GO UTES!!!! Utah- 48 BYU- 24 How 'bout them Utes?!?!?!

TWILIGHT!

I went with a group of friends to see "Twilight" this afternoon...

Kandus, Michelle, and Tammy

Me and Emma

Brittany, Linda, and my mom

I L-O-V-E loved it! It wasn't as good as the book, but what movie ever is? I was really nervous about the guy playing Edward, he was not even close to matching my Tyler-like Edward in my head. But, after maybe 10 minutes I began to develop a little crush! ;) The chemistry between Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart is INCREDIBLE!!! I will definitely be spending money to see this movie again.

Reality Town

Thursday November 13th was Reality Town at Valley Junior High. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this activity I will explain. Our Reality Town is for the 9th graders. They are assigned careers based on their GPA at the time we submit our information to the Reality Town company. Along with their career each student is given information about their "life," such as how many children they have, if they are married, if their spouse works, if they own a car, etc. They are then given a checkbook which they use to write checks to pay for housing, transportation, groceries, clothing, child care, insurance, pets, entertainment, etc. Those who chose to dress up for their career were given an extra $100 at the bank before the activity. It's a lot of fun! I love watching the kids and listening to their funny comments. One girl was a school counselor. At the end of the activity she came up to me and said, "Ms. White, how do you do it?" I got a good laugh out of that. :) I think Reality Town is a major eye-opener for the kids who take it seriously. I hope that they learn the value of a good education and hard work.

This student was a junior high school teacher, so he chose to dress up like our dear Mr. Gibbons.

I got to be at one of the banks, and because I'm such a nerd I loved it! I have a weird obsession with numbers and math...

WE LOVE VOLUNTEERS!

The counselors still look pretty good for being totally exhausted!

One funny story came from our last session of Reality Town. One of my students was an anesthesiologist and made over $8000 a month. He had managed to go to each booth and he still had a ton of money left. After he bought himself a second house and 3 cars he then started buying things for other people. Before we knew it he had bought his friend another car and a huge group of people cruises. He then started writing checks to random people who were out of money. I'm proud of his generosity. :)

80 Years!

Tuesday November 11th was Grandma Shirley's 80th birthday! The "adults" all met at Market Street Grill for a birthday dinner. It was a good night and it was wonderful to see Grandma smile. I love you Grandma!!

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Emma!

My little sister Emma turned 15 on Monday November 3rd. She also received her Young Womanhood Recognition Award on Sunday! Love you Emma!

Taylor's burrito was out of control HUGE!

Emma chose to go to The Cheesecake Factory Monday night for her birthday dinner. Because her siblings are so AWESOME the waiter found out it was her birthday. A group sang "Happy Birthday" to her and the cheesecake she ordered came all decorated. She pretended she was mad, but we all knew that she loved the attention. :)

Dad, Mom, me, Emma, and Grandma Syme

I can't decide who's more charming, Mason or Emma....

Happy Halloween!

Halloween night I went with Kandus, Leesha, Michelle, and Tammy to see Odyssey Dance Company's production of "Thriller." It was interesting, kind of gruesome in parts, but there were some definitely cool parts. http://www.nowplayingutah.com/event/detail/440171124 It was a lot of fun, and the entertaining company made the evening even more enjoyable. After "Thriller" we all went back to Leesha's for fondue. I discovered that anything covered in chocolate is pretty awesome! Good thing we had the time change this weekend because I was able to catch up on a little bit of the sleep I missed Friday night. I'm not used to the 2:30 a.m. nights anymore...

Kandus, Michelle, and Leesha

Pretty much the best costume ever!

Carving Pumpkins

Cute Bailey!

EEWWWW! Gross!!

Bailey wanted her pumpkin to look like a pumpkin, so she and I worked our magical knife skills and created the best looking pumpkin puppy ever! She said that next year she wants it to look like a cat, tiger, or penguin. Maybe we'll let her parents be the force behind that creation. :)

We got done with Bailey's pumpkin before anyone else was done (she was smart and chose a small pumpkin) and she didn't want to be done, so she dug in to help Mason.

My Dad always carves the coolest pumpkins. He had already carved his own pumpkin to take to school for his students, so Thursday night he was working on my mom's pumpkin.

Emma was quite proud of her creation.

Where's my mom during all this excitement??? Working on her Sudoku!

Mason and Taylor concentrating (I've never heard the house so quiet with them there).

This was a first for Taylor, she had never carved a pumpkin before. That would explain the..... uniqueness of her pumpkin.

Thursday October 30th I got to spend the evening with my cousin Bailey. We took Bailey's pumpkin with us out to my parents so we could join them as they carved pumpkins. I left my pumpkin at home because I hate carving pumpkins. It's so slimy and smelly and it turns your fingers orange and the yuckyness gets under your fingernails. YUCK! I would help Bailey by scraping the side of the pumpkin, but then I would tell her to stick her hand in there and get it out. She finally asked, "Sarah, why am I the only one who has to put my hand in there?" "Because it's your pumpkin. :)" We had a lot of fun.