Wow...two in a row for me. I am definitely back. Mom Duffy tagged me, so here is my response...
25 years ago: in the pre existence
20 years ago: I was 4 months old
15 years ago: I was five years old, this is the year Erik was born. I got a "my newborn baby" doll. I named him Tyler. Why? I have no idea. Probably because it was a name Alyssa really liked and I copied everything she did! I remember after Christmas break when Erik was born I brought in those really yummy Sees Candy lollipops with a cute tag for everyone in my class! I was in kindergarten, Mrs. Crandel's class. I remember I got a box of crayons. I always asked to borrow my desk buddy, Ryan Johnson's, crayons and so for Christmas that year he gave me one of those HUGE 4 tiered boxes with a built in sharpener in the back! His mom was a definite decorator and wrapped it beautifully with an angel cut out tag. It was so pretty we use it as an ornament, every year I come across it I remember my old desk buddy!
10 years ago: I was in 5th grade. This is the year I was in Moscow Classical Ballet Company's Nutcracker performance. That was one of the neatest experiences I've had. I learned so many things. I remember the auditions, there were a couple hundred girls auditioning and only 16 parts total. As some girls were "cut" there were lots and lots of tears and mom's complaining about there daughters being better and should have stayed. My mom and I had a private conversation about being a good sport and being happy just to audition. "Making it" was a bonus. Then when I made it there was a mix up, only 4 boys and 4 girls were to make the final cut, noe 8 of each! So instead of everyone performing every night we had to form a ratation. Immediately moms were arguing and complaining. My mom and I however sat quietly and waited for my assignment, I was the only one in every performance. Then we had a nice chat about how I didn't get that part because I was the best dancer but because I smiled the most. Character goes a long way! This one girl Marina got "the spot in the middle, the cutest costume, and she really was the best dancer, but she got the least amount of performances because she was so pushy and the dancer directors didn't like that. I remember the rehersals being so hard because the directors only spoke Russian and used the French ballet terms to communicate, but I never really took time to learn the names in class I just watched what the teacher was doing! I also remember a few nights before the first performance the kind of picked me up and put me in a sled and told me to wave! I had gotten an extra bonus part!
5 years ago: I was 15, my sophomore year of high school, on the song team. We were practicing like crazy for our first competition! This is also the year Johnny was born. Thats about all I remember. In high school sports seem to consume everything...even memories!
1 year ago: Wrapping up my last semester at BYUI!!! Talking to Josh everyday on the phone. Showing off my ring to everyone I saw. Planning the wedding. I was also making about 100 batches of cookie dough for a class fund raiser! The hand mixer broke and so I did most by hand! I had the muscles to prove it!
Yesterday: Went to work. Took Josh for a french dip sandwich in celebration of completing his 3rd semester of Law school! We've hit the half way mark! Not quite able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. ;-) Made fudge for my work pot luck party.
Today: work, holiday pot luck at work, showed Josh off to my co workers. Ate way too much. Now I'm home in my jammies blogging.
5 snacks I enjoy: golden spoon, cold stone, In'n'out milkshakes, homemade ice cream (sensing a theme???), and fruit
5 things I would do with a million dollars: start having kids, buy a house, get a car, pay off all of our student loans, write a big fat tithing and "other" check to the church.
5 places I would run away to: the cabin, mine and josh's parent's house, the beach (specifically Riviera, next to Califia), the temple
5 TV shows I like: seinfeld, friends, king of queens, everybody loves raymond, america's next top model
5 things I hate doing: cleaning up "potty accidents" at school, staying up later than my mind, cleaning out/unloading the car, shaving my legs (but yes I do it anyways), watch an entire baseball game on tv.
5 biggest joys of the moment: I can go to bed soon, tomorrow is Friday and a pay day, Josh is sitting next to me rubbing me feet, I didn't have to do any dishes because Josh did them this afternoon (He really is amazing!), Only a week until we're home!!!
I tag: megan peterson (hehehe)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
More Christmas Pictures!
Rachel and Brittany
I started a nutcracker collection....it all begins with one!okay okay
Alright.....enough with the name calling! I'm back! I make no promises...but I will try to be a little bit more consistent. So last time I posted I was reading the Twilight series, I believe I finished the third book, Eclipse, the very next day! I'm dying for the next book and the first movie to come out! We've been up to utah, out to California, home working, "schooling", and getting ready for Christmas!!! School/work has been crazy. I'm learning to not be grossed out by things that used to make me gag! I'm on my way. I even changed some bandages the other day without getting chills and cringing! (This is why I've never considered nursing for a career). The funny thing is I don't mind when it is my own blood. That I has seen many times, but when it's someone else...I don't do so well. It's getting late (for me) and while I do want to cath up with my postings I need to get to bed and rest for the next few crazy days! But I won't disappoint, I have a few pictures of the apartment and some of the young women. I had them over to watch my favorite Christmas movie, "It's A Wonderful Life!" That is all for now....until next time!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
so on wednesday night i started reading the book Twilight before i went to bed.....then i read it durning my whole lunch on thursday, all evening, all lunch friday, late into the night, all day saturday, and i finally finished a little before 3:00am this morning! (i'm a slow reader) that was the fastest i think i've ever read a book before! i like the book so much. i wasn't sure, i had heard rumors it wasn't as good as people were saying, but i absolutely loved it!!!! josh wants me to let everyone know he had to sleep on the couch last night because the light was on from my reading! haha...ooops. well i was very frustrated today because i read the "teaser" chapter at the end of the book for the next one, and i was so hooked, but i don't have the second one yet to start reading! it's been hard to get through the day ;-) i'm considering buying it on my lunch break tommorow or possibly before work if i can find a place open early enough!
