Student Led Conferences

I have finished my second day of Student Led Conferences. I met with one parent yesterday. (Nice thing is it was for a brother and a sister so I met with one mom and covered both students). I saw the majority of the parents tonight. I meet with the other 5 tomorrow and then I will be DONE! Then it will be the weekend! It will also be the beginning of Thanksgiving break for the kids. A group of us teachers are going to the 9:20 showing of Twilight. We all are so excited! Nice part is...I didn't have to pay for my ticket. None of us do. Thanks to one of the teachers who works for the Utah Jazz, she got all six tickets for free. YEAH! Saturday proves to be busy with an appointment and my first date with another guy who served in the same mission. He also lives in Ogden. Sunday, I teach Relief Society and a talk in Sacrament Meeting. Wow-what a crazy week!

Rick Simpson

This is a picture of Rick Simpson and I on our first date. We ate dinner at Chipotle and bowled a couple games. It was so fun! We went on our second date to dinner at Chile's and miniture golf in Ogden, Utah. Rick grew up in Ogden and served a mission in the same mission as I did, the West Virginia Charleston Mission. He is currently working for Costco trying to earn money to go back to school to become a CNA. He plans to get his license and work toward becoming a anaesthesiologist's assistant. He wants to make a difference in the world and as a nurse he could do this. He wants to have a good job to make enough money to provide for his family and also be able to help other people. He said this career would provide those opportunities without having to worry about the stress of mal-practice. Sounds like he has thought through things. :) We are planning a third date to play lasertag soon.

This has never happened to me!

I checked my facebook to see if Rick had written me. He had written a message which was so sweet. He told me how much fun he had the other day and he is looking forward for the next date. He gave me directions to his house and ended the message. I responded I was excited to play lasertag and he might need to remind me how to play :). He wrote back asking if I would play the piano for his family (he lives at home while he is working to save money to go back to school...) He invited me to bring a piano book to play out of if I wanted. Interestingly enough, I received another message at that same time from another guy who was a missionary in my mission. We served in Christiansburg at the same time for several months. We saw each other at a mission reunion several months ago. He asked me then if I wanted to do something and never heard from him again. Tonight, he said he was planning on getting a group together and wanted me to come with him. So, I have a date with Rick on Tuesday and a date with Jones on Saturday. This has never happened to me before! This is fabulous!

How About a Second?

I met up with a guy that was a missionary in the same mission I served. We served around each other every now and then. He found me on Facebook and asked me to dinner. We met in Bountiful, and ate dinner at Chipotle. This was after I got ridiculously lost and he had to come find me for me to follow him to dinner. Sad, but true. I started out the date humbled and grateful... We ate dinner and decided to go bowling. This is not my forte to say the least, but it was so much fun playing together. On the way to the alley, he showed me pictures on his camera and I looked at his collection of CD's. We have a common interest in music. The first game we bowled he beat me by one pin. The second, he nearly doubled my score. Not quite sure what happened the second round. He took me back to my car and as I was getting in he asked if he could take a picture of me. We couldn't get the camera steady enough on either car so he took a picture with one hand while we stood close to each other and blind sighted taking a picture. After four or five tries we finally got one where most of both of our heads were in the picture. I always thought I had somewhat of a large head to begin with, having a little trim won't hurt anything. :) I suggested we go do something again soon and he asked what I was doing this coming week. We are planning to go laser tagging (play laser tag? Not sure how to phrase that...) Tuesday or Wednesday next week up in Ogden. I am so excited!!

How about Wednesday?

A guy from the my mission left a message on my facebook account recently. His message was surprising, but sweet. He helped me remember who he was and said how he always thought I was a cute sister missionary (Hard to believe seeing how I know I dressed and looked in the field) and asked if I was dating anyone. I responded I was single. We chatted last night and he asked if I wanted to do something. I excitedly accepted the invitation. It was tricky finding a free day that wasn't three or four weeks away. I never thought I would be this busy. I told him I was returning back to Utah on Wednesday from my trip and he asked if I wanted to do dinner that night. Knowing I will be tired from a week of training and flying home, I was so excited to have been asked out. I accepted. We are going to have dinner and play lasertag. I am excited! I don't remember the last time I was asked out. This will be such a fun evening!

