Happy Birthday to.... ME!

So lucky me I turned 21 in January, however it was not like everyones "21". I am pentacostal and for me and myself that means NO drinking. Now please understand I do not hate or not like anyone who does drink but it is just not my personal belief. So in order to have a wonderful, fun, exciting, and never forgetting birthday I made mine a WHOLE month .. not just ONE day! ;) This was one way to make my birthday "special" With the help from my family, brian and my inlaws I had a WONDERFUL birthday month!

Here are some pics!

Will you be mine?

Valentines Day is coming up.. and coming up fast! Brian and I are on a budget so I have to be creative with what I get him. So where would a girl go to come up with a cheap VDAY gift??..... Thats RIGHT pinterest! Pinterest has the cutest ideas ( sad to say I do not have an account.. but I do browse!) I am sure many of you have seen the 52 reasons why I love you! This is what I made for my hunny!

I used red and black card stock. They were on sale at michaels for 49 cents a piece You would only need about 4-5 pieceS of paper. I took the card and measured out how much I would need to cut.

I placed the black paper on first and then placed the red on top of the black

I bought this tape runner for 3.99, however at the end of this project I ended up throwing it away because it didnt work that great

These were PERFECT for decorating the cards

There are  templates that can be downloaded, however when I printed them out they were too small and I could not make them bigger. Your imagination is key for this project! You can do it however you want! This project took me a few hours, and it was SOOO easy! GOOD LUCK!

Little Miss Organizer!

As some of you know I work with three year olds everyday for 8 hours a day ( minus saturday & sunday)
While I absolutly love my kids... I sometimes find myself running around like a chicken with my head cut off.. this is because I am constantly trying to keep them entertained. They have the SHORTEST attention span!! In the midst of keeping them entertained I also need to stay organized; not to mention saving time. I am also a little obssesive over how the room looks, as well as obssesed with how organized the room is. It is myself & one other teacher ( we are short a teacher right) I am all about saving time while being organized! Here are some neat ideas to use in the classroom :)!! ENJOY!

This is our calendar to update our parents :) (arent our humptydumptys cute!!?? It was fairy tales/ nursey rhymes week)

 

I took pics of the bins with toys in them and took another pic & placed one on the bin and one on the shelf ( as you can see below) So the kids know where the toys go! Saves me from cleaning up & gives me extra time!

We organize our days by folders and put dailys, worksheets, art projects and anything else for that day in its spot! We are always a week ahead which is super prepared and allows us to save time!

My fellow teacher came up with this idea! We are NEVER searching for colors, because they are organized !!
ALSO A TIME SAVER!! AWESOME!!!!

WE seperated our months and the lesson plans in that month so we do not have to do it the week before. We are always two months ahead of the lesson plans which helps us in case one of us is out for a long period of time :)

This idea is CREATIVE!! We place a different shape at each table for example blue square or pink triangle then look down at the next picc!!

We put their names on the color table they should be sitting at ( right above where the chairs are stacked so they can see them) this helps them recognize their names and then they can easily see what table they should be sitting at!

I hope some of this can be beneficial to anyone :) I love giving ideas on ways to save time & I love hearing new ideas! FEEL free to give some!!

Say "CHEEESE!"

After Brian propsed to me, he had me get ready for another surprise. ( He is AMAZING!)  Brian had set up an appointment with a photographer to get our pictures done. ( These are NOT our engagement pics) We actually got to go to Old Mans Cave and take our pics there. The reason that these are not our engagement pics is because of how we were dressed. We were dressed very casually which is not what I had in mind for our engagement pictures. Our photographer for the wedding is doing our engagement pics for free.. it came with the package :) Anyways I just wanted to share that special day & a few of the pics we got taken!

This was the mosy special day of my life, and to have pictures to capture how we felt was such a great idea! I can not imagine my life without this wonderful man. He is so thoughtful to have done this for me!

"IDEAL" protien weight-loss

About 6 months ago I was feeling a little "puffy" & overweight :( In highschool I was 5'7 and 120 pounds. Needless to say I was a stick. After high school I gained about 30 pounds... which is NOT awful, however I was not happy with myself at all. I have tried so many diets and they always are useless & do not work. So I decided to try this diet call ideal protien weight-loss. OMGSH this diet was soo AMAZING! I lost twenty pounds in two months! AWESOME! At first I had an extremly hard time because I was used to snacking ALL of the time & I was ADDICTED to Diet Mountain Dew!! I had to cut all of these things from my diet.. which was difficult ( understatement ). The first week I met with my nutritionist & weighed in... I lose SEVEN pounds just in my first week!!! INCREDIBLE! I was so happy & I it made me realize what I was doing was worth it. There are four phases in this diet & I reached phase four quickly which meant I was done with the diet sooner! I am now still maintaining my diet which has actually not been bad and I get a "fun" day every week which allows me to eat whatever I want that day.. SOUNDS AMAZING RIGHT???? It is & I would reccomend it for anyone who wants to loose weight and is determined! SOO here is my before & after pic!!......

Noooooowww. The After Photos.....

After Photos :)

I am now on track and of course it is the holidays so I have put on about 4 pounds but that is okay because I know exactly how to maintain my weight & I know that after the holidays I will be able to lose the weight quickly because my nutritionist taught me well :)

Mini-Vaca!!!!

   Last Friday, I can honestly say I had a HORRIBLE day & when I saw horrible I mean AWFUL!!
                    However, my fiance, dad, stepmom, brother, sister and I all were
                          going to michigan that night.. so I was leaving after work
                  .... Knowing that I was going on a mini vaca was the only thing keeping me
                         going! I was very excited because I get to see my family from Michigan
                   ( I only get to see them once a year!!) ANNNYWAYYYSSS.. once we got on the road
                              ALL my troubles went away & I returned to my normal "ashley" self!

 

when we go to Michigan we stay friday night & then go to a rec center on saturday

to have the family part!

We eat, play games, socialize, eat some more, play more games, do a craft, && socialize some more!

Here are some pics at the rec center!

These were just a few of the pictures from the rec center!

After the rec center we then go to aunt Joanies house, where the kids play in the

basement while the adults sit upstairs talking!

....Brian and I ended up with the kids.. hahaha :) that is just how we are! Here are some pics from that!

As you can see Brian and I dressed up & of course I danced because I love being silly!

The kids are my brother and sister and my cousins. The chinese one is claudia ( also my flower girl) and she was adopted when she was a baby by my aunt & uncle! I love her to pieces!

After this great weekend we ended up even having a great ride home with lots of laughter and smiles!

I had a wonderful weekend with my dad & stepmom and of course my fiance .. ANND brother and sister!