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.

ABC, one two three

shoot. i fear i have been neglecting my blog. so sad. im totally trying to balance life right now. and am SLOWLY getting there.

i need to give more precedent to other things in my life, and not just my job. i mean not saying my blog should be the number 1 thing in my life, but its something for ME that i love and i think i should do more things for me too :) SO i'm trying to become the teacher that goes in first thing at 7 and leaves right at 4...and leaves everything at school for that matter...but like i said...i'm SLOWLY getting there. 

but such is life, and here's how mine is going...
 

i thought it was going to be super weird starting out with a new class since i got overly attached to my kiddos last year, but it was much easier than i anticipated. i have a super cute class, all very bright and for the most part very respectful, its weird how young they feel though compared to the kids i had at the end of last year, just goes to show how important 1 year can be!

speaking of school, but is it totally obvious if i say, i LOVE it? ya...it basically goes without saying, but serious now. the new school year is great, and the first day was so fun. seeing shiny new backpacks and shoes. crisp pencil boxes and an array of justin bieber folders and notebooks. oh it was glorious. but i am still waiting for that bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils...the ones that are just for me. not the ones i had to buy and then sharpen for my 24 kiddos, i want some for my very own!

life is super weird. i feel like its a constant roller coaster...why is that? and how do we make it stop?

i like the rest of the world have been addicted to pinterest for the past couple months. why? well...im kind of obsessive and when i see something i like i book mark it, or print it off, or save it to my computer...now i dont have to do that. its all there in one spot. just being awesome. ya, im a fan.

i have been obsessed with mat kearney's new album for that past couple months. still cant believe i havent blogged about it yet, but whatever. its amazing. i love him. a lot. and yes kym, i realize its another mat...coincidence?

im kind of over facebook. seriously considering deleting it for a while. its boring, and people are so superficial.

been going to the temple once week and its been wonderful. simply wonderful.

a couple weeks ago our home teachers were over, and upon leaving they asked the tyical question of "what can we do for you" we usually have nothing for them, but after a second of silence, katie perks up and says "i know! we need you to bring your vacuum over!" ya she was serious too. we have 2 vacuums, but neither of them work. in fact one kind of almost blew up...anyways. mr joe sure did bring his vacuum, AND actually vacuumed for us. it was glorious. glorious indeed.

some of my favorite texts i have received lately are:
* i hope he or she is not a big boob
*pizza is to new york as child birth is to utah
* i just bought that potato book you were telling me about
* im renewing my library books online. i guess my low iq wasnt enough to read them in the amount of time given
*ugh. your such a teacher sometimes

p.s gretch, the blog title is for you....

thats it for now. my creative juices have been used up the past 3 weeks, and now i must sleep. yay!

"Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."

"Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."  

I finished The Help about 2 weeks ago, 

and am already aching to read it again.

i dont know why it took me so long to finish it, 

(probably because i was so busy at the end of the school year)

but i seriously loved it. 

such a clever read, with brilliant characters.

ahhh it was lovely.

i actually listened to the majority of it on audio, and it was

AMAZING.

im not usually a fan of audio books, but i think im newly converted!

can't wait to see the movie with kym and her mom next weekend! yippeeee!

"...out of the blue, he kissed me. Right in the middle of the Robert E. Lee Hotel Restaurant, he kissed me so slowly with an open mouth and every single thing in my body-my skin, my collarbone, the hollow backs of my knees, everything inside of me filled up with light."

'That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive--all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.'(12)

 go read this book...NOW!!!!

its amazing.

i borrowed it from one of my team teachers, and i couldnt put it down!

as soon as payday comes again, im running to the store to buy it for myself, so i can read it again and again

and mark up all the FANTASTIC quotes and moments. seriously, it was wonderful and enchanting! 

ahhhh love a good book.

