STEPHEN BUYING ME A NEW CAMERA AS AN EARLY GRADUATION PRESENT!! and when I got to take pics with Had and the lighting was just so^^// when I had to teach my class how to fill out a bubble sheet because they had never seen or used one before  HAHA. // half-off sushi at Happy Sumo // enjoying said sushi with good friends // homemade sweet pork nachos // singing and dancing to newsies songs with my class and showing off the fact that I know almost every word to "Carrying the Banner" // buying plane tickets for my cousin's wedding in CA in may // teaching how to find the area of a trapezoid and actually understanding the formula for the first time in my life (because clearly that is oh-so-important and I've used it oh-so-many times in the "real world") // my cousin getting his mission call to Jakarta, Indonesia // when one of my students won a BIKE for submitting a drawing about eating breakfast // when 4 students went on a rant about how The Princess Bride is the best movie of all time // Miriam FINALLY deciding that she is COMING TO BYU in the fall!!! // when the weather was SO SO SO nice on Saturday that Stephen and I were those weird people who went over to the park to take a nap in the fresh air and sunshine // dressing up for EVERY spirit day last week in honor of Dr. Suess week (if you know me, you know I don't mess around with spirit days) // reading the book "Horton Hatches the Egg" to a class of third graders and having them ask me "are you an actor?" because I did the voices so well I'm sure ;) 

Quotes:
One of my friends is teaching her first grade class about plants and they were making a list of all the things that plants need to grow, so she was writing, "sunlight," "water," "dirt," etc on the board when one little boy shouts, "And they need FAITH too!!!"

Student 1: "Why don't you share a room with your brother?"
Student 2: "It's probably because we don't share a really strong bond." 

Student: "He was playing Churchball, which is basketball when you play with your ward." 


As is probably evident with the above list, school is pretty much consuming all my thoughts at the moment. It's a good thing I love it! I'm sure I say this all the time, but I honestly cannot believe how quickly this year is ending. And I still have so much I want to teach them!!!! Unfortunately, I still have ONE MORE assignment for BYU left and it is hanging over my head like the dark grey cloud of awfulness and gloom that it is. GAH. I just need to buckle down and do it and then SPRING BREAK!!! If I can just hold on until then, life will be a breeze. (Or at least that's what I tell myself. Every day.) But what am I doing here complaining in a HAPPY post?!?!?!?!? I apologize...I just want to be done already!!!!!


Who's with me? 

_ _ _
han.

PS sorry about the wacko font sizes. I messed up something with the coding when I was pretending like I knew what I was doing one day, and now my fonts are either wayyyy too big or wayyyy too small. I'm going with the "too big" option today just for fun.
PPS I would love nothing more than opportunities to procrastinate working on productive things  learn more about my new camera, so if you want to awkwardly pose for me while I take pictures I would love you forever!!!!

The school day was fun. CRAZY. But fun :). There's nothing like 28 twelve-year-olds hyped up on candy and excited for school to be over. I can't blame them though, I was probably just as ready to get out of there as they were! 

Some of my other favorites:
+ Creepy cats eat creepy crawlies.
+ Which witch is in which wardrobe?
+ Parker the Pumpkin punched Pinocchio into pieces.
+ Bats bite baseballs, but basketballs bounce on bats.
+ The green, grumpy goblin grabbed some gravel and gruesomely glared at it. (HAHA! That one is definitely my favorite.)

^^I was pretty proud that I whipped these little bad-boys up in 20 minutes. I think they turned out pretty cute :)



PS Did I mention I'm just days away from being ONE FORTH OF THE WAY through this school year???? THERE IS SIMPLY NO. WAY.

As I've been scouring Pinterest the last few weeks  months, trying to find anything and everything map related, I came across a cool image of the quote, "Be the change you hope to see in the world," inside of a simple globe shape. I really liked the idea of the piece, but it looked bit too grainy and "old" for my taste. I decided to see what I could do to "fix it up a bit" and maybe if I liked it well enough I'd hang it up in my classroom.

Stephen's favorite part of the gardens was naturally the Koi Pond Overlook. He LOVES koi fish. (Well  actually he loves every animal in the whole world....except birds.) He asked me to take a picture of the fishes with their mouths open and I have to admit I was pretty pleased with the one I got. Also, right when we pulled into the parking lot at Thanksgiving Point, Stephen got the hiccups. Exactly two hours later when we were leaving the gardens....he STILL had the hiccups! Eventually they went away, but then came back again...TWICE! I've never seen anyone have the hiccups that long! It was pretty funny watching him try to eat at the restaurant while hiccuping every few seconds. haha

12 apples have been consumed by Stephen and me in the last week. (We found the BEST apples at Lolo's. I dream about them.)
11 games of Ruzzle played by Stephen since getting his iphone last Thursday. (He would like it to be known that he hasn't lost yet.)
10 dollars spent on my haircut last week at Aveda hair school. (Really good deal...It just took about 3 hours.)
9:55 a.m. our goal of being at church five minutes early is going relatively well....
8 times a day I'm grateful that I can finally text Stephen with emojis. IT IS SO EXCITING.
7 intramural games so far this semester. (We've already missed three.)
6 times a day I check instagram. I'm a bit of an addict.
5 weeks until the start of my 3-6 practicum. I'm REALLY excited!
4 cups of coconut rice made by Isaac and Chels that we willingly helped them eat.
3 days until the start of February. Man how time flies!
2 hundred million times a day I'm grateful for my dear sweet husband ;)
1 time Stephen beat Isaac at Harry Potter Quiz up. (A moment that will go down in history I'm sure.)
0 The number of people that showed up to my "iMovie Basics" class last Saturday because I forgot to list it on the public library calendar. HAHA
PS I really didn't mean to do this, but I subconsciously stole this numbers idea from my friend Emilee a while ago. WOOPS. All cleverness credit goes to her.
PSS I promise to post a real post with pictures and all that stuff soon :)

I'm officially two weeks into my last semester of classes at BYU.

It's so exciting and scary that this chapter of my life is almost over. Sometimes I get REALLY REALLY excited about finally being a teacher (since it has been my dream literally for as long as I can remember) and other times I am SCARED. BEYOND. BELIEF.

Who am I to think I'm qualified for such an insurmountable task?
Who am I to think I have the ability to teach students concepts in a way they can understand?
Am I really ready to have to get up every morning at 6:00 (or earlier depending on where I get a job) and then stay up late into the night solidifying lesson plans and gathering materials?
Am I ready to have 30 (give or take) students depend on me for HOURS every day?
I am ready to be constantly worrying that I'm not doing enough?

These are the fears that enter my mind on a daily to weekly basis.

My literacy class this semester is taught by Brad Wilcox, who funnily enough has always been kind of a celebrity to me. Growing up we had a couple of his talks on tape and  I LOVED listening to them. At one point I had his talk "Saving the World One Lunch Period at a Time" memorized almost word for word! Not long after joining the El Ed program I saw him walking in the hall one day. I had no clue who he was until I heard him start talking to someone else in the hall. I recognized his voice immediately! And now, in my very last semester of classes, I get to be one of his students.

On the first day of his class, Monday after Christmas break at 8:00 am (needless to say I wasn't feeling particularly happy to be back at school...) he calmed all of my fears. He talked about how difficult it probably was for each of us to choose the path of Elementary Education (especially with all of the negative stigmas attached to it at BYU). He expressed his sympathy for the many negative reactions people give when you announce your major to a group of people. He assured us that El Ed IS a real major regardless of what people may tell us. And that just because we want to teach elementary kids, doesn't mean we can't think above an elementary level. I could relate to almost each situation he presented and found myself nodding vigorously in agreement more than once throughout the class period.

And then, without taking a beat. He calmed all of my fears. He inspired me. He motivated me and made me so excited to finally get into the classroom. This is what I want to do for my students. I thought to myself over and over again. This is what teaching really is. 

It's so easy, especially at this point in the major, to get really overwhelmed with all of the content and the core standards and the lesson planning, to get caught up in the nit-picky things. Don't get me wrong, I know those things are important too, but when I think about my favorite teachers throughout my life, I don't remember specific concepts they taught, I remember how they made me feel. Even now, just two short weeks after that first class, I can't really remember what Brother Wilcox said, I just remember I came out of that room ready to take on the world.

I know teaching will be exhausting and frustrating and challenging, and it will probably put my weaknesses out in plain sight for all the world to see. But even still,