Columbus and [Her] Crew

Today in the fifth-grade classroom we transformed into Christopher Columbus (me) and his crew (my kiddos)! We had an exciting lesson about Columbus' first voyage, but only after we made our crew hats out of paper. Who knew that a simple paper hat could make a lesson so much fun? The kids had a blast putting them together. I even had four or five students that wouldn't take them off for the entire day :)

Teaching is awesome!

A Quick Catch-Up

Halloween was fun this year! Mel and I got to dress up with our Family Home Evening group. We went as a retirement home and won first place!

Mark and Brandon both dressed up this year--they were hilarious!



Mel and I were able to help out in a leaf-raking service project. It was freezing cold, but so worth it!

Our Thanksgiving feast! It was a blast to have most of my single cousins together! I have the best relatives ever.


It was also nice to have Jamie home for the weekend. I love it when she comes home to visit!

The three youngest Walkers.

We had a beautiful snow day last Sunday. What a lovely start to the Christmas season!

Lovin' the Teacher Position!

This is my final semester of college before I student teach. Right now I am in senior practicum. I spend two days a week at an elementary school 30 minutes away. I spend the whole day with the students and teach one or two lessons each time I go. It has been a lot of fun! I am assigned to the 5th grade class and they are great kids. Today I got to teach them about Native American Indian cultures, so I made a brown-paper bag Indian vest and headband. It was a blast! The kids loved it and stayed with me throughout the whole lesson. They were probably staring at me because they were thinking of how dorky their teacher is, but hey, at least I had their attention! haha.

My tough Indian-teacher face. I even made the kids call me Chief Walker, just like the name tag says! Haha, it was a hoot.

The school that I am at has these amazing Smartboards in each classroom! I had only heard of them before, but they are like a computer on the wall. It is hooked up to the laptop so you can use Internet and everything. They are so cool because you can just move objects and pictures on the screen with your hands. It also has markers and an eraser that go with it so it is like an electronic white board. It is insane! I love using it in my lessons.

I am so glad that I get this opportunity to learn and practice in a real classroom so that I can be better prepared for the responsibilities that student teaching will bring. Teaching is a ton of work, and some days I have to remind myself that this is where I am supposed to be, but overall it has been a wonderful experience and I am so grateful for the education I have received!

A Tribute to Ethel

I'm sad to report that my dear car, Ethel, bit the dust. In fact, I was slightly emotional today as I called the Auto shop to come and tow her away to be smashed or torn apart...I don't really want to think about it. This car and I have been through 3 solid years together, but it was time for her to go. She was old! In fact, she was only 2 years younger than Mel! :) Let's remember the highlights....

Meet Ethel

This dent came free upon purchase! Of course, what can you expect for a $500 car? :)

Her balding, rusting head. Andy so graciously pulled a piece of paint off every time we went somewhere together....which was a lot. Hence the balding.

Haha, the dent on the opposite door where she got backed into near our driveway.

The end! No really, this is Ethel's tail end and it too had some peeling problems.

I know that she was ugly, and I know that she was ghetto,
but I will really miss this old car!

Goodbye Ethel!

Back to Private

Well, I know that this blog is slightly boring (it's okay, I admit it!) and I don't know if anyone checks it anyway, but alas, I have decided to switch back to private. I will be making the change next week (the beginning-ish of October) so if anyone is not already added to my list that wants to still look at it, please give me your e-mail address so we can keep being friends! :)

A Few Randoms

My dear friend and old roommate, Erin, is headed off on a mission to Washington in just over a month! I got to spend a little bit of time with her before she took off to her hometown to prepare to head out. I will miss her very much!




Please PLEASE check out Mel's blog for an update on my darling little brother. He has been a hoot during this Homecoming week. I don't have any pictures of him on my camera because I was always at school when he got dressed, but Mel wrote a cute post and attached the pics. They are worth looking at! http://www.melaneesmemoir.blogspot.com/



I decided that it doesn't take much for me to stay entertained! Who would have thought that a silly pair of glasses could entertain a 22-year-old for so long? :D

My teacher face. I think I am ready to begin working in the schools!

I am in love with the movie Bandslam. Have you seen it yet? It's a cute movie full of awkward moments and weird teenagers. Seeing how I love weird kids, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Twice! Just a fun recommendation if you like music and laughs.

Birthday Fun!

Wow, my family spoiled me this week! We have been able to play a lot and it has been wonderful to spend so much time together! Mark wasn't able to be with us though, and I sure missed him! On Thursday we all headed up to West Yellowstone to watch the play "Guys and Dolls." I hadn't ever seen that show and it was pretty cute! On the way up Dad insisted that we stop and take a drink from the natural spring fountain on the side of the road:




On Friday, I was woken up early in the morning for a birthday breakfast! It is a fun tradition that our parents started when we were small children. Mom decorates the dining room with streamers, balloons, and fun birthday plates. When she started the tradition I bet she never dreamed that she would still be carrying it out over 20 years later! haha. She is the best! She always makes us feel like we're worth a million bucks on our birthdays.


