OK, so I'm a college graduate...now what?

The Friday before Thanksgiving was my last day of student teaching! it is a glorious feeling. the last day of school I gave my mentor teacher a book of mormon and all three missionary pamphlets. I wrote her a note and my testimony inside the bom. We have had a few discussions about religion, she is looking for a new congregation to join (though I'm sure her intentions were not to join a completely new religion haha. she is baptist.) anyway she has appeared fairly open-minded so I hope she at least opens it to read my testimony. she is a really good person with very high values and she has a lot of integrity. I know it wouldn't take much for her to fit right in the church, so we'll see how things go.

as my going away present she had the students all write me a letter and draw me a picture. it was so sweet. here is an excerpt from my favorite letter, though surprisingly not my favorite student. in fact, I would say that she was probably my least favorite student, and somehow she managed to write this amazing letter. it is the most coherent piece of writing I have ever seen her do. and she did this at school with no help from anyone so that's saying a lot:

Dear Mrs. Davies,

I hope all of the children be a loving class to you. You always teached us fun things in class. I hope your class don't make you feel lonely. Make sure your class do some hard-working. Every time you have fear just look at one of our notes and you'll be brave.

Aww isn't that so sweet!! I read it to mitch and he was like, "wow that was deep...it sounds like something the prophet would say" haha. I will miss the kids, but I'm glad to be moving on.

I just found out that I passed my giant culminating assignment that decides if I graduate or not...so I guess now I just wait for my diploma, and in the meantime, apply for jobs. Here's the thing...I have absolutely no idea what type of job to apply for. haha. so glad college prepared me for real life! jk...but seriously.

my main concern is that I get so exhausted and moody throughout the day, that I just cannot see myself going back to a full time job. now that I at least know what is causing my daytime sleepiness, I'm hoping to get a handle on it with the new medication that's supposed to come in the mail tomorrow.

as far as the career/temporary job indecision...I guess I will be doing a lot of praying over the next few days/weeks. I would appreciate any of your prayers as well...I will need all the inspiration I can get!!

In case you haven't heard...

...the big news of the week is that I have NARCOLEPSY.

Ahaha. Fo reals.

SO if you recall I went to the hospital a few weeks ago to be studied while I slept. Well fast forward to the appointment following my 20 hours worth of sleep tests. It was basically the funniest thing ever. As I was waiting in the room for the doctor to come see me to give me my diagnosis (at this point I was just praying they weren't going to say "Oh sorry, you just spent $900 on a test and we found nothing wrong with you"), I was reading my book, (which I was really enjoying btw), and I couldn't help but fall asleep. (In narco speech they're called sleep "attacks" bc it is next to impossible to predict or prevent.) Anyway so as I was taking my little narcoleptic snooze, the doctor walks in and I jolted awake and she asked, "Oh sorry did I wake you up?" as if it was the most normal thing in the world for someone to fall asleep in 5 minutes sitting up in a hard plastic chair.

Anyway, she proceeded to tell me that after looking at my brain scans from my sleep study, they discovered that I have very abnormal sleep patterns consistent with narcolepsy. Add that to my lengthy history of falling asleep in class (middle school, high school, and college), falling asleep at work, always needing naps...and it adds up to narcolepsy. It's obviously not as extreme as the movies portray...like I really only fall asleep after sitting for longer than 20-30 minutes or so, and it depends on how badly I slept the night before. Anyway, the point is...it sucks and there's no cure, but it's treatable. There's some medicine I'm going to start soon that should help me sleep better at night. And there's a stimulant drug that I'll probably also start that will help me stay awake during the day. At least...in theory it's supposed to help anyway haha.

So I guess there's like a narcolepsy support group... ahahaha. I'm probably going to join so I can get their emails about the latest research. Kinda stinks because not a lot is known about narcolepsy and they don't really know what causes it. I'm supposed to develop the weirdest symptoms as I get older, so I need all the info I can get haha.

