holidays | Marriage Confessions holidays | Laugh. Fight. Stay Married.

School is winding down and summer is on the horizon.

Have I mentioned yet how excited I am about summer?

Yes? Okay. Moving on…

With summer a-comin’, it’s time for lots of you to say goodbye to your child’s teacher. As a teacher myself, I thought I’d share some ideas for popular teacher gifts around my school. Even if you don’t want to spend a lot, or if your child has multiple teachers so you can’t do something big for all of them, it is still a really nice gesture to send a little thank you gift to a teacher. Even if it’s just a note. Often times, teaching is a pretty thankless job. Our students very rarely appreciate their school years, so it really means a lot to hear from a parent that your classroom has made a difference because at the end of the day, that’s really all a teacher wants – to make a difference to someone.

Here are a few fun little gift ideas for teachers, organized by category:

Gift cards are a super choice because they are easy for you to buy and fun for your teacher to spend. But if you can make it personal, it makes it seem more like a thoughtful gift than an “I-am-giving-you-money-because-you-taught-my-kid-to-read” gift. Try to connect the location of the gift card to your child or the teacher’s subject in some way. As an English teacher, I have my own class library that I personally buy books for. A Barnes and Noble gift card would be perfect for my classroom. A teacher supply store card is pretty great, too, since most of us have to purchase our own classroom decor and necessities with our own money. My favorite gift card, though, is for an office supply store because in my school, we have to buy our own ink cartridges and reams of paper that we use for the year. Any extra help buying classroom supplies is greatly appreciated!

(SIDE NOTE: If you’re wondering what supplies your teachers have to pay for, simply call the front office and ask either the receptionist or the bookkeeper what supplies your teachers are provided at the beginning of the year.)

1. An office supply store gift card
2. A bookstore gift card
3. A teacher supply store gift card (jackpot!)
4. A Dunkin’ Donuts gift card
5. A Starbucks gift card
6. A Target gift card

Practical but fun gifts for daily use (either in the classroom or out) are always a big hit. For a secret Santa exchange at my school one year, another teacher gave me a box full of desk supplies – paper clips, post-it notes, pencils, pens, red pens, etc. It wasn’t anything expensive, but it was all stuff that totally saved me a trip to the store for myself. Another big one I love are acrylic cups. These are pretty popular these days, so you can find them anywhere. But they are super helpful for teachers who can’t leave their room during the day to get to the drink machine. Just about every teacher I know has an acrylic cup and straw on their desk at all times. You can fill these with just about anything – candy, gift cards, tea or coffee, colored shredded paper, pencils, erasers, dry erase markers, etc. Super cute and not terribly expensive.

7. Acrylic cup filled with goodies
8. Acrylic monogrammed cup
9. Basket of small desk supplies
10. A big pack of fun colored pens, markers, or Sharpies
11. Personalized notepads
12. Personalized note cards (“From the Desk of Mrs…”)
13. Fun stamps and ink pads for grading papers (Michael’s sometimes has these in their $1 bin)

Bean and Gracie each have three teachers in their classrooms at daycare, so we really can’t afford to do elaborate or even personalized gifts for each of them. Instead, I go for clever and crafty. For Teacher Appreciation Week, I got each teacher a multipack of Extra chewing gum ($2.00 a pack at Target), printed a few clever little tags (“You’re EXTRA special to me!”), tied some curly ribbon around it and voila! A little something to tell them we appreciate what they do for our kids. I got the idea from this website and they have a lot more little craft ideas if you’re looking for something clever.

I think the trick with small gifts is to make them thoughtful and personalized. It doesn’t take a lot to make a teacher (or anyone!) feel special. Just as long as it is sincere and makes them feel like you were thinking about them.

14. Candy with a message (“OWL miss you”)

15. Personalized pencils (“Mrs. Brown’s Classroom”)
16. A houseplant (“Thank you for helping me GROW this year”)

If your child only has one teacher, or if there’s someone special you really want to go above and beyond to thank, I think summer-themed gifts are a great end of the year option. Teachers are just as excited about having summers off as students are, so most of us are ready for sunshine by the end of the school year. Themed gifts are a pretty great way to go, no matter what time of year or what theme, actually.

17. Summer survival kits (beach towel, sunglasses, magazines, sun screen, flip flops, etc.)
18. Gardening kits (gardening gloves, seed packets, spade, watering can, sun screen, etc.)
19. Summer scented goodies from Bath and Body Works
20. A gift certificate for a pedicure at a local nail salon
21. Poolside fun kit (inflatable pool float, drink coozie, freezer pops, beach towel, etc.)

Another option besides large gift baskets are to get smaller items that you have personalized or monogrammed for the teacher. These are extra awesome if they are practical gifts that are just so snazzy a teacher probably wouldn’t buy them for herself.

22. Monogrammed hand sanitizers (these are surprisingly affordable!)

23. Personalized lunch bag
24. Personalized key chain
25. Personalized lanyard for their school ID

If you’re looking for clever ideas for packaging, try giving your gift in something that your teacher can reuse in their classroom.

