Another great surprise!

As today I didn't have to go to school, I've been running around and getting caught up on things... like my blog. However, while I was out running around trying to get errands done (it's supposed to keep storming for 2 days like this, so we're going into hibernation), I got a picture that made my day:

I swear, I never understood why missionary families were so proud until we had one in our family. This is the second time we've gotten a picture from the mission president's wife, and I hope that keeps up. It keeps things interesting for us!

Third Week of Student Teaching

Day 11. We had a "work day" on Monday, instead of enjoying MLK Day like everyone else. However, it was a great experience. I helped to build an igloo out of milk jugs with my 1st grade cooperating teacher, and had the chance to talk more with my  cooperating teachers and get to know them. 7 hours was not that bad.

Day 12. While talking with some girls about what they wanted to be when they grew up:

Me: Do you want to be a mom?

Girl: No, that's gross! I know what happens when you have a baby!

Me: Ok, so what do you want to be?

Girl: I'll give you a hint, it starts with a "V".

Me: Vacuum?

Girl: Nooo! A vet! I want to be an animal operator!

Me: Wait a second. You want to cut animals open for a living but you don't want to have a baby?

Girl: NO! That's gross!

Day 13. The kids aren't allowed to come inside before school until it's below 0. Don't ask me why, but that's the rule. My cooperating teacher and I were on bus duty, which includes walking around and helping the kids One of the cute little boys was crying because he wanted the bell to ring, and buried his face into my coat. Luckily it's waterproof, because he cried a lot. When he pulled away my coat was soaked and my boots had teardrops on them. The funniest part was that when the bell rang, he started crying harder. I said, "NO NO, you said you wanted the bell to ring and it did. Be happy! You can go inside now!" He ran away from me crying. I love those kids sometimes.

Day 14. The bad weather and moisturizer combination is making puberty hit my face like crazy... which is grade when you have kindergarteners come up to you and say "Why do you have spots on your face?" Thanks...

Day 15. Today, I had a great experience with a child. We were dealing with behavioral incidences from a lot of students, and I finally pulled one out of the room into the hall. I was going to scold him, but I had the feeling to tell him that I loved him too much to let him do that. It was amazing to see what happened. He calmed down immediately, and for the rest of the day held my hand and gave me hugs. So I kept reinforcing that I loved him, and that I want him to have a good day. When I dropped him off, he gave me a drawing of a snowman that "he" had made (I'm not sure if he did, but I loved it). It brought a lump to my throat, because I realized that these kids just want love from their teachers. I want to tell my class I love them at least once a day, so they can have that reinforced.

Study Abroad

This story has many parts.

1. My biggest regret from college is that I never got to do a study abroad. I know I know, that's such a first world problem. But seriously. Especially after going to Nicaragua, I have wanted to go somewhere Latin and immerse myself in that culture and that language.

2. Since Brandon and I have a year between BYU-Idaho and Brandon's P.A. school, we were looking about an internship for Brandon. We figure we should go somewhere crazy, because after that we won't be able to live in a foreign country. Since he spoke Spanish on his mission (and being bilingual is a boost in the medical field), we have been looking at Latin America. I was just worried that I would be bored for 4 months without anyone to keep me entertained, so an internship for me would be great too.

3. I got an email the other day about a paid internship opportunity in Puebla, Mexico. That's perfect! I was so excited, and told Brandon to start looking for internships around there, because if he could get one there too we could fulfill one of our dreams. 

Sadly, one of the requirements is getting TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) certified. I have 5 months to do it if we wanted to go in the fall. I mean, I'd be down for 2 international internships after each other, but it's still frustrating. I could get the credits done in a semester, but with student teaching it might be hard.

I'm not sure how this is going to happen, but I know that an internship in Mexico teaching English is 1) a lifelong dream and 2) something great to put on a resume.

Stay tuned!

Spontaneity.

I'm not a spontaneous person. When we are going on a trip, I freak out about if we have our luggage and if we forgot anything.

Today, I did something spontaneous.

To back this up, I've always wanted long hair. I had a goal of growing it to my waist, and it's just about there right now. However, I've been sick of my hair for a long time. I have been having to fight it every day for months, and it gets knotted in no time flat. Even after I got haircuts, it would just fry and get tangled. I was so so sick of it, and how much it would hurt to brush it. It reminded me of when my mom cut my hair when I was 4 because I'd cry when she'd brush my hair... same thing pretty much.

So today, I got a text from my friend who cuts hair saying she had an opening at 3. I said yes, of course. And while I was thinking about it, I was thinking that I should donate my hair. I put it off, and went to my appointment. I was talking about how I wrestle with my hair every day, and then I said, "Alright, let's donate it!"

In order to demonstrate the drastic difference, let me show you in pictures.

Before:

After:

Ohhh my gosh. I can't believe it still. But you know how people say they miss their long hair? Well, to me it's like kicking that bad boyfriend to the curb. We had our good times, but the last few months have been nothing but fighting so it was good that you went.

I'm glad that I have such talented friends. I just said that I wanted a hairstyle that looked cute in hats and headbands, and something that I could pull back if I wanted. And voila!

Second Week of Student Teaching

Day 6: My second week is starting off great. No, scratch that, it's starting off AWESOME. Having grown up in Southern California, and going to a college that never ever EVER cancels class, I've never had a snow day. I'm in my 18th or 19th year of school, and I've never had one. I was hoping that my last semester would prove to break that spell. Well, it did! I got a text today from my teacher saying that school was cancelled so go back to bed. I was more than happy to oblige.
Day 7: Back to school! I really love it so much. In some of our English classes, we were talking about treasure chests and asked if the students had seen one. Here were some answers:
 Second Grader: Well, one time my dad and I went rowing out into the middle of the ocean, and we dove down way deep and found this huge box of treasure and we carried it up and it was so heavy it made our boat sink. Well, actually it just made the treasure sink.
-Later-
First Grader: I've seen one!
Me: Really? Where?
First Grader: My grandpa was a pirate, and he has a treasure chest. Now it's just a glove box.
I love my kids.
Day 8: Last week I had had the chance to introduce myself to the first grade class I will be with for the second half of the semester. My cooperating teacher in that class said a boy walked up to her desk, where my cover letter and picture was, and said, "When are HER coming back? And how long are HER going to stay?" Enough said. I love my life.
Day 9: I'm starting to teach 4th grade math. Naturally, I volunteered right at the time we are covering something completely different from what they had ever learned before (division). I need the long weekend to think about how to approach this subject, because it's a pretty hard thing to cover.
Day 10: Today, a boy was able to accomplish his reading goal and go to the school's "Minute to Win It" competition in a few weeks. He struggles with reading, so I was so proud of him for getting it done.

This job is so so rewarding. The little things that happen every day make everything worth it. I am trying more to post the happy things that happened, and the funny things as well.

I'm so thankful for my sweet husband. He gets up with me a lot of mornings, and will go outside in the sub-zero temperatures and turn on my car and scrape off the ice so that I don't have to. And when he doesn't get up, he apologizes. Like I'm so offended! This is the first time ever, in 3 years that we've been together, that I have consistently gotten up earlier than him. And he says he feels bad for taking a nap while I'm at school. Please. And every Friday (well, the last 2), he's taken me out to dinner to celebrate a day done.
2 down, 14 to go! I'm really loving this experience. It's exactly what I had hoped for. And while we have to go in to work on Monday (MLK Day), we don't have to go until 9. I'm going to plan my unit that I'm teaching in that time (frogs).

First week of Student Teaching- Down!

So I survived my first week of student teaching. I love love LOVE the special education room I am in right now. It's called "the Learning Center", and the children love to come there. It's a school that was built in the 30's, and has a ghost. It was a man who was killed in a boiler room accident a long time ago, and supposedly haunts one of the halls in the school.

The Special Education room works with children in all the classes, and there are no children who stay there all day. It's different from what I expected, but I love it.

My cooperating teachers are just great. They are so sweet, and I'm getting comfortable with them. I love that. It is helping balance the idea of getting up at 6 every day... I hate mornings.

