Ornaments

Kory came home from Christmas shopping on Saturday and a little bit later said to me: "Sweetheart, I bought you a present that you have to open right now." I was surprised and excited. Though I knew it wasn't a kitty, I asked if it was. He said no. But he did hand me a hallmark bag and inside was this:

A keepsake ornament. Isn't it SO cute?!! Every year since we have been married, Kory has gotten me a teacher ornament from hallmark. The first year it was this cute little denim bag with a little pencil and scissors and a ruler inside. Last year it was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" ornament (I believe I blogged about that one, so if you want to see it, look for Dec. 2008). I wasn't expecting this one at all because we had gone to hallmark at the beginning of December to get our collector series ornament and we didn't find any teacher ornaments. So when Kory came home with this gift, I truly was surprised. I absolutely love this one. Every time I walk by it's box on the coffee table, I grin. And I like to look at it on the tree. Can't wait to see what I get next year.

THE UNVEILING

It's done. Finally! It's finished. There are a few touch ups I need to do, but the quilt is complete. Wow!! That was quite a job. I would say total, with all of the problems included, the quilt took about 30 hours to complete. Without all my troubles, it probably would have been between 20-25 hours. Here are the pictures (which certainly don't do it justice):

The whole thing

A section of the quilt

The corner.

Thanks to Janet Peer for showing me how to do the binding. For a first timer, I think the binding looks great...Just don't look too close, please.

Total Time on quilt: 20-30 hours.

I know I know...it's been a while! SORRY! The quilt still isn't finished due to some attitude problems from my sewing machine. While the two of us have worked out our differences (I think), the quilt has yet to get finished. *sigh* This is taking much longer than I anticipated!

Things in my life are good. I am learning new things about myself and others. Some of those things have been hard to learn and some things are still in the process of being learned! That's the part I hate the most--the process of learning a lesson that doesn't want to be learned! Okay, I'll quit using the word learn...maybe.

Our dearest first grade colleague, Peggy, has "retired", somewhat against her will. Her health has become too much for her to manage while being a teacher so she (and her doctors) decided that Tuesday was her last day. The rest of us are curious about what the substitutes will bring and when we will be getting a new teacher for the rest of the year.

That's about it for my quick update. Sorry it's so short!

In Hawaii, we would always listen to Kory's iPod in the car. That was when I heard a song by the band Colors called "Hey Girl" and was instantly hooked. Then just recently I remember that a dear friend of mine burned some Colors CD's for me WAAAYYYYYYY back before my mission, I believe. I went on a hunt tonight for those CD's and found them. I decided to take advantage of Kory being gone to a YM activity and listen to Colors while occupying myself with unfinished projects. It was nice to sit and contemplate and enjoy more songs by Colors.

I love the holidays, and love that they are so near. I am so thankful that the radio stations didn't play Christmas music the day after Halloween. I LOVE Christmas, but honestly people, let's stop and remember to be thankful for all of our many blessings before jumping right into Christmas. Thanks!

Recently I've been thinking about a dear family friend in my parent's ward back home. She just found out about a week ago that she has a Stage 4 brain tumor that is fast growing, inoperable and radiation won't help. Dear Sister Wilson has only a short time left in her life and it breaks my heart that her family has to go through this. Her oldest daughter is giving up her education for now to go home and spend time with her mom. The youngest child is 7 years old, and will lose his mommy before he's had a chance to really enjoy life with her, as will all of her other children. This experience has made me contemplate and wonder, in some ways, how this family can be completely at peace with the whole situation. I understand and know the gospel and have a testimony of the plan of salvation, but I can't imagine going through this experience and just being at peace with it. I suppose I would kind of be forced to come to terms with it, especially knowing that I was going to die. It just goes to show how well Heavenly Father knows each of us and knows what we can handle. My mom says Heavenly Father must have something special planned for Sister Wilson in the next life. For now, we can just pray for her and her family and peace comes to my heart knowing that Sister Wilson can accept this trial in her life.

Belated Halloween

Here's a little test for you: What's different in this picture?

I was seriously leaning toward being a witch, because it's pretty easy. Instead I went for total comfort and bought scrubs and a fake stethoscope (which I forgot to wear in the picture). Wouldn't that have been GREAT if all the first grade teachers had shown up at school as witches without even planning it that way? I told Amy (the purple witch) that I should have gotten a witch hat and been a witch doctor. :)

Pictures of Jase dressed as Spiderman are on Kory's camera. I'll add them later. Happy Halloween!

Many happenings

This is my sweetheart studying on the computer. SHHHHH!
I've promised Kory I will be quick writing this entry. He takes the GRE on Saturday and he has been practicing tests on the computer. All my sympathies go out to him, especially on Saturday. Prayers, please!

Much of the talk around our apartment lately has obviously been about Grad school. It's making me excited, and Kory...well, nervous. He was counting on BYU to be his school of choice, but they no longer offer the program he wants: School counseling, NOT school psychology. There's a difference. So, we're looking into other options, but I'm kind of leaving it up to him to decide on places he wants to apply.

My first graders had their first field trip as first graders yesterday. We went to the Vineyard Gardens, which becomes Pumpkinland in the fall. I had two parents helping me, which was nice. It was great to watch my kids have so much fun and I didn't mind letting them run around lost in the corn maze! :) They were so good about staying with me or with the parent that was in charge of them that I let them go slightly crazy and run ahead to read all of the jokes and riddles that were planted on the path of the maze. They were doing great reading those. Yes, our field trip was educational!! I took pictures with a school camera because I forgot mine :( Hopefully I can post a couple pics here. If not, I'll post my school website address and you can see pics there.

