A new chapter...

Well, I finally finished my student teaching...yesterday.  If you are confused, you should be!  I was scheduled to finish in Las Vegas on March 26th and I did just that.  But a couple week prior to my finishing, BYU-Idaho decided to tell me that my special education placement did not count and that I would have to do 3 more weeks of student teaching.  Needless to say, I was NOT a happy camper!  Anyway, so I finally finished my teaching yesterday at Highland Elementary.  Although it may not seem like a very long time, these past 3 weeks have DRAGGED terribly on!  I must say, it was a good experience and the people that I worked with were fab!  Well, on a brighter side I got a job!  Now, this is not just any teaching job this is a job that I have wanted for a while now...so...without any further ado, I am going to be a Developmental Specialist with KOTM!

Kids on the Move is located in Orem by the Orem Community hospital, just off of 400 West.  I will be working with children 0-3 yrs. who have developmental delays, so pretty much I just get to play with a bunch of adorable little kids!  Oh, I am absolutley thrilled and the best part is that I start on MONDAY!  Did you read that?  MONDAY!  Holy smokes, it's been a whirlwind getting to this point but I've finally achieved it!  I am excited for this new chapter of my life and can't wait for it to begin.  Now the question is, where should I move to?

Just in case you were wondering...

This is what my new-to-me car looks like...just that color too.  I love it and I have thought momentarily about giving it a name...so if something sounds really good then leave your ideas in a comment.  The whole story will come in a later post...it was long and exhausting to actually get to the point of having this car.  Come back later for details, it's a pretty exciting story!

3 years...

I have officially been home from my mission to the Philippines for 3 years!  Wow, how time flies...watch for an upcoming post but for now I guess I need to go write lesson plans! 

"Miss Castillo, can I use the bathroom?'

SERIOUSLY!!  Those are the most used words in my 2nd grade classroom...and it got REALLY old REALLY fast!  When I took over the classroom these children were used to going to the bathroom all the time and everytime they asked, the teacher.  Mr. Fruitcake is what we will lovingly call my cooperating teacher.  Mr. Fruitcake would even let several children go to the bathroom at a time.  Honestly, when I was a student and could meet my friends in the bathroom...I totally would!  So pretty much my SECOND GRADERS were having PARTIES in the bathroom.  Sounds awesome, right?  YEAH, up until Miss Castillo became the teacher full-time!  I have had to really lay down the law with bathroom useage (and many other things...it's been interesting!).  So, there is a discipline system that the whole school uses (except for Mr. Fruitcake...of course!  Always the exception to the rule!) and I have brought it back from the dead.  So, it is like a stoplight...green is good, yellow is a warning and red is a note home.  So, I decided that everytime someone needed to use the bathroom they could go...as long as they put their card on yellow.  Oh yeah, they have to move the card to the particular color...it's more meaningful, right?  Anyway, Yellowbear approached me and asked is she could use the bathroom.  I told her OF COURSE...please move the card to yellow...but we would be going on a bathroom break in 10 minutes so she could hold it if she could.  Her choice.  Well, little Yellowbear returned to her seat only to return to me one minute later.  Here is the conversation that took place:

YB: "Um...Miss Castillo, I think I just wet my pants."
Me: "What?"
YB:"Um...I think I just wet my pants...just a little bit though, I am ok."
Me: "Wait, sweetheart, you just peed your pants?"
YB: "Yeah, I think so."
Me: "Um...ok..." (I am in complete shock and did not know what to do at this point!)
YB: "Yeah, but I think it is just a little bit, so it is ok."  
Me: "Well, go to the bathroom so you can check if it is only a little."
YB: "OK!"

Yellowbear waddles out the door!  OH MY GOSH!!   I could not believe that this was happening.  By this time I told the rest of the students to line up to take a bathroom break.  For some reason these breaks are SO exciting!  Anyway, we get to the bathroom and I had not seen Yellowbear...I sent in Smalls to get her.  Here is the 2nd conversation:

Me: "Sweetheart, are you ok?"
YB: "Yeah, I am fine, it is really only a little bit."
Me: "Really, are you sure?"
YB: "Yeah!" (With wide eyes...poor girl, trying to make everything ok)
Me: "Ok, turn around, let's see...(I touched the bottom portion of her pants...near her knees...SOAKING, just a little bit, right?  I felt EVEN worse by now!)  "Oh wow!  OK!  Don't worry, we will take care of this, but what happened?"
YB: "Well, I didn't want to have to move my card to yellow."

That is when we had the chat about the difference between being in TROUBLE and moving your card to yellow!  HOLY CRAP!  What a day and what a story to tell! 

If this happened to you, how would you have handled the situation?

Livin' Vegas Style!

DAY ONE:

Jen and Stephanie arrived at the McCarran Airport on Friday night.  I was on my way to pick them up and I got a text from Jen saying that they landed...they were about 20 minutes early and I had no idea how long it would take me to get to the airport.  Luckily, it only took another 10 or so minutes and they were able to jump in my car.  Stephanie had never been to Vegas before and we decided to greet her by taking her to the Bellagio fountains...a must when in Vegas!  Then it was off to eat some dinner at Serendipity, such a cute place!  Since we were in the general area...we of course had to stop in and see the botanical gardens in the Bellagio...beautiful Chinese New Year decor.  And you can't take a picture without posing like Asians!

