2010

well, 2010 is done. It's been a pretty big year. I don't have a ton of things to say about it, as it's been blogged. And I have no melancholy moping about how I wish I had done more this time around, because I think I've done a good job of this year.
Highlights?
-Weddings weddings weddings- (with Rachel's being yesterday! Congrats)
-Two good semesters of school under the belt
-Lots of money earned and exercise done at work this summer
- The first semester I wasn't looking for someone to like, I met Brandon. It was a good accident, and taken up 10 months of this last year.

Happy New Year!

End of Fall '10

Well, the semester's done. I know I only posted like 4 times this semester, but I'm working on it. Being busy is a new feeling to me.
I was going to do a summary of all my classes, but then the blog deleted like half of it so I'll just go with this.
Social Dance- Great skill that I"ll have for the rest of my life. Class was even better after Brandon got mono and we didn't have to switch partners anymore. Ultimately, we were in a dance competition for the waltz and made it to the second round. Which was more than we expected so I'm totally happy with it.

 

Education Classes- I learned a lot about how I'm going to do with teaching when the time comes. I now know what I need to work on and what I am good at with regards to teaching. I learned how to make a lesson plan (and according to my teacher do it well... who would have thought?), and improved my handwriting a little bit.

Roommates- It was certainly nice to have roommates without drama this semester. I was beginning to believe that it was impossible to fit 6 girls into an apartment without problems. I can honestly say that I have not had a bad thought about any of my roommates.  Which, given my track record of somewhat lackluster living situations (not ALL of you guys, don't worry), is a feat.

Me- I can do hard things. I finally got a 3.76 GPA this semester, which wasn't even that hard to do. I am just going to try harder to not get a B+ next semester, and see how much higher that can raise my total GPA. I stayed on top of my classes, and actually learned a lot from them. I feel like I am becoming more and more cut out to be a Special Ed teacher, the further I go into my program.

Brandon- I'm lucky to have someone like him with me. He's patient, and puts up with my silliness. He doesn't let me talk badly about myself, but reminds me of the good I'm doing when I get frustrated. I won't write too much mushy stuff, but I'll just say he's pretty awesome.

Thanksgiving '10

So this Thanksgiving break I traveled a lot. From the first Saturday to Tuesday, I went to Denver with Brandon and his family. The first day was traveling, and lots of meet-and-greet. Brandon's family is awesome, they are like our family... nice but teasing to each other. It was also good to have Megan there, because she likes me on a less biased level. It made me more comfortable. Seeing Brandon with his family was pretty funny... he's just a typical son.
Some highlights:
Visiting Red Rock Ampitheatre (where Brandon's mom saw the Eagles in the 70's)

there were some deer by the road. They were running away from me but it looks like they like me.

We also raked some leaves, which might not seem like a big deal but I don't remember the last time I've raked leaves. So we were a little bit silly with it:

We also went out to breakfast, watched the 7th Harry Potter (EPIC), ate lots of good food (i overate at every meal because I didn't want to be rude), and played plenty of card games. We also met the minions from "Despicable Me"

The Denver airport is ENORMOUS, and they have a lot of restaurants. They also have a statue of a bronco outside the airport, which apparently killed its creator by falling on him. You can't tell in the picture, but his eyes glow bright red. Creepy.

I was excited to see my family, so I was willing to have ANOTHER day of flying to North Carolina. Most of these pictures are stolen from other people's blogs, because I knew my mom was taking lots of pictures so I didn't.
They went to the Duke and NC State campuses while I was flying, so I didn't get to see them. But we went to Cosmic Burrito (?), and I read the last two books of the "Hunger Games" series in a day. It was good.
After we ate Thanksgiving day, we went to the Raleigh NC temple. I thought it was really pretty

Afterwards we just took a ton of pictures... Enjoy.

I had just woken up from a 2 hour nap, so smiles didn't come super naturally to me.
My mom and Bethany made pajama pants for all of the girls, so we took pictures of the three of us together.

I had two days of flying and driving ahead of me, but it was so nice to see everyone. Since then we've been studying for finals, and celebrating birthdays. Brandon rolled his ankle, so he hasn't really walked all day. We also split a 1-pound burger for Jake's birthday on Saturday... we only ate half of it combined.