Three Days!

Happy Friday everyone!! Hope your weekend is happy and full of sunshine... I doubt mine will be, sunshiney that is. Dang Utah weather! SNOW in April?!?!



Sounds like tonight might be a game night for us. And tomorrow is commencement for UOP, so I have to work from 8:15-10:15 in SLC.



I got to walk in last year's ceremony. And I probably could next year, but I don't like the idea of walking before I actually finish classes. It feels like a tease. So I'll probably wait until 2012... or not walk at all. I only have 7 1/2 classes left, it's just that 2 of those classes are my internship... which goes for 7 months! My last night of class is August 10, 2011. My daddy's birthday, next year. Some days it feels right around the corner, other's, it seems eons away!



After commencement, there's the RC Willey Car Show. That's probably about it for my weekend... unless someone decides to take me out for my birthday.

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Yesterday was such a great day at the elementary school! Katrina let me do an individual session all by myself... she wasn't even in the room! I worked with a little 1st grade girl who has anxiety about school... well, about the emergency drills at school. Yesterday I just wanted to talk to her about her anxieties and find out what they were and we read the start of a cute little story about worrying. Next time we meet, I'm going to make a Power Card for her that will have the 3 P's of Emergency Drills (things I want her to remember when we do drills): 1. It's only pretend. 2. The school has a good plan to keep me safe. 3. Everytime we practice, I will get a little less scared, and things will get easier. The reverse of the card has her Peace Plan... "I can calm myself down by: 1. Taking deep breaths 2. Listening to my teacher 3. Remembering the 3 P's By playing pretend and practicing the plan, I will have peace and not have to worry!" I'm excited to teach her these things. We are going to have a "secret hand signal" to remember them too.
We also met with a group (actually 2 combined 'groups') of boys who have impulse control issues and attention deficit issues. Katrina was reading them a story about focusing on one thing and asked me to be disruptive. Disruptive I was!!! And it was a blast! I started small, just tapping my pencil, then I tried playing tic-tac-toe with one of the boys, then I ripped and crumbled up the paper. Then I got up and walked across the office to get a story book. Then I sat down with the book and started laughing about how funny it was. At this point, one of the boys figured out what I was doing (testing them). As Katrina explained to them that they had to "keep their channel on her and not on me" and that there would be a test afterwards, I continued my disruptive behavior, from bouncing, juggling and throwing a ball to loudly blowing my nose. I think I truly drove her nuts! I ended up with all the boys watching me, so she eventually had me stop. It was fun though. My days at the school are more fun now that I am actually getting to do things!

"Fore!"... Four!

5 days!

Birthday

You may have noticed that I have a birthday coming up. You may have decided that I am annoying with my countdown. I don't care. The people who matter most know what I want, and are exactly the people who will get me exactly what I want for my birthday...

maybe another SingStar game?

or some super-cute kid's books to build my classroom library?

or the first season of Glee?

or some spring cleaning bins?

or something extravagant, like a Nook?

or this incredible book The Teacher's Encyclopedia of Behavior Management by Randy Sprick?

or a handful of these nifty things?

or this nifty pouch to carry them in?

Sure. All that would be swell. But I don't expect a darn thing.

I'm not asking for a darn thing. Except this...

Celebrate with me!!!!

(it says BECK PHONE! hahaha)

Give me a call, send me a letter, get me a card. Let me know you still care.

I AM NOT FISHING FOR A PRESENT... JUST AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

A little reminder of your love and friendship. That would make my day absolutely complete.

Thanks!

Only 6 more days of Birthday Madness!

Love it!

I wore the red, white and black outfit today, hoping hoping hoping that the optomitrist would call and say my glasses were in. And they did!! Look how perfect they are with the outfit!!! LOVE it. Happy Monday!!!

Sadie and Rigby video

This is the video I tried to post of Sadie and Rigby. It wasn't working, but now it should!

Click here to view this video

One week!

Memory Mondays: Good Old Fashioned Family Fun

Speaking of Good Old Fashioned Fun, these are some of my favorite memories of Good Old Fashioned Fun. Cheap, easy, accessible entertainment:

• Camping with the family. Our Lake Powell trip is coming up... can't wait!!! Plus, Royce's dad gave us the Airstream trailer last fall and I can't wait to use it! Gonna take it out to some over-night car shows.


• Game nights. With family or friends, it doesn't matter!


• Parks. I love playing at the park! Taking the dogs for walks, or just playing on the playground during a car show, I love it! Especially the swings!!


• Rivers, lakes, reservoirs. I love 'em all! I so want a boat, but realize that they cost a lot and are only usable 3 months of the year. But even just walking in the river, or playing on a beach, just thrills me! One of mine and Royce's best dates was walking in the Morgan River.


• Bike Rides. Royce fixed my tire this weekend, so my bike is ready to go! Any takers? Let's start off easy, with quick trips around the block, but I'd love to be a trail rider! My bike's nothing fancy, just my 10-gear from my childhood, but it works!


• Car shows. Go figure, huh? Some are cheaper than others, but they're all a lot of fun!


• Rec team games. Watching or playing. I'd love to throw around a softball again, if even just for fun! But I also just found out my nephew is playing baseball again this year, so I'm excited to go watch him and cheer him on!


• Barbecues and picnics. I'm dying to pull out the croquet!
• Bubbles. I love, love bubbles! Just this weekend, I was blowing bubbles at the car show.
  

So, to sum it up, who wants to ride their bike over to the park with me, where we will play croquet and softball until the hamburgers are done, then we can play on the swings!!?!!

Weekend Stuff

For not having any plans, my weekend was pretty busy. I got home on Friday and Royce was moving out our old kitchen table to move in our "new" stuff! The stools look really good with the table. Just wondering if we'll ever actually use them though... for something other than putting groceries on!

On Saturday morning, Royce and I woke up early and went to the car show at Ogden Airport. The fella hosting this show is not exactly one of our favorite people, (Mr. Music, as we call him), but we had friends going and thought "Why not?" I'm happy we went. It was a beautiful morning and there was a pretty good turn out. And I've decided I'm gonna change my attitude about Mr. Music. He had a lot of support at this show and people were telling us what a good guy he is, helping them out with different things, so I think he deserves a second chance. His first impression is not great, but I'm gonna hold out on my criticizing and negative thoughts about him. I'm going to say that he is "enthusiastic" rather than "annoying." That he is "persistant" rather than "pushy." And that he is a "businessman" rather than a "wannabe."

Mr. Music was hoping to get me into the tower to get pictures, unfortunately, there was only one worker in there and with all the air regulations, they could not allow any one else up. Maybe next time.

Plus... Royce got another 3 NSRA inspections done!

After the car show, Royce and I headed out to AJ's Family & Friends Housewarming Party. Not as many people showed up as expected, but it was great to see the ones that did! Especially the Weir family from the Raptor games! They are just such neat folk.

Mom and Dad took turns holding "the babies."

After the housewarming party, we went home to rest for a bit. That evening, we went to the Pizzeria with Mom, Dad and AJ. It's always fun when we have a family dinner, we're all just so goofy! Something as silly as a broken cell phone can get us all giggly for the rest of the night! "Don't call Dad... he doesn't have a cell phone, ya know." Then we went back to Mom and Dad's to watch Avatar. Just good old fashioned family fun!

On Sunday, Royce and I got some housekeeping stuff done. Royce worked out in his garage, I did some laundry and the dishes. Then we caught up on some of our Tivo recordings. But at 7:20, my sis-in-law agreed to meet me and the dogs at the park with my nephew Ty, for some more good old fashioned family fun. It was great to see Sarah and Ty! We've had some rough times lately, with disagreements and then just being so busy, that we haven't done anything together. It was great to just take some time to catch up and chat about non-confrontational stuff. The stuff that really matters anyways. And the dogs loved it too!

Sadie was so good! Ty walked her most of the time at the park, and she didn't tug him around or get loose at all! It's so nice to know that we can do this with her, but it's also kind of sad... poor girl is getting old. It makes me sad to think about!

No Plans for the Weekend

I don't have any plans for the weekend. Well, nothing big. My brother's Family and Friend's housewarming is tomorrow and I'm helping... but that's it. No car shows. Friends are out of town. Kind of a bummer. It is, after all, the weekend before the weekend before my birthday! I really should celebrate.

Story Time!

Have I ever mentioned that I like my job? Nah, it's not my ideal dream job, but I'm certainly not unhappy with it. I get paid enough. I get good medical benefits. I get free tuition. I work with good people. We have our weekly potlucks, birthday celebrations and various other celebrations. And... I get to host story time!

No, not every day! In fact, never before, and maybe never again, but today I got to host story time. We've been doing a book drive for charity and the Big Boss at the Main campus invited everyone to take some time today to look through the books and have a little reading break. The email that went out actually said this: "You WILL have to read your book on your own, as no teachers nor nap mats are available for this activity." I followed it up with an email to my mini-campus that said "Luckily, at North Davis, we do have a teacher available to do the reading for you! Join me in room 210 at 3:45" because my boss told me I could, and should, pick a couple to read aloud. Then he went and got cookies and milk, just to make it that much better! So, I got to work scanning the books ('cuz you just can't see the pictures otherwise!) and prepared myself for some good old fashioned fun! These are the two stories I picked:

and

I picked Wait and See because the little girl in the story is named Olivia and one of my co-workers has an adorable daughter named Olivia... plus, it's about birthdays, and mine just happens to be in 11 days!!!

I tried my best to read them like I would in the classroom. With voices and animation. I even think my country drawl worked for Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch! I think everyone enjoyed it... hopefully! I did! In fact, I liked it so much that I made them sit through one more story that I already had digitally. It was:

So, while I don't get to read to my co-workers EVERY DAY, it sure is fun when I do, and these little moments like these make work just a little more bearable!

School Counselor District Meeting

Katrina, (my counselor mentor) invited me to the district meeting this morning. The topic was Community Resources and they had a few guest speakers come in. The first part of the meeting was about homelessness and what the school district can offer students who are displaced. When I think of homelessness, I typically think of kids like this:

Dirty, malnourished, no shoes...

But the guest speaker, Cheri Jacobsen, and the District Homeless Liaison, Mary Ann Nielson, helped me to define Homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act of 2001 (isn't it sad that it wasn't placed into law until 2001?!?) defines homelessness as a "temporary living arrangement such as:

1. Sharing a residence with one or more families.

2. Living in a hotel or motel.

3. Living in a shelter.

4. Living in a car, park, campground or public place.

5. Living in a place without adequate facilities (running water, heat, electricity)

6. Enrolling in elementary or secondary school without an accompanying parent.

I also learned that Davis School District has just over 1,000 recorded cases of homelessness currently. I was happy to learn, though, that the McKinney Vento Act gives students the right to a public education whether they have a permanent address or not. And that the school will provide access to transportation to the school.

The next speaker was from the Juvenile Justice Services. The JJS is a sister agency to Archway, a youth center in Ogden that I am fairly familiar with because my friend works there as a nurse. The JJS provides the same services, minus the residential facility. They run group counseling for substance abuse, anger management, parenting classes, victim awareness and girls groups. They provide a safe place for parents to drop off their kids if they need a few hours of respite.

The final speaker was from Safe Harbor, a domestic violence shelter in Davis County. I am familiar with this shelter because my car club donates money to them and also because one of my classmates and friends works there and has educated my class on their services. Even so, I'm always amazed at what they do and at the statistics they provide. In a Utah classroom, with an average of 35 students, 8 of those students come from an abusive home. And 1 out of 3 women will experience abuse in their lifetime. Wow. Heartbreaking, and eye opening.

It was a good meeting and I got some great information from it.

Eye See You!

So, yesterday was a busy day for us! I worked a whole hour in the morning, then it was time to go to the elementary school for my practicum. Which was soooo fun! I did my second video recording and again feel really good about it. Then I returned to work for yet another hour, until I had to leave for my follow-up doctor appointment. All seems to be well, so we'll just wait and see... But afterwards, I had no desire to go back to work, (imagine that!) so I didn't. I went to Mom's shop to visit until Royce got off and we could go to the car show at Hires. Royce got home and we left. All the while, his right eye was bugging him a bit 'cuz he'd had some debris blow into it at work, but he thought he'd be fine, so we just grabbed a rag and were on our way. We got to the show, and he was still rubbing his eye and the blowing wind just hurt it. Our sweet, sweet car club friends did everything they could to help us. From just encouraging him to go to a doctor, to getting eye rinse and eye drops, to loaning us a car to take to the doctor, to just making sure we got home ok! Finally, Royce had had enough with the pain and agreed to go to the instacare up the road. A miracle in itself! That boy does not go to the doctor until he has a complete list of ailments! So, sweet sweet Ron and Bon let us take their daily driver (a kickass turbo Monte Carlo, Dale Jr. Edition) so we wouldn't lose our show spot in the Corvair. We drive up the road to the Instacare and the lobby is chock full of sick kids!! I'll bet we waited for a good hour before we were seen... and even then, it was a quick vital check and more waiting for an open room! But, when we were finally seen, they examined Royce's eye, dyed it orange, found a good abrasion on it, then did a "fire-hose rinse" on it. The fire-hose rinse is a suction cup thing that attached to the eyeball under the eyelid, and runs a line to a liter of Sodium Chloride. Then, the pressure is turned up all the way and it constantly runs the liquid to his eye! It looked painful, and Royce said it was, but he was soooo tough! Anyways, his "diagnosis" is Abrasion to the Right Eye, No Foreign Body. They gave him pain pills and a drop to coat his eye to prevent infection, but as long as it continues to heal, he won't have to go back. He woke up this morning and couldn't pry his eye open without having to wash it first, just full of goop, but says it doesn't hurt, in fact, he used the word "tickle", but it's still red and swollen.

Memory Mondays: Eyeglasses

I remember that I was in 6th grade when I was told I needed to start wearing glasses. I needed them to see far away, like to read the board, but not to read, so I didn't wear them all the time. I can't remember my very first pair, but I know at some point I had some cute purple ones, then I had some that were really thin copper-colored wire metal ones and my last pair before my antique collection started was an orange-ish colored pair with autumn leaves etched into the frames and arms. At the time, my hair was dyed orange-red, so they matched my hair really well and, actually, the guy at the eye place picked them out for me! All of my glasses have had the same basic shape, with the cat-eye slant to them. The first antique pair I had done was my gold-leaf metal ones that I still wear. My mom bought them for me in San Diego. We were at the antique shop and I tried them on and both she and the shop keeper oohed and ahhed about them, so mom bought them as an early birthday present for me and I had my prescription put in them. From then on, it was an addiction!! At one point, I had 11 pairs that I could choose between!! Currently, I have four. But I have about 20 pairs that I will eventually have done or just use to display in my classroom. Royce made me a beautiful display shelf for them, I just need to find a good spot to hang it up! When I first got glasses, I felt, like every kid who has to wear glasses, like a nerd. I hated it! But now, when people around me talk about having the lasik surgery or wearing contacts, I just think about how lucky I am to have this extra fashion accessory to work with! I love them! I would never consider lasik and contacts didn't work for me. I like how my face looks with glasses. I like planning my outfits around my glasses. I love the comments I get about my glasses. I like that adults and kids alike admire my glasses. Adults remember them from their childhood and kids just think they're fun. And teens ask me where I got them.

I've already started a fun sunglass frame collection for my classroom. I will use them as rewards or celebrations in my class. When it's someone's birthday, they'll get to pick a pair to wear all day. Maybe I'll have a line-leader pair. Or a Star of the Week pair! I'm just excited to incorporate these parts of myself into my classroom!

2 weeks!!!

Mondays are always big Blog days! I have a whole weekend to catch you up on! This Monday is no different!

On Friday, I went to my eye doctor appointment. I love going to the eye doctors! Not the bright lights and eye drops, or the fear of failing the eye test, but just the fact that I get new glasses! It's thrilling to me!! For some girls, it's all about the shoes or the purse... for me, it's the eye glasses! So, every time I go in, I take a handful of my own vintage pair of frames to have done with my new lenses. This time, I finally decided on the Spring pair. And... a new frame!! They are cat-eye shape, black plastic with white "piping" on them. I think they will be fun! I might even have some red pinstriping done on them! I should get both pairs in a week, YAY!! It was fun, too, because I got a chance to catch up with an old friend that works there. Liz is such a neat lady, with a heck of a life story to tell... at just 30 years old! I love her dearly and am so glad that we can see each other on these few occasions and it's just like old times. And I am so happy that her life is going so well now! She deserves happiness, and it's finally happening to her!

After my eye appointment, I rode down to SLC with my brother to meet up with Royce, Kyle and Alex at our friend's junkyard. I'm not much of a junkyard-er, but it was fun enough. What's not to like about beater cars, a pure-bred German Shepherd with a papered name a mile long that is now a filthy, confused junkyard dog and my brother using a Corvair as a urinal?! Then we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, one of my favorite restaurants ever, where AJ provided the evening's entertainment... as usual. I guess I missed the kick-off of the evening, where our waitress basically called him a cheap bastard, (for not paying for Caitie, Alex's sister, mistakenly assuming they were dating), but the rest of dinner was awesome. From Alex's tales from the "kiddie jails" about Rainbow and Sunshine and their endless love to AJ's silly fear of tiny hands, the night was filled with laughter!!

Alex, I was thinking this would be perfect for their first album! Featuring the hit singles Age Ain't Nuthing But A Number; Cuddle Me, You Smart Thing; and Hunger Strike of Love

Maybe AJ's fear has some merit after all...

After dinner, we went to a friend's house in SLC. That was a little different. Chantel is about our age, but her brother and his friends are all younger than us, still in high school, and they were all drinking and playing beer pong. Totally not our kind of scene!! We all felt so awkward and weird! But, we didn't want Chantel to think that we didn't like her, so we all stuck around for awhile. Royce drove Kyle and Alex home, and AJ and I stuck around until 10:30. I had to stay with him, he was mine, Royce and Alex's beer drinker when we were talked into actually playing beer pong, so I had to drive him home.

Saturday was the Jelsco car show, but Alex and I both needed our beauty sleep, so we showed up around 10am. Sounds like the NSRA team now has about 20 inspections for this year. That is awesome, especially when you consider the fact that we're a week into the season and at about 1/3 of where they were at the end of last season!!

It was fun, and the weather was beautiful!

After the car show, Royce and I needed to get stuff ready for our club activity, the free game and pot luck day! But not until we stopped at a neighbor's house for a tour of his garages... so, we walked through his shops, examined his many cars and projects before I could pull Royce away.

The game day was a success! Well, it was for those who counted anyways. Royce and I were disappointed with how few people actually showed up. We had been planning this activity for soooo long! And we intentionally did it on a Saturday afternoon, where there were no shows to interfere with it, and it was a free activity for those members who asked for something cheap. But the people who showed up are the same people who would have come if it would have cost $100, and been a week night! We did everything we could to advertise it. Personally, I'm disappointed because I put a lot of freaking effort into the Bingo game I made, and I really thought about each and every club member. Oh well. Their problem, not mine. Everyone who did show up seemed to have a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed my musical Bingo game and guessing who each song was assigned to.

All my custom-made Bingo cards! Laminated and everything!

Playing Bingo... "If You're Happy and You Know It"

Royce making up his own rules for 5 Crowns

Alex and I forgot how much we love Sing Star for Playstation 2!! I am a horrible singer, and I know it and proudly admit it, but it's just fun to let loose and sing once in awhile! We loved it so much that after we cleaned up everything, we went back to her house so the boys could tear up her Cobalt and we could play some more!

On Sunday, Royce and I woke up early to go to the Swap Meet and then to breakfast. At the Swap Meet, we found some kickass bar stools for our kitchen! They are obviously from an old diner (old gum underneath and everything!) with the chrome bottoms and leather tops. They need some fixin' up, but they are gonna be so neat!! And they were a great price, only $20 for all 5!!!! I'm just glad we got there when we did, right as we were examining them, 3 more groups of people came up to see them!! We made it in the nick of time.

Simlar to this style, but the colored rings on the top are faded red and the leather is a dark blue. This reproduction model is $121, with a minimum order of 7!!! Our deal was incredible!!!

We met some of the car club folks at Burger Stop for breakfast. They have a yummy french toast breakfast! And, as always, it was great to just BS with good friends!

Later, after a nap, Royce and I met Alex and my mom at mom's shop to bathe the dogs.

Kyle and Alex's pretty pups, Zoey and Bruno

Sunday was another beautiful day, so Royce and I, (mostly Royce), did some yard work. He mowed the lawn, front and back, and we threw away a bunch of stuff we'd let clutter up the back deck area, then I 'helped' him with some controlled burns and picked some weeds.

All in all, a very eventful weekend! I'm just grateful that I have such neat people to spend my time with!