I'M BAAAACK! Life, Hall Pass, and FLASH Giveaway!

Hello beautiful ones!! It has officially been 10 days since my last post. 10 days!! Can you believe it?! I definitly needed a little break, but I am so excited to be back. I am seriously missing all my friends in the blogging world! Like for reals you guys. Totally missed you! Here's a little breakdown of what I've been up to:

1*Going back and forth to the doctor! This leg of mine is going to drive me insane. I'm still not back in my classroom unfortunately, but next week is 100% the week I'll be back! I already have my signed note to return back to work.Woo hoo! I have to go to physical therapy 3 times per week. Yikes. In the words of my good friend Sweet Brown, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" It's not so bad really. It actually feels quite nice to move my leg after being stationary for so long. Yesterday I even drove myself there! One small step in the right direction folks. And yes, I totally went to target and bought 3 pairs of yoga pants and 2 work out shirts for the occasion. I'm not abouts to show up there in my ratty old sweats. No girl, I crutched myself in there like an Olympian. Too bad my hopes of being a track star were shot down when he asked me to do a straight leg lift, and I couldn't. Way to make a girl feel weak buddy. I did feel better with the sideways leg lifts, which I was actually capable of doing. He told me that was my "Maxim" shot! Ha!

2*House hunting. We will be moving out of our townhome in June (which I'm quite sad about) and are on the hunt for a new house! We have looked at about 3 million houses. Let me tell you, it is not that fun of a process. There's way more business involved than I ever thought possible and its more stress than excitement. You may find me in a cardboard box here in a few months. And holy crow, when did houses get so expensive? My TPT better start picking up, and by "picking up", I mean that I need to be the next self made millionaire to afford buying a house on a teachers salary.

3*Creating things for my TPT and TN stores! I could literally just do that as a job and be happy :) I have probably canceled out all the money I have made through purchasing clipart. It is a sickness. Somebody needs to stop me!! I know there are some of you out there who feel the same way. Welcome to CAA (Clipart Addicts Anonymous). The meetings start on Tuesday, we'll be offering coffee and bagels, no  laptops allowed :)

 

Here are a few of my newest creations:

 

 

 

 

FLASH GIVEAWAY! WOO HOO!

I am going to give away your choice of 1 of these newest creations. I will choose 3 winners on Saturday morning to pick one of the items listed above and email them their choice for free!

 

Here's what you have to do:

*Follow my blog!

*Follow my TPT store HERE

*Leave a comment on this post stating which item you would want to win and be sure to leave your email address!

 

And that's it! I hope you win!!

 

4*Reading!! My favorite thing to do in the entire world. I am currently in the middle of 3 books. I need to just choose one and finish it all the way through. I'm on the last book in the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" series. So awesome, but definitely requires some thinking. I'm also reading "The Hunger Games" book number 2, also incredible. And finally, I just started the book "Beautiful Creatures", not much of an opinion about it yet, I'm only in the first few pages, but will let you know how that goes. I also just bought about 10 more kindle books. Seriously, I need to chill and stop buying more books. Sigh. There's nothing like the feeling of buying a new book though!

5*Catching up on my very favorite shows! I've watched half of the first season of The Secret Circle. Not nearly as good as Vampire Diaries, but it'll do. I'm also a weekly Bachelor, New Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Shameless, and American Idol fan. There is plenty to keep me occupied!

And that about sums up my life the past week and a half. I've always wondered, what would I do if I wasn't a teacher, and this is it, I guess. Lets just say I'm not accomplishing many life changing things these days. What I would give just to walk again! Here's the crutch report: 8 weeks down, 5 more weeks to go. Count them - 1,2,3,4,5. Yes. 5 more weeks on crutches!!! Argh! I never realized how lucky I was to be able to walk. It literally takes me 5 minutes just to get up to get the remote across the room. It is unreal how many small things are much more complicated now. And now I have a small story to share with you, which is a perfect example of how complicated it is for me to complete a normal task.

