Who blogs anymore?

Well, obviously not me. Sorry to the three people who check this. But, school is over (HOORAY!) and I can breathe normally and so, here is a fresh new post. A lot has happened lately, but we'll just go over the highlights. Yesterday was my last day at Beehive as I prepare to do my student teaching in January. It's crazy to think I won't have a regular job; rather I'll be paying to work a standard teacher's workday for three months. I am grateful that I'm able to not work, that I'm blessed to live at home for free (or as my Dad put it, on deferred rent) and not have to worry about how I'll survive. I am excited, even a little nervous, to begin student teaching at Glendale Middle School (8th grade English) and I can't believe it's finally here!
In addition to being the primary chorister, I volunteered to do the Achievement Day activities withe the 8-10 year old girls in the ward. I feel so bad for them, they just can't find a leader who can stick and they haven't had an activity for MONTHS. So, they came over to my house Thursday night and we decorated cookies and took them to members of the ward. They were so cute, I love spending time with them! I was touched at who they decided to take cookies to, and they wanted to carol to everyone! Tracie went with me and it was hilarious. They were so funny.

Do I have redeye in that picture? I didn't edit it or anything.
Last night was our official Slack family Christmas party, the party everyone looks forward to. It was always one of the highlights of the season for me as I grew up and I love that we still do it, and it always brings a good crowd. The biggest tradition of the night, besides mom's Mexi-dip and Irene's cookies, is the Nativity that my mom helps the kids perform. It's hilarious to watch her, year after year, work with the little ones as she wrangles them on the stage, putting the costumes on and telling them where to stand. She's a saint to do it every year. Even now, as I was watching the kids and looking at the scarves they wore on their heads that are the same from when I was their age, it brought back floods of memories of gift exchanges, santa, fighting over who would be Mary (mom always took intense notes so there wouldn't be any squabbling) and playing on the stage. Now, all of my cousins have kids and they are the new group hitting the pinata and running around the gym. Last night was the first night in a few years that Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance, and it was so fun to see the kids' reactions! The first kid to sit on his lap, my cousin's son, when asked what he wanted for Christmas and seeing Mrs. Claus already pulling a treat out of her velvet bag, said "a candy cane." It was funny.


This is Audrey waiting to see Santa, then when it was her turn, she cried.


Here's the story on my poor Brayden's mega-lip: He got a cavity filled on Friday morning and after they got home, he was watching a movie. His mouth was still a little dead still, and while he was watching the movie, he just chewed that little thing to pieces. April walked in and his lip was all red and swollen. She called the dentist and he said it was actually pretty normal. Poor boy! He said it doesn't hurt, but isn't that crazy? It looks so painful!

Attention: New Favorite Movie.

Oh. My. Heck. Yes, heck. This is the best movie I have seen in a long time. Really, it had everything: the cinematography, the action, the romance, the comedy, the actors, the music, the everything. I laughed, I cried, I giggled, I swooned, and I even put my hands over my mouth like I've done since I was little whenever I was scared or worried during a movie. Not only were Hugh Jackman (oh hannah) and Nicole Kidman amazing, but the little boy who played Nullah, Brandon Walters, may just be the stealer of the show. He was so good, and he had never acted before! He stole my heart, with his huge brown eyes and long eyelashes, and what a smile! Phenomenal. I can't say enough good about it. See it. You won't regret it.
Not to mention: Best. Kiss. Ever.

I like my family.

I really do. So much in fact that I set up the old (not really old, I just bought it) tripod and went to town. Thanks again, Heidi, for being the pusher of the button.







Tracie wanted me to comment on this picture, but what is there to say? hott.

Oh man. I love these kids.


My parents are cute and my dad's 'stache rocks.

Laura is gross.

This picture cracks me up.

Don't be mad at me.

That title is directed to the three or four BYU fans who read my blog (you know who you are. . .you're staring at your big milk silo draped in the Y banner). I have to say that I am not necessarily partial to the U, especially when it comes to football, but I'm not partial to the Y either. I'm nondenominational. I know you might not believe it, but up until the age of 14 I was a Y fan because my dad was (and he's sometimes scary) and then after that I was a U fan because Jenn was (and it made my dad mad) and now that I do what I want, I just don't care. It does make it difficult when they play each other (that is going to be such a good game) but maybe I'll just flip a coin to decide who to cheer for. Because let's be honest folks, neither team cares how I feel. And since I KNOW you guys will be my friends anyway, I'll stay impartial.
But. I do go to the University of Utah and I pay them a lot of money (or a bank does in my behalf) so I feel I have the right to go and cheer for them when awesome free tickets come my way. I even bought a sweatshirt (that is actually really cute and I'll wear when I teach Utah history because it just says UTAH on it) that I wanted to wear last night at my house because it was cold but feared I may have to find a new place to live.
Wow. This is a long-sentenced post with a lot of parenthesis. I hope it makes sense.
So, I got these cool tickets from my boss (THANKS SCOTT!) so Laura and I went. It was fun and crazy and she already blogged about it so I will just put up a link. I won't even take out the part about her taking a picture with a hottie because we all know it is her husband anyway, you're not tricking anyone. So. Enjoy. And if you don't like the team, just go for the cute pics of us.

