this week

this week i...

• went back on track...yay! i missed my kiddos.
• had to write my first real set of sub plans for an all day workshop. barf
• was observed twice. ick
• legitimately cheese grated my thumb. ouch
• painted my finger nails twice. awesome
• was asked if i could be set up 4 times. wha?
• cleared up my hulu queue. legit.
• cleaned my room several times. nice
• set the smoke alarm off. oops
• organized my bathroom drawers. sparkly.
• watched the hunger games trailer 7 times. teehee.
• did NOT go see breaking dawn...yet. hum.
• had several strange dreams. yup.
• made delicious pasta. mmmm.
• created several spotify playlists...including happy christmas ones. love.
• got way super excited for christmas. eek!
• graded lots of papers. oof.
• and probably some other things...yes.

what an exciting week right?
the most entertaining thing was definitely when i told samuel i cheese grated my thumb. he asked if i got some epidermis in my nachos...unfortunately i probably did....

well, only 3 1/2 days until HOME! yay! and that means my FAVORITE day of the year! thanksgiving? well im looking forward to that but nope. the day AFTER thanksgiving. its THE BEST!!!

peace out folks!

lately....

life has been lovely.
the past few weeks i have been off track,
but yet still busy as ever.
i decided to get some extra work in this time around, so i have been subbing lots and lots in other classes. lets just say that i love 4th grade. with my whole heart. my whole whole heart.

a few weeks ago i got to go to logan for my besties baby shower...oh what a happy day...

Kym. Katie. Karinne (and baby). Whitney

then to her surprise i am sure...the cutest little baby came exactly one week later!!!

i got to go down a week after that and meet new my favoritest baby ever.

Baby Kade!!

It was so happy to be there for a couple hours and hold a one week old baby. and it was also weird that my bestie is now a mommy. But she is so great, and that baby basically won my heart over. I can't believe i am admitting it, but i teared up a little when i had to leave...i love him! and i love karinne! ahhhhh

anyways. thats all for now. im on a pinterest kick right now...getting way too many teacher ideas....ahhh!

"are you coming home on thursday? it is the greatest day of *YOUR* life after all..."

ya, thats what samuel said to me the other day. 

sadly no i won't be there, but actually he pretty much hit that right on, 

i think its pretty safe to say it was one of the greatest days of my life.

(awww shucks, look at me being all cheesy and what not)

 so.....ANYWAYS!!!!!!

happy birthday to the COOLEST twins i know.

seriously people. these are 2 wayyy cool kids...

they are now 15 years young. and still my best buddies.

i remember the day they were born,

(and now excuse me while i go and feel old for a minute)

and it was pretty flippin awesome.

i sure hope the day is magical you two...just not TOO magical

you kids are only 15, alright?!

ok. thanks.

awww probably one of my favorite pictures of them

gretch and damian/rory. and samuel getting his eagle. classy

oh....maybe this one IS my favorite.

you might think that I was the one turning 15...shoot dang.

Anywho. Hope you both have a most triumphant day! Don't miss me too much!!!!!!!!

Love, Your favorite big sis

life is good, and when its good i sing...

"Enjoy your journey. Enjoy your commute. It’s your movie even between takes. Acknowledge how incredible you are as walk to and from the set. Listen to music as much as you can. Especially while driving. Don’t text behind the wheel. But if and when you run a red light, you’ll not only want to be paying attention, you best wave to the camera. Because if you get your picture taken in that moment, or worse, sideswiped, I want everyone to see how much fun and humility one can possibly have because you simple chose to do so."

 -mr a-z

tis' the season

We all know how much I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this time of year, but I am afraid it is slipping away from me faster than I can run through a pile of leaves! So I decided to make a list (which should come as no surprise, I have lists coming out of my ears...) of all my MUST-DO for autumn. And when that list is all checked off, then I will be able to welcome in the next happy season, complete with frozen fingers and slush soaked pants....(ewww, can you tell I am SO not ready for winter?)

1. Watch the following movies:

• Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Practical Magic, What Lies Beneath, Birds, Watcher in the Woods, The Village, Young Frankenstein, and any other deliciously scary and/or halloween-y movies

2. Make my favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies...they are heavenly and (weight watchers friendly) as well as any of the FANTABULOUS recipes that I have found on pinterest...mmmmmmmm
3. Find a pile of leaves to jump in to...or at least walk through and just enjoy that perfect smell.
4. Step on some extra crunchy leaves
5. Take pictures in the canyon
6. Go a Corn Maze and/or Haunted House
7. Go to a costume party
8. Carve a pumpkin WHILE watching It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
9. Make Grannies Chili...and maybe some cornbread
10. Go to a football game
11. Bake a Thanksgiving Pie
12. Stay in my PJs and read all day (with plenty of hot cocoa)
13. Finish of my autumn '11 playlist
14. Attempt to recreate some of the happiest of autumn crafts found via pinterest
15. Read the following happy fall books

• The Little Old Woman Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, Skippy Jon Jones In Mummy Trouble by Judi Schachner, The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg, Witches Broom by Chris Van Allsburg, Room on the Broom by Julie Donaldson, By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Caroline Stutson

hello! I've just got to let you know...

