The End

Yesterday was my official last day student teaching!! Wahoo!! I called Richie when I was driving home and he asked how I felt. I'll tell ya, it was kind of anti-climatic. I was expecting to be.... I don't know crying, yelling, grinning ear to ear. But instead it just felt good. :) It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, but one of the most worth-while. That's usually how it seems to go right? I may go back every once in a while to help with centers or to show off our baby though. We'll see. On Monday night after dinner, I wanted to eat something sweet (as usual) so I decided to make a cake, but not just any cake. A "Congratulations to me!" cake. I figured since that was the first time in ages I actually had time to do something like that, it was kind of a celebration. :) A really yummy celebration!

I thought I would post a picture of my unit that I did for student teaching. We were required to teach a unit and document it like crazy. I chose to do mine on the seasons since it went along so well with the reading program that theme. After analyzing the pre and post tests, I found that 50% of my students scored a 90% or higher on the test. The rest were not too far behind! So that's good. Each lesson was on a different season and I usually incorporated some type of writing project and some type of art project. Each art project went outside in the hallway on a gigantic tree I made with 4 branches, each dedicated to a season. So for spring we made flowers out of tissue paper, summer we learned different ways to color and made green leaves, fall we did leaf rubbings, and winter we made snowflakes. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. The kids sure seemed to enjoy it.
I'm really going to miss those kids and that age and their conversations.
"Do you know what it means to french kiss?",
"Let's pretend like I'm the teacher."
"Ok, and lets pretend like I'm the smartest kid in class"
"I love you 200 times"

Ultimate!

I know, I know...two posts in one day? Is she crazy??? It just so happens, I have the day off school today and am loving it. So, I get to blog a bit. For the past 3 or 4 years, Richie has played on an Ulimate frisbee team here at school every fall semester and loved it! He is really very good at it. I'm always impressed that I'm married to such a stud. Anyway, this semester was his last since he graduates in April! He's been on the Bruins every year and this year they made it to the playoffs! It was actually his cousin's team that they played. We lost, but it was a VERY close and intense game. And props to all the wives and I who stayed the entire game in 30 degree weather! Anyway, here's a picture to commemorate Ultimate frisbee. Richie's the one on the right doing the sexy bay-watch run. :)

Pregnant? Who me?

Richie and I took some pictures the other day to send to his family so they could photoshop us in for their Christmas card. I was looking through them and was hit with the reality that my belly is expanding at, what for me, is an unnatural rate! Go figure. So, here's some pics to update ya'll. Just in case you were wondering, we had to buy some tums and coconut cream stuff so help with some symptoms that are now accompanying my growing mid-section. :) Now, if we could only find something that cured swollen feet and ankles.....

Rolling Chair Ballet

Richie and some of his favorite roommates did this for ward talent show back before Richie's mission. He just talked to one of them, and found out the video was on youtube. Unfortunately I don't know how to post the video on our blog, so if you take this link, or go to youtube.com and type in rolling chair ballet, it's the first video that pops up. You will not be disappointed.

Brief Synopsis: A young girl on BYU-Idaho campus, goes to the DI to buy a new dress for an upcoming dance. All they seem to have is denim. Unfortunately President Bednar has spoken out against denim skirts, calling them "Jeans without a seam". They are definitely not formal enough. She is met by three young DI workers who struggle with her to find the perfect dress. In her moment of grief, they pull back the shroud of denim and uncover.......

Halloween vs Diabetes

I've been meaning to post so many things for so long now. I apologize. Time is just....short these days.
Well, I've been telling some people about the bats we made in my first grade class, so here are some pictures of how they turned out. The kids LOVED making them and they are so easy! A friend of mine gave me the link to find the instructions, but we did them a bit differently.

1. find an old, clean, black sock. Cut it off to make your bat however long you want.
2. Stuff the sock with batting and safety pin it closed at the end.
3. We used googley eyes for the eyes, and black and white felt for the mouth and wings in class. When Richie and I made them we used foam for the wings, which I liked better. I just made a pattern for the wings and mouth and had the kids cut them out. All these things are then hot glued on.
4. You only need 1 black pipe cleaner for one bat. Cut it in half, then cut the halves in thirds. Hot glue them on to the bottom and then curl them once they have dried.
Richie and I made them for FHE this week for Halloween and they turned out awesome. Even though it was a craft, I think Richie really liked doing it :) We watched Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and the old Headless Horseman with Bing Crosby as the narrator while we made them. fun fun fun.


So on Halloween, we had some really good friends of ours, Mike and Megan, invite us over to have a little Halloween shin-dig. There was another couple there and we all brought food, so between the 6 of us, there was a lot of food to be consumed. I did my fair share of helping 'dispose' of the plentiful food, especially the sweets. :) The next morning I woke up and realized I was going to the doctor's that day to be tested for gestational diabetes. Hmmm..."Not smart" I thought to myself, "to pig out on sugar the night before a diabetes test." But no worries. All is well, Halloween won and I don't have diabetes! Wahoo! He actually said my level was very low and that everything was progressing perfectly. Exactly what I wanted to hear. :) We're SO excited that it's almost painful!!
Hope everyone's Halloween was awesome!