Mele Kalikimaka!

I am coming home the day after tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited!! If I can make it through tomrorow, a half day on Friday and a first grade Christmas party, I will be on a flight leaving Hawaii at 4:00 pm Friday afternoon! I can't wait to see everyone!

This week has been more than crazy and my kids have been extra extra hyper with Christmas coming but I just wanted to share a quick couple of pictures and videos from our Christmas concert we had Tuesday night. It was so much fun to see the kids all dressed in their Christmas best and singing! I absolutely love my job and the kids and families that I get to work with everyday!

Me and my kids! From left to right: Dane, Connor, Jake,Gabe, Patrick, Lucie, Eden, Brianna (front) Faith (back), Callahan, Mie, Teah.

Very hyper and excited to be at school at night!

My crazy boys!

Me and Miss Megan (their music teacher)

A little fuzzy and dakr but that's me and my festive leis. One I got from Po'okela and the other from Miss Megan. I love getting leis.

It's Christmas Time

Go Tell it on the Mountain!

Well I have to get back to packing, cleaning, planning and sleeping :) See you all soon! :)

St. Nicholas Day!

Well, I just finished having a little St. Nicholas Day celebration with the roomies! It was absolutely wonderful! It is feeling much more like Christmas than I expected it to being here in Hawaii. This is probably the most excited I have been for Christmas in a long time! I feel like a five year old kid again who can't wait for Christmas to get here!

I think much of that has to be with moving an ocean away from all my family! I can't wait to be home in less than two weeks and be able to see all my family and my adorable nephews who I am missing terribly! I am hoping that they love me best and only want me to play with them while I am home, otherwise my feelings will probably be terribly hurt ;)

Laura, Laurie and I all decided to jump into the holiday spirit and go all out decorating our place! Which I must say looks quite Christmassy :)We even bought a Christmas tree and put it up! But I must admit to much of my dismay it is a fake tree! (Gasp!) I feel very strongly against fake trees but since we are in Hawaii and everything dies really fast here and all three of us will be leaving in the middle of December we decided it would be smarter to get a fake tree! Of course once we had it all decorated and beautiful I immediately wanted to take pictures so I could show you all and my camera (that I bought about 4 months ago) decides to be broken! And then the camera that I brought just in case something like that were to happen ends up being broken also! It has not been a good couple of weeks for me and technology! So sorry you don't all get to enjoy how wonderful our place looks. I ended up finally borrowing a camera from someone so I could take a couple of pictures to share with you all.

Since all of us will be going back home to our families during the holidays we decided that we needed to celebrate a  roomies Christmas together before we left. So tonight we celebrated St. Nicholas Day by drawing names and getting stocking stuffers  for that person! It was a fabulous idea and we had so much fun going shopping for each other. I had Laurie's name, Laurie had Laura, and Laura had me :) We even got cute little stockings to hang on or bookshelf since no one has a fire place in Hawaii! 

As we gathered around our (fake) tree it was feeling quite cozy and Christmassy. We had our hot coco (thanks to Amy for sending it to me), and we were ready to open our stockings! Laura being the history nerd that she is, read to us the history of St. Nicholas (Love you Laura!). We then got to open all our wonderful little gifts from each other. I got some amazing things! Laura has come to know me so well :) I got THEE BEST giraffe ornament! And I even got a giraffe whisk! Try not to be jealous. It was such a fun night and I am so thankful that God has given me two amazing roommates that I get to share my time in Hawaii with!

Not the best pictures... but here is our tree and stockings!

That one is mine :)

All three ready to be opened

Yay! For presents!

Excited to open mine!

THE BEST ORNAMENT! Thanks Laura!

So cute!

Can't believe she found this!

My goodies

My pretty new nail polish I got in my stocking :)

Now that we have had a little taste of Christmas we are all now very ready and excited to come home for Christmas! Here are some things that I can't wait for:

• Getting to hug and kiss and snuggle and play with and see my adorable nephews (can you tell I am excited to see them????)
• Talks in person with Amy!
• Seeing my parents!
• Christmas morning
• Slumber party with Sarah Ives!
• Going to Mother's
• Bundling up and being cozy inside while it is actually cold outside
• Getting to meet Lily and Autumn
• Seeing all my friends and family
• And much much much more!

