Snow Angels

I always enjoy playing in the snow at least once a year. I really don't mind the snow for a few months, it is when it doesn't stop snowing until May that I have a problem with. I usually try and make some friends play in the snow with me, on Saturday I was successful. A group of us got together and went to a place that has funny decorations for Christmas and then we had two groups. Each group was trying to take the funniest, most unique, coolest picture. It was fun and we ended up with a most of us doing snow angels. It was freezing, but I am pretty sure we all had fun.

Terry McCoy

Richland Northeast High School administrator Terry McCoy passes away

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the death of one of Richland Two's longest serving and highly respected administrators. Mr. Terry McCoy, passed away Sunday evening. Mr. McCoy (an Assistant Administrator at Richland Northeast High School who also served as the Director of Student Activities) joined the Richland Two family in 1969; he had taught at Dentsville High School and served as the Student Activities Director at Spring Valley High School before joining the Richland Northeast faculty when the school opened in 1978.
In September, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Mr. McCoy is survived by a sister and hundreds of present and former students who got their first major opportunities for leadership under his nurturing eye. He was 61 years old.

The Terry A. McCoy Leadership Scholarship has been established in his honor. The scholarship will be awarded to students who exhibit the strength of leadership and character that Terry sought to instill in us," said Robert Dozier Jr, scholarship organizer (Class of 1986).
Donations should be sent to: Terry A. McCoy Leadership Scholarship, 2711 Middleburg Drive Suite 213, Columbia, SC 29204. Students who contribute are asked to include the year they graduated on their checks.

McCoy was a great leader to thousands of students throughout the years, including several Elkins. I have yet to meet a student that went to Richland Northeast and did not have the up most respect of Mr. McCoy. RNE will not be the same without a master in charge of student activities. We will miss you TMAC.

Saturday with the Jensens

Yesterday morning Tricia called wanting to know if I wanted to spend the evening with them in Salt Lake. Of course I did, I love spending time with family. BYU was playing a basketball game at the Energy Solutions Area (new name of the Delta Center), they were playing Utah State. I got to go to the game, and it was rather intense. The Utah State fans were really into the game, and were much more organized that the student section for BYU, but it was really fun. BYU ended up winning by five points, it was a nail bitter down to the last few seconds. After the game we went to Temple Square to see the lights. I love the lights, I want to go every year and usually more than once, I don't know if I will get to go again, but as always they were amazing.

Me and Savannah right before the game was about to start. Savannah wasn't too excited to be there, she just thought it would be more fun than shopping in a bookstore for two hours.

John on the other hand couldn't wait for the game to start, he is the biggest BYU fan I have ever met.

Let's Say Thanks!!!

I heard about the coolest website this morning on the news. Xerox is allowing people to pick from a number of hand drawn Thank You cards that you can personalize, then they will print them out and mail them to the troops. I got my students to make Thank You cards this year for the troops and it was really fun. But this makes it completely easy- they even have pre-written messages to pick from if you want to pick from one of them. So you could brighten a soldiers day and you can do it in less than 30 seconds. I encourage you all to at least send one card...www.letssaythanks.com.

Free Concert

I got to go to a free concert put on by the Utah Symphony Orchestra today, well they came to my school, but it was still a free concert. I think they are going around to schools with this program about learning Shakespeare through music, it was pretty cool I guess. The only issue I had was that they would explain what a part of the song was portraying compared with Romeo & Juliet, then they would play a short sample from it and do this until they had played a good portion of the song. Then after all the samples they would play the song. I wish they would have just explained what to listen for and then just played the song. It was officially considered a "sign up assembly", meaning that if teachers wanted to go then they had to sign up and save seats for their class. I asked my class yesterday if they wanted to go and was surprised when they said yes. Of course they were thinking about getting out of a day of class and could have cared less what is was. So even though most of the students didn't really enjoy it, I did, once they got to playing the song. I really like listening to symphony's, I admire the talent that each of the musicians have and honestly I am a little jealous. I loved being in the band in high school, but I was not very good. I had to work extremely hard to play just about any song. I never thought it was fair that others just had it come natural to them. So when I see symphony's I think of how that would be such a cool job, you know if I was actually any good at playing an instrument.

The Holy War

I usually don't get into the rivalry game too much between Utah and BYU, I don't want to set myself up to have people say I told you so or anything like that. This year at school some of the teachers in the Social Studies hall wanted to decorate their door for which ever school they cheered for. At first I was going to not get involved and put up USC stuff, then I realized the USC/Clemson game isn't until next week. Their is only one other BYU fan in my hall and I didn't want to leave him hanging. So I decided to decorate, although nobody else really knew I was a BYU fan. I guess they all assumed that I didn't really care because I'm not from Utah. My door and the teacher next to me I think are the best, just keep it classic in my opinion. Others started out looking nice, but they kept adding more and more stuff to it so now it looks kind of junkie. Actually they started trash talking through their door, which really is rather silly. I'm actually proud of myself-- I did something some what crafty and it looks nice. I'm impressed the the Ute symbol next door, but he had a TA do it, all he did was go get the paper. Honestly I'm not sure if BYU will win, I think some of these close games might catch up with them, but it has been fun.

General Conference

The Becca's at General Conference, it was a little weird since I went with a bunch of people I didn't really know, but it was still really cool. And we got soaked walking in the rain before the session started, until some nice Senior Missionary let us use his umbrella for awhile.

