Something Witty

Play list 2011

2012-01-20T21:26:00.004-07:00

Last year I started a list of the shows I saw that year. I decided to do the same this year.

Tale of Two Cities - Hale Centre Theatre (March 26)
Beverly Hillbillies 90210 - Desert Star Theater (April 16)
The Hasty Heart - Hale Centre Theatre (April 30)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Hale Centre Theatre ( July 2)
Music Man - Shakespeare festival (August 11)
Midsummernights Dream- Shakespeare festival (August 11)
Noises Off - Shakespeare festival (August 12)
Little Mermaid - Tuacahn (August 12)
Grease!- Tuacahn (August 13)
Mary Poppins - Capitol Theater (September 15)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - HCT (September 24)
Little Mermaid - Tuacahn (October 22)
Menopause the Musical - Rose Wagner Theater (October 29)
My Fair Lady - HCT (November 26)

Tale of Two Cities was probably the most moving of all of the plays. I loved it. It was my favorite HCT production this year for sure. It helped that Emily and Ames were both in it, but the story and the music was so good, that I bawled through the last number and we bought season tickets before going home. Dirty Rotten was hilarious. It also featured Emily so that was fun. Joseph was good, but I honestly don't understand why people are obsessed with it. Ames did a great job singing "Those Canaan Days" and the whole show is fun and upbeat, but people claim it is the best show they've ever seen. Did they see Tale of Two Cities? To round out the HCT/ Dabczynski connection Emily's mom was cast in My Fair Lady, so that was fun.

I saw Mary Poppins with a bunch of relatives. The only picture I have currently on the computer from any of these shows is of my 10 year old cousin and I outside of Mary Poppins. She was pretty excited to be taller than her 25 year old cousin. It's not that hard to do.

Baylee and I outside of Mary Poppins. Yes she is 10 in this picture and taller than me.

During our trip to the Shakespeare festival I finally saw Music Man. I know the music and I knew a little about the plot, but I had just never seen it. Brian Vaughn was fantastic as usual. I laughed so hard in Noises Off that my stomach hurt. I even said so on facebook. I had the chance to see Little Mermaid twice. I went the first time with the family during our now annual trip to Cedar and St. George and was given the chance to go again with my Aunt Trudy and my cousin Baylee (pictured above) and some of their friends for a girls weekend. I made a new friend named Milly a sweet 3 year old who held my hand while we shopped at the outlets and sat on my lap during the play so she could see better.

Menopause the Musical was an outing with Brad's parents. It was definitely different. They rewrote a bunch of oldies songs to be about Menopause. Some of the songs were pretty funny. My favorite was "My Thighs" a new way to sing "My girl". We ate at Squatter's Pub afterwords and that made the trip worth it.

In the "almost a theater preformance" category I also saw-
Thriller - Kingsbury Hall (October 29)
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - ESA (December 28)

Thriller was fun, as usual. I went with an old roommate (Jill) and it was great to see her and spend some time catching up. Trans- Siberian Orchestra wasn't what I was expecting at all. The laser show at the end was my favorite part.

We already have tickets to the first HCT production (featuring Emily) and plan on seeing at least a couple of the shows there this year. We've also picked our weekend for Shakespeare Festival. We love the theater!

Clap on "um"

2011-09-02T19:47:00.001-06:00

When I was teaching at Wasatch I would often get nervous in front of my students. When I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to say I would have the feeling that I needed to fill every second with noise so they wouldn't notice I was struggling with the content. This leads to saying "Um". Lots of people do it. I would be saying um while thinking of the next item of information to fill the silence; and I didn't notice I was doing it. As long as there was sound we were good. Well my lovely students kept track of how many times I said "um". And it was embarrassing. They didn't tell me they were doing it, but they gave me the tally sheet at the end of a week as a gift. A cruel, cruel, gift. But one that needed to be given.

I decided that just like Pavlov's dogs I could be trained. I told those students that I needed their help to break this habit. I had them clap, one single clap, every time I said um. They listened to me like phone tappers listening for bomb threats and would catch every little um. They probably would have clapped if geography had every lent itself to using the word "umbrella". I hope they listened to the other words I was saying and they didn't just listen for the um's in between. But I'd say overall it was a success. I was thinking about the words I was using. Sure there were some points where it was quiet while I formulated the next sentence but I learned it was ok.

Fast forward to the next school year. I had moved schools and began teaching a subject I was once again uncomfortable with. I caught myself using um too often as a crutch and so I told a few of my 8th grade students about the "clap on um" trick to help get myself on track. Just like the first time it worked like a charm. Today, one of those students, who has the extreme luck to be in my 9th grade class this year, caught me saying um and out of the blue, clapped. The first time I heard it I didn't understand what was going on. A little later I said it again and she had spread the word to 3 other students to clap. When all 4 clapped in unison it clicked what was going on. And I'm proud to say, they didn't get to clap the rest of the period. Not because I cut their hands off or because I taped their hands together. But because when you think before you speak, you don't need those verbal crutches.

The Dog Days of Summer

2011-07-13T11:34:00.004-06:00

So far this summer I've done lots of nothing. But pretty much everything I've done, I've done with my puppy. So here is a photo essay of my summer so far as told by my dog.

Gambit sleeps on the couch as I read a book about Abraham Lincoln.

Gambit sleeps on our new patio recliners while I read a book about Abraham Lincoln.
(why does he always have his head lower than his body?)

Gambit sleeps on the floor next to the couch, as I read a book about Abraham Lincoln.

Gambit and I snuggle while taking a break from reading about Abraham Lincoln.

Gambit found sleeping under the bed while I fold laundry.

Gambit sleeping almost under the bed. If he can't see you, you can't see him.
(No I have not trained my husband to put his jeans in the laundry basket, or over a chair, or even on the floor of the closet. Life goes on.)

Gambit sleeping while all around him lies the evidence of having spent all morning reading about Lincoln. (The tv is on because, as you can see from the Tupperware and pudding cup, it was lunch time, which means an episode of That 70's show and possibly a shower. The bottles are Gambit's favorite toys which have been taken away because it is really annoying to read while a dog is hitting you in the face with a plastic bottle)

Another Craft

2011-06-17T16:49:00.004-06:00

Name my favorite flower. Quick go. Yep. It's hot pink Gerbera daisies. Some day I might grow up. But not today. :) So I made this. A little shadow box painted "Bahama Sea" and sanded, scrapbook paper mod podged in the back and a giant daisy. It looks nice against my dark gray walls in my room. I'm working on a project for my room and when I'm done I'll take pictures of it all coming together.

My Seester

2011-05-28T07:00:00.001-06:00

I love my sister and since I didn't post this before she got married like I had planned I'll post it today because it is her open-house day. She decided she wanted her open-house to be more informal than a typical reception so here we are 2 weeks later getting ready for ice cream in the park. Instead of a sappy post about how awesome she is, (she's not dying) I'll just put some great pictures of the two of us.

At my reception.

The Gardens at the Bellagio

Neuschwanstein Castle outside of Munich Germany

I had to put this one in of Erin being left all by herself on a teeter-totter in Switzerland. She will no longer be all alone because she found her teeter-totter partner, Matt.

Did you know they changed facebook and now it's harder to steal pictures for your blog? Anyways, I was going to get a picture of the two of them together, but here is a great shot of Erin on her wedding day, taken by her photographer. (that I then stretched out so you could see it) I can't wait to see the rest. I love my sister and I am so excited to have Matt in the family.

Cooking

2011-04-30T09:14:00.003-06:00

A couple of years ago I got a cookbook from my in-laws for Christmas.

The cookbook was all about meals that freeze well. I wanted to try it, but truth be told I was nervous. I'm not a fabulous cook. Don't get me wrong I can follow a recipe just fine, but it's not something I really enjoy all that much. I think part of it is that I think it is boring to stand in the kitchen and cook all by myself and 30 meals in one day.... That's a lot of standing in the kitchen.

My spring break was over Easter weekend and my sister-in-law and I had planned to spend part of the break making a headboard for my bed. (that post will be coming at a later date) She asked me about my cookbook and decided that while we were woodworking we should also cook a months worth of meals. No big deal, just 30 meals, for us each, in one day. She made up the shopping list and we set out to get all the ingredients we'd need.

Shauntel asked if she could be head chef and boss me around. Since I'd never cooked any of the meals she'd planned I agreed. She loves being bossy and had a secret desire to tell a midget what to do. Don't deny it Telly.

I had to leave before all the food was done cooking (She kicked me out so she could go to the gym so it's her own fault she had to clean up and finish by herself) so the picture we got is only about half of the food we prepared. My tiny freezer is overflowing. If we decide to do it again we may have to invest in another freezer for the garage to put all of our food in!

Book Club

2011-02-21T18:01:00.003-07:00

I enjoy reading. I wish I had more time and more energy to devote to reading. When I get home from work it is easier for me to zone out in front of the TV or computer than to have my brain function enough to read. But I feel better when I have accomplished something and I have finished a good book. I joined a book club in my last ward (the grandparents ward) and I just don't want to give it up. The ladies are so sweet and since I don't get to see them once a week at church now I see them once a month at book club. I realized while making my list of shows that I have seen that I ought to be making a list of books that I've read. I'm working on a couple on my own, but I haven't finished anything besides book club books in the recent past. So here is my list of book club books that we have read in no particular order. (at least this is all the ones I can remember... I need to talk to the ladies and see if any official lists exist.)

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
Train to Potevka - Mike Ramsdell
The Gifts - Ursula Le Guin
Hidden Places - Lynn Austin
Candle in the Darkness - Lynn Austin
At Home in Mitford - Jan Karon
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
Marley and Me - John Grogan
High Country - Jeannie Hansen
God Wants a Powerful People - Sherry Dew
Gift From the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
Eat Cake - Jeanne Ray
Trudy's Promise - Marcia Preston
A Hope in the Unseen - Ron Suskind
The Help - Kathryn Stockett

The Theater

2011-01-15T13:17:00.003-07:00

Brad and I love the theater. I love to listen to showtunes after school when I enter grades and my students know that if they are in my room after school they better be ready for the "name the show" game. We love to go to the Shakespeare festival in Cedar City each summer and I realized recently that I haven't been keeping track of all of the shows that I have been seeing. So here is my first effort in keeping track of the plethora of shows that we go to.

Shows I saw in 2010:
Importance of Being Earnest HCT West Valley
Tarzan Tuacahn
Pride and Prejudice Shakespeare Festival
39 Steps Shakespeare Festival
Cats Tuacahn
Merchant of Venice Shakespeare Festival
Macbeth Shakespeare Festival
Much Ado about Nothing Shakespeare Festival
Crazy For You Tuacahn
The Drowsy Chaperone HCT West Valley
A Christmas Carol HCT West Valley

They were all really well performed. I will never feel the need to see 'Cats' again. My sister loves the show and used to watch an old recording that the neighbors had all the time growing up. I always felt like since I liked shows I needed to watch it at least once. Turns out once was enough. The dancing was good but I'm not sure how it is the longest running show on Broadway. I really enjoyed Drowsy Chaperone and it was made even better by the fact that one of my very best friends could go the same night and that her husband was one of the lead actors in the show. I am looking forward to seeing both of them in Tale of Two Cities at the Hale this year!

I also had the opportunity to go to two other types of shows this year.

Michael Buble E Center
BJ Novak Kent Concert Hall USU

The Michael Buble Concert was really fun. My aunt bought the tickets for her and her daughters and then two of the daughters couldn't come. My mom and I were glad to stand in. At one point in the concert Michael came out to sing on a platform in the middle of the crowd. We had floor seats and since we were up dancing in the back my cousin Ashley and I were able to sense the floor crews preparing before he got off the stage. We were in position and ready before anyone else realized he was coming down. We were standing right next to the stairs as he climbed up onto the makeshift stage. I got caught up in the crazy fan-girl excitement and reached out and touched his arm as he walked by. I told Brad and his only reaction was "why?" It makes me popular with middle schoolers though when I tell them.

Brad and I love The Office and so when we heard that BJ Novak was coming to USU we bought tickets as soon as we could. Turns out we knew before most people because our tickets were front and center. His stand up routine was really funny and we had lots of fun visiting when old friends in Logan.

We are making plans to make it back to the Shakespeare Festival and Tuacahn this summer and we hope to make it to at least one show at the Desert Star Theater as well.

2010

2010-12-30T17:42:00.008-07:00

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

2010-12-27T12:58:00.002-07:00

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

2010-12-20T18:50:00.003-07:00

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

2010-10-30T15:12:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-11T11:14:00.004-06:00

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

2010-08-05T23:34:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-02T17:35:00.004-06:00

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

2010-07-31T22:03:00.003-06:00

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

2010-07-29T12:29:00.005-06:00

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

2010-07-16T18:06:00.001-06:00

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

2010-07-01T18:57:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-06-17T10:39:00.003-06:00

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

2010-05-31T09:05:00.004-06:00

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

2010-05-09T09:12:00.005-06:00

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

2010-05-07T22:54:00.001-06:00

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

2010-05-06T21:37:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-04-12T16:36:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-04-05T22:23:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-13T07:59:00.002-07:00

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

2010-03-05T11:27:00.004-07:00

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

2010-01-31T09:24:00.002-07:00

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

2010-01-23T19:41:00.002-07:00

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

2010-01-16T10:16:00.003-07:00

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!

Farewell to 2009 and also to Canada

2009-12-31T18:26:00.002-07:00

2009 has been a great year. But that's not what this post is really about. This post is about Canada.

I teach geography to 9th graders. (One of the many great things that happened in 2009) I recently finished a unit on Canada. The students each researched a province and gave presentations on their province. As an end of unit wrap-up I had the students write a farewell to Canada. There weren't many rules. It was to be 1 page long and it was to mention the required information from their powerpoints. (history of the region, culture of inhabitants, economic factors, and physical geography) Some students wrote poems, some wrote songs. I got a rap, I got an angry letter, I got several break-up notes. I'd like to share with you a few funny parts from their papers.

To Canada in general:
"Don't be an ice-hole." (The student gave credit to the Colbert Nation, I shouldn't laugh but I did)

To Prince Edward Island:
"At first I thought I loved you,
loved your fishing, beaches and pastures too.
But now Prince Edward Island we're done, finished, we're through.
At first I thought I'd stay with you forever, leaving you never!
I was drawn to Green Gables, the horses in the stables,
But those horses smell weird,
and Green Gables should be feared!"

To Canada:
"We still have 5 cents on your dollar!"

