2012 goals and bucket list update – February

Happy leap year!  Any leap year babies out there?

Can you believe February is over?  That means it’s time for an update on my 2012 goals and bucket list (see here for the January update)

2012 goals:

• read through the entire Bible - We’re still doing good!  We have read all the way through Romans (remember, we’re starting with the New Testament first) and just started 1 Corinthians yesterday.  Like January, we missed a few days but got caught right back up the next day.  We’re still taking turns reading aloud, which I love.  I looked ahead at my calendar and by the end of March we will be almost completely done with the New Testament!  I can’t believe how quickly we’re moving, and it really doesn’t take that much time out of our day – maybe 15 minutes (it’s usually 2-4 chapters per day, depending on length).
• get my healthy lifestyle back, specifically to lose the 20-25 pounds I’ve gained since getting married. - I have lost 7.8 pounds as of this morning.  February has been tough.  I haven’t eaten awful but I haven’t been careful enough to really see much movement on the scale.  March will be better – I’m promising myself.  Do you want to know a sad story?  I’m still not back to my pre-Thanksgiving weight!!  Yikes!  Someone remind me this November/December that what I put on in a month has taken over two months to take back off.

2012 bucket list:

• make an apple pie from scratch
• take cake decorating classes - Classes start next Thursday and I’m so excited!  I’ve got all my stuff bought and ready to go.
• learn how to make Mom’s homemade Christmas cookies
• make 72 hour emergency kits for our home and cars
• make my own laundry detergent
• bake a loaf of homemade bread
• make a quilt - I got caught up with the January and February blocks of the month.  I’m excited to see what our blocks will be for March!
• grow something
• can pickles
• take some sort of vacation – We bought plane tickets to go to Chicago for a long weekend in May.  We haven’t chosen a hotel or made any plans of what we are going to do when we get there, but we know we’re going!  I’m so excited because I’ve been wanting to go to Chicago for a while now.
• get at least one scrapbook done for my in-law’s
• ???start an Etsy shop???

Other notable things:

• I turned 25 (and we celebrated a lot)!
• I started my practicum this month (a practicum is where I go to a school and work in the library observing, helping, and teaching; it’s very similar to student teaching but I don’t have to be there full time for a certain number of weeks) at a local elementary school and I am absolutely loving it!  After being a high school teacher I had forgotten (or maybe didn’t even realize) how much fun elementary school is!  I work with awesome people, the kids are fantastic, and I’m learning so much.  I’m already halfway done with my hours and I’m going to be sad when it’s time to leave!
• On a related note, now that my practicum has started I’m back to “working” almost full time (technically I don’t get paid for my practicum so I don’t know if I can call it work, but I’m there full days working alongside the library staff).  On Mondays and Fridays I’m at my practicum for the full school day.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m at WKU for my GA job a full day.  And on Wednesdays I go to my Bible study in the morning then work a half day at WKU.  Going in to this I thought the only thing I would have to do this semester was go to my practicum and put in my hours.  Sadly, that was a misconception and I have a ton of work on top of my practicum hours – creating a portfolio, activities for the portfolio, research that backs up why I’m using those work samples, written explanations, etc.  So life has been crazy and I’m a little overwhelmed right now.  I’m so ready for May to be here!
• Still haven’t sold our house…
• I survived being along for a week while Michael was on a work trip.  I shared my struggle with fear here.
• I fell in love with Dashing Dish’s peanut butter butterscotch protein shakes and have been eating one for breakfast 3-4 times per week.  Yum!  I also fell in love with her triple chocolate chunk muffins – an amazing breakfast, snack, or dessert!

And that’s about it.  Let’s have a marvelous March!

What I Wore Wednesday

Welcome to another What I Wore Wednesday!

