Make-shift Temple Square Visit

Sweet Jessica dragged us to a wedding reception in Taylorsville last weekend so her payment to us was a stop at Temple Square. Well we timed it just right and got into downtown at the exact same time as the MoTab Christmas concert got out. Yep, it took us 40 minutes to get from West High to the Temple. To keep myself entertained, I rolled down my window to talk to the people that had been stuck next to us for some time. Their window was down so I felt like I had the right to talk to them. I asked them if they were on a date and Corey and Jessica got embarrassed so they rolled my window up and put the child lock on. Mean. By the time we finally got to Temple Square it was about 10:00pm and 20 degrees.

This is why it became a make-shift visit. We were too cold to see more than a tree or two and then we ran back to the car. But don't worry we had time to snap this gorgeous picture for everyone. On our way home we stopped at delicious Crown Burger to help warm ourselves up. All in all, good trip I suppose. Oh, and momma I get to see you in 3 days!

I guess I have some anxiety about teaching

I am studying History Teaching at BYU and just finished my practicum hours at Oak Canyon Junior High. I was in my dream setting: 7th grade Utah History! No I am not crazy and yes I WANT to teach 7th grade. Moving on. I decided to do an internship rather than student teaching which means I dont have a mentor teacher and I am thrown into the lions den with my own class, having to come up with my own set of rules, and making my own assignments. All of this without a single day by myself in a classroom. I worry daily about how to start my year. What do I say on the first day, how do I introduce myself, are the kids going to hate me right off? What makes my situation worse is that I have never really felt adequate in my capabilities of teaching and content knowledge. I think my dream, I mean NIGHTMARE, is proof of this. Here is what filled my subconscious mind the other night:

It was my first day of teaching and I was assigned to Oak Canyon. I was happy with this because I was familiar with the school and had spent a lot of time there. My classroom was quite nice, except for a giant pillar in the middle of the room. I also had two huge french doors draped in lace that served as the door to my classroom. That was strange. Things were going along fine, especially after I told the students we were going to be dancing in my class and pointed to a huge pile of blue dancing shoes. They were pretty excited. I continued to introduce the course until my cell phone started ringing. It was Mom. Of course I answered it because that is the logical thing today when you are in the middle of teaching a class. I completed zoned out from my students and spent the next who-knows-how-long chatting it up with Sister Belnap. When I got off the phone with her and looked back at my students I realized 3/4 of them were gone! The class was empty except for the sporadically placed student that didn't desert me. I started getting frustrated and confused. Non of my students would answer me when I asked where everyone went. I felt like the teacher on The Christmas Story who wanted to know why Flick didn't come back from recess. Finally after using fear (telling them that their final exam at the end of the class would determine their final grade) to get it out of my students. One girl on the front row told me where they went: to 7-11. I looked out the window and miraculously could see the 7-11 and all my students lined up outside. My biggest worry was that they had to cross the McHuge 6 lane road. I couldn't leave my class to go get them because I feared my remaining students would also leave. The Principal later came walking across the highway with my students, shut my french doors, and locked me in with the kids so they couldn't leave again. Then I heard some PCD waking me up with Buttons. Wew.

When I told this story to my teaching methods class the next day they all thought I was crazy and one blurted out, "Someone is a little insecure about teaching." Yeah no duh Sherlock. Shut up and leave me alone because that isn't going to help me. Ahh. I want to die or at least fast forward my life two years.

Shout Out

I just wanted to give a shout out to My Slut: Hannah Simmons Watkins. Hannah just got engaged and I couldn't be happier for her. She has been dating Tobey for three-freaking-years and they are getting married next summer! I love Hannah probably more than she knows (or is legal). I am glad that we finally got over hating each other and found the love. Thats all folks. I am just really, really happy. And if any of you know Hannah, you should totally get the story on the proposal, it was amazing!

This is Hannah and I when we were 17 at dear old Davis High

Just another manic Sunday

I have been so busy today. So busy, I could scarcely enjoy my sabbath. Its only noon and look how busy I have been. Good thing church isn't until 1pm.

