One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado, Illustrated by Gaby Hansen

I was fortunate enough to receive a free copy of the book "One Hand, Two Hands" from booksneeze.com.  This is a short children's story that shows examples of how we use our hands every day.  At the end of the book it gives a cute prayer that goes "One hand, two hands, five fingers ten... God, thanks for my hands. Please, use them again."  I read this book to my three year old nephew and had him fold his hands to pray like the girl in the book did.  He enjoyed hearing this story and especially liked the illustrations which included a cute puppy and kitten.  I think this is a great book for young children to show them how much they can do with their hands even though they are little.  I also thought the rhyming in the book was educational and helped my nephew stay interested in hearing the story.  I would definitely recommend this book for parents to read to their children or Sunday school teachers to their students.

Week 1 Down...14 more to go!

Student teaching has been a breeze this week. I'm sure it's the easiest week I will have.  I have assignments due tomorrow by noon that I need to get on but for this week they aren't too bad.  I'm really enjoying my 5th grade class.  The students are really sweet and have good manners.  My cooperating teacher has a great personality and will be a lot of fun to work with.
My favorite thing that I've done with them so far is help them pick out books.  They have their own book basket that they keep at least 3 books in.  There are some kids that just don't like to read so they have had a hard time deciding what to read.  Hopefully I can help some of them start to enjoy reading by helping them find books that interest them.  My cooperating teacher told me about a teacher who organizes her classroom really well.  Her name is Beth Newingham and here is her website.  I'm going to try and collect all the resources I can get so that I will have them when I start teaching.
14 more weeks till I graduate.  I'm enjoying student teaching but I can't wait to have my own classroom!  Let's pray that I find a job in January.

Books I want to Read

I have a list of books  I really want to read.  I'm just going to have to fit them into my schedule because I know I will love them all.  First, I want to read "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I talked about wanting to see the movie in an earlier post but I've been told to read the book first, so I want to try and read it pretty soon.


My church will be starting a bible study on the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan.  It shares some interesting facts on the universe that God created.  Chan wants us to see how amazing God's love is for us.  I may try and read this next

 Now that I'm student teaching in 5th grade  I really want to read some more childrens books at that age level. Today in class I got to know what books some of the students are interested in.  There was one little boy who said he didn't like any kind of reading whatsoever so I'm determined to get him interested in something, even if it's just a magazine.  Anyway, here are some of the childrens books I want to read.

"The Magician's Elephant" by Kate DiCamillo.  DiCamillo is a well-known author who also wrote "The Tale of Despereaux." In the Magician's Elephant, a young orphan learns that an elephant could change his life.

Another book I will be reading is called "Soccer Cats" by Matt Christopher.  Christopher is a very popular author among those who enjoy sports.  Each of his books have a sports theme.  There are several students in my class who play soccer so I will be reading this to see if it would be a good book to recommend.

My current read is "The Walk" by Richard Paul Evans.  It is about a guy who looses everything and is ready to give up on life.  He thinks about turning to pills but instead goes on a walk that changes his life.


As you can tell, I do love reading. If you have any suggestions for books for myself or good children's books then please let me know!

Wish List

I am not feeling too well right now so I'm being lazy.  Tomorrow is my first day of student teaching with the students being there so I figure I should relax while I can.  Here are some things on my "wish list."  So mom if your reading this, my birthday is one month from today. *hint hint* =)

This is called the Ebisu Felateia Tote and is $48.41 at handbagheaven.com. I've been looking for a cute bag to use as a teacher tote.  I like this one because it's roomy but still stylish.  The strap also is interchangeable so it can be used as a messenger bag.

 I want to redecorate my room and put this on top of dresser.  Each vase is $50 at Macys. So the whole set would be quite expensive but I love the modern look.  This is called the Nambe Bud Vase Collection.

If I'm going to redecorate my room I also need some new things to go on my wall.  This is called Four Seasons Wall Decor and is on sale for $19.99 at Pier 1 Imports.

Cheerful Sunday

I had another great Sunday at church.  The people at my church are amazing.  They are so friendly and supportive.  I did the children's sermon this morning and after the service I had several people stop me to say what a great job I did.  I'm not saying this brag but to emphasis how nice it is to go to a church where the congregation encourages and supports everything you do.  You can really feel God's love at my church.  The sermon was also great today as well as the music.  I'm now excited to go to church which is a great feeling!


Today was also a cheerful day just by talking to some good friends.  There is nothing like a friend to brighten up your day.  I'm so lucky to have such great people in my life.   My sister and nephew also came to church this morning so it was nice to get to spend some time with them.  My nephew is 3 years old now and he means the world to me.  He can make me laugh no matter what kind of mood I'm in.


Mom and I went shopping in Winston again today. I wanted to get a couple more dressy outfits for student teaching.  We went to Kohls and I got an outfit for just $21.  Here it is, although it looks much better in person.

