Mixed Nuts {optional}

{Alternate Title: "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I or are the others crazy?" Albert Einstein}

First of all, y'all are great.  I knew you would agree with me and tell me exactly what I wanted to hear.  Looks like I'll be in search of a fabulous cleaning lady.  But Merry Maids and Craigslist scare me to death.  So it may take me a while.  But from now on I'm definitely going to involve you guys in all of my important life decisions. 

So... the other day I decided I really wanted some chex mix.  My mother has completely ruined me with her chex mix and I can't just buy a bag at the store.  It's not the same.  It HAS to be home made.  But I don't have time for that.  So I found a recipe for the microwave.  And it's phenom.  Like, almost as good as my mom's.  {She will argue with me about that, but seriously.  It's pretty darn close.}  Anyway, as I was putting away the ingredients, I realized how much better the recipe of life would be if "mixed nuts" {ie: CRAZY people} were optional.  Seriously.  Crazies entertain me sometimes but sometimes I just can't handle it.  Like the people who decide to hit up the express check out lane when they clearly have more than 20 items in their cart.  Really?!  What makes them think they're so special that they don't have to follow the rules?  Can they not read?  Can they not count?  Do I need to do a mini-lesson???  What gives?!  Omitting that variety of nut would make my grocery shopping significantly less painful.

But sometimes there's a variety that greatly improves your quality of life.  On Friday we were professionally developed.  Fun times, right?  Well, in the middle of a very important discussion about testing, one teacher breaks out a rice cake and starts spraying it with some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.  For serious.  We hear, "spritz, spritz, spritz" and we all turn, stare, and laugh uncontrollably.  Apparently some people keep some ICBINB spray in their purse.  Maybe I should give that a try?  I have some fruit snacks in mine, but that's nothing compared to spray butter.  What's the craziest thing you've ever pulled out of your purse or seen someone pull out of theirs?

And my sweet children have gone a little nutty themselves the past few weeks.  We've already had a discussion on the Bill Cosby "brain damage" theory, but they seem to develop more and more symptoms every day.  It's crazy!  This past week I saw one little darling put her paper on the floor between her legs while sitting in her chair and bend over to complete her work like that.  Seriously?  When have I ever said, "OK, class, let's put our papers on the floor and contort our bodies in our chairs so that we can do our work on the floor instead of on the table that is conveniently placed in front of us at the perfect height for work completion."  Oh yeah, that's right...NEVER!  Then we had an assembly at 8:30 one morning.  It was a great assembly, really.  It kept the kids engaged and entertained, but... Right in the middle, they had the kids get up and dance to the Cupid Shuffle.  My teammie and I looked at each other and she said, "There's no coming back from the Cupid Shuffle."  Truer words have never been spoken. 

Do you want to know what's REALLY crazy?  The fact that I have to work tomorrow.  I'm majorly bummed.  Now, we did have one snow day, so this is a make up day.  But we just had ONE snow day.  We have these built in days and we added an extra ten minutes to our day and all these little things for make up days but we still have to make up this ONE snow day.  UGH!  Don't they know that since we've just had ONE snow day, we are all ready for a little break?!  Seriously.  Please tell me that you have to go to work tomorrow too.  {You don't count, Sarah.  I know you have to work.}

If you are working tomorrow--and even if you're not, you may want to check out some of the new things I added to my TpT store.  I'm still in the process of getting a couple of other things added, but I did add these two cute books just in time for all of the Dr. Seuss fun over the next few weeks! 

I'm going to give these away to three people who comment.  Make sure you leave your email address!  I'll use random.org to choose my three winners tomorrow at 6pm central time.  So...share a little crazy with me or just say hi or something.  But DON'T rub it in that you get to stay home in your pajamas tomorrow while I'm at work.  Things might get ugly...

The one that has very little to do with teaching.

