May 2nd is coming close :)

I don't know how to put this down toward the bottom of my message, shows how much i know how to use this program :). ha ha.



I just wanted to post a couple of our engagement pictures Shaun and I took in Colorado the other weekend. We only have 6 weeks till we get married!!! We are both excited to start our lives together. To think that after calling the "wrong Shaun" he turns out to be Mr. Right :). I hope everyone is as lucky as I am and marrying or is married to their best friend.

I was also lucky to be in CO and see my first nephew!! His name is Aiden and he is such a doll. My family is so use to girls that we are all going to spoil him!! I have never gotten to see a niece or nephew that young(he was two weeks when we came out) and so that was a first for me as well. We had fun with my sister and brother-in-law and their two other kids, Lizzie and Brianna. The girls always wanted to be around Uncle Shaun, they love him more than me! Ha ha.

The rewards of being me (a teacher)

Okay, the other day in the teacher's lounge a few of us teachers were talking and one made the comment that everyone always responds "oh, you're a few, that is so fun!" His reply to this is always, " yes, you can call it that as well as rewarding, hard work, etc." I just wanted to agree with his statement...teaching is very rewarding.
I have had several experiences throughout these last couple of months that have been very rewarding and I wanted to share a couple. One experience has been with my lowest reader in the class. Along with being my lowest reader he is also my lowest writer. Well this kid has a rough broken home situation, but what impresses me is that he doesn't show it behaviorally. Anyways, he has been doing so awesome the last couple of weeks in reading. This week, we started writer's workshop and have had a older lady to start coming in to help couple of my poorer writer's. Well as of the last couple of days, I've been letting my fourth graders chose their own topics to write about (we have been working on Halloween poems and such). So my low reader had no clue what to write. I encouraged him to take out the sheet of ideas that each parent filled out at the beginning of the year. Him and Mrs. Olsen, the aide helping out read over the list. A minute later I looked back at the table he was sitting at and he was busy writing. Not even 10 minutes later, he had almost filled the full page(skipping ever other word). This gave me chills. When I mentioned it to his mom, the principal, and a few other teachers I teared up every time. He finished the story and let me read it and read a bit of it to me as well. That was worth more than I can say.
Another of my poor writer's in the back table did so well the next day with our new aide being there as well. There were some that told me to be careful about having her there cause she could be old and honory, but she is the best thing that happen to these lower kids.
The other week we had back to school night and I loved being with all my parents. I have such a great group of kids and great parents as well. I loved telling them how amazing their kids were and hearing what they thought about their children from a home view. One of my mother's told me a funny story that happened in her car as her husband was telling my student and her older brother some jokes. Apparently he was telling them a canibal joke and my student, Samantha J, asked what a canibal was...And her dad answered that it is someone who eats another person. So she asked "Then why does my teacher ask us to be that in the hall..." Then her parents figured it out and explained that I mean accountable....Not a canibal. Her mom teases her now not to chew on her friend's arm as we go down the hall. ha ha ha. My principal was tokd that joke and loved it!!! She even added it to her talk in church last week. The other day that same student was trying to think of something to write a story about and I told her to write the story down :).
These are just a few of the cute moments I had that were pretty rewarding to me. Also I just started the recorder with one of my fourth grade classes and some have been staying in from recess and practicing the song they just learned. That is so fulfilling as well to feel their excitement for the things they are trying to master. I'm sure that I could go on but I'll just stop there and write more another day :)....

Ok, so it has been forever since I have written and I am so sorry. Fourth grade officially started on August 20th and life has been crazy ever since. I just wanted to say that I have the best class ever! I could not have asked for a more perfect class. They, I'm sure, would have wished for a more perfect teacher though.
Anyways I don't have too much to say for now since I still have lots to do... But I do want to say that I thought I had taken more pics of my classroom, but I guess not. I'll take more and post them soon!!!

Adventure of the Year

Well this year has been very exciting for me when it comes to having adventures. I went canyoneering in February(The same day Kaelynn was born :), sailing in May, and last Friday I went floating down the Provo River (well floating would not be the right word because we went in a two-man raft with oars and everything :). This has to be deemed the adventure of the year in the sense that it was the most dangerous. But trust me when I say that I have loved the other two adventures and want to plan on having many more :) .

Anyways, so Dallin and I went down the river once having good conversations and such. Then after deflating the raft and everything (and sticking it into the trunk) we decided to go once again. So on our way down the river we came along 3 boys on two tubes. One of the boy's tubes had popped and the two other boys were supporting him in between their tubes with a tee-shirt. But we let him jump in the raft cause the water was freezing and it is very shallow at parts of the river. So then we threw a rope to the other two boys and went along our merry way. Well, if anyone has floated down the river before u would know that there is a bridge and rough waters around it. The company that you can rent tubes from tells their renters to get out of the water and walk around the bridge and they can then get back int the water. Well, since we rented from BYU and made it through the bridge safely the first time we were going through it again. Dallin thought it would have been better if the two guys on the tubes would let go and then we could meet up with them. I didn't like that plan because we were the ones with the oars, the steering power and we would have left them to face the bridge helpless.

