2010

I just went through and read all of my blogs from this year, (a whopping 22) to decide what I would write if I were to sum up this year. Judging from my blog you might guess not much happened this year. You'd be right. Here are some things that did happen in 2010:

We bought a house.
We purchased our first home in April and spent 3 months moving all of our belongings into said house one Focus-load at a time. In July we moved in and we've been unpacking ever since. We have moved in a spare twin bed and are still willing to get that air mattress if anyone wants to come stay!

We had a child.
I mean we bought a dog. Gambit has been a great dog and he is learning quickly. He loves playing with his Aunt Brandy but does not love playing with his Cousin George. (I'll try to get some video of him with my sister-in-laws cat George) When we bought him he was a little grey puppy and then the first time we had him groomed he lost all his grey fur and he is now a white dog/bunny/bat.





I got a full time teaching job.
After several interviews and several rejections I finally got a full time teaching job at one school. I got the job just 2 days before I supposed to start teaching part time at two schools. Even with two schools and the commute and prep time included I was only going to be a partial contract teacher in the district I taught in last school year. So when all the cards were played and I had to choose between full time at a school 5 minutes away in a district I wasn't fond of vs 2 schools and a 45 minute commute.... I paid a penalty for leaving the district I liked (emphasis on the D at this point) and dealt with some residual harassment from some random HR employee who decided it was her purpose in life to make me miserable and now I'm one happy camper at Fort Herriman Middle School. That story will make a great Flashback Friday someday.


So even though it would seem not a lot happened, those things that did happen were big decisions that will shape the rest of our lives. We are grateful that we have the gospel, good friends and great family that help us make these decisions. We love you all and look forward to a great new year!

Anniversary Number Three

This year our anniversary went by without much celebration. We had both been sick that week and the week before and so we really weren't up to going out on the town. It was a Wednesday and we had work in the morning. Brad had a crazy day at work and didn't get home until 8. My father was in town for one night on a layover between Philly and Hawaii and he stayed at our place. (We said yes before we knew what night he'd be there.... Also we are just too nice) His flight got in at 8:30. So as soon as Brad got home we turned around and went and picked him up. He took us out for our anniversary dinner, Village Inn was the only thing that sounded good at 9:30 at night when all we really wanted to do was go to sleep. We got home and did just that.

The next night I thought for sure we'd go out to our actual anniversary dinner. But Brad was home late again. I was starting to get a little sad that such an important day had gone by with no real celebration at all.

Friday I decided to stay at work and finish up as much grading as possible to free up my weekend. I finally left around 4:30. When I pulled into my driveway I realized that Brads car was at home. He had missed work on Monday and Tuesday because he wasn't feeling well but I thought he was feeling better so I was surprised he had come home. When I walked in the door Brad was there all dressed up (read: shirt with collar and no super hero). He had already packed an overnight bag and was waiting for me so we could go to our awesome date he'd planned. I quickly got ready, we dropped the puppy off at his sisters, we went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then across the street to the Hale Center Theater to see A Christmas Carol. After the show we had a free nights stay at the airport Hilton. It was an awesome anniversary date and I was so surprised. I sure do love my husband!

Teaching: A Thankless Job

What exactly is it that makes a job thankless? I have students who say thank you every day. Even after I make them take notes..... So why is it that teaching is a "thankless job"? I'm not going to say that all of my students understand what education gives them, making it more-so "thankless" but I'm not sure I fully understand the term.

What jobs are thanked? We probably are thankful to our doctors. But do most people say thank you after getting shots, blood drawn, or chemo? Probably not. Some will. Like my students who tell me thank you. But like education people aren't sure just what the doctor has done for them until they feel better which is usually long after they walk out of the doctors office. So how do we thank them? With money. We pay them more. If that is the case, then yes. Teaching is a thankless job.

