Made it to April

Hello there. The last couple of weeks have been one surprise after another.

2 Weekends Ago

Our date last Saturday was going out to eat with Alan. He is an old family friend and he's just such an awesome guy. He used to date my mom when I was in 2nd grade I think (crazy right?!?) and we've kept in touch. He lives in central Utah with his family now so Dallin and I haven't seen him in a long time. It was so good to try a new restaurant together and catch up. We had a lot of fun! 

After that we took the kids to the field. 

It was so sunny out that we were literally sweating. That was the day that it was 72 degrees outside. It felt so good that we wanted to continue it and we decided to go tanning.

MAJOR MISTAKE

I fell asleep in the tanning bed, and had to go to school on Monday looking like this. If you're a health teacher looking for a way to show the students what NOT to do, just scorch your skin. I was so embarrassed that I had become a walking advertisement for anti-skin cancer campaigns in a junior high. So, instead of fess up to the whole tanning bed thing, I decided to make a game of it. I was trying to spread a thousand different rumors around the school about what happened. So each time a student asked me how I got sun burned, I came up with a different, extravagant story. For example, "I was gardening my 40 acres of land over the weekend." "I went to the Bahamas for a day and came back." "I went up into the mountains to see if I could live off the land." "I biked all the way to California and back." "I went out for a walk and got lost." Etc. It was pretty fun, but it didn't work unfortunately. 

There were several stages. 1. Magenta and immovable

2. Red and stiff

3. Pink and Okay

4. Tan and Beachy looking

5. Flakey, multicolored, & as itchy as a dog with fleas.

This pic was on day 5 of course. The tan was peeling off, leaving me with sections of tan, white falling off skin, and other white parts where it had already peeled. HOT. 

It was especially embarassing after the sun was no longer out. There were 2 other teachers who came back from the weekend with sun burns for actual legit reasons, so it felt okay at first. But once this happened, I just felt like a red girl that was trying too hard. lol I hate "spring."

Cutie Kids.

I couldn't find Jake, and finally he poked his head out. He had smashed himself into the tiniest space ever! He's done it once again since this, and it is the funniest thing to see him try and get out. He has to jerk and drag his body out. lol You do what you have to do to get privacy I guess! (In that picture, Josie's asking him how on earth he got in there.)

Jake and Dallin have a really special bond, and we always end up separating in the evening. The boys cuddle and the girls cuddle. 

I don't really know why, but for some reason Josie loves me more and Jakey loves Dallin more. That's an exaggeration of course because we love both, but I think that's the best part about having 2 dogs. We both get cuddles, but there's not one getting left out. I wouldn't want more than 2. 

(Josie does this thing where she likes to just stare lovingly into my eyes lol and don't worry. That brown thing is just the arm of a teddy bear that they ripped off. It looks like poop, but it's not.)

Clearlink Perks

Dallin and Brian are trying to make it so that more of the incentives have a plus one because it gets annoying to be the one always getting left behind. Anyway, we got to go to a free dinner at Carvers! I freaking love that place. I ate so much because it was so good. I decided I like scallops!

Us with the human Jake! :)

We got to go see the superman vs. batman movie on clearlink too! They rented out the theater so we took Whitney and Shad with us. It was fun even though I thought the movie was lame and I laughed at all the wrong parts. lol I just think super heroes should have to wear pants is all. 

Saturday

Last Saturday we didn't really have a date since we knew we were going out Monday. So we stayed in and watched a movie and ordered chinese. It was great to relax since life has been so busy lately. 

Nails.

Gave up on the gel. This way just works better for me. That pink one is a lot prettier it just doesn't photograph well I guess. It's one of my favorites. 

Workin' Hard

Holy crap it's done. March is done. Ugh I hated March. It is definitely "incessant." We finally FINISHED THE YEARBOOK!!!! It's done. The only thing I have left to do is submit it. Now I've replaced that section of the board with "37 school days left." lol I can see the light. 

Plus, we're on spring break now!! Woo hoo!

Our teacher supply receipts were due today so I bought PE equippment. Although it's not a lot, it will definitely help if I can keep buying a little more each year to build up the supply we have. 

