House hunting

We began our search about three weeks maybe a month ago and it's going not as well as I thought it would. Come to find out searching for houses isn't actually as fun as it seems to be. I had this thought about finding this great home and getting great rates and all that kind of fun stuff and that is not the case. There is so much that goes into buying home. I've seen probably 30 to 40 homes with offers in on five homes and still we are not a homebuyer! I'm getting really frustrated and I don't want to be because I want buying a home to be a fun experience! It's amazing how quickly the economy has changed. The homes are going so fast, they will be on the market for two or three days and already have three or four offers and usually we are out bid. I'm wanting to find a home that will fit Stephen and I, I also want to do what Heavenly Father wants us to do. I'm feeling a little bit like I don't know what heavenly father wants us to do. Putting that out there so hopefully we will get some kind of direction, guidance, answer, anything, please! I have faith that it will all work out. I need to stop stressing and just continue to move forward with what we're doing. And hope for the best!

Updates

I can't believe it 2011 that I last posted. I read it and left quite a cliff hanger that even I was interested in knowing what happened and then never posted again. What the...NERD! Any how, I feel like there's so many things that happen in my life and I want to have a place to share about those things and I've gone back and forth on how to write my posts. Do I write them like I'm writing to someone who reads it and looking for a comment or reply on what I have written? That's what I was doing and I felt like I didn't get reply's and comments and felt bad for myself and had little potty parties and stopped blogging. DUMB! Even still I realized I needed to think about why I was blogging and what my purpose of blogging was for. I read some people's blogs of their first few posts to see if I could get any inspiration and I took some time from blogging and reflected. I came to this: I want to blog to feel good about something that I'm documenting and sharing and it not be focused on or concerned with people needing to make comments. So I am not looking for anyone to HAVE to comment, in fact by now it's very possible all followers are lost and I'm already talking to myself. Which for me is somewhat ok because then I feel like I'm being ME in my posting which leads to my next reason for blogging. It is to leave a record of memories about my life and experiences. I am striving to document more of my happenings, comings, goings, and the people in my life. What I learned, want to learn or am learning. The events that occur in my life and the feelings and emotions that come with them. I want to be true to myself and real with my posts. If you have read this and thought "Boring" I'm already reassuring myself that this is not for others it's for me and my family. I'm leaving it accessible as a way of still sharing because if there are people out there like myself I like to hear of updates about people I've met, or knew, even if I don't comment or they know I'm getting updates on them. I figure there may be others out there like myself and so that's why I'm leaving it accessible to read and follow if someone every once or twice a year has that spare moment in life and is checking in and getting updates on past or current friends and family.

With that all said I am wanting to share a few quick updates to just catch myself up.

I was born in IF, ID sep 10 1981 to bill and vonnie Hoopes. We lived in IF till my 9th grade year in which I was going to enter HS. We moved to Libby MT due to my dads job and getting one that paid better. We were there for my freshman and sophomore year which I loved and then moved to Springville UT. I went to my junior year and began hating life so I asked my mom if I could graduate early and she said she did so why not. I applied for, what it was at the time, Ricks college. I was accepted and went in Jan 2000. I was able to room with 2 friends from Libby and then meet a couple girls from Tremonton which led to meeting another group of girls from Tremonton who were my roommates and closest friends while at Ricks. After graduation in May 202 I left for a mission in Oct 2002 to the Missouri Independence Mssion. I served until May 2004 and returned home where I moved to AZ thinking I would go to school to become a speech pathologist. I waited to receive residency and got a job at Americopy. I met a returned missionary there who because he was my first, if I must call him "boyfriend" I thought I was in love. No it's called lust and infatuation because he moved quickly in the relationship area. Luckily we didn't work out. So I went through the horrors of a break up (so pathetic when you look back) and then got a new job to start a new me at Ameripsych. I got hooked up with this job through a mission companion I had. It ended up being perfect. I liked it so much I decided that is what I want to do, be a social worker! So I started school at ASU finally as a resident and continued to work. I was so determined to do well and get A's in my class I didn't have much of a life, besides school and work and church. I went to summer school even and it was full time with full time school. I tried to be part of a singles ward and I was awkward, had a low self esteem and bad body image issues that I just didn't push myself to be friendly and make friends. Then at work there was this transporter who I had do a lot of transportations for me. Due to that we were able to chat and got to know each other a little bit. I suddenly was feeling and thinking, I'm going to marry him. ALARMS going off in my head. Wait what! We haven't even been out to hang out or on a date and oh ya that's right he's not a member of the church. I know what I was taught I know what I wanted, a temple marriage, I know I shouldn't get to close or I may 'fall in love' with him. Still with all that going on in my mind I still felt impressions that I would marry him. How that could possibly make sense and how I could actually be feeling that I'm sure is in my head and that I'm just boy crazy and want to get married and this is the first guy that I'm talking and sharing who seems interested in me as a person. I was baffled and didn't know what to do so I asked for a blessing from one of the men in my bishopric

Ooooooooo....

So anyone who knows much about me knows how much I love sign language. Well it was absolutely amazing that I would have the opportunity to be an assistant for a teacher of the deaf and work in the preschool class. I was loving the whole experience. It was amazing and then suddenly...I realize the woman I am working with is NUTS!!!! Okay, maybe nuts, nuts. But let me tell you what this woman had some major control issues. That's all I'm trying to say...CONTROL ISSUES! She claimed to be all about the kids being independent and learning to do things on there own. Bla, bla, bla! She wanted them to be independent exactly like she wanted them to be...eat the apple this way, sit in the chair this way, wear your coat this way, color this way, have your hands this way when you wash them, and on and on and on! Let me just profess this woman had been teaching for way too long and to want to control her students in a way that she wanted them to do something exactly the way she wanted them to do, but by themselves, I kept thinking to myself....WHAT ARE YOU DOING TEACHING PRESCHOOL KIDS!!!!!! So dumb! It got to the point though that the woman ended up doing something that was completely inappropriate. She was not only controlling, but extremely physical in her control also. Well, you can only be careful for so long before, "SMACK" right on the child's face. I missed it, but two others saw that slap and I sure as heck would not put it past her to have done it. Needless to say, she did not finish out the year and before anything was officially resolved she quit and got a different teaching job! Sorry, she should have known that after working for 3 1/2 years with parents who had lost their children because of neglect and abuse you think she would have known better than to attempt anything while I was there. Little scary what people will do. Any how, I finished the year basically as the teacher. That is when I realized that I could actually be a very good teacher. I got more compliments on how natural I appeared to be and how good of a teacher I would be. It was the first time that I ever actually saw myself doing something that was career wise. I struggled for such a long time with what to do since I did not get married until I was older. I was so close and then I saw myself as this amazing teacher that parents would request and students wanted to have! I knew I needed to be a teacher! So I up and changed my major from social work, which I had one year left, and switched to Early Childhood Education! I continued to work and that next year I would be working with someone who was brand new to the agency and so no one knew her. Was she going to be nuts like the first teacher, would she be great and I would learn so much or just okay and then question if I really did want to do education????

Stay tuned and find out what happens......:)

Whooo

Wow, has it been a long time or what? It's been a long time....much to tell and so little time. Highlights, I am beginning to see the end of the tunnel where the light shines. It has been a long journey but a wonderful learning experience along the way. My to do list of posts:
1. student teaching
2. crazy deaf teacher
3. working with deaf kids
4. almost done with school
5. going from inactive to active
6. husband gets baptized
7. working toward being sealed
8. moving out of the condo
9. graduation coming up
10. birthdays, new years, new jobs, new friends, new connections

I have quite an update to say...let me just say though that I have been blown away with the events that have taken place in my life. I can't even explain how amazing things have been for Stephen and I. I will be taking the time to document the story. If anyone enjoys reading it no need to feel you must comment. I am going to be sharing to hopefully save the story for our posterity! I've missed blogging and am happy to be back. With love and always! :)

Carissa...Teressa

Carissa if you read this will you please invite me to your blog. I'm wanting to get back at being in touch and sharing and using my blog, my family blog, facebook, and whatever else as resources for keeping in touch and I got on...I've been thinking about you and its been so long that I click on your link and its been deleted. Then on Facebook, same, deleted. I started worrying and thinking what has happened to her? I've been thinking a lot about you and was hoping I could email you. I don't have your email so I wasn't sure what to do. Any how, if you read this, or if anyone who is close enough to Carissa and has contact info for her could ask her to contact me how ever she feels, I would so appreciate that. My email is: hugnkiss37@yahoo.com. I hope that I can get an invite to your blog. I want to read and see whats up with you. I will say I am not the best at commenting, I try and comment but it gets tough when I'm trying to just read to catch up, but if I don't comment doesn't mean I don't read it. I hope everything is okay. Hope to hear from you! :)

Teressa I don't know if you will see this either. I don't know if anyone actually read my blog and that was part of why I had a hard time continueing to post. I was worried and my thoughts got away from me. Side note...any way...teressa, I want to email you to so what is the best email or best source of contact that is easiest for you? Let me know. I hope all is well. :)

The Last Lecture....

I read a book that my mom read. It was called the Last Lecture. Many of you may have heard of the man who gave the 'last lecture' or you may have read it already. I just wanted to put it out there that it was an excellent book. The ideas in the book that he gives of ways to be better or things to do in your life were very inspiring for me. There is a handful of the things that he talked about that he did that I have already applied in my own life. He was very inspirational. I will warn, if you haven't heard of it and you don't know about this man. He has cancer and knows he is going to die and is giving this last lecture. So its possible that you may cry and that's okay. I bawled my eyes out the last chapter. It's because if you also don't know, he has died as of today, which makes reading the book that much more intense. I felt the whole book was very inspirational and the last chapter was just a clincher of emotion and I bawled the whole way through it. I do recommend it since I was able to get so many things from the book. Let me know your thoughts if you have read it, or think about reading it, or are not going to read it and why?

The Twilight Series

Okay, I am doing this post especially for all those Twilight lovers out there! I read all 4 books. I completed them. I read the first 3 in I think it was 8 or 9 days. I can't remember. But that is a world record for me. That was the fastest I read any book and to read 3 in that amount of time. Whoa! So, I wasn't working and i could read in the daytime and the night. I had borrowed them from the library and I got the second book first and then when I got the first I had to read it quick in order to avoid having to return the second book and wait again forever for it. So, then I was wanting to find out what happened in the third book and got that right as I finished the second book and so I read it quickly as well. Phew! So then I had to wait like a week and a half or something for the last book. But I read them. I have meant to put up this post right when I finished them, but I didn't get around to it and then I started school. So, sadly for all you who are obsessed over it. I thought it was interesting and kind of a new twist to add to a love story. But honestly I didn't LOVE them. As cute as the Cullen's appear to be in the movie they were just okay for me. Its possible that the authors style of writing didn't just hit me or that those who followed it along as they came out or whatever the reason I didn't just love them to death (by a vampire...ha, ha, ha. I'm kidding, I thought that would be funny right there though!) I will talk about it and be excited for anyone that wants me to be about the movie coming out and whatever else. Just being honest with you all though, I didn't LOVE the books. :$

School, school, and more school

Well, I have been at work now for 3 full weeks. So far it has been very interesting. I am still adjusting and getting used to things. I have had some interesting encounters with the teacher, funny enough, more than with the kids. My schedule is good. It's 7:30 to 3:30. Normally, I don't think I would be real hyped up about the idea of getting up to be at work by 7:30. For anyone who doesn't know, I am NOT a morning person, in the least. Lately though I have not struggled as much with getting up earlier. So, it works out to get up and get to work and then finish with time left in the afternoon. The next good thing is that work is only 6 min away. From the time we leave the house to the time I get out of the car. (I still can't drive and so Stephen is dropping me off.) So, its nice that travel time is less than 15 min for the whole trip. Also, it works out that since I can't drive and Stephen is not always able to pick me up, I am able to put in my exercise time and walk home. It takes about 40 minutes for me to walk it. So that's great! Now there is a morning class and an afternoon class. The morning class they are only 3 years old and the afternoon class is 4 year olds. There is only 4 students in each morning and afternoon. So 8 total kids that we work with. The morning class is farther behind, since they have not been in a school type setting for a year which most of the 4 year olds already have. I think all the kids are so cute. Its nice that there is only 4 at a time to work with so you get to see there personalities more and there cuteness is more apparent then it possibly would be in a bigger group. Its been a lot of fun to work in a school setting. This is my first time working in a school setting and its been fun. Its interesting going from working with the parents and how they are treating the kids to just getting to work with the kids. My job is also, more of the play with the kids and get in there in the middle of it. So, its been fun in those ways. There's the added aspect of the focus being getting the kids to talk and saying things so you can understand them. That's also a fun aspect. I'm enjoying all the time and efforts and experiences that I'm getting with the kids. Like I said the interesting encounters are with the teacher. Hopefully with time these encounters will lessen. For the time I try to focus as much as I can on the kids. :)

Its been a LONG time!!!

Well, its been sometime now since I have been on our blog. I haven't been on in some time that Stephen has put posts and I didn't know it and was shocked when I saw them today!!! I thought I would give some explanation to the first post he put.



So the big pocket! I borrowed some sewing books from the library a while back and I finally decided to see if I could figure out how to use my sewing machine. The books were really old and they were not helping. I ended up realizing I had an instructional book that came with my sewing machine. I hadn't looked at it very closely in the past and so this time I did. It helped me get my sewing machine so I could sew.
A long time ago a friend gave me some scraps of fabric she had and was not going to use. So I picked out 3 little pieces and just started sewing. I was trying to put it together so it would end up looking like a bag. Well, Stephen walked over to me and simply said, "Are you making a big pocket." I started laughing and told him what I was doing. I decided to go ahead and just call it a pocket. Since it was so cute of him to think I was making a big pocket. I was very proud of myself that I was able to put some pieces of fabric together and have it come out somewhat like a bag. If you look close enough the sides ended up where the 'insides' are out. So the 'pockets' not perfect, but it could hold things and Stephen was proud of me! So its now on to my next sewing project. :)



What a darling pocket I have!!!

Your first day at school!

Hi Sweetie,

Wanted to congratulate you on your first day of teacher aiding. I am very happy that you are in a more positive working environment! I know its been hard to not be working, but you needed the break, both physically and psychically. I love you and can't wait to hear how those small people under three feet tall bring you big surprises!