Just a quick little update from your favorite Hoosier. :)
Student teaching is going very well. I love my teacher, I LOVE my kids, and I LOVE TEACHING! It is totally what I was meant to do, in whatever capacity I can do it. Nothing gives me a rush as much as a lesson that goes well. Nothing. It's hard to believe I've only been doing this for a month...it feels like SO much longer!
I've applied recently for a student teaching scholarship, and if I win I get $75 to go towards my classroom. I want to buy some chemistry supplies for my kids to use during my chemistry unit coming up in about a month and a half, because THEY DON'T DO SCIENCE AT THIS SCHOOL!!! Well, you know I can't have that. So keep your fingers crossed for me! $75 could buy at least a few materials for the kiddos to use, and if I don't win, it's all coming out of my own pockets. Which wouldn't kill me, but still.
Pretty much everything in my life right now revolves around student teaching in one way or another. Assignments, lesson plans, staff meetings, traveling 1 1/2 hours a day, units, seminars...and sometimes I try to sleep, too. Sometimes. :)
Let's see, what else? ...
Obsidian is finally learning to listen to us...squirt bottles really are the best thing ever invented for dogs! Who knew? She's otherwise adorable and cuddly and playful and we love her tons!
Colts lost the superbowl.
Our primary kids rock! I love seven-year-olds. They are super fun. And crazy.
T minus 4 months 'til Utah! Stoked.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A Blast from the Past
So, I was cleaning out my email, trying to save some memories before I shut it down, and I came across this hilariously awful memory that I just felt the need to revisit. Sent May 26, 2006, entitled "Let Me Tell You a Little About Texas":
"I don't like it! Except for the fact that a few wonderful people I know grew up there and the fact that they have a city named Celeste, there are no redeeming qualities to Texas. And there are even fewer saving graces to relay about our trip down there (and even less about the trip back!). Here's the reader's digest version of our trip:
1) Traveling with an 18-month-old is not as awful as everyone else says it is, except in extreme heat, which Arkansas and Texas just happen to have ample amounts of this time of year. With our air conditioner in a funk, and it being 97 degrees outside nearly always, we were miserable! Hot, sweaty, stinky, tired, miserable. Especially Caida. Which meant, especially us.
2) Texas is an insanely long state. It should be its own little country. It only took us 18 hours to get to Dallas that first day...it took us another 12 to get to Mission. And the roads down there were somewhat confusing, especially near the border, and no one understood our questions because pretty much no one spoke English as their first language. Compound that WITH the heat, and, well, you can imagine. No. No, you can't. But try. :)
3) I almost died on the side of the road. We were driving around one of the major cities in Texas when we drove through some sort of chemical cloud, and since our vent was on it blew the chemicals right into our faces. Cerene wasn't too affected, just coughed a little bit, but it got into my eyes and stung SO BADLY that I just teared up like crazy and could barely keep my eyes open. Mind you, I was the one driving the car, and at 80 miles an hour in the second lane on the left of four-lane traffic. Then, the tears dislodged some sinuses that had been built up from my recent sickness, and I started choking on it. Gross, I know. And dangerous. And then I started feeling like I was going to pass out. So Cerene had to navigate me through traffic and tell me when I was getting too close to the cement median and all that until I could pull over to a somewhat safe stop and put on my hazard lights and wipe my face with a clean napkin and wait for it all to pass and settle. It was scary.
4) When we got to the impound lot, the guys there almost didn't let us have the car. They kept asking all sorts of questions since apparently they didn't understand the affadavit we had legally allowing us to pick the car up in our mom's name. And then some guy had come in that morning, tall and thin with dark hair, to pick up the car and my brother's personal belongings (they didn't give 'em to him, since he had no proof of ownership, but still...). We were afraid it was Seth coming to get his car. It turned out to be this employee of the place that claimed he was Seth's cousin sent by the family to get his personal belongings. We have no cousins down there. We had to verify his signature, which we'd never seen before, and the guy acted really mad like he was going to fire him if he ever saw him again. Yeah. Craziness. But we DID eventually get the car and they were nice enough to put on the temporary license plate and check the oil for us.
