Chapter 5: I Grew Up Here

I didn't post yesterday because I spent the night at my parents after not wanting to drive through the snow storm.  I don't want to get behind, I have other things to post besides things about me.  So today you are getting both chapter 4 and 5 of my autobiography, written as a 16 year old.  We are like halfway through my current life!

Chapter 5:  I Grew Up Here

I have always lived in my house in Orem, Utah.  My parents have lived there their entire marriage, it was even the place that they met, but that is another story for another time.  Even though I lived there my entire life I had a lot of places that I liked to go.  When I was little we would get season passes to the Scera Shell Outdoor Theater.  I would go and have a great time, I always wished that someday I could be up there on that stage.  I have been in a show there now, and we still get season passes and go and see everything there.

I also loved to go to my grandma and grandpa's house.  They lived just 3 miles away, so we could visit them often.  They also came to visit us often, my grandpa came over everyday after he finished golfing at Cascade Golf Course.  I always liked to do things with him because he always made me happy and I had a lot of fun.

I live right across the street from Canyon View Jr. High.  I could run home in between classes and get stuff that I had forgotten, it was great!  Orchard Elementary was just behind it as well.  So I have always liked to go the school to play on the playground.  My little brother and I used to run away from home (we always told our parents where we were going though, because it was a rule to tell them where we were going).  We would go to the playground and set up a fort on the big toys.  Then we would sit there and eat candy and listen to our radio.  In the winter we would go sledding there.

My friends, Jeff and Brandon's house, was always where we would hang out, especially during the summer.  We would go there and play soccer, basketball, hockey, or Nintendo.

I also liked to go to the Rec Center.  We got year passes a few times and went often.  I have always liked to swim and was on a swim team during the summers in 4th through 6th grades, until they stopped giving out ribbons for finishing 1st and instead focused on beating your own personal times.  I could not care less if I improved, I wanted proof that I was better than everyone else.  Once the competitive side of it was gone there was no point.

For fun our family liked to go bowling and miniature golfing.  I always liked doing this and often times could win or have really good scores.  Bowling has been one of my favorite things to do, but I don't get to do it very often.

Some of my favorite restaurants are Pizza Hut, Schlotsky's, Los Hermono's, Italian Place, Arby's, Wallaby's, Subway, and Golden Coral.

I also love to go to Seven Peaks, it's probably another water thing, I love being in the water!  It is one of my favorite places to go, hopefully this year my little brother and I can get a season pass.

These are a few of the places that I like to go here in wonderful Happy Valley Utah.

Current Commentary:
My parents still live in that house, I am so glad that I grew up there.  My dad actually worked in SLC and commuted up there everyday for over 30 years.  I can't imagine growing up anywhere else, I had the best group of friends.  I could not have dreamed up a better group of people to grow up with.  I know my mom would have loved to have lived in Arizona and it would have been convenient for my dad to live closer to Salt Lake, but thanks for letting me grow up there!

I just bought a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house in Lehi this summer, hopefully my wife shows up at my doorstep soon too.  If my children luck out to have half as good of friends as me they will be lucky, and sorry you have to be Pioneers and wear purple kids...  You could be a beet digger...

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Chapter 4: School Bells

Chapter 4:  School Bells

I started kindergarten when I was still 4 years old.  I was very excited to start school.  I learned things easily because my mom and dad had been teaching me things all of my life.  I always liked to play soccer at recess, I was pretty good.  I also liked to jump rope and swing on swings.

I finished kindergarten loving school.  Then I got to first grade and got Mrs. Robinson.  She was the meanest teacher.  Everyday we would do the same boring things that she had probably done for over 20 years.  There was never anything new or exciting.  Just the same things all the time.  She didn't seem to like boys, she thought they were dumb or something.  During the entire winter she wouldn't let us go to recess.  She didn't want us to get snow in her room, or to get sick and then get her sick.  So for 4 months we didn't get to go outside for recess.  For a little kid being stuck inside school all day was usually bad enough already, but without recess there was no way!  To make it worse she made us watch an aerobic video instead.  So here we were with great snowy weather outside and we had to watch aerobics!

