Summer Nights

Summer officially began June 3 for me, a little more than 2 weeks ago. I have already put in at least 8 days at the pool, a day at 7 peaks, 3 trips to my new classroom (I call it a trip because of how FAR away it is from provo), and a visit home to Virginia. Summer could not be more perfect so far. I am already getting really sad that it will be over too fast!

With the start of the summer, I have been able to experiment more with my cooking. Sadly enough, today was the day that I cut my very first watermelon and made my very first lasagna. I gchatted with one of my best friends, Jenesee, today for a long time just exchanging recipes. I totally feel like a mom these days.

My trip home was first and foremost, to see one of my oldest friends, Allison, get married! But, of course, it was a good excuse to take a trip home. It was so neat to remember her baptism day, about 5 years ago, and then to think about how far she has come to get married in the DC temple. Her reception was gorgeous, but I think my favorite part of the wedding was her dress. It was sooo beautiful!

Also, while home, my family celebrated Lindsay's 20th birthday. Woohoo! More celebrating will be done later this week though, on her real birthday :) Lindsay and I like to take the most flattering pictures of ourselves that we can.

One of the most fun things Steve and I have done this summer is fly his awesome kite. Sadly enough, his summer has only consisted of doing his internship and studying for the GRE. So today, we took his old Chinese kite out for a spin.

My summer has been great so far, and although Steve's has been somewhat boring, we are both looking forward to a fun Winder family vacation next week to Palmyra and Kirtland :)

Bittersweet

Today was the last day of school. The last 13 or so weeks of school I have been counting down. This has been, by far, the most stressful year of my life. Up until yesterday, I COULDN'T WAIT until summer. But last night, it really hit me that I will never see any of those 29 little tykes again. All day yesterday and today I have been reminiscing about the year.

It was off to a hectic start:

-getting into my classroom less than 24 hours before school started

-teaching in 90 degree+ weather with no AC for the first week or two of school

-learning how to teach and control 29-30 students for 8 hours a day

-and just figuring the school system out

But I have learned SO much this year. I will always look back on this year with great memories.

I learned:

-to get up every day at 6:30 and go to bed by 10:30 every night

-that I shouldn't make plans for Friday nights because I will be asleep by, at the absolute latest, 9:00

-that on field day, I should DEFINITELY not make plans for the night, because I will be asleep by 7:30 that night

-to make up a one hour math lesson on the spot

-to minimize outside-of-school grading to one hour every two weeks

-to leave school at 4 and to be anxious to leave even before that

-how to deal with the constant stress of school and not taking it out on Steve...well...I'm still working on that one

-to work with people completely different than me

-to value education more than I ever have

-the importance of reading with your own children every night

-how to remember 15 different things that I must do at once

-to plan out my day a couple of weeks in advance, rather than have a plan for every 10 minutes, like I did at the beginning of the year

-that I have come to love even the most obnoxious little kids in the world

As an end-of-the-year activity, each of my students wrote their name at the top of a blank sheet of paper and we passed them around and each wrote something nice about the person on it. I decided to participate, and one of my sweet little girls wrote this to me, "Mrs. Winder, I like all your dresses. I wish I had hair like you. You are really good at math and have an amazing smile. No wonder why Steve married you."---Isn't that the cutest thing in the world? I know I shouldn't build my self-esteem from 10 year olds, but I will miss getting notes like this all the time at school.

I will definitely miss my students at Meadow, but I am excited to see what a new school year, new school, and new grade level will bring!