The Men in My Life

This post is dedicated to a couple of the most special men in my life :)

1) My husband Mitch.

I have been bugging Mitch for a while now that he should start playing hockey again. For one, I have never seen him play before, two, he loves hockey and it's stupid that he tells people its his hobby when he doesn't even play it anymore, and three, with his newly discovered back issues he will need to start leading a more active lifestyle to keep his back in shape and prevent it from getting all out of whack again. Well he finally decided to take his mission buddy up on his offer to get together with some guys once a week to play roller hockey. He has been twice already, and he has had a blast. (It helped that I let him get new skates so that he could play...it was like Christmas all over again!) I have had so much fun watching him every week. I have to give him credit, I cannot believe he is as good as he is after not having played in over three years. I was so proud of him the past couple weeks when he, the "new guy", made several goals and had a few great assists.


2) Mi hermano, Zach (holding his soon-to-be-opened mission call!)

Last night, my brother Zach, got his mission call to serve our church for two years in South New York, speaking Haitian Creole. He reports to the missionary training center on July 6! I am so proud of my brother, and all the good choices he's made that have gotten him to this point. I cannot believe how old he is (and by default how old I am!) and how he will be gone for 2 whole years serving the Lord and helping people learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will definitely miss him and worry about him, but I know he is doing the right thing and will be blessed for dedicating two years of his life to serving God.

Here are the boundaries of his mission...(yes it includes the island of Bermuda!)



So excited for him!!


Click here to learn more about our church and its dedication to missionary service :)

Good News

For those of you who are still on tenterhooks about my last post...we are not getting evicted! After demanding to speak to said manager's superior, we had a very reasonable conversation with her in which we managed to work out an arrangement. They will let us stay as long as we want if we pay a little extra in rent and deposit. since we did break the contract, we feel like this is reasonable. Also we are just grateful not to be evicted.

In other news...
I complain a lot these days. I am stressed and have been dealing with lots of health things so it has made me much more cynical the past semester. I know no one wants to read about my complaints, so I will refrain.

Another major thing lately is that I am so stressed to the point that I have begun to question my major...do I really want this kind of stress my whole life? Yes homework and projects make it stressful, but even just watching my mentor teacher the past two weeks I am in awe that she is able to keep her life together. She has been deathly sick the past week, yet still keeps coming to school because she is concerned her students wouldn't be able to pass their upcoming state writing assessment without her help. Basically she is burning herself out, and she doesn't even have a husband or kids to worry about! Am I really ready to sacrifice my sanity for the sake of my job? I know that it's more than a job...it's kids futures...and that's what makes me so nervous. I don't know that I want that kind of pressure, especially when I know that I will soon have my own family to keep me plenty busy.

Trying really hard to make lemonade.

My life the past few weeks have been ridiculous. Like, if I wasn't experiencing it for myself I would think I was making all of it up.

About two weeks ago, our apartment manager barged into our apartment without knocking and saw our cats. We had chosen to not tell management about them, for obvious reasons (every apartment in provo hates pets), and we didn't really feel bad about it because they are potty trained, clean, haven't damaged anything, and don't bark or bother the neighbors. We knew the risk, and we took it, so I guess we can't complain. The thing that is annoying is that if she hadn't ALSO broken the contract by barging in without knocking, she never would have found them.

Well she threw a hissy fit about it, said we would have a week to pack up our stuff and go, oh, and by the way we would also be responsible for paying through the rest of our contract even if we weren't living there. Luckily we are not morons. We told her straight up that we know that she legally couldn't do any of that without going through the courts. Once she realized we knew the law, she told us she would "start the eviction process", though we're pretty sure that the property owners are far too lazy and greedy to 1) go through all that hassle of time and paperwork while 2) losing out on our diligent rent payments. Our guess is they'll probably post a couple notes on our door, and if they ever get around to filing for a hearing about it in court, by the time it's settled it will be time for us to move anyway.

A few days after that wonderful piece of news, I was on my way to campus one morning and got rear-ended pretty badly.

By a professor, no less. It doesn't look that bad, but there is a lot of damage that is barely visible. It is costing around $4500 to fix my poor car :( Luckily the other guy's insurance is paying for it. It has been stressful, but I am glad that no one was hurt.

The day after the accident, we came home after taking my car to get fixed, and our apartment smelled strongly of gas. Our management had left a note on our door saying that they came to mess with our gas during the day when we weren't home. We checked the pilot lights, they seemed to be fine. We aired out the apartment for hours, and by midnight when we were ready to go to bed, we could still smell it very strongly. Since gas is supposed to dissipate within 15 minutes of exposure to fresh air, we knew their was an active source where it was coming from. We didn't know what else to do other than call the fire department.

By the way, the funniest part of this story is that we literally live across the street from the fire department. We watched them all get into their truck, turn on their lights, and drive one block to our parking lot. They came up, all in their firemen garb, even with air tanks. They swarmed into our apartment and smelled the gas, and pulled out their little gas detector machine. If I wasn't so tired and irritated with our apartment complex, it would have been comical to watch.

Long story short, we found out that our downstairs neighbor hadn't been home all day, and his pilot light never got turned on, so his gas was leaking into our apartment through the vents and our open windows. Just to be safe, the fire department called the gas company, which took an hour to get there. By the time they left, it was 2:30 am, and I had class bright and early the next morning. Needless to say...I did not get much sleep that night.

