Preparing for Church....

I just finished my lesson for tomorrow and I also came up with a 'rewards chart' - so I am hoping it helps with the lack of reverence and non-stop talking during class time! I am sure it won't go perfectly, but I still can hope!! So here's what I did ...



Along the left is each child's name and then a square for each day of the month. Each Sunday they get up to 5 chances to get stickers for that day. At the end of the month the number of stickers they have determines their reward!! Since food isn't allowed it was hard to come up with rewards! But here's what I did ...

Rewards: *there is a chance to get 80 stickers/month*
75+: Ice Cream Party (outside of church)
70-74: Watch a church movie during class time
60-69: Class Game
50-59: Stickers
40-49: Sit on the floor during class time
39 or less: Take a walk outside

How can they earn stickers?
- Being there
- Saying the opening prayer
- Good listener during sharing time
- Good listener during class time
- Saying the closing prayer

We'll see how it goes this month...I'm not sure if I'm giving out to many stickers but last week one of my kids asked "do I get a sticker for saying the opening prayer?". So I figured more is better then less in this case! I'll check back in in a month and let you all know how it went!

Wish me luck!

Shake, Rattle & Roll!

Yep, this morning I woke up to an earthquake!! It wasn't very big and didn't last long - but it still was exciting!! Brandi & I both were up right away and turned on Komo to see what they said. It took them almost 10 minutes before Komo mentioned it and then a little longer for it to be confirmed! For awhile, Brandi & I thought we might have imagined it! But it finally was confirmed at a 4.5 magnitude.

I woke up to hear stuff rattling - and before I could figure out what it was everything started shaking and it was obvious it was an earthquake.

---
Information from the http://www.usgs.gov/ website:
Magnitude: 4.5
Date-Time: Friday, January 30, 2009 at 05:25:03 AM at epicenter
Location: 47.772°N, 122.557°W
Depth: 58.3 km (36.2 miles) set by location program
Region: SEATTLE-TACOMA URBAN AREA, WASHINGTON
Distances
3 km (2 miles) NW (313°) from Indianola, WA
5 km (3 miles) N (7°) from Suquamish, WA
5 km (3 miles) SW (236°) from Kingston, WA
23 km (14 miles) NW (314°) from Seattle, WA
Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 1.4 km (0.9 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters: NST= 34, Nph= 34, Dmin=26 km, Rmss=0.26 sec, Gp= 50°,M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source: Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network
Event ID: uw01301325
---

This was nothing compared to the 6.8 'Nisqually' Earthquake in February 2001, but it still was an earthquake and still fun to talk about!!

Amazement of Text Messaging & Email

Today there was a LOCKDOWN at our school after the campus US Bank was robbed and the robber then ran onto campus. Within 2 minutes of the robbery I had been contacted via text message on my cell phone telling me that the school was in lockdown and what to do. Within 6 minutes my dad and I had received emails regarding the lockdown which included a description of the robber.

I was fortunately (or unfortunately since I missed all the action) was home when it happened so I wasn't on campus to see exactly how the faculty and students dealt with the lockdown. But from what I heard after I went to school today it was pretty flawless.

After the Virginia-Tech tragedy last year, SPU made it a high priority to put a warning system into effect and for the first time today they really got to put it to use! I am absolutely amazed by it, as our my parents. They are thrilled with the idea that they too get contacted and receive all information that SPU sends out during an emergency.

It amazes me that SPU was able to contact the majority of the student body via text-messaging within 2 minutes and then faculty, students and parents via email with information within 6 minutes. That absolutely blows my mind.

Sunday, Sunday

Today was another ordinary Sunday. My mom and dad were visiting Grace & Leslie in Olympia and helping them move into their new house, so it was just me and Alex going to church. It's nice that we once again have the 9:00am time, so that means up early, but also done early!

I got released from nursery a couple weeks ago, after serving in it for over 3 years, and immediately went into the intermediate primary. Our ward (not including nursery, I'm pretty sure) has 190 kids, so we have it split between nursery, junior, intermediate and senior primary. I was assigned to the 3rd CTR 6 class, and have 6 very active kids...4 boys and 2 girls. I hate to admit it but I think nursery is easier!

I'm struggling to figure out how to bring reverence into the classroom when all the kids want to do is chit-chat, climb on the chairs, climb under the chairs on and off the window sill, etc. So my goal for the week is work on some sort of reward system (and we aren't allowed treats, so there goes that great bribe!). It's definitely a fun age and a great class, just not something I'm used to, so I'm working on figuring out how best to serve these kids!

After church, Alex and I went home, she baked cookies for us while I started my homework (btw it is now 11pm and I still have homework to do...luckily I'm almost done). Alex, Brandi, Erin & I had "Christmas with the Elkins" this afternoon and brought our cookies and presents over to the triplets house to exchange gifts. Because of the snow, flooding and then the flu we had to keep postponing our get-together. We had a nice little celebration, I got more gifts (yay!) and we just talked! It was fun to be together!

After that I came back to...Jaime and the girls stopped by to join myself, Alex, Brandi, Erin & Kelly for dinner. I made everyone sloppy-Joe's (Yummmmmy!) all by myself and everyone was impressed. We hung out for awhile and then back to homework I went. Except for a brief break, I have been working away at my homework.

Are you getting the gist of my day ... basically all I did today was HOMEWORK. Ick! And tomorrow starts another week...WEEK 4 though, that means I'm 1/3 of the way through the quarter!! But tomorrow also is my long day! I need to finish up my homework so I can go to bed and won't have to do it in the morning!! I plan on sleeping in!!

EDIT: At 11:52 I finished ALL my homework now I can sleep in, in the morning! YAHOOO!!

Alex's Piano Recital & Meeting Josie

Today was Alex's Winter Piano Recital and Alex did a great job!! I wanted to share Alex's two recital pieces with all of you!! She is so talented and I was really proud of her!! Alex played two pieces "Silent Night" and "German Dance".

Meeting Josie

So Grandma and Zackery got a puppy today, a 6-month-old collie named Josie. This afternoon we all went over to Grandma's house to meet the puppy. She is definitely a puppy and pretty wild, especially with Madison around!! Oliver & Lucee (Grandma's cats) aren't overly found of Josie, but I am sure they will all get along just fine in the near future .... make that me too!

I'm not a big dog fan (okay not at all and make that all animals!), but I hope to be able to not freak out whenever Josie comes near me!! That's my goal...I can do it!! If I don't, it's gonna be really hard (and boring) to go to Grandma's house!! So my goal is to not be such a scaredy-cat around Josie!!

In final notes...I took my video camera back to RadioShack today and they happily exchanged it for a new one. They seemed to think that I just got a bad camera last time! So hopefully this one is better...if not I'll be sad and will be returning it to get a better one!!

I recorded Alex's recital on the old video camera so it's still kind of hazy looking, but hopefully this is the last one like that!

Maddie's Hair Salon: Victim....I Mean Client: Erin

Yikes! It's been almost a week since my last post :)

Madison is really into doing people's hair right now and putting 'bows' in them! It's cute...but can be painful! Last weekend Erin was nice enough (or maybe just brave enough!) to let Madison play with her hair!! Erin's hair was lovely by the end and as Brandi says in the video "Erin's hair has never had so much body in it before"!

and After....

So I've decided that I got a dud of a video camera...I was looking at some of the other videos people have taken on their same cameras and theirs are clear .... and HD like...plus now mine has these weird lines that run through it and they recorded onto some of my videos...ANNOYING. So hopefully tomorrow the smart and helpful (NOT!) people at Radio Shack can help me fix the problem or give me another camera to try out! If this is how this video camera records I think I'm gonna return it and get another!! This is ridiculous the quality it has ... unless I still am just using it wrong!! Regardless, I am determined to get answers tomorrow!!

Emma Meets Grandpa Scott & Grandma Holly

Today Scott & Holly came to meet Emma for the first time and of course I had to be right in the middle of it all!! Madison was shy at first but quickly warmed up and was then in her 'show-off' mode!

I also learned that Scott & Holly follow my blog...so now I have another reader and know it's not just me making people read it ;) Unfortunately, no pictures were taken with Holly in them today, but maybe tomorrow!

Grandpa Scott & the girls (not sure what's up with Em!) See Julia ... she does have eyes...and they are big like Mads!
Checking Eachother Out

Here Mad is in her Nemo costume during her 'show-off' period!

There's a picture of Scott holding Mads that looks just like this!

Introducing Emma to basketball!

Proud big sister!

This girl could use a modeling agent :)

Happy Saturday!!

Test Test Test

Ignore - testing to see if this works for facebook :)

LONG and yet really unproductive Day

Yesterday was a long day and yet I feel like I got very little accomplished, which is sad because I had tons I needed to get done. Which meant I stayed up really late doing homework and then was up again early this morning to finish. Last night I had a study session for chem and then a nursing application meeting.

I had to finish my chemistry homework and have it submitted by 11:00pm and then I had my theology worksheet I had to complete and then had to read a few pages of another book, take notes and prepare for a quiz on it today. It didn't seem like that much work - and I figured if I went to the SPU library and spent all afternoon I could get it all done - no problem...NOT!

I arrived at school about 2:30 and worked non-stop on my chem homework, but by the time I had to leave (about 6:30) to go to my study session I had accomplished maybe 5 problems out of the 12 or so I needed to get done. I was feeling very discourged and frustrated since I knew I had a LOT of theology homework still to do. I went to my chem study session and actually was able to get some answers to finish up the problems for my homework that I was struggling on, so that was nice. I think I submitted my assignment at 10:59pm, but still had 2 problems for the life of me I couldn't solve. Oh well...

I also went to the nursing application panel meeting - where there was 4 nursing students and a faculty member who were there to answer any questions I might have and help tell how to best write your application, essays ,etc. It was very informative, and I was happy I went. I learned that GPA isn't the only thing they look at - and many of the students on the panel didn't have the best grades either, but they still got in. They really just look at your essays and how committed you are to things - do you follow through? do you have passion? Since there isn't an interview - you have to show who you are through your essays. They strongly suggested having lots of people proof-read your essays and put lots of time and energy into them, as they can make or break your chances. I left feeling very anxious since the time is now here for me to apply, and yet more relieved to hear that the panel of students who got in didn't have perfect GPAs, very little volunteer experiences, etc - but they all had a passion and proved that in their essays. So we'll see ... next week my goal is to get my application done!!

After I got home, I had to get back to homework...I worked until about 1am and then had to quit. So I got up again this morning and finished it all up. It feels good to be done and have that pressure off of me! Not only that, once I get through my theology class today (and take the quiz), there is a LONG weekend for me and I don't go back to school until next Wednesday evening!! YAY!! I will survive ....

My Own Little Corner of the SPU Library

Yep, I have my own little space in the library - I've claimed it and 99% of the time it's free!! It's a little cubbie by the windows down on the bottom floor. It's quiet with very few people nearby, near the bathrooms (important for me), has a window and I get some cell service. The only negative thing is I sit right under an air conditioning vent and it's always cold!! But at least it keeps me awake!

I love my little cubbie - I can spread out and work on homework, study, or mess around on the computer!! I lived in this spot the last couple weeks of fall quarter during finals, and I'm sure I will this quarter too!