Happy...November?

I guess I missed Halloween and a birthday, so here's what we've been up to lately...

Adam is constantly busy studying for his classes and wishing he was done already! (To be honest, so do I.) But he has also been ever so patient with my busy-ness and craziness. I finished my Teacher Work Sample (WOOHOOOOOOO!) AND my last ESL Endorsement class! Everything is turned in (as of Saturday) and complete. It feels so good. I found out today that I passed my Teacher Work Sample, so that's a relief. Not that there was much to worry about, but just a relief that there's nothing major to fix. I also started my second block of student teaching in a first grade. It's definitely been a different experience and it's taken me a while (about 3 weeks) to readjust my teaching strategies for 5 year olds. They are just adorable though. One kid that reminds me of Adam tried sitting on my lap today (hmmm, coincidence?). Yesterday a kid puked during computer lab and then pooped his pants on his way to the bathroom. G-r-o-s-s. Period. Something new happens everyday to remind me that these adorable children of God can't do everything on their own. That's the perspective I have to keep. :)

Halloween was great though! We found our costumes at the last minute, which is why they don't match this year. We'll try harder next year. Long story short, we didn't want to spend a ton of money, and I couldn't find anything resembling a Princess Leia costume for the life of me! So I was a fairy instead. Last dress on the shelf and I conned another woman out of the last pink glittery wings in the dive basket at Wal-Mart. When asked if I had a big or a little girl who needed wings for her Halloween costume I replied, "Big girl. She's definitely a BIG girl." The lady at the checkout counter thought it was so cute that "she'll definitely wear this till Christmas!" I certainly will.

Adam's costume was a little more complicated, just because of the blaster. Blasted blaster. We finally found a pirate's gun that he spray painted black and a holster that I made out of some burlap material. Bad idea. It fell apart halfway through the night, but it fulfilled it's purpose: look good for pictures. Then we had a few friends over to enjoy some bloody fondue (we found some red melting vanilla at the party store, perfect for blood, and mixed it with a little bit of regular chocolate, which explains the orangey-brown color in the pictures), chocolate ghosts and pumpkins, and other yummy goodies. We didn't get any trick-or-treaters either, which was good since we didn't have any candy to hand out. But it was nice and quiet and enjoyable.

Last Saturday Adam took me on a date to celebrate my completion of all my work! We went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and out to dinner at (any guesses?)...Red Robin. The zoo is where we spent our 6 month anniversary of dating and where Adam proposed, so it has officially been deemed our "happy place." It was a great day to be done with work because the weather was great, we could spend time together, and there were lots of new baby animals at the zoo! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves and wish everyone a Happy November!

Happy Birthday Gail! And thanks to the old roomies for a great Sunday dinner! :)

Fall...

I'm so glad fall is here! It's been so beautiful the past few days and I love it! The weather has been great, the colors are so vibrant, and it puts me into a great mood. Now that I've said that, I'll bet it'll all turn to pot in the next week and start raining and turning all brown. Blah.

Anyway, I had a wonderful 5 day weekend because Wed-Fri was Fall Break for the Provo School District. Let me just say it was amazing to not have to get up early for 3 days! However, it was not all fun and games. Thursday I was on campus ALL day, I mean from 9-5 working on the Teacher Work Sample (TWS) to try to get it all done. I still have a little bit left, but I am farther along than some other people, which makes me feel good. And I still have a whole week to finish about 3 pages or so...not bad. But in the time I did have off, I went on a couple dates with Adam, which was so wonderful! We've been so busy that our dates have just been a relaxing evening with a movie. We actually got to go out to dinner and saw the movie "UP" and went costume shopping for Halloween...basically amazing. Also, my old roommate Ashley got her MISSION CALL! She is called to serve in the Santa Rosa, California Mission speaking Spanish! She leaves on December 30. I was so excited, mostly because that's about an hour and a half away from my home town. Yay! We were all there, and I was able to get pictures, which should be attached. Congrats Ashley!





On another, almost sad note, this is my last week in the 4th grade. I'm being demoted (kinda) to a 1st grade classroom starting next Monday for the next 8 weeks. I know I'll love it, but I've grown so fond of my 4th graders that I don't want to leave! Last week was so much fun...we got to make playdough maps of the state of Utah (mine turned out amazing), go to Hee Haw Farms (so much fun!) and do art for most of the day. If only everyday could be like that. So, now I have to finish the last week out strong and be ready for another grueling 8 weeks before I'm officially a teacher!




Wish me luck!

New Calling!

So today I was called as the 1st counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I'm excited! It's going to be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to meeting all the other women in the ward that I do not know (which is most of the women in the ward). We actually had to conduct today, on our first Sunday, and it was so weird sitting up at the front with everyone watching you! Not like I do anything embarrassing during Relief Society, but I felt like I had to be on my best behavior. Anyway, it should be fun!

Happy October!

I realized after visiting Megan's blog that it's been 4 weeks since I posted. Not impressive. The last time I posted I had just finished the first week of student teaching. Now I only have 2 weeks left! It's been a blast so far. I really love the kids, although there are a select few who decide everyday is their day to make my life miserable. For example, today one boy forgot his library books at home so he had nothing to read. He refused to find another book to read from the selection in the classroom, so the teacher took him to the library to check out the exact same book as the one he left at home. Upon returning to class, he continued to whine and complain for 15 minutes that he couldn't read this book because it wasn't THE book he had left at home. He insisted that he wanted HIS book because this one was different and he didn't like it. Oh, the NERVE!! After every threat we could manage, he finally began to read once he saw a girl in the class reading a book from the same series. WHAT?! Why didn't I think of that?
Another boy began reading one of the Rainbow Fairy books today. It's a series of children's chapter books about fairies. If you can imagine, as I came around to check off the reading log, there he was with the book conveniently hid underneath the table so no one else could see it. Then he began to defend it saying that "these books aren't just for girls, anyone can read them." What do you say to that? "It's ok, kid. We all know you like reading girlie books." I just smiled and nodded and moved on.
The whole experience has been an adventure. I come home everyday with some new funny story or frustration to tell Adam. He kindly obliges my daily venting, thankfully. The workload has been more than I imagined, so I can't wait to see what full-time teaching brings!
I found out that for the next block (from Oct. 26-Dec. 11) I will be at another school in a 1st grade classroom. Since I've already been in a 1st grade, I think I know what to expect, but every experience is different and brings new challenges. On the bright side, I will have my Teacher Work Sample done (a huge paper outlining your teaching experiences with all the details of assessment and student records, etc.) and my ESL endorsement practicum out of the way, so I will be able to just focus on teaching! It will be so nice!
Well, sorry about no pictures. We've been so busy we haven't really done anything fun or camera-worthy. But we're planning a lunch date for next week (thank goodness!) at the Skyroom (a fancy, student-budgeted restaurant on BYU campus). And that will be after our 2nd field trip of the year to Hee Haw Farms (can you imagine?). The kids are super excited, and so am I!!!