Sunday, April 8, 2018

March 2018

March 2 is Dr. Seuss' birthday!! Did you know that? I found out a lot of information I hadn't known about Dr. Seuss while researching more about his life--very interesting. I celebrated the birthday the week leading up to it at school in my classroom, reading different books each day and doing a correlating activity. It was so much fun!!

I even bought a new shirt and wore it on the
last day of school that week! It says: I teach
a Thing or Two at Terreton Elementary!


Usually by March 1, the Golf Course employees are preparing to open up the golf course for the season (it usually opens each year around the 15th, depending on weather). But this year, it was still snowing at the beginning of March!

The twins built this snowman in the backyard
with all the fresh snow. I just failed to take a
picture until 2 days later, after the snow began
to melt.

Throughout my drive back and forth to Mud Lake all year, I've seen deer, moose, coyotes, antelope, rabbits, all kinds of birds, and as I was heading home to Salmon on March 3, I spotted this giant herd of elk on the move! It was quite impressive to behold!



Ammon went to Girl's Choice dance on the night of the 3rd with his friend Codi Dickens. He was afraid that he wouldn't be asked to the dance, since he no longer had a girlfriend (she broke up with him officially in December), but he had a great time with the younger group that he ended up going with!



The weather became suddenly very hot in Salmon, and it definitely felt like summer for a few days, and only just after winter had shown that it wasn't ready to leave yet, too! This was evidenced by Ammon's snapchat on the 6th on the driving range at the golf course (the first real practice week of H.S. Golf season).



The first full week of March was dubbed "Theater Week"--I went to 4 showings of 2 plays in Mud Lake and Salmon. The West J play "Fiddler on the Roof" was double casted, and I wanted to see both casts, so I went alone. On the 1st night, I sat by Rosalba and her family (Guerra was in that cast), and on the 2nd night I sat by Julie Hall and her family. I haven't seen the play done since I performed in it as a sophomore in high school, and it sure brought back a lot of fun memories!! I was in the chorus of that play, but loved it because it gave me a lot more time to be back stage, and I remember fondly spending hours in the costume room and backstage areas with a certain young man that was my first love. Ahhh, good memories, indeed!
The first cast

My favorite scene!!

The 2nd cast

Me with my friends back in high school, preparing for the
bedroom/Fruma Sara dream scene. 
The second play I watched twice was "Aida" put on by the Salmon students. Josh had come with me to see the play in SLC in January, and he was interested in watching it with me again. I got tickets for him and I, on Friday night. Then he loved it so much, he wanted to watch it again, so he and I went together on Saturday night, as well as the twins. The students did a fabulous job, and we were blown away with what they were able to accomplish, and perform is so well--we were not let down at all, which we worried that we might be after watching it in a professional theater. Ammon helped with the backstage crew again, and that was fun to see him involved in the production and watch him take his bows at the end. After Friday night's performance, Josh and I went out to Bertram's for a little snack to extend our date together, and had fries with brown gravy in honor of our friends who couldn't come watch it with us since they moved (we always think of Amanda when we eat fries with brown gravy).

Aida wither people. I love the song in this scene: "Aida". 

The second on-stage wedding of the week!

There's Ammon in the front left, during the curtain call.

Josh surprised me by growing a mustache that week.
 I surprisingly really liked it on him!

Yummy!


Ethan Jones was the prince


This was my favorite scene in this play

Sabrina did her hair curly the second time
we watched it, and I thought the two princesses
looked very similar in this scene with her hair like that.


It's always exciting when the "FIRSTS" of the year, or firsts of the season, begin to occur, because then the soul can acknowledge that the depression of winter is leaving and the hope for spring is awakened!!!
First day the greens were open at the golf course -- March 9
First motorbike ride of the season together -- March 10


Ammon's first full round of golf play for the season -- March 11


Terreton Elementary decided to do a Dr. Seuss week the last full week of school prior to Spring Break. Mrs. Sawicki and I decided to implement dress-up days for the week as well. We had crazy hat day, silly sock day, Wacky Wednesday (mismatched, backwards, wacky clothes), Character look-alike day, and pajama/wear green day. It was so much fun! On Monday, there was a kick-off assembly with a special guest Cat in the Hat and decorated cupcakes for everyone, and on the last day (Friday), we had a readathon. It was a super fun week! 
My crazy hat (I don't normally wear cowboy
hats, but I purchased this one on a motorbike
ride with Josh last summer and I just love it!)

Some of my students for Character Look-Alike Day

Mrs. Sawicki and I.


St. Patrick's Day was on the Saturday of West J's first day of Spring Break, so we'd worn green the day before in honor of Green Eggs and Ham AS WELL AS St. Patrick's Day! One of my student's parents gave me the sweetest gift basket with everything green inside, which was so thoughtful of her! My students did leprechaun art with forks, and painted rainbow streamers. I loved the bulletin board that Kanyon's class did called "Blessed is Best". The students listed blessings on mini shamrocks and made trees with them. Kanyon's picture had such a vibrant background, and I loved reading all the blessings he wrote (mostly the people that he knows!!). On Saturday night, we played games with Darcy and Phil, and had such a good time! At the end of the day, I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky and blessed I felt. This is what I wrote on facebook:  Happy St. Patricks Day! I woke up this morning thinking about how LUCKY and BLESSED I am. I'm lucky to have a handsome, hard-working husband, lucky to have the friends I do, lucky for the good kids I have, and lucky to be employed at the school where I'm at. I am also so blessed that my husband is so supportive of me, blessed to have friends who accept me for the way I am, blessed to have inspiring coworkers, blessed to have loving parents, and blessed to have healthy and bright sons. Thank you Tanis for the St. Patricks Day basket; your thoughtful act inspired me to reflect on my good luck, fortune, and blessings!



My classroom theme is "Rising Up" and I have
balloons as decorations. Tanis, my friend and
a parent of one of my students, gifted me this
GREEN hot air balloon along with the gift basket.

My surprise gift basket

She fit a lot of things inside!!!


Ammon went to visit his friends in Boise
for St. Patrick's Day. (Ammon-Tim-Eli)


West J's week-long spring break was March 17-25. Sadly, it didn't correspond with Salmon's, which was the last full week of March. I had originally hoped to take the boys on a family vacation to Zion's National Park in southern Utah over spring break this year, but since Ammon was in school and Josh had to work while the rest of us were off, that just wasn't possible. It was hard for the boys to be out while their friends were in school. We spent the week doing projects at home, and then the one weekend that was shared with the two school districts for spring break time (the last weekend for us/the first weekend for them), the boys went camping with their scout troop down river with dad, which was a fun ending for them. That same weekend, I went to Utah to go to a 20 year high school drama club reunion (which was an amazing experience for me), and Ammon drove up to Moscow for freshman orientation at U of I (where he decided to go to college to next year--he sent Southern Virginia University an official letter to decline their offer). 
I got my hair cut and colored at the Paul Mitchell
School in Rexburg over spring break. Maddy Bennett,
a local, did my hair. 

I had her add dark color to the back at the bottom

She also added color randomly to the top,
rather than just my bangs

The boys helped me trim the apple trees during spring break

They're getting good, and quick too! We knocked out both trees in less than 1.5 hrs

I moved the strawberry patch in the garden to a different spot during the break

The crocuses are always the first to bloom!

Micah bought a new motorbike from a guy in Challis over the break

Camping down river

Panning for gold

Kanyon really liked that activity!

A little hike above the water

There was quite a group of boys that went!
When I first arrived in SLC, I went out to eat
at Taqueria with Tawna and Bryce. I'd never
been there--so yummy! I stayed at their
house overnight on Friday. 

The Jordan River temple got remodeled,
so I went to the Open House on Saturday morning.


The reunion started in a room at the new Hale Center Theater.

I haven't seen Mr. Bahr in 20 years! It was so awesome to spend time with him again!

Kacey Udy took us on a tour of the theater.

We had a great turnout!

We watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame

The afterparty continued at a hotel conference room.

One of my favorite friends from Drama: Sara. 


Salmon's spring break was March 23 - April 1. It was hard for us to be back in school when Josh and Ammon were off! I struggled mentally all week at work, trying to stay focused, but wanting to be on break with them! They worked during the day and played in the afternoons/evenings--Ammon spent a lot of time with his friends, and Josh took several motorbike rides into the mountains. I was glad when the end of the week finally arrived, because I knew it meant a vacation for all of us together--Easter in Utah!

Josh found this wolf print in the snow on one of his rides









My students at our class Easter party on the last day of school in March!