All About Adrienne

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 24 6 to go

2011-10-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

Incommunicado

Remember the good old days before cell phones? Ahhh, it was a much simpler time wasn't it.If you were lost, you figured it out. If you were meeting someone, you had to show up - no texting to say you lost track of time. No worries about dead batteries, being out of range or service, not to mention those expensive bills. How did we ever live without them? Somehow we managed. I mentioned to a friend last week that I was going to go without my cell phone for a day. She told me I was crazy, and that it is dangerous. What if my car broke down or if I had some other kind of problem. I gave a lot of thought to what she said. True, having that cell phone handy does make you feel a bit safer. But I just kept thinking of how we managed before cell phones just fine. I decided to give it a try. And for extra incentive, I accidentally left my charger at my parents house, so it was dead anyway. Maybe that was a touch of serendipity. I charged it with my roommates charger so I could use it as an alarm. I got up this morning and turned off my cell phone immediately, got ready and drove off, sans phone. I went to my carpool's appointed meeting spot only to find that my carpool wasn't there. 15 minutes later, still not there. Not having a cell phone to call or text her, I drove off. I couldn't wait any longer. After getting to school without incident, not having my phone was not such a big deal. Later, I asked my friend what had happened this morning, and of course she said "Didn't you get my text?" Nope. Not today. She told me that she got up late and texted me that she would just drive herself. So, a little mishap, but no big deal.
I think I may have found an answer to the question "how did we ever manage without cell phones?". The answer is that no one else had a cell phone either. Everyone was in the same boat. Today, you just assume that everyone has a working cell phone on their person if you need to contact them. In fact, it's almost taken as rude if someone doesn't respond to you. Why didn't you respond to my call/text that I sent less than 10 minutes ago? You have your phone right there, right? Well, on the day that you don't have your phone right there, will you survive? I have, so far.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 23, 7 to go

2011-10-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah
Last week, I learned that the Mid single adults in our region are performing Handel's Messiah for Christmas. I have never been to see a Messiah performance or even heard it all the way through. So, I was very excited for an opportunity to not only sing in a choir again, which I haven't done since high school, but in the Messiah! About 10 minutes after the scheduled starting time, there were only 4 of us there. I was worried. Then the director said that if it was just the four of us, we could trade off with the solos. Now, I past worry, and moved to terror. Solos? What had I gotten myself into? Fortulately, more and more people began to trickle in. We ended up with about 20 people in all. Much better. We began to practice our parts together and then joined together again. We practiced the familiar Hallelujah chorus and a couple of others that I hadn't heard before. This is tricky music. Really fast and complicated rhythms. But, it was fun to sing with a group again. Some of the people there were really good. I am excited to see how this turns out. I'll keep you posted on the date of the performance!!

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 22, 8 to go

2011-10-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad world...
We all have those movies, TV shows, books, or other things that we hear a lot of good things about but just haven't seen for ourselves yet. "I'll get around to it" we tell ourselves. Someday. I have too many to count and I finally got to see one of them for myself. I have always heard great things about the show Madmen, including its many Emmy awards. I don't know much about it other than its about advertising agencies in the 60's. Thanks to the wonder of Netflix, I am able to watch any episode on my computer at any time. My friend Tifani were scrolling through the many options available to us and we came across this show, and we both said "I have always wanted to watch it", so that was it. We watched the first episode and we were intrigued. The main character, Don Draper, at first seems to be somewhat decent, just your typical brilliant advertising exec, but by the end of the episode there is more than meets the eye. It is a very interesting show and admittedly very well done. It looks like a movie - the costumes, lighting, sets, etc. I am definitely going to have to watch more to see what these characters are really about. I get the feeling there are a lot of layers to each of them, very complex. So, like an onion, I will attempt to peel away at this show, one episode at a time. Hopefully without any tears.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2, Day 21, 9 to go

2011-10-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

There's an app for that.
Nowadays there is an app for everything. I am always hearing about the latest and greatest in the android market. That's cool! I'll have to try that out! Well, I was determined to find my own app to make others rush to their own phones to download my awesome find. So, I opened up the market on my phone to see what I could find. Soooo many options. I decided to look in the technology section. I Tunes...perfect! Not having an actual Iphone, I thought, what could be a better combination then smart phones and I tunes? Well, there was an app that would allow my phone to work as a remote for Itunes. Awesome! I paid the small fee and downloaded it right away. Now, I can control Itunes on my computer from anywhere in the room. It will access my playlists, control the volume, anything I can do on my computer. Excellent! Truly, there is an app for everything.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2, Day 20, 10 to go

2011-10-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

The witches are out...
Every year, I have seen numerous billboards and heard radio commercials etc. about the witches at Gardner Village in West Jordan. Despite all of this advertising, I have never been to see the "witches at Gardner Village". My younger sister texted me and said she was taking her kids tonight if we wanted to come. Thank you Fall Break!! I was happy to be able to go. We met them and walked around a bit, my niece and nephew were both geared up in adorable Halloween attire. I love those kids!!! We walked around and looked at some of the witches and shops for a while. A favorite was the Halloween village - Ryder loved the moving parts. So did we, although $60 for one house was a bit much. We then went on to dinner at Archibalds. Yummy! They sure have some good eatin' there. Ryder had us all in stiches when he joined in our "adult" conversation without skipping a beat. We were talking about someone that a friend knew who had to move away with her husband, someone made the comment that both of them had to move. Ryder said "Both of them? How TERRIBLE!" It was classic. After dinner we walked around with the kiddos some more. They enjoyed seeing the decorations and light, just being outside. No one bought anything, except my mom bought a small toy for the kids. Aren't grandma's the best? It was such a fun night. I just love any opportunity I have to spend time with my neices and nephews.

this was Ruby's favorite: the dancing, hula-hooping witch. She was dancing along.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 19, 11 to go

2011-10-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

A rare luxury

Thanks to a fabulous holiday- Fall Break- we were able to have a very early day. School dismissed at 1:30, and the teachers got to go at 2:00. We had suspected we were going to be able to leave early so a few teacheres made some plans to hang out. We thought it would be fun and somewhat luxurious to watch a move and get some snacks. How often do yo uget to do that on a Wednesday afternoon with your co workers? Never!! I brought some Chex Mix and KeriAnn brought some brownie mix. Not just any brownie mix, Ghiradelli Mix. So gooey and chocolatey. Just delicious. We then set out to pick a movie to watch. Sharra, a fellow teacher, had a huge book of DVDs. We narrowed it down to 5 and each assigned "points" to the movie(s) of our choice. We each had a total of 10 points to vote. We narrowed it down to School of Rock, Rocketman, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Ringer, and another that I can't remember. The Ringer was the winner. Only Sharra had seen it, so we were excited. It was hilarious!!! It is about a guy who pretends to be mentally handicapped in order to fix the special olympics. I was a little unsure if I should be laughing at times, but it was very funny. I have heard about this movie before and have been very curious.
Anyway, I enjoyed spending afternoon in luxury in the middle of the week with my most awesome coworkers. We were talkling about how lucky we are that we enjoy eachother so much that we voluntarily spend time together over our break. Loved it!!!

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 18, 12 to go

2011-10-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Postman

We have been talking about government and community helpers in school this week. I decided that it would be a perfect time to spread some of the love to our wonderful community helpers. I wrote a letter to our mail man (or woman...) and put it in the mail slot. I wrote that we had been talking about community helpers in our classroom and that I wanted to say thank you for the hard work they do. I must confess sometimes I think it would be so nice to just drive around all day, but I know that it's not that easy. A very lonely and thankless job. I thought I would give a thank you to a very unappreciated job.

Thank you, postal workers!!!

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 17, 13 to go

2011-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Where did that come from?

Have you ever wondered where some of our famous saying come from? Why must it rain cats and dogs? Did people really chew the fat? I thought I would do a little research and find out about a few...

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw, piled high, with no wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the pet
dogs, cats and their small animals: mice, rats & bugs - lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and
fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence
the saying, "dirt poor."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When
visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a
sign of wealth and that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would
sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the
road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid
out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather
around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up, hence the
custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and they started running out of places to bury
people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take their bones to a
house and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25
coffin were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized
they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a
string on their wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the
round and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the
graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell, thus,
someone could be "saved by the bell," or was considered a "dead ringer."

Now, I am not 100% sure of the accuracy of these meanings (who can believe everything you find on the internet) but I found it interesting nonetheless.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 16, 14 to go

2011-10-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Homemade Bread...

Who doesn't love homemade bread? Not me. I love it! Not so easy to make though. In fact, I never have. My sister gave me an old bread machine a while back, and I have been wanting to use it for a long time. Well, it may have even been my mom's, I'm not sure. But somehow, I inherited it. I did not, however, inherit any sort of manual or recipes. I looked up my model number online and fairly easily found the recipe and instructions. After a quick trip to the store last night, I was ready to make some bread. I put the ingredients in the machine before I went to bed, set the timer for 10 hours. Not having made bread before, I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

This morning at 8:30 I went upstairs to the smell of baking bread. Is there anything better?? I let it cool and took it out of the pan. I was a bit worried becuase the crust was so hard. It seemed like it was a rock of bread, not a loaf of yummy, soft, warm bread. After I cut into it, I was relieved! It was soft, warm, and perfect! Time for breakfast.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 15, 15 to go

2011-10-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Temple

After such a fun night, I was up for a somewhat low key adventure. My friend had contacted me earlier in the week about going to the Provo temple today. Now, of course this wasn't a first for me, but it has been a while, ok, confession, over a year since I have been to the temple. Also, I haven't been with just a friend before. I was excited and grateful for the opportunity to have my recommend and go again.
We had planned to meet outside the temple at noon. It was a gorgeous day, so I didn't mind waiting a while for my friend to get there. Sitting on a bench by the fountain, watching a family who had been sealed together get pictures taken was a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

My friend arrived and we made our way inside. It was a great experience and it felt so good to be at the temple again. We went to Cocoa Bean after and got a cupcake and talked for about an hour. She told me that she and another friend planned on gonig to the temple every second Saturday of the month. I am so glad to have someone to go with.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 14, 16 to go

2011-10-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight I Gotta Cut Loose...
Well, tonight I have to say was such a fun night! But it didn't start out that way though. I was working until 7:00. Ugh!! I kept telling myself I had fun plans later and that next week is a 3 day week. Once I finally left work, I went to meet my friend KeriAnn for dinner and a movie. We went to Red Robin and Keriann said she knew a server there and we requested to be seated in his section. I had planned for today to have our waiter pick my dnner for me. I was worried that our waiter wouldn't want to take the risk and wouldn't order for me. I was assured that Tyler, KeriAnn's friend and Red Robin employee, was good at ordering for his guests. I let him know that I didn't want anything with vegetables... he asked if I wanted chicken or beef, or a burger or pasta. I told him to surprise me... This is what I got.

Mmmm. Chicken Parmesan. I was a little unsure of not getting a burger at Red Robin. But the pasta was soooo yummy. It was hot, cheesy, and the chicken had a delicious, crusty breading on it. I was extremely happy with the choice. Tyler has some mad ordering skills.

Don't let the face fool you - he was hilarious!

After dinner, we somehow got our extremely full bellies to the movie theater for phase 2 of the evening. Footloose! I have been waiting for this movie for a long time and was extremely excited. Like dinner, it did not disappoint. It made me so happy! I highly recommend it. Also, if you ever have a waiter who is up to the task of choosing your meal, do it! It was so fun to have a surprise dinner brought to my table.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 13, 17 to go

2011-10-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Stranded

On my way home from glitter toes my friend KariAnn, who was in car with me, saw a minivan all alone in the parking light with its lights on and hood open. She, being a good samaritan, wondered if they needed some help. We decided to turn around and check. I have never offered road side assistance before. I lack any helpful skills in those kind of situations, not to mention I am a little scared to talk to strangers on the road!! I figured that since I wasn't completely alone and it was an innocent looking minivan - we should check it out. We made a quick U-turn and drove down into the parking lot. We approached cautiously and rolled the window down, with the car still moving in case we needed to make a quick getaway. There was one lone man standing by the hood of the van who appeared harmless. KariAnn asked if he needed help, and he said no, he had just turned on his lights because he needed to see his car better. I guess he was trying to fix it and had it under control. He assured us he was fine and we drove away and took a picture since this was something I have never done before and I immediately thought I is something I could add to my list.

I hope the man was OK and got away safely and I am glad we did too! I don't know if I will ever do this again, unless I am with someone I feel safe with. KariAnn is just the type of person who says "if there's a problem, yo I'll solve it". So, I figured we could try to be of some help together. Even though he didn't need our help, we tried!

THE NEXT 30 DAYS PART 2. Day 12, 18 to go

2011-10-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Apple Bake

Today, I put my newly purchased apple slicer/corer/peeler to use. I have been craving apple bars for quite some time, and I thought it would be perfect to take them to glitter toes tomorrow. I got off to a bit of a late start since I didn't even get home until 7:30 due to 2 hours of piano lessons followed by grocery shopping. I got home, made some dough. It proved to be a bit of a challenge to roll it out to fit in the cookie sheet and to make it the right thickness. Finally, I got the pan lined with dough made from scratch. Then apple slicing, peeling, and coring all in one motion. I know I keep saying slicing, peeling, coring... but I love it!!
My favorite part was adding the butter and cinnamon sugar and butter on top of the apples. YUMMY!

It was 9:45 when these babies came out of the oven and I still needed to shower. Late night, but good treats. Can't wait to eat them tomorrow... I hope they turn out as good as I remember.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 11, 19 to go

2011-10-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

On the farm
There is a somewhat famous place in Santaquin: The Big Red Barn. They sell what Santaquin is all about: apples. I have never been, but since this is the season, I wanted to stop by and get some beautiful red Samtaquin apples. My friend from work, KariAnn who carpools with me, came along for the ride. On the way, we kind of took a scenic route thinking would take us to the barn. Well, we ended up going for a short drive up Santaquin canyon. It was beautiful drive with the fall colors and sunshine with a friend. After a few minutes, we realized this was not the right way to go, so we turned around and headed for more familiar territory, the freeway. We shortly arrived at the barn. It was a great sight!

We entered in search of apple-y goodness. We were in for even more delicious treats! They had really cute aprons, dishes, candy coated peanuts, orange colored hot chocolate, honey, apple crisp mix, etc. So much good stuff. Of course there were 2 larger than life pumpkins...