So as we approached the bridge we tried getting through one of the sections and we didn't make it. We flipped over and the raft got wrapped around a pole on the bridge. It was pretty scary cause I got sucked under water and couldn't get up for a couple of seconds. I had a panic attack for a second, all I could think about was getting back up. As I submerged from the surface I hurdled myself over a log and the current started taking me away from Dallin and some of the boys. I floated past a fisherman who stood there the whole time doing nothing (grr) and then floated pat one of the guys who helped me stopped floating down. Dallin and the other two boys came down to meet us after that.

On the bank of the river we assessed the damage (two flip flops((both left feet of mine and Dallin's flip flops)), a pair of sunglasses, Dallin's soccer shirt, etc. But we were all safe and that is what matters. Tyler, one of the boys, and I compared bruises. Then after discovering that another tube had popped, we fit four in our raft and traveled down the river :) . I felt like we were on a scouting trip or something :). Then as I was thinking about it, I wished we were on a girl's camp adventure cause at least we would all be singing and still having a ball ! But the reality was we agreed it was adventure but were all so cold and ready to get down to the end. But Dallin and I talked about it afterward and agreed that it was a good thing that we saw the boys and helped them out because we couldn't imagine how cold it would have been for Tyler to go a couple of miles in really cold, shallow water. But we agreed that we'd hope if not us someone else would have been helpful as well.

We truly had an adventure and I have the bruises to prove it, but it was so much fun!!! It took me awhile to document this but I knew this would be a winning story for my blog :). This is a picture of some of my many bruises on my legs. Throughout this week /i have seen them all change colors and they have been so cool!! If you really know me, you would know that i love my battle wounds :), but these are some bruises that remind me that I am glad that nothing more dangerous happened to anyone in our group. . . .

If your right hand offendeth thee...

So I might not be using the scriptures properly but those are the first things I could think of after my third incident on my right hand. I got a huge blister last Monday from a hammer that I was using and that is taking awhile to heal. Then, two days after that I scrapped my finger(both of these incidents happened on the right pointer finger) on the outside from putting something on a pallett. Then tonight, one of my co-workers and I were trying to fit these massive boxes in the bayler and I was still pushing some in while he was shutting it. So I smashed my hand a little bit. It didn't hurt or anything, but I was still a girl and went off to cry alittle :). Now, my right hand has two scabs on my pointer finger and it is swollen. So, that is why I thought of the scripture"if thy right hand offend thee..."(excuse me for taking it out of context :) .

Lucky Me

So this picture was taken last month at our friend Kyle's wedding. Shaun and Tyler are my best friends and spoil me at times (just like right now, I mean who wouldn't feel good about herself having two good looking guys kissing her :) ). They are both gone for the summer though and I just have to fend for myself :(. But I just wanted to post this (or I was prompted to post this picture) to show how lucky I really am to have two hot, really great guys as friends!

The Kite Runner

Lately I have not been satisfied with many movies but this is a movie I will admit to being blown away. The Kite Runner is a story of two boys of different status in Afghanistan, but who are good friends. The friendship is lopsided and proves itself so in the middle when one boy leaves his friend in harms way and then is ashamed of his cowardliness. The boys part ways, and the main character, Admir, leaves with his father to America to escape the Russians who evade Afghanistan. Then Admir and his father, Baba, live in California, a life different of Afghanistan and make a living. The story continues and Admir marries and writes a book (he aspires to be a writer). He gets a call from his father's friend in Afghanistan who gives him a chance to "redeem himself" (Admir was the cowardly one).

If I say more I would be afraid to ruin it. But honestly this movie was amazing. The story, the music, characters, etc. I definitely would watch it again; but there are some strong implications which I would caution against the weak hearted. The emotions of this movie are incredible though. I am so glad my friend Lance and I decided to watch it tonight. Watch it if you too have been unsatisfied with some of these movies that have been released lately. I can't even describe half of the reasons why to rent it on DVD. If my brothers-in-law had seen it, their blogs would give a more intriguing review.

Oh and last night I went to go see the musical The King and I at the Scera outdoor theatre and that was a nice production. I was in good company and the production just reminded me why I enjoy plays so much. I am so excited for the summer and the chances to be outdoors. My goal this summer is to do activities that I enjoy and activities that I can brag to my 4th graders in August. Any ideas for fun, cool activities?? Oh, I get my keys on Monday to my classroom :)!!!!