Best. Day. Ever.

So you want to hear about the best day ever? Okay, okay I'll tell you.

6:00 - Wake up, wake Lewis up, then go back to sleep for an hour because I can!

7:00 - Wake up for real, eat Pop Tarts for breakfast. This isn't an unusual thing for me, but I love them and it happened.

9:00 - Pick up my class from the playground. Like seven students were absent - a whole third of the class. What the what? Too bad for them; I've got a great day plan

ned.

9:10 - I ordered some boxes of Girl Scout cookies a few weeks ago from a fourth grader and she delivered them today. As I was filling out the check, her mom told her to, "Tell her." I looked up and the scout said to me, very shyly, "Since I brought you Girl Scout cookies, will you let me be in your class next year?" Aww... Too bad I won't be teaching next year. Warm fuzzy moment, though.

9:30 - Spelling test. My student who consistently gets really low scores got her first 100%. Ya-hoo!

9:45 - Science. We made baking soda cannons. Take a little bit of baking soda, fold it up in a toilet paper square, pour some vinegar into a test tube, wedge the TP into the tube, cork it, and shake shake shake. The vinegar dissolves the toilet paper and reacts with the baking soda to create carbon dioxide which builds up until it pops the cork off. Awesome.

10:15 - My Art Moms came to teach art. They normally come on Wednesdays, but they couldn't this week at that time so they came now. I spent the hour correcting tests and chatting with one of the moms. She brought her baby and I got to hold him. He's adorable.

11:55 - Lunch. I buy school lunch on Fridays and the cafeteria was serving their horrible-for-you mozzarella breadsticks, which I love. I decided to eat with my students and that was fun because they love me.

12:45 - I get an hour of prep time every two weeks when my class is at computers. Today I got that hour. Glorious.

1:45 - I go to pick up my students from computers. As they are lining up outside the computer lab, a pair of rather tall young men in BYU athletics shirts saunter past. I smile politely then do a double take. My jaw drops. One of my students, the biggest BYU fan in my class (second only to me) says, just as I realize it, "That's Jake Heaps!" And it was indeed. Plus Kyle Van Noy. They had gone into a classroom, but came back out upon hearing my student's shriek of delight. I walked over nervously with the student and say hello.

1:55 - Five minutes before recess. My entire class his huddled around the window because we see that Jake and Kyle have gone outside, during the younger grades' recess. My students are scrambling around, trying to find things for them to sign. I let them go outside early. They run outside and immediately swarm Jake Heaps. I go outside too (hey! It's a beautiful day!), but I hang back. I'm a grown woman. I had to set an example of maturity for my class. Right? Right?

Yeah, right. My students saw how I reacted when saw them in the hallway. And how I'm a humongo BYU/football/BYU football fan. And how I said I wish I had had my camera with me so I could get a picture. About half of my class tells Jake Heaps about their teacher who is "such a fan," and then run over to get me and drag me over to him. I talk to the teacher with whom they came. She said they came to teach the sixth graders PE and that they would be coming again and that she could get them to teach my class too in a few weeks. Sa-weet. Then she takes a picture of Jake and me with my phone.

2:30 - Reading. My class is quietly doing their reading assignments, and I'm looking longingly outside at the beautiful day (the football players had left by now). So I really quick make up a math facts kick ball game and we go out and play it for the rest of the afternoon.

Yeah. I love my job. Sorry students who were absent today. You missed out.

Surprise Fire

In science right now, we are studying physical and chemical changes. Today we did a lab to introduce a lot of the concepts we will be talking about, as well as to review lab safety procedures. Like a good little teacher, I decided it prudent to test out the lab prior to the students coming in to make sure it, you know, worked.

This experiment is called, "Surprise Fire." If you mix these two chemicals together (potassium permanganate and glycerine) they are supposed to react and spontaneously combust. Key word: supposed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the room where the chemicals are stored until about 15 minutes before school started. I wasn't worried, though, because the reaction was supposed to occur within 20-60 seconds. So I donned my safety goggles, poured out a silver dollar size pile of potassium permanganate, dabbled in a bit of glycerine, and waited. And waited. Nothing happened.

