SIM Mission / Webster's 50th

Last Thursday was my class's SIM mission. It's a Space Integration Module that comes to our school and each 6th grade class gets to spend an entire day performing tasks and taking on a specific role in the space station, space shuttle, or mission control. They complete training a week beforehand, as well as team-building activities. One of my favorites is having each group make a badge to wear on their vests the day of. They turned out super cute! The kids go above and beyond with coloring, color copies, and laminating the badges on their own time. Pretty cool.

Mission Control

Space Shuttle Crew

Space Station

The entire thing is a lot of fun...and a lot of work for the kids! My favorite part is the task where a student can give me a 3 minute back massage with one of those little wooden smiley guys. Let's just say, I was quick to encourage the students in mission control to complete that task often :)

Alberto (our CAPCOM) giving me a back massage.

Friday night was Webster's 50th anniversary carnival. The teachers at each grade level had a game booth - they all turned out really cute! A ton of parents, students (past and present), and community members came. There were the game booths mentioned, as well as food, inflatables and a rock wall.

Mike made it to the top!

Some of my math students at the carnival

Planning and putting on the carnival was a lot of work, but I'm glad it was so successful. I'm also glad it's over :)

Spirit Week

Friday April 24th was my school's 50th anniversary celebration. As a committee chair, I helped plan and organize the game booths and shop for prizes. Anyway, to prepare for the big night, this past week was spirit week! Gosh, I hadn't done anything like that since probably high school. But you know me...I got in the spirit and participated every day :)

Friday April 17th: Mismatched Shoe Day

I think it was awfully clever of me to have the forethought to wear two flat sandals - some people (teachers) had to put their regular shoes back on partway through the day due to varying heights and foot pain. Not me!

Monday April 20th: Inside out or Backwards Clothes Day

One girl told me I look good inside out and backwards. Hm...

Tuesday April 21st: Crazy Hair Day

A co-worker of mine brought wigs for my entire team. The funny thing is that Jen's and mine nearly matched our own hair colors :) Mine was darker than my real hair color, but it was convenient to leave my own hair down. All day long, kids asked if it was my real hair or a wig. When trying to show them my real hair underneath, I couldn't tell which was which :)

I realize now that the picture of my team would be funnier if I'd also posted one of us all on a normal day - oh well - you'll just have to take my word for it...we all look quite different without the wigs. Especially Andy!

With some crazy hair students...

Wednesday April 22nd: Crazy Hat Day

So I know my hat isn't crazy - it's dang cute :) But it's new and I was excited to get to wear it twice this week (the first time was bowling on Monday night).

Thursday April 23rd: Sports Team Day

Self explanatory. Any questions?

Friday April 24th: Webster Spirit Day

(Which of these is not like the others...?)

Yes, I spent the $6 the past three years to purchase Webster t-shirts. This is by far my least favorite of the three I own, but in my defense, it matched the event held that evening. It only seemed right to wear the 50th anniversary shirt to the 50th celebration. It was fun to see the sea of green Webster t-shirts all day long. This is me with students from one of my classes. We all match :)

Jon Schmidt

Let me tell you about a talented musician by the name of Jon Schmidt. He composes, arranges, and plays music on the piano. He also has a brilliant cellist that adds to the beauty of the music. Jon Schmidt doesn't simply play - he's a performer. You can tell how much he loves what he does by the expression on his face, his body language, and the way he interacts with the audience when you see him live. He even plays upside down, backwards, and with his feet :) I've seen him in concert twice and both times have been amazed and awed at what he does. As a piano player myself, I find his talent incredibly inspiring.

Having said that, one of my favorite Jon Schmidt pieces is called Pachelbel Meets U2. You can probably guess what it's like - it's a beautiful mesh of Pachelbel's Canon (which I absolutely adore!) and With or Without You. Gorgeous arrangement.

The last time I saw Jon Schmidt in concert was last December right before Christmas. I was not disappointed! Since then, he's added a new song to his repertoire. It's called Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay) - both great songs! And again, it's stunning. Here's the video.

Dental Fun

I love root canals - I love the way they keep me from being in pain. Yesterday I had a root canal. It was my second ever, but I remember little about the first apart from the excruciating pain felt the week leading up to it. This time around was different.

Eight months ago, I mentioned an achy tooth to my dentist. She said to watch it and hopefully the pain would go away. It didn't. Six months later, the pain had only gotten worse. I brought it up again. X-rays showed nothing. A cold test caused me to leap from the chair and cry out in agony. The tooth really hurt!

After a dose of antibiotics in the hopes of decreasing the inflamed nerve (which didn't help unfortunately), I grew accustomed to the pain on a daily basis. Finally two weeks ago, it began to hurt more than ever; as I noticed my Ibuprofen consumption increasing, I called to make the appointment to get a root canal done.

Today was the day. Turned out I couldn't wait that long. Sunday night I was taking several over-the-counter pills (Ibuprofen and Tylenol) as well as a pain killer in the hopes of making it through the next two days before my appointment. Nothing helped; I was up all night Sunday night with a pain in my tooth.

Yesterday morning, it only got worse - I called the dentist as soon as I arrived at work. I'm so blessed to work with an amazing team at work, and my principal was very sympathetic to my plight - I left work an hour early for an appointment that afternoon.

Little did I know then that my dentist doesn't do root canals - I had to be referred to someone else! I nearly cried - I had to have something done to this tooth before the end of the day. Blessings again. I got in to a place at 5:00 and it was the best dental experience I've ever had. No joke!

Loved the "surgeon". Enjoyed filling out paperwork at a touch-screen computer. Grateful for being numb. Never felt a thing! It was fairly quick, painless, and the company and conversation kept me laughing. I would go back to him in a heartbeat :)

Didn't enjoy the pain leading up to it. Not looking forward to the long process of getting a temporary crown put on or the payment of a crown in the near future. But, if I ever need another root canal, you can bet I'll frequent his establishment!

E.W.

It was a fun Easter weekend. It began with egg-dying on Saturday night.
Exhibit A:

(As you can see, there was only one casualty...)

Learned: For the brightest eggs, follow these directions. Add three T. of vinegar to the cup of water; immerse egg in dye; leave for 90 minutes while watching a movie; remove. Voila!

Pretty as they were, I still had no qualms about turning them into deviled eggs on Easter day.


The Easter Bunny was very good to me this year. He knows my weakness for peanut butter and chocolate.
Exhibit B:

Reester Bunny - I still laugh when I see it :) And milk chocolate and peanut butter eggs...it's hard to sit down and eat just one!

I am pleased to report that I successfully made my first Easter dinner. Honey-glazed ham, deviled eggs (colorful ones), corn, mashed potatoes, and homemade gravy. It amazes me that everything turned out and tasted delicious too! All in all, I'm very pleased with the weekend.

Random Smattering

There could be several reasons for my not having blogged in awhile:

a) Nothing blog-worthy has happened in my life
b) The batteries died in my camera and a blog entry just isn't as entertaining without a photo
c) I've decided to keep the most interesting moments in life to myself

Yeah, I don't believe any of those excuses either. None of them are true, by the way. Well, other than the fact that I haven't taken any pictures lately...but it's not because of the batteries.

To feed your curiosity (as I'm sure you're dying to know what's been going on lately...ha ha), here is a random smattering of the goings-on - a day in the life if you will.

• Tonight I got together with my very best friend and old roommate from Ricks - Katrina Wilkins! She and her sister were in town for the week attending some classes. Katrina and I hadn't seen each other since 2000 or so. It had been a l-o-n-g time! We met up for gelato. My flavor choices were coconut and chocolate cake - yum :) It was fun catching up with Katrina. Love that girl! Many happy memories from my early days in college.

• My friend Haya and I are taking a belly-dancing class. I remember working with a girl when I went to BYU; she was big into belly-dancing. As a 20-year-old, I was shocked and appalled and quite naive - I thought it was totally risque. FYI, it's really not. But what a work-out! I wear a gorgeous brown hip belt with silver coins. We learn new moves each week - some I'm pretty proficient at...others I look completely ridiculous attempting :) It's funny when the teacher has us do the moves at a quicker pace, or when she wants us to do more than one at a time. Now, I'm awfully coordinated...but this is tough! I'm loving the class. We even have a recital the last night of class. I'm debating whether or not to actually invite anyone to watch. Ha ha.

• I finally got a roommate, and she is a sweetheart. Funny story how that all worked out - I'll spare you the gory details, but the gist of it is this: the night she came to check out the room, I locked myself out of the house. Bummer. The locksmith took an hour to come; in the meantime, Andrea and I got to chat. She decided to move in sight-unseen - I must have made quite an impression :) Just kidding. She moved in the next day...I also made a copy of my keys the next day - now I'm not the only one with a key to my house.

• Only 30 more days of school! Then I start teaching summer school in June. But only 30 more days of the current school year :) Who's counting?