Hurray! We were Nominated!

Hurray!  We are so excited and honored that our blog was nominated for The Liebster Award.  Thank you Melissa and Brittany over at Frugal in First!  This award is for new bloggers with less than 200 followers...that would be us!  We are a definitely newbies when it comes to bogging ourselves, but have had lots of great blogger-types to look up to as mentors.  We are thrilled and privileged to have the followers that we do have.  To think that someday we may have more than 200 followers is a dream that we hope will come true soon!

Here are the rules for the Liebster Award:
1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.
3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.
4. Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them in your post.
5. You cannot "tag back" the other blog, but leave a comment on this post with URL of your Liebster post so I can learn more about you and see who you nominate.

Here are the 11 random things about us:

1.  Deanna has six brothers and sisters and Jenelle has one sister.
2.  We met each other while living in an all girls dorm in college...we were the only non-freshman who chose to live there...we didn't have to have roommates that way!
3.  We were both pregnant with our fist kiddo at the same time...we bonded over morning sickness and chocolate cravings.
4.  We both met our husbands in high school.
5.  Jenelle is a Zumba instructor and Deanna just got trained as one this month...can you tell we love to dance, in teacher shoes or otherwise!
6. Deanna has been to Europe twice...and plans on going again, and again, and again!
7.  We both have cabins that we love to go to in the summer...we especially love floating on inner tubes and soaking up the sun.
8.  We would rather read picture books than adult books...and aren't embarrassed about that.
9.  We both secretly wish to be authors of children’s books some day.
10. We are both severe Asthmatics. Bring on the inhalers...puff, puff!
11. We both have two dogs. Jenelle has two Yorkies named Manny and Scooter and Deanna has two "Mutts" (Border Collie/Plotts Hound Mixes) named Rufus and Rajah.

Here are the 11 questions and answers from our nominators:

1. What do you love most about teaching? Least? 
We love dancing and using our imaginations with our students.  We do not like indoor recess and dread the day we come back after breaks.

2. Do you have a favorite teaching blog?
We love Dancing in Our Teacher Shoes of course!  J/K!  We love so many it is hard to pick just one or two.   
Here are a few of our favorites:
I (Heart) Recess
The Teacher Wife

Just check out all of the blogs we love on our sidebar...there are just too many to name!!!

3. Have you always wanted to be a teacher?
Deanna: Nope...I actually thought I wanted to be a pediatric pulmonologist (lung doctor for kids) right up until I applied for college.  Then I had an epiphany...teaching was my calling...duh!  Jenelle:  Not to be cliché but YES!  I was a teacher to my entire neighborhood and even gave homework!  I really wanted to teach in the children’s hospital, but ended up in first grade.

4. What is your favorite grade to teach?
FIRST!  Although Deanna teaches second right now and loves them too! :)

5. Do you have any pets?
We both have two dogs (Jenelle: Manny, Scooter Deanna: Rufus, and Rajah) and Deanna inherited great-grandpa's goldfish (Dolly) this fall when he moved from his house to an retirement community. 

6. Why did you start a teaching blog?
It was about time we did...we figured that we had gotten so many ideas from others that it was time to share a few of our own and repay the favor!

7. Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks?
STARBUCKS!  Although here in Minnesota, Caribou Coffee is the best even though it isn't a choice.

8. Do you follow the Common Core Standards?
We do, but we work in a school where we are not required to do so…yet.

9. What is your favorite place to vacation?
Deanna: The cabin...or anywhere but here!  Jenelle: Florida...wait what's a vacation?

10. Favorite place to shop?
Should we list them all?  DSW, Hot Momma, Barnes and Noble, Etsy, and TPT of course....the list goes on!

11. What is your favorite recipe?
Who has time to cook...does pizza delivery count???

Here are the 11 questions for blogs that we have nominated:

1.     What do you do for “fun”?

2.     Who is your greatest influence or hero?

3.     If you could go back in time to meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

4.     What is your favorite picture book and do you read it to your students?

5.     What is the craziest thing you have ever done for your students/teaching job?

6.     What is your favorite way to recover/energize after a long week of teaching?

7.     Where would you take your students on a field trip if money was not an issue?

8.     What is one thing you have to do but wish that you didn’t?

9.     If you had to design the teacher “uniform” for your school what would it be?

10.   If you had to have a class pet what would it be?  Ours would be a rock…sorry if we stole your idea.

11.  What is the largest and smallest class sizes you have ever had in your career? 

Blogs we are nominating: 

Kathy Griffin’s Teaching Strategies
Teaching Special Thinkers
More Time 2 Teach
A Perfectly Poetic Page
The Kindergarten Pod
Hippo Hooray for Second Grade
Education to Mention
Mrs Balius's First Grade
Secrets of the Second Grade Sisters
Mels Box of Chocolates
First Grade Smiles