I am thankful for...

• My family
• my friends
• the gospel
• education
• my job
• cadbury mini eggs
• glee's new christmas album
• Paul Mitchell hair straighteners
• living in Idaho
• music
• laughter
• cell phones
• my health
• living in a free country
• technology
• lavender mint shampoo & conditioner
• Eden and Hannah-my cute nieces
• Shantae feeding me dinner :)
• having a washer and dryer in my apt
• contacts that allow me to see :)
• mineral powder foundation
• I Love Lucy
• delicious food
• Black Friday shopping that I will take part in tomorrow....
• CHRISTMAS

The list could go on and on....but these are a few things that came to my mind today. I hope we can continue to have an attitude of gratitude beyond this day of thanksgiving, especially with the holidays. With that said.......it's time for CHRISTMAS! and I'm so excited!

Am I really a teacher??

So this week has been kind of rough at school. I don't know what's gotten into the students but it's been hard to keep them on task and get anything done. I have to admit I haven't been as patient with them as I should be, but I was seriously at the end of my rope! Today during my prep hour I walked into my classroom and it just kind of hit me-I am a TEACHER. And it's not like this is my first week, this is like my 3rd month! How the heck have I been teaching school for 3-almost 4 months already? I can't believe the time has gone by so fast. I think back to a year ago when I had just found out my student teaching placement would be in a 6th grade class and I cried because I thought there was no was I could ever do that. But I did! And it was a great experience. And now I'm 4 months into my first year of teaching. I've made it this far, I'll be able to make it through the rest of the year right????? Or at least until Christmas I hope? Really the only thought that's getting me through this week is, "3 more days of teaching till Thanksgiving." or "one week from now I'll be in relaxing in Idaho with my family, sleeping in, stuffing myself with food, shopping, not grading papers, not teaching how to write using alliteration or whatever...." Anyway, that's my venting session for the week. I can assure you that not every week is like this one, but somehow the bad weeks stick out in my mind more than the good. Thank goodness we're on the home stretch for this week!

The big 24!!!!!!

I think the only bad thing about birthday's is that they only come once every 365 days. You have this great day and then you have to wait a whole year for it to come again. Let me tell you I had an AMAZING birthday on the 13th. And ps...I'm 24???? When did that happen?? Well, the number sounds old but I don't feel old. I'm the exact same...just older haha. My amazing day was all because of my friends and family that I was able to celebrate with. My mom, dad and Kyran came down from Idaho for the weekend. First we celebrated with a few rockin presents at Shantae's house.....

Seeing these cuties just makes my day :)

New straighteners! We should have a moment of silence because I seriously love this thing! Thanks mom and dad!

Then we celebrated by having lunch at Benihana's. MMMMmmm...

A tiny asain lady sang 'happy birthday' to me while beating a drum and shaking a tamborine-I don't think I understand a word she said, but it was cute :) I love this picture because of Eden's face-she wanted to blow out the candle so bad!
We went back to Shantae's for some delicious ice cream cake. Once again, Eden is entranced by the candles.
Then I got to spend the evening with my most favorite people! We started by eating super greasy pizza at The Pie-by Jenni's request ;) hehehe
Next we went bowling. While we were waiting for our lane we played some arcade games-I felt like I was back in 5th grade but hey, who cares? Me and Jenn rocked this game!

The thing about these games is even though you know they're rigged, I think we all have this secret desire to be that one person who actually outsmarts the machine and wins a great prize. As much as we were rooting for Jarom to win this one....it just didn't happen :( Maybe next time though :)

I cannot begin to explain how much I love these girls! They made me feel so special and we had so much fun! Thanks girls! You rock!

So just to prove how amazing my friends are, they gave me awesome presents every place we went. At the bowling alley I got these super cute socks. At dinner it was cute jewelry and back at my apartment it was Reeses and the most comfortable pj's ever! Seriously I wear them all the time. And not to mention the best movie-Newsies!
Jenni made this delish (non chocolate :)) cake which was great!
And finally a whole group shot. Most amazing friends a girl could ever ask for. Thank you everyone for making me feel special on my birthday-love you guys!

I love my nieces!

So I don't know if any of you have noticed by I happen to have two of the cutest nieces ever. Yep, I don't want to hear any argueing!! After Eden came back from trick or treating we kind of had a mini photo shoot on Shantae's computer and we were laughing like crazy! Isn't she adorable?

I absolutely love this picture! The funniest part is that Eden just got in from trick or treating, and it was freezing, so you can see her snotty nose! Haha...

She's a little hyped up on candy, she wouldn't let go of those suckers!

Now I do realize I have another super adorable niece that you don't see in these pictures. But, Hannah fell asleep so she missed out on this photo shoot. But I promise there will be more to come and she'll definitely be part of them!

Halloween at Reid School...

Halloween at Reid School was so much fun. I'm not big into Halloween and haven't dressed up in years, but being a teacher has now provided me with lots of opportunities to dress up. And it was fun. First of all, our school has been decked out for Halloween since the last week of September. And when I say decked out, I mean verrry decked out. Like there's a whole committee that decorates the whole school. We had a Halloween carnival last and it was the best one I've been to. The parents were so amazing and it really was a success. Then we had a costume parade and class parties. My class was also in charge of decorating one of the glass cases in the entrance so we made two halloween crafts to display and they were a hit!

Shantae, Eden and Hannah came to my carnival. Isn't she the cutest ballerina?

And look at that cute flower!

I was in charge of "Cookie Concoctions". Eden had a fun time decorating and eating her cookie.

All the teachers after the carnival. We are so tired!