Finally...a break!

Ahhh...I'm on day 2 of my much needed spring break.  And I still have a whole entire full week of nothingness!  I'm so excited about sleeping in and being able to pee whenever I want to!  I've been making a Spring Break To Do list ever since Christmas.  Here goes:

-Clean out my closets {yes, closetS. I'm one girl in a two bedroom apartment. Both bedrooms have clothes EVERYWHERE and I need to get it under control.} and either donate or eBay things I don't wear.  It's kind of sickening, but I'd say half of the clothes in my closets still have tags on them or have only been worn once.  I always think I'm going to look sooooo cute in this or that, but when it comes down to it, I spend my days with small children.  They're messy and they hug you even though there's snot all over their face or paint on their hands.  So I end up wearing my school t-shirts pretty much every day to keep my dry cleaning bills down.  And even though it would be very nice of me to donate everything, I just love to eBay it all so I can buy more.  I can't help it.  Do you donate or eBay?  Or a mix of both? 

-Straight up CLEAN my apartment.  It's a hot mess.  Maybe if I can get it all straightened out over break, it will be easier to maintain?  Right? 

-Plan and make copies for the rest of the year.  When I get back from spring break, there will only be 27 days left of school.  I can totally get all of that planned and copied and have things ready for my sweet volunteer grannies to do and then the rest of the year will be smooth sailing.  Hopefully.

-Work out every.single.day.  I totally bought Insanity.  And it is just that.  Insane.  But I kinda like it.  It kinda feels good.  And with all the hard work and sweating I've been doing, I better look AMAZING when the 60 days are over.  I'll be insanely ticked if I don't.

-Blog more!  Things have been so crazy busy around here that I feel like I've been neglecting my blog and all of my favorite blog reads.  I can't wait to catch up!

-Get the Very Pinteresting Spring Exchange organized!  Sign ups end next Wednesday, so I'll spend Thursday getting everyone matched up and emailed!  If you want to participate, head over and check it out.  If you want to host a giveaway, you need to email us by April 1st to be included!  {teacherbloggerexchange at gmail dot com}
So...those are my plans.  What do you want to bet I won't get much of it done at all?!  My DVR is pretty full.  And catching up on Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl sounds sooo much funner than cleaning and planning.  But who knows?  I just might end up being crazy productive and get a bunch of work done. 

Who else is spring breaking it with me this week?  I am so very sorry to those of you who aren't on break right now.  I'll try not to talk about it too much...  But hey, even if you're not on break, at least it's FRIDAY!  Happy Friday!

Announcing...A Very Pinteresting Spring Exchange!!

Sarah and I are ready for the next exchange!  Head on over to get the scoop.  We hope you'll join the fun!

Winner.....and some teacher chat!

So sorry I didn't get to post my winner yesterday!  It was way late by the time I got home and well, I was too tired for the ol' blog.  I know, so sad.  BUT!  Here I am today!  With a winner...

Congrats, Meredith!  Send me an email at mspreppyblog at gmail dot com and I'll get the books right to ya!

I wanted to chat with you about one of my favorite parts of the day.

Lunch.

My team is pretty hilarious.  Like, I think Chelsea Handler should invite us for an all teacher round table.  It's that funny.  Sometimes people in the office come down to our room and tell us we're too loud.  And then we wonder exactly how much they heard...

Anyway, I thought I would share today's lunch experience with you.  I'm warning you that it's going to be jumpy.  And stream of consciousnessy.  Mainly because that's how we roll.  Here goes:

Lunch started when I walked in singing, Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as hiiiiiiigh...take a look, it's in a book, a reading rainbow... Because I was way excited that I found a math themed Reading Rainbow to keep in my back pocket just in case the temperature in my room became mind melting {which it did} and we all needed to take a little breather because OMG, who can work when it's 85.4 degrees in the classroom?? 

{Yes, I showed a video.  Call me a bad teacher if you want, but seriously.  We were all sweaty and I was about to die from heat exhaustion and we were all pretty much fried by 1:45.  Aaannddd...  I totally spent some quality time with TI on my way to school this morning and he was all, you can have whatever you like.  And what I'd like is for my air to be fixed.  But TI lied.  I did not get whatever I like.  That's the last time I'll ever trust a rapper.}

So that's how lunch started.

I ran into one of my teammies at the store the other day and while we were there, we both encountered quite the sight.  So we decided to share our story with the rest of the crew.  We were trying to explain how this lady looked and really, the best thing to do was use TV characters.  And she looked a LOT like Xena, Warrior Princess.  Sooooo tall, amazon-like, super thick and long hair...the whole shebang.  So we've got Xena, Warrior Princess.  Xena was pushing a toddler in a stroller who had these really big scary, sneaky eyes.  Like totally mischievous.  To get the point across, I turned to TV characters again.  This kid was a lot like the baby from that show Dinosaurs.  Only this time, they didn't catch my reference on the first try.  So I had to pick up my imaginary pan and pretend to hit my friend over the head with it while screaming, "Not the momma, not the momma, not the momma!"  Then they got it. 

