terrible horrible no good very bad day!

Lost my keys.
Late to staff meeting.
Bus duty.
Afternoon recess duty.
Student has out of school suspension tomorrow.
Iowa testing.
Feeling sick.
Tomorrow can only get better:).

Really, it wasn't all that bad, but I have had better days:). It's funny when one event turns out crumby it's a like a contagious germ and effects the rest of the day...

THE Good News...TODAY WAS PAYDAY! Still no insurance, but I got paid! I'm pretty sure that this rough patch of no money has taught me one thing...NEVER CHANGE FROM YEAR-ROUND TO TRADITIONAL AND NEVER CHANGE SCHOOL DISTRICTS:).

New Pics of Elder Finley this week!

GoTtA LOVE P-DaY!

Ladies Night...Relief Society Conference Tickets...

So I had 5 tickets to RS conference last night!
We were so excited to go!
Mom, Sister, Niki, Tasha, me!
We drove there early.
Not early enough.
Couldn't park anywere!
Drove to a chapel nearby.
Loved the talks!
I have a desire to fill my life with more service and to learn more and more!
We went to Chuck-A-Rama!
Ate Yummy Food!
Had lots of fun!
The End!

Classroom Prank Wars!

Inside the tent...Muhahaha!

Just look at all those back packs!

A couple of weeks ago, I took my students to lunch, as usual, we left our classroom right at 12:20. We get to the lunch room and there are only a few classes in there and everything just looks a little off...then I look up at the clock and it's 12:00! We arrived 20 minutes early! The lunch lady said it was fine and to just enjoy my NICE, LONG LUNCH! I told her that my clock must be off, but it just seemed weird.

I get back into my class only to realize that the clock on my wall was brown...and I have a silver clock! Tasha had switched our clocks at recess because her clock sucks and has issues! (She didn't know I'd get a long lunch out if it, SUCKER!) Her clock is a little slow...(I will refrain from cracking a joke right now...:))

About a week later I had a few of my students help me take all of her students back packs and come hide them in our tent. I wrote a note on her door that said "You'll get your back packs back when I get my clock back!"

A few minutes before the last bell was to ring, Miss Radman's Class came into my class on a hunt for their back packs (PS I told them that they were in the lunch room, hehe!) They instantly looked in tent, it was a mad house all of the sudden and all the kids were shouting and looking like crazy for their backpacks!

The kids really love these pranks! It's so much fun! We have a few rules about safety and feelings though, don't you worry!

PS...A little birdy came to my classroom on Friday afternoon to tell me they are in on helping prank Miss Radman's room...so tomorrow she has a little surprise waiting for her...shhh!

Miss Finley & Miss Radman GO CAMPING!

My students are going to have a hay day when they see all of these camping pictures! As most of you know, I have a camping theme and even have a tent for reading and stuff in my classroom...so naturally the kids know that I love camping and the outdoors!

This was a first for me, going camping with another teacher that is... I went with Tasha's branch, yep you read that right, BRANCH! There are branches all over Utah apparently...she lives in Sugar House and goes to a branch, weird. We went camping up by Kamus. It was beautiful up there! With all the leaves changes...I wish I had some pics of that, gotta love the foliage!

PS Ask me about our crazy directions some time! It took us like 5 hours to get there, just kidding I'm exaggerating, but it really was quite the adventure, let's just say a man wrote the directions, hehe!

Happy Birthday Day! Dad!

On September 22nd, my dad had a birthday! My dad doesn't brag about himself very much...so let me for just a second... he is amazing! My dad is what you call a "HARD WORKER!" He always has a hundred projects going...building sheds, painting, staining, fixing cars, hammering things to the walls, making new stuff to duck hunt with, etc. He's always helping people with their cars or their houses... especially me...one time he drove all the way to Little America to fix my car! What a trooper!

Guess WHO Came to Dinner!

My ward does this thing where you sign up to go to "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!" A few weeks after you sign up, someone calls you, tells you that you are in their group and what to bring when you go to dinner. It's a surprise who's coming, well except for the host and even then it's still a surprise (there's a lot of people in the ward!)

Today I hosted "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and it was a B-L-A-S-T! I decided to spice up the night and I made name tags for everyone. The name tags said their name really big and then had five questions underneath that said...

You’re going to ask anyway…so here are my answers…
1. I grew up in… ___________________________________________________
2. I went to high school at… _________________________________________
3. I spend my time….working at…going to school at....______________________
4. When I have an hour of free time, I like to… (Ex. Video games, Shopping…hehe!) _____
5. There are three adjectives which describe me?_____________________

We also played a game called, "Two Truths and a Lie." Everyone wrote two things that were true about them and one lie on a piece of paper, then we read off the papers and first tried to figure out who it was and once we figured out the person, we tried to figure out their lie. It was fun to get to know other people and have fun while doing it!

For dinner we had English Muffin Pizza's, which were surprisingly good!

The Method to my Madness...Explaination of the Blog Roll

Jerome has a question, "What honor do I get for being your Mustang Friend?"

My Response: "You are a Mustang because you are wild and crazy...just kidding! My friends are grouped according to what Era of life I met them in. For as long as I can remember I have always been in school. Each school has a mascot and because of my school spirit, I decided to group my friends according to the mascot associated with that era of my life! Thus my Dragon friends have been my friends the longest! Any new friends coming up will be Tigers!"

Shopping and Movies, Girls Day OUT!

This is Rita, my "little sister" in her new shirt!

Rita and I went shopping to buy her a new outfit for back to school! We came home with two really cute outfits! Her favorite was her High School Musical Shirt! After shopping we went back to my place and watched a movie! It was so much fun!

