Russia

This is where James will be May 17 to June 23. This is Moscow State University. He will be there doing research (in a lab- science stuff) with 5 other students from all around the country. George Washington University started this program, so it is not through BYU.  He will be speaking Russian in the lab and everywhere he goes! It is James's perfect niche because his major is Russian and he is doing the pre-med requirements. So now he will go to Russia, speak Russian, while doing sciencey stuff! He is also planning on volunteering at Russian hospitals with his extra time. We are so excited about this opportunity! How awesome is it going to look on med-school applications?

James's time there is completely paid for. They pay for his housing, classes, food, and airfare. Because they pay for his airfare we are also thinking about vacationing in Europe for a week or so. Just because we would only have to pay for my ticket and pay like $100 for him to fly over, his internship will take care of the rest. But it is just a thought right now. We will see if it happens!

and... I'm back! Let's talk about birthdays.

I think this was my 10thish birthday? Let me tell you about my birthdays.... in the past I have had the birthday curse. I'll give you the top 3 not so favorite birthdays.

 I was 16ish here. When I turned 16 I had an awesome party with 100+ people at my house with a monster bounce house like this.  It was awesome. At one point I was in the bounce house. It was kinda crowded, but my friend Sean still decided to do a backflip. He lost control and tried to hold on to the nearest thing to him so he didn't fall on his head. The nearest thing to him was my back pocket. It ripped my back pocket entirely off with the rest of my pants. Awesome. At least I was at my own house and I could change into pants fairly quickly...

When I turned 17 my best friend and boyfriend (not James) threw me a surprise party. Ya I lost my phone that day. When he eventually found me the party was over and everyone was gone. I was 17ish here.

When I turned 19... well... let me just say, everyone was crying by the end of the day. EVERYONE. Enough said. I was 19ish here.

I always thought I had all of these bad birthdays because something good was in store for me. And it was!! Let me tell you about my 23rd birthday....
*James took me to Jamba for breakfast, which is awesome before school. I love it!
I went throughout my morning normally teaching my lessons in the morning. We had track time, went to library, had class meeting, went to recess, had science rotations (I even had a BYU teacher observe me during my science lesson), then it was time for lunch. Then James came to take me out to eat. A little weird because he was supposed to bring it to the school because lunch time is pretty short. But not that big of a deal. Also when I walked my kids down to lunch a lot of them decided not to eat, also weird but not that weird. When I got my stuff and walked down to the car some of my kids were in the office and they fell to the ground when I passed by haha. Now I knew something was up but I did not think it was anything close to what it actually was....
I get back to the school and James and I are walking toward my classroom. There is this string of red heart lights in my window. Super weird. I open the door and turn on the lights. 25 ten-year-olds jump out and scream "Surprise! Happy birthday!" The room was incredible. There were streamers everywhere! Balloons everywhere! And at least 10 huge happy birthday signs some homemade, some not.

After I take in the environment, one of my girls comes over with a huge bouquet of flowers for me. Then I walk over to one of the tables it is covered in food. The table had a giant sheet cake (my favorite chocolate with raspberry filling), chips, cookies, and more.

Then there was a table filled with presents. I found out later my kids' plan. They met during recess for weeks! They chose a boy and girl leader. They had the entire office involved. They even permission from the principal if they could be inside during lunch time and if another teacher could come watch them. When I entered the building the office called my room so the kids knew I was coming. They made sign up sheets to bring certain things. Some kids brought presents. Some kids brought snacks. They even thought of putting tape on the sign up sheet!!! It was so well thought out! First of all look at that team work. They must have an awesome teacher who teaches them all about working in groups (every single day!) Second of all isn't that the sweetest thing you have ever heard of? What ten-year-old thinks of something so thoughtful? Let alone 25 ten-year-olds working together? My kids are the best. EVER.

Here are some of their sweet notes for my birthday. Please ignore spelling, grammar, etc we are working on that!

My 5th graders are obviously the best ever. I couldn't have a better class! One of the administrators at my school told me that one of the girls in my class asked him if he thought the class did too much. The teacher said, "Well it depends do you think you did too much?" She said "No I think I like Mrs. Bindrup more than my mom." Being a teacher is the greatest job ever. It is hard, draining, overwhelming, and super crazy. Every day is an adventure. The hardest and best part are the little people and their not so little personalities. It is funny because everyday I try so hard to help them be the best they can be and try to make them feel important. But in the end they are the ones that make me feel important. So to sum up I am happy I had those crummy birthdays in the past because my 23rd was awesome!
p.s. I wrote this while watching tv.. my main points are there, but the execution not so good haha. Oh well!