8 Days of Teacher Style!

8 days down! How many more days to go?! I was so exhausted last night....but every teacher is exhausted on Friday nights during the school year, right?

Here are the outfits I wore each day - except yesterday because I was WAY to tired to stand for a picture! If I could find the exact product, I linked it! 

First day of school!

Dress - Kohls

Flats & Purse - JCPenney

Day 2 

Top & Jeans - Costco

Sandals - JCPenney

Day 3 - Spirit Day!

Top - from my school

Jeans - Costco

Vans Tennis Shoes - Kohls

Day 4

Dress - Costco

Flats - JC Penney

Day 5 

Top & Flats- JCPenney

Jeans - Costco

Day 6 - Training!

Top & Shorts & Sandals - JC Penney

Day 7 

Top & Pants & Flats - JC Penney

Watch - JORD Watches

I have to say - this JORD women's watch is pretty amazing. The style is the Cora - Maple and Silver. It's WOODEN!  Not only that, it has the prettiest little crystal details at each hour AND it's a swiss automatic winding water.  When I first took it out of it's beautiful wooden box, I was wondering what type of battery it needed and then I realized there was no battery necessary.  Just look at the box!! 

I simply put it on my wrist, shook my wrist a bit, and it was ready! 

Although I typically wear my Moto 360 watch, but this unique watch is simply beautiful and super different! I've gotten so many compliments on it. There are so many colors to choose from too. As a teacher, I am constantly looking at the time, so a watch in my life is absolutely necessary. A teacher friend asked me if I found that it was durable.  I teach special ed, so this was a very good question since I am constantly moving and helping my kiddos wash their hands.  I didn't notice any scratches on the wood at the end of the day, and I found that the little splashes of water on the wood of the watch had no damaging effects. My husband is a very "techie" guy who loves his smart watch, and even he thought this watch was really cool. There are some pretty awesome wooden watches for men too.  Perhaps that will be a surprise gift for Cody in the near future. ;) He can live without his smart watch for a day. 

Back to School Night!

Dress - Charming Charlie (can't find it on the website, but I bought it 2 weeks ago!)

Wedges - JC Penney!

It's been quite a week, and I wish all you fellow teachers a restful weekend - whether you've gone back to school already or you're still soaking in the last bit of summer! 

Luxury Wood Watch

Office Depot Deals Preview - For Week of July 31!

Here it is,  friends! Take a peak now, so you can start your Sunday school/classroom-supply game plan!

There's a deal on Flair Pens.....I know that could be a big deal for some of you ;) 

Personally, I could use some $2 shipping tape. 

And the penny deals.....unfortunately, I don't see any penny deals I really care for...but I DO love the $1 binders - such pretty colors!!

What do YOU need? Or want? Bahaha! 

My Go-To Teacher Shoes

If you're a special education teacher like me, you might understand that wearing cute shoes isn't really functional in our classrooms. We may have to dart out the door when a kiddo elopes! I'm on my feet all day, and I barely EVER sit at my desk.  Even when I'm taking attendance at my desk, I'm usually learning over my chair because I have do it as quickly as possible. I'm often the bad teacher who FORGETS to take attendance. :(  Once the kids come, they're my sole focus. I remember being an instructional aide and seeing a special education teacher who always wore heels, and she'd kick off her heels if she had to run. THAT was #goals. She made it look possible to be super darn cute and do it all.

Here are some shoes I'd love to wear at work! All of these shoes can be found at The Red Dress Boutique.  That website has the CUTEST clothes and shoes, I swear.  I love boots and during Fall and Winter, they have the cutest - at a pretty good price too!  I've never bought anything from there, but I always want to!

Clearly I have a affinity for neutral colors, peep toes, and heels in general. Unfortunately, I have no current use for them - so I don't own any! Ha! Maybe I can justify parent-teacher conferences, back-to-school night, and Open House as a reason to buy one of these...

What shoes have I found that I DO approve of? Well, they're flats that remind me of Michael Kors flats (which I just WILL NOT pay for),  booties that I can wear with dresses or tunic/leggings, and sandals that remind me of Tory Burch sandals (which again...I WILL NOT pay for). 

You should look into these, if you're in need of cute, but functional "teacher" shoes! 

The shoes below can be found at JC Penney - one of my favorite stores! 

I have these in black, red, and tan. They are SO comfy and I always get them when I can use a $10 of $25 coupon. So usually're, they're $20! I love how the shows have rubber underneath because I tend to wear out the heels of of my flats, and these have withstood my "roughness"! Find them here!

I have these sandals in black and tan. I have always bought SUPER flat sandals, and I'll never go back to those ever again. These sandals give a lot of support and you don't feel like you're walking on the ground with bare feet. Find them here! I bought mine for $30....so they're a super amazing deal right now! I'm debating on getting the yellow ones...

The final two shoes can be found at another one of my go-to stores - Kohl's! They are more for fall...but you could wear them anytime, with a dress! 

These aren't on sale now....I would never pay 74.99 for these. I bought them last year for around $30 I'm sure.  I have the black and tan! You can find them here....but I'd definitely wait for a sale later on in the year. 

Finally - these shoes are FLAT which is nice. You can wear these with anything really. The sale right now is good....but I want to say I got mine on a better sale for 29.99.  Find them here. You have to check out the online pre-Black Friday deals for awesome shoe deals at Kohl's.  I learned that 2 years ago. They have the BEST deals on boots during that sale. :) 

Well, that's all for today! What are YOUR favorite shoes to wear during the school year?  Share with me!

XoXo      

Diana

Cheers to 2 Years!

It's our 2 year anniversary! We made it. Thought I'd give a brief story of us! 

Cody and I met online - yes we are a online dating success story and I'm proud of it! I was the first girl he ever met in person and he was the first guy I ever met in person. Somehow it just worked and we cancelled our online accounts right away. 

This is one of the first pictures we ever took together. It was for my birthday party in June 2010.

Let's fast forward 3 years....

Cody proposed in July of 2013 when we were on an Alaskan cruise with his family. He and I went on a helicopter glacier tour, and that's where it happened! The first helicopter tour he booked was cancelled because of bad weather, so he was really nervous we wouldn't be able to book another one at the last minute. Thankfully, we did! It worked out well and he was able to have someone working for the company take our pictures. 

Fast forward to July 19, 2014.....the wedding day! Our wedding photographers are from Koman Photography . It's a husband and wife photography team - their work is stunning! 

I never felt so much like  "princess"! 

We got married at  golf course in the same city I grew up in - I loved having it so close to home. 

Our first dance was to "Hey Pretty Girl" by Kip Moore. Can't wait to see him in August! 

Here are my bridesmaids! I'm a purple/pink girl and I am still in love with the color scheme I chose. And my bouquet was just a dream - can I go back to that day please? 

Fast forward 2 years later....

Here we are - this was shot this past Saturday on our way to check out the construction of our new house! Since getting married, Cody's got himself a beard and I'm a bit more blonde...life is good... but most importantly, God is SO good.  We've had our ups and downs for sure..and we always will ...but I'm just thankful to have Cody on this journey together. 

I love you Cody! 

xoxo Diana

The ThatTeacherWifeLife Story - How It All Began and Why It's An Important Reminder for Us All

When I started ThatTeacherWifeLife, I knew I wanted to share my experiences and thoughts about life in the classroom, as well as life at home. It's SO hard to balance our lives as teachers - there's always something can be done. Does it always NEED to be done? No...but for a lot of us devoted teachers, it always feels like that. My first year of teaching was full of lots of tears for various reasons - being tired, feeling incapable, feeling bad about not devoting enough time with my new husband, feeling bad about not devoting enough time to work. I've learned a lot since then and I'm STILL learning, as I go into my 3rd year of teaching.  I'm still a baby in the teaching world. The real test will be when we start having children. Having an amazing support of teachers who are amazing mothers and wives really helps me see that it CAN be done and I am feeling much more confident and excited to be able to do it all.  Yes - I am determined to be that supermom.  HA! We'll see.

Back to the point of the whole story, I chose the name "ThatTeacherWifeLife" because I think we all try to do our best in all the areas of our life. I absolutely LOVE my job and my students.  I can easily go on and on about it. BUT....that's NOT my entire life and it shouldn't be. Am I right? Right now, the other part of my life is being a WIFE. And a daughter and sister.  I watched a really amazing video by Jada Pinkett Smith and she talked about the importance of making yourself happy by doing what you love - whatever that may be. If you take time to do what you love and what makes you happy outside of the home (or inside the home), for me it's teaching and being in the lives of my kiddos and their families, your happiness will benefit the happiness of those you love - like your husband and your kids. I'm not putting down stay-at-home moms in any way because I, for a long time, wanted to be one because I grew up with my mom being home. You stay-at-home moms are truly lucky and you work SO very hard. However, in CA, it's not as easy to stay-at-home and I have to work, if my husband and I want to be able to maintain the same stand of living when we were growing up. It was a struggle (and tears were shed) as my husband and I debated the pros and cons of me staying home vs. working. I'm just happy that I've found the motivation and courage that I know it's possible to lead a happy and fulfilled life as a wife, mom, and teacher :)  It's just going to be crazy ride when I start juggling all three! Right now, I'm just balancing two.

If you have time, here's the video I was talking about - it's really wonderful. It will make you feel good after watching it. Promise.

Best Deals - Office Depot Weekly Ad Preview! (7/17-7/23)

I love the penny deals at Office Depot during the summer, don't you?! Yea yea...I know I have to spend $5, but usually there are pretty awesome deals on things that aren't a penny too.  I decided to check if the ad for this upcoming week was up yet, and it was! I clipped what I thought were the "best deals" and most exciting deals for us teachers and anyone else who may have a slight stationary problem! Enjoy!

It's the penny deals peeps! I am ALWAYS running out of glue sticks, so I LOVE that penny deal.

Those Zebra pens with colored ink look pretty great for a buck too.

I like the 10-pack folders for a buck...and if you don't have a rolling cart, this may be the time to buy!

These $3 items aren't on sale...but don't you just love the colors and the containers? The blue donut  and purple puzzle piece container is so cute! And I could always use mini paper clips...

What did you see that you liked? EVERYTHING?! Perhaps this post gave you something to do tomorrow! :) 

xoxo Diana

Classroom Make-Over!

Going into my third year of teaching, I feel this is first summer I've really spent time doing things to make my classroom my own. I was so lucky when I first started teaching to have a classroom fairly set up for students. It removed so much extra work I would have had to do :)  Recently, I just felt it was time to change things up to make it my own. Also, my hubby and I recently bought a house in the area - so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be at this school for a while! I officially can start planting my roots here and it feels absolutely wonderful.

I thought I'd share some recent changes I've made to my room - and it was all fairly inexpensive! I've definitely spent the most on my classroom this summer than I have any other summer. I'm going to make this pretty short and sweet - pictures pretty much say it all! And like so many other teachers, I have to give Target credit for many of my sweet decorations on my play/reinforcement center wall, as well as my desk area.

My Desk Space

Before....it's so scary how messy and unorganized it all is! 

After! I made the curtain under the desk to hide the boxes I have. It was complete no-sew! Used only fabric, hot blue, ribbon, and velcro! 

My Reinforcement/Play Center

Before - pretty bare...I almost thought about leaving it that way because I've put student work on that wall before and some of my kiddos would just rip it off. 

After!  I hope the posters won't look attractive enough to pull off the wall, and by placing the banners up towards the top, I don't think the kiddos will attempt to pull it.  I can only hope for the best!

Window Curtains 

no "before" picture because there was simply nothing there before :) 

After! Another new-sew project! Take a look at one of my previous posts to learn how to make it!

Classroom Cupboards

Before...For the last 2 years, I've never put anything on these doors except a paper or two for adult reference.

After! For each door, I decided to add some red paper and border it with Target borders from the $1 section. The two smaller rectangles on the left have motivational quotes and I'm planning to put pictures of my students throughout the year on the other two doors.

Entry Wall 

My wonderful assistants painted this wall (on butcher paper) for me last year and I hope to keep it FOREVER! For now, I just added the "Our Class:" and "Welcome!" sign because this board is right near the door. I'm not totally sure what I'm planning to do with it yet. Also, that crayon wreath was given to me from a parent last year. Isn't it cute?! 

Well, that's all I've done in my room and I think that's pretty much it for this summer....I think :) I've REALLY got to start working on actual instructional things.  But decorating is always too much fun!

xoxo

DIana