In light of the Thanksgiving season and my newly discovered disorder, I thought this cartoon to be oh-so-appropriate:

Also it's made realize I need to be careful how much turkey I eat before I drive home this Thanksgiving :D

2 Things

1) last week I even fell asleep in the middle of class by accident. and I'm the teacher. bahahahahha. I was sitting at the desk and I dozed on and off for like 30 minutes while the kids were doing something else with my mentor teacher. anyway two of the kids by my desk noticed. I woke up from my dream (yes I have problems...I can instantly fall sleep and dream sitting up in a lit, noisy room) and two kids by my desk were watching me and when I opened my eyes they cracked up. One of them was like, "Mrs. Davies, Are you sleepy or what?" ahahhaha.

so anyway I was able to get in to see the doctor and they say, surprise! something is wrong with me. So they scheduled me for a sleep study, which I got to miss school/work, however you look at it, for. Although I wouldn't say it was any more fun than school/work. As you can see, I have all manner of gadgets hooked up to me. Miraculously, I was able to sleep with all that stuff on. They tested me the next day as well, where they asked me to nap on command every couple of hours. I fell asleep every time (5 times in a row), which showed that clearly something is wrong with me ahaha but I am scheduling a follow-up appointment with my doctor soon to go over the results. Anyway, the photo is hilarious so I thought you would enjoy it. It looks like I have buck teeth but actually that is a tube stuck up my nose. Yes, I will acknowledge that this is probably the most embarrassing picture of me in existence.

2) Moving on! Miracle of miracles, our prayers have been answered and Mitch's company has switched him to a bank post full time, which means that he has normal hours during weekdays, works half-day on Saturdays, and doesn't work Sundays! Ever!! Yay! Funnily enough, the day after he was offered this position, we got a call from the bishopric and they asked us to be in the nursery every Sunday. Basically we figure that Heavenly Father must want us in there pretty bad, since he pulled some strings with Mitch's job to make it work! We are just sooo happy. Also the bank is only 25 min away, which is wayyy closer than the hour+ he was having to commute every day. And no more graveyards either! And it's indoors, just in time for winter! Overall, it has been a huge blessing and I'm sure we have Zach and Josh to thank in some part for it. We're so grateful to them for being such diligent missionaries and for their prayers- I know they are bringing lots of blessings for us as well as the rest of our family.

That's all for tonight. It's bedtime!

Shell Frame

So my BFF is getting married tomorrow. I was not able to go to the wedding in California, but I wanted to get her something special for her wedding. I wanted to do it along the lines of something she loves (OK obviously...I wouldn't be her best friend if I got her something she hated). Well there is probably nothing in the whole world she loves more than the beach. OK, maybe her future husband, but even that's probably up for debate. Haha! Just kidding. But she really is obsessed with the beach.

Well her engagement pictures are just gorgeous, taken on the beach. I figured, a beach frame would be cute and more personal than a lame BB&B gift card...am I right? Well the ones I saw at the store/online were either ugly, or too expensive. And I was in the mood to let off some steam in a productive sort of crafty way, so this frame was born. The one pictured is actually mine...I had leftover supplies and the frames were on sale, so I figured, why not? Mine is a 5x7 and my friend's is an 8x10, but other than that they both look basically the same.

This is it in its first stage. I have sand that I have yet to decide to sprinkle between the cracks of the shells to give it some interest..what do you think?

Mrs. Daisies

Yes that's my new name. Or at least, it is according to my class of 8-year-olds. Not that they call me that on purpose, they just can't help it that they all have cute accents or little lisps of some kind :)

Let's see...what else is new in the world of 3rd grade? Mainly I am so busy that I come home and crash every day. Drive, school, drive, eat, sleep... drive, school, drive, eat, sleep...what a life.

Oh the other day I threw up in front of the whole class...no big deal. I had been feeling a little funny the night before, and then I guess it caught up with me the next morning, right in the middle of math haha. Luckily I made it to the back sink in time.

Let's see...what else. Oh yeah, 10 minutes after I left an after-school staff meeting a couple weeks ago, the school was put under emergency lockdown while there were cops and criminals making a scene out in the neighborhood in front of the school. A few days after that a bus driver in our district was found murdered in the bus lot before school one day. One thing's for certain...I'm not in Kan- I mean Provo- anymore.

But I am definitely learning a lot. Teaching science is my favorite. Some highlights from science include- testing objects for buoyancy in a tub of water, learning to read a Galileo thermometer, playing with lasers and mirrors, and building a pizza box solar oven to learn about thermal energy. Here it is, in all its glory:

I've also been able to hang out with the school librarian a little and help around the library (which earned me a free $10 to spend at the book fair! yippee!). I just love books so much...I'm seriously considering going back to school to get my masters and do the librarian thing. We'll see.

