4th Graders Say [and Do] the Darndest Things

Some of these are just hilarious, some maybe you had to be there, and some just ask yourself,

“would I be able to answer that question with thirty 4^th graders staring at me?” 

Let’s just say….awkward!

·         “Miss Haskin can I add you on Facebook?” [wait what, 10-year-olds have facebook!?]

·          “Ok, so around the circle this measurement is called…?”

“Circumcision!”

·         “Ewwww gross! They are talking about puberty! Wait, Thomas, were you listening? Ok good. You shouldn’t know about it. Its girl stuff.”

·        “Miss Haskin, how do babies even come out??”

·        “Smell this!”

“Whoa! It smells like fruit loops! Where’d you get it?”

[The boys all at that table proceed to go get the good smelling Kleenex and sit at their desks sniffing it]

“Oh no! Wait did you wash yours? Mine doesn’t smell like fruit loops anymore!" 

·         “Um, Miss Haskin, there’s a game online where you can test a husband and wife and see if you’ll get married, and Tristyn put in your name and Jimmer’s and there’s a 95% chance you’ll get married.” 

[part of] my class. you just gotta love them. :)

also, tomorrow is my last day. 

I'm going to miss them!

Holi Krishna

Yesterday I got the opportunity to be a little bit cultured here in my BYU-Provo bubble.

Down south about 20 minutes is the Krishna Hindu Temple. Every year the Hindu celebrate the coming of spring in a festival called Holi, or, The Festival of Colors. In my research on this I read that it sometimes gets very out of hand, but I guess not here in Utah. 

During the festival music is played, and the tradition Holi Krishna song is sung. Here are the lyrics, its actually quite catchy when you are singing it!

Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!

Hare! Hare! Krishna! Krishna!

Hare Rama! Hare Rama!

Rama! Rama! Hare! Hare!

So my friends and I joined in the singing and dancing. We then watched the burning of a witch. No, not a real witch, a fake one. It was to symbolize the burning away of evil in our lives. While the message was good, I never in my life thought I would be caught chanting, "Burn the Witch! Burn the Witch!" with a crowd of people. Well...I was caught. 

After they burnt the witch we threw the colors to welcome spring! The "colors" are powdered chalk. Let me just say, it was a mess, and so much fun! 

p.s. sorry if some of the pics aren't the best. my camera was in a plastic bag for protections!

this is before the color went up,

people just threw powder at each other

bennett&tanner!

kathryn, lindsay, jenkerr, macy, and lauren!

here I was trying to get a picture of my hair.

thanks jen and kathryn for making it SO much more entertaining!

ok now here is when we all finally threw a handful of powdered chalk into the air!

you couldn't see anything!

And now for a few after shots!

(all the group ones were taken on lauren's camera)

And to sum up the day...we got kicked out of Legend's Grill.

As we were walking out Bennett said to us,

"How embarrassing! I told you they wouldn't let our kind in!"

Haha. I love my friends.

Have a happy Sunday! 

And if you ever get a chance to throw colored chalk at people, take it!

also..check out my last year's experience here!

Weekend in Georiga

ok friends. be ready for a post basically all about this little man:

technically, this was going to be a post about be going "home" last weekend

 [to Georgia, not Minnestota where I'm from]. 

Turns out my beautiful nephew, seth, happened to be there, so thats really all my weekend was!

Well, he's all the photo evidence I have at least. 

I LOVED seeing and having a great talk with my Momma,

watching the BYU basketball game with my Poppa [Go Cougs!],

and hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law.

But I really can't get enough of this guy. 

Here he is with Grandpa fouling him [my Dad was getting into BBall a little too much].

Seth and his dad:

Time for a swim!!

Nap-time with Grandma-Great!

Here he is in his adorable Sunday outfit! 

(and his new toy, which he decided to stick back too far and gag himself...]

Miss him!!

Of, course, I can't forget this guy that was also home.

He gave me the best welcome ever! 

He was so happy he was SQUEAKING! 

Haha. Love my puppy. :)

leprechauns in india?

For my job I speak with BYU alumni. 

They can give feedback on the phone call, but I don't always see the feedback.

If I do its not for a long time after the call. 

