On Life

On teaching:

Still lovin' it. I'm doing a big Treasure Island project with my kids right now. I'm in the play at Hale Theater (Come see it! It runs til June 6th, and is amazing!), so I decided I wanted to take my kids to see the show. I bought them all an easy-reader version of the book so they know the story before coming to the play. It's amazing to see them during the school day. Sometimes it's all I can do to get them to put their books down. (It's kind of a conflict, because I want them to be reading, and it's exciting to seem them so engaged in literature, but we do have to do other things.) More to come on the culmination of the Treasure hunt. Also, only 5 weeks left of school. That's 23 school days, and probably 18 days of actual teaching. Man, how time flies.

On living with a girl:

Not much different than living alone...mostly because I'm never home. A few things though - I have to be careful about emptying the bathroom garbage can, and my bathroom is encrusted in hairspray. But it's also freaking AWESOME to live with my little sis. She's pretty much the coolest girl I know. I'm just sad I don't get to spend more time with her.

On being a pirate:

So. Much. Fun! I'm in my mid-twenties and 4 times a week I get to dress up like a pirate and go play for a couple of hours. How cool is that?! Besides the fact that I happen to have the coolest part in the show. People love me. I'll just have to try and not let it go to my head. ;) Again, come see the show, and get your tickets ASAP cause there aren't many left.
PS - funny story: So, I'm in Treasure Island, but I'm also rehearsing for Hello Dolly at Hale. Well, last night I was popping back and forth between TI and HD, and apparently during one of the super tense fight scenes in TI, right during a place when everyone is sort of paused (I was in the rehearsal hall in a different part of the building), everyone in the theater heard "Out there, there's a world outside of yonkers..." Apparently someone mistakenly turned my mic up. Hilarious!

On girls in general:

I'm super busy, so I don't have much time for dating, but I'm making an effort. There's a girl in my ward I went on a date with, and we're trying to coordinate schedules to make a second date happen. There's another girl in the ward I'd like to ask out. So, we're gettin' 'er done.
Also, I recently spent some time with some pretty amazing married friends of mine, and that's a huge motivation to date and get married. They really are awesome examples of what marriage can be like and what I'd like to have in a marriage. So I'm gonna keep on keepin' on.

On reading:

I've taken some pretty cool classes this semester about teaching kids to read better. My favorite one so far has been a class exploring children's literature. It's so much fun! One thing I've learned is that boys are seriously lagging behind in their literacy skills. I'm sure I'll have an entire post at some point on this subject, but for now, just let me say: Fathers - read to your sons! It's ok for moms to read to their kids, but one of the biggest determiners of boys being readers is whether they have strong male role model. Do once again - Fathers - read to your sons! And make sure they see you reading. Even if it's just the newspaper. *sigh* I could go on forever, but that's another post entirely.