Elementary Education

Elementary Education is a very unique major. To maybe shed some light on the world that I live in I have compiled a list:
The Top 10 Ways You Know Your an Elementary Education Major (in no particular order)

10: Your backpack has more Crayons in it than pencils and pens
9: To get a group of peoples' attention you use phrases such as, "Give me 5" or "1,2,3 Eyes on Me"
8: You know what the following acronyms stand for: DIBELS, IEP, AYP, IDEA, CRT, ADHD, PDD, NCLB.
7: There are only 2 guys in your class
6: One of the "textbooks" you bought last semester was James and the Giant Peach
5: You have piles and boxes of things such as paper towel tubes, ribbon, Popsicle sticks, post-it notes in the shapes of flowers, and old magazines.
4: You make your husband draw you giant pictures of mousetraps, band aids, and flamingos.
3: You never wear white(its just going to get dirty), and must always have pockets.
2: Your math final was the 6th grade end of year math test.
1: You graduate college having never written a paper over 8 pages!

1st and 3rd Grade! FIRST GRADE! I thought I would be safe from the world of tears, and nose wiping, and dependency. Since I am not an early childhood emphisis and there are about a 9 in my class I thought for sure I wouldn't get 1st grade. But no I was wrong. And to be honest 1st graders scare me... 6th graders not a problem but 1st graders are so sticky. Teaching children to read completly baffles me and seems like an impossible task.
Moving on...
It is officially Christmas Season! But before going on about Christmas. Thanksgiving was great! I liked getting to spend sometime with Brian and then spending the weekend with family. Minus having to wear and itchy moo-moo getting to go through the temple with Caleb was awesome!
Now on to Christmas. Our tree went up the day after Thanksgiving. Tragically I went to Roberts and Christmas decorations were 50 % off. I had good self control and just bought candy canes to hang outside my door. They are super cute. I love Christmas time, and now that I am done with school for the semester Im hoping to get more into the Christmas mood. I haven't even listened to Forgotten Carols yet. But I have started one of my favorite part of Christmas which is getting to buy Brian Christmas presents. Silly I know but it really is one of the best things. And 1 more piece of good news Brian got the 24th-27th off so we will be up to see family for Christmas!
Hope everyone is getting into the Christmas Season!

Made it Through!

Minus a 2 page write-up on my experience at the middle school... I have EVERYTHING done for the semester. Wahoo. Still waiting on a student teaching placement but by Monday for sure I should have one... Maybe. Things are going well here. I am having to relearn how to entertain myself though, Brian works 330-1200 even on the night that I work I am done by 930... and tonight I don't work so I am remember how boring Cedar City is. I am also remember how much I HATE how early it gets dark. It is 630 and pitch black outside. We aren't going up North for Thanksgiving and since neither Brian or I know how to cook a Turkey we are doing steak and potatoes and pie.Yum! So I am off to Wal Mart to get what we need for Thursday!

Too Busy to Blog.

I am now going to give you the Reader Digest version of what has been happening here in Cedar City. I am super busy with school and work so this may be the last post for a few weeks til I have time to resurface.
1: This last weekend Brian's parents came to stay. It is always nice to be with family but I am once again reminded that I did not get the entertaining gene, and by Sunday wanted everyone to go away. Nothing to do with who the company was, just the fact that I had company. We got a chance to see Kemille and the boys on Sunday as well. Fun for all!
2: Brian got the Team Lead position at Convergys we will be staying here next semester while I student teach
3: By little Brother got his mission call. Fortaleza Brazil! Very cool!
4: School is killing me. One of my professors just moved all of our due dates up a week to insure that we get everything back by the end of the semester. :-(
5: I had to take the Methods of Teaching Elementary School Praxis... I will be taking that one again since I am pretty sure I failed. I was the most horrible test I have ever taken and every person who told me "not to worry about it" was not being truthful with me!
6: I have a huge "Resource Toolkit" (aka annotated Bibliography) of 5 fiction books, 5 non fiction books, 10 websites, and 6 activities all related to the US Constitution due on Wednesday...
So I am off to do that!

