11 year olds aren't so innocent

Well, I haven't posted on here in a long time. I have been a little pre occupied with work and life has gotten a little bit more hectic. But I have survied my first 5 weeks of teaching. Overall I am not as stressed out as I thought I would be (Don't get me wrong I am definitiely stressed out). I make mistakes everyday and am probably screwing up these kids for the rest of their lives. My 6th graders LOVE to talk and talk and talk. I have tried calling home and giving students detention but they won't stop talking! I think I am pretyt tough with them -tough but fair. I am just taking it one day at a time. I have already had a fight in my room. Well, they didn't actually hit each other but these two kids (they looked like they could be 14 or 15 not 11) walked up to each other and got really close and saying things like "Yeah, let's fight, let's go" I ran a kid down to the office and the campus monitors and assistant principal came down and broke it up. These two boys have been out of school for fighting 3 or 4 times this year already and we are only 5 weeks into the year -I don't think they are going to last too much longer.

The other teachers I work with have been so helpful and have really taken me under their wings. I feel very blessed to have so much support. It also helps that my dad was in education for over 30 years and is able to give me some great advice on those days when I feel like I have lost all control of my students.

Short, But Sweet

I had a short break in between student teaching and when I had to report to work as a new teacher. So my parents and I took a quick trip to sunny California. We woke up early Saturday morning and drove to LA to see an Angels vs. Yankees game. I am really not a fan of either team, but it was a pretty good game. We cheated and sat in some pretty good seats for about three innings until the real inhabitants showed up and we had to move to our ticketed seats which weren’t so great.

Good Seats

Not so good seats

After the game we drove around LA looking for this famous hot dog stand called Pinks. Apparently it is a big deal, I hadn’t heard of it before but my parents went years ago. Anyway, so after we found the establishment we waited in line for an hour (yes…we waited in line for an hour…for a hog dog…). The hog dog was actually pretty good and would have been even better had I not got the spicy one. WOW!!! is all I have to say.

The line wrapped all the way around the back of the building

So after the excursion at Pinks we drove up the coast a ways to spend the rest of our vacation in breathtaking San Luis Obispo, CA. I love SLO. My brother has lived there for 17 years and I am so glad he does because it makes a great place to vacation in the summer to escape the vegas heat. The high was about 75 degrees while we were there and the nights got down to about 50. Sunday, after church my parents and I went Downtown to a couple stores and then went to Morro Bay, a small touristy coastal town about 20 minutes from SLO. It was beautiful but cold, really cold. We got on a trolley and drove around on that for a little bit and then walked around to a few shops.

Eating lunch in dowtown SLO

On the trolley in Morro Bay

Morro Bay Rock

It was freezing down by the water, but I had to put my feet in!

Monday I didn’t want to do anything except lay by the pool and read. So, that is exactly what I did. I laid by the pool ALL day and it was fantastic! (In case you are wondering I was reading Breaking Dawn!) That night my parents, my brother, and nephew went to Pismo Beach to eat at Splash Cafe, a yummy restaurant and then walked out to the peer and on the beach. It was freezing out on the water. I can’t believe how cold it gets there in the evening.

Waiting outside of Splash, again a long line!

Getting my tan on

My nephew, Mathew

Pismo Beach

And then that was the end of the vacation. I had to be back to work on Wednesday so we drove home Tuesday. The vacation was WAY to short but it was soooo nice to get out of town for a couple of days and it was soooo nice of my parents to take me out of town. Thanks Joe and Shelley!!

Look Out World (or 6th graders), Here I Come!!

