New Year... New Blog Design!

When I was a little girl, I hated my name.

Perhaps an abrupt way to begin a blog post, but in the end, it will all come together.

So, anyway.

The name.

Christina.

Hey, it was the 80s and everyone else seemed to be named Tiffany, Jenny, or Jessie.

"Christina" just didn't roll off the tongue.  It didn't sound fun or happy... to me, a little girl in mid-80s, it just sounded OLD.

It wasn't beautiful, it ended with a 'schwa' sound... you know, that ugly "UH" sound that you almost have to frown to make.  That was the complete opposite of the joyful, smiley, airy long e of TiffanY, JennY, and JessIE.

I vowed, right then and there that when I grew up, I was going to change my name.

I chose a name that was simply elegant.

I loved it more than anything.

And I just knew that, as soon as I was 18, I was marching to the courthouse to change my name.

No more "ChristinUH" with that frowny schwa at the end.

I came up with something beautiful.

Something to rival the Tiffany's of the world.

What did I love in the 80s... my My Little Ponies, of which I had an extensive collection full of unicorns and I loved the show "Jem and the Holograms", who had a giant star RIGHT in their logo!

(You are definitely going to want to Pin this blog post so you can remember this name for your future daughters.)

Are you ready?

So, naturally with my love of My Little Ponies and the truly, truly, truly outrageous Jem, I created a beautiful marriage of those two favorites, chosing the name Unicorn Starr, and adding the twist of Starr with TWO R's.

Go ahead, say it out loud.  Let it roll off the tongue.  The two R's are important, so draw out that last sound just a little bit.

Unicorn Starr.

And, at that time, my full name would have been Unicorn Starr Marie Rowe!

Seriously.  Until this moment, have you ever heard of a more lovely name?

I loved that beautiful name and dreamed of the day I would be able to call myself by my rightful name!

But then, one day I grew up.  I grew into my name.  I found out who I was and realized that I AM Christina.  My parents chose right!  And no other name, not even one was amazing as "Unicorn Starr" could suit me.

BUT... I have often thought back to all that time I spent wanting a different name.  And I have shared that story with lots of friends over the years... even the fifth graders I student taught waaaaay back in 2004 heard that story when we read a text about someone who didn't like their name.

Unicorn Starr has always been a part of my story and so, today, I have a re-designed blog that honors that fun little memory and "re-brands" me & this blog, now that I'm back in the classroom.  Yes, I got the opportunity to return to my passion, TEACHING!!!, in since September after two years as a principal, and it was time to turn "Bunting, Books, and Bright Ideas" into a new space on the web... in honor of Unicorn Starr, this blog is now "The Uni-Corner"!

I am hopeful that 2019 will allow me to find "teacher time" again to blog and share ideas from my 1st grade classroom and that you will join me over here at "The Uni-Corner"!

Gotta give credit to my girl, as I totally stole the phrase "Uni-Corner" from my dear friend and best Special Education teacher EVER, Bethany, as the name for this blog.  She has a love for unicorns as well and has a spot in her classroom full of all of her unicorn stuff, aptly named her "Uni-Corner"!  And super happy with the re-design from Kassie!

Please stay tuned and join me, Christina/Unicorn Starr, over here at The Uni-Corner!

Knock, Knock... Who's There... It's Me!

I'm back from my Spring Break and am so thankful for the amazing friends who helped me out by guest blogging while I was gone!  I know you all loved the posts that they shared!  I loved reading them!

Hubby and I went to the east coast.  We drove through New York state, stopping at Wakins Glen State Park and Taughannock Falls too.

We even randomly happened to drive through a Bainbridge, New York!  We stopped in the dark and we (I) took pictures of everything that said BAINBRIDGE on it for scrapbooking purposes!
 

Then we went to Worcester in Massachusetts and stayed with a friend for a few days.  We went into Boston for a day, ate some ah-mazing seafood, and then went to Concord, Lexington, Salem, and Gettysburg.  It was a very historical trip, which are our favorites!

Yeah.  I didn't know this would have EYES and little tiny LEGS when I ordered it!  Note to self... next time be sure it says STUFFED TAIL!  It was still tasty... but I totally felt like the family in "A Christmas Story" when they bring out the duck at the end and the mom's dying with laughter!

