School

Currently for school I am student teaching at Houston Elementary in Gilbert. I am VERY EXCITED to be in my LAST and FINAL semester of ASU. Its like any time I talk about GRADUATING my Caps Lock automatically can't stop working.

Anyway, I love my placement and my school and am highly entertained by my adorable and smart students. I am also highly entertained by the pictures I find on the internet while I am trying to make up worksheets for the kids.

Tonight I was working on a visual cue poster for Super Sentences. I was trying to find pictures that would depict verbs. I wanted ones that showed a lot of action so that the students would get the correlation of Verbs=Action.

I typed run into google images and this came up...
along with it came a whole website that had pictures depicting all of the parts of speech: adjectives, nouns, verbs etc.

Other verb pictures I found that I deemed a little on the inappropriate side for the second graders.

Fight


Gain weight
Smoke

And my personal favorite for obvious reasons


Get Drunk

My Expert Review

So last night Devin and I went and saw Twilight.

It was his first time and my third time. He just finished reading all the books and finally wanted to see the movie. We are nerds.

But given my new nerd status (seeing any movie three times in theaters makes you a nerd) I consider myself an expert on the movie and will now critique it.

Jasper:
Let's just say you do a great job of looking in pain for most of the movie, but during the baseball scene when you are wearing a blue and white baseball tee you are hot.
You are forgiven for being awkward and looking like someone just punched you in the stomach.

Rosalee:
I was really disappointed in their choice for Rosalee until I looked up pictures of Nikkie Reed and realized she's actually hot.


She just makes a really ugly blond.

And did anyone notice she was wearing gloves in the kitchen scene where she broke the glass bowl? What was that all about?

Bella:
You really look the part and I really want to like you but could you talk more monotone? Seriously I thought when you were scared your voice would have a least a hint of inflection but nope you kept on talking like a robot.

Edward:

I really like Rob Pattison as Edward but you know what I don't like? This EW cover. He is nasty and hairy.


Also not a fan of Robert Pattison in real life. I never thought I would say this but he is a guy who sounds better without the English accent. All you have to do is watch an interview with him and you will realize he's kinda "bleh".


And then there was Carlisle:
Does anyone else remember him from another movie? Playing the character which he will ALWAYS be type casted in my mind as?


Well hello Mike Dexter from Can't Hardly Wait! How are you? I see you've dyed your hair blond and are pretending to be hot.


I'll always know you as the guy who dumped Amanda Becket.

"I'm a loser. I broke up with the hottest girl in school, my friends all sold me out... and somebody in there just called me a fag! "

The P.B.C.

The Polar Bear Club
Initiation to the Fletcher Family

Every New Year's day, the Fletcher Family has a terrible tradition of taking turns jumping into a freezing cold pool and then getting out.
Why? Well its all started in 1994 when Laurie (their mom) kicked them out of the house to get some much needed sleep. David (the dad) took the family on the five mile walk to the mall and back so that Laurie could get some peace and quiet. On their way home they walked past the complex's pool and David suggested they all take turns jumping in. The tradition was born.
Now its turned into an initiation/object lesson. Every year they do the same thing on New Year's day. David always says, "If this is the worst thing you have to do this new year then your year wasn't that bad." Before you jump in you're supposed to tell what your new year's resolution is.

Last year David jumped in first. We did it at our apartment's main pool thinking we wouldn't die since there is a hot tub right next to it. Well David jumped in only to find that the pool was heated. About the same as putting a gun up to your head and pulling the trigger only to find a blank inside.
So we ventured over to the pool by our apartment thinking it wouldn't be heated. Padlock on the gate aside, we hopped the fence to do the jump.

Unfortunately for David it meant he had to do the jump twice. On the second time around I saw just how painful it was. I hadn't planned on jumping. I was the camera girl extrordinare. But when it came Devin's turn he wouldn't jump. He pretty much said he wouldn't go if I didn't go. So I manned up and jumped in with him.


It was less then pleasant.
This Saturday marks this years P.B.C. jump day.
Needless to say I am really really really dreading Saturday. So if anyone feels like breaking one of my legs or performing some other sort of bodily harm that requires a cast...
by all means be my guest.
Cast=can't jump into icy cold pool=Laura happy.

Oh earbug.

Today is Eden's FIFTH Birthday!



Here are the five reasons I love Eden...

1. She is such an amazing singer! All you have to do is sing a song once around her and she'll be humming it all day long and have the words memorized already. So you have to be really careful what you sing around her unless you want her to be singing, "Shake that A.."just kidding Amanda don't have a heart attack...that never happened.



2. She loves to perform for people. Whether it is in the play 1856 where she was an actress and singstress extrodinaire, just standing on our fireplace singing one of the songs she learned in her music group, or acting like a total ham at family dinner she is ALWAYS doing something to show off how much she knows and how amazing she is!




3. She is so SMART! Like I said, Eden can memorize anything. It was quite the sight to see her singing the FULL national anthem when we were watching the figure 8 car racing (yes we are white trash) at the fair. She had the whole thing memorized and was belting it. Everyone around us turned and just watched her sing because it was kind of incredible.



4. She loves to play and have fun with the Fletchers (a fantastic quality on my list). Eden comes to our house to spend the night on weekends and is so much fun to have. Whether it is watching Little Mermaid and singing and dancing to all of the songs or going out to eat and doing impressions of Devin she is a blast to have over!




5. She is the cutest girl! She was the first grandkid in our family so she will always be thought of as the cutest baby in the family and she totally was. She was so much fun to play with and take pictures of as a baby and her mom still always keeps her dressed up perfectly!



We LOVE you Earbug you can come play at our house ANYTIME!

Don't be late in 2008

So my main goal for 2008 is stated above...

"Don't be late in 2008"

when I told devin that he said, "oh so you don't want to have a baby right now?"

not exactly...but I guess I could add that in?
I already have two fake kids with my fake spouse Emily named Julia and Annie. Thanks tho.

but really my goal was to not be such a procrastinating waste of space...
because lets be honest, I kind of can be/am.

But overall I did much better. I was almost never late to all of my classes.
Being late to church is still a regular occasion but at least I have my priorities in order right? And its gonna be a lot easier this year now that we have 9:00 am church.


There were still plenty of no sleep nights see also ALL of October.
And I still tried to do WAY to many things see also ALL of October
with my schedule just being a little too full.

To give you an idea, here is the list of October's festivities.

All YW at my house for watching Saturday General Conference,

15 page wedding sign in book,

Stake YCL leader for 4th year camp,

30 page anniversary book,
Make all games for Ward Halloween party,

make time to go to the fair with the fam (that is an event that CANNOT be missed!)


make food for the opening of Elliot's mission call,


all on top of going to school full time,

interning 6 hours a week,
( I would post pictures of the kindergartners becuase they are ADORABLE but I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed so here's something we made together after learning to sort with their Halloween candy.)

working full time-ish (being one of the pretend moms at the Jones house),

playing photographer for Julia's homecoming date,

midterms,

trying to celebrate my FAVORITE holiday Halloween
and pretending to be a wife.


Just thinking about that month makes me tired.


I am kind of really good at pushing the limit and working until the last possible second which results in regular mental breakdowns. Emily always tells me that just hearing about everything I have to do gives her stress. But I think I am getting better...right? Just don't ask Devin, Emily, Julia, or any other family member that has seen me in one of my stress induced comas.

I'm pretty sure 2009 is going to be filled with more no sleep nights but I'm trying to get a jump on things.

Motto for 2009:

"It's going to be fine in 2009."

I already bought my the scrapbook paper for the valentines I am making my soon to be students for student teaching this spring,


I am already decorating for Valentines day, my second favorite holiday.
(maybe I am the grinch becuase I kind of hate decortaing for christmas/it ranks pretty low on my list of favorite holidays),

and I am trying to be more composed/have less mental breakdowns.

So I think I am going to keep with the quote on the bottom of my computer screen from Mi Madre,


"I can do hard things"

and keep reading this talk

to remind myself of the change Elaine S. Dalton made to that quote,
“In the strength of the Lord, I can do all things.”

If I remember that quote then I know that
"It'll be fine in 2009."