this weekend. Only 12 more days to Open House!

1. Classroom creatures update!  Our ladybug larvae have officially entered their third stage of life and are happily all curled in their pupae.  I'm expecting to come back and find them all as ladybugs on Monday... Wonder if they'll survive until Open House on the 22nd?  Our two tadpoles are doing wonderfully.  My little three-legged friend sprouted his fourth leg and is quickly looking a whole lot more like a frog than a tadpole.  Tadpole #2, well, he's taking his sweet, precious time.  Mr. Froglet even climbed out of the water for the first time today... AFTER the kids had gone home, of course.  All caterpillars are in their chrysalises. And not a praying mantis nymph to be seen yet...  One of these days it's going to burst open with hundreds of them, I just know it...

2. We finished up our Mother's Day gifts! We made MissKindergarten's adorable purses and they turned out great! My favorite page is always when they have to compare their mom's height to an object, and then guess her weight! "My mom weighs 49 pounds."  What mom wouldn't love that?!

3.  Open House is in 12 days and this is what my walls currently look like! Stress and panic!!!  I spent some serious time working on walls and assembling books after school ended today.

4. My license plates came for my new car in the mail this week. Sad day. The new car doesn't feel so new anymore.  At least it still SMELLS new!

5. We studied antonyms this week in class and had a blast!  We took off our shoes to trace some "an-toe-nyms," read a few stories, and I even whipped up a quick bingo game.  I called a word and the students had to mark the antonym. Hope you can use it, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Five for Friday

Praise the Lord for Fridays!  I think my kids were determined to give me gray hair this week.  Hello, spring fever.

We've only got to hang on for 27 more days, guys!  27!!!

1. My classroom is absolutely crawling with critters right now.  In addition to our tadpoles (see post #2), our caterpillars, ladybug larvae, and praying mantis egg all arrived over the weekend.  The caterpillars are growing like weeds, as usual. I have an awful feeling that they are going to be butterflies WAY before Open House. I'm hoping I can steal one of my teammate's butterflies since we'll likely have to let ours go before the 22nd. 

2.  Tadpoles! These guys have been in our room for a few weeks now, but this little guy decided to sprout his first front leg yesterday afternoon! Of course, as luck would have it, he waited until AFTER the kids had gone home to do so.  I happened to be around still and snapped a picture of our three-legged frog to show the kids.  And then, sure enough, his other one had sprouted sometime over night.  He is officially a froglet!

Right side.

New leg on the left side!

3. It's hot. I'm grumpy. I want winter/spring cool weather back. Teaching PE in this ridiculous heat is the pits.  "They" say it's only supposed to be like this for one more day, though.  We'll see if "they" are right...

4.  This is my best friend's new little girl.  I am absolutely DYING to meet her and am working on booking some plane tickets to fly up to see her later this month. Yay!

5. My mom is here for the weekend, and we're off to get thoroughly pampered tomorrow. Hair cuts, a little shopping, dining out... And then my cousin's baby shower on Sunday! So excited to spend some time with my mom!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Currently

May.

Yeah, that happened.

I'm so excited that it's May! I love our science unit this month, I'm one of those crazy people that love gearing up for Open House, and I love that all of my summer plans are just around the corner!

And I love that it's time for another Currently!

Ah, Mr. Buble.  What you do to me with that perfect-pitch voice of yours.  And the new album is no exception. It's currently on constant repeat in my car.

I am such a girly-girl. I have always loved dresses and skirts, and am completely in LOVE with the fact that dresses are coming back around.  And they're cuter than ever!  I love the "no-brainer" quality of a good dress. What to wear? Dress!  No need to match shirt and skirts. They're an all-in-one deal.  They make me happy. :)

Singing. In front of the whole school. Kiddos. Parents. Staff. District personnel.  Yup, it's going down in about one hour.  From now. Today.  It's "Pajama Story Hour" at school tonight, and somehow I nominated myself to sing as one of the acts.  Rethinking that decision now...  It'll be fun.  And my kids are just a teeny bit excited.

It's in the 90s outside right now. And I think we're supposed to hit 100 tomorrow.  I'm going to start a protest.  This is wrong.  I'm not ready for summer weather yet. Though, I do love wearing dresses... 

My cousin's baby shower is this Sunday, and being the queen of last-minute shopping, I have no gift. Yet.  I'll get one. Maybe on Saturday. Or on Sunday on my way to the shower.

As to my summer bucket list, have I mentioned yet that I'M GOING TO ENGLAND? Ok.  Now that I have that out of my system (46 days!) some of my other plans are to take in the Mammoth Jazz Jubilee 'cause I love me some good 'ole jazz and all the great friends that congregate there each summer.  I'm also in the works to plan a tour of the Pacific Northwest this summer. I have a sister in Portland, a best friend in Bend, an amazing friend in Seattle, and a stamping buddy in BC.  I've gotta make this happen. Just figuring out the logistics and timing is going to keep things interesting.

Phew!  Now to eat some dinner before running back to school.

To sing.

In front of everyone.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jumping on the Instagram Bandwagon

So, I've had an instagram account for a little while now.  And I've seldom used it. As in, I have  whomping 3, yes, THREE pictures on there.  And one of them was taken today. Yay me!

Perhaps what I needed was a little motivation.

Enter Teacher Talk Tuesday.

Is it bad that I'm a little excited about this?!

Just in case you actually want to follow me (I know, yet another thing to follow), I'm iedibiedi on instagram. 

And now I'm off to go check out the thousands of photos posted today. :)

Maybe hashtags will make sense now... (and when did they become "hastags?" Aren't they pound signs?!)

