2 Things

1) last week I even fell asleep in the middle of class by accident. and I'm the teacher. bahahahahha. I was sitting at the desk and I dozed on and off for like 30 minutes while the kids were doing something else with my mentor teacher. anyway two of the kids by my desk noticed. I woke up from my dream (yes I have problems...I can instantly fall sleep and dream sitting up in a lit, noisy room) and two kids by my desk were watching me and when I opened my eyes they cracked up. One of them was like, "Mrs. Davies, Are you sleepy or what?" ahahhaha.

so anyway I was able to get in to see the doctor and they say, surprise! something is wrong with me. So they scheduled me for a sleep study, which I got to miss school/work, however you look at it, for. Although I wouldn't say it was any more fun than school/work. As you can see, I have all manner of gadgets hooked up to me. Miraculously, I was able to sleep with all that stuff on. They tested me the next day as well, where they asked me to nap on command every couple of hours. I fell asleep every time (5 times in a row), which showed that clearly something is wrong with me ahaha but I am scheduling a follow-up appointment with my doctor soon to go over the results. Anyway, the photo is hilarious so I thought you would enjoy it. It looks like I have buck teeth but actually that is a tube stuck up my nose. Yes, I will acknowledge that this is probably the most embarrassing picture of me in existence.

2) Moving on! Miracle of miracles, our prayers have been answered and Mitch's company has switched him to a bank post full time, which means that he has normal hours during weekdays, works half-day on Saturdays, and doesn't work Sundays! Ever!! Yay! Funnily enough, the day after he was offered this position, we got a call from the bishopric and they asked us to be in the nursery every Sunday. Basically we figure that Heavenly Father must want us in there pretty bad, since he pulled some strings with Mitch's job to make it work! We are just sooo happy. Also the bank is only 25 min away, which is wayyy closer than the hour+ he was having to commute every day. And no more graveyards either! And it's indoors, just in time for winter! Overall, it has been a huge blessing and I'm sure we have Zach and Josh to thank in some part for it. We're so grateful to them for being such diligent missionaries and for their prayers- I know they are bringing lots of blessings for us as well as the rest of our family.

That's all for tonight. It's bedtime!

Shell Frame

So my BFF is getting married tomorrow. I was not able to go to the wedding in California, but I wanted to get her something special for her wedding. I wanted to do it along the lines of something she loves (OK obviously...I wouldn't be her best friend if I got her something she hated). Well there is probably nothing in the whole world she loves more than the beach. OK, maybe her future husband, but even that's probably up for debate. Haha! Just kidding. But she really is obsessed with the beach.

Well her engagement pictures are just gorgeous, taken on the beach. I figured, a beach frame would be cute and more personal than a lame BB&B gift card...am I right? Well the ones I saw at the store/online were either ugly, or too expensive. And I was in the mood to let off some steam in a productive sort of crafty way, so this frame was born. The one pictured is actually mine...I had leftover supplies and the frames were on sale, so I figured, why not? Mine is a 5x7 and my friend's is an 8x10, but other than that they both look basically the same.

This is it in its first stage. I have sand that I have yet to decide to sprinkle between the cracks of the shells to give it some interest..what do you think?

Mrs. Daisies

Yes that's my new name. Or at least, it is according to my class of 8-year-olds. Not that they call me that on purpose, they just can't help it that they all have cute accents or little lisps of some kind :)

Let's see...what else is new in the world of 3rd grade? Mainly I am so busy that I come home and crash every day. Drive, school, drive, eat, sleep... drive, school, drive, eat, sleep...what a life.

Oh the other day I threw up in front of the whole class...no big deal. I had been feeling a little funny the night before, and then I guess it caught up with me the next morning, right in the middle of math haha. Luckily I made it to the back sink in time.

Let's see...what else. Oh yeah, 10 minutes after I left an after-school staff meeting a couple weeks ago, the school was put under emergency lockdown while there were cops and criminals making a scene out in the neighborhood in front of the school. A few days after that a bus driver in our district was found murdered in the bus lot before school one day. One thing's for certain...I'm not in Kan- I mean Provo- anymore.

But I am definitely learning a lot. Teaching science is my favorite. Some highlights from science include- testing objects for buoyancy in a tub of water, learning to read a Galileo thermometer, playing with lasers and mirrors, and building a pizza box solar oven to learn about thermal energy. Here it is, in all its glory:

I've also been able to hang out with the school librarian a little and help around the library (which earned me a free $10 to spend at the book fair! yippee!). I just love books so much...I'm seriously considering going back to school to get my masters and do the librarian thing. We'll see.

As for Mitch and I...a few weekends ago we took a trip to Austin with Mitch's family to see BYU play Texas. It was a close but unfortunate game. We still had a great time though, and we were able to be at the capitol for a special commemoration ceremony that Sunday which was 9/11. We also visited the state cemetery there (cemeteries are my favorite if you recall) and saw the monument they have there with some actual wreckage from the twin towers:

I totally stole that picture from wikipedia, but that's only because we are still unable to locate our camera charger :( luckily other than this trip we haven't done anything super exciting that has needed documenting. Anyway the cemetery was absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful landscaping. See for yourself:

It was a really nice weekend.

