Catching Up Through Pictures

I obviously haven't posted anything in a while, so instead of trying to write a book on everything that's happened in the last few months i'm just going to use pictures with some captions. nobody likes to read big long stories on here anyways right?!

May 2nd I graduated from SUU with a bachelors of science in Elementary Education. It was such an amazing experience to get to graduate with two of my cousins and best friends. We've been together through every graduation since we were born and accomplishing this last one was probably the most exciting of them all.

I decided to do some sewing projects this summer so I started with the John Deere apron because it was a kit that my mom already had and looked fun and easy. After that one, I then continued on and finished a quiet book, place mats, and a baby quilt. For some reason I decided not to take pictures of any of those so they'll have to show up in a later post I guess. It was fun sharpening my sewing skills and having those projects to work on when I had some free time. 

This summer I got to be home farming again. As hot as it is down there I still manage to love it and have no real problem with the heat. Irrigating with Heather Ann is always fun and we know how to keep each other entertained and sane when one of us is having a bad day. 

And hanging out with all these guys was pretty great too. We made a few trips for snow cones at Tiffany's and boy were they good. 

I got to spend some good quality time with everyone in my family this summer which I was very grateful for considering i'm not going to be down there much this next school year. Derek and I had quite a few adventures together in fact. We made it to cedar mountain to spend a weekend at the cabin with Heather, Chantel Harmon (Heather's Cousin), and Vance and Teisha Leavitt, two trips to the lake, many snow cones at Tiffany's with J bird, and more recently a trip to Enterprise for the 24th of July rodeo and some fishing. 

I sure don't know what I would do without this brother of mine. He knows how to have a good time and keep me entertained!

July 8th-10th: Mom, Hannah, and I got to go to San Francisco and tour the city. We spent money, ate good food, and enjoyed some great quality time together. It was so fun to see the sights and experience a new place. 

July 20th: I got all moved into my new house in St. George! The next three weeks are for training's, putting my classroom together (which is crazy insane) and prepping myself for this coming school year as a 2nd grade teacher at George Washington Elementary. I'm so ready, excited, and NERVOUS for it all, but I know its going to be such an amazing experience and right where i'm supposed to be. 

Finally this past week was the Pioneer day so Heather came down that night and we were able to catch up go to dinner and watch the fire works! We've only been gone a week but it felt like forever, that's how close we are. It's hard living in different places from her and Alyssa because we are all so close and use to being able to just walk next door to go visit each other! It's going to be hard this next year but we've all planned trips to see each other and we keep in contact through the dreaded group text that everyone else seems to despise but we love! It'll be exciting to see where this next year of working takes all of us. 

Here's to being an official Utah resident with a career and not just some Nevada girl going to college here!

Teaching in Salt Lake

In the Block our professors arrange for us to go to 3 different schools during the semester to observe and help teach. The main one is here in Cedar that we go to every week and then for one week we went to St. George everyday and then just this past week we spent a week up in Salt Lake observing and teaching. 

I have to be honest I was not at all excited to be going up there. For one it is an inner city school and our professors made it sound like the kids were going to be wild and outta control, for two I was going to be staying with the family of one of the girls in the block with me, that I didn't know very well, and for three i've only been to Salt Lake 2 other times in my life before now and have never had much of a desire to go anyway.  

So Sunday night after a full day of work, me and two other girls loaded up and headed up the road. The drive wasn't too bad and we made it in good time with a slight detour when trying to find the girls house but we got it figured out. 

Monday and Tuesday were observation days to get a feel of the classroom and figure out the routine of the teacher. I lucked out with a great 2nd grade teacher who has some difficult students but has trained the whole class over the year to be really top notch. Wednesday and Thursday were our real test though because every teacher and even the principal were all gone, out of the school completely. All 33 of us block students had taken over the school and we had to do our best to teach and keep everyone safe and in control. Needless to say it was interesting but it turned out ok. We all survived and no one was seriously injured or crying under the desks, the kids were all safe too haha. I also got to do bus duty. When my teacher first said it I thought she just meant stand by the buses and make sure everyone got on ok. Nope. We had to get on the bus and ride the entire route with them! I was not too thrilled doing that but I did it and everything turned out fine. 

Some of the more fun things about the trip were going out to eat as a class and chatting with everyone about their experiences. One funny experience was when I was taking my students to lunch, my friend Sidney who was also teaching walked by so of course we talked to each other in passing and then immediately after, one of my students asked if she was my sister. We've been called each other before but never thought much of it until this week and especially on Friday when we were dressed pretty much exactly the same. 

Here's some proof, let me know what you think?

Another fun thing was I got a custom spoon ring made for me. The girls dad we were staying with makes and sells them so he was kind enough to makes all one for free! It was so cool watching him do it and he made it look so easy, even though it really wasn't. I seriously love it so much and wear it every day now.

A little background on this particular spoon he used for me is it was made of Queen Bess silver in 1946 just after the war ended, and the only way you could get them was by sending in Betty Crocker box tops.
I thought it was a pretty neat story and fun that both names were so close to mine, which makes it a little more special to me. Burt (the guy who made the ring) gave me his business card so if any one is interested in buying one let me know and i'll give you his info. He also makes bracelets, necklaces, and key chains. 


So I have to say overall the trip wasn't to bad and I even had fun some of the time. The kids were pretty good and I definitely learned a lot and grew as a teacher just in the one week there. I will never forget this trip and the people I met there. If I had to I would consider doing it again... If I had to ha.  

Vegas for Valentines Day/ Heather's B-day!!

So a couple of weeks ago Heather, Alyssa, and I were all hanging out and talking about needing to do more fun things since were all still single. We also were realizing that Heather's birthday was coming up and we needed to do something for that. After throwing out a few random ideas we finally decided a night out on the town full of dinner and line dancing would be perfect, which then lead to lets get a hotel room, which then lead to lets go to a show. And would you believe we actually ended up doing it all?! Uncle Stan (Heather's Dad) managed to get us a fancy room at the Mirage which was a task considering it was Valentines Night. And then we got some tickets to the Shania Twain concert and then figured we would just do whatever we felt like after that. 

The night turned out perfect and so much fun! We got there just in time to check-in to the hotel and then walk right over to Caesars Palace for the concert. Shania was AMAZING, I had so so much fun at her concert. I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering going and has listened to her songs. After the concert we went to dinner and then finished off the night with line dancing and a little two stepping at Gilleys. We had fun to say the least and slept pretty soundly the rest of what was left of the night ha. 

 

Class Assignment

Right now I am in what SUU calls the Block for elementary education majors. Everyday I get to go to North Elementary School for a few hours to teach or help and the other half of the day I am at the college in the normal classroom setting. These regular classes are split into five different sections which are Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Math, and Classroom Management, all taught by the same two teachers, and all the same peers with me. So needless to say we've gotten pretty close thus far. 

So for the main purpose of this blog post, I am going to be "publishing" a little review on a grade appropriate Historical Fiction book for my Social Studies class. I decided to re-read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, mostly because it's one of the few Historical Fiction books I remember reading back in the day. I enjoyed it then so I figured it would be a good choice. 

Here is a brief synopsis I found from spark notes just for those who have never even heard of the book.

As Island of the Blue Dolphins opens, Karana and her brother, Ramo see a ship approaching their island. When the ship lands, the chief of their village (also their father), Chowig goes to meet the visitors, along with a number of his warriors. The representative of the strangers is Captain Orlov, a Russian, who has come with a native American tribe known as the Aleuts to hunt otter on the island of the blue dolphins (known to its inhabitants as Ghalas-at). There is disagreement between the two, for the Aleuts had caused trouble on the island some years before. Finally, Chowig and Orlov reach an agreement, and the people of Ghalas-at let the Aleuts hunt otter on their island in return for half of their profits in the form of jewelry and iron spearheads. The Aleuts set up camp at one end of the island, and the Aleuts and the people of Ghalas-at keep close watch over on another, suspicious of being double-crossed. When the Aleuts start getting ready to leave, Chowig and his warriors ask for their payment. The sum is unsatisfactory, however, and the two parties disagree. A fight breaks out. When the battle is done, the Aleuts have escaped, and many of the men of Ghalat-at have been killed, among them Chowig.

Back on the island, Ramo and Karana work hard to provide for themselves. They gather food and prepare to stay for some time on the island—at least until the ship returns to take them away. Though Ramo is young, he is very confident and tries to do many things on his own. One morning, Karana awakes to find that Ramo is gone. She goes out to look for him, only to find him dead, killed by the wild dogs of the island.A new chief, Kimki, comes to power, and after a dreary and sad winter, he decides his tribe should leave Gahlas-at. He sets off alone to prepare a way for them in a new county he had visited as a boy. He is gone for a long time, but one day a ship with white sails comes to Ghalas-at. It carries a group of white men who say they were sent by Kimki to take the islanders away. The day is stormy, so the villagers need to board the boat quickly before the ship runs aground on the rocks of the island. In the confusion, Ramo forgets his hunting spear. Karana tells him there is no time to go back for it, but once Karana is on the ship, Ramo is nowhere to be found. As the ship pulls away from the island, Karana sees Ramo, with his spear, back on the beach. Though others on the boat try to restrain her, Karana jumps into the water and swims back to the island.

After Ramo is killed, Karana decides to leave her village forever. She burns it and sets up camp on a rock near the headland. She makes tools to defend herself, although the laws of her tribe bar a woman from making weapons. She watches everyday for the ship that will take her away, but it never comes. One day, she takes a canoe and tries to make the journey herself. Though she is able to paddle a great distance, her canoe starts to leak after a few days, and, realizing she cannot reach her destination, she turns back.

Knowing that she could be on Ghalas-at for some time, Karana builds herself a house and some stronger weapons. Once she has finished these necessities, Karana decides it is time to exact her revenge on the wild dogs that killed her brother. She used fire to scare them out of their cave, and strikes down their leader along with several others. The lead dog is strong, however, and is able to escape even with an arrow lodged deeply in his chest. Days later, Karana finds the same dog, barely alive. Instead of killing him, she takes him home and nurses him back to health. The two become fast friends, and the dog, whom Karana calls Rontu even defends her from his former pack mates.

One day, the Aleuts, who had killed so many of Karana's friends and family, return to Ghalas-at. Karana sets up a second house in a cave to hide from them. One day, however, an Aleut girl discovers Karana by her house. Though Karana is wary and suspicious of the girl, whose name is Tutok, the two eventually become close friends. They exchange gifts and talk by the fire (though they do not speak the same language). When the Aleuts have finished hunting, the girl has to go with them, and Karana feels more alone than ever.

Karana continues her work on her house, and becomes more and more comfortable on the island. She makes herself new clothes and befriends a number of other animals, including birds, an otter, and a fox. Years later, when Rontu dies, Karana takes his son from the cave of the wild dogs. She tames the dog, and names him Rontu-Aru.

After her long stay on the Island of the Blue Dolphins, another ship comes to her harbor. Realizing that it is time for her to leave, and missing human contact, Karana gathers her things and, with Rontu-Aru, leaves Ghalas-at.

Cite: SparkNotes Editors. (n.d.). SparkNote on Island of the Blue Dolphins. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dolphins/

I really love the idea of this book for introducing tribes and different cultures. Many students will have never even thought about different cultures or past generations and how they lived and survived in different areas of the world. This book definitely brings to life the fact that not everyone lives comfortably in North America with their two story houses and some type of food always in the house. It describes real struggles about survival and dangerous elements that we don't even consider because we have constant shelter. 

Obviously this is a book that has been used in classrooms for years now and it's easy to see why, because it provides the ability to discuss so many different ideas and topics and have great class discussions with the students. Whether you're learning about different ecosystems, different cultures, or human instincts you know you can find a great gateway from this story. 

New Years/ New Semester

Christmas Day was low key especially since we had already opened our presents the night before. That night I had to head back to Cedar so I could work in the morning. That next day at work when I went home for lunch I took a nap which ended up being a bad idea cause I woke up and felt terrible. I endured the last couple hours of work and went home and straight to bed and it was only 5 in the afternoon. I ended up being sick with some weird virus im guessing for the next four days all the while going to work and wanting to die or at least sleep the whole time. Sunday I ended up with a fever which then broke that night and after that I felt better but it then turned into a cold for the next couple days. I got to go home again for 3 days for New years eve and Day. It was so great getting to be home with the family for a few more days. 

New Years Eve Hannah, Heather, Alyssa and I all headed to Mesquite. Our plan of attack was to go play Bingo and then head out to Beaver Dam wash for a bon fire and fire works. When we got to the Bingo hall we found out it was a 50 dollar buy in and the place was packed so we decided to skip that and just head out to the fire. The fire was great fun, nice and warm, and I even got a yummy smore that i've been wanting for forever. It was great catching up with some old friends that I haven't seen in forever and just hanging out and almost getting killed by fireworks that were constantly being thrown in the fire ha. We celebrated midnight Utah time and then jumped in the truck and hurried back down to Logandale where we made it just in time to celebrate midnight Nevada time as well. It turned out great. 

The next day I got to hang out with my mom all morning and get stuff ready for our Hardy New Years lunch over at Grandma and Grandpas. We had a smorgasbord of main dishes and salads it was delicious. After lunch we all pretty much just sat around and talked for hours about everything. That night was pretty uneventful, I just had a quite night at home, finally watched Despicable Me 2 with Hannah and hung out with my parents. I'm a party animal I know...

The next day I headed back to Cedar once again to work the rest of the week and get ready for the new semester to start on Monday. This is my last semester of school before student teaching! I'm so excited to be done but then nervous all at the same time! I'm doing what they call the block this semester so I get to be in the Elementary school half the time and then in the normal classroom half that is split into different days of math, science, social studies, language arts, and classroom management. It's only been a week but i'm already loving it. I get to be in a 3rd grade classroom all semester helping out and teaching along side the teacher and even get to sub the class by myself every Thursday afternoon. I get a little nervous if I start over thinking it all but for the most part i'm just excited and ready for the new adventure. It's going to be a lot of work and with still working at Cal Ranch as well I won't have much of a life but I know I can handle it. 

I've already finished one of my first projects as a part of our classroom jobs. I'm on the calendar crew so we have to make sure the classroom calendar is changed for each month. 

Here's January's Calendar, nothing crazy but i'm sure will end up making them better and better each month!

December 2013

I started working at Cal Ranch around the beginning of November so from that point on I was already preparing myself to not be home very much during the Christmas break. I was feeling ok with that because I probably would have gone crazy just sitting at home for three weeks straight with nothing really to do. Any ways I did manage to make it home anytime something was going on so I was happy about that.

On Saturday the 7th good ol' Uncle Stan managed to get Heather, Derek and I all tickets to the NFR as our summer work bonus along with an extra ticket for each of us to bring a date or in our case a friend along ha. So the night before we all loaded up and headed down to Logandale. It was Heather, Tawny Caldwell (Heather's "date"), Alyssa (my "date") and me. The next day the 4 of us headed into town and hit up cowboy christmas for a few hours and then met up with Derek and Alana Pollock (Derek's actual date) to eat dinner. Hannah had work off early so she got to meet up with us as well for dinner and then we headed over to the rodeo. We were so lucky to get 2nd row seats right behind the bucking chutes! After the rodeo we all then headed over to the Mirage to go to the Casey Donahue Band concert that was free. It was jam packed in there though so we stayed for an hour or two and then headed on back to Logandale. 

The next Saturday was the Hardy Party! It was Uncle Mikes Families turn to put it on this year and they did a great job. We had lots of ham and potatoes, a fun wheel of fortune game that Grandpa Glens family dominated (were just that good), and of course fun hardy party songs to sing that we've collected over the years. Finally Santa came for the little kids and family pictures were taken along with our traditional 5 picture. The 5 group is made up of Heather, Megan, Alyssa, Analise, and I because we were all born in the same year and all within 5 months of each other! So every Hardy party we have to get together and snap a picture. The Hardy Party is always one of the best parties of the year and such a fun tradition that the whole town wants to attend, even though it really is just a regular family reunion. I love it so much and hope we keep it going for years to come. 

Finally Christmas eve came and it was time for the Christmas eve dinner and party at Grandma Shirley's and Grandpa Glens! This is thee party of parties when it comes to Christmas. It's so good even Derek likes going to it, and that's saying somethin. Anyway we always start with a steak dinner and then head over to the living room for a game of bad Santa. After we get done stealing or trading all the presents we then get to open our presents from grandma and grandpa which are always something good. This year the boys got gloves, tools, and money and the girls got either kitchen or sewing stuff and money. This year was an interesting one to say the least for our family and we definitely went through some good and bad times but in the end were all still healthy, happy, and strong. Grandma decided that this next year we all need to write our own gratitude journals because we really do have so much to be grateful for, so she gave all of us our own notebooks and pen. She asked us to write in it as often as possible and to go back and reflect on the good stuff as much as possible. I'm so thankful for her and grandpa in my life. Those two have become 2 of my biggest hero's throughout the years and my relationship with them both has grown even more than I thought possible just in the last few months. I treasure everything they teach me, tell me, and give me. 

After the party we then headed home to open sibling gifts with Cody and Mersadie and to also watch dad open his gifts because he had to work Christmas day. All of us kids pitched in together and got him a new 25-06 because his old one got lost. He was pretty tickled to open that one up, and had no idea he was even getting it. Once dad was done then we opened sibling gifts. I was shocked beyond belief when I opened a brand new red kitchen aid mixer from Hannah. I had no idea it was coming and excited to say the least! After the sibling gifts we then decided to go ahead and open everything cause dad really wanted to see us open our presents. The most important ones being Hannah and I's guns! Hannah got a lever action .22 and I got a .243 just what I had asked for. I was so excited and it even has pink splattered all over it which makes it even more fun. I was literally spoiled this Christmas and I don't think I can ever say thank you enough to make up for it. If I wasn't grateful enough for my family before I definitely am now. Every single one of my family members takes care of me in so many ways, I don't know that I could survive without them. They are all true blessings in my life and my best friends for sure.

Dad actually ended up with 2 guns this year. He was a happy camper for sure!