Freebielicious T Shirt GIVE AWAY!!

We at Freebielicious are so excited to announce teaming up with A+ Teacher Images (the greatest t-shirt company for teachers and more, in case you haven't heard of them!). We all received the fanciest custom designed t-shirt we've ever owned AND now we can give a t-shirt of the winner's choice from each of our individual blogs.

I just love my t-shirt because it is so much more than just a shirt.  It represents friendships, fun, and business relations (oh wait and STYLE, of course!) all in one "blinging" design.  Where else could you get all that from one t-shirt?  A  special thanks goes out to Doug from A+ Images.  He worked with us to make just the right shirt to represent our company and is still giving us a shirt to give one lucky winner for each of our blogs!

We have made this giveaway super easy for you to have almost 50 chances to win one of 23 t-shirts.  It is a blog hop, so you can enter as many or as few giveaways you would like!  The contest begins Saturday, May 18th, at 8:00 a.m. EST and ends on Sunday, May 19th, at 12:00 a.m. EST.  Winners will be announced on the following Monday.  Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy!  Start by entering my giveaway here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next, you will head over to my friend Caitlin's blog Kindergarten Smiles and enter there and keep going until your fingers are too tired to hit click (that is how simple we made it for you!). All you need to do is click her button below!

Go to our Freebielicious Facebook page and like us so you never miss a freebie or giveaway like this one!

Mother's Day, Giveaway, Funny and Freebies Oh My!

Happy Mother’s Day! 

Since the weather here in Texas is currently cray-cray, we had planned to swim all afternoon BUT since the water was cold (on account of that its winter one day and spring the next) the kids kinda splashed around and I fell asleep laying out, which was totally nice too.  It was a nice, relaxing afternoon at the parentals. My family is very close. My sister practically lives across the street and my parents live seven miles down the road. Hubs tries to move me a few times a year, but brrrrtttt. Never. Going. To. Happen.  Seriously, my youngest is special ed and even though he is mainstream for most of his classes, his school takes such good care of him. We won’t move until he graduates from high school. His education is just too important! Anywho, I’m sure you totally didn’t care about all that. What can I say? The sun has friend my brain a little. 

Thanks to everyone who participated in my giveaway last week. I hope you got some great deals on TPT and TN. I swear, I’m always afraid my wish list will crash the system. So, winner winner chicken dinner. Here are the FIVE winners of my giveaway. You can spend $20 in my store. Just email me your selections and I will send them your way. You have until December 2013 to spend your new loot. J Good times.

So, tomorrow is Letter I day. We are making Insect Art (note to self: get to school early enough to cut construction paper for insect art). I’m really excited for Tuesday because we are doing Jeans, Jokes, and Jump ropes. Um, I’m a teacher. You had me at JEANS!!  If you aren't doing Live Laugh LoveKindergarten’s end of school countdown, you are totally missing out. Seriously, fun times!

State & Local testing: UGH! We have done the TPRI and TEMI test. I am really pleased with the progress my littles made, it just takes time to complete and grade the tests. Now on to DRA next week. Where does your school require your kids to be? Mine is a level 6 or D. When we started that last year I freaked out a little but most of my class can rock a D or higher all day long. It’s very exciting to see them reading so successfully. I will just be glad when we get DRA’s done and then report card testing. Then I can focus on organizing the thousand pics I have taken this year so I can create our end of year slide show. Yes, I am THAT teacher. I cry too. It’s good times.

I wish I had more to give you but again, fried brain. I swear I am trying to finish the last early finishers tub but man my schedule is kicking my bootay. Next week my daughter has her end of the year band banquet and my mother in law is coming from out of state for several days. I’m going to have to just forgo sleep for the love of Pete. I’m off to bed. I hope you have a great week!

Before I go, have you checked out my friend Annie’s latest freebie? I LOVE it!! Click the picture to see more.

Love and virtual hugs!!

A chance for FREE? Yes please!

