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!