Ashlee & Karli

Life is so crazy and fun, it feels like once you finish one thing it's time to start another adventure! Don't get me wrong, I love down time and taking a break, but after this past week of having nothing to do, or anywhere to be, I was anxious to get some structure back in my life! Here are some things I've been up to lately:

• Yesterday was my first day back at CUE, and I loved it! I work for a special ed transition school (college-age students) in Provo School District. This year things are changing a little bit and I'm very excited. I get to teach set classes everyday! Twice a week I will teach Beginning Dance and Aerobics (I know, I'm not really fit out to teach either of those but I will make it work!), Functional Technology (ps I broke the copy machine today, it's an omen), Microwave Cooking (I'm way good at this), and Daily Living Skills (I'm pretty good at this too, I've survived on my own 3 years now!). On top of this, I think I'll be the Student Government Adviser again this year. I'm excited!
• Books will cost me $300 this Fall semester if I buy them ALL used or online. Ridiculous!
• I got a new calling: Activities Co-Chair!
  
• I got a new roommate (she's a sweetheart!), and another on the way!
  
• I've gone to Seven Peaks 6 times this summer! Trying to use my summer pass as much as possible :) One of the best trips was when I took Rakel and Raulito (two darling kids I babysit, I worked with their parents at Golden Corral). Seeing their faces light up felt like Christmas. Another good trip was yesterday, I went with my aunt Cassi and uncle Kevin, aunt Brenda, and their kids, and Kayzer, and it was super sweet!
  
• I've been able to visit my family a lot lately! In the past week I went home three times (and slept over twice)! It's nice because this fall will be very busy and I won't have time to go often.
• Mom's birthday was August 11, we went to the Thai place in Sandy (delicious), I finished finals August 12 (and passed!), and then had a week off.
• I saw Harry Potter 6, and I highly recommend it.
• I FINISHED PRACTICUM!!! And passed, with flying colors might I add (if this list were in order of importance, this would be first. Biggest accomplishment of the summer)
• I went to Lake Powell with the family for a week. A week of relaxation! It was great, and when I have pictures I will post them.
• My roommates and I went to the temple last night-I was so thankful because I've been wanting to go!
• I quit Golden Corral!!! 3 years of working there, I will definitely not miss it, except the money part was good...
  

Here are some realizations I've come to recently:

• Family is the best! When it comes down to it, they're the people that care the most about you and love you no matter what.
  
• I will never be able to repay my mom for everything she does for me. She is always there for me and has done so much (besides birthing me and raising me) and is the most patient person ever! If I'm half as good a mom as she is, my family will be lucky!
• The best medicine is service.
• Roommates are heaven-sent. Late night ice cream parties, redbox runs, sleepovers, and chick flicks never get old and are necessary in life. My roommates especially are amazing, they will drop anything they are doing (including boyfriends!) if needed.
  
• Primary answers are still the basis of the gospel and work at every stage of life.
• It's important to take people's advice, especially if they care about you. They're always right...
• Everything in life is for our experience! D&C 122: 7-9
• I have a passion for teaching. When I'm teaching, everything else seems to disappear and all I care about is my student's success.
• Small and simple decisions make us who we are.
• This was a summer of accomplishment for me. I did things I never thought I would achieve...and I survived it all.
• I have great friends.

~ash~

Yesterday, was my first day of student teaching! UVU's program is set up so that we go on a teacher prep day to see how the teacher sets up her classroom, and then on the first day of school to see how she begins school. I am in a first grade classroom with a teacher named Mrs. Niccoli. I also got to go to Back to School Night and meet all of the parents and students. It was a little intimidating, but so much fun! It made teaching feel more real and exciting!

The highlights (or memorable parts :)
*During back to school night one little girl came running in she exclaimed "I LOVE first grade!!!" She said her mom was still in the car. But she was so excited! Then the kids were making visors. I asked her if she was ready to go take her picture, she said, "No! I need to put more designs on my hat. I LOVE art!" She is really spunky and cute.

* I stayed with the kids while they were eating lunch. As I was walking out the door to leave, there was a girl standing there bawling. She said that the lunch lady told her she had to go to recess and she wanted to go find her teacher. I tried to reassure her that recess would be fun, but she wouldn't hear it, so I walked her out to the playground and found some of the other kids from her class and convinced her to play with them. Who knew a kid who didn't want to go to recess?

*So the scariest part of my day was after lunch time. When the bell rang, I decided to walk outside so I would be there when the teacher got out there. But the teacher never came. The kids all started to come over to me, but I didn't have a whistle to call the rest of them. The recess patrol lady came over to me and asked, "Aren't you going to call your class." Um, 1) they weren't my class. 2) How was I going to call them, 3) What was I going to do with them after I called them? Well, I couldn't leave them outside forever so the lady called them for me, and I lined them up and walked them inside. I had them start reading, but after surveying the class I realized that there were 2 students missing. Should I leave the students in the class and go find them? It was a little nerve racking!!! I was a little concerned that they wouldn't know where to go, it was their first dayof school! Finally, they came running down the hall. I decided to start reading to the students and then the teacher walked in. She had been with the principal. Relief!

*There is a girl with spina bifeda. She wears braces on her legs and has crutches that she uses, but then she also has a walker. The class walked around the school a lot taking tours so I spent a large portion of my time walking behind with her. After walking a little bit she got tired and said, "You should carry me, I'm tired and then it hurts." So I carried her and by the end of the day I think we were both pretty tired. I was glad though because she said, "I was really nervous at the beginning of the day, but I'm not anymore." I was amazed at the love the other students had for her. They were curious, but they wanted to be her friend. Another student stuck by her most of the day and wanted to play with her at recess. They were so unjudgemental.

I realized you have to keep first graders entertained all the time. I don't know how many times I heard them ask when lunch was going to be, or the response that something was boring after only a few minutes. This experience definitely made me feel a little inadequate and underqualified. It was a good thing though because it made me want to go back to school and never forget anything. Because I know that I'm going to use it. I don't get to go back and see these kids again until November, but I'm so excited!

~Karli

At work we complain about really mean or onery patients. Lots of people like to find something to be upset about. But it's interesting because when we encounter a nice patient, everyone in the office notices it. We had a patient last week that I have coined as my favorite patient.

He is an old man who always comes in smiling. He usually makes some joke about all of us girls up front and how he really came to see us rather than the doctor. I was sitting at checkout when he was done with his appointment. As he came past, he grabbed my hand where my CTR ring is and said, "I hope he treats you well!" I told him I wasn't married and he realized that it was the wrong hand. He then pulled a picture out of his pocket, that I could tell he carries around with him often because the edges were worn and it was wrinkled, and said, "This is my sweet wife. She died a couple of years ago. Isn't it just wonderful to love people?" He talked with us for a couple more minutes leaving us with, "Isn't it just wonderful to be happy and to make other people happy?"

When he left the office we all had smiles on our faces. We talked about him for a while, and how just by his upbeat attitude how happy he had made our office. I was amazed at the influence of one person! He definitely made my day a lot brighter and made me want to somehow impact people in the way that he is able to.

~Karli

Since our Roommate Tara is leaving on Wednesday on her mission we have been taking a lot of pictures lately, and it is tradition to take roommate pictures. Here are some fun ones!

For the Fourth of July this year, Kathryn and I went with Marci and her kids, and Chari, Mike and Tyson to the Parade. Then we went up the Canyon and had a BBQ and played games with everyone and went wading in the creek. After Kathryn and I came back and went swimming and then went and watched the fireworks with a group of people from our ward at a park in Provo. It took over and hour to drive home after watching the fireworks!

So I've finally decided to blog... Not that I haven't thought about it before. It's just everytime I sit down to write about what has been going on I never know what to write. So I'm going to put lots of pictures!

I know it was forever ago.. but since my last post I drove down to St. George for my friend Rachel's wedding. Crazy that she's married! But it was so fun to be a bridesmaid at her wedding.