We walked into the freezer like room where the "money" is kept. The apples. I picked out a few as well as an apple peeler, corer and slicer. I have been wanting to make these delicious apple bars that my mom makes, but they involve a lot of thinly sliced apples. Now, with the easy turn of a handle, I can make them with ease!! Well, after picking out the healthy stuff, we found the ice cream, fudge, and caramel apple station. My friend and I bought a caramel apple and she also bought some fudge. Oh, it was sooo good.

Well, I am happy to have checked out the Big Red Barn, finally and to use my new apple slicer!!

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2 Day 10, 20 to go

2011-10-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

Operation Socialite
Last week I was given a challenge. I was talking with a coworker and we somehow got on the subject of dating. She asked what I am doing to change that... We of course got on the subject of church, family home evening etc. She told me I needed to go to Family Home Evening today and she would ask for a report the next day. Well, going to family home evening is not one of my favorite things for many reasons. Particularly in a Mid Single Adults setting. I am not a super outgoing person. I am not shy, just not outgoing. So, to go to Mid Single Adults events where I don't know people is a bit hard and not something I enjoy. I have a hard time approaching people I don't know and initiating conversations and it seems like when I do go to things, no one seems to initiate conversations with me, so I don't feel it's a productive night. Anyway, this was somewhat of a challenge for me, not something I wanted to do. Well, my friend from work was kind enough to come with me. When we got there, we listened to a lesson and had cookies and some mingle time. I talked to a few people that I knew and a girl that I hadn't met before. No boys tonight - but that's an assignment for next week :)

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 9, 21 to go

2011-10-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

Testimony.

Today, being Sunday, I felt that I should share my testimony to the virtual world. It's been a very long time since I have shared my testimony in church, so this was the least I could do. I had heard that on mormon.org you could share your testimony and create a profile. So, I now have a profile and my testimony is on the world wide web for the world to see. It was interesting to think about how to put my beliefs into words that anyone could read. In a few days, after my profile has been reviewed, it will be posted on mormon.org. My username is rockyage.

THE NEXT THIRTY DAYS, PART 2, Day 8, 22 to go

2011-10-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

I had hoped for something a little more grand today than what it turned out to be. For the last month I had planned to host a BYU Footbal game party at my house. I checked the Cougar's schedule and found that today was the Homecoming game. Perfect!! I talked to some friends and was planning to have some good food and friends over to enjoy a great game. Well, things changed a bit. We found earlier in the week that the game was going to be broadcasted on ESPNU. This was a problem. I don't have this channel. Luckily a good friend of mine has the channel and we relocated to her place. I didn't get to host a game day party, but I still got to go to one. I don't think I have ever gone to someone's house for the sole purpose of watching a football game. Well, after a great dinner at the Pizza Factory and a stop to pick up some treats, we settled down to watch the BYU cougars vs. the San Jose Spartans. It was a great game! The cougars won 29 to 16. Way to go Riley Nelson!!! It was his first time playing this season (I believe) and was a great fill in for Jake Heaps. It was my friends Kariann and Sharra and I. Just a girls night, watching some football! I had a great time and was impressed with my friends' knowledge of the team and the game. A great group to watch the game with. Maybe we should make it a tradition...

THE NEXT 30 DAYS PART 2, Day 7, 23 to go

2011-10-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

The laws of the land

When creating my list of things to do for the month, I really wanted to keep it fairly well rounded. I felt I should have some social, artistic, spiritual, things as well as become a bit more invovled in the community. I attended the city council meeting this week and I decided to learn a few laws of our great state and country as well. Be they random, unusual, meaningful, or downright ridiculous. Three of each, as a matter of fact. Here's what I found:

UTAH LAWS:

18-1-1. Liability of owners -- Scienter -- Dogs used in law enforcement.
(1) Every person owning or keeping a dog is liable in damages for injury committed by the dog, and it is not necessary in the action brought therefor to allege or prove that the dog was of a vicious or mischievous disposition or that the owner or keeper of the dog knew that it was vicious or mischievous.

The part of this law that was interesting to me was that it seems pretty clear cut. If you own a dog, you are responsible, whether you know it is a vicious dog beforehand or not. Also, you can't say that the dog has a vicous or mischievious disposition. Is that what that means? I had to read it a few times to make sure.

20A-3-501. Polling place -- Prohibited activities.
Basically, this law says that it is ok to solicit votes or persuade voters as long as it occurs more than 150 feet from the polls, and as long as is doesn't interfere with safety. Also, you cannot block the doors or entries to the polls. Remember this next month on election day!

And lastly, I thought I would post it in its entirety:
30-1-1. Incestuous marriages void.
1) The following marriages are incestuous and void from the beginning, whether the relationship is legitimate or illegitimate:
(a) marriages between parents and children;
(b) marriages between ancestors and descendants of every degree;
(c) marriages between brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood;
(d) marriages between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews;
(e) marriages between first cousins, except as provided in Subsection (2); or
(f) marriages between any persons related to each other within and not including the fifth degree of consanguinity computed according to the rules of the civil law, except as provided in Subsection (2).
(2) First cousins may marry under the following circumstances:
(a) both parties are 65 years of age or older; or
(b) if both parties are 55 years of age or older, upon a finding by the district court, located in the district in which either party resides, that either party is unable to reproduce.

So, it's OK to marry your first cousin as long as you are too old to reproduce

FEDERAL LAWS:

TITLE 20 > CHAPTER 48 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 3401
(3)parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children, and States, localities, and private institutions have the primary responsibility for supporting that parental role

Enough said. Parents truly are the most important teacher a child will have.

TITLE 25 > CHAPTER 5 > § 179, § 179. Driving stock to feed on Indian lands
Every person who drives or otherwise conveys any stock of horses, mules, or cattle, to range and feed on any land belonging to any Indian or Indian tribe, without the consent of such tribe, is liable to a penalty of $1 for each animal of such stock. This section shall not apply to Creek lands.

Hmm. guess I'll think twice about driving my cattle on those Indian lands. But then again, it is only $1

TITLE 21 > CHAPTER 15 > § 1037, § 1037. Prohibited acts

(c)No egg handler shall possess any eggs after the eggs have been packed into a container that is destined for the ultimate consumer unless the eggs are stored and transported under refrigeration at an ambient temperature of no greater than 45 degrees Fahrenheit, as prescribed by rules and regulations promulgated by the Secretary.

I've always wondered who can handle my eggs before I buy them from the store.

I hope you learned something about our great state and country. Be safe and obey the laws of the land.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 6, 24 to go

2011-10-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Pieshakes!!

There is a place in Provo I have driven by many times. The sign out front of it has always caught my eye: "Famous Pie Shakes". Yes, it's Sammy's. I have never been before but have been wanting to try these famous pie shakes for a long time. I mean, come on. Pie. Shakes. Together. How can you go wrong? My friend went there recently, also for the first time, and raved about these shakes. I decided to amend my list and try one out. I got a banana cream pie shake, and my roommates wanted an oreo chocolate cream pie shake.

It was delicious! They use real pie in the shake and there are yummy bits of crust that add some yummy crunchiness to an ice creamy delicacy. I highly recommend picking one up. But don't take my word for it.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 5, 25 to go

2011-10-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

The ABC's of me

Today, I wanted to do some introspection and compile a list of my favorite things. Rather than use the same old list that circulates around, my roommates helped me by compiling an A-Z list of things to write about. Thanks roomies!!!

A: Animal cracker shape: giraffe
B: Bath and Body Works product:  coconut lime and verbena wallflowers
C: Car freshener scent:   Anything lemony or pine. - I love fresh scents.
D: Doris Day movie:   Pillow Talk (the only one I've seen)
E: Easter Candy: caramel filled chocolate eggs
F: Full House episode: the one where Jesse and Becky get married (particularly the song "Forever")
G: Girl Scout Cookie: Tag-a-longs
H: Harry Potter Character: Ron Weasly
I: Immigrant: Craig Ferguson
J: Joke: "Have you heard about the new pirate movie? It's rated "Arr"
K: Knick-Knack: The Globe Theater in my mom's Dicken's Christmas Village
L: Leading Man: Robert Downey Jr.
M: Magazine: People
N: Neal Diamond song: Coming to America
O: Favorite Ocean: Atlantic
P: Pasta: Cavatappi
Q: Quirk: Watching TV to fall asleep
R: Ride at Disneyland: Tower of Terror
S: Showtune: I Could Have Danced All Night
T: Temple: Laie, HI
U: Underdog: Raj Koothropali from The Big Bang Theory
V: Volcano: Mt. Saint Helens. I was there when it erupted and we have a jar of ashes at my parent's house.
W: While You Were Sleeping Quote: "I like mass in Latin. It's much nicer when you don't know what they're saying"
X: Xanthic object (xanthic means yellow) Yellow rain boots. The shiny, slickery kind.
Y: Yogurt: Danon Light, Strawberry and Bananas (minus the actual strawberries)
Z: Zipcode: 90210

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 4, 26 to go

2011-10-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Beer me a city council meeting.

Last year I wanted to go to a city council meeting, but it didn't work out for various reasons. This year I was determined to make it work. As I set off to go to the Provo City Municipal Council meeting, I had a lot of expectaions. I expected to exciting words like "zoning" and "taxes' etc. I expected it would not be a short meeting, nor an exciting one. I was wrong.
My roommate warned me to be careful not to catch the political bug. I was not worried about that at all.

As I arrived, I was surprised to see that there were a lot of people in attendance. Most notable were about 15 fireman... Not too shabby. There was a stand with several chairs with mics for each of the council members, just like I had been picturing in my mind.

The meeting began with a prayer and the pledge. Someone was a little emphatic saying the phrase "under God", he practically yelled it. That was my first clue that this was no ordinary meeting. The fireman then gave a presentation about the upcoming Fire Prevention Week, was very interesting and enlightening. Apparently 5 people have died in fires in Provo during the last 2 years.

After that presentation , the floor was open to the public. The first man was an older gentleman who was a bit confused. We couldn't understand him very well, but I heard something about homosexuals and a parade... then the moderator told him to talk into the mic, and I could hear him better. He began to talk about 2 signs of the second coming: the destruction of Abinidi and Sodam and Gamora, and that our society now is so accepting of things that were once illegal and immoral. I was shocked to be hearing about these things at a city council meeting. There were a lot of other people who talked about repealing the ban on beer sales on Sunday in Provo which was on the agenda for a later vote in the meeting. Some in favor of repealing the ordinance and several not. Lots of religious and moral comments, which again, I was surprised to hear at this meeting. After the public floor was closed, they moved on to 3 other things to vote on, and then to the biggie. Repealing the ban on beer sales on Sunday. They asked if anyone else wanted to comment on it. One man, Howard, who already commented earlier stood up again. The moderator told him he had alread had his turn to speak on the subject. Howard said no he hadn't, but the moderator said the council had already heard from him. Howard continued to argue saying he spoke when the floor was open to the public and not when they asked about the ordinance specifically. The moderator got pretty angry and told Howard to please sit down. Howard was not happy and walked away from the podium asking other people to make their comments to the council as well. The comments went on for about 20 minutes. people were talking about freedom, about what makes our city unique... etc. In the end. the council voted to repeal the ban and adjourned.

While I did not catch the political bug, the meeting was extremely interesting. I think I picked the best week to attend and I think that other meetings would only go down from this one.

If you have never attended a city council meeting before, I recommend checking it out. You never know what drama may be there.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 3, 27 to go

2011-10-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!!

In preparation for an upcoming adventure on Saturday (hosting a football party) I thought it would be a good idea to resarch and learn a few things about the game... and its players.
Here are a few things I didn't know before. (Don't laugh at what may be considered ignorance) and correct me if my research led me astray.

A kickoff happens at the beginning of hte 1st and 3rd periods, and after every touchdown

A punt is usually made on a 4th down when the offense has to surrender possession of the ball

A 2 point conversion is when the offense, after scoring a touchdown, gets the ball on the 2 yard line and gets the ball across the goal line.

A safety is 2 points, and the most important thing is impetus (an offensive player that gives the ball momentum...) The defense gets a safety if the ball goes into the opponents endzone and it becomes dead without changing possession. It can also be awarded because of a penalty or when a blocked punt goes out of the kicking team's end zone... still a bit confused about a safety, but learned more than I knew before.

The ref's sign for 4th down is raising his fist above his head.
Loss of down is both hands on the back of the head (looking like he is about to kick back and relax...)

If the QB is standing about 5 yards behind the center, there's a 98% chance he'll pass the ball, otherwise he'll pass to the running back.

And lastly, I decided to get to know a few of our local BYU Cougar heroes. Ok, maybe that's a little optimistic given their past performance, but they still deserve recognition, right?

Jake Heaps, QB
Bryan Kariya and JJ Di Luigi (is this Mario's brother???) Running back
Graham Rowley and Eathyn Manumaleuna, our defensive ends
Cody Hoffman and Ross Apo- our wide receivers Going long. chasing those beautiful passes

Well, I think I learned a little bit more about this game and am somewhat more prepared to host a football gameday party at my house on Saturday, If you want to come, let me know - I'm providing french dip sandwiches. Also, if you can think of anything else I need to know about this great American pasttime, leave it here.

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 2, 28 to go

2011-10-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Trees... (and mountains)

Today marks the first TRULY new thing to add to my list for this month. Now, I am many things, but an artist is hardly one of them. I have only ever painted for school, and I hated every minute of it. I decided that I would try my hand, literally, at painting. My good friend Tifani, in a great showing of support, provided my with my art supplies. Armed with (3) 5x7 canvases and numerous paints and brushes, I was ready to make some happy trees. Talking with my family about what I should paint, I decided on a "Fallscape". I began my first painting between conference sessions.

Messy, but hard at work

I had fun mixing colors and creating my own interpretation of autumn.

I decided after finishing it that I would probably just do that one painting. Not because I didn't want to do another one, I just couldn't think of another thing to paint. Many ideas were thrown out there: Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson, the golden plates, the "Hot Dog Dance" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse... That led us to Disneyland. When my sister said that I should paint all of the mountains from Disneyland, I immediately said "Challenge accepted." This was a little more challenging - there are a lot of colors and textures in some of those mountains and I don't know how well I captured them, but it was sure fun. Probably the most fun I have had on any of my new adventures I have ever done.

Can you tell which mountain is which???

THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 1, 29 to go

2011-10-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

Spontaneous Feng Shui

I must begin this month long adventure with a confession. My new thing for today, was actually done last Saturday. So, it appears I am starting off a little unorthodox. Oh well, deal with it! It was something I have wanted to do for a long time and I felt too good about it to leave off of this list.

Last Saturday was one of those super productive Saturdays where I got the job done. I did some major grocery shopping, all my laundry, cleaned my bathroom, bedroom, and basement, cooked up some chicken and hamburger to put in the freezer. After this was done, I got out of the shower and looked around my bedroom. Newly vacuumed and dusted and cleaned, I thought "What else can I do in here? I know, I'll rearrange my furniture!" I have been living in my apartment now for 3 years and realized at the moment that I was ready for a change in my somewhat small bedroom. Moving a dresser, bed, and bookshelf by myself in a small space was a bit challenging, but I got some good exercise in and moved everything around. I must say I am very happy with it! Rearranging mybedroom brings the feeling of starting over again and an inspiration to be a little more organized and productive. It was the perfect end to a successful work day! Saturday truly was a "special day".

My newly arranced room

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Part 3. Day 8: Tiptoe through the Tulips (and windmills)

2011-08-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 14, 2011
Kinderdijk/ Keukenhof, Amsterdam

Today was another extremely busy but amazing day. We left early (about 9:00) and drove to Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, about a 2 hour drive. This is a town built on a dijk that has 19 windmills.

Creepy Ducth girl in a windmill kitchen

How about these stairs?

After navigating these each day - do you think you'd get use to them??

I particularly enjoyed the groundsworker who took a break to do some texting
(notice the proper wooden shoes!)

Very cool and interesting to see how they work. I didn't know much about the Netherlands before today - or windmills at all. Here are some fun facts:

- 40% of the country is below sea level
- The Dutch lived in the mills
- The workers were called "millers"
- 16 of the 19 mills in Kinderdijk are still inhabited
- The mills were used to pump water out of the dijks when it got too high

It was a gray, cloudy, and cold day to be walking around the mills. Very cool to see. We even got to walk around inside one of them to see how they lived.

After Kinderdijk, we drove about an hour to Keukenhof. This is HUGE tulip/flower garden. This was just beautiful and stunning. So many flowers, colors, arrangements. This was probably one of my favorite things we have done so far. We spent a couple hours there wandering and taking lots of pictures. Here are just a few.

Notice all the professional photographers... They are capturing this area below.

As Betsy and I were trying to catch this shot, we were suddenly surrounded by a hoard of professional photographers and their very fancy, and very big, equipment. Our very small, and very ameteur camers suffered by comparison.

We sadly tore ourselves away since we had an appointment at the Ann Frank house in Amsterdam. We drove the 30 minute drive to our hotel just outside of Amsterdam (appropriately named the Tulip Inn). It's actually pretty nice and more like an American hotel than any of our previous hotels. We rested in the room for about an hour then walked 10 minutes to catch the tram to downtown Amsterdam. We bought a 24 hour pass - and the interesting thing about it is you have to scan it on the tram when you get on and off. It was about a 25 minute ride to Central Amsterdam, walked around a bit to get a feel of a new city. It is a very interesting if not different city than we have seen so far.

Can you guess the mode of transporation of choice in Amsterdam???

This is the church tower next to Ann Frank's house. We saw this XXX synbol all over the city and were very curious about it.

we made our way to the Ann Frank Haus. We had reserved tickets for 7:45. That was truly amazing to see.

It is unbelievable what she and her family had to go through for almost 2 years in hiding. There wer video clips of some of the people who knew and helped them. Even one of her father speaking which was very touching. Very sad, because she died in the camp just weeks before the liberation not knowing her father was still alive. I can't imagine what it would be like being the sole survivor of my family, especially for a father. I am so glad to I got to see that house and think about that time in history.

After the Ann Frank Huis, we went to dinner just across the street. We all got Dutch pancakes. SOOO yummy!

I got ham and cheese.

And of course a Diet Coke. No ice though...

It was such a cute restaurant and we all enjoyed it very much. We realized it was only the 2nd or 3rd time we sat down to eat with just the four of us at a restaurant on the trip. We have done so much eating on the run. So nice to enjoy the food and atmosphere not being rushed. After dinner we waited a LONG time for our tram in the cold. Finally it came and we made it back to our hotel. Such an interesting and enjoyable city despite its reputation. Although, Heidi did see someone rolling a joint in desperation while we waited fot the train. Don't worry, it's legal here. It's kind of a dirty and trashy city like Vegas but with a lot more charm and history. I love the buildings on the canals. So unique and different than anything we have seen yet. The people seem very nice and friendly and most speak very good English. Very exhausting yet exciting and interesting day.

My Most European Adventure, Day 7: Touring Brussels

2011-08-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Brussels, Belgium

Today, we got to sleep in! My alarm was supposed to go off at 8:45 so we could be ready to go at 10:30, but for some reason (international phone difficulties, perhaps) my phone thought it was half an hour later so I didn't get up until 9:15, Betsy and Beth went to a local flee market early- nonw of us wanted to go for very long and we knew they would want to spend a long time. Beth was kind enough to come back and pick us up at 10:30 after she had to drop someone off at the airport. After spending some time at the flea market (Betsy and Beth were very successful!)

Beth played tour guide and took us around Brussels around the afternoon. First we went to lunch at a cute little restaurant. 2 words to describe this place: sandwiches and dessert!

Angela and Heidi shared a Chocolate Bomb and a strawberr tart. Is your mouth watering??

A little dark... but you can see the cute restaurant.

After lunch, we walked around downtown Brussels. The square is called Grand Place. It's truly grand and amazing to see.

We then walked down a street called Butcher Street. It reminded me a lot of Little Italy in New York. It was full of restaurants (mostly sea food, though) with waiters standing outside to talk to you as you passed by.

On to a shopping mall. In fact, we learned, one of the first, if not the first, covered shopping area ever. It was very fun! I bought some lace and a couple of other things here.

No self respecting Belgian tourguide would have us miss this:

The Mannekin Pis. Yes, the name is literal. He is quite famous and legendary in Belgium, Apparantly there are a few stories and legends about him, not one of them being 100% certain. The Belgians are quite proud of him, and he is often dressed in fancy costumes. You can see him anywhere - candies, cards, chocolate, calendars, corkscrews. Quite interesting.

Then, because we hadn't eaten in a couple of hours, Beth took us to her favorite chocolate outlet: Neuhouse. Just amazing! It was a very small shopped and very packed. But yummy, yummy, yummy chocolate to look at

The best part of this place, aside from the beautiful display, was that you can sample the chocolate. Beth gave us fair warning to take only a bite of each piece and get rid of the rest in order to power through. It was a rough job, but I think we did well!
Well, then we discovered the back of the store: lucky corner.

Here, you can buy three boxes of chocolates for 30 euros. What a deal - you cannot beat that.

After a little more sampling (you can see the open boxes for the tasting!), we all decided to buy 3 boxes of single flavored chocolates and trade them later to mix and match. Thank you Beth and Neuhaus Chocolate Outlet.

After stuffing ourselves with chocolate, we went back to the Passey's home to hand out and relax for a bit .Beth and Betsy went to the grocery store and the rest of us stayed back to work on our journals, read, email etc. I got to call home and talk to home and talk to mom. Glad to hear we missed some snowy weather back home. Then we had dinner with the Passey family including lettuce wraps a la PF Chang and a trio of different European lemony sodas. They have been so helpful and generous. We are lucky to have such a great family to stay with.After navigating cities on our own for the last several days, I appreciate Beth's guiding us around Brussels so much today. We didn't have to worry about where we were going or what we wanted to see. Another great day!!

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 6: Cold weather and castles...

2011-06-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Rothenburg/Rhine Valley Germany

Today was the first bad weather/ cold day we have had. After almost a week of beautiful clear, sunny skies, we woke up to gray skies and rain. And cold. It was only about 50, quite a change from our 70+ sunny weather. We have been so lucky so far, so our luck was bound to run out. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove the 5 minute drive back to Rothenburg a d did some more shopping... once the stores were open. Most stores didn't open until 10:00. We made sure to stop at the Kathe Wolfhart store. It was amazing and huge. It's like a never ending maze through a Christmas winter wonderland. It's covered with Christmas trees, lights, nutcrackers, villages, ornaments, etc. etc. etc. Very impressive to see. Unfortunately, impressive prices. Hence, I didn't end up buying anything there. Just managed to get this contraband photo:

I LOVE the cobblestone streets throughout the entire city. Not sure if I'd like driving on them in this car though...

View of the city from the wall

You can see part of the wall that surrounds the city here

After Rothenburg, we drove to Weisbaden to see my friend Lindsey. Yeah!! It turns out she was on the way we needed to go. I'm so glad I got to see her. I really miss being able to talk with her. She had her two kids with her. Eva is 4 and Gabe is 3. They were adorable and so excited to see the castles. I rode with her and the other girls followed while we drove along the Rhine river to look at all the castles. We wanted to to a boat cruise, but we couldn't work out the timing and the weather was cold and windy. But, the drive was spectacular! We saw about 10 castles over the course of our 40 minute drive. So green and well maintained. I believe this must be some of the most picturesque land in the world. Some of the bigger, more well-maintained casltes have been turned into hotels. That would be a fun place to stay! There was a small castle on a tiny island in the middle of the river. Apparantly a kind wanted to live there so he could tax all the boats that went by. After we saw the castles we stopped at a cool little town and walked around for a bit.

Our car!

This was someone's house... apparantly they like Easter

After we left Lindsey we set off to drive back to Brussels. About a 3 hour drive. WOW! What an amazing exhausting few days. I can't believe how much we have done in so short a time. On the way home we drove (for a very short time) through the Netherlands. That makes 5 countries we have been in: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourh (we drove through shortly on the way to Germany) and the Netherlands. A lot of miles and territory. So amazing. Once we made it back to the Passey's, we had dinner, planned out our hotel for Amsterdam, did some laundry, and went to bed.

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 5: Guten Tag

2011-06-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 11, 2011
Trier & Rothenburg Germany

Today was a beautiful day. Lots of driving through beautiful German countryside. We had breakfast at our German/Spanish hotel (it was called the Casa Verde). It was actually very nice. We drove into the city of Trier and walked around and shopped. Such a cute little town! It is the oldest town in Germany.

The Porte Nigre (the Black Gate). The oldest standing Roman gate.

While shopping in Trier, I found some jeans! I spotted a store that looked like it had plus size clothes so I jumped in and 5 minutes later I had a pair of new German jeans! If you're ever in Trier and need some plus size clothes, check out Ulla Popken! After shopping/walking around we took off for Rotheburg- about a 4 hour drive. I drove today. Such a beautiful drive through the countryside. Green, rlooing hills, small villages with churches in the center. Not a bad day to be driving. We made it to our next hotel - another pretty nice one.

Our hotel outside of Rothenburg

We have been lucky to find all of our hotels, mostly on the first try and have all been pretty decent. This one is a little smelly, almost like the sewer backed up. We have opened all the windows and door to try to air it out... Then we were off to drive into Rothenburg to see the nightwatchman tour. This is such a beautiful, medieval city. We learned a lot about its long history on the tour.During medival times it was avery rich, independent, imperial city. The during the 30 year war when they were invaded and overcome by enemies and the city was basically shut down until the 1890's. When tourism revived things for a while. It was on the verge of being completely destroyed by Americans at the end of WWII. When it was spared at the last minute by an American General whose mother had once visited Rothenburg and he had always loved to hear her stories about it so he offered them a chance to surrender. At that time the Germans were under orders not to surrender or negoriate but the particular German general who was assigned to Rothenburg was away so his substitute surrendered. This saved the town from being destroyed. Since then, tourism has helped keep it so well preserved.

Our night watchman tour guide

After the tour, we walked a little on the wall the surrounds the city and then went back to the hotel around 10:00. It's been nice to spend more time in the cities we are in. We all LOVE Rothenburg and agree it might be our favorite place so far.

I got to talk to my friend Lindsey today and we might be able to see her tomorrow, but unfortunately it may be too far out of our way, I'm really quite sad. I was hoping for a chance to see her. I haven't seen her in about 3 years. Not sure what will happen tomorrow, but it's Heidi's birthday!

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 4: Lost in Paris

2011-06-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 2011
Paris, France

Today we got up early (but not as early as planned because our alarm didn't go off). We dropped off our bags in the hotel lobby and set off to do some sight seeing in Paris. We first went to a church called Saint Chappelle. It had the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen. The whole length and height of the walls were colorful windows. Most of them were upstairs after a walk up a narrow, winding staircase. Once we got to the top and entered the room, it quite literally took my breath away.

Outside St. Chappelle

Gorgeous! Inside St. Chappelle

After this church, we decided to walk to Notre Dame. Along the way, we just had to stop here for breakfast:

Crepes in Paris on a Sunday morning... Does it get any better?

I have been to Notre Dame before, but today as we walked inside (it's free!) they were just starting mass - yes, it was Sunday. I have never seen mass before so it was interesting to see at least part of it. We walked around the perimeter while mass was going on in the middle. How strange and interesting to go to church while tourists are walking around your chapel.

If you haven't seen mass before, you can see about 60 seconds of the beginning here until my camera died...

After Notre Dame, we split up. Angela and I went to find a mall while Heidi and Betsy went to do some more sight seeing. Angela and I soon found out that no clothing shops are open on Sunday (here I thought that happened only in Provo!) Sad. It was the thing Angela really wanted to do on our trip. I was just looking for a new pair of jeans since two of the three pairs I packed now had holes in them (after 4 days? How much walking have we done?) So we went to look around elsewhere. We walked along the Seine, went to the Louvre. We didn't go inside, just sat out by the pyramid for a while. Then we got some food and walked to a nearby park and ate. It was so nice today - at least mid 70's.

Angela was mourning the fact that H&M was closed

Angela looking cute on the Seine

Contemplation on the Seine

A beautiful day at the Louvre. I wonder if Tom Hanks is searching for the Holy Grail nearby...

I will triomphe!! Ironically, just minutes later we triumphed and found an H&M that was open!

