Irish I had some hummus. *Freebie!

So today, my kids were learning about soil types.
Humus is found in the soil; it's made of dead plant and animal remains and is good for plant growth. HU-mus; starts like HU-man.

Hummus is found in the grocery store. It is made of chickpeas and is tasty on pita chips. Hummus starts like Hum. As in ho-hum, this pita chip is boring without any hummus on it.

These two are not the same thing.
Unless you're a kid.
They spent a reeeeaaaally long time calling humus hummus, and when I explained the difference, one kid shouted, "I HATE it on toast."
Humus or hummus?
Cause either one might be pretty yucky on toast.

In other news,
I've spent the last several days working on my Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka literacy activity unit, and I'm excited because I'm actually done in time to use it!
We're going to work on it the last week before spring break she said, drooling.
Cause that's right before St. Patrick's Day.

Fortunately Unfortunately, we will be off on St. Patrick's Day. So I won't be able to pinch anyone.

Well, not any kids, anyway.
Hunny, look out!

I've put it up on TPT AND Teacher's Notebook, and if you remember (even if you don't), I'm having a sale at TPT! So you can get it (and everything else in my store) for 10% off :)
And it's already very very reasonably priced if I do say so myself.

Grab it from TPT or Teacher's Notebook.

It's seventeen pages of Irishy goodness.

And grab this simple summarizing freebie from TPT - just leave me some feedback or a rating :)

Pigphony and please pin *Freebie

Yes.
Please pin stuff from my blog.
To me, that's free advertising. It's not like it's not linked back.
Maybe there are reasons people don't want others to pin stuff.
I'm sure there are.
But I don't have any. So pinnity pin pin.

Also, the promised pigphony.

I warn you: this is pretty ridicuous. It's a very weird post. But I promised my hunny I would write it, and he had a bad day, so we have to make him happy.

My hunnybun and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a little late this year. By celebrate, I mean actually leave the house and do something other than go to Target. We postponed because, on Saturday, the symphony was performing his favorite symphony of all time: Antonin Dvorak's 9th Symphony, New World Symphony. 

For reference, it sounds like this.

It's very serious (symphonies usually are).

My experience with symphonies is limited. I don't listen to them much - not opposed to them, just don't think about it much. I attended one on a field trip when I was a kid, but all I remember about it is the pretty dress I wore with a big red flower on it.

So honestly, when I hear symphonies....

I think of...

Bugs Bunny.

Well, the other day, we were listening to this symphony in the car, in preparation for our 'fancy date' (one of THREE since I met this man three years ago - not three FANCY dates; three dates at all. ever.)

He was singing some of the parts and it sounded funny to me.

Like what? you ask.

Like a pig.

Like a little pig, singing.

Like a little pig, singing, "I'm just a little pig. Please don't eat me."

Now, I know that sounds absolutely stupid. I'm not denying this. But the other day, I mentioned the pigphony, and I figured I better follow through.

So once I had established a protagonist (a precious little piggins) I had to have an antagonist. A farmer. With an axe. And a pitchfork.

I made up lyrics that had him say things like, "I must eat ALL the pigs!" and "Where have you gone, O Pig?"

The pig hides behind a cow. 

The farmer sings about bacon.

The pig begs for his life.

The farmer sings about ham.

The pig keeps hiding.

I acted this out in my den.

Then, the pig has a nightmare - keep in mind, this is all inspired by the symphony; the plot makes perfect sense with the music in my head. 

The farmer almost catches the pig.

And then....I didn't hear the end of the symphony, so I wasn't sure what happened at the end. I was sincerely worried.

So on Saturday night, we went to the symphony. 

In the middle of the fourth movement (the best part for the pig), my hunny looked at me and started to giggle. 

Then he stopped.

Then we got to the part where the pig is hiding behind a cow.

He giggled.

Then he stopped.

Then we got to the end, during which I realized what happens.

The pig trots away, so fast, on his little pig feet, and the farmer stands, holding his pitchfork, looking forlorn.

All you can see is the little piggin's little pig bottom disappearing over a hill, his curly tail bouncing behind.

I was very relieved.

After the pigphony was over, I informed my hunny about what the ending was. He was relieved too. 

