OPERATION Zipper Pouch

Hey friends! First, I want to start by saying thank you to all of you for the amazing ideas you post every day! And I want to apologize for not being around as of late. With simply being a substitute, the ideas aren't exactly flowing out! I promise to get back in the swing of things soon.

With that being said, I want to bring a very special program to your attention. As an independent consultant for Thirty-One Gifts, I have the honor of using my business to give back. Especially at this time of the year. We are all privileged to be spending our holidays with our loved ones, where as there are many soldiers who are defending our freedom many miles away. And those men & women will not get to see their family on this special Christmas day.

As a way to say thank you to those who are serving, I am hosting an event called Operation Zipper Pouch. You, either individually, with your family, or with your classroom may purchase a zipper pouch for $12 and then personalize it with the words THANK YOU for an additional $7. The overall total comes out to $22.16 with tax & shipping to me. I am using any commission I make on the sales to purchase different items to stuff the pouches with. Then over the holiday break, a group of young girls and I will be stuffing the pouches and sending them overseas. You are encouraged to include a note to the soldier, if you choose not to, I will add one.

This is a great way to "adopt" a soldier for Christmas and teach your students about the true meaning of the season. Giving.

The website sometimes gets tricky, so please email me if you have any questions.

Thank you so much,
Liz

First Grade Fresh-Love

Last week I won a giveaway from Ms. Simoneaux over at First Grade Fresh.

I won some awesome Dot Math Cards. Can't wait to use them in my *future* classroom!

Visit Morgan's Teachers Pay Teachers Store and check them out!

She also gave a little preview of them on her blog.

Thanks Morgan for being so generous & hosting a giveaway :)

Labor Day & a New Challenge

How are you spending your Labor Day?

For some of you it's probably a nice little break in your already started school year. 

Or for others it is soaking up the time with your families & friends before your school year starts.

For me it is about looking back over a busy & exciting summer and admiring God's hand through everything we did. 

As summer is quickly fading, I have been challenged to start something new. 

My life is in a state of crazy right now & the only way I know how to get through is by seeking Him.

In an attempt to do just that every day & be accountable to others for doing that, I have joined a challenge.

You can go here to learn more about what that is.

I encourage you to join.

 It has been such an encouragement through a tough time.

I know I'm not alone in the world of education when it comes to job cuts.

This is just the way I am searching for my next step. 

Enjoy your Labor Day sweet friends. 

Thank you for being part of my life in a positive way.

My New Blog

Friends!!

Exciting news!!!

I have decided to start a personal blog. I felt like maybe, just maybe I was being misleading here at  First Grade Frenzy. Because I wasn't posting strictly about school related things.

Sorry!

Now you can go follow my new blog.

There are some crazy exciting things happening there, such as a GIANT giveaway.

(perhaps bribes to get you to follow it :))

I am so nervous that I won't have anybody that reads my new blog, so if you read this one and feel like we are already bloggy friends, please visit my new blog and follow.

It will make my heart smile.

Don't mind that it isn't exactly chock full of posts yet, all of this came about in the past 2 days & I'm still entertaining family from out of town so busy busy.

Thanks friends for being such a support system.

It's Funny Face Time

Busy. Busy. Busy.

My sister in law & her family are in town, so we are on the go. All. The. Time.

For example. I was here yesterday. With not a care in the world.

I have lots of fun things to share with you, but for today I'm trying to get a week load of laundry done in a 2 hour time span so I can get back to my in-laws to deliver a su-pwise to my nephew.

So, please sit back and enjoy the many faces of my little sis Gianna as she steals my iPhone and takes self portraits.

And because he is just so darn silly, here's the Mr. playing with the fat face camera.

The Fair

How many of you have a county fair?

I love love love the fair.

We have one in the town next to mine.

We have one in our main county town.

And finally we have one giant one for the county next to us.

This year the hubs & I hitched a ride with my 'rents to attend the big giant one in the county next to us.

And when I say giant...I truly mean giant.

We left at 8:30 am and rolled into the driveway at 12:45 am that night.

Yea talk about a long day.

My knee was a tad bit swollen, but it was so worth it.

Yummy lemonade made from real lemons---if I could have an IV drip of that all day long, I'd last all day at the fair with ZERO complaining. I can't get enough of it.

Then there is the italian sausage.

And fried dough.

And Chiavetta's chicken.

Oh man the fair is going on until this Sunday so maybe I need to convince M to make a trip back up there, if not just for the food!

Of course we looked inside all of the RV's & sheds.

Caught the pig races & dockdog jumps.

Walked through the little craft exhibits.

And all of the animal barns.

Watched a mama cow love on her 5 minute old calf. (that sadly we missed seeing by that 5 minutes...we were watching my sisters milk a pretend cow on the other end of the barn while wondering what all of the commotion was but clearly not caring enough to leave the pretend cow for the real live cow birth happening 20 feet away)

This year I opted out of the rides. Partly because of cost & partly because the hubs isn't big on rides.

My sisters, however, had a blast on the rides & definitely got my parents moneys worth on those ride wristbands. ( I will admit I was a tad jealous of some rides...hey, who knew it..I'm still a kid at heart)

I'll leave you with some pictures from the fun filled day.

Just enjoying the amazing wood crafted rockers. G-always attached to the Mr.'s hip.

Mama cow lovin on her new baby.

G won best cheerleader at the Swifty-Swine Piggy Races-her prize: a pig nose & Oreo's

Just her size water bumper cars.

Mini-horse--funky color, but cute none the less.

Giant work horse that could probably break every bone in my body by simply looking at it.

Lexi & her friend playing with my stretchy-face iphone app.

The step-pops getting nuzzled up by a horse.

Here is the tail-end of a ride the little was on. You could hear her scream a mile away. M & I were actually not at the ride when she got on but it was hilarious when he looked at me & said "I think I hear your Lexi screaming, is that her?" You know it's family when you can determine your little sistas scream without actually seeing her.

To sum the day up-total fun.

I highly recommend checking out your local fair. Be prepred to spend some money though----on the food!

It's been busy over here!

Hey all! Did I tell you that I would have that Chevron tutorial up ummm last week??? Yes I did and No I haven't done it yet! Man am I not sticking to my word!

I'm typing it up now and it will be up tomorrow!

In the meantime I wanted to share a bit of what has been keeping me from posting it.

My Mr. was in a big golf tournament that he has entered 7 out of the 8 years we have been together! He has never won it but been in the semifinals many times.

Well this year he made it to the championship match!!!!

He played against one of my former co-workers. And boy did he have his work cut out for him. This guy had won it 4 previous times.

Since M has taken the summer off to work on golfing and attempt to make it a career, I was very pleased at how far he got and how well he did. Makes me feel validated for letting him do it.

{via}

My hubster is the one on the left. Isn't he so handsome?

It was a fun match and thankfully my hubby is not a sore loser. He knew he blew it and he played bad at the end so it wasn't a rough night trying to cheer him up. We were able to enjoy some lounge time at the clubhouse with the winner and his family afterwards.

So this week has been spent trying to catch up on all the sleep and energy we lost last week going nonstop.

Also this little gal...

is having dental surgery today!!!! EEEEEK I'm anxiously waiting for an update from my mama about how it is going. She has 12 of her baby teeth that are losing their enamel rather quickly! She visited a specialist this past Monday and the dentist booked her for surgery today! Pretty serious and a little scary that my 4 yr old sissy is being put under! I spend some time with her last night and she was extra lovey and cuddly! Wanted me to sleep over at my parents. HA! Hubs said that wasn't happening, so we scheduled a sleepover for next week.

Keep her (and my parents, especially my mama) in your prayers please. I know they are pretty nervous about all of this.

Lexi is spending the day with me and we are about to do some manicures to keep our minds busy!

Catch ya'll tomorrow :)

Busy Day

Ok fellow bloggy friends. I know I am really making you wait for that chevron tutorial.

I promise it will be up by the end of this weekend.

But today is this little pretties 11th birthday..

So I've been hangin with her.

We went to support the hubby in his golf tourny where we literally lost 10 pounds in sweat.

We made cute little cards to give to her friends at her party tonight.

(kind of like these from the fabulous eighteen25 gals)

We got everything ready for the intense Minute To Win It challenge that they are doing.

(I'm kind of hoping that if M wins today & is in a good mood, he will want to partake in the cookie on the forhead to the mouth competition!!! Just so I can giggle)

I attempted to finish her birthday present while she was watching a gazillion Say Yes to the Dress shows on TLC. We love that channel!

And now I have to speed her over to my mama's work so she can go home and set up while I go back and cheer on the Mr.

Then it's time to party!!!

So see ya tomorrow (or Sunday) with that long awaited post! Promise it's worth the wait!

Hope you are staying cool on this hot, hot summer day!



Ask me how much...

I paid for this...



Provo Craft® Cricut® Personal Electronic Cutter

Go ahead ask me! Do it, I know you want to!

Ok give up?

$15.00

It's ok, go back up and read that again,

I said fifteen smack-a-roos!!

Joann Fabrics is having their Founder's Sale and the Cricut is on sale for $59.99!

Add to that the 15% off coupon for being a teacher.

And the $40 I had leftover from a graduation gift from my mama.

(and yes I did graduate college 2 yrs ago, but I was told to pick out a jewelry armoire and it took me until this last Christmas to decide. So the leftover money went in a purse pocket in my purse closet! Crap..I just told you all where I hide my money. That's ok there are about 50 purses you would have to go through so by that time I'd figure out what you were doing. I'm rambling..back to the topic)

I have been eyeing this bad boy for months. And the Sillhouette too but we all know I don't have enough cash in my secret purse storage for that. So I was excited to see the Cricut go on such a huge sale!! M was really hesitant about it but when I showed him the receipt he smiled and said good work. Ahhh the approval of the hubby!

Now I can't wait to get it out and start playing around. I already have plans to use if for Lexi's birthday present and my mama and I have planned a scrapbook day so she can get all caught up!

I honestly couldn't believe it when the cashier told me how much I owed. Love getting steals!

Question?

Anybody out there live near Cincinnati, OH?

Particularly the Westchester area?

We have family friends that just moved there and I mentioned to them that hey, maybe M and I would pack up and move there too if I could find a job.

A completely joke type statement. And they said why not?

So now we are browsing in that area. I don't want to say looking because that would make this serious and I don't know if it's at that level yet.

Just something to pray about.

With August starting and still no word on a job anywhere, I can feel the worry forming in my heart. I want to keep relying on the Lord and not let that feeling overtake me.

So anybody out there in Ohio have any helpful information for me?

Quick change of space

See that mess there? That's what my entryway looks like. And see that white rolling cart? Well that is actually clean compared to what it was last week when I was busy making cards and throwing stuff on there!

I was having serious anxiety about this space because it was cluttered and basically becoming a junk collector. Case in point-my husbands weights that he huuughm never uses. I mean he uses them every day!

It was time to get organized. I had this white bookshelf from my classroom & since I don't have a classroom this fall to house it I thought I could make use of it in this tiny space.

Ahh much better! I even had room to make the top shelf my Thirty-One paperwork place. Since before all of that stuff was lining the wall in my dining room. Ok don't go judging me with these two confessions I just gave you. I tend to have grand plans of keeping things clean & organized and then life and the hubby happen and things end up just piling up in places they don't belong. I certainly won't put all of the blame on the mr. Well actually he doesn't read this blog so yea it's all his fault :) Yea I can do that.

I had some baskets left over from my classroom too that I used to corral all of my odds and ends. I love that the white cart fits perfectly next to it so that I don't have to find a place for it and I can still use it as a mobile craft unit!

And now 1 more time for effect!

Before:

After:

Yes I'm aware I'm a master horrible decent designer! No need to shower me with approval....ok actually if you want to you can. I love me some comments!


P.S. That chevron art piece will be having it's own blog post soon!

A whole lotta random & a math freebie

My week of food kind of flopped after well, Tuesday? I'd love to say life just got busy. But that would be lying and I'm not a liar. That's pretty much what happens every week. I plan out our meals and by Wednesday I don't feel like cooking and just wing it. Which usually consists of my husband twisting my arm to order out. (doesn't take much twisting...see said I can't lie)

So two meals that were meant for last week are now planned for Monday & Tuesday of this week. Seeing as how my track record goes, I figured I could get them accomplished on the 2 days I actually feel like cooking.