Randoms and Extras
Making hot sauce with grandma and grandpa davis (my battery died after this picture!)
Me and Dylan (she is the sweetest girl)
Me and Dylan (she is the sweetest girl)
Zoey is just adorable
Me and the other leaders.
YW Halloween Party
Mummifying the Bishop
Yummy
Yummy
Tight Budget....haha
Spider Pizza!!! (look closely its a spider on top)
My costume
Kristen's Baby Shower
The Goodie Bags
Mom, Kristen, Grandma Peterson, and Sugar Grandma
Mom, Kristen, Grandma Peterson, and Sugar Grandma
Megan, Kristen (very pregnant) and Me
Linda, Tracy, Mom Duffy, Kelly
Cass, Penny, Rhona, Cheryl
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
more pictures!!!
ghost candy dish- mom duffy, cute sign- the plewes
table cloth- mom duffy, candle- christine, boo sign- auntie, pumpkins- grandma davis, cake platter, the allen family
trick of treat sign- auntie lisa, jack-o-lantern candles- grandma davis(excuse our very dirty and brightly painted halltree)
silver dish- auntie lisa, candle holder- mom duffypictures!!!!
the cute sign from mom duffy, scarecrows and turkey from auntie, white candle from christine
our festive table!!!
a little saturday fun
so here is my report on the rest of the day! we cleaned. and cleaned. and cleaned!!! its really funny how different josh and i are with cleaning. josh can clean the entire kitchen, microwave, oven and all in half the time it takes me to clean the bathroom. and it's not because he's sloppy..because he does a great job! (you taught him well mom duffy!). i just figured he moved really fast to get back to the game, but then we cleaned the living room together and i realized i get sidetracked so easily while cleaning!! i went to put laundry away, hand shirts back in the closet... and it turned into a huge toss or keep fashion show! hopefully getting ready in the morning will be a faster process now that i have weeded out everything that doesn't fit or just doesn't look good. (thanks again to josh's patience.) the apartment was finally clean, so i ran to the grocery store and got the supplies for tacos! (and some things to stock up the pantry) it seems like i stock up the fridge and panrty every week, and then its all gone in a few days. i think we have little goblins that come and eat everything. that or josh is having parties here while i'm at work ;-) really we just have a tiny pantry that barely holds all of our spices and baking staples so there isn't much room for "weekly" items. so after the aparment was clean and groceries put away...i re-decorated! i moved things around to encorporate the adorable things mom duffy gave me! an adorable H-arvest sign, a ghost and pumpkin candel holder, a "ghostly night" sign, a spiderweb table cloth, and some yummy scented candles! i also got two huge pumpkins, two small pumpkins, and some fall leaves. we decorated the table and everything! i took pictures but i'm not sure how to put them on the computer...but once again mom has inpired me so i will whip out the manual and try to figure it out! i really should have paid more attention in my tech lab and computer classes. anyways we had some of our friends over. we were in charge of food, one couple dessert, and the other entertainment! it was a blast. we had tacos, then ice cream, then we played nerts. we have a sort of league going. trophy and all! its a blast. when we first taught our friends to play we weren't sure how they'd like it, but they have gotten so into it. its hillarious...all of us throwing cards, calling people's "cheats", and expressing our frustration when someone beats us to the pile! its great. that was our evening.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
too long
so it has definitely been way too long! here's a recap:
friday (last week)- work. i met robin miller from food network! her kids go to the school i work at. we were talking for about 30 minutes about hawaii, her kid's birthday party, etc before it came up in our conversation! crazy! then josh and i went to the airport, we were early so we had chili's, cold stone, josh got a book and i got a magazine. i realized how much i've changed when i chose "better homes and gardens" over "shape" magazine. haha. we got on our flight and thought we were going to die during our very shaky landing; even the flight attendants looked panicked!! but we survived. dad duffy and christine picked us up. we listened to classic rock and played guess who sings this song on our way up to the cabin. we were wipped out when we got there, so we didn't stayed up talking too long.
saturday- i actually slept in past 6:00 am. yay! i went grocery shopping with mom and dad. stocked up on lotion, shampoo, deodorant, ect so from now on we don't have to pack a thing to go the the cabin. it's such a foreign thing for me. i usually pack a trunk load for a weekend trip!! we made it back up to the cabin for conference, made breakfast, the blairs came up. brandon blair and josh have been good friends since high school. it was him, his wife cherise, and their four kids who are probably the cutest kids. we watched the second session, played games, the boys went to priesthood, the girls cooked dinner and talked, we ate dinner, played more games, then went to bed!
