Month of Love Day #2

There are two things that I would like to profess love to this day:

The first is the policeman that pulled me over yesterday. I was driving along the freeway chatting with my sis on the phone when all the sudden there were flashing lights behind me. I quickly hung up and pulled over. I was pretty nervous because while I was talking on the phone I was exactly paying attention to my driving, so I could have been speeding or something. The policeman asked for my license and registration. Um....registration? I frantically was looking through my glove box when it occurred to me, that I never paid for my registration. I explained to the policeman of my ignorance (this being the first car I have completely owned) and he very kindly gave me a reminder to go and pay my taxes! He also let me know that my left tail light is out. I think because I was expecting the worse, as I drove off I was filled with love for this policeman. He wasn't out to get me! He was truly just trying to keep our country safe and organized. Plus, he was very polite!


My second love goes out to my dear BYU students. They don't know it, but I love them. This semester I have an exceptionally great group of students. They are involved, thoughtful, honest, grateful and truly want to do good things for our world. After teaching or meeting with them I feel uplifted and happy. I will really miss this class next semester!

Christmas is About Love: Day #1

This Christmas season my focus is going to be all about love. Christ is love and because of the love of our Heavenly Father we have this great season.

Today I woke up happy. Last night I bought myself a Christmas tree, pulled out all my Christmas decorations and ornaments and spent the evening getting ready for the season. Going to sleep with a lighted tree and waking up to one sure made me smile. As I got ready for work this morning I decided to wear a very beautiful scarf that was a gift from a stranger. Last Christmas, on our way home from Indiana I sat next to a lady. She and her husband live in Salt Lake and she was visiting her family in India for the Christmas season. We talked for the 2.5 hour flight and had an enjoyable conversation that has since slipped my mind. As we prepared to land, we started to say our goodbyes so I could head back to my seat and she asked me to wait because she had a gift for me. She pulled out this beautiful scarf that I am wearing today. It is gold, blue, orange and red with paisley and other ornate designs. It is thick and warm. I was shocked at this woman's generosity. She had only met me two hours before and really was doing me a favor by providing me with interesting and meaningful conversation.

This scarf is a reminder of the love of people and even strangers. Although there are many people out there that I do not know, I know that I have the capacity to love them and they me. I will cherish this scarf and the unexpected act of love and kindness that came with it and will work to smile and serve the strangers around me this season.

I have not spoken to this Indian woman sense, but she will be remembered.

Candy Thefts!

Often times, when one works in education, you take on things you don't really want to do involving kids you don't really want to be around at the end of you working day.

For example, I took on being the advisor of the Freshman Class activities. Today we are having a "Freshman Class Halloween Bash!" in which we are having a pumpkin carving contests and music and candy of course.

My despise for this activity began yesterday when I went to Macey's to pick up the pumpkin's Macey's so kindly donated. The pumpkins came straight from a farm, weighed well over 20 pounds each and were still quite covered in dirt. I, of course came from school and was wearing a black skirt and tights. By the time I had hauled 15 pumpkins into my cart and checked out,  was dirty and hot.

The next thing that really annoyed me is I brought some candy that Tyler bought for our trick-or-treators to school to share at the pumpkin party. I ran out of my classroom for about 5 minutes during lunch and some of my best students came into my classroom and took that very candy without asking! I was totally disappointed.

They were caught within minutes of course. I was so irriated because I felt like I had done a lot for these kids and that was really disrespectful, so I laid into them. They were so embarassed, not one of them would look me in the eye.

Although, after I talked to them I thought about what it was like being a Freshman. For some reason, Freshman boys in particular, just loose their ability to think through their actions. They are incredibly prown to peer pressure and are not sure exactly where to go once they realize they have done something wrong.

Although initially I wasn't sure if I felt good or bad about calling them out on their behavior and making them feel so clearly guilty and embarassed, I am glad I did, because it is not something that should be laughed at or ignored. I hope this was a teaching moment in which they can look back at next time they want to do something that would be funny or sneaky, yet offensive.

