New Year

Welcome 2014!!  I know it has only a few weeks old, but I am determined to make 2014 a great year.  Last year was pretty much amazing, so 2014 has a lot to live up to if it is going to be even better.  So far I have really nothing to report, but nothing bad to report either.  

So far my goal has been to work on improving myself.  I have been good at working out the last few years, but there is always room for improvement.  Where I need to work on though is eating healthier.  I have the problem after I work out then I over eat right after.  So that is where I'm at, controlling my desire to over eat after a long work out session, so I don't cancel all the hard work I do at the gym.

Along with eating better, I have been working on getting up on time.  I am a big fan of the snooze button, and I have always struggled to get up.  It's like I can't get myself out of bed unless it is the last possible moment before I'm late.  So far, I have been better at getting up, lets hope it continues.

2013

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time.  I guess I am the only person that used Google Reader, so now that it is gone, I don't remember to look at blogs or post.

Here are the highlights to my 2013 year:

1. Running-  I have become a runner, not a fast runner, but a runner.  I was running on the tredmill some the first have of the year, then in July my family convinced me to do a 5K that was a downhill course.  I ended up running it will my sister trying to help her, but I really enjoyed it, so I signed up for another 5K.  From July to December I have ran six 5K races, and I plan on continuing to run.

2. Europe- I was blessed to go to Europe twice in 2013, I went to France in Feburary and Greece, Italy, and Spain in June.  The second trip, I was a group leader of a group of about 13 people (mostly students) taking an education trip to Europe.  It had it's stressful moments, but it was so much fun and I can't wait to go again this summer.  I never was a big fan of Paris before I went, now I totally get why Paris is so popular.  Paris was amazing, beautiful, and timeless.

3. Bucketlist item- Ever since college, one of my bucketlist items was to go to Florence, Italy.  Most people do not understand my extreme love for Florence.  Florence is where the Renassiance began and where some of the greatest artists lived.  The Renassiance was all about celebrating life and tryinng to enjoy life after the plague had wiped out so much of Europe.  Part of going to Florence was getting to see the David statue.  It was literally breathtaking.

4.Mom survived another year- My mom has had a rough year, and a few scares.  Some how she pulls through, and I have gotten another year with this amazing women.  I know I may not have that much more time with her, but I will take every moment I can get.

5. Dad running- My dad has been trying to get in better shape the last two years, I finally convinced him to 5K with me.  So on Dec 28, my dad ran his first 5K in 36:30.  He did amazing and actually enjoyed it and said he might do another one when it gets warmer in the spring.

BRING ON 2014!!!!!!!

Spring has Sprung....almost

I have been dog sitting the last week, which may sound odd for me.  My sister went out of town and I have been watching her dog for her.  Belle is the only dog I would EVER dog sit for, she is amazing.  I would get a dog, if I knew she would turn out like Belle.  Anyways,  because I have a dog, I have to take her for a walk a few times a day.  We don't go anywhere special, just around the complex that I live in, but I we have walked I have noticed something.  Spring is here!!!

The week started off cold and wet, there were very few signs of spring on Monday and Tuesday.  As the week went on I could tell that spring was indeed on its way.  As I would walk around I would notice the tree went from nothing, to little buds, to starting to bloom, and some even have leaves growing again.  I am amazed at how fast the world was coming back to life.  I love spring...my allergies don't, but I love spring.  I love seeing the flowers and the green grass, the birds flying around.  After winter, it is nice to see things coming back to life again.

Maybe tomorrow I will take some pictures...we even have some ducks in the pond next to my building.  I love it.

Tennis

The boys tennis season is in full swing and things are going better than last year.  We still are having some challenges, but for the most part things are better.  Right now we are 1-2 for the season, but one of the losses was very close.

The last two days I have spent large amounts of time at the tennis courts.  Yesterday I think the count was six hours.  I played some for about an hour or maybe just 45 minutes.  Then I watched some of my team play each other and then I played some again at the end.  It was a beautiful day, that is the only reason I stayed as long as I did.  In fact I got a very small sun burn yesterday.  I don't have any friends that play tennis, so if I ever want to play it has to be with students, so I had to take advantage of it while I could yesterday.  It is odd to think that I am starting to really like tennis.  I enjoy just rallying (hitting) than playing a real match, but I have liked learning a new skill.

Hello February

I don't think I have ever been so happy to see January be over and February to come.  Even though I don't have a specific reason why January was tough, it just was. Maybe because we got twice as much snow as normal, or the fact the average high temp in January was 19 degrees....but no event that made it rough.  I even had a vacation in January, so I don't know why I'm complaining.

