Challenge Day 8: 5 Pet Peeves :)

Soo this one should also be really easy for me! But first, I have to post a picture I took this morning - it was gorgeous! Loving the snow - even though it was gone by mid-afternoon. Actually I won't. I haven't quite gotten why my blog turns my photos and won't let me turn them the right way. Lame.

Anyway on to the blog challenge!

I am a teacher. I have many pet peeves. It's turning out to be harder to actually write them down though!

1. Clicking, Tapping, Noises of Any Sort. They are just pure annoying. Period. I can't stand it and I am the first to notice it. Always. It drives me nuts - especially if the situation calls for silence. I get that I have nervous habits as well, but please, just don't.

2. Utah Drivers. Especially Utah Drivers In the Snow. This one is just bad. I hate people who drive in Utah - I agree with Megan, I am a Utah driver too, but I tend to let people in when they have their blinker on, or if they're trying to turn out onto the street and it's a red light anyway, I will let them out. Is it too much to ask for them to return the favor? On top of that, we of course have started the Utah Drivers during Winter phase of the year. If you think Utah drivers during the rest of the year are bad - just wait till the first snow falls. Now, if you've lived in Utah you have had to drive in the snow at some point in your life, but I swear it's like cattle at a cattle guard when the snow falls! People slow down to the point where they're going to get stuck if they don't go faster and they take forever to turn. I guess I was taught by someone who learned to drive in Alaska soooo I have an advantage, but reallllllly!?

3. People Who Can't Use Proper Grammar. I am a grammar nerd, this I know. But if you're going to email me complaining about your child's grades in Literacy, dear God, use spell check before you send that email! I constantly find myself locating all the mistakes in the newspaper or in flyers or official letters from businesses. Really people? Oh and to those of you who can't figure out the difference between their, they're, and there and you're and your. YOU'RE killing me!

4. People Who Don't Know How to Use Condoms. This might upset some people, but I just think there is more to life than unsafe sex. This world is full of enough unmotivated, sorry people. Do it proper people! When you're 15 in high school, you really shouldn't be having kids, you should be going to the football game and hanging out with your friends, you should be looking forward to college and the fun that comes with that, not baby shopping.

5. Disorganization. I am a pretty organized person in every part my life (except maybe my bedroom lol) and people who are just cluttered kinda drive me a little nuts. I don't tend to judge you based off your organization, but if you have to cancel things on me because you totally forgot you had to do something yet a week ago you agreed to do stuff because your schedule was totally open!, that's when it's like, ok, c'mon get your stuff together.

I sound really rude when these are all out there, but it is what it is. Love it or hate it but it is who I am. But I promise I won't judge you too much ;)

This song needs to just go with this. Love it!

Challenge Day 7: Your Views on Mainstream Music

So just to update everyone, my mom is doing great! The surgery on her hand went just fine and she, unlike I, got to sleep for about 3 hours! Me? I had to sit in the UofU Orthopedic Clinic lobby for about 6 hours. Tons of fun! But we're good :)

Anyway, on to the challenge. This should be pretty easy right? I love music. That's all there is to it. However, ever since I got my car and it has an iPod dock inside of it (that's right, no cords, no nothing!), it's hard to want to listen to the radio. And when I get something new - as anyone who has ridden in my car can testify to - that's generally all I listen to for a while (shut up, you know Kelly was good, as was the Hunger Games, and LMFAO).

But I have heard new stuff, which I do like, but I'm definitely out of the loop when it comes to mainstream. I think that it's a little overplayed and that most radio stations only play about 5 songs a day. My sister loves mainstream music and listens to it all the time. Therefore I hear it, doesn't mean that I truly love it. My music is too emotion/mood driven for me to listen to just mainstream music.

Challenge Day 6: Bullet Point Your Entire Day

Ohhh yeah! Finally something I am good at doing - creating lists! I think I constantly have a list going somewhere. To do lists, check lists, shopping lists, wish lists, movies I need to see lists lol lots.

Anyway, uh hem, here goes:

• 6:00 am: My alarm goes off
• 6:05 am: First time snooze goes off
• 6:25 am: Yes, I have hit snooze this many times
• 6:30 am: Get up and have breakfast
• 6:45 am: Finally start getting ready, look in my closet hoping that today a miracle has happened and I can actually wear jeans
• 6:50 am: Realize that that dream isn't coming true and I'd better just suck it up and wear SOMETHING (preferably warm since it's getting cold and the school is always cold too)
• 6:52 am: Do a happy dance that I get to wear the same TWO shoes for the first time in 3 weeks!
• 6:55 am: Finish hair, makeup, brush teeth
• 7:10 am: Leave house to take mom to work (we may need a third car here soon)
• 7:15 am: Need my morning caffeine fix (ie: McDonald's $1 drinks, Diet Coke is my weakness)
• 7:35 am: Pull into school
• 7:50 am: Morning meeting
• 8:10 am: Students start arriving, make jokes about our fact of the day: The fattest man weighed 1,400 pounds. That's almost a TON!
• 8:30 am: Morning prayer
• 8:50 am: Try starting religion, decide that it's going to be a Monday.
• 9:00 am: Actually start religion
• 9:30 am: Try to start math, but as the big kids are still in class have to wait. Twiddle thumbs and the like.
• 9:35 am: Big kids finally show up
• 9:40 am: Finally start math - division with decimals if anybody was wondering. You would think it was the end of the world - not because of the decimals but because of the division. This is the hardest subject for me to not want to scream "WHY DON'T YOU JUST GET IT? THE ANSWER IS SOOO EASY!" but that's because I'm a math nerd secretly and just totally get it.
• 10:15 am: Snack break! Except I don't ever actually remember to pack a snack, and there's only so many times you can really enjoy a Rice Krispie treat before you're like yeah, no that's not cutting it.
• 10:30 am: French - which really means a nice 45 min break for me :) except that since I am out tomorrow I am really just sub-planning - yes all 45 mins of that break!
• 11:15 am: Science...*chirp chirp* let me preface this with I really do LOVE science, but I really do SUCK at coming up with really fun ideas and experiments. Hopefully when we get to solar systems!
• 11:50 am: Since we will need slightly more time for social studies, I start 10 minutes early. We're doing a review of Ancient Egypt for our test tomorrow. This has been the most fun unit I've been able to teach! The kids really love it and swear we need to raise money to get to whatever British museum has the Rosetta Stone (at least I think it's in England?). Anyone wanna donate to the Ms. Kofford's 6th Grade Class Field Trip to England Fund (there's only 8 of us!)?
• 12:50 pm: Lunch time. That's all.
• 1:35 pm: Literacy. Again another subject that I'm like, really Grammar? This is sooo simple, possessive pronouns, possessive adjectives? Puh-lease! Except that that's sooo not what you tell 11-13 year olds. They get discouraged that way. They get even more discouraged when they find out we're not reading "The Giver" today because we just don't have the time.
• 3:20 pm: Have to start the timer for the time that they owe me due to behavior. 4 minutes to be exact. Heads down, no talking or the time starts over. Do you realize how long 4 MINUTES is when you really just want to let them go?
• 3:29 pm: They finally leave my room and by the way, I may need to rethink and make them pick up 10 things from now on out. My room is a mess, and it's the first day of parent teacher conferences - Thanks Reina for getting in there quickly! :)
• 4:30 pm: Shut everything down, lock everything up, go to head out the door and realize that I totally forgot to send home our party notes for Wednesdays party - and since I won't be there tomorrow I need to do it NOW. fml
• 5:30 pm: Finally finish getting everything ready and leave
• 5:45 pm: Stop by Misty's to drop off pictures, get to hold Baby Emma! :)
• 6:30 pm: Leave Misty's for home
• 6:35 pm: Start to starve. Decide that maybe potato chips sound good.
• 6:45 pm: Yeah potato chips are sooo what I want!
• 7:00 pm: Ok, actually potato chips are soo not what I wanted. Now what?
• 7:15 pm: Start this blog post
• 7:50 pm: Finally finish blog post (at least before my OCD kicks in and I have to edit a lot of it)

I know that this is very detailed but it'll help those of you stalkers out there who really care to know every detail of my wonderful (slightly pitiful) life! I know you're out there lol

Challenge Day 5: A Book You Love

So I realize that I have now missed a day. But again, I was out trying to be my (non)-socialite self! My friend Emily and I went to see "Thriller" at Kingsbury Hall last night and it was amazing! I loved it! Plus we were able to go get pizza and beer at The Pie. I blame 2 people in general for getting me to actually drink beer: Emily and Dave. End of story. I still don't really enjoy it, but when there isn't an option to have a mixed drink it should do. Bleh (or not).

