TEACHER TIME

For one of my classes I was asked to post on my blog about my stance going into a teaching career, so here it is:
Originally pursuing a career in psychology and earning a Bachelor's degree was such a ride and there were so many concepts within that field that I felt, and still feel, strongly about. I have always wanted to understand people better and why we do the things we do. However, a bigger part of what I wanted was to help people to see their value and learn that they have a choice in change. Upon looking into clinical, school counseling, and other forms of psychology I surprised myself by realizing that a school teacher was actually exactly what I wanted to do and for which I felt the most passion. I am now fully emerged into the Elementary Education program at USU and absolutely loving it. I see so much lacking in our education system and in our community in general for supporting our young children growing up in society. Unfortunately the majority of them appear to not have even a fighting chance when it comes to their support outside of school teachers. It feels like being in the front lines of a battle- where one person in those children's lives has the chance to teach them what it takes to take control of their lives regardless of circumstance. I hope to be that kind of teacher; to never stop seeing the value in these children; to never give up on any of them. Disappointments, tremendous anxiety, and false judgements seem to pave the entire pathway of the teachers I have had the privilege to observe- but through it all they still firmly believe in the cause they are undertaking in teaching the youth of today. They are soldiers and I hope I can be at least half as strong as they are.

Basketable Lucy-bell

I took this video last time I visited and gave it to MissnSam but they were too embarrassed of my loud squawking voice throughout the whole film so they haven't put it on their own blog. I guess I haven't learned my video-recording etiquette just yet...but Lucy is cute!!!

Still can't handle her cuteness :)

My Day 2/15/12 -as requested by RACHEL!

Thanks for the blog idea- I really needed an excuse to not do school work!

7:00am - alarm goes off on the other side of the room. Get up, stumble across, push snooze, fall back in bed.
7:10am - repeat
7:20am - repeat
7:30am - repeat, only accidentally turn alarm off instead of pushing snooze.
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9:40am - wake up from a series of very stressful dreams about missing classes I didn't know I had, being fired from work, etc. and realizing I needed to be at work in 20 minutes.  Throw myself out of bed along with a very confused Rory and run to the bathroom to throw some clothes on, brush teeth, and haphazardly smooth down my bed-hair.
9:50am - push Rory out the door and tell her to "gopottygopottygopottygopotty..." until she FINALLY actually does go potty after sniffing VERY carefully every blade of grass in the vicinity and making about 1,000 circles.
9:55am- Rush her back inside and hurry to the car and drive to work while simultaneously applying makeup.
10:05am- Show up at work and find a big cranberry-orange muffin that my boss, Tom has bought for me all set up on my desk with an orange juice :) I help an artist check in and out some art and he talks to me about dating his 22 year old son and insists I look him up on facebook to "check him out."
10:30am- make invoices and update our accounting records for some pending sales, send out statements, and confirm shipments that were sent out at the beginning of the week.
11:30am- realize I didn't write the paper this morning that I was planning to write since I went to a Valentine's day party last night instead of doing school work. I tell Tom and since I've worked overtime for 3 weeks in a row, he is in full support of my taking off early after my lunch break. After thanking him many times, I go back to work. I update the website with new arrivals and the new artist spotlight and look into simple ways to make the website look better because I think it looks dumb right now.
12:00pm- Meet with my coworker and go over the schedules for the next couple of weeks and look at progress on our ongoing projects with the database.
12:15pm- Fix Tom's email outlook issues (i hate outlook)
12:45pm- Hang some new paintings up and file some old
1:00pm- Talk to someone who is sure their Picasso poster is worth millions and try and convince them it's not worth more than $50 at max.
1:20pm- data filing and photo imaging
2:00pm- take off for the day, and go straight home to work on the paper.
2:10pm- get called by Diana announcing she has a new puppy! Freak out and get to meet it- (so cute! white lab) she and Rory get to play and we eat lunch.
3:30pm- go back to writing the paper about human echolocation (seeing by sonar)
5:30pm- finish the paper and hand it in via the web. Go eat a bowl of ice cream in celebration while reading "The Carousel" by that same author that wrote the "Time Piece" or something. Good fast, non-thinking kind of book.
6:00pm- sit back down at the computer to work on another paper for research methods but figure out that it will be easier to complete the graphs/charts with microsoft office suite on my work computer rather than my home computer. Resort to facebook instead and read the posts of the day. "like" Rachel's pictures of Jeff's award thing.
6:30pm- open up another assignment I have to do for international economics. Read it about 5 times until I understand what the teacher is talking about and then read other peoples' posts given in response. End up feeling overwhelmed, stupid, and confused. Resort to going outside and playing with Rory.
7:30pm- Sit back down to try and attempt the same assignment and get irritated I don't understand it so decide to look up puppies on ksl instead, and then names for dogs because Diana and Matt still haven't named theirs. Decide they should name it "Alaska" "Coca-Cola" or "Bling." long stories.
8:00pm- Get annoyed that I have this nagging feeling about having to do that assignment. Get up and eat some "King's Hawaiian savory butter" rolls. Drink some water. Cough.
8:15pm- get on blogger and read peoples' posts from the week and get this idea from Rachel's blog that demands I do the same.
8:35pm- Start doing this, with breaks of playing tug-of-war with a very restless Rory who is now sound asleep on my right arm making it hard to type.
8:59pm- looks like I'm done. I will probably force myself to do that assignment, which will take forever, and then be so restless and annoyed after that I'll need to do something mindless -probably play the guitar for awhile. Then I'll hopefully remember to drink more water, reply to a bunch of texts that it looks like my phone is telling me that I have, update the list for my ward's group date I'm in charge of, and then plan out my day for tomorrow and then oh crap, I should read the scriptures too and it looks like I haven't prayed today either. Retina.

Dang- this is like those things where they make you write down everything you eat and you end up just feeling guilty and looking at how you're not doing as well as you thought you were. Good to know, all the same. Thanks Rachel!

Photographic Memory 2011

I was thinking that if most people are as good as I am at taking photos, then having a photographic memory isn't really all it's cracked up to be. This is mostly all I've got for 2011 that have been downloaded onto my computer (aside from anything already added to this blog). So here is a scrambled memory of last year. Cheers!

 

Why I am not in filmography

This is a random clip of TJ -I was going to make a highlight-movie of Easter last spring to send to the out of state families but this is really all I got. Then during Thanksgiving weekend after doing weird things with Lucy's move (below) I kept on going with my so-talented movie-editing skill with TJ's movie. I think the parents of both children were more disturbed than anything but it's the best I've got right now. ;)

HERBAL REMEDIES

A large majority of my readers- 50% actually (Rachel and Emily) requested that I post something. I've already blogged about my dog, my apartment, my job, my major....so.....we're all going to branch out.

My herbs:

For Mother's Day this year Mom gave all the girls herb seeds with planter pots. The first step was to get dirt. Sounds simple? Walmart has a full 2 aisles FULL of different kinds of dirt. Whether your plants need that special fiber that comes from cow manure (I just learned how to spell manure) or that extra little kick that ground up rats and worms give it, Walmart has it. And none of those wimpy regular sized bags of dirt either. We're talking 20-30 pounds of home-grown and cultivated stuff. I opted for the dirt that came in the smallest bag with a flower on the front.
The next step is putting the dirt into the pot things. That took me 4 months. In the mean time the large bag of dirt served as a good insulator against the smoke/noise that comes through the vent from neighbors.
Last- you have to find a thing to put the potting things in so that water doesn't leak all over. DI is an excellent source for oblong....plant holder dishes. Mine was 75 cents, plus tax.
Two months ago I finally put the herbs in the window sill, watered, and in the sunlight. One day later they were already shooting up. Two days later they were an inch tall. One week later they needed mowing.
Last week (after weeks of careless mowing of herbs) I finally got brave and tried eating it. I mixed it into some tuna for a sandwich and it actually tasted good! I think I have cilantro, parsley, and onion sprouts.
Anyway, I highly recommend the growing of herbs in one's home. It makes me feel good to know that I can keep an herb alive. It also provides oxygen if you look at the carbon cycle.
And.....there you have it. Till next time, faithful readers. Love you!!!!

Hawaii Trip 2011

My 4th Hawaii Trip!

Nothing like strangling your little sister to show your affection.

  

 "No, Kimi, I want to step right there!"

 "Mmm, salty"

 LOVE this family :)

 Mark and I got to swim with the turtles (not these ones, much BIGGER ones)

 This goat tried to poop on Omi seconds later.

 Ohana

 Little monkey that looked just like Omi.

 Stacey is an amazing photographer.

Thanks for a great week Mark, Stacey, Naomi, and Kalea!