Third time's the charm

We have been married for three whole years. It seems like a whole lot some days and like nothing other days. 

This year we.....

-Got two black labs ( not at the same time) Skip and Duke. Kolton loved that Skip. We will see how long Duke lasts.

-I joined the ranks of college graduates and got my first big kid job. And have more money in the bank than I have ever had before (which is not saying much) Lets just say I now have more to my name than I had coming into this marriage...which was $200. 

- We went to Mexico and had a blast. 

- We still love living in Monteview and have been here almost two years now. 

-I learned that Kolton is a super awesome animal house builder. Seriously. 

-We actually harvested something from our garden. First time ever! 

-Started and stopped many exercise regimens. 

- I ran a 6k and was pretty sure I was going to die. 

- Kolton got a head cold and was pretty sure he was going to die. ( hee hee)

-We partied hard and then worked even harder.

-This was the first year Kolton rented his own ground and it was great! And super stressful. But we were so blessed and ended up with a good crop. Mostly due to me weeding the field one day while I was stuck with Kolton and he was fixing a flat tire. Okay, mostly due to Kolton working his fanny off day and night including changing 6 flat tires. 

Proud Teacher

Last Friday I had the proudest moment of my teaching career thus far. (As opposed to one of the lowest points of my teaching career that occurred the previous Monday)

During my short prep time break I was running around trying to get everything set for my afternoon class to come in and start the day when the secretary told me I had to meet with the insurance guy that was at the school that day. 

I was not looking forward to meeting with him and was avoiding it for a couple of really good reasons. 

1. This same insurance guy had talked to us at a staff meeting earlier in the week and quickly lost me as he used words such as Section 125, IRS, flex accounts, etc. I do not know what these things mean and he was rushing along so fast I didn't even get a chance to ask. 

Okay, I probably should have just asked the questions I had but it had been a long day and I was tired and really not feeling it. 

2. I only have a one year contract with the school (so far) so if I am not here next year all the insurance junk I've signed up for and spent time looking over will be wasted and gone when I no longer work at the school. 

3. Because I only have a one year contract, even though the school provides insurance I have kept my previous insurance because I don't want to go through the hassle of signing back up in a matter of months. So I am already double covered on health insurance...I think I'm good!

Good reasons, right?

So you can understand why I was not looking forward to and was avoiding this meeting. But he pulled me in there and I got to ask all my questions and give all my reasons for not being interested and then feel guilty when he talked all about being covered for everything and then feeling silly because I just didn't want any more insurance! 

It's complicated. 

ANYWAY...so as we were in this meeting that I didn't want to be in in the first place I realized that my class was getting back from P.E. and were probably wreaking havoc in the classroom as I was speaking about insurance. 

Needless to say, I was a bit nervous to head back to class and see the state of the classroom and the children in it with no teacher there to supervise them. 

But lo and behold, when I walked into the classroom this is what I saw:

-Almost every kid seated quietly at their desk copying down the DOL sentences I had written on the board. 

-The one student that was not in her seat was up at the board erasing the corrections to the DOL that I had done with the previous class.

And then I cried.

Not really, but I felt like it. I was so impressed with those kids for knowing what they needed to do even though I wasn't there to tell them. Oh, they were so amazing and I told that about 500 times how much I just love them. 

That was a good end to a crazy week.

A Juanito Bandito Christmas

So this last weekend we went down with my family to Utah. 

Our first stop was Temple Square to see the lights. We walked around and froze our faces off and got teary eyed while looking at the nativity and then decided we had had enough. 

Then we went to Benihana's which is a little Japanese restaurant that is pretty neat. They cook your food for you right at the table and it was just cool. Our cook was quite the little performer and about two minutes into the meal and watching him do his thang, Brevan asked if we could go there again. 

After that we hiked up to the parking garage where our car was. It just so happens that at exactly the same time we were trying to leave the parking garage, there was a concert at the Conference Center that was being let out. So traffic was a mess and we spent almost an hour and a half inching our way down that parking garage. It was super. When we finally got to the hotel at midnight we all crashed. 

The next day we went to the Gateway to do a little shopping and then hopped over to City Creek to grab some lunch and look around a little more. We ate at Johnny Rocket's and enjoyed our hamburgers and shakes. 

After lunch we headed to Logan to see Juanito. We got there early and had nothing to do so...we went to WalMart of course! And then we went to the Bluebird to have a little dessert before the play. 

 And look who we happened to find....Tyrelly!

 After our little dessert stop we walked over to the theatre. As we were waiting for the play to start I started thinking that I needed to grab my camera so we could take a picture. I tried to tell myself no because I knew that Kolton would be annoyed by more pictures but then I told myself yes because I wanted one. So then we searched for the camera for a couple minutes before we realized we had left it at the Bluebird. So Kolton hightailed it out of there and got back with time to spare and luckily we were able to present this picture and all the other ones since my camera was not lost forever.

And that's the end my friends! After a looong drive late at night we finally made it home.

I Hesitate to Share This...

But I'm going to anyway. Because it was really bad and still not quite yet really funny (but it might be one day) all rolled into one. 

So Monday was just not a super great day to be me. It was the Monday-est Monday I have ever had. I was just having a bona fide bad day and then it got worse. 

That afternoon the kids at school were doing their Literature Circles and reading silently when a girl came up to my desk and told me she didn't feel well. I told her to go to the bathroom or do whatever she needed to if she was feeling sick. She headed toward the door and right when she got to the door I called out that I needed to see the members or a particular group. She was one of the members of the group so being the obedient girl she is, she came back to see what I had to say. I didn't really notice she was there as I started in on my directions for the group. But I heard "Oh no..." 

And then, there was puke. 

Bleh....I still shudder when I think about it.

She ran out of the room and I ordered the rest of the class to get in line RIGHT NOW. and NO TALKING. And then we went down to the gym where they continued to do their literature circles and I ran to the office to get the custodian. 

Turns out...the custodian leaves early in the afternoons so the mess was all mine. I'm sure the secretary got a kick out of the look of utter disbelief/disgust/anxiety that I gave her. 

When I recovered after asking "Really?" about 7 times I headed back down to the classroom to grab the rest of the class' worksheets. And as soon as I walked in the door my gag reflex kicked in big time and I about threw up myself. Like, really. 

So then I went back down to the office and got the girl out of the sick bed because I am the meanest person in the world and then I made her clean up her own puke. 

And then I ran back and forth from the classroom and the gym and the custodial closet and the office about fifty times and it was just a really awesome afternoon and a fabulous end to a fabulous day. 

The end.