'It was amazing to me then, and still is, that so many people who wander into bookshops don't really know what they're after--they only want to look around and hope to see a book that will strike their fancy. And then, being bright enough not to trust the publisher's blurb, they will ask the book clerk the three questions: (1) What is it about? (2) Have you read it? (3) Was it any good?'(16)

oh life

oh bother, its been so long! so here are some random thoughts as of late...

can i just say im addicted to pinterest? okay good. im ADDICTED to pinterest. i signed up a long long time ago, but never logged on really until about 2 or 3 weeks ago. CANT. STOP. PINNING!!! there should be a support group.

i have had a few harry potter dreams lately, i still cant believe its all over. no more books. no more movies. what a cruel cruel world in which we live in

finally made it to lagoon a few weeks ago. it was lovely. but i felt super old. the heat about killed us, but we prevailed. we stayed 12 hours, and it took me like an entire week to recover. i think going in october is the best idea ever...wont wear us out so fast!

on july 23rd, i did something crazy! i camped out in downtown salt lake. it was weird for me....but apparently the whole state does it, cause there were people piled ever where. it was a strange experience, but it was such a FUN way to celebrate pioneer day. the parade was awesome, and they totally put boise parades to shame. sad.

birthdays are super weird. i mean really. so what if you go from 22 to 23, or 78 to 79 woopdeedoo. who cares? its like the quote from one of my favorite shows :

“I saw him on the news recently ‘celebrating’ his 100th birthday…They wheeled him out and he had that wide-eyed expression of pained confusion that God reserves for the very, very old on their birthdays. You know, the one that says ‘Who are you, who am I and why is this cake on fire?’”

(pretty sure only kym will know this one)

but seriously why is this cake on fire? why do we celebrate birthdays past the age of like 16? its silly to me. but regardless of that, i did have a good birthday. i did my laundry, spent hours trying to consolidate my student loans, organized my important documents, walked around gardener village with liz and had a lovely dinner with my TWO favorite katies! ms craigo and ms katie jane they were awesome and took me to red robin (yummm) and to a movie, which i will have you know is my NEW FAVORITE. oh my goodness...so magical. SO happy.

i also went home to boise for the weekend and let my family wish me a happy birthday, which was fun :) the best present of all was mr thornton...all for my very own. swoon!

while home we also had samuels eagle court of honor, which was lovely! got to see lots of friends and family, and even got together with some of my high school crew and performed. it was weird, and awesome.

for some reason, my dad told samuel that after he got his eagle he would take him to golden corral which is this giant buffet in boise (dont ask me why on earth he would ever WANT to go there, but he seriously couldnt wait...the kid loves food, whatever) so the day after the court of honor, dad and samuel go to golden corral...well, about 30 minutes after they leave i get a text from samuel (fyi he doesnt have a phone, just an itouch) this was our conversation

samuel: so im basically in heaven right now

me: oh geez. how come? non stop food and free wifi

samuel: oooooooooooooooo yyyyeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

me: oh wow. you need help

samuel: i can die now. i'll just go to scotland as a ghost with joseph smith or something

me: what? you are the weirdest kid i know!

samuel: am not im basically the coolest

me: okay maybe, but still

seriously, i have no idea where he came from.

so the week i saw midnight in paris, i also saw soul surfer and crazy stupid love. seriously loved them all. 2011 had the best summer for movies, thats for sure. i mean, i have already seen crazy, stupid, love 3 times now...i need help. but i just loved it so much. and who wouldnt want to stare at ryan gosling for another 2 hours? i mean, personally, i could stare at him forever...just sayin

is it sad that im really excited for school to start? i love my job, and am super excited about all the fun things i have planned. oh im such a nerd...i know i will be crying as soon as it starts, cause for some reason i feel the need to be super woman, and am now helping direct the school choir, as well as serve as a student council teacher. what is my problem? chances are you wont be seeing me much this year, or i wont be sleeping much...we shall see

how is it that with a college degree and a career, im more poor than i ever have been. being an adult kinda sorta really sucks

um...what else...OH nitrous oxide is super weird! gahhhh

okay im done for now!

peace. love. happiness