8.29.2013

eye=ow

So...today I woke up with an eye infection.
It's pretty miserable.
In fact, it's SO very sensitive in the light, that I have been teaching all day in the dark.
My students think it's pretty funny.

But I'm ready to be able to see now.
And not have to wear frames that aren't even the right prescription.

P.S. I got this shirt at Ann Taylor Loft for $7.50!
Pretty proud--pretty proud.

8.22.2013

being new

Tonight was back to school night.
It's kinda awkward as a teacher---did you know that?
I've only met the kids twice.
And I have 240 of them.
So...I really don't know names yet.
Parents come in and expect me to know who their kid is when they say, "I'm Cooper's dad."
I usually just smile and nod and then play the chit-chat game for the next couple of minutes.

And other times you get the Chief Long-Wind dad.
That's awesome, too.
There are five other parents in the room--am I the only one that sees that?
C'mon, Chief, quiet the pipes so I can go talk to others.

All in all though, it was a really good experience.
I left with this thought in my mind: "I am sososososo happy to be at this school."
Today, as I was teaching, I realized how much I LOVE my career.
How many people can say that?
I didn't realize how much I missed it over the summer.

New students scare me though.
shhh.
I act mean and tough at first, but really I'm shaking inside.

I projected a seating chart on the second day of school, and I accidentally created it wrong.
Instead of 6 rows of 7, I entered 7 rows of 6.
So the students were obviously confused when the seating chart didn't match the desks.
One student said, "Um, how about you make a seating chart that makes sense?"
All in pure, nasty sarcasm, of course.
I eyed him down, and that silenced the class real quick.

It's hard being at a school where no one knows me.
Okay...no one knew me at the beginning of last year either.
But...I hate playing that part of the game all over again.
Trying to earn respect as the "unknown teacher" is really tricky.
So far, things have gone really smooth.
But I'm waiting for the hiccup.
I'm sure it's coming.

My parents left town yesterday.
Post to come about the fun times we had.
I already miss them.
BUT we get to keep the little seeester in Utah with us!
Woohoo!

FRIDAY tomorrow!

8.21.2013

August 6, 2013

Late post...but it deserves to be blogged about!

On August 6th, Taylor and I hiked up to Stewart Falls.
On this day, two years ago, Taylor got down on one knee and asked me to be his for eternity.
That cute boy had me fooled the entire time.

Here's the story:

One of our friends, Jordan Mckee, asked Taylor and I if we wanted to go on a double date and hike up Stewart Falls.
(sneaky Taylor had Jordan ask us so that it looked like it was Jordan's idea)
We agreed to go the following weekend.
Here's the super-mormon part of this story:
Taylor and I knew we wanted to get married, we had picked out the ring (story on that to come as well!), and had already set the wedding date! Before the proposal!
We had to book the temple, and so we figured we might as well jump on it.
I also booked our photographer--I knew I wanted this particular photographer and wanted to book her early.  And our engagement shoot with her was scheduled for the following week.  
One particular day leading up to this, Taylor looked really upset.
When I asked him what was wrong, he explained to me that the jeweler ran into a problem with the ring and they didn't think it would be done until the following Thursday (our engagement shoot was on Wednesday).  It was clear how miserable he felt--he was sure I would be extremely disappointed.
I told him not to worry about it--in fact, I told him we would go buy a fake ring at Claire's and we would just not worry about "close-up hand shots." 
It really didn't seem like a big deal.
But Taylor "called" the jeweler every day to get an update.
Little did I know that this whole "jeweler ran into a problem" story was completely false.
That cute boy just wanted to run me completely off course.
And he did.
Since I knew the proposal was coming eventually, I was on high alert for everything.
The thought did cross my mind: maybe he's making this whole ring thing up?
But he was such a good little actor!

Hiking day arrived.
I had a stressful morning and suggested that we rain check the hike.
(whooooops!)
Taylor casually said, "Sure. Want me to call Jordan?"
That officially made me UN-suspicious about the whole day
(I really wasn't that suspicious to begin with, but since I knew it was coming, I read into everything).
I told him not to worry about it--I would go home and change and be ready to go.

So off we went!
Jordan had just recently bought a new camera and told us he wanted to try it out.
So he took pictures the whole time we climbed up.
And he often asked us to take pictures of him and his date.
Taylor knew me well--he knew I would want the whole thing documented. ;)
We even have a video of the actual proposal!
Good job, Jordan!

The top of Stewart falls is breathtaking.
(and now that it holds a romantic aura for me, I find it even more beautiful)
Taylor and I sat on some large rocks as we watched the falls cascade down into the pool of water.
Taylor had a backpack full of treats.  
He opened up his backpack and pulled out a water bottle and asked me, "Do you want some water?"
"Sure!"
Next, he pulled out a granola bar, "Do you want a granola bar?"
"Yeah, thanks!"
Then he pulled out some chips, and asked again, "Do you want some chips?"
I again answered in the positive.
Keep the treats coming, babe!
Finally, Taylor pulled out a white box, and slowly opened it as he asked, "Do you want a diamond ring?"
I was in absolute shock! I slapped my hands to my mouth and was completely speechless.
The ring was the most perfect ring I had ever seen.
As I sat there in utter amazement, Taylor got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
I giggled, smiled, kissed him, and said yes.
(duh... ;))


We've now made it a tradition to hike Stewart Falls on August 6th every year.
(See here for last year's hike!)
I guess I should clarify that I made it a tradition.
Taylor whines the whole evening about going.
This year he tried to convince me that we should go to Chilis and eat a chocolate molten cake. And we can consider THAT the mountain, instead of actually climbing one.
But I turned him down real quick.
We were doing this!
And at the end, he thanked me for making him go, because we sure did have fun.



It so happened that I wasn't actually wearing my ring that day.
I didn't notice until we got up there to take the picture!
(I had taken it off for Lake Powell)

And of course...gotta add this.

Hey babe?
Thanks for proposing.
I'm so happy I'm yours.

8.20.2013

I love being a tiger.

I am so in love with my new school!
I am so impressed with everyone and everything.
I just can't express how happy I am to be at Orem High.
I really feel like I am MEANT to be here.

I smile when I arrive at the school within six minutes.
My heart jumps for joy at the speedy internet connection.
I giggle at how large my classroom is!
I feel like a real person...because coworkers treat each other RIGHT here.
I take a deep breath at the lack of drama.
I hug the copy lady (I have a copy lady!!).

I feel pretty accomplished today.
Last year, I went home sobbing on my first day teaching
(and for the next two weeks after that...)
I had one goal for my first week: no tears.
Today, on my first day, I leave smiling and happy, truly happy.
I did it.

It's a good day.

8.18.2013

Lake Powell Video



Here is our Lake Powell video!
I had so much fun making this.
Unfortunately, it's a little blurry--I need to reload it.
But right now, that's at the bottom of the to-do list.

So enjoy the slightly blurry video!

P.S. my parents + little sister Jamie are in town! I am so happy!
And Jamie will be STAYING since she will be going to BYU in just a few weeks!
So exciting!

On top of school starting tomorrow, it has been one very busy weekend.
xoxo

8.16.2013

Tomorrow

I promise a REAL blog post will come tomorrow.
Things have been crazy around here.
Both Taylor and I have new jobs.
School starts on Monday.
AH!
I'm ready to tackle this year though!

But right now...I want to relax and cuddle next to my husband.
I feel like we haven't seen each other all week.
So...goodbye blog.
Come back tomorrow!

8.05.2013

Nightmares

It's that time of year.
I've got a bad case of the "back to school nightmares."
It's been an every night occurrence for the past month.
This morning, I woke up to a small anxiety attack due to yet another nightmare.
(by the way, thanks for those anxiety genes, mom. sureee love ya.)
I was sick to my stomach and literally sweating bullets.

There are one of five nightmares I can pretty much expect every night now:

1. the "I'm not prepared" nightmare: this one is probably the most frequent.  I'm working alone in my classroom when I hear the school bell ring.  Students start filing in and I suddenly realize that today is the first day of school. I look around my empty classroom and realize I am not prepared in the slightest. I start making things up on the fly and it's an absolute disaster. I absolutely HATE waking up to this nightmare.

2. the "I can't manage my classroom" nightmare: When I first started teaching, I was a little nervous about classroom management. I mean, c'mon--I'm 5'1", 100 pounds, and less than 5 years older than some of my students.  Not exactly the "authority figure" type.  I'm happy to report that I didn't have any major management issues on my first year.  I stuck with what my professors taught me in regards to classroom management, and I like to think that my students respected me. But in this nightmare--it's bad. Real bad.  A student is yelling at me, a student hits me, a student picks me up and spins me around the classroom (last night's nightmare!), a student gropes me, none of the students are listening to me...oh, it's horrible! And in each scenario, I stand there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. Wake me up, wake me up!

3. the "I can't find my classroom" nightmare: a pretty self-explanatory nightmare, except there's a new plot twist each time. I'm guessing this nightmare is probably due to me being at a new school this next year.  I've had the typical "I can't find my classroom" nightmare where I walk from room to room ALL day not able to find my classroom.  But other times, it's been weirder than that.  The other night, my classroom was (apparently) in the parking lot of the school and I was looking everywhere for the whiteboard.  Students were jumping on picnic benches and other students were starting to drive away. I woke up to this particular dream being so upset that I got the "parking lot" classroom.  Until I realized--duh, kell, it was just a dream--you've got a normal classroom.

4. the "I didn't know summer ended" nightmare: ugh, when I wake up from this dream, I am forced to check the calendar on my phone to MAKE SURE it's still summer.

and finally:

5. the "I'm naked" nightmare: yep, it's happened.  More than once.  I've only been completely naked once.  Another time, I was only in underwear.  And yet another time, I was writing on the white board when I felt a slight breeze in the back.  My skirt had ripped and I wasn't wearing any underwear (good job, dream kelli!). That's a sure way to get my students coming back to class, right? ha.

I'm seriously getting tired of these nightmares (no pun intended). 
I'm ready for school to just START so that I don't have to wake up sweating any more.  
And I'm sure Tay is tired of hearing me explain the new nightmare each morning. 
Let's cross our fingers and toes and lungs and veins that tonight I will be nightmare free.
Deal? Deal. 

Lake Powell sneak peak!

We're back!
And boy, did we have the most wonderful vacation!
We can't wait to buy a share in our own houseboat one day.
Here are a few "sneak peak" pictures of our trip.
I've been working on a video of the trip for the last two days, and I can't wait to share that, too.
More pictures to come!

Can you say beautiful?




I'll share much more later, but here are a few one-worded highlights:
sun, tans, tay's birthday, swimming, playing, wake-boarding, sandcastles, card games, sunsets, beauty.