Back to School Blogger Exchange - Yay for Snail Mail!!

This morning I'm teaming up with Jessica from Covered in Glitter and Glue and Katie from Adventures of Ms. Smith for their Back to School Blogger Exchange Linky!

When I signed up for this fabulous idea, I hadn't yet started my blog. I'm so glad I have now, because I get to share my great package from Cathy! She doesn't have a blog so hopefully we can correspond through email that I left her in my note to her! First off is the package that came in the mail! I was so excited!

How great is this package?!?

There's a little notebook about Mondays - oh, how we all love Mondays, right?!?

These are my absolute favorite must haves for back to school in my classroom! I love them! They're perfect for my anchor charts! Thank you so much for everything Cathy!

On another note, look what came in the mail today...

Can you tell what it is?

How 'bout now?

It's my planner! It finally made its way here. Now, any time today, UPS should be stopping with my erasable pens that I bought from amazon with all kinds of cute colors! I can't fill anything out 'til they get here! Does anyone else get giddy when they here the big brown truck pull up out front?!? It happened here yesterday, and was something for my husband, not me. What a let down! Ha!

**You're not going to believe this...I hit post and the truck stops out front! Lol! My laminating pouches are in and so are my pens! All I'm waiting for now is the washi tape I ordered. I will not edit and update when they come in, I promise! I just couldn't resist this though. Literally, it was seconds after!**

What is your most valuable organizing tool in your classroom?

5 for Friday! 8/9

Hi Everyone! This is my first 5 for Friday Linky! At family things we'll randomly call out "Random" when we feel someone says something just a little bit random! :)

 1. My week started with a birthday party for my baby girl! This is a pic of the Raspberry Jalapeno Jelly I got to put over a brick of cream cheese! Dip with Wheat Thins! YUM! I was worried I wasn't doing something right with how clumpy it was, so had to text friends...random!

2. I have been working on lots of crafts as you can see here. I've got my sign from Shannon at Sweet Blessings! You can print a copy here! I made the infamous READ letters - a set for me and a set for my mom at her library! (These make great gifts for your favorite librarian!) You can see my glittered clothespins and my Today is vinyl.

3. I wanted to work in my classroom this week. Here's an empty before pic. NO can do! The janitor that waxes the floor wired the doors shut. Apparently he doesn't trust us to read the DO NOT ENTER - WET WAX! signs that are plastered posted everywhere. I really wish I would've gotten a pic of that for you all to see!

4. I'm on the pool board for our town. We've had to close down 3 times because we can't get a guard to work. Tues. (the hottest day of the week) I took 4 complaints, so we called a meeting today. Hopefully we'll be staying open through next week. We went swimming every day this week!

5. Yesterday I got to babysit my sweet, adorable, snuggly, need I go on?, great-niece Norah Jean. She's a total sweetheart! Her mama went to the dentist while we snuggled! You can't snuggle a baby too much right?!?

Have a great weekend everyone!!! Tomorrow's blog post-accepting the Liebster Award! Yay!

B2S Mixer

This should be fun! It's kind of hard to think of so many things, but when I read other peoples' I think, "Oh, yeah. I should've thought of that!" I'm linking up with Polka Dot Palace for her B2S linky! 

1. I am a supporter of rescuing pets from animal shelters. We got our cat, Prince, from one and wouldn't trade him for the world! (I am NOT a crazy cat lady :) - One cat is def. enough.)

Ignore the ugly floors. We were living out of our suitcases while redoing our hard wood floors. This is Prince.

2. I hate the thought of growing older. I don't know why, but I am so nervous and think I will have a hard time with 40. I'm already thinking that this year I round up, instead of down! 

3. I loved every minute of being pregnant. I would like to have 1 more, but the mister says no! My son was born at 33 weeks and was in the NICU for a few weeks, so I think it scared him. You'd never know any signs of him being a preemie now!















4. I hate talking on the phone. I'd rather text any day. I am very social, but don't call me! Ha!

5. When I concentrate, my tongue comes out. It can be coloring, cutting, or writing. It's usually when I'm crafting. Another habit is that I twirl and click my hair if I'm tired or bored. (My coworker just caught me doing this while catering Sat. night...embarrassing!)

6.  My favorite chore is washing and folding laundry. I HATE putting it away!

7. We named our youngest daughter (Evelyn Alice) after my grandma (Alice Evelyn). My grandma is my role model and I look up to her so much! I am so thankful that she is still with me and my kids get to grow up with them in their lives! While I'm talking about my kids, my son is Tanner, named after one of the boys I student taught! My oldest is Isabel Makenzie - both my all time favorite girl names. Makenzie was too popular at the time, so it went to the middle. We had a poll in the operating room if she should be Isabel or Isabella! She's definitely an Izzy!

Here's my great grandparents with my kids and my nieces. Granddad is 92 and they made the trek to our house yesterday for Ev's golden birthday party! Talk about a great surprise!

7. I feel like since I've been old enough to have a job, I've had many! I've worked for a newspaper, babysat, Subway, Walmart, Burger King, daycare, hotel, DPS @ ISU, concessions @ ISU games, and even Adventureland. That was a long time ago! I had to work my way through college! That leads me to today. I cater on the weekends. My husband and I also own a sign business out of our home, plus I teach! 