Another teacher came by to ask me a question. I went to talk to her while keeping the corner of my eye on the table where the chemicals were sitting. Nothing happened.

The vice principal came in to see how I was doing and if I needed any help with anything. I told him I was fine unless he knew how to make a couple of dangerous chemicals react with each other and catch on fire. Meanwhile, another teacher from my team came by. Apparently she had also had trouble with this lab when she did it. It also would not combust while for her, so she tried to wipe it up with a paper towel, giving it up as a bad job. Her students were disappointed (this was during class), but whatevs. But then! The paper towel caught on fire! And she dropped it on the ground.

So now all three of us were at a loss. We didn't know what to do. We didn't want to just throw it out, cause what if it caught fire in the trash can. Joe (the VP) tried to wipe it up with a damp paper towel, thinking maybe the friction would get things going. No luck. By now the bell has long since rung and I am supposed to have picked up my students from outside. But I didn't want to just leave it there. What if it burned down my classroom?!

Deciding that since it had been almost twenty minutes since I had started this experiment, I deemed it allowable to get my class. A couple of students were waiting outside my door, hoping to go in before everyone else showed up. I told them, rather forcefully, to "Wait. There." and "Do NOT go in the classroom." Then I hightailed it to the outside and get the rest of my kids.

When we got back to my door, I gave them the following instructions: "When I open this door, you are to go straight to your desks, pull out your journals, and start writing. Do NOT touch ANYTHING."

Of course none of them listened to me and they all immediately gathered 'round the back table where the experiment was set up. No respect. How a pie tin containing a small pile of wet purpleish flakes attracts some much attention from 10-year-olds, I'll never know. I successfully shooed some of them away and then sat down to tackle the problem at hand.

I figured the best problem would be to get the chemicals to react so that I didn't have to worry about it catching on fire in the garbage. This is an elementary school. There's lots of paper in there. Poking it with a wet paper towel didn't work, but I certainly didn't want to prod it with a dry one. What if my hand caught fire?!

Well, hows about a half wet half dry paper towel? I carefully scooped up a bit of the mixture with the towel, dropped it on the tin, and hightailed it out of there. Well, to the other side of the classroom, anyway. Then... it happened. The towel started smoking and then - BAM - a two-inch flame licked it's way up the towel. Sure, it wasn't the foot-high flame the lab book promised me, but it was fire! The chemicals reacted!

Like to smartie that I am, I decided to go ahead with the lab as planned. The main point was about safety, right? I could still teach that, right? Right.

So I set it all up to the T. I thought that maybe I was too generous with the glycerine and that it overwhelmed the potassium permanganate or something. The set up was absolutely perfect. But... nothing happened. My students were all disappointed, of course. Most of them caught the tail end of the paper towel burning earlier and were ready for more action. While they all sat there staring at the boring pile of non-combusting chemicals, I explained what was supposed to happen and why.

Then I said, "Now. We will be doing a lot of experiments throughout this unit. Some of them are dangerous. So you must follow the procedure EXACTLY. If I see ANY of you doing ANYthing that is not in your lab book, you will not do ANY more labs in my classroom. Ever. EVER. That being said, I am going to do something that would be an absolute no no if any of you were to do it. But I can. Because I'm the teacher." And I picked up a pencil and poked the chemicals with the eraser.

They started smoking. And then they caught fire. The class all cheered and then gagged cause it was stinky. I sent them all to fill out their lab sheets, cleaned up the ashes, and we were done.

Whew.

The Farmer in the Dell

Towards the end of Super Bowl XLV, we started developing punny headlines ESPN would come up with to tell the sports world who was victorious. None of them were very good, but hey this isn't our day job. Directly following the Super Bowl, we were highly disappointed to see "Packers Win Super Bowl XLV" as the breakingest news story. Epic fail on the pun front.

A few minutes later, however, I have ESPN another chance and checked again. The headline? "Cheese Stands Alone." Excellent. Andrew conjectured that someone came up with that one shortly following Green Bay's 1996 victory, and the sports writing world was anxious for another W so that they could use that gem. Little did they know it would take FIFTEEN YEARS before they could finally unpack that headline.