Anyway, so the whole not the momma bit took us back to our youth.  Now, I'm the baby in the group.  And I'm 24.  One girl is two years older than me and the other is five years older than me.  So when I say youth, you can think Spice Girls, Tamagotchis, Mary Kate and Ashley...  You know, nineties thrills. 

Well, our reminiscing took us to TGIF.  Who remembers TGIF?  All those great shows...Family Matters, Step by Step, Boy Meets World...Aaahh.  Loved TGIF.  LOVED IT.  Now I have to watch my TGIF shows on TV Land. 

Then after TGIF you had SNICK.  You know, Saturday Night on Nick.  Kenan and Kel, All That, Are You Afraid of the Dark... 

So what ever happened to Kel?  We all keep up with Kenan on SNL, but what about Kel?  Did something happen to him?  Is he OK?  Cue a quick iPhone google search at the lunch table.  Kel is fine!  He was even on an episode of Good Luck Charlie recently.  Life can go on.  Oh!  Remember that Good Burger movie?  Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, may I take your order?

At this point we're laughing so hard we're about to pee our pants because Lord knows we haven't been to the bathroom since we left home.  Someone takes a break from laughing to ask, How did we end up here, anyway?

So we work backwards {great strategy}: Good Burger...Kenan and Kel...SNICK...TGIF....Dinosaurs...Not the momma...Xena.  XENA!  Then we look at the clock and guess what?  Our lunch time is up.  Story unfinished.  I'm sure you can tell that the majority of our stories remain unfinished.

Is your lunch like my lunch?  Is your lunch funner than my lunch?  If it is, can I visit?   

 

Spring Fever!

Ahhh...I got my first pedicure of the year a few days ago, I've had my sunroof open, and my flip flops on for about a week now.  It's spring!  I love it!  This spring weather makes me want to stop straightening my hair every day and let it be all wavy/crazy curly.  But I need some new product recommendations.  Any curly/wavy girls out there who use something AMAZING in their hair care to share?!  I hear Sephora calling my name... 

In addition to being excited about spring, I'm also excited to be the featured teacher over at Teaching Blog Addict today!  Head over there and check out my post to grab some spring freebies!

Aaannddd...I was excited to find the time to update some of the items in my TpT store to be all springified!

Bee, Bee: A Book About Flat Shapes

Dragonfly, Dragonfly: Number Words

Butterfly, Butterfly: Time to the Hour

Bunny, Bunny: A Book About Flat Shapes

Bunny, Bunny: Number Words

Bunny, Bunny: Time to the Hour

Spring Numbers: Counting to 10

Spring Numbers: Teen Numbers

I'm also thinking it's going to be time for another fun teacher blogger exchange soon!  Our spring break is in eight school days, so I'm sure Sarah and I will spend part of our break getting a new exchange ready.  I'm kind of thinking about either a Pinterest-inspired exchange {Thanks to Lisa from Live, Laugh, and Learn to Love for the idea of "A Very Pinteresting Exchange"!} or an Oprah-esque favorite things exchange.  Any other fun ideas out there? 

Oh, back to those fun springy things I just posted in my store...I'll be giving ALL of those away to one lucky person.  Just say anything in the comments {say hi, suggest a hair product, tell me I'm wonderful, leave an idea for the upcoming exchange, anything goes!} and I'll choose one lucky winner tomorrow when I get home from school! 

98 Degrees

And I'm not talking about the boy band.  Holy global warming Batman, it's HOT!  Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like it takes an act of congress to get the air turned on at school.  It's crazy.  I'm hot.  The kids are hot.  And we all start to get cranky around 1:15.  Today was a BOYF kind of day {bring your own fan} and I brought two.  They didn't help much.  It was still 83 degrees in my room at the end of the day.  I know it could be worse {and it has been}, but I was not expecting to go from wearing my coat all day to not being able to take off enough clothes so quickly!!  Whew!  This summer is going to be ROUGH!  I need to start digging a pool.

In other news...I need to add something to my list of things I never thought I'd say:

Your nose is not an all you can eat buffet.  OMG, y'all.  This group of kindergartners are the worst nose pickers I've ever seen in my life.  It's awful.  At any given moment there are about 2 or 3 kids digging for gold.  I can't handle it.  So today I very casually and straight-facedly informed them that their nose is not an all you can eat buffet.  The straight face went away as soon as I saw my assistant shaking with laughter.  But I managed to keep it together enough for the kids to know I was serious.  Because I was.  It has to stop.  Especially since one school in our district was shut down for two days last week due to illness.  We can't be spreading germs around.  And we can't be grossing out the teacher.  My hands are raw from overuse of hand sanitizer.  Maybe my little chat today will work.  Maybe.  But probably not.  They just love to pick...

And because you're still here after a yucky booger story, here's a little freebie!  We've been working on rounding in second grade and so many of my friends are really struggling with finding the decade numbers that a given number is between.  We're going to do this tomorrow to give them practice in figuring out the two decade numbers and rounding to the nearest ten.

Grab your copy here!

Hope you have a wonderful, booger free rest of the week!

"Is that a belly button ring in your MOUTH?!" & other things I never thought I'd have to say...

