New Part of Life

I found a job! I'll be teaching at Albion Middle School in Sandy, Utah. 7th and 8th grade Reading classes... which is awesome considering how much I love reading! And I'm teaching 7th grade, which is my favorite age so far. :) I'm so excited to start planning and teaching students, and actually be getting paid to do it! The commute is kind of long, but I'll be okay for now. I know it'll be super tough, especially this first year, but I'm up for the challenge! August cannot come fast enough... well... probably could... but oh well. I'll be leaving for Ecuador in a couple weeks, and my brother came home this last week from his mission! Life is so great right now! The only bummer is that my grandpa is pretty sick still, and I don't know what's going to happen in that aspect. Pray for him!

I am a college graduate. Crazy! I kind of thought this time would never come, but somehow, time always passes. Funny how that happens. I graduated with an English Teaching degree, and am currently looking for a teaching job. It's a tough one, and I'm really hoping I'll get one and won't have to substitute for another year. That would be... dismal.

I competed in some ballroom dance this last year, though I wish I could have done more before graduating. It was really fun! And I'm going to keep going, eventually. Hopefully.

And I loved the student teaching I got to do this last semester! I had 6 classes of 7th graders, all of which were wonderful. Here's a couple of pictures of my last day with one of my classes.

And my brother gets home from Ecuador in like 3 days! I'm so excited to see him again! Then, hopefully, we'll be making a trip down there as a family ourselves! I just wish I had a good summer job right now. Money is tight after graduating, and soon I'll have to start paying off those student loans. Yikes!

Catching up

Yeah... Catching up is not happening. Everyone will just have to remain in the dark about what happened from last December till now. But no worries! All you need to know is that I'm doing my last semester of classes at BYU and loving it! I'm learning all this sweet stuff about becoming an English Teacher and despite not getting enough sleep, enjoy every second. I'll be student teaching in January at Lehi Jr. High, which means I graduate in April and get to start teaching! Getting to switch from being behind the desk to in front of them will be such a nice change. Well, I'll try to keep up on here, though I can't make any promises. Oh, the most exciting thing that has happened to me lately, I bought a netbook! It's cute and blue and has a webcam and everything! So yeah, that's probably how I'll be keeping up on this. More updates coming soon!

Still don't know anything.

I don't think I've ever been so all over the place anytime in my life. It's hard to figure out sometimes the path your life is supposed to take. The Lord promises us line upon line, precept upon precept, but those lines and precepts and steps don't appear for a while sometimes, and I end up sitting here, trying to plan out my life, while curveballs are getting thrown at me and I don't have the mindset to catch them. Patience has got to be the hardest and most important virtue to come by. Cause I'm seriously tired of being patient. I wish my life would just get a move on, or that I could get a move on myself. Not sure which I should do. Guess I should just focus on the scripture 3 Nephi: 13:34 "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof."

Thinking about Things

So, I intended to write about thoughts and important issues when I started this blog. And I intended to write in it more often. But of course, life gets in the way, and if it's not a priority, it disappears into the stack of life. But anyway, I've been getting into a lot of new things this past year, trying to learn new things and learn about this world and the gospel and lots of other stuff.

I've been getting into health a lot more than before. I'm not crazy about it, after all, I just made a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday, but the health of our nation is terrible, and that's a fact anyone can attest to. Obesity and heart disease and cancer. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn't know someone that's been affected by either of these three things, or been affected by it themselves. Now, call me a nut job, but I think there are some serious misconceptions about health in American society right now. Most people seem to think that they can eat whatever they want, no matter how unhealthy it is for you, and go to the doctor's office when they get sick and get a magical cure-all prescription pill. Absolving them of any responsibility of the unhealthy choices they've made in the past. Of course, I know plenty of people that are very responsible and make healthy choices and as a result, rarely need the doctor for anything, except maybe their yearly check-up. And I know people that have gotten sick through no fault of their own, or have broken a bone or something, and have needed the doctor for something beyond their capability to fix themselves. I've been wanting to talk about this particular subject for a while, but people can get so touchy about it, and well, I don't like contention. Plus, I'm not saying I'm right, or that everyone should change or anything like that! I just think it's important for people to be more aware of their health and the things concerning health and medicine that are going on in this country right now. Granted, there are plenty of other things that we could focus on, that would help as well, but health is a little thing that can help each individual and their families so much. Just to be able to function better, do more good, etc. Of course, everyone is going to die anyway, so I think health fanaticism is a big much. After all, I don't want to be stressing about what I'm eating 24/7, I'd rather focus on other things too. However, I do want to be able to play with my kids (when I have some) and be around to help other people, rather than be in bed all the time cause I'm sick all the time. Sure, life is short and we can't freak out about health. But life is short! and we can't afford to be hindered from living it to the fullest because of bad health!

Ok, so a touchy subject many people won't like: I don't trust modern medicine. I remember going to the dermatologist (I'm one of those unlucky people who tends to break out a lot) when I was in high school and her telling me that what we eat has no effect whatsoever on our acne. I can't believe I was stupid enough to believe her. What you put in your body has absolutely every effect on acne, and skin health, and hair health, and every type of health. God gave us wonderful bodies with the capabilites to heal themselves. And the only help they get with that (or hurt) is the stuff that goes in it. Duh. Finding a doctor that actually talks about what you put in your body (your nutrition) is very rare. Most medical practitioners are trained on how to treat the symptoms or after-effects of sickness, disease, etc. Never on nutrition and how to actually prevent disease in the first place. After all, if everyone knew how to prevent disease, they wouldn't have any business, except for broken bones and stuff like that. I am by no means saying they are all like that, or that they don't have the best intentions, but maybe they just don't teach quite the right stuff in medical school.

So, what's the truth? Cause everyone has different opinions on health and medicine and stuff. Well, being LDS, I have one truth that I can always rely on. A promise from our Heavenly Father that if we follow, we are promised health throughout our whole life. The Word of Wisdom in the Doctrine and Covenants. That is truth, and if anyone says something that clashes with that doctrine, well... it's not right. If you aren't familiar with the scripture, here is a link:

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/89

My guess is that most people probably won't even read this far. I think sometimes I write too much... yes? :) But if you are interesting in learning more about the world of nutrition and health and modern medicine, there are plenty of places you could research on the internet. Personally, I read Natural News, which is an independent site that doesn't accept money from anyone to publish certain things, if that makes sense. I read an article from them today, which made me finally want to say something about the sad state our country is in when it comes to health, and the corruption in companies that intend to keep us that way. Now, I in no way am telling anyone how it is, but rather... go and read and find out for yourself. There are some things from that site that I question myself. I don't necessarily agree with it all. And that's totally fine! But in my religion, they do encourage us to go out and get an education and knowledge, and that doesn't have to come from school. Go out and learn! Don't believe everything people tell you. Find out for yourself! That's the best way to learn, and after all, isn't that the main thing we should be doing with our lives?

Here's a link to a pretty incredible story. Not sure how much I believe it, but it's something to think about:
http://www.naturalnews.com/030136_Rawesome_foods_raid.html

Be smart people! Learn for yourselves. Ask why? and how? and what can I do? And be teachers. Educate others on what you know, and then everyone will benefit.

Playing Catch Up

Well, it's September, and I haven't written on this thing in forever! My life has been crazy the past few months, and bloggin it all, well let's just say I didn't feel up to the task. But I've learned sooo much! Which has been wonderful. I think that learning is one of the greatest things you could ever do for yourself. I feel so blessed to have gotten the opportunity to make myself better through challenges and study and effort, and I hope that continues the rest of my life!

Right now I'm living in American Fork, Utah with my aunt and uncle and cousins. I'm teaching gymnastics to kids ages 1 through 12 at the Rec center here, and it's seriously my favorite job ever! The little kids are soooo stinkin adorable, and smart too. Some of them pick up on things so fast. This morning, this little girl who's 4 or 5 (can remember which) did a front handspring on a mini vault out of nowhere! and it was really good too! It's so funny cause I get so excited when things like that happen. I'm sure the kids think I'm crazy sometimes. Lol. And this morning I also played mini lacrosse catch with this 5 year old boy named Everest, who is seriously like the biggest five year old I've ever met. It was so fun, trying to throw the ball far enough and trying to catch it when he threw it all over the place. Makes me super excited to have kids of my own someday. In another class, this little redhead 6 year old gave me a leaf one day, and another girl game me a little plastic frog. It's so rewarding to teach. And fun. It takes some patience. You can't get frustrated when they don't always pay attention or want to do their own thing, otherwise you can't enjoy them! So I'm milking that job for all it's worth!

I'm learning how to garden too. Mainly just pulling weeds and picking veggies. And green beans! Oh my gosh I've picked soooo many green beans, and they are so not fun to pick. Lol. Right now I'm procrastinating picking them, so they've gotten really big and are probably no good for eating, but I'm having a hard time caring that much. Haha. Oh, and cucumbers.... I've never seen so many in my life! And tomatoes! Good thing I like them. We've had some huge tomatoes! Ones where you only need one slice for a sandwich and it pops out the sides! My aunt measured one, that was 15 inches around, and I think there has been a couple even bigger than that! Which reminds me, I should go pick some more today. And maybe weed.... maybe.

I went home for this last weekend and had some fun cooking with my grandma. For anyone that knows her, you know she's like the best cook in the world! She helped me learn to make some of my favorite dishes, and she's making me a recipe book (I gave her a blank notebook for it for Christmas... almost a gift to myself. ;) ). I actually wore an apron for the first time in my life! Or maybe the second. I can't remember the last time I wore one. Lol. But I'm definitely wanting to get some cooking skills.

So I'm living with four boys right now. Five if you count their dad. It's way different living with all boys rather than mostly girls. I'm subjected to a lot of farts and fighting, but it's way fun and I enjoy laughing at them or playing with them. My youngest cousin Lazarus (I know, cool name right) tried to teach me how to ride a ripstick a couple of weeks ago, and that was pretty neat. And we went to jump on it, a place with lots of tramps, where all 6 of my boy cousins were throwing pretty sweet tricks. Like flips with twists and stuff. So of course, I had to do something cool. I managed to land a front flip with one twist, and tried and back flip with one twist, (back full) but since in diving I always did back flip with one and a half twists, I didn't stop rotating. I landed on my butt facing the opposite way... but it was pretty cool regardless!

And I have my own room again! I haven't had my own room since high school, so that's kinda nice. It's good to be able to do whatever and not worry about anyone watching me. And eating really healthy, which is cool. I eat a lot of vegetables from the garden, tomatoes and cucumbers and squash and corn and carrots and beets and rasberries and blackberries. Even green beans, sometimes. I definitely want to have a huge garden of my own some day! It will be awesome...

I'm enjoying life right now! I love my job and the people around me and I'm doing things I'm proud of. Life is good.

Already April

It's crazy it's already April. I've been kinda wishing this month would never come. Too bad you can't stop time.

The past couple of months have been the most exhausting, exhilarating, emotional months of my life. I've had very little time out of school and work to do the things I really want to do. Juggling real life is quite a challenge, and I've been a little out of practice for a while. I know I'm being really vague about it, but it's not something I can really explain or comfortably talk about on a blog. But this summer should be interesting. I'm gonna be working my tail off (and no school! yay!) so I can finally get on top of things. And hopefully I'll have time to lay out by the pool and get back my tan. Not that I'm that white, but I could be darker. ;)  And maybe I'll even be able to read a book! Since that's been nearly impossible since starting work, and for me not be reading books often is kind of a strange thing. However, I will be incredibly glad when this summer is over. Cause those things are just time fillers.