Everyone's A Little Bit Racist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM

I'm not one to endorse the musical Avenue Q, but I've always thought this song was pretty funny, and it reminds me of of my 3rd graders at Edith Bowen.  Let me explain...

Every week in class we have a "Secret Agent of the Week".  They fill out a paper that is full of questions about them.  Then on Friday they read each question and the students get a chance to guess what the student of the week wrote for each answer.  Now, Edith Bowen isn't really....ethnically diverse.  The only diversity we have is one little boy who is of Chinese decent. (Trying to be PC here)  Anyway, this is how things went when it was his turn to be student of the week.

Question 1.
Student of the week: My favorite food is....
Student A: Sushi!
Student of the week: No...
Student B: Tiny spicy chicken!
Student of the week: No...pizza!!

Question 2:
Student of the week: If I could go anywhere on my secret mission I would go to...
Student C: Hong Kong!
Student of the week: No...
Student D: Japan!
Student of the week: No...Lego Land!

Question 3:
Student of the week: If I could learn more about one subject in school it would be...
Student E: Chinese!
Student of the week: Nope...
Student F: Oragami!
Student of the week: No...science!

Anyway, that is just a sample of the responses we got.  Such a funny conversation.  Guess it's true...everyone's a little bit racist!

Am I still alive?

Am I still alive?  You tell me.  I feel like student teaching is the most exhausting thing I have ever done in my life.  I have a great sleep schedule and eat a healthy breakfast every morning...and yet I am falling asleep walking by 9 am.  Exhausting.

So far things are going well.  I really like my teacher, and we get along well.  However, I had a rough week last week.  My teacher has been leaving a lot and putting me in charge, which is great, except that I rarely get any notice before she does this.  It's usually goes something like this "Oh, I have a doctor's appointment in 20 minutes so I'm going to have you teach math" or "I have a workshop to go to and didn't get a sub, so you'll be in charge after lunch".  Exciting right?  Anyone who knows me knows I love being in charge.  The problem is, she expects me to know exactly what to teach.  Like with math, she said "We'll be doing a post-test on rounding."  Great.  I spent all of recess looking for the post-test, couldn't find it and had to make up an impromptu math lesson.  It is definitely teaching me to think on my feet.  Everything goes well until my teacher comes back and realizes that I didn't do things exactly how she had in mind and I get chewed out for it.  *sigh*  I do have a good laugh every time beginning ELED students come in to observe my seasoned teacher and I'm scrambling around trying to teach something worthwhile on two minutes notice.

Did I mention I love my students?  They are a constant reminder of why I have chosen the career path I have.  11 more weeks and I am DONE!  :)

Here's a cute pic of my cute husband and my cute dogs.

Peaches

One of the most fun activities of my summer was canning peaches with my sister, Ester.  We spent an afternoon driving around Brigham looking for the best peaches.  We finally picked some out and bought half a bushel each.  We spent the rest of the day canning (and eating) the beauties!  We ended up with 8 jars each (we canned some for Vanessa as well, so 24 total).  We were proud of ourselves for completing the task without any help from our mom!

UFOMT 2012

Another great season at UFOMT has come and gone.  It is amazing how quickly the summer goes when I am having so much fun performing with the company.  This year I was in the ensemble for My Fair Lady, Kiss Me Kate, Girl Crazy, and Faust.  I didn't really take many pictures, but I did snap a few. An orchestra member also took a few photos during a dress rehearsal for us.

I played a flower seller and a maid in My Fair Lady

I was in the chorus for Kiss Me Kate.  I got to wear a super pretty long, red wig and a not-so-pretty 1930's style black wig.

I didn't take any pictures in my Faust costume.  Unfortunately my Girl Crazy costume/wig was documented.  It is definitely the ugliest I have ever looked in my whole life (I hope!)  I took a picture of the wig on the form to show how much better it looked there than on my head!

Overall it was a great summer, with great friends!

We Didn't Start the Fire!

Summer was so busy, I didn't have a chance to update on really anything.  Hopefully I can catch up a little bit before school starts next Monday!  Anyway, the most exciting/terrible thing that happened this summer was the fire that "hit" our house.  We had only been in our house two months when our neighbor across the street shot off a firework that "malfunctioned" and shot sideways into our bush.  (I have a feeling it just tipped over before it shot off).  It went straight into a huge juniper bush that we have (had) right up against the front of the house.  It immediately went up in flames.  A few neighbors saw it happened and ran to help.  They pulled out our hose but couldn't get the flames down.  I was at the theater and John was in the basement.  One of the neighbors pounded on our door yelling to John that the house was on fire.  You can imagine he lost his calm.  The firefighters were called and showed up pretty quickly.  They hosed off the bush, but had to chainsaw it down to make sure they had taken care of all of the burning.

It was an interesting night for me, since I arrived at the scene of the crime as the firefighters were spraying off the house.  The road in front of the house was blocked off so I parked down the street and ran to see what was happening.  I don't think I've ever been so panicked in my life!  However, since almost all of River Heights came to see what was happening, I was able to meet many of my new neighbors. :)

When things calmed down that night and we were able to look at the damage it didn't seem that bad.  However, when the sun came up we noticed a lot more problems.  The brick and siding on the front of the house is burned pretty badly.  The awning above the window is toast (pun).  The heat from the flames put huge cracks in our large, front window.  The railing by the door is charred and the front step needs to be sandblasted.  ARS has come to give us an estimate and they are thinking it will be about $2,600 to fix everything.  We have to pay a $1,000 deposit, which is supposed to be returned to us when the neighbor's insurance reimburses our insurance.

Overall it was a scary experience, but we are very grateful that no one was harmed, and the flames didn't make it inside our cute little house.  We are also grateful that we have great home owner's insurance!

Tennessee

Yesterday was a tough one. We had to say goodbye to our sweet dog, Tennessee. She had been with us for
14 years. Always a huge part of my day. I always knew she'd be waiting by the door to greet me when I got home from school or work, or stopped by to visit. Even when she was too old to stand she would open her eyes and lift her head in welcome

My last memory of Tenny happened Sunday when Ben was set apart as an Elder. When the blessing started she feebly stood up and came into the room. She walked over to the circle and stuck her face between the legs of the brothers to look at Ben. She circled around til the prayer was over, then returned to her rug to finish her nap.

I am so happy that I had her in my life for the last 14 years and will miss her dearly!

Belonging

Life is busy, especially in the summer. I am currently working at UFOMT again this summer. As usual, it has been a great experience. I have been struggling lately to find a place where I feel like I belong. Being young and married I feel like I gave up my friends for my husband (not a bad deal) but I've found it hard to find new married people friends that I can relate to and have fun with. Of course I do have a new family of in-laws, but feel the most out of place around them. Adjusting to a new home and neighborhood doesn't help.

This makes me even more thankful for my job at UFOMT where I can spend every day with people who "get" me. I don't know why I feel so understood when I'm working in the theater but I'm glad I do. It's a relief to not have to explain what I do and that performing actually IS a job to these people. It's nice to have people understand my jokes. It's nice to have people who support me and know me well enough to tell when I am having a bad day. So here's to you UFOMT! Thank you for providing a place where I can feel accepted 3 months out of the year!