A Halloween Adventure

On Saturday afternoon Brian, the dog, and I went on an adventure. It didn't start out as an adventure, but sort of turned into one. The original goal was to take Bella to Enterprise reservoir so she could run around and play. We got to the reservoir and discovered it has been drained. We climbed around on the dam and around the reservoir for awhile. This is a picture from the bottom of the dam. All of the pictures are really small because I had to take them on my phone. This is t

On the way back from Enterprise, Brian wanted to see how close you can get to the mine dump hills. Well about a mile down the side dirt road, the road ends and there is this big "Iron Bull Mining Company-NO TRESPASSING" sign. This did not stop us. We just got out and walked. Along the way we found: An old outhouse

We also saw old telegraph poles

This is what we decided was the old dump shoots, the iron got dumped into little carts, and then got put onto trains. Its hard to tell from the pictures but we're pretty sure that is what it is. Tragically my phone died before I got to take all the pictures I wanted, but we are going back and going to get more pictures. We think we found a backway in to get us closer to the actual mine. There are tons of old half structures, huge 5 inch around metal cables, lunch pails, the list goes on and on. As long as you ignore the no trespassing signs and can jump the fence. It is awesome! It was also a little eerie, standing at the bottom of a lake bed, walking across the top of a dam, and wondering around an old mining site. But over all a great day!

Only In Utah...

Today while grading papers in the 6th grade, one of the questions asked them to write a sentence about Judisim using 2 words from the word bank. 1 of the words was 10 commandments. The sentence this student wrote was "Nephi gave us the 10 commandments." :-)

A strong urge to burn everything!

No I have not become a pyro. We got a call on Friday from the foster mom of the hellian children. Apparently when she took the kids to the doctor, he found "the worst case of LICE" he'd ever seen on the girl. Live lice not the eggs which means they are brown. How did 13 adults miss a bunch of brown bugs crawling around in platinum blonde hair? Worse yet the doctor is saying there is no way that we all don't have lice... I wanted to vomit literally. I have been very proud of the fact that I have never had lice. Despite 2 friends having in in elementary school. So not bother to check or wait and see if little brown bugs begin crawling all over my head. We went and got the lice kit from wal-mart. We sprayed and washed everything! I washed my hair (twice) with the stupid shampoo. Even the dog got a bath and a wash with the shampoo. I figure better safe than sorry. Ugg...

A Long Week

It has been a very long week. For school we went to schools in St. George. We each got assigned a teacher and spent Monday-Thursday in their classroom. Well this means having to be in St. George at 8:30 every morning. Which means leaving around 7:45. Which is early for me. Monday night I worked from 5:30-11:00 and it was the worst night at work ever. I didn't help that I worked Saturday and Sunday, or that we had 3 of the worst kids ever in shelter. Seriously think the Herdmans, just violent and rude, and difficult. I was kicked, punched, yelled at, sworn at. It was not fun. At 8:45 I called Brian and made him come in. Sunday and Monday work dissolved me to tears. Tuesday was the guilt trip staff meeting. 2 hours of how hard of a life these kids have had and how we have to love and respect them (I really just wanted to spank them). But going to St. George was good. I actually got to teach Math on Wednesday. Its always nice to have the chance to actually teach and have someone watch so they can give feedback. And now Im done! No school tomorrow or Monday!! Nice long weekend and Im officially half way through the semester. :-)

Back to Reality

Oh it was so nice, last week we ditched town Thursday night and spent Friday Saturday and Sunday with family. The girls all got to go out. Brian and I went over to some friends on Friday night and had dinner and played games. It was just nice to get to relax for a weekend with family. Of course that means that we see very little of conference because we get distracted and all day Sunday we were driving. But we recorded them and will make our way through them all eventually. And now it is Tuesday and coming back to Cedar and school and work seems to mean that I get to be sick...again or maybe still is the right word. All last week and over the weekend I felt so much better I really thought I had beaten this cold, however, apparently Sandy/Kaysville has a different cold virus than Cedar because I woke up yesterday feeling horrible and slept all this morning til I had class at 1. Thankfully though I have a wonderful husband who last night came to work and did all the cleaning for me. I was wiped out we had 3 more kids come into to overnight and they were way traumatized. They got there at 8 and it took a lot out of me having to physically restrain the 7 year old so she wouldn't run away... But I called Brian and he came. He played with the boys and cleaned the Kitchen and the toys he even hung out while I slept on the couch til 11 when I could go home. I really am lucky, he just came and got right to work and made me sit and do paperwork.

1 year.

