::Christmas Vacation::

Day 2:

Today has been a less productive day. But I am still getting my laundry done, so that's progress. I did, however, get sucked into a movie which I have never seen. So, you guessed it, I am watching it. The movie is Marley & Me, and so far I am really enjoying it.

Tonight Alisa and I are going out to dinner with our old roommate, Stephanie and her hubby, Aaron. We try to get together a few times a year. Usually in April, for mine and Alisa's birthdays. November, for Steph's birthday, and December, for Christmas. I think we got together once over the summer this year, too. These girls were my first roommates after moving to Salt Lake, and I'm happy that we were all roommates for a year. They are great girls and I love them.

Day 1:

First day of my vacation was a productive one. Of course I started off by sleeping in. I mean, who wouldn't, right? :) But then, I spent most of my day doing laundry and cleaning the bathroom. So much fun.

Before the break started I told myself that I would take full advantage of this two weeks and get my butt to the gym. Well, it may have taken me all day, but I got there before 5:00! So far, doing well.

I'm Back!

Okay, so I have not been the best blogger for many reasons. But, one of the biggest reasons was due to my previous lap top, which was slower than tar. I have now made an update and converted to a MacBook Pro. I am in heaven. :)

{Lately}

At the end of August Alisa and I moved out of our apartment by the Capitol and made the move to our new apartment in Sugarhouse. It is SO much better. We live in a basement apartment of an older house, so it's smaller, but rent is also cheaper. There are also some perks to it. We have a washer and dryer, which we didn't have at the last place. So this is great! At our last place I would take my laundry to Karen & Greg's usually and do it there. It took all night. I felt bad for taking their night away, but it was also really great to be able to spend time with them and the boys. I miss seeing them, but not having to load up my laundry in the car and take it to their house has been very nice. Like I said, the apartment is small, but has it's perks. Along with the washer and dryer the kitchen has been updated, and is really nice. So, even though the place is smaller it is much better. :)

School is going along well. I am in my second year of teaching and feel that my class is much better this year. It's amazing how much more confident I feel this year, having some experience now. I feel like I have much more control of the class and that I am able to teach the kids better. It's great.

Friday night Brittany, Bethany, and I decided last second to go to a Halloween party. We didn't have costumes, but within five minutes, we had come up with some. We went as Chinese girls. Beth and Britt have some robes from China Town and chop sticks. So, we wore robes and put chop sticks in our hair. And, viola, we were Chinese. It was a fun, random night, which end up being pretty great afterwards!

quick re-cap of my life

well, this post will be nothing fantastic. but i figure it is a good idea to update a bit about my life, rather than just updating about my recent order of the iphone 4... that i am extremely excited and anxious for its arrival.

the end of 2010 seemed to be a good one. finished out the year with a nice two week break from school. one of those weeks which i got to spend in AZ with some much loved familia. john, brittany and abby were in utah for the holidays. they came along with me, mom and dad down to AZ to visit Kevin, Jill and kids. it was so great to spend time with the bodily nieces and nephews for a few days. i wish it could happen more often, but unfortunately my brothers think they have to go out of state and make a living, weird. :)

2011 has been pretty great so far. the first four months flew by! i went on a quick weekend get away trip with my girls over president's day. which was awesome and awful all at once. i had been coughing before we left a little bit. first night down there and i am hacking up a lung. it was painful. we came home early and i spent my day off at the instacare rather than relaxing. turns out i probably pulled a muscle right around my rib too, so every time i would cough, sneeze, or move i was in pain. life was not fun for about 4-5 weeks. but all is well now. :)

i had a birthday last month and turned the big 2-4! weird. funny though, because i always thought i would be married by now. ha, that's not happening any time soon. i wouldn't change where i am now. there is so much i have learned in life and if i had got married at 20 like i had in mind, i would be a completely different person. and i like who i am. elder dallin h. oaks' wife, kristen oaks, came and spoke to our relief society back in april. she is an amazing woman. she didn't get married until her 50's. so, she is the perfect person to talk about being single because she actually understands and can relate. but she said several times, "if you are in this room right now, it's because that's where God wants you to be." and "if you are single right now, it's because that's what the Lord has in His plan..." it was just a very good, uplifting talk about making life the very best right now. :) life is good.

work has had its ups and downs. for about 2 months i was without a co-teacher in my class of 16 kids. substitutes would come in day to day and the change was taking a toll on the kids, and myself. but, after a long wait, they hired a teacher for my class. she has been amazing and i am soooo grateful for all she has contributed! the kids are doing so much better and have really come a long way. the year is coming to an end soon, and then summer will be starting. this week is a stressful one though because we have our spring programs at school. the children get to perform in front of their parents. we've been practicing and lets just say they don't always like to sing. i just hope when parents are there they will try to show off more, rather than become shy like the Christmas program. blah, Friday afternoon cannot come soon enough! i am excited for the summer, i think it will be a fun change.

i just splurged.

over 7 months since my last post. and this is what i decided to blog about.

i just ordered one of these...

yes, an iphone 4.

i want it to be at my doorstep tomorrow. unfortunately i have to wait 2-5 business days. drag.

[HUGE] pumpkin & jazz game

alisa's boyfriend, kevin, and his buddies just moved into a new place in sugarhouse. it has two ginormous pumpkins in the garden. alisa took one to school to show her kids one day. she had it in her car waiting for kevin to help her move it and take it back to his place. well, he couldn't one night, then left for st. george the next. and it was starting to stink up her car. so, alisa and i used our muscles (and a wheel barrow) to get it out of her car and halfway to the guys' backyard. that bugger was heavy!

alisa with the massive pumpkin

me and the pumpkin
friday night alisa and i got to go to the jazz game. they played the sacramento kings. we got the tickets for free from our friend tremaine. thanks tremaine, you're great! jazz did awesome and came out with the win. we love the jazz and always have a blast when we get to go to a game. brittany and jackie also got tickets from our friend, jared. it was perfect that we all got to go to the game, for free. love when that happens. we met up after the game and just happened to be matching.

GO JAZZ!

jazz doing their thing against the kings
me, britt, alisa, and jackie after the game

{rexburg}

it's impossible for me to update my blog regularly. i'm sure the three of you who check my blog are well aware of that by now. i wish i could say that will change and i am going to try and be better. but that would just make me a liar. :)

last weekend i had the chance to go up to rexburg for my old roommate, lindsey's, bridal shower. i met up with jess in pocatello and we drove up friday night. brittany, linds, and kaylee were in a movie when we got there, so jess and i decided we should go craigo's. it's the yummiest pizza place in rexburg, so naturally we had to make a visit. we stayed at a hotel and the girls came over after the movie and we had some good girl talk.

saturday morning we went and got our nails done before the shower. it was brittany's very first time. she loved every minute of it.

linds and britt waiting to get their nails done

jessica, brittany, lindsey, kaylee, kami

roomies fall 2007 (missing catherine)

it was fun to spend some time with the old roommates and catch up on life. jess has been married now for two years and lindsey is getting married in november. so, out of the 5 of us that were together it's me, britt, and kaylee left. i think kaylee will be the next to get married, but we'll see. none of us are dating anyone, so it's fair game for all. :)

saturday night we went to idaho falls for dinner at johnny carino's. that's our favorite place as roomies to eat. after dinner, kaylee, britt, jess and i went to shelley to the haunted victoria theater. it was awesome. but, i'll admit, i do not love going to a haunted house without grabbing hold of a strong manly, man for protection. i think we all laughed more than screamed throughout the whole thing, besides brittany. but, even without a guy to hide behind, i still had a great time with the girls.

i hadn't been to rexburg in over a year, so a visit was well overdue. going back makes me remember all the good times i had in rexburg at byu-idaho. so many good memories that i'll have forever.

the [start] of something new

This summer ended up being somewhat of a stressful, but fun one. At the end of June I was laid off from Med One Medical. They claimed they didn't have a job for me anymore. This happened one month before my lease was up at my apartment. Yes, I started to feel the stress of everything. We were in the process of house-hunting, but the pressure of not having a job and paying for rent really set in. Everything combined was too much to handle. But, it was one of the best things that happened to me.

I spent majority of my days looking for jobs and sending my resume in. But since it just happened to be around the 4th of July and summertime, I definitely took advantage of having the free time. And it also helped that Alisa had the summer off too. We made a few trips to Lagoon a Beach and caught some rays. I went to Colorado and hiked a freaking mountain! Went to Lake Mead and surfed for the first time. And I got to sleep in. Which I really loved. (Though I would still wake up by 9:00 every morning, bleh).

This all happened in the month of July. I was let go on June 30, and went through two and a half weeks of sickening stress. I didn't know what was going to happen- how long I would be unemployed, what I was going to do about moving, etc. Alisa and I planned it out that we could move in with her parents for a few months until I found a job. That way we could get free rent and then still be roommates. Kevin, Alisa's boyfriend found a duplex on KSL. We went and looked at it on Tuesday morning, and by Thursday we were signing the lease and moving in. It's up near the Capitol, right by Beck Street. Nice, quick, easy access to I-15 for me. It's a great central location for Brooke, Alisa, and me.

Back to the Job Searching...

I'd been searching on craigslist, ksl, indeed, jobseeker, etc. I kept seeing an ad for Challenger School and a few different people had mentioned it to me. The requirements were to send a resume, cover letter, and short essay about my views on America. This caused me to get nervous about the essay and what exactly they were looking for, and so I put off sending it in. Signs kept coming around and I couldn't avoid it any longer. So, I finally sent in my resume on July 15th. The following Tuesday morning I got a call from Challenger School. They wanted me to come in for a test at their Corporate office. So, that afternoon, I went in. I filled out an application after taking a test. Oh man did I feel stupid afterwards! When I left I for sure thought I wouldn't be hearing back from them because of my test scores. But I was wrong. The next day, Wednesday, I got a call from Heidi. Heidi is the Headmaster at the Farmington campus of Challenger School. She called to set up a teaching interview. So, the next morning, Thursday, I went in and read a book and taught a little lesson to the 4 year old class. It went very well, and before I left she offered me a job.

Soooooo, now I am a Preschool Teacher at Challenger School in Farmington. I started work last Monday with training. We spent 7 days in Sandy doing workshops. It was very informative, so I hope that I can apply everything to my class when the students come. I spent all day getting things ready in my classroom. So far on MWF I have 13 students and TTH I have 10. I am really excited, but oh so nervous at the same time. It is my first year teaching at Challenger, so of course I am still learning everything. But, I am also all by myself and don't have a co-teacher like most everyone else. So, needless to say, this will be interesting. Tomorrow we have Preschool Orientation, so I will get the chance to meet some of my students and their parents. Exciting!

Well, that is all for now. I need to finish my lesson plans! Hope you enjoyed the update! :)