Once we found the H&M (on the Champs Elysees) Angela was in shopping mode. By this time we had half an hour to get back to the hotel and meet with Heidi and Besty to get our bags, and take a taxi to our car. Angela was not ready to go so I left to go meet Heidi and Betsy at the hotel and Angela would just take the metro out to the parking lot we our car was. Only I could not find the hotel once I got off the metro. I walked around for about 45 minutes. By this time I was over an hour late. It was a little bit scary, not being able to contact anyone to let them know where I was or try to find my way to them. It helped a lot that I can speak some French, but no one seemed to know the street our hotel was on, let alone the hotel itself. I finally got a taxi that got me there and then we took another taxi to meet Angela at the parking lot. Quite an ordeal and I was a little scared for a while but thankfully we all got where we needed to be. Once we were in our car we drove for about 4 hours (lots of traffic getting out of Paris) and made it safely to our hotel in Trier at about 9:30. Cool hotel! Our room is like a little suite and we had no problems finding it at all. A few minor hiccups/scares aside, another fantastic day. We have been really lucky with the weather and hope it continues. As they say in German "gut fahrt" (good drive). I am a little sad to leave France. It was fun to be able to use my French. It came in very handy several times. None of us speak any German, could be very interesting...

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 3: Here in the slums of St. Michel

2011-06-04T17:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 9
Mt. Saint Michel, Giverny, Paris

Another road warrior day! We went ot Mt. St. Michel this morning. LOTS of stairs, HUGE abbey, beautiful view of the causeway (mostly quicksand!). Perfect weather today. Again. I have been here before in high school, but I definitely appreciated it more as a more mature adult... There truly is no place like it in the world. When you first get there, you walk up these narrow streets with LOTS of stairs and LOTS of shops to get 200 feet up to the abbey.

View from the top!

Once at the abbey, you can buy a ticket to tour inside. It was incredible!

Getting down was a bit tricky...

Thanks to this scaffolding we had to risk death to navigate...

After that we drove to a different military cemetary since we didn't make it to the one yesterday at Omaha Beach. It turned out to be amazing! We were the only ones there and it was so quiet and peaceful. A nice change after a busy morning.

There was a small chapel at the cemetary

One of my favorite things at this cemetary was the interior of the chapel. It amazed me how much honor and tribute France feels toward the American soldiers in WWII. I had no idea that there were so many American military cemetaries in Northern France.

This is a map inside the chapel showing the breach from Normandy across France

After paying our respects and feeling patriotic, we set off again to drive to Giverny (about a 2 hour drive). This is where Monet lived and painted Waterlilies. Beautiful gardens, ponds, and flowers. It was packed - we had to wait 45 minutes to get in- but I think it was worth it.

This was Monet's house

Look like a familiar
painting???

After Giverny, we drove another 2 hours to Paris. Crazy driving! Poor Betsy drew the short stick and drove us in to the city (really we made her) and we spent an hour just trying to find the hotel. Our original plan was to park outside of the city and take the metro to the hotel, but after our first parking attempt, we walked for a block and thought we could try driving in. Besty said she wasn't afraid. I would have been... But over an hour later, 2 unsuccessful phone calls to the hotel and no close parking to be found, we couldn't find the hotel or parking anywhere. We finally parked out of the city and took a taxi in. Relief. We were grateful to get there. It was a little stressful, but a fun day. When we got to the hotel we went to get dinner and came back to the room for bed. It is now about midnight. Got to get ready for another busy day tomorrow.

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 2: Road Warriors

2011-06-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 8
Brussels, Rouen, Honfleur, Bayuex, Omaha Beach, Mont St. Michel

Today we were road warriors! We had breakfast at the Passey's home (we were introduced to Speculoos: a cinnamon-y, peanut buttery type spread for toast = yummy!) We left the house about 8:30 for about a 3 hour drive to Rouen, France. This is the town where Joan of Arc was held, tried, and killed. It was the most beautiful cathedral - so huge and tons of stained glass windows.

Stained glass, anyone??

The ladies of the Cathedral

We ran into 2 missionaries from Utah! One from American Fork and one from Riverton. They seemed to excited to see someone from home and they gave us great directions and information about the town. Such an amazing and quaint town. It had a very medieval feel to it.

From Rouen, we drove about an hour to a little town Beth told us about called Honfleur. Such a cute little town by the water. Lots of shops, a proper French carousel, and cobblestone streets.

We didn't spend a lot of time there - so much to do and so little time. We drove for about another half hour to Bayeux to see their famous tapestries that tell the story of William the conqueror. We had an audio guide that told us the story as we walked along.The tapestry was about 3 feet tall and about 70 feet long. Pretty spectular! If you remember the beginning of Robin Hood: Price of Thieves, they show the tapestry during the title credits.

Bayeux tapestry museum

Had a delicious Croque Monsieur for dinner here.

After that we had about another 40 minute drive to Normandy/Omaha beach. We wanted to to the American cemetary, but it closed 2 hours earlier (note- if you ever want to go to a lot of museums in one day, remember that they usually close at 5:00). Betsy was pretty sad. We all really wanted to go, but this was the most important part of the trip to Betsy. In order to ease the pain, we drove to Omaha Beach. It was really amazing! There was virtually nobody there and it was so quiet and peaceful. We stayed for about an hour. Amazing to see and reflect on such a historical, meaningful place.

We saw 2 men who were here on business from Alabama- they told us they had just gone to Mt. Saint Michel and loved it. We are going there tomorrow. Can't wait! We drove by it tonight on our way to our hotel in Beauvoir, It;s about 3 minutes away from Mt. Saint Michel so we drove back and took some pictures

Gorgeous!

I drove from Rouen and for the rest of the day. First international driving experience, also it was a stick shift. Did pretty well. Pretty impressive, I thought! We found all of our destinations with nothing but a little detour. It was so fun to spend the day driving through the French countryside. Beautiful, sunny, gorgeous, Spring day.

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Day 1

2011-06-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

April 6/7, 2011

Salt Lake/Brussels

Here's the aforementioned promise of my Europe adventure. I wrote in my journal each day and rather than try and remember all the details, I'll just transcribe.

I'm off again for my third trip to Europe. This time I'm with m y roommate Heidi VanNatter and two friends Angela Day and Betsy Ferguson. Betsy and Heidi met a family from Texas who live in Brussels (he works for the state department) last year on a cruise and they were nice enough to let us stay with them. We left at about 10:30 in the morning (happy birthday to me) and had a layover in New York and then landed in Brussels at 9:00 local time (1 am to us). What a long flight!! It was fine but poor Angela got a little sick. Dave Passey (whose house we are staying at) was kind enough to meet us at the airport and give us their GPS to use in our awesome Volvo rental. We went back to their house, unpacked a bit and walked to the bank to to get some euros (without Angela - she was still a little under the weather ). Poor Heidi, her bank had a little mix up and wouldn't let her withdraw any cash - she called them and apparently gave them what for because it's all straightened out now. Then we walked to the market (Heidi used a little French to get directions) to get some sprite for Angela's stomach. And of course a Diet Coke for me!!

We walked back to the house, dropped off the sprite to a sleeping Angela, and the three of us drove into the city to see a military museum Dave told us about and walked to the top of the Arch cinquantenaire, with the assistance of an elevator. It's always nicer to take an elevator to see a spectacular view. It was so amazing. The weather was beautiful, a perfect spring day.

View from the top of the arch

Cinquantenaire Arch

We then drove back to the Passey's and CRASHED! Not in a vehicular fashion, but we were exhausted! Dave made us a nice dinner and then we watched some America's Next Top Model (yeah!) with the kids and went to bed. Such a long day but it is so great to be here again. We have some fun things planned and I know we'll see some amazing and unforgettable sight we'll remember forever.

*some funny moments from the day:

PUSH, don't pull the door at the bank a (apparently we didn't understand the directions for the door in another language)

Betsy falling up the stairs at the museum

Getting a little lost on the way to the market and asking for directions in French

Killing a big, Belgian spider in our room

Long time... no blog...

2011-06-02T20:19:00.001-07:00

Once again, I notice I have been seriously slacking in keeping up my blog. I think that 30 days of new adventures project may have been something of an overkill and I kind of quit cold turkey. No excuses.

Well, to play a little bit of catch up now with more to come later (as my mom would say "a lick and a promise"*) here's a rundown of the last six months of my life:

Christmas was possibly one of the best ever. It was our year for the whole family to be together and we also had the cabin. Family + cabin = AWESOME times. We had so many fun activities planned and it was just so good to spend time with everyone.

During the rest of the winter, not much exciting happened (snow, school, more snow, more school...) but with the spring came a grand adventure: EUROPE! This is where I give the aforementioned "lick and a promise". I will write in much more details about the trip later when I have my trip journal in front of me. Suffice it to say for now it was fantastic and unforgettable.

May brought a couple of noteworthy events. Once again, another school year comes to a close. This completes my third year of teaching. Wow! I am now ready for a level 2 license!!! Wahoo! If only that meant more than essentialy a $120 piece of paper and a lot of work creating a portfolio. You do what you gotta do to stay employed, right?

To add to the end-of-year celebration, the night before school got out was the long awaited U2 concert. It was supposed to have been last June, but poor old Bono hurt his back and they had to postpone the show for a year. It was worth the wait. It was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I went with my friends Andrea and Amber. I knew Amber in high school, but haven't seen her much since. The funny thing is that we actually flew to Seattle together in highschool to see U2. Oh, my U2 buddy. The stage: awesome!

The music and performances were just phenomenal. If you haven't seen U2 in concert, I highly recommend it. Your life will never be the same!

Now that school has been out for a few days, it's been uneventful. We have had an extremely wet and cold spring and no summery, sunny weather to speak of yet, which makes pool time nonexistent. Tifani and I tried to use our season passes to Seven Peaks yesterday only to find out that they don't open until 4:00 this week while most kids are still in school. Oh well. Plenty of time left.

Well, stay tuned for more info about the Europe trip. Coming soon...

Don't hide your talents under a bushel....

2010-10-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

So, the holidays are soon upon us and my family is already talking Christmas plans since we will all be together. The idea of another talent show has been proposed. Help!!! No idea what to do. Last time (two years ago) I played songs on water glasses. It was awesome, if I do say so myself. Other family members reenacted the Happy Hands club from Napoleon Dynamite and also funny moments from our family's history etc...
I have to top these!!
Any suggestions??? I am completely stumped.

The week of the perfect storm

2010-10-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when so many crazy things happen all at once? What do they call that when everything intersects? The Bermuda Triangle? I prefer to call it the perfect storm. This week at school it is Red Ribbon Week. This consists of pajama day, sweats day, hat day, candy each day for the kids, bulletin board decorating etc... When you are at a school with a uniform, any time the kids get to wear something different they go nuts!!! This week we also have Halloween. You better believe that the kids know it. They, understandably, are really excited for the impending sugar highs and costumes. To be honest, I am too. I love Halloween! Being a teacher, you get to enjoy it as much as you did as a kid. So fun!! If that wasn't enough to make the kids insane, it's COLD/snowy!! Ugh - so many fun things going on but its pretty much impossible to get any teaching done.

Did I mention that it's end of term at the end of the week and we need to do DIBELS testing with each kid? ( I have no help with that BTW).

It is times like this when one word comes to mind as the most important trait a teacher can possess: FLEXIBILITY!!

Happy Halloween everybody.

Day 30, 0 to go

2010-10-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

LAST DAY - TIME FOR MAKE-UP!
I can't believe it's been 30 days of new adventures. It has been a crazy, busy, exciting, roller coaster of a month full of good things and bad things. Most importantly, there has been a good thing each day because of this adventure. To finish off this month, my friend Tifani joined me once again and we had a lot of fun making and mixing up some eyeshadows. She bought a kit that had color pigments and base you mix together. She had some sparkles, highlights, and shimmery powders you could mix to make whatever color you want. We spent a couple of hours creating new colors. So fun and colorful! I opted for a lot of bright colors and have a shade for almost every color of the rainbow. Tifani even had little bags to mix them in, pots to put the finished color in and a mortar and pestle to grind some powders up. I have never done nor would I ever even think about making my own makeup, but leave it to Tifani to be prepared with everything you need and an amazing idea.

Some supplies...

Homemade eyeshadow

Bright, new colorful eyes!

Day 29, 1 day to go!!!

2010-10-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

SHOUTING HAIR

So, I've been a bit of a slacker on my last few days. It's been a bit of a downer week, so it made it really hard to keep up. Dang it! I have my last adventures ready to go, and it's been amazing! So, yesterday I went to get my hair did. Since I got my hair cut short three years ago, I haven't colored my hair. So, I have virgin hair! She has been telling me about a new method for highlighting hair called baliage. My younger sister got it done and I loved it, and I figured it had been long enough. Time for coloring. I was hoping for a very subtle look - and that's what baliage is supposed to be. Since it is a sort of bleach and not a color, you don't know how it will turn out until it's done. Kind of a gamble, but I was so excited!

Here's the finished look:

A guy who used to do my hair would always ask if you want your hair to whisper, talk, or shout... what do you think my hair is doing???

Tune in tomorrow for the last adventure.

Day 28, 2 go

2010-10-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

CONFERENCE DRIVING

The end of my 30 days is almost here!!! Wow! I can't believe it has ben a month. Wow how time flies. Looking back over my adventures, I see that I haven't done many spiritual things that are the most important things I can do in life. I had recently downloaded last April'sconference session on my IPOD. I hadn't listened to it yet, but I did in the car today on my way home. I had forgotten the main theme was families and raising children. WOW! I don't remember there ever being a more dominant theme then there was last April. It just says how important it is to raise a righteous family in today's world.
So, yesterday I drove home in silence, but today I listened to the words of the prophet and general authorities. My favorite story was in a talk by someone of the seventy (didn't catch the name...)He was talking about a boy that wants to hit a homerun, so he practices batting with himself. He tosses the ball up and tries to hit it. He misses three times and is upset at first because he wanted to have the best hit ever. After a moment he gets a big smile on his face and says "What a pitcher!" What a great lesson on overcoming trials and finding the positive in life. I know I need that in my life, especially this week. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time remembering the talks after hearing them only once on TV. I'm glad that I have them on my IPOD that I can listen to them as much as I want and really get the messages I need to hear, when I need them!

Day 27, 3 to go

2010-10-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

After some bad news at work on Friday and a crazy day getting things back together today, I needed some peace and quiet. On the way home, I did something I NEVER do. I turned of the radio. I can't stand driving without the radio/IPOD/some sort of background noise. It's usually how I unwind on my way home or really enjoy music and rock out. Today, I drove home and was alone with my own thoughts for 40 minutes in the car (25 minutes to Provo from school, plus a couple of errands before getting to the house). It was a little theraputic - it let me try to wrap my mind around some things that have happened at school and to think about what needs to happen the rest of the week. Out of habbit, my hand kept wanting to turn up the volume on my steering wheel controls and I would have to consciously hold it back. I guess I truly am a creature of habbit. It's very rare that I am in silence or any kind of quiet atmosphere at all. Being around 8-9 year olds for most of the day doesn't allow for a lot of peace! When I get home I usually have music or the tv on in the background. So, it was very unusual to have a prolonged quiet drive home. I did enjoy it and it was nice to just think. Anyway, I think I could do with a little more peace and quiet in my life.