The other day when I called her to see if she could hang out, she said that it had been a long time since we hung out (2 weeks). She proceeded to tell me that she would still keep me as a Big Sister even though we haven't hung out in a while and she wouldn't trade me in for a new one. Sheesh, we know who wears the pants in this relationship!

Can you say "TEACHER!"

I totally screamed teacher the other day when I walked out of Target! All the school supplies were on major clearance! I spent $11.00 and bought 300 Spiral Notebooks and 140 Folders! Check out my trunk!

Nothing Like a Good Friday Night!

This is my mom when I told her that the fortune cookie she was eating had 300 Calories in it! She said "that is defiantly not worth 300 calories!" PS I have no clue how many calories are in fortune cookies, I just wanted to see what she did and I got the reaction I was looking for!

Friday night, Leslee, my mom and I all went to dinner. Then afterwards, Leslee, her friend Sarah, and I all went to a singles activity in Draper at Boondocks.

This IS the RIGHT PLACE!

This past Thursday I was finally able to go somewhere, I've always wanted to go...THIS IS THE PLACE monument!

"This Is The Place Monument marks the spot where the Mormon Pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley and marks the end of the 1,300-mile Mormon trail.It was here that Brigham Young stopped his carriage in July 1847 and, after surveying the desert valley near the shores of the Great Salt Lake, declared, "This is the right place." On July 24, 1947, exactly 100 years after his declaration, a heroic-sized bronze sculpture of Young and two of his colleagues was placed atop a 60-foot pedestal overlooking the Valley." Source: http://www.thisistheplace.org/

It was kind of late, so we didn't go on a tour or anything...so if anyone wants to, let me know (or wants to find me a hottt date to go with, hehe). It was amazingly beautiful up there, you could see the whole valley, and it just brought this subtle peace to my soul. Alanna and I talked about the importance of having an eternal perspective and making the best of what is here and now.

Finley Funnies!

Finley Funnies is a Column I'm writing here in my blog and is dedicated to the great things kids say!

This week in Camp Finley... (Student's actual names will not be used.)

Darren: "Miss Finley, um, some people think I speak Spanish, but I don't. I'm not a Mexican. I speak Navajo."

Henry: "Can we have a talking time? Because you always say this is a working time, or a reading time, or a listening time, or a taking turns to talk time, but can we just have a talking time?"

Libby: "Miss Finley, do you like your shirt?"

Miss Finley: "Yeah, I like it alright."

Libby: "That's my favorite shirt of yours!"

Ben's classwork: When given the assignment to write two words that when put together, make a new word, otherwise known as a compound word wrote: Bill + Ding = Billding. It took me a minute to figure this one out. He meant BUILDING! What do you think...time to teach the difference between syllables and compounds?

Flashback Funny:

My second year of teaching I had the two funnies kids ever in my class. I really wish I could write their names and pay them tribute to their comedy! Let me paint a picture of these two boys who where best friends. One boy was very small, maybe kindergarten size but in second grade. He had a speech impediment and had a hard time say his "r"s. For privacy, let's call him Larry, and for the sake of painting a picture let's give his code name with two R's because his had two "r"s. Saying his name was obviously not easy for this little guy. The other boy was his best friend! They were inseparable! Let's call him Tanner. He was larger than the other second graders and let's just say most kids would know not to mess with him. Both boys were very intelligent.

Now for the funny story. On Secretaries day I had the kids write letters telling the secretaries how wonderful they were. Tanner wrote a very clever letter, not out of the usual for him. Larry wrote a very simple, get the job done type a letter, also very typical for him. He was very gifted, but smart enough to know that a simple letter would get him the same grade as a very detailed letter. Larry decides to read Tanner's letter. Now remember, Larry can not say his "R's!" As Larry gets to the end of reading this letter where Tanner has written:

"Love Literally, Tanner."

And the rest the conversation goes as follows:

Larry: "You don't literally love the secretaries!"

Tanner: (being the sweet boy he was) "I literally love them!"

Larry: "No you don't, that's not possible!"

Tanner: "I really, literally love them."

Larry: "No, you literally love your mom and dad, but not the secretaries!"

Tanner: "And I literally love the secretaries too."

Larry: "No, you literally love your mom and dad, or your family, but not the secretaries."

Tanner: "I literally love them."

Larry: (as he shouts across the room to me) "Miss Finley, can Tanner literally love the secretaries?"

Miss Finley: "There are different types of love."

Tanner: "See!"

Larry: "Hm, I still don't think you can literally love them."

Introducing Roxy & Rocky!

On Saturday at the Fair on 9th & 9th, I bought my first pets! My very own...this is a big step for me...I am now responsible for two African Dwarf Frogs! They are adorable! I've always wanted a pet frog and I've always wanted to name a pet Roxy, so there you have it! They are going to be class pets too. They met the class yesterday and of course they love them! I named Roxy and then I let the students make suggestions and the majority voted that Rocky would be the other name. Roxy and Rocky will always be smaller than a quarter and live underwater. They eat brine shrimp that sinks to the bottom of the tank. Pray for these frogs...I can't let them die!

FO CO Reunion!

Camille--Kimmy--Elissa--Me

Fair on 9th & 9th!

I met up with Kimmy and Camille this weekend, my roommates from when I lived in FOCO, aka Fort Collins, Colorado! I love that city. Someday I would like to live there again! Elissa also hung out, she was practically our roommate too, plus she let me live with her my last two weeks in Colorado!

FO CO Roommates