Easter Basket

This is Will's I-just-woke-up-and-saw-what-the-Easter-Bunny-brought-me face...




He's been super into coloring lately, so he received some Crayola Color Wonder markers and paper. So far, he's more interested in taking the lids off the markers and putting them back on. Ha, whatever entertains, eh?

Blonde Moment...student version

So we're doing a word puzzle yesterday in class. One of my brightest, highest-reading-level, always-gets-answers-right students says, "Wait...what's a dork knob?"

He's looking at the word "doorknob"....get it? DOORK/NOB

Aww....

The other day, while finishing up with a reading group, a student pushed in his chair.
As he walked away, he said, "Thank you, Mrs. Cox!"

To which another student said, in a shocked tone, "Thank you?! Thank you for what?!"

"Thank you for everything! She is our teacher, after all."

My heart melted. Right there. It was just so sincere. He didn't even say it for me to hear it.
This kid is such a tender little soul, so polite.
He was so genuine...it wasn't just to kiss up...although it totally worked.

Liquid Paper

My class is working on ecosytem murals. Each group was assigned an ecosystem to study, research, and teach the other groups about. They've really enjoyed it..and it's gone mostly well. They teamwork concept is a continual struggle. Developmentally, they're still very into rigid turns and complete fairness....which can cause a rift quickly!

One group has assigned "jobs" to each group member. They have a little guy who struggles with behavior. In a peacemaking (and smart!) move, they made him the "Supplies Leader". He is in charge of gathering supplies, sharpening pencils, organizing supplies, etc. It's been a good move for all involved! He loves the responsibility, and they love the prepared supplies.

So...on Friday, they were working on their murals. I looked over to see the "Supplies Leader" at the sink. He was running water over a wad of paper. I asked what he was doing and he replied, "I don't know....but my group said we needed it..."

I asked another student in the group what he was supposed to be getting.
"Liquid paper."

Mz. Kox

"Teacher, I made you this bracelet....
but...sorry I ran out of 'S' and 'C'..."

Ethnic Food?

"Teacher, how do you spell gina food?"

"Spell what?!"

"Gina food."

"I don't know what that is....what is the sentence you are writing?"

"I am writing, 'Do you like gina food?'"

"Hum....What does it taste like?"

"I don't know..."

"Ok...what does it look like?"

"Um...noodles."

"Oh...do you mean Chinese food?"

"Yeah! That!"

K.F.C.

Kentucky Fried Chicken drive thru today....

R.J.: "Hi, I'll have the 3 chicken strips meal."

K.F.C. worker: "Oh, I'm sorry sir, the strips will take about 8 minutes to be ready."

R.J.: "Oh, ok...what do you have that's ready now?"

K.F.C. worker: "Um....we have...some chicken..."

All the moms out there who say it's impossible to shower/get ready
with a toddler in the house...crazy.

All you do is set him free with a roll of toilet paper
and a junk drawer to empty.

Totally safe and totally not messy.

Cleaning out the Closet

Did a little spring cleaning around here....
found some gems that brought back memories.

These are some scrubs from the University of Utah Medical Center.
And I'm totally the rightful owner....ahem.

In high school, it was (still is?) a tradition for the senior girls to toilet paper the the senior boys' houses around the end of the year. So, on the planned night, we gathered our supplies and off we went. We pulled up to one house...but apparently the boys were in on our plans (shocking that it didn't remain a secret, eh?). They jumped out of the bushes and chased us. We jumped into my friend Misha's car, screaming and laughing. One of the boys jumped on her hood as she started to drive. She slammed into a parked trailer, sending it (and him I think) into the neighbor's yard. An ambulance came...luckily, everyone was fine after some short hospital stays. While Misha was in the hospital, we were pretty sure some scrubs would be a good souvenir. One by one we went to the shelf of scrubs and grabbed a pair, claiming that the patient Misha needed a pair. Ah....fond memories.


I found an old purse that hadn't been cleaned out...with a crazy amount of Cinnamon Fire Jolly Rancher wrappers. I had forgotten how much I LOVED these when I was pregnant. I ate them like crazy and clearly tossed all the wrappers in my purse.



Ha...I was consolidating luggage when I came across these two hair dye box tops and literally laughed out loud.

