Flashback Friday: My birthday 2010

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

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

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

And Brad played too!

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

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

Flashback Friday: Lokalgrown

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.

Flashback Friday: Phlegmily

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.

Flashback Friday: The cop who stole my drivers license

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.

Flashback Fridayish: cooking

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.

Flashback Friday: Christmas traditions

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!

Flashback Friday: My day after Thanksgiving tradition

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

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.

Flashback Friday: Halloween

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!

Flashback Friday: 4th ward girls

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!

Flashback Friday: AAAAARRRRRRRRRR!

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.

Flashback Friday: Crazy Hair day

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

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.

Flashback Friday: The First day of school

This is a picture from the first day of Kindergarten. I don't remember being scared or anxious about this day, but I'm sure I was just a little uncertain of what laid ahead for me. I feel the same way right now. I'm not sure if I'm scared or anxious, but I do know that I'm uncertain of what the next school year holds for me. The good news is that Kindergarten worked out well and I graduated with flying colors so I'm hoping that I still have some of those smarts and I will be able to figure out how to share my knowledge with the kids in my classes!

Flashback Friday: My olympic dreams

When I was a little girl I loved gymnastics, and actually I'm still little and I still love gymnastics. I have been staying up late all week watching the gymnastics finals for both men and women. When I was younger I did gymnastics at 2 different gyms. I can remember watching the Olympics back in the day and telling people the name of every skill that the gymnasts were doing. I thought I was so good at gymnastics. I won a gold medal for my age group back when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. If there was even a small open space in a room I could be found doing head stands and handstands or cartwheels. I often got up from the dinner table to go do headstands in the entry way of my parents house. I'm pretty sure that doing headstands on the kitchen floor is part of the reason the top of my head is so flat.... My next door neighbor once accused me of trying to make her mad by always doing cartwheels in the front yard when I knew she couldn't do a cartwheel. Turns out I wasn't that great at gymnastics. I'm kind of a wuss and so I was always scared to do any skill without a coach there to spot me. It was like pulling teeth trying to get me to advance and try new things. So I eventually gave up the dream of being the best gymnast in the world, but it sure was fun while it lasted. I still enjoy doing the occasional roundoff in the park, and I love watching people who are good gymnasts preform.

Flashback Friday: My job

So since it's Friday and I'm still in Logan (shock!) I can do a Flashback Friday post. Today I'd like to remember my most favorite job I've ever been paid for. It's a job that I remember fondly, and I remember it really well. Mostly because I just had my last day today so it's still pretty fresh on the brain. Today was my last day in the labs. The last day that I will be paid to watch tv or do my homework or chat with my friends in the library. It was the last day of the most relaxed job I will ever own. I really can't think of another job that I could ever have that would be as laid back as this job. Even though sometimes it could get tedious and a little mind numbing (read: summer.....) I loved this job. So I will now leave you with a collective list of some of our favorite and not so favorite things to hear while we worked in the labs. Here's to all my friends and coworkers that I will miss a lot, SLS Super Consultants for life!

"Do you have a stapler?"
"What if I don't have my card?"
"But I thought I had free copies."
"Will you proof-read my paper?"
"I can't find my email." (only applies to summer shifts) ;)
"If I printed something where would it go?"
"There will be breakfast!"
"Is there a waiting list?"
"But I didn't mean to print 3 blank pages at the end of it...."


If you know some that I didn't include feel free to comment with any extras that I've forgotten.

Flashback: This past week

Ok so this isn't really a very distant flashback since I'm just going to talk about this past week but it will be great none-the-less! So this week I was able to attend a conference where we learned about the 3 branches of government and discussed civics education. It was offered to any social studies teachers and also to any Utah State student who was going to teach social studies. It was so much fun! They put us up in a hotel downtown for free and we did a lot of really neat things. Here is a recap by day:

Monday: The Drive
I drove down with 2 other people so that we could share gas money. We had to be there really early Tuesday morning so the hotel let us check in Monday night. We weren't sure exactly what to do next so we went for a walk around downtown Salt Lake and got ourselves oriented as to where we would need to go the following days.

Tuesday: The Legislative Branch

On Tuesday we learned all about how a bill becomes law and we were able to tour each part of the State Capitol building as we did so. We started out in a committee room where my neighbor Representative Chris Herrod sponsored a bill concerning immigration and education. We had some very heated debate. All of the teachers seemed to have strong opinions on the issue. It was really hard for me to debate because I could see the logic in both sides. That is when I decided not to run for congress. We agreed on some amendments and "tabled the bill." When that step was over we took it to the House for voting.

Melissa and I considering how to vote for the bill

After we debated whether to accept the bill and it's amendments a former Speaker of the House, Representative Ure, (I think he's an uncle to my friend Melissa....) we traveled to the Senate where we met with a Senator and he explained to us the next steps in the process of making a law.

