New Shoes

This weekend I bought five new pairs of shoes for forty dollars! Now you men might think five new pairs of shoes is excessive, but when is the last time you were able to buy even two pairs of shoes for forty bucks (excluding Chris' favorite KMART easy-striders). I was very impressed with my superior shopping abilities. Plus, it was really time for new kicks. You know it's bad when your husband complains about your foot odor and not the other way around. :)

The Weekend Update

This was a great weekend, sans the fact that I was sick the entire time. Here's what we did:

Friday-
Friday afternoon my mom called me and said that they were having a catered ward dinner with a really well-known marriage therapist speaker. So well known that I have subsequently totally forgotten his name. Anyways, even though I thought it was weird to go to my parent's ward activity I figured free dinner and a show was worth it. And it totally was! The speaker was awesome (as was the food) and he had some really good insights into making the gospel apply yo your marriage. After dinner we headed back to Provo for a bonfire/birthday party for our good friend Sanford. On the way up the canyon we slid off the road...not so good. We were really lucky not to hit any other cars. Scott, our friend who was right behind us, was not so lucky. He hit a car that had already spun out of control and had decided that parking in the middle of the street was the most sure fire way not to get hit. Seriously. Anyways, in the hour and a half we were there waiting for the cops and everything to get cleared we witnessed at least eight more accidents, most of which were caused by the cops who also decided to park in the street instead of on the shoulder. Idiots. So Friday was a bit of a downer, but things went up from there.

On Saturday I woke up to this.



Chris had gotten up at three in the morning and gone to the store without me knowing (I sleep like a rock, Chris could be leading a secret night life and I would be totally in the dark) He also surprised me with dinner reservations at Ottavio's and tickets to the Twelfth Night at the Orem Scera Theater. It was really fun. I don't think I have been to a play since London. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

P.S. My card played " Let's Get It On." How much more romantic could you get?

And yes, those flowers are in a pitcher, I have no vases. I choose to think of it as artsy.

What's my age again?

I haven't updated in a while since I don't really feel like I have much of interest to write about. Mostly, I just go to different random schools every day to sub, then come home and go to the gym with Chels. I have had a couple of sort of funny experiences while substitute teaching though. Pretty much every day I have a student ask me if I am in high school (this is usually when I am in the elementary schools). This always makes me feel really good about myself, but I love to see the looks on their faces when I tell them that I am actually a college graduate. Ha, I really showed them! The other day I had a student (fourth grader) ask me if I was in high school, when I said no that I was a college graduate he said "then what are you, like forty-five!?" I am really interested to know how I went from looking sixteen to forty-five in the space of ten seconds. Nice, kid. Also, a sixth grader asked me for my number a couple of weeks ago. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and guess that it was a dare.

Basically though, my job is pretty boring, and I cannot wait for the day when I actually get to have my own classroom. Maybe by then I will have matured enough not to look pre-pubescent.

Just call me Mrs. Schneebly

Nebo and Provo School Districts have hired me as a substitute teacher, meaning now I can fulfill my life long dream of starting a rock band made up of fourth graders. Booyah!

Actually, I think the funniest thing about this picture is unfortunately how much my hair looks like Jack Black's. Creepy...

Since I'm unemployed and all...

...I guess I can update the blog. The real difficulty with updating lies in me having enough patience for my pictures to load on my archaic computer(I may leave them out altogether), not to mention that we swindle our neighbors out of their internet (which they very unwisely left unsecured...those suckers) and this wireless thieving means I have to stand in a very specific corner of our office and in no way block the wireless card in order to get any signal. Seriously, my body is is facing like forty-five degrees in the opposite direction of the computer, and I have to stand because the computer must be placed on top of our behemoth bookcase. Ha, the joys of being young, in love, and penniless. When I try to complain to Chris about any of this, he just says really optimistically "I know, isn't this such an exciting time in our lives." Gotta love him.

Anyways, I guess I do have a bit to update in since I last wrote at the end of my student teaching. We spent a wonderful week in Washington for Christmas, where incredibly there was even more snow than in Provo. Chris and I also celebrated our first anniversary, which I was worried about because we had not planned anything yet and I didn't really relish the idea of spending our first anniversary with the in-laws. Luckily, I have an awesome mother-in-law who came to the rescue with hotel reservations for downtown Seattle. A beautiful room, with a balcony view of the Space Needle. It was awesome!

After Christmas and our anniversary, we headed out for a little family vacation in the charming town of Forks, Washington. Ever heard of it? Chris' dad booked a small cabin for two nights just outside the town on the banks of a river. It was beautiful, and we had a blast torturing the boys by talking about Edward and Jacob and making them drive to all the corny places that would be of any relevance to the books. The men were troopers for the most part; they even let us drag them to the movie on New Years Eve. We repaid their kindness by taking them to Valkyrie the next day.

Then it was time to return to Provo, oh the joy. Now I am seriously on the job hunt! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

The End of the Road

Well, I can't believe it is really over, I have had so much fun student teaching (I know, most people are glad when its over). I had my moments of animosity towards the kids, but overall I really liked them. As you know from reading this blog, they definitely made me laugh, which is all it really takes to win my appreciation. So as farewell salute to the awesome kids of American Fork High School I will leave you with some last happenings of today.

First, I have an excerpt from an assignment. They were assigned to make a civil war newspaper with articles and editorials about various events. This was a tabloid story from one of their newspapers.

Headline: "Slave Kills His Master"
Article: "Last Tuesday, John Willikins Booth was murdered by one of his own slaves! John was home alone one night when his household slave sprinted for the door in an attempt to escape. John tackled him to the floor and they both began to fight, until they ended up in the kitchen. Here, the slave found a spatula and slapped John to death. The slave did escape, but the police know it was him because there was no household slave there anymore." HA! I was almost crying, I was laughing so hard, when he presented it in class. Sounds like an open and shut case to me.

Man, these kids are great. I also got a lot of nice notes from students today, which was very sweet. And, one kid gave me his number so we could be "texting buddies." I thought that was a little weird. Anyways, it has been quite the journey and now it is on to bigger and better things (well, maybe not, but at least something that pays).

I am all grown up!

Last night I finished my last college class!!! After next week, I will officially be done with my Bachelor's Degree. Booyah sons!

Other highlights just from this week!

So after school yesterday I had some other highlights of teaching. I will just list them for you:

1. I was told by another teacher that he had heard several students calling me "the hot substitute in Coach Knight's class." I thought this was funny, I like to think of myself as an actual teacher, but I guess I am kind of just a glorified substitute. I would like to point out to these students if I ever meet them that I am a "hot, eternally taken substitute." Well, I guess it is better than being known as the "ugly, fat substitute with body odor." HA!

2. A student came after school yesterday to tell me that they had received their first kiss on November 7th. I loved that they knew the day, but was a little offended they had taken so long to come share the news. :) p.s. I know the use of "they" is grammatically incorrect, but I am trying to maintain privacy here.

3. I actually had a student come in yesterday and thank me for teaching. She actually told me that she appreciated me and that I did a good job of making things interesting and clear. I think that moment when a student tells you of their own free will that they appreciate you and your class is the reason people go into the profession. I am glad that my blood, sweat, and tears mean something to someone finally. And, you bet your boots that girl is getting an "A" next quarter!

Grading Papers

Grading papers will surely be my downfall. I spent A LOT of time over the weekend doing this lovely chore, and I have tons more to accomplish. My goal is to be all caught up before Thanksgiving Break, so that I can actually enjoy my vacation. Feel free to pray for me.

However, I did get one gem out of the weekend (amid a host of completely plagiarized papers). There was an optional assignment for extra credit to write about the origins of Halloween (that's how behind I am) and one girl wrote: "Halloween is celebrated on October 31st because this is the day of the year when the veil is lifted from the Earth and the dead can come back to visit." I am fairly certain this was not plagiarized, but was her own, original Utah Valley thought.

Halloween Pictures

These are courtesy of Chelsea and Burke, so they are repeats off of their blog. Burke was the photographer for the evening, and he did a splendid job as always. We went up to Brittney and Adam's cabin in Sundance and had a very festive evening. I was Hermoine (if the stick wand doesn't tip you off) and Chris was...well, basically just himself. Surprisingly, I actually had someone vote for me for best costume, not bad seeing as how I put it together approximately ten minutes before leaving the house. Enjoy!