Tomorrow I will be at school from 11-7 because it's a teacher workday and also open house from 4-7.  I'm excited to see the interactions with the parents at open house.  I also can't wait to meet the kids.  It's going to be a fun semester.  It's so weird not going back to Appalachian but I am so glad that I'm not.  It's nice not having any classes to have to sit through and to be doing what I love to do- teach!


Sometime this week me and my friends are going to go see Eat, Pray, Love!  I am also ordering the book.  It has Julia Roberts in it and is about a lady who wants to change her life so goes on a journey to truly find herself.  Here is the trailer if you haven't seen it advertised yet.

Motivation to myself

This Summer I have learned a lot about myself and life.  I've mainly learned that only you can make yourself truly happy. Someone can walk into your life and bring more happiness but when they walk out you should still have happiness within yourself.  I'm not in a relationship anymore and there is an empty space there but I don't want anyone else to try and fill that void.  It's time for me to focus on what really makes me happy.  I have a lot to offer and I keep giving that part of me to whomever I think could be the right "one." Then, when things end up not working that joy inside me leaves for a while. I fall too hard too quickly but that won't be the case anymore.

I'm starting a new journey in my life now.  I only have one semester left of college before I graduate.  Student teaching has already begun and I can see that it will be very rewarding. I also have my new business up and running and it's great to work on it with my friends who are a part of it.  I am continually getting more involved in church.  I teach Sunday school and often do the Children's sermon.  Wednesday night bible studies will start up soon and I probably will participate in it as well.  All these things make up me and are things that can make me happy without having to have any guy in my life.  So to anyone who can't find true happiness in life just look at all the things that make up you. Stop looking for something else to make you happy. Rejoice in what you have now and don't dwell on life's problems. Life is too short for sadness.

Tyro Tidbits

I have been working the past couple days to put together a new website for the store me and my two best buds have been working on.  We have made a lot of jewelry for it so that is the majority of what we have up for sale right now.  We are now working on putting up some other crafts we have made.  It will basically be a shop with any crafts we make from home decorations to gifts.  To the right is a picture of one of my favorite items we have.  It is a chalkboard coffee cup made with black chalkboard paint and a pink trim.  We are all really excited about our store.  I think we have some cute ideas for different items for our store.  I just hope we are charging enough to profit from. Shipping can be so expensive.  Either way we are having a great time with it and helpful it will go well.

Check out Tyro Tidbits!

Sunday Shopping

After church this morning my family grilled out steaks for lunch.  It was delicious!  My parents like to eat lunch real early though so by 2:00 I had to stop by Taco Bell for an afternoon snack.  My mom and I went shopping today.  We first went to Kohls where I bought 2 nice shirts and some linen spray for mom's birthday.  After my coupons my total was $26 dollars which I was very pleased with.   Here are pictures of the shirts I got (thanks Google Images). The plaid shirt was on sale for $17.99 and the solid belted shirt was on sale for $11.99.  I also used a 20% coupon and $5 off coupon for signing up for Kohls email alerts.

After Kohls we went to Harris Teeter to try our luck at Super Doubles again.  I didn't do as good as did the first day because a lot of things were sold out.  Here is a list of what I did manage to find.

Danactive Yogurt
Uncle Bens Whole Grain Ready Rice
Peter Pan Peanut Butter
2 Bottles of Vitamin Water
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Protein Bar 
2 Stoffuers  Frozen Subs

Total after coupons: $1.46


I didn't get much this time but for what I did manage to find I got for free or for just a few cents.  I'm ready for triple coupons now!
 

Back from Vacation

I just came home today from a short trip to Boone.  I visited my boyfriend for a few days which was very nice.  He cooked for me, went shopping with me and we spent some time at the parkway which was gorgeous.  It was nice to get away for a while before school starts back.  I am very excited about next week though.  On Wednesday, I start my student teaching experience by being apart of the staff development meetings.  I really am looking forward to the meetings and seeing exactly what it is like to be a teacher!

Now that I'm back in town the Felicia's and I are back to working on our business.  We all love being crafty so we are working on making some cute things to go into our store.  We have decided to change the name from Pampered Teachers to Tyro Tidbits.  We also made a website instead of using Etsy so that we get 100% of the profits.  There is a lot of work to be done but we all are enjoying making things for our new store.

Harris Teeter Super Doubles is this week.  Michael went with me Wednesday morning and we got a lot of great deals.  We ended up with two bags of groceries and household supplies for $1.64.  I lost the receipt or I would share what we got.  I will be going again tomorrow though so hopefully I will have time to post what deals I end up getting.  There will be 2 coupon inserts in this weeks paper.  There are a lot of good coupons in them, as well as some newer ones.  Hopefully I will be able to use some of them when I go to Harris Teeter tomorrow. 

Well, I have church early in the morning so I'm going to head to bed.  Goodnight & God Bless!

Free & not so free....