I look forward to February for one BIG reason...I finally get a stamp on my passport!!!  I will be going to France for a few days in two weeks.  I am starting to get super excited and stressed at the same time.  I have already had a few dreams about not making my flight or something going wrong with this trip.  I know it is going to be a crazy adventure, I mean who goes to France over the weekend???  I doubt I will ever adjust to the new time and I hope it doesn't rain the whole time.  Even if it does, I will get to see the Mona Lisa in person.  I teach about that painting every year and now I finally get to see it. 

I never would have imagined that France would be the first stamp on my passport, but now that it is going to happen I'm happy with it.  I have always said I didn't want Canada or Mexico to be the first place I go.  Well I guess France isn't the first place, in high school I went to the Bahamas...but I don't count that.  You didn't even need a passport then.

Give me about another week and then I will really start to stress out.  I'm really worried about sleeping on the plane.  I don't sleep on planes, but I know if I don't, I'm going to struggle.  We land at 8:30 in the morning and hit the ground running, no naps, no nothing.  I'm the type of person that if I don't get sleep, I actually get sick.  So that is the last thing I need is to make myself sick from not sleeping.  So if anyone has any good ideas on how to rest on a plane, let me know.

Baby it's cold outside

I know winter in Utah can be rough, but this just doesn't seem fair. The entire year so far has been freezing, as in, literally freezing. I believe it has only gotten above freezing once all year. Today I woke up to 1degree outside. And I know it was much colder other places this morning. Do you know how hard it is to get out of bed when its 1degree? Almost impossible...and the high today was only 12degrees, this is just down right mean. I can't wait to get out of this place soon and spend a couple days in the warm Southern California weather!!!!

End of the year

2012 has been a roller coaster for me. Here is some of the ups and downs from the year.
1. Started off the year with getting dumped on Jan 1... Great start right
2. Worked crazy hours for five months, picking up teaching an extra class
3. Volunteered at an Ironman that my brother was doing
4. Went to the temple
5. Got to experience the hottest week in South Carolina history when I visited in July
6. Fell in love
7. Paid off my car
8. Had my heart broken, with a terrible experience I hope nobody has to deal with
9. One of my tennis players came in second in region
10. Another made Academic All-State
11. Finally got cable in my home
12. My dishwasher broke
13. Lived through another end of the world scare
14. Got to spend Christmas with my amazing parents
15. Crossed off two things off my bucket list.

I hope 2013 is a great is I dream it will be

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of 2012

Christmas Time

I love Christmas time, it is one of my favorite times of the year.  I look forward to putting up the tree and listening to wonderful music.  I have always been more of a giver than a receiver of gifts...this year more than ever.  I can think of perfect gifts for everyone but me, I literally can't come up with anything for my parents to get me.  A couple of days ago I think I figured out why I don't even want to think about gifts for me.

Few times of the year are harder for me, that reminds me that I'm single than Christmas.  I have been making or buying gifts that would be great for my sister's family or my brother's family and I don't have anyone.  Knowing this, my mind protects me and just won't allow me to think about gifts for me, because everything just seems so silly.  I know I have had an amazing life, I have a great career, a home, a car, etc., but to be honest...it is getting tough to not have anyone to share my life with. I have even been in a tough stretch where I don't have many friends, for one reason or another they have disappeared over the last six months; so I literally don't have anyone to share experiences with.  My family is great and they do their best to make sure they know I'm not alone, but some days are hard...especially this time of the year.

On a brighter note, I can't wait to see my dad open his perfect gift.  I really do think I hit a home run with his present this year.

Election 2012

So on Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012...I finally did something I have tried to do for the last two elections.... VOTE.  I know, I'm a history teacher how could I have never voted?  I have ok excuses, but non that really mean anything, mainly I didn't care in the last election.  This year, even though I again did not have strong feelings for the people running for president I did have a decent opinion for my Representative in Congress.  One person running wanted to pretty much get rid of the Department of Education, as a teacher that scared me.  So I mainly voted for that reason, and the person I wanted won.

What scares me is the reaction people have had over the outcome of the election.  I understand that I live in a very Republican state, so most of the state was disappointed in the outcome of the election.  But I heard all kinds of statements from my students that shocked me.  I know they only said it because they heard it at home.  I had to explain to several students that even if Romney had won that President Obama, would still be president until Jan.  They were in total shock...and were still planning on moving to Canada.  Others were bragging that Obama won, then I would ask them why they liked Obama and they couldn't come up with anything real.  Sometimes I worry about our future.