Day 26, 4 to go

2010-10-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

THE MORNING BREAKS/ 1(00) SUNS

Something that has been on my list since I came up with this idea was watching a sunrise. I have never really get up early for the purpose of just watching the sun rise. Since I was at Bear Lake, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. The sun rises relatively late since it is the fall, at our cabin that faces east over the lake = beautiful! I woke up at 6:50 and sat on our front porch with a blanket and waited. My mom got up to join me and even brought hot chocolate. Truly, not a better way to start the day!

Wait for it...

The clouds gave us a great show

Beautiful!!!

It was really amazing to see how quickly the sun appeared and we couldn't have asked for a better morning. As my mom said "It rises every morning, doesn't it" Yes, it does and I am so glad to have had this opportunity to see it this morning.

PS, if anyone gets the double musical reference of the title of this post, you are a "member of the family"!!

Day 25, 5 to go

2010-10-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

MILLIONS OF PEACHES...

TodayI joined my family at my cabin for conference weekend. So much fun and one of favorite ways to enjoy conference. Being out of town made it a little difficult to come up with a new adventure. So, earlier in the day, I was talking to my family about needing to come up with a new thing... she said "how about making jam?" Perfect. My mom and dad brought a whole box of peaches from their tree in their backyard. It was a ton!! So, I decided to make peach jam.

Pretty simple and yummy!

Peeling millions of peaches, peaches for free...

Adding the magic jam ingredient: pectin.

Peach jam!!! (not enough jars at the cabin)

I'm not a huge peach fan, but I did have a taste and it was sugary, sweet, and peachy!

Day 24, 6 to go

2010-09-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

ELEPHANTS ON PARADE

Don't you love it when you are staying at a hotel or on a cruise and you come back to your room and your towels are decorated into some sort of animal shape? Well, I do! Also my sister-in-law gave my mom a really cute towel shaped elephant that held some lotion. I wanted to try my hand at towel animals. Perhaps it's a little stretch for a new adventure, but it makes me feel very diverse in my abilities. I decided to make an elephant, and the instructions I found called him "Ernie Elephant". He required 2 towels, one bath towel and 1 hand towel. The only towels I could find were different colors, so he was going to be a multil colored elephant a la the psychadelic elephants in Dumbo. It was super simple, but I think he turned out pretty cute. I added some sun glasses for a vacation-y feel. Hmm.. maybe I need to go on a cruise.

Meet Ernie the Elephant

Day 23, 7 to go

2010-09-29T18:07:00.001-07:00

GO ON, TAKE A BITE

There's a somewhat famous line in Sleepless in Seattle that Tom Hanks gives as a reason that he loves his wife: "She could peel an apple in one, long, curly, strip" I have always wondered if I could do this. Is there a special trick? Is it really a remarkable task? Well, I have never really tried it before, so here's the new adventure today. Can I, and Meg Ryan, peel an apple in one long curly strip? The challenge was accepted.

The contendor:

A delicious, beautiful, and shiny, gala apple.

The task:

Me, peeling the apple in one strip.

Success???

You betcha! This is the peel - one long, curly strip!!!

It was a really yummy delicious apple too. Bonus!

Day 22 8 to go

2010-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

COUNTRY ROAD

Tonight was my family/friend giltter toe party. We have a party about every 6 weeks. I literally live for these nights! Good chit chat, food, glamourous toes, and fantastic company. Tonight's party was hosted by my cousin who just moved in to a new house in Farmington. It's a bit of a drive from Santaquin, so I knew I wouldn't have a ton of time for a new adventure. I picked up my friend Tifani in Salt Lake on the way, and we had a fantistic ladies night. On the way home, we decided to go home on the good ol' Legacy Highway.

I have never driven on the Legacy highway before, so we were in for a beautiful, country, nighttime drive. Well, we kind of thought we were.

We did have a pretty nice sunset as we drove. Not too many cars at all, and it was a nice quiet adventure. However, we began to notice that the city was getting a little farther away - we were going to the west side! We quickly exited and made our way to I-15 to get to Salt Lake. Now heading east, we were then faced with this:

Kind of hard to tell, but we were stopped at a train track. We watched the train moving very slowly. Very slowly... Then it stopped.... more waiting.... then the train started to move BACKWARDS. Very slowly... It stopped again... then started moving forward again. This happened about 2-3 more times. I have never seen a train do that before - so somewhat of a new adventure. Finally, the train kept moving and didn't stop. Yeah! I finally got Tifani home and I continued on my way. All in all, a lovely drive that I will take in the future only when necessary.

Day 21, 9 to go

2010-09-27T18:54:00.001-07:00

DESSERT ANYONE??

Is there anything better than cooking a yummy, chocolately, creamy, yet easy dessert? I say NO!!! One of my favorites is an eclair cake. Graham cracker crust, pudding/cool whip filling, and chocolate frosting. Are you salivating yet??? Well, tomorrow is our glitter toe party and I needed a treat to take along. Last year at school, someone on the PTO always brought in this yummy dessert for parent teacher conferences and I have been craving it for a while. I haven't ever made it and thought: perfect opportunity! My sister sent me the recipe and I stopped at the store and came home, cleaned the kitchen and whipped up some chocolately heaven.

Here's the recipe if you don't know it:

2 pkgs. of Graham crackers

(2) 3 oz pkgs. of instant vanilla pudding

3 1/2 cups of milk

8 oz. of cool whip

Line 9x13 pan with graham crackers. Mix milk with pudding. Fold in cool whip. Put half of pudding mix on crackers. Do another layer of crackers. Put the rest of pudding mix on crackers and top with another layer of crackers.

FROSTING:

4 TBSP of unsweetened cocal

4 TBSP Butter

4 TBSP of milk

Melt all together. Stir in 2 C of powdered sugar. Frost. Cover and refrigerate.

and PRESTO:

Mmmmm... Too bad I have to wait until tomorrow night to have any.

Day 20, 10 to go

2010-09-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

TEA TIME

Having a very sketchy voice after yesterdays concert, I needed a bit of homeopathic help... HERBAL TEA. I have never tried it and have always wanted to give it a whirl. Is it good? Does it really help? I bought a pack of assorted teas including lemon, orange spice, and pomegranate. I have heard that lemon is the best to help with sore throats and such - so lemon it is.

Well, it was not very good. Not a ton of flavor- so it was a bit watery. I added a little honey to make it a bit sweeter. So, it was ok but not great.

With the taste question being answered, did it help my voice? You betcha! It was amazing how quickly it helped. Not a trace of a scratchy voice at all. That' s good to know. Maybe orange spice will be a little more tasty.

Day 19, 11 to go

2010-09-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

CONCERT!!!!

A lot of my previous blogs have had to do with my upcoming Neon Trees/3o Seconds to Mars concert. It's finally here (and sadly, over). It was an awesome, spectaular, rockin', crazy, and unforgettable night. Before the concert I knew this would be a great opportunity to be adventurous. I had two goals: be in the mosh pit and try to get on stage. 30 Seconds to Mars always calls about 30 people on stage for the last song of their concert. Anyway, I knew I would be blogging about at least one of those two scenarios. Well, I didn't make it on stage, but Tifani and I were in a proper mosh pit. Can you call a mosh pit proper??? Well, here's the story of the night. Concert was supposed to start at 5, and doors opening at 4. It was general admission so I wanted to get there early so we could get up close. We did. We were there at about 3:30 and not too many people in front of us. YEAH!!! Well, at about 4:15 we hear that things have been changed. The doors will now open at 6 and the concert starts at 7. No wonder there weren't a lot of people there yet! We were 3 hours early!!! We waited it out in true groupie fashion for the rest of our crew to arrive. Once they started letting us in, I got a call from my friend that they were there. I said - run! There are letting us in and I don't think we can save your spot - there were now security people about. Plus, there were only letting the first 1500 people on the floor. Tifani and I got in and walked past a window and saw Tyler and Jared hanging out by the tour buses just talking - we screamed like little girls and snapped a pic with our phone.

Once Tif and I were on the floor - pretty much front and center , the first band, New Politics, came out. I have never heard any of their stuff before. They were ok, but the mosh pit was INSANE!! Don't know what I was thinking wearing flip flops, bare toes and mosh pit is a BAD combination. Pushing, crowding, jumping, screaming, more pushing, no breathing room AT ALL, and all with complete strangers. They played about 4 songs and Tif and I were done with moshing. I know she only put up with it for me. You rock Tifani! So, I experienced it and it was a little too scary for me. So, we moved back to a safer location but still within view.

Neon Trees were so fun and amazing as usual - glad I got to hang with my other friend Andrea as well. Andrea, you are now a member of the family!! Then it was time for 30 Seconds to Mars. They have so much energy and it was contagious throughout the whole crowd. Jared (lead singer) stopped about 2 songs in just to say what a great crowd we were and how much he appreciated that he didn't have to warm us up - we were already rockin! He also said that "on record" we were possibly the best crowd they have ever played in the US and were coming back very soon. YEAH!!!! He took a pic of the crowd to post on twitter:

KINGS + QUEENS OF UVU
(that's what he wrote on the post) I'm probably in there somewhere!!!

Here's a crazy pic of crazy Jared crowd surfing.

It's not the best quality- my phone doesn't take good pics when it's dark - but you can see him STANDING up on the crowd. Awesome!

Well, that's a novel about my adventurous night. My voice is not doing so well today. But I guess that's a sign of a fun night! Can't wait until next spring when they come back.

Day 18, 12 to go

2010-09-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

NAILS

Today was kind of a long Friday at work. The school had a carnival that started at 5:00. I worked on stuff in my classroom until 6, made an appearance at the carnival (it was really fun!!), left school about 6:30, ran some errands on the way home, watched some TIVO'd Thursday night premiers with my roommies and went to bed. WHOOPS! No new adventure of the day! Crap, what to do?? Well, fortunately I had stopped and got some awesome nail polish on the way home because I saw a parent volunteer at school that had silvery metallic nails and I wanted some! I had painted my nails during tv night with roommies, and presto! Awesome, silvery metallic nails was a first for me. It may be a bit of a cop out, but I have never had my nails this color and it won't be the last time. I am in love!!! I think it's a bit rock and roll for my concert tomorrow night, what do you think???

Day 17, 13 to go

2010-09-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

OF ALL THE MOVIES IN THE WORLD, I HAVEN'T SEEN THIS?

For those of you who know me, I am pretty synonymous with movies. In fact, I am writing this blog while watching a movie in the background... I would have been more than happy to have a 30 day movie blog, but this is for new adventures. Though, I do love movies, I haven't seen a lot of classic or really old movies. One of which is Casablanca.

Today, it was all about the classics. I ordered this classic, Oscar winning movie from Netflix and today it arrived. Just got through watching it and I really enjoyed it! It seemed shorter than I expected. I really had no idea what the story was about before watching it. All I knew was that it is set during WWII and there are Nazi's... I was glad to learn right away that Casablanca was a refugee town for Europeans trying to flee to America. No idea. Wow, and I call myself a movie lover??? Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend! Very well acted and written. Humphrey Bogart and Ingid Bergman = dreamy!!

PS - I also just realized pretty recently that Casablanca means white house... Anyone know why it's called that???

Day 16, 14 to go

2010-09-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

THIRTY POMEGRANATES

Going to a good rock concert makes me feel like somewhat of a rebellious teenager. It's one of my favorite things and I have one of my favorites coming up: 30 Seconds to Mars. I saw them in May for the first time not having heard any of the songs before and fell in love! My friend Tifani and I decided we wanted to make some T-shirts in support. We made shirts for another concert over the summer, but this time we got some iron transfer paper - something I have wanted to do for a long time. To explain the meaning of our shirts, mine says Pomegranate. At the last concert, the lead singer had a bright pink mohawk which he claimed was "pomegranate". Tifani's has the word "seconds" written 30 times in different fonts a la 30 Seconds to Mars. The iron on process was pretty simple, once we figured out how to get a mirror image of our words. It was a lot of fun - and now the world of homemade t-shirts is at my fingertips!!!!

Yes, we have the ironing board on the washer, we needed to be able to put lots of pressure on the iron transfer paper.

I love how couture Tif's pose is, Miss J would be proud. Also, don't I look SOOOOO rock and roll? Ech, I'll have to work on that before the concert.

Day 15, 15 to go

2010-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

MEMORIAL DAY
Today, we have reached the halfway point and I am feeling about 75% better than yesterday so I thought I should do something a little special. Something that I wanted to do during this experience was to visit my Grandma Slack's grave. Since it is only about 2 minutes from my house, I thought it would be something nice to do. My grandma died in 1994 and my family and I have been to her grave every Memorial Day since, but I wanted to go on my own. This was my mom's mom. She lived in Provo and I remember going to visit her so often. Sunday dinners, 4th of July, eating at Riverside Country Club, etc. etc. I have so many memories. This is picture of her as a young girl.

Elizabeth Sutton Slack

Over the weekend, I was talking with my mom and sister and they brought up having a Grandma Slack day - eating food she might have made, going a place we might have gone with her etc. And I mentioned to my mom that I had on my list to put flowers on her grave (NOT fake ones - my grandma always said that she would haunt anyone who put fake flowers on her grave). My mom told me that I should get some fall leaves because she loved to go see the fall leaves. So, today on my way home, I made a little detour up the canyon to find some leaves.

I love how the sun is shining through the trees!!

One exciting part of the drive up the canyon: having to slam on my brakes to avoid a pigeon running across the road. Not having hit any roadkill, I finally found some red, gold, yellow, leaves and a sunflower (just because they were everwhere!) I drove to the cemetary and fashioned a little fall bouquet to leave on her grave.

It was a really special and fun afternoon. I will always remember my grandma and I feel lucky that I live so close that those memories are around me almost every day!