    

I even got to see NYC in the distance as we left Salem to drive to Pennsylvania... which, if you've followed this blog for two seconds, you know is my all-time favorite place on this EARTH!

Here's a scene from Gettysburg...  This was a seriously amazing trip.  Like one you need to go on.  Immediately.

 

We NEVER take such unstructured trips and we just decided on a whim to go to Gettysburg.  I would love to go back and spend more time, do the audio tour, etc... The museum is awesome... and have you ever seen or heard of the Gettysburg Cyclorama?  Holy smokes.  THAT was incredible!
 
And The House of the Seven Gables in Salem... which was so cool!  They also have Nathaniel Hawthorne's home next to THotSG and The Scarlet Letter is one of my favorite books, so I loved going there too.

All right, fine, so we're history nerds.  We LOVE taking trips like this.  No beaches and sand and suntans for us!

So, that's what I was up to last week!

Since we've been home, I've added two new products to my shop.  If you leave me a comment and tell me your favorite historical vacation spot (we're always looking for more!), I'll pick a winner tomorrow and send you BOTH items!

Earth Day flippy book!  This has lines for both primary and intermediate...

Find it on TpT  or Teacher's Notebook

And this delicious donut classroom or hallway hunt for identifying complete sentences and fragments!  There's also a center activity and a craftivity!  I know this is probably a beginning of the year thing for most people... it is for me!... but I couldn't wait to make this with these adorable graphics!

 Find it on TpT or Teacher's Notebook

Ok!  That's it!  Tell me where I should go on my next vacation... as long as it's historical!  I'll pick a winner tomorrow!

It's Been a Computer Filled Day... Updates, Linky, and Giveaway!

I have literally been on the computer since 9:30 this morning.

I have done my 50some ELA report cards and the 26 for my homeroom.

I have e-mailed, lesson planned (we use lessonplanedu.com and I LOOOVE it!), and worked on files.

The files are all updates... so if you have bought any of these, please re-download!

I am in the process of adding a little more to all of my $3 classroom/hallway hunts.  Today I updated 10 of them.  I added "I can" statement cards to all of them and also added a 2nd activity to each one.

I updated:

A Feast of Fractions
Be a Base 10 Star
Find the Force- Contractions from Pronouns and Verbs
Hunting for Adverbs
Tick Tock... Time hunt to the hour and half hour
Tick Tock... Time hunt to five minutes
Totally Awesome Adjectives
What's Missing?- ch, sh, 
Word on the Move syllable hunt
You're Going Camping- a your/you're homophone hun

Phew! 

A linky!!!

Mrs. Reed at Flying into First Grade is having another "Let's Get Acquainted" Linky party.  Last week I joined her "Two truths and a lie" linky and admitted that I, the lover of all musicals, has never seen "The Sound of Music".

Today she's having a NOUN linky and we have to share our favorite person, place, thing, and animal!

So...

My favorite person...

My hubby!  We've been together since 1997 when we were in high school!  We were married in 2004 and the rest is history.  I love this guy!  He's supportive, fun, handsome, and loves me at my worst...

My favorite place...

NEW YORK CITY!!!!  We went in the summer of 2011 and I would do just about anything to be able to return.  I was born for the hustle and bustle of city life.  I love that place!  I WANT TO GO TO THERE!

My favorite thing...

LIONS football!  Though I do often wish I could go back to that time in my life when I didn't care a snit about football, I do love it with all of my heart.  Sundays during football season are a hyped up day in my house.  We're wearing our Lions gear, shouting at the TV, and singing the "Gridiron Heroes" song whenever there's a touchdown!  I'm trying to talk hubby into getting season tickets this year... I feel like I have him really close to breaking!  Here we are at the game last year!

My favorite animal...

I feel like it's cheating if I choose my own two dogs.  Though they are my favorites.  I mean, look at this picture of my Sam and try not to go, "Awwww!".  I know you're doing it right now!  Click on it and check it out when it's nice and big... he's so stinkin' cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My love though, is otters!  They are so dang cute!  We recently read about them in class and I gushed over how much I love them and one of my sweeties brought me a little stuffed otter the next day!  Too cute!  I think I love them so much because they remind me of Sam!  Look at this pic... see the resemblance?