I finally got to see Music and the Spoken word, that was so cool. It was worth getting up an extra hour early.

Luckily the rain had stopped after the morning session, so at least we didn't have to walk in the rain before and after. I think everyone was praying the rain had stopped, because it was beautiful after the session.

A Moment of Reflection

The past few weeks I have been reflecting on my political views. I have always thought that if I lived back in 50s and 60s, that I would be one of those protesting for civil rights. In reality, their is no way to know what I would have done. I have always had pride in my views of equally that every one deserves. After talking about the founding fathers in my class, I have come to believe even more that "all men are created equal." Even though Thomas Jefferson didn't talk about race in the Declaration, but as I was watching the election coverage tonight I thought of how far this country has come. Even though I don't necessarily agree with all of the stances Barack Obama has, but I respect him for he truly has a challenge in front of him. I find that I agree with something John McCain said in his concession speech "America does not hide." One thing with American history, I don't think that America has ever tried to hide the problems it has. It has no problem with displaying its problems on the front page for everyone to see. So I would like to say good luck Barack Obama. Congratulations, and I hope you know what you are getting yourself into.

Parents come into Town

I love spending time with my family, I seem to appreciate it more and more as I realize that I'm most likely not going to live too close to any of them- at least for awhile. Last Monday my Mom and Dad came to Salt Lake to spend about four days with me and three days with my sister before going into the MTC. Even though it was really crowded and I gave my bed to my mom, I loved every second of it. I only wish I didn't have to work while they were here. Dad would get up and make me and my roommates breakfast every morning, then drive me to work. They went downtown two days and loved, they haven't been to Salt Lake in a long time, everything had changed. So they had fun doing all the tourist things while I was at work, then dad would pick me up and then we would play. Well I got to spend six days with my parents, and if felt really nice. I honestly do get jealous sometimes when I hear people talking about going home over the weekend, it was finally nice to have my family in my home. My life is simple, but it was fun getting to share it with someone.

Love, Hate Relationship

I have decided that technology is one of the best and worst things in our lives right now. It seems like we can't go anywhere without it, I mean how many people feel naked without their cell phone? We can now be contacted anywhere around the world, a number of different ways. Do we really want the whole world to have access to us though? Sometimes you want to be alone and not have your phone ringing, someone texting you, and 100 emails to reply to at the same time. Question: Is it really all that bad to have to shop and actually go to a store? Don't get me wrong, I love technology, I really do, but I don't love the headaches it gives me. For example I am spending my Saturday waiting to chat with a costumer service representative because I bought a renewal to anti-virus software online, but they didn't send it to me. If I just would have gotten off my lazy bum I could have went and bought the software from a store, and be done with it. But now I am wasting my day off trying to figure out what is going on with this stupid program. I thought technology was suppose to make our lives easier, not harder.

End of the Season

Well tonight the 2008 Girls Soccer season is officially over for Taylorsville. It was a mixture of up and downs, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. We started off so good, but knowing that we were in the toughest region in the state, once region play started it made things really hard. I grew so much during the season, I think I actually became a coach. I'm not exactly sure how that happened, but some how it happened. I have never been the one to have the pre-game and half time speeches, but by the end of the season I think I got much better at it. I'm excited to have more free time, or actually free time at all. My roommates are amazed at the schedule that I have and that I haven't crashed yet. I'm a little amazed at myself to be honest. I can look back at all the struggles and I'm so thankful that I was there for the girls. The team is full of amazing girls and they have become my friends and I can only hope that they still say hi to me in the halls. It might have been a struggle, but when it all comes to an end, I'm glad that I coached this year.

Hugging Elder Nelson

On Sept. 6-7 our stake had Stake Conference. I'll be honest most of the time I don't exactly look forward to Stake Conference, especially since the last was mostly about raising children. They were good talks but didn't exactly apply to me. They were reorganizing my stake presidency and announced that Elder Nelson was going to come to Stake Conference, and I was actually excited to go. I even went to the adult session. First off I think Wendy Nelson, Elder Nelson's wife, is my new hero. She was one of those older single sisters before marrying Elder Nelson, but she is just really cool. I won't go into detail, but she is defiantly an amazing women. One thing Elder Nelson said that I really liked was "Laugh at yourself when things aren't going so well." We don't have to take our self so seriously all the time. Sometimes you just need a good laugh. Elder Nelson ended with giving the stake an Apostolic blessing. After conference was over I wanted to shake Elder Nelson's hand. So I got some other girls in my ward to get in line with me and we met everyone. Once I got up to Elder Nelson I wanted to give him a hug, I don't know why I just did. So I asked him and I got to hug an Apostle. I thought it was pretty cool.

Finally... some pictures

This is the view I have when I'm sitting at my desk at school. A math teacher found the big picture laying around somewhere so she gave it to me. It is of the Founding Fathers signing the Declaration of Independence.

I basically put together my roommates desk one night. She was really struggling and I did it in like 45 minutes. She thought it was really funny that was sitting inside the desk.

MY BED!!! I finally have an adult bed, well kinda. It is a full bed, so not quite a queen, but I love it.

We didn't have a couch for a month after we moved in. One of my roommates finally got sick of sitting on the floor and bought a couch.

