Titles

Throughout the last few years of my life, I have had quite a few different titles to certain people {children} in my life. 

From Kendra to Miss Kendra to Miss Haynie and Mrs. Haynie to 'hey teach' and, my latest favorite from my kindergartners, Mrs. Teach. I have loved all of these titles and love the memories that I associate with each of them.

Although I will miss those titles for the next little while, I am even more excited to take on the new title. 

That of, "Sister Haynie."

That's right all, I will be serving as a full time missionary (18 months) for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

I have been working on my papers and by the end of this next week, they should be in! Should I have waited until they were in to make this announcement and actually post it on my blog? Well, probably. But I am just so stinkin' excited!!

When I think about it long and hard, I get really nervous that I am not capable enough to be an actual missionary. What if I don't know enough? Or what if I am not able to feel and interpret the spirit? What if I am just not good at talking to people? (This one should not really be an issue..) What if I am not able to study for two hours+ a day? What if people don't listen to what I say and no one wants to get baptized? What if I get really home sick? What if... What if... What if...

Then I realized, that I had a good answer/come back to all of my ridiculous questions. I have a testimony of this Gospel and because of that, everything else will fall into place, that will be enough. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and I know that he wants me to serve a mission. Because I know that, and because I know he qualifies those he calls, I know that I do not need to be afraid. Will a lot of learning have to take place? Most definitely. But with God's help, I know that I can succeed. I have been so blessed throughout my life to have the knowledge of the Gospel. To be raised in a family where it has been ingrained into every facet of my life. I get to be the one spreading that good news to the rest of the world...at least a small portion of it. I can not wait to get out there and spread the word about the greatest thing in my life. I am so extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity!

Elder Andersen said it best -- "Our spiritual journey is the process of a lifetime. We do not know everything in the beginning or even along the way. Our conversion comes step-by-step, line upon line. We first build a foundation of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We treasure the principles and ordinances of repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We include a continuing commitment to prayer, a willingness to be obedient, and an ongoing witness of the Book of Mormon. (The Book of Mormon is powerful spiritual nourishment.)

We then remain steady and patient as we progress through mortality. At times, the Lord’s answer will be, “You don’t know everything, but you know enough”—enough to keep the commandments and to do what is right."   -Elder Neil L. Andersen

From Kendra to Sister Haynie...and I could not be more excited!

P.S. Stay tuned for the actual call... it will be announced here first! :)

Yay for Kindergarten!

"The Christmas spirit's startin', down in the Kindergarten." 

So, I realized today that I never even told the blogging world that after I got done teaching sixth grade, planning myself to death and turned in my TEACHER WORK SAMPLE... I got put in a new placement. Teaching Kindergarten at Deerfield Elementary in Cedar Hills. It is now a 40-70 minute commute...instead of a 5 minute walk, which is a little sad. But I am loving it regardless. Teaching 5 and 6 year olds has been quite the switch for me and it took some adjusting. Mostly just taking sarcasm out of my daily life (hard!) and making my jokes consist of bunny ears and things that smell. It is truly a different world down there. But they are adorable and make you feel like you are the best thing ever, pretty much every day.

But, this post is not to tell you about kindergarten in general. I just wanted to let you know that today we had a gingerbread hunt. I made this gingerbread man talked him WAY up. I have been reading gingerbread books to them during read a loud all week. I told the kiddos I would share him with them after recess. Recess came and went and the gingerbread man disappeared!! We made PREDICTIONS about what happened to the gingerbread. Many of which consisted of, "he ran away!" "You and Mrs. E ate him when we were at recess!" "Someone stole him!" Etc. I was entertained. I asked the class if they saw anything that maybe my gingerbread man could have left to help us know where he was. Insert picture 3 below... Clue #1 on the white board. 

Cute right? OK, he could have been A LOT better, but we were low on supplies. 

 

We went on our hunt around the school and the kids were on their best behavior and SO cute. We visited the library, the office and the custodian's office. They were so excited. It is times like that where I really do love those younger grades. I know I could not have gotten my 6th graders to be that excited about a gingerbread man hunt... or all my talk and jokes about Santa. Kindergartners are really good for the enthusiasm factor. 

Mostly? I just wanted to show off my cute gingerbread men. I had two, but the morning class ate theirs before I thought to take a picture of it. And that is just one of my many adventures in kindergarten! 

