travis.

I had a student pass away right before Thanksgiving. I found out through a slightly awkward series of events, but in the end it was better because I was able to go to my room and have a breakdown before the staff meeting when everyone was told. Which means I just sobbed silently in the meeting which is not what happened in my classroom. He was my favorite. That's right I said it, teachers have favorites, you've known it your whole life, but I just confirmed it for you. Anyway, this Monday one of his other teachers found an assignment that Travis had done his first day at our school. It was to write 20 "I am" statements in less than 5 minutes. 1-19 we're cute or truthful, 20 made me cry again.

Here are his words:

1. I am Travis *********

2. I am a drug addict

3. I am irresponsible

4. I am skateboarding today

5. I am the youngest child

6. I am 18 years of age

7. I am a genius

8. I am wearing a lot of black

9. I am original

10. I am different

11. I am unorthodox

12. I am getting my G.E.D.

13. I am happy today

14. I am excited about this class

15. I am Gentle

16. I am Kind

17. I am down to earth

18. I am unaffected by teenage drama

19. I am a prophet of some sort

20. I am destined to do great things

He was.

cowboys.

A few months ago I was driving back to Utah from California and in Winnemucca I stopped at Chevron for gas. They were having some serious issues and their pumps weren't working so after wasting about ten minutes there I went across the street to the Flying J to try my luck. I got lucky and found a pump, but to grab it I had to pull in with my tank on the opposite side of the pump. When I hopped out to start filling up I discovered that the hose wouldn't reach. I stood there exhausted, frustrated, and unsure of what to do because trying to turn around meant losing the pump and getting back in line and I just wanted to leave. Then a man came up to me. He was tall and slim, wearing wranglers, boots, and a straw cowboy hat. He said, "won't reach, huh?" "Well, you get in your truck and flip around and I'll stand here and hold your pump."

I melted. With relief, with gratitude, with the knowledge that there are kind people out there still willing to help a lady in distress.

I told him thank you, but I wish I could do more, or that I knew more about him. What I do know is that if I have boys I'm going to raise them to be like this cowboy because the world would be a better place if we all had a little more cowboy in us.

=)

30 days

grrr.

I just shattered the top part off the crystal heart bead I was going to use as an accent on Joy's anklet. freakn' a. =(

REE!!

Lesli and I are going to Salt Lake Nov 4 to buy some cookbooks and meet a lady whose life I kinda want. I'm so excited!!

Read her amazing blog here

hmm

Isn't it funny how certain songs will always transport you back to a time long past in your life and you will able to smell what you did then and feel what you did then and sometimes when you do this you will miss that moment so much that it is painful?

Benton Paul = student teaching in DC and being so happy that I never wanted it to end.

Don't Go

ick.

You know what I don't like? Lemon cake, lemon bars, lemon cookies. Why? No idea, I just DON'T.

You what I do like though? Lemon drops, Dumbledore and I are on the same page there.

Ya, I'm weird, get over it.

block.

I blocked someone for the first time ever this week, felt nice =)

Mostly cause the person is a creep.

i'm so proud of me!

I cooked today! I made baked beans from this post and they were

awesome! I love this lady's blog, I feel like I know her, thank you internet for providing us with a whole new type of celebrity.

*sigh*

School has started and I am so tired! Why on earth are weekends so short?

buhahahaha!

Uh, good luck with that =)

i don't want to.

I have to go back to work in less than a week. stupid. =(

chasing seagulls.

Its so frustrating when you know you can catch seagulls if the people will just let you off your leash! My brother's freakishly long legs do an excellent job of keeping up with the wee Demon beastie.

#57 go camping.

We went to Anchor Bay this past week and camped on the beach. We had 12 people, 4 camp sites, and more crap than I thought possible to pack. We did have several people coveting our kitchen, what with the 3 dutch ovens and 2 camp stoves totaling 5 burners that are from the 40's.

ah, beth cooper.

Just finished this book, it was funny. As in, freaking hilarious! And a little crude . . . but, if you can look past that and you feel like you want to laugh out loud, pick it up.

okay, a lot crude. It's written about teenagers, what did you expect?

just as bad the second time around.

I tried people, I really did. 

Still strongly dislike this book. 

Sorry.

