Tagged Again, Giveaways, Plus a Freebie!

Wow, I've been tagged again! Thanks to Really Roper and Kindergarten Cowgirl for thinking of me! I'll spare you all 12 more things about myself and instead I'll just answer the questions that they posted:

From Really Roper:

1. What is your favorite color? I always say blue because you're supposed to have a favorite color but honestly I can't pick except that I don't like orange at all and yellow sometimes irks me too!
2. Where is your dream vacation? Disneyland/World! We went to Florida last spring break for the first time with our kids and had a blast! This year we're heading to California in April for my husband's sister's wedding so we'll get to hit the other park too! I can never remember which one is Disney World and which is Disneyland even though my husband has told me about 1000 times. Oh, and a shout-out to Disney which offers a military discount which is much appreciated!
3. Coke or Pepsi? I love Coke memorabilia, especially the polar bears and Santa commercials, but I have to admit that I drink Pepsi Max because it tastes better!
4. What is your favorite holiday! Hands down Christmas - I make the kids take turns opening presents to make it last as long as possible, all the goodies to eat and the time with family are fantastic!
5. What time do you leave for school? Shhh! Don't tell, but lately I've not been able to roll out of here before about 8:20 and I'm supposed to be at work at 8:30 - it's a 15 minute drive and I have to drop off my daughter along the way, so you do the math! We moved right before Christmas and it's taking us a while to figure out how to get ready in the morning and factoring in a longer drive time!
6. What is your favorite thing to do after school? If I don't have anything to do at work (seldom!) then I like to head home early to walk the dogs. The kids and I walk them for about 40 minutes, then the dogs are so tuckered out that they will sleep in their kennels without barking their heads off and I can scoot the kids off to the park. Then, I have the whole house to myself - absolute quiet and peace. So nice!
7. Where did you go to college? Started at El Paso Community College, did some online courses while we were in Germany and finally finished up at Cameron Univerity here in Lawton, OK!
8. Favorite animal? Rottweilers. Seriously, forget all you've heard about them. We bought one from a breeder in Germany where they've kept their bloodlines pure, not breeding for size or aggression like some people here in the States. She was the best dog - gentle, loving, would let you take the food right out of her mouth. We can't have another one right now because we live on post and the breed is banned, but as soon as we can I'll be getting a new rottweiler.
9. What bugs you the most at school? Negative people. Seriously, we have the best job in the world, why do poeple need to complain about every little thing. Oh, and we're all adults, let's stop with the middle school attitudes please! I try to stay out of it by just staying in my room or with the teachers in our "Happy Hall" as we call it, but sometimes you can't escape it!
10. If you could do any other job what would it be and why? I wouldn't want another job, except that I would like to be back in kindergarten next year!
11. Do you like chocolate? Love it! Even on my low-carb diet I have to satisfy my chocolate cravings with sugar-free chocolates - not quite the same thing, but close!
12. What is your best classroom story? Too long to type it out now, but suffice it to say, it involves me panicking as I chased down an errant non-English speaking 3rd grade special needs student who had been stuck in my classroom as a stop-gap measure until her paperwork came through for transportation to a self-contained classroom.

 From Kindergarten Cowgirl:

1) Milk chocolate or dark? Both, but see #11 above!
2) What do you drive? 2006 Dodge Caravan but we're trading it in this spring - probably for another mini-van, with 4 kids I can't imagine having anything else!
3) Pets? 2 dogs, a cat and a bunny! The dogs are recently additions and are slowly destroying our home, but they're so darn cute I can forgive them even this:

It helps that the stuffed animal wasn't one of mine!

4) Do you like your principal? Why/why not? So far, yes. She's new to our school this year, but isn't trying to change everything at once. She's a bit stricter than our last principal - she actually expects us to turn in our lesson plans, but she's fair.
5) What is your favorite clothing brand? If it fits, looks good and fits the budget I wear it, I don't get caught up in brands :)
6) How do you de - stress? Vent to my husband, blog and read lots of books!
7) What is your favorite go - to easy dinner? Tacos - there's not a drop of Hispanic blood on either sides of our family, yet we eat tacos at least twice a week (and I seriously am not trying to offend anyone!)
8) What is the first thing you do when you get home from school? Walk the puppies if my husband hasn't gotten home and done it yet, then get on my blog/email and see what's up!
9) On average, how many hours per week do you put in at school during non - school hours? This year? Usually about 10-20 hours. While my husband was in Korea for a year? Probably about 20-30! We ate a lot of fast food while he was gone because I stayed at work until 7pm most nights!
10) What's the biggest challenge for you in the classroom? Dealing with all of the crap my kiddos have to go through. Our school is in a very poor area and many of my students deal with power/water being shut off, not enough food/clothing, parents in jail or walking out on them etc. A lot of them are in and out of shelters and foster homes too. The emotional stuff is so hard to deal with - I have to walk a fine edge between being supportive but not letting them become too dependent on me, plus I still have to make sure the academics are being taught!
11) If you weren't a teacher, what profession would you choose? Haha, see #10 above!
12) What's your favorite part about teaching? The kids of course! I walk in most mornings and just have to smile seeing them! I always miss them over the long breaks and can't wait to try out my new ideas on them - it makes me feel good to see them enjoying school!

All right, enough about me! I am gracefully bowing out of this game of tag - thanks to all who tagged me! Next up, some giveaways that I couldn't resist passing along!

Amy from The Resourceful Room is having a giveaway for some terrific prizes and is honoring women who are facing cancer too! Please go check it out, my mother died of cancer when I was 18, so this one hits home for me! It ends Sunday, so hurry over!

Kelly from Busy In K is celebrating 150+ followers with a giveaway with 3 super prizes! It ends Feb 7th so be sure to head over soon!

Kelley over at Buggy for Second  is having a giveaway for a personalized magnet board - so cute! I also love her blog desing - ladybugs are my faves! This one ends Sunday Feb 5th too!

Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B is having a 100 follower giveaway with 3 winners! They will get to choose any item in her TPT  or TN store! This ends Sunday as well!

Tanya of  Ms.Solano's Kindergarten is turning 40 on Feb 17th and is having a giveaway for two $50 gift certificates for Erin Condren! Oooh, so many neat things on that site, it'd be hard to choose! This one ends on Tanya's birthday!

Ruffianly, (haha, tried to correct a misspelling of "finally" and this is what it autocorrected to - I didn't even know "ruffianly" was a word!) if you read yesterday's post you'll remember that my kiddos loved the hidden picture 100s chart we did from Katie at Little Warriors! It was such a hit that I promised I would make them some more, so that's what I did last night with my daughter Moira. I plan to have my kiddos fill in the blank 100s chart and then I'll call out the numbers as tens and ones to make it more challenging (28= 2 tens and 8 ones for example). Here's one of the ones we came up with last night, which will be fun for Valentine's Day! I typed up the directions for a simple Kindergarten version, but also the directions for a 1st-2nd grade class which are a bit more complicated. Let me know if I need to clarify anything!
Valentine Hundred Chart Hidden Picture