I like...

1. my wonderful husband. He is great, supportive, kind, funny, attentive and loving.
2. my children. They can be SOOOOOOOOOO much fun, soooooo much help, and are becoming insightful adults.
3. my parents. I hated to see them go today.
4. my brothers.
5. fudge.
6. Mustang Convertables.
7. the book of James (in the Bible).
8. the book of Enos (in the Book of Mormon).
9. Anne of Green Gables, the movie and the book.
10. crochetting.
11. warm socks on a cold evening.
12. spiritual conversations with good friends.
13. Christmas break.
14. Christmas.
15. sleeping in a cold room when the bed is warm.
16. the color red.
17. spagetti and meatballs.
18. bonfires.
19. fall leaves.
20. snow.

I just can't believe this!

Illness number three has struck with a vengence!! I have a raging UTI! Let's see, flu Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of break. Nasty cold Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Now a UTI! What else can I get sick from on break?

It would never be an ordinary day again.

(From Joni Erickson Tada Essay read by Marlene Oar)

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Thursday's Word of the Day

Family

Word of the Day...

I really liked this idea on Holly's blog. Since I lost most of my pictures when I lost my hard drive, this will be a WORD Wendesday.

Today's word: Emmanuel.

Breath-taking moment...

Today was our first assembly at school. We honored the students of the month, staff of the month, volleyball team, football team, and a the kindergartners who threw up in front of every one. But at the very beginning of the assembly, the principal called for everyone to stand and say the pledge of allegiance. There are 950 students in our school, 66 teachers, countless support staff, and parents there to see their children. When those nearly 1,000 voices joined together to say the Pledge of Allegiance, my heart swelled with pride. I couldn't swear allegiance to my country for the joy of hearing all those voices. If only it meant to them what it meant to me.

Already...

I already have my first head cold. Didn't take very long. I really thought I'd make it to November at least. The second week of school, two students came to school with drippy noses and tired eyes...of course they never get to bed at a reasonable time, either. Did I ramp up the hand sanitizer (or "hanitzer" as my babies call it) like I should have? NOPE! It's my own fault!

When I was student teaching I got 5 massive sinus infections. The first Dr. visit, he said, "You're a teacher? You'll be sick for the first three years." One month down, 35 months to do...

Sorry Facebook Friends, same old pictures...
Just wanted to say a few things that I'm thankful for :

• Wonderful teachers who check in every day to ask how my day went.
• A great team of first grade teachers who want to help in any way they can.
• 24 shiny faces.
• My wonderful children who have taken up the challenge of doing more around the house and have meals ready when we get home.
• My darling husband, who comes to school to help me and make sure I don't stay there until all hours of the night, and listens to me cry when the day hasn't been great, and celebrates with me when the day HAS been great. I've been falling in love all over again with him.
• Deeper, more meaningful prayers--the only thing that has gotten me through the day on one or two occassions.
• God's blessings that I see and especially the ones I don't know are there.
  
  

Fast post...

A fast update...

My classroom is 85% set up.

My classroom rules and procedures are about 85% set.

My lesson plans for week one are about 45% complete. This is the scary one. The district has gone to a new style of teaching/planning. While very much back to basics (remember posting objectives in kid-friendly language, Rebecca?), it has everyone worried about the quality of their lesson. Plans are due to the principal by Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. My first grade team mates are wonderful and I can't say enough about them.

Love to you all...I probably won't see you again until fall break ;)

Wordless Wednesday

(This is a little "Make Something Monday" thrown in at the same time. I made this sign to welcome my students to my classroom.)

Mighty Mudd Mania

This was a blast!! The only draw back to the day was the extreme heat--Phoenix is under a heat advisory today. Water was plentiful, both to drink and to play in. Everyone had a great time!



We rode "Polly the Trolley" to get to the park. They were VERY clean and then the fun began!

McKenna enjoyed the mudpit. Trenton was so fast on the obsticle course, that I could only get one picture of him!

Kaity had some issues with mud-filled-clothing and mud in indiscreet places.
The very last obsticle was a mud pool they had to swim through! There was no avoiding muddy hair!!!

Scottsdale firefighters were on hand to hose down the muddy. Oh the tough life of a firefighter...














It was a great day! I'm thinking about renting children to take next year...better yet, I think I'll volunteer and spend the day playing in the mud!

Happy Birthday, Chase (just a little late)!!

Happy Birthday, Little Guy! I am proud of the man that you are working to become. It's hard work and sometimes you feel like you take one step forward and two steps back. But the steps forward get bigger and bigger, and the steps back fewer and fewer. Oliver Goldsmith wrote, "Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and the accomodations." Take my word for it, not matter how bad the roads or accomodations, if you do it right, the destination is eternally blissful. Just don't stop walking. I love you. Six weeks old.
Six months old.
About eighteen months old with an almost three year old Hailey.

Doug and Michelle's wedding. It struck me that Chase and Papa are very close, even today.

Merry Christmas 2009

Teen Camp, the early years for Chase.

Chase and Kaity after her school Christmas concert.

Chase always loved Tony. As a toddler at church, when Chase say Tony he would hollar, "Toooooooony!"

Fall, 2008.

Birthday, 2009. Twenty candles to blow out...he missed two.

Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn!

Today is Kailtyn's seventeenth birthday. She's spending her birthday in Budapest, Hungary. Happy Birthday Kaitlyn! We miss you today and love you even more.

Thinking About Camp

I just spent the evening working on a newsletter for TEEN CAMP 2009. I read through old camp journals and old camp newsletters and was immersed in camp memories. Funny, I can't easily call up exact memories of specific campers, but I am awash in a feeling of complete contentedness and joy. There was frustration, fatigue, sometimes even fear, but what stays, what permeates everything else is the joy.

I saw names I haven't thought about in years! Where did Melanie and Tina Adams, Tina Basham, Bill Crawford, Tracy Karas, Alyssa Gould, Skye Oudesm, Shelly and Talia Yates, and Alisha and Kayla Zabriskie go? And I laughed at pictures of Greg Ellwell, Rebecca Owen, Joey Darlington, Eric Hawkins, Sammi Gould, and Kendra Trudgen. Reading these lists of names, my heart is a little sad. Where are they? What are they doing now? What did camp do for them? Did it make a difference in their lives? I have to believe that it did, and not because I was there, but because every year the staff commits itself to serving God by serving the youth. Almost sad, but not really when I think about who came to camp last year: Rhodes Tarbell and Marissa Hayes, the children of former campers. This year, Jonathan Geier (son of Corrie Geier and Kayla Zabriski) is old enough to attend camp. I believe in some small way, camp touches the life of everyone that attends.

My kids have grown up with camp, supporting it knowingly or unknowingly all of their lives. This year Hailey becomes a counselor. I believe that camp touched her life because she desires to serve there, too. Chase will be a CIT again for the second year. Before he could attend camp, he helped load and unload camp boxes, set up the camp, and run errands for the staff. I believe that camp touched his life because he desires to serve there, too. Kaitlyn is still a camper. Throughout the year she plans skits and songs and pranks (that she doesn't perform ;)). Sometimes she says, "When I am a CIT, I will...." I believe camp has touched her life because she desires to serve there, too.

Camp has touched my life. I learned to be flexible there; I learned patience there; I received immediate answers to prayers there; I saw God move on young people and old people alike; I saw kids play with Apostles; I heard campers open up in ways that I never thought they would, and sometimes it broke my heart to hear it. I learned about Women of the Bible, the importance of tradition, and that fun has a place with serious. I won't be there this year. Some people might think that's a good thing, and I guess I understand why they might think that. But I get so much joy from serving at camp. That one week of the year is HARD, but I crave that services.

Sometimes we talk about the one week of camp. We say, "We only have ONE week to touch these kids lives." But on the other hand, "We have ONE (WHOLE) WEEK to touch these kids lives." I pray we never squander that week.

A Perfect Mid-western Evening

Saturday night at Jeff and Michelle's house. Picture this: all the neighborhood kids are next door playing a basketball game. Girls and boys of every age, working together, cheering and clapping--like music. One little boy from three doors down jumping on a pogo stick in front of us, trying his hardest to bounce more than seven times, trying harder still not to fall and hit his head on the cement sidewalk. Another neighbor sits and plays with his Scottie dog, tossing a ball four or five houses away and waiting for the inevitable return of the ball every single time. On Jeff and Michelle's front porch, we are perched in wicker chairs, or on the edge of the step, or at the corner of the porch, just watching and listening and talking and smiling.

What will define my life...

In a quiet moment, as I passed from one activity to the next, the thought crossed my mind, "By what will my life be defined?" The question has been dogging me for nearly a week. Right now I am caught up in the idea of "teacher." Like many who enter this profession, I want to think that I will have effected some life. That some day a former student might say, "I will always remember Mrs. Yates because...." But, in truth, my occupation is not what I want to be defined by. That alone came as a huge revelation. If this were even five years earlier, I would declare a deep and abiding desire to be remembered as a teacher: a public school teacher, a Bible School Teacher, a Sunday School teacher, a camp teacher, a home teacher.

But as I sort through the thoughts and sift out the gems, I have felt an increasing desire to be defined by, to be remembered as, to be an example of righteousness. Thoughts are rolling through my head, but one thought is emerging and gaining strength: it's not just enough to be a teacher who is righteous, to be a nurse that is religious, to be a cop that is morally upright. I want to be righteous person who was a teacher, a wife, and a mother.

What will define your life?

My new classroom

Ok, as of Tuesday, I have my very own classroom at Excelencia ElementarySchool. Jim and I got to see it and take pictures so I could start making plans. After seeing it, I'm afraid they are going to tell me it is all a mistake, the storage closet next the PE Equipment storage room is actually my classroom!

My very own desk...that I am going to get rid of and just use the horseshoe table and a set of rubbermade drawers.

FIVE classroom computers!

Lots of storage space, but I have a feeling that there is never enough storage space!

Two whiteboards and one complete word wall!

I'm in room 204! (Until they find that equipment closet to put me in!)

For My Mom

Friends, you have been wonderfully supportive through the graduation season. You have looked at my pictures, you have sent wonderful messages, and you have encouraged me. I'm posting some new graduation pictures for my mom, so please don't feel obligated to comment or even look at them if you don't want to. OR we can comment on how the gown looks like a maternity dress and the mortar board cap looks like a square Frisbee with tassel, your choice. Btw, pix by photographer extraordinaire, Jenn Yates!