Happy Leap Year!
To celebrate this special day, hop on over to my {TpT store} to snag 15% off on Monday, February 29th!
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Happy Leap Year!
Happy Leap Year!
To celebrate this special day, hop on over to my {TpT store} to snag 15% off on Monday, February 29th!
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Crafting My Way Through My Wedding
In yet another wedding related post (sorry fellow teacher friends), I thought I'd share an update on my latest crafting adventure for my November wedding.
As I've shared before, I'm not a huge fan of the traditional guest book. I wanted something we could look at often and enjoy. So I found this on pinterest:
And snagged these at the craft store (yes, I couponed. Not ashamed!)
For months, they've sat in the guest bedroom in the pile of wedding stuff. I picked up paint colors, but was waiting for the inspiration to strike.
Yesterday I received rough feedback from a sub, so I came home dissatisfied with my job. So I took the night off from teaching and enjoyed some wine:
(I'm not sure which lovely friend gifted me that wine glass...but thank you! It was perfect for the occasion!)
And decided that crafting was more important than grading, so I painted the S signs:
We have two because one will be the guest book and one we'll use in pictures.
I stained them today to make them more rustic/aged. I felt the gold was too brass, so I wanted to tone it down. The original brown shade I bought looked too shiny when I tested it, so I used some old cabinet stain from an old home make over project (read about that {here}).
I stained the first, doing more of a swirling, circular stain:
(Second still unstained)
While the second had more of a traditional wood grain look:
Now I don't know which I like more. I asked the all mighty facebook world and the answers are split pretty evenly. I'll seal them both tomorrow with a protective clear coat. The (craft) struggle is real.
I think it will come down to holding them both up against the wall and seeing which looks better. I think we can all agree that the staining technique makes it look better!
(On a side note, I saw someone selling stained ones on Etsy for $30 each! The total cost was maybe $10 and not very time consuming...perhaps that I need to hop aboard the Etsy train when my life calms down a bit...I mean all I really want in life is to drink wine, read books, and craft things...but I think that would get boring very quickly and I'd end up hating my passions.)
As I've shared before, I'm not a huge fan of the traditional guest book. I wanted something we could look at often and enjoy. So I found this on pinterest:
And snagged these at the craft store (yes, I couponed. Not ashamed!)
For months, they've sat in the guest bedroom in the pile of wedding stuff. I picked up paint colors, but was waiting for the inspiration to strike.
Yesterday I received rough feedback from a sub, so I came home dissatisfied with my job. So I took the night off from teaching and enjoyed some wine:
(I'm not sure which lovely friend gifted me that wine glass...but thank you! It was perfect for the occasion!)
And decided that crafting was more important than grading, so I painted the S signs:
We have two because one will be the guest book and one we'll use in pictures.
I stained them today to make them more rustic/aged. I felt the gold was too brass, so I wanted to tone it down. The original brown shade I bought looked too shiny when I tested it, so I used some old cabinet stain from an old home make over project (read about that {here}).
I stained the first, doing more of a swirling, circular stain:
(Second still unstained)
While the second had more of a traditional wood grain look:
Now I don't know which I like more. I asked the all mighty facebook world and the answers are split pretty evenly. I'll seal them both tomorrow with a protective clear coat. The (craft) struggle is real.
I think it will come down to holding them both up against the wall and seeing which looks better. I think we can all agree that the staining technique makes it look better!
(On a side note, I saw someone selling stained ones on Etsy for $30 each! The total cost was maybe $10 and not very time consuming...perhaps that I need to hop aboard the Etsy train when my life calms down a bit...I mean all I really want in life is to drink wine, read books, and craft things...but I think that would get boring very quickly and I'd end up hating my passions.)
Friday, February 26, 2016
Next steps, professionally
Fifth grade is hard. Three dozen students is hard. Escalating behaviors because of puberty and the full moon is hard. Field trips to the local middle school are hard.
Life was hard this week. (Let's be real, month!)
Today my poor guest teacher left three pages of notes about their poor behavior choices. Yes, pages. I'm mortified. I'm finding myself angry at my students most of the time and it's turning me into the type of teacher I don't want to be. That's devastating, but this group is rough. This is my third rough year in a row, which doesn't help. I can't, and won't, keep living with these daily frustrations.
I've been thinking a lot about my next steps professionally.
I don't see myself being in fifth grade forever. I'm not quite sure what I want to do next.
The good news is I have some options:
1) I'm considering the two year process of National Board Certification.
B wants to eventually relocate to Colorado since he's been in Las Vegas his entire life, so it will be nice to have that to follow me. There's an informational meeting in a few weeks at school and a cohort will be formed, so I won't even go through the entire process alone. It will be time consuming, but it will also open lots of doors in the future.
2) I'm considering primary. Under twenty kids, that like me most of the time, seems like heaven after this week. It won't be a piece of cake (because teaching never is), but I think second grade seems great. They aren't learning to be in school for the first time, the educational gaps won't be as large as they are in fifth grade, there are smaller class sizes, and there's no high stakes testing, so I'd be free to do more STEM and creative activities. I shared my intent with my principal today, so it's free to share out with the general public.
3) I'm also considering getting an endorsement in "blended learning", which means I'd be licensed to teach online school. We're considering this for when we have kids (definitely a few years down the road).
So many choices. I want to pursue different venues to keep my options open. I definitely don't see spending my entire teaching career in the classroom.
Life was hard this week. (Let's be real, month!)
Today my poor guest teacher left three pages of notes about their poor behavior choices. Yes, pages. I'm mortified. I'm finding myself angry at my students most of the time and it's turning me into the type of teacher I don't want to be. That's devastating, but this group is rough. This is my third rough year in a row, which doesn't help. I can't, and won't, keep living with these daily frustrations.
I've been thinking a lot about my next steps professionally.
I don't see myself being in fifth grade forever. I'm not quite sure what I want to do next.
The good news is I have some options:
1) I'm considering the two year process of National Board Certification.
B wants to eventually relocate to Colorado since he's been in Las Vegas his entire life, so it will be nice to have that to follow me. There's an informational meeting in a few weeks at school and a cohort will be formed, so I won't even go through the entire process alone. It will be time consuming, but it will also open lots of doors in the future.
2) I'm considering primary. Under twenty kids, that like me most of the time, seems like heaven after this week. It won't be a piece of cake (because teaching never is), but I think second grade seems great. They aren't learning to be in school for the first time, the educational gaps won't be as large as they are in fifth grade, there are smaller class sizes, and there's no high stakes testing, so I'd be free to do more STEM and creative activities. I shared my intent with my principal today, so it's free to share out with the general public.
3) I'm also considering getting an endorsement in "blended learning", which means I'd be licensed to teach online school. We're considering this for when we have kids (definitely a few years down the road).
So many choices. I want to pursue different venues to keep my options open. I definitely don't see spending my entire teaching career in the classroom.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Engagement pictures scheduled!
Our engagement pictures are scheduled! Sunday, April 17th...at dusk.
My dear friend {Amy} will be taking our pictures in April. She was one of the first people who heard about my first date with B over three years ago, so now it comes full circle and she gets to be with us to capture this special time for us.
In an attempt to keep this wedding thing as authentic as possible, we opted for a fun and quirky location for our engagement shoot.
We're taking our pictures at {Nelson's Landing}, which is a ghost town in Nevada. It's been featured on Ghost Adventures and has some old buildings, a crashed airplane, and lots of gorgeous desert scenery!
Amy has done shots there before (her images are below) and I love them!
Now...to contain my excitement until then!
My dear friend {Amy} will be taking our pictures in April. She was one of the first people who heard about my first date with B over three years ago, so now it comes full circle and she gets to be with us to capture this special time for us.
In an attempt to keep this wedding thing as authentic as possible, we opted for a fun and quirky location for our engagement shoot.
We're taking our pictures at {Nelson's Landing}, which is a ghost town in Nevada. It's been featured on Ghost Adventures and has some old buildings, a crashed airplane, and lots of gorgeous desert scenery!
Amy has done shots there before (her images are below) and I love them!
Now...to contain my excitement until then!
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Win some, lose some
Unfortunately, it's felt like the latter part of this statement for most of this month...
The spring break countdown has begun!
Friday, February 19, 2016
Wedding Updates
I have a few friends that are getting married this year, before me, and I'm getting a tad jealous they have lots of the details ironed out.
But...I've got time. (Right? That's what I keep telling myself!)
I'm in the process of finalizing the engagement pictures for April. We're looking at Saturday the 16th because the class I signed up for got cancelled, so it's a free weekend. It's narrowed down to two locations.
I visited my MOH last weekend and she picked her dress. It is gorgeous (as they all are). Most of my maids have purchased their dresses and the groomsmen attire is reserved at Mens' Warehouse:
Except they'll have marine (navy) straight ties and pocket squares. B will be in black with a light pink tie.
I've got a rough timeline for my bridal shower (end of June).
I wrote my first wedding thank you.
I decided on what I'm getting each of my bridesmaids, so it's a lot of searching for the perfect item for each of them. I found Leah's in New York City, so I just have six more to track down!
I mentioned to my friend Veronica that we'd like her daughter to be the flower girl, but I haven't officially asked the munchkin yet. Her dad is one of the groomsmen and she's just a spunky little gal, so it's perfect. Our nephew will be 1 1/2, so we're fairly positive we're going to ask him (his parents) if he can be the ring bearer. His dad, B's only brother, is a groomsman so it works.
I ordered bridal and wedding thank you's from an {Etsy seller}. I'm super excited about them:
(but you know, with my new last name)
Since our wedding is quite close to Christmas (less than two months), we'll do a wedding shot in our holiday cards and send formal thank you notes.
Other than that...not much has been happening on the wedding front!
We've got:
A wedding March 11th here in Las Vegas
A wedding March 19th in Arizona (luckily this coincides with spring break!)
A bachelorette party at the end of April at Disneyland
A bridal shower for a work colleague to plan in May
A wedding (or two?) in June
My own shower in July
Good thing I've got lots of time to plan!
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