5) Driving back all day the next day was even harder, because we couldn't switch off. But we didn't have enough money to just chill in a hotel every night for a week and take our time, we had a budget and a schedule, so we drove until we could barely drive anymore. Oh yeah, and our phones and walkie-talkies both died this day. So the only communication we had was visual. We created a honking system for certain messages, but other than that, we just drove really close to each other. We got about 4 hours away from my grandparents' house in Carbondale, Illinois (somewhere around Heth, Arkansas), and just got done debating whether or not we should stop for the night or keep going (it was about nine o'clock). We decided to keep going, save ourselves $50. Right then, I saw a car swerve really fast between my sister's and my car, and flashing lights in my rear-view mirror, and since we had been going about ten over the speed limit, I thought, "Great. My first speeding ticket, and I don't even know where the paperwork is for this car that isn't in my name...I hope Cerene sees that it's me and pulls over!" I pulled over, the cop tapped on my window, and informed me that my temporary license plate wasn't displaying the name of the state of Indiana very clearly (like I had anything to do with it!), and he was very sorry but he was going to have to issue me a warning. He started asking questions, and I was answering them but he couldn't hear the answers because of the traffic so he had me come back to his car and started asking all these questions, and I'm totally freaked out so I'm just rambling off pretty much our entire life story and the whole situation and everything, babbling on like an idiot so I don't cry. I was REALLY tired. After hearing the whole story, shaking his head the whole time, he asked, "Well, are you sure there's no drugs in the car anymore?" I told him we passed through border patrol with the dogs and everything and they didn't bark at me, and he asked if they checked the car good, and I thought he said hood, so I said, "No, they just sniffed at the trunk." So he asked if he could check the car for illegal drugs, and I said, "Sure!" He was poking around for about ten minutes. Then another cop pulled up behind him and started poking around, too.
6) I went up to see Cerene to let her know about what's going on, and she's crying hysterically, afraid that I got a speeding ticket that none of us can afford right now, tired from driving for 16 hours that day, mostly with a crying 18-month-old. I'm trying to comfort her, which is mostly working, when the cops come up to us and tell us that there is marijuana all over the car, homemade pipe joints, the works, plus empty alcohol bottles, and then they proceed to interrogate me about whose car is it really?, am I really just helping my brother out?, where did I get the temporary license plate?, how old am I?, blah blah blah, and then going to question Cerene to verify my answers, and ask a few of their own, like how is this car and the other car your mom's?, is there any marijuana in this car, too?, are you intoxicated, ma'am?, then why are you crying and hyperventilating so much?, and could you please step out of the car? Which, of course, we're parked on this ledge thing so she trips off that and they're even more suspicious about her drinking. Which, of course, she hadn't been. Then the nice cop that had pulled me over started to show me all the marijuana in there and how to make a homemade pipe joint, and said, "You have to admit, the story is pretty wild," to which I could only reply, "I know, if I didn't know my family, I probably wouldn't believe it either, but it's all true." He said, "Technically, I'm supposed to arrest you, because you are in posession of an illegal drug, but hearing your story and talking with you, you don't seem like the kind of person that has the demeaner of someone that does these things, and I don't think you could make up that wild story on the spot, so I'm going to let you go." Then, he gives me BACK the marijuana and tells me "You really should get rid of that, though, if you get pulled over by another cop for that license plate he might not be so nice, just tell him you have all the papers and marijuana and stuff in the trunk, have a nice night," and then he drove off. I was stunned and shaking and confused. Why did they let me take it? Why wasn't I in prison? Should we still try to get to my grandparents' house that night or spend yet more money to get a hotel? Why didn't I think to check the car beforehand? But Cerene was still shaken up even more than me and Caida was nearly dead to the world at this point, so we decided to get a cheap motel, the first we came across, and get some sleep and finish the short drive in the morning.
7) So we drive for about seven miles or so and we see a single sign for lodging, a motel 8, and just about start crying for sheer relief and exhaustion (being nearly arrested in a marijuana bust really takes it out of you), so we pull over to that exit, and lo and behold, it was a stop we just happened to stop at on our way down to Texas. We saw that as a sign. My sister goes to check us in, and the only guy there was a MAJOR jerk-wad, wouldn't let us use our mom's credit card, wouldn't let us pay with out-of-state checks, wouldn't let us make a long-distance phone call even if we paid him, and it didn't matter, anyway, since he couldn't take any payments over the phone, which I understand is all probably company policy but he could've been nicer about it, he didn't offer any suggestions or expressions of sympathy or pity or anything, didn't direct us to an ATM (we drove around until we found one on our own), then as I was walking up and he looked right at me he locked the door and put up a sign that said "Please use the night entrance at the side door" and pointed at me to his right while smiling this smug little smile I just wanted to slap off his face into next Thursday, I was SO mad. I got us a room, finally, over-priced for the craphole it was, and we just sank onto the floor and the beds and slept. We woke up the next morning, and Cerene had a mutant cockroach in her shirt and flipped out and beat it down. I took off the license plate and cut off the bottom of it and fixed it so that "Indiana" was clearly displayed, we cleaned out the car from top to bottom, throwing away everything my brother had in there except a white t-shirt I used as a rag and some CD's, and we drove to my grandparent's house. After that is all a blur, because it was so good to be with people we knew who had the means and the know-how to take care of us for a while, we just slept through the afternoon, played with Caida (who has never been so happy in her entire life), ate TONS of food (a ritual at my grandpa's), went shopping, let my grandpa clean and check out and fill up both cars, ate some more, went back to sleep, and woke up, spent the morning with them again, and drove home in just enough time to go to "The Thing" that night (Sunday) at the branch president's house and fall down nearly dead with stories and exhaustion.
