Wedding Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday!!

I wanted to share this wedding with you that I helped out with this past weekend!

It was at Trump National Golf Course (formerly The Point) and rumor has it Donald Trump is planning on re-doing all of the decor to make it very swanky and overly fancy. I hope that's not true because I love the nautical, somewhat rustic look of the place!!

Here is the main room:

So pretty right?! 

I love how they kept with the nautical theme (the venue is right on Lake Norman) with their table names and other decor!!

{Such a cute idea for the guest book!}

Place cards...put on ropes by your truly! 

Off to the side of the large room is this area where they had all of the food. I loved the garage-type doors that slide up and the views of the lake!

This was the view just to the right of the ceremony site... 

And I know it's hard to see/tell (sorry for the iPhone pics!) but here is the ceremony...it was right on the lake in a covered gazebo-type thing! Which was great in case it should rain!

 Here is the altar that we left up for cocktail hour (people could hang out on the gazebo and drink which was so nice!)

The only down-side was that people were on the lake in their boats, and some RUDE people were blasting their music (and it was like, AC/DC, not wedding-appropriate!) throughout the ceremony and yelling, "Don't do it!" Ummm, hello?!?!? That is so beyond rude. Thank goodness we had a super chill bride and groom!!

This was such a fun wedding to help with! I loved the nautical theme and would love to plan my vow renewal (haha start saving Mom and Dad) here!!! :)

Please Get Here Already, Fall Weather!

Ok, I am back!! I can't believe I haven't blogged in like 2 weeks. I suck. And I am sorry. I blame the new iPad, training for this stupid marathon, and just being busy with school in general!

But, no fear, I am going to catch you up on everything I've been up to lately...which hasn't been a whole lot (another reason why I've probs not been blogging)! 

Well....I finally caved and bought the Tory Burch boots I've been wanting since....oh, forever. 

Yes, I know they are SO EXPENSIVE (*hello! I am a teacher!), but I really, really needed a new pair of boots, and they were having a Labor Day sale, so the boots were 25% off! They are my back to school/marathon training present to myself. :)

Aren't they gorg?! Now if it would just cool off a little more, I could wear them every.single.day. Please and thank you.

Moving on...Trav and I got to keep this little guy at our house last weekend while his parents were at a wedding:

Ahhhh he is so presh!!! And he LOVED Travis!

It kinda made me want a baby ...(well, and it doesn't help that literally everyone I know is prego...like, I have 3 cousins due within a month of each other!) BUT, NO WORRIES, I realize we just got married a hot second ago, and so, Baby Ferg will have to wait another year...or two.

OH! I also met Teresa Guidice today!! She was visiting Charlotte at the Southern Women's Show and I found out because I follow her on twitter!! So I quick texted Kathryn and off we went to meet Teresa!

{not sure what my eye is doing in this pic..}

So, she may not be my most favorite Housewife ever, but she was really nice, and ok FINE, I bought her cookbook as well! I needed something for her to sign and it actually has a lot of yummy-looking recipes in it! 

Speaking of cooking....look what I got with some leftover wedding gift cards.... 

AHHHHH!!!

It is SOOOO wonderful!! I am obsessed already!

I made this soup in the new Le Creuset and it. was. awesome. (Both the soup and the pot!)

I also decided to be extra fall-y and make some Pumpkin Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes. However, once I started making them, I realized I didn't have enough cupcake liners....I thought I could just spray the cupcake tins really well with PAM, but...well, FAIL:

Some of them turned out ok though..

Note to self: always use cupcake liners!!!

How's Travis, you may ask? 

Ohhh, he is doing just fine. :)

I'll be back Wednesday for *Wedding Wednesday* (YAY!) to share this gorg nautical wedding I helped out with this past weekend!!! 

Have a wonderful week!!!

Catching Up

Happy Weekend!! It seems like this is the only time I have to catch my breath....

I just finished running 15 miles on the treadmill. I don't know if I mentioned it on here or not, but I am running my first marathon in November!!!! Remind me never to do this again.....it is way more intense than training for the half-marathon I did last year. And, it's STILL too hot/humid outside, so I have been running on the treadmill for 2+ hours every weekend for my long runs. NOT. FUN.

ANYWAYS....last weekend was a bit more fun (minus the 14 miles I had to run on the treadmill last Sunday) because we went to Chapel Hill for the first football game of the season (and our married lives)! VERYYYY exciting.