And... last... a GIVEAWAY!  I'm helping Rachel celebrate her bloggy birthday by giving away the winner's choice of any of my classroom or hallway hunts!  You can click that last link to check them out and start thinking about which one you want if you win!

I hope you'll head over and shoe Rachel some bloggy b-day love!

Celebrating and Linking Up!

Do you get the TpT newsletter e-mailed to you each Sunday?  I do and always look forward to seeing which of my bloggy friends have been recognized inside.  Well, today I'm the featured author!

Hooray!  If you haven't checked out my shop, there are TONS of freebies there (27 of 'em, to be precise!)... as well as some pretty darn good, classroom tested resources... if I do say so myself!

I'm also linking up today with Jen from The Teachers' Cauldron to share my New Year's Resolutions.  You have to share two- one personal and one bloggy resolution.

First... personal.

Two years ago I had some GREAT success with Weight Watchers.  I got to purchase pretty much a whole new wardrobe and feel awesome about myself!  This year I had some stresses going on and just stopped tracking and was on some medication that, coupled with not making careful food choices, helped me gain back too much of what I lost!  If I was braver, I'd show you the picture of me comparing my 2010 birthday picture (gross!) to my 2011 birthday picture... 2011 was AH-MAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, that's my main resolution... obsess over points again and work out!

Bloggy resolution...

I also want to be able to spend more time on other people's blogs.  My new job has kicked my butt when it comes to having extra TIME!  I miss commenting and seeing what ya'll are up to!

That's really all I've got for resolutions.  I have some goals I want to work toward this year, which I hope to be able to keep you all posted about too!

So, that's it!  If you want to share your resolutions too, check out Jen's linky party!

You can still link up on my linky too if you want to share your 2012 successes on your blog!  The linky closes tomorrow night, so I hope you'll check it out and come celebrate with us!

If You've Never Been Tagged...

then I'm tagging YOU!

Holly from Crisscross Applesauce tagged me and she's just so sweet that I had to play along.  BUT... I'm going to cheat and give an open TAG invitation to anyone who hasn't been tagged instead of actually tagging 10 others.  I'm a slacker, I know.

But... here are the 10 questions Holly had for her tag-ees:

1.  Do you have any bad habits?  Care to share?

I bite my nails.  I totally wish I didn't.  It's so gross and they are SO hideous!  How can I stop?  Help!!!

 

2.  Outdoors or Indoors?
I'm a wuss.  Indoors.

3.  Books:  Real deal, Kindle, Nook, iPad, other?
I love to read.  A lot.  If you've been following me for a while, you know I just got a Nook and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  Before that I was a crazy real deal book lady who was terrified of getting an e-reader because it might destroy literature as we know it.  Now I LOVE MY NOOK SO MUCH!  I want to shout it from the rooftops!

I shouldn't share this with you because it's an unorganized mess... but here's my bookshelf so you can see my collection of books... the shelves are two rows deep.  And I have read most of them.  The ones on the tippy top I got for Christmas and haven't read yet... I'm trying to talk myself out of re-buying them for my Nook.  You know, because I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

Now I have a neat and tidy virtual bookshelf on my Nook!  Did I mention that I LOVE IT?

4.  Night owl or early riser?
Early riser

5.  Do you have a best friend?
Yes!

6.  Favorite room in your house?
No.  Can I choose the computer chair?

7.  What do you pride yourself on as a teacher?
Hmmm... I'm a really good classroom manager.

8.  Where do you blog?
Do you want to know the physical location?  The blogs I contribute to?  I'm confused!

9.  Your home alone, somebody rings the doorbell, you don't know them, do you answer the door?
My town has like 1000 people in it.  I know everyone.  But, I would make sure to hold one of my ferocious little dogs just in case I needed protection from the stranger:

10.  When telemarketers call do you listen, tell them you're not interested politely, hang up on them?
I listen.  It might be a survey!  And the survey might be about politics!  And I love giving my opinion!  Other than that, I say, "We're not interested" and then I hang up.  Does that make me a bad person?  Once someone kept calling and calling me and they were talking in this absolute gibberish.  I got so mad!  So the third time they called I jibberished back into the phone at them.  And then they spoke some English.  And they were speaking Dutch and looking for an Amish friend who had given my phone number accidentally as their contact number.  So, I felt like a real jerk!

