Things That Make Me Smile

1. My brother Eric and his wife Annie had their first baby on Saturday. His name is Mack and he is darling - of course. I live really close to Eric and Annie so I am pretty excited to get to spend lots of time with Eric, Annie and Mack.

2. I updated my blog today so it no longer has a Halloween background.

3. Using my friends' blogs, I was able to create links to all of my friends' blogs. Now I can just get on my blog and instantly be connected to everyone else instead of navigating through Kristine's blog to find everyone else.

4. I slept in this morning! AND I am still in my pajamas. Yeah for Christmast break.

5. It is tons of fun reading about the updates from my friends. It is really exciting to see all of the new little babies that my friends/family are having. Happy Day for all you new mothers. :)

6. My 5 year old niece who is very much a girl - loves dancing, dressing up like a princess and everything pink and purple - has now become quite the trash talker. Brad was playing Mia in "Dr. Mario" and she was trash talking the whole time!!! She totally learned it from her dad. She was saying things like "I am going to rock your world daddy," and "I am kickin' your trash dad!" I love it.

Randomness

I have a bunch of short little stories. None of them are long enough to warrant an entire entry, but I still want to write about them.

1) I have been part of the a group called the Heritage Park Carolers. We have been singing at This is the Place Heritage Park. It has been tons of fun! We are dressed like pioneers and I get to wear a bonnet and everything. I love getting all dressed up. There is something lovely about having a big hoop skirt on, with a bonnet and shawl and my hair in ringlets. It is so much fun to feel so femanine and to have the guys in top hats looking so masculine.

We have been singing a ton! We sing there 3 times a week. Every night is slightly different because of the different group of people that are there. The other night we had a huge snow storm and by the evening it was just a spinkle. Watching the snow fall softly on the fresh snow, as we were singing on the porch of a pioneer home....I don't know if it can get much better.

2) My students are wonderful! On Wednesday I woke up feeling really sick. I had a headache, my nose was stuffy, my throat was sore and I was still really tired. On the way to work I was really worried about how I was going to make it through the day. But as soon as my students walked into my room, they energized me. I love them! They are such great students with wonderful personalities. I love love love teaching. I am so glad I decided to become a teacher. Each day they say the funniest things that make my day wonderful.

There is something so sweet about having my students come in a say "Good morning Miss Larsen." Then as they are leaving, "Have a good day Miss Larsen." It is just so fun. The rest of my day was great and I didn't even think about how sick I felt.

They brought me TONS of gifts of Christmas. I have a million pounds of chocolate. The students who got me a box for my birthday, got me a clapper for Christmas. I hooked it up to my lamp so now all I have to do is clap twice and my lamp goes off. Sweet! Totally random but so fun.

We have been doing a food drive at school. Food was being collected in our 2nd periods. My second period decided to challenge the science and language arts classes in our POD to a competition. Our class was kicking everyone's trash...until the last two days. Second to last day, a student rbought in 50 cans into the language arts class. Then on the final day another student brought in 90 and a different student brought another 50. We lost - sadly. But my students were really proud of what they had done. I was really proud of them because I did not bribe them with anything. In the other POD the language arts teacher was bribing them with a pizza party.

Overall the 7th grade collected 3 times as much as the other grades. Go 7th graders!!!

3) I am really excited about Christmas Break. Another advantage to being a teacher is that I get all the same breaks as I did in college. They may not be as long, but they still exist. My roommates and I did a gift exchange the other day. Spending time with my roommates is a very special thing because we are all so busy that we are not all home at the same time very often.

4) Last but not lease - I got hit on by a 40 year old teacher the other day at a conference I went to for teachers. He knew exactly how old I was and I couldn't believe he really hit on me! I thought it was pretty funny. That is a new record for me.

5) I lied. There was something else I needed to mention. Megan came down last weekend and we went to the Jon Schmidt Christmas Concert. It was wonderful to have Megan here. I love that girl. She is the best friend a person could ask for. I had to leave her alone Saturday night for a few hours while I was out singing with the Carolers. She was great about it and did not complain at all. We had a great time! Thanks for coming Megan. :)