Gratitude days 17-24

OK so I did not do so good this week the daily gratitude thing. Here is some stuff to catch up-

I am grateful I made it to Thanksgiving break. I seriously need it. Five days of no work and no students.

I am grateful for people willing to help me dye my hair. Has to happen frequently and it gets old doing by myself. One day I will be very rich and can afford to have it done every 5-6 weeks.

I am grateful for understanding friends at work that let me vent and help me.

I am grateful for our Special Ed aides at work. With out them I would go crazy and would not get my job done.

I am grateful for delicious food to cook and eat.

I am grateful for the ability to read. Getting lost in a book is one of my favorite things to do.

Gratitude Day 16

Today I am grateful for a great haircut. I'm so glad I found a great hair stylist, now to just get the color...

Gratitude days 11-15

OK so I have missed a few days so I will do one big catch up.

1. I was grateful for Friday! It was a hard week and late start Friday was very nice.

2. I am grateful for my roommate. She is a great friend, she listens to me when I have a bad day but also is ok if I don't want to talk. Thanks Angie!

3. I am grateful for my Heavenly Father. He has comforted and guided me my whole life.

4. A student told me thank you today, I am very grateful for that.

5. I am grateful for my new sweater. Sometimes new clothes can make you feel great!

Gratitude days 9 and 10

So yesterday was a bad day and I was not really in a gratitude mood. I also would like to apologize to those who had to deal with me yesterday... I was slightly irritable. Anyway part of this exercise is being grateful all the time so yesterday I was grateful for understanding friends and family that let me vent and tried to make me feel better. Today I was grateful for M and M's. They make great bingo chips :)

Gratitude Day 8

Today I am grateful for my Mom. That she can go out and do things and have a conversation with me.

Gratitude Day 7

Today I am grateful for my job. As frustrating, overwhelming and exhausting as it can be some times, the fact that I get to help students be better readers is amazing. It is something that can change their life forever, for the better. The fact that I did not plan on being a reading teacher but was led to it makes it even more amazing.

Month of gratitude.

Hello all. (I say all facetiously since I know I post so infrequently the only one reading this is probably someone who clicked here by mistake. Anyway welcome...) My sister started doing a month of gratitude posts on her blog and I thought it was a great idea. So I am stealing it from her...as I do most of her good ideas. Since I am getting started late I will just do 5 things from last week then start with today-

Nov 1-5: Last week I was grateful for spending time with my brother and niece, a good Halloween costume, getting all my IEP's scheduled, having power (hearing about others without it makes me very grateful) and TMBG.

Today, Nov 6: I am grateful for a day to rest and recover. It was a long hard week and I was exhausted.

Disneyland!

Hello all. Well the writing once a week thing has not happened so far... its a slow process. Now I will give you all the long awaited update on my summer (you can let out the breathe you've been holding, I know its exciting) My last two weeks of June were very busy. First I went to girls camp for a couple of days. It was great fun and I will once again say that we have the best young women ever in our ward. They all get along and no drama. No seriously, 15 teenage girls and no drama. Its amazing! I went home and had one day to get ready for, DISNEYLAND! The last week of June I went to southern Utah and Disneyland with my brother, his roommate and my niece, KiRin. First we went to Boulder, UT. Yes, there is a Boulder, UT. I got to see some Anasazi ruins which I have been wanting to do for several years! To some they may seem unimpressive but walking around them knowing that people hundreds of years ago used this land, and those tools was amazing to me. As for the rest of our two days in Southern Utah, its best I not go into it. We did get to drive through Grand Staircase Escalante and it was breath taking! Here are some pics of it with my new camera-



We spent the next 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure. Now I have often been teased about my supreme organization for trips like this but I think that Kenn and Lowell both appreciate the pre-planning now. On Monday we spent 15 hours at the park and wore ourselves out. I know you are supposed to go and then take a break and go back but I just can't convince my self to waste my time at Disneyland taking a break! The next two days we took longer and longer breaks since our bodies were rebelling against us. Ki and I have two more converts for our favorite ride- The Tower of Terror! Also the new Star Tours is awesome and it has 54 different combinations to watch! Fantasmic and The Wonderful World of Color were so amazing. Also I just want to say my idea of a perfect world is Disneyland. It is clean, everyone is friendly and nice, there is some helpful person there to clean up after you child makes a mess, there are clean, nice bathrooms where you mostly do not have to wait in line and there is Diet Coke available. Yes, folks it is the happiest place on earth! Here are a couple of the pics I took-




On the way home from DL we stopped in Primm, NV for a night. Unfortunately we rode the "coaster of death" I seriously thought I might die on it... and not in a good way. When I got back home I had one day to do laundry and re-pack then I was off to Connecticut for a month. So far it is really hot and humid here but there are some really cute, smart nieces and nephew :)

Bring it on!

So I had really good intentions to write on here at least once a week... and then a couple of weeks went by. But if you put it in the perspective of me usually having months between posts I'm doing great! So, school is out. Yea! There are many reasons why I became a teacher and really summers off was not on the list, but I love them! There are necessary, at least for me. By the end of the year I am burnt out and need some time off to re-charge. Especially this year, I was done about 2 months ago. Anyway my week and a half off has been busy. I sanded and re-painted my dresser. That took longer than I thought it would but it looks good. I also cleaned and rearranged my room. I swear I think I am a pretty clean person but there was so much dust everywhere! I was quite disgusted. Things are much cleaner now. This next week starts my crazy time. I am going to girl's camp from Tuesday through Thursday, then Friday I leave for Southern Utah and Disneyland!!! I am very excited about Disneyland, yea! Mickey here I come! When I get back from CA I have one day and then I leave for CT for a month. I am also very excited to see my family there. I already have tickets for Harry Potter and Wicked. So far my summer is looking awesome!

Shock

So, if I still have any readers I bet you are shocked... two posts in two days. Has the world gone crazy? Maybe. I work at a middle school so I can't really tell. Anyway I should be exercising right now so I am using this as a tool of procrastination. Speaking of that I got the wii active 2 after Christmas and I have to say I have worked out more consistently and just more with this than with anything else. Each exercise lasts for about 2-3 minutes then I can change to something else. I think I have ADD when it comes to exercise. The other reason for this post is that I have been watching quite a lot of Remington Steele lately. And getting a lot of flack for it and while I do not feel thee need to justify my viewing choices... I though I would illuminate some people to what they are missing.

The top 5 best things about Remington Steele...
5. It had high production values and obviously stylists who had some taste because it still looks good. Not like some of those 8o's shows that when you see them now make you want to run away because they remind you of some horrible looks you and others had back then that you would rather never remember.
4. The acting is great. All the leads are good actors and these were perfect roles for them. Most of the extras were pretty good too.
3. The writing is really good and still holds up. I am the first to admit that some of the shows I used to love long ago on second look are very cringe worthy.
2. The character of Laura Holt was a strong, independent woman and great example for me as a child. I am pretty sure my first car was a rabbit because of her :)
1. Pierce Brosnan is HOT!!!



I mean look at him, seriously...

So I suggest you give it a look. You can't borrow mine though, after lending the first season to someone and never getting it back I have a strict it never leaves my house rule now. I would be happy to have you come over for a viewing though... call me...

Long time in coming.

Hello! It's been a long time. I am again going to try to write on here regularly... we'll see how it goes. Only 7 days!!! Yes I only have seven days left of the school year. This year has been hard and I am ready for a break. The last month I have had a lot to look forward too before the end of the year. First my wonderful brother took me to see Abba: the Concert. It was an ABBA cover band that played with the Utah symphony. It was awesome. The cover band was great, they dressed up like ABBA and some of them had even played with ABBA originally. The other entertaining part was watching quite a few in the audience who obviously had season tickets to the symphony and really had no idea what they were in for! Some were disgusted and left at intermission but some stuck it out. The only downside was that we could not dance the whole time!

The next big thing was the U2 concert. It was amazing! It is really quite indescribable. U2 are the definition of rock stars! The stage, the music, the lights and sound all incredible. It maybe the best $35 I have ever spent.

Now I have Lagoon day- (I get paid to spend the day at Lagoon!), summer vacation, Disneyland and family in Connecticut to look forward to! I can't wait.

Suprise!

So I decided to post again so soon to shock my readers (there's like two of you right?) I have had the last nine days off and it has been great! I saw the new Harry Potter movie twice, once at midnight. It was really good but I want to see part two right now! I then went to Boise for a few days. It was great to see family and friends, it had been awhile! I also subjected said family and friends to the new IQ test I am getting training on. I must say I have very smart family and friends :) Thanks very much to everyone who let me test them. I used like 8 people and it took all total about 5-6 hours. Just imagine if I had given it all to one person (Kenn is really glad you guys did it too so he wasn't that person) Despite the weather report and many warnings I traveled back to SLC on Tuesday, yes the day of the "BLIZZARD OF 2010" (I hope you hear that in your head with dramatic music) The roads were not great and I-84 after Burley was closed so I had to go the long way but with Mom and Dad's four wheel drive car it was fine. It took a long time though. After surviving the "BLIZZARD of 2010" I thought I was home free and eagerly went the next morning to get groceries for Thanksgiving dinner. Alas, I think the ice was angry at me for surviving easily the day before and it caught me by my car. I took a nice spill and twisted or dislocated my knee, there were some not nice sounds of some kind. Knee issues are not new to me though and before I ended up in a brace up to my waist or it swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe (both have occurred before)I hurried and did my shopping. Well, not so much hurried as limped through. Anyway the injury made for an interesting two days of cooking but it all turned out. Thanksgiving dinner was very nice and several games were played afterwords, thanks Kenn for indulging me again! Now I am not ready to go back to work and I realize I have little time to get all my holiday stuff done before I leave. Here comes the rush... Before I go here is a list of some of the things I am grateful for right now-

a bored niece who wants to talk to me
concerned family and friends
Good Eats Turkey recipe
a fun roommate to see movies with
a brother-in-law that is willing to run my errands
my parents four wheel drive
games!
family willing to play games with me
Amazon.com
Law and Order marathon
a heavenly father who loves me
a job I like

I could keep going but this is getting a little long...

Long time

Well.... It has been a long time. Probably don't have any readers left, if you are reading this, kudos you have sticking power! So things the last few months has been busy. There have been a few family crises (that is pretty normal) and work. Work has been quite overwhelming this year. Here is why... I am now a full time Special Ed teacher. Now I am grateful for a job but I never wanted to be a full time special ed teacher. (It could be worse, I could be a math teacher too.) Anyway this means that I now have 4 different preps each day. Four different lesson plans to come up with each and every day. Also two of those classes are brand new. I have never taught English or Geography before. The only thing getting me through those classes is my awesome co-workers who allow me to steal all their curriculum! Also this means lots more students files that I am in charge of. That means being responsible for their IEP's and re-evals and any other issues that come up. It is a ton of paper work, no really, a ton. Some days I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water. Also, just as a reminder, I am a middle school teacher and kids at that age are... special. So if you don't hear from me much this school year this is why. I am done complaining now.

On a brighter note, I put on my own bumper, with help form my Dad. I got desperate and tried it, so far it has not fallen off. The boys at DI thought the red bumper on the black car was really cool :) Also, I got a new lap top at work because I have the best Principal ever. I am a little irritated that the district took Windows 7 off of it before they gave it to me though. Tomorrow night I am going to Harry Potter at midnight, yeah!!! Then I am going to Boise for the weekend. I haven't been there in like a year and I am so excited to see everyone. I am also bringing my Grandma back with me for Thanksgiving! Very excited to have her here. In October I went to Idaho Falls and visited Lauri and her family. It was great fun!

Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday. I love cooking a feast for my family and friends. Anyone who would like to come is welcome!

Summer!

Hello everyone. Greetings from the east coast. June is almost gone, I can't believe it! Summer goes by way to fast. So my first 2 weeks of summer were great. I quite enjoyed not having to get up early, being able to do nothing, etc. I did have 2 days of professional development on literacy. It was a little to close to the end of the year and I was not a very good student. Also a lot of it was review. It was nice to get to know some of my colleagues better. Anyway soon after I made the annual pilgrimage to Connecticut. This year it will be for about 7 weeks. I am taking care of the little ones for the summer. (Note: The nieces and nephews will only be referred to by initials because I feel silly using a fake name :) It is still hot and humid here in case anyone is wondering. It has not been to bad yet, I am waiting with dread for it to really get hot. The littlest one had her gymfest on Saturday. She was so cute doing all her gymnastics routines and apparently she has made huge progress this year! I. has a cast on but I usually forget because she almost never complains! It is amazing and she has found a way to do almost anything. I think maybe she got her spirit from Grandma Greenland! G. read the book I gave him in 24 hours, that was with about 4-5 hours of actual reading time. The book was 516 pages long. It is hard to admit that he reads faster than me! Well I wish I had lovely pictures to embellish this update with but alas no camera. That is on the shopping list for this summer.

