Embarrassing!!!

You guys!! I'm terribly sorry!! I've abandoned you for almost an entire year!

Obviously a bunch has happened.  Instead of backing up and trying to inform you of what's happened for 10 months. Let's instead skip to whats new NOW! :)


A few things I'll blaze through first....

1: I graduated college! That probably deserves a blog post all on its own! The actual ceremony was boring.  Like SUPER boring.  But it was great to have my family here and celebrating with me!  I LOVE being able to tell people that I have a degree in Special Education! Mostly I just love Special Education! :)

2: Our Kindergarten graduation was a HUGE hit! We had a Dr. Seuss "Oh the places you'll go" theme.  Because of course I'm so excited to see not only all the places my kiddos will go but myself as well.  Their Kinder grad and my Bachelors grad were days apart.  I think that's representative of how we are all entering the world together ready to tackle it! Here are a few cute pictures from their Graduation!

3: Steven and I went to Europe. It. Was. Perfect! It was a nice break from the busy adult game that we call life.  It was awesome to spend some quality time with my husband. It was great to sight-see and explore some new places and cultures.
We have tons of pictures of Europe on Facebook to flip through! Some super great memories were made on this trip. I learned that a Bidet can soak a bathroom in a matter of seconds and Steven learned to trust me when I say I'm bad at bartering!






















Onto the here and now!! I got a new job! I wish wish wish I could have stayed at Provo Peaks in their Special Kindergarten!  It was such a wonderful fit for me! But I'm also EXTREMELY excited to start a new adventure at Spectrum Academy.  Spectrum is a Charter school specifically for children with Autism.  They take an ABA approach.  Which probably means nothing to most of you! ;)  ABA is simply a research based method proven to get solid results! Sounds promising already, right?  The team of people I'll be working with at Spectrum are phenomenal.  They've already been a huge help while I've tried to get my feet under me.  I think we'll get along just great! I've started meeting the kiddos, and it's safe to say I love them already! It's so fun to bring them in for assessments and already seeing their cute little 5 year old personalities!  (Have I mentioned that I love my job!?!?!)

There will be more pictures of the class coming, (probably a year from now....)
But I figured I would give you a quick run through of our class for this upcoming school year.  Can I just say I LOVE seeing the ideas start to blend together to create one big picture! Some of my favorite assets in this new class are our cute new calendar set!  - I'm optimistic that the students will wait at least the first month before they start tearing (or eating) the pieces!   Another thing I love is the organization which clearly won't last with Kindergarteners running rampant next week! But I love that it's so easy to find things, see what's going on, and know what needs to be done! My biggest pride and joy of this room is the reading corner! I personally love reading, and I'm excited to have a place in this new room for kids to foster a love of books and reading as well!!!  I have put a bunch of work into making it a safe haven, and I really hope the kids take advantage of this space!  It's still a work in progress and I will definitely update you on our reading corner status as it progresses into what I'm hoping it becomes!

 I just got a new rug! It's much larger than I thought it was.  I LOVE it!!









Also, I'm thrilled about how this rules chart turned out.  My mom sent me this idea a few months ago. I had to make one.  Turns out, Mr. Potato Head isn't as popular as it used to be.... It was kinda hard to find one! :)
















The next few pictures show the view of my classroom from my desk!

 This part of the room has been titled "Bre's Sunshine Corner" obviously because of the giant window.  I frequently have to hide in my chair soaking up some sun to warm up!

























My ABA boxes are all setup and ready for day one!

This is our awesome reading corner! Isn't it great?!? We have a collection of books down on the children's level, some stuffed animals, pillows, and blankets in the corner to make sure its nice and comfy! We also have some other books out of reach that will be read aloud during story time.













P.S Check out these new pillows that were donated by one of my families.  They are floor pillows that just haven't been added to our corner yet.

Sorry it was a quick run through the room.  Hope it wasn't too boring! :)


I'll try to keep you up to date a little better! It's going to be a great year!!!

La Vita e Bella

Hello Friends! The title of this post means "Life is Beautiful" which, besides being my favorite movie of all time, is also a good summary of the Deshazer household right now!


Steven and I are doing great! Steven just recently got back from being in China for 3 weeks. It was rough, but I had Special K to keep me busy!! Sounds to me like he had a great time. It was great hearing all his stories and adventures. I LOVE learning about new cultures and so it was cool to hear Steven talk about it.  They don't really have toilets there. Literally just holes in the ground and you squat. Sounds like quite the workout!  Of course the food sounded like an adventure all of it's own. An adventure I would be happy to skip.  He sent pictures of kabobs at the night market. Centipede, scorpion, grasshopper.... stuff like that. Don't even get me started on the monkey brains story.  I think it would be a cool place to visit (they do have McDonalds, so I would at least survive!) Maybe someday we can go together.

In other news Steven just got called to be the ward scoutmaster! :) He may feign surprise or stress, but he really is stoked. He has been the assistant (to the regional) scoutmaster basically since we moved into this ward and he loves spending time with the boys.  In fact, when they called to release him as assistant scoutmaster (in order to bump him up) all the boys broke their necks flipping around to look at him. They were not happy to hear that he was released- but they almost jumped out of their seats hearing that he was now the scoutmaster! It was cute.

I realized that I haven't posted since my "oh no! School starts tomorrow!" post.  As I'm sure you've been dying to know how my internship has been going, let me catch you up!! It is PERFECT! The kids are great, my paraeducators are extremely helpful, and the curriculum is even fun! I may still think its perfect because I haven't had to hold IEP meetings just yet, that's in December.  But I literally cannot think of a more perfect place for me to fit in.  It sounds so cliche but I think this really is where I belong, and the Lord held this position for me to fill. I only hope I am doing him proud in working with His children! 

We have so much fun. A few weeks ago we learned about humpty dumpty so each student got to try balancing a raw egg on a small wall we built, only to see that it didn't really work. They giggled and giggled watching the eggs shatter. (I'm sure the cleaning crew didn't giggle though...)

Yesterday we had our Halloween Party! It was so cute seeing all my kids come dressed up and excited to show off their costumes.  We did dirt cups with the pudding and oreos, then we did a mummy wrap which they loved because it essentially consisted of toilet papering my classroom and not getting in trouble for it! Our last group was a spiderweb obstacle course. I just strung a bunch of yarn back and forth at different angles and they had to crawl through without getting caught in the web.  I am blessed with a perfect specimen of a husband that came to hang out for a bit. He actually ended up being a spider hiding in the web. I think it's safe to say it was the highlight of my students day to try sneaking through the web without the spider knowing! They were laughing and talking about it the rest of the afternoon.  Steven was such a trooper! :) 

Sure I have days that are overwhelming, and sometimes I feel like I'm not good enough at what I do, but I have already learned so much from this internship and I'm not even halfway! For the most part though, I come home tired but it doesn't seem to slow me down at ALL because I know the next day I get to go do it again! :) 

That's about it around here, hope Y'all are doing equally as well as we are.

Ready Or Not.....Here it Comes

GUYS!!! Tomorrow is the first day of my internship. Please don't ask me if I'm ready.... I'm afraid that vocalizing my answer could be traumatic. lol

The past few days have been surreal. I have been setting up my classroom and attempting to lesson plan for the first few days.  I have been meeting my students and getting to know them just in time for the school to rearrange my caseload. 

Let me take you for a quick tour around the classroom. I'm sure you've seen that I have created a superhero themed class. I share a classroom with another teacher, and I don't think she was thrilled about the superhero theme until students came in for kindergarten testing.  They were not excited about her Dr. Seuss theme knowing that Mrs. Bre's class would be having the superhero theme.  After that she asked me to make superhero nametags and cubby labels for her students too. haha. 

This is the door decor, and based on my students, it will only last for about 20 minutes before it's violently torn down. So we are going to enjoy it while it lasts! :)
































Here are the schedule and our classroom jobs.  I'm really excited about how they turned out!


                                                             

 The colored sheets are for our centers. We will have a batman/spiderman/superman center. Much more exciting than saying "go to that table" "Or go work with so and so". Also, these are the name tags that the other teacher asked me to make for her class. As a sidenote, can we just discuss how IMPOSSIBLE it is to find girl superheroes that are dressed appropriately?? Geeze.

Last but not least (And certainly my favorite piece of my superhero classroom)
I owe a GIANT thanks to my talented dad for drawing these for me. Especially with such a miniscule time frame to accomplish them. -Just goes to show that you CAN actually rush perfection! ;)
I also owe another GIANT thanks to my wonderful husband for staying up late to help me color them regardless of the hand cramps to make sure they were ready to go for school tomorrow.

 They turned out AWESOME!!! As proof of that, I had kids from other classes screaming about how cool they were as they passed my class. Of course they then got in trouble for yelling in the halls, but it certainly made me smile.


