Happy Birthday to Me!

I am now 1/4 of a century old, halfway to 50 woohoo!  Everyone keeps asking me if I feel older, nope.  I think I felt older when I started teaching and everyone started calling me Ms. Jones.  My car insurance will now go down and I can rent a car all by myself and that makes me really happy because it makes going to florida a little bit cheaper!

I had a busy birthday weekend.  There was a huge YSA Conference on Saturday.  It was pretty good and I learned some great stuff on finances, saving for and buying a house, info from a Biggest Loser contestant and the ever so exciting dating panel.  Some things get so redundant and ridiculous to hear at times.  One of the guys said that girls can't complain about not getting asked out if they don't go to any of the activities, but when asked about why girls who don't get asked out yet go to activities don't get asked out he didn't have an answer.  Boys are just dumb and get freaked out when they get asked out on dates.  Ahh the drama just makes me want to be single forever, not!  Then satuday night there was a dance.  It actually was a lot of fun, because we all know that dances can be lame.  People were actually dancing at this one, amazing!  They also had game rooms with rock band and other games so that those who don't like to dance can still hang out with people.

Sunday I got to sit through what seemed 5,00 meetings.  I had one at 11, 12, church at 1:45, rush home for my Birthday dinner at 5, meeting at 6:15, 7, and fireside at 8.  It was a great day, I just wish I didn't have to spend half my birthday in meetings!  I did however have some friends come over for cake after the fireside.  Not too many came because it was kind of late and they thought they needed to go home and get some sleep.  I probably would have done the same but I decided to have fun and take today off work, I have days to use up so why not?  It has been wonderful so far!

I went shopping last weekend with my mom to get  my presents.  I got a nice new pair of pants that were normally $89, and I got them for $27 and a new jacket.  I got some other fun stuff and then the new Michael Buble cd, because I am in love with his new song, listen to it, you will like it too!

Here's to you 2009

A lot has happened during the year of 2009.  I wanted to take a moment and highlight some of the stuff.  There is a lot more to highlight than I thought!  Many things changed this past year, some for the better so not so much.

   

So the beginning of the year Tiff and I left on our 3 day trek across the country to Florida.  We were so happy to make it to Florida and not have to drive through Texas for a very long time!

  

The end of January we had the opportunity to come home for my Grandpa Riding's funeral.  It wasn't the happiest time to come home but I did get to hold my Abigail for the first time.

 

Also met Tiuana, Tiff's roommate, she is our new adopted sister.

 

I had my golden birthday and celebrated with the Princesses in Norway.  It was quite magical!

  

 In March we discovered a new hobby, hotel hot tub hopping.  You should give it a try sometime.  Some resorts are easier to get into than others and not look like you are doing something that you probably shouldn't!

 

  

Also Mar came, and we enjoyed having her come play with us and our friend Hannah came and joined in the fun.

 

Another hobby we discovered was movies on the beaches at the different resorts.  There is just something about sitting on the fake Disney beaches and watching a movie on the inflatable screen.  They have a campfire before the movie.  Here we are showing the Italians how delicious s'mores are, they enjoyed their first one!

 

In may I got to meet my favorite mr. and mrs. Incredible.  They know who they are and thats all I will say.  (ps this was not my first time meeting the incredibles, just these particular ones)

 

Also Andy, Chelsey and Cali came to visit.  I am so glad they came, going to the parks with little kids is so magical! 

On Easter Tiauna and I were sinners and went to see the Easter Parade at the Magic Kingdom.  I remember watching it on TV growing up.  They don't show it on TV anymore but I thought since while I was there I should go see it.  I'm glad we did.  It was great fun.

 
We also had a girls night at the grand.  I believe we had about 13 stay in our room.  I can't go into the details or else I would have to kill you, you know how girls nights are!

 

In may we continued to play around the resorts and we enjoyed a deliciously fattening Kitchen Sink.

 

May also brought the end of festival season.  We had our last awards ceremony which was a blast because we are all nerds and learned the dance to "We're All in this Together" it was awesome!

Then it was time to say farewell to Tiffany and other friends as they ended their college program, so we threw in some time at Star Wars Weekend, more great fun.

One of my highlights of the semester was going on my first cruise.  It was amazing and I can't wait to go on another one!

 

Then came June and it was almost time for me to go back home to AZ :( Got to play in the parks a couple more times with cousins that came to visit and Brad.

  My last weekend in Florida there was a YSA activity at Daytona beach.  We had a lot of fun and we saw where the Daytona 500 takes place.  Then Emily and I packed up my car again and headed back home.  We really didn't stop, we just wanted to get home!

I didn't take too many pictures during the summer.  Just came home, started lifegaurding again, went to a Family Reunion in Utah and looked for a teaching job.

 In August we went to an old teachers wedding.  It was kind of awkward and fun.  Then school started, you can kind of say thats fun, but it pays for me to have fun!

September I found my favorite new toy, the FlowRider.  It's awesome and I've gotten to ride it a couple times, I'm getting pretty good.  Hopefully by the end of the summer I will be a pro.

October was a busy fun month.  I became an aunt again to my adorable nephew Treyson.  He is such a cute baby and keeps getting cuter and more fun to play with everyday.  Then I went back "home" to Orlando for a much needed visit.  Lindsay and I had a blast hanging out with Brad and some other good friends that are still there.

 

In November Emilie and I made my cousins wedding cake. We have started a cake business, you should check out our blog WE do cakes.

December came and left really fast like it always does. I survived my first concert as a teacher. It was great fun except for my kids giving me pink eye. Christmas was fun and spent with lots of family.

So there's to you 2009. You were good. Lots of changes were made, now its time to see what 2010 has in store!

First Grade Funnies

Today one of the funniest things happened.  For some reason my classroom has a bathroom in it, well really it is pretty much a little closet with a toilet and there is a utility sink right outside.  Well today one of the first graders started doing the potty dance so I let her go to the bathroom.  As soon as she shut the door she started singing.  I was trying to not to laugh but we could all hear her, it was really hard to go on with the lesson, so we kind of just stopped and waited for her to finish because she was quite loud.  She is also kind of short so she had to pull a piano bench up to the sink so that she could wash her hands and so that made more noise!  Good thing we were talking about animals and the sounds they make!

Random thoughts again

I've had a couple random thoughts lately.  The first one really intrigues me.  The Vice Principal at my "other school" is a really nice guy.  One thing I don't get about him is that his kids are home schooled.  How are you a vice principal of a school yet home school your kids?  Doesn't make any sense to me.

Another thing that I laugh at is the reality shows about beauty pageants.  The parents of these poor little girls are crazy.  You can tell they had a weird child hood and so they are trying to live through their daughters.  We just sit and laugh at them.  The thing that mostly creeps me out is at the end of the pageant before they crown the winners and the flaming gay host sings a cheesy pageant song to the girls.  What parents would do that it is so creepy.  Here is a spoof that some people have done.  I love it so much because it is so true!

Christmas Break

Christmas break is over.  I'm not too excited to go back to work in the morning, boo and especially because it is an all day training for stuff I won't ever use since I teach music and not reading.  The break has been nice.  This past week I went and saw the musical Annie with some of my cousins.  It was great and poor little Annie in her big solo, Tomorrow she had hiccups.  She did a great job singing through them and kept her composure very well.  They had a cardboard cutout of the progressive lady so I just had to get my picture with her.

 

Christmas Eve was a great night.  Last year it was interesting because Grandpa Riding was at a care facility so we didn't dinner like we normally do.  It was wonderful to have it back at Grandmas and do our annual Nativity.  They had all of the older cousins be Angels since everyone is growing up and it is traditionally done by the younger cousins.  It was fun though. 

 

 

A bunch of us posing with Grandma after the party.

  

Me and my Abigail Christmas morning.  She is adorable and I think I'm her favorite!

Winter Wonderland

My first concert went very well.  It was a very crazy day because I woke up with Pink Eye and I should not have gone to school that day but I had no choice, what would they have done without me?  I felt just fine but I looked like crap!  Luckily some of the wonderful ladies told me to rub lemon juice on my eyelids and she even had a lemon sitting in the fridge.  It took the itch away for a bit which was wonderful.  I got the stage looking as nice as I could for what I had.  Ahh the joys of working in the ghetto!  The family resource center which is run by parents decided to have a big all school potluck before the concert. It was a great success and I didn't have to worry about getting fast food in my ghetto neighborhood!  My eyes at this point were so red and puffy it looked like I had been crying all day.  Some of the teachers were asking me if I was ok, if my nerves were getting to me.  I told them I was fine and that I had pink eye.  They just laughed.  My assistant principal was like, you do know thats contagious right?  Haha yeah I know, but what was I supposed to do?  The concert went great.  There was a huge turnout.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I think more showed up than they had planned.  One thing I need to work on is audience behavior.  They were horrible, it was so noisy the whole time.  I had everything mapped out but since more people showed up things didn't go as planned, but it still worked out just fine.  Everyone was pleased and the best part is that its over! 

Then as soon as we got home my dad and I went driving around to find an urgent care that was open so that I could get some drugs.  My eyes felt so much better after that.  They asked me if I knew if I had been in contact with anyone with pink eye.  I told them that I'm a teacher and that earlier that day one of the kids said "Ms. Jones, your eyes look just like mine did the other day when I had pink eye, that's why I wasn't here!"  It was splendid.  The joys of being a teacher.

During that next weekend I went on a day trip with my mom and dad to Snowflake to deliver flowers for a wedding.  It was a fun little trip, but so cold!  Snowflake is so windy it makes it even colder.  It was nice to see the snow and then go back to Mesa where we don't have the snow!

The last week of school before Christmas wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be.  The activity that I was doing with the older kids went better than I thought it would.  It made me so happy and it was something they could learn from!  I am now enjoying 2 weeks of bliss not having to drive to phoenix everyday!  I will post more of our lovely christmas adventures later.

December = craziness

December is here in full swing!  The craziness has already begun.  Tuesday Emilie and I made 2 delicious cakes to donate to the Mesa High Orchestra Dinner on Wednesday.  They turned out awesome and I hope they tasted as good as they look.  Wednesday was the delicious dinner and we enjoyed Outback, yum yum.  Thursday I went to institute and Friday I hung out with Linsday and caught up on drama in our lives!  Saturday my mom had gotten tickets to a free screening of Disney's new The Princess and the Frog.  It was so good!  Great story, great music great fun!  Can't wait till it comes out, will see it again.  My concert is on Thursday so I am in freak out mode.  I know it will all turn out fine.  The teachers have been very helpful and supportive, its been great, making my life easier.  They have let me know things that the other teacher had done in the past they they would do every year.  I don't want to break any traditions since they guy was there for 35 years!   There is a quick update, I will add more later, but its my bed time I have a super busy week!