But it was funny when my three year old nephew asked if I was reading a horsey book, I had never really bothered to look at the cover. He looked at me like I was crazy when I explained what it was about and why I was reading it. He might have been right.

well, that's annoying.

I just got onto my mother's computer so I could upload a short video I am in love with, but since she  NEVER updates her Mac it couldn't even connect to my phone so I could put the video on and then transfer it here. 

*sigh with eye roll*

Maybe tomorrow.

hmmm.

Why is it that in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the prince is WAY more attractive as a beast than he is as a human prince? Can someone please explain that to me?

I don't even know what to title this entry. It's been a very depressing week, most of which I'd like to forget. The highlight being yesterday hanging out with Liz, serving in the cafe so I got off early, and watching fireworks. Life seems pretty great when you're looking up into the sky to see magical bursts of colorful light =)

Too bad they always end.

summer love.

One of my favorite things about summer is the time I have to read. I love reading, I come from a house where I basically never checked out books from a library even for school reports because I didn't need to, we had so many books at home I was covered. I love to stay up late into the night reading until my eyes burn and I'm fighting sleep to get through just one more chapter. My students hate to read. I don't understand it. I'm grateful I have the escape, and I'm grateful my parents instilled in all their children a love for the written word.

damn.

I missed a week, looks like I'll be starting over on that one. *sigh*

91. American History Museum, Washington D.C.

I love D.C. and I love that I just spent a week there! I had a blast with Shelly and 30 other teachers from my District. We had classes once a day and then toured around a little.

We saw Mt Vernon

Monuments at nightThe Library of Congress

The Capitol this is my foot in the center of D.C. directly under the Capitol's dome

The Berlin Wall (part of it)
Ford's Theatre


AND The American History Museum!!Yeah, Dumbo is there, who knew? And A bunch of first lady dresses (but not all of the ones they have are out. I think they put Hilary's away because everyone knew she had altered the sucker to appear thinner, we all know you're fat Hil, we don't like you either way.) Sadly my camera died right as I got to Kermit. I was heart broken.

15. see ya, dups.

I'll add the before and after pictures later, but I'm so proud of myself for sitting down and doing this cause it was freaking boring!!

wtf?

I'm not even sure how this works . . .



I really want to show this to my Geography classes =)


see more Fail Blog

rerun

I just started back at the Olive Garden and I have been quickly reminded of a few things:

1. People still suck.
a. white trash
b. teen agers
c. cheap-ass bastards who tip 10%, or sometimes less

2. Julia will never quit the Olive Garden
This lady is in her 80's and has been working there for 20-someodd-years!! The managers are genuinely afraid she is going to die on shift. And as an added sad/creepyness factor, she announced tonight that she is pretty sure she'll be dying soon . . .

3. I have to wind down for at least three hours after a shift before I can go to bed.

4. Even though the customers suck the other servers are awesome.
a. Clint spotting the Romulan at 112
b. Johnny pouring an entire pitcher of water down his side resulting in a pouch that put
forth a steady stream of water for about 60 seconds straight.

5. Kids are still like animals at the Zoo.
a. Best when you can go and visit them, not when you bring them home.

working on it.

This week I started working on some other goals from my 101 list, get rid of duplicates in my iTunes library and upping my savings account. To do the savings (and pay off a new purchase) I'm starting work back at the Olive Garden today. No, I'm not done teaching for the year, no I'm not very excited. I'm the opposite of excited because I would way rather not work and have a summer of fun, and the spiritual low times of my life were when I was working at the O.G.. But sometimes when you're an adult you have to do things you're not excited about. I've been praying for extra help so that I can not back slide like crazy this time, so if you're that sort of person and you happen to think of my while you're on your knees it might be helpful. And I'd appreciate it.

The ol' iTunes is not as smart as I once thought it can't tell the difference between movements on classical pieces so an entire cd sometimes shows up as dups instead of being listed as four seperate songs with multiple movements. I solved that by putting "a," "b," "c," etc. The only problem is that takes ages to do. Other songs I try to get rid of the live version (usually doesn't sound as good) or the one without album art. If that doesn't work I just pick one at random to delete. Only 722 more to go!

so close.

3 WEEKS UNTIL SUMMER!!!!!!!!

Bo Yah!

circus.

I work in a circus. Today Kesha and her boyfriend were in the hall doing whatever weird little kids do and the next thing I know she is in my room telling me that he has bit her on the butt. She related the entire story to me, which involved other things that led into the biting and sat down. About 90 seconds later she screams, "he broke the skin, I'm bleeding!" I did what any trained professional would do at that moment, I laughed so hard my eyes teared up. I hid my face behind my hand, if that makes it any better. =)

And I let her get a band-aid.

#18. one of my secrets; pass Praxis

The Praxis is the test the decides if I am truly qualified to teach history. I am not a good test taker, so I hate that this is the method of assessment the gay-ass government chose. I took it once during my last semester on campus and missed the passing score by two points. Since each question is weighted differently that could be one question or two questions, I don't know. What I do know is that I was very discouraged by it especially since the test was on US and World History, as in all of it. They randomly selected questions and there was one civilization I hadn't even heard of, apparently I was sleeping that day in sophomore world history. I think I was more upset that I would have to take the test again.

This time after being there for three hours, having no breakfast, and having some lady follow me to the bathroom and stand outside while I peed; I PASSED! YAY! Worth it!

spring city, ut

My mom came to spend my spring break with me this past week and we had a blast! On Thursday we went to Richfield to see my brother and took the scenic route through Manti. One of the places we stopped to look was Spring City. The entire town is on the Historical Register and main street looks something like this; house, house, sheep grazing in a pasture, house, bank.

. . .I took a picture.

. . . And I laughed.

. . . A lot.

81. cosmo pic(s)

Love it, love him, love us!

how i know i'm not like all the other girls.

Tonight I was cleaning my bathroom when I looked down and realized that these were the objects jumbled around on the counter. Perfume, make-up, tooth brush, shotgun shells . . .

stacking days.

I have tried to let a lot of things at work roll off and go by, but today I feel like everything that I had pushed aside dropped back down on my shoulders and I did not handle it very well. Nothing happened that on its own would have caused me to cry, but several small things pushed me beyond what I could handle and now I am broken. I was told by a student in front of the Vice Principal that it didn't matter what I said because the VP out ranked me (he was doing a piss poor job of backing me up at the time, thanks asshole), the food I had left for breakfast was stolen by someone who thought they were funny (they weren't), the face of my iPhone shattered yesterday (which voids the warranty, fuck you too AT&T), and I have had a few personal things happen (rejected 2x, huge secret from a friend that shook me).

I spent most of fourth period in the staff room with another teacher because I couldn't handle what I needed to do while a TA watched my class. After explaining most of what was happening the other teacher told me that at his house they call those stacking days. I thought it was perfect for how I felt. And, it sounded a lot better to me than broken day, cause let's face it, I am right now and I'd rather deny it.

why I play in cemeteries.

When I was a little girl I used to go to work with my Daddy. He is a contractor and among the things he did/does is digging graves. It took until I was about 12 to figure out it was not the norm to grow up playing in a cemetery, let alone be lifted down into the hole to clean up sticks and roots that were not visually appealing. Luckily when I did figure all this out it was a sort of silent revelation so there were no social consequences, which let's face it, at 12 would have been monumental.

I went for a bike ride on Saturday and I'm glad that I did for a few reasons, the amazing weather, the chance to finally explore the Provo cemetery, and another chance to fall deeper in love with my iPhone. =)

I love the angel seen above, she was even more beautiful in person.











Anchors away! I would like to think this stone belong to an ex Navy man.













I thought this stone was a lovely color so I snapped a few shots.















This one drew me in, the gargantuan granite ball fascinated me.

fuck it.

I just tried three times to upload some pictures I took this week, but to no avail. I have a massive headache because something that really upset me just happened. It's crappy outside. I have to teach a subject I've never taught starting tomorrow. There's still 10 weeks left of school. My best friends are not where I can contact them right now. AND the one random frill purchase I wanted this month was sold out by the time I got there. bastards.

4. Elizabethtown and 23. Golf balls

Last night after roller skating with Mike (much harder than I remember it being, FYI. AND there are far too high a number of freakishly good roller skaters here, stupid jumpy/spinner guy.) Anika and I watched Elizabethtown, loved it!

This is the Demon Dog, me, and Anika prior to the screening.

Today Chad and Scott took me to the driving range with them, I don't keep my head down, *sigh* that is going to be a long one if I intend to master it with any degree of skill.

more pictures! I love #53!

