Singing

One of the great parts about my job as a teacher is that I get to teach grades 5-12. I only do band with the 7-12 graders, but my 5th and 6th graders I do band and general music with. I love doing the general music classes! We get to sing fun songs, play a bunch of musical games, and in the process I hope they learn a little bit about music. Sometimes it's a little hard to get kids to want to just sit and sing a bunch of songs in a row - so, to make it more exciting I had them sing their songs in a bunch of different ways: tongue out, lying on the floor, backwards in their chairs, and everyones favorite - upside down. The kids thought it was the craziest thing ever! - They are so easy to please :) I just got to sit and watch them attempt these songs upside-down, so I thought I would take a few pictures
The kids had a blast - and they were excited about singing all of the songs we needed to learn!

My Guitar Hero

Okay, so I may have stolen this picture from my sister-in-laws blog, but I just couldn't resist. I have the cutest nephew ever! Here we are together playing Guitar Hero, and he absolutely loved it! He was the cutest thing to watch. He was sticking his tongue out the entire time because he was really trying to concentrate! I love getting to spend time with my nieces and nephews any chance I get.

Favorite Past-time

A new thing that Kirk and I love to do is feed the ducks. We live in a beautiful part of town - right next to the temple and some beautiful water falls. It is a very peaceful place, and we love to go there with a big bag of bread and feed all of the ducks and geese and other weird birds that decide to show up. Kirk took a picture of me throwing some bread - it was dark so the lighting is not very good.

And the backdrop to the water is beautiful - the Idaho Falls Temple reflects so nicely that we took a bunch of pictures last night.

We absolutely love living in this area - especially now that we get to feed the ducks!! :)

Weekend Home

It's always so much fun to go home! We never want to leave once we're there. We had a really great weekend in Kaysville, Utah. It was my Grandma's 80th Birthday Party, and all my brothers and sisters came home for it. Kirk was in heaven because he actually got to golf for the first time this season, and he rode some motorcycles and four-wheelers. I never seem to get any pictures of myself in there because I'm always the one taking the pictures!!

Here's Kirk with my two brothers and my step-dad about to go golfing!

Here he is with his golf clubs Just a side note - Kirk had the best score golfing!!! My brother Brad came in a close second. This is a good start to the golfing season.

Here is Kirk again on the four-wheeler with our nephew Drew. They were trying to do "mean" faces. That's the only way Drew would let us take a picture :)

Here's some pictures of my brothers Brad and Mitch on the motorcycle. Not long after these pictures were taken Mitchell crashed on the motorcycle, and the bike stopped running. Way to go Mitch!!

Here is a little video I took of Kirk on the four-wheeler. He was a little afraid to go up the hill that you see, but he finally got the courage to do it. He was like a little boy when he came in the house and said, "You have to come outside and watch me do this!!" It was really cute.

And I thought this last picture was a very handsome one of Kirk, so that's why I'm including it.

Overall, we had a very nice weekend, and a wonderful break from the grind.

Being a Band Teacher

Well, I cannot tell you how much I love my job. It's the coolest thing in the world to me that I actually get to be a band teacher, and that I get to earn money for doing it!! I just love it. Last month my band took a trip to Boise because we were playing pep tunes for the State Basketball Tournament.

This is the High School Band. We went to the Old State Penitentiary and did a tour there. It was pretty cool!

This is my all time favorite picture!! At one of our games that we had to play at, none of my tuba players showed up. So, I had to save the day and play tuba with the pep band!! It was so much fun. The flute is my main instrument, so switching to the tuba was quite a difference! :)

Switching topics a little bit - I've been taking a cake decorating class. I can't say that I was very excited about it. The instructor could hardly speak two words of english, and it was a pain in the butt to try and make so much frosting!! But, I was able to make a couple of cakes. This was my first one:

Not bad right? I took it to the teachers lounge the next day, and it was gone within a couple of hours. Here's my second cake:

This one started to down the middle. Oh Well. But, the roses on the top were so hard to make, but they looked so pretty! Here's a close up of them:

I made this cake on my birthday, thus the reason it says Happy Birthday to me. I'm glad the cake class is over. It was a little too stressful to me. But, hey, at least I learned a few things.

Update

I promise everyone that I will update my blog soon!!! I've been such a huge slacker with it - but that will change. You can expect an update very soon!! Thanks for being patient!

Tragedy

It was a very scary day for all of us at Snake River High School yesterday. We had a student who became suicidal and came to school with a gun. They put the school on lockdown, and there were a ton of police with assault rifles searching the school for the student. The students were terrified, but around 4:30-5:00 they were finally evacuated. They cleared out the school because they were worried that the student might cause harm to others or to himself. By the time we were all evacuated we were so relieved that no one was hurt. However, the police finally found the student. He walked out to a field behind the High School and shot himself. I was so devestated to learn this news. I cried for a long while last night. This is such a close-knit community, and they care for eachother so much. I know that this is going to be so hard for everyone. My prayers go out to the student's family. I've posted a news link down below for more information.

http://www.localnews8.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=2201587&h1=Snake%20River%20High%20School%20Student%20Found%20Dead&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=577567&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.localnews8.com/global/story.asp%3Fs%3D7881748&rnd=54320776

Baby Instructions

In the past few months, our family has been blessed by three new baby's! Adylae Reid, Jay Tingey, and Michael Thompson. Here are their pictures:

I felt that it would be appropriate to give these new parents some instructions when it comes to dealing with their new babies. To help, I've included some illustrations below.

New Book of Mormon Challenge!

I don't know if you've heard, but there is a Book of Mormon Challenge going on to honor President Hinckley. All you have to do is read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. Sounds easy enough, right?! Well, to help, you can track your progress at www.hinckleychallenge.com I'm really excited about this, and I'm putting a picture on the side of my blog to track my progress as well. I think everyone should do this! It's not only a great way to honor President Hinckley, but also a great way to strengthen your testimony of the Gospel and enrich your life!

Pictures of Miss America

Well, I know that some of you are dying to see pictures of the behind the scenes at Miss America. I was hoping to bring my camera in to take a bunch of pictures during the pageant, but was told that I would be thrown out if I did. So, I got some pictures of the after party stuff. This was the first time I got to see Jill upclose. I gave her a huge hug!!

Here are those mean judges from the Reality show that didn't like Jill very much. My Aunt went and chewed them out when she saw them. It was hilarious!

Jill made the judges do push ups with her!!

The Army was following Jill around making some sort of documentary. It was kinda cool.

Here's a cute picture of me and my mom waiting to see Jill after the pageant was finally over.

Overall, everything went great! We are all so proud of Jill for being America's choice. She did so great, and never once compromised her standards. Way to go Jill!!

Miss America is Here!!

The Pageant is on tonight!! Make sure that you all watch! I'm down in Vegas right now about to leave for Planet Hollywood where the Pageant is being held. I'm so nervous, but really excited to see her. It's been a long week for my sister. She's had her ups and downs when it comes to her performances and interviews. But, we know that she's supposed to be here, and she's never prepared for anything harder in her life! So, make sure you tune in tonight on TLC. It's going to be a party!! Go Miss Utah!!

Miss America

For those of you who don't know, there is a new show on TLC called the Miss America Reality Check. The first episode was on last night, and it will be on every Friday for the next three weeks until the pageant. The cool thing about the show is that we can vote everyday online and get Miss Utah (my sister!!!) into the finals of the whole pageant!! Last night was a great episode because Jill was put into the top 3 out of all 52 girls!!! I was so excited! But down below I'm giving you two different links. One link is to go and vote for her - which all of you should!!!! :) and the second link is to watch a cute video of the Reality Check where they feature Jill alot!

To vote: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/miss-america/miss-america.html

The video: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/miss-america/video.html?playerId=1351302826&titleId=1364230192

For those of you who don't know Jill, in the video she is the one who is talking with another girls hands behind her back. When you see the hands talking - she is the hand that says she loves all of the cameras in her face. Hope you like the video, and go and vote!!!