Christmas Fun!

Wow, what a Christmas! It came and went just like that, but it was great! It started off with a Christmas party on the last day of school with my class. Boy they spoiled me with all kinds of presents (enough candy and lotion to last me a whole year or more!). Then my parents and me opening presents on Christmas morning. I got SPOILED by Santa as well! He gave me gorgeous black boots for work and church, Wii Fit and Wii MarioKart, and a beautiful necklace to match a pair of earrings I got a while back. Then I got a GREAT picture of Christ from my friend Sally and a cute necklace as well.

Then it was off to Scott and Kim's to see what the kiddos got and for the best surprises of all! :) Little did my mom know that hiding there was the 4-wheeler with a snow plow for her...boy was she surprised! Also, my dad dropped the bombshell on us kids by telling us that he was going to be the Bishop of a new ward they created in our home ward. Wow...you think I would be suspecting it with all of the crazy calls at our house and people stopping by...but my parents hid this secret from us for 3 whole weeks! He was sustained this past Sunday and will be starting the ward from scratch this next Sunday. I know he will do awesome, because he is such a great example to me! I think my parents will miss the singles ward though. My dad was in the Bishopric of the ward I go to and a lot of the YSA's were crying about them leaving! I never really knew how much influence they had there until that happened! Such good parents I have!

Anyway, the last thing I wanted to mention was that Scott and Kim gave me these way fun chimes to use with my class! They didn't come with a bag to put them in, so I made one yesterday and this is how it turned out. Very fun!

I hope your Christmas was a fun one too! Good luck in the new year to come!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

I think it just finally hitting me that Christmas is 5 days away! It seems like it really has just snuck up on me! These past couple of week have FLOWN by and now I only have 2 and a half more days of work before I am off for a week and a half. YAHOO! Live for those nice, relaxing breaks!

I am really not the most creative teacher, but I have had my students doing a couple of Christmas art projects this month. The one I took a picture of is the ornaments hanging from the ceiling. They are of Christmas symbols and they colored them in complementary colors. They had a good time with those! I also had them make the picture frames out of popsicle sticks last Friday to give to their parents for Christmas. It is something that I remember doing when I was that age and we still have those ornaments! They are so fun!

This weekend I also made sugar cookies and dipped them in chocolate and sprinkles to give to friends and colleagues. I think they turned out great! I put them on a cute tray my mom received from her sister Joan, and they look perfect on it! Thanks Aunt Joan! :)

Anyway, I am so excited to spend time with friends and family this holiday season and hope you all can find joy in celebrating Christ's birth. He is the real reason for the season that we all love! Thank you all for supporting me in all that I do! It means a lot to me. Have a Merry Christmas!!

So much to be grateful for!

Wow, Thanksgiving over and Christmas is coming! It has come way too fast this year, but I love this time of year! Especially spending so much time with family and friends and celebrating Christ's birth. I am so grateful and blessed to have so much! I don't know what I would do without my family, my friends, and the gospel. This weekend was no exception! I got the opportunity to go to my Grandma and Grandpa Lloyd's house for Thanksgiving. I am very grateful for their hardworking examples and the love they show me! I feel so special to be in their presence! Then my parents and I came home and had pie with Scott and Kim and their cute kids. They let McKenzie stay over night for the next two nights, so we had a lot of fun with her! She is such a cutie! We took her shopping, put up Christmas decorations, watched movies, went to lunch, and I helped her make a Gingerbread House! Here are a few pictures of her and me with the finished product. She was a great decorater and couldn't wait to eat the leftover candy! :)

Before I went off for Thanksgiving, I had my class make Indian Tribe Habitats for each of the Indian Tribes of Utah. I had my class last year do this, and they had a blast, so I did it again this year. This is how they turned out!

Since we were studying Indians, I also had them make Indian pots for art. This was my first attempt at teaching how to make pots, so some of them are kind of funny looking, but I guess that is what gives them personality! Once they shaped them, they air-dried and I had them paint black around them. Once that dried, they took a small pin and scratched a design in the black, to make them look like Indian pots. I think they really enjoyed this, even though it was quite the process! :)

Well, I guess it is back to the craziness of teaching tomorrow and I know I sometimes complain a lot about my job, but I just want to say that I am so blessed to be around such cute kids and help them grow and learn! I really think that they help me learn and grow as a person as well and I am thankful for that.

Pictures of Trip

Double-Decker Tour Bus


World War 2 Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Dorothy's Shoes! American History Museum

Union Station

Air and Space Museum

Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument from Jefferson Monument

Natural History Museum

Capitol Building

National Archives-Declaration of Independence

The White House

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Mount Vernon

Niagara Falls!

Hill Cumorah Monument

Joseph Smith's Family Farm House

The First Smith Family Farm House

Palmyra Temple overlooking the Sacred Grove

Sally and I in our FABULOUS PJ's, staying overnight in our GHETTO hotel!!! :)

Washington DC and Toronto!

And..... I'm back! This last Friday I got home from my trip with Sally to Washington DC and Toronto! The 2 weeks passed by way too fast and now, as always, back to reality!

