Sunday, March 29, 2009

Week in Review

Here are some highlights from my week.  I'll make it fast because I'm afraid at any minute I might take a nap.  Is it possible to develop a form of narcolepsy that only surfaces on weekends?  It doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing but, today I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere doing anything.  Sometimes I wake up after ten minutes, sometimes it's after two hours.  I hope I can get to sleep tonight.  Anyway, the wild weather we've been having has made for some nice visual aids to teach about my science weather unit.  It's snowing one minute, raining the next, and bright and sunny the next.  I don't know what to wear and neither do the kids.  The biggest drawback was our fieldtrip to the Children's Theater had to be cut short.  We couldn't eat our lunches in the park which meant picnic in the classroom, which meant one long afternoon for Miss. Garber.  It was actually a fun day. (Great kid-friendly performance for parents looking for an outing.)  I did get a new student that morning without notice so that keeps me on my toes.  Note to parents out there.  If you must enroll your child part-way through the school year be sure to give the school plenty of notice so that your child's teacher can make their arrival special.  When I have notice I like to get a desk, a chair, a coat hook, and tote tray prepared and ready.  Nothing says welcome to our classroom like a teacher sitting you at table because there isn't anywhere else for you to go, handing you a book you may or may not be able to read while she's trying to arrange for permission to go on the fieldtrip and notify the cafeteria that we need an extra lunch.  Ugh.  Nice kid, just think about these things people. The real highlights happened this weekend. I got to go to a movie with Amie, had lunch with college friends on Saturday afternoon -- we went to Noodles & Company.  I don't have a regular menu item that I love there yet so I was able to go somewhat off-script and try something new.  I may have found my favorite dish -- Pad Thai with shrimp.  Yummy, yummy.  It was delicious.  Rice noodles, carrots, a little bit sweet.  Saturday night I looked it up on Dotti's Weight Loss Zone to check out some of the healthier options and it fit perfectly.  I also took Adam and Ashley to see Monsters vs. Aliens, but before that the whole family got together to celebrate my Grandpa Soulier's 90th birthday.  It was awesome singing to him.  He had a huge smile on his face and sang along with us.  He is really amazing and I enjoyed spending the weekend writing a birthday letter to him.  My mom copied a book of letters everyone wrote to him for his 80th birthday and his 84th birthday and gave it to all of the families.  I stayed up last night well past midnight reading all the amazing thoughts about his life.  Nearly everyone mentioned what an amazing teacher he was, what a snappy dresser he is, and how much he loves gardening, camping, and nature.  He is an amazing person and I appreciate the opportunity I had to reflect on his life.  I think I'll try and make this more of a habit.  I'm not big on birthday cards but there is nothing like a personal letter.  I can see how much they mean to him.  My goal for myself is to be better about telling the people I care about how much I care about them.  Okay, this was a weird post ramble, ramble, ramble.  Next time I promise I'll blog about Walmart Bingo.  Tha,t or American Idol -- I know Adam can sing, but on country week when he sang the Johnny Cash Burning Ring of Fire song, that was scary.  Who knew Satan could be a contestant on a reality show? Did the producers have to put the fire graphics behind him? I liked the Elvis look alike much better.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Busy, Busy, Busy

I can't believe how busy I've been for the last little while.  I can trace it back to three things.  First, I have been sick, sick, sick with a horrible, grab your children and run cough that never goes away.  Second, I have class every Tuesday and Wednesday night.  Finally, my student teacher left to complete her kindergarten assignment.  I was happy to have my class back, but it sure was nice having an extra body to complete some of the routine tasks that can really add up when it's just one person trying to do it all.  But, the good news is my cough finally seems to be winding down, after this Tuesday I'll only have class on Wednesday, and that will free up some time for me to catch up on school stuff.  This weekend Amie and I headed down to BYU to watch the U gymnasts compete in their final meet of the season.  They sure did awesome.  Amie and I started going to the meets a couple of seasons ago when she got some free tickets.  It was such a nice break from our regular weekend adventures we kept going and now I'm hooked.  The meets are always interesting and fun to watch. Can't wait to see how they do at nationals.