Three Things Thursday

ONE
This time next week I will be heading off to Boston, one of my absolute favorite cities, to visit my wonderful friend and fellow runner Michelle:

Us after the 2012 Kentucky Derby Half Marathon

Among other things, we will be running the Triple Threat Half Marathon in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. This course is going to be beautiful!  I have always wanted to race near the ocean!

I am super excited about this race, but after looking at the elevation...

((That might not seem like much to some of you, but I'm a Prairie State girl, born and raised!  

Hills are not my friend...))

...And realizing that the race starts at 10:15am, meaning we'll be finishing right at the hottest part of the day, we quickly realized this will NOT be a PR or a speedy race for either of us.  Instead, we decided to have a little fun with it.  When Michelle sent me the link to the Team Sparkle website, I didn't hesitate before jumping on board the sparkle skirt bandwagon!  These skirts were EVERYWHERE at the Disney Princess Half this year, and I was obsessed with them.  My awesome skirt arrived yesterday!

It is so cute and so light; I can't wait to run in it!

TWO
I did it.  Visited the teacher's store, that is!  Back to school shopping has officially begun.  I am sticking with the same turquoise, black, and polka dot decor as last year, so I shouldn't have to buy too much (hopefully!), but of course I needed a few new things!  Between a stop there and a trip to Target, I have some of the basics covered.  Last year I spent a ton of money on new things for the classroom, so this year I am trying to restrain myself!

THREE
Remember the heat wave I talked about last week?  Well, I was SO pumped to wake up yesterday to some nice and cool weather!  In fact, I was able to have a super lazy morning and head out for my run after 11 thanks to the cooler temps!

67 degrees at 11:05???  AMAZING!

I drove a little ways to a gorgeous trail that I discovered during half-marathon training in May.  I hadn't run there since then because my midweek runs I usually just run in my neighborhood and since I've been running my long runs with my training group.  Today called for 5-6 miles though, and this trail has a beautiful 5.5 mi unpaved loop, so I figured it was perect.

Beautiful!!!  And wonderful to finish a run in the middle of the day and not be so hot I thought I would pass out!  LOVE!

Do you run close to home or do you ever drive to running spots? 

Have you bought anything awesome for your classroom yet?

SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!!

Well, it happened.  I started buying back to school supplies.  I am feeling incredibly ambivalent about this...on the one hand, it is more than depressing that summer is ALMOST OVER.  But on the other hand...

I LOVE BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING!!!!!

Honestly, my love of school supplies is probably one of the top reasons I'm a teacher...oh, and you know, loving kids and wanting to change the world and all that...but also school supplies. :)

Today I did some back to school brainstorming with Mrs. Literacy Specialist (aka alternating between chatting about life and looking at teacher blogs...), and we decided to hit up Walmart to buy some goodies.  After reading this post yesterday at What the Teacher Wants, I decided to pretty much replicate her entire shopping cart. :)  I REALLY want to make these adorable crate seats for my guided reading table!  So when I saw on What the Teacher Wants that crates were only $3.40, Mrs. Lit Specialist and I didn't waste any time!!!  Our crate-filled car post-shopping...

We also totally geeked out when we saw 15 cent folders...umm it's normal to buy out the almost the entire stock of one color, right?  

The best part was definitely the 40 cent composition notebooks.  HOORAY!!!  But just when we thought things couldn't get any better, we saw that they came in 5 other patterened covers besides the normal splotchy.  Of course, that meant crouching on the floor digging through EVERY BOX of notebooks until we could each find 6 of each pattern.  What's a shopping teacher to do but block off the entire aisle with her carts and go to town?!

Baby Lit Specialist "helped" too...

After all that hard shopping, we decided we HAD to cool off with some ice cream...holy yummy peanut butter chocolate!!!  This counts for AT LEAST a couple servings of protein, right?!  

Don't worry, it was at least triple this size before I started eating. :)  You better believe I devoured that baby in less than 10 minutes for fear it would melt and go to waste in the crazy heat...

Note to Self: Add "move to a more moderate climate that does not fluctuate between -10 and 100+ degrees during the course of a year" to the to-do list...

Have you started back to school shopping yet?

Stupid Cupid

Note to self: do not wait until the last minute to buy valentines for students.

When I left school today after a very productive Thursday afternoon with my good friend The Copier, I started out on what I thought would be a quick and easy errand to buy some festive valentines day pencils.  Ha.  Easy.  What was I thinking...
Here's where it all began...

The other day, my mom made valentines for her student on the computer, printed them on cardstock, and cut them out.  They looked cute, so when she offered to print them for me (just change Mrs. to Miss please!), of course I agreed (while silently thinking she was silly for getting these ready days in advance...).   Well, and this is where it gets tricky, the cute little valentines message on the cards was something along the lines of, "Let's get to the point: Happy Valentines Day," and she was attaching a sharp new pencil to each card.  Get it?  Point?  "Okay," I thought, "that should be easy enough."  I figured I'd drive by the dollar store Thursday night after work and grab a couple packs of hearts and cupids pencils.

Well...it should be so simple.  No sooner than I had left school, but I found myself in a massive herd of parents and kids purchasing punch out cards, hearts candy, and cupcakes for the class party.  Yikes.  When Target let me down, I walked down the strip mall to Dollar Tree, only to find EASTER pencils.  Umm, huh?  "Alright, no big deal," I told myself, and continued my walk (in heels) to the other end of the strip mall.  "Surely Dominicks will have valentines gifts."  Nope.  Not even a section for candy and cards!  "Maybe I'll check Target 1 more time before admitting defeat."  This time, I felt a brief glimmer of hope when I spotted a cardboard bin on the shelf labeled "Valentines Pencils," only to find SPORTS pencils inside.  Really, Target?

By this time I was starving and had to open a box of crackers I had just bought in the car as I drove to Walgreens.  In my head, I pictured the huge, overflowing valentines aisle that I KNEW would be there.  Well...that aisle turned out to be a corner, and there were exactly 2 valentines pencils.  2.  Seriously.  Finally, I went home, put on my slippers, and immediately laid down on the couch.  Nothing like fruitless shopping to take the energy out of you!  Thankfully, my mom came through and found enough pencils for both of us (she went to SEVEN stores though!!).  Phew.

So, the moral of the story is, do NOT wait until the last minute, especially where popular elementary school holidays are concerned.

A Very Teachery Christmas :)

I think my Christmas presents this year really represent the extent to which teaching has consumed my life.  Highlights among the gifts:

• Fancy Paper Pro 1 touch stapler (staples 25 sheets!!!!)
• Fancy 3 hole punch that can punch a WHOLE BUNCH of pages (my current one jams seriously EVERY time I use it)
• The gigantic pack of flair pens--so I can grade in style :)
• The gigantic pack of Sharpies 
• Post-its
• Children's books
• Gift card to Lakeshore\
• A new little name plate for my desk with each letter made from a different photograph
  

It was a very teachery Christmas in my house :)   New school supplies are so exciting!  However, I can't say the new flairs made me any more excited to dive into the crate of grading I brought home to do over the break...alas.  Maybe tomorrow??  Orrr...maybe not ;)

you know you're a teacher when...

...you spend way too much money at target on stickers, colored pens, individually wrapped candy, decorative pencils, and miscellaneous little notebooks and stamps from the dollar bin...

i <3 thrift stores

This afternoon after work I stopped at my friendly neighborhood thrift store to check the children's book section for some new treasures. Of course I got a small stack of new books for my library. You really can't go wrong with 25 cent books! I can't believe that when I first started collecting books I bought them for $5 each! what was i thinking :) Anyways, clearly the thrift store is the way to go. Other exciting purchases of the day included a pretty class vase that I'm going to put a beta fish in (and hopefully some pretty stones and bamboo), a battleship game (yes!), and a pretty cool toy that's like a rubix cube but with sudoku numbers! I already tried it and failed miserably (gave up after about five minutes), but it might be something I can give to a student who finishes a math activity early or something--exercise those brain muscles!

Another exciting activity of the day was visiting my friend Miss R's brand new classroom! Attempting to help her figure out how to arrange all her furniture made me simultaneously so excited to get into my own room (still no word on when I'll be allowed in...) and dreading the thought of coming up with my own floorplan. With my lack of spatial skills, needless to say my mom will probably be instrumental in figuring out how to maximize my space...

Well, school is a little over a month away already and I can't believe how fast the summer is going. Yikes!! So much to do!

getting ready for school = $$$

today i visited my friendly lakeshore learning store, and felt like a kid in a candy shop, except most of the candy cost more than i make in an hour (or several) doing autism therapy. yikes! i did find some pretty cool things, like these great magnetic pockets:

i plan to stick em to the board for the kids to turn in their work or for kids to grab the next assignment from when they finish something, and hopefully eliminate at least some of the messy shuffle of paper piles.
pockets

i also got some bulletin board borders, name plates, and a staple remover. oh and fell in love with about a hundred other things, especially a big bucket of fraction circles that was way out of my price range. currently searching the internet for a cheaper option...

getting all my things ready for school = expensive. but exciting!