Merry Christmas Eve

I really just wanted to post this picture. My grandparents played Santa and Mrs. Clause in their older years and I love this picture.

The last few years have really made me miss them around the holidays. I wish Ty could have met them. Grandpa Dean had a huge heart and always sat with me at the counter cracking pine nuts when we would visit. I would eat them as fast as he could crack them open. Grandma would spend all day in the kitchen baking and bustling. I remember as a kid just trying to stay out of the way. My brother and I would usually go play in the garage which was the size of a pretty big barn and completely filled- floor to ceiling- with old stuff. Rolls of carpet, bull horns, sharp, rusted metal. It was a kids playland and a parent's worst nightmare. I can even remember a few times that our parents would come calling for us and we would just hide. They probably would never have found us if we hadn't popped out from wherever we were.

We spent a lot of holidays with my Grandma and Grandpa Dean because they lived so close to us, and I'll always remember the love and warmth that filled their home at Christmas.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/12/uxus-designs-mcvillage.html

this is easily the coolest mcdonalds playland i have ever seen. too bad its in amsterdam or else me and ty would have to plan a roadtrip.

design sponge is the coolest if you haven't ever checked it out before...

Picture Post

Halloween



First Year Anniversary at Landmark

Westin and Katrina's wedding

Kids Vote

I've never been very politically active or even aware, but this election I am really trying to pay more attention. I hate to admit that I've never even voted before and that now, as a 21 year old adult, I had to ask my mom how to even register. I don't want to talk politics here though, or even discuss my feelings about the presidential candidates; I want to share a story about the students in my class.

I teach second grade in inner-city Phoenix. We are a charter school, so we serve a pretty large area- any parents that want their children in our school are welcome to come no matter where they live. Every student at our school receives free lunch because of their low family income. It can be heartbreaking hearing about their home lives and realizing how sheltered I was as a child.

Today at recess a group of third graders asked their teacher, a good friend of mine, who she was planning on voting for in the upcoming election. Being a diplomat, she asked who they thought she should vote for and the students started debating the candidates back and forth. My second grade students and I started listening to the older kids as they discussed what they had heard about both McCain and Obama. It was surprising and pretty cool to hear the students talking about how their lives would be effected by the outcome of this election.

Eventually the conversation turned to immigration laws and how the presidential candidates were going to change or reform the laws and practices. My students began to join the conversation and started talking about how scared their family is of Joe Arpaio. They were under the impression that if Obama wins this election, their families will receive the paperwork they need to stay in this country and they won't have to "hide from Sheriff Joe" anymore.

It doesn't matter how I feel about Sheriff Joe, Obama, McCain, or even immigration laws. It was emotional listening to these children trying to make sense of the politics that are forcing their parents into hiding. They don't understand why they can't live freely in what they learn is the Home of the Free. There are no easy answers.

I talked to my students a little bit about voting and being good citizens, but I want to do a more in-depth political study with them. I hear that Nickolodeon has Kid's Vote online so I'll be doing some research there to guide our discussion. Any feelings on this topic?

Hope everyone is having a great day.

Oh- and my phone got stolen from Ross. Super lame. Call Ty if you need anything.

Loving, Laughing, Living

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let the countdown begin...

so I haven't posted in a while, and I haven't posted pictures in even longer... so here are a few from May... A few days before graduation, me and Ty went down into Oak Creek Canyon which ranks in the top 3 of my favorite places on the planet. Dandy loves it there too. She is such a water dog and loves all the smells and running on the river rocks and chasing lizards and butterflies. We have a special place called Grasshopper Point that we love to go to because it has a beautiful portion of the creek running through it along with a bunch of waterfalls and big still pools. There are walking trails and big trees that change color in the fall. Every time we visit Grasshopper Point I find more things I love about it. Its on of the only places I've ever been that makes me feel so close to Heavenly Father because of all the natural beauty. These pictures don't even do it justice, but if anyone wants to go- I'll share my special place with you =)







Oh and this is a tree frog we found... You can't tell from the picture, but his belly was BRIGHT NEON YELLOW! It was so cool.

I also graduated from NAU in May!! YAYYYY! It feels so good to finally be done!

I have some cute pics of me and Ty, but can't get them to work at the moment so I'll save those for later!