Oh yeah...in other news, Mitch officially has a job!!! After a few odd-jobs here and there, he was finally able to get something permanent as an armed security guard. Three or four 12 hour shifts a week, some of which are graveyards on and off. He has a tough schedule and I am proud of him. We are just so grateful as we need the money desperately to save up for flight school next year.

And...pretty much that's where we're at! This weekend is a three-day one for me (thank you Christopher Columbus), and I have high aspirations to finish my Teacher Work Sample...basically a 50-page monster that proves I deserve my diploma and certification as a bona-fide teacher.

Only 6 weeks left til I'm DONE DONE DONE. Graduation, here I come!!

:)

Positive...Percy?

Ok you know the sayings Nervous Nancy, Rachel Raincloud, etc. Well since I am trying to be more positive than my last post, I tried to think of a P name to go with Positive, and Percy was the first one that popped into my head. Probably because I read all the Percy Jackson books the weekend before school started and I LOVED them.

Anyway. I could tell you alllllll about my first week(s) as a student teacher, but to make it more interesting and less verbose I decided to do it in ACROSTIC POEM style since that was our LITERARY FOCUS for our third graders this week. Aren't you so lucky that I am so creative. Now, what should my word stem be...hmm...

T wenty-two adorable students :)
H ot as Hades. Our a/c is out for the third day now...in 101 degree weather outside. Awesome.
I officially now have a suckier schedule than my brother who is on a mission. Bed @ 9:30 pm, Breakfast @ 5:30 am baby.
R eally love my mentor teacher. She is very flexible and enthusiastic- perfect combination!
D efinitely did a double-take when I drove to school for the first time. Yeah, there's a ten-foot barbed wire fence surrounding the neighborhood across the street from my school. Enough said.

G otta admit- I LOVE the fact that it is an outdoor campus. Love the sunshine/natural lighting in all the classrooms and the fresh air every time we go outside, even if it is hot.
R eally had fun teaching my first science lesson today. We were weather scientists and collected temperatures from around the courtyard!
A ppalled by the fact that the kids only get recess twice A WEEK. Not per day, like most schools, but per week. Wow.
D rives 1 hour in commute each way. If it wasn't for audiobooks, I would be asleep at the wheel every day.
E very day as a teacher is an adventure! You never know what excitement (good and bad) the day can bring! Ha!

Hoop Jumping Extraordinaire

Ever since we have moved back to Texas we been jumping hoop after hoop just trying to get jobs and drive our cars legally. The gist of it is that:

1) Mitch can't get a job until he has a TX driver's license. understandable, but places have just been throwing away his applications when he says that he just moved here and he's in the process of getting one.

2) which he can't GET a DL yet because we have to have our cars registered in Texas, even though his car is not due to be re-registered for another 8 months

3) oh but guess what we can't register our cars because our insurance apparently doesn't meet the "Texas" standards. so apparently we have been driving illegally the whole time we have been here. oops. HOW THE HECK IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THESE THINGS? gosh.

4) and not only that but since my car is in my dad's name still, my parents have to sign the title over to me. nbd except the fact that they live 6 hours away and it takes the mail 3-5 days to get here despite the fact that we are in the same state.

5) so they send it and we think we're in the clear but then oh guess what the actual TITLE OF THE CAR WITH THEIR SIGNATURES ON IT apparently isn't good enough. oh no they were supposed to fill out a "TITLE TRANSFER FORM" that the collin county tax office didn't tell them about

6) so they send THAT, but then come to find out we're going to have to pay $800 in taxes (no joke) as "owners of a new car" unless they fill out this OTHER form that says that they "gift" the car to me. oh by the way they have to get this form notarized so my dad has to take off work to go down to the stupid tax office to have some guy witness that he signed the paper himself and not some fraud.

7) a faxed copy of this paper isn't good enough, they HAVE to have original signatures. so by the time it will get here in the mail, my registration will be expired (oh wait it has been expired for 2 weeks already), and I will be working/commuting 6 am-5 pm every day for the next three months...which are the hours of the stupid tax office. so how I'm supposed to get my car registered is beyond me.

8) Mitch takes this stupid security class that is REQUIRED by the state of texas to be a hired as a security guard. I understand that it is a good idea to train people who are going to be armed with guns how to use them. the thing that boggles my mind is that most of the jobs available are UNARMED, aka NO GUNS, and those guys still have to take a class to learn how to be a security guard...um...what? why should the government care if security guards for private firms do their jobs right or not? next thing you know they're going to start telling people they need to take a state-approved burger flipping class before you can apply at McDonalds.

9) it's not even really the class itself that bothers me. they led us to believe that once you take the class you are good to go as far as being hired. WRONG. according to LAW, you don't have the "authorization" to work as a SG until someone hires you and pays to do a background check on you. once your first employers do this process, THEN you are good to go and can go work for as many companies as you like. well it is time-consuming and costs the companies money, so of course who are they going to hire? the people fresh out of the security class who don't have their background checks? no...of course not. they're going to make it a job REQUIREMENT that you've already had your background check b/c they don't want to go through the hassle of doing it themselves. what are the implications of this? oh basically that we wasted money on something that mitch probably won't be able to get a job doing since no one wants to hire a "noob"...even though he's freaking been to the police academy and has experience working security for one of the LARGEST COMPANIES IN THE WORLD. also the fact that he has an associate's degree and all this experience counts AGAINST him since no one wants to pay more than minimum wage. in their eyes, a high school dropout with a year's experience working texas security is more qualified than someone like Mitch. pathetic.

10) the kicker of this is summed up very nicely by one of the security applications he was filling out today. the application asked, "have you been arrested more than 2 times? check yes or no. if yes, please explain."

ok. so being arrested twice is ok? it's only bad if I've been arrested more than twice???? YOU'RE TRUSTING THESE PEOPLE TO CARRY GUNS?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP HIRING CRIMINALS, AND THEN YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO JUMP THROUGH SO MANY HOOPS TO HIRE PEOPLE. NO WONDER THE GOVERNMENT HAD TO INTERVENE AND MAKE SURE THAT THESE IDIOTS GET AT LEAST SOME KIND OF TRAINING.

I am disgusted with society. And yes, Mitch is still jobless.

Settling In

It has been almost a month since we've arrived in Houston, and we have had a great time moseying around enjoying our vacation. Since we've been here, we have watched the pool get built, helped fix up the yard, we've got a library membership (ok by "we" I mean me), read a lot of books (again, me), gone skeet shooting (which turns out is a lot harder than wii skeet shooting), got our cars inspected, got new drivers licenses, applied for lots of jobs (Mitch), changed our own transmission fluid and done other car maintenance stuff ourselves (by "ourselves" I mean Mitch), had many airsoft wars, and helped cook a lot of dinners! The Davies are definitely getting a taste of what it's like having me cook for them...now they actually have to eat vegetables! Ha! But seriously they have been so hospitable and I have loved hanging out with them and getting to know them better.

Here are a couple of pictures of their new house! They moved out here a few months ago to get a little closer to nature and it is so gorgeous out here. I love it, minus the insects. I can't go outside even in broad daylight without getting assaulted by at least 6 mosquitoes. I have learned to use insect repellent.

Also please don't judge these photos too harshly...they were taken with a phone. We have lost our camera chargers in the move, and the Davies haven't found theirs yet either from their move a few months ago, ha! We are pathetic.

we look really high maintenance with so many cars out front hahaha. and that's minus Mitch's dad's car!

ok you can't really tell but the backyard is an acre. there's more yard off to the sides that weren't included in the photo.

sweet zipline from the tree fort (The Alamo) in the background, site of many epic airsoft battles.

and last but not least, feast your eyes on my incredibly hot husband, who shoots clay pigeons out of the air with ease. (he even can shoot two at a time. I couldn't hit even one. hahaha) also while we're bragging about my husband, he passed his stupid security school practical last week with 249/250 on the human target. boo ya.

Elder Zachie-Poo

Wow it has been wayyyy too long since I have updated this. In my defense, a lot has happened so it has seemed really overwhelming to write it all down.

1. Mitch and I packed up our cars and drove across the country. We had a small holdup in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where my car randomly stalled at a light. Luckily the police officer was beyond nice and helped us move it off the road, and he called a buddy who came to look at our car and fixed it in like two seconds. Blessings, blessings, blessings!

2. We spent two weeks with my family, swimming, going to the Rangers game where we saw Dirk throw the first pitch, and hanging out with extended family!

3. We said good-bye to Zach for two years as he goes to serve a mission for our church in New York City! It was sad, but exciting too! I got the first email from him today actually! He is doing great and loves it. We are so proud :)

4. We finally arrived in Houston where we are staying with Mitch's family while we figure out our lives hahah. The plan so far is for me to do my student teaching and graduate. Meanwhile, Mitch will find a job, and hopefully I can find a job too and we will both work and save up for a year-ish so that we can afford for him to go to flight school here in Houston. Of course, plans change, but that's all we've got for now haha.

I wish this post was more exciting, but this is more for documentation than for entertainment.

Oh, side note. I read Dracula this week, and I must say I was disappointed. I do enjoy a lot of the classics, but this one was just so SLOW that it was hard to believe that it was supposed to be a horror story. It starts out awesome for the first like 25% of the book, and then goes really downhill from there. If you haven't read it, don't. You're not missing out on much.

I did, however, read a good book this week too. It was a very quick YA read, but it was an interesting insight into the Roman lifestyle/time period. It's called Tiger, Tiger. It's on my book list on the right sidebar.

Ok that's all. Interesting post today, I know.