Roommate FuN!

I love my roomies! They are so much fun and we get along so well! There is no drama which I love! They were so welcoming and nice when I first arrived and we have all been friends since!
I love the late night chats with the girls, watching the Bachelloette with Kristen, talking about boys with Marianne, running with Kristen, going to institute with them, singing Kareoke, and being able to talk about the gospel! It's a fun house and best of all... we like to PaRTy!!!!



Watching the fireworks with Marianne and friends !

Seven Peaks with Kristen

Rodeoing it up!

At the park!

feeding the ducks

unforgettable class

I finished teaching in West Valley a few weeks ago. My last day was a bitter sweet day. I had such a great experience teaching! I loved the opportunity I had to teach these children and be a part of their lives. I will never forget my first class and these kids! They made me laugh everyday with their cute smiles, funny stories, and innocent ways! They made me cry from frustration. They made me angry when they stole my things. They made me happy when they were so eager to learn new things. They consumed my thoughts after school and well into the nights when I sat awake trying to think of new ways to teach them, how to teach respect, love and kindness better. I am so fortunate to have a job and do what I love. I had such an amazing mentor who helped me tremendously and when it was all over gave me boxes and boxes of school/teacher supplies for me to take to my next school!!

I remember the first time I taught the kids about the "golden rule"! Something had happened that made one kid start to cry, and so i stopped everything we were doing.. called everyone to the rug and had a 'class meeting'. I figured that if my kids learn anything.. it will be respect for one another! I started to talk firmly and looked each of them in the eyes and talked about respect. love. friendship. and treating others how they wanted to be treated. i told them this was called the golden rule. After that.. i heard them constantly talking about the golden rule in the hallways, at recess, in the classroom! it was the neatest thing! They loved being taught something besides academics and they really payed attention! If someone was mean, they would say, "Miss Bradshaw, I don't think Jimmy used the golden rule right" or "you're not following the golden rule!"

This kid on the far left is my ELL (English language learner) and he could only speak a few words in english. One day i gave a writing prompt for the kids to do and it read... "I Scream Whenever....." and the kids filled in the blank. this is what Jose's read... "I Scream Whenever..... I Scream is good. I like I Scream. I love I scream the berry best in a cone" Cutest thing EVER!

Y-Stone and Jackson Hole!!

My Roomies (Kristen, Kelly and Marianne) and I took a trip up to Yellowstone and Jackson, WY. It was so much fun! We met Kristen's parents up in Yellowstone and they have been traveling there for about 30 years and so they knew all the fun places to go and cool places to see! We went swimming at this place called Firehole. Its the river, but natural hot springs flow into it, so its really warm and you can body surf down the current! It was a ton of fun! The first night we stayed in a cute little cabin in Mammoth. We did a bunch of sight seeing and animal seeing! We saw a grizzly bear with her 2 little cubs, a black bear, a bunch of elk and bison, a coyote, and some pronghorn (they look like antelope!). We went to a lot of geysers that were so cool looking!
We saw boiling mud, hiked up to a couple waterfalls, saw Old Faithful!, and then we went down to Jackson for some fun!

we went white water rafting in jackson and it was a blast! i was really scared to go at first and didn't want to fall out of the boat, but it ended up being a ton of fun! Kristen fell out on one of the huge rapids and i just about dyed laughing! :)

Old Faithful erupting!

some of the geysers smelled awful!

yay!

a really pretty waterfall.. the hike back up was VERy tireing! you had to hike up a bajillion stairs!

Rock and Roll

Before at the biffy...

This last weekend my sister Danielle and I flew to Seattle to run the Rock and Roll 26.2 mile Marathon with our other sister Rachelle. It was so much fun!!! Rock and Roll Marathons and so fun because there is a band playing mile to pumps you up. The course in Seattle in especially pretty because you run by water most of the time and its a very beautiful course. I was hoping to qualify for Boston and just barely missed the cutoff.. I ran it in 3 hours and 50 min. Danielle was so kind to run the first 13 miles with me and then she ran the final 13 miles with Rachelle. My amazing Parents, Melissa and Paul, Megan, Parker, cousin Rob, and Rachelles friend Kristie were there to cheer us on! It was so nice to have a fan crowd! Everyone was amazing at motivating us, cheering and even running a little ways with us!

The weather was so nice and cloudy! It didn't rain but it wasn't hot and sunny! It was just right! I am so happy to be done with the marathon but really want to do another to qualify for Boston!

Mr. and Mrs. C

This last weekend, I traveled up to Idaho with the Warrs to go to one of our best friend, Brig's wedding. It was a super fun time.. i just love the Harpers! Let me just say, they are all beautiful people, funny, super chill and very creative! Mama Harper made all the Bridesmaids skirts and a really pretty quilt for Brig and Jared. Brig looked beautiful in her dress and Megan is like the prettiest girl I know! Their brother Matt cracks me up with how chill he is! After the Temple, we all went to the Harpers and helped from about 2:00 till 7:00 decorating, setting up, samlping the candy :), and doing whatever needed to be done. Matt calls around 6:30 saying that he ran out of gas after playing basketball this whole time! :) After someone comes and gets him.. he walked into the house about 15 min. before the reception started and just says... "Hey..." and walks downstairs to change! I thought it was the funniest thing.. maybe you had to have been there!

But the reception was really fun, the colors were brown, orange, and green and the food was yummy! Meg and I stayed by the drink table and served people their beverage.. (luckily it was RIGHT next to the chocolate fountain and I passed by there many times to snag a chocolate covered strawberrys!)

the sweets!


I dont know why i keep catching these things... the rumor (that you get married if you catch the boquet) is NOT true people! this is my third boquet catch.. three's a charm??? ehh?

did i mention the chocolate fountain!! YUM!!!

Harpers!!

Beauitful couple!

oh BBBBBB

So my little littlest sister graduated a couple weeks ago! It was so fun to go to Washington and be there for the festivities that took place in the Bradshaw home. My mom and dad sure know how to keep a house of 25 people happy and fun! We did a little Winthrop shopping, Rachelle and I went on a 20 mile run, we watched Bailey do an amazing RAP for her graduation speech, we had a BBQ, played games, and took some fun pictures with Tiffany 50's style! Tiff and Terry came up with their kids and it was so much fun to spend time with them!

one good looking candle holder!

B and her amazing, awesome RAP

sisters...sisters... there were never such devoted sisters

B, you are amazing and I love ya! I am soo happy that you are going to be in Provo! So close and snug to me, Sarah, Dani, and Meg... should have thought of that Mel and Shell! :) Your speech/Rap was funny, creative and very YOU!

i LOVE my life!

so let me just humor you for five minutes on my day yesterday at school. Fridays are half days so whatever you read/hear/think... just imagine it happening all over again in the afternoon on a regular day :) i never realized how much teachers multi-task... while going back and forth telling two kids how to spell different words, i was tying a boys shoe, telling a girl what rhymes with pink and telling one kid with ADHD to stop jumping off his chair and grabbing his feet in the air!

It sounded like this... "okay Linda "there" is spelt T-H... Amanda you spell "happy" H-A... Natasha listen... pink... sink... link... Linda E-R... Amanda P-P... Jimmy please stop jumping off the chair! I have asked you multiple times to stop! Linda E.. Amanda Y... Natasha.. rink...dink.. Jimmy! Sit down Now!"

I start the day with 25 six and seven year olds calling out "teacher, teacher" and end the day with a kid in detention twice and he still comes back and jumps off his chair and grabs his feet in the air! I also had one kid crying so loud today i swear the whole school could hear him! he was weeping and wailing because he was mad that kids wouldn't play with him at recess! two boys were chasing eachother around the room and one boy tripped and fell dropping a huge stack of papers i had asked him to give me! weeping, wailing boy is still crying, jimmy is jumping off his chair and kids are coming up to me left and right handing me their poems we just wrote! I am now kneeling on the floor helping four or five kids with rhyming, asking weeping wailing boy to "please hold it together" and agian asking jimmy to "stop jumping!"... i find one boy putting my magnets in his pocket, tell one boy that he can't rhyme "fine" with "fell" and thank two sweetheart girls for sitting quietly and just doing their work!
between rhymes i say.. "ahh i love me life" and for a split second.. the crying stops, the jumping stops and i really do realize how much i LOVE my job! I LOVE my kids and teaching! It is the greatest!

craft ideas

I am always looking for new and fun craft ideas! I love making things for my bedroom and house, and making hair/jewelry accesories. Here are a few fun ideas that I have done that are super duper easy! My style is a little Shabby Chic (NOT pronounced Chick as Jimarah (Jim and Sarah) so kindly corrected me!) :)


I bought these white canvas boards and then went to JoAnne and got 4 different kinds of fabric that matched (not exactly) and they look great hung up next to eachother!

And then remember those picture frames I bought at D.I for my room? I bought some cute scrap book paper to go in each one and then I collect buttons (not really sure why) but then I randomly put a button on each picture frame! I love how they turned out! I love buttons becuase they are all so different and unique! I also think two of the buttons I glued on belongs to my Grandmas (from each side of the family) who have passed away.

Okay last idea.. these are super easy. I found some old shirts, and cut them up in flower shapes... Cut a huge one, then one a little smaller than that, than one alittle smaller than that... and so on... until you can stack them on eachother and then sew! So easy.. I glued clips onto them so you can put them in your hair or on your clothes! I also glued on a few buttons that I had too!