The Perfect Teacher

Someday I will be the Perfect Teacher.

I will be smart, and funny, and kind while maintaining discipline and order in my classroom. I will not only teach my pupils but I will act as a role model and guide them in life. I will be patient and understanding. I will explain everything thoroughly the first time, but if students need extra help on a topic I will be willing to do anything I can to help them succeed. (Unlike a teacher I know who once said "I don't get paid enough to teach you twice." Lucky for her she didn't say that to me, or she would have gotten an earful!) I will care about my students and what they say and feel. Not only will I listen to them and help them succeed, but I will teach my content to them in a way that is meaningful to them. I will never assign busy work and then not give the students points for it when they do it. When it comes to discipline, I will not be too strict, or too relaxed. I will give suitable punishment for the crime.

I will be respected by my students. I will teach them why the content they are learning is critical to their lives, and how they can apply it in their futures. I will motivate them and give them the desire to achieve great things in life. I will help them experience success, and help them learn from failure. I will give my students choices in what they want to learn and how they want to display that learning. I will teach lessons that are full of multiculturalism, literacy, cooperative learning, multiple-intelligence-teaching-strategies and real life application. Then I will give them formal and informal assessments that do more than test what they don't know. My assessments will guide the students to further knowledge and will provide feedback on my teaching skills.

On top of this, I will be a perfect wife and mother (and daughter, and sister, and friend and disciple of Christ.)

I may not be there now, but someday...
I will be.

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"Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48)

"In urging us to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, Jesus was not taunting us or teasing us. He was telling us a powerful truth about our possibilities and about our potential. It is a truth almost too stunning to contemplate. Jesus, who could not lie, sought to beckon us to move further along the pathway to perfection."
President Spencer W. Kimball

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This post started out as me venting my frustrations about everything that is going to be expected of me as a teacher but ended up mixing with my real hopes I have for my future. I am frustrated by all the things that seem to be the "most important concept in teaching" that, when combined, squash any time I may have had for actually teaching content. But I do want to be a fabulous teacher who really knows how to help students get it. At the end, I realized that even though I am so inadequate in all of these areas there is hope for me because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the hope and happiness that comes through the Holy Ghost. I am now going to finish writing my "Backwards-design/full of literacy and multiple intelligence strategies/interesting and applicable/assessment AND student oriented" lesson plan on Ceilings, Walls and Floors.

LG Versa

I must begin by stating my love and loyalty to T-mobile. When I was a high-school senior, I decided that I HAD to get a cell phone. It wasn't about luxury anymore, it was about NECESSITY! (Haha.) I finally convinced my parents to go in on a family plan with me and I did my research about all of the different providers out there. I finally decided that T-mobile was the provider for us (which may have been slightly influenced by the fact that some of my closest friends were on T-mobile and we would be able to talk to each other for free). In truth, I don't even remember what my first phone was. Nothing spectacular, I know that for sure. But it was mine and I loved it. It didn't take me that long to set my heart upon the Nokia 3220. A few people that I knew had one and I absolutely loved it. There was no way I was going to be able to get a new phone yet, BUT I convinced one of my friends to give his to me before leaving on his mission. That is a long, funny story in of itself. I will spare you the details (and me the shame!). But, oh how I loved the phone. The day I got it was one of the best days of my life. (Don't worry, I am just being dramatic. My wedding day was the best day of my life... jeez people, calm down!)
Look at how beautiful it is! The gentle curve, the lights on the side that fill your heart with joy when you receive a text or call! The awesome, create your own background for the back of the phone. Oh! I love it. My friends can attest to the bond I have with this dear phone. I still have it at my apartment, I can't bear to throw it away. I loved it so much that I compared every phone to it (none of them measured up). When I found the Nokia 6300... I HAD to have it, simply because it was the updated version of my beloved 3220.
See the light on the side? It has been the bearer or so much joy!

Sorry... moving on.
I have been with T-mobile for about 5 years now, and have loved every moment of it. They have treated me well and replaced every phone I have ever broken, free of cost. (Those good, good people at the Customer Service Hotline have taken such great care of me.) But now with my recent marriage to Mr. David Scott Peaden and the fact that my contract at T-mobile is up and he is still in contract for another year... I have switched over to Verizon. Poor David, it was like pulling teeth to get me to switch! But I am on the other side now and am pretty happy. However, I told him that if I had to change to Verizon then I better get a cool phone! And here it is...

