Office MESS

Since we moved into our house, our office has been the junk room. Anytime we didn't know where to put something we just threw it in there. It was a huge mess. There was stuff everywhere. This weekend we bought a new desk and filing cabinet to go in the office. 

Remy's mission was to put everything together.

 My mission was to clean out the office and go through everything. What a job! 

Brace yourself for the before pictures... 

I told you it was bad!

Now for the good part. Remy was not impressed with how the pieces came together in the box. He had to put EVERYTHING together. He did a great job though :)

This is our new desk. As I can see from this picture we need to do something with all those cords. We haven't completely finished the office, but it looks WAY better!

This is the bookshelf that was by our desk before. We hung up our cross from "Cross your heart promise" and the picture my fabulous art teacher painted of my wedding flowers. Mr. Turtle says "hi". 

Here is another view of the desk... and all those wires.. Hmmm...

We still have to hang some pictures, buy a TV and a buy a pull out couch, but for now it looks so much better!

busy, busy, busy...

In between Fourth of July, laying sod, teaching summer school, laying in the pool, and making crazy rice cake recipes, I have been working on some centers for my classroom. 

First, let's start off with the amazing and yummy rice cake pizza!

I know you are probably thinking I have lost my mind, but it is delicious! Even the husband ate it! Since I have started weight watchers I have been trying different things, and this one is a must try. 

Recipe:

two large cheese  rice cakes

Reduced sugar Ragu tomato and basil sauce - add some seasoning to make it not taste like spaghetti sauce

low fat cheese

spinach

turkey pepperonis

It is so yummy!

Now on to the centers. 

I was given this book by a Kindergarten teacher that retired. 

It is an awesome book and has some GREAT centers in it. 

These are some of the ones that I made. I did not make all of them in the book because some seemed TOO easy. 

They range from beginning sounds, ending sounds, rhyming words, patterns, numbers, and sequencing. I used them today with my summer school kids and they LOVED them. 

This is the book I will be working on next.

Now I need to go get busy making more centers! Have I mentioned I LOVE the website makinglearningfun.com  If you haven't been to the website, definitely try it out!

I love laughing with my husband :)

So, this morning Remy and I had a brilliant idea! We have been meaning to get some bricks to put around our Indian Hawthornes that we bought to make them look prettier. They are in the front yard and at the moment they just look like little trees sticking out of the ground. Well our day starting off with this... 

This is an OLD truck that my parents keep on the property for moving things and such. So Remy and I walk up to where the bricks are (they are left overs from when my parents built their first house). Not a far walk, just up the property hill. My parents are in the process of making a bigger chicken yard so the truck is in the middle with posts around it. 

Mission: get the truck out of the posts without hitting anything. Sounds easy right? NOT! Have I mentioned it is a standard? And that it doesn't require a key to start it. We found this out too late. It actually has a start button. Seriously? Yes, a push button. As you can see the truck is not in the best condition.... PUSH BUTTON? Have I mentioned the brakes do not work? and..... it doesn't steer without a key in the ignition (that doesn't crank it? SERIOUSLY!!!)!!!!!!!! Okay... well we load the bricks in the back, now Remy has to get it out. 

Start truck- check, put in neutral- check (have I mentioned we are on a hill?) The truck starts rolling backwards, as I am yelling BRAKE!!! BAM, right into one of the poles, does it slow down? NO! Steering isn't working, I seriously thought Remy was going to jump out of the truck. Good thing we live on 12 acres with only family. Well he finally figured out how to steer... to brake? Oh, that's what the emergency brake is for. DIDN'T YOU KNOW THAT? Okay, now we are safe...now time to go UP hill... Finally after many times stalling out he finally arrived at the house. Notice he is parked in the middle of the yard not close to anything? He informed me that he didn't want to go near the trees or house in case he couldn't stop. Ha! I am so glad he is thoughtful. 

Our project ended on a great note and now all we can do is laugh. We have to fix the pole before mom and dad come home Monday. All they could do was laugh when I called. 

Here is our damage. oops :)

This is what we finished with though... with a lot of laughs included :)

Tree one :)

Tree Two :)

And palms three and four. These are actually palms that we used in our wedding, so now they are in our yard :)

Next project- SOD... Let the fun begin. 

For now, the truck will stay where it is until someone who knows how to drive it can move it. We are NOT trying again today :)

I don't think I have laughed as hard as I did today in a long time. Definitely a day to remember. 

Centers and Messes....

Life has been a little crazy since I last posted. I have been very busy.
 Monday I weighed in for my first week of Weight Watchers and I lost 5 POUNDS! Yay! I was so excited. Tuesday I went to sushi with my dear friend Bri and her mom. We had a great time. I sure hope she can find a teaching job around here so she can move back. Everyone say a prayer!
Yesterday I wasn't feeling so well so I just laid around after work.
Today Remy and I were very productive! I taught summer school this morning and then when I came home Remy and I cut the grass. I borrowed my aunts lawn mower and he used to other one and we accomplished 2 acres. It looks amazing now. Remy also weed-eated around the house. Then we picked blueberries. Yummy!

Another reason I haven't been blogging lately is because I have been working on some centers. My husband is amazing and doesn't complain (too much :) ) about the mess I make in our living room.

Here is a picture of all my mess in the living room. 

I have so many projects that I am working on. When I started my job many people gave me stuff. I have never had a chance to go through anything because it has been so hectic. Well, last week I found 2 make and take center books that someone had given me. They are awesome! I have been working on those and will post pictures when I finish.
Now I am just waiting on my laminate to arrive in the mail....

So good your husband will even eat it!

Today Remy and I went grocery shopping at Walmart. I have started Weight Watchers again so we were figuring up all the points as we shopped. I'm sure we looked funny.

 Well I have grown to like rice cakes. The only ones I have ever had are the cheesy ones that are in chip form. I have never tried any others. I saw the big chocolate ones and they looked yummy. They also had a recipe on the back and I wanted to try it. 

Let me tell you! It was delicious!

One chocolate rice cake- 2 points

2 TBSP fat free cool whip- 0 points

1/4 serving light chocolate syrup- 0 points

strawberries-0 points

It was so delicious! Remy even ate 2 of them before I could even eat 1! Of course, when you have more than one it adds on the points, but it is a definite must try! The next one we will try will be pizza on the cheese rice cake! I never thought I would be blogging about how good a rice cake is..... ha ha

Fly swatters and flowers...

I know you are thinking I am crazy from the title, but I promise I am not!
I have been trying to think of creative and cute ways for the kids to enjoy "reading around the room" or "writing around the room" during center time.
This is a cute idea I came up with. All the materials I needed were fly swatters, ribbon, flowers, hot glue gun and a container.

These are my materials...

I glued to ribbon around the metal part of the fly swatter and I glued a flower to the plastic part.

This is what I came up with! They turned out super cute!

For the container I bought a cheap cereal dispenser from Walmart and only used the bottom part. I decorated the top part with flowers so it looks cuter. 

TA-DA! A cute storage container for them. The kids will love to use these as pointers when they read around the room :)

I am very excited about them, and I think they will be too!

Popcorn Math!

Have I mentioned that I love my school? Everyone is great and we are like a family. We are blessed with talented and creative people. One of those people is Paula Dees. She comes up with the best centers and is always willing to share. This is one of her ideas that I made. I do believe mine is a little "cheesier" :)

This is called Popcorn Math. It is a game to help the children with addition or subtraction. I got the popcorn containers from the dollar section of Target for $1.00 each (I bought 8). The container that is holding them is a drink container from a local grocery stores deli. I went online and printed out the clip art and laminated it with my new laminator :)

The "popcorn" is actually cotton balls that have been painted to have the popcorn look. Mine is cheesier than Mrs. Paula's because I had the kids in my class do it, and they got a LITTLE carried away with the orange paint. But hey, I just have CHEESY popcorn :)
They use the popcorn to count out their problems.

The problems are on tickets. I have different color tickets for different color groups so they don't get mixed up or fight over them. On mine, I put addition and subtraction problems.

This is the first project I have completed for math this summer. Mrs. Paula is giving me some more ideas and I will make those as well. I have also been researching and thinking of other centers. Isn't it great to have fabulous and creative people at work who are willing to share ideas?