To come? Thanksgiving...College Graduate... AND moving out of Wellington 4. This is huge, you will want to stay tuned. 

Halloween!

Halloween. I am absolutely obsessed with it. I have heard from a lot of people my age (and maybe it is more normal...) that Halloween has kind of lost its excitement since becoming 'grown up'. Well friends, I am exactly the opposite. Since 'growing up' and being a college student, not to mention currently a teacher to 50 kindergartners, Halloween has only become more and more exciting to me. I LOVE decorating my apartment for Halloween, and even more than that, I love dressing up. Let me just give you a little recap... a little trip down memory lane shall we?

It starts at my freshman year of college, 2007: 

Hard Core biker chick...who wouldn't want to date that right? My thoughts exactly. 

and as if I was not intimidating enough already, well let's add a tattoo, fish nets and 5 inch heels. Yeah... :)

Then my sophomore year, 2008. Year of the most epic Halloween party (until 2011 that is) and our costumes...well basically I have never seen anything cooler or more creative since. I give you; the Troll Dolls.

Complete with belly jewel and all. I loved this year, SO much. 

A few friends and family members at various parties. We all slept in our living room this night. As to not mess up our hair for actual Halloween the next day...with a large sheet under all of us as to not tint our pillows.

Junior year of college, 2009. This year was a hard year. It was going to be hard to beat our amazing ensemble from the year before...so we did not really even do anything for Halloween until the day of. Let me present to you, the 'Spice' Girls. 

Paprika, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cinnamon Spice.
Clever right? Pretty sure it was Kris' idea...she was the brains behind our whole operation.
We thought it was brilliant.

"SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!"

Which brings me to my 'senior' year of college up next, 2010. We felt lame. My best friends had gotten married, one of my sisters moved across the country and well, I did not feel brilliant. Not to mention, I was teaching second grade and felt like I was too busy...oh, if I only knew what the future would bring. Needless to say, I went with my default, 50's girl.

I mean, we are still pretty cute. But I feel like a cop out when I do not go big or go home. Meaning when I do not hand craft my costume. But, it was still pretty fun!

Getting on to the point of this post, I love Halloween and this past Halloween was no different. We decided to throw a Halloween dance party of epic proportions (I am apologizing now for my extreme use of the word epic...you try using any other word to describe what we do!). In 2008 we threw one with the girls in the across the hall apt. Our place was used for dancing, and theirs was food and sitting. It was pretty sweet. There was no room to stand, or sit or anything there were so many people. Our music was hoppin' and the cops came and shut us down. Oops... it was the married people across the way who called and complained, pretty sure.

Well this year, we decided we had had two years off from throwing parties and it was time for another one. After the last one, our apt was disgusting. Caramel popcorn in the carpet, nasty food and water everywhere and I was not up for cleaning that again. So I decided we would have it in our parking garage. Get all the cars to move, (I have the best girls ever in my ward and they all moved their cars for the event...thanks!!) black plastic the walls and spray paint with neon, black lights in all the sockets, food for everyone without running out, epic music playlist (black music!) with bomb sound system, us in our out of this world costume, and attendees. Perfect recipe for a party you won't quickly forget.

Downstairs, during decorating time.

Our food table.

We were decorating all day, and it was more than worth it! We were even left with enough time to go and get us all ready in our costumes.... 

Taco Bell sauce packets, lady and gents! 

ya know, the ones with the sayings. Let's just say we made A LOT of trips to Taco Bell in the month of October..and we had a lot of extra sauce in our apartment to help us pick our the perfect sayings.! :)  

"Think Outside the Bun!"

How adorable are my parents?! Yeah, they brought the fam up for our party.

Pretty much my whole family was here for the event, and it rocked. 

(Fam, where did Parker go and why is he not in this picture?)

Let me tell you, it was beyond crazy weeks before that, and cost us a small fortune, but we gave Provo a party of a lifetime! Throughout the night, there were anywhere from 400 to 500 people. The garage was packed, food got eaten, people came from everywhere and I went to bed ridiculously exhausted and proud to know W4 still knows how to throw an out of this world party.

Jealous you weren't there? 

It's ok...maybe we will throw another one.

I am a little bit sad to take down all of my Halloween decorations, but lucky for myself, and my roommates...Christmas is just around the corner! :)

To be grateful...

