Hasta La Vista 2010

Holy smokes. Another year is almost over. I know it seems overstated, but seriously... where does the time go? It's crazy! It hardly seems like a year ago I was recovering from shoulder surgery and turning in my senior projects at school.

This year went by quickly, but it was full of all kinds of crazy shenanigans and fun times. Such as: (these are in no particular order)

Turning 26
GRADUATING COLLEGE (with my papa, too!)!!!
Spending a week in Phoenix, AZ
Getting totally awesome cankles from a horrible sunburn
Getting paid to go to Lagoon (and getting to bring Mare with me!)
Being put in the RS presidency
Hiking to Stewart Falls
Taking a bike ride up the canyon, and surviving the crash that came with it
Moving into an condo with Marianne
Learning how to cook more than 2 meals
Finally making it up to our family cabin
Getting a job teaching 7th grade English
Playing lots and lots with Mia
Finding out I am getting a nephew in April
Surviving a 5 hour date in Park City with a slightly less than stable guy
Lots of late nights laughing, eating good treats, and watching Psych & other good things
Paying off my car
Letting myself out of my comfort zone (a little bit, at least)
Winning several dance-offs while playing Just Dance (and losing my fair share as well)
Learning that I can't control what others do... I can only control what I do
Realizing just how blessed I am
Becoming a fan of Diet Coke. Yum
Attempting to improve my sewing and crafting skills
Reading, reading, and more reading
Watching & falling in love with Mr. Thornton, Mr. Knightley, & Mr. Darcy. Mmmm :)
Looking forward to what 2011 will bring. Good things, I'm sure!

Happy New Year!

Words of Wisdom

Did you know...

That the importance of family is probably the most cause of gangs in America?

I didn't until I was grading journals today and came across this lovely morsel of knowledge. I also didn't know that "most cause" is grammatically correct. Oh wait. It's not. Awesome.

The New Haircut

At the beginning of every week, we have a few minutes of a "weekend recap", where my students tell all about the fun things they did over the weekend. It usually consists of about 85% of my class giving a very detailed account of their activities.

During this process today, several of the students noticed that my hair is a bit shorter (at least I know they are paying attention to something in my class!). One of my boys enthusiastically exclaimed, "Miss Koster! You even got an A-line haircut! That's awesome!" Hmm. Should I be worried or impressed that a 12 year old boy knows what an A-line is?

All Hallow's Eve

We like to think of ourselves as problem solvers in our apartment. So when we (and by we, I mean Marianne) came up with the idea to be Mario and Luigi for Halloween this year, we went on a hunt for overalls. Easier said than done. Holy smokes. Apparently denim overalls were a hot commodity at D.I. and Savers. Khaki ones, however, were rather plentiful. Enter our problem solving skills. We invested in packets of blue dye, and, after 8 packets of dye and 2 rounds of dyeing them, voila! We had blue overalls. And ya know what? The color of the dye was even closer to Mario and Luigi's overalls than denim would have been. Ten points for us.

Here we are doing round 1 of the dyeing:



The results:



Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.

A Few Letters...

Dear Fall Break,

I am so glad you are next week. Two days of no plans and sleeping in sound like pure bliss. You couldn't have come at a more perfect time.


Dear Students in Mrs. L's B1 and B2,

If I sub your class again, please don't swear at me again and say mean things. Please do your work when I ask you to. Please don't throw things and try to get away with all manner of naughty behaviors and make me have to call in the vice principal. It makes me grumpy when you do things like you did to me today. So not fun.


Dear Logan,

Next time you want to make pumpkin bread, read the labels. Don't get canned pumpkin pie mix next time. Good ole' plain canned pumpkin is what you want. Silly Loges.


Dear David Archie,

You bring me joy and happiness. You music makes me smile.



Dear Peanut Butter M&Ms (and other treats),

Why must you be so tasty and tempting? Really. You're not doing friendly things to my waistline.


Dear Fall Rain Storms,

You are awesome. I love listening to you pound on the windows and the roof. Yet another thing that brings me joy.


Love,
Loges

Back To School

Holy smokes. It's the end of August already. The summer flew by way too fast. I can't believe school has started already. Yikes. Time to plan lessons, grade papers, write tests, and teach. This year should be fun:

1- I'm at a new school... in Lindon. Which means my drive to work is only 10 minutes. Love that.
2- I have 7th graders this year. They (hopefully, and at least for now) aren't quite as jaded as my 9th graders were last year.
3- I only teach 2 periods. That means the amount I will be grading will be significantly less. Bonus.
4- I get to teach fun books like Holes and The Lightning Thief.
5- What can I say? I love teaching. Kids are so fun. I think I have the coolest job ever.


(Please excuse the lameness of my title. I seriously stared at my screen for 15 minutes trying to come up with something creative and witty... but, as you can see, I was seriously lacking in those areas.)

Dear iTunes Account Hacker,

I am really, really upset that you somehow found your way into my iTunes account and bought $143 worth of stuff for your iPad. You have caused me lots of trouble and have caused me to be grumpy and irritated with what you did. It's been a pain and a half trying to contact the iTunes people, and then trying to get my bank to reverse the charges. All I wanted was one Justin Bieber song, and you thought it'd be fun to let me pay for the stuff you wanted. So not fair. Please don't do that again. Please.

Thank you,

Innocent iTunes Customer

It's Over Already?

How can it be May 27 already? I mean, it really fees like school started only a month or two ago. The school year flew by. Today was the last day. It was a very bittersweet day for me. I knew it was coming, and I knew it would be hard to say goodbye to my kids and colleagues. But I didn't know it would be as hard as it was. Those kids were my kids. I became rather attached to them. I loved seeing them progress and change. I loved getting to know them. I loved hearing about what was going on in their lives. I loved the chance to celebrate with them, and also to mourn with them. It made my day when they would come bouncing into my room saying, "Miss Koster, Miss Koster! Guess what?" and would proceed to tell me something exciting that is going on. But most of all, I loved getting to see their faces and teach (and learn from) them for the past 9 months. They taught me patience (lots of it, too), understanding, how to laugh at things, and most importantly, how to love. Hopefully I was able to reach at least one of them. If that happened, I would be completely satisfied, for that is why I teach.

The Perks of Being a Teacher

I love my job. Today I loved it even more. Today was Lagoon Day, and who was I to deny a free ticket into Lagoon? I mean, seriously. I got paid to have fun? Best day ever. And actually, what really made it the best day was that Mare was able to come with me. She even rode the bus up with us ('cause she's an awesome friend like that who saved me and my sanity). We had a great time, and were highly entertained by the students. What's better than a fun day with your best friend, free passes in, free lunch, and free entertainment? Not much, I say. Not much.

One highlight of the day included the kid who made an attempt to flirt with me. He was trying to get me to go on a ride with him by telling me he was scared to go on it alone. He thought things were going pretty smoothly until he asked which school we were from. I simply replied, "I teach in Payson." He immediately froze and said, "Oh! That's a nice town." and silently slid back to his friend.

A Whole Lot of Pomp & Circumstance

After 54 classes, 11 semesters, 143 credits, more money than I am willing to admit, lots of late nights, lots of tears and near mental breakdowns, many tests, term papers, and presentations, and enough good memories to fill a house, I can finally call myself a college graduate. And I must say, it feels incredible!

But one of the most awesome parts of the day? My dad graduated, too. It was so neat to share the day with him. I am so proud of him for sticking with it and finishing.

A HUGE thank you goes to my parents for their support. Their pushing and encouragement made it possible for me to finish.

And thank you to my friends and family who came and celebrated with me.

Here are a few pictures from the day. Sadly, some of the pictures we took after the ceremonies didn't turn out. But here are some that did!

The graduates- UVU Class of 2010

Nicole, Me, Kels

Me & My Mom

Mare, Kels, Jules, Me

Jen, Kasie, Me-- These girls made my classes so fun!

She's All Mine!

Meet Nissy. She is my loyal little car who has been on so many adventures with me. She has been to San Diego, Reno, Pocatello, and has been my trusty means of getting myself to Payson every day for the last 9 months. She survived giant potholes in California. She made it through a week in the shop when a lady backed her SUV into her bumper. She survived a flat tire on the side of Geneva Road. She has dutifully helped me haul my stuff as I have moved in and out of apartments. And today I paid her off! And now she is all mine! :)

(Yes, I realize I am posting about my car before I post about graduation. Fear not. A graduation post will be coming shortly.)

I Have Officially Graduated....

from Physical Therapy (aka physical torture). That is a lovely thing.

On another note, which just might be as equally as happy (or more so), there are only 25 days left for me to teach my dear sweet kids. 5 Mondays. 5 Fridays. 25 days total. Wowzers. That year went fast.

2 Days

That, my friends, is the length of time until I am on Spring Break. And boy does that feel good.

(Those of you who are in school... don't be too jealous. You'll be able to rub it in my face when you are out of school a whole MONTH before I am!!)

On Your Marks, Get Set, Go!!!

Once upon a time (4 years ago), my way cool friends Marianne and Julie convinced Kelsey and me to run the Rex Lee Run with them. We all ran it together the first couple of years. Sadly, last year I had to skip the run and sit on the sidelines because of a nasty cough and broken rib. This year, I was determine to run it. Unfortunately, Mare had to skip it this year, since the walking boot she is currently sporting does not allow for running. Kels decided to skip it because she wanted to use her money for other causes, and Jules was in the process of moving. Lucky for me, my sister Nicole decided she would take on the challenge with me (despite her currently-healing foot). So we packed up Miss Mia in the stroller and started off.
I'm proud to say we survived. And I'm amazed that after a 4-5 month hiatus from any exercise in general, the soreness is at a minimum.

The Crew- Mare, Kels, and Mom came to cheer us on as we crossed the finish line.

We survived!

She slept through the entire race and woke up as we crossed the finish line. What a good sport!

(Also... Happy 100th Post!!!)

A Funny Story

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from the secretary in the stake. A member of the stake presidency wanted to meet with me, which set my mind reeling as to what they wanted with me. Panic set in at this point. Turns out they just wanted me to say the closing prayer in the Saturday night session. Sweet. I figured I would be able to only call minimal attention to myself, seeing as how it's a prayer... and everyone should be closing their eyes.

Fast forward to tonight. We sing the rest hymn, and then the counselor gets up to announce the rest of the program. He announced the rest of the speakers and the closing hymn. The rest of his announcement went as follows:
"And our closing prayer will be offered by Brother Logan Koster. Logan, are you here? Will you please stand up so I can make sure you are here?"
Don't worry... I was already on the stand... and as I felt my face getting hotter, I knew all hopes of drawing little attention to myself were gone. After a few snickers from the congregation and a few pointing fingers, he turned around to see me. And then with a shocked look on his face turned back to the microphone and said, "Oh! It's a sister! Sister Logan Koster will give our closing prayer." Poor guy was mortified. He apologized quite humbly after the meeting ended. I assured him he wasn't the only one to have made the mistake. I must say, however, this was the first time it happened to me in such a large setting.
I found it all quite amusing. So much for only having minimal attention called to myself. :)

(I realize the attention grabber could have been much worse... tripping, falling, clothing malfunctions, etc. Thank goodness it wasn't! And at least it wasn't something that I did to myself. I do feel bad for the counselor, though. Poor guy.)

I've Been Thinking...

- There are only about 3 months left in the school year. How'd that happen?
- I need to start looking for a job. Hmmm. It sounds daunting.
- I REALLY want spring to come. I am thinking that the bitter cold can be done. I won't miss it.
- Why do I crave treats... all the time? Why can't I crave a good apple or carrots or something?
- The Olympics are so fun to watch. And it's especially neat when we win.
- In fact, watching them has made me think that I should give skiing another try. It kinda looks fun.
- Only 2 months until graduation. Holy smokes. I can hardly wait to put on the glamorous cap & gown and hold that diploma. It's been a long time coming.

I should probably go take care of that craving for a treat. Have a happy day!

Words of 9th Grade Wisdom

I was helping a student with an assignment today after school, and my phone happened to ring. (side note: my ring tone is "Bleeding Love") I quickly silenced it and apologized to her. She just laughed and said, "Oh, it's okay. You have like the worst ring tone ever. I hate that song. It's like totally last year. I like Lady Gaga."
Well, at least she was honest. And good thing I don't really care if they approve of my music choices. It just made me laugh.

Also, I was forced to once again ask myself the question (this has crossed my mind at least weekly since school started... today was just particularly bad): "Why do 9th graders SMELL SO BAD?" I want to tell them that attempting to cover their post-P.E. stench with various noxious body sprays does not work very effectively, and yes, I can still smell them... from across the room... and so can their classmates. I pity the kids who have to sit next to the especially odiferous ones. Hopefully by the time they graduate high school (or hopefully sooner), they have discovered the magic of a bar of soap.

And... to the sweet girl who picked up her pencil the other day and proceeded to talk on/to it like a phone, while I was teaching, nonetheless, I would like to say that perhaps she should not draw attention to herself in such odd ways. But, I must admit that it provided a bit of entertainment as went through my day.

(Sorry if you find these stories pointless and boring... I just wanted to remember some lovely moments from my crazy kids!)

I've Just Gotta Say...

TGIF.

I LOVE weekends. They are quite possibly the bomb dot com. Really. Time to sleep in, relax, hang out with friends, and get caught up on so many things! Is there anything better?

Am I The Only One

that wishes the long weekend won't end? That tomorrow morning, school will magically be canceled? And I can have one more day to relax? That'd be swell.

Well Hello There...

If anyone knows where the time goes, please clue me in, because I am amazed at how quickly it flies by. Yet another month has gone by since I last posted.

Here's what has been happening over the past month:
- I completed course work for my degree! (YAY!) I will walk in April and make it official!
- The school year is already half way over. And it's time to start sending my file into new districts. (yikes!) Here's to hoping that there is an English job somewhere... anywhere. :)
- I had lots and lots of fun spending time and relaxing with my family and friends over the holiday.
- I enjoyed 2 straight weeks away from school and a break of forced relaxation.
- I am becoming better and better at being one-armed (and left handed). My students still laugh at my horrible left-handed handwriting. Most of the time it looks like Skyler wrote on my board. Nice. Hey... at least it's legible. (and it's far better than some of theirs...)
- I read a few good books, and added a bunch more to my list! (kudos to Mare who is the best at finding me new books to add! Thanks!)

I think that about sums it up. While my list does not look all that impressive or super exciting, I assure you that I have not been too incredibly bored nor have I wished I was busier. Life is great. Here's to 2010 and the good things it will bring. I think it will be a fabulous year!

And, just for kicks... here is a picture of me and my sisters (and niece) ringing in the New Year! (Please excuse the somewhat frumpy look I've got going on. I didn't feel the need to get all gussied up to sit at home.)