Body World

We took both second grade classes to the Body World exhibit today. It was one of the most fascinating things I have seen on the human body. It's incredible the way our body is so intricately designed to work properly. For those who are unfamiliar, the Body Exhibit is in a gallery here in Salt Lake. The gallery takes donated human bodies and plastinates them so as to preserve them. They remove the skin and fat to show the muscles, bones and everything else that is under the skin. We are studying bones right now and that was one of the coolest things. Being a teacher, I was watching my kids more than I was the exhibit, which was appropriate. Now I REALLY want to go back and look for myself. We got a great discount through a promotion Kohl's was having. They endeed up covering the 80 percent of the cost of 58 people total. We only had to pay 185 dollars for 50 odd some kids and 6 adults. We got a promotional ad that showed students could get in for 2 bucks. Where the original price is 22 dollars a person, that was a steal! It was amazing. Some of the kids thought it was gross, but many enjoyed it. Mostly, they loved the plastic body they could put all the plastic organs in at the end of the tour. Why bother spending the 2 bucks to get in when you can go through the back door to the gift shop and play with the fake person? What was I thinking?

6 Days and Planning

I signed up for a workshop several weeks ago and assumed I would be contacted to tell me whether I was going or not. This workshop is focusing on Early Literacy and I have been so excited about it! I remembered to ask my boss yesterday and he told me "Oh, yes. You are going. You need to book your flight." This trip is from November 7-11, but with travel time, I'll be gone November 6-13. Did I mention the training is in Missouri? Then I found out that afternoon, I have another training to attend November 5 so I will be gone that day also. I have just begun to see great progress in my kids as far as responding to me and making great strides academically. Now I'm going to be gone for a week, which will feel more like two because I will be there for Monday and Tuesday of one week and return for Thursday and Friday of the following. Not only do I have to plan for the next couple days, I need to plan for a weeks worth of lessons so a sub can teach them, take my kids on a field trip tomorrow to the Body Exhibit (which I'm thrilled about!!! ) Plan for Halloween on Friday for my kids (and parents for kids costumes etc) and head down to Aurora for the weekend. I found out my best friend's younger sister Melanie got her mission call today but is waiting to open it when her brother and myself are there on Saturday. She's one tough cookie. She knows her call is here and is willing to wait, put it on a shelf, and wait until Saturday morning when her whole family could be there. Anyway-so I'll be gone all weekend, be back Monday ready to head into the crazy-ness. November hasn't even started and it feels like it's half over!!

Down with the Economy...and GAS PRICES!

While others are taking pictures of their little ones eating cheese, I take pictures of the gas prices JUST to prove they are going down. The cool part is I took this picture a day ago and gas has gone down several cents since then! I LOVE this game! Let's keep it up (or down as the case may be)

dalton sherman - Google Video

I was introduced to this amazing speaker at a recent training I attended. I would have to say it is one of the most influential speakers I have listened to about education in a long time. I find myself listening to this when I get discouraged in my own classroom. I hope you enjoy!! 

dalton sherman - Google Video

Cultural Experiences

Growing up, a child never thinks they are having a cultural experience. It's just the way life is. Tonight, I went out to dinner with a co-worker friend of mine. She is a very accomplished woman who lived in New York for many years as a lawyer and decided she'd be a fifth grade teacher at our school. She quit her practice, bought a car (she never owned one before because you walk every where you need to go in New York. This was news to me...) and moved to Utah. She grew up here and moved back here to work for Entheos. Anyway, she's an incredible lady, and easily one of my favorite people at work. We went to a greek place for dinner. I ordered a gyro. It was so good!! It reminded me of growing up and how every now and then we'd have gyros for dinner. My friend asked if Mom was Greek. I responded it wasn't unusual for us to try these types of foods. I guess that's where we learned not to be picky eaters. We ate crepes all the time growing up. It was strange to me visiting Ashley and Donny's house that Donny had never eaten crepes before. My conversation continued with my friend about how we each loved asparagus, and artichoke. These, I suppose, are delicasies that require and aquired taste only developed over a long period of precious time. When, all along, one could be enjoying such treats. We then talked about jicama and the joy of branching out to the uncommon and unusual. It was an interesting thing when I came to realize I grew up in a cultural environment growing up in Boise, ID. (Thanks Mom! and Dad...except for those times you tried to give me culture shot with a blob of straight wisabi on a perfectly fine sandwich.)

