Quick Update. . .

Sorry Bloggies. . . but as you can probably imagine, life has been up in a whirlwind. Sorry for the long wait on the anticipated first-week of school post.

First week of school has been . . . . a learning experience. I've loved it, I've hated it, I've rocked it, I've terrible failed, . . . . I am . . . a first year teacher. This last week I have come home on top of the world, and in the bottom of the deepest pits. I have a LOT to learn, but I KNOW it will still be a good experience because I am determined to make it one.

Last week I went to the temple after coming from a rough day at school and I was sitting there thinking about my students. As I sat there, I developed the deepest love for each one of them. I want each of them to succeed, to know they are loved, and know how rise above the pits of life. After a day where I thought it was all over. . . . I gained an eternal perspective. . . the view of why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place . . to change lives. It has been a humbling week to say the least.

I live at the school. I am usually one of the last ones to leave. . . not really out of necessity, but more out of paranoia. I want to be prepared. . . so I don't leave until I feel that I am. The initial set-up of things has taken me a while (grade book, seating charts, getting a "system", copies, etc.) and that is what eats up my time the most. Now that I am getting on top of those things, I plan on leaving school BEFORE dinner time, rather than after it.

I do love teaching and I do love my job. I work at a great school with some of the greatest educators. The sweetest experiences I have had so far are talking with teachers that I had 6+ years ago, and continuing to learn from them in just a different setting. They are still my teachers, and I am grateful for their willingness to look out for me and help me out. Those teachers got me through those difficult Jr. High Years, and here they are, helping me get through my first year of teaching. What a blessing to have them around me!

On a side note, my dear sweet sister started high school this week. It has been surreal thinking she is old enough to be in high school. From what I hear it has been going quite well, and she LOVES her ballroom team. Even just this week, I have noticed how she has grown-up and risen to the expectations that have been placed on her. She is in honors English and is extremely excited since she wants to be a writer. She will do great this year and I am excited to hear all of her high school adventures.

That is pretty much all I have time to post for now. My bed time is now 9:30 and I wake up at 5:00. Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers. I can't even tell you how grateful I have been to know people are praying in my behalf this past week. I have needed it SO badly. Life is great! I am enjoying this growing process, despite how painful it can be at times. I have a lot to learn, but I also have a lot to gain. I survived the first week! Now I just need to take it one day at a time. . . . baby steps . . . .

I am SO feeling like a Greenie!

This past week has been SO crazy! I have gone to SO many meetings and learned so much that I feel like this week has been a month long. Every day I would come home and think, "Was that meeting last week or was it really this morning?". It has been good, and I am adjusting, but oh my goodness . . HUGE learning curve!

This past week I seriously have felt like the BIGGEST dork as I learn the ways of being a teacher. Just a few examples, this week I:

• Showed up for a meeting that didn't exist.
• Showed up for a meeting at 7:30 am that I didn't need to attend.
• Accidentally copied my 2 page disclosure documents double sided-. . . .no sure how the "cut off this portion here and return" is going to work seeing as it cuts off mid sentence from the front page. Oops!
• Have had to ask a million questions.
• Wore dress pants to a casual event . . . yes . . everyone was wearing jeans.
• After hunting for a book I needed the first day and never finding it, tomorrow I am going to be driving to SLC . . . for a book. . . lame sauce. 
• Haven't slept much.
• Have knots in my back and shoulders the size of the Tetons from stress
• Spent $40 on a poster that I found out could have cost me $20 at another educational store. 

Yes. . . . I love being a new teacher. Tomorrow is 7th grade day but thankfully, I don't have to teach any 7th graders which gives me yet another day to gather my materials and thoughts.

We had back-to-school night this week. It was SO surreal. The whole night I wondered, "How am I coming across to them?". Well, at one point I talked to a student. He left and stood in the hall at which point I heard him say, "I like her. She's nice!". . . . whew. . . . I'm doing okay. Seriously, when I heard that it MADE. MY. NIGHT. 

This weekend I was in needed of some SERIOUS R&R. Austin's family was in town so we had an AWESOME meal at "The Slab" here in Provo. If you want some AMAZING pizza . . . go to the "Slab". Then we hopped over to our favorite frozen yogurt place, "Spoon it Up!". When Austin and I aren't at "The Chocolate", we are at "Spoon it up!". THEN, we all went and saw a show at "Comedy Sportz". It is an improvisation comedy show that keeps things clean and family oriented. We LOVED it! It was JUST what I needed  after such a stressful week. 

The next day, the whole Somers' gang went to the temple and did all of the temple work for Grandpa Castle. It was a neat experience and we enjoyed the special time together. It made me so grateful for what I believe. Our Heavenly Father truly does love his children and gives them every single opportunity to turn to Him. If you aren't familiar with what happens inside temples, or want to learn about temple work for the dead, try watching this.  

Saturday night, Austin and I went up to Sundance for a BBQ and play. We saw "The Sound of Music" in their amphitheater in the mountains. It was wonderful and we REALLY enjoyed it! 

At Sound of Music

I think my to-do list is a mile long for tomorrow, BUT . .  I am determined to plow through it. Austin keeps reminding me, "You are only a first-year teacher once." Which is comforting to some bizarre extent. I am determined to make this year awesome. . . even if it is harder than hard, even if I want to give up at times, even if the stress of preparation and planning reaches my eyeballs. . . it will. be. a. good. year. I might need you all to remind me of that, I'm sure. ; ) 

Just a side note: I won't be putting links to my blog on my facebook page anymore-- just to create more privacy in case a student stumbles on my facebook page. . SO if you read my blog from facebook . . . become a follower on the side and you can see when I update it. . . okay? Or just check back often. 

Traditions

In a lot of my family classes at BYU, they talked a lot about the importance of traditions in families. They are what make certain holidays meaningful, they are what produce warm memories, and help make life feel full. The scriptures even talk a lot about traditions and the importance of keeping righteous traditions and not following wicked traditions. 

I love traditions because they are a part of me. I have such wonderful memories of camping at Lake Powell, going to Grandma & Grandpa's for Christmas, driving the golf cart to feed ducks & the man-eating geese in Arizona, etc. Some of those traditions are done now. . . some of them are kept. 

A tradition that our family started a few years ago was to go to Jordanelle Reservoir every summer and rent a jet ski for a day. Then we would go to the outlets at Park City and go school shopping. Last year was our first year going without our Mama. Like I said in my last post, I am so grateful for my Dad who does his best to carry out traditions like these. This was our 4th or 5th year going and we had a blast! We had perfect weather, perfect water (slightly wavy but not crazy), and it wasn't too crowded. We thoroughly loved every bit of it!

We loved sitting around the campfire, making smores, and playing games. We have this game called "Sequence" that we keep in our camper so we can ONLY play it when we go camping. We kind of OD on it when we go camping. I think we played 20+ rounds of it. It is a fun game! 

One night while we were roasting smores, Dad spotted the BIGGEST caterpiller I have EVERY seen in my entire life! It was HUGE! Austin picked it up with his flip-flop and it started doing something to it because it would NOT come off! We still have yet to figure out what it was. . . it will probably turn into a giant moth. 

We had a great time and we are so excited for next year! It is hard to believe it is over already! I think our family bottles up all of our craziness and then just lets it loose on the jet ski. So we will try and contain it for another year. . . 

On a side note: During the summer, I have seen a butterfly on EVERY outing. Perhaps it was because I notice them more and think of my mom, but I can't help but think it is her way of saying to us that she is still there. We even saw one flying away across the lake while we were on the jet ski! 

Summer Time is coming to an End!

This past month I have not been working or going to school. I quite literally sat on my bum all day and wrote lesson plans. I am SO grateful I did because after talking to some of the new teachers at my meeting this week, some of them haven't even thought about their first two weeks! I think my stress will be MUCH lower because of all of the time I dedicated to preparing. HOWEVER. . . it kind of makes for a boring summer . . . relaxing . . but a tad drab. All of a sudden my life is picking up into a whirlwind with meetings, last minute summer events, and other activities. After a month of being a bum. . . it's hard to get back into things, but I am excited to get working and feeling more productive. 

One of these events that we attended last week was a pageant at our city cemetery that Becca was in. She did such a great job and looked great!

Last weekend we went on a camping trip with 3 other couples in our ward up by Payson Lakes. We had SO much fun! We all made tin foil dinners, roasted marshmallows for smores, stuffed ourselves silly with cobbler, and then played games and laughing till our guts hurt.

Sorry, this is the only picture I got . . . lame, right?

Our beautiful cobbler

In the morning we had a breakfast FEAST with pancakes, fruit, bacon, eggs . . oh my goodness it was good! We packed up and decided to check out the lakes which were beautiful! We had SO much fun. We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends! 

Last weekend was ALSO my Daddy's birthday!! He is _____ years old! Can you believe it! : ) I make it a point to always make sure that he knows how old he is by pointing a new way he has aged every time I see him (more gray hairs, wrinkles, etc.). It is in my contract as his daughter. Seriously though, I am so grateful for my dad. He has felt the loss of my Mom the most obviously. A lot of responsibility has been placed on his shoulders and his plate is often very full. Despite how hard it is, he continues to press forward and just take one day at a time and do his best. He often takes Austin, Becca, and I out to dinner. He also had done his best to preserve family traditions like our annual Jordanelle Camping/Jet Ski trip. I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished despite life being difficult. I love him, quirks and all! Becca and I are seriously so lucky to have grown-up with such a wonderful dad. 

Dad's Favorite cake ever. . . . Red Velvet

Happy Birthday!!!

Last story for the day. . . last night Austin and I were eating dinner. All of a sudden Austin was like, "Do you know what sounds WAY good right now?"

"What?"
"Bagels with cream cheese"
"OOOOOO that does sound WAY good! Let's to get some!"
"No, we can't."
"Why?"

I spent the next 5 mins. convincing him that we should. . . and so at 8:30 pm last night, we went to Smiths and grabbed bagels and cream cheese. Delish!

Please tell me we are not the only ones who do this? 

Starting off on the Right Foot

This week I have mostly been finishing up lesson plans (light at the end of the tunnel!) hanging out with friends, and running errands like crazy! This week I also squeezed in some time to FINALLY go visit my classroom. Last year when I visited, I found things pretty orderly, so I didn't worry about it too much. However, when I arrived, I found stacks of stuff everywhere in the room. I cleaned counters and shelves and put everything away neatly. I started organizing the filing cabinet into a system that I am pretty happy with. So the classroom is coming together. Just a few more adjustments and tweaks and we will be ready to go!

When I walked into the junior high to go to my classroom, and bumped into one of my old math teachers and the secretary from the counseling office. (Remember, I am teaching at the junior high I attended 7+ years ago.)  My math teacher said, "You look familiar. . . " to which I responded. . "Well, I was in your class."  Then the secretary said, "You don't have a child going here do you?!" . . . "Um . . no." Thinking in my head "I believe that is physically impossible for me to have a child the age of twelve." Then  he said, "You know what I remember about her? (turning to the secretary) . .  That smile." Oh . . tender. : ) He was actually one of my favorite teachers and he is good at what he does. He then told me to "go easy on him" and not show any of the kids my yearbooks. hehehe I remember when I was in his class, me and my friend Holly had a tendency to chat (we had a lot to catch up on). He would then say, "Ladies . . the social butterflies need to land."

I then bumped into my  history teacher.I had him when he was doing his student teaching. He then got a job at the school and I had him again. (Again, AWESOME teacher.) "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Setting up my classroom?"
"Classroom?! What class are you teaching?"
"Foods"
"Wow. . . I am officially old!"


As I left, I was trying to lock up my room. The janitor was just outside setting the locker combinations. I COULD NOT for the life of me figure out how to lock my room. The janitor just came over, asked for me key, turned it, and it locked. Foods teachers have to be best friends with the janitors. . . just because. Now he thinks I'm a dumb blonde who can't figure out how to lock her door! (Which apparently is true). I am so glad we are starting this year off on the right foot.
FYI: the next day I went to go to my classroom, and they were waxing the halls outside my classroom. So another janitor had to escort me around the building to the outdoor entrance to my classroom (since I didn't have a key for that one). Me and the Janitors are going to be tight, I just know it. : )

I think it is funny because returning back to the school and seeing all of my teachers makes me feel 13 all over again. One of the reasons I waited so long to go to my classroom is because it just felt so "unruly" to use a key, to get into my classroom . . . OUTSIDE of office hours. One thing that is going to be difficult to get over is calling teachers by their first names. They will forever be Mr. this . . or Mrs. that. in my mind.


I am so excited though. Next week meetings start up! I hope I am ready for the school year, because it's commin', whether I'm ready or not!