It's No Secret...

The faculty and staff I get to work with on a daily basis during the school year are some of the most phenomenal people I've ever met.

I adore them from the bottom of my soul.

From the principal, to each grade level team, and the custodians.  They are all top-notch people that I feel privileged to work with.

There are two women in particular that I work closely with on our 2nd grade team.  They are two of the sweetest, most kind, loving, and selfless people I know.  They would do anything for their students and they have taught me a lot this past year.

Well one of those lucky ladies got married this past month!  Ms. E and I decided to throw her a shower and go all out (because who doesn't like a good excuse to throw a party?!).  Ms. E loves things color-coordinated, so we let the bride choose her wedding colors and found everything possible in those colors (teal and periwinkle)... including M&M's!  I nabbed these rockin' bowls that spell out "LOVE" for a steal at a thrift store.  I wish I would've gotten a picture with all of the food, but these will have to suffice.

Mr. Howard, our computer tech guy, is over 7 feet tall.  He graciously took this picture for me after calling me a shortie and then laughing his head off like usual when making fun of my height.  

We have a great relationship and I really appreciate having some male testosterone around a school that is predominantly filled with the estrogen of women.  

The fantastic librarian let us use the library for our party.  Don't you just love the look and feel of an elementary school library?

Close ups of the bowls and cute pictures of the happy couple (we did the shower after they got hitched).

The librarian at our school loves to decorate and is one of the most fashion forward people I know.  She made these cute paper balls and garlands for spring decor and we convinced her to leave them up.  Mainly due to the fact that we threw a shower on the last week of school and really didn't want to decorate more than we had to.  We got a little lazy.

The whole table and decorations (without the food, of course).

Here's the happy bride!  She's remodeling her home with her husband so we got the faculty and staff to chip in on a gift card and stuck it in a toolbox for her to find.  Home Depot has these adorable Paint Bucket gift card holder's that we got to put the card inside.  So so cute and so so fun!

Even though it added to the craziness of the last week of school, it was so much fun to help one of my close colleagues feel so loved!  I'm so grateful for her and all of the work she does.  She deserves all of the happiness in the world and then some.

And if you really want to borrow those LOVE bowls, please do.  They're just sitting in my house until the next bridal shower I do... which may be never (all of my closest friends are married).

Happy Weddings!

Year 1

My first year of teaching my little 2nd grade monsters was a crazy year.  I owe a huge thank you to those who listened to my frustrations (even though I tried really hard to keep them to myself).  It was a year with disappointments that I wasn't able to keep up the steam to do things I wanted to, happiness when that one student finally had their lightbulb AHA! moment and got double-digit addition, and complete and utter joy watching 25 2nd graders love and respect each other.  I've never had so much fun seeing an entire class be such incredible friends as this one has.  They were a golden class.  Absolutely golden.  

May was a particularly hard month of teaching.  I was on the brink of tears until I read a sweet and utterly charming email from one of the mother's of my students.  She sincerely thanked me for lifting her daughter up to new heights and giving her confidence that she struggled to have before.  Then I went through previous emails and notes where another mom thanked me for helping her daughter know that it was okay to love herself and that she was beautiful.  Another student's mother started an email off with a big capitalized THANK YOU followed by many generous exclamation points and then went on to say that her son has never felt so loved or successful in a class than he had in mine.  It was in that moment that I realized (again!) that Heavenly Father put me in the right place, at the right time, to teach this particular bunch of kids.  I realized that in the form of letters, emails, notes, pictures, hugs, and tears that Heavenly Father had sent me little tender mercies to help me gain confidence in the one thing I've always wanted to succeed in.  And that's teaching.

And no, I'm not on a rampage to toot my own horn, but after reading the article, "The Hardest Job Everyone Thinks They Can Do," it made me so happy to have my gifts and talents.  I've always had a hard time seeing what I'm good at.  I'm a terrible socializer, completely awkward around other people at times, insecure about how I look, and seriously too sarcastic for my own good.  I've been striving to really put my heart and soul into my career.  And this year, I think I did a pretty good job (with many things in store for next year that I'm already working on fixing or adding to my classroom).  All of the 12-15 hour days were worth it.  No, my job is not glamorous.  Yes, I put on some serious poundage of body fat that is in the works right now of getting rid of.  Managing 25 kids at a time and making sure that they are learning at the highest level they can is difficult.  I feel so blessed and loved by these little monsters of mine and I can't wait to show my next batch of students how amazing, loved, and unique they are!

And because a blog post isn't a blog post without pictures....

The last week of school was spent having way too much fun for our own good.  Which included our very own MONSTER PARTY!

The goods set out on the table.

 A close up of the adorable tablecloth that was given to me by one of the many supermom's that helped out in our class.

And one of the cutest things I've ever seen...

Monster FINGER puppets!

Darling and oh so cute.

But, alas, I can't take credit for finding these beauties.  

Becky, thank you for the wonderful gift of Monster party decor.

And because I get amazing ideas for class parties the night before the big event (see this post) I made Jello Cookies.  They are bright, colorful, and full of sugar.  Any kid's dream and any parent's nightmare.  Good thing that sweets and treats are a rare occurrence in my classroom unless it's for a hands-on lesson.  But aren't they soooo cute?!

And because the aforementioned cookies gave T and I a serious sugar rush by just eating half  of one, I made up these cute thank you's for our office aides so I wouldn't throw up eat them all.  

At least they look good enough to eat. 

For a child, yes.

An adult?  I'd suggest eating sparingly.
Like a bite a week when your blood sugar gets low.

And to top off our Monster Party, we watched Monsters, Inc.!  My students got to bring their birthday monsters that they received throughout the year on their birthdays and we had a big pajama Monster party while we watched this movie.  I was seriously thinking about not giving out Birthday Monsters next year, but when I asked what their favorite part of the year was, it was a unanimous Birthday Monsters! answer from all of my students.  How can you get rid of their favorite thing?  Needless to say, I'm currently working on making the next batch of 35 monsters for next year.

Call me crazy.

The last day of school was hard.  Harder than I thought it would be.  I bawled once I shut my door and all of my monsters were gone.  Some will be moving to Hawaii.  Another to Australia.  And some to different states.  I may never see their adorable little faces again.  I seriously sat on the carpet while staring and crying at the sight of my empty classroom.  

Hardest day ever.

But it was an incredibly fulfilling, enriching, and utterly fun year!

Toes on the Move

I've acquired an odd rash on my feet, especially my toes, these days.  It's itchy and annoying and I get super sick of it.

My little monsters are convinced that i've become allergic to them.

  

After itching them a little too much, a couple of my toesies became encased in bright purple bandaids (the only bandaids on hand in my classroom at the time). 

Benadryl came to the rescue and so did some foot powder that the hubs got for me.

Relief at last.

I still have no idea what made it happen, but luckily they're going, going, and almost gone.

Thank goodness these toes of mine are getting better because I've been running around with my head chopped off the last week or so.  There are 4 blessed days left of school.  4 DAYS until my first year of teaching is completely over.

I've never been one to experience too many bittersweet emotions, but this week is full of them.  I'm certainly going to miss these 25 little monsters of mine.  It's hard to send your babies onto a new teacher, but I know they'll do amazing and go far!

I finally found a picture I could share online!  My little monsters faces are covered (minus one who I have permission to show his face), so I can officially put this one up.  Now you can see how much fun we have!  This particular lesson was "Contraction Surgery."  The kids used all types of medical supplies to create their own contractions.  

I tell them daily that 2nd graders aren't supposed to have this much fun in school. 

They are spoiled rotten.

I wouldn't have it any other way!

Belated Hot Mama's Day

Yes, our family has our own version of Mother's Day and have called it "Hot Mama's Day" for a long time.  Because our Mama is HOT.

(She publicly hates it when we call her that, but inside, we know she loves it)

Contrary to popular belief, my mom is not perfect.  Yes, I'm telling the blogger world that my Mother is not perfect.  I even told our entire ward that as I stood up to speak on Mother's Day.  My Mom was even on the third row.

You're now probably scolding me in your head and thinking I'm the worst daughter ever.  When, in fact, I'm actually the best daughter ever.

Let me explain before you get your panties in a knot.

First off, it is a rare occurrence that when I speak I don't end up speaking on Mother's Day or Father's Day.  In my mind, those are the two worst days to speak on!  I'm already an emotional junkie on those days trying to figure out how to tell/show my parents how much I love and appreciate them.

Speaking to an entire congregation on those days is me trying to dam up a river by myself.  It doesn't work.  I become an emotional wreck.

One thing I've come to not appreciate on Mother's Day is the fact that the speakers get up, pay their dues to their mother by saying how wonderful and perfect she is and then proceed to tell the entire ward how women cannot be mothers unless they have children of their own.

Seriously?

No one is perfect.

Not even your mother is going to believe the fluff you say about her.

But I digress.

Here's how I started preparing for my talk.

(If you don't want to read the entire process, you may want to skip reading this post.  This is mainly for me to remember and reflect on how I do talks).

 I pick out all of my favorite quotes, scriptures, and hullaballoo that I want to say (along with doodles that keep my hands busy).  I always try to include something "worldly" to connect my talk to.  In this case, I connected my talk to Sleeping Beauty.  Weird? You might say so.  But everyone knows the story about Sleeping Beauty.  And now, when they watch or hear about Sleeping Beauty, they'll think of a gospel principle-Motherhood.

It's a little like reverse psychology. Maybe.

And this time around, I really wanted EVERY WOMAN to know that they are mothers.  In my talk I noted that I don't have my own children, yet I still find myself portraying and working on mothering qualities and traits.  I teach 25 children for 5 days a week.  I not only teach them, but I seriously love and nurture them.  They are little spirits in my room and I find that my career is a divine calling.

The fact that I didn't have to birth any of them is a nice advantage too.

But the point I really wanted to make is that no one is perfect.  Not even your mother.  Mothers are supposed to have weaknesses.  How else would they teach their children how to use the Atonement? My mom taught me how to forgive and repent by example.  She showed me how to love unconditionally by example.  She displayed all of her weaknesses so I could learn from her example.

That is what truly makes a mother.  That is what makes a child learn.

There's a lot more to my talk then all of that, but seeing how this post is mainly for my own selfish reasons (1) The notebook in the picture is my scripture study journal and if it got lost, burned, etc. I think I'd die.  I need to start digitally recording them too (so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of them).  (2) I really wanted to let everyone know my views on Motherhood.  Motherhood is not just birthing a child (even though it is certainly that!), it is when a woman empowers herself to target the qualities and virtues that God only gives to women and makes use of them (visiting teaching, primary callings, relief society, every calling in the church that a woman serves in is using these qualities!).  

Here's how my journal looks after I give a talk or if I insert talks to go with the subject/topic I'm studying.  I got the idea for my scripture journal here.

(Mother's Day at Uncle Todd's.  The whole family minus Mel and Damon)

Although my Mom isn't perfect, she's the most perfect imperfect mother on earth!  I've learned more from her than any teacher, leader, or friend.  I love her and she is truly one of my best friends.  

Happy Belated Mother's Day!  

Picture Perfect

T's Mom had a birthday a couple of weeks ago.

She's really awesome.

She knows all of the up to date songs, watches funny chick flicks, and paints her nails with nail polish that changes colors in the sun.

She's pretty hip.

Which is why she wanted to go to Gardner Village's Friday Night Fever on her birthday.

Best. Idea. Ever.

The fact that she can pull of earrings the size of a large kiwi and a classic disco move is pretty sweet.

That's my mother-in-law.

You wish she was yours.

My father-in-law is pretty terrific too.

 Morgan is the coolest little sis ever.  

I always wanted a little sister growing up.

Now I've got one to bug and tease and boss around.

 In one of the shops they gave us a sparkly star stamp on our cheek when we walked in.  The boys had decided to sit this store out and keep some of their manly pride while walking around a village of cutesy stores.

When we walked out I decided Papa Kris needed some glitz on his cheek like I did.

So I stuck my cheek on his and VOILA!  He had his own sparkly star.

T wanted to document our sparkles.

Problem.

Our stars were on opposing cheeks which meant we had to face each other to get a picture.

Papa Kris came up with the grand idea to face each other with our hands over our mouths so we didn't get too close during the picture...

I couldn't stop giggling during the entire thing. 

The sad thing of it all is that you can't even see the stars.  

If you look close enough you can see the slightest glimmer of shimmer on our cheeks.

At least we had fun doing it.

T was being the camera man all night so we had to get a legit picture that he was there.

The green disco glasses were pretty attractive.

Sort of.

T had been working on his amateur photography lately.

Isn't this a pretty picture at Gardner Village?!

He's doing really well on getting the aperture (the only photography lingo I know) and whatnot looking pretty dang good.

He does the manual thing.

I like the point and shoot automatic setting.

This post is mainly to show that I do have a life outside of teaching and I can write about something other than my students.

I Have a Problem

I have a problem with eating all of the chocolate that little 8-year-old fingers hand to me on a weekly basis (within 24 hours of receiving it!).

I have a problem with eating the leftover Cheez-It's from our multiplication array lesson.

I have a problem with staying on the couch when I should be outside exercising.

And I most definitely have a problem with over-doing it on what should be a simple 15 minute lesson.

After seeing this on Pinterest (surprise!) I decided it would be a perfect fit for an upcoming synonym lesson.  

So 25 of these cute little chef hats later...

They all did SO well and we had a blast cooking up "Synonym Rolls!"

My little monsters are definitely little foodies.  They instantly perk up and pay attention once I put any kind of food into their lessons.

Insert Cinnabon Cereal.

They were drooling over it after they finished their little baking cup full.

Head Chef Kussee.  

Oh how I wish I could post a picture of my little sous chefs- they looked so adorable in their little hats!  

They were so well-behaved when our principal stepped in to observe our class.  When he comes in, my little monsters are convinced he's grading them (I wonder who told them that?).  They are so worried about impressing him that they become even more perfect and don't know he's actually grading me.

We've also been raising butterflies from caterpillars the past few weeks.  They finally went into their chrysalis' this week and we got to put them in their butterfly cage.  

A close up of our little caterpillars in their chrysalis'.  Want to buy your own set of insects to raise?  

Go here.

I think that raising ladybugs sounds like a lot of fun... 

Along with raising butterflies, I'm raising a big soccer star!

Kidding about raising him, but I'm definitely serious about my big soccer star of a husband!  

After a jammed finger, a skinned elbow, and a kicked soccer ball in the face the game finally ended and my goalie husband came off the field super sore but loving the game!

We love you, spring weather.

Stick around.

The April Scoop

These days are filled with cub scouts, talent shows, Great Brain Presentations, and the mad rush to making sure all of my 2nd graders are capable of passing their end of level tests.

The entire school held an evening of talents for all K-6 students. They had to do TWO different show times just to fit all of the talents in. One of our favorites was this glow stick dance done by some upper grade students.

Freaking Awesome.

T and I have been super busy with cub scouts as of late.

Last week was spent attempting to make 3-D structures out of toothpicks and marshmallows. After teaching them how to make a cube, we let them have at it and try to build the tallest and most sturdy building.

We had a loooong discussion at the end talking about why their structures were falling over. They did great relating it to temples and how important it is for architects to design a firm foundation at the bottom.

Seeing how we're over the Wolf Den, one of the achievements is to make bird feeders.

We made the classic pine cone and cheerio bird feeders. It's funny to me that this project NEVER gets old for kids. We could do this for every activity and I think they would love it.

The fact that they got to eat their own cheerios and peanut butter was probably the highlight of that activity.

Teaching is going so well!

Our caterpillars have gone into their chrysalis (cocoon) and should be coming out in the next couple of weeks!

We've also been talking about Spring. I had two little monsters bring in this itty bitty bouquet of freshly picked flowers for me one morning.

Adorable.

They melt my heart.

Other fun things that have/will be happening is that T starts a new internship tomorrow! We're excited that he gets some hands-on experience in financing and we're so excited.

Did I mention that we're excited?

We're also working toward losing a few pounds and toning up for the summer. I'll admit, T is doing a lot better than I am. Between grading presentations and planning lessons, it's hard to exercise during the week. Who has time or energy for that?

I've gotten super soft and gross.

Ick.

I've been strengthening my back so I can get back to running without grimacing in pain with every step. T is a great help and we're trying to eat better. That's hard to do when you stay at school 'til 7 at night sometimes.

I can't wait until I can exercise daily again.

5 weeks until summer vacation!

What?!