It was crazy. It was the kind of trip that only a Darland could stumble into. It was the kind of trip that sours you on people and road trips and heat and entire states until you just want to crawl into a hole and hibernate for about a year while the crazy events untangle themselves and disintegrate and get blown away in the winds of time. But we start work officially this week, and Caida can't feed herself, and my mom's work goes on strike next week and she's going to be locked up in ALCOA until it's over, so there's just no rest for any of us. Oh well. Life goes on, the world keeps spinning, little miracles sprout up now and again, and the whole thing is already beginning to fade into a distant memory. We didn't get arrested. I got off that whole ordeal with a license plate warning. We didn't have any car problems. We had enough money to keep ourselves pretty well-hydrated. We didn't get lost enough we couldn't be found. We survived. And that, my friends, is the whole story. It is good to be home."
"I don't like it! Except for the fact that a few wonderful people I know grew up there and the fact that they have a city named Celeste, there are no redeeming qualities to Texas. And there are even fewer saving graces to relay about our trip down there (and even less about the trip back!). Here's the reader's digest version of our trip:
1) Traveling with an 18-month-old is not as awful as everyone else says it is, except in extreme heat, which Arkansas and Texas just happen to have ample amounts of this time of year. With our air conditioner in a funk, and it being 97 degrees outside nearly always, we were miserable! Hot, sweaty, stinky, tired, miserable. Especially Caida. Which meant, especially us.
2) Texas is an insanely long state. It should be its own little country. It only took us 18 hours to get to Dallas that first day...it took us another 12 to get to Mission. And the roads down there were somewhat confusing, especially near the border, and no one understood our questions because pretty much no one spoke English as their first language. Compound that WITH the heat, and, well, you can imagine. No. No, you can't. But try. :)
3) I almost died on the side of the road. We were driving around one of the major cities in Texas when we drove through some sort of chemical cloud, and since our vent was on it blew the chemicals right into our faces. Cerene wasn't too affected, just coughed a little bit, but it got into my eyes and stung SO BADLY that I just teared up like crazy and could barely keep my eyes open. Mind you, I was the one driving the car, and at 80 miles an hour in the second lane on the left of four-lane traffic. Then, the tears dislodged some sinuses that had been built up from my recent sickness, and I started choking on it. Gross, I know. And dangerous. And then I started feeling like I was going to pass out. So Cerene had to navigate me through traffic and tell me when I was getting too close to the cement median and all that until I could pull over to a somewhat safe stop and put on my hazard lights and wipe my face with a clean napkin and wait for it all to pass and settle. It was scary.
4) When we got to the impound lot, the guys there almost didn't let us have the car. They kept asking all sorts of questions since apparently they didn't understand the affadavit we had legally allowing us to pick the car up in our mom's name. And then some guy had come in that morning, tall and thin with dark hair, to pick up the car and my brother's personal belongings (they didn't give 'em to him, since he had no proof of ownership, but still...). We were afraid it was Seth coming to get his car. It turned out to be this employee of the place that claimed he was Seth's cousin sent by the family to get his personal belongings. We have no cousins down there. We had to verify his signature, which we'd never seen before, and the guy acted really mad like he was going to fire him if he ever saw him again. Yeah. Craziness. But we DID eventually get the car and they were nice enough to put on the temporary license plate and check the oil for us.