I have officially entered the world of adulthood….I have a teaching job! Your looking at the new 6th grade Reading/English teacher at Silvestri Junior High School. It is called a CORE position, which means I teach reading and English to the same group of students and they stay in my class for two periods. I am totally excited!!! This is my dream job and to get in my first year is really lucky. You know the saying, “It’s not what you know it’s who you know”? Well, the only reason I got this job is because the principal at Cartwright ES (the school I am student teaching at) was talking to the principal at Silvestri and she put in a good word for me. I am actually shocked he wanted to hire me since I didn’t exactly nail the interview. First of all I didn’t even know he was going to interview me. He came in for an observation and then tells me he wants to go out in the hall to “talk”. I think it was a good thing I wasn’t expecting an interview otherwise I would have worked myself up and been even more nervous. Anyway, so he asks me what novels I would use for in my classroom for 6th graders. I was totally stumped. I didn’t want to just say, “I don’t know” So I answered with a book that, I found out later, is at a much lower grade level...totally embarrassing. But I did tell him as I was leaving that I was going to look up 6th grade novels immediately. And I did. (For those of you that are curious about what 6th graders do read here are a few top picks: Walk Two Moons, Loser, Freak the Mighty, Wrinkle In Time and The Giver.)

I have a job and that is fantastic! The bad news is I will get a whole four days off! My last day of student teaching is August 8 and new teachers go back for orientation on August 13 (sigh). So, I am making a quick trip to Cali for the weekend to catch a ball game and see my brother and his family. This will be a much needed vacation! I have made it through student teaching and now the next speed bump to get over is the first day of school...I'm nervous.

To grandmother's house we go

My sister, Stacey, recently posted on her blog some memories she has of my grandma and her house in Panaca, NV (If you have never heard of it, it is a little town in Lincoln county between Pioche and Caliente). My grandma passed away in February of 2007. But I felt like she was already gone the last few years of her life. She suffered from Dementia and Alzheimer’s. I feel so grateful to have such fond memories of her before she got sick.

when I was little I loved going to Panaca. My grandma's house was like a mansion! There were rooms everywhere and it was the best house to play hide-and-go seek in. Depsite the fact that I had cousins and sisters just a few years older than me, the only kid I got to play with was my little brother. Appearently I wasn't good enough to play with the older girls. I remember one time my aunt made my cousin play with me and she wouldn't let me do anything I wanted to do; we had to play by her rules. Looking back now it is really funny, but at the time I always wished for the day that the older girls would let me play them. Thant's ok though, because Brett was always a fun playmate!

My grandma was the best cook. And I swear, she was always in the kitchen making something. Still, to this day, whenever I smell certain foods I feel like I am back in grandma's kitchen, sitting on a bar stool and watching her hum as she cooked. (My grandma always hummed while she cooked.) But she did have a temper. You could often find her swearing under her breath or telling the kids to "get out of the damn kitchen."

I loved going into her room and going through all of her things. She had tons of scarves and necklaces and nail polish and lotions, and rings, everything to keep a little girl busy. My grandma was an "Avon lady" and had tons of Avon stuff around her house.

My grandma had the most beautiful yard filled with flowers. If we ever visited in the spring we could always count on seeing tulips in her front yard.

The first thing I wanted to do when I got to Panaca was go to the "merc" (the little grocery store in Panaca). They had a penny candy section where you could get all sorts of little candies for a penny. Grandma kept a jar in her kitchen where she put her spare change. She would let me borrow one of her coin purses to fill up with coins and off I went to walk to the Merc.

Memories of Panaca:

• Eating ginger snaps out of the cookie jar
• Waking up to the smell of "Hot Cakes"
• Helping grandma make her famous focaccia bread. (I always got to make the holes on top)
• Sitting at the bar watching her cook
• Being yelled at to go outside and play
• Playing baseball in the big field behind her house
• Climbing Court Rock

Moss fights in the spring (natural swimming pool)

Learning how to drive

Being banished to the sun room to eat ( stole that one from Stacey)

Closing off the basement to make it pitch dark and playing games.