So... if you want to accept my tagging... please answer the following questions:

1.)  Do you scrapbook?  If so, what's your favorite tool?  If not... why?

2.)  Favorite 80s TV show

3.)  Do you keep your toenails painted?

4.)  What is your favorite bean?  (Mine is lima, in case you're curious!)

5.)  What was your favorite doll's name as a kid?  (Meggie Kay!  And I still have her!)

6.)  Coffee or tea?

7.)  Bath or shower?

8.)  What is your favorite item in your classroom?

9.)  Funniest classroom moment summed up in 10 words or less...

10.)  Either one name you'd NEVER name a child or one name you'd LOVE to name a child based on students you've had in your class... and you don't even have to tell us if it's a NEVER or a LOVE... just the name!  ;)

Jamie at Thrills in Third Grade tagged me too... here are her answers:

1. What state do you teach in?

Michigan

2. What is your all-time favorite movie?

Anne of Green Gables (love the books too!)  The movie makes me laugh and cry at all the same parts every time... and I'm crazy in love with Gilbert Blythe!

3. Are you a sports fan? What's your favorite team?

GO LIONS!!!!

 

4. If you could be anywhere RIGHT NOW, where would that be?

New York City... I was BORN for that life!

 

5. What was your reason for becoming a teacher?

I love it!  I walked into an elementary school when I was in high school and a choir of heavenly angels sang down upon me as a shaft of light illuminated the foyer of the school from the Heavens.  I am meant to do this!

 

6. If you had to change professions, what would you do?

I'd be a professional student.  Can I say that?

 

7. What technology do you have in your classroom? (i.e. Smartboard; document camera; computers;responders, etc)

Document camera, 2 Nooks, Mimio Pad, LCD projector, 3 student comptuers

 

8. Do you own a pet? What kind? What's your pet's name?

2 dog-sons named Sam and Squeaks

 

9. If you had to recommend a book for  me to read, what would it be?

One of my favorite favorite books is The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers.  It chronicles a piece of land that is in an African American family from the family's history in slavery until the present.  It's amazing.  I'd also recommend Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.  That book is AH-MAZING!

 

10. What is the best thing you cook?

Hmmm... stuffed meatloaf?  Chicken enchiladas?  I get a lot of recipes from Gina at Skinny Taste.  If you don't know her, you must check her out!

Ok!  Now YOU'RE it!  I'd love for you to answer my questions if you haven't been tagged... then come back and let me know what you did it so I can see what you have to say!

Also, my sale is still going on until Sunday at TpT and Teacher's Notebook!  See yesterday's post for details!  If you'd like a chance to win my 1st grade Treasures spelling units, comment on yesterday's post and I'll choose a winner on Sunday morning!

Two Things (I just typed "to things"... long day!)

1.) If you're free on Saturday, I'd love to "see" you at the webinar I'll be speaking at! Click the green button on the right for more info!

2.) One of my good friends and soon-to-be-teachers just started a blog and I'd love it if we could give her a good old fashioned bloggy welcome! You can find her here at My Special Education.

That's it for today! Long day of unpaking the common core and designing assessments. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a day back with my 1st and 2nd graders and then I'll be at my ISD tomorrow night.

So, go say "hi" to Bethany and sign-up for the webinar if you're free Saturday afternoon!

Versatile Blogger Award!

Thank you so much, Patti, for awarding me! :) What a nice surprise! And Claire too, from Miss Toffee's Class blog... THANKS!!!!!!!

So... the rules say I have to divulge 7 things about myself...

1.) My husband and I started dating in high school in 1997, got married in 2004, so this November we will have been together for 14 years!

2.) Asparagus is one of my all-time favorite foods!

3.) I haven't seen a musical in two months... and I'm starting to freak out a little.

