have i told you lately how much i LOVE the rodeo?
...must be the cowgirl in me.
9.18.2013
9.17.2013
call me miss ence.
so, it's official. i'm a teacher now. a real live, legitimate, teacher of the cutest first grade class in the history of the world. i'm totally biased and don't care one bit. these little ones melt my heart everyday! i am happier than i have been in a long time, and i know it's because i'm doing exactly what i want to be doing, and what i know i should be doing, and what i've been preparing to do for years. i go to school everyday and it never feels like work. i just get to hang out with 25 darling 6-year olds everyday, could it get much better than that?
i love the unconditional love from 6 year olds. they have no qualms about opening up and letting you into their lives from day one. i love the sticky hands that find their way into mine when we're walking in the hall. i love the knee hugs all day. i love when they call me "miss excellence". i love when they laugh. today was a day when we all laughed a lot. i love that they think my silliness is the coolest thing in the world. sometimes i think to myself, "if people saw me in here, i would have no social life..." but i don't really care because hearing kids laugh while they're learning is one of the greatest sounds you can hear. i love reading to them and watching their eyes get big when flat stanley gets stuck in the tree, or when we found out the absent author wallis wallace was tied up in the hotel room! i love hearing their stories and watching 13 other hands go up with one-uppers, or stories that really aren't related at all. i love watching them bring things in the mystery bag and sharing treasures from home. i love their inventive spelling. i love their creative pictures and stories. i love their critical thinking. i love when they take a smile from my smile bin and hand it to friends that are feeling sad. i love when they encourage each other and leave turkey talk out in the hall. i love when they remember their jobs without being asked. i love that they already have the morning routine down, after 14 days in school. i love that they bravely performed "zip a dee doo dah" and our class pledge in the opening assembly, just 9 days into school. i love that they love me, and i love that i love them. i miss them when i'm not at school,
and hey, that's a really good sign.
and hey, that's a really good sign.
train tracks
remember that time i was 23 and got braces?
yeah, me too.
there were times i wondered if it would be worth it.
but guess what. it was.
and let's be honest, i never would've survived them in high school.
like an ant.
"it is not enough to be busy. so are the ants.
the question is... what are we busy about?'
- henry david thoreau
i feel like the word "busy" has become a status of importance.
almost a robotic answer for the equally robotic question, "how are you?"
does how many appointments and un-free minutes determine some sore of satisfaction in our lives ? maybe. maybe in this crazy thing we call society.
for me, being busy isn't a status thing, it's just what i do.
i went on a date a few weeks ago to the leonardo museum, where i took a test to tell me how much of a multi-tasker i was. i scored extremely low, like we're talking negative numbers here. which means that i'm a "high performance multi-tasker". let's be honest, i didn't need a test to tell me that, BUT it confirmed what i already knew about myself, that i'm actually more efficient and productive when i have many, many things going on at the same time.
and that's how i felt about my summer.
i spent a glorious summer working in the mornings for rowland hall's summerworks. summerworks is a high-energy, fun-saturated summer camp where kids from all over the valley come to partay in some summer excitement. i was placed with the preschoolers, and couldn't have been happier. i spent a happy summer teaching "creative corner" (music and art) to the little ones. my boss told me i would onlt have 2-3 kids every week, that creative corner just never seemed to win out over soccer class and swim lessons. i was ok with that, and made a determination that it would be the best art class these 2-3 kids ever had. by the end of the summer, i had 20 kids in my class, and more that wanted to join and couldn't because we didn't have room. TAKE THAT SOCCER AND SWIM! ha ha. what can i say, we had a lot of fun in creative corner! i wish i would've taken more pictures of the projects we made... they all turned out really great. except for the thread the yarn through the plastic plate to make a spider web one. turns out preschoolers don't know how to pull yarn all the way through. the ones below are from halloween week. monster hats and q-tip skeletons. win.
my other job at summerworks was to manage the morning extended care. basicaly all the parents that work earlier than camp started could drop their kiddies off to sam and i to watch for an hour and a half. we played SO many board games. TOO many board games. after toe 16th game of sorry on the same day (no joke), i swore i never wanted to see the word "sorry" again. but overall it was a good time. there were the boys that always had star wars lego wars, the two little girls that drew a new masterpiece everyday, the one that always laid on the floor and slept, and my buddy aileen that played sorry every.single.day.of.the.summer. i heart summerworks and was actually really sad when it ended!
Oh, and a little halloween action with some of my favorite superhero dudes. ;)
the second half of my days was spent with venture outdoors. just can't get enough ;) i was officially going to "retire" after last year, but aimee mcconkie called and convinced me to join up again. the exciting thing was that we merged with millcreek movie nights and millcreek farmers market to produce 13 events this summer, instead of just one big one. it was so fun... for the first month... ha ha... then it got kind of old. i have lots of ideas about how to make it bigger and better next year, i felt like it got kind of "blah" and "same old" as the summer went on, which is why i think we lost so many participants... but the movies were always a great hit! nothing like a little flick under the summer stars :) i LOVE working for aimee mcconkie and had a great summer at the festivals. i'll probably be back next year. just love me some millcreek. her husband bryant warned me not to get too involved in comunity stuff because it would get addicting and suck me in.. well too late... i love supporting the commnity and being involved in any way i can. venture outdoors has been a great outlet for that positive community-loving, event-planning energy. not to mention i've met some amazing people through it! wouldn't trade those relationships for the world. mm-mm. and i really wouldn't spend my friday nights any other way.
when i wasn't venturing out or summerworks-ing, i spent lots of time preparing for fall and my little firsties. probably spent way more time than necessary, but i didn't mind, i loved (and still love) every minute of teaching and prep and lesson planning and all the above! (more on that in a later post).
summer got busier when god decided to call me to serve in the relief society. i wasn't mad. still not mad. in a deep discussion with whitney england one night, i was mentioning that sometimes with this health issue i deal with now i just want to lock myself in my room and not see anyone... just exist, not have to thrive or be social. at all. she made the comment that this calling will not allow me to close off and that would be a blessing in so many ways that i didn't realize now. it was such a small comment, but has really got me thinking and i've seen the wisdom she meant to instill come true so many times since she mentioned it. i love relief society and surprisingly love the boundaries of my comfort zone it is causing me to burst through at incremental speeds. whoooosh.
the other best part of my summer was this guy coming home!! by the time i saw him it had been 999 days, count 'em, 999 DAYS! since i hugged him or seen his beautiful face. he was so much taller than i remember. it's been awesome having him around again... he adds spice to every situation and i love him.
the question is... what are we busy about?'
- henry david thoreau
i feel like the word "busy" has become a status of importance.
almost a robotic answer for the equally robotic question, "how are you?"
does how many appointments and un-free minutes determine some sore of satisfaction in our lives ? maybe. maybe in this crazy thing we call society.
for me, being busy isn't a status thing, it's just what i do.
i went on a date a few weeks ago to the leonardo museum, where i took a test to tell me how much of a multi-tasker i was. i scored extremely low, like we're talking negative numbers here. which means that i'm a "high performance multi-tasker". let's be honest, i didn't need a test to tell me that, BUT it confirmed what i already knew about myself, that i'm actually more efficient and productive when i have many, many things going on at the same time.
and that's how i felt about my summer.
i spent a glorious summer working in the mornings for rowland hall's summerworks. summerworks is a high-energy, fun-saturated summer camp where kids from all over the valley come to partay in some summer excitement. i was placed with the preschoolers, and couldn't have been happier. i spent a happy summer teaching "creative corner" (music and art) to the little ones. my boss told me i would onlt have 2-3 kids every week, that creative corner just never seemed to win out over soccer class and swim lessons. i was ok with that, and made a determination that it would be the best art class these 2-3 kids ever had. by the end of the summer, i had 20 kids in my class, and more that wanted to join and couldn't because we didn't have room. TAKE THAT SOCCER AND SWIM! ha ha. what can i say, we had a lot of fun in creative corner! i wish i would've taken more pictures of the projects we made... they all turned out really great. except for the thread the yarn through the plastic plate to make a spider web one. turns out preschoolers don't know how to pull yarn all the way through. the ones below are from halloween week. monster hats and q-tip skeletons. win.
my other job at summerworks was to manage the morning extended care. basicaly all the parents that work earlier than camp started could drop their kiddies off to sam and i to watch for an hour and a half. we played SO many board games. TOO many board games. after toe 16th game of sorry on the same day (no joke), i swore i never wanted to see the word "sorry" again. but overall it was a good time. there were the boys that always had star wars lego wars, the two little girls that drew a new masterpiece everyday, the one that always laid on the floor and slept, and my buddy aileen that played sorry every.single.day.of.the.summer. i heart summerworks and was actually really sad when it ended!
the second half of my days was spent with venture outdoors. just can't get enough ;) i was officially going to "retire" after last year, but aimee mcconkie called and convinced me to join up again. the exciting thing was that we merged with millcreek movie nights and millcreek farmers market to produce 13 events this summer, instead of just one big one. it was so fun... for the first month... ha ha... then it got kind of old. i have lots of ideas about how to make it bigger and better next year, i felt like it got kind of "blah" and "same old" as the summer went on, which is why i think we lost so many participants... but the movies were always a great hit! nothing like a little flick under the summer stars :) i LOVE working for aimee mcconkie and had a great summer at the festivals. i'll probably be back next year. just love me some millcreek. her husband bryant warned me not to get too involved in comunity stuff because it would get addicting and suck me in.. well too late... i love supporting the commnity and being involved in any way i can. venture outdoors has been a great outlet for that positive community-loving, event-planning energy. not to mention i've met some amazing people through it! wouldn't trade those relationships for the world. mm-mm. and i really wouldn't spend my friday nights any other way.
summer got busier when god decided to call me to serve in the relief society. i wasn't mad. still not mad. in a deep discussion with whitney england one night, i was mentioning that sometimes with this health issue i deal with now i just want to lock myself in my room and not see anyone... just exist, not have to thrive or be social. at all. she made the comment that this calling will not allow me to close off and that would be a blessing in so many ways that i didn't realize now. it was such a small comment, but has really got me thinking and i've seen the wisdom she meant to instill come true so many times since she mentioned it. i love relief society and surprisingly love the boundaries of my comfort zone it is causing me to burst through at incremental speeds. whoooosh.
the other best part of my summer was this guy coming home!! by the time i saw him it had been 999 days, count 'em, 999 DAYS! since i hugged him or seen his beautiful face. he was so much taller than i remember. it's been awesome having him around again... he adds spice to every situation and i love him.
this is such a broad and un-doing-justice post to the many great adventures i had this summer, but oh well. i shouldn't try to play catch up.. just too overwhelming. so there's a few highlights. amen.
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