First year...check!

A little over a year has passed since I last blogged and I really cannot believe it! I never forgot about my blog and I always intended to update on my life, but as the saying goes life happened!

Last I updated I was preparing to enter into my first year teaching. I was so excited to be close to my family, I was so thankful that I had a job, and I was SO scared that I was going to completely fail at and hate my job!

Luckily, I was right to be excited and thankful because it was the best year of my life! I cannot believe how comfortable and natural teaching came to me. Going to school I was always so nervous that I was in the wrong major because I never felt good enough to teach English. I was always such a self-doubter and I regret that so much! Teaching was so amazing and I have no doubt in my mind that my Heavenly Father put me on this path!

I think part of the reason I enjoyed life so much also had to deal with the fact that I had one of my best friends with me every step of the way! My sister Erica also taught at the same school and we were able to experience everything a first year teacher has to go through together! Teaching is hard work! You put in way more than forty hours a week not to mention the mentally and physically draining job it is to teach middle school students. Having someone who completely understood what I was going through and feeling the same way was so comforting. We were comfortable around each other and we just understood!

Having one year under your belt in a teaching career is huge! The first year is extremely stressful. You start knowing nothing about the school routines, procedures, learning/adopting the school curriculum and just being the newbie at the school and hoping your students don't eat you alive! My first year was certainly different than that of others because I was something called a "traveling teacher." What this means is that because our school was so overgrown we had way more students than we had room to have classes necessary, so I literally traveled/moved to a new classroom for each class period to teach. It was so stressful! I didn't get my own classroom, I didn't get to decorate (which if you know me you know I love to do) I didn't get solid classroom routines for my students which made classroom management really difficult. Luckily my second year I get a classroom! I get to teach what I love and work with AMAZING teachers! Although my first year, for lack of a better word, SUCKED! I still grew a lot and gained amazing confidence that because I was challenged I came out so much stronger!
Preparing to go into a second year I am actually enjoying my summer! I am not stressing about lesson plans or trying to figure out  how I am going to travel or what that would look like. Now I get to plan decorations, and fix my classroom management, and most importantly have fun and relax a little bit!

Long story short, life is good! I can't help but sit here and think as I am typing this how incredibly blessed I am! There is just nothing better than knowing I am doing what I am supposed to be doing and I'm happy with my life! I get to go to my parents home whenever I want, I have a little more financial freedom, I belong to an amazing ward and have made some awesome friends, I have an amazing principal and work with great people and I get to live with Erica! Sure there were hard days and difficult things that happened in this past year, but as I am typing out and remembering my past year I am finding that the good days are sticking out in my mind more than the bad!

This was my SSC (advisory) class. 

 

Not Your Average Netflix and Chill.

Contrary to popular belief I choose to believe that "Netflix and Chill" actually means watching Netflix and just chilling...alone...in yoga pants...with peanut m&m and a dr. pepper!

What up bloggers! It is currently 12:21 AM and I decided to do a blog post...real convenient right? haha! I just came to a conclusion of what this blog is for me. I used to be so concerned with posting really adventurous posts just to make me look really fun and adventurous...and don't get me wrong I love to have fun and go on adventures but lately this blog has served more for just putting my raw and actual thoughts out there rather than just letting you in on all of the seldom adventures I have. Therefore, if you really know me you would know how much I love to get sucked into a good tv series on Netflix and become one with the main characters. And when I say I become one with them I mean I feel like I am on the show, a part of the gang, the good people of course, and following along vicariously through them. This of course leads to intense duplication of every heart ache, and every moment of joy that these characters feel leaving me in a puddle of confused emotion. You ask why confused...because for one the shows are fictional-meaning they are not true, the characters are not true, the story lines are not true nor in any way ever possible, and for two they have no idea who I am or that I am even obsessed with them at the time. Resulting in my utter disbelief when I am hysterical crying when a character dies or gets married thinking to myself "you need a life" "these characters are not real why are you so attached" "seriously, why are you crying they are not really getting married and having a baby" and so on...but I can't help it! And to be completely honest I don't want to stop...I love feeling the emotion and getting so excited for the characters. I don't love it when they die but I do love feeling the emotion and knowing that I'm a human and not a robot? haha! even though I am completely aware I am in no way shape or form affiliated with the characters on the fictional tv shows at all it makes me happy and that is all that should really matter right?

