Art Lessons

Will came in this Friday to teach my class an Art Lesson! It was a blast and I am really going to miss Will when he goes back to class at BYU on Tuesday. He has been such a huge help at Canyon Crest the last few weeks. He has been a translator for two second grade students, he was my "parent helper" on a field trip that the 6th grade classes took to the Story Telling Festival, he has been the best classroom decorator, and he has won over the hearts of a lot of 6th grade girls. I am going to miss him during the day, but alas it is time for Will now to go back to class...
Here are some of the awesome pictures from his Art lesson:

Will had one of my students model "poses" for my class to draw.

He had to show a little "leg" - you needed to know where the knee is!

Here is a video of the Lesson - Will is so cute with my class and they love having him "guest" teach!

First week of School...and Balloon Party!

THE SCHOOL YEAR HAS BEGUN!

I am Mrs. Strong.

In my class I have 26 adorable 6th graders, who love to chat, but are nice, polite, and are so innocent it is cute! Here are some pictures of them from the first week.




Then on Friday night, Will showed me his skills and was the special guest at his Sister-in-law's (Stacey) sister's, child's birthday party! Yeah that is confusing. But it was cool to see him create tons of balloon animals, hats, and other creations for two hours straight. Wow, his fingers were super tired!

Will with all the kids. Will made TONS of flowers, swords with belt holders, and when the kids realized he could make huge hats they too were a hit!

Cute Bailey waiting patiently for her Uncle "Will-i-am" to make her a balloon animal.

Can you make me a sword please?

What a prize! She was so excited to get an awesome orange and red dragon!

Will can do Balloon animals!?

WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW -

So I have know Will for a while now, and I honestly thought I knew everything he had in his closet - but NO - in his closet there was a blue bin, and in this blue bin were balloons, and with these balloons will can create awesome BALLOON ANIMALS. Who 'da Thunk?
It is really cool, and they are really good animals. We are going to a birthday party on Friday and I will take better pictures there. So be aware, there is more to come!

(Penguin and Snake!)

(The BLUE BIN!)

Jason was over to witness the whole ordeal, and boy howdy did he see me laugh so hard. I even called Stacey on her "girls night out" for a laughing "shout out!" My husband has tons of tricks up his sleeve, and I love him more each day. It is so much fun to be in love with Will.

Math can "flirt?"

Honestly, math to me is not funny...it just can't be, right? Well this site proves me oh so wrong. I found this site while looking up "Math Puzzles" to do with my students this week.
This made me laugh so hard, I am still laughing...

The Top Ten List of Pick-Up Lines to use on Math Chicks

#10. I'm not being obtuse but you're acute girl. #9. I'll love you from here to infinity. #8. I won't stop bugging you until I get the address of your home page. #7. You've got the curves, I've got the angles. #6. Honey, you're sweeter than 3.14. #5. You fascinate me more than the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. #4. My love for you is like the slope of a concave up function because it is always increasing. #3. Wanna come back to my room? ...and see my 950mhz Pentium? #2. You and I would add up better than a Riemann sum. #1. Isn't your e-mail address beautifulgirl@mydreams.com?

Other pick-up lines which didn't make the Top Ten List:

#11. Are you a differentiable function? Because I'd like to be tangent to your curves!

#12. Wanna come back to my room and see my copy of Euclid's "Elements"?

#13. I am equivalent to the Empty Set when you are not with me.

Back to School

Who remembers the first day of school in 6th grade? Come on...you were the oldest in the school, you HAD to remember. Well, the teacher you had most likely remembers too, but she not only remembers You, but she can recall the HOURS of work that went into setting up the best year in elementary school for you!

This past week Will has been AWESOME! He has helped me set up, clean up, and basically ready-up my room for the new school year. While I was at meetings most of the week Will created the most AMAZING name wall. At Canyon Crest it is a little silent competition to see who has the BEST name wall. I WIN!

Will made little thought bubbles for all of my students names, and then had little people floating in the air above the mountains, it is a sight to see. It took a while, and as you can see in the pictures my room was a mess for a good week and a half. But as you scroll down you can see my room come into full force and it looked really good by the time back to school night rolled around.




































LET THE NIGHT BEGIN...










This is my neat room ready for BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT!










The kids come and "preview" the room, meet me, and pick up any information they need for the first week of school.


I am excited because it looks like that I have a great class this year.

















































I know - I still look like one of the students - can't help it - that is why I love 6th graders, they keep me young!

Back to school night is over! Let the new school year begin!

Will thank you so much I could have never done any of this without you! Love you!

FLOWERS for ME!

The other day I was in the Kitchen and Will came to me with flowers in his hand and I just wanted to share them with everyone:

Isn't my husband adorable!

My Texas Missionary

My good friend PJ (Sister Stephanie Johnston) is on a mission in Texas for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She is such a good missionary and always has funny stories to send me. This past week I read her e-mail and it made me laugh so hard...I am so glad that her humor has not left her.
"Speaking of prayers, OUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED. I know you all have been praying for this in my behalf, so I thank you, because with our faith combined, we broke the lasagna trend! This week, there has been no lasagna…there has not even been a hint of pasta in our midst. Glory, glory, hallelujah."

PJ is a dear friend, she has been there for me through a lot. She is more like a sister. We have a very different group of friends, listen to very different music, watch different movies and TV shows, have two different wardrobes, and well are more different than two people could be but are AWESOME friends. She is one of those people who I can not talk to for weeks and feel like I have not missed a beat in our friendship!

PJ caught my bouquet at our wedding. It was so cool because she was leaving on a mission a week later - I guess she will be married really fast when she gets back in 18 months! Watch out boys!









"The picture I included is of our first investigator to take the plunge into baptism. It was a very eventful day, as I hear most baptisms are, but what matters is that she got baptized. And she's so happy. And her family is now going to be able to go to the temple someday. I want this for all of my investigators. My favorite is when we find a family—like, for example, our home-boy Robert. We contacted his father. His father told us to go talk to his son, at first we thought it was just for him to get rid of us, but we've been teaching Robert ever since. This week, we picked up Woogy, his brother. Yes, Woogy. THEN, yesterday, we picked up their "mean mom." She was the missing link. She's coming to church, and making them come with her, because they're good boys who listen to their mama because they fear her. Heavenly Father is making all the pieces come together, and it's amazing."

Good Bye ZIPPY, and Olympic Preview

GOOD BYE ZIPPY...
Today Will and I sold the Jeep Liberty. It was a 2002, Jeep Liberty Sport, with only 51,500 miles on it. She was a great vehicle. she traveled with me, laughed with me, sang really loud with me, cried with me, and even allowed Will to drive her without giving him to much trouble.
We sold it to a cute couple and their daughter named Tiffanie. She is a Junior in High School and is getting the Jeep as a surprise! They are a really nice family and I am excited to know that my cute "Baby" will have a great new home. She needs to bring joy to another teenager. I did warn the parents that Zippy might have a bit of an attitude because she is a "Jersey Girl."

OLYMPIC Preview
I have two very good friends that are competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is so exciting!
Marcus McElhenney is a Rower. He is the Coxswain on the team. So he gives the directions and motivates the rowers to the gold! It is really inspiring. Marcus and I have been friends for what seems forever, we worked together at Princeton Running Company. After my Foot Surgery Marcus was a huge motivator who helped me learn how to walk! GOOD LUCK!!
Website for Marcus
Picture of Marcus








My other friend Josh McAdams was a team mate on the BYU cross country team. He is one of those guys who is friends with everyone and is so supportive of everyone. No matter how well or how bad you did in a competition. Josh runs the Steeple Chase. Now, you might be asking...What is the Steeple Chase?
Definition: The length of the race is usually 3000 m. The steeplechase barriers do not fall over if hit; some runners actually step on top of them. Four barriers are spaced around the track on level ground, and a fifth barrier at the top of the second turn (fourth barrier in a complete lap from the finish line) is the water jump, which consists of a barrier followed by a pit of water which is 3.66 m (12 ft) long and slopes upward from 700 mm (27.6 in) deep at the barrier end to even with the surface of the track.

So basically it is a Race around the track with a water pit that the runners have to jump over.


YOUTUBE VIDEO OF JOSH (Really good)
FUNNY YOUTUBE VIDEO (Listen to the people laughing)

Josh's Website

Picture of Josh.









Good Luck and many prayers to both Josh and Marcus! You both are awesome and I am so excited to watch you and all the other Olympic Athletes!

OLYMPIC WEBSITE
NBC.com/OLYMPIC SCHEDULE (Utah schedule)

Only in Utah...

There are certain things that pertain only to UTAH. When I first moved here I thought that people were doing things just to be funny, or to make fun of others. BUT NO...they are SERIOUS!
For example...
This past weekend Will and I went to the movies with Jake and Kat. We were standing outside in the parking lot after the movie was over and saw this car...

If you can't read the van it says "Families are Forever."
And again I say...ONLY IN UTAH!

The Jump House - now with swings!

Oh what a night...
Last Friday night Will and I babysat for Brooklyn and Brandon Messmer (Will's sister Beth's kids), and we had a blast.
A few memorable things happened that night and more than that we got some ADORABLE pictures of Brooklyn.
1. Brandon doesn't like me very much. He cried every time I tried to play with him and wanted to just be with "Brookie" the whole time.
2. I LOVE TO COLOR and so does Brooklyn - so we colored "Hello Kitty" which Rocked!
3. We watched Bugs Life, and Will was so happy Brooklyn liked it.
4. We ate ice pops. Brandon LOVES ice pops. Every time he finished one he looked at Will and said "Mo-Mo."





5. We bounced on the "Jump house." Jumped on Will and swung on the new swings that are set up inside the jump house. It rocked!





6. Brooklyn showed us that she could climb all the way to the top of the pantry shelves.
7. I learned that they had a Dog. Yeah so, after almost 10 months I never knew that they had a dog that lived outside.


8. Brandon had Blue and Red marker all over his body the whole night. It was so funny, he even had it on his tummy.
9. Brooklyn was the BEST big sister, she even changed his diaper for him!
10. I also realized that I don't like the new Winnie the Pooh, he just is not as cool as he used to be. What happened to Christopher Robin?



These are the characters that I remember. I think that they should go back to the original cast.






These are the "new" characters. A little girl, and a dog that can't talk but all the other animals can, Tigger and Pooh have "super-hero" costumes on, and Eyeore well, he is just himself. Cute...but just not the same as the original.

And where is Christopher Robin?





Brooklyn took this picture of us!







Brooklyn tried to tickle Will to death and I think she WON!



















Swings are cool anywhere - but are the best inside the bounce house!





My favorite picture of the night!







...Late August back in 2008!