Window Shopping

This morning, my mom and I got up realllllly early and headed out to Westhaven because they were having a neighborhood yard sale.

 

And, well, we were sorely dissapointed.

 

I guess they had had a neighborhood sneak peek the night before so all the good stuff had already been snatched up. Very sad.

 

One thing led to another and we found ourselves at Gas Lamp Antique Mall. If you live in Nashville, that's the antique mall that is located above the Staples at Hundred Oaks. I know, I know. Weird location. But, this place is AMAZING!

 

(It's not as good as the flea market, though. The Nashville Flea Market is possibly the greatest shopping experience you can have. The furniture out there is incredible and much more reasonably priced. I will take some pictures the next time I go and do a blog post... don't you worry!)

 

 

 

This place is huge, to say the least. It takes up two seperate locations! And, I will say, it's generally more expensive than I would like. But, there were good deals scattered about and I'm all about the inspiration, ya know?

 

I'm getting the decorating bug again... I can feel it.

 

This booth had amazing painted furniture and I ADORED that twig wreath. I'm thinking I could make one of those...

 

These two bird prints were TO. DIE. FOR.

 

How cool is this mirror and those sconces?

 

I could stand around and look at shelves of antiques all day.

 

I wanted to buy this entire basket of owl pillows.

 

 

I'm not sure this stuff was very "antique" but I loved it all the same.

 

Everything in this booth was incredible. The garden stool, the red striped lamps, the chevron curtains. Loves it.

 

 

Lots of good stuff here...

 

My next purchase will be a hutch. I either want one with glass doors or open shelves. I really liked this one... but, it was $450 and I know I can find one cheaper at the flea market. Still... it was hard to walk away.

 

I really like this one, too. Totally different look.

 

I love this, too. And, that's why I haven't bought anything. I have to decide what I want.

 

Maybe I just need both styles?

 

Kidding. Kind of.

 

Here's what I bought. Excuse the picture, I obviously took it in the car. But, it's an AWESOME oil painting. I saw it and instantly wanted it. The colors are amazing and it was only $30! I do need to buy a frame for it but that's no problem.

 

And here's the latest picture of Finley, since a blog post isn't complete without one.

 

Have a great weekend!



Writing, Monsters and Justin Bieber

Have I mentioned lately that I am LOVING third grade?

Because, I am.

I mean it.

I think kids in third grade are kind of at the best age ever. They are sooooo fun and sweet and independent and into learning.

And, they get my jokes.

That's huge... because, I joke a lot.

Like, for instance, my kiddos are CON-VINCED that I'm obsessed with Justin Bieber.

 A few years ago when these kids were in first grade, a certain teacher who shall remain nameless  told her class that she and I had watched Never Say Never (the Justin Bieber concert dvd, for those of you who actually have lives).

Which may or may not be true.

(Okay, it's true.)

And wouldn't you know it that I would have the one kid this year who not only remembered this information, but is bound and determined to work it into every conversation he partakes in.

Today, we were making bucket lists in writing. I was making my list and putting all my life ambitions and this kid goes "Well, dontcha' want to meet Justin Bieber??"

So, of course I played along ( I ALWAYS do because, as I said, I like to joke around) and added it to the list while the kids just screamed with laughter. Because, it's totally hilarious when your 27 year old teacher is crazy about a dorky kid musician.

I would laugh, too.

 And, maybe I did.

Maybe.

We are officially on Fall Break as of right now. It's very, very exciting. We have to go to school tomorrow but the kids won't be there so it doesn't count. And, we're off all week next week... woo hoo!

Since it was the day before break and the kids were all excited and we had finished all our assessments yesterday, I decided we need some F-U-N. So, we made monsters.

Multiplication monsters.

Basically, the kids roll dice to make multiplication sentences about how many eyes, arms, legs, teeth and horns their monster will have. It's all very exciting.

Then, I just dumped all our paper out onto a table and let the kiddos go to town. We VERY RARELY get to do stuff like this in third grade so the kids were pretty much giddy with excitement.

Their monsters turned out soooo cute!

Well, let me rephrase that. MOST of them looked cute.

And, luckily, I only had enough room to hang up 12 anyway :)

My kiddos also worked hard this week on publishing their first writing pieces. They aren't perfect but they are a great starting point for the year. It was mostly just good for us to get through the writing process and just see what it's all about.

We also discovered dictionaries. Let me tell ya: those suckers have changed my life. I taught the kids how to look up words and spell them correctly and that is another reason why I LOVE third grade! They can totally do it!

And, they want to do it. That's what is exciting. They are currently obsessed with looking up words. And, there are a LOT worse things you can be obsessed with.

Plus, I don't like spelling words for kids so it saves me a lot of headache.

There, I said it.

Anyways... I wanted to find a way to make their personal narratives a little more cohesive since they were all writing about different things. So, I quickly cut out some "frames" using scrapbook paper. And, I let the kids draw a picture in the middle. You'd think I'd told them we'd all be taking a field trip to Disney World if you'd heard the shrieking and excited gasping coming from their little mouths.

It doesn't take much, folks. 

Here are their narratives.

(And, I just noticed that on the bottom row there are basically four frames that are exactly the same and now I won't be able to sleep tonight and I will have to fix that ASAP tomorrow on account of the OCD...)

I love this guys illustration of the fair. We had a LOT of stories about the fair and stories about getting a puppy.

I enjoy the title on this one :)

So, yeah.

That's our week.

 Monsters and writing.

Oh! And, running records until my ears bled.

And, main idea graphic organizers. Lots of those.

And, assessments. Lots of those, too.

But, it's all good.

Cause' whenever I'm overwhelmed, I just come home and snuggle up this little creature and how can you be stressed then?

And if that doesn't work, I just crank up the Justin Bieber tunes...

 



They're Hitched. Part Two.

Here are two pics from Instagram that were too good not to share!

 

 

Love, love, love.

 

 

 

They're Hitched.

It's official. Matt and Blakely are now The Ridings!

 

We had such a fun weekend and the wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

I tried to take some pictures with my phone but it was a little hard. Here's what I got:

 

This is the flower girl (my cousin's daughter, Abby) and the ring bearer, Gentry. They were best buds this weekend and they were sooooo cute! The bat was Gentry's gift from Matt and Blakely.

 

After the rehearsal dinner Friday night, all the bridesmaids and the bride's family stayed at the house where the wedding was. So, we had Blakely a little lingerie party!

 

Oh, and I shared my bed with this little creature. And her mom. Not much sleep was had, to be honest.

 

We walked in to the reception area Saturday morning and there were the cakes! They're obviously not finished in this picture... but, they were both really neat. Matt's groom cake had three hats with all of his teams on them: BGA, WKU and the Royals. And, there was a bride and groom playing baseball on top. And, the wedding cake was AMAZING! I was just a little nervous that these cakes sat there on a rolling cart all day - risky! Ha.

 

The dress!

 

I love the hanger!

 

This is where they got married. I took this during the day so it obviously wasn't finished. But, it was all sooo pretty!

 

Oh, I guess I did get a picture of the groom cake!

 

This was the reception area... obviously, about halfway done. The tables had huge flowers and candles and the lights were a lot darker.

 

Blakely and I

 

Me and Abby. She looked so cute in her flower girl dress!

 

Blakely and Abby

 

This was so cute! They took some pictures of them holding hands before they could see each other!

 

Matt and I

 

It was a perfect day.

 

Congrats, Matt and Blakely!

 

Wedding Prep, Harry Potter and Cheese Blobs

Catchy title, huh?  

 

There is a lot going on around here. It's been CRAZY town the last few weeks. So, I haven't been doing too much blogging because I don't have a lot of time. Oh, and because of this little invention called Netflix that I'm completely addicted to. That's partly to blame, honestly. But, I have some stuff I wanted to get down on the blog. So, I'm going to make another of my world famous lame-o lists. Here we go...

 

1. Have I mentioned that my brother is getting married? In ONE WEEK? Yeah, he is. It's all very exciting and I couldn't be happier for him. And for Blakely. They've dated for seven years so I honestly don't feel like I'm gaining a sister... I feel like she is one already! But, I love them and it's a really exciting time in our family.

 

Exciting and crazy. We've been to 3 showers in the last two or three weeks. And, I've been helping my mom plan and prepare for the Rehearsal Dinner. And last night, my mom and I helped Blakely tie ribbons on 300 Tiffany boxes!

 

A little daunting, to say the least.

 

My mom only knocked three boxes off the table. Which wouldn't be a big deal... except, each one contains 62 chocolate pearls. And, we had two puppies right under our feet. And, little balls roll... alot. Ha! We all dove for the dogs first and I pretty much scared the ever-living daylights out of Finley when I screamed and grabbed her. But, isn't chocolate supposed to be poison to dogs? I don't know if that has been confirmed... but, better safe than sorry!