{It was hot as balls...thank God our seats are in the shade!}

{I'm so lucky my husband likes a team with pretty colors!}

Sunday night, Trav had a fantasy football party...so I had a nice relaxing evening to myself: 

Monday, Kathryn took me to Whole Foods. It just opened here in Charlotte, and I gotta say, I am very impressed!!! I was so intrigued by everything in the store!!! Hahah.

Every ingredient you could ever want!

Olive bar! YUM!!

Sugar free drink mixers! I do love Skinnygirl drinks, but this gives me a low-cal mojito!

Soooo many yummy cookies!

They even had a wine bar!

Kathryn and I grabbed dinner from the WAY extensive salad bar, and I even got some BLK water (if you watch RHONJ, you can understand my excitement!)!!!

Also worth noting, this week I had a house husband...Trav had to work from home all week because the DNC was occupying his place of employment uptown! Here is a list of everything he did this week:

*Made stir fry for dinner Tuesday night

*Cut the grass

*Cleaned out the garage and organized everything

*Trimmed the hedges

*Bought me flowers (!!!!)

*Made crab cakes for dinner Thursday night

I loved having him home!!! I could get used to that!!!

Have a great weekend and week!!! :) 

New School Year, New iPad

Ohhhh heyyy friends! Long time, no talk! Remember when I used to blog sometimes??? I do. 

Unfortunately {and I think I can speak for every teacher}, I am in the midst of trying to survive the first few weeks of school!!! Each year, it just doesn't seem to get any easier!

{I am pretending to be "bursting with happiness," but I am actually about to burst with stress!}

{I had these waiting for my kids on the first day! They loved them...thanks again, pinterest!}

First off, I LOVE teaching second grade! I actually feel like a real teacher!! My kids are soooo sweet, and although a bit chatty at times, I can honestly say I have no real behavior problems....or at least not yet (remember this issue from last year?!)!!

A few days ago, I was feeling overwhelmed with school (shocking, I know)...and of course, took it out on Travis! Poor guy. He felt SO bad and wanted me to know that he supported and understood my job, so...... he went out and bought me an iPad the next day!!

Crazy, right?!?!? He said he had been looking online at all of the different ways it would make teaching easier/more fun and since my smartboard wasn't working, he thought it would help me out! What an amazing husband!!!

But then, I felt guilty....I mean, that is a lot of money to spend for no "real occasion" (birthday, Christmas, etc.)! And then my smartboard finally got fixed Friday (!!!!!!! Thank god!!!!!!) so there was that whole reason for having an iPad out the window.

I decided to return the iPad.....and then I cried the whole way home!!! So the next day (and after talking to basically every friend and family member), I decided to go back to the store and get it!!!! {Hi my name is Mindy and I'm extremely indecisive!}

I am so happy with my iPad, I can't wait to start using it in my classroom!!!! If you have any app suggestions (for both classroom and just for me), send them my way!!! (I already have an iPhone, but I'm looking for good apps for the iPad!)

I've already found one that is so fun called Stick Pick!

It's basically "popsicle sticks" that have the kids' names on them...plus you can keep track of the questions you ask them and if they get it right or wrong! :)

And if your sweet husband ever decided to surprise you with an iPad (or anything else for that matter), don't return it!!!!!!!!

I'll be back {who knows when, hopefully soon} to post about our weekend, {minus me stressing out about whether or not to keep this iPad, because that did take up a good chunk of my weekend}!!!!

PS-This whole post (minus the pics...still can't figure out how to do that) was written from the new iPad!!!! HOORAY!!! 

Menu Monday!

Well, I am on my way out the door for the First Day of School! Um. Yay?!?? {PS-it is SOOOOO freaking early!! I don't know if I can get used to this?!?!}

But first, here is what I've been cooking recently for Menu Monday!!! :)

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Taco Pasta Bake

And last night, I made this:

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans

Travis likes everything I cook (he better!) but he especially LOVED this! It was a very easy one-meal dish; no need to make any vegetables sides!! :) Score!

Ok, so that's pretty much it for the dinner recipes! With school starting and everything, I haven't had time to make dinner every night! We did grill out one night, but I don't have the recipe for that! I think Trav just mixed some sauces and spices and put it on the pork chops! Hahah! He just makes stuff up...and it always tastes so good! 

But, I do have 2 more recipes to share with you! First, here's what I've been eating for breakfast (in my car at 6:45 AM) every morning! 

Egg Muffins

These are so good and keep my tummy from growling at 10 AM!

And last but not least...I strongly suggest making this guy ASAP!!!

