It's Friday!

Some weeks go by so fast, and others are so agonizingly slow you really don't know how the end will ever come. It has been a good week though.
I started my application for graduate studies, so now I just need to take the test and post the results before I can finish my application. I'm pretty excited about it. I mean, I have the time now, and as we get older and have more responsibilities, it'll be even harder to get then.
I started a book with my 7th and 8th graders this week. Oh, how I look forward to this time every quarter! They beg me to do books, and it's so cool to see them so in to learning! Plus, they go from being rowdy, off-the-wall, crazy to silent, following-along-in-their-books little angels. I had to buy books out of my new teacher money because the economy has teh school on a buying freeze right now, but I'll tell you that it was totally worth it to have peace in the classroom. Last quarter we read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli with my 8th graders, and they begged and pleaded for me to get the sequel to read this quarter. I just kindly encouraged them to take the initiative and read it on their own. They all have. Then I read The Giver by Lois Lowry with my 7th graders, and they all wanted me to get the sequels to read in class as well! Too funny. This quarter I am reading Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with my 8th graders, and some of the same kids who initially complained about reading Stargirl are complaining about this, but they'll get over it. My latino students are ecstatic about it because they finally get to see themselves in literature. It's pretty cool. My 7th graders are reading Louis Sachar's Holes, and let me tell you how much they were pumped to read this book.
I just applied for a grant to buy 10 more class sets of books to share between the teacher across the hall and me, so we'll find out in a few months if it goes through or not. If reading books every quarter helps the class this much, here's hoping we get it!

Happy Birthday to Steve and Other Happenings...

Today is Steve's birthday! So Happy Birthday to him. It isn't a very exciting birthday- we aren't having a party or anything. We saw my parents on Friday night and his parents on Saturday. I did at least make a cheesecake for him today... which is probably ready to eat by now! Anyway, here is a lovely picture from his mission just for fun:This is Steve helping one of the Filipino members learn to tie a tie for church.

In other news, Josh is working on teeth #5, 6 and 7. He already has 4 on the bottom, and now there are three just starting to come through on the top. Needless to say, it has been a rough couple nights, with probably a few more to go. He will look so grown up with all those teeth! Josh recently passed his 9-month birthday too, which is crazy. Here he is with his daddy before church last week:

Well- Josh just dumped over the garbage can for about the third time in the last 10 minutes so we had better go!

Josh and His Blocks

Josh really likes playing with his blocks. Well, to be more accurate, he really likes knocking over towers of blocks that we build. Isn't there some scripture about how no 2 stones will be left stacked on each other? I guess, then, you could say he is a destroyer of biblical proportions!

District meetings and stairmasters

So, I got to spend my day off in Gunnison today, along with every other teacher in the district attending a classroom management conference by a speaker from California. Woo-hoo. I got some great tips from it, and hopefully I can implement those into my own classroom.
But the big news is that Josh is the stair-master! We don't have any stairs in our apartment, but there are some in the dorm going up to the girls' level and down to the boys' floor. We've never really tested his stair ability until today, and sure enough, he went right up them! Wow! He's a climber! He climbs! He climbed on his first try!
We also borrowed a toy from Kristen's sister, Lisa, that he can stand up and walk behind. We tried sending him down the hall with it, and he took a few steps behind it before he sat down and crawled back to Kristen. We'll work on it.

Attack of the Baby Josh

Don't be fooled by his innocent appearance:

He is really a dangerous broom attacking baby!

Be afraid...

And the Praxis results are in...

I just wanted to post a quick note and let you know that my Praxis scores finally came, and I passed! I took the Principles of Learning and Teaching for the secondary level back in November and have been waiting patiently for the results. This test has to be taken within the first three years of teaching to ensure that we are licensed for some random rule that some legislative law passed at some point that I don't really care about but they said I have to take so I did and now I'm done, and whew! Good to know that I don't have to take it again. It was two hours long of furious writing, and frankly I didn't really care for it. But whatever. I'm done, I passed, and now it's on to bigger and better things. Like...talking with an advisor hopefully next week about possibly taking some Masters classes in the summer. Woo-hoo! Maybe after I'm done I should have my students call me "Master Weller" since they technically could...

He's So Vain...

Josh LOVES to look at pictures of himself on the computer. Today, however, he started waving and smiling at the pictures- something he hasn't done before. Look at him! (Sorry about the angle- I had to put the camera over on the desk so he wouldn't see it and get distracted from waving- he is obsessed with cameras too!)

Paper Roses

One of Steve's students made a paper rose one day in class, so since I have been sick for the past few days, Steve got his whole class to make me a bouquet of paper roses. They are pretty cool- just made out of plain old printer paper.

Now- there were originally 13 roses in the bouquet, but somebody got a hold of them...

But with that cute smile, how could I get upset? After all- they were only paper roses!

At least we know he's not born in a barn

My dad used to yell down to us to shut the door when we went outside. "What, were you born in a barn?" Clever, I know.
Now, Josh has this fascination to shut every door he finds, whether or not it puts him in a room by himself or not. He gets upset when he shuts himself in, but as soon as we open the door for him, he's right back at it.
So I guess he didn't get it from me.

My Sleepy Boys

Enough said.

Poor Little Guy

Josh has been teething. Again. The first time he had teeth come in he got a bad fever and a runny nose and was listless for a day a week after they showed up. Well, it's been a week since his second set of teeth came in , so here we are all over again. I hope this won't happen every time he gets a tooth, poor guy. But Kristen is such a good mommy and she takes good care of him. Even though she feels like she doesn't know what to do sometimes, she is a good mother and Josh knows it.

My, What a Big Hole!

Today was laundry day (well, every day is laundry day it seems...) and Josh was helping us unload the dryer. Then he seemed to be amazed at the dryer itself once it was empty and stood there gazing into its depths for a few minutes, mystified.

In other news- the students are starting to come back to the dorm. We will have to get used to hearing the pitter-patter of big feet running up and down the stairs again. It has been a nice break, but I, for one, am more than ready for a return to normalcy.

Happy New Year!

We went to our friends Mariah and Luke Harrison's house for a New Years Party. Josh wore his Superman PJs- it was a party after all. After a while though, he just got tired and not-so-into the whole party scene.

Oh- and I got my hair cut. Just a shorter version of what it was before- it is so much easier to style now! Woohoo!

An introspective look back on 2008

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
In 2008 I held a newborn baby for the first time. Wow. And I learned all about being a new dad. That's something I had always known was coming, but never realized all the niceties and things that are associated with becoming a new dad.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't recall making new year's resolutions last year because I have this dumb habit of not writing them down. I think will make some for this year, and I'll post them where I can always see them.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yup. Kristen. My sister, Kelli, and a lot of other good friends. Some off the top of my head...the Palmers, the Knutsons, and a few others. Like, when we were in the Springs in Logan, there were like 35 women in the ward pregnant at any given time. It was crazy! Sheesh--we have some friends that are our age with their 2nd kid already! Where does the time go?
4. Did anyone close to you die? My friend from high school died in a boating accident on the 4th of July, and my grandpa's brother passed away a few weeks ago.
5. What countries did you visit?
Are you kidding? With what money?
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A few master's classes under my belt and a couple more sport coats. That's all, really. I could wish for more money, but who doesn't?
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
April 23rd--that's the day Josh was born! And September 22nd--that's the day I was hired to teach full-time.
8. What was your biggest personal achievement of the year?
My biggest? Like single? I don't know. I graduated, I got a full-time job with benefits, you take your pick.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Well, another year, another year with my comics not being syndicated! :)
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I threw out my back right before school started--that wasn't fun. I had the sniffles here and there, but nothing too major.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our new computer! It has the adobe suite on it so I can put my book together. Which I actually got like 40 pages done over the break. It's easy when you have 95% of the material done, and you just need to scan it in and put it in order...
12. Who did you have the most fun with?
Definitely Kristen and Josh and the family. We always have fun when we get together with the fam. I really want to go more places though this year. I think a trip to Texas to visit my brother will be nice, and maybe a Disneyland excursion should be in the works. But again, this is all family!
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
OJ Simpson's. I mean, come on!
14. Where did most of your money go?
Paying off our car and to the bank to save towards a house. Hooray for discipline!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
When Josh was born, obviously, and when I got a new job. Also when I found out that some of my churchy comics got accepted by the New Era! (Although Kristen doesn't think I showed as much enthusiasm as I should have...)
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
What kind of question is this? Well, if I had to pick one, it would probably be something by Hootie and the Blowfish since I recently got on a Hootie kick.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a)happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Definitely happier--how could I not be with Josh as happy as he is all the time? I'm about the same weght. (Dang it!) and with a new job, just a tad bit richer than last year. But it's a teacher's salary, so don't get too excited about it.
18. What do you wish you'd done less of? Nothing. I say that as less of NOTHING because I think I may have wasted some time (something I actually hate to do). I'm going to try to be a bit more productive. I have to echo my friend Aliese on this.
19. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Only with our new, loveable little boy Josh!
20. What was your favorite TV program?
"The Office" by far. Which is why I have the Dwight bobblehead in my classroom! Yes!
21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I don't hate anyone. Hate is something I don't feel the need to "leave room for" in my life. Do I get upset with people? Of course! Do I avoid seeing certain people? Definitely. But it's never really out of hatred; more out of love and respect for other people I may be around. Again, I'm going with Aliese's answer on this one.
22. What was the best book you read?
I read a lot. I'm an English teacher--that's what I do. But there have been a few books that have piqued my interest more than others. Like when I read Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice for the first time this summer, or the new Brisingr book, or The Westing Game, or Esperanza Rising, or Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl--of all the books I read this year, this last one was by far the most interesting. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. That's why I teach it!
23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That you can get 4 teachers at the middle school to sing a'capella and the whole student body thinks they're the best act of the show. Good times.
24. What did you want and not get?
It was actually a good thing. I interviewed for a job at the high school to start as an intern, but they gave the job to someone else. I started my student teaching at said high school, and within a month, was more prepared to take the job at the middle school instead. I'm glad things worked out like they did, and I even got the experience of having that interview.
25. What was your favorite film of this year?
I'm not going to lie. I love those comic book movies, since I grew up with them and all. So, it's a toss-up between Iron Man and the Dark Knight (although the latter was terrifyingly intense). But you can't forget the fabulously great Mamma Mia!
26. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I turned 25 on the 25th this last January! I made a cake with Hostess chocolate cupcakes and we played the wii. Good times! Kristen turned 24 and we had a surprise dinner for her with all the family in Provo.
27. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Winning the lottery. But you have to acutally buy lotto tickets for this to happen. Oh, well.
28. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
I got hooked into sport coats. They seriously make any ensemble look a lot better. And most of them you can wear with jeans! My principal's evaluation marked me as "above average" on the "dresses professionally" category thanks to these babies!
29. What kept you sane?
Knowing that graduation was near. Holy schlamoly. Never take 18 credits with 3 part time jobs with a pregnant wife. It's not a good thing. But I did manage to pull a 4.0 that semester! Yeah!
30. When you think about 2008 what sticks out in your mind?
Realizing that I will always be a father. I will be Josh's dad forever, and no matter how old I get, he will always be my son. That's a pretty amazing thing to think about.

Every year we look back and say, "Wow, that was a year to remember." This one truly was as well. And I'm proud to say that there aren't many things I'd change about it. Let's make 2009 a year to remember too!