MY T.V. I bought it off a friend that was moving back home, it sat on the floor for awhile before we found a decent and cheap T.V. stand.

John getting ready for a tee-ball game. He played for the Yankees, and he did pretty well for being six. It was really fun to watch a game.

Sierra didn't want a picture taken of her. I think the picture turned out pretty cool.

Me and John-- best buds. I love going to spend time with the Jensen's, John and Sierra fight over who loves me more. Plus it is always nice to be around family.

Cool Lesson

Last week I came up with a really cool lesson...we were talking about the slave trade in my U.S. History class. You know the triangle trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas- anyways I like to make my students read a first hand account of what is was like on a slave ship. I turned off the lights and blacked out the window- then I made them sit on the floor in a very tight space and told them about the living conditions these people were forced to live in (no restrooms, no light, very little food, 3ft. high ceilings). Most of the students got the point, but then I read them a first hand account by a African that was captured and taken to the South Carolina. I just wish I could have stretched out the lesson a little more, but I think it was a success.

I'm sick of the BYU haters

BYU is ranked #15 in the nation and all I hear at work is how the shouldn't have won last week and that they are weak. My personal favorite was how UCLA was going to spank BYU today, in Provo, to finally show the country that they aren't any good. Well I do live in Utah fan country, but I don't even think these guys are Utah fans- they just hate BYU. I admit, I did think it was going to be a tough game since UCLA seemed to own BYU recently, but not anymore. BYU was the one doing the spanking- killing UCLA 59-0, with Max Hall throwing seven touchdowns. I can't wait to hear what all the guys at work say on Monday. I'm sure they will have some excuse how the refs cheated UCLA and how BYU did something completely unfair- but I don't care. BYU took the challenge and showed another PAC-10 school the door on their way out. I just hope they can keep it up and not fall apart the rest of the season.

Moral Victory...

On Friday Taylorsville played the second ranked team in the state and we hung in there with them. When it was over we lost 3-1, but we score first and for much of the first half we were in control of the game- even when they took the lead. The last two games and our next game is the hardest stretch of games that we have. Last Wednesday we lost to Jordan 6-0 (#5 team in the state), then we had Brighton yesterday (#2), and next Wednesday is Alta (#1, and nationally ranked). I'm very proud that our team stuck it out and didn't give up- we really gave it a run for their money.

Stayin' Busy...almost too busy

Well my day is pretty much non stop from 5:45 in the morning until 9:00 at night. It is nice to be busy, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. On an early day I leave school by about 5:15, if we have a game, I don't get home until closer to 8:00. By the time I get home I eat, quickly try to plan some kind of lesson for the next day, then off to bed. I just hope I don't crash one of these days, if I can make it through September then I should be alright.

Sadly we are no longer undefeated, on Wednesday we started region play and lost 4-0 to Hillcrest. Tomorrow we have Skyline and that might be one of our best chances of winning a region game. Since our region has the #1 and #2 teams in the state in it. Wish us luck.

Third Victory

On Thursday Taylorsville defeated Kearns 8-0, I really thought that Kearns was going to put up more of a challenge than that. I wish you could save you goals for another game, because we won't be scoring like in two weeks. Next week we are our last two preseason games, which means the tough games will be coming soon. School starts on Monday and I'm not ready for it at all... I took pictures of my classroom, but I'm currently fighting with some computer programs so pictures will come later...along with pictures of my new apartment.

Still Undefeated

Amazingly enough we are still undefeated after two games. It is sad that on the second game of the preseason you have doubled the number of victories than last year. We won 8-0 in the varsity and 3-1 in JV. One girl scored FOUR times in varsity and once in JV, I think she had a pretty good day. Today was also the first day back to school for teachers. The day started with a faculty meeting at 8:00am that went for two and a half hours...then the rest of the day was ours to do whatever we needed to get done. For me I spent the day cleaning out old Spanish lesson plans and magazines about guns. I didn't get too much done, my room still doesn't look like me, but I'll give it some time. We also found out that there was NO drinking water in the school, it was all TOXIC. This wasn't too big of a deal until the soccer game came around. We finally found out that some water was save over by the football field and I went and bought 20 pounds of ice. The ice melted within ten minutes, but I couldn't afford to buy more. So it is now 8:00 at night and I haven't been home since 7:30 this morning. I'm not looking forward to 12 hour days again.

We're Undefeated...

Yesterday was the first game for the soccer team, we are in what they call preseason games. But really they are just the out of region games since they since count on your record. You schedule your own preseason games, luckily the last coach scheduled some easy games since we are in one of the toughest regions in the state. Varsity won 2-0 and JV won 4-0 (all goals scored by varsity players). We only had about six girls that didn't play in the varsity game so we had most of the varsity players rotate in and out as much as possible for the JV game, since they had already played an entire game. Our next game is on Monday, against a brand new school, so we are hoping they won't be that good. If we win one more time, we will double the wins from last year. That is sad, but we are in the "building" stage of the program.

Surviving the Dentist

I have known that I had at least one cavity for about six months now, I first had to wait until I had insurance, then I had to wait until school got out. I was just lazy and didn't want to face going to the dentist. I mean who actually likes going to the dentist, not me, that is for sure. One day I looked up the phone number to a dentist office that accepted my insurance and I didn't do anything with it for over a week. Finally I got up the nerve to call and make an appointment, really the only reason why I did it is because I knew the summer was basically over. If I waited until school started I wouldn't have time to go to the dentist until October. So I finally called and they said if I could be there in ten minutes I could come that day, so I went. It wasn't too bad, a cleaning is a cleaning, nothing too exciting ever happens at a cleaning. I needed with two cavities, really not all that unexpected. I made the appointment for the next week and it was amazing they filled two cavities in 40 minutes. I was really impressed with how fast they did it. I wish they took five more minutes though, when they started drilling on one tooth it wasn't quite numb yet. But it was my own fault for not stopping them when it was hurting. I'm impressed with myself, I even set up my six month cleaning. I hate the dentist, but I hate cavities more.

Issues with Grades

Today is our first soccer game of the season, I was fairly excited about it until we checked the grades of the few players that had not shown us there grades. Then all of a sudden, the stress came in and we didn't have a clue on how to be even some what competitive. A freshman starting player had a GPA of 1.83, you have to have a 2.0 to play high school sports. Because these are fourth quarter grades from last school year we can't exactly go to the teacher and beg. I spent two and a half hours after practice yesterday trying to figure out what to do. The players mom told use that she had taken summer school to bring her grade up, but nobody could find any record of the grade change. Finally the mom found something and faxed it to the school. It was a mess, but good news is that the girl should be cleared to play. I have never had to deal with players not be eligible before, so it was a big mess.

Happy Birthday Dad

I wrote this down on Father's Day, but I think it will work for his birthday as well.

Why I Love my Dad...

• Loves our family
• Hard Worker
• Will do anything for my Mom
• Loves the baby just as much as the oldest
• He holds the Priesthood
• Willing to help and serve others
• Prays for me every day
• Wants to help me be successful in life
• Has given much of his adult life to different callings in the church
• Able to give me blessings
• Has a strong testimony
• Willing to give up money and time to serve a mission
• He talks sports with me
• Never judged me for liking sports
• Used to sing me to sleep at night when I was young (even though he hates singing)
• He is a good example
• Has made sure that I will always have a home to come home to
• Gives big hugs
• Says "I Love You"
• He is proud of me
• Taught me to be responsible
• Dad is one of my best friends

The Days of Summer...

I have realized that I don't have much of a life during the summer, or at least anything that would be interesting enough to write about. Honestly my days are pretty bland...I have recently gotten a library card since I have read all the books I own (that is what happens when you don't have access to a TV or Internet in your apartment). I have never been a fast reader, even books that I like usually take me FOREVER to read, but for some reason I have read three books in a month now (The Partner, The Greatest Generation, NEXT). And these weren't small books either. I guess I'm getting my reading down for the entire year, once school starts I can kiss that goodbye.

So most days I get up and go to the library to check my email and to check out either a movie or music. I am almost always returning something every day to the library. I one day want to be as good as Susan and get the most out of the library as possible. I put the Harry Potter audio books on hold yesterday and I've got one waiting for me today (which I am confused about because it said that I was 13th on the list). I'm excited....this is what my life has come to.

Most of my afternoons consist of soccer practice. I am really enjoying being around the girls, but it is hard to be excited to go to practice in 100 degree heat. The Taylorsville girls soccer team only won one preseason game last year, so we are hoping to win two or three this year. We are in a really tough region, so once region play starts, winning will be almost impossible. The good news is next year we will be in a much easier region, so hopefully we can win a few this year and build for the future.

Wicked

On Thursday I went to Lagoon for the first time. Lagoon is basically the only amusement park in Utah, it was pretty good. It wasn't quite Disney World, but I had fun. The coolest ride was their newest roller coaster, Wicked. Wicked has a 110 foot drop straight down!!!

I'll be honest, I was a little worried the first time we rode it, I would much rather go upside down than down big hills. Amazingly though I think it was better going straight down than at a slope. I did have to close my eyes when we got to the top of the hill for a brief second when I realized nothing was in front of us. But it was really cool. It really helps that you go up the hill at 45 mph, if we went up slowly I think everyone would be peeing their pants. Over all it was a really fun day...

Sorry...

Sorry it has been so long, things have been crazy with moving and not having the Internet to update anything. I'm officially moved, but not completely unpacked yet. That could take awhile before that happens...The summer is now half over and it is going by so quickly, I wish it would slow down some. I have spent most of it by going to different sporting events. I really enjoy going to Real Salt Lake games, I went to two games this last week alone. On July 9th I went to see Real play Santos Laguna, a pretty good Mexican team.

Santos kicked our trash, Real lost 4-1. But the cool thing was the entire stadium was Hispanics cheering for Santos. I felt like I stepped into Mexico for a few hours. It was more fun to just watch the crowd than the game. On July 12th I went to another game, this time Real was playing the Columbus Crew, I think I had more fun at that game than any other game I went to. In fact this is the first game I went to that the won. We scored three minutes into the game then again in the second half. For the second half we sneaked down to better seats and we were really close to the players, especially the ones that was warming up to come into the game.
Kenny Deuchar is my favorite player for Real right now. He isn't always a starter, but he is amazing. I knew he was Scottish, but I just found out that he is also a practicing doctor. How cool is that?

Boiled Peanuts...

I know my western friends think I'm crazy when I complain that they don't sell boiled peanuts at the baseball game, but in the south they are sold at every sporting event. Heck you can buy boiled peanuts in the parking lot of most Walmarts in the south. After I get my Chick-fil-A and Rush's fix when I come south, my dad always buys me a bag of boiled peanuts. I spent the third quarter of most high school football games eating a bag of boiled peanuts that I bought a the concession stand. I have been told that boiled peanuts is an acquired taste, but once you start enjoying them you are stuck, I think they are totally addicting. I know people tease me for not have a southern accent and not always eating like a traditional southern, but this is one thing that can defiantly define me a southern. In fact, I haven't met many people not from the south that have liked them, then again I don't think they give the a chance, but is OK with me-- more for me to eat. I think I am finally going to attempt to make some when I go back out west, just to see all my friends freak out.

On May 1, 2006, Gov. Mark Sanford came to York County and officially signed into law, H.4585, to make the boiled peanut South Carolina's official state snack food.

SECTION 1. The General Assembly finds that boiled peanuts are a delicious and popular snack food that are found both in stores and roadside stands across the State, and this unique snack food is defined as peanuts that are immersed in boiling water for at least one hour while still in the shell. The General Assembly further finds that this truly Southern delicacy is worthy of designation as the official state snack food.

Eatin' Good...

Whenever I come home to South Carolina there are only a few things on my must do list, amazingly they all revolve around food. As soon as I come south I have to eat at two places:

One of the first places I stop is Chick-fil-A, although I know there are some in Utah, I just never seem to find them. Nothing seems to taste as good as a southern style chicken sandwich, waffle fries, and their tasty lemonade. They also have the best service ever, I had the most polite cashier, someone walking around getting drink refills for people, and an young man that took the tray to the trash to opened the door for me.



The next stop for me is a local fast food place called Rush's, they have the world's BEST Chili Burger, they are on the expensive side, but it is worth it. It is funny all of my siblings that have moved away from home, always stop by Rush's for a burger and a milkshake. Plus Rush's is the only place that I know if that vinegar out with ketchup, just like it is normal to put vinegar on your french fries.

Week in Review

Well another year has come and gone and I'm a year old, but I don't know if I'm a year wiser. I have been waiting to turn 23 so I can sing "Gangster's Paradise" there is a lyric that says "I'm 23 now, will I ever see 24, the way things are going I don't know." I have been listening to that song since I was pretty young, I remember thinking I can't wait until I'm 23. Some of my friends tried really hard to make my birthday special. Two of my friends went out to dinner with me on Tuesday, on Wednesday Grandma made dinner for all of my friends, and on Saturday I we are going to go to the Real Salt Lake game. This has been a very exciting week for me, besides my birthday, it was also the last week of school. I rather enjoyed this last week, we didn't really do anything. I never really got to move into my new classroom because the retiring teacher was taking a long time to move out of their. I guess I understand though, it is hard to move everything after 30 years. Now I have no more school, just soccer every now and then over the summer. I'm the assistant coach for the girls soccer team, and they are going to need all the practice they can get. Last year they only one game the entire season.

SEVEN Days

Only SEVEN days left until my freedom- well that is seven school days, summer is almost here. I can almost taste the staying up late and sleeping in late it is so close. With those seven days only about four of them do I actually have to teach anything, so I only have a few more lessons to plan. I am still not for sure what I'm going to be teaching next year, every time I ask it is different. My guess though is I will be teaching U.S. History and World History- I would rather just teach one or the other, but I guess I can grow up and be a big girl.



Last Friday I went to another Bees game- this time we were on the front row of the third base line, the seats were amazing. I was almost afraid of getting hit by a foul ball for the first few innings, because we were looking straight into the sun. The Bees just got killed, they lost 17-4, Portland had a 10 run sixth inning. We even got to see a Grand Slam by Portland, we would never had stayed for the whole game, but they were having fireworks after the game.



On Saturday I went to a Blaze game (arena football), we got free tickets to the nose bleed section. I thought it was going to be fun, but none of us really cared about the game or who won, so we didn't have too much fun. Actually we left a tied game with four minutes left in the 4th quarter, that is how much fun we were having.

Bees

I know I'm terrible at adding new posts, when I have free time, I want to rest and not think about anything. I thought I should finally stop being lazy and get to work. On May 9, a group of my friends went to a Salt Lake Bees game. The Bees is an AAA minor league baseball team for the Angels. It was so much fun, I forgot how much fun baseball can be live. Plus we had amazing seats, we were right behind home plate. I think that is what made it exciting because you felt like you were in the game. For a baseball game it was really pretty exciting, after a slow start. Their was four home runs, a stole base, someone thrown out trying to steal, and the manager of the Albuquerque Isotopes got kicked out in the 9th inning--pretty cool. I can't wait to go to another game, I want to take John to a game, he would love it.

