This....

....seems extremely reminiscent of my day. Minus the fancy ball gowns.


The kids sense that there is only 4 days left. Oh boy, do they sense it. They gain super power from the grayish looking corn dogs in the cafeteria and then prey on the weak (ie. me).
Not sure if I can muster up the strength to win.

Today I am glad because of....

This song....


This video....


This....

and this...

Whoohoo!! Bring on....summer school. :-)

I love my students because....

.....they feed me

(opened the door this morning and was handed a cherry poptart..."to have with breakfast")

.....they boost my self esteem
(For those of you that don't read 1st grader it says..."My teacher is the best teacher in the whole (let's just straighten that out now) world.

.....they are very talented artists

(Funny because last week I had the strangest sensation that my legs weren't attached...)

.....they make me laugh
(Student: 'Teacher I know what your name starts with."
Me: You do?
Student: Yes. M.
Me: Me?
Student: (clearly exasperated) Yes. M for Mrs.)

In other news....something exciting happened on Tuesday.
My brother and his wife had their 1st baby. A sweet little boy named Jaydin Parker.
So exciting!!
I'm IN LOVE with his hair.
Can't wait to meet the little guy.

Husband Tag...

1. Where did you meet your husband?: EAC. My roommate and his roommate were dating, so we hung out a lot.

2. How long did you date before you got married?: We dated for 1 year. We got engaged on our year anniversary and then were engaged for almost 4 months.

3. How long have you been married?: 7 years next month. Good grief.

4. What does he do that surprises you?: Lots of things! He is very spontaneous. I love it (most of the time)!!

5. What is your favorite feature of his?: His smile and his eyes. He has the best eyes.

6. What is his best quality?: He is kind. He is the kindest person I know. He also is funny and smart and loving.

7. Does he have a nickname for you?: Saree

8. What is his favorite food?: Steak.

9. What is his favorite sport?: Basketball and Football

10. When and where did you first kiss?: We 1st kissed at my friend Emelle's house. We started dating the next week.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?: Go to movies

12. Do you have any children?: No, but we want them soon.

13. Does he have any hidden talents?: He can sing. He can also nunchuck...or do the nunchucks...I don't know how you say that.

14. How old is he?: 31

15. Who said 'I love you' first?: He did.

16. What is his favorite music?: Metallica. He used to be way into country. Now he mostly listens to sports radio

17. What do you admire most about him?: He is very kind. He is very positive. He looks for the best in people. He works really hard and is good at what he does. He is also very funny and playful.

18. What is his favorite color?: Red

19. Will he read this?: I don't know

20. Who will I tag next?: Whoever.

Made my day....

For awhile now I've been kind of down in the dumps.
Everything is so stressful with work and whatnot, that's it
hard to keep my head above water sometimes.
Every now and then its just nice to hear that you are appreciated
or doing a good job or that you mean something to someone.
On Monday, I got this text from my friend.

"More often than not, I feel like some people don't even think about me until I contact them. You don't do that, so thank you. I appreciate your friendship."

I try to be a good friend, but most times I feel like I fall short.
This simple little message meant so much to me.
I don't think she realizes how much.

Um......

Student: Teacher, do you like to eat your hair?

Me: No.

Student: I do. You should try it someday.

Me: ?????????

Current Theme Song....

All that I know is I'm breathing.
All I can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing now.

Being Thankful

Life is hard right now.
Everywhere I turn there is negativity.
I am trying hard to be brave and put a smile on my face.
This helps.

(yes...I know it's April and not really Thanksgiving...
but is there ever a wrong time to be thankful?)

Whirlwind....

Last weekend was a whirlwind.

It consisted of:
3 days
30+ hours in the car
1 hour of the worlds shortest college graduation...all other schools should take note
6 short hours with my brother and sister-in-law
18 mushrooms picked out of an AMAZING pasta dish
1 awesome baby shower to go...complete with an
AWESOME diaper cake
4 laps around a gas station in Middle-of-Nowhere, USA
2 people that thought Andy looked like someone they knew
12 bathroom stops
2 games of laser tag
1 horrific batch of carsickness
1/2 a book on tape
1 intriguing murder mystery from 1958

My sister-in-law graduated from BYU-Idaho and we made a quick trip up to Rexburg with my parents. We also decided to take a baby shower with us since Karinda is due next month....and as much fun as it was to drive 60000 (is that an exaggeration Mom?) hours....we probably wouldn't be able to make it to any other shower she was having. Plus, her family was down for graduation so it was perfect. My mom's friend had a great idea for people from Flag to drop off gifts for us to take up. People were SO generous. It was greatly appreciated.

