This is AWESOME!!!!

Stalker???

Last Sunday at church we had a bunch of people that came to my singles ward and I was trying to be nice to them and talking to one of them I find he is from Rock Hill, South Carolina. Since I'm from South Carolina and we are both living on the other side of the country we were talking about what brought us out here. He asked my name and then said he remembers dancing with me at a YSA dance once. That isn't the creepy part, the creepy thing is I haven't been to a YSA dance in like six years. Do you remember who you danced with six years ago, because I sure don't. Needless to say I was a little creeped out by that one.

All kinds of confused

My body is so confused once I go to bed...I never turn my heat up very high so my house is pretty chilly when I go to bed. Which is fine, I love having a cold house and getting under warm blankets to sleep. But this year almost every night I wake up in the middle of the night super hot. I then get to spend the rest of the night fight to find the right temperature to sleep. Usually once I get to sleep the temperature doesn't bother me that much, but I'm getting pretty sick of it. I just don't understand.

I'm Thankful for....Electricity

So we have had our first big snow storm in the valley for the year. I normally love the first snow of the season and want to go out and play in it. But this year I didn't have anyone to play with, plus this wonderful snow storm knocked out my power for SIX hours. I was pretty lucky in the fact that it was almost time for bed anyways so I just went to bed after awhile. The power didn't come back on until 4:30am. Then I got the pleasure of waking up to a FOOT of snow outside. I don't have church until 1:00pm so I didn't have to worry about too much of that. I'm so not ready for this much snow, I don't mind some snow, but this was down right crazy.

I'm Thankful For...

Family!!!! I love my family, I talk to some of my friends and they hardly ever talk to there parents or mention their family. I talk to my mom and dad like four times a week I would guess. It is hard with a family so spread out like mine is, but knowing I have several people that love me no matter what helps...a lot. I'm not going to pretend that I have the perfect family, because lets be honest, do any of us have a perfect family? No. But I do have parents that are amazing examples to me, and brothers and sisters that care about me and want to see me succeed in my life. I'm really lucky that I have a sister that only lives 45 minutes away, sometimes when I'm home sick I spend the weekend at her house. Most of the time we don't do anything grand or exciting, it is just nice to be around family every now and then. I wish it wasn't so expensive to fly, because then I would go home more than once a year, but I will have to take what I can get. I love my family.

Want to Smell like a Monster?

I needed a good laugh today

10-10-10

Man I haven't felt this bad in many many years...let's just say I spent most of the night in the bathroom and most of the day too weak to do anything.

Whatever Happened to Sportsmanship?

The high school I work at isn't know for having the best sports teams, yes we are pretty good at a few sports, but in general we aren't the greatest. The region we are in the last few years have two schools that really compete in almost ever sport and the rest of the region fights for third and fourth. Of these two schools, one is great at every stinkin' sport, but you know what, they are good sports. We we play them, we know they are going to fight hard, but they are going to show you some respect. The other school, the team that usually comes in second has the worst sportsmanship in the region be far. We had problems with them in Tennis, Soccer, and tonight in football I saw them do something very cheap. Starting the third quarter of the football game tonight the score was 17-7, with them leading. They got the ball and easily scored a touchdown making in 24-7. The following kick off, with them up by 17 points, and with us not really being able to do anything, they kick an on-side kick. About half way through the third quarter we had run one play and they had scored three touchdowns. It was like they couldn't be happy with just beating us, they needed to beat us down. Next week I believe they play the best team in the region that just happens to be ranked #3 in the country, I hope they get destroyed, so they know what it is like.

Two Compliments

I got two amazing compliments today totally without me fishing for them. We all like to be on the receiving end of compliments so it just makes your day go by some much better when you get one. First I was helping my student teacher get prepared for the day and another teacher came in to talk to me. I'm not sure how it came up, but the topic of being observed came up and the other teacher says that our mentor teacher always praises me. Whenever he talks the this teacher he suggests that he talk to me about some of the things I do in my class. I really didn't think my mentor teacher liked me that much, but I guess he does. Then tonight I was talking to another co-worker and he mentioned that another teacher had asked him who his favorite teacher in the school was and he sad ME. Crazy!!! I guess maybe I did pick the right profession after all.

