THANKS and a New Look!

   Teachers are truly instinctual creatures and I am so grateful for it! I had a really rough day at school yesterday because of a parent. I know I shouldn't let a little criticism get me down, but it does. So after sitting at my desk for about 20 minutes staring off into space and contemplating what I could have done differently about said situation, I came home, had dinner, played some Zuma Blitz on my computer, had a glass of wine, and went to bed. This morning I got up, and checked my blog with my cup of coffee. I almost choked on my first sip! I went from 13 followers to 21! I know that doesn't sound like a lot for those of you bloggers out there with 1,000 or more but to me it is AWESOME! I also received 3 awards from some pretty sweet ladies:

Holly at Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade and Caitlyn from Sliding Into First nominated me the

And Edana at Color Me Kinder! awarded me the

So to follow through with the rules for the first award, here goes:

1. Thank the people who awarded me, thanks again Holly!

2. Tell 7 things about me that you might not know (sorry if you get bored and doze off, I don't lead a very exciting life):

*I live on a farm in Pennsylvania. It is my husband's family's farm. We don't have any animals, we just harvest hay to sell to the local construction companies.

*Yes, I've driven a tractor. No, I've never milked a cow. A goat, yes. A cow, no!

*We have 3 generations of teachers in our family. My mother-in-law was a teacher (she's retired now), my husband and I are both teachers, and our oldest daughter is an English teacher.

*We like to camp in the summertime. One summer, we decided to drive across the country and camp. We lasted until we were in Palo Duro (sp?) Canyon in Texas and had storms and flash flooding. Some of the campers were stranded in the bottom of the canyon because the roads were washed out, we were higher up so were able to leave. That was the last night we camped on our trip - it was hotels the rest of the way!

*I seem to be a lot older than most of you bloggers, although I am new to blogging. I'm forty-something with three children. My oldest is 23, my youngest is 14!

*My school district is located in a small, picturesque town in the Alleghany mountains. We only have about 900 kids total in both our elementary and jr-sr high school. We are WAY behind in technology. No Smartboards, IPads, etc in our classrooms. We just got projectors this year which makes me happy, but I long for all the cool technology I read about on everyone else's blogs!

*I just started blogging but I love it and am looking forward to creating some materials to share with other teachers. I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my head, just have to sit down and make myself create them on paper. So please check back to see what I have accomplished in the near future!

3. Now if you're still awake, I'm supposed to pass this onto 15 other new bloggers. I'm going to do my best:
Sandra at Sweet Times in First
Tammy at Camping Out in 1st Grade
Rebecca from The Teacher's Chatterbox

Marna from Crayon Bits: A First Grade Blog 

Mrs. Buckley from Diary of a First Grade Teacher
Traci at Dragonflies in First
The ladies from First Grade and Fancy Free
Christi at First Grade Connections
Cathy at First Grade Escapades
Chrissy from First Grade Found Me
Mrs. Simoneaux at First Grade Fresh
Amanda from First Grade Garden
Marisa at First Grade Glitter and Giggles
Sarah from First Grader at Last!
Fredia in Frogs in First

This is the longest post I've ever done, and I am sorry to anyone who has stuck with me through it all! Some of the Versitile Bloggers I nominated are also the Liebster Blog nominees (I hope that's not against the rules). Please check out their blogs and post a comment or two! There's tons of good stuff there!