The Tale of the Pencil Sharpener.

Our class electric pencil sharpener decided to die a few weeks ago. It was no problem, because I have a smaller electric pencil sharpener that I brought in to tide us over until I figured out what was wrong with the real one. That is, until our back up one decided to die yesterday. 

Teaching with no pencil sharpener proved to be no bueno, so I brought home the first pencil sharpener to see if by some chance Daniel could fix it. It took him about 30 minutes to take the entire thing apart, get it working, and put it back together again. 

Would you like to know what was wrong with it?

There were four (yes, four) paperclips inside it. FOUR of them. And also a wad of paper, and part of the lid of a pen for good measure. All of that somehow jammed into a poor, defenseless pencil sharpener. 

So, class began today with Mrs. Sorensen holding up a plastic bag filled with the evidence. This was followed by a little lecture about why the pencil sharpener would be making its new home right in the middle of my desk from here on out. 

I brought my other sharpener home today to see if Daniel can fix it too. I can't say I'm not  a little concerned about what we might find when we take that one apart. 

Bets, anyone?

a story for your thursday.

Embarrassingly enough, that would be my desk at School. UEA weekend couldn't have come at a better time, right? I'm super behind with grading planning organizing cleaning laundry dishes general life, and I woke up with a bit of a cold today (sad face). Take this story that Daniel told me yesterday as further evidence that I seriously needed a break from school:

The other night, I went to bed a little before Daniel did. These days I tend to fall fast asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, so I was already fast asleep by the time Daniel came in to get ready for bed. I remember none of this, but according to him, I said his name a few times so he came over to the bed. Then I launched into a mini-monologue about how I had explained a story problem to him, and he just needed to do it. I had already told him how, so why hadn't he done it yet? Daniel was trying really hard not to laugh at me, but apparently I was talking with my hands and basically giving him a lecture as if he were one of my students. Finally, he gave up trying to reason with me and told me that I was still sleeping. I guess I was in a compliant mood, because I simply sighed and said "Okay," rolled over, and fell asleep again.

We both got a pretty good laugh out of it, especially because talking in my sleep isn't one of my normal characteristics. Conclusion? We think teaching school is slowly making me crazy. Either way, I'm planning on relaxing this weekend. I see a lot of movies on the couch with blankets and  hot apple cider, long walks outside, and a possible trip to the pumpkin patch. 

Happy weekend!

Life & teaching & stuff.

Photo from our two-year anniversary (!) which we celebrated this past August.

Just wanted to post a quick update on our lives over here. It's been pretty quiet on the blog lately, but our lives have been quite the opposite! Between teaching full time for me, and the work/school mix for Daniel, we don't have a lot of free time. However, can I just say how amazing it has been for me not to be a student for once? I can't say that I miss it.

When people ask me how teaching is going, the short answer is that it's going great, but it's a lot of work. The long answer is: I absolutely love my students, and I have a blast at work (almost) every single day! Being a teacher is the single most rewarding thing I've ever done. But grading papers, long days at the school, e-mails to parents, working with struggling students, and planning double the lessons for my split class has been absolutely exhausting. I constantly feel behind no matter what I do to try and catch up. There are even times I have a nagging feeling that I'm not doing this whole thing right and my students aren't going to learn anything. I've had to take a step back and remind myself that it's my first year, I have a split class, and I'm doing the very best I can.

I was talking to Daniel last night, and I realized that teaching is probably the most stressful job ever for my borderline control-freak/perfectionist personality. My goal is for all of my students to learn and be successful, but there is only so much I can do before it is up to them to listen, and put in the work themselves. Teaching has really forced me to take a "chill pill" when it comes to every little thing being perfect. I have learned that in some situations, that is just never going to happen. I am just grateful that I am not drowning this year. In fact, I'm far from it!

As far as our lives go, if you were to ask Instagram, this is what we have been up to lately:

 Cheering on our Utes!

 Getting our culture on and visiting the new Museum of Natural History. 

Which we highly recommend, by the way.

 Crazy hair day (that I wore out to dinner and a movie afterward), 

and the shirt that my students have named "The Owl Shirt."

Turning garden tomatoes into homemade salsa with my mom, as is our yearly tradition.

 My owl bulletin board, and the sentence that made us laugh out loud for hours.

(Those things make grading papers infinitely more entertaining.)

Our trip to the State Fair, and the creatures that are living in my classroom this Halloween.

(From left to right, a bat, a crawfish, and an octopus preserved in formaldehyde.)

Thanks for reading!

Events of the day.

Sorry guys! I have been seriously neglecting the blog as of late. Here is my list of excuses for why I haven't been able to blog:

1. I was busy trying to graduate from college. (Don't worry, I succeeded.)

2. I was busy trying to find a teaching job. (Don't worry, I also succeeded!)

3. I was busy laying on the beach in California.

4. I was busy riding all the rides and eating all the churros at Disneyland.

4. I was busy trying to figure out how to move my entire life from my old computer (RIP) to my new one! (I just barely succeeded on that one today.)

So, yeah. Expect some "flashback" posts in the next little while - I have a lot of catching up to do! Today, however is not a flashback. These are all events that happened today.

Event 1: The Carpet Cleaning Guy

First of all, I've been spending a lot of time lately setting up my classroom (!) and organizing all of my teaching materials for the upcoming year. In case you missed it on Facebook, I accepted a teaching position at Mill Creek Elementary in Granite District. I'll be teaching 4th and 5th grade this year, and I am beyond excited! 

Back to setting up my classroom. There were a bunch of people there today moving furniture out of the classrooms so the carpets could be cleaned. I was in my room, working hard trying to get everything put away so they could clean the carpets when one of the carpet cleaning guys poked his head into my room. He looked around for a minute, and then asked: "Hey, do you know if the teacher for this room is here?"

........um.

That is not a joke. He actually asked me that. I was speechless for several seconds before I put my little hand up and said "Um...that would be me." The poor guy felt bad and pretended like he knew the whole time, but we all know what really happened. Perhaps I need to get out my fake glasses again and start dressing more like an adult when I go in to clean out my classroom. Or perhaps it will just take me a couple of years to start looking (and let's be honest, feeling) like I'm actually qualified to do this job.

Event 2: That time I dragged my sister Allison on a 4 hour drive for milk.

Later, I got home and decided I was absolutely, positively craving these little flavored milk cartons that you can only get from one place - Gossner's Dairy in Logan. I first discovered them when Daniel's mom gave me one up at the cabin, and the addiction was finalized when we went to see the Elk at Hardware Ranch and stopped at Gossner's on the way down. I discovered that they sold the things in cases, and they came in more flavors that I ever imagined. I got a case of the chocolate ones (still my favorite to this day) and bought one of every other flavor to sample. My second favorite is the banana, third is the vanilla, and fourth is the orange cream. The root beer one is not legit.

But today, we were out of them. And I wanted them. Bad enough to drive nearly 2 hours up to Logan just to get them, and then drive the 2 hours back in the same day. So I did the only logical thing I could think of - I packed some car snacks and kidnapped my little sister to show her the beauty that is Gossner's Dairy in Logan.

We had a blast driving up there - the scenery was beautiful, and we got to hang out and catch up on each other's lives. Once we got there, we sampled everything we could and left with cases upon cases of the tasty flavored milk. We also bought some squeaky cheese, and got Gossner's ice cream cones for good measure. I had the best strawberry-banana cone of my life, and Allison went for the dreamy chocolate-marshmallow flavor.

Then, we turned around and drove home. All in a day's work.

Event 3: We are at the cabin!

That's right. After I drove the 4 hours to Logan and back, I packed my things got back in the car for another hour drive up to the cabin. Daniel and I are up here for the weekend with his sister Emily, and we are going fishing tomorrow! If you consider our last two fishing trips, I should hopefully have some stories to share.

Here's to an adventure-filled summer, and some more consistent blogging in the future!

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