Thanksgiving, My Favorite Holiday

I love the feeling of gratitude that pervades throughout the entire week leading up to Thanksgiving. Today we had three fabulous talks about thanksgiving. There's a great intangible feeling of hope, love, and happiness that accompanies gratitude. I have an abundance of things to be grateful for:

My family
My education
Good friends I've made in Logan
So many happy memories
Excellent Professors, Teachers, and Mentors
Graduating in May!
Spending Thanksgiving with my Parents, Brother, and Grandma
Having most of my big assignments due before Thanksgiving (rather than after it)
A great ward of fantastic young single adults
The Savior, Jesus Christ, and His infinite atonement
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
All the amazing blessings I've received since returning from my mission
And so many other things...my list could go on forever!

Interview in Orem Tomorrow

Wish me luck! I have my interview for the Orem Externship tomorrow. If all goes well that's where I'll be next semester!

Bugs

I have to admit, working in the schools hasn't been my most favorite experience. It's growing on me, though. As I get to know the kids better, they have become more willing to cooperate and listen to me. Occasionally my supervisor still has to intervene with a comment such as "Johnny, just because I'm not over there, doesn't mean that you can behave that way with Ms. Price." Usually they listen to me, though. Since I've been given a bit more independence about activities that I choose and how I teach, it's been more fun, too.

My favorite little boy I work with is a little guy who is working on articulation. He usually comes in and sits down with a little bit of a sour attitude. Then I say with a smile, "Wait a second, we don't act that way at Speech!" and he laughs and works really well with me. It doesn't matter what game I work with him on, he looks for the fun in it and seems to have a good time.

This week we played the bug game. It's a really simple game I found online for artic. therapy, where you hide the bugs underneath the sound cards that you work with, and when the child finds a bug he gets to decide if he wants to put it on a web for a spider to catch or on a leaf so it can "get away." It's super simple, but this little man thought it was so fun, he couldn't wait to take it home for homework!

I used the game with a group of kids that had a girl in it, too. This little gal is hilarious. She's got a really fun spunky attitude. She kept insisting that it wasn't fair that I given them a whole bunch of different bugs, but had neglected to give them butterflies. I finally agreed to bring butterflies for the next time, so that she would work hard for me, instead of going on and about the butterflies. Too funny!

Irony

This evening I was spotlighted during our Ward Prayer. It's basically the ward's opportunity to ask you funny questions about yourself in the attempt to get to know you a little better. They asked me the typical questions: Where are you from? What's your major? and How many siblings do you have? But the last question of the evening got me thinking....

"What were you for Halloween?"

Well, since I have an awesome sombrero and plenty of bandannas, I decided to be a Mexican Bandit for Halloween. I have to admit, I looked pretty good, I mean, I was pretty convincing (maybe not as convincing as the guy in the picture, but still...). I was so convincing, though, that it got me into serious trouble with (as Prairie has so fondly nicknamed her) She-who-must-not-be-named.

Based on the information given above, can you figure out what she falsely accused me of this week?

What I Should Be for Halloween

You Should Be a Werewolf

You are seen as a bit tough and quite unpredictable. You follow your impulses. You see Halloween as a time you can go a little crazy. You love to scare people, and people are quite scared of you. You tend to be intimidating - and not just on Halloween! http://www.blogthings.com/whatclassichalloweencostumeshouldyouwearquiz/

Autumn Changes

At the schools right now we're doing a Unit on a book called The Apple Pie Tree. It's got a nice little theme to it, talking about how it changes from winter, spring, summer, and fall. I've enjoyed it so much, that I'm going to use it as a language unit for a project I'm doing at school. Learning the changes of seasons is actually part of Utah's curriculum requirements. Kindergarten students are supposed to learn what happens in the outdoors when seasons change, and how people change in response to seasonal changes. It's really interesting to review the grade level curriculum requirements and to realize what it was the teachers were actually trying to teach us. I loved Kindergarten! I had absolutely no idea that my teacher was teaching me. We were learning in a way that had us explore the environment around us. How great it is to be a kid and get to learn about 'seasonal changes'!

Leaves change color in the fall, the earth is covered in snow in the winter, blossoms flourish in the springtime, and the grass grows long and green during the summer. I decided to enjoy a seasonal change myself:

'Tis the Season for Pumpkins

For FHE we ate pizza and carved pumpkins! O what fun! I made the spider and my favorite Jack-O-Lantern was Mr. Frank N. Stein.


The sad part is that we carved them so early on in October that they probably won't last until Halloween...but I'm sure going to enjoy it while it lasts!

I found the templates on this great website that offered free ones. It was at http://www.pumpkinlady.com/pattern.htm#2006 . There are all sorts of great patterns, I want to do them all, but alas I want to graduate from college more...therefore I will restrain myself.

And by the way, does anyone know how to rotate the pictures so they face the right way when you post them?