Update

I know it has been FOR-EV-ER since my last post...trust me I have good reasons.  The first six weeks of school are crazy busy for me every year.  I work insane amount of hours and I don't have much time for anything else.  The tennis season ended up very well, we went 6-4 as a team and qualified for State.  We aren't good enough to compete in the playoffs, but we were excited to represent Taylorsville.  We actually had a girl in JV go undefeated this year, so I'm super excited to see her improve and play next year.

After tennis was over I had a small nervous break down.  I learned one more way that guys can be not worth the time or effort to get to know them.  I don't want to get into the details, but I have had a rather unlucky streak of really bad guys in my life.  But I do believe this last one takes the cake.  I'm glad I found out about everything now and not later, when it would have been incredibly awkward.  I'm very thankful for all my family and friends that have helped me through this crazy ordeal, which I hope nobody else every has to go through.

I am re-focusing my life, and I am finally feeling better about the situation.

Sick

Being a teacher, I am exposed to just about every sickness out there... and for the most part I stay pretty healthy.  I really don't get sick very often, this year I have been "blessed" to get two different stomach viruses in the same year.  Before this year, I can't even remember the last night I had a stomach sickness.  Sunday night began my most recent experience.  I had gotten about an hour of sleep before I was forced awake by a pain in my tummy.  At first it wasn't bad, I spit up a little, nothing much...I thought that I was done with it.  Then about twenty minutes later it really hit me and I was in severe pain for the rest of the night.  Now for those of you that haven't had the pleasure to be in the same country mile as me when I was sick you wouldn't know that I am extremely loud when I throw up.  I think this one though was a new all time record...I actually lost my voice.  I think this is the first time that I lost my voice ever in my life and it wasn't even from anything cool.

Normally after you are done throwing up you start feeling better right?  WRONG!!!  I still had major stomach pain all day, it got so bad that I actually went to the doctor.  That is a pretty big thing for me, I have to be on my death bed before I go to the doctor.  After getting some medicine I finally got some sleep, Tuesday morning I woke up feeling much better...but my voice was almost completely gone at this point.  Today, I'm still a little weak, but I would say I'm at about 85%...and my voice is getting stronger.  This is one of the worst stomach viruses I have ever had, I hope I have hit my quota for the year.  Being sick is the worst, but being sick while alone is just about the worst thing I can think of.

Free at Last

Summer is officially here!!!  Well, I guess it has been here for a few days, but anyways...My summer is quickly filling up.  I have this first week free, kinda.  Next week I begin taking a two week long "Teaching American History" class, which means this week I am trying to get all the reading done.  I have like seven books to read, it is going to be tough to get it all done.  Every day I think of something else I am suppose to be doing, I'm trying to get most of the reading done before the class starts.  I really don't want to be in class from 8:00-3:00 every day and then come home to massive amounts of homework.  It would be easier if it was about topics that I enjoyed reading about in American history.  So far it has been about "western expansion", yawn...

Yesterday I woke up with a massive pain in my back, the night before my back hurt some, but not a ton.  The next morning was a totally different story though.  I spent most of the day laying around watching t.v. (I know I should have been reading), it was pretty miserable.  Thankfully this morning the pain had almost gone away, it was nice to be able to move around again.  I still have no clue what I did to hurt it, but I'm hoping every day it will get better and I can get back to my normal routine.

Last Monday

Today is the last Monday of the school year!!! Only seven more days to go. I'm excited to be able to sleep in more than anything else.

Spinster in the Making

I've always had to the hope and dream of one day finding my "happily ever after," but today I came to a realization... it's not going to happen.  This has been a really tough year for me, I would say the second worst year of my life, behind 2009; and I'm done.  I'm done pretending to believe that I will ever find someone that will make me happy.  I'm done hoping that one day I will have someone to talk to when I come home, someone to eat dinner with.  I talk to friends and they tell me about someone they have met or someone they have a crush on, etc. and I'm here forever stuck in the same spot.  There is NO single guy in my life, every guy I work with is married, NOBODY talks to me at church or institute...where am I suppose to meet people?  I work 12 hours a day for five days a week for the last two months.  I would like to blame my crappy life on my work schedule, but it nothing has really changed.  Even if I just worked eight hours a day, I would still come home to an empty house, no missed calls on my phone, and nobody thinking about me.  I visited a friends ward today and it just came to me... I'm going to be single forever.  I'm so sick of hearing "you are so special and amazing, you deserve someone really great."  I'm sick of people giving me dating advice when they got married at 21 and have no idea what it's like to be alone.  I don't understand why none of my hopes and dreams can never come true.  Through out the years, I have tried to keep a positive attitude that one day it would be my turn and it would all make since, not any more.  I'm going to accept the fact that I'm going to be a spinster.  I'm seriously considering going to a family ward for church, why go to a Young Single Adult ward when nobody will talk to me.  Nothing says I'm giving up on ever getting married like going to a family ward before you get kicked out of a single adult ward.  Even my students see it, they want to make me an online dating profile so they can find me a husband.  It's pretty sad when sophomores are starting to feel sorry for you.  That's right sophomores can see how pathetic I am...my life is just amazing.

