HF4F

Happy Friday to you!!

The highlights of my week:

1. For the past 8 years,

 I have had parent-teacher conferences on or very close to my birthday.

Not my favorite way to celebrate.

This is the FIRST YEAR that we don't have conferences in November.

Thank you district peeps for making my birthday week even better this year.

2. Winter has arrived in Utah!
Hello 2 feet of snow last weekend.
I was so excited to be home all weekend and watch it snow.

3. I finally made time to do a hot oil treatment on my hair.

4. I'm excited about this pile of birthday presents.

Looks like I'm not the only one who is excited about my boxes.

5. Cupcakes for my students.
They told me that being 31 means that I'm still young!

Hooray!

I'm linking up with Lauren

Hosting Bookclub 101

I was thrilled to volunteer to host my book club this month.

It was only the 2nd meeting of our club but I looked forward to it all week.

We read:

I was a little nervous about selecting a good book that would be a crowd pleaser.

It was an enjoyable book that facilitated great conversation.

We talked about friends, family and just got to know each other better.

We also decided that the book made us realize we needed friends,

that we had to put forth effort to make friends 

and we had to go outside of our comfort zone to find friends.

We had a lot of fun together.

I'd highly recommend this read.

Plus I found out that Rachel Bertsche has a blog:

http://mwfseekingbff.com/

Back to the hosting part:

I sent out invitations, maps to my house and waited for the girls to show up.

 I had enough seats for everyone, in a circle so we could easily chat.

 Coffee table filled with snacks.

 My contributions:

pumpkin shaped pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, M&M chocolate covered pretzels

festive napkins and eating utensils

Everyone brings a little something to share so we ended up with a fun assortment.

Oliver was excited to join in the conversation.

 He was curious about the visitors but mostly kept to himself.

Topher was the lookout and watched for the girls to arrive.

He was overly friendly.

Jumping up on laps, meowing, rubbing on everyone's legs,

digging, sniffing and crawling into every purse that entered the place.

Purses had to be zipped up.

#embarrassing

 Can't wait for the December edition of our book club next month.

WIWW

I've been documenting my outfits for over a year now.

It helps me to wear more of my clothes,

try new combinations from pieces in my wardrobe

and it's fun to link up and see what other people are wearing.

Here's what I wore this week:

1.  Last warm day of the year

 Animal print top - TJ Maxx

Flower pin - Nordstrom Rack

belt - Banana Republic

skirt - thrifted

flats - Wal-Mart

2.  Triple Pattern Mixing

 cardigan - Limited

Flowered top - Old Navy

Crops - Loft

Earrings & belt - Limited

Boots - DSW

Have you tried pattern mixing this season?

It's a work in progress but I'm having fun trying out different looks.

Linking up with Lindsey

Newfound Free Time

Does your job keep you really busy?

Do you feel like you don't have time to have hobbies or do things you'd love to do?

I taught 2nd AND 3rd grade for three years.

I was swamped!

Double the work, double the stress.

I'm now realizing that many areas of my life got neglected.

Luckily, I'm teaching one grade this year

and seem to have time for all kinds of new things...

1. After school private tutoring

2. Blogging

3. Jewelry making

4. Doing Art shows - my 2nd one is coming up in December

5. My house is cleaner than ever

6. Cooking more meals

7. Sleep in if I want to

8. DIY projects

9. Traveling

10. All of my appointments are caught up with

11. I'm enjoying planning my school days more 

since I'm not juggling a million different schedules and items to fit in.

12. Staying on top of organization at home

13. Staying in touch & being a better friend

14. Joined a Book Club

15. Reading on my own for fun

I'd still like to get caught up on these areas...

1. Picture printing

(I take TONS of photos but am not so good about printing them)

2. Updating photo albums

(I only scrapbook our visitors who come to Utah 

and just print out a few pictures from travel & other big events.)