Almost done

Hello all. It has been awhile, again. I gave a lesson last week on journaling and how it is a commandment. I was honest with my girls and explained that I don't do it very well but as I did challenge them to do it I thought I should make more of an effort.

School is winding down. It came up kind of fast and surprise like this year. When people started mentioning only a month left I was like, "really." I wasn't in the "I can't wait" phase yet. I am now. It is like in the last 2 weeks my students have forgotten everything they have ever learned about classroom rules, listening to instructions and just not talking! I have had to fall back on my stand by of more bribes- wait I mean rewards. Of course the end of this year brings me closer to the beginning of next year where I will be teaching 2 new subjects. That is a little stressful and nerve racking. I will really try hard to actually do some preparation this summer. Also the end of this year means that one of my VP's is leaving. He got transferred to another school. Most of you don't know him but he is great. One of the best administrators I have ever worked with and he will be missed.

The end of year school year also means summer!! I have tickets for CT and can't wait to see the family. I have lots of plans for fun.

I have also been reading and watching quite a few movies so here is a short review of those- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- I read this in a day. It is really good. It is a distopia, future story about a world where 24 young adults are sent each year to fight to the death. It is fast paced, has great characters and a very interesting, thought provoking message. It doesn't hit you over the head with it though, it is subtle. I have started the sequel and so far it is great too.
I have also read the first and fourth books in the Sword of Truth series. I really liked them. You may wonder why those two... well I read about a third of the second and was highly disturbed, then read synopsis of the next few books in the series and decided I didn't want to pick up the story till the 4th. Much better. There is a TV series based on it which is also pretty entertaining, "Legend of the Seeker" Last book is Forest Born by Shannon Hale. It is part of the books of Bayern series. Nice YA book with many strong female characters. I really enjoyed the evolution of the main character in this one. So far this is getting long so movie reviews will be short- Letters to Juliet- OK, you might wait till DVD. Just Wright- I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am a big fan of Queen Latifah. Robin Hood- a little slow to start but picks up and has a good ending. Not historically accurate but interesting how they combine the legend with the Magna Carta. OK that's all for now.

Happy Mother's Day

So today to celebrate Mother's day I thought I would give 1o reasons why I am grateful for my mother. (Also to beat my sister to the punch :) In no particular order-

1. She taught me to cook. This has brought me much joy and is a very useful skill to have.

2.She made me take Piano lessons. I can not play at all but it did help me develop an appreciation for music.

3. She made healthy well balanced meals for us. I may not eat very healthy all the time but it is not because I don't know how.

4. She taught me to speak my mind, even if sometimes it was to argue with her :).

5. Years of practice dying hair, it comes in really handy now.

6. She gave me the gift of celebrating birthdays instead of dreading them. Our birthdays were always big celebrations!

7. She took me to Disneyland and Disney World!!!

8. She taught me to treat all people with respect, even of they are different then we are.

9. When I was freaking out about not getting a good enough score or not studying enough she told me it would be fine.

10. She showed me how to be an intelligent, independent woman!

Thanks Mom, I love you.

book reviews

Hello everyone. My sister has requested that every time I finish a book I post about it. I told her to get on goodreads and she can read them there. She said it was easier to put it on the blog. Because she sent me beautiful flower and was very nice on my Birthday I will oblige her, this time. By the way the birthday was very good thanks all those who helped me celebrate even my 4th period who sang the worst rendition of Happy Birthday ever. Anyway in the last week I have read "Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison"- It was very good. I love this series. Brandon Mull is a great author, I highly recommend the series to anyone who remotely likes fantasy; "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night"-This book was really good. It is so different and unique. Is from the point of view of an autistic teen. The author created so much empathy for the characters and what they are going through. I am not sure how accurate of an insight into the mind of an autistic child it is. It did tend to match up to what I see with my students and what I know about the condition. Anyway I totally recommend it! There is some language, but not to bad. Also it is an interesting and fast moving plot as well: "City of Ember"- This book was interesting but not great. I liked the concept but the delivery lacked something. I have now started on "Wicked"- not the "Wizard of Oz" remake but a different one about witches and stuff. I'll let you know how it is.

