Baby it's Cold Outside

I thought that would be a good title for a wintery February post. It's definitely cold outside and believe snow is in the forcast!

Life is treating us well these days! Tyler and I were laughing today about how we can't even remember September, October, November, or even December for that matter. It seems like life as just flown by. School definitely keeps us busy, then throw Young Women's and clerk duties in with it. Tuesday night we had new beginnings. I had fun introducing the new beehives. They are so sweet and innocent. I can't believe that I was ever that little. Tyler told me, "You weren't." He said, "Wwhen we were that age we thought we were all grown up because we were older than we had ever been before!!" They're sweet girls and it's fun to work with them every week. We went sledding a few mutual nights ago. Well, we were suposed to go sledding. It was about -4 with the wind chill so I didn't even try going down the hill. Our two girls who came went down twice and were done so we just went back to the church and played a game! good times.

We had the missionaries over to dinner tonight. That was fun. It interests me how when we tell people we're teachers they always have a story. Usually it involves ditching class, writing a bunch of BS and getting an A+ because the teacher didn't read it, all kinds of things. At first it's funny, but then it's just irritating! And I mean it. When you meet a teacher on the street, please don't tell them how much you hated school. They already have enough of the "I hates and I don't cares" to be content without hearing what you pulled on your teachers! But no matter how much kids hate school or try to get out of working, there are always a few fantatstic students who want to learn. And guess what, they're going to be our doctors and rocket scientists someday, making the big bucks. So don't make fun of us!! (Oh ya, and teachers too, not actually making the big bucks, but loving life and still loving school just like when they were in high school!) he truth is, unlike an estimate 99% of the world ( note: I just made that number up) I still like school and I've been going for almost 18 years now. Thats 18 out of 23 years of life which makes up 78% if my life. (Thank heavens for summers! Wait I don't think I figured that out of the percentage!)


Sorry, I hope you found the humor in that!!
Tyler is off to the mountains tomorrow for a field trip--They're taking the sixth graders to the Uintas to see some dog races. Pretty neat if you ask me! We got him some new boots tonight. Apparently they told the kids they had to wear boots so he figured he ought to abide by the rules.Unfortunately if it snows tonight the bus driver said they can't go. Hopefully for the kids sake they get to take them. (See school isn't all bad!)


Happy Valentine's Day XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOX

Long Week

We started a new semester this week and for some reason that made it seem extremely long. Getting new students is an interesting challenge. Teenagers always seem to have their guard up like they don't want you to know who they are or anything about them. They also want to see what you'll put up with and what they can get away with. For the most part they're pretty good kids. I'm teaching 2nd semester Algebra now so I still have some of the same kids. That has made this week a little easier. They're fun becuase they know me and my expectations. They also seem to act like they've got an "in" with the teacher. I have one kid who's a wrestler. I know very little about wrestling, mostly because those outfits--wow--not going there! Anyway, this week I learned all about the scoring in wrestling and how this kid (freshman) lost only by "points" to a senior. He was pretty excited and it was fun to listen to his story.

This semester I guess rumore has it that I'm the mean teacher!!! I put exclamation marks because often in the teaching world the "mean" teachers are doing their job and keeping kids from doing whatever I want. This same kid who told me everything there is to know about wrestiling explained that some kids think I'm mean because I give homework every night, don't let them listen to i-pods in class, or let them goof around. He then preceded to tell me that's why his mom signed him up for my class!! Isn't that just classic!! I think it's great. When I told me fellow math teachers I was the mean teacher they just laughed and gave me the thumbs up and a "good for you!" Well that's been my week in a nutshell. Somedays Teahing school terrifies me. Other days I look at how hard I worked to get what I have -- my own classroom -- my own students -- a real job as a math teacher. Wow!! I love it. And as my dad says, "they wouldn't pay you if they thought it was supposed to be easy." Thanks Dad!

Until next time, Happy January!! My birthday is only one week away!!!
Smiles KJ

Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving was a few months ago, but since I've been slow on updating I thought it would still be fun to add a few pictures of the holiday season with the Jessups! Hope you enjoy!!!

My mom and Aunt Sharon being totally goofy while working on the After-Thanksgiving-Craft! It's tradition in the Allen family to make some cutesy thing for Christmas after dinner on Thanksgiving day. We used to do extensive toll-painting projects. Now we do foam art ornaments and that type of thing. I don't know how this tradition got started, but it's tradition! and my little cousins loved the foam art. (I liked them too -- they worked great on my bulletin board. In fact they're still there becuase I haven't had time to switch if from snowmen and Christmas trees to something "January -ish" May be I'll wait until February to change it??? Okay that was a little too much about this silly picture! )

Katie and I having fun together! I miss seeing her everyday or even every week like we used to in Rexburg. She's having so much fun there that I hesitate to call her at school. All the fun things she tells me about make me wish I were back in Rexburg. It's always nice to be with family! You don't know how much you love them until they're far away.

My Dad after a whole lot of Turkey!!! Mmmm and Zzzzzzzz

Boys playing Catan -- Nathan almost always wins so I'm getting tired of playing with him. If you've never played you should try it, but schedule and hour or two to get through the game.

Cookies!

Here we are taking a break from school and enjoying the holiday season. Tyler and his fancy camera skills set up this shot! Don't be fooled by my homemaking skills. (The cookies came from a mix and the frosting came from a can. I did dye it green and added the m & m's for a little holiday bling bling though!)

Christmas

Here we are at temple square in December! Going to see the lights has always been a tradition in my family. This year we met Sterling, Charla, and Brayten there on a Friday night. One perk to living in Evanston... SLC is only 1 1/2 hours away!

Hurray!

We've finally cleared the pumkins! This background should last us a bit longer!

Out of date and okay with it!

I'm sorry that I am such a terrible blogger. As you can see the pumpkins from Halloween are still smiling brightly down the page. Please don't think of us as out of date. Instead -- think of it as ten months early!! Honestly I don't know where November and December have gone. It seems that ever since we moved to Evanston and started teaching the months have flown by and I haven't had time to think about where they've gone. Our Christmas vacation like usual has been spent on the road from Wyoming to beaver, to St. George, to Beaver, to Salt lake, to Wendell, and soon back to Evanston. Not quite world travelers, but it feels like it! We had a nice Christmas with Tyler's family. Our little nephew sure was fun to be around. He's about seven months old now and doesn't quite know what to do with presents. I think he was more into the wrapping paper than the toys. For our 3rd anniversary on the 29th we stayed in downtown Salt Lake. Tyler took me to the little aquarium in Sandy, we ate at Johnny Carino's, and walked around the mall! It was really nice just to be together! I can't believe that it's been three years already. Wow how time flies! After our anniversary we came here to Wendell to see my family for a few days. I forgot to add Boise into that travel log. We are headed there tonight to watch Nate's basketball game before going home tomorrow. When I get home I'll get some pictures for your viewing pleasure and try to remove the cute little pumpkins. May be I'll put up Easter bunnies so as to be ahead of the holidays but not too far ahead! Happy New Year to all of you. Thanks for keeping us updated! I'll try to be a better blogger in 2009!!

KJ