Five for Friday: A Wee Bit of Everything!

Welcome to my FIRST ever Five for Friday! Super fun and I am ready to dig in! Enjoy:)

Recently, I have taken a liking to books. Maybe it is because I am now a teacher and most teachers have a summer reading list, maybe not. Anywho… First on my task list was to finish Divergent in order to see it before the movie came out. Well…that didn't happen. I was a busy bee and didn't have time to read and I did not reach my goal and did not finish it before it came out. However, I did finally get to see it in a $2 dollar theatre during our vacation. I must say--I was very impressed with how the movie resembled the book. There were a couple details that I thought they left out but of course I explained in full detail to my husband. It was hard not to lean over and tell him everything that was going to happen before it happened in the movie, but I managed!

In my nightly devotions, I have been reading the Jesus Devotionals. OMGOODNESS. SO. GOOD. These books have something about them that know exactly what you are going through and whip up something. Or should I say our Lord does:) Gosh, he's good isn't he!? Everytime I am feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, fearful, worrisome, you name it, God speaks to me through these books. Try it. You will soon see for yourself! During this past school year, I purchased Jesus Calling for one of my co-workers and she LOVED it. They are great because you read one passage day to day and it is just a short snippet, yet just enough to refresh you as well. Definitely an advocate for these!

After reading Divergent and watching the movie, I loved the feeling of knowing what happened in the book and then watching the movie. Of course there are more details in the book, but I felt like I could connect with the movie so much more. This made me want to read another book that was going to be a movie. I began to read The Fault in our Stars. A friend recommended it and said she loved the book so I thought "well, let's give it a try." I read and read and I could not put the thing down! I usually read until the next chapter looks a little bit too long for what I have time for. Towards the end it was so intense and the chapters were only 2-4 pages so I HAD to keep going. My husband was of course happy because that meant we could go see the movies in theaters. He was not so much dying to see the movie, he just likes going to movies in the theater because I don't usually like to sit through movies. I'm a teacher--I can't sit still for 2 hours, am I right?!

On the last day of school, we had our annual meeting with details for next year and awards. One thing that we are to do this summer is to read The Positive Dog by Jon Gordon. I have yet to read it but I think it will be inspiring. I try my best to be positive to everyone around me because let's face it, nobody likes a negative nancy. Jon Gordon is also the author of The Energy Bus for kids and adults. We did Positive Energy Bus in my classroom this past year and the kids really liked it! I will let you know how this book turns out!

As much as my husband and I would have LOVED to go back to Mexico (where we were for our honeymoon) for a vacation, we decided that the smart thing to do would be to go on a mini vaca and just head about 3 1/2 hours to San Antonio to go to Sea World and Fiesta Texas. We are in the middle of trying to pay off student loans and we want to be done as fast as we can. We are crossing our fingers for May 2015! Anyway,  we went to Sea World first on a Sunday and we arrived right when the gates opened. At first, I was a little underwhelmed because the shows did not start for an hour after that. After we got started, we were going from show to show and we had quite a blast! We started with the sea lion story, went to the beluga story, the Shamu story, the water sports show, penguin exhibit, dolphin encounter, shark exhibit, another Shamu show, rode both rides, and did a TON of walking. It was beautiful! The animals were so amazing and it was very educational. I did not find this out until AFTER we purchased our tickets to Sea World but did you know being a teacher will get you free admission?!?! Click here for more information about free admission for teachers at Sea World. If you have not been, I totally recommend it. Plan to get wet!

We also made our way over to Fiesta Texas (Six Flags). Boy were there some roller coasters for you there! I rode every single roller coaster they had to offer. We did not get a chance to try out their waterpark. Maybe next time? One thing that helped us was that we went to Fiesta Texas on a Monday and the longest we had to wait for any line was 15 minutes. That was only one time. The rest of the time we either hopped right on or just waited one cycle! This is definitely the best way to go when going to Fiesta Texas. I think you get the most "bang for your buck" this way because you can ride wayyyyyy more rides!

This past week I made a trip to Big Lots in search of some bright colors to add to my classroom. I sought out and they delivered! Look at all of the cute colors they have in lots of different styles. I ended up getting the blue and pink bins in packs of 2 for only $1.30. What a STEAL. I was going to get some of the green but they did not have it in the right style of bin that I was looking for.

Since they had run out of the green, I was pretty bummed. I made another trip to The Dollar tree where they had an assortment of 4 colors--green, purple, red, and blue. I had already gotten blue and I did not think the red was bright enough, I grabbed some purple and green bins for $1.00 each! I checked the teacher section and they also had birthday certificates, a contraction match game, a cute dry-erase calendar, back to school vocabulary cards with pictures, reproducible basic sight word books for emergent readers, and blank decorative cards also for $1.00 each! In the back of the store by the containers I found some blue caddies for the desk or for writing centers. Super Excited. Needless to say, I was very happy with my combined haul to Big Lots and The Dollar Tree. You will have to stop by and check them out!

My blog was also designed this week as I am new to the blogging world. I was so excited, and I still am. Designs by Christi did my layout design and she was great to work with! Isn't it so cute?! I have been learning the ins and outs of blogging as well as increasing my technological knowledge. My husband is like "why are you always on that computer" He doesn't realize that I am not just blogging but figuring out how to link up, add people's buttons, add pictures, look at HTML coding, researching this, looking up that, watching this tutorial, watching that tutorial…etc. I do feel very smart sometimes though and I find it very easy to celebrate when something goes my way! 

Happy 4th of July by the way! I just got done making this cute little cake. It did not turn out as perfect as those pictured on Pinterest, but I will accept it. I think the people who make cakes and desserts on Pinterest are actually robots that want you to feel bad that you just aren't as good. I refuse to;) Anyway, this is a French Vanilla cake mix with cool whip topping with blueberries and strawberries. Yummy! Can't wait to dig in but of course I have to share with the rest of the family. We are just about to make our way to the family cook out and then watch fireworks. Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays and it is a great day to be with family! What are your plans?!

Click below to get back to the Five For Friday by Doodle Bugs Teaching Linky Party!

XOXO