Already a Gramma

My kids call me "mom" all the time. I'm used to it. But today was different. Today one of them called me Grandma.

Someone kept making a choking sound

while we were typing papers in the computer lab. As you can imagine, it was very annoying. It would come and go in short spurts so I didn't say anything at first. Then I had it.
"That sound is completely unacceptable unless you have that sound in your paper."

He had it in his paper. It was on his rough draft, he showed me.

Anthropologie in the University Mall?

My mom was walking through the Uni-mall round Christmastime.

She was surprised to see an Anthropologie!

Knowing it was my favorite, she walked in and browsed.

Having been to an Anthropologie in the past, she wasn't impressed.

After sharing this with me, I realized she mistook Aeropostale for Anthropologie.

hahahaha I still laugh when I think about it.

Today's highlight: one of my 5th grade boys singing Rihanna's "only girl in the world" nonstop.

Christmas Break & New Year so far

The epic tale I was talking about was when I gave my parents a pup for Christmas. My dad was TIIIICKED to say the least. But somehow, through prayer and faith, he warmed up to the pooch and we got to keep him.

His name is Dasher, like the reindeer. I don't have a picture right now but I'll get around to it sometime haha.

The other hit of my break was New Year's Eve. I had a mash of a bash party!!! It was semi-formal with martinelli's and confetti poppers at midnight. Then of course some boogieing afterward. Thanks to my dad's DI purchase of two huge speakers and lots of cool beautiful people, it was soooo fun. Next year I will be better about arranging so that more people will kiss.

Coming back Monday was weird. 3 of my students had moved out over the break, which was bittersweet.

One of my students gives me a hug every time I get frustrated. She's the only one that can tell. Once she said "If you were a candy bar, I'd be a fun-size!" I was a little offended, taking it as a fat joke. But of course she meant well so I told her how clever she was. How dare she.

Speaking of which, I joined Gold's Gym. I don't do gyms. But I don't really have a choice do I? I love food but I hate being overweight. I've tried to give up food. But I can't do it. So I guess I'll just compensate. And compensate I did, my cousin and I went all but two days last week. It feels good to exercise, let's just hope I can bring myself to eat healthy too? No, not yet. Baby steps.

The thing I am most excited about this year is all that will happen that I don't plan on. Those are the things that make life fun and unpredictable. How bout you?

Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Chrismast

epic tales to come!

Rube Goldberg

I went to a reception where they had one of these. Then one of my kids shows me this vid during recess:



I love Rube Goldberg Machines, greatest invention of all time.

This week...

I am going to Arizona for Thanksgiving!

And I get to meet the car I've owned for over a month. AND DRIVE HIM HOME WITH ME!!!!


It's a 2000 ford contour (and when you say it out loud it sounds like you are saying "2004 contour haha) I haven't named him yet, suggestions welcome. He's white and I would prefer him to not be but oh well that's not his fault.

Happy Halloween!

My school had Parent-teacher conferences and Friday off. So we all dressed up in our costumes on Wednesday.

I was the wicked witch of the west, AKA "Elphie" AKA I made my kids call me "Miss Wicked" and wouldn't respond to "teacher" or "Miss Shumway."


I acted in character all morning. I whacked each child with my broom, asking them what they were dressed as. I purposely locked the classroom door so that when kids left the classroom (for the restroom usually) they'd be locked out. So I would see them knock and try to get in through the small glass window on the door. And I would point to them and cackle my high witch cackle for a few seconds before I let them in. They loved that. I had a lot of kids wanted to go to the bathroom.

We moved our desks to the side and had a fashion show to techno music. and listened to the "Wicked" sound track all day.

You need a blog makeover.

My cousin Elissa is an awesome graphic designer (graduated with a DEGREE in it :) and has a new business creating custom blogs. I haven't had her do mine yet but plan on it soon! If you are interested in having her makeover your blog, email her at elissagator@gmail.com for more information and pricing. You can also email her links to blogs you like, let her know colors that you'd prefer, include pictures you want to be included in the blog design, etc. She can do it all!!

Red Ribbon Week

So of course my students are writing in their journals and talking about drugs.

One of my favorite students comes up to me and shows me a picture she is drawing. It has a cigarette, beer bottle, and tobacco with a circle-slash over them.

