I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Won't be back again (for awhile)

I wrote a flowery paragraph about school being over, but Blogger and I are still fighting and it deleted it all. So I will leave it at this:

Prepare for the Sunglasses Game.

I'll be in Utah June 6. Let's play.

And any last packing advice?

PS No pictures thanks to Blogger.

Has the battle begun?

I am not a very technologically savvy person. But I mess around and find a way that works and do that over and over again. Well, Blogger and I have gotten along quite nicely until recently. Why is it being mean to me and not updating properly? And why is it not letting me upload pictures? Usually I click the add image icon and it's ok? Now it won't let me. Any ideas? Because I have a feeling in the next couple of weeks, I am going to have a few pictures I want to upload. Help me please...

It's the Final Countdown{s}...

Well, first, I wanted to mention that I had an amazing birthday and was surprised in many ways including finding out that my hubby even knew the password to our blog. When I mentioned this to him, he said that's what I get for having a familiar password. To this I responded "Touche!" Thank you for all the nice birthday wishes!

In other news, I know I am very guilty of looking ahead too much. But when you get this close- I cannot help it! I have exactly 9 days, 7 school days, 2 Thursday & Fridays, 1 Monday, 1 Tuesday and 1 Wednesday left until the last bell of this school year rings! I am way too happy about this. No worries, I love teaching still. But, I sure am thrilled with this countdown. Not only because it means I get my needed summer break, but also because it coincides with another countdown that I have had for some time.

Because in that exact same amount of time, we will be getting on a red eye to NYC! From there, we will spend the day in the Big Apple only to board another red eye to Iceland. Yep, Iceland. We stay there for a few days and then skip on over to Denmark! Yep, Denmark! We will then get on our cruise ship to see Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden! Is it really here? Is this really happening? Yep. I'm just too excited.

Anyway...these are just a few things that have been on my mind for quite sometime-173 school days to be exact. Now I don't know what to pack. What to wear. Any suggestions? It's time to pack! Yay!

Jenn's 25th B-day!!!!

Dear Wife,

Today is a special day for a special girl. Yesterday in Elder's quorum, we were asked to introduce ourselves and then share how we had met our wife. I flashed back to June 26th, 2007. I accepted an invitation from a friend to play a pick up game of Volleyball. I remember three things in particular about the first time I met you: 1.) Dang, this cute girl has some mad volleyball skills. 2.) Harry Potter shirt - Really? 3.) How can I fit myself into the rotation so that I'll play next to her without being too obvious. The rest is history...

Thank you for a wonderful marriage and for being an incredible wife. You are the most thoughtful person I have ever known. I love your surprises and how you know how to make me feel like there isn't anything I can't do. You are incredibly supportive and refreshingly witty. I've loved our adventures together and look forward to many more!

I know you'll probably find this public homage slightly embarrassing and nauseatingly sentimental, but I want the whole world to know how I feel about my beautiful woman on her birthday! You are my best friend and I'm so glad I get to keep you forever.

Love,

Your Husband

Kate and I could be friends...

Here are some reasons why I am pretty sure I could be good friends with Kate...

1) We share a love for her wedding dress. Long sleeved, v-neck, lace. 3 of my favorite words too, Kate.

2) We both wanted a Lilies of the Valley bouquet. I would have loved to have Lilies of Vally in my bouquet. They weren't in season. I bet it smelled incredible though!

3) We both had tiered cakes.

4) And, we both have a thing for princes.

These are just a few reasons and you can see that they are all very substantial and very specific commonalities. Naturally, it means we could be friends. I would invite her to my birthday party, but I'm sure they will still be on their honeymoon. Maybe next year.

A Night in New York...

...Stake Center style.

This weekend we went to prom. You read that right- prom. Our stake puts together a big prom for the youth. It's become a big deal. They go all out decorating the stake center to the different themes. It's gotten so big that they make a night just for the adults. So you better believe I took full advantage of that.

It was fun. Some girls from the ward got together and did hair and make up. I personally loved how my hair turned out. I love having my hair done. It feels so good.

We had the fantastic Baers come down and we all went to Olive Garden- like prom goers do. Here's the gang before the Baers got there.

After dinner, we went to find out what all the hoo haw was about and we were not disappointed. The entry was a subway tunnel with fog machines, construction zones, bums (mannequins) warming by the fire, and a pile of garbage that had a rat (fake) going around on a train track- this kind of grossed me out. (Sorry for the blur-it's the fog machines)

Then you walk into beautiful Times Square of New York, New York. Our ward had helped build these awesome sky scrapers. I loved the "Sleepless in Seattle" reference.

They were very meticulous and made sure there was room for the beautiful Manhattan Temple.

It was all pretty intense. I also helped decorate the bathroom to look like a 5th Avenue dressing room. However, I didn't take pictures because I thought that might make me a creeper. But, you get the idea. (I made my shoes part of these window displays later in the evening.)

And, of course, there was dancing...

Although is was cliche and nostalgic, I loved every second of it. And in the words of Eliza Doolittle, "I could have danced all night." Thanks for indulging my little girl fantasies, Baers.

Stress for everyone. Anyone?

Well, this week was a bit stressful to all parties involved at school. It was end of level testing this week and I have never felt so much pressure before. It's amazing how much these tests matter in our world today. That's how my school gets funding. Test scores! Multiple choice tests! Wow. Another great decision made by people who have never taught before.

Anyway...I do hope my class did well. I feel their scores reflect my life this past year. It's sad but true. I've worked so hard so that they could feel confident answering basic questions (in my mind) about what they have learned/ what I have taught ALL YEAR! So don't even get me started about how many students came and said "I'm tired and I didn't eat breakfast this morning!" Seriously!? Or how I truly avoid looking too closely as I was monitoring the room because I am positive that answers were circled when the question was not even read all the way through! How do I know this? I saw it ALL year long as I tried to help them!

Overall, I just had to take deep breaths give my students life savers, pretzels, granola bars, fruit snacks, and jolly ranchers and say, "Ok. You know this. Do your best." I try to tell myself that I've done all that I can. Like I said, stressful!

Because we depend on these tests so much, the school made it a well oiled machine with plastic totes that have everything needed including the testing materials, sharpened #2 pencils, erasers, sample fill in papers so the students knew exactly how to correctly fill in their forms. The tote also included this helpful page to hang on our classroom doors...

As you can tell, teachers who know how to spell were really stressed too. It definitely made me laugh a little to see these signs up all over the school! And I really did laugh when I saw other signs after testing...