As for Mitch and I...a few weekends ago we took a trip to Austin with Mitch's family to see BYU play Texas. It was a close but unfortunate game. We still had a great time though, and we were able to be at the capitol for a special commemoration ceremony that Sunday which was 9/11. We also visited the state cemetery there (cemeteries are my favorite if you recall) and saw the monument they have there with some actual wreckage from the twin towers:

I totally stole that picture from wikipedia, but that's only because we are still unable to locate our camera charger :( luckily other than this trip we haven't done anything super exciting that has needed documenting. Anyway the cemetery was absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful landscaping. See for yourself:

It was a really nice weekend.

Oh yeah...in other news, Mitch officially has a job!!! After a few odd-jobs here and there, he was finally able to get something permanent as an armed security guard. Three or four 12 hour shifts a week, some of which are graveyards on and off. He has a tough schedule and I am proud of him. We are just so grateful as we need the money desperately to save up for flight school next year.

And...pretty much that's where we're at! This weekend is a three-day one for me (thank you Christopher Columbus), and I have high aspirations to finish my Teacher Work Sample...basically a 50-page monster that proves I deserve my diploma and certification as a bona-fide teacher.

Only 6 weeks left til I'm DONE DONE DONE. Graduation, here I come!!

:)

Positive...Percy?

Ok you know the sayings Nervous Nancy, Rachel Raincloud, etc. Well since I am trying to be more positive than my last post, I tried to think of a P name to go with Positive, and Percy was the first one that popped into my head. Probably because I read all the Percy Jackson books the weekend before school started and I LOVED them.

Anyway. I could tell you alllllll about my first week(s) as a student teacher, but to make it more interesting and less verbose I decided to do it in ACROSTIC POEM style since that was our LITERARY FOCUS for our third graders this week. Aren't you so lucky that I am so creative. Now, what should my word stem be...hmm...

T wenty-two adorable students :)
H ot as Hades. Our a/c is out for the third day now...in 101 degree weather outside. Awesome.
I officially now have a suckier schedule than my brother who is on a mission. Bed @ 9:30 pm, Breakfast @ 5:30 am baby.
R eally love my mentor teacher. She is very flexible and enthusiastic- perfect combination!
D efinitely did a double-take when I drove to school for the first time. Yeah, there's a ten-foot barbed wire fence surrounding the neighborhood across the street from my school. Enough said.

G otta admit- I LOVE the fact that it is an outdoor campus. Love the sunshine/natural lighting in all the classrooms and the fresh air every time we go outside, even if it is hot.
R eally had fun teaching my first science lesson today. We were weather scientists and collected temperatures from around the courtyard!
A ppalled by the fact that the kids only get recess twice A WEEK. Not per day, like most schools, but per week. Wow.
D rives 1 hour in commute each way. If it wasn't for audiobooks, I would be asleep at the wheel every day.
E very day as a teacher is an adventure! You never know what excitement (good and bad) the day can bring! Ha!

Hoop Jumping Extraordinaire

Ever since we have moved back to Texas we been jumping hoop after hoop just trying to get jobs and drive our cars legally. The gist of it is that:

1) Mitch can't get a job until he has a TX driver's license. understandable, but places have just been throwing away his applications when he says that he just moved here and he's in the process of getting one.

2) which he can't GET a DL yet because we have to have our cars registered in Texas, even though his car is not due to be re-registered for another 8 months

3) oh but guess what we can't register our cars because our insurance apparently doesn't meet the "Texas" standards. so apparently we have been driving illegally the whole time we have been here. oops. HOW THE HECK IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THESE THINGS? gosh.

4) and not only that but since my car is in my dad's name still, my parents have to sign the title over to me. nbd except the fact that they live 6 hours away and it takes the mail 3-5 days to get here despite the fact that we are in the same state.

5) so they send it and we think we're in the clear but then oh guess what the actual TITLE OF THE CAR WITH THEIR SIGNATURES ON IT apparently isn't good enough. oh no they were supposed to fill out a "TITLE TRANSFER FORM" that the collin county tax office didn't tell them about

6) so they send THAT, but then come to find out we're going to have to pay $800 in taxes (no joke) as "owners of a new car" unless they fill out this OTHER form that says that they "gift" the car to me. oh by the way they have to get this form notarized so my dad has to take off work to go down to the stupid tax office to have some guy witness that he signed the paper himself and not some fraud.