Student: What are some other drugs that we don't know about that I could draw?

I didn't know how to respond.

Student: I just need one more to make it look good.

So after a bunch of illegal drugs flashed through my mind, like a syringe, a pill bottle, and a gasoline tank, I decided that a wine glass would be good.

Me: just draw a wine glass.

This moment totally cracked me up and made my day

$29

During school today, Pandora was playing on the screen of my computer and an advertisement to buy a new phone was on the screen. Students were going outside for recess and one hung back.

student: "Are you looking to buy a new phone?"
Me: "it's just the advertisement, I was playing music"
student: "Well if you are, I could get you $29 off a new phone"
Me: "For you or for me?"
student: "For you"
Me: "Is it some kind of coupon or something?"
student: "No, I just have $729 in my savings account so I could give you $29."

Highlights

I guess I am not really into blogging these days. Now that I don't spend my day in front of a computer for a job, it's one of the last things on my to do list when I have down time.

Recent highlights in my life are as follows:
Highlight #1 was Sunday. my niece Lexi turned four. We were at a party at her house in-between sessions of conference. Let me back up. Lexi doesn't talk. I try to get her to talk but all I get is a cute smile and maybe an answer provided by her older sister. But when she does talk, it's like heaven. She has the cutest little voice that makes your heart fill up with rainbows and gum drops.
So I was upstairs and the party was on the main floor. Lexi and a couple other random kids were up there with us. And out of no where, Lexi gave me a tour of the entire upstairs! She showed me her room, her closet, and even her favorite shoes: "Dees aw my favwit shoos! I weuw dem aw de time." (These are my favorite shoes, I wear them all the time.) She just talked and talked. It was like it was my birthday. (Lexi's on the right)



Highlight #2 was my dad's bday party on Monday night. The entire fam was on the main floor, enjoying my dad's favorite: spice cake with melt-in-your-mouth brown sugah frosting. A faint beeping could be heard amongst the noise of the kids and conversation. Then a pause. It was the fire alarm downstairs! Ah!
We quickly evacuated the children to the back deck outside whilst my parents and siblings slowly opened the door to the basement. The stairwell was filled with thick, gray smoke which spread to the area around us. Oh so that is why the smoke alarm went off. Gasp. Seconds past and we saw a figure emerging. My brother, Ethan, saving a child. Or what was that in his arms?
A fog machine.
Laughs were had and reactions of my parents relived.

(Just for the record: I was skeptical from the moment I saw that smoke. It didn't smell smokey!)

And highlight #3 was today.
I decided to give my fifth graders 5 minutes of extra recess. A couple girls were attempting round-offs in the field and I had the sudden urge to join them (rare occurance. Believe it or not, I rarely loosen up. The stress of teaching has practically stripped me of my personality:)
So I take off my keys and microphone necklaces and run, showing off my best round-off. Before I knew it, the whole class was lined up, showing off their [safe] tricks. It was just fun to play and have fun without planning or assessing it :)

So there you have it, a lil update. Now I'm going to read some blogs I haven't read in a month! yay!

drool, water, and Malawi

Everytime I hold a cup of water, I spill it.
Like at this delicious Malawi's pizza place last night
and at dinner tonight
and getting a drink generally. I just forget I'm holding it

And during sunday school because it was fast sunday, I was leaning on my hand thinking about food. And after a few minutes I was like "what the heck, why is my hand wet?"
I was drooling.

Let's see what else. Yeah you need to try out Malawi's. It's in the riverwoods mall. so good. For every meal you buy, they will send a healthy meal to the orphans in Malawi. So I deduct that from my tithing. jk.

I'm officially a teacher

Because in my teacher inbox, I got the following forwarded message with the subject: "Now THIS is a pencil sharpener" and these pictures when you scroll down

totally incredible.








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A teacher in the hallway just said "176 more days to go!"

But it was the best first day I've ever had!

A good mistake

So I drove to Salt Lake for my friend's reception.
And it was yesterday.

So I went shopping at the Gateway instead!

I haven't been shopping in seriously probably over a year. Because I wouldn't allow it, what with the big debt-hole in my pocket. But I am pretty sure I will be getting paid to teach 5th grade so I allotted myself a couple outfits! I am SOOOO excited because I got cute stuff. From my favorite store. Anthropologie. And don't let your jaw drop at that name, the stuff I bought was on sale. :)

And that, my friends, is why my trip to SL was a good mistake.