The new decorations in my classroom that will stay up for probably the rest of the year.





























Zach and my blue/green tentaclie ball















5th period class minus Kelsee

53. first week with my cameras

I'm working on taking more pictures. My two tools, or cameras if you will for this are the one on my iPhone and a Kodak M753 (baby digital camera perfect for people who are photo-ly retarded, like me). Here are a few of the pictures I took this week:

Anika and I went to a sushi place I'd never been to before, it was good, it is the one by Outback in Orem if anyone is interested.

We were the only people there (it was almost closing) and our waiter was hitting on us pretty hardcore, we seemed to throw him a little off his game. Example: he brought out my diet coke, Anika's wine, and two straws . . .

we had to take a picture.







These shots are from Monday when I worked 17 hours; 8 hours at school, 9 hours for Jon. This first one is Jack (my truck) inside the IPF at BYU, I was still giddy at this point. Shoots always
start so fun, but they turn into hard tedious work very quickly.













This is from about 11:30 pm when I have started to get a little loopy and the smoke has become mesmerizing.











This is from 12:30 am when we turned the lights back on to find we had created a foggy London day here at the BYU. Luckily they had turned off the smoke detectors . . . maybe we learned that was necessary on a previous shoot two summers ago . . .












Sometimes students (and teachers) need a little break. On those days we head to the park across the street from my school. It's pretty fun to see "cool, bad ass, high school kids" play like 4 year-olds =)









This one just feeds into my bizarre sense of humor. When I got home the other day the wind had blown all of the trash cans over. To e it looked like the aftermath of a shootout in the Old West.

49. Air Filter

Since I was hired at Summit in fall of '07 my projector has been over-heating because of an issue with the air filter. I asked a few of the boys (male teachers) if they knew where the air filter was and they said no. I stood on desks trying to understand what I might need to do and then yesterday I snapped. I went and got a ladder, climbed up, and began to investigate. I had thought I might need to take the projector down and unscrew things to find my filter, but once I could gaze down from above turns out that the filter slides easily in and out for cleaning! YAY!

101 in 1,001; yeah I can do that.

I came across this idea and thought it was great. 101 goals in 1001 days.
This is an experiment.
Create 101 goals you wish to accomplish in the next 1001 days. I will try to make, and link to, posts when I accomplish a goal.

white text means it has yet to be attempted
green text means it is in progress
red text means it is complete.


1. Teach Demon recall
2. Figure out if I want children
3. Do a colon cleanse with Anika
4. Watch Elizabeth Town with Anika
5. Read Jamie’s – Mamma Day, Jon’s - Bone, James - Screwtape Letters, Lesli’s – Circle of Friends, Mike’s – A River Runs Through It, and Anika’s – East of Eden favorite books
6. Travel outside of the US
7. Audition for Hale Center Theatre
8. Get called back
9. Go to Festival of Colors!
10. Figure out what I want to be when I grow up
11. Be able to run 5 miles without stopping from lack of air or boredom
12. Be able to write all the states and their capitals from memory
13. Memorize Oh Captain, My Captain and The Gettysburg Address, and if I get really freaking good, The Highwayman and Jabberwocky
14. ssh, it a secret *te he*
15. Get rid of all the duplicates on my desktop iTunes library
16. Maintain a journal for a year writing at least once a week, hopefully more (0/52)
17. Go to a drive-in movie theatre
18. Uh, yeah, this is a secret right now too, once I’ve completed it I’ll tell
19. Go to the temple once a month for a year (1/12)
20. Do the zip line in Boulder City
21. See the Grand Canyon
22. See Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse
23. Learn to hit a golf ball, driving range here I come!
24. Blog once a week for a year (2/52)
25. skinny dip in the ocean again
26. See Wicked
27. One month without eating out
28. Floss 5 out 7 days a week for 3 months (hopefully habit after that)
29. Spend two days in Disneyland
30. Go to California Adventure
31. Road trip! (2x)
32. Get my passport
33. Make three things at color me mine
34. Try 5 new recipes (0/5) I guess in my case it would be try 5 recipes
35. Kiss someone I’m into in the pouring rain
36. Send Christmas cards one year
37. Put $5 into my savings account for each goal I complete!
38. Maintain 141-143 pds for 2 months
39. Beat Chad at something other than the dot game
40. Read 25 real books (6/25) – does not include books for other goals
41. Give up something for lent (successfully)
42. Going alphabetically, watch every movie I own before I rent or buy another
43. Pay off my credit card
44. Have $3,000 in my savings account by 11-1-09
45. Organize my Dad’s books with a library catalog system like he asked me to two years ago.
46. Read BOM and D&C
47. Learn basic welding skills and create an item
48. Take a dance class
49. Fix the air filter on my freaking projector
50. Kiss the Blarney Stone (don’t tell me what other things people have done to it, I don’t want to know)
51. Watch the Yankees play ball in their stadium (I will not refer to the new thing as Yankee Stadium, they killed it)
52. Ride my bike three times a week one summer (despite the hill)
53. Use my camera far more often (2-3 times a week, if only for one picture)
54. Take my truck to play in the mud like I used to (0/5) (I’m sure he misses this)
55. Go shooting twice a month from April to September (2/36)
56. Record My grandparents talking about their lives
57. Go camping (1/3)
58. Watch 5 sunrises (0/5)
59. Watch 5 sunsets (0/5)
60. Leave 100 notes in library books to be discovered (0/100)
61. Go to a Zoo
62. Find my BA and frame it
63. Do a puzzle with Turkey
64. Go to a beach and lay out with Jamers (ah, to go back to San Diego)
65. Teach Demon to get shot and die
66. Clean out my closet
67. Try 10 new dishes at restaurants (1/10)
68. Fly my kite!
69. Leave a server a $50 tip =)
70. Do the splits, all three ways
71. Kiss someone at Midnight on New Years
72. Leave flowers for Grandpap
73. Go horse back riding
74. Sing Karaoke
75. Get my truck detailed (SO dirty)
76. Take a trip on a train
77. Get a motorcycle!
78. Go wakeboarding again
79. Take a photo of two people in love
80. Roast hotdogs over a campfire =)
81. Get a picture with Cosmo holding me where you can freaking see what he’s doing! (stupid freshman)
82. Play an entire game of chess
83. Make-out somewhere public where we could get caught
84. Make a necklace, anklet, and bracelet
85. Buy a French Connection T-shirt and wear it to work
86. Not get fired for T-Shirt
87. Finish The Screwtape Letters
88. Buy a bikini that makes me feel sexy
89. Do cardio twice a day for two weeks
90. See Hearst’s Castle
91. Go to the American History Museum in DC (it was closed when I lived there)
92. Dance in the moonlight to Dancing in the Moonlight
93. Learn to fly-fish
94. Kiss a man from all six inhabitable continents starting today (1/6) (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa)
95. Get my concealed weapons permit
96. Participate in the ward book club at least 3 times (0/3)
97. Chocolate syrup and whipped cream
98. Hike Squaw Peak
99. Buy a personal laptop
100. Go to a National Park I haven’t been to before
101. Go to a GOOD rodeo


Start date: 3-5-09 End date: 12-1-11

=)

You know how some days just ROCK? It was one of those days! Aside from having a teacher from the district observe me and tell me, "it was a privilege" to be in my classroom today and offer to write me a letter of recommendation should I want one (I do, the man is a legend in the Alpine Social Studies world), I'm also having one of those days where I feel freaking hott! They are not that often, but since I've been working my ass off at the gym (literally and figuratively) there have been more. And, I got a new haircut compete with a purple stripe! Yeah, it's sweet, you wish you had a purple streak.

hmm.

I have several blogs that I love to follow. And fortunately about four of them post daily, but there are others that I wish posted far more often than they do. And, that made me wonder, do people actually read my blog and become disappointed when I go a month or six without posting? Most likely not, but you know, just in case . . . hello there! It's been a month, I'm sick and have been voiceless for an entire week. Try teaching without being able to talk, when no one but the government teacher knows ASL (that includes me, so I guess it doesn't matter that he can sign if I can't . . . meh). It's hard, kind of. I had to copy packets (BORING) for the kids and I get their attention by whistling and/or clapping. This method is actually working way, WAY better than I ever thought it would, and by some strange bit of luck, the kids are quieter when they're working. Maybe they they despise being clapped at, if so I'm sticking that trick in my back pocket. Actually, maybe I should sell my secret and become rich!