Ok so now you are probably wondering why I just went on a huge rant about a slightly deteriorating habit of mine...well I just finished one of those series that I got sucked into and I can honestly say that my habit of becoming attached is still as strong as ever. I just finished the series "Prison Break" and it was so awesome! I love intense shows like that-the ones that have no possible way of being any type of reality but also make you wonder if people with that much money really do have that much power and really do create a device to take over the world...? Maybe? Anyways, this series had me in tears several times as I grew a family bond with Michael Schoffield and Lincoln Burrows and the other Fox River convicts. The ending made me super duper mad but I am so glad they made the movie to tie up the loose ends...even though I still didn't like how it ended, even though they ended it beautifully and everything makes sense it still makes me mad. I won't spoil it for you but seriously if you are anything like me and love getting hooked on good tv series this one is a good one to watch!

A few other shows I have cried at the end of every series finale is:
-24: If you are looking for a show to keep you on the edge of your seat every single episode this is the one for you...be aware it is extremely intense!
-Gossip Girl: I loved this one for the drama; nonetheless it still had some episodes that made me cry like a baby.
-Beverly Hills 90210: Drama, drama, drama. The newer version...one that I fell in love with!
-Parenthood: Another one for the drama, a little less dramatic than that of Gossip Girl or 90210 but this is one where I felt like I was a part of the cast and felt every emotion that they went through.
And last but certainly not least:
-Friends: one that I will never get sick of...I love Friends with all my heart! I will forever be a true Friends fan!

I don't want you to get the impression that all I do is sit around and watch tv for hours upon hours living vicariously through television lives because I am well aware of how unhealthy and addictive behavior that is. However, I do think that allowing myself this indulgence, guilty pleasure if you will, is actually very beneficial for me.  I am a very mind racing person (is that even a thing? I'm gonna make it a thing). I have hard time letting my mind unwind because I am constantly worrying and thinking about different things and situations in my life...when I watch a good tv series it is like giving my brain a chance to relax and focus on fictional problems rather than stress myself out for no good reason. This probably makes no sense to you and that is ok...I don't care. This is something that I enjoy for myself and it is something that I will continue to do because it helps create me!

Ok this blog post turned into something real serious and I didn't mean for that to happen. I guess the moral of the post is always be you...even your weird habits are important to your character.

Thanks for reading! And check out some of those shows if you dare! :]

Loving Life!

Wowowowowow! Life is too good right now. I just can't stop thinking about how happy, blessed, and excited I am for upcoming adventures in my life! I feel like the luckiest girl with the best family and friends!

My sister Erica just got a job at the same school I am going to be at! Can you say party?! I can! I love hanging out with Erica, she is honestly one of my best friends...and not just because we are sisters but if we weren't sisters I know we would be best friends! We just get each others' humor. We are currently going through a phase of sending each other really stupid but funny animal pictures. Other people may think we are weird or annoying, but I think we are hilarious.

I just have nothing to complain about because my life is so good!

I don't mean this to sound brag(y), or annoying. I just feel like my life the last year has been in such a rut and I think most of it is because I wasn't recognizing how lucky and how good my life is instead of focusing on how blessed I am.

From this day forward...I am making it a goal to live life to the fullest and appreciate more what I do have.

rant over.

I'm a BEAR!

I will always be a true Spartan at heart but I have to put on the face of a bear for the next few years. I am now a 7th grade Language Arts teacher at Robert Stuart Middle School in Twin Falls!

I am so excited, relieved, nervous, and happy all at the same time! Heavenly Father really puts us where we need to be especially where we would least expect it.

I always saw myself teaching in Utah, that is just what I envisioned my life looking like after graduation. I always knew/hoped I would one day want to live close to home but I just didn't think it would happen this fast!

I was not really even considering staying around home but while job searching one day I found the job opening at Stuart, decided to apply and within a couple of weeks I had a job! I tried really hard to get the jobs I thought I wanted-driving down to Utah several times in the last month taking resumes trying to get my foot in the door somewhere but nothing just seemed to be working out. So I know this was a part of Heavenly Father's plan for me and not mine! Nonetheless I am so excited and so happy to be moving on to this step in my life.

32 Years

Yesterday my parents celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary! Although we had to pull out their wedding book to double check the date and the year I know they love each other a lot-32 years is a long time! I am so glad they got married because unless they had I would not be here, so go Mom and Dad! You're the real winners in this situation! 

Here are their wedding day pictures: 

Fun fact: My mom and dad were married on April 26th, 1982. That day happened to be the worst snow storm of the year. They were married in the Idaho Falls Temple and it took people hours to get to their wedding because the snow was so bad...at the END of April! Just their luck right? 

Mom made the most beautiful bride! Those sleeves though; poofy like everything made in the 80's

Dad, such a handsome groom! Can't believe he had that much hair! 

Here they are today: 

Still as cute as ever! I just love them!