Scarf Making Maniac!

I wanted to let you know that I am here tonight. 

I attempted to make this. 

(source)

Go check it out! I should be posting here regularly each week, so you may want to follow. Next weeks post involves clothes hangers. (I know SO exciting!)

AND . . . thanks for all of the advice about word verification. I decided to try and set my settings to allow only registered users to comment. We will see how this goes. :)

What is Arma? . . . and Feed the Horses!

Word Verification Woes

So I took word verification off of my blog because of this post: 

 (source Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits)

I was all like "HALLELUJAH!" because I ABHOR doing word verification junk. So I knew that you did too!

But I keep getting comments like these:

  "I think a hunting method should be applied where you could kill fauna and get food which you will then need? to cook... i have never performed arma thus please tell me if that is already in Also visit my weblog :: More Add-ons"
 
AND, while I was immensely amused by this one and spent much time pondering how to perform "arma," I was also annoyed.

This was on a post about math games. 

Not hunting fauna.

I checked my inbox thinking someone has left me this insightful comment, and they want to talk about hunting strategies. 

That is NOT my area of expertise. 

AND, then I read that Jen at The Teacher's Cauldron is throwing in the towel and putting it back on. She too is annoyed.

What are your thoughts on word verification? 

I am tired of being spammed. 

But I don't want to stifle your comments. 

Would you still be as likely to comment?

I love comments.

Oh Snap! A Freebie! 

AND . . . to thank you for your time I have uploaded this super easy freebie. Students will practice identifying equations that add up to either 16 or 24. It would be great as an early finisher activity. :) 

 

(Google Docs)

Happy Trails Y'all! :)

In Case You've Been Under a Rock . . .

I'm having a sale!

It ends tonight at midnight! :)

Check out all of the other bloggers having a sale here, there are almost a hundred of them!

 And don't worry on Wednesday we will be back to our regularly schedule program where I ramble about my life and give you freebies. :)  

Happy Fall Y'all: I'm Shopping Too! :)

Okay, I never imagined that my sale would get this big! As of 8:24 pm on Saturday evening there are 89 bloggers linked up! So cool!

Make sure that you also pin the sale on Pinterest for even more traffic! Here is the link to my pin in case you want to repin. :)

AND, here are a couple of items that I am scoring for myself! I have a feeling that my purse is going to be lighter instead of heavier after this weekend! :)

Happy shopping everyone! :)

Happy Fall Y'all! Fall Sale!!!!

Hey, Hello, and Howdy! 

BIG news people: I'm throwing a sale this weekend, along with more than 50 other bloggers! 

I decided to welcome fall (my favorite season) in a huge way, but never imagined that this many sellers would join me! :) 

Here are a couple of my bestsellers that you could score from my store this weekend:

The sale begins at midnight tonight, so go ahead an fill up your wish list so you'll be ready!! :)

(And if you see this and decide that you want to join in that is fine, just make sure that you mention my blog, join the blog hop, and use my button!)

 

Fall Making Words Freebie!

Hi everyone! I know that fall is not here QUITE yet, but it is one of my favorite seasons so I'm celebrating a bit early! :) 

Click here to download this freebie in Google Docs. (And I am POSITIVE that someone else, somewhere probably has something similar to this, so no infringement intended, that is why it is FREE!)

And there IS a graphics credit page included, but just FYI, you can get some awesome graphics from here, here, here, and here. And some amazing fonts here.


I also want to clue you in to something AWESOME that will be going down here this weekend! 

I am having a sale at my TPT store . . . . and so will 50 other bloggers! Check back on Friday night for my first ever blog hop/linky party/Fall MEGA Sale! :)  

 (Graphic Credits for Button)

SO . . . now would be the perfect time to add items from my store to your wishlist because they will be on SALE this weekend. ;)

Do you have any love to spare?

Alisha, at The Bubbly Blonde, has a close friend who was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodkins Lymphoma Cancer. Being the amazing friend that she is, she is collecting donations to pay for Tiffany's medical expenses. Here is the super cute button she made:

She is also offering an incentive! (As if the feel good that you get when you do a good deed isn't enough!) Donors who give $20.00 or more will receive a huge file full of fun things from fellow bloggers. (I received mine this morning it is awesome!) 

