4th Grade = Blog Fodder

The other day during science, the teacher posed this question: "Who can give me an example of something that is dehydrated?"

Parker's hand (and eyebrows) shot in the air.

"Um!" he said, when he was called on. His eyebrows settled into a crinkle. He sat and thought for a few seconds. "Um....a cow during a drought?"

Fourth-graders are so creative.

They also came up with this great game called Monkey Dunk. The monkey bars on the school playground are like a monkey bar - ladder hybrid, and in Monkey Dunk, there are two teams who are both trying to dunk a basketball in between two rungs of the monkey-bar-ladder.

Miss Connor scored 4 times. Proud of me?

When Matchmaking Backfires

I don't know why I was in such a romantic mood this Wednesday. Maybe it was because we were going on a field trip to the Leonardo Museum in SLC, and Mrs. Dorius' class was paying for our class, so it was basically a date. Maybe it was because the boys in my group decided to call our group "Flower Power," since I like flowers, so the date basically started out with me getting flowers. (Below are some pictures of the museum!)

Or maybe it was because the museum worker gave us a presentation on algae, which I am not fascinated by, so thinking about how great he would be with my teacher was a natural defense mechanism.

Whatever the reason, he wouldn't stop waving around his ringless, 28 or 29-ish-year-old hand, and the thought came into my head. My teacher isn't married, and she is great! And he wasn't married either, and he seemed nice. He was smart, and he was good with the kids, and when my teacher, during a pause in his presentation while the kids were running up to the stage to grab a clipboard, went up to him and said jokingly that this class was really going to make him work for his pay, I couldn't help but interpret his inaudible response as a little bit flirtatious.

The game was on.

I leaned forward and tapped Kensie and Emma. They are cute dressers and hair-doers and spent the entire bus ride to the museum giggling. I know how to pick my allies in this game. "Don't you girls think that the guy presenting should take our teacher on a date?" I asked.

They nodded thoughtfully. "I never thought of that," Kensie said.

"But yes!" Emma squealed.

"Do you think he's younger than her?" Kensie asked. We thought about it for a minute and I said I thought they were about the same age.

I laid out the game plan. "Okay," I said, "If we want this to work, we can't tell our teacher. And we have to be really casual. So you two need to go up to him after the presentation and just be like, 'We think you should take our teacher on a date.' Okay?"

Kensie said: "First you have to find out how old he is."

I explained that if I asked how old he was, he would think that I wanted to go on a date with him. So I couldn't. Our operation hit a wall.

Over the next two hours, we kept working on it. In the end, the plan was that we would ask the girl presenting how old the bachelor was. If he was about the same age as our teacher, Kensie and Emma would tell him that he should get our teacher's phone number. We would attend their wedding within a year :)

It was perfect, and everything happened flawlessly according to this plan.

Oh, except the part where Kensie and Emma never worked up the courage to ask the girl presenter how old the guy presenter was.

And the part where they decided instead that he should take me on a date.

And the part where I was watching Team Flower Power go through the interactive displays and the guy presenter came over and started talking to me, and Kensie and Emma saw this and almost peed their pants about it.

And the part where I remembered how frustrating matchmaking can be and vowed never to do it again.

Not until I see another really great opportunity, that is.

You might need more sleep if....

.....you have been consistently getting 4 hrs of sleep a night.

.....you start out your shift at the Writing Center feeling pretty tired.

.....the paper you are reading over with a student is not the most entertaining.

.....you find yourself swiveling your chair distractingly back and forth in a valiant effort to keep your eyes open.

.....you also find yourself biting the insides of your cheeks to keep from yawning for the 42nd time in the same tutorial.

.....you feel a little drowsy while reading this blog post.

.....you hear yourself talking, and you just hear your voice getting gradually slower and lower.

.....you kind of feel like you're having an out-of-body experience, and you're just watching yourself talk from a foot or two above your own head.

.....you realize, just before the words leave your mouth, that you were about to say: "Sometimes scientists break the rules, right. So are you arguing for the police to come and put them in the pool, since they're being unethical?"

.....you are barely able to remember that this does not make sense when discussing a paper about the medicinal properties of chamomile.

.....you realize, when you remember this, that you just fell asleep while talking.

.....you try to restart your brain and think of something....anything!.....intelligent to say, and nothing comes.

.....your tutee is looking at you with a vaguely concerned expression and doesn't understand any of the questions you ask them.

.....you realize that they probably don't understand your questions because the questions probably don't make sense.

.....you end this remarkably unsuccessful tutorial and go back to the tutor table, feeling a little guilty for the lack of help that you were to your tutee but mostly just feeling sorry for yourself.

.....you go back home, bound and determined to go to sleep immediately after dinner.

.....you don't go to bed until 1 in the morning - again - because you got all wrapped up in roommate bonding, ex-roommate bonding, lesson planning, and the ever-entrancing power of facebook.

.....and the cycle continues.

Blame Your Friends

Do you have friends?

Do you have bad friends?

Do you have friends that are so bad, they have actually ruined your life once or twice?

I know someone who has friends like that. I would like to tell him, but I think that would be rude. So I'll just keep it to myself. (And my blog.)

Dear Self (and Blog),

He was nice. He was cute. He had really lovely eyes. He rides motorcycles and he was timely and a good driver. He got the door for me and pulled out my chair and told me to get whatever I wanted.

I will not be seeing him again.

It's not his fault, really. I can look past the fact that his car was called the blunt cruiser. Not blunt as in dull, blunt as in a blunt. I can look past the fact that I didn't get home until 1:30 when really, I should have been home by 12, with how the night was going. I can look past the awkward questions that made me feel like I was being evaluated for marriage.

But I cannot look past his friends, and so, cute motorcycle RM entreupreuner, I bid you farewell. May your taste in friends someday be as good as your taste in girls.

Sincerely,
Me

Called to [Crowd-Surf]

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past few days, your facebook probably got all blown up with pictures from the Holi Festival of Colors.

Here are some, just on the off-chance that you have been living under a rock:

The Festival of Colors is a Hindu celebration where people go and throw colored chalk in the air, and it gets everywhere, all over your face and in your hair and on your clothes, and then everyone jumps up and down, rocking out to Hindu prayers and songs, and then people act a little crazy because that's what you do when you get colorful chalk on you, and then everyone runs home as fast as they can to put their awesomer-than-everyone-else's pictures on facebook.

WELL having never been to this wonderful event, I wasn't about to miss any of those steps. I went with some really good friends as well as some new friends, and we had a blast!

Here's us on our way to the Festival:

so fresh and so clean clean.

We got there at about 10:30, so we were in time for the 11:00 chalk throwing. But all of this happened before 11:00.....

Steve was kind enough to hold me on his shoulders for the throwing. It was awesome to have such a tall view! For about a minute after 11:00 struck and everyone's colors filled the air, I could barely see in front of me. But it really looked so cool.

I wouldn't advise any of my asthmatic friends to attend this event. But to everyone else, I highly recommend it!

OH and I almost forgot. After the throwing, we went right up to the edge of the stage where they were playing Hindu rock music. The musicians got on the microphone and thanked us all for coming, gave some tips for safe crowd-surfing, and introduced their next song. All of a sudden, I found myself being lifted into the air and flung, despite my screams, on top of the people next to us.

Those people reached up to catch me, then passed me on to the people next to them. And I was off! People underneath me just moved me along. I was crowd-surfing!

And then, I wasn't. I was falling. I was kicking a poor innocent girl in the face. I was landing flat on my back in the middle of a bunch of really kind, sympathetic people who helped me up and inquired after my well-being and patted me on the bum and sent me back to my friends and went back to mosh-pitting and dropping other crowd-surfers who got pushed their way.

And that is the story of the first (and last?) time that I crowd-surfed.

"Miss, um, Connor?"

For one of my practicum assignments, I have to say what type of learner each student in my class is: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. I was going to do an activity today to find out, but we didn't have time, so now I am going through the class roster and just guessing based on what I've observed so far.

You guys, I never imagined that I would love these little 4th graders as much as I do. They are so cute! Sometimes Kensie will come over to my desk and say, shifting her weight girlishly as she talks, "Miss, um, Connor, I just need help on this part of the worksheet...." and I almost can't concentrate on the question because I think it's so cute how she says "Miss, um, Connor."

Sometimes Dawson has to come in early for a student council thing, and I see him in the hall and say, "Good morning, Dawson," and he waves all shyly at me and smiles.

Sometimes when Adam has a question, it takes him about four minutes just to ask it, because he thinks and talks a little slower. But he articulates his words so carefully, and pronounces his "t's" so distinctly, that I don't even mind.

As I'm going through their names now, I picture them working through a problem, or listening to me read, or coming in and getting started on math. I try to think of a time that I knew they really understood a certain concept, because that will tell me how they learn the best. Thinking of each one as a learner instead of just as a cute fourth-grader is very eye-opening for me! Instead of remembering the funny things they say, I remember the times when I noticed them really concentrating, or getting really confused, or suddenly having an epiphany.

Have you ever watched learning happen on a fourth-grade face? It is just as cute as watching them double-face-ninja off the monkey bars. And even more rewarding :)

Incriminating Txts

Depending on how well you know me, you might know that it is a constant battle for me to keep my txt inbox from filling up to 100%. I frequently have to go through and purge my inbox to make way for new txts.

But some txts never get purged, and never will, because they are just too funny, or too nice, or too too. Here are some of those txts:

"Bring the dollar theater here. It'll be worth it." -a boy after I told him I couldn't come to the park because I was at the dollar theater

"I looked like a troll. It didn't go well. The end." -a completely untrue statement, but funny nonetheless

"Bout to go ape crazy on the parentals."

"My fingers are crossed like they are doing the peepee dance!" -Philip

Him: It's okay though, girls with beards are attractive.

Her: Is it the ruggedness or the tickle you like?

Him: I guess it's that sense of security I get when they have a beard....I feel safer haha

"Hey sexy girl, you're bangin like a speaker box, and did it hurt when you fell from heaven? If I had the money and wasn't married I'd buy you an $80 flower arrangement" -my old roommate's husband

Dad: Don't look now but 5 guys just did a double take and asked each other who you were.

Me: I'm at school.....so I hope the 4th graders didn't already forget who i am!

Dad: Oh oops

Dad: Even those fourth graders think you're beautiful

"It is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS the cute ones that are married and with a 19 yr old son." -my 22-yr-old friend

At least my txts are not plagued with autocorrect fails like this one:

Then again, I'm not sure I would mind that so much. I would be endlessly entertained :)

Sarita Bonita Chiquita

Sometimes when I meet new people, they ask me where I fall in my family. Sometimes, I have them guess. And more often than I would like to admit, they guess that I am the baby.

The thing is, I am not the baby of the family. The baby of the family has reddish hair, not blonde. She is a basketball champ. She started blogging at a much younger age than I did. And she just turned ten today.

Sarah started out cute. She had strawberry-blonde hair and big blue eyes. We loved having another baby, a baby we could dress up and dote on and adore, and she loved being that baby. She laughed all the time and somehow, despite all of us clamoring for a chance to paint her nails or feed her or dance with her, she didn't turn out spoiled.

She had these two super-cute outfits when she was about three: a fluffy little skirt and a shirt to go with it. One was pink and one was green. She loved wearing them and dancing in the living room to "Supermodel," the song from the Lizzie McGuire movie.

One time when she was a baby, she was running around the island, being chased by Joseph or Jacob and just laughing her head off. All of a sudden, she stopped running, stopped laughing, and squatted down, looking very concentrated. The broder stopped. "Sarah?" he asked. She made a little panting sound, then stood up and started running and laughing again.

I guess when you got to go, you got to go!

