Teacher Appreciation Project

Next blog - Teacher Appreciation Week! Reilly's class has a few moms that are not very motivated to help out in the classroom, but I'm so excited when I meet another mom like me! This mom has kids that are Reilly and Sean's same age and her oldest and Reilly are both of our firsts. (Maybe that's why were so involved??) She signed up to help with this project and the other moms bailed on the last minute, so she was looking for help. I didn't even know it was going on when she approached me about it. Our ideas for the door-decoration were off the wall, out of control! Neither of us had ever done it before... so we got some help and this is what we came up with. You can't tell from the pictures, but we had all the students come up with something they're thankful for and the 'speak'-bubbles have what everyone turned in. Our kids even helped with the clouds. I was very happy with how it turned out.

Catch-up Blogs

The next few blogs are short, but I just transferred all my pictures from my camera and found some events that were documented (shaky, but documented nontheless) that are very blog-worthy.

First one - Reilly's family birthday dinner!

We had it at Great-Grandparents house. We had pizza and cupcakes. I totally forgot about the cake for her friend party, so I'm glad I found this picture. Plus, she's still toothless in it! :)

Fun with corn starch!

I remember learning about cornstarch and water when I was in elementary school. I used to do it at home... and got in trouble for using up all the cornstarch. :\ So, I taught the kids about it last week and we played for over an hour. Sean was especially into making his hands sink into the bowl, so he got considerably messier than Reilly.

Last time I checked...

Winter's over! Good grief... the snow is never ending. This is what I saw when I took Maya outside this morning. It's really pretty, but also very wet and cold!

Revisiting Radiohead

I heard a very cool song recently and couldn't tap my toe to it without noticing that it's not in the typical time signatures. I had to search it to hear it again and found that it was Radiohead. I always liked them, but I guess I forgot that they exsisted... and that they were very inventive with their music. The song 15 Steps from the In Rainbows album is awesome! It's got a great driving beat, but it's in 5! I'm a sucker for individuals in a sea of poser-faces. Love it! Go listen for yourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WedRDYmtvX4

What a performance!!

We are a family of performers! This past week/month (sorry for the delay), we've had a number of grand performances by the children. From Reilly's desperations for dropping out of school, to Sean's emense hunger that would soon take his life, I think we should be up for Emmy's! Okay, but seriously, I performed twice at the string masterclass. The first was pretty good, but nothing special. I had only been playing Vitali's Chaconne for just over a month and hadn't mastered much of it. I only played half the piece and none of that was from memory. The second time I played it, with accompaniment and without music, it was significantly better. For the most part, I think my biggest weakness for live performances is that the audience can tell where my 'trouble spots' are. Just by watching my facial expressions, I give it all away. So, this time, my teacher encouraged me to focus on the song, style and movement of the piece instead of section, after section, after section... it's a long piece with a lot to listen to. I tried my best, and successfully (for the most part) managed to pull the wool over the eyes of my fellow string players. I focused on how I wanted the sections to be expressed and didn't give myself time to get nervous. I struggled - that didn't change - but I managed to do something with the song. Hooray! My best performance ever! I guess the kids have helped me with that!

Quick 'Nothing' Blog

It's been a month! A whole month! Sorry...



No pictures this time. I'm working on it. I've been busy with school, teaching and other such nonsense, and haven't had time ... well, I have had time... but don't wanna! *whines*



I went to visit the Draper Temple and got to see all the magnificant art work throughout. It was amazing! I've never been on a temple tour, so that was pretty fun for me. I went with the young women and got to know a couple of them better, too. Good times. Plus, I'm secretly 17! Hahah! School's fine except I think UVU highers bone-head professors... I think I'll do well this semester.

Reilly's still done with school. She keeps asking me if she's going to start first grade yet. One morning she went to the calendar and counted the days left in March thinking that April would mark the beginning of her first grade year. Funny! Well, actually it's not that funny... imagine fighting with a six-year-old every morning to go to school?! Now that HAS to stop!

Sean's got a girl in his class named Ella that's helping him learn his "L" sound. He loves her because she treats him like he's a baby, and who wouldn't love to be waited on everywhere he went?! He always wants to tell me what he's done in school (most of which includes Ella), but struggles to say her name. He's getting better every time he tries! :)

Dustin's doing really well in school. He and a girl from his study group continue to get the highest scores on tests and I think they have a little rivalry going on. It's great to finally see him excited about his future! Onlllly, I don't really like when he started siting medical terms for things that have layman terms that I can pronounce ... not to mention, KNOW!

There, HAPPY!?