7) a faxed copy of this paper isn't good enough, they HAVE to have original signatures. so by the time it will get here in the mail, my registration will be expired (oh wait it has been expired for 2 weeks already), and I will be working/commuting 6 am-5 pm every day for the next three months...which are the hours of the stupid tax office. so how I'm supposed to get my car registered is beyond me.

8) Mitch takes this stupid security class that is REQUIRED by the state of texas to be a hired as a security guard. I understand that it is a good idea to train people who are going to be armed with guns how to use them. the thing that boggles my mind is that most of the jobs available are UNARMED, aka NO GUNS, and those guys still have to take a class to learn how to be a security guard...um...what? why should the government care if security guards for private firms do their jobs right or not? next thing you know they're going to start telling people they need to take a state-approved burger flipping class before you can apply at McDonalds.

9) it's not even really the class itself that bothers me. they led us to believe that once you take the class you are good to go as far as being hired. WRONG. according to LAW, you don't have the "authorization" to work as a SG until someone hires you and pays to do a background check on you. once your first employers do this process, THEN you are good to go and can go work for as many companies as you like. well it is time-consuming and costs the companies money, so of course who are they going to hire? the people fresh out of the security class who don't have their background checks? no...of course not. they're going to make it a job REQUIREMENT that you've already had your background check b/c they don't want to go through the hassle of doing it themselves. what are the implications of this? oh basically that we wasted money on something that mitch probably won't be able to get a job doing since no one wants to hire a "noob"...even though he's freaking been to the police academy and has experience working security for one of the LARGEST COMPANIES IN THE WORLD. also the fact that he has an associate's degree and all this experience counts AGAINST him since no one wants to pay more than minimum wage. in their eyes, a high school dropout with a year's experience working texas security is more qualified than someone like Mitch. pathetic.

10) the kicker of this is summed up very nicely by one of the security applications he was filling out today. the application asked, "have you been arrested more than 2 times? check yes or no. if yes, please explain."

ok. so being arrested twice is ok? it's only bad if I've been arrested more than twice???? YOU'RE TRUSTING THESE PEOPLE TO CARRY GUNS?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP HIRING CRIMINALS, AND THEN YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO JUMP THROUGH SO MANY HOOPS TO HIRE PEOPLE. NO WONDER THE GOVERNMENT HAD TO INTERVENE AND MAKE SURE THAT THESE IDIOTS GET AT LEAST SOME KIND OF TRAINING.

I am disgusted with society. And yes, Mitch is still jobless.

Settling In

It has been almost a month since we've arrived in Houston, and we have had a great time moseying around enjoying our vacation. Since we've been here, we have watched the pool get built, helped fix up the yard, we've got a library membership (ok by "we" I mean me), read a lot of books (again, me), gone skeet shooting (which turns out is a lot harder than wii skeet shooting), got our cars inspected, got new drivers licenses, applied for lots of jobs (Mitch), changed our own transmission fluid and done other car maintenance stuff ourselves (by "ourselves" I mean Mitch), had many airsoft wars, and helped cook a lot of dinners! The Davies are definitely getting a taste of what it's like having me cook for them...now they actually have to eat vegetables! Ha! But seriously they have been so hospitable and I have loved hanging out with them and getting to know them better.

Here are a couple of pictures of their new house! They moved out here a few months ago to get a little closer to nature and it is so gorgeous out here. I love it, minus the insects. I can't go outside even in broad daylight without getting assaulted by at least 6 mosquitoes. I have learned to use insect repellent.

Also please don't judge these photos too harshly...they were taken with a phone. We have lost our camera chargers in the move, and the Davies haven't found theirs yet either from their move a few months ago, ha! We are pathetic.

we look really high maintenance with so many cars out front hahaha. and that's minus Mitch's dad's car!

ok you can't really tell but the backyard is an acre. there's more yard off to the sides that weren't included in the photo.

sweet zipline from the tree fort (The Alamo) in the background, site of many epic airsoft battles.

and last but not least, feast your eyes on my incredibly hot husband, who shoots clay pigeons out of the air with ease. (he even can shoot two at a time. I couldn't hit even one. hahaha) also while we're bragging about my husband, he passed his stupid security school practical last week with 249/250 on the human target. boo ya.

