Tornadoes! Numbers to 120 Charts! Awards!

Hi everyone! I hope your Saturday is going well. My thoughts are still with all of those who suffered through those horrible tornadoes this week. I saw on the news that there were over 90 tornadoes reported yesterday alone! That's insane!!

I grew up in the midwest and I used to LOVE a good thunderstorm. But now that I've lived in Utah for so long, I admit, I am a total wimp when I go back to visit family in Illinois and there is a thunderstorm. I seriously believe the thunder out there is significantly louder than what we experience out here in the mountains.....Or maybe, I've just become soft...

All I know is that I still have this crazy nightmare every now and then about a tornado chasing my sister and me through our house, down into our basement trying to suck us out of the house and all I can do is grab on to the metal pole in our basement with one hand and hang on to her with the other hand as she is flying up in the air....then I wake up. In a sweat. Ughh! So, yah, my thoughts are definitely with all of you.

On a brighter note, I made another FREEBIE!! Yeah!! This is for all of you who are using the new Common Math Core. First graders have to be able to count to 120. This freebie is printed on LEGAL paper. I just couldn't get it to fit on standard paper. I hope you can find it useful!

And now....for that moment you've all been waiting for!! Yesterday I mentioned in my blog post that
Barbara at Grade ONEderful and Chrissy from First Grade Found Me awarded my blog the Lovely Blog Award!! It totally made my whole week! (I had a crazzzzy week!)  Thank you so much for thinking of me, you two! If you haven't checked out their fantastic blogs, you must!! I love following both of them!

The rules for this award are to:
1. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.
3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

The 15 Lovely Blogs I am passing this cute award on to are:
1. Ms. Preppy
2. Rowdy in First Grade
3. Criss Cross Applesauce in First Grade
4. Mrs. Jump's Class
5. Dragonflies in First
6. Teachin' First
7. The Honey Bunch
8. Miss Kindergarten
9. Chickadee Jubilee
10. Discovery Kid Zone
11. Finally in First
12. Doodlebugs Teaching
13. Ms. Rachel's Room
14. The Teacher's Cauldron
15. A Teeny Tiny Teacher

There is Only Love,Rebecca

Blogger Award

Yeah!! I love blogging awards!! I am very flattered and excited to have been given this award!! There are so many wonderful new blogs out there and having this support from you feels wonderful. Thank you!

Here are the rules...
1. Thank the person who nominated you with a link back to them. A HUGE thank you to:

Christina

Sandy

 
Sandra

 

and Kristy

 
You are all amazing bloggers and I am so grateful to have you as blogging friends!
2. Tell seven things about youa. I love animals of every kind. I have a sweet cat named Koby and two dogs named Bella and Kai. They are my "children" since I don't have kids of my own. 
b. I LOVE history, especially books on the Civil War era and about Native American Indian history. I was a history major in college before I became an El. Ed. major...now reading history is my hobby...
c. I used to have a huge fear of death, until my Dad passed away three years ago. Now I don't fear it any more. My Dad's passing taught me so much about life and death and I am a firm believer that life continues after we die.
d. Umm....ok I don't know anything more to say... I love the color pink...I love polka dots! 
e. I have an obsession with buying books, stationary, journals and anything paper related!
f. I am a night person...and a sleeper-inner.  
g. Jimmy Fallon cracks me up to no end! ha ha!! I love ending the day with a good laugh with Jimmy!
3. Pass this award on to 15 new blogs

Go check all these wonderful blogs out!

There is only Love, Rebecca

I Feel Very Blessed!

I am so very very appreciative and can I say, SUPER EXCITED, to have received an invitation to be a blogging writer for one of the first teaching blogs I ever found, Me and My Gang 1!  My jaw hit the floor when I opened the email and I'm quite frankly still in shock! Did I say how EXCITED I am??!! I hope you'll come check out my first post!

To add to that wonderful gift, this weekend I received a comment from my friend Tammy over at Klinger Cafe' giving my blog the LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD!! There's just nothing like that feeling of receiving an award from one of your respected peers. It is the best "warm fuzzy" feeling! But even better than receiving an award is getting the opportunity to pass it on!

The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is to spotlight 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.

Here are a few a my blogging buddies that I just love! I hope you will show each of them some blogging LOVE by following them!

Thank you so much to all of my blogging buddies out there for supporting and following me. Your comments cheer me up and the post you write on your own blogs inspire me and make me smile. There's just nothing like being a part of this amazing team of teachers out here in cyber space. I hope someday soon there will be a conference for teaching bloggers so we can all meet in person and swap ideas.

Happy Monday, and remember, there is only LOVE....

Rebecca

Here Comes the Sun!!

Whoo! Whooo! Thank you so much to my friends Tina from Quench You First, Chrissy from First Grade Found Me, Barbara from Grade ONEderful, and Staci from Going Nutty in Miss Squirrels First Grade for their super sunshine filled comments and for giving me the Sunshine Award! You all brightened up my whole week with your kindness!! I follow all of you and LOVE your blogs!! Sending you big HUGS! I hope everyone takes a little time to check out their blogs!

