Holiday Spirit!!!

Thanks giving was great, the best part was... NO DISHES :) We went to Brandon's grandma Hatch's house for thanksgiving and since we were coming from all different directions it seemed best to go out to eat, so we went to Marie Calendars! The food was great and the company was even better!

We spent the rest of the break with Brandon's parents and brothers!

It was a beautiful weekend with weather in the mid 80's!! Just the way I like it!

Once we got back, It was time to start getting ready for Christmas!

This is the view outside our apartment looking through the window beside the door!

Carolers in our living room! (The camel bone box has frankincense and merr in it, compliments of Saudi Arabia!)

Our lovely reindeer

Joy in the kitchen!

Ah, my favorite part! I just LOVE Christmas trees!!

Here is the living room as a whole! Can you see the Christmas train on the table?

 Now the tricky part was figuring out where to hang our stockings! I had to get a bit creative since we didn't want to put holes in the wall only to use them 1 month out of the year! My mom made Brandon and I stockings last year for Christmas, she also gave me 3 more for future use ;)

yes well... we make due!!

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Next up, Dana Point Boat parade of lights!! Were going on Saturday night and I am SO excited!!

Recent Happenings

October 19th was my last day as a BYU undergrad. I spent it with 33 wonderful children and a mentor teacher who has taught me SO much about teaching. They were SO cute and asked Mrs. Bindrup, not only one of my closest friends in the world but also the 5th grade teacher 2 doors down, what they could get me as a parting gift. She suggested many things, one of which being garden tools for the garden I wanted to plant when I got back to California!

On the 20th, Nikki (Mrs. Bindrup) drove me to the airport but before dropping me off we stopped at the coziest little Italian pizzeria SetteBello. The pizza was different than what I'm used to, being traditional Italian, but it was SO good! They also had Italian gelato which was really good! The place is in down town Salt Lake and if anyone is looking for a fun/unique/romantic date venue, It is a must :) Unfortunately neither of us brought a camera, but here are some older pictures to show you how much Nikki and I love driving together! And yes, if anyone was wondering we got lost once! But we got back on track pretty quickly! We are getting MUCH better with directions :)

Yes, we can be normal too... sometimes!

When I got back to California, Brandon surprised me with York peppermint patties and wheat-thins! What a great husband! We also went to a play that our stake put on; The Music Man, one of my favorites. Then we went to dinner at Grandma Hatch's house and got to reunite with Brandon's parents and brother Rick! Brandon's Aunt Diane lives behind his grandma so we got to see her also! For those of you who grew up with fruit trees in your yard, you were lucky, lucky, people! I had raspberry and rhubarb bushes at one time, my mouth still waters at the memory! Anyway, Brandon's grandma has an orange tree in her back yard (and lemon trees and grapefruit trees) so we went orange picking! BEST THING EVER! Being able to pick a giant juicy orange off a tree and eat it on the spot is the BEST feeling in the world! All you need is a little brother to climb up and get you the best ones :) Then you have your husband pick an entire bag full and eat them for the next week :)

While it was snowing on the east coast, us over here on the west coast were wearing shorts and flip flips while planting gardens on a beautifully sunny day with 80 degree weather :)

All though I have the cutest Halloween decorations on the block, something is missing!

A flower garden!!! :D (these are the gloves and tools my students gave me!

Its not much, but its my garden! Now just wish me luck on keeping it alive!

One last thing... you may have noticed my haircut! Please do not mention it to me and we can still be friends ;) I will acknowledge it in a few months when it has grown to the length I intended it to be cut!

Neanderthals, Mummies, and S'mores... Oh my!!!!

The past little while has been SO much fun!! My students are so cute, sweet, and, of course, smart! For school pictures, we took a class photo where the kids could dress up. One boy wore a pink tutu, another had a Wisconsin cheese triangle on his head! I wish I had a copy (and was allowed) to post up here, it was epic!

After studying Early humans, I assigned a project. The students were allowed to choose from about 6 options, one of which was to create a rap about early humans! We had two students create raps and although both were good, one was EXCEPTIONAL!! OH my goodness, I have never laughed so hard in my life. Luckily, all three of their parents gave permission for me to record them so I was able to put it up here! I just have to say that I find it absolutely HILARIOUS and a little ironic that Aidan introduces himself in the 3rd person and my pe-schooler who always spoke in 3rd person was also named Aidan!!

We have moved past early humans, Mesopotamia, and are now studying ancient Egypt! Everybody knows that you can't study ancient Egypt without mummifying chickens!!! Before starting, the kids had to name their chickens! Some included King Amun "Bawk" & Queen Chikititi, those are the only two I remember off the top of my head. Unfortunately I can't show the awesome expressions on the kids faces due to laws protecting their identities, but here are some pictures of their hands... and the chickens of course!

Step 1: wash your chicken and lay it on newspaper and paper towel! (If you lay your chicken directly on the newspaper, the ink will stick on and you will have newspaper clippings tattooed on your mummy!)

Step 2: Get really grossed out! (this is a boys hand, I was surprised but the boys were much more squeamish about touching the chickens than the girls were!)

Step 3: Dry your chicken as best you can with paper towel, inside and out!

Step 4: Use a blow dryer to get the chicken as dry and you can. This step takes some concentration because if the blow dryer is left too long in one place, you could fry your chicken!

Step 5: Now that your chicken is dry, you must massage herbs into its skin. The cloves, rosemary and other herbs will lesson the smell later on in the process.

Step 6: Pour salt inside the chicken to suck up any moisture.

Step7: Pour salt into a plastic bag and place the chicken inside. Get salt all over the outside of the chicken and use the rest as a bed for your soon to be mummy. (The moisture will sink below the salt leaving the chicken relatively dry.)

This process will be repeated again in a week just to make sure the chicken is completely dried out. After sitting for another week, the kids will tightly wrap their chickens in muslin and place each chicken in a sarcophagus which they bring. Each group needs to choose what they think will make the best sarcophagus for their chicken, it needs to be airtight and non-biodegradable. The class will then dress up as Ancient Egyptians and perform a traditional Egyptian funeral ceremony and bury their chickens in the schoolyard. They will dig their chickens up the last week of the school year to see how well they did at mummifying their chickens!

In science we have been studying heat! What better way to apply what you have learned about heat transfer than to roast marshmallows in your classroom? For science, all the 6th grade classes give 3/4 of their class to another teacher, this means I keep 1/4 of my regular kids but the other 3/4 are kids from other classes! It is very interesting going from teaching all gifted and talented kids to having kids from all types of families. One boy, who has become my little buddy, has ADHD and chews paper constantly, it helps him stay calm! He always says hi to me in the hallway and is great in class. He is one reason teaching is so rewarding! When you are able take a child who comes from a rough background, has a learning disorder, and most teachers dread having in their class and really get him excited about learning, It makes everything you do worth it!

Now that I have mentioned all the fun we have, please be assured that the kids are learning! No kid could possibly include so much information about neanderthals into a rap without learning SOMETHING about them!! I can't believe that this experience is coming to an end in just a few short days, but I am happy to say that the next time I post, I will be in California with my favorite man in the world!! :) :D :)

Time is passing...

Brandon is so sweet! Even when we are so far apart, he finds ways to make me smile! He is so patient with me on my emotional days, and gives me all the love, support, and understanding I need. I try to be there for him too, but I never do as well as he does for me. What a great man!

Recently in 6th grade I gave a spelling test. I said "Look at me when you finish spelling this word, when your all looking I will know I can move on!" As if they had planned this, about 6 kids looked right into my eyes, all in weird ways! One boy (the closest to a punk you can get in an accelerated class) was raising his eyebrows up and down at me, a girl widened her eyes as far as they would go and stretched her head toward me, other children did similar things! It was so uncomfortable that I said "Don't look at me creepily, just look forward!" The whole class started laughing and it took some time to get back to the spelling test! Oh how I love these kids!

My biggest trial right now is with a little girl who has had very little structure in her life. Her parents take her in and out of school in whatever country they are currently living to go on trips around the world. Luckily for them, she is intellectually gifted and catches up easily. They are back in the US from their world travels for a while and she is having a difficult time adjusting. She bosses the other kids around and does whatever she wants whenever she wants. The worst part about all of this, is that I can't subtly re-direct her. I try giving a whole class instruction such as "Make sure your pencils are down and your looking this way," even though she is the only one not already doing so, and she doesn't do it! This means I have to either point her out in front of everyone or just let her distract the whole class! I have been making sure to catch her doing good things and casually talking to her during breaks or coming in from recess so she knows I like her (and I really do), but honestly, I don't think it phases her one bit that her name is constantly being said in a that's not what you should be doing right now tone! The school has some social workers who will be taking her out of class for a little bit each week to work on social skills, I hope it helps because the other kids are beginning to treat her differently.

We are starting a unit on Ancient Egypt pretty soon part of which entails mummifying chickens!! I am SO excited! The kids will clean the chickens out completely and use hair dryers to dry them out. After sitting in plastic bags for a week to drain, they will blow dry them once more. Following that they will warp the chickens tightly in muslin, seal them in non-bio-degradable containers, and bury them in the school yard! Come May they will dig up the suckers (as my dad would say) and see if they were preserved! I hope it goes well! Last year tomb robbers, probably kids from the previous years class, stole one of the chickens! Haha Gotta love kids!

A busy week for us both!

Lets start with Brandon. He is still working and getting to know the others in his office a bit better. He was invited to hang out with a group of his coworkers which was really exciting (more so for me than him I think). The phones the companies gives to their employees stopped accepting e-mails so he gets a new one which he is very excited about because he gets to choose which type of smart phone he wants. There was a bomb threat at the San Clemente high school and everyone had to be evacuated. The threat was from a marine stationed at Camp Pendleton but there were no explosives missing from the base nor were there any found at the high school, he turned himself in later that day at the base hospital. The waves at the beach have been SO big that the life guard would not let Brandon go in past his calves and lastly, there was a HUGE power outage. There were 1.5 million people without power. It included parts of Southern California, Arizona, and some of Mexico! It was a crazy week but to be honest, I welcome being so busy because it keeps my mind off of missing my husband!

This has nothing to do with this week but I love the picture! Brandon throwing my cousin in the air, I was terrified she would hit her head on the ceiling but she absolutely loved it!

My week was not so eventful however I did come to a lot of realizations! The biggest one had to do with September 11. I will be honest, until my freshman year of college I had no idea that 9/11 was a big deal. Obviously it was sad but I did not see the difference between it and all the other terrorist attacks that I had heard about. I grew to understand that it was especially significant because it represented a breach of National security that nobody expected. It also killed more people than any other attack has in the history of the US, including Pearl Harbor! In class this week my cooperating teacher gave a lesson on the events of 9/11. These kids were under a year old when this tragedy struck so their knowledge of it was about as good as mine 4 years ago. I loved the lesson because she focused on the way people came together to help those who were injured. It really showed the strength of the US. Sure, we might not agree politically and our nation is not perfect, but isn't the important thing that we care for the individual when it really matters? We watched this video as part of the lesson, one girl admitted to crying and others were very touched including myself (and my glistening eyes).

I was very touched when two boys showed up the next day wearing red bandanas! This is only one example of the many people who risked their own life to make a difference for others. Unfortunately not all families were able to have the comfort and closure of knowing what their loved one was doing in the last two hours of their lives but I know that many of them were acting out of selflessness just like the man in the red bandana.


On a lighter note, 6th graders just don't provide the same amount of laughs as younger kids do! BUT there are a few funny statements I would like to share!
   - "Mrs. Hatch, how do you spell Catholic-ism"
   - "Mrs. Hatch, we have been searching forever and can't find anything about the crucification!

   - "Oh another one of my favorite things is homework! Its like school.... but at HOME!"

The Ups and Downs of Life

A week ago Brandon and I said goodbye for 7 weeks! He will remain in California working and I am in Utah student teaching 6th graders in an accelerated program.

The Saturday before I left, Brandon took me on a surprise date! It was SO much fun and a great day! California was having a heat wave which meant it got all the way up to 85 degrees where we live! Brandon does not like planning our dates because he struggles to think of unique things to do, well apparently he is not as bad at it as he thinks because this one was AWESOME! He first took me to the Dana Point harbor and rented us a double kiyak! We rowed around in the ocean and got to watch some surfers and boaters! There were also a lot of pelicans so I was able to see a bird dive into the water to catch a fish for the first time in real life!

Brandon loves taking underwater pictures!

 After our time ran out we headed back to shore and drove up into the cliffs overlooking the ocean! There was a cool lookout point where we ate our lunches. After lunch we walked some wildlife preserve trails and then headed down to the beach. The water was great, and the sun was warm! Later that night, we went out to eat at, my favorite, Panda Express!!! :)

Brandon has been working a little overtime since I've been gone. He is getting more and more used to his job and getting more projects or as they call them "tickets".

I was scared to teach 6th graders! I was not sure if I could handle the awkwardness that goes along with the age. I was also scared because these 6th graders are participating in an accelerated program. They have to test into the class and kids test from 7 different schools, only the best of the best get in! I was afraid I would not be able to teach them!!

Despite my worries, I am really enjoying things! Their teacher was gone on Friday, so I was flying solo the whole day, which included a field trip. I am happy to say that I returned with all 31 students, 1 confiscated yo-yo, and no incidents! The kids are really cute, and although they are very intelligent I have been able to spell every word I have been asked... so far! I can't wait to be finished so I can be back with Brandon but I think I will really enjoy this opportunity!

IT'S GONE :D

The smell in the upstairs of our house is FINALLY gone! I hated even being in our second bedroom and although not as strong, our own bedroom smelled too... When the people came to replace it, we found out they were putting in wood not new carpet and we got to see what was underneath causing the smell. Remember those 5 pit-bulls I mentioned before, I dedicate this post to them!

On another note, Brandon started work on Monday! He has enjoyed it and is getting to understand what the company does better every day!

While Brandon is at work (from 8-6:30) I scrapbook! Here are some samples of some of my favorite pages!

One year, almost fully moved in, and... dinosaurs?

Brandon and I had our first year anniversary on the 14th! It was a Sunday so we had a nice home cooked meal (BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn, of course) and cookies and cream ice cream for dessert!

The next day, Brandon took me on a surprise anniversary date! I had mentioned wanting to try Pedro's Tacos, it is this little restaurant down the street that I had seen long lines outside of on many occasions! The fact that he remembered me mentioning the restaurant made it really sweet, and the walk along the pier with ice cream cones sealed the deal, I'll keep him :).

Here is our house, the downstairs is pretty much finished, the upstairs still has some work to do BUT we are not in a hurry since we are REALLY hoping they replace the carpet! After going through 2 boxes of arm & Hammer carpet Oder eliminator powder, and a bottle of febreez carpet spray it STILL smells like dog up there! Not to mention that it just plain feels gross! If you ever think that having 5 pit-bulls and no backyard is a good idea, just come smell my carpet and you will change your mind!

I need to find a picture to hang in here!

we have a walk in closet :)

ITS A LINEN CLOSET :D :D oh the little thrills in life!

This is the smelliest room of all!

We got  a futon to go under Mckenzie's painting, but left it in the car in case they decide to replace the carpets, one less thing to haul out of there!!

Our sticky stairs! (the paint is new, thus... sticky??)

Now for the downstairs!

Some people would call it a nice big entry way, we call it bike storage!

 

I am challenged when it comes to decorating so I'm really proud of my bathroom!

 

We have plenty of cupboard space, unfortunately, most of it is 10 feet high! I keep a step ladder between the wall and the fridge!

I always loved this kind of stove growing up, they are the best marshmallow roasters out there! But now that I actually use them to cook, I must say new is definitely improved!

So a few weeks ago (wow I can't believe its been that long) we went to st. George with my family. It was a really fun weekend . They found dinosaur tracks there and made a museum over the tracks!

Some doctor of paleontology made these out of paper! Haha i was imagining an old professor sitting in his office with a bow tie and coke bottle glasses making origami dinosaurs whenever he did not have to teach!

It's hard to see but that IS a dinosaur footprint!