this week in review

monday
i had a meeting with one of my professors, and it was very productive, i thought. i've met with a lot of professors during my time here at byu, and this particular one is one of the best i've run into because 1) he is helpful and 2) i feel like he actually wants to listen to my ideas, which is why he is helpful. i want to be a teacher like that. it's more common to go into a professor's office and feel like the person is simply enduring your time together rather than trying to give constructive feedback. (this relates to one of my biggest beefs with my master's program: they try to give us (me) too much independence--i'm not a seasoned scholar! sure, i've written a ton of papers, but i'm not a genius-idea machine! i still need help! everyone still needs help!)

tuesday
i received a job offer from sylvan learning center in american fork. i interviewed a few weeks ago and finally heard back. so, for the summer and maybe beyond, i'll be working as an ACT instructor and a regular classroom instructor. as part of the interview process, i had to take a practice ACT, and boy, am i rusty on some of those math concepts. i'm secretly kind of pumped to re-learn it, though. in general, i'm pretty excited, mostly because i'm anxious to be teaching again. i start training next week.

wednesday
last zumba class of the semester :( we don't start up again until the end of april, which means i'm going to be doing some just dance and zumba workouts on my own over the next month. and maybe some hip hop abs.

thursday
after class, i went to the bookstore in the hopes of finding some of my journals, since conference is almost upon us and i need new writing material. i've been checking every so often over the past year or so, so i wasn't super hopeful that i would find what i was looking for. but it was my lucky day! i found three medium sized notebooks, each on sale for 6 bucks! so awesome!

we also went to berg's intramural basketball game last night. it was their second tournament game, and, sadly, they lost, but it was a good effort. i'm pretty proud of berg for being an intramural-er, since i was never brave enough to get out there and perform on a team. sure, she's a little afraid to dribble, but i probably would have been, too, and she's the one who's actually doing it.

friday
for months, since the brigham city temple dedication, i have been searching for this bag of study abroad paraphernalia which contains, among many other things, a handkerchief that i bought in one of our first stops, the lovely little town of adare, ireland. i looked everywhere for that bag of stuff, and i couldn't find it. it wasn't at home, it wasn't in provo. i was very sad. the other night, i was thinking about some of the other stuff in the bag and getting even more sad. anyway, friday meredith and i decided to start the process of cleaning out the basement so we could bring stuff home this weekend, and i thought that was my last chance to find the bag. no luck. it wasn't in any of the bins down there. back in our room, i said to meredith, well, i think that stuff is lost. i don't know where else to look. about five minutes later, i decided to look under my bed, at her prompting. lo and behold, that sneaky grey bag from the jewel house, stuffed with all sorts of memories from a six week tour of the british isles, was hiding in a bin under my bed. best day ever!

later that day, we went to the shabby apple trunk show, where i got two adorable dresses for the price of about 2/3 of one. steal of a deal!

saturday/sunday
one word: conference! (more on that later)

to my future children: installment four

i want you to figure out who you are and what you like for yourself, so i'll try as hard as i can to not force you to figure those things out before you are ready. i'll try to teach you what it means to be a good and productive person and member of the church, but, as far as your own unique personality goes, i'll do what i can to let you develop that on your own. (and hopefully you'll turn out pretty great, not weird or creepy :))

we'll have family scripture study. as much as i hated getting up even earlier during my school years to read (and as much as i hate to admit this, i kind of miss getting up so early back then. i will probably regret saying this in the future, but i got so much done then. but anyway.), it's good for you to have some experience reading the book of mormon even when you don't quite get it yet.

and, you will know that, though we love all of heavenly father's children, marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman. i don't know what the world will believe or teach about this when you are growing up, but i'm going to make sure you know what's up and what we believe/know.

why i love easter {secular + sacred}

1. easter candy. i'm already having post-easter-candy-availability anxiety. i haven't had nearly enough reese's eggs or cadbury mini eggs. and i haven't had any dove truffle eggs, which are my very favorite. {update: i just looked up dove eggs, which i can't find anywhere, and apparently they are a "seasonal item" that is "no longer being offered," to which i say, shouldn't an easter seasonal item be offered at easter?!?} easter candy is about a million times better than halloween candy, in my opinion.

