Yeah for Jeremy!

On Friday, Jeremy accepted another job promotion!! His new title is Customer Executive. That means he will be in charge of selling all Hormel grocery and meat products to Stater Brothers, a popular grocery chain in Southern California. We are excited about the pay increase and the amount of responsibility he will have.

Luckily, there is no job re-location, so we will stay right here in Huntington Beach! This job means that we will be living in this area for a couple of years. Which is great news for my career. I get to teach at the same school for a while!!! We might start looking to buy a home soon, too.

We know that this is a huge blessing from our Heavenly Father. Jeremy's boss had his eye out for Jeremy to take this position. Jeremy was told that his integrity and hard work ethic is what set him apart. I am so proud of him!!

Ever since we moved here, we've wondered when the time would be to get transferred to Minnesota- because that still is the long term plan for Jeremy's career. Well, now we can see that the Lord definitely wants us here in SoCal for a while. I guess there are still people for us to influence and be influenced by and things to learn and do. We hope to do our part so that we can benefit from all that God has in store for us.

Just Thinking

Thought 1-True Friends
Our Sunday school lesson today was about being true friends. We read a quote by Joseph Smith where he praised his dearest friends because they had stood by him in adversity AND stood true to their faith in the gospel. What an interesting thought- that one may be a true friend by being true in the gospel.

I really think this is true. As we draw closer to Heavenly Father, we become more Christlike. Our abilities to love and care for our friends will increase because we have the Spirit with us more. How neat to think that I can be a better friend simply by living the gospel more faithfully.

Is it a wonder, then, that my dearest friends are ones who have always stood firm in the faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I think not! Here are just a few of the friends that have touched my life for good. I hope I can be as wonderful to them as they have been to me!Kisha, Jine, and MeganDeadawnBrooke
Debi and Laura
Chelsea and Ryan
Mom
Cammie (Malee!)
Stacy Lynn

Thought 2- Twitter Shmitter
Does anyone really use twitter? I still have not met a single person that actually uses twitter for personal reasons. My work is trying to get us to use twitter to advertise school events as they happen, and I can see the merit to that. Other than that, it seems like twitter is just a big fad in the media. All the talk show hosts, news anchors and sitcom stars use it, but to my knowledge, not the average person. Am I right?

Thought 3- Gossip
When I was in high school, I thought that gossiping was just a juvenile thing, that once I graduated, gossiping would be a thing of the past. Boy, have I learned otherwise. Jeremy and I are realizing that grown-ups are even worse about gossiping than kids. At Jeremy's office, it seems like people are always talking about how annoying or weird certain individuals are. Those one or two people get the brunt of every joke. And Jeremy is always caught in the middle of it, not sure how to change the subject, wishing he wasn't even in the room to be a part of it. Too bad he can't move his desk.

The same kind of thing happens at church, in our families, and among the teachers at my school, of which I have alluded to in an earlier post. It's so ridiculous and disappointing and ugly! It makes me sick. I've made a firm commitment to not be a part of any gossip anymore, anywhere. I never want to be the cause of another person's hurt feelings.

Has it been easy? Not really, but I'm finding, as always, that when I seek the Lord's help to be more loving, it is easier to think positively. But the adversary is nearby. As I've striven to only speak positively of others, I somehow notice more of the side conversations that take place in the teacher's lounge and corners of the halls. And sometimes I find myself tempted to join in, or to mention a frustration about someone to another co-worker. Wow. It's just so perplexing that this would be a challenge for us in adulthood!

Wait. Does it count as gossip if you vent to your husband about someone? Hmm.

Line Up, Please!

The first week of school was great! I had a ton of fun with every class. I teach Jr Kinder, Kinder, grades 1-5 and JH choir. That's about 500 students in 19 classes. Since I teach at a private school, my class sizes average at about 17!! Piece of cake! It's funny to hear the veteran teachers who have never taught in public schools complain about a class with 24 kids. They have no idea.

The most worthy thing to note about the week is that I have forgotten what Kindergartners are like at the beginning of the year. How do I say this politely? They are completely delinquent in absolutely everything you would think is easy to do! I mean, really! They can't sit still to save their lives, they can't wait for you to finish even one sentence (or an 8 measure song), and they have no concept of walking in a line.

What happens is the teacher asks for the kids to line up. This results in a swarm of children around their hive...er... teacher. So then the teacher tries to choose one person to be the start of the line and show the kids which direction the line will end up. Now we have three lines in 4 different directions.

When the teacher finally gets all of the kids in a somewhat unified conglomeration, the next challenge is to get all the children to face the same direction. You can try singing, saying "1,2,3, eyes on me," and jumping up & down like a clown, but you will still have 4 kids who have no idea that you are even at the head of the room trying to get their attention. So the teacher must physically move their bodies to face the front.

The next challenge is to start moving the line in a forward direction. The teacher walks backwards, beckoning the first child in the line to follow her. The kid only gazes into space, transfixed on the beaded necklace around the teacher's neck. "Follow the person in front of you!" "Keep facing the front!" But to no avail. If she is lucky, the teacher will get the first child to walk forward, leaving everyone else behind. Finally, one child notices that the teacher is moving forward and starts to walk. But that kid was fifth in line and doesn't wait for the others to go. Once again, there is a human blob in the doorway of the classroom, spilling into the hallway, resulting in virtually no progress from what began 7 minutes earlier.

Expect about a month to master exiting the room. Then another 3 or 4 for the children to test every law of physics by sauntering through the halls in zigzag motions, walking backwards, tracing their fingers on and bumping into every wall, finding microscopic pieces of trash on the ground, starting at the end of the line at point A and ending up three people from the front at point B, tripping over their own feet, kicking, poking, teasing, arguing and falling over each other. Seriously, no exaggeration. I am a witness to these true events of the past week!

How we underestimate the patience required to teach our little ones! Even though they struggle to focus on my instructions, the moment that I sing and move, the children are all fixed on what I am doing. Reaching these little people through the power of music and movement is exactly why I chose this career. I love it! And I love them.

Back to School

This Tuesday is the first day of school. It is really exciting, but there's a lot of stress and anxiety too. The first week is crucial to the success of the year, so no pressure or anything, right? Luckily, I know nearly all of the students I will have. It is going to be so neat to see the same groups of students that I've taught before. What a treat that music specialists have!

I've got my new room all ready, which is a soundproof studio that already existed on campus. Finally we will be able to make music as loud as we want!! No cares about anyone hearing us. Our brand new African drums line the walls, my stuffed animals and songbooks color up the space, and my bulletin boards are ready for new melodies and rhythms to be added by the children. And I've also got 4 grade levels of lessons planned- just a few more grades to go. Ah!

There is one thing that I am not looking forward to, though. That's being misunderstood. Already, in my short career of teaching (this is my 3rd year since graduation) I have witnessed the sad politics and gossip and stupid competition that occurs among teachers and other colleagues in education. For the most part, the teachers that I've worked with in all of my teaching jobs have been fantastic. They are driven to help children and love what they do. And I have had some amazing teammates throughout the years (like Laura, Debbie and Cammie, to name a few).

But it's those 2 or 3 teachers or administrators that can literally destroy one's passion and love for teaching- if one lets them. I'm learning that most of the political crap & gossip among teachers happens due to pride and simply an unwillingess to understand. That's what I hate the most about life right now- being misunderstood.

So I am just trying to take all of the unfriendly, humiliating and downright coniving encounters that I have had with these people in good measure. I've got to just chalk it up as experience, to try to forgive and understand, to be patient, full of charity. And literally rely on Heavenly Father for strength so that my fiery flame for making a difference in the lives of children is not squelched by the pessimistic few.

I have faith that if I rely on the Lord to magnify my talents, and if I am humble, somehow I will figure out a way to deal even with the most difficult of people.

Puerto Rico!

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by going to Puerto Rico for two weeks! WOW. It was amazing! No, we didn't stay cooped up in a resort the whole time (we actually never stayed in a real hotel!). Instead, we saw the country like real travelers, roughing it with 4 days of clothes, riding the publicos, and even spending a few nights in a cabin with no electricity or running water!!

During the trip, I kept two journals. One is of our daily activities and how fun they were. The other journal was a tiny, yellow notepad that we kept in our backpack everyday. We kept lists of the food we ate and the wildlife that we saw. I think it will be more fun to read that, as the lists tell the story of how we hopped from guesthouse to guesthouse, town to town and island to island doing a number of awesome activities. Many of the food and animals described below can be found in our slideshow!

Puerto Rico 2009 Slideshow

Wildlife Sightings
Roosters- Heard in San Juan, Fajardo, El Yunque and Culebra. Ah! They woke us up at 3:30 every morning and would not stop until noon!!

Gecko- little ones all over the walls in Francisco's neighborhood in San Juan. We arranged ahead of time to stay in his extra bedroom in the city.

Crab- about the size of a bar of soap, walking sideways on the grass area in El Morro (Spanish castle in Old San Juan). He was very far from home and really scared of us.

Biting ants- we discovered these while napping on the grass at El Morro. Ouch! Also found while I was stuck in the mud, right on top of an ant hill in the rain forest.

Snail with a flat, seashell looking shell- at Phillips' Cabin in El Yunque (the rainforest)

Lizards- hundreds everywhere in El Yunque, Culebra island, and Vieques island. Brown, green, about 6 inches long.

Large lizards- blackish blue, 12-15 inches long, cylindrical looking.

Snake- brown, at waterfalls in El Yunque. 2 1/2 feet long.

Iguana- yellow body, green and black striped tail, orange legs, off-white spikes, yellow face. 4ft long or more, swimming in waterfall pool with us in El Yunque. Yikes! He even dove off of the rocks into the waterfall pool.

Coque (coo-kee)- Little frogs, 50-cent size, light tan, almost transparent, make a coo-kee sound. We found one in the outdoor toilet at Phillips Cabin. National Geographic said that the area around Phillips Cabin is the most populated area of tree frogs in the whole world. We know it's true because we could hardly sleep at night- they were SO loud!!

Butterflies- black and blue, yellow, and a tiny, tiny orange one, all in El Yunque.

Mysterious Animal- either a ferret, mole or mongoose. Brownish gray. Sighted in El Yunque.

Paloma bird- gray body, blue head, yellow around the eyes. Redish beak. Endangered. Seen at the restaurant called La Paloma.

Moth- tinier than your pinkey fingernail. Purple wings, yellow tip, sighted at dinner in La Paloma, one of the restaurants in the mountains of El Yunque.

Mosquitos- seen at Casita Zumbador, a guest house in El Yunque. But we had absolutely NO mosquitos at Phillip's cabin, a few miles up the rain forest mountain where most of the coques live.

This is supposed to be a highway, but the jungle has taken over!
Sea Turtles- Beautiful tan and green designs. About 14'' pizza size. Two were sighted while scuba diving in Fajardo. Then we sighted a Hawk's Bill Sea Turtle (endangered) while snorkeling in Vieques.

Conk Shell that was alive!! Sighted while scuba diving. Jeremy reached out to touch it, but our instructor said (in scuba language) "No! It will stab you!"

Checkered Fish- 6-8'' long. Auburn and gray checks. Scuba diving. This was my favorite fish.

Arrow crab- very deliquette. Body was dime size and literally the shape of an arrow. Legs were about 4'' long, as thin as your hair. Our scuba instructor found it for us on our first dive!

Two sting rays- one off of Puerto Del Re while scuba diving. One snorkeling at Zoni Beach on Culebra.

Tiny bird- yellow belly, navy wings, straw nest with opening on bottom. Seemed to eat nector from flower tree that it nested on. Culebra Casita Tropical (our guest house on Culebra).

Stray Sheep- "baaa"-ing at us while we were on our golf cart expedition in Culebra.

Huge Fish- 4-6ft long, gray, hanging out at the dock next to our table at the restaurant called Dingy Dock. We fed them our croutons.

The UGLIEST Pigeon Ever- mangled hair, missing toe, eating bread at the b-fast place next to the Fajardo ferry dock. (What allows those birds to survive all the grease and grime of the city anyway?) All of the beaches were gorgeous and remote like this beach. On Zoni and Secret Beach, we were all alone for hours!!
Wild Horses- grazing in open areas, huddled under trees, crossing the streets at their own leisure, eating people's flowers and grass, on Vieques. Later we found out that these horses are really only semi-wild because they all have owners. The islanders find it's easier to let the horses go wherever they want to than it is to groom and house them. Whenever they want to ride their horse, the owners just call for it and look around for it. The owners will always claim their horse if someone else tries to ride them, but no one claims the horses that are found eating away at the neighbor's flowers!

Centipede- 8 inches long, ½ inch diameter, squiggly and snake-like movements, blackish brown. Jeremy saw it doing laundry at Esperanza Inn, Vieques.

Sideways walking crab- peach-yellow body and legs, white claws. Spotted at Secret Beach, Vieques.

Mongoose- brown, round and fat, maybe 16’’ with it’s flat tail, seen at Plata Beach, Vieques.

Dino flagellates- micro-organisms that live in water and glow in the dark when the water is agitated. They make a greenish-blue glow with the same chemicals that fireflies have. It was soooo amazing to swim in the water and see all the glowing!! When they got on our arms, it looked like pixie dust! We did this two nights in a row, once via electric boat, once on kayaks.

Starfish- orange, some the size of Jeremy’s hand. Vieques.

Bat- brownish, flying overhead our truck from the biobay where the dinoflagellates were.

Puerto Rican Quisine
Mofongo- mashed, green plantains stuffed with meat. Dressed in onions and olive oil.

Amarillos- sweat, yellow plantains. Fried slowly to softness. My absolute favorite of the whole trip!

Tostones- mashed and fried plantains. Kind of like thick chips, and kinda like French fries.

Stuffed Avocado- whole avocado with chicken mixed with mayo on top. Above- this is the best meal we had. A little old lady in Old San Juan cooked it for us.

Sofrito Bean Sauce- bell peppers, garlic, cilantro, pinto beans, water, ricoa. The beans were always served in a little bowl separate from the rice.

Pastelillos- turnovers with meat and cheese inside. Fried. Very yummy.

Pasteles- corn bread stuffed with cheese and fried. Not very good. It was sticky and too creamy.
Snapper fish- the whole thing. Island style.

Chimichurri- yummy salsa with mangos to put on your meat.

Coconut Cake- delish! I don't know if it's really Puerto Rican, but it was home-made on Culebra.

Good Ol' Carolina Hospitality

Today, I am writing this post in a cute guest house on a Carribean island called Vieques, Puerto Rico. You'll hear more about that later because I need to tell you about our trip to the Carolinas.

Two weeks ago, on our way to Puerto Rico, we had an extended lay-over trip in Charlotte, North Carolina- for 3 days!! We couldn't resist the opportunity to stay with our best married friends, The Beachamps. (reminder- Jeremy and Ryan became good friends while being RA's at BYU. After Ryan and Chelsea got married, they moved into our apt complex where the 4 of us developed a life-long friendship).

Being with the Beachamps in North and South Carolina was SO much fun. Chelsea and Ryan are such great examples to us. They are so strong in the gospel. They pray together, talk kindly to each other and just bouie us up all the time! As soon as we got there, I was so uplifted by being with them and in their home. I was really sad when the time came so quickly for us to go!

We got to meet their new baby son, Elijah, who is almost 6 months old! He is such a sweet, happy baby with a tender, aware disposition. Oh my goodness, he is so cute! Jeremy and I had a lot of fun playing with him. One day, he was just cooing "eh" for hours and smacking his lips and laughing at himself, having a ball. He is really long and lean like his parents, and he has the most honest eyes. And cute rolls of skin in the funniest places! We tried taking Elijah home with us, but Chelsea would not allow it!

During our visit, we were spoiled with Carolina hospitality. Chelsea and Ryan took us to see two Revolutionary War sights- Cowpens was one of them. I was in heaven! Everything was lush, green, humid and full of history. Beautiful, educational, and humbling- although we look pretty proud in this picture, I promise we were very awed and amazed by the battles and sacrifices that were made to establish our wonderful country. We even had a moment of silence to remember them.

We ate at a real Southern BBQ place with friendly, funny people. All four of us tried Cheerwine for the first time. (don't worry folks! it's non-alcoholic) It's like rootbear but with a cherry flavor. We also had hushpuppies (I didn't even know they existed!) and red cole slaw.

The NASCAR family fun center was a blast. We went go-carting in pretend nascars!! Chelsea got way into it, which was funny since she had a traumatic experience go-carting when she was younger. But she got over that real fast!

Church was awesome. Just to sit next to the Beachamps again during the sacrament service again was cool. Chelsea taught a wonderful lesson in Relief Society for the ladies, and I got to hold Elijah the whole time. We ate Calzone that afternoon with the missionaries and played games, watched Elijah's birth video (amazing!), walked through the house that Ryan and Chelsea are building (how cool is that!?) and talked and talked and laughed and talked all night... while Ryan fell asleep on the floor. Poor guy.

We (at least me) really liked being in the green and humid Carolinas. It is way more humid in the Carolinas than it is down here in Puerto Rico- even including the rainforrest. And I loved it! We also enjoyed how everyone in North and South Carolina was so nice and friendly, esp at the airport! That's the nicest airport experience I've ever had! We can't wait to go there again...or maybe even live there someday! Who knows?

The Matt

Jeremy here- So my little brother Matt came down to Huntington Beach from Sacramento to visit us last week. I guess he was getting bored of sitting at home with his parents, a bed-ridden grandma, and several aunts coming and going. So he's 13 and my mom was about to let the boy ride a greyhound bus overnight to downtown LA. I suppose since he's 6'2" he looks a bit older than he really is and he can defend himself. But fortunately she was able to figure out an affordable round trip flight (again his height saved him because apparently you've got to be 15 to fly in a plane, but his Greg Oden-like looks conviced the security he was older).

We had a seriously good time. Every day was something you could write home --er, write a blog--about. SarahLynn and I took him to the Newport Beach Golf course, which sounds super high class, but it's pretty rinky-dink (one hole featured a green that was covered in sand...why did they put the hole in a sand trap??) Matt did really well for it being his second time ever. But the best part was SarahLynn! When she golfs with me it's fun, but she's not always into it. But as soon as we got to the course she decided that she's Tiger Woods (Tigress Woods? Tigerette Woods? Liger Woods?) She goes out there and demonsrates the proper short-iron swing like as though she's doing private lessons, and she helped him with his mental game ("just taaap it in"). She's such a teacher, it doesn't matter what the subject, she just has to teach it. It all went great except for the part when Matt almost nailed a guy in the back of the head with an errant 3-wood.

We went to the Orange County Fair which turned out great. We laughed our heads off at the hypnotist show twice, were surprised by the Chinese acrobats, and were confused by the Weird Al exhibit. I was delighted to see an entire section of the fair dedicated to pigs, with multiple references to Hormel and SPAM.

Saturday we checked out the US Open of Surfing down at the pier. We actually watched a lot more bmx bike competitions than surfing, and it was all pretty sweet. The highlight had to be standing in a super long line just to get some bright orange Nike hats that were cool, but we'll probably never wear again. Matt and I played catch with a mini-football in the waves for hours...so fun to grab a diving catch as a wave crushes you.

Monday night we scored Angels baseball tickets from work and got to witness a real fist fight in the stands...and saw back-to-back-to-back home runs by the home team. Then we played in the arcade at ESPN Zone until it closed.

So pretty much Matt had the greatest time of his life. And we had just another weekend in beautiful Huntington Beach. Ok, it was fun for us too!

Good Times

School Ended
I have loved working at my new job with these amazing kids! Here are some end of the year pictures. I can't wait for next year because I will get to go through an entire school year with my students!

Honeymoon Visit

Stacy and Dan Birk did some road tripping for their honeymoon. We met up with them in San Diego and went on a double date to an Island restaurant and then to the temple. We had a really great time together. Stacy is so amazing. She has such neat gospel insights and a very strong testimony. I'm so glad we're still friends.
Beach Cruisin'
Jeremy and I found some beach cruisers at Walmart for an amazing price during Memorial Sale Weekend. We've been riding around town ever since! These bikes are seriously so much fun!! So far, we've ridden to the beach tons of times, Starbucks, the Night Market, Target, and a few parks.

On Saturday, Jeremy concocted his own version of a bike basket by taking a shopping basket from a grocery store and strapping it to the back of his bike with a bungee cord. The bungee cord makes for a nice feature; it allows the basket to be removed.

Jeremy and I were so proud of his invention that we made sure to cram everything in it that we needed for the beach yesterday. This included 1 blanket, 2 towels, books, water, suncsreen and a basketball. We wobbled all the way to the beach with the hefty load before we realized that we could have put some of the things in a backpack! Oh well.
Baseball Game
We were able to get awesome seats at the Angle's game. We went with our friends Jon and Vanessa Wells.

Girl's Camp
I went to my church Girl's Camp as a leader this past week. It was nice to be up in the CA mountains with lots of energetic little ladies. We learned a lot about the gospel and got to share our feelings about Jesus Christ throughout the week. Very neat.