But I think I still ruined the symphony for him, because now, instead of the glorious "Going Home," he is going to hear a little pig begging for his life and trotting into the distance.

I'm sorry that was so weird. I had to keep my promise.

To say I'm sorry, here's a freebie thing, black and white for easy printing: 

Click it to grab it from TPT.

Leap Day Sale!

Oh no!
Wee-yoo--wee-yoo!
Breakin the law! Breakin the law!
Two posts in one day!

But this ones' just a minipost. I'm just letting you know that I am having a Leap Year sale at my TPT store! That means there are even more items for less that two dollars!
(I try to keep prices down - I know how much I make! I just can't scalp a teacher.)

So leap on over to my TPT store and check it out! Maybe you need some new stuff :)
Or download some of my many freebies, and give me a rating! Either way, you'll be helping out a humble teacher like you.

Supposedly, the magical promo code will get you an extra percentage off, so use it!

Happy Shopping!
PS, for more sales, you can check out this linky party at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits or Step into Second Grade with Amy Lemons.

Guided reading: vitamins in your reading diet *Freebie

I did promise.
So even though I really want to talk about these things...
*Fringe (what the what?!)
*Pigphony (like symphony, but pigs. More later)
*Room, which I just finished reading. O.M.G.

I am going to talk about something even more exciting!
Yes, you guessed it! Guided reading!

Guided reading is like vegetables for reading. You need a little bit every day.
For healthy readers, they might need less concentrated doses.
But for struggling unhealthy readers, you gotta hit em hard with consistent amounts.

At our school, guided reading is one of the few consistent initiatives we have - everybody does it, everybody's been trained in it, everybody has to provide evidence of it.

WARNING!
My stuff is not always cute. For example, my groups are labeled with post-its and my handwriting on this is ALWAYS messy if they're just for me. Because this stuff IS just for me, and maybe our literacy lead.
Kid stuff can be cute.
My stuff doesn't have time to be cute.

Space for Guided Reading

This is my table. It has five chairs around it;
sometimes we add another for larger groups.

Behind the table are my materials shelves
and our comprehension strategies posters. 

I have a vertical file folder for each group. Each group also has a folder in their color to keep their book for rereading in, and any extensions I give them to work on. We also practice answering questions about each book using The Test-like questions.

These are our comprehension strategies. Some of them, that I charted anyway. On the left is a description of what their brain is doing, and on the right, the mouth and the pencil show that this is the way to speak or write about your thinking.

To the left of the table (from student perspective) are our charts of decoding skills that we've practiced. Blends, Vowel Sounds, Vowel Teams, Digraphs, Syllable Patterns on a foldable, and our pocket chart of decoding strategies.

Structure of a Lesson
There's a formal lesson plan sheet we have to use to plan every lesson, but I don't know if I'm allowed to share it. Don't want to get in trouble!

The important part is it's done at the student's instructional reading level - not grade level, necessarily. We work through grade level text all day. This is an 18-minute (approximately) block of time where the kid gets to practice strategies on a text he or she can almost manage.

When appropriate, we start with practicing some high frequency words.
The more able readers don't really need that.

Then we do a little word work - could be blends, digraphs, syllable patterns, vowel teams, rhyming words, prefixes, suffixes, decoding strategies, even synonyms/antonyms, context clues.

Next, we introduce our focus strategy. I've always used "Good readers" statements.
"Good readers stop and think about what's important from their reading."
"Good readers read to the end of the word."
Although, I recently heard "Thoughtful readers."

We preview the text, plant some language they'll need, predict words and ideas they expect to encounter, access background knowledge - all that stuff.

Then they read. Independently. Teacher works with individual students, prompting them through the text and recording anecdotal notes.

Afterwards, we praise & reteach.

Structure of Groups
I meet with two groups a day. My most struggling group meets with me daily (M-F).
My next most struggling group I see three days a week (M,T,W). Then I see a group on Thursday, a group on Friday, and my highest group meets with me Wednesday during breakfast. They're actually slightly ahead of the game, so they don't need as much direct instruction.

Documentation

This is my binder. EW! IT'S SO UGLY! That's my group schedule on the front.

The inside is ugly, too. In the pocket are question stems (the structure of  different kinds of questions on THE TEST. Then I have blank forms and assessment data on the right.