To Canada (tune of Frosty the Snowman):
"Farewell to Canada
goodbye to mind numbing cold
We've had some fun
Now it's time to run
On to Central America!"

To Canada (a 2 page breakup note):
"Red and white look especially cute on you my little bread basket."
On Canada's "Stunning Figure"
"You have very intoxicating Rocky Mountains plus clear reflective lakes specifically in Banff. I don't even know if I could live without your long luscious plains/crops."
"You have a strong history which makes you interesting. I mean French and English men were constantly fighting over you until I came in and swept you off your feet."

As you can see, we are having a blast in class. The last note I read to the class like I had confiscated it from a student and it took the class till about halfway through to figure out what it was. They crack me up.

So farewell 2009 and Canada, we're moving on to 2010 and Central and South America whether you like it or not.

P.R. for the H.R.

2009-12-02T16:27:00.003-07:00

**Disclaimer**
I have a job. I love my students. My last post alluded to some of the frustrations I have been having with said job. I have begun more actively searching for a new job. Not because I don't like where I'm at. I am not full time where I am at. I want to be full time. I want to be taken seriously and not taken for granted like I am at my current job. The interview I am talking about is for a job that wouldn't start until next August so it isn't like I am abandoning my current job. I just wanted you all to know this. The real post can begin now.

Today I did my hair. This is a rare occasion. I like to save it for special days so that it means more. "Oh Amy did her hair there must be something really important today!" Or maybe I'm just lazy. It is much faster to just spray a bunch of product in my unruly hair and pretend like it's "done". I know I'm not fooling anyone but it just takes so long to straighten. I know it's been too long since I've put effort into my hair when people are convinced I've cut it or dyed it when all I've done is straighten it. But this is only part of my story today......

Today I was supposed to have a job interview. It was a special occasion so I did my hair. I wore heels. Teaching in heels isn't a fabulous idea. Walking down the halls in heels draws way too much attention to yourself from the classrooms you pass. (Is that a horse I hear coming down the hall?) I was supposed to have this interview before Thanksgiving but they had to reschedule because the administrator who wanted to be present couldn't make it to the first interview. I told them I am already teaching and would need to schedule an afternoon interview. You would think that this would be a pretty standard request when interviewing teachers for a teaching position on a school day...."I teach at a school across the valley currently can I schedule an afternoon interview?" "Sure. How is 12:30 on Tuesday." Seriously? Luckily that was the interview they decided to reschedule and so a 3:30 interview was looking much better. I did my hair, wore my heels and put my phone in my bag, in a filling cabinet while I taught. Because good teachers don't conduct telephone business while teaching. Which is why I was surprised when I checked my phone at 1:00 and saw that the scheduler had tried to call me multiple times during the morning. She left a message saying I needed to come a half hour early or tomorrow. I got permission to leave early so I could make it. I called and she didn't answer. I called again a half hour later and she said that my early option was no longer an option, so she rescheduled with me for next Friday. (with no option for tomorrow like her message said) She had the exact same reasons as last time. The other interviewer couldn't make it.

Where is the communication? Shouldn't the scheduler be checking with the interviewer before scheduling? If an administrator is agreeing to an interview time and then canceling repeatedly is this a good sign? I had many struggles with this same district over the summer and have actually been trying to schedule this interview since last March but have been getting the run around since then. Even in school as future educators when discussing job opportunities with current educators this district was never spoken highly of. Sure the schools are nice. Sure the teachers are good. Sure the kids tend to be highly motivated and well supported. But every time they talk about the district it was negative. (Think about it... I'm sure if you pay attention to the news and talk of education you know which district I'm talking about... what have you heard? making decisions without talking to the community, taking away retirement money from long time teachers or forcing them into early retirement...) So here is what I think. I think the H.R. department needs some P.R. training. (Ashley? You on this?) Stop treating the "customer" badly when that customer is actually the person who will be teaching your children. Because when you treat teachers badly, they go elsewhere or they never come at all.

Unfortunately, with the way the job market is these days, I'll take the job in a heart beat and the run around will be validated to them.

Not feeling witty...

2009-11-10T18:48:00.002-07:00

I have been trying to think of something to write about, but I haven't had many adventures lately and I haven't been feeling witty so deciding what to write in posts is hard. To make it worse the last 2 weeks in church we've had journal writing lessons. That just makes me feel like I REALLY should think of something to write. So I'm taking a page out of my cousin Ashley's blog and I'm going to make a list of some highs in my life right now. I'm not going to list the lows because I know what they are and so does most everyone, but that's not where my focus needs to be right now.

1. My students tried to nominate me for a teaching award even after I told them I wasn't eligible since I'm not a full-time teacher. They were "sticking it to the man".

2. We've started talking seriously about where we are going when we leave the home we're in now. It will be hard, but I'm getting really excited about the possibility of owning my own home.

3. Our ward is awesome and I have met some of the kindest most caring women. They remind me of my mother and are exactly the kind of women I want to be.

4. A woman I was talking to in a professional setting (she will remain nameless) burped under her breath and apologized then said, "only not really because I love that feeling. Do you drink Diet Coke?"

5. Driving home today I turned on Ben Folds louder than usual and I sang as loud as possible. I laughed through my tears at the irony of the "black tears running down my face" while I tried to remember that life could be so much harder and that I really am truly blessed.

6. Tonight I made dinner, NOT from a box. We even had side dishes. We ate fruit muffins and the fruit wasn't canned pineapple and mandarin oranges. It was kiwis and blackberries and fresh pineapple and bananas. (Thanks Jackie for leaving the fruit here!)

7. People like me dang it! And I'm cute!

Ninjas vs. Pirates The great debate

2009-10-18T08:36:00.003-06:00

So I gave my first "official" test last week. The students did fairly well, especially the ones who studied. There was also an extra credit question at the end of the test to help them out. The question was: "Which is better, Ninjas or Pirates? Support your answer." I've never seen 9th graders willingly write as much as they did. I got full page responses on the merits of both ninjas ans pirates. Any debate coach really should use this topic. I was impressed with the responses that I got and it led to a discussion on forming your own opinions and I even was able to sneak in a little soap-box on being an informed voter. We talked about listening to both sides of an argument and forming an opinion while still respecting the other sides views. Here are a few of the responses that got this discussion started:

One girl arguing for ninjas said,"Ninjas get to wear awesome black outfits that look good, while pirates look like they shopped a terrible thrift store."
Another girl arguing for pirates said, "Pirates get to wear colorful beautiful clothes while ninjas wear boring, drab, black."

One girl arguing for ninjas said,"Ninjas can kill you with their bare hands."
A boy who chose pirates said,"Pirates have guns and can shoot ninjas before they are close enough to use their bare hands."

One boy who liked ninjas said,"Ninjas train for years and are very skilled."
Another boy who liked pirates said, "Pirates don't have to work so hard, they just find treasure, drink rum and float in their boats."

So as you can see, there is no right or wrong answer. But I really was surprised that nearly all the arguments were the same argument just opposite sides of the opinion.

And since I know you are dying to know. Ninjas won in one class and pirates in the other. But over all Pirates took the lead.

Flashback Friday: Lokalgrown

2009-09-25T17:28:00.003-06:00

When I first moved out of my parents house I moved into a house with 2 of my cousins. Megan and Ashley are fabulous and I am lucky that I have the kind of extended family that you can live with! My cousin Ashley is a few years older than Megan and I and so she already knew everyone who was anyone in Logan. She had all sorts of hookups around town and was always bringing us with her to parties and concerts. She kept us really busy and taught us the ways of college life. Ashley happened to be friends with a group of guys who were in a band named Lokalgrown. Their music is awesome and they were THE band when it came to USU bands. Ashley happened to be their Public Relations specialist which meant that as her roommates Megan and I got to go to every concert they had and sell their shirts! This photo is of Megan and I with one of our other roommates (her name was also Ashley but she wasn't our cousin). This was about 2 days after I moved in and it was my first Lokalgrown concert. It was the 4th of July party in South Jordan back in 2004. We loved going to their shows and we were sad when they graduated and left USU. Their drummer was one of our good friends, Keith. He is currently the band teacher at Layton high school. Last week for a band fundraiser Keith got the boys together and Lokalgrown had a concert. A couple of the original band members live out of state and so they were replaced by fabulous singers and guitarists from the area. The show was fabulous and I was glad I got to share a lokalgrown concert with Brad since he never got to hear them in Logan.

TLAPD

2009-09-19T10:19:00.006-06:00

Last year my favorite holiday fell on a Friday and so I did a Flashback Friday about it. This year since I've already told you how this holiday came about and one way I've celebrated I thought I ought to help you celebrate it yourselves.

I am of course talking about International (that's right, we see no borders when it comes to celebrating this holiday) Talk Like a Pirate Day. So to help you talk like a pirate I have stolen this list of terms you may or may not be aware of to help increase your pirate vocabulary. First off is the basics:

Ahoy! - "Hello!"

Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."

Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."

Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

Once you've mastered the basics, you're ready to start expanding your pirate vocabulary. Try these for starters:

Beauty – The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by “me,” as in, “C’mere, me beauty,” or even, “me buxom beauty,” to one particularly well endowed. You’ll be surprised how effective this is.

Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It’s loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship. On TLAP Day – A lot of guy humor involves insulting your buddies to prove your friendship. It’s important that everyone understand you are smarter, more powerful and much luckier with the wenches than they are. Since bilge rat is a pretty dirty thing to call someone, by all means use it on your friends.

Bung hole – Victuals on a ship were stored in wooden casks. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole is called the bung hole. That’s all. It sounds a lot worse, doesn’t it? On TLAP Day – When dinner is served you’ll make quite an impression when you say, “Well, me hearties, let’s see what crawled out of the bung hole.” That statement will be instantly followed by the sound of people putting down their utensils and pushing themselves away from the table. Great! More for you!

Grog – An alcoholic drink, usually rum diluted with water, but in this context you could use it to refer to any alcoholic beverage other than beer, and we aren’t prepared to be picky about that, either. Call your beer grog if you want. We won’t stop you! Water aboard ship was stored for long periods in slimy wooden barrels, so you can see why rum was added to each sailor’s water ration – to kill the rancid taste. On TLAP Day – Drink up, me hearties! And call whatever you’re drinking grog if you want to. If some prissy pedant purses his lips and protests the word grog can only be used if drinking rum and water, not the Singapore Sling you’re holding, keelhaul him!

Hornpipe – Both a single-reeded musical instrument sailors often had aboard ship, and a spirited dance that sailors do.

Lubber – (or land lubber) This is the seaman’s version of land lover, mangled by typical pirate disregard for elocution. A lubber is someone who does not go to sea, who stays on the land. On TLAP Day – More likely than not, you are a lubber 364 days of the year. But not if you’re talking like a pirate! Then the word lubber becomes one of the more fierce weapons in your arsenal of piratical lingo. In a room where everyone is talking like pirates, lubber is ALWAYS an insult.

Smartly – Do something quickly. On TLAP Day – “Smartly, me lass,” you might say when sending the bar maid off for another round. She will be so impressed she might well spit in your beer.

So to all my Brethren of the Coast, here's to hoping today be not the day we dance with Jack Ketch! And to all you land lubbers, talk like a pirate or walk the plank!

Flashback Friday: Phlegmily

2009-09-18T17:08:00.006-06:00

When I was in High School I had many best friends. In fact chances are, if you read this blog and I knew you in high school you were at one point probably my best friend. Actually chances are if you read this and I knew you EVER, you were probably at one point my "best friend from..." whatever it was I knew you from. It's true, just ask my Father-in-law. (by the way he's pretty much my best friend out of all my father-in-laws) But this story is about one particular best friend. Her name is Emily Llewellyn Dabczynski Bell and her favorite letter of the alphabet is the letter L.

Emily moved to Utah from upstate New York when we were in 10th grade. We had a class together that year but unfortunately we didn't really get to know each other then. Our junior year we had English together and yet, we still didn't realize that we were meant to BFF's. At one point she wrote about me in her journal (she is an avid journal writer) and she referred to me as "Amy Fleming, Junior Class President" because that was all I was to her at that point in our lives.

And then all that changed.

Our senior year we were both assigned to be secretaries for our high schools Acappella choir. We spent a lot of time sitting in the choir office, making seating charts, giving grades, and keeping track of all of the 160+ students in the class. We realized we should have been friends all along and here is a short list of some of the reasons why we were destined to be friends:

We are pretty much the same person. Pretty much.
We had the same nicname. They were spelled different, but had the same effect. Flem and Phlegm.
We both love Pirates. She loves them so much she decided to be born on Talk Like a Pirate Day!
We both love making lists.
People have been calling me Emily accidentally my whole life. Even before we found each other and even if they don't know we are pretty much the same person!
We would unknowingly buy all the same style of clothes and accidentally wear them the same day. Except for yearbook signing day and graduation when we planned to wear the same thing so that we would be the same in all our pictures.

The reason I decided to reminisce about Emily is not only because tomorrow is her birthday and I love her, but because she recently took "the big plunge" and got married and I got to share her special day with her and I am so happy that she is so happy! So happy birthday Mrs. Bell and lets please see each other sometime sooner rather than later.

Crafting

2009-09-09T17:46:00.007-06:00

Right before I got my job I did another sewing project. My aunt made one of these for my mom and she has been the envy of every lady who has seen it since. It is a first aid kit. I'm planning on keeping mine in my car but my mom keeps hers in her purse. You just need a pot holder and a handful of ziplock bags.

You just sew the bags to the hot pad and then you sew a button on the front of the hot pad so you can link the loop around it.

Brad wants one for his car but he wants me to find a hot pad with a superhero on it... I think I may just have to sew some superhero fabric over a hot pad.

I am also an activity day leader in my ward and I think I'm going to make these with the girls.

Employment

2009-08-27T19:24:00.003-06:00

As a teacher I will have the summers off from teaching so to most people my summer of watching movies and sleeping in didn't seem like a big deal and it appealed to most everyone. I on the other hand was a little nervous because I didn't have a place to go to when school started again. I interviewed at several schools and felt good about the interviews. I was told several times that I had been the top candidate until it came to the fact that one other candidate had an extra endorsement. It was very frustrating to say the least. I had hoped to spend the summer making lesson plans for my classes but couldn't begin without knowing what subject I would be teaching.