5) Driving back all day the next day was even harder, because we couldn't switch off. But we didn't have enough money to just chill in a hotel every night for a week and take our time, we had a budget and a schedule, so we drove until we could barely drive anymore. Oh yeah, and our phones and walkie-talkies both died this day. So the only communication we had was visual. We created a honking system for certain messages, but other than that, we just drove really close to each other. We got about 4 hours away from my grandparents' house in Carbondale, Illinois (somewhere around Heth, Arkansas), and just got done debating whether or not we should stop for the night or keep going (it was about nine o'clock). We decided to keep going, save ourselves $50. Right then, I saw a car swerve really fast between my sister's and my car, and flashing lights in my rear-view mirror, and since we had been going about ten over the speed limit, I thought, "Great. My first speeding ticket, and I don't even know where the paperwork is for this car that isn't in my name...I hope Cerene sees that it's me and pulls over!" I pulled over, the cop tapped on my window, and informed me that my temporary license plate wasn't displaying the name of the state of Indiana very clearly (like I had anything to do with it!), and he was very sorry but he was going to have to issue me a warning. He started asking questions, and I was answering them but he couldn't hear the answers because of the traffic so he had me come back to his car and started asking all these questions, and I'm totally freaked out so I'm just rambling off pretty much our entire life story and the whole situation and everything, babbling on like an idiot so I don't cry. I was REALLY tired. After hearing the whole story, shaking his head the whole time, he asked, "Well, are you sure there's no drugs in the car anymore?" I told him we passed through border patrol with the dogs and everything and they didn't bark at me, and he asked if they checked the car good, and I thought he said hood, so I said, "No, they just sniffed at the trunk." So he asked if he could check the car for illegal drugs, and I said, "Sure!" He was poking around for about ten minutes. Then another cop pulled up behind him and started poking around, too.
6) I went up to see Cerene to let her know about what's going on, and she's crying hysterically, afraid that I got a speeding ticket that none of us can afford right now, tired from driving for 16 hours that day, mostly with a crying 18-month-old. I'm trying to comfort her, which is mostly working, when the cops come up to us and tell us that there is marijuana all over the car, homemade pipe joints, the works, plus empty alcohol bottles, and then they proceed to interrogate me about whose car is it really?, am I really just helping my brother out?, where did I get the temporary license plate?, how old am I?, blah blah blah, and then going to question Cerene to verify my answers, and ask a few of their own, like how is this car and the other car your mom's?, is there any marijuana in this car, too?, are you intoxicated, ma'am?, then why are you crying and hyperventilating so much?, and could you please step out of the car? Which, of course, we're parked on this ledge thing so she trips off that and they're even more suspicious about her drinking. Which, of course, she hadn't been. Then the nice cop that had pulled me over started to show me all the marijuana in there and how to make a homemade pipe joint, and said, "You have to admit, the story is pretty wild," to which I could only reply, "I know, if I didn't know my family, I probably wouldn't believe it either, but it's all true." He said, "Technically, I'm supposed to arrest you, because you are in posession of an illegal drug, but hearing your story and talking with you, you don't seem like the kind of person that has the demeaner of someone that does these things, and I don't think you could make up that wild story on the spot, so I'm going to let you go." Then, he gives me BACK the marijuana and tells me "You really should get rid of that, though, if you get pulled over by another cop for that license plate he might not be so nice, just tell him you have all the papers and marijuana and stuff in the trunk, have a nice night," and then he drove off. I was stunned and shaking and confused. Why did they let me take it? Why wasn't I in prison? Should we still try to get to my grandparents' house that night or spend yet more money to get a hotel? Why didn't I think to check the car beforehand? But Cerene was still shaken up even more than me and Caida was nearly dead to the world at this point, so we decided to get a cheap motel, the first we came across, and get some sleep and finish the short drive in the morning.
7) So we drive for about seven miles or so and we see a single sign for lodging, a motel 8, and just about start crying for sheer relief and exhaustion (being nearly arrested in a marijuana bust really takes it out of you), so we pull over to that exit, and lo and behold, it was a stop we just happened to stop at on our way down to Texas. We saw that as a sign. My sister goes to check us in, and the only guy there was a MAJOR jerk-wad, wouldn't let us use our mom's credit card, wouldn't let us pay with out-of-state checks, wouldn't let us make a long-distance phone call even if we paid him, and it didn't matter, anyway, since he couldn't take any payments over the phone, which I understand is all probably company policy but he could've been nicer about it, he didn't offer any suggestions or expressions of sympathy or pity or anything, didn't direct us to an ATM (we drove around until we found one on our own), then as I was walking up and he looked right at me he locked the door and put up a sign that said "Please use the night entrance at the side door" and pointed at me to his right while smiling this smug little smile I just wanted to slap off his face into next Thursday, I was SO mad. I got us a room, finally, over-priced for the craphole it was, and we just sank onto the floor and the beds and slept. We woke up the next morning, and Cerene had a mutant cockroach in her shirt and flipped out and beat it down. I took off the license plate and cut off the bottom of it and fixed it so that "Indiana" was clearly displayed, we cleaned out the car from top to bottom, throwing away everything my brother had in there except a white t-shirt I used as a rag and some CD's, and we drove to my grandparent's house. After that is all a blur, because it was so good to be with people we knew who had the means and the know-how to take care of us for a while, we just slept through the afternoon, played with Caida (who has never been so happy in her entire life), ate TONS of food (a ritual at my grandpa's), went shopping, let my grandpa clean and check out and fill up both cars, ate some more, went back to sleep, and woke up, spent the morning with them again, and drove home in just enough time to go to "The Thing" that night (Sunday) at the branch president's house and fall down nearly dead with stories and exhaustion.
