When you go to bed...

ok. This is completely inappropriate... but sooo funny. 

Today my first graders learned about christmas around the world. They went to another class and apparently it was on one of the Asian countries because they all got fortune cookies. I was helping some of them read their fortunes when I heard a little boy in the back of the room

"I heard you are supposed to say 'when you go to bed' after you read your fortune...." and proceeded to help a bunch of kids alter their fortunes....

Needless to say, I stopped that one pretty quickly. 

O wow. 

Where do these kids learn these things?

O man, I love first grade.

I'm thankful

ok. here are my top three. Obviously there are so many things in my life that I have to be thankful for

The love of my life. (Look how buff he looks in this picture. He doesn't like to show off so don't tell him I pointed it out.... but Clint is REALLY strong.) 

I am so thankful we are married for all of eternity and I always get to be by his side. He is so good to me. 

(You are the best tcrece - teacher.

 I love you a lote 

I hope 

you

 have a hapee

 tkse give eng -happy thanksgiving)

I am thankful for my kids. I have 18 cute 6 yr olds that love me no matter what kind of day I am having and I just love them too. I'm thankful my principal evaluation went well today, and that I am so used to observations thanks to all the observations I had during my internship last year. 

ok, so this is mostly joking. But really, I found this new show and I LOVE IT! Clint was laughing at me pretty hard last night while we watched 2 episodes in a row on hulu. LOVE IT. Secretly, he loves it just as much, Clint just doesn't show excitement as well as I do. :) 

I have so much to be thankful for. I am so excited to spend this Thanksgiving with Clint's family and spend the weekend getting to know them even better. (I'll be thinking of you too, family in California!!) I am so thankful that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I feel the blessings from the Lord everyday. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Little Drummer Boy

I know, save Thanksgiving and all that jazz... I just love Christmas music. plain and simple. I am still thankful. I promise. 

Here's the thing. I cry everytime I hear this song. I just think of this drummer boy going to see the Newborn King. 

"I have no gift to bring that's fit to give a King"

I just feel that way sometimes ya know? But this is what I learn from this song. The boy just gives what he has. He plays his drum. He plays his best and the Christ Child smiles at him. 

And his drum, his playing, that was enough.

I was at education week in August, listening to Scott Anderson, (who is amazing) and he was talking about the woman at the well. She had been cast out and her name was defamed. As she drew water, Christ asked her if she would draw him a drink. It was pointed out that this woman was, to the world, worthless. She had nothing to offer the Savior of the World... except she did have exactly what was needed to give Him a drink.  Christ saw her one strength in that moment and magnified it.

 She was able to do exactly what He asked of her.

 He had made sure of it.

As the holidays are here and I am thinking of what I am Thankful for, and also the birth and life of my Savior, this song epitomizes everything I think of. I may not have a lot to give. I may be a poor newlywed, living with my husband on the salary of a first grade teacher, but I know I have something, because the Lord doesn't look at what I don't have. 

He looks at what my strengths are and He makes those strengths the only things that matter. 

I am grateful for that.

 It gives me hope and allows me to be optimistic. 

Just wanted to share.
I love my life.
<3

...waking up in a real love

Ok, let me just tell you a little bit about life right now. It's wonderful. We had some stressful days in the last few weeks, but a lot more fun stuff.

 Here are my loves right now.

 Post Title= a song by Phil Vasser that I really love right now and it just makes me so happy everytime I listen to it on the way to school (which is everyday) 

First, I love that blogger has changed how they do pictures and since I couldn't figure out how to put on multiple pictures without wanting to scream, I just didn't. You can now enjoy all the pictures I would like to share with you.  

And, I love my cute jewelry board I made! Yes, made it. and my necklaces are no more tangled and earring are not hard to match with their pairs.  

 And... my cute man holding it up so I can take a picture : ) I just love him.

I LOVED 50's DAY!!! My class celebrated the 50th day of school and wee learned all about the 50s. We watched a clip of "Grease" (which made my kids laugh soooo hard. They thought the dancing was ridiculous haha), and I showed them a picture of Elvis (to which I said "kiddos, this is a  person that sang on the radio in the 50s and all the girls thought he was a hunk!"... one of my girls replied "Is it Justin Beiber?"... I just don't know how to respond to that. Absolutely not.)

 We did a little writing project, see the picture above, where all the kids had to write something people did in the 50s and what they do now that is different. If you can't read this <-- it says "In the 50s they listened to Elvis and today I listen to Lil Wayne".

These are some of my cute kids. Lil Wayne listener is the one posing for you :) Classic.

Also, no picture was taken, but today when I got home from school and I was making potato soup for dinner, Clint came home and as he was talking to his mom on the phone he spun me a around and kissed me, then winked as he was walking out of the kitchen. O man, what a cute husband. Ya know, married winks are 12323984457239x better than any single winks, and my man knows how to do them! <3

Everyday I wake up (as Clint kisses me goodbye on his way to work and I go back to sleep for 2 more hours) I just think man, everything else in life is worth it.

I am in a real happily ever after. 

Up the canyon

Clint and I were lucky enough to go up the canyon on sunday and see what Fall has done to this beautiful mountain!!!


We met up with Katie and Pat's cute family...

It was so fun to watch the boys running around and getting their walking sticks and exploring Cascade Springs. We'll sure miss them when they move to Florida!! :(Things I'm grateful for today:
-my cute hubby. He always makes me happy.
-the pumpkin toffee cookies he made me, waiting for me to get home to eat them.
-It's FALL BREAK!!! that means 4 day weekend off work and lots of relaxing time :)

Holes...

Today one of my cute kiddos asked me...

"Mrs. Prestwich, why do you make holes in your cheeks every time you smile at us?"

I haven't had someone notice my dimples in quite awhile, at least not verbally, so it took me a second to realize what she was talking about and I pointed out another boy in our class that has dimples too. I told her we don't make our cheeks do that, they just do it on their own!

I think she thought I was pulling her leg... haha

<3

~Side notes~
Soooo excited for conference this weekend!!! I got blueberry muffin mix for Clint and I and whoever is the lucky person we decide to ask to watch conference with... we should probably get on that.


Can I tell you one more thing? Clint cleaned the house this morning for me. You wouldn't think that would be a very big deal, but I woke up and saw my clean living room and clean dishes in the sink he did last night and I just got all butterfly-y and I'm just so glad I married that boy!! And the most impressive part, he did it at 4:30 AM before he went to work!!!

He's taking me to the football game tonight (go cougars!), then off for a night on the town after!!! :)

<3 I love my life.

I'm living my dream.

So here I am, sitting in my classroom... I should be using this time where Clint is in class to get a TON of stuff done...

instead I'm sitting here almost in tears.

today was hard. I'll be honest, first grade is a lot harder than 2nd was for me. I have kids who don't even know all their ABC's. That's hard.

That's not why I'm sitting here practically crying.

I am so grateful that I'm sitting right here. Right here as in: my extremely messy classroom where the books aren't put away because my first graders read them today. As in the room where every desk is skeewompus because first graders get so excited about learning that they literally inch their desks closer and closer to the front of the room where the teacher is....
or maybe they're just a little squirmy.... we'll go with excited about learning.

I'm so glad I found a job this year.
I'm so glad my little 6 yr olds give me a hug or a high five every day when they leave.
I am so excited that one of my little boys learned 2 more letters than he knew on Friday when I tested him.
I love the perfectly innocent way they look at the world.
I teach children who, in some cases, live with parents who are... less than ideal.
I get to be one of their role models. OR maybe they are mine.
I get to make sure they say please and thank you, take turns and say nice words.
I get to read them stories of things they have never dreamt of, but they do all the time now.
I am blessed to teach children how to read. That makes a huge difference in life.

I don't know how I got here. I mean, I am aware that I spent 4 years in college and did a pretty strenuous internship last year...

I made it here, to first grade.

and I'm living my dream.
<3

School Days, School days...

... good ol golden rule days,

reading and writing and arithmetic,

(my kids asked what arithmetic was last year)

talk to the teacher with a hickory stick

(so not even ok haha)

you were my queen in calico

I was your bashful barefoot bo

And we rode on your sleigh

I love you so!

when we were a couple of kids!

I remember my mom singing this song to us every year on the first day of school to get us up that morning. Now that I read the lyrics I seriously wonder who came up with them haha

But tomorrow I just may be humming this to myself as I get up at 6:30 (gasp!) and get ready for my first day with my cute first graders! I am so excited and nervous and I got to meet them on Friday and I love them already! This year is going to be so amazing!

Pictures of the classroom to come! (lame camera...) I hope I can get to sleep tonight!!! It's almost as bad as Christmas Eve!

Updates...

Ok, so the computer is finally letting me post pictures so we're back!!! I have so much to update you on!

Like our adventure hiking Bridal Veil Falls! (even though we thought that was going to take us all day and it was only a 15 minute hike haha)

Like our amazing airplanes we made for Clint's family 4th of July Contest!

You should know we both recieved awards... mine for best decorated (since it really couldn't fly...) and Clint got the Grandma's favorite award!! (he should've won the highest flyer except it caved under the pressure of the actual competition... during the practice rounds it couldn't be beat!)

Ok, pictures are being weird again so more to come soon!!! :)

Boycott

Dear Clint,

... I am entirely frustrated with the living room. We just had a WONDERFUL open house in Idaho this past weekend. Before we left I cleaned and organized and everything had a place. We came home and this is what I am looking at.

I am going on a "present putting away" boycott. Feel free to join the cause. I just wanted you to be aware of this war waging in our apartment before you came home from school and the living room (which I was soo excited to organize when you left for school) looks like the battlefield it has turned into... I am now concentrating on relaxing by writing this blogpost and reading all of my friends' blogs. I know you will understand. I love you and can't wait for you to come home to me when we will make a delicious (and hopefully less eventful) dinner and maybe conquer this battle together!

Love your boycotting wife,

Alissa Prestwich

I still just love how that looks :)

Dinner Time!

So here we are. Clint and Alissa Prestwich.

We are so so in love.

We got married last weekend (June 17th)

We are settled in our apartment.

Naturally I wanted to cook my new husband a delicious dinner. So I pulled out the tried and true recipes thinking my first dinner has to be perfect.

Chicken and Rice cassorale. Piece of cake. (We even have all the ingredients!)

... until I realized we didn't have all the ingredients.

but we can use cream of mushroom instead of cream of chicken right?

I put it all together, mixed it up and covered it with foil to put in the oven.

I put on the timer. 45 minutes. Then it was done!

... I opened the foil to see this.

I had accidently left the plastic spoon I had used to mixed it all up in the pan!!!

but instead of crying over melted plastic (like I wanted to do) Clint decided to laugh

we grated some cheese

... only we didn't have a cheese grater so Clint shaved the cheese block

which turned into this masterpiece

and we set the table

..only we don't have chairs

so we sat at the couch

we used the piano seat as a table

..which wasn't big enough so the juice spilt

but Clint was quick to run to the kitchen as I moved the cups to a safer location

and we finally had dinner.

Who knew it would turn out so great? ;)

Man, this happily ever after business is a little different than the movies...

<3