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.

Letter to the Editor

Last week, some prospective BYU-I student wrote in complaining about how he was offended by the nude pictures that BYU-I professors show in art classes. He's an art history student. Naturally this rubbed me the wrong way, and this is my response (once I figure out how to send it in):
Dear Student,
I understand that you are offended by nude pictures, and don't think they should be shown in college. Here is some advice for you:
1) Don't major in art history. Some of the most famous and beautiful works of art are of nude people. They are not meant to make people uncomfortable, but to celebrate the human body. If you can't handle that, it's time for a career change.
2) Don't consider going to college anywhere. Any class in any college can have nude people. The upper level science classes make you TOUCH nude bodies, and dissect them and other things of that nature.
3) Don't live anywhere near a big city. People are not going to care if it makes you uncomfortable or violates what you think should be only within the bonds of marriage. They just aren't.

I thought you as an art history major would understand that this is not to bring up inappropriate feelings, but to show the beauty of the human body, and how society's view of it has changed over the centuries.




Yeah, that'll show him. Art History major, psssht

Halloween Weekend

This week was a long one. But it ended quite well.
First Brandon got sick... which is always hard. He's been a trooper though, and he's holding up just fine. Hasn't even missed class! So it was extra nice when on Friday (after I took my PE midterm) we had a spontaneous date to Idaho Falls. He promised that we would go on a nice date when he got feeling better, but it was awesome just being able to spend that one-on-one time with him. We went to the mall, took some photobooth pictures (that of course look totally ADD, but I love them), and went to Cafe Rio.
I didn't know what I was going to be for Halloween until I dressed up. Even then, my costume changed about 6 times. It started out as a nerd, turned into Pam from the Office, and ended up as a trophy wife with grey roots. Put in by flour in my hair, which is still not out even after 2 showers. Brandon ended up being a redneck, so we looked something like this:

Yes, I about died laughing when Brandon came out of his room. Since he's been growing out his mustache for the last week or so-- because I said he could as long as he was sick-- it was perfect. Throughout the night I put a pillow under my shirt as well, and it was pretty awesome.

Ugh, that's a horribly creepy smile.

Basically this is why Brandon is awesome. He's pretty shy when you first meet him, but every once in a while he will do something so ridiculous that you just laugh and laugh, and he's not even embarrassed. Until you bring a video camera around... Then he clams up. So I didn't get any of his dance moves.
Tonight we didn't do anything. Made waffles and watched Harry Potter. And, apparently, ate all the cookies that his roommate's girlfriend sent to him from Florida. He'll learn, don't set your cookies on the table and leave for Provo for a weekend haha.

October '10

So I fail at this. As it turns out, I have a hard time blogging while keeping up with classes (finally). However, some good things... I have friends on missions. I got a letter from Jenna, who's in Temple Square right now. I'm still waiting on Jamie, who went to Chile yesterday. And Bekah's going to Temple Square in February! That's so cool, you know I"m excited for you.
I taught my first lesson yesterday to my 4th grade class. (I'm not student teaching, I help a teacher for a few hours a week for a class.) I taught on words with the roots --spect and --sign. I have to say, I was really nervous. I was being observed by the teacher of my course (not the teacher whose classroom I was in), and even though she's a super nice lady and a kindergarten teacher, I just wasn't sure if I would crash and burn. Thus, the feedback I got was encouraging: "Your teacher voice carries well with kindness. Thanks for expressing your behavior expectation at the beginning of the lesson." etc etc etc. PS I really do have a teacher voice. Anyone who heard me teach Sunday School knows that.
Social dance is pretty awesome... when I get to dance with Brandon. We got a 96 on our Foxtrot test, which I thought was awesome until I saw how many 100's they gave out. Oddly enough, we got marked down because I wasn't following well enough. Please. We were definitely the only couple dancing that had real chemistry, and not some guy just trying to get with a girl. Some of the guys are fun to dance with. Others, not so much. One guy in particular decided it would be fun to practice our spins 15 times in a row, and complained that I wasn't following when I was too dizzy to walk in a straight line. But I digress. Now we're learning the Viennese waltz and the cha-cha. I have to say, this is a skill I'm not going to regret. Now if we could only learn hip-hop and salsa.
A few highlights of the last few weeks... We went to a haunted straw maze Conference weekend. Apparently I talk really fast when I get nervous, so everyone laughed at me when I talked the guy's ear off at the beginning of the maze talking about how I wasn't nervous. In addition, there was a monster in there that had a chainsaw and revved it right by my ear and I screamed and ducked. But that's the only time I screamed. That dumb monster followed us for a solid 15 minutes, and the first time he charged us Brandon stepped on my toes because he was backing up so fast. There were 5 of us, and we had a pretty awesome time.

In addition, Megan (Brandon's sister, far right) and I decided we were going to have a little bit of fun. So we put some of Brandon's deodorant in Jell-O. Here is the finished product.