Elder Zachie-Poo

Wow it has been wayyyy too long since I have updated this. In my defense, a lot has happened so it has seemed really overwhelming to write it all down.

1. Mitch and I packed up our cars and drove across the country. We had a small holdup in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where my car randomly stalled at a light. Luckily the police officer was beyond nice and helped us move it off the road, and he called a buddy who came to look at our car and fixed it in like two seconds. Blessings, blessings, blessings!

2. We spent two weeks with my family, swimming, going to the Rangers game where we saw Dirk throw the first pitch, and hanging out with extended family!

3. We said good-bye to Zach for two years as he goes to serve a mission for our church in New York City! It was sad, but exciting too! I got the first email from him today actually! He is doing great and loves it. We are so proud :)

4. We finally arrived in Houston where we are staying with Mitch's family while we figure out our lives hahah. The plan so far is for me to do my student teaching and graduate. Meanwhile, Mitch will find a job, and hopefully I can find a job too and we will both work and save up for a year-ish so that we can afford for him to go to flight school here in Houston. Of course, plans change, but that's all we've got for now haha.

I wish this post was more exciting, but this is more for documentation than for entertainment.

Oh, side note. I read Dracula this week, and I must say I was disappointed. I do enjoy a lot of the classics, but this one was just so SLOW that it was hard to believe that it was supposed to be a horror story. It starts out awesome for the first like 25% of the book, and then goes really downhill from there. If you haven't read it, don't. You're not missing out on much.

I did, however, read a good book this week too. It was a very quick YA read, but it was an interesting insight into the Roman lifestyle/time period. It's called Tiger, Tiger. It's on my book list on the right sidebar.

Ok that's all. Interesting post today, I know.

Dream Come True

Good: Yesterday, about an hour into class, my children's lit professor steps out into the hall and comes back in with brick oven pizzas and rootbeer for the whole class!

Better: While passing out said pizza, he says, "Today is my last day of teaching ever! I will be retiring at the end of this term. We were supposed to review for our final today, but I thought to myself, I don't want to talk about finals. I want to celebrate and have pizza instead! I don't really want to grade finals either, so guys, don't come to the final. Because I won't be there."

Best: He continues, "In fact, I have been harping on you guys so much this semester about how you are in charge of your own education," (he has) "I have decided that you are mature enough to grade yourselves. I am passing out notecards right now. Will you please write your name on a card and write the grade you think you deserve, and I promise to honor whatever grade you write on there."

Oh yeah.

T-minus 10 days...

Until this:

The move is starting to feel so real! Today we sold our last piece of furniture- our kitchen table- and our apartment is virtually empty! (If you don't count our clothes lying all over the floor where our dresser used to be.) We leave the 21st and will drive to Dallas to visit my family along the way, where we will say goodbye to Zach for 2 years! Then while we play with Mitch's family for a couple weeks, we get to job/house hunt in this big city until I start new teacher orientation in August!


Houston here we come!

Brother #1

Well Mitch said my last post was "boring", so I will try to spice this one up for you non-readers. (As a side note, Mitch is perfectly willing to listen to me ramble about the current book I am reading...and is often interested in it. Baby steps, I know, but we are on the way to making him a reader! :D)

This week Mitch's brother came down to stay with us for two days before he entered the Missionary Training Center. We of course, took great care of him on his last few days before the mish.

Monday night, we ate out at Brick Oven. Free home-brewed rootbeer with a purchase of a pizza...can't go wrong with that!

Tuesday we had In-N-Out for lunch, of course, and then went to Uncle Rob's for a farewell get-together. We got to see their gorgeous new house out in Elk Ridge and ride their four-wheelers!! (Side note: I am a total pansy and got pretty scared of how fast we were going on a paved road...hahaha. Granted, I was sitting up a lot higher on the seat and every time we went over a bump I felt like I was going to fly off. Thanks for putting up with me riding with you Josh ahaha).

We also had an awesome barbecue with them, Rob's specialty- brats and hamburgers and pasta salad and corn on the cob! For the occasion I made rainbow jello, our family tradition and Mitch's favorite:

Ok I admit I took that picture off the internet, but that is basically what it looked like!

