OHP: Hiking Edition

Not sure i will be able to link up this post, but none the less, here i go!

Since i will be doing a LOT of hiking ... that will be my theme for the day for 
Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday!

Source: sierratradingpost.com via Simone on Pinterest

Mine look like this but are purple!

Source: familyvacationcritic.com via Simone on Pinterest

Hike in Palm Springs!

Source: athleta.gap.com via Simone on Pinterest

Love that these gloves will allow you to use your phone!

Source: google.com via Simone on Pinterest

Would love to hike all of these, i'm sure!

Source: budgettravel.com via Simone on Pinterest

More info on hiking!

Source: nps.gov via Simone on Pinterest

Skagway hiking! (This link will be put to good use VERY soon! If not already!)

Link up your pins with the lovely Michelle @ The Vintage Apple

 

A First Date

My husband and I met on match.com

We spent the first month of knowing each other emailing back and forth, then texting, then talking on the phone a bit before we finally met each other in person. Our first date was long awaited.

That night I got ready and put on my most comfortable "nice" jeans and a cute necklace and purple cardigan! (For the life of me I cannot remember what top I was wearing under my cardie!) my date for the night was wearing a black button up shirt and a black hat! He looked good that night in his hat and when we sat down at the predetermined restaurant we talked for 2 hours before we even ordered our dinner for the night! I still remember that he ordered a pasta jambalaya dish and I got a spinach salad with grilled chicken and cranberries! I also remember his killer eyes looking back at me! I didn't know it for sure then, but I was hooked! He was convinced on that date that I was "the one"! The restaurant we ate at has since closed the location we went to, but it was a great start to our relationship! 

After dinner we headed to the bowling alley and began a little healthy competition! I won the first game but my date won the second! And when I got a strike, I got a kiss! Yep, he was brave enough to kiss me on the first date!

That was our first date and the rest is history! It wasn't long before we were committed and 16 months later we were married! It has been the best choice I have made thus far in my lifetime! My marriage continues to be a relationship where I learnand grow as a person more than in any other relationship! I praise God for putting my dear sweet hubs into my life and truly cannot wait for the life we are trying to build for ourselves! It's amazing where our beginnings are from!

Here are some of our engagement photos...

And some of my favorite weddingphotos! Love these!

Guest Post: Welcome to Jamie @ Just Stuff For Fun

By now i am floating from Alaskan stop to Alaskan stop! I am for sure enjoying the people, places, food, and fun that my trip has to offer! Here's a look at another United States destination! Be back soon!

Hey Busy As A Honey Bee readers!!

I'm Jamie and I blog over at Just Stuff For fun!  My blog name pretty much speaks for itself!  I blog about anything and everything fun.  That could mean what I wore yesterday or what I plan to do over the weekend :)  I am a somewhat new blogger and have enjoyed meeting all the lovely ladies out there in the blog world...and Simone is no exception!

Simone has asked me some questions having to do with my hometown!!

What city do you live in?
 Well, I live in Seattle but I will talk more about that later.  Let's talk about where I grew up! 
I grew up in Wheaton, Maryland.  It's about 30 minutes north of DC. My aunt, cousin, great aunt, and both sets of grandparents were all within a 20 minute drive of home!  We lived there until I was in 7th grade when my parents decided to move because Wheaton was getting too congested.

I didn't want to leave my friends so I stayed with my grandparents during my 8th grade year to finish out middle school with all my BFF's.  Because we all know when you're 13, losing friends is like "THE WORST THING EVERRRRR!"

Anyhoo...we moved about an hour west to Hagerstown, Maryland.  Yes, I know, the name just scerams fun, right?!?!  I actually ended up liking the "small town" feel.  I made new friends and life was grand!

http://www.hagerstownmd.org/

There is a ton of history around Hagerstown so if you are a history buff and you are making your way up the east coast, you should definitely stop by!!

What is the best memory you have of being home?
Hmm..my best memory...
That would have to be all my friends and family.  See, shortly after we moved, my grandparents followed us up to Hagerstown.  It was nice to have them around :)

Can you tell us about where you like to hangout in your hometown?  Favorite restaurant?  Shopping Center?
Oh buy!  Well, there really wasn't THAT much to do in Hagerstown as far as hanging out with friends.  So, we just kind of drove around and just hung out at the mall or at someones house.  We took many many trips to Ruby Tuesdays to eat!  I wish there was one close by where I live now!  And every time I go home to visit I always make sure I stop at the outlet mall which is like 2 minutes fro my parents house!!

Is your home now where you grew up?  What makes you stay were you are?
No, my home now is in Seattle!  J and I have been here for a little over five years and bought our first house a little over a year ago!

We absolutely love it out here!  We have met so many awesome friends!  The people are just so much different than people on the east.  I love the weather!  Our winters may be rainy but our summers sure do make up for it :)  We don't need a/c which is awesome!  I do not miss the heat and humidity from back home AT ALL!

There is just so much to do out here I would need 25 posts to list it all out!!
Long satyr short...I think we are hear to stay!

I like to visit lots of community events like farmers markets, exercise classes through the city, and free events hosted by local neighborhoods like concerts in the park.  Have you done an of these in your city?
I'm ashamed to say that we have not done much stuff like that in the five years we've been here but we are most definitely starting to do more!
Each neighborhood in Seattle seems to have their own little festival during the summer!  We have been to a couple and hope to do more!
In two weeks, there is a festival in West Seattle (where we live) so we are for sure going to check that out :)

What is the biggest frustration that you face where you live?
Can I name a few?
Traffic is HORRIBLE!  Seattle has some of the worst traffic in the US.  And that's not just coming from me!
Second, would be road construction!  Every single road and freeway is being worked on one way or another.  It's annoying!
The last one would have to be parking.  Since we live in an older neighborhood there isn't a lot of parking besides street parking.  So parking is a very big frustration when all you want it a cup of coffee!!

If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, would you stay or would you go?
I think I would stay where I'm at!  I love it up here and I am happier here than I have even been in my life :)  

Must See in My Hometown

My hometown is in so cal. Yep, that's right I have not ventured far from home. I have lived in the same county for my whole life except for when I lived on campus for a year in college! Even then I was home often! The truth is I love this place and not just because I am comfortable here, but because I feel that you cannot beat the weather, location, and all the fun sights to see!

Orange county is filled with so much to see. There are great things like Disneyland, south coast plaza, and  Newport beach, but within the county there are so many things to see that are not always tourist destinations.

Here's my list of must see in orange county, CA.

|one|

The Orange Circle

This is m absolute favorite part of orange county! I love all the shops filled with antiques plus there are lots of great spots to hang out and eat! It also has a great small town feel! Several movies have been filmed there a well! Remember "That Thing You Do"? Part omit was filmed right here in orange! Anyway, there are yummy spots for dining like citrus city grill and the filling station. There are even spots to get a pint or two and some dessert! The best part for me is the neighborhoods that surround! I love the homes in is area and wish I could one day lie in a neighborhood like this! I loveit there!

|two|

Angels Stadium

Ok, so i realize that many tourists would go here to catch a game, but so many people who come here seem to skip over a day at the game! The truth is this stadium has some pretty neat spots to watch and you can literally roam almost the entire stadium for the entire game! (I will admit that the stadium is seriously lacking some yummy food finds, but it still is a great spot to keep a person entertained!) so many people buy tickets and hang out on the patio and never even make into their seats. Either way, a baseball game is a wholesome fun American activity!

|three|

The Great Park

This park has so much to give and it really is in the beginning ties of being developed. The land used to Brea military base and after many years of disputing, it has finally become a park! There is a big orange balloon that you can ride and every week there is some sort of activity! They have movies, gardening classes, a farmers market, art on display and more!

|four|

Farmers Markets

Every place has farmers markets! California is no exception, but it sure OSA fun time tog income locally grown California produce! I love taking home a great bunch f veggies and fruit from the local farmers market! Don't you? Why not do that on vacation too?

|five|

Crystal Cove

Heres another spot that has that small town feel, but it has thsmell of the beach! This spot is a state park down by the beach. There ar trails to walk that lead down to the beach and even little cottages that you can rent out for not so expensive prices! The cottages used to bethe homes of awhile summer surfing community and they were neutrally renovated and now house vacationers who have to reservetheircspotssix months in advance! Theresa great restaurant and bar right on the beach too! It screams people watching and a nice enjoyable beach day!

|six|

Peters Canyon

Orang county surges haves lot of homes, but tucked away in the hills of orange and Tustin is This great park! There are wilderness trails, a reservoir, hills, forrests, and even some wildlife (watch out for mountain lions!). There are several trails that I have enjoyed walking and I always see people mountain biking and running the trails. It's great for a day time hike or Elena morning stroll!

The hill that kicks my bum every time! 

|seven|

Whiting Ranch

Here's another spot just like the last! Instead of areas or it has a quiet stream and lots of shady trees! There is definitely wildlife there as well! Last time were there I had a lizard run across my feet! I screamed pretty loud and jumped pretty high! It was a great hike! I am guessing you could have a great hike there too!

|eight|

Summer Fun in the Park

So many cities have these events, but I truly cold not leave these off the list! The weather here can be so great and often there is little modify in the summer and the evenings are just phenomenal! There are often concerts in the park in any local city depending on the night of the week! One of the good parts about orange county is that it is the epitome of suburban sprawl, meaning there are cities within close reach to the whole county!

|nine|

Shopping

There are malls and then there are outdoor malls! I love to shop and spend and afternoon out at the shopping center. thebest part is California has the weather todo this most days of th year! My personal favorite (& I never thought I would say this cause parking used to beapain there) is the irvine Spectrum! Though there are others that are great OT visit as well! Give Fashion Island, the Marketplace, or The District a try!

|ten|

Restaurants

Gosh, there are some great places to eat here in the OC! Some of my favorites are Beach Pit BBQ, Lazy Dog Cafe, the Filling Station, Rutabegorz, Taco Surf, Roma D Italia, and even Dad's where they serve awesome Balboa bars! Every city has their own food spots, but I think we have a pretty great selection here in Orange County!

So, if you are ever in town, or even just need a reason to visit. Here they all are listed out for you! So. Cal will welcome you with warm sunshine! Promise! 

Guest -a- Buzzing!

Today is all about the bees! It is totally fitting then that Chrissy over at Buzzing with Ms. B would be guest posting for me today! So while i fly away, here she is! 

(Have i mentioned, that she cruised too.... here posts about her sun-filled vacay are funny and definitely filled with realistic life situations! I love her blog! Just see for yourself!

This is Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B and I'm very excited to be gust blogging for Simone.
I spent several days toying with different ideas to blog about for my guest post. It's summer, you know, and most of my thought topics during this time are not really of a guest post quality. These include things like cleaning out my garage, painting my nails a new color, and seeing Magic Mike. 
Not really guest postable. 
But then we hosted our summer reading camp at my school. Now this is something I can write about. Today was all about bees.

First, we read the Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco (one of my favorite authors). We used some pages from my Fiction Graphic Organizers Pack to respond to the story elements and the theme. The kids illustrated important events from the story and wrote about them as well.

 They really loved the book - it's such a charming story and they thought the names of the characters were hilarious. They're not hilarious, really - they're just Polish. But to our babies here in West Texas, they were so funny.

After we completed the story elements and retellings, we did a little word work: we sorted words into short and long syllables, and sorted other words by endings. Endings found in this book included 

-tion, -ed, -ing, -s/es, and -ture.

Then, we read this nonfiction article about a decline in the bee population from Scholastic News. This is resulting in less pollination of flowers and fruit, and so end result is that it's harder for ice cream companies to find their ingredients. The kids were horrified. We worked on some basic vocabulary and cause-effect relationships from the article.

Then we did fun stuff. We made these cute bees. They're based on a product from A Cupcake from the Teacher.

Aren't they funny? The kids got such a kick out of them. Anything with google eyes and pipe cleaners is worthy of participation. 

After we finished our bees, we used the comic strip format (scroll down to grab it for free) I made to write little comic strip adventures for their bees. I broke down the process into six steps so the kids could write a cute, concise comic:

1. introduce your character

2. introduce a problem

3. attempt to solve the problem

4. attempt to solve the problem

5. solve the problem

6. happy ending :)

This made it simple for students to create a short storyline around their bee character!

This was the one I made while modeling. Not exactly my best writing, but you know. Live show and all.

These are the comic strips the kids wrote. Considering they are our most struggling readers, we were happy they were so excited to write.

It may be hard to read, but this one is about a bee who is desperate for a guitar. Yes, a guitar. What? He already has a drum set!

My favorite line in this one is when the bee says, "Gotta find friends!" LOL

Other great uses for this (that occurred to me while we were writing them!) were...

-Math: adventures of shapes, coins, or ruler.

-Reading: what other possible adventures could your main character have? What reasonable actions could occur next in the story?

-Science: adventures of a water droplet, tectonic plate, or an animal from any habitat.

-Social Studies: writing historical fiction. What would Harriet Tubman be like?

This could be a super fun way to integrate creativity and a simple, fun writing activity into all of your content areas!

Grab it free at TPT!

Hope this helps out in your classroom, and come by and visit me at Buzzing with Ms. B!

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See, isn't she funny!? I love the bees! And i especially love the work samples she shared from the kiddos! The comics are just great! I love it when kids draw! Their imaginations are so full and to see it on paper is just phenomenal! Thanks Chrissy for sharing and also for giving a freebie! 

PS Happy Birthday to the teacher who teaches next door from me! She's 21 again! 

(You know who you are!)

High Five 7.27.12

OK, i know i am out of town and all, but i can't help myself from doing this link up!

Here's my High Five for the week:

|one|

Packing! 

It is always a good feeling when you are leaving and getting ready for the next adventure! this one is a big one and so packing is intense! It's the unpacking that i would love to skip!

|two|

New Undies for FREE! 

Thanks to Victoria Secret for your wonderful coupons! Love when i get those cards in the main and i think i have only paid for underwear there a couple times, yet most of my underwear is from there! (Is that tmi?!?) I think i will refrain from showing a picture here ... no one needs to see my undies!

|three|

Memory

New RAM was added to my computer by the one and only hubs! He rocks and I love that my computer is so much faster! This post is brought to you by a faster computer! Thank God for husbands who can refrain from throwing a computer out the window!

|four|

Cannoli Parfaits

I made these at a BBQ this last weekend and they were a hit! My husband loves these a bunch and the best part is how simple they truly are! Find the recipe here. There's even a video! And they are only $2 a serving!

|five|

One Less Vehicle 

My hubs truly sold his truck this time ... i know  i posted that he sold it a few months ago, but really, that fell through! I did not post a retraction because i knew it would sell. Well, it took a couple months but now its SOLD! Thanks to the guy who bought it! You got a great deal! Oh and this pays off our trip to Seattle and Alaska! So great!

Make sure to link up your favorite highlights from the week. Just click the link below!