Yesterday morning my mom and I stood in line to get a free goodie bag from All About Education. It's a store on Main Street that carries all kinds of supplies for teachers. We got their about 9:15 and there were already probably 40 people in line and they didn't open till 10. While waiting in line The Olde Homestead, another shop on Main street, came by and gave everyone free Vera Bradley items. I got paper clips and a backpack keychain. I bought myself a cute lesson plan book in the store once we finally got in. Here is a picture of most of the stuff that was in my goodie bag. I also got a catalog and some other little books. It was worth the wait!

So while I like free things, there are also those things that I like to spend a little extra money on.  Me and both of my Felicia friends went shopping this weekend.  We went to TJ Maxx and all found Kathy Van Zeeland handbags we loved.  My cousin Felicia ended up getting a white leather bag and I ended up with a purple and white zebra striped bag. 

I have to work till 10:15 tonight which I'm not looking forward to.  I'm going to go to Walmart now and get some more beads to make some more jewelry with.  I should have a lot more up on my Etsy store soon.  Felicia is working on taking some pictures of her bracelets to put up.

Open for Business!

Me and Felicia opened up our store on Etsy.com.  We have a long way to go but I'm happy just to have the name and it opened up.  Right now we are only making jewelry but the plan is to make all kinds of gifts that would be ideal for a teacher.  I'm going tomorrow to the bead store that is opening up again in town.  I'm pretty excited about that. I spend too much money on making earrings and bracelets.  It is a lot of fun though and is a good way to pass the time by at work.

Shopping Smart This Tax-Free Weekend

In NC, you can shop tax-free from August 6th thru 8th.  I do plan to fight with the crowds early Saturday morning, mainly because crowds don't bother me too bad.  There are a lot of things to take in consideration if you really want to save the most money during this weekend.  First of all know that the stores are smart. They know you are going to come buy from them because it is tax-free weekend.  They will have lots of sales to draw you to their store also.  The key is knowing if it really is a sale or not.  For example, they may advertise jeans at JcPenney for $19.99 which is $10 dollars off the regular price.  Sounds great, but wait till the next week when they are are on sale for $14.95. You would only save $1.50 on tax.  Whereas, if you would have waited till the next weekend you would have saved $5.00.  This happens in almost all stores, I've seen it year after year.  So what can make tax-free weekend worth fighting the crowd? 

1. COUPONS!  Go online right now and sign up for emails from your favorite stores.  Most likely at least half will send you a special offer or coupon for this weekend.  Here are some of the coupons I can use this weekend that I got in the mail.  Some I can even use on clearance and sale items.  I will definitely be taking advantage of my Express coupon which is $15 off a $30 purchase.

2. Look for clearance items.  There will be a lot of clearance sections in every store trying to get rid of Summer merchandise to bring in their Fall stock.  Combine these items with tax-free and a coupon and you have a pretty good deal.

3. Shop around for school supplies.  If you are going shopping in a big city that has stores all in one area like Staples, Office Depot and Walmart then try and stop by each one to get whatever their weekly school supply deal is.  Walmart may have glue sticks for .25 while Staples is advertised a $1. Do your research before you leave home.

I'll try and post a list of good deals near the end of the week. Good luck!

Back again!

It's been such a busy Summer I haven't even thought to write on here. Sorry guys! I'm going to try and keep this up now, especially to remember my student teaching experiences. Speaking of which, I start when teachers do on August 18th. I will be in the 5th grade with an AWESOME teacher. I can't wait, I'm so ready to be back in the classroom.

So to recap my Summer, I worked almost 40 hours each week for the past month or so. I took American Literature online and just finished up with it. I started dating Michael Hamilton who is now back at Appalachian. Isn't it nice how when I'm at Appalachian I date someone back at home and when I'm back at home I'm dating someone at college. Just lovely, apparently it's meant for me to be 2 hours away from whoever I'm dating. Anyway, I am very happy and hope that we can make it together while he finishes up college.  Here is a picture of us at the beach. Excuse the quality of any recent pictures , I'm using my mom's old camera because mine died at the beach.

My best friend Felicia is finally getting an apartment. I'm so happy for her and John. I'm going to help throw her housewarming party at the end of the month. I can't wait to go shopping for their house. It will have to suffice since I don't have my own apartment anymore. =(

Felicia and I have also been making jewelry. I've spent too much money already on beads and things to make earrings and bracelets. We want to start selling some things but we are trying to figure out where we want to do that at. I hate ebay's fees, which for little things like jewelry doesn't make the profit very good. So we thought about having our own website to sale jewelry and other things. We will see how that goes. Here are just a few pairs of the earrings I made. 

I've been getting more involved in church this Summer also. I've done a couple of children's sermon, I helped in Vacation Bible School and now I'm teaching the 3rd and 4th grade Sunday school class. I definitely know that God has given me the gift of teaching children. I could not be happier with my career choice and can't wait to be a classroom teacher.