registering

last night i dragged bret to target to register. when it was all said and done i think i had a worse time than he did. target seemed to have very few choices. i felt like we registered for things because we "had" to. not very fun. and since we were pressed for time a lot of the decisions didn't take a lot of thought or analysis. i hate "buying" things without more thought. bret hated "buying" things if he didn't feel like we needed them. of course, he's been content to live in a bachelor's pad with hand me downs for years. i guess in some ways i have too. it's hard to shift into responsible adult mode with nice things. it was really easy talking ourselves out of registering for things with the justification that it wasn't needed. after some arm twisting he finally registered for a tennis racket. i own one and if he doesn't have on then i felt like there would never be the chance that we might play. he argued that for how often we tried to play he could just borrow one from his parents - but i figured that took away the spontaneity. in the end i wonder if i really should have pushed. maybe in a few years when we look at the dusty unopened tennis rackets we can laugh at my insistence. anyway, i'm hoping to have more luck and bed bath and beyond - maybe we'll get there tonight after we do dinner with the parents.

can i tell you all how annoying this tight knot in my upper back is? you know, the kind stuck behind the shoulder blade. it won't go away! i think i'll have to visit a massage therapist sooner than later.

The ring

I know it's a bit blurry, and it's not even my real ring (just filler) but it's the same style so I figure I should share. The real one will have yellow diamonds framing the center stone.

engaged!

i don't think there's any one that reads this blog other than mike in texas that doesn't also read all my facebook posts or get regular emails from me. but as a special treat to those who do occasionally check here, i'm posting my engagement photo. what i love best is that we got engaged last wednesdayish and by saturday we had a date, were shopping for a ring and next thing we knew, i bought a new blouse and we were posing for an engagement picture. bret's brother took it (after proper encouragement and pressuring from me). we went to byu campus since i knew they had beautiful leaves. ever since i attended college there i have loved their leaves and had even dreamed of having my engagement photo taken with them. these were different leaves than the ones i used to admire (my "hood" at the y was pretty limited). after about 5 minutes of picture taking it started to rain heavily. that was the end of the photo session, and luckily it was successful!

Old

You know you're getting old when you purchase something specifically for a male and the clerk asks if it's for your husband or son. How does he know it's not for my father or brother? Sigh.

Talent

For fhe on sunday I was in charge of talent. Since bret and I recently painted the ceiling of my new bedroom I decided to share that. It compares in no way to what james and alicia did, but I believe it's important to be pleased with your work, so i'm sharing it. Taking a picture of a ceiling isn't easy. I'm also attaching the view from my bed of the newly painted door. Now I just need to cover the closet doors!

Long week

It's only wednesday of a rather long week. Sigh. But at least i'm attending yoga tonight and then going to the temple with plewe. That actually seems like a great way to spend my evening. The last two evenings i've had parent teacher conferences. I know i'm finally a veteran because I felt zero amount of nervousness. Mostly I was sad I got so little planned during the down time. The first night we had a fire alarm so we got to spend a good five minutes standing around in the cold - it was nice to have the "break." my other stress of the week is halloween. I made the official announcement that i'm throwing a party. That means I have to get serious about nailing down a costume. If you didn't get invited my apologies - drop me a line and i'll see what I can do about that. In the mean time happy halloween! I think I need to watch nightmare before christmas to get in the mood.

Hair cut

Another hair cut another blog post. Too bad this is about as exciting as my life gets. I AM enjoying the new cut, though. I will gladly recommend my stylist - only 25 for a cut - a steal if you ask me. It's been a long time since i've loved a hair cut - didn't have to "fix it" when I got home.
now to figure out what to make for dinner.
P.s. Midterms are due monday - 1/8th of the way through another year. Brand new student today. I think i've had one at least once a week since school started. And here we are in the middle of a research paper.

a butt

That's not a word I use lightly - but it's the only word to describe what I found in my yard last weekend. After having an enjoyable marktoberfest on friday night I decided it was time to mow the lawn on saturday. In the backyard - that's completly fenced in - I found a marlboro butt lying in the grass. Smoked to the end but not squased or mutilated looking, it was just innocently hanging out on my lawn. How did it get there? I hate not knowing. Now I wish i'd taken a picture - you know - for the blog's sake. i'm hurting for good material these days. I blame school. Which is a topic for another post another day. Bed for now.

