Amusing Moments

Our Babies :)

2011-12-20T08:55:00.003-07:00

Twins do NOT run in my family. I did not expect this at all. Peter and I went to the doctor's office yesterday for the first baby check up and we were so excited to see our baby in the ultrasound.

I was just calmly waiting for the ultrasound to start and the only thought that mindlessly popped into my head was, "I've never been able to read these pictures."

I was just staring at the screen of the picture thinking, "Oh that's nice," when the doctor asked, "So I have a question- do twins run in your family?"

"Nope."

"They do now."

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

"No, you're joking."

"I don't joke about twins."

He pointed them out to me and I had a hard time believing it. I think the only thing I said throughout the first half of the ultrasound was "Oh my goodness"... about twenty times.

So that's mine and Peter's news! We're almost three months along with twins.

Wow.

Third Grade Philosophers

2011-09-11T12:13:00.008-07:00

So in my class, for fun, I let my students write proverbs. I gave them the beginning of the proverb, and then they wrote the rest based on what they thought made sense. Here are some of my favorites. The given part of the proverb is bolded, and how they finished it is in normal font. Enjoy!

Dead men stay under ground.

A friend in need needs a toy.

Barking dogs want sufting. [something... we're working on spelling:)]

When the cat's away the dog is too.

Some other cute ones were:

He who plays with fire is a bad kid who dos'nd lisin to his mother.

Great talkers become annoying.

and (the winner of the Spanish Fork award)...

You're never too old to hunt. :)

The BEST pizza crust ever (and easy!)

2011-09-07T16:04:00.003-07:00

I found this recipe just a little while ago and tried it out last week. It was a hit! And it was the easiest dough I have ever worked with. I was skeptical about not starting my yeast before I added everything together so I made two batches... the dough that I followed these directions with actually did turn out better. I guess the creators of this knew what they were doing :)

Ingredients
2 1/2-3 cups flour
2 T sugar
1 rapid rise yeast packet
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup very warm water
2 T oil

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, sugar, salt, and undissolved yeast and stir well :)

2. Gradually add oil and water to the mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened. Then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in remaining flour until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

3. On a floured surface, knead dough until it is smooth and elastic,

4. Roll out dough into either two 12 inch round pizzas or onto one large cookie sheet (that is what I did and it was a perfect size :) It worked out perfectly to just fold the dough over on the edges to create a crust- it poofed up very nicely.

5. Prick the dough several times with a fork (this is fun :)

6. Let rest for 15 minutes. (the dough will want time to recover from getting stabbed before it is placed in a burning oven)

7. Prebake the pizzas for 7 minutes at 425 degrees,

8, Top with desired toppings and then return the pizzas to the oven for 7-10 additional minutes.

9. Enjoy the best homemade pizza ever.

And the best part? Less than 45 minutes from start to finish.

Marriage advice from 9 year olds...

2011-06-22T13:02:00.001-07:00

So my mom has posted some of these on her blog, but since the big day is coming up soon, I decided I'd post all of them :)

Here is a list of marriage advice from my students...

1. Don't get divorced, have fun living with each other, and don't ever get in a fight. Just be nice.

2. Hug and kiss but make sure he likes you first.

3. Love each other, respect each other, and never give up on him.

4. Never yell at each other or be rude to each other.

5. Get speakers to get Peter's attention.

6. Eat lots of cows.

7. Stick together and give gifts to each other.

8. Have 28 kids and eat lots of cookies.

9. Get a 19 layer cake for the reception.

10. Don't let Peter go out with his friends a lot.

11. Keep believing in him- Never stop believing. And never stop loving him.

12. Never get a divorce because you both are really nice and smart.

13. Peter should be our substitute teacher next year.

14. Kiss. Have a good time. Have kids.

15. You should know, Miss Wagner gets nicer and nicer as the days go on and if you keep going she'll be the nicest woman on the planet.

16, You should kiss Peter with lipstick and you should kiss him before you say I Do.

17. Take good care of Lacy [the family dog], Peter.

18. Never fight. Play with him. Take each other to a restaurant.

19. Be nice. Eat lots of ice cream. Play frisbee.

20. Be nice and have fun.

21. Always go to BYU games.

22. You should name all of your babies after people in our class.

23. Get 3 children. Go on dates often. And go to Chuck-a-Rama.

24. I think that you guys won't fight, but if you do, the first thing you should do is compromise.

Letters to Peter

2011-06-17T09:33:00.005-07:00

So in May, I gave my class their morning work assignment to write a note to someone, and I couldn't believe it when almost every one of them wrote to Peter! I guess they were just way excited we had become engaged... I was! Here are some of my favorites...

And finally, here's the last letter. For the life of me, I can't figure out what I ever did to make him say this... :)

St. Patrick's Day- The luckiest thing...

2011-04-07T11:02:00.003-07:00

So it has been forever (over a month- can you believe it?) since I have posted... luckily I have a bunch of stories I can put up here... I just need to make the time to just do it :)

For St. Patrick's Day my class made a clover and wrote on it, finishing this phrase:

The luckiest thing for me would be:

(here are what I consider my top ten answers I received :)

1. To make 60 friends every day.
2. If I could have my birthday every month (I bet she wasn't thinking what her age would have to be in a few decades :)
3. To get to go to school every day- even on weekends.
4. To have lots of legs.
5. If hunting was forbidden (this girl is obviously not a true Spanish fork girl :)
6. If I could write with a quill instead of a pencil.
7. If I could have my own room (this one was written 13 times)
8. If I never had to have the hiccups.
9. If I could always live anywhere but Alaska (Hahaha I wonder why this kid feels so strongly against Alaska...)
10. (And the one that will make this boy's parents proud) If I could be like Captain Moroni and save the world.

Picture of the Week

2011-03-10T17:32:00.004-07:00

One of my students illustrated a story for me with this picture. Hahaha it looks like it would be a terrible/sick/twisted story, but it ended up only being about a kid going out to play baseball with their dog.
But it still makes me laugh :)

Stake Talent Show

2011-02-21T11:22:00.003-07:00

Here's a really cute and clever song written and performed by an apartment of boys in my ward. They wrote a parody of Teenage Dream called RM Dream.

I was so worried about missing the beginning that I started filming too early (song starts at about 18 seconds into it) that I ended up running out of memory card space and missed about that much of the end. Just the big finale... no biggie... oh well.

This still gets most of the good stuff. It's pretty funny. Enjoy!

Love in the Classroom

2011-02-18T10:54:00.006-07:00

A few stories I've been meaning to write for a while now... enjoy!

1. I bet parents would be moritified if they knew how much their children divulged during the school day. One day a little girl came up to me and said, "Guess what, Miss Wagner! My aunt and uncle just got a puppy!."

"That's so exciting for them!" I replied. (random...)

The girl went on, "Yep... my aunt told my uncle it was time for either a baby or a puppy so he said PUPPY!"

haha.

2. Don Juan is at it again. Near the end of January, I brought my students each a treat for a reward party they earned. As they were eating them, Don Juan asked me if i could bring everyone treats everyday. "Ummm no" was my response as I continued passing the brownies out. But then the little girl sitting next to him piped in to say, "I'm bringing you a treat for Valentine's Day!" (Valentine's Day was only a month away... :)

3. But Don Juan is not the only one inspiring love in the classroom. At the beginning of January, I rearranged the seats. When the bell rang for afternoon recess to start, a girl stayed back in the classroom so she could talk to me. (picture this conversation with all of the drama a nine year old is capable of)..."Miss WAGNER! I canNOT believe you seated me so close to Johnny (fake name)!"

I looked over at his seat... it was at a whole different table... I pointed this out and she responded, "But he is SO close. How am I supposed to concentrate?"

I told her I was confident that she'd survive, but she just shook her head, grabbed her coat, and mumbled on her way out the the door, "I don't think I'm going to learn anything this term..."

Can you believe it?

Somehow I forgot about the crush, and they ended up next to each other last week when I switched the desks again. But... it worked out for the best (for me...), because after one whole day of sitting next to him, she stomped up to me after school to tell me, "I don't like Johnny anymore. He's sooooooo annoying. I can't stand him! Can I move?"

Apparently Johnny should stick to long distance relationships.

Love the drama :)

The really strict teacher

2011-01-21T10:47:00.006-07:00

So in my class, I have a little girl who is a such a little hypochondriac. I feel so bad for her, but some of the things she comes up with are pretty funny. About every half hour (usually starting after lunch), she'll come tell me something like that her tummy hurts, her finger aches, or even that she thinks she's probably going to get sick sometime soon, but she just wanted me to know. Most times, I just look at her in a really concerned way and say, "Oh my, that's terrible. I guess you're just going to have to be really brave today."

But today, she started earlier than usual. Right after the bell rang, she came up to me rubbing her face and told me that today it was her jaw that was really hurting. Again I tried to show as much concern as possible, but instead of just telling her to be brave, I decided to try giving a cure and told her that perhaps she might want to just try breathing really, really carefully during the morning.

"Ohh, okay Miss Wagner," She took a deep breath and nodded her head. "I'll try." Then she walked away with the most serious expression. I just smiled. But then I had to regret my choice of cure (or at least saying it as loud as I must have) when I heard a boy across the room whisper to his friend, "Uh oh... Miss Wagner said somebody's breathing too loud."

Uh oh... when that story gets around I'm going to look like such a psycho teacher.

Thank goodness Parent Teacher Conferences were last week.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

2011-01-20T10:55:00.002-07:00

My mom pointed out to me yesterday that it's been over a month since I've posted any good stories on my blog. A lot of funny things have happened, but life has just been so crazy lately that I just haven't been able to keep up with it.

So here's my latest amusing moment. It just happened an hour ago and it's probably going to get my class beat up at recess this afternoon...

As I was walking my class to music, one of the fourth grade classes we passed by had their door open so I told my class to wave to the fourth graders. They were happy to wave and everything was fine until my class clown and secret favorite :) pointed into the room as it was his turn to pass and said in a disdainful (and unfortunately loud) voice, "Fourth Grade Nothings!"

Hahaha- have you ever read that book? I guess it's my fault for reading my class, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" every day this week before lunch! But I couldn't help it in that moment. I was thrown so off guard, (and really, I thought it was pretty clever) that I just laughed, and my class must have taken that as my consent as a moment later, the rest of them pointed and said it again (in perfect and clear unison) to the next fourth grade class that also had their door open.

Oh boy... I'm probably going to be shunned by the fourth grade teachers today at lunch. And I told my class as we waited outside the music room door, that if they get picked on at recess today, they brought it on themselves.

Dear Santa Highlights

2010-12-07T20:50:00.004-07:00

My Classroom Christmas Tree

On Monday, my students all wrote letters to Santa. They were really cute. It really surprised me how many of them are concerned with their "Good List"/"Bad List" Standings. I forgot what a big deal that was/is :) Here's some of the quotes-

From my math genius so this didn't surprise me...

Dear Santa,

Am I on the good or bad list? I think I have been good 51/100 of the time and bad 49/100, but that's still mostly good so am I good?

From a kid who probably should be worried about his standing with Santa... :)

Dear Santa,

I've been good for the last 6 days so I'm wondering if you could get me ....

And I loved this justification.

From the sweetheart of the class...

Dear Santa,

I think I am on the good list because I helped my mom cook dinner last night.

From the flirty kid from a few posts ago...

Dear St. Nicholas,

Hello, it's me. I have been mostly good this year. My brothers are the bad ones. You know what I want so I won't bother writing it.

haha good luck Santa.

I also loved the boy who wrote about the different guns he wanted and then finished with "but you can get me anything. Just not girl stuff."

And the letter that wins the Most Likely to Depress Santa Award has to be (and enjoy the spelling :):

Dear Sana Claas,

You are the nicest purson ever. And the elves. Plus the raindeer. I have a question for you. Are you always going to be the same Santa. Or are you going to die? Please write back.

I think I would have waited to write that letter until after I had received my presents Christmas morning. But so cute. Hope you enjoyed :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-11-29T08:02:00.001-07:00

I think this is so funny even if it is a little twisted... :)

Merry Christmas!!! (only 27 days away!)

Bran Muffins

2010-11-20T13:50:00.005-07:00

This morning I decided to surprise my grandparents with bran muffins. But they're the best warm (and grandparent's deserve the best, right?) so my sister and I just showed up to their house with the batter.

I popped them into the oven, and then went back to join everyone in the other room and announced, "Be excited, Grandpa. You're 15 minutes away from heaven."

His eye brows shot up. "I sure hope you mean symbolically."

Oh shoot. Me too... wrong choice of words.... but we had a good laugh :)

I sure love him.

BEST Bran Muffins (courtesy of my cousin Monica :)

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 beaten eggs
4 cups buttermilk
4 cups All Bran Cereal (the kind that looks like cat food)
2 tsp. salt
5 tsp. baking soda
2 cups boiling water
5 cups flour

In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add eggs and mix. Then add buttermilk, cereal, boiling water, baking soda and salt. Mix. Let cereal dissolve a bit. Fold in flour.
Bake at 350 degrees for 18 min.
(And if you don't want to cook it all at the same time- my cousin Monica says the batter can last in the fridge for over a week) Enjoy!

This boy's going to be trouble- I'm just glad I'm not his mom!

2010-11-15T20:04:00.011-07:00

I have a boy in my class I like to refer to in my head as Don Juan. He has definitely done his best to earn the name. It doesn't seem to matter who I sit him next to, he will fall in love with her. It wouldn't be such a big problem except that the girls seem to all fall in love with him too! So this last seating chart, I decided that I would be strategic and put him next to this extremely quiet girl, because I figured she'd be the last person to give him any encouragement.

I must have been wrong.

Last week I was in the middle of a multiplication lesson, and I had to turn my back to the class to write a few problems on the board. When I turned around it was to see the last thing I expected in the middle of a math lesson (who knew math was so romantic?). There was Don Juan leaning over in his chair with his arms around the shy girl, his eyes closed, and a contented smile across his face! The poor girl looked scared out of her wits and was grimacing in an enduring sort of way.

Iwas so surprised I just gasped.

The boy's eyes popped open and unfortunately, he let go.

The poor girl fell right out of her chair with a thud to the ground! And the whole class got to see it as my gasp had focused all their attention on her. (Luckily, they don't know all the details of the situation- I'd hate to encourage any more of that happening!) I felt so bad. When she climbed back up, her face was the same color as her her bright red hair. But what I couldn't believe is that it didn't seem to phase my little Don Juan one bit! He just went right back to writing his math notes with a cocky shake of his head and a big grin on his face. What a stinker!

A few minutes later I announced there would be a new seating chart the following day. Lucky me, at recess, I had a whole procession of girls coming up to request to sit next to that boy because they said they thought it'd be fun.

Ohhhh I bet it would.

Which is why it's NOT going to happen.

Instead he is currently nicely seated to the next best thing to a boy: a tall tomboy.

And I'm loving it :)

Picture Perfect

2010-11-09T22:02:00.004-07:00

My students draw portraits of me all the time. I guess that's what I get for standing in front of them 8 hours a day. Some of them make me wonder what the kids really think of me... The one shown above was gifted to me today. Oh boy. But I think it's my favorite one yet.

Not in a million years....

2010-11-01T20:04:00.010-07:00

Today we had our weekly class meeting to start the school day. Each kid always gets the chance to tell about something that has happened over the weekend (if they want to) or they can pass. This morning when it came to one boy's turn, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a sack of all of the baby teeth he's ever lost. He pointed out the new addition from this weekend and held it up for all to admire. But then before I could even consider stopping him, he passed it to the next person so it could go all the way around the circle for everyone to see. That's when I wish I could've had the option to pass. Or at least wish that his family believed in a Tooth Fairy.

But it beats my two girls who came up to me right after announcements were over to tell me that one of their dogs had just had puppies. "That's so great!" I said.

But then they asked me, "So we were wondering if we could bring in their tails..."

"What?!" I stopped flipping through papers. They had my full attention.

"Our dad had to chop off all their tails and we saved them in a bag so we could bring them for the class to see."

Hmmm... I think I'm going to save that show and tell day for a day that I have a sub :)

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-10-31T06:43:00.005-07:00

Here I am with my roommate Jayna in our Saturday Halloween Costumes

Too bad we were too sick to actually go out in them last night... we got ready but soon realized there was no way a night of party-hopping was going to happen. Lame, huh? But at least we were supporting the best team! I LOVE the Suns and right now I'm working on converting Jayna. That's why I posted this picture as proof that I must be making some sort of progress because there she is in a jersey!

I especially love that the Suns creamed the Jazz on Thursday. I was so bummed that I had Parent Teacher Conferences that night. Is it bad that I was tempted to offer an extra treat to any kid who could bring the score with them when they came with their parents?

Don't worry- my better judgment warned against it... at least for my first conference :) But it would've been nice :)

We made the newspaper again!!!

2010-10-21T15:34:00.005-07:00

It might just be the Spanish Fork newspaper, but hey, it's still a newspaper right? And with Parent Teacher Conferences next week could I have asked for better timing? :)

Here's a copy of the clippings:

Why you shouldn't lie....

2010-10-15T13:01:00.004-07:00

Yesterday my roommate and I made treats to send to her brother at the MTC, because it was his first day. I was heading up to campus anyway to have lunch with my former boss so I told my roommate, Jayna, I'd drop it off at the MTC dropoff in the basement of the Wilk while I was up there.

And that is where I learned my lesson on lying.

I set the package on the counter and the girl began filling ou a slip about who was dropping it off. I figured my roommate would be a better contact if there were any problems so I decided to submit the package as her. The girl started making friendly conversation as she assisted me.

"So what's your relation?"

Since I was Jayna at the moment, I answered, "Brother."

"Oh! How long has he been in?"

"This is his first day." I put on my best proud sister smile.

"Where's he going?"

Uh-oh. I tried to find it on the address but I couldn't see it, so I was finally honest and said, "You know,Uh... I don't know." I smiled. I looked like such an idiot.

She looked very confused.

So like a ditz I continued, "Hopefully he'll write me back soon so I know where he's going."

I paid for the package and walked away.

And she probably told everyone else at work about the ditzy girl, who should have been a blonde, who's officially the worst sister ever.

And hopefully while she's telling this story she doesn't remember that my name's "Jayna."

The things they write

2010-10-09T07:22:00.006-07:00

When we studied habitats, each kid created a 3-D model of their biome and designed a creature that could survive there. Then they each wrote a story about their creature's adventures. One of the girls turned in this story. I am the creature she designed. I don't know whether I should feel honored or not... But at least I survived which is better than my fate in another writing project...

During our second set of centers this week, my students had to finish Halloween story starters. I was killed off in the one below. But at least I was still alive as a ghost. I couldn't believe that the girl remembered that my dog's name is Lacy- I've only said it once! How funny she had me and my dog show up as ghosts (you can also see our gravestones), but my favorite part is my speech bubble of what I'm saying. Apparently I came back from the dead to visit this little girl to say, "Holla!"

We also wrote "How to" books this week. The kids weren't being too descriptive in their descriptions, so I tried to illustrate it for them. "Pretend you are writing this for the stupidest person in the world to read. That's how detailed you need to be."

Then I heard a boy say, "Oh good! I'll give it to my brother!"

And finally, after I got the books back, I saw the most politically incorrect book I've seen all year. How to draw the chocolate woman. Oh Utah. We've got a ways to go.

But the sweetest story I've seen was in one little girl's journal. It was called Princess Wagner. I lived in a huge castle and everyday I'd take walks into the forest where the animals would flock to me. Then I'd teach them math and spelling and the animals all followed me back to my castle, because they wanted to learn more. How cute.

Elementary School Love

2010-10-09T06:52:00.003-07:00

I found this letter in my classroom yesterday. When I started reading it and I saw the girl was trying to explain to the other what the game of War was, I expected to find instructions for that never-ending card game. Nope. Apparently at my school War is just girls chasing boys or boys chasing girls.

I guess I should have expected it. For instance I have 2 boys I call my Don Juans. They can't sit next to anyone too long for all the flirtations that inevitably happen. And it's like it doesn't matter who the girl is! As soon as they're seated next to a girl, I see them move in with a "Well hello."

Maybe I should seat them next to each other. :)

Like my mentor told me the other day, spring must have come early to my school.

My favorite elementary school romance moment was when I was teaching a 6th grade class Shakespeare in my free time last week. I gave them descriptions of several plays and had them vote on which ones they wanted to perform scenes from for my third grade class. They overwhelmingly voted for Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. Because of the descriptions I gave them (and because of my judgments about the class) I selected one of the opening scenes of Romeo and Juliet where the families brawled instead of one of the sappy romance ones.

The group that chose to be in that play looked it over and then a boy asked in frustration, "Where's Romeo?"

I said he wasn't in that scene yet, but they could go a few extra lines and then he'd be there.

"But Juliet isn't. The best part is when Juliet and Romeo get to be together."

Whoa. I wasn't expecting that from this cool-looking, popular sixth grader.

Then a girl volunteered, "I'll be Juliet!!"

I told them I would copy the scene where they meet for them to do as well if they really wanted it.

Their response- "Duh."

When I brought it back, their conversation was so funny. The boy looked it over then shyly addressed Juliet. "So we should probably... hug or at least... uh.... hold hands. Make it more realistic."

Oh Romeo. That sixth grade teacher is going to have her hands full too.

The things they say...

2010-09-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

It's officially only been one month since school started and the wall by my desk in my classroom is already covered with all sorts of original artwork. Many times I've even been honored to be gifted portraits of myself. It's a tough choice, but I think this one is my favorite. Oh boy- please tell me I don't look like that.
.

But if you can believe anything could possibly be more entertaining than their pictures you should see their writing.

One of the funniest things I've seen was when one boy wrote, "I like school because I can learn mathematics. Why? Because you need them in life. I just don't know where..."

One of the cutest things I've seen was in a story a little girl wrote. I just love this phrase, "We were so happy we could not lose that smile of ours."

I want to frame that.

And one of the most heartbreaking things I've read was actually written on Friday. Each child wrote about the person they most admire. One girl wrote, "I really admire my dad, because I look like him and I love him too. He works at -------- and I don't see him enough."

Makes me so glad for the dad I had and the decisions he made so he could be home as much as he was and is.

The day that did NOT go as expected

2010-09-25T11:22:00.005-07:00

I love my camera but for one morning I wish it had better picture quality. Utah usually has lame sunrises and sunsets (I guess that's the price you have to pay when you live so close to the mountains- I think it's almost lunchtime by the time you can finally see the sun overhead :) But two weeks ago I was finally taken by surprise. My camera doesn't even do justice to what I really saw. But the picture can help you picture it. Just imagine this ten times prettier.

I just stood and watched it. It only lasted a moment before it turned boring again. But as I was driving off to work, I thought to myself, "With a sunrise like that, I know today's going to be a great day."

Wrong.

Haha this ended up being the beginning to some of my hardest days of the school year so far. I got to work 2 hours early to get a project ready for the kids to work on. But when I got to school, my internet on my computer was out.

Everything I needed was on my email.

I was a little panicked because I thought I was already cutting it close on time to have the project done for all the parents to see in just three school days later. I thought of running home to grab my laptop and then had a brilliant idea to run down to the computer lab to see if there was internet there. Maybe my computer was the only one at the school that had lost it.

In hindsight I wish I would have just driven home. After all, I DID have 2 hours before school started. But instead, in my hurry, I decided to RUN to the lab. I guess I'm not a patient person. And unfortunately, I'm also klutzy, and somehow as I was running, I managed to trip on my own feet and fall to the floor, smacking my chin against the ground, causing my teeth to crash into each other.

Ow. It still makes me cringe.

By ten when my kids were at their specialty classes, I realized there was a problem that it still hurt too much to talk. I called my mom and cried and you should have seen my kids' poor faces when I picked them up from music and they noticed I had been crying. They looked scared. But at least they stopped making fun of how I was talking :)

My mentor teacher was so nice to me. She covered my class so I could run to the dentist at lunchtime to find out how much damage had happened. Luckily, I found out my teeth were essentially fine- they were just traumatized. But to be safe, to keep them from all dying, I shouldn't eat anything hard, crunchy, chewy, hot or cold for at least a week. So I had 7 days of lukewarm yogurt to look forward to. yay.

At the end of the day, I realized that I hadn't made ANY headway on that giant project that needed to be done now in 2 school days. I had been so out of it all day with pain, that my class was also going to be behind schedule in almost EVERY subject. And I realized that something like this was going to stink for the next few days too, because it made talking painful and that's all I do all day.

When I drove back into my parking lot, I remembered my thought from the morning, that with a sunrise like the one I saw, the rest would be destined to be a perfect day. And I was kind of ticked that it had actually been quite the opposite. But looking back, I know that I shouldn't have seen it as a sign to make feel entitled to a perfect day. Instead, after everything else, it was the blessing of the day- the compensation for how much worse everything was to get. And I am so grateful for that short burst of light that ended up making that otherwise not-so-enjoyable day worth it.

I'm happy to report that I'm fine now. Three days ago I took my first bites into something crunchy. Hooray for being normal again. I could almost forget it ever happened if it weren'f for my students reminding me everytime we walked down the hall to walk slower so I don't hurt myself. How pathetic is that?

If you're selfish you'll get what you deserve. I know because...

2010-09-18T13:51:00.009-07:00

In June, I was really blessed that I got to go to New Zealand with my parents and two of my sisters. We boarded the plane in LA, and I was sitting next to my mom with an empty seat between us until she moved to an empty seat next to my dad in the row in front of us. This left me on a row of 3 seats by myself! I crossed my fingers that no one would arrive late with a ticket for the extra seat. They didn't. But after the flight attendants shut the doors, I noticed that people on the crowded plane DID start looking over with hungry expressions at all of the space next to me.

So what did I do? I was a brat and I moved to sit in the middle seat of the row.

I nestled down for a nap after take-off and luxuriously stretched out on my private row. I was able to sleep as well as I would have in my own bed, UNTIL... my dreams were interrupted and I dreamt that a bucket of water was thrown on my face and I woke up freezing and wet, repeating to myself "Oh, Oh, Ohhh." I opened my eyes and looked up to a light shining overhead and five silhouettes of heads bent over me. In a moment they were all patting my face with napkins while I groggily tried to protest.

Apparently a flight attendant had tripped while holding (from what I could taste on my face) a pitcher of icy iced tea. If I hadn't been selfish and hogging my own row, I would have been safely asleep by then (Wagners have a gift of being able to sleep anywhere :) in the window seat.

On the bright side, I can be grateful that the flight attendant wasn't carrying coffee! And the rest of my flight became even better when they replaced my blankets and pillows with down-filled ones from Business Class. Furthermore, the very attractive, one-size-fits-all gray pajamas (pictured below) I also received as unnecessary compensation made my wet seat and crunchy hair almost seem worth it. :)

But I doubt such luck could/will last my whole life. Next time, I'll play it safe and share :)

Why my class might need therapy after this year.

2010-09-12T15:51:00.006-07:00

#1. Shel Silverstein poems. My mentor let me borrow a Shel Silverstein book I had never seen before called Runny Babbit (instead of Bunny Rabbit :). I thought they were so clever so I posted one up on the board for our poem of the week this week (please forgive my non-teacher handwriting skills). I read it to them on Monday and what did I get as a reaction? A bunch of blank stares and confused whisperings to neighbors as the students regarded me like I had gone crazy. I read it again and they got the pattern, but I'll never forget their reaction to the first reading. Priceless.

#2. If you really know me, you know that I'm competitive, and I think (from what I've been noticing recently) that I've passed this on to my kids.

Example 1. Every day my kids tell me we HAVE to beat the neighboring 3rd grade class to lunch. I'm not complaining because that incentive is the best thing I could have ever dreamed of to get them all to line up quickly and quietly. But I feel bad for the other class. They don't even know they're part of our race!

Example 2. Last week we had a pool party field trip at a nearby pool. When the whistle was blown to signify the end of our reserved time there, I got my class in order and then of course we were the first ones out. Unfortunately we had over 1/2 a mile of a walk to get back to our school and my students were TIRED. It was hard keeping 28 exhausted 8 year olds walking together and the pace seemed destined to get slower and slower. So just think how happy I was when about half way back, I hear my stragglers at the end yell, "There's somebody on our tail!!!!" as another class rounded a corner a few blocks behind us. I didn't have to prod another kid. They insisted on jogging the rest of the way so that we could be the first ones back at the school.

Example 3. (Last Example) This last week our school had a Box Tops drive. The PTA sent out an email saying that the winning class would get playground stuff for their classroom. My class rocked it. We got 496 box tops (they asked me to go to the store during my lunch on Friday so we could have an even 500. Luckily, they were collected before I had that chance :). We got first place in the younger grade competition. We were ecstatic. Shortly after the announcement, and to my students' delight, a PTA lady walked through the door with a large basket of playground equipment. We thought it was our prize. We were wrong. Instead of leaving the basket she told us we could pick ONE item as our prize. I thought, "Are you kidding me? Man, we're getting jipped." We ended up getting a wall ball. yay. I was worried my class would be disappointed with the prize but they didn't seem to even notice. Instead of groans, I just overheard them telling each other how excited they were that they beat everyone else.

I have a feeling we're going to own the kickball competition at the end of the year :)

My funny teaching moments

2010-09-06T09:05:00.005-07:00

Now that I'm finally writing again, I have so much I could write about with all the funny things that have happened in my classroom (third graders are hilarious), but I'll just give you the top highlights.

A few days after school started, a few girls walked in at the bell holding a bouquet of sunflowers and brought them to me. I thanked them- I love flowers- and asked them where they got them. They responded, "Oh! We were playing at recess and saw them in the yard across the street." Which used to have a beautiful garden. Oops. But it was so sweet.

At the end of the first week of school I had all the kids write me a letter so I could write each of them back. The one from my child genius of the class cracked me up. He wrote,

"Dear Miss Wagner,

I don't know what to say. Ummmm.... I'm glad I'm in your class. A few days ago, I thought, 'I wonder if my teacher will like me. Will I like her?'

Well, if she does, I can reward her with her very own 'All about Miss Wagner Website.' I do like you, and you like me. If you like the idea, write me back and tell me about yourself. I'll give you the site address."

Sincerely,
[student]"

On my gosh. What do you say back? I think I handled it alright, but I couldn't believe how funny he was.

This last Friday was a great day. The whole school had a field trip to go swimming at a local pool. My kids all showed up to school with great excitement and asked me after Bellwork if I was wearing my swimming suit. I had to tell them no, because I had left it in Arizona and they were all bummed. I was too.

So at recess a little girl in my class came up and asked, "What size of swimming suit do you wear?" I answered, "Uhh I'm not sure, I'd have to check."

She went away with her brow furrowed, deep in thought.

But the persistent little girl came up at lunch again but with a friend this time and said, "Teacher, we really need to know what size of swimming suit you wear, because I really think you could wear my mom's!"

Oh my gosh. Thank goodness she didn't call her mom. That would have been so embarrassing. But so sweet, right?

And then my last one was my mistake. I bought some Nilla wafers to have in my classroom for when I needed a snack when I worked late. I took them to the teacher lunchroom with me on Friday to have some with my lunch. When I returned to my classroom, I didn't have much time so I just set them on my desk before I went to retrieve my class from recess. My mistake. Because when we returned from the field trip that afternoon, I let my class go into the room ahead of me and all of a sudden I heard a chorus of cries, "Our teacher brought us cookies!!!!" Oops. I was all of a sudden a hero. I couldn't let them down. I no longer have any cookies.

But isn't life great? I'm sure I'll have some more to write about soon :) Teaching is the best job ever.

Bed Bugs and the Psycho Roommate- Me.

2010-09-06T08:26:00.012-07:00

It feels like forever since I wrote my last post and that's probably because my life has been crazy. And because I don't have a computer for the moment (which happens to come in handy when posting) but that's another story.

Today's story is about how all my roommates probably think I'm crazy. (But since I've lived with them for almost two weeks, I hope they think I'm normal by now. Hopefully)

Everything went topsy-turvy two weeks ago. I knew it was going to be a crazy week, because it was the week before I started my internship teaching school and because I also had to move out from my old apt to my new one. But I had a plan. I had my goals of what I was going to do each day- I'd make moving a gradual process so it wouldn't be such a pain. I was going to be just fine. Right?

Wrong. Everything was fine until one day my roommate came home and told me that she had just returned from the doctor and they told her that her spots that had been bugging her were the result of bed bugs. We couldn't believe how this could happen to us. We're not slobs. We wash our laundry. Finally we concluded that maybe they had been brought back from a hotel from a recent trip or something. But no matter where they originated, the gradual process plan was thrown out the window- I wasn't going to be there a moment longer with that in the apt. I moved out that night.

I had to go into action mode. I threw away my bedding (sad day) and took my stuff to my new apt where I realized I needed to start purging things FAST just in case some had traveled into my stuff. I didn't have any bites and everything looked fine but I had to clean everything for peace of mind and to just be on the safe side.

But I didn't want to tell my roommates because I didn't want them freaking out or spreading the word that "Bug Girl" had just moved in with them.

So I started a crazy clothes washing frenzy in between making the trips back and forth between my apts as I retrieved my belongings. My new roommate probably thought I was a freak when I returned from a trip and saw in a panic that she had turned off my bedroom light that I had left on (they come out in the dark you know!) and I said, "Umm... could you leave my light on while I'm gone?" I didn' t know what to say to explain my odd behavior so I stumbled on lamely, "I like the light to be on when I get home."

I cringed. I sounded crazy to myself. But what else could I do?

I stayed up until 1 washing things down and then woke back up at 5 to keep on going. Between going to bed and waking up to find me still doing laundry (I had to wash purses, towels, coats- everything), and seeing me wiping EVERYTHING down- not to mention the looks I got when I was vacuuming my new mattress- my roommates were probably regretting the decision to live there, because I probably looked like the most insane clean freak ever.

But I'm really not. I'm relatively normal. Things that you think only happen in movies really do happen sometimes.

Now you know my story. I haven't had any further problems, so it's safe to laugh about it now.

Just please don't refer to me as Bug Girl :)

Countdown starts NOW!

2010-08-09T13:41:00.007-07:00

Tomorrow marks the 2-week countdown to my first day of teaching 3rd Grade!

I can't believe it. One, because I feel like I have so much more to do that it shouldn't be able to come up that fast; and two, because I just don't feel like I'm old enough for this to actually be happening.

It's funny that the choice to do this, instead of the shorter and simpler student teaching route, took me so long. I'm never indecisive. In fact, for almost everything else I can think of, I only let myself be in turmoil over something for a maximum of like 24 hours (who wants to lose sleep?). And then I stubbornly stick with it and charge forward. But this choice felt like it took me forever to make.

And I can't even imagine why now, because I'm so excited!!!

I have a feeling this next year will be my best adventure yet. After all, "You never know what kinds of treasure you might find in 3rd Grade..." (or so says the cheesy sign I made for outside my door :)

One of my shortest entries yet

2010-08-03T09:24:00.002-07:00

BIG NEWS! My Aunt Melissa has a blog! Click HERE to see.

Storytime with a Sailor

2010-07-30T06:52:00.007-07:00

So for the final project of my music class I had to write and illustrate a book. Go figure. At least it had to have music written on almost every page or it really would have been hard to see the relevance... But hey- drawing a bunch of pictures is MUCH better than having to sing in front of the class or something. Thank heavens I didn't have to do that.

My family wanted to see how it turned out and this was the easiest way to show them so here you go family! Just don't judge too harshly- I only had 2 nights to work on it...

I had to pick a children's song from our teacher's selection and turn it into a story with a suspenseful plot. Suspenseful is not really the word I would choose to describe most children's songs so hopefully what I came up with will work.

Enjoy!!!

My Favorite Board Game I've ever Played

2010-07-24T16:30:00.004-07:00

The marble game. Aka the funnest game ever. Don't play it if getting killed will get your feelings hurt, because being cutthroat is just part of the game. :) I have my good friends, Lane and Logan to thank for introducing me to it. Although, I must say, Lane's hand-carved board is much more impressive than my ghetto posterboard imitation- so give it a chance before dismissing it because of the picture. Plus, I think my edition of the game turns out just as fun- especially since you can't use marbles on the board (balls rolling everywhere would be a crazy mess) so we get to use Peanut Butter M&M's instead!

My sister-in-law and a few other people have requested the rules for it so I'm posting it on my blog so they'll be available online to anyone anytime for forever (or as long as my blog lasts).

I think my brother has likened it to a glorified version of Sorry, but it is so much better than that. Every person I have introduced it to has been hooked. And if you think you're the exception, call me and I'll teach you and you'll see you're wrong :)

Here are the rules:

1. All of the marbles/M&M's/skittles/Fruitloops or whatever you use start out in the pods (the round bunch of colored dots) So you'll need 5 M&M's of each of the six colors.

2. Every person is dealt 7 cards. You'll need at least 2 decks shuffled for the game. You get to look at these cards- they're the options you have for how to move your pieces each time. Going clockwise, each person gets to take a turn playing a card to move a marble. After you move your marble, you get to draw a new card before the next person commences his/her turn.

3. You need a King, Queen, Jack or an Ace to get out of the pod on your turn. But playing that card only moves you to the one dot forward (if you are extremely unlucky and happen to not have a face card, then you get to discard and draw a new card for your turn, which hopefully will allow you to play on your next turn.). After that, Kings, Queens, and Jacks will move you forward 10 spaces and Aces will move you forward 1.

4. The marbles move clockwise around the board. Although you can't have one of your marbles pass any of your other marbles in their progression, they are free to pass any other colors as they make their way around the board.

5. There are two teams of 3 players each when you play with 6- every other person makes a team. (on the above board, Red, Blue, and orange are a team and green, yellow, and black are a team)

6. Seven's are a special card because they can either be played to move one of your marbles forward, or you can use it to move TWO (only two) or your marbles forward. (i.e. 6 spaces for one, 1 for the other or 4 spaces for one, 3 for the other, etc...)

7. Eights are also great to have, because when you play an 8, you can ONLY move that marble BACKWARDS 8 spaces.

8. If one of your marbles lands on a marble of the opposing team, that marble is "killed" and sent back to the start pod. However, if you happen to land on a teammate's marble, then that marble is sent to the black dot right outside their colored homestretch. Thus, you just saved that marble a trip all the way around the board.

9. Make sure you play with two decks of cards that each still have their Jokers- these will be the most coveted cards of the game. The jokers allow you to move ANY one of your marbles (even one sitting in the home pod) to any spot on the board (except for a colored spot so unfortunately, it's not a complete free pass home) But, it does allow you to send one of your teammate's marbles to the beginning of their homestretch, or one of your enemy's marbles back to the start pod.

10. You cannot land on your own marble. People have tried to get away with this, but no, you cannot send one of your own marbles home on your own. But nice try :)

11. Once all of your marbles have made it into the home spots, then you will start playing for the team member on your left when it's your turn. The game starts moving really fast for a team once they have one member finished.

12. VERY IMPORTANT: You cannot verbally (or even nonverbally) discuss strategy amongst your teammates. For better or worse, each person has to play their own turn according to their best judgment. So just be sure to pick smart teammates :)

I think that covers it. But feel free to call me if you have questions.

Don't take Shortcuts

2010-07-21T10:46:00.007-07:00

Image taken from google search. Click here for webpage.

I went to hike the Y way early in the morning on Saturday but there were so many people there, the closest parking spot I could find was at a church way at the bottom of the hill. So I got a really great hike. But I guess when you head out to exercise you shouldn't begrudge more of it- then I'd be as bad as those people at the gyms fighting for close parking spots :)

So the hike went well but on my way back I decided to cut across a large, weedy field to get to my car since the road that wraps around it doesn't have a sidewalk anyway. It seemed like a good idea until I got into my car and I reached to put my keys into the ignition and I saw something moving it's way up my upper leg.

It was a tan spider.

And that's when I noticed lots of other tan things everywhere else on my legs. Oh my goodness. What did I do? I think I did what any girl would do- let out a blood-curdling scream, jump out of the car and start dancing around while slapping myself (priceless picture to envision, right? If only life had a replay button...).

After a moment or two, the first spider was removed (and probably crushed in my frightful-panic dance... sorry spider). And that's when I finally realized something (to my chagrin)... the other tan things weren't spiders at all. They were little stickly pieces of dead weeds that only looked like spiders.

Fright can make you crazy.

That's my moral for the day.

And don't take shortcuts- or at least that one.

I'm just so glad all those cars passed by during those moments so they could share that experience with me.

I love my life :)

Classroom Preview!!!

2010-07-17T21:26:00.007-07:00

After three days of hard labor this month, here are some pictures of what my classroom looks like so far-

Here's my desk and cubby area in the back left corner:

I love the curtains my Aunt Judy gave me. Although, I think Martha Stewart would be appalled that I stapled them up there. But they've been up for two whole weeks now so who's to say I should do otherwise? :)

Here's the back wall (you'll probably have to click on it to open it up to see all the details):

Here's the bulletin board by the door. I know I'm probably going to lose cute teacher points with that calendar, but the only one's I've been able to find have been like $30! Would you want to spend 1/3 of $100 just on that? Me neither. But I've got big plans for this one. Just you wait.

The below picture is of my favorite place in the classroom. The front reading corner.

Below is a close-up of the tree. The monkey is supposed to be Curious George, but since I was working on it late at night at the school, I just called the first draft good, but hopefully you can at least tell it's a monkey. I did add a tail on him though- even if that does turn him into a "fictional-fictional" character. I still can't believe Curious George doesn't have a tail.

And the last one of the back right corner of the classroom:

Just kidding.

Like I would really do that :)

ONE reason to MAYBE like the Jazz...

2010-07-15T10:04:00.003-07:00

Raja Bell may be coming back to the Jazz, but personally, I think his best days will probably still be remembered as his time when he was #19 for the Suns. And in honor of that, here's one of my favorite playoff clips- it's only about 30 sec long. I love the end when they show a close-up of Kobe's reaction.
(and maybe this is why it's a very good thing he chose to come to Utah and not join the Lakers :)

And now that he's here, maybe I'll have to go to more Jazz games this year... and not cheer against them every time :)

Pretty good for a BYU immitation production...

2010-07-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Good idea?

2010-07-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

Since summer term has pretty much turned the building where I work into a ghost town, my boss and I have found that we finally have the time to work on all the extra stuff we've been wanting to do. Like making birthday cards for all the staff in the building to use for the next 12 months.

My boss is the scrapbook queen- which is good because I'm definitely not- and found the below card idea for us to use:
I've been commissioned the important role of dotting all of the eyes that have been punched out. There are 120 people to make cards for so that's 960 eyes. (you should see the top of my desk right now- kinda creepy... :)

As I've been coloring in all the pupils, I think I've struck upon a great idea for a new line of cards that we could use for the more "over the hill" professors :) This way on the cards for the ones who aren't so excited to get older, the characters can now exclaim, "AHHHH!!! It's your birthday..." And all it takes is one little change.

Example:
Good idea? We'll see what they say :)

I FINALLY found my calling in life

2010-07-09T07:28:00.016-07:00

Copy of an email my sister Kat sent me last night:

Subject: muahahahahahah [ummmm... always a little disconcerting, but promising]

Email: HAVE you ever considered creating an emo punk band? if so, uhh i already created your cd cover. michelle just has to be in the band

Attachment:

Oh boy- I'm not sure how she managed to capture such a great picture of both of us while we were in New Zealand, but at least she's put it to good use. I've recently started making plans of what I want to do after this first year of teaching is over since I'm pretty sure I'll have a bunch of free time next summer. And now I know what I'm going to do with it.

First Album Release Estimate: September 2011.

Now I just need to call Michelle so we can figure out what the name of our band will be.
Suggestions welcome.

New Old Spice Commercial

2010-07-08T07:19:00.002-07:00

I thought Old Spice's first "The man your man could smell like" commercial was one of the best commercials I've seen in a while. So funny. If you haven't seen it yet, click here.

(And BYU just made a spoof of it to promote the library you can now find here.

I love that they're making more (although I have to say my favorite's still the first). Here's the latest:

Fourth of July Weekend

2010-07-06T06:25:00.005-07:00

This last weekend was the first in over a decade (doesn't that make it sound like a long time?) that I have spent the 4th of July in Utah. The only thing I remember about last time was lighting sparklers on Grandma and Grandpa's driveway. I definitely didn't realize before what a BIG deal this weekend is here.

As part of the festivities, Provo held a 1 mile/5K/10K race yesterday. My aunt and uncle and almost all their kids participated in it so I had planned to meet my grandparents at the finish line in the morning so I could cheer with them as they all came in. I woke up at 7 and went to my car with the intent to drive over to meet Grandma and Grandpa, but when I got outside, all of the roads around were CLOSED for the race! And I wasn't sure exactly where the finish line would be, but I decided the 5K racers passing by would know, so I just jumped into the race and followed them there for the last mile and a half! Good idea, yes? I figured it was the easiest way to make it through all the police barriers :) And no, it was tempting, but I didn't cross the finish line with them. I decided that might be taking it a little too far :) So before the last turn, I cut through the park to find grandma and grandpa at the end, but if anyone was paying attention to me I probably would have looked like a big cheater. But that was a better alternative to getting my picture taken and time recorded at the end. And the slight shortcut helped me make it just in time to watch my cousins finish their 5K race.

It was my first time in an official race (albeit quite unofficially :) and I think it made me a little crazy because today I committed to racing in a triathlon with my boss. 3 weeks to really train... not too ambitious, right? (Haha I can't back out at this point so just tell me it's not...)

And as a random end note- my friend Kristi found this video and shared it with me. I already emailed it to all my family but just in case someone else who isn't obligated by blood to read my blog sees this- enjoy! It's pretty funny- I definitely consider it to be one of the highlights so far to this Twilight craze. Gotta love The Onion.

Al-Qaeda Calls Off Attack On Nation's Capitol To Spare Life Of 'Twilight' Author

Happy Father's Day Dad!

2010-06-19T05:36:00.003-07:00

Dad with his first grandbaby, Carly.

(But a warning to Camille & Dave- the baby may be redrawn after I have my own one day :)

Happy Father's Day! I sure love you Dad!!!

My 3 Favorite Finds of May

2010-06-05T15:41:00.001-07:00

1. Three Cups of Tea. The story of a man who builds schools for boys and girls in Pakistan. He calls it his personal fight against Terrorism.

2. The Count of Monte Cristo. (But I still think I like the movie better)

3. Arranged. I loved this movie. Thank you to my friend Natalie, for recommending it to me. It's about the friendship between an Orthodox Jew and a Muslim girl who both teach at the same school in New York City. And it was interesting to see how arranged marriages worked with both of those cultures today,

Best French Toast Recipe you could EVER find

2010-06-03T05:49:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of the best breakfast ever. We made homemade swirl bread- recipe below- (and it's great because it's really easy :) with buttermilk syrup. Click here for the recipe for that posted on my mom's blog. Add bananas and you get something pretty close to heaven. Enjoy!

Swirl Bread for French Toast

1 packge dry yeast
1/4 c. warm water
2 c. milk, scalded
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
2 tsp. salt
8 c. flour
2 eggs

Scald milk, pour over 1/2 cup sugar, shortening, and salt. Cool. Soften yeast in warm water, add eggs and 3 cups flour. Add milk mixture then add remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth. Place in a large greased bowl, turning over to grease surface. Let rise 1 hour.

Punch down and divide in half. Roll each half with a floured rolling pin. Lightly butter the flat top surface of the bread and then cover/douse with cinnamon. Sprinkle some sugar over the cinnamon but not too much because then the rolls will separate. Roll up dough.in a tight roll and place in a greased and floured loaf pan. Let rise 60-90 min.

Bake at 350°F loosely covered with foil about 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes or until brown. Brush with butter.

Makes 2 loaves.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T06:19:00.016-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to my amazing mom!!! Mother of 5 and proud grandmother of 8 adorable grandchildren (pictured below).

Camille's Max

.
Dave's Cody
.
Kali's poodle Daisy
.
Ryan's Diesel
.
Ryan & Kali's Mini
.
Ryan & Kali's Bruce
.
Michelle's Lacy
.

Camille & Dave's Carly in her cousins' kennel.

(Don't worry- she put herself there)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!!!!

Entertaining the 6th Floor

2010-04-30T15:41:00.007-07:00

So today I think I accidentally gave one teacher a heart attack. Earlier this week, I made the office schedule cards and I decided to just use last year's template... It was a great plan except I forgot to clear one professor's schedule from the year before . He's been gone a few days and showed up to work this morning to see the new card by his door that has him scheduled to teach two classes- and since it's the fourth day of school- let's just say he was slightly panicked. I felt so bad. But at least everyone else thought it was really funny when he came running down to the department office.

And that wasn't my only scare of the day- but this one was actually on purpose.

Yesterday a student dropped off a thank you gift outside a professor's door so I moved it to a safer spot and then sent him the following email so he would know about it since he doesn't come in everyday:

Hello Chad-

A student dropped off a card and a gift for you so we put it on your desk for you. If you’re not going to be in tomorrow, let me know so I can give it water so it doesn’t die.

Thanks!

Haha it was just a plant. But when he came in to ask to borrow my key today he looked pretty worried. We started walking down to his office, and he asked, "So is it something you had to put completely under water?" He ventured a guess, "Did somebody leave me a fish?"

I laughed, "I can't say. It'd ruin the surprise."

His face was grim. I don't think he's an animal person.

He was ecstatic to find a plant :)

Work Highlights

2010-04-29T06:33:00.008-07:00

One of our old professors came back to teach for the summer and when she walked in I had a flashback of one of my most embarrassing moments from work (described in moment #1)... which made lots of other memories come flooding back. Which led to me writing this post.

After three years of working as the business management secretary, here's some of the memories I don't think I'll ever forget:

1. Taking the wrong syllabus to the wrong class. It was my first day of work my sophomore year and I was trying to do everything so perfect so my boss would be impressed with me. But the first day of fall semester is always CRAZY. And in the craziness, I delivered the wrong syllabus to the wrong class. It freaked the business minor kids out when the professor passed out the course outline for an MBA class. Oops. The professor called me from her cell phone to inform me of the mix-up and I had to walk down the stairs in the middle of a 250 person auditorium to retrieve the wrong syllabus and replace it with the correct one. Talk about a walk of shame.

2. On that same first day of work, I further embarrassed myself by asking a guy using our office copy machine who he was a TA for. The room of professors erupted into laughter. The guy at the copier responded, "I'm not a TA. I'm a professor too."

3. Sophomore year prank war. Some boys were stinkers and filled my apt with 2-3 feet of dried leaves. So to get them back, we decided to turn them into a cleaning service (since we figured they were already so well acquainted with messes :). We printed about 500 fliers and distributed them through campus one morning. The prank became even better when I told the professors I work for about it and they volunteered to project the fliers before and after their classes that day. That helped us reach at least 2500 more people.
Success.
And it gets even better. Those boys were also on call for the MTC that day so they had to answer most the calls because they didn't know if it would be for work or not.

4. Introducing the Business Professors to ratemyprofessors.com. I don't remember how the topic came up, but I remember pulling the website up for a couple of professors to see since they said they hadn't ever seen it before. Soon I had half a dozen or so of them gathered around my computer checking their scores and comparing it to their friends. The competetion was so funny. It became even more intense when they noticed some professors had a chili pepper (indicates an attractive professor) and some didn't.

5 & 6. Department Christmas party. #5 is that this was the night I found out some of the professors are in a garage band together. How amazing is that? And they're not even the ones you'd ever guess to be in one either. I wish their students could have seen it.
#6 is for the song they dedicated to me. I wanted to melt.
In embarrassment.
After a few songs, the lead singer introduced the next song by saying, "Many of you know that last year, I brought the girl who I later married here on our second date. So this song is dedicated to Kristen and her date- in hopes that this party will be just as lucky for them." Luckily my date just thought it was the funniest thing ever.
I didn't tell him the next week when I found out that a professor had videotaped the incident and posted it on the Marriott School website.

7. Falling down the stairs in the Tanner Building atrium. I don't know why I'm such a klutz. A professor forgot something and so I ran down to the second floor to deliver it. On my way back up all the stairs, everyone was changing class and I was the only one going up against the current of people. I don't know how it happened, but at some point I tripped, fell on my face, and slid down a whole staircase on my stomach. The sea of people parted around me and everyone froze. I think it was one of those moments where everyone didn't know whether to laugh or help me or just pretend it didn't happen so I wouldn't be any more embarrassed. For me, there was only one thing to do. I stood, smiled, told them (unfortunately) it happens all the time, and continued walking up the stairs- hoping with all my heart that I didn't know anyone who had seen me :)

8. Finding Relations. A new employee was hired in the building who came down to my office a few times on errands and was a pretty big flirt UNTIL the day that I had to drop something by his office. As I passed his desk I noticed his nameplate and commented, "Hey your last name is the same as my grandma's..." The conversation ended with the realization that we're cousins. It was especially funny because a similar conversation had just taken place on a date with somebody else just a few weeks before... You gotta love big Mormon families.

9. Decorating the office. Over the years, my boss has been indulgent of my love for holidays and has let me decorate the office. Even with limited supplies (meaning we have to make everything by hand out of office supplies) we've still been able to make the Finance Department jealous :) Here's some pics from Halloween.

10. And my best memories are definitely all the department events I've been able to go to with my grandpa. The department was pretty happy to find after about two weeks after hiring me that I was the granddaughter of one of their favorite retired professors. And I've been glad to work where I've worked so he and I could spend so much time together.

Senior year OVER!

2010-04-26T05:26:00.025-07:00

Some of the ways I celebrated this crazy school year being over this weekend:

1. Hiked the Y.

I love/hate this hike. But I was glad I decided to do it Saturday morning because after only two switchbacks I ran into one of my best friends coming down (we should have planned that better to go up at the same time :). We stopped to talk and she made me laugh. She told me that I had been in her dream the night before. Apparently she dreamed that it was time for me to go back to AZ (countdown is only 5 days!!!) but unfortunately my car got stolen. Definitely not my ideal kickoff to summer. She said I was so determined to get home I just packed up my stuff and tried to walk home through the desert to Phoenix. Haha I would be that stubborn.
She and her husband ended up having to rescue me.
She's sick so it might have just been a product of some kind of medication but just in case- I think I'm going to be careful where I park my car this week :)

2. Chased chickens.

I visited my cousins on Saturday to introduce them to graham cracker ice cream from the creamery (if you haven't tried it you've missed out and I'm sorry) and while I was hanging out with the older kids inside the house, the three year old went out to the backyard and decided to let all the chickens out. Oh boy. We had to wrestle them all back into the chicken coup. I never knew how tricky and clever chickens could be. It was so funny.
And I'm sure we all looked ridiculous.

3. Ordered Papa Johns!

Since my aunt and uncle had left to go on a date, we ordered pizza for dinner and I told the little mischievous 3 year old we could jump on the trampoline until the pizza came. Lucky me the pizza man came an hour later :) It must have wiped her out too because we turned on Annapolis and she slept all the way through it. But when she woke up she was WIRED. Since bedtime was approaching, we all took her back out to the trampoline to help her use all her energy so she would be able to fall back asleep when she was supposed to. After another hour of playing every game out there I could think of (and that we hadn't played earlier that day :) I told her to jump and count all the stars she could see. She started counting with each jump, "One, two, three, four." And then she stopped and her jaw dropped and she pointed up into the air. "Whoaaa..." she exclaimed, "That's a BIG star!"

Her attention had been arrested by this:

Haha she's so cute :)

Oh- unrelated but exciting news- Grandpa Smith is starting a blog to write stories about his family history! I love the picture he posted yesterday- show's you what photoshop in the 1940's looked like :) The address is http://imissemails.blogspot.com

Baby Dilemma

2010-04-07T19:52:00.012-07:00

(sister Camille)

Today I showed up to class and sat by a friend who was absolutely entranced in a book. She looked up to ask me a question that caught me off guard about whether or not I’d press a button and die to save someone else or something.. I can’t remember. But her book was full of these types of morality questions. If nothing else it made our breaks during the three hour marathon-class interesting!

And as we all walked to our next class, she asked us one that (more or less) said this:

If you had an adorable baby girl that you had raised for a year before the hospital called and told you that there had been a mishap, that your baby had been switched, and so the baby you had raised wasn’t actually yours, what would you do?

There was a gasp or two as everyone began contemplating what they would do in such a terrible situation.

I answered “I imagine I’d probably say something like, ‘Oh- I always wondered why my baby was black…’”

Everyone else had more serious answers.

It was so interesting how everyone became so consumed by thinking about this hypothetical question for the next hour of class (our teacher probably wondered what was wrong with us) that I told my roommate about it when I got home tonight.

She answered, “That’s really interesting. I don’t know what I’d do… probably keep it… I wonder what other people would do…”

I laughed as she sent out a mass text to a bunch of our friends, but it was pretty interesting/entertaining to see what they’d say. Here are some of the answers in the order they were received:

Boy 1: I’d keep the one because I’m sure it’d be the cuter baby.

haha

Boy 2: I’d switch it, but probably have a yearly dinner with the other baby’s family to see how it’s doing.

(He was bound to be diplomatic. His dad’s a politician)

Girl 1: What? Is this a dilemma you are currently faced with? Cuz I say just cross that bridge when you come to it.

Boy 2 (worried because we hadn’t responded to his response): Why? Did I fail? What would you do?

Girl 2: Switch it back man. I want the one with my genes in it.

And that’s probably what I’d say if I seriously had to ever make that choice… but (and I know this might be making a lot of assumptions) I’m pretty sure I just won’t ever have to worry about it :)

How???

2010-04-05T06:54:00.001-07:00

I don't know why I never heard of this or saw this before... maybe it's because I've never ever really been an Oprah fan- but I think I would have watched this episode (or at least this part :).

Here's part of her kickoff to her final season. Amazing!!!

My Legacy

2010-04-03T16:34:00.004-07:00

This week, I said goodbye to my sixth grade student teaching class so I could go back to BYU and finish up my school year. At first, I was actually intimidated by these big kids since I had only worked with the little ones before, but I totally fell in love with all 32 of them.

I showed up for my last day feeling so sad for it all to be over until I entered the room to find that a third of the class had shown up to school an hour early to decorate the room for me! Everything finally made sense why some students had recently developed what I had thought to be an odd and random fascination with making paper chains at recess. I had just assumed they wanted to make a countdown to something- I'm glad it didn't end up being a countdown until they got rid of me!

I regret I didn't get a final picture, but this is most of it except for all the other tissue balls they hung from the ceiling. And that's really too bad, because can I tell you what colors all of the ceiling streamers were?

Purple and Orange!

How great is this- the boys had collaborated the night before to decorate with Suns colors since the Suns had clinched their playoff spot that night when they defeated the Bulls! About half my boys (and you only have to look at the picture to see there's a lot of them) now claim to be devoted Suns fans and watch all the games.

I couldn't be more proud. If I made no other difference in their lives, I think that alone would make my month of teaching worth it :)

Miss Kris grows up to be Miss Wagner

2010-03-29T17:20:00.005-07:00

Today I was working with a group of sixth grade boys during writing time, and they asked me what I do when I leave them everyday at 2 pm.

I answered, "I go back to BYU. To work."

They asked me what I did so I told them I'm the Business Secretary. So then they wanted me to tell them what that means.

"Well," I told them, "I make PowerPoints, and work on projects, and edit papers... basically just do whatever the professors in the department tell me to do."

"Oh," one boy nodded with understanding, "So you're a slave."

"Haha... No." I ammended (my pride needed to clarify), "I get paid to do what I do."

"Oh!" He smiled, "I get it- You're a servant."

.............................................................

Isn't it great to have kids around to put you back into your place? :)

And I better love it, because... I am really excited to announce that next year I will have plenty of this because I was just offered and accepted a job to teach third grade next year!

I feel like my life has come full circle. (Well hopefully not full circle because I still want it to keep going :) But it's crazy how things turn out.

I decided to be a teacher when I was in third grade. I had the best teacher, Mrs. Colletto. She was wonderful. She made me work harder than any other teacher had before (I can probably pin my perfectionist roots to that year). And she believed in me. When I told her I wanted to found homeless shelters when I grew up, she arranged for me to go to the Phoenix Shelter with my parents, where the director of the shelter gave me a guided tour while explaining all the important aspects of the program. It's crazy now to think that they treated a 9 year old like such a grown up. But it meant the world to me.

And now I get the chance to be a teacher like that!

Dear da Vinci,

2010-03-11T19:08:00.009-07:00

This picture and that title probably don't seem like they go together. But they do :)

I started my month of student teaching in 6th grade two weeks ago. This week I've been designing and teaching a unit on the Renaissance. Today I pretended to be Leonardo da Vinci and I told them interesting stories and achievements that happened during "my" life. To conclude, though, I told them what da Vinci wrote in his journal near the end of his life saying, "Have I done anything of worth? Tell me, have I done anything at all?"

So to assess the lesson, I had them write da Vinci back answering his question. Here's my favorite answer:

"Dear da Vinci,

I think you were the smartest person in Florence. I wish people would have listened to you and taken your inventions seriously, because if they had, we probably would have been able to make lightsabers by now!

Sincerely,
[student]"

Isn't that so funny? Oh- I also want to share some random words of wisdom I received from another student. I taught a lesson on word choice, specifically on words that specify how many, and I asked them to write me a short story using just a few of them.

When I was grading them, I found that one girl had written me a big note across the top saying there were just a few things I needed to know to understand her story.

Here they are:
1. Brothers are bums when it comes to sharing.
2. Little sisters are known for crying. A lot.
3. When there's five children in your family, no one will ever remember your name right.
(And my favorite...)
4. If you're an only child, you're lucky.

And then she wrote a story about horses and trees.

?

This boss probably won't be my best bet for a good recommendation one day...

2010-03-03T17:51:00.005-07:00

The Christmas Party for the Department I work for is coming up (on our floor December is too busy for Christmas so it gets rescheduled to March) and I got put in charge of the PowerPoint tribute to our Department Chair who just got released from his servitude to go back to regular teaching.

I love it when I get an assignment and they tell me to just make something clever. No pressure there :)

So I've been working on that today and decided to include some slides showing what our old Chair has been up to now that he has more time. Today he was complaining about the Campus Police threatening to impound his car if he gets another violation so he can't blame me for making the following image for a slide:

A special thanks to his wife for supplying the perfect stupefied-I-can't-believe-they-caught-me head shot.
Another special thanks to google images and Larry King for supplying the rest of the mug shot- especially to Larry King for wearing that great shirt. Love it.
And a thank you to Paint, for allowing me to bring it all together :)

A little literary irony

2010-02-25T11:58:00.001-07:00

Les Miserables illustration from Wikimedia Commons

If you've read Les Miserables then you definitely know how long it is. And if you haven't- well you just have to look at it to know it's a BIG book. Given this, I was surprised to find that Victor Hugo is also co-author of the shortest documented correspondence in history.

In 1862 when Les Miserables was first published, Victor Hugo was in exile for his political beliefs... so on the first day it was released in Paris, he didn't know how it was being received by the public so he sent his publisher a one character telegraph asking- "?"

His publisher responded with equal economy saying just "!"

Haha and that's what I would have said too! All of the thousands of copies in Paris were all sold by the end of just that first day.

And an interesting thing I found while reading about the inspiration for the book...

One day in Paris, Hugo saw a man arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. While the man stood there waiting to be taken to prison, a wealthy aristocratic woman pulled up in a carriage next to him. Hugo watched as the man noticed her presence while she seemed completely oblivious to his. Hugo wrote, "The moment he became aware of her existence, while she remained unaware of his, a catastrophe was inevitable.”

Just something to think about.

Doing my part to keep the HBLL in business

2010-02-22T22:28:00.015-07:00

In all these years at BYU, I can probably count how many times I've studied in the library with one hand... maybe two....

But tonight I think I made up for it in just one sitting. See that middle shelf that says "Return Books Here?" It was empty before I got there :). I had to read every page of all those books tonight. And that's not even all of them! After a while I started spreading my mess around to other shelves so I wouldn't look like such a book hog.

When the librarians show up they're probably going to hate me.

Anyone looking for fairy tales where they're supposed to be might hate me too.

BUT if you're looking for good children's books recommendations- I'm here for you :)

Finding Relationships...(not a dating post :)

2010-02-10T12:21:00.001-07:00

Today in my social studies class our teacher began by giving us several pairs of pictures that we had to try and figure out the connection between. One of the sets at my table were similar to these two:

Think they're random? I agree. Luckily inspiration struck after only a moment and it all became clear.

We went around taking turns saying our connections. My title for how they go together:

"Storks go on Strike"

Dialogue I would expect more in a play or movie...

2010-02-04T18:13:00.007-07:00

I thought work was going to lack excitement since I was just doing data entry... but I was wrong. The funniest things were said today. I heard one professor (and I heard this totally out of context so I can't judge) say, "Yeah, but I seriously doubt a professor is going to care about one individual student." haha. So that clarifies that for any of you who were wondering. I change my mind about repeating the next one. I'd be embarrassed. But it was funny or at least awkward/surprising.

The third thing is a whole conversation that happened next to my desk. I still can't believe it. I'm not making any part of it up:

(The names have been concealed to protect the identities of the professors)

Professor 1: (Walks in with a very stressed expression. Addresses the full-time secretary) "I'm going to New Orleans this week and I just don't know where I'm going to eat."

Secretary A; "Oh?"

Professor 1: "I know I could call the concierge to give me options but I'd rather just have you do it now."

Secretary A: "Well I've never been to New Orleans so I'm not sure I'd be much help."

Professor 1: "But you're great- I know you can do it."

Professor 2: (Walks into the room in an excited manner) "My computer just blew up!"

Professor 1 responds as an aside: "That's nice..." After a second his interest is finally arrested: "Oh hey- have you ever been to New Orleans?"

Professor 2: "No...[he looks confused] but you should have seen it! Sparks flying everywhere!!!"

Professor 1 looks thoughtful: "Well then have you ever heard of anywhere that people like to eat in New Orleans?"

Professor 2: "No... I think my computer's dead."

Professor 1 addresses Secretary A: "I'll just let you figure it out."

Professor 1 leaves looking a little less stressed than before. Professor 2 comes and just stands next to my desk. I look up from my computer. I realize he was waiting for someone to say what he still wanted to hear so I say: "I am sorry your computer died."

He sighs. "Thanks my friend."

And he leaves.

And now I'm wondering what I missed since I had to lock up the office an hour early to go to class!

STILL waiting on Will... geez

2010-02-03T11:50:00.003-07:00

Because I work in a pretty important place (Disclaimer- I'm not important- just a secretary- but it's an important place :) filled with lots of confidential folders and documents, my boss and I have to make sure the office is always either supervised or locked. So when my boss is out and I have to run an errand, I have always posted the same sticky note on the closed door saying:

Will Return Shortly
Thanks :)

But one day I put it up and one of the professors I work for walked by, read it out loud and then asked with a smart smile, "Who's Shortly?"

I replied, "Don't know... but what I want to know the most is who's Will?"

He laughed, glad I got his joke :)

So this year, when I was training my sister to be the new secretary for the morning shift, I of course showed her my essential sticky note procedure for locking up the office and told her the story of the professor's interpretation of it.

So it made my day yesterday when I showed up to work and the below sticky was posted on the door, left for me by my sister:

Hahaha. No one else will probably ever notice the joke. But it makes my day.

Obama and Visiting Teaching...

2010-01-29T14:26:00.007-07:00

Today I visited my old class I did my student teaching with last semester. I haven't seen them since November and I've missed them terribly. Their teacher knew I was coming, but we kept it a secret during the week to surprise the kids! And I got blessed with an added touch of luck- I happened to visit on the 100th day of the school year!

This morning, the teacher finally told the students they were having a special guest and had them make guesses for who they thought it was going to be. Here's the list:

1. Miss Wagner (I really was at the top of the list :)
2. 100 Year old person (If you remember your 100th day of school, you'll remember everything was always 100 that day)
3. President Obama

When I came in, the kids all exclaimed it was me. And then a little girl yelled, "I knew it! I knew it couldn't be President Obama! He smokes."

Surprised, I laughed and asked, "What?"

"Obama smokes. I read about that. And you're not allowed to smoke at our school so he can't come here."

That makes sense. Sorry Obama.

But so funny... I have to wonder where a 2nd grader read that.

After that, I stayed and worked with them for about an hour and a half and then told them I had to go so I could get back to BYU because I had to go to work. After getting a couple dozen hugs, they all told me I needed to come back next year and teach 3rd or 4th grade so I could be their teacher again.

I told them I would try (I actually really would love coming back to that school). They continued campaigning for a bit and then a boy's face lit up and he called out a final idea excitedly, "Or... you could just be all our moms' visiting teacher so you can visit all our houses!"

Hahaha. Only in Utah. But I love it.

Evidence you shouldn't underestimate babies...

2010-01-28T10:52:00.010-07:00

(I was looking for a picture of a cute baby on google images when I realized- hey- I happen to be related to by far the cutest baby- so here's a picture of my niece to show her off and illustrate my post :)

I'm in a science class right now where we've quickly learned that when it comes to assignments, our teacher is merciless. I've been up since 5 trying to skim through the readings and I finally came across something interesting and worth repeating (haha you can probably tell science isn't really a passion for me)

But this will amaze you. I still can't believe how smart babies must be-

Here's an excerpt from one of my readings that described an experiment scientists did in 1973 to test the problem solving understanding and capabilities of infants:

In one experiment, the researchers (Kalnins and Bruner, 1973) showed 5- to 12-week-old infants a silent color film and gave the infants a pacifier to suck, the nipple of which was connected to a pressure switch that controlled the projector lens. The infants quickly learned to suck at a given rate to bring the movie into focus, showing not only that they were capable of and interested in learning how to control their own sensory environment, but also they preferred a clear image to a blurry one.

Amazed, right?

And that's your nerdy thought courtesy of Kristen for the day :)

Suns/Jazz Rivalry

2010-01-26T20:59:00.011-07:00

(Brook would probably want me to clarify since you can't see her whole shirt- she's wearing a JAZZ shirt- it's purple because it's an old school one from the 90's)

After the sad Suns defeat by the Jazz yesterday, I got calls, texts, and facebook messages rubbing in Arizona's loss. (I have such great friends :)

And I'll concede- the Jazz played an amazing game. I guess I should've realized the Suns' sloppy start was just foreshadowing the end.

But Dear Suns,

I just wanted you to know....

I Still Believe.

School= Play-doh and Prison

2010-01-20T19:05:00.002-07:00

I was on my way to class tonight and ran into a friend I haven't seen for a while. Unfortunately we could only talk for a minute or two because I told her I was late to my Foundations of Education class. She asked me about what kind of stuff that class would study and I told her, "Oh it covers a lot of things... tonight we're talking about Plato."

Later she confessed she thought I had meant "Play-doh."

Hahaha I wish.

Even though we didn't get to play with play-doh tonight, class was really interesting. After we talked about "Plato," our teacher read us a really interesting paper he wrote this summer. And since I'm a nerd and a sucker for trivia, here goes:

DID YOU KNOW...

That the father of public education, Horace Mann, who led the reform for education to become what it did in the twentieth century, was also heavily involved in the reform of American prisons. So, my teacher argues, it shouldn't be surprising to find parallels between the two systems. He showed us pictures of buildings and rooms in the late 1800's- early 1900's and asked us to try and guess if we could tell whether it was a school or a prison. We couldn't. Even worse, we learned that corporal punishment was acceptable in schools even after it had been outlawed in prisons. Furthermore, he told us the trend has lasted even longer than America's history. This summer, he visited a Medieval torture museum in Germany that dedicated it's top floor to school. I appreciate the person's humor of whoever designed that :)

But our teacher's final (but not really serious) point was... that if you don't believe there's a parallel between public schools and prisons, just consider that you can basically ask the same questions to the respective inmates (especially if you think of college...) like:

Are they treating you well?
How much time do you have left?
What are you going to do when you get out?

So now I have a backup plan if the economy's still bad when I graduate. If I can't find a job as a teacher, apparently I should fit right in as a prison warden!

But I don't think I really want to brag about that.

How NOT to earn brownie points with the teacher...

2010-01-15T14:33:00.010-07:00

This semester I have to take a "how to teach math" class and the teacher who teaches it is one of those guys that has a dance or a quote or a joke for everything (most of which are really cheesy, but at least he's trying). And I suppose we should be grateful since it is a class that meets for 3 hours straight...

Today in class, he spent the first 10 minutes trying to remember our names, but I must not be very memorable because he kept forgetting mine. Then he moved on to teach the lesson. This inevitably led to several song allusions before he announced that he was going to walk like an Egyptian back to his computer. Then he chuckled and said, "Wow, haha I didn't even plan that one."

Student A: "So you plan all your jokes out ahead of time?"

Teacher: "Yeah, I try to practice them during the week before class to make sure they'll work," he joked.

Student B chimed in: "That's alright... We practice our laugh."

Teacher was shocked for a moment and then laughed hard and put his hand out to pound it to student B. He then replied: "That's funny... not very good for your grade. But funny."

Student B smiled: "Then I guess it's a good thing you can't remember my name."

Teacher: "That's what you think... Kristen."

Unfortunately I don't think he's going to forget it again. And I think I just might need to bring treats or something next week :)

One of my favorite commercials...

2009-12-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

98 more days...

2009-12-12T10:44:00.009-07:00

Dear Winter Weather,

I'm sure some science major could explain this to me, BUT...

I was walking to school the other day and it was -2 degrees outside. And I realized that at that moment I was 100 degrees hotter than the air (because 2 degrees+98 degrees body temperature=100 degrees).

So shouldn't I feel more like a glowing furnace than a freezing popsicle?

That's just my logic :)

Sincerely,
Kristen

Current Countdown to Spring: 98 Days

November Tales of Student Teaching Continued...

2009-11-22T09:46:00.014-07:00

(My students documented my wonderful sense of fashion. Disclaimer- brown was their closest color to khaki :)

I had another great week of student teaching and thought I'd share some of the highlight entertaining moments:

1. Some of the things students say would probably make their parents sooooo embarrassed (I know, because I was one of those kids who was oblivious to what should or shouldn't be said...sorry mom and dad) While talking about the warm weather we randomly experienced during a few days this last week, my teacher said the kids should tell their parents to take advantage of it to put up their Christmas lights while it's still nice outside. One of the kids then volunteered that his parents didn't have to, because his dad left their lights up all year!
Then we were making thankful books where students had to write about five things they were thankful for and one boy wrote that he was thankful for restaurants because otherwise there would be no food for dinner. Hahaha I bet his mom will love that!

2. While teaching a lesson on adjectives I realized I need to be more specific in my directions. I set up six centers and told the children to use their five senses to come up with describing words. I meant that they would eventually use all five because a few of the objects had strong smells or textures and one center was of Starbursts. But when I collected the papers, I can't tell you how many students wrote that the rock tasted disgusting. Oops. Next time I'll be sure to clarify- ONLY taste the starbursts :)

3. I was watching a student returning a book to the bookshelf and was intrigued because he held the book out in front of him standing frozen before the shelves for a few moments before finally saying, ,"5, 6, 7, 8" And then on the next beat he set the book down and then proceeded to dance back to his desk. Second graders are fearless.

4. I thought the logic in this discussion was funny. I was teaching a guided reading lesson and we were reading a book where the main character was making wishes. I asked one of the girls if she could wish to go anywhere, where would she wish to go. She thought very seriously for a few moments and then said, "Canada.... and then probably the moon."
I don't think I'd use my wishes in that order, but thought it was cute.

5. Finally, I just wanted to share a few quotes from their Thankful books, because I think their writing is so cute. And their logic is indisputable:

Student #1 writes, "I'm thankful for food, because when I'm sick I can eat healthy food like apples, bananas, oranges, and pears, and I will not die painfully."

Student #2 writes, "But the thing I'm most thankful for is the earth because it makes us not die in outer space and that would not be fun at all. It gives us gravity so we do not float away. And it lets me breathe and that's cool."

Student #3 writes, "But the thing I am most thankful for is bones because if we didn't have bones in our body we would be a giant body blob. And we would look like a mud puddle."

True wisdom :)

I always have something I'm looking forward to...

2009-11-21T16:50:00.007-07:00

Earlier this week, my roommates wanted to have roommate night since two of them are moving out at the end of the semester so we went out and saw Love Happens. But most of us were disappointed in the movie. It was advertised as a chick flick with grieving on the side, but afterwards we agreed it was mostly a grieving movie with a little romance on the side.
But if you're ever in the mood to be depressed, it would be the perfect movie!

And even though, I know now that trailers can be misleading, I just saw this one online for a movie called Letters to Juliet, and I think this one will be fun to see... I suppose I'll see in May when it finally comes out :) Just thought I would share the trailer:

Oh! And two things to know that make this movie even cuter: the old couple you see that meet at the end are actually married in real life, and the main guy of the movie is Australian :)

My New Favorite Roll Recipe

2009-11-19T17:26:00.004-07:00

This post is dedicated to Camille.

Just in time for the holiday season...

(picture courtesy of Google images)

Refrigerator Rolls
1 1/2 cups water
2 packages active dry yeast
1tsp plus 1/2 cup sugar
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tsp salt
6 cups all-purpose flour (about)
1 large egg

1. Combine 1/2 cup warm water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 cup water, 1.2 cup butter, remaining 1.2 cup sugar, salt and 2 1/2 cups flour. At low speed, gradually beat in egg and 3/4 cup flour. Continue beating 2 minutes. Stir in 2 1/2 cup flour to make a soft dough.

2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 min, working in enough of remaining 1/2 cup flour just to keep dough from sticking to surface.

3. Shape dough into a ball, place in greased bowl, and cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume (about 1 1/2 hours)

4. Punch down, cover and refrigerate overnight up to 24 hours.

5. About three hours before serving, remove from refrigerator. Roll out 30 rolls and place on a greased baking sheet. Let rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours)

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.

If you're feeling indulgent, brush butter over the hot rolls. They are so good.

Bon apetit!

Happy Birthday Papa!!!!

2009-11-12T20:38:00.004-07:00

DatadaDA! It's no wonder he looks so happy! We're celebrating his birthday this week!!!

My dad is probably the most amazing man I know. And I'm not stretching that truth. And if you know him, you'd know that's true.

But for the more skeptical ones out there, I've provided some reasons. So here, I'll convince you:

1. He's so good to my mother. I've never doubted they love each other. He brings her home flowers every Tuesday and takes her on a date every weekend. He always addresses her as "beautiful" when he calls home during his lunch breaks at work.

2. He is all-knowledgeable. He knows everything. Really he does. Especially when it comes to math, science, or business. I emailed/called home a lot when I was taking Economics as a Freshman. He never had to call me back later so he could study :) Miraculously, he always knows the answers to everything.

3. He is also great with directions (as the above picture depicts). Even when we go to cities or countries we've never been before, he seems to have a built-in genetic GPS system that always leads him to lead us to where we need to be. He can find anything- he even found Pemberley for me in the middle of nowhere in countryside England- One of the highlights of my high school life, by the way :)

4. He's basically Superman. How many men do you know who could build this (insert arrow pointing up)?
5. And speaking of super strengths, my dad is revered by all of the young men in our hometown. In the above picture he is beating my brother (23 and in the prime of his life) at an arm wrestling competition. I've also never known a young man to beat him in a push-up competition. He is an all-around athlete. He can best any of his children in any sport or physical fitness pursuit. I'll probably have to wait til he's 80 to stand any chance beating him in our morning runs... but then again... maybe not because then I'll be in my 50's... hmmmm we'll just have to see.

5. My dad is definitely number one. I look up to him in so many ways. He's always supportive of any of my pursuits. I love that he's one of the most honest men I know. I'd trust him with anything.
6. And look at this picture! Doesn't he look like the coolest dad? My dad is ALWAYS up for an adventure. He's so much fun to have around :) Life will always be exciting with him in it.

7. When it comes to games, you want my dad on YOUR team. It's just the sensible thing to do if you want to win. In a poll of 100 Wagner family members, they all said my dad was the best Rook player of them all*

(*note- results of that poll just might be an educated guess of what they would say if asked that question. And since they don't read this blog, who's to say they wouldn't?)

8. My dad has great genes. As his daughter, you can BET I'm grateful. After all, Mom can only contribute 50%.

9. I love that dad spends time with his family. Work always seemed to end at work. And when he was home, we got to enjoy being with him. I have so many great memories of spending time with my dad. Here we are Christmas morning when I was one.

And here we are at a Christmas party almost exactly 20 years later.

10. I love you dad, because you've always loved me! And I will love you FOREVER!!!

Love,

Kristina Maria Chiquita Juanita Rosemarita Josephina Buchacha Rodriguez Wagner Esmeet

November

2009-11-10T15:59:00.002-07:00

November for me= Student Teaching 2nd grade in Salem (small town between Spanish Fork and Payson).

I'm having a blast and I'm surprised that I even enjoy the half hour drive out there. It's a really pretty area and I have a fun car pool of friends that are student teaching with me at my school.

I love my class. Working with children can provide some entertaining moments so I thought I would share some from this past week:

About last Thursday, they realized that "Miss Wagner" probably has a real name too. So each day students have submitted their next guess to me. Guesses so far: Maddie, Madison (slight lack of creativity that morning), Julie, and Henrietta.
I never would have tagged myself as looking like a Henrietta.... hmmm can you see it?

Today we talked about word choice and made a goal to stretch our vocabulary by using bigger words instead of "tired" common words. I had them brainstorm words for big. The top choice= ginormous. Thank you Napoleon Dynamite... we're working on coming up with words now that actually exist.

For Halloween, my teacher dressed up as a witch and taught the class how to use recipes by making "witches brew." (Homemade grape soda pop)
She pulled out a piece of dried ice and said it was a ghost she had caught and frozen. Since all the students had dressed up that day for the Halloween parade, one boy next to me was decked out as a ghost, painted white with white hair and everything. He turned to me with big eyes and said solemnly, "I'm glad she didn't run into me!"

Some cute things... all of these have convinced me that I would choose teaching now just for the self-esteem boost...

One of my students waits on the corner for me to drive by every morning so he can wave and follow us in. He told me I have a lot of sisters. That's true, but I thought it was funny he thought all the student teachers were my sisters.

Today we practiced writing coded messages where symbols stood for letters. A girl wrote one to me which read, "You're doing a great job." Apparently I have the second grade stamp of approval!

During journal writing, I walked around and just glimpsed at what everyone was saying. One girl wrote, "We have a new student teacher and her name is Miss Wagner. She sure loves the alphabet!"

So I have a special talent for alphabetizing- what can I say? :) I'll add that to my resume.

I taught the children how to use quotation marks. They had to write a few sentences writing quotes that their friends would say. One girl wrote (for the sake of anonymity we'll call her Sarah) Miss Wagner said, "Sarah I love you best."

It's only half-way over so I'm excited for the rest!

Miss Wagner brings you, "The Ducks and the Fox"

2009-11-04T20:32:00.004-07:00

I made this movie for the second grade class I'm working in for the next month! I wish there were more pictures, but I made all I could with as much time as I have... maybe the darth vador voice effects (courtesy of my WalMart microphone) will make up the difference and add some spice :)

Michelle- HAPPY SWEET 16!!!!!!!

2009-10-28T19:59:00.003-07:00

I couldn't afford a trip to PHX to see you on your birthday so this is the best I could come up with!!!!

Love you Michelle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ps. half of my present is posting this video when it shows SUCH an attractive face on the preview screen. The fact that this is a public post= true love.

God Bless the USA

2009-10-26T13:22:00.002-07:00

A professor just came into my office and was talking about the National Anthem and how Americans usually only know the first verse. I'm one of those Americans. So I looked up the words to the other verses and I think the fourth verse is actually my favorite so I thought I'd share:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I wish more Americans remembered/believed this verse.

Wheelchair Weekend

2009-10-05T10:17:00.001-07:00

Maybe it's a sign???

My grandpa offered me tickets to a football game but before he gave them to us, his neighbor (who has seats right next to him) asked him if he could trade his season tickets for two extra random ones they had so their family could sit together. So my grandpa brought the tickets and gave them to me during our Friday lunch date and said, "Here you go. But they're not my regular seats. But seats are seats right?"

Ummm... maybe not this time :)

Kat and I showed up to the game and went to where the tickets told us our seats would be but they didn't exist! They were tickets for wheelchair allotment spots.

Haha it was a funny moment. We stood there (where are wheelchairs were supposed to be) and then an usher came up and asked if we needed help. I said no, I think we're where we're supposed to be and he asked to look at our tickets. He apologized and said that sometimes the ticket office doesn't pay attention to the type of tickets they sell so he called a ticket guy to come help us out.

And- it ended up working out for the best! We actually profited on my grandpa's neighbor's investment because the ticket office guy gave us seats that were worth twice as much as the original non-seats! We were on the sideline on the first row of the student section above the walkway. We ended up having perfect seats. With the perfect view :)

And then the next day was conference and my friend Brook invited me to go to Conference with her. Since her grandfather is emeritus seventy we had really great seats and were supposed to have a great parking spot too. But they ran out of parking spots below the Conference Center so we got reassigned to the disabled parking lot next to the Conference Center.

I'm noticing a trend. Let's hope it's not foreshadowing :)

But conference was great! I've never been that close to the speakers before. We could even see their facial expressions in person as the speakers spoke!

It was an unforgettable weekend!

My email from Michelle

2009-09-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

Me and Michelle

Randomly, yesterday, I asked my sister if she would write me an email sometime this week and she said she'd write me a poem. (We like to send each other random emails) I just checked my email and this is what she sent. I love it. Her writing always makes me laugh.

A poem... for Kristen (As promised, an original, amazing, zesty poem)
Kristina-Maria
I think I need-ya (pretend it rhymes)
Life is so dull,
Without your radiant pull.

You light up my life
In the midst of strife!
I envy your ability to smile
After walking more than a mile.

For the perfect outfit we shopped,
Dirty floors we mopped.
Summertime was a time of shine
In which you were all mine! (ain’t that precious?)

I will love you past the end of time,
And whenever I think of you I smell lime.
You are so pretty
With your waist so itty-bitty!

With my money I’ll fly
Or at least I’ll try,
To go visit my dear sister
Whose bishop’s son is a good-lookin’ mister

I am writing this
Instead of working on my homework abiss
But it is worth it-isss
To write to the sister that I miss!

The finale:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Who would think that there’s a sister
As good for me as you!

-Michelle Wagner

Confessions of a Chronic Doodler...

2009-08-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

My grandma called me the other day to ask me to buy her ice cream for dessert for the family dinner the next day so I started writing a note on my hand so I wouldn't forget and by the end of the phone call my hand looked like this:

And this is a common occurance. I don't mean to doodle so much. It just happens... For instance, here's a scan of two pages from my notebook from last year.

BUT... I learned today that it's not a waste of time or proof that I zone out in class lectures. I did some research this morning and found a recent study by Plymouth University in England who found that people who doodle can recall an average of 29% more than people who don't.

So even though I may be the only one who can decipher my notes, and one day my hand might fall off (or whatever's supposed to happen) from ink poisoning, it's OK because apparently I'm doing 1/3 better than I would be without the sketches :)

From Marriage Prep to Marriage

2009-08-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today I had one of those experiences when you know life has come full circle.

I went wedding dress shopping with my friend Aly who just got engaged to be married in December.

We met in a Marriage Prep class two years ago.

I was taking the class for my Family Life minor and she was taking it for one of her major requirements. We were naturally drawn to each other by our mutually-refreshing sarcastic and sassy humor.

Allow me to illustrate :)

On my first day in class, I sat next to a girl who introduced herself and then pulled out a pen and paper and then informed me that she was tired of being single and that she was going to write down and memorize everything that our teacher said so that she could find a husband and exit the single world by Christmas.

I’m not joking. It’s a true story.

I wished her luck but made sure to sit in a different section of the classroom the next time the class met. After two weeks of finding myself next to equally-determined girls- who although entertaining, kind of scared me- I finally sat next to a girl, who when I said something sarcastic under my breath ( I can’t remember what, but such times were easy to come by since our teacher was kind of intense (and intense would be putting it mildly) in his dating and marriage lectures), she laughed instead of scowling at me.***

And that’s when we knew we were meant to be friends.

We had good times in that class. We both sat in mixed horror, shock and confusion when one girl shared to the teacher’s delight that since there was an optional assignment to ask someone to be your boyfriend for two weeks, she had taken a go-getters approach and tackled the challenge that first week of class. But she didn’t go about it in your every-day, average [and NORMAL] sort of way. She had decided to find the lucky man by doing a facebook profile search. Yes, according to her, she looked through profile pictures until she found one with which “she felt a connection.” And then she messaged him and asked him to be her boyfriend. To our even greater consternation, he accepted. I think they’re married now.

We also had prime seats three rows behind the engaged couple of the class. I think these people were out for bonus points with the teacher for the optional courtesy kiss assignment. They made out throughout every class.

So when we were assigned to write a poem about love, Aly wrote the following:

Ode to the Lovers

Every class, without fail
We see you and we want to bail.
You touch and giggle, cuddle and kiss
And smother each other for fifty minutes.

Everyone hopes not to sit behind
The couple who seems to pay no mind
To the other 178 people in class,
Who, when class is over, make a dash

To the trash, to the door,
We can’t take anymore
Of your giggles and coos,
Your snuggles and schmoos.

We know you’re in love
We see by the hugs!
We have but one small favor to ask-
From now on, will you please sit in the very back?

And so today we reminisced about all this (and more… trust me there was MUCH more I could tell from that class but I just don’t have space on this blog and plus… some things just shouldn’t be repeated) and thought it was funny how after randomly meeting in a marriage prep class, we had become good enough friends to be wedding dress shopping two years later.

*** Disclaimer- Aly and I were not anti-marriage or bitter or anything- we actually love romance and dating and such- we just found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of people who treated dating like it was boot camp and decided to make the most of it and have some good laughs :)

Escape to WHICH mountain???

2009-08-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today while I was at work my roommate Janeen sent me a text message.

"I don't care how much work I have to do tonight. Let's just go on a hike."

So naturally I replied, "I'm game. Let's do it."

We tried to get a group of people together, but obviously we need to be nicer to people because we only ended up being a group of four.

(Or maybe we just need to give our friends more than just a two hour notice?...I sure hope that's the reason...)

None of us had ever gone on this hike. But that didn't matter. We had heard of it and figured we could eventually find it. We did end up calling the Bishop for directions to help us find the road to the hike since he's from Payson and knows the area. We found out from one of our other roommates who talked to him later during the evening that after we called, he called his son and said, "Carter, saddle up the horses. We're probably going to be rescuing some lost girls tonight."

I love how much faith he has in us.

But despite being clueless about where we were and where we were going (no that does not define us as lost- we prefer to be labeled "explorers"), we did have quite a nice hike.

We crossed streams, saw waterfalls, and survived two or three encounters with ferocious animals.

OK, maybe it wasn't that primitive. The streams may have had bridges, the waterfalls may have only been a stream on a downward trend (but isn't that just what any waterfall is?), and as for the ferocious animals- well, ferociousness may be a relative term. And personally I happen to be very afraid of mice. Especially ones that scurry unexpectedly across the trail.

And we learned an important lesson tonight. Like President Monson (and my mom's blog) has said, "The Joy is in the Journey."

We went on the hike to find a lake. And if we would have waited to enjoy ourselves until we reached the lake we would have been soooooo disappointed. Because when we got to the end of the trail we were met with this sight. (Picture stolen/borrowed from google images since we didn't have a camera with us)

Kind of anti-climatic, huh? But you know what? We had our adventure.

We hiked a mountain we had never hiked before.

And we survived. Even the encounters with the scary mice.

And now we have bragging rights to tell our tale.

Milestone Reached

2009-08-18T13:00:00.001-07:00

Recap of the last two weeks:

I...

1. Returned to Provo to start my third year as secretary for Business Management.
2. Came to the conclusion that Mother Nature has it out to get me. She has thwarted a tubing trip, a caving trip and a hike to see waterfalls in Mapleton. But I am stubborn. My friends and I will keep trying.

3. May or may not have to confess that I have become slightly addicted to a marble game. Thank you apt 234.

4. Had a Sunday Dinner reunion with my old hometeachers to celebrate Hometeacher Jeremy's birthday. We have had birthday reunions for the last two years now.(Hometeaching Group- Zack, Me, Jeremy)

5. Found that the Sunday Dinner reunion would pay off more than I expected it to. When we were all updating each other on our lives since we haven't seen each other in forever, I told them I was writing a book, they asked me to tell them the story, and they liked it enough to help me come up with a name for it!

Here's the brainstorming group (to all of my friends who may be reading this, I have to disappoint and warn that all three guys are currently taken at the moment:)
Marshall (the second guy from the left) gets credit for coming up with the winning name. And it's brilliant.

As of this week, I have passed the 100 page Milestone, so wish me luck on the next 100!

Coming Soon: Rain of Darkness

(But please trust me that there's a reason for my Fairy Tale being named that before you think I'm gothic or creepy:)

[Book name has since been changed. New name: The Light Ends the Rain]

#1 News Event of 1969

2009-07-30T17:20:00.001-07:00

My mom's friend reached that special milestone of turning 40 so my mom wanted to throw her a party. As part of the decorations, my mom wanted to have real newspapers from 1949 blown up to show the top ten highlights from that year, with Sonia's birthday being number one. Unfortunately, for some reason, no newspaper actually spotlighted her birth, so my mom needed a fake newspaper front page to be made. So here's what I came up with:

(Most of you will probably have to click to open the image to read it)

Truant Blogger Acquires New Best Friend

2009-07-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hello! I know it's been forever since I've blogged. But I have good reasons so I hope you'll forgive me:

1. I just wanted you all to have time to thoroughly appreciate the tribute I wrote my mom last time.

AND

2. I haven't had internet for the last three weeks (kind of a big reason).

But I'm back! And I have some exciting news.

Notice anything different about my keys???

If you know me, then you probably recognize a major addition that belongs to....

[insert drum roll here]

My New Friend!!!

After three years of being the Provo-renowned-bright-colored-jacket-wearing Pedestrian, I am finally joining the ranks of the thousands of parking lot cloggers at BYU!

I'll miss the rattling and mystery smells and noises of my high school car, "Ol' Smokey" (who did what it could to live up to its name) but somehow I think I'll move on just fine :)

Now I just have to pick out a name...

Whistle while you work

2009-06-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

This week I worked on cleaning out the laundry room. But when I folded all the laundry I couldn't find matches for all of the socks so I made them a temporary home :)

My Phone

2009-06-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

Online messaging conversation between my sister and me (June 19):

Kristen: I think my phone died.

Kathryn: Why?

Kristen: Because I woke up this morning but my phone didn't.

Kathryn: That stinks... Oh no... now I'm worried.

Kristen: What?

Kathryn: I woke up this morning but Michelle's still in bed.

But this phone's story starts a few months earlier. In March my phone decided to die for a day. Actually, I know it was dead for 19 hours and 15 min because when it finally let me turn it back on, that's how far off the time was and it never let me change it. But I didn't complain because, one, I was just ecstatic my phone was working again so I wouldn't have to get a new one, and two, I'm going to be a teacher one day so I just decided to consider the time difference an opportunity for me to daily practice my addition and/or subtraction :)

And so I lived with my quirky phone like that until last week when it decided to die again (as related in the aforementioned conversation with my sister). This time I thought it was really gone for good because when 19 hours had passed (coincidentally my favorite number) it didn't miraculously turn back on in response to several standard- and some creative- efforts.

And then it was time to go to the airport to come home from Chicago. It's funny how empty and disconnected you feel from the world when you don't have a phone. But don't pity me. If anything, pity all the poor people who happened to be sitting around me who I drafted to be my friends so I would have people to talk to since I couldn't call or text anyone :) When it was time to board I stood up and my phone slipped from my bag and collided with the tile floor. At first I panicked inside because I didn't want my phone to break and then I remembered it was already dead, so I picked it up and put it back in my purse, where I imagined it would sit until I buried it back in Arizona.

But then as I walked down the ramp to the plane, I suddenly heard some beeping and I withdrew my phone to find it ON and with notifications of several missed calls and texts, and most incredibly... it displayed the correct time.

My prayers were answered and I was blessed with even more than I had asked for. I'm so grateful for miracles.

Happy Birthday to my Mom!!!

2009-06-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

(Mom with Camille)

So I lied. I meant to and I promised that I would write a blog tribute to my mom on her birthday but then we went to Colorado to celebrate it and I didn't have a chance. And then we went out of town again and obviously it didn't happen. But now I'm happy to announce the waiting is officially over! (And I really hope no one was holding their breath, because of course by now they would be dead... if so... umm... sorry about that).

Ode to my Mother

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

(Camille, Me, Mom, and Ryan)

What I love about my Mother: (In random order)

*Time- I love that my mom always makes time for me. When I am away at college I call and email often and she always seems to have time for me even though I know she has a very busy life.

*Sense of Humor- My mom gets me and I'm grateful for that because I know she appreciates and understands my sense of humor. I'll be the first to admit I'm quirky and sarcastic and I love being around my mom because she's clever herself and laughs at my jokes.

*My mom is my friend. My mom is loyal and I consider her to be one of my very best friends. I'm grateful for our relationship and how I can confide anything in her. We also have a lot of fun together whether it's just visiting or shopping or making dinner together or doing something crazy on a vacation- we always have fun.

*My mom knows everything. Or at least my parents seem to know everything. Especially when it comes to the scriptures and doctrine. I've really grown to appreciate that I can have full faith in the answers my mom [and dad- but we'll focus on him in November on his birthday] gives me. I'm grateful I have had her as a teacher as I have grown up.

*The last one is a good lead-in to mention- my mom is definitely an example of the believers. My mom has a solid testimony in the gospel. She comes from a long line of great examples in the church and it is evident she lives her life to honor their name. My mom always tries to do what is right and I have never seen her be cruel or mean to anyone. She has also taught me to value my genealogy and to find strength in my family members who have lived before me.

*My mom is very generous. My mom has helped teach me to give. She is always trying to help people. Sometimes we grumble because she is also very generous in volunteering her children for service as well... but now I'm grateful for all of those service opportunities she helped us find.

*I love how she is still so in love with my dad. They email and call each other every day while my dad is at work. They go out for lunch once a week and they always make sure there's a date night. I love that you can tell my mom still adores my dad. After almost 27 years of marriage I have never heard them fight- they might disagree (but they mostly always agree) but they are always kind to one another. I want to be in love like my mom is when I get married.

*I love that my mom doesn't complain. Ever since I was small my dad has had church callings that have taken a great deal of time, but my mom never complains about it. She supports in my dad in whatever he is called to do.

(Camille, Ryan and me)

*THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON I LOVE MY MOM? She is the example of the kind of mom I want to be. She's very bright and very talented and could have done anything with her life. And she decided to devote her life to raising a family and building a home that we all love to come home to. She's made so many sacrifices- some I never realized until I was older- and I'm so grateful that when she had the choice, she chose to be my mom. I love her so much.

We're also all grateful she had cute babies :) Below are her kids who all are so grateful for everything she's done to raise us.

Camille (now 26)

Ryan (Now 24)

Kristen (Now 21)

Kathryn (Now 18)

Michelle (Now 15)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

EFY Highlights

2009-06-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

(Brittany, Me, and Rachel)
Counselor Shot
.

.
My Company Shot

Last week I was an EFY counselor at Grand Canyon University. I worked with the younger group and it was a ton of fun. Below are some of my highlight moments.

SERENADE

After half an hour of 'meet the group' time, I had to take my group of girls to meet the boys. You could tell they were the younger age group because they didn’t seem to care to mix with each other.

.
Here are the boys

Can't you see how they're overflowing with enthusiasm? One's even hiding under his shirt...
.
And here are the girls.

After my Co-Counselor and I started mixing them up in some fun games, I noticed this one boy [Nick] kept pulling a certain girl’s hair. So I called to Nick to stop, and said, “Nick, pulling a girl’s hair is not an effective way to flirt.”

The girl giggled and Nick looked pretty mad at me. He didn’t talk to me for the rest of the morning.

But then at lunch, as I was walking past Nick and his friends with my tray, Nick called to me. He said, “Hey Kristen. Come eat lunch with me. I’m not mad at you anymore.”

I was glad to be forgiven, so I did. And I talked to Nick and his friends for a while and then randomly he said, “So did you know that I play the piano really well?”

I answered, “Really? That’s so cool.”

His friend on the other side of me said, “So can I.”

“That’s cool too.”

Then Nick went on, “Did you see there’s a piano right over there?”

“No. You guys will have to play for me sometime.”

The boys stood. “We’ll play for you now.”

I guess I was done with lunch.

So Nick the future concert pianist proceeded to serenade me. He actually is a pretty amazing pianist.

The funniest part of this story is that his older sister was a counselor and she was my roommate. At night, she asked me about the piano playing since she saw her little brother playing for me, and then I told her the whole story starting with the hair pulling in the morning. Emily laughed and said, “Hahaha, that’s so funny. I was with my group right before lunch and a boy in my group was poking a girl and Nick walked up to the boy and told him ‘Hey, poking is not a proper way to flirt.’ I wondered where that came from.”

hahaha I was quoted.

HAWAII

So on Friday we had some free time and I was sitting outside with my two little sisters when some of their guy friends came up and hung out with us for the time. One boy said he wanted to go to Hawaii and then an idea popped into my head and I answered, “I can take you to Hawaii.”

Predictably, he looked a little skeptical, and I said, “well not quite, but almost."

It just takes a little imagination. (haha that probably makes me sound like Mary Poppins :)

So my sister helped position him before a palm tree and then I laid in a ditch to take the below shot. And who’s to say this couldn’t be Hawaii???

See… life’s all about perspective. No one would know that a cafeteria and classrooms were right behind him.

LIGHTS OUT

At night counselors have to give a devotional and then the group has a group prayer and then it’s supposed to be lights out. After prayer I had one room of four girls that asked if lights out meant they had to be asleep. I told them they had to stay in their room, but I didn’t care what time they went to bed. They just better remember that I would be waking them up singing a song at 6 am in the morning.

Maybe next time I should say Lights Out means sleep time because below is the picture I took at six am the next morning when I walked in and found that the four girls had decided to have an all-nighter.

Oh my. They decided they wanted to try to stay up for 48 hours. That’s crazy. If they had ever gone to college they would value their sleep more and savor what sleep they could get. But they didn’t make it 48 hours. The second day of being up they were like walking zombies by the time the dance came around and they were the first ones asleep that night.

CELL PHONES

At this session of EFY cell phones were not allowed. The kids were told to leave them at home and if they were seen with them, the counselors would have to confiscate them. During a fireside the first day, the kids were told that those who brought their phones in spite of the rule were disobedient and needed to turn them in. As I was walking back to the dorms, I happened to be behind two of my girls. I overheard one of them say, "I still haven't turned mine in and I don't know what to do." They turned to hold the door open for me and their faces went ashen. I smiled nonchalantaly and said as I passed, "It's OK, you can give it to me during devotional." They had the classic hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar face. The girl with the phone said, "That's not fair, you weren't supposed to be there!"

What can I say? I have great timing :)

PYRAMID

The last part I’ll post is just a picture sequence of some of my sister’s friends trying to make a pyramid. Look at their faces. I think the pictures tell it all.

The Best Part of Summer.

2009-06-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

There are lots of reasons I love summer but one of my favorite things is everyone gets to harvest their gardens. I miss all the variety of fruits and vegetables during the winter. I especially love how summer always brings a ton of fresh zucchini.

Here's our family's favorite zucchini recipe :)
(and please excuse the picture- I ruined it by putting extra glaze over the slices... It was still too hot so instead of being pretty and drizzled, it all pooled in random places to look sloppy and gloopy... oh well... such is life... but it tastes yummy- I promise)

ZUCCHINI BREAD
Ingredients
3 eggs
1 c oil
2.5 c sugar
3 tsp vanilla
2 c grated peeled zucchini
4 c flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions
Beat eggs. Add oil sugar and vanilla. Add Zucchini. Sift dry ingredients and add to other mixture. Bake at 350* for 45 min. Makes 2 hearty loaves. Frost while still warm.... Just make vanilla glaze and add some lemon juice to it!

Enjoy!

Swimming Season

2009-06-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today I went swimsuit shopping but everything at all the stores seemed to be pretty skanky. So I came home and Googled "Modest Swimsuit" and a website to buy this tempting one piece came up....

Hmmmm... my parents would approve but I think I'm gonna keep looking...

A Five Minute Fairy Tale

2009-05-13T21:46:00.001-07:00

This last school year I sometimes wrote a few- most times silly- fairy tales for friends (they always had the prestigious publishing as a facebook message.) This story/poem is dedicated to my roommate Janeen- who is also one of the best singers I know!

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess blessed with the gift of song.
Her voice was so enchanting the court would insist, she sing to them all the day long.

This princess could not only sing, but she was kind and thoughtful too
But she had no prince so it was plain to see, Her story could not be through.

Her parents called her in one day. After much thought they had devised a plan
After listening she agreed, so the petition was sent to suitors throughout all the land.

It called for every single Lord, Baronet, Squire and Knight
To come to the castle in two weeks time (Oh wait- that’s called a fortnight :)

In two weeks they arrived as the letter had asked, with an offering in their arms
Each would greet the princess, give her a gift, and perhaps woo her with their charms

They all had been asked, to bring what they thought, the princess would desire the most.
One brought a pony, One (presumptuous) man brought a ring, and one Frenchman even made her his famous French toast!

And so the princess sat there politely, although she was more than just a little bored
There was no man or gift that spoke to her heart- No one she could ever adore.

Certainly not “Mr. Seemingly Perfect” who, with much protesting, the Royal Guards had just carried away.
Although handsome and strong, he had winked at a servant, proving his love would change day by day

So she sat there for hours, and she had to confess- Her bright heart had begun to lose hope.
Was there a match for her somewhere? Or was she doomed to sit... surrounded by a whole bunch of dopes?

The sun finally set and the line of men ended. She sighed, and then resolutely stood.
And surprised she was, when in walked a man with no jewels but a guitar carved from wood.

He sang:
“I can’t promise you riches, I can’t promise you wealth.
All I can promise is my love, and all of my self.
I’ll stand by your side, I’ll help conquer your fears.
I’ll help you to laugh all the days of your years.”

Her parents shook their heads, (subtlety but emphatically). This common match would never do.
But the princess stood up and reminded her parents- They had said she was free to choose.

Taking his hand she proclaimed, that a prince was not a prince just because of riches or smarts
No, a man would be able to be crowned her prince based on the love and his goodness of heart.

And so they married and despite everyone’s guesses, she never regretted her choice.
They lived life like a duet, like the harmony achieved- when his guitar combined with her voice.

THE END

Klutzy Kristen strikes again. (Thank goodness for the Arizona heat!)

2009-05-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Hello! I’m probably disappointing everybody by not writing yet another Wagner Family Member Tribute- this time could have been for my mother for Mother’s Day- but I decided that her birthday is in a month so I’ll stick to tradition and do it then. I know everyone who reads this will want to countdown the days so I’ll give you a heads up- “Ode to Mama Wagner” will be published June 9th :)

Today marks a full week being back in AZ with my fam. Everyone who knows me knows I LOVE Arizona. And I was so excited to leave the schizo Utah weather (It snowed like two weeks ago- I think Mother Nature’s losing it) but I didn’t realize that Arizona would be so hot this soon. All week it’s been reaching like 105 degrees. Yikes.

But today I learned a lesson on gratitude and perspective. You never know what might end up surprising you as a blessing.

This morning I was getting ready for church and kind of last minute (after I had gotten dressed and everything) I realized I really should shave my legs. It’s summer after all. So I shaved them up to my knees real fast but as I stood in the water-filled tub to get out, my foot slipped making me lose my balance and I ended up completely sitting in the water fully dressed for church.

It was at this moment that I heard my parents call down to us in the basement to come up to give our mom our Mother’s Day presents before we went to church. My thoughts: “oh drats. I would do this. What do I do?” I couldn’t very well tell my mom she couldn’t open her presents because I needed the ten minutes before we left to iron another skirt, so I stood up, wrung my skirt out as best I could (I was grateful the skirt was black so you couldn’t really tell from a distance it was soaked) and went upstairs with my gift bag in hand.

Mom opened her presents and then we drove the five minutes to church. When we got there I had to repent of ever grumbling about the AZ heat this week. Amazingly enough- my skirt was dry!

"Desert Air Natural Drying"- another thing to love about Arizona.

So my lesson for the day? It’s possible to find the silver lining in my hot and cloudless Arizona sky :)

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Brother!

2009-04-26T20:38:00.001-07:00

This post is dedicated to my favorite brother, Wesley Ryan. He turned the big 24 on the 24th.

Here's a picture of my brother. (No I don't have two brothers.The guy on the left is my dad.)

(You can see why my friends in high school always referred to him as "Kristen's Hot Brother" :)

To celebrate I decided I would write some of my favorite 10 things about him:

1. He's a great sport- he has four sisters and never got a brother. A favorite memory of mine is when I think he realized that he wasn't going to ever have any brothers so he called us into his room and made us promise to be his brothers. Poor boy. I'm glad he recently finally got a dog (Diesel) to fill that void in his life.

2. He's hilarious. Ryan is one of those people with natural charm who can charm a smile out of anyone. He's clever and we love to have him around to make us laugh.

3. He's athletic. Ryan came right before me and I think he stole the athletic genes I could have gotten too on his way out of heaven. I really admire his abilities.

4. He's a sweetheart. Ryan has great manners and always looks out for his sisters. An example of this is when I wanted to teach my friends a craft project that required wood but I wasn't sure about how to go to Home Depot and cut it up. So Ryan went for me during a break at work and bought the wood and had them cut it up into the required pieces. I really appreciated the help.

5. He's generous. Ryan is one of the most generous people I know. He naturally loves people and can often be found helping them out. I can probably safely say that Ryan would give away his own shirt if someone needed it more. He's just that good.

6. I love his excitement. If you ever want to thoroughly enjoy Christmas- invite Ryan over. He cannot wait for surprises. I loved our "Christmas Club" meetings we would hold weekly in December to plan out our pre-present-opening celebration on Christmas morning. Ryan would get us so excited for Christmas and then on Christmas morning we would wake up at five and hang out in his room and then have the 10 minute countdown in the 10 minutes before the time my parents said we could finally wake them up (6:30 am- it always seemed so late!) But even with all of this, Ryan would often sneak upstairs or down the hall to see what Santa brought before anyone else even woke up. I love holidays with Ryan- Kali is a lucky girl.

7. He's protective and loyal. I knew that if I ever needed anyone in high school to be beat up, I could count on my brother. Ryan loves people deeply and watches out for them.

8. He's a good friend. I like hanging out with my brother. He's a lot of fun and I always liked that he treated me like a friend.

9. He's smart. I've always admired Ryan for this. He is especially brilliant in organizing his thoughts in talks and public addresses. If you haven't heard him speak, you should find a way to change that. He connects so well with people in general and then he has a way of speaking in a powerful and structured way that it really touches and probably changes his audience. I bet his charisma could give Obama a run for his money.

10. I like that I'm his favorite sister :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!!

Officially a Senior!

2009-04-22T18:00:00.001-07:00

Today I finally turned in the last of my finals!!!!

Halelujah!

The Elementary Education program might not be excessively mentally-challenging (as a recent date implied when he asked me if it's hard for me to communicate with the Business Professors and Students that I work with when I'm only an El Ed major-yep that was our only date), but all of the projects sure are time-consuming. I feel so drained from this week of all-nighters and I think it has taken a toll on me. (you can decide). Here are my before and after shots.

Before Finals as a carefree and busy Junior.

Survival shot of Finishing Finals and now having enough credits to be a Senior.

OK... so maybe that's not really me... actually I might actually look like that... I don't think I've looked in the mirror since Sunday since I'm pretty sure that that's the last time I did my make-up or combed out my hair. (Thank goodness for hats and dry skin) And since this is how I feel, I'm thinking I might not look in the mirror cuz if I really have turned into this then ingnorance is bliss!

I feel so relieved, my heart feels so light, I swear if I jumped I would be able to fly. I am so excited to finally start this summer! It doesn't feel real yet since I am still working full time for the next two weeks before going home to AZ- but now that I am done with finals I've dreamed all day of everything I am going to accomplish in the next three months. Such happy thoughts :)

Here is what I have come up with so far...

1. Run the equivalent of a marathon every week (4 miles Mon-Fri and 6 on Sat).

2. Write at least one chapter every week in my book. (For those of you who don't know I am currently working on a long-time dream of mine to write a whole chapter book. Be excited... It's a Fairy Tale :)

3. Reaquaint myself with Espanol. It's been a long time since I learned it pretty well in High School. Time to practice.

4. Learn how to can (food, not the dance). My mom has promised to teach me to can food storage this summer. I've been so excited!!!

5. Watch the new John Adams movie- I've been wanting to watch it and I'm way excited to finally get to watch movies guilt-free without having to think of everything else I really should be doing.

6. Practice the piano weekly.

That's all I have thought of so far, but considering my summer only started 5 hours ago, I think it's a pretty good start!

Summer here I come!

Who needs the zoo when you've got me? (or at least a me that's been reading Wikipedia :)

2009-04-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

If you're ready for a five min Safari, keep on reading...

It's Finals Week and I just spent forever researching a quarter of a hundred animals for a project. (Sounds more impressive than simply saying 25, right?)

I guess it took so long because instead of just looking for two easy facts and moving on, I kept getting hooked and I ended up reading everything I could find.

So now I am feeling like I am just bursting with knowledge so I am sharing some of my highlights with you!

Did you know...

1. Chameleons are actually now thought to NOT change color for camouflage but for communication purposes and to increase attraction.

2. In dry seasons, Elephants will use their tusks to dig for water and create new accessibility to underground water sources for other animals. Also, Elephants use their trunks to greet each other by entwining them like handshakes (especially in parent/child relationships and when courting)

3. Gorillas have now been documented to use tools. One female gorilla was even seen to use sticks to measure water levels of streams before entering and crossing. So smart.

4. Although hippos spend the majority of their lives in water (they're even all born there) ironically, adult hippos can't swim.

5. A Rhino's horn is made of Keratin, the protein that makes up hair and fingernails. (Wonder what conditioner would do to it :)

6. Crocodiles can live to be over 100 years old- even in rare cases to be over 130. Also- the gender of a crocodile is determined by the average temperature of the embryo (there's no sex chromosome). There's only a five degree range for the egg to hatch as a male.

7. Zebras sleep standing up and usually only sleep when there are other zebras around to watch for danger

8. Cheetahs- they're the proof that girls are catty (haha I love puns :). Female cheetahs live solitary lives, while male cubs that are born together will live their whole lives together. (In cases of only boy situations like my brother Ryan, they will find another small group of males to join)

9. Giraffes need the least amount of sleep of any mammal, requiring only 10 min- 2 hours of sleep a day. Being in the middle of finals week makes me REALLY jealous about this one!

10. Giraffe calves can run within only a few HOURS of birth.

11. To ward off a leopard attack, male baboons will chase the cat away in a "crazy man" fashion. I would love to see that captured on video and I can't wait 'til I make a group in my class reenact this one when I present on Monday:) Its great when you're in charge.

Hope you enjoyed the randomness...

Love
Kristina Maria Chiquita Juanita Rosemarita Josephina Buchacha Wagner Rodriguez I (The First)

Happy Birthday Camille

2009-04-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

I've had an empty blog for a few months now, wondering how I would ever (if ever) start it off. And now I have the perfect way- here's an

"Ode to Camille, Happy Birthday to My Favorite Big Sister."

Camille is the best big sister in the world. If you don't know her, you're missing out. She is brilliant, analytical, and probably the best organizer in the world (all those summers working with Dad paid off :). If you need a job done, she's the girl you can depend on.

I've always thought that it would be really hard to be the oldest because you'd have to figure out so much on your own, but Camille's been a great example, and now I'm INCREDIBLY grateful I have her to always turn to.

Since Camille's modest, I'll spout some of her accomplishements off so you can understand how great she is! Camille was in National Honor Society, was on the Varsity Tennis Team, Graduated in the top 10 of her High School class, and was a National Hispanic Scholar (Yes- we're half Mexican). She also plays the piano, organ, and the flute and if you ever need a gourmet chef- she's your girl! She gradutated from BYU with a degree in linguistics and is now pursuing her Masters in Special Education.

(Sounds like Wonder Sister, right? And now you can see why I want to be just like her when I grow up)

Last year Camille married her college sweetheart, Dave, whom she met in her Freshman ward (Isn't that so cute? They're great together, and he's the sweetest, greatest guy) and this year she's now a new mommy to her daughter Carly.

I love spending time with my big sister. I love visiting her in Colorado (and that she let me come once with only like a week's notice) and I love all of our random phone calls.

Love you Camille! Happy Birthday!!!

Me, Camille, Michelle, Kathryn

(The girls of the family)

Happy Birthday Kathryn- and why I love her

2008-09-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've already done a Top Ten reasons I love Kathryn this year so this Happy Birthday blog post is going to be a little different. Kat turned 19 on Friday. WOOOHOO! Only one year left to be a teenager :) I can't believe it. That makes me feel old.
Kat- This is dedicated to you.

(Kathryn and Michelle)

Kat is a sweetheart. She's so pretty and she has a good heart. I can always turn to her when I need to.

This picture says it all. We thought we were taking a cute sister shot. Kat had other plans. There are always surprises when we go on trips and come back and look through our pictures. I've told Kathryn that when she grows up she should be a face actress- you know- be the close-up shot on a commercial or something whose face has to respond to what the advertisers say. Kathryn has more faces than anyone I've ever met.

Kat is loyal and will stick with you- even when you are banished on the Temple Mount for being Muslimly immodest. Our guide had to run and get us some shawls since we were exposing more than half our arms. But what a loyal sister- we stuck through our shame together.

(Ronny, Kat, and Michelle- yes, we're on a firstname basis with him :)

Kat is fearless- when we were at the Suns play-off game, we saw Ronny Turiaf a few rows away but we were blocked from getting to them by a divider in the aisles and some over-enthusiastic ushers. So Kathrn ignored the barriers and hopped over, out-run the guards and asked Ronny for a picture. She told him he was her favorite Laker and said- who's Kobe anyway? She even put her arm around him :)

Kat is my partner in crime. There are few people I trust when it comes to making mischief- but I'm always open to Kat being on my team. (A big reason being I'd fear her more if she were on the other team- and I don't say that about many people :) Poor Michelle. When we knew Michelle's facebook password Kathryn and I had lots of fun. Those were the good ol' days.
(Me, Kat, Chelle)

We've shared a lot together. We've shared a room, clothes, shoes, memories, secrets- you name it. She just better not share crushes! Haha but given our different types, I don't think I'll have to worry about that... :)

(Kathryn, Camille, Mom, Michelle, Red-headed Me)

The girls in our family would be missing a lot if we didn't have her. Love you Kat!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHRYN!!!