Dale Murphy-- part of the pre-game ceremony

Bend it like Beckham

Yesterday I went to my first Real Salt Lake game...and they just happened to be playing the LA Galaxy, which means David Beckham. I wanted to go to the game before I even knew who they were playing, but the tickets were selling fast, so it was quite an adventure to get the tickets and get into the game. But when we finally got in the game was amazing. We realized that our seats were on the last row of the North End zone, so we never sat down, we just stood up the whole time. I think that made it a little more fun too, I was forced to be stuck between two people and I could move around some. Surprisingly enough Real score twice in the first twenty minutes of the game, and since we were in the end zone it was like they were shooting right at us. It was pretty cool. For the first thirty minutes or so, I'll be honest I was not impressed with Beckham, he wasn't doing much, he would pick when he wanted to play and when he wanted to just stand around and look at everyone else working. Then that all changed, Beckham was able to get open and get off a clear shot, and it curved right into the side net of the goal. It was a thing of beauty, but it wasn't as nice as the next goal. Real fouled a Galaxy player about thirty yards away from the goal, but it was lined up right in front of the goal. Everyone in the stadium knew what was going to happen, Beckham walks over to stand by the ball, Real sets up like a seven man wall to try and stop it, but nothing could be done. Beckham sent it curving around the wall and into the goal, all of my friends were like "wow, he really can bend it." That was worth the price of the ticket right there, but now I want to go to some more games this summer. I had a ton of fun!!

I'm my Favorite Flower

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You?

This is a fun quiz...

I have a Classroom!!!

So this year I have been moving around from classroom to classroom at school. It is hard not to have a classroom, you can't do anything fun and you can't leave anything in the classroom. I'm always afraid that I'm going to forget something in the social studies office, which most of the day is across the school. Today I think I was assured a classroom for next year. I get a classroom of one of the teachers that is retiring this year, it wasn't my number one choice, but it has a window so I will take it. My school is odd where it has very few windows, so the classrooms with windows are taken quickly by the more veteran teachers. Since three teachers are retiring this year, the Social Studies department is going to get very, very, young. As of right now their would only be one tenured teacher at the beginning of next year. But that doesn't matter, I FINALLY have a room in 27 more days.

The Never Ending Game

Last night at Family Home Evening we were learning about financial planning, after the lesson we played Monopoly and Life. For some unknown reason the group I was playing with decided to play Monopoly, which is the NEVER ENDING GAME. I have never finished a game of Monopoly and that is still a true statement. Although I did get father in the game than I have ever have before. Once the hotels came out, about half of our group decided it was time to go. I just never got into Monopoly and I still don't see why it is fun. Why is it fun to make someone go bankrupt? I guess I'm always afraid that something like that could happen to me in real life. Maybe it should be a goal of mine: never finish a game of Monopoly...

Duches Elkins of Rhubarb

Last week I was teaching my class about Exploration, discovering the new world. Well, I had to stretch the unit out three extra days because I forgot to warn them about an upcoming test. Anyways my made my students do a worksheet on the Dutch Empire, which has an important guy name William of Orange. Well on of my students thought that was the coolest name ever, he liked that he was "of Orange." Today he asked of William of Orange was going to be one the test, when I told him no, he got a little sad, but then started to come up with new names for other students in the class. Some of the names include:

Sir Trevor of Strawberry
Duchess Maizy of Kiwi
Lady McCall of Blueberry
Knight Chris of Banana
Duchess Danica of Pineapple
Sir Logan of Watermelon
Lady Xyra of Mango

He really couldn't come up with a good fruit for me, so that is how I became Duchess Elkins of Rhubarb. This is my fourth period class, now they want to challenge my first period to a war, but since they are fruits, first period is now vegetables. I even had to deliver a trash talking note saying that they will "Beet and Squash" fourth period. Too bad I don't teach health, because who knew that 10th graders would talk about fruits and vegetables this much.

Helpuu

I was playing around on the Internet and I came across www.helpuu.com, this is a serch engine that uses proceeds collected from advertisments go to feeding hungry children around the world. I'm hoping that this is real, it is a great way to perform service for those in need around the world. I'm always looking for ways to help people so I will try to use this more often. I have added the information that I found about Helpuu. Do with it what you want.

Helpuu is a google-powered search engine that enables everybody to help great charities by simply searching the internet. The Helpuu search engine is extremely reliable and efficient through the use of Google's award-winning search algorithm. Everytime you search, proceeds from advertisers, that are raised through the use of the Helpuu search engine are then donated to various charities and non-profit organizations. We feature various charities and then equally distribute the proceeds to each charity.

Search engine usage is growing everyday as millions of people a day search the internet. Helpuu enables you to find your results and at the same time, help others. The ability to help others through simply doing something you would do anyway is easy and effective. Imagine being able to help a person by brushing your teeth or taking a nap. You can do something you would do anyways and at the same time increase good in the world. We strongly believe that within every person, there is a strong desire to help others. Sometimes, we don't know how or in what way we can improve the world. Through using Helpuu, you can revolutionze how people help each other and also feel great about changing the world one search at a time.

How can you help?
We encourage you to set Helpuu as your home page ( Make Homepage ) . Every person that sets their homepage as Helpuu during the course of a month, is equivalent to feeding a starving child for about 3 weeks. If only 5% of the US population were to use Helpuu to search, 1,000,000 hungry kids could be fed every single day. Each person who uses Helpuu is making a difference. Remember every bit counts! Help us spread the word about Helpuu by telling your friends and family to set it as their home page.
We hope that through using Helpuu, we all can strive to be a little better and be mindfull of the less fortunate around us. Open a door, donate your time, or even let out a smile. As we strive to help others, our own lives will become enriched.

ABC's Tag

A - Attached or single? ...single...

B - Best friend? ...honestly, my dad...