Oh yeah. . .

I went and saw Odyssey dance co's "Thriller" at Kingsbury Hall with Tracie and Morgan and once again, it did not disappoint. We had killer seats that we got for half price with our student id's (same day shows, weeknights I think) and it blew my mind. Some of the things they can do are just mad, mad skills. I love watching it with dancers (since of course I'm a dancer at heart also) because they explain all the technicalities and how difficult things really are in a non-boring kind of way. The Lorena Bobbit sketches can go, though. I don't like them. They make me uncomfortable.
Anyway, you should go see it.

Seriously?

I'm sorry that it has been over two weeks since my last post. Sometimes I get really busy and then on down times, I forget all I wanted to say. It's like how I would get so behind on my journal writing that I would think I couldn't write again until I was caught up, and then. . . it never happened. Like, ever. I think the last time I wrote in my journal was probably three years ago. Or so. Give or take a month.
Let's see, what has happened in the last two weeks? Fall break rocked. It was so nice not to have to go to my three-hour classes. They are so brutal! Any class for three hours is rough. My teachers are great, though. My favorite day was Columbus day when I didn't have school OR work. I didn't change out of my pj's all day. I watched Mash and Ellen and a movie, I think. It was special.
Last monday, I had class again. My class starts at 7:30 am (killer) and I park at the Institute building and walk to class, about five minutes. I got to the Institute early and had a few minutes to wait. I didn't want to go to class early because that's lame. So I just sat in my warm car and closed my eyes for a minute. Or a few minutes because I woke up at 7:51. Yeah. I was pretty late. But boy, was that a nice nap.
On Saturday night, I didn't have anything planned so I asked Alan and April if they wanted to go on a date or something and I would watch the kids. Everyone knows that I would rather be with those cute kids than anything else. It was a lot of fun. We don't always do much, but I really love just being with them. After they ate dinner (Brayden shoved all his carrots in his mouth and was chewing grotesquelly for at least seven minutes until he spit it out into a napkin. It was so gross, I honestly don't know how so much food fit in his little mouth.) Victoria and Brayden were playing "store" where Tor sold all of her crap to Brayd for all the small change in his Beehive Bank. It was pretty funny. "This ring costs one cent and two dollars." They entertained themselves with that for a while, and I watched Audrey crawl around trying to play with them, "No, she'll choke on that" and "No, there are chemicals in that!" (referring to a glow stick). Audrey was super smiley and gabby, and I think she is really close to giving kisses. Right now she just puts her whole mouth over your lips. Nice and slobbery. She'll get there. At one point in the "store" Brayden came over to me and said, "I just can't believe that you're here!" Later as we watched "Ratatoullie" (sp) Victoria cuddled up to me and said, "I'm so glad you could come and babysit us." I love it when they are cuddly like that. Brayd fell asleep and drooled on my arm and Tor kept asking if I was asleep. It was so great. Then, to keep myself from falling asleep I sang exceedingly loud to my "hhh. . .good songs" mix with the windows cracked so I wouldn't get too hot. It was good times. I love rocking hard core in my car. I'm totally a superstar.
And now, there are probably a lot of things I could be doing instead of this, but I know how important it is to Laura that I write something down. So thanks, Lars, for being such a devoted reader.

RE! SPECT! WALK!

What did you say? Last night was pretty rockin', literally. I went with my friends Becky and Judd, Lindsey and Reed to do Karaoke. It was hilarious. We went to The Pie first for dinner, and that was yummy and fun. I love that you can sit outside and still be warm. Then, I went to my first bar ever. I gave them my ID, and it was funny. I didn't know what to do. I passed, which was nice. We sat down at our table, got our water, and waited for the fun to begin. Judd started us off with a little "Walk" by Pantera and I laughed so hard. He got so into it, but he just stared at the screen behind him, with his back to everyone and his head bobbed with the drums. Becky was next, with a little "Girls Lie Too" by Tracy Clark and she had a drunk companion who stood up right in front of her the whole time. It was so funny as she would let her sing in the mic every so often. Drunk people crack me up, I just hope none of them drove home. I sang "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar and it's crazy how your adrenaline goes nuts. My hands were shaking and it was scary even though I knew that no one was paying attention except drunk people who didn't care and my cool pack of friends. I'll say right now that Heartbreaker is the perfect song for Karaoke. I'll let Laura do it next time, though, because she's going to come with us, right? Right. Lindsey channelled Alannis Morrisette next with "All I want". . .I think that the was name of the song. She got all the angst right and it was fun to watch her. Reed, well, he only came to Karaoke for the good times and just took it all in. It was a crack up to see the people who went in between us and would sound um, awesome, and how people reacted to it. There were a couple of good ones, besides us of course, and I felt that my first attempt in the art of Karaoke was a complete success. I did walk away smelling like a, well, bar, but after a nice shower and three shampoos, it was gone. The memories, however, will last forever. Thanks guys for an awesome night!