Teacher Skit

This year I was asked to participate in the teacher skit performed during the homecoming assembly. We tossed around some different ideas, but we settled on the teachers "trying out" for the cheer leading squad. I'm not exactly sure how, but it turned into a boys v. girls thing, we thought the guys were going to cream us because they are guys. But when it came down to it, we creamed them, they didn't plan much and we practiced for two days. We had a funny cheer, a dance, and a stunt (of course it helped that we had the cheerleader coach on our team). All day Friday kids all around school were telling how funny it was and that I was the "best" cheerleader. I don't know if that is true, but it was fun either way

Faith in Mankind Restored...for the moment at least

This is Homecoming week at the school I work at. I love my job, I love my school, and I would do anything to help my school out. The last two nights I have been in charge of making sure the talents at the Homecoming Pageant were school appropriate. For the most part I didn't have to do much, there was a moment tonight that was a little scary, but I think it was alright. Normally these pageants are just glorified popularity contests, but tonight the most popular students didn't win, I was in shock. For example the Homecoming King was a kid I have never seen before, never heard his name, he had a great talent, and beat the two most popular football players to win. These football players are good kids for the most part, they are more talk than action. I figured they would be a little disappointed to lose to someone that was no where close to as popular as they are. But as I was walking out the school, I heard a group of guys singing along with a ukulele (we have a pretty big Polynesian population in my school so this was not the unusual part) backstage. As I was passing the door I could hear some lyrics and realized I knew the song, it then took me a second, but I realized that it was one of my favorite religious songs "O Lord, my Redeemer." I couldn't see who all was in the room, but I assume that these two football players were part of it since they were the only Polynesian guys in the pageant. I felt a little guilty, here I was thinking that they were going to be mad they lost to someone "beneath" them and they were seeing a beautiful song about Christ. I need to take a step back and learn a lesson from my students and think of Christ more in my life.

"Oh Lord, my Redeemer, Thou hast done so much for me! Oh Lord, my Redeemer, All my love I give to Thee."

One Minute Sermon

Amen to that....

My Kind of Pet

For some unknown reason I really wanted to get a pet. I actually thought about getting a dog. Living alone is great, but sometimes it would be nice to have someone excited when I come home. I almost got a dog, but realized that I'm not home enough to be a responsible dog owner. I finally came to my senses and I settled on getting some fish. I started off with two platy red wags, but sadly one died.

The first month or so of a new tank it is actually very dangerous for fish while the tank stabilize. My platy that survived is named Molly. After having Molly for about a week a friend convinced me to get a Betta with her.

So I got a Crowntail Betta, which looks a lot like this one and is named King Tut. He has his own tank, because I don't want him starting any fights with my other fish. After a month of my main tank stabilizing I got the water tested and they said it would be alright to add another fish to my tank, so I picked out a Dalmatian Lyretail Molly to join the Platy in the tank.

I'm having a hard time figuring out if I have a boy or a girl, so I'm not sure what to name it yet. So if any of you guys have any get ideas of unisex names for this fish it would be great. One of these days I will get good pictures of my actual fish instead of finding pictures of similar looking fish online.

BYU....# 3 Conservative School

The annual Princeton Review of the top ten party schools came out this week and again Brigham Young University received the honor "Stone Cold Sober" school. This is nothing new, BYU has earned this award for something like 13 years in a row, but this year I saw that they were ranked as the #3 Conservative school in the country. I have to ask, if BYU is 3, then which schools are 1 and 2? BYU also won the award for the most religious student body in the country, that is not a surprise since it is part of the honor code to go to church. I was just talking to a friend the other day how different BYU to other schools when it comes to sports. We are both big fans of SEC football and discussed some of the differences between BYU football and SEC football. Differences 1. size of stadiums...most SEC stadiums hold 80,000 people...LaVell Edwards Stadium might hold 60,000. Difference 2. tailgating, or the lack of tailgating. SEC schools have tailgating down to an art, I don't think I have ever seen one person tailgate at a BYU game. Difference 3. When you arrive at the game. SEC games fans are there several hours before the game starts, even if they are not tailgating. BYU, if you are there before the opening kick off then you are early. Difference 4. BYU has an opening prayer, do I really need to say more? Difference 5. How involved the fans are in the game, I'll let you decide which one you like better. I could go on forever, but that seems like a good enough list.

Where is the summer going?