Greetings friends. I have had such a great Sunday. I hope you did too. We went to church, had lunch, went to my parents to swim and get some color on these pasty white legs (don’t judge), came home to cook and clean and now on to blogging. Friday I was able to get my lesson plans done AT SCHOOL and already feel ready for the week which is awesome! We are doing Tammy’s (from Live Laugh Love Kindergarten) 26 days of school with ABC fun and it has been wonderful. Tomorrow is letter D so we will Dance the day away! Last week we brought stuffed Animals, Blew Bubbles and Bubble gum, and ate Cupcakes. We wrote how to pieces for bubble gum and everyone decorated their cupcakes. So. Much. Fun! I definitely think this will help with those end of year behavior issues that tend to creep up on us. If you don't have a good day today, you don't get to participate tomorrow. Good kids = happy teacher. Win-Win people! :)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ABC-Countdown-To-Summer-Editable

Soooo…it’s Teacher Appreciation Week! YAY! Does your school go all out? I was talking to a friend at church this morning and she is the chair of the TA committee at the school where her kids go to school and man oh man are they going all out with eats and treats every day this week. I am not sure if my school is doing anything, but I'm ok with that too. I love my school so much that having a week to celebrate my efforts doesn't matter so much (Though it’s kinda fun, um who doesn't love surprise treats!!). I am just grateful to LOVE where I work and get to go there 187 days (paid days that is, haha) a year.

Moving on. I’m having a great sale on Teacher’s Pay Teachers in my store. Everything is 28% OFF. Make sure you enter in the code though when you check out. The sale is on Tuesday and Wednesday. Random I know but we will survive. Make sure you read all the way to the END of this post for even better news!

So, what’s in my cart? Way too much. Hubs would freak out IF he had my TPT password and saw my wish list. Um, I have over 100 things on my wish list. Obsessed much! Haha! I will be posting on Facebook over the next two days several of the things I plan to purchase.

Here are a few of my kids' favorite things that I have created. Click on the picture to find out more. :)

Also, if you are preparing for next year, I have over 20 themes in my store of classroom decorations. Here are a few examples. Click the picture to take you to my store to see all of the themes. :)

Now, for the last bit of good news. Because I appreciate YOU SO MUCH and am so grateful that you believe in my work and use it to teach your littles, I am going to throw in a giveaway in the midst of the sale madness. Comment below once for EVERY purchase you make in MY STORE with the name of the product and why you purchased it. So, if you purchased five things, you will comment five times. Purchases must be made Monday-Thursday of this week. I will draw the names on Friday and post the winners this weekend. Make sure you include your email. I will pick FIVE winners to receive $20 worth of stuff in my store and you will have until December 2013 to use it.  That means that you can wait and use it on things I will add this summer too! Sound good? 

Just in case no one tells you this week…

Have a great week friends. Love and virtual hugs!!

What. A. WEEK!

What. A. Day! I take that back. What. A. WEEK!!

When word got out about the fundraiser, the phone started ringing. Apparently my principal is my new agent, haha! She would come into my room saying so and so wants to do an interview. Y'all, I was barely wearing make up this week because I wasn't getting much sleep, for real. Every day my Starbucks cup got bigger and bigger. These people would show up and I looked like a hot mess. Luckily my wonderful principal had her make-up bag with her and I pulled myself together...kinda! Most days I wear mascara and match my clothes. Not so much this week and boy was that bad timing. 

On Thursday, I was on the cover of our local newspaper for the fundraiser. Can I be honest and say that I did NOT like all this attention?! And, the camera certainly adds ten pounds. SMH! My students think they are famous though and that was fun. We also had a news crew come and film in our classroom. I kept telling my kids, oh my goodness YOU are famous! They were just tickled.  I did a LIVE interview and totally wanted to hurl. 

All of that press was totally out of my comfort zone but this is how I reasoned it to myself. This was never about me. It was always about teachers helping teachers. Too often we hear all the drama and negative opinions surrounding education and not often enough do we hear stories like ours where teachers take care of one another.  So, when people asked for interviews I said yes because I wanted people to understand that this was not a ME situation but an AMAZING effort of over eight hundred teachers from all over the world teaming up for a cause that we care about, teachers! We take care of and love kids, that’s our job. It’s a CHOICE we make every day. So, you totally deserved a shout out and I was happy to spread the word. Thank you again to everyone who donated. 