DAY TWO:

I have been trying to perfect my black beans and Jen requested them.  So Saturday morning I woke up only to remember that I don't have a blender.  Oops!  So off to Wal-Mart I went and got a hand held blender...works like a charm and the breakfast was FAB!  I must say, my bean making skills are getting up there!  Finally the day had arrived for THE LION KING...no words to describe it...simply AMAZING!  I was amazed at how much the broadway stayed with the movie.  I truly loved it!  And Rafiki, oh Rafiki...HILARIOUS character!  Even spoke that African clicking language at the beginning...so cool!  Anyway, the first picture is the costume of Scar, all of the puppetry and costume and make-up designing is incredible.  I am so glad that we were able to go, I have been wanting to ever since I knew it was here! 

Then we met up with our cousin's wife, Erin.  She just had her baby, E and hasn't been able to have sushi...a love of her's.  So we went out to sushi for a get-away for her and her sweet husband Ryan took the kids!  Thanks for letting us take her, Ryan!  It was so fun and of course, the SUSHI was delicious!  Yum! 

We decided we weren't done with the night and so we went over to town square to get Lollicup.  Erin introduced us to it.  It is an Asian gathering place for sure.  There were TONS of teenagers there hagning out...pretty sure half of the were Filipino's, but who knows if they even speak their parents language.  So Lollicup was delicious as we walked around window shopping.  I told the girls about eyebrow threading...that's right, THREADING!  When I first saw it I thought it was like extensions for your eyebrows and was really confused.  But then I went in with my roommate and she had it done.  All it is is they use a thread to pluck your eyebrows.  It looks like it takes a lot of technique and I loved the way it turned out.  Now I am addicted...haven't gone back yet.

DAY THREE:

This was Sunday, my ward starts at one so we decided to go with Ryan and Erin to their 9 o'clock ward, so we could get some sight seeing in.  Went to church and then found ourselves stuck in traffic on the way to the Hoover Dam...I think the sign says it all...

But we decided to plug forward and 8 miles and an hour later we had arrived!  Oh it was good to strech and DANG I had to pee!  So, here are the pictures of the dam water, the dam bridge, the dam people and all the dam things!  Enjoy! 

Notice the white rock vs the red rock...the line is where the water usually is.  But we practically got flooded out the past week...it was raining like crazy!  Not enough to make up for that global warming, I guess!

It took an hour to get to the dam, 30 min. to see it and 10 min. to get away from the dam...something wrong with this picture?  Oh well, it was a fun trip!

Then we headed up the 515 on the east side of Las Vegas to get to the Temple...if you haven't been to this temple...YOU SHOULD!  It is beautiful.  And right now the grass is a thick, lucious green and so soft to lay in.  Oh what fun!  It was peaceful and there were lots of visitors.  One thing the temple is missing, a visitor's center...bummer.  We kept our eyes out for Jeff, but didn't see him.  I am sure that Elder Cook is doing well, though!  Especially serving by the temple...so cool!

FREEMONT STREET a.k.a 'the old strip.'  Ha! Ha!  We went to this street and couldn't find parking for the life of us!  It is kinda ghetto but cool too.  There is a HUGE overhead LCD screen and they have shows every hour where they dim the casino lights and have music playing to some crazy things on the screen.  It was pretty fun.  It reminded me a little of San Fran (so want to go back to visit!) because they had vendors all up and down the street with these cool guys that did some awesome spray paint art...pretty sweet!  The show is playing on the screen above us...it was Bad to the Bone.

Just for kicks and giggles...look at my face...priceless!

DAY FOUR:

Last and final day...we went to the outlets by my apartment, Town Square and met up with Andrew, went to the Rio buffet, we were exhausted and came back for a break then it was out for the night...We walked down the strip from the Bellagio to the M&M factory...had a little fun there.  Went over to the Coke-a-Cola factory and enjoyed HUGE Rootbeer floats for SUPER cheap on the top floor.  Pretty sure that is the cheapest thing you can find on the strip.  Next time I go there I want to try to tate tester soda's from around the world...sounds interesting, huh? 

Then of course ended the night with a BANG by watching the fountains again...it was SO MUCH fun! 

Thanks, Jen and Steph for coming down to visit me!  Who's next?

4 weeks!!!

Say what?  I have been living in Las Vegas for 4 weeks already?  Well, it is true folks.  I moved in 4 weeks ago today...it's a milestone for me.  Just sayin'!  Here are a couple of pictures of my classroom...it is weird to think that I only have 2 more weeks  there.

 

But happy to think that in 2 weeks Jen will be here and we will be seeing the Lion King...probably at this exact moment.  Ahhh!!! So excited!

FYI-For those wondering, my student teaching is a total of 12 weeks.  I have been in SPED for the past 4, have 2 remaining and then will move to a 2nd grade gen. ed classroom for the last 6 weeks.

Viva Las Vegas aka I live in Las Vegas!

So as the title suggests, I now live in Las Vegas while doing student teaching.  I am still trying to decide if I want to stay here to teach or go somewhere else...I am leaning towards staying here.  We will see how it goes.  So far so good but it's not over yet, so I won't say anything for sure until the fat lady sings!  But really, I am learning a lot and I couldn't ask for a better cooperating teacher and aide.  They are great and of course the little kids that I get to work with are SO adorable.  One of them wore a BYU hoodie the other day...inside I was singing the fight song!  Ha! Ha!  Gotta love the Cougs!  Anyway, I went out one of my first weeks here (ok I've only been here for 3 but STILL!) to the strip, of course to see the Bellagio fountains.  Here are some pictures that my roommate took.  It was fun and I am planning on going back soon to get more pictures of me playing in LAS VEGAS!!!  (I only live 10 min. away from the strip!)  Enjoy and let me know if you want to come down and visit!