Oh, I'm totally going to try this little challenge, as well, from Clutter-Free Classroom.  Maybe this will help me get into the habit of having my camera at the ready in my classroom.

Thanks for stopping by!

Retro Sketch & A Cocktail Party

Good afternoon!

I loved this week's Retro Sketch and immediately thought it would make a great monochromatic card with a single pop of color.  I sat down with my Smokey Shadow pattern pack and got to work mixing dps.

I used the gorgeous flower from Natural Beauties to create the pop of color.  This could quickly become my new favorite stamp. I love the dimension that is created with the multi-step stamping!  So fun!  A little bow, button, twine combo finished up the pop of color.  Sweet, simple, and done in under 30 minutes. Yay!

My day of nothingness yesterday was wonderful.  After lunch, the roomie and I decided to venture over to the movie theater to catch a showing of "Oblivion."  I love me a good sci-fi movie, but this one was extra special because it was partially filmed in my hometown; across the street from my house!  And I was there when they filmed last July.  My mom and I even took a little walk down to the set.  Remember this photo? That big tent on the left is blocking the cabin set and the pond.

I may have let out a few cheers and squeals and claps every time my mountains came onto the big screen. And I pointed out to the roomie exactly where my house was. So, so fun! I attempted to snap a picture of the film crew with our town's name, but I forgot to turn the flash off and got a great picture of the back of the row of seats in front of me... Grrr... But I did manage to get the camera squared away by the time the thank yous came round. Go Double Eagle Resort and Mono County!

The moment we stepped out of the theater a text came from my sister,  whom happens to be in town for the weekend, inviting me to a formal cocktail party fundraiser for leukemia research being held at my brother-in-law's new studio.  Cocktail parties, open bars, dancing... Not really my scene.  A last minute cocktail dress? Now, that I have. :)

I'm so glad that I went!  We were so lucky to spend a big chunk of the night visiting with each other around introductions to various producers and friends.  It made for a late night, but I whole-heartedly am glad that I went a little out of my comfort zone to support a great cause, and more importantly, support and visit with my amazing sister.

 We grabbed some lunch together this afternoon, which was also wonderful. I'm feeling truly spoiled that I got to visit with her for so long on this "business trip" to So Cal.  Next, to plan a trip north to Oregon (sister and bf), Seattle (Beth), and BC (hi, Marisa!) for this July/August.  I'm so blessed!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Natural Beauties, Inside & Out: Thank You
Ink- Cameo Coral, Rose Red, Ruby Red, Basic Gray
Paper- Smokey Shadow Pattern Pack, Soft Stone, Smokey Shadow
Accessories- button, twine, flag die, dimensionals

Deconstructed Sketch

Good afternoon! I gloriously have found myself a day with absolutely nothing planned. This girl is in HEAVEN!

I slept it, read a few chapters in my book, showered, made breakfast, made a card, started some laundry... and am working up the energy to go grocery shopping. Which I desperately need to do.  As in, the fridge and freezer are empty.  I literally have nothing to cook.  It's sad, really.

But, back to the card.  I decided it was high time to get some crafting done.  This week's Deconstructed Sketch sang to me and I decided to follow where the inspiration led. :)

I pulled out the cutest little pieces of fruit ever from Taylored Expressions, some copic markers (coloring felt sooo good  this morning!), and got busy.

I'm off to do a whole lot more of nothing.  And maybe go grocery shopping.

Maybe.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suppies-
Stamps- TE: Fruity Friends, MFT: Sassy Sayings
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, MME Lime Twist- Life of the Party dp
Accessories- embossing folder, baker's twine, dimensionals, nestabilities, copic markers cloud border die

Five For Friday

TGIF!  This week flew by, and yet it felt absolutely insane. I am most definitely one tired teacher.  We're in that insane wonderful run to Open House (T-minus 26 days and counting!) where I work the kids like a slave driver crazy person.  We're writing, crafting, creating, studying, observing.... It's crazy in my room right now!

1. Firstly, to go along with the new car, I treated myself to a new iPod nano.  I haven't purchased an iPod since my first generation way back in 2002!  My, how times have changed. This thing is TINY! And it's Bluetooth capable... Which means I literally just set it in my car and it starts playing through my sound system. No wires or connections need. Not to mention that is has more memory that my much larger iPod. Technology is tripping me out!

2. We are celebrating Teach Appreciation Day a wee bit early at my school. The 2nd-5th graders have state testing for the next two weeks, so as not to disturb their learning environment, we had the festivities this week!  We were spoiled rotten with treats in the lounge (mostly breakfast items, fruit, and drinks) each morning, treated to a PTA lunch on Thursday, and the kids all brought in flowers on Tuesday! So much fun!  Every time I walk by my desk it smells INCREDIBLE!

3. I may or may not have read a book in one day.  And that may or may not have involved staying up  until 1 a.m. on a school night... I may be paying for it today. I have a problem.  Hi. My name is Kristina and I am addicted to books. I love, love, love to read.  My book club is currently re-reading "The Great Gatsby" in preparation for the movie's release next month.  I snuck in a tiny little break to read the sequel to a fun young adult novel that I read about a year ago. I'm a sucker for a princess love story. :)

4. I survived our first field trip of the year to the LA Zoo.  And I only wanted to kill, physically harm, end one student's field trip. Not a bad day!  I most definitely crashed afterward immediately upon sitting on my couch.  Why is it that field trips just suck all the energy out of us?

 5. The details for my June trip to England are nearly complete! Everything is booked, reserved, tickets are purchased, itinerary is getting locked into place. So excited!  51 days until takeoff!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!