Wednesday – Bible study, work, church

top/NY&Co. via Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros); cardi/Gap via Goodwill; jeans/Gap; shoes/Fergalicious via DSW; headband/Burlington

Thursday – work, Julie and Nora visit

top/Old Navy; cardi/Gabriel Bros; skirt/NY&Co.; boots/Madden Girl via Marshall’s

Friday – practicum, dinner with Chris and Erin

I forgot to take a picture but I just wore my Saturday outfit from last week (jeans, long cardi, Keds) with a different shirt (blue stripes instead of the ruffled tank)

Saturday – birthday dinner with Michael

top/Gabriel Bros; skirt/Old Navy; leggings/no idea; shoes/Sofft via Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros); headband/gift; bracelet/Kohl’s

Sunday morning – church

sweater/JC Penney’s; skirt/TJ Maxx; tights/Payless; shoes/Shoe Carnival; scarf/came with another shirt – don’t know what store

Sunday afternoon – bowling

long sleeved tee/Limited; t-shirt/our team shirts; jeans/Gap; shoes/courtesy of the bowling alley (I wore my Keds to and from there)

Sunday evening – church (yep, one more outfit change)

I didn’t take a picture (3 outfits in one day is a bit much!) but I just removed the t-shirt and replaced with the blue vest thing and turquoise scarf from this post)

Monday – practicum

both shirts/Belk?? (they were a gift); jeans/Gap; shoes/Fergalicious via DSW; bracelet/gift

Tuesday – work

cardi/Gabriel Bros; green top/Banana Republic outlet; pants/Kohl’s; shoes/Qupid via Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros); bracelet/gift

some excellent reading/library resources {Works for Me Wednesday}

I think we might have discussed my love for Pinterest a million times once or twice.  Though those of you who follow me on Pinterest might find this hard to believe, I do pin things other than just recipes and craft ideas (shocking, right?).  Did you know that there are tons and tons of educational things on there?  Especially ideas that can be used in an elementary school classroom.  So if you teach elementary school, are a parent of a young child, teach Bible school, or homeschool you definitely need to hop over there and check it out.

I’m doing my practicum in an elementary school library right now and the librarian I am working with (who also adores Pinterest) found several library-related things on Pinterest that we’ve been checking out, and I want to share a few of the really great resource we’ve found.

(click on the pictures to take you to the websites)

1. wegivebooks.org

This website is amazing.  This site offers over 150 free digital children’s books.  You have to sign up (but like I said, it’s free) then you can browse books and read them right there on your computer.  The picture quality is wonderful and it looks like you are reading the actual book.  Also, for every book you read, a book is donated to one of two charities.  You can search books by category (classics, popular, new), by author, by topic (family, baby, animals, Halloween, ocean, etc.); they have both fiction and nonfiction books.

Also, the books aren’t old, unheard of books.  There are lots of popular and new books, in fact, several of the books are ones that we had available in the book fair just last week.  Some examples are the Llama, llama books, Blue Chicken, Goodnight iPad, Corduroy, and The Little Engine that Could.  You should definitely check it out!

2. Using Children’s Literature to Teach Math and Science

This website uses children’s books to teach or bring up math and science topics.  There are books that connect with physics, chemistry, math, earth science, and more.  For example, reading Little Red Riding Hood leads into a lesson about the chemistry of dying fabric; reading Stellaluna leads into a discussion about bats.  A lesson plan with activities is provided for each book.  This is a great resource!

3. appitic.com

In a world of iPads, iPods, and bajillions of apps, this website is awesome.  Appitic has a collection of over a thousand apps that can be used in education – the apps are organized into easily searchable categories and have a brief overview next to each one.  There is a special ed category which has sub categories of language, writing & fine motor skills, self care, social skills, math and pre-math (and much more).  There is a preschool category with subcategories of numbers, songs, shapes, reading (and more).  You can search by themes: art, Spanish, math, science (and more) or by multiple intelligences (kinesthetic, verbal/linguistic, interpersonal, etc.).  One of my favorite options is that you can search by Bloom’s taxonomy, and that each Bloom’s level is broken down into smaller categories (Evaluation is broken down into conferencing, networking, posting, collaboration, and critiquing).  When you select a topic/category it takes you to a page with a list of apps that meet that criteria, the price of the app, and a brief description of the app.  I chose Themes-Math-Fractions and it took me to a page that listed 10 paid apps and 13 free apps.  This is awesome if you have access to iPads or iPods but don’t know where to start when trying to find educational apps.

