February 2018

Bets for Bonus 

All of my students know at this point of the semester, we are Eagle's fans. We talk a lot of crap back and forth--especially with us being so close to Cowboy nation. So, I decided to have some fun and give them the opportunity to place Superbowl "bets" for extra credit. Students would randomly shout out a bet they were willing to make and the points associated, we created a huge list, and then I let them vote as a class on specific ones up to 20 points extra credit. This particular picture was from my earlier sections "final bets." They had some pretty funny ones though--like "You hear Dilly Dilly at least 6 times" "Belichick will not smile" "Goodell will get booed when he presents the trophy" were among some of the more humorous ones. 

Although their bets tended to favor the Patriots winning, I actually had a student come up to me the Monday after the Superbowl to tell me "I was cheering for the Eagles in a swarm of Patriots fans, just for the extra credit! I was terrified for my life when they won!" 

Superbowl 

We planned. We plotted. We cleaned. We decorated. We air-fried. We made more food. Friends came. We screamed in despair. We shouted for joy. We shook our heads. We clenched our fists. We bit our nails. We stood. We paced. We sat. We stared.....We held our breath...and We jumped. We laughed. We yelled. We sang Fly Eagles Fly at the top of our lungs. We won. 

We had this shrine up on my front entry table since Jan 21st. It remained there through the end of this month. Lehi told me at the beginning of the season "If the Eagles go to the Superbowl, I get to decorate this table." I agreed and kept most of the deal--I decorated it, not him. 

Amber Award 

One of my students elected me for a teaching award. It was a nice, formal dinner during which students shared why they elected the teacher they did. Andrew gave some very sweet words--which included he was hesitant of how the semester would go when I came to class wearing an Eagles jersey (he is a die-hard Cowboys fan). I had so much fun and was so shocked when I received the invitation. It was a wonderful and humbling experience. 

Maverick & Flowers 

Maverick loves picking out fresh flowers for me. Every other time we go to the store, he asks if he can get me flowers. We were at Costco for this paticular occasion. He then made me walk around so he could see all of the flowers and told me he wanted to get me "those ones" (2 dozen roses). I talked him down and had him settle on the Tulips, assuring him they were just as beautiful as the roses. 

Valentines Day 

Lehi and I decided to keep Valentines day minimal--we are not big into trying get a nice dinner along with the other hundreds of people at the restaurant. My Dad usually takes care of the whole family with his traditional ice cream cake. When I placed my "e-mail order," I decided to go with the same heart shaped, pink cake Dad used to get us growing up. It lasted us many days. Honestly, this is what I look forward to most each Valentines Day. It is pretty special that Dad orders 5 cakes in 4 different states, in 5 different stores every single year.

 

Maverick Calls Out Dad 

A few days after Valentines Day, we were shopping for groceries and passed the floral section. Maverick then told me, "Dad didn't take me to get you flowers, can we get some now?" I laughed and let him pick out some flowers. This time, we went with Iris flower. He is getting pretty good at naming flowers (he has roses, tulips, and iris down now) and insisted on holding them for the rest of our shopping trip. He also would randomly tell people, "See my flowers? They are for my Mommy. They so pretty."

Nursery 

Mr. Lincoln graduated to the most anticipated church class--nursery! He cried a little when he first got there, but was tear-free and playing withing 5 minutes. They must have worn him out because he crashed when we got home. I knew I wasn't going to get a cute standing picture anytime soon, and I didn't want to forget to snap one, so I settled with an accurate reflection of how the day went. 

Primary Talk

Maverick gave his very first talk in primary. He did a great job--he got a little shy towards the end, but started off so confident and excited! Lincoln got a little squirmy so the recording is not the best towards the end. We took an approach Kristina uses with her primary age kids: pictures with questions. Rather than having him try to memorize or read something, we taught him and prompted him to answer questions about what he learned. His talk about "Christ created the Earth because He loves me." These are a few questions we asked:
(Picture of the world)
Maverick what is this?  (Earth)
That is right! And who made the Earth? (Jesus)

(Picture of things on the Earth)
What did Jesus put on the Earth? (Whale, bird, etc.)
Why did He make the Earth? (Because He loves us)

Lessons by Maverick

Maverick also came home from class this week and was very excited to teach us a cool lesson. He told me everything he needed, which I got out for him, and he took it over from there. Lehi and I were pretty darn impressed with how much he remembered and was able to teach us after a short primary lesson from an amazing teacher. 

More February Pictures:

We had a Relief Society temple trip this month with these beautiful ladies!

 

A Saturday with Dad yields chocolate milk and a pail full of candy. Maverick walked in the door and said, "Mom. Don't be mad for how much candy we got."