1st YEAR TEACHING - DONE!

What a strange few days. Lets recapitulate on the events of this last week.

Tuesday: 9th Grade 7 Peaks Day - I was one of the chaperones for this trip. I haven't been on a school bus since I was in 9th grade and it was a strange feeling! Allison, Cameo, and I sat in the sun for 4 hours chatting and having a great time together. Intermingled with visits from our students, Glen in black socks with shorts and sandals, Ron and Curtis (teachers) sharing a tube for the water slides, Asa (student) in a speedo, and an insane sunburn - literally scorched skin!

Wednesday: A/B day - We had all 8 classes today which basically just turned into letting the kids talk amongst themselves all day.

Thursday: Yearbook Day - I made a goodbye video for my students with the help of Lani, Heather, and Jessica. I played Green Day "Time of your life" on my guitar with Heather singing and Jessica playing the violin. The kids loved it. I showed the video to each class and then they signed yearbooks for 20 minutes in each class period. I certainly was not this popular when I was in junior high but I thought my hand was going to fall off signing everyones yearbooks. It was a great day though. I am going to miss so many of those lovely kids. I got a few gifts - most of them breast cancer themed - which I love. After a very long day of school I met up with the fam for Jamesee Bear's birthday party. Went to bed very tired and not ready to face the next day.

Friday: Last Day of School - Today was hard. I had to say goodbye to some amazing kids. I have the strangest job in the world. The people I love and see everyday are ripped away from me at the end of every year. Mean. But the upside of today was longboarding. No, not outside after school. It was inside during school. The administration didn't want the students just roaming the halls so it was the teachers' job to contain them insdie the classrooms. Well there was 10 minutes left of school and two students walked into my class with longboards and I decided I wanted to stand on it. This was a bad idea because I was terrified to get off without falling. I was trapped. The boys pulled me into hallway where Mr. Johanson pushed me down the hall at a very high speed. I was obviously screaming so soon every student came out to watch. We had all the students and all the teachers out watching me attempt to not die on this longboard in the hallway. Then Allison jumped on the board with me for a double dose of fun. Cameo and I even had a race. I won but only because she took a little spill. It was honestly the funnest thing I have done all year. The energy was high, I was terrified, and the kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. After school was full of tears as I said goodbye to some teachers who won't be returning next year.

I love my job. I love Allison for loving me enough to help me stay at Orem Junior. I have the most amazing co-workers in the world. They are my best friends and we have something so magical. I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching with them. Goodbye to OJH for now but come August I know I will find a new group of kids that I will probably love just as much as the last crew.

A1 Class on Yearbook Day

Longboarding down the hallway on the last day of school!

Walking down the "red carpet" entrance to the 9th grade dance on the arm of one of my students per his request

MEMORIAL DAY

Momma here are some pictures for you. I only got pictures at Stephen's grave and G&G Moss' grave. All of our loved ones were taken care of though. After Heidi and I visited all the graves we decided to go on a scenic drive. Well not so scenic because western Woods Cross is anything but that. We drove to see G&G Moss' old house. The only thing I remember about that house is the well in the front yard. Then of course we saw the house you and daddy built next door. Boy am I glad you guys moved to Kaysville so I could grow up there. I love our house and farm even more now. Well Momma, here are the picures of your old houses. I love you. Next Memorial Day you and daddy will only have 1 month left of the mission!!!

BLOG THOUGHTS

I haven't looked at my sister Jen's blog in probably 2 months because she never posts anything. Never ever. I thought today, "well hey, I might just check. I am bored so it will give me something to do." Was it worth my finger strain to navigate the mouse to her page? No. Absolutely not. Then all of a sudden this revelation hit me: people who have blogs but don't actually blog are like Mormons who don't go to church.
Stay with me, you will see where I am going with this. The longer you are "inactive" the harder it is to come back. You feel like you owe everyone an explanation for your absence. You try to explain why and we all know its coming when we see you again. We don't really care what the excuse was, we are just excited to see you back in action. But you know whats worse than coming back after a long time of MIA? Only coming back once. Just stick to it people. Don't give it a lame a** try. Put forth some effort and get it done.

A NUMBERS GAME

12 - the number of hours I was at Orem Junior today

2 - the number of days I will do that in a row

7 - the number of school days left until my paid summer vacation begins

27- the day in June when I will be rafting for the cure

150 - the number of questions on the test I just wrote

3 - years with the same stupid calling

14 - the number of days before I take my 9th graders to DC with Cameo

78 - the amount of water I drank today in ounces

11 - the number of days I will be in Washington with the parents

2 - the hours I spent watching the Bachelorette

7 - the number of months since I kissed a boy

14 - my age when I knew I wanted to be a teacher

0 - the percentage of regret I have about actually becoming a teacher

13 - months until my parents come home

RACE FOR THE CURE

Dear Blog Followers,

I think you are all well aware now that I love breast cancer. That is definitely not in question. What is in question is your attendance at the SLC Race for the Cure on May 9. If you live in Utah and you are a decent human, I should see you at the race. If you live in Utah and I do not see you at the race then you might suck at life. Yeah yeah, plans come up. Blah blah. This will help cure breast cancer people! Help cure my grammie. Online registration ends tomorrow but you can register the day of the race but its more $. For those of you who do not live in Utah you can go to the Komen website to find when a race for the cure will be going on in your neck of the woods. It is honestly one of the most empowering things you can do. Walking with thousands of people to better the world will help you believe in a cure, in humanity, and in yourselves. Please participate in a race somewhere this year. If you cannot I don't hate you. I Promise. But you can still contribute by donating to the cause at the website above.

Love, Ashley Ann

p.s. for anybody who is interested I will be doing the Raft for the Cure this summer. Look at the info HERE. Seems like fun!!!

WATERMELON CARVING

This is what Josh accomplished in my kitchen the other night. Let me be the first and probably the last to tell you that we carve pumpkins for a reason: ease. Watermelons are easy to actually cut out but the juice is continually spilling out all over. It gets quite messy. But then again you do get to eat the pieces you carve out. I am not sure whats up with the "Sloth" mouth but thats Joshy for you - just straight up strange.

QUITE CHATTY TODAY

I need to share my thoughts and feelings on many things right now so I am going to have to turn this post into a list. Thank you for your cooperation.

1. Band: I am in a band. It consists of me on the lap harp, Leslie on the flute, and Allison on the Piano. We had our first concert last night in my living room to an audience of 6. We were really amazing.

2. Goodbye: I met Leslie last year when she and I were forced to live under the same roof. One day I asked her if she wanted to come with me to pull a prank on this real douchie girl and she did. We have been in love ever since. The point of this is that she is leaving me next week for greener pastures (graduation). Good riddance Nessle. I didn't want you to stay over the summer anyway. I am not sad you are leaving. Did I convince anybody? Probably not. On this note, Alisha is leaving me also. You guys really suck. Good thing Heather came back and Jessica got into grad school or I might be suicidal.

3. Prize table: At the Jensen family Easter there was a prize table just for being there. I got some pretty great swag so thanks to the Jensens for letting me take your stuff and hang out with your daughter.

4. Race for the Cure: The 2009 Race for the Cure is on May 9. I am thinking about forming a walking team with shirts for grammie. Who is interested? FYI: there were 20,000 people at the last one and it was so much fun/sad/fun.

5. Countdown update: Just so you know my parents only have 13 fast Sundays until they come home from the mish. June 2010 or bust!

6. Spring Break: Its spring break right now in Alpine School District and its an entire week! I have never had a whole week off before but I am really loving this. When I was in school we had 3 days. And in college we had 0. If this is what Summer is like I am going to be really good at it (except the massive snow storm of course).

7. Nephew: I have a new nephew born to Mark and Lindsay on April 5. Henry Manning Horne is his name. I think he likes me but that is in comparison to how Bennett was treating me yesterday and lets just say he wasn't my #1 fan. But Henry is healthy and handsome. Now Jaimee needs to have her kid so we can have one more boy.

8. With the help of my peers I rightfully reclaimed previous property. Thank you.

9. Calling: With the end of the semester rapidly approaching I hope to get released from my calling. Is that bad to say? Probably but I have had it for two years and I want to be done. Ward hymnbook specialist please.

MORE THAN COLLEAGUES

I don't know how we came to be but we did. And it all seemed to start on day 1, my interview at Orem Junior. I can tell you what Allison and Cameo were wearing, where Kathe was standing when I first met her, how excited I got, and the conversations we had that day. Well that was just the first of many great days with these ladies. If you would have told me a year ago that I would become best friends with social studies department at OJH I probably would have laughed at you. But these ladies have become my life line. It is normal that you can do the following with your colleagues: cry, laugh, vent, share, plan every lesson together, hang out with, work out with, visit their homes, take a Fun Bus adventure with, join their fam for Easter, receive far too generous of gifts, go to the temple with, find one an amazingly well fit spouse, prank people, go on dates with, willing to give up a full time contract so I can stay at OJH, go get ice cream, and still have a professional life with? I don't think so. We have found something amazing in our department and I don't want to give it up or change it. I hate that next year has to come. I literally could not teach without them and I will not teach without them.

PICKED ME UP ONE OF THESE

My Grandma Belnap had one of these at her house when I was a little kid. I loved this thing. It was usually a battle for who got to play it. Well I was roaming Wal-Mart yesterday and saw this beauty for only $15. Can you believe it? If you are one of my Belnap cousins reading this you are probably already on your way out to pick one up because you are so jealous. I have enjoyed serenading folks with musical masterpieces like "On Top of Old Smokey," "Ode to Joy," and "Camptown Races." In addition to receiving 10 sheets of musical classics, I wrote some of my own music yesterday. I have now created more music for this awesome instrument like "For the Beauty of the Earth." Leslie and I are going to perform a duet in Sacrament Meeting with me on the lap harp and her on the flute.