I can't believe it is already the middle of July, that means I only have a few more weeks of total freedom. Everyone keeps asking me what I do with all my free time, and for the most part I respond with "Nothing." I work really hard for ten months so I have sit around and not do much for two months. In a few weeks tennis practice will start and I will be at school every week day until next June, I just can't wait. The month of June was hard because of all of my plans fell through, but July has been much more productive. I still haven't really done anything great and exciting for the summer, but I have done more than all of June combined. Sadly for the rest of the month I will be spend a little bit each day studying for a big ugly test that I have to take at the end of the month. But the good news is that this should be the last Praxis that I have to take, I just can't wait to have this over and done with. I just hope I pass it on my first try. I recently set up a fish tank to help make my house more like a home, I just have one fish right now though. I guess the first month or so of a fish tank is very dangerous for fish until it become more stable. So once I get a stable fish tank and more fish I will add pictures.

The Decision

This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. To understand it you would have had to watch that dumb interview when L. James announced that he was going to the Miami Heat. Enjoy.

Who Needs Sleep??

I have never been a person that struggles with sleeping for more than a few days, until recently. I miss the days when I would sleep through the night, maybe waking up twice and waking up feeling better than a walking zombie. The last two weeks the only time I have had a decent night sleep is when I was visiting my sister and I slept in my nephew's bed. I have been struggling not only getting to sleep but staying asleep. I have never been someone that falls asleep quickly so I'm used to that part, but fore the last two weeks I wake up some where between 10-15 times a night!!! Even when I do sleep I never sleep long enough to ever feel rested. This is suppose to be the time of year that I get to sleep in and stay up late, but now I'm just laying in bed all night wishing I could sleep. On time of it all, my house has east facing windows, so by 6:00am it is super bright in my room, which makes it even harder to sleep. I put up some curtains hoping that would block out some of the sun, which in does, but I guess it isn't quite enough.

Validation

I just love this, I know it is kind of long....but enjoy!!!

The Imperfect, Perfect Game

For those that know me well, know that I love sports. I'm one of those rare girls that actually likes watching, playing, or talking about just about any sport. Even though I love sports so often I am disappointed in athletes. They get paid to play a game, but it seems like you never hear about the good these athletes do and always hear about the bad things they get involved in. Yesterday a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, Armando Galarraga was one out from a perfect game, when the first base umpire totally blew a call and ruined Galarraga's perfect game. To pitch a perfect game means that not only does nobody get a hit, but nobody reaches base. There have only been 20 perfect games in the history of baseball---they are extremely rare (besides the fact there have already been two perfect games thrown this season). The average person, heck I would have been extremely mad if this umpire just cost me a shot at history. What happened instead shows what kind of man Galarraga is, instead of getting in the umpire's face and complaining, all Galarraga did was drop his head and walk back to the mound. The umpire has come out and apologized saying that he was wrong, but Galarraga held no hard feelings for this man. All too often athletes get caught up in there spot in history, here is a young pitcher that 24 hours ago hardly anybody knew his name, and today everyone is talking about him because he didn't react; he just went on and finished the game, he did his job. He may not get credit for a perfect game, but he sure did seal his spot in history.

Thanks 24

Recently I have been trying to look for positives in my life. To be honest I normally focus on the negatives, which isn't the best thing to do. Since my days of being 24 years old are quickly coming to a close, I wanted to remember why this was a good year for me.....

1. I bought a house, well a condo, but it is all mine
2. Due to a unexpected events, I bought a car
3. My boss showed me an extreme amount of respect, by assigning me a student teacher next year. Normally you aren't suppose to get a student teacher until you have four to five years experience, let's just say I haven't quite reached that point yet.
4. I went to a whole semester of Institute. I have never really been a fan of institute, but I finally found a teacher that I like and reminds me of my religion classes at BYU-Idaho.
5. My soccer team made the state playoffs!!
6. Got to see my nephew get baptized
7. I was called and released from the Relief Society Presidency
8. Had my second year in a row of perfect attendance at work
9. I became friends with a really amazing person, which I hope to remain friends for life
10. Last but not least, I survived one more year....

Daily Affirmation

This really makes me stop and think about all the stuff in my life I have to "like." One day I want to stand in front of the mirror and follow Jessica's example.

Down to single digits

I'm now down to EIGHT days left of this school year!!! Every year it is hard not to count down the last month of school or so, this year has been rough. I have been more excited for this year to be over even more than before. I don't have much planned for this summer, but I'm just excited to sleep in and relax. But I fear like every other summer, I will get sick of doing nothing. I used to love my birthday, it was always one of the first few days of my summer vacation, but now it is the last week of school. Which means I'm always more excited for the end of the school year rather than my birthday. This year, my birthday is the second to last day of school, which is yearbook day. Yearbook day is when the student come and get there yearbook, there isn't any classes, they just hang out get people to sign there yearbook. Which means I don't have to worry about students, it is the unofficial time to clean your classroom.

