a night at the DI and a night with Rachel

We spent Friday night feeling guilty about not having a fun/exotic date planned. Even though we're married we still feel pressure to go out and do something awesome on Friday. I used to give Wes a hard time about not planning anything, so I told him I would do the planning this weekend. Friday night rolled around and I only had a few lame-o dud ideas. We ended up perusing the DI about an hour before they closed. Wes found Pictionary! He spent the rest of the evening wiping down and gluing the board and box together. It is as good as new. Now all we need, as Wes said this morning, is "someone to cream at Pictionary."

I found some (what I think are) CUTE teacups. They are totally vintage and perfect for juice in the morning. I've had medium feedback thus far. Rachel wasn't sure why I wanted teacups and I think Wes thought they were an odd purchase as well. But Wes is so great, he just plays along and helped me look for matching saucers. We used them last night when Rachel came over for computer help, which turned into movie night. We watched Iron Man 2. See Rachel's blog before continuing with this post.

http://rachelrweiler.blogspot.com/

We laughed SO hard this morning when we saw Rachel's post. Wes immediately starting drawing up a picture of Rachel. You'll also need a basic understanding of Iron Man 2 to appreciate his work.

Behold. Rachel... the Russian.

On a completley different note, things are going quite well with student teaching. I have two mentor teachers (one better than the other) and also work with a co-teacher. We team teach the first period and then each teach alternating periods the rest of the day. I'm starting with the Healthy Self unit, then will teach Nutrition/Exercise and end with Sexuality and Reproduction. We're pretty limited with what we can teach in this last unit. Utah is the most conservative state when it comes to SexEd and Nebo School District is the most conservative school district in the state of Utah. Wonder how I'll answer all their questions...

The students are hilarious. I find myself chuckling at least once every class period. Management hasn't been a huge issue yet. Did I just jinx myself? For the most part they contribute and are engaged. The random comments are awesome and I had forgotten about the high school drama. I have one student who is a "Cornerstone" student with means that he lives in a Juvenile Detention Center and is permitted to come to one high school class every other day. That's my health class. When he proves that he is safe to himself and others, they let him start coming to more and more classes. I don't know how to treat him differently, so I don't. I treat and teach him the same as the rest of my students.

I've also learned that even though I have invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in learning how to teach, sometimes the people with the jobs are less than qualified. I wish those who were burnt out would retire and let us "green" teachers have a chance for a few years. (I'm trying to subconsciously talk one of my mentor teachers into retiring...)

I think this will be the quickest semester of college ever.

Christmas was fun. Provo is the same.

I can't believe the break is already over. I also can't believe that today is the first day of a new semester and I did not buy any books, am no longer working at Teacher Ed and did not have to print out a schedule and wander the halls locating classrooms.

But before I start highlighting the present, I'll briefly recap the past 2 weeks.

Wes and I had our first Christmas morning here in Provo. I had no idea how excited I would be about it all, but I woke up at 6:00am and convinced Wes it was a reasonable time to start opening presents. (I actually tried to get him to open presents on Christmas Eve. He said no.)

I found a little sparkly surprise in my stocking, some diamond earrings! I also received lots of cute clothes for student teaching. Wes is great at picking up my hints...

We headed to SLC for the Christmas Day Visiting Family Marathon. We may have to rethink this for next year. But maybe Wes will surprise me by singing Mele Kalikimaka and we'll spend Christmas in Hawaii. Maybe, at some point in the future, right Wes? We visited several homes and our family spoiled us left and right.

Some notable moments:

Kirk received sky-diving gift certificate from fam. We're tying to help him get that bucket list whittled down. He's also working on the will, so if he dies during sky-diving, at least everything is divided. We get Caroline!

Uncle Scott plays "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" on trumpet (an unexpected addition to the program, way to spice things up!)

Wes skis for the first time! We went to Alta for the Ski Free After 3 deal, but we also didn't know it was the Ski Free and Freeze Something Off deal. Caroline and Rachel accompanied us, but none of us lasted very long. I think we were all crying in pain as our toes and fingers thawed in the car. Wes got jipped, which means we will be taking another skiing trip soon. He did great by the way! Only fell one time and it was because Rachel led him into the pit of doom and powder, which he was not prepared for.

Rebecca and Janeel beat Clayton and Wes at pictionary. Monumental.

Caroline gets her wisdom teeth out. Oh goodness. The stories are just too funny.

Tomorrow is my first official day in Spanish Fork High School. I've already scoped the paraphernalia and know which sweatshirt I'm going to be purchasing. I know, I've got all the critical bases covered.

The public schools are still finishing up last semester, so I'll observe and help this week and part of next. When their new semester starts, I'll be in charge. Can't wait for the stories that come from teaching a high school health class.