My parents went to talk to her, and said that little kids should be getting to run around and have recess, that it wasn't fair to keep us in.  Mrs. Robinson thought that was the worst thing anyone had ever said.  My parents even suggested that she could let me go out with one of the other 1st grade classes, because they all went.  But she just blew them off.  The next day she lectured the entire class about how stupid it was to want to go out in the snow and have recess.  She mentioned me by name and said that I had wanted to go to recess, and asked if anyone else wanted to be as stupid as me and go out to recess.  Several were ready to raise their hands, but were too scared.  I think one or two managed to get their hands up, but she pretended like she didn't see them.  Welcome to 1st grade!

It was around this time that I decided I would go home for lunch, the lunchroom was always to noisy and crazy for me.  Plus this way I had permission to go outside everyday, because I was going to my house to eat lunch.  I even got to go out on red flag days, I could play in the snow on the way if I wanted, and get some fresh air.  I continued my tradition of going home for lunch all through elementary school and Jr. High.

The next year I think Mrs. Robinson must have gotten fired, she wasn't there anymore.  I was kind of happy, but I sure missed out on a lot of fun stuff I could have done.  I also wasn't very excited for school anymore.

In second grade I got a teacher that liked me again and that did fun things for us.  I learned all kinds of cool stuff, and like always, got good grades.  I liked her a lot!  But on her birthday I forgot to bring her something.  So when I went home we found her address from another teacher we knew, because it wasn't listed.  My dad and I drove to her house and sung her happy birthday, in Donald Duck!  She seemed to enjoy it very much, not many teachers get kids coming and singing go them at their house on their birthday, especially in Donald Duck voices.

In third grade I got the two teachers that have probably been my all time favorites.  We did the most fun things!  We went on a hike up the mountain one time and built different types of shelters out of what we could find.  We also went up there another time and each group had to make a fire and cook our food on it.  We sung a lot, the songs were really funny and we had a great time.  There were so many things we did in third grade that made school enjoyable.

In fourth grade we put on the fourth grade play.  This year was Cinderella, I was so excited!  I had always wanted to be an actor.  We always got season tickets to the Scera Shell Outdoor Theater and I always loved seeing the musicals.  I wanted to be one of the mice.  We learned the songs and some words and we auditioned.  I just so lucked out that I got to be the very first one out of the entire 4th grade to go up on the stage and sing.  Everybody was watching me and I didn't get to see anyone else do it to learn from their mistakes or see what they did good.  I did a really good job though, while we were singing I saw one of the teachers look at me with an amazed look.  I was excited and figured I would get a good part for sure.

I didn't many ANY main part, not even a small one!  They put me in the ensemble because she needed people with strong voices there.  I was really mad, well not really, but I wanted to be.  I am not very good at being mad.  I didn't care if she needed strong voices in the ensemble, I figured a strong voice would help a lot more if I was up on stage more instead of out in the audience.  It was a lot of fun anyway though, I really enjoyed it.

In fifth grade one of my favorite days came because I got in trouble.  We were in line coming back in from recess and 3-4 boys were pushing each other back and forth in line creating a domino effect.  I was right in the middle of them all and so I knocked into people behind me.  They had been watching through the window and the 5 of us that were there all got in trouble.  I said I didn't do anything, but I got in trouble anyway.

They sat us down in the hall and said they would be right back to talk to us.  We all sat about 5 feet away from each other because that was what they made us do.  We still had a ball from recess, so we just rolled it around to each other and talked for about an hour.  They completely forgot about us!  Then a teacher walked by and saw us talking and rolling the ball around.  She got mad because we were in the hall, but we told her our teacher had told us to and that she was going to come talk to us soon.

The teacher went in and talked to our teacher and then she came out.  She said, "I was wondering why it was so quiet in there, you guys just missed an important video!" if she was trying to make us feel bad about that it didn't work.  For our punishment we had to go outside and shovel snow on the playground.  We decided we would start by one of the basketball courts.  Kids started coming out for lunch and said we were supposed to go to lunch 10 minutes ago!  A few of the kids just stayed and saved the court for us, while the rest went to eat really quick.  When I got back we played basketball, we wouldn't let anybody play, except for the people that shoveled.

So by getting in trouble I got to sit in the hall and talk for an hour, be outside for another half hour, then play basketball while everyone else in the school had to try to play in the snow.  That was a really fun day, I guess I should have gotten in trouble more than once in my life since it was my favorite day.

Current Commentary
I guess nothing exciting happened in 6th grade, we were kings of the school and excited to go to Jr. High.  Besides 1st grade, I really liked school.  On the 5th grade tests that we took I was in the top 10% in the nation for my overall score and in the 99th percentile for math, so the top 1% in the nation.  I loved school so much that I would come home and make worksheets for my brother and teach him what we learned.  I guess it was the beginnings of becoming a teacher, plus it made my brother really smart because he was 5 years ahead on some things.

I was always one of the smallest kids in class, because I was small, but also the youngest in my class.  This never stopped me from competing intellectually, or athletically with anyone in my grade.  I have always been competitive and had a high belief in myself.  I really thought that I nailed that audition in 4th grade and should have had a part, should I have, everyone who had the leads did great, so they didn't choose wrong.  But I believed I was as good as anyone and could compete for anything, often this belief was realized, and sometimes I came up short, but I always tried my best.  My parents had the choice to start me in school that year or wait until the next year, I am so gald my parents decided to put me in school when they did.  It would be been nice to be able to date and drive before the second week of my Jr. Year.  It would have been nice to be one of the bigger, older kids sometimes, but I also graduated at 17 years old and was able to graduate college and start my career at 23.

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Chapter 3: Suddenly, I Became Me.

I think I must have gotten a lot of this information from my mom, because I don't think I would have known any of it.  This chapter gets a little long and has a lot of baby information, when I walked and stuff like that, so if you are into that sweet, if not skip this chapter.  Once again this is more for me, but some of it you may find interesting.

Chapter 3: Suddenly, I Became Me.

As soon as I was born, they quickly took me away and started working on me.  My mother said, "What did I have?" They had taken me away so fast that she didn't know whether she had had a boy or a girl.

I came breach and my little behind was all black.  My dad said I looked like an old man because I was so wrinkled.  I surprised Dr. MacArthur when I stuck my foot out of my Mom.  He thought I should come head first.  They cleaned me up, and put an IV through my naval.  I got some food and antibiotics through it.

I had to stay in the hospital for three weeks before I could come home.  I weighed 3 pounds and 11 ounces when I was born.  As soon as I had gained 1 pound they let me go home.  I was very lucky and didn't have anything wrong with me.  They had put me on oxygen for a few hours but soon took it away.

It was hard on my Mom having me in the hospital.  She came three times a day to feed me.  They fed me through a tube, and also let me have a bottle.  I was so used to the bottle that I never would nurse for my mother.  After two months of trying my mom said, "Enough is enough," and put me on formula.  I ate every three hours because I had gotten used to that in the hospital.  So my parents didn't get very much sleep because every three hours I was ready to eat again.

My mom didn't take me anywhere for a long time.  I was still very little.  The doctor told her not to take me anywhere for two months.  Finally I was able to go out in the middle of October, which was when I was supposed to have been born.

My dad's favorite holiday is Halloween.  He didn't want me to miss out on my first Halloween.  So he put me in a cloth pumpkin that my mom made and took me out trick or treating.  We only went to two places, but I did get to go.  We went next door, and across the street.

I slept through my first Christmas.  We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Horans.  I slept on their bed while everyone opened their gifts.  After we opened our gifts we went to Salt Lake to see my Great Grandma Horan.