You can read more about this opportunity and about her friend, Tiffany, here. 

If you are not able to give right now (believe me I understand) maybe you could spread the message? 

This whole campaign has just reaffirmed that teachers are really the most giving people on the planet. You just can't fail with an army of teachers behind you. :)

It is a pleasure to be able to quote lines to fit any occasion. -Abraham Lincoln

A few weeks ago I made these signs for myself because I realized that I had been complaining a lot. 

What I really need to do is tape them to my body as reminders to myself and everyone around me. 

When you get in a funk sometimes it is hard not to drag everyone down with you and a complain chain begins. 

Let's all make a pack to stay positive as many of us are very stressed at our jobs this year with legislation, Common Core, and the general stress that teachers endure throughout the year.

Here is a little inspiration for you. 
Chevron credit goes to: clementinedigitals.etsy.com. 

 Download

 Download

Download

Download

The last one is my favorite. I need this reminder every day. I am always in a hurry to get the next "appropriate step" in my life, but I really need to chill out and let life happen. :)

AND . . .

You only have until tomorrow night to enter my pencil sharpener giveaway! 

The One Where I Say Goodbye to 314

If you have been keeping up, then I'm sorry for explaining this yet again, but I work in a year-round school. This means that I get small breaks throughout the year instead of a long  summer break. This I love. 

This year there are 8 second grade teachers on my team and 7 classrooms.

This all boils down to the fact that I had to pack up all of my things and leave my classroom today when I tracked out for my September break so someone else can use my classroom.

Yes, my classroom is now on two rolling carts and also in a giant rolling cabinet tucked away in Jen's room.

(Although, I have been keeping it together well enough for my team, they are probably reading this though, so yes I guess this is confession time, I am a wreck, I am sad, I am being crazy, I know that I am not the first do to this or the last but I am still sad.)

As a beginning teacher my classroom has been my haven, a safe place.

Logically, I know that it is just a room, but there are so many memories in that room. When I think back to when I just got started I will go back in time to Room 314.  My first memories as a teacher. 

Every success and failure that I have had as a teacher so far has happened in that room.

Like when a dear, dear teacher friend held me as a cried because I had been told that I couldn't come back to work there the following year because of my terminating contract and the hiring freeze. (Thank goodness, this didn't actually happen!)

And also when Little Applesauce started to see herself as a reader and I teared up at her parent/teacher conference because I was so proud of her. 

And when Sugar Pea learned how to count 10 objects, a skill we had been working on ALL year long. 

I really could go on forever, I have so many good memories in that classroom, it is hard to think that someone else (however kind my thoughts are towards her as a friend/teacher) will call that room their own, and someone after that and so on.

The next time you see me I will be in good ol' room 304.

314, you were the best. It wasn't anything you did.

To cheer me up you can go and enter my Quietest Pencil Sharpener Giveaway! :) 

Pencil Sharpener Giveaway: Reminder

Sorry to clog your blog roll with this but I want to make sure everyone has a chance to enter!! I'm having a giveaway for The Quietest Pencil Sharpener! These sharpeners are really awesome, so go enter right now! :)

And to reward you for opening this post, here is some life advice, something I learned this week:

(source)

 And a laugh:

 (source)

And something cute:

 (source)

Okay, there, something for everyone.

Happy Monday! :)

Getting Straight to the Point, The Sharpest Giveaway Ever!

Okay, confession time. I have an obsession with having a perfectly pointed pencil. This is the truth. Just ask Jen. When I do a running record sometimes I will sharpen 9 - 10 pencils so that I can be sure to have a pointy point the entire time I am writing. 

SO . . . when I heard about the Quietest Pencil Sharpener I was intrigued. . . . because the pencil sharpeners at our school only sharpen ONE side of the pencil. 

I began dreaming of a world where the pencil was sharpened ALL THE WAY AROUND!