Every Tuesday, my class has their D.A.R.E. Officer come and talk to them. If you did not do D.A.R.E. in 5th or 6th grade, I am very sorry. It was one of my favorite things. I still remember Officer Edwards...I won the essay contest and he gave me the stuffed lion, I was stoked. I wonder where that is..? Anyway, it stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. IT is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. (I just stole that from their website...)

Anyway, Mrs. I got out a little box with paper in it that the kids can write questions on and the DARE officer will answer them when he comes. I read through them before hand just to make sure they are appropriate questions. Most commonly you will find, "Have you ever arrested someone and been shot at?" or "How many gangs do you break up and take to jail?"

Because you always break up an entire gang at the same time and haul them all to the big house...ESPECIALLY in Utah.  Good children.

Today I was reading through the questions and found one that read, "If my parents smoke in the garage when it is closed and then I go out their later and accidentally breathe in the smoke because I can't hold my breath long enough, can I still get cancer? I try really hard to make them smoke all the way outside, but they won't. They sometimes smoke in the house too. --Please don't read out loud."

My heart broke. Here is this little girl, that is as tender as can be. Whose mom and step dad are heavy chain smokers and who knows what else. She is frequently with her dad and step mom and they are the rock in her life, but custody rights demand she spends so much time a month with her mom.

Now, we all know that just inhaling the remnant of a cigarette smoked should not, under typical circumstances give you cancer, but you remember the huge emphasis placed on second hand smoke and the harmful effects that it can have. She is more than concerned about that and the fact that she has to hold her breath in her own house.

Are there a lot of kids like this? Yes. I am surrounded by them at my school as I can smell smoke on a lot of their clothes as I get on their level to answer questions. But the last few weeks have just really given me cause to reflect on the life that I was provided with because of the good choices that my mom and dad were constantly making. I am so grateful that I had my mom to come to my parent teacher conference and the maturation program with me (super funny story about that to come!) I am so grateful, that even though she was always half an hour late picking me up from after school choir, that she was there. I knew she was coming and not off partying and drinking with her friends. I have lots to be grateful for. I am learning more and more everyday about how I have had quite the fairytale life...and I am trying everyday to not take it for granted!

Excerpts from 6th Grade

I have learned, in my past few weeks (almost 8) of teaching, that sixth graders are just not near as funny as second graders. They have a lot more of other things than second graders like; attitude, chattiness, disrespect, sarcasm, knowledge etc. ;) But their knowledge is already so great that the amount of funny things coming out of their mouths are a lot less. But we have a few and last week was one that I was laughing at for quite some time. I am not sure if anyone else is going to think it is funny...but you probably should just tell me you laughed to humor me...ok? OK, thanks.

So we threw a baby shower for Mrs. I (my cooperating teacher) last week. She is due in about 3 weeks. Crazy right? I know. The class moms put it all together and it meant that I did not have to plan the day from 2:00-3:00, love things like that. They played typical baby shower games that the kids just loved. The melted candy bar in the diaper one, where you have to smell it and look at it to determine what it is. The game is gross, I am not sure why it is played. But the kid's faces were totally worth it. We played where you cut a piece of string however long you think will go around the mothers belly etc. It was a super fun time, not to mention I got a Capri Sun and grapes-- Love class parties!

At the end of the shower, I was getting the kids ready to go to P.E. and band. When Mrs. I said, "Class, the next science rotation unit we are starting is on sound. I just want to put a thought in your mind about bear cub." (That is what she calls her child)
She continues to ask the class why they think that the sounds bear cub is currently making inside her, can not be heard by people. A lot of different solutions were thrown out there and eventually one student said, "I don't think bear cub is making any noises." followed by, "Yeah, because he is connected to you. So if he were making any noises they would be coming out of Mrs. I's mouth."

I almost died. Mostly because the image of my cooperating teacher all of a sudden letting out a wail of a cry in the middle of trying to teach a lesson, is pretty much the funniest mental picture. I assured my student, that just because bear cub is connected to Mrs. I, does not mean that he has control over the sounds that come out of her mouth...or anywhere else for that matter. It made for a real good laugh and I enjoyed it.


P.S. Babies actually CAN cry in the womb! I just researched it. Cool!

What funny things have you heard kids say lately? They keep life entertaining, that is for sure!