"There's an east wind blowing..." was the only clue I gave my students as to what I was planning on being for halloween. I thought it was a pretty good clue, but apparently it was too obscure because guesses ranged from a witch to a cowboy...haha.

^^Friends and fellow teachers at my school: Riley was The Matchmaker from Mulan and Sophia was a scarecrow.

Stephen was kind and willing enough to oblige me and dress up as Bert at the Halloween parties we attended (even though he called himself Bernie half a dozen times. HAHA...apparently he needs to re-watch Marry Poppins!). 

^^I was quite pleased how our costumes turned out. And we were able to borrow/use stuff we already had, so we only spent $15 on both costumes combined! 

Funnily enough - neither of the parties we went to were on halloween. On actual Halloween we went to a "party" (gathering) Provo City threw on Center Street - it was...interesting. haha. We didn't stay long, but the weather was great so it was nice to be outside. We introduced some friends to a nearby drink shack called Sodalicious, and then went back to their place and watched the second half of a scary movie. (Read: Stephen watched and I pretended to sleep so I wouldn't have nightmares..).When we came home we watched a couple episodes of Modern Family. (If I didn't know any better I'd say it was because Stephen wanted to get his mind off of the scary movie ;)) I'm writing all of this because we can't for the life of us remember what we did on Halloween last year and it's driving me nuts! Neither of us have ANY recollection of it and we don't have any pictures or blogposts to refer to. I'm sure we just stayed home and did homework or something, but at least it would be nice to remember that we stayed home and did homework... 

Spit, spot!

Since it's already November (and I took down my classroom halloween decorations last week) I thought I needed to document them because I was pretty proud of how they turned out. My friend Shannon at Elephant and Chick posted about these really cute bats that she and her husband cut out and taped to their wall as a simple and festive halloween decoration. For about .2 seconds I considered cutting the bats out myself and then I remembered....that's what I have 28 students for! #childlabor

I ended up with over 130 bats.... (and I only gave them about 15 minutes to cut) which was WAYY too many. The good news is, I already have a head-start on next year's decorations!

I also had my students create halloween alliterations and an illustration to go with them. I thought they were really fun and the kids seemed to enjoy the activity, too! I wish I had taken more pictures because they were all really creative. 

I've decided I kinda do like Halloween after-all,

Although you might think cutting 13 inches of hair off of my head was a spur-of-the-moment-type decision - it wasn't. I've been thinking about it for a month at least. I even uploaded my cute little head to a cute little virtual haircutting website and wasted a good half-hour trying out different virtual hairstyles on my virtual self. 

^^BAHAHA. All of these hairstyles should be fully recognizable from famous celebs. Do you recognize hair from the likes of Miley Cyrus, Anne Hathaway, and Nicki Manaj?? If not, I suggest you do a little more studying up on the current VIPs of today's media world.

Although the website was not nearly as helpful as I hoped, I knew I needed a change. And it needed to be big. I talked to a girl in my ward who is a hair stylist and I set up an appointment to go to her salon to get it cut. Even after I set up the appointment, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do. 

I thought about that appointment 10+ times daily, and the conclusion I came to was this: If I cut my hair short, and I hate it, and I want to cry, and I'm mad at myself for cutting it...I would at least feel better knowing my hair was going to good cause. 

At 7:25 am on Friday, I left for the extremely classy establishment, Vavesque Hair Salon, in Lehi. I felt it completely appropriate that the song, "Brave" by Sarah Bareilles played TWICE on the radio on the way there. I turned it up all the way and sang along to all of the lyrics that I knew (which really weren't all that many...).

Also, did I mention how Stephen was out of town during all of this? HAHA. Being the nice wife that I am, I DID tell him that I was going to cut my hair and that it was going to be drastic, but he said he didn't want to see any pictures, he'd rather just wait until he got home. Being the mean wife that I am I sent him the completely-terrifying picture of my "hair ferrets" sitting on my lap. HAHA. He came home last night and neither of us have shed any tears yet so I'd say that's a good sign. ;) 

I was all excited to post about the halloween decorations I put up in my classroom today when I realized...I never even posted pictures of my classroom once I finally finished it!!!!! How the worst am I?! I guess that gives an idea of just how CRAAAAZY the last FIFTY-EIGHT days have been since school started! (Also. WHHHHHAT?! 58 days??!?!) Next week marks the end of the first term which marks 1/4 of the way through the school year. WHAT. I can't even believe how fast it's flown. Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned this yet - TEACHING IS SO MUCH FUN. The planning is pretty awful and during the first few weeks I had maybe-a-few breakdowns after spending 15ish hours planning for the week - but now I'm in the routine of things and basically it's just like a party all day everyday with hilarious and energetic 11-12 year olds. (Who are the perfect captive audience for all of my ridiculous anecdotes and horrible knock-knock jokes. Plus, they have to boost my ego otherwise I take away tickets. hehe. 

...and you probably think I'm joking.... ;))

ANYWAY. Back to the good stuff: IT'S YOUR LUCKY DAY(s) because today started FALL BREAK which means I will be able to delight you all with ALL OF THE BLOG POSTS (or at least the ones I have neglected for the past 58 days).

 (For those of you not familiar with the blessed, blessed thing known as Fall Break, it's two days off from school for no other reason other than the wonderful fact that it is fall and the leaves are turning beautiful fall colors and the morning air is extra crisp. BTW, it is magical.)

Without further adeu: My classroom. (Or at least what it looked like a few months ago...the desks have been rearranged at least two times since these pictures were taken.)

So there you have it! Unlike the little baby flags... the other banner(s) took a stupid amount of time. ha. They did turn out basically how I pictured (which is a shock all on its own)....but the amount of time they took?!?!! I'm not sure they were worth it....