They gave us these cool plasticky pocket dividers. Each group has a divider.

Behind the plastic divider, I put the lesson plans for the group.

Behind those, there are dividers for each student in the group.
 That's where I put my running records.

Inside the kids' folders, they have this to keep track of their reading levels. I mostly use it with my more struggling (below grade level) groups, to motivate them to work hard during guided reading. They notice when they move up, and they feel proud!

You can grab it here at TPT.

Noticing: I need to make my own stuff cuter, too.

QUESTION!

How do you work with struggling readers?

Is your guided reading program similar?

Lotsa Stuff Plus Linky Party! *Point of View Freebie

Kids say goofy things. It's cause they just don't know. Like, anything.
Oh, I'm kidding. Loosen up.

Several years ago, we were starting a project about Black History Month. We talked about some African Americans that would be good choices to learn about. One student said, "Michael Jackson?"
I said, "Sure."
Ruben said, "Michael Jackson is black?!"
"Yes," I said.
"Oh." world rocked

Then he asked, "Well...I think I'd rather do Abraham Lincoln."
I paused...big mistake....
Someone shouted, "Abraham Lincoln wasn't black!"
Ruben shouted back, "Well, why'd he free the slaves, then?!"

Worst part: these were fourth graders.

But this is my mini darndest thing kids say thing, cause I'm linking up with Kindergarten Lifestyle's cute cute cute linky party:

Again, concerning Abraham Lincoln.
Who was a black man in the 1980s.
*Yes, I saw the typo - I left out a word. I'm not gonna make the graphic again, though, so let's pretend it's not messed up.*
Link up here!

I still haven't finished working with the kids on our amazing volcanoes. That should be about done by Wednesday. I'll take pictures; I promise.
But I did take pictures of this cute stuff:

I won this from an amazingly generous giveaway at Rachel's Room.
You can get your own cute stuff like this from The Jemzy Boutique. Wendy was so nice and friendly and did an adorable job putting together my little framed picture and personalized sanitizer!

I do promise that the next post will be instructional. I took a bunch of pictures of my guided reading setup and thought I'd put them up and talk about it a little.
Excited yet?
Yeah, I know.
You are.

I worked on a lot of teacher resources this week. It makes me happy for things to come together. And keeps me from crying about my kids who think that Abraham Lincoln was black and was still able to be president during a time of slavery.

I finished my Addition/Subtraction Missing Numbers Activity for St. Patrick's Day: Hunting for Four Leaf Clovers! In the center activity, kids have to use the numbers on the four leaf clovers to complete the addition and subtraction equations. Two practice handouts also included. (I just can't get enough of KPM Doodles. You can learn about my addiction *sniff sniff* here.)
Grab it here at TPT and here at Teacher's Notebook.

And today, I made some Point of View posters, to help kids remember the difference between First Person and Third Person.
And these.....are.....FREE!!
Here at TPT.
Just leave me some feedback or a rating or something. :)

Happy Weekend

Sick Day *Freebies

Achoo. Snort. Bleh.

British accent British accent

That's what my day sounded like today.
This is my new best friend. I take it every four hours, on the dot...

or I regret it.

I feel like someone is smushing my brain against a table. Not my head; just my brain. Every now and then my sinuses feel like they're full of pipe cleaners and my ears are full of water and I want to barf.
Lovely visual, I know.

I did stay home from work today, because I thought maybe a day of laying around would save me a few days of laying around in the long run.
I have laid around all day on the couch, but it's hard just to lay here and stare blankly.
I'm not a good day sleeper. I just can't fall asleep. I try and try, and nothing happens.
I get good at being lazy over winter break, but I'm out of practice. Maybe it would have been better if I had more episodes of Downton Abbey to watch, but I'm out of them. Have to wait for more.

So I watched the IT Crowd instead.

It doesn't really require much of your brain.

The only thing these two shows have in common? The British.

I tried and tried to lay and not think, but that's pretty tough without anything super riveting to watch. So I did this. It's a "Lucky Number Patterns Pack" and you can get it at my TPT store or my Teacher's Notebook store. It's perfect for a St. Patrick's Day math center and has additional practice.

 You can also grab this pattern freebie at  TPT.

*Just corrected!

