Happy Birthday Roger

Special birthday wishes to a special guy!

Roger Kent is having a birthday!

Roger is my "brother" from my 2nd family. He is Marie's brother, too!

Roger has always held a special spot in my life. He was so full of life and questions as a little boy. He would always speak his mind, no matter what the situation was!

He used to love to see me come visit and his first question would be "Can we go to a movie?"

May you find many answers to life questions, Roger, and always be surrounded by friends and loved ones in your life. Go to as many movies as you want! :-) Have a super day and the best year! I love you.

Facebook Connection

I sure am glad for facebook. My niece in Missouri found me and requested to be my "friend." I was then able to find out a new baby is in the family born July 8th! AND there are pictures of her and her sweet kids! Priceless!

Welcome to Tyler Antony!

School Begins

Can you believe that it is time for another school year to begin? This year has started with lots of stress so I hope that it actually will settle in starting tomorrow when the students come!

Right now I have 25 students. We hope to "Ride the Wave to an Awesome School Year!"

Here are a few snapshots of outside my classroom entrance and then within the main portion of my room.

Photos on the door of each of my new students to be!

There is such a money crunch this year that we were not given any quality teaching days to prepare. Most of us spent time working anyway but it sure made it difficult to get things ready on time.

Our district is starting the policy of curriculum mapping. That has been mind boggling trying to figure out how to make ALL aspects of it work. The language arts won' t be too bad. I worry about the time frame some. Math is the scary one as the book that we have doesn't fit the map. They have also changed the way Special Ed will work and that has put more responsibility on us to how the teachers are used. We have GREAT help, I just am not sure the best way to use her in my room. It will work out but I hate being unclear and unsure about how it all will work. Challenges, challenges..... good for me I know!

Oh my!

You know, I absolutely love my job .... but I do not love every DAY. Some days are just difficult. The beginning of the year is always such a stressful time. I don't think most people realize all that it takes to get an elementary classroom ready for the students. We usually have to work extra days anyway, but this year with the money crunches we only have 2 days to prepare and one of those days will be spent in faculty meeting. It is so discouraging.

Today was a district meeting day. We had to learn about the steps to district improvement and how our mapping came about for language arts and math. It is overwhelming and mind boggling. Our math program, in particular, is not one that is geared towards working well with the mapping and benchmark exams that will be coming.

The insurance changes are scary and trying to make sure all the paper work is correct again is making my head spin.

The past two days have been challenging. I look forward to meeting the children, getting through the rules and expectations and being to go forward with our learning together!

Once in awhile something special happens

I am so thankful for special blessings in my life. My Bishopric is visiting the members of the ward in their homes and decided it was my turn. We made connections for them to come to my home last night. Yesterday was a particular hard day for me and I was worried about my frustrations of the day. I didn't want the conversation of the evening to be negative although it started out that way when recounting my frustrations of the day. It of course is easy to become frustrated when you are stressed anyway. I think we had an ok visit and it truly uplifted my spirit some! I could begin to laugh at myself.

At the end of the visit, I was asked if a prayer could be left in my home. I, of course, readily agreed. A member of the bishopric jumped up saying that it was his turn. I was so touched by the things that were stated in that prayer. It was very personal and so touching. I felt that the things that were stated in that prayer were so individually directed at my personal needs of my life. I can't tell you how touched I was with the concern and caring of the individual offering the prayer. I am thankful for the power of the priesthood and the love of my Heavenly Father as shown through his servants.

A magical end to a rough day.

Not Dead yet

Earlier this month, I ran across an entry in one of my former students blogs. It made me smile so I am going to post it here with name modifications:
That old??

I was just looking at my kindergarten teacher's blog and my son asked what I was doing. When I told him he said in disbelief, "Your kindergarten teacher's blog! How can that be? I mean you're so old; shouldn't she be dead?"

Then the mom, my former student, added this:
Just for the record, my kindergarten teacher is as young and spry today as she ever was. Seriously, I don't think she has aged a bit over the last 25 years!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to response so here is something similar to what I said: "Just for the record, this is the first time I have known my former student to tell a falsehood. I am the former Kindergarten teacher! Unfortunately, I am not as young and spry today as I was when she was my sweet student, BUT I am alive and "kicking!" That was a very sweet and kind comment to make though! Thanks."

It made me smile!

Brad Barton's Magic

Check out Brad Barton's website: http://bradbartonspeaks.com/

Today I attended an inservice given by Brad. It was very motivational. He gives such tribute to a former teacher/coach in his life. He speaks from the heart as he encourages teachers to reach out and make a difference in the life of the "hard to love" child that may cross our path each year. He does this through sharing his illusions with us. These are very entertaining.

He needed a dollar and took one from me. When he was first finished with the dollar, he handed it back to me. I wish I had taken a photo of that dollar. It was all mixed up. It was like

it has been cut up and parts rearranged without any cuts and tape.

Later in the day he asked for the dollar back at another time and

promised us that if we would use the techniques he was talking about, we would

receive joys and success two fold. When he finished, my dollar was now a $2 bill!

Beauty and the Beast

Tuesday night, Beth & the girls came over to Price, picked me up from the hotel and we all went to see the play "Beauty and the Beast." This was being presented outdoors at the theater where they usually do the LDS Castle Valley pageant near Orangeville. (The church play is only going to be presented every other year now.)

It was a beautiful night, the site perfect and the play was very well done. The sound system was excellent! The community did a nice job on this production!

Home the last few days

These are pictures of my home away from home the past three nights. It was a pretty big room, and most importantly clean, so I guess it wasn't a bad place to stay. We found out that this is where they put up all the presenters and facilitators of our Core Academy so there are alot of educators staying here. It has been fairly quiet and I wonder if that had anything to do with it!


Suzzy and Terri are across the hall and down one room so we aren't very far apart.

I will be glad to be home again. There is just something about sleeping in your own bed! I do wish I had an air conditoner in my bedroom. I sleep much better when I am NOT hot!

Wanting to Adopt

I know a very nice couple who are looking to adopt!

If you know of someone wanting to place a baby in a good home, please pass this information to them.

I don't know if you can read the urls very good so here they are again:

Josh and Savannah adopt

Countless Tomorrows

Take time to read their blog. I know that you will be impressed and touched.

If you can, please help them out! Feel free to add their button on your blogs! The code can be found at Countless Tomorrows.

Getting ready to go again

I am getting ready to head on out again today! I don't know how business men that travel all the time do it. I don't like being gone that often!

Anyway, Terri, Suzzy and I are heading for Price this evening. Core Academy is at Emery High and we will be that for a few days! Sure hope that we get some good teaching ideas this year.

I can't believe that it is almost time for school to begin again. I am not ready but I better get busy when I come back!

Wisdom from Erma!

If I Had My Life To Live Over

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's".. More "I'm sorrys" ...

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.

The above was written by the late Erma Bombeck
after she found out she had a fatal disease.
She added the following:

Stop sweating the small stuff. Don’t worry about who doesn’t like you, who has more, or who’s doing what. Instead, let’s cherish the relationships we have with those who DO love us. Let’s think about what God HAS blessed us with. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, as well as spiritually. Life is too short to let it pass you by. We only have one shot at this and then it’s gone. I hope you all have a blessed day.

Do we fret and stew and worry about too many things that really don't make a difference? May we remember to stop sweating the small stuff and appreciating the many blessings that we do have in our lives. Have a wonderful day filled with pleasant memories! Look at it, see it and really live!