Today has been a wonderful day. unfortunately i'm way too exhausted to write about all the details. so tomorrow i promise i nice long post full of amazing stories.

p.s. how do i add the "feature" to my page where it has a link to all of my fellow bloggers?!

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!

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.

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).

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...

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.

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.