CWU Graduation 2012

I am very proud to say that I am a college graduate with a Bachelor's in Elementary Education. It took me a couple years longer than I was planning but with taking time to get married and transferring schools across states, I still made it! I have had so much support, especially from my husband. He pushed me to finish and I don't believe I would have without him. I am so grateful that I did, and that I had the wonderful cohort to go through the program with.

I have built so many great memories and friendships with this group of awesome teachers. I am proud of us all! I have made one friend, in particular, who stuck with me the whole time. Sunnie's husband was deployed (Marines) for the majority of our 2year program. We have been each other's support. We became friends instantly because we were both young and married, have many of the same values, a lot of the same pet peeves and are OCD about similar things, and we have very similar personalities and senses of humor. She has been a huge support and example to me, we have spent many, many hours together, and we have become great, life-long friends out of these two years!

I couldn't have finished without the support from my family either. My parents have listened to me vent, complain, and brag. My in-laws-- the same-- as well as helped me financially. All these great people came to celebrate this milestone in my life with me (not to mention, sat through the freezing ceremony for 2 hours)! Thanks for every one's encouraging words, support, questions, and advice. I can't thank you enough.

**My brothers told me they wouldn't be coming because Devin was just finishing his semester in Hawaii and it would be tough to move all his belongings to Washington and then California, and Trevor had to work and couldn't afford it. I completely understood! BUT...I was at school celebrating my last day with my 2nd graders and my brothers completely surprised me! I am SO happy they were able to come! We were all extra bummed that Britt wasn't able to make it...life called and it was expensive.

I wanted change with my hair after I graduated. I wanted my long hair for pictures with my cap and gown and then two days later I chopped it off! It was getting so long and hot and heavy and would get caught on things. As long as I've waited for it to get to its length, and as pretty as it was (sometimes), I just had to get rid of it. I figured since I had so much of it (11+ inches), I might as well donate it to Locks of Love so that somebody who'd appreciate it could use it rather than tossing it! It feels so much better and I love it! Now bring on the summer!

**More pictures to come of my awesome grad party and time with my family**

For those of you wondering about my plans: I do not have a job lined up. I am going on vacation and then I have Girl's Camp, so after those 2 weeks I plan to go back full time to Red Robin and see what's available. I know there are openings, but it is pretty competitive. I plan to apply for whatever in K-8 though, and for now just turn in my Substitute application so that I can try to get my foot in the door. I need to find the happy-medium because if I'm too good a sub, they'll want to keep me as a sub; which is fine but there just aren't any benefits. Now I just need to practice my interviewing skills. ~eeek!~

Student Teaching Came to a Close

I have had the best student teach experience. I was blessed to be with an amazing mentor teacher, Sandi Schmidt, and a near-perfect class. Each of those little kids has such a special place in my heart and always will. I have learned so much from this experience and I can't believe it has ended already! I was able to participate in Field Day, watching the kids get soaked even though it was so cold outside and even started raining! The kids loved it though and it was funny to watch them!

Sandi put together a cute bag with our "goofy" class picture and my name on it, as well as a book of thank you letters the kids wrote, a book of advice for being a good teacher that the kids wrote, and a Lincoln Elementary t-shirt that all the kids signed. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better teacher and a better class!

Here are some of the words of advice from my some of my 2nd graders:

• "Dear Mrs Larson dont forget about second graders and all the things we did. -from Jairo"
• "Dear Mrs Larsonyou need to Let the students cerrect their own papers. -Frum:Shoshana"
• "Don't forget us at the end of school please don't forget us because we love you. -Adriana"
• "Mrs. Larson be a nice to your new class evan when they are not lisining to you. I know you will be a nice teacher. -Madylin"
• "...Love your class like you love us...-Aurora"
• "...Dont forget to give them extra reces because sometimes, they won't listen. -By Elizabeth"
• "If you want to Be a good teacher you have to have Fun like haveing parties Every 2 years and Be Nice to the kids uspeculy if you teach Kinder. - Mia"
• Dear Mrs. Larson Don't Forget to Let the kiDs Have Fun, Have Math games, Let the kiDs Have 3 test a week. Let the kiDs read to a partner and read to selF 3 minutes every Day. -From Ayden"

They're all just so cute! "Uspeculy" when you read this with their writing.

Two of my favorite thank you letters:

1. "Dear Mrs. Larson, You are a graet techer. And I bet when you are a real techer youl be a super techer!! I wish I could be a good techer like you. -Sincerely Trent"
2. Dear Mrs. Larson, You are a an awesome teacher. Mrs. Larson you are a an awesome mom too. I love you as a teacher. Love Brianna and I love you Mrs. Larson. from Brianna for Mrs. Larson"

May Madness

First of all, I have the best husband in the world, hands down. Today he gave me my graduation present (I know, it's a month early). He wrote it in a card and videotaped my reaction. He planned a trip to DC/Virginia to go visit Brady, Leah, Leo, and May!! My excitement resulted in some tears. Apparently he planned this a couple months ago and they knew about it, my parents knew about it, and his family knew about it. We are going June 14th-19th!! We skyped with them today for an hour and it made me that much more excited. I have had friends move away from me, and I have moved away from others, but this has been the hardest one for me. They moved away in November and I think about them all the time still! So I am ecstatic! Plus it is going to be so awesome touring that area! It was all good timing for him to tell me because it's my extra push to finish school.

Speaking of school, my student teaching is going so well! I just love my students so much. I wish I could keep them all forever! I could go on and on about each of them. We just got our caterpillars for our butterfly unit. I never studied them so I'm excited to be learning with the kids!

May = madness for us (another reason my grad present was great timing). Here's a rundown of our May Madness each year:

• May 10th - My dad's 50th birthday
• May 13th - Mother's Day
• May 19th - Leo's 2nd birthday
• May 20th - Lane's birthday & Devin's birthday
• May 23rd - Trevor's birthday
• May 24th - Tim's 60th birthday & Beth's birthday
• May 27th - Blake's birthday
• May 28th - Memorial Day
• May 31st - Our 4th anniversary 

...and this isn't including every event. We also have softball games each week, Lane has soccer games, I have seminars, mutual and girl's camp planning, and work each weekend. Why does May have to be so popular? We'll probably end up having a couple kids with May birthdays too, sheesh! June is quickly filling up...graduation ceremony June 2nd (parents coming), main graduation ceremony June 9th (more family coming), Mariners game June 13th, DC/Virginia June 14th-19th, girl's camp June 20th-23rd, Faith's 8th birthday and Mimi's birthday June 20th, my birthday June 27th, and Faith's baptism June 30th (Erin and Janet coming)! It's so surreal that I'm graduating soon. I usually know what the next few months have in store for me (with school) but with no school after June, the future is in a fog. I can't wait to find out what happens!

My baby brother, Devin, has his mission papers in so we will be finding out where he will be going any day/week now! This is also just so surreal for me! I can't believe he is old enough and that he will be leaving for 2 years. I am so proud of the young man he is turning out to be. He is a great example to me and our family. So here's my guess to where he will be going : Costa Rica! (My dad served there on his mission). Lane's guess is Taiwan. Any other guesses?

Got Milk?

If you know me at all you know that I'm shy and awkward and I would be just about the last person on Earth that would be asked to act in anything where I have to speak. Well, I guess just about everyone on Earth disappeared for a moment because Lane and I were asked to be in a Got Milk commercial. It was pretty random and last minute. This gentleman in our ward at church does commercials/ads with a buddy of his. They have done well with some they have created; either placed or won. Well he called Lane up one night and asked if he could come by and present the idea to us. He explained the concept to us, telling us that we would be mom and dad cows, and the concept would be based off of the question kids ask, "where do babies come from?" It sounded pretty funny, but the whole time I was thinking, "Do you know who you're asking (referring to myself)? I am so awkward!" Well, we said yes. Last Saturday we went over to someones house and they had everything set up--a breakfast table, all the lighting and camera, the milk of course, and our costumes. I did not know what to expect. It took a few hours and a lot of repeating of lines and facial expressions, and from different angles, and I was hungry and tired of hearing my voice, and I was almost positive they would regret picking me....BUT luckily they are pretty talented with what they do and pulled from parts they liked and edited it to be pretty hilarious. So after a long explanation that has already been cut short, here it is!

**Notice all the cow stuff (newspaper articles, cereal, mug, toy...)

http://www.zooppa.com/ads/its-just-not-breakfast-without-milk/videos/too-many-questions-2

Is is in a contest so after you watch it go vote for it, post it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc...

College = Over

I'm not one to brag, but I'm bragging. When I started attending college, I guess I didn't consider the amount of money I was paying for my lousy grades-- basically threw thousands of dollars down the drain and turned on the garbage disposal. Well, marriage has forced me to grow up apparently because ever since I got married I have worked my butt off to get my GPA up. I finished up my last quarter for my Bachelor's with a cumulative of 3.837! I pulled off straight A's the past few quarters, and I have made the Dean's list every quarter of my Elementary Education program. BOOYAH!

