High of my Day

I'm sorry if you're getting sick of me posting everyday lately... I just have so many stories to tell!!

High of my Day.
This week has been CRAZY. School is wonderful and my kids are adorable. We've done all these crazy projects and today I wanted them all done so next week we can start fresh... there were 5 projects in all.
We had a movie at the end of the day and all the kids were sooo excited about it. I talked it up and told them that everything had to be done or they would have to miss it (I know. mean teacher. good incentive.)
Only one problem. By the time the movie came around most kids did not have all 5 projects done. I lowered the expectation to 3 so they could see the movie. They were the 3 most important anyways. I only had 2 kids who needed to stay and finish up... and one of them finished it quickly.
The other did not.
I felt bad.
I went up to him.

"bud, hurry! we're missing the movie!"
"I know! Miss Pitt, I can't think of anything else I like for my Me poster!!"
"ok. let's brainstorm. do you like being outside? (yes) hurry. draw a tree."
"ok."
"do you like video games? (yes) draw a controller"
"ok. (he is now frantically drawing)
Miss Pitt! I still have so much white space! (we don't allow white space in second grade...)"
"ok. you draw, I'll color the background. hurry hurry! what color do you want the background?!"
"I don't care. any color!! I just want to see Arthur!!!"

so I'm coloring and he's drawing and we're both going so fast (but of course doing our best work) then he's running to get his backpack and put up his chair and put away his things... and he's running out the door and I'm just laughing at how much he REALLY wanted to see this movie... and he stops.
He is halfway through the doorway and comes back to me. He gives me the biggest hug and says

"Thanks Miss Pitt. I'm glad I finished that."

I made this kid miss half the movie! And he still loves me. It melted my heart. And it was even better because he is a major talker in my class, but he really does have a heart of gold.

I love being a teacher
<3

The Garden Gazette

Extra Extra Read all about it!!!

A garden expansion, with a new indoor tree, new students and a brand new excited teacher, is gradually being finished with a few of the expected 19 new students coming in already. The excellent Larsen Elementary will be joined this week by Alissa Pitt, the new and upcoming second grade teacher.

"You have a TREE inside?! How did you do that?!" cried out a young boy who is very excited to be in Miss Pitt's classroom this year. Miss Pitt had to explain that it was, in fact, made of butcher paper despite its lifelike appearance.

Miss Pitt will begin her career as a teacher tomorrow August 24th at 8:30 am.

"I am excited and nervous all at the same time! I just don't even know how I'm going to sleep tonight!" She exclaimed. "I already just love these kids and I know this year is going to be the best ever!"

The construction of this room has lasted all summer and is finally complete. More news to come as the year unfolds.

hey, remember?

took a trip down memory lane today.
remember wyview freshman year?
remember esperanza that first day being sooo awkward taking a first day picture?
but then we all cried (even dana) the day we had to move out... even though we had signed a contract to live together in the fall haha
or the multiple dinners we made that we just free for all because we were just excited it was edible?
remember the bubble fights in the kitchen with dana when we had to do the dishes?
and the reason we had to do the dishes- they had taken over the counter and the microwave couldn't open.. that's how we knew it was time.
remember how i had my own room? but i got lonely so marissa would send me flying hearts?
remember petey? the spider who we found in the doorway and no one would let me kill it....sooo it ended up IN MY BED... o ya. and ON MY HEAD!!! hahahahha
remember the girls downstairs and how they thought we were crazy cause of our dance parties?
then they would join us. and they had good moves haha
remember the snowman they left us on the front porch? it had a orphan note and we loved it.
until it wasn't taken back outside... so it was a puddle on our table
remember esperanza hello and goodbyes? everyone loved them!
and rochelle's awesome story about her brazilian boy? haha
remember when we stayed up late cause we knew someone would have a good story whenever they got back? so we slept on the couch to wait?
remember benny? he was the tree outside the window. it took him awhile to lose his leaves, but we loved him. he's big now.
or watching the kids get off the bus? we were kind of stalkers... watching from the window
and the one day dana was watching and she saw a raintree kid EAT it in the snow.
now we're raintree kids...
remember when we rolled down the hill? :)
remember when we would just sit and talk and be freshmen? :)

I remember. so here is a shout out to my esperanza girls. I walked through wyview today to play piano and walked all the way up to apt 174. building 13. and I ran half way up the stairs. just cause we used to. :)

o hey. ps. this week. I'm pretty excited <3

Pitt Family Fun

I'm home at last!!! It's been wonderful to just relax and not have to worry about anything except what to make for lunch :) Here's the run down:

Saturday.

ALL DAY at the beach. This ended in Emily's birthday bonfire and a really red alissa. (thank you to danny ritter for getting up at 6 am to stake out a bonfire pit with me!!)

yes. this is my home. i love it.

Sunday.

Church- Kelli, Andrew, Chad and Amber (and Sydney only I didn't get to hear hers) all gave amazing talks.

then we ate good food.

Monday.

Angels game!!!

Tuesday.

Aquarium of the Pacific!

I saw cool jellyfish and sharks and crazy spider crabs. ew.

Wednesday.

Girls night out!! Craziest one thus far!! We were walking out of Walmart when we saw spotlights and a helicopter telling us 2 armed people were in the area... then we ran to the car. Only once we started running, the spotlight shone on us!! but we didn't fit the description so we were alright. :)

Tonight.

bonfire. and deena and trent and jessica are coming to stay at our house. 15 people in a 3 bedroom home= we're setting up the tent in the backyard and campin out! :)

2 weeks from yesterday school starts and I'm a teacher!

13 days and one of my favorite people comes home from Brazil!

basically I'm lovin life <3

NBA goes Country...?

For all you Lakers fans out there... take a gander at the player sitting in the front row all the way to the right. Recognize him? Mark Madsen. Turns out he's a really good country dancer...

So last night I went country dancing and this REALLY tall guy asked me to dance. (I asked him. 6'9" - I came just above his elbow) He introduced himself as Mark. So we were dancing and chatting, he's from northern california and likes to cook... and he's debating between Stanford and BYU for his graduate studies... I told him about my classroom and then the song ended. He shook my hand and asked what my last name was to look me up on facebook (ok, that was a little weird, guys reading this... ask a girl for her number, not her last name...)

About 3 dances later, Mark comes back around. He tells me he can't find me on facebook (ok. that was a little weird too... you already facebook stalked me? we're still at country dancing...) so he said I would have to look him up. He has a picture of him fishing, and his last name is Madsen. I said ok. (thinking maybe or maybe not because the whole facebook thing is odd). We dance and we start talking about california and he said he lived in LA for awhile. I asked doing what and he said he played with the Lakers for a bit. I laughed. ("Just because you're tall doesn't mean you played for the Lakers...") the song was over so I thanked him for the dance and walked back to the side.

I came home from country dancing and my good friend Joe-big Lakers fan- had called me so I called him back. I was telling him my adventures about weird facebook guy and I decided to ask if there was ever a Mark Madsen on the Lakers. Joe kind of freaked out. yes. there was. Then he freaked out some more when I told him I danced with him twice and he was good! Mark had even flipped me. (He had said "you're light." I said back "you're big"). Joe insisted that I date him so we could go on a double date and he could meet him. I said that was ridiculous. But he did convince me to be friends with a famous athlete on facebook :)

O how I love country dancing...
<3

Relief Society Success

For those of you who don't know, I was called to be the Relief Society President of my singles ward about 3 months ago. Talk about overwhelming. It's definitely had its highs and its lows and its stressful moments and times when I had no idea what to do about only 18 girls showing up out of almost 60... It's been hard, but today I finally felt like I was doing something right. So I want to share it with you. Not because I am good at this because the first great day in 3 months definitely has room for improvement haha no, this is because I couldn't be happier right now.

I had to teach the Presidency message today. Every month, the first sunday of the month is taught by one of the members of the presidency. This month was my turn.

We've been teaching out of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and at first I was kinda ehh about it because its for youth right? Except that once we started doing this the lessons were going super well and I realized how much I could learn from them.

Anywho, so today I was in charge of teaching. I haven't taught in church since last year and I was a little nervous about it. The lesson was on The Living Christ, Agency, Family, and Going Forward with Faith. Topics that don't seem like they go together, but it actually worked really well. The girls were talking and bearing testimony and the spirit was so strong. I had asked a few girls beforehand to specifically bear testimony of some of the things we were talking about and they were amazing.

This is the moment. The lesson ended and I was cleaning my things and a girl in our ward who is fairly new came up to me (I had asked her to bear her testimony during the lesson) and she just hugged me and cried and I hugged her back and we talked and she told me how much she had needed that right now and how important this ward was to her and how it had helped her through hard times. We were both crying. Then the Stake Relief Society Counselor came up to me and told me how impressed she was with the girls in our Relief Society and how spiritually mature they are and I felt so proud of them. They are truly amazing.

Sorry this is long. Congrats on reading all the way to here. Maybe no one cares but I am so happy. I feel like maybe I could be used as an instrument in the Lord's hands to do something good in this world. I love these girls. They are so good and loving and I am strengthened by them everyday.

Today has been one of those days when everything that life throws at me is totally worth it. All I need is one of these days to fuel me for a long time. I want to be the best I can be at whatever I'm doing so I can be used for good everyday.

<3