sunday- woke up, conference, breakfast (yummy), a little cat nap between sessions, my family (the petersons) came up, we watched the second session together. David, the dads, and josh blessed baby christian, then we had dinner and father blessings. it was very neat!!! josh and i reschedualed our flight to leave the next morning so we didn't miss out on all the good stuff happening that evening. we stayed up late talking, etc.
monday- we woke up at 4:00am (3:00 AZ time). josh and i got bumped off our flight and had to take the later flight. we landed in az at 7:45am and i start work at 8:00am!! i was late, but still made it in time for car pool! work was great, we had 4 kids absent so it was an easy day! the yw were in charge of picking up flags from people's yards (part of the boy scout flag service) so i went with them to do that. they wanted mc donalds after, then i picked up josh from class, came home and went straight to bed!
tuesday- work. mutual. we planned our halloween party. came home and slept. (its a theme for the week!)
wednesday- work. picked up our car! it looks beautiful! took josh to class. picked up two of the young women who wanted to come over and watch america's next top model. i wasn't too thrilled, because i was really tired, but it was a good chance to talk and get to know them a little better! i made them finish off our ice cream so it wouldn't tempt josh and i! haha. dropped them off, picked josh up, came home and went to bed!
thursday- work, it was a long tiring day! i came home to josh and brady in our living room playing games. josh later told me what my face looked like when i opened the door! (uh oh). josh and i took the rental car back ;-( and went to the mall next to the rental place for a quick dinner in the food court. and i needed a computer store to get a cable to hook up my comp to the tv so i can still use my computer! we didnt find one though. but i did discover that mall is almost all outlet stores! nike, gap, and a few other goodies. but then i realized...we don't go shopping anyways, but it was still fun to know!!! went home and went to bed!
friday- work. a very very long day. we had two poop related accidents (yuck) and even worse... i was putting one of the girls to bed, rubbing her back, i fell asleep too, woke up and my whole side was wet! you guessed it...she had an accident and it was all over me! i had no clothes to change into and i was stuck at school for another 4 hours!!!! (double yuck!!) josh picked me up, we took our car to get the emissions testing required for our car registration. went to blockbuster, but after half an hour decided on not getting anything. went to golden spoon! yay! i even branched out and got a new flavor...pumpkin pie! it was yummy. came home, made dinner. we had herb dijon chicken, rice, and green beans. i felt really sick and had a little bit of a fever so i went to bed very early!
i woke up so many times durning the night due to parties in our complex. grrrr. the train every hour was bad enough. josh stayed up till about 3am and told me this morning that this couple that was at the party decided to "talk"/shout at eachother right infront of our door. i told him he should have pounded on our door to send them a little message. he's nicer than i am though and decided to leave them alone and work out their issues. well its saturday and there is a lot to get done!!!
friday (last week)- work. i met robin miller from food network! her kids go to the school i work at. we were talking for about 30 minutes about hawaii, her kid's birthday party, etc before it came up in our conversation! crazy! then josh and i went to the airport, we were early so we had chili's, cold stone, josh got a book and i got a magazine. i realized how much i've changed when i chose "better homes and gardens" over "shape" magazine. haha. we got on our flight and thought we were going to die during our very shaky landing; even the flight attendants looked panicked!! but we survived. dad duffy and christine picked us up. we listened to classic rock and played guess who sings this song on our way up to the cabin. we were wipped out when we got there, so we didn't stayed up talking too long.
saturday- i actually slept in past 6:00 am. yay! i went grocery shopping with mom and dad. stocked up on lotion, shampoo, deodorant, ect so from now on we don't have to pack a thing to go the the cabin. it's such a foreign thing for me. i usually pack a trunk load for a weekend trip!! we made it back up to the cabin for conference, made breakfast, the blairs came up. brandon blair and josh have been good friends since high school. it was him, his wife cherise, and their four kids who are probably the cutest kids. we watched the second session, played games, the boys went to priesthood, the girls cooked dinner and talked, we ate dinner, played more games, then went to bed!
sunday- woke up, conference, breakfast (yummy), a little cat nap between sessions, my family (the petersons) came up, we watched the second session together. David, the dads, and josh blessed baby christian, then we had dinner and father blessings. it was very neat!!! josh and i reschedualed our flight to leave the next morning so we didn't miss out on all the good stuff happening that evening. we stayed up late talking, etc.
monday- we woke up at 4:00am (3:00 AZ time). josh and i got bumped off our flight and had to take the later flight. we landed in az at 7:45am and i start work at 8:00am!! i was late, but still made it in time for car pool! work was great, we had 4 kids absent so it was an easy day! the yw were in charge of picking up flags from people's yards (part of the boy scout flag service) so i went with them to do that. they wanted mc donalds after, then i picked up josh from class, came home and went straight to bed!
tuesday- work. mutual. we planned our halloween party. came home and slept. (its a theme for the week!)
wednesday- work. picked up our car! it looks beautiful! took josh to class. picked up two of the young women who wanted to come over and watch america's next top model. i wasn't too thrilled, because i was really tired, but it was a good chance to talk and get to know them a little better! i made them finish off our ice cream so it wouldn't tempt josh and i! haha. dropped them off, picked josh up, came home and went to bed!