The first thing we did was fly to Washington DC for 3 days and see all of the sites we could there. As you will see in the pictures, we went to all of the major monuments, the Capitol Building, the White House, The Air and Space Museum, American History Museum, National History Museum, the National Archives Building, Arlington National Cemetary, and Mount Vernon (George Washington's Home). Phew! Lets just say, we were EXHAUSTED everyday in Washington! It was a lot to see, but it was a blast! It was really neat to be in all of these historical locations and I learned so much history too!

After the 3 days in Washington, we flew to Toronto, Canada to see Sally's parents that are Mission Presidents there. It was so nice to be with them and very fun to go to all the sites there too! We went to Niagara Falls, Palmyra, and some other little fun shopping places Sally's mom took us to. The land there was so beautiful, even if most everything was dead! It was especially awesome to go to all of the sites in Palmyra where the Church was restored again. I felt the spirit so strong in each of the places we visited. We went on the Hill Cumorah, Joseph Smith's family farm, the Sacred Grove, the Book of Mormon publishing site, and Peter Whitmer's Farmhouse (where the first Sacrament Meeting was held). It was a real testimony builder and just plain NEAT!

On our way home, our flight from Toronto to New York was delayed, so we missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake and had to stay over night in New York. We called a hotel and stayed there, but the problem was that it was such a NASTY hotel! It felt like one of those places that are on the TV show CSI! And we didn't have our luggage either! We almost didn't stay, but we finally convinced ourselves that it was better than staying at the airport all night, so we bought ourselves some "I Love NY" PJ's (hence the picture you will see). Needless to say, when our alarms went off at 4:30 so we could catch our flight, we had NO PROBLEM waking up! We made our flight and as soon as we landed in Salt Lake, I had to go to work. Crazy, I know! Anyway, to sum it up, it was a great break and I am ready to tackle work again! Here are some pictures....Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

I thought I should add this cute picture one of my students colored for me for Halloween! I was quite surprised that he gave it to me! He is one of the kids that I am ALWAYS getting after for talking or something of that sort. I thought he didn't like me but apparently he does! He did a great job too!

I am ENJOYING my break though! I just got off track this week and I am SOOO excited to relax! Last week was a week from you know where....mainly because of Parent/Teacher Conferences and the fact that we were going off track on Friday. I think we ALL needed a break...kids included! PT Conferences went well, they were just LONG. I have great parents that when they found out that their kid was misbehaving so much, they really talked to them about it. So it is good to know that parents backed me up too! In fact, they said I should be meaner! I am going to change a few things when I get back, so we will see how it goes!

Next week Sally and I are going to Washington DC and then to Toronto to visit her parents. I have never been to either of those places so I am SOOOO excited to see them! In the meantime, I am just hanging out, sleeping in, shopping, and running errands. On Monday we had FHE at our house with lots of fun "Halloween" food. I also carved 3 pumpkins! I haven't carved pumpkins for so long! They turned out so cute too...

Happy Halloween!

I Will Survive!

Wow! Time is flying by so fast! I cannot believe it is Fall again! I am sad that it is getting colder, but I love how pretty it is this time of year! I am also excited that I will get my first off track time in 2 short, crazy weeks! Yessssss! (Isn't it sad that I live for the breaks???)

Things have been pretty much the same since the last time I wrote. In a weird, twisted way I am excited for P/T Conferences coming up on the 21 and 22 of this month, so I can really communicate with parents about their children that are having a hard time behaving in school. I really do like the kids in my class as individuals, but it is soooo difficult to manage them when they are all together! They want to be good, but a lot of times they don't know HOW to do that, and with my personality, maybe I am just too nice! I did visit with my principal this weekend after her observing my class while I was teaching, and she agreed that I had a lot of difficult kids in there to manage! She suggested a few things to help, but I feel like I have already tried those things so many times! I told her that and I asked her if I could send some of them to her when they were being difficult and she said yes...so, needless to say, those certain kids are not going to get very many warnings anymore before they get sent to her! It is so relieving to know that she recognizes what I am going through and can back me up! Hopefully I can get control of this class for the good! In the mean time, I am learning and growing from this class everyday! I think it is a love/hate relationship! I know on the days that are difficult, that I just need to learn from them, and go back the next day doing just a little bit better!

Anyway, these past couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of fun, despite the craziness! 2 weeks ago, my mom came and helped me do salt dough maps of Utah with my kids. I was nervous about doing this with these rowdy kids, but they actually did pretty well! Here are a few pictures of them before and after we painted them. (We made them one day and then let them dry and painted them the next day.)

This past week, all of the classes in the school had to decorate their doors for our Reflections Theme, which is "Beauty is..." My class came up with that they wanted to draw their favorite places to be. So, I made a little background of mountains and a waterfall, and they drew little pictures to put on there. Some of them were so cute! I loved the one that talked about his dad's work, with all of the tools and that. I also laughed so hard at a kid that drew a picture of Walmart as his favorite place! Some of them did awesome pictures of the beach and other places. I was proud of what they did! It wasn't enough to win the contest for the school, so they were bummed about that, but I thought they did a great job! Here are a few pictures to enjoy!