Saturday, July 31, 2010

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!





Thursday, July 29, 2010

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!

Friday, July 16, 2010

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.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

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?