My attempt at domesticity. I was actually very proud of my creations.

The amazing diaper cake made by my mom

When people would drop off gifts my mom had this cute table
set up with treats to give as a thank you

Andy's opinion on the constant gushing of all things 'baby'

Baby shower to go

Graduation
Baby Shower

Idaho Falls

Student-isms

I love the way the world looks through the eyes of a child. Everything is new and different. Most kids still have an innocence about them that allows them to see things in a whole different way. For starters I love when my students bring me presents. Over the years I have gotten quite a random assortment of interesting gifts. This year I would have to say has been the best.

Example #1:
A random jumble of clothespins, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and to top it all off...a cinnamon stick thrown in for good measure. Because what pile of random stuff isn't complete without a cinnamon stick?

Example #2:
I opened the door one morning to find myself staring straight into the sparkling, foam eyes of a giant wooden penguin complete with scarf. The student proudly props the penguin up against my desk and turns to me with a look that tells me he expects applause, a hug or possibly both. I asked him where he got this treasure from and he said...and I quote, "My mom and I pulled it out of the dumpster in front of our house and she thought you might like it." How this mom guessed that I always wanted a giant, wooden, dumpster penguin I'll never know, but I thank her.

Then the icing on the cake was when he looks at the penguin and says, "Some of it was broken and then I dropped it getting off the bus, so more of it broke." Not to worry though. He carefully deposited all the broken pieces on my desk and then with a flourish handed me a bottle of.....
Wood glue.
Excellent.

Example #3:
It was Monday. I was sitting at my desk minding my own business when out of nowhere this little gem appears in front of my face.
Now, I don't know about you....but I was unsure how to react to the situation. I mean clearly this child had taken the time to not only find toothpicks and an orange, but to cleverly arrange the toothpicks within the orange. He hands it to me and says, "I made you a pineapple." I told him that pineapple was my favorite fruit. The best part was that he had carried this delightful treasure in his backpack the whole way to school and since all the juice had leaked into his backpack there was none left to make my desk sticky. Win-win.

I love teaching 1st grade because they kids are old enough to tie their shoes and sneeze into a Kleenex (well at least most are), but they are still young enough that there is none of the attitude that comes once they hit 3rd grade (at least most of the time). However, I had not yet encountered note passing in 1st grade. My kindergarten students were working hard at making a puppet of a duck. Coloring, gluing, trying not to cut hair or clothes with the scissors...all the joys of being 5. Being the mean teacher that I am I made my 1st graders work on boring stuff like reading and writing. Well I look over and I see one 1st grader ever-so-subtlety throw a piece of paper 2 rows over to another student. I go over, pick up the paper and give the girl my teacher look. Then I open the note, start laughing and have to retract the teacher look.
Poor 1st graders. :-) Don't worry. I made it up to them by making them take a timed test....
....and then they made duck puppets.
I love being a teacher!

Baby Aubrey

Andy and I went to Duncan to visit our new little niece Aubrey.
My sister-in-law was nice enough to indulge
my photography obsession love for photography
and let me take a bajillion pictures of this sweet little girl.

In a couple months there will be another newborn in the family.
Maybe I can convince them that it is necessary
for tons of pictures to be taken of your baby.
*Hint*Hint* Parker and Karinda. :-)

Amazing....

Spring Break

Went to L.A with my friend Miranda and my cousin Marli.
We had a blast!!!

Decorating help

We finally got our bedroom painted. Which now leads to the problem of what to do with the headboard. The walls are a pale blue and the bedspread is chocolate brown. Any ideas?

Bad timing

.....as did I. 2 days before Spring Break and my road trip to LA! Oh well. Still going. Still going to have a blast!

Glimpse into my day....

I don't know if any of you watch the show The Middle....
but this clip reminded me so much of every day at school!
You know you're a teacher when you find this hysterical...and you experience this on a daily basis!

Road Trip with Andy

This past weekend we went down to Duncan (don't feel bad if you don't know where it is. If I didn't know people living there I wouldn't know either). I love long drives with Andy. It's nice to just spend time talking, laughing and just being goofy. No trip to Duncan would be complete without a stop at Burger House in Globe-Miami. We spent the night at Paul and Lacy's house where Andy had fun playing with one of our nephews and our niece and I went to a baby shower for my sister-in-law. All in all pretty good weekend!

Not a very good day...

If you are blessed enough to have kids...please do all you can to take the BEST care of them. There are so many kids out there that don't get the love that they deserve.

Little moments....

Being a teacher can be hard, frustrating, exhausting work. You are trying to give so much to these children that some days it takes all you have to give. Being a teacher can also be fun, rewarding and inspiring. Every time that light goes on...you just love seeing a child have that moment of success.
Another one of my favorite things about teaching is the small, innocent, adorable moments that come from being around children. Today at school was our Valentine's Day party. Any class party is an ordeal in and of itself. The kids come in buzzing and don't stop until they go home. For some reason the Valentine's party is like every other party times 10. Never mind just the cupcakes, cookies and juice boxes. There is also the cards and candy that needs to be passed out by each child and the little construction paper mailboxes that the students make. In the past, I've just been glad to get the Valentine's party over and done with. However, this year there were several little moments that just made me enjoy being there with the students.

#1 - Yesterday we were doing writing and I was having my kindergartners write 'I love my________' and then they were to fill in the blank with someone/something that they love. A little boy came up to me and very sweetly said, "Mrs. Ebert...I'm just not in a loving mood right now." I just smiled and asked, "Well don't you love your family. What about your mom and dad?" He looks up and very practically says, "I do love them. I'm just not feeling it right now. Maybe I will in a minute." I reassured him that that was fine and he could take a minute to think about it. It made me laugh. Kids are never afraid to be honest.

#2 - The boxes of chocolates given to me by my students
#3 - The sweet card given to be my a parent. It's nice to be appreciated.
#4 - I let the students come up individually and disperse the cards they had bought into the other students "mailboxes". I looked over and saw one of my little kindergartners putting card after card into the same box. I stopped her and asked why she was putting all the cards into the same box. She said, "It's my box. All these cards have my name on them." I suppressed a laugh and told her that those were the cards that were from her. The other kids names were on the other side. She turned the card over, looked and it and said very matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but I can't read this side."

#5 - It was almost the end of the day. All had survived expect for maybe one cupcake. The kids were cleaning up the trash and one of my 1st graders runs up to me and says, "Mrs. Ebert...I forgot to give you your present." He takes his hands from behind is back and hands me a can of Dr. Pepper. I said, "Oh thank you. Where did you get this from?" He said, "I got it from my house because I saw you drink it once and you like it." I just wanted to cry at the pure thoughtfulness of this little boy.

So bring on the chaos. Bring on the sugar comas.
Bring on the red dyed frosting smooshed into the carpet of my classroom.
If it results in these little moments...bring it on.

Good day...

For Christmas my parents converted all of our families home videos to DVD. They burned them and categorized them all. Basically spent countless hours putting this great gift together for us. When we got home from Flagstaff Andy put all the gifts away and that was that. A few days later I wanted to watch some of them so I asked Andy where they were. Long story short, they were no where to be found. We tore apart all the closets, shelves, and moved the beds. There were many tears and prayers. We searched everywhere and they were nowhere to be found. The only thing we could figure was the box that we had brought all the gifts home in had been converted into a trash box and was thrown out. Our best guess was that the DVDs were in there. I was crushed. All that hard work and a thoughtful gift just tossed away.

Well today Andy came upstairs and said, "I have a surprise for you." and lo and behold there were the DVDs!! I was SO excited! He had been putting away something in the cabinet under our TV and there they were. Now this cabinet had been searched through previously...but obviously not well enough. I am so glad he found them. It was a happy day!