Happy Day!

I heard on my student teaching placement yesterday! I am beyond thrilled. I feel like my prayers have been answered. Waiting was really tough, but it was totally worth it. I'm teaching in a bilingual school, in a resource room for upper elementary students. I am so excited, words can't even express it. I talked to my cooperating teacher last night, and she seems really cool and welcoming. I can't wait to meet her and the students.

On another note, I had an awesome weekend. Friday night was my last scrapbook night at church. I am really going to miss these ladies. We met once a month to scrap together, and it was awesome. Women of all ages coming together over a common love.

On Saturday I had company from home up to visit for a soccer tournament. I got to watch A's game and then we went out for pizza. It was great to catch up with old friends. I haven't seen them since Christmas break.

On Sunday, my church group went out to a sculpture park called Lakenenland. It is the coolest place. All the sculptures are recycled scrap metal. This place has multiple fire pits, and grills. So we had a cookout and then went to look at the sculptures. 

 This is one of my favorites, of the big dipper and the world below. The world is absolutely beautifuly crafted.

 The dinosaur and the fish mark the entrance. It is the first thing you can see when you are on the highway.

 The human weight is always a favorite. We could play on this for a long time. We like to put multiple people on each side.

 My friends and I on the alligator. We put the camera on a stump and set a timer.

 A beautiful tribute to the victims of 9/11

 This is once of my favorites. Its an eagle of made of steel. I love the silver pieces.

 The big snowmobile

One of the other cool features in the mine. The area that I live in is a big mining town.

Life is great. I am enjoying all the time I can with my friends. I slept through their 2am texts this morning telling me the northern lights were out. That is the only thing I still need to see while I am up here, besides a moose. Otherwise, I have made the most out of my four years. I can't believe I am almost onto the next chapter of my life.

I'm on a roll...more cards

I made some cards on Easter night. I was lucky, my students were off the next day, so I didn't rush back to school. Instead I cut the lawn and then played in my scrap room. I am excited to show these off...and I realized I didn't bring any supplies to show my friends at scrap night on Friday.

My first one is another Thank You Card. I realized I have a lot of people who deserve great thanks. I have had some awesome professors and other people in the community who have been wonderful to me. 

 This next one is my friend Em's Birthday card. I had another birthday card, that I forgot to photograph before I gave it to her.

 I really like this last one. Its cooler in person. I might run some twine down the edges for a little dimension.

Its been a whirl wind the last few weeks around here. We had two days with snow last week. 77 degrees and A/C on Saturday. Monday we got pounded with a mini-blizzard. Ice pelts, freezing rain, and snow. It was not fun attempting to open my frozen shut car, and then scrape it glove less. Hopefully this is the last of the winter weather.

Still playing the waiting game on the student teaching assignment. Its not fun waiting. It is really wearing on me, and its hard when all your friends are excited about their placements. Only time will tell.

I'm Still Here

I promise I'm still here. I've only got three more weeks left of college. It's kinda scary to think about it. I have two more weeks of classes, and then finals week. And papers...and case studies...and portfolios. I'm trying to figure out where the last 4 years of my life when.

And packing up my apartment to move 3.5hrs back home to my parents house. I have way too much food right now. Trying to figure how to eat it all, so I don't have to take it back.

Last week I co-taught 7th grade with four other students from the University. We had a classroom of 28 students, and it was a lot of fun. Middle Schoolers are full of energy. We were lucky to have a good class. The kids were very respectful and welcoming. We taught social studies-international trade; science-cell differentiation (aka mitosis and meiosis); and math-i taught special ed math for the week.

For my science lesson we learned about the phases of Meiosis, and then simulated it through art with pipe cleaners. My social studies lesson was pretty cool-we analyses the economies of a variety of countries in the eastern hemisphere. We looked at the imports and exports of countries, and who trades with who. Later in the week, my co-teacher had the students analyzing the flow of goods and the gross domestic products.

Needless to day, I have been super busy. To top it off, this past Saturday I had the first part of my teaching license certification testing. Of course it happened to be the only nice day of the entire weekend...and we were stuck in a stuff classroom.

I did get out to celebrate a friend's birthday after our testing .All four of us are in the education program, and getting ready to all go separate ways. It's going to be a sappy next few weeks. I'm totally ready for student teaching, but seeing my friends all go to different parts of the county is going to be tough.

Coming up this week-I made some more cards over Easter Weekend...and finally got them photographed. Friday night is my final Women's Crafting Night at my church (bring on the tissues). So I will finally get some scrappy time in!

Card Making Night

My friend Em invited me over for some card making fun last night. I was super excited, because she has so much fun card making stuff. Of course silly me realizes that I was near multiple scrapbook stores during the day, and all my glossy paper (for alcohol inks) is back at school...I'm at my parents house for the holiday weekend. So a quick run to my favorite local scrapbook store, and I was back in business. I worked on 5 cards, one will not be debuted until Mother's Day...look's who's getting ahead! I had a blast trying all Em's fun stamps, and playing with my new favorite alcohol inks.

This is my favorite from last night! I love the background stamp, it's Em, but I have to figure out where this is from, because I am in love with it. Her parents probably thought I was nuts when I asked for their iron. This is a resisting technique I learned in my inks class.

This is my Grandma's Mother's Day card. I used two new ink colors last night .This was the first time with the pink color. I also jazzed up the butterflies with a little bling.

This was my mom's favorite card. The stamp was Em's, I totally love being able to share supplies. I have a small stash of stamps, but I don't pull them out enough.

This card was a big experiment, and a major attempt to cover up a goof up in embossing. I sent the paper through the cuttlebug in 2 parts, and I must have flipped the embossing folder over, so my card has some odd dimension to it. The flower stamp is one of my few, but it turned out really cute. This time I stamped over the embossing ink.

We had a super fun night of card making. I learned my lesson that I am totally allergic to plums. We are going to start crafting more this summer, so I have something to look forward to!