It's going to be...

This past Wednesday I had a math training after school. At the end, the teachers threw a paper at me indicating if they thought the gender would be male or female. They were right!

Funny comment from a kid

Yesterday instead of regular church meetings, we had a broadcast regional conference.  Cody and I arrived about 15 minutes early and clips of the Tabernacle Choir singing were being shown with a countdown timer in the lower right corner. The minutes went down and I was getting ready for Conference to start.  However, apparently, not everyone was getting ready for it to start.  When the timer reached 00:00 and the screen went black as it prepared to cut to the live feed stream, a little girl--maybe 3-4 years old--sitting behind us asked her mom, "Is it over now?"

Nope.  You've only got two more hours to go.  Sorry.

(It was a really good conference for the adults.  I felt sorry for all the little kids who were ready to go to nursery and Primary after an hour though...I guess I felt sorry for their parents, too, since they had to try to keep them quiet and occupied for another hour on hard chairs.)

Rainy weather makes me unmotivated

I just want to sit in my pajamas, watch Lost, eat my Mac n cheese, drink hot chocolate, and do nothing. Instead, I need to do some homework for my grad classes and my math class for school, maybe plan...if I get around to it..., and get the agenda ready for a meeting tomorrow.

In other news, I've been missing Cody a lot lately when he's been on his trips. At least I'll get to talk to him soon. Also, in two weeks I go for my ultrasound to find out the gender. I'm guessing it'll either be a girl or a boy. Good thing that neither Cody nor I care what we'll be getting, just as long as it and I are still healthy.

Second year in 3rd grade

Here I go....about to start my second year in third grade!  It's amazing the difference between fifth and third grade. However, just like I felt a lot more confident about my ability to teach and pace fifth grade my second year teaching fifth grade, I feel the same way about third grade this year.  I'm really excited to try out some new things, begin my rules and management plan right from the beginning of the year, and get to know my students and help them facilitate their learning.

Here are some pictures of my empty classroom. It won't stay empty for long since school starts tomorrow!

Back counter

Classroom library and outside door

Carpet area and word wall

Part of the carpet area and library

Computer area and word work materials

Whiteboard and display shelves

View from the front corner by the computers, look at the back of the room

View from the front, look at the back of the room

View from the door, look at the front of the room

View from the door, look at the back of the room

The Car Accident & Aftermath

I wanted to wait till everything calmed down and resolved itself before I wrote about the car accident that Cody and I were involved in on June 20th. I'm copying from a letter to my brother (I made some changes for third-party readability...for example: my grandparents are obviously my brother's grandparents, too):

We were on our way up to my grandparents' in Idaho. I was driving in the HOV lane in Salt Lake County (about 3300 S) when the person in front of us slowed to a stop, so I slowed down and didn’t hit them. However, the person behind us didn’t slow down quick enough and hit us from behind, pushing us into the car in front of us.  The airbags deployed and it smelled HORRIBLE. I put down all the windows, moved onto the shoulder and we got out of the car.  There were four or five cars involved in the pile-up, but no one was injured, which was a miracle. 

            My sister came and picked us up from the towing place. We spent the night at their place and then next morning, she took us to Cody’s grandparents’ in Cottonwood Heights.  Eventually we were able to make it back down to Provo and home when Cody’s parents drove us down. Both of us received blessings that night and they have helped make all the difference, I think.  I was really worried and scared after the accident, especially since I was the driver.  Cody wasn’t hurt at all; he didn’t even touch the airbags.  I did touch the airbags but I wasn’t burned or anything. I’ve had some whiplash problems and have been going to the chiropractor and it has been getting better.

So that's that.  Here are some pictures of our car. The insurance company decided that it was totaled (even though it doesn't look too bad; repairs would have cost more than it was worth).

The whole bottom fell off the car

The follow-up to that story is that first, Cody's younger sister let us borrow her and her husband's car for a while so that we could get groceries and make our appointments that next week.

Cody's sister's & her husband's car that made it possible for us to get around the next couple of weeks

Second, my grandparents up in Idaho (who we weren't able to see...) fixed up one of their cars and got it down here to us so that we wouldn't be without transportation.  Not only that, but my grandpa gifted it to us, so it's ours now.

2001 Buick Century--the air conditioning is amazing!

That was so thoughtful and helpful of them.  Also, we got the settlement check from the accident and we went and got another car: a 2012 Mazda 6.

Oh yeah, even though I've driven on the freeway since the accident, it was going south to the school where I work and it wasn't busy. However, this last weekend, I made sure that I was the driver when Cody and I drove south through Salt Lake. So I have officially done the thing that I fear the most since the accident: been the driver through Salt Lake County (which is always sooo busy!). Go me!

Three Assignments Left

This past month has been really busy for the first month of summer.  I started my Masters of Education program through SUU the Monday after school got out.  I had class all that week from 8-4, the following week, and the following week.  Since Cody was out of town that first week, I was able to get a lot of my assignments completed for that class that week (instead of taking all summer).  In fact, by the middle of the second week, I was completed with all my assignments for that first class I took (Research and Data).

Now, today, it's been a whole week since I've been in class and I only have three assignments left for my last two classes (Philosophy of Education & Educational Law).  I've already started my final paper for the Philosophy of Ed class and I need to participate in an online discussion, but then I'll be completed with that class. I'm hoping to check both of those assignments off my list by the end of this week.

My last two assignments for Philosophy of Education

My last class, Educational Law, has a long Topic Brief as the final paper. I'm a little nervous about starting that paper without getting feedback on my two smaller assignments that I've already submitted. I want to make sure that I'm using the correct legal language and that I don't sound too much like a teacher in these legal papers.

My last assignment for Educational Law

I've really enjoyed taking classes again. I'm already registered for my two classes for the fall--Organization of American Schools and my Thesis Writing class.  I'm hoping to start my thesis project early in the school year, but I know I'll need IRB approval since I'm working with humans...I hope that I'll be able to get my project approved quickly so I can start collecting data.

Accepted

I was accepted into the SUU M. Ed program. It starts in June. Here's to hoping I can actually do the thesis option and get it completed in a year! :)