Love and miss you all! See you in 12 days!

Day Off = Update!

Since I have the day off I figured I should update you all in what I have been up to in all parts of my life!

School/Work

  My patience was tested and grew coming back from fall break and trying to get the kids all back on the same page that we were on before fall break. I had to be the "mean" teacher for awhile to let me kids know I mean it when I tell them to do something :) But we are all falling nicely back into the routine of things.

  It is so much fun being a teacher. I love getting to know these kids more and more as the year goes on and they bring me such joy every day! It still surprises me sometimes that I have my very own classroom full of first graders and I am their teacher!

My adorable first grade class!

My very first staff picture as a first grade teacher!

  I have been given some very nice compliments from people about my teaching ability which have really helped me to see that this really is what God has called me to do at this time in my life! I was talking with one of the Kindergarten teachers during our open house and she asked me if I was planning on being here next year. I told her as of right now I could see myself next year. She said "Good I already have a student that I want to recommend you to be his teacher!" I told her  "Thank you that means a lot that you would think of me!" She laughed and said, "Well don't thank me just yet, he is my difficult student and I think he is going to need a teacher who is really on top of him and doesn't let him get away with anything. But I think you would be able to handle him!"

Then a couple of days later the other Kindergarten teacher told me that she thinks that I would be a really good fit for her difficult student. This student has a specialist that his parents hired to help him through out the day because he has so much trouble with his behavior! She told me that his parents were worried about next year and having a teacher that was going to be on top of him and keep a tight rein on him.She said I think you would be a good fit for him because you will keep control of him and be a good influence for him.

It was quite the compliment that two of the teachers who have been here the longest (something like 25 years) think that I am a good enough teacher and would help to make a difference for these students that are the more difficult students! But now that I am thinking a little bit more about it I can see that next years class is probably going to be a lot more difficult :) I will have all the 'bad' kids because I can handle it! :)

Our vice principal also asked me to think about running their summer fun program, which is basically summer camp. I would be in charge of planning and running three weeks of summer fun. There would be 30 kids and I would have two helpers. She said I could pick and choose if I didn't want to do all three weeks. I haven't decided what I am going to do yet, it would be good experience and good pay and something to put on my resume but I don't know yet if I am willing to give up three weeks of my summer vacation and being back home. I will keep you posted on what I decide to do :)

We are beginning to get into the holiday season at school so things are going to start getting and busy with all the things we have to get done before Christmas break. I am working on report cards this weekend, which is probably my least favorite thing about teaching. I feel like I was just doing progress reports! But I love the holiday season so bring on the madness!

Home/Roomies

What have I been doing outside of school and work you ask?? Well, sometimes I wonder the same thing :) Work has been keeping me pretty busy but I have found time to have some fun also.

This may be shocking for some of you who know me well and know how much I love the sun and the warmth, but I have actually found myself missing fall a little bit! I miss the colors and the changing of the seasons! I know... crazy! So toe help some of that missing fall feeling Laura and I decided to buy fall smelling candle, make molasses cookies and get pumpkins to carve!

Well, seeing as we live in Hawaii there are no pumpkin patches here so instead we just went to Safeway! (almost as fun) After laboring over finding the perfect pumpkins we left the store with what we thought were two perfect pumpkins! We searched on our best friend, the Internet for what amazing designs we could find for our pumpkins. Finally we prepared out kitchen to start surgery on our pumpkins. I made my first cut into the top of my pumpkin and was dismayed to find out that my pumpkin was rotten the inside!! I didn't think it would matter that much and continued to move forward on making my masterpiece of a pumpkin! Well, after just a few carves into my pumpkin it caved in!! I now had a huge side of my pumpkin! After much lamenting I decided to forget it and just make a dumb face on the other side my of pumpkin!

Laura doing surgery!

My pitiful Frederick!

Yes, I know Laura's is much better than mine!

We look like 12 year old girls!

In other news:

We finally have a table! Which I am very excited about.

I miss my adorable nephews! I can't believe they are one!!

I mean seriously! How could I not miss this! They are amazingly cute!

I need to quit doing this post and finish my report cards.

I think I am going to go to the beach tomorrow.

Alright I am done for real now. I miss you all and will see you in just a little over a month!

Jessica



Pant Splitting Fun...