This week can be summarized into the "exciting" moment of the day.

Day 1: 2nd graders trying to get away with a lot of stuff from me. I had to finally look at all of them and say: "Look, you are not going to get away with any of this from me. I'm not going to give you the answers, but I'm going to help you. So if you keep guessing, I'm not going to help you and you can stay in at recess to finish your assignment." Then, a boy spit at me. I looked at him, and as he tried to run away I grabbed his arm and said, "Ok, that's not appropriate. You're staying in at recess now, because you just spit at a teacher." He freaked out and ran into the corner... he did apologize later.

Day 2: Kindergarteners were getting stamps when they finished their assignment. Boy did not finish his assignment on time, so the teacher didn't know he had finished. He freaks out, and starts punching himself in the face. Right about that time, I offered to bring them back to their classroom. As we're rounding the corner to the hallway where his classroom is, he lets out a piercing shriek and runs into his classroom. His teacher comes running out, along with the whole class, and asks what happened. I was completely red, but explained a little bit of what happened. The kids then asked me what happened, one by one. Welp.
Day 3: They have play money that they can trade in the "store" days once a month. A boy wanted to convert coins into dollars, so I was helping him convert his coins. I told him that's what I was teaching the 5th graders, and he just lit up. (Technically that's not true, I was teaching multiplying money to 4th graders, but it was the motivation he needed.)
Day 4: We have to leave school early, because one of the girls in our carpool has a Dr.'s appointment at 4 and we're supposed to stay until 4 normally. As the day draws to a close, we get severe weather warnings. There's supposed to be a huge snowstorm coming, and Pocatello and Blackfoot had already closed their school for the next day. Luckily, right as we were leaving the principal told all the teachers they should leave at 3, because the storm was coming in.

Not gonna lie, on the way home I felt like this:

But let's be honest, it was more like this:

We made it home safe, and only slid a little bit.
Day 5: They didn't cancel school! Idaho State University closed school, and almost all of southeastern Idaho closed their schools. But we didn't... I just had to slide for 40 minutes to get down there.
Quote of the day:
Me: Ok so this problem say to measure your math textbook to the nearest inch. Go grab your textbook.
Girl: (Points to pencil box)
Me: Is that your textbook?
Girl: (Grabs folders)
Me: Ok, I can't help you when you're not going to try. Now, you know what your math textbook looks like.
Girl:... Barely.
At that point, I just stood up and told her that if she found her textbook (which was on the table) to let me know. She found it.

These kids keep my life interesting, and I love the different things that happen. I am also learning about what I like and what makes me tick as a teacher. 1 week down, 15 to go!

All about Dane.

I've been waiting to meet Dane since Alyse called and said they were going to have a baby. So, if I seem a little bit excited to be around Dane... deal with it. It's a meeting a year in the making.
Pardon the pun, but our family went gaga for Dane this week. So much so, in fact, that there's a whole blog post just about how much we loved him... with tons of pictures.

When we went to the airport, everyone jumped out of the car as soon as it had stopped and ran to go see Dane. He has a ton of hair, and is in the phase where he will smile at everyone. My dad, being the proud grandpa that he is, snapped this picture:

He was smiling at Cole, as you can see.

The whole way home, we talked to him and smiled at him and pretty much did our best to entertain him. The only time he cried was when my mom turned off the lights... we turned them back on and his lip was sticking out. She felt bad.

I gave Dane his Christmas present of a hat I had made, which I admit I am quite proud of!

It's monstrous (again, pardon the pun) on him, but he'll be able to wear it for a long time now.

At Grantie's homecoming, Dane was nice- generally. I got to bring him out during the 3rd hour, and we spent time bonding. I made him laugh, and also tried to get him to go to sleep, but he's a fighter. After his post-church nap, we all took turns sitting by him so that he would talk to us. I've never heard a baby talk that much in my life. He just has lots of good things to say, I guess. My dad caught this moment on the camera too:

He was laughing so hard when I'd blow a raspberry on his stomach, I wish we had caught it on video. But then he started to get fussy, which is the time we decided he needed to get acquainted with his uncle Brandon... it didn't go over so well.

