Five for Friday!

Hopefully I linked the graphic up properly...I had issues with my post Wednesday...

1. I am fighting a cough...it's horrible. I wouldn't have gone to the doctor and just tried to sleep and self medicate but my beautiful niece is coming into town tomorrow and I don't want to chance getting her sick...or anyone else in the family (but mostly Penelope!) 

Here is Penelope & me (and her Uncle Bill, my brother's BFF) on her 6 month birthday, which was celebrated on June 24th:

I made  her a half birthday cake for her half birthday (thanks Pinterest for the idea..) Hopefully every year Bill & I can make it to Boise to spend her half birthday with her. You may think I'm weird for putting such emphasis on her HALF birthday...but she was born on Christmas Eve, and I know I won't be able to make it to her real birthday every year...so I figured her half birthday was the next best thing! 

2. I have set more goals for myself...I plan to meet them all within one week (fingers crossed!) I want to set up a store on Teacher's Notebook so I can expand my reach in the teaching world. I want to update my graphic that I include in my products with the web address to this blog. Then I want to go back and update all 97 of my products with said new graphic. I may not meet the last thing in a week because that's a lot of products to update. 

3. I created my first ever background- the orange chevron background you can see in my post from Wednesday...I am quite proud of myself! I want to create other colors and put them out there for free sometime soon.  Eventually, I'd like to create more backgrounds with different designs, etc. but one step at a time. 

4. I am almost finished reading my latest book: 

If I could go back in time and meet any woman it would be Jacqueline Kennedy. This is my third? book to read about her. I don't know why I like her so much, but I just find her life fascinating. Since I'm almost done I'm debating what to read next...probably something on Ronald Reagan. If I could go back in time and meet any man, I'd want to meet him while he was in office, or just after he left the White House. I've already two? biographies on him, and recently found an autobiography originally published in 1991, but republished in 2011. I have "The Reagan Diaries" but since I was born in 1984 it doesn't make a lot of since to me because I was just a baby when that stuff was happening. 

5. 

I want to figure out this buzz about Bloglovin...I've read some posts about it, and signed up this morning, but still not really sure how it affects this blog and myself...My talented friend Jessica over at Literacy Spark explains this pretty well so check out her post about Bloglovin' here!

I know a lot of people are doing a giveaway for you to follow their blogs on Bloglovin' so I am attempting to join the fun! I will pick TWO winners to each pick one product from my TpT store!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Anyway...on to the weekend!!! I have a wedding to attend tonight, then lots of cleaning & organizing in preparation for Penelope to come visit Houston for the first time in her life!!!