VIP Table and Question of the Day

One thing I love about being a teacher is all of the AMAZING ideas I find all over the internet. I've recently come to find that there are soooo many teaching instagram pages out there and I have become obsessed with scrolling through their wonderful pictures of idea after idea after idea. I feel like I have screen-shot so many pictures to my phone so I can copy these ideas. They are fabulous!

One idea that I found from @miss5th's instagram page is something that I started this past Tuesday. It is called the "VIP Student".

I am always looking for ways to motivate my students' behavior. What I do is draw a random stick with my students' number on it. I don't reveal whose stick I choose, so it keeps them on their toes. I tell them I am going to watch this student all day for good behavior and these things: being a good example, doing their personal best, being a role model, being a leader, being a good friend, and being a hard worker. They are anxious all day of who the VIP student could be. If the student I chose possesses all of these things, I reveal who that student is the next morning and they get to sit at the VIP table all day. Along with sitting at the VIP table, they get to use any of the special supplies on the table. They feel special and important while sitting here and it motivates other students' to show good behavior in hopes that I will choose them in the future. If a student I choose does not possess good behavior during the day, they will not get to sit at the VIP table the next day. I do not reveal who this student is. I just simply say "This student did not show good behavior and did not show me the expectations I am looking for." This actually happened yesterday and my students had some scared looks on their faces-ha! Anything to get them motivated! They are really loving this idea.

Another idea I've found recently is where I ask my students a question on my whiteboard and they must answer the question on a post-it note. This is done first thing in the morning when they come in and read their morning message. Each day asks a different question.

Thursday was the first day that I tried this. It was a big hit. My kids get excited to see what question I will ask them each day. And my favorite part is reading their answers. It's such a great way to start the day! And it stays up on the board all day long, so they can read their classmates' responses. Yesterday the question was "Fabulous Friday: What's one thing you are looking forward to this weekend?" I can't wait to do this all next week!

And this quote could not be more true :)

Happy weekend!

NEW BLOG DESIGN!!

Hiiiiii, guys!!

Long time, no blog!

I know, I know. I was all excited that I started a blog on New Year's Day and posted for a couple days, and then I stopped. Well... it was for good reason. One of my followers on instagram reached out to me and asked if she could create a blog design for me! I was thrilled that she wanted to take time to do that for me. We've been in constant communication back and forth for a while now and she just finished installing my new design. I LOVE IT! It's exactly what I was wanting. Thank you, Tricia! If you have a blog and are looking for a new design/layout, I highly recommend you reaching out to Tricia!
----> tricianaeblog.com
----> instagram.com/tricianae/

My blog now has easy links for my social media. On the right side under my picture, you will find links to my YouTube channel, instagram, and twitter. I also now have links at the top under my header where I will start linking my blog posts to fit in that particular category. Like I've mentioned before, this blog will be full of my weight loss journey on Weight Watchers, my passion for teaching, my love for makeup, decorating, cooking, etc. I'm so excited!!

I just finished eating dinner, and now I'm anxiously waiting for The Bachelor to be on. Anyone else watch this show? Totally a guilty pleasure of mine, and I can't bring myself to watch every season (depends on who the bachelor is), but I really like Ben. Who is your favorite? I really like Lauren B. and Jojo.
After The Bachelor, I'll be watching the season finale of Teen Mom. ANOTHER guilty pleasure.

Happy Monday!

My Week! January 4-10, 2016

Well, we all made it through the first full week of January! That deserves some sort of reward, doesn't it?

I hope everyone enjoyed their week. For me, it was tough because it was my first full week back to work after Christmas break. Part of me was dreading it, but part of me was also ready to get back into a regular routine again. I was so excited to see all of my kiddos!

It was also nice to get back into a regular routine of working out and eating right/staying on track. My breakfasts during last week consisted of cinnamon swirl toast and mixed berries (5 sp). I am planning to have the same thing again this week, but may switch it up a bit and have some low fat nutri grain waffles/fruit (4 sp).

*Plate: Pioneer Woman Collection from Walmart

Snacks last week consisted of a light babybel cheese (1 sp) and 14 lightly salted almonds (2 sp) during the school day, and a honeycrisp apple, Special K granola bar (4 sp), and turkey pepperoni stick (1 sp) for an after school snack before the gym.

The Special K granola bars were new to me, I had never tried this flavor. I LOVE them (dark chocolate granola). Also, the turkey pepperoni stick was new to me. I found them at my local grocery store, Hy-Vee. They tasted like beef jerky. So good and a yummy combo with the crisp apple.

I was so happy to finally get back into the gym, but MY GOODNESS, it was CROWDED. And of course, that's expected with the New Year. My sister is a manager at the gym I go to and she said it's always so busy January 1st until close to the end of February when it starts to die down a bit. My workouts usually consist of cardio on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then I rotate between arm and leg day. I also started incorporating the stair stepper for the last five minutes of my workout. It is KILLER, but makes me end my workout on such a high and burns so many calories.

*Watch: Polar Watch FT4

Dinners last week:

Monday: Broccoli Cheddar Soup from: Emilybites (8 sp per cup)

This soup is AMAZING. My hubby even loved it too. Perfect for leftovers too.

Tuesday: Bubble Up Chicken Pot Pie Casserole from: Emilybites (9 sp)

This is another favorite. Such a good comfort food, especially this time of year. I believe it calls for 1 tsp of thyme, but that is a strong seasoning to me, so I have been using 1/2 tsp, and it's perfect.

Wednesday: Doritos Taco Salad from: Emilybites (4 sp per cup)

I had never made this before, but I've seen it all over my instagram feed. It was so easy to throw together. It will definitely be made again!

Thursday: Flatout pizza (7 sp)

This is a go-to dinner quite often. If you've never tried the flatout wraps or pizza crusts before, you definitely should. I find mine near the produce in my grocery store. Use whatever toppings your little heart desires!

Let's talk about this beautiful combo for a second. Oreo thins. Jif whipped peanut butter & salty caramel. Do yourself a favor and try this combo. You will thank me, I promise. Side note: You must have EXTREME self-control. That is all.

Fast forward to this past weekend. After a week back to work after a long Christmas break, I was reeeeally looking forward to the weekend (is that bad?). Friday evening I went to Old Chicago with a friend that I work with to catch up over our week and have some fun girl time. On Saturday, I woke up and had some Kodiak protein pancakes (5 sp) with an egg and two egg whites (2 sp).

I also had some motivation to get a mid-morning workout in. I honestly couldn't even tell you the last time I worked out on a Saturday. It felt so good! I would love to keep this motivation forever, please.

*Water bottle: Ross

*Kate Spade earbuds: Best Buy

Saturday afternoon was the much anticipated Chiefs/Texans playoff game. I have been a Kansas City Chiefs fan my entire life (growing up here, you don't have much choice). Kansas City has been waiting for the Chiefs to win a playoff game for nearly 22 years and it finally happened yesterday. AND they shut the Texans out, 30-0. It's been quite the year of sports for Kansas City. I hope the Chiefs can keep it up. I'm really looking forward to watching them play against the Patriots next weekend!

Today was my weekly grocery shopping day. 

On the menu this week: cheeseburger soup, buffalo chicken roll-ups, taco salad, and baked chicken with sweet potato fries, and veggies.

The rest of my afternoon was spent with my momma. We went to TJ Maxx to look around. She's the one with the gift card, and I'M the one who walked out with a purchase- haha.

I hope you all have a fabulous week! I am excited for week #2 being back on track, eating right, and exercising. Pictures like this keep me going:

Kirkland's & Hobby Lobby!

Happy Saturday!

Today has been a wonderful day. I attended a baby shower with my mom late morning. After that, we wanted to go shopping for some decor. I get my passion/hobby for decorating from my momma, that's for sure. All my life, she has been into decorating and changing her decor all the time (adding things in, taking things out). When I got married and moved out of my parents' house, I became in love with decorating too! It's so fun to have a home of your own to do that :)

                                                     
                                My beautiful momma and I

We went to Starbucks first. I needed my iced nonfat caramel macchiato. Pretty bummed this drink went up a few smart points, but it's my favorite and something I can't live without, so I make it work.

We went to Hobby Lobby right after Starbucks. It's convenient because it's right across the parking lot. My sister ended up meeting us there too. I just die and go to heaven every time I walk into Hobby Lobby. And I love that they always have amazing sales/discounts. I was looking for some decor in particular that I was needing for our new entryway table and a shelf in our kitchen. I was also looking for some decorative pillows for our new bedding, but didn't have much luck. I did find a very fuzzy, soft grey pillow that would match, but it was $119.00 (no, thank you). I walked out of Hobby Lobby with a cute mirrored bling tray for my nightstand and a 4x6 bling picture frame to sit on our entryway table. One thing you may or may not already know about me is I LOVE bling.

 After that, we drove to Kirkland's. LOVE this store too. This is where I found most of my new decor.

If you have Kirkland's near you and like to shop there, you should download the "spin it to win it" app. You "spin it" when you check out and it lands on a discount. Today, I got 10% off!

Here are some of the goodies I got today. I couldn't wait to get home to put it all together!

This is the new entryway table we got for Christmas from my parents. I am so in love with it. I got the chandelier picture from Kirkland's, and the 4x6 bling picture frame is what I got from Hobby Lobby. The rest of the decor I had before. A question I get asked often is where the light is from. It's from Hobby Lobby (of course)!

Love how this all looks together!

I got this decorative plate and stand, and small flower display from Kirkland's.

This shelf is in our kitchen, in the corner by our kitchen table. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that the candle is red... does this bother anyone else when decorating? I hate when a candle color doesn't match my decor- haha!

This is the mirrored bling tray I got from Hobby Lobby to sit on my nightstand.

The "Paris" tub I got from Kirkland's. I thought it added a cute touch on the counter space next to the sink!

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Those were my finds today! Bryce and I are getting ready to go out to dinner with my parents, and then my sister is coming over later to watch a movie with me and hang out. I think we are going to rent the new "Cinderella". Has anyone seen it? It looks cute.

Enjoy your Saturday night!

Netflix & Chill

I'm a little eager to get my blog up and going, so here's another blog post for today :)

I was so close to going to the gym today, but decided against it. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my weekend before going back to work on Monday and getting my booty back on track 100%. I've been on break for two weeks and while it has been SO NICE, I am ready for a regular routine again and to get back to work.

Bryce (my hubby) and I have spent all day lounging and binge watching Netflix and football games. We finally finished watching "Making a Murderer" today. WOW. That series was so good and left me with a ton of questions. We both believe Steven Avery is innocent. Has anyone else been watching this series? What are your thoughts? If you're looking for something good to watch on Netflix- I highly recommend this series!

I wanted to share our new bedroom comforter we got the other night. We had dinner at 54th Street and afterwards, I had suggested just stopping in TJ Maxx to look around and kill some time. And what do we walk out with? A new comforter, new sheets, and new bedroom curtains-haha!

We had been using the same comforter we received as a wedding gift, so this was technically the first comforter we have bought ourselves. I love it SO much. Our comforter before was a light tan shade and matched our wall color too much. This new comforter adds some color!

 I love that it's reversible too. And did I mention it was only $35?!? For a king?!? The brand is Cynthia Rowley.

These are the new curtains. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but they are a light metallic grey color. They are perfect and match the grey in the comforter so well!

These small nightstands I got for $20 (total) from a local swap shop on Facebook. I plan to paint these a pretty white color sometime during my spring break.

This wall is the opposite of our bed. I'd like to add to it eventually :)

It was Red Friday today, so of course, I had to rep my KC Chiefs who play on Sunday! It's been such an amazing year for KC sports.

I had a gift card to Sonic, so Bryce and I ventured out this afternoon to Sonic down the road for happy hour. I got a large diet coke with cherry flavor (1 sp). For non-weight watcher followers, sp stands for "smart points" which is what we use to track our daily points!

Also... I just applied for grad school..eek! Bryce just finished his first semester of grad school, and I feel like I'm ready for that next step too. Plus, I think it would be awesome if we both went through it together. I would be getting a Master of Arts in Education. I'm still in the early stages of the application process, but prayers are welcome! Lord knows I'll need the strength, patience, and determination to go through school again!

Hope you're all having a wonderful first day of 2016!

Happy 2016!

I am so excited to be starting a blog!

This has been something I've been wanting to do for a while, but never got around to making one. And what better day to start one than New Year's Day?!

As most of you probably know, I am very active on my Instagram {@curlsandcurvesxo}. I made this account last February when I started Weight Watchers and it has become something I enjoy SO much. It has helped me with accountability, encouragement, inspiration, advice, I've found so many amazing recipes, and wonderful friendships.

My plan is to still stay active on my instagram, but start this blog to share more of my passions- teaching, make-up, decorating, recipes, and just memories of my everyday life.

I hope that you'll come along with me!
What are your goals this year?

Happy New Year!