 Then I finished this Suffix Activity Pack that I've been working on for a while, a little at a time. It includes -ful and -less activities: a center sorting game & recording sheet, poems, posters, and practice for each suffix. Grab it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook.

 And you can grab this freebie at TPT, too.

Now I'm going to lay here and pretend my head is not underwater.
I feel some pipe cleaners coming on, and a pretty good table smushing too.
Ew new symptom - prickly forehead headache thing.
Barf.

Midgets? *Tables Freebie

Today we were reading a poem about a volcano.
It is part of my muy super wow unit in which I integrate reading, science, and writing. I will share more of this soon, when we have some sort of culmination.

Which means probably never because I tend to overplan and do things FOR.EV.ER.
Not really; I will finish someday. Hopefully this or next week.

Anyway, we read this line from a poem about lava erupting from a volcano:
"It smothered the helpless, waiting earth."

I wanted kids to think about why the author chose the word, "smothered," rather than "kissed" or "covered." To do this, we had to talk about the meaning of the word, "smothered."

I said, "Smothered means when something is completely covering somebody so they can't breathe."

Blank stares.

I said, "It's not really a positive thing. Unless you say something is smothered in chocolate. Other than that, to completely cover something so it can't breathe or get out, is a pretty negative thing, right?"

Blank stares.

I said, "So if I have a blanket on my face, and I can't breathe, I am being smothered by the blanket."

"OH!" said Daisy. "Like midgets!"

..................

I don't think I need to tell you how I reacted to that.

But just so you know, smothered has nothing to do with midgets. And now, Daisy knows that, too.

This is a short one cause I'm sick.
Not completely pathetically sick, like I was last year at this time, but almost.
Enough for me to *cue the dramatic music* take tomorrow off. Because if I don't, I think I'm gonna be a wreck by Friday. And I have to teach Saturday school, as I may have mentioned.

In other news,
Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher is having a giveaway in honor of selling 100 items from her TPT store. You can enter her giveaway here:

Last item: Over the weekend, before I was so sadly sick, (like my alliteration?) I made this set of tables activities, posters, and handouts. They address using multiplication and division relationships to connect data in tables. Grab it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook.

 Here's your freebie: Grab it at TPT - just leave me a little note to let me know you did!

Scrappindoodles clipart, dafont fonts.

Adventure Day *Money Match Freebie

It. Has. Been. A. Week.

You know what kind of week.
This is a nice blog.
I don't want to sully it with adjectives.

On Friday, our principal met with us. He said,
"You guys are working really hard. Saturday School is coming up for you, starting February 25th. You don't HAVE to do all of them. Use your judgment; do as many as you need to, depending on the level of your group of kids."

Translation: I have to do all of them.


Then he said,
"And it's a long weekend. I know you have a training tomorrow (Saturday), but after that, take it easy. Don't take home your guided reading binder. Don't take home your laptop. Don't take home anything. Just enjoy your family. Because after this weekend... well..."

I'll let you translate that one.

So we said,
"Ok. So, if we don't take anything home, don't be surprised if, on Tuesday-
we're off Monday-
the classroom looks like a monkey cage because we're not prepared."

Translation: Teachers aren't ever OFF. Ever.


He said,
"But really. I'm sure it will be fine. Just take it easy."

Translation: He's not really sure what our job is.

We said,
"Ok. Sure."
and then we packed up our laptops and guided reading binders and took them home anyway.

So last night, after my training and his extra photo shoot
he's behind the camera, not in front of it
my hunnybun and I were talking, and we decided to have a mini-adventure.
We do this frequently, although less frequently this past year. We just take a little tiny trip.
We have no children, and my mother is capable of giving my diabetic dog a shot. She complains about having to do it. She lives literally, 200 seconds away. Around the corner, down the street. She'll be fine.


So we packed up our stuff and drove forty-five minutes to the next town. All of our little trips start the same way. With a song I like to call "Adventure Day." It's always the same title, but the tune and lyrics are dependent on my mood and what expectations I have for the trip.
yesterday it went something like this:
Adventure Day,
Adventure Day,
It is time to get away!
A hotel we will have to pay
so we can have adventure day!

This is shouted at the top of my lungs as we pull out of the driveway. There may have been other verses, but I don't really remember.
My hunny is a saint.

These are our adventures so far:
We stayed in a hotel.
We slept late.
We bought me some medicine for my sinus infection that I just decided to admit to.
We ate lunch at Golden Corral. 
Have you ever seen a chocolate fountain at Golden Corral? I hadn't. I think it's not a good idea.

That is, it's not a good idea for me to go to Golden Corrals with chocolate fountains.
I ate lots of things covered in chocolate. Mostly marshmallows. So I basically ate chocolate-covered sugar. Num nums.
I might've tried covering other things in chocolate too, but I think the lady behind the counter wouldn't like that.
Now I'm back to sugarless again.

We came to a Starbucks.
Guess what we did there, on our mini vacation?
He edited pictures from his photo shoot, and I worked on a new product for my store.
We've been here for, like, five hours. Working. On our mini-vacation.
I did this.

You can get it at my TPT store or my Teacher's Notebook Store.
You can also take this freebie because I like you:

Click it to grab it from TPT. It's full of Ginger Snap's cute money clipart. 

OH! PS She's having a sale till Monday, so hop over to Teacher's Notebook and buy stuff!

Now I'm going to read the latest additions
juicy lovey dovey stories
to my linky party which I am SO glad I did because you guys have the most awesome stories ever. If you haven't checked it out, it's well worth a read. Skip an episode of RHOBH and read about some RHOBV. 
Real Housewives of BlogVille
They're smarter. And nicer. And won't throw their wine in your face. (I think.)

Maybe later I'll convince the hunnybun to see a movie. Do they still make movies?

One question:


What do you do for adventure days?

The. Best. Bloggy. Valentine. Ever.

I don't care what you say.

Mine is better.

I just walked up my sidewalk five minutes ago.
(Yes, it's 5:45 and I'm just getting home from work. And?)
And there was a little box sitting on my porch.

I knew what it was.
It was my bloggy valentine!
I was so excited!

I raced inside,
tore it open,
and peeked at the contents.

This is what I saw:

• Pink nail polish (so pretty)
• Cute little personal kleenexes (perfect for the sinus infection I'm probably developing)
• Sugar-free jolly ranchers and Dove chocolates (Thank God. Respite from the constant sugar shoving of the last two days)
• Personalized stickers that say "This is BEE-utiful Work! Love, Ms. B." There are not words to describe the specialness of this. 
• And the most adorable, precious name tag holder I have EVER seen.

Need I say more?

My buddy is the best.

And it's Abby from Third Grade Bookworm.

You should go check her out and tell her she's the bestest Valentine ever.

Also, in case you want a supercute nametag thingy like mine (wow three words in a row that the computer doesn't recognize) it came from Snuggly Monkey Cause I know you love it, too.

PS. What blog is Tara Ring from?

She was my valentine, but it didn't say what her blog was, and I want to make sure she got her gifty!

Little Dents in My Heart *President's Day Freebie!

Just a quickie -

After all that sugar yesterday, I'm more than a little stupid today.
I fully intend to post about instruction tomorrow
because all kinds of interesting and important learning stuff
is going on in my room.
Just not right now.
Cause I'm still shoving leftover sugar lumps
in my face.

But, two things:
1. Don't forget to link up and share your hunny story. 
A couple of my favorite bloggers have promised to
and now I'm compulsively checking it
like a nutter. I am so excited that people shared their stories!

*BTW, I'm amazed.
So many lovely couples
have known each other since they were kids!
This is amazing to me.
I met my hunny three years ago
when I was 27.
I can't think of anyone
I knew when I was a kid
who I would want to be married to now.
Or anyone
who knew me as a kid
who would want to marry me.

But then, I was a kid.
Who knows.
Maybe those guys were
are
AWESOME!

I guess I'll never know.

2. President's Day Freebie.
One of my colleagues mentioned some work she was doing
with Washington
and another mentioned Lincoln.
So I merged them.
No, it's not President Lincington.

It's a Venn Diagram.

I had to make it.
I needed to do something with that cute KPM Doodles clipart
I bought the other day whenI was on a clipart high.
Grab it here from TPT.

OH! And a question - 

99% of my TPT feedback is super supportive

and positive

and makes me shoot little butterflies

out of my eyeballs.

