i will...

{thanks dana}

good grief

i have so much to add it's overwhelming.  a fairy party, other random things I have done from time to time.  In time, in time.  For now,

here are some of my wishes for before the end of the year...

I WILL donate to Goodwill.

I WILL wrap presents as I buy them and put them under the tree.

I WILL lose 10 pounds--okay Dana--this is where you come in :)

I WILL clean the rec room in the basement.

I WILL create a chalkboard wall in the living room.

I WILL drink at least one protein shake a day.

I WILL exercise at least 3 times per week.

in looking toward the future....(goals for 2013)

I WILL own a 'real' pair of cowboy boots

I WILL create a quote wall in my living room.

I WILL clean the entire basement.

I WILL lose an additional 15lbs to the 10 I lose before the new year.

I WILL exercise everyday.

I WILL go out with my girlfriends.

I WILL laugh more often.

Summer School

it doesn't seem i've taken a single day 'off' this summer from school.  Between preparing for tutoring, tutoring, planning for next year with Tiffany, attending meetings, creating materials, brainstorming, and losing sleep, it doesn't seem to end!  I guess so long as I keep doing stuff like this over the summer I am still in the correct line of work?????!!!!!

The discovery of Pinterest is really feeding my creative appetite.  It's both a blessing and a curse.  My brain is going 100 miles an hour and my production of products cannot keep up with my thoughts!  And with only a few more weeks before i return to work, i'm really worried i am going to be as much of a mess when i return as i was when i left :-P

I wanted to share a few things i have developed so far....

Classroom Scavenger Hunt

With everything else we are trying to cram in to the first couple of days, i figured a classroom scavenger hunt might save some time and spare us all the bore of me taking 15 minutes to explain where to find certain things in the classroom.  Here's a snapshot of the document i plan to use. 

Students will match the item with the location, identified by a number displayed in the classroom.

Classroom Signals

I had intentions of using signals last year but it was an epic fail.  Could be again this year, but I am going to try again.  I feel like I am more organized with posters this year.  I also incorporated at least one 3-5 minute break in each of my classes last year, so my hope is that kids will need to signal a need to me far less often than if I did not provide a break.  Again, this could be an epic fail, but I'm going to try it.  I am asking each student to bring water to class each day so that signaling 'water' will not be an option.  At this point, I only have 4 signals, but I'm sure another one will come to mind.


Restroom Passes

One of the most brilliant things I've seen on Pinterest in the 'education' section is the use of hand sanitizer as restroom passes!  I just so happened to have 3 spare bottles of the stuff the day I saw the idea, so I made girls and boys restroom passes as well as a nurse's pass.  Certainly not my best penmanship, but considering where these suckers are headed, I don't think I really care!


Jobs

I am not 100% convinced that I am going to be successful at incorporating jobs into the classroom, but I am going to try.  I enjoyed putting the "jennie spin" on the job titles tonight at least.  Maybe that will encourage me to follow through!  I have created 4 jobs per group as I envision 4 students per group (although I have not seen class lists, so I'm going on a big assumption here).  There is a 5th job that will rotate through the entire class.   I'll start with that one.  I can't wait any long to show the picture, so here goes...

You know you're jealous that you didn't think of this yourself!  (just kidding)  When Tiffany and I got together a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about the jobs that we thought we'd need.  A time keeper was the first one we thought of, especially because we are determined to 'end' class 10-15 minutes early so that the kids can reflect on the days lesson, clean up, and so that none of us feel like we are in a panic.  As we were talking about it, we thought about Flava Flav and YES, I WILL BE GOING TO THE DOLLAR STORE AND PURCHASING A WALL CLOCK AND ATTACHING IT TO A CHAIN and YES, the daily FLAVA FLAV student will WEAR THE CLOCK THROUGHOUT THE CLASS PERIOD!  I can't wait.  Will it be a distraction--of course.  Is it fun--definitely.  Do I love my job because I can do stupid stuff like this and get away with it--you doggone right!  The job of FLAVA FLAV is to get our attention when it's time to stop and do the EOB (end of the block) checklist.  Oh my goodness--can't wait to see their little faces on this one!  Better yet, can't wait to see administration stroll by and see a mini Flava Flav in my room!

I plan to hang the Flava Flav chain on the wall near the door with a class roster for each block and we will just go alphabetically.  Any student who doesn't want to be Flava Flav can pass, but why you would want to pass up that opportunity is beyond me!

Below are the other group jobs--I tried to put a description on each one.  These are letter size posters I will hang in the classroom.

Well, I have more things up my sleeve, but will have to post those another night!

sweet homemade gift

I think this would make a great 'thank you' gift, teacher gift, secretary gift, just an all around good thing to keep on hand for someone you want to do a little something for!

check out this sweet strawberry lemonade recipe over at Echoes of Laughter.

i struggle with my stairs--just sayin'

i must have spent 30 minutes cleaning 14 stairs today.  between the cat hair, my hair, and general dust bunnies i could have ripped every other hair that hadn't already fallen out and attached itself to our burgundy carpet runner on our stairs.

i swear i am going to rip that mess up before the end of the summer...just sayin'.

i've had in my mind for over a year now that i wanted to do this, but just haven't done it because i just don't know what's under there.

well, if i get around to it this summer, i will certainly post pictures.

Cameron's "new" room

I've been wanting to rearrange Cam's room since we got her "big girl bed" but I just haven't gotten around to it.

The best part about this transformation is I did not spend a single dime!  I just found stuff around the house and utilized what I had!