Skinny Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

Ohhhhh yes. It is as good as it looks and lasted no more than 3 days in our house (we are pigs)!! Plus, it's kinda healthy, so I guess that justifies eating it so quickly!

Depending on how bad my class is this year, I may or may not be making this pie weekly! :)

Happy Monday!!! :)

Classroom Tour!

Well, I finally have my classroom ready for my 20 second graders coming Monday!!!
Well, it's almost ready-we shall discuss that in a bit!

But first...

The hallway bulletin board!

Here is the view from the door:

I know it looks a little plain (or at least, it does to me!), but I am planning on putting stuff up as we learn things....don't want to overwhelm the kids on the first day! :)

Behind the door: hooks for backpacks and owls to keep track of stickers earned for good behavior!

Classroom jobs:

I am doing the number system this year where each child is assigned a number. Last year, my classroom was basically a revolving door--I lost about 12 students over the course of the year, and gained just about as many! So I was constantly erasing and re-writing names on EVERYTHING. This way, if I lose or gain a friend, I don't have to go around and fix the names on everything! Their numbers are on pretty much everything: jobs, hooks, behavior clips, textbooks, etc! Hopefully this will make my life a little easier!

 Bathroom corner...YES! I have a bathroom in my room this year!!

Behavior Area of the board...all 3 things I got off Pinterest! (DUH!)

Behavior system

Voice Levels poster

Classroom Rules

On the left is my behavior system this year. Each student has a clip that will be in green at the start of every day. They can move their clip up or down depending on their behavior. I am really trying to enforce positive behavior, so I like this plan because there are three levels to move up to! (Last year, I just had blue. And I always forgot to move kids up to blue. Oops.)

Next is the reading area. 

That's my fish carpet from Donor's Chose! GREAT website for teachers to get things for their classrooms!

{another view...after I put up border-THANKS JEN!-around some sections of the board!}

Next is the kidney table where I will meet with small groups (you can't really see it in this pic, but it's there!), and our Visualizing and Verbalizing structure word cards! V/V is this program my school does in grades 2-4, so it is a new thing for me this year!! 

On the shelves to the left are textbooks--again, a new thing for me this year!! 

On the other side of those shelves are more shelves, where I keep all of my teacher books and supplies! On the top are my daily tubs, where I put materials for each day that week.

{of course, those are wedding pictures in the bottom left corner!}

Here is my desk area! 

Last year, I had my desk facing the window, and I didn't like it because if I was ever sitting at my desk (HAHA like that ever really happened), I couldn't see what was going on in the room. Now, my desk faces everything! :)

The view from my desk:

On the other side of my desk: files, fridge and MORE teacher manuals and materials!

Math Wall:

Lucky for me, the teacher who was in this room last year left up ALL of her bulletin boards!! So I decided just to leave up her Math words, too!! Such a time saver! :)

Next to that is the word wall...also left up from last year. It's blank for now! :) 5 words per week will go on it, starting Monday!

I saw this poster on Pinterest, and really liked it:

I teach in a Title I school, where so many of the kids have difficult home lives. I thought it was important to put this up, so they can feel "safe" at school. 

Another view of the front of the room (the THINK poster is also from Pinterest! Seriously, how did people set up their classrooms/teach before Pinterest?!?)

Ok, so that WOULD wrap up the tour....BUT...I decided FRIDAY (aka yesterday and first day of school is Monday) that maybe I should turn on my SmartBoard to see if it worked. Guess what? It didn't! I frantically called the tech guy into my room and he basically told me that whatever is wrong with my SmartBoard (he explained it to me, but I don't understand all of that stuff...something with a bad wire that runs through the wall?) is like a MAJOR problem and I could be without my SmartBoard for like a month! (Good thing I didn't wait till Monday to see if it worked!)

If you're not a teacher, let me break it down for you: 90% of my lessons are on, or involve using the SmartBoard. It's like a doctor working without a stethoscope, an account working without a calculator, a football player without a football. In other words, it is HIGHLY essential. 

Fear not though friends, because we figured out a way that I can use my SmartBoard! I now have this old school projector hooked up to my laptop. It is super ridiculous, ugly and in the way of everything. But, it will project the SmartBoard slides onto the non-functioning SmartBoard screen, so at least the kids will be able to see everything. (It still sucks though, because we can't write or move anything around.) 

So here's what it looks like now:

Anyone want to bet how many kids bump the cart its on?!?!? UGHHHHHHH. 

Please come fix my SmartBoard ASAP people!!!!