Thank You Uncle Sam!!

I recently got my tax refund back, I had to mail mine in because I bought a house (which means it takes forever to get the refund). My plans for my nice refund was to put most of it on the house and the use the rest for a fun vacation. Now that I had to buy a car, I put most of it on the car and some in savings to rebuild that account. It is amazing how fast that $8,000 can be used. But I'm not complaining, I was able to pay off half of my car in one payment. I have never really been in debt before this year so having two loans at the same time is a little scary to me. I want to pay off my car as quickly as I possibly can then I will be able to start paying more on my house. I could pay off my car pretty quickly if I got a roommate, but I'm not sure if I want one, I have rather enjoyed living by myself for the first time in my life.

P.S. there is less than 20 days of school left.... not that I'm counting down

Welcome to the Big Leagues

And the new head Tennis coach at Taylorsville High School is..................ME!! Things are getting tight in education, you can no longer teach and go home at 3:00 anymore. Being a young teacher, we are asked to do extra things, all in the name of job security. Young teachers all over the country can be found doing after school tutoring, working ticket stands, being club advisers, keeping score at basketball games, coaching, and teaching eight hours a day. Oh wait, that is all the things that I have done this year. But you know what, I LOVE me job, some days are better than others, but that is no different than any other job. Yes I put in extra hours doing odd jobs, but it also puts more food on my table. Recently my school as been looking for a new tennis coach for both the girls and boys teams, due to some personal and professional reasons I put my name in the hat for the job. Today I got the job, mainly because I'm the only one that showed interest in it. This means a few things: 1. I need to learn to play tennis 2. I have to figure out how to be a head coach 3. I cannot coach soccer anymore. I will miss the soccer girls, but I have to do what is best for me.

Donating Blood

I have always been one of those people that came up with some excuse why I couldn't give blood when my school did a blood drive. I knew that I should and that I really didn't have an excuse, but I just never did. I've never been a fan of needles, I'm not really afraid of them, but I don't like them, but really I can't think of one normal person that does like needles. My school had there annual blood drive today and for the first time in my life I donated blood!!! Many of my students were working at the blood drive and they convince me to do it. I will admit I was a little worried, but I know how to hide it. It was totally worth giving blood for all the snacks you get after. Although I didn't get sit around and relax very long because I had to get back to my room before lunch was over. Not only did I get some pretty sweet snacks, but they were also giving out t-shirts for anyone that donated, I guess they were trying to bribe the students. Most students that gave blood, simply did it because they wanted to get out of class.

Keepin' it Real

I was able to go to the Real Salt Lake home season opener....it was amazing. They celebrated winning the MLS Cup last year. Before the game they unveiled the Champions banner and gave all the players their rings, but once the game started it was down to business. We were controlling the ball and basically doing whatever we wanted to do. But just our luck Seattle scored on a counter-attack. We were able to tie it back up with an amazing header from Will Johnson. Again Seattle scored on a rather lucky goal to take the lead back. It looked like this was going to be the first time Real lost a open season opener ever. But in the 94th minute we scored to tie the game up with 30 seconds left in the game. The stadium was going crazy....

Leo the Lion getting the crowd pumped up before the game, he came over right in front of us. I guess he is a pretty good mascot, he often does backflips on the side lines.

When they put up the banner right before the game starting. It was cool to be there when they were celebrating a championship, especially in Salt Lake.

New Car

I reached that special time when the repairs of my car were going to cost more than the car was worth, so I knew it was time to get a new car. I normally freak out about making big decisions, like buying a car, but it was actually pretty good. I went to Carmax to see how much they would give me in a trade in, and the actually gave me more than the care was worth. I ended up buying a 2007 Nissan Sentra...

Why BYU grads would make good soldiers

General Petraeus recently spoke at BYU and gave a rather clever top ten list, I laughed pretty good at this one....

General Petraeus' Top 10 reasons BYU grads make good soldiers:

10 — They have already been on many a mission.

9 — Army chow is no problem for folks accustomed to eating green Jell-o and shredded carrots.

8 — It's not a problem if they don't know what rank someone is, they just refer to them as Brother or Sister so-and-so.

7 — They never go AWOL. They just call it being less active.

6 — They will seize any objective swiftly if you tell them refreshments will be served.

5 — They know how to make things happen. In fact if you ever need a base built quickly in a barren wasteland, stride out to where you want them to start, plant your walking stick down and say in a loud voice, "This is the place."

4 — They have innovative ideas for handling insurgents — like assigning them home teachers.