6 Quirks

The Rules:• Link the person(s) who tagged you.
• Mention the rules on your blog.
• Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
• Tag some fellow bloggers by linking them.
• Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged!

Quirk 1: Where many people crave sugar, I crave hot foods. I love anything hot. I have yet to find something that is too hot for my liking. Some may say anything is better hot. I would have to argue with that statement. There are many things good the way they originally are. However, there are many things that aren't even worth eating unless it's with a bottle of hot sauce. There are many flavors of hot sauce. The green sauce is sweeter than red sauce, which could liven up a salad a little. There are different foods that different kinds of hot sauce belong to.

Quirk 2: I think when workers are done working in man holes, they need to replace the man hole covers properly with the yellow line that was OBVIOUSLY painted on the cover lining up with the other yellow lines on the road. It's like an abstract piece of art work that doesn't really impede the progress of your life, but rubs you the wrong way anyway.

Quirk 3: In class, I have a couple students who came in after school started. When they arrived, they started calling me "teacher" rather than my name. Usually this may not have caused me grief, but the rest of my students caught onto this bad habit. It's not just saying the word or using it as a title because they say it in a whining voice that is less than pleasant to listen to.

Quirk 4: I have an ultra sensitive nose and walking down the bread isle in the grocery store is one of my favorites. Smelling on the different breads and yummy stuff is so wonderful!

Quirk 5: When I am especially tired and have barely climbed into bed (my mattress is on my food storage, so when I say climb, I literally mean it) and get all comfortable, I find myself rubbing my left foot on the inside of the blanket. I don't know why...

Quirk 6: I own more pairs of jeans now than I ever have in my life at any given time. This is strange because I am at work and don't wear jeans 99 percent of my life.

I Think They Took That Out

I took my class out for PE this afternoon. I taught them a brief lesson about pulse and how to find it. I found myself describing it was the "thumping you feel on the side of your neck and the beating of your heart when you put your hand over your heart." Pretty sure that wouldn't fly in the scientific world, but it worked for 7 year olds. We felt our pulse or how slow the thumping was while standing still. Then we felt how fast our throat was thumping after running around the field 3 or 4 times. I know some of those kids don't get continual exercise for any extended period of time. You could really tell the ones who got out and ran after school and those who didn't. Anyway, during our discussion about pulse, one little boy said "I don't have one!" I responded he'd be dead if he didn't have one. His response to me was "I think the doctor took that out..." This is the same kid who thinks you pull your arm out of the esophagus if you pull too hard. Life must be really rough on this kid :)

Cute Pumpkin Carving Prayer

I found this cute little poem on-line and liked it so much I wanted to share it with the rest of you!

The Pumpkin Prayer

Dear God,
As I carve my pumpking help me say this prayer:
Open my mind so I can learn about You;(Cut the top of the pumpkin)
Take away all my sin and forgive me for the wrong things I do.(Clean out the inside)
Open my eyes so Your love I will see;(Cut the eyes out in heart shapes)
I'm so sorry for turning up my nose to all you've given me.(Cut a nose)
Open my ears so your word I will hear.(Cut the ears)
Open my mouth so I can tell others You're near(cut the mouth)
Let Your light shine in all I say and do! Amen.(Place a candle inside and light it

:: I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?::

I woke up this morning to see snow on the tree branches and small piles of snow on my car. GURRRRR......

I hope it's not contagious!

This time of year is notorious for sharing unwanted things. To some it may be wanted...it all depends on who you are. Up in Boise, Ash said it snowed yesterday. I had to laugh at her distress and utter astonishment at the white cold surprise. This morning on my way to work, I noticed it was rather windy and cold. I grabbed my coat before leaving the house. I'm so glad I did. By the time I got to work, BIG white snowflakes were whirling onto my windshield. I immediately called Ash and tell her the news. I knew colds, flu, as well as laughter and moods were contagious. I had no idea the weather was!

