Career, House, Future!!

I LOVE teaching 2nd grade. Here goes my first year as an official, I'm in charge teacher! It has been a LOT of work!! I have such adorable kids though! I am lucky to have an experienced teacher as the other second grade teacher. She has been very patient and willing to help. I also have the best instructor in the school to help in my classroom. The only downfall is she is in charge of all the other instructors and so she is not in the classroom very much. But when she is there she is wonderful.

I love teaching at SNA (School for New Americans). My class is so diverse! Each child has a unique personality and is just so adorable! My first parent-teacher conference is coming up at the end of this month so I am anxious to see how that goes. :) I do have very helpful parents!

Tyler just started school online through Western Governors University. It is a really awesome University where you pay for 6 months at a time and you can take as many credits as you can during that time. So he is just cruising through it to get it done. It is a very credited school and I've spoken with several principals and directors that are very enthusiastic about that school. Tyler is studying Elementary Education as well. We plan to move to Dubai, Qatar, or Abu Dhabi to teach once Tyler has his degree. We have done a lot of research and are getting very excited about the programs they have for teachers there. We would have all summer off to come stay with family and travel. :) That is our latest crazy plan! :D ha!

We are closing on a house in West Valley around October 20th!!! We are super excited! We got the foreclosed home through the good neighbor next door program for teachers, firefighters, and police officers. We got an INSANE deal on the home. It is definitely a fixer upper, but not too bad really. It is about five blocks from my school so that will cut our hour commute by about infinity! I am soooooo excited about that. It has a good sized yard, garage(not attached), 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a laundry room, and it is fully gated. We are super excited!!! We want to move in now! :) I will post some pictures in a little while. Hopefully we can get some good before and after pictures. :)

Tyler is also working at my school. He came in and did some trainings and they were all VERY impressed!!! He is a natural, and he has a good coach for his wife ;). Ha! But he really is such a wonderful teacher and he hasn't had any experience! He is going to be a groups teacher so he will be teaching Reading and two Math classes. This will help give him a lot of good experience and will be good on his resume! The kids love him!!! :)

Sorry no pictures! Our camera is lost at the moment. Oh, I don't remember if I posted but we bought a new car. We sold our Nissan Exterra in Alaska and bought a much better on the gas millage car. We now own a 2009 Hyundai Elantra. We love it! Every time we put gas in it and calculate our gas millage we take a minute to rejoice! ha! Seriously, we went from getting maybe 16 miles to the gallon to 31!!! Hallelujah!! :)

Well, we are going to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving over at our friends the Godfrey's. It has been a tradition for many years and one of our favorites!

P.S. Isn't the cold weather exciting!!!?!?! The leaves are changing, everyone is bundling up! The mountains are getting a layer of beautiful white powder!! Bring on the hot cocoa and warm soup!!! :)

Alaska Update

Well Hello Blogging World!!!

I know it has been a long time. We are in Alaska and have really made sure to not waste a minute! We have gone kayaking several times out in the ocean as well as Mendenhall Lake. We've gone hiking to the glacier caves several times now and found one that goes very deep. We've seen whales, bears, and eagles. We've done a lot of gold panning. We got a sluice box and have been just so excited to find gold you can actually pick up and collect. We haven't gotten rich by any means, but we are still way excited because it's way more than we've ever gotten before. We've gone on a float plane trip to Taku Lodge to eat a salmon buffet with the view of the gigantic Taku Glacier. We went on a helicopter ride to the top of Mendenhall Glacier and went dog sledding. We've been whale watching 3 times and even watched some bubble-net feeding and 3 whales do a full body breach one after the other. We kayaked out to Admiralty Island and camped. Admiralty has the highest concentration of bears of anywhere in the world. Unfortunately/fortunately we didn't see any bears on that trip. However, we did see some fairly fresh bear poop!

Tyler is working for HAPA (Holland America) driving tour buses and rocks at it! We was named the Employee of the Month for June. What a stud!

I am working once again at Del Sol. It is fun to be back there, but weird to be with a completely new set of girls and management. I was also promoted to Assistant Manager with a pay raise.

We are living with David and Jenna Harris in a two bed/one bath apartment that is pretty close to the Mendenhall Glacier. I met David out here when I interned for Del Sol four years ago. He was a driver back then and we have become good friends. Since then Tyler and David have become good friends too and now David is married and his wife is even cooler! ha! :)

Unfortunately, my time here is coming to an end. I am leaving next Saturday because I have teacher trainings. I will be teaching 2nd grade at a new charter school in West Valley. I am very excited and yes a bit nervous too! It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm ready to get going on it.
Tyler will stay here until the end of August.

Well, that is a pretty good update. I have billions of pictures loaded on facebook of our adventures but I will post some highlights on here.
We love it here in Juneau! It is so beautiful! It will be hard to leave.

Okay, here are several pictures in no particular order... Enjoy! :)

This is inside a cave under the Mendenhall Glacier.

These are our "housemates" David and Jenna. We were on the dock waiting for the 4th of July fireworks that start at 12AM on the 4th.

These sea lions started barking and making really funny sounds. We took pictures and filmed them until there were about a hundred of them that started getting really close and aggressive looking. So we started to book it out of there and they chased us about a mile and a half. We had to go around a different island. They wouldn't let us go around that part of their island. It was SCARY!!! Aren't these guys supposed to be cute, curious, and cautious? They were getting mean!!! They must of had some babies or something they were trying to protect. It was crazy!

Lucky Tyler got to ride in the cockpit! Lucky!!!!! This was on our float plane trip to Taku Lodge.



We hiked Mount McGinnis. This is part of the pretty view of the Mendenhall Glacier.

This is called bubble net feeding. The whales swim around in a circle below the surface blowing up air which creates a net of bubbles all around a large group of small fish. Then the whale in charge swims up from the bottom and makes a loud trumpeting sound which scares the fish even more and they all swim up to the surface. Then all the whales swim up with their mouths wide open and snatch the little fish up!!! The seagulls love it too! The whales do all the work of bringing the fish up and then they fly in and snatch some.

This is inside one of the caves under the Mendenhall Glacier.

Life REALLY is GOOD!

Here are a few highlights as of late....

Jace Bentley Jeppson came into the world which makes me now the aunt of the 3 MOST ADORABLE boys on the planet!!! I mean look at these kids!!!

This past weekend we went up to Idaho to spend time with the Willis family. There are very few times we get together and do not play some intense Frisbee Golf! :D






Apparently, I have a variety of interesting poses when I throw a frisbee. Ha, I didn't realize until Ty showed me these pictures...
As for every day life, I LOVE my job!! I really love working at APA! Charter schools really are awesome. If you have not yet seen the movie Waiting for Superman I suggest you head over to the Redbox or add it to your Netflix Que asap. It's well done and really gets you thinking. I feel like I am a part of something really GREAT. :)

Tyler is finishing up this semester of classes with probably the best grades he's ever gotten in his whole college career! Nice job hun!! He's also started painting house numbers on curbs and really enjoys that (as long as the weather cooperates).

We have a long commute each day and we've been listening to books on tape. Right now we're listening to The Taking by Dean Koontz. It is INTENSE! We've really enjoyed it so far.

We are getting very excited for Alaska this summer!! I am so excited to take Tyler to Juneau and show him around all my favorite spots! :) If anyone wants to come visit us we can hook you up with free tours!!! :D

And finally, I have to give a shout out to my brother for being awesome! He was laid off his job a little over a month ago and already has a new job! He remained positive and very persistent throughout the entire job searching process. He was very creative using Facebook, Blogger, Linkedin, and other resources to get his resume circulating through the job market! Congrats Shawn!! :) And thanks to his wonderful wife for being so supportive and full of faith through everything. We're happy for you guys!

Well, I'm off to bed.

New Job

Well, I GOT A JOB!!!!! YAY!!! Oh, I am so excited!!! So here are the order of events. About a week and a half ago I saw on Teachers-Teachers.com that American Preparatory Academy is opening a new school next school year and is looking for teachers to fill the school. So I applied and got a responding e-mail that they were having a hiring event on Thursday, February 24th. So I decided I better go. I read a little about the school on their website and was a little nervous. They are all about Direct Instruction and that is something that I was taught not to do too much of at UVU. I was afraid that the school would be like joining the army. :) But I went anyway. I sat on the front row, right in front of the stand/pulpit. Well, I began filling much better about the school the minute the meeting began. I went in there expecting to be scared out of my mind and just apply because I really need a job, but instead I began feeling inspired and excited. Everything they do really seems to just make sense. They have the same rules and procedures that students follow in every classroom and every grade. So students know exactly what is expected of them. There is no confusion or changes from one room to the next. Their coat and back backs are hung OUTSIDE the classroom which saves room in the classroom and avoids distractions. They divide students into different groups for reading, math, and spelling, depending on their ability levels and learning styles (not their grade level)!!! Every classroom has a teacher and an instructor. Then during those group times both the teacher and instructor go into smaller "break-out" rooms to teach those group lessons. Anyways, I could go on and on. There are so many wonderful things about this academy.

So at the end of the meeting they invited us to stay a few minutes to mingle and meet a few of the people representing their schools. I met with the director of the Draper Campus, the Vise President, and finally the President of the academy. After speaking a few minutes with the President she went to the director of the Draper Campus and told her to tell me about "the position".

And there, it was that simple. They hired me on the spot. No interview, no going through their standard long interviewing, audition, and second interviewing process. I was hired to be an instructor to finish off this year and then to be a teacher next school year. I reported Tuesday for training and observed. Wednesday I taught my first reading lesson there and absolutely slaughtered it, but thankfully they were very nice and encouraging. You see, most of the lessons are scripted and very fast paced. So I had to figure out their way of teaching, follow the script, and manage the class. It was an incredible learning experience. I went home that night and practiced practiced practiced. I came back the next day and my lesson went soooo much better!!! And then Friday I went in and again things went even better. Not only did I have the teacher of the class I took over observing me, but one of the teacher coaches came in and the director of the school come in. After the lesson they told me they are so excited and I did wonderful! :D :D :D They said that I was so enthusiastic and the kids were very engaged the entire time. They said that it is very unusual for a teacher just starting out to be able to multi-task as well as I did with following the script and managing the class. :D So it went really well. I have to credit one of the second grade teachers for that. I was able to observe her teach a few times and she proved one of my fears of the school wrong. I thought that since most lessons are scripted it would take out the fun and creativity in teaching. But watching her was so inspiring. She was funny, fluctuated her voice, gave tons of compliments, and just had fun with the lessons. After watching her I felt so much better and like even though the lesson is scripted I can still let my personality come out and have fun during the lesson.

Wow, I've written so much. I'd be surprised if anyone gets this far into reading this but that is okay. This is mostly just a journal entry. :)

I am so excited! As instructor I will assist a second grade teacher (I'm still not sure which they are going to put me with. My first real day is Monday and we shall see.) with her class while she teaches writing, geography, cursive, grammar, science, and literature and then I will teach smaller groups reading, math, and spelling. And the plan is next year to be the teacher. This is a great opportunity that all the teachers have told me they wish they had to see how the school does things since it is SO different from any other school I have seen. The director has made it very clear that she wants me to be a teacher next year. So I am so excited. I am so happy to be back in the classroom again (not just as a sub)!! I love teaching! I love working with such motivated and adorable young students. I am so excited for this opportunity. :D Yay!

Okay, I'm done!!!

What I love about Heber

Here are a few of my favorite things here in Heber:

A big house all to ourselves!!! No one on top, below, or to the side of us. :D

Deer in the front yard

And deer in the backyard...

I had fun snapping photos of these cute deer yesterday.

TWO fireplaces! Perfect for cold nights!

Nice big deck perfect for grilling. Yes, Tyler grills in all seasons. :)

And best of all this guy! Ha! :)

Happy New Year!!!

It's 2011!!!! Shouldn't we have flying cars, personal robots, and flying skateboards??? :)

To start of this post I would like to say living in Heber ROCKS in the winter!!!! We spent New Years in Idaho and came home to 2ft of snow on our driveway!! There is so much snow!!!!! :D It's beautiful!

Here is a quick run through of the last few weeks.

Tyler has a love for deals. He finds deals for everything: travelling, restaurants, groceries, gifts, furniture, and more. He loves finding good deals! One of his co-workers is also crazy into deals and she had us go to a Savvy Shopper meeting. Well, we are always looking for ways to save money. So it's official. We now get 4 copies of the newspaper. I am a coupon-er. I get the four copies, separate all the coupons pages so they are in stacks of the same coupon, and cut out all four copies at the same time. Then I put them in baseball card sleeves and wait for an awesome sell on those items and buy them for almost nothing!!!! Well, that last part is the idea. I'll let you know how my couponing goes. :) All I know is it takes FOREVER! :D But I will be happy when I am one of those women that goes through the check stand with 150$ of groceries and only have to pay 10$! :)

Christmas:

The week of Christmas I got to get together with some of my favorite girls Kayla, Jamie, and Brendalyn. :) We got together and made a Christmas Craft: pinecone elves, thanks to Martha Stewart. They turned out so cute, but man they took FOREVER!!! We had to hand sew the hat, gloves, and shoes!!! I brought mine home and showed Tyler and he said, "I want to make one!". So he did! And I made another! It was our Christmas Eve-Eve activity. :) Look how cute!

We spent Christmas this year with my family.

Tyler and I had our own "Christmas morning" with stockings and presents on Christmas Eve morning. Then we drove to my parents' house in Eagle Mountain and we all met up with Jen and Bruce at Village Pizza for a late lunch. YUM!!! We LOVE Village Pizza! Then Jen and Bruce took me and Tyler bowling.

Bruce could pretty much beat anyone at the bowling ally with Tyler right behind him. Jenn did awesome as well and it was fun to watch her with her cute pregnant belly. I however bowled possibly the worst game I have ever bowled...my 6 year old self could waste my trash at bowling. It was still a lot of fun! Then we went to my parents and had a little Christmas Eve devotional.

Tyler and I slept at my parents that night and in the morning we got to watch my brother Shawn and his cute family open presents on the webcam. Our little nephew Lincoln was sure excited and it was so fun to watch him open all his presents.

New Years:

The Tuesday after Christmas we headed up to Idaho to a condo that Ty's family rented for a few days by Targhee. We went cross-country skiing, down-hill skiing, and hung out watching movies and playing games. It was a blast. Then we stayed at their home in Rexburg and went snowmobiling and towed each other around on a sled with a rope tied to the back of the snowmobile. That was a BLAST!!!! Tyler's dad didn't bother going much slower on his turns and oh my goodness I was hanging on to the rope for dear life!!! haha! It was so fun though! We had a few good crashes. Luckily snow is soft...for the most part. :) Here are some pictures of us taking a lunch break while cross-country skiing. Tyler was there too just not around for the picture.

For New Years Eve we spent the evening playing games, watching the ball drop, and banging bread pans with spoons, toasting with soda, and yes Tyler and I kissed into the the New Year (awww).

Oh, and last night we watched Inception which is one of my most favorite movies EVER!!! Ohhh, how I love it!. It was a fun vacation. Now we are back home and getting ready for the busy week ahead. Tyler starts school this week and is taking over his new position and responsibilities as a manager at his work. So he is going to be very very busy. As for me, I am starting up my job search again. I am now a substitute teacher so that's exciting and will bring in some money until I can find a full-time job.

Well, that's the Willis's! :D We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and are excited for the 2011 Year before us! Who knows where we will be when this year comes to an end. All I know is I am married to the love of my life, the Church is true, and life is crazy! :)