I got up at 9:30am
brushed my teethies
checked the weather online
checked the weather outside (aka I opened my blinds)
filled out some teaching reports while in bed under the covers
talked to my momma on the phone
organized my socks by color
perused my coats to base my outfit off of
checked postsecret
checked the snow report for skiing
did some really amazing blogging

So for the slow minded that didn't catch my little joke that I have wasted all my time this morning, I am sorry you are that dumb. I hate church at 1 o'clock. Who invented that? Its those darn Mormons I tell ya. I sit ... around ... all ... morning ... just waiting for church to arrive. It takes forever. There is no sense in being productive in those hours because you would have to interrupt it with getting ready and being lazy. Boo waiting for church unless someone comes up with a better alternative than the hectic list I just provided.

PROBABLY FOR MY MOM ONLY

Baby Kate on her 1st birthday in the chair Nanna and Poppa gave her

The amazingly decorated classroom I teach in

Friends that surprised me at a birthday party my siblings set up

The twins surprised me as well

With the parents in the mission home on my birthday

The Goose Is Getting Fat

Couple things folks:

• my blog title = line from a great song about Christmas


• thank you to my siblings for the best, best most totally awesome surprise birthday party that has ever been thrown on this earth


• thanks to all the people who surprised me


• i am going to Washington in 1 day, 17 hrs, 31 minutes


• i am done with my senior thesis!


• tomorrow is Kate's 1st birthday (love you lady)


• like my new blog design? Laura's husband, Kyle, did it for me


• i totally won my roommate Leslie - she is on my side...


• i played a funny prank on someone tonight which I never do


• i am not a really awesome auntie like Jen and Heidi but i love my babies

In Search of a Story...

I received a grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies to go to Green River and Page to study John Wesley Powell. Holy crap, it was more work than I ever imagined. We drove to Green River early Friday morning and I expected to spend 3-4 hours in their archives. Well that didn't happen because we had breakfast with Mayor Ed Bentley instead (he also happened to manage the only breakfast joint in town). Thats right! It was the weirdest, cutest thing ever. After breaking the hearts of the Green River residents, we departed for Page. That was a totally different place. The people were rude and the city ugly. But I did get a lot of information which led me to find my story. What could I say about John Wesley Powell that is new? Well hopefully I found it and I guess we will have to see what the BYU folks say about it. I have never been at Lake Powell in November before. The water was really cold and that was a very strange feeling. Corey and I just sat on the beach for about an hour watching the sunset. It was so hard to be there but not really be there. I wasn't launching the boat the next morning, I wasn't staying on a houseboat, I wasn't going to enjoy a week at my favorite place on earth. Instead I was off to a $49 hotel room. But the Econo-lodge wasn't too bad. Free breakfast and a view of the lake and dam from our window. I also got into the biggest laughing fit that night and ended up on the floor while Corey looked on in amazement wondering what was so funny. Once I was finally done laughing after 15 minutes I honestly couldn't even remember what started the giggles. After the night in Page we went to the Grand Canyon. That was all new for me. It was not at all what I expected. A lot bigger; the name fits it well. It was beautiful. I just wish I could have seen it from Powell's perspective. After a couple hours there, we headed back for Provo. It was basically 20 hours of driving in less than 48 hours. Gross. Well I learned alot, saw a lot, and had a lot of fun.

The gorgeous Grand Canyon

View from our Econo-lodge hotel room

I like TREATS more than tricks

We had our ward Halloween party, a Trunk-or-Treat. I was there for roughly fifteen minutes because I don't really love my ward but the fifteen minutes I participated in were great. I love having Son in my ward because he is great and because I hate being alone. Seeing him at the party was out of control funny.

Let me tell you a little story about his costume. Josh went as some black dude from Alias. Yes, black. If you don't remember, Joshie is white, very white. He showed up at my doorstep half-way painted black. He nearly scared my roommates to death. Well, he couldn't finish painting himself or get dressed because it was wet. I had to go over to his house, help him get his clothes off, help him get dressed, and help him re-apply the paint to his very sweating nose. That was funny. I kept just dripping off. Anyway, he got all dressed and looked great.

I went as Breast Cancer Awareness of course. I am usually a princess every year (in a pink dress actually) but my dress was in K-town. I had on my BC gloves, bracelets, pins, socks, etc. I was pink head to toe - literally. I gave out BC candy (thanks to Albertsons for selling BC stuff!) to the folks and spread BC joy.

Then my FHE family (of which I am the mother) performed our rendition of the Thriller dance. Can you tell I was in charge? They all did awesome. We had practice for over an hour to get that down. It was a lot of fun. So after my few minutes of being social with strangers (mom be sure to tell dad I did that and I'm working on it) I left. Enjoy the pictures of my Halloween time.