Then Wednesday we took him in! Holy cow the whole thing went SO fast. We pull up to this huge line of missionaries, a guy comes up to greet us, grabs Josh's luggage, and starts walking away with it, motioning for Josh to follow, all in like 30 seconds. I had to blurt out- "Uhh can we get a picture first before he leaves?" So we took another 20 seconds to take the picture, hug, and then they just walked off. Yeah. Really took us off guard with how fast it was. I understand that you are trying to stay on a schedule, but can we seriously have more than a minute to say goodbye? I mean come one, it's two years people! Kind of a big deal. Well anyway, I did get a perfect picture of the two brothers.

Seriously how cute is that? Mitch looks like a dwarf compared to Josh, but still so presh! haha.

So one brother down, one more to go! Only one month until Zach reports! I was so sad when Josh left because then it reminded me that Zach was going to be gone too for 2 years! I cried haha. But I am excited to write them both and send them both awesome care packages! All I can say is, they better write back!! :D

Thomas Jefferson said it best-

"I cannot live without books. "

I feel ya, Mr. Jefferson.

The past month I have been doing nothing but reading, day in and day out. Thanks to my children's literature class that I am taking right now, I get to read 80 mandatory minutes of children's literature every. day. Well...5 days a week. But you don't hear me complaining :)

A typical day consists of me going to my 2 exercise classes (jogging and self-defense...seriously what was I thinking taking two of those back to back??), coming home, then sitting around reading all day because I HAVE to, often neglecting other important things...like making dinner, cleaning the apartment, showering. jk. but seriously.

I have discovered so many new favorites in this month alone...I don't know how or why I went most of my college career without reading for pleasure. Oh wait I do know why, because the one time I did read a series in the middle of classes, I ended up also neglecting my homework for 3 straight days until I finished it :D

There is a sampling of the books I have read the past couple weeks in the right column. They range from fiction to nonfiction, chapter to picture, and favorite to not-so-favorite. Honestly most of the ones pictured I really liked. To my own surprise, I actually enjoyed the Lincoln Photobiography, as well as the Hitler Youth book.

If I had to recommend top 3, I'd go with these 3 (all picture books):

Flotsam, by David Wiesner

Interrupting Chicken, by David Ezra Stein

Please Bury Me in the Library, by J. Patrick Lewis

I have a special place in my heart for that last book of poetry- it seems that the author shares my same obsession with books hehe :D

If you're serious about recommendations for your kids, click on a book in that collage type thing on the right, and it will bring up my goodreads page and show you what I thought about it!

Little known fact about Kayla...

I love cemeteries. I am one of two people I know that don't get weirded out by them. Truthfully, I think they are beautiful and I love the special spirit I feel when I am in them. Since the weather finally started to cooperate and behave like spring today, I made Mitch take a walk through the local cemetery with me. I really wanted to walk somewhere, and it's right across the street, and much more picturesque than taking a walk down the road to, say, 7-11. It did not disappoint.

We found out not too long ago that my great-grandmother is buried in this particular cemetery, so we went and tracked down her grave.

See? We love the cemetery.

Yes please.

Ever since I was little, I knew that I wanted the library from Beauty and the Beast. Seriously, what's not to love?


Since I'm older and more realistic now, I have done my research and have determined that I will settle for any of the following:

freaking awesome book nook.


swirly staircase? yes please.


a rolling ladder with rows upon rows of books is pretty much my dream come true.


at minimum, it must be well-lit, cozy, and have an oversized stuffed chair. even this room would be more than adequate.


sigh. I want to curl up in that chair and bask in the sun with a good book right. now.

3 things.

1. Saturday, I impulsively chopped off all my hair (10 inches to be exact) and donated it to locks of love!! Ta-da! Surprisingly, Mitch loves it. Yay.



2. A couple weeks ago, my friend Cassie and I entered in a competition offered by the BYU education department. Basically we had to come up with some innovative use of technology that could be useful in a classroom setting, make a movie about it, and then present our idea to a panel of esteemed judges. Our idea was to use skype to facilitate community involvement through virtual volunteers. The volunteers could include parents, international "pen pals", or influential members of society (senators, famous authors, etc). After presenting to the judges, they deliberated, and the results were in! We got runner-up, with a total prize of $1000, meaning $500 apiece! Pretty awesome. Here we are. Famous.

3. We then entered our project into the "People's Choice" portion of the competition, which required us to get as many unique views on our youtube video as possible. We got extra points for the more states or different countries we got. Mitch is actually way more competitive than I am, so he took it upon himself to win this competition for us. He found this website that people post their videos on to get hits. The entire point of the website is "you watch my video, I'll watch yours." Due to this website, as well as the fact that we all had lots of friends and family living outside the US, we got a lot of hits from all over the world. By the end of the competition though, we were still lagging behind in terms of raw views. It was hard to tell who was going to win, since the hits don't include the point calculation for the extra countries and stuff. We were far enough behind though that we thought we had lost.

...a week later I get an email from the guy in charge of the competition. He said that due to the fact that we had far surpassed the other teams in number of countries and states (39 states, 92 countries, to be exact), we had racked up way more points that way and had won the competition!!! Can you believe it? Also I forgot to mention what the prize was...

dum da-da-dum! the ipad 2 ladies and gentlemen, wi-fi enabled, 32 Gb, retail $599. pretty much we have no use for it, since it doesn't have 3G internet. we figure they are trendy enough that we should be able to sell it pretty easily.


All in all, a pretty satisfying couple of weeks :D

In honor of General Conference Weekend...

I will tell you the amazing opportunity I had a couple of weeks ago. As many of you know, I have been driving up to Salt Lake every day for my month of student teaching with the same carpool of girls. One of these girls invited us all to a sleepover at her aunt's house in Salt Lake, so we all went, excited for a girls night and an opportunity to sleep in 45 minutes the next morning. Even more exciting, guess who her aunt is?

Yep, that's right, I spent the night at this wonderful lady's house. She was, as you would imagine, incredibly hospitable and generous. We had so much fun hanging out and listening to her words of wisdom. She gave us our own little devotional about receiving personal revelation...wow. I had even prayed the day before that if it was appropriate, she would be inspired to tell us something that I needed to hear to help me through the next few months of graduating and growing up and getting careers and all the craziness that has me stressed out. Well she didn't disappoint...that little talk was definitely the thing I needed to hear.

Basically she told us how she once heard Elder Bednar answer a question about personal revelation in this way (I'm paraphrasing): "It doesn't matter if after lots of prayer and meditation you are still unsure that what you are doing is what God wants you to do. As long as you are keeping the commandments and genuinely trying to do the right thing, God will NOT let you choose the wrong thing. If you should choose the wrong thing, with the intention to do the right thing, he will put a roadblock in your way so that it becomes impossible."

Wow that made me feel so much better, as you can imagine. She also counseled us to ask Heavenly Father every day in our prayers to help us learn how to receive personal revelation for ourselves. She said it is something that has taken her her whole life to develop,and it didn't just happen because she willed it to happen- she had to ask to be taught how to receive personal revelation. Wow kind of crazy...I had never thought to ask like that before.

As a side note...guess who dropped by while we were there snacking on hummus?

Apparently Elder and Sis Nelson are neighbors and bffs with Sheri...and Sis Nelson had stopped by to bring in her mail for her. When she saw us in the kitchen snacking, she came up to us and introduced herself. I started to shake her hand but she gave me a HUG. Haha she was so nice and friendly and sweet- truly a disciple of the Lord.

That night was definitely the respite I needed from all the craziness I had been experiencing in my life, as well as a great reminder of what kind of person I want to be, and what I can choose to be :)

The Men in My Life

This post is dedicated to a couple of the most special men in my life :)

1) My husband Mitch.

I have been bugging Mitch for a while now that he should start playing hockey again. For one, I have never seen him play before, two, he loves hockey and it's stupid that he tells people its his hobby when he doesn't even play it anymore, and three, with his newly discovered back issues he will need to start leading a more active lifestyle to keep his back in shape and prevent it from getting all out of whack again. Well he finally decided to take his mission buddy up on his offer to get together with some guys once a week to play roller hockey. He has been twice already, and he has had a blast. (It helped that I let him get new skates so that he could play...it was like Christmas all over again!) I have had so much fun watching him every week. I have to give him credit, I cannot believe he is as good as he is after not having played in over three years. I was so proud of him the past couple weeks when he, the "new guy", made several goals and had a few great assists.


2) Mi hermano, Zach (holding his soon-to-be-opened mission call!)

Last night, my brother Zach, got his mission call to serve our church for two years in South New York, speaking Haitian Creole. He reports to the missionary training center on July 6! I am so proud of my brother, and all the good choices he's made that have gotten him to this point. I cannot believe how old he is (and by default how old I am!) and how he will be gone for 2 whole years serving the Lord and helping people learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will definitely miss him and worry about him, but I know he is doing the right thing and will be blessed for dedicating two years of his life to serving God.

Here are the boundaries of his mission...(yes it includes the island of Bermuda!)



So excited for him!!


Click here to learn more about our church and its dedication to missionary service :)

Good News

For those of you who are still on tenterhooks about my last post...we are not getting evicted! After demanding to speak to said manager's superior, we had a very reasonable conversation with her in which we managed to work out an arrangement. They will let us stay as long as we want if we pay a little extra in rent and deposit. since we did break the contract, we feel like this is reasonable. Also we are just grateful not to be evicted.

In other news...
I complain a lot these days. I am stressed and have been dealing with lots of health things so it has made me much more cynical the past semester. I know no one wants to read about my complaints, so I will refrain.

Another major thing lately is that I am so stressed to the point that I have begun to question my major...do I really want this kind of stress my whole life? Yes homework and projects make it stressful, but even just watching my mentor teacher the past two weeks I am in awe that she is able to keep her life together. She has been deathly sick the past week, yet still keeps coming to school because she is concerned her students wouldn't be able to pass their upcoming state writing assessment without her help. Basically she is burning herself out, and she doesn't even have a husband or kids to worry about! Am I really ready to sacrifice my sanity for the sake of my job? I know that it's more than a job...it's kids futures...and that's what makes me so nervous. I don't know that I want that kind of pressure, especially when I know that I will soon have my own family to keep me plenty busy.

Trying really hard to make lemonade.

My life the past few weeks have been ridiculous. Like, if I wasn't experiencing it for myself I would think I was making all of it up.

About two weeks ago, our apartment manager barged into our apartment without knocking and saw our cats. We had chosen to not tell management about them, for obvious reasons (every apartment in provo hates pets), and we didn't really feel bad about it because they are potty trained, clean, haven't damaged anything, and don't bark or bother the neighbors. We knew the risk, and we took it, so I guess we can't complain. The thing that is annoying is that if she hadn't ALSO broken the contract by barging in without knocking, she never would have found them.

Well she threw a hissy fit about it, said we would have a week to pack up our stuff and go, oh, and by the way we would also be responsible for paying through the rest of our contract even if we weren't living there. Luckily we are not morons. We told her straight up that we know that she legally couldn't do any of that without going through the courts. Once she realized we knew the law, she told us she would "start the eviction process", though we're pretty sure that the property owners are far too lazy and greedy to 1) go through all that hassle of time and paperwork while 2) losing out on our diligent rent payments. Our guess is they'll probably post a couple notes on our door, and if they ever get around to filing for a hearing about it in court, by the time it's settled it will be time for us to move anyway.

A few days after that wonderful piece of news, I was on my way to campus one morning and got rear-ended pretty badly.

By a professor, no less. It doesn't look that bad, but there is a lot of damage that is barely visible. It is costing around $4500 to fix my poor car :( Luckily the other guy's insurance is paying for it. It has been stressful, but I am glad that no one was hurt.

The day after the accident, we came home after taking my car to get fixed, and our apartment smelled strongly of gas. Our management had left a note on our door saying that they came to mess with our gas during the day when we weren't home. We checked the pilot lights, they seemed to be fine. We aired out the apartment for hours, and by midnight when we were ready to go to bed, we could still smell it very strongly. Since gas is supposed to dissipate within 15 minutes of exposure to fresh air, we knew their was an active source where it was coming from. We didn't know what else to do other than call the fire department.

By the way, the funniest part of this story is that we literally live across the street from the fire department. We watched them all get into their truck, turn on their lights, and drive one block to our parking lot. They came up, all in their firemen garb, even with air tanks. They swarmed into our apartment and smelled the gas, and pulled out their little gas detector machine. If I wasn't so tired and irritated with our apartment complex, it would have been comical to watch.

Long story short, we found out that our downstairs neighbor hadn't been home all day, and his pilot light never got turned on, so his gas was leaking into our apartment through the vents and our open windows. Just to be safe, the fire department called the gas company, which took an hour to get there. By the time they left, it was 2:30 am, and I had class bright and early the next morning. Needless to say...I did not get much sleep that night.

You know that oh-so-cliche saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"? Yeah...easier said than done.

little family

love these little guys: