Age 8 Questionnaire

· If you could have one super-power, what would it be? Be able to fly and help anyone, anywhere at anytime.

· What was the last chore you did? laundry

· What is your favorite song?

primary song: "Why is the sky so blue today......Only Because its Spring"

non-church song: Taylor Swift "You Belong with Me"

· What's your favorite food? Buffalo Chicken sandwich (like at KFC or Jack in the Box) or mashed potatoes and gravy

· What's the nicest thing you've done for someone in your family lately? Wrote notes in our love journals.

· What makes you mad? When my friends are mean to me.

· Where would you like to go on vacation next year? Disneyland

· Who's the smartest person in your family? Daddy Why? Because he's strong and he knows stuff.

· How are you like your dad? We both like to color.

· How are you like your mom? We both have freckles.

· What's one thing that your dad has that you'd like to develop? Make stuff for people on the computer.

· What's one thing that your mom has that you'd like to develop? Learn how to be a teacher.

· What's one thing that Dad always says to you? “You are special”

· What's one thing that you and Dad did together that you'll always remember? Snorkeling.

· If you had a million dollars, what's the first thing you'd buy? An enormous, clean house.

· How do you know that I (mom) love you? By the way she says I love you and she gives me hugs and kisses.

· What's your favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch

· What's your favorite movie? The Parent Trap

· What's your favorite vegetable? corn

· What is a personal item that you would never give away? My family.

· What's your favorite game? Uno

· What's your favorite book? The Best Pet of All

· What food would you eat every day if you could? Boneless Buffalo Wings

· If you could choose a different name, what would it be? Amber

· What's the scariest thing you've ever done? A Haunted House

· If you could eat at any restaurant for the rest of your life, where would it be? Chili’s

· What's your favorite candy? Sour straws

· What's the last thing that you did that you were proud of? Being student of the month

· What's the best age to be? 8

· What's your favorite holiday? Christmas

· What's the best present you ever got? Baby Alive

· What's your greatest words of wisdom at age 8? Be baptized.

Two Weeks - Baptism Countdown!

Jordyn's Pre-Baptism Date with Grandma

Jordyn has a special afternoon at my mom's today after church. Just Grandma, Grandpa and Jordyn! What more could a girl want? This post was actually written - and pics taken- by my mom.

(scripture totes....all made by my mom!!)

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Choices.....

NUMBER ONE!!!!

Next in line...

"One with lace kind of like Lexi's but not exactly."

As per her request.

Look mom!

This is the "new look" for the girls after swim garb!!!! Boys T-shirts and boys boxers. The frills are gone and the more mature look is here!

Baptism Memory Binder (made by Grandma)

Looking at grandpa eating Cheese-its.

Reading her short talk book. She said "the talk aren't short, they are long!"

Showing the "silver" part of her scriptures.

Name imprinted on the front in silver.

Easter dress perfection.

Today Jordyn got to come over after church for her pre-baptism celebration.

This of course is a new tradition that I hope to remember and continue with the other grand kids.

She received her new scriptures.

She selected her scripture tote.
She received a special "Short-Talks" book.

She received her Baptism Binder.

She scaled down her scripture totes to only 3! She had to choose from 20!

We did an elimination process where she would choose ones stay "in" and others to go "out". It really helped her to make the process of choosing much easier. At first she just couldn't choose any. Then I persuaded her to "have to" pick 1 between 2 of the displayed and so on. It was a fun experience to watch her make choices with so many choices!

LOOK... Easter outfit PERFECTION! I am sooooo excited."

(Love, Grandma)

Student of the Month Jordyn!

Jordyn was chosen to be Student of the Month for her class for February. It's quite an honor since her teacher can only choose 9 students for the year out of the 24 kids in her class. She has to demonstrate responsibility, following the rules, teamwork and good citizenship....and she has! Mrs Stone really has high expectations of these 2nd graders and accepts nothing less than the best out of all of their work. Jordyn has proudly risen to the challenge and I am so impressed by her determination to do her very best in all things.

Jordyn go to go to lunch with the principal and also got a gift certificate to McDonalds, a bowling alley and her picture will be in the paper probably this week!

We love you Jo!!!

