Target Toy Clearance

Today was the day I've been waiting for - the day all the money saving mama blogs said that Target would put several toys on clearance for 70% off.

I first heard about this day last year when a friend I grew up with posted a picture of her finds and talked about how much money she saved.  I remember asking her about it via facebook and then quickly grabbing my keys and driving to 3 (yes, 3) Targets that night.  I came home with some cool finds for Christmas and some birthday presents.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Target does this twice a year.  Once in January and once in July.  They do this so that they can clear some space for the new toys coming in that season.  The markdowns usually happen slowly, but eventually all the toys they want to get rid of get down to 70% off.

So I was ready today.  Since it's Thursday K had school.  She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays in the summertime.  I normally take her about 9:30 in the summer, but because today was THE day I took her a bit earlier.  I hit up my first Target a few minutes past 8:00, and was finished with my fourth Target a little after 10:00.  Not bad if I do say so myself.

I was able to find a lot better things than I did last year.  When I added up all the original prices, it ended up being $213.  I paid $68.  I'm pretty darn proud of that!

I was able to get 3 upcoming birthday presents and 2 Christmas presents for some kiddos in my family in addition to some things for K.

I love a great bargain shopping trip!  I seriously get way more excited than I probably should.  :)

Retail: $213     Paid: $68

The Madness Continues

Painting - check

Organizing - NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.

In attempts to start the organizing process, I thought it would be best to start getting the big pieces of furniture in roughly the areas I wanted them to go in.  Have I mentioned that there is zero air during all this?  That's right - we painted with no air on.  So I went up late one night and started moving things around...again with the absence of air.

I managed to get the desks how I like them for now.  I'm going to stick to my Kagan "teams" and partners next year, so I kept that in mind.  I've never had desks before - I've always had tables.  I think I might like the extra storage desks have to offer.  We'll see.

So here's what the craziness looks like now!

There are zillions of little readers everywhere!  I'm hoping I can share the wealth and maybe keep some and "donate" to the bookroom.  Surely the rest of the teachers don't store that many in their rooms!

Change is a Comin'

This next teaching year will be very different for me.  Sherrod was my first teaching job and I taught there for seven years.  I loved every single year.  But this year after God basically yelled, "Hey!  HELLO?  I'm opening a door here for you!" I transferred schools to one closer to home and one where I can take K to kindergarten.  (It saddens me that her going to kinder isn't too far off!)

Sherrod was my work family for those seven years and I will miss it so very much, but it was time for me to make the move for my family.  I was already stressing about having to drop K off at another school and get to Sherrod on time....and I am NOT one of those teachers that can get to school five minutes before the bell rings.  I would be flustered for the rest of the day!  So, when this opportunity came along I decided now was the best time.  Who knows if two years from now if a school five minutes from my house would have any openings - let alone a first grade opening.

So Sherrod Elementary is now my work past and Little Elementary is my work future.  There will be some big differences this year I'm sure.  Sherrod was a Title 1 school and Little is not.  But as with every job there will be the good and bad.  Sherrod was awesome, but it did have it's tough and heartbreaking moments.  I'm sure Little will have it's ups and downs as well, but I'm excited to see just what is in store for me!  As always, I cannot wait to meet my new group of kiddos!  :)

But for now the BIG change for me is my classroom.  My room is very different than my room at Sherrod and I'm trying to slowly get my things in order this summer.  The first order of business was to paint.  The walls of my room were painted yellow and had accents of movie cameras and movie reels painted in a few spots.  Didn't exactly go with my jungle theme.  So, my amazing husband and I transformed the yellow and movie theme to a soft green like the one that was in my last room.  My husband did most of the work and I am so thankful for him!  I honestly think there should be some kind of support group for teacher spouses - they put up with so much!  :)

So, I'll keep posting pictures of the progress.  I can't wait to see the before and final after pictures!  :)

So some of my friends, my parents, Cody, and I moved most of my stuff to my new room.  The district moved some of the heavier things.  The teacher who left that room is still teaching first grade and took most of her curriculum because it was organized how she likes it.  So that means there is also lots of curriculum in that stash of stuff too.  Piled all in the center it looks a bit overwhelming! 

Lockers before - with stubborn daisy stickers all over!

We are now a daisy free zone.  :)

My crew about to start the painting process ;)

Movie camera before pic

Movie camera during pic

Movie camera after pic

Outlining

First coat - still so much yellow coming through

After 2 coats - that's a much better green!

Jackpot!

Everyone loves a good bargain, but when you put children's books on sale and teachers find out, you'd better get out of the way. :) I've been to enough Scholastic warehouse sales to know just how hard core it can be. So I was a little bit more than excited when K's school director told me of this little bookstore in Arlington going out of business. She told me one day as I was picking K up from school. She mentioned all the children's books were 50 cents, so honestly in my mind I was thinking they must not be that great, but she told me she had wiped them out of Eric Carle books. Well, if they had Eric Carle they were bound to have some other decent ones right? So I buckled K up and headed right to that bookstore.