Quilt update: It's almost done! I have sewn all the rows; just finished tonight. Now I have to just sew all the rows together (which might get done VERY soon because I try to stay quiet so Kory can study) and then take the quilt to The Cotton Shop so they can show me how to sew the binding.

Ever since Kory and I cleaned and organized our 2nd bedroom, I've been loving all the space in there and this is one of the reasons why. I laid out all the rows I sewed just to get an idea of where to start sewing the rows together. All nine rows (with ten squares each) took me around 3 hours total. It should have been less, but my thread kept getting tangled on nearly every square so I had to keep untangling it. Never figured out what was causing the tangling.


That's my quick update. More later, as always.

Total quilt hours so far: about 7.0

Me not happy. Want move, NOW!

Hi. Just found Black Widow number two lurking WAYYYYYY too close to our home. It was right inside the outside door. The first one was between the window and the screen, so there was no way that one was getting into our home. Kory and I went at it with bug/spider/roach killer. This one I found when my visiting teacher walked in and I immediately doused it in the killer spray again. THAT one could have gotten in my house. Now I'm freaking out slightly. The first one I think was male and harmless (apparently the males don't bite, or they're not harmful if they do bite) but this one I just found was a female--red spot on her tummy!! The females are dangerous. I officially want to move, now. Two black widows within about a week of each other, yeah, me not happy!

Since blogger won't upload my bridals from a few weeks ago, I now will go contemplate the best way to calmly tell Kory when he returns from his Young Men's activity that I would like to move.

Brilliant Idea

Okay, so I think I'm really going nuts! This sewing thing is getting slightly out of hand. But, as I was sewing another row for the Christmas quilt tonight, I thought "Hmmm.....wouldn't it be just adorable to make a school-theme rag quilt? I could even give it to Diane as a gift and a little brown nosing as well." So I hopped on the internet and found this one:

and then I found some on ebay but I can't get the picture on here. Anyway, I am IN LOVE with this fabric. So adorable!! I was thinking either solid Primary colors as in-between pieces or finding some cute apple print. Ooooh, wouldn't that be FANTASTIC??? Yeah, I'm a little nuts.

Sew what?

Hi! Official sewing has begun. After sewing 10 squares together, and picking out the seams on some to redo them because the thread got tangled, the first row of the quilt is done! It took me about 30 minutes, if that. Don't worry, I won't post pictures of every row I construct. I just had to do the milestone first row, then you'll get to see it when it's finished (without the binding) and then when it's officially finished (with the binding). Get excited folks! It's coming soon!

Woulda been...

I went to Airie's on Wednesday night to keep her company (and take advantage of her great and spacious living quarters). Kory was at a Priest's Quorum activity and Abram was at Bishopric interviews. Perfect night for us crazy girls to get together and attempt sewing projects.

I needed space to lay out the quilt squares and piece them altogether. That woulda been quite the picture. I don't think I could have captured the grandeur of the quilt-to-be. It was amazing. It's supposed to be approximately 56"x56" when finished...10 squares across, 9 squares down. Yeah, wild. Laying out the whole thing and trimming some of the extra fabric took about an hour, maybe slightly more. I wish I had brought my camera. For a while, I had Airie trapped at her machine. If she had moved her chair out even a millimeter, she would have landed right on the quilt! Don't worry, I let her out...eventually!! :)

Hours so far on quilt: 3.5-4.0

Quilt - phase 2

Still haven't sewn anything yet. The next part of making this quilt actually involves making sandwiches. Over 90 of them, to be exact. You put a quilt sqaure, tan flannel, and then blue flannel. Repeat...many, many times. :)

So, without further adieu...
First set of squares completed. Can you see the sandwich?



The next three pics are just some of my favorite striped blocks.
Aaaaand the second set of sqaures is complete. Check out those darling snowflakes and that to die for Charlie Brown-ish Christmas tree.
Sandwiching everything together takes a long time. Both the striped and non-striped blocks took me about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Total time spent on quilt: 2 1/2 - 3 hours

Interjection (the first rag quilt)

I decided just to put the pictures on here quickly and then take them right off the computer again and hopefully that will eliminate any problems from before.

This is my quilt that I made from my rag quilt class that Lynne just LOVED (see previous entry)!

Isn't it soooooooo cute? I took it out the other night and unfolded it and just looked at it. I love my quilt and don't know if it will ever be given as a gift.
Fairies!!
See my next entry for the latest on the rag quilt under construction.

Fun documentation (now with pictures)

So, as far as I know, my mother-in-law has no clue that this blog exists; I intend to keep it that way...at least until I'm finished with her Christmas gift that I started tonight. So, Lynne, if you know this exists...stop reading right now!

I thought it would be fun to document all of the labor that goes into this gift. I will try to post pictures, but am slightly reluctant to at the moment because of some problems with pics being on the computer. I will post them when I can.

