NOT A TYPICAL DAY FOR GIFTS

Its not my birthday (it is however Heather's) but I was showered with gifts and love today. A student came into Allison's classroom this morning to inform me that I had to follow her to my room immediately. I figured some sort of youth disaster had occurred in her life and she wanted to talk about it as usual. Well not quite but there was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers waiting for me on my desk. She got me flowers because of the palsy. That was pretty darn sweet. I think my kids have actually been feeling bad for me and this student went so far as to give me some get well flowers. So sweet! Then later today during A4 one of my students came up to me and said, "close your eyes." I thought it was just a mean joke because I can't close my right eye so I said no. So she told me to look away and hold out my hand. I felt her drop something in it and looked to find a beautiful breast cancer charm bracelet. How freaking nice are my students? Well they are really, really nice. Cameo came in and was pretty jealous but I must stress its just because my students are 9th graders. There is a weird abyss of evil in the 8th grade at Orem Junior. Anyway, I just felt the love from my students today (and also from my ladies Heather and Jessica - I just love you guys).

ps - its now Wednesday but I thought I should add on here that I got flowers from another student today! Apparently I don't need a man to shower me with gifts, I just need to keep teaching the greatest kids on earth.

YET ANOTHER MARRIAGE SHOUT OUT

One of the more unique stories in my life is that of my friendship with a certain Baptist. I found possibly the only Baptist in Utah and dated him. If you ever need to hear a good story and you have some time, ask me to tell you my Baptist story. Its quite the saga actually. Well obviously that didn't work out but somehow we remained pretty good friends. Anyway, Baptist (that's what I usually refer to him as) informed me he was getting married a while ago and its coming up soon so I thought he deserved a good shout out as well. I guess its just the season for weddings. Now Chase, even though you are getting married before me, I am still better and more grown up than you. Always remember that. I know you will :)

I HAVE BELLS PALSY

I think thats all that needs to be said. Well that and I can't even taste anything. I love tasting things. I love food. And I have to keep my eye taped shut because I can't close it by myself. If you want to know more ask somebody that knows me better than you do. And if you don't know what bells palsy is, wikipedia it. Oh, and feel a little bad for me too.

SHOUT OUT

I got a phone call at 3:00 this morning. Thats right, I said this morning. I scrambled for whatever item on my bedside table was making all the noise and realized it was my phone. I saw my sister Jen was calling. Why? I jumped to awful conclusions like Josh Groban was dead or Mom and Dad have to stay another year. Well I was wrong folks, this is how the conversation went:

Me: Um, he-hello
Jen: Baby, I'm gonna get married, okay?

-pause-

Me: What? Tell me everything. I don't understand. Wow.

Jen: Yeah, I am going to get married.

Me: Well maybe don't tell me everything right now, I won't remember. Call me later. Love you, bye.

I quickly went back to sleep for about 13 minutes but couldn't remain sleeping because Jen had ignited so many thoughts and excitement in my brain. I just can't believe my prediction came true. I am really awesome. Jen needs to know that she is amazing. Timm, she is amazing, okay? OKAY! Good thing for him that he's a keeper too. I love my sister and I am so extremely happy for her. I can't wait for her big day to come because she deserves it more than anyone. Congrats Jen Hon!

LONG OVERDUE

I live at Chatham Towne. Its a nice place and I pay lots of money to live here. You would think if you add these two things together that might equal that my apartment stays well taken care of. But I forgot to mention that its still Provo and and under MVM control so nothing really gets done if there is a problem. When I moved into this apartment I quickly learned my bedroom doorknob was finickie. It kind of had a mind of its own. It would lock and unlock all by its lonesome. Pretty amazing - until one morning when it would do neither. I awoke from a great night of slumber ready to rush to the bathroom to brush my teethies (yes family, I still refuse to do anything until I have brushed my teeth). But my routine was abruptly halted when my doorknob came off in my hand. Uh oh.

I calmly tried to pry it open. Nope. I called Leslie in hopes that she was awake and ready to rescue me. Luckily she did. I brushed my teeth and then met back up with her to discuss the situation at hand. I figured I just wouldn't really shut my door for a while until I could get the doorknob back on. I went about my daily schedule as normal. My apartment was empty, nobody home so I cleaned my room to some really loud music. About 12:00pm I decided I really needed to go to the restroom. I had completely forgotten about the whole door situation and tried to access the outside world but could not. The door would not open at all. No way, no how. And I really had to go to the bathroom. I just kind of waited until I heard some shuffling in the apartment and I quickly ran to the door to yell for help. But then that person jumped in the shower before I could catch them. Crap. I sent Leslie a text message begging her to come save me as soon as she got home from running. That dumb girl ran for about 2 hours that fateful Saturday. I just sat in the middle of my bedroom for those two hours waiting, waiting, waiting (remember people, I still have to go to the bathroom). Leslie finally came home to my rescue but it didn't work! She had saved me last time, why wouldn't the door open this time?? WHY? I was frantic thinking I was going to die all alone in my room. At least I would die surrounded by my books and pretty clothes.

I did have an adorable pink leatherman in my room thanks to Kathe so I took the doorknob totally off. Still, NOTHING! I then attempted to remove the hinges from the door thinking I could just take the door right off. Well my hinges were basically painted on so that did me no good. By this point I really, really had to go to the bathroom and I had doorknob grease all over me. Boo hiss to this Saturday. I called my hometeachers, they couldn't come - also they didn't really care to because they didn't understand that I was literally locked in my bedroom and that it was a big deal. Kyle and Zack were playing football and Josh couldn't come. Its now about 3:00pm and I am clutching Leslie's hand under the door to remember what human contact was like. I instantly had an ingenious idea and I attacked the doorknob with the leatherman, got some tricky handy-man work done on it and bam, the door slides open!!! Hip Hip Hooray! I was out. Leslie ran to me and we embraced. I missed people so much. Then I spent the next 40 minutes trying to re-install the doorknob which ended up being totally broken.

So about 5 hours total, one trip to Lowe's and $17.00 later, I was free woman with a working door. I also installed the new one by myself. Okay, Zack was supervising but still. I totally rocked that day.

RANDOM LIFE STORY SERIES: SANTA JAIL

My dad has quite the imagination. When we were little he would come up with the most outlandish, crazy things to do with us. Since we were kids, we thought it was awesome and LOVED it! One of the many things daddy came up with was Santa Jail. Yes, you Belnap children know what I'm talking about. It was basically a glorified version of hide-and-go-seek but daddy wore a Santa hat. If we got caught by "Santa" we were taken to the imaginary jail where he would lock us in by putting up the barrier. All this meant was standing against a wall while dad made the motion of putting a fence around the kids and making a noise - ch ch ch ch ch ch ch - to seal it. And for some reason we obeyed this fake jail and stayed "locked in" until everyone had been caught.

As many of the games in the Belnap household, Santa Jail included some serious chaos that resulted in an abrupt banishment of the game. When I was about 6 or 7 we were in a great round of Santa Jail when my sister Lindsay and I collided in the living room. In the collision I got pushed into the corner of the table. You can guess what happened next: slice my head open, blood, hospital, stitches, end of Santa Jail. Bye bye Santa Jail, hello new types of mischief. Sorry guys for permanently ending the game. Here is picture of me with my dad. This has absolutely nothing to do with Santa Jail but I like him a lot and can't wait for the next 18 months to fly by!

TEACHING CHRONICLES: FIRST PRANK OF '09

If you are reading this blog then you probably know me and if you know me then you probably know that I absolutely HATE clementines. I LOATHE THEM! Unfortunately for me, my students know this. Ooops. One of my students - we'll call him Dave - made the mistake of eating one in my classroom a couple of months ago and I made him throw it away (outside so the residual stink wouldn't linger) and promise not to bring those into my classroom again. Plus, students can't even eat in my room anyway.

Well today my kids were working on a map of Western Europe and I stepped outside the room to talk to Miss Jensen. We were discussing an issue with a student both of us have - we'll call him Stan. When I came back into the room it hit me: clementine nasty stank. Blah. I knew automatically without a doubt that it was Dave. I said, "Dave, did you honestly just eat a clementine in here???" As I walked toward him after calling him out in it, he had a mouth full of clementine. I gently reminded him we don't eat in Miss Belnap's room and walked to my desk. Then I saw it, the first prank of '09. Scattered over my desk were all of Dave's clementine peels. Wow. I whipped around and ordered him to go to Mrs. Sabey's room and not come back. Then all of a sudden Stan stands up and says, "it was actually me who put it there, not Dave." Well thank you very much for being honest Dave, that takes a lot for a 14 year old boy. Dave was promptly sent to Miss Jensen's room. I had had it. The class had already received a warning and wasn't going to take anymore crap. I was out in the hall trying to solve a problem for Dave and this is what I come back to. Seriously? Miss Jensen says I should give them props for creativity. I do have to agree somewhat because I had to hide in my back room to laugh so my students didn't see that I too thought it was minutely funny.

Kids are the best aren't they? Honestly, I know the kids didn't do it to be mean. They were just trying to joke around with me. Its sometimes hard teaching junior high when I am so young because the kids think that I would find something like this this purely funny. I should probably try and demand a little more respect as their teacher. I do like being able to have fun with them but this was not fun, just stinky

p.s. the new student teachers from BYU thought Allison, Cameo and I were all students when we met them today. they got nervous when we started going through some teacher stuff and asked how they could help us. we just laughed. true story.

2009: THE YEAR OF???

Last year on New Years Day I wrote the following on this amazing blog of mine:

2008!!! What will this year bring? I dont know but I could really use a good time. The last year really sucked. Well basically summer of 06 and Dec. 06-Sept. 07. I can't even begin to explain how bad it was. I would rather cut off my favorite finger (the left hand pinky) than re-live some of those days. But somehow I got through it alive and sane. How that happened, I dont know. I am just really feeling a good year coming on. I mean I am starting it out with Tylenol PM, cough medicine, and lots of blankets. Guess I can't ask for more than a good nights sleep. I better get at least one new baby in my life (sisters, that means you!) and one sibling married. I dont think that is too much to ask for people. As for me and what I want, well that is for me to know and no one to find out. A friend inspired me to make a list of predictions. I think I am going to try that for the first time. My first prediction is that I forget all my predictions come March. Happy New Year!

Its kind of funny that I started this year of with the same medications and ailments. Well maybe not funny to my mom who will never give up on me taking vitamins. You know I look back on it and '08 was good to me, fairly good indeed. I got 2 new babies (well they will be born in '09 but still) so check that off my list and Josh took care of the sibling getting married by convincing Holly to marry him. And technically, I did get what I wanted and I am still going to keep that little secret to myself. I am no longer acquainted with the friend that made last year's predictions with me so I will make this list all on my own because I am a "grown-up" and can do some things by myself now. I am shooting for one more sibling married this year (fight it out Jen and Heidi), I want to try something totally new, and I want to find true happiness. I wish you all a great 2009 and that you too may find happiness in your lives.