Mopey Monday

It has been a rough Monday.  I didn't feel well last night heading to bed, didn't get enough sleep, and was a bit frustrated with various things today.  If I haven't said it before, I do not enjoy teaching Math!  It is a huge thorn in my side, and every student has different needs when it comes to math and one of me.  I think that is my issue with teaching, in a class of 22 students no matter what subject you are teaching everyone needs something different, and there are only so many minutes and one of me to help them all. 

 

Back to spending my Monday evening relaxing, and waiting on  my lemon confetti pound cake to be done. 

WEEK in review

I feel like a complete slacker since I have not updated my blog in well over a week.  The past ten to twelve days have been utterly exhausting.  Last weekend was packed. Saturday started off early with a visit to Downtown Disney to be one of the first crazy Disney/Vera Bradley fans to get a piece of the new Disney Collection by Vera Bradley.  Waited over an hour but with my two gift cards and my discount the bag I got didn't cost me a dime.  A night working at Disney wrapped up my Saturday and my weekend was gone. 

This past week has been a blur because a majority of my time has been spent looking at real estate like it is my job!  There are only so many hours I can spend searching MLS listings and seeing the same homes over and over again.  Here is the biggest drawback to living in a major tourist area -there is a severe lack of affordable housing.  When houses are affordable, they are scooped up by investors and used as vacation rentals.  Which means that to find anything affordable you have to go outside of this area, and I know a lot of people that I work with do travel a bit to get to work -some drive 30 minutes to an hour depending on time of year (because tourist traffic sucks).  I however am struggling with looking at homes that far away.  Today I saw a great starter home and based on comps it could be a perfect price, but what has me concerned is the location.  Now its not in a bad location -the city its located in has a lot of amenities, but its a drive (35 to 50 minutes depending on which way I would go).  Also its on the west side of the city, if it was on the east side I wouldn't even be hesitating.  Not to mention I have lived in the area I'm in now for three years.  I'm familiar with it, I know where everything is, I have my routes for getting to various places.  If I could find a house for the price I want North of here instead of Southwest of here I'd be all set, but that's nearly impossible, and it's frustrating.  I did go view a few homes today I only really liked one.  There was one I saw online yesterday, but unfortunately it is already under contract which is really too bad.

There is not much I can really say about the rest of the week or the weekend, considering that I feel a cold coming on and I need to get to bed. 

Teacher... Thursday?

It has been a crazy week and there has been a lot going on, but on the upside this week has flown by!!  It has gone so quickly that I completely forgot to update on Tuesday.  Well to be honest I didn't really forget, after school I had to make fudge...

Oreo fudge!  And baked a cake...

Brown Sugar Pound Cake, with a brown sugar glaze.

On top of baking I had to grade a math test, and when that was done I finally made the page dividers for my teacher binder.  I also put them onto Teachers Pay Teachers, in case anyone else wanted them. And with that I will share my latest creation and head into the kitchen for a piece of cake!

 

Pastel Class Binder Set

Manic Monday

It has been one of those days, too much to do, but minimal frustrations.  Hasn't been an easy day, but it wasn't terrible either.  A week after my hard drive died I got my laptop back this afternoon, but  I also ran out of copies.  And to end the day I was at school until after 6pm, but I got a lot done though:  wrote PMPs, checked AR for our 40 book challenge, put name tags on desks and rearranged the room.  I've moved them out of square/rectangular groups, and put them into a sort of E shape, kind of.  Everyone is directed towards the front of the room, so it should be better.

Back to eating some loaded mashed potatoes -because that's always necessary at 9 o'clock at night! 

Weekend in Review

This weekend has been pretty mild, but I think I like slower weekends better than ones where I'm super busy.  Over the last 10-12 months I have spread myself pretty thin, running myself ragged on weeknights, keeping myself busy on weekends.  It is actually kind of nice to keep my schedule simple.  Onto my "Weekend in Review"

Friday night was "Unleash the Villains" night at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  I knew a lot of people who were going and had plans to meet friends there.  I figured I'd leave at like 6:30 and get there a little before 7. I did not plan on being stuck in traffic for 45 minutes, but that is how long it took me to get into the parking lot and park my car.  My friends had arrived at the same time, on the other side of the parking lot, and they were redirected to EPCOT.  It then took them almost an hour to get to Studios, and I felt terrible.  I have to say that for a Disney event planning could've been a bit better.  The idea was great!!  But everything was crammed into the hub of the park, so there were thousands of people all smushed into one area.  I think Streets of America could've been utlized for meet and greets which would've dispersed the crowd a bit.  We decided to watch Fantasmic (which I haven't seen in years) and then grabbed a spot for fireworks close to the park entrance in order to make a speedy escape.  After fireworks the villains were out and about kind of wandering, but I think we were all a bit tired and I don't regret leaving when we did. 