26. A brightly colored plastic crate
27. A solid color, simply canvas beach tote
28. A metro basket (this link is to one at Target, but I’ve found them much cheaper at Walmart and Home Goods)

29. A picnic basket
30. A wicker basket

Whatever you do – whether it is big and elaborate or small and sincere – you should know that the greatest gifts I have ever received were hand written notes. One from the student is really sweet and a great memento for a teacher, but be sure to include one from yourself as well. Parents who explain ways they have seen their child grow because of their education can articulate what a child cannot. I love knowing that parents see the same growth in their child at home as I see in my classroom. Whatever gift you give, or even if you don’t give a gift, be sure you include a note from both the child and the parent. It will make your teacher’s day!

Most of these ideas – and about a billion others – can be found on Pinterest. Either check out my “Gift Ideas” board, or search Pinterest for “teacher gifts.” You’re bound to find something that floats your boat. (For things I found on Pinterest (all of these pictures), I tried to link up today when I could, but some pictures didn’t have links available.)

Happy summer from a teacher who is counting down the days!

2 comments | posted in Around the House, Fun Things, holidays, Just for Fun, Marriage Confessions, Parenting | tags: teacher gifts

REGISTER MY FRUSTRATION

The two times Chris and I have come the closest to divorce would be the time we registered for our wedding and the time we registered for our first baby. Hands down, they were awful experiences. Come close and let me tell you the tale of how NOT to register for a newborn baby. Learn from my mistakes, people. Trust me.

In both cases, the bottom-line reason that the registry was such a fiasco was because I didn’t include Chris in preparing for the registry. When you register for an event, you usually put a fair amount of research into what you’re going to register for. At least, I do. This was especially true for baby things because a) I didn’t know anything about them and b) I wanted to make sure I had the best and safest choices out there.

But when I was doing the actual research and prep work before the day we went to register, I never really included Chris. I’d search online at work (let’s pause to appreciate the days when I had an office with a door and could occasionally surf the internet…sigh…), I’d chat with girlfriends about what products they used, I’d look up consumer reports at night. But hardly ever did I get Chris involved in this part.

Now, I do have to say that I did TRY at first to get him involved. I’d tell him about a product line or a particular style or brand I liked, but his first question was always “How much is it?” and then he’d shut down after the answer. Which made me mad because he was “putting a price on our baby.” (I think I actually yelled that phrase to him one night when I was pregnant with Bean.) He took all the fun out of preparing, and so I just stopped talking to him about it.

When the day came to register, I’ll never forget the colossal fight we had in Babies R Us, while my parents and sister stood there awkwardly trying not to listen, and I pointed my scanner gun straight at Chris’s man parts. I was in tears, Chris was angry, we were both not yelling as much as possible because we didn’t want to make a scene. But it was clearly a scene. I was eight months pregnant. Everywhere I went I made a scene. The source of the problem? The stroller.

I had done so much research about what kind of stroller I wanted to get, and had finally decided that I really wanted a travel system (the ones with the car seat that snaps into the stroller). I thought it would be easiest with a newborn and for me to operate on my own while I was out on maternity leave and Chris was at work.

But when I went to scan the travel system I wanted, Chris kind of sighed heavily. “What’s wrong?” I asked, fully prepared to compromise. He could choose any color he wanted. “I’m just not sure about the travel system,” he said. “I don’t think we need one.” “You don’t think we need one?” I asked with a tone that might as well have said, “Are you stupid????” “I mean, I just think it’s a little over the top.” “You think it’s over the top?” I asked in a tone that now said, “I cannot believe I married someone who doesn’t want a travel system.” “Well, yeah,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t think we need that much stuff.” “You don’t think we need this much stuff?” I asked in a tone that screamed, “It is a crime to humanity that I am about to procreate with you.”

Then, I think Chris threw in a “Don’t talk to me in that tone” and I threw out a “I can’t believe you’re ruining this for me,” and before we knew it, I was crying in the stroller aisle and Chris was stalking off toward the layette section to cool off.

Looking back, the problem was that I went into the registry experience knowing exactly what I wanted and Chris went into the experience not knowing anything about what he wanted. The result was Chris feeling super frustrated that he wasn’t even able to figure stuff out on his own, and I felt incredibly angry that I’d done months of research only to have it all overruled by someone who didn’t even know what a bassinet was.

Now, I know a lot of couples who never had this problem. The husband was on board and anxious to be involved from the beginning and the wife was excited to have his input. But for me and Chris, it was different. Chris was really nervous and hesitant about having a baby and so he was very standoffish. And instead of helping him feel more comfortable, I just took it as a green light to do whatever I wanted. If I did it all over again, I’d go back to the times when I’d start to talk to Chris about what type of pack ‘n’ play we should get and I’d take him to the baby store to look.

Chris (and men in general) are visual people. Chris likes to see things for himself. He wants to try them out and test things. He doesn’t want to just show up and choose something because someone told him to. When he was buying a lawn mower a couple summers ago, he went to Sears five or six times before he actually made a purchase. He just needs to see things in real life before committing.

Baby gear should have been no different. Even when he was uncomfortable, I should have pushed him a little and exposed him to all our choices in real life, not in some link in an email that he probably didn’t even open.

Another thing I should have done was be more open to his questions. When he asked questions like “How much does that cost?” or “Are you sure we need that?” I took them as a sign that he didn’t want to be involved. Like he was using these questions to prove me wrong or make a statement. But looking back, I really just think he asked those questions because that’s how his mind thinks. He just thinks in logistics. He does that whether we are buying a car or taking a vacation or registering for a baby. His mind functions very pragmatically while mine functions more emotionally.

So, when he asked those questions, they weren’t a personal attack against me or against our baby (as I kept insisting he was doing). They were very real questions that he was having, and that means that I should have stopped to talk through the answers with him. I think that would have made him feel more comfortable instead of feeling like he was always asking the wrong questions and, therefore, always left out of the process before we even began.

Registering for a baby is actually a super sweet, super fun time. Or so I hear. I really wish I had wised up a bit before we went through the process so that I was more prepared to help Chris be part of the process, too. For the record, we still have our travel system, we still love using it, and Chris tells me all the time what a great purchase that was. Not that it matters to me…But I was right. In case anyone cares.

Find more posts from bloggers sharing their experiences of motherhood on the Huggies page on BlogHer.com.

17 comments | posted in Dads, Fights, Flashbacks, holidays, Just for Fun, Marriage, Marriage Confessions, Parenting, Reviews | tags:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Remember that night

We went out for fondu?

It was the night before our wedding

And we were needing a break

From all of the demands

A bride and groom must take.

So, the night before our vows

We snuck away from our crew

And had a quiet dinner

Just me and just you.

We talked about our lives

That were about to begin.

We laughed and we planned

And we kissed and we grinned.

That night as we dreamed

as only young lovers can do

I had no way of knowing

How blessed I would be to have you.

Our life hasn’t always been perfect.

Sometimes the storms raged against our shores.

But you stood there beside me

No matter how hard it poured.

And when times were good,

Well, you made them better.

Life was sweeter and brighter

When we were together.

If I could go back

To that fondu dinner for two,

I’d tell my young self

To stop planning what to do.

Because after all these years

There’s one thing I know.

We could never have planned

How deeply our love would grow.

So, roses are red,

And poison ivy gives me hives,

I’m so glad you’ll be my Valentine

For the rest of our lives.

26 comments | posted in Changes, Childhood, Flashbacks, holidays, Marriage Confessions | tags: love, Marriage, Relationships, Valentine's Day

Last Friday, we packed up the car once again and drove seven hours to Pensacola, Florida, where Chris and I grew up. My parents moved away after my sister and I graduated from high school, but Chris’s family is still there. It’s nice to have a tie back to my hometown like that, otherwise, I don’t think I’d have any reason to go back.

When we go to Pensacola, we stay with Chris’s mom, Jackie, and her boyfriend/partner/male companion/humorist, Charles. Their house has two spare bedrooms and so Chris and I sleep in one of them with Gracie in a pack ‘n play, while Bean sleeps on a lowered trundle in the second bedroom. Jackie has Cars 2 sheets and blankets on Bean’s bed and so he thinks he has died and gone to heaven with Mater and Finn. It has been so nice to stay with her in the past couple years since we have had the kids. Jackie makes sure that we have everything we need here, so that we don’t have to bring much when we come (well, relatively speaking…). She always has diapers and formula and Bean’s favorite foods on hand, plus she has all the necessary equipment that two little kids require: booster seats for the dining room, toys for the living room, a cushy kneeling pad for next to the kids’ bathtub. She just makes it easy to visit and we always have a nice time with her and Charles.

Christmas is especially nice. There are stockings and lights and and Elf on the Shelf. And, this year, there was Gracie the Giraffe for my Gracie the Puffalump.

It’s touching me…

Christmas morning was a lot of fun this year! Unfortunately, I didn’t get one picture of the action. Bean is an illusive photography subject these days. He’s quick. He’s impatient. He’s been known to make silly faces at inopportune times. Which means, I basically just documented GRACIE’S Christmas…

Gracie had a GREAT first Christmas! She was happy and awfully active. We couldn’t get her to sit in one place for long.

Clearly.

We spent Christmas day visiting family, which, again, I failed to document. (Bad blogger.) We’ve spent the next few days just hanging around with Jackie and Charles. And eating. Eating lots of food. Lots and lots of food. We went to a diner for lunch yesterday and Gracie Girl went crazy for her scrambled egg. She ate the whole thing and then spent the next half hour squealing and playing with her Grandmomma.

We’re going to be here through the rest of this week and, though we’re having a great time, I’m ready to be back home soon. Christmas is a marathon for our family and I’m so glad that we are in the cool down now. I’m ready to pack up our Christmas tree and put away our stockings. I’m ready to get all these new toys and goodies home and to spend some time sitting on my couch, reading my new Kindle. Mostly though, I’m just ready to stop blogging about Christmas!!!!!

10 comments | posted in Family, Florida, holidays, Marriage Confessions | tags: Christmas, Family