So far I have had a wonderful experience at sunrise preschool/Provo Peaks Elementary and I am overwhelmed each day thinking about how lucky I am to get this opportunity. I am sure that starting tomorrow I will be overwhelmed for different reasons, and that's ok. I love a good challenge. :)

Practicum Plus Puppy!!

Hello Friends!!

Everything in the Deshazer household has been quite swell.  Steven has just been working full time at Food For Health, and I have been getting my butt kicked by summer practicum!
Here's a little background information about practicum.... all throughout the Special Ed program they build this up like it is going to be the most horrendous few weeks of your life! They make sure we have nightmares about it a year before we even start it.  BUT I've made it!! Well not quite, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and boy is it glorious!

Summer practicum is really our first opportunity as student teachers to utilize and implement all the things we've been learning in classes.  Giving assessments, writing TONS of lesson plans, Creating a unit framework.  It's all the big and scary stuff until you do it and find out "Hey, I'm kind of good at this!" :)

A few weeks ago (before practicum consumed my summer) I never would have assumed it would be such a powerful learning experience. I thought I was just going to dig my claws in and hope someone pulled me to the other side. But guess what? I'm learning, I'm growing, and I'm loving (more than ever) what it is that I'm doing!!  I have grown to absolutely adore these students in a mere 3 weeks.  I have gotten to know them personally and to see how I can best push them toward success.  It is beautiful and I can't help but thank my Heavenly Father every day for not giving up on stubborn Breanna and making sure I end up exactly where I belong!

I wanted to share a few stories with you from my practicum experience... Some of those "kids say the darnedest things" moments I've had so far!
The first one happened yesterday while I was working on a place value lesson. The two students I was working with were supposed to write down a three digit number on their white boards and then show the boards and see whose number was bigger.  The first time they wrote the exact same number! So I kinda chuckled and said "Well? Which number is bigger?" One student quickly saw that they were the same, but the other student was thinking about it for a second and responded with "OH! MINE!"  ( You should also know that this specific lesson was being observed by my supervisor and I get closely graded on how I handle incorrect responses SO of course my heart starts pounding and I had a mini panic attack meanwhile silently wondering "oh no! Do you really not see that they're the same? My lesson must be too hard!") And so I took a deep breath and said "Ok let's look a little closer." So I put the two white boards right next to each other and one digit at a time showed him that they were the exact same. Impatiently at this point he said "Yeah....but mine is much bigger". I'm not sure how it clicked but at some point I said "ohhhhh You mean you wrote your number bigger, don't you?" And he looked at me a little annoyed, "yeah. He wrote his little. Mine is bigger"

The second one is fantastic. And when I think about it now, a few days later, I still chuckle about it!
We were on the playground and I lifted one little boy up onto the monkey bars, but his arms were too short to reach the next bar so he just kinda hung there limp. I asked him "What are you gonna do now?" He thinks for a second, gets a huge grin on his face, and then lets go falling to the ground. Mid fall he yells "BACKFLIP!!" and after landing stands up to look at me with so much excitement and confidence in his eyes there was no way I could tell him that yelling backflip while you fall isn't quite the same as actually doing a backflip! After that he wanted to try again, as would you after doing such a flawless backflip, and this time he yells "FRONT FLIP!!" and again just looked like he had defeated Voldemort himself!  :)

On top of being pretty busy writing lesson plans and spotting backflips, Steven and I actually got another dog.  You can make as many "just have kids already" jokes as you want! We are happy about that decision.  It was mostly for Oakley. The poor dog has SO much energy that Steven and I can't even begin to drain it.  We could take her on 5 walks a day and she would still want to PLAY!! So we needed someone as fast as her and energetic as her to play with.  Needless to say we found a sufficient amount of energy in a 6 month old pup named Thorin. (His name was Buddy when we got him, but we were not even about to try having Oakley and Buddy!)

Meet THORIN!

He Loves playing chase with Oakley, eating my rasperries, peeing on EVERYTHING (outdoors, of course), and chompin' on Ponytails! :)

He also likes cuddling, but only after 10 p.m and only on TOP of Oakley.

He Hates being splashed with water, being alone, and sitting still long enough to get petted! 

I think this picture perfectly sums up the amount of crazy that is present in the Deshazer home right now and it's a great note to end on! :)

 I would LOVE to stay and chat your ear off, but I still have a bunch of lesson plans to write, so it will have to wait.