Villainy in the Sky fireworks.

Saturday I woke up not feeling so hot. There was some sinus, head congestion going on and it lasted all day.  I got up late, sat around doing I have no idea what for quite a while.  I ended up heading to the mall to return something (it took me longer to get to the mall than it did for me to return the shirt).  Then I stopped at Homegoods -I needed to replace a rubber spatula I threw out the other day, and finished out my day by grabbing dinner to go at Yellow Dog.  After I got home I graded papers and watched tv and that was my Saturday. 

Mr. Smokey from Yellow Dog Eats

Today I was up early -well early for me on the weekend anyway.  I finished my grading -which was only a math test that now I have to give again after an entire of review (We will never finish Chapter One!).  I checked the Target flyer online, saw that they were giving gift cards with the purchase of an iPad.  I have been wanting an iPad for a while, was weighing my options months ago between a windows tablet and an iPad.  When I was in California for my birthday I felt kind of left out because I didn't have an iPad and it would've given me something to do while hanging around the house.  Last night I started looking again and when I saw the ad this morning it really had me itching to just buy it!

I went to a Mary Kay party this afternoon, actually bought some things -which I don't normally do because the things I use I've been using forever and it is difficult for me to change.  Mary Kay has a new inexpensive fun line called Mary Kay At Play and I bought two items from that set (only $10 a piece).  We'll see how I like them.  After a few hours at the party I went to Target -bought my iPad and then got some free groceries, met friends at Menchie's, and finished up grocery shopping at Publix. 

Overall not a super eventful weekend, but its been good. I'm not stressed about work, I know what I'm doing tomorrow, I still haven't made my section dividers for my Class Info Binder -but I'll get to that eventually.  Right now I think I'm heading back to play with my new iPad mini and try to find a wallpaper I like. 

Foodie Friday: Frozen Yogurt

Growing up in upstate NY meant a lot of ice cream in the summertime.  Every summer there were at least 4 soft serve ice cream places we could visit, but once mid September rolled around, the ice cream shops closed because the season was over.  In the late 80s, however, TCBY opened, and they did not close when the weather cooled off.  TCBY -The Country's Best Yogurt, started as a small shop.  You'd go in, there were like 2 to 4 flavors, they had toppings to add, but I remember it being a bit pricey given the time and for what it was.  As time went on they added Shivers -which cost a lot, and Sundettes which were cheap in comparison.  Even as a "tween" my go to flavors always involved peanut butter.  Sundettes would be either golden vanilla or white chocolate mousse with peanut butter cup (and hot fudge and whipped cream of course).  Shivers would be the same -golden vanilla or white chocolate mousse with peanut butter cup.  Sometimes, if I was lucky, mom would even let us take pints home -it was always a good day when white chocolate mousse or peanut butter frozen yogurt were in the case to take home. 

Years have gone by since I have been to TCBY back at home. They've relocated about a quarter mile down the road, and added a Coffee Beanery, but as far as I know most things have stayed the same.   Recently though frozen yogurt places have been popping up all over the place in more of a self serve, pay by weight, type of place (TCBY has even crossed over into this).  Pinkberry of course is a quite popular one.  First time I visited though I had a sample and was not impressed.  Back in March a friend of mine were poking around during our Spring Break from school and decided to try Menchie's, she had been to Red Mango and since they're kind of the same we gave it a shot.  Unfortunately that first trip to Menchie's was the start of a slight obsession.  From then until the end of the school year it was probably a once a week habit -which was not entirely all that healthy.  I mean, just take a look...

 

All from my Menchie's Pinboard

That, my friends, is a lot of Menchie's!!  What I like about Menchie's is that, well it's close tot home, and I like seeing what kind of flavor combinations I can come up with.  I often default to the same flavors (chocolate and peanut butter) but every once in a while those fruity pebbles call my name and I need to put them on some fro yo. 

I have of course been to other places.  Visited Pinkberry again when I was in California (twice actually).  First visit was in Redondo Beach...

Where I got a chocolate peanut butter shake (of course).  I also stopped at Pinkberry at LAX before my flight back to FL. 

More recently (today actually) I visited Yogurtown while at a workshop.  Yogurtown is a local business, and they have more than just self serve yogurt, they have bubble teas and boba shakes.  I had White Chocolate Mousse with graham cracker crumbs, nutella, peanut butter chips and chocolate sprinkles.    It wasn't bad, but a little too far to visit on a regular basis. 

Teacher Tuesday

This will probably be a short Teacher Tuesday as I don't really have much to add.  School is going ok, there are some minor frustrations falling down on teachers that I think are stemming from misunderstandings at the next level.  I have faith that it'll work out for the best.  Another semi-short week this week since 4th grade has a workshop to attend on Friday.  Any week where there is a break is always a good one, especially considering it'll be a month before we have another short week (then we get two in a row!).