 

So, the Princess spent the rest of the night supervising from my lap.

 

2. For one of the showers, I had to bring an appetizer. I've seen a recipe on Pinterest where you use string cheese and bread crumbs to make mini cheese sticks. So, I gave it a whirl. Seems simple enough, right?

 

I got a bowl of milk and a bowl of breadcrumbs. And, I cut up a HUGE bag of string cheese into bite size chunks.

 

I dipped them in the milk first and then the bread crumbs. It seems so simple but it took FOREVVVVVVVER (said like the kid from Sandlot).

 

I put them in the oven for like 10 minutes, crossed my fingers and ran upstairs to finish getting ready. When I came back down, they looked like this:

 

Sexy.

 

They were no longer cheese sticks. They were cheese blobs.

 

But, what's a girl to do? It was like 15 minutes before the shower started. So, I stuffed em' in a bowl, plopped some marinara sauce in the middle and called it a day.

 

 

They honestly didn't taste bad at all. It was just awkward answering all the "What are these?" questions. Ohhhh, well. I tried.

 

3. Big news for Finley: almost every one of her teeth have fallen out! She looks a little crazy because when her mouth is open all you can see is gums. At least I know why she's been chewing like a maniac lately. She has destroyed about 20 toys in the last two weeks. So, I bought her some new toys that I thought she couldn't destroy. HA! I've already had to throw two of those away! It's terrible. I don't want to keep spending money on toys but if she doesn't have toys she chews on my sheets or me. And, I can't let her play with toys that have stuffing hanging out of them because she'll choke on it.

 

RIP, little toy. We hardly knew you.

And, all that chewing has worn the poor dear out, apparently. She's been falling asleep all over the place:

 

on my shoulder,

 

on the arm of the couch,

 

and face down in my grading basket.

 

Good times.

 

Oh, and this is how she watches me when I'm getting ready in the mornings. I just know she's thinking "Turn the lights off and get back in bed, crazy!" Hahaha.

 

4. Third graders are made of awesome. I am really, really enjoying my class. We have a class blog and a bunch of the kids post on there. But, my favorite is when they comment on each other's writing. Sometimes they write stuff like " AWWWWEEEEEESSSSSOOOMMMMMMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" And, sometimes they say stuff like "You're story made me almost cry!!!!" But, either way, I LOVE it that they are encouraging each other!

 

We finished reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8 last week and the kids were so excited to start another book. So, I picked Superfudge by Judy Blume. I'm trying to expose them to some books that they wouldn't just pick up on their own. Plus, it's fun for me to read books to them that I read as a kid! They are LOVING Superfudge! They pack their backpacks up and get me their agendas in about 4 minutes flat so that they can snuggle up on the carpet and listen to me read for about 10 minutes before the bell rings. I'm making time for it everyday because I honestly don't think there is ANYTHING more important than getting those kiddos excited about reading.

 

5. Speaking of excited about reading, I'm doing Soaring Eagles again. That's an after school enrichment program for the third and fourth graders at our school. My friend Kristin and I did Reading and Art last year. It was sooooo fun! But, we decided to scale back a little this year since I changed grade levels and we're just doing Reading. Last year, we read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to the kids and they were absolutely obsessed. So, this year, we decided to give them a choice. We made ballots and everything and let them vote on which book they wanted to read. We only read the backs of the 6 books so that we wouldn't influence their decisions at all. The books were Maniac Magee, Holes, Pippi Longstocking, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Great Gilly Hopkins and Peter Pan. I'm happy to say that Harry Potter won with an overwhelming vote of 16 to 4.

 

So, we decided that this year we're going to go all in. I've spent the better half of the week making graphic organizers with discussion questions for each individual chapter. We're going to stop after each chapter and have a little dialogue!

 

(I sent this pic to Kristin earlier in the week. And, I'm too lazy to take a real picture now. So, it'll do.)

 

We're going to take all their graphic organizers and put them into a booklet. With covers and everything! And, when we're finished with the book, then they're going to do a big project. I'll post more about this stuff once we get going and/or when it's finished. It may take us forever. But, the kids are so pumped and I honestly can't wait to experience the book again through their eyes.

 

 I'm a dork. There, I said it for you :)

 

Well, I think that's about all I've got tonight.

 

Hope you have a great week!