Day 14, 16 to go

2010-09-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Madame Librarian

Still not feeling 100% - gotta love a nasty cold. If there hadn't been so much going on at school today, I would have stayed home. But, alas, my students came first. one word: Dayquill. It's amazing. I think it works wonders. At least for about 4 hours. I took some this morning, but haven't taken any more. I thought I was doing better - but at about 5:30, the drugs were definitely wearing off- Hello Mr. Sniffles. Needless to say, I had to, once again, do something pretty simple today. I have been reading Super Fudge to my class and we just finished it today. Bingo - I needed a new book to read aloud. I wanted to get a new book that I haven't read to my class before - I've read some books several times. My older sister came to mind on my way home today. A long time ago, we started a book club to read Newberry Books and she is the only one still keeping it up. Respect to the sister!! She told me of one book that she listened to on tape with her kids - The 21 Balloons. I think I remember a teacher reading it to me in school. It's about a man who is on an adventure in a hot air balloon and crashes an a mysterious island where the people living there have kind of a unique civilization... hmm... Lost, much???? I haven't really read an adventurous story like this to my students before so I took to the Newberry shelf at the library. Don't worry, I have been to the library before and I have read Newberry books before.
The new factor of today lies in the fact that I got a book I haven't read in 20 years to read aloud to my students. I also checked out another book that I remember that I loved: The Summer of the Monkies. Another teacher at my school has been reading it to her class and I have been wanting to get that one too. I'm excited to expose my students to some new books that they may not ever have read otherwise.

Day 13, 17 to go

2010-09-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

So Let it Be Read

Today, I had planned to go on a Sunday drive and picnic with my fabulous roommates, but last night, I started coming down with a pretty nasty cold, so I have been in bed all day. Since I didn't feel well enough to go to church, I decided to do some good old fashioned Sunday School. I read an entire book from the Old Testament. I looked at the table of contents to choose a book, and Hosea it was. I have a very hard time reading the Old Testament. I find it difficult to understand and it's often worded pretty harshly and dark. Hosea was no exception. What I mainly got out of the 10-or-so page book was that Israel had forgotten the Lord and Hosea was calling them to repentance. The way it was worded was pretty blunt - comparing Israel to a harlot and to quote Hosea "I hated them for the wickedness of their doings... I will love them no more..." I don't know about you, but I love the feeling of comfort and peace I get from reading the scriptures, and sometimes I don't find that in the wording of the Old Testament. There was a little comfort at the end of the rebuke that is Hosea, however. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death".
On that note, remember the Lord and follow his counsel, listen to the prophets and he will remember and bless you.

Day 12, 18 to go

2010-09-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

Maybe she's born with it

Today's adventure was a fun one! I have always kind of felt my eyelashes are a little lacking in the full and thick department. So, to pump up the volume, I bought some fake eyelashes. I have absolutely never used them before and was a little concerned about them looking natural, and staying on. Insert Yours, Mine, and Ours catastrophe here.

Remember the lashes coming off in the middle of a date?

Anyway, I was ecstatic to find a fake eyelash kit - complete with lashes, tweezers, adhesive, and remover for 8 bucks. I decided to use the seperate lashes rather than the one strip of lashes. I thought it would look more natural. It was a little difficult to get the lashes in the right place and to avoid excess gobs of glue. So, gathered my wits and got to work.

Before - have to do it with a clean face. Hence, no make up. Don't look too closely.

Applique

One down

All done and ready for a fun flirty lash day. I was feeling a little "easy, breezy, covergirl".

The best thing about it was no one really thought they were fake or noticed anything until I said I had fake lashes. Like the golden rule of make-up, the trick is to make it look like you aren't wearing any. Maybe the same holds true for fake eyelashes. Apparantly they are supposed to last a couple of weeks, so we'll see. But I love them! I may try to find some eyelash growth stuff - it really makes a huge difference. Great new experience for the day!!!

Day 11, 19 to go

2010-09-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Me.com

Here we are, in the teens of our countdown. How's it going so far? So far it's been a very fun and enjoyable experience. Sometimes it's a little tough to find time and to try to make it interesting, but consistency has been my key! This week especially has been full of fantastic new adventures. That being said, today was somewhat of a different story. After a very long, crazy, and somewhat chaotic day at work, to be honest the last thing on my mind was getting up the energy to come up with a new adventure of the day. I had some ideas, but all of my ideas were a little too much for me to take. So, today here's what I came up with:

I googled my name. I realized that I have never done it before and wanted to check out my virtual self. I found a few other Adrienne Grays in the world. A myspace profile, an obscure singer/songwriter, a twitter page, and then my own facebook profile link! I was the fourth name to come up. Kind of crazy and makes me feel that the world might be a bit small.

Day 10, 20 to go

2010-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

Paper Cranes

At the end of the last school year, one of the 4th grade teachers taught all of the 3rd and 4th graders origami. Since then I have wanted to learn to make a paper crane. I am sure I have done origami in school, but I don't remember anything I might have made at all. So, I decided it counted as something new for me. I had a pretty good supply of colored paper in my classroom and brought a few home to test it out. Here are a few pics.

Before

In the works...

Flying away!

It was so fun, I made more!!!!

It was pretty easy - thanks to a how-to video on you-tube. A good time. I highly recommend the art of origami!!

Day 9, 21 to go

2010-09-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

WHOOPS!!!

So, I spent some time getting my blog ready, and somehow posted it on a different blog. Don't ask me how I did that.... So, rather than re-type... here's the link!

www.bucketlistbookclub.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-9-21-to-go.html

Day 8, 22 to go

2010-09-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

Eat Your Vegetables

Today, I decided to be somewhat resourceful and healthy! Those of you who know me may die of shock. Yesterday, I put cucumber slices on my eyes and was left with almost a whole cucumber. No vegetables for me, so rather than waste a perfectly good vegetable I decided to use it for something new today. I tried a cucumber!!! I never eat vegetables, so I decided early on that it should be on my list. My roommate tasted it first to let me know if it was a good cucumber. She didn't want me traumatized for life if the first cucumber I tried was a nasty one. She gave me the OK and here's the photo story:

First bite...

Thinking it over...

Eh, it was OK....

Well, here's the verdict. It didn't have much taste, I thought, I didn't hate or love that. But I didn't like the mushy texture of the seedy middle against the more crunchy outside. I would have liked to try it with some ranch, but we didn't have any here. Next time. I think I could almost enjoy a good cucumber with a little ranch.
I did eat a few bites to give it a fairer try. It was ok, but I didn't love it or want more. I was really hoping that I would like it so I could find a good vegetable to enjoy. Oh well. I tried!

Day 7, 23 to go

2010-09-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Cool as a Cucumber

Today was kind of an indulgence. I have always wanted to put cucumbers on my eyes. Supposedly this has many benefits. I decided to see what the hype was about before I tried it. It is believed the cucumbers can help reduce puffiness, bags, and dark circles under the eyes. The technique: Put slices on your eyes for 10-15 minutes. Simple? Couldn't be more so. Effective??? That's another story. From what I read, the cucumber has nothing to do with it. It is just the cold. You could basically get the same effects from a cold washcloth. Hmm... I was a little disappointed to hear that, I won't lie. However, I still wanted to try it out for myself. To add to the experience, I decided to do this with complete silence. Normally, I would have to have music or some kind of background noise. Since I had basically found that there really were not a lot of benefits from the cucumber, I wanted this to be mostly about relaxation.

It was a little difficult to get a picture, and I know it is not the most attractive look - but here's the proof:

Needless to say, it was cold!! It did feel good and refreshing. I can't wait to try this on a hot summer day to cool down and relax. An added bonus, the scent of the cucmbers was relaxing. I did feel a bit like I was in a spa. When I took off the cucumbers, my eyes felt nice and tight. Don't know if there are any lasting benefits. Maybe I'll need to do this more regularly. Conclusion: cool cucmbers are good for the eyes and the soul.

Day 6, 24 to go

2010-09-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

"Do the Watermelon Crawl"

Today, a necessity became my new thing! My sister asked me to bring a cut up watermelon to my nieces' birthday party. Strange as it may seem, I have never bought and cut up a watermelon on my own. I have helped cut one up, but this was all me! I really wanted to stop at a road side fruit stand on Saturday to purchase one, but every one I drove by was not selling watermelons. This was a shame because I wanted to have that as my new experience for that day. Anyway, off to Winco for other groceries in addition to a large watermelon. It was really big!! I didn't get a before picture of it, but I could have fed about 30 people with it!!!

So, my roommate had an awesome knife and I got to work.

Thanks to watching/helping my mom, I have learned the best way to cut a watermelon. It's easy!!! Success!! This is what it looked like when I was done:

Told you I could feed 30 people!! There was SOOO much watermelon.

Now, picking out a good watermelon is always iffy. I've always been told to thump it, and listen to see if it sounds hollow. If it sounds hollow, it should be good. Well, I don't know about you, but every watermelon sounds hollow to me. Another setback is that I don't even like watermelon. How to know if it was good? Enter my awesome roommate, Heidi. She tried a bite and, again, success! Not mushy and very sweet!!! Yeah! Then it was time to pack it up and head out to party. Look at me, I'm such a homemaker!!

Day 5, 25 to go

2010-09-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

I Wanna be a Rock Star

My brother and sister-in-law frequently pack along Rockstars to drink whenever we go on vacation. Particularly a lemonade flavored, low calorie variety. They always say it is really delicious, and it has piqued my curiousity. So, today's new thing was to drink a Rockstar. On my way from Provo to Salt Lake to enjoy an evening with a friend, I stopped at a gas station and picked one up.

Don't Drink and Drive!!

It was really good! Tasted like a pretty sweet Country Time Lemonade. I was now waiting to see if I would get a "buzz" or worse. No shaky, anxious feelings though. Probably because I am sl used to caffeine due to my Diet Code addiction... I did feel pretty good, however, a good amount of energy and no sluggishness at all.

Caffeine + B-vitamins = a natural high.

After I downed the entire thing, I had two concerns: That I would be wired and unable to sleep or that I would have a bad crash after it wore off. To my surprise, neither effect. Now my worry is that I have found a new addiction to get me through the day... Gotta get my vitamins somehow!!!

Day 4: 26 to go

2010-09-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

Berets, Snaps, and Poetry

Today, I decided to get my beret, notebook, annd pencil, and do some writing. I have never in my life written a poem unless it was some sort of school assignment, so I thought I would try my hand at poetry. I felt somewhat bohemian as I sat down in my chair in the quiet to just write some poetry. I didn't have any ideas of what to write about and no inspiration whatsoever. I was worried it would take me ALL night, but I had a thought and I just began to write. Before I share my finished product with you, I want to preface it by saying 2 things:
1. This poem in NO WAY whatsoever has anything to do with my real life. I honestly don't know how this idea came to me, but not from any experience in my own life.
2. I am not a writer. I wrote this fairly quickly, and as I said, I haven't ever written a poem just for me before, so it's somewhat scary to put it out there for the world to read.

Having said that, here goes:

WORDS

The words from your mouth race through the space between.
The death of a friendship I'd never foreseen.

The words from your mouth bring tears to my eyes.
So cruel, so hateful, so full of lies

The words from your mouth are knives in my back.
From so true a friend comes a vicious attack.

No more words from your mouth and as you turn away,
I see the knives in your back, from my words of yesterday.

Again, I don't know where this idea came from. I was just kind of intrigued by the idea that so many times we are unaware of how the things we say or do may hurt others. We are quick to blame and anger to those we love, but how many times are we at fault? Are we as quick to forgive as our loved ones may be? Are we impatient with others while they are patient with us? Anyway, It was actually quite fun to sit and write just for fun and expand on a random thought that came to me. All in all, a much better turn out than I expected when I decided I would write a poem.

***It's been a few days since I wrote the poem, but I realized where the idea came from. If you watched So You Think You Can Dance last season, you may remember a dance choreographed by Travis that Kent and Neal danced to. It was about two friends. One of them betrayed the other. In that dance, if I remember, one friend did betray the other and walked away. I was thinking about this piece and thought, what if the other friend was also at fault and was unaware? What if the betrayal was provoked? Anyway, that's what inspired my poem!

Day 3, 27 to go: Money, Money, Money

2010-09-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

I have heard that money is one of the dirtiest, germiest, and all around disgusting things around. Have you ever wondered what happens to your money after you spend it???

So, today I did something super simple, but something I thought was kind of cool and wanted to do for a while. I entered all of the bills in my wallet on wheresgeorge.com (don't worry, there weren't that many!!!)
If you aren't familiar with this website, here's how it works. You enter in the serial number of your bill or bills, and then after you spend it, if someone else enters the bill online as well, you can track it to see where your money ends up. None of the bills in my wallet had been entered yet, but if someone else enters it, maybe I can see why money is so dirty!!!

Day 2: 28 to go. MUCHOS GRACIAS

2010-09-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

So, today's new adventure is more educational than excitement, but new nonetheless.

I really enjoy learning other languages. I took four years of French in high school, between a few members of my family speaking Spanish and my students learning Spanish, plus sign time at school, I feel I have had somewhat of a well rounded exposure to foreign languages. I thought it would be fun to learn how to say thank you in 10 new languages. I already know French, Spanish, German, Japanese (thanks to Mr. Roboto) Hawaiian, American Sign Language, and Italian so here's a few more added to my list: I also added them phoneticaly in case you want to know how to say them yourself:

Arabic: shukran (shoe-krahn)
Finnish: kiitos (kee-toas)
Norweigian: takk (tahk)
Russian : (can't type it because it's different characters and my comp. won't let me copy and paste) but you say it: spah-see-boh
Swahili: asante (ah-sahn-teh)
Tagalog: salamat po (sah-lah-maht poh)
Polish: dziekuje (dsyen-koo-yeh
Swedish: tack (tahkk)
Hebrew: toda (toh-dah)

and my favorite:
Afrikaans: dankie (dahn-kee)

I hope you learned something new. I did today!

Day 1

2010-09-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

I told you to stay tuned for my plan to not get totally sucked into the teacher void. Well, here is day 1! For the next 30 days, I am going to do something new each day and document my adventure here for all to read... I will try and blog the same day as I do my new thing, but let's be honest, some days I may not be at computer or have the time to both experience something new and write about it. I promise, however, that there will be 30 entries. Exciting, informative, creative, etc. I make no promises.

So, day 1, 29 to go. STAND IN THE GREAT SALT LAKE. A stinky beginning.