TRAGEDY STRUCK. I opened an email on my school account that had a virus that wiped every file from my computer. EVERYTHING. I was so depressed over losing a full year's worth of work that I went through all the stages of grief. My students even felt bad for me. I guess that will be my project for spring break. Re-making all of the disclosures, worksheets, signs, handouts, lesson plans, and downloading all of the music and videos again. It could've been worse. I'm so glad the yearbook is made online, because we would've been screwed.

Look! That yellow bar was only half way like a month ago and we finished it all up!

We've had our first couple soccer games and the team did pretty good. 

It's the end of the quarter so we had to submit grades. No one really did this, I just thought it was funny. 

We got to go on a feild trip to see the new building that they built for us next year. It looks really good! I'm really excited for it. 

Draft Day for Doctors

So match day happened for Trenden. It was really cool that they streamed it on the internet so that we could watch it live. I was trying so hard to be happy for him, but literally while I was watching it, the tech guy was telling me I had lost all my files and there's nothing he could do. So I was pretty stressed while I watched this. 

Each student walked up and said where they're going in the microphone and then went and put their sticker on the state.

There he is putting on his sticker. He's going to OHIO! Whew! I think they're happy with it and he seemed excited so I'm excited for them too. It's really pretty in the midwest. So now they have a couple of weeks to pack up and move out! My mom is down there now helping them because Kaylynn's gonna pop any day and Trenden has to go to New Mexico for his last rotation. So I'm sure life will be very busy for them the next few months with everything going on. 

The presidential stuff going on seems to be a bigger deal right now than it usually is. The students are even talking about it, and I don't think I was that aware when I was their age. I swear every other commercial is about a candidate.

House Stuff

We've been going over several different options with our next move for another house. There are pros and cons with everything, and it's hard to know exactly how much risk to take. So we've looked at existing homes, and been to builders to see about building. We've thought about condos, student housing, flipping a house, and on and on. We're just weighing the options but at least getting close with deciding. This was Dallin in a model home. 

We wanted to build this one but ended up deciding against it.

Big Momma's House

We had the family dinner at my mom's last week. She was looking over some floorplans with us and telling us her experience with building. It was good to see them all again. It's been a long time since everyone's been so busy.

Easter

Easter was kinda lame this year. We just mostly laid around watching tv and not really doing anything to celebrate. This was our first year not doing anything for Easter too. (Seriously- St. Patrick's day, my half birthday, and Easter? Are we becoming old? I always celebrate every holiday!) We did go to Matthew and Shanna's for easter dinner with the graffs, and the littles had an egg hunt. 

Witnessing a Legend

Best. Night. Ever. We got to see Kobe Bryant up close! It was the most amazing experience and I'm so glad we went. It was so cool to watch a game that close- I think I'm ruined. Watching games any other way will no longer suffice. Anyway, he's Dallin's idol, and it was his last game in Utah. So when he walked off after his last play, he got a standing ovation. I know he didn't play very well, and the lakers got their trash beat, but it was the coolest thing in the world regardless of the outcome. That's a memory we'll always have. 

Look how close our seats were! Okay, not to be weird or anything, but he gave us both eye contact at different points in the game. Amazing. 

Dallin had better pics on Fbook. Plus I like it when he gloats about me :)

It is the coolest thing to be that close to the action!

This was his farewell video that they played. It was cool seeing his reaction to it. 

Dallin chanting "Kobe, Kobe, Kobe" along with the crowd when he was introduced.

Serious. If anyone finds my doppelgänger please send me a picture. It has always been my goal to find them. 

Sidenote: I saw Ciera on the news tonight! Cool!

Cya lata Playa.

-Syd

Double Whammy

The last 2 weeks have been great at times and terrible at times. Lemme e'splain.

All Things Girly

2 weeks ago now we went over to Lexi and Justin's with Tara and Shilo. We made a deal that if the guys gave us pedicures they could game all night. So that happened...

(not without my runt toe being mocked of course.)

Then we did our own nails with gel and jamberry. I didn't like how they looked on my natural nails because of how short they are. But I did like how hardy the gel is. I tried my best to avoid the biting, but I only lasted 1 week. 

After that they helped me work on a "Back 2 School" wreath. This was the inspiration that I saw on pinterest. 

This was the "during" phase. 

This is the finished product! Do you like it? I'm not sure whether I'll hang it on my home door or my classroom door, but it will be so cute to have in August.

The Weather!

I was so happy when I looked outside and saw that it's finally baseball season! We love baseball, and I love coming out of my Winter blues. 

I let the kids out to roam while I sat around in the sun one day after school because it was so nice. It really made me wish I had a yard. If I had a yard that wasn't teeny tiny I would do that every day.  

 We took the kids to their field and I found a lady bug! Notice I'm wearing a big coat because Spring is a fickle beast. I never say that I actually like spring. What I like is summer, and spring just means that summer is getting closer. I hate how spring tricks you into thinking it's going to to be warm and then BAM....hail storm.

Our cute little pond by our house. They love to explore. And I was happy because it was sunny.

Life with the Good Ol' Cubs

Soooooo....teacher appreciation week rocks.
I've never known that was even a thing! But the folks at Summit sure know how to celebrate it! The ladies from SPO gave it a Harry Potter theme- which I was crazy about. And then all the students and parents were so thoughtful with everything they did. They gave out awards, and I got the "Fan-Graff-ic" award. I wished I had gotten a different award, but that's my only complaint for the whole week. It was amazing. The school even had 2 massage therapists come in and set up in the teachers lounge and give us massages. I got Harry Potter themed gifts, thoughtful cards, and personalized things that the students know I love.

The student council decorated the doors and hallways like Hogwarts!

The SPO brought us catered lunches, deserts, breakfast, and drinks. I wish it was teacher appreciation every week. I definitely needed it during "incessant month."

We had to take a picture to document the Health and PE teachers eating donuts. lol I still don't even believe Masco ate that though...

I saw this on pinterest and I used a variation of the idea for Workout Wednesday! (Or as the students call it, "weeping wednesday.") I hung the letters all over the room and told them all different sentences to spell. In between each word they had to run a lap. They ended up getting a great workout! The only thing that's been troubling to me so far has been students making up reasons to sit out. There is a new injury or sickness every day, and it's so hard to tell when they're legit. I'm still working on that....

Since sweats is all I get to wear now days, I find myself looking in the active wear section of every store I go in. I like getting new stuff, and don't get me wrong, wearing workout clothes is wonderful. Sometimes I miss dressing up, but it's so comfy too. 

We're done with the volleyball unit and now we're in soccer. They love it! And some of them are great because they've played their whole life!

 This was from the faculty-student basketball game. (I'm the one in the light blue.) This is the biggest problem that I have with yearbook lately. The students are hard workers, and they're bought in and they love yearbook. But they're not...... good yet. So every single picture from this is blurry. Just like this one. We will have a student go to an event and take 30 pictures, but only 5 of them are usable because they're all weird looking. Then when they make pages, I end up re-doing it once they're done because the design looks awful. I taught lessons about design and photography and using the cameras and all of that. They've gotten a little better from it, but I think it might just be the age group. The excitement of it takes over and they don't concentrate as hard as they should on each piece of the puzzle. It's like a night and day difference between the high school yearbook and ours. But I love how they come up with so many ideas and they're so passionate about every single thing that has gone into that book. Although I will have changed it , I know they will all be so incredibly proud of that book when it comes out. I know I'm probably exaggerating the severity of the problem, because so far the admin has approved all but 1 of the pages. At any rate, I want next year to be better. I am definitely taking note of these things so that I can make changes next year. As a school reading and writing numbers are low, so I think that I need to make a bigger focus on caption writing. I also need to be a harsher critic and make the students re do the page with my edits over and over until it is right. I didn't want to do that, but I think that has a lot of learning power. 

Anyway, we don't have very much time left. And I have to make tough decisions about what to cut and what to keep. I have to edit like crazy and make sure that everyone's in it..... the list goes on and on. I don't have that much time left, and it's driving me crazy a little bit. The reason I named this blog "double whammy" is because the last month for yearbook and the month with no days off is hard. It's not hard because I'm working on it every second of every day, it's actually not like that at all. I don't work on it that often, the problem is that there are tons of tiny problems that I'm waiting on other people for. I need pictures or approval or what have you. Ugh. Anyway, 13 more days. Lets see if I survive. 

We had a mini-photo shoot in the hallway with Mr. S and a few other students. He acted like a gangster and then tried the poses of all our memes. He is the school councilor and he's awesome.  I have some hilarious ones of students but I can't put them on here. Anyway I think he looks like the real-life version of Dimitri from Anastasia the cartoon. (Don't judge. I was in a long meeting where he was talking at the beginning of the year and that came to mind.)

WHOOP THERE IT WENT!

Funny story: Fries ripped his pants in class. Down the front! He had to tie his jacket around his waist like a skirt so of course I snuck a pic. lol I laughed so hard. Sorry for laughing at your expense..... but it's not even the first time this has happened! lol 

Yearbook staff is trying to get students to buy yearbooks before our deadline, so we made stickers and handed them out. Unfortunately, I don't think they worked very well. I'm worried about how many are buying because I really have no idea where our numbers are at. I guess time will tell!

I have had 3 meetings in one week. I love teaching, and I hate meeting. lol I usually have a hard time figuring out how to relate the info to my content area. The meetings where I actually learn valuable stuff that helps with teaching.... I LOVE. So it's not that i don't want to develop professionally. I just don't teach math or english or science.... which is usually what is harped on in meetings. So I don't know what to do. I guess I'll have to figure it out throughout my teaching career. I know that's a common problem with PE folks. I would love to get more ideas with the subjects I teach, so I guess that's what I have to do on my own, because I don't think that's what the meetings are for. (so I gather)

SOCIAL DANCE!!! I love teaching social dance. We just had our test to end the last unit, and today was the first day of swing and tango. This is the song we practiced the basics to, and it was interesting to see that although I perceived it as easy... it was really hard for them! It took them a while to get the hang of the triple step, but they got it! This dance is so fun. We decided that the social dance class is going to perform at the end of year assembly, and the yearbook class is going to make a slide show of pictures for the assembly as well. Anyway I'm excited for the performance and already thinking about choreography ideas. 

I had a drone flown into my head today. That's a new one! The propellors got mega caught in my hair because all 4 of them kindof spun their way in. It was a big mess and the students helped to take apart the drone in order to get it out of my hair. LOL I wish I had a picture. I made fun of Fries and now I'm never living this one down. 

 Clearlink Awards Dinner

We went to dinner on clearlink for an awards night. It ended up being more like the "Dundees" from the office. It was kindof a roast. Dallin didn't get an award, but Brian did. He got roasted pretty hard before hand.... lol but he seemed happy with the award. We drove with Justin and Ricky so it was obviously a very entertaining time! lol
Anyway we got to know Thomas and his wife Kaylee really well because we were sitting together, and they are really cool. It was cool talking education with her since she's in El-Ed. 

 Dinner at work

Once again. Working late. We ate and laughed at all of Dallin's jokes. (At this point I'm getting sick of writing. I think I'm going to take a break and come back to this.)

Malaise. 

Mr. Fries taught me that word. "a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify."

Anyway, I was sick last week for about 4 days. I still went to school and everything, but I felt like crap and I didn't work out. 

My mom told me to go to the doctor but by the time I was going to go I felt better. I got lots of cuddles over the weekend and by Monday I was feeling better. 

 During 2nd period when I usually go to the gym, I went and used the massage chairs at the gym or the massage beds and just didn't work out. lol It was awesome. That chair does some magic I'm telling you. It helped a lot to have that break during the day.

 Talking Politics

I don't really have that much of an opinion. I feel like an idiot in most political conversations. But I watched the republican debate and I got a lot out of it. Still don't know who to vote for, but I was able to pick out my favorites. I'm such a boring adult now... lol friday night and I'm watching the debate. 

MLM's are getting on my nerves

I get offered into different MLM's so often that it's seriously getting annoying. 

Sunday funday

Dallin was the courageous one between the two of us and picked up the doggie poopy. I've never loved him more. lol It was stinky... so he needed a cancer mask. 

