Lori's Love-to-Learn Preschool: More About Miss Lori

Hello! Thank you for taking a minute to get to know me a little bit better. It's always difficult to know where to begin when talking about one's self, but I guess a good place to start would be the beginning (I realize if you're looking at this blog seriously, you're doing a lot of reading, so I'll try to keep this brief and skip over the parts that aren't that exciting). Okay, here goes. . .

I grew up in a small Wyoming town named Cokeville (and when I say "small" I mean it--graduated with 15--10 girls and 5 boys, which leaves a very limited dating pool, let me tell you). After high school, I went 500 miles from home to attend Eastern Wyoming college, where I played volleyball and majored in Elementary Education. I then served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utica, New York before finishing my education degree at Utah State University.

By this time I had met and married my husband, Daniel, and we had our first child, so I decided to be a mother instead of a full-time teacher. Four more children and many years later, I started fulfilling my passion for teaching by creating my own preschool, and I loved it!

Things I love: 1- CHOCOLATE! I keep some on hand for emergency situations. 2- Reading! Oh the joys of a good book! Few things compare. 3- Volleyball. Man alive, I love this sport! I used to play it, then coach it, and now I just watch it!

Something unique about me: I am a hostage survivor. When I was a 5th grader, our elementary school was held hostage by a man and his wife and a very large homemade bomb. After nearly three hours, the bomb blew up. Through a series of amazing miracles, we all survived (that's the very short story). Over the years I have had many opportunities to share the events of that day at different speaking events. Even though I was very young, I learned some valuable life lessons I've never forgotten, such as: to take advantage of every day, to do the most important things first, and to never miss a chance to tell your children you love them.

If you want to know more about this story, watch for the movie, "The Cokeville Miracle," directed by T.C. Christensen. Our family had the wonderful privilege of being behind-the-scenes for a few days while this movie was being filmed right in Layton, Utah, and in fact, if you look closely, you might even spot us in a few scenes and will see our picture during the credits. It's truly a remarkable story that is sure to touch your heart (so you may want to take some tissues to the theater with you:).

Favorites:
Food: Hmm. . .depends on my mood, but I do love Thai food and Mexican food
Book: These Is My Words (just one of my favorites--it's seriously so hard to choose just one)
Children's Book Author: Mo Willems (he writes the best children's books--so funny!)
Movie: "Forever Strong" (No matter how many times I watch it, it gets to me) and "Father of the Bride"--so funny!
Music Artist: This changes often, but right now I like James Arthur

Things I am passionate about: 1-Motherhood. That seems kind of obvious since I have five children, but I also have been actively involved in American Mothers and Power of Moms because I really want to be a deliberate mother, and if I ever get some spare time (ha! hasn't happened in forever), I blog about motherhood on my blog entitled “Making Motherhood Memorable” (www.loriconger.blogspot.com). 2-Teaching! I truly love to teach! I have felt so blessed to be able to start and teach my own preschool class for the past five years. I love my students, and there is just nothing better than seeing one of them at the grocery store or somewhere and hearing them across the building say, "Miss Lori . . . I love you!" 3- Adoption. Without the miracle of adoption, we would not have our youngest daughter, Berkley, and life would not be the same. So grateful for her!

Here are a couple of pictures from the last two years of teaching. Aren't these kiddos adorable?