3 — They always have a years' supply of provisions on hand.

2 — They are the world's most reliable designated drivers.

1 — They understand how far Iraq has come over the last seven years, and they think that Iraq's old spot in the "Axis of Evil" can now be filled by the University of Utah.

Adult?

I know I have officially been an adult for several years now, but I have never really thought that I was an adult. But alas I think the time has finally come....I received my very first Ensign in the mail this week. I have never been a big reader of the Ensign, so I didn't see the point in buying it, plus one of my roommates always ordered it. I felt that I should get for my house now that I don't have any roommates that have it and maybe I will even learn to enjoy reading it too. No promises though. Life in the new house has been great, I really enjoy living by myself for right now, so as long as I can afford it and save some money I think I'm going to continue to stick it out by myself. This has been a very busy year for me, but it has been a great year as well. A few weeks ago my parents came out for my nephew's baptism, but they stayed with me. I'm not around family too often so it was really nice to be mom and dad's little girl again. I was sad to see them go, but I knew they had to get back to there life.

It's Too Late....

This is one the the funniest things I have seen in a long time, enjoy.

Brrr..........

It's cold in here!!! Well I have moved most of my stuff over to my condo, but the problem is that after I moved my bed and stuff I realized that I hadn't called to turn on the heat. Then I learned that the gas company isn't open on the weekend so I have had to live in my house with no heat for the last two days and that might continue on for a few more days. I wish I had just done it last week, I thought about it, but I just never got around to it. Sleeping is actually kinda nice, I bundle up under a bunch of blankets and after awhile I'm not cold. The problem is when I'm just doing random things around the house. I've been pretty lucky though, it hasn't been too cold this weekend so even without heat it has been about 58-59 degrees. It could be much worse so I will take it.



I people keep asking me for more pictures of my place. Right now boxes are every where, so I think I might wait until some of them are gone at least. But here is my new couch!!!

Home Sweet Home

I finally have my own home, it took four months for the sale to go through, but I'm so excited. I closed on Tuesday and got my keys on Wednesday. I went yesterday to just check out the place, there was some drama getting into the building. Thirty minutes later I finally got into the building and got to move in a few things.

Snuggles was of course the first thing I moved in. Snuggles has been my friend for 23 years.

Here is a view of my kitchen. More pictures will come as soon as I move more stuff in and decorate some.

Updates from Haiti

The Institute I go to has a forum after classes on Wednesday nights, each week they get someone from church leadership to come and talk to us. This week we had Elder John K.Carmack, an Emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, who is the presently serving as Managing Director of the Perpetual Education Fund. Elder Carmack told us some amazing stories of the good the Perpetual Education Fund is doing, it has currently helped over 40,000 people in 42 countries. But he also gave an update from Haiti, so far they have 17 confirmed members of the church that did not survive the earthquake and every single one of the church buildings are still standing. Since these church buildings are some of the few that are still in decent condition they are serving as shelters to thousands of people. The church also has had tons of aid, food, clothes, doctors, you name it, on the ground in Haiti for several days already.

Don't Go Outside!!!

Welcome to Salt Lake City, home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Utes, and the country's worst polluted air in North America. Seriously we have the worst air quality that I have ever seen. We have had bad inversion before, but the last couple of days you could actually taste the crap in the air. I think I might be getting lung cancer just by walking from my car to my house. Don't you just love Utah? I know I do.....

Welcome 2010!!!

Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2010:

I love the Olympics!!!! Honestly I do like the summer Olympics more than the winter Olympics, I can just sit in front of the T.V. and watch the amazing athletes all day. One day I will go to the Olympics, I haven't been able to accomplish that goal, but it is on my bucket list.

Another bucket list item is going to the World Cup. In 2009 I was able to go to a World Cup qualifying game, and that was amazing!

I think my only hope of ever going to the World Cup is if the U.S. A. gets to host it again.

This year I actually do get to cross of one thing from my bucket list.....finally. I grew up with two older brothers and two older sisters, which most of them LOVED the band U2. So that meant that I grew up listening to this awesome band...the funny thing is that very few of the people my age love U2.

I've said for years that I would pay good money and travel to see a U2 concert and this year I'm finally going to do it. This year my sister is going to meet me in San Francisco to go the concert and have a fun vacation. I just can't wait.

Of course I have many other things that I'm looking forward to this year, one being buying a condo and finally owning my own place after renting for a few years. I'm actually hoping that this happens in the next few weeks, but it has been a mess and I can't wait to get this over with.