Learning to Snowboard

I can't believe that I forgot to blog about this wondrous day! I learned how to snowboard! Last year when I moved to Utah I learned that January is learn to ski/snowboard month and there are some really great deals. I did not have any friends last year to go with so I never made it last year. I was determined to go this year and luckily some girls girls joined me for their first time as well. Nicole and Liv and I drove up the mountain and the first thing I noticed was how great it was to get out of the polluted air in the city! The ski resort was high enough up that we escaped the nasty air.

We started on the very basic small bunny hill and I was struggling a bit trying to figure out how to toe and heel, but I started to catch on when we then started practicing stopping. The first hour I could hardly concentrate because my feet hurt so much in my boots and trying to keep my knees bent so they wouldn't hurt so bad. After a while it either got better or I forgot about it.

This was after we all got off the ski lift and were waiting to go down out first mountain ride.

We successfully made it to the bottom once without dying so we rode back up to try it one more time before leaving. I love that this girl came with me! I also love that we are still friends after so many years!

The second run went a lot better and I felt like I totally got the hang out of! I even learned how to turn as I was zig zaggin down the mountain instead of stopping and having a hard time flipping my board over on the ground. Also as I was going down the mountain and flopping around the first time, there was an older man on the chair lift above me with a camera and shouted down asking if it was my first time! After telling him yes he told me not to worry because I can always remember it by the youtube video he was making of me! That sure boosted my confidence. I still have not found it so no one can see me making a fool of myself.

After a long exhausting day on the slopes!

School update

I did not know where to start, so I decided to start with the most common thing in my room and that is poop! I did have a phantom pooper but he has been caught! For all of you wondering why it is because he physically does not know when he has to go. Basically I am potty training him at school! So that is the story there. But that is not the end because this glorious picture is not from him, this is from a substiute pooping on teachers chairs! Yep that is also real life. She has subbed twice in first grade and both times this has happened! I walked past her in the hall as she was searching for the bathroom and noticed the nice large stain on the back of her pants as she shuffled to the bathroom. Once. okay we wont judge you everyone has accidents or problems, but twice! After talking to the principal I don't think this sub is coming back to our school. We have enough bathroom problems as it is.

There were a couple of days that have been extremely stressful in my classroom. Which leads me to letting my frustrations out by going to the pool and swimming 3 miles. I did have to share my lanes with some old men but luckily not for longcause passing people that slow is always a little weird. But it was good to go and sure wore me out afterwards!

Since we got back from Christmas break it has been so stinkin cold that we have had indoor recess everyday! It is downright awful. One thing my children like to do is color me pictures. I used to hang them on the front of my desk but then it got to be too much so I now have a basket for them to put it in for now and then I will make a book out of all of them. Anyway everyone has been making hearts lately so I have probably almost 100 hearts in that basket! But this little boy gave this to me and I was so excited about it. I love 3D pictures of pop-ups, whatever you want to call them. I have no idea how he figured out how to do this but I absolutely love it!

I remember celebrating groundhogs day every year growing up, but that might have been because we live closer to Punxsutawney than they do here in Utah. So I decided we celebrated a day early and teach my children about it! I made them be reporters and they had to ask everyone what they thought was going to happen, shadow or no shadow? This was the best my class has behaved in a long time and the best they have followed directions. Usually they would be running around the room or getting in fights or crying in a corner, but I had none of that and I couldn't help but capture the moment to remember!

Being a teacher I love the $1 bins at Target! I found these great markers the other day and had to buy them. I am not sure if I justified buying them for my class or because I loved the jokes!

After another frustrating day of school our PE teacher Coach Eddie gathered some teachers in the gym and we did Zumba after school. It was alot of fun and a good way to let go of everything that happened that day!

Near the beginning of the year I had a boy terrorize my room and rip almost everything apart. This was the only poster that survived and I put it in my closet for a while to keep it safe in case that happened again. Well going through that closet I found it and hung it up to help remember everyday there needs to be smiles and laughter! Maybe talking about this on Monday will help motivate my children to cry less! One can only hope, I have got the most emotional class in the whole school!

Date at Eight

I have been on a lot of dates lately, more than in the last 6 months! I will recap them real quick for you...

Date #1 Dinner and bowling with FunnyGuy. I have known him for a few years now so it was real relaxed and fun, and he could keep me laughing for hours. He warned me he had not been bowling in a long time and I think my bowling shoes intimidated him. The first game I won by a lot and the second I was winning again by a hefty margin but he ended the game with a turkey to come within 2 points of beating me! Then we went home and made some delicious desert of ice cream and chocolate chips cookies only partially baked! :) I learned he can play the uklalee like a champ and he has got some sweet dance moves.

(I was the 152!)

Date #2 Set up blind date with Texas. My friend Erika really wanted us to meet so we went out for breakfast on a double date. I am not real sure what I thought of him because I didn't really get to know him all that well. I may have been more interested in catching up with Erika and her new man that she is planning on marrying. I did learn that Texas is left handed and we did not bump elbows sitting by each other eating pancakes, that's always a good thing for me! He did make a real good choice of going to IHOP which is my favorite so props for that Texas!

Date #3 Picnic and the park with MusicDoctor. I know this guy from church and it was another double date which started with a picnic in his basement. After we played a card game Nertz which I am not so good at because you have to be doing a lot of things at one time. Then we decided to go to a park we had never been to but had heard of. Draper park is pretty legit if you are okay with things that spin! The first was a chair like thing you sit on and it spins faster and faster with your momentum. I had my legs out flying around and that did not help me at all and caused me to fly off the seat and land hard on the ground. (a week later I still have a hip that hurts!) We did have races to see who could spin for a certain amount of time and then run and climb up a slide and go down the other side...that was not easy! Last there was this "ride" if you can call it that, you sit inside and people spin you around and around!Once you get going it's not so bad but afterwards we all wanted to throw up! The whole drive home I thought I was going to be sick, but I made it home and took a long nap to shake off the nausea.

(This was the spinning ride of death!)

Date #4 Bowling with HolmesHome. I met him a couple of weeks ago and one night we were talking about things we like to do and bowling came up. So he decided to take me bowling to what he calls a ghetto bowling alley...this place is no where near some of the ghetto places I have been to. There was 42 lanes and it was awesome! He wasn't lying when he said he was alright. His highest of the 3 games was 159 and mine was 135. I came close to beating him one game and then he threw 4 strikes! But the first game I did beat him and a friend said that he did that on purpose and he made sure to let me know it was not on purpose and that no one really does that to make someone feel better. I agreed with that statement! I was also glad that I truly beat him and not because he wanted me to!

 They have all been fun but the test is now to see if any of them ask for a second time!

Sledding with Katie

  

I have a friend Katie Lee who doesn't like sports and won"t play them, but when it comes to winter outside activities she is so there! We have been sledding multiple times and ice skating a few as well. Not many of my friends here seem to enjoy either, or at least they don't come with us. Anyway the other day Katie texted me at school and said lets go sledding after school and of course I was so excited!

 (We love sledding)

This park is right outside of my house and the children did a good job at building jumps and leaving paths for us to utilize. The jumps I went off of were crazy and I got a lot of air and a couple hard landings but the best was the luge track. That's at least what we call it because it was almost all ice by the time we got there. We flew down this path and could make it about halfway back to my house, and that is real far for this sledding hill.

 Snow angels!

 Katie fell many times, the snow was very icy!

And this is Walter the greatest snowman ever built! Nilla wafers for buttons, oranges for eyes and mouth, ribbon for a sweet bowtie, and wrapping paper for headphones of earwarmers!

Oh and we are glad when the snow storm came and blew out the nasty air that was slowly killing everyone! It is nice to be able to see the mountains again!