Why do I bring this up? I'm just still stuck on a comment that the administration made at faculty meeting today that our job may hard but the job gets more thankless the higher up you get.... But aren't they compensated more fairly for their job? For the most part can't they leave their jobs at work? I can't. As a beginning teacher I am often at the school before most and I am almost always the last to leave. I bring work home and I think about it constantly.

I hope some day that I wont.

They tell us all the time that they are there to support us. Well today I decided the support that I need is to not be reminded how much worse their jobs are than mine. I don't go to E.R. doctors who have to work nights and say "Your job is hard, but I'm a teacher." I don't go to Sanitation Workers and say "Yeah, but at least you aren't a teacher."

If you have to add a caveat at the end of your thanks, maybe you should just follow Thumpers advice and not say anything at all.

Decorating

I have been neglecting the blog. I want to put up more pictures of the house, but I'm not good at decorating and so I feel like the house is still unfinished. I have a room full of boxes that I haven't dealt with yet. I did however go through 3 boxes in the past 24 hours and put things away or into a designated DI box. My personal goal is to have nothing stored in a cardboard box. I don't have a set time line for accomplishing that goal however.

I have this desire to have things in my home that I made. I feel proud when people compliment something I've done. My sister-in-law is crafty and makes really nice things. I envy her abilities and love her decorating style. I mentioned to her that I wanted to try to make a Halloween wreath so she took me under her wing and was my decorating guide on my very first wreath journey. We made the whole thing from a stick wreath and some dollar store flowers, lots of spray paint and some eyeballs later we had a final product.

She found a cool wreath online that we tried to copy and I think it turned out great. The biggest problem I've had is that nobody ever comes to my door to see it! The only exception being my visiting teachers who showed up this week and appropriately reacted by telling me how crafty I am. Lets hope some trick-or-treaters have something good to say tonight as well.

Light up my life

The Dining room light was not a favorite when we moved in. I'll show you why.
Boring. We looked at a couple of light fixtures at Lowes and Home Depot and found one that we thought would work. Then while at Brads parents house one night we began talking about light fixtures and they told us they had one that we could take. They were in the midst of a remodel and so this is a theme you will see happen often in our decorating.... We took a look at the light. It was in good condition. Only one problem...


The color. I'm not a fan of gold. So after some design blog reading I decided that I could look past the color. That is what they make spray paint for. So I used some tin foil on the base.



Some plastic wrap on the individual light sockets. (you can see the first layer of color is on already in this photo)



I sprayed all the removable parts and washed all the glass. Washing the glass may have been the biggest change for the light. It had been sitting in a scrap pile during the remodel at his parents just waiting to be taken to either the dump or the DI.




Then the husband hung it up for me. It looks pretty dang good up there. If I had to change anything I'd add a few more links to the chain so it hangs lower... so there just may be a follow up post some day on that update.

Round 2

I have an interview at this school again tomorrow. I will preface this with the fact that I wont do this but this is how I secretly want part of the interview to go....



Principal: Well it was very nice to meet you Mrs. Dimick.
Me: I know. You told me in the letter you sent me last time. Even though this is actually the first time you met me. Because your letter was full of lies.

Master Bath

The master bath before and afters. I did the walls a medium gray and the ceilings white. We also installed a rounded shower curtain rod. It makes a big difference. We were spoiled with our big shower at the last house so going to this tiny shower/tub was difficult and it felt much better to not have the curtain touch your elbow when you go to lather up your shampoo. Not pictured is the hand-held shower head, we purchased it with wedding money to BB&B, we love it and have taken it everywhere we've lived since our first apartment.The before: Builder boring.
The middle: the shower curtain rod just wasn't working right. The wall/ceiling meeting point wasn't finished at this point either. That actually took me until last week to finish.
After: I feel like I should take a picture from inside the shower to show you just how much room that rod adds.

Now it just needs art. Like every other wall in my house.

Gambit

I have never had a puppy before. Now I do. This is Gambit. A Maltese/ Schnauzer mix. He is 7 weeks old we don't know the exact day he was born just that he is "7 weeks". Exactly 7 weeks ago was my birthday so we are going to say he was born on my birthday!

Hanging with Baylee

I love my extended family. My mom is the oldest of 10 children and so I have aunts and uncles that are not that far removed from the cousin age range. (But mostly you all know that since for the most part only my family reads this...) My aunt Trudy (child 9) lives in Cache Valley and so she took good care of all of the cousins who were at Utah State while I was there. When Brad and I were engaged we were able to find an apartment for us to live in while married but one of us would need to live there for about a month before we got married. We decided to both put our contracts up for sale early in hopes of one of us being able to sell ours early and also in hopes that both of us would be able to sell at all. Well both of us had people request our contracts mid semester. Brad moved into our apartment and Trudy let me come live in her basement for the month and half until we got married. I think Brads mom was surprised at the wedding to find out that the Aunt that I had been living with was such a young hip aunt and not at all a spinster.

Because we were blessed to live in the grandparents house we had ample room for visitors to come stay with us while in town. Pretty much this meant Trudy and her husband Dan and my cousin Baylee. (and a couple others, just not as frequently) The last time they came to stay with us Dan and Trudy had signed up for a conference in Salt Lake and so that meant I had 2 days where I got to hang out with Baylee. Baylee is 9 and probably will pass me up in height this year. I don't know who I will give my hand-me-down clothes to when this happens. I pulled out all the stops, so as to not seem boring and we went swimming and to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It is a pretty awesome museum. If you've never been you should go.

Here are some photos that I took on my cell phone to send to her parents to make them jealous of all the fun we were having while they sat in meetings about investments.
We invented a 2 headed dinosaur. They probably really existed.

Baylee would make a good paleontologist. The prehistoric shark almost ate her. But I rescued her.

We almost didn't get to swim because someone forgot her swimsuit. But it all worked out thanks to Targets 10$ suits. Why can't adult suits be that much?

It was a great 2 days and it was probably the most active I've been all summer. I hope we still have family come visit us in our new place. We'll buy an air mattress!

Flashback Friday: My birthday 2010

I turned 24 a month ago (that is long enough ago for a flashback right?) and I took a couple photos that day and never posted them so here you go. Brad and I decided that we would go to a Hindu festival that was being held that day. I thought I might learn something cultural or find something cultural to buy to put into my classroom, and Brad was hoping for some good Indian food. I called my friend Heather (the other geography teacher at my school) and the three of us went to the Sri Ganesha temple near our home for the celebration. We were approached by a man as soon as we got there who offered to help us purchase some food. It was greatly appreciated because the names of things on the list were all words we had never seen before. I feel like it is safe to say that while we were there we were the only white people who weren't accompanied by an Indian friend or someone who knew what was going on. It wasn't a very large festival and there were only a couple of tents. One for food, one for the entertainment (small children's dance class recitals) and one for Mehndi, the art of the Henna Tattoo.

Most of you know that I have a tradition that started with college roommates and has continued with Brad once we were married. When we go on road trips we get fake tattoos. I thought it would be fun to get Henna but any time I've seen them they are super expensive. These tattoos were only 3 dollars so I figured W T Heck. (yes I say that. small inside joke with my students.)

A close up of the Design I had....

And Brad played too!

Some people have asked why I did it on my palm. There are several reasons. The first being that in Mehndi it is traditional to use the henna on your palm. Don't believe me? Google image Mehndi and tell me what you think. Henna is used to decorate bodies for any special occasion. But it is very common to see Henna used as part of the celebration at weddings. In fact since most of you didn't go to google here is a picture of some traditional bridal mehndi.
The palms and feet are used because the skin absorbs the color better and holds onto it for longer. Anyways.... my other reason was that Brads sister was getting married the next weekend and so I didn't want a large tattoo on my shoulder or ankle or somewhere visible so I put it on my palm.

So I learned about Mehndi and I got a sweet henna tattoo and that is what I did for my birthday.

