My dearest blog I promise I have not deserted you......

As you can see I have been very busy and I have neglected my precious blog. I mean really who wants to follow a blogger who never blogs?! Let me catch you up on my face paced life. School let out last year at the end of May. I was married two weeks later. Our wedding was everything we ever dreamed of and more. Our only regret is that we didn't rent the reception venue all night. Little did we know we would be having the time of our lives (instead of being dead dog tired like I thought). Our wedding day was amazing. The weather couldn't have been any more beautiful. For the beginning of June it was not too hot and the sky was just and blue and clear as the ocean. There was little to no cloud coverage. Here are a few preview pictures...

The chapel was located in Chattanooga, Tennessee on the campus of the University of Tennessee (where both of I attended school). Patten Chapel was build in the early nineteen hundreds and is almost a century old. It is amazingly gorgeous (I know bad use of adjectives for a teacher). Here are a few pictures of the inside...

Ok enough about the chapel, now to the dress. The dress was an elegant fit and flair, designed by Stella York (an Australian). I found the dress at a store in Atlanta. The store will remain nameless because I don't want to send business their way. I absolutely loved my dress don't get me wrong, but the interactions I had with them were pain staking. The dress was ivory lace, with an oyster underlay to really make the lace stand out. The bridesmaid's dresses were Bill Levkoff and I loved how each girl selected her own. I felt like that gave them ownership in their own personal dresses. Here are some more visuals. 

Planning my wedding was one of the most enjoyable events in my life thus far. A lot of people think of it as a stressful grueling process. I enjoyed every minute of the ride. I would love to give a shout out to my florist (who is a teacher what what?!). She teaches middle school now, but she use to own her own florist store. She did an AMAZING job. Also another shout out to the baker. Dan the Cake Man is the bomb diggity. I think the cake tasting process was Wes' favorite of all the wedding festivities. The wedding cake was strawberry and white chocolate vanilla, with butter cream strawberry filling and was to die for. I can't wait until our year anniversary to have another taste. Wes' grooms cake was chocolate on chocolate with a Duck Dynasty flair. 

Now to the groom and his crew. I thought the pictures of Wes and his groomsmen were adorable. Here are a few:

Isn't the cotton adorable??? I had to brag on myself. I made them!

Ok enough anticipation... I know if you're reading this you are like where is the juicy stuff?!?! 

Here are a few of our favorites...

That right there folks is how the hashtag #itsapalmerlife came into existence and the rest is history....

October Pick 3 Linky

It's that time again to linky up with the Inspired Owl and Pawsitively Teaching for the monthly Pick 3 Pins. I always enjoy going and selecting my favorite, but I also love going and looking through what other people choose for their favorite pins. 

Oh the joys of teaching measurement....Measurement is one of the hardest math standards, I believe, to teach fourth graders. It is really abstract for them to grasp, not to mention confusing because they have to learn US Customary and the Metric system for every unit of measure. I will be teaching weight this week, so I found this great anchor chart I am planning on using as a resource. 

This week I will be reviewing and reteaching theme. We gave our students a common formative assessment and the results were no bueno, so we decided to reteach theme. I found this resource on Pinterest and what a great idea to connect Disney songs to the theme. I have a feeling my students will love this idea. 

Lastly, this week I will begin a unit on Native American's in relation to North Carolina. Like I have stated in previous post, I recently moved to North Carolina and I do not know any North Carolina history. In saying that the students and I this year will be learning the standards collectively. I found this resource that I am planning on using to help teach about the natives of North Carolina!

Currently October

First let me apologize to my blog for neglecting it for quite some time. I am trying to get back into the blogging, designing for TpTs, and working on my Etsy store. Since a lot has been going on in my life over the past few months I have not been keeping up with my online resources. Here's a toast to blogging again!

I am linking up with one of my favorite fourth grade teachers Farley, she is the bomb dot com for her Currently October linky.

Happy October!! I don't know about you, but it is nice to have cooler weather (even though I am currently in the line of hurricane Joaquin YIKES!). I am originally from Georgia and I lived in the northwest corner, which never received hurricane weather due to the fact we were far from the coast. Now I live in North Carolina, which is about three hours from the coast. Therefore, the weather has pushed to the west from the coast to BAM my area. It has been raining from almost two weeks and everywhere is flooded. At least we live on a hill, but there are lots of tall, old trees that could easily loose branches which makes me nervous! Any who I am glad that you stopped by to see what I am up to. Please go link up with Farley and catch up with all of our other teacher blogging friends. 

Monday Made It

Fortunately I still have on week left before a week of in service days. I recently moved states, so I will be starting a new job and I will be getting my classroom ready in a dash. I haven't been able to get into my room because the floors are not finished due to summer school. This summer was the fastest yet. I guess when you get married and move across states a lot of your time is taken up. This link up with 4th Grade Frolics is one of my absolute faves!! I will be including a few home creations. 

This first project serves a very important purpose. The house we moved into is a lot smaller than where we lived before. The kitchen being one of the smallest rooms in the house. Needless to say, we had a lot more stuff than cabinet space. I had a genius idea to get a baker's rack. Well an actual baker's rack can be expensive, so I decided to DIY my own. I went to Walmart and purchased this utility shelf. I got my hubs to put it together for me. Afterwards, I ran out to Lowe's and took one of the shelves with me. I had a nice gentleman help me get plywood cut to fit the shelf size. I then wandered over to the stain and selected one that matched my kitchen table perfect! I stained each piece and let them dry over night. Voila! Like magic I put my wood pieces on my shelves and I now have a baker's rack. 

I saw this idea originally on Pinterest. This is my spin on a wedding day shadow box. Here you have my wedding invitation, program, bouquet (dried out of course), my grandfather's white bible from his wedding day, Wes' boutonniere, chalkboard label, an embroidered bible cover, and the letters are from our photo booth banner. I LOVE how it turned out!!

These little treasure were inspired from Pinterest. Wes and I made these for his uncles birthday to go with a Jack Daniel's barrel table that his wife bought him. They are really easy to make. You need to first drink a bottle of Jack (I don't drink it, but my hubs loves it on special occasions). Then you need to go to Ace hardware and get a copper coupling. Lastly, pick up a wick that goes in a tiki torch. After you have these pieces you connect the coupling to the bottle with super glue and then drop the wick in. Oh yeah don't forget to get some citronella to pour in, so that when you light it you won't get bit by a mosquito. 

#2GETHERWEAREBETTER AUGUST BULLETIN BOARDS

Finally getting a chance to link up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners. 

Since I just moved last Saturday I haven't exactly gotten to get into my new room. I went by to drop off all my school materials on Monday, but the floors were being waxed in my room. I had to drop off my materials in the book room as seen below. Don't judge the large mess.

I selected boards from Pinterest that I am planning to utilize when I actually get into my classroom (which i haven't even seen). 

I came across this and I think it is adorable. Anytime you can get students interested in reading you've accomplished something. My prior years of students love musical lyrics and why not put a spin on Call Me Maybe?? I am planning on putting this board in the hallway, so others can enjoy as well. 

I am also planning on setting this bulletin board in my classroom. I love the terminology that goes along with evidence based learning. Last year I spent a good amount of time explaining to my students how to cite evidence in a text and how to use it to prove your ideas or points. This bulletin board would provide students a place to visually see examples of evidence based learning. 

Last, but certainly not least. I tell my students all the time during writing to use fancy words. I tell them that no one wants to read blah writing. Blah writing has no unique thought or individual idea behind it. You know what I am talking about. We try to help one another by not using blah vocab. As a group we collectively brainstorm fancy words to use in our writing, so this board would be very helpful. 

Thanks for joining me for this link up! Come back soon to read more. 

August Pick 3 Linky

First off let me congratulate Pawsitively Teaching for starting a new job, kudos to you for change. I actually just moved states and I am beginning a new adventure myself. I hope your new job is fabulous. The top picks for this link up are back to school themed. 

I did this last year with my students to set up our reader's notebooks as well as writer's notebooks. My students were very engaged in this setup process. They were able to personalize their notebook to fit their specific personality. I would highly suggest to utilize this resource. 

Since it is August and most of us have already begun school and the others are getting ready to, we all need to focus on structure. One of the most important aspects of teaching is structure. Talking happens in the classroom daily, sometimes it is positive and other times it is detrimental to learning. I really like the idea of making this anchor chart with the students and discuss the importance of when it is time to talk and when it is not. 

This past year while teaching in Georgia, the standardized testing changed. The new test, Georgia Milestone, was very rigorous and had extremely high expectations for my students. Each section had a writing portion. The answer document was 16 pages, yes 16 pages for nine and ten year olds. In saying that I basically had to prep them and do it quickly. Most of the writing prompt had something about citing evidence. I recently came across this anchor chart and boy oh boy, I would have loved to use it last year while I was prepping my students. 

I hope everyone has a safe, and fun filled school year!!

Assess Me Linky: Week 2 This or That

I am a little late getting around to this linky. I apologize my life has been CRAZY the last two weeks. I just moved six hours away from my hometown to a new state, I am starting a new job etc I won't bore you with all the details in this blog post. If you are nosy there will be a separate post about the move.

I did not participate in the post from last week as I was slinging items into moving boxes. I plan on continuing to join in on the next few weeks, so come back sit and stay a while.

1. First off I selected jeans because I do love me some skinny aerie jeans from American Eagle. I also love maxi skirts and I wear them often to school. 2. I love all kinds of jewelry, but earrings definitely are my fav! 3. I selected Jay Z instead of Conan due to the fact that until this post I had not heard Conan's. 4. I really like silver and gold, but since my wedding ring is white gold I am leaning towards the silver option. 5. Since I just moved to Winston Salem I'm selecting city. I've always been more of a city person than a country one. 6. I love love love to shop. Yes I do online shop, but I prefer the whole shopping experience, the smell, the feel, and the excitement it gives me to do some retail therapy. 7. I mean who doesn't love a bubble bath??? 8. I like to keep my personal business my own, and I assume others do as well. 9. Home is where the heart is. 10. I love breakfast any time of day. Nom Nom. 11. I use to not drink coffee, that was until I started teaching. Now I can't survive without it. 12. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise. 13. Since it's summer I am undone 24/7. 14. Since it is currently thundering I chose it. 15. I never wear heels, like ever. 16. Bad airplane experience on our honeymoon. Never. fly.American Airlines.Never. 17. Central Air because the current status of the air conditioning in our house is froze up....we are melting up in here.