Self-Esteem Boost!

Today I got on the Utah Teacher Site USOE and found out they mailed my Level II license yesterday.  I know it doesn't mean much to anyone but a Utah teacher but it was really fantastic news...trust me.  They also included a list of all the things I am qualifed to teach. Talk about a boost to my self esteem!  I look totally awesome on paper!!

Qualified To Teach USOE Qualified  NCLB Qualified  Barbara Merrell CACTUS ID: 554462 Assignment Code Assignment Title / Name 02010000010 Art (K-5) 02010000015 Art 6 02020000001 Dance (K-6) 02030000050 Drama (K-6) 02040000015 Music (K-6) 04010000020 Health Education (K-6) 04020000081 Physical Education (K-8) 06010000060 Elementary Reading 06020000010 Language Arts 6 07010000007 Mathematics - Grade 6 08050000005 Science (Grade 6) 09090000010 Social Studies (Grade 6) 15000000008 Character Education 15000000045 Learning Strategies 19010000001 Library Media (K-12) 21030000040 Principal, Elementary Teacher (2+hr/day 21040000020 Administrative Intern 22010000002 Grade 1 22010000003 Grade 2 22010000004 Grade 3 22010000005 Grade 4 22010000006 Grade 5 22010000007 Grade 6 22010000008 Grades 1-2-3 22010000010 Grades 3-4 22010000020 Grades 4-5-6 22010000030 Grade 7 22010000040 Grade 8 22020000001 Kindergarten 22040000001 Early Childhood (Pre-K) 24040000010 Youth in Custody Teacher 24040000080 Student Advisor 24040000090 Teacher of Homebounds & Hospitalized 24040000150 School-Level Education Specialist 24040000160 LEA-Level Education Specialist 24040000170 Adult Education Teacher 24060000001 Information Technology Specialist 24060000020 Early Childhood Mentor Teacher 24060000022 Elementary Mentor Teacher 24060000040 LEA Mentor Coordinator 24070000010 Paraprofessional 24080000001 Fellowship-Sabbatical 24080000098 USOE Curriculum Specialist 24080000099 USOE Professional Personnel 25020000010 Student Study Skills Assignment Code Assignment Title / Name 02010000010 Art (K-5) 02010000015 Art 6 02020000001 Dance (K-6) 02030000050 Drama (K-6) 02040000015 Music (K-6) 06010000060 Elementary Reading 06020000010 Language Arts 6 07010000007 Mathematics - Grade 6 08050000005 Science (Grade 6) 22010000002 Grade 1 22010000003 Grade 2 22010000004 Grade 3 22010000005 Grade 4 22010000006 Grade 5 22010000007 Grade 6 22010000008 Grades 1-2-3 22010000010 Grades 3-4 22010000020 Grades 4-5-6 22020000001 Kindergarten

AND 'YES' I WILL POST A PICTURE OF MY NEW LICENSE WHEN IT COMES!
It was Ben's birthday yesterday and I was the one that ended up getting the present :)

Phoenix or Bust!

Over labor day weekend, Allen and I helped Karen move to Mesa, Arizona. They both spent the night with me in St. George. We woke up to Calvin making us a gourmet breakfast. Next, Allen checked the hitch to make sure we didn't lose the Karen's car we were pulling and then we were off.  There is a picture of Karen in her favorite room--her new kitchen and all the boxes we unpacked before I left. Her apartment is not two blocks from the Mesa temple it's more like 2 rocks. 

Sleep-In

So what do you do when you want to do something daring and exciting but it has to be legal? You have a sleep-in at Wal-Mart.  I made Audrey come at 11:30pm but these girls sure had fun being silly for a few hours.  The manager walked by and told them it was OK as long as the pillows stayed in their plastic sleeves. You may want to buy pillows elsewhere.  Nice manager wouldn't you say?

Youth Conference

For Youth Conference this year the kids were divided up into tribes and Audrey will have to tell you the rest of the fun stuff they did.  They have the tribal banners standing outside our Stake Center for a week and they are so fun to drive past.  I had to take a picture in case anyone wants to copy this fun idea. Audrey was in the tribe of Naphtali.  I took a close-up of Joseph since most of us are really from that tribe.

Family Video at Ned's Funeral

Chillin'

So after a hard day of playing we came in to watch a movie and next think I knew, Kate had assumed the position in the zero-gravity chair and was nibbling on mints. She looked so adorable I had to take one last picture :)

Summer Fun at Grandma's

We started to hatch ducks in my 2nd grade classroom. They hatched two days after school got out. Four hatched and three survived. Kate thought that was great fun. She was laughing and quacking up a storm with the scared ducks. Her hands fit perfectly around their little necks too! I love pictures like this that show pure joy on a child's face! After all the duck excitement we played on Grandma's waterslide. Kate was fearless this year going down. I caught Jared playing outdoorsman. You've gotta love the look of "getting caught" on his face.

The Gila Family Temple

After Uncle Ned's funeral, Karen and I hung out with Harmon's and visited The Gila Valley temple before heading home. Guess who we saw as we were leaving the temple? Von Richardson formerly of Animas, (Charles and Ilene's son) and his wife. Small World!

Robin's Visit

My sister Robin was able to come up to Salt Lake for my niece Kaila Graves's wedding. We were trying to get the beautiful flowers on temple square. We also took our picture as immigrants in the JSB Family History Center. Obviously, the trip across the ocean wasn't too hard on Robin. Way too chipper! If you want to see pictures of Kaila's wedding and the totally awesome cake we made out of sheets of chocolate you have to go to Karen's blog.

Easter Happiness in St. George

It was beautiful weather and it seemed to bring out the best in everyone. Happy times!

Piano Recital

For those family members that missed the latest piano recital of Lucinda and Sarah Sowards here they are posing at the piano after the recital. Don't feel too bad, Connie missed most of it too. She was out in the hall with very noisy Jared. The girls are quite accomplished young ladies.

The Secret Lives of Teachers

About 15 people from my school went down to Las Vegas for a Kagan (school stuff) training. One first grade teacher is in love with Donny Osmond and two teachers went to see the Donnie and Marie show ($250 per person). They took millions of pictures with my camera (they left theirs at home) and bought T-shirts and sat starry eyed in our workshops for the next two days. This woman, Tammy, has been in love with Donny her whole life. She once got to go to a wedding reception where half the wedding party was the Osmond family and she shook Donny's hand in line. It's what she lives for and now she can die happy...she saw his concert and sleeps in his T-shirt. She's almost my age and it made me feel good to know there are other crazies in the world. She walks around school now with a constant smile and we know what she's thinking about. LOL

Connie the Amazing!

Not only does Connie wrestle 5 kids, keep Bishop Sowards fed and ironed, run fund raisers at the elementary school but she finds time to run down to my school and put up fabulous bulletin boards for me. Look at the size of this box of chocolates. It was huge..about 3 feet high it was filled with Little Debbie snack cakes in silver cupcake tins that made it look like a box of GIANT chocolates. The kids went crazy over it and insisted on eating a stale chocolate from the box 2 weeks later. I let them. Thanks Conners for making me "look good"!

Sexy Lady Brabra

6th Sense

I will always be amazed what pets let little children get away with that they don't let adults get away with. Kate was taking our cat Toast by the sides of the face and forcing her head around so she could look the cat in the face. Then she proceeded to point to the cat's eyes, her eyes, cat's nose, her nose. Toast let Kate mess with her repeatedly over and over again. When she turned her head away she then let Kate grab the sides of her face and turn her back. AMAZING! Animals have a 6th sense around babies I'm sure of it. My Grandmother, Dorothy Murial Norman Capener told me a story of her 5th birthday. Her mother had made her a brand new apron WITH A POCKET! That was her one and only present back in 1907. She was so excited she ran outside to show her Daddy. He had just opened the gate to let all the horses out to graze. The pack of horse was charging straight for her. She stopped dead in her tracks. The lead horse spotted her and jumped to the left and all the other horses blindly followed the first horse. She was left standing in a cloud of dust but untouched. Animals just have this 6th sense about little children.
(not a very glamourous setting for these pictures...but you have to click on the pics to enlarge them and see how cute Kate was with Toast).

Six degrees of seperation

This is a sister's quiz.
Guess who showed up randomly at my house Friday night?
Here are your clues:
Her Aunt, Dottie Bell, lives in my ward and I was her visiting teacher.
She grew up in Pleasant Grove.
She now lives in Logan.
She is Teresa Allred's visiting teacher.
Her first name is Sharon.
Do you give up?
She is Clark Salisbury's wife.
Yes! Clark and Sharon stopped by to say hi the other night on their way to Zion's National Park.
I LOVE St. George! It's actually on the way to somewhere!
I felt like I was seeing a long lost brother. Sharon may have thought I hugged her hubby one too many times but it was just sooo good to see them!

Carry On!

This weekend I made a wedding cake for a friend of Connie's. The mother of the bride was actually Sarah and Anna's kindergarten teacher. This cake is covered with fondant balls. It seemed weird but looked kinda cool when it was finally put together. I made the fondant bow shiny by brushing it with cooking oil. I had to show off my new armware also. Friday I went to the Dr. (for the first time in lots of years) for a sore elbow that seemed to get worse these past few weeks...very painful and sore to the touch. When I left I had two wristbands for carpal tunnel and a black band to place below my elbow for tendonitis. I also had three steroid shots--one in each wrist and one in my elbow. The bad news is I am not able to participate in the Winter Olympics XX but the good news is the Dr. said he would write me a note to miss Primary music for the next six weeks. I opted out of the permission slip. I had to take off all the software to make the cake but I did have partially numb hands because of the steroid shots. I had no idea all this would happen when I went to the Dr. There is always something happening to make life interesting and challenging. My motto: CARRY ON!