Too Good To Pass Up

So I may be a little behind with deciding on a Christmas card for us this year and actually thought about not sending one out at all but after reading about Shutterfly's 50 Free Christmas Card Promotion I immediately knew there was no reason not to. I've used Shutterfly on several occasions and have never been disappointed. About a month ago I was able to take all our pictures from our trip to Washington DC and New York and put them together in a great photo book. I love how easy it is to share our pictures from our trip with everyone now. Shutterfly has the cutest, most original designs and always offer the best promotions. I love these so far:




If you still need to order your cards too check out these links:

·Christmas Photo Cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

·Holiday Cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

·Wall Calendars http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

Sunday Getting to Know YOU

The questions.....


1. If a person has a booger in their nose. and you can see it, do you tell them?

Although it really does depend on who the person is, I would have to say yes, you tell them. I see this all the time in my classroom with my kiddos and I always tell them.



2. What are you passionate about?

Family, Friends and Career



3. How long have you been blogging?

Geez, I think it's been about two years. I started off blogging pretty consistently but have really slacked off lately. Hoping having the summer off will get be back to a routine.



4. What is your favorite "summer" drink?

Anything nice and cold and by the water.



5. What is your favorite type of music?

I would have to say country, followed by pop.



6. Something I do before I go to bed is......?

Drink water.



7. My Summer vacation plans are...?

To rest and catch up on sleep. It was a long, tough school year and I'm looking forward to lounging around the hous. At the end of June when Robert ends his school year we are off to Vegas for a few days with the family :)



8. My favorite must have, can't live without, beauty product is?

Concealer, enough said.

The Numbers Don't Define ME

Numbers. They're all around us and haunt us from time to time. Age. Weight. Height. Kids. Salary. And if you're a teacher like I am they can make you or break you when it comes to standardized testing.

This afternoon we received our much anticipated TAKS scores. Teaching came to an abrupt stop so that we could all meet in the lounge and look at NUMBERS. Who passed, who didn't? Who earned commended, who didn't? How we compared to other campuses? Was there an increase or decrease from scores last year?? As awesome as we did as a campus, there was no celebrating.... the NUMBERS weren't what they should have been.

Thank goodness, NUMBERS don't define me. I've never been addicted to the scale or too embarrassed to share my age. Standardized test scores, do not show who I AM as a person or teacher. I don't want my students to remember their TAKS numbers or percentages, I want them to remember all the fun activities we did in class that made the light bulbs go off in their little heads and helped them learn something that will stick with them forever. I want them to remember the times we all burst out laughing in the middle of a novel because of how brilliantly the author had written the story. I want them to remember the times we snuck out for some extra recess as a reward for all their hard work and their teacher beat them at Tag. Experiences like these DEFINE ME, not NUMBERS.

Getting to Know YOU

Thanks to MannLand 5 for the blogpost today.

The questions..


1. Do you have a fetish?
Let's see, perhaps summery dresses. I could live in them forever I think. My friends have even started describing dresses by using this. "That's a Jennifer dress."

2. Do you sing in the shower?
Not very often. The car is a whole other story. :)

3. Who was your first crush?
Probably Bon Jovi, in fact he still is.

4. What do you think is the best manly trait a guy could have?
An awesome sense of humor.

5. Do you sleep naked?
Nope

6. What do you do when (you think) no one is looking?
As mentioned earlier I sing in the car and probably lots of other things I shouldn't be doing.

7. What's the first thing you do when you go online?
Check Facebook

8. Summer is.....?
- only 9 school days away which is very exciting
- time for anniversay, will be 3 years on June 28th
- fun in the sun time with the beach only about an hour away from us
- friends, family and fun
- time to regroup for the next school year
- fireworks, tanning, BBQing and all about making memories

$5 and a Late Night Trip to Wal-Mart

Yesterday was such a lazy day around here. We stayed in ALL day so by 10:30 I was itching to step out. Robert and I decided to hit up Wal-Mart to see what we could find. Of course we ended up with throwing in some pretty random items into our cart. As we walked through the Easter section, I decided to throw in some materials for an Easter wreath. They had a huge bag of plastic Easter eggs for $2 and some crinkled basket filling for $1.50. Decided to go with two bags of the eggs just to be on the safe side and glad I did. I got to work as soon as we got home and here's the finally product:


Pretty cute, I think. May have to visit Dollar Tree later and see if I can find a cute bunny for the middle. Thank goodness for Spring Break!