Jobs

I am bothered. I have had several job interviews in the past couple weeks, which is exciting since I have a job but would like to work closer to home, full time. I am not worried about not getting these jobs because again, I have a job. I had 2 interviews last week. I expected to hear from one on Monday and one on Tuesday. I was assured by the interviewers that I would hear by those days. When I hadn't heard from either one on Wednesday I already knew I didn't get the jobs. If they were going to offer it to me they would have called me asap.

I finally heard from both today. What really bothers me is how I heard. They sent me letters. Like I didn't make it into a college or something. Like they had 2000 applicants for one position and couldn't be bothered to call them all back with the bad news. What REALLY bothers me is that the letter from the job I was really hoping I would get is full of lies. First of all they are both completely form letters. "I regret to inform you that we have decided to go with another candidate." But this one is signed by the principal... who wasn't even at my interview. He was "out of the building" during the interviews and so to get a letter, signed by him, telling me "you interviewed very well" and that "it was a pleasure meeting with you", that just really irritates me. Just call me. I would rather you would call me the second I walked out of the interview and tell me "we're not even going to continue considering you because you just didn't feel right for the job." They didn't even call my references. If you feel that strongly about hiring someone else then let me know so that I can move on with my life and start revamping my lesson plans for the job I DO have.

That being said I'm going to stop telling people about any interviews I have at all. I feel like such a loser when I have to admit I didn't get the position. I'm a good teacher. I promise. I think these schools are just so intimidated by how awesome they can tell I will be that they don't know how to move forward with hiring me. That or they are all just prejudice against midgets. Is there a lawsuit I can file for this?

Awesome...

One more reason that we are excited to move into a townhouse... When your trees fall down someone else will take care of it! Luckily we have awesome neighbors with chainsaws and big hearts! (And maybe they also love cutting big trees up...)


Oh South Jordan wind...

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day and while I know several members of the current armed services (We Love You Jess! Be Safe!) they are all alive and kickin' so by definition they don't qualify to be memorialized. My grandfather Fleming is probably the closest relative that I know that counts. He fought in World War 2 and his name is on a really neat War Memorial in Richmond, UT. If you are ever in that city you should go find it. Because he is buried in Richmond I wont be able to go to his grave so this is as close as I will get today.

The Sink

When we ordered our counter tops they came with our choice of three sinks. We could choose the 50/50, the 60/40 or the Smart Sink. The 50/50 is just what it sounds like. A sink with 2 even sized tubs. The 60/40 has one tub slightly larger than the other side. We have one right now with a tiny side and a huge side. We don't love it. So the obvious choice would have to be the Smart Sink. Hello, even the name just proves that it is the right choice. The Smart sink is a deep sink with 2 even tubs and a divider that only rises half way up the sink.
Like so:
Now I can put large pots (or maybe someday babies....) into the sink and it wont matter if it fits into one side or the other side. The divider comes up 4.5 inches and so if we wanted to fill the sink with some water to do dishes we still can and if we want to fill the whole thing up and have a pool party in our kitchen we can do that too! It's almost deep enough for a diving board.

We knew we needed an awesome new faucet to go with it, none of my DIY blogs had a homemade faucet craft, so we went and bought one of these:
We were really excited about the pull down sprayer. It was going to be like getting to do lunch duty in elementary school every day! The night before the counter tops were to arrive I had this terrible feeling. I was afraid that the beautiful plantation shutters wouldn't be able to open with the taller arc faucet. We went over to the house to measure and, wouldn't you know it, it was tall enough to be in the way of the shutters. So we got another awesome faucet that has a wand instead of the pull down. Still very nice. No interference from the shutters.

The first big change

I'm so excited about our new home and we have already begun the process of making it our own. We liked this house when we first saw it but there was one thing that we felt like didn't match the rest of the house. The counter tops.

