Life Lately

I printed my 4+ years of livejournal, am having it bound, and shipped to my house all for about 12 bucks. I really did use it as my journal for that time in my life and even though it's super angsty, it will be helpful to have.

School is both busy and not busy. I don't know how to explain so I won't.

I love the smell of fire on my clothes.

My friends and I in the elementary education program started a new blog called Teachers Read Books for posting reviews, recommendations, events, etc.

Steph sometimes makes me feel a little worthless because she is super motivated.

JK Rowling is going to be on Oprah on Friday. I'm TiVo-ing it.

Today we were assigned "mentees" in the elementary education program. Basically they're the little baby frosh that are still freaked out by the prospect and might want to ask someone questions. I like that I'll get to be the authority on something.

My job is essentially the easiest thing in the world. Today I got paid for an hour of doing absolutely nothing.

I'm FHE mom now (I don't know if I said that yet) and it stresses me out more than it should. I want everyone to love every activity. I know that can't happen, but whatevs.

I realized by the time I get home for Christmas, Tori will be about 11 months old. That's freaking me out. She won't know me at all. I'm trying to convince either her mom or my mom to video chat with me so I can see her. She's still fat.

The BYU football team is pretty bad this year. I'll still cheer as loud as possible and be proud of my boys, it's just a building year.

I'm ready for basketball season.

Football Fight

Today the BYU v FSU game was on some crap network (ESPN-U) that no one really gets around here unless they pay for a sports package. So BYUSA teamed up with Cougar United to hold a party in the Wilk (the student building with the food court and stuff for those of you that don't go to BYU) for people to gather and watch the game. There was some hot dogs and lemonade and a ton of people and a big screen and happiness. Problem is, there was this one FSU fan. Homeboy was being pretty obnoxious and standing to clap while the rest of us were sad when BYU was not doing so hot. May I just remind you that this was on the BYU campus? Yeah, what a jerk. Shortly thereafter BYU made some great play and people pointed and hollered at the FSU fan and one BYU fan ran up and yelled something really close to the douche. Well, Mr. Idiot FSU fan decided to stand up and do a little chest push on harmless, but celebratory BYU guy. Event staff came over as the two guys yelled at each other and a little bit more pushing happened. The whole ballroom full of people stopped watching the game and started watching for a fight. I hoped someone would throw a punch because, hey, who doesn't like a good fight? It all simmered down, though event staff stayed close to those two guys.

Oh, and we did lose. It was pretty sad.

On a happier note this is hilarious to me. STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING! I did warn you. I know some of you that read this are good nice people that aren't so wicked as I am.

Sidenote: miss him.

A Song That Reminds Me of an Event: God Bless the USA

My sister was a clogger in our little home town. They always performed at the county fair and of course we watched. I don't remember how old I was, but one year during the performance they stopped to pay devotion to America the way small towns do by playing this song. It's the first time I can clearly remember feeling a little choked up about America and what we have. Weird, I guess, in that hall with hay on the floor and the smell of the pigs, cows, and sheep wafting around me. I still get choked up most of the time when I hear this song. Go America!

Remember

I hope my friends don't think I'm copying them by doing this post, but it seems wrong to let this day pass without blogging about what I remember.

I was in seventh grade living about 40 miles from the Pentagon. School had already started because it was the east coast. We started getting tiny bits of gossipy information from the kids that had cell phones then. Then parents started flooding the hall ways. The teachers wouldn't explain what was going on and we really wanted to know. My mom picked me up just before lunch and we went back to my grandmother's house where we were staying for a month or two. We watched the news all night (and, I'm ashamed to say, watched and hoped for school in our county to be cancelled the next day like most of the surrounding counties). Once it got dark we went to the fence and held candles. Most of the neighbors did the same thing. There were about a million vigils to hold and people to pray for.

A lot of the messages I've seen posted about 9/11 today seem to be trying to get across a political point (about the war, about the mosque, etc.). For once can we just remember how it was that day just to remember? We could learn something from how we acted that day. We all became Americans and stopped battling each other for once.

I say this because I mean it, not to be trite: I will always remember.

Swimsuit Fail

Tonight I went to the pool on campus to swim with some friends. As soon as we left the locker room and entered the actual pool area I was told I would need to put on a shirt if I was going to swim there. My swimsuit is a v-neck which is apparently a big no no in BYU pools. I'm no skankity skank or anything and I would never say that my swimsuit was revealing (ugly, yes) and was kind of baffled. I had to chuckle a little and congratulate BYU on actually enforcing their honor code this time, but I'm still thrown for a loop. I didn't pitch a fit or even get upset, I just went home.

I guess I'll be buying a new swimsuit sooner rather than later.

A Thousand Things Have Happened

Short and fast updates on my life unless I get all long-winded.

