The Happiest Place on Earth

Last weekend I got to go to DISNEYWORLD with my parents and little brother. Oh so much fun! It truly is the happiest place on earth. :) Here's a little picture diary of our jam packed weekend!

SATURDAY
Animal Kingdom

Finding Nemo Show

The Lion King Show

Silly Pictures

Bird Show


Magic Kingdom

Country Bear Jamboree

The Castle

SOME of Disney's Electrical Parade


SUNDAY
Ormond Beach

Rowley's!


MONDAY
Disney Studios

Toy Story Mania

Beauty and the Beast Show

Rockin' Roller Coaster

Indiana Jones Show

A Spectacular Journey into the Movie


Epcot (at this point I was tired of taking pictures...)

Some of the Countries


TUESDAY
Downtown Disney


PHEW!!! After a jam packed 5 days (including travel), I realized how grateful I am for fun places in this world to relax and be renewed. I am also grateful for a family who invited me along on this fun trip!!

Roommates

I have always been very blessed with amazing roommates. I have learned so much from each and every one I have had and consider myself so lucky for that. My roommates now, Ash and Deb, are continually a support and strength to me. These girls are rocks and I look up to them in so many ways! The three of us are all VERY different but we get along so well. Here's us at Deb's opening show this week. (She did amazing. And Ash was my moral support as I drove to Salt Lake in the snowy storm.)
Ash and Deb, I'm grateful for you!

Teacher Appreciation Day 2

Today was bring your teacher's favorite treat. Well, I only told a few kids what my actual favorite treat was. I felt really weird announcing to the class what I liked and then telling them to bring it to me. Plus, I forgot it was today. Needless to say, I got lots of goodies! Plus the PTA provided us with Costco muffins and juice this morning. I took my cup of Vitamin C to try to make me healthy again and saved my muffin for breakfast tomorrow. Here's what I ended up with:
Gotta love the creativity of some parents!

Even though I had one student strangle another student today, I'm still grateful for a job. :) Plus I had choir before and after school today...they started learning "dance moves" to one of the songs. I can't even begin to describe how entertaining it is to watch 4th, 5th, and 6th graders try to dance. Love it!

Teacher Appreciation

The PTA decided that this year teachers needed a little "pick me up" in February instead of May. I think it's the greatest idea ever! With parent/teacher conferences, so many inside recesses, report cards, winter weather woes, we really need to be reminded that we are appreciated.

One of the traditions is to decorate your teachers door. Here is what my room mom did:
I think it's so cute!!

The PTA has really gone above and beyond this year. We have treats every day (today was homemade soft pretzels...YUM!!) and the teacher's lounge is decorated SO cute. They came around today with a bag of books. These are books I had picked out from the book fair last week but didn't get.

I really do love being a teacher. Plus today I had 7 kids absent...which meant I had 23 students. Let me tell you how ideal that number is. :) But I love all 30 of my little ones!

Tears

I am grateful for tears. Not these kind of tears...
And not these kind of tears...
Let me explain...

My family is blessed (or is it cursed) with crying when we laugh. People really know that we're laughing hard when tears start pouring out.

I was in the middle of correcting the daily language review with my class today when a student let out a squeal. It was a mix between a squeal and a scream. A high-pitched one. This student is a boy. I looked over at him and he gasped and covered his mouth. I don't think he meant to scream. It caught me off guard and his face just looked so cute--I couldn't help but laugh. And then he started laughing and I laughed even more. I just completely lost it in front of my class and the tears started coming. So much that I couldn't even read the paper we were correcting.

It's times like this when I remember that teaching can be fun. Sometimes I put too much pressure on my students and on myself and it's not enjoyable anymore. I was reminded today that tears CAN be okay in my classroom. Tears of joy and tears of laughter. When those kinds of tears come, my students can see me as a real person and I can see my students as young kids, which is what they are. I'm grateful for tears. :)

Musicals

I love musicals. I always have. My parents were kind enough to allow us to enjoy the arts growing up. I remember going to musicals at the local dinner theater, Toby's. Then when we moved to Arizona we found Broadway Palm that's also a dinner theater. Since being in Utah (and having an amazing roommate who happened to be a music, dance, theater major) I have seen even more plays. Some at BYU, some at the Orem Hale, some at the West Valley Hale, wherever they may be, I love them! I usually tear up at least once in each play. Music is such a powerful thing. It can reach down and hit ya when you aren't looking.

My roommates and I went to see "Peter Pan" at BYU a few weeks ago. It was so fun seeing a musical with Deb. I realized that I've always gone to musicals to see Deb perform...but have never seen a show WITH her. She's adorable to watch while she's watching the show. :) Ever since then, sometimes we break out in Peter Pan songs (not like we never break out into song...our neighbor friends laugh at us because it happens quite often when they visit).

When I was home for Christmas, we took a girls night out to see "Annie." Watching (and listening to) Adeline see her very first live musical was the greatest. She was trying so hard to follow the plot and kept asking where Annie was going or what the mean lady was doing. It was neat to see Adeline catch the magic of theater. :)



I'm grateful for a family and friends who enjoy my love of musicals as much as me.