Our Wonderful Principal

This article is from the Daily Herald about the Principal of our school!! He really is fantastic! I'm so happy to have ended up living within the boundaries for this school. It's our 4th year at Rees, and, if I have anything to say about it, we'll be here for another 8 or so! Another (former) teacher from Rees was recently honored with a different prestigious award- one that only goes out to ONE teacher from each state. I'll have to see if I can find a link for that, too. For now, here's just one of MANY reasons we have such an awesome school:

Sp. Fork principal is an 'Innovator'

Janice Peterson - Daily herald

A local principal's drive to help students succeed through a variety of new programs was rewarded recently with the Innovator of the Year Award from the Utah Association of Elementary School Principals. Mike Larsen, principal of Rees Elementary School in Spanish Fork, was nominated for the award by principals within the school district. Luana Searle, executive director of the association, said the award is one of several that honors principals statewide throughout the year. Larsen was chosen because he is the leader of the pack for change, she said. "It's pretty prestigious. He's well-deserving of it," she said. "He's kind of an up-and-coming guy." District spokeswoman Lana Hiskey said Larsen stands out as a principal because he cares about students and tries hard to help them achieve. After his nomination, Hiskey said principals around the state then voted in favor of the five-year principal to receive the prestigious award. "It's kind of a neat award because it's other principals saying, 'Hey, you're the best at this,' " she said. Larsen said there are a number of programs he and others at the school have put together for students. Several are focused around reading, including the school's book store and the "Eagle Reader -- It Pays to Read" program. During morning announcements, Larsen asks students "Did you read last night?" and selected children tell the school over the intercom what they read and why they liked it. The "Re-teach & Enrichment" and "Circle of Support" programs the school has started are geared specifically toward helping students excel in their studies, he said. If students are not understanding certain materials, teachers pair off with smaller groups of students to reteach the information. Students who have learned the material are grouped with other teachers who help to reinforce what they have learned. "If the student hasn't learned it, we're providing specific help immediately," he said. Larsen said he is especially proud of the "Circle of Support" program, which involves the entire staff. Every member of the staff, including those who are not teachers, pitch in to offer free tutoring in their spare time. Larsen said that over time he has seen a remarkable improvement in students because of the support they receive from the entire community. "We are in this together," he said. "It's not just the principal, it's a community of individuals coming together." Larsen said he firmly believes that the success of the programs cannot be solely attributed to him, but to everyone at the school. The award belongs to everyone, as everyone has worked together to help students. "We do whatever it takes to help all students learn," he said. Assistant Superintendent Rick Nielsen, who was principal at Rees before Larsen, said a quality that stands out about the principal is his desire to fine-tune principles that are already in place. He does not come up with new ideas that are just flashes in the pan, but instead focuses on what the programs can do for students. "Mike is somebody who really understands how to blend best practices and new innovative practices with tradition," he said. Nebo school board member Debbie Swenson said one of the best programs the school has come up with is the book store. Families and community members can donate books or money, and school children are able to buy a book for only a quarter. "It's a team effort at that school," she said. "A real team effort, led by Mike."

Shorn

Well, I've been talking about it for ages now, and I finally did it. :) I broke down and had my hair cut! My fantastic visiting teacher, Brenda, cut it for me, despite the fact that she's about to have a baby any day now. :) I definitely owe her some cinnamon rolls or something. And now for the big reveal!



What do you think?

First day of school!

Our first day of school was on Wednesday! The kids and I were so excited!! Jake and Aspen both have great teachers who, though they're both new to our school this year, have lots of experience teaching. I'm really looking forward to watching them learn tons. We have some great goals we've set and plenty of improvements we're working on; it's going to be a GREAT year!



Jake thinks he's so GQ. :)



Aspen is so sweet! :)



Jake and his buddy Zach.



Aspen and her friend Aubrey.

We decided, along with a couple other families in the neighborhood, that the kids are getting big enough to walk to school every day- with some parental supervision of course. So every morning we walk the kids down to "the drop off" where they meet up with a a bunch of other kids who walk to school- about 3 blocks or so from the school. Once they get to that point, there are crossing guards the whole way to the school. And then in the afternoon, we meet them at the same point and walk the rest of the way home. It's been hot, but fun! And with the up- and downhill parts, I'm getting plenty of exercise! :)

After we took the kids to school on Wednesday (we walked the WHOLE way to school on the first day! Whew.) Duke and I took the younger two to the library park. Spencer was so devastated that we had to leave the kids at school, and that he couldn't STAY there, that we thought an activity would help him get through the day. Here's a picture of him feeling better, and Hannah doing her best Sleeping Beauty impression:






AND! The dragonfly we saw on the way to school:



Isn't that neat?

BREAKING DAWN!

*insert hysterical fan-squeals here* And now a moment to regain some sanity. :)

I've been SOOOOO looking forward to Breaking Dawn. For those of you who have NO idea what I'm talking about, it's the 4th (and presumably last) in the INTENSELY popular Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Yes. It's a book. Feel free to mock me now. :) Anyway- I've been looking forward to the release for a year now. I recently discovered TwilightMoms.com, and I'm sure glad I did. What a blast! They had a ton of stuff planned out for it!

My cousin Katie and I went ALL out! Borders, our book purveyor of choice for this shindig, opted to give out wristbands the morning before the release. The number on the wristband dictated in what order people could buy their books. So, what does any self-respecting, completely obsessed Twilight Mom do? Well, I don't know about you, but we camped out all night at Borders to get our wristbands! :) It was so much fun! There were a few other Twilight Moms there, as well as some awesome FanFic authors. We had such a blast hanging out all night, meeting new people, eating peanut butter M&M's, watching Brian Regan and Jane Eyre on the laptop and talking about TWILIGHT! :) I managed to get about 2 hours of sleep on the concrete in front of the store. And as a sweet reward, I got the 10th wristband! Out of about 1200! :) Here's a picture of Katie and I the next morning and the line behind us:


After going back to Katie's for a few hours of much needed snoozing, we hightailed it over to my Grandma's house to get all dolled up for the release party. TwilightMoms planned a group dinner at Tucano's (our local Brazilian Grill- all you can eat MEAT and grilled pineapple! Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!). We snagged Maleena on our way and the three of us had so much fun eating great food and teasing the waiters. Just for our benefit, a couple of the staff chose to wear name tags that read Jacob and Edward. Again, for those who've never read the books, these are the two guys in the love triangle that makes up the story of the series. A lot of the fans have chosen to side with either Team Edward or Team Jacob. Not so surprisingly, I have chosen the Switzerland route, and stayed neutral. So here's a picture of me with the guys (they are CUTE! And holding skewers full of meat! I'll take two, please!):



At the release party, amidst other fun activities- live bands, trivia contests, raffles, a blood drive, etc. , they held an Ugliest Bridesmaid Dress contest, in honor of the anticipated nuptials in the last book. Katie and I, ever the adventurers, decided to enter. I have to say that we put much time and effort into our costumes, scouring the local second-hand stores for the perfectly hideous dress, plowing through our mother's boxes of scrap fabrics and notions to make them even more unbecoming, and even HAND STITCHING the (in)appropriate accessories to our get-up. Well, Katie hand stitched. I just pestered my mom while she risked several fingers' well-being wielding a hot glue-gun on my behalf. Here's a picture (or two) of the finished product:


By the way, I made that corsage that's sprouting from my décolletage. Pretty spiffy, no? Since this is my blog, I'll brag for a bit. I did Katie's hair, with my fantastic flat-iron, and her make-up- which I think turned out perfectly Vampire-ish. She looked so awesome that I kinda feel guilty that I WON the contest! Yes!! I WON FIRST PLACE!! I couldn't believe it! :) I swear, I never win anything! Here's the prize for first place and a full length shot of the horror that won it for me:


After that it was a bit of a whirlwind! We got changed back into our street clothes (and not a moment too soon! All that polyester was making me HOT!) and got in line for our books. Once we picked those up, of course we wanted to get reading right away! TwilightMoms came through again and had a sleepover planned just a few blocks from the bookstore. After a quick but thoroughly fantastic chair massage (while we waited for directions to the sleepover), we headed to Charise's house. She had everything decked out for the party- cupcakes with strawberries, all KINDS of snack foods, and a chocolate fountain! What a kick! It was so much fun! Her mom even made us breakfast in the morning. Thank you, thank you, Charise! I'd still be reading if it wasn't for you. :)

I stayed up ALL NIGHT and read, read, read. I gotta tell you, this book was a real page turner! There were so many twists and turns, I didn't DARE put it down! I honestly looked up from reading about 12 times that night with my eyes as big as saucers and said, "WHAT!?!?! Oh my gosh! What page are you on?? Who's on page ___??" LOL Some major shockers, but I won't spoil it for anyone who's still reading. In the end, I'd say that it wasn't my FAVORITE book out of the four, but I was happy with the way it ended. There were definitely some parts that I wish were a little different, but I was so glad that she tied up every single loose end. I mean, you don't really go away wondering what happened to anyone. So that was really satisfying. I finished all 700+ pages in less than 18 hours- not my personal best, but once I got home from the sleepover it took me a little longer to finish. :)

Amazingly enough, after I finished up all of that, it got even crazier around here! My best friend since high school, Heidi, was in town to visit us the day I returned to Earth from Twilight Land. :) It is always so awesome to visit with her- now that we're all grown up we only get to see each other about once a year. We had our yearly reunion with the other member of our high school trio, Erin. Her poor husband had probably had enough of us by the end of the weekend. We tend to revert to our high school selves when we get together. I think I've giggled myself out for the next 11 months. Maybe someday we can convince her to move up here so we can get silly more often in shorter bursts.

And then, before Heidi even left, all the kids came down with strep throat. Of course, shortly following, Duke and I caught it, too. So we're all on antibiotics, and have quarantined the house from outsiders. I think we'll be able to lift the ban tomorrow, though. Everyone seems to be recovered completely, except poor Duke, who always gets hit so hard.

So! What a way to spend the last few days before school starts, huh? Yes, it's true. There are only 10 (9 by the time anyone reads this) days left until the first day of school!! The kids are SO excited! Jacob will be in the third grade this year, and Aspen will be in first. Time flies so fast! In two more years all of my kids will be in school! Can you believe it? As soon as we get new school pictures, they'll be up on here.

Well, that's it for now! I'm off to bed. Just a quick "hooray!" for the US Mens Relay Swim team! Way to go for the gold!! I'm so glad that they won today, especially after getting so much smack-talk from the French. GO TEAM USA!!

Upcoming Events:
*First Day of School
*My birthday! Woohoo!
*The 2nd Anniversary of our Sealing
*Duke's birthday!

I'm not dead

:) Just recovering from Breaking Dawn Mania and strep throat back-to-back. I promise to post about my adventures in Meyer-Land ASAP. :)

Real Quick

A picture of the YUMMY cinnamon rolls I made on Sunday! I pulled half of them off the pan before I thought to take a picture of them.

I'd never be able to make these babies without my breadmaker! I've made them twice now, and it's hard to not want to make them every week! :)

Also, I promised some of the ladies in the ward my potato salad recipe, so here it is:

Hidden Valley Ranch Potato Salad

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 c chopped onion
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch mix (NOT the buttermilk kind, and NOT the dip)
1/2 c mayo (I use Best Foods)
1/4 water

Boil the potatoes until soft. Drain and cool completely in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, chop your veggies and, in a small bowl mix the Ranch packet, mayo and water until smooth. When the potatoes are nice and cold, toss them with the veggies and the ranch mixture. Serves 6-8

That's it, easy peasy. This one is so popular that I never get asked to bring anything else to BBQ's. Ever.

Upcoming events:
*Pioneer Day!
*Twilight Moms Breaking Dawn release party at BORDERS
*First day of School! (Yes, it's true. There's only about a month left of summer!!)
*My Birthday
*Our temple sealing anniversary

LLAMA Fest!

We went to the 14th annual Llama Fest this weekend at the Krishna Temple here in town. Usually we go later in the day, and hang out until the sun starts setting. They have live bands and snow cones and stuff. But since we had a ward BBQ that night, we went in the afternoon instead. I think we'll stick to the evening from now on. :) It was HOT!


We got to feed some VERY friendly llamas.


Hannah and Spencer sure enjoyed their blue snow cones!

The whole family! :) Many, many thanks to Heather for coming with us and taking pictures. I hope is wasn't too boring. :) We had fun, but, like I said, I think we'll go much later next year.