Plan Ahead...Never

I filled out my time card on Friday for the extra class I teach and I worked an extra 38 hours this month, and that is just in the classroom teach. That doesn't include prep time before school, at home, or the two hours of tennis practice each day. I think I have gotten a little to used to working crazy hours because on the weekends I don't know what to do with myself. If something doesn't HAVE to be done, then it simply doesn't get done. I have gotten to a point where I only worry about today, and maybe the next day, but that is it. I've usually been a person that plans for the future, at least some what, but now, nope. For example, I have a "black-tie optional" event to go to tomorrow, I have known about this for a few months now, did I go shopping for a dress for it??? Nope, not until today. I don't know if my dress is "dressy" enough, but it will have to do. It was hard to shop for actually. I'm going to a wedding that is at the top of a mountain...which means cold and snow, but the reception is inside. I had no idea what to get, but I bought a really cute dress and it will just have to do. Well wish me luck

The Social Butterfly

This week I did something crazy...I went to a ward activity!!! I will be honest I didn't want to go, but the idea of free food got me. I went and things started off kind of rocky, but after a while a friendly face came as well and we talked through dinner. After dinner they played random games, ping pong, dodge ball, basketball, pool...ok so I didn't play pool, but I enjoyed the rest of the games. I may not have found a new best friend or anything, but I left that evening feeling better about myself and the ward in general. I know I just need to give this ward a chance...it is just easier said than done. I am thinking of even going to Family Home Evening this week, I know crazy right.

Working Out

From Nov 2010 to about May 2011, I worked really hard to lose some weight. I would work out at home and I would use the gym at my school. Once school got out I lost most of my motivation. This year for Christmas one of my brothers, a sister, and me got together and donated to a fund to help pay for my dad to job a gym. He has been talking about doing it forever, so we figured if we helped pay for it, he would feel guilty if nothing else. Once I got home from my Christmas break I was having a really rough couple of weeks, due to many many reasons and I wanted a way to help get rid of some of my frustration. I out of the blue stopped by the Planet Fitness that is right across the street from my school (they are by far the cheapest gym around) and the next thing I knew I was signing up. I'm really glad I did it, I don't know if I'm losing any weight, but I at least feel better about myself. One of these days I will work up the nerve to weigh myself, I wanted to work out a few weeks before I weighed myself so I wouldn't know how much weight I've gained. Anyways, I've worked out six days a week for the last two weeks in a row. That is pretty big for me because I have been working some crazy hours recently. I just hope I can keep it up, the tennis season starts soon and I will have even less time to work out.

MLK Day Sickness

So I celebrated MLK Jr. day with having the day off of work and getting an extremely nasty virus. I went down to my sister's house to spend the long weekend with family, I haven't had the easiest of times recently and just wanted to relax. They didn't realize it but one of there children brought home a virus from school on Wednesday and missed school Thursday. They didn't think much of it since nobody else got sick right away. Come Saturday my brother-in-law got it and then Monday it was my turn. Thankfully I knew it was only a 24 hour bug, or I don't know if I would have made it. This thing totally kicked my trash...I even had to call in sick, which I NEVER do. There was a point last night were I was almost too weak to make it to the bathroom, at that point my family forced me to drink something, even if I was just going to throw it up. I spent the day laying on the couch, I took a shower and I couldn't do anything else for like two hours after I was so exhausted. Anyways I'm finally feeling almost normal again.

Who Needs Sleep

Ever since I returned home from my holiday vacation I have yet to get a good night sleep. It doesn't help that I have a lot on my mind and can't seem to turn off my mind in order to go to sleep. Anyways, this week has been exhausting simply because I can't sleep. I get into bed on time (well some days) and then I need up laying there for a couple of hours before I fall asleep. Then I'm a walking zombie the next day, I think there is no possible way that I won't sleep tonight since I'm so sleepy already....WRONG. Yesterday it got to the point where I had to take a nap after school or I really would not be able to function much longer. And of course because I took a nap, it meant I didn't sleep last night. Oh well, I guess my body just hates me.

11/11/11

I hope everyone made a big wish at 11:11 this morning. I know I did...