It is amazing how fast time goes by. It has already been two weeks since coming back from fall break!

It seems that having a week off turned my students into little crazy children! We have spent much of that past two weeks reviewing how to obey and follow directions! It has been tiring but I think they are starting to get back into the routine of school.

We jumped right back into school after break with a field trip to Papahana Kuaola. In Hawaiian Studies we have been teaching the kids about indigenous and endemic plants and animals of Hawaii and how different plants and animals got to Hawaii. So we got to go to Papahana Kuaola where the kids got to explore and see different plants of Hawaii, learn about how Hawaii was formed, see early Hawaiian tools, and learn how the Hawaiians used different plants for different things.

Walking in the mud through a Taro patch! Most of the kids loved this part.

The field trip was a great success with the kids but it wasn't without a couple of glitches along the way. As we were all lining up to get onto the bus to head out to the field trip one of my little ones started to throw up in the parking lot! Luckily it happened when it did because if we had gotten on the bus two minutes earlier she would have been throwing up all over the bus! Needless to say she didn't go on the field trip. Well you would think that was enough excitement for one field trip but no...

During the field trip we were all enjoying wading in the stream fishing for little minnows the kids were squealing with delight all in all it was great! Well I decided to take a seat on one of the rocks (bad idea!) where my pants decide to get caught on a sharp edge of the rock and proceed to rip right across my butt!! I sat there for a second thinking to myself did that seriously just happen?? Why?  I slowly began to stand up, making sure there was no one behind me, pulled my shirt down over my butt and scoot myself over to Kim where I whisper, "Um Kim my pants just completely ripped I will be back!" She laughs and says "OK I will cover for you!"

Before my pants ripped!

Luckily for me being a teacher has helped me become a more prepared person! I very strategically made my way back to my backpack where my extra set of clothes was waiting for me! I quickly changed and headed back to the group where no one was the wiser about my pants splitting other than Kim! Other than those things the field trip was great!

Another fun thing that we got to do since coming back from fall break was have some fire fighters visit the the school (this may have been more fun for me than the kids ;) ).  One of the first graders in Kim's class has a grandpa who is a district fire chief so he offered to have one of his crews come out and show the kids a fire truck! So on Thursday this last past week we had a fire truck, an ambulance, and a whole crew come out the the school and let our first graders go in the trucks and taught them about fire safety.

In the ambulance!

I love being a teacher!

One of my favorites!

The kids (and their teacher, me) had a great time with the nice fire fighters! ;) Apparently to be a firefighter in Hawaii one of the requirements is to you have to be an extremely good looking Hawaiian!  I didn't mind at all :)

Firefighter Jessica and Kim!

After the firemen left and we were wrapping up the day with our kids, having them write a thank you note to the firemen for coming to our schools. One of my students, while writing his note, says to himself "I can't wait for my grandma to pick me up from school today so I can tell her about this AWESOME day!" (Grace it was Dane). I love days like that when the kids have had a blast at school.

Both first grade classes in front of the fire truck!

After all the business and excitement of the past two weeks Laura and I have plans tonight to sit at home and carve some pumpkins! It is as close to having fall as we can get in Hawaii!

Love and miss you all!
Jessica

Fall Break!

I know I know! It has been forever since my last post. Sorry for all the those who have been waiting to read about everything I have been doing (Grandma and Mom :) ) I have just been so busy relaxing and having a blast this week on my week off from school! This has been one of the best weeks I have had in a long time! I finally felt like I was able to go and explore and enjoy Hawaii without having to worry about work or getting lesson plans done! It has been fabulous! I couldn't have asked for a better vacation week.

The week started off with getting a car to borrow from my boss Nancy. She kindly offered to let us use her car since she was going to be gone for the week! Monday Laura and I spent the day getting ready to Grace to arrive that night! We went shopping and cleaned up the house. Monday night finally arrived and we headed to the airport with much excitement to pick of Grace! Made a quick pit stop to grab a lei to greet her with! Then there she was!  We jumped out of the car and proceeded with several hugs and kisses!

Tuesday

 We started the day off with a nice hike up to the Makapuu light house so that Grace could enjoy the amazing view from the top! Unfortunately we forgot to bring water with us on the way up so Grace was about dying by the time we got back to the car to get some water! After hiking we all were ready to get into the water! We headed down to Kalama beach were we spent the rest of the afternoon boogie boarding and soaking up the sun and sand!