It was crazy. It was the kind of trip that only a Darland could stumble into. It was the kind of trip that sours you on people and road trips and heat and entire states until you just want to crawl into a hole and hibernate for about a year while the crazy events untangle themselves and disintegrate and get blown away in the winds of time. But we start work officially this week, and Caida can't feed herself, and my mom's work goes on strike next week and she's going to be locked up in ALCOA until it's over, so there's just no rest for any of us. Oh well. Life goes on, the world keeps spinning, little miracles sprout up now and again, and the whole thing is already beginning to fade into a distant memory. We didn't get arrested. I got off that whole ordeal with a license plate warning. We didn't have any car problems. We had enough money to keep ourselves pretty well-hydrated. We didn't get lost enough we couldn't be found. We survived. And that, my friends, is the whole story. It is good to be home."
Friday, January 22, 2010
Obsidian!
So, I broke down and bought Paul a puppy! Well, "bought" isn't quite an accurate term, 'cause she was free. We adopted her from a nice shelter around here that rescues dogs and gives 'em their first round of shots and spays/neuters them, then gives them away for free. She's a black lab/greyhound mix, and boy is she a pistol! Sometimes she's so perfectly adorable and obedient you just want to explode, and other times she's obstinate as all get out and you just want to wring her neck! But it's only the first week, so she's still got quite a bit of training ahead of her. Not sure this was the BEST timing in the world, but the way I see it, things are only going to get busier. And Paul's learning all about the REAL world of puppy ownership, which he is loving and weary of all at once. But she's adorable, isn't she? :) I'm sure everything will be wonderful in the end. We already love her lots.
Her name is Obsidian, but we call her "Obi" for short. :)
Her name is Obsidian, but we call her "Obi" for short. :) 
Friday, December 18, 2009
You can just call me Mrs. Fernandez. :)
Finals are over, and while I have no idea how I did on one of them, I have a general idea of how I did in my classes and it was almost worth the blood, sweat, and tears. Except EAS. I just hate that class, period. But, no matter, for exams are in, I can do nothing more about my grades, and I passed everything. On to the next challenge...student teaching!
I visited my classroom again today. I had prepared a list of 25-30 questions, and my teacher was gracious enough to let me steal her from the kids for a while (they were taking tests all day, poor kids, but yay me!). We got through about half of them, which ain't bad, kiddos--but now I've got a bajillion things to process and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed already! I seriously think I have an panic issue or something, I just can't seem to enjoy a moment, without the distractions of anxiety and my ever-increasing to-do list running through my mind, not to save my life.
But even so, I must admit that I'm stoked. I have a lot to learn from this cooperating teacher, and I think I have a lot to offer the kiddos in her classroom, too. I have so many things I want to try that I don't even know where to start, and in a way I wish student teaching was longer so we could really sink our teeth into everything more fully. But we'll see. Maybe in a few months I won't be saying that.
Anywho, regardless, I am a semester away from FINALLY graduating in a career path I love, and with a 3.9 something GPA and a TON of work/volunteer experience already under my belt before I even begin, I think I'm on my way to doing well. You can just call me Mrs. Fernandez. :)
I visited my classroom again today. I had prepared a list of 25-30 questions, and my teacher was gracious enough to let me steal her from the kids for a while (they were taking tests all day, poor kids, but yay me!). We got through about half of them, which ain't bad, kiddos--but now I've got a bajillion things to process and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed already! I seriously think I have an panic issue or something, I just can't seem to enjoy a moment, without the distractions of anxiety and my ever-increasing to-do list running through my mind, not to save my life.
