Wedding Weekend

This weekend we were lucky to have Bob's parents and brother Brad in town for the weekend. They left WA Friday and arrived in UT early Saturday morning. We quickly got ready and met them at the golf course for a round of golf.

Following golf, we went to Park City and checked into our hotel. We had a yummy lunch, where the favorites were pizza and sweet potato fries. We went back to our rooms, took a quick nap and headed to the wedding.

Bob's uncle Danny got married at a beautiful house/(cabin?) in Park City. The view from the house was amazing, especially with the leaves changing colors in the canyon.A little bit of Bob modeling.

It was fun to meet and see more of Bob's family at the wedding. All of Danny's sons were there. These are Bob's cousins and we love getting together with Mitch, Kyle, and Cory (who all live in Utah).
Kyle, Cory, Michael, Mitch, and Cody (Sorry it was super bright, and this was the best I could do.)

I'm sad that this is the only picture I got of the Bride and Groom.

We went back to our room, we started watching a movie, but I soon fell asleep. We woke up early, and headed home to church. And Bob's parents and Brad left early to drive back home. We had a great time, but were sad that the weekend went by so fast!

Soup Season

Today I wore this dress to school. You may have seen it before. Love it. It's super comfortable and is still professional looking for school. I was at school for maybe an hour when the elastic at the top of the dress broke. It made for an interesting day.

Tonight I made this soup. Last year at our ward's Halloween party we had a chili cook off. Someone (I really need to find out who) made this white chicken chili. It seriously was the best thing ever. Then last week when I was under the weather, my neighbor Whitney brought me some Chicken Tortilla soup from Zupas. It was also amazing. I decided I wanted a chicken type soup and found the recipe. The secret to making the soup is to put cubed avocado in the bottom of the bowl and if you like some mozzarella cheese. Then pour the soup on top and stir. (This is not my soup... but mine tasted as good as this picture looks.)

Lunch

Today I am eating lunch in the classroom with a student. This is not a reward. He has been coming in late every part of the day that you can be late. Mostly, in the mornings before school, he will play on the playground for 10-15 minutes after the bell has rang before coming in. I can't pay him enough viking dollars or give him enough praise to come in on time. So every time he is late, he misses lunch and gets to eat in the principal's office (who is gone today).

Right now he is dipping his potato chips into mustard while I dip my corn dog into ketchup. (The options for today were corn dog or rib sandwich.... it was a toss up.)

He seems pretty content just eating his lunch, so I am not sure if this consequence will actually work.

Last night we had our school carnival. This is our big fundraiser for the year that is put on by the PTA. It was a ton of fun. Last year it rained, so I didn't get to experience it at it's best until this year. The PTA did an awesome job.

Tickets can get you the following:
Face painting, pop walk, (like a cake walk) ring toss, karate instructions, hay rides, fish pond, rockets, and a bunch of other games.

The biggest event is Catch a Trout. They have a pool and kids get 3 minutes to try and grab a trout. It is so fun to watch. Maybe one year I will be brave enough to attempt it, but I don't really like touching fish.

A new event for the year was teacher golf cart rides. Any teacher could sign up for a half hour period where you would drive students around on a small course. There was a big pot hole in the course, so the main attraction was when you went thought it. Students would get 3 or 4 circles around the course for 6 tickets. ($1.50) Here is my friend Karie and her husband. She also teaches 3rd.
Our principal made scones, they were to die for. I ate mine so quickly. A student of mine, her parents have a catering business called, "The Original Bamboo Hut." (Which I believe used to be a restaurant in Provo. It is NOT the same as the Bamboo Hut that is in Provo now. ) They were busy cooking AMAZING food for us at the carnival. All of the prices were very reasonable.

It was so fun to see the families of our school together with faculty after school. What a fun night!

*By the end of this post, he started to get a little bored. It might be working!

Ayrika's 1st Date!

My little sister Ayrika turned 16 a couple weeks ago. On her birthday, she was asked to the Homecoming Dance. She got a dress soon after, but then found out another girl in her group had gotten the same one. So she decided to save the one she bought for another dance and wore the dress I had made for my senior prom. (This is my favorite dress, I saw it in a magazine [it was strapless] and had it made.) I wish I had pictures to compare, but I'm not sure where any are at the moment.

My dad kept cracking the same joke, "How many girls does it take to get 1 ready for the dance?" As Emily did her hair, make up, and toenails, my sister Andrea, Mom, and I all hovered over.

A few pictures of the fan club, family, and of course Ayrika.
What a cute couple!!! They looked darling.
My favorite part, a lady in my parents ward made these corsages.... Amazing!!!! She is going to make it into a head band now.

Back to School 2010

I am back in school full force, and so are the great comments that I hear each day.

"Did you know that my Dad called in sick to work today? He's not sick, but he called in and he doesn't have to go." Oh really- (Me) "Ya he did it so that he could bring us to school on our first day!" Well aren't you lucky! (me)

I have a bunch of Polynesian students in my class. One day they started doing the Haka at recess. It was fun to have them perform it for me. After a cute little girl who is not Polynesian came up to me and said:
"I love doing the Haka, Did you know I am part Tongan?" (me) So your Tongan? Her "Yes I am, I know the Haka and we sometimes have Luaus in my neighborhood." (me) "Oh, I see."

I've been sick this week. I went to school on Monday, had a sub all day Tuesday, and went back Wednesday. Once I got there, I realized I wouldn't make it all day. The students came in and I was coughing, girl says "Oh Mrs. Barber, you're here today?" Me- "Yes, cough cough" Her- "You should go home, and we can have Mrs. Shurtliff back..... (in a quiet voice) I really miss her." She partly got her wish when I went home at lunch, but with a different sub.

5 Reasons I know School is back in full force:
1. I only (have time to) shave my legs on Sundays
2. My hair is curly everyday
3. My voice and feet are worn out by 3:00
4. I am fighting my first cold of the year
5. Bob and I are back to our 9:00 PM bed time


Not all of my stories are happy and funny, some are gross and some are sad:
- 2 students tried to jump the fence during recess. (One was my student...)
- A 3rd grade boy was punched in the nose by a 6th grade boy at that same recess, lots of crying and lots of blood.
- A girl in my class pulled out one of her teeth and the hole seriously bled through 100 tissues during the last hour of class.
- Lunches being stolen in the lunch room by 4th grade boys.
- Viking dollars were stolen from students while the sub was there. (These are my reward system)
- I spent 15 minutes of my prep time looking for a student who decided he wanted 15 extra minutes of recess.
- Notes were taken that called a student 4 eyes in my class. (Grrr, this makes me so mad especially after lots of lessons on bullying!)

Over too fast

This weekend has gone too fast. I am sad that it is over because I am just starting to feel better. I have been battling a nasty cold all weekend. Thursday night I had the worst sore throat, but knew I could make it 1 more day at school. (Also didn't have the energy to put together sub plans....) Friday I woke up feeling better, but by the end of the day I was tired again and had a lot of head congestion.

My parents took ended up having 2 extra tickets to Hale Theater so they invited us. We went and saw "The Girl, the Grouch, and the Goat." It was very entertaining, but had an interesting story line. We were on the 2nd row, closer than I had ever been and at times I felt like I was in the play. haha.

Saturday Bob spent the day studying at school and I woke up feeling sick. I decided to make a few onesies since I wasn't going anywhere. (We are having a silent auction at our school in a couple weeks and I am going to make a basket with baby onesies. I made my way to my parents house to watch the BYU game. I watched the first quarter and slept through the rest.

We had regional conference so Bob has been to 6 hours and I have been to 4 in the couple days. Each time I made the trek to the church I would take my purse full of necessities.(BTW---Halls refresh Lemon with raspberry- awesome. I on accident got the MAXIMUM numbing Cepacol sore throat drops, they are the worst, your whole mouth goes numb and feels gross.)

Today I finished this onesie for my cousin Emily. It was purely trial and error, and mostly error. The name looks horrible. (I think your supposed to put another layer behind when you stitch directly??? It was a mess but I couldn't undo it, without it looking worse.) I also was going to stitch BYU on the football, but after yesterdays performance.... I'll just leave it blank.

Labor day = Rest day

I am sooooo glad that today is Labor day. This might be the best holiday ever invented. Somehow, someone knew that all of the teachers would be too exhausted to go without a break after the first full week of school. I am dead, I forgot how tiring it is to teach and set up expectations and routines with a new class. Today I spent the morning shopping with the girls in my family, and then we met up with the boys for lunch at Cafe Rio.

Bob and I came home and he studied, while I read on the couch which later turned into me napping for 2 hours.... GLORIOUS! I'm almost starting to feel like I can go back to work tomorrow.

We had a fabulous weekend! Fridays are always great, knowing the weekend is almost upon you. Bob and I had a free gift certificate to Pier 49 for dinner where we got the extra large BBQ chicken pizza.
We then used our Trafalga passes and played a game of mini golf. I want to go every week so I an work on my putting game.... So the first week I scored in the 60's..... and this week I made it into the 50's. Maybe one day I will be able to play par.

We woke up Saturday and made our way to the Provo temple, and a quick yet expensive run to Costco. (We can't go there too often, we always spend a ton....)

Bob's sister Staci and family decided to drive to Utah for the weekend. We met them at Tucanos for lunch. We stuffed our faces and had a great time talking to the nieces and nephews. And after lunch we went to the BYU football game. I was so happy we started out the season with a win. Bob and I love BYU football.

Sunday morning we started early by going to Music and the Spoken Word. I am embarrassed to say that even though I have lived in Utah my whole entire life, this was my first time going. It was really neat, I loved every second of it.

We got pictures in front of the temple and made our way to sacrament meeting before heading home for lunch.

We spent the rest of the day at Jen and Cory's house. We enjoyed playing games, watching movies, and talking. It was so much fun to see Staci, Nate, and the kiddos. I can't wait for Christmas break to go home to Washington.