So Embarassed

Jordyn has officially entered the stage where everything embarrasses her. I thought this happened later than 8, but for her it has definitely arrived. If I say the wrong thing to her, it embarrasses her. If I critique her clothing, it makes her mad. And most of all, when Tucker drops her off at school, if he says a WORD to her after the door is opened, it totally embarrasses her (even when no one is around!).

Well, a while back Tucker got an idea from one of his friends (Mike Haroldsen) who teases his 12 year old daughter when he drops her off at school by yelling "Bye Snuggle-bear". Tucker thought this was a fun thing to tease Jordyn with, and he's enlisted Peyton in on the joke. So now, our poor 2nd grader has really learned how to pretend not to hear her dad and sister as they drop her off at school every morning!

It's both sad and hilarious. These videos capture it great. :-)

Teaching Adventures

Kids right after our Green Eggs. 23/25 liked them!

I let them write words from Green Eggs and Ham on the sidewalk with chalk

For Math, we recently learned about measuring. Here they are seeing how many spoonfulls of beans fit into one cup.

For our transportation unit, the kids all got to help paint big foam boards and also paint wooden vehicles. Then I stapled/taped it to the floor for one of our centers. They've loved the imaginary play!

Farm Day! Last Friday, we went to a local farm! Kids got to hold chicks, pet goats, take a picture with a mini horse and plant a seed!

March has been a crazy month so far in school! We've crammed in Dr. Seuss birthday with green eggs and ham, Farm Day (field trip), St. Patrick's Day, Amtrak train trip and Easter....all within a few weeks!

And today, for St. Patty's day, the "leprechauns" visited our classroom last night! They teased us by knocking over all of our chairs, leaving green footprints in paint all over the classroom and leaving us gold coins filled with chocolate! The kids were thrilled by our mysterious visitors!

The struggle for me as a teacher is to enjoy the moment while living in the future. If my mind is not always thinking weeks in advance, then we'd never get all the special holidays, seasons, themes and standards met. Some days I feel like someone pushed fast-forward with how much we fit into one day! But the shocking part is....these kids really can keep up. In fact, it's an art to keep them perfectly busy. Not too much and not too little. In fact, too little is worse than too much because if their brains get bored, you loose 'em. Every single MINUTE counts in kindergarten!

I think I'm completing my 10th week (now it's all a blur) and I have learned SOOOOOO much! I think every teacher should HAVE to do a long term assignment before having their own classroom. The strange part for me now is to realize that I'll turn back the classroom to Mrs. R in a few weeks and then it's just over. I won't necessarily get updates on "my" kids. But to her, their "her" kids. Maybe it's like foster parenting? :-)

The kids are really growing at rapid speeds this time of year, which is SO fun to see. The girls are also growing in their ability to have "girl drama" and the boys are getting more physical (tackling, etc). The tattles are enough to kill me off. If I hear "teacher, she hurt my feelings!" one more time, I might scream! There is always one that is the nucleus of it too.

Anyway, I just feel like I'm just surviving life. I don't feel like I'm giving 100% to anything. Its like I'm too tired all the time. But it's not like before I was teaching i was on the ball with everything either! I'm just really morphing into a disorganized person! I was complaining about Lexi's horrible closet the other day (I mean clothes piled EVERYWHERE). And then I walked into my own and thought....well, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree! How can I expect her to do something her mother doesn't even do! It's the whole "do what I say, not what I do" notion, right?!

Too tired to write more now. Trying not to be too hard on myself for all that I don't have and don't do. Grateful for the blessings I have and really no need to complain about the hard stuff. It can always be worse, is what I've found!

Softball!

Well, it's our first dabble in Girl's Softball! The girls have been practicing for a few weeks and have had three games so far. We have about 7 weeks of games, so they go until late April. Every Saturday they have two games and their practices are every TU/TH. It felt like a scary commitment at first, but hasn't been TOO bad. And the Saturdays have been beautiful weather so far - like 55-60 and cool, yet sunny. We put Lexi on the 8 and under team (instead of 6 and unders) along with Jordyn because they have really similar abilities and we were NOT up for four games every Saturday!
Tucker and I chose to sponsor their team with our company "Watch Me Draw!". This meant we got to pick the team colors and name. Of course he wanted "Red Sox". And it was funny because there are several Yankee or Dodger fans on our team who weren't totally thrilled with being the Red Sox! O'well, the girls think it's great!


Cousin Lyric is on the 6 and under team, so they won't play each other, but they get to see each other at games!
Jordyn's friend Emma is on an opposing team. They think it's fun to play each other!


Look how cute these girls are sitting on the bench waiting to bat!


Aw, little Lexi. Ready to be up at bat!


Last Saturday, Jordyn got a hit and got to first base and then stole 2nd & 3rd, and finally got to run home!

What a cute little outfielder Lexi is!


And of course Peyton is the little cheerleader on the sidelines!


Last Saturday, my mom and dad came and spent a few hours watching all the girls play. It was so fun to have them there!!

Baptism Date

I am making announcements for Jordyn's big baptism day, but for those of you wondering, it looks like the final date is

Sunday April 11th, 1:30 pm

No pressure at all for out-of-towners to try to squeeze in a trip to our humble little town, but you're still more than welcomed to come.

Jordyn is very excited!

Jog-A-Thon

The biggest fundraiser at Lincoln school is their annual Jog-A-Thon. (The school is only 2nd and 3rd graders). Jordyn's teacher is pretty much in charge of (everything) it, so Jordyn put a lot of pressure on herself to raise a lot of money.

Sadly, Jordyn does not have a saleswoman for a mom. And Tucker is just trying to juggle after-school craziness till I get home, so we did not hit the pavement the way she would have liked. We did end up raising like $67. She ran 14 laps (I'm not sure what that's equivalent to) and did a great job! She even won a t-shirt and a couple other drawing prizes (Jack In The Box gift card and McDonald's gift card, healthy!).

Tucker and Peyton were able to go cheer her on the morning she ran.

Days Like This - I Need a Nap

Days like today are interesting.

I started out the day feeling really yucky like I have all week; sore throat, swollen glands, cough and headache. But I was at school bright and early at 7:30 ready to start my day (?).

Right away, I remember why it's exhausting. "Teacher, he cutted in line. Teacher, he pushed me! Teacher, look at my new shoes! Teacher, can you hold my stuff? Teacher, Isaiah is grabbing me!".

Then, the parent who promised to come help at the independent table today didn't show up. That translates into double craziness for the lone teacher of 25 five year olds. (Have you ever tried to talk for 7 hours straight?)

Then, I got a five minute break at recess.

Then, after them telling me their hungry for the entire hour before lunch, I took them to the cafeteria and took my ten minute lunch since I had lunch duty.

Then I had "Encore" after lunch, which means I get a group of the "higher" kids for 45 minutes. So instead of 25 kids, I had 37 kids. I was outside with two other teachers doing PE in the unusual SUN and screaming at the top of my lungs for them to hear me (remember the sore throat?).

By the time they left at 2:00, I was SOOO ready to finish prepping for our Green Eggs and Ham breakfast today and get home by 4:00. Instead, I was told we had a last minute staff meeting...which lasted for TWO FREAKING HOURS! By then my headache was so extreme, I left school as disastrous as it can be.

(Hopefully I can get out the door early (earlier) tomorrow so I can be ready to "go on stage" by 8:00!)

Luckily I came home to bon bons and putting my feet up for the night. OH wait, that was just a dream. Yeah right! But I did get to be with my cute girls.

Even with the stress and craziness, and even though I don't know that I want to teach kindergarten, I really like these crazy kids. Even when you get upset at them and have them pull a card, they still love you. And they ask you questions like "Teacher, can I go to the restaurant?" when they have to go to the bathroom. They definitely keep me laughing (and crying).

Sourdough Toast Only

Ahhh little Miss Peyton. Many people comment that she is like a little cartoon character. She's too smart and witty for her own good! (She is also a REALLY picky eater, soooo frustrating. One of her good ol' standbys is sourdough toast with butter. Nice and packed with empty carbs!)

One of her most recent funnies is during a conversation with Grandpa. They were talking about losing teeth and she made sure he understood that:

"I won't get loose teeth until I get blonde hair and glasses". Just like her big sister Lexi. Too funny! Such funny things kids think!