Secret Santa Reveal

I decided to jump out of my comfort zone a bit and join a Secret Santa gift exchange in blogland. 

It was a lot of fun to try and figure out what to buy someone after only reading about them.

I was able to send my gift to Hilary at Diary of Do'ers

Of course, silly me, I forgot to take any pictures of what I sent her!
You'll just have to pop on over to her blog to read her post about it.
 

 I received a lovely gift from Heather over at Heathering Heights.
I have to say being the book worm I am I was loving the play on words.

She sent me an awesome infinity scarf that I'm absolutely in love with.
Hurry up cooler weather!
I still feel a little silly wearing scarfs with t-shirts!

 

 

She also sent me a cute little sombrero and some candy from San Antone!

I love that she included some things to represent where she is from!

 

Thanks Heather!

Day of Silence

High Five For Friday!

It's funny how the closer winter break comes the more I can't wait for Friday's to roll around. 

And with that:

1. Only one more week till Christmas Break! 

Here's to a week of field day, Christmas crafts, school wide PJ day, and The Polar Express!

2. Kids with crazy haircuts! 

He is so ridiculously excited about his hair, it's a shooting star.

3. Free fruit Kyle brought home!

 I love love love blackberries!

 

 4. Our Christmas tree! 

Those silver ornaments are like ninjas. 

Kyle didn't even know I put them on!

5. The Hobbit

I'm taking Kyle with a bunch of his friends tomorrow. 

It's a part of his Christmas countdown.

He is so excited to go, which is really the only reason I'm excited. 

3 hours just doesn't seem like my idea of a good time.

Linking up with Lauren at From My Grey Desk

Life Lately

Whenever my schedule gets a little off track it seems like it takes forever for me to catch up!

My beautiful childhood best friend got married to the love of her life on the 30th. 

I took off work to be in the wedding and let me tell you, it's more stressful to be away from class than actually in it.

The wedding was gorgeous despite the windy day and we had a great time together. 

True to form I have no photos. 

At least this time I have somewhat of an excuse since I was in the wedding.

Later that weekend Kyle and I bought our first Christmas tree!

My family has always done fake trees, so for our first Christmas we decided to purchase a live one.

Update on Kyle's countdown:

It's been going pretty well. I can't believe we're almost halfway done!

Some of the things have been, 

Quality Time- Setting up our Christmas Tree

Acts of Service- A back rub

Words of affirmation- notes about things I love or am thankful for

Gifts- S'more night

I've been crazy busy at school. I can't believe how life seems to get away from you when you're constantly busy. 

Christmas is quickly approaching and I've been loving starting all of the Christmas activities with my students. 

It's so exciting to see how much they are progressing!

Some of the things we've been working on are colors and sorting. 

I found this great magnet activity at the dollar store that paired both together. 

This little cutie was so excited that he was able to do it on his first try!

I love watching their joy when they are so excited about their learning.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track with everything instead of coming home and crashing!

Kyle's Christmas Countdown

The longer we've been together it seems the harder it gets for me to shop for Kyle.

Oddly enough, the opposite seems true on his end.

This year I really had no idea what to get Kyle, plus he's bought himself some bigger things he wanted recently.

I had already decided to do a few little things (although I don't know what exactly), but I wanted to do something else as well. 

I was reading Rachel's post about her and her husband's Christmas countdown and thought it was such a cute idea. 

I was just having trouble thinking of what all to add to it. 

Later that same day I came across this pin from the Dating Diva's.

Both ideas focused on doing a countdown with things you could do with/for your spouse.

I didn't have a good spot, so it's squished onto my picture hanger. You can see the numbers ready to go!

 I decided to combine both ideas to make mine. 

I came up with ideas based on the five love languages.

1. Acts of Service- things I can do for Kyle. I included physical touch in this category such as a foot massage. 

2. Quality Time- things to go do together. Not all of these are Christmas related, but it's a great way to make sure we get in some of those activities.

3. Words of Affirmation- Some days are just notes about what I love or am thankful for or about him.

4. Gifts- most things in this category are small treats or desserts we don't normally have. 

Each category is typed in its own font and they are spread out so we don't have two things in the same category back to back. 

I printed it out on cardstock and then printed a simple green border with the date on the other side.

Now we just have to wait for December!
 

Kyle doesn't seem too thrilled yet, but he has no idea what the cards contain. All I've told him was that starting December 1st he gets to flip the card every morning to see what that day has. Hopefully it'll end up being something exciting for him!

Linking up with Melissa, Sarah, and Amber

High Five for Black Friday

1. My beautiful best friend just got engaged and I couldn't be more thrilled!

2. My childhood best friend is getting married next week! We had her bachelorette party Sunday.

3. These two cuties not only decided to dress up at dinner, but had all these items with them!

4. Kyle and I braved Black Friday Thursday at Target!

5. I think we made had a pretty decent first black friday shopping experience.

Thankful Thanksgiving

I'm amazed at how quickly this month has flown by! 

Some of my kinders still tell me it's the month of October every morning. 

And no wonder, we haven't been in school for a full week all month. 

Despite all those breaks I still feel extremely behind. 

This is the first Thanksgiving in years that it just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving. 

In years past I've tried to get done with classes as quickly as possible so I could rush home. 

I would spend the holiday around my family. 

This year, I worked through Wednesday. 

I came home to my own house and spent my evening like any other. 

Until I actually see family today I don't think it'll feel like a holiday. 

Some things I'm thankful for this year:

Two amazing families who get along.

My wonderful husband who I can't imagine my life without.

A beautiful best friend who has stuck around since I was 7.

Being able to live near all of our family.

A job doing something I love.