Life of a fly

Tonight I had dinner with plewe. About midway through we discovered a fly on the table. I assumed it was dead - feet in the air and all. But plewe saw a leg wiggle. She wanted to save it. I wanted to hide it under a napkin. after enduring my idea for about 10 minutes Plewe won - she scooted it off the table onto the window sill below the table. I didn't mind - out of sight out of mind - but plewe kept thinking about it. She gave him a piece of chip to regain his strength. A bit later she checked on him and tried to readjust the chip so he could grab it. Really - a fly! A half dead fly! When we finally left she couldn't resist checking on him - and who knew - but he was gone! Seriously he wasn't on the floor or anywhere we could see. It was like a fly miracle. Plewe admitted her obsession may be due to some repressed issues related to helplessness. Of all things - a fly! A half dead fly!

New mixer

I finally hit bb&b with my collection of gift cards I got using all my discover card points. Plus 20 percent off and I came home with 400 dollar mixer and only paid 150. Now to decide if I want to keep it or swap with my sister for her bosch. Still pondering that one.

Lunch box love

My good brother loaned me his son's old "bob the builder" lunch box to start the new school year. My harry potter was starting to rip. Bob's been great, but apparently one of my coworkers thought it was time I had a decent upgrade. This morning she handed me this super cute new one filled with lauging cow cheese, crackers, and my beverage of choice - water. I was totally touched by her thoughtfulness but part of me may miss bob.

nod to tracie

i just hit "publish post" and then noticed the good friend tracie had also posted. only last friday we were chatting and commenting on how neglected our blogs have been. funny that we finally both got around to it. i like her stories. i too love living in the city. i too love cooking. i too love friends. hooray for good times in the city! i want to take a cooking class i think.

first week and then some

so, all last week i meant to post something about my first week of school. it didn't happen. i was too busy. let me see what i can come up with.
english classes - all great! i started high energy talking about hopes and purpose. i had them write me a letter about their hopes for the year and for extra credit i said their parents could write me about their hopes. (thanks for the idea julie!) i was surprised by how many of them want to be better writers in terms of grammar and vocabulary. unfortunately that's not the most fun to teach and i don't have much material for such lessons. but i did break down and buy 20 copies of "well-lit sentences" - or some similar book. i found it by my library by chance and really enjoyed it. i will give it a shot - teaching "reading informational text" and grammar at the same time. any suggestions? help? guidance? yikes!
my reading classes were not as positive. somehow i have become a dumping ground for special ed kids whose schedules don't work so they'll just plop them in my classes. what a pain. plus the software we use has a bug and won't be fixed until next week. filler with a bunch of kids who hate school and would rather sleep is a real challenge. it's hard for ME to stay positive and enthusiastic. so far, though, i really do love my kids. i just hate my job. my fellow teachers just cause me stress.
my yearbook/journalism kids are a motley crew. we have super sharp kids and a bunch of "pass the time" sorts in there. i'm going with the attitude that if you give them responsibility they'll rise to the challenge. all fingers crossed!
anyway, one highlight last week was coming across a spider in the hallway. it was coming straight down on my coworker's head as we were complaining. (really one of my goals each day is to not complain.) i took a picture. it's blurry. you wouldn't care.
i've still been happy living alone. i love the space, the peace, the freedom. heaven.
now to look at august's finances and see how i did with my first month on a "budget" - like the official kind.

One more year

I turned older last week. And to celebrate I invited the entire ward to lava hot springs. Well - i'm co in charge of ward activities so the trip wasn't really for my bday. Anyway, bret was very clever and ordered a cake for me that we picked up in soda springs. It was a total surprise which made it all the better. Later at camp we gathered the 15 or so ward members together to celebrate and help us eat it. I think I couldn't have planned a better party.

View of living alone

It's my first night alone. I spent a good portion talking to my mother on the phone. Who else would a girl call when she finds herself utterly alone? Luckily mother wa home! We had a good chat. This alone thing will be good for me. When I got off the phone I looked around and noticed how NOT alone I really am. I have my treasured mobiles - always ready to greet me - one is full of photos of dear friends. On my dresser is a photo of dad - reminding me of a great family legacy I come from - one of courage and hard work. On top of me is a gorgeous quilt my mother gave me for my mother gave me for my birthday. One father helped with even. And pinned to my closet door is a picture of the resurrected christ. I think being alone is totally a matter of perspective.

stuff

Here's the latest status of packing. There's still plenty more to do - thus the empty boxes in front. What worries me is that the rest of the house doesn't appear to be that empty. You know what that means. By the way, if you want to help with the move - the uhaul will be here wednesday at 6. Come one come all - good times!

big changes afoot!

so, my roommate of 11 years is officially moving out tomorrow! we moved into my house together (we'd been roommates earlier in an apartment) about 6 years ago the week of her birthday - i find it coincidental that she moves out the week of my birthday. this year i'm celebrating by cochairing a ward trip to lava hot springs. not my first choice of fun, but good enough. in preparation for living alone i've bought a few things for the house - like an iron and ironing board. funny what you get used to not owning until you actually have to live on your own. this will be my first time EVER to live alone. ever! yes, i'm a bit nervous. i'm not the alone sort. i spent a good portion of today going over my finances and creating a budget. i've tried this before, but not with as scientific and purposeful approach - here's hoping this time is different. here's hoping i actually stick to it! i've decided i need to especially watch my grocery, eating out, and entertainment categories - those are the places it's easiest to go overboard. i also did some cleaning today. the good roommate has boxed up nearly all of her things - they fill one side of my front room - oh i should take a photo for documentation purposes. i'll do that next. anyway, i had to move one of the larger boxes to get to the printer paper. i never realized the but muscles involved in lifting large boxes. i know this because last week when i was cleaning the bathroom i fell on my rear. it's been bruised feeling ever since. maybe it's more of a strained muscle, actually, since it flared up in pain just now while moving the box. school starts next week. cry for me argentina. seriously i hope i can survive all this change!

Birthday fun begins today!

Yep it's officially my birthday I think. I spent the day with my mom doing lunch and shopping for shoes. When I left she gave me my bday gift - some good old fashioned cash. I figure the cool new shoes I bought should officially be the purchase using that cash - thanks ma! They're cute aren't they? And the red soles match my red orthotics - call me fashionable. My mother always said a girl should have a bit of red on her somewhere. I think orthotics should count! So where am I sporting these fancy new fancy new shoes - no other than a birthday movie outing with the good friend. Anyway - gotta go check out the flick!

last friday

technically next friday is my last friday of freedom but since i'll be in lava hot springs getting to be in charge of a ward trip i don't feel i can call that true freedom. so guess how i'm spending the day! well, i have a ton of crocheting to do - goals must be met - so i figured sitting around watching a video might be a good way to do it. so i called my mother to see if she had any good ones from the library she might be watching while she sews. instead she convinced me to join her for a bday lunch. who am i to argue. so my last day of freedom i'll be doing lunch with my mother and hopefully crocheting. i'd like to point out that before i turned 30 i wanted to finish an afghan i'd begun 6 years earlier. when i picked up this project last april i decided i must complete it faster than 6 years. yes, it would be super cool if it could be done by my birthday, but i'm content to say before my NEXT birthday. mostly i'm trying to impress the niece that got me started and who is visiting at the end of the month. i want to be half way through. you know what will happen when school starts - i'll totally neglect it. in fact, i may neglect a lot of things going on in my life. sigh. school is hard. last night at visiting teaching my friend said back many years ago when she taught her roommate was also a teacher. my friend said she knew she was a good teacher, but she knew her roommate was a great teacher because the roommate kept thinking about school stuff and actually enjoyed thinking about it, where my friend would come home and just think about what was for dinner. i'm afraid i'm only a good teacher. i do know a great teacher, though, and she's my inspiration. her school starts a good week before mine so it's easy to feel motivated and inspired by her. good luck julie! i'm thinking about you!

Napa

Our last day in california took us through napa valley. We enjoyed shopping in calistoga springs but napa itself felt dead. We took the long way around clear lake. I'll just say it's not all clear but it's still beautiful. This day's drive was much more pleasant. I was surprised by the tourism aspects of wine country - just odd to me since it's not on my radar. I did enjoy what appeared to be huge azalea bushes everywhere. But they could have been rhododendrons - I hear they're related. I took a photo while on the highway anyway.

our very last day began in reno and ended up in church just in time for sacrament meeting. Let me just tell you what a let down nevada is when finishing a scenic road trip. At least I had a good book to read. I finished "god wants a powerful people" - it did a lot for me in the moment and since then. We had good discussions connected to points made in the book. I'd also like to point out what an amazingly comfortable stay we had in the staybridgesuites in reno using the fabulous friends and family rate courtesy of the good friend tracie - thanks tracie - hooray for a haven of comfort after a bad night in willits.