Anyway, all this talk of ridiculously cheesy (ha! I'm good at the puns too!) sporting headlines is a cover. That's not what this blog post is about. This blog post is to formally announce to the interweb that

I'm pregnant.

Yep, it's true. Lewis and I have reproduced. We weren't going to announce it for another week, but Lewis made the executive decision that Super Bowl Sunday is a much better holiday for this sort of announcement than is Valentine's Day. Of course, I had to agree. So.... yeah. I am with child. It's due September 1st, it looks like a sea horse, and we call it Ahab. And now you know.

How've You Been, 2010?

So! It's New Years Eve. Like many others, I have spent the day so far baking for our partay tonight, carefully selecting a resolution for 2011 (actually it was easy - I barely thought about it at all), and reflecting on the last year.

I will go more in depth on the latter here now.

2010 was a great year. Although, to be honest, I don't know if I've ever had an entire bad year. That would be sad. I'm sorry if you are someone who has an entire bad year.

ANYWAY, 2010. Yeah. Twas joyous.

January: It was cold. Lewis and I both started the final semester of our respective undergraduate degrees. Lewis began his student teaching experience in a fifth grade class with only sixteen students. Lucky.

Later in the month, we snowshoed up to the Y. I'd never snowshoed before, but I really enjoyed it.

February: Still cold.

March: Lewis finished up student teaching in a third grade class with lots more than sixteen students. We took a frigid trip to Idaho to paint my brother's room in my parents soon-to-be home. (And when I say frigid, I mean frigid. Their heater didn't work. I'm still cold just thinking about it.)

My mom and dad moved back to the states from Kenya. I went to a Michael Buble concert with my mom and aunts, which involved a white knuckle drive in some slippery, snowy weather. My first concert ever. (I know, right?) I was also offered an internship teaching fifth grade next year. Boo-yes.

April: Lewis and I teamed up for the Innovative Instruction competition hosted by the McKay School of Education at BYU. Although we were not selected as winners by the judges, we did win the People's Choice Award.

Lewis took over for a teacher on maternity leave. We both graduated from BYU - walked and everything!

May: Having graduated with a degree in human development, it was quite the challenge to head right back to school the next week so that I could finish up my post-baccalaureate teaching certification. The weather finally warmed up to the point where we could wear shorts and roll down the car windows (cause our air conditioner sucks) and then it snowed again. Poo.

June: Lewis was offered a job teaching fourth grade in Saratoga Springs.

Since my job is in Orem, we decided to move somewhere closer to the freeway so Lewie wouldn't have to commute so far. We found a lovely little condo in Pleasant Grove.

In honor of summer and how we love it so, Lewis and I took a morning to hike up Y mountain and back down the other side. I stepped in a creek and soaked my socks. It was hot and we got scratched. I loved every second of it.

We also spent some time in Park City and Salt Lake. We went to the Children's Museum and the Church History Museum and had awesome Thai food at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

Lewis and I both attended Alpine School District's Summer Institute, learning how to be grood teachers.

July: We officially moved and discovered that we hate moving! Yuck.

Fourth of July weekend was lovely. I kind of enjoyed that the fourth was on a Sunday. That meant we celebrated three days instead of just one. We watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks on Saturday, enjoyed reflecting on our freedoms on Sunday, got sunburned at the parade, baked patriotic goodies, overate at a barbecue, and oo'd and ah'd at Streetium of Fire on Monday. Word.

A few days after Independence Day, I participated in a girls retreat with my sister-in-law and co up in Park City. Those ladies know how to party, letmetellyouwhat.

With my mom just up north in Idaho, we went up there to visit a lot. In our Toyota 4runner that is lovely indeed, but as I mentioned before, rather stinky in the department of air conditioning. Twas worth it, however.

July also brought Steve Jobs into our lives. That's the name of the 2005 Subaru Legacy we purchased quite literally the day we got back from an Idaho trip. I was to the point that I would take anything with AC. But I'm glad we got Stevie. I love him.

Also in July (busy month, right?), I quit the job I've had for the last four years. It was a bittersweet, but mostly just sweet egress. I'm on to bigger and better things and that includes a salary.

The end of July was the annual Hirschi Family Reunion! It's an epic event, every year. I would tell you more about it, but unless you're an actual Hirschi (by blood or by marriage), you just wouldn't understand.

August: I believe the reunion spilled over into August, but even if it didn't, don't tell me. Immediately following the reunion Lewis and I were invited to go kayaking with some uncles, aunts, and cousins. I'd never been before and I sucked at it and I got a right nasty burn, but I loved it. So very much.

Lewis and I took a day trip to Island Park to visit the site of his family's old cabin. It's beautiful up there.

The fourth was my dear mum's birthday and she celebrated by getting hit by a drunk driver with my sister. Yay! Other than that, I think it was a good day. The wreck happened at the end of it, so it only ruined ice cream.

A couple of days after her big day, Lew and I went camping in Yellowstone for our second anniversary I was most unfortunately sick, but Lewis takes good care of me, even in a tent. Yellowstone was gorgeous as always and I got to enjoy parts of the park I'd never seen before, as well as the world's best fudgsicles. I'm eager to go again, but hopefully healthy this time.

On our actual anniversary, the sixteenth, I was in meetings all day in preparation for the upcoming school year (yay), but we did have a kick-a dinner which included a decadent white chocolate cheesecake.

And then the school year commenced! I was blessed with the very best class in the world, no joke. I don't know what I'm going to do next year. No way my students then will be able to compete.

September: School, school, school, school, school, school, school. My school held their annual Fall Festival (a seriously big deal) to raise funds. I participated by getting dunked by my students in the dunk tank and driving kids crazily around on a golf cart. Lewis came to support me and ended up driving a golf cart too, which he adored. Also, he turned 27. Yay Lewis!

My dad came to visit from Iraq this month. The whole family (minus my brother-in-law, Benjamin - he had to do responsible things) went bumper boating. It was cold and wet and my water shooter didn't work properly, but I loved it.

October: My family came back down from ID to help me celebrate my 24th birthday (and my niece's 4th) on conference weekend. The next weekend, Lewis and I went up to Idaho for Evie's costume birthday party. Lewis and I went as Peanuts ghosts/Lucy and Charlie Brown which is what we were for Halloween last year, yes, but with the school year of crazy, we dealt with it.

Later that month we were introduced to a funny little thing called time off for Fall Break. It is a glorious thing that I recommend to all. We honored it by driving to Disneyland with Lewis' (almost) entire family. What followed was an epic adventure of rides, crowds, and being hit on the head by cast members in costume.

Of course we finished the month of by attending the Halloween party of all Halloween party hosted by one Luke Lewis. We went as Indiana Jones and Elsa Schneider.

November: For his birthday, I gave Lewis two tickets to the BYU/Colorado State football game in Fort Collins. We spent a weekend this month on a road trip for the game, spending two nights in Rawlins, Wyoming at a delightful Hampton Inn. The game was fantastic (we won) and the trip was wonderful.

November means Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie. We spent it in Idaho with my mom. She lovingly prepared a pie for me to enjoy when we arrived before the actual holiday, but my nemesis, the dog, got to it first. Luckily my mom is a pie maniac and there was plenty of pie left for the feast, although I was forbidden from touching any until then.

December: Christmas! Need I say more? I love the whole month of December.

For his birthday, my class Skyped my dad and sang to him. A few weeks later, he visited my class and told them all about Iraq and what he does there and presented us with a flag that he flew over his base in Iraq after we sang to him. So cool, right?

Just like Thanksgiving (having my family close by is a rare thing), we went up to Idaho for Christmas. I was (am) so grateful that neither Lewis nor I had to work over Christmas break (like the last two years) and could spend the whole time relaxing. Up in Idaho we took family pictures, enjoyed delicious foods at two Christmas feasts, sang carols at the nursing home, and participated in adventurous silly string and Nerf wars. Plus the ENTIRE family was there. All ten of us. It was absolutely thrilling.

And now it's New Years Eve. Whew. We made it through 2010. We'll be going out for sushi later tonight, and then attending a shindig with the Francises to ring in 2011. I made key lime bars, toffee crunch muffins, and a cheesy jalopeno bean dip and I have it on good authority that the other party snacks will be just as scrumptious. Can you go wrong with starting the new year like that? I think not!