Pink in the Rink

The Utah Grizzlies had a breast cancer benefit hockey game, Pink in the Rink, and of course I was there. There was a big group of us that came and it was a lot of fun. The ice was pink, the uniforms were pink, and the hockey sticks were pink! Oh, i just loved it. Son wore my pink breast cancer visor, Daniel had on my breast cancer sweat band (which we didn't photograph - silly), and I was covered in breast cancer ribbons - nine in total. THe other people weren't sporting any BC pride but they sure came out to support it and I it made me so happy. Jessica and Heather got to squeeze into my car with Daniel, Eric, and Leslie. What troopers they were. Josh and the other Heather came also to add more supporters to our numbers. Lani even came with her throat raw from her intense concert the night before... Then Ashton and her husband came with her brother, Caleb, and her friend Kip. It was all around breast-cancer-supporting-hockey-game-watching-amazingness. Yes that is a word by the way. I spent most of the night trying to dance my way onto the jumbo-tron. My dream was never fulfilled by my moves were great. The night was so much fun and it was great to have all my people there supporting breast cancer. Thanks for coming guys!

Come on people, know the facts

· The risk of dying of cancer in the U.S. is increasing.

False - yet nearly 7 in 10 Americans (68 percent) thought this claim was true.

· Living in a polluted city is a greater risk factor for lung cancer than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

False - but nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) thought this claim as true.

· Electronic devices like cell phones can cause cancer.

False - 3 in 10 thought this was true.

· Personal hygiene products like shampoo, deodorant, and antiperspirants can cause cancer.

False - but about 1 in 7 (15 percent) agreed with this one.

· Underwire bras can cause breast cancer.

False - 6 in 10 thought this was true.

· Antiperspirants cause breast cancer.

False - There is no research to substantiate this rumor, which started on college campuses in 1998.

· Most women diagnosed today will have to have a mastectomy as their breast cancer treatment.

False - In fact, less than 20 percent of women diagnosed nowadays actually need mastectomy; over 80 percent are candidates for lumpectomy surgery.

· If you don't have a family history of breast cancer, you won't get it yourself.

False -In truth, only 12 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a family history of the disease.

· Men can't get breast cancer.

False - One percent of individuals diagnosed each year are men.

· Most women who get breast cancer will die of their disease.

False - NO! Fifteen percent of women diagnosed will eventually die of the disease, and that figure has been declining for the past 3 years.

· The radiation from mammograms causes breast cancer.

False - Oh, boy, that's a doozie. The amount of radiation received in a mammogram is very small and not a risk factor. In fact, mammograms save many lives by detecting tumors early.Women diagnosed by mammogram with stage 0 or 1 breast cancer have a 98 percent survival rate, thus demonstrating the value of annual mammograms.

All Gone...

My hair that is. All of my hair is gone and it feels great, sad, but great. As soon as I sat down in the chair cousin grabbed my hair and cut about five inches just like that. No warning, no discussin, just chopped it. Josh got woozy - literally - because he hates short hair and he knew it was just going to get shorter. Cousin so graciously cut 7 inches off my hair even though I only asked for 5 (but we all knew that would happen). The night before I cut my hair I asked Jessica to take a picture for proper documentation. Well she went to town. She made me do all these weird things with my hair like cousin IT and some sunburst thing. Anyway, here are the before and after shots of my snip snip adventure.

Tag - I am NOT it

My sister Lindsay "tagged" me with a post on her blog. I was not going to respond until she threatened me. No, I am serious, she called to find out why I hadn't responded yet. So this is for her but I am not playing tag any more. Sorry Janet.

1. dancing+girl friends/siblings+dance tunes+dim lights = my perfect night

2. mom+dad+chuch+selfish+mission+3 years+hungry = orphan

3. roast beef+mashed potatoes+corn+rolls+texas sheet cake = dream meal



4. skiing+deer valley+boating+lake powell+in the same day = my perfect day



5. college-homework-studying-exams = what it should be



6. nordstrom+mom+sisters+cafe lunch+fantastic = will have to wait

BC Websites

Here are some good websites with Komen Foundation information and where you can buy lots of good breast cancer stuff.

http://www.komen.org

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com

http://www.thethreeday.org

and because I am a wikipedia junkie:

http://www.wikipedia.org - search: breast cancer

also, Bed Bath & Beyond along with Target have a lot of great BC stuff right now.

Breast Cancer Facts

• every 2 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer
• breast cancer is the 3rd most common cause of cancer deaths
• 1 in 8 chance of getting breast cancer
• 5 % of breast cancer cases are hereditary with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes
• with the BRCA gene mutatation, there is a 80% chance of developing breast cancer
• diet, alchol, hormone levels, and physical environment are factors in breast cancer
• mammography has reduced breast cancer deaths by 30%

Breast Cancer Month!

Everyone should know that October is national breast cancer awareness month. Thats right, we get a whole month - not a day, not a week - a month! I am very passionate about breast cancer and there might be a misconception out there that I want it. No. I want to help fight it, Jaimee.Anyway, I want everyone to be thinking about breast cancer all year long but especially this month. Throughout this month I am going to post facts, myths, and websites about breast cancer. And just so you guys know, if you ever see breast cancer paraphernalia and you dont buy if for me, you are dead. Love you all. Fight for a cure and early detection.

Honey's Wedding

This is mainly for my momma but the rest of you can enjoy as well!

Hare Krishna

No, I haven't converted but I did spend an afternoon of fun at the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. It was pretty interesting. First of all, there were no signs saying that we (me, Jessica, Heather, and Sarah) had to pay to get in until a guy walked up to us with a thick roll of money in his hand. He said each of us had to give him three dollars. Okay, fine. Although I didn't see why we had to pay just to walk around. Whatever.

My main reason for going to India Fest was to see the architecture of the temple. It was a blended style of Islamic and Byzantine architecture but all done in cement. Not a good choice people. This was the most unique temple I have ever been in. The main story is a buffet and thrift / gift store and the upper level is the temple part. We had to take our shoes off to enter the temple which didn't worry me until I had to go to the restroom but I am not B. Spears.









We sat and listened to some monks expain the theology and belief system. That was pretty fun actually. They wore long robes, had painted faces, and had shaved heads with little pony tails in the back. They were all very nice but I have to wonder if the white dudes are just experimenting with glorified hippie-hood.


Well after exploring the temple and religious beliefs we headed off to see the llamas, weird cow things that remind me of documentaries, and my favoirite part: the "satan" billboard. Has anyone seen the new A Little Princess (not the one with Shirley Temple)? Well this totally reminded me of that. It was fantastic. There were also monks dancing, fireworks, lots of Indian Food, and a whole lot of Mormons experiences Hare Krishna.

2nd installment of the things I love

My Family

House Plans

Lake Powell and Tube Wars

Josh Groban

Food

Education is worthless apparently

There is this weird culture in Provo that believes marriage is the #1 achievement in life. Maybe its a church wide thing but I -unfortunately- don't get out of Provo much to investigate. I am not dogging on marriage. I love marriage. My parents are married. I am however, angered by the mentality of young married couples and occasionally the older married couple as well, that getting married means you are automatically an awesome person, you don't suck at life, people like you, and you have so much to offer your EC. Well what the crap? The other day I was talking with a group of ladies, most of whom were married. They were asking how random people were doing and what they're up to.
Here is a slice of how the conversation went:
"She has been married for a year now."
"He just proposed last night!"
"She went to Brazil on her mission"
"She is living in Boston with her husband who is going to med school."
"Her mission call came last week."

When they asked about me, my friend answered for me saying:
"Oh, she is just doing school."

WHAT? JUST SCHOOL? Obviously working my 'a' off (without taking so much as a term off from school) so I am not dumb as dirt and so I can teach and influence young minds for years to come means nothing b/c I didn't go on a mission and I am not married. You have to do one of the two. Well folks, no you don't. Look at me, breaking from the Provo mold. Blah blah.

I hate married girls sometimes (Laura don't get offended) they just sometimes suck. Like another married friend of mine told me the other day that if you can't get married during your time in Provo there is a major issue with you. Thanks brat.

Random Insights with more to come . . .

These random pictures give a good insight about what - and who - I love!

Art History

Mom and Dad

Sadie

Davis High

Lucy

Kyle Is Awesome!

Kyle finally got me back on my blog after I spent hours trying! Hooray! So expect more post from me soon!

My Blog!

I like to make things personal. I like always having a connection to the people I love while I am bored on the internet machine late at night. I want Jen to blog more. Laura and Kyle, you are my inspiration. Heidi you need more pictures of me. Momma I hope you can find time to read this so I feel like you are in my daily life. Teach dad if you can.