I am loving teaching right now :)

So, I truly love my profession. I think this new way of thinking has come about from some pretty negative things that have been happening in my life right now.

I have been having some severe struggles with cheerleading parents (one couple in particular). I will not bore you with all the details, but it has caused me much trouble, pain, and sleepless nights. The COOL thing is that the Lord works in mysterious and sometimes weird ways. Ever since I have been dealing with these problems, I have, for some odd reason, been way more into teaching. I think it is because I am getting ridiculed so much for being such a "mean and bad coach" that I have seen how much I am NOT like that and how much I truly love my kids. I don't know if I can put all these feelings into words, but the light at the end of the dark tunnel is here and I am loving teaching.

For example, today I had to run down to the office and figure a few things out while my 3rd period students were silently reading. I come back to class to find my podium up against the door, both garbage cans, and a student, one of my favorites, recording me as I walk in. Most teachers, including myself on most days, would have freaked out and given them a huge assignment to do or something. I just laughed and made them write triple the amount of work lol. BUT I was smiling the whole time. It turns out that they are making a teacher documentary. I now think they are funny, but I won't tell them that. High school kids are just fun, once you have their respect, and the relationship between you and them starts to build. I am just loving it!

That is all.

A WICKED weekend...

My sisters, mom, and I flew to Denver this weekend to go see the musical "Wicked." It was the most amazing musical in the entire world! I could watch it every single day for the rest of my life! It was such a great time with my sisters and my mommy. We loved it! Here are some pics.

Layni and me

Our hotel (The Curtis) was so fun! Every floor had a different theme. Our floor was the "fun and games floor" and every time our elevator would stop on our floor it would play "The Price is Right" music. There were sixteen floors including: the horror floor on the 13th of course, the LOL floor, the big hair floor, the chick flick floor, etc. It was so much fun! This is a picture of us with a giant "barrel of monkeys" monkey.

At Dinner

A giant Jenga game in the Lobby

A sign we saw on the street and couldn't stop laughing

Being witches

Back to school....back to school.....(Billy Madison, anyone?)

Well school started again......bittersweet, isn't it? I am teaching at Maple Mountain High School and coaching cheer as well. Coaching is a full-time job all by itself, and I have been doing that since March, so now that teaching has finally come into the picture, I am overloaded! Let's talk about the good parts:

1. I have my OWN classroom! That might seem like a no-brainer to the general folk, but I didn't have a classroom last year, and I DIED!!!! It was the craziest experience of my life. Not only did I teach in 3 different classrooms, but they were in 3 different buildings!!! So that is a big plus!

2. I only have to teach 5 classes, instead of last year's 7. This is huge. That is ~80 students LESS, which makes grading papers 80 times easier.

3. I teach a block away from my house. This is so nice! I don't have to wake up way early just to drive for 25 minutes and wait in Lehi main street traffic to and from school.

4. I am not a first year teacher anymore!!! This is the best. I am considered a semi-normal teacher now lol.

5. Less classroom management, more teaching! This is wonderful. I taught 7th and 8th graders last year and spent most of the class period managing them in class. Now that I am teaching 10th and 11th, I can pretty much teach. They have matured, and listen so much better.

6. Our English Dept. has about 100 classroom sets of novels. Think about a book you want to teach, and we probably have it. This is so nice!

I could go on, but these are the basics. There aren't really any negative things, other than my life is drastically busier. I love it!

Cheer is great, but VERY stressful and time-consuming. I love the girls, and the sport, and that makes it great. We have a football game this Friday vs. Westlake (some of my old students) which will be fun. Go eagles!

Our New Home!

Well we finally moved into our brand new home! We love it so much. Allie loves it too, hence the picture below. It is in Spanish Fork right next to the new Maple Mountain High School, where I will be teaching and coaching. There is so much to do i.e painting, more furniture, yardwork, patio, etc. but we are excited to be home owners!

Marley and Me....thoughts

BEWARE OF A MOVIE SPOILER! Not that you really want to was this show anyway, you will baul your eyes out.

So Bryce rented Marley and Me last night. Let me just tell you that I have very mixed feelings about this film. First off, let me remind you that I cry about everything. I cry when I see a dead animal on the side of the road, I cry at homeless commercials, I cry at random things sometimes, I CRY AT EVERYTHING. So you can imagine my surprise when I was blubbering (literally) like an idiot at a fake movie. It TORE at my heart strings. I loved the movie because I love dogs. My allie bear is my life and I adore her. It was so funny and cute until the dog got sick. That's when the first tear dropped. Marley couldn't make it up the stairs one day and I lost it. Next they throw at me him lying on the ground far away from home preparing to die. Then they say his stomach is failing; then Jennifer Aniston and her children are bauling as Owen Wilson, the father, takes Marley to the vet which they all know is for the last time. DON'T YOU WORRY THAT THEY SHOWED THE VET GIVING MARLEY THE "DEATH SHOT". I HAD TO WATCH HIS EYES SLOWLY CLOSE AND HIS BREATHING SLOWLY STOP! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What psycho director/producer decided to create such a thing?????? Don't get me wrong, it was cute at times, but I felt like I was going to pass out I was crying so much! Bryce said he hasn't EVER cried so much in a movie in his entire life! He was wiping tears away and I was SOBBING! The worst part, is after the horror was finally over I couldn't stop crying. I kept thinking about things that happened in the movie and would start a whole other crying spree. The only positive thing that I got from it is to remember how much I love my dog. She is so precious and like the movie says

"A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?"

I encourage everyone to go out and buy a dog. They make life amazing. Just don't see the movie or you will never want to feel that hearache one day.

Mexico cruise!

My family and I went on a 7-day cruise to Mexico. I have uploaded all the pictures but you know how blogs go and the pictures are so jumbled up, so forgive me for not having them in chronological order, but enjoy anyway :)

Here are our two waiters: Sarafin and Rolly. They are holding a flaming cake aka Baked Alaska. It was great. They were the most amazing people in the world. I want Sarafin to come live with me! He was so sweet and amazing!

Yummy!

Sarafin Dancing! He was seriously the best dancer!

Layni Downing her soup lol

The best mushroom pastry in the world!

Mario Kart Wii Tournament

I took first place in the whole tournament! Bryce took second so here he is kissing my gold medal while he wears shameful silver

Us with Sarafin

Our boat from the arch in Cabo

My cute mom wearing a life vest because she was so scared. It was funny

Driving around the arch

There is a new thing in Mexico. There were these Skeletons dressed like humans. I know it seems creepy but they were so detailed and so cool! I wanted one.

Notice the skeleton dog on a chain

Typical Mexican Picture

View from where we were eating breakfast on the boat

The best onion soup in the world!!!!! I couldn't get enough of it

I love this picture of Bryce. We took a "taxi" ride back to the ship after being at the beach on Mazatlan. It was 2 dollars a person for a 20 minute ride in the back of this guy's truck. Mazatlan shirts=10 dollars Pina Coladas= 5 dollars Riding in the back of a Mexican's truck going 60 miles an hour while riahnna blasts from the front cab= PRICELESS.

Downtown Mazatlan.

Boogie Boarding at the beach

Amazing zucchini stuffed with onion stuffing and a bean cake

I should have turned off the flash but this was the most amazing chicken cordon bleu in the world!

Grapefruit, kiwi, and raspberry sauce appetizer mMmmMmmM

Now I am not a HUGE fan of seafood but the crab legs were absolutely wonderful! I adored them!

Us Ordering from the large menu lol

Me and Line

Me and my mommy

That's us lol

Laying out

The ride to the boat. See, I was trying to have this picture first, o-well