It is titled "My First Kitchen Adventure".  It all started while I was sitting on the couch watching tv. Heard a little tummy growl and no one was home, so I decided, hmm, maybe I'll try to make something for myself! I think I was feeling overly confident from being able to drive again. It was that sneaky false confidence my friends, it'll get ya. So after a 5 minute crutch to the kitchen, I open the freezer and find my favorite Gardeins (it's the best vegetarian meat substitutes out there. They have tons of awesome flavors. This one happened to be my favorite, Terriyaki Chik'n). So I try to put a little oil in the pan when it like completely pours out of the spout and half my plan is full. I was not happy. But whatevs, I was cooking and what was a little extra oil going to hurt? Count that as mistake number one. So I turned the heat on high (yes, that was mistake number two if you're keeping count). Meanwhile, Chunky Lola is scratching on my leg. So I decided to take her out while I was waiting for the oil to heat up. Mistake number three. Sneaky Liam creeps up behind me, leashless I might add, and slips through the door before I can stop him. This dog is bananas I tell ya. I worry about him often, as he seems to hit his head on things a lot. So he's running like he has just escaped from prison. Cue the nasty old neighbors screaming that my dog is not on a leash. And I am screaming back, "I'm sorry, I can't really chase him right now but he will come back soon. He just snuck out", and she screams "WHAT?" And I repeat my whole sentence, and she screams "WHAT?" And I scream "NOTHING. OK?! NOTHING". Not my proudest moment. Then she screams, "He's running into the front yard!!" and I said, "Don't worry, he will come back in a moment."  And she said, "WHAT?" And I said nothing and just shook my head because I had just about had it at that point. So now I'm yelling at Liam, saying that I have treats and cake and cookies and anything else I could think of just to get him back in the house. Finally I pulled out the Grandma card. I said grandma was here to visit. Boy did that dog run into the house faster than lightening. I felt terrible later when he sat in front of the door for 3 hours. For being so dumb, he sure has a good memory. After he runs into the house, the neighbor gives me the death stare and screams, " He needs a leash." To which I responded, "He has a leash, I'm on crutches and he snuck past me before I could grab him, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." To which she replied (you guessed it) "WHAT?" And I screamed "NOOOOOOTHING!" and crutched myself back through the door. So by the time I got back to the kitchen, it had been about 15 minutes. The oil was definitely hot because it was smoking. I turned the heat down and let it sit. I figured it had cooled after a few minutes of waiting, and that was mistake number four.  I opened the bag of Chick'n and noticed that it was a bit freezer burned. I was determined to make it and didn't care if it had mold on it at that point because after all that had happened, I just wanted to eat the d**n Chick'n. If you are someone that cooks often, you probably know what is coming next. I clearly am not one of those someones. So I just shook all the ice covered Chick'n out of the bag into the oil and O.H. M.Y. S.T.A.R.S. it was like the fourth of fricken July in my kitchen. It was popping so loudly all over the place. Apparently the freezer burn ice was melting in the oil and if you have ever added water to hot oil, you know what this was like. I'm being splattered to death with this burning oil all over my arms and I'm trying to back up as quickly as possible, which is seriously tough to do on crutches, and that's when the worst thing of all happens. The oil had splattered all over the tile floor. And guess what happens when you use crutches on oil covered tile? Yup. You slip. And that's what I did. Went flyin backward. Thank the heavens I lifted my leg in the air as not to cause further damage. So picture this: I am laying on the kitchen floor, covered in oil, my dogs are barking obnoxiously and trying to attack the stove when: beep, beep, beep. The fire alarm goes off. You cannot make this stuff up. I had lost all hope. Eventually I dragged myself up by gripping the counter and turned off the stove. The smoke died down and the alarms finally stopped. I used a wet wipe to clean the tile. And then I just went back and sat on the couch, without my food, which was burned to a crisp.  Needless to say, I will not be attempting to make myself dinner anytime soon. I'm sticking to my pizza lunchables and applesauce.

And there you have it kids! A week in the life of a temporarily crippled, out of work teacher. You never know what could happen next! Tune in next week when I attempt to tackle the microwave! What could go wrong? One might think nothing, but never underestimate me.

 

And now for a totally awesome linky! The fabulous Reagan over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits is hosting a Hall Pass linky party! If you haven't done so already, click the picture below to join the fun!

 

 

Here is how it works:

 

 

 

This one is super fun! Who doesn't love the chance to brag about their own creations?! I think my favorite product that I have in my store right now is my complete set of KB Fonts. I loooove making them and have had such amazing feedback. I've had about 5 or 6 people email me about logo use and it feels amazing that people are using what I have made :)

 

 

There are 49 fonts total and I am still making more each day! I started with 20 fonts and have added the other 29 in the past month!! Here are just a few of them:

 

 

 

Well they just put in my SmartBoard about a week ago and since I haven't been there to check it out yet, I cannot claim it as my favorite. However, I KNOW it will be my fave very soon :) The area of my classroom that I love the most would have to be our morning meeting/calendar area. We do so many fabulous things together there each day. I also love love love my morning check-in area. It is one of the best things I could have added to my room. It definitly gives the kids a sense of independece and responsibility, which is super important.

 

 

 

My favorite signal to use in my classrom is the music box! Mine looks a little like the one below, but it is cuter and it plays one of my favorite songs, "Clare de Lune"! I use the music box as a quiet signal. I wind it up at the beginning of each day. Every time they are getting too loud, I just open the lid and let the music play. I keep the box open until they are quiet again, then I close it. If they have music left in the box by the end of the day, we get to have recess! If they run out of music because it was opened too many times, there is no recess. Let me tell you, this seriously works. They are SILENT when I open that box!!

 

 

 

There are 3 main things in my life that keep me sane: chocolate, wine, and my fuzzy babies. Ooooh and books. You could sit me on the couch with a box of chocolates, sipping some Moscato, curled up with my puppies, reading a book and I would never move again. Without these things, I think I would be toast. (probably burnt toast, knowing me).

 

Thanks to Reagan for hosting such a SUPER fun linky :)

 

I promise I will have more important things to talk about soon, maybe even something school related!  Ooh la la! Wouldn't that be a nice change around here! I totally love you guys. Thanks for sticking with me through these crazy rough times. I'm sending you all my love and hugs from the unbearably hot and sunny Florida! Hope your day is filled with rainbow and sunshine (and no grumpy neighbors!) XO