But there have been two comments that broke my heart.

Ok, that's a little dramatic.

Keep in mind I'm overly sensitive when it comes to that stuff.

My heart wasn't completely broken...

it just has little dents.

They weren't completely negative.

One said something was too hard for her kids

and another said something else was a little too easy.

My problem is

we're all in different states.

Standards are different in different places.

which doesn't make sense to me

and I really am not crazy about.

Texas stinks, especially.

My standards aren't necessarily yours.

So, maybe I think something is too hard for third graders,

but guess what - I have to teach it

even though they're all confused at first.

They get it eventually.

Boo.

So I put "third grade" on the applicable grade levels

cause it's stuff I have to work with in third grade

or whatever grade.

I guess I need to just use my own judgment and not the standards necessarily

because who's writing those anyway?

People who aren't in the classroom

and want to be politicians

which means they're nuts.

But anyway, have you had any problems with that?

Or is it just me?! :/

Not shockingly, this is WAY longer than I expected.

Sugar Hangover *President's Day Freebie

So, did you know that there could be a new reality TV show,
right here,
in blogville?
It would be called RHOBV. The Real Housewives of BlogVille
and would feature you.
Yes, you.
All you housewives with your juice-alicious hunny stories that I have been so excited to read at my linky party.
I had no idea I would uncover stories that would make Erica Kane do a double take.
Yes, I'm only thirty and that was a Susan Lucci reference.
I'm an old soul.
If you haven't had a chance, link up and share your story about...

And check out the juicy tales being told.

On an unrelated (kind of) note, how was your day today?
About like mine?
I insist on cramming in all the content of a normal day,
in addition to time spent with our little buddies to do some kind of holiday-ish thing
while still practicing valuable skills
and all the while,
I am shoving sugar into my face.

I started at 7:45, when one of the kids brought me some chocolate.
Then another.
And another.
And I continued throughout the day, until now, 9:00,
shoving chocolate into and about my face,
causing a headache, sugar rushes and a general feeling of jitteriness.

Needless to say, around 6:00, I was really craving something good for me.
A giant salad with chicken, specifically.
But guess what.
It was Valentine's Day.
So there was not one single place that didn't have a wait time of 45 minutes.
We gave up.
We ate Chinese food.

I still feel pretty crummy.
It was probably all the sweet and sour sauce I bathed my crispy chicken in.
Hmmm...

Anyway, these are some things that happened today:

I gave this to my hunnybun.

It used to be a jelly jar, but now it's a hunny jar. And by that, I mean I wrote a clever poem about how if he's feeling grouchy, he can open up the jar and take out one of the little slips of paper inside. I filled it up with little cards that have reasons he's loveable. And it was free.

My sister-in-law found these cute little bee bags at Walgreen's

 and bought them for my kids. They loved them.

I received this from one of my little guys. It's a 3-D scene with a bee flying out of a beehive. So cute!! And, apparently, I'm the best teacher in the whole world. That's a tall order lol.

This is what we worked on with our little buddies. It's from my Candy Hearts unit on TPT or Teacher's Notebook. Each pair of kids got a box of candy hearts and used them to record data in the form of a tally chart, bar graph, and pictograph. Then they answered questions using their data. They had the BEST time!

When we came back, we handed out the stuff they brought to share, including their tasty cookies with names. Unfortunately, one of my little guys has diabetes, so I made him these cheesy heart crackers instead. I used my Pampered Chef cutters to cut little cheese hearts. He said he was happy with them. I hope he was!

So, overall, it was a pretty good day
despite the chocolate headache
and caffeine jitters
and general barfiness.
Tomorrow, I expect the worst hangover of my life.
Sugar hangover, that is.
My kids will stumble in,
delirious,
as if they've been binging all night.
Probably because they are binging all night
on candy hearts.

Also, here's a little freebie for President's Day. Nothing fancy - just word building.

Clipart from KPM Doodles, fonts from DJ Inkers. Grab it here from my TPT Store.

Cooooooookies

It's almost time!
Time...for...SUGAR!!

YEAH!
That's the best part of Valentine's Day.
I think it is, anyway.

Today I'm busy at work.
Why?
Cause I'm a glutton for punishment.