thursday- work, it was a long tiring day! i came home to josh and brady in our living room playing games. josh later told me what my face looked like when i opened the door! (uh oh). josh and i took the rental car back ;-( and went to the mall next to the rental place for a quick dinner in the food court. and i needed a computer store to get a cable to hook up my comp to the tv so i can still use my computer! we didnt find one though. but i did discover that mall is almost all outlet stores! nike, gap, and a few other goodies. but then i realized...we don't go shopping anyways, but it was still fun to know!!! went home and went to bed!
friday- work. a very very long day. we had two poop related accidents (yuck) and even worse... i was putting one of the girls to bed, rubbing her back, i fell asleep too, woke up and my whole side was wet! you guessed it...she had an accident and it was all over me! i had no clothes to change into and i was stuck at school for another 4 hours!!!! (double yuck!!) josh picked me up, we took our car to get the emissions testing required for our car registration. went to blockbuster, but after half an hour decided on not getting anything. went to golden spoon! yay! i even branched out and got a new flavor...pumpkin pie! it was yummy. came home, made dinner. we had herb dijon chicken, rice, and green beans. i felt really sick and had a little bit of a fever so i went to bed very early!
i woke up so many times durning the night due to parties in our complex. grrrr. the train every hour was bad enough. josh stayed up till about 3am and told me this morning that this couple that was at the party decided to "talk"/shout at eachother right infront of our door. i told him he should have pounded on our door to send them a little message. he's nicer than i am though and decided to leave them alone and work out their issues. well its saturday and there is a lot to get done!!!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
a busy few days
wow this week has flown by. usually when i'm super excited about something (like going to the cabin) time seems to almost stop. but this week has been so busy its gone by fast. here's a little update on what happened this week.
tuesday worked as usual. long and busy day. we were late leaving school because of traffic so we had to rush to get to mutual. we stopped for dinner at rubio's, but the line was so long and we only had 15minutes till we were supposed to be leaving the church for lazer tag. so we went without dinner. (not an easy thing for me to do!!!!) but we had so much fun. we had the most people show up, about 25 including leaders. josh got the 4th highest score of the day and 2nd highest of the game. i got the 7th highest score of the game. yay! we had a blast. i found the location of my next birthday party ;-)
wednesday was even more hectic. work was busy as always, came home, we had bbq chicken and broccoli, then i took one of the young women to her interview with the bishop for her patriarchal blessing (YAY!!!) i also had a date night with another girl in yw to talk about personal progress and set some goals and get her working on something so she has a display at yw in excellence night. it went pretty well. during the interview i got to talk to the other girl that came with us and learned a lot about the kinds of things these girls go through everyday. and i also got to see where there live and meet their parents, also a big thing. the things these girls go through just breaks my heart. i had to try so hard not to cry when they were telling me just everyday stories from school and about their best friends. the older girl desiree is 17 and pretty overweight and socially akward. she is also very sweet and considerate of others. it seems to me that she just really needs someone to appreciate and love her regardless of any outward flaws she has (because i don't think she has a single internal flaw). Anyways she was telling me that at school she was walking past the ceramics class and a bunch of kids started yelling things at her and threw chunks of clay at her big enough to cause bruises on her face, back, and arm. i could not believe that kids could be to outwardly cruel. I was in middle school and high school, and know people say horrible things and do mean things, but this is just off the chart. The other girl is probably one of the prettiest girls i've seen. she looks like a younger version of the actress that plays Lana on Smallville. and she was telling me about her family and her friends. This girl has not only been explosed to, but has had to deal with, so many heartbreaking situations at such a young age. To get back to the evening....we went to golden spoon and talked about personal progress. rachel has never looked in the book before, so we quickly read over the purpose of it, and how to accomplish the different requirements. then we read through the experiences and projects and she chose to do good works first. she has until the third week of november to get it done! yikes! but we're working on it together. her project is to learn first aid. so to make it be 10 hours i'm going to go over all of the cpr and first aid materials from my training. she's going to make a list of things to go into a first aid kit. go buy the supplies and put one together. make an emergency "cheat sheet" for her backpack. while doing all of this i'll take pictures of her, so she can make a poster to display with her kit. (any other ideas to extend the hours put into this would be great!!!!) after that i took them home, and then josh and i watched the season finale of top chef and were so mad hung won. then it was way past bed time.
today i was so tired. i hit the snooze button more than a few times! the day was pretty typical. i fell asleep for over an hour while putting the kids to sleep. and today is the only day that everyone fell asleep. usually we have atleast one or two kids that just wiggle and talk to themselves the whole time. hahah. josh picked me up, we came home and our dinner that was in the fridge to defrost was completely frozen still....so we used our giftcard to get some olive garden! yum yum. even better- it came to a grand total of $5!!! now we're watching football and getting ready to go to the cabin tomorrow! yay! i probably wont write again until monday because i'll be seeing all of you this weekend!!!!
