Thankful

As Thankgiving time rolls around, I am reminded of all the things I am grateful for. In my 1st grade class, I am helping the students make a thankful turkey of the things they are grateful for. I thought would list mine too.

(it will look something like this...)

I'm thankful for a loving family who's always supported me and has my back.

I'm thankful for extended family out in Utah who feed me, let me hang at their house, spend holidays with them, and most important love me.

I'm thankful for letters from my best friend on her mission, who always brings a smile to my face. 

I'm thankful for good friends who I don't see all the time, but I randomly run into.

I'm grateful for all the good samaritans in this world, who take a second to practice random acts of kindness that they don't know are noticed. 

I'm grateful for good bishops of wards, who get to know every member and make everyone feel included and important. 

I'm grateful for my chance to have a good education and learn to be a teacher.

I'm grateful for my job that allows me to earn a little money, but more importantly see a lot of people I wouldn't normally see and become friends with a large group of people.

I'm grateful for understanding teachers and people who help you feel you can succeed even when its hard.

I'm grateful for my chance to learn from and work with 1st graders this year. They are the sweetest. 

Halloween!

             I love Halloween! Dressing up, costumes, the taste of candy corn, trick or treaters at your door... the list goes on and on. I think as a little kid the excitement of Halloween revolved around the candy and how much I would get. I'm sure it's the same for almost any child. I loved to dump out my spoils at the end of the night and trade with my siblings for what I thought was the best stuff. My parents would sit with us and mooch off our candy.. and we would let them.. unless they took our favorite. 

           As I got older, I received the responsibility of taking my three younger brothers trick or treating. This was always so much fun. I enjoyed seeing the excitement on their faces which was almost as much fun as if I were trick or treating myself. I loved going trick or treating with them. I also loved to stand at the door and hand out candy to all the little kids who came along. 

Halloween excitement started again once I started college. My roommate freshman year loved Halloween and insisted that we go to the Halloween dance. I didn't know what to be, and didn't really want to go, but she loved it so much, so we went together.. and we had a BLAST! My costume - tickled pink. 

Jess as Mad Cow Disease and Me as "Tickled Pink"

          Sophomore year after realizing how much fun it was to dress up and go to dances, I decided to try again. That year I was a poodle skirt girl. My roommate was cloud nine. 

            Last year, I spent Halloween with my roommate and her family in Monticello, and we took her little brothers trick or treating for Halloween. Once again I realized how much fun Halloween is to a child, and I think I had more fun than they did. This year, my roommate is on a mission, but I know how much Halloween means to her and has come to mean to me. My roommates and I decided to be the cereal icons. We hit up D.I. and Michaels for some colored duct tape and t-shirts, and put together our costumes. They were super easy and cheap but fun and ended up looking great. We had a great time. 

Me as "Buzz" the Honeynut Cheerios Honeybee

Me as Buzz and Lexi as Tony the Tiger (Frosted Flakes)

The group - missing Lisa ( Lexi as Tony the Tiger, Katy as Lucky from Lucky Charms, Me as Buzz from Honeynut Cheerios, Stasia as the Quaker Oats guy, and Julia as Captain from Captain Crunch. 

Lessons Learned

   Last night I had an incredible experience. I went with my friend Kaitlin and a couple guys to a living facility for people with mental and physical disabilities. Another friend of mine, Jess, suggested that we go because her friend goes every week and invited new people along. When we first arrived, I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure what to do. We walked in and were greeted with big hugs and kisses. Everyone loves her friend  and they all ran up to them to say hello. As I watched her friend hug them, rub their backs, pay attention to them, and talk to them, I couldn't help but smile. Other BYU students also came and were greeted the same. I watched as they taught them how to play cards, how to play the piano, how to dunk, and listened to stories. I couldn't help but think that I was seeing a little piece of what the pure love of Christ looks like.  That night I got the best hugs, the biggest  and sincerest smiles, and I learned what love is. We stayed and I listened to stories, talked about Halloween costumes, put together puzzles, and played with them. I feel like I learned so much from them and they have so much to offer that I think is often overlooked. I hope to go again and learn more from them.

Health 101

  This semester I've often been left feeling quite overwhelmed. It's weird to think that in just 2 short weeks I will be out at Spring Creek Elementary teaching cute little 1st graders. Weird... and scary. Classes are trying their best to prepare us with every detail of lesson planning, how to's, and everything you need to know to teach...in just a month in a half. Needless to say its a lot in a little time. However, I would like to say something about my health class.
   My teacher is Cougar Hall. Funny right? He claims it has nothing to do with BYU though. The first day of class we walked in and he told us he'd try to memorize our names, but that before that, we'd all be "girlfriend",  or "sister". Of course he said he didn't mean anything by this because his wife is his favorite and she is "Sister Hottypants" :).
  Mr. Hall's goal for the class is to help us see how to implement health in a REALISTIC way. He teaches us to teach the functional knowledge that kids need to know. (For instance - do 1st graders really need to know that smoking kills? NO, then they're going to go home thinking their mom is going to die because she smokes. Also, do 10th graders really need to learn the food pyramid for the 8th time? As he stated what are they going to do with it? Flip it, twist it? Teach them how to implement it! )  Most teachers in the elementary level do not implement health because they feel they don't have the time. He teaches us how to implement health with simple ideas like having the kids get up and stretch for 30 seconds, giving a 10 minute lesson every Friday, etc.
  The most important thing he does though is that he teaches us not just about health, not just about teaching, but about life. I have learned so many valuable lessons from him. He takes the time to tell stories about his experiences and teaches us what we can learn from them. Some of my favorite things he's said are :
  "Don't focus on what you can't do, focus on what you can do"
  "You don't need to be THE best, you need to be YOUR best."
Last week, we talked about how sometimes we can't make everything right for students, and we need to give them a new perspective instead. Helping them gain resiliance and a new perspective helps them do that. If you've never seen Boundin from Pixar, you should watch it. It's a great clip we watched in class. We also talked about a boy named  Patrick Henry Hughes who sees his disabilities as abilities, and his teacher who told him what needed to happen and then made it happen.
  So here's a shout out to Mr. Hall, for not only teaching me how to teach health, but way more than that, teaching me the important lessons of life. Thank you!

Knoebels!

Another thing we ended up getting to do as a family was go to Knoebels Amusement Park. We used to go every year when I was little because my dad's work had a day there. I haven't been back though since I was 12 or so. So we decided that if we could go somewhere this summer it would be to Knoebels. We had a lot of fun. Here are my favorite pictures of the day! 

This is where Scott is telling me "I'm a better driver than Emily!" The truth actually though is that Scott caused a 4 boat pile up by swerving back and forth :)

Emily and I on the sky ride 

a great picture of Dad, Mom, and Scott after the skloosh ride

another great one of Scott's excitement after the flume 

Bushkill Falls!

This past weekend my family decided to do something fun for the summer. My dad has been getting flyers from all across Pennsylvania about things to do. We talked about all different options but we decided on going to Bushkill Falls. It's this beautiful trail in the Poconos in Pennsylvania that takes you to see 8 different waterfalls. It took us about 2 hours to drive up there because of 4th of July traffic but it was worth it once we made it. We chose the longest path- the red trail, which allowed us to see all 8 waterfalls. It was really beautiful. The trail had a stream next to it almost the entire time, with beautiful wood bridges and a canopy of trees overhead. In the end it took us 3 hours to hike the whole way but it didn't seem that long at all. It was so pretty and the waterfalls were amazing. At the end of the hike, we even saw a live monkey! This guy was just sitting there and had a pet monkey. He told us we could pet it and so we did. Here are just a few pictures from the hike! 

Ashley's Wedding!

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to attend my good friend Ashley's wedding. Ashley and I met on the first day of 6th grade and were best friends all through middle school. I spent a lot of time at her house eating pancakes with peanut butter, maple syrup and applesauce, playing life, watching movies, and spending time with her family. I have a lot of good memories from time spent with her.

I am really glad I was able to go to the wedding. The ceremony was really sweet and Ashley looked so beautiful. The reception was really nice. I loved the decorations. Of course they had Ashley throw her bouquet, and I stood in the back row not expecting or really trying to catch it.  Then of course what happened was the bouquet ended up about landing in my hands. I caught it! I thought it was pretty funny and sat down. They threw the garter and someone I didn't know caught it. What I didn't know would happen was that they would have me sit in a chair and have the total stranger who caught the garter reenact the scenario, by placing the garter up my leg. Can you say embarrassing? But I'm still here so I survived :) Now I can laugh about it.  It was pretty great day. I'm so glad I could be there for my friend on her special day!

Pictures from Mark's Half Marathon

I know I previously posted about Mark's half marathon when it occurred. I wanted to post some pictures of the event though. These were all taken by Emily. Enjoy!

Mark at the end of the race, receiving his trophy.
He placed third in his age group.

Mark at the very end of the race. 

Mark at the beginning of the race.

Here's Mark after the race with his medal. 

Mark with his trophy!

Mark before the race, ready to go.

Mark at the finish line.

Close up of Mark after the race.

close up of Mark's medal he received

Trip to Bellefonte!

After Mark's half-marathon, we were only an hour from Bellefonte, PA so we decided to continue on. This is where we lived for 9 years and I grew up there. We haven't been back all together as a family since we moved. We left 7 years ago. We only stayed Saturday night and Sunday but it was so nice to see everything and everyone. We were able to go look at our old neighborhood, see some neighbors, visit the park and the penny candy store, go to our old ward at church, and see a lot of people. I'm really glad we got to go.  Here's a video of us driving into town. Sorry its upside down. 

The exit into Bellefonte.

My old house!

Mark's Half Marathon

This last Saturday was Mark's half marathon. He was so excited and has been training all year. He started out at 5 miles or so a day and worked up to running 13 on the weekends. Mark has been in cross-country for years, but the past couple of years he has been running all the time to get faster and better. The half-marathon was in Danville, PA, about 2 hours from our home. We traveled there and then walked to the start line with Mark. While we were waiting, there was a festival going on and so we walked the festival. Then we came back and watched Mark come in at the finish line. Here's a video I took of him finishing. Sorry it's sideways, I don't know how to fix it.

Here's a video of all of us with Mark after he came in from the race. We are all so proud of him. Mark ended up with a time of 1:48 and came in 3rd in his age group (16-20). Congratulations Mark! 

Crystal Caves

 Today I had the opportunity to go on a field trip. My brother Scott is in 2nd grade and got to go to Crystal Cave. My dad was supposed to go with Scott as a chaperon but  its an hour drive from our house and Dad gets really stiff from his Parkinson's so I went with him and drove. I'm really glad I went. It was really cool. The last cave I went in was Timpanogos Caves which was when I was a sophomore in high school. When I was Scott's age, I used to go to Penn's Cave, but its filled with water so you ride in boats throughout the cave. It's really neat. Crystal Cave is a lot smaller but the kids still had a lot of fun. Here is Scott at the beginning. 

The guide called this an upside down ice cream cone. Interestingly, the guide was trying to teach the kids about stalagmites vs. stalactites and to teach them the difference he said if you jump up high and hold onto something you want to hold on "tight" vs. so the ones on the ground are stalagmites. 

Does this look like bacon strips to you?

The guide was also saying that the cave was also used as a place to celebrate. It is always 54 degrees. So in the winter, its warmer than the outside and in the summer its cooler than outside. People used to have babies baptized, weddings, dances, and meetings in the cave. This formation was used as a pulpit for meetings in the cave. 

The cave used to be full of water, but this is all that's left.

Called "fried eggs", this formation is a result of the removal of stalagmites. It is also the only formation in the cave that could be touched because it is already dead. 

 

coming out of the cave 

looking down from the top of the cave

Scott in front of some of the signs for crystal cave, and the Amish Buggy .

In front of the ice cream parlor... too bad it was closed!