4.) I'll be milking a goat in the county fair for a contest on Saturday. This is my 5th year doing it... and once I won first place!

5.) I am obsessed with purses. Once my husband accused me of having five. HA! I'll let him keep thinking that!

6.) I bite my nails. :(

7.) I love to cook!

The 2nd part of the rules say I should pass this on to 15 more people! I'm going to be honest and say that, right now, I am so swamped! I'm not trying to get out of filling others' buckets... but I'll have to come back to that!

If you want to see some awesome blogs, check out the list of those that I follow over on the right. There are many amazingly talented and generous teachers out there... I love blog-stalking you all! :)

Help me spend some money!

What a long week it's been!

Teachers reported back on Monday for a week of Professional Development. It was a good week- yesterday and today we got "refreshed" on the ways we could use the awesome technology my school has. The way it was set up was like a conference where you could choose your own sessions... so each hour, three different 45-minute sessions were offered and you got to choose which one you wanted to go to and we (the staff) were also some of the presenters.

So, yesterday I presented a session on ways to use free web programs for students to "jazz up" their assignments and then I did a session where I shared about 15 cool websites for teachers. We also had a session on our interactive white boards, our Wiis, document cameras, digital cameras, Google Docs, Edmoto, and Ipods. I really enjoyed doing PD this way and think my co-workers liked it too!

Last night was Open House and it was awesome! It was so great to see my kiddos again and meet my new ones... I'm super pumped about starting school next Tuesday.

So, the point of my post today... I feel like I should treat myself to $25.00 worth of books from Amazon to celebrate the successful (but long!) week. AND... if I can find the books in paperback, I can do their 4-for-3 promotion AND get free shipping if I spend $25!

I would love for you to leave a comment to suggest your favorite picture book and what you use it for. It could just be a book you love to read because you love to read it. Or maybe it's one that lends itself to an awesome lesson. Or maybe your kids just love to hear it!

Two of my favorite favorites to read are: Love the Baby by Steven Layne and Who Hops? by Katie Davis. Love the Baby is just super fun to read and great for making connections, teaching voice, and showing some character development. Who Hops? has a very lively refrain and is very silly. My kids LOVE it. But I already own both of them, so that's where you come in!

Thanks for helping me fill up my cart and add MORE books to my library! :)

Meet Mrs. Bainbridge

I'm so glad I didn't miss out on Blog Hoppin's linky party for Teacher Week 2011! Head on over and join in the fun!

Today is "Meet the Teacher Monday" so here's some info about me!

Tell us a little something about you...

I'm Christina and I teach in Michigan. I have been married since 2004 and have a wonderful husband and two dog-sons named Sam and Squeaks. If you saw my earlier post (yes, I know... two in one day!) I also acquired a new gerbil-daughter this morning! I have a class website and also create files for The Teaching Oasis and blog at Me and My Gang and for Marygrove College!

How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching since 2004. I taught preschool for two years and, in 2006, got hired at my current school. I taught 2nd grade for four years and last year taught a 1st/2nd split class which I loooved! This year I'm teaching a split again and I'm so excited to have my first graders again and get a new crew of firsties!

You might not know...

You probably know how much I love musicals because I pretty much mention it every chance I get! But you might not know that I am a county goat milking champion! Living in such a rural area, we like to get our kicks at our county fair which will be next month and I can't wait! I live about 3 blocks from the fairgrounds and there is something special about that time of year! Well, every year my fair has a "teacher goat milking competition" which I have won once and received 2nd place in twice! I got a HUGE trophy the year I won but had to give it to the new county goat milking champ when I didn't win last year. This year I'm thirsty for victory (no pun intended!) and hope to reclaim my title along with my principal when we team up to get the most milk! I'll keep you posted!

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

I'm really looking forward to looping up with my first graders from last year. I can't wait to see the difference in them from the beginning of 1st grade to the end of 2nd... and I just know that having half of my class again is really going to help start things off smoothly!

What do you need to improve?

I am beefing up my math instruction this year. I *love love LOVE* teaching reading and writing... that is definitely a strength for me. But teaching 2 grade levels is challenging when it comes to math. I am excited about implementing Debbie Diller's math workstations this year and hope this can help me provide focused practice for my students when they are not receiving direct instruction from me.

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

I have a HUGE picture book collection which I am always using to teach reading and writing lessons... not to mention just reading to my kiddos!

I also love my LCD projector and use it several times a day to show my kiddos things we are learning about.

That's it! Tune in tomorrow for "Teacher Talk Tuesday"!

A Not Necessarily Helpful or Insipring Post... School Fire 3 Year Anniversary!

Let me preface this blog entry by saying that this happened three years ago and everything is A-OK now!!!! :) Proceed!

Picture it (how's that for a Sophia Petrillo story telling opening?!... and tell me someone knows what I'm talking about with that!)...

Friday, August 15, 2008. My husband and I were out enjoying our usual "Friday Date Night"... dinner, a movie, and cell phones forgotten at home.

9pm we arrived home to our cell phones buzzing like crazy to let us know we had voicemails and the answering machine flashing off the hook!

The first message on the answering machine was my sister-in-law, who teaches in my building. "Christina... call me" is all she said. Message number 2... sister-in-law again, "Where are you guys? I tried your cell phones. Call me back!"... then the third message... "Christina! Central (our school) is on fire!".

We immediately got in the car, called her on the way, and headed to school.

By the time we got there, the fire was out for the most part. But there sat my school... four of the classrooms- including mine- wet, smoking, and smoldering.

We all stood around outside sad and crying over our poor school. And then the fire department let us go inside... my end of the building was SOAKED. I couldn't wait to get to my room. My room had no actual flame damage but my floor was flooded... my stuff ruined... and so much smoke you could barely see anything at all.

So, days and days go by with all of us just dying to get in there in the daylight and really see the damage. Finally, the Saturday later, we were allowed to go in just to catalog our losses for the insurance company. I walked in my room and the restoration crew had piled everything they were letting me keep in the center of the room. The pile consisted of all of my books (thank goodness!), one piece of furniture (a big book stand), and a stuffed Rizzo the Rat.

That. Was. All. Too much smoke damage on everything else.

The books I was so happy to be able to keep- my school was under construction and I had them stuffed away in my closet. But everything else (except my darling Rizzo!) had to be pitched.

There were four of us who had our classrooms destroyed and two teachers who literally did lose everything... not even books or Rizzos for them.

The 9 classrooms on my end of the building were moved into portables across the street from the school while our wing was fixed. Here's the portable we learned in from September until February... how's that for throwing a classroom together two days before school started?!


Half of the rooms only had smoke damage and they were able to move back in around Thanksgiving. But the four of us... our rooms were completely gutted and re-built and we were in portables until February. That's right... five months of tromping kids across and back from the school two or three times a day, rain or shine or snow or sleet... UGH.

Here are some pics of my gutted room:


BUT... three years later, I am proud to say that the fire is a distant memory... maybe not *distant*, but definitely something that seems like it was ages ago! We got all new things for our classrooms, the whole school got new carpet and windows, and it taught me a lot about what's important... for example I don't need my STUFF to be a good teacher because I didn't have any stuff for the first few weeks of school until orders started rolling in! I also learned that it is OK if I can't run on my pre-set schedule! I am *that teacher* who is in their room all summer, comes in on Sundays, and is always thinking about school as so many of you are too. Well, our portables didn't come until two days before school started and it was OK! I still taught and my kids still learned.

My classroom in 2011...


So I just returned from school for a day of meetings and working in my room (AKA not getting any work done because I was socializing all day) and I wished everyone I saw a "Happy 3 Year Fire Anniversary"!

I think that's it! I just wanted to share my school's journey! :)

Oh- how did it start... we were having construction done and some materials were left smoldering by the side of the building and ignited! Yikes!

"Currently..." linky party

This is too fun! Join up with Oh Boy- 4th Grade's fabulous linky party to share what you're currently doing!

Here are my "currentlys" (currentlies?!)...

Last "hi" from NY!

OMG. We walked FOREVER yesterday and then again today... but we saw some awesome sights of the city and I even got my picture taken at the signpost at the corner of 11th Street and Avenue B... come on RENT fans, you know how exciting that is! :)

We decided to do one more show, so we're headed to "The Addams Family" tonight now starring Brooke Shields! We did RENT on Monday and Memphis on Tuesday, which was incredible!!!!!!

If you're looking for something to do tomorrow, think of me at 12:35pm- that's when we take-off from LaGuardia to head home... and I'm getting nervous!

I'll be doing a blog post about my next giveaway when I get home- all I'll say is think "flippy books" and if you haven't seen them yet, check out my post with the free noun flippy! ;)

Just popping in!

Just a quick "hey" from NYC!

We just got back to the hotel from seeing "RENT"and it was awesome! :) I love it every time I see it, but there was just something special about seeing it in NYC that made it extra awesome!

Tomorrow is a trip to The Met, dinner at Del Frisco's, and then "Memphis" on Broadway!

I also wanted to say, if you joined my linky party and I haven't gone to your blog yet to thank you, I will! We haven't had much extra time and my husband is being "iffy" about me using the laptop over our hotel's wireless since it's not a secure network. Who knows. He's the computer guru, so I'm sneaking a blog update while he runs to get ice! HA!

Anyway, I'll try and pop in again before we leave just to tell you all how wonderful the "big city" is! :) And I'll definitely be doing a giveaway when I get back to Michigan.

Greetings from NYC!

We made it safely to NY this morning... and I only freaked out for a few minutes on the plane! :)

We're off to "Top of the Rock" and pizza at "John's" tonight after doing the Harry Potter and Pompeii exhibits at the Discovery building this afternoon. We went to "Sardi's" for lunch today... yum!

Just wanted to remind everyone to check out the blog post my Master's degree alma mater posted on their site today... I'm pretty geeked about it!

http://info.marygrove.edu/matblog

I also just saw that I have 300 followers... that means a giveaway when I get home from NYC next weekend... so stay tuned!

10 Things You Never Knew You Wanted to Know...

Mrs. Owens is hosting this fun linky party where you can learn 10 Things About Me! :)

So... here they are!

10.) I spent a few days on an uninhabited island with some teacher friends and a beautiful lighthouse last summer... it was not my cup of tea! My mom drove for six hours to rescue me from the "vacation" three days early!

9.) I love love to read. I read lots of things, but my secret favorite is teen fiction! Supernatural-esque stories with a smattering of romance... and NOTHING beats the "City of..." books by Cassandra Clare for a good time! Oh yeah... that's Jace the cover. I love that Shadowhunter!

8.) I have lost 55.9 lbs so far this year! This is something I'm super proud of, but haven't shouted from the rooftops yet!

7.) I am in love with the fictional character Gilbert Blythe. If you've ever seen or read Anne of Green Gables you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!
6.) I love shoes. And purses. Once my husband accused me of having 5 purses. I'm so glad that's all he thinks I have!

5.) My husband and I are heading to New York City next weekend! We'll be gone for a week and I can't wait to hit the big city, eat some tasty food, and see some shows! We have tickets to "Memphis" and "Rent"!

4.) My BFF and I aren't just BFFs... we are BFFAFALTATs (Best Friends Forever And For A Long Time After That)!

3.) I love Christmas and have a huge collection of ceramic houses for a Rudolph Christmas village. My husband says it looks like "Santa pukes" on our house at Christmas. Highest compliment ever!

2.) I am terrified of mice. Everything about them creeps me out. Their squeaky noises and long tails and buggy eyes and scurrying feet... EEEK!

1.) I am obsessed with musicals in a bad way. I love them more than anything! Fortunately, my husband supports my habit. I have seen Fiddler on the Roof, Wicked (x3), Legally Blonde, The Color Purple, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grease, Chicago, Hairspray, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Spam-a-Lot (x2), The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol, West Side Story, The Producers, Beauty and the Beast, and my favorite, favorite of all time (which I will be seeing for the 5th time next week in NYC! I saw it in Chicago two years ago when Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal reprised their roles as the two original lead cast members!) is...

So, that's me in a nutshell! Head on over to Mrs. Owen's at Go Fourth! to add yourself to the fun linky party!