It is interesting to me that it is teaching moments like this one today, that will determine and build my students character much better than 1,000 history lessons. The scary thing is, you cannot really plan or prepare for these teaching moments, they just happen and you have keep your temper steady and do what you think is best for the kids.

When did I become so intimately involved with teaching teenagers what is wrong or right?

If your child were in my classroom would you be afraid? :)

Where I have been....

Since the school year started, I have had significantly more things to do and less time to do them. So here are a few of the fun things I have been doing, rather than blogging.

#1. Coaching Cross Country. It has been fun, but I never knew how time consuming and exhausting teaching all day and then coaching could be. I really came to love my team and am so proud of their success. Sometimes I wondered why I ever got into teaching....the real reward comes from coaching because the kids actually care about their success!

#2. I now spend close to two hours in the car commuting each day. I just got a subscription to audible and bought Athem and The Partly Cloudy Patriot. I think these book subscriptions will decrees my monthly phone bill and make my time in the car a little more enjoyable. :) Plus, who doesn't want to improve their mind while they idly sit anyway?

#3. The square footage of my residence is 6 times larger than my previous residence....more windows, carpet, toilets and everything else to keep up with!

#4. I am my own landlord. That means any time something breaks or a bill needs to be paid I need to spend the hours on the phone and come up with some sort of organization system to get everything paid on time. I guess I always took it for granted when I was a tenant. :)

#5. I run and exercise much more regularly than ever before and I love it! It is interesting because in the past I always had a love/hate relationship with exercise...I loved being able to eat more but I hated exercising. Now I pretty much have a love/love relationship with exercise. Whether I am tired, frustrated, content or restless exercise makes me feel better and happier. Plus, I have discovered that I am not a total athletically challenged!

#6. I have been reading a great book. I don't think any class, lecture, movie or book has taught me as much about southern society (including slavery, the confederate army, Sherman's March to the Sea, Reconstruction, the freedmans bureau and much more) before, during and after the Civil War as Gone With the Wind. The book is excellently written and the story is enticing! Although, I have about 100 pages left and am about sick to my stomach with how incredibly selfish and without morals Scarlett O'Hara continues to be. If it weren't for the goodness of Melly and cocky wit of Rhett I would have stopped reading the book long ago. In anycase, I recommen the book to anyone. Especially history lovers like myself!


Although I am busy, I am happy and life is good. Tyler and I have great jobs, a beautiful home and lots of supportive loved ones.

Home Improvement...Thanks Mom and Dad :)

This weekend my parents, who are pretty much the coolest parents on Earth, came all the way to Utah to see our new house and help us with a few home improvement projects. My dad is extremely talented when he comes to handyman stuff (in addition to about a thousand other things). He can seriously fix anything or create anything he sees or can think up, and the nice part is, he is a perfectionist, so nothing is done sloppy and it always looks aesthetically great. You can see why we needed to recruit his expertise as we took on a few of our first Home Improvement projects. I don't have pictures of everything...because I am lame and tired during the school week, but I will get them up eventually.

The first project Ty and my dad did was put cabinets in my laundry room. They look GREAT and now I can upload the plastic bin which has been housing all my detergents and stuff. They also got parts to fix the toilet upstairs which has been hissing and got all the supplies to put in a work bench for Tyler. My mom meanwhile kept me company. We got the food and prepared a meal for a bunch of her friends to come over on Saturday night. We also worked on picking our fabric and making curtains for over my kitchen window. The curtain turned out great and it really adds to the room.

We had a great time with my mom and dad. Unfortunately they had to leave and Tyler was left to finish his work bench alone. He did a really good job putting it all together and now has a plan to turn the garage into his "Man Cave". He has already moved his giant speakers out there and wants to I guess just make it a comfortable place to do projects. (Which is fine by me, because I love my house and want it to be beautiful and costume designed to all my tastes and ideas!)

Here is a picture of the "Man Cave" at its start.

PS-That is not a real child on Tyler's chest. It is Carlos (from the Hangover I guess) and is the closest he will get to having his own baby. When we were in home depot so many people had to take double-takes. It was pretty funny.