About a month and a half ago I took a rag quilting class at our local fabric store, The Cotton Shop. That's my new favorite place to get sewing supplies and fabric. Anyway, Lynne (mother-in-law) saw my quilt and just oogled over it and LOVED it. So, when I was there with my own mother about 3 weeks or so ago, we were looking at the rag quilt kits and my eyes caught a new quilt that one of the employees had made. It was a CHRISTMAS rag quilt and soooooooooooo freaking cute! Oh my gosh!! Lynne immediately came to mind as my mom and I both oogled and ooooh-ed and ahhhh-ed over it. It was just fun and exciting. I immediately picked up the quilt kit and was willing to pay the $70 to make the quilt. When I went to pay for it, my mom inquired about a 20% off coupon to see if I could use it. The lady said yes and I said: "but it says no discounts on blanket kits." She said that only applied to the pre-made blankets you can crochet around. WOO HOO!! So my grand total was $59, after tax. It's just been sitting in it's plastic bag for 3 weeks. Then I got the feeling it will take me a while to finish this project and I think I am right. Tonight I pulled out the pre-cut squares and went through ALL of them and ironed them. That alone took me about an hour. But I couldn't be more excited about this project. I can't wait to give it to Lynne. Since it's a Christmas quilt, I get to give it to her early! Probably around Thanksgiving. :)

Hours so far on quilt: 1

Stay tuned for pictures and more updates.

UPDATE: PICTURES BELOW!

This is just after I finished ironing all of the pieces. The filler pieces aren't shown because you'll never see them anyway. They are just like the solid blue pieces, just tan.

This will be the outside binding. So, instead of having the outside edges be ragged, they will be bound like a regular quilt.
CUTE! Wait no! I would say beyond adorable!
There are many varieties of quilt squares. This one just happened to be on top! So, I'll alternate one of these striped border pieces and one of the pieces above.
This will be the back of the quilt. Just blue. Unlike my first rag quilt, this one will take longer because I have to pay attention to where I am sewing the pieces so I don't accidentally sew a blue piece to the front or sew one of the striped border pieces upside down. Ohhh, the horror!

This one is quick!

So far, so good. There will be days that are better than others, but overall, I think my kids this year already know how to behave better than my groups last year. The second grade Dual Immersion teachers are having one h*** of a time already! They come to lunch exasperated and ask me all sorts of questions about their students.

I miss my Hannah. She gave me a hug today at lunch. I only miss her when I see her--odd, but true. Though, I do have this year where Jennifer and Dani get so excited to see me in the halls when they are in Spanish for the week. Funny thing is, I know Jennifer will give me a run for my money but she is, overall, a good girl! Oh, and can I tell you that Hyrum and Max are wayyyyyy too cute for words? Oh their faces; I can't stand how adorable they are! Once Max learns to raise his hand, he'll be irresistable. May those two front teeth not grow in until second grade! ;)

The parents seem pretty normal as well. Hopefully that will last. I still have 170 more days to keep them happy. Wish me luck.

I'm sitting here at my kidney table (a table shaped like a kidney for those who are wondering!) wondering if my next student testing appointment forgot, or is in another appointment with siblings.I have a half hour to get stuff done and I'm blogging. WHAT AM I THINKING? I have so much to do! Blogging is a nice break I suppose.

Day 2 of the new school year is over and I am, in the words of my principal, "cautiously optimistic" about this group of kids. We'll see how it goes with the other group next week. Before school started, I was bound and determined to have better-behaved students than I had last year. So far it's working. Lots of positive reinforcement and reminders to myself that they are only 6 and have only been in school for 2 days has really paid off. I've got 21 dang cute faces staring at me all day long with little trouble. Of course, there are the select few that haven't caught on to the fact that I will ignore them if they are not raising their hand and just saying "Mrs. S.? Teacher? Teacher? TEACHER?" *sigh* They can't all be perfect, I guess. It did make me feel good to have the principal come in on the first day and whisper in my ear "You are doing amazing." *GRIN* That was the most fantastic thing ever.

Now my next challenge is getting settled on a daily schedule. Things around these here parts are just wild and I am trying to get used to an extremely crazy schedule. It's so complicated that I won't bother to explain. Just know that I might be pulling my hair out because of our schedule and not because of my students. ;)

Well, I should go and plan for tomorrow. Maybe it will be somewhat normal. HA!

dreams (or nightmares)

Ever since I ended last school year and have enjoyed my summer vacation, I continuously have dreams (or nightmares?) that my new class this year is so naughty! I hate those dreams. Kory says I have them because it's something I'm worried about. 'Tis true, but really, do I have to dream about it??

I did meet with my mentor yesterday that Diane asked me to work with this year. She is so great and I love that she seemed very non-judgmental. I already had some good ideas for improvement and so Debbie (the mentor) just kind of let me take the wheel. She offered a few ideas here and there, but really she is just around to do her job: mentor, if needed. I like it.

The kids come back to school in 12 days, I have to be back for training and Professional Development in 6 days. So much to do!!

In other news(sorry, it's kind of about school again): Kory signed up to take the GRE in October. He and I both decided he can't get his new video game that he wants until after he has taken the GRE. So, October it is! It makes me excited because it means that we're heading in the Grad School direction. The next question is, where will be be in a year? That answer will most likely come in January.

That's is for now.

Some pictures from Hawaii

Here are a few images from our trip to Hawaii. During the second family reunion (week 2) we stayed at Auntie Lucille's empty rental house (literally no furniture). There were banana trees outside mine and Kory's window and I was so enthralled by them. This is the first bunch of bananas I saw and I wanted SOOOOO badly to pick them because 1) the neighbors weren't doing anything about them and 2) aren't they just yelling "PICK ME" to you? I would get up every morning and look out the window at the bananas. Kory wouldn't let me pick them. He couldn't understand my infatuation! :)


During both family reunions, we had one day as a family where we were in charge of a meal. Week 2 we were in charge of lunch. Jase wanted to help make the tuna, so we let him "mix" everything in. So cute!