After almost 6 months, my mom took me to the doctor for a checkup.  I now weighed 14 pounds and 9 ounces and was 23 1/4 inches long.  I was growing up rapidly.  My mom gave me cereal for the first time on the 19th of January.  On the 20th, I rolled from my stomach to my back.

On March 18th, I went to Phoenix for the first time.  I got to meet my mom's brothers and sisters and my cousins.  Mom and dad were planning a trip to England with Grandma and Grandpa Fife, and I didn't even get to go!

On April 24, 1985 I started to crawl.  I was now 8 months old.  Weighing 17 pounds and 4 ounces and was 26 1/2 inches long.  As soon as I learned to crawl, I went all over.  I was a good baby and when my mom said not to do something, then I didn't do it.  I was allowed to play in 1 cupboard in the kitchen and I loved to get out all the bowls and pans.

I have always liked music and would sit at the piano and play.  I soon learned about clapping and would play and then clap, play and then clap.

I got a little toy to dog on wheels to ride on named Barnaby from my dad's cousins.  I liked to ride around the house and anywhere else I could on it.

On June 1st I went on my first airplane ride.  My mom and I flew to Phoenix.  Mom went to Uncle Rodger's wedding.  We got back home on June 16th (Fathers Day).  I couldn't be gone on my dad's first Father's Day could I?

I had a party on my first birthday.  My grandparents and my Uncle Gary were there.  Mom made me a Donald Duck cake.  I had a great time.  My grandpa had painted the rocking chair and horse that were my dad's for me.

The day after my birthday my mom and dad drove to Burley, Idaho and left me with my aunt, uncle and cousins.  My mom's twin sister Beverly looked after me for three weeks while my mom and dad went to Europe.  While I was there I was introduced to M&M's and root beer.  I hadn't had candy up to that point.

In October I was climbing and getting into everything.  On October 2nd, when I climbed up on the dresser and knocked a plant off, my mom had to rearrange my room so I couldn't climb around as easy.

I went out trick or treating again on October 31,1985.  This year I was a clown.  I started walking in November and now I could get into things even faster.

In December I went Christmas caroling, and took around chocolate cards that my mom had made, it was a lot of fun.  This year I was awake for Christmas.  My grandma, grandpa and uncle came over to our house and then we went to Salt Lake again to visit my Great Grandma Horan.

On December 31st I demolished my crib.  I would jump up and down and pull on it until I would dislodge the mattress and could get out of the bottom.  After doing that twice one day my mom got rid of the crib and put me in a bed.

On March 1st I went on another airplane ride to Phoenix.  My mom went to look after her sisters children,  my cousins, while their parents were in Florida.  I had a lot of fun playing with my cousin Matthew.  We played in the dirt, the swings, and on the slide.  I went on my first Easter egg hunt at Honeywell while I was there.

In April my mom bought a swimming pool for the back yard.  I loved to fill it up and play in it.  We had 3 tubes that I would play on in the pool for hours.

On June 25th, 1986 we went to Yellowstone.  We also went to Lewis and Clark Caverns.  My favorite part there were the bats.  Mom and dad had wanted to know how I would do in a cave, so they had taken me to Timp Cave earlier.  I fell asleep right before we got in, and didn't wake up until they got me out of the cave.  But i did enjoy going to Lewis and Clark Caverns, and managed to stay awake.

Then we went to Moose Jaw Saskatchewan and Buffalo Pound Lake in Canada.  My Great Grandma lived there and Sylvia and Arthur.  We had barbecues, canoe rides, a bon fire with lots of marshmallows, and all kinds of other fun things. I loved to play in the sand by the lake, they gave me a little shovel and pail to dig in the sand.  I had lots of fun in Canada.

On July 12th I went to the Hogle Zoo.  I loved to see all of the cool animals.

It was almost time for my second birthday.  My dad wanted me to be able to blow out my candles on my own, so my mom bout me bubbles and I practiced blowing.  When my birthday came I was able to blow out all 2 of my candles.  My dad was so proud!