The LG VERSA!


I am now part of the cool hip-crowd who owns touch screen phones! Sweet right? I have only had the Versa for a day, but it is really awesome and I am excited about it. This is probably the only thing that could make me happy about leaving T-mobile. (Just teasing David, I'm fine...really!)

I may not be up the the level of an iPhone, but I am working my way up the technology ladder!

Allergies...

I hate allergies. Itchy eyes, a nose that can't decide whether to be stuffy or runny, dry cracked lips, an itchy throat. Joy.

I feel like this girl. I don't go anywhere without a wad of tissues, or toilet paper, or napkins (really anything I can get my hands on.) Remember "You've Got Mail" when Meg Ryan is sick and has tissues strewn across her apartment. Our apartment looks like that right now. Tissues EVERYWHERE. (I tried to find a picture or a movie clip of that scene but was thwarted in my efforts.)

However, I am just incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me. I don't know what I would do without him. He is right there whenever I need him. I have had a couple of reminders this weekend about how fragile life is. I am grateful for every moment I have, even if it is full of itchy eyes and a runny nose.

September 15th...

I have always loved September. In fact September 15th could possibly be my favorite day of the whole year. Just say "September Fifteenth" out loud and listen to how easily it slips off the tongue. It has a nice ring to it. What a fabulous day. :)

Okay maybe I am a little biased. But... Today is my 22nd birthday! I love my birthday. There is just something about knowing it's your birthday that makes you feel a little bit extra special inside. Of course, I have always been incredibly blessed with wonderful friends and family who have done their best to make sure that my birthday was special. (Like on my 16th birthday when my friends snuck over to my house and decorated my front yard with crepe paper and shaving cream. Haha. Every time it got cold outside you could see the birthday wishes stained onto my driveway from the shaving cream.) I have had many wonderful birthdays with surprises and a ton of love from family and friends.

This year has been no exception. As I have mentioned before... I work on Tuesday mornings at 7:00. David has class at 7:30. I wasn't expecting anything special for breakfast because we had to be up so early. But I woke up this morning to my darling husband wishing me a Happy Birthday and then walking out into the living room to find THIS:

Streamers and Happy Birthday Signs!

This one is in our bedroom.

Now this is a big accomplishment because I went to bed at midnight last night and David still had a huge assignment that he was working on. This great boy not only did his assignment, but he decorated the house for me!

AND

There are PRESENTS!

As you can see there are presents everywhere! I haven't opened any of them, because we had to run to work (and class for David). But I am SO excited. I grabbed the camera and snapped some pictures so I would be able to blog about all of this while I am at work.

That isn't even the best part. David also made Cinnamon rolls last night and cooked up some bacon this morning. This is my handsome boy walking out to the car. You can see his hands are full of cinnamon rolls, bacon and orange juice. My hands were full as well, in fact, I can't even remember how I was able to take this picture.

Already my birthday has been the best Birthday EVER! Hooray!

DIY Wall Hangings

I am SO excited about this project. A while ago I promised to post the final result of the project I was working on for Wendy's (my fabulous sister-in-law) birthday. I saw the idea for it on one of my favorite blogs "Make it or Love it" (See the link on my side bar.) The whole idea is fantastic.

You take three of these: (Plain art canvases, size of your choice)


And add in two different fabrics of choice:


Put it all together with a hot glue gun and you get:


This fantastic set of wall hangings! You can hang them above your bed, down a hall, or above a couch depending on your creative desires. Isn't that great? I loved the project. It was so easy, so fun, and so cute! I don't have room in my small apartment for all three panels, but I am in the process of making a one panel hanging to go inside the door of my second bedroom. Love it!


I'm sorry that the final picture had to be taken on my carpet. Maybe someday I will get Wendy to take a picture of what they look like in her new home!

Kayla Babes...

Alright, I know that this post is way late... but better late than never right? Oh, and I'm supposed to be writing a lesson plan right now so I can go to work... HA! Oh well. This is SO much more productive.

August 31st was the birthday of my dearest friend Kayla Barclay. I love this girl like you wouldn't believe. I have been trying for YEARS to convince her to come to Utah State, and after being filled full of USU propaganda she finally relented! (No one can withstand my incredible convincing powers. Haha. Oh, and Utah State really is the best school EVER.) I am SO excited to have her up here! David and I went over to her apartment on her birthday to take part in all of the festivities. She has only been up here a couple of weeks and the apartment was PACKED, which is a great example of how wonderful Kayla is. Already she is surrounded by people that love her. :) I thought I would share some of the pictures.

Here Kayla and I are. I'm trying to get some of Kayla's beauty to rub off on me!
(Don't judge me because of the fact that I am not wearing makeup. My allergies are terrible this time of year and if I wear makeup I just rub it all off by the end of the day!)

Four of us hanging out around the table.


My junior year of high school my family decided to move. I however, was not okay with that decision. I was in the middle of a bunch of things including College Classes, Region/State Speech and Debate and being the Jr. Prom Chairwoman. I couldn't just move away. So the Barclay family graciously allowed me to stay at their house for the rest of the year. It was incredible. Kayla is one year younger than me, and Tausha (her sister) is one year older than me. The three of us had a grand old time staying up until like 3 in the morning talking and writing in our journals and then taking naps in the afternoon. It was probably the 4 best months of my high school career! These two girls are still to this day like sisters to me. I love them with all of my heart! (I tried to find a picture of the three of us together, but I don't have any of them on facebook. We should rectify that girls!)

I wish I had more time to write about Kayla and how great she is, but I am starting to feel really guiltily about the whole homework/work thing. (Especially because I am leaving early today. Haha.) Suffice it to say, this girl is amazing. I hope that her experience at USU turns out as good as mine has!

More from the Scarlet Pimpernel...

I brought Davids camera with me to work today, and I thought that I would share some of the rest of our pictures from the play (which, again, I must say WAS AMAZING).

This was the first thing you saw when you came into the theater. I wish I could have taken pictures throughout the show because it was amazing. But the rest will have to be up to your imagination!

Amy and Bruce waiting for the show to start. (Sorry the flash was a little bright)


David and I waiting. I was SO excited to be there! :)

Here is one of Amy and I.


After the show we found someone to take the picture so we could all be in it.

There you go folks! The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Labor Day

You may have noticed that most of my posts take place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Why? Because I have a shift in the SciTech Computer Lab on both of those mornings at 7:00 in the AM. I was just about to write about how I have been sitting here for an hour an a half without a single person coming in, BUT at 8:34 a student walked in and handed me his well worn student ID card in order to be allowed into the lab. He was shortly followed by another student who was wearing a great Utah State hat and who possessed an even MORE well worn student ID card. It is now 8:36.
I've already done all the homework I can handle (which means I've done all the homework that is due today) and facebook has again been banned from the labs. (No facebooking at work allowed.)

David and I had a fantastic weekend. On Friday we went to the Scarlet Pimpernel at the Hale Center Theatre in Salt Lake with Amy and Bruce. It was FABULOUS!

I absolutely love this play. I have seen it before at a community theatre, and fell in love with it then. I had such high hopes for it this time and I was NOT disappointed. The stage was amazing and the characters were perfect. If any of you have not seen the play, you should see it sometime in your life. I love it.

The rest of our weekend was excellent as well. We hung out at Davids house in WJ and played lots and lots of Canasta. :) Also, Sunday we had a party for all of the September birthdays and it just so happens that my birthday is September 15th! Yay! It was so much fun. I am so grateful for the way that the Peadens (and Renchers!) have accepted me into their family. I love them all. (Stay tuned for the pictures of the present that I made Wendy. I just forgot to bring the camera with those pictures on it to work today.)


Okay... so that is the recap of the weekend. However, I have some catching up to do! A couple of weeks ago, Amy came up to visit David and I in the wonderful land of Logan. We had a blast (we always do when we are around Amy). Aside from an unfortunate viewing of "Faith Like Potatoes", our weekend was success. The following are some pictures that we took while hiking Crimson Trail up Logan canyon. (These were the pictures that were taken on my camera. There are more pictures on Davids camera, but like I said earlier... I forgot the camera in the car. Sorry!)

This picture is complementary of Amy. We didn't know that she was taking the picture, but it turned out great!

We hiked up to these cool rock formation/cliffs. We ate lunch up here overlooking the canyon. It was beautiful, but the cliffs were high!

Here is a closeup. Love it. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. The camera is set down on one of the rock formations and we are on another one, quite a bit away. David set it up, set the timer and then RAN from the camera over to the mountain, across the path, and then along the rock formation that we were on. He didn't make it in the ten seconds allotted on the first try, but he made it on the second try! (Not going to lie, I was a little nervous that he was going to trip and fall to his death, but I suppressed my "irrational fear" and I am happy to report that we all made it back from the hike alive!)

I promise that we got more pictures with Amy. We used Davids camera most of the time, but then his camera died... so we finished up the last few pictures with my camera. Maybe I will make David post with the rest of the pictures.

Go Team.

Everyone knows that David and I are AVID Aggie fans. We love Utah State more than... well almost anything.

However, David's family are also HUGE BYU fans. Our evening was spent watching the BYU vs. Oklahoma.

BYU 14 -- OU 13

Go Cougars.

Awesome DIY Chairs

Okay. You can not possibly believe how excited I am about this. I absolutely love Do-It-Yourself projects. Also, I have really gotten into refurbishing things and re-using old things to make new even better things! This is one of my latest projects.


David and I found two of these chairs at the DI for $8. They were in great condition except for the seats (which are worn out and very dirty).

Picture 1- So you can see how great the back of the chair is.

Picture 2 - a full shot of the chair (for effect)

Picture 3- Close up of the chair seat so you can see how gross it was.


David and I went and bought new fabric, and with the help of my darling Father (thanks Dad!) we re-covered the seats! The chairs look brand new. We absolutely love them. You couldn't buy chairs like these at RC Willey for less than $40 a piece, or even WalMart for less than $25!

The two chairs, side by side. The lighting is a little funny, but they really do look great!

Here is a closeup of the fabric. It is a light green/cream fabric. It looks so great!


ps. Keep an eye out for my next DIY project! I am almost done and am tempted to post my progress, but it is a present for Davids sister Wendy and her husband Sam. I am REALLY excited about it, but can't post anything until AFTER they see it. No sense in spoiling their surprise just because I am a tab bit impatient. I am sure you will all LOVE it though! I know I do.

Coraline? What about Creepoline?

Sorry for the cheesy title, but you just have to understand! David and I were looking forward to a great movie that we could cuddle up and enjoy after a long week (and it WAS a long week) back at school. David and I are avid RedBox goers, and Friday night we rented the fabulous movie "Race to Witch Mountain," which is a remake of a great older movie. Full of suspense, humor, and happy endings! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Saturday morning came far too early and I had to be at the library at 7:30 to meet up with my boss and the other managers before our first staff meeting of the year (started at 8:00 in the am. Blech.) Needless to say I was again very exhausted and my wonderful husband picked up another movie from our beloved RedBox to complete our relaxing evening at home. Which brings me to the point of this post. I had previously told David that I wanted to see Coraline because one of my friends had said it was good. (Lets be honest, I want to see basically every PG movie out there. Beggers can't be choosers, eh?) I followed up this statement with the following: "Or maybe she said that it made her want to sew buttons on her nieces eyes. Whichever one." The last statement was lost among the crowd Walmart shoppers (I am sure we were at Walmart, we seem to make at least three trips a week to that place.)
So my adorable husband brought home the movie Coraline. :) I was pretty excited and we popped a huge batch of popcorn in our fabulous StirCrazy machine. (Check out this link to watch it in action on YouTube. It's the best ever! Skip to about 1:06, thats when the good stuff happens. Also, I didn't watch the clip with sound so I have no idea what they are saying.)

Okay I promise I am getting to my point. Here it is. CORALINE IS THE CREEPIEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!

Within the first ten minutes David and I had rated the movie as a 10.5 on the creepy scale. Don't ask me why we kept watching, I suppose it was because we were so determined to have a relaxing movie night. This movie was el-creepo! A later conversation with our neighbors resulted in them telling us that they watched it in the theatre with a bunch of screaming/crying children.

I would have been that screaming/crying child. Yikes.

At least it wasn't as bad as Faith Like Potatoes.