Anyway today's (or yesterday) challenge is a book that I love. This is a ridiculously hard one for me. I get that most people are like really? I love books and one in particular. Or they are of the camp of really? I can't stand reading! I am of the I LOVE books camp but I am also the world's worst decision maker! My students are always asking, "Ms. Kofford, what's your favorite color? song? band? movie? food? book?" and I never can give them an answer. "I don't have favorites," I tend to reply. Which is generally true!

I blame my book choice on being a elementary school teacher and thus YA books still really appeal to me. I should be more of an adult I get this, but sometimes it's nice to read something that my brain doesn't have to over-process or analyze. One author I used to read in high school, and still do because I love her stuff, is Sarah Dessen. I have quite a few books of hers that I really love but my favorite in particular is "Just Listen". Since I am so connected to music this book really resonates with me :) I won't tell you more than the fact that it's just a good book for the sake of being a good book! So you should definitely read it haha (this could also be for the fact that some awesome French toast and bacon are calling my name).

Check here if you would like a full synopsis!

Baby Emma & Family

I have been waiting for forever to take these photos! I was so excited when I found out Misty was pregnant again and it has been an amazing journey! We waited an entire month to do photos (literally it was a month to the day Emmalynn was born) and she is still so tiny! Chris was home this time, so we took some of the whole family as well! Enjoy :)

A pretty rare smile :)

This is probably my absolute favorite picture!

Challenge Day 4: Something You Feel Strongly About

This challenge thing is really challenging me! I get all excited and then my brain kinda just stops and I can't think of anything to reply to it! Hmmm....I feel very strongly aboutttt....being happy about just who you are.

I feel somewhat like a hypocrite saying this, because I have yet to get to that point completely, but I do think it's something we need to value more. I think that you can't be happy in anything you do unless you are happy with yourself. You can't be happy with someone if you don't trust who you are. Being yourself and being comfortable in your own skin is key to overall happiness. If you accept yourself, you can be happy doing anything - work, life, friends, relationships.

Not too long. But it will have to do. Look for one more post for today! I will hopefully have up my baby/family pictures I just did :)

Challenge Day 3: A Risk I Took

Hmmm this one actually has me pretty stumped. There's a lot of things I've done in life that I don't necessarily consider as risks. I think that a lot of things I do, because that's what needs to be done at that time! But let me think....

I know Megan will probably be like, oh Michelle, you're such a copy-cat, but it's probably the biggest risk I've taken thus far. Now granted I went with a group, but going to Australia was huge for me.

Growing up I knew I wanted to travel, I wanted to see the UK, Italy, Germany, Poland - most of Europe actually (that could be my obsession with anything WWII though...), but Australia, for some reason, wasn't ever really on my list of places to go. Until it was. I think the biggest part of Australia being a risk, is that I had literally 2 days before we left, turned 18. I had just graduated high school. I had no clue what I was walking in to!

The worst part of that trip? The stupid flight. When you spend a grand total of 36 hours in air, bus, or waiting, you don't tend to want to do anything.

We had some grand times in Australia.
   - It was the first place I had my first legal drink
   - I went snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef
   - I had to navigate bus schedules on my own
   - I lived with a family I had never met and without anyone else in my group for a week
   - I for the first (and last time ever) had to hitch hike to get home
   - And I met the most amazing people I have ever had the opportunity to meet. People who are nice and friendly and open because that's just how life is! You'd never meet too many people in the US like that.

I would love to go back one day. Maybe even a one-way flight?

There's so many other things that happened, but I don't think I could get through this post too quickly. Needless to say, I had a travel bug; traveling to a different country (that isn't Mexico or Canada) only heightened it. If this question had popped up after July of next year I would definitely say Rio is going to be that risk of a lifetime.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil? Hahahahaha talk to me in a year!

Me and my roomie Megan (not the same Megan I'm copy-catting)