A few years ago, my parents and I went to Las Vegas for the Paul McCartney concert. One night, my dad was in bed early, so my mom and I thought we needed to live it up a little...we were in Vegas after all! So, naturally, to Walgreen's we went! For some reason, hair dye and a bottle of wine (each!) seemed like a good idea....because, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Except, apparently, bad dye jobs.

So, we took our bottles of wine to the room. And realized that we didn't have corkscrews. So, we went to the front desk. The lady there told us to call room service. So we went to our room and called room service. He told us to call the front desk. So, again, we called the front desk. They said to try one of the bars down in the lobby. Whew...we were getting mighty thirsty and ready for some adventure after all this!

To the lobby we went...Went to the first bar. Took those bottles to the guy at the door. He said, "Well....we're not really supposed to open bottles for people....have you tried room service or the front desk?" Ha. So he sent us to the bartender.

The bartender took the bottles and....TURNED THE CAP! Yes, we are classy enough to buy wine that does not even require a cork! After all that. Tipped that bartender and heading sheepishly back to the room, amid the laughter.

Well, let's just say plenty of wine, tears from laughing so hard, and two empty dye boxes later...we both had dark hair. Well, "Bronze Shimmer" and "Toasted Almond", actually. Probably the best part was seeing my dad's face in the morning.






Apparently I kept the box tops for the memory.
Well worth it.
If you need tourist suggestions for Vegas, hit up Walgreen's.


Ah...memories.
I need to clean out my closet more often!

Golden Birthday

Turning 28 on the 28th was fabulous! I had such a great day. Remember when you were little, you'd count down the months, weeks, days until your next birthday...while carefully formulating (and reformulating, and reformulating...) your birthday wish list? I am reminded every year why I love birthdays as an adult...it's so fun to hear from so many friends and family. It makes me feel so cared for...warms my 28 year old heart.

When I first got to school, my sweet co-worker Jami had made a sign for my door.



The kids loved the day too...
three kids brought me Diet Coke and Oreos!
Scary how well they know me....


My friend Kari and her fiance Ben volunteer in my class on Fridays. She secretly had the kids make me a card last time she was there, then delivered it with balloons on my birthday. So cute.

At lunch, Will and RJ brought my fave sandwich from Jimmy Johns.
We had a good time eating lunch together.

On the way home, getting the mail...I got some birthday cards. It's so fun to get real mail among all the junk mail... I can always count on a sweet card from my grandparents, a funny card from my friend Leila, and a immaculate card from my aunt Sue.


Another fun part throughout the day...I had to put my phone on silent because of the fun messages coming through...it would chime for every Facebook well-wisher. It was so fun to see these messages pop up throughout the day...Nothing like Facebook notifications to make you feel popular. Next time I'm feeling blue, I'm going to set my FB to say it's my birthday. People would totally fall for that = blue feelings zapped!


When we got home from school, RJ said I should probably go get something from our room...once I walked in I saw...A new comforter for our bed!!! We have had a king bed, with a queen comforter for a while now, but those are expensive. So it was a fun surprise! Then he told me to look under the sheets, where there was a card drawn by Will (Aw!) and an iphone connector for the car. Love!

Later, we went to dinner with our dear friends Liz and Josh at Coppermill. It was yummy and fun. As if we didn't have enough good food and treats, we continued the celebrations at RJ's parents' house. His dad made apple dumplings and cinnamon cakes. YUM!

All of this was only the day OF my birthday. It gets even better! On Saturday before my bday, my parents came up for the day. It was so fun. We met at Sabor for lunch, which I hope they liked...it's awkward to rave about something, then hope they like it! Then we just hung out, played at the mall for a bit. They gave me a beautiful locket necklace. It has pictures of Will inside, with a W engraved on the back. Definitely a keepsake for life for me and my first baby boy. They spoiled me further with a rose plant (yes, mom, it's still alive!), and a pretty sweater. It was so fun to have them up for the day!

On Sunday, RJ's dad made my FAVE meal...homemade chicken noodle soup. It's amazing...big, thick homemade noodles...yum. And.....brownies! THE brownies. He even made enough for me to take to my class the next day. They were in awe...one of them even said, "These should be called billionaire brownies! They're so good!"

I love birthdays...everyone is so kind and generous. We are oh so blessed to have such fun families and friends to celebrate with!