On the Countdown to School!

I now wake up at 5am every. single. day. Kill me. But, really, ugh! It's pretty much the worst. Honestly, I love it though. Only for the fact that I don't get to waste the day away and I get to see part of the sunrise, and that's just beautiful.

Aurora is (mostly) all smiles in the morning and Dan and I have gotten into a good routine of helping each other get out the door on time.

Right now we only have one car, so this has pretty much been our schedule:

Drive 20 miles to drop Dan off at work by 6:30am.

Kill some time driving super slow and creepy-like on the streets of Parker so I don't take Aurora to the babysitter too early.

Drive back 10 miles to drop off Aurora at the babysitter (whom she is absolutely loving--basically, Esther is the best... and Desiree, who fills in when Esther can't) by 7:00am.

Then drive back 10 miles into town to do meetings at the high school for new teacher orientation by 7:30am.

THEN Dan and I are off at different times, so I leave the car with him in town, and I catch a ride with my cool new co-worker, Katie (who reminds me of my most wonderful cousin, Melissa--yeah, Melissa, I know you're probably reading this so I'll tell you all about why later!), for the 20 mile drive back out to my school for meetings there.

Later, Dan picks up Aurora on the way back home, and then we ALL work on getting my classroom ready until late and we go home for a late dinner and an early bedtime, so we can do it all again the next day!

Phew! Just typing that made me tired... Oh, wait, maybe I'm tired because I'm up past my new bedtime of 10:00pm... Yeeeaaaahhhh...

Anyway, that's been our crazy schedule for the last week and next week, we bump it up to needing to LEAVE the house by, at the latest, 5:30am, so Dan can be to work by 6:00am to drive the school bus.

Speaking of Dan, I'm going to brag on him for a minute. He hates it when I do, but I don't care! The man deserves some recognition, because he's just freaking awesome!

Dan took his final driving test to get his CDL (commercial driver's license), and he crushed it! For real! He got 100% and he's the only one the instructor has seen! So, pretty much, if you want safe kids, have them ride Dan's bus! I'm super proud of him!

He got his bus route and he'll be driving one of the three routes for my school, so that's exciting! He'll get to know my "kiddos!"

haha so I had to say "kiddos", because I've recently observed that that is the word here. I don't know if that is an Arizona thing, or a Parker thing, or I've just never noticed many people referring to our students as "kiddos", but they ALL do it here! haha So if I start calling my students, my "kiddos"... yeah, you all know where that came from...

Anyway, back to Dan... the other day, I finished with meetings at my school and I text Dan on the way back to my classroom asking if he'd be able to bring Aurora and come to the school to help me with my room. When I reached my classroom, he was already in there, and he had managed to get ALL my student desks cleaned (they had permanent marker on them)! 

Today, he helped me put up a "Blast Off To Reading!" bulletin board design in my room and it looks fantastic! I'll have to post a picture later of that so you all can see his great work! AND he wrote down the title and the author for every. single. chapter book I have in my classroom library, and that's a lot of books! (THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE BOOKS, MOM!)

Aurora has been SO patient and flexible with my crazy, new teacher schedule!

AHHH! Her and Dan win the prize for Best Family! I mean it! You have no idea how much I love them!

You guys, school starts here on M-O-N-D-A-Y. MONDAY! That is in 4 days!! Oh. My. Heck! 

I'm so excited and nervous and overwhelmed and enthused and just a whole bunch of emotion right now! 

Seriously though, this is what I am supposed to be doing. This school year is going to be crazy and busy and a learning experience, but I think it will go so well! I already love teaching!

Library Tuesdays

There is basically no better feeling than having a new library card in your wallet.

Well, ok... actually, I can name a few things that feel better.

But, honestly, having a new library card is a small ray of sunshine that brightens the day.

Last week, I took Aurora over to the St. George branch of the library over by the Tabernacle and I left with a new library card, 7 books and 3 movies for Aurora, plus 2 books for me! Win! Win!

