25 more life enlightening items from Kary

26. I loved riding on Mom's bike to kindgergarten. She put me in a basket and pedalled away to Cholla Elementary.
27. Rollerskating and playing bball in our backyard was super fun while growing up in Arizona.
28. I still shoot the bball w/ two hands. Occassionally, it goes in the hoop.; )
29. I remember having a cool playhouse in Arizona where my friends and I organized the 'bubble yum' club. You could only join if you could chew gum. Things gotta a little sticky now and then, but we loved trying all the different flavors and seeing who could blow the biggest bubbles.
30. I remember being super shy in Kindergarten, but things changed and now you can't get me to settle down. I LOVE life and I love people. I love teaching lessons, giving talks and motivational speaking.
31. I won a spelling bee in Juneau Alaska in 4th grade. I love spelling.
32. I won a free throw shooting contest in Juneau also........yes, two handed shots worked!
33. I love to dance many different styles. I loved taking jazz and swing dancing classes at byu.
34. My most favorite instructor at BYU was my volleyball teacher. Dr. McGown....he once was the olympic men's coach for the U.S. team and he is lives what he teaches. He taught me so much about positive feedback/reinforcement that has helped me to this day in teaching PE and other areas. Push ups were always a reward w/ him...not a punishment. so we learned to like push ups. amazing!
35. I did 38 push ups in a row in front of a 5th grade class at O'Malley a few years ago. They had all set personal physical goals w/ their classroom teacher and wanted me to join in. so, I set a goal to do 20 push ups w/out stopping. When performance day came, I was prepared. The students were so excited seeing Mrs. Hafen on all fours, they started to cheer...I was pumped up, so I kept going after I hit 20. Things started getting really hard for me at 30 in a row, so one student, a boy, came by my side, got on his hands and knees and started doing push ups w/ me. He cheered me on the rest of the way..saying: "you can do it Mrs. Hafen...keep going!" So, 38 felt great!
36. I miss my students occassionally, but I love being a professional Mom because I am still a TEACHER! Stephen is my #1 student so far. : )
37. I was a softball coach at Provo High School and took our team to state in St. George. The trip was super fun! When they asked me to be the coach, it was my first year of teaching. I was 24 yrs. old. I had never played fast pitch before, but I learned quick, got two great assistant coaches and away we went. I love hitting off a fast pitch machine! too cool!
38. In Junior HIgh, I crank called a girl that I wasn't too fond of. Her parents traced the # and got a hold of my parents...BUSTED big time! Mom and Dad had me go over to the girls house and apologize in person in front of everyone. I was totally embarrassed, but learned my lesson well. I can't believe I ever crank called someone. My neighbor friend had to go over there too because she was in on it. thank goodness for repentance and forgiveness...whew!
39. I got first place in a science fair in 5th grade. Mom helped me and a friend design a cool display and explanation of the planets. I am not that good at Science. But, I do know what ROYGBIV stand for: The colors of the rainbow..Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet....sounds good, I think!
40. I enjoy writing. Can you tell? It comes pretty naturally. I don't think too hard. I just start writing and hope it all makes sense. I did like English classes in school.
41. I'll always remember (when I was a freshmen) that my older brother Bob had his choir sing Happy Birthday to me from the stage in front of a huge audience. I felt like a million bucks. Thanks Bob!
42. I loved Field days in elementary school. I won a lot of blue ribbons. Being on the relay team was my favorite. I had the fastest girl in the whole school on my team and I loved to watch her sprint.
43. I never liked pull ups and still don't. I never required my students at O'Malley to do them. I just believe there are so many other ways to develop upper body strength and I never wanted to humiliate any of my students.
44. The track coach at Moon Valley High asked me to be on the cross country running team, I declined. I wish I would have been more involved in sports in High school. I just chose church sports instead.
45. Bethanie gave me the nickname "Kiki" when she was little and couldn't pronounce "Kary." I had that name on my softball uniform when I was a teenager.
46. I called my younger siblings "geeks" a lot while I was in HS. It was never intended to be a put down. It was just one of those cool words back in the day.
47. I was so happy the day Bethanie was born. I had always wanted more kids in our family. So, when I was 10....Mom and Dad were blessed with three more little geeks! : ) thank goodness they didn't all come at once.
48. I remember John would hide from us a lot when I would babysit. One day we couldn't find him anywhere. I was ready to call the police. Mari (at age 5 or 6) said: "Kary, we should say a prayer to find Johnny." So, I paused and we prayed. Right after the prayer, we knew to go downstairs one more time and look for John. Underneath a huge leopard skin fuzzy pillow we found a little 4 yr. old boy hiding and giggling. He was so proud we couldn't find him. All I could do was smile because I was so relieved he wasn't lost. I love you John!
49. Driving the Alaska Highway w/ the family when I was 16 was quite an adventure. We always stayed at the coolest places. There seemed to be a lot of ice cream along the way too.
50. when I was about 10 yrs. old, Dad bribed me w/ ice cream (this happened more than once in my growing up years)...He told me if I jumped off a 40ft high platform into a swimming pool, he'd buy me 5 gallons of Swenson's ice cream. I jumped!

The next 50 will come in the near future. I have to write when Stephen's napping. He's been a big napper today, can you tell? : )
Love you all!
Kary