Random Thoughts, who knows what topics will be covered!

I'm in the writing mood so here goes...

At the end of the Fall semester, when I was desperately trying to decide if I should continue with my Secondary Education license or switch to Elementary Education, James made a suggestion to me. You see, the issue with the Secondary was the prereqs for my math classes. I have to take certain classes before I take other classes, its a nightmare. I was going to have one semester where I could only take Calculus II and that would be it because I need Cal II for all my other classes....so James' suggestion...add a minor to fill in those semesters when you have no other classes to take! BRILLIANT!!! So that's what I'm doing now. I am a Secondary Math Education Major with an English Education Minor...holy cow world watch out, not only will I be able to do all kinds of crazy math problems but I'll be correcting everyone's grammar as well! (HA! as a funny side note I totally misspelled grammar and the computer had to correct it for me!!!!)

Anyway, that explains why I am in the writing mood. I have an English class, Methods of Teaching English, where I have been given these random writing assignments and I'm really enjoying them. So far I've had to write on why I think I (or anyone) watches movies over and over again, or why someone would read a book more than once. I've had to write a paper where I've sketched in words someone who didn't know I was watching them. That one was fun, I did it on my little boy playing with his toys, maybe I'll post it here one of these days. Tonight I had to make an observation on a movie, song or book. Any observation...that one was a little harder but I find that once I start the writing process the words just flow out of me. I have a total of 14 different writing assignments to write on, some that I'm looking forward to are: capture an incident of fear so the reader actually is fearful, explain an important lesson you learned as a child, describe you idea of heaven or hell, write a nasty letter about a product that didn't work, and then the next assignment is to write a letter in response as if I was the customer relations manager in charge of that product...lots of things that really make you think. If I feel I really like my papers I'll post them on the blog.

I also have this Introduction to Poetry class that I am completely NOT enjoying. I know nothing about poetry and I have no desire to get into the heads of these poets to figure out what they were really trying to write about when they wrote these poems some 100 odd years ago!!! My math classes this semester are Calculus I and Linear Algebra, both are going well so far, of course I'm only starting the 3rd week so I'm sure they are going to get worse very soon.

My Education in Society class is very informative. For example I learned that every state in the US gets money from the government, depending on how many students are in class during the school year, (I knew this part already) and Utah gets the least amount of money. The amount received is based on a formula that has to do with the number of kids in school the year prior and the amount of taxable land in the state. Utah has a ton of government owned land, with all the National Parks in the state that's not hard to believe. But because of that Utah has hardly any taxable land, which means they receive a lot less than a majority of the other states. I learned that Connecticut gets about 4 times more per student than Utah does (roughly $10,000 to Utah's $2,400) so I might move there and teach because their teachers make about $80,000 a year :) hehe (just kidding mom!!!!)

I have yet to come up with my goals for the year. I know a few that I want to add to my list but my list isn't officially put together yet, so until then I'm going to keep my mouth shut and post the list when it is completed. Once its out there in there in the world of blog its there to stay so I better make it a good one!!!

Update on my dad: I spoke with him Saturday morning. He is doing good. Only two more week of radiation left thank goodness! He is still gaining weight (which he is completely unhappy about and is threatening to sue his doctor over! HA!). They have moved the point of radiation down more from his face to his throat but his throat isn't hurting yet which is a good thing. He did lose the facial hair he had in that area but once the radiation is completed he should get it back. His face is really red and his skin below his chin is beginning to blister but other than that he is doing great. I am so relived about that, I had this awful image in my head when the doctors warned us that he would be losing tons of weight and not want to eat. I'm thankful that he might be lucky enough to not get the "worse-case scenario"

Ok, well its 10:30pm and about 30 minutes passed my bedtime so I'm off to get some sleep. Secretly I'm praying this HUGE STORM they keep warning us about will shut my power off briefly in the middle of the night making my alarm clock reset itself and then my alarm won't go off in the morning and I'll "accidentally" miss my Calculus class :) If I could only get so lucky! But the power can only go off long enough to reset my clock because the heat runs off of electricity and I can't have my little man getting too cold!!!!

Good Night Blog Land!!!!

Peace

On November 6, 2009 I was at school. I had brought my lunch and was trying to find a place to eat it. I looked out the building I was in and saw this! It was just warm enough outside that I didn't need a coat, the sun was shinning, the birds were chirping and I sat down on the grass an enjoyed my lunch. Isn't the campus at SUU beautiful?

Welcome to the jungle...

Being back at school again feels like I'm in a jungle! So the song for this blog is "Welcome to the Jungle" and HERE is the video.

I'm really behind in my blogging so I'm attempting to catch up today.

