Common Sense: Apparently Not So Common

I go to Mom and Dad's house on the weekend. This is why:

I walk in every Sunday night and see a similar scene. This Sunday was the worst. I really don't understand what is SO complicated about dirtying a dish (MY dish, mind you) and rinsing it off (you don't even have to scrub) and putting it in the dishwasher. I usually end up doing those dishes and loading the dishwasher and then my beloved roommate, Kristen (who also goes home on the weekends) empties the dishwasher. We both take turns taking out the weekend trash Monday afternoons as well. We realize that we are just encouraging their behavior by doing the work of our other 2 pathetic roommates, but it is just disgusting and we can't live in that dumpsite. I don't know how they can.

But this Sunday night was the last straw. I vowed I would never wash another dish of someone else ever again. I only have to spend 2 more weeks living there, I thought I could handle it. So I went to bed.

I woke up Sunday morning at 5:30 and the mess was still there and I planned to just leave it. But there were so many dishes that I couldn't even reach under the faucet to rinse out my own cereal bowl to put in the dishwasher.

I opened the dishwasher to just stick it in there and then I found the problem--the dishwasher was full of clean dishes! Then it dawned on me: the dirty girls couldn't do their dishes because there was nowhere to put them and they couldn't put the clean dishes away because they don't know where the dishes go because they never unload the dishwasher. I wondered why they chose not to just clean the dishes by hand and wondered if it was because we were out of dish soap…

False.

I thought about leaving it all just a mess because it was now about 6am and I'm the only person awake then…but then I thought, I could get so much more satisfaction out of banging these pots, pans, and plates, and dumping the silverware tray around than I would walking in the door at 6pm that night and the mess having only grown more disgusting. So I clanged and slammed to my heart's content and cleaned the whole mess up. And guess what? It only took me about 6 minutes.

In conclusion, if you are the type of person who makes a mess and doesn't even consider cleaning up after yourself, could you please explain to me your thought process so that I can demonstrate Christlike love and empathy towards my fellow men? Thank you.

Michael Jordan's Lucky 23

Are you ready for this?! I graduate (from COLLEGE) two months from yesterday on April 23rd!!! And after today I will be officially halfway done with student teaching. Yahoo for school! Yahoo for me!

Puke and Fruit

Student teaching has been surprisingly good so far. I have learned a lot and each day I get more responsibility and gain more confidence as a teacher. I have also had some interesting "first" experiences. I have been flipped off, had a student throw up on the gym floor, had police come to interrogate a girl for stealing items out of the locker room, had a girl fart in class (very audibly), and had a wonderful student bring me an apple. Isn't that cute?

I know there will be many more instances similar to these if I continue to stay in education so I should get used to it. But there is one "first" that I hope to prolong as much as possible…parent-teacher conflict! All in all, I am starting to feel like a real teacher now and will catch myself actually having fun every once in a while.

Darn you Fifteens

For those of you with weak stomachs, I apologize…actually not really, I'm giggling a little bit. Here is Dad's hernia. It was on his lower right side. This is an image of his intestines protruding through his abdominal wall. The surgeon went in laparoscopically, made a few little holes, did some rearranging, and stitched him back up. Dad was being too macho to take the strong pain relievers they gave him and only took the weak stuff. He's been up and moving around, he even tried to help Mom shovel snow on Saturday before mom slapped him a big "NO" on that one. You know how hard it is for Dad to sit still, so he did the only other thing Dad does best: watch movies. We spent Friday night and Saturday enjoying a Lord of the Rings extended version marathon in the new theatre seats. He has since developed a bad cold and has stayed home from work. But he is recovering from the surgery well, as we are all glad to hear.

My First Week

I started student teaching this week. Well, I started going to Oak Canyon everyday. I had some orientation to do but I've mostly just been observing and doing little grading assignments or equipment stuff. I got my very own set of keys to the teacher's lounge, the gym, the locker rooms, and our office. Our (yes, I am allowed to say "our") class did Dance Dance Revolution my first day (have you ever considered doing DDR in a PE class? Cool, huh!) But it's the last week of the term so we have to clean out lockers the rest of the week and then re-assign them next week. Which means there will be about two weeks where I won't get to teach. Last week that would have been fine with me, I wanted to put it off as long as possible, but I am getting antsy. I have decided I don't think I mind the teaching, I just hate the lesson planning. If I could just teach someone else's lesson, that would be sa-weet because then if it's a boring lesson or something I could just blame someone else.

