FYI

I got a job (insert sigh of relief). Starting later this week, I will be a second grade teacher at Rose Creek Elementary School. This means that I will be in Provo for another year. Here's to year five.

rah rah sis-boom-bah

Unearthing old  cheerleading uniforms proved to be entertaining. It's comforting that we can still fit in them. Kelsey and Amy=real skinny

Lucy enjoys being screamed at through the megaphone. Go! Fight! Win!

Lucy magnifies the sound of her breathing. Why yell through the megaphone when you can breathe heavily with your nose? Lucy=future cheerleader for sure

sleepover with aunt amy

Being favorite aunt requires many things. This may include gifts, like sweet Pokemon card holders from the Burger King. Said card holder ensures that Rafe loves me. He even insists on wearing it to bed.

As favorite aunt I also feed Berkley (this is tedious but necessary).

I also let Rafe run wild with the camera. I see a budding talent.

Berkley is easy to win over.

Even when I'm forced to dress her in boy pajamas that are much too big for her. Uncle Fester anyone?

I let Rafe attract the spiders on the porch glider while I sit safely three feet away.

graduated shmraduated

It's official.....I am now a college graduate. BYU was foolish enough to give me a degree, and as soon as the deed was done I high-tailed it out of there and drove back to Oregon. Now I am home all summer (is summer over yet?), and then onto bigger and better (cross your fingers) things this fall. Hopefully these "bigger and better" things will include me, Paige, and Washington DC. 

student teaching

Favorite quotes from second graders:

"She should be married already--she needs to find herself a man!"

One boy's nice note to another boy on his birthday: You are priity. Your eyes are priity.

"My brain doesn't work that way, it's at home sleeping."

"You'd be lucky to find a diamond inside a rock. You'd be rich--like you'd have $1000."

Girl: Cleaning my desk is really quite comforting.

Boy: Well, girls like house cleaning. Your desk is like your house.

All time favorite thing said by student: Hobos drink from puddles.

I'm in a sixth grade classroom now, and I'm going to be honest. They're not as funny as the eight year olds. I love them, but they're in that awkward stage and don't just blurt out everything on their minds. And they don't type "whore" instead of "were." Too bad. It cracks me up. Gotta love teaching.....right?

2 1/2 more weeks until V-Day (graduation).

all I want for christmas is you

Me and my roommates love Christmas. Period. So we decided that we would get hot chocolate (a very wintery thing to do) and go see this house that is completely lit up--and the lights are synced to music on the radio. Very high-tech. So we got the hot chocolate with no problem.

We got a little excited to be doing something with a Christmas theme....this song gets me everytime. Who can listen to this and not sing/dance? I have yet to find such a person. Oh Mariah Carey.

                                             

The problem came when we tried to find the house with lights. It's in Lindon. We traveled all over the street that it was supposed to be on. We drove in circles. We got frustrated. There's only so many times you can hear the Amy Grant Christmas CD.  And then we found this sign:

The lights were okay. Entertaining. But I'm glad we didn't have to pay to see it. Good thing we found it. That would have been sad. And the best way to finish any day: guitar hero. Having it in the apartment is both amazing and extremely distracting. 

home for the weekend

Last week on September 23, my grandma passed away. And while this was and is still very sad to me, she was in a lot of pain at the end, and so her passing is a blessing as well. She was an amazing woman, and I'll miss her. My parents flew me home for the funeral, and I was in Gresham for nearly a week. It was a good weekend, I got to see my family, watch old home movies from when my mom was a kid, play card/domino games, and share memories of my grandma. While I was home, Kelsey and I decided to take Lucy to the zoo, and grandpa decided to go with us. It was a nice activity to get us out of the house and to get us thinking about something other than grandma. Lucy looooved it. She just turned 1 a few weeks ago, and so she was pointing at everything. (above: Lu and grandpa. It could not get cuter than that.)

You can't tell in this picture, but Lu was bouncing on that log thing, I had to hold on for dear life so she wouldn't fall into the pit.

Being underground was both fun and terrifying for Lu. She would switch between crying and laughing at regular intervals.

Kels and Lu. We couldn't get Lu to look at the camera, she was too preoccupied with the baboons. Probably because she is a baboon. Little monkey.

Kelsey was happy we got to see the baby elephant. I forget what its name is (Samudra? Sumudra?), but I do know its mom stepped on it.

In the bird sanctuary. Lu got pooped on.