Stuff and Things 8/31

I had intentions of getting this post up last night but between being sick all week, Scott being gone all week, eating cereal for dinner, grading papers, and walking the dogs, I've all but run out of time it seems. PTL for a long weekend and a chance to get better before another week starts!

Weekly sunflower picture. They were scenting a bird.

+While we were in San Diego, I really got into googling how much houses cost there. Now I get useless alerts from Zillow in my email every day, telling me about the newest several-million-dollar properties on the market. This is not productive.

+Going back to work was a blessing this month and also a lot harder than I thought. IVF was such an ordeal and a process and it's such a mindf*ck. Seeing all the kids and people and general familiar circumstances of my classroom brought so much of that back to the surface. That being said, it's nice to stay busy in a way that tests my productivity and creativity at once.

+This is random, but I feel like it has to be said: I never published an in-depth post on the ins and outs of IVF. I hated just about every second of it because it made me feel awful. In addition, our insurance (Tricare) paid for very little to NONE of it. They paid for syringes and one medicine (because those things aren't directly related to IVF) but Tricare won't pay for anything that is directly related to IVF, including medicine or anesthesia. This is an uphill battle I'm not even going to begin to whine about but I do want the world to realize that we're not going to do this process exhaustively because that's not financially responsible for us. We don't have the option of going, going, going forever with it simply because it's not covered by insurance and you can only spend that kind of money so many times. I think I really just want people to understand that we're not getting a free ride here. 

+Well, that took a depressing turn, so here's something amusing...
A cocaine ring busted in my hometown. #1 Their names were all published, which I find pretty hilarious. #2 They only made $134,000 in a year so how could that have been worth it? #3 I feel like they've never seen Breaking Bad.

+Another random...I never realized how many people lease cars. I didn't even understand that this was a thing until about 2 years ago. My parents always bought their cars. Scott and I have always bought our cars. Our first few vehicles were used ones (I didn't have a new car until I was 27) because we simply bought what we could afford. Along with this, Scott does all the vehicle maintenance for us and we drive way too many miles to every fall within the terms of a lease.

+I ordered my fall supply of Bath and Body Works soap this morning. I usually keep one on my sink in my classroom and these kids used it all in 3 weeks. Last year, and the year before, I think I went through 3 bottles in the entire year. Therefore, I will not be setting out any more soap at school.

That's all the random I have for today. Tomorrow is my (apparently) weekly BIP talk because mindless entertainment is what I've been into lately.

(Spoiler alert: I don't like Dean.)

August Recommendations

These spinach and sausage muffins were delicious. I didn't put in the onion and went with bell pepper instead. They reheated very well and were tasty all week long. However, they all but destroyed my muffin tins and I don't know why. I sprayed them well with Pam and it just didn't work out the way I wanted. I did make them twice, just to be sure it wasn't a fluke. I have silicone muffin cups around here somewhere (you know, from when I used to actually bake things), so when I come across those, I'll try again.

Also, microwaveable bacon. Cooking bacon is a pain, even in the microwave. I was cooking bacon on the stove a few weeks ago and grease shot into my eye. That was the last time I tried cooking bacon on the stove. Buying the actual packs of microwaveable bacon is so much easier. I don't make vast quantities at once, so this does the job.

New sneakers were at the top of my want/need list right now. I can't truly recommend these because I haven't really tried them. But I got them over the weekend.

And, to continue on with wants/needs, I need a dress for a wedding. Because I'm preppy and weird, I was liking this one:

This one.

Or this one.

It's a fall wedding on the east coast, so maybe with a new pair of booties and black tights. I miss the east coast.

This last one is kind of an anti-recommendation:
If a teacher wants a color printer, a teacher must buy a color printer herself/himself. We have one and I like it and it's wireless and portable and does the job. My teammate bought this one from Amazon and told me she'd let me know how she liked it because I was thinking maybe I should get one too ("ours" is technically "Scott's"). After she used it, she reported that it went through ink way too quickly.
Therefore, if you are looking for a color printer, I wouldn't get this one.

Linking up with Lauren and Bre!

What worked and what didn't.

With a new school year, comes new routines and changes. This isn't work related, but is a round-up of what's been working for me over the last two weeks.

1. I attempted to really get back into a solid routine last week. I didn't drink nearly as much caffeine, so that was good. I still ate a lot of candy so that was a pitfall but it's candy corn season and so there's not much I can do about that.

2. I have some sort of sinus infection that has settled in my ears. I'm taking a cocktail of whatever medicine I can find around the house and I will likely call to see if I can get an appointment this week. Trying to pop my ears isn't working, I've bought more Sudafed than Jesse Pinkman, and sleeping is becoming a challenge.

3. In terms of breakfast...I actually attempted to drink protein powder/milk again this week...thinking that if I left out of the peanut butter and the banana I'd be able to stomach it. Barely. I came to the conclusion that I would rather starve than have a chocolate protein drink. Like, being hungry and weak is preferable.
I'm thinking that I would be able to do vanilla with fruit/spinach at some point, but we have a ton of chocolate powder and I don't feel like spending $60 on vanilla. I found that I can eat a Clif bar in the morning and be okay until about lunch time (or at least snacktime at 10:30). This has, clearly, been a very traumatic process. Regular Clif bars don't have a ton of protein (9-11 grams) but they make protein bars that have 14 or 15 grams and those ones taste pretty good.

4. Before these last two weeks, I'd been going to classes at the gym...toning, lifting, cardio, kickboxing...and I really do want to incorporate those things back into my life. However, I also knew that I had to keep doing what I know works for me and shows results, especially during busy seasons. I kept at 20-30 minutes of Pilates a day for the last week and that felt good. I've been trying to do some yoga every Sunday too.

5. I had to stop the Wal-Mart grocery pre-ordering. The reason is actually really simple: I hate the produce at Wal-Mart. I feel like it's so inferior to what I can get elsewhere. Maybe this is just a Colorado thing? The commissary, and even Safeway, has produce that tastes and looks good and lasts too. Plus, I love buying salad mixes and the Great Value brand is awful. I'm saving on the actual trip through the store, but I'm ending up with things I don't want to eat, so what's the point? Wal-Mart isn't really cheaper...just not having to block out two hours to grocery shop was nice.

6. I almost threw away my Erin Condren planner. I even bought a new little $7 one from Target because I was all FRESH START!!! and then I realized I actually kind of liked my EC planner and, even though fresh starts in January aren't really my thing, I'm going to keep getting EC planners in January because I really do love them. There's a reason I came back to the brand after trying a few others over the last few years. They are SO sturdy and that paper quality can't be matched by anything else I've tried.

7. I've been trying the charcoal bar from Beauty Counter and then using my clarifying toner and dual intensive treatment over top of it. I LOVE the charcoal bar. I don't have dry skin on my face (only on my hands) and it leaves my face squeaky clean and ready for toner. It's completely worth every penny.

That's kind of the overview of what I've been trying lately and how it's been working. It's been a super weird summer in many ways and this next year will look different than the last few for us but we've got some changes on the horizon and that, I think, is a good thing.

(I can provide links for anything above that you may be interested in.)

Many BIP Things.

Funny story: I was typing up a few notes in a blog post for my upcoming August Books post that will be up in September. I wrote out how I rarely have time to read this time of year because I'm swamped with school beginning. And, as of now, I've read exactly one book this month. BUT do you know what I did have time for? Four (4) hours of Bachelor in Paradise each week. It's interesting how that works.

This is two weeks worth of notes because I was too stressed out to post last week:

1. This show is so dumb. But I can't stop watching.

2. DeMario honestly appears to be blowing a rape whistle in episode one, which is oddly foreshadowing. FTR: I do not blame him. He and Corrine appear to be equally dumb in many regards but, what happened, I feel, isn't really their fault. Someone likely got paid to blow the metaphorical whistle on production.

3. Though...Corinne came off as quite likable before the whole Paradise thing fell apart. I didn't hate her as much anymore.

4. I get the dog thing, Ben Zorn. It's all I ever talk about too.

5. Dean has the empathetic ability of a toddler. YOU DON'T MAKE KRISTINA CRY. He's gotten the type of edit that will guarantee he'll never be The Bachelor and that's okay with me.

Alexis had some things to say about that...

