Just some cuteness

I try to write down at least one thing that my students say every day that made me smile or laugh. I just thought I'd share some of the recent ones. Just for a little laugh :)

"Man. My mom packed me some carrots. She thought I would want nutrition but I didn't want any nutrition!"

"We're a big fan of Pepsi and the Denver Broncos."

(Who are some heroes in our community?) "Vultures. If we didn't have them there would be dead animals everywhere!" 

"I know who Martin Luther King is. He was a good guy til white guys shot him"

(Talking about the Earth mantle) That stuff is HOT! If you get that stuff in your mouth it's gonna be HO-OT!" 

Walking outside after school randomly...."You're welcome for lighting up your life Ms. Erekson. Get it? Lighting Up!" Me-"Uh....I don't get it..." "Ugh...."

"This movies so happy I've got a happy look on my face!" 

Until next time.....

Try not to be jealous you don't teach second grade 

:) 

There's more than one way to get out of school...

So I had an eventful week this week, and I just wanted to get it written down while it's still fresh :)

So Monday and Tuesday I woke up feeling kind of nauseous, but Monday I woke up and got ready and I felt fine the rest of the day, just a little tired. However, Tuesday I woke up and threw up. I think I might have blacked out for a minute after throwing up, but I was half asleep so I'm not sure. So I took a shower, and slept for an hour then woke up and got ready to go to school to get some sub plans/activities ready and talk to Teresa (my facilitator). I got to school and went into the copy room and started making copies and cutting papers, when all of a sudden I felt REALLY nauseous and light headed so I stopped cutting and shut my eyes for a second. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground and the other two teachers in the workroom were next to me.
"are you ok?!"
"yeah, yeah I'm fine!"
"Uh...you just passed out!"
"Oh! Ok"
"Are you hurt at all?"
"No, I'm ok!"
"Uh, your head is bleeding!"
"Oh! Ok!"

(the head wound) 

I was a little out of it. Hahahaha. But I was aware of everything going on just a little shaken. When I fell, apparently I took out a shelf and cut my head open. I also think I hit my elbow pretty hard because it's still hurting. Someone called 911, and the EMTs came in and started checking my vitals. Everything was good except my blood sugar was a little low so they brought me some apple juice. They told me I should probably go to the ER and they could take me or I could have someone else drive me. I asked if someone could drive me (so I wouldn't have to pay for an ambulance. hahahaha) So they wrapped my head in gauze and walked me out to the car. One of the school secretaries, Verna, took me to the ER with her to get checked out. While we were driving there, I texted Tyler and asked him if he could pick me up from the ER and drive me home.  At the ER, they put me in a chair and the nurse took my vitals again and sent the doctor in. While the doctor was talking to me, I started to feel like I did earlier so I asked for some apple juice. The doctor went to go get it, and Verna went and got me a barf bag. Right as Verna came in, she watched me roll off the chair and onto the floor. At that point they helped me walk to another room with a bed with rails so I couldn't fall out if I blacked out again. Then they hooked me up to an IV and took some blood samples. Then they did a CAT scan, an EKG, and took a urine sample. Lots of firsts there :)

My entourage :) 

ALL of the tests came back normal, my white blood cell count was a little low which the doctor said could be a little virus or from stress. So once they knew everything was normal, they got to the cut in my head. They gave me a tetnus shot , and put two staples in my head. At first I was like, NO WAY do I want staples!! But for stitches, they have to cut some hair, and numb the head and it takes longer. With staples, they just staple it and you're done! No numbing and it hurts less (apparently...) So I went with the staples...Just before I left my Relief Society President came by to check on my (word travels fast up here...) To make sure I was ok, I had to walk around the halls with a little bit with a nurse and not passed out. And I passed :) So after 4 hours, they let me go and Tyler took me home. He went and picked up some anti-nausea medicine and my car and stuck around with me for the rest of the night to make sure I didn't pass out again.

My IV- Those suckers hurt! :( 

I stayed home the next day to fully recover and went back to school on Thursday. I've been feeling just fine since then, so I have NO idea where that came from! I've never passed out before this and I hope I never do again! It's a really bizzare experience!!! But there are so many things I am grateful for about this experience!! I am so glad that I passed out before school and in the work room so my kids didn't see anything!! I'm so grateful that there were two other teachers in there to help me out when I fell! I'm especially grateful for all the support and love I received from my friends and family in Heber and around the country! I got flowers, cards, visits, and lovely texts!! One of my students came to my house to check on me, another student sent me an email,  four sisters from my relief society came over to check on me. my mom and Teresa sent me flowers, Tyler bought me a card and balloon, the other intern had his class make me a card, and my class all made me cards. SO many blessings in my life!!! Things like this sure make me grateful for "normal" days and for good health!!

(My two staples)

(The hospital bracelet) 

That big white board is the shelf I knocked over when I fell and those boxes over there fell on my head

(All the lovin I got from friends and family) 

 There have been a lot of jokes and puns from this event such as, "Kate, there are better ways to get out of bus evacuation drills" "Jeez Kate, stop trying to get so much attention!" (since I don't get enough as a teacher ;) ) "Ms. Erekson, you can't go in the copy room by yourself!!! We're coming in with you to catch you!" After getting my head wrapped -"Kate you're a little early for Halloween!"

So that's my story :) 

I can see why people do this....

I guess teaching is like everything else in life. Lots of highs and lows. You just get the highs and lows of 25 little people for 6 hours every day, so I think it feels a little more intense at times. But yesterday and today have been near the high's of those days. Granted highs still include students ignoring me refusing to come out of the bathroom and crying, but it's still just really great. I thoroughly enjoy my students. I love seeing how their minds work and trying to make things exciting for them! I love having little moments with kids one on one where I get a smile out of them or they tell me something they're really excited about! I have already spent a lot of time with these kids and I'll be spending a lot more time with them and I'm already attached! So when the times get tough, I just want to remember that there are days where I do like it and where all the work and stress is totally worth it!

Keep calm and carry on!

When life gets tough, cry?

So today was just one of those days that should be recorded. I just had one student who couldn't handle anything we were doing. Every day is a battle to keep them in their seat and quiet. If he's actually doing what he's supposed to, extra 500 points. But he might be one of my favorites. He just needs a lot of one on one attention that I can't give him.
Anyways. Today. We started off the day with a spelling pretest.  I wrote the correct spelling on the board and he kept yelling out that he couldn't look at the board. I asked why not and he said "because my dad said I can't or I'll be grounded for the rest of my life!" Start the whining and crying. Luckily my facilitator was there and she took him out in the hall and gave him the test one on one. Then before lunch he accidentally hit a girl in the face so I asked if he would say sorry. He told me he already did. I said she didn't hear you so could you just apologize again please?
 "I don't ever say sorry two times!"
"Ok, well you need to say sorry before we go to lunch"
*cries and lays on a desk*
To avoid the whole class waiting for lunch I decided to leave. At the cafeteria...
"You need to say sorry before you come in"
"WHAT?? Now I don't get lunch!??" Sinks to the floor crying.
"No, just say sorry! It takes two seconds!"
"I already did!!!"
"Ok. Say it again!"
"NO!"
I finally got him to say sorry and then he was happy as a clam.

THEN

After lunch, he threw a fit because another boy threw the frisbee "jackpot dead" instead of "jackpot alive" so he refused to come inside.The principal was standing there watching and she told me to just leave him outside. So I did. He came in eventually.

THEN

During math he asks if he got any sad faces (bad behavior) on his chart today and I said Oh yeah. He proceeded to cry. For an hour.

That boy. He may be the end of me.

When he's good, he's great. When he's bad, he's horrid.


Welcome to my life.

Second time in Second grade

So I thought I would show the transition in decorating my classroom. Just give you a taste of what I do :) 

Here's my bulletin board...step 1

 step 2

 step 3

 Step 4- I added gold medals with the kids' names but I don't have a picture

 Here's what my room looked like when I started

 And the set up begins....

The finished product!! I already moved the desks and made some other changes, but this is how it looks more or less :) 

Picture from the first day of school 

So this is where I spend most of my waking hours these days with 25 of the most adorable second graders in Utah. So far it's been one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. But I enjoy it at the same time. And I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life so many times since moving here that I know this is where I'm supposed to be even though it's really hard. I'll try and update with exciting things, but here goes my exciting adventure in second grade! 

The Greatest of Them All

This is a little delayed, but I just wanted to say some things about my incredible mother! I feel like in my life, she is one of my biggest blessings!! She is my biggest cheerleader, an incredible role model, and truly one of my dearest friends! I feel so incredibly blessed to be sealed to her for all eternity as my mommy dear! One of the things I love most about my Mom is her love of words! (Mostly because I think she passed it on to me :) ) So in honor of Mother's Day I thought I would right down some of my Mom's words. Just some of her favorite phrases that I can hear her saying in my head :)

 

The words of my mother 

"It will all be alright in the end. So if it's not all right, it's not the end!"

"Think twice, cut once!"

"I should have been a librarian!"

"I was born in the wrong generation!"

"Math will always be the same! 4 times 6 was 24 when my Dad went to school, when I went to school, and will always be 24!" (I may have had math fact issues growing up:) )

"You'll miss me when I'm gone!"

"The best days of my life have been the births of my children"

"The best gift I've given you was marrying your Daddy/ You would have had a very boring life if I didn't marry your Daddy!"

"Home again home again jiggity jog!"

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life!"

"If you're thinking then what you're thinking now..."

"I wish I had learned to love the scriptures sooner!"

"The sooner you sleep, the sooner you wake. Tomorrow we'll go to the fair!"

"I've always wanted to be a chicken" (One of our proud moments as quoting children :) )

"You're going to have a trial of a mother who never dies. You're going to say one day, OK Mom, you can die now..." (Not true....)

"Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven./ Sacrifice sanctifies" 

" Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal"

"I'm so lucky to have such an angel daughter!"

"Never get as buried in junk as we are. Start organizing when you are young!"

"Space abhors a vacuum"

"Planned time is more time!"

"I love the scriptures!/ I love the temple!" 

"___ is a gift you give yourself"

"I can't wait for the day when I get to be in the temple with all of my children!"

"If you've only learned ONE thing from me....."

Mom- I have learned far more than one thing from you! I have learned how to love people so completely, how to cherish motherhood, how to love the gospel with all my heart might mind and strength, how to cherish the scriptures, how to love the temple, how to respect and honor the priesthood, how to love words, how to study hard, how to cook, and how to be the best me I can be. I can't begin to express my thanks for all your hard work and sacrifice for our family, but I am truly grateful and hope to be a mother as great as you one day! I live you the most :) 

Happy Mother's Day my angel Mother!!! 

<3 <3 <3 <3

The day has come....

When I get to decorate my own classroom!!!! I don't know if it's just me, but I'm pretty sure most little girls imagine being the teacher in charge and making all the "fun" important teacher decisions. Well now I'm a grown up *cough cough* and I finally get to make all those decisions for real! (and there are WAY more than I ever imagined!!) So I thought I would throw this out to popular opinion and ask what theme I should have for my classroom, so you can live vicariously through me and I can make your dreams come true! (if you had those dreams too. If not that's ok. You're not dead yet :) )
Some things to keep in mind:
-2nd grade classroom
-Up in Heber, UT, so kind of rural
- Our school has a large Spanish dual immersion program, and I'll probably have a couple non native English speakers, so keeping things as literal as possible, and avoiding idioms and obscure ideas would probably be good....

Ok, with that in mind here are my candidates....

1. Cooking themed classroom
Some ideas here....  http://clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/06/cooking-food-themed-classrooms.html

2. Hats themed classroom 
This one I just kind of made up because I thought it would be fun to literally have different hats and put them on for different times of day....
 -"Hats off to Miss Kate's 2nd Grade class!"
 

3. Hollywood themed classroom
- Some ideas here.... http://clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/06/hollywood-theme-classrooms.html

4. Theme based on a book
 I haven't picked a book yet, but one of my teachers based his classroom off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So something along those lines, though maybe a picture book so I can read it on the first day of class so they get the decorations.

Alright hommies. Let me know what you think and help make all our dreams come true!

Do you know what I love?

My life pretty much.

No seriously though.

But most especially at this moment, the fact that I can sit inside my apartment or outside and it is pretty much the SAME temperature!! And it is just perfect!!!!! I am realizing how much I am affected by the weather, so the fact that it's getting warmer just lights me up inside!! I LOVE it!! Bring on the summer!!

I also feel like I have so much to be grateful for! So I want to write it down.

The semester is coming to a close and that brings to mind a few gratitude nuggets.
1. I'm so grateful for my roommates!! Even though I haven't seen a lot of them this semester, I feel like I learn so much from them all the time and I always feel like they're there to love and support me! How much better does it get?
2. I love the people in my major. They have made this journey so fun for me!
3. I am so incredibly grateful for supportive teachers!! I have had some truly marvelous examples of dedicated and inspiring teachers.
4. I'm grateful I'm at the end of my schooling and I'm happy with the decisions I've made. I love being in Elementary Education, and that is a wonderful feeling!
5. I'm SOO grateful for my family! I feel like everyday that goes by, I am more grateful for them and realize how lucky I am to have each of them in my life! It's so fun to have Elizabeth on my "daily call list" now :)
6. I'm grateful for everything that I'm learning about myself and about life through my trials. Even though they're not super fun, I recognize that there are things I can learn from them, so I am grateful.
7. I am grateful to live in such a beautiful place!!!! Although the weather can be crazy occasionally, it truly is a beautiful place and I love it!!
8. I love that I have a camera on my phone that I can put on my camera. It's awesome-saucesome.
9. I'm grateful for my love of people. Life is so much more enjoyable when you are able to enjoy people :)
10. I love good music. I've had a few songs on repeat the past couple days. Just gets me goin!!

I feel like I could go on much longer, but I's gots to go!

peace and blessins.

Ode to my nieces and nephews

I seriously love my nieces and nephews. A lot. I love to play with them and it is SO fun to see them growing up and how smart, and beautiful, and fun they are!! I LOVE being an aunt!! SO I thought I'd just do a little over view of all 8 of my favoritest little people on this Earth!!

(I'm going in descending age order and using the most recent pictures I have :) )

Julia Louise (8)- Now, I don't have favorites, but Julia was the first grand kid and she was the only one for a long time, so she had us all good and wrapped around her little finger! I simply adore this girl! I was in high school for the first couple of years of her growing up so I got to see her a ton and I wish I had that with all of my nieces and nephews!! It was so fun to see her grow through different stages and try new things, and go from a baby to a toddler, to a little girl! She got baptized in January, and I couldn't be more proud of her! She is about the age of what I want to end up teaching, so I just had so much fun being with her this last Christmas break! She is such a good big sister, and seeing her and Rock play together reminds me a lot of when Michael and I were growing up! She is just so smart, and happy, and fun, and I just love my little Julia Louise!

Rock (5)- Rocky-roo was the first boy to come along, and he was a whole new adventure! This boy is just that- ALL boy!! He loves things blowing up, fighting, dinosaurs, cars, bad guys, angry birds, running around outside, running into stuff- the works. At a million miles per hour. But he is so fun! And he has such a sweet little tender side underneath all his rough and tough boy stuff. He LOVES his little brother and it is the cutest thing ever! He is such a good looking kid and looks like an indian all year round. Crazy. But I love this cute sweet little boy!

Caroline Joy (4)- Right before Caroline was born, the song "Sweet Caroline" was really popular, and Julia really wanted to name the new baby Caroline I think from listening to that song so much! But it totally fits this sweet little girl! The song was probably written about her- they just didn't know it :) But this girl LOVES to snuggle babies, give kisses, give hugs, laugh, and smile away!! I can already tell she just has such a tender little heart, and she melts all of ours with it! She's a girl after my own heart and plays with Barbies and baby dolls every time she comes over to GramE's house! She doesn't talk as much as Julia and Rock did, but she sure knows how to make herself heard. Which is good for a third child :)

Clara Jane (4)- Clara is just a happy little child! She is an Emily mini-me, which is such a great thing for her! She is kind of shy at first with people, but once you get her to open up she is about as happy as can be! She is always singing (I can hear her in the background when I talk to Emily) and has an amazing imagination! She can play lollies (legos) by herself for hours! She is also a very good big sister and loves to take care of her little sister and brother! She also really loves the Disney princesses, and pretty much anything Disney, but I think that has to do with some genetics from her parents ;) I got to spend a couple of weeks with Clara (and Paisley) this last summer, so it was good to have some good bonding time with them that I don't usually get since I live so far away :(

Paisley Grace (2)- Paisley is a sweet little fireball! She knows what she wants and she will tell you even though she still doesn't talk a ton! I love her little spirited self! She is also a very happy little girl and loves to laugh and dance and sing just like her big sister! Paisley also LOVES animals! She loves the horse from Tangled, and loves to pretend to be a cat, and gets excited when she sees cats or dogs outside. She is one cute little sassy sister!

William Rock (~1)- William was a little miracle baby, but he was worth all the trouble! This little guy is so chill and sweet! And boy is he loved by his siblings! So far I've only spent a couple weeks with him, but his big brown eyes and cheesy grin just melt my heart! He's such a sweetie pie!

Beckham Michael- (2 months) Beckham is the first boy in the Deardeuff clan, so that's a fun adventure for them! He is still really little, but I already love him! Look at those beautiful eyes!

Clark James- (3 days)- Clark is the newest addition to the Erekson grandkid clan, and boy is he a cutie!! We bonded over Christmas while he was still in the womb, so I'm pretty sure I'm already his favorite :) But I just love his sweet little face already! And its also fun since he's Elizabeth and Andrew's first! I just love all these new babies around, but it makes me sad that I don't get to see them :(

So if you can't tell, these kids are just the cutest, sweetest, most beautiful children around and I love them quite a lot. I wish I lived close to all of them so I could give them hugs and kisses every day and tell them I love them! Maybe one day my dream will come true. But I hope all these cute kiddos know how much I love them even from far away!! And I can't wait to watch them grow up and see what great people they'll turn into one day!

I just gotta say...

I feel SOO blessed today!! And I love to record the good days for when those crummy days come along, so I can remember how good life can really be!

Why was it so good you ask? Well I shall tell you. (lots of words. Not so many pics. you have been warned)

So it had the makings for a crummy day seeing as I woke up at 6:52 for my 6:50 carpool- yikes!! But luckily they picked someone else first and came back and got me around 7! Tender mercy: I packed my lunch the night before AND picked out my outfit AND showered. That does not happen often let me tell you. So it made it so I could dart out of bed and zip out the door! (Clarissa woke up to go to the bathroom and I was still in bed and then I was dressed and almost ready when she got out. I am talkin speed!)

The reason I had to be up so early was because I had my second first day of school for the semester! We started our Second Practicum aka the last real obstacle standing between me and an internship or student teaching. Wow. I was feeling REALLY stressed and apprehensive this semester about all the responsibilities of teaching and doing it well etc. But let me tell you, they were all assuaged at school today. I mean I don't think it'll be easy by ANY means, but I feel like I CAN do it and I remembered why I love it. Seriously, teaching is just in my blood. Some days I wished I liked something easy.....like being a doctor.....but alas. ;) (Totally kidding. Being a doctor is killer. I'm glad I'm not a doctor)

I am just in awe and so grateful for our mentor teachers though! I'm in kind of a unique situation because my partner and I teach in a dual immersion program, so we have two mentor teachers and work with 41 kids. Oh and we teach in English and Spanish. So it adds a little extra element of difficulty, but oh how I love it! It amazes me what these kids can do! But one of the teachers is a BYU grad and so she knows what we're going through, and the other is a professional rodeo star who is just the cutest thing ever (and her husband is a professional bull rider- seriously??) . I love them both!

The best part of my day though was probably all our second graders from last semester running up and giving me and Mr. Daniel hugs every time they saw us in the halls! Oh man how I miss those children dearly. It was SO good to see them! And they remembered us! Happy Day!!!

Our new kids haven't quite warmed up to us yet, but they're "cool" third graders, so we have to win their favors a little more. But man oh man do they have crazy names.....

Some highlights:

- they took the kids swimming today! So random!! They all piled onto a bus and drove over to the community pool and they went swimming for like an hour and then we came back to school! So some funny things that happened there

-this one boy comes out from changing EVERY time with his shirt off, probably in hopes someone will be out there for him to show off to....so cute!

-Another boy comes out holding his underwear and was like "MAN! Now I can't wear my underwear cuz they're WET!!" Definitely went commando the rest of the day. bahahahaha

- I introduced myself using a mad lib game and the kids do

a "comments, questions, connections" after anyone shares, so one kid commented "I like how you called us smart" hahahaaha. Then another one said "If you ever get to be a teacher one day, you'll be a good one." SO sweet. Automatic favorite. hahahaha

So just a great day of school!!! And we listened to Taylor Swift on the way up and back! So great!

And to top it off- my sister Elizabeth went and had her baby to celebrate my great day! hahahaha- but I am SOOO happy and excited for her!!! I don't have a name or pictures, but he weighed 8 lbs 6 ozs! So that'll have to do until I do a post sometime bragging on all my ADORABLE nieces and nephews!! Until then.....

I'm going to bed.

And this time I'm actually setting an alarm. :)

(Life Rocks. Get it? hahahaha)

peace and blessins.

Monday Musings....

Maybe I would get more dates if I actually tried to dress up when I study at the library. My like only interaction with males at BYU, and I come straight from Zumba sweaty and grungy. I think I'm on to something. Or maybe if I dressed up more in general. Yeah. That'd be good.

Who wants to buy me new clothes??

Just a terrific Tuesday!

I took a lot of pictures today and I thought- hey! I can blog these!! So I am! Wow.


So Dr. Ben Carson spoke at Devotional today and wow oh wow. SOO good!! so glad I went!!!!!!!!!! We've also been getting snow dumped on us, now that it's almost March...but it made the mountains look so beautiful!!

We also a RS activity called "Rock On!" where we colored rocks and played JustDance! It was soo fun!!! I LOVE Just Dance! SOO entertaining!

Ashley's brother gave her a 5 lb gummy bear for Christmas!! HUGE!!

My rock

Kelsey's rocks

I have a video of me and Kaitlin getting our groove on, but it won't load....maybe one day...

Enjoy! I hope your Tuesday was as great as mine!

Stroke of Genius

So I feel like since I don't have cute kids to post pictures of, and I'm not very good at posting regular events on my blog, when I do write I need to have some stroke of genius or some inspiration to share with the world. But I realized, I don't. So there's my stroke of genius. Now I can tell you all about myself so you can all fulfill your purpose as blog readers...to stalk me of course.
(Christina, here you go! :) )

So here's the DL on my life.

To begin with, I want to go on record as saying that I don't like Winter semesters. They just always seem to be so blahhh. And it's cold. I don't like being cold. No really. I pretty much always have my rice sock heated up if I'm home. So I feel like any good thing that happens during a winter semester is a bonus. Even though this winter has been really weak sauce, it's still winter. And I'm ready for it to be gone. Ok. Now I'm done with that.(Though it does make for pretty pictures (: )

School has been good this semester (see previous post about loving my major...) but my motivation is slowly dying. My last full semester as a student and I don't care too much about what happens. I still do my homework and study, its just very much last minute and I don't do as much as I did, say Freshman year. But I'm ok with that. I think the practicum (going into the schools for a month) is going to save me from myself this semester. I just love working with real kids for an extended period of time! Oh so fun!! I'm also taking my Praxis test March 10, which is the test that allows me to be a teacher. It's a test on all of the content knowledge of being an elementary school teacher. Fun right? So if you want to throw a few prayers out that day, that would be cool.

This semester I also feel like I've forgotten how to socialize! I have turned into such a homebody, mostly I think because my roommates are too, and one of them is engaged long distance, so I have no qualms about staying home every Friday night and watching movies! But when I do go out into big groups, I feel so lost! Either I need to take a crash course in socializing or I need to get married so I can just bum at home and not feel too guilty ;) Any suggestions for fixing my lack of desire to socialize??

I also got my haircut recently. My sister-in-law's sister (Mary- holla holla!) cut it and she did a fab job! It's been an adjustment getting used to it being so short, but I've gotten lots of compliments on it and I do enjoy a short cut :)


I'm also very excited for my new little nephew Sanders to make his debut in early March!! We had a couple bonding moments already in the womb over Christmas break, so I'm pretty sure I'll be his favorite. YAY Babies!!!!!! and new baby Beckham is pretty dang adorable too if I do say so myself....we just need to work on that bonding....


SO that's all I can think of to tell you for now. But I'll try and come around more often because I love reading other peoples blogs, so its only fair that I return the favor. Right? Of course right.

"Is somebody in the room??"
-Slipper in the Rose
Great movie. Watched it Friday. HIGHLY recommend it.


peace and blessins.

Dont ya wish your major was cool like mine?

I have the best major.

We just play allllllllllllll day.


except when we don't.

But I really love the people in my cohort. A lot. We have a lot of fun for real. And I have been blessed with such great teachers. Except one. But that's cool. And we almost get to go back into the schools! Yehaw!!!

The year is dying part dos

So my computer with all my pictures seems to have died, so for now I'm just going to finish this with just the written description, and who knows, maybe I'll go add pictures later. But for now, here's the rest of my year....

May- Quite the amazing Spring term with my peeps from the Spanish house. I got SOO bonded to those people and I'm pretty sure I've got life long friendships with most of them. I feel SO blessed to have made that decision. I'm not sure, but that might win for my highlight of 2011. We went to midnight showings of movies, did P90X, wrote songs, cooked, ate, rode bikes, watched movies, played frisbee, and spoke Spanish while doing it! hello dream come true! :)

June- Spring term ended and I packed up all my stuff then headed home for my asian birthday (aka 22nd birthday)

July- I took an emergency trip to Baltimore to be with Kristen and road trip down to South Carolina. Good sister bonding! I spent a couple weeks with Emily, Mike, Clara, and Paisley in Hershey, which was awesome. We went to Hershey park, and pretty much all things Hershey. I loved it! Then we (including Kristen) drove to Missouri for our family reunion. ALways a good time at the Erekson house. :)

August- Greg, Lisa, Mom, Dad, and Will got to go on a trip to Italy this summer and I got to stay home. hahaha. I babysat Julia, Rock, and Caroline for a couple of days, with some help from Lauren, and we all managed to survive! It was fun playing with them! I also got my wisdom teeth out which was not the most pleasant experience. Right before I went back to school, I was literally on my way to the airport, we had to go back to the doctor guy because it got infected. Blech. But alls well now. I got all moved into my new apartment and fell in LOVE with our view! Its awe inspiring! And I had a blast with my roommates! I love these girls!

September- School, school, and more school. I had pretty much all of my classes with the same group of people, and they became like a family. I love those people! We have a good time! Its fun to have a tight knit group to have classes together! I hung out a lot with my FLSR people a lot in September. We also had a few creative sleepovers in our apartment, such as sleeping out on our deck in a tent and on the lovesac :)

October- I went to the BYU homecoming parade but Chelsea came down during the game and we talked instead of watching the game. WAY more fun. I went to Cornbellies this year with Lily and Bryan from the Spanish house and Chelsea to do the corn maze and they had so many other fun things! I also went to my Great Uncle Alex's 100th birthday party! My council threw our ward Halloween party and we decided to have a dance. I was sick, so I didn't have that great of a time but I dressed up as "your mom!" :)

November- This was the big climax of the semester- we got to go INTO real schools and work with real kids! I loved it!!! It was so fun and I absolutely loved my class! My partner Daniel and I got to do a Spanish immersion program, so it was interesting, but so great! We finally started bonding with some people in our ward and went to some parties and such.

Clarissa reading her textbook and me reading mine :)

December- I finished up my semester and headed home for Christmas! This year was kind of an off year, and Greg's family and I were the only kids home this year, along with our family friend Sandy. But it was still a party! I miss my little nieces and nephews to pieces when I'm gone so it was fun to play with them! They're getting SO grown up!!! I got to go to our ward Christmas party, hang out with friends from High school, play with the fam, and sleep. It was lovely and went by far too fast!

Dear friends from the Frontenac ward

Well folks, that's a wrap. 2011 was a good year, but I'm planning on 2012 being extra-ordinary! I feel like there's a lot in store for me and I'm looking forward to go on living it! Life is oh, so good!

Happy New Year!!!