Remember my cookie valentine post?
Well, we're T-12 hours and counting.
These are some shots in action:

Tasty, huh?

While you're drooling
maybe I'm projecting here
because I'm certainly drooling
make sure you take a few minutes and link up with my linky party!

On a side note, that is not actually how I spell honey.
But my boyfriend and I call each other 'hun' a lot
and he writes it 'hun', not 'hon', and 'hon' looks weird,
so I started to write it hunny.
Even though I know it looks a little ridiculous.

How'd you meet your hunny?! Linky Party!!

Ahh, the season of love.

Or looooooove, as I hear it in my head.

This season is love for double reasons.
#1 is obviously Valentine's Day.
#2 is it's my hunnybun's birthday on the day before Valentine's Day.

Awwww loooooove.

I think I've already mentioned that, when we first met, he thought this meant that we didn't have to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Don't worry. We fixed that up right quick.

Anyway, I'm kind of nosy when it comes to this love stuff.
Looooooooove.

I want to know everybody's business.
So I'm gonna be brave.
I figure, I should get the ball rolling by sharing a story first, and then,
maybe
if you're very very nice
and don't want me to develop a blog complex
about being the only one at my linky party
you'll link up, too
and tell us
ok, mostly me...

Now, I want to be fair.
I didn't have a hunny for a loooong time.
I spent my fair share of evenings drinking wine
eating frosting (I know. Counterproductive to catching a man)
and watching Bridget Jones.
So I get it.
If you don't currently have a hunny,
you can write about how you would LIKE to meet your hunny,
which means you can write whatever fantasy you'd like.

Cause if I was writing that post,
it definitely wouldn't go like this:

I've worked for my school district for 9 years.
A few years ago, my campus had a disaster.
By that I mean there was mold.
In the campus.
On everything.
In the air.
In the library.
It ruined ALL the books in the WHOLE library
and damaged LOTS of stuff in the WHOLE school.
My school had to be bused every day across town to a vacant old school building
that was gross
and didn't have anything in it
and that was our home for a year.

To make an incredibly long story short
ish,
I wasn't too happy.
Nobody was.
And then-
dun-dun-DUNNNNN
worse news
we were going to have to move classrooms again.

Nope.
I had it.
So I went and spoke at a board meeting.
I wasn't very nice
but I wasn't that mean either
but it got the job done
because other people heard and helped us
and we didn't have to move again.
I wasn't a favorite in the public relations office,
but then,
I could live with that.

Well, two months later, my friend nagged me into setting up a Yahoo! personal profile.
I know.
Ew, some say.
But it was kind of fun.
'Something to do' as my mother would say.
So I did it
and started checking out some dudes online.
I 'winked' at this cute guy
who looked like Fred Flintstone
and said he worked for my district, in multimedia.

Multimedia, I thought.
Instructional Technology Department, probably.

A week went by.
A week!
I was seeing other guys from the site, but they were pretty lame boring weird much not for me.
Finally, he responded!
First we just emailed,
but finally,
when he manned up and called,
when his brother made him do it
we got to talking on the phone. He said,
"You know, I see so many teachers. I'm surprised we've never met."

Taking a long shot, I said,
"Well, do you remember that teacher from ___fill in school name___ who came and spoke at the board meeting?"

"YEAH! The crazy who ripped everybody a new *%&hole?"he said, in an animated tone.

........

"Yes. That was me," I said, charitably.

.........

"Ah. Well......then I do remember you," he pathetically responded. "I work in public relations. We recorded it. My boss isn't too crazy about you."

Yeesh.

Later, I was able to ask this man,
who would eventually be my hunnybun,
"What did you think when you called me a crazy?"
He said, "Open mouth. Insert foot. I was mostly just relieved that you didn't get upset."

Of course I didn't get upset. I knew I looked like a crazy.
People who stick up for kids always do.
Creeps.

Anyway, we set a time to meet
three years ago
in a Village Inn
fancy
and fell in
looooooove.
Now I'm working on step 2.
You know,
the bling.

But anyway, that's How I Met My Hunny.

All right!
I spilled the embarrassing beans!
And keep in mind, this is my first linky party
EVER
and I'm having anxiety about it.
please
please
please
please
please

And if this thing doesn't work, please tell me! :)