And I am here to tell you that this world actually exist!!!! I got my pencil sharpener about a month ago and decided to hold off writing my review until it had been thoroughly tested. 

It is awesome. 

The points get pointier, I am sharpening fewer pencils to do running records because these pencils stay pointy longer than any I have had before. 

I am in love. 

And, you can be in love too!!! 

I was so excited that I wanted someone else to have one too! SO I sent a little message . . .

AND . . . 

Troy (a teacher!) over at Classroom Friendly Supplies has so generously offered to donate a pencil sharpener to one of you! Yes, you can have your very own, mean, green, sharpening machine! 

Simply enter the Rafflecopter below! Good luck to you! :)

(Please enter only if you have a US mailing address, as they cannot ship internationally) 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I also wanted to thank you for the sweet comments following the letter to my Granny last week. It was therapeutic to write and was a gateway for tons of lost memories. I would highly recommend writing a letter to someone you have lost. :)

Something Personal, A Sad Goodbye

Granny, 

I know that I didn't visit you half as often as I should have. Please understand that it was just too hard. I know now that I was selfish, but loving you from afar was much easier when you started being sick. I am sorry. Please know that I would redo it all if I could. Did you ever feel that way after someone passed away?

I know that you have been ready for this journey for quite sometime. So while I weep for the loss of you and all you mean to our family, I am also rejoicing. I know that you are celebrating now.

I am sad that I only knew you at the dusk and sunset of your life. I have grown up hearing all about your job at Dorthea Dix and Alvis, who I never knew. (I am not even sure I am spelling his name correctly, this makes me sad.)

Every single time I see a hummingbird, or a cardinal or a Chinese Buffet, please know that I will think of you. As I always do anyway. You will not be forgotten. I know that you were worried about that.

Even before you passed I would smell someone in the grocery store who smelled like you and I would smile. I will still smile.

Just last night I was laughing about how you used to make me sleep in the bed with you when I would spend the night. And how I hated it because you snored. And how you said you would protect me with your plastic baseball bat. I always felt safe at your house though, I didn't think that we would need it. 

I will tell my children about that. And also about how you told me you were struck by lightning twice. (Although we are not sure if this was true). And how you lived in a very small house with all of your brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents. And how you didn't really know there was a depression going on because you grew your own food anyway. I will tell them how you talked about living during WWII and how you had to walk to a neighbors farm to hear the news on the radio. I am sad that they will never know you. I loved listening to your stories about when you were growing up. I know that I didn't always act like it but I remember every single one.


Thank you for telling me you loved me every time I saw you. I never doubted that I was special to you. That we were all special to you. I love you too.

I will miss how you said my name with three syllables. No one else does that.

Until we meet again. 

Casey 

 Me and Granny circa 1994. :)

Looky Lou Where I Am! & Giveaway Winner!

I am so excited to announce that for the month of September I am one of Farley's sponsors!!! I am so excited that she has decided to allow advertising on her page and it was so affordable! Check out my ad on her page!!!!

I am sure that most of you are followers of Oh' Boy Fourth Grade, but if you are not you should head on over right now, she is hilarious!

I am already getting tons of traffic on my TPT store from her blog so it was SO worth it (in case you are considering being a sponsor on a blog also). 


And the winner of this week's Math Monday Giveaway is . . . .Jenny from Luckeyfrog's Lilypads! 

Math Monday Giveaway III

Sorry to everyone who tried to enter earlier and the Rafflecopter wasn't working! It is working fine now!! :) 

Good Morning! Good Afternoon! & Good Evening!

I hope that whatever time of day this post finds you at that you have/had or are going to enjoy your labor day holiday! 

I am planning to do nothing. And I am really excited about this! :)

 
This week's giveaway item is my Mystery Number of the Week: Set 1! 

You can choose to have it in color OR in black and white! For more info about this item visit here or here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



I will announce the winner, hopefully, on Tuesday. But now that my Tuesday is my new Monday this week, we shall see. :) 

And remember, if you would like to be featured on my Monday Math Giveaway, I would love to have you! :)