We are moving down in about 2 weeks! Both of us are getting super anxious already.

haha

i haven't posted in over a month so here is a new one.

ps- i'll have pictures soon



oh and me and ty are moving to the east valley sometime in the next month or two... we'll keep you posted.


ohhhh- and i'm a college graduate now =) yay.

firsts

So i'm graduating in about four weeks and although I've been looking forward to it for the last year, I'm surprisingly nervous. This is the first time in my life that I haven't known at all what the future holds and where I will end up next. I've applied for teaching jobs all over Arizona and in a few districts in Washington and Oregon. Ty had a hard time moving out of Chandler just to come to Flag and I thought he'd be more nervous than me about a big move like that but he is mellow as ever (typical for Ty, right?). I feel like we are about to enter legit adulthood which means careers and children. Eeek.

Last night I got my first blessing from Ty. I woke up around 3am and felt like I had been poisoned or somehow stabbed from the inside. I am usually the one in our relationship that suggests spiritual solutions like reading scriptures or praying for help, but amidst my wailing, Ty suggested the blessing. After snuggling with me on the bathroom floor for a few minutes, he also went to the Circle K next to our apartment to buy some Gatorade in the middle of the night. Within half an hour I was able to go back to sleep and even made it to work this morning like nothing had even happened. This was really the first time I've been able to see the miracles and blessings of the priesthood in our marriage and it is truly incredible. I know I picked the right guy and can't wait for more of these miracles over the years.

My student teaching is going a lot better these days (which I never thought I'd say). I taught my own unit during the last three weeks. It was an entire unit about Africa and I did a LOT of research in preparation. I taught the kids about one animal every day and they really picked up on some interesting facts about each one, like how a giraffe can kick 360 degrees with every foot and elephants can snorkel with their trunks above the water. We also learned a lot about how people live in different regions. My main goal was to educate the kids that not all people in Africa are black and poor and live in grass huts. We learned about the big cities and the different things that people typically do for work there. Next week we are going to learn about diamonds and food crops. Surprisingly, my coop. teacher has only had positive things to say about all the lessons I've prepared. She asked for copies of all the activities I did with the kids and wrote me a nice letter of recommendation. I'm glad things are going better now toward the end.

For those of you interested, my graduation is on May 9. The weather is going to be fantastic and its a great excuse for a vacation =) I'm going to be mailing announcement thingies this week.

Breakfast for Lunch

I bought some Malt-O-Meal brand cereal at the dollar store. It's called Blueberry Muffin Top and it is DELICIOUS!!! It really tastes like a blueberry muffin but the pieces look like Golden Grahams or something. Unfortunately, there were only about 3 servings in the box. Looks like I'll be doing some grocery shopping at 99 Or Less.


PS- How do I fatten up my husband? The cereal didn't work...

1. Pick up the nearest book (one of at least 123 pages)

2. Open the page to 123

3. Find the 5th sentence.

4. Post the next 3 sentences

"Pull off some modeling clay about the size of a jelly bean. Roll it in your hands until it is round like a small marble. Take a larger piece of another color clay."

Taken from a book titled First Science Experiments (chapter: What is Hail?). I don't have time for fun books these days.

Me and Ty should be coming down to the valley this weekend, but he is feeling sick so we probably won't be leaving tonight like I had hoped. Good news tho- I passed my AEPA! Yayyy!! And, as if I'm living in some alternate universe, I actually did something today that my cooperating teacher appreciated! We made cupcakes using dixie cups and an electric skillet. The kids got to help measure, pour, stir, and we even learned about high altitude cooking instructions. They loved it and the cupcakes turned out amazing!

Anyway- thats basically all of the news I have to share. Megan- I can't wait to hold Catcher this weekend since I was sick the weekend of his blessing. You guys better be around!

See ya soon =)

awesome

thehamburgerphone.com
love it.

Update

We had a snow day today so I got a break from my black-hearted teacher and a little extra time that I am spending here, blogging. Things have not gotten better with her by the way... I called Ty on my lunch break twice this week crying in my car. She just does the most backhanded things! Case in point: She asked me to find some cute Valentine's day worksheets and activities a few weeks ago so I flagged some cute stuff in a teacher magazine. She won't give me her copy code so I had to wait for her to make the copies for me. When she gave me the stack, there were a couple missing. I didn't think much of it and just made those copies myself at home. About a week later, she says to me "If you can't find enough things for the kids to do, I found these really great worksheets for them. You should be looking for this type of stuff" and hands me the stack of missing copies! This happened again a few days ago with space activities that I had found and asked her to copy. Needless to say, I'll be making my own copies from now on. She also talked to my advisor for 20 of my 30 minute observation visit and complained about me the whole time. I want to get a job in this district so badly and I'm not sure if thats going to happen if she continues to hate me the whole semester. Blah. This four day weekend is a nice breath of fresh air to say the least.

Ty has not found a new job yet. Well, let me rephrase that. Ty has not yet found a job that will adequately pay our bills long term. He got hired at Discount Tire (thanks to Arnold) but has to start at a part time position and it only pays $8.50 an hour. I finally took matters into my own hands and called our bishop to ask him to keep us in mind if he hears of any open positions. He called right back and gave us a few leads of people to call in the ward that own their own businesses. I have been working a lot at Oregano's to make up for it, and we have a lot in our savings account, but I'm starting to get worried. Side note- devil teacher told me I'll have to quit my job if I expect to fulfill my responsibilities as her student teacher... She makes comments about it every other day.

Valentine's Day was really nice and mellow. My kindergarteners were so cute and loved exchanging cards and candy. Mrs Roth told me she was getting them pencils and crayons and I should get a food type treat. Thanks. We have one little girl with diabetes and another with a strict no gluten, no dairy, no artificial flavoring/coloring diet. I finally found some organic rice cake snacks that were packaged like pirate treats so I got Pirates of the Carribean valentines to go with it. The kids loved it and the parents appreciated it too, especially since Mrs Roth served milkshakes and frosted cookies at the party. It was the saddest thing to watch these two little girls eat all organic rice cake snacks when the rest of the kids were overdosing on sugar and dairy. What is she thinking?

Ty and I cooked a nice dinner and were supposed to exchange little gifts but he got me a really nice necklace with my birthstone in it. We probably shouldn't be spending money on stuff like that right now, but I like it so much that I'm not even going to think about it =) I felt sort of lame giving him a box of cinnamon toast crunch lol. I'll just have to step it up for his birthday this year.

Hope all is well with everyone. We may be coming down in a few weeks for my birthday and a job fair for the Gilbert district... And if anyone wants to take a little vacation up here to the snow, let me know! =)

blahhhh

have i mentioned that i am student teaching with devil woman? my new daily mantra: "i can read. i can write lesson plans. i know how to fix a boo-boo. i am not an incompetent twit. i will be a teacher someday." ty is being very supportive and lets me vent when i need to which is nice, but i need a battle plan... the easy solution would be to discuss my concerns with my advisor, but she pretty much worships my cooperating teacher...

i will be taking the aepa tomorrow and really appreciated everyone's help and input on my last post. it is fun to have so many teachers in the family =) thank you.

also- i have been reading everyones posts, but haven't really been commenting lately...

kristin- dude. i didn't know you were going to hair/cosmetology school! thats rad. ty says hes glad cuz now he doesn't have to dye my roots like a gay anymore. haha
megan- juno totally ruled. me and ty both loved it. i hope the decorating is coming along nicely and i can't wait to see pics. you have very good taste.
elise- i love your kids' posts. i think my favorite was zoe talking about keeping her lamb clean with a lint roller. too cute!
monique- you go girl. and good luck with the water tower!!
merilee- i'm sorry about sid and your differing tastes, but i will say that your pictures are so cute =)
natalie- congrats on the potty training! and thank you for the pictures. ty and i really enjoy them
emily- happy anniversary! and sorry i missed you last weekend when you passed through...

help please.

after drying my tears over the death of heath ledger, i sat down to study for the aepa. I was doing great until I hit the social studies section. holy cow- which one of my professors was supposed to teach me about Confucianism? Byzantine Empire? Hellooo. I think I only got one or two questions right in that whole section.

Current teachers- how hard is this test? I'm totally freaking out. What should I study? My test is on Saturday. I'm thinking I probably should have started preparing before this week...




RIP Heath. Who can even study at a time like this?

not dead, just busy

me and ty haven't dropped off the face of the planet yet, but we are both super busy!

i started a new job at one of the busiest restaurants in town, Oregano's, and have really been enjoying it so far. It sucks having to close though because I don't get home til about 11.

I also started my student teaching last week after two district wide snow days. I am not really getting along wonderfully with my cooperating teacher, but I love the kids already! This teacher came highly recommended, but she has been teaching for 25 years or something and is really set in her ways, some of which I really don't agree with... but I guess if she's been employed for that long, she must be doing something right. She wants me to meet her at the school every morning at 7- I haven't woken up that early since high school! Needless to say, I'm tired pretty often.

Between work and student teaching, I haven't had much time for anything else so Ty is worked to the bone at our apartment and has probably been starving. He is a good sport though and hasn't complained about anything except for my alarm waking him up in the morning (its a loud version of Kiss "I was Made for Loving You"). We have found time a few nights in the last couple weeks to get together with some friends of mine which has been really fun.

Anyway- just wanted to let everyone know that we have not died, and when I have more time I'll post some cute pictures of us at Christmas time with our families and Catcher! =)