First off, the fact that this is the 2nd post this month and it's only the 10th is pretty legit right? Well, I'm getting back so don't you even fret!

Second of all, its SEP week. AKA Conference week. AKA report card week. AKA meet with all the parents week. AKA might as well bring a sleeping back and my toothpaste to school week, cause I will be THERE wayyyyy more than I will be anywhere else. Needless to say its going to be exhausting, and long. But its all good. After this week we have 3 pretend days of school next week, and I go off track until 11.11.11....I love year round school :)

Third of all, I have been scrambling to get my report cards done, finished and printed, but one of the things I am realizing about my self, it that I kind of a little bit despise entering grades into the computer. So I leave it all to the end, which mean instead of a weeks worth of grades to enter...I had 9. Kill me. Luckily, I have that finished, but still had one project left to grade. Social studies. This project consisted of 12 maps...PER KID. Oh, 12 times 23...why YES!!!! I DID just finish grading 276 maps. Jealous right? *ooooowwww head hurts*

Well, amidst these 276 pages of maps, I had to have the 5 following things in order to maintain my sanity
1. Glee playing in the backgroud
2. a few Jason Mraz breaks
3. left over Cafe Rio (i love that i can get 3 meals out of their salads)
4. several facebook/youtube breaks.
5. roommates to come talk to me

and that is why I bring you this post...these are the best videos that surfaced from this Monday night adventure:

ahhh this kills me!

I have no clue why I laughed out loud at this one...but I really did

this is for my sister...she is obsessed with this group, and they sang a little JB. in your face Gretch! Just embrace the Bieber Fever like the rest of us!

I love him. duh.

 

and last but not least. I am OBSESSED with this song...can't even tell you how many times I have played it since it was released. Especially the strings that come in like 20 seconds in....oh. my. gosh.

okay. now to put in comments for all 23 students and then I can be done!!!!

sometimes shmumtimes

sometimes my brother hangs out in my car and switches the ipod to drowsy chaperone and starts singing all the words

sometimes my students call me 'mom'...5 times in one day to be exact

sometimes my toes feel frozen because my basement is soooo cold

sometimes i love my job. haha thats i lie...i ALWAYS love my job

sometimes i feel like a super creepy stalker person when i actually am NOT a super creepy stalker person, it just would appear that way

sometimes i forget to eat

sometimes i run laps in the jog-a-thon with my kiddos, and my pants basically fall off. okay, they literally fall off, but i catch them. thank heavens!

sometimes i believe it would be easier to watch glee by my lonesome, because no one else laughs at the jokes, broadway and pop culture references, and because the ONLY person that understand how much i truly love this show is an hour away

sometimes i order more toms to make my feet happy

sometimes i clean my room and then realize that i want to move, but i cant yet, so i rearrange my whole room, including the bazillion pictures on the wall

sometimes brainwashed little byu fans at my school (i know that was harsh, forgive me...im still bitter) torment me for days on end because of their accidental victory over my beloved aggies

sometimes my kiddos say the funniest things

sometimes i sit in my car for no reason because i love it, and the fact that is starts, runs and doesnt cause me stress

sometimes i dont have a balance in life...still working on that one

sometimes i HATE when people try to cover my one true love: jasons songs and my beloved coldplay songs, but then other times i love it

sometimes wizard and i stay up wayyy too late talking and talking and talking and then its super hard to wake up the morning

sometimes i feel the need to purchase things purely out of the desire to have it in my possession. need therapy much?

sometimes i get really excited to be an 'aunty' even if its technically not for real. yay bff kren!

sometimes things really really bother me. 

sometimes i miss college (woah, that makes me feel old saying that...)

sometimes i design really ridiculous choir shirts for my school choir, complete with our name "ChoiRAMa", slogan "Rams don't sing but we do" and a picture of a singing Ram....yes, i laughed too. and yes i intend to wear it all the time

sometimes i lay in bed exhausted, but can't go to sleep. why? cause its raining. we all know how much i LOVE the rain! also the sound of rain is sooooo much happier than the thought of waking up in the morning

sometimes i become obsessed with teacher blogs. 1st it was wedding blogs, then it was craft blogs, then it was everything blogs, and now teacher blogs. im insane

sometimes kym and i go to see drowsy chaperone for the 4th time, and the same guy that played aldolpho the 2nd time we saw it, and who played freddy in my recently discovered musical, was there again. and was awesome. and i want to marry him.

sometimes i crave going to the gym and then eating an apple

sometimes i realize that my blog is super boring and has no point, and i feel the need to apologize to anyone who has taken the time to read this far...

and last by not least sometimes it snows in october, and make me want to throw up.

the end

except for: Sometimes....

Source: tumblr.com via Whitney on Pinterest

except this is like everyday for me...

dear self. you are getting old...

we had a rootbeer floacial (pronounced: flow-shul. meaning: float social...get it?)
and it was awesome!
party started at 8, and by 9 i was worried about going to bed.
seriously? 
"how late am i going to be up? how will i ever function tomorrow? oh my! there are so many people here!"

excuse me, but when did i turn 90?

i finally let lose and enjoyed myself, and even participated in the sponataneous dance party that broke out around 10 or 10:30.
ya it was awesome.
i don't think i went to bed till around midnight....
look at me! living life on the edge and all.

oh brother.
 
anywho. just felt the need to share my thoughts...
particularly the fact that:
this may be the coolest picture ever.
oh im aching to go here and take cool/random photos of my own....aching i say!
someday right?
well. when will that SOMEDAY ever get here?!

on a different note. im OBSESSED with this song.
and this song. 
my fall playlist is almost perfected.
i work too much.
i LOVE my job and absolutely ADORE my kids. 
i may or may not meet a particularly beautiful man tomorrow who i just LOVE.
* ya scratch that already. i HATE being poor. and i HATE that he is going to be 4 hours away...lame. 
and i am most definitely spending friday with 3 of my absolute favorit-est people in the world.
life is good. life is grand.
over and out for now.

Ten years have passed since a perfect blue sky morning turned into the blackest of nights..."

Post title taken from this wonderful article

Can you believe it has been 10 years since that fateful day? I remember it clearly. I remember sitting in 8th grade math. I remember feeling strange all day. I remember being confused. I remember being scared. I remember losing my tennis match that afternoon. I remember feeling relieved when i got home that evening. I remember it clearly.

I have been reflecting a lot about this the past few days, as I am faced with the responsibility of answering questions to a class of wide-eyed 4th graders. As I have researched the past week, wondering what to say and how to say it to my students, I immediately realized that with the exception of, I think, 2 of my students, they had not yet been born on that September day 10 years ago. Woah. Now the responsibility has kicked in. What am I supposed to say? How do I answer their questions? Are they too young? Is this too touchy of a subject?

This is the battle that has been zooming through my mind. So as we left school on Friday, I took 5 minutes and asked them what they knew. And told them to think about these events and talk to their parents over the weekend, and we would talk about it on Monday. So as I have been battling and stressing over this responsibily, and trying to figure out what to say, I realized that this truly is a touchy subject. They are young, and hopefully their parents will educate them on these events, but we can take time to reflect on the feelings following the attacks and the heroism and patriotism that reigned.

So  its been decided that we are going to read the book "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" by Mordicai Gerstein which tells the true story of Philippe Petit, a man who walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Center on a tightrope in 1974. He tells of the marvel of the buildings, his journey and then ends with the book's final painting of the imagined imprint of the towers, now existing "in memory"-linked by Philippe and his high wire. I feel this book helps us to remember that day, without striking up too many questions. Then hopefully we can read either "New York's Bravest" by Mary Pope Osborne or "14 Cows for America" by Carmen Agra Deedy (depending on which one I feel i will cry the least amount...) and then discuss the different heroes from that day, and from our own personal lives. Hopefully it will be a meaningful and lasting discussion, and hopefully I don't need too many tissues.

So now I feel much better about tomorrow and what I am going to say, and I am going to spend the rest of today reflecting and counting my blessings. As well as listening to this over and over again...

God Bless the USA

sometimes life gives you lemons...

Beware of the killer lemons!

now don't get me wrong...i love lemons.

lemonade, lemon bars, lemon yellow wall color, lemon sorbet, lemon pepper...this weekend i even went to a new pizza place called 'pizzeria limone', which had a delectable margarita pizza and lemon brownies which were quite tasty, so believe me when i say im grateful for your average lemon...

but tonight im talking about those lemons in life that are really sour and sting your eyes and come flying at you when you least expect them. they are quite rude really, and always seem to be disguised as something else, or they just pop out of no where. they are painful and make us feel weak, lonely, and scared. ya, no one really likes those lemons. but for some reason we all get them.

i have had a few of those lemons lately. blast. not cool. not fun. and they REALLY sting. that deep down sting that seems down-right unbearable. luckily its only for a moment...its only ever for a moment, even though it seems like forever (they are tricky little things, those lemons). but i really am grateful for those lemons, and the knowledge i have that those lemons each have a purpose. and even though they sting really REALLY bad, and make you want to gouge your eyes out, say bad words, and run away (in that order) it eventually stops stinging, and makes us stronger. it gets better. it really does.

so here's to the lemons. here's to life, the beautiful thing it is. and here's to all of us making that lemonade...or lemonade bars, which ever tickles your fancy!

oh, and here's to one of the best songs ever...it really is a beautiful world.