I have to say that aside from still trying to get a handle on the schedule, which I'm hearing is an issue with others as well, Math is a challenge.  Math is always a struggle and part of me really wants to blame Go Math for this struggle.  There are much easier ways to teach some of the strategies that we use, but I find that even with enough planning, I as the teacher don't often see the best strategy until the end of the lesson or after we've moved on.   And I don't know if this is okay to say, but there are people in this world who are not "Math People."  I am related to a couple of them!  Some people just don't get it.  They may be great at all things word related (reading, writing, etc.), but they just can't wrap their head around math.  I feel like there are one or two students in my class like that.  I try to come up with ways to help everyone, but there is only so much time in the day, and when I sit down to help one student, it's time to move on. 

I did come up with a quick easy Place Value game.  It's been on my to do list for a couple weeks now and I finally made it.  Nothing too tricky and actually very easy, but I made it so others don't have to.  And it's only $1.50!

Place Value Sort (TPT)

Edit @ 11pm:  I am pretty happy to report that I have already sold a copy of the above activity.  I don't think anything had sold that fast before.

Meatball Monday?

Yup, Meatball Monday, although I made the meatballs last week, but they've been in the freezer waiting to be added to a pizza.  I have to say I am pretty impressed with myself and how this pizza came out!  Not quite a NY pizza, but I can never get the pizza crust right. 

I don't have much else to say today.  School was ok, still a little crazy with getting the schedule right, and my school laptop died this afternoon.  I try to pull something up during Writing, the computer freezes, so I restart.  It is taking forever to restart.  It goes on in Safe Mode, so I restart normally from there and it works.  I try to back-up files and put them on my USB and the computer froze 100%.  It was 10 minutes before Block started so I grabbed it and during my planning tracked our tech guy down.  Turns out my hard drive was fried, but luckily he was able to get all my files off of it.  I have a temporary laptop for now, but I should get mine back fairly quickly.  Certainly not how you want to start the week. 

Weekend in Review

I did not want to be eating ice cream at 10 o'clock, but here I am, at almost 10 o'clock, eating vanilla ice cream with nutella and strawberries.  I have to say though it was a relaxing weekend, a little too much thinking involved however (thoughts about a desire for change), but it was pretty stress free. 

Friday was a late night at school due to a horrible thunderstorm that delayed dismissal by nearly an hour (one of the many joys of living in Florida).  I had plans to go to Disney but considering the weather, and the fact that I was pretty wiped by the time I gathered my belongings and left school, I decided to just stay in, get some school work done, and bake a cake!  

Disney day was moved to Saturday, and my friend and I ventured around Magic Kingdom and EPCOT for a few hours in the sweltering late summer heat.  Afterwards I ran to the grocery store and settled in at home for the evening.  For some reason I was flipping through channels and stopped on one of the many HBOs (which I do not pay for) to find that I have free HBO and Cinemax all weekend!  The last time I had free HBO, #1 it lasted for three to four months, and #2 I watched it all the time!  Needless to say I have watched quite a bit this weekend and definitely taken advantage of the free On Demand that comes with it.  But I will get to that later. 

Today was pretty low-key.  I sat in bed for a while watching TV and grading papers before heading out with another friend.  I went to the movies this afternoon and then went to her house where her husband cooked us dinner.  My friend's husband is launching a website tomorrow called Cook a Hippo.  From what I learned this evening it is for people who are, maybe, not interested in cooking, who might be "afraid" of recipes.  What he is making on the site is meant to be inexpensive and easy food.  We sampled his guacamole this evening, not bad.

So this weekend involved a lot of movie viewing, not what I set out to do this weekend, but I am quite happy with what I watched...

Foodie Friday: Let's bake a cake!

On this stormy Friday night I will be dedicating my post to one of my many adventures in baking.  Since the weather has me not wanting to go out (like originally planned) I've been sitting here (avoiding lesson plans) wondering what to eat for dinner and wanting to bake something.  Now I have plenty of boxes of muffin mix, and even a couple boxes of cake mix, but that all seems so boring and too easy.  I want something with more flavor, which leads me to a recipe I have been wanting to try for probably six months (at least):  Marble Milano Cake.  Now the recipe on this blog uses mint milanos, but I have double chocolate milanos, so that's what I will use. 

To start I need to gather my ingredients:

Steps one and two are messy ones that make your hands slimy and sticky.   First you have to butter the springform pan.

And you don't just butter the pan, but the parchment paper also!

Then its time to break up the entire bag of double chocolate milanos.

Once they're broken you add some of the softened butter and kind of mix it all together -by hand!  My butter wasn't quite soft so a quick 10-15 second zap in the microwave fixed that.

After that you sift together the dry ingredients (pretty lame to look at, so no picture). Then you melt your chocolate and set it aside.