6. On the Rose Pricks podcast last week, they called Ashley I. a whorenado and I laughed for a very long time...take off some of the make-up, Ashley I. Also, stop talking about Jared. You're not in middle school. She actually makes me cringe. But I listen to the podcast she does with Ben because I like Ben.

7. They (Rose Pricks) also made fun of Carly and Evan's wedding. I love Carly and Evan but the commentary was fantastic. They said the flower crowns were a trial run for a snapchat filter. I recommend Rose Pricks.

8. D.Lo, stop giggling. Omgeeeee....I can't listen to her anymore. She is the most annoying person I've seen on TV lately, and I watch the news a lot.

9. Alexis' narration of D.Lo dropping the pizza was the best thing I've seen on The Bachelor franchise.

10. I also enjoy the way they got in two digs at Nick on Monday night, calling him boring and a bad Bachelor ha ha ha.

11. This tweet made me LOL because Ashley I. seems to think she's in the same category as Alexis. No one is dating Alexis in Paradise because she had a boyfriend. No one dated Ashley I. in Paradise because she's annoying.

12. I always was Team Taylor but she's coming off as unlikeable in the wake of Lacey/Diggy/Dominique. But does anyone actually care about L/D/D?

Alright, that's enough trash for one day.

I can't believe I watch this stuff.

See the Good

I've been not posting on Wednesdays for the last two months but I feel like there's a lack of substance lately on this blog, so I'm going to add in a post here or there as necessary. 

It was a rough spring. I didn't get the jobs I was interviewing for and we weren't sure if Scott would stay active duty, Scott left for a month on short notice, and we went through a failed IVF cycle.

That being said, there are always good things that come with the arrival of August and September. It's always been my favorite time of year.

I was listening to a podcast about a former teacher who was in the classroom for 5 or 6 years and then quit to pursue something else. Her story is the story of many, many people. And she had a really rough start to her career. Over the last few years, I've met many first year teachers and some of them never came back, simply because things started rough for them and, with no positive prior experience, they had to move on. They knew no different.

I had the best start to my teaching career. The best start possible. It was more than I could've ever imagined for myself during all those months of desperately trying to get a job in Pennsylvania (see: proof that God knew what He was doing). I worked in a wonderful school in Alaska with a very veteran staff. There was almost no turnover there. I got LUCKY. That position was made just for me. That's where I learned how to teach and I will be FOREVER grateful to those teachers and principals. There were rough patches (there's always rough patches) but I took away an infinite amount of positive when we left Alaska.

What has kept me doing this year after year and what has kept me going back to the classroom is that I remember how ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL my first job was. I remember how magical it felt. I even remember how much I loved every second of my student-teaching. Those are the reasons I keep going back. I know how much I love teaching kids and I love working with other teachers and I can't imagine what my adult life would be like without the relationships I've established with families and educators across the country. I mean, seriously, what a blessing.

In fact...not trying to act like I'm doing some act of piety or godliness each day, but my teammate told me that she applauds me for just showing up each day after the year I had last year. It makes me feel good to know that I can take that love for teaching that I had 8 years ago and still show it to people today.

Allllll that being said...there are some very good things about going back to the same school and the same classroom this fall.

1. I already know a lot of the kids and families in the building.

2. I know what to expect. There won't be big surprises when it comes to what is expected of me and my teaching.

3. I get to continue working with a great team. Part of what made me realize I had to go back was that I get a lot of support from the teachers I work with. Going through IVF, I had a lot of help and support from other teachers...my teammate helped close out my classroom for me, for example, because I was out sick for the last week. That's dirty work and that kind of support is priceless. Other teachers covered my class for 15 or 20 minutes in the mornings while I was at appointments. Teachers just do these things for each other, no questions asked, and I'm so grateful to be in a profession where no one is ever really out for themselves. It's not about us.

4. I know what I'm doing. If I count student-teaching, this is my 8th year in 4th grade. After many years at the grade level, I look at each new one as an opportunity to expand, tweak, and perfect what I'm doing. It's not guesswork, it's finishing-work.

5. I'm grateful to have the opportunity (period) to teach another year. With this military life and with this profession, at times, another school year isn't always guaranteed. When Scott asked me why I wanted to go back, my only response is that I love teaching too much not to. He has always left me working up to me, which I appreciate.

I bought this on Etsy as a d.a.i.l.y reminder that just because things aren't how I imagined, things aren't bad either:

And, trust me, I'm not normally the optimistic type. We have a WHOLE LOT of things up in the air right now and, out of all the things I can stress out my pessimistic side over, teaching isn't one of them right now. This is the aspect of life I can feel settled with, so I'll take it.

Why I decided to use a clip chart (and get rid of Class Dojo)

This post is pretty specific to teachers, but it took me a lot of thinking and a major-ish revelation to make this switch. It was a big moment. I think it's worth sharing my thought process. I've been a HUGE proponent of Class Dojo for the last 4 years and I like it but I can't use it right now.

I've had great success with Class Dojo, and I wrote about how I don't like clip charts. However, this year, I decided to scrap Class Dojo and go back to a clip chart.

Why?

Lots of reasons.

1. Class Dojo was interrupting valuable instructional time. It was interrupting in two ways. First, I would have deal with swiping and scrolling and my iPad freezing when I was trying to teach. Picking up the iPad to give or take points mid-instruction would be time-consuming and/or stressful.  Secondly, parents would send messages that needed timely responses such as Can you please tell _____ to walk home with ______ after school? instead of calling the office to pass on the message. If I didn't check Class Dojo and respond, the message wouldn't make it. That was interrupting the flow of the classroom. I liked having an open line of communication but it would pull my focus away from what I was doing.


2. Kids were too focused on it. They wanted to know their percentages and their points, and I didn't always have time to give real feedback or explanations. When I gave or took points, they wanted to know who it was and, while that makes perfect sense, calling kids out for every little thing (good or bad) was wasting time and that's not necessarily the most valuable form of feedback. But not using it as regularly brought up questions about why I wasn't using it. It becomes a distraction to the class as a whole and I found myself hating the iPad and never, ever wanting to deal with it. Plus, if there's a substitute, it can be a difficult system to explain.

3. Parents were too focused on it. I found myself typing out long messages to justify points taken away and the constant defending was getting old. By not having reminders of their child's positive or negative behaviors tracked down to the minutiae, we can all just focus on the bigger picture. Parents are used to clip charts and none of the 5th grade teachers use Class Dojo, so I don't need to get these kids ready or prepared for it next year. The parents won't run into it, likely. Truth: I have files of saved conversations, just in case I need them to defend my actions in the future. While having textual evidence of what was said and when is great, I'm not a lawyer and I've spent far too much of my career carrying my iPad into an administrator's office, reading off quotes, in my defense.

I will still use Class Dojo for one thing:

1. The lessons. Class Dojo has amazing lessons on mindfulness, perseverance, and empathy. There's cute videos that the kids love and I really enjoy being able to teach interactively in a way that engages them. I pull in at least one series a month depending on what they'll benefit from the most. These can also be found on Youtube so I might go that route.

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I'll be happy to update this post on whether or not the clip chart actually works, as I haven't used one since 2013. However, I do know that I'm going to really attach a positive or negative consequence to each clip move. This isn't about being punitive or making up punishments. My initial thoughts...

Everyone starts on Ready to Learn.
A courtesy warning is given before any clip is moved down. The exception to this is if a specials' teacher tells me a student needs to clip down. They've likely already been given several warnings because specials' teachers are nice like that. 
One clip down is an official warning.
Two clips down is a reflection sheet at the time-out desk. If it continues past that, parents are notified.
To go the other way, students will be clipping up when they are complimented by other teachers or helpful to others. Being on-task and ready to learn in a way that is above expectations is also important. If I don't even have to ask them to get ready to do something, if they do it on their own, that's a clip up. In addition, showing empathy and consideration for the learning community as a whole are the skills I want to build up. I have a list of non-prize box rewards that they can choose from if they get to Super Student twice...things like computer time, art time, bring in a toy, sit on a stool instead of in their boring chair, etc. 
However, I will likely take a picture of the chart at the end of each day, in order to have that documentation. Since I'm using an emoji theme, they can draw the face they land on in their planner at the end of the day.

These are my mid-August ambitious pipe dreams anyway. Fingers crossed.

A new week

I found this on Grammarly and couldn't not use it.

Me, on Friday night.

Now that last week is over, and maybe I can start getting into a schedule, I'm going to try and actually post something notable. The thing with the first week of school is that there is no routine and it's a survival mode kinda situation. Now we can, fingers crossed, get into the swing of things. I have actual ulcers in my mouth from drinking too much coffee and stress-eating too much candy. I'm going to attempt to be a grown-up and eat actual food this week. Aim high, right?

Friday night, I stared at my computer and browsed the internet pointlessly while drinking wine and eating candy corn. Because that's how much brain space I had left.

Saturday morning, I got up too early and went to the gym. Then I went to the grocery store and the PX on base because I also ran out of make-up on Friday.

Then I did a bunch of laundry and cleaned the floors. I helped with the usual outdoor chores.

Scott was getting ready to head off in the camper for the week so that took some preparation. Most of Sunday was working outside in the heat.

There will be some very unhappy dogs in these parts.

Then I went and got myself a $14 haircut +tip. I've had the expensive cuts and, ugh, it's just not worth it when all.I.want.is.a.trim. Plus, I cannot be bothered to make an appointment for such things. I cancelled 3 hair appointments in the last 3 months and that's when I knew it was time to go back to Great Clips.

Oh, I hear there will be an eclipse or something today.

I told Scott it'd be really funny if it just didn't happen after all this preparation. I wouldn't complain. It messes up the schedule at school today. #indoorrecess

Linking up with Biana!

Classroom Stuff and Things 8/17

Thanks for the acknowledgement and positivity on Monday! It's a stressful season because it's all about change right now. We ran into a major hiccup shortly after I posted this and I started to wonder why I'd shared in the first place. Often times, things change before I can get an official blog post written about what we're doing next! Anyway, I think things are resolving and s l o w l y falling into place. Maybe. 

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Because it wouldn't be a school year without classroom pictures....

True story: I took pictures last year, completely forgot to post them, and then all of a sudden I didn't care because I was bogged down with...stuff...and things.

Today is the third day of school for kids. This is what things looked like at the beginning of the week.

If you're like me, you love nothing more than looking at classroom pictures.

New things I'm trying:

A math word wall. I'm also going to be posting the vocabulary words for each chapter. I feel like that might help cement understanding.

Mailboxes. I've used them once in 8 years. This is my second go-around.

Hanging important info for kids at their eye-level.

Separate turn-in boxes for each subject.

A clip chart. I wrote a whole post about this. I'll get that published eventually. 

Overall, I'm hopeful. So far I'm at 28 students, and I do expect the number to go up. 

I've noticed that I have some very sweet and very quiet (and hardworking!) kids this year and I'm so grateful for that. Last year I only had a few that fit into that category, but I have gotten several visits from past students this week and, for that also, I'm grateful.

That's more or less the reason why I keep at this whole teaching thing.

If you have a classroom, I'd love to see your pictures!

Pictures of my first classroom in Alaska.

Year 2 and year 3 in Alaska looked pretty much the same.

And there's pictures from Missouri and other years in Colorado too on this blog, but it's early and I'm tired and I have other teacher-like things to do.

Can't even

Oh these last few weeks.

No filter

Scott keeps telling me not to be stressed out because everything we're trying to do is his stress, not my stress. But his stress is my stress #becausemarriage.

So, over the last few weeks, every outdoor tool and/or piece of equipment we use regularly has broken. This includes but is not limited to: lawn mowers (plural), swamp cooler, vehicles, pressure washer, sprinkler system...there's more I'm sure but keeping track is depressing. He has fixed all of these things as they decide to stop working.

In addition, we are trying to finish the new bathroom in the basement because we may be having some friends stay with us and they need functioning living accommodations. We are in the process of buying a second house (again, can't even) and we are doing a major swap/sale/trade of vehicles. We currently have 3 trucks and an SUV.

As well as...with the constant rain/hail of late, our dirt road has surpassed "mud puddle" and turned into "lake".

After picture is forth-coming

Scott bought a water pump, hooked it up to a generator, and is trying to remedy the solution under the suspicious eye of neighbors who are, I can only guess, okay with "lake". But when some saw what he was doing, they were very happy and offered whatever they could to help. We spent the weekend pumping water. He did at least and I helped the best I could because his stress is my stress. We also ate a lot of ice cream.

See the blue truck in the picture? That's our Nissan from Alaska. We got it back from Pennsylvania and it's my new ride until Scott fixes my SUV because there's an issue (never again, RAV4) and he can't fix the SUV until we have a garage and we won't have a garage until we close on this house (I won't even tell you where this house is yet because that adds another layer of complication). We're excited about the house for many reasons and are looking forward to a fresh bit of change but we can't close on the house until the end of September so that adds yet another layer of complication.

This is really just a story of cause/effect and complication. We have a good life and things aren't that bad but man. If I'm quiet, this is literally why. It's too much to explain but this is a rough summary.

Oh, and school starts tomorrow and I'm overwrought with nervousness. Today is the hard day though with meetings/planning and then Meet-the-Teacher in the evening. It'll be a 14 hour day. Brilliant way to start a week, right?

5 Friday Bachelorette Things

Now that we've all had time to process the horror of Monday night, here's my thoughts:

1. I do not think Bryan was a wise choice, based on what we saw as viewers. And Rachel was really mean to Peter in an unnecessary kind of way.

2. I think Peter will be the next Bachelor, absolutely.

3. Podcasts you could/should listen to if you want to rehash the finale: Rose Pricks is funny, AfterBuzz is informative, and Here to Make Friends is kind of all-encompassing but their political correctness shows. They won't say anything bad about Rachel because they want her on the podcast.

4. I think Rachel is smart. I don't dislike her. And I know she knows a whole lot that we didn't see #becauseediting. BUT from what we saw, she made a poor choice. Either the producers gave her a bad edit or she really made a poor choice. That's my position on the subject (that no one cares about).

5. And because reading live-tweeting is reallllly amusing:

A Lauren Conrad gif is ALWAYS appropriate. I miss The Hills.

Also, random: GoT was amazing on Sunday night. 

We allllll know 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers are the real winners. Bryan's run is done.

Thoughts? Who is watching Paradise?

Breakfast suggestions, please.

I've been told (repeatedly by doctors) that I need to eat a certain way in order to reap the benefits of feeling good and maintaining the best physical state for me. I know this. I mostly ignore it because I don't like it. It's science, though, and it's just something I don't want to do because it's unpleasant.

Because I've discovered (through the forcible prescription of a high-protein diet) that I operate better on high-protein, low-carb, it's something I need to get back in the swing of doing. You see, back in May and for part of June, I was more or less forced to eat protein and only protein. I did this through protein bars and protein shots and protein smoothies. It was more or less awful and I hated it. I haven't been able to look at a smoothie since.

Since I was medically allowed to quit that diet and go back to normal life, I've been all over the place. In addition, my skin has been all over the place (I'm working on some changes on this front too) and I feel like I can't make good choices anymore about what I'm supposed to eat and what I'm not supposed to eat. So it's been a carb-fest for the last six weeks. And we won't even talk about the literally hundreds of Sour Patch Kids I've consumed this summer.

My plan was to go back to what I've been doing for the last year and just strayed from recently:

Protein smoothies
Greek yogurt
Cheese sticks
Bars with a lot of protein
Etc.

The problem is arising in the fact that I drank a protein smoothie every day for almost an entire year, and now I can barely choke them down. I don't want to make them, I don't want to smell them, and I certainly don't want to drink them.

I need a new breakfast option, something high in protein and more or less easy. What do you eat for breakfast? Any suggestions? I don't do hardboiled eggs so that's always a roadblock when asking for this kind of advice.

Any help is appreciated!

July Books 2017 (and the recommendation problem)

I didn't actually intend to read in July.

Lately, I've found myself pushing to finish books or to at least delete them/get rid of them if I never intended to finish them. It was like checking off boxes. This has been happening for yearsssss now and it's a hard cycle to break. Of course I like to read! This isn't even about reading though; it's about my perfectionist tendencies of "completion" and "done" and "accomplishment". It's about checking off the boxes and I hate that. However, as soon as I told myself I didn't have to read anymore, I stopped reading for about two weeks (seriously, not a word) and then I found myself feeling like reading wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

I have discovered, through this process of manipulating my thoughts about reading, that I need to read books I actually want to read and not read books because someone else recommends them.
For instance, I saw a Facebook friend post that The Nightingale was one of the best books she'd ever read. This person is a librarian so I know she takes books seriously too. However, I read The Nightingale two years ago and I didn't think quite as highly of it. Some books get better in hindsight but this is one I'd probably give a C- if I could go back and rate it again. On the flip side, I didn't like the audio of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at ALL, but I would think trying a paperback might be okay because maybe it just wasn't for me at the time.