8. When I go on vacation, it seems like I see famous celebrities and I'm star struck! In NYC, we saw Will Smith filming MIB III. He walked right out in front of us from an alley. At Disney World we ran into Wayne Brady. When I was a kid in 4-H, Bill Clinton was doing his bus tour. His bus came to our fair and he and his entourage were going to tour 1 barn. It was ours! I have my picture taken and got autographs with Bill, Hillary, Al, and Tipper. It was pretty exciting. I hope my mom still has those!

9. My husband and I are big supporters of Dave Ramsey and his program! We're turning our life around with his teachings, which really are common sense. 

10. We are in the process of buying my FIL's business - a car shop. My mister has worked there for years and years, so it seems right. We are supposed to take over Sept. 

11. Here are some favorites...Food: Green Beans, Color: Hot pink, Book: Killing Lincoln

12. I am a reality TV junkie! I love Duck Dynasty, Counting Cars, Storage Wars, Real World, American Idol, The Voice, Ice Road Truckers, The Bachelor, AGT, etc! 

13. I love dressing up for Halloween! This pic is my co-teaching partner and I. This is my favorite costume I've had-as an adult! As a kid, Mom has these adorable pics of me as Sylvester the cat!

CURRENTLY...

Today I'm linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the August Currently linky!

Listening: I usually have the TV on in the background. This morning it's The Today Show. Carson Daily was pretty funny and surprisingly good. 

Loving: This song is so catchy and has a good meaning too. If you want to hear it, click here.

Thinking: We are having my baby's 4th birthday party this weekend! I need to tidy up! I am so sad excited for her to grow up!

Wanting: I was on a major time crunch on my Hobby Lobby stop Tuesday. I really want to make a trip today!

Needing: I'm needing a new 'do real bad. I always wait until right before school starts so it looks nice and fresh! I called my gal and told her to be thinking of a cute color/highlight combo for me! 

B2s: 1. I LOVE, love, love Mr. Sketch smelly markers! They are perfect for my anchor charts! At the end of the year, I auction them off to one of the students and always buy new for August!

2. I just purchased the Retro Metro bag from 31! It's so cute!

3. I did not order the spelling books that go with our reading series this year. I thought the kids could get more good out of word work activities, so I love this TPT product. It's spelling task cards by The Happy Teacher.  (I couldn't figure out how to add her button here. Sorry from the newbie!)

Back to School Linky

I'm linking up with Jessica at I Heart Recess for her Back to School Linky and my first ever linky party! Yay! I hope I get this right! 

Personal: I enjoy reading so much, but during the school year I feel like I never have time to read my kind of books! This year I want to try and make a point to also read for my enjoyment! Usually during the school year, I usually only read "teachery" books. 

Organization: I really want to try and keep my desk clean all of the time. Each year I seem to get a little bit better at it, but it still isn't perfect. I've got to control my paper piles!

Planning: As I was blog stalking all summer (before taking the leap myself), I kept seeing people rave about the Erin Condren planner. I scoped things out and decided I want this. I can be frugal, so when I spend money, it holds me accountable. This should do the same! I can't wait for my Aug. 7 delivery! I hope to do my planning on Friday evenings for the following week. 

Professional: I plan to read Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. Again, I discovered this book by reading some blogs that have a book talk about it! As I read, I plan to go back to those blogs and read their posts and do some reflecting myself!

Students: My goal for my students at the beginning of the year is to get down all the routines and procedures. I like to incorporate music and sign language into my routines, so it's a little different from other teachers they've had in the past and sometimes takes a little bit to catch on. Once they have it, though, they love it! I also want them to get in the habit of organizing their desk every day first thing when they come into the classroom. (I will be their role model, because mine will be clean too!)

Motto: Being flexible is the best piece of advice I can offer and have learned over the years. We all know how much things can change on any given day! Being flexible is a valuable skill for our kids to know also.

Well, on the blogging front I figured out how to add some buttons to my page! I'm a fourth grade blogger, Iowa blogger, and a Bloglovin Blogger. Slowly but surely here! My biggest problem now is that I always want to be on the computer and not keeping up my housework! Anyone else have that problem? See you all later!

I'm now on BLOGLOVIN!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10079923/?claim=5m6z2x52wmq">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Here I am! I hope to get some followers!

Welcome to My Blog!

I am taking the leap into the blog world! I've been a blog stalker hopper for a few years! I am finally tired of just reading. I want to join in on the fun too. I titled my blog this because my last name is really hard to say and I didn't grow up in the town I now live and teach in, so most people call me Mrs. T and I thought it flowed well!

My name is Abbey and I teach fourth grade. I teach in a smaller, rural school. We have two homerooms for each grade level K-5. Our K-12 is all in one connected building, so it is nice we can utilize the high schoolers and their class work. In August, I will be starting my 11th year, all at the same school. I was a sub for one year before that. I first taught third grade for three years before moving to fourth. 

I look forward to sharing ideas, things about me, and what my students love. I can't lie - I am looking forward to some linkie parties too! Thanks for stopping by and helping me take the leap! Talk to you soon. (I'm definitely thinking about getting (buying) a cooler design, so if it changes, that is why! It might be less of a headache for me! Lol. Any suggestions?

Abbey (Mrs. T)