The Joy of Children

Every time I get get frustrated with school and have many negative thoughts, I do work in an elementary classroom and I am reminded why I'm trying to become a teacher. While I admit that I had no idea how much work it was to be a teacher when I started this journey, I also had no idea how rewarding it could be. I had a second grade placement this semester at Rolling Meadows Elementary School, and it was by far my favorite to this point. I love second grade!!! I was so sad to leave, and the kids were so sweet when I said goodbye. They all made me great cards telling me they love me and will miss me, and wishing me Merry Christmas. They also made me this great poster, which unfortunately is no longer in one piece, thank goodness I took a picture! Also, thanks for the snow! I have a great tree and lots of Christmas spirit now.

Lacking that Spirit

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I start getting excited for it in July, maybe sooner. My radio has 100.3 programmed, and I usually tear out the decorations the day after Thanksgiving (still like one holiday at a time folks). However, this year I am finding it hard to find my Christmas spirit. WHERE'S THE SNOW!!!!! I know in a few months I will be cursing it, but I need it to bring me my spirit! I could never live where it didn't snow at Christmas... BTW, for anyone who actually looks at this blog, I will return soon. One more week of the semester and I may start functioning normally again.

Another Year!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Another year older and wiser. Hope you had a great day!

Happy Anniversary!

I have a lot to post about the last month, but I wanted to first say Happy Anniversary to my sister Devin and her husband Jonas. It has been three years already! They had a destination wedding at beautiful Lake Tahoe, and it was a great ceremony and celebration. Hope they had a good weekend celebrating, and best wishes for many more years! Love you guys.

I was her one and only bridesmaid, I love that dress.

Wonder who she looks like in our family huh...

Concerts, Birthdays, and Fireworks

Gotta love that Wrangler butt!!! Last week my mom, friend Julie and I went to see George Strait at Usana. It was awesome! Jullianne Hough and Blake Shelton opened for him, and they sounded great too. We sat on the lawn, which I would highly recommend if you want a great concert on a budget. The only downfall to the night was I spent a good chunk of George filling out a witness statement for the guy I turned in that peed on an old lady's blanket. Seriously sometimes I wonder what the #*&% is wrong with people. Other than that we had a lot of fun, the music was amazing, and you all should be jealous:)

July 16th was my niece Maya's birthday(the smile on the right) so Nick and I took her and our other niece Sadie to Liberty Park to play. It was so much fun, I definitely recommend it to anyone with kids. There is a fun fountain with lots of different water spouts to play in, several playgrounds with fun stuff, and a pond to feed ducks.The girls were great when they weren't fighting with each other:) Afterwards we went to Maya's official birthday party to swim and eat lots of good food.

July 24th is my grandpa's birthday, so we decided it would be fun to take him to a Bee's game for baseball and fireworks. It was so hot! It turned out the team that the Bee's were supposed to play canceled, so two high school teams played, but they were really good so it was still fun. Plus we get two more Bee's tickets, a Jazz ticket, and a Miller Raceway ticket to replace the game we didn't get to see, so it was worth it. The fireworks were great, and overall it was a fun night!

This is the gang that went to the game, my sister and her husband Jonas, my mom and Larry, and me and Nick.

We had pretty good seats too, for the game and the fireworks.

At Last...

Many of you who have known me for a while may remember this lovely purple Civic that my mom drives. I'm pretty sure she bought this 1994 Honda when I was in junior high, which would have meant it was pretty new then. Well, over 200,000 miles later, Mom finally gave in and bought herself a new car...

Ta Da!!! This is the new ride. She hasn't decided for sure on her name yet, but she is so cute. Mom has been looking at this car for three years now. I think the dealership knew her by name:) She finally decided last week that the price and timing was right! She was a little bummed because they had to ship it up from Vegas so she had to wait until today to get it, but it was worth the wait. It is Mom's first new car since she bought her Mustang when she was 17, she deserves it!

Fun at the Zoo

The week of the fourth Hogle Zoo had military appreciation days, so we loaded up Nick's sister Heidi's girls and headed up there. It was great to get in free, but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea that day. It was packed but we still had a great time. The girls were great the whole time and it was so fun to see how excited they got for the animals. Luckily it wasn't very hot either. Here are a few pics of the girls on the way to the zoo, stay tuned for the after:) Gracie in her glasses, complete with bottle... Maya was so ready to go, I could feel her impatience even though she didn't say anything...

The girls were so cute and excited to look at every animal. I love this first picture because of Gracie's reflection in the glass, you can see how impressed she was by the monkey:)

This was the view on the way home after a few hours of sun and lots of exciting animals... Aww silence...

Seriously?

I find it odd that a person would choose the job of phlebotomist in the first place, but if you're going to spend your days shoving needles in people's arms, maybe you should lose the attitude? Especially when you can't find that poor person's vein after 15 minutes? 15 MINUTES PEOPLE! Have you ever sat in a chair with a cocky 19 year old guy fishing around in your arm telling you he's almost got it, only to have him stab you yet again and fail? GET SOME HELP WOULD YA?! As you can tell my last blood donation experience was not a good one. I know that I have difficult veins, it is hereditary in my family, and so I always tell them which arm to use and warn them about the possible hardship to come. I've given with Red Cross several times, and I've gotta say I'm not that impressed. I'm not queasy and I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but come on! Today I decided to brave the donating again, this time with ARUP at work. I have had good experiences with them in the past. I tell the 12 year old kid holding the needle(don't they look younger the older we get?) all about my troubled veins and get the same "I can do it" answer. This time I was prepared to tell him to get the *%^* out of my arm if necessary. While he did not get the vein on the first try, or the second... he got it the third time and in only a few minutes this time. Maybe it is a sign that I am not meant for donating... Oh well, maybe I saved a life today! Plus I get to walk around with a cute pink bandage wrapped around my elbow and tell everyone I don't have a life threatening disease, I just gave blood.

Random Post

For all of our niece's birthdays they get to come spend time with me and Nick without any parents or siblings. Jessie's birthday was in May but we didn't get the chance to do her weekend until now. We had lots of fun miniature golfing, eating, watching movies, playing with Chavez, and swimming. She's a cutie and so fun to have around. Chavez was excited too, he loved to sleep with her on her blankets.

For Father's Day we went up to my sister Devin's house in Logan for a little BBQ with my Dad and stepmom Elaine. It actually stopped raining for a few minutes so we could enjoy our dinners outside. It was a good time, Happy Father's Day Dad!

We stopped by to give my stepdad Larry his present that day as well.

Nick's sister and family went out of town for a week and we dog sat for their puppy Halie. She is crazy! It is so different having a puppy in the house, and I definitely don't have enough energy to keep up with her. She and Chavez had fun playing, and she is the cutest thing ever. We love her but were glad to give her back... Like Nick's face in the picture...

Chavez got his life jacket finally too. He looks so cute I can't wait to throw him in the water. He is going to flip out, he jumps over puddles. This is the position he stayed in the whole time he was wearing it, he refused to walk...

Feeling my age...

I have pics from Father's Day to post, but not with me at work, so those will come. I just want to vent about something that we talked about in my class last week. My professor was discussing with us the realities of being a teacher to this new techie generation, and having us brainstorm ways that we can use technology in our teaching since that is how we can connect to today's kids. While I see the obvious merit in including technology in the classroom, the professor, who I might add is a techie herself, was implying that without constant technology in the classroom we will not reach our students. Sigh. I am self-professed computer-challenged most of the time, and besides that point, what the *#% happened to using your imagination!!!! I swear that kids are starting to lose the ability to entertain themselves without the aid of a television, computer, or whatever the crap those little hand held video game things are called. I am falling into depression about this. I am holding on to that little speck of hope I have inside of me that I will be the kind of teacher that uses technology, sure, but that can also bring back using the MIND. My kids will read books and learn to love them, even if they are downloading them onto their Blackberries and IPhones. Sigh again. Any words of wisdom or hope are encouraged...

We made it one year!

Yesterday was our one year anniversary! I can't believe it's been a year already, it's scary how fast the time goes by. We definitely had our ups and downs, but overall it's been a great year. Here are a couple wedding pics, to remember our day one year ago.

My Birthday and Prayers

My birthday was last Sunday and I had an entire weekend of celebrations! I share a birthday with Nick's sister Taresa, and his other sister Natalie and niece Jessie also have birthdays in May so we had a big party for all of us on Friday. On Sunday, my family took me bowling and we visited family graves. It was a great weekend, with the only downfall being the nasty cold I am still fighting that arrived at the end of the semester. Enjoy the cute pics of my family! Also notice the adorable new addition to the family, Halle the bulldog baby. Nick's sister Natalie got her as a birthday present and she and Chavez are new best friends.

Also, my mother-in-law Tami is in the hospital fighting a bad lung infection. She is doing better and we hope she'll be released sometime tomorrow, but to anyone who reads this say a quick prayer for her recovery!

My Trip to the Desert

Well I am back from my trip and it was AMAZING! I was planning on a big post with lots of pictures, but I've found that it's very hard to put my experience into words. I have posted a few pictures, but most of the stories are being kept for me. If anyone has ever visited a place with a culture that is so drastically different from our own, you will understand my difficulty in explaining.
A few things we did on the trip:
-Given the honor of visiting a petroglyph site and attending a Kachina dance ceremony on the Hopi Reservation.
-Lessons on basket weaving and pottery making from a beautiful Hopi woman in her home.
-Home made fry bread!!! I can never eat it at the fair again...
-Spent a day at the Hopi Day School and worked with the kids there- I want to move there the people are so gracious and the kids are incredible.
-Hiked Canyon De Shelly on the Navajo Reservation and saw the White House Ruins that date back to 1100 AD.
-River trip down the San Juan with a Navajo guide who showed us more ruins and explained the geological features that have formed over millions of years.

It was a long 9 days, especially with 8 other girls... but it was such a great experience. If anyone has the chance to visit, I would definitely recommend taking the opportunity.