I'm feeling Smart

I just spent my whole night making these great cute little "dot sheets" (a reward system we use). Cute, right? When all a sudden my mom points out to me that the next holiday is actually St. Patty's day! NOT Easter. Oh we'll these kids will have to deal with my probs.

Recipe to a good weekend

President's weekend. It's been kind of The best thing ever. All the friends home, Valentines's day, good weather, Tea Parties, joy!

Downtown on a beautiful day

The tea party! Tiff Ame Jen Lyd Sky Abs Dan Morg Jess / Linds Em Bec Me / Jess Min Em Shelb Kate and Kath. fave girls.

Banner I made at school last week.  It says "Elementary Office"

Mmmm Mount Olympus.

Top left: walk in the park./ Top right:..../ Middle left: Oatmeal Squares! yum/ Middle right: Excited about the sun coming out! /Bottom left: skiing at alta,/ bottom right: morning clouds.

APA Builders Assembly

So my school that I work at has a special tradition of making the week of Valentines a time of appreciation ... So it's Teacher Appreciation week (aka delicious food all week long) and then today they had a "Builder's Assembly" that features one kid from each grade that teachers have chosen have been outstanding. Anyway so they invite the whole fam but don't tell the kid and then they read off each kid. All of a sudden "you raise me up" blasts out and the kid and their family comes up and the whole audience claps. There was one family that is African-American and the mom left them at Christmas time, so the dad picks up and drops his three amazing boys off every day. His little First grade boy, Benjamin won a builder award.  The first picture below is when Niing won: she is part of a little Vietnamese refugee family.  I was basically sobbing when I'd seen her diligence and preparedness in class and then the way her family embraced her, they didn't even speak English! Yet they knew it was something amazing and she has managed to learn so much and be an honor-roll student. But anyway, Every time the song came on my first thought was"this is soooo cheesy and its going to get old realllll fast", and then before I knew it I was in tears!!  

P.S. Shout out to two girls - sisters- who left the awesome high school I went to, and moved to APA for academic oppurtunites and both worked hard enough so both got builder of the years for their grade! That is incredible.

February is here

January literally whizzed by at the Speed of Light (which I learned at school recently = 186,000 miles per second...ok I take it back)and here we are in February.  The land of hearts and valentines, hot cocoa, and big nasty inversions with un-breathable air.  

My Job 
-I spend a good portion of my day watching and helping an autistic girl named Sarah, she likes to eat paper and tell me about her dog.  But she's a genius and onw of the most big-hearted, sweetest people I know.  I love her.

-I love hispanics.  At school I work with and teach a lot--Mexicans, South America natives, all of them--they are the best people and now I wanna go Spanish Speaking.  That is my dream.

-The african refugee kids l.o.v.e. my blonde hair and ask me if they can buy it.  I'm not kidding. I usually tell them yes with a swinky winky.

-The kids are adorable, full of germs, but adorable nonetheless.  I've only gotten sick three times in the month I've worked at APA so it's fine!  

Missions.  Missions Missions everywhere.  I started my papers this week.  My classmates that have already received calls put together a video of all the kids from my high school, and before we knew it was viral on Youtube.  So cool!  I almost put my picture in the last portion but decided not to.  But I am so so excited for everyone.

Have a good on'!