It's a weird feeling having no more college classes (except for my Master's later in life). I've hit many bumps on the road to my degree but I have learned so much and gained so many new experiences that have strengthened me immensely. I went through my program with a cohort of about 20 others-- we had every class together, and sat in basically the same spots each quarter. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of being in a cohort when I got started. They told us that the cohort would be our second family. We would grow to have a love-hate relationship with everyone, and we would see engagements, marriages, births, and deaths, and we would basically know everything about everyone. My first thought, "Yeah right, that's so tacky." WELL Negative Nancy-Jannica, you were wrong. I have made some wonderful life-long friends, I have felt that dysfunctional family-feeling, and we had a few engagements, a marriage, 4 babies (and many others wanting babies *cough*Sunnie and me*cough*, and I'm sure there were deaths among family/friends. Because of this, it is a bitter-sweet feeling being done with school, but of course this is mostly sweet because we are starting student teaching and then we graduate! I get to student teach with my pre-autumn 2nd grade class too so I am SO excited! I love Miss Schmidt and those little kiddos! Also, I will no longer have to pay thousands of dollars, spend endless hours, and argue with professors to get my straight A's.

Here's the cohort celebrating our last day of classes!

Graduation is June 9, 2012! I can't wait! We also have a ceremony in Wenatchee on June 2nd, since we were a close cohort, where we will be celebrated more personally. And why not celebrate more with a party at my house?! So anyone who wants to come, there's 3 events right there! I'll be sending out announcements soon! (Can you tell I'm excited about graduating college?!)

Seattle Weekend

My parents came up for the weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day with us. We picked them up Saturday morning and started our weekend of fun. We bought the Seattle city passes (which I highly recommend) and had such a great time! I have never done anything in Seattle besides Mariners and Pike's Market, my parents briefly did the EMP and Space Needle, and it had been years for Lane. The city pass includes: Seattle Aquarium, a boat tour, 2 rides up the Space Needle (1 day, 1 night), EMP-Experience Music Project, Pacific Science Center, and either the Wildlife Zoo OR the Museum of Flight...all for $60! So as you could imagine, we were go-go-go for a couple days.

We started off with the aquarium.

Then we walked around Pike's Market, grabbed some lunch at Ivar's, and then went on our boat tour.

After our boat tour we headed over to our hotel in Bellevue and relaxed. For dinner we ate at this Chinese place called Toy's Cafe. I also highly recommend this because it was DELICIOUS! Very impressed! After our long day we were all exhausted and feeling fat so we went to bed at about 9:30pm!

Sunday we started and ended our day with our trips up the Space Needle, which was beautiful!

After our first trip up we went to the EMP which was a lot of fun. I could have spent more time in there playing with all the instruments.

After the EMP we ate lunch at the food court in the Seattle Center and then went to the Pacific Science Center. I think we all would have enjoyed it a little more if we had little kids with us; either that or just plain hated it. ;) It is pretty cool, but just aimed more towards children. My favorite part was the butterfly exhibit and the over sized chairs/table. Part of our visit there included an Imax movie. We chose to watch Sea Rex. I highly discourage that! It was ridiculous. We just made fun of it, so I guess it was worth a few laughs.

The weather was perfect for us all of Saturday and Sunday and we ended our night eating at the Cheesecake Factory...yum! Monday morning we hit up the Museum of Flight because it was too rainy for the zoo, and even for being all museum-ed out, I think we all enjoyed that one. It was pretty cool! I would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't been go-go-go the past two days. We drove back to Wenatchee and went and saw The Vow and ate at EZ's. Tuesday (Valentine's Day) we lounged around and ate at Country Boys. We lounged around some more and then sent my parents off. It was such a great weekend--so much fun and many awesome memories built! Thanks Dad and Mom!

After dropping my parents off Lane and I grabbed some food, bought some candy, foot scrub, and face masks and had a relaxing evening. Perfect weekend!

PS. 4 years ago on Valentine's Day, Lane proposed.

Hello 2012

I haven't written down any goals yet simply because most of them are always the same and are continual goals I will always have to work at. There are some new ones though, and just so that I have them documented for this year, here they are:

• Read the Book of Mormon- Make it a daily routine.
• Be a nicer/more loving wife.
• Get AND stay in shape!
• Limit soda drinking- along with eat healthier.
• Challenge my taste buds- keep trying seafood/mushrooms.
• Be more of an optimist.
• Visit the East Coast- Leah is my excuse!
• Make a friend- find ways to serve more freely.
• Stop being so OCD about little things- I have a long list.
• Finish school off strong- be assertive in student teaching/applying/interviewing!
• Make a baby!

SO, we shall see how well I do on these come December 2012! 2011 surprised me with a new home, a nephew, and many other blessings. I am excited for the adventures this year will bring. I hope to be a strong-willed college graduate, possibly a teacher, a sister-in-law (to my side), a missionary's sister, an awesome wife, and a mommy-to-be/a mom! Here's to the new year!