Wahoo! Brian and I have offically been married for 1 year! Crazy huh? And for our anniversary celebration we laid around the house. Brian finally went to the Dr. on friday after missing a week of work. He has a sinus and ear infection and bronchitis. Saturday I had to CPR/First Aid certify. I wasn't allowed to touch anyone or share anything because I am sick as well. We watched all of the show Firefly and many many movies. At least we could take turns getting more to drink, changing the movie, going to get dinner. Now the week has started again and Brian while still coughing seems to be feeling better and went back to work. I however, do not feel better if anything I feel worse and I have to work tonight. No one was willing to take or switch me shifts so Im off to work... 6 kids 2 one-year-olds 0-over the age of 5. All of them need baths and to be put to bed, and I have to clean. I am seriously debating what would happen if I just didn't show up, turned up my phone, locked my door and went to bed. Oh and if a thermometer tells you you have a body temperarture of 93.2 and then when you retake it 95.5 is it broken?

Mondays...

Sometimes I wish my week did not start with a Monday morning but if it didn't start with a Monday morning it would start with a Tuesday morning and this post would still exisist it would just be called Tuesdays...Regardless of what day it is that the week starts on it is inevitable to be a long day. Mornings are painful as we all know but that first morning of the week is the worst. It takes me til noon to feel like I am really getting started. I walk around in a daze from about 8-12. Well mostly I sit in a daze because I have class but really my brain just does not want to work on Monday mornings. I always seem hungrier, slower, and grumpier on Mondays. Maybe it is because Mondays are LONG 8 am-11:30 pm is a long day in my book. Maybe it is because I have weekend hangover (different from alcoholic hangover). Who knows but for some reason I struggle. However, somewhere in the daze that was today Math turned out to be the highlight (sickening I know). We took a "pretest" last week in my Math class it was the end of year 6th grade test that students take to determine 7th grade placement. 37 questions if you got 31 or more you dont have to take the final at the end of the semester. Well my teacher put the scores up. One person got a 37... I vaguely remember in my daze thinking that was not me I got a B in the math for elementary school teachers... math is not my strong subject. Well the next thing I know my professor has announced to the class while handing back the tests that I was one that got the 37. So no final for me! That helped the daze lift a little :-) Even though I wish my professor hadn't told the whole class...

Never Having Children

After this weekend I have vowed to never have children. I worked 8 hours yesterday and 8 hours today. We have 5 kids in 24 hour care right now... the 4 ages 3-8 are GREAT so cute and so well behaved. HOWEVER the one 1 year old not so great. It isn't her fault she has a cold. You can hear it when she breathes, plus she is getting 2 molars in one on each side her gums are huge and nothing seems to help. So she screams and fusses. She doesn't sleep through the night because of the pain and being sick so she is grumpy all day. She wants to be constantly held and sometimes still screams. I think to myself... I get to go home in a couple of hours but what if you were my kid and I couldn't go home and pass you off???? I would literally go crazy. I don't know how anyone does it. Seriously I HATE it when we have babies come in that are teething. And all babies do it, its not like my kids wouldn't. FINALLY I broke the rules I couldn't listen to her scream any more so I gave her infant tylenol and got 45 min of her sleeping to clean for the next person. We aren't supposed to give kids meds unless mom and dad bring it in with a note saying how much and how often. The problem is this baby is in state custody so no note from mom and dad for her. But she just kept screaming and shaking. And I was going CRAZY. I literally could not get her to be quiet for more than 5 min. So I have decided to never have kids. I have seen enough moms desperate and at their wits end. Enough overwhelmed moms who have disgusting houses because they are just too worn out to clean, and I do not do well when sleep deprived which is sort of how you live being a mom. I get grumpy and mean and completely irrational. so to avoid running the risk of being one of those moms I just won't have babies. We will adopt 3 year olds.

Panic Attack

So this afternoon (about 20 min ago) I went to the campus Wellness Center to make an appointment to get my Ritalin refilled. (Why they won't just do what every other Dr does and put on the prescription do not fill until... and give me 5 months at a time is beyond me). Anyway went to get my Ritalin only to find out that the Nurse Practicioner who can fill the Ritalin had a family emergency and will be gone ALL of next week. Problem I do not have enough Ritalin to get me through a week or even the weekend. The little Secretary did not believe me when I told her I could NOT function with out it. She just smiled that smile that says silly ADHD girl just deal. Except that I am NOT ADHD I am Narcoleptic and have class ALL DAY EVERYDAY... I seriously started to panic right there in the Wellness Center. They may as well have told me I had to have a shot. Just typing this tragic tale is making me shake and have difficulty breathing. Who knew that one little pill could have so much control. Now some of you may be saying to yourselves that I survived for 19 1/2 years I will survive 1 week. Except for 2 things... I slept through class ALOT and now that I am not used to being narcoleptic all the time I struggle with feeling constantly ill, shaky, and having killer headaches. Its going to be a long week. If you don't hear from me by the 16th I didn't survive...

Kelsey LEE Bills

Kelsey Lee Bills is a different person than Kelsey Rae Bills (now Harris). However the State Department of Licencing that runs background checks failed to realize that we are different people. Therefore when work went to run my background check like they do every year the BCI came back rejected. Kelsey Lee Bills was convicted of theft last September in Sandy. Meanwhile Kelsey Rae Bills was sitting in class in Cedar City counting the days til she got married. Thankfully by boss is still going to let me work while we sort through this mess. I had to go do finger prints. I have to write an offical statement, I have to send copies of my drivers licence, social security card, birth certifcate, marriage certifacte, a new BCI, and the fingerprint cards. All to prove that my middle name is Rae and I have not been convincted of theft...

Holding on by a thread

My poor laptop for 3 years it has be hauled to classes, work, roadtrips, etc. But he is tired and going much slower than he used to. He has requested that I have only 1 window open. Not a word document, music, and 4 tabs on the internet. He just can't keep up. I think he is grumpy. He used to be the smallest thing on the block now all the little ones are everywhere. I just keep telling him that he has a CD drive that they don't have. Sometimes that helps him keep going. I also remind him that I just need him to make it through 1 more year and not crash completly since he holds all of the documents for my portfolio. Hopefully he can hang in there.

The First Week

I have decided that part of college is that for 3 years I have been doing absolutly nothing of any value or anything hard. And now that I am 2 semesters from graduating and 1 semester from student teaching my professors have decided to make up for 3 years of nothing worthwhile. I have class for 8 hours on Monday and Wed. 4 hours on Tuesdays (Tues mornings are reserved for catch up and seminars etc). Thursday and Fridays we spend all day in the schools. In 3 days I got 6 6 page syllabi (plural for syllabus). Signed up for 8 group projects. Got assigned 150 pages of reading due next week and got student teaching papers to be filled out along with a resume and cover letter and signed up for practicum hours in the school (5 of us ended up in 6th grade in the middle school) Now for 3 years and in high school I have never done said assigned reading. Except now they have decided to hold us accountable. One professor gives quizzes, one makes us come with an activity for each chapter and questions to be turned in. The other we have to keep a journal. So I actually have to read. For 3 years I have had the "correct" format for a lesson plan drilled into my head. And now they don't care we can use whatever format we like. We have been told at least 30 times that classroom management is the key to success. So why for three years have I been taking classes that never touch classroom management ? Now we have 1 semeseter to do it all. I sort of feel like I am cramming for a major test. Except I didn't choose to procrastinate for this one... it just happened. As a side note sitting is the most exhausting thing in the world. To sit in class for so many hours makes me more tired than I have been in a long time. We didn't even do a full week. Monday was a half day and we don't start in the schools until next week. Its going to be a long semester. I picked the wrong time to give up diet coke.

Most of you out there have heard by story about coming back from a charity gold tournament which was really fun pretty much a free vacation. I even got to meet Sen. Hatch. Yes, I did drive the wrong direction, yes I did get pulled over for DUI and speeding, No I wasn't drunk. Yes I cried. Yes the cop knew my sister and drew me a map to her house. No I didn't get a ticket. But the most amazing part of this story to me. Is the fact that I drove from Cedar to Midway without falling asleep. I drove from Midway to Sandy and back to Midway without falling asleep. I drove from Midway to Manila (til 2:00 am) without falling asleep. And....(drumroll please) I drove from Manila to Cedar City without falling asleep. It took us 7 hours and I still didn't fall asleep! You all may be impressed.

Nothing to Blog About....

I haven't posted in awhile because I felt like I had nothing to blog about but as I have been reading others blogs I have decided to blog today about the many small and simple blessings in my life. While it is not my anniversary and I have not moved into a new house I am going to be all mushy gooshy today about all the tender mercies that seem to have been popping up since the last time I blogged. Like a sister in Las Vegas and one in Arizona who let me just talk and talk on the phone. Or a mother who calls the sister in Vegas to find out "what is wrong" with me and sends me an email with just what I needed to hear that day. Friends at work who will go shopping with me and get lunch with me. Old roommates who come to Cedar City before jetting off to China so we can hang out at least once a year :-). Or old roommates who forgive me for not calling yesterday because I got stuck at work. And lastly a husband who loves me. Who makes me dinner when I have been at work all day and haven't eaten when I get home at 9 o'clock at night. And brings me diet coke whenever I need it at work. And will let me be crazy and sometimes does things for me just because they are important to me even when he really doesn't want to.

Moving Fun!

