Odds 'n Ends

I feel like I should update this thing, but I don't have much to say...

I'm taking a management class today (I had a nightmare last night about the first day of school and my kids were absolutely crazy. Maybe I'm telling myself that I'm excited for this class...) and it goes until Friday.

Derek and I went to Seven Peaks on Saturday...for FREE! I love being a teacher. I got 2 free tickets for doing absolutely nothing and then another one in the weekly ValPack. So we went for a couple of hours with my mom. It was fun, relaxing and very much needed.

On Friday, I made 16 pints, that's right, 16 pints of strawberry jam. When we went to volunteer at Strawberry Days last Wednesday, they gave us a case of strawberries for free. So I made 4 batches of jam, which came out to 16 jars! Luckily I know a lot of people who like jam and that I have a big freezer!

I have been going up to South Jordan EVERY DAY to work out with Derek. (Well, not every day, but 5 out of 6 days is pretty much every day...) I'm not really seeing any results, but I'm feeling pretty good. I guess that's enough for now but if I don't start seeing the fruits of my labors, something will have to change!

That's all I can think of for now.

Oh, and I still love puppies!

Puppies!

My sister-in-law Jen just showed me this website because she knows how much I LOVE puppies. If I could, I would have one right now! Every time I see a picture of a cute puppy, it just makes my day so I figured I would add the daily puppy to my blog so I could see it every day! I'm so excited! Check it out on my side bar!

Summer

This summer has started out just great!

It was a long weekend, so Derek and I went and hiked Timp Caves. Neither of us had done it before and it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday, I got all my stuff into my new classroom! I'm so excited that I have access all summer to the classroom because I can decide when I want to come in and get all organized. I can't believe how much nicer the room is than my trailer last year...it's still old, but it sure doesn't have a pole running straight down the middle of it!

On Wednesday, I went to the temple and volunteered as part of the grounds crew. We pretty much just raked the dirt to make it prettier and cut off dead flowers. Still, it was really cool.

Also, I have been going to the gym every day this week and I have started to watch what I eat more seriously and in three short days, I've gone down 2 pounds! It could just be because we all fluctuate a bit (but I hardly ever fluctuate down; it's usually up...) but I also think it's because it's always easy to lose weight when you first start. I'm planning to lose 18 pounds by August 23rd (two days before school starts...) Then, the battle will be to keep it off during the stressful months of the school year.

It's Over...

And I cried. Hard.

I wasn't expecting to cry so much but I am going to miss those kids. Even the hard ones. I spent the last nine months with them every day and it's going to be hard not to see them again. I will miss them! Some of the things that happened today:

Several kids were going a little crazy because it was the last day of school and so I had to tell them, "Don't let the last memory you have of me be of me yelling at you!" They just smiled and pretty much kept doing what they were doing before. Gotta love it.

Haley brought in her sugar glider that was the talk of the class.

I gave out awards to my students which were all funny to me, but not so much to them (like Julie getting Most Expressive Reader because she reads the dictionary with more expression than anyone I've ever met...or Devin getting "Best Teacher Mistake Detector" even though most of the time they weren't really mistakes. I still remember one of the first days of school and I was showing them a map of the world and I said, "This is Southeast Asia" and Devin said, "No it's not, that's Australia!" Oh, he really thinks he knows more than me...classic Devin)

I'm going to miss these kids. I just didn't realize how much until now.

Delicious!!!

Add some creamy peanut butter to any box mix of brownies and you get...

HEAVEN!!!

So good! Want to know what else is good? Having only 5 days left of school. I'm so excited but as it nears, I'm also getting a little bit sad. I will miss my kids a lot. Some of them might take a bit longer to miss, but I know I will. All of them, regardless of how hard or (can I say it..) annoying some of them have been these past months, have changed my life in one way or another. And, I will miss them.

I will post some pictures of the last few days. I'm planning on taking a lot!

Funny Story

After re-reading that last post, I thought I had to tell a funny thing one of my kids said on Friday. Derek and I laughed about it all weekend.

I was reading a book aloud to the kids and looked up when I heard one of my students talking.

Me: Keenan, why are you talking?

(without hesitation) Keenan: Because that's what I do! I'll put a mark down now.

He then put a mark down on his paper meaning he owed me a minute of recess.

Ha! That was classic. I laughed so hard, it was difficult to keep reading for the next five minutes!

At least he knows his weaknesses. And, at least he knows the consequences for his actions.

Coming to an End

I can barely believe it, but there are only two more weeks of school. 9 more days. I feel like it was just yesterday when I was writing about how nervous I was about starting school and now it's almost over. Crazy.

It's been the most difficult and the most rewarding year of my life. People told me it would be hard, but I just couldn't understand what they meant until I went through it. I felt that same way about getting married. People told me that there would be an adjustment phase and so I was prepared, but it wasn't like how I thought it was going to be. It wasn't that hard, just different than I was expecting. Teaching has been the same way. I never realized how hard it would be to figure out how I wanted to do things and how many times I would need to try something new until I found the one that worked for me. I never realized how hard it would be to deal with students at such different levels (1/3 of my class being in Special Ed). I never realized how exhausted I'd be or how long I would have to stay after school to make sure I was ready for the next day.

But, I also didn't know how happy I'd be. I didn't know how many stories I'd have to take home to Derek about all the funny things my kids said and did. I didn't know how satisfied I'd feel after a student progressed on standardized tests, or after the light bulb went on and they finally understood something that had taken them so long to get. I didn't know how much I'd miss these kids who at one time or another had driven me nuts.

It's been an awesome year. I'm sad to see it end (excited for summer but sad about leaving my kids) but happy for another year to start, and to know where that will be!