January Currently!

Oh my goodness gracious!
I have always wanted to participate in Farley's Currently... fun, but I never have taken the time to figure it out. Well, I hope I did it right!!! Here's my first one!

And, she hosts this awesome linky party each month at this cute little blog, Oh' Boy 4th Grade! But this month is EXTRA special, because she is celebrating 1,000 faithful followers! I can't imagine!!!! So, head on over and check out the pencil sharpeners she is giving away!!


AAAANND, check out Abby at The Inspired Apple and Kelly & Diane at Made for 1st Grade because they are having an AWESOME Wizard of Oz giveaway!!! But it ends soon, so GO. NOW!

Enjoy your day!

Marcy

M.I.A.

Wow. What a crazy past couple of months. I apologize for being missing in action the past few months.

My dad's tumor on his lung was malignant and it has been a whirlwind figuring that out...holy cats. What they thought was lung cancer actually turned out to be pancreatic cancer. Apparently each type of cancer has its own DNA make up. (I'm learning so much...NOT by choice.) So, he has an EXTREMELY late reccurance of pancreatic cancer and it traveled to his lung, which has never happened before leaving our oncologists, radiologists, etc. totally dumbfounded as to what to do. They finally decided to treat it like pancreatic cancer, NOT lung cancer because of the DNA make up and we are in the middle of treatments.

The last time my dad went through this was almost seven years ago...way healthier and way more agile. This time around, he has severe diabetes that is uncontrollable due to the benign (yay!) tumor on his pancreas. He has no feeling in his feet, due to the diabetes, so he is pretty much confined to a walker or wheelchair. He is on a 24-hour chemo pump, which is refilled each Monday and goes off every 5 minutes. It sounds like a camera going off, which does take some getting used to. The radiation treatments are every day and they are hitting him from 10 different angles. This is causing terrible sores on his lips and in his mouth, causing extreme pain when he eats, thus causing a loss of appetite, which has led to an 11 pound weight loss in the last week and a half.

It has been a blessing to have him around this holiday season, but it is so hard to see my dad in this condition. I do not wish this upon anyone once, let alone twice.

SO that's what has been going on in my life and something had to give. It was this poor little blog. Thank you for hanging in there and for all your thoughtful prayers and emails. They are so heartfelt and it makes me teary eyed thinking about this amazing community I have become a part of. I have been taking my dad to treatment as much as they will let me. I'm not missing out on any family time!! My school family has been amazing and I have a TERRIFIC substitute that continues to amaze me, too.

Needless to say, I haven't been that crafty when it comes to school. I have been using all of YOUR units from TPT and TN to write my lesson plans. :)
My sweet buzzers LOVED Cara's New Years unit that you can get HERE if you haven't yet. We did that all last week and it was a blast. I LOVE some of their New Years Resolutions!!! SO cute.













I am so blessed to be getting a student teacher for the first time! I met her randomly at a bridal show I was at yesterday (yes, I am married but I help out a friend in the photography business). My student teacher is engaged and was there getting ideas and such. I can tell she is a mini-me, so things could get dangerous in this sweet classroom of mine. I CANNOT wait!!! :)

How do you all make your student teacher feel welcome?? This is my first time, so I am so excited, but want to make sure she feels right at home!

Enjoy your week! And I hope you'll hear from me more often now that I am becoming more accustomed to this new norm.

Marcy

On Fire!!!

Well we had our first night of conferences on Tuesday. We have three nights of conferences, yes, three. A whole day of teaching and then conferences from 3:30-7:00. It's tiring. I got home right at seven bells and immediately went to bed. My poor husband. Fortunately, his business is booming so he's been just as busy and went to bed immediately, too! Tonight and Monday night will be the same as well.

But, in the midst of all the craziness, we have celebrated the 50th day of school, in style, thanks to my good bloggy friend Cara over at The First Grade Parade. Cara, you and your 50th Day of School Fun Unit, have been my lifesaver for the past three days. My kids have LOVED every single minute of your fun activities and I have to say, I have to. THANK YOU. More on that to come after conferences. I might be MIA until then.

I just wanted to share the exciting news from Mrs. Moran over at First in Maine!!!! She graciously awarded me with the Blogs on Fire Award! Hot dog! I guess I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself and pass this little award along!! Here goes!

1. I was just diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome. Yes, it hurts as bad as it sounds. It is also known as runner's knee. Just when I develop a passion for running, God steps in and says, "Slow down sister!" So, I will be seeing a personal trainer for the next two weeks for strength training and if that doesn't help the pain, I will be seeing one of the many physical therapists in this city! Sad day. No Disney Half Marathon for me in January. :(

2. I am a competitive cheerleading coach for Dakota Spirit. I coach middle school girls and couldn't love it more. :)

3. My husband and I are contemplating starting our own business. As if him owning his own business and my teaching/coaching career isn't busy enough! We want to start flipping houses. Darn you HGTV for putting crazy ideas into our heads!!!

4. In case you didn't notice from #3, I love HGTV.

5. I'm obsessed with Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. If it wasn't for my sweet hubby that I am totally in love with, I would be off finding Sheldon.

6. I know this isn't really about me, but my dad is a 6 year pancreas cancer survivor! November is Pancreas Cancer Awareness Month and most states will be holding Purple Light Vigils on November 20 to promote awareness of this terrible disease. I will be speaking at South Dakota's Purple Light Vigil and I feel honored to spread hope to other families going through this struggle!

7. I love to travel. Although my husband does not enjoy flying, he is a trooper and supports my travel addiction.

There are TONS of blogs I could pass this along to. I am falling in love with more of your blogs each and every day!! If you haven't visited these four or First in Maine, GO check them out and give them some love! Don't forget to tell them Buzzin' sent you!!

Today in First

The Teachers' Cauldron

Miss Kincaid's First Grade

First Grade Jabber

Hope your day is GREAT!!
Marcy

Something Positive!

I said I was finally loving my kids the other day...well, today was not their best day in the Hive! Wow, were they ever chatty today!!! What do you do with a group of 27 little chatter boxes in a confined space? Seriously! I'm in awe....This might be reason enough for a shopping trip this weekend!

Jennifer, over at Rowdy in First Grade, is starting a positive movement! I need some positive in my life, so I thought I would tag along and play copycat! Go check her out if you haven't already!

My SCHOOL positives:

One of my sweet buzzers brought me an apple today.

My class is amazingly generous and ordered well over the $275 amount in the

September Book Order! We earned 5,000 extra bonus points! :)

I had one of these bad boys while my buzzers were at Gym and Art. I chugged it...stressful day. :)

My HOME positives:

My sweet Cougar will be waiting for me to come home!

My mom and I have had some amazing conversations the last few nights,

since my hubby has had to work real late!

One of our kindergarten teachers reminded me today that summer will come. :) This picture was from our vacation this past summer and I LOVE it. I can't wait to go back.

I hope you're finding a little bit of sunshine among all your chaos, too!

Marcy

Finisher!!!!

Hey y'all! How has your Monday gone???

I have to share a random personal post...sorry bloggie friends. I have to brag! I finished my first and only FULL MARATHON yesterday and I can walk today! Here are a few pictures:

I'm on the right. My cousin-in-law is on the left. Run a mile...walk a minute!



Run time! Most of the run was through corn fields and plains...welcome to South Dakota!

Feet from the finish line!! Running with my friend Randi!



Getting told they ran out of medals...how does that happen? They claim they will mail it. They better.

Here I am (in the pink) with Randi....marathon finishers! Add that to the resume....

I am so incredibly proud to say I finished. I have been battling what I thought was a bad cold for the last two weeks. I ran through mile 15 and couldn't breathe. So, I walked/ran as much as I could for the next 5 miles. After mile 20, I couldn't take running so I had to walk. I'm not so happy about the amount of walking I did, but oh well. I still finished! After a big lunch at Burger King, I went to the Acute Care. Waiting 3 hours for some random doctor to tell me I didn't have a sinus infection, even though I know my body and that's what it is. Called my doctor this morning and I'm now on a z-pak for a sinus infection.

My students were SO excited to hear about the marathon this morning!! They are even more excited to see my medal when it arrives on my doorstep!!! :)

Hope you had a great Monday!!!

WOWSA!!!!! What a Week!

Oh my goodness gracious! What a week this has been! It's only been four days, but did it ever fly by?!

First of all, the sweet Barbara at Grade Onederful you are too sweet! To be on someone's Top 10 Blog List?! I am honored! Thank you-- I love your blog, too! And Mrs. Wyand over at Keeping it True in K-1-2 nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! Awesome, more on that award tomorrow! Go check both of those awesome ladies and their blogs right away! They are too amazing!!!!
Secondly, this week has been awesome. I finally started LOVING my kids this week...yes, all 27 of them. They are amazingly good at chatting, but I have come to terms with that. At least I do not have the extreme throwing chairs kind of behaviors that I had last year! Waiting for them to stop talking has been extremely effective for me this week. I was yelling and that was not working, so I switched gears after getting sick and decided to wait, patiently, for as long as it takes. They caught on fast!!!

Today was the dreaded individual school picture day. We've been talking about them all week. I LOVE drawing their school pictures the first week of school, but never got around to it until this week. Without the chatting, we accomplished a lot in this classroom this week! Here's a glimpse of a few school pictures:

I just adore them. I keep them hanging up all year. At our poetry coffeehouse at the end of the year, I take them down and hang them in the hallway outside our classroom. Each buzzer writes an "About the Author" page. Also, very adorable.

Today was the first Friday I tried Math Stations. It was a success. I almost can't wait until next Friday already. :)

We also watched a clip on 9/11 today. Most of my buzzers knew about it already. I love that their parents have exposed them to history at such a young age! We wrote about why we love being American and they turned out darling. Some, even wrote about the World Trade Centers. And Sunday is my big race day. My first ever and last FULL marathon! I am running on Sunday in memory of 9/11. If our soldiers and military personnel can make the ultimate sacrifice, I can at least run 26.2 miles. God Bless America!

Wish me luck! One of my sweet buzzers came today with a good luck giftcard to The Juice Stop. In case you don't have one, they make the most delicious smoothies. I can't wait to indulge in a big fat juice chocolate smoothie after running 26.2 miles on Sunday.

See, we had an awesome week! I hope yours was as good as mine!!!
Marcy

Currently I am...Linky Party!

I just love a good Linky Party!! This one is kinda so fun and I couldn't resist joining! I am at home, hence the not-so-cuteness! It is thrown by Oh Boy Fourth Grade and Farley has some very cute ideas!!!


So, here's what you do...
Write down what you are currently
listening
loving
thinking
wanting
needing
&
stalking (include 3 Blogs one has to be non teacher)

And so here is mine...
LISTENING to the faint sound of the air conditioner and Sports Center.
LOVING every single one of YOU, my sweet readers!
THINKING there are not enough hours in a day to get everything at school done AND all my crafting projects at home!
WANTING to go for a run but it's now dark outside and I'm too scared to go running alone in the dark.
NEEDING to clean my house!
and...
STALKING
The Sister Teachers
I Heart Teaching Elementary
Craftiness is not Optional


So...I hope you enjoyed my currently's and I hope y'all can link up, too! Some people are so funny!

I'm back!!

Hello! Did ya miss me?
Wow, it has been a long time since I posted. I've had some issues with posting from home on a wonderful iPad! We also spent a long weekend in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota for our first anniversary!

Here's my handsome hubby and I at Mt. Rushmore!

 And here we are four-wheeling through the Black Hills near Deadwood!

And, here we are after I finished my first ever half marathon through GORGEOUS Spearfish Canyon! 

Anyway, I'm back at school. Lucky enough to have my computer up and running, so here I am! I have been workin' hard in this classroom of mine!

I have spent so much time setting up our classroom library. I went through each book and labeled them according to theme and put them in a corresponding basket. Hopefully the little buzzers will have no problem figuring out which basket their tub goes in, riiiight??? Here's what it looks like so far: 

And then, after looking at that cozy rocking chair with the bears on it, I thought it needed something more. Last year, my speech kids had a hard time saying rockING and just called it the rockin' chair. So this summer I came up with this: 

I am planning on doing read alouds and reading lessons at this chair, since it's in our classroom library. So, whatdya think?

Thank you for reading and I will post more about this year's classroom another time! Happy day to you...it's a whoppin' 95 degrees in South Dakota today!

Marcy

Soon...

Yay for 23 followers! Hooray!

I don't want you to think this is the most boring blog ever, so I wanted you to know I emailed our technology guru at school to see if he could set my computer up at school. I have all of these great pictures, stories and ideas to share with you and I can't figure it out on my iPad. So here's to hoping he'll save the day sometime this week so we can get this blog on the road!

And on a personal note, can I just share how excited I am to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary next weekend?! We are heading out west to the BEAUTIFUL Black Hills of South Dakots! I am running the Spearfish Canyon Half Marathon on Saturday and then my sweet hubby and I will enjoy a relaxing weekend of rock climbing, cave diving, four wheeling goodness and much more! I.cannot.wait!!!!