Life Imitates Art

I saw this movie and loved it.

So I went to this roller derby and loved it.

Then I saw this movie and loved it.

Which led me to having the first graders do an art project on Wild Things.

And it inspired me to make this pumpkin.

Conversations on the Playground

A conversation I overheard between some third grade students:

boy1: I have two girlfriends right now.

girl: (yelling as boy1 walks by) I DON'T LIKE YOU ANYMORE!

boy2: You just got dumped!

boy1: well I still have another girl.

boy2: psyche!

If only it was that easy to start or end a relationship as an adult...

Miss or Mrs.

Here are few recent conversations with the little girl I used to nanny:
S: I don't think Ronald McDonald is human.
Me: Why do you say that?
S: Have you seen those feet? They are huge.
Me: Yes, they are pretty big.
S: I am thinking he is a Sasquatch or something.
Conversation 2:
Me: Are you standing on a stool?
S: Ya. It's not like I am standing on a midget or something?
Me: I think that is the funniest thing I have heard you say!

My first embarrassing moment as a new teacher:
I was at my school on Monday trying to organize my classroom when the janitor and the Principal came in to check on me. They asked me if they had got the Mrs. Bybee thing right. Now I didn't see this spelled out in a bubble above there mouths as they asked, so I just heard "Misses" and said "Ya that's right". They asked me a couple more times to make sure this was right. Obviously I need a refresher on the difference between Miss and Mrs.! It has something to do with a ring on my finger.
The next day as I am going into my classroom I look on my door and it says: Mrs. Bybee
Art Teacher. That's when it clicked. So I proceeded to tell the janitor and the principal that I didn't understand what they were asking. I tried to make a joke about it just bieng wishful thinking. The janitor then said, "Be careful what you wish for."

Lately

This summer I have been working as a nanny for two wonderful little girls. I can't really publish pics of them on here, so I will put a blurry one from behind. We have had some fun adventures. We went to the shark reef aquarium the other day. I am constantly looking for new things to do with them. We have made cupcakes, been to a magic show, done art projects, made friendship bracelets, visited the pet store multiple times, swam, played at the park, been to multiple children's museums, made cookies, made play dough etc. I am starting to run out of ideas, but it has been fun for me. They have helped me bring out my inner child.

And it has prepared me for my new job in the fall. Drum roll please.... I got a teaching job! Hooray! I start teaching August 17th. I will be the Art teacher at an elementary school. I am a little nervous about it, but I am also excited. I am especially excited about having the summer off.

Oh and I went to Oregon last week. It is beautiful there. I think I will live there some day. Here are a few pics of the trip:

Sophie was walking around like this forever. I think she may have thought she was an animal or something.

Sophie and Olivia looking at a tiny shell.

Hobbit Olivia

We love this book store. I bought a cool old copy of Pride and Prejudice and some old children's books I will tear the illustrations out of and frame.

Eliza likes to match her food.

Sisters and Momason

Sophie with the sea lions.

Vinnie and Matt fancy dancing.

Sophie and Momason running from waves.

Watching the sunset.

"Cheese!"

Dancing and Fireworks

I spent the fourth of July with my family. We had a blast. But I will let the photos say the rest: I have the world's cutest nieces

Vinnie a.k.a. Big Papa Nasty(our DJ)

They've still got it.

Having a great time.

One of Vinnie's many dance moves.

Even The Mom danced.

Eliza and I love dancing
Tess wouldn't dance, but I still love her.

I am not sure what to say about this.

Sparklers.

The Mom got a little crazy with the fireworks.

She thought it was so funny to throw snaps at me.

The world's cutest nieces.

Ch-Ch-Changes

For some reason I have always hated change and loved comfortable. My family likes to tease me about how much I enjoy being comfortable; mostly because they have memories of me laying on the heater as a child...oh wait and as an adult....ok and using a blow dryer to keep my feet warm in the winter...ok fine also in the summer when the A/C is too high!

But the interesting thing about my disdain for change and my love for comfortable is that I am hardly ever comfortable and I usually end up grateful for change. This past year I experienced a lot of change all at once. A lot of things happened that I didn't expect to happen and I ended up in a place that I wasn't expecting to be in. And yet here I am kind of at the tail end of it now thinking: I am so grateful to be where I am .

I was recently talking to one of the first friends I met when I moved to Vegas almost 3 years ago(wow has it been that long?) and he asked me, "Are you happy?" I said "Yes." He then proceeded to ask what makes me happy right now. I tried to explain this with a list of people, opportunities and blessing. But mostly I realized it is because after a lot of pain I have learned to enjoy the sunlight so much more. I am learning to live in the moment and love the little things. I guess the stretching agony of change is what makes me enjoy the small moments of comfortable.

"This is the best day of my life!"

I subbed for kindergarten today. At the end of the day we had some cupcakes and the kids played on the playground for this little girls birthday party. One little boy said to me "This is the best day of my life!" I laughed and thought to myself : "I wish eating cupcakes and getting to play for ten minutes in the hot sun was able to make me just as happy."

Saving Lives One Race at a Time

This was my second 5K that I have ever done(remember our first one Christine) and I did better then I did at the first one 4 years ago. I am not going to divulge my time... but let's just say I was proud of my self for running the whole time no matter how badly I wanted to stop and walk. Christine has moved on to half-marathons on the Great Wall of China, but I am content with my small feat of shaving a few minutes off my 5k time. I am glad that my friend Cindy asked me to do it two weeks ago. My favorite part was the 80 year old man that was running who had a shirt that said "Men also have a breasted interest." We had a great time and I got a free cape out of it!

Nevada: A Place for Cheap Culture and Slurpees.

Today I was driving and I saw a sign for the Nevada State Museum with an arrow on it. I looked in the direction the arrow was pointing and it was pointing to a 7-Eleven. I thought to myself "Hmmm. That makes sense that the Nevada State Museum would be in a convenient store."

Substitute Teacher a.k.a. Punching Bag

• I had my very first week of substitute teaching this week and boy it was a roller coaster. It started out with a full day of kindergarten and ended with Middle School Science.

Highlights:

• As I was reading aloud to a group of third graders I would stop every paragraph or so and ask them a question to make sure they were paying attention. I would randomly pick a Popsicle stick from a cup to call on a student to answer. At one point I called on a little girl and her answer was "Um....unrecognizable mumbling and something else made up..." For some reason(possibly exhaustion) I thought this was hilarious and started to laugh(*please note it is not appropriate to laugh at a student's serious answer). I tried to pretend I was laughing about another student who was jumping out of his seat to answer the question. I am not sure if they bought it or not... I really need to get a grip and learn to control my laughter better, especially when it comes to laughing at students.
  
• Then I ended the week on a high note when I was teaching middle school science. After a couple periods I went to the bathroom and as I was washing my hands I realized that my sweater was in-side-out. Yes, my friends, in-side-out with the tag sticking straight out and the buttons on the inside! I am pretty sure the middle schoolers got a kick out this when I wasn't looking.


• I SURVIVED! Here's to next week.