Getting to Know YOU

Saw this on a few blogs and thought I'd join in on the fun. Here we go:


1. What's your favorite Easter candy?

Think I have to go with Jelly Beans

2. Who do you think is cleaner..men or women?

Women, most of the time

3. Which do you prefer..wordy blog posts or ones with pictures?

Love a combination post

4. Were you popular in highschool?

Maybe, a little at least that's my opinion

5. What's your bra size?

bish

6. How many states have you lived in?

One, - the biggest one :)

7. What's one blog you read every day?

SkinnyRunner

8. Peanut butter or Nutella?

PB

Click on the picture above to join in and link up :)

One down, four to go

I'm not sure who is more excited about Spring Break, us as teachers or the kids! Last week was rough with two straight days of benchmarking and this week everyone is feeling the stress of Open House which is on Thursday. Plus not to mention we are in full force tutoring mode, three days a week. At my campus we pull out all the stops for Open House. The classrooms in the main building have the daunting task of covering all their walls with layers and layers of butcher paper and placing all their students work outside. Because we are out in the portables we don't have a wall "assigned" to us which seems to cause some resentment. I make it a point to compliment them everytime. I'm glad Monday is done and am ready to get on with the rest of the week. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night when we will be sitting courtside at the Vipers game, a minor league basketball team. Since the closest NBA team is four hours away, it's nice to have Vipers games to enjoy :)

Bling, Birthdays, BBQ and the Oscars

That's pretty much what our weekend has been filled with so far. Yesterday morning I went
over to a friends house for some mimosas, girl talk and shopping for some Stella & Dot Jewelry. They have some really beautiful and unique pieces and since this is the 3rd party I go too I've started to collect a few. Last night we headed downtown to celebrate another friend's birthday. We hardly ever go out downtown anymore but there was no way we were going to miss her birthday bash. It was all fun and games until I realized this morning I left my camera behind. Had the case but no camera. I called to see if anyone had turned one in but of course they said no :( We've spent most of our Sunday lounging around the house. Robert has some meat out on the grill and I've been glued to the TV watching all the pre Oscar hoopla. Can't wait for them to start!

Enough Already

So for the past few months, I've become a major blog slacker. Although I log in almost daily, I've found myself perusing everyone elses blogs and never getting to mine to update. It's time to quit and get back to work on this thing. Not sure I can give a recap of all that has happened since my last post in NOVEMBER but I'll try.

November 15, 2009 - The week of my last post I was off to San Antonio to run my first marathon. The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon was the hardest thing I have ever done. Physically there is no doubt I was prepared thanks to Team in Training but mentally I struggled. I'm proud to say I made it to the finish line and although it took me longer than I had hoped I finished and have a medal to prove it. A lot of people have asked me if I'd do it again and the crazy truth is yes, I would!

December - Great month, two weeks of school, lots of fun times with family and friends and an incredible vacation. We spent three days in Washington D.C. and another three in New York! Oh, and a night in Atlantic City! The sights were incredible, people were great and when you travel with each other for a week straight boy, do you learn a lot from one another.

January - We brought in 2010 in Times Square with millions of others which was definitely an experience of a lifetime. A week later it was back to school for us and the vacation was over :( We spent a great time at my cousins wedding on the 16th. They had one of the most beautiful ceremonies I have ever seen and despite them playing the Aggie fight song at their reception we had a blast singing and dancing the night away.

So here we are two weeks into February. Wow, how time flies. Last weekend my crazy friends and I ran in the Edinburg 10K. I've really struggled with getting back into a regular running routine and boy did I pay for during the 6.2 miles. Lesson learned. Note to self: you must go out at least four days a week! Tonight we are off to Rock 'n' Bowl with family and friends. Although none of us will ever be invited to join a bowling league we enjoy making fun of one another and the great music. Also on the agenda today is the movie Valentine's Day. Hopefully it's 10x better than Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I saw that last night and was excited to go because I loved the book. Waste of money and just goes to prove the book is always better!