Thanks for stopping by!

I didn't forget about you......

So it has been a while since I've updated this bad boy. Sorry about that. I think that is because one of us has had a semester from hell, and the other one doesn't know we even have a blog! :)

While I have been slacking off on the blog, A TON of stuff has happened!! Now the hard part is deciding where to start!

First and foremost.... the the big bad PRAXIS!! I never thought I would say this, but it's over, and I am truly grateful for the challenge it has created! I have learned SO much in the process of preparing for it.  I know all the presidents (in order!), I know who Lewis & Clark are, and that the "Bay of Pigs" doesn't really have to do with pigs! I have never been more stressed in my entire life, but I learned so much about myself in the process too! I am much stronger than I think I am, and I am never alone! I have so much support from my husband, family, friends, and the Lord (Not in that order!)  And now I can heave a big sigh of relief because it's over!

We also have a new living situation. It's a little complicated, but here is the short story.... Steven's parents have bought a house in Springville, UT. but they are leaving in a few weeks to go on a "mission" in Missouri. We generously offered to house-sit for two years! It's a 4 bedroom 3 bath with a giant back yard for our new dog to roam around (We're getting there!!)  And room for me to try my hand at gardening-Should be interesting!

Meet Oakley:

*3 years old

*Purebred Lab

*Likes: belly rubs, giving kisses, going on W-A-L-K-S, and fetch.

*Dislikes: pooping with an audience, being locked up, sharing Steven.

She is THE most jealous dog I have ever met! She would be the epitome of a "homewrecker" if only she weren't so cute!   We have absolutely LOVED having her! I tell Steven every day ways that she is preparing us for parenthood! 

1) We take turns feeding her.

2) She insists on sleeping between us.

3) Heaven forbid we try to watch a movie these days.

4) I sacrifice reading time to go on family walks each night (Not that kids need walks, but you get the idea...)

Anyway, I am so glad that she is part of our family! :)

Onto Graduation day ( I told you a lot has happened!)

Steven graduated yesterday with a Bachelors degree of science in Electrical Engineering! I'm so proud of him! Not that we ever doubted that he wouldn't or couldn't do it.... but it is still very impressive saying he is a "college grad"! 

He didn't really want to walk at first, but his mom talked him into it and I think he's glad she did! It will be a good moment for him to look back on! And it was a great moment for us to scream and clap for his accomplishments! :)

I'm sure I have other things to share and plenty more pictures for you to look at but I'm worried it's already becoming a little long! Until next time....

2013 in Review!

2013 has been very good to the Deshazer household! Since this was our first full year as a married couple we had quite a few "firsts" along the way!

First married New Year: Don't get too excited. We were asleep before midnight. Welcome to married life, right? ( I suppose most of the holidays were a first for our marriage.  Valentines day, Easter, even my birthday!)

First car accident:  I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw our short life together flash before our eyes! 

 Breanna's first semester at BYU: I still thought I wanted to be a nurse. So I was wasting my whole first semester crying myself to sleep over my awful Chemistry class.  Dopey me!

First time we made funnel cakes for Conference:  I would love to make it a delicious tradition every 6 months... so far so good. Except the second time almost burned our apartment down! :)

First Big move:  As most of you know, Steven got an internship in Austin, TX.  It was quite the adventure to just pack up and move out!  It was also great living closer to my parents! 

First (& later, second) mud run:  Our first one was kind of a mess. Turns out Steven and I were more out of shape than anticipated! It was still fun! :)

First Comic Con: So many nerdy dreams came true that day! It was a cool experience. My favorite part was seeing everyone in their awesome costumes. It reminded me of the elementary school Halloween parades to show off costumes. Except the costumes were ALL believable! My second favorite part was meeting Henry Winkler! So exciting!!!

First Anniversary: It's crazy to think that we've already been married a year! It has been the best year of my entire life! I seriously cannot imagine what I would do without Steven. He has shaped me into a better person in such a short amount of time. I cannot wait to see how much better I can become with him as my sidekick!  

I was talking to Steven about our favorite parts of the past year and obviously with 365 days behind us,  it is impossible to pick ONE favorite moment.  We did generalize by saying that my favorite part was trying new things with my husband by my side.  Every time I thought  of a "favorite" it was trampled by another wonderful experience! Honestly,  I think one of my favorite experiences happened over the summer. I changed my major. I was absolutely terrified and everytime I prayed I waited for this "Hallelujah chorus" to begin so that I would know which one was right! Turns out that didnt happen!! I finally made a jump and went for it. I believe it was the biggest Risk I have ever taken. ( keep in mind that I got engaged 2 months after meeting a boy on a plane!)  I kept asking Steven for help since I'm so bad at making decisions, but I learned that some things need to be handled alone.  I am NOW seeing the blessings from making that jump! I love saying "I am going to be a special educator" out loud! It truly is where I belong and I think Steven and I actually grew closer by his refusal to solve my dilemma!  If you want the more detailed story GO HERE!  

As I reflected back on 2013, and I started thinking about New Years Resolutions I will never complete for 2014, I was reminded of how blessed I am.  Sometimes I want to say I "got lucky".  I got lucky by meeting Steven. I got lucky by getting into BYU. We got Lucky when we didn't become road kill in that car accident. But it has nothing to do with luck. (Otherwise I would be in Vegas right now!). I am BLESSED. I am loved. And I am protected! My Father in Heaven takes GREAT care of me! And this is part of the reason New Years is one of my favorite holidays. I think we should all take a few minutes to stop and see the ways that we have been touched by the hand of God. He loves y'all too! He protects and guides all of us in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine! 

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and I hope you can find a second to reflect on your 2013 as well. :)

Happy Holidays!!! 

A month in Review

I don't know how frequently "normal" people update their blogs, but I realize it's been a while!  The problem is that Steven and I don't live a very exciting life day-to-day.... so I don't ever feel like I have stories worth sharing!

I figured without big, fun, life changing events happening, I would post just to let you know we're still alive and kicking!  School is still going well for us.  Looks like I was right about sacrificing my husband to the EE gods. He spends a lot of time at school working on labs, and when he isn't, it is all he wants to talk about! :)
In his "free time", he manages to help me with MY homework. I have an assessment class where we learn how to give tests, and every one I've learned I've had to practice with Steven.  He's such a trooper! (And borderline genius, but we won't go there!)

Work has been fun! I've learned all kinds of stuff at this job at BYU alterations that I know will come in handy! I may not be able to make an entire wardrobe for my children, but I will be able to alter their clothes like a boss! :) It's all I do all day! Since starting this job I cannot count the amount of pants I've fixed for Steven, or small alterations I've just never dealt with in my own closet! Steven has also started a new job recently.  He's working at a start-up company called Owlet.  They are designing a sock for babies that monitors their heart rate, respirations, pulse oximetry, the way the baby is laying, and how well they are sleeping.  It all gets sent via bluetooth to an app on your phone! They've already had places like Babies R Us and Target offer them millions of dollars for this technology, which they have declined because they felt it was too low of a price!  Isn't that so cool???  He loves it. In fact it's where he is right now on a beautiful Saturday afternoon! Unlike his previous job, he feels like he has opportunities to REALLY contribute here. I think it helps that they are making a product that Steven can agree with and support.

General Conference was a few weeks ago. Always such a great weekend!! Steven and I made the smoke detector go off making funnel cakes.  We had some friends come over and watch it and played games in between sessions!  For those of you that are asking "What the heck is General Conference?" Let me tell you.... There are two weekends a year (once in April and once in October) where the leaders of the church take turns talking to us about various topics.  They tell us what we should be working on to be better people, parents, friends, etc. They also remind us of how much Heavenly Father loves all of us, and what a WONDERFUL reminder that is!  It's hard to pick a favorite, but if I did, it would have to be Jeffrey R. Holland. He talked about how someday in heaven we will be able to see these people with special needs in their perfected state and what a joyful reunion that will be! There were actually a few talks that I felt related to me as  a special educator, and it was just ONE more reminder that I'm right where He wants me to be!
There was also a quote I loved by D. Todd Christofferson. He said "The world has enough women who are tough... we need more women who are tender".  Great reminder! :)


LAST THING... I promise!
Since Steven spends so much time on campus, we have worked to save time for a date night once a week. Our date night this week was my turn to plan! We bought pumpkins, grabbed dinner from L&L hawaiian barbecue, one of Steven's favorites. Then we came home and watched E.T while carving pumpkins. Mine died, and just like last year, Steven's turned out 10X better than mine. His looks so cool! It's an owl. My spiderman pumpkin was cool in theory, but I didn't think it through before carving!

Anyway.... we had a great time together. That's all that matters, right?




Sorry to ramble on and on... I'm really done now!
Thanks for stopping by!