Bishop Storehouse

I spent a couple hours today at the Bishop's Storehouse here in Sandy. I walked in and was directed to start stocking shelves. For nearly two hours, I stocked only one shelf. People kept coming in and taking the cans off the shelf. I'd put more cans back on the shelf. As I did this, I was amazed at the organization of the store. This was my first time ever coming to a store house that I know of. They had the essentials available to those who needed them. What was even more amazing to me was how it was the sacrifiice of others who helped those cans to be ready for others to take. We never know how our efforts will bless the lives of others. The reverse is also true. We may never realize how much others do for us to make our lives as great as they are. I was taught another great lesson. The people who came into the storehouse were all different. Some had several small children with them, some were getting the supplies for a loved one. I was so grateful some sort of plan was in place for those who came upon hard times. Some of these people were very kind. Others were not. Some kindly refused certain items on the list because they wouldn't use it. It was an incredible experience to watch. Some of the volunteers were full time missionary couples, some were married women who just came for the afternoon. It was amazing to me to see this inspired organization to help others make ends meet while it gave others an opportunity to help where they could. I don't have a lot of money to donate, but I do have two hands that can stock shelves! I was taught, and uplifted by spending this time in the storehouse. I worked as a bagger and spent many hours in a grocery store and never felt so inspired and charged to do good. :)

General Conference Weekend

I have never been to the Conference Center until just this October Conference. I received, fought for might be more appropriate, tickets for conference. I got two tickets, one for me, and one for Jeni. Me in the Conference Center with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practicing in the back.

We left at 7:15 am to miss traffic. We arrived at the parking garage by 7:40 am. We were certainly early enough...we were the third car in the garage. It was raining and cold, but that didn't dampen our excitment for the events to soon occur. We listened to Music and the Spoken Word, which was wonderful.

My Conference ticket

Jeni Harrison came with me to Conference. It was so great to share such a special experience with such a close friend.

From these pictures, the Conference Center reminds me of a grand theater in New York. To be sure, it is quite breath taking. It amazed me the organization of the whole program was so detailed they were able to seat thousands of people in such a short period of time.

I never knew people who were walking into the Conference Center go through a metal detector and do a soft search through purses. It makes sense given the amount of people gathering and the importance of the leaders who would be speaking. It never occured to me someone might actually want to hurt those I have come to admire, revere and love.

This was such a powerful experience in my life. I am grateful I had the chance to listen to the Prophet and several other leaders of our church Sunday. It was incredible. It felt as if someone had actually lived part of my life and learned what would be applicable to me. I was inspired, uplifted and comforted. My testimony was strengthed, resolve to be change renewed and focus was set on higher grounds. How grateful I am for Conference!

FREE HANDBAGS!

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Funny Moments

I have had so many funny moments recently and have failed to let everyone else in on the secret. How dare I be so greedy to keep these great experiences to myself when you could have a healthy dose of a laugh, too?!

Funny Story 1:

Matthew (my match maker) comes up to me and says "Miss Christensen! Someone pulled on my arm hard and it pulled it out of the ESOPHOGUS!" I'm sure that was quite painful. Having something pulled out of the socket doesn't tickle, but pulling it out of the esophogus would be untolerable I'd think...

Funny story 2:

Kaydon is the one I listen to whenever I need to laugh. He also has absolutely no filter in his brain to tell him to be quiet or follow social cues. The other day the students needed to stay in from recess a few minutes because they couldn't transition from one subject to another without wasting time. They were all in the room with their heads on their desks waiting for the timer to buzz saying the time was up. He shot up and said "That's awkward, staying in from recess on the 1st of October." Maybe it was the way he said it, but it was hilarious!

Funny story 3:

Our school calls administration things other than principal. He is our director and he has everyone call him Dr. Pace, including the kids. This has really improved the dynamics and culture at the school among other things. There was a person that came in to help me teach a lesson yesterday in class. I introduced her as Dr. Stephanie because she has a Doctorate in education. Jen told me later right after I introduced her Kaydon turned to her and exclaimed "Hey! I didn't know Dr. Pace was married!!" Funny kid.

My kids keep me on my toes, and I sure love them! I especially love their humor that I'm sure they don't know they have!