Back on October 15 I had a teaching assignment in one of my classes. We had partners and we had to give a 10 minute lesson on something...anything interesting. My partner and I decided we wanted to do something fun, and since it was October, we decided to do something related

to Halloween. So we taught our class how to carve a pumpkin. It was fun, the class really liked it and at the end we gave out candy!!!! I thought it would be really funny to see who I could get to clean the pumpkin out, you know, all the nasty stringy stuff inside the pumpkin...well I had NO volunteers, which was disappointing, especially since I had actually already cleaned it out! Here are some pictures of Asher helping me carve the pumpkin we used. He really enjoyed helping :)

So, like I said, school has been crazy. I've gone back and forth between continuing the path I'm currently on, to become a Secondary Math Teacher, or to veer off of it a little bit and do Elementary Education instead. One of the main reasons for this is my Discrete Math Class, and if any of you are friends of mine on Facebook you know what a nightmare this class has been for me so far. I'm completely lost...I don't get it, I don't know what it's purpose is and I certainly KNOW I won't ever use it again. My professor even told us Math Ed majors that we would never teach this stuff, but its a required class so I have to take it. This class is seriously making me doubt my ability to pass all the other math classes I have to take to finish this degree. These classes include 4 Calculus classes!!! YIKES! My other reason for thinking Elementary might be better is because I could finish that degree and be teaching about a year sooner than the Secondary Math. I need to figure it out soon because I have to register for Spring classes next week. I actually think I've made my mind up to do Elementary and if I decide at a later date that I'd rather do Math I'll just come back and finish the few extra classes it would require.

Well that's what's happening in our jungle....whats happening in yours?

Overcome...

Anyone know who sings this song??? This group was one of my favorites when I was going to school at SDSU waaaaayyyy back in 1996. Overcome is sung by Live. It's not my favorite song by them but the title kind of represents my thoughts this late Friday night as I think back over the week I just went through at school...just glad to have overcome it! Anyway, the song is really awesome. They wrote the song back in 1995, long before 9-11 happen, but the song has become sort of an anthem to some since 9-11. Here is a great video of the song if you feel like listening to it. Overcome on YouTube

School was a nightmare this week. I had a test in Discrete Math and Educational Psychology, along with a PowerPoint game due. The PowerPoint game gave me some trouble when I couldn't figure out how to get some shapes to disappear. I'm sad to say that I did figure out the problem and it was my Mac. Apparently the Mac version of PowerPoint doesn't allow you to put that kind of an animation on a shape, the Windows version does though. Lucky for me I have a Windows machine upstairs that I was able to use to complete the game. I must say, its an awesome game to use for Algebra students and I will be saving to use in my class...what I finally have my own class.

My Discrete Math test was HORRIBLE!!! I don't see the point of Discrete Math. It makes no sense to me as far as its use in the real world. My professor even told us the first day of class that as Math Education Majors we would never use this stuff! Then why do they require I take it????? Any how, hopefully I did well on it, I hope to find out Monday.

My Educational Psychology test was pretty easy, open book and all! Still, you just never know when the professor will throw in a tricky question. Also hoping to find out that I did well on it Monday afternoon.

I took a Trig test a week ago today and found out that I aced the test! Oh yeah! I was one of two people in the class of about 40 that got 100% <~~~~ yes that says 100%!!!!!!! Yeah me!

In other news...Asher now has 13 teeth, yes I said 13! I found 3 new teeth last night. Now he has 7 on the bottom and 6 on the top! The kid has so many teeth he could probably chew steak!

James and his dad are getting a tractor tomorrow. They are both really excited about that. I'll post some pictures this weekend of it once we get it home. Its an old tractor but James is looking forward to fixing it up and making it look new(er).

I talked to Bailey the other day, he seems to be doing well in Indiana. He is getting good grades and went to a dance a couple of weeks ago where he danced with GIRLS!!!! UGH! aren't boys suppose to think girls have cooties at this age?

We haven't heard much from Sabelle this week so she is probably just busy with school, work and Chad. Oh and her new puppy she got a few weeks ago.

Josten is working out everyday. We were looking at pictures of him from a few years ago and its amazing how much weight he has lost and how grown up he looks now. He is still trying to find a job but in the meantime he is getting registered to start SUU in the winter. So glad for that.

Jadeth, Whitnee and Jade are doing awesome, at least they were last weekend when we were up there visiting them.

Jared is busy working and learning all the tricks of the trade. I think he really enjoys learning and working.

Well now you are all caught up with the lives of the Sherratts (and Amo). Stay tuned, you never know what will happen around here tomorrow, or what song I might come up with as a title! :)

Back from the land of the missing...

I know I haven't posted in a while. Maybe its because we haven't really had much going on or maybe its because I'm so busy I don't have time. I think its a little of both if that's possible. We haven't had anything really exciting going on lately but I have been so busy with just everyday life that I haven't had time to sit down and update our blog.

So the last thing I updated everyone on was our beach trip to McGrath's State Beach. That was so much fun! Since then we have done a few things here and there but mostly we are just trying to make it through each day.
Shortly after coming back home from the beach we decided to take a bike ride down Bryce Canyon. My dad, James, Asher and I had my Aunt Mary drop us off at the top of the bike path one evening and we rode all the way down to a fun little restaurant where you turn off highway 89 to head towards Bryce Canyon. It was a lot of fun and since we were going down hill it didn't take nearly as much energy out of me as I thought it would.

We also made a quick trip up north to American Fork, Utah. We went up to visit with Jadeth, Whitnee, Jade, Josten and Jared. While we were there we ate at our favorite little place in Springville called Art City Trolly. They have the best salad there...YUMMY! My bestest friend Tami and her son Kason also had lunch with us. Later that day, Josten, Jared, Asher, James and I went up to Salt Lake, to the Galivan Center to watch the free concert there were having...OH MY GOSH. SCARY!!! It was heavy metal music and it was not our crowd! We didn't stay long. For dinner we went to James' favorite place up in Sandy (I think that's where it is???) called The Mayan. Its a pretty cool little place all decorated like you are going on a safari and then they have people who jump off cliffs into a small pool of water. That night we stayed with Jadeth and Whitnee. Asher and I didn't sleep well at all so we left before lunch to head home. It was fun to get out of town for the night though.

Two weeks ago I had this crazy idea to go back to school and get my degree to teach secondary math. Now I'm one week into my first semester back at school! Its going to be tough, I love math but Calculus is going to kill me and I have to take 4 different Calculus classes...YIKES! I'm excited to finish though. I've also decided to get my minor in English so I should have a great background when looking for a teaching position! James decided he would go to school also so he is taking a few (full time) online classes. He think he will like it once he doesn't feel so overwhelmed.

Asher is growing quickly. James' parents watch him for me when I'm at class and they just love having that time with him and he loves being over there with them. He is such a smart little boy. He is trying to say all kinds of new words like doggie, Whiskey(that's the dogs name!), light, rooster, Josten, What's that?, thank you. Plus he makes lots of animal noises like barking from a dog. He is just too cute sometimes, and then sometimes he just isn't...LOL I think the terrible twos might have set in a little early for him.

Bailey is now in middle school in Indiana. I can't believe he is so grown up already. I really think he enjoys it in Indiana. He as tons of friends and he is always out hanging with them. I do miss him tons though. I'm hoping James and I will be able to make a trip there to see him one weekend before Christmas time but it just depends on money. Bailey is getting braces this year, I'm sure he isn't very excited about that. Poor thing...he got his teeth from his dad, not his mom!

Everyone else is doing well. Josten was living up in American Fork with Jadeth and Whitnee for a little bit but then decided to come back to Cedar City after about 3 weeks of no luck finding a job. Jadeth and Jared are working for a company in Lehi called DaVinci Doors and they both really like it most days. Jadeth is doing well there, he is the shop manager. Jade and Whitnee are doing well also. Jade is growing so fast too. When we were up there she was smiling and giggling. What a little heart breaker she is going to be! Sabelle is still living in St George with her mom. Her birthday is the 3rd of September and she will be 16!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! It's just so crazy to me that she is going to be 16, she was only 9, almost 10 when James and I met. She is going into such a beautiful young woman. She has a boyfriend, Chad, who cracks me up. He is such a goofy kid, but that's a good thing! They come up and visit us once in a while.

Well that's a little catch up for everyone! I have some pictures I'll post some other day. I haven't uploaded them from the camera to the computer yet. Until next time...everyone stay safe and thanks for stopping by :)

STRESSED!!!!!

I think the title says it all...I am STRESSED OUT!!!! Life has not been easy lately and it seems to be getting more difficult. This week should be filled with joy for me, Asher turns 1, Bailey is coming to visit for 6 weeks, my mom will be here, my dad is nearby, but it just seems to be adding to the stress. James has a great job that he loves but its commission only and it will take time before they sign some new jobs. We would be fine except that the state of California has idiots working for them...and I think that should explain my stress right there!!! I am in need of a very big miracle or this weekend in going to be a disaster...(closing my eyes and shaking that image out of my mind).

Well anyway, even though life has been tough and stressed out I did manage to get a few scrapbook pages done and I wanted to post some pictures from Jadeth and Whitnee's wedding, which was the 12th of June. So enjoy :)



Having FUN with Grandma
Kit: Tweet Heart by Stacey's Scraps











Play Hard, Rest Easy
Kit: Sleep Tight by Stacey's Scraps









100% Loved
Kit: Owl Always Love You by Stacey's Scraps


















Bailey & Asher's Birth Stories
Kit: My Little One-Boy Version by Dreamer's Magic Design
She does have a girl version also