We only visited this beach one day because it was near the Kona side of the island and our reunions were on the Hilo side. This was the only sandy beach we played at. The beaches at the reunions were rocky. I'm a sucker for that gorgeous turquoise water.















I think this was the coolest part of our trip. One Sunday night we drove out to the lava flow. The Big Island is the only one out of the 7 that is getting larger because the volcano is active. When we drove out, we arrived at about 8:15pm. It was almost dark and by the time we park and reached the path to start hiking out, it was pitch black, just like the pictures. We were required to have water, flashlights, and good, sturdy shoes in order to hike out to the designated lava viewing spot. Our path was old, dried up lava marked with white and yellow paint. There aren't words to describe this experience. All I can say is that God is the creator if this Earth. We got out to the flow and these are the best pictures I could get in the pitch blackness.
The lava is flowing out of a lava tube underground and into the ocean. The more blurry parts of orange in the picture is the steam rising from the ocean. When I got up close, I kept trying to get a good picture and couldn't. This nice man next to me asked if I had ever used a tripod. I said no. He told me it would get a better picture for me because it would be steady. He asked fo rmy camera and hooked it up to his tripod. He said: "take as many pictures as you want so you can get some good ones. Let me know when you're done." So sweet! He also told me that if I turned off the flash I would get a better image. I took his word for it and these are the results--much better than the ones I deleted because they were taken with a flash. Off in the distance on the other side, we could see more orange glows. It looked as if a fire had died down and just the embers were left. On our hike back, that was our scenery and we kept stopping and saying "so cool." I couldn't believe that I had experienced something so absolutely amazing. This experience goes beyond words and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits the big island. It is just incredible. For more pictures (that I tried to download but couldn't) Google "Hawaii volcano" and check out the images. They will take your breath away. More pictures to come.

Funny

Not much to say. 3 more days. It's funny that we're counting down to Saturday because we don't actually go to Hawaii until Tuesday. But our vacation officially starts on Saturday. Yahoo!

Our Living Room looks like it's being attacked. There is stuff everywhere...mostly my stuff since I have nothing else to do all day except lay out things to be packed for Hawaii. Saturday needs to come faster. Oh man!! I can't stand it any longer. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to be patient. It's always exciting to pack; not as exciting to unpack. But we won't think about the latter part at the moment.

Funny story: We were at Ken and Lynne's (Kory's parents) Sunday night. Jase was there and playing around like running and jumping, etc. He had been told not to jump, especially not off the stairs, which he enjoys thoroughly. So, a little bit later, he jumps off the stairs and gets a spank for it. Then way later, he's on the stairs again and the look on his face is just screaming "jump, jump, I must jump." The four of us watching him warned him not to jump. Then one of us asked: "Jase what happens if you jump?" He says "I get a spank."
Us: "Do you want a spank?"
Jase: "no"
Us: "So what will happen if you jump?"
Jase (contemplative): "I spank myself." He promptly starts wacking himself with an angry face. It was so funny!!! We were rolling with laughter. He just kept wacking his bottom and then did it so hard once that he just stopped and looked at Kali as if to say: "Ow, that hurt. Do I need to cry?" It was hilarious! That was a moment when I truly wished I had my camera handy because I would have taken a video. Oh man that kid kills us!

The decor

So I changed my blog decor in honor of mine and Kory's trip to the Big Island Hawaii in two weeks. We are SO excited for a few reasons:
1) It's Hawaii!! Need we any more reasons?
2) Family Reunions which means A LOT of people in one place for two weeks.
3) Kory's whole immediate family is going--probably the last family trip together for a VERY LONG TIME
4) Jase's first time in Hawaii (he pronounces it Ha-why)
5) Bang-Bang (it's a game)
6) Food, food, food.
7) Short side-trek to Honolulu between the two reunions
8) Folks, it's not Provo. That's all I need to say.

Pretty much, the days can't go by fast enough. We totally can't wait. Plus, it will be my first time at a family reunion of this grandeur and my first time on the big island. How exciting! I'll try to take as many pictures as possible.

Kory and I had what I would call a fun and interesting conversation last night before drifting off to sleep. Somehow we got onto the topic of baby names. We've talked about them before and I know that Kory wants one of his children (preferably a son) to have his middle name: Kaheaokalani. I've always been okay with that, but then my thought process turns to family names from my side. Comparatively, they are not very exciting but hey, we can't all have oober cool names, can we? My grandpa's name was John Ellis Passmore. My mom wants us girls to try to utilize his name somehow when naming our boys. I'm not a fan of John (maybe, possible, not likely a middle name) but I would probably use Ellis as a middle name. Here arises the dilemma: If we name one child with a Hawaiian middle name, the other children are not going to be happy that they didn't get a Hawaiian middle name. So, the next problem and what our conversation consisted of last night. I'm not keen on my children having two middle names, but Kory thinks it's okay. With our last name and a hawaiian middle name, I don't think giving our children yet another middle name is necessary or nice. Can you imagine? Little Jacob Ellis Kaheaokalani Sekaquaptewa (or Jacob Kaheaokalani Ellis Sekaquaptewa) trying to write his whole name in First grade? Of course, I'm sure that our children will be proud of their names, just as Kory is, but still I think it's slight overkill. Kory seemed to be very set on the idea of two middle names. Our nephew is Jase Kawika Sekaquaptewa Perkins, slightly shorter but still with two middle names. I just haven't decided completely how I feel about it yet. What do you think?