But even so, I must admit that I'm stoked. I have a lot to learn from this cooperating teacher, and I think I have a lot to offer the kiddos in her classroom, too. I have so many things I want to try that I don't even know where to start, and in a way I wish student teaching was longer so we could really sink our teeth into everything more fully. But we'll see. Maybe in a few months I won't be saying that.
Anywho, regardless, I am a semester away from FINALLY graduating in a career path I love, and with a 3.9 something GPA and a TON of work/volunteer experience already under my belt before I even begin, I think I'm on my way to doing well. You can just call me Mrs. Fernandez. :)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
First Christmas
Our quiet little soldier, standing vigilant by our door. :) This is our first Christmas as a new family together, and Paul & I spent all night putting up the decorations as our FHE activity. Of course, we realized after we'd put up the tree that we had no ornament hangers so we had to run to WalMart at like 9:30 pm to get the ball rolling again. :) And I have a major sinus infection that kinda killed the fun of it...mostly. There was still just enough fun left for a memory. Let me take you on a little tour:
This is our small dining room table. :) And here's a close-up of the centerpiece (which I arranged myself, and I love the simplicity of it!):
This is the mistletoe ball I made:
and here's how it looks over our doorway, with our wreath:
We decked out our piano (where the nutcracker stands watch over the tiny nativity):
And here's us putting the finishing touches on--and then admiring--our tree:
I LOVE our tree, and our home. Walking into my living room this morning and seeing our new tree lit up against the darkness and coldness of the last few days just brightened my whole spirit a little. Which I really just kinda need once in a while. :) I was also able to get a blessing from Paul--the first one since we've been married--and I'm SO grateful to have a husband who holds the priesthood just an arm's length away. I love you, Paul!!!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
ALSO...
I have a trial version of Adobe Photoshop, as I mentioned before. I want the real thing! I've only begun to discover all the wonderful things you can do with it. But here are some cool things I discovered (and am using for a handful of Christmas gifts...), and I'm also going to show you examples using this picture:
1. You can make any photo you have into a coloring page (Great for kids!). Just open the photo up in Photoshop, click on the "filter" tab, then "sketch" and then "photocopy." Adjust the details and the darkness (usually less detail and a little darker) until you have a basic coloring page! Here's the coloring page of the same picture from above:
2. For one of my gifts, I made a little desk calendar...and I knew I wanted to make the too-familiar photos a little more artistic for this project, so under the "filter" tab I clicked on "artistic" and then "poster edges." P.S. This is probably how I'm going to do illustrations for the picture books on Bookemon!!! Here's the same photo as a "poster":
3. I'm a huge fan of Fresco. Here's what the picture looks like with that filter (also under "artistic") (and I'll probably use that for some illustrations, too!):
I can't wait to discover more!
Ten things I really LOVE...
Because I promised...and these are not in any particular order other than the order they popped into my head. I must say, without a doubt, that Paul is NUMERO UNO on my list! These are just some other perks of life.
10. Excedrin. With all the headaches I get, excedrin sometimes feels like my best friend.
9. Learning something new. It's a rush!
8. The temple. Not only are they beautiful, but going inside and feeling the Spirit always gives me a better perspective on everything else that goes on in my world.
7. Stephen's Gourmet Hot Cocoa. I ship a small box out every winter, and I'm blessed to have a husband that totally supports me in that tradition!
6. Books. Reading 'em, writing 'em, listening to 'em...I love a good story, and I love the feel and smell and weight of a real book in my hands--especially if it's new! I don't understand the appeal of Kindle.
5. Music. I haven't listened to it much this year, or played it, either...but last night I listened to some instrumental Christmas music to come off the rant and MAN ALIVE I LOVE MUSIC!!!
4. Ebay. It's the reason we're poor...but everything we have, we got at discount! :)
3. Feeling competent. For all my imperfections, sometimes I surprise myself with how much I CAN do. Especially when those moments happen in front of others whose opinions matter to me (for whatever reason), I really love the feeling of knowing I am capable.
2. Planning with Paul. We are in the planning stages for the next semester's FHEs, and I love planning things with Paul--he always has a fresh perspective on things, and crazy ideas, and sometimes we get a little carried away with all the activities we want to do. We have so much fun trying to figure out how to do everything we want to do on a budget. It's like a game. Planning for the wedding was a blast! We're also starting to plan our trip to Utah this summer, and that's a TON of fun, too.
1. My student teaching placement. I've only visited the 3rd grade classroom once so far, but I've already got SOOOO many ideas of things I want to try and I can't wait to get to know my students better!!!
10. Excedrin. With all the headaches I get, excedrin sometimes feels like my best friend.
9. Learning something new. It's a rush!
8. The temple. Not only are they beautiful, but going inside and feeling the Spirit always gives me a better perspective on everything else that goes on in my world.
7. Stephen's Gourmet Hot Cocoa. I ship a small box out every winter, and I'm blessed to have a husband that totally supports me in that tradition!
6. Books. Reading 'em, writing 'em, listening to 'em...I love a good story, and I love the feel and smell and weight of a real book in my hands--especially if it's new! I don't understand the appeal of Kindle.
5. Music. I haven't listened to it much this year, or played it, either...but last night I listened to some instrumental Christmas music to come off the rant and MAN ALIVE I LOVE MUSIC!!!
4. Ebay. It's the reason we're poor...but everything we have, we got at discount! :)
3. Feeling competent. For all my imperfections, sometimes I surprise myself with how much I CAN do. Especially when those moments happen in front of others whose opinions matter to me (for whatever reason), I really love the feeling of knowing I am capable.
2. Planning with Paul. We are in the planning stages for the next semester's FHEs, and I love planning things with Paul--he always has a fresh perspective on things, and crazy ideas, and sometimes we get a little carried away with all the activities we want to do. We have so much fun trying to figure out how to do everything we want to do on a budget. It's like a game. Planning for the wedding was a blast! We're also starting to plan our trip to Utah this summer, and that's a TON of fun, too.
1. My student teaching placement. I've only visited the 3rd grade classroom once so far, but I've already got SOOOO many ideas of things I want to try and I can't wait to get to know my students better!!!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Five things I really HATE...
I promise I will write a more positive post to counteract this sometime in the immediate future, but I'm not in a very chipper mood so I want to write about the five things I hate most in the world right now.
5. My upstairs neighbors. Even the kids. Maybe especially the kids.
4. The smell of smoke...especially if it is from something illegal that I choose NOT to smell and it is flowing through the vents of our apartment building!!!
3. People who snap at you for no good reason.
2. Christmas shopping.
1. Feeling lonely. Especially if it is on top of feeling sick.
Basically, I hate today.
But the sun'll come out tomorrow...right? :)
5. My upstairs neighbors. Even the kids. Maybe especially the kids.
4. The smell of smoke...especially if it is from something illegal that I choose NOT to smell and it is flowing through the vents of our apartment building!!!
3. People who snap at you for no good reason.
2. Christmas shopping.
1. Feeling lonely. Especially if it is on top of feeling sick.
Basically, I hate today.
But the sun'll come out tomorrow...right? :)
Friday, December 4, 2009
Yay for 3rd Grade!
I got to visit my student teaching placement for the first time today. I'm SOOOOOO ridiculously excited! Here's why:
1) I have only 17 students.
2) The principal is anti-textbook.
3) My coordinating teacher is allowing me near-total freedom in what I try.
4) It's a small school--as a teacher, I will have more input and a better chance of becoming part of a small community.
5) They focus on math and language arts, so I get to find creative ways to integrate other subjects into them and thus become the "fun" teacher.
6) I love intermediate grades (2-4), period.
7) My coordinating teacher calls her students "dude."
Dude!
I love what I do. :)
Monday, November 30, 2009
33 Things
Because I am procrastinating my last two weeks' worth of projects, papers, lessons, and more, I thought I would blog for fun. I don't have many, if any, real secrets in my life, and even if you don't know everything about me, not much will surprise you. I'm nevertheless going to try to find 33 things about me that you may or may not know about me:
1. I used to really love television, and part of me still does--which is one of the reasons I'm grateful we don't have cable, or I'd waste even more time than I already do. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love "Psych" and "Monk." I'm a little ashamed to admit that I love "The Office."
2. I'm not technologically savvy. While I love blogging upon occasion and facebooking, checking email, etc., and I LOVE Microsoft Office 2010, I would have no idea what to do if my computer didn't do what I wanted it to do, except to cry. I've learned a lot in my last seven or so years of college, enough to put me at an advantage in the workplace, but that's about it.
3. I love teaching. It's not just something I do, it's a part of who I am, and I enjoy every minute of my schooling and my job, even if I have no idea what I'm doing half the time. I'm finally seeing myself in that position, as a professional equal to other teachers I work with.
4. My favorite cocoa is Stephen's, which we faithfully ship out here once a year in mass quantities. I love the Orange Creme and the Mint Chocolate Truffle the best.
5. I'm terrified about finding a teaching job around here...I don't know how to get the job, just how to do it!
6. I hated the color pink growing up. My parents painted my bedroom a bright pepto-bismol pink and I covered almost all of it up with New Era posters and comic strips. I also hated flowers. Anything girly at all pretty much I hated. Now I'm pretty darn girly. I want to have a flower business on the side and I had pink as one of my wedding colors. Go figure. :)
7. I want to learn lots of languages in my lifetime, but especially Japanese, Spanish, and French.
8. I never liked video games growing up, but I played sports and outdoor games a lot. I now LOVE the Wii that Paul bought me because it's something I can do, injury and all, to relive my childhood.
9. I'm a pretty good speller. I didn't know how valuable a commodity this was, especially in education, until last year when we had a spelling bee in my literacy class. Wow.
10. I really do love to write, and wish I had more time to do it for fun. I have dreams of being published someday. (Another side business, on top of the flowers...yeah, I'm gonna be a busy woman!)
11. I want at least 5 kids. So does Paul, so that's lucky. :) But I'm terrified of the kind of mom I'll be...I only recently came to the conclusion that I would be happy if I got a surprise pregnancy right now. But I'm NOT, and I'm okay with that for now. :)
12. I love puppets.
13. I love karaoke!!! A lot a lot. I love that I have a karaoke machine so that I can host karaoke parties to my heart's content.
14. I'm not an awful singer, but I don't have a pretty voice. I've got a great sense of pitch, but I'm more of a choir girl than a soloist. :)
15. Before I ever dated my husband, I tried setting him up constantly with a good friend of mine who was in love with him.
16. Actually, long before that, I was supposed to go on a date with Paul as part of a ward activity--but because I was the activity chair and our activity involved a scavenger hunt, I had to be at the church so I passed him off to the friend mentioned above, which started the whole crazy thing off. Guess the Lord works in mysterious ways! If you had told me then that I was passing off my husband to another woman, I'd have never believed you!
17. The three countries I want to visit most in this world are Japan, France, and the Philippines. Other countries are cool, too. :)
18. I really, really want to go on a cruise before I die. Something about paying a flat rate for all-you-can-eat buffets and entertainment, plus getting to see the OCEAN!
19. I can't wait to serve a mission with Paul.
20. I need light like I need air. Being in rooms that are half-dark or dimly lit gives me headaches and makes me kinda crabby.
21. I was taught how to play chess this semester by some first and second graders, and now it's one of my favorite games to play! I get really excited when I beat the computer. Paul & I bought a small hand-carved set at the Feast this year that will be traveling with us on all our adventures together. :)
22. I love to read, and while I've always been a realistic fiction kinda girl, I've lately been really into historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. I feel my horizons broadening even as we speak!
23. I love Oldies music the best, followed by instrumental and then some Asian pop. There will always be a special place in my heart for John Denver.
24. I love planning events, especially if I don't have to be a big part of it. I could be an event planner professionally. I love themed birthday parties and I get really into the planning stages of almost everything.
25. I am learning how to play the guitar (slowly but surely), and I have enough chords down to play 5 folk songs, 3 J-pop songs, 1 John Denver hit, and about 25 Christmas songs. :)
26. If I were a car part, I'd be the steering wheel. If I were the button on a keyboard, I'd be the "control." If I were a button on a remote control, I'd be "power." Get the point? :)
27. I have an intense fear of failure, which keeps me from doing lots of things I would love to do. I'm working on that. I don't know that I ever learned how to fail gracefully. It's something I try to help my students learn early so that they have a better life.
28. I haven't thrown up since I was 9 years old.
29. I don't particularly like roller coasters, but I'd be willing to give them a second chance.
30. There are LOTS of things I want to learn how to do in life--I just love to learn and I really love the creative process. The four things I want to explore more in the immediate future are ModPodge, stained glass, glass etching, and woodburning. Someday I want to learn how to do cakes, photography, quilting, and paper making, too. People I know are going to get sick of all the handmade presents, but oh well. :)
31. I really like my in-laws. They're as crazy as my own family, and they have been nothing but kind to me. I could've had it SO much worse, and I'm grateful that they have let me into their small, tight-knit world.
32. If I had to describe myself as an animal, I'd want to say a horse because they're beautiful, strong, majestic, wild...but I'd probably, if forced to be honest, say something like a platypus...kinda odd and funny-looking and average but still interesting enough to want around.
33. I'm addicted to chocolate milk. Dean's. It literally flows through my veins.
Okay, that's all, folks. For now, anyway. I spent long enough trying to think of those, I've gotta go rest my brain now. :)
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