tuesday worked as usual. long and busy day. we were late leaving school because of traffic so we had to rush to get to mutual. we stopped for dinner at rubio's, but the line was so long and we only had 15minutes till we were supposed to be leaving the church for lazer tag. so we went without dinner. (not an easy thing for me to do!!!!) but we had so much fun. we had the most people show up, about 25 including leaders. josh got the 4th highest score of the day and 2nd highest of the game. i got the 7th highest score of the game. yay! we had a blast. i found the location of my next birthday party ;-)
wednesday was even more hectic. work was busy as always, came home, we had bbq chicken and broccoli, then i took one of the young women to her interview with the bishop for her patriarchal blessing (YAY!!!) i also had a date night with another girl in yw to talk about personal progress and set some goals and get her working on something so she has a display at yw in excellence night. it went pretty well. during the interview i got to talk to the other girl that came with us and learned a lot about the kinds of things these girls go through everyday. and i also got to see where there live and meet their parents, also a big thing. the things these girls go through just breaks my heart. i had to try so hard not to cry when they were telling me just everyday stories from school and about their best friends. the older girl desiree is 17 and pretty overweight and socially akward. she is also very sweet and considerate of others. it seems to me that she just really needs someone to appreciate and love her regardless of any outward flaws she has (because i don't think she has a single internal flaw). Anyways she was telling me that at school she was walking past the ceramics class and a bunch of kids started yelling things at her and threw chunks of clay at her big enough to cause bruises on her face, back, and arm. i could not believe that kids could be to outwardly cruel. I was in middle school and high school, and know people say horrible things and do mean things, but this is just off the chart. The other girl is probably one of the prettiest girls i've seen. she looks like a younger version of the actress that plays Lana on Smallville. and she was telling me about her family and her friends. This girl has not only been explosed to, but has had to deal with, so many heartbreaking situations at such a young age. To get back to the evening....we went to golden spoon and talked about personal progress. rachel has never looked in the book before, so we quickly read over the purpose of it, and how to accomplish the different requirements. then we read through the experiences and projects and she chose to do good works first. she has until the third week of november to get it done! yikes! but we're working on it together. her project is to learn first aid. so to make it be 10 hours i'm going to go over all of the cpr and first aid materials from my training. she's going to make a list of things to go into a first aid kit. go buy the supplies and put one together. make an emergency "cheat sheet" for her backpack. while doing all of this i'll take pictures of her, so she can make a poster to display with her kit. (any other ideas to extend the hours put into this would be great!!!!) after that i took them home, and then josh and i watched the season finale of top chef and were so mad hung won. then it was way past bed time.
today i was so tired. i hit the snooze button more than a few times! the day was pretty typical. i fell asleep for over an hour while putting the kids to sleep. and today is the only day that everyone fell asleep. usually we have atleast one or two kids that just wiggle and talk to themselves the whole time. hahah. josh picked me up, we came home and our dinner that was in the fridge to defrost was completely frozen still....so we used our giftcard to get some olive garden! yum yum. even better- it came to a grand total of $5!!! now we're watching football and getting ready to go to the cabin tomorrow! yay! i probably wont write again until monday because i'll be seeing all of you this weekend!!!!
Monday, October 1, 2007
catchng up
Okay...so i've been slacking a little. Saturday was a lot of fun....after work that is. i managed to go the whole two weeks at nordstrom without a terribly mean customer, until the last few hours of my last day. i had a woman throw jeans at me and a whole family yelling at each other and getting mad at my tie suggestions. apparently i like old men ties. hahaha. but i survived. it was our friend casey's birthday and so he and his wife invited to dinner at non other than benihana. josh was in heaven! its really good, but i always leave feeling sick. they need a half order option. after dinner we went to casey and emily's and played nerts until 1 in the morning!! i still can't believe i stayed up that late!!
sunday josh and i learned a few VERY valuable lessons, all to do with being prepared and planning ahead. josh had done the grocery shopping on saturday with a list i gave him. well, i totally forgot to put a few key ingredients to make dessert for sunday dinner like eggs and butter. and josh forgot that he promised the young men he'd bring candy bars as an incentive to pay attention to the lessons. well turns out it was fast sunday so he could get off the hook and grandma and grandpa brought a dessert even though we'd forgotten to assign it to someone!!! love how it all works out! Church was great though. at the beginning of sacrament meeting the bishop announced he wanted to meet with the following couples before third hour. of course we were one of the four couples. we were a little nervous...but we met with him and he has asked all of us if we'd participate in a new class our stake is trying to get going. we still don't totally know what it is but it is some kind of strengthening marriage class. should be fun. it's on friday nights 6-7:30 so a lot of the couples were disappointed because thats their date night, but we were just excited because now we have something free to do on date night other than falling asleep on the couch by 8 watching tv. and we'll most likely be going to golden spoon after! always a favorite.
The young women were supposed to teach primary today, so we didn't plan a lesson for the girls, but after sacrament meeting we were told they didn't need our help! our yw president wasn't there so the other counselor and i kind of paniced. we decided that insead of throwing off the whole lesson schedule we have, we'd use the 30 minutes left of 3rd hour to address some questions the yw have had. last week when i taught the lesson we were talking about resources we have that give us strength and guidance to resist temptation and hold fast to the Lord's standards. One of the examples was our patriarchal blessing. the girls had never even heard of it before. all of the girls come from part member homes, most single moms who are not active, or living with their grandparents who are. So we decided this week to teach the girls how to use the resources we have (scriptures, for strength of youth, new era, true to the faith, and lds.org) to answer the questions they have. in doing so we found out that the girls are lacking even a basic knowledge of the scripture stories. they didn't know the story of abraham and isaac, jacob (israel) and his sons, etc. that was a real eye opener to me who had 30 beehives in my class. While this is another collection of challenges in teaching this group of yw, it makes me feel a little more comfortable and also a little more nervous. i'm relieved that i might actually have some knowledge to give to them, but i'm nervous because the foundation is the most important part. they need to know the basic bible and book of mormon "stories" to better their understanding of the gospel and to better understand and creat a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It seems to me that right now they only thing these girls know about the church are the "rules" as they call them, or the standards. Wow, it seems even more overwhelming when i write it all out. luckily we have a great yw president!!!