Next topic. It's HOT here!!! I have no air conditioner and my house is old. Very old. So if it's 90 degrees outside, it's about 125 degrees inside. I'm not joking. I'm not lying either, remember I don't lie!) Thankfully M convinced his parents to loan us their unopened, unused ac unit for a bit. Yes you read that right. It's over 100 degrees and they have an ac just hanging out in their house, still in the box. I can't even find a floor display fan to purchase at Walmart! It's like the fanageddon!! No fans anywhere! The hubby slept in the basement because it's no joke 30-40 degrees cooler down there. I decided to fight the heat and stay in my comfy decent bed with 2 fans on full blast rather than sleep in the spider filled basement. Sorry honey, no convincing me otherwise on that one!!

I have some fun little crafts that I've been working on that I'm excited to share with you!

I've also been considering changing the name of my blog. Since I don't teach 1st grade, well any grade right now, I want to change it up. As of right now I won't be teaching in the fall so I'll probably be posting about topics that don't always focus on strictly teaching. Wait who am I kididng, I already do that! Sorry followers that I'm not faithful to just school things! When I started this blog I thought it would only be about school. Well now that I love it and am constantly finding inspiration, it seems I am venturing out and bloggin about other fun things too. Hope you don't mind!

Now I need your advice! What do you think I should rename my blog?? I want to keep it relatively school themed since I'm praying the Lord will provide a job but I don't want to be grade specific. Silly me for doing that in the first place! So here's how you can earn a math freebie! Since I know you are all like WHAT is this lady rambling on about?!!?

Thanks to those who are even still reading this! You're the best!

This is a sheet that I do throughout the school year. I just keep stapling the sheets together so that I can whip this out to show parents or special ed. teachers. It really helps my kiddos learn their basic addition facts and is a great motivator! They alllll want to get a higher score each time they do it. Sometimes I time them and other times I let them work until they are done.

If you would like this math mania activity, leave me a comment with a new blog name idea and your email address. Then I will send it out within 24 hours of your commenting! Seriously hold me to that! I won't hate ya for emailing me since perhaps, I've heard, that maybe I am one to easily lose track of time and don't send things out as soon as I say I will. No lying here remember!!

I love comments. I get giddy when it pops up on my iphone! Like gotta stop what I'm doing and check those bad boys out! Then I smile all big and make the hubby aware that people actually read my stuff! He rolls his eyes and ignores me. Then I repeat the process the next time a comment comes in! Yea, I'm weird. It's ok..I'm aware of it.

 What a long post about a whole lot of nothing! Can't wait to hear what ya'll think I should rename this blog! No recommendation will be left out of consideration! Or if you just want to say hey, I'll probably send you the math mania sheet just for saying hey. I like comments that much. You don't even have to follow the rules and I'll give ya the freebie. But that doesn't mean you should break the rules!!!

Ok enough. I'll put a sock in it now!

I promise I'm not as crazy as this monster!

Hey friends...

Summer seems to be a very difficult blogging time for me!

You'd think I would have all the time in the world to blog, but lo and behold..I don't!

After spending hours just reading everyone else's posts, I simply don't have the time to write up a nice long post for myself. Clearly I need to re-arrange how I'm doing things!

Between driving Lexi-lou to soccer camp, laundry (which I let build up so bad that it takes a whole day to catch up), summer cleaning, organizing and cleaning out the office(which is so overtaken by basically my entire classroom), trying to set up parties for my new Thirty-One business (if you are so inclined to get a new bag for school or some organizing gizmos-feel free to venture over and check it out) ((or if you live within 2 hours of Olean, NY & want to host a party..I won't turn you away)), watching my husband spend hours playing Super Mario Bros. (ok maybe that's not an excuse..at all), reading some really great books, hunting for a new job, & just spending time with my friends & family.....I just don't seem to have time.

Whewwww what a lonnnng sentences that was!

So instead of posting my original ideas, I thought I would share some great new things I have found since I became addicted to pinterest. (Forgot to mention that in the above lonnnng sentence!)



source

source

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source

So be sure to click on over to my little pinterest board and check out everything else. (by which I mean, not much since I have only been a member for a hot 2 days)

Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I am!


P.S. If anyone can access thirtyhandmadedays.com for me and send me their "given enough coffee" printable I would forever love you! I have my future sister-in-laws bridal shower Sunday and want to put together a coffee basket, but for some odd reason I can't access their website to print it out!!! Thank you, thank you!