SUBWAY

I decided to go to Subway for lunch today.
I hate Subway.
But I had it last month with my cousins and it was yum. I got the Spicy Italian or something. Well on top of the fact that I don't really like sandwiches unless I'm starving or if they are made by me, I decided to see if it's something I'd learn to love.


I get up to the counter and realize I've committed to something that demands that I make a million decisions. The sandwich maker has 7 different meats, 10 choices of bread, 50 different vegetables, and 23.5 sauces to ask me about. And I hate being put on the spot. And I hate making decisions that involve committing. I was going to eat that sandwich and if I decided to put something gross then it would ruin my experience.

Whenever I eat out I usually ask the people that work there what their fav is. Always. Because I can't ever decide and I like them to just tell me what's good.
Well she named off 10 of her favorites. Oh wow. This was going to be epic.
I decided to get the 6 inch club. More meat, right? Because subway sandwiches always have one paper thin layer of meat and 2 stories of vegetables and crap.
Then she asks me what bread. I liked the two with cheese.
"What's the best of these two?"
Um...the italian.
"Ok I'll have the italian"
"the regular or the spiced one?"
She was picking up the spiced one.
"The regular"
she moved her hand to the white bread
"No, the spiced."
"Do you want this toasted?"
"yes." right after I said it, I knew it was a mistake. It's a hot day! Gross.
She turned around to start the toaster
"No, wait, not toasted. Sorry"
The cheese and vegetable part was easy but my jaw dropped when she loaded a truck full of onion and olives on there.
"Anything else?"
"Yeah...cookies. And a drink. So, yeah, the add a meal thing."
"You can have two cookies. Do you want them to be both chocolate chip?"
"yes...wait...um...no. One double chocolate."
"Do you have a subway card?"
"no...."
"Well I'd offer you one but we're out."
phew. I probably would've gotten one because I was done deciding.
"Thanks for bearing with me"
"We've seen a lot worse, you're just fine"
I guess it could be worse.

After taking a couple bites, I felt the olives and onions were overpowering. Took them off. Got through half the sandwich (3 inches) and I had pulled everything off but the meat and cheese. Still couldn't eat the rest.

The cookies were so yum. Specially the chocolate chip. Should've gotten two of those.

Didn't pass the YES test, but oh well

OK So I don't know how they type in the special code but the peeps didn't type yes. Isn't that crazy? Crazy. How do they do it? I am not going to make my blog private though, because Tawny convinced me not to. I guess it's not that annoying. But still a little bit.

Sorry I've been lame.

Lately I've just tried to live my life as boring as possible because that is the opposite of how it will be starting next Thursday at 8:30 am. (Meetings start, then school starts (Aug 24), and yeah you know what that means)

I think I want to make this blog private because I get comments in a language I can't read. I wonder if their computers just don't have English letters? Maybe they can read this. If you leave comments in other languages, I appreciate your support in reading my blog. If you actually read my blog, and you are not just leaving random comments, please comment "yes" to this post. Thank you. If there are random characters without yesses, I am going to make this blog private :)

OK I have some posts coming up! I will be posting about how I've decorated my walls in my bedroom, and also about my nieces and nephews day camp that we had yesterday! So fun things. Don't be deceived into thinking my life is all fun and games though. I have been spending an average of 7 hours a day in my classroom! There is always stuff to do and it takes a LONG time! I actually really enjoy it though, because it's MINE and I can do WHATEVER I WANT with it! Wahhahahaha! Oh I decided to wait on a theme...it's taking forever to set up as it is, and to add a theme would be murderous to my well being. So that gives you another year to think of cool ideas!

I remember some of my seminary teachers saying they lived in Payson so I asked around about them and their kids go to my school! And I might teach em. So fun huh? They taught me, I teach their kids, their kids will probably teach my kids, bam bam BAM!

My mom and I went to Brick Oven for lunch today so I wasn't too hungry for dinner. But for some reason I wanted movie popcorn. I didn't want to pop some in my microwave, I wanted to go to the theater and get some of that kind. So I did. And that is what I had for dinner. And I promised myself I'd never eat that unhealthy again. Satisfying? yes. Like the "yes" comments I'll get on this post.