Get. Ready.

Here's just a reminder that the best month (February) and the best holiday (Valentine's Day) are coming up. So get ready people. I'm probably going to ramp it up this year by posting a blog entry every day. Just because I can.

Here's how you celebrate the 14 days of Valentines (the 1-14 of February. Obviously.)

1. Wear something pink or red every day (purple counts if you're desperate)
2. Eat some chocolate every day.
3. Find a new love quote everyday (any kind of love, romantic love, friend love, gospel love, it all works)
4. Read other talks, articles, etc. on love.
5. Listen to love songs. Obviously. NO breakup songs. That is like the cardinal sin of Valentine's day, only slightly behind wearing black on V-day, that's just blasphemous people.
And finally.
6. SHOW love by doing at least one nice thing for someone every day.

Valentine's Day is true people. And I truly believe that if you practice it with love in your heart for EVERYONE and really give service (and eat chocolate) then you will love Valentine's Day as much as I.

Oh Valentine's boxes. The ultimate V-Day tradition.

In conjunction with the 14 Days of Valentines here is a great activity to play. If you play it well, it can help you fulfill your duty of eating chocolate everyday too.

First get some candy (chocolate is clearly preferred) and put it in a bowl in a place MOST tempting for you.

Next get some writing utensils and surfaces ie. notecards and pens or paper and pencils, etc.

Now, whenever you want to eat some of that delicious chocolate you must write down one thing you love for ONE piece of chocolate. Try not to do repeats. Cheaters.

The rewards for this game are many.
1. You get chocolate
2. You get to count your many blessings.
3. If you are like me and crave chocolate when you are depressed you are forced to think of happy things before you eat said chocolate.
"Now think lovely thoughts..."

A student of teachers. A teacher of students.

For this, my final semester, I am student teaching in a 9th grade geography classroom at Timpview High School. Yes. It's going well. Thank you for asking. 


It's an awkward stage to be in. Student teaching. Did you ever think about those two words together? And why is it that the second word is the verb? We never say we're studenting. But I've gotta say, that as much as I'm teaching, I'm studenting much more. 


It seems ironic that when teaching we learn the very most. In fact we talk about this often in the education major. If you want students to really learn the material, have them teach it to someone else. Seems backwards-ish. But teaching is the most active form of learning. I always understood that. Ethereally. (Is that a word too? I'm not getting a red squiggle under it. So I'm trusting spellcheck here. But can anyone actually say that out loud? Ethereally. That's not easy.Try it.)

 But now I am beginning to really understand. The other day I taught about landform production. Subduction. Plate tectonics. Weathering. Yawn. Keep in mind folks, I'm actually a history teaching major. History ≠ Geography. I mean I love the human element of geography but the physical element? Let's just say that was one of my less good grades in college. So my mentor teacher, after watching me lecture on it the first time, told me to study it until I cared about it. 

So home I went and National Geographics I did study. At one point, while reading about subduction and tsunamis, all of the sudden I wanted to, nay, had to see a video of a tsunami. I was interested! I watched Youtube videos of tsunamis for a while then quickly wanted to finish the article I was reading and move on to another I'd found about earthquakes. 

So basically what I'm saying is. So far I've learned a lot of things through student teaching. Mostly, however, so far I've learned to learn. Even though I thought that was what college was all about. My mentor teacher put it well today when she said that's what is great about being a teacher, you have to study continually. 

Well good. Because I love to learn. I just have to remind myself every once in a while. 

Also.

When people tell me to relax.

Things that make me angry for no rational reason

1. Girls in boy clothes. The worst offenders

• Ties. Just. Just don't. 
• Fedoras. 
• To be totally honest I'm not even a fan of them on males either. But then you put it on a girl? And irrational anger floods through my body. 
• All male hats on girls are unacceptable really. Fedoras are just the biggest repeat offender

(I was going to put a picture but then I realized that every time I looked at this post I would get angry. And I really didn't want that.)

2. The internet usage of the term *facepalm* 

3. When pants are too short on people. Now. I understand that I, as a shorty, should probably be more lenient to the pants-finding needs of tall people out there.  But remember how this is irrational anger? Ballroom men are the very worst offenders for this.

4. Dirty dishes right by but not in the kitchen sink. This creates a roommate issue when your roommate doesn't like them IN the kitchen sink. Both of these scenarios (in and out of the sink) are equally acceptable and rational. What isn't rational is my anger toward out of the sink. I'm working on it.

I'm a nice person I promise. 

Sadly true

I saw this picture on Facebook today.

I'm kind of embarrassed that this is not only true in most cases but kind of extremely/really/ridiculously true for me. 

I know guys get hounded on a lot for not asking girls out. While I'm not against that hounding and in fact sometimes provide some of it myself, I do know girls could do a lot better. Girls=me. And better=something and/or anything. 

 But really. Why is it a truth universally acknowledged that if you like a boy you can't look at him. And if you don't like a boy you can't look at him. Um. No wonder they're confused! For reals. 

Let's work on this. Let's=me. You could do it too if you want. 

I guess this is the closest you've gotten to the obligatory New Year's Resolution post. Maybe I'll work on that too. 

PC for life!

PC in this case does not in fact stand for personal computer. No. It stands for Plain City.

Tonight I was driving to a friend's house and it was the first time in quite a while that I have been driving through Plain City. All of the sudden I realized that once I was graduated from college, that was probably it for me and Plain City. When I graduated from Fremont High and went to college I was still only an hour and a half away and came home often enough that my home ward Relief Society doesn't consider me a "visitor" anymore. But once I get a job somewhere, even if it is relatively close, I will begin making my life there. I will be creating a life in a different place. Something about college makes it feel very transitory. It's a highly temporary situation. But once I get a job? That's life right there.

So I decided to make a list to celebrate this transition point. A list of what I will miss about Plain City

1. Giving directions by referencing people's houses ie "it's by the Orton's" or "it's on the corner by all the Jenkins' ".

2. Fields

3. The confectionary which is actually a bar

4. The fact that the confectionary for my entire school life was right across the street from the elementary school and is now connected to both a Bible church and a daycare center.

5. That building next to the confectionary that has been so many different businesses and each of them has failed.

6. Hearing the FHS marching band practicing on summer mornings and football games on Friday nights.

7. Fourth of July's. Plain City has THE best Fourth of July ever. I missed it for the first time last year and it was devastating.

8. Founders Day! It's a treat. I've had to miss it the last few years but they have a program and everything. My favorite is when they change the words to well-known songs to make them about Plain City. So quality.

9. Three LDS churches in one tiny town.

10. The Dance Establishment, where I learned everything I know and gained such dear friends.

11. Fremont High School. I'm one of those nuts who absolutely loved high school. That school holds a lot of really positive memories for me.

12. Hearing the mosquito truck coming so you knew you could finally play outside without being eaten by those little buggers

13. PC 4th! The ward I grew up in may not still be around in its original form but it remains close to my heart.

14. The house I grew up in.

15. Boone's. Yes. We have a restaurant aptly named Boone's.

16. Driving through that town and seeing the roads I rode my bike on, seeing where the old market and drugstore was, seeing my elementary school, and all the houses I visited throughout my life.

Oh sweet nostalgia.

I can't necessarily endorse all the lyrics of this video as specifically pertaining to Plain City. But you get my drift.