Yes, I am a Copycat...Five for Fraturday!

{Sunday update!  I forgot a few things, including a picture!  Additions are in green!}

Happy Saturday all! :)  How all of you can crank out your posts on Friday is beyond me, so I am copying the Amazing Kristin, A Teeny Tiny Teacher, and doing a Five for Fraturday!

First off, Congratulations to M & M Bilingual for winning everything in my store!!! Thank you for your patience.  You will also have access to the next 5 items I place into my store {I had planned to have those in before the giveaway closed, but as my life seems to go, things did NOT go as planned!}  Thank you to those who stopped by, entered or took a look at my store, no sales yet, but I WILL keep moving forward & trust God for the results.

Ahhh, 2 seems the right number for this since the last 2 weeks did not go as planned.  I have been on Cymbalta for over 2 years {another 2} and it has been a blessing in my life.  It deals with depression/anxiety {which I have battled with for a long time} & pain from Fibromyalgia.  A bonus side effect has been the disappearance of my restless leg syndrome! That eliminated another medication I had been taking. :)  

Cymbalta went generic several months ago, and I have been getting the generic for about 3 months.  I noticed at school on August 21st some weird symptoms; dizziness, light headedness, my eyes not tracking right, my head feeling strange.  I looked up Cymbalta vs. generic after school and started reading of others having difficulty with the generic.  I contacted my doctor and requested brand name only.  I had checked several times at the pharmacy, and they didn't have it phoned in yet.  When we did pick up medicine {just a few days before my last post} it wasn't brand name, but it was a different generic so I figured it would be better. 

 I finished my post LATE Sunday night, the next day was Labor Day and I did sleep a lot of that day, just figured it was from being up til' about 3:30 am.  I went into work on Tuesday & I COULD NOT FUNCTION!!  I was BEYOND fatigued!!! My eyes burned, just wanting to close, I couldn't think clearly, had a hard time communicating what I wanted to communicate...thoughts and words sometimes hard to get right, so I walked up to the office {a walk that felt like MILES} and requested a substitute.  I started the day with my students because of the late request.  I always greet my students at the door with 'Good Morning' and one of my students said, "That was a sad 'good morning.'"

Once my substitute was there I headed to the doctor and learned she took walk ins at 11:30.  I live about 20 miles outside of town, so I figured I would go to Denny's to wait {& use their free wifi}...Nope...just sat it the car messing on the ipad waiting for the minutes to go by.  When I saw my doctor she also felt it was due to the generic,  they had no samples left in the office & through my insurance I could not get more medicine until it was late September. :-(  She had me take it more frequently, hoping that would give me more of the active ingredients {generics must be 80% the same as the name brand...the other 20% who knows!} and wrote a note for me to be off work all week.  :-(  I did NOT want to be out all week, but I also knew I could not be effective the way I was!  

The next day I felt much better mentally and emotionally, but I HURT all over and felt pretty wiped out so I slept and Thursday went back to work.  I was able to purchase the Cymbalta (around $250!) with what I had in my health savings plan.

Thursday was Back to School Night, so a long day!  Friday was okay, but I was pretty wiped out for the weekend, I went to bed Friday night and got out of bed Sunday morning!!! In addition & our Internet kept going out!  This last week was busy catching up, & my daughter's Back to School night {she attends a new school in our district~STEM Academy & uses her Chromebook all day long!}...so here it is 2 weeks later, no posts & no new products!

Last night I decided to look up an episode of E.R. that is special to our family.  My stepson, Tyler, has a heart condition and has had 3 open heart surgeries. In 2008 he was able to go to a very special camp, Camp del Corazon that is specifically for kids with heart disease.  He was able to go to 2 different weeks of camp with them.  In the last season of E.R. they had a story line that the camp was there in Chicago and they used kids from camp in the filming of the episode.  Tyler was unable to participate in the filming, but we were so amazed when it was televised that there was a GIANT picture of him in several scenes!  Now, this was really amazing because when I had gone through HUNDREDS of pictures from camp on their website, I only spotted Tyler in about 4-5 pictures!  It was fun to watch that episode last night, purchased it on Amazon!

Once again we had our 'Flat Stanley' class for Back to School Night.

 And finally, our school was challenged to do the ice bucket challenge and raise money for MDA.  My class brought in the most so students for our class were able to soak our principal, Mr. Finch. We raised around $500 as a school, I believe.  I missed one of the teachers, but here's our principal, teachers, & one of our school board members!

  This picture is cropped from the same one as the picture above it...Mrs. Klein was enjoying Mrs. Blake getting soaked...her turn was coming soon! :)

The Progression of Principals! Mrs. Enriquez from Henderson challenged Montara, Mr. Finch, and we challenged Cameron, Mrs. May!

Have a blessed week!!!

September Currently, Launching My Store, Freebies, & a Giveaway!!! :)

Technically, as I begin this post it is not yet September in my time zone, but Farley had the Currently up and by the time I hit the 'publish' button it will be September {& hopefully NOT October yet!}

Here is my Currently:

Listening~I have been at this computer for much of today & yesterday, so listening to the hum of the computer is nothing new.  Everyone else in my house is sound asleep but NO sleep for me until this is finished! {which for me may be in a few hours!!...how the blogging superstars crank out the posts is beyond me!!}

Loving~Literally for YEARS I have had the goal of getting my shop up and running.  I thought it would happen this summer, but life happened instead.  We have been in school for two weeks & two days.  I was determined that THIS would be the weekend to LAUNCH my store!!  Time to finish up so many partially finished products...right now there are 14 completed products IN the store, hopefully by the end of the week there will be at least 20-25!

Thinking~I am always amazed by those who can crank out post after post...for me post seem to take me forever...especially if I need to head to Picmonkey to edit some pictures or Lettering Delights if I need some headings...I just figure it will be several hours because I would like to explain each of my products.

Wanting~I want to stay clear minded and have a post that others will enjoy...not get exhausted and skip things that I really want to include, the way I want to include them!

Needing~Juggling everything in life seems like such a challenge for me...feel like I need to find a way to do it all...or even most of it! ;-)

Trips~I would love to go to Maui someday with my family...England has appealed to me since I was a little kid...Guatemala, well God is tugging at my heart for Guatemala...more on that in a bit!

The time has FINALLY come:

I want to share about each item that is currently up in my store and offer any one of them to you for sharing about this post, my TpT shop, or about anything in it!!

You may share in a blog post, pin something to a Pinterest board, share on Facebook, share on Instagram, Tweet about it, or even email a teacher friend or friends.  Just leave a comment here about how you shared & send me an email including what item you would like me to email to you!  Subject line: "Freebie from the Launch"  {just in case it ends up in junk mail!}  My email is Nancydwilson@hotmail.com.  

Now, that's not all....if you share {in any way} you will get an entry to win everything that is in my store when the giveaway closes!  {a minimum of 14 items...hopefully quiet a few more!}

As I have shared before, I have A LOT of STUFF...but...somehow whenever I DO get rid of something...yep, it is the WRONG thing to get rid of!  Quite a few years ago, we were told that we would no longer be using D'Nealian for cursive.  When the school year ended I dumped my cursive alphabet that had been up above my white board.  In the fall they said we could still teach D'Nealian...there were some sets of alphabet charts at the school...they were Standard...but I didn't want to spend any money so up it went.  For years I have been telling my students that they could do either...even though I was teaching D'Nealian.  Well...my room is Apple Themed so I decided this summer to make my own! :)

A good friend of mine liked mine and I offered to make an alphabet for her room.  I had her look through my graphics previews binders and choose what she though would work well in her room.  This is what she chose:

 Well, that got the creative juices flowing! :)

Those are the alphabets that I have completed right now, but I plan to have at least 5 more up by Monday night.

Several years ago I read Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer and I LOVED it!! As a matter of fact, I put together 25 quotes from the book, turned them in to posters and got them posted in my TN store.  {unfortunately, I was contacted by the publisher and so I immediately removed them...maybe this fall I will get back in communication with them to see if I can get permission to use the quotes}  Anyway, the book inspired me to encourage my students to read 40 or more books in a variety of genres.  I created this booklet:

It has a separate page for each of the following genres:

• Realistic Fiction
• Informational Text
•  Fantasy
• Biography/Autobiography
• Mystery
• Historical Fiction
• Science Fiction
• Poetry
• Traditional Literature

It also has a page for 

• Recommendations
• My Choice

Last year our district began moving into using the 

Common Core State Standards.  I decided that I 

wanted to have the SMPs {Standards of Mathematical 

Practice...used at EVERY grade level} So, I designed 

these posters:

Next, inspired by this pin I found on Pinterest:

 {this was a dead pin...no link...if it is your classroom, let me know & I will link to it!! :)}

I decided to create my own & instead of putting them in frames, I figured I would laminate them.  Last year they seemed too small, so this year I made them bigger...the set includes both!

It is now after 2 am...one more product to share about...then get Rafflecopter set up...then off to bed...very thankful for a holiday tomorrow!!!! {oh yes, & share about Guatemala!}

Several years ago I was frustrated by my students not having their multiplication facts down and I searched to find what I wanted to use on a daily basis...although there were several products out there {and a TON more now} there wasn't anything just as I imaged...so...I made this...

Last year I shared that I planned to donate 5% of any earnings with TpT and/or TN to orphan care.  As I launch, I want to promise that again.  For at least the first 3 checks I receive {whenever that happens} 5% will go to Village of Hope in Guatemala.  It is almost 2:30 am & I am fading fast so click on the links to learn more! Thank you Amy Block for touching my life and so many more!!! {check out her blog! :)}

Here's your chance to win my store! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway