Book Review!

"Emma’s struggle with an abusive home life came to a heart pounding conclusion in the final chapters of Reason to Breathe. Now everyone in Weslyn knows Emma’s secret, but Carol can’t hurt Emma anymore. Some are still haunted by the horror of that night, and some must face the repercussions of their choices." 

-excerpt taken from Goodreads

I finally finished this book! I had meant to finish it on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but honestly my eyes were to busy soaking up my scenery to be reading a novel when we were there! 

This was the second book in the I guess what is to be a trilogy written by Rebecca Donovan. 

So far, the first book was the most intense. This second book was good, but I was ready for it to end already. I have no idea where she can take the 3rd book. Guess I'll have to wait and see! 

Up Next:

Emily Giffin's new book which I also bought in Hawaii but never got to reading either! 

The Name Post!

The Post y'all crave once a year! It's finally here! 

For those of you that have followed my blog for the last year or more, know that each year I write about the trending names I get for my students each year.

Last year I wrote all about the crazy, over done, super unique, names I was encountering at my school.  You can re-read that post HERE

This year, here's the list:

Clearly this year's theme or trend is with parents having to have the "LYNN" part after a name or the "Leigh" sound after a name. Hailee, Kayleigh

Kaitlynn, Tessalynn, Jessilyn, Taryn, Aiden, Jaden. My advice to those of you that are knocked up and expecting, please don't name your kid one of these way to trending names lol. Your kid will thank you when they are older! Trust me! 

I don't have to many "Boy" names that stand out this year. I have a TON of Bens, Angels, Brian and Ryans. 

Any shockers to you readers? 

I could write a 10 page paper of kids names I've taught over the last eight years. 

Shit's ridiculous!!!!

What I've been up to....

The number one question I get asked as of lately is, "So, how's married life?"

I could be rude and say the same as it was before we were married! LOL

But I always reply "It's great!"

Because it is. We LOVE our new house. Owning a home is a lot of work. 

I find myself being way more conscious about little things.  Such as not wearing shoes in the house, and making sure that I'm not letting crumbs on the floor. Sweeping and cleaning way more often too. No landlord anymore to run to for the small stuff, we have to care of it all on our own! 

I've been busy trying to put together a gallery wall.

 Not anywhere near being done just yet. I'll keep ya posted as to when it's complete!

 We finally got a new couch which is wide enough for one to lay down on comfortably! Woo hoo!

Gotta get a coffee table eventually! 

Over the weekend we picked up this little beauty from Pier 1 to go with the mirror that I decided NOT to hang over our brown entryway table. If you follow me on instagram, then you saw my comments about mixing brown and black were all over the place! So, I just opted to move the mirror into a different room and get a little table to go with it. Now what to put on the table, no clue! 

Hubs and I finally had a little date night (Sunday night but who says a Sunday night can't be a date night!)

I've actually been battling a back to school cold if you will. Basically had the common cold since Thursday from being re-exposed from all the "germs" that my little kiddos bring with them to school! So since I was under the weather all weekend, we went out Sunday, when I was feeling better!

This yellow dress was suppose to make the trek to Hawaii for our wedding/Honeymoon, but didn't make it in time! It got delivered the day we left! So I put it to good use and wore it out for our date!

Dress is from Impressions Boutique same with necklace! 

baby girl always gives kisses to her mama!

And there you have it!  

Sunday Social!

1. What is the first website you log on to each day? 

Yahoo. 

Gotta delete all the spam that accrued over night! 

2. Give us some funny websites you visit that we need to know about

I don't really visit any "funny" ones....spend most my time on Blogger and pinterest!

3. Pinterest or Facebook? Why? 

Both.

 Pinterest is drama free which I love. 

Facebook is great to catch up and see how other people are doing, via married, kids, grand children etc etc..

4. Twitter or Instagram? I use both, I favor instagram a bit more, since my area of study in college was Photography. 

5. Favorite youtube video...

I cannot but help feel all warm and fuzzy & happy when I watch this. warms my heart.

And also tied for first place is this one..

Because I'm a Pom mom and when I hear this song, I think Pretty Woman!

6. Biggest online pet peeve? 

Facebook rants and complainers about "oh woe is me crap." We are talking daily stuff/posts that are all negative. It's facebook not your diary! Get a Xanga account if you need to write it out! lol I'd have to agree with Neely and say also the vague drama queens that tweet or blog things that we all know who they are talking about.

And there you have it! Be sure to link up with Neely! 

First Art of the new school year!

It's not much, but it's what we've been up to the last 2 weeks of our new school year!

I did the post it note ice breakers activity with 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade. 3rd I will probably NOT do it with next year, seeing how they are oh so fresh out of second grade and most of their answers were not all that "deep" or more than a sentence long! 

6th is currently hard at work on their "names". Every year I start off the year with every grade doing an art project that has to do with their first names.

 First they wanted us to incorporate more "math" into our curriculum. Now this year they are asking for more language arts. This verb wall sure did the trick! 

 I've been teaching this mosaic apple lesson for as long as I can remember! Always a good refresher lesson for cutting "shapes" and small dots of glue for first grade! 

4th and 5th are doing this first name lesson. I It was only intended for 4th but I bumped it up to 5th when I was quickly finding out that at least 3-5 kids in a class were saying they didn't know how to write in cursive! Last I checked it was still required to be taught in 3rd grade! 

What's on your Walls?

I am going to open a can of worms here and just ask y'all---

What is on your walls in terms of "decor"?

The hubs and I have had one disagreement when it comes to our new house---

PICTURES on the wall.

First of all, I LOVE pictures. I honestly feel they are what makes a home a home.

The hubs feels like we have "too many" and it feels like a "shrine" of "us". 

I told him what do you see when you walk into other people's houses? 9 out of 10 times you see photographs! 

And Art.

He wants more art and less photos. 

UGH.

As an art teacher, I'll be the first to veto knock off reprints of famous paintings. It ain't me. 

Not for the decor of my home. I don't care how much I love Monet's waterlilies or Van Gogh's starry night. I don't want it hanging in my family room as our wall art. 

So I ask you, what do you have hanging on your walls? Does anyone else have this "Problem" with their significant other?

I will knock myself down here a bit and say my area of concentration in Art was Photography. So I may go a wee bit much with photos. But in all fairness just about every friends house I've ever been in, in every room has framed photos of the people that inhabit that house! 

Here's my proof via pinterest:

What I learned about Kauai

What I learned about Kauai

Random Hawaii facts

 Tribal tattoos are NEVER considered a fad of the past. 

Seriously they were on every one, man woman, teens! You name it!

Random Fact #2: All bikinis sold in Kauai have no BOTTOMS to the butt part of the swimsuit. Saw LOTS of cheeks on the beach. Gahhh

image from here

Kauai has a two lane highway that doesn't go all the way around the island. This is a traffic nightmare in my opinion!

People are NOT in any hurry. People don't honk, give the finger or even speed. I kid you not! The hubs and I were in shock when we stalled at a green light for a few seconds after it had turn green! No one got "angry."

 Weird right?

Kauai has only 60,000 people that live there.

They have ONE walmart. ONE! 

There is NO mall. They have a Macys. That's it! 

Gas is ridiculously expensive. It was 4.69 when we were there. 

Although beautiful, and great for a vacation, I quickly knew that I could never "Live" on an island such as Hawaii. The fear of something happening really freaked me out. You can't just leave so to speak. You're stuck! I remember reading about a few bloggers that live in Hawaii explaining how panicked the island became when they had the after math of the Japan Tsunami was supposedly going to affect the Hawaiian Islands. 

Any of you ever experience these or notice these things if you've been to Kauai?

Friday Funny

Thought this was to cute not to share!

Happy Friday Friends! 

A few of my favorites

Our Photographer took over 1,000 photos. To be honest, looking at ALL the photos is quite exhausting and time consuming. I know tons of bloggers break down their wedding pictures throughout the week, but I'm keeping it simple. 

These are some of my favorite!

Enjoy!

PS anyone that tries to pin these to pinterest, please DONT! Copyright prohibited! 

Thanks!