One day when I was in college but was home for the summer, I took all the kids to get their hairs cut. The haircut lady put this streak of blue in her hair so obviously we had to have a photo shoot right when we got home!

Two years ago, we had a family reunion in Midway. All the girls shared one bed which was SO fun. I discovered then that Sarah moves around a lot in her sleep, and she is suddenly endowed with super-strength. If she wants to move, she does, and nothing will get in her way. I don't know how, but apparently, I slept through this.

On the flight home from that trip, Sarah got hot chocolate for her beverage. As the cherry on top of a disastrous plane ride, it of course spilled all over her. Since she didn't have any other pants, we just had to strip off the ones she was wearing and wrap Mom's jacket around her. I think it makes a very stylish skirt, don't you?

Something that I love about Sarah is how funny she is. She says the funniest things sometimes! I love talking to her on the phone and hearing about her day at school, or the boys who like her, or the latest drama with her friends. When she was about 2 or 3 we would browse through the Avon catalog every time it came and pick out our favorites on each page. She talked like a teenager then, and now, I feel like I am talking to one of my friends when I talk to her.

There is no question that Sarah is the most athletic girl in our family. I think her athleticism is Heavenly Father's blessing for my dad serving in the bishopric or something, because none of the first four girls did much of anything with sports. Sarah, on the other hand, loves basketball and soccer and pretty much any other sport she tries. She is, without question, the best one on her basketball team. (Don't worry that she fowls out on a regular basis ;) and we all love watching her play!

Sarah has a huge heart. She just knows how to love people and show them. She is a good listener; when she's talking to me, I never feel like she's just waiting for her turn to talk. She is genuinely interested in others. She is honest, sensitive, and sincere, and you can tell when you talk to her.

Contrary to what you might think from this picture, Sarah likes when I do her hair. I remember when I worked at Club Libby Lu and she was so pumped when she got to come in and get a makeover. She's just being sassy in this picture.

Sassiness is not a bad thing if you do it as cutely as Sarah does it. One time, when she visited me in Florida, she met my friend Sean. I don't remember what he said, but she thought it sounded a little flirty and decided he needed to be called out on it.

Hand on hip, eyes fixed, she bobbed her head and said, "Oh, I see, you crushin' on my sister?" in a way that reminded me that a lot of her friends are these cute little black girls. Sean wasn't crushin' on her sister, but he still turned red and laughed about it for weeks afterwards.

Even though she's almost 8 years younger than Julie, and the rest of the sisters are only about 2 years apart from the next sister, Sarah fits right in with us. She easily floats from the sisters to the brothers to her own friends.

Sarah had a unique experience when she came to Disney World. Having a sister who worked there and had just tried out for Cinderella, she knew more about how the park worked than lots of other kids her age. But at the same time, she was so much fun to go around the park with. She is super-energetic and was so enthusiastic about everything.

This is when she accidentally splashed me when getting out of the pool. I think that she mostly likes being the youngest, but thinks it would be nice if she had a sibling more her age who always wanted to swim in the pool with her when her boring older sisters just want to sit on the side and dip their feet in.

One day, a girl in our ward broke up with her boyfriend. Actually, he broke up with her, and she ended up at our house for dinner that Sunday. We had a great dinner, and afterwards, she wandered out of the kitchen, unnoticed by most of us. Sarah of course noticed and followed her to the living room.

When I went in there later, the Single Lady was lying on her stomach on the couch, saying something about how "I just don't understand, everything was going so well!" Sarah was nodding and "mhmm"ing sympathetically, her hands expertly karate-chopping a rhythm up and down the Single Lady's back.

Now, whenever I have a bad day, I wish that Sarah was there to give me a nice massage and "mhmm" sympathetically at my pathetic story. She's not, but the memory of that still cheers me up when I need it!

Sarah makes me feel like a million bucks every time I go home to visit. She doesn't try to hog attention; she tries to throw it all on the person who is having a special day. If I'm visiting from college, I am that person. If Nicool is having a birthday, she is that person. I literally think Sarah doesn't even think about herself when it is someone else's time to eat off of the Special plate.

This Christmas, my dad dropped a coin in the garbage disposal. Or at least, he convinced himself that he had. He tried getting it out and couldn't, having big man hands, so he got Sarah out of bed (it was probably about 6:50 in the morning) and asked for her help. She traipsed downstairs in her pink t-shirt and hand-me-down-from-the-broders tiger pajama pants, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, hopped obligingly up on a chair, and felt around for the coin.

I thought it was so cute that I had to take this picture. All I know is, if Dad asked me to do that, I can't promise that I would be so sweet about it. And that is why Sarah is cooler than me.

She loves doing sister photo shoots. Here are some gems from past sister or family photo shoots:

At Disney World, a guy walking around Animal Kingdom made up this song on the spot for Sarah. If nothing else, he at least got the name right: "Princess Sarah." Enjoy!

Love you Sarah!!! I am so proud of you and brag about you all the time. I can't think of a better way to finish off the Connor Clan. I hope you know how amazing I think you are. I love you forever!

Why I Do what I Do

I started my second practicum last week, and I am absolutely LOVING it. I could talk for like three days straight about everything I've been doing in the schools and how much fun it is, but instead I'll just give a brief synopsis. Since I am in 4th grade, here are my

Top 4 Reasons: Why I do what I do.

4. Teacher camaraderie. The teachers at this school are super-nice to me. We all sit together during lunch and talk about everything from church to cooking blogs to the kids in our classes to lesson ideas to whatever else. My mentor teacher is old enough to be my sister. Charlotte's is old enough to be my mother. The other one is old enough to be my grandma. Someone brings treats almost every day. (Today it was me. Yeah! Contributing!) They are so sweet and ask me how I'm doing and if I need any help and are always happy to offer advice. I will miss them when this is over!

3. Read-Aloud. Right now, I am in charge of doing the read-aloud every day after lunch. We are reading "Running out of Time" by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The kids in my class are so cute about it and every day when they come in from lunch, they act like it's a new thing that we are having read-aloud. They pump their fists and rush over to the rug and sit in front of my chair and throw their hands in the air to review what we read the day before. When read-aloud time is up, they sigh like it's the end of the world. They hold up one finger and mouth "Just one more page?" all pleadingly. They are dang cute.

2. Recess. Do you remember how much you loved recess in elementary school? Let me let you in on a secret: it's even BETTER when you are the grown-up. Today my teacher had recess duty so I went with her. Parker ran over to us immediately.

"No way!" he said. "Miss Connor, you finally get to come to recess!"

"I know!" I said, just as excited. "What do you do at recess time?"

He bounced ahead, happy to show me around. At this school, there is a huge blacktop. A couple portables are parked on it, but that just means the kids can play fun games where they run and hide and sneak around the portables. The playground is new, and slides, monkey bars, swing sets, and zip-lines sprawl over a huge field of fresh mulch.

Jaden R., Jaden T., Emilee, Emma, Harley, and some of the other kids came and joined us at the monkey bars. They all wanted to show me their awesome tricks, which all had awesome names. I saw them "caterpillar," "double-face ninja," and "slip-n-flip." They flung themselves fearlessly at the bars, reaching and tucking at just the right second.

I asked how they knew how to do so many cool tricks. "It kind of just comes naturally for us, I think," Harley said.

Then they all wanted me to try, so I asked them to teach me. They told me they'd start me with an easy one and just to grab on, pull myself up, and hook my feet on the bars. They laughed when I tried and couldn't hook my feet. I laughed too, because when kids laugh at you, they're not being mean.

"I can't believe you just did that!" Jaden R. said.

"Yeah, I've never seen a teacher on the monkey bars before!" said Parker. "I've just seen a teacher play basketball and sometimes jump rope." I wondered a little bit if I was not supposed to be on the monkey bars. Then I decided it didn't matter. I'm not a real teacher here. Not yet, anyway :)

1. And This is the #1 reason why I do what I do:

How cute is that??

Muppets, Makeouts, and Minions

It has been said that good things happen in threes. (Bad things too, but let's ignore that.) This last weekend, I can name at LEAST three good things that happened to me! Let's go in order:

1. Three sisters reunited. Nicool came to visit! She is the third child in our family and also my third-favorite sibling. Haha just kidding....I could never have a favorite since they are all way too awesome! Anyway, she got here on Friday afternoon. Since we met up on campus, we had to walk by the HFAC on the way back to my apartment and took an impromptu trip to the art exhibit.

I took some pictures of Nicole there, but they aren't on facebook so what can ya do. We then started walking back to my humble abode. It wasn't awkward at all when we ran into this boy Nicole really wanted to set me up on a date with on the way back to said abode....

2. Three-course meal. We met up with Kelly just before getting to my abode at the finest dining corner in all of Provo. There we introduced Nicool (the foreigner) to the local cuisine with a delicious dinner of one J-dawg, one savory crepe, and one sweet crepe. It is fun eating with two sisters because you get more variety in your meal and because it is fun eating with your sisters!

3. Three-game win. The Cougars faced the Tigers in volleyball this weekend, and we were privileged to be in attendance for two of the three games won by the Cougars. We cheered and danced around. I love when volleyballers are scrappy, and the Cougars were very scrappy. I was digging all the digs. (It's fine if you groaned when you read that....)

The caption for this picture says: "The BYU men's volleyball team is back and ready for action in 2012." I, too, am back and ready for action, so it was just a great time had by all.

4. Three-year-old fans. Cosmo the Cougar is probably the same hotness as the volleyball team. Nicole was overcome when she saw him. She screamed about how she needed a picture with him and ran over, smile and camera ready. The people gathered around Cosmo saw her coming - at least, the lucky ones did. They saw the passion in her eyes. They knew they needed to evacuate. I didn't get a picture, but one of them looked kind of like this little girl:

She was one of the lucky ones. The rest were pushed unceremoniously out of the way as Nicole elbowed her way to Cosmo as if it was Black Friday and he was a $129.99 flat-screen TV. Cosmo turned to Nicole. It was a magical moment when their eyes met. Cosmo dropped to the ground and said:

"Hey."

Nicole couldn't respond. Cosmo stood up and gave her a hug. I got the camera ready and looked up just in time to see Cosmo kissing my sister. Verrrrry passionately. !!!!! Welcome to Utah, Nicole :)

The happy couple calmed down long enough for me to take this picture:

And then DahlPal took one with Kelly and me, too.

5. Three-sister couch. Three sisters sitting on a couch watching Surf's Up can turn into three sisters with their legs draped all over each other and insisting that The Husband take a picture of their cuteness.

And that was just Day 1 of our awesome weekend! Stay tuned for muppets and minions.....and much, much more :)

Daddio

When everyone was home this past Christmas, Jacob had a band concert that we all went to. About halfway through the concert, Kelly, who was sitting next to Dad, and I, who was sitting next to Kelly, switched places. It was at my request that this switch took places. And I requested it because my dad is the funniest person ever to watch any kind of performance that is put on by kids. The man gets older every March 9th, but he still has some good jokes left in him!

When we were little, we would run down the stairs to greet him every day when he got home from work. Obviously we sometimes tackled him too.

Now we're a little bit older, so we don't tackle him anymore, but that doesn't mean we're any less excited to see him. It's so cute whenever he's about to come visit because he will get all excited and mention it every time we talk on the phone. I remember when we were little and he would go on business trips, and every time, he would give us his peanuts from the flight. Now that I fly more frequently, I appreciate this even more. I love my plane snacks!

My dad used to do this all the time. Then he started having back problems because he was always carrying us around. :( Poor Daddy! At least he has an awesome back-massager that I gave him for Christmas.

My dad danced with me at Kelly's wedding (where I was the MOH). One time when we were younger, our ward had a big Pioneer Day activity. We did all sorts of pioneer activities and at some point, there was pioneer music that we all danced to. We all wanted to dance with my dad, since we didn't have any brothers and no way were we going to dance with anyone else, and he just took time to dance with each one of us. Just thinking about dancing with him at my own wedding makes me cry sometimes, and yes I know that is ridiculous.

My dad is pretty much perfect, but sometimes I look over and his eyebrows poke me in the eyeball. So being the awesome daughter that I am, I try to help him out. I admit that I have tried to help him out in church before. And at Sarah's basketball games. He appreciates it, secretly.

I like this picture because look what my dad said on facebook: "Heather your eyes look so blue in this picture. What a pretty girl. Love, Dad." My dad is always so nice to me and all of us. He is constantly telling me that I am smart or nice or funny or pretty or spiritually minded or awesome in some other way. He is so proud of his daughters and his kind words mean so much to me.

And it's not just me that he's so nice to! One time, this guy asked my friend Winnie to Homecoming. I told my dad about it and he just went on and on about how great he thought Winnie was. Every time my friend Caitlin comes over, my dad will sit there at the island in the kitchen and talk to her about everything in her life. All of my friends love my dad.

My dad is a family man. Sometimes I think he likes having a big family because it means he is the king of a bigger castle ;) but in all reality, I know he just knows how important family is. He wants to have a good relationship with each one of us individually, but he also cares about our relationships with each other. Before I went home for Christmas this year, he called me very concerned.

"Heather," he said. "When you come home, I want you to do something for me. I want you to tell Nicole that you think she should get the car more than you do."

I was a little hesitant. But he convinced me that if I did that, our break would be a lot happier. And he was right, and it was.

One day when I was a freshman in college, I took a test. And I didn't do that great. And I started walking home, and I felt all crumbly inside. So I called my dad, and for some reason, when he picked up, I got tears in my eyes.

"I was just thinking about you today," he said. Then he started talking about how impressed he was with me. And I would have appreciated this any time, but feeling as unimpressive as I was right then, those words sounded especially nice right at that moment.

My dad sometimes gets flustered when my Mom goes out of town. Sometimes he gets so flustered that he makes us all take inventory of all the things we own (everything from clothes to books to knick-knacks). He also sometimes gets flustered when people pick at his eyebrows, or when the car is making a funny sound, or when someone sings at the table, or when his wife asks him to go buy some bras for their poor awkward 12-yr-old daughter who needs one by the next day because she has gym and all the girls change together in the girls' locker room. I guess that last one is understandable....

He never gets flustered when he is asked to give a talk in church. This is because he is great at it. Sometimes when he's up there, I think he is thinking, "Ohhhh yeah, back at the pulpit!" It's like he actually enjoys it.....

He never gets flustered when he meets boys who are about to take his daughters on a date. Speaking of things he enjoys, I think watching those boys squirm is something else he enjoys.

He never gets flustered when his wife is in the middle of giving birth. Sometimes he gets so un-flustered that he takes a nap in the chair or works on his laptop in the delivery room.

They are so dang cute.

I love you forever, Daddy! You know I'm always your girl :) Happy birthday!

Boom, clap

Next week, the fourth grade is going to be putting on a presentation for their parents. It is all about Utah. I am pumped out of my head.

Here are some hints in case you are wondering why I am so pumped for the program:

Hint #1: It involves recorders. Imagine 100 of them being played at once. Ahhhh, serenity :)

Hint #2:

Hint #3: The entire script is supposed to be read with a cowboy accent. If you have never seen a little 4th-grade boy saying something in a cowboy accent, you can't possibly know how cute it is. I'm glad they're teaching this in the schools now.

Hint #4: Watch this video clip. Consider: these are big people. Imagine that they are little people.

And, finally, Hint #5:

Oh yes. It's going to be amazing.

Lost and.....not found :(

So when you are an elementary school teacher, you need to have a plan book. This plan book is where you put all of your lessons, the seating chart for your classroom, the schedule for the day, everything. I had one last semester and used it perfectly, just like I was supposed to. Then I put it somewhere where it would be really easy to find it this semester, since I was going to need it again.

Does anyone know where that place might be?

I looked around today for it. My search started out pretty casual as I skipped through my room, glancing here and there. After a few minutes it became a little bit more methodical. When I still couldn't find it, I became annoyed, and then frantic. I went through every box, bag, and tupperware container in my closet. I moved everything out from under my bed. I checked in all of my dresser drawers.

I found:

*five rotten, dry, hard, deformed clementines. They had to be at least 8 months old.

*a long-sleeved shirt I'd been missing

*a sweater dress I'd been missing

*2 pairs of never-been-worn boots still in their boxes with the tissue paper around them

*1 pair of black Sunday shoes, similarly in a box with tissue paper

*my bottom retainer

*my sleep mask that I sometimes wear

*some face wash I got in the summer.

*some shirts that belong to a friend from freshman year

*a moth that was way too friendly. IHATEMOTHS.

*a math textbook that I thought I just hadn't gotten

*2 empty never-been-used 3-ring binders

*a prom dress (another thing I have never worn)

*a long-lost stash of tampons

*my 72-hr food kit from freshman year

*1 spiral notebook with like 4 dividers that has not a single word written in it

*a necklace

*a mirror Sarah made for me

*I think that's it.

Are you wondering where my plan book is on that list?

......Me too :( I'm also wondering where it is in real life.

Guys, I don't know how this happened. I have moved how many times since freshman year? Not only have I moved apartments in Provo - let's not forget that I have been home for the summer, or a large chunk of it, every year. I also lived in Florida for 4 months so I am really not sure how I overlooked these things and re-found them just now. It's not annoying that I'm re-finding long-lost items, just that everything I have hoarded since Freshman Year is suddenly resurfacing and my plan book, which I need tomorrow and which I had last semester, is nowhere to be found.

In happier news, I'm so excited about fourth grade! I love it already. I will post more on how great today was with my class later. If anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it!

High Society

I'm usually a very average person. Just an ordinary girl, you know? But on Saturday, March 3, I was a member of the social elite at BYU. I wore heels.

I dined in a dress.

I may have been on TV! I mingled with famous people.

I danced to classy music. And I did it all for a cause.

Here are some tips for anyone interested in entering this world:

1. Don't wear your pearl necklace that you made by stringing pearls together on a piece of floss. It might break. And the pearls might bounce all over the floor of the swanky art gallery you are perusing before dinner. And even though well-dressed ushers might gracefully pick up a pearl or two and discreetly hand them to you, you might still be embarrassed. Especially when you sneak off to the bathroom and find about 20 more pearls hanging out in your dress.

2. There will be a coat check. You might hang your coat next to a fur coat! This will add to your feelings of swankiness.

3. It's nice to introduce yourselves to the people whose table you randomly join, but it's not really necessary to try to engage them in conversation for the rest of the night. No big deal :)

4. Pick the dark roll. It's the best one.

5. If you take a couple pokes at the grape tomato in your salad and you can't pick it up, leave it alone. It's not edible and you don't have to eat it.

6. Don't put your gum under the lip of the first plate, thinking you can just take it off right before they take it away and put it on the next plate that comes around. You will probably forget one time. And then it'll be game over, my friend.

7. No one pays attention to which fork you eat with. But as a general rule, start from the outside and go in.

8. When you are performing at such a swanky event, it is alright to go up to one of the guests and drink their water and sample their dessert.

9. Apparently purple is a very "in" color right now.

10. Even when dining with the socially elite, if someone holding the microphone says the "p" word, there will be nervous titters that go rippling through the audience. And that will happen every time he says it (three times).

11. The really good dancers are too busy being awesome at dancing to judge you if you have no idea what you're doing. Which means it is perfectly acceptable to end every dance with a ridiculous pose.

Good luck on your entrance into high society! I hope this list helps and that you enjoy your debut as a socialite as much as I did. Does anyone have any other advice?