2. easter outfits. when i was a kid, we always had matching easter dresses. a lot of the time, mom would even make these adorable outfits for each of us, which made them even cooler. today, i still like to buy myself something springy around this time and call it my "easter dress." this year, i actually bought the dress back at the end of february, and i've been patiently waiting to wear it until easter sunday.

probably my favorite childhood easter outfits. the checks! the hats!

3. easter egg decorating. this isn't one of those traditions that is sacred in our family, but it's still fun to dye eggs every once in a while, and by "once in a while" i mean once a year or so. this week we dyed eggs for fhe, and it was pretty fun. i realized that i'm not the most creative egg-decorator, while some people in our group displayed an unusual and delightful talent for this medium.

4. easter baskets. easter baskets aren't quite as involved as christmas stockings, which only makes sense, but they are still pretty awesome. one year, my basket featured a pair of pink jelly sandals, which set the bar pretty high for future easters. after that, i ALWAYS hoped i would find a pair of clear, high-heeled jellies in my easter basket. alas, that never happened, because i'm pretty sure i made them up (yep, my imagination actively designs amazing shoes.). but, if you ever come across such a creation, there's still time to fill my easter basket.

5. easter dinner. ham, deviled eggs, olives, rolls. doesn't get much better than that.

as for the sacred side of things, i love easter for the same reason i love other sundays: we get to talk about the Savior and the atonement. easter is especially great because that is the main focus. i'm grateful for the gospel and the knowledge i have that i have an Older Brother who was willing to suffer and die for me and everyone else that i love and those i don't even know. it's comforting to know that, when i am struggling with something or when i am feeling the nudgings of despair, Christ has been there too. He is right there with me, even for the stuff that is probably inconsequential in the long run. i love what elder holland said about this a few easters ago:

It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone...Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so.

so, in conclusion, easter is awesome because Jesus Christ and His atonement are pretty awesome.

i hope everyone had a beautiful easter sunday! don't get fooled tomorrow :)

dating and parameters and such

i'm thinking about dating lately--what a surprise, right? it seems like everyday brings up some new weird situation or obstacle or straight-up huh? moment.

a couple sundays ago our stake had a fireside for all the women with sheri dew, who is awesome. i've heard her speak many times, and when i've heard her refer to her singleness and getting married, she usually talks about it in uncertain terms. i've heard her say that she hopes captain moroni is still single in the next life :) this time, however, she was certain: she said she will get married at some point. "look out in the church news--it'll be a front page story." as someone who is always thinking about being single for longer than usual, i was intrigued. she didn't know when or how, but she was certain.

she also answered questions, some of which (predictably) were about dating and marriage. one of the questions asked about why men can be sealed to more than one woman, but women can't. sister dew answered in an interesting way. she said that, in her position, it is almost a 100% probability that she will marry someone who has been married before. this would be an interesting position to be in, and she said she wasn't completely sure how she felt about it, but that she did know that things would work out the way they should.

this is, as i've said before, one of my mottoes for life and dating. i don;t know why things do or don't happen, why some guys don't call, or why some girls don't call for that matter (i don't want to place all the blame on the guys, though i do have some choice words for a select group of them.). but, as with any challenge in life, worrying too much about it is a sign of too little faith. how many times will i need to learn that?

meredith and i were talking a few days ago about parameters we or others sometimes put on our prospective or future suitors. like, i've known people in the past who had a very specific "type" from which he or she would not depart, at least not willingly. and i know of other people who want a husband who can provide a certain type of lifestyle or who will conform to a certain rigid schedule. i like to think that i don't have those kids of parameters myself, but what about the guys i dismiss outright, without getting to know them at all? this is one of the most difficult parts of dating to navigate is that there is no possible way we can "get to know" everyone in the dating pool, especially in provo, but what if we are passing up good things like that?

i rather think that dating would be a mite easier if there weren't so many "options." maybe guys and girls alike would be less flaky and people would do more than just hang out. will the world ever know?

in other news, i just figured out how to make collages in picasa, so look forward to a lot more of these little babies!

kid phases

a little over a year ago, we had a discussion on our kitchen floor. the discussion wasn't about the kitchen floor; rather, we were all sitting on the floor talking. in the dark. it was a magical night.

we each asked a question that everyone had to answer. the best and most memorable question was about our childhood phases. it was hilarious to hear about the wacky stuff we did as kids. kids are so weird, yet so awesome.

i went through a phase where i loved to make "concoctions." i would shut myself up in the bathroom for hours and just mix stuff together. powder make-up, comet, clorox bleach gel, bath salts, shampoo--anything i had handy would go into the brew. there were probably some poisonous gases wafting around. but i don't seem to be any worse for the wear, so that's good, i guess. my mom would sometimes find my potions after the fact. i particularly remember mixing up something green in a film canister that my mom later found, puzzled. why didn't i become a chemist or something? or, because i don't actually like chemistry.

i went through another phase when i was a little older where i always wanted to be out in nature. so i would take a book out to the backyard (just like now, i was never too far away from reading material) and find a spot to read. sometimes i would just pull a plastic chair into the planter behind the swing set and lean back against the tree that was in there, always wary of the pokey burs that fell from that tree and dotted the yard. or, other times, i would find a tree to sit it. we didn't have huge trees in our yard, and i wasn't much of a climber, so my chosen perch was in a small tree whose limbs were sturdy but not high off the ground. after a few months, though, i guess my constant perching became too much for this little tree, because one day i was sitting in it, heard a crack, and then fell to the ground. it was a shock. and that pretty much ended my nature-reading days. until college, that is.

did you go through any funny phases? i have more, but we'll save those for another time :)

journal dilemma

i'm in the market for a new journal. about a year and a half ago, the bookstore was selling a ton of piccadilly notebooks for super cheap. i bought a ton of those in every shape and size: small, medium, and large, blank, ruled, and graph. i was pretty much in heaven when i brought all those beautiful books home. i still have two large notebooks and one small one left, but i'm down to the last ten or so pages in my last medium one, which i use for my journal. anyone who knows me knows i can't be too long without a journal--i bring it with me basically everywhere.

so, i'm shopping around. i could go with piccadilly again:

pros to piccadilly: they are like moleskine, only cheaper; i know i like them; they match my other journals. cons: they aren't the easiest to find, especially just the way i like them.
or, i've had my eye for months on these beauties from kate's paperie.

pros: RAINBOW!!; something new to try; and, let's face it, i'm a sucker for anything rainbow. that's a pretty big pro in my book. cons: a little bit pricey; something different that i'm not sure i will like.

these are the main contenders. i just looked at amazon to see their profferings, and moleskine could come in to play. but we'll see. the rainbow might win out over familiarity. i like to switch things up.

just a few things about me

1. when i was a kid at cesar chavez elementary, we would have school-wide reading contests. i wasn't super athletic, so this was totally my game. i mean, i read on my own, outside of school anyway, so if i could actually win something for it, there was no way i was going to pass up that opportunity to shine.

each week, we turned in a sheet with all the pages we had read. those baby-sitters club and bailey school kids books were good to me.

these reading contests were also one space where being a mormon was a distinct advantage. i'm pretty sure none of those other kids were regularly reading the book of mormon with their families. 531 pages, baby!

if we were the top readers, we received medals. i think one year i won five medals. the next year (probably the book of mormon year) i read so much that i got a trophy. a trophy for reading! so awesome. i thought it was especially cool because it had a magic lamp on it, and i loved/still love aladdin. i think i still have that trophy somewhere. that might have been the last trophy i ever got.

2. i really love march madness. during the season, i have no idea which schools are really good or what duke is up to. i know what's going on with byu and whatever i hear from my dad or my brother or from rare occasions when espn is on, but that's it.

but once the selections are out and the big dance is upon us, i cannot WAIT to get on espn.com and make my bracket(s). i bug my family to make their own, too, so we can have a family group. last year i forgot to make a bracket on espn.com and i was so bummed for the rest of the tournament. this year i am in three groups and have two brackets, so i'm happy.

mostly what i like is that espn does all the work for you and shows the odds of the match-ups and then tells you who wins and loses and calculates all your points and everything and it's all right there in front of you. i'm no bracketologist, obviously, but it's fun to make picks and hope that i end up with a pretty good bracket, even though i have no idea what i'm doing, really.