In this progress I definitely wanted to incorporate a 'reading nook' in the closet.  I've been dying to do that in one of the kids rooms for awhile...I think i even blogged about it.  The one I created today is no where near as fancy as the pictures I posted of the reading nook closets I found online and in magazines, but it certainly didn't cost me as much either!

Here are the befores...

Yeah, we're THAT messy.  Well, I should clarify, the GIRLS in this family are THAT MESSY!

and the afters...

drum roll for the closet reading nook please...

yay!

EOY Gifts

So, I didn't get to clutches as I mentioned I was going to try to do earlier.  I am really happy with what we ended up giving L's support staff though. 

We put together "Time to Relax" bags for his teachers, therapists and aides.  Luckily Target had beach bags on sale for $5 a piece.  I then headed over to the travel section to pick up some summery items and finally swung through and got nail polish, toe separators, and a face mask for a nice pampering effect.  When I got home I used the Sharpie paint pens I had left over from L's bday party and put the last name initial of each support staff member on the clear part of the beach bag.

We wanted to give Ms. Darnell, L's assistant an extra special gift and I found this perfect necklace.

While I was at my fav store good ole Tar-jay I picked up some additional relaxation gifts for our amazing secretaries at Henley.  These ladies have taken such good care of me during my transition to Henley.  I wrote on each of their bags, "You've taken care of us all year, now it's time to relax."  I got them a freezable tumbler--and yes, I hope they put something they can't drink at school in there in the evenings and on the weekends! and a beach towel.  I'm sure they still have plenty of work to do this summer, but at least we are out of their hair!  I adore these ladies and can't wait to see them again in August!

An Orange Party

If it wasn't orange, we didn't have it!

L's favorite color is orange and that is the theme he chose this year for his 7th birthday party.  I spent months planning and, of course, there were things I forgot or didn't get to, but all in all, I was pleased.

Menu~

• Buffalo Chicken Tenders
• Pizza Bites with Orange shredded Cheese
• Mac n Cheese
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Carrots and Orange Peppers with Orange Ranch Dressing (I just added food coloring to the salad dressing to make it orange)

• Cheese Balls
• Tortilla Chips with Queso Dip
• Cheezits
• Mandarin Orange and Pineapple Fruit Salad
• Cupcakes with Orange Icing
• Carrot Cake
• Orange Sherbet
• Orange Gummy Bears
• Orange Tic Tacs
• Orange Slices (candy)

• Orange Gatorade
• Orange Juice Boxes
• Orange Water (I just put food coloring in the drinking water)
• Orange Soda (regular and diet)

Activities~

• Photo Booth with props where guests could send a birthday message to L via a photo

the following series of pictures shows how i changed some Dollar Tree fake mustaches into ORANGE fake mustaches for props...

these didn't get much use as the photo booth wasn't as popular as i had hoped, but i made these signs out of colored pencils and paper plates for folks to hold up as they took pictures...

• Interior Design Center where guests designed a lampshade, pillowcases, and sheets for L's new orange bedroom (tutorial to follow)
• Nail Salon where guests could paint their names in a variety of orange hues

• Orange Toss Game where guests tossed artificial oranges from bucket to bucket
• Gone Fishin' for Goldfish where guests used nets to scoop as many orange plastic goldfish as they could
• Ping Pong Squirter Race where guests used pool squirters to move ping pong balls from one orange hula hoop to another down the yard
• L's brand new bounce n slide courtesy of his grandparents
• Jewelry Store where guest could make friendship bracelets using a variety of orange thread and/or hemp and orange button bracelets

Favors~

Each youngster received an orange personalized BPA-free tumbler.  The boys' names were written in orange using a Sharpie brand paint pen and the girls' names were written in pink using the same kind of pen.  I wrote the names on the top as well as on the outside wall.  The boys also received super fly orange shutter shades and the girls got orange nail polish in addition to the tumbler.

end of the year teacher gifts

didn't we just have Teacher Appreciation Week?!?!  i don't mean that, really, but i am starting to feel the pressure because i know that the next 9 school days will both drag and fly by (if you're a teacher, you know what i mean, otherwise, that probably doesn't make much sense.)

i think for the ladies i might make placemat clutches.  i can't say all of L's teachers and support staff strike me as the clutch purse kind of gals, but they can use them as coupon holders or make up bags.  i think i am drawn to make them because i would love for someone to make one for me :-)  is that weird?!

i have made these with my mom before, but it has been a long time and might just be time to whip out the ole sewing machine and get to going.

i guess i've got to figure out plan B for the fellas on Landon's support staff list...i'm not sure they would dig a placemat clutch so much!

I will post pics of my own creations when i get to them, for now, here is my inspiration:

Placemat Clutch

totally worth it!

okay...slicing my finger off (exaggerating, of course) was TOTALLY WORTH IT!

our kiddos had a blast today.  it was SO CUTE seeing boys dancing across the field searching for a certain question number.  boys and girls alike showed us their mad hula hooping and hippity hop balling skills.

CRAZY EGGS/CLOTHESPINS/TISSUE PAPER was a lot of work to put together but all worth it in the end!

i want to post pics from today so bad, but i want to protect the kids.  i couldn't seem to get any pictures where every one's face was turned the opposite direction.

so, if you have several hours on your hands and want to see your kiddos bust some crazy moves while reviewing for a test, get to preparing...

here's how to make it happen (click on each picture to get a better view--sorry i don't know how to attach a pdf to the blog--need to figure that out)

 here is a portion of the "Runner Schedule" handout: