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!