3. Cleaning out my walk in closet

4. Exercising more

5. Keeping up with phone calls, letter & e-mail writing

6. Take both of my cats to the vet for their checkups

(The boys strongly dislike car trips.  Topher meows like he's being abused at decibals that I rarely hear, Oliver shakes and gets upset.  Topher hides from the vet under the furniture and is nearly impossible to corral.  Oliver is too nervous to resist.  Topher always gets a good report.  Oliver will likely hear the kitty diet speech again. #notmyfavoritekittymomexperience)

7. Plan another visit or two to nearby National Parks while we still have a season pass

8. Paint my coffee table

9. Rearrange our furniture

10. Start tackling Christmas Shopping

11. Jewelry making

12. Learn more about my camera & practice

What do you wish you had more time for?

Mountainy Monday

A huge winter storm hit Utah this weekend

and dumped upwards of 2 feet of snow on us!

I had nowhere to be so I just sat at home and watched it SNOW!!

 It was snowing too hard to see the mountains today.

I heard they got 4-5ft of snow!

 Seems like Christmas time.

 Hope you have a great week!

HF4F

Whoa, how is it already November??

I am thrilled but these Fall months have flown by!

Highlights of my week:

1.  My birthday is one week away.

Am I really going to be 31?

How did that happen???

2. I have a niece and a nephew who have learned how to text.

They are self taught and are very sneaky.

These two have also mastered Instagram.

They don't mess around when it comes to the iPhone.

I've gotten a good amount of gibberish this week.

3.  I LOVED hosting my bookclub this week.

We had a great evening, good treats and lovely conversation.
One of my favorite nights in a long time.

4. I made my first pumpkin treats of the season this week.
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

5. I am a huge fan of brooches.

I have built quite the collection and wear them often.

A boy in my class came up to me this week and said,

"Mrs. Jordan, what are those pins you are always wearing called?"

I told him brooches.

He responded by saying,

"I really like them.  Why don't more people wear them?"

Love when 9 year olds think I'm so fashionable.

Linking up with Lauren

WIWW

It's gotten warm this week so it's thrown off my fall uniform plan a bit.

I'm looking forward to colder weather coming and staying!

Here were my favorite outfits of the week:

1. Day of Errands

Infinity scarf - World Market (NEW)

Gold mum earrings - Polka-Dotty Place etsy shop

top & crops - Loft

flats - Target

 

 2. Election Day

jacket & skirt - thrifted

top - TJ Maxx

brooch - vintage

belt - Target

navy button earrings - Polka-Dotty Place etsy shop

heels - Ralph Lauren 

I'm linking up with Lindsey

Mountainy Monday

 It's snowing in the mountains.

Happy Monday to you!

HF4F

Happy Friday to you!

Hope you had a great, Halloween week.

My sweet was filled with parties, sweets and lots of smiles.

The highlight reel...

1. I made my first apple crisp of the season.

Hubby was very happy.

2. My Box of Crayons costume was a big hit!

My crayon headband was a fun DIY project - my students kept asking to try it on :)

 3. A few thoughtful Halloween gifts showed up on my desk.

4. Our class party was created with a Minute to Win It theme

and it was HILARIOUS!

The kids rotated through several different stations:

Picking up as many penne pasta noodles only using a spaghetti noodle in their mouth.

 Use a straw to pick up one Skittle, 

sucking the whole time and drop it into a cup at the end of the table.

The winner got 14 Skittles in one minute!

 Halloween Twister

 Throw gooey eyeballs at this web 

and whoever scored the most points won.

 Pumpkin races

The kids had to wear flippers, use a broom and 

roll their pumpkin the entire length of the gym floor and back.

Too awkward and too funny.

Who could keep the balloon off the ground the longest
using only their head.

Mummify someone in a minute.

 Slide an Oreo from your forehead to your mouth.

5.  I'm hosting my book club this month.

Have an excellent weekend.
Linking up with