I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with my sisters and Mother. It's always precious to spend time with my girls. We went to the Museum of Idaho to visit the Titanic exhibit. I admit that I am kind of a history nerd and I have been wanting to go to this exhibit since it first came in March, but being full-time in school this summer I was never able to go. It closes tomorrow, so we had to go before then! Mom, Jamie and I had never even seen the Titanic movie, so we made sure to watch it before we went. I'll tell you what, that movie is made very accurately in regards to the facts of the actual sinking! When you first enter the museum you are given a card with a name and information about a person who was really on the Titanic ship and you get to find out at the end if you survived. Mom, Mel and I survived, but Jamie's person didn't make it, which was sad. It was incredible though! I loved every minute of the tour.


After the museum we were quite hungry, so we went out to lunch at Red Robin. I have only been there once several years ago, but I was pleased! The food was very good. Jamie of course had to tell our waiter that it was my birthday, so he rallied up the group and they sang me a birthday song. It was pretty embarrassing :) But they did give me a free ice cream sundae and that helped ease the embarrassment! Oh the things we do for dessert! haha.

(I promise I don't always eat like a pig! haha)

Oh man, lunch was a good time! We get a little bit silly when we're all together and the girls had me laughing so hard I could barely breathe. There is never a dull moment when the 4 Walker women are together!

I am so grateful that I was able to celebrate the weekend with my family! The activities are fun, the gifts are appreciated, but the time spent with my family is precious above all to me! I am one lucky woman.

David Cook!

Wow, our family got to go to the David Cook concert on Wednesday night and it was incredible! Here are our excited faces:

For more pictures and video clips check out Mel's post at melaneesmemoir.blogspot.com. She has a really nice camera and was able to get some good stuff! Well what are you waiting for? Check it out!

The Results Are In.....

Well, I have blog-worthy news: I passed my 2 state Praxis exams! In case you aren't sure what it is, the Praxis is a state certification exam you have to take when becoming an educator. (In my case, an elementary school educator.) I took both of the two-hour long tests a month ago and was very nervous to get the results back, but it all worked out! Thank heavens!

P.S. After taking 3 state literacy exams, 9 math quizzes/tests, and 2 state Praxis exams, among the hours put into lesson planning and presenting, I have learned that those who say Elementary Education is an easy major have NO idea what they are talking about! :)

My New Ride

Well, my darling car, Ethel, died recently. So it was time to move on and get a new vehicle. I looked at cheap cars, but nothing was striking me. However, after a long search, Bryan helped me find this little beauty. It's a 2007 Honda Metropolitan and it rides nicely! It's fun to ride and is perfect for parking (especially on campus where parking a car is impossible!) Isn't it ironic though that we have been having beautiful weather this summer and now that I buy a scooter it decides to turn cold :) Thank goodness for winter clothing!

The Huckleberries are On!

On Tuesday our family and a few friends headed up into the mountains to go huckleberry picking. They were really good this year! Our family was able to pick 8 gallons! Yum! Perfect for cheesecake, ice cream, cereal, ......

Warning...

WARNING: Never, I repeat, NEVER try to take the short cut by broiling taco shells instead of baking them like instructed. If you do, you will turn this...

...Into this. Two crispy, smelly, fire-starting taco shells that cannot be eaten. Not worth the 7 minutes or so you may save :)

Mesa Falls

I have been trying to think of something I could post on this thing before everybody gives up on me and deletes my blog address out of their computer! I don't take pictures very often....ever, and I update my blog even less than that, but luckily I live with a sister takes pictures, so I am going to just borrow a few from her collection. Thanks Mel! Here is the story of our Mesa Falls Adventure!

For Memorial Day, Mel and I went with some friends from our ward to Mesa Falls. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I had never been there before and I have lived near them all of my life. But there's always a first for everything! We began our journey by stopping to feed the fish at Warm River. I love this simple pleasure! And throwing piece after piece of broken-up bread into the water for the giant fish to eat never gets old!

Here is the ward crew. We have a wonderful college ward and do lots of fun activities together!

The Upper Falls. These waterfalls are gorgeous! The next time you read in the scriptures about God's majestic creations, think Mesa Falls. They are incredible!

Mel and I did have a little problem when we ran into Mama Bear......

...but don't worry! We put our heads together and came up with a plan to conquer that great beast.

Seriously, who did that bear think she was, messing with us?

What a wonderful trip it was! I am so glad that we got to go.

(And just in case you were worried, the bear wasn't real. Well, I guess it was real at one time, but this bear was dead, stuffed, and hung on the wall. Not my idea of home decor!)

California!

For the break between semesters, Mel, Brandon, and I flew to California to spend five days with Mark in Los Angeles. It was so wonderful! We were able to pack in our days with fun. Here are a few of our events:

First of all, this is Mark's beautiful Mercedes Benz. It was fun to cruise the freeway in this baby!

The Los Angeles Temple. It is really big! Very pretty as well.

We spent one afternoon visiting Beverly Hills and Hollywood. We toured this Celebrity Wax Museum where they create the celebrities out of wax (haha, go figure). Some of them looked SO real!

The wax figurines of The Beverly Hillbillies. We were just making ourselves part of the family :)

We visited the Santa Monica and Venice Beaches. Sadly, the wind was picking up and it was chilly this day! But we still enjoyed ourselves.

Mark pulled off tickets to the L.A. Clippers NBA game! We got so lucky and sat in row 8. Way cool!

The happiest place on earth.....Disneyland! No person is too old to enjoy this magical place. We spent the entire day here!

The four of us comrads. We had so much fun with Mark! He is a wonderful brother!