You know that oh-so-cliche saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"? Yeah...easier said than done.

little family

love these little guys:

Where to begin...

School is dragging on and on like the thing that never ends. Maybe I'm being a little dramatic but that's really how it feels to me. Luckily it is punctuated by the occasional interesting or slightly fun activity that takes my mind off how much I hate it. A couple Saturdays ago, my science ed professor had us over to her house for...are you ready?? ...SUPER SCIENCE SATURDAY. Try saying that three times fast.

It was there that I did this:

THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a ball python, and I am holding it. If you want to get technical, all those snakes were ball pythons, of different colorings. Our professor doesn't just have them for pets, she BREEDS them. How hardcore is that?

Well super science saturday did have a purpose besides having an excuse to take pictures with large snakes. We did some neat experiments and talked about teaching kids, and all that jazz that is actually relevant to my major. That was two weekends ago.

Last weekend was valentine's day...it was really boring. I painted my toenails for the occasion. Observe:


The highlight was Mitch setting up a little scavenger hunt for me, with yummy treats and a PILLOW PET at the end! haha he got me a CAT pillow pet for v-day! kind of perfect for me, actually.

Also did I mention it is the same coloring as Diego?? hahaha.

Anyway then we went out to eat at Denny's our classic. I make it sound like we really wanted to go to Denny's on our date night, but the truth of the matter is that we soon discovered (for the second year in a row) that trying to eat at any semi-decent restaurant in Provo is not realistic at all on V-day. Apparently no restaurants these days accept reservations...what the heck, right? And I worked til 7 so there was no hope of us camping outside Red Lobster's doors to save ourselves a spot in line. With all 2 million couples that there are in Provo, it was a pretty fruitless endeavor. So Denny's it was.

That was last weekend.

This weekend...
Long story short, I found out that my grandpa was in the hospital again. His kidneys had failed and it was looking pretty serious, like he may not make it. My dad even flew in from out of state to be here with the family at the hospital. Mitch, my brother and I all spent most of two days at the hospital as well. My grandpa was diagnosed with prostate cancer, along with a lot of other health issues, but the important thing is that after switching hospitals, doctors, medications, and after many many prayers, things are finally looking better. The cancer is treatable and they fixed his kidneys and he will be able to go home soon. It was a very busy and emotional weekend, but it has made me even more grateful for the knowledge that I have about where I come from, why I'm here, and where I'll go after this life. It is so comforting to have that knowledge during especially trying times with people you care about :)

senioritis times infinity

Currently I am weighing the pros and cons of not doing certain extremely stupid assignments that are due tomorrow.

Pros:
I keep my sanity.
I stick it to my idiot professor.
I wouldn't be missing out on any valuable learning.
I don't even know how to do the assignment since she doesn't explain anything...so it just makes sense not to do it if I'm just going to be making it up.

Cons:
I may or may not lose some points in the class...oh the horror.
I may get a guilt trip when I walk into class tomorrow and all my friends have sucked it up and done it.
My guilt will probably grow into a huge worry monster, which may obsessively consume my thoughts for the next few weeks about how the loss of points will affect my final grade.

Resolution?
Take 5 minutes and just do it quickly and crappily. It's going to suck, but half points are better than none.

Then I believe I will treat myself to a sweet treat (see below).

:D

Food for Thought...Literally.

Recently I subscribed to Savingdinner.com's emails, hearing that it was a helpful and yummy resource to go to for dinner ideas. So far it has been an interesting read, but no overwhelmingly good recipes or tips have stood out to me. Until today. This it the "tip of the day" that I got today:

Recent research shows what many of us knew all along: Our moods dictate what we eat. Here's a few examples. Do any of these sound familiar to you?

* If you crave tough foods, like meat, or hard and crunchy foods, you could be feeling angry.
* If you crave sugars, you could be feeling depressed.
* If you crave soft and sweet foods, like ice cream, you could be feeling anxious.
* If you crave salty foods, you could be stressed.
* If you crave bulky, fill-you-up foods, like crackers and pasta, you could be feeling lonely
* If you crave anything and everything, you could be feeling jealous.

Not everyone will be the same, but recognizing your emotional eating triggers can help you make healthy choices when emotions seem to be ruling you.

I don't know how much stock I put by this...but judging by my moods and cravings the past few weeks, I'd say it's spot on. My classes this semester are giving me so much anxiety! All I have wanted to eat for the past few days is this:

doughnuts...mm. I feel like I would enjoy them that much more if they were beautiful colors.


oh my...bread pudding. specifically, the delectable bread pudding with caramel sauce that Matt and Cristy made for Christmas dinner last month...


and oh my word, the love potion. A frappe made with cocoa beans instead of coffee beans, and strawberry syrup and whipped cream. I am drooling.


I have senioritis so bad. Like, I had it BAD in high school and I think it might be worse now. I am so stressed with some of my classes that I just give up and don't do my homework most nights, because I can't bring myself to. It doesn't help that most of my professors are extremely disorganized and in three of my classes, I never know what is due at any given time. I'm sure everyone has these problems, I'm not special. There are tons of crappy professors out there who get tenure, though it still boggles my mind how they manage to do so. But the fact that I am not the only one with these struggles makes me even more determined to do something about it. Just what...I am not sure yet. If nothing else, they have a scathing end of semester review from me to look forward to :D