The Sunshine Award rules are

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions below.

3. Pass the award on to 10-12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs, and let them know you awarded them.

* Favorite Color?  Ummm....red, pink, green and yellow! ( I can't pick just one!!)

*Favorite Animal? Dogs and Cats (again, I can't pick just one!)

*Favorite Number? 4 and 5 (do you see a pattern here??)

*Favorite Drink? hot caramel cream latte or 1/2 Diet Coke with 1/2 Dr. Pepper with Vanilla and Cherry syrup and a lime from Sonic

*Facebook or Twitter?  I've been on Facebook since the very beginning

*Your Passion? Spreading love especially to those who don't believe in themselves

*Giving or Getting Presents? Definitely giving!

*Favorite Day? Thursday and I have no idea why!

*Favorite Flower? Don Juan Red Roses (love the smell) and tulips

Here are the 12 Blogs that bring me Sunshine (In no particular order):

1. Rowdy In First Grade

2. Ms. Preppy

3. A Teeny Tiny Teacher

 4. Mrs. Bainbridge's Class

5. Bishop's Blackboard

6. Booky4First

7. Ms. Rachel's Room

8. Ginger Snaps: Tidbits and Treats for Teachers

9. Mrs. Johnson's First Grade

10. Mrs. Freshwater's Class

11. Doodle Bugs Teaching

12. What the Teacher Wants

Thanks for spreading Sunshine in my world!

There is only Love,

Rebecca

I'm On Fire and I've Reached 100 Followers!!

Wow!!! I can't believe I finally reached 100 followers! I honestly am floored to have so many of you following me. It wasn't that long ago that I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if I'd get 10 followers!!! Thank you for your love and support!

I have seen so many fantastic blog awards being given out around blog-land, but I never thought I'd receive one! I'm soooo excited! Thank you to Holly over at Criss Cross Applesauce In First Grade for the I'm On Fire Award!! Girl, your blog is on fire, too, and if you haven't had a chance to check out her blog please do! She has wonderful ideas!!!

So, I guess for this award I get to tell 7 things about myself and nominate 7 other blogs...The last part is easy! There are so MANY wonderful blogs out there! The first part is harder for me....Here goes!

1. I have the most embarrassing nickname (given to me by my parents, no less) of Booze. My parents say that I loved the game "Peek-a-boo" as a baby so they started calling me "Boo"....then my Dad thought it would be funny to call me "Boozer" and then, well it got shortened to "Booze".  I used to get so embarrassed when they would call me that in public. But, then again, my sister's nickname was "Toad" which isn't a whole lot better!

2. I love the color red and the color pink. I love polk-a-dots, fresh cut flowers and girly things.

3. I've taught for 15 years in the same school with the same principal. All but 3 of those years were teaching First grade. (The other years were in Third.)

4. I've lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Utah. I appreciate the different regions of the United States. I grew up in a very rural community and now live in the city. I think I will always be a small-town girl at heart.

5. Every year I drive across country from Utah to Illinois to visit my parents and brothers and sisters. I pack my two dogs, my cat , grab a bag of baby carrots and a can of Dr. Pepper and set out on the two day drive, usually by myself. I have done this for over 20 years. Flying across country is my mode of transportation the other times during the year, but I always look forward to the drive across this amazingly beautiful country of ours every year or two. 

6. My most embarrassing moment was in college. (Well, ONE of them...I have a list....) I woke up late for my 8:00 class and grabbed a pair of jeans out of the dirty clothes, got dressed, and hurried to class. While  running up three flights of stairs I kept feeling something hitting the side of my shoe. Annoyed, I reached down and tugged at whatever was flapping out of the bottom of my pant leg. To my horror, I pulled out a bra! There I stood in the middle of 8:00 a.m. student rush hour holding my bra!! All these guys from my class were going up the stairs with me just stopped and stared then hurried on. Not thinking, I did the most rational thing I could think of, and I shoved it BACK UP MY PANT LEG!! I sat all through class with a bra up my pant leg....(Yah...brilliant!!! Who does that???) 

7. My most memorable true story from teaching was from around my fourth or fifth year teaching. I had just finished some reading assessments on a little boy in my class and he stood up and just kind of did "the potty dance". So I asked him, "Do you need to use the bathroom, honey?" To which he matter-of-factly stated, "No Miss Sutton, sometimes when I sit for too long my p***** sticks to my leg and I have to shake it off." ----- (Things that make you go "Hmmmmm....") 

Ok, there you have it....it's out there in all its glory, 7 wonderful or not so wonderful things about me! (That wasn't so difficult after all....)

Ok, drum roll please! And now for my top 7 blogs!!!

Bishop's Blackboard: A First Grade Blog

Teachin' First

Ms. Preppy

Rowdy in First Grade

One Extra Degree: Confessions of a teachaholic

Mrs. Freshwater's Class

Quench Your First

There are soooo many more that I love! Thank you all for sharing your world of work with me!

Rebecca