Exciting News, Fill in the Blank, and Reality TV!

Couldn't resist this pic.  Courtesy of Google!

 Ok, first off....so I don't keep you waiting.  I have some great news.  I just got back from signing my CONTRACTS for next year!!  Yes, I said contractS.  I will be working two part time jobs (in two buildings).  While I'm not super thrilled about traveling, I am super thrilled about having a job AND a full time salary and benefits!  I'll be teaching reading in the AM at the school where I worked last year and Kindergarten intervention in the PM at a new school!  I'm so excited and can't wait to super stalk all the kindy blogs :)  I will fill you guys in more later when I have more time (and when I know more myself)!

Now it's time to link up....

I'm linking up with Neely of A Complete Waste of Makeup for the first time today!

Now that it's summer time and I'm home most days, I usually have pretty good control of the DVR.  To be honest, my hubby has only ever recorded a few shows on there.  One was a replay of a championship football game.  Really, honey?  Come on!  [/Gob voice]

 

Either way, I am definitely obsessed with reality shows this every summer.  

 

 

Who watches The Challenge: Rivals?  I love the drama on that show!  Don't ask me why I love watching drama, I just do.  This past week wasn't super dramatic.  I felt really bad for Mike when Leroy fell ON him...I was worried, he's such a nice guy!  Who else is sick of Jasmine?  She's about 5' nothing and thinks she is tough because she's from.......Houston?  Since when is that a city where "tough" people come from?!  Maybe that's just me being an ignorant girl from the midwest! :)

 

 I've also been loving me some Teen Mom (duh).  The season premiere wasn't anything to die for.  I'm not surprised Amber and Gary are still back and forth in their relationship.  It seems like Catelynn and Tyler are really happy.  I feel so bad for Catelynn, her family seems like such a mess!  Farrah got a boob job, yet still seems to rely heavily on her parents for financial support.  Her excuse was the surgery would help in her modeling career.  Don't models typically have flat chests?  (Besides Victoria's Secret type models...)  Either way, Michael waits on her hand and foot and it's sort of ridic.

 

 I was super excited for the season premiere of Flipping Out on Bravo this week!  While there wasn't much drama, I still enjoyed it.  Sarah is still just as ditzy (poor girl).  I was surprised that Jenni isn't working there as often and that Jeff had hired a boyfriend....a much younger boyfriend at that!  I think Gage (Jeff's new beau) looks so retro for some reason....not sure if it's his hairstyle or his wardrobe or what.  Either way, I give him props for being able to put up with Jeff 24/7!  I really just love Zoila.  She cracks me UP!

 

1.   My plans this summer include     getting things ready for my classrooms and having a lot of pool days!  I'm also going to be in one of my best friend's weddings and I can't WAIT!  Only 1 week and 1 day!

2.  The best summer I ever had was   probably the first two summers after we got married.  The first year we went to Hawaii (honeymoon) and some other beachy places and the second year I graduated college and we went on a cruise to the Caribbean!  

3.  Summer is    relaxing, sunny, stress-free, birds chirping, flowers blooming.  LOVE it!

4.  My favorite summer food is   fruit smoothies, yummm!

5.  The best way to quench a summer thirst is with     super ice cold water....or some delicious juice :)

6.  My summer uniform consists of    shorts/capri pants, tanks and t-shirts, sundresses, etc.

7.  The best thing about summer is     that I have no worries (most of the time) and I can go outside and enjoy the amazing weather and have fun in the sun! 

Head on over to The Little Things We Do to link up with Lauren!

Favorite Books!

I'm linking up with Jen of Runde's Room to share some of my favorite books.  If you know me, you know I love reading and I love to instill that upon my students!





Childhood Favorites – I had SO many favorites when I was young.  Before I could read on my own, I loved listening to my mom read The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack.  I also used to love to listen to I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, but my mom hated it because she cried EVERY time (now I feel the tears welling up, too)!  In my early reading years, I loved reading Amelia Bedelia books.  I also loved Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.  For some reason, I got into the scary books, too. (Goosebumps, anyone?)  I have always loved (and still do) James Marshall. 

Classroom Favorites – This really depends on what grade I’m teaching.  I love a lot of the typical popular authors: James Marshall, Dr. Seuss, Mo Willems, Marc Brown, Eric Carle, etc.