If you didn't receive your emailed files (some got kicked back to me), forward your paypal receipt to me and I will send them right over.  THANKS AGAIN for making this happen!! 

Moving on..I totally planned on sleeping in today because I haven’t slept much this week because of the fundraiser emails but unfortunately my loud sweet children don’t feel that sleep is necessary. Sigh. So, I got up at 8:00 a.m. (Yes, I realize that IS late but I was praying for more like 10:00 a.m.). I tried so hard to go back to sleep but it didn't happen. Then, I through a major teeny tiny tantrum kicking and yelling into my pillow, and happily got up. 

One of my goals this year is to finish projects inside my house. We have lived here for four years and I feel like we haven’t quite made it a home yet. So, it was my goal to redo a room a month and well, that didn't work out so well. I have managed to do our kitchen/dining area, which was a big undertaking. I am hosting a bridal shower next weekend for one of my best friends, which is great motivation to get stuff done. So, I am working on my living room. Here is one wall.

 

Of course I haven’t printed the pictures yet, but I wanted to get it laid out first. I ordered the pics from Wallgreens today and will pick them up tomorrow. I need to add about four more frames and then I will be done. Well, and moving that chalk board a tad to the right. (I know you TOTALLY care about this right?!) My style has totally changed since we moved here. I’m going for more shabby chic.

I also went with my seester to get my nails done today, which was a nice treat. And, in true kinder teacher form, I totally went BIG and FUN! Love! Love! Love! Thank you pinterest. (Ignore sausage fingers please and thank you.)

I have getting soil, seeds, and cups on the To Do List for tomorrow. I am so excited to start my plant unit. It’s always a favorite of my littles.  I just hope the weather will cooperate. Here in Texas it is winter one day and summer the next. Craziness! Here is my unit if you want to take a looksee. I will be back later with pictures as we are learning.

I will also work on my May/June Early Finisher’s Tub tomorrow too. I plan to have it ready by May 1^st so keep an eye out.  Lot’s to do and not enough time. True story!!

Oh, and just in case you don’t follow my facebook, I will share my craziness from today too. This afternoon before heading out to Peter Piper Pizza’s (because I don’t have enough fun in my life, haha), I noticed my youngest child had a bruise around his mouth and his lips were bruised. I asked him what had happened and he said nothing. It didn’t hurt. I couldn’t figure it out. For the most part, he had just played in his room for the last few hours. We went to PPP, and it was driving me crazy. I’m always paranoid with him because he had heart surgery when he was an infant and even though he gets yearly check-ups and is in perfect health, I worry. Hello, I am a mom! Anywho, I swear I could have put him in an empty room with a spot light and couldn’t break him. After friendly and then frustrated interrogation for a few hours, I told him that we were just going to go to the ER. On the way to the car, he kindly said..well, it MAY have been the VACCUM.

Wait, WHAT? Then it dawns on me that I had asked him to vacuum the living room and couch today because there was little white pieces of paper everywhere form the frames I put up. Of course, I wasn’t in the room when he did this. So, mystery solved. HE PUT THE HOSE ON HIS MOUTH! Omg! This is why I have over 50% gray hair at 32! Of course he said that he DIDN’T put it on his mouth, it FELL on his mouth. It was a total accident (wink, wink). I told him that he better NEVER fall on the vacuum every again! Haha! Well, no ER trip today. Thank goodness.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. We put the fun in dysFUNctional people!! My kids may be a hot mess, but they are mine and I BIG puffy heart love them!

I am off to bed. I could wish, hope, and pray to sleep past 8:00 tomorrow morning, but let’s be honest, it’s not happening! I have to get up for church by 8:30 a.m. anyways. So, here’s hoping I can take a NAP tomorrow. I hope you have had a blessed weekend! Love and virtual hugs!