A couple days ago I received the most amazing book from my redditor. I had asked them to send me their favorite book so I could add it to my library and read it to my students. I'm pretty sure my 9yr old daughter took off with it to read, so I'll have to update with the name and pic, but it had the most beautifully drawn illustrations and I know I'm going to use it to show how we can use detail to make the pictures come alive. It is an amazing book and as soon as my daughter gets home, I'm going to have to steal it back from her.

Then, today I got a padded envelope in the mail and I was wondering what it was since I figured the book was my gift (which I was completely fine with because it's absolutely beautiful). I opened it up and there were my coveted neon, yes I said neon, dry erase markers! I look at those every time I go to an office supply store, Walmart, Target...pretty much anywhere that would have them. Even Walgreens has had them from time to time. They were one of those things I've always seen as a splurge that I couldn't see buying for my class since I don't have much of a budget. One of my coworkers had some last year and I was more tempted to borrow and never return them, but I resisted. Now I have my own set.

Now, I made a mention a week or so ago about how I've noticed 2 things about teacher posts. One of them was that we tend to get things when we've had a bad day. I actually was having a really good day. The weekend and week before pretty much sucked, but it was looking up and then I get this. When I got the book, I was in the midst of said days that suck and it made my day. The 2nd thing I noticed about teacher posts is that we usually get things on long days. It was definitely a long day, I had worked 10 hrs today.

So...now for the pictures. I will take the markers to school tomorrow and write my morning message in all the colors and then read my students the amazing book. Then I shall post my pictures. Thank you dear redditor, you've made this teacher's smile just that much bigger today.

EDIT: I remembered the book: Saint George and the Dragon. My class absolutely loved the book and there's a long wait list of students who are wanting to read it. They loved the illustrations and the descriptions in the story as much as I do.

Then, I came home today and had received 2 more packages! The first one contained a history of weapons, including great illustrations. This is perfect since 3 or 4 of my boys believe their self portrait includes some sort of weapon through their neck or face. (Don't ask me why). And then, there was a box from Amazon with 144 Dixon pencils! These will go to great use when we switch over from the fat pencils to the regular ones (around December). I also got 3 containers of sanitizing wipes (to wipe the boogers off all the surfaces they seem to pick their nose and touch) and some big pink erasers.

Wow! How lucky am I?