ah to reminisce...

Spent part of the evening tonight chatting with my little sister, who is actually getting much bigger now (she's 14!). We randomly got to talking about our childhoods and all the funny stories we could remember. This is what we got:

how we first pronounced "grandma"--
Austin: gamma
Coy: gamby
Emily: gumpy
Nellie-Kate: dumpy
Mckenzie: gumby

Notice how it evolves each time from what the older one said... be careful when you listen to your siblings! :)

As you could probably guess, Nellie-Kate was always the sassy one... had a way of making everyone feel SO great about themselves :) You can imagine how grandma felt when the 3-year-old marched up at a family gathering and demanded in the snootiest voice a three-year-old can muster, "Dumpy! Get me chips." And if you could have seen the way she walked... she was always on a mission, everywhere she went. Swinging her arms and stomping her feet like no one had better get in her way or she would walk right over the top of them.

first words--
Austin: HOT! (said while pretending like i was going to touch a burner then quickly pulling back my hand)
Emily: hiding (they sang a song at her preschool about hiding... she would sway back and forth on the rug and say "hiding, hiding" :))
Mckenzie: Hi! (she greeted everyone she met multiple times... we figured she was headed towards being pretty friendly :))

Randomness runs in the family. Just about anything can be turned into a joke. Makes for a lively household (most of the time anyway), and a pretty healthy sense of humor! And yes, that pipe is made from tootsie rolls.Some of us hated hair brushing and showers,

and all of us ran around barefoot all the time, everywhere. Sometimes we would wear our socks out, but our dad's rule was either "go without socks or put your shoes on"... so we aimed for that. Unless of course dad wasn't around :) What was even better was when we could wear our swimsuits all day long. We played baseball, or kick the can, or hide and seek in the cul-de-sac on warm summer nights with the neighbor kids while all of our parents watched from front porches. We slept on our trampoline. Eventually we'd all turn into brown children from being in the sun so much. Mckenzie is the best example of this:

And even though we often fought (biggest rivalries: Coy & Austin vs. Nellie-Kate, and Nellie-Kate vs. Mckenzie. Although there was that time when Emily tried to tip Kate out of her cradle when she was first born... jealousy gets the better of all of us at some point :)), we always stuck together through all the hard stuff. Coy baptizing Mckenzie was just one of the highlights!
Sometimes when I'm away from them for so long, I forget. But those four kids were involved in most of my choice memories from childhood, and what can I say... I just LOVE us!!!

self-fulfilled prophecy

hahaha... so i was just reading back on a post from last week, and i said steep downward plunge by wednesday right?

Turns out wednesday was the night that a gigantic white-out storm decided to hit the entire wasatch front (provo/salt lake, and further north and south of those). I left earlier than normal because the snow was coming down and blowing around pretty well, and i was advised by friends to head out. So i did. And thank goodness because even leaving when i did, the drive from my school back to my abode in provo that usually takes approx. 45 minutes ended up taking me 2 HOURS and 15 minutes. Yes, you read that right. As in 135 minutes. OH and i forgot to mention what had happened earlier that day...

On my way to school, a cop decided to pull me over for speeding. While i sat waiting in my car for the glorious news mr. policeman was going to bring (about 100 ft. from the school's parking lot, mind you) one of my students and his parents pulled up to drop him off. he proceeded to get out of the car, walk a few steps towards the school and then stop and stare directly at me in my car, while the cop and his ever-so-obnoxious lights flashed like there was some REAL emergency going on the ENTIRE time we sat there (really, why do they do that? some sort of expression of their dominance over this pitiful crime committer they have just captured? gosh that ticks me off. EVERYONE LOOK THIS PERSON MADE A MISTAKE!!!!!). After the whole ordeal was over, i pulled into the parking lot, got out of my car, and the first thing my adorable little fourth grader does is scream across the playground and parking lot, "YOU just barely got a TICKET!!!" No really? ugh. And this was just the beginning.

Later that day i received the fabulous news that a new student would be transferring to my class from a different fourth grade class (the second this year, not to mention the other two new students I have gotten). Which isn't a bad thing, but it does give rise to a significantly higher amount of work (putting together tote tray materials, sending home syllabi, getting papers back signed, acclimating them to a new classroom, re-teaching procedures/routines, etc.)

And not to be too explicit for any males that may be reading this, but to top it all off, my lower back was aching bad and i had cramps all day. Funny how these things time themselves.