After church grandma grandpa and auntie came over for dinner. josh made tacos, i decorated the apartment, and auntie and grandma brought the "toppings" and dessert. it was so much fun to eat and talk and catch up! it was a blast. for my birthday they both gave me halloween decorations and then last week they helped me to make a fall wreath, so our apartment it looking like a home. josh especially like the vanilla and apple cinnomon candles!
today was definitely a monday. but lucky for us, a cool monday. it was only 85 degrees! yay!!! school was great. the bully girls were a little better, aiden didn't cry all day! in after school care only two kids showed up so i got to leave early. josh picked me up, we went and paid rent, had leftover tacos then i got my haircut. i called around and finally decided hair is hair and if it looks bad it'll grow out, so i went to fantastic sams and got a pretty good color and cut job. and after some serious consideration cut my bangs short again. i'm not quite sure how i like them yet....so we'll see. i alread know they'll drive me crazy during school going into my eyes. thats life. well im off to bed. until tomorrow.
sunday josh and i learned a few VERY valuable lessons, all to do with being prepared and planning ahead. josh had done the grocery shopping on saturday with a list i gave him. well, i totally forgot to put a few key ingredients to make dessert for sunday dinner like eggs and butter. and josh forgot that he promised the young men he'd bring candy bars as an incentive to pay attention to the lessons. well turns out it was fast sunday so he could get off the hook and grandma and grandpa brought a dessert even though we'd forgotten to assign it to someone!!! love how it all works out! Church was great though. at the beginning of sacrament meeting the bishop announced he wanted to meet with the following couples before third hour. of course we were one of the four couples. we were a little nervous...but we met with him and he has asked all of us if we'd participate in a new class our stake is trying to get going. we still don't totally know what it is but it is some kind of strengthening marriage class. should be fun. it's on friday nights 6-7:30 so a lot of the couples were disappointed because thats their date night, but we were just excited because now we have something free to do on date night other than falling asleep on the couch by 8 watching tv. and we'll most likely be going to golden spoon after! always a favorite.
The young women were supposed to teach primary today, so we didn't plan a lesson for the girls, but after sacrament meeting we were told they didn't need our help! our yw president wasn't there so the other counselor and i kind of paniced. we decided that insead of throwing off the whole lesson schedule we have, we'd use the 30 minutes left of 3rd hour to address some questions the yw have had. last week when i taught the lesson we were talking about resources we have that give us strength and guidance to resist temptation and hold fast to the Lord's standards. One of the examples was our patriarchal blessing. the girls had never even heard of it before. all of the girls come from part member homes, most single moms who are not active, or living with their grandparents who are. So we decided this week to teach the girls how to use the resources we have (scriptures, for strength of youth, new era, true to the faith, and lds.org) to answer the questions they have. in doing so we found out that the girls are lacking even a basic knowledge of the scripture stories. they didn't know the story of abraham and isaac, jacob (israel) and his sons, etc. that was a real eye opener to me who had 30 beehives in my class. While this is another collection of challenges in teaching this group of yw, it makes me feel a little more comfortable and also a little more nervous. i'm relieved that i might actually have some knowledge to give to them, but i'm nervous because the foundation is the most important part. they need to know the basic bible and book of mormon "stories" to better their understanding of the gospel and to better understand and creat a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It seems to me that right now they only thing these girls know about the church are the "rules" as they call them, or the standards. Wow, it seems even more overwhelming when i write it all out. luckily we have a great yw president!!!
After church grandma grandpa and auntie came over for dinner. josh made tacos, i decorated the apartment, and auntie and grandma brought the "toppings" and dessert. it was so much fun to eat and talk and catch up! it was a blast. for my birthday they both gave me halloween decorations and then last week they helped me to make a fall wreath, so our apartment it looking like a home. josh especially like the vanilla and apple cinnomon candles!
today was definitely a monday. but lucky for us, a cool monday. it was only 85 degrees! yay!!! school was great. the bully girls were a little better, aiden didn't cry all day! in after school care only two kids showed up so i got to leave early. josh picked me up, we went and paid rent, had leftover tacos then i got my haircut. i called around and finally decided hair is hair and if it looks bad it'll grow out, so i went to fantastic sams and got a pretty good color and cut job. and after some serious consideration cut my bangs short again. i'm not quite sure how i like them yet....so we'll see. i alread know they'll drive me crazy during school going into my eyes. thats life. well im off to bed. until tomorrow.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
last day!
friday was a great day! aiden, the little boy who speaks mostly mandarin was there. usually he cries all the way till lunch, but he had a really good day. it was so fun to see him so happy. the kids in after school care have become quite attatched, but i found out its because im the only teacher who agrees to push them on the other swings. hahah. josh picked me up from school to take me to nordstrom and on the way i got a phone call from my boss telling me that although my two weeks isn't over till a week from tuesday, they don't need me to come in starting next week! so that means today is my very last day! last night was a pretty fun day at work. no one came in so i spent the whole time refolding and orginizing, which alone would have seemed tedious, but the assistant manager, who at first i wasn't real fond of, was talking to me the whole time. She recognized that I was LDS because she grew up with a girl who was a member and went to some activities with her. so it was neat to be able to answer some of her questions. after work josh picked me up and we went to golden spoon and then home and i crashed after being on the couch for a grand total of 5 minutes! now i'm off for my last day of work!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
a revolution
today was a pretty good day. the kids were very mellow. no accidents. and i even took a little nap during nap time. at first i thought we'd get in trouble if we fell asleep, so i struggled staying awake while listening to the baby naptime cd and rubbing the kids backs. but then i was talking to the principal the day after josh broke his finger and she told me i should start bringing a blanket and taking a nap too. that thats what a lot of the other teachers do. yay... i get a two hour paid nap!! thats been about it. i got off work, josh picked me up, we stopped by nordstrom to pick up next week's (my last week!) schedule, which still hasn't been made and handed out yet. this short experience has been quite the introduction into retail life. i'm all for flexibility, but only if it goes both ways. if employees should give two weeks notice for requesting days off and leaving, i think they should give us two weeks notice of our schedules. i dont mean to sounds like im rallying the troops for a revolution, but it seems like this particular management has lost all of its respect for their employees and so in turn theur employees don't respect them. Sounds like some people could use a copy of "Leadership and Self-Deception". Which is a wonderful book by the way. well, im home, i've eaten dinner, its off to bed early tonight for me.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
another long day
i didn't make it to bed until late last night, so i definitely paid for it today. i really had to drag myself out of bed this morning. school was a little frustrating today. these two girls, madison and natalie have been giving me a lot of sass. and really the only thing i can do is put them in time out. not real effective. aiden the cute little chinese boy was there today, but he cried all the way until lunch. it was a long morning to say the least. during nap time i wrote in the cards i got to go with the gifts for megan and david and kat. megans bday present is super cute, but i can't say what it is because she reads this. But i definitely wanted one too! For david and kat i got baby ugg boots for christian because they live in idaho, and two onesies. the first says, "what: party, where: my crib, when: 2am." the second one says, "i cry over spilt milk" pretty cute for $2 a piece!!!! my favorite was for a girl "does this diper make my butt look big?" both are much belated, but better late than never. while writing the cards i realized i forgot to bring the harry potter cd's for megan's package. woops. another day wont kill her ;-) the highlight of my day was when little natalie wet her pants while sitting on my lap during story time. not nearly as bad as when david wet his at disneyland while on my dad's shoulders!!!! i went back for round two of dream dinners. this month should be great. we're having balsamic marinated roast, bacon wrapped turkey medallions, honey pork roast, and i can't remember what else. but dinner for the rest of the month, including side dishes, are now ready!!! josh took our smoke filled rental car in today for a new one and they gave us a free upgrade to a 2008 pt cruiser. its really nice! but no tape player...so i'll have to wait to continue listening to harry potter and the order of the phoenix. well, it is getting late. until next time. (that was for you shaun).
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Two Weeks Notice :-))))
this morning i found it near impossible to get out of bed. i just didn't want to get up. but like always, once i'm up i can't fall back asleep, so i might as well I get up. work went very well today. we had a new little boy, Diego, who had a hard day without his mom. Andrea, the teacher, decided it would be best if we went to the play ground, almost the whole day. it was wonderful. and we only had one "accident". yay! And the weather is really starting to cool off, it was only 93 at lunch today! which means i was completely sweaty just sitting there. I spent lunch/nap time drafting my two weeks notice letter for nordstrom. after a few phone calls to my mom it was finished. i also received a messgae from josh about the job offer john orcutt keeps callings about. i get so confused/frustrated by the way these "job offers" work. i get so excited to find that they aren't actually offers, but hints that there could possibly be an offer. i have to keep reminding josh not to tell me about them until there is a for sure offer, mostly because i fret about it too much. it'll just drive me crazy thinking up all the possibilities, i need to know the facts. haha. So i went to nordstrom a little early to talk to my boss, i told her that my circumstances have changed and i can't work there anymore, and she went a little bizurke thinking i meant starting right then. when i told her i meant in two weeks she still blew me off and ignored me the rest of the night. sighh. good thing i'm getting out now!!! once the managers left at 6:30, the rest of us had a great time until close. not one person came in the whole time, so i had plenty of opporunties to browse through the baby clothes and accessories for kristen. my favorite is the binkie that says "mute button". so fun. well now i'm home, tired, and ready for bed. good night.
Monday, September 24, 2007
monday...
yesterday was the most fun i've had in a long time! church was great. we sat down in our usual seat and a few minutes later a grandma and her twin grandaughters morgan and chelsea (6 yrs old) sat next to us. it wasn't a minute before morgan came and sat right next to me to share a hymn book. A few minutes later she was sitting on my lap, head on my shoulder, telling me she was going to take a nap. She was quite a wiggler though, and complained that my shoulder wasn't as soft as her grandma's. hah. Luckily I was still able to hear the speakers. One of our young women spoke. She is the president, but tends to act "too cool" to fulfill a lot of her responsibilities. She gave a great talk though. Sunday school is aways a little interesting. Josh signed us up for the provident living class which has turned out to be quite a doomsday reminder. It has motivated us to get our things a little more organized, which is always a good thing. Josh and I both taught lessons during 3rd hour. They both went really well. I was really excited because all of the young women got into the lesson. They were answering questions, asking questions, and telling personal experiences. The lesson was on Holding Fast to the Lord's Standards. It was a nice break for them, apparently the last 9 lessons or so have been on morality, which of course is a very important topic, but I think they were ready for a new topic. After church we went staight up to aunties for an amazing dinner! josh was so excited to be able to watch football with uncle craig who enjoys watching it as much (and more) than he does. i'll watch, but i don't generally shout scream and yell the way they do. Auntie and grandma had gone to michael's on saturday and got a bunch of supplies for a holiday wreath. After dinner they helped me make a beautiful wreath for our apartment! It turned out soo great!! It was so nice of them to do that for me. I love making crafts, but would never justify taking the time or spending the money to do it. Not only that, but they did such a great job at picking out colors and styles of things I like. Our apartment it looking so festive! Josh loves it because it reminds him of home. We left fairly late, came home, and I went straight to bed. Oh yeah, and yesterday we officially decided it would be best for us if I stop working a Nordstrom. It's just too much and there are other, more important, things that deserve my attention. So I woke up around 4 this morning feeling very sick. I called for a sub, which turned out to be quite a fiasco, finally got one and slept all day today. I finally caught what's been going around our class. I'm feeling much better now, so i'll be back to work tomorrow at the school till 4:30, then nordstrom till close (and i'll be putting in my 2 weeks!!!) I'm a little nervous about doing it though, because my mangers reming me of the boss in the devil wears prada. We'll see how it goes!!!! Well, josh needs the computer for class. until next time.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
First Timer
Well after mom Duffy started a blog, I thought it would be fun to do one as well. Not just to keep in touch with friends and family, which is wonderful, but for my sanity. I find journal keeping helps me to sort out my day and puts thing into perspective (something I've been lacking). Although if this turns up anything like my journals it will be mostly venting...so I will do my best!!! :-) This week has been a long one. Monday was the beginning of my first full week as a teaching assistant at the Montesorri school. Most of the kids are great. They come to school, they work hard, they listen, they go home. A few like to pretend they don't understand the meredith language. A few think of me as a jungle gym. And an even more select few make going to work every day worth it. There is the sweetest little boy named Bowen who smiles all day long. He follows me around just beaming and occasionally, for no reason, he will give me a hug. It's very sweet. My other job at Nordstrom is going pretty well. I've been doubling my selling goal for each day which is very good (especailly for my paycheck), but when taking my shoes of at the end of each night I'm seriously afraid of finding that my toes are actually gone, not just numb. We'll see if I adapt to the feeling. I'm finding that Kristen, my sister, is most excited about my job. She has already sent me an extensive wishlist fron nordstrom.com of things she would like me to buy for her with my discount. I believe I have sidetracked a bit from desribing the other events in the week....monday was family home evening (we got golden spoon) then I worked on making posters for the young women's room while Josh and Brady tried to figure out Josh's computer. Tuesday was mutual: young women made dinner and played games with the bishopric andf their wives while the young men played "flag" football inside. While catching a brilliant throw, Josh fractured his finger in two places and tore his tendon. yippee. We spent our four month "anniversary" in the ER. On the way home we did manage to stop for gelato!!! Wednesday I narrowly escaped a ticket. This is my first experience of only getting a warning from a police officer, a miracle in my book!!! I was picking up Josh from his night class because he wasn't really up to driving. I showed up about 5 minutes early so I just pulled up in front of the building, put the car in park and listened to Harry Potter on tape until he came out. I had been there for about 2 minutes when I saw lights flashing behind me and waited in a panic for another 2 minutes before the officer decided to get out of the car. He informed me I was parked in a no parking zone (even though there were no signs) and that they are cracking down and even ticketing people still in their cars. It took some begging but I got off with a warning. phewww. Thursday was a double work day, so I got up at 6, went to school, then nordstrom, came home at 10 then crashed. Friday was the same. Today I worked from 11-8, but I left an hour early because it was super slow and I wasn't feeling too great. Josh and I went to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate a hectic week. It was my first time eating there, and while I was rather skeptical at first, I absolutely loved it. Nothing beats a terriaki burger with grilled pineapple. well except for maybe the chocolate oreo shake I had to go with. It definitely hit the spot. Now after finishing my lesson for tomorrow, I am experimenting with the blog and going to bed the most relaxed I've been all week knowing that tomorrow I can relax and I don't have to worry about a thing. Not even dinner beacue amazing Auntie Lisa has invited us over for dinner! sighhhhh....what would we do without her? (Josh would probably look like an Ethiopian orphan). Well it is officially 5 hours past my regular bed time. Until next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
