Spring Already?

I almost don't want to say anything for fear that I might jinx this wonderful weather we've been having! I love springtime! It's actually been light in the morning when I'm getting ready for school the past few days. So light that I thought I slept through my alarm one morning and woke up in a panic, only to look at my alarm and realize I still had 5 more minutes to snooze! I've had recess duty this past week and I usually dread it because it's cold and windy but this week it was beautiful. I didn't even have to wear a jacket some days and I busted out my flip flops one day! Funny recess story... one of my little boys found a pair of glasses on the field. As he handed them to me he said "Teacher I found these glasses and their missing a window." ha ha (they were missing a lens). My students have been much happier since the weather has warmed up also.

I have a new passion. Maybe even an obsession! I LOVE VOLLEYBALL!!! My sister-in-law Dani invited me to come to practice with her on Tuesday nights starting about a month and a half ago. I played young women's volleyball but that was the extent of my experience. I was okay and I had a lot of fun playing. The girls we play with on Tuesday nights are good. Most of them played on high school teams or took classes at BYU. I do alright serving and bumping but no one ever taught me how to set or spike the ball so I didn't really like playing up on the net because I didn't know what to do. This last Tuesday one of the girls showed me how to do those things and it was so much fun. I can't wait till next week until I can actually use them in a game. I feel like I just excelled like a whole level or something. Ever since practice I've been wanting to play more than once a week and it was just my luck that a bunch of the girls I teach with like volleyball too. We decided that we would all play after school on Thursdays! Yea!

Everyone at my school is super motivated to be active because we are starting this biggest looser competition. It's more about being healthy than loosing weight, although you get points for loosing weight too. (Don't worry there aren't any weigh-ins wearing only shorts and a sports bra). You get points for different healthy habits each day like taking a vitamin, drinking enough water, not drinking carbonation or caffiene, eating 5 fruits and veggies, and for working out or lifting weights. I'm excited for some motivation to be healthier and a competition is just what I need!

More First Gradeisms

This week was a long one. We had parent teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday which means that I was at school from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm and then had to go back and teach on Friday. I think my kids could sense that it was going to be a long week so they gave me somethings to laugh at. So here they are...

One of the boys in my class came up to me with a mini water bottle. He said "Teacher, sometimes my throat gets clogged and my mom said that I should drink this when that happens." I was thinking, a clogged throat, wow! I told him he could keep it at his desk. When his mom came to parent teacher conferences she saw the water bottle. I told her about his 'clogged throat' and she just laughed. She said that he had told her he was thirsty and she told him to get a water bottle. I guess her response wasn't dramatic enough so he had to spice it up!

Next, my students all wrote a story and then they got to type it and we published it. One of my really bright students wrote this great story about going to California and the beach. They were playing and going boogie boarding. Then they drove a while to their grandmas house. They were going to celebrate FOURCHENLY!!! (just like her story, all in caps and 3 exclamation marks). She said that she loved fourchenly. It was an awesome story with periods and capitals and just about every single word was spelled right (which is amazing for first grade) but I was really wondering about this mystery holiday so I asked her what they do to celebrate fourchenly. She said "ya know like the parades and the fireworks'". It was all I could do not so just start laughing. Oh... The Fourth of July. Oh course I didn't tell her and when her mom read it she just about died laughing.

February being dental awareness month, we had some wives of dentists come put on a presentation. When they were finished we went back to class and I handed out a little packet with a toothbrush, toothpaste, those tablets that show were you missed, and some stickers. One of my little girls turned to her friend and said "this is the best day EVER!" Who would have thought a toothbrush beats out candy, parties, Halloween and even Christmas.

And my FAVORITE for the week. Bob (we'll say that was his name) comes up to me at recess and says "Suzie made me kick Joey in the privates." I looked at him and said, "Bob, can Suzie really make you do that. If you kicked Joey then it was your choice." He then looked at me and said "I can not resist the puppy eyes." hahahahahahahaha Wow, this kid has the best excuses. I bit my cheeks REALLY hard and said "Well you better learn how to", sent him to sit and think about it, then turned around and just laughed.

MEXICO

For Christmas this year, Dustin's family all voted for a cruise together over presents. On January 10th we all flew down to Texas. Dustin's parents picked us up and we drove strait to Galveston to get on the ship. This time we rode Carnival Ecstasy. It was so much fun all being on vacation together, no work, no worries just good times. It was a five night cruise that went to Cozumel and Progresso Mexico. While at sea we went to shows... ...got our makeup done by Aimee for formal night... ... went dancing at the club... ...danced at dinner...
...sang karaoke (sorry no pics), laid out in the sun (in January... AWESOME!), played lots of Sudoko... ...and of course ate a TON...

When we got off the ship in Cozumel we took a taxi to a private beach and they took us snorkeling. It was our first time going and it was AMAZING!!! We saw a big sea turtle, lots of beautiful fish that would swim right up to you. We saw a few barracuda (that Dustin tried to swim up close to, he still has all his fingers don't worry) and right at the end we saw a HUGE stingray. It's wing span was probably about 6 feet! It was amazing. We did get stung by a few jellyfish but it was totally worth it. We took some really cool pictures with our underwater camera but haven't got those pics developed yet. In Progresso we went to some ancient ruins called Chichen Itza. Supposedly it's one of the seven wonders of the world. The craziest part is that when you clapped at this big ruin it would make this crazy sound back. They said that it was the Gods welcoming you there. Then on our way back we stopped at this sink hole. I guess they are all over this part of Mexico. This one was beautiful. They had built a tunnel to go down to it and you could get in and swim. Aimee and I jumped in for a few minutes. There were fresh water fish and the water was so clear you could see way past your toes.


All in all it was an AMAZING trip. After the cruise we got to spend a few days in Texas visiting family and doing a little shopping. Thanks Mom and Dad Robison for the amazing Christmas present!