Also I think I might review movies here as well. Kenn says that would be my perfect job, you can let me know :) I went and saw "Remember Me" tonight. It was better than I expected but I had really low expectations. I apologize now all you Edward fans but I do not think Robert Patinson is a good actor. He just always looks moody and depressed, in everything. On the other hand Pierce Brosnan was great as usual. The good thing is that it shows how people can survive tragedy and keep going, even if the tragedy is contrived. I also watched the "Red Riding" trilogy this week. It was well done but not worth the time invested. The content was too much for me. Remember I watch shows like "Bones" and "Law and Order:SVU" all the time. Also I was not satisfied with the ending, too much bad not enough good.

Until next time...

Catch up

OK so its been a few months I thought I would catch everyone (or no one:) up a little.

I got my Wii Fit! Yea! I have so far exercised much more than I have with anything else. Unfortunately it has not cured my dislike of exercise but made it a little more palatable. I finally unlocked advanced on rhythm Kung Fu!

I decided to go off sugar. I am highly addicted to the stuff and I finally decided cold turkey was the only way to go. I have had a few stumbles but for the most part I have done much better than I thought I would. I have lost a little weight and am feeling some what better. I need now to stop filling in with high fat/high carb stuff.

I had my final JPAS for my probation years!!! I have had to be evaluated 4 times a year for the first 3 years and now I am done! If I can just pass my PRAXIS PLT test then I can become a real teacher, or at least get a level 2 license. I should probably start studying for that...

I watched a ridiculous amount of the Olympics in the last 2 weeks. Here is my opinionated summary- Sooooo glad Evan won, Plushenko is a dork! Apolo was robbed but is still The Man! Shawn White amazing. Short Track relay is insane and I am not sure why it does not end in bloodshed every time, those skates are sharp! I like watching curling, still not exactly sure what is going on but they sure are enthusiastic, also I think it is the only Olympic sport I might be able to do :) Now it is time to get back to my regularly scheduled TV viewing.... can't wait for The Vampire Diaries :)

Update

OK, again it has been a really long time. I have been busy and really I just haven't been in the mood. It's weird. Anyway Christmas was great. Kim and Dave and their kids came. It was crazy but great. Christmas day it's self was pretty quiet. I did have a hard time sleeping, just like a kid because I wanted to open my presents :) I got a wii, yea! Thanks again Kim and Dave. I also got to visit my friend and her family in Idaho. That was a lot of fun. I am a big fan of Beatles rockband. If only I could get some Rick Astley on a rockband, that would be awesome!

A new semester starts tomorrow. For the first time I am kind of sad to lose my students. I have my classes well trained and most of them are pretty good. Oh well, hopefully this semester will be even better. I worked out on the Wii fit at Alicia's last night and I am really sore today. I am not used to the muscle movements required to do the hula hoop :)

Girls weekend!

Hello all. I just had a great weekend. My friend Lauri came and stayed. We have know each other since we were 4. There were a few rocky years in grade school :) but mostly she has always been one of my best friends. She is always there for me no matter what. I can have not talked to her in months and she is always willing to be my sounding board and listen to me complain. I also remembered this weekend how good she for me, subtly encouraging me to be more positive and less critical of others, thanks Lar! Anyway Friday we went shopping and got some great makeup,had dinner at the cheesecake factory, very yummy, and then went to a movie. Saturday I introduced her to her first pedicure, nice excuse for me to get one! We had a great time just hanging out. I am so glad she came and I hope to get to see her again soon.

Nothing much else is going on. It was a busy week at work. I missed the monthly Chili's outing Friday. At least once a month a group of us from work go to Chili's after school on Friday and hangout for awhile. The group includes our Awesome administration. Any teachers out there reading this you can be jealous now. I work at the best school ever! This is just one small example of why it is so awesome. November is going by in a blur. Next week is New Moon, yes I have tickets already and then Thanksgiving! I am now issuing an open invitation to anyone who would like to come to Thanksgiving dinner. I love to cook for Thanksgiving and would love to have more to cook for! Hope to see you...