So, reading a book because someone recommends it, I've learned, isn't something that usually works for me.

Without even really trying, these are the books I kind of fell into in July.

For the Birds by Denise Grover Swank A-
This was good. My co-worker and I had both pre-ordered it (it came out July 11th) and we both really enjoyed it and exchanged some text messages including heart-eye emojis about it and I would highly recommend the series, but I don't know that anyone has ever taken me up on it.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid B-
Not going to lie: two hours into the audio, I was bored stiff. I was thinking I'd made a huge mistake...that everything I knew about TJR was a lie. I turned it off for almost a month and had no desire to dive back in and I was dreading writing this post because I'd have to be all "DNF" and I couldn't even find more than a couple of bad reviews on Goodreads and then I'd have to be that person.
Eventually, I tried again.
The story got a little better and it got slightly more interesting and I didn't hate it anymore. I will say that I didn't like Evelyn and never really rooted for her and Monique was even worse. I could see shades of the typical character TJR usually writes in Monique but I didn't like her or feel for her.

And every time I heard "Celia", I just pictured this:

TL;DR: It was a solid story but I didn't love the characters. Harry was probably my favorite one but he was pretty two-dimensional.

Unshakeable: 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching Every Day...No Matter What by Angela Watson A
I actually paid the $10 for this book, because that's how much I wanted to read it. If you are a teacher, there are too many takeaways for me to list. I took a lot of notes. Essentially, it explains things you can do to give your best to your classroom while getting the most out of it for a balanced life. Only a teacher would like it, obviously, but it was fascinating to me. It wasn't written in quick "Buzzfeed"-style list form with impractical advice. It was definitely a deep dive into the topic.

Double Love (Sweet Valley High #1) by Francine Pascal (this atuhor uses ghostwriters) D-
I grew up reading Sweet Valley Kids and Sweet Valley Twins. In middle school, I started reading Sweet Valley Jr. High (a modern version of Sweet Valley Twins) and Sweet Valley Senior Year (a more modern version of the regular Sweet Valley books). I spent all my money on Sweet Valley books when I was younger and I don't think I ever actually purchased a Baby-Sitters' Club book...I just read those from the library.
Long story short, I got a wild hair to read the original Sweet Valley book, the one that started it all, so I bought it on Amazon for $3 and it included a note from the author:

In short, this book was awful. So terrible. It was the on-steroids version of what the characters would eventually morph into. Jessica was awful. Elizabeth was a wimp. Mr. Collins was slightly creepy. But mostly, Jessica was awful. And the descriptive writing was a little bit terrible.
If you have daughters who would be interested in the books (because a great serial never goes out of style), I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Jr. High books or the Senior Year books. I owned most of them but they've disappeared over the years. Thank goodness for Amazon. I just ordered this one because I feel like reading it again.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford and First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg in preparation for the first week of school. Both were new to me and good for, I hope, the coming weeks.

Re-reads for the month:
Can't Stay Away (see explanation above about Sweet Valley books)

And because I was doing a hunt for certain vocabulary words, I re-read:
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Those are novel studies I already do ^


Whew. 


Linking up with Jana and Steph!

Monday funny stuff.

Because it's Monday, I'm feel a teensy bit overwhelmed, and I don't feel like actually writing about anything. Plus, I have a million (or 6) errands to run and it won't. stop. raining.

Tomorrow is Show Us Your Books! 

Spoiler alert: I told myself I wasn't going to read in July and I actually read a lot. 

5 Things I Did This Week.

1. Finished this book about teaching and I cannot recommend it enough. Unshakeable by Angela Watson.

2. Watched Scott get the trailer unstuck. It had been sitting in the garden since May.

3.  Three classes at the gym. Cardio Tone on Monday, TRX on Wednesday, Kettlebell on Thursday.

4. Ate way too much junk food. The problem with doing intense workouts is that I'm always hungry and I make terrible choices when I get too hungry. I need to get back into my usual routine. I'm working on actually developing a new workout routine (one in which I actually get into a routine again), but it'll depend on Scott's schedule this fall. I don't want to spend all my waking hours out of the house.

5. Watched one giant storm demolish the prairie.

Obviously this was right over our house. Because why not?

This was a really long week, right?

Stuff and Things 8/3

I definitely reserve the right to throw these posts in whenever I feel like it.


+My sister-in-law had posted this picture of Jett on FB long ago and I recently came across it.

+We recently decided that Jett is probably allergic to peanut butter and so that makes me feel terrible. I've been feeding him peanut butter for years. Or maybe the hacking and coughing is a horrible coincidence. Either way, no more peanut butter. A lot of dogs are actually allergic to it. 

+I'm scouting out (ha ha) new boarding locations for the dogs. I have two prospects and I just need to go check them out. I feel awful that I put so much effort into this before but now we just can't take them back to the place they stayed at while we were in San Diego. I mean, they BOTH got respiratory infections. It cost us $400 at the emergency vet and many sleepless nights, listening to dogs cough. I was nearly ready to take Scout in to see the regular vet too, last week. He started to improve and Jett didn't get any worse so I decided not to. They were both taking cough medicine for a few days there and, seriously, that's not okay. I can't say it wouldn't have happened elsewhere but I also can't recommend the place we took them to either now. 

Moving on..

+I have this thing for Chris Hardwick. Anyone else? I think he's hilarious and fun to watch, as a comedian and as a host. 

+The weather this week is not ideal.

+Scout is angry because I make him sit in the basement when he's wet (shoddy drywall done by previous owner...Scott is going to redo it completely).

+My coworker posted this on Facebook. I *think* she's referring to me because my room is "done-er" than hers, and she was literally unloading her car the other day, but it's NOT Pinterest-y. 

+It's funny how after so many years at this military thing, you just know things.

On a somber note, my friend Kim had to put her 12 year old dog, Roxy, to sleep on Monday. It's terribly sad and she's a mess over it. If you have any advice or prayers to spare, send them please :/ 

No link-up, but share a stuff and/or thing about your week in the comments!

Airing of Grievances (August 2017)

1. People who apologize for watching certain TV shows bother me. Watch reality TV if you want. Don't apologize for it. I've come across posts saying they can't believe they watch The Bachelorette or Housewives or something because it's so "bad". Don't try to act like you're above it. We've all read People magazine at one point, right?

2. People who act like dark chocolate is sinful and aren't they "bad" for eating it? It actually doesn't taste very good at all to me.

3. I've switched from The Today Show to GMA because watching Savannah Guthrie makes my skin crawl and hurts my ears. I know many people are bothered by Matt Laurer but, for me, it's Savannah who is the dealbreaker.

4. Bloggers who do not disclose affiliate links. This is nothing new, but lately I've noticed that some bloggers post affiliate links on their FB pages or in their FB groups and a lot of the people in those groups aren't bloggers so they don't know the sneaky ways of bloggers in general when it comes to this issue. It's totally motivated by playing off of the inexperience of those in the group and I've lost so much respect for a few bloggers when they pull that.

5. People who make a big deal about how much they need their coffee. And then you find out they only drink decaf.

5. The Nordstrom Anniversary sale. I found it fascinating to read the posts and imagine how much money people were spending on clothes. I also don't understand the need to buy designer-ish clothes in bulk once a year. Most of my work clothes come from Target, JCrew factory (clearance only), and, once in a while, LOFT (clearance only). By the end of the day, my work clothes are sweaty and smell like a school, so I refuse to buy expensive ones. But the part of the Anniversary Sale (I suppose this is a proper noun now?) that bothers me the most: bloggers link to the the item through an affiliate link, never describing it or showing a picture in their post. That is the ultimate in shady behavior.

My only purchase was these Sanuk Yoga Mat flip-flops. They weren't even really on sale, but they were cheaper at Nordstrom than on Amazon.

Any grievances to air? (we should make this a monthly post, right?)