Anyway, the school is amazing. All of the faculty I have met have been very nice and helpful. The whole environment of the school is so cooperative, everyone seems to have each other's back. I am still super uncomfortable calling all of them by their first names, especially the principal. I'm just not ready for that.

They also have this cool program called "eTime" (E for Eagles, the school mascot). Tuesday-Friday there is a short 25 minute period where students with a "D" or "F" in any subject go to their teacher to make up work and everyone else basically gets fun time. They can play basketball in our gym, go watch movies in the auditorium, read in the library (this is actually one of the most popular places to be, isn't that great?), do art projects, all kinds of fun stuff. The principal says they've decreased "F" students down to 1% by using this program. Sounds good to me.

There are 4 periods of 75 minutes each day, 25 minute eTime, and a 30 minute lunch. Except we have 1st period prep every other day, which is nice. and on Monday there is no eTime, classes are a little bit shorter, and the kids get out an hour early. That's when we'll have our department meetings.

Despite the fact that I have done zero teaching and I have basically just stood or walked around the gym, I am absolutely exhausted! I really miss my daily 3 PM nap. I get up at 5:30AM and leave school around 3PM and I could seriously just crash for the night right then. I'm pathetic. I am worried about having to teach physical activity all day, I may pass out. We will team-teach volleyball to the girls, which I can fake my way through but then I have to teach basketball all by myself and plan the unit out…dun dun dun…I am HORRIBLE at basketball. My professors told me I should take a basketball class to build my confidence, which I did. Then this week I've been watching the girls play during eTime and holy moly, they are GOOD! So, yikes-a-bee. Then after basketball I might have to do Ultimate Frisbee. And as someone who is proud of the fact that she had never played "Ultimate" until forced to in class, this is not a good sport either. Also while playing frisbee at BYU, my professor asked, "you haven't done this much before, have you?" When I replied, "no," she said, "I could tell."(Ouch).

So I have my work cut out for me but I am very excited! I think I got the perfect school placement and I'm looking forward to a fun semester!

(Sorry there are no fun pictures to look at and it's mostly just reading. I know it's boring but I thought I would just give you an update.)

Look out Apollo!!!!

Jaden and I went ice skating last night and you have got to see this kid! He is amazing on a pair of ice skates!!! I helped put them on and the he just took off walking around on them by himself. I thought he would need help getting used to walking with them--false. He showed off by walking forwards, backwards, sideways, and with his eyes closed!

We went to the Olympic Oval which is a speed skating track, not your typical skating rink. The oval is huge, about the size of a running track. We went around the whole track 5 times!!! Each time we went around Jaden just got better and better. The first time he held onto my hand and the wall. We basically just walked around on the ice with little stutter steps.We went pretty slowly but Jaden taught himself how to stop using the toe pick and stopped himself from falling quite a few times...but we did fall...a lot. Jaden was such a good sport, he just said, "I'm okay!" and got back up and kept going. After the first time around, which took about 30 minutes, we had to take a break because the zamboni had to clean the ice, which took FOREVER. Seriously, 23 minutes to clean the ice. We were getting antsy.

When we got back on again, Jaden started getting more brave and picked up speed. We went around in less time with fewer falls with every lap. Then he started actually gliding a little bit on the ice, closing his eyes, taking little jumps, weaving his feet in and out a little, and then...he let go of the wall...and then me! He started doing it all by himself. Then when he would fall, he would say, "It's okay to fall because that's how we learn." On the last time around he only fell 2 times! That is incredible because the track is ginormous and it was only his first time! Way to go Jaden! We had so much fun! He did say that he wished his family was there so that they could see how good he was. So here are some videos of him skating. Sorry they aren't very good, I'm not the most coordinated skater/photographer.

Movin on Up

I'm done!!! I took my last undergraduate final yesterday!!!

Also, I thought I'd show everyone what Nathan's stocking looks like. Mom is so good!

And if you notice the new location, it is due to the increase in population of the family. And look how far up the stairs I am!

In other news: I am now unemployed! Hooray!!! :o)