Massage Envy

I got a massage today. It was HEAVENLY!!! I only wish it wasn't so expensive because I would go back once a month, like my massage therapist recommended today. *sigh*

So I called to make the appointment yesterday and the girl asks if I have a preference on gender for the therapist. I took a risk and said I didn't care, thinking I would probably get a girl. When she got my info and finalized the appointment, she said: "Okay, tomorrow at 2:30 with Ben." I hung up then got a little nervous. I have had a professional massage once in my life and it was a girl who did it. Let's just say I was apprehensive about my appointment today. So I get there and a few minutes later, this cute twenty-something, red-haired guy walks out and meets me. He's got personality to boot and I immediately like him. He was very professional and not once did I feel even remotely uncomfortable with him doing my massage. We chatted like old friends with a few "ooh, you're really tight" lines thrown in there. I was slightly scared that he was very much enjoying finding problem spots in my neck, but other than that he was fantastic!! Even better, he knows my principal. She and his mom are like best friends! YEAH! WEIRD, but cool. So, I would highly recommend this place even though much time may pass before I visit there again. They are very expensive and I think $50 a month is just something we can't afford to add to our expenses, but boy it would be nice.

Question

Please answer truthfully:

In recent circumstances I have come to the conclusion that some things in life need to change. In order for me to continue moving forward, as my blog title states, I need your suggestions and HONEST answers, please.

Have I ever made you feel like I am better than you? If so, what was the situation? If not, lplease give suggestions for helping me get over this icky awful feeling that I make every person feel like I'm better than them.

Thank you! I look forward to your suggestions and input.

Reflecting

So the past many days have been crazy and my goal to actually write about the talks I've been reading from Conference has gone astray. In fact my goal to read 1 talk every night has been neglected for about 3-4 nights now. UGH!

I have, however, done a lot of thinking...especially today. I met with Diane, my principal and I thank my stars every day that I am not a principal. She has a tough job! Many of you may know that this year was a pretty tough one for me. It was due to a mixture of a whole heck of a lot of stuff, some of that being my decision-making skills. In other words, this year completely SUCKED! Sorry, but it did. In my meeting with Diane I told her straight out that I felt this year that I could not do anything right and I truly mean that. In my heart, I felt that if I did something good it would go unnoticed (especially by parents) and that anything I did (including give time-outs for misbehavior) would make the parents hate me even more and that Diane would hear about it thus turning into another lecture about how to improve my classroom management skills. Diane has always been kind and tactful and loving during those lectures, but honestly, it makes me feel like junk. Thus the point of feeling like I cannot do anything right!

Some of the things that Diane told me today were true and I could see why she was making suggestions for improvement in those areas, but it still hurts. I've just been thinking about some changes to make this next year. It's hard to deal with these things and Kory told me not to write about them since it just makes me more mad. So, I won't! Sorry. I hope I haven't offended anyone, ever, with my attitude or the way I present myself. If I have, I'm sorry.

Goal-Day 3 (sorry, I skipped day 2)

I often reflect on several different encounters I had with the parents of one of my students. On one occasion, the father had come to my classroom before school started for the day and in a nutshell wanted to know why I was putting his son in time-out so much (according to the student). I very calmly explained to him that in my classroom we are always talking about and practicing our rules and one of those rules is showing respect to others. I told him that if I saw people not showing respect they would be in time-out. His next line completely floored me: "I don't send my kid to school to learn respect." Now, Diane says that he probably didn't mean it as literally as I took it, but she also wasn't there to hear his tone of voice and she didn't know the whole context of the story.

The talk by Sister Margaret S. Lifferth from the Primary General Presidency brought me back to this very situation (and others) with this angry father. Her talked was focused on respect and reverence. One thing that stood out to me is her "appeal...to parents, teachers, and leaders to work together to teach, exemplify, and encourage the standards of respect and reverence that will strengthen our youth...." Even though her appeal was more focused toward a church worship setting, it has definitely validated my teaching of respect for others in a school setting. Other instances where this father treated me, Diane, and others very badly made me sad that his son wasn't learning from his father's example.

Something else I really enjoyed was how she stated that "reverent behavior is not a natural tendency for most children." Agreed. They have to learn it and sometimes it takes a VERY LONG TIME! "But it takes time, patience, and consistency. Remember that we are not only teaching a child his first lessons in reverence, but the child may be mastering his first attempts at self-discipline." I definitely said amen when Sister Lifferth finished her talk.

Ideas for teaching and exemplifying reverence: 1) "Love those in your class. Often the child who is the most disruptive needs your love the most." 2) "Take the time to explain what reverence is and why it is important." This is something that we are working on in our ward Primary. I missed a training meeting a few weeks ago that talked about reverence. It's just like the song: "Reverence is more than just quietly sitting; it's thinking of Father above." Instead of saying "Johnny you are sitting so reverently" we say "Johnny I love how you are sitting so still and listening." We do this because the quiet sitter might not be "thinking of Father above." Their mind might be elsewhere. So, during music time (hi, that's me!) and sharing time we try to show and explain that reverence is feeling the Spirit of the Lord and thinking about Jesus. I don't know if it's working, but as Sister Lifferth said, it takes "time, patience, and consistency." Maybe one day we will be blessed to see the effects of our teaching respect and reverence in our Primary (and our schools). I hope that I can be an example of respect for God and others so that my children may learn to do the same thing and learn what reverence really is.

Goal-Day 1

So as I mentioned in my previous blog entry, Kory and I have recently started weekly goals. After much thought and wracking my brain for an idea of a second goal I could have for the week, I finally (I'm almost ashamed to say because it took me so long) came up with the idea of reading 1 General Conference talk each day. As I was pondering the talk I just read a few minutes ago, I decided maybe blogging about some of the talks I read will be good for retention purposes!