Brandon's making the face because Dane was stiffening up and basically being an infant who was tired and hungry. Don't worry, they get along better later.
We decided that Dane needed to meet the missing family member. We pulled out Austin's senior picture, and Dane talked to him for a good couple of minutes. He just wanted to tell him how cool he was.

He didn't respond that well to "Candy Dallin"... we didn't catch a picture but every time he looked at Dallin his lip would stick out.
Alyse busted out Dane's NYE outfit, and we loved it...

See? Both happy... sort of!

The last full day we were there, Dane was tired and didn't want to sleep. I took him and walked into my room. I was planning to sit on my bed and rock him, but as I stepped on the trundle bed he stopped crying for a second and got really quiet and still. I bounced on the bed one more time, and his eyes started to close. After about 4 more bounces, he was completely out. What a good little guy. They said I could put him in his carseat, but I just wanted to snuggle one more time before I had to go back to Idaho. So he stayed asleep for about half an hour.

Little guy.
We walked around Balboa Island, and Dane got his first experience of the West Coast.

He sure loves his mom.
He likes to be bounced a lot, and rocked, and all sensations of falling and moving. He's going to grow up to be an extreme person!
Before we left, we couldn't resist getting just one more picture with Danie.

I was bouncing him in this picture... he would laugh then wait for the fall again.

There were some other things we did during our time in Irvine, but this was the best part. We loved being around little Dane, and can't wait to see him in June! I loved just being able to be an aunt, and hear him laugh and talk and smile and make all sorts of cute baby noises.

Christmas Break 2012- Irvine

When we were in Irvine, we actually did more than just stare at Dane... but not much. Here's a rundown though:

Olvera Street, including Union Station:

We hit up the birth place of the French Dip... thoroughly unimpressed.

Nearby is "Angel's Landing", which is a trolly ride built way back when for the celebrities who didn't want to walk up the big hill. It was only 50 cents a person... but when my dad found out it was 50 more cents a person to go down he had us walk about 45 blocks to not pay that. Nice.

LA temple... SO big! I forgot until we got there... so gorgeous too.

We had the hams there too.

Diddy Riese... so good. So cheap too! I recommend it to anyone who goes to L.A.. Just expect a long line out the door.

For NYE, we had a rocking party as per usual... we went to the Great Park. They had a party going and celebrated New Year's New York time, which made it even better. Tiny stayed home with Mom and Dallin just ditched us (lame), so here were the pictures we got:

(Sister, sister. We were IN Times Square, with the orange balloon! Crazy!)

Let's just notice how tall everyone is... except me.

We visited temple #12! Redlands, California. It was super pretty, and reminded me of how I got to go to the Open House back in 2003. Unfortunately, there was no one around to get a picture of the 2 of us so our pictures in the photo album are these:

 Still good to go.

We walked around Balboa Island, and looked at the lights. They're still impressive in the daytime.

Dane likes me because I bounce him a ton... he was laughing like crazy.

And here's little snugglebug himself:

We ate our wedding cake, which my mom had diligently kept in the freezer for 16 months. I thought it was still good... not everyone was as impressed.

It was so great! And so sad to know we were coming back here... oh well.

And one final picture of the majority of our break from Alyse's blog... because let's be honest, this is what we did most of the time:

And that was our Christmas Break 2012

Review of 2012

2012 was a good year. We had a good run, and it was a time to learn lots of new things. I finished my final 3 semesters of college classes, and have not had a break in a long time. 

The hardest thing that has happened is learning that real life means you don't just go home over the breaks. We've got jobs and lives to think about, and don't always have funds for everything you want to do. However, it makes me grateful for my education and for the chance we have to make more money than $8 an hour. So, onward we go!
If there was something that could be the mascot of 2012, I would say it was the temple. As you can see, we went to quite a few temples this year. We will keep it up, but there won't be too many more years that we visit 8 new temples. (For a full list, visit my "Temples" tab).
If there's going to be a symbol for 2013, I'd say it's the cap and gown. Brandon and I are graduating this year! Finally... It will happen. To the year of the cap and gown!