Laurel (my older sister) showed up at my apartment as a surprise Thursday evening. Super awesome. She's here until Tuesday.

The Cougars won yesterday. Go team. I may even be coming around to the whole two QB idea.

The game was so hot I almost died of heat and death.

It was pretty hot here again today, but now there is beautiful wind outside of my window that I am loving.

I didn't have to sit by anyone that I hate at the football game.

I got a new calling. I'm now an FHE mom. I'm good with that.

With Laurel's help I cleared my closet and drawers of all the clothes I have (had) that didn't fit or I didn't like. Three full trash bags are headed for DI.

Did I ever mention anything about my new roommates? They are so nice. I don't even mean that in a sarcastic way. They are actually so nice. Not to mention they are clean.

School is already kicking my trash. I feel like I'm constantly going and going and going without enough time to even breathe and catch up.

The idea of student teaching and graduating freaks me out.

I miss seeing the milestones as Tori grows up (not to mention the other kids).

A bunch of the cool el ed people went to our old teacher's wedding reception.

Oh, and did I mention Laurel is here? :D

A Song That Reminds Me of Somewhere: Don't Take the Girl

For those of you that don't know, I grew up in a tiny town called Luray, VA. The population has now grown to a whopping 4,871 people. It's a little country town with lots of farms, an old main street, a great little league, awful pay for teachers, and everyone knowing everyone else. It holds true to it's country-ness and most of the people there prefer country music to most other types. I don't even remember the first time I heard this song. It seems like I just always knew it. Now every time it comes on the radio in the car, whichever member of my family is hearing it (usually Mom or Laurel) will call me and just hold the phone to the speaker - even if I don't answer.

A Song That Makes Me Think of Someone: Curtis Lowe

I was home for awhile this summer and loved it sometimes. My 5 year old nephew Gabe sang this to me while we were waiting for the rest of the family in the gym parking lot. It's by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the real version can be found here.
By the way, excuse the poor camera skills, I didn't want him to know I was filming.

What I've Been Reading pt. 3

First let me start off with a question. I plan on continuing my reading for pleasure even though the school year has started. Should I continue to post these reviews or should I just keep it to myself? Let me know. Also, a disclaimer: I didn't read as much at the end of the summer because I had friends and things to do and a working TiVo (and no, I don't regularly do that stupid capitalization thing but that's how it is for TiVo). *Note: I tried to do pictures, I did but then blogger didn't upload them and I got irritated so I'm not doing them.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: A good, fun read, of course. It's not Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or anything, but it's a good solid C.S. Lewis book with a good moral and connections to Christianity. I really think everyone should have read all of the Narnia books by now. I re-read this in preparation for the movie that's coming out soon (that might suck).

Honey Baby Sweetheart: Another Deb Caletti book. This was the one that won awards and this was the one that I liked the least. It feels too forced into the teenage drama rather than like a real story unfolding. Maybe I just haven't had enough life experiences to quite get it, but I didn't love this book.

Unwind: This freaked me out. Basically it's another dystopian novel wherein the pro-life pro-choice debate has been settled. The agreement reached is that from conception to age 13 you can't do anything to chidren. From age 13 to 18 you have the option of having your children "unwound." Basically it's almost like being killed except every part of the child must live on in some way (transplants, giving limbs to those that have lost them, etc). What would you do if you found out you were going to be unwound? I did like this book. The whole dystopian thing is really working for me right now.

The Time Traveler's Wife: A decent story that moved too slow at times. I was told before I read it that the ending was sad so I just expected the worst the whole time. I found myself getting frustrated with the characters. Also, this is kind of rough (meaning too explicit for me) when it comes to sex. After the tragic part of the ending, the other part of the ending before the real ending really made me mad. Not a great read, but I've read worse.

The Cross Gardener: Sarah had borrowed this from Marci. It was written by her cousin or uncle or somebody related to her. It's a quick read and a nice uplifting story that made me cry several times. It takes place very close to the place I grew up in Virginia and the descriptions of the weather and the sites and the scenery there as well as details about places I've been or lived really got to me in this one and made me connect.

Mockingjay: No spoiler alerts because I'm not going to say anything. Basically, if you're reading the Hunger Games series you're going to read this third and final installment and if you're not, you're not. It's too new for me to post any plot details. I did love it, though.

A Great and Terrible Beauty: I've read this a few times before. It's a good fantasy novel that I first got into in high school. Basically some girls in Victorian (I think) England discover magic and it's pretty awesome. They're at boarding school in this one. There's an attractive gypsy boy involved and of course some evil to battle. I do love some good young adult fantasy. The second in this trilogy is pretty good, and the third wasn't that great (I only read it once, I should probably do so again).

That is all. Again, please comment and let me know if I should keep posting these book blogs.