But don't worry, this story does have a happy ending. After I got home, I went to the gym and ran my little heart out, at which point the endorphins kicked in and life was great again. AND on my way to school the next day i discovered that our school district had been graced with a two hour delay. BEST NEWS OF MY LIFE. or maybe just that day. but still :).

And this is going to be random and completely contradictory to the main idea of this post, but this is how i'm really feeling tonight. SOME DAYS I JUST FEEL GREAT, and LOVE LIFE, and all the AMAZING PEOPLE THAT LOVE ME, and that I LOVE BACK. This just happens to be one of those days ;).

saturday is a LOVELY day

One of my most favorite things in the world is waking up without ANY obligations, and knowing I can choose to get out of bed, or stay in bed at my leisure. This particular morning I woke up a little before nine, rather pleased with myself that I woke up naturally around the time that I prefer to wake up, and then promptly decided that i didn't feel like getting up yet, and fell back to sleep. Freedom is a wonderful thing.

Sometimes I feel like a rebel. In my head at least.

Like when my desire to do something one way ceases because I find out someone, who has some sort of charge over me, WANTS me to do it that way.

Anyway, back to my Saturday. I ate delicious cereal for breakfast. Probably two bowls actually. Man food tastes so much better when you're really hungry for it. Then I proceeded to spend the next three hours planning for next week. Water cycle, QAR (question, answer, response) for guided reading, multiplication review, V-day party, a parent coming to teach dutch, ABC books, respect lessons. blah blah blah. Actually, i'm not feeling half bad about teaching at this moment, but I am preparing myself for a steep downward plunge by Wednesday at the very latest. As far as I can tell, they can't be good for even two consecutive days. But who knows, things could look up.

So after my planning extravaganza I took a shower, and went over to eat an amazing vegan lunch at Caitlin's apartment. Spent a couple hours discussing social issues and our future lives.

You know what? My life is boring. I'm going to put this out of it's misery, and stop describing my day to you in such excruciating detail. Next time, I'll be sure to make something up.

If I had a penny for every time I got distracted, I would be a rich, rich woman.

hello people...

just a note: i am slightly discouraged by the lack of comments i receive on my posts! Why is this? 1) I don't post often enough? 2) My posts are not of the commentable nature? 3) You are nervous because no one else commented and you don't want to be the one to break the silence?

seriously, major bonus points if you JUST DO IT!

thanks guys.

Time to shine

"Mom, it's your time to shine!" ~Mckenzie
"I HAVE PNEUMONIA!" ~Mom

Also, when I first got back, Katie told me a very entertaining story about Emily. I guess one day, Emily thought she heard Katie coming, and decided she would hide under Katie's bed and surprise her. So she got under the bed (Katie has wooden sort of skirting around the bottom of her bed, so in order to get under the bed, she had to crawl through a little cupboard door) and waited for Katie to come. Turns out, Katie wasn't coming up the stairs at the time, but she waited awhile, and eventually started yelling for help... "KATIE!!!!!!!!"

Katie, thought she needed some toilet paper, which was strange because she remembered just replacing the roll in that bathroom, but she was doing the dishes, so she asked Kenzie to go and check on her and see what was up. Mckenzie went upstairs and looked in all the rooms and bathrooms and couldn't find her, when she heard her voice coming from Katie's room. So she checked the closets, etc. in Katie's room without any luck, when she found a little note on the floor, on which was written, "HELP WANTED UNDER THE BED. EMILY" hahahaha...

Anyway, they went upstairs and yanked her out from under the bed, after undoing the barricade that she had put up in front of the cupboard door. She explained how she was waiting for Katie and was going to surprise her, and Katie just said, "I don't think I would've looked there for awhile..."

Seriously, my family is soooooo goofy. It's great.

it's that time again!

So I've made this goal to blog more, one because it's healthy and feels good to let out my ideas, etc. and two because i'm more likely to blog than write in my journal (mostly because i'm faster at typing than handwriting) and i need to be recording my life. You know, for that book i'm going to write someday.

