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Snow Day in Las Vegas

Yes here in las Vegas it snowed, and it snowed a lot! I could not believe it. I was at school on Wednesday and the kids were all talking about the snow, and I was like it dosent snow here it just rains. Then I went out in the hall and saw quite a bit of snow, and kids were making snow balls with them. I was like O NO! I swear I moved to Vegas to stay away from the snow! And it has come back to Haunt me. Anyways we got a lot of snow, and the weather wasn't changing very quick so they made it a snow day for school on Thursday! It is the only second the snow day kids in vegas have ever had since 1979. wow. Now its mostly melted and the sun is shinning :) my kind of weather!

Turkey Day

For Thanksgiving my sister came out to Vegas to visit. We had dinner at my great uncles house, my grandparents, aunt, and cousin came as well. It was a very nice meal. I tried to give my sister the best time I possibly could while she was here. We did lots, hung out on the strip, went to the wax museum and experienced Fremont street, as well as many other things. I brought her to school to show her off to my classes and my co-workers. She did cake decorating with my students and they loved it. They actual just got done baking their own cake and decorating it. All in all it was fun.. While she was here she got me in the xmas spirit, I bought a tree and she did an amazing job decorating it, I just got to pay for it all. I want to post pics of the tree but every time I take one it dosent do it justice, I will keep trying.

Table

I finally got that dining room table, now my apartment is one step closer to being completed. I really like it although my sister says its way too big and its a table that should be in a mansion. Its a counter height table, it took me forever to decide if I wanted the regular or the counter height and all I could think was its in style and I think it will go with my young personality. I like it, although I need a nice centerpiece.
This weekend while my sister was here I bought a Christmas tree and we decorated on Saturday, I will hopefully get some pictures of it in a few days, I am really pleased on how it all turned out.
I've had a great time with my family since they have been in town. You forget how much you can miss your family when they are so far away. Thanksgiving was great and we made lots of new memories. I think they all agreed that celebrating the holidays in this nice warm weather is much better than the cold and snow. Hopefully next year they will all decide to come out here for Christmas. Well I can just keep on praying they will want too. Have a great week! and I will post more pictures soon!
<3

well well well..

It's been awhile once again. I apologize. Well my mom has come and gone and now my sister will be here tomorrow. I am excited to have her come, never before has she seen me living on my own. Its going to be weird, I am so excited. I got some tickets to some shows and I hope she enjoys her time here. My students are pretty excited that she is going to becoming and teaching them a thing or two about cake decorating. Life is as busy as ever and I am still loving it!

keeps getting better

My life keeps getting better, not sure why but I am very grateful. My mom is here visiting this weekend, its so nice to have family around. I didn't think I missed it but I have been proven wrong. We've had a great time so far, just shopping and hanging out.

I bought a new kitchen table its gorgeous, I will post a picture here as soon as I get my camera from school.

I hope everyones enjoying the long weekend. See you all at Christmas!

Much needed update!

Wow its been forever since I blogged last.. Life has been soo busy! Tonight was the last football game that I had to work! It was a bittersweet moment. I had a blast doing it, I meet a ton of people and feel I developed some great friendships with others.

My classes are going very well. I think I finally have things organized, sad to say 2 months into teaching! My classes are set so that one day we have a lecture and then the next day we do a lab. I love it because I don't have to make up a ton of lessons, the only down fall is that I have to go grocery shopping all the time.. Its getting better though. The kids love cooking all the time. If only I could get them to love hearing my voice while I am lecturing :).

My friend Adrienne who teaches science and then Brooke who also teaches science well the three of us have started the "spirit club" for our school. When I was in school these people were called the rowdy raiders, pretty much they go to all the games and cheer on all the different teams! So much fun! Well the kids in our group have decided to call us the Rowdy Rattlers, since our mascot is a diamondback! We are not currently designing a shirt so that we can all wear the same thing on game days!

My next adventure that I have gotten myself into would be a program called RSVP which means Raising Students Voice and Participation, pretty much you get amazing kids to lead discussions with all of the students in the school about things they want to see change in the schools, you have these discussions then you work with the administrators to make the changes take action. Its a cool thing, and the kids that are on the committee are AMAZING! I seriously have not seen kids so amazing!!


Then I saved the best for last! I have taken on the position of being the Student Council adviser. Now if you don't know what this means , it pretty much means I look over the 31 students who run the school. We plan everything from pep assemblies to prom! They are the school spirit of the whole school. Its an amazing Job! But is a very busy job, with things always coming up! Now this position was filled by someone else but the administrators weren't liking the way things were being run. So they took him out on Friday and put me in charge on Monday! I know its crazy, I was so unsure of the transition. But honestly things are running very smoothly. I sold my prep period and I also get paid for being an advisor, so that is a good $1000 dollars a month added to my pay, not too bad for a white girl from ny. haha.. I seriously love the kids and they are really taking a liking to me. I was unsure how they were going to handle the change but I don't think its going to be hard at all, the principal actually came and talked to them told them what had happened and just reassured them that I was a great teacher and that he had no fear that I was going to do an amazing job helping them run the school. He spoke so highly of me it made me feel really good about the whole thing. I got tons of hugs and high fives from them today. which is usually a good sign. We had our first pep rally during both lunches today and it was a huge success. The dean of activities told them that they had done a great job, they were so excited because they have never been congratulated on anything they have done in the past. you could tell they felt really good about getting such a great compliment. I think that it is a great beginning to a great start. I already love them all and I barely know a lot of them.

Ok so I know this is a very long post but I have been neglecting some of my faithful readers :) and I wanted to make sure I got everyone caught up. I am super excited for the month of November! My mom is coming the beginning of the month then my sister and grandparents and aunt are coming around thanksgiving. I have been looking for tickets for shows while they are out here. I am hoping to spoil them as much as I possibly can. Maybe the spoiling will make my other readers want to come visit. hehe

I love you all and miss you! I am working on getting a ticket for xmas! but make sure you know I will be shinning my sunny face in that cold weather around that time.

Fall has come!

Yes its made its way to Vegas. All weekend the weather has been beautiful! like 85 degrees! I even have my windows open and the balcony doors open tonight. Life has been so busy! This last week went really fast, Friday we had Staff Development day which means NO STUDENTS!! it was a great day, I feel like I got a ton done! But then it feels like they have loaded me up with a ton of extras. I will be starting a club called RSVP its for students raising their voices about problems in the school, as well as a break dancing club. I was surprised this week when the dean of activities told me she wanted me to be the Student Council adviser next year, she has really high hopes for me, and thinks very highly of me, it makes me feel good and gives me a little bit of job security. I am not sure if I blogged about the streakers at our forthcoming game, but they have been expelled as well as registered as sex offenders. Then the girl at the dance is going to be arrested on Monday for possession of drugs. Like I said its been a crazy week! Oh ya the other thing. the girl I wrote a deans referral for stealing water, well come to find out she never went to the deans office, so I had to write another referral for her and now she is going to be suspended, dumb girl. AND my gang kid has been doing sooo good.. He has been coming to my room after school to get help with homework and has even been going to practices for baseball, he really wants to play in the spring, I am so happy for him and am making sure I tell him that. Well thats all for now..

love and hate..

Is it possible to hate and love something at the same time. My job I love, still love but I hate it at the same time. I hate the discipline problems, I hate the fact that you can't trust your students. Never before in my life have not trusted someone. I have trusted my students 100% until this week. The security guy awhile ago told me to not trust a student and I was like what if he hasn't given me a reason to not trust him. Deandre then just said if you are in a job like this you just cant trust them. Its true, this week I had a girl steal water out of my fridge, I had to send her to the deans office, it was so hard for me to do. She kept saying please Ms. Tracy don't send me, all I could say as I nervously wrote the referral is I'm sorry, if you were to steal outside of this classroom you would get into trouble, and therefore there is no exception when you steal inside this classroom.

I had another student this week come out and tell me about the gang he belongs to and the things he has to do in this gang. The poor kid is 14 years old and is doing things I never thought of doing at 14, he kept saying that he has made so many mistakes, and I just kept asking him how he can make the things better. I said what can you do to get out of what your in, he said Ms. Tracy once your in a gang you don't get out unless you are leaving in a coffin. I started crying it broke my heart. I am not totally sure I am cut out for this kind of work.

These kids are really confining in me and I am not sure I can take all that they are sharing with me. I know I can not help every kid that is out there but I pray that I can at least help them make better decisions.

horrible day

Today was the worst day so far in my career. I seriously wondered if i even chose the right career. I love what I am doing but I hate it at the same time. Today was the first day that I actually was hating that i decided to take this job to open up this freaking new school. I had this vision that my classroom would be so large, I would have everything brand new and life would just be grand. Thats a joke, I have nothing and they haven't even ordered anything yet. AND its already been THREE weeks from when school started. It makes me cry just thinking about it. I have parents donating things and people asking how they can help and I just want to scream, I didn't want to have to beg for things that should be supplied for a brand new school. I seriously wouldn't recommend opening up a brand new school if it was the last thing in the world to do. It isn't worth it. Especially when you are teaching an elective course and are seriously the last person on the toledom pole. I today HATE my job. Hopefully it will change tomorrow. Maybe I don't hate my job as much as i hate the lady who wont order anything for me. Its been a sad day..

Loving my life..

This week really seemed to drag on. I am glad it is finally Saturday, although I have been so tired to do almost anything. Lets see, I got my first pay check and paid all my bills.. thats been fun, now theres like no money left. But I guess that is just part of growing up. I got a lot done at school, figured out how to put grades in the computer and joined the staff spirit team. haha its so much fun a young lady named Adrienne who teaches sciences and an older man Shane who teaches computers make up the staff spirit team at Desert Oasis High School. Adrienne helped me sooo much this week almost being my voice to some of the concerns I have been having. Then on Friday I got to school at 6am and did some stuff for the spirit club, ( we made little bags of hershey kisses with a little poem saying they had been kissed by the staff spirit team and we hope to see them at the football game!) They were pretty cute, during 7th period we had a huge pep rally assembly sort of thing. It was kind of different but really cool. It felt so weird standing on the floor instead of sitting in the bleachers. I am a teacher now, not a high school student anymore. Although I graduated from high school 5 years ago I feel like I am still a student, I love it. After the assembly another super nice teacher Anna who teaches Science came down and helped me upload my grades, and then just answer any questions I may have. After that I ran to the ATM took some money out and changed my clothes for the football game. I meet at the football field at 3:15 to take tickets. This was soo much fun, stressful but a lot of fun. I worked the home gate with the 2 school security people Patricia and De'andre. I took tickets while they looked through purses and used the metal detector wand to search every person who came in. Wow people can be soo rude, they were all complaining about having to go through security, I was like this is for your safety and for the others who are out there. Lots of drama for the first home football game. But its all good because we won! I love Desert Oasis! I really feel apart of the school, and I believe the students and the staff have soo much school spirit! I loved working the football game, I meet a ton of people! I had many of my own students there who were happy to see me, they even gave me hugs.. aww. I love my chosen career. I honestly don't think I could be any happier. Friday was a long day I was gone from 5:40 am till 10:30 pm.. Crazy I know. But I love it so it dosent really bother me, just makes me sleepy..

Gangs

I have seriously been a sheltered child. I am working in Las Vegas and am learning more and more about gangs. I am not positive but I am pretty sure I have students who are involved in this stuff. It is so sad to me that these young kids are getting involved with this stuff at such a young age. Growing up in the state of NY you would think I knew about all this, but I have no clue. I love all my students to do death and would be absolutely heart broken if anything was to happen to any of them. Yes its only been two weeks but these kids are amazing. yes they are noisy and aren't always willing to participate but they are my first students ever and they couldn't be any better if they were hand picked. I am so blessed with everything in my life right now, I hope that as a teacher I can touch students lives, and maybe make them a little bit better, or at least help them make better decisions for their future. I miss you all but just know that I am having the time of my life..

Finished with Week 2

Another successful week of teaching. I am sorry if this blog becomes my journal for teaching. But honestly its the only thing that I have going on in my life to talk about. This was a short 4 day week I am starting to love the shorter weeks. Things went good I actually started to teach in our content. I noticed this week that my favorite students are the ones that are always getting into trouble with other teachers. They are so fun to me, I feel like they are really respecting me and doing what they are suppose to be doing in my class. Maybe its because I am younger and I relate to them better. My one student is in a gang, he said that he had the most dean referrals in his school last year, but I think he is the best. He actually changed his schedule around so that he has me for 2 periods. His in my Food and Nutrition class and then is my student Aide during my food production class. Hopefully I can keep him out of trouble! Another exciting thing that happened this week, On Friday teachers dress down and wear the official desert oasis apparel to support all the games for the weekend, and the football players pick teachers every week to wear their jersey, this week I was picked so I was sporting a #53 jersey all day, it really made my day, the student came in that morning and said "Ms. Tracy, I would like you to wear my jersey today!" I was so happy, I had been looking forward to the day one of them asked me. The jerseys are way small! The coach had told us before hand that we didn't have to wear they jersey, that we could hang it up or pin it to ourselves. My jersey fit but it was tight!! the teacher next door to me was like you shouldn't wear that its too tight, and I was like I don't care I am wearing it he asked me to wear it. I knew it was tight but i didn't think it looked ridiculously too tight. Later that day I had two men that work for the school, the graphic arts guy and the security guy tell me how good i looked in the jersey. That made my day! So another week has gone by and I still love what I am doing! This week I get my first official pay check! You have no idea how happy I am! Oh ya I also signed up to work the home football games, I am getting paid $10 an hour to take tickets at the football games! I love my life..
P.S. We did win the football game! 27-0 I guess you could say I am good Luck!

Day 2 down

It was another Great day! I seriously love teaching! I never thought I would have a job that I would love so much. The only thing that I don't really care for is all the pimples I get while I am teaching. It happened when I student taught and now its happening again.. grr..Once my insurance kicks in I am going to going to see a dermatologist. School also makes me SOOO tired.. I am exhausted each day I come home. Just wanted to update everyone. I miss and love you all..

1st day jitters.

Today was my first day as a teacher.. I started off each class telling the students a little bit about myself.. Most importantly that I was new to the area, a new teacher, and yes the youngest teacher in the school. I think that really got their attention, they were all trying to figure out how old I was lol.. It was a really good first day, I don't think I could have asked for a better school and or a better faculty to work with.. Everyone is sooo friendly and willing to help me with anything. I really appreciate them all. It was a crazy day.. We have block classes, but since today was the first day students went to ALL 8 classes rather than 4 classes a day. I was getting really sick of repeating myself. tomorrow starts off as a Brand New Day of only 3 classes I have to teach I have planned lots of fun activities and am really excited to see how things go. I love my job!

ps Schools in Vegas are ALOT differnt than my high school in NY. SO MUCH DIVERSITY!

Happy Birthday to me....

Today was my 24th birthday spent at work. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I celebrated my birthday in NY before I came out to Vegas, so it didn't bother me too much to not have any family around. Although today may have been the hardest day being away from the family. I may have been a tad bit home sick.. but i am just going to blame it on all the stress from work.
Life is still busier than every.. School starts here on Monday and I will be the teacher.. crazy huh..
These pics are of the cake my sister decorated for me on my birthday.. Dang shes talented. Def. going to have her come teach a few tricks to my students. I love you miss you all!

One Week..

School starts in just one week.. My classroom is not even close to being organized and nothing that has been ordered has arrived yet.. But its OKAY! I love my school and everyone I have already meet. I haven't seen my schedule yet but I saw that my classes were closed for enrollment. Meaning I should have some full classes. I am so excited I cant even tell you! Go Diamondbacks!

Storage and Laundry in new apt

Bathroom

Half of my bedroom

My bedroom is large.. I only took a pic of the bed and not the other half due to all my stuff EVERYWHERE

My little Living room

Dinning Room minus a table

My lovely Kitchen

Blessed

I'm now in Las Vegas. I love it here. Everything about it, especially the sunshine. I cant tell you how blessed I feel being here. At NO moment have I ever thought what am I doing here or I want to go home. I got out here on July 30th. And I have been horrible keeping you all updated. The first day I was here. I bought a brand new car. I got a Hyundai Elantra 08 with only 14 miles on it when I drove it off the lot. Let me tell you I do not look forward to purchasing another car anytime soon.. It was an exhausting experience. But its a beautiful car. Okay thats all I have time to update now.. But stay tuned. I will get a picture up of car/apt/new school/MY classroom. In just a few days.
I Love and Miss you all!! Cant wait for people to come VISIT!!

Holy Cannoli

I forgot to add a cannoli to my list of favorite NY foods.. I love them haven't had one all summer but they are so yummy.

A few of my favorite foods..

As I am looking back at my stay here in NY, I think of my favorite foods that I am going to miss. Yes these foods aren't good for you so I am glad to say that it is better that I leave. These are some of my favorite foods that as a child I rarely ever got. Maybe thats I love them so much because they were special "treats". These special treats I ALWAYS get whenever I come home as an adult, well if they fit in to my time constraints.


NY PIZZA
If I fly home around dinner time my family always seems to have ordered pizza and there always seems to be a slice for me. I love NY style pizza, my favorite little place around here is a local favorite called Picnic Pizza




NY Italian Sausage
Mmm.. Italian sausage smothered with green peppers and onions in a hoagie roll is another one of my favorite treats while I am home. Its just weird how those yummy NY foods are no where as good as they are in NY, and most of the time you cant even find them anywhere but NY.

Chips and Dip The best french onion dip EVER so yummy with chips, veggies and more ooo so yummy. It really is Heluva Good.

Spiedie Marinades The best ever marinades for chicken, and made better when grilled. I brought a ton of these marinades back to Idaho one year with me and enjoyed them a lot longer than a visit home. This time its gonna be hard to bring them since I will be flying :(

And the best for Last HALF MOON COOKIES.. Now these are not black and white cookies they are called half moons. You can only find them on the east. I love these. I am pretty sure I have not had enough of these while I have been home but that my not be such a bad thing. It a chocolate cake like cookie with yummy white frosting on one side and then chocolate frosting on the other. The recipe for these are almost impossible to find. But lucky enough my Culinary Arts teacher in NY had it and I got a copy. Hopefully I can still find it. These cookies will be coming to Vegas with me. My students will be bringing a lil bit of NY to Las Vegas. O I am excited!

Okay well there it is ladies and gents. Melissa's favorite NY goodies. I know you are probably drooling right now. And too bad most of you cant even enjoy any of these delicious NY goodies. Haha I can't believe I just posted about my favorite foods.. Well I am a foods teacher so that should make it ok!

Biggest in the World

Last night I went to the biggest pageant in the world, well thats what they say. Anyways it was the Hill Cumorah pageant, my favorite of all the church pageants although the Arizona one is almost as good. Every year the youth go together on Wednesday night since that is there mutual night. This year we were fortunate enough to get a big coach bus so we could all ride together, it was so much better than everyone driving home at 12am. Anyways it was amazing as always, some different scenes but still wonderful. It defiantly gave me that spiritual boost that we sometimes need from time to time. Its crazy how my first few times I had gone to the pageant I wasn't sure exactly what was going on but loved the spirit from it all. But now that I have read the entire Book Of Mormon everything makes sense and it just is amazing. How grateful I am for that book, and for the gospel, without it I wouldn't be the person I am today It has brought great things to my life.


Mom and I b4 at home.










Megan my bff, her first time to pageant.

Blog Worthy?

I feel like I have nothing that is worth writing or sharing. I am still in NY, but for only 2more weeks then I am off to my new home Viva Las Vegas. Am I getting nervous? yes very, I have so much stuff to do once I get there. ie buy a car, buy a bed, buy a couch, etc etc. I have nothing. Then I have to go to my new school and set up, make bulletin boards and organize the kitchens. Its killing me that I am home doing nothing every day and thinking about all the stuff I am going to have to do when I get there. Its going to be an adventure. oh yea I miss my missionary! Side note, my name is on my schools website its funny to see Ms. Tracy! heres a link to the school website. http://ccsd.net/schools/desertoasis/ I'm not gonna lie the school is pretty pimp!

Summer Time

Its been awhile since I have updated my blog. Life has been pretty busy actually. Last week I believe it was Thursday I went strawberry picking. I had been waiting to go for a long time and finally decided I would go. A young man from church Steven went with me. Little did we know that the strawberries were little o so little. The little bushes or whatever they were grown on were small and just picked over. I still got some strawberries, enough to make homemade jam! I love strawberry freezer jam. I made 5 jars and they are going quickly.

Then it was the 4th. My mom and I went to Lansing Park my Aunt Elsie and Uncle Marty always have a picnic there. Usually these things are sooo boring, so boring that I dreaded going. But my clever Mother decided she would be the "Activities Coordinator" she totally go that from church. Anyways she planned a pie eating contest with all the brothers and sisters and then a potato sack race! It was HILARIOUS! Everyone loved it.
Then on Saturday we went to my aunts house and celebrated my grandpas birthday. It was nice, lots of good food and good company, my aunt is a great entertainer. I think I get my love to entertain from her. The whole day was nice and calm. Here is a picture of the birthday boy.
So I haven't said much about this because I know its bad. But since I came home I have had the biggest kindergarten crush on this missionary who has been serving in our ward. Anyways I know I cant have a relationship with him let alone have a crush on him but boy o boy I really like him. Anyways he found out on Saturday that he is being transfered to Greene NY its like an hour and half from where we live. I am sad to see him go but looking forward to him getting off his mission. He is from Arizona so we may hang out when he gets back. Anyways I made him a candy gram I will be giving it to him 2morrow since he is leaving 2morrow night. I thought about making it all lovey dovey but I didn't want to distract him from his work, so i made it very churchy. But at the very end I gave him a hint that I liked him. I wanted to put it on a big poster board but realized he wouldn't be able to take it with him, so i made it on small poster boards and I am going to put it in a dress box and enclose my testimony in a Book of Mormon. Here is a pic of the candy gram. Thats my update hope you enjoy.

Love is in the Air

This weekend I went to my cousin John Bowers wedding. It was very nice, a lot different than a traditional LDS wedding. I enjoyed myself here are just a few pictures.

Beautiful Bride and Groom sorry bad picture..

Centerpieces loved them.. Each table got their own cake!

My grandma and grandpa with me, and then my Aunts face..

Sunday came and some friends of the ward and their two boys are going to Utah for the rest of July and so I had to say my goodbyes since I wont be seeing them when they get back. I will back off to Las Vegas. I wish I took pictures of the boys they are the cutest thing. I love their family and am really going to miss them. Especially getting pedicures at the mall with their mom Sandy.
Anyways they were having the Mormon Missionaries over to their house on Sunday and the one missionary Elder Fiala who is from Colorado was having his birthday on Monday so i made a peanut butter chocolate cake for him that i found off the bakerella website. Everyone LOVED IT!!
heres a picture of it from her website. Since I am not as good at taking amazing pictures.

Of course mine looked as good as that if not better ;). Then on Monday since it is the missionaries P day I took them to Salsaritas a little Mexican place here in NY its sort of like bajo or cafe rio and had lunch. Later that evening I brought over a Mountain Dew cake that he was dying to try. It wasn't too bad a little different. The recipe was way easy and I think I would make the cake again.
Thats my life in NY. Not much of anything exciting going on. My mom rented a dumpster at our house so I think I am going to go start filling it up. Get rid of her junk without her even knowing. Well until I blog again...

A womans Dream...

Well well.. I hosted a purse party with my neighbor yesterday! I love purse parties. I am not sure if they have them out west but they are pretty big here in NY. Anyways they are knock off designer purses, I guess there are so many purse parties here in NY is because we are so close to NYC the knock off capital of the world. It was a ton of fun some beautiful purses plus since I had the party and my friends bout like 900 dollars worth of stuff he gave me three purses and a pair of coco chanel earnings for only $55.00 what a deal I tell yoU! I am WILL have another one of these parties again fo shure. Well I better get going, I am going to a cousins wedding today so I will make sure I post some pictures of it 2morrow..

My Purses

the earings