Let me tell you the best part about this here blog.  My sweet mom read that my eyeshadow brush took a dive into the toilet and that I've been going sans eye make-up for like ever.... So guess what she shows up with today?  A new make up brush and a cupcake.  A Gigi's cupcake.  Ohmiword.  Do you have a Gigi's?!  Simply the best.  Now, I didn't want to let her in because Holy Hot Mess, Batman!  I haven't cleaned in a while and have eleventy million Sonic cups on my kitchen counter.  But a girl's gotta have her make up brushes and cupcakes.  So I told her to close her eyes and not pay attention to the fact that she was stepping on laundry...  I'm not kidding when I say I have laundry on my couch, the spare bed, and all over my bathroom and bedroom floor.  It's ridonk.

Speaking of cleaning...how many of you have someone who cleans for you?  More specifically, how many of you single ladies in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment have someone clean for you?!  Just typing that makes me feel ridiculous.  But I can't keep up.  I hit the ground running at 6am and don't stop until I get home {sometimes 16 hours later!}.  I teach, I tutor, I'm training to do ABA therapy, I have work to do for the online children's lit course I teach, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a family that I still babysit for two evenings a week {love them and they just keep having more kids!}.  And by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is clean anything.  I just don't know if I'm being silly by wanting someone to do it for me.  Especially since I don't have kids or anything.  I guess I just don't think I have a legit reason.  What do you guys think?  Will you validate me?!  I know you will. 

In other news...go check out the Be My Valentine Gift Exchange linky party!  Everyone made and bought such cute stuff!  If you participated in the exchange and haven't received your gift yet, shoot us an email at teacherbloggerexchange at gmail dot com.  We will get back with you as soon as we can.  I know there are several of you who emailed us and we are checking on things...we're also trying to give it a day or two in case the mail was slow!  So if you have emailed us and haven't heard back, know that we're working on it!  Head on over to the new blog to check out the linky party and make sure you follow it so you can be updated when we do our next one in April!


 

Alright...I'm off to do some of the cleaning and laundry I've been putting off all week.  Zero fun for me on this Wednesday night.  {Pllleeeaaaassssseeee tell me I can get a cleaning lady.}  But!  Tomorrow is the last day I have to teach this week, so it's like tonight is Thursday night and tomorrow is Friday.  So that's nice.  The PD day on Friday might not be so nice, but who knows?  Maybe it will be productive and beneficial and completely change my life and my outlook on teaching.  Maybe.

You Know You're a Teacher When...

If you haven't seen this cute little linky party over at Kindergarten Lifestyle, you need to head over there now to read up and link up!  Too fun!

Of course, as soon as I hit save I think of something else...

You know you're a teacher when you have a song for everything!  Seriously.  I could make up a song about anything.  And I often do.  Most of the time it's to the tune of the latest and greatest on the Top 40.  And I usually get made fun of for it.  But maybe one day I'll land a record deal for my superfab educational renditions of pop songs.  Doubtful, but you never know.

I'm sure we've all corrected ridiculous behavior {both from children and adults} while in public.  I'm really bad about giving my teacher look while I'm out and about.  I just can't help it.  I don't understand why people don't control their children in public.  I also don't understand why grown ups TALK during the movies.  Movie theaters are very obviously NO TALKING zones.  Methinks businesses should start posting CHAMPS charts.  They could even pay me {either in money or products} to CHAMP all interactions at their establishment.  I'd be glad to set those expectations.  In fact, I've been to a couple of malls lately that have rules posted.  For real.  Mall Rules.  I'm thinking a teacher had something to do with that. 

I guess another one would be...you know you're a teacher when you spend your Sunday afternoons switching between your Lifetime movie, Facebook, lesson plans, blogs, and email.  I'm off to do some of that multi-tasking before the week hits.  There's a chance of snow tomorrow night.  Please dear God above give me a snow day.  We've only had one this year.  That's just plain sad.  We've usually had at least 5 by now.  What's up with that?!  Send me some snow vibes, please?!

Spring fever...already?!

Today was pretty much jam packed with LIVE ACTION!  {Speaking of live action, a super fab KY blogger friend commented today to say that.....

--wait for it--

.....she lives near the Turtle Man.  I imagine she can hear his "LIVE ACTION--YEEYEEYEEEYEEE!!!" squeals from her front porch.  And I'm kinda jealous.  I would have to hunt him down and invite him to do an assembly at my school.  That way he could see what live action really is.} 

{Speaking of Kentucky...last night I went to Wal Mart.  That's always an experience 'round these parts.  Anywho, I was walking into the store and there was an old man just standing in the middle of the parking lot.  He jumped out and me and said BOO!  And I almost peed my pants.  I kinda wondered if I was on Betty White's Off Their Rockers prank show.  But I don't think so.  I think it was just a regular night at a KY Wal Mart.}

I think my friends have a touch of spring fever.  In February.  They're just way too busy playing and chatting it up right now.  I've never seen anything like it.  Seriously.  Today I had one kid doing that whole "you can't see me" wrestler thing while I was doing calendar.  {I forget who the wrestler is because wrestling doesn't come on E! or Lifetime, so...}  And I looked at him and said, "I CAN see you.  And for some reason, you're playing while I'm teaching.  What's up with that?"  I'd like to say he stopped, but he didn't.  This story did not have a happy ending. 

Another thing about my friends.  I don't think they are friends.  I've never seen a group of kids bicker and fight the way they do.  There are 29 of them and there aren't enough places in my room to separate all of the ones who need to be on opposite ends.  It's really sad, to be honest.  They're in kindergarten.  And the way we're set up, they will be together until 2nd grade.  So they better start lovin' on each other now.  How do you make kids like each other and get along?  How?!

On a happier note, they're totally movin' and groovin' with skip counting.  Skip counting always makes me nervous, for some reason!  But they always totally blow me away!  They LOVE the Exercise and Count By 5s song by Harry Kindergarten.  Like they can't get enough of it.  I can't find the CD with my favorite 2s song...something about twoooooooooo shoes, yeah {I like it because we get to use our jazz hands}.  So if you have a favorite for counting by 2s, let me know!  Here's a fun little freebie if you're working on skip counting too.

Grab your copy here.

Off to work on making the next set of stations for kindergarten.  We're going to be working on how many more/how many fewer.  If you've blogged about anything like that or have an amazing resource, please point me to it!  Save me some time--and save my poor brain from exploding.

Currently...

Um.  Can we talk about how I should probably start playing the lottery because I totally called the score yesterday?  I don't care about football.  At all.  But I somehow knew the score.  I'm psychic.  {Or maybe it's psycho?  One or the other.}  Anywho...Lori and Kelly, check your emails for your prize!

I'm linking up with Farley this month!  I know you're all DYING to see what I'm doing RIGHT! NOW!

This is random, but I hope you'll love me anyway.  Are you guys having your Valentine's parties on the Friday before, the day of {Tuesday}, or the Friday after?  We had our Halloween party on a Monday this year and it totally threw me off my game for the rest of the week.  Any suggestions for toning it down next Tuesday so we don't start the week on a sugar high then crash and burn WAY before Friday comes around?   

I {Heart} Number Bonds...

{...well, that's not entirely true.  Our relationship is more on-again, off-again.  I heart number bonds when all of my sweet little friends are pickin' up what I'm puttin' down.  But when the number bonds throw them...well, that's when I don't heart the number bonds.  Thank God this year's bunch is getting it.  Otherwise I would have pulled out all of my hair by now and I'd be forced to wear my Jessica Simpson hair every single day.  And I'd have a permanent bruise on my forehead from banging it against the wall.}

Anyway...I just wanted to share a new little game I posted on TpT for just $2 {this includes all game cards and 3 fun worksheets}!  There are several different ways you could play/use this fun little valentines-themed number bonds resource.  Take a peek...

And because I heart you, here's a freebie from the I {Heart}Number Bonds activity pack!

Grab yours here!

And because I really, really heart all of you party people, I'm going to give away two copies of these little games!  They will go to the two people whose comments are the numbers of tonight's winning score.  Soo...if the score is 21-17, my friends who posted comments number 21 and 17 are the lucky winners!  {Make sure you leave me your email address!}  I'm not ashamed to admit that I will have to google to find out the score.  Because I for sure will not be watching the Super Bowl.  The only sports I care about are shopping and running Lifetime movie marathons.  So I will be watching the Nora Roberts movie marathon on Lifetime AND shopping online.  Who says you can't have it all?

Oh!  I'm also super excited to be part of this AMAZING giveaway for second grade teachers!  There are like a KAJILLION bloggers teaming up to give away sooo many fun things!  Head over and check it out:

Make sure you enter the I {heart} 2nd Grade giveaway at Swimming into Second {not here!}!

The one with gas, sad vocal chords, and a freebie

It feels like it's been forever since I've written a real blog post!  I have missed catching up with everyone.  I'm about to make a BIG DENT in my Google Reader.  Hope they have good insurance...  {I know.  I think I'm so funny.  It's sad.  Laugh anyway.} 

The children have been keeping me busy and cracking me up.  Bless their hearts.  They must know that if they didn't keep me laughing all day, I'd pull out my hair.  We've recently had some uh, gassy issues.  Last week there was the WYDTIFOJB incident. {I'm working on bracelets for all my party people.}  The very next day I was able to use that line on a kindergarten darling who totally let loose and ripped one on my carpet.  Like I think I saw her lift up off her spot on the carpet.  It was ferocious.  And of course everyone had to hold their noses and express their disdain for the fact that this {seemingly sweet} little girl just polluted their air.  I was trying to maintain my composure because I'm five just like them and can't help but laugh when someone passes gas and I looked back to see my assistant's head turned around, shoulders shaking with laughter.  {So relieved that I'm not the only immature adult in the room.}  I fought the urge to crack up and started to explain to the class that everyone does it and there's no reason why we should carry on like that.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, one of them screamed out, "IT'S ALL THE BEANS!"  At that point, it was over for me.  It's all the beans...  It's time for me to have a serious chat with our cafeteria manager.  Smells Sounds Seems like we need to back away from the beans for a while.

Fast forward to today, when I woke up with NO VOICE.  Doesn't my body know how much I love to talk?  That is why I became a teacher, after all.  You know, so I would have a good excuse for yakking all day long and have a captive audience 5 days a week, 7 hours a day {Although, that's still nowhere near as much air time as the Kardashians...}.  Luckily my wonderful assistant taught kindergarten for me, so I just had to find a way to make it through first and second grade.  I struggled with my sweet firsties.  They took full advantage of the fact that I had to walk to them to correct their behavior.  I wised up with second grade though.  I gave them gum.  Magical gum.  Gum that would keep their mouths busy so they wouldn't need to talk.  And guess what?  Silence.  And amazingly wonderful behavior.  For almost two hours.  Aaahhhhh....  I will have to break out that magical gum more often.  But then it would probably lose its power.  I'm going to stay home tomorrow to rest my voice so that I can hopefully chat it up non-stop again on Friday.  Send vocal chord healing vibes my way, please. 
Finally, here's a little prize for you!  My second graders can always use extra practice with place value.  Here's a fun little activity you can do where they have to put the digits in the correct order and write the three digit number on the line.  Some of you may be able to use this with your first graders.

Grab your copy here!  Have a wonderful Thursday.  And think of me when you want to scream, "If I have to tell you one more time..."  Because right now, I would so welcome the opportunity to say something one more time.  When I finally get my voice back, I may end up talking to myself.  I might have to get on here and post my phone number when it starts working again.  You guys would call me so I wouldn't have to talk to myself, right?!