Ummmm....MOTHERLOAD!!!

It was like I had stepped into a book shopping dream. There were tons of great books and sure enough all of them were 50 cents - even hardback. I quickly grabbed a basket and started my work of going though as many books as I could. I had a little over an hour until they closed.

My first shopping trip there is the first picture below. I ended up spending $33. I bought so many books for K, my classroom, and even my niece who loves Strawberry Shortcake.

So I posted the first pic on facebook and some of my friends went to grab some crazy bargains as well. My friend Chelsea went on Friday and the owner told her that they were bringing in more books from storage the next morning.

So of course I had to head back up there the next morning. Duh.

They were supposed to open at 10:00. but it being a family owned shop I went a little early and my instincts were right. I arrived about 9:30 and they were already opened. This time the shopping was a bit dirtier though. They had literally brought in bins from storage and they were quite dusty. But of course that didn't stop me from going through each and every bin.

My second trip I ended up spending $38. I still can't believe I got all the books pictured below for just over $70. It blows my mind.

Bloggy Blog Blog

Let's just face it....

I'm a horrible blogger.  

I have the best of intentions, yet somehow I never follow through with them...at least in the blog world. I'm not even sure who reads this other than a few friends here and there.  But that's okay with me because I honestly think this is more for me.

Some recent family events sparked my heart a bit and I decided I wanted to start a journal of family happenings.  Not so much one for my emotions and what not, but more of just a simple record of things that happen in our family.  So I bought this adorable little journal at the beginning of July and I keep it on my nightstand for easy access.   

For the record - I'm pretty horrible at keeping that too.  

But I have to ask myself - why do I want to journal or blog?  Sometimes it just seems so self absorbed. 

Then I go back to one of the blog entries when I was pregnant and suddenly my mind and heart are brought back to that time.  Things I thought I would never forget have casually slipped my mind, and I'm so very thankful that there are recorded somewhere.  

So I NEED to make it more of a habit to blog.  Maybe it's stupid stuff...maybe it's serious.  

Maybe I just need a blog "accountability partner" like Christians have for furthering their walk with God.  Maybe I need to just make it part of my nightly routine.  Who knows?  Either way I want to do it more often.  

I also want to blog about some of my teaching, except there is no way my blog will ever be like those over the top crazy awesome teacher blogs out there!  Where in the world do they get the time to do all that they do?  

Those chicks deserve capes to wear.  

For real.

Now, that won't be me, but I would like to record some classroom things here and there.  But I think I'll just tack it on to this blog...one more blog just doesn't make sense to have when I can barely keep up with this one and the one about Kaitlyn.  (UPDATE: I thought I could "just tack it on" to this one with the pages feature, but I was wrong.  So I did end up starting a whole new teaching blog.  Sigh) ;)

Let's see how long this lasts.....

To See or Not To See...Not Really a Question (Anymore)

Girls' Nights are some of my favorite times - hands down. I have a blast with my girlfriends and we've done everything from traveling to other cities, taking goofy pictures, and having a range of talks about anything and everything. I love my girl time and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Tonight is one of those nights and I'm pumped. The plans are to catch dinner and then a movie. Your pretty basic GNO.

Except I got this really uneasy feeling about this one because of two words:

Magic Mike

Yep - that's the plan. Dinner and then head to a movie - a specific movie. Magic Mike.

For those of you that have been under a rock, this movie is about stripping. Male stripping to be exact.

Honestly when I first saw previews for it my mind went - "Heck yes I'm going to see that! Hello! Matthew McConaughey? Channing Tatum?" What girl wouldn't want to see that on the big screen?

(Hmmm...Proverbs 31 going through anyone else's mind right now?)

So as the plans were made I told Cody that the girls and I were going to catch dinner and a movie. He asked a simple question - "What movie?"

For some reason I didn't want to tell him. (Red flag anyone?) If I was ashamed to tell my husband why should I even be considering it?

So I told him. And as soon as I did I noticed a drop in his face. Not anger- and I'm not even sure it was disappointment. It was just different and it broke my heart. I right away asked him if he was okay with my going. His response was, "Would you want me to go see a movie about girl strippers?"

Ouch.

I wanted to scream, "It's so different! It's guys not girls - they can't show as much with just a R rating." But guess what? It's not different. As much I want it to be it's not.

Can anyone say double standard?

ME! Double standard!

Who am I to say I don't want my husband to watch that type of movie and then turn around and watch it myself? Not cool Heather, not cool.

But, Cody said he was fine with me going and I texted my girlfriends back, said I was in, and then purchased my ticket online because it is, after all, the first day it's been open and I wouldn't want the disappointment of missing out.

But God wrestled with my heart all night and all morning. It just didn't seem alright with me. I even got a text this morning from another girlfriend saying she was in need of a GNO soon and I told her she could join us tonight. My text actually said, "We're going to see an inappropriate movie."

Wait right there. I called it inappropriate and was still okay going to see it?

Is that the kind of woman I want to be? The kind of wife I want to be? The kind of mother I want to be?

No. It's not.

I knew what I had to do. And that is not go. I have every reason in the world to want to go. Great friends, the okay from the hubby, and McConaughey/Tatum. What's not to love?

How about the feeling in my gut that it is just wrong?

Now I realize to some this is going to sound "judgy" and that's not my intention at all. In no way do I think people seeing this movie is going to make people horrible. I just know my own weaknesses and I'm not willing to give myself a foothold.

How can I sit in a Sunday school room and ask girls that are seniors in high school to dress appropriately so the guys aren't tempted, and then turn around and watch something that I know will tempt me?

How can I be a mom trying to raise my daughter to know what a godly woman is and then turn around and act in a way that I know is not godly?

How can I be a wife trying to honor my husband if I'm going to go watch other men take off their clothes?

I know I'm not perfect, and I don't pretend to be. But I do want to be intentional about my choices. It was just Wednesday night when I heard a message about loving Jesus and being a Christian when it's easy and convenient, but being a completely different person the rest of the time. I can't continue to say I'm one way and then act another just because it's fun.

Do I sound like a bible thumping crazy extremist Christian? Probably. And people are probably going to make fun of me. Luckily for me it's not my girlfriends though, because when I told them why I couldn't go to the movie they were all supportive. Told you my friends were awesome.   :)

I'm so thankful that they stick with someone as crazy as me!

Thankful

Wow.

That's honestly the only word I know that can describe how this weekend was for me. Scratch that - how this entire school year has been for me.

But let's start at the beginning.

I didn't grow up in church like most of my friends did. I went when I was very little and then when I was around three, for various reasons my parents stopped going. I picked back up again when I was in sixth grade when I started going to church with my friend Casee. From then on I would either go with her or talk my grandmother into coming over and taking me on Sunday mornings. Still, I didn't know a great deal about God, but the desire was there. I explained it to my husband this weekend as me having this huge empty void in my life and knowing that I had the capacity to love someone so much and it ate at me every single night as I went to bed. As a young girl I stupidly thought that feeling was meant for a boyfriend that I didn't have yet. But one night at a youth rally, I was saved and that feeling was never there again. God had made a home in my heart and I've forever been changed.

In high school, I drove myself to youth group and learned a lot more about the bible and about God. Then in college my relationship with God was even more solidified and I began dating a godly man who would later become my husband. Through a journey of trying out several area churches, we eventually ended up at First Baptist Arlington. That was probably one of the best decisions of our life.

We joined choir and a young marrieds sunday school class and began to build relationships in both groups. I have had mentors from both of those groups who helped shape me into a better wife and mother, and I know they will be people I will look up to for the rest of my life.

Then last year Cody and I felt the call to work with the youth - and that's when everything changed.

It was funny the first time we talked about it with each other because it seemed that God had been placing it on both of our hearts for a very long time, but we weren't talking to each other about it. We prayed more about it and decided to take the plunge last January when the new school semester started. Kurt (our youth minister) told us to just hang out in each department until we felt comfortable. We started with seniors because we had some friends that were already teacher there, but when we were introduced the director said, "This is Cody and Heather Bush and they will be with us for the rest of the year."

Okay - seniors it was.

I loved that group. There were so many young leaders and so many kids that loved God. They were awesome. We didn't teach yet, but helped out with events and just got to love on those kids and I am so glad we were where we were. We helped out at youth camp which was amazing too, but then the next school year was coming up and we were asked to teach.

This is when I started getting nervous. I can teach five and six year olds in my sleep. I'm good at it and I know it. Seventeen and eighteen year olds? That was a different story. I just felt as if I didn't have the talent to teach that age. I was scared to death the first Sunday we taught them. But then they started talking. :)

Now, I am not going to say that Cody and I haven't had some lessons that bombed because we have...at least in my eyes they have. But those kids have changed me. I love them plain and simple. I find myself each day at work, in my car, at home praying for them and their future. Some of them I even think of as little sisters now. And the funny thing is when I think I'm going to teach them something on Sundays, I go away being taught so much more than I would have thought.

Enter in this past weekend - Wakeup Weekend.

As I said before - wow. I saw God move in those kids' lives like I've never seen. I saw raw and powerful worship. I saw walls being broken down and students give control back to God. I was even blessed to see one of the seniors begin his life with Christ. God. Was. Moving. I have never been so humbled and honored to be in the presence of this group.

And if I were to be honest with myself, I've learned so much more about God this past year than I have in my entire life. He has changed my heart about so many things and made me uncomfortable but with good reasons. I know God put these seniors in my life to help me and I cannot thank Him enough for them. I am so proud of them and who they are becoming in Him.

But I also know May is coming and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. I get attached to my first grade students each year and hate to see them go, but with this group it's so much more. But for now, all I know is that I am so thankful for what God is doing in their lives and mine.

Our God is so good!!!