4. Dr. Seuss activity book

Since Dr. Seuss’ birthday is Friday, elementary schools all over are celebrating and doing lots of Dr. Seuss activities.  Pinterest has a ton of Dr. Seuss activities if you are looking for ideas, but here is one that I really like.  This is a free, printable workbook (Fyi when you go to the website and click on “view website” it will bring a screen saying you have to be a member, but if you close out of that screen it will still download the .pdf) that has uses Dr. Seuss themes and has math, reading, spelling, etc. activities.

5. Seussville.com

This is a fun, interactive website with Dr. Seuss-related games and activities for students as well as resources for parents/teachers.  Our students used this website yesterday and seemed to enjoy it.

6. Bloom’s digital taxonomy pyramid

I don’t know about you but I struggle with #1 getting my lessons into the upper levels of Blooms and #2 wading through all the Web 2.0 tools that are out there to figure out what to use with my students.  This Bloom’s pyramid helps tremendously with both problems!  When you do the actual website where this pyramid is located, you can click on the name of the tool that you want to know more about (i.e. ninjawords from the “Remembering” level, or iRubric from the “Evaluating” level) and it takes you straight to that website.  Awesome!  I love love love this!

7. Booksource classroom organizer

This last one is a wild card – only because I haven’t actually set it up and used it since I’m not in a classroom right now.  Supposedly, though, this site provides a way for you to use your smart phone to scan the bar codes on your classroom library books and then scan them to check them in and out, organize them by reading level, and display data on which books have been checked out.  It sounds awesome so if you are currently a teacher you should check this out (it’s free but it’s intended for teachers so you’re supposed to indicate what school you teach and and what grade level you teach).

Whew…I only intended to share 5 resources but I kept thinking of ones I wanted to share…you’re lucky I stopped at 7 .  Check out my “school stuff” board on Pinterest if you want to see more of the education-related items I’ve bookmarked.

On a semi-related note, if you’re on Pinterest or Facebook you’ve seen the million pictures of Ryan Gosling with goofy quotes written on them.  They crack me up! (here’s a whole website devoted to teacher/education-related quotes – hilarious!)  Last week I created a “what’s wrong with this bookshelf?” Jeopardy game to play with the kids to help review how to treat the books and bookshelves in the library.  I also included some funny pictures of some teachers with saying things like “messy shelves make me mad”, etc.  For kicks (totally for the adults because the kids don’t get it) I threw in my own version of a Ryan Gosling pic and saying on the final slide of the Powerpoint.  Check out what he has to say about re-shelving books

LOL

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday.

cheesy chicken and rice casserole

This casserole is incredibly quick and easy to whip up, plus it’s healthy!

what you need: chicken, rice, cream of chicken soup, cheese, broccoli, black pepper, onion powder, water (not pictured)

start with the cream of chicken soup

add the water and the rice, stir

add the onion powder (I know it looks gross right now…I promise it gets better!)

and the pepper, mix

pour the broccoli florets into the liquid mixture

then put the chicken on top

cover with foil and bake

this is what it will look like when it comes out of the oven

add the cheese (I take the chicken pieces off and set them aside, then pour in the cheese and mix with the broccoli rice mixture – you could just pour the cheese on top of the chicken, too)

the cheesy broccoli and rice

put the chicken back in and serve

yum!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts (I cut mine into halves to make 8 portions, you can leave them whole if you like)
• 3/4 cup rice (I use brown rice)
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 bag cheddar cheese (I use 2%)
• 2 cups frozen broccoli florets
• 1 and 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions

Mix the cream of chicken soup, rice, water, black pepper, and onion powder together.  Spread in the bottom of a baking dish (11×13?).  Mix in the broccoli florets (it’s fine for them to still be frozen).  Top with chicken.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 50 minutes (our chicken breasts were still a little frozen so it took about an hour for ours to cook).  Remove from oven and mix in the cheese until melted, then serve.

Makes 8 servings (1/2 chicken breast each) at 240 calories per serving or 4 servings (1 whole chicken breast each) for 480 calories per serving.

This recipe is South Beach Phase 2 (if you use brown rice, not white)

Notes

• Like I said this meal is super easy to make, plus you can assemble the ingredients (which takes about 5 minutes) ahead of time and refrigerate, then stick it in the oven when you are ready to cook.
• I’ve said this before, but I am really not a big fan of chicken breast just cooked plain, but I do like it shredded.  Michael and I both thought that this would be better if we had shredded the chicken and mixed it in rather than having big hunks of chicken on top.  Next time I’m going to try that (and I’ll let you know how it goes).
• I also think that this might be something that could be done in the crock pot (especially since we want to have our chicken shredded and I’ve found that cooking chicken in the crock pot is the best way to get it to shred easily).  I’m not sure how the rice and broccoli would do in the crockpot (any ideas?) but I’m going to look in to it.  Looks like this recipe may get a total revamping…I’ll let you know!

bowling for Big Brothers Big Sisters

This weekend Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Kentucky held a Bowl for Kids’ Sake fundraiser.  Michael’s company participated – they had several teams that bowled during the weekend, our team bowled Sunday afternoon.  Our team was made up of Michael, one of his coworkers, his coworker’s little boy, and me.  We had a blast!  I hadn’t bowled in a while and I always forget how fun it is.

Michael

me

me waiting…

it helps to jump up and down as your ball goes down the lane

or to show the ball where to go by leaning your own body

and when you get a strike…CELEBRATE!

probably the least hideous bowling shoes I’ve ever worn (no neon and no velcro!)

yay for a fun time!

I really liked bowling with a 4 year old because I have an excuse to use the bumpers he was super cute and it was so precious watching his ball roll sloooowly down the lane.  The bad part is that I only beat him by a few points…

birthday week!

Well I suppose birthday week is technically over (but not really because there is still one birthday celebration to be had!).  Here’s a recap:

(p.s please excuse the photo quality – about half of these are from my phone)

Last Saturday night we celebrated with my in-laws.  We had delicious doodle soup (that deserves a post all to itself someday)  and I made Dashing Dish’s Frozen Peanut Butter Pie (which I need to make again so I can take pictures and blog about it – but for now just trust me that it is amazing, and head over to her blog and check it out!).

(yep, it’s in a pi dish – Mom bought that for me a few years ago)

Monday night I made a batch of triple chocolate chunk muffins to have for my birthday breakfast on Tuesday.

breakfast Tuesday morning

I had a birthday present waiting for me at work Tuesday morning from my sweet co-worker Donna

We did things a little differently this year.  Instead of opening all my presents up at once, Michael spread them out over several days. I really liked that because it made the whole week special and I got to appreciate each gift more.

Tuesday night I got my first birthday present from Michael – the note from FedEx saying that they had tried to deliver my Erin Condren planner

I have been wanting an Erin Condren planner for months now but just couldn’t justify the cost (there were some amazing deals last fall that unfortunately I missed out on).  I didn’t have this on my list but Michael knew I really wanted one so he picked one out (the cover and personalization and everything!) and ordered if for me.  It came on Tuesday but since we live in an apartment they won’t leave anything at our door so there was just a note that they had missed us.  He was going to wait, go get it Wednesday, and give it to me then, but I came home from work and announced that I was going to order an planner that night with some of my birthday money so he had switch gears and let me know I was already getting one so I wouldn’t order it! (we both have a bad habit of trying to buy things that the other had planned to give as a gift).

Wednesday I went to pick up my planner before work and buy some beautiful matching pens to go with it – I am in love with my planner and you can count on a post in the near future giving details about it

 Wednesday night I got my second gift: a certificate to switch my blog from .wordpress.com to just .com and to choose another host other than WordPress.com!  I’m excited about that (but also a little nervous because technology isn’t my thing so if you have any suggestions on how to make the switch, I’d love to hear them!)

Thursday morning Michael brought me breakfast in bed (a fried egg and a triple chocolate chunk muffin) – like I said before, we traditionally do breakfast in bed on the morning of the person’s birthday but Michael had to be at work really early Tuesday and Wednesday so we waited until Thursday to do it

on my way to work I went to Starbucks and redeemed my free birthday coffee coupon for this yummy skinny decaf mocha

Thursday afternoon Julie and Nora stopped by on their way to Alabama.  We visited and oohed and aahed over sweet Nora.

Then on Friday night Chris and Erin stopped by on their way to Mississippi to eat supper with us.  I have to say, Bowling Green has been the perfect location since lots of our friends from Lexington pass BG on their way to visit family or for work so they get to stop and see us for a bit.  I love it!

Saturday Michael took my car and washed it and cleaned the inside really well (which was so great – it was nasty!).  Saturday night we went out to eat at Longhorn and rented Breaking Dawn.  I hadn’t seen Breaking Dawn yet so I was excited to watch it – it was better than I expected!  Longhorn was delicious, as always, and since it was my birthday we splurged and got dessert.  This brownie thing was incredible!  We couldn’t stop raving over it – the brownie was super moist and soft.  I want to lick the screen just looking at the picture.

yum!

So that was birthday week in a nutshell!  We still have one more celebration to go – we’re celebrating next weekend with my family.  I love birthdays!

Dashing Dish’s triple chocolate chunk muffins

Chocolate cake for breakfast?  Yes please!  And why not when it’s in the form of chocolate muffins that are only 120 calories each and taste just as decadent as the best chocolate cake you’ve ever had.

I’ve professed my love for my newest blog crush, Dashing Dish, here, shown you my version of the Dashing Dish protein shake here, and told you about making her triple chocolate chunk muffins for Valentine’s here.  I have not been able to get enough of those muffins!  I’ve been eating them for a snack every day until that batch was gone, then I decided that was what I wanted to have for my birthday breakfast (tradition in my family is to have breakfast in bed on your birthday, the plan was for me to make the muffins the night before and then Michael would bring them to me for breakfast that morning but sadly he had to go in to work super early and I didn’t want to wake up that early so I just had to warm them up myself, but he did bring me breakfast in bed yesterday morning).  So this time when I made the batch, I took some pictures so you could see the process.

They are seriously so amazing.

You need a lot of ingredients but don’t let that scare you, because the actually mixing and baking process is super easy.

you need: oats, sweetener, applesauce, baking powder, baking soda, vinegar, Greek yogurt, egg whites, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips (not pictured: vanilla, salt, and hot water)

oh, and a blender

Line a muffin tin with 12 foil liners (not paper!)

Start putting all your ingredients in the blender (it really doesn’t matter what order)

oats

cocoa

applesauce

baking powder

baking soda

vinegar (if you do this after the baking soda then it makes fun bubbles)

vanilla

salt

yogurt

Splenda

egg whites

and water

blend

nice and smooth

pour into liners

add half of the chocolate chips (they will sink)

bake

add the other half of the chocolate chips, bake some more

ooey, gooey, yummy deliciousness!

Recipe (from Dashing Dish here)

Ingredients

• 1 and 3/4 cups oats (I use old fashioned oats)
• 3 egg whites (or 6 TBSP egg whites if you buy the EggBeater type things in the cartons)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I just used one container of Dannon Oikos)
• 2 tsp vinegar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup sugar substitute (I use the store brand of Splenda)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Pour everything except the chocolate chips into a blender (it doesn’t matter what order you put it in).  Blend until oats are ground – it will be very soupy.  Pour into  a 12-muffin tin, lined with foil liners.  Put a few chocolate chips in each muffin (use half of the chocolate chips).  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle the other half of the chocolate chips on the tops of the muffins.  Put back into the oven and bake for another 5ish minutes.

Each muffin has 120 calories and is South Beach phase 2.

I wasn’t sure if I could leave these out or if they needed to be refrigerated so I refrigerate them just in case.  When I want one I just peel off the foil liner and microwave for about 25 seconds.  Delish!

my favorite things #21-25

The final installment of my favorite things (if you missed one, check them out here: #1-5, #6-10, #11-15, and #16-20).  I’m sure between these posts and the 25 random things about me you now know way more about more than you ever cared to know.  Congratulations.

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(note: this is not necessarily our exact mattress, it’s just a picture I found when I Googled “Serta mattress”)

21. our Serta mattress – Michael gets all the credit for this one: he picked out this mattress when he left home and moved to Lexington (before we were married) and it is literally the most comfortable mattress I have ever slept on.  It’s better than any bed I’ve slept on at any luxury hotel.  Every time we travel we talk about how much we miss our mattress.  It’s that comfy.  It’s just the perfect amount of cushion and support.  We love it and I joke that we need to buy 10 of them and put them in storage so we’ll always have one to replace them as they wear out.  (sadly I don’t have a specific name or model, other than Serta, to tell you; plus chances are they don’t have that exact mattress anymore since it was purchased 4 years ago)

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and [source]

22. Clean and Clear face wash and Lubriderm lotion – When I was entering my teen years, Mom asked her dermatologist what face cleansing routine he recommended for me; since I didn’t have any particular skin issues he recommended this Clean and Clear face wash followed by Lubriderm lotion.  And I’ve been using these products ever since!  Other than the occasional blemish I haven’t really had any skin problems so it seems to work (for me).  At times I feel like there will be some point when I need to graduate to a “big girl” skincare routine (you know, anti-aging and all that jazz) but I’m not sure when or to what.  I hate sinking a ton of money into a multi-step line of face products not knowing if they are going to work for me or not so I just keep sticking to my drug store special.

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23. Love Spell – I’ve been wearing Love Spell since about age 16 and it’s my favorite scent ever.  I’m not the type that likes to change my perfume deepening on my mood, the occasion, or the season; I prefer to have a “signature scent”.  Once in a great while I will try a different scent but mostly I just stick to my old faithful.  Michael likes the way it smells, I like the way it smells, it’s a win for everyone.

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24. my pink Nalgene water bottles – I drink a ton of water.  Actually, that’s basically all I drink other than a cup of milk most days with breakfast and the occasional coffee, but it’s mostly just water.  In college (when I first started trying to be healthy) I was going through water bottles (you know, the kind you buy at the store – like Aquafina or Deer Park) like they were going out of style.  At home I would drink water from a cup but I was on the go so much that I ended up using tons of bottles.  Although I recycled them, I still felt wasteful for using all that plastic and for spending money to buy something that I could get out of the faucet!  I started considering reusable water bottles but I am a bit picky – I needed it to hold 32 ounces because I drank so much and I really liked the narrow mouths of the throw-away bottles, not the wide mouths that most Nalgene bottles had.  So super sweet Michael went searching for me, and for my birthday that year he bought me two pink Nalgene bottles that held 32 ounces and had a narrow mouth – and since he got me two I didn’t have to constantly wash the same one over and over.  Let me tell you, I can’t even being to imagine how many gallons of water have been drunk from those two bottles.  They have been everywhere, washed a million times, dropped, the white markings are rubbing off, and I’m still using them.  In fact, one is sitting on my desk right now as I type this.

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25. Chi Enviro Flex hairspray – I love this hairspray!  It doesn’t make my hair crunchy, unless I really load it on it doesn’t feel like there is hairspray on my hair at all, and it even smells good.  I do not like super stiff hair but I do like a little hold and this hairspray is perfect.  I also can’t stand stinky hairspray because that’s all I can smell all day, so to discover this one that actually smells good was amazing.  I’ve tried other hairsprays, based on people’s recommendations, but I keep going back to this one – it rocks.

So there you have it, 25 of my favorite things.  I wish I could have given them to you (a la Oprah) but alas, I couldn’t.  But at least you got some honest recommendations.

my favorite things #16-20

(click for 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15)

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16. Gabriel Brothers (Rugged Wearhouse) – If you’ve ever read a What I Wore Wednesday post of mine then you know that a lot of my clothes come from Gabriel Bros/Rugged Wearhouse.  If you don’t know about this store, please let me enlighten you!  Some stores are called Gabriel Brothers and some are called Rugged Wearhouse, but Rugged Wearhouse is owned by Gabriel Brothers so they all have the same stuff.  When I was in Cookeville in college we had a Rugged Wearhouse.  In Lexington we had a Gabriel Brothers, and now in Bowling Green we have a Rugged Wearhouse.  Which is why many of my outfits specs say “Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros)”.

Basically Gabriel Brothers is a discount store – kind of a step down from TJ Maxx but a step up from Goodwill – the clothes aren’t pre-owned (like Goodwill) but they aren’t quite nice enough for TJ Maxx.  Many of the clothes sold at Gabriel Brothers are name brand (New York and Company, Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor Loft, Express, Champion) but have something wrong with them – sometimes it’s just a label that has been put on upside down and sometimes it’s a big tear in the clothes.  So you have to hunt and look carefully at the clothes (just like any consignment/thrift store) but you can get some really nice clothes for way cheap.  I’ve definitely never spent more than $20 on one item – most are less than $10.  They also have shoes, accessories, workout clothes, and some other random things (electronics, bath and body products).  Sometimes I’ll go in and find absolutely nothing and other times I’ll find tons and tons of stuff.  That’s where I bought basically all my “teacher clothes” when I first started teaching.

They also do giveaways and run sales on top of the their already super low prices!  At the end of last year they had a giveaway and I won a Kindle!  It’s definitely worth checking out if you like to shop.

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17. Brown Bear, Brown Bear – This was my favorite book when I was little and it’s still one of my favorite children’s books.  I don’t really have a reason, there isn’t even really a storyline to tell you, but it’s my favorite.  So there.

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18. Rascal Flatts – You know how there are some artists that you like a few of their songs but not all of them, and then other artists where you love everything they sing – Rascal Flatts is definitely the later in my book.  I love every single song of theirs.  I’ll buy their whole album off of iTunes rather than just a few songs, if you get my drift.  If you aren’t a fan, you should be.  They are awesome.  The end.

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19. Numb3rs – I love a lot of TV shows but I do believe that Numb3rs is my favorite.  If you don’t know the gist of the show, it’s about two brothers – one is a math professor and a genius, the other is a FBI agent.  Charlie, the math genius, and his fellow colleagues help Don, the FBI agent, and his team to solve crimes using math.  When I was in college I was given the first 3 seasons (high school math teacher here, remember?) but I didn’t really know anything about them, just that they had to do with using math to solve crimes.  I didn’t even open them until several years later, during my first year of teaching.  The first year of teaching is super hard.  Period.  And one of the hardest things for me was learning how to grade efficiently.  So when I gave my first round of tests, 150 or so Algebra tests, the grading was incredibly time consuming (don’t worry, I got much better and faster!) – as in it took me 5 or 6 hours to grade them.  Needing something to do to keep me busy I opened the first season of Numb3rs, stuck it in my computer, and started playing them in the background while I graded.  I was hooked.  I watched those first three seasons, then bought the other three.   Yes, I have in fact used them for educational purposes in my classroom, but mostly they are just for my own personal enjoyment.  I just love the stories, the characters, the whole thing.  I’m so sad that it’s off TV now.

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20. cheese – I’m talking about a big ‘ole wedge of cheddar cheese (I actually get the 2% sharp cheddar but I couldn’t find a picture of it online).  Ever since I started South Beach many moons ago I’ve eaten blocks of cheese just about every day.  Unlike many things, I never get tired of it and it has stayed a consistent part of my diet, rather than going through phases (now just watch me start hating it tomorrow, or it be one of the foods that disgusts me when I’m pregnant, or something).  I used to buy individually wrapped pieces of cheddar cheese but now I buy the block and cut it into 1 oz portions.  Yum yum.

What I Wore Wednesday

Three things have happened now that I’m back to “working” full time (technically going to my practicum isn’t work since I’m not paid but it’s basically the same as teaching two days a week, so it’s the same idea): 1. I get dressed more so I have more outfits to show you but 2. it’s harder to be creative and I’m having to repeat outfits (I hope you don’t mind) and 3. I’m having to take more pictures of myself since I leave before Michael is up on Mondays and Fridays and he leaves before I’m done getting dressed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; most afternoons I go straight to the gym from work so by the time I get home I’m not in my work clothes anymore…so I think I need to clean my mirror since you’re going to be seeing a lot more of it.  I actually have a tripod but our apartment is too small to leave it up all the time and I’m usually in too big of a hurry every morning to set it up to get my pictures so it’s just easier to take a picture in the mirror.

