So Sweet

So this may not be the most masculine picture of my husband, but it's the best I have right now. lol. First of all he's now 24! So Happy Birthday do him!
Second of all, many of you remember how I said that Chris was reffing soccer. Many of you probably also remember me complaining about how he was gone all the time because of it. If not, just to get you up to speed at the end of the summer Chris started reffing soccer a couple times during the week and 3 or so games on saturdays. He was earning al ittle extra money, so at first I was fine with him being gone that much...but it got old pretty fast. I never get to see him during the week in the first place, so hardly seeing him on saturdays was not my favorite thing. So I'll admit I started giving him a hard time about it. Then in the last month or so school began to get too busy and he couldn't ref very often anymore, which I was fine with.
So the other night we were sitting down going over our finances, and I noticed a new bank account with $500 in it. I asked him what it was for. He said that he had been putting the money he had earned into that bank account and had been planning on using it for my christmas present. *Flashback to a couple months earlier*
It was mid summer, and I decided that I wanted to become a photographer along with being a teacher. The cameras that I was looking at were around $1000. We both decided that the camer would be my only Christmas present for the year.
Chris knew how much I wanted the camera, so he went out and took the reffing classing to get certified and started reffing so that he could get me the camera for Christmas. *Flashback to the present*
As I sat there and he told me that he had started to ref in his free time so that we could afford the camera I was so overcome with emotions. First I was so happy that I had such a sweet husband who would do that for me. Then I remembered how I would always give him a hard time when he would spend his free time reffing. How did such a sweet man get such a crappy wife? (I don't think I'm crappy, but I felt like it at that moment)Isn't it funny that sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our own world that we become oblivious to what other people are doing...even if it's for us?
I just wanted to share this story because I thought it was such a sweet thing he did. Better than flowers or even the camera itself.

*A little side note~I no longer want to be a photographer or want the camera. We've decided to get a present that both of us can use and enjoy for Christmas.

Funny video, and Great Weekend

First of all I have to post this video. This is a great example of how we all felt watching the BYU game this weekend. So Sad. Click on the link http://failblog.org/2008/10/16/log-throwing-fail/ to see the video. It's great for a good laugh. It all happens very quickly so watch closely (oneday I'll figure out how to actually put them on here).

This weekend Chris and I went down to St. George to see Les Mis, and just hang out. It was wonderful. Chris even said he enjoyed Les Mis more than Wicked! I was pretty excited. Maybe one day he'll enjoy going to plays with me, little by little. Our trip was almost canceled because a couple days before we were supposed to leave our arrangements for a place to stay fell through, and because it was UEA everything was booked. Luckily Chris's dad stepped in and found an old condo that we could all stay in. It was fun to hang out with Chris's family for the weekend. Friday was Chris's birthday and we went to Applebee's for dinner. It's always interesting walking in and asking for a table of 9. On Saturday we slept in and went shopping. Linley, whose 6, came with us in our car, and was so excited because she brought her purse and had $1.25 to spend. We went into the first store and she found a small pollypocket with a pink ballgown, high heels, and jewelry for $1.99. She picked it up and refused to put it down. After we had been in the store for a while she took Chris's hand and took him up to the front counter with her. She was ready to buy her new treasure. She set it on the check out counter, and then opened her purse and put about $.15 on the counter, and just stared at the cashier. Chris started laughing, and explained that she was going to need more money to pay for it. So he took her over to a table and helped her count all of her money. She obviously came up short and was so heart broken. So Chris emptied all the pennies from his pocket, and I pulled out $.30 from my wallet and donated to her cause. She picked up the money and laid all the change out in front of the cashier. She was so excited and just kept saying how proud of herself she was for buying something all by herself. It was cute. I bought Chris a sweater he wanted for Christmas (which he decided last night that he can't wait that long because he loves it too much). We also bought a new frying pan (wahoo) and a styrofoam sword. This was Chris's favorite purchase. Laura invited us to Christians 4-year oold pirate birthday party. We saw the swords and thought it would be the perfect present for him. So we spent $6 and bought it, after getting her permission of course.
That night we went to Les Mis. I really enjoyed it, and give it a 9 out of 10. I would have directed a couple things differently, and while the guy who played Jean Val Jean was good and had a nice voice, his voice was too young, and because he was so young they kept this fake beard on him the whole play which never really made him look different from when he was a prisoner. Javert is a pretty bad detective if he didn't recognize him. lol. And Val Jean was a little too nasally...that's probably not even a word...but it's true. Overall I really enjoyed it, and the theater there is beautiful! Sorry I don't have any pictures of the weekend. I forgot to take my camera. Maybe next time.
A little side note* I'm now coming up on week 13, and feeling so much better! I'm not nearly as tired, and I don't feel sick all the time! I love it! All my clothes are starting to get a little tight. I can still wear them but they are just a little uncomfortable. The other thing is that I'm suddenly getting really bad headaches that last for days. I've never had that before. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Real Post

Ok, I know it's been forever since I have posted anything decent. Not that all of my adventures in my technology haven't been fascinating for you all. :)This is a long one, so you may want to sit down for it.
Last week I got to go to my friend Mandy's 6th grade class, and it was a blast! A funny thing happened while I was there though. So Mandy teaches the advanced math class for 6th grade. So for math all of the advanced students come into her class room for over an hour of math. The day I was there they were reviewing for a test. Mandy had all the students get into groups at their tables and told them to pick a team captain. She would write a problem on the board and give them a couple minutes to work as a group and figure it out. The first team captain who stood up would get the points if they answered the question right, but if they got it wrong the points would go to the next team captain who was standing. Mandy would work out the problem on the board and then check the tables answer to make sure it was right. However, not everyone was excited about this review game.
There was one little boy...let's call him Toby...who refused to sit at a table and participate. Mandy kept asking him to join tables one or two, and he just continued to sit on the big bean bag and make comments like "why would I want to be at a table with all girls, or mostly girls. It's a ridiculous choice, and I'm not sitting with either" (Obviously he hasn't figured out that being out numbered by girls is a good thing). Even the other kids in the class were saying "Just come sit down" and "sit with us". To each and every one of the kids he had some rude comment so say back to them. He had pretty good vocabulary of negative words (if I do say so myself) that he would just mumble to himself anytime anybody asked him to do anything. I wish I could remember some of them because it was so hard for me not to laugh. So after multiple attempts by Mandy and the kids to get him to participate Mandy gave him an assignment to work on in the hall. As he was leaving the classroom he said under his breath "I'm going straight to the principal's office to report this!" Unfortunately Mandy didn't hear what he said and continued with the review.
About 10 minutes later an older teacher came in and told Mandy she was needed in the hall. Mandy left the classroom after a hushed discussion with the older teacher and disappeared for 15 minutes or so. This next part is my favorite.
So when the older teacher came in the class had just finished the problem that Mandy had given them, and started to stand up. The class was a little noisy, but not above anything that is unreasonable for group activites like the one they were doing. So this teacher comes in and tells all the kids to sit down, be quiet and get back to what they were supposed to be doing...she didn't know that they already were. So when the kids tried to explain to her taht they were playing a review game, she wouldn't listen and ordered them to be quiet. When she saw that not everybody had out paper and a pencil to do math she started questioning them as to why nobody was working. Finally somebody explained to her that they were supposed to be revewing as groups from the problems on the board. So she went up to the board and wrote a math problem. Then as the tables started to work together to figure it out she said "why are you talking? I shouldn't hear your voices." The student explained again that they were supposed to work together as groups to figure it out. The teacher said "fine, but as long as I don't hear you talking." You should have see the frustration and confusion on the kids faces. I so wanted to jump up and say, I know what they're doing I'll take over...but she scared me, so I didn't. She would solve the problems in the most confusing way i've ever seen, and then award points to the team who got it wrong. Needless to say when Mandy finally came back the kids were all in an annoyed mood. lol.
You thought it was over but there's more. Oh yes. So Mandy came back in followed soon after by a rather cheerful Toby. While the advanced class was leaving she came and told me what had happened when Toby went to the principal. When Toby went to the principal's office he announced that his teacher was disrespecting him. His principal sent him back to Mandy. Toby sat down in the hallway outside of Mandy's class and started bawling. Mandy went out to talk to him and he started yelling at her saying "Teacher's will be the death of me!" Pretty dramatic. He proceeded to tell Mandy all that was wrong with the world and continued yelling at her. She got a little queezy and sat down on the floor next to him. When she did this he yelled at her saying "why are you sitting down?" lol. She asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted to be homeschooled. She said that she was sure he didn't want her to home school him and it was something she couldn't help him with. So she asked him again, what can I do to help you? He told her that she didn't need to stand up in front of the class to teach. That she should just give an assignment and sit down. He told her that because she didn't grade the reveiw games she shouldn't do them, and that she should just homework and assignments that can be graded. She explained that there were 31 other kids in the class who wanted to play the review game, so that's how she was going to do it, but she could give him assignments to work on individually if he really wanted. He agreed, and they both came back to class where he proceeded not to do his assignment but walk around the classroom making cheerful comments.
Little side note* Apparently that morning after the principal told him twice to not ride his bike on school grounds he said "Principal's are going to send me to my grave."
So I know I'm going to sound crazy, but all of this makes me so excited to be a teacher!

Power Point and 6th Grade

This last week I got to spend some time in my friend Mandy's 6th grade class. It was a blast and made me so excited to teach. The kids were so fun and so smart it was a blast. There was one interesting experience that I will have to post later this week.
One thing Mandy did was she had taught the kids how to use Power point, and then we went to the computer lab where each of the kids got into groups. They were assigned a topic about Ancient Greece and then instructed to make their own power point presentations. At the end of the week they were to present their power point to the rest of the class and teach what they learned.
I loved the idea of having the kids create their own power points and then use them to teach each other about a specific topic. It's a great way to get the kids excited about what their learning. I had a couple of the kids who asked me questions about creating the power point, and because I am not very experienced with Power point, I couldn't help them. I felt pretty dumb.
Luckily, I learned how to use Power point in my tech class this week, and I've been playing with it in my spare time. I learned how to make the picture go to the background (maybe it sounds dumb for you, but it was an exciting moment for me), I learned how to add sounds, video clips, change what happens when you move from slide to slide, change the color of the slide, add graphs and charts, and personalize the Power point. I'm still not a pro at it, but I know a lot more about power point now than I did a week ago.
I am so excited to be able to use this for my future classes. For the younger classes I could use it as part of my teaching, and for the older classes I could start teaching them about how to use it, and have them create some power points of their own. What an amazing age we live in!