My roommate from winter semester, Rachel, got engaged! Honestly, here's how it went. I went over to her apartment October 9th to have some girl talk (Rachel and I have a special way), and she said she was going to her boyfriend Cody's football game. As it turns out, Brandon and Jake were going to that same game, so I said let's all go. Cody had sent me a message on Facebook telling me to go to the game, but I forgot about it until Rachel's roommate told me that I needed to be there because *whisper* CODY"S PROPOSING!!!! We had a happy hands moment. You all know what that's like.
So we went to the game, and I was just about to go get some food when Rachel's roommate gave me a look that said "Don't go anywhere". So I sat tight.I have it on video, and my hands were shaking way bad when Cody called Rachel down to the 50 yard line. I don't even know why. It was way precious.
Other than that, not too much has happened. We've had a few good Sunday dinners at the grill. You know I hang out with a lot of boys when "Let's have a nice dinner" turns into "Let's grill steak".

I'm also flying out to Denver and North Carolina for Thanksgiving break! I'm so excited, the furthest I've been since getting up to Rexburg is Idaho Falls (25 minutes south). I was going to go down to Provo last weekend because my dad was going to be in town, but as it turns out his plans fell through. Sad.
I also tried my creative skills in making penguin cupcakes... They didn't turn out quite as cute as the book showed, but everyone thought they were cute. I think I found a niche. If teacher doesnt work out I'll make cupcakes from recipes.

I'm spending the least amount of time in the library, and getting the best grades I have. I wonder what that means. Libraries are inefficient.
That's all for now!

Idaho, back again.

It's so cold here. I know I haven't blogged for a while, and I have to still blog about my awesome trip to San Francisco and Gabrielle's wedding. But I wanted to talk about class first. Luckily, my classes are at pretty good times (although going to bed early to wake up for my 9:00 classes and church should prove to be difficult). Unluckily, they're going to prove to be hard.
At first I didn't agree with my bishop- I was worried that he would be too strict. But within the last 2 weeks I've grown to respect him, and I understand now that he's new and worried about being a good bishop.
I love my roommates, which is nice. It's so much less stressful having a normal roommate relationship.
I'm making friends in my classes... most of them are girls. My favorite class will probably be the hardest one-- Early Field.

That's all for now!

Last week of Work/Flugtag

The last week of work went well. Not much to report besides getting thrown in the lake by a 17 year old lifeguard... twice. They were both my fault, the first time I sank his shirt in the lake and the second time I formed an alliance with a 10 year old girl who had a grudge because he threw her in the Lagoon and when we went to splash him with water he threw me in.
The best part was on the last day of camp, I had two little friends (being about 21 years old) come to camp just to try and throw me in. I found my fight in me, and basically won that fight. I kicked one guy in the chest, just as an example. When I took off my uniform (because it was wet), someone put it in the freezer. I took it out and let it thaw, and went on my break. When I came back, it was gone... THis is what Agustin did with it (it's frozen solid):

Thank you for that.
Lucie was in the middle of this whole conspiracy, so when her mom brought her 2 spare shirts just in case I made to freeze them both. So technically I got the last laugh.
Saturday we went to Flugtag. What is Flugtag, you ask? It is an excuse to watch people be idiots, basically. But it was awesome. People would build floats and launch them off a 30 foot pier, in an effort to see if "Red Bull gives you wings". All the people in charge were high... it did NOT raise my intelligence level at all. However, there were some pretty interesting floats, my favorite was of Obama:

They also had T-Shirts:

Bama got Flap.

Family Reunion 2010

So it was a few weeks ago, but I decided to wait until I had gotten the pictures from Mom's camera to talk about the reunion. It was in Charleston, UT... a suburb of Midway, which doesn't have too much population to begin with. So we were pretty much on our own. I liked it.
The reunion started on a Friday, and began with Grandpa's activity- a Square Dance.

 

We let him take his "rightful" place as DJ.

The next morning we went tubing down Provo Canyon River... it was the coldest water I think I've ever felt. It was 45 degrees... holy cow. And there were redneck locals dumping buckets of water on us!!! ugh... some people.

Ignore the unsightly bandage on my chin.

Katie and I tied our tubes together, and took way too long to get down the ice-water because we kept hitting the trees on the side. But we were enjoying ourselves haha.
Afterwards, we acted like children who had never experienced warmth and piled in the hot tub at the house... As many as we could. The water was nasty and only halfway full by the time we got out:

Sunday, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's ward in Orem. Of course it was the week of a missionary's homecoming, and of course Grandpa had already asked the Sedgwicks to sing a musical number. Coincidence? With Grandpa, anything's possible. After that, we went to the self-proclaimed "Smithsonian of the West", in Charleston Utah. This pretty much sums it up.

After all the excitement was over, it was time for family pictures. We got some pretty good ones.

(Jared in the background)

We had a talent show, and I did my card trick. I knew if I didn't have something planned then I would get called on anyways... so luckily Alex taught me that trick at work just prior.
Monday we did miscellaneous activities, such as jet skiing and playing cards with the cousins.
Overall, I loved the reunion. It was a ton of fun, and I got to know my cousins a lot better than I seem to normally in a reunion.