Some Things I'm Lovinnnnnn'

Today I am linking up with Katie over at Katie Did What for her Saturday series linky party.

Fiesta Bridal Shower!

Sooooooo....some things I am loving:

Parties: Last weekend was my wonderful fiesta-themed bridal shower and today was a dear friend's graduation party. I love catching up with people that I haven't seen in awhile. 

TV Show: So it's probably super silly, but one of my favorite things to do on a day off is snuggle under a blanket and watch Price Is Right. Basically it's not a sick/holiday/vacation day unless you watch PIR. I am so bad at the games though but my sister is so good. When we were younger, it was the highlight of a sick day to watch PIR. So needless to say, I have watched it every day this week.

Store: Etsy. I have ordered/looked for inspiration from Etsy so much in the wedding planning process. I ordered our guest book, and the bridesmaids gifts from Etsy and I am so pleased at what I've got. It's all so adorable! PS I just made chiffon flowers to wear in my wedding, and I semi-contemplating quitting my job to open a full-time Etsy shop (and by semi-contemplating, I mean wishful thinking).

Food: So I have been to two parties from this past Saturday to today and I have eaten way too much delicious food. But one thing that is, of course, at all parties is sheet cake. Like the big cakes you get from grocery stores that are one layer. Now, I love sheet cake. Almost more than any other cake, even homemade cake. If my parents hadn't insisted, I totally would have gotten sheet cake for my wedding. Something about it is just different than other cakes. And I love it!

Drink: So even though it is summertime, I am obsessed with drinking hot tea every morning. It's almost my favorite thing about the morning. And my dad is a tea-making guru. Basically, he makes the best tea. And it's soooo good. It's this tea that we accidentally discover when we were in Alaska two summers ago. It has a distinct flavor that is both sweet and savory and really hard to describe. But it's the best tea ever. The end. 

Makeup: Part of my favorite thing about not working is not wearing makeup. It's nice to let my face be free, especially since the wedding seems to be causing major breakouts. But one thing I must do is wear nail polish on my toes since I almost always wear sandals in the summer. And I love my signature color of neon pink. It's by Sinful Collections, it's like $3, and I think it's called 24/7. It's so bright, and it's a big pop of color for drab and dreary days. It's basically my fav and the only color I wear on my toes.

Friday Letters

So one of my new favorite bloggers Katie over at Katie Did What does something called Friday Letters. So I'm taking a page from the book of Katie today.

Friday Letters

Dear Jillian Michaels, You are a beast. The 30 Day Shred is no joke. But you make me laugh with the things you say during the workouts.
My favorite?: 
JM: The neck is not invited to the party - just the abs!

Dear Wedding Planning, Yikes you are exhausting and are too...something for someone like me. But we only have 15 days left of our relationship and then you and I are done.

Dear Wisconsin Weather, So in case you missed it, Phoenix is almost always sunny and cozy. So all of this chilly weather and rain and clouds and doom and gloom? No thank you. You better shape up for July 6. 

Yuckkkkkk.

June Happenings

A lot has happened since my last post at then beginning of June.

Summer School
I taught a week of summer school for second graders going into third grade that focused solely on math, specifically mental math and math strategies. Which is hard for me since upon teaching summer school, I realized I don't have many mental math strategies. I always do the standard algorithm in my head and I just assumed that everyone did that. 
Nope. 
Hardly anyone does that. 
News to me.

Everyone has these super clever strategies that involve rounding, compensating, estimating, etc. 

I still like the standard algorithm though and will probably continue with it because I tried to use other strategies. Really tried. But I always got stuck somewhere in my head when using a clever strategy. 

But anyways, it was hard for me to teach mental math because I don't really do it the way we're supposed to be teaching kids. But we started off doing a mental math problem every day to get the kids' brains working. They would solve the problem in their head and then talk about how they solved it/the strategies they used with a friend. 

These two girls are discussing the strategies they used to solve the problem. Which sounds tricky. But the kids actually did a great job explaining what they did in their heads to get the answer. Obviously, first graders would need a lot more scaffolding to be able to successfully share. Because my kids' favorite strategy was "I did it in my head."

Then we would make a list with the strategies they used, starting with the most basic and going to the most sophisticated. The kiddos would then record their thinking in their math journals.

Next was a minilesson where we taught the kiddos some more strategies they could use besides counting on, which was by far the most popular (but least sophisticated) strategy. We taught them about making tens, doubles, and tens frames. The students would have time to practice the new strategies with the teacher, with partners, and independently.

Here we are working with part-part-whole mats and manipulating the cubes to make groups of tens.

We also made posters that we hung up around the room for the kids to look back to whenever they needed.

Last, we ended the day with centers that reinforced these skills. The kids loved centers since they were playing games and having fun.

All of that happened in the mornings. In the afternoons, the teachers had PD about how to teach math so it was more meaningful for students. We then took our new learnings and planned for the following day. I learned a lot from teaching summer school and I am super excited to take a lot so much of it back to first grade. Things that I definitely am going to incorporate are math journals, mental math time, and a math strategies/vocab wall. 

Phoenix --> Milwaukee

I also returned to Milwaukee on a red eye flight. Which was, of course, delayed. It wouldn't have been too bad except with the time change, I didn't arrive until 1:30 or something? Thankfully, I have wonderful parents who came to get me even though it was super late at night. Plus I feel bad about leaving Evan and Marlee. But with less than a month to go before wedding day, someone has to get this planning going. 

Wedding

Thankfully, Pinterest and Etsy have been amazing resources. What would I do without them? Here are some of my ideas/inspiration.

From Pinterest: Here

From Pinterest: Here

Etsy: Here

Ampersand: TJ Maxx

From Pinterest: Here

Busy days for sure! 

June Already?!

Ahhhh, the sweet sounds of summer vacation! I have officially been on break for one week, and it is glorious. Short lived though since I am doing summer school next week and then heading back to Wisconsin where the real work will began aka getting this wedding all set.

But since it is June, that means Currently!

Listening: When Monk was still making new episodes, my family and I would watch them together. Brings back some good memories...

Loving: That I am on summer vacation. Although I still feel like I should be doing something school-related. So much so that I started making library labels for my books. It's a big job since Microsoft Word doesn't seem to like cooperating with me and the label template. But I'm making it work.

Thinking: We have a busy day tomorrow. We are going to look at (and hopefully purchase) Evan's wedding ring tomorrow. I already have mine since it came as a set, but he needs one. And since we are getting married in 35 days, we better get a move on with that. And we have to go to Target to get a few things too and this apartment won't clean itself which leads into...

Wanting: I really don't know how so much dust accumulates in one apartment. And I hate dusting. And since it's so much hotter now (it reached 108 today!), we have so much more laundry!

Needing: I feel like I say this every time, but this time I mean it! I really need a massage. My neck and back are killing me beyond belief. And I have to get a move on wedding planning. Luckily, a lot of the big things are done, it's just the little details left.

Vacay Essentials: My parents love to travel and they took my sister and me on wonderful trips. And usually beach lounging was not on the agenda. So my essentials are items that are more for the journey and city trips. First, gotta have a good book to get through long plane rides. And ideally, I take a book that I don't want to bring home so I can leave it somewhere for someone else to read. Then I feel less guilty buying new ones! Second is a travel buddy. When I studied abroad in Australia, I didn't know anyone very well so I spent a lot of time traveling and exploring the city alone. And although I enjoyed parts of that (doing exactly what I wanted), it definitely got lonely at times. So traveling with friends/family/someone is an essential for me! And lastly, a cross body bag. I hate carrying purses and I find them cumbersome when shopping or taking the subway.

Happy Weekend!