Off Track Fun!

My how time flies! Yes, it is already time to be off track...and I am loving it! I am always ready for it and then I am always ready to go back to work again when it's over with. Kind of strange how that works, but I really don't know if I could ever go to traditional school! I think I would burn out very quickly! Don't get me wrong...I love my job, it just takes a lot of energy and it is nice to be able to "re-energize" every once in a while!

I got off last Wednesday, due to Fall Break last week and on Friday, I left with Sally to go to Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks. I have NEVER been to a national park, and we wanted to do a not so expensive trip, so that is what we chose to do! We went to Capitol Reef first and were "wow'd" by all the beautiful rocks there. We even saw a pioneer school house and farm house and some indian petroglyphs! I would say the highlight of that park was the Hickman Natural Bridge. We had to hike a mile to see it, but it was definitely worth it!











After visiting Capitol Reef, we drove to Richfield and stayed overnight there. Then, we were off to Moab to visit Arches National Park. Boy was that fabulous!!! There was a whole lot of arches there! One of my favorites was definitely Delicate Arch. It was by far the hardest hike as well! We hiked 3 miles round trip and that was even climbing a HUGE, STEEP hill...but oh was it worth it! It was breathtaking to turn that last corner and see this:







We also saw many, many other things there including the Twin Arches, the Double Windows, the Courthouse Towers, Broken Arch, the Fiery Furnace, and Balanced Rock. All were incredible! We were definitely BLOWN away by all of it!













After exploring Arches, we stayed in Moab and the next day went to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park, which is only about 30 miles away from Moab. Dead Horse Point was SPECTACULAR! It was just so peaceful there and the view was amazing!





The views from various places in Canyonlands were equally as spectacular!









We were definitely tired of driving and hiking when we were done, but WOW, we saw some pretty amazing things! Hopefully I can visit the rest of the national parks soon!

As for the rest of off track time, I am doing LOTS of catch up on homework for my Master's classes and just relaxing. Oh the JOY! :)

Back to School...Again!

Good-bye summer...hello Fall! Yes it is that time again...back to school! I forgot what that phrase really meant for the last two years...now that I am actually a student again I remember! :) I forgot about buying hundreds of dollars worth of books and then actually having to read them! I have forgotten how to write papers too. I am so hoping that I can learn a lot to help me in my classroom though...I am already reading some interesting concepts that I am eager learn how to apply to my classroom to change for the better. Even though I am only taking 2 classes at a time, I have not experienced working full time on top of that (and it is only the beginning of the semester) so I am trying to find a balance between work, school, and "me" time and it is hard! You think that because I am a third year teacher that I have all that worked out anyway...well I am still trying out new ways of teaching so I still probably spend way too much time doing work stuff! I can't help it though...I just am trying to be on top of my game!

As far as teaching goes, I can't believe 3 weeks my school year have already flown by! My class is so good! They are very different from last year as far as dynamics go. To start off with, I have 19 girls and only 10 boys and they are all so cute! The boys are so different from last year's boys...they are more polite and well-behaved, whereas last year they thought they were just too cool for school! My girls are just sweet and helpful to me and to everyone else. They are excited for school still...so I hope I can help them keep that attitude up!

I actually had a student move already though, because her mom is the speech teacher at our school and she got a job at a military base in Korea to be a speech teacher at the school there. Crazy...I know...so I found out last Tuesday that they were leaving and their last day was Thursday. What an adventure! I hope it all works out, but for me...this is bad to say...yehaw! One less student! That makes a total of 28...phew...still too many I think...but I love them all already, so I will try my best to teach them! We have already done some fun projects, so here are a few pictures of them:


These are what I had my class do the first day. They made their faces out of paper plates and then put yarn for their hair. They are too cute! :)



And yes, I did Salt Dough Maps of Utah with my class again this year. It is just so fun for them and I did have a few parents help out with it. They are actually painted now, I just have to take some pictures of them. This is one of my favorite things to do with them because there are so many different types of landforms in Utah and it is a good way to help them remember their geography of Utah!




So, that pretty much sums up my life right now to this point...I did have my birthday last week and I am in disbelief that I am 25! I remember seeing other people that turned 25 when I was little and thinking they were so old...now here I am...25 myself! And I don't feel that old yet...it actually feels good. I am enjoying being 25! :) I celebrated my birthday with my kids at school, by playing a game and passing out doughnuts, then my mom came and brought me lunch at school, so that was very fun! Then Scott and Kim and the kids came down and we all went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Yum-Yum! After that, I invited some friends over to play games and have cake and treats and it was all just way too fun! I am so grateful for good family and friends! They make all the difference! No pictures of the day, but one of my favorite gifts was a U of U Snuggie from my parents! I have used it several times already and I am sure I will use it many more times!

Oh and another gift I got was this weird little U of U gnome guy (yes, my mom bought a gnome to give me as a present! Haha!). When I opened it up and showed it to Lexie, we asked her what it was and she studied it really hard and said, "Hi-Ho?"...LOL...we were cracking up! She is really into Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and that is what she calls them..."Hi-Ho's" :) What a clever little girl! Never a dull moment with those kids!

Summertime Fun!

Don't ask me where the last four weeks have gone! Crazy how time flies! I am really enjoying not doing a whole lot because I know I am going to be so busy in a couple of weeks! :)

Here are some crafts I have been working on:

This is actually an Upper Case Lettering sticker that my friend, Candyce, gave me for Christmas last year and I found it the other day and decided to get crafty! My original idea was to find a cute wooden board, paint it, then put this on, but when I couldn't find one my clever mother told me to get a piece of tagboard and fabric and modge podge the fabric on the tagboard. Then I put the sticker on there and found a cute frame, which I spray painted to match it. It is now hanging in my room and I love it! Thanks Candyce! :)





Up next is the quilt I started in April. I got all the blocks done in April and I just pulled them all out again this week and I have become quite the sewing maniac (Sorry mom and dad that the house is a sewing mess!). I still have one more border and the backing to sew together before it is quilted, but it is coming along nicely! I hope to have it ready to quilt by the time I go back to work!:)









This is the material I am using for the back of of the quilt. Nice and bright like the front! :)


And what do you think I am going to do next? You've got it....ANOTHER quilt! :) I already bought the kit at Material Girls while I was there last week and am soooo excited to start it! It is tooo stinking cute! I have become quite a quilting monster!



Oh and I have these cute little charm packs that my mom got me from Florida in March....what to make out of them??? HMMM...