Life in the fast lane...

So it is so hard to believe but those tiny puppies from my last post are now 3 1/2 weeks old! They are the cutest things you have ever seen and I am afraid if I don't get them put on craigslist soon that I will end up being the crazy dog lady with 10 dogs! :) They all have the cutest little personalities and are starting to get to that fun stage where they want you to pet them and hold them, and pee when you talk to them in a high voice (haha it makes me laugh every time)! I am trying not to get too bothered with the fact that my downstairs smells like 10 puppies who poop all day ( I am getting neurotic and changing their papers every day)! I am just enjoying the journey ;)

School is 1/3 finished! I can't believe I have made it this far! Honestly it is really hard. Being a first year teacher with demands from parents, students, fellow teachers, supervisors, principal, BYU supervisors, etc... gets a little overwhelming at times. It is hard to please everyone and still have a moment for myself at the end of the day, but I feel like I am doing a descent job and I am learning a ton about myself, 2nd graders, and about teaching. Here is one of the life lessons I learned last week for instance:

If a 8 year old who normally follows every single rule asks you if she can go to the restroom eeven when she knows it is during the ONE HOUR a day (between recesses) that they aren't supposed to use the restroom... let her go... it is probably an emergency. Well I wasn't thinking and gave her the same response I give my other 23 students - "You know the rule during math time." and she walked away. Well she came back and told me it was an emergency and so I told her to go (obviously). Well.. OBVIOUSLY she didn't inform me in time because at that point she had already pooped her pants. She went to the restroom and tried to clean it up... unsuccessfully... and managed to get human feces all over the front and back of her jeans. WELL... on the way to the other 2nd grade class for rotations she informed me that what was on her pants was mud (she just come in from recess) and so I believed her and sent her on her way. 10 minutes later I was informed that in fact it was not mud, but poop all over her pants. Well folks, the story ends with her going home and changing and and very upset mother calling and yelling at me because I am forcing 2nd graders to 'hold it' when they need to use the restroom and blaming me for the fact that her 8 year old got poop all over her body. Now I take responsibility for not knowing that it was an emergency - but seriously... how does one manage to have an accident and then rub it all over the outside of their pants. I don't even want to know what the bathroom looked like.

Haha needless to say, things have been a little less chaotic since that happened last week, but I am much more willing to let any of my students use the restroom at any time of the day! I really am enjoying my kids a lot and even though it is a hard job, I am really grateful for the opportunity I have to be a teacher and influence their lives (hopefully)!

Well... the excitement for this week is counting down the days til the Thanksgiving break in Iowa with the family! I am so so so excited! I wish we could all get together more often!

Seriously!?!?!

So... remember how last time Lole got knocked up she only had 1 puppy?

Well she went into labor this morning at 4am... and...

SHE HAD 10 PUPPIES!!!!!

10 PUPPIES!!!

Crazy right?!

Here are a few cell phone pictures, hopefully I can get some better pics... but these puppies are the cutest things you have ever seen! There are 7 girls and 3 boys!

A little of this... A little of that...

The bad news is...

I got the swine flu.

The god news is...

I got a new car!!!

(White 2007 Honda Civic (pictures to come))

Despite the H1N1 virus, I am happy :)

When it rains...

When it rains the past gets washed away. I smile 'cause I know in the end the world gets beautiful again.

So I have avoided this post for a while now... but pictures are surfacing and rather than having people wonder what is going on I would rather just be open. Adam and I are getting divorced. It has been a long couple of months and I just want to say thank you to all of you who have been there for me lately. Including those in Adam's family. I am surrounded by amazing family and friends and I know I couldn't have accomplished and gotten through what I have without all of your support. So THANK YOU. Right now we are filed and just waiting on the judge to finalize everything from our papers. Details aside, I just hope everyone can know that I think we are both good people and will both go on to accomplish great things in life. Those things just will no longer be together.

I feel like I am doing really well right now considering the circumstances and am keeping really busy. My 25 seven year olds really keep me challenged and I really love each and every one of them despite the behavior problems some of them give me every day haha! I am learning a lot about myself and about what it takes to be a teacher. I can't believe we are almost through September already! Lole is pregnant again (I hope haha) and if all goes well (and she starts eating again) she will have a brood of pups right around Halloween! :) That should really keep me busy for the next little while!

Once again... thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have saved me lately. I wish I had the time to make all of you cupcakes and thank-yous that could truly express my gratitude :) One of these days I'll find the time haha (amidst teaching full time and working 3 shifts a week at Happy Sumo)!

Love you all!

Love You Grandpa

I found this post I wrote on our family blog a couple of years ago (December 22, 2007) when we were told Grandpa Henderson woulnd't make it through that night... he is the definition of a survivor and had a long journey. He passed away on Friday evening and he will be forever missed and loved. I am so grateful for my knowledge of eternal life and I know that the reunion he is having with those he loves who have passed on before is a sweet one. One of my favorite moments with Grandpa Henderson was when I was almost 16 and we were having Christmas vacation at our house in Pleasant View (we lived in MN but still had our house there). We wanted to take a family picture in front of the Christmas tree and we were all there smiling and all of a sudden Grandpa started yelling "Somebody moved the button! Where is the button?!" I just remember laughing so hard. He was such a cute man. His funeral is going to be this weekend and I am definitely not looking forward to saying goodbye...

I love this memory also... Here is the post from a couple of years ago:

All of our hearts and prayers are with Grandpa and the family tonight, I'm sure. He started to sing us his favorite song tonight, but couldn't get through but a few words... I thought I would share the lyrics with you. This was the song him and Grandma danced to at their wedding and it touched the hearts of all of us in the room when he actually began to sing tonight through all of his pain.

My Prayer

The Platters

When the twilight is gone and no songbirds are singing

When the twilight is gone you come into my heart

And here in my heart you will stay while I pray

My prayer is to linger with you

At the end of the day in a dream that's divine

My prayer is a rapture in blue

With the world far away and your lips close to mine

Tonight while our hearts are aglow

Oh tell me the words that I'm longing to know

My prayer and the answer you give

May they still be the same for as long as we live

That you'll always be there at the end of my prayer

Sleep well tonight Grandpa... Our prayers are with you.

Look What's Cookin In Ms. Adam's Class!

School starts tomorrow! AHH!! I am so so excited! My mom has been in town for the last couple of weeks and I feel like between me, her, and Katchie, we have spent hundreds of hours in that classroom (and out) getting ready for the school year! My mom is amazing and was gracious enough to paint and create all the illustrations for my bulletin boards and they looks AMAZING! And it was so nice to have Katchie there to keep me moving when I started draggin lol! All the teachers in the school are so jealous! The teacher who had my room before me retired and left behind so so so so much stuff in her classroom and it took forever to sort through, decide what to keep and throw away (there was a lot to throw away) and I got it ready just in time for back to school night last night! Here are a few pictures, but I will have to take a couple in the morning of the finished product! I am so proud of us - it looks wonderful! My theme is cooking/baking and so everything ties into that for the room! I have 24 2nd graders and they are so cute! I can't wait for all they are going to teach me this year! Here are a few pictures my mom took while we were finishing up before back to school night! Wish me luck! I will keep y'all posted on my adventures :)

The students desks with their goodie bags with cookie cutters and baking mats :)
What is posted out in the hall so I can display work!
My Chef (spotlight) of the week poster!
My AWESOME pink rocking chair and calendar!
Working hard on finishing touches!

Love Them!

Do any of you recognize these beautiful people?! Well I didn't at first when I went up to serve them at Happy Sumo either! And then in the middle of taking thier order I realized who it was!!! If you watch Private Practice on ABC, you will recognize Audra McDonald as playing Naomi!!! I love that show and I love her! The gentleman she was with looked so familiar as well and I realized after they left that it was William Swensen who now plays in Hair on Broadway, but was also the main character on Singles Ward!! Crazy huh! Anyway, I was freaking out the whole time I was serving them (they were super nice and polite by the way!) and then after they paid out I went on to make a fool of myself in telling Audra how much I loved her :) I only wish I remembered sooner how I knew her boyfriend haha! And by the way they are even more beautiful in person!

Aloha!

We had an AMAZING time in Hawaii!! Here are some of the highlights of our trip! I still have a few more to post! There were so many fun pictures! More pictures to come! Aloha!!

Soap Box

So this economy sucks... I totally understand that. A lot of people are struggling financially. But if you are going to go out to eat - don't take it out on your server. This has been my latest frustration lately. I don't know how many people actually know this, but servers only make $2 an hour. So what that means, is that when our paychecks arrive... they say $0.00 (most of the time). So what does this mean? This means our only income comes from the tables that we serve. This means that if we happen to get those cheap people on our rotation, we don't have the money to pay our bills. You wouldn't go to a mechanic, cosmotolegist, handyman, lawyer, etc... and not pay them for what they do - so what makes it ok to do it to servers??

If I am a terrible server, I can understand a bad tip. I didn't do what was expected of me for my table to pay me. But if someone comes out to dinner and recieves good/great service - that server needs to be paid!

This has been really difficult for me lately. We still get tables coming in at the Happy Sumo, but with this economy we are slower; therefore, we are also making less money. Lately I have experienced a lot more instances where people get great service and leave a bad tip. I hope not to offend anyone with this statement, but... If you don't have the money - don't go out to eat where you have to tip!!! McDonalds and Wendys have a great dollar menu, seriously!

I know this blog sounds totally rude, but I felt the need to vent. I have been working a ton since school let out and this has been something we have seen a lot more of lately!

*** To all you 20% tippers out there... We love you :)***

On a lighter note:

- Trey graduates this weekend!!

- We get to go to MN tomorrow and see our wonderful family!!

- I am getting very excited to teach in the fall!

- Bessie is almost 8 weeks old and hilarious as ever!!

Bessie!

Seriously, how can you not fall in love with this face?! Our camera is retarded but here are a couple of pictures of baby Bessie with her eyes open! The first picture shows how little she used to be and I don't know if you can tell... but look how huge she looks in my hand!!! She is the fattest little girl ever!! :)

WOO HOO!!!

So I just officially submitted my last final and I am FINISHED!!! I could not be more thrilled about life! And I think I actually got pretty great grades! :) It felt so great walking down from campus today knowing that was the last time I would have to take a test in the testing center! It has been a great 4 years and I look forward to the future! Unfortunately I won't graduate until next April when my internship is finished (which I think is rediculous) but that doesn't kill my excitement at all!!! I have been through a lot in the past 4 years - so thanks so much to everyone for all your love and support! I couldn't have made it through school without all the amazing people in my life! Love y'all!!

Only a month or so until Adam and I are enjoying the beaches of Maui! Doesn't this picture make you so happy?

Photo Shoot!

She is getting bigger every day!! She was just over 11 oz when she was born and now she is already over a pound!! Lole is an amazing mom and is enjoying having the company of Biggie T, Momma, and Trey!

My Baby Mama

Our baby girl went into labor last night!! At one thirthy she gave birth to the cutest little puppy you have ever seen! After that sweet girl we waited, and waited, haha and then realized there must be only one! A little crazy, but she just had the one puppy! Here are some of the pics I took on my cell phone, it is real hard to get a good pic of her cuz she is a little squirmy and if she is with Lole she is being hidden :) More cute pictures to come!! (Sorry about the goriness of this pic) Minutes after she was born!!
"What are you looking at? There is no puppy here!"

What a sweet face!

Her little squished face! It was so hard to try and get her to hold still! She is so tiny!!!

Isn't life beautiful! They both know just what to do! I LOVE the 5 spots on her back!

WOO HOO!!!

So the interview this morning was very scary and pretty much sucked (especially the part where I had to sit so still without completely bouncing my leg!)! And I just barely got a call from the principal at... Hillcrest Elementary School!!! I will be teaching 2nd grade! I couldn't be more excited! Thanks so much to all of you for your love and support! It means the world!

Ra Ra Ree, Kick him in the knee! Ra Ra Rass, Kick him in the...

(haha that was for you, Mom :)

So this weekend I have been remenising back to 8th grade and the crazy dealings of cheerleading tryouts. Now if you knew me back then, I don't know if you remember, but it was a big deal! But the hardest part of it all was that most of my friends were also trying out for cheerleader and there were only 10 spots available. 10 spots = not all of our friends making it (tragic, I know). And if you also remember... I didn't make it.

Well... this coming Monday comes another stressful time for me... Intern interviews. I am finishing up my second practicum in a 5th grade classroom on Tuesday and on Monday we have our interviews to intern in Alpine School District next year instead of student teaching. There are about 15 schools in the district that have openings for interns next year so there will be about 15 principals and 15 vice principals interviewing us in groups of about 4 or 5. There are about a million questions we are supposed to study incase they ask us, and we will find out on Tuesday whether or not we got one of the 26 spots available. If not, there is a second round process, and if you still don't get picked you student teach next year instead. I am super super nervous! I really hope to get an internship, but I also have a lot of friends that are applying that are excellent cantidates (as well as other impressive girls that I don't know as well).

SO... I'll keep you posted on Tuesday... hopefully with good news. I have been working for this for 4 years so I really hope it pays off! Keep my in your thoughts and prayers this weekend!

We're pregnant!!!

Haha ok so not me... but our baby!

So after 5 weeks of speculating... we think Lole is prego! Dogs are pregnant for about 9 weeks so this would mean she is over half-way there! We are super excited/nerveous cuz we have never done anything like this before! But we are pretty positive she will have the world's cutest puppies... Seriously, just look at this cutie when she was a puppy - how could she not have beautiful babies?!

So I was reading about what to do when your dog is prego and one of the sites said in week 6 to feed her to the max that she will eat... (pause for laughter if you have ever met this crazy girl)! So I think I will have to made adaptations for this girl since she could easily eat herself to death! As the belly starts poking out more we will take some pictures so you can see her progress!

What do you think of the final products?!

Busy Bee!

Ok so life has been crazy busy lately! School is kicking my butt, we moved into our triplex... but still don't have a kitchen, and I am trying to work a couple minutes a week :) As soon as I unpack our camera out of the boxes and everything is done, I promise there will be pictures! Since we had to tear everything down to the cement, put up new walls and cielings, etc... the construction has taken a lot longer than we anticipated and I can't wait for it to be finished! It is so nice to see one room completed at a time and to see how great it looks (after how terrible it looked when we moved in!!) The kitchen should be completed in the next week or so, and I couldn't be more excited to cook and, of course, bake! I am going to be a baking machine! So if you live in Utah... watch out cuz there will be goodies galore!!!

I start in a 5th grade classroom next week so school has been extra awful lately! I have the worst case of senioritis! This week has been especially busy with projects and one of them is 10 hours of service for my social studies class. I decided to make baby hats for the humanitarian aid. It has been so fun to bust out the crochet hook and realive my stress making these super cute little hats! I am about halfway through my 10 hours (which have to be done by Friday by the way) and here is what I have done so far! Don't they look so cute!?

Sorry (Trey) that I haven't posted in a while!

Life is crazy lately with hardly anything to blog about!

22!!

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes today! My day was wonderful! Adam threw me my first suprise birthday party ever! It was a total blast with pictures to follow soon! Love you all!

Survived...

Christmas, 2nd Anniversary, New Years, and back to school again! The break wasn't near long enough but we had such a blast! It was amazing to be able to go home to Marshall and spend the holidays with the family! I can't believe how big Steph's kids have gotten! They are so much fun! The week was filled with "I like to move it, move it" from Madagascar, lots of yummy food, racquetball, games, and wonderful company! We even got to sit on Santa's lap :)

The 5 dogs also made for an interesting week! It was a Christmas miracle when we found poor Troy after an hour of looking for him in the MN winter, and we got the joy of cleaning up throw up from sneaky Lole and her love of Buckeyes (chocolate and peanut butter amazingness)! I don't have any pictures to post from Christmas cuz I forgot to get them off Mom's camera - but as soon as I get some I will post them!

We were blessed with great dogs and once again great weather on the way back to Utah! Adam and I got to celebrate our 2nd anniversary a couple times! The first was in Rapid City, SD on the way home :) When we got home we decided to buy a bed so we went to IKEA and picked out our sweet new bed! We love it!

I worked New Years which was kind of a let down this year... stupid economy... but then we got to celebrate the New Year at the Huka Bar in SLC with Katchie and her friends for Cellen's birthday bash! I worked a bunch last week and now it's back to school again! I can't wait to be done!

Lol it took forever for Adam to take the picture... and I have no idea what Jeff is doing behind us... he is making some funny faces in the other attempts :)

Did everyone come up with great New Year's resolutions for 2009?! I tried this last semester, but wasn't too successful so I have decided to try again... my resolution is to have balance in my life. I am going to get a good balance of school, work, gym, family, church, etc. in my life! Wish me luck! Sorry my life is pretty boring :( I'll try and be more interesting soon!