Summer Sundays :)

Although Tyler and I have very little immediate family in Utah, we still manage to enjoy a Sunday dinner with some of our favorite relatives and friends on a regular basis. Here is a little sneak peak on what a summer Sunday is like at our house in addition to an update on everyone's lives. (It is quite enjoyable!)This is Tyler trying to coax Leah to come sit on his bike with him. She doesn't like motorcycles...smart little girl :)
I think I will frame this picture. Isn't it adorable! In this picture is Tyler's sister, Brooke, who just started her sophmore year at BYU studying International Relations. It also includes Kerstin, Tyler's second aunt once removed...or something weird like that, who is now in her third year at BYU. Brooke and Kerstin are both beautiful, smart and athletic girls...They are also available, so Ty often recruits brother/cousin-in-law prospects often :). Kerstin is holding her dog Xerxes, who LOVES all the love and attention she can give him. And the two little ones are Kate and Leah, who will be two in a few weeks. They absolutely love Xerxes. When he came to the window they left their food and just stood at the sliding door laughing and pointing.
While Brooke and Kerstin are outside entertaining the girls and the dog, "the adults" get to talk. (It's weird considering us "the adults" but I guess that is where we are at now!). Jenni and Dave Scoville are pretty much our best friends. Jenni is a crazy runner (seriously, she runs like 20 miles and still has energy to take care of Kate and Leah) and she is a great mother and friend. Dave works in real estate and has been doing really well in the foreclosure market (He helped get us our house---whoohooo!) He is also Tyler's BFF/golf/any sporting event buddy and a great father as well. Addie is also at the table, and she is my roomie once again! Addie was my roommate my freshman year, in Italy and my Senior year of college. She seriously is a friend you only find once in a life time! She is very thoughtful and just started her first year teaching second grade. (I think she is crazy hanging out with those little people all day long!) And then of course we have my dear, sweet husband. Since I am in the process of doing updates (I am a history person, I can't help it) Tyler this summer has gotten very into UFC fighting and works out everyday at a gym called Throw Down. (He is so 25 without children!) He also has been enjoying dirt biking and home improvement projects.
Here are Kate and Leah again. They wanted to take off their shoes to jump on the trampoline (Which actually belongs to our neighbors...hope they don't mind that we use it!)
Here is everyone jumping. Kate jumped a little too vigorously this Sunday and managed to unload all previous meals into her dads lamp. After a bath and some disinfectant she was back on the tramp laughing as much as before. I thought it was a funny experience, but it may have added another year to the amount of time Ty wants to wait for kids. Lame! A little throw-up never killed anyone.

It Has Been a Busy Summer!

Okay, this summer the blog has become like the journal that you neglect for so long that you continue to put updating it off, because you have SO much to cover. So, this is going to be a pathetic synopsis of our summer because 1.) I forgot my camera on every family vacation/exciting events this summer and 2.) It is just about impossible to give the story of our lives justice when I have let so many weeks pass since the actual events!

So here it goes:

July 14th: Had a party for Tyler's 25th. We had no furniture and asked people to bring their own lawn chairs. It was a little white trashy, but everyone still had fun!

July 15th-20th: Head to California for family vacation to Catalina. Got home in time for Orange Country fair. Had the best Cinnamon Roll on earth. Meanwhile, Tyler visited GGma in Oceanside. Spent next day at the beach with bff Travis. Spent night at the Dodger's game with BMFs (Best Married Friends), Aubrey and Joe. Took Flier to Island. Snokled, Kayak, explored ship reck, swam, tanned, played tennis, played ticket to ride and ate at Steve's Steak House...yum! Enjoyed sis-in-laws company all the way back to St. George.

July 21-23: Stayed in St. George to attend the Shakespeare festival with Meg, Gma Ellis, Brooke and Annie. LOVED As You Like It.

July 23-25: Ellis family reunion at the Homestead in Midway. Swam in a Crater...that was cool! Loved seeing the fam. Ty had the swine flu...
July 27-August 10: Attempted to decorate home. Attended cross country practice. Painted classroom.

August 10: School meetings began

August 17: First Day of School :) / :(