I still liked to play the piano, listen to cassette tapes, have my mom read me stories and play with my friends.

In October my parents went to Florida on a cruise.  They left me with Doug and Sue Helsten. While I stayed with them I got to go to the Sand Dunes and even got to ride a 4 wheeler!

On my third Halloween I dressed up as a football player and my dad took me out trick or treating.  I still only went to a couple of houses.

In November it started to snow and I started to make my first snowman.  It was very cold and some of the neighborhood children stopped and helped me.  I decided it was much easier to have them make it and I liked watching them.

It was now 1987.  I went to my grandma and grandpa's a lot.  My favorite games to play at their house was pool ball, and cookie in the pocket.  I watched basketball games with dad, and liked to dance with my mom.

In February I got to help decorate Valentines cookies.  My mom said that i put too many sprinkles on the cookies though.  We ran out after 2 cookies and had to buy more.  After we made and decorated cookies I got to take some to my friends.  I got to decorate more cookies in March for St. Patrick's Day.

I helped my mom tend Shane Rowley.  I told her I wanted her to have a bay so that I could have a little brother or sister.  I knew how to give a baby a bottle, and burp him, and bring him blankets.  What else is there to know?

I was a happy, energetic boy with beautiful blue eyes, who liked bubble baths, hair cuts, riding my big wheels, and my toy dog Barnaby, dancing and listening to music and stories.

Current Commentary
Wow, that was a lot of stuff.  I credit my mom for keeping such good records.  I don't think I would have remembered any of this.  I love how many cool experiences I was able to have at such an early age.  Caves, 4 wheeling, time in Arizona, Idaho, and Canada,  swimming, "playing" the piano, dancing, decorating cookies, building snowmen.  What a lucky boy I was to have such great parents that taught me and were willing to do so much with me and include me in much of what they did.

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Chapter 2: Before I Was, There Were...

A continuation of my auto biography written as a 16 year old.

Chapter 2: Before I Was, There Were

I have had many people influence me over the years.  My mom and dad have influenced me the most.  They have raised me since I was a very very little boy.  They read to me, and played games with me.  They have always tried to teach me the best they knew how.  They have almost always been a perfect example of what you should do.  They were always willing to help me with homework, even when I didn't want them to.  They care very much about me, sometimes to much I think, but it's always nice to have someone that cares about you.

My Grandpa Horan also helped a lot.  He lived in Orem, only 3 miles away from where we live.  He used to go golfing everyday and then stop at our house and get a cookie and a glass of water.  He would talk to us and tell us stories and eat his cookie and drink his glass of water and then go home.  He was the nicest guy you could ever meet.  He always talked to everybody he saw.  All of the neighbor kids that lived around him called him Grandpa Russ.  He died a little under 2 years ago, but I will always remember what a nice guy he was and how much fun I had being around him.

I have always had a lot of great friends, we have a lot of fun.  Jared and I always used to play basketball together when we were in elementary school.  He would come over before school and we would play until we needed to leave.  We used to do almost everything together until I went to Jr. High and he was still in 6th grade.  But we still do things together now and still have a lot of fun.

Brandon and Jeff moved next door to me the summer after I was in 4th grade.  We basically lived at each others houses during Jr. High.  Especially during the summer.  We would talk for hours about a lot of thing, play night-games, Nintendo, basketball, soccer, and hockey.  I can always turn to them when I need to know something.  We stick by each other and I think we must have the record for inside jokes.  Especially between me and Jeff, we could talk for an hour and have nobody understand a thing that we said.

Denika was the first girl that I was ever really friends with.  Before then it had been all boys.  We became good friends in 9th grade, we told each other everything.  It was nice to have a girls opinion every once in a while, and to talk about different things than you get just with boys.  But once I went to Orem High and she was still in Jr. High we haven't done much.  But still today if I ever need to talk she will listen.

Near the end of Jr. High I met this awesome girl named Jessie.  We weren't able to do much that summer, because we were both really busy or on vacation.  The next year we also didn't do as much because we were at different schools, but this year we have become really good friends again, and she has taken over for Denika on who I usually go to first when I need a girls opinion.

I didn't know Jake until about 8th grade, but ever since then we have the funniest times together.  During my High school years he has come over most every day.  He is almost as funny as me, or maybe even more.  We have the greatest times when we are together.  We don't have tons in common or talk about as deep of things as I do with Brandon, Jeff, Denika, or Jessie, but there is never a dull moment when we are together.

There are many others like Rachel, Matt, Jeremy, Brock, Alex, D.J., Raman, Jarom, K.J., Annie, Macie, and many others, but these are the main ones that have stood by me most of my life.  They have helped me out, or just been someone I could talk to and have fun with.

Current Commentary:
I will have to add another chapter about friends and people who have been important in my life my Senior year, mission, and college life.  I have been lucky to still remain good friends with these people from high school.  Jared and I who used to hang out in Elementary school have been roommates for about 5 years.  Jake, Jeremy and Matt and I have all been roommates.  Jake and I still laugh a lot, but we also have amazing deep conversations now about all kinds of things.  I wish I saw more of Brandon, Jeff, and Jessie, and the others, but a few times a year we still all try and get together.  I guess I need to get married, I'm sure it would be slightly easier then.  These are the people that made me who I am, I am a better person for knowing and associating with each and every one of them.

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Project Me: Chapter 1

As I was going through some old stuff I found an English project from 11th grade.  We wrote a little auto-biography about ourselves which includes 10 chapters.  I am going to add a chapter a day, more for my sake than yours.  It is interesting to me on what I thought back then. I will end each post with some current commentary.

Chapter 1:  Introduction of Myself

I was born August twenty-sixth, nineteen-eighty four, in the Provo, Utah hospital.  I was born two months early, weighting only three pounds and eleven ounces.  I came out of my mom backwards, which usually isn't a good thing.  The doctor told my parents that I was going to be the neighborhood bully, because I was such a fighter.  But in the end, once I finally gout out of the hospital, everything was fine.  I have never gotten into a real fight in my life.  I weigh a lot more, and I still live in Happy Valley Utah.

Short-term goals:
I want to get a 4.0 at least once in my life.  I got a 3.97 one time, but I want to get a 4.0.  I want to graduate from Orem High School.  Then go to UVSC and graduate from there with some cool degree.  I also want to go on a mission.  If I had a choice of where I went right now it would probably be New Zealand, because they have my favorite animal there, the Kiwi Bird.

Long-term goals:
 Get married in the temple to a really nice, smart, caring, and amazingly attractive girl.  Get a job that I enjoy, and that makes a reasonable amount of money, have 3-4 kids, be in a famous musical group, have my own stand up comedy show, sing on the streets of New York for money (last time I sung in New York all we won was a 1st place trophy), write eight books, and have the biggest, most famous stamp collection in the world.

Present Commentary:
I still think it's funny that the doctor thought I was going to be a bully.  One thing about our family, we are fighters, but more so in our desire to live life.  I was so excited to live life that I came out 2 months early.  We don't like to sit still for to long.  I must have got this fighting spirit from my mom.  As I have watched her the past few  years fighting for her life in a battle against Cancer, (Lung, Liver, Colon), Sepsis, and other things, I have been amazed. She is stronger than anyone I know. I remember one day that someone was bringing our family dinner, but she heard about someone else going through something and so she cooked them dinner.  She just continues to serve and help those around her, even when she has been stuck in a hospital bed the past few weeks I am sure she finds a way to help those around her.

I did pretty well on reaching those goals.  I did get a 4.0, it wasn't until college though.  It was a lot easier to get good grades when I just focused on school instead of basketball, soccer, singing, acting, helping mascot the football games, girls, and countless other things, although I guess I should have still focused on girls a little more.  I also thought that it was interesting that as Jr. I had already planned on going to UVSC instead of BYU.  That was the best decision I ever made, well probably not ever, but I LOVED it there!  I didn't get sent to New Zealand on my mission, but I loved every minute of being in Seattle, God knew what he was doing.

As far as the long term goals, I do have a job that I enjoy, I have had my singing on at least 3 cd's, one that has been listened to by millions of people all over the world (When I sung in the Priesthood session of LDS conference).  I don't have a comedy club, but I do have 33 people who come to listen to me everyday.  I have not written a book yet, and I have never in my life collected a single stamp, I don't know where that goal came from.  My long term goal of finding a nice, smart, caring, and amazingly attractive wife goal has now moved into the short-term goal range.  As soon as that happens I think that I have done a pretty good job of achieving my high school goals.

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Teacher Appreciation

Bing is donating money to education and on Twitter we have been having a discussion about several things.  Someone asked me to blog about some of my answers, since 140 characters can not really explain everything perfectly, so here you go.

Q1: HOW DO YOU APPRECIATE TEACHERS DURING THE HOLIDAYS? HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM OTHER TIMES?

Eventually this got to the subject of what do you give teachers for gifts.  For me personally, I try really hard to be healthy.  I do not give my class treats as rewards, and I told them I try to take care of myself and eat  healthy as well.  Believe me, your mom does make the best cookies, yes those brownies should be the talk of the town, and will I eat them and enjoy it, heck yes I will!

But what do you do when you get 20 of those on the same day and most will only truly be great for a day or two?  Then they get hard and stale, and sit on a table.  Plus, like I said, I try to be healthy.  On Friday so many kids asked, have you tried mine yet?  There was no way I could have even taken a bite of each of their treats.  I am going to have to throw a party or else half of these treats will never get to be enjoyed.

I would much prefer food over treats.  A $5, $10 or more gift card to a place I like to eat, a grocery store, bookstore, iTunes, Amazon, gas card, would be much preferred.  Everyone needs to eat and teachers love reading and music.

But in all reality, I just want to be appreciated.  I hear so many complaints about teachers and public education.  Yes it is far from perfect, but almost all of the teachers I know are trying their best.  I don't need a token gift, yes I work hard, I should, it's my job.  I don't care if I get anything. Just do your best to help your child be successful, that is why I spend hours and hours outside of school doing what I do.  I want your child to succeed.  So check their homework, make sure they get it done, tell them it's important and I will be more than happy.

Other good gifts are things that our classroom needs and uses everyday.  Kleenex, paper, hand sanitizer, pencils.  It seems like you always can use more of these things.  Plus these gifts help who matters most, your students.

I am going to leave it at this, maybe I will post another day on some of the other questions.

I just checked my mentions and here are a few questions/comments I will answer real quick:

@RealLifeSarah Asked

Hi @downrightdave! What is your favorite thing you've gotten from a student?
I am a big Jazz fan and one of my students wasn't using their tickets and they gave the two of them to me.  I did not expect this, nor plan on it ever happening again, but it made my day.

@NoFlashCards Said:

@downrightdave really? When I taught I loved the famous treats, got me out of holiday baking! I'd take platters 2 parties.

I know I have a lot of other teacher friends, what do you think?  How would you like to be appreciated?  Favorite gift?  Things you would rather not get?  I could start an amazing Hot Chocolate Mug collection.

P.S. I appreciate every single thing I got, if you read this and you gave me cookies, I appreciate it more than you will ever know.  Nothing in this is a complaint, I am just answering my own personal preferences, thoughts and ideas.

Bing will donate up to 1 million dollars, all you have to do is go to this page and click.

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Life, Live It!

I was reading some quotes about life and I thought I would share some of my favorites.

Everything happens for a reason, people change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so you can appreciate them when they're right, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can come together.
Marilyn Monroe

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
Author Unknown

In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular.
Kathleen Norris

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa