Venting of an Irritated Commuter

So, I just really need to get my feelings out about the last week. The weather has been so terrible and I am SICK of it! Last week was pretty stressful at school because we had such a crazy week. It was full of assemblies, and special programs that made my kids absolutely CRAZY. Then, to top everything off, the icky weather moved in. I love Utah. I love the mountains, and the changing of the leaves, and the joy of living in a bubble, but I HATE SNOW! I don't know if I am cursed and that's why Utah has had the worst winters in the world the past 6 years that I've lived here, but I am so tired of seeing white stuff falling out of the sky. You know, it IS pretty, and really fun to look at from the warm indoors. However, driving in it is a totally different story.

I know that most of you have heard this story, but I will put it into print for everyone to see. So last Friday, I was driving to school (it was raining on this particular day) and as I was driving on the freeway, my windshield wipers decided that it was a great time to have a huge fight. They attacked each other and the right wiper (unfortunately) won. Therefore, I am driving on the freeway without a working left windshield wiper. This was unfortunate because a) I couldn't see anything b) cars kept driving by me and splashing my already soaking wet car c) I thought I was going to die. Luckily, that didn't happen and my wipers are now fixed, but I am still SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired of commuting. It is so stressful, especially when the weather is bad. I am so looking forward to Arizona where there will be no evil snow....

Ok, the end of my rantings and ravings about the evil weather.

Welp, Here's an Update for YOU!

Ok, seriously, I know that I am World's Worst Blogger, and I take that title very seriously. Sorry for the long lapse of silence, and I would make a promise that it will never happen again.... but I would just break that, so I'll put it on my New Year's Resolutions list to be better about updating the blog. (Although, that will probably go out the window as fast as my efforts to become skinny again.... we'll see.)

Well, I guess I better just start with the most exciting news. THE PRAXIS HAS BEEN PASSED! I got a lovely surprise last month when I was able to look at my scores online and realize that I had passed. Both Tara (my co-worker who took it with me) and I passed a good deal above the "passing line" so we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. I am just so relieved that I never have to think about the stupid Praxis EVER again. Not to mention, it will look super great on my applications to Arizona. Whew, glad that stage in life is over.

We got to go to Colorado to have Christmas with my family, and what a glorious vacation it was! We got to use our new video camera a great deal, and had a blast hanging out with my mom and dad, watching Chuck in a serious marathon, and eating a TON of ridiculously amazing food. No wonder I look like a balloon. Mom, Sar, and I even got to have a girls sob fest while we watched Marley and Me. Ps- if you are putting your dog down anytime soon, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE! We were sobbing like little school girls for the better part of a hour. And I'm not talking little tears, I'm talking SOBBING hysterically, and having a mother who won't share Kleenex with you. Our amazingly cute (but slobbery at the moment) puppy is going to be put down soon because of the ginormous tumor she has in her mouth. It was very unfortunate timing for our family to see the movie. Needless to say, we went straight to Jetta when we got home and petted her until we couldn't stand the stench anymore.

We also got to hang out with our amazing friends, the Seegmillers and have "Happy Duke Year" where we spend New Year's Eve shoving fondue in our faces, and laughing so hard we almost wet our pants numerous times. It's almost "baa-thetic", you know? Seriously, there's nothing like Dr. Laura and the Nerds of a Feather to really get you going. ( and that would be an Indian (dot, not feather) princess-- thank you Dan.) If you didn't understand a single word of the past several sentences-- don't feel too bad, just be sad that you missed Happy Duke Year. We had no plans whatsoever to stay up until midnight, and indeed, planned to celebrate the New Year with New York, but had so much fun playing Balderdash that we didn't even start our dessert fondue until 11:30 and had to hussle to get our cups filled with "bubbly" to bring in the New Year. This was all happening, however, as Dan was peacefully slumbering on the floor-- he is such the party pooper :) I believe it was the best Happy Duke Year yet, and I was so glad to be a part of it.

Well, now we're back to reality. Brett started working full time today, and I headed back to the classroom. I was very excited to find a new whiteboard in my room instead of the evil, poo-brown, chalkboard that resided there earlier. Can we say, Welcome to the 21st century?? It's nice to be out of the Dark Ages. So, that about sums it up. Maybe someday I'll actually get some pictures up here so you can ogle at the amazingness of our trip.... but then again, I have to hold up my "World's Worst Blogger" title, and that just might blow my chances....

OH! PS-- Brett graduated from BYU too. That's pretty dang exciting. Minus the fact that he doesn't get to walk until April. Seriously, why is BYU so lame with the whole graduating thing? Let him have the cap and gown and diploma, for goodness sakes!