As school approached I began to apply more heavily to jobs outside of education. I personally think I would make an awesome secretary. I didn't get many calls for the non-educational jobs and so I was even more frustrated. I finally got an interview at a company that I had applied for on a whim on an online job site. I wasn't sure I was qualified but after 2 full days of group interview and individual interviews I was offered the job. I came home from the second day of interviews and just didn't feel right. I spent all summer wanting a job, any job, but I knew that if they called me for this job I would have to say no. It wasn't easy.

Shortly after turning down that job I got a call from a school that was looking for someone who could teach part-time geography. They weren't sure if I'd even be interested because it wasn't even a contract job, meaning I wouldn't receive any benefits. I was very interested. I wanted to teach geography from the very beginning. I told them I'd love to interview. I interviewed on a Monday and by that night I was offered the job. I went and picked up my keys the next day and began getting ready just as fast as I could because school was beginning the following Monday. So I had one week to plan and I've been going pretty non-stop. I was working just 2 hours each day and I was ok with that. It got my foot in the door.

On Tuesday of this week (the first week of school) the principal called me into his office. (I got nervous... I should get over that) He offered me a job as a BHA (Behavior Health Aide). I will be working with the special ed teacher and helping students remember to turn in assignments and working with them in their study skills class. I am very blessed and am really excited to begin teaching and working with the students. I am loving the school I'm at. The students are motivated and from what I hear the parents are really involved. The faculty has been very kind and supportive. I'm sure I'll have more stories to share about it, but right now I have lessons to plan!

Flashback Friday: The cop who stole my drivers license

2009-08-14T16:38:00.002-06:00

Right before I turned 16 Utah passed a law that said you couldn't drive with peers in your car for 6 months after getting your license, unless it was a school event and you had a written note from a parent saying that you had permission. It is for this reason that I remember that the first time I was ever pulled over was exactly 6 months and 2 weeks after my 16th birthday. I guess a more simple way to remember would be to just remember it was the day after Christmas, but you know me, I don't do things the easy way.

So it's 6 months and 2 weeks after my 16th birthday and I had a car-load of friends that I was driving around town to check out what other friends had received for Christmas. I was driving Gray Ray. Gray Ray was my first car and he was a Honda Accord. One of those cool old Accords with the flip up headlights. Well on this fateful night, one of those cool flip up headlights happened to be out. We were all headed to south Provo to check on the last friends loot. We were less than a block from her house when we came upon a group of police officers all leaving one particular house. I had to slow down to go over a particularly deep dip and as I came out of the dip my lone headlight shone directly into one officers car. We all knew right then he was going to pull me over. We were glad it was 6 months and 2 weeks after my birthday so that we weren't going to get in trouble for just being in the car. I told everyone in the car to say we didn't know the headlight was out. As soon as the cop asked me if I knew I had a headlight out I broke and admitted we did. He took my license and registration and went to his car. About 5 minutes later the cop came running up to my window. Because it was December I had rolled my window up. Before I could even roll the window down all the way the cop had thrown all my paperwork and even his pen into my car and yelled, "it's your lucky day" as he jumped in his car and took off at 90 miles an hour with the sirens blaring. As we waited for the shock to wear off we tried to gather the papers up and organize them all. As we went through all the things on our laps we realized my license was nowhere to be found. We got out of the car and looked on our seats and under the car and on the road between where his car had been and where my car was. We went back through the papers. We eventually gave up and just continued our trek to the friends home.
The next day I called the police station. I asked if any cops had brought my license to them. They had a box full of lost licenses but mine wasn't in it. The car in question didn't belong to just one cop. So it was out with a different officer in it. The car was flagged to be cleaned and searched for my license. That search came up with nothing. After checking in with the station every few days for a couple weeks I began to give up on the idea that it would be found. That February my high school choir was going to Disneyland and I needed a drivers license to get on the plane, so I finally went and got a new one. Over time I began to forget about my missing license. I began driving Greta and my brother had Ray. Several months later my brother was driving the car with his friend. When his friend reached under the passenger side chair to get the cd case she felt something else under the chair. My license apparently fell between the chair and the e-brake and sat hidden in my car the whole time.

Sorry Mr. Policeman that I blamed for stealing my license. I shouldn't have been so bitter and I shouldn't have bad-mouthed you under my breath when I had to pay 10 dollars to get a new license.

sewing

2009-08-04T12:43:00.006-06:00

At the end of last summer I decided I wanted to get a sewing machine. I haven't sewed since my class in middle school, but I thought it would be a good investment. We didn't get it until summer was ending and with student teaching I didn't have time to make anything. Since subbing required much less preparation and since my cousin Megan was about to have a baby I decided making a baby dress would be a good idea. Plus if I screwed up I could just buy her a different present. In the end it turned out well. I'll be honest though, I had to go to my mom for help with the hard parts (read: zipper) so I can't take all the credit. I'm pretty sure while I wasn't there she unpicked the whole thing and resewed it but she claims she didn't so here is the end result.

And now for the best part. The baby! She is so cute. The dress is still a little big and is apparently delicious.... Her mom should send me another picture where you can see her face and the cute details on the dress... hint hint megan...
So I am now working on a skirt for myself. (With a different pattern, because no the baby skirt doesn't fit me) We'll see if that turns out or if I have to take it to the pro for fixing...

Flashback Fridayish: cooking

2009-07-22T21:31:00.006-06:00

I know it's not Friday but I haven't blogged in forever and I've definitely missed some Fridays so I'm going to show you all these photos before I forget I have them.

Growing up my mom didn't do a lot of baking. Jiffy muffins equal homemade as far as I'm concerned. Grandma Sycamore bread is almost like homemade since we know the guy who owns the company... I think his name is Jim or something like that. Anyways, once a year my mom would always make her Braided Swedish Bread. She would make dozens of loaves to give away as Christmas presents to the neighbors. I loved when she made bread because we always got to keep some loaves. I also kind of hated it because I wanted to keep ALL of the loaves. So this past Christmas I decided that I should try to make some bread in my tiny apartment kitchen and since I had no friends I could keep all the bread! I managed to make ruin the first batch by accidentally making bricks instead of something edible. I then made a couple decent (I hope) loaves that I gave as thank you's for the teachers that helped me with my student teaching. (Dang conscience making me give away the bread!) And then while making my own batch this happened:

The last photo is of the massive chunk of dough that somehow jumped out of the mixer while the flour was busy being flung all over my tiny counter space. I don't miss this tiny kitchen. But I do miss that bread.... I might have to break tradition and actually bake some bread in July.

Summer Trip #3 Philly

2009-07-21T19:54:00.017-06:00

Wow. You'd think with nothing to do I'd blog more. I don't even have any excuses so here goes.

In May (I know I'm way behind) Brad and I went to Philadelphia. We went to visit my dad. He lives in Philadelphia. If this is news to you then I'm sorry. If you want to know why he lives there, you will have to ask him because honestly I'm not sure. I think I just realized why it took me so long to post about this trip..... SOOO how's about we just going to talk about the trip and not why we went.

I was really excited to go to Philadelphia because the history teacher nerd in me wanted to be able to say I'd seen stuff like this:

and this:

and also this:
And of COURSE we saw this:
You don't know what that is? Oh it's just Ben Franklin's "Privy Pot". That's right. His toilet.

My need to see these things is like the French teachers need to go to France. Which reminds me, I watched 'The Jane Austen Book Club' and loved it. But back to the trip. We ate great food from here:
Can't tell where that is? Here I'll help:
We didn't eat at Geno's. Too many flashing lights.
You mean you don't spend your spare time watching food network so you have no idea what the hype is about Pat's and Geno's? Well they are a big deal. Just believe me.

We went out to Lancaster county where we saw a bunch of this:
But I had to steal this photo from google because those buggies go too fast and managed to escape my ancient cameras terribly slow lens. Also I feel like it's cheating for the Amish to be using leaf blowers. It was interesting to see one man plowing his field using a gas powered tractor that was being pulled by horses. Pretty much everything I thought I knew about the Amish is apparently wrong.

We went to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ben Franklin's house, Reading Terminal Market, Lancaster County, Pat's and Geno's, and Valley Forge. If you want to see more photos of the trip I have them in my facebook album titled Summer '09. If you aren't my friend on facebook then I'm not sure how I'd let you look at the photos so I'm not going to try to figure out how to link to that. At the end of it all of course we did this:

Summer Trip #2 Vegas Baby!

2009-06-12T14:41:00.005-06:00

One week after our trip to Logan my mom, sister and I packed up our belongings and headed to Vegas for a wedding. Because my mom had to work that day, and Erin was checking out of her apartment in Logan before driving down to meet us, we didn't leave Provo until after 6. This meant that we got to Vegas at about midnight (1 am Utah time) Luckily we were staying at my Aunt and Uncles house so we knew we'd have beds waiting for us. Saturday morning mom and I went to the wedding while Erin went with her cousin to search for jobs. That evening we went to the reception. After changing our clothes behind our car we headed to the Bellagio to watch the fountains. When we got home we did the traditional road trip tattoos and then came home early the next morning. It was a fast trip but it was fun to hang with the girls yet again! Here are some photos of our awesome tats and of the world record setting chocolate fountain at the Bellagio!

Very important post!

2009-06-01T16:09:00.003-06:00

I was going to keep posting about summer trips but I just remembered it is a holiday today! When I was in college I was privileged to be friends with a girl named Haley. (That's right Haley, I consider it a privilege) She came up with a really great holiday and I think it is something that everyone should take part in. Every year on June 1st she goes out of her way to try something she's never done before. I know it sounds so simple but so often I let myself get into a rut of doing the same things over and over again and this is just the push that might be enough to get me to try new things. Haley has done many things including walking to another state (inspired by my crazy roommates) going fishing for the first time (today!) going to antelope island for the first time and hiking ensign peak.

So I think everyone should take Haley's challenge and do something today that you have never done before. My sister Erin, went to the Great Salt Lake today for the first time and she didn't even know it was a holiday! Even if you are reading this too late to do something today do it tomorrow and call it a belated celebration of June 1st. I'll post later about my own June 1st experience.

Summer has begun.... weeks ago

2009-06-01T11:25:00.003-06:00

So because I was all hung up on what to post for the big one O O, I let some really fun trips go by without reporting about them. Now that school is winding down meaning no more subbing jobs for me I have some time to tell you about my fun summer trips.

The first summer trip I went on started out with my moms sisters. Every year around mothers day (this year was a few weeks early) my mom and her sisters have a girls weekend. It started out as a way to get out of going to their own churches on mothers day (my mother says she doesn't enjoy hearing about how great everyone elses mom is...... makes her feel bad. She really shouldn't) This year they spent a weekend in Salt Lake staying at a fun hotel and partying all night. (or at least until 10) The next day I got to go with them to see "American Fork Idol" at the Desert Star Theater. I love that theater and if you have never been you ought to go see a show. My aunts are a hoot and that made the show even funnier. After the show we all went to my aunts favorite Chinese restaurant. When everyone went their seperate ways my mom and I went to Logan to visit my sister Erin and watch her perform in her last concert as a member of the University Chorale at USU. It was a big production of Beethoven's 9th symphony. It was really neat but something I will only need to see performed in its entirety once in my life. After staying in the scariest motel in Logan we went to participate in Erins last lesson in her relief society. She taught a very nice lesson on families and temple marriage, a topic that was really difficult for her to discuss due to recent events in our family, but she did a wonderful job and got a lot of girls talking and thinking about the subject. We were able to help Erin pack up a few boxes to be ready for her move to another apartment for the summer and we also got to interview her date on Saturday night. Even though it snowed a little while we were there I'm still going to label this summer trip number one because it was the beginning of summer for the college students so it counts.

Why I haven't posted...

2009-05-26T17:10:00.002-06:00

So I know this will sound lame, but the reason it has taken so long for me to post anything new is because every time I would open my blog I would see that I had 99 posts and my next post would be post number 100. I felt like there was some sort of pressure for my 100th post to be full of awesomeness. I couldn't post because I couldn't come up with something that was worthy of such a milestone. So this is me rebelling against that pressure. I will not post any cool pictures, I will not talk about the goings on of my life, I will not leave you with anything witty to ponder. Take that post number 100. Now I can move on.

Brads homework

2009-05-05T19:05:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Brad and I decided that we should go on an adventure. Since Brad was taking a humanities class that required him to go to a museum we decided to make a day out of it and go do his homework together. We'd tried a couple times before to get to the museum but because I work early and he works late it was hard to find a time when we'd both be home and the museum would still be open. Finally we had a Saturday without conference or Easter or visiting relatives. We drove out to the end of the trax line in Sandy and we got on the train. We rode into Salt Lake and then switched trains to the University line. While waiting for our transfer train we watched a very inebriated woman confess to the poor volunteer working at the platform that she was running from the cops. At which point she proceeded to try to get on a moving train. She didn't succeed and instead decided to go back the way she came, which would have led her right into the hands of the cops.... if there had actually been any chasing her.... and she stagged up the street, almost missing a curb. Once we got our connection we rode to campus. We got off at the stadium because we really had no idea where we were going. We found a map and started hiking. We hiked up the hill to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. We weren't sure what kind of fee there would be to enter and as Brad pulled out his wallet to pay we were informed that it happened to be a FREE Saturday! So we got to walk around and admire/ponder the art without feeling like we HAD to enjoy it just because we'd paid to get in. After the museum we took trax back to the gateway and had a fabulous dinner at "The Counter". A cool place where you custom design your own burger. When dinner was over we rode trax back to our car and came home. We met a really friendly woman and her homeless boyfriend and their child while we waited for the ride home... I hope for the childs sake that somehow they have a roof over their heads. Overall it was a fun time and we felt really cultured afterwords. Minus a few blisters (I had new shoes and terrible bandaids...) it was a really fun day!

Back at Bennion

2009-04-24T22:13:00.004-06:00

I got a phone call from a very pregnant teacher at Bennion (where I did my student teaching) and she was in a panic because she was due in less than 48 hours and her long-term sub had just torn his Achilles and had to go to emergency surgery. He wouldn't be able to stand, drive or walk for the next 6 weeks. So I am back with my seventh graders, and some new 8th graders that I hadn't known, this time teaching science. I wanted to be a science teacher once......... I was 5. It was what I picked right after carpenter (my favorite show to watch as a child was This Old House). I'm enjoying it even though it's outside my realm of previous teaching. The seventh graders were sad that their previously scheduled sub wouldn't be there (he is a regular at the school) but by the end of the first day I had students running into the room yelling, "Is it true?!" because word had spread that I was back.

Because I'm not teaching any of my 9th graders this go-around it has taken them a little longer to find me. Every day I see a few more and they all get excited and shout my name in the hall. It's like they think I'm not aware that I'm back. I had two 9th graders who were so excited to see me that they nearly tackled me before class started on Wednesday. Today they both were standing in the hall way with their science class waiting for their teacher to unlock the classroom door after a trip to the computer lab and they decided it would be a good idea to start yelling, "I love Mrs. Dimick!" Right in the middle of class. My students were watching a movie and they all looked at me confused. I just got up and shut the classroom door. I've figured out classroom management fairly well but for some reason I can't seem to get the kids to stop loving me so loudly..... It makes me nervous that the other teachers will dislike me because their students are yelling my name. So if you are one of those teachers...... I'm sorry.

Also, if you are an employer, I'll try to not be so awesome so the kids at your school wont yell my name in the hall. But I can't promise anything.

New Experiences

2009-04-10T16:35:00.003-06:00

I just had the first realization of living in an upscale neighborhood. In a way it's not really like this was a new experience because even when I lived in apartment complexes people came to the door trying to sell things, but today I'm pretty sure they came to my door because of my neighborhood. I don't like door-to-door salesmen. Part of why I don't like them is because they want you to like them so much! They use your name and they tell jokes and they get you outside of your comfort zone to try to get you to buy their product. This particular one includes a "youth program" so not only are you not helping them sell you are making some poor child not have a "program". This guy made it a little easier by telling me that I looked 7 years old. Thanks. He then more seriously asked if my mom was home, and continued to refer to me helping my mom clean even when I told him I was the woman of the house. He asked if I had my own bathroom, and I wanted to be like "no dude, this whole big house doesn't have a single bathroom in it. We go to Wal-mart to use theirs." So in the end I told him I "wasn't comfortable making purchases without talking it over with the family." He was ticked but I'm sure he wished that I'd let him to whoever actually lives in this house.

It pays to blog!

2009-04-06T19:00:00.004-06:00

I was under the impression that my husband only reads my blog when I opened it and put it right in front of his face. Turns out, sometimes when he's bored he actually reads it on his own. I found this out when he called me the other day to talk to me about my car. I hadn't forced him to read my last post about my car because, let's be honest, it was kind of boring. But he read it anyway and he had a brilliant idea while reading it. You see Greta still runs (mostly) and so maybe now would be a good time to sell her to get a small addition to our downpayment on a car. After talking to my mom we decided to do it! So we started the hunt for a new car. We looked at used cars on ksl and we looked at brand new cars on dealer websites. In the end we went to a local Ford dealer and we purchased a 2008 ford focus that has one previous owner and was a screaming deal. It was a better deal than the used cars being sold by owners and we get the benefits of buying from a dealer. So thanks to some help from Brads parents and thanks to my blog.... we are now the proud owners of Bianca my 2008 ford focus.

My vehicular history.

2009-03-23T18:29:00.004-06:00

This just may be the most boring post I've ever written. Consider that fair warning.

When I turned 16 my brother and I began sharing a car. My family has the habit of naming cars, and this cars name was Gray Ray. Gray Ray was a Honda Accord formerly owned by my Uncle and Aunt. It was one of those old school, cool cars with the headlights that flip up. The problem with sharing a car with my brother was that I wanted to drive to school every day and Nate wanted to drive... anywhere else. One day I drove to school and when I went to leave in the afternoon the car was gone. I called my mom, crying, to tell her that the car had been stolen. She informed me that Nate needed to drive somewhere so he'd walked to the school and taken the car. This was the point when I realized that it might be better if I had my own car. I'm not sure my parents would have ever bought me my own car, but as luck would have it the same Aunt and Uncle that sold us Gray Ray were upgrading their second car and offered to sell us their '90 Honda Civic for a good price.

That is when Red Greta came into my life for the first time. When I moved to college she came with me. I fit everything I owned inside of that little civic, a feat that will never be possible again, and then drove to Logan by myself for the very first time. When I was a sophomore in college I was the only person who would park in the first parking stall of our complex because it was a tight fit and my little car had a great turning radius. That same year Greta began doing strange things. She began turning off at stop lights and other inconvenient things. The summer after my sophomore year I moved to Alaska. Greta moved back to my moms house for the summer. It just so happens that my sister turned 16 that summer. She took advantage of the abandoned vehicle and made Greta her own. My Aunt who had sold us the cars passed away that year from a brain tumor and so knowing my sister would be needing a vehicle my Uncle sold us her Subaru. Since Greta wasn't as trusty as she used to be she stayed in Provo with my sister so she wouldn't have to make the trek over the mountains anymore. Valerie Sue Subaru (Sue for short) was very useful and the big cargo area was useful for moving wedding gifts when I got married. Now that I've moved back to Salt Lake and my sister has moved to Logan, Greta has returned to my custody.

So how is Greta these days? Well she no longer knows when the drivers door is open. Meaning when I get out of my car there is no dome lights and there are no warnings when my lights are still on. The most recent problem she is having is the speaker on the passenger side door has a short. When I go over bumps the speaker turns on and off. When I only have sound in one speaker I have to turn the radio up, which just makes it that much scarier when the sound suddenly comes back in the second speaker. I'm nervous that one of these days I'll hit a pothole and the speaker will never come back on. Today the speaker went out and I wasn't even going over potholes. So while we house-sit we are saving money for a house, but there just may need to be another big purchase some time soon.

What no one likes to see on their car

2009-03-20T16:25:00.004-06:00

There are many things that people don't like to see on their car when they approach it; dead cats, bird poop, gangsters, meteors etc.... One thing that never makes people happy is when they see a florescent envelope under their windshield wiper.

Imagine my dismay when I had 2 students tell me they noticed a hot pink notice under my windshield wiper. My first thought was actually "Creepy stalker high schoolers! Why do you know which car is mine?" Not only was that my first thought but it was actually what I said out loud to them. They then pointed out to me that I have a name badge hanging from an air freshner hanging from my rearview mirror. Which is true. So it was my own fault that they knew it was my car. Since they obviously were right about it being my car I had to think hard about why I would have a ticket. They said that they didn't want to get in trouble so they didn't touch it to figure out what it was for. Since they told me this as class was starting I couldn't focus on the lesson as I mulled over the possibilities of why I would have a ticket. The class began brainstorming for me, "Did I have a Kearns high teacher sticker to enable me to park in that lot?" No, but I have a Granite sticker that lets me park at any school in the district. "Was I not completely in my parking spot?" I'm pretty sure I was when I left my car....

Luckily the lesson plan that day involved watching a little Oprah, that left me a little time to run out to the parking lot to check my car. (Don't worry I have an aide in that class to help the special ed kids and she's an adult and completely capable of watching the children. The only requirement she had was that I check her car for a ticket too) I get to my car and sure enough there is a bright pink paper with "Salt Lake County Sherriff" on the back. I grab it and flip it over to read my offense. There was a list of possible offenses including overnight parking and not having a permit. The box that was checked however, was the "other" box. The offense? "Please check for dead cats."

Turns out the students who warned me of the ticket are enrolled in a criminal justice class and one aspect of that class is to patrol the teachers lot. After finding my car (stalkers!) and telling their teacher (the school resource officer) the cat story he approved the warning. So they knew all along what the "ticket" was about. (They also reminded me that my license plates expire next month.)

Do you Twitter?

2009-03-12T16:32:00.003-06:00

Some of you may know that I love watching Ellen DeGeneres. She's my girlfriend. Only not really cause you know...... But anways, she has been talking about twitter a lot recently and she is collecting followers on twitter. So I've been considering getting an account, purely because Ellen told me to. Do you people have twitter? I've looked around the site but I'm not REALLY sure how to work it. I'm not sure if this trend will stay but I'm thinking I may become a twitterer (tweeter? twizzle? Couldn't they come up with something easier to say?)

Parent Teacher Conferences

2009-03-07T07:45:00.004-07:00

Even though I am "just a substitute" I was asked by the school secretary to stay and sit at my teachers table for parent teacher conferences. The teacher I am covering for needed to be out of town so she couldn't go in like she originally planned and so since I know all of the kids and how they are doing and I am the one giving them their grades anyways...... I went. It made for 2 very long days but since they fed us before it was fine. I heard several funny and odd comments from parents and since I haven't updated my blog for awhile I thought you ought to hear them too.

One of the other teachers that I know, is a new teacher, and she happens to be just one year older than I am. She and I were standing outside the cafeteria waiting for the doors to open so that we could take our seats. It was getting close to time for the conferences to start and parents began lining the hall. One father kept looking at the other young teacher and myself. I thought he was just amazed that we both looked so young to be teachers. Finally the reason for his staring surfaced when he just blurted out "Which one of you two is the mom?!" He then picked for himself and asked me, "Are you the mom?" That's right. I'm a 22 year-old mother of a 23 year old. We laughed and explained that we were both just young teachers. He agreed that made much more sense.

I have one student who likes to argue with me no matter what I say. This frustrates me to no end. Especially since she was one of the first students I met before I started subbing at this school and I had planned on making her my go-to student. I quickly learned that wasn't going to work. I understand she has some home isssues, and she brought her neighbor to PTC's which I think is great that at least SOMEONE cares about her education. Well her neighbor happens to be the PTA president. She also seems to know a lot about this girls day to day activities. She knew all about me, plus some.... You see the student told this woman that I HIT HER! Now those of you that know my student teaching experience may think this is possible.... but I did NOT touch this student. I was furious. So there goes my letter of recommendation from the PTA president of that school. Even the teachers around me commented on what a weird experience that particular conference was.

I had a couple students whose parents didn't speak english and so the kids would translate what I was telling them. One students mother began talking to her and the student kept agreeing with her mother but then didn't ask me any questions from what her mom said. I finished the run down of her grade and asked if her mom had questions and she said, "Nope, but she wanted me to tell you that you have really pretty eyes." That was kind of random, but nice. So what did I say back? "Thanks, I grew them myself." Sometimes my oddness surprises even myself.

Settling in

2009-02-19T17:41:00.002-07:00

Brad and I aren't 100% moved into the new house yet, but we're loving the house so much! We love that we have our own walls and we can't hear our neighbors talk to each other, vacuum, fight, burp, watch tv, etc. It is going to be interesting to see how much money we can save up and we hope that in 18 months we can afford to have a place where at least SOME of our walls are our own.

We went to the new ward on Sunday and everyone was so friendly. We've already had neighbors call and drop off goodies and offer to help with anything. One lady called last week to write an article about us in their neighborhood newsletter. She asked me if I liked to read and when I told her yes she asked if I wanted to be in the book club. I was in book club up in Logan and I've missed it! So I said yes. She then informed me the meeting was in less than a week but that she'd drop off her copy of the book since she couldn't go. I was thinking I would read the book, but might not go to the meeting since I wouldn't know anyone there. She brought me the book and she even talked to someone about coming to pick me up and take me to the meeting. So I spent all my free time yesterday finishing the book and I'll go to the party tonight with some lady whose name I don't remember.

The book was The Secret Life of Bees. I loved it. If you want a good read, I'd suggest it. Now I really want to see the movie. It also offers good insight into the civil rights struggle so I'll probably put it on a list for extra credit reading for a history class! Have you read it? Did you love it?

cat killer

2009-02-05T20:44:00.002-07:00

How come when I walked out to my car tonight there was a cat sitting underneath my passenger side door? What is it about my little civic that just screams "commit cat suicide here". Don't worry. I saw it before I started my car so that cat will live another day.

Also, I talked to the ladies in the office at my apartment complex and the cat that died was a stray that usually sat by the hot tub to stay warm. I know it doesn't excuse the fact that it was a living being that is now no longer living.... but at least little Suzy isn't missing Felix at night.

Another death at Kearns High

2009-01-29T16:21:00.005-07:00

This death is much less serious and while it is sad it also is a little bit vomit-inducing...... so my pregnant friends may want to stop reading here if their gag reflexes are easily triggered.

About 2 days ago I was walking out to my car and I thought I saw something beneath it. I looked under from my side but couldn't see anything. It was cold and so I didn't want to walk around my car so I just got in and as I pulled away I looked back in my spot but there was nothing there. Strange. Yesterday was a smiliar experience. Today I stayed after school for awhile preparing some stuff so when I left the parking lot wasn't really as full so I walked around my car and looked under the car. Any guesses what I saw? (I hope Grandma Ginny isn't reading this....) I saw the head and the front paw of a dead, decomposing, cat. It was just hanging kind of behind my wheel! I was so grossed out and I didn't know what to do and even though I'm pretty sure I've driven with it there for awhile I couldn't make myself drive with it there again.

I first called Brad to find out what he thought I should do about it. He told me to just go home and he'd figure it out tonight. I then called my mom to tell her and she just laughed at me while I wretched just thinking about it. Neither of those responses were going to help me since I couldn't make myself get inside the car. Because there was the shooting at the school last week the parking lots have lots of police officers patroling around after school. So I decided that maybe I should ask a police officer what he thought I should do. There happened to be 2 Salt Lake County Sheriff's vehicles parked next to each other at the other end of the lot. So I walked down and they rolled down their window to see what I needed. I said to them "I have kind of an odd question/request?" The very nice policeman said "I doubt it's that strange. We hear really strange things." (I thought, "Don't speak so quickly mr. policeman.") So I said to the policeman, "What do you do if there is a dead cat hanging underneath your car?" They both just started laughing at me while I proceeded to laugh/cry/gag. They suggested I drive to Jiffy Lube to make them take care of it but decided that first they really wanted to look at the dead cat. They drove over to my car and then sat and poked it with their batons for awhile before they decided they might be able to get it out themselves. They had me pop my hood and they found where it was twisted up in my axle. Apparently the cat had gotten on my tire to stay warm and it didn't move when I started my car and it got sucked up into the axle when I backed away.
After half an hour of prodding with their batons, cutting with a pocket knife *gag* and lifting the car up on jacks so they could reach underneath the car......... they eventually freed the cat, who was frozen around my axle. In a way it was good that it was cold, the cat had no smell even though it had probably been there for a few days.

The police did admit that it was indeed a strange situation and they were not expecting that when I walked up. They also threatened to write me a ticket for being a cat killer so that they could get paid for doing my dirty work. I have a picture of the cat after they got it down.... but I probably shouldn't put it up on here because it might make some people cry. It actually didn't look too bad. But still! It was a dead and decomposing cat! Much thanks to Officers Wilkins and Adamson for dealing with my problems so I didn't have to!

25 things.

