Well, it WAS Friday when I started this post!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! (Well, at least I STARTED this post on Friday!)

I'm sad to say that this picture was taken on Wednesday.
After 2 full days of work! PS - I HATE my yellow wall.

First and foremost is the thing that has been consuming my life this week...you guessed it! Prepping my classroom! As I've mentioned a hundred times, I'm moving to a 3rd/4th grade multi-age classroom this year (and hopefully for the next decade or two!) and that means changing classrooms. Even though I just had to move down the hall, I'm still starting from scratch as far as materials, classroom library, bulletin boards, etc. 

Also, I discovered that I have accumulated a lot of stuff in my 12 years. I'm a teacher-stuff hoarder. I admit it. But this week I was looking at my mess and I noticed this jack o'lantern bucket amongst the piles. I realized I've carried that bucket across four different schools in two different states and I have NEVER USED IT for anything. It went to the teacher freebie table in the lounge along with a ton of other stuff!

So the next thing is something that makes me happy. When I inherited my new room it came with a classroom rug that had been stained and cut, and stained and cut some more. So much in fact that it is now basically about 4x5 feet in area. I call kids to the carpet a bajillion times a day it seems, so I need a good rug. I shelled out the big bucks myself and got this one for my classroom. I had a similar one way back when I taught Kindergarten and I loved it because each kiddo had their own little box to sit in! I like this one even more because it is six across and four deep, AND the colors are more muted and not primary. Fingers crossed that I don't have more than 24 students in my class this year...

Just thought I'd share Killer B's idea of "helping" when we took a load of boxes up to my classroom the other night. She's checking out the first batch of books to make it into the classroom library while I set up my desks!

So of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the big Back to School sale over at TpT on Sunday and Monday! I've got a few things on my wishlist that I'm excited to finally buy! Here's a handy trick...buy 3/4 of your list on Sunday, leave some positive feedback to get those TpT credits and then use those credits to help pay for the rest of your list on Monday! If you haven't wishlisted half of my store yet...what are you waiting for?! Sheesh!  ;)

So, longtime readers of my blog will remember that I've been trying to get back into shape this summer and have been pretty successful. I officially hit 30 pounds lost two days ago! This mission began when I took my 5th grade class on a field trip to Philly at the end of last school year. I wore my bright red Spider-Man hoodie so that kids could see me when crossing streets. Well, at one point a middle schooler from another school points at me and says, "Hey look it's Spider-Man!...the FAT ONE!" Hahaha. I'm not going to lie, it was funny to me when he said it. Then the next day at school some kids brought me pictures they had taken of me on the trip and it hit me...I was Fat Spider-Man. That had to change.

So after a radical change in diet (I went from a SeeFood diet to controlling my portions, basically) and some walking, I finally weigh what I did when I started teaching 12 years ago! (My wife has never known me when I was this in shape! What-what?!) I'm 6'1" and somewhat muscular, so having 30 lbs on top of that was making me look like a giant. 10 more lbs to lose and then I'll be at what I would consider my ideal weight! 

To celebrate my loss, Killer B and I have signed up to run in our very first 5k ever, and it's a Color Run! I can't wait! It's not until the end of September though.

Well, it's officially my LAST weekend of Summer! I'm going to try and enjoy it!