Flying High!

Justin and I are flying high. We love it here! The weather has been out of this world. Except I'm already too hot...it's February...I'm going to die this summer. It doesn't help that we're in a record drought right now. Have you seen the news in California? I hope we have produce this year in our stores!

We had a very fun week. My parents were going to come last weekend to visit but it didn't work out. Too bad. I had Monday off which was nice because I had an extra day to recover from my cold. I used the day to help my friend dye her hair and shop for a new bed comforter. I found one on sale at Target and we got the whole set and new sheets for less than $100. We love it!

My mom bought tickets to the Donny and Marie Show downtown and since they didn't come down, Justin and I used the tickets. We made a night of it, so at 5:30 we drove down to the strip and had dinner and frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity. We went to the show at 7:30 and enjoyed meeting a couple from England. I kept thinking, "If my mom were here she would talk about the church to them...I have to say something!" Sure enough they happened to mention that they live right next to the "Mormon Church" so I asked "Oh are you familiar with the Mormons?" and they said a little and then I told them, "We're Mormon!" Ha! We talked a little about it and it sounds like the members there have really reached out to them so good work is being done! They were a nice couple. As for the show, we loved it! We didn't recognize any of the songs they sang but holy cow - they were good. At the end they sang a few Broadway numbers from The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, and Wicked. They sang "For Good" and it reminded me of when Keaton and I sang that with a group when we graduated high school Presh!

Nachos!

Frozen Hot Chocolate!

Justin's brothers have been planning a trip down here and to the Grand Canyon and they said I could include Keaton if I wanted, so Wednesday I gave him a call and helped him book a flight to come see us in April and go to the Grand Canyon. I'm so excited! I'm having my students take part in the "Doodle 4 Google" competition where they could win a $30,000 scholarship and a $50,000 grant for their school. A lot of them are really talented artists so we're all excited!

Thursday I did a Jeopardy review with my classes. The kids got way into it. They are so fun! The Relief Society asked me to lead a station in the "New Year, New You!" activity. I ran the "nutrition" portion of the program and one of the sisters brought green smoothie to demonstrate how to make and sample. I preached to them about soluble and insoluble fiber and why they are both important. It was a lot of fun! The gal that did the green smoothies gave me some new ideas for how to do them and I'm excited to try it! I made a few new friends that night. Yeah!

Friday my students took the post test for the unit I taught. My classes all improved by 20-30% so that was awesome! One class went from a 62% class average to an 87% class average. They learned! Huzzah! I had 6 or 7 students get 100%. Happy, happy, happy! Justin and I ate out at Red Robin and used our club house hot tub for the first time. Soaking will become a regular activity! So nice.

Saturday we played Ultimate all day. We played with our group from 10-12 then played again at 2 with our ward for the "Floats and Frisbee" activity. We had a few adults and lots of youth play with us and we had a lot of fun. We did our grocery shopping and visited the hot tub again. Love it!

I'm done teaching water and now I'm onto weather. I start tomorrow with the new unit. I'm so glad to be done with my water unit because it's the one I'll be using for my portfolio which is due in a few weeks. This gives me plenty of time to put it together and make it perfect for when the BYU-Idaho employees come down to evaluate me. I'm so looking forward to our Girl's Weekend in April which has been set for the 25th! Next weekend we're playing in the "Trouble in Vegas" tournament with our teams back in Idaho. Our friends are coming down to play and a lot of them are staying the night at our place. Fun fun times!

Valentine's Day

It's been another successful week with student teaching and work for me and Justin. Monday we did our first visit to a family in the ward as ward missionaries. We get new assignments every few weeks to visit 2-3 families. It's been a good experience so far...now we get to stretch a bit more and visit less active members and invite them to hear the missionaries or come to church. We have a ward activity coming up and they're playing Ultimate so we're excited for that.

This week I taught glaciers, groundwater, and natural resources (renewable and nonrenewable). I did a game with them that I made up last year that demonstrates how renewable resources work. I put a piece of candy in a bowl, one for each student, and tell them they can get a piece now or they can wait and after each round I double whatever amount is left. I do that for several rounds and then split whatever they earn at the end. I bought two bags of dum dums totaling 720 pieces of candy! I wanted all my classes to do it so I needed a lot. It was fun to watch them freak out on each other if they tried to take a piece of candy. It's a fun way to teach that if we use natural resources carefully and allow time for them to replenish themselves, there will be enough to go around for all. They also made posters showing how to convert a renewable resource into electricity and what the electricity is used for.

We decided for Valentine's Day that we wanted to save some money (gazelle intense!) so we went grocery shopping to make a meal at home. Well, Justin's boss called him in on Thursday and gave him some very encouraging words as well as some gift cards to a nice restaurant. Justin has totally revamped the way the company tracks their inventory, ordering, etc and his boss told him they really appreciate all he's done and that after 90 days they're going to "talk" so...that sounds like a pay raise to me. Since his boss gave him a gift card to eat out, we made our Valentine's dinner Thursday night instead of Friday night. Justin bought some nice fish and I made cilantro lime rice. It was delicious!

Love the sunset!

Thursday night I had the first signs of sickness. I felt a scratch in my throat and woke up Friday with a sore throat. Typical! I get a long weekend and my body decides to get sick....lovely. Friday the students didn't have school but the staff had to go in for training. Nevada is putting a program into place where legislators (or at least people who work for them) come and evaluate teachers. I think the most I've learned from my student teaching experience so far has been the politics of teaching... which I don't like. But they fed us breakfast and lunch that day. Slidin' Thru catered our lunch; it's like a taco bus but for sliders and it was awesome!

For Valentine's Day I gathered letters for Justin from family and friends to give to him. I emailed his closest friends and family weeks ago asking for contributions and then I did a scavenger hunt with them, each letter with a clue to the next letter. Justin works early on Fridays so I dropped him off at work at 6 and then had from 6-7 to get ready and set it up for when he got home at 1 to do the hunt while I was still at school until 2:30. He loved it! For me, Justin wrote out a bunch of "coupons" for me and then cut them up like a puzzle, so after I put the puzzle together I had coupons like "a shirt for $15" and stuff like that. We went out to dinner and I ordered a delicious steak! I never order steak - too pricey - but we had a gift card so I went for it. It was a great Valentine's Day.

Three gift cards! Woot!

Justin's letters and clues; my puzzle

my puzzle coupons

Saturday my cold really set in and I spent the whole day at home. Today I stayed home from church so as not to infect the ward and to rest up some more. I have the worst immune system...so why did I choose to be a teacher?? Hello! Kids = millions of germs. Tomorrow school is closed so I have the day off. At least I'll be able to rest up for one more day before I have to get back into using my voice all day long. Tomorrow I'm helping my friend dye her hair since she also has the day off from student teaching. Maybe it will tempt me to get highlights in my hair again...we'll see!

Science Experiments and Hair Cuts

Teaching this week has been really great. I had my first observation from my supervisor and she gave me all 3's out of 4. She said that's really good for a first time observation and that from what she observed, teaching comes very naturally to me. I have to agree with her! I love teaching and I'm good at it. I love working with the group of students I have. Some are impossibly hard but it's worth it when I'm grading their science journals and I see they've left me notes like, "We love you Mrs. Rose!" One student even gave me a hug. It's been great!

This week we did some fun experiments in class with different densities. I did this experiment with warm and cold water to show them how their densities are different. They loved it!

I took cold and warm water, dying them blue and red and place the cold water on top of the warm water. The water mixed. 

I did the same thing but with warm water on top of cold water. It didn't mix that time. They recorded their observations and gave a conclusion for why the water mixed the first time but not the second -- fun!

We bought a new hair clipper set so I can start cutting Justin's hair again. I cut his hair today and it is the best I've done yet. It's a little short, but at least it's even this time. We also checked out the 'best bakery in Henderson' and shared a slice of chocolate cake. Yum! The weather here has turned cloudy and sort-of rainy. Because it there's hardly any rain, the oil builds up on the roads so when it finally does rain it's really slick. Luckily we haven't had to drive when it's been raining yet.

Ready to cut some hair! Before...

After!

"the back of yo'head is ridikulus!" 

Chocolate cake!

Cool sunset

 We found a kitchen table on Craig's list for $140! We love it - it feels good to eat dinner at a table for the first time in two months! It's in great condition and just the right size. We love Craig's list! Next paycheck we'll be looking for a used mattress. Thank goodness for Dave Ramsey! We pay with cash only for things we can afford. It's a slow process but we're learning and we're grateful!

Friday night we went out to dinner and watched some Prison Break at home. We also did our grocery shopping and got our favorite treat - cold cereal! We go through it so fast. Berry Collosal Crunch? We refer to it as Berry Collosal Crack because it is so addicting! Saturday we "slept in" until 7. Crazy when sleeping until 7 feels like sleeping in! We made French toast and helped clean the church, then played ultimate at Sunset Park. We played for three hours! It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. I've been hesitant to play because when I went one time with Justin I didn't touch the disc hardly at all but Saturday I scored a bunch of points so I finally proved myself! I worked on my lesson plans for next week and we watched more Prison Break.

Sunday we had ward conference and church got out an hour early. Gotta love that! Justin caught up with his parents and I called my mom to visit for a bit. I'm grateful that it's so easy to stay in touch with the people I love that are so far away. Now we're having breakfast for dinner! We are very happy and so grateful for all the blessings we have!

Super Bowl Weekend

Justin and I have had another great week. This week for student teaching my goal was to have five positive interactions with students every period. I have 181 students and this week I memorized every single one of their names. Boom roasted! I take over with my lessons tomorrow all the way through May, so we'll see how it goes! Tomorrow I teach water properties. Wish me luck!

Justin has started an "It Works" program. "It Works" is one of those weight loss programs that includes wraps and supplements. One of my visiting teachers from Rexburg is a consultant and she offered a few people on facebook to do three months of the products as part of her portfolio for a special deal, so Justin got in on it and now he's trying the products. He did his first wrap and it took two inches off his waist, so we'll see how he does with it for the next few months. I'm apprehensive about it things like this, but I'm supportive. Justin is excited about it so we'll see how it goes!

Thursday we had our first meeting with the other ward missionaries and the ward mission leader. They have a ward mission plan, and part of the ward plan is for every family in the ward to have a family mission plan so part of our calling is visiting families and helping them create a family mission plan. They have this mantra "willing and brief": when we meet new people we ask if they would be willing to hear a brief message from the missionaries about how families can be together forever or some other church-related topic. It's had a lot of success so far in the ward. 

Thursday I also had my first cohort meeting, which is a mandatory meeting I have weekly with the other student teachers and a supervisor. Two of my five class periods are very difficult, so I asked for specific tools to help with students who don't want to be at school and don't want to do anything. I'll try implementing those strategies this week and see how it goes.

Friday for date night Justin wrote out three options for me to choose from. He's the cutest! 

Eating out with Justin is my favorite thing to do with him. We went to Red Robin (YUM!) and watched Cars. We also started the "Mitt" documentary on Netfilx. I saw Hart post about it on Facebook and it interested me. I couldn't watch very much of it because it stressed me out for one thing, and it made me more upset that Mitt Romney isn't in the White House. Gah, enough said.

Saturday we did our weekly grocery shopping and bought our first bathroom scale. I also got some school supplies for student teaching. We exercised and in the afternoon just to get out of the house we walked around Hobby Lobby and Home Depot for those days when we can spend some money on doing crafty/buildy things in our home. We walked around Sunset Station which is one of the casino hotels in Henderson. They had an amateur bowling tournament going on so we watched them play for a bit. We went to Cafe Rio to start our fast and that night we watched "Playing for Keeps." 

This morning I coudln't sleep in past 7, so I finished the 6th Harry Potter book before getting ready for Church. One lady who is new to the church bore her testimony and at the end made a little comment about rooting for the Broncos for the Super Bowl. Funny. We had a lesson on Family History and Temple work in gospel doctrine and it made me think of Mom and all the work she's done. 750 names in one month is quite an achievement! Justin and I threw some things together for a little Super Bowl party. Justin found a way to stream the game live on the laptop. He has a talent for looking at what we have in the cupboard and throwing together something spectacular. He made chicken nuggets and potato wedges, orange julius, nachos, and chocolate muffins. Yum! Naturally he is loving watching Seattle do so well. I'm happy for them but really, Broncos? I lost track of the fumbles. I at least wanted a close game.

That's all we have for an update this week. Today I'm feeling a bit homesick. In gospel doctrine we talked all about family. Justin made a comment about how at Redfish Mom puts together a skit for the grankids to act out different life events of our ancestors and it made me cry. I sure do love and miss my family!