Summer Fun!

This has been the laziest summer I have had in a LOOONG time! In the 2 weeks I have been off (seems like a long time...doesn't sound like it though!), I really have been doing hardly anything! I didn't go back to coaching swimming or doing swim lessons...which is weird because that is how I made a living through college...(I miss those kids!) but it feels really good not to have to worry about planning for anything! To say the least...I am enjoying my short summer before the madness returns again in August! Wahoo!

I haven't been entirely unproductive though! On Monday, I finished my quilt I started last summer, so it is all done, except for the quilting! Yay! I got the kit for it two Christmases ago from Santa. I saw it at a quilt shop in Cottonwood Heights and immediately fell in love with it! Needless to say, the Princess gets what she wants! :) Here are a few pictures of it:

The pattern is called "Bento Box".

Cutting away! Gotta love my machine!

Today, my mom and I went and got some VERY fresh raspberries and blackberries. I bet you can guess what we did with those...Yep, we made JAM! It was my first time actually making it, and I must say, it turned out great! It really was a lot easier than I thought...so to all of you out there who have never made jam before, TRY IT! Here are some tempting pictures for you so that you will want to do it too!

Ya, one minor detail...if you are going to make jam, have LOTS of sugar on hand! :)

The finished product! This is the raspberry jam. Isn't it just gorgeous?

1 Year Down...29 More to Go! :)

Yep, you read it! My first year of teaching is officially over and I SURVIVED! I had a hard time picturing this day, but now that I look back on the year, it seems like it FLEW by! I get six weeks of summer and then I am back at it again. I actually had a great time with my class the last 3 weeks. It was nice to just let them be "kids" and not worry about cramming things down their throats! They had a blast on the field trip to This is the Place, then we had our program with the whole Fourth Grade the next week. It consisted of them singing songs about Utah's history, as well as playing some recorder songs and saying parts. I got put in charge of leading half of the songs, so that was kind of scary because I didn't know them as well as the other teachers! So, needless to say, I REALLY had to practice on my own because I didn't want to lead them in at the wrong places or get them mixed up with the words! I was nervous, but it turned out so great in the end. They did a marvelous job and I didn't lead them astray! :)

My mom was very kind to come and watch the program. She took these pictures:

This is me before the program started. I was VERY nervous!

This is some of my students saying their parts at the beginning.
This is me leading!

This whole last week was really just one big party! We had a "ticket day" on Monday, where they spent their tickets, Tuesday was Field Day....I pretty much didn't see them the WHOLE day. That was nice so that I could get a lot done! Wednesday was the 4th grade talent show. A lot of my kids participated. They are really talented with the piano, dance, singing, etc...So cute to see them do all of that! I also showed them some slide shows I did of all of the pictures I took during the year of them. They LOVED it! I will definitely do it again next year! Thursday was the softball game between the faculty and 6th grade. Yes, I participated AND I hit the ball TWICE, but I didn't hit it far enough to make it to first base...RATS! It's the thought that counts, right? We then cleaned and played games and handed out silly awards that I did and then the principal made a movie of everyone to watch, so we had an assembly to watch it. It was really cool. I know my kids like me because they screamed so loud when my picture came up...it was nice to feel appreciated! :) Anyway, after that I gave them their report cards and that was pretty much the end! I sent them on their way and then my wonderful mother and friend came and helped me move all my stuff into the portable I will be in next year. I feel like I did the best I could this year with teaching, so hopefully next year it will go a little more smoother because I know more about what I teach and how I want to teach it. Hopefully I can plan my time more wisely! But for now, I am going to ENJOY my summer and relax! I am planning on reading and quilting a lot! I am also going with my parents and brother and sister-in-law to Disneyland the end of July. That will certainly be an adventure!

3 WEEKS!

I now have just 3 weeks left of teaching before my first year is over! WOW! I never thought this would come so soon! It has definitely been a CRAZY year, but a learning one also. I will miss my class (even with all the drama), but know that things can't stay the same forever! :) I can't wait for my summer break, but I am excited for next year too. I definitely know what I want to change about things I did this year, so it will be fun to try them out. I am kind of stressing right now though because I need to start boxing my teaching stuff up to move out to a portable next year. Yes, I am going to be in a portable. It will be very different, but every teacher at our school next year is going to stay in their own rooms instead of moving around and it just happened that 4th grade got 3 portables, so guess who is moving out?! Yep, me. I don't know how I feel about being in a portable, but I think it will be kinda nice, as far as not worrying that my class is too loud or something, but it will be annoying going in and out of school just to go to the bathroom or make copies.

Anyway, I feel like the end of the year is way busier than the beginning! It's crunch time, even though testing is over! I just thought this was going to be a time to relax and do whatever, but there is so much going on (school-wide), I am having a really hard time cramming things in that I want them to do! Like, we are finishing up our Utah History by doing counties and county reports, but it has been hard to find time to have them do research! The good thing about it though is that they are sooo excited to do them! It is so funny! They are so excited that some of them are bringing stuff from home to put in their reports and they are always coming up to me and showing me the things they find out about their county. As a school, we get these books that are called "bare books" that are basically books that are completely blank that they can write in. So, that is what I am having them use to put their reports in. I will have to let you know how they go...

We are also trying to practice for our 4th grade program that is in 2 weeks! They have to know a bunch of Utah Songs and Recorder Songs, so we have been busy with that as well. We are also going to This is the Place State Park this Wednesday for a field trip, so I am excited about that! Hopefully it is good weather!

Anyway, after all of that, I went camping this weekend to Beaver with the singles ward and it was actually pretty fun! I got to meet a lot of new people and just have fun hanging out and getting all stinky from sitting by the fire! :) There were these Indian drawings on a rock by where we were staying, so I took a few pictures of them because I thought they would be fun to show to my class! They are way neat! Makes you wonder what they say and how they have survived for so many years! Also, we hiked up this HUGE rock! It was kind of scary, but fun at the same time. I didn't have my camera while we were hiking, but took a picture of the rock for visual purposes!