Aurora is loving reading the library books with us. She will sit still on anyone's lap and just listen to you read for a good while. It is so fun! 

And then last night... at 11:55pm... I decided to finish reading one of my books.

Oh. My. Heck. Books are my weakness, I tell you!

But it was well worth it to finish, because it was a really good book! AND it was right up the alley with the shows that seem to be coming on National Geographic lately about people living in the forest "wilds".

The book was called Alabama Moon by Watt Key.

Summary:

For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived in the forest in a shelter with his father. When his father dies, Moon follows his dad's last instructions-to find others like himself.

The book had me laughing and crying. I couldn't put it down. Go read it!

Mad Hatter

Apparently, not very many people who live at my address love sweet and sour chicken for dinner.

And when I say "not very many", I mean I'm the only one who likes it.
Just me.
Everyone else tolerates it.

The good news? Leftovers. For me. For days. haha

Moving on.

This morning when I was feeding Aurora, Kaela text me to see if I'd want to go walking. I was really tired and lacked motivation so I debated saying no... but I'm glad I didn't!

We got ready and left our houses around 9:30am heading to the library.
I returned some books (after... oh... two months haha) and then sat on a chair in the children's section and read books to Harlie and then to Aurora. I could sit in there forever doing that! I love reading so I hope Aurora will, too.

Then we went to the park right next to the library and let Jack and Harlie play.
While Kaela and I sat watching them and playing with Aurora, we noticed that there were people at the pavilion giving out free lunches to kids so we looked it up and realized that Cedar has a free lunch program for kids up to age 18.
So we packed up the young'ns and got ourselves some free lunch!
Adults can buy a lunch so they can eat with their kids so we got one too.
Apparently this is something they do at the Main Street Park Monday-Friday from 11:30am to 1:00pm. Pretty sweet.

After that we decided to take the Canyon Trail through the other park to get back home.

I love love LOVE Cedar's parks! They are truly beautiful.

Around 4pm, Kaela and I left the kids with Jeremy and Dan and went to our soon-to-be sister-in-law, Laura's bridal shower at the Heritage Center.
It was a Mad Hatter theme (from Alice in Wonderland) so the tables were decorated with cute tea pots and everyone wore their craziest hat.

Also, I tried peppermint herbal tea for the first time ever!
Like, with a tea bag and everything! IN an actual tea cup with a saucer.
I felt very fancy.
BUT I did have to add a ton of sugar to like it. Also, I didn't like it hot.

Haha one gift that Laura got was some baking stuff.
Attached to a baking mix of some sort there was a note that said, "For when you DON'T want to be dessert." 
Then as Laura dug deeper into the gift bundle, there was a thong with another note attached that said, "And for when you DO."
We thought it was a clever "spicy" gift. haha

**I will add pictures of the shower later. My stupid phone died so I'll have to wait for Grandma Rigby to put them on Facebook**

ALSO!! My mom may have fed Aurora ice cream last night. Yup. She loved it.

InstaTuesday #3

/It was an A-day. I needed this. And besides, a hot fudge and peanut butter cup shake from Artic Circle is good anytime./

/The weather reached temps of close to 70° so I had to pull the shorts out! Have they come out since? No./

/So, like many of you (maybe), I suffer from having minor pit stains on my shirts... gross? Yes. BUT I found a DIY trick to get them out with asprin. Naturally, I used my makeup brush to crush the aspirin so I could add water and soak my shirt in it haha/

/Being stuck behind a bus trying to get into the school parking lot would be ok IF the sunrise was always this beautiful/

/Just the start of Dan landscaping the Butler's yard. I love watching him work/

/Chopping down the HUGE tree in the Butler's yard/

/My brother-in-laws on the job/

/8pm dinner at DQ with the Stubbs/Johnson fam OUTDOORS! Bring on summer!/

/All the sisters at Kaela's baby shower! I should be getting a cute new niece in the next couple weeks! Can't wait to meet baby Harlie/

/Why do girls take shoe pics? 1) to show how cute our shoes really are 2) to show that we wore the wrong shoes to a landscaping site/

/One time my mom made yummy cookies and then came to my house with Cole and Erin to bring me some. I have the best family!/

/Yup, I do lay in bed til the last possible minute before going to school. It's just like when I was ACTUALLY in high school.../

/The rock was added to the Butler's yard and it looked SO cool falling from the dump truck!/

/Sometimes, Dan finds puffy coats at his mom's house and wears them so I make him model for me haha/

/I had been wanting to try this for forever so when Dan was sleeping one night, I drove to Smith's and bought some with all change at the self check out. Then I came home and ate the whole thing that night. I'm a pig and it was SO worth it!/

/Today was scouts and we went on a field trip to the library. I had the librarian give them a tour and talk about the library...I think they were bored to death. Oh well, it's the pinewood derby next week so that makes up for it, right?/

Setting something on fire = Free donuts!

First can we just say, I'm addicted to food. I love it. I just do. AND it looooooves me and clings tightly to me... in the form of fat. I'm just going to embrace it SO as I sit here typing away, I'm busy eating the bag full of chocolate chips from Christmas. I think one of my new years resolutions should've involved the word "exercise". Too bad it didn't.

Aaanyway, Dan and I both learned new skills involving our Christmas presents this past week! His chanter came in the mail and so began the lessons of learning the bagpipes from my dad (my grandpa would've been proud). It was great! Dan learned the scale and practices all the time. It's really cute and he actually plays pretty good! It's fun that my dad is able to pass on that Barclay family heritage to my husband.

As for me, I finally got the chance to put my new sewing machine to work with the help of my mom when we spent an entire day together sewing cute baby bibs. It was so fun to learn from my talented mom and to see the finished products I had made "all by myself". I really am proud of how they turned out! I even hand-sewed a couple things! The bibs came from a packet I bought and it's full of many more patterns so we have plans to do more. I'm excited! I like sewing.

In other news, I started student teaching for 2nd grade yesterday and so far it's been wonderful! Enoch is such a great school! I really have such a great mentor teacher AND all the other teachers and aides I've met so far are so awesome. I know this is going to be a good experience... ESPECIALLY since the kids are just about the cutest and "fun-est" (I know. Not a word. Whatevs.) kids I've met. They really do say and do some of the funniest things!

Example #1: 

Mr. H - "What are some of the things we could maybe have learned from books we've read in this class?"

Student - "Oh! That if we set something on fire, we'll get free donuts!" (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson)

Example #2:

Student - "No man knows!"

Me - "Knows what?"

Student - "When he will come!"

Me - "When who will come?"

Student - "The second coming!"

Example #3:

Student - "I want to have a friend made completely of cheese! I just LOVE cheese!"

Example #4:

The teacher is reading Fablehaven by Brandon Mull for the read-aloud and it mentions gollum. As soon as it's mentioned about half the class starts saying "My precious!" in creepy little voices like that smeagol guy from Lord of the Rings  

Example #5:

In math, one of the answers to the problem we worked on was '5 children' so one student asked, "Can we put 'kids' or do we have to put 'children'?" In response to that, another said, "Wait! I thought kids were baby goats!" And sounding very appalled, another says, "You can't put 'kids', we're not baby goats!" (Note to self: Never refer to them as "kids".)

P.S. Dan FINALLY fixed the brakes on Jimmy! AND the heater! I feel like I'm driving a new car! I'ts the best. I'm so lucky to have a husband who knows about cars and can fix mine! Yay!

Songitors

I've found me a new fave online music site.

It's called Songza.fm and it's really rad!

Each day it says the day and then you get to pick what you'd like for that day.

Today I chose music for confidence. Rocker style.

Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top? Awesome. Basically.

Also, today, I'm reading Janitors by Tyler Whitesides.

It's preeeetty good so far and I plan to finish it today! Cross your fingers that I do!

I'm excited to read it because when I was doing practicum in St. George at East Elementary, the author came to speak to the kids and he was really exciting and funny to listen to talk about his book.

It's a series so I'm excited to start it.

In other news, my Grandma Barclay is in town.

Last night we got her to play with our dog, Koda, in my parents' backyard haha It was funny

I'm so glad she's here!

P.S. I'm maybe thinking of doing Weight Watchers or something similar... Anyone have any advice???

What the sponges?!

Uhm, so an FBI agent just stopped by the box office to have us direct him to one of the sports coaches here on campus...
He was conducting a criminal investigation on someone they might know
WOAH pretty leery if I say so myself.
Also, in campus news, one of the facilities people here on campus was cleaning up in the centrum after the ballroom dance concert on Saturday and he fell from the catwalk onto the cement stairs!
He broke TONS of bones but he IS alive!
Holy sponge! I can't even imagine how scary and horrible that must've been!
WOAH!
Anyway...

Ok, this song is just so summery and upbeat, I love it!
It's semi-repetative...ok, REALLY repetitive AND
I guess you could consider it a "teen song" but, hey, I'm ok with being a little "teen" sometimes...
But let me just say, boys with tats? NO THANKS!
HA! But the part in the vid where she is laying on the concrete making kiss faces while that boy she's crushin' on is checking on her... hahahahaha

In other news, I went bowling last night with a couple friends, their baby boy (Andrew) and my sis-in-law, Kaela and her cute baby boy, Jack.
It was Jack and Andrew's first time bowling and it was so fun!
What cuties!
The bowling alley was PACKED!
$2 bowling nights are cray-cray...

Also, Dan just did a landscaping job for his uncle and got a little bit of extra moola so he bought himself a new Kindle Fire yesterday.
That thing is the bomb dot com for real!
All the apps that thing has... and the picture on it is so good!
I played Fruit Ninja and Bejewled for forevers last night (he's so nice to share hehe)
Dan loves it so I'm glad he is happy.
It's fun to get new things.

P.S. "Holy sponge!" is a spin off from an accidental phrase I made up during class yesterday. You see, I meant for what I said to come out as, "What? The sponges?" and, instead, Marissa thought I said, "What the sponges?!?!" It was pretty comical. haha

Fist Pump!

Tuh-day I took a little trip to the Verizon store so I could get Dan a new (old) phone hooked up.
You see, the other day he dropped his phone into a cup of water sitting in the car and it fried the phone.
His excuse? "Well, the cup had wrappers floating in it so I assumed the whole cup was filled with wrappers... who knew it was full of water?" haha
So I finally have my phone back (cause Dan's not using it anymore) and Dan now has my old WAY awesome phone (The LG Voyager).
I'm a little jealous... I loved that phone *sigh*

Speaking of Dan, tomorrow, the kid turns 23!
So, if you see him, be sure to wish him a happy birthday!
And prepare yourselves for a post all about Dan tomorrow for his "special day" (hehe)
I'm getting him Inheritance (the 4th book in the Inheritance Series), a Butterfinger and White Chocolate Caramel Apple from Sweet Mercy (he asks for one everytime we go in there and they never have one so I went and pre-ordered one to pick up tonight), and a super awesome lovey-dovey-mushy-mushy love note from me ♥
Then we're going to dinner tomorrow night at Chili's.
Hopefully his birthday is really great!

On a side note, I literally did a fist pump of joy when I was browsing Netflix last night.
Not only did they have A Knight's Tale on instant but they also had Burn Notice AND White Collar on instant.

My life is complete. For reals-ies.

St. Geezy

Welcome to today's post, where you get to feel like you are visiting a really crappy fashion blog.

BUT for my own personal documentation purposes, you get to deal with it.

Thank you and read on.

Please.

Pretty please. With cherries...

Can I just say how freaking much I love this school?
Can I, also, just say how freaking much I love the teachers here?
And can I say how freaking much I love the kids here?
AND I'm just going to say how much I'm loving the opportunity I got to come to St. George for practicum.

I am learning SO much and I'm getting opportunities to practice some of the things I've learned.
I've got to go to an IEP meeting (or an Individual Education Plan meeting for those of you who aren't in Special Education), I've got to observe awesome teachers (Mary Thompson and Gloria Pope), and I've now been able to teach groups for almost a whole day.
I LOVE IT!

I will admit that it can be challenging (especially when you get those few behavior problem kids in your groups) but it is definitely more rewarding.
I feel like the things I'm having to deal with here will be such a help to me in my future teaching.
And coming here has definitely put my mind at ease about teaching.
Instead of being afraid, I'm excited to learn more and to get closer to finishing my degree!
Phew!

Funny for the day:

During 2nd grade group reading, some of the boys started laughing really hard and couldn't stop after I told them a few times.
So after having to "put my foot down" (and try not to laugh with them), one of the boys said to me, "Mrs. Liz? I'm so sorry but we've just got the giggles!"
It was the cutest thing and when they are laughing it's hard not to yourself!

 Gerald Lund speaking at the tabernacle

In other non-practicum related business, Dan's grandma invited me to go with her and her visiting teaching partner to the tabernacle tonight to listen to the author, Gerald Lund, speak about his book called The Undaunted.
It. Was. So. Amazing.
Seriously.
He spoke about the pioneers who went to Hole In The Rock and what an amazing, faith building story that was.
If you haven't had the chance to read his book, then do!
I know I'm going to!
I'm so glad I got to go to that.

Also, I made goat cheese, raisin, thyme, and slivered almond stuffed chicken breast with Dan's grandma tonight.
Oh boy, was it good!

Picnic

Lenka has a beautiful voice, just throwing that out there. You should listen to this song by Lenka. Cause it's good. The video reminds me of the game, Operation, only a slightly creepier version...



In other news, the weather sucks. Yesterday, sunny picnic weather. Today, snowy ice caps weather. It's a bummer. In fact, Dan and I DID picnic yesterday. At the canyon park on my SUU blanket with some KFC. It was yummy and fun. We talked and laughed and listened to this girl do a mini-weird-concert of singing for her very small group of friends. People do weird things in the park. haha but it makes for some good entertainment.

Other things that happened last night include me getting pulled into the shower with my clothes on (thanks, Dan) and watching a movie from 1998 (Practical Magic). Lovely. Sandra Bullock is a good actress. & I LOVE the house her aunts live in.AND I finished The Hunger Games Series. It was SO good! Read them if you haven't.

Thursday goodness

Awkward:
-The amount of dirty dishes I have stacked on my counter
-My shirt gaping open up on the shoulder area, making my underclothing quite visible to those around me
-Shaving your armpits. Really, it's just weird... don't get me wrong, while I am definitely PRO-shaving your pits, I still think it's weird that we (women) have to do it
-School projects/group projects. Ok, so, this isn't really awkward just dumb. I have a negative attitude towards the things.
-Taking 3 hours to vacuum out my car cause of all the dirt/mud. Everyone who drove past my parents driveway got a 3 hour show of my bum cause I forgot to wear a belt...

Awesome:
-Having a wonderful husband who will hug, comfort, and reassure me when I'm having a complete meltdown over the 'stresses' that plague my mind during long days. I really don't know what I'd do without him-Going to SUU's Dancing with the Stars with Dan, Steph, Mike, Becca, and Steve. It was so fun! Lots of laughs, ooh's and awh's, and just an all around good time. I envy people who can dance...
-Spring Break is next week! I'm not doing anything exciting but just to have no class, will be excitement enough!
-I only have one class left this week
-The weather is SO nice today :)
-I'm wearing the scarf my Grandma Barclay knit for me. It's beautiful
-I gave some of the cookies I made to my mom and she shared some with her teacher she's student teaching with at the middle school (foods teacher) and they both LOVED them and want the recipe
-I finished book #2 of The Hunger Games series...onto the final book!

Hooked on

No, not phonics. I'm hooked on The Hunger Games!!

I finished the book today (book #1) and it was SO good.

Sooo- onto book #2!

Awkward and Awesome. Today.

Awkard:
-The ground is wet because it rained...but the sky is blue so uhm...what's up with that?
-Having a hard time with 5th grade math when you are in college. Raise your hand if that is you. (Yep, I'm raising mine)
-People in public bathrooms who walk in an out of every stall until they find the one they want to "go" in
-You know when you have to "pass gas" but you are in a public location so you just hold it in? Yeah well, it's awkward cause you feel like at any moment you might just let it go
-It's also awkward that I just posted that to all the bloggin world
-Having a Kindle and having EVERYONE ask you how you like it and what book you are reading
-Begging Marissa to take off her shoe in math class so I can see her stitches while the teacher and everyone else listens in and stares at me like I'm a loony
-The plig singing opera outside of the box office. Well, maybe she's not a plig. BUT she has a french-braid like one and a dress like one and shoes like one. I hope no one is offended by my use of the word 'plig'

Awesome:
-Dan left his breakfast home today so I dropped it off to him at work before I went to work. When I left, a guy he works with said, "Woah, your wife is hot!" It made me smile

-I'm wearing the primary colors today!

Blue sweater (Forever 21); Yellow striped shirt (Thrifted); Red leather bag (Roxy); Jeans (Silver Brand); Black Flats (Blowfish)

-I made ham and cheese crescents for lunch and they were yummy
-Dan came home for lunch and as he walked in the door he started humming a song loudly and then came over and hugged/danced with me while I made lunch and told me he loved me ♥
-I bought The Hunger Games series for my Kindle and started reading it last night FOR THE FIRST TIME (I know, I'm behind the times) and I'm already 15% into it. I honestly don't want to put it down for a second!
-Dan and I get to go watch Erin's very FIRST orchestra concert tonight. I'm so excited to see her play!
-Temple on Saturday!! (I just thought about it and I'm excited so it makes it on the awesome list)

Over the weekend

Alrighty! So here is a little weekend re-cap.

Friday we drove down to Cane Beds, Arizona to see Dan's old mission companion, Shaun Cox, who just got home. Dan helped him pull an engine out of a car to put into a buggy while I read a book on my Kindle (which I love, btw) and then we met Shaun's family. On our way home, we stopped in Hurricane to eat at the JB's (SO good). It was a fun little vacation for Dan and me!

Saturday was Bryan's birthday so we decided to celebrate by taking a little trip up the mountain to Woods Ranch to play in the snow. We stayed for about 2 hours, sledding, snowboarding, and just playing in the snow and by the time we left it had snowed about 4 inches. Yeah, the snow really piled down that day. Besides the fact that Dan's truck's 4-wheel drive almost broke on the way down the mountain, we had a great time! We stopped at Denny's on the way home. I'm pretty much obsessed with their hot chocolate (I drank 4 cups) and Bryan got a FREE grand slam because it was his birthday.Other Saturday happenings:
-I was invited to 3 bridal showers! 3! Unfortunately I was only able to make it to one of them. Congrats to Kayla Freire, Elise Hunter, and Jen Haight! You girls will LOVE married life!
-Dan, Brandon, and I went to Carly and Joe's to play games with Kendra, Ty (Kendra's fiance), Amelia, and Marianne. We played MANY rounds of catch phrase because, duh, it was so fun! We were laughing our heads off!

Sunday we were supposed to go to Shaun's homecoming talk in Hurricane but couldn't make it because of all the snow. Dan and I needed a rest day so we stayed in bed most of the day watching movies and then Steph came to visit and we made some chocolate chip cookies (actually, Dan made chocolate chip cookies-he does a good job! YUM!). Sunday was a good day.

I really love Dan ♥ He makes me happy