I'm not usually much for new year's resolutions, simply because of the stereotype they carry with them of making all of these wonderful goals and then two weeks into the new year losing all motivation and failing to follow through on any of them. When I hear the words "new year's resolution" i get instant running video of going running at the gym and then getting sick of running at the gym so much and going for doughnuts instead. BUT... this year I did make some because we had a lesson on making goals at church last sunday, and it seemed like a good idea. I've kind of been absorbed in school and fourth graders and am slowly slipping further and further from attending to other parts of my life. So here they are:

1. Go to FHE. I was a diligent FHE go-er for most of my freshman year, but slowly lost interest because, "i have a lot of homework, and hey, these people aren't my family!" Hence, I haven't been in mmm... we'll just say quite awhile. But I need to get back into going to extra church activities if for nothing else, just to keep myself meeting people. It's not like I have a lot of chances to meet potential hang-out buddies amongst my 24 fourth graders parents. FHE seems like a good place to start.

2. Keep a writing utensil in my hand when reading my scriptures. This has been a goal of mine for some time... but I'm usually just lazy. In fact, usually when I pull my scriptures off the shelf I think, "do it... go get a pen and paper", but then i think about how it will take me a minute or two to find the pen and paper, which time I could be using to read and therefore finish reading sooner and turn off that darn light. And then I think about how if I DO get a pen and paper I'll probably end up thinking of something to write, and then who KNOWS how long it will be till I can get my mind to stop and shut down for the night. Kind of like when you give a mouse a cookie. So being the intelligent manipulator that I am, I usually just go with the "I can't find a pen and paper right now" approach, and then when I inevitably think of something that I should write down while I'm reading... dang. i don't have a pen. The goal is to conquer all of this, and do what i should do. But I must say, if I had done that in the first place, I wouldn't have near as funny a story to tell.

3. Cook! I used to love cooking, but I don't know that I have actually made a meal from a recipe even once since I've been at school. NOT EVEN ONCE! This goal includes choosing some things from a cookbook that I would like to eat, adding any ingredients I am lacking to my grocery list and buying them, and then making the meal from the recipe. I'm pretty excited about this one, because as long as I can make myself do it, it means that I will be eating actual warm, satisfying, healthy food for dinner! And it won't even be from a box!

4. Be on time! I've developed this horrible habit of being late to most things that it is not required that I be on time to... i think possibly it stems from the fact that i try to be very efficient and not waste any time (which is funny because facebook is one of my favorite pasttimes...), and so I don't leave early because then I'll get there early and just sit there... wasting time. BUT i need to get over that mindset and realize that being on time is a necessary courtesy.

5. Put more thought into my lesson plans. My students just... need that. They have a hard time as it is... let alone when i don't plan well enough.

More to come...

dreams

So, last night I had a dream that I was voted emporer. I don't remember the entire background... unfortunately. Randomness must run in the family.

me and quotes

So i'm such a quote person... i don't know what my problem is, but I seriously love other people's quotes! My favorites are usually from my sisters... lately anyway, since i never see much of my roommates (because seriously, those usually beat all :)). I put a couple on my facebook, and i got rid of a couple others, but i shouldn't have because I realized that I COULD HAVE PUT THEM ON HERE!!! argh. Anyway, here are a couple of the latest funnies:

"You're my favorite mom. Except for dad."
~Emily

Kate saw Emily walking around the kitchen on a couple of different occasions with her big pink overnight bag. This wasn't a usual occurence, so she asked, "watcha doin' with your bag em?"
And then here's the kicker... Emily replied, "oh nothing. just my bag... (and then she cast her eyes down, ashamedly) actually... i used it to sneak buns up to my room."
Katie opened the bag and looked inside, and therein lie a single hamburger bun, which had slid over the side.

Another time, we wrapped our corgi Malcolm up in a blanket so we could take him with us in the car to grandma's house. Katie was holding him, and suddenly she broke out in... well, this:

"and there lie before me, a shivering babe, wrapped in swaddling cloth.

"what big teeth you have shivering babe...
"what pointy ears...
"what a snouty nose
"what a chubby butt...
"and what a donkey-like stomach..."
Yes, she is that random. all the time.

Finally, Katie went snowboarding for the first time on the Sunday before Christmas, and as soon as she walked in the door proceeded to relay to us a very detailed version of the happenings of her trip. To Katie pretty much everything can be turned into a joke, and so her stories are usually pretty entertaining. The quote below was something similar to a punch line for one of the stories she was telling. Following her first successful attempt to get on the lift, they were riding along, and at this point i sort of tuned out until:

"And that's when.... I fell off the lift."

It was like in the movies when that screeching record sound plays and everyone freezes and looks over at the person speaking... and then we all cracked up because, WHO DOES THAT???

Autumn

I have never been one to be very excited about fall. I have always been very much a summer girl at heart, wishing for summer to continue past it’s time, and hoping that fall will wait in the wings just a little bit longer. And I of course expected my feelings to be the same this year. But this year as fall came around, there was something about it… this wonderful smell that reminds me that Halloween and Thanksgiving, and the wonderful Christmas season are coming. It’s almost like with every sunrise, sunset, turning leaf, and breeze that blows, someone is whispering in my ear… “and always, life continues…” we just keep rolling on, always. There is something rather whimsical about it. Makes me want to huddle in a corner with a hot chocolate, a huge beanbag, and a thousand blankets, just the same as it makes me want to put on mittens, and my big black wool jacket, and a fluffy scarf, and go running through a pumpkin field, or build a snowman and have a snowball fight… and now I feel cheesy, but I mean these things in the least cheesy way possible ☺. I just really like to experience real life, in a real way.

From the mouths of Fourth Graders:

Responding to a prompt regarding the national flower, a rose.

"Because it is like everyone's favorite flower and my moms and my aunts favorite flower too and they smell good and I like it too.

And like mostly everyones mom likes them so thats why they picked it."

"I could not pick a different flower because it is my mom's favorite flower and color. I think it was a good choice for the country because the state bird won't eat it."

Answering the test question: What kind of evidence has been found that people lived here so long ago?

"Plimith Rock."

girlys

So we go pick our girls up at 5pm from practice everyday, count them, and start walking. The great part: they follow me like little ducklings wherever I walk :) Love 'em.

campin, campin, campin

I have been having the time of my life being a sports and dance camps counselor! I mean sure anyone could guess that it's a good job, but I don't think I realized how much I would love it! We meet so many kids, and get to know all the other counselors, plus, we get to do fun stuff everyday with them. You name it we get to do it... ice cream party, pool party, talent show, all sorts of dances, seven peaks, watch movies, temple square, etc... and I'm getting paid for all of it!

My girls have just been so awesome... in fact my roommate (another counselor) and I have stayed up many a night after the girls have gone to bed just chatting about how we are so impressed with them.

I think I'm going to start keeping a list of little things that I love about being a counselor:

being trusted with the responsibility of 12-17 pre-teen or teenage girls
little homesick girl waking me up at 6am for a pep talk
planning and scheming on what we can do to help and make things better for our girls
the fact that they will come find us, wherever we are, if they need something (see quotes)
Anytime something exciting or scary or interesting happens, they run to come and tell me first
Being a leader
they love my attention and live to impress me... so cute :)
they seek me for help if they are sick or need something and trust my guidance

i think it's just being here, and enjoying the entire experience. Belonging here. Being on the same level with all the other counselors, and understanding their plight, yet also understanding the girls, and being able to help them through their teenage crises... celebrating the successes and learning from the mistakes together. Couldn't get much better than this :).

Cohort Awards

At the end of winter semester our cohort decided to do cohort awards. We passed a list around, took down ideas for awards, and then had everyone nominate a member of our cohort for each award. Since me and the rest of Eureka headed up the party, we were in charge of the awards, and so we not only got to know which category we won, but also everything everyone nominated us for. Here's my list:

Most likely to start a business (this was my winner)
Most likely to compete in the olympics
Most likely to be seen on the red carpet
Most likely to get a PhD
Most likely to participate in a human-tested science experiment
Most likely to live in a tree
Most likely to be a millionaire
Most likely to make it into the White House

I was amused! But these are all things that I would want people to think of me... so I guess I'm giving the right impressions of myself :)

teenage insights

So I was reading through my journal the other day, and I came across a couple of funny entries. Thought y'all might enjoy them :)

July 2005

"Things don’t always happen like they do in the movies. In fact, I have rarely seen it happen when one side will act in accordance to some scene in a movie, and the other side cooperates. As a child, I would often relate life experiences to scenes from movies or books, and things never worked out the way they did in the movies. Usually I did this in an effort to help someone, because to me it appeared they needed some kind of help. I always got some kind of an “oh you’re so cute” kind of reaction, and then a “but you’ve got it all wrong” or something like that. In fact, this still happens to me today. I have yet to determine if these people are in denial, or if I really do have it all wrong most of the time."

August 2006

"This life is funny. As in strange and different and unique and odd and all the other words that mean that type of thing. But somehow it all ends up tying itself all up together in the end. It’s funny how things that aren’t real can shake you up so much and inspire you and make you think. Make you think about everything that is real. We can’t get out of the real. As if there isn’t enough stimulation in this world… we have to create our own to make us dig deeper. But the tricky part there is that these make-believe stories were sparked from something real that happened in someones life. The real caused them to think of the things that aren’t real. Fantasize. Things happen and they wish they could change it or they wish they could make it better, and in the real they can’t. But if they pretend, they can. So they do just to put their minds at ease. Why do you think Disney re-did Pocahontas? Someone was torn up by the ending and wanted to make it better and resolve it in their mind. Same thing with Little Mermaid, and all the other stories that have sad endings. But the thing is that the sad endings, and the reality, is ultimately what makes us think anyway. Maybe that’s why people like happy endings. Because it doesn’t require any thought on their part. The movie draws the conclusion out for you all nice and tied up with a pretty bow, and you don’t have to do anything. But when the story ends in a way that you aren’t expecting, or don’t really want, you are forced to face reality and think and resolve. But that’s what real is like, and we watch movies to get away from real. Our mind wants a vacation from solving problems and tying bows. But the other part is that when we are removed from the situation and watching it—say, in a movie—our mind can think much more clearly and pinpoint foundational problems, and learn from them. So watch a sad movie if you want stimulation and intrigue, and watch a happy ending movie if you want a vacation. "

Education from the educated

I've been thinking lately about how I love getting more and more educated all the time. I have a completely insane schedule right now, and at times I do get overwhelmed, but I can't get over the fact that we have all sorts of important people coming in all the time to inform us regarding how to reach our students. I mean we've had the Assistant Attorney General of Utah Steve Mikita, all sorts of people from the State office of education, plus almost all of our teachers are very very educated, and instead of finding research off the internet to discuss with us, they use their own research that they have done. Then they'll quote their own books to us... books that have been best sellers. Their names may not be particularly well-known, but I can tell by listening to them that they have experienced so many things in their lifetimes, and not only that, but have taken their experiences and translated them into knowledge, that they can now pass along to us.

Our liaisons, CFA's and facilitators have been teaching years upon years upon years, and they give us their cell and home phone numbers, email addresses, and encourage us to call them if we ever have a question of any kind. They are really people I respect because they have battled through all of the hard times (and believe me, there are plenty in teaching), yet they maintain their professionalism, and have a pretty good knowledge of how to deal with almost any situation that could come up. For those of you who would argue, you'd be surprised at the amount of balance needed in becoming an elementary teacher. It's one of the reasons I love my major. We learn about all the different subject areas (language arts, literacy, math, science, social studies, geography, health/nutrition, art, etc.). We study human developmental levels and psychology. We learn about how to teach, which is a lot more complicated than one would think (management, planning, how to write lesson plans, assessment and how it drives instruction, etc.). We learn the importance of professionalism. PR (public relations) is a very integral part--in dealing with the students themselves, their parents, co-workers, etc. And finally (although there is never really a final thing to learn in teaching) we begin learning how to implement accommodations and adapt our lessons so that we give each student equal access to the material we are teaching. Now, try to apply all of the aforementioned skills to a classroom of 25-30 children who all grew up with completely different backgrounds and have completely different needs. Not an easy task.

It's hard for me to believe that I've reached the point in my education where I can sit at the feet of these people that have sooooooo much experience, and so much knowledge, and whom I greatly respect (for the most part), and most of all that they are willing to open their lives to us, and allow us to contact them at their homes, and ask them questions about the math lesson we are teaching tomorrow, or the kid in guided reading group 3 that can't seem to grasp the concept of context clues. I sat on the phone with my math professor for an hour one evening discussing techniques on teaching kids what is happening with the numbers when you multiply a double digit number by a single digit number. She has been doing mathematical research on elementary school kids for years, and will be writing a book soon. Our Counseling Psychology Special Education professor has worked closely with a lot of big names in psychology and special education for years, has written books, and really has a passion for what she does. It is a similar deal with my literacy professor. Every time I think about the opportunities I am experiencing, I am seriously so amazed.

Bottom line: Teaching is a great profession, and it focuses me even more on what's important in life. And if you've never been a teacher yourself, you will probably never understand.