Today I got a comment one of the alumni had made, and I had completely forgotten about this call.

I thought it somewhat fitting for St. Patrick's Day.

"I really enjoyed it when I thought she said

  'helping leprechauns in India'

 instead of 

'helping leper colonies in India.'

 That made my day."

Well, dear alumni, this note just make my day. 

Thanks!

puppy!

i miss this little guy!

i tried to talk to him on skype today.

i was ignored.

guess i'll just have to see in person in a week!

p.s. he totally pulled that maneuver on my lap all by himself. and just laid there until i moved.

the rantings of a [now] happily single girl

Last week was stake conference and it was exactly what I needed. In so many ways. I could do about twenty blog posts [long ones] about it all. But don’t worry I won’t. I will, though, share one thing.

                               

I am young, but at BYU I feel very old. Last weekend I went to my friend’s baby shower, and [other than one girl that I didn’t know that didn’t talk] I was the only single girl there. Everyone else was married and half the girls had babies. [Ps. they were so stinkin cute].

While I was driving home for that I started thinking about all the girls I lived with and hung out with my freshman year here. Every single one of them is married. I got extremely depressed at that thought. How could I be the only single one? What did I do wrong?

Things didn’t get any better the next week. I started teaching in Jordan [35 min away] and riding up there with 4 other girls. Two are married, one about to be engaged, and the other with a boyfriend. So what does our conversation turn to each day?

Yup, you guessed it, marriage.

Every day I get to hear all about each girl’s engagement, the excitement, the dress, the ring, the boy, the day, and how so very lucky they are now. I am happy for them. I love these girls so much. But as they talk, I realize I am the oldest one in the car, and still so very single. I try to ignore that, but it sure is hard.

 So needless to say, I’ve been pretty down lately. I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be happy. I just wasn’t sure how to when I was constantly bombarded with the fact that I am single and alone.

Then I went to Stake Conference.

I think just about every speaker gave me some sort of hint on what I am doing wrong and what I can do to let myself be happier. Then the last speech really got to me. It was Elder Craig Zwick from the First Quorum of the Seventy [a group of leaders in my church].

Don’t compare yourself to others.

Duh, Katie! I’ve heard this before. A million and one times. But each time I always think of personality traits or material possessions. But all of a sudden it hit me that I cannot compare myself to my married friends. They are so very different people than I am. I lead a different life than they do. The Lord needs me to learn different things than they are learning, and maybe one day I will realize I needed this time as preparation for something else. I am not my married friends. I am me and the Lord has a great plan for me. I am so glad to be single. I have amazing roommates and I get to do so many things and go so many places that I would never get to if I was married.

Don’t get me wrong, I still someday wish to get married. But I can be patient and do it on the Lord’s timeline.

Not my own, and not some other girl’s.  

I love my life and I am happy to be where I am. 

London with my besties!

from the lunch room.

I came into the faculty room with my lunch and laptop with full intentions of working on a lesson plan. 

Then nobody else was in here.

So I did this instead:

Check out how official I am.

I'm all teacherified. 

So my kids started writing me notes from day one in the classroom.

First I was "Ms. Haskin."

Cool. Divorced.

Now I'm "Mrs. Haskin."

Better. But just a reminder that I really am NOT married. 

Maybe one of these days they will realize my name is up on the board and it clearly states "Miss Haskin."

Until then, I will just enjoy my 4th grade notes. :) 

conquer the dragon.

“I can’t do this, Sam.”

“It’s all wrong—by rights we shouldn’t be here, but we are. It’s like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really matter, full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? Like in the end, it’s only a passing thing, the shadow, even fear and darkness will pass—a new day must come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stay with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, they do understand, they know how folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

“What are we holding onto, Sam?”

“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

Sometimes life shows us that the fairy tales we read when we were little are more than true. 

Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that they can be defeated.

Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes we can’t see the end. Sometimes it feels like if there even is an end, it won’t be happy.

I admit that sometimes I just want to give up.

But I remember the good in the world.

I remember what it is I really am fighting for.

And then I fight.

I conquer my dragon.

And I realize that the sun really is so much brighter than it ever was before. 

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment."

-Doctrine and Covenants 121:7

images here and here.