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My last school-related post for awhile.  This is a bulletin board that I created based on this one that I found on Pinterest.  I used old book pages for both the border and the letters.  I wrote popular acronyms on the white background in different colored markers before placing down letters and old school cellphone that I created.  I outlined the letters in black to make them pop more.

The original bulletin board is so much cuter, but seeing as I couldn't find a tutorial and have very limited time to work on things like this, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Job Interview

Today I had an interview for a promotion at work.  This is what I wore...sans puppy.

I find out about the job on Friday.  I think that the interview went pretty well, but you never know.  I'm not too worried about it though, because I'm a very firm believer in "everything happens for a reason."  If this promotion doesn't happen, then that'll mean more free time, etc, etc.  I'm trying to be pretty low-key and not get too excited or hopeful.  Que sera, sera.

Thrifty and Antique'y Weekend

This Memorial Weekend was incredibly gloomy and cold, as most of them are, so I spent a majority of my time going to thrift and antique stores, barns, and garages.

One of my favorite places to shop is a building that use to be an old school.  It's actually been quite a few years since I've stopped by and it always looks closed, but I decided to stop by and see if they had any hours posted.  I ran into one of the owners, half of a married couple, and she told me that they had been shut down because of mold and a leaky ceiling and that some people are "just too picky" when it comes to that sort of stuff.  Their way around this was to have a continual garage sale.

Unfortunately, the vintage clothes were not stored in the garage as it leaks and she doesn't want them to get ruined.  She told me that she's hoping to open a vintage room by the end of summer, so I'm excited for that possibility.  I did, however, find a few hats and attempted to buy a box of old photographs, but the husband told me he did not want to sell an entire box...explain that one to me.  The following pictures are from the shed/garage structure.

As you can see from the above photos, the place was pretty shady, but there were some gems if you were willing to take some time and hunt.  I felt like I was on American Pickers.

Now my other favorite place took place in an old barn that's open twice a year, once on Memorial weekend and then again on Labor Day weekend.  It's super cute and has amazing displays.  You can tell that the people who put on the sale really love what they're doing and take a genuine joy in putting together "scenes."

I'll post my purchases from this weekend later on this week.  I hope that everyone had a great weekend and that there week is going well so far.

Surprise Family Visit

I spent the weekend at the lake.  It was cold and gloomy so all of Saturday was spent antiquing and exploring small towns.  I picked up some pretty amazing things and am excited to share them later on this week, along with some photos I took at some of the shops.

The best part of my weekend, however, was seeing my cousins and uncle.  Little did I know going into the weekend, but my three beautiful cousins and my uncle from Kansas decided to come up to visit my Grandma for the weekend (she lives roughly two hours away from our lake place).  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from today.

This young one is Ella.  She's quite the ham and wanted me to take about a million pictures of her.

 This is Emily.  She's the middle child.  She was pretty proud of taking this picture of herself.

This is Zoe.  She'll be in 6th grade next year.  She's one of the most musical kids I know.

 Trying to show off that Ella's pants are on backwards.  You can see the zipper if you look closely.

 The three girls playing with Sadie, Grandma's dog.

 This picture probably sums up Zoe and Ella's relationship pretty well.

 Ella trying to squish my mom's face into funny poses.

 Mom laughing at Ella.

 The girls' guinea pigs, Buttercup and Penny.

 Ella and I.  She's quite the cuddle-monster.

 Trying to show as much teeth as Ella's toothy grin.

 Uncle holding his guitar.  He tried to teach me a few notes since I'm thinking about buying a guitar and learning to play.

 Zoe, Emily, Dad and Mom on the back of my uncle's boat.

 Zoe huddled in a sweatshirt, trying to stay warm on the boat.

 Emily as we were docking the boat.

It was such a fun, and unexpected, weekend.  It was so nice to see the girls.  Normally I only get to see them once during summer and then again at Christmas.  It's so cool to see how much they've grown and changed between visits, but it does get long.

I'll post on my antiquing and purchases later this week.  Be prepared, you may want some hand sanitizer when you read that post.

Stars and Stripes

This post might seem way too early to some, and a little too redneck to others, but today was my last day at the middle school and that has me thinking of summer!  And what screams summer like something with the American flag plastered all over it?  Sadly, I do not own a single article of clothing with the flag on it, but after hanging out on pinterest for hours at a time, I'm pretty confident that I should own something and even more sure that I can make something pretty cool by myself.  But, until then, here are a few neat pieces that have caught my eye.

$162 from RUNWAYDREAMZ


$25 from UrbanEclectics

$17.99 from Papaya


$54 from JuliLand


$34.50 from ThreeBirdNest


$130 from Nasty Gal

What didn't make the cut, but I want to own?  A swimsuit!  All the pictures I found with girls in swimsuits were a little too aggressive for my taste, and I'm pretty hard to shock.  Maybe that should tell me something about girls who wear American flag swimsuits, but I'm choosing to ignore any hints the universe might be throwing at me.

In other news, I'm going to the lake this weekend which means big time thrifting!  No, we don't have a lake surrounded by amazing thrift stores, but there is an old school that has been converted into an antique shop and I'm hoping to drop some dough on some amazing vintage pieces.  It'll also be nice to be thrifting in a different state/town to see what the locals have to offer.

Do you have any favorite clothing pieces with the American flag on them?  Do you like anything that others might feel is over-the-top or ridiculous?

Middle School Recap

There is technically 1 day left of school (tomorrow)!  I am ready for summer, but I also feel a surprising amount of sadness when I realize how much I'm going to miss the middle school, its staff, and the amazing students.  I am not sure if I'll be returning next year because I'm finally ready to dive into my college career (after a little bit of a hiatus).  As the end approaches, I thought I'd share some of my favorite activities and memories from my year at the school.

Wolf Ridge:

Up on the ropes course.  A lot scarier at 23-years-old than at 12-years-old...at least in my opinion.

Learning about birds.

Climbing up the rock wall to kiss the goat...well, the goat's butt.

Heading down for Winter Survival.

Hands down, my favorite part of the year.  It was the first time I felt as if I was a part of the staff.  Going to an Environmental Camp in the middle of winter for a week, hours away from home, will force you to get close to the other adults and the kiddos.  It was a great time and it helped me bond with the general ed kids.  I have so many more pictures that I'd love to share, but tried to limit it to these few to give you a vague idea of Wolf Ridge.

Math class:

I've talked about how great my supervisor has been this year, and it partly has to do with all the crazy projects I had in mind for math class.  The picture is from a 9s multiplication art project I found on pinterest.  We also had Secret Agent Math and rapping and a bunch of weird things that found their way from my head to the classroom.

School lunch:
I didn't get a school lunch account until the last two months of the year.  It saved me a lot of stress in the morning.  I don't have any pictures of lunch, but trust me, it's stayed the same!

Starting a monthly potluck:
I started a monthly potluck with the other staff during 7th grade lunch.  It was a great way to bond and get to try new food, not to mention getting an amazing lunch with only minimal effort/money involved.  Potluck days often resulted in me wanting to unbutton my pants!

Student-staff soccer game:
See more about it here.

There are so many more things and I will never forget this year.  I have grown so much both as a person and as a teacher (despite not legally being a teacher).  I will miss my amazing middle school family and hope to return as an English teacher once graduating from college.

Soccer

Yesterday I played in the Student-Staff soccer game at the Middle School where I work.  I wish I could say that we (staff) just dominated the students, but the game ended in a tie.  When I originally signed up for the game, I didn't realize that we were playing the boys and girls on our soccer team.  It was a hard game, but I'm pretty proud that I managed to keep pace with everyone on the field-I don't exactly have the best record when it comes to organized sports.

Today, I'm a little sore, have a few more bruises, but I find myself wishing that I'd chosen to play in the other Student-Staff games that they have had over the course of this school year.  If I end up returning next year, then I know that I'll participate in every game they have.

After the game, I went out with my family for supper and then tried to convince any of them to go to the gym with me (I wasn't really sore at this point).  No one wanted to join me in physical fitness, so I popped in the shower, cleaned up, then went upstairs to get changed.  I ended up falling asleep while listening to Cheers and when I woke up half an hour later, I felt dead.  Since I was so beat, I ended up going to bed at 8p.  It was wonderful and I was more than happy that I'd rescheduled my date for the night.  I would have been more than a little mortified if I'd fallen asleep during the movie.

Hunger Games Interactive Bulletin Board

The middle school life is currently winding down.  Teachers have slowed, if not stopped, their lessons, kids are getting antsy, andm most depressing to me, posters and bulletin boards are coming down.  I figured I share some pictures of a Hunger Games interactive bulletin board that I created.

Long shot of the bulletin board.  It's supposed to look a bit like a Facebook page.

Far left view:  Everything here is pretty self-explanatory and easy to read.

Center: At the point of this picture, the main character was working with the style team (as you can see from her status update).  I laminated a sentence strip so we could use a dry erase marker and change it as we advanced in the book.  Below her status, is her wall-where I had students write responses to what we read on large sticky notes and place them in the white box.

Near the bottom of the board is her "info."  I wrote 10 facts about Katniss that happened before being sent to the Capitol for training and the Hunger Games.

Closer view on the 10 Random Facts.

Right view:  Photos were added as we read the book.  We had just finished with the part where Katniss is entering the game when this photo was taken.

Far right view:  I printed off these Hunger Games posters from College Humor's website.  I thought they looked like the tailored ads Facebook has on people's profiles.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment!