Teaching blog . . .

Some of you will laugh, (considering how consistent I am with posting on this blog!) BUT, nonetheless, I have been asked to start writing a little teacher blog.

Check it out at http://schoolorswimminghole.blogspot.com/

The title & the URL for the blog is a reference to Tom Sawyer, who ditched school to go to the swimming hole, then got caught because the thread on his shirt that he wore after swimming was a different color. Yes, I am an English teacher :)

Swimming Hole, by Edward Henry Potthast

middle of the night

So tom has this leftover habit from football- when he was trying to put on the lbs. He gets up in the middle of the night and eats stuff..... no, not just eats, actually COOKS. His mission companion has told stories of waking up at 3 in the morning to find tom making SPAGHETTI.

Most of the time it's cereal- and I'll wake up and find sugar on the floor like I'm at the beach (the other container of sugar I'm sure went on the Cheerios). But this morning I woke up to a truly wonderful surprise! Tom had gotten up in the middle of the night- probably around 2am or so- and made SUGAR COOKIES! We didn't have any of the ingredients, so I know he went to the store. What a lovely treat to wake up to: Mickey Mouse shaped cookies with sprinkles! I ate 3 of them for breakfast.

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rockstar salesman

So we all know how talented and wonderful Tom is. Well, look what his company gave him for being sooo good at his job. This thing rides like a roller coaster. You get sucked into the buttery leather seat and get that funny feeling in your stomach like you've gone from 0 to 60 in less than two seconds. Which, in this baby, you have.

We took it cruising for a few weeks before it snowed. To be honest, I don't know if I would ever buy a Porsche Cayman, but it was fun to have one for a while. Thanks for being such a good provider, Tom. Love ya.

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rocket ship

Tom and I are proud new owners of a GE frontloading washer! It's all digital, and has all sorts of blinking green lights to indicate what settings it's on. I feel like I'm an astronaut getting ready to launch when I'm doing laundry! Seriously though, it's so nice finally being able to do laundry at home! We have been doing laundry at our parents' house for the past few months, but this is just so much more CONVENIENT!



Anyway, here is a cute picture of Rudy being naughty and sitting on our bed (he's not allowed); isn't he just a handsome boy though?

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meanwhile . . .

It's been a while, huh? We've been BI-ZAY!

Here's an update: since I posted last:

I graduated

We took a nostalgic trip to Burley, ID (and rode the magic time-traveling merry-go-round)

We took a little vay-cay to CA

We moved to Draper

We got a dog (Rudy)

and I got a job!

Middle School Round II

I just finished up my student teaching at a middle school this April. So I thought I would share a few things that I learned:


Mrs. Sorensen’s Realizations About 7th Graders

1. They don’t know who Charles Darwin is.

2. Not war, not death, not sickness, but a pencil is the thing that causes the most drama and tragedy.

3. I take back #2. The thing that causes the most drama is a broken pencil sharpener.

4. If 7th graders got paid for every note that they passed, they would be filthy rich.

5. They have weird fixations with teacher’s footwear.

6. What is blue, black, green, purple, pink, or orange all over? A 7th grader with exposed skin and some markers.

7. The glitter on their hands, eyelids, cheeks, and in their hair (and just about everywhere else) matches the energy and light of their smiles and personalities.

8. They all have hearing problems—why else do I have to repeat myself and raise my voice so much?

9. 7th graders slowly turn into 8th graders.

10. Nothing is impossible for them—they could be rocket scientists or Pulitzer prize winners or MLB stars, but the one impossible thing for some is learning how to not say out loud what they are thinking!

11. They are like dominoes—or maybe more like the grand finale of the 4th of July fireworks—once one is set off (or starts talking) all of the others explode in one noisy jubilation.

12. Writing a full sentence is often like climbing Mt. Everest.

13. Silence can escalate into deafening decibels in less time than it take for my uncle’s Mercedes to go from 0 to 60.

14. According to 7th graders, 1st period always starts too early.

15. Many of them are paralyzed from the neck to the waist: their mouths and legs work just fine, but they can’t raise their hands to save their life.

16. Never, ever, EVER let them drink a Monster before class.

17. They can be surprisingly sweet and draw pictures for you and make PB&J’s for the whole class.

18. I’m going to miss them!

nashville

caution: this post is picture intensive due to my lack of posting the past couple months . . .

Tom and I went to Nashville for Halloween! Tom has special ties to Nashville, because he played football for the Vanderbilt Commodores his freshman year. The campus and the city have a special place in his heart, and he's always wanted to take me back there and show me around . . . so that's what we did!

Tom: "I walked over that bridge every day on my way to class!"

The squirrel picture has a story: not only are there a million squirrels all over Vandy's campus, but one day when Tom was walking to class from football practice, he was attacked by one. He survived, the size ratio nonwithstanding. And isn't the architecture of all the buildings incredible? I love it.

Vandy's campus is also an arbortoreum. Which means: SO MANY TREES! Beautiful, mature trees. This was a trend I found all over Tennessee. Very different from Utah- a much more lush, green look, and we were there in the fall to see all the beautiful colors!

I also got the special tour of the Vanderbilt athletic facilities! Tom showed me around the locker room & the weight room, and it was a special moment when he showed me the Commodore Creed and told me more about the quality of people and friends that are part of the Vanderbilt program. Classy, genuine people- and so friendly. We felt right at home.

There's no pictures, because of course my camera ran out of batteries, but we also went to the Vanderbilt vs. Georgia Tech game. Vandy was doing great until the last quarter, and I enjoyed watching a live football game with Tom, who hasn't sat in the stands for probably 10 years.

You can't go to Nashville without going to Jack's BBQ, right? Well, we went multiple times. Seriously, bbq back home has nothing on the bbq in the South. SO. GOOD.

I feel like I'm taking y'all on the grand tour of Tom & Whit's trip, but here you go. We also went to the Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's homestead. It was gorgeous. Here is Tom walking on the path to the slave quarters (you can barely see the sky through the trees!) and here we are wearing the goofy headphones that with the press of a button, tell you all you would ever hope to know about the Hermitage and life at the time of Andrew Jackson. and more.

Tom at Andrew Jackson's tomb and on the back porch of the mansion.

The Hermitage is a very large place, and we walked around all of it, which requires a good amount of resting on the benches, as you can see.

trees, trees, trees! & clover wherever you walk . .



Waiting in line at the Pancake Pantry! Tom also thought that the store across the street reminded him of someone he knows . . .

We also stopped at the Battle of Nashville monument. For those of you who know me and my bookshelves, I have a thing for Civil War books- and this monument was just so cool. I love the inscriptions- particularly the last line of the one in the picture above.

Didn't I marry such a handsome man? Anyway, while in Nashville we also saw a show at the Grand Ole Oprey- my first country music show! Keith Urban was one of the performers, along with Vince Gill and a bunch of other really talented people (whose names I don't remember). Alas, I would show more pictures, but lack of juice in the camera batteries prevented it.

And a special thanks to the Piennettes for letting us stay with you in Brentwood, use your truck, your GPS, taking us to the airport, etc. You guys are the best! Go Notre Dame!

Ok, these last two pictures might seem kinda random, but they are the last of my fall pictures: Tom in the Field of Dreams assuaging my middle school teaching woes, and my cute sis Kelley going to Homecoming!