My family went to the Great Salt for pictures. I have never really been there before so I was excited! I think I have been to Saltair but never close to the actual water. I have smelled the smell before. Grossey!!! So, as I got out of the car, I was expecting a nasal assualt of epic proportions. It actually wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it was nasty, but not unbearable. We were all dressed in light blue, white, and khaki and we strolled onto the beach. PS, if you are ever on the beach at the Great Salt Lake, don't think about what the sand actually is. Two words: shrimp and waste. I was even more happy when I was asked to kneel in it for the photo. Oh well, it was fun and I think that they turned out great. After the photo shoot on the beach, I waded into the salt/brine shrimp/water solution for the first time ever. Here are a few facts about big salty:

The largest natural lake west of the Mississippi.
75 miles long, 35 miles wide
Estimated brine fly population: 100 billion
3 major rivers deposit into the Great Salt Lake: Bear River, Jordan River, and Weber River. The extreme saltiness is due to the fact that there is no outlet besides evaporation.
The salinity of the lake varies from 5-27%. On average, oceans are 3.3%. The dead sea is 33%

A picture of me enjoying our local phenomenon is forthcoming. And I promise that future entries won't be quite so lengthy. I do have ideas for new things to do, but I would welcome other suggestions. Enjoy!

Here's the pic of me in the lake. It was taken on my sister's camera and I just got it from her:

First two weeks

2010-09-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

So, I have survived the first two weeks of school - and so have my students!

Here are a few highlights and lowlights

Amazing, on-top-of-it new principal. I really think he will do some amazing things for our school. Also, he wears a tie every day and the kids love it! They need to know what tie Dr. Morris is wearing today. It's great to know that the kids are liking him so much already.

Today I was reading a story to the class about a boy who said that he had a "dumb third grade teacher" I stopped and said that I hope none of my students will ever say that. One boy, who is particularly hyper and active just said "No way! You're the nicest teacher!" It was so sincere and adorable coming from him! Also, another girl has already showered me with pictures (most of them depict me with a ponytail and no hair on the sides of my head) and "I love you, Miss Gray" letters. I really think I have such a great class this year and hope they continue to work as hard and well as they have been so far. I'm feeling good about third grade this year.

Sign time. We have a deaf student in third grade who has a full time interpreter and she teaches us sign language twice a week for 1/2 an hour. I wasn't sure we could make it work at the beginning of the year and I am so glad we did. It's awesome! The kids love it and the teacher is great. We have learned the pledge of allegiance and how to "sing" happy birthday and lots of other words. Plus, it's some prep time for me. Win win win.

Completing the first of FOUR conferences this year. Tonight at 7:00 I walked out of the classroom after 3 hours of conferences plus teaching for seven hours. Long day = exhaustion. (it will be beditme soon). The best part was that it was still daylight when I left. That is unusual for conferences. I'm accustomed to walking out in pitch black and driving home in a blizzard in January. Ugh. Can't think about that now. Right now, I am the furthest away I will ever be from conferences. Good thoughts.... good thoughts... good thoughts...

LOWLIGHTS

Waking up at 6:00 every morning. Definitely the top of the low list. Not a morning person and will never get used to teacher morning hours.

Long days. Working from basically 7:30 to 6 at night -a little work at home after managing, teaching, chasing, etc. 17 kids all day. TIRING!!!! Especially after almost 3 months of summer relaxing and just chillin'. Quite a rude awakening.

No more late, warm, summer nights with shaved ice. Yummy. See you next summer.

Not as much time to hang with my friends. I miss seeing them so often and being able to take off with them at a moment's notice. See you next summer.

I have a plan of attack to not get sucked in to the teacher void. Check back within the next couple of weeks to see my documentation of this plan!!!!

Last the best

2010-08-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

It's officially the last week of summer. Fellow teachers are stressing, planning, setting up rooms, training, agonizing over class lists, getting folders, pencils, paper, dry erase markers, books, etc. etc. I am so lucky to be in a job that allows me to live a little like a kid and to go "back to school". Remember how exciting it was as a kid to find out who your new teacher is, get new clothes, buy a new back pack, see all your friends again... etc. Well, is it really as exciting as a teacher to go back to school? hmmm. I'll leave that question up to all of you to answer... I am pretty excited this year though. We will have a new principal and lots of new staff to meet, and I am looking forward to meeting and working with a lot of great people. I also think that I have a pretty good class for next year along with several new students. I'm excited about changes I have made to my room. After starting a brand new year twice already, I hope that I am getting better at it!!! Well, hopefully after a week, the newness and adreneline won't wear off too much.

I have been trying to enjoy my last week off and get those last minute things done that I know I won't be able to get around to for a while: a really good cleaning, shopping and other errands, etc. Not to mention some fun too. I have been to 3 movies this week (yes during the week!!! That doesn't happen often during the school year). They have all been dollar movies - yeah! I have to admit that I saw Prince of Persia, again. That makes 4 times. Such a good movie! Here's a few words to describe how much I love it: Jake Gyllenhaal and Parkour. Go see it if you haven't.

The best news of all this week, and maybe the summer, has to be this: I no longer need to go to Iowa for the Thirty Seconds to Mars and Neon Trees concert. They are coming here!!! More specifically to UVU, right in my backyard, almost. Does it get any better than that? I should say not. I got tickets yesterday and its official. My sister was saying that her husband was playing some 30 Seconds to Mars for her off of his IPOD and was surprised that she knew a lot of the songs. You might be too! Well, I'm super excited and of you who want to come - it'll be a fabulous, rockin' night. It's general admission, so let's go early and get front row!!! It's always good to have something to look forward to as the summer ends. Goodbye summer, hello Jared Leto and Tyler Glenn.

Wannabe Groupies

2010-08-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

So, my friend Tifani are very determined. We want to make a trip to Iowa (go figure) to see 30 seconds to Mars and Neon Trees - our favs, together again! Sadly, it costs money to do these things. I hate money, don't you? Well, nothing worthwhile is easy. So we have devised a little plan. My friend is an amazing massage therapist and will give a 60 minute massage at your house for $40 - a great deal! So come one, come all. It's a win win win situation. Seriously, let me know if you, your friends, your family, co workers, anyone is needing a relaxing massage. Let's face it, who doesn't need that?

Best/Worst of late

2010-08-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

As my summer is sadly and quickly winding down, I thought that I better get a blog in while I have a lot more time. First a little recap of the last few weeks. I have gone to a couple of amazing concerts. I was able to see Kings of Leon thanks to my awesome connection of a friend who works for Zion's bank. She totally hooked me up with a VIP ticket. I'm not too familiar with their music, but it was a good time. A few of the highlights, a man crying about spilling his $16 worth of beer and nachos, three girls holding their beers directly over our heads as they were dancing, lots of smoking, going to the VIP tent and getting our photos taken on the red carpet, good sounding music... Later that same week my friends and I went to see Neon Trees. They are one of my very favorite groups now. They are from Provo - go local band!!! Check them out if you haven't yet.

I also went to a 2 day training about teaching astronomy - so cool! I can now tell you almost anything you would want to know about why we have seasons and the moon. It was a great opportunity that will help me (hopefully) be a better teacher.

Last weekend I got to again to my cabin with my family. It's always a favorite and we all love going there. Here's a quick recap of our highlights: pedicures and Steel Magnolias, a great day at the beach, a lot of games (including Password - Panda Plant.... a little inside, I know), great food, 14 hour power outage, wiping down and sealing all of the logs inside the cabin, lots of quality time with my newest niece, and just otherwise good humor and family time. We missed the Memmott side of our family, however, as they weren't able to come.

Yesterday, I went with 2 of my best buds to Lagoon. Kind of a spontaneous trip. It was a lot of fun. A few highlights: The L'orage show, giving the riders a score for their "re-entry" on the log ride as we waited in line, riding the log ride in the pouring rain, Wicked, riding the scrambler with my friend Tifani and giggling the whole time. Such a fun day!!

Now, I have 1 week left until going back for training for school and I have 2 main things in mind to accomplish before that time: getting the most summer relaxation/fun time I can and getting a few school things ready. I have gone in to school a few times over the summer and I am proud to say that I am in very good shape for the new year!! (knock on wood)

Now that you have a recap of some of the best things of the last few weeks, here's the best and worst of today.

BEST: Seeing a shirtless guy pop out the dumpster and throw a bag out as I was driving by. Very random... I hope he found what ever important thing that he lost.

WORST: Finding out that my latest attempt at pincurling my hair did not work at all. It turned in to a hat day because I did not want to do my hair again.

Best/Worst of the day

2010-07-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

So, today I substituted at a Montessori School for the first time. I was more of an assistant to the head teacher, so mainly I got to play with some pretty adorable 3-5 year old kids. Quite a change from my usual 8-9 year olds.
Best part of the day (actually, I have two): teaching 5 girls to play "Down by the Banks" - they loved it!! Also, the two hour nap time after lunch was nice. I'd like to recommend that as a daily routine at my school.

Worst part: Driving home at 5:00 in 95 degree heat and rush hour traffic. It's been a long time since I had to do that. Being a teacher I don't often have to drive home when it's that hot, also there usually is no traffic coming home from my school in Santaquin.

Where do I live???

2010-07-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Teaching is the best job in the world! I say that now because it is July, smack dab in the middle of my summer vacation. June was a blur. So much so that I don't think that I spent more than 2 nights in a row at my house. I went to my cabin 3 times in the last month plus a trip to Disneyland. I love that place- it really is that happiest place on earth. By the way, if you have any plans to go, check out the new World of Color show at California Adventure. Go to California Adventure early (1/2 hour to one hour at least before it opens) and get a fast pass for the show that night. It's good and worth it to see at least once. Oh yes, also get a Dole Whip by the Tiki Room. Delicious!!!

Another amazing part of summers for me is that I get to spend some time with my friends. Perhaps that I have neglected a bit during the school year. I think that everything you do means more if you share it with someone else. As you fellow teachers can possibly attest to, it's easy to isolate yourself during the school year. Maybe even cut yourself off from the world in order to be a good teacher and all that that entails. But this summer, I hope I have reentered civilization. Some of the things that I have been able to share with my good friends this summer: road trips, rides, movies, outdoor movies, music, dinners, shave ice, four wheelers, sun, So You Think You Can Dance, Bachelorette, glitter toes, games, etc. I am so lucky to have exciting, entertaining, beautiful, generous friends. You know who you are and thanks for the memories!!

I have had an outstanding summer so far and am feeling recharged for the next school year. Did I just say that??? It's hard to believe that I have just over a month until it starts again. But thanks to my awesome, hardworking, fellow third grade teacher, we have put been getting things together and I am feeling pretty good about the new year. At least now I am - we'll see if that changes in the next few weeks. I am sure they will go by all too fast.

VIVA SUMMER!!

Three months...

2010-06-15T11:39:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I just realized that it had been 3 months since my last blog. It's official. I am the most sporadic blogger ever. Anyway, since I am currently "unemployed" during these lovely summer months, there is no excuse for not posting the exciting and adventurous days that are my life.... Not so much, but there have been a few exciting things. First and foremost, I am an aunt, again!!! On May 14, after a fairly scary delivery, Bridget Beth Deaton arrived. I am so grateful that all of the Deaton's are well and we all LOVE our beautiful new member of our family.

Also, shortly afterwards, school was out!!! I can't believe I have made it through 2.5 years of teaching. The time has gone so fast. I love teaching and will miss my students from 2009-2010. I look forward to my new group of 3rd graders - but am looking forward to my summer.
I have been pretty busy this summer- trip to the cabin, concerts, Praxis II test, mentor training, a little school work... with more to come. Another cabin trip this weekend, Disneyland next week, 2 more training classes. Before I know it, it will be August again. Wow. Needless to say, it's been a blast!!! Any suggestions of fun things to do once it winds down a bit?

Best/Worst of today...

2010-04-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

Worst: Realizing that it is the LAST day of Spring Break and that CRT testing starts in 2 days!!!! Good luck to my students.

Best: Having my cake, and eating it too... Funny saying, not sure I get it. Why would you have a cake and not eat it? Why would that be excessive as the saying implies?? Anyway, I made a delicious lemony angel food cake yesterday and enjoyed my second portion tonight. Mmmm - as my friend described it: "lemony heaven"

Best and Worst of today

2010-04-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

Worst: 2 hours in the dentist's office for a much overdue cleaning and a filling. The hygenist had to use an "ultrasonic" scraper to clean my teeth. hmm. Word of advice: Don't wait three years between cleanings. Love the anesthetic though. Numb mouth is weird.

Best: Good quality time with my new DROID phone. Finally figured out how to add sounds for messages AND ringtones. So much fun to find and explore new things on a phone.

Best/Worst

2010-03-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

So, today the best part of my day was working it out to the Biggest Loser workout. Ooh, feel the burn, earn $400.

The worst part was finding out that I have a $100 deductible on my dental insurance and I need to pay $90 for a filling next week. (due to a chipped tooth, not too many sugar bugs)

Best of times/ Worst of times..

2010-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

I was watching Supernanny the other day (I love that show!) and there was a family who would sit down at dinner at each family member would tell the best and worst part of his/her day. I thought what a great what to celebrate something, however small, every day. Also, a great way to let the worst part out and hopefully put it behind you, or think of a way to make it better. So, with that attitude in mind, I'll start out the best and worst part of yesterday.

BEST: My first attempt at 1940's pin curls with my hair is a promising, new, and easy do. I think it was a very successful outcome! Yeah! It was fun experimenting with a new hairstyle.

WORST: Watching my roommate and her friend plan their 2 week Mediterranean cruise (that I can't go on)... Ohh sad. Someday

Feel free to celebrate the best part of your day and leave the worst behind here.

The kids were mean to me at school today mommy...

2010-03-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

I don't remember saying this during my school days, but I'm sure I did at some point. I got a nice, friendly reminder of what that feels like today. During the first hour of my school day I I teach 2nd graders math. Three boys, in particular were a treat today. Let's call them Student A, Student B, and Student C.

Student A has been frequently arriving to class late. I asked his homeroom teacher about it and she was surprised that he was getting to my class late because he is one of the first ones to drop off his stuff in her room and leave. Today, when he came late again, I asked him if he came straight to my room, and he said no, he went to the bathroom and took a long time because he didn't want to go to class. I told him this was not acceptable and if he continued to be late and not get his work done, he would do it during recess.