 We went to applebees, target, and best buy. It was a great day. Applebees was pretty much empty so we just talked to our waiter and stayed there for a long time snacking. I got those cute sunglasses at Target!

 At Bestbuy we decided to splurge and both got smart watches! I love mine for starting and stopping the music for instructions periodically during PE and dance.

Mine's more sporty looking (since I wear sweats every day) and Dallin's is really dressy. He dresses business casual every day for work, so his needed to be nicer. We actually got them on a really good deal and they were 100 dollars off! I like how it counts my steps and takes my heart rate periodically to measure my activity throughout the day. 

 At target we got throw pillows and blankets for the living room. So caaa-ute. Dallin had to come with and feel every pillow and blanket in the place because he has a ridiculous problem with certain textures. So I knew I couldn't get them online. The ones I wanted he made the throw-up noise and then said "no. Nope, no I hate it." lol Such a weirdo.

I wasn't planning on having turquoise in the room, but Dallin stays I need more color and less neutrals. So I hope it works. If not it's too late, so oh well. 

 Just the regular annoyances of being me.

I have a hard time letting things go, so I'm really working on not getting mad or sad about things that happen or other people's decisions. I think that I over think things and I get really jealous easily. I have to physically calm my self and force myself to focus on other things and breath for a second. I think I'm getting better.... I know it's definitely a problem though. It really is true that when you hold on to resentments or insecurities you're really only impacting yourself. I don't want to be negatively afffect my own life just because of other people's decisions and me overreacting to them. It shouldn't matter what's going on around me, because I should be able to control my own happiness and peace. So I'm certainly trying. No guarantees though. lol 

Wudy, wudy, wudy, wudy, wudy...

You can't not chant that name in a low voice. lol I met the real Rudy in person when he came to speak at UVU! He used to by my idol. My lacrosse number was his football number. Go #45! 

Anyway, at dinner he was so amusing. He loved dallin drumming on the table. 

 Obsessions

I think I have a problem. I want all the farmhouse decorations that exist in the whole world. 

Real Life Love 

Real life love is different than the "first started dating love." We play tricks on each other, make fun of each other, but we are definitely besties. 

The other day, I was not trying to be funny but Dallin walked up to me and hugged me. I said, "Oh no what's wrong?" Because in my mind it made sense that people hug when bad things happen....

So now he makes fun of me that we're not allowed to hug unless someone dies or something bad happens. 

Jim and Pam remind me of us.

He showed me this song the other day and said it reminded him of me. AWWW!

 Couples Dating Couples

Okay that sounded super weird. Anyway, we went on a double date with shad and whitney, and it was a blast. We saw eddie the eagle, I ate my weight in food, then we schooled the boys at the board. Back at work me and whitney were talking about how much double dating and couple friends are like dating. You have to both like each other and there's the texting thing and knowing what they're going to like doing and all of that. They are such a hoot and we had such a blast! We will definitely be doing that more often. It is so great working with Whitney because she is so down-to-earth and funny. My co-workers are a big reason for why I am where I am. I would never want to teach with people I don't like. Anyway, she's the best. 

Spoiled Kids

I can't help it. I want to be able to see my kids while I'm at work. Lol They have these doggie cams that dispense treats when you want to and show your face and let them hear you and all of that. So freaking cool. I think I'm going to get one (or 2 for different angles) and then watch them during the day to see what they do. 

 
Another cool gadget! You can let them play fetch even when you're not there to throw it for them! How cool is that!!!

Gaming with Twenen

Dallin and Trenden gamed last night on Call of Duty and Dallin was impressed with himself. lol Trenden's match day is tomorrow so everyone is excited to find out where they will be moving. This was their way of celebrating match day I guess. 

St. Patty's hardly celebrated

We didn't do ANYTHING for the first time on this holiday. Last year we made green dinner and the years before we've gone out. I wore a green shirt... but that was about it. 

They wore their 4 leaf clover bandanas today. :)

I guess that's it!

I can hear my dad's voice saying, "Sydney! GO TO BED!" So I'm going to drag myself in the responsible direction and avoid pinterest at all costs. Good night!

-Sydney 

<3 :)