Following that is the wet ingredients...

I didn't quite have the amount of sour cream the recipe called for so I probably used a little less than a cup (should still be ok). Add in the dry ingredients and mix it all up into a nice batter.

Most of that goes into the cake pan, and the rest is mixed with the melted chocolate...

Then you plop the chocolate cake mix on top of the white cake in the pan...

 

...and swirl it with together with a knife.

Final step before baking is to add the cookie mixture on top, and we're ready to bake.

After about an hour in the oven the cake is done and doesn't look too bad.  Certainly no professional looking cake, but I'm sure it still taste great.

Time for some cake and ice cream, and then more lesson plans.

Teacher Tuesday

First day back after a long weekend, and in my case an extended weekend, is never the best.  I am a bit overwhelmed with everything, the kids are slipping as far as behavior goes -which needs to be fixed NOW, without sacrificing too much instructional time.  I'll come up with a plan of action, there is just so much to do that finding the time to get everything in is tricky. 

I was at school until almost 6 today, happy to say though that I have all but 3 or 4 DRAs scored and ready to go.  I never feel comfortable forming small groups without knowing where they really are as far as Reading goes.  In the past I feel I've been able to pound it out a lot faster, but for some reason I'm struggling with this schedule we have, and I feel kind of lost being back in fourth grade teaching all subjects.  At this point I know that a lot of hard work on my end this week will mean less stress later, so I just need to push through and stick with it. 

For this week I need to decide on my reading group activities, I have general activities, and ideas for more specific things, but I feel I need a better more definite plan.  I also would like to create Math activities -place value and rounding games- for the kids to use as practice while I work with small groups -if necessary. With that said I have no new items up on TpT this week as I was away all weekend.  I have made a few more sales, so slowly but surely it's going.

Weekend in Review

Since my weekend officially ended today I am giving you my "Weekend in Review" a day late!  I spent the weekend in NY, arrived Wednesday night and left this evening.  There was a lot eating, its was definitely good food, but still a lot.  It is certainly one thing I feel I don't get in Florida -good food!! (especially pizza). 

To review, Thursday I visited with my cousin and her 3 month old daughter, was warmly welcomed with spit-up, but that is ok.  My visit was followed by lunch with my mom at the Culinary Institute, although we had plans to visit the Walkway Over The Hudson, that did not happen, but I was definitely happy to be able to go to the CIA.  After lunch we visited a chocolate shop and went to the movies.  Let me just say that I'm not sure what I was expecting from Blue Jasmine, but it really wasn't that great of a movie.  Woody Allen, I should know better. 

The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. 

I finished up Thursday visiting one of my best friends, and then called it a night.  I did a lot of going to bed early while I was home, I also woke up early. 

Friday I went to Mohonk with my dad and we finally hiked the Labyrinth trail (AKA the Lemon Squeeze), which was not quite what I thought it would be, but it was fun nonetheless.  I would do it again, but physical exertion like that first thing in the morning really knocks me out for the rest of the day.  It was a great way to experience the Hudson Valley while I was home this weekend.  

Top of the Labyrinth trail, just above the Crevice (Lemon Squeeze).

Friday ended with pizza at Tony's (sorry no website for them), where I ate 5 pieces of meatball and garlic pizza!  To be fair I was starving, but I can see where it could sound a bit gluttonous. 

Saturday was pretty low-key, I spent a lot of the morning and part of the evening on the front porch reading The Spectactular Now (which hopefully I will go see this week), I wanted to finish the book and the weather was really nice on Saturday.  I did go to lunch with my cousin and the baby, and then my mother and I stopped by a party for friend's of mine who are moving to Maryland this week.  It was a last minute thing, a friend from high school saw I was in town and thought to invite me.  It was good, we didn't stay long though.  Ended up back on the porch reading some more, had a moment where I realized why I do not live there anymore, visited my grandmother and went for ice cream.  

Sunday was THE day -Hooley-on-the-Hudson day.   It was not quite the Hooley I was expecting it to be, a lot of things about this one were different from when I was there two years ago.  I tend to run into drama while I'm there, which I tried my best to stay away from and I think I did a pretty good job most of the day -not quite sure about the end though.  Even though I came out of the weekend with some battle scars, I think I behaved pretty well.

Today was a nothing day really, back to school tomorrow and lots of things to do.  I didn't think about school much this weekend -even though I did check my e-mail a couple times, but there's really nothing I need to do for tomorrow.

Labor Day weekend is done, summer is officially over.  

Monday...

I've been back in Florida for about two hours, I feel like I have so much I need to do before going to bed, but I know I don't.  I am just afraid it will all hit me in the morning and I'll be overwhelmed, probably not.  My brain is on vacation I'm not in full function mode yet. 

To keep it short, here is my Monday list.