Now, math class is over and I see the three students' homeroom teacher take them to the principals office. She explains later that another 2nd grade girl told her they were saying bad things about me and she couldn't even repeat what she had heard. 20 minutes later, students A, B, and C come to my class with letters that the principal had written. I thanked them and asked them what things they had said. Student B just happens to be the son of our principal, he wouldn't tell me what things he said. "My dad will tell you after school, I need to get back to class" I told all 3 boys that they needed to tell me, because part of doing something wrong is making it right with that person. They sort of explained that they said something about me using a funny toilet or something and that I dance around it, and every time I turn around I hit another student, something about being fat. Oh, little boys and the potty humor. We had a chat.

Later, the principal told me about his chat with A, B, and C. He said that at first, student A just had a big smirk on his face (this is consistent with Student A's behavior). Principal also said that he was so unglued and upset that he had to leave. Sounds like when he returned, the boys were pretty humbled and hopefully learned a lesson. I, of course, am not upset about what the boys said, but it's good to know that the principal's got my back!

Guilty pleasure...

2010-02-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

So, I was at a movie with my friends a while ago and we were talking about our favorite guilty pleasure movies. Movies that you love, but you are embarrased to admit it. It was fun to hear about some really awesome movies.
I had a hard time thinking of one since I love most movies... The closest I could think of is Son in Law. I haven't seen it in a whild, but I do own it. It brings back a lot of memories with my little sis. (Bec........ca)
So I want to know what are your favorite guilty pleasure movies??

So not worth it...

2010-02-23T17:46:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I took the day off because I was sick. It's always hard to be gone as a teacher and you just hope and picture your kids doing a good job,listening, working; your substitute has everything he/she needs and expects good behavior from your students; your plans are detailed enough and easy to follow.

NOT SO yesterday. I come to my desk this morning and see a note: "Miss Gray, today was not the best day, I'll be honest. I had problems with every child. Except for (insert only 3 names here out of 20)"... Then, the secretary comes and tells you of 2 students needing to be sent to the office, the teacher next door needing to come in for help, the students said that kids were playing with timers and staplers, and saying they should have a party when the sub had to leave the room... etc. etc.

WOW! My students are so much better than this. It's especially not good since this same sub is coming back on Friday while I go to a conference. So, of course today was not a fun day at school. We made lots of changes, missed recess. I was just so disappointed. So, I question myself, and other teachers... is it worth it?

The one thing I did gain from yesterday was U2 tickets!!! June 3rd!!! I can't wait.

Catch up

2010-02-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Once again, waaay too long since I last blogged. I'll do my best to recap the exciting winter months since September.
In October, I made my first trip to Moab with my family. It was so much fun. I am proud to say that I survived a somewhat scary and very bumpy ride on Hell's Revenge. Almost everyone in the family was able to go (minus Cole and Norm, since Cole was in the choir that performed at General Conference). One of our favorite trips and I believe we are planning on making that an annual trip.
Perhaps the most exciting thing was the birth of my 3rd niece: Ruby. She is just perfect and such a cutie! She was just blessed 2 weeks ago and is already getting big! Now I'm so excited for my 4th niece to be born in May to my other sister! I LOVE being an aunt.
For the holidays I mainly was with my family at my parent's house. We had lots of games (including a new family favorite - Rock Band), lots of food and fun. I have the best family and have the most fun with them.
Since the New Year, I have not had anything too exciting to speak of, just teaching away - trying to make sure my students get all of their content for end of year testing!!
I have been pretty engrossed with the Olympics however. My favorite people/moments so far: Evan Lysacek winning gold (so tall dark and handsome for a male figure skater!), Hanna Kearny's gold in women's mogul, men and women's half pipe, love Simonn Ammann (Swiss ski jumper, he is always so enthusiastic it's hard not to be too), USA hockey beating Canada, and not a favorite moment, but certainly memorable was Nodar Kumaritashvili: the Georgian luger who was killed in training the day before the games. Very tragic and sad.
Now, just crunch time until the end of May and then SUMMER VACATION!!! I can't believe how fast this school year is almost over... Hopefully I'll blog again before that.

A fun weekend

2009-09-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to my cabin with my family and friends. We had some good, times and a visitor!!!!!

I woke up to find this creature hanging INSIDE the window screen of my bedroom. AHHHHH!! At first I wasn't sure what it was, or subconsciously didn't want to accept the truth, but after telling me dad there was something weird on the window in my room, we realized it was a bat and quickly closed the window. The bat was then trapped between the window and the screen. What to do? How to get rid of him? Would we turn into vampires? We decided to quickly open the window, cover the bat with a bowl and push the screen, bat and all, out of the window. My main fear was that upon opening the window, the bat would freak out and fly back into the room for some bat/vampire fun...When we opened the window, however, the bat didn't move and we successfully removed the window screen and bat from the house. Apparantly the bat was dead and had been in the room for a while. Yikes. Gross!!!!

After safely evicting the bat, we went on a fun four wheeler ride. Me, my friend Andrea, mom and dad. It was a beautiful day and had a great, dusty ride!

Olan mills hands? Not in these family pics!!!

2009-09-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

My family had our pictures taken at Wheeler Farm a few weeks ago. We had so much fun and it was a great place for pictures. I think I went to Wheeler Farm on a field trip in Elementary school, buy haven't been again since. If you haven't been, you should check it out. Chickens roaming free, wagons, tractors, sleighs, barns, etc. Most importantly, we got some fantastic pitcures. Enjoy my awesome family (especially my cute nieces and nephews)

Miss Gray is back at it again

2009-08-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now officially a teacher again. I am so excited for this year. So far, I have a much smaller class than last year and they seem to be a really great group of third grader. Most of my students have now been at our school since they were first graders so they are used to it and are doing a good job ! Yeah!!
My favorite thing about this year is the new third grade teacher that I work with. She is fabulous. A smart, hard worker and I think we work well together. It makes such a difference to have a great teacher to collarborate with and share ideas.

I am also still keeping my second job at staples, at least for now. I'll have to see how it goes balancing the jobs. I spent my Saurday at Staples today. What was supposed to be a 7 hour shift turned into a 8 1/2 hour shift. It was a crazy day. I wish I was at Bear Lake with my family instead! I do get to go next weekend for Labor Day though. It will be a good time.

Staples and Spiders.....

2009-07-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I started a second job at.........

STAPLES!!!

and yes, "I am literally standing" right at the cash register by myself during my working hours. A little less exciting than teaching, but the extra money is helping!!!

As for other exciting happenings this week:

QUESTION: What kind of spider causes human flesh to rot for as much as six months if bitten, and can run, very quickly, AT humans?*

ANSWER: a hobo spider.

*my sister told me these facts, they may or may not be accurate, but still very scary!!!!

My neices and nephew were cleaning out the window wells at my mom's house last week and think they saw hobo spiders in the window of the room I was sleeping in and I have been freaked out ever since!!!! I came home to my apartment to find a suspicious brown spider in my bathtub!! EEK! He was quickly drowned and disposed of. I didn't wait long enough to get a close look to see if it was in fact a hobo spider, but does it really matter what kind it is????

All spiders are evil.

Summer is here!!!

2009-06-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have failed as a consistent blogger. I'll attempt to document the last several months...

The highlight was definitely my cruise!!! So much fun, sun, food, and good times. with 2 friends in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerta Vallarta. Some of the highlights were snorkling (and dancing) with our excellent tour guide Daniel in Puerta Vallarta, a water taxi in Cabo, Parasailing and a great beach in Mazatlan, cruise director Paul (we loved him!), food, food, food, etc. Such a great time and much needed break. Here's a few pics:

After the cruise I had to survive 6 straight weeks of school until the end of the year. I made it and SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!!!
I am currently looking for a part time job and to possibly sell my car ($$$). Other than that I love having a summer vacation. No cabin fever yet- but it's only been a week and 1/2.

I am looking forward to some exciting summer festivities, however. A couple of weddings, a family reunion, and CORE academy (an awesome conference for teacers). Also, possibly some REAL soccer games. I think I have found a new favorite sport (to watch, of course). If you haven't been to a game, they are really awesome and exciting, even if the only thing you know about soccer is that they can't use their hands...

Last but certainly not least, my sister just found out she is having a girl!!! Yeah! I am so excited to be an aunt x 5. She will be here around Thanksgiving and I can't wait. I somewhat secretly believe that I am the favorite aunt for all my neices and nephews. I am pretty much the only single one so by default I hang out with them at family events - having no significant other to cling to or speak of with fellow family members with significant others. So, it appears that my job is to be the best aunt in the world to the cutest and best neices and nephews in the world and I love it!!!

Where has the time gone....

2009-02-28T12:53:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I posted, but I haven't had too much excitement in the last few months. School is cruising along and I can't believe we are almost done. Wow! I
have booked a cruise for spring break with a couple of friends to the Mexican Riviera. I am super excited and can't wait. I owe more money (taxes) to the government. Life is just up and down. That's the way it goes...

My neices and nephews

2008-12-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Are the cuteset kids in the world! My sisters just posted some great pictures of them.

Cole, Madison, and Tenley are my oldest sister, Mylee's, kids. They live in Idaho Falls. I sure miss them!

Ryder is my newest nephew His mom is my younger sister Lindsay. He is so much fun!

Look how handsome he looks here.

My Awesome Week...

2008-12-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

It's too bad you can't put sarcasm in writing. If I could, the word awesome would be heavy with it. It all started on Thanksgiving with the passing of my Grandma Gray. She died at about 3 am last Friday. It is a mixed blessing as she has battled Alzheimer's for years. It makes me happy to know that she has her memories back and is with those who went before her, including her son who died just months after he was born. She will be missed and my thoughts are with my Grandpa, dad, aunt, and uncles who are of course very sad. I hope they can find comfort at this time.
As if that wasn't sad enough (which it is), on Tuesday on may way to my parents house to go to her viewing, I was rear ended and the good samaritan (sarcasm again) who hit me chose to drive away. The truck had a temporary plate and I couldn't get a plate number or 4 wheel over the curb to get away. This is where driving a big truck vs. a mini cooper comes in handy. I guess if I wanted to be able to flee the scene of the crime, I better get a truck. Luckily, I am certainly ok and my car has only a fairly minor dent and no scratches.
This week, I definitely believe in karma.
That night and the next day were the viewing and funeral for my grandma. It was a very sad, hard, and emotional day. It was great to hear about and remember the kind and loving person she is and look forward to seeing her again. I also got to be around a lot of family, some of whom I hadn't seen in a very long time and I know my grandma was happy we were together.

This is me, my cousins, and aunt at the funeral. We all made bracelets using pearls from a necklace that belonged to grandma.

This is me and all of the grandkids (except for 2 who couldn't make it) and a few great grandkids as well. In all, there are 24 of us. We love you Grandma!
The good news is, "things can only get better".

My 6 Quirks - I was tagged!!!!

2008-11-26T14:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my sisters have tagged me into this and I have been thinking about my quirks, some that I can share and maybe some that I prefer not to!!! I am curious to see if any of these were new to those that know me and I feel as if I need to preface some of these with "I'm weird, I know" But I guess we all have our quirks. So here goes

1) The most obvious one, and for anyone who knows me even a little bit this will not be a surprise. I LOVE MOVIES! I know Lauren put this, but I have to steal it and proudly say that I am better at memorization here than she is. I love movies and they are pretty much constantly on in the background anytime I am at home. Cleaning, lesson planning, cooking, you name it. This leads me in to my #2:

2) I have to have the TV on to fall asleep. I can go to sleep without it, but it takes me a while to shut down my brain. If the TV is on, I am out in a matter of minutes every time, literally. But, it has to be something that I have seen before and therefore am not invested in. Just something to drown out the voices in my head:)

3) I eat my food one item at a time. I start with one thing, and then move on. If I have a hamburger and fries, for example, I always eat the fries first (while they are hot) and then the hamburger.

4) Vegetables. The only vegetable I do eat is raw carrots and lettuce occasionally. I have tried several, and no go. It's a texture thing. I can't do lettuce unless it is crisp, romaine lettuce in a properly prepared salad (meaning prepared by me, and with no other vegetables on it), otherwise it is too wilty, rubbery and tasteless to me. YUCK.

5) The clock in my bedroom is always set very fast. It is currently set 25 minutes ahead. This is to lessen the shock of the ungodly hour that I have to wake up. In my mind, I wake up at 6:35, when in reality I wake up at 6:10

6) I don't like when plans change at the last minute. If I have something planned with someone, and they bail out or decide they want to go to a party instead of the movie we planned on, even though the party will be more fun, I really don't like it. I had my mind set on the movie, and now I have to change my mind set... Not enjoyable for me.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2008-11-12T17:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas, yet again! I am so excited, overwhelmed, a little stressed, but almost giddy. I get to spend this Christmas with my entire family this year. I have been looking forward to this for 2 years. It will be tons of fun, and I am thinking we need some fun activities... stringing popcorn, making ornaments, gingerbread houses, making wrapping paper (with brown craft paper) - just some thoughts. Any other ideas or thoughts for fun family christmas activities? I can't wait to be together, relax and have fun at my favorite time of year.

Halloween Party time

2008-11-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to an awesome Halloween dance/party. There were some fantastic costumes: Sarah Palin, Operation (yes- the game), a few paying their respects to Heath Ledger in the form of the Joker (and he even had a little fight with Batman) and many others. But my friends had some great costumes as well: Miss Conception and Juno. Some people sure are creative.

Halloween

2008-10-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to you all! So, today went much better than I expected! I dressed up as Crest toothpaste. It was really easy and fun. My students were FANTASTIC! We had a parade, an assembly, a book report, class party then the day was done. WOW! It really was a fun day. One of my favorite costumes was a 4th grader who dressed up as Angel Moroni - complete with gold body paint, a trumpet, and brass plates. AWESOME! Only in Utah.
Hope your Halloween was spook-tastic!
P.S. - When a Stranger Calls is one of the scariest movies I've seen in a while. (either that or I am becoming a wuss in my old age...)

Serendipity?

2008-10-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

So the other night my roommates and I went to DQ and got frozen hot chocolate. I hadn't tried it before but I was told I was in for a "treat" (literally). I have heard of the frozen hot chocolate at the famous Serendipitys in New York and was curious to see how the Dairy Queen version would be. Let me tell you - it was delicious! I highly recommend it - especially since the small size is only 99 cents!

My first blog!

2008-10-28T20:29:00.001-07:00

Ok, I finally am a member of the blogging world... Being a school teacher is a busy, all consuming job. My goal is to get some of my memories down since the days seem to go faster than I can blink. I have so many great stories and experiences in this stage of my life. So fasten your seat belts... here goes!