Wednesday – Bible study, work

This was a bit of a traumatic day.  It started off fine – on Wednesday mornings I go to my ladies Bible study, grab some lunch, and the go to work, which is what I did this morning.  After lunch I fixed myself an easy, low sugar mocha to take with me to work.  I successfully transported it in the car with no spilling, then carried it across campus without incident…got to work, sat it on my desk, and while I was getting settled in I knocked it off…

So I got to spend my first 15 or so minutes at work cleaning up my huge, sticky coffee mess

Also, right before I left the house after lunch my computer said I had some updates, so I went ahead and told it to update.  It wasn’t finished when it was time for me to leave for work so I just grabbed the computer (I take it with me to work), left it open, and stuck it in the car, thinking it would finish the updates on the way.  I didn’t realize that it needs to be connected to the Internet to do the updates (I’m not exactly the most tech-saavy person around) and apparently removing it from the Internet while doing updates is a bad thing to do.  The computer froze and I couldn’t get it to work, so I called Apple but the guy I spoke to was condescending and tried to make me pay for a warranty that we already had and after a while of this I was in tears and thought I had killed my computer.  But Michael took care of it and talked to another Apple guy who was super nice and got me all fixed up – and now my computer is back to normal.  But it was a stressful afternoon for sure.

sweater/Gap via Goodwill; tank/Gabriel Bros; skirt/NY&Co.l tights/Vera Wang via Kohl’s; shoes/Payless; necklace/an old gift

Can you tell that I braided my bangs?  I’m not sure if I like the look or not but I gave it a try.

Thursday – work

My coworker suggested we take a walk around campus after lunch to get a little exercise since we sit all day at our desks, I loved the idea but high heeled boots were probably not the best choice – thankfully these are pretty comfortable even though they have heels so my feet only hurt a little – I’ll be bringing a pair of comfortable shoes to work from now on to change it to for our walks, though.

top/maybe Goody’s from a long time ago? not sure; cardi/NY&Co.; skirt/Gabriel Bros; boots/Madden Girl via Marshall’s

Friday – work

This was the first day of the book fair and we kept it open in the afternoon/evening – the elementary school that I’m doing my practicum at was having a dance (yes, an elementary school dance, I’d never heard of such!) so parents could come shop before they went to the dance.  After we closed the book fair we went to the dance for a little while – it was actually kind of neat.  They played kid-friendly music, served snacks, and had hula hoop contests.  Friday ended up being a super long day though – I was at school from 6:30am to 6:30pm.

top/Belk? it was a gift and I can’t remember; sweater/Limited; jeans/Gap; shoes/Crocs

Saturday – my birthday dinner with my in-laws

sweater/NY&Co,; top/Limited; jeans/Gap; shoes/Keds via Shoe Carnival; headband/Rugged Wearhouse (Gabriel Bros) (the headband was only $0.25 – how about that?)

I’m loving my new shoes.  I’ve had them for awhile but hadn’t worn them yet because I wasn’t sure how I felt about them, but I like them!  And they are comfy.

Check out my socks!  They match my shirt and sweater

I did get dressed Sunday, two outfits actually, but they were repeat outfits so I didn’t bother to take pictures of them.  (In case you really care, Sunday morning to church I wore the same red dress from this post and Sunday night to church I wore my Goodwill jacket re-do and blue shirt from this post, just with jeans)

Monday I worked at the elementary school, but it was another repeat outfit (purple sweater, jeans, and zebra jacket – seen here) so no picture.

Tuesday – work and MY BIRTHDAY!!!

cardi/Gabriel Bros; top/Loft outlet; skirt/TJ Maxx; tights/??; shoes/Target; necklace/NY&C0.

Linking up to What I Wore Wednesday