My "Sabbatical" is Over!

Let me begin with my sincerest apologies for not writing in so long.  It's been...extremely hectic and overwhelming with my personal life so in the times when I would have normally written, I was dealing with the sucker punches that life was handing me.  Everything appears to be on the upswing now and for that I am extremely thankful.  Our family had some very scary challenges but God has pulled us through.

Thank you all for not giving up and for keeping me on your "following" lists.  I am hoping to get some posts up to share with you anything that may be of use from the past several months so bear with me and I will try to get my blogging schedule back to normal.  Until then, feel free to check out my class website.

I hope that you are all enjoying your summers.  I am on my second day off but have had my 9 year old niece for a little over a week so it has felt like vacation has been longer than that.  Can't complain about that, right?

Well, I'm off to tend to our 8 puppies (one of my unexpected challenges was that my Golden Retrievers managed--despite my efforts to avoid it--to breed again).  Have a GREAT Monday!

Colleagues (Friends) and Compliments

I, along with 12 other staff members, received this email today and it just made my day.  Isn't it nice when we are paid genuine compliments by people we respect very highly?  Anyway, just thought I'd share. Rose hit the nail on the head as the people she sent this to really do show their support to our children in so many after school events/performances.

"Hello former GPE’ers,

As I was adding up the t-shirt sizes for Jump Rope for Heart, I noticed something. 20 people paid/donated their $40 to get their shirt early, lunch and slime.  Out of those 20 people, 13 of us came from GPE with Ms. Wyant. (she only brought 16 of us with her)  It could be one of two things…..we will do or pay anything to stay at this school and not go back to GPE (J) OR Ms. Wyant did a great job in picking who she brought with her.  I believe option 2 is the correct one.  I still feel like we get looked down upon because we came from GPE, but the truth is, all of us that came from GPE are the backbone of this school.  We are the ones going to the different school functions supporting our kids.  I am extremely proud of you guys and where we came from and you all are the best at what you do.  I don’t give compliments very often but I am honored to work with each and every one of you.  Thanks for all you do and all the support you’ve given me and our school.

Sincerely,

Rose"

I'm going to follow that up with a huge thanks to my blogging friends and colleagues because there have been times when you gave just the lift that I or another blogger needed as well.  YOU ALL ROCK!

Liebster Award

My cup runneth over!  Thank you to Linda over at Tales of a Fifth Grade Teacher for awarding me the Liebster Award!

The next step is to award five blogs with the award--they have to have 200 followers or less.  So, without further ado:

Smiling in Second Grade

The Best Endings

Ms.Rachel's Room

Live, Laugh, and Love to Learn in 2nd Grade

One Little Word

Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade does something fun instead of resolutions for the new year.  I'd been reading responses to it through my Google Reader and started thinking about what my OLW would be, if I decided to do it (which, of course, I had or I wouldn't have given it any thought at all).  I have FINALLY decided on one:

I think that if I can do that on a regular basis...I can call each day a success!  LOVE this idea!  Thank you, Farley, for your idea!

Versatile Blogger Award--WHOOOOT!!!

I headed back to work today (YAY!) and after finishing my grades I checked my email.  Imagine my surprise and excitement when I realized that I was awarded my SECOND blogging award!  I can't imagine this ever getting tiresome because I was WHOOT, WHOOT, WHOOT THRILLED (yep, THREE whoots)!  So a HUGE THANK YOU to Lauren from Life in Middle School for the recognition AND Sara S. from Smiling in Second Grade.  You rock my socks!

Okaaaay, so the rules of the game are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you with a link back to them. Thank you again, Lauren and Sara S! Head on over and check out their blogs by clicking on their links above! 
2. Tell 7 things about yourself. 
3. Pass this on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they've received an award!   

7 Things About Me:

1. I am a small town Michigan girl at heart (GO BLUE) and LOVE my home state and town. All except for that cold, white stuff that they get during their winters. 
2. I have lived in Florida for about 18 years and LOVE the winters here ;). 
3. I put myself through college by working at Longhorn Steakhouse as a waitress and then bartender and graduated debt free because I paid as I went. It was HARD WORK and there was little rest involved because I was also supporting myself very far away from home, but it was worth. Every. Minute! I knew that if I took out loans while going to school to be a teacher, I'd be working to pay off said loans my whole career (due to the pay cut I'd take when I went into teaching full time). 
4. I'm "one of THOSE moms" who thinks that her children are Golden. 
5. Number 4 is a 1/2 truth because my children (three of them) ARE Golden. Retrievers, that is. ;) They have brought my life so much joy and filled many empty moments while my husband was deployed the past three years. 
6. I drive a 2003 Hyundai (another decision made because I was just graduating and wanted a car with low payments and a looooong warranty). 
7. My other car is a '57 Chevy. ♥ 

15 New Blogs I'm Sharing This With

*I'm coming back to edit this one because it took me soooo long to get the post finished in the first place. I am off to find my recipients NOW!

Honored with an Award!

I am absolutely BEAMING! My baby (blog) is so brand new and I'm still learning the ins and outs of how to do everything and then BAM!  I'm awarded an

Click on the award to check out Mommy and Me's WONDERFUL blog!

Thank you to Jacque for such a super-sweet and thoughtful award.  And cute to boot!  I never would have imagined that in my first month of blogging that I would win an award AND be paying it forward already.  I wasn't even really sure what it would be like to consider myself a "blogger" to be honest.  I was a little concerned that I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but truthfully, it has given me a creative outlet and a voice that I hadn't realized had been ignored.

Okay, back to the award:

Rules:

1. Give the "I Heart Your Blog "Award to your favorite Top 10 Blogs that have touched your heart and inspired your teaching by listing them on your blog.

2. Contact that person and let them know of their heartfelt award.

3. When you receive the award, copy and paste the graphic onto your blog and give a shout out to the person who nominated you.

4. Spread the LOVE by passing the "Heart Your Blog" Award on to your Top 10.

Now if I can just try and narrow my choices down to 10.  As honored as I was, as a newbie, I think I'll try and make sure to include some of them...

Teaching with Flair

Smiling in Second

That's it...those are the ten I'm picking (and that was the hardest thing I've had to do all day)!  Thank you, again, to

for such a sweet blessing! I HEART YOUR BLOG TOO!!!

Great Site!

I have spent a lot of time on Kind Over Matter and have found so many wonderful printables!  Hop on over and download some yourself.  You're sure to be pleased!

For example: