Who Knew!?

One of my biggest accomplishments with my sixth graders this year was that I was able to teach them a bunch of dances in P.E. I've always wanted to do this, but have never had time, so when it was my turn to teach P.E., I went a little crazy. I taught the kids some basic ones: the macarena, boot-scootin' boogie, the electric slide, and the chicken dance. Then I taught them some other fun ones: the hoedown throwdown, cotton-eyed joe, and the cha-cha slide.

Below are the hoedown throwdown, the chicken dance (who knew it would be their favorite?), the macarena, the boot-scootin' boogie and cotton-eyed joe...

Celebrate the Cows!

Matt and I had the opportunity to go up to Richmond and spend time with the family to celebrate Black-and-White Days! We missed it last year so we were excited to go up this year and see how small towns celebrate important things, like cows. On Saturday we went down to the park and got to see Bradley do his little jumprope show with his group and walk around the little tents. There was also a cow pie eating contest that Brad won last year, but, sadly, did not win this year. Later we went up the street to the parade, where Claire reigned in the candy! She was pretty shy at first, but was excited at the end to scream and have people throw her candy. Brad was jumproping in the parade. Even the adults were on their feet to grab as much candy as possible!

 Claire finally trying to get attention from the people with the candy

 Brad jumproping in the parade

 The boys on the golf cart waiting for the candy

After the parade, Randy had the whole neighborhood over for a BBQ, cornhole tournament, and fire. The boys bought a six foot high trophy at a garage sale to give to the winner of the tournament (I was totally fine that Matt and I were both eliminated in the first round of the tournament!). The adults got to sit around the fire while the kiddos watched a movie on the back of someone's house and we all went to bed that night exhausted, but had a great time!

 Reagan pining after Jenny's hamburger... that baby loves real food!

The girls, and Ryan, sitting on the dirt hill chatting like old bitties... Can't wait for them to all be in high school!

Bees Game

So every year, we try to go to a Bees game. Last year we went with our roommates and this year we went with my mom, Jeff and sisters! The best part of the game (besides the yummy food) was that we got in for $1 per person! Matt got this email from the Utah Jazz (yes, my husband gets emails from the Utah Jazz) that was giving away free tickets to certain Bees games. Of course, Jeff and my mom thought it was a hoax, but Matt and I did it anyways and got us all in for less than $10! We had a ton of fun introducing my family to sitting in general admission in the outfield. When we walked in Jeff says (pretty loudly), "Look! Beer!" Haha! Jeff made me laugh so hard! The weather was perfect and we had a ton of fun!

 No, I actually do not know what Matt is doing here... Practicing making a double chin??

Alex brought this hoodie and her date, Taylor, got cold and was wearing it for a little while... Cool guy...

Bragging... Just a Little

I have to brag a little about my awesome husband! After softball games, we always talk on the way home about the game and how we played and how amazing our team is, and how much fun we are having. Usually we highlight the play of one or more of the other players on our team. This week, it was all about Matt! Matt has been hitting well (he learned from the best... ME!) for the past couple weeks, but on Monday he hit his first OVER-THE-FENCE HOMERUN! Yay! There were two runners on base and he didn't even see his hit go over because he was so concerned about running the bases! He was yelling at Candice to run faster when the short stop on the other team had to tell him the ball went over! The rest of the night, the outfielders would scoot back all the way to the fence whenever he got up to bat! I'm pretty sure that my hand is going to fall off soon from Matt high-fiving me constantly for the past two days. I have a sneaking suspicion he may also be high-fiving me while I am sleeping.... I am happy that I married a man who is not too proud or manly to listen to my softball coaching (and actually do what I tell him to do!), and who is also so athletic and fun to play sports with! I am so lucky!

An Apology and a Surprise

The apology: I apologize for making my blog private without telling anyone. I blame Randy. You should too. He text me one day and told me that it would be smart to make my blog private while I job hunt. He's a smart guy. So that's what I did. It's true that I sometimes don't want my boss (or prospective boss) reading my blog.

The surprise: I am happy to announce that I was offered a job in Cache County School District for next school year! I will be teaching fourth grade at Summit Elementary in Smithfield. Again, you can blame Randy...

When I decided to start looking in Cache Valley, I found out that I missed a sign-up for a screening interview. Apparently, people don't usually get hired without first going through this screening interview, and I was on the waiting list. So, when Randy called, I asked him if he knew anyone in the district who could help me get this interview. Come to find out, he knew the son of the SUPERINTENDENT. Hello, good luck! So, Randy worked his magic, but didn't think it would work out. He asked me to send him my resume, which he forwarded to the superintendent. About a week later, I got a call inviting me to the screening interview, and I got an email from the Director of Human Resources saying that he got my resume and was very impressed. Well, the interview went amazing. There were 30 applicants all looking for jobs, and this was the second screening interview. We all had to stand up and tell about our experience. 80-90% of the other applicants had ZERO experience. I was very proud to claim three years of experience in Canyons District. I did my one-on-one interview with a principal that I already knew from my practicum while I was a student. She was very impressed. Two days later, I was fielding calls from the HR department from all the schools that were interested in interviewing me! I had one phone interview immediately. Then I had three interviews up in Logan. Two of the three schools offered me jobs on the spot, basically hoping that I would choose to work for them. I have never felt wanted/needed in Canyons District. And now schools are fighting over me and I can have my pick? Definitely a new and exciting feeling. After a lot of thought, I chose Summit Elementary and I am very excited.

We didn't want to announce the job until we had things figured out in terms of housing. We didn't expect it to take so long to get figured out, which is why the cat is out of the bag. But, thankfully, we can report that we have figured out our housing situation and we will be going up to Logan to sign paperwork tomorrow. We are moving into a townhome/apartment in Logan city, just northwest of the temple grounds. And for those of you who know your Aggies, the previous tenant was Tyler Newbold! Tyler played basketball for Utah State when I was a student, and it was really fun to get to talk to him a little bit and see his jersey up on the wall. I think the experience reminded me of one of the many reasons why I love Logan so much, being a part of something so great!

Obviously we are really excited. There are still about a million things to do, but we are happy and feel like this is the right place for us to be right now.

Dancing with Four Year Olds

I am basically the worst dancer/singer in the world. So when games started coming out that wanted you to do these things, I was secretly terrified. Rock Band? I'll play guitar. But what about Just Dance and those other dance games? Well, I try.

So I was babysitting the twinners last weekend and they wanted to play Just Dance 3 on their Kinect. I was just entertained watching these two! You can tell they have older siblings because they know exactly how to work that game and exactly which dances and songs they like. I couldn't help but record a video of how freaking cute they were. Andrew is very serious. He tries very hard to do exactly what they are doing on the screen. Zachary just basically moves around a lot. He usually gets a better score with this technique. The best part was when they wanted me to play with them. So I get up and am doing the best I can to keep up, when apparently I was doing good! At the end of the song, Andrew looks at me and says, "Tori! Give me a hug! You just got five stars!" And he ran up and gave me a big hug. HAHAHAHAHA. He was so proud of me for doing well. So yes, I have some coordination. Not as much as these guys though...

Suzie

A few weeks ago, my aunt Sue flew in from California to hang out! We don't get to see Sue very often because she has four daughters that keep her very busy, so we were excited to have her here for the weekend. On Saturday we went down to City Creek to do some shopping (more like walking and avoiding all the millions of people). Matt was a trooper and spent the whole day with the girls. We met up with Jeff and my papa for dinner after shopping. On Sunday we went to my mom's for dinner, and apparently a makeover. My mom and Sue had been plotting all weekend to dye my hair and that is what they did. I am much to practical for these women. But Sue did a great job and I love being blonde again! We went and played tennis after my hair was done, just me, Matt, my mom and Sue, and we had a blast. It definitely made for some interesting conversation to say the least.... I love my aunt Sue and was so happy to see her!

Sue, my mom, me, Alex and Cassie at City Creek... don't my mom and Sue look alike? It's crazy!

Matt hanging out with the girls.... (he secretly loves it)