2009-01-26T18:57:00.002-07:00

Ashley tagged me on this post and I don't wanna pack.....

Rules: "Once you've been tagged you're supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person that tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to learn more about you." (I'm not tagging anyone..... but if you want to do it, it was a good way to waste several hours......)

1. I love to learn, especially about historical events or social issues. This is why I was a social studies major. My biggest problem is remembering things once I've learned them..... Some day I'll learn how to do that.

2. I love to travel. Part of that love goes back to my love of history. I love going to a place and learning about things that have happened there.

3. I hate standing in one place. If I have to be still I'd much rather sit. This is part of the reason I don't like to cook. Too much standing in one place.

4. I was born in Colorado but my family was just waiting for me to come so they could move to Utah. They left Colorado the day of my 6 week check-up. So when I'm famous and Colorado tries to claim me you will all know that my true "hometown" is Provo.

5. I finished the first grade at Caroline Brevard Elementary school in Tallahassee Florida. My family lived in Tallahassee for just under a year while my dad did a sabbatical at FSU.

6. I might be a legal midget. I'm not entirely sure to be honest. Some people say if you under 5 feet you are considered a legal midget, in which case I would be. The only reason this would matter is because people have told me I would qualify to get a handicap parking pass.

7. I lied on my drivers license and said that I was 5 foot because I don't want the debate of whether or not to get a handicap parking pass. I am capable of walking, so I will walk.

8. I kissed a boy when I was in kindergarten and my brother saw. My family has never let me forget it.

9. I think I'm funny. I feed off of people laughing at me. Sometimes people are laughing AT me but I can't tell so I just keep going...... so don't laugh at me unless I'm actually funny, it just encourages me.

10. I have really short legs. Everybody knows I'm short, but really my height deficiency is all in my legs. I have the torso of a normal sized person.

11. I collect best friends. I love having friends and I don't think you can have too many best friends. So if you are my friend chances are I've given you the title of "best friend from ____" at one point. This is why I didn't have bridesmaids. Too many best friends.

12. I'm pretty sure I survived my freshmen year of college eating only fruit snacks and easy mac. I've asked my roommates if I ate anything else and the only other thing we could think of was the occasional granola bar. No wonder I lost the freshmen 15 instead of gaining it. (I've found it since then though.....)

13. I love buying coffee table books. Especially ones with pictures of places I've traveled to.

14. My favorite television show when I was younger was "This Old House". I even told people I was going to be a carpenter when I grew up. I still love watching home decorating shows and dream of some day being able to decorate my own!

15. I worked in Alaska for a summer. I absolutely loved the experience even though it had it's moments that weren't too pleasant. I would totally live in Alaska during the summer, but I couldn't survive winters there.

16. I went to a concert with my family when I was probably about 7 years old. It was hosted by the local oldies station and it was a woodstock-esque concert. (It was actually called Live-stock) There were lots of crazies at that concert and that was the day I learned what french-kissing was.

17. My senior year of High School I was able to sing in Carnegie Hall with my school choir. I've also toured Europe with a band/choir performance group. Even after those opportunities I'm still not convinced I'm necessarily a good singer. Decent, yes. Good...... maybe.

18. I was once the primary chorister. Right after that in a new ward, they made me the ward choir director. Leading the primary and leading adults are very different callings that require very different skills. I was not qualified for either job, but I don't think anybody quit the church because of me...... that counts as succeeding right?

19. I graduated High School with a 4.0 gpa. I had a teacher who threatened to give me an A- just so that I wouldn't stress out about getting a 4.0. I cried. When it came time to apply for college I got the absolute minimum score to recieve my scholarship. I only scored moderately well on the ACT and so my gpa was my saving grace and that one A- would have been the difference between a full tuition and half tuition scholarship.

20. I thought maybe I only got good grades because I didn't push myself in high school, but I graduated college Magna Cum Laude. 3.81! Not bad for college.

21. My favorite colors are black and hot pink. I used these two colors for my wedding colors even though I got married in December. I don't like how these two colors have become Emo or whatever trend it is that uses black and pink with skulls. (even though I love pirates.....)

22. I love pirates. My favorite holiday is National Talk Like A Pirate Day. (sept. 19th) My first date was in celebration of NTLAPD. We dressed our dates up like pirates and then went to ARRRby's for dinner. After dinner we roasted SmARRRRR's and then watched hook. Sept. 19th is also my best friend from high schools birthday. Fitting, since my love for the golden age of pirates only grew while driving in her car, the green pearl, with her by my side.

23. Growing up my mom always made breakfast for our family and we always ate together. Tuesdays was pancake day, Thursday was french toast day, and Saturday was waffles. Every other day was cold cereal but she always had the table set and cereal ready to be served. Brad doesn't really eat breakfast so I haven't done the same but I plan on doing the same for my children.

24. I don't love vegetables. For most of my life if it was green I probably wouldn't eat it. I'm growing up now and can handle a larger number of veggies but I still don't really enjoy eating them.

25. I love my family. No matter what my brother says, I do look up to him. He's a very funny and completely random guy. Some day he's going to be great at whatever he decides to do. I have the smartest, prettiest, taller little sister. As I've grown up I've found that she is one of my best friends. I hope she doesn't hold it against me that I used to make her do everything for me.... I was just teaching her to serve others. My mom is my best friend that trumps all other best friends. (remember I have lots.....) I hope that some day I can be as good of a mom as she is. I wish I had known my older sister better before she passed away. There is only so much you can remember when you are 4 years old. But I bet she's somewhere painting beautiful pictures and making people smile.

I should be getting hazard pay

2009-01-21T15:38:00.004-07:00

Those of you who watch Utah's news religiously (I wouldn't blame you since I love Whit Johnson's smile....) might have heard about the lockdown that happened at Kearns High School today. There was an incident and a student was shot. It happened off campus and I was never in any danger. I don't want to perpetuate rumors but I want to say this: As a sub at a school that goes into lock-down things can be a little confusing and slightly scary. My first thoughts were that I couldn't believe no one told me there would be a drill that day. I then sensed the urgency in the principles voice as he continued making announcements about different codes and schedules and all this weird stuff. I normally have a teacher across the hall that helps me out with things but of course her class had gone to the computer lab. Looking out in the hall I began to see cards sliding out from under teachers doors. I realized if they had cards I probably had cards too so I found the firedrill packet and sure enough, inside were the instructions for all of the codes being announced.

Luckily I know the username and passwords to all of my teachers files and so I was able to get into her email and recieve the emails from the office as things were being passed down to the teachers. This all happened while I was in my prep period and so I had no students in the class and so I didn't have to worry about keeping anyone calm or entertained as they continued the lock-down. My biggest worry was what to do with myself in a classroom all by myself for 2 and a half hours. I had my sudoku book and so I sat in a corner and worked on sudoku until the lockdown ended and everyone was released.

So my friends, if you are subbing at a school you should make sure there is a way to be in contact with the office and you should find out where the emergency instructions are because you never know when you will need them.

vacuums

2009-01-20T22:48:00.002-07:00

I know I said I don't vacuum because of the noise. But I still like a clean floor. Brad vacuums every now and then. If it gets out of control I'll do it. But I honestly don't understand my upstairs neighbors. They are going to have to get new carpet soon I'm sure because they are wearing theirs out with their vacuum. They vacuum almost every other day. They also vacuum at ridiculous times. They just finished vacuuming around 10:20 tonight. The first week I started my student teaching they began vacuuming around midnight. I had been asleep but was so bugged that I got up and was getting presentable to go ask them to stop. By the time I put my shoes on they stopped. I was a little sad that I couldn't go stop them. (I have this thing about letting people know how I feel.... most of the time it's better if I don't, so I didn't) But yeah, 2 weeks from today we will be on our way out of this apartment and it can't come soon enough because I am so sick of hearing vacuums constantly above my head. Maybe it wouldn't bother me so much if I liked vacuums at all.

An update on the big move..... you forgot didn't you.....

2009-01-16T16:01:00.003-07:00

So some of you may think I moved in November. Probably because I told you I was going to. But I didn't. We got excited to leave our pot smoking neighbors but then there were some complications when Grandpa went to the doctor for his pre-mission checkup. But thankfully when Grandpa went back to the Doctor this Monday they gave him the clearance to head to Tokyo on February 2nd. So we ARE moving and it's going to be wonderful. So come visit any time after February 3rd!

Kids do the darndest things

2009-01-15T22:19:00.003-07:00

I am officially back at work. For those of you who know, I'm being a long term sub for a lady in my ward while she stays at home taking care of her brand new baby. She had him last night. One week over due. She kept working until last Friday (2 days past due) but I took over her classes this Monday. She has her classes so well planned and prepared that I hardly have to do anything. It is so much more relaxed than student teaching. PLUS I get paid! It's nice to feel like I am contributing to our family again.

In honor of being back in the school here is a couple of fun things that have happened the past couple of days:

On the way to the library for a group lesson the very last student thought he was all alone in the hall. Just as I rounded the corner I caught him looking at his reflection in the glass of a trophy case, brushing his hair to side, and giving himself an approving thumbs up.

Today as I was entering scores for the journal entries the students do to start class I was reading through a few of the entries. The classes are starting a unit on marriage and so the topic for the entry today asked about qualities they desired in a mate. One of the girls had written one thing down. "Robert Pattinson". I hope she is willing to compromise a little on that one.

Things I worry about- (with an update)

2009-01-08T21:20:00.003-07:00

So I've already compared myself to the crazy lady in Lemony Snickets but for some reason I have this feeling I should share some of the crazy things I do to prove to you all that I am indeed insane. So here is a list of some of the things I worry about, things I'm afraid of and/or some of the crazy things that I have actually said out loud that I should have just kept inside my little worried head. Some of these you will probably recognize from random posts and some of them you might just already know about me.

I worry about having diseases. Some people call this hypochondria I call this being prepared for the worst. I can't prove that my headaches aren't a brain tumor and neither can you. Unless of course you have an MRI machine; in which case go ahead and prove it cause it will probably make me feel better and make the ulcer that I got while worrying about it go away.

I am afraid of loud noises. This is a pretty large category that has manifested itself in many different ways....

I don't enjoy vacuuming because it's too loud. Honest. It's not just an excuse for why my house is never clean, I really don't like it.
I don't use a blender even though I LOVE milkshakes and smoothies, I'd rather go without, than use a blender. (But anyone else can make them for me I just have to able to leave the kitchen when the blender goes off...)
I am also afraid of wind storms and thunder. Not because of the damage they can do, but because of the noise. If I was afraid of the damage they can do I would be afraid of lightening, not thunder. But I actually like to look at lightening, especially if it's pictures of lightening or lightening on tv where I don't have to listen to thunder shake the house afterwords. This is where the "things I've said" part comes in. One time my roommates and I were visiting some friends when the weather started getting a little choppy outside. The clouds got all dark and it started to rain a little. Instead of saying we should go home before it started to storm, or before it started to rain too hard I said "We should go before it gets too windy." Since we don't live in Tornado Alley I think the chances of it really getting "too windy" for us to safely drive the 4 blocks back to our apartment in our small, wind resistant car, were slim to none. But I still worried about it.

I worry when anyone talks about being prepared for the future. Utah is overdue for that big scary earthquake but I shut down if I try to think about preparing for it. Food storage? what? So if you really like me and want me to survive a disaster you should probably prepare me a disaster kit. (side note, if we do end up moving into Brads grandparents house I think we'll be ok because they are good people who have food storage and all that kind of stuff... So we're good for the next 18 months while they will be gone)

I worry about getting rid of things I'll need later. I didn't live through the depression but I tend to hoard things like I did. example: I had a panic attack (overexageration? maybe...) in 4th grade when we played a class game of Oregon Trail. They told us we could only pack like 150 lbs of belongings and gave us a list of all of our belongings to pack from and what they weighed. I really struggled leaving behind my imaginary grandmothers pump organ. I was sentimentally attached to something written down on a piece of paper that didn't really exsist. And if that wasn't bad enough I had to leave things like pots and pans that really could have been useful too!

I'm sure there's others. I know there are lots more but I'm starting to feel a little self concious about how much I've shared already. Plus I can't think of anymore off the top of my head. Except for my pogonophobia.

*UPDATE* - My mother just reminded me that I quit using our treadmill because I couldn't stand how loud it was. So because of my stupid problem with noise I'm also getting fat.

I'm a horrible stalker

2009-01-08T12:16:00.002-07:00

Alright, that's it. My tracker is broken. I now know that at least some of the people I stalk on here also read my blog (thanks by the way for commenting so I could have proof of that) but my tracker still says nobody has been to the site for over 2 weeks. So I think I'll get a different one. Does anyone have any ideas? Do you have a tracker you like? I know it's not important but something inside of me wants to know.....

I'm watching you.

2009-01-07T12:28:00.002-07:00

So I have a tracker on my blog. It tells me when people look at my blog and how long they stay and blah blah blah. I honestly don't really know how to use it to its full extent but there is one feature I understand. The day by day counter. It tells me how many times a day people look at my blog. According to this feature nobody has looked at my blog since just after Christmas. I'm pretty sure I got a comment during that time so I think it is lying to me, but I'm not sure..... Apparently people are sick of reading "year in review" blogs and so they have avoided mine.

Also, back when people looked at my blog I had hits from Africa and Europe! I wish I knew who those people were or why they were reading my blog.......

My year in review.

2009-01-05T20:28:00.003-07:00

Many of you know that I love Dave Barry. Dave Barry is a syndicated columnist from the Miami Herald that writes hilarious articles and books. Every year Dave Barry writes what is called his "year in review." If you haven't read his review of 2008 already you should. Unfortunately 2008 wasn't a really funny year, what with the economy failing and politics dominating the news... but he still manages to make it funny. You can read that article here.

The way that Dave Barry writes his year in review is that he breaks down each month and what happened in it. I wanted to do that with my life as my little "Christmas card" "new years update" or "valentines letter" as it happens sometimes in my family. I wrote January's paragraph back in November and then realized that nothing really happened in my life for a few months after that. You know it's true because I didn't start my blog until April. I had nothing to blog about before that.

So here is a small recap of some of our favorite parts of 2008 not in month form...