Wednesday

Lucky for us we have some good connections here in Hawaii! We got the hook up from another one of the teachers to get free kayaks for the day! So Wednesday morning we headed down to Kailua beach to grabs some kayaks. After watching the safety video and actually getting to the ocean we were all a little nervous about actually having to kayak out in the big ocean and the possibility of dying! But on the way out we tagged along two nice couples who assured us that we wouldn't die and we could make it out to the Mokes (the twin islands of the coast of Lanikai beach). After much effort and using of our muscles we made it safely onto the shore! While on the island we were sure to do some exploring and found a nice deep pool of water that we were sure to jump into! After we explored the island we decided that we were dying of hunger and needed to make it back so that we could get some food! Well the trip was a lot more work and tiring than the trip there! We finally made it back to the kayak rental place and lucky for us it was right next to Island Snow. So we all had our first taste of shave ice! We all fell is love right away and vowed to get shave ice everyday for the rest of the week!

After returning home we decided to head out to Waikiki to have dinner on the beach. After doing some google searching we found a restaurant that looked promising and decided to give it a try. Laura decided that she needed to get some work done so it was just Grace and I for the night. Well it ended up that the restaurant we chose was in one of the nicest hotels in Waikiki! It was a gorgeous restaurant right on the beach with live music and our very own hula dancer! We had delicious drinks, food and sunset! The whole night was a success.  

Thursday

Thursday we decided to head up to the North Shore to explore Haleiwa. The trip there ended up becoming interesting when Grace and I had to pee so bad we were ready to die! Poor Laura she turned into the person for us to yell at until we found a restroom. It was a very traumatic experience for all involved! Once we got the Haleiwa we were in need of some food and shave ice to help restore the situation. After getting some food we all felt a little bit better and decided to explore the coast a little bit. We stopped and Waimea Falls which looks exactly like Jurassic Park! It was beautiful and yes it is indeed where they filmed Lost, which Grace was very excited about!

After we finished exploring Waimea Falls we headed a little bit further down the coast and stopped at Sunset beach and watched some surfer and of course the sunset. It was a fabulous day spent exploring the Island and the beautiful beaches and waterfalls of Oahu! 

Friday

Probably my favorite day of the week! :) It started out just like any other day. We ate some breakfast, watched some TV, decided to go get a pedicure and eat some lunch. Then we had plans to go to a luau that evening. We all decided to make ourselves as presentable as possible and head out to the luau. After sitting in traffic for forever, we finally arrived and little did we know that we were walking into one of my new favorite places ;) We were greeted with drinks and shell necklaces and nice Hawaiian men! (my new favorite part of Hawaii :) ) The night was filled with canoe rides, spear throwing, getting Hawaiian tattoos (don't worry they were fake), fire dancing, learning to hula, palm tree climbing and eating pig! It was a grand night! 

Saturday

All in all it was a fabulous fall break and I am so thankful that Grace was here to spend it with us! I am now back to teaching and getting back into my routine. We have been very blessed with a car to borrow from a family at church! So until November 30th we no longer have to walk to the grocery store!

I miss you all back home! Two months and I will be home for Christmas! Love you all!

Jessica 

Fables, North Shore and Conferences!

It has been quite busy here in Hawaii since my last post! Between our first field trip, a weekend up at the North Shore and preparing everything for parent conferences next week, I have been quite exhausted. Because of my tired state of being I made the mistake of getting a venti coffee after school today to help me get through the rest of the work I had to do! So instead of going to bed like I should be right now, I am bouncing off the walls with hyperness annoying my roommates ;)

Last week we went on our first field trip to the Hawaii Theatre to see "Fun with Fables!" It was a successful field trips without losing or damaging any children. :) But I must say as much as I love first graders, a bus full of them is NOT fun! Next field trip I may be bringing ear plugs for the ride. The Hawaii Theatre was gorgeous and all the kids enjoyed the field trip very much.

After week full of teaching, taking class pictures, going on a field trip and presenting at Exordium (kind of like our chapel), Laura and I offered to help watch the kids at the retreat for the church leaders this past weekend.  So after school on Friday we headed up to the North Shore where we stayed at Camp Erdman. Grace you will be interested to know that Camp Erdman is where they filmed the "Others" camp for Lost! So basically I was walking and sleeping where all the stars of Lost had been!! :)

It was a great weekend to get to know some of the families at Trinity a little better. The camp was gorgeous! As you stepped out of the cabin there were the mountains and on the other side was the ocean! Doesn't get much better than that.We spent Friday watching the kids and then having a camp fire with everyone. It reminded me a little bit of family camp, except that we were in Hawaii so it wasn't freezing on the beach! I am thinking that next year we should have camp here! It was so much fun to be able to take a walk on the beach at night and look up at the amazing amount of starts in the night sky and see the silhouette of the mountains! I love the beach at night. Saturday we got to take the kids on a hike. I must say that my only disappointment was that I didn't see any sea turtles like everyone had told me I would! After the weekend of watching kids and sleeping at camp Laura and I both came home, plopped down on the couch and didn't move for a long long long time! Being with all the kids this weekend was a lot of fun but it made me miss my lil babies back home! Miss you Oliver and Adam!!

This week is another busy week because we have parent conferences next week! I can't believe how fast the school year is already going. It has been a really smooth start to school and I have been enjoying teaching so much. I must admit I am a little more stressed this week though with all the grades and assignments I need to get into our grade book on the computer before conferences next week. But I will get it done, I always do. :) Fall break will be a welcome break from work! I am sooooooooooooo excited to get to spend the week with Grace! Don't worry Grace I am planning out our daily activities! You will have so much fun you will never want to leave Hawaii! :)

Well, I think I am going to go take some laps around the house so that I can get some sleep! ;) Love you all!

Jessica

Ready for the field trip in my beautiful Trinity blue polo!!

At the Hawaii Theatre waiting for the show to start!

On the way in the bus. Aren't they Cute!

 

Our cabin at Camp Erdman.

The view out of our cabin!

On the hike with the kids.

North Shore!

Lazy Saturday

Well, since I don't have any spectacular plans of climbing any volcanoes or surfing 20 foot waves today, I thought I would update everyone on what I have been doing. I know you all have been dying to hear what I have been doing. ;)

I have been settling in quite nicely to life here in Hawaii. Here is a little of what I have been up to and been learning about myself this past month in a half of being here.

• I love teaching first grade.
• I love having the beach so close by.
• Boogie boarding is one of my favorite things to do.
• I love the people I work with, live with, and go to church with. 
• I am becoming quite the expert in grocery shopping.
• I am getting to put to good use all the cooking skills that Amy taught me over the summer.
• I am learning how to communicate effectively with my students parents (not always easy).
• I love teaching Math to both of the first grade classes.
• Hawaiian studies is one of my favorite things to teach, I get such joy from the excitement my students have about it.
• I am learning to like running (never thought that could happen).
• The sand on the beaches is wonderful!
• I have a new found appreciation for cars and miss having one desperately!  
• I hate the dogs in our neighborhood that decide they all have to howl and bark at seven in the morning on a Saturday!
• I am so thankful for my roommates.  
• I don't like getting stung by jelly fish (This happened while boogie boarding last Sunday, don't worry it was little one. I am still alive)
• I miss my family and appreciate them so much more after living on my own for a little bit.
• I am very thankful for Kim Hepburn, my partner teacher. Transitioning into my first year of teaching would be so much more difficult without her.
• God's creation is breath taking!
• I miss my adorable nephews!
• I am thankful for Skype and telephones that allow me to keep in touch with everyone back home.
• First graders can test your patients at times.
• I have a lot of influence over my students and they look up to me (which means I better be doing a good job teaching them).
• Kids say some of the craziest things!
• Can't wait til Grace gets here to visit me.
• I have become addicted to having coffee in the morning since I have to get up so stinking early!
• Doing science experiment in kids is so much fun!
• I like having a home to take care of and clean and cook in (most of the time :) ).

One of the yummy dinners Laura and I made

My pretty painting I bought for my room!

Planting our bean seeds!

Cloud in a bottle experiment... quite the crowd favorite!

Singing our North, South, East, West song.

Our pretty bathroom... For all of those who were dying to know what it looked like! I know you were don't worry. :)

So there you have it! That is a little update of what I have been up to, for those of you who care! :) Miss and love you guys!

Jessica