Crazy Couple of Weeks

So here's a quick update:
Chris dislocated his shoulder playing football with his Elders Quorum. It was a couple weeks ago. He left at 9:30am Saturday morning and burst through the door around 10 calling for help. At first I thought he was joking, but after I saw the look on his face I could tell he was in a lot of pain. He said that he thought he dislocated his shoulder but that the guys popped it back in and that he just needed some ice. He tried to get comfortable while I got him some ice, and said he didn't need to go to the doctor. I gave him some IBprofin, and began to hold the ice on his shoulder, but I could tell it wasn't going to help. So I told him that we needed to go to the doctor. He agreed, which was a sign of how much pain he was in. So I called my mom to ask her if I should go to the instacare or the emergency room, and we decided that the instacare would be a little cheaper...and if they couldn't help then they would send us to the hospital. While I was talking to my mom, I could hear Chris moaning in pain, and yelling "hurry, please." Unfortunately the closest instacare that I knew of was down in Lindon. So we got in the car and started driving. Of course we were cut off by just about every slow driver in the world, which did not help Chris calm down. He was sobbing, which I have never seen him do. In the 6 years I've known him I have never seen him shed more than a tear. His body started shaking and I was afraid he was going into shock. I felt so bad for him and was so frustrated that there was really nothing I could do to help. Now a little side note, when I'm in stressful situtations where somebody has been injured my defense mechanism is to laugh. It's horrible I know. But I literally can't help it. So there we are my husband is sobbing and shaking with pain, and I'm trying not to laugh...that didn't help him feel better at all, and it made me feel worse, which made me have to try harder not to laugh or smile at all. Anyway, so we finally get to the instacare, and we walk inside. The women at the desk can tell he's in a lot of pain and check with the doctor to see if we need to go to the emergency room. The doctor says that he can help us, and while Chris is just trying to stay concious in the corner, I begin to fill out the paperwork. Then I see where the form asks for the patients signature. I ask the woman if I can sign it for Chris, and she says that at the emergency I would be able to, but at here they can't touch him until they have his signature. So I turn to Chris and tell him he needs to sign. He just looked at me and the other women like "What the heck! Can't you see I'm in Pain?" So with his left hand he just drew a line on the signature line. The woman said that wasn't good enough. He was not happy about this, and scribbled something on the paper which was going to be the most we could get out of him. I forged the other signature, and finished the paper work. We then had to wait for 20 minutes for the doctor in the lobby. Finally we got to a room, a nurse cam in and gave him a few shots, they took some x-rays, and after about an hour of being there they began to try to get his arm back in the socket. It took two grown men pulling on his arm for an hour as hard as they could to get the bone back in the right place. Everybody was so relieved that went back in especially Chris. They gave him some really strong medication and put his arm in a sling and sent us on our way. As we were leaving Chris told me that he just wanted to go home and take a nap before his soccer game later that night. Obviously he was delusional. There was no way that I was going to let him play. I just figured that the morphine they gave him was still in full effect. We picked up his medication, and went home. They told him to only take the medication at night because it was so easy to get addicted to it so once the morphine wore off he realized he wasn't going to be playing soccer anytime soon.
His arm has improved a lot, and physical therapy has been helping him, but he still doesn't have a lot of movement, and it's still really weak. Because it was his right arm, I've been having to do a little extra work around the house which has made life very busy for me. But I'm just glad that he doesn't need surgery or anything.
In other news, we have our appointment on the 19th and we'll finally find out what we're having! I'm so excited I can hardly wait!
Thanksgiving was great, we had great food, and I made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. I was so proud. My cousin Christy brought a guy who she's been dating and I'm pretty sure they're going to get married. Chris said that he is about as Rowe as you can possibly be without actually being a Rowe. For those of you who know my mom's side of the family you know what he means.
This week has been absolutely wonderful and relaxing, and we are not looking forward to going back to work and school on Monday.

You're getting a pouch....

So I never thought it was a big deal when girls said they didn't know how to react when somebody would say that they were starting to look pregnant, or getting a little "pouch"...until yesterday.
I was talking with a couple people at work and one of them reached over and patted my stomach and said "you're starting to look pregnant, that baby must be growing!" then another person chimed in and said "Yeah, I noticed the other day that you're getting a little pouch."
I just smiled graciously and said Yup. :) Inside I was experiencing for the first time what these other women are talking about when they bring this up. Now I know it's not a big deal, part of me is glad that I'm kind of starting to show...even if it's only a little bit. But the other part of me is having a little bit of a hard time with it. In my head I know that the baby really isn't that big yet, and though my clothes are a little tight, I didn't think I had a pouch yet...and when they rub my stomach, they're really just rubbing my fat. Disturbing, I know.
So I just wanted to let you all know that I finally understand what you're talking about and I can finally say I know how you feel. I mostly just feel fatter right now, but I'm looking forward to getting to the point where I actually look pregnant, and when people touch my stomach they're touching a baby...not my fat. :)

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!

Reflection-Internet Safety

This week has been insane, and stressful. That's life sometimes and you just have to roll with the punches.

This week we learned a lot about internet safety and how to evaluate a website. Since the internet is here to stay it is very important to make sure that we as teachers help the kids in our classes understand the dangers of the internet, and how to use it wisely. That's right. The internet is not going anywhere, and we need to use it in our teaching. Not only is it a wonderful tool for us as teachers, it can be a great enhancement to the classroom, and your students education. With kids as young as 3 learning how to use the computer now days, we have a responsibility to help our kids understand how to use it as a powerful tool, but how to be smart and safe while using it. Teach them not to open emails from people they don't know. Explain to them the dangers of giving out personal information online, and give them rules about when they can use the computer and where they can use it.

One important part of teaching our kids how to use the internet is teaching them how to evaluate the websites they use. They need to know that not every website contains accurate information. They should be able to ask themselves some key questions to find out if the website is a good website to use as a resource. Some examples of questions are:

* What are the resources this author/website uses to back up the material?
* When was the information on this website last updated?
* What kind of domain does it have? (.edu, .org, etc.)

By teaching them some internet basics they will have a better knowledge of how to safely use it for the rest of their lives.I have found some really great websites that help teach kids about internet safety through games and videos made specifically for them. If you want to check them out go to my uen site (link in post below) and click on Internet Education. They are listed under my bookmarks. :)

Proud to Introduce....

Baby Adams. He/She is 9 weeks old, and apparently likes to do the jig. When he/she first popped up on the screen he/she was dancing around. The doctor said it looked like the jog. lol. It was so fun to see the baby moving around, but even better to see the heartbeat. It's been an interesting pregnancy so far. Competely different than my last one. I don't get morning sickness...I get all day sickness. And sometimes I don't even have the energy to lift my arm. But I have to keep telling myself that it's good to be sick and tired. I'd rather deal with it then have it suddenly dissappear. It's been hard for me to not worry...but it's getting better with every week that goes by. I'll be honest, it took me a few weeks to get even a little attached, but now I am.

As most of you already know, we bought a baby crib. Ironically the smell of it makes me completely sick. I don't know why. So for weeks I haven't been able to go into the second bedroom. I bought a air freshener plug in and that has seemed to mask the smell of the wood enough I can go into the room without holding my breath. Anyway. We are thrilled, and even though we're not quite out of the woods as far as miscarraige goes, we feel really good about everything. OH and the doctor forgot to tell us the due date...but I'm guessing it's at the end of April, beginning of May.
(This next part not for the weak of stomach)
Oh on a side note, after my appointment today I went to AF hospital for lab tests and blood work. It was a super fun experience. Since high school they never seem to be able to find any working veins (it's a wonder i'm still alive). I warned the nurse of my vein problem and she did what all the other nurses do, she said "I'm sure it will be fine." I just looked at her and smiled...I knew what was coming. I've seen it a million times. So she spent 10 minutes looking for a vein, and finally decided on one in my right arm. She put the needle in, and started moving it around. She finally got it into my vein, but no blood was coming, and it kept slipping out...and then my arem started turning blue. My vein blew. So she wrapped my arm and apologized, and ran to get a smaller needle. So she starts feeling around my left arm for a second vein. The only one she can find is pretty deep, but she decides to go for it. So she sticks the needle in and moves it around a little, and the tiniest drop of blood came out. We both looked at the "gushing" blood, then at the 7 tubes I had to fill up. We knew at this rate we'd be here all day. After 10 minutes I hadn't even filled up an 8th of the tube when suddenly the blood stopped coming. Vein number 2 blew. The nurse was astonished and said she had used a pediatric needle so it should have been fine. I just sat there and told her that it happens to me alot. She wrapped that arm, and went to go get the nurse in charge. The nurse came and decided that she didn't want to try anymore veins from my arm, and after examining me for a couple minutes decided to try the vein on the back of my hand. If you've never had to have blood pulled from that vein let me tell you...not pleasant. Anyway so they start dumping all the blood into a big tube so that they could just divide it into the smaller tubes later. While they were draining my of my blood supply I suddenly felt really nauseas. The nurse looked at me and said "are you breathing?" I realized I hadn't been, so I told her I forgot because I was trying not to throw up. She told me to take deep breaths and got one of the other nurses to bring me some ice water (best water I've ever had by the way)and a lollipop. So while they finished I drank the water which helped, and watched as they wrapped my hand in that medical tape. They made me sit for a minute and eat the sucker and drink my water before they let me go, which I was grateful for. So there I am, two blown veins, both my arms and one of my hand covered in florecent orange pumpking medical tape eating a sucker. I suddenly felt like a little kid. lol. Luckily the room stopped spinning and I made it to work ok, and will only look like I've been beaten for a week or so. lol. The joys of being pregnant. Wouldn't trade them for the world.

My UEN!

http://my.uen.org/myuen/212976 ~There it is, my website for my future class. So copy and paste this link if you want to check it out!

UEN Reflection:

I’m really excited about my uen site! I think it’s a great way to keep myself organized. I really like how there is a public site and there I have my own personal site. I’m excited about the calendar on the public site so that the kids and their parents can see what’s due that week, and activities and class events that are coming up.
I’m absolutely thrilled about the Pioneer Online Library. What an amazing resource to have as a teacher. Just by logging in to the Pioneer site, you have access to state curriculum, local and world news, journals and data bases, as well as some great search engines and lesson plans with neat information about kids. You can also find media that will work for you lessons. I am really hoping for the opportunity to teach in a Spanish immersion program, so I was really excited at the Spanish resources available through the Pioneer online library. Through UEN you can also find really neat interactives that you can have your kids play. Under the 5th grade core curriculum, which you can view through UEN, I found out that in 5th grade they focus alot on emotional and physical health. One unit teaches about good and bad nutrition and how excercise can play a big rold in overall health. I found a really neat game that helps teach these concepts in a fun way.
I was also really excited about some of the lesson plans offered. I searched for a 5th grade lesson plan about health and found one that teaches kids how to have a good self esteem. This lesson plan also included ideas for activities, and a worksheet the kids can do. What an amazing resource to have!
I had a lot of fun playing with the Culture Grams. I think you could divide the kids into groups, have them pick a country in the world and create a presentation with basic information about the country, fun facts, and pictures. It’s also got a great feature that teaches the kids how to pronounce certain words and phrases in the country’s language.
I also really like that I can post links on my bookmarks for the public page. From there I can post links that might be helpful to parents. By creating current curriculum resources you can create lesson plans, find worksheets to use, and activities to play with the kids. I created a curriculum for 5th grade language arts, and was able to find a worksheet called Eye Spy a Pattern which helps teach students how patterns and things work together. I also really liked the idea they had about creating candy boxes to help kids learn about volume and dimensions. My UEN is full of great tools and resources that will really help me to be creative and come up with fun ways to teach my students core curriculum.

It's Alive!

What's alive you ask? Well, my dream of creating a website! That's right. This week in my class I learned how to create a website. On Tuesday we used the free google sites to create a pretty basic website. It was a good starter tool. Anybody can do it and it really doesn't take long. I love the idea of having a class website, but there is another website creator that is even cooler. It's my.uen.com here you can create your own website, but it includes a lot of pretty cool tools. It's got a calendar which I love. You can add dates when things are due, post reading and other assignments, or even just post what you plan to cover for that week. I think it's a great way for parents who are wanting to be involved, and make sure their kids stay on top of things to see clearly what they need to help their kids with. When I was in school my mom was always having to call our teachers and make sure that we were caught up and not missing anything. I think it will help the parents save time and even better, it will help me save time. If I were a parent I would love to just jump online and see what my child was learning and what he needed to turn in that week.
Another thing that is cool about this website, is that it offers a public and a private site. So the public site is for the parents and the kids, but the private portion of the site has so many neat tools. It's got a tool to help with lesson planning, and tools that connect you to libraries and online resources for your lessons. Pretty much any online document, journal or resource from U of U, BYU, etc. is available on this website. They've got a special library section for kids and teachers. It's amazing!
We're going to spend more time during the semester learning more about the how to build our website. I'm really excited to continue learning about building a website. I think it's going to be a great tool to help me connect with the parents and kids. I'll post the links later so that you can see them if you'd like. :)