We finally moved into our first apartment together. As soon as we were done unpacking we had to repack to have the place sprayed for cockroaches. Who knew cockroaches lived in the frozen north of Logan. I guess if they could survive a nuclear holocaust they can live in Logan. That part wasn't our favorite...... but being married was!
I was primary chorister for 4 primary children. I sang some great solos.
Brad got a great job that he loved working for Hawkeye Technology.
I lost my phone twice and found it twice. Both times it was found in a pile of snow and both times the phone continued to work after a little warming up.
We drove to Vegas for one night to see Spamalot then turned around and came home the next morning. Worth it!
I started my blog!
I took and passed the 2 praxis exams I was required to take. One of which I passed so well that I got a certificate saying I got in the top 15% of anyone who had ever taken it!
I got a 4.0 Spring semester. (Fall semester didn't count towards gpa points since it was student teaching but I'm sure I would have aced it too!)
We got to go to Florida as "chaperones" for Brad's younger sister and her friend. I rode a really big scary rollercoaster and didn't cry!
I joined an awesome lunch group.
We went to the Shakespeare festival and to Tuahacan with my mom and sister and saw lots and lots of fun plays.
We saw "She Loves Me" and "Into The Woods" at the Hale Theaters and "Sweeney Todd" at the mental institute ampitheater in Provo.
Lots of my cousins got married. (Andrea, Jordan, Kate, Logan, Paige, Keith....... did I miss any?)
We moved to West Jordan so that I could student teach at Bennion Jr. High.
We got approved for government subsidized housing so that we could save up a little bit of money and maybe someday own our own home!
We went to Oktoberfest and I rode a zipline and didn't cry!
I saw an original copy of the Declaration of Independance.
I spent an entire day teaching about the geography and history of pirates. I also spent an entire day teaching about Alaska. Another day I didn't speak to my students except with sign language and they paid attention and got involved. I loved those days.
I finished student teaching and I still liked teaching, considering I was in a middle school I think that's an accomplishment!
I graduated from college Magna Cum Laude!
I was ward choir director and I conducted the entire Christmas program and even managed to make it a little bit my own by adding the closing song in sign language.

It was a busy year with a few low points as well (besides the roaches those aren't listed), but we had lots of fun and we look forward to 2009 and hope that it will be just as great, if not better.

Graduation Photos

2008-12-30T17:13:00.008-07:00

I graduated back on the 13th of this month but since I forgot my camera I didn't have my pictures right away. So after a long wait here are some photos from the great event. Brads grandmother took photos in the spectrum and maybe someday I'll get those from her. It was a great day and yes, I did wear my pink shoes from my wedding even though it was snowing very heavily that morning. I have just one quick little story from graduation that needs to be shared because it was one of the worst/best moments of my day.

I actually had a graduation day miracle happen. As I've said, it snowed several inches that day and I was more concerned with looking good than being practical. I didn't have any pockets in my pants and the pockets in my coat lead straight into the lining. Brad held my phone for me during the ceremony and right before he handed it to me he decided to turn on the volume on the ringer. He doesn't usually have the sound on his own phone but he turned mine on. As I was walking to the car I kept thinking I should hand my phone to Brad so I can focus on not falling down while walking in these ridiculous shoes. But I didn't listen to the prompting like Brad did. I realized my phone was gone once we got to the restaurant for lunch. I had to get something out of the trunk so I was really hoping it was in the trunk. It wasn't. After lunch we went back to the parking lot and retraced my steps. Luckily they had not come in to plow the lot yet, but there had been a lot of traffic so we weren't sure it would be safe even if we did find it. Brad called it once we were to the area he had been parked in. Amazingly enough it began ringing from under a pile of snow. I'm so glad he decided to turn the ringer on because we wouldn't have seen it otherwise. It has a little scratch on one corner, but otherwise survived it's fall and the subsequent hour or so in the snow. I'm so glad because even though it is just a thing, and it can be replaced, I felt very lost without it.

Flashback Friday: Christmas traditions

2008-12-19T20:45:00.007-07:00

My mom has a wonderful Christmas countdown calendar that I love. I don't have a picture of it but you probably all know the kind of calendar I'm talking about. It has a tree in the middle and every day as Christmas gets closer you get to take a little ornament off of the pocket for the day and pin it on the tree. In each pocket there was always something written on a little slip of paper to do that day. Things as simple as "go look at Christmas lights" or "attend the High School Christmas Choir concert" or maybe as big as "make Christmas bread for neighbors" which takes all day. When people talk about having Christmas traditions I sometimes have a hard time thinking of what my family does as a tradition. But really every day during the month had a small tradition of it's own. We could always use the same slips of paper because we would do the same things every year.

My favorites include the ones I listed above.
I love driving around looking at Christmas lights. With the economy the way it is I don't think people will be able to really do this as much anymore and that makes me sad. Perhaps when I have kids I will start the tradition of going to the light shows like they have in Willard Bay and Spanish Fork so they will still get to see Christmas lights.

Another thing that we would do every year is make graham cracker houses. I was lucky enough to have family close by while I went to school in Logan that have the same traditions so I could continue this fun activity even though I didn't live at home for the whole month of December. I missed the parties this month and that makes me sad :( But just knowing graham cracker houses are being made makes me feel happy.
Here is one I made with a friend 2 years ago. (really I made it, he just ate graham crackers and frosting) It is a Church with stained glass windows and a gingerbread preacher. It also has a duck pond with a cute little duck in front. (ok the friend made the duck... but that's all the help I had) Last years graham cracker house was a southern plantation but because we used those yummy piroette (sp?) cookies for posts it got eaten before we could take a picture......

I've also made 8 loaves of my moms Christmas bread this year. (I failed at the first 4 but succeeded at the next 8!) I hope to keep these traditions alive and well with my family as it forms.

If you have any great Christmas traditions you think I should add to my calendar leave a message and let me know. There is always room for more fun!

Graduation Video

2008-12-18T11:50:00.002-07:00

Feel badly that you couldn't come to the graduation? Want to feel like you were there? Well you can watch the video here. Or for those of you who don't like clicking on links..... the address is http://www.usu.edu/provost/commencement/archives.cfm . Just click on Undergraduate ceremony video.

Don't want to watch the whole thing and just want to hear them say my name and watch me walk down the plank shaking hands? Well then click on link and download the video then zoom ahead to 53:38 in the video and you will hear them say my name! Woot Woot!

Pictures will come shortly. I forgot my camera so I used my mother-in-laws and since she had finals this week she's been a bit busy so I don't have them yet.

Graduation

2008-12-12T16:59:00.002-07:00

I graduate from college tomorrow. Whoa. I kind of don't know how I got this far, but I'm glad I did. I have been having some thoughts and they wont seem related at first but stay with me, they do relate to me graduating I promise.

Those of you who really know me know that I worry about EVERYTHING. Ridiculous things. Have you seen the movie "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events"? There is a woman on that movie that is just like me. She at one point warns the children not to stand in front of the refrigerator because it could tip over and squish them. What are the odds that would happen? Slim, but she worries about it. I would too. This worrying is really what causes my hypochondria as well.

Now I know that driving in crummy weather is a worry for most people, but I worry a lot. In fact today I had thoughts that I would just not walk at graduation so that my family wouldn't drive to Logan in the snow tomorrow morning. They would not like that, so we're going. So to ease my over active mind will you all pray that my family will be able to drive safely in the snow and that I will not give myself an ulcer over things beyond my control. Thank you.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2008-12-11T10:46:00.002-07:00

Today is my mom's 22nd anniversary of her 30th Birthday. (I wrote a post about how great she is back on mothers day. You can read it here.) Now some of you may ask, "If you are going to celebrate the anniversary of a birthday why pick 30?" You may think, "30 is close to 29, why not just go one year lower and be in your 20's again?!" There are a number of reasons for why she does this. The first reason is because she tells people if you are going to stay one age forever make it believable. She figures everyone says they are 29 so who is going to question the fact that she says she is 30. But as I got to thinking I figured out the real reason she says this. You see the year she turned 30 must have been a great year for her. I can think of the obvious reason why that would have been her favorite birthday.

She had just given birth to an angel child and her life was complete. I made her 30th birthday so happy and memorable that she decided to celebrate that year over and over again.

Sorry little sister, she didn't pick 34 so we know who her favorite child is.

Subbing

2008-12-09T19:17:00.001-07:00

I'm officially signed up to be a sub now. Anyone in Granite school district want a day off?

My week off

2008-12-08T09:43:00.002-07:00

I know you are dying to know what I'm going to do this week since I have no school but I don't graduate until Saturday. Well so far I've spent last night and this morning reading Dave Barry columns over at davebarry.com. I love Dave Barry and I just wanted you all to know that it is possible to find all sorts of his columns online. Really I do have plans to actually do things this week but for now this is what I'm doing.

Flashback Friday: My day after Thanksgiving tradition

2008-11-28T19:58:00.004-07:00

For Thanksgiving Brad and I went to his sisters house in Price. It was a wonderful day and the food was great. It was weird not being surrounded by hundreds of people eating in a church gym (I have a large extended family.....) but it was nice to just sit back and watch a Dirty Jobs marathon with Brad and his dad while other people worked all day on food :)

Since I spent Thanksgiving day with Brads family and since Brad had to work today I stayed the night last night at my mom's house and we decided to start a new tradition of our own. Last year the day after Thanksgiving was the day that I went through the Logan temple in preparation to be married. So today my mom and I went to the Provo temple to celebrate that anniversary. We've decided that we will try to go every year after Thanksgiving to celebrate the spiritual things that we are grateful for. It's just may be one of my favorite holiday traditions.

Flashback Friday: Belt Buckles

2008-11-21T20:35:00.004-07:00

One thing I've learned while teaching is that you just have to be yourself because the students see through your lies. Also, if you have little things that the kids can relate to they really enjoy that. I have a couple of little hobbies that the kids have really enjoyed. If you recall back on the 19th of September I taught my classes a lesson on pirates. Since then I've had a student bring me copies of pirate books she has collected and I even got a pirate themed thank you note from another student. The other thing that kids have really enjoyed is my belt collection. My brother started wearing belt buckles when I was a senior in high school and I wanted to be cool like him so he bought me my first belt buckle for Christmas. I continued to collect them whenever I went on trips or for important holidays (I have a lovely skull and crossbones buckle from TLAPD). When I worked at JC Penney my freshman year of college I amassed a large number of belts, mostly belts that had been separated from pants that were then either sold or stolen. Since I began wearing belt buckles several of the kids have come to school early to show me their belt buckles or to check if I have a buckle that day.

Today was my last Friday of student teaching. I wear jeans on Fridays so I decided that today was the day for me to wear my ultimate belt buckle. It is actually the buckle my brother gave me back in 2003. The kids loved it. So here is a picture of me wearing that ultimate buckle to a Keith Urban concert back in 2005.

Self Check out

2008-11-21T20:13:00.002-07:00

I hate it when people use the self-check out lane to fulfill their deep childhood desires of using the beeping scanners. If you have an entire basket full of junk, it's not going to be faster to use the self check out. It's just not.

Streeeeeeeeeechin it out.

2008-11-17T21:51:00.002-07:00

I know I already posted today but I've been feeling sick today and I've watched the news about a million times and I gotta say...... I'm already sick of rivalry week. I'm sorry, I know most of my friends have strong feelings one way or the other but I really just don't care. Remember when everyone was complaining about how the candidates for president began campaigning way too early? Well I feel like that, only I don't care about the football game so it's even worse. I can give all sorts of statistics on the two teams now, even though I haven't watched a single game. Even the weather has found ways to talk about the game........ One more reason I'll be glad this week is over.

My hubby

2008-11-17T18:10:00.003-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, and a bunch of fun things have happened. Once I have all my pictures from the fun events I'll be sure to post about everything. Probably the most significant thing that has happened since I last posted was Brads birthday. We come from families where birthdays aren't extravagant and so we kept things pretty simple but we still had a good time with family. I sure do love my husband and I can't wait until I'm done with school so he can get back to school during the day so we can see each other in the evenings. We may even start eating dinner again. It's been a rough semester with not a lot of time to ourselves but it's almost over! So here are five facts about Brad for all of you.1- I call him Muffin. I wrote a whole blog about it in fact. You can read it here.

2- He peels his bananas from the wrong end. Ok fine, there is no wrong way, but still I'd never seen anyone peel their bananas like he does until I met him.

3- He is very patient and loving.

4- He is so good with children. I love watching him with his niece and nephew. Someday he will make a wonderful father.

5- He picks up on what I need and just does it. From helping with laundry to fixing the drain, he just gets it done.

Also, he is such a goofball as can be witnessed in this engagement photo in which he is biting my arm....... The photographer definitely didn't ask him to do that.

my flaw (one of them)

2008-11-04T16:24:00.005-07:00

I get so frustrated by the simplest things. And it turns out I hold grudges sometimes. I don't like that I do it. I know that good people are patient and forgiving but I guess I'm not a good person. Sometimes getting my frustrations out makes me feel better about myself..... so if you don't mind, I'm going to tell you the completely insignificant things that have bothered me lately. If you agree with me that these things are annoying let me know and I"ll feel better, if you think I'm ridiculous, don't let me know because then I'll just be bugged again...........

Stupid thing #1: (Brad would kill me if he knew I was still thinking about this.......)
So a couple weekends ago we went to Vegas to go to my cousins wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was very well decorated. It almost made me want to do it all over again so I could use the same decorations. So we went to the Temple ceremony and were able to congratulate them after it was over. Then we went to a church where they did a ring ceremony for those family members who weren't able to be at the temple. Afterwords they let everyone who was there for that get in line to congratulate them. I happened to be second to last in that line. I was standing in front of the first groomsman in line when the photographer came to the people in front of me and told them when they had finished that there was going to be pictures. She then told me and my uncles family that we would have to get out of line so they could take family pictures. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? There were 2 more people and she's going to kick us out of line? I shouldn't care. I got to give them hugs after the actual wedding. But I had just stood in line to congratulate them and she is going to tell me I can't? Even after we got out of line she didn't start taking pictures for awhile. So if you read this new cousin-in-law, congratulations and I'll give you a hug the next time I see you, and I hated your photographer. Thank you Ashley for working with me so well for my wedding photos.

Stupid thing #2:
I received a scholarship back in April from the University. It was a really rushed process to get the scholarship and I ended up writing multiple letters in one week and talking to the vice provost several times about all of the requirements for the thank you letter that is sent to the donor of the scholarship money. We were supposed to send a picture but when I emailed to find out the specifications on the photo I was told that someone had already taken care of my picture for me. She gave me the name of the person and I just figured it was someone from the college since they had a photo of me from a scholarship I'd received a couple years before. Well today I got an email from the same woman who told me my photo was taken care of asking me if I ever sent in a photo. If she seriously has been sitting around waiting for me to do something she told me not to do........She told me I can come to her office and she'll take one. I wrote back a really informal response basically saying that she told me I didn't need one and I don't live in Logan but I told her that I can email a photo if she will tell me what size and format she wants. I also said that if that wouldn't work that I have a sister who lives in Logan and people say we look alike so if needed I would send her to have her picture taken.

Stupid thing #3:
I was just told that I have to buy my own honors cords for graduation? Is that true? LAME.
(clarification: It's not just that I have to pay for them but I have to find them on my own and buy them through a whole different site because the book store doesn't sell them)

Ok, I feel better. Thank you.

Flashback Friday: Halloween

2008-10-31T18:55:00.006-06:00

I am visiting my mom tonight since I had no school to teach. I voted and then we went to lunch. When we got home we were talking about how I sometimes like my own writing and she told me she missed my flashback friday posts. I guess I just get so busy that I haven't put a lot of effort into blogging regularly. So we went to the basement and dug out the old photo albums and had my brothers girlfriend judge all the pictures of my past halloween costumes and pick the cutest.

So here you go. Now I'm off to watch Sweeney Todd for Halloween! Happy Halloween everybody!

random collection of thoughts

2008-10-27T17:29:00.005-06:00

I have a lot on my mind right now. I really should be entering scores but I am feeling sort of A.D.D. right now so I'd rather post about all the things on my mind.

First off...... I totally won the drawing on that meal blog. I get a quick stir pitcher from pampered chef! I'm really excited because I really have been wanting one for awhile now.

Next, I've officially received word that one of my students has found my blog. She's a T.A. in one of my 7th grade classes....... I should have never taught her about google images. She googled my name and found the blog. I really don't care though. I wonder if any of my other students read this........... I can't ask otherwise they'd all look for it. Meh.

Third, I'm kind of bugged today because one of my teachers told me that I needed to stick to my friends at home and not care if the kids are my friends. She said "I know it's important to you that the kids are your friends......." I'M NOT FRIENDS WITH MY STUDENTS. She has not been in my classes while I teach, except for today while we played a game of jeopardy. I am a friendly person but that does not mean that I seek friendship from my friends. I am feeling more and more like the teachers I work with think less of me and I can't figure out what I've done to change that. If you didn't read my post titled "My Michael Scott Moment" you should. Notice in that post that I never once said I wanted to be friends with my students. I just don't see why they can't like my class and me and still respect me. I don't want to hang out with my students after class and I honestly don't care what they tell their friends about the class, but why can't they be happy to come to my class?

Fourth, our housing situation is currently on hold. I saw a bunch of family and friends at a wedding this last weekend and everyone was so excited for me so I thought I'd let people know that we may still be moving but it is currently on hold while our grandfather takes care of some medical issues. He is in our prayers and while we are looking forward to moving and being able to save money on housing, we are more concerned for our grandparents well-being so we hope that things are taken care of and all cleared up.

Also, I am sick of coughing. I don't really like sleeping with the humidifier on and I hate how fuzzy my teeth get when I suck on cough drops all day.

meal blog

2008-10-20T18:14:00.003-06:00

So I know that I have already posted this (I'm sure you noticed, cause you are all faithful readers......) But I really wanna win the quick stir pitcher from this site so I'm posting it again.

If you have ever had a hard time deciding what to make for dinner, there is a new blog for you: http://mealtimehelp.blogspot.com You'll find simple meal ideas, a place to share your favorite dinner time meals and maybe learn a trick or two for old time favorites. There will also be monthly giveaways. You'll always have an answer to the question "What's for dinner?"

So check out the blog, but don't enter cause I wanna win........ ohok fine go ahead and enter.

It comes ALIVE at night!!!

2008-10-19T09:22:00.003-06:00

No this post is not about a scary Halloween experience. The title was however my attempt at making it seem that way. No, this post is about the joys of living in an apartment complex, and by joys I mean the stupid things that people do that make it so that no one in their right mind wants to stay in an apartment complex for their whole lives.

Brad and I love our apartment. It's a cute one bedroom place with it's own washer dryer and a dishwasher! That's 3 steps above the last place we lived. It's new, and it's close to work and school. On paper it's also a smoke free environment. I say on paper because as far as I can count there are 2 other apartments in my building where people don't smoke. Those 2 happen to belong to people in my ward. Even though these people face eviction for smoking they do it openly. I finally had enough when it went from cigarette smoke to marijuana smoke and I told the managers and I even had my first experience calling the cops. Don't think I'm little miss tattle tale either...... I just don't want to pay for air conditioning when I could open my door and let in the nice late summer breeze at night, but I'm not going to open the door to marijuana smoke, it gives me headaches. As far as I can tell neither going to the managers nor calling the cops did any good because every day there are people sitting out on their balconies or in the stairwell smoking.

The first day we lived here our neighbor from downstairs came up to introduce himself to us. We thought that was really nice, except he continued to inform us that he has a party every weekend and we should let him know if they are too loud. The noise from his parties has never been TOO bad, but now that I've called the cops on them for the marijuana I'm afraid to ever go down there. And judging from the quantities of alcohol that he carries in every Friday afternoon I'd rather avoid the party anyways......... Even our non-smoking church going neighbors upstairs sometimes vacuum at one in the morning. I got all dressed to go ask them to please wait till morning when it finally stopped. This past weekend we can't tell where the noise comes from, I think it's the apartment that shares a back wall with ours. People come outside every night around midnight and start yelling to each other. Even with all windows and doors shut I can still make out the words they are saying. It is starting to get old which is why I'm so glad to share this news with all my friends out there................... WE'RE MOVING AGAIN!

Grandma and Grandpa D have been asked to go on a mission ASAP and they asked us if we would watch their house for them. SURE! It's a beautiful house and we are feeling so blessed to have the opportunity to stop paying rent and to stop having noisy neighbors so we can save up our money for our own house someday! Because the mission call hasn't worked like most normal mission calls they aren't exactly sure when they leave. As soon as they find out we will be putting in our notice here and praying that our contract sells so we can move there with no further obligations here. Once we move anyone can come visit us because we'll have more spare guest rooms than we'll know what to do with!

I'm excited if you can't tell from the number of exclamation points I've used........

My Michael Scott moment.......

2008-10-09T21:53:00.004-06:00

Once a week all the student teachers in the Salt Lake area get together to provide support to one another while we struggle through our student teaching. There are some student teachers in the group who admit to struggling while building relationships with the students and it got me thinking.....

On an episode of 'The Office,' Michael Scott is quoted as saying "Would I rather be feared or be loved? Both, I want people to be afraid of how much they love me." Sometimes I feel like this. How come I have to make the students fear me to respect me? When I tell people that the students really like my class, and seem to enjoy me as a teacher, they act as though I must have no control over my class, and my students must not be learning. Why can't the students enjoy me as a teacher and still respect me?

I honestly feel like they do.

I've had this internal struggle before. While growing up I had some really good Young Women's leaders. The girls in my ward built relationships with these women and trusted them with our deepest teenage secrets and in return they shared their love and advice with us. Because we had a FRIENDSHIP (that's really what it was, it was more than a teacher/student relationship) we called these women by their first name. It was suggested that the girls in the ward were not showing respect to these women because we didn't call them by "Sister.........." I honestly do not feel like this showed any lack of respect towards these women. The women that I knew who were lovely women but did not share this relationship were refered to as "Sister .......... " Sure I respected those other women but I didn't care for them the way I cared for my first name basis leaders. So is it impossible to like someone and still respect them? I don't think so.

So why does everyone freak out when I suggest that my students like me AND respect me?

Tagged

2008-10-07T18:55:00.026-06:00

GOOGLE GAME

This is how the game works: Use Google image search to answer each question. Then, out of ONLY the first page of results, choose your favorite or most random image. Then tag some people to do it!! :)

MY AGE:

PLACE I'VE BEEN TO:

PLACE I WANT TO VISIT:

FAVORITE PLACE

FAVORITE OBJECT

FAVORITE FOOD

FAVORITE ANIMAL

FAVORITE COLOR

BIRTH PLACE

CURRENT PLACE OF RESIDENCE

PETS

PAST LOVE

BEST FRIEND

NICKNAME

FIRST NAME

MIDDLE NAME

LAST NAME

BAD HABIT

FIRST JOB

GRANDMOTHER'S NAME

COLLEGE DEGREE

WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW

I don't tag anyone because this took me forever to finish. But it was fun, so I think if you are bored you should try a few of these things on your own.

Something I learned...... when you google image my husbands name the first picture that comes up is my cousin.....

The condo

2008-10-06T16:27:00.005-06:00

I wont title this flashback Friday because it is Monday and that would be a lie. Plus all I've done lately is flashbacks because I don't have time to write except on the weekends. But I thought today I would tell you all about my weekend. My grandmother has a timeshare at the Island Park Resort in Idaho and so we go up there for a weekend at the beginning of every October. So on Friday we were able to leave as soon as Brad got off work and drive up, stopping at my cousins reception in Idaho Falls, and arrive at the condo around 11. We spent most of Saturday in Yellowstone playing and hiking and then Sunday we were able to kick back and relax, listen to a little conference and feed some ginormous fish. I love going up and I love the feeling in Island Park. There are so many memories that I have up there, and I look forward to it every year. I could probably write almost 20 flashback posts about it since we go every year, but I wont. Some of you that read this have come with my family to the condo before and you know that it is one of my most favorite places in the whole world. So now you can enjoy a nice picture of Brad, Erin (my sister) and I at Old Faithful. This picture was snapped online from the webcam that is located in a tree near the geyser. I know we're small but that really is us.

Flashback Friday: 4th ward girls

2008-09-27T11:48:00.009-06:00

I grew up in a great neighborhood. I always had a lot of friends to play with growing up. Yesterday I had the opportunity to get together for dinner with 4 other girls that I grew up with. Some of these girls hadn't seen each other since we graduated over 4 years ago. When we were younger we had the tradition of eating at Brick Oven every year for Jessica's birthday. Since her birthday happens to be coming up this next week we decided we should all meet at Brick Oven to celebrate and just enjoy each others company.

Since this is a flashback post I figured I ought to have a picture of us when we were youngsters, so here are a few that include 4 of the 5 of us at my 6th birthday party.

This is Jessica P, me, Becca K and Tabitha B.
(Becca is busy being preggers in Rexburg so she couldn't come to dinner.)

This is Tabitha B, Becca J, Jessica P, Kayla B, me, Nate (playing my jumpstick like a flute), Beth T, Katie T, and Becca K all posing with the gifts I received for my 6th birthday.

Now here are the 5 of us all growed up!

Here's Tabitha B, Katie T (now C), Jessica P, Caroline W, and me.

Man they all grew up lookin' good..... I should have done my hair so I could look like I fit in. They are great girls and it was so good to see them all again. I can't wait to get together and have another girls night soon! Oh and Caroline if you feel bad I'll find an embarrassing photo of you to add cause you know I have them!

Chinese food

2008-09-26T13:01:00.004-06:00

Last night before Brad fell asleep he said the most random thing. Right before we drifted off to sleep he said, "I hope that when you are pregnant you crave Chinese food." No, I'm not pregnant, this isn't how I'd announce that I was, that is what makes this statement so random. I told him if he wants Chinese we can get Chinese. He said he wanted it every day so he hoped I craved it.

I'm going out to eat with a bunch of friends tonight (it will be the subject of my flashback friday when I write it...) so Brad is going to get himself some chinese.

Parent/Teacher conferences

2008-09-24T22:28:00.004-06:00

I just finished my first day of Parent/Teacher conferences from the other side of the table. It's so interesting to me to see the parents who are upset about an A- and then have the next parent be ecstatic about a B. The kids are all so different and of course the same goes for parents. Even though I didn't get home till almost 8 tonight, I still loved it. I loved that the kids were so excited to introduce me to their parents, and I loved that the parents seemed comfortable with me even though I have the dreaded title of........... STUDENT TEACHER! The title really does frighten some, and brings up painful memories for many others, but I hope that I will be able to reverse that stereotype and I will be able to reach these kids!

Did I mention that I'm loving it?

I honestly thought the middle schoolers would eat me alive. I was so worried. But tonight I feel like I would take a job in a middle school in a heart-beat. So if you have a job in a middle school to offer me........

meal blog

2008-09-22T17:19:00.002-06:00

So my sister-in-law has started a new blog where she has recipes for food that is easy to make and doesn't include ridiculous ingredients. So you all should check it out if you are ever looking for a quick and easy meal. Here is her little shpeal and if you want to link to it and post this little blurb yourself, feel free.

If you have ever had a hard time deciding what to make for dinner, there is a new blog for you: http://mealtimehelp.blogspot.com You'll find simple meal ideas, a place to share your favorite dinner time meals and maybe learn a trick or two for old time favorites. There will also be monthly giveaways. You'll always have an answer to the question "What's for dinner?" Please post this on your own blog to share this great help with others.

Flashback Friday: AAAAARRRRRRRRRR!

2008-09-19T15:24:00.004-06:00

As many of you know, today is my favorite holiday. Today is International Talk like a Pirate day. I wont type this entire blog in pirate however, because many of you wont read it until tomorrow and then you'd have to translate it back into Landlubber English to tell your friends how funny my blog is. I began celebrating TLAPD back in high school when I first read the Dave Barry article explaining this new holiday. I don't remember when my love of all things pirate began. I'm proud to announce however that it was before Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom began their pirating careers. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the movies, but I'm not just a fairweather fan that only likes pirates because of 2 highly attractive men. So what I'd like to do now is share with you my very first TLAPD celebration which needs to be remembered for many reasons: First it was the first time I actively celebrated the holiday, though it always had a little spot in my heart even before it became an actual holiday and secondly it was my first date and third of all it was one of the best dates in the history of dating.

The plan started mid-september my junior year of high school when my friend Kate and I decided in our freshman biology class that we needed to get more people involved in the celebration of pirates. Even though I had been 16 for several months and therefore able to ask on dates, or to be asked on dates, I had still not gone on my first date. We decided the best solution for this would be to plan a large gathering of pirate appreciators in the form of a big group date. We asked our victims....... err um, dates and we met at Kates house that Friday night. We proceeded to draw full mustache and goatee pirate facial hair on our dates. Even a few of the wenches had some curly whiskers (drawn on of course!). We then took our dates for a fine meal at ARRRRby's. We dined with a few members of the ARRmy as well, unplanned but convieniant. As we drove to Arby's my ships crew, (consisting of my date and Kate and her date) came upon a red light. The ship next to us contained a single lass. Kates date leaned out of the vehicle and tapped on the window of said ship. The female occupant was slightly terrified and rolled the window down just to be told to walk the plank. After dinner we went back to Kates home to roast SmAAARRRR's and watch Hook.

It doesn't sound like much but since it was in celebration of my favorite holiday it was a blast, like unto the blast of a cannon. So next year when you are wishing that there was a holiday to decorate for between labor day and halloween don't forget my favorite holiday; International Talk Like a Pirate day.

Tagged

2008-09-19T15:01:00.003-06:00

Four random things I love about my husband:
1. We have the same sense of humor.
2. He tells me how he feels instead of suffering through things he doesn't enjoy.
3. He loves plays and musicals.
4. He doesn't pretend that he has a full head of hair. He's going bald and he knows it and doesn't care.

Four jobs I've had:
1. Unpaid teacher- Salt Lake
2. IT Computer Lab Consultant- Utah State
3. JC Penney- Logan
4. Glorified babysitter- Provo (that's right I haven't had very many paying jobs... so what?!)

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Princess Bride
2. The Emperors New Groove
3. Pirates of the Caribbean
4. Better off Dead

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Heroes
2. The Office
3. Lost
4. Project Runway (I could name like a million more...... I'm a tv addict)

Four places I have been:
1. Rothenburg ob de Tauber, Germany
2. Champerey, Switzerland
3. New York, New York
4. Banff, Canada

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Candy
2. Candy Corns
3. Candy Canes
4. Syrup

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Switzerland (I can never get enough of that place)
2. Mt. Rushmore (I know it's lame, you don't need to tell me, but I've never been ok!)
3. Greece
4. Boston

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Graduating
2. Getting a job (hopefully)
3. Being that much closer to having Brad done with school and getting settled.
4. Making new friends in Salt Lake.

Four people I tag: (Because you all said you read my blog)
1. Ann Porter
2. Kirsten Krason
3. Celeste Porter (soon to be Hathaway)
4. Lauren Burtenshaw (you didn't say you do but I thought I'd give you something to blog)

My muffin

2008-09-17T17:49:00.004-06:00

I'm sick of writing about what I do, because lets be honest I haven't done much lately. So here is a story about the love of my life, Muffin.

My husband has the exact same name as his father, with a junior tacked on the end. His whole family calls him Brad which is his middle name. But when I met him that wasn't the name he gave me. You see, when he moved in the fifth grade his new teacher called him by the name that was printed on the roll. He is a shy guy and so he didn't tell the teacher that he went by his middle name and so his classmates began calling him by his first name, not knowing that this wasn't normal. Thus begun his double life; having one name at home and one at school and with his friends. I had known Brad for quite some time by his first name, (I'd post what it is but I've gotten a couple weird comments from people I don't know so really there's no need, most of you know it already) I'd even fallen in love with him by that name, when I found out that if things were to progress for the two of us that I would be calling him Brad. It was hard for me at first. I practiced calling him Brad with my mom but it was hard to put the name with his face. That was when I came up with a solution. A third name that had nothing to do with the other two.

I started out by suggesting actual names, ones that would make him seem real manly and sexy. Names like Arnold, Gaston, and Enrique. I wasn't serious; I wouldn't be able to call him Gaston without singing "No one spits like Gaston....... And every last inch of him's covered in hair!" I also would be tempted to call him Ah-nold and to bite a sausage every time I said his name. The only problem with suggesting these names was that Brad just agreed to them. He didn't mind. Whatever I wanted to call him was fine with him. I thought I'd push the envelope by suggesting names that made ME want to barf just saying them. "Sugar Plum" "Sweetie Pie" "Honey Bear" any cliche lovey name. But again, whatever I suggested was just fine with him. I finally suggested that I call him muffin with an implied "stud". Of course he was fine with that. I began telling people how content he is with whatever I wanted and that is how the name really began to take off. I have several family members and some former co-workers who have refered to him as Muffin for so long that I'm sure some of them have forgotten what his real name even is.

So the point of this story is, if you got a wedding announcement and labeled our gift with one name, and then began reading my blog and I said I was married to someone else, don't worry. It is still the same person and you aren't alone in being confused as to what his name is. So if you aren't sure what to call him, you can always fall back on Muffin.

On a side note: I also love a good jiffy muffin........ or costco muffin...... or pretty much any kind of muffin.

Relief Society Retreat

2008-09-13T21:40:00.003-06:00

I know that everyone was so sad to not get a Flashback Friday this week so I thought I would explain my absence from writing. My excuse for every day this semester will be the same. I should be working on lesson plans. And this week I've been pretty busy but I'm not entirely sure what I've been doing. I started my seminar class that is on the east side of the valley so that eats up my Thursdays, I'm gone from 7 in the morning till 7 at night on those days. And this week my excuse for Friday was that I got home and packed my suitcase and headed up the canyon to my wards relief society retreat. I had a blast. I've only been in this ward for the last 3 weeks and so I don't know hardly anyone but the ladies were so nice and they accepted me really fast. I am the youngest sister in the ward and except for the few older unmarried sisters I'm the only one who has no kids. There were times when the conversation turned to pediatricians and O.B.'s and I would zone out but most of the time the ladies had hilarious stories to share and I really felt accepted. We went to Heber Valley girls camp. It is a beautiful facility. I was expecting more of a lodge the way people were explaining the site and so I just brought my sleeping bag and sweatshirt. I was wearing capris and my crocs (yes I wear crocs and no I don't garden in them and no I'm not ashamed because I love them and they are comfortable). This wasn't the best attire but it was 80 degrees when I was packing and I wasn't thinking about how cold it would be. Luckily the party moved into the cabin right after dinner and so I didn't freeze and I'm still young enough that the night on a sheet of wood didn't kill me. Next time I will be more prepared and I'm definitely bringing an air mattress.

Flashback Friday: Crazy Hair day

2008-09-05T17:55:00.005-06:00

So many people have been asking how my student teaching is going. Really I don't start taking over the classroom for a little while so I've been just observing and helping the teachers with things here and there. I've already had some funny students that have made me excited to take over. I had one child tell me I looked too young to get married, and while some of you may agree with that statement she then guessed that I could probably be like 28...... So I'm not sure what age is old enough to get married. They tell us that most 7th graders think that 18 is WAY old so somehow this girl didn't get that memo. I've also had a kid that tricked me into answering a question on his worksheet, just like the time in 3rd grade when we got Mrs. Dayton to spell one of the spelling words just by asking her "and how do you spell that?" during a test. But anyways, that isn't my flashback story, mostly cause I don't have a picture to go with it and I like pictures.

Next week is a spirit week at the Jr high. Many of you know that in high school I was pretty involved and had lots of school spirit. So much in fact that I was voted "Most likely to paint her house orange and blue" in our senior yearbook. (Not because I am a Broncos fan but because those were our high schools colors.) As student teachers we are encouraged, but not required, to get involved at the school. I'm going to participate in the dress-up days but try not to look way better than all the middle schoolers. One of the days that we never really planned while I was in student government was Crazy Hair Day. I don't remember why we never had those, probably something to do with dress codes and such. But this Wednesday I will be trying to come up with a crazy hair-do that will get me a piece of candy at lunch. In honor of this upcoming event I am including a picture of my crazy hair. This photo was not taken on a dress up day..... This is really what my hair looked like until I was 12 years old. No, it didn't look this nasty all the time, but it really went to the back of my knees. This picture was taken right after a trip to the swimming pool so my hair was full of chlorine making it look a little shorter and all kinds of clumpy. So in honor of crazy hair day, I will allow you all to see this deep dark secret from my past.

Crazy I know!

Flashback Friday: The Sunday Edition

2008-08-31T18:09:00.005-06:00

So I know what most of you are thinking... It's Sunday so why am I doing a flashback Friday post? Well there are 2 reasons. Reason 1: I didn't post on Friday. Reason 2: Today is a special day so it made sense to wait till today to post this story.

Exactly one year ago from today, August 31st, Brad and I got engaged. When we got engaged people encouraged me to write the story down so that people could read it and I wouldn't have to tell the story every time people asked how it happened. I wrote it down, but not somewhere that people could read it so now I will retell the story so you can all smile at how cute my husband is and shake your heads at how dim I am.

Brad and I had decided to get married and had picked out a ring that I loved. Brad decided to check around for prices to make sure that we were getting a good deal. At that time Brad was still living in South Jordan at his parents house and I was up in Logan. School started and Brad told me the very first day that he had purchased the ring. I was kind of confused that he told me he had purchased it and I figured that maybe he wasn't planning a surprise since we had already discussed getting married. He told me that the jeweler was going to take 3 weeks to get the ring sized and ready. I was a little bummed that there would be no romantic surprise but was excited to know that he had purchased the ring. I knew that even if he was planning a surprise that now that I knew it was going to be 3 weeks that I would be so suspicious of everything he wanted to do just in case he was going to give me the ring.

Fast forward to that following Friday. Brad had a job that required him to work on the weekends. We were going home that weekend so he worked late Friday night to finish the job so we could leave Saturday morning. I sat at home Friday while Brad worked and watched TV and ate bonbons. Brad got home and called me at about 10:30 and told me that he had an assignment that he'd forgotten about that he needed to complete before we left town the next morning. He needed to go up to campus and he asked if I wanted to go with him. Even though I was feeling blah from just sitting around I thought it would be nice to get out of the house and be with him so I agreed to go up to campus while he did his homework. He was taking a study skills class and he told me the assignment was for that class. The assignment was to go to a USU landmark and write down all of the things that made that landmark important. It was to be like he was listening to a lecture and taking notes on the important parts. Brad had chosen the Amphitheater on campus as his landmark. I thought this was a silly choice and thought he should write about something like Old Main or the 'A' because those are more well known landmarks but it was his assignment so whatever. We went to the amphitheater and found a plaque that had the date it was built and who donated the money. Brad said he was going to write that down but he wanted to wander around first and "glean" as much important information as he could. The fresh air was finally waking me up and so we went to the stage and we searched in the dark for "important" things for Brad to write in his paper. As we walked around I began to notice how beautiful the amphitheater is. It overlooks the whole valley and it has a great view of the stars. I began to think, "in 2 weeks when my ring is done, Brad should bring me here to propose."

After we sat and talked and looked at the stars we finally went back to the plaque so Brad could write down what it said. He got out a piece of paper and pencil from his backpack. As he was writing he asked me to get a paper with the instructions for the assignment out of his backpack. I unzipped the pocket he told me, and there was no paper inside. There was however, a large wooden box. I was opening the box and saying "What the heck is this?" Before it finally hit me. It was my ring box. I looked at Brad and he just looked at me and laughed. He had made up the whole assignment. He squatted on one knee and asked me to marry him. I pushed him over and began to cry and laugh while I said yes.

In hindsight I realize that of course rings don't take 3 weeks to size and why else would he choose to take me to such a beautiful location. But I'm glad I didn't figure it out because it made the night so much more fun without me stressing out about what was going to happen.

Couples Tag

2008-08-30T18:48:00.002-06:00

Traci tagged me and I'm bored so even though it's the second post of the day I'm going to do it.

What is his name: Muffin
What is her name: Amy
How long have you been together: 1 year 5 months
How long did you date: 9 months
How old is he: 23
Who eats more: Depends on what we're eating. I eat more snacks that's for sure.
Who said I love you first: I asked him if I was to say that I loved him if that would be ok.
Who is taller: This is not even a contest when I'm in the mix.
Who sings better: Brad would say me, but I think he sings just fine.
Who is smarter: In what subject?
Who does the laundry: Brad does if I sort it and put it away.
Who pays the bills: He makes the money these days but I am the only one with checks.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed: Depends on the bed.
Who mows the lawn: The staff of the apartment complex.
Who cooks the dinner: Cook? What's that? We both stand in the kitchen while we heat up frozen food.
Who drives: Usually Brad
Who is more stubborn: About what? Neither of us really.... I don't know.
Who kissed who first: He kissed me on April fools day, but it wasn't a joke.
Who proposed: He did.
Who has more friends: Brad has millions of friends that he can access online at any time of the day or night......... I probably know more people face to face....
Who is more sensitive: Amy
Who has more siblings: We both have 3 siblings but he has one brother-in-law already so we'll say he does.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm not actually sure if anyone reads my blog...

Catching up (end of summer parties part 2)

2008-08-30T12:20:00.007-06:00

Wow almost a whole week without a blog from me!? I must have actually been doing stuff. First off I would like to share some pictures from the activity I attended last Saturday.
That's right we attended Oktoberfest. Brad loves Bratwursts so the drive up to Snowbird was worth it for him and his dad. I had a good time eating my potato pancakes (read: hashbrowns) while we listened to some German music. Afterwards, we looked around at the booths selling handmade jewelry and clothing and watched a yo-yo champion.

When we were done wandering Brads family decided they wanted to go down the zipline. If any of my blog readers happened to be at 5th grade camp with me back in the day they might remember me sitting in a tree for a half an hour crying before someone finally pushed me out of the tree down the zipline. Another experience that my family member blog buddies may remember is a family reunion at Brighton Girls Camp where again I cried for a good amount of time before I finally went down the zipline. Well I decided I would go with the zipliners and face my fear. I clung to the handrail all the way up the tower but once I got to the top the ride workers told me they would give me 3 seconds to cry or wet myself. As they pushed me out the door the operator told me to aim for the grass if I fell. I didn't fall and I didn't cry or wet myself so all in all I'd say it was a good day.

So that was Saturday's activities. Sunday we went to our ward for the first time. It was strangely difficult to figure out where we were supposed to go to church, but we finally got it figured out. After that I drove to Logan and stayed with my aunt and uncle for a couple nights while I had orientation for student teaching. It was so weird seeing people that I wont be seeing all semester. I felt like everyone should be WAY super excited to see me because I don't even live there. The problem was that nobody knew I didn't live there. Since it was the first day of school many people were back from the summer and they weren't surprised to see another friend so I made sure to tell everyone how lucky they were to see me in Logan.

The orientation was pretty boring and I didn't feel I learned anything more than I'd already been told. The only thing that was any different was that they changed the teacher I'd be working with for student teaching. I was a little upset at first but now that I've met the new teacher I think I'll be just fine. When I got back from the orientation I went to the school and got things kind of figured out there. I don't just take the class over right away so I probably wont have any teaching stories real soon but I'm sure I'll post them as they come.