Tonight's winner was a talk entitled "Finding Strength in Challenging Times!" by Elder Allan F. Packer. His talk was mainly about having the capacity to receive personal revelation in our troubled times and strengthening our testimonies through knowing certain gospel truths. One par that got me thinking was when he quoted Doctrine and Covenants 9:8 "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right." The thought crossed my mind at this point that this is what I encourage my students to do: Think about choices they are making or what they are writing in their journals or if the answer they have chosen makes sense with the test question. Now, they can't always ask me if it's right (like on the test) but they can ask for clarification and I guide and help them. I, too, apply this to myself when I think about certain things I want to do with my class or need to say to a parent of a struggling child and then I generally seek advice before taking the idea to the next level.

One other thing that enlightened my mind was when Elder Packer was speaking of noticing little "intimations" of the Spirit like a flow of pure intelligence that brings about "sudden strokes of ideas." I can't number how many times I have sat at my desk at school and thought about things that I would really like to change in my classroom, whether it be a routine or how my kids complete their Centers, etc. and ideas will just pop into my head as something I should at least try to see if I like it. The only regret from these experiences is that I have not written down everything that has been revealed to me. I have been able to recognize those experiences as receiving personal revelation and I am always thankful for those small moments when I can have "me and the Spirit" time to help me become a better teacher and even a better wife and family member.

I know I'm going to greatly enjoy having this goal for the week. More to come, I hope!

Resurrection

No, I'm not dead. Still surviving and the prognosis for making it to the end of this school year looks promising. I only have 3 more real days of school left, then Friday is our field day and I say adios to my little munchkins and breathe a sigh of relief. Who knows how "real" those other 3 days will be. our schedule next week is packed full of assemblies, faculty vs. staff kickball game, and yes, a party in room 106! Join us if you like!

School has been just crazy and I think I'm looking forward to the end more than anybody else in the school. I am so ready to be done. Everyone pray that this next week will FLY!

Nothing much else is happening. Kory and I have started making weekly goals. Some weeks we have been better than other weeks at fulfilling our goals, but it helps us keep things in perspective. The last few weeks have been so busy we have just kept our same goals. We write them on an index card and stick them on the bathroom mirror. I must say this time around Kory and I have both been better at completing our physical goals than our educational/school goals. Getting grad school stuff going has been like pulling teeth and I think it will still continue that way for Kory. My excuse for not studying every day for the PRAXIS is quite lame and somewhat valid. I need professional development books to study so that when I do the practice exams I'm not just pulling random ideas from my head. Finding those books has been harder than anticipated. Hmmm.....I take the test in 3 weeks. We'll see what happens.

Fun story

This new background is a lot of orange. Not sure if I like it but we'll give it a shot.

Spring once again has teased us here in Utah. The whole week it was absolutely GORGEOUS weather--like mid to high 70's and even up to 80 degrees on a couple of days. Today, it's raining a whole heck of a lot and Kory said it was snowing a little bit. UGH! I am so sick of this.

A while ago, my mom showed me how to make baby blankets from two pieces of fabric and some thread. I've been addicted ever since, though the blankets, if you look really close, are not perfect by any means. But, I thought I would show off a little of my so-called "talent" (hah!) and post picture of my two favorite projects, which both happened to be constructed in the last 2-3 weeks.
Without further ado:


This pink flowery one I made for a dear friend from my last single's ward before I got married. If you look how at the picture of it folded, you can see that it's slightly uneven. I tried my darndest to make it straight. Just didn't happen!

The one with the lions I just finished on Thursday night for a baby shower at school on Friday. One of the third grade teachers and her husband have been trying to have a baby for 10+ years. She couldn't get pregnant, and I guess the adoption process wasn't working out either. About a month ago, she sent us an email saying she was getting a baby and that the adoption was pretty much guaranteed. We were soooooo thrilled for her; in fact, I get goose bumps and chills just typing this story. I'm sure the whole school prayed and prayed that the adoption would be finalized when the birth mom had the baby. At that time, we didn't know the sex of the baby because he wouldn't cooperate during the ultrasound! Little twerp! Anyway, at the beginning of this month, Laurie was in the workroom and as I put pieces together from different conversations that were going on between her and other people, I realized that she was getting her baby about 3 weeks sooner than expected. The birth mom had called her I believe the night before and told her that the doctor was inducing her in the morning because her blood pressure was so high. So, frantic Laurie was trying to finalize last minute substitute plans and pull herself together so she and her husband could go to Idaho and meet their first son. We were all ecstatic for Laurie and couldn't wait to see the little guy. Finally, we got info and pictures. Laurie was a mommy to baby Jonathan-5lbs. even and 18 inches, I think. He is so precious and I knew I had to make him something special. So, I did! Laurie says he is so good-natured. I got to hold him yesterday, then I had to give him back so everyone else could pass him around. He is just a teeny little thing, but growing, so that's good. The lion blanket is super special.

There is a good amount of snow on the ground this morning, but it is NOT snowing. There are scattered clouds and the sun keeps trying to peek out of the clouds. I'm hoping my lunch date with Rachael is still going to work out.

I stole this quote from a very good friens/former mission companion and thought I would put it on my blog as well. It's funny, but eerily true at the same time and could therefore cause depression in some people. Proceed to read with caution.

***NOTICE***

Due to the rising costs of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current economic conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.

I need to be rescued! It's a freaking snow storm outside and according to weather reports, its not supposed to let up until Friday. Yeah, today is Wednesday, the first day of my Spring Break. Boooooooooo!

Hmmm.....what else is there to say? Uh, nothing! Oh, but my students are getting so much better at behaving themselves and actually following directions. I am so very proud of them. Maybe the last 6 weeks of school will actually go by quickly. We can only hope, right?

Well, for some free entertainment, here is a video of Jase singing the BYU fight song. We were at a volleyball game in the ghetto Smith Fieldhouse. He just kind of started catching on and started clapping along with us so I had to get video of it. He doesn't sing, but it's still REALLY cute! Enjoy!

37 days of school left, and counting. The thing that makes me most crazy...we're still getting SNOW! For crying out loud, can it quit already? Oh wait, this is Utah. It could snow in June, because it has before! *sigh* Things at school are starting to feel like they're winding down. Talk of testing, testing, testing seems to be the main topic of conversation in meetings and casual passing. It almost makes me want to test all of my kids right now. They are SO smart and I'm anxious to see their test results.

Kory and I are officially scheduled for Hilo, Hawaii in July. As an early birthday present, Dad cashed in many of his miles for Kory and I to go to a family reunion on Lynne's side that just happens to be in Hawaii every 3 years. Each day, I am so thankful that I married into this in-law family of mine. Hawaii visits and potentially gorgeous kids--yeah, I'm pretty spoiled.

No other excitement going on around here. BYE!

We are readers!

Every January at my school we start this program called Jazz reading. We set a goal for how many minutes we want our whole school to read in one month, then we get going. K-2 has a goal of 180 minutes per week, and 3-6 I believe is 360 minutes per week. Our school goal was slight over 550,000 minutes read in one month. We reached our goal, plus some. I believe our final count was over 781,000 minutes! SWEET! We are such great readers. The top 12 schools participating in this program with the most minutes get to have a Utah Jazz basketball player come and visit. Even though we were way over our goal, we came in 10th place!!! Crazy. So, we got rookie Kosta Koufos-a Greek American. He's 7 ft. tall and told us that the next tallest person in his family is 5'10". WOW!! Anyway, here are some pictures and video from our fun day with Kosta.
Kosta making his entrance! You have to touch the Kindergartener's hands! Isn't that the rule?


One of my students, Hannah, reading with Kosta. She is a great reader and has actually done a commercial with another Jazz player, Carlos Boozer.

Another student of mine, Kayden. Also a great reader; hasn't done a commercial. :)


Kosta reading to us.



Then, all of the grade levels got their picture taken with the big guy! What a great day! After, we went back to our classrooms and each student and teacher got their own PINT of ice cream to eat. Yeah, let's just say my kids enjoyed that. Wouldn't you?

Oh, and the only married first grade teachers (Amy and I) found a cute Kyle Korver (another Jazz player whom everyone says looks like Ashton Kutcher) in the office and decided to flirt a bit!

not too exciting

Yes, I know blogging without pictures is lame and boring, but our internet at home doesn't work so I can't put the pictures on yet. Ironically, the district just cleared blogspot.com to go through the district filters so I am taking advantage, though I wish I had facebook.

Just want everyone to know I'm still alive, just suffering from temporary internet outage at home. See ya!

Since I have a day off, why not blog? I am feeling so much better, thanks to beloved amoxicillin. It will be nice to go to school not feeling like I just want to lay down on the floor and take a nap--or just die!

It's not even 11:00 and I've already cleaned the bathroom and "exercised." One of my many secret ambitions is to be a dancer. I just love dancing; it makes me so happy despite the fact that I know very little about dancing. Several ballroom dance classes, beginning modern dance, and beginning jazz dance by no means make me any kind of expert in the field of dance. Yet, I still adore it! And that was my "exercise" today. In our small living room, I danced my heart out for a good 20 minutes. I have this killer miscellaneous playlist on my iPod that I listen to whenever I get the chance and some of the music is absolutely fabulous for dancing. There's Kelly Clarkson (she's more for jamming than dancing), Melanie C (her song "If That Were Me" is amazing), Dr. IZ's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and more. Oh, you can't leave out Bon Jovi "You Wanna Make a Memory." Whew! I love that playlist and I love to just secretly dance. I wish I could take actual dance lessons and choreograph something for a performance. That would be so cool!!!!

It feels really good to be productive. I think I'll go be more productive. See ya!

Spoiled

So, the story about my CUTE boots...

I've been looking for some boots for a while and found some off brand of UGG boots at Payless. They're cute, but I held off wearing them because I had seen boots that I REALLY liked at Tradehome shoes in the mall. The problem was those boots were $130! Eh, I'll wait. So, I continued my search and even went back to Tradehome when they were having a sale. Sold out of the boots. Sad!! :( My search continued once again, still not wearing the boots I had found at Payless for $35. A couple weeks ago, Kory and I were in the mall. I decided while he looked in his store I would go two doors down and look in Forever Young Shoes. They have great prices on shoes. They had boots! I saw the pair in the picture and they were $38. THEN, I heard one of the sales associates tell someone "The boots are on sale, buy one pair get another pair of boots free." Doth my ears deceive me? Did I hear that correctly? I looked at the sign on the wall by the boots and it said "Buy one pair of boots, get another pair free!" Oooooh, sweet! Kory came in then and I showed him the deal. He pretty much MADE me buy two pairs of boots. My only problem with that was choosing the colors! Obviously I ended up with the tan pair, and after about 10 minutes of debating, I chose the same boots in black. They had other styles of boots, but I didn't like any of the other ones. Yeah, two super cute (and warm, I must say) pairs of boots for $40. Can't beat that with a stick, as Kory would say!
Now, onto the flowers. Yesterday, I was sitting at my back table in my classroom with six of my students, giving them their weekly reading test, on the computer (yeah, that's an ordeal!). In walks Rachel, our amazingly wonderful school secretary, with a big green box marked Proflowers. "This came for you." Rachel is so great. She made me open it right then. "Not like you have anything better to do," she says jokingly. So, while my kids are super confused about how to submit their test, she helps them and I open my box. Can you guess what was inside? A dozen gorgeous tulips and a note from Kory. I was totally surprised!! He completely made my day. If any men read this, let me tell you, the element of surprise in the form of flowers at work is a sure win! Rachel took the flowers from me and arranged them in their vase while I finished getting my students squared away and other students started on their test. She was so happy to put my flowers in water for me; that's why I love Rachel. I was so happy the whole day. One of my students said: "Mrs. S., who are those flowers from?" "They're from my husband," I tell her. In a very matter-of-fact voice she said "I thought so." That's my Hannah!

Yeah, so pretty much I'm spoiled by my husband.

Good stuff!

It certainly has been a while since I blogged. Some of that is due to the fact that I've been sick with a nasty cold that turned into a sinus infection. Thankfully, I got antibiotics and am feeling better. I actually have started using Web MD and really like it. When my cold wasn't getting any better, I looked up my symptoms on Web MD an had about half of the symptoms of a sinus infection. But, I decided it would be best to at least visit the doctor, since I have had a sinus infection before and pneumonia when I was young. Plus, the other first grade teachers have been sick. Our whole section should just be under quarantine. It has taken Amy 3 weeks to get over whatever she had. She's guessing it was either bronchitis or walking pneumonia. Since we meet together so often as a first grade team, I figured seeing the doctor was probably a great idea. Getting my amoxicillian free wasn't too bad, either. Thanks SelectMed insurance!

I have implemented some of the suggestions from my previous blog and am slowly seeing a change. It's making life a little less stressful, but my kids get annoyed from practicing procedures so much. I remind them that if they follow directions exactly how I give them, they won't have to practice. Most of them get it, but some still think it's funny to not follow directions. Then they don't think it's funny to miss P.E. or recess to practice. Hee hee!! (That was my evil laugh!)

I would blog about my screaming deal I got on my new boots, but I want to post the picture I took, which is not yet uploaded onto my computer. So, that will be for another time.

suggestions

I certainly don't want to bore you with all of my mental notes I took today while talking to our Facilitator (a.k.a. "Vice-Prinicpal"), but I am completely grateful for her input, even if our meeting went almost too long. I made it out of her office in just enough time to bring Kory his Carl's Jr. birthday dinner, by request. He had Carl's mostly because we have two shows we LOVE to watch on Monday evenings: "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (yeah, yeah. No commentary, please) and "24".

So, just for my sake, I will make note of some of the things I can remember from my meeting with Le Ann. Read on, if you wish. Oh, just a little background: I have a really tough group of kids to manage every other week. Today they were completely INSANE! They could not calm down. So, since my day made me feel like garbage and inadequate, I sought help and wound up with Le Ann, who is absolutely amazing. Here are some of her suggestions for a happier, healthier classroom.

*Golden Arrows (golden-rod colored pieces of paper that are like GOLD to the students)
*set deadlines for earning rewards
*go through procedures until the kids get it right--even if it means practicing lining up the entire day. I WILL WIN THAT BATTLE!
*Give children the opportunity to work wherever they want to in the classroom. The kids don't necessarily have to have their feet flat on the floor or be sitting in their chairs. She used a great analogy for this one: When you read for pleasure, where do you read? At your desk, hunched over a book? My answer was on the couch or bed because that's what is comfortable for me. It's not comfortable to sit flat in a hard chair all day! I liked this idea.
*Playing 3/4 time music (classical) as the kids walk into the classroom. I've heard classical music flows with the same natural rhythm of the body so it's calming.

Other suggestions where student-specific but I was thoroughly enlightened by our whole conversation and feel much better. Good-night.

Check out the coolness!

On Saturday, Kory and I went to the SLC car expo in Sandy. There were some cool cars there!
This was an OLD Camaro. I don't remember what year, but it sure was sweet.



'69 Stang. Beautiful.


In the 'Vette...Corvette convertible. Kory LOVES Corvettes.

Apparently, this was my car before I was married. Hee hee. It's actually kind of UGLY! But hey, I'll take it for free.

This is the one I really want. If I purchase a new car, the Honda Fit would be close to the top of my list. Very economical and roomy, plus how can one resist the cuteness of the hatchback?


A Viper. Oooooooooooh!




This was called a Tomahawk. It don't know who created it, but it's pretty sweet.

Yeah, so that was the car show. Apparently Jase went earlier that day with his mom and dad. He told me tonight that there weren't any pink or purple cars. Sad!

It will be nice to have a "day off" tomorrow. I have to work because I didn't spend enough time on Friday preparing for this upcoming school week.

I have a new calling in the ward: Primary Song Leader. It's been kind of scary the past two weeks, but today one of the Primary teachers told me that singing time has greatly improved since I've been there. Apparently they've had a hard time keeping a Primary chorister. I was very touched and grateful that Heavenly Father gave me an answer to my prayers about being so scared about my calling. He really does hear our prayers.