We've been getting some flack for talking about how much we don't like these counter tops. They could be fine. If they were in a different house. The pink color would be better in an adobe house with cactus and sandstone surrounding it. But that wasn't our house. Our house was built in 2004 and it has the standard cream with white trim walls and, as you can see, it has brown and tan flooring. We talked about putting in laminate flooring but decided to wait on that project and we'll see if it happens. It turns out once we removed the pink counters the flooring doesn't look so out of place. We found a killer deal on granite counters and we paid as much as we would have paid for laminate at any of the chain stores.

The color we got is called Venetian Gold. In the words of my uncle/Realtor it took the room from Grandma to Yuppie. I don't know that Yuppie was what we were going for but we got it away from Grandma and that was the hope! Unfortunately I've caught the bug and so even though Brad thinks we're done with the kitchen I think that maybe I've only just begun.

Becoming an addict

I've always loved looking at peoples houses. Buying our home has given me the chance to walk through lots of peoples homes and I loved it. Since the touring portion of the process has ended I have found a new way to continue looking at peoples homes. Blogs. I love looking at Design Blogs. I may have to quit my job so I can sit and look at all the crafty things other people are doing. I don't even have time (or the real talent) to try to make the crafts myself because one blog leads to another and there are so many cool things to look at.
But despite the lack of time and talent I've been trying some of these projects and I'm excited about the outcome. I'm going to keep trying things (I've got to have something to do during the summer vacations) and I'll be sure to keep you all updated, whether you like it or not, on how those projects go. I will also be updating the house with new things that I wont be making myself because there are people who make things, that I like, for a living that are willing to sell said things at stores for people like me to buy.

Things I've learned through this...

We just bought a home. The experience overall has been a good one. I have learned a lot and we have been blessed along the way with a good Realtor and with good representation from our mortgage loan person at Wells Fargo. We also have had many blessings when it comes to the payment for that home. We don't think we will live in this place for the rest of our lives. It is a starter home. So at some point we will be doing it again. And I don't shudder at that thought. Unfortunately one thing that was out of our control was the realtor that the sellers chose to use in selling the house. I'm trying to take the advice that you all gave me when I posted this over a year ago. But even with over a years worth of growing and maturing, holding grudges is still something I struggle with constantly. So instead of going on and on about how much I dislike this realtor and how much I really would advise all of you to never use Century 21 just because of this one idiot.... I am not going to. Instead I'm going to offer you all some advice for when you buy a home or are selling a home and so that I will remember it when it is time for us to purchase another home.


#1: Pick a Realtor that you are comfortable with and that you are comfortable complaining to. If something isn't just how you want it to be you don't want to be intimidated by your Realtor and just let it go. Tell them.

#2: Ask any question you can think of. Some important questions you may not think of but that you will want to ask BEFORE you sign the papers for the house include: Where are the rest of the keys to the house? Where is the key to the mailbox? Why is there a giant cat house/tree thing in the garage and when are you getting rid of it?

#3: If you are selling a house CLEAN IT. If you are buying a house and it isn't cleaned as well as you want it to be, don't assume it will be done and don't be worried about asking for it to be done. (If the carpet not being cleaned was the only thing this realtor hadn't taken care of I wouldn't be so upset, it's just getting lumped in with everything else because he's made me that upset.)

#4: Don't assume that just because you consider yourself a good decent person that everyone else is. Some people will do the very minimum amount of work possible and will still be happy to take your money.

#5: Don't ever let someone talk down to you or belittle you. Stick to your guns and don't be apologetic if someone doesn't do what they say they will, insist that other people do their jobs.

#6: Don't think about the fact that 30 years is a really long time and that you have just entered into the most debt you will ever enter (that is until you upgrade to a bigger house when your family size demands it). Instead focus on the fact that you have just purchased a place where you and your best friend can really begin the next phase of your lives together.



p.s. I know that in proper English the word Realtor is capitalized because it is a proper noun. However, my elementary teacher told me you capitalize the nouns because people are important. In my own mind by not capitalizing it every time it has to do with the realtor who sold us our house I am showing that he is not important and I don't need to let his actions continue to make me feel so down. This is how nerds get revenge.

Still Renting...