Eating Swan's ice cream bars and being yelled at for eating to many

Being yelled at for eating...period

Sitting by a nice warm fire place

Sitting in the big blue recliner chair in the sun room, eating my penny candies and watching cartoons with Brett

Unfortunately things change, houses get torn down and people die. The sweet memories of our childhood are all we have left to remember good times by. I am so thankful for the wonderful memories I have of Panaca and my grandma, Laura Marie.

half way there

Well, it has been a really long time since I have posted on here. I have officially made it half way through my student teaching and I may just survive the other half. I can’t believe how fast the past 6 weeks have gone by. I have been more busy then I have ever been (and it doesn’t help that I spent almost 3 of those weeks dog sitting for various people –I think I have become the official dog sitter) I think I have come a long way from where I was at the beginning and I am getting really excited to have a classroom of my own. The kids are amazing. I was surprised how quickly I got attached to them (even if some of them do smell).

I love Sunday dinners at my house because it I get to spend time with my family, but it is pure chaos. Last Sunday my brother-in-law’s brother came with his two daughters so in total there were nine little kids running around. To keep them entertained their parents sent them outside to play in the water with the hose. None of them had swim suits so they decided to just strip down to their underwear. It was hilarious! I would post pictures but I am sure none of you want to see little kids running around in the backyard without any clothes on :) So, instead here is a picture of them with their clothes on

Change, Change, Change

My normal uneventful life has been somewhat eventful these last couple of weeks. They say change is a good thing. If that is true then my life is supposedly going great!!

The Missionary
My little brother left for the MTC last Wednesday. He is going to Kiev Ukraine. He will be a stellar missionary but I still worry about him getting enough to eat, staying warm at night, etc. Brett has more personality than anyone I have ever met (if you have ever seen any of his movies he and his friends made you would know what I mean). He is very likable and gets along with just about everybody. The Ukraine is so far away and two years is a long time. It takes a lot faith and trust in the Lord to know that that is where he needs to be.

Student Teaching
I have survived my first week of student teaching. I am at Carwright Elementary School in a 4th grade classroom. The teacher is going to be really great to work with and will make the experience quite enjoyable. I haven’t done any actual teaching yet but in the past week I have gotten to know the students and the classroom environment and look forward to spending the summer with them. I had the students fill out an interest survey to help me get to know them better. One of the questions was, “What subject are you good at?” One of the students answered English, but spelled it “Inglish”. I laughed out loud when I read it –maybe he is not as good as he thinks he is! The kids all have a lot of personality and are pretty well behaved. I thought I would have all of their names down after the first week but there are 29 students and it doesn’t help that there is a Karen, Caroline, Catherine and Kaitlin –I am having a little trouble with those ones.

Moving
Don't get too excited, I am not moving out of my house, just into a different room. My brother, Andy and his family are moving here from California. And since they haven’t found a house yet they are going to live here. I don't mind moving rooms at all, there is just one small problem -the closet in the room I am moving into is smaller than mine. It is not that I am a total shopaholic, I just have a hard time getting rid of clothes. I have clothes that I have had since I was a freshman in high school. I haven’t worn them in years but I can’t bear to part with them. I keep them with the mind set that maybe one day the occasion will arise where I will need that particular item. So this past weekend I have had to make some big decisions and part with a lot of clothes that I am not ready to part with (sigh).

The Tassel's Worth the Hassle

I did it! I graduated from college. My commencement ceremony was this past weekend and it worked out that my brothers were in town for the weekend so my whole family was able to attend. Even though I still have my student teaching to get through it was exciting to be at graduation and celebrate this great accomplishment. As I was sitting there in my cap and gown surrounded by the other graduates I started thinking about my freshman year of college when I would wonder if I would ever make it through college. But here I am four years later with a college degree (almost) and looking back it really wasn’t that hard. I just have one more speed bump to get over now...student teaching. (I had a teacher in college who, whenever he gave us an assignment that appeared difficult, would always say, “Don’t think of this assignment as a mountain to get over, it’s just a speed bump.” So that is what I keep telling myself when I think about getting through student teaching; it is not a mountain, just a speed bump.

This is my parents and me the day they dropped me off in Reno my first year of college....


and this is my parents and me at the end...