Sunday, October 23, 2011

Happy Days

Wow, these past few weeks have ben super busy but TONS of fun!

Schools been a little bit better and I've felt a lot more comfortable in my classroom.  I've had to up my "strict teacher" act and they totally buy it.  It's unfortunate, but had to be done.  I have been having a really hard time with respect and following classroom procedures so I've had to make more rules, which is really hard in the middle of the semester.  But at least it seems to be working.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Last weekend Meridith and I headed up to Rexburg, Idaho to help our fabulous cousin, Xan, carry out a big long boarding event she put together all by herself.  She had about 50+ people show up and she had prizes from tons of sponsors who donated things to her event.  The weather was perfect and everyone had a blast!  It was also so much fun just to hang out with Xan and see how many great friends she's already made.  Also...definitely interesting to be back in the dorms.  I haven't been in those things in about 5 years... and they look EXACTLY the same!

Xanny drew all the arrows on her hand of how to get to the event...super efficient

Pizza Pie Cafe with MoMo and Xanny



Love this girl!

So after this fun weekend, I had 3 days of school and then......FALL BREAK!  Hallelujah.  Lets be honest, it was much needed, and very well spent!

At the beginning of my week I noticed that one of my bracelets was missing.  I NEVER take this bracelet off.  When I worked in the Lost and Found at BYU I found 2 matching Tiffany's bracelets that I ended up buying at the yearly sale.  I gave one to my Mom and we both wear them every day to remind us of each other.  I usually don't take mine off to shower, but at the beginning of the week I took it off before showering and put it on the counter top.  That was the last time I remember seeing it.  I was so sad and began frantically searching through all our garbages and everywhere it could possibly be.  I was getting so frustrated that I finally decided to kneel down and pray.  Sure, it's just a bracelet, but I knew there was only one person who could calm my anxiety about finding this bracelet and who could help me find it.  I had a little cleaning to do and I prayed that as I cleaned, I would find this silly bracelet.  I cleaned a little but mostly just turned things upside down still just trying to find it.  Today I finished cleaning up and guess what I found?  My bracelet.  When I saw it, I had to laugh.  I asked to find it as a cleaned.  I stopped cleaning and didn't find it.  As soon as I finished cleaning, I found it.  Heavenly Father answers prayers.  And if it takes praying over a silly bracelet to humble me and strengthen my testimony, I'll take it.  

Ok the rest of my break...

Wednesday I dedicated my day to thrifting.  I hit D.I. and Savers and found some awesome steals!  I love finding good deals!  I was looking for specific things, but found some other treasures instead.  I picked up a few good books, a vintage little jewelry box, and a brand new giraffe print suitcase.  You heard me, GIRAFFE.  It's fantastic and I can't wait to use it when I go to Denver in a few weeks!

Thursday and Friday were full of relaxing, cleaning, and organizing.  When we moved in to our apartment (unfortunately when I say "we", I mean "I") I was just so ready to get everything in it's place before Jason got here that I didn't take a ton of time to organize.  I re-organized our pantry and it is much more bearable now.  

Friday night Jason and I kind of just bummed around the house and didn't do much.  At midnight, Jason decided he wanted to build a fort in our family room, watch a movie, and sleep in it.  So we did just that!  We had so much fun!  Let me just say that Jason HATES (understatement) pictures.  It takes SO much to get him to take a picture with me.  So when he asked me if I was going to take pictures of our fort, I knew it was time to break out the camera.  He wouldn't even let me take it town in the morning until I had taken pictures of it.  Enjoy:




Ok last but not least, we made some FABULOUS new friends this weekend!  Saturday Jason went to the football game with his friend Tosh and Chris. Tosh is in Jason's accounting group and Chris is his older brother who just so happens to be in our ward.  We feel like we have a new family.  We LOVE these people. They are the most wonderful family and we have loved getting to know everyone.  After the football game we hung out with Chris and his cute wife, Natalie.  They were so sweet to invite us over for dinner and a little modern family.  We had so much fun chatting and getting to know each other.  I think this friendship is definitely going to last!  

Hopefully more to come before my MUCH anticipated trip to Denver next month!


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Some Pictures

Just thought I would post some pictures of when my Dad was here.  We were able to take him to a BYU football game against Utah State University.  It was the first game he's been to in 6 or 7 years and luckily we we won!  He got special tickets through his best friend and was even spoiled enough to go to the Legacy tent...

One of my new favorites

We even got him hooked up with a new BYU shirt!  


took me FOREVER to get a smile out of this kid

Despite Jason always being so busy, we've made really good friends with Matt and Ali.  Jason works with Matt in the accounting program and we love hanging out with them.  We went out to dinner a few nights ago and I told them I had to have proof that we actually have real friends... 


PROOF!


This is all for now, more to come on Xanny's longboarding event this weekend in Rexburg, Idaho!  

ROAD TRIP!



Wednesday, October 5, 2011

It's about Time

Time for an UPDATE!

Sorry everyone... I'm super bad at keeping this blog up.  Lets be honest, I don't have anything THAT exciting to update my little blog with. So just to update a few things:

Teaching:  I love it.  I hate it.  It's a little bit of everything.  Most days I really enjoy it.  I have some fabulous students and I love seeing the progress they're making in my class.  It's amazing how much the generations have changed since I was their age.  It's also pretty cool how much they're still the same.  They still struggle with a lot of the same things I struggled with when I was in middle school.  Girls are still mean.  Boys are still gross.  Most of them still haven't grasped the concept of personal hygiene.  On the other hand, I have students with every color of hair under the rainbow.  At least a dozen of my students have a lip, eyebrow, or multiple ear piercings.  EVERYONE has a cell phone... and EVERYONE tries to sneak a text or two in during my class.  Unfortunately for them, I'm a cell phone nazi.

Last week my Dad was in town.  We were SO excited for him to come!  Because a lot of my students come from lower income families, I really wanted my Dad to come in and talk to my students about how cool his job is and how important it is to continue your education.  My poor Dad was essentially suckered in to teaching two of my classes (sorry Dad!).  But they loved it!  He showed them video's of the cars he's worked on and let them ask him questions.  It was cool to see my students so interested.  And it was a blast to be able to hang out with my Dad for a day.

Hanging out in my Foods Room

In other teaching news... I'm currently at Parent Teacher Conferences.  Yes, I'm blogging between parents.  Because I'm only half-time I have half the parents coming through, so it's a little boring.

Bored... can you tell?

I have met a few really cool parents.  Unfortunately it's a lot of the "A" students who come through with their parents so I never get to talk to the parents of the students I'm actually worried about.  It's pretty sad.    Some of the parents I've met are quite possibly even more interesting then my students.  One parent gave me a loaf of vegan wheat bread...  I'm pretty sure another one wants to be best friends.  I'm totally down with both.  My new BFF generously offered to be my #1 Chaperone for our upcoming field trip, hallelujah!

Next Subject,

Jason:  We are doing awesome.  We have been married now for a little over 9 months and are still happier than ever.  I'm so proud of him and how hard he is working in the accounting program. Some days I see him for a few hours, others only a few minutes.  But I'll take what I can get!  Luckily the group of guys he works with in the program are awesome as well.  We've gotten to know the families of 2 of the guys really well and they are both amazing.  

This is our life for now!  Busy, busy, all the time.  Until next time, we love you!