Leaving the Capitol after a long day of making laws

After we finished the days activities we went to the Gateway mall for some dinner. We had been given vouchers at the Capitol for lunch and so most of us had really eaten way too much. (We had to get our free money's worth!) So for dinner I just had an Orange Julius and the cookies I had added to my tab at lunch because I could. I then got to spend some time with Kim Hines. Kim was my roommate when I lived in Alaska and I hadn't seen her for quite awhile so it was really nice to spend even just a few minutes with her as she was on her way into the city for a hot date.

Wednesday: The Judicial Branch
Wednesday morning were able to attend a Naturalization Ceremony where we witnessed 190 people become citizens of the United States. This was by far the most moving experience of the conference. I take so many things in my life for granted and one of them is for sure the fact that I am a natural born citizen of the United States and I never had to fight for the rights and freedoms that I enjoy.

The Ceremony

We were able to sit right among the new citizens. This gave many of us mixed feelings since the families of the people were required to sit in balcony seats above us. This was just one of the things that showed me the great respect that people actually have for teachers. When the oath was finished Judge Alba talked to the crowd and shared the story of how he too became a naturalized citizen when he was in college. He was studying to become a lawyer and learned that he needed to be a citizen to take the bar exam. He went from being a migrant farm worker to becoming a Federal Judge. His story was really inspiring. He then interviewed the audience and allowed people to take the time to speak if they had something to say. He asked them about their struggles to get where they are now and what this experience meant to them. It was moving. My roommate Melissa took video of some of the responses that people gave and I hope to get those videos from her. Our friend Randy had a really neat experience this day. As we were walking into the theater where the ceremony was held Randy ran into his brother. His sister-in-law was becoming a citizen in this very ceremony and Randy had no idea. Randy had lost his cell phone and his brother had been trying to contact him to invite the family but had given up hope of reaching them. It was really neat for him to be able to be there with his family without even knowing that was taking place on that day. After the ceremony we were able to talk to the judge and learn more about him. Turns out he just might be the inspiration for the character of Pedro in the movie 'Napoleon Dynamite.' He moved to Preston in the ninth grade and ran for Sophomore class president at the insistence of his friend. He's pretty sure he's the only Mexican to have done so from that Preston High so he claims a small credit for the inspiration.
After the mornings festivities we were able to go to the Matheson Courthouse and meet the Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court. She spoke to us and then we were able to go to a courtroom where we met another judge, Judge Carolyn B. McHugh of the Utah Court of Appeals, and she presided over a mock trial that we held in the courtroom.

Part of the mock trial that we held with Judge Carolyn B. McHugh

We were also able to go to the Moss Federal Courthouse where we were able to learn about the different types of cases that are heard there. We ended that days lectures in the Utah Supreme Court chambers. It was an amazing day and we got to see and do a lot of really neat things.

Thursday: The Executive Branch
Thursday was spent discussing the Executive Branch and when I say discussing I mean listening to. Turns out the Executive Branch doesn't have any fun activities where you get to role play anything. This will be the branch I struggle to most with when it comes to teaching. It is the most visible branch but it sure was the least fun to talk about. It was still great though and we got to spend the morning sitting in the City County Building in Salt Lake which just might be my favorite building in Utah now. Those aren't alien lights above it.... This picture was taken out of the window on the 5th floor of the courthouse so it's just reflection. It is such a neat old building. I wished we had more time to learn about it while we were inside. I guess I'll just have to request a tour someday. We also got to have lunch at the Governors Mansion. It was a very interesting experience and MaryKay Huntsman seemed like a lovely lady. It was some good times and I'll have more pictures on my facebook account for anyone who has facebook and cares to look at my pictures. It makes me excited to become a teacher and do these kinds of things more often. The best part about it is that everyone invited us to bring our classes to do the same things we did. They even offered to send someone to any school if we just asked. Our government is so open and really isn't secretive at all, we just have to make the effort to be involved and to participate. We got contact information from every person in every different agency we worked with and with every different level so now it's just a matter of making it happen. I'll leave you with a picture of 5 of the 7 pre-service teachers who participated in the conference along with all of the seasoned teachers.

Flashback Fridays

My friend Kirsten does something cute with her blog where on fridays she writes about things that have happened in her past. I really like that idea. Especially since I don't have any journals and so most of these memories aren't written down anywhere. So I thought that today I would start my flashback Friday tradition with some stories of past birthdays since I just celebrated one yesterday. So here are a few of my birthday memories from years gone by.

Age 3- My mom had her gallbladder or appendix or something removed on that birthday so my grandma threw my party for me. I don't really remember that but I do remember I got one of those dolls that has a dress that flips up and makes the doll a cupcake.

Age 5 or 6... I don't remember which year it was but my good friend Rebecca Kesler gave me a Belle barbie doll which she had already cut the hair off of.

Age 12- My friends and I planned the party on our own and we decided to decorate my basement. We walked to the grocery store (Days marketplace) and looked for balloons and crape paper. They had balloons but no other decorations and so we bought a case of toilet paper instead and we went to town on my basement. That is when my love of toilet papering the insides of houses began. (That will have to be another flashback story.... someone remind me some day)

Ages 13 thru 16- My mom didn't throw us parties once we reached a certain age and it seemed as I got older all of my friends began to plan their summer vacations on my birthday and so it was hard to find a time when everyone would be around. So for birthdays 13 - 16 my friend Caroline Wessel and I would walk to the grocery store, buy a cake and 2 cartons of frosting and then make the cake while we ate the extra frosting. After we had finished the cake we would then continue to eat most of the cake as well. To make my 16th birthday special, we drove to the store to buy the cake!

Age 16.5- After school had started (November to be exact) some of my friends realized I didn't have a sweet 16 party. So in an effort to make up for that and as an excuse to invite over some boys we had a make-up birthday party where we played all the games we'd played as kids at my birthday parties and I think I may have even received a present. The night was finished off with a cake fight.

Age 18- I had just graduated high school and had already moved most of my belongings to Logan. I had said goodbye to most of my friends because I knew I wasn't staying around for the summer. Orem was having summerfest so there was going to be a parade and fireworks and a carnival all for my birthday! Unfortunately the girls I went with decided they wanted to spend the evening at a girls home that I wasn't invited to. (I probably could have gone but I didn't have a really good history with this girl) Since I drove I had to take them to the party and then I thought I would just have to go home and be sad all by myself. Instead my best friend Emily saved the day and called just as I was driving home to tell me she had come home a day early from Disneyland to surprise me for my birthday. I drove up to her house and was able to watch the fireworks from her living room window. We then went to our friend Tylers home where we continued the night according to the well thought out and written down plan that Tyler had brain stormed on his own. He really typed it out and everything. This was the plan. "Go to Wendy's because Tyler is hungry" So that's what we did. Later that week Emily and I took 2 friends and we went to a movie and roller skating at Classic Skating so any let downs from the actual day of my birthday was completely made up for.

Age 20- This will be a long one cause it was probably the best birthday ever, plus I was old enough to remember it. I was living in Alaska on my 20th birthday and I had told my roommate all I wanted for my birthday was to see a bear. The 12th happened to fall on a monday which was my day off from work anyways so I didn't even have to ask for it off. My roommate and I decided to sign up to take a bus trip into Denali National Park since that was the most likely place for me to see a bear. My roommate Kim was amazing and I love her to pieces. When she found out that I had never had a surprise party she talked to a bunch of our friends that were from Utah and invited them all to a surprise party at exactly 12:00 the morning of my birthday. Most of my friends were working as housekeepers at the hotel and so they had to be to work early in the morning but they set their alarms and they woke up to welcome in the day and to celebrate with me. I knew something was up when Kim forced to sit in the lobby in a certain chair with my back to the stairwell that led to the rec room of our employee housing. She was acting all strange and I could tell she was looking at something while she sat directly in front of me not letting me move. Then at midnight she had this sudden need to go up to the rec room right away! so we ran up there and all of my sleepy friends were sitting up there with their pajamas on. They were so nice. They sang and handed me a package of candles... we had no cake so they just gave me candles and then they gave me food they had stolen from the lunch room as my gifts. Food was hard to come by so every bag of chips and small box of cereal was greatly appreciated. The party lasted about 10 minutes before they had to go back to bed. It was wonderful. The few of us who didn't work in the morning stayed up till 2 talking and laughing and then Kim and I went to bed.
We got up the next morning at 5 so that we could be ready to catch the 5:45 bus into the park. We made it into the tour and we ended up on a bus full of a tour group from Australia. They were the nicest people and they even sang to me when they found out it was my birthday. We saw lots of great stuff including 13 bears, a herd of caribou, a herd of Dahl sheep, and Denali herself . I was not disappointed one bit! Below is a picture of Sassy, the bear that we named because she just sat and ate by the side of the road and didn't even care that 3 tour buses were stopped feet away from her.
Age 21- I went and had a free Cheeseburger from the bar in town because I was 21 and I could. Plus the White Owl has the best burgers around! I then got taken out to dinner every night that week by different people who either owed my apartment dinner (my bishop) or people who loved me. (my family)
So all in all I've had some really good birthdays and now they can be remembered forever! Yay for me being born!