Reading to my Own Children Favorites – I don’t have any kiddos of my own (yet), but I can only imagine they will have a ridiculous library of books.  I’m sure I’ll read the classics as well as fun, new stories.

Professional Favorites – I have a lot of these.  Some of my favorite authors include Marie Clay, Fountas & Pinnell, Debbie Diller, etc.  If you can’t tell yet, I’m a literacy freak! 

Guilty-Pleasure Favorites – I wouldn’t consider all of these guilty pleasures, but they’re definitely my personal favs.  My bookshelf at home is filled with James Patterson, Sophia Kinsella, Harlan Coben, etc.  I have some others mixed in there, but those are probably my three favorite authors right now.  I know it's not a book, but People magazine is my TRUE guilty pleasure.....addicting!  I might ask for a subscription for my upcoming birthday. :)

Smoothies and Giveaways!

I've been trying to perfect my strawberry smoothie recipe for a while now.  My smoothies always turn out too thick, too thin, filled with ice chunks, etc.  They are never just right...until the other night!  This is what my smoothie looked like [not my photo]:

It also tasted amazing!  BUT for some reason I had to blend it forEVER and I felt like my blender was going to blow up.  Is this normal?  It can't be normal.  Either way, I wanted to share my recipe since it took so long to find the perfect recipe.  Keep in mind that I wanted a simple recipe with minimal ingredients and minimal fuss!


Emily's Straw-Nana Smoothie
14 small frozen strawberries (or 7 large)
1 banana
8 icecubes
2 small scoops of vanilla fro-yo
splash of lemonade


Next time I'm going to try fresh strawberries to see if they make any difference in the amount of time it takes to blend.  I let the frozen strawberries thaw forever but they were still kinda hard....



In other news...there are some great giveaways going on right now!


Go Fourth with Mrs. Owens is giving away a thirty one bag.  Um, hello!  I love 31 products.  Seriously, I just discovered them this past year and I have a laptop case, a tote bag, a keychain, a large utility tote, and a zip-around portfolio....LOVE!  Head on over to Mrs. Owens' blog for 3 chances to win her giveaway!

*Please note: I am not affiliated with the thirty-one consultant on these links.  It was just the best site I could find with pictures of products!







Also, Miss Shasta Anne is giving away a Clarisonic Pro!  What an awesome giveaway!  Head on over to her blog....she is giving everyone TONS of chances to win!

NEW Giveaway Winner!

Unfortunately, I did not hear back from the first winner of my giveaway.  Because of this, I used random.org again to choose the second winner!


Congratulations........Lorena of Little Treasures!  Lorena: Please contact me within 24 hours to claim your prize! 

Festive Cupcakes

For the 4th of July, I decided I wanted to bake something festive.  Last year I made pretzel rod sparklers (which were delish), but I wanted to try something new.

One of my favorite food blogs is The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I saw these rainbow cupcakes on her blog a long time ago and they caught my eye, but I never had a good reason to try the recipe...until now!  I decided to just do red, wihte, and blue instead of the rainbow.  I also adapted her recipe a bit.  Instead of sour cream (that scared me a bit), I used vanilla yogurt.  The cupcakes turned out moist, flavorful, and pretty!

Most of my ingredients (besides refrigerated stuff)

Adorable liners from the Target dollar spot!  (where else?!)

precisely measuring how I can divide this into thirds....

Batter is successfully divided and ready for coloring!

I used Duff's (Ace of Cakes) food coloring from Michael's...it worked GREAT!

Bake for about 20 minutes.....

Ta-da! 

Yum-a-licious!

Also, a reminder......I still haven't heard from my giveaway winner.  Please contact me by tonight so I don't have to choose another winner!

Edit: I never heard from winner #1 so I chose a new winner!


 

Winner, Winner!

....chicken dinner.  Drumroll please....the winner for my first EVER giveaway is................[omitted]!  Congrats!  Please send me your email address within 48 hours to claim your prize!  [My email is located in the right sidebar.]

Edit: I never heard from winner #1 so I chose a new winner on 7.6.11!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my first giveaway!  

 
Happy 4th of July tomorrow!

Giveaway Reminder!

Just wanted to remind everyone to enter my giveaway!  One day left to enter!  Good luck everyone :)