Happy Belated Birthday Jess Cutter!!!

This post is dedicated to my good friend Jess Cutter!!! :) She is incredible... and we all know it! It was her birthday way back in March and we decided to have a little party in honor of her here in Utah! We missed her at the party and wished she could have been there but we wanted to make sure that we celebrated it... Heber style!! We went bowling at the Hebah city bowlin' alley, went back to Katie's, ate birthday cake, had a dance party (of course!), and played some stupid video game. :) So, here's to you Ms. Jess!!! Love you!

*Disclaimer: These pictures are not in any order...

The Dance Party!

(Katie, me, and Mel- Trav's lady... she's also tons of fun!)

Make a wish J!!
"Haaaaappy Biiiirrrthdaaay toooo YOUUUUUUU!!!!"

I was so proud of that cake! It was cream cheese frosting... you would have loved it Jess!

The Hebah city bowlin' alley.... sideways.. oops

Katie and Liv rocked the house bowling! Liv is a natural!

Oh Trav... sweet, sweet Trav!

The hosts of the birthday party! We love you Jess!

We missed you! Wish you could have been there!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY JESS CUTTER!!!!!!!

"Excuse me."

Last Wednesday, after school, I went to Home Depot in Park City to ask if they would donate some supplies to The Colby School P.E. Program. I chatted with a nice young man who said he would talk to the Manager.
So, off I went to meet the manager at the back of the store by the scrap wood. When we finally talked, I'll be honest, he was a sassmaster and it irritated me, BUT they were willing to donate as long as I didn't have too much on my list. (Thank you Home Depot.) He asked me what specifically I needed and I said, probably a few pieces of wood and some cinderblocks. Then, gave me attitude and said he needed to know specifically what I needed so he could OK this with his supervisor. I told him I had the list in my car, to his surprise, and I asked, "where should I meet you?" His kind, costumer service reply was, "I'll be around". Ugh. So I went back out to the car to get my list of supplies I need.
When I came back in, no "M.O.D." to be found, but the same young gentleman who helped before was ready to help again. We walked around the store gathering warped wood and broken cinder blocks.
As we were standing in the 4" x 4" aisle, I saw an Orange Apron with two people following behind him. The woman and man each had their own cart full of things like brooms, trash cans, etc. and were headed down our aisle. I thought, hmm, that woman sure looks like Katherine Heigl. But, there's no way. So, they continued our way. As they came closer, I was nearly convinced this woman was Dr. Izzy Stephens, but couldn't be sure. The Orange Apron walked by with a queer little smile on his face and said, "Excuse me". Followed by.... drum roll please.......

KATHERINE HEIGL!

Oh, and it gets better... As she walked by, she too said, "Excuse me"... to ME!... looked right at me and everything! It really was her!!! I knew it! (They were headed towards the step ladders, in case you were wondering. She bought two.) I never thought I would be so star struck! I swear my jaw dropped and I stuttered over my words to accept her "excuse me". Haha. I'm such a loser.
As the nice young gentleman and myself headed out of the aisle to go cut wood, I had to call Katie!!! So, there I am, standing in the next aisle, peering over to make sure she had left and couldn't hear me, I whisper into the phone,
"Katie! Can you hear me??"
"What!? I can't hear anything you're saying!"
"Katie! Can you hear me?? I just saw Katherine Heigl at HOME DEPOT!!"
"Who?!"
"Um, hello!! Dr. Isabel Stephens from Grey's Anatomy!!!"
"Who?!"
"IZZY, KATIE!!! I JUST SAW IZZY FROM GREY'S ANATOMY!!!!!!"
"SHUT UP!"...

etc, etc. Anyone who knows the relationship between Katie and I can only imagine the hysterical conversation that continued.

For those of you who are now wondering where the picture is I took with her in the warped wood and step ladder aisle... get ready for disappointment. I am a wimp!! I didn't even sneak around the other aisle and snap one from my iPhone. Lame. BUT, to my argument, she seemed a bit stand off-ish. I could tell she felt a little uncomfortable... it's not like I was staring with a dropped jaw or anything, haha. Anyway, I didn't want to bother her. She just wanted her step ladders and trash cans and wanted to check out. (Which by the way, I was standing in the check out line behind her... it was fantastic. haha)
So now, I'm sure you want to know what kind of a cute outfit she had on. She was wearing red chucks, skinny jeans, and a white 3/4 sleeve hoodie with thin, horizontal black stripes. Her hair was down, and it's short like it is on Grey's right now. So, basically, she was adorable and I am a pansy.

Crazy Hair Day

I love teaching. I love children. I love my school. Let me tell you why. Today, April Fools Day, was also Crazy hair day. It's Wednesday, when we have morning meeting, so I have to wake up 15 minutes earlier than usual... and let's be honest. I'm lazy. I knew it was crazy hair day, but I didn't want to spend any extra time out of bed, in front of the mirror, with a can of hair spray and a brush. Sooo, after the morning meeting, I went into the Colby kitchen, grabbed a cup out of the cupboard, put it in my hair and pulled it up! Ta da!!! Soo easy, and the kids thought it was hilarious. From the front, it was hard to see so they, of course, would nag me, "Where's your crazy hair?" Then they would scream and laugh when they saw my cone head. Ashleigh, in Middle School, asked me who stretched my head.
Anyway, I wanted to share how much I love children. My hair was crazy, I had no make up, I was wearing jeans and a hoodie and as you can imagine, I wasn't exactly looking like I was up for a night on the town.
So, when preschool came in, I was honestly expecting the classic 'children with no filters' questions like, "Why are there so many red dots on your face?" or "why is your hair ugly and the other teachers hair is pretty?". But, they never cease to amaze me. My two favorite quotes from preschool today are,
1. "You look like a princess!"
2. "You have crazy hair...but it still looks cute!"
Like I said... I love children.

PAINTBALL!

Last Thursday and Friday a lot was going on. Thursday night, the kids at school had their winter music concert.. holy cute!! Seriously, I thought I was going to die watching those muffin faces sing and dance. There were definitely some that, if you asked them (or anyone in the audience), they were the only ones on that stage! Singing their hearts out, gettin' their groove on. It was HILARIOUS! So, afterwards, Lindsay and I were in charge of the Middle School sleepover at the school- a fun night of movies, food, and SCREAMING children looking for the "Colby ghost". They tried to rope me into it. I went into the room where the ghost "lives". They told me I had to walk through the room with them and we'll see the ghost. So we walked through, Lucy on my back screaming the whole time- I walked out, looked at Eric and said, "That's it?" He looked at me with the straightest face, "You ruined it." and walked away! Haha It was so funny. I love those kids. Anyway, so Friday was the big day... Paintball... with 14 Middle School students. I'm sure some could understand my anxiety. One of three teachers with 14 students... who would be your target if you were in Middle School? Turns out, it was one of the funnest things I've ever done! It hurt the first couple times getting shot, but after that it was just hilarious! Here are some pics:

Guess who the goober is in the white sweatshirt and wide eyes... haha

Preparing for battle....

The Bad A Colby teachers ready to rock those Middle School students...

Lindsay (on left), Me (classic... middle), and Lydia (on right)

I'm sure you wish you taught at Colby too... I would!

It all started with a brain dance...

I teach dance. That's right. I teach dance. I love my job. It's wicked fun... this has been interesting. It all started back in November at a professional development conference I attended with the Lindsay (Art teacher at Colby/amazing) and Yelena (Music teacher at Colby). It all started with something they all called a "brain dance". The first instruction was to breathe. I thought, "easy enough"... and started breathing. As I opened my eyes and looked around... it was definitely not just breathing. People were rolling on the floor, hair was flying, people's bodies were everywhere. It was the most bizarre experience I have ever had... and it was only the beginning. So, the next week, I started to teach "creative movement" to my students. With some serious help of Anne (the 5th grade teacher who was the P.E. teacher before me- she's incredible to say the least) I've made it this far. For the month of December, I taught them about time, space, shape, and energy. All while learning it as I went along. Now, it is time for choreography. Yup, I said it... choreography. Cary and Anne have helped me SO much with figuring it out but every day they are not there... it's... interesting... like I've said before. If I didn't feel so uncomfortable every day, I might even be able to crack a joke about it. Anyway, here are some pictures:

Moab

Moab!!!

My job is awesome... to say the least! I decided in September that it would be cool to do a mountain biking unit with my Middle School students. I thought, yeah, Park City will be fun to do some bike rides but the real deal is in Moab. All it took was one meeting, I said my idea and suggested the trip to Moab and we picked the dates right then and there!! Like I said, my job is awesome!!! So, in the beginning of November, Denver and I, Ellie (business manager at Colby), Big Mike (pre-school teacher at Colby), and Lydia (Middle School teacher at Colby) all took the kids to Moab. It was a BLAST!!!!

We biked Gemini Bridges.

We biked Bar M.

We hiked the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park.

We biked Klondike Bluffs.

Oh, and we stopped on the way home at this place in Green River called Ray's... WICKED good burgers! Oh yesss......

We've done it again......

So, Katie and I have done it again! For Thanksgiving break, I had the whole week off.... just one of the many perks to being a school teacher. Anyway, first day of the break... the anxiety of nothing to do kicked in (that doesn't sound like anyone you know does it? *cough Sue Kane cough*). I called Katie and said, "We're painting again... wanna go to Latimers?" (That statement is actually really funny if you live in Heber...) Katie, being the amazing sister she is, said she'd be over to get me in a minute. So, we were off to the hardware store. I had been talking with Kelley the week previous and she was telling me about her wanting to paint the dining room in her house. Kel, being an amazing interior designer, always has cool ideas. She was telling me about taking painters tape and putting it all over the wall, painting over it, and then having really funky geometric patterns after it dried and the tape came off. I was inspired (aka totally stole her idea! Thanks Kel!) We called her from Latimer's to discuss options... (pictures will tell that story). I couldn't make up my mind on a color... we brought home several to hold up to the wall. At first, Katie said, "You make the decision and call me. I'll give you a second opinion." It probably took me less than ten seconds to convince her to come in and help me choose a color (another trait I'm sure adopted from our sweet mother). Anyway, decision made... "So Mature". It looks AWESOME! (...again!!!...). Three Kane women can really come up with something fabulous.....

Sorry the lighting in the picture isn't great... the color is pea soup green, or to any of you who visited the Wilbur's house between 1980 and 2000.... it is quite reminiscent of their carpet.... hahaha... it reminded me of the good ol' days playing ninja turtles with Jared!