Word.

There are very few things in this world that are as deeply, intrinsically, lastingly satisfying to me than finding those perfect words to describe exactly how I feel or what I think at any given moment about any given thing. Words are a beautiful and dangerous and mystifying thing to me. I love to play with them, throw them around, taste them and figure out which ones are delicious. I appreciate how people put them together to make a whole thought, or how they omit a few to let our imaginations take over, or, like the poets, how they switch them around and create new ones until you have a brand new playground on which your senses and imagination can sprawl and soar. I love learning new words and new ways to describe the old ones. Words are just about one of my favorite things. It's why I love to read, to write, to scrapbook, to sing, to explore, to listen, to dream.

It's probably one of my best qualities, this passion for words. Especially as a teacher. My enthusiasm for words is almost contagious, once I get rolling on and on about it. I think everyone ought to have a few favorite words to whip out of their pockets now and then.

There's a fantastic little book that explores this idea. Kenya's Word, by Linda Trice and illustrated by Pamela Johnson, is the newest addition to my book collection. In it, Kenya delves through all the words that mean anything to her until she finds exactly the right word to sum up her entire existence. I'll let you discover what that word is for itself, but if you're a word-lover like me, you should check out this little picture book and see where your tongue takes you. :)

Bolt!

Paul and I went to the movies last night to watch "Bolt," and being the puppy-lover that he is we had a great time watching it! Laughs from start to finish, and totally cute. It was a little more intense than I had imagined it (the whole "TV series" bit at the beginning and some of the climax at the end was a little scary for some of the smaller kids in the theater), but the rest of it was simply adorable and funny and I highly recommend it! Rhino, the hamster, is probably my favorite...but of course, Paul loves Bolt and now wants a puppy just like him! I told him we'd talk in a few years, once we've settled a little more. :)

Bolt is TOTALLY AWESOME!!! :)

50th post...let's have cake!

And in honor of my 50th post, I'm now going to sum up all of my feelings at this exact moment in exactly 50 words:

Angst, wretched student teaching--where, how?

Excitement, I bought a signed copy of Black and White for less than five bucks.

Peace, the season of peace is upon us.

Jealousy, more friends with mission calls!

Confidence, I am a good teacher and person.

Disconcerted without my better half here.

Blessed.

I don't want to grow up!!!

This is where I belong today!!! It's just been one of those days, with both classes and work, and there are some HUGE and important decisions to make about my education that I feel totally unqualified to make but that might change my entire professional, marital, and personal life. Worse yet, there's a tight time limit to these decisions such that I have to figure out the next few years of my life (and my husband-to-be's, too) within the next 2 weeks! Sometimes, I miss the days of neighborhood sports, water wars, "big kids" vs. "little kids", and homework where fractions were the worst of my problems and where everything had a "right" answer!

Block III...Week 12 of my captivity. :)

So, the semester is 3/4 the way over and I'm still completely swamped and confused and haven't really found my "rhythm" yet...is that a bad thing? I've hit a brick wall and can't seem to get over it. Block III, which is basically one of six "blocks" of classes we have to take for the education program here (the sixth being our student teaching semester), is intense and is known throughout all of Purduehood as the semester from...Haides. I may have mentioned this earlier. But I digress. It's been a challenging semester and these last 4-5 weeks of classes really only intensify all of my anxieties about the many projects and assignments left to do and all my frustrations with my classmates who are unprofessional and are taking it out on everyone else and are spending all their time whining about it and are just plain driving me mad. If I were a violent person, I'd have smacked half of them today.

Not all of this semester has been awful, though. In fact, some really wonderful things have happened, both because of and in spite of my classes. My social studies instructor challenged us last week to name good things that have happened, outside of the classroom, during this semester so that we could remember that life will pass us by if we live only for school...and to show us that in the midst of bad things, good things are always happening. I'd like to take a moment and mention ten really good things that have happened this semester so far, as I am procrastinating doing all of my Block III assignments just a little longer (and I think it's a really good exercise in optimism, which I could use right now):

(1) Of course, I got engaged. That's a ridiculously good thing that's happened to me. :)

(2) I started this semester with one overarching personal goal for my professional life: to gain confidence as a teacher. I'd spent a lot of semesters in the past as a student, trying not to step on toes and trying to follow in other teacher's expectations, being timid and shy in their presence. I dreaded the idea of the mentor teacher actually watching me teach a lesson in his/her classroom to his/her students. But this semester, thanks to working at Klondike and thanks to my TIP mentor teacher, I have gained a ridiculous amount of teaching experience and have gained that professional confidence that I always wanted to have.

(3) Along those lines, my TIP mentor teacher at Otterbein offered to have me student teach with her in a year or so...I haven't made up my mind yet whether or not I want to accept the offer, but it's there and I am GRATEFUL. (I also have teachers requesting I continue with them next sememster at work, which makes me feel pretty good.)

(4) That beast of a paper that's worth half my grade in children's literature? Pretty much aced it. No, really, my T.A. even pulled me aside and asked me for pointers to share with the class. I was STOKED!

(5) My dad's still alive and, remarkably enough, still working. With all the ups and downs of cancer treatments (and admittedly we're in a "down" at the moment), he's still alive. It has reminded me yet again how precious and fleeting life is and how much of a miracle every day we get to spend on earth is...and how important family is, how stupid little things should not get in the way of our enjoying our time together while we still have it.

(6) I discovered that savings bond that is literally going to SAVE me in tough financial times! Yay for the blessings of paying a full and honest tithe!

(7) I got a new calling at church, compassionate service leader, that has helped me get more involved with people outside of my own circle and put my talents of compassion, creativity, and organization to good use while I start up several programs to help the sisters in our ward, programs with a purpose that will be easily carried on when I leave and have to pass on the baton in May.

(8) I discovered the Dot Game on Facebook, and now have a quick and painless pasttime whenever classes or work overwhelm me. :)

(9) Even though children's lit is an awful class, I've been introduced to literature that is interesting and diverse and, more importantly, introduced to new resources for FINDING interesting literature that I will use, in the classroom and at home.

(10) I got to have a LOT of fun with holidays, birthdays, and planning for Christmas presents, all of which made getting through the not-so-fun days worth it!

*Whew* Okay, that was hard. But I feel better now. Better enough, even, to go finish my homework now. So, farewell, fair blogger...until the next post! This is omaroma, over and out.

I'm rich, beyond all imagination! :)

Okay, not really. But several weeks ago Charissa and I were rummaging through Mom's genealogy bin (where anything and everything of value stays hidden!) and we discovered a $1,000 U.S. savings bond in my name, issued from my high school upon graduation. I did a little research, and it turns out that it is currently worth over $600! Considering the fact that it is "free money" and that wedding stuff has made me into a penny-pincher, and that I've had to sacrifice a few small things (like getting contacts or my license reinstated) in order to pay for things like rent and food, I have decided that it's worth cashing in now. So on Monday after work, I'm going to be rich! And then poor again, because I already know exactly how I'm going to spend it:

(1) Tithing

(2) License reinstatement ($150)

(3) Contacts (about $150)

(4) Table/linen rentals ($120)

(5) Christmas presents!

Miracles happen, folks!

Wedding Plans!!!

With school and work taking up SOOOO much time, I'm really glad I had some advance notice about this whole engagement thing so I could get a few things out of the way early on in the semester. I just thought I'd share a few fun pictures to kind of give you the sense of wedding plans and such...so here you go. More updates to follow, I'm sure!

The Washington, D.C. temple...which I love. :)
I'm still playing around with hair ideas...above, I love the one on the right for a "hair down" look, and the girl even kinda looks like me! :) But I'm not sure how to attach my gorgeous veil in that one...so maybe something like what I have below?

The flowergirl bouquet is the first one I made, and I have to admit I'm a little jealous of it! :) I'd never really done much flower arranging before doing my own bouquets so it was a great learning experience and a fun new thing to do. I found ridiculously cheap silk flowers for wholesale prices plus free shipping at the time I bought them, so for anyone who needs fake flowers for any occasion check out afloral.com! They were SO nice and SOOOOO fast, and their flowers are the most real-looking I've found yet.

Since Paul & I are paying for our own wedding and reception and everything, I've actually become an amazing online shopper. I found this flowergirl dress, which not only was the right colors but also had the ribbon element that all of our dresses will have as well as a little daisy right on the dress, for a total of $10.00! It looks GORGEOUS with the bouquet, and knowing how my niece loves to dress up, she's going to have a ball with it!
This is a really bad shot of the bridesmaid bouquet...of which I had to make 5! :) It was a challenge incorporating all of my favorite flowers into a unified bouquet, but these little handy things turned out great and they had a little bit of a tear-drop shape, which I'm stoked about because I'm going to have a cascading bouquet myself. I'm too scared yet to make my own bouquet, but all the rest are made!

Even though it's on the pricey side, I LOVE this wedding dress so I'm buying it! :) I'll rip off that button that's in the way of the bow/ribbon, and wear it for all my bridal photos and the reception.

Keeping in the theme of classic, almost '50's elegance and ribbon accents, here's a snapshot of the bridesmaids' and maid-of-honor's dress (imagine it in a light petal pink with a lighter pink or yellow ribbon, white bolero and white shoes!):

Remember this ring? :) Well, the square thing has totally caught on...I know own matching jewelry, including a watch, necklace, and earrings! And Paul and I are a little "square" sometimes ourselves...so we're keeping the square thing going with our cake:
It'll look something like this but a little plainer and with only 3 tiers...and our own cake topper at the top. Of the cake. 'Cause that's where cake toppers go. Hence the name. :)

Anywho, that's it for now. I'm sure that as breaks and such come up in my schedule I'll have more time to plan, and to show off my plans! This is omaroma, over and out.

I voted!

I love the little sticker that you get when you vote. It seriously makes me happy inside. I think someone out there knew that if I had to wait in line for an hour to cast my presidential vote and didn't get SOME sort of prize at the end, I...well, I'd probably still do it, but not as heartily. :) It's not that I'm not a woman of personal conviction. I'm just also a person who still gets excited about stickers. That's why I'm in elementary education. :)

Moving ON...

I must admit, I'm not sure how I feel about the election. Yes, I actually voted for Obama, and there's a huge part of me that's partying right now. But there's also a really annoying and big part of me that was hesitant about the decision, because, let's face it, the election was more about picking the lesser of two evils. When you're politically moderate-liberal, some things are a bit much to chew or swallow on either side and when the last weeks of the election drew near all anyone had to say was degrading and character-attacking. I'm not into the metaphorical mud-slinging. If there's mud to be slung, let it be real, gooey, dirty mud, and let it be slung at a friend. :)

The point is, I'm proud that we had such a HUGE turnout to vote in our country. I'm proud that so many historical barriers have been broken with this election. I'm proud of the way McCain handled his defeat. I'm proud of Obama for his idealism. Now is where the rubber meets the road, and without going into a huge political discourse that no one really cares about, I think it will be very interesting to see exactly how much change ends up happening, and in what direction. The good news, folks, is that in the end if we don't like it we can always change. That's the beauty of short-term presidencies. So if your guy didn't win, well, Obama's OUR guy now, so let's make the most of it!

Halloween 2008--the year of the Wiz

I hereby dub this Halloween the year of the Wiz...not only did Paul & I get together with close friends and try to fill out as many of the characters as possible for our costume contest (which we won, p.s.), but my niece and two little brothers also dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters and won the Boo at the Zoo costume contest. Some things are just a classic...

We had a murder mystery dinner party at the Institute, which was just a lot of fun. I had actually never done one like this before, so it was a good experience. There were SOOOO many great costumes, I wish everyone could have won something! But I guess some of those will just have to be filed away for future ideas. Anywho, it was a fun day, even though I am now quite sick and tired all the time. It's a new month. Who knows what wonders will happen? :)

In other news, I successfully managed to finish all of my crazy assignments over the past weeks (which were MANY) and to get the heat fixed. I also managed to make it through my first month of being engaged! I wish I knew how to enjoy the moment more and not get all stressed out about all the hard stuff in preparing for a wedding. I wish even more that I knew what to do to prepare better for the temple and for marriage. *sigh* Why can life just be perfect all the time? :)

Fire, Anyone?

This ^ is how I feel.

No heat in our apartment.

No hot beverages.

A front door to the apartment that doesn't shut properly.

Sunlight in all the wrong places and at all the wrong times.

Paul bought us each a small space heater, but we can only plug one in at a time or we trip the circuit breaker...

I may resort to building a fire in my living room just so Charissa and I can stay warm.