Amy: "We own our own home!"
Brad: "Actually the bank owns it, so really we're just renting it from the bank."
Amy: "Yeah but the bank will let us paint the walls!"
Brad: "This is the most expensive paint I've ever heard of."

Despite the completely overwhelming feeling of being in serious debt (our first debt of any kind really....) We are the proud new owners of a townhouse. More pictures will come but if you can't wait for them to show up here I already put most of them on facebook.

Killer 'Stache dude

I teach ninth graders during my actual "teacher" hours at the school I work at, but the rest of the day I work with the resource teacher and I work with students from all three grades. It's amazing the difference between the 7th grade and the 9th grade. One thing that they all have in common is the hilarious things that they say and do.

When learning about Stalin I had a student raise his hand and ask "Mrs. Dimick, do all dictators have to have a mustache?"

This question got me thinking about mustaches and it reminded me of a funny story that I forgot to share with everyone.

One day while I was working with a study skills class with both 7th and 9th graders in it and a small (smaller than me even) 7th grade boy came to the desk and asked me if I had any lotion. I gave him a little dab of lotion and he began to rub it on his upper lip. I asked him what was going on and he said "well last night my brother and I tried to dye our mustaches black and now my lip burns."

I can't talk so I will type instead

I may or may not be sick. I don't feel terrible, I just can't breathe. This causes problems when I'm trying to do things such as sleeping, talking, eating, or other day to day tasks. Breathing is something people do quite often it turns out. I take pills to help me breathe but then it makes it so I can't talk. That would be fine because that was only one of those things on the list, but it turns out it's one I do a lot. Especially during parent teacher conferences. When it first started I would wake up coughing. I was worried it would keep Brad up so I would move to the couch. One night I woke up in the middle of the night to find that Brad wasn't to be found. I figured he was still playing computer games so I came to find him and tell him it was way past his bedtime. Instead I found him in a makeshift bed on the couch. You see, he felt bad that I was sleeping on the couch because I might wake him up so he just slept on the couch so that I would sleep better.

So I may or may not be sick, but I definitely have an awesome husband.

Finding what I'm looking for

Last night we went to dinner for my Grandma's birthday. We went to an Asian restaurant and ate way too much. At the end of the meal we all got our fortune cookies. Mine told me that "You will find what you are looking for tomorrow". Well I've been looking for a house. Every day the Realtor's site emails me with new listings for the day. I was really excited to receive that email this morning. Unfortunately there was only one house on the list and it was out of our price range. Now I have to figure out it was that I was looking for if it wasn't a house....

my dreams

Sometimes I have weird dreams. I had one last night that I still remember and it was weird enough that I thought I would post it here and let anyone who wanted to, try to interpret it.

Brad and I are driving down the street and lining the street is some sort of rally. The rally (as far as I remember it) was a Utah State rally where they were announcing that any BYU student who wanted to could just have their diploma say Utah State instead. We slowed down as we drove past and I was pointing out all the people that I knew from both USU and BYU. BYU's mens chorus was even there promoting the rally. (Along with a 75 year old version of a boy I know who once sang in the choir....?) As we drove past someone ran out to our car and offered me a USU water bottle because I am USU alumni.

All I can figure out from the dream is I need a new water bottle. And it's true cause my current water bottle leaks. Any other suggestions?

Too upset to blog

I can't think of happy things to blog because I'm a little bit distraught by all the Late Night tv problems on NBC. You see, I love Conan. It's ok with Brad because Brad loves Conan too. We planned our honeymoon to NYC so that we could see Wicked and a taping of Conan. Then the writers strike had the gall to happen at the same time so we weren't able to see a taping. Then he was moved to Cali so we thought that we would be able to go to a taping down there sometime. Now the word on the street is that he's done. I don't really like Letterman but I am going to become a fan just so that Leno will not only not get my ratings but his opponent will. I can't beleive I wont ever get to see a taping of Conan.

In other news.... Stay tuned for house hunting updates!