Sad News and New Product (finally)

Hello all! I hope everyone is having a good new year so far.  My new year has been a little rough. I debated on sharing this on the blog. However, some of my favorite blogs out there are the ones where the bloggers share more than just school things.  Plus I felt like Georgia deserved a little good bye post....so here it goes.

Twelve years ago a little beagle mix puppy became my first puppy ever.  My husband and I named her Georgia in honor of my family who lives there. What an adventure she turned out to be! She ate EVERYTHING in sight...food, plastic, golf balls, paper, etc. You it name and she would eat it.  She had a funny broken tail because she got stuck backwards during birth and her mom pulled her out by her tail, breaking it in the process.  The tip curved in the opposite direction so she was easy to spot with her little hook tail. She was extremely smart and could open doors and car windows.  She was a total pain to live with! But as much work as she was, she was so sweet. Both of my boys came home from the hospital to Georgia waiting to greet them.  She loved them right away. She was always gentle with them and let them crawl, drool, pull, and climb all over her.  Of course, they were just as giving and provided diapers - which was one of Georgia's many favorite treats - please refer back to the sentence about her being able to open doors and being a total pain to live with.  The last couple of months have been rough and Georgia had a chronic condition that caused her to get sick almost daily and usually several times a night.  The past weekend my husband and I decided that it was time to say good bye and let Georgia be at peace.  I am filled with too much emotion to know what to write next, other than how sad we are and hope we provided her a good life. I'm adding a picture of her below. Thank you for letting me use the blog to say good bye!

Now please try not to get whip lash from the complete and total subject change! I need to move on and I know not everyone wants to continue to hear stories about a dog they have never met! I finally got around to finishing a product. I am the worst at finishing things!  I get started and then a diaper needs to be changed, or the laundry is ready to be shuffled, or one of my fabulous extravagant dinners is ready. Okay, I made that last part up. I burn toast and have trouble boiling water.

Back to the point, I created an author's purpose game because Juli and I have noticed that the kids DO NOT GET IT! It doesn't matter what we do. If they don't constantly practice it - it's gone. So I thought I would create a game for a station to review the concept. Here is what some of it looks like:

 I also made these "posters" to review the concept and place around the room.  I thought it would be cute for any of you out there with a pirate theme. 

 If this looks like something you might be interested in, you can find it HERE. However, I am giving it away free to the first 3 people that leave blog love.

Sorry again for the downer beginning to my post, but thanks for hanging there. Have a wonderful weekend!