{Pretty sure that's going to be the title of my book...if I ever find the time to write it.}

Over the past few years, words have come out of my mouth that I never thought I would have to say. 

For example:

"What are you sucking on?  Is that---is that A BELLY BUTTON RING?!?!" 
Lasterday {that's a word made up by one of my little darlings.  The official definition: any day in the past that is not yesterday.  Could have been a week ago...could have been a year ago.  Lasterday.}  we came in from recess and one of my friends was sucking on something.  A belly button ring.  Or maybe a tongue ring?  Not exactly sure.  But it was in her mouth.  Wanna know where she found it?  Yep, you guessed it.  On the playground.  I had to explain to her the many things that were wrong with this situation.  I don't think she understood the fact that she could have contracted some terrible disease.  Or that she cared.    

"Why are you holding a bra on my carpet?" 
I turned my head for like five seconds to pull something up on my SmartBoard and when I looked back at my class, I saw a little kindergartner with a purple bra in her lap.  Not on her body.  In her lap.  Just holding it.  I hadn't seen it prior to turning around, so I have no clue where it came from.  But there it was.  And I couldn't look at it during calendar time.  So I had to take it away and put it in my desk drawer until time to go home.  I told her to just keep it at home from now on...that there was no need to wear a bra in kindergarten.

"Stop rubbing the biscuit on your face!" 
Kids...they do the silliest things for sure.  One day I saw one rubbing a biscuit all over his face during breakfast.  I was all, stop rubbing the biscuit on your face!  And I cracked up.  I could not maintain composure during that one.  So I had to stop and explain that I was serious about the whole not rubbing the biscuit on your face thing, but that it was crazy ridiculous {and I think I even used those words} that I had to tell a second grader that they shouldn't rub food all over their face.  It was highly entertaining for everyone involved.

"I don't speak pig.  You're going to have to use your words."
For a while, I had a friend who liked to oink instead of speak.  Problem is...I don't speak pig.  I only understand English.  Luckily, we've cut the oinking down to every now and then instead of a majority of the time. 

"So you mean to tell me you've been spelling your name wrong for THREE years?!" 
OK.  This is totally a true story.  I know it seems unreal.  It seems unreal to me too.  But you can't make this stuff up.  For the last week or so, one of my kids started spelling his name wrong on his papers.  I circled it and talked to him about how we don't need to be silly and we should spell our name correctly.  But he kept spelling it wrong.  So I had another discussion with him and he revealed that his mom told him that was how he was supposed to spell his name.  I sent a note home to mom to see what was going on.  Sure enough, mom wrote back saying we've been spelling his name wrong.  We loop, so I've had this child since kindergarten.  Never once in the past three years did mom mention that his name wasn't spelled right.  I spent the afternoon digging through files, looking up information, and pretty much going all CSI on this situation.  Come to find out...the birth certificate confirmed that he has been spelling his name wrong since kindergarten.  His name was even misspelled on all of his enrollment information {you know, the stuff filled out by parents...}  How does this happen?  HOW?!  Please explain.  It would totally rock my world if I found out I had been spelling my name wrong since kindergarten.  I just don't understand how this happened and why we're just now bringing it to light.  Somebody help me please.

So...I need to know: what are some words you never thought would come out of your mouth?!

Winner and some chit chat!

Yikes!  I totally forgot to announce my winner yesterday!!  Mrs. Cupcake is the winner of a super cute 8x10 from Lexiphilia!  Congrats!  Shoot me an email at mspreppyblog at gmail dot com and I'll get your information to Kasi at Lexiphilia.  {BTW: My kiddos made Mrs. Cupcake's adorable leapin' leprechauns today.  Totally cute!  Check them out here.}

In other news, we had an early dismissal on Friday due to storms heading our way.  Thank God all of our kids got home safely before the storms hit.  No injuries here in my small town {that I know of}, but there was some damage to buildings.  I'm the biggest baby ever when it comes to storms, so I spent the afternoon at the college where both of my parents work.  It would have been less eventful at my house...the wind ended up tearing off part of the roof of one of the buildings at the college!  It was crazy, for sure!  But no one was hurt, so it's all good.  ANYWAY...early dismissal and terrible storms meant no Fun Friday.  The kids were seriously bummed that they had to go home early {well...the ones who had earned their Fun Friday were bummed.  The ones who didn't were glad they weren't going to miss out.}.  We made it up to them this morning with a Marvelous Monday!  They had a BLAST making Dr. Seuss snacks.  I'm already trying to figure out what to do this Friday...  If you have a beyond brilliant idea for something fabulously fun, please do share!

Totally not teaching related, but have any of you done Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred?  I bought it a long time ago, did it for 3 minutes, and put that sucker away.  Now it's back out again.  And I've done it two days in a row.  I know!  I hope you're impressed.  I'm thinking maybe I'll look amazing right around spring break time.  Not that I'm going to go anywhere but, you know...it never hurts to look good.  You should do it with me if you have it.  Keep me on the straight and narrow...  OK, I'm off to fix dinner...if I can move off the couch.  Lunges=OUCH!