The PRAXIS is OVER!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, who knows if I passed.... but I am DONE! It is such a load off to have this week finally be over! I also had my SET (principal observation) this week, and had to plan 2 new units. My husband told me, "Welcome back!" when I got home today because I haven't seen him in about a week. It's been crazy! Luckily, I think the test went pretty well. It was 2 of the most intense hours I've ever faced in my life. I got a severe hand cramp and felt like my brain had melted by the end, but I got it done. It was my #1 goal just to finish the test. So 24 multiple choice and about 50 billion essays later, I welcome back my normal life with a huge smile, I am so relieved!

My husband SOOOOOOOO loves me and totally cleaned the whole house while I was gone (and I mean CLEANED the house.... even the stove! Is he not the best ever?) and bought me flowers and a congratulation balloon. He is so cute! I'm grateful for his constant support AND for the fact that he was able to give me an amazing blessing this morning that helped me through the whole ordeal. Marrying him was the best decision I've ever made!

So, that's the scoop for now! Hopefully, I'll put the good news of passing the test in about a month (when I get those dang test scores!!) Happy 7 school days until Thanksgiving Break! (Not that I'm counting or anything....)

"Rocktober!"

Man, I still cannot believe that the month of October has come and gone already! So many great things happened this month that I need to share! We'll see if I can get this all in on one post!

Let's start with some school stuff... at the beginning of the month we celebrated Red Ribbon Week. Now, Tara (my co-worker) and I had been planning to prank our fellow co-worker, Scott, sometime but hadn't found a way to do it yet. Scott graduated from Utah State and rags on BYU ALL the time. We decided that when the time was right, we were going to BYU his room and cover it with all things BYU. Our perfect opportunity occurred with Red Ribbon Week. Each day had a different theme to it and on Wednesday, the theme was something having to do with sports (Wow, it was so long ago that I don't even remember the official theme.) Tara and I decided that we would BYU his room the night before so that he would walk in that morning on Favorite Sports Team day and his room would have BYU all over it. Genius, huh? Well, it turned out that Tara and I had a class we had to go to Tuesday night and we couldn't go back to school afterward. Therefore, to pull off our plan, we decided to be at school at 6:30 the next morning to get the job done. Woo! Here are some of the amazing pictures we took that early, early morning!

Here are some shots of Scott's room. My kids helped me make all of the Y stuff to put around the room. They were pretty stoked about being to help out with a prank. They thought it was the coolest thing EVER!

Tara and I are so proud of our amazing prank! Too bad Scott got us back that same weekend. He took my desk and put it in Tara's room, and took Tara's desk and put it in my room. That was a fun thing to walk in to on a Monday morning! We sure got a work out moving them back to their respective classrooms! Let's just say, we won't be playing anymore pranks on Scott this year....

Here's just a quick, fun thing. So, for Red Ribbon Week they had a crazy hair day. Can we just say that I had the BEST hair ever? It was so hairsprayed that it didn't move an inch the whole day. That was also the day I almost set the school on fire.... so much fun!

Ok, next on the list....

Halloween Fun!

Brett and I dedicated October to a Murder Mystery Game. We had a Nikki night and a Brett night with the people that we invited. I got to invite my old roommates, Lisa and Stacey, and then my good friend Brady. It was entitled Pasta, Passion, and Pistols.... cool, huh? It was an Italian Mafia sort of game and it was a blast. I made dinner for both nights that consisted of tortellini, garlic bread, green and fruit salad, and fruit pizza for dessert. YUM!

So, here's the 1st crew: Mary and Brady Wilde, Keith and Lisa Jones, Stephen and Stacey White and of course, Brett and Nikki Waite :)

Pretty, pretty fruit pizza! Brett told me that it could have been a restaurant. He's funny!

Here's the 2nd crew: Steve Plowman, Ashley Barber, Tiffany, Ben Plowman, Mike and Lisa Lindquist, and Brett and me. Wow, what a fun night that was!

Ok, one last thing before I go, we obviously need to post my Halloween costume picture. I always put off finding a Halloween costume and just decided to go as a "nerd." I've done it before, and knew that I could do it again. It was a crazy day, but it was fun because I (along with many other teachers) performed the Thriller Dance in front of the whole school. Yes, Thriller, dressed as a nerd. My kids told me that I was DEFINITELY the best dancer up there. Aren't they so sweet?

Well, I think that's where we'll leave this never ending post for now. Happy November to you all!

Arizona, Here We Come!

We are so deliriously excited about the news we received yesterday! Brett got into Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona!! We'll be moving out there at the end of May so that he can start up school the 1st week of June. That means I might have to ditch the last week of school, but we'll do what we have to do!

We are so grateful that the waiting period is over. We've felt like we've been going crazy for the past week and a half, waiting and wondering if word would ever come. I have to admit, I was starting to give up hope, and then the miracle happened! I've wanted to go to Midwestern since last February when we went to a meeting with the director. I've been very impressed with the philosophies of the school and the outlook they have on the medical profession. Luckily, Brett fell in love with it when he went down to interview a couple of weeks ago. Although it will be a challenging 27 months for him, we both feel that it's the right place for us and that Brett will benefit greatly from the quality of the PA program. Thanks for all of your prayers in our behalf, I just have to say that it was all about the POWER TIE! Thanks to that, we're moving to Arizona!

Shadow Mountain Adventure!

Whew! I am so relieved that Friday is over! I was in charge of the field trip for our 5th grade class up to Shadow Mountain (a fun little camp area in Hobble Creek Canyon.) It was an insane amount of work, and I was worried sick that I had forgotten many things, or that it would rain, but our prayers were answered and the day went without a hitch. The parents that came up and volunteered were FANTASTIC!!! They made my job so much easier! My co-workers say that they owe me big time... I'm just excited that I never have to plan it again :) Here are some pictures of the highlights of the day.....

Ok, seriously. Each class had to make their own class flag. We had a competition for the person that would get to make our flag, and Jacob won. So he came up to me one day after school and asked if he had to use markers, or if he could use paint on the flag. I told him he could do whatever he wanted to do..... and this is the outcome. Can we say, the coolest class flag in the history of mankind? I was BLOWN away! Needless to say, everyone else was too. If there had been a class competition for best flag... we would have totally taken the title!




So, here are a couple of pictures from the morning. We did different rotations all through the day. In the morning we had the frames (where they decorated picture frames), wildlife observations, and making rope. In the afternoon they got to make fire, throw tomahawks, play a fun game, and then play some team building games with our school counselor. Oh, we all had matching shirts where the kids drew a self portrait and they were printed on the shirt. Brett has one too :) I was also really happy because Brett made it up to Shadow Mountain for the last couple of hours. It was REALLY fun to have him there with us!

Well, we have a fireside tonight, so I think that's all I'm going to do for right now! We're still waiting to hear back from Arizona for Grad. School, but are not giving up hope yet! I'll post it when we get the good news!

I Love the Fall..... and BYU football!

Holy Toledo! So, I can't believe how fast time is flying right now. We've been in school for almost a month now... isn't that nuts? My class is pretty darn awesome, except for one student. I find it interesting how one kid can kind of change the "feel" of the class. My student isn't BAD, he/she (to keep it completely anonymous) just doesn't want to do anything. SERIOUSLY! I had to bring, said student, to lunch with me in the faculty room one day because he/she didn't get the work done that he/she was supposed to. Since that day, however, the student has been doing much better, so maybe they just needed a little kick start to the year. Time will only tell...

I'm also having a slight nervous breakdown because the GINORMOUS field trip that I'm in charge of is on Friday. We're taking our students up to Shadow Mountain to do some awesome rotations and team building activities. It should be pretty sweet (if things go according to plan) so let's pray that it does! I'm just going to be very happy when this week is over! I'm also doing benchmarking tomorrow, so that will be a joy. OH! And I signed up to take the 2nd Praxis (the big teacher tests) on Nov. 15th. If I die before Christmas, we'll understand why!

Brett, on the other hand, is feeling much more calm since this past week is over. He had his first interview for Grad. School this week in Arizona. This was a really important interview for us because 1) It's where I want to go. 2) It's where I want to go. 3) It's now where Brett wants to go too. So, he left Thursday afternoon and that's where the freaking out for me began. I had to drive home in rush hour traffic in SLC... not fun! Then I had to go home to an empty house and worry about how my husband was, if he was safe, if he found his shuttle, etc. (It didn't help matters that he was flying on Sept. 11th.) Luckily, Sara (my little sis.) said she would come spend the night at my house so I wasn't alone. It's a good thing she was there, too! She took my mind off of things as we caught up and chatted about her new ward, semester, etc. Then we watched a good 1 1/2 hours of the Office and I was feeling great.... until I went to bed and started thinking again. Needless to say, I slept about 2 hours that night because I was lonely and was worried out of my mind.
Friday came and I was going ballistic! I even told my kids that I was completely out of it and that they needed to just bear with me because I wasn't too focused on school that day. I was seriously scatterbrained. Luckily, Brett texted me and told me that he felt really good about it and I was much better from that point on.

SO.... in short, Brett feels really good about the interview. We'll probably find out if he's in by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. If things don't work out at this school, we still have several more options, so we're feeling good about things for now!

Last note... I LOVE BYU FOOTBALL!!!!!!! (Minus the fact that I look like a lobster except for on my forhead because I was wearing a hat. I look pretty stinkin' cute now.) Yesterday's game was phenomenal, and I am VERY glad that I was able to be a part of it! I can't wait for the next game against Wyoming, so we can crush the competition again! GO COUGS!!!!

Ok, that's the end of the never-ending blog for now!! Maybe I'll be able to write again in another month :)