What's making me happy this week..

+ I AM A TEACHER AGAIN!!!!

+ Seeing my student from last year was probably the happiest thing in the world. They have all stopped by to visit me numerous times and I constantly see them in the hall. I definitely miss having them in my classes all day, but I am just so glad I still get to see them. My first year batch of kids will definitely always hold a special place in my heart. I love their freaking guts! Sometimes they sneak into my room and leave me notes on my whiteboard. And sometimes they are still using the wrong form of "your."

+ The second year of teaching is soooo much easier than the first, I can't even begin to explain it! I feel so prepared and on top of things, it's ridiculous. I know what to expect this year, so I have set up a bomb organizational system ans I am determined to stay on top of all my paper work. 

+ Nathan keeps getting huge jobs at work which means huge commission! It's so nice to see his hard work paying off. I also like money. 

+ My new kiddies are going to be a blast! Still have about 90% boys (all with ADHD) so I think it will be a pretty similar adventure to last year.

+ Nathan wakes up 40 minutes earlier than he has to just so he can make me a lunch and hang out with me before I have to leave for work. I picked a winner. He also made me chocolate ice cream with Oreo's in it tonight!

+ Tonight was back to school night so in order to compensate hours, we don't have to come in until 9:30 tomorrow. Wahhhoooo!!!!!!

+ I have half the amount of testing that I did last year. In May last year, I had 5 students to do full-scale academic and IQ testing on. This year, I have 5 total!! FIVE!! For the whole year! It's amazing!!!

+ Last night Nathan and I got to hang out with one of his best friends from the mission. Elder Nelson! Or Ben haha. He just got home a few weeks ago. I felt like I already knew him, but it was great to see him in real life.

+ One of my favorite students from last year (shh, we aren't supposed to have favorites) got moved into my mixed-grade study skills class. He and I were both stoked. It's like a little taste of last year.

+ My little sister is awesome. And she texts me things like this. We are just two peas in a pod! (I hate when people say that). Sorry if talking about pooping grosses you guys out. We probably shouldn't be friends. Also, that is a smiling piece of poop next to her name in my phone.

+ Both my team and my department seriously rock. I am so glad I get to work with the same people as last year and that they are all amazing. We have a lot of fun together. I love that I can walk down the hall and vent at the end of a long day and come out laughing. This school is a special place.

+ I have officially stopped drinking diet coke in the morning. Please applaud. This is a big deal for me.

+ I'm a G and Nathan is jealous.

last night

These empty seats are ready to be filled.

& it's almost time!

I love the night before school starts. I get so excited!! It's like Christmas Eve :) I am so blessed to enjoy what I do so much. I picked my outfit out and I made my lunch and have everything set. I can't wait to meet my kiddos tomorrow. I can't wait to get visits from my students from last year. I can't wait to be in my element and filling those kids' brain to capacity with KNOWLEDGE!!! 

K, time for bed.

Donut Falls

Guys, there are no donuts at the top of donut falls. In fact, there isn't much of a waterfall. But it's a gorgeous hike. You should probably do it sometime. K bye.

 

 

this wiiikend

+ Nathan saw Dispacable Me for the first time. I've been wanting to watch it with him forever but we were with some friends Friday night who happened to have it. Wahoo!
+ We had to buy 17 internal hard drives for Nathan's work. (His company paid for them, don't worry). + The people at Best Buy were laughing because they have never sold so many hard drives at once. We cleaned out their entire inventory. I felt like a superhero who buys a bunch of hard drives.
+ Nathan pretended he was a BYU alumni. Which he is not.

+ An IEP meeting for one of my students from last year was mentioned in a district-wide SPED meeting. She called it a huge success and named us over at South Hills Middle the "dream team." That feels pretty awesome guys. Especially because the opening lecture at the inservice was called: "2011-2012: The year of complaints" and they went through and listed everything we were doing wrong.
+ Nathan scored some big jobs from some big clients. Our bank account is gonna be reeallly happy this month.
+ We made a bed in the living room and watched the last Harry Potter movie. Oh and I cried.

+ We may or may not have hung out with Jessi and Marshall again. We like them. Nathan and Marshall played video games and Jessi and I made saltine toffee before we all sat down to watch "She's All That." I'm not even kidding. It was just as amazing as when I was 13. If you don't know what movie that is, please watch click this and be amazed.

+ We hiked to Donut Falls. There were no donuts there.
+ Nathan gave an awesome talk in sacrament meeting. I had to give the opening prayer. It was like a Merkley day. And the whole congregation rejoiced!
+ Nathan watched "chess strategy" videos on youtube. Yeah. He's a nerd.
+ We ate chocolate chip pancakes. And chocolate chip cookies.
+ Nathan made enchiladas! We like food.
+ This didn't happen over the weekend but oh well. Nathan and I went with some friends to a Polynesian dance festival for FHE last week and it was awesome! I wish I could dance like that. It was incredible. Plus, our friend Monty said he was craving licorice and I had some in my purse and it felt like magic.
+ And... that's all we did.

the salty city

So I brag about Salt Lake a lot. (Mostly during the times when it's not snowing though). I really love this place. I am so glad I've gotten to live almost 3 years of my life here.

Tonight Nathan and I walked down to City Creek for frozen yogurt and then decided to take the long way home by wandering down main street. Walking in between the giant sky rises and gorgeous old buildings, I felt very happy and right where I needed to be. I know in the future, the time spent just us two in the big city will be very happy memories to look back on. I want to make sure I live them up!

I don't want to be a "city person" forever. This isn't where I'd want my kids to go to school or run around playing in the streets with homeless people. But I'll miss it when I'm gone. We have had a lot of fun adventures here. And tonight's adventure involved frozen yogurt and our favorite homeless lady. Can you think of a better adventure?? I can't.

I'm serious guys. She's awesome.

Back at it

Today I returned to the ranks of the functioning human beings. People who actually add to society. And it felt awesome! It was my first day back at work, although the kiddies don't come until next week. I found room 207 just how I left it. It felt like home. I hoped to get all kind of wonderful things done, until I was handed my caseload and told almost none of the IEP's matched the schedules. Such is life. My boss is amazing and found all the problems for me, I just have to fix them. Which will probably take me at least a week. But I did manage to come up with a much better filing and organizational process for my IEPs and I am pretty stoked. Spent 8 hours just getting that much done hah. (There may have been a 2 hour lunch in there though. Some of us really needed to catch up).

 

It seriously feels amazing to be back. I LOVE teaching!!! I remember at one FHE way back in my Provo days, we were playing a getting to know you game. One of the questions was, "what would your dream job be?" I honestly said that what I did was my dream job. I guess I could add to the dream by tripling my salary, but oh well! This really is exactly what I want to be doing. And I know I am at the right school with the right people. I love doing something I am good at and really feeling like I'm making a difference. There is stress, oh boy is there stress, but it's worth it.

I can't believe I was starting at South Hills just one year ago. I was a craze-ball of emotions. Now it just feels comfortable and safe and happy.

It's going to be another amazing year, I just know it!

ps. Sorry if some of my special ed lingo doesn't make sense to you. I don't feel like explaining things. Cos I am lazy. 

over the weekend..

..we hung out with the exact same people we did last weekend.
Oh well. I like those people.

Seriously. Big fans.

iPhone dump

Sorry guys, this is a literal iPhone dumping. I haven't posted pictures from my phone in forever and since I want to turn my blog into a book, I want all these pictures. They are random and out of order and bad quality and awesome. So yep. Here's some dumpage!

 

Snuggling with Jessi and Cam before bed. I miss California!!!!

 

Leaving for Idaho last month! Remember when my hair was long? And brown?

 

These shoes are so ugly, I nearly barfed in Aldo last weekend.

 

Sunday naps are the best naps.

 

My baby. I never leave home without her. Still haven't named her.

 

Nathan takes Noodles and co. very seriously. He sat down and demolished his bowl in 4.7 seconds.

 

My fat, handsome king! I miss him.

 

Jessi, Marshall, Nathan and I got Del the other night. 4 of those tacos are for Jessica and I. The rest (including 2 macho sized fries) are for our fat husbands.

 

Jessica's wedding really wore Nathan out.

 

Ohhhhh OPI. Why must your nail polish be so amazing?

 

Best family picture ever.

 

The only phone picture from the big day! Isn't the bride smoking hot??

 

Just 12 inches of my hair. And Blake's face. Clearly disgusted. 

 

Bubba man!

 

Poor sleepy boy. He came home for lunch one day and fell asleep within 2 minutes.

 

A room full of keyboards. Nathan's dream.

 

Girl's day before Jessi's wedding. Ava only cares about her food.

 

Down town! Love the city in the summer.

 

My home girl.

 

This really happened.

 

Just me and my handsome husband.