C - Cake or pie? ...pie...

D - Day of choice? ... Saturday and Sunday...

E - Essential item? ...a bed...

F - Favorite color? ...blue...

G - Gummy bears or worms? ...gummy worms...

H - Hometown? ...Columbia, SC...

I - Indulgences? ...shoes...

J - January or July? ... July, I don't like cold...

K - Kids? ...about 100, that I teach each day- none of my own though...

L - Life isn't complete without? ...family...

M - Marriage date? ...I wish I knew...

N - Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 2 sisters...

O - Oranges or apples? ... orange juice...

P - Phobias or fears? ...none really...

Q - Quote? ..."How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this"...

R - Reason to smile? ...only 42 days left until summer vacation...

S - Season of choice? ...spring or fall...

T - Tag seven: ...whoever...

U - Unknown fact about me? ...I'm hungry almost all the time...

V - Vegetable? ...mushrooms, giant salads...

W - Worst habit? ...quoting movies while I'm watching movies with friends

X - X-ray or ultrasound? ...does it really matter...

Y - Your favorite food? ...burritos from Bajio...

Z - Zodiac sign? ...Gemini...although I am an Ox in Chinese astrology and that describes perfectly

New Favorite Website

Recently a new website was launched that gives YouTube some competition... www.hulu.com. Hulu is a bit different than YouTube in that it has full television episodes and some full movies that can be watched free with limited commercials. So if you like to watch little clips of shows or videos that other people made than YouTube is for you. If you want to watch full length movies and t.v. shows than it is time for Hulu to become popular. This is amazing, because I always forget when shows come on, this way I can always catch up on what I missed. Although sadly Hulu doesn't have all T.V. shows, I don't think they could get the rights to show all of them, but they do have quite a collection, it is worth checking out at least. I am just trying to pass on some useful information, enjoy...

Cheer for the Underdog

Georgia is heading to the NCAA tournament. For those of you that don't understand why this is such a big thing picture this...The Bulldogs finish the season with 17 wins and 16 loses, so just barely over a .500 winning percentage. The NCAA is a tournament at then end of the season to come up with the National Champions, it is suppose to be the best 65 teams in the country that get to play in the tournament and that is it. Well there are two ways to get a bid into the tournament, first off is to be good, the best teams in the country never have to doubt if they are going to make the tournament or not. The second and more difficult way is to when your conference tournament at the end of the regular season and before the NCAA. Each conference has a tournament that is about four days and then crowns a champion. After going 4-12 in conference play, Georgia entered in the SEC conference tournament as a six seed, which I believe is at the bottom of the bracket or the next to the bottom, like I said, Georgia did not have the best of years this year. Surprisingly Georgia won its first game but that is when everything go crazy. The second game was suppose to be Friday night, but a tornado came through downtown Atlanta and the game was postponed until Saturday. This meant that the winner of Georgia and Kentucky would have to play a second game that evening to decide who would play in the final. So after enduring a tornado, a change of venue and a doubleheader, the gritty Bulldogs provided one last surprise in the finale of an improbable Southeastern Conference tournament, building a big lead in the first half and holding on for a 66-57 victory over Arkansas to claim their first NCAA bid since 2002. So the Bulldogs played three games in two days, but they are going dancing...I just can't help it, I've got to cheer for the Underdawgs.

"Beware the Ides of March"

"Beware the Ides of March" was the soothsayers warning to the great Julius Caesar, or at least that is how Shakespeare portrayed the event in history. And of course it was on the Ides of March (March 15th) 44 B.C was when Julius Caesar was assassinated by the members of his own Senate. We can learn many things for Caesar, but the most important thing might be don't reduce the power of the Senate, they might kill you!!! Don't abuse your power or you might get stabbed in the back by some of your closest friends. Now Julius was not the emperor of the Roman Empire, the first Roman Emperor was Augustus Caesar, and although Augustus was very proud, he did learn a thing or two about how to be a leader. When Augustus stood before the Senate he did not call himself an emperor or even the king, but referred to himself as the "first citizen of Rome." Although most historians agree that Augustus is considered the first emperor of Rome, Augustus never referred to himself as an emperor. Sometimes I think that we should learn at lesson from the Romans, never allow one man get too much power. Just a thing to think about as we are in the process of electing a new president of our country.

John's Birthday

John finally turned six on Feb. 22, my boyfriend is now one year older. I brought him presents from Grandma and Grandpa across the country. But John loved his presents, he had to go run and put on his John Deer shirt and made his dad open up his fishing pole right then. He kept asking when they could go fishing. So once again Grandma and Grandpa found some good presents for John.

Just Got Paid

Well I just got my first pay check. I don't think many more exciting things have happened than that. I have only been counting down until getting that check for that last six weeks. To celebrate I went to the movies and saw "Vantage Point" and if you haven't seen it, I would suggest it. It is one of the better action/suspense movies that have come out recently. Anyways, now the count down begins for my next paycheck, it is really unfair that teacher only get paid once a month. Well it will make me budget my money, but that is only good thing about it. I also completed my first parent teacher conferences this week, I had to sit their for six hours over two nights to meet with about 20 parents. I guess because so few parents came, I don't mind giving the students extra credit, I just didn't want to advertise that one. And because we had to work six extra hours this week, their was NO SCHOOL today. How amazing is that? I spent most of the time walking around looking for other teachers to talk to or I would listen in on conferences going on at the tables close to me. Sometimes they were pretty interesting, but most of them were about the cheerleaders and how many days are left until they go to Nationals. After I heard that story once it got pretty boring.

My First Earthquake

Let me set the scene for you, it was about 7:15 am Thursday, Feb. 21. I was sitting in my classroom preparing for the day to start at school. Then all of a sudden I felt funny, it felt like a bunch of period were jumping up and down up stairs, but then I realized that I was on the second floor and nobody was above me. Next I noticed that the lights were kind of shaking, for a brief moment I thought "is this an earthquake"? Then it was over. It wasn't until later when I got home and found out that it was actually an earthquake that was centered in Wells, Nevada that measured to be a 6.3 by the USGS. The fact that I could feel it in a different state meant that was a pretty strong earthquake. The town looks really damaged on the news, and now everyone in Salt Lake is worrying about what if we have an earthquake. I guess now I can say that I have felt an earthquake though.

Aunt for the 8th Time

After being stuck only having three nieces and three nephews for about four years finally we have some new additions to the family. Now I'm up to four nieces and four nephews, it is nice that brothers had one girl and one boy to keep everything even for me.

Talmage Elkins-- Feb. 19, 2008

Sarah Elkins--Jan. 8, 2008

One Month Down...Five more to go

I have now been teaching for one month and for the most part it has been a good experience. Of course you will always have the kids that don't care and don't do any work, but I haven't really had any bad students. I'm not going to lie, it has been rough, and some weeks are better than others. I actually had a pretty bad week this week, the ideas just were flowing and my lessons weren't very good. Taylorsville seems to be a really good school, it is rough not having a classroom and roaming all over the school, but I am a new teacher I can't expect everything. I am a lock for a classroom next year though, so I am not too worried about that right now. Honestly I still don't feel like part of the faulty, I feel like most of the history department looks down at me, and the rest of the school thinks I'm just another student. I know at least their is at least one student teacher that is younger than me, so at least I'm not the youngest teacher in the school. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm really excitied for President's Day, I really need the day off.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Sunday Jan. 27 was a sad day in my life, President Gordon B. Hinckley died due to old age. I was at my friends house gathered with people from my ward playing games when my mom called me saying their was a rumor going on that President Hinckley had passed away. We turned on the T.V. and it was comfirmed that he had died about an hour before. I am happy for President Hinckley, he is now in a better place and is now with the love of his life again. President Hinckley is not the only President of the church I have had, but it is the only one that I have known. President Hinckley will hold a special place in my heart and I will forever love him. It was nice today, everyone way reflecting on his life and what his has done for the church and the impact he had on the entire world. I am going to try to go to the viewing on Friday, it will be open to the public to pay their last respects on Thursday and Friday this week. It will be nice to be able to say thank you and goodbye to a great man.

SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.
The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.

Jazz Game

About 5:30 last night my friend, Becca, called me and asked if I wanted to go to a Jazz game. Of course!!! Someone had given her some pretty good tickets for the game that night and was looking for someone to go with her. I have wanted to go to a game since the season started, so this was perfect. The Jazz were playing the Phoenix Suns, my favorite team, but the Suns had three of their best players out. So sadly it wasn't much of a game, the Jazz won by like 20 points, but it wasn't even really that close. We got to the game early to make sure we could find our seats and everything. After that we walked around the Energy Solutions Arena and just had some fun. The game was going to be on TNT so it was a late start, it didn't start until 8:30, that meant we didn't get home until midnight. Even though I got in really late, it was fun and I'm glad I didn't have to pay for the tickets.

The view from our seats, we were in the second row of the section section up. They were really pretty good seats. At least I wasn't in the nose bleed section, and I would have been in the nose bleed section if I had to buy the tickets. The guy that gave us the tickets has a season tickets that he uses to take clients to for his job. I guess we were the clients he was trying to impress that night. I had to show my respect to the great players that have had their jerseys retired.

The tip off --Jazz white, Suns purple

Salt Lake City Wedding

One of my best friends got married on Jan. 4 in the Salt Lake City Temple. It was really cool to see how happy everyone was and how pretty Kari was. This was the first time that one of my friends choose the SLC temple to get married in, and it really made me think because that is the same temple that my parents were married in. The doors are so cool, I know they are locked, but they still make a good picture. It was actually pretty cold that day, especially in the shade. Nobody wanted to take off their coats for the wedding pictures. Since this was just me, I didn't think it would matter if I left my coat on.

The castle known as the Salt Lake City Temple. It is so big to stand beside it and just look up, it really does look like a castle.

Christmas At Home

I went home for almost a month for the Christmas season. It is always fun to go home, no matter where you are in your life. This Christmas season was especially fun, I really got into the Christmas spirit, this helped me look for ways that I could help others around me. My oldest sister and her family came home from Utah as well and I had a lot of fun playing with them.
Sierra got baptized on Christmas Day, I thought that was so cool. It was a great way to spend the day, plus they asked me to give the talk on baptism. I have never spoken at a baptism before so that was something new for me. After the baptism I took John home, and I played with him for several hours. He is the perfect boyfriend. John really does love me and is always sad when one of us has to leave, plus he always wants to cuddle with me. I don't know why but I seem to attract five year old men.