I went on Saturday to help Morgan and Derek move. I think mostly the truck was more help than I was but at least I could bring that. Las Vegas is HOT. But overall it ended up going fast they had lots of help and their new place is great! I had a good day and it is always nice to see family and catch up. We are lucky to live a close to Vegas and have family close by to hang out with and be helpful and supportive. Other than that life continues on here in Cedar. Days filled with Work and more Work. I have also reached that point in the summer when it is time for school to start again. Walmart has their school supply section out I have enjoyed a nice summer break but it is time to get going with school. The sooner I start the sooner I am done!

A Hidden Talent

Oh its not my hidden talent... Its my mothers. We took her shooting on Sunday and she was by far the best girl. She hit 2 clay birds (thats for Lexi) with the 22 rifle and LOVED the hand gun. Its a big one too! I can't wait til we get her shooting the 22 hand gun she'll never put it down. Dad had to tape his drivers licence to his glasses to cover an eye, Caleb was also very good. Josh held his own. And Lexi looks like a James Bond girl when she shoots... its pretty entertaining. Overall it was a good day. So far this week not too much is going on, just lots of working and this morning we went garage saleing (spelling?) with out friends Shane and Mandy. I had to work very hard to not call them Rummage Sales... :-). Last weekend was a good weekend, I went up to Salt Lake a fewe days before Brian who had to work, and enjoyed the 4th of July and hanging out with the family. Caleb was nice enough to let me tag along to see the Proposal for the 2nd time with Him and Lexi. Josh came with me to get a Jamba Juice and 3 hamburger buns for Mom (she meant 3 packages but it said three hamburger buns on the list she wrote me with a map of where to find hamburgers at wal mart). Brian and I got to see his sister and her 3 cute boys who adore Brian. Summer is going by fast, soon it will be school time again and since I have not gone to school all day 5 days a week since my Jr year of high school I am a little worried. Oh well it is the last semester before student teaching. Im done rambling now!

Here is Mom shooting ignore my finger trying to block the sun.

Here is Lexi.... notice the hip pop. We Love her!

Josh being James Bond.

Sorry they are small they are off of my phone :-)

Looking for Duck Creek...

Yesterday we went exploring up the canyon, as we set out we were trying to get to Duck Creek resovoir however we ended up going driving and discovered Navajo Lake we had never been and it was really cool, however as we were driving around, Brian pointed out that the Lake was clean as if it had an outlet but there was no outlet to be found. We had seen a sign for Cascade Falls on our way to Navajo Lake and decided we would go check those out. We discovered that Navajo Lake's outlet is sink holes that turn into Cascade Falls. So we went hiking to the falls. We ignored the trail closed signs, and despite being in flip flops made it to the falls.

A tempting quick fix

So I was reading Cosmopolition (A girl I work with left it at my house). And I read about this woman who was about to resort to gastric bypass surgery to try and lose weight and keep it off. However a few weeks before surgery her friend came to the rescue and introduced her to this fiber that comes in capsule form so you swallow like a pill. It is 100 % natural, it is like super fiber that when you eat/take it, expands in your stomach making you feel fuller faster and as all good fibers do help to metabolism your food so that it is less likely to sit un used and turn into fat. The woman went to 3 doctors and all of them agreed that it is completly safe, Japan has been using it for years. The woman lost..47 lbs in 7 weeks, has stopped taking the fiber and has kept the weight off for over 6 months now...I should not have read this article especially after being frustrated that after either riding my bike or walking everyday and limiting my fast food intake to less than once a week and eating lots of fruits and veggies no chips, minimal cookies, my graph has only gone down 3 squares... after a month. The trial package of said fiber for someone who wants to loose 20 lbs that comes with enough for 3 months was $45 dollars, that seemed pretty reasonable as I sat there feeling pudgy. But then i remembered that i am leery of "quick fixes" and as ritalin is an appetite supresent and I only eat once maybe twice a day as is I decided to keep trying the old fashion way even though I am more hungry now that I excersise than I used to be which makes it really hard to not munch all the time, but if by the end of the summer it doesn't work I am getting the super fiber.

Neglected

I know I have neglected our poor blog. But life has been crazy! We moved into a new apartment which is much better than the old one but that was very time consuming and unlike our old apartment where there were plenty of unsecured networks to get internet off of, there are NONE at the new apartment so I have to go on campus to blog and that just hasn't happened. Currently I am at work where I have been since 10 30 this morning and will be til 9:30 this evening. Eating those stupid frosted animal crackers even though I know they will make me sick they were there I was hungry. Really nothing is going here, I work like a crazy person so does Brian thankfully we usually both have nights off so we are getting to actualyl spend time together. Today at work we did what is called a super saturday and have 30 some odd kids here and did a Circus day, petting zoo (well two goats and a llama) included. It was crazyness but now it is done and mostly cleaned up after and everyone has left so it is just me. Bored and wondering when Brian will be back from shooting so I can have him bring me food other than animal crackers and chicken nuggets...

Pictures.

I accidently posted our cruise post with no pictures, however pictures in blogger is slow and a pain in the butt. So check facebook for pictures or come hunt me down and i'll show them to you.

An Epic Tale

WARNING: THIS POST MAY BE LONG. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

An Epic Tale of the Harris' Family Adventure Aboard the Carnival Valor.

A cruise is the most wonderful form of a vacation. To begin with we got on this gorgeous boat and for a week get 5 star service. We relax and just enjoy. We had wonderful food, all of which is included in the price of the cruise so we ate as much as you want. If you want to order two dinners, you can. There is ice cream always available. Pizza, hamburgers, buffets, sandwhiches. Diet Coke, what ever you want. Each night we got mints on our beds and cute little towel creatures. It was warm and sunny but because we were on the ocean there was always a nice breeze. We played shuffle board which was really fun. Each night there is a movie on the big screen on the deck. We would walk around and sit on the deck which it was dark and cool. It was wonderful. We made friends with one of the couples at our dinner table from Florida, Robin and Will, it was fun to hang out with them for the last couple of days. Brian finally caved and tried the waterslide which was surprisingly fun, and fast. We made 4 stops.
Stop 1: Grand Cayman.
Parts of Pirates of the Carribean were filmed in Grand Cayman. So lots of things have Pirate Themes. In Grand Cayman we discovered that I (Kelsey) am Snorkeling Impaired. My mouth is too small for an adult snorkel but a kids snorkel is like breathing through a straw. However, Brian swam with a sea turtle. He thought that was really cool. We mostly walked around looked in all the shops.

Stop 2: Roatan Honduras.
Robin and Will let us tag along with them to a private island. For 20 dollars a person, we got to go to an island that they let 40 people on a day. There is a beach, a pool, a resturant (with tasty food ), and animals. Monkeys that come to the edge of their cage and let you pet them. It was a GREAT day of just relaxing and enjoying one the most gorgeous places in the world.

Stop 3: Belize
We went Caving! We saw petroglyphs (spelling?) of Mayan Gods at the mouth of the cave, and sacrificial pots, as well as goregous cave formations, and a scorpion spider, it is a spider with the body of a scorpian but has 8 legs, the little one was the size of a baseball counting its legs, we thankfully missed out on meeting the bigger ones. We got to zipline, and do a mini repel, as well as being fed an awesome lunch. Belize is Gorgeous. Brian thinks he should be an anthropologist...and go discover the mysterys of South America.

Stop 4: Key West
We were orginally at a loss of what to do in Key West it was HOT and we didn't want to just walk around all day. We decided to rent a scooter and Robin and Will did too, being from Florida they have been to Key West and took us around. We rode around the Keys on our scooter ALL day with out sunscreen... Brian's arms are purple they are so sunburned. But it was really fun.

Needless to say we did not want to come home. And we will be going on future Cruises... Anyone that wants to come along in the future is more than welcome. It is amazing really if anyone has ever even thought about a cruise or heard about one... GO!

I am more tan that I have ever been and I am tanner than Brian :-).

A very happy birthday!

Yesterday I didn't have to work which was really nice, and Brian for my birthday gave me strict instructions to go shopping... he knows me so well. So after lunch with Alli, I went and got a new shirt and jewlery. When Brian came home we had to make a detour to Wal-Mart for the third time... But I'll get to that part of my birthday later. Then Brian and I went to Pizza Factory, it has tasty bread sticks and the good ice. We went for a walk and had Strawberry shakes. Overall, it was a really good birthday, nice and relaxing. There was one minor hiccup caused by my stupidity. I went to Wal-Mart and bought earrings and a bracelet. My total was 8.48, I grabbed my receipt and went home. Brian got home from work and checked the bank account... a 108.48 charge had come through from wal-mart. I went to grab my receipt to show Brian I had not spent 108.48 at Wal-mart. But it wasn't my receipt... it was the girls in front of me. While I sat there very confused and baffled. Brian begins to explain to me what has happened, I ran the debit card, saw the receipt and grabbed it thinking I was done, but I didn't say no cash back. Someone had taken 100 from my account. So we go to WalMart, Brian explains to their security that we need them to look up the next transaction from the receipt I had, and they need to go watch their cameras to prove that someone after me had taken the hundred dollars. So we file a police report and go to dinner. The police called later that night to explain that a Wal Mart employee had grabbed the money, and taken it over to another employee explaining she had found it in the self check. Well watching the camera, there is a guy who overhears goes and gets his girlfriend who comes up to the employee all frantic and claims the money. Then they walk out of the store. Now all we can do is file with the bank as fraud and hope they put money back in our account...
The End
I really had a great day!

Finally!

I am done! No more tests, no more homework, no more class, until Aug. Summer Break is officially here, and I am sure it is going to go by too fast. I have a list of things that I will do during summer:
1: Spend lots of time with Brian we coordinated our schedules so we only work opposite hours twice a week :-)
2: Get my teaching portfolio organized for next year
3: Read all of the Newberry Books
4: Clean the carpets (they smell like dog)
5: Go Rollerblading
6: Go camping (I told Brian I would)
7: Get tan or maybe less pasty is a better goal.
8: Get and stay in shape
9: Relax
10: Hang out with friends

In Case You Ever Wondered...

Having nine kids under the age of 10, seven of them being 4 and under is a BAD IDEA!
Trying to give them all baths, and have them in bed by 8:30, is crazy thinking.
Then after all nine are in bed cleaning the last thing you want to do.
Finally you collapse in bed, and your last thought is... I get to go back tomorrow sigh.

After a month of waiting....

My Praxis scores finally posted! I passed,(I got a 183) which is good because to retake them would have meant 80 dollars and not being able to take the test til June. I can now register for next semester and am one step closer to being done with school at least for a little bit.
Also it snowed in Cedar this morning, I woke up to snow and ice everywhere, it isn't a ton of snow and hopefully it will melt before I have to ride my bike to work, because our car is... STILL at the dealer. The dealer, who because they are so kind (eyeroll), is willing to pay 800 towards a new (technically used) engine for our car. The rest we have to pay. A car that they sold me with said engine problem that was "undectable" and now after 5 times at the dealer they suddenly found. BUT if we really don't want to pay to fix it, we can still drive the car but the engine will probably blow within six months, maybe if we're lucky it will make it a year. Here is what really gets me, Brian told them to give us 3,000 for the car, the value as is currently for a private sale. Then they can either a)put the $1,600 engine in the car, that has 30,000 less miles on it then the current engine and sell the car for $7000, still making a profit. or if they don't want to put the new engine in the car, scrap the car for parts, and since EVERYTHING works and we have had multiple parts replaced trying to get said car fixed they would probably still break even. GRRRRRRR

Easter!

In order for my story to make sense you will need a little background information. As Wal-Mart started putting out their Easter section about 6 weeks ago. I declared to Brian that I love Easter, which I do. He informed me that he hated Easter and thought it was stupid that we use bunnies and eggs and what not as a way to celebrate the Resurrection. A few weeks later while once again walking past the Easter stuff I asked him if even though he hates Easter if we could still dye eggs. Being the sweet husband he is he agreed. But on one condition I had to explain why I loved Easter. I had to think about it... and I decided that in my mind I always associated Easter with Spring when everything is new, as I got older General Conference always seemed to fall around Easter and that is always motivation to get things in order, start again, reset those goals from January. Plus its just fun! We were supposed to go up north so I just sort of thought we would do Easter fun at Mom and Dad's but then we ended up not being able to go so I was a little disappointed. Anyway moving on.... So on Saturday we went to the grocery store and while there got egg dye. That evening we had to go to wal-mart and Brian informed me that I had to go away for a few min and he would meet me by the red box, he had to get a surprise. This happens between the two of us frequently and despite the fact that it would drive me crazy I agreed. We came home and dyed our nine little eggs, Brian was amazed that if you write on an egg with white crayon the writing shows up. :-). Sunday morning Brian informs me that the Easter Bunny has left me clues to my surprise and I have to find the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid. So I went on an Easter egg hunt. After finding all the eggs Brian tells me that the Bunny has left me my surprise by where one of the eggs was hidden which means I had to remember. In our stash of Wii games I found Wii Music! Which I have been talking about since it came out! You can play over 60 instruments! So that was our Easter, well more so my Easter but it was great! Here are pictures of Brian dying eggs and me with my surprise!

Sometimes People Surprise You...

On Wednesday I was supposed to work an 8 hour shift. This did not sound appealing due to my sore throat, pounding head ache and a strong desire to just go to bed. I was fortunate enough though that my 3 hour In-home got cancelled so I went to work and tried desperatly to not fall asleep while taking care of kids. At four (I still had an hour and a half of work) my "bad boss" came in to do some work in office. I secretly moaned to myself now I actually had to make it appear that I cared and was working. Despite the fact that there were toys everywhere dishes in the sink. etc. She poked her head in around 4:30 and said, I know you don't feel good, finish your paperwork and go home, oh and don't worry about flocking (it is our big Flamingo Festival fundraiser and Brian and I were supposed to move the flock of Flamingos to their new location that night) I'll take care of it. I was shocked. I had no choice I had to say yes. I tried to clean up a bit, seeing as how she is OCD and hates mess I could not leave with such a mess. She refused to let me finish and sent me home. Where I promptly went to bed and woke up for a total of an hour to pick Brian up from work and eat dinner that Brian made, then I went back to sleep and slept until ten the next morning. I woke up feeling much better. I was just amazed, usually she never takes shifts, usually she seems to be oblivous to anything going on... it really was surprising but much appreciated. It also made me feel slightly guilty for how much she drives me crazy sometimes... I should work on being nicer about her.

The Call...

I was laying in bed at 2:51 Utah time wondering why in the world I couldn't get to sleep. I finally decided to get up and go to the bathroom. I came back, layed back down and then my phone rang. As she had predicted weeks earlier and confirmed that afternoon, my sister's baby had decided to come at 3:00 in the morning. I woke up Brian to tell him that I was heading out to Vegas cause Morgan was in labor. This did not go over well, Brian a) was pretty sure I would fall asleep driving, and b) since we had to take the truck was convinced it would break down and I would be stranded in the desert and get picked up by some creep-o, making me a CSI case. So he decided to call out of work and drive down with me. Which was a good idea because about the time we hit Arizona I fell asleep. The truck ran perfectly, and we go there just in time, Henry and Spencer were still sleeping, but Oliver had just come. This meant that Brian missed all things labor related, which was his biggest concern about coming, having to be around when the baby was actually born in a tub of water and grossness, in the next room. We spent the day just hanging out. Morgan was under strict midwife orders to limit her movement so she directed traffic from the recliner while Derek and Brian got some much needed sleep. It was nice to have some sister time. She was sort of loopy cause of all the adrenline from having a baby, and I never did get her to take a decent nap but at least she got to just relax, and Im pretty sure Derek would not have made it all day he looked dead on his feet when I got there. It really was a pretty low key day. Henry and Spencer have horrible allergies so they were even super mellow. It was a good day overall, and Im glad we could be there to help.

Bad idea...

When making a shake, do not put a metal spoon into the blender to push the ice cream down and stir while the blender is running. You end up with ice cream on the celing, the floor, the fridge, the oven, all over your face and in your hair, and you ruin the spoon (bad news because we only have 4 spoons).
To procrastinate your online Utah History class til there is are 5 weeks left in the semester and realize you have 5 chapters, 6 lectures, 5 quizzes, 4 tests, and 1 5-6 page paper due by May 1st. On top of all the end of the semester work for your other 4 classes.
Sitting down on the couch to eat lunch during your 30 min break when no one else is home and you haven't taken more Ritalin. This results in falling asleep and waking up at 2:45 (you were supposed to be back at work at 12:30).
Telling your good boss that the bad boss scheduled you the only weekend you asked off, before talking to the bad boss about it. The bad boss calls you and yells at you for going "over her head" and not talking to her, and making it seem like she was out to get you.
Blogging when you have class in 4 min and it will take you 10 to get to class

Life with out Marley

I promise this will be the last post about Marley... I'm sure youre all sick of reading about her. But Brian and I miss her a lot so the world will just have to deal. Life with out Marley is quiet in a bad way. We don't get to have wrestling matches with her anymore, when we have our nerf gun fights we don't frantically pick up the darts to stop her from eating them. We don't have her to come home to. No longer do I have her bringing me a toy while I try to do dishes or am on the computer, or doing homework. BUT she is doing well at her new home, they love her and keep telling me and my boss how amazed they are at how well behaved she is... I wonder how they define well behaved. And it is nice to not have to run home during my 15 min break from work to let her out, or come home to see what she has destroyed. It is nice to not have to worry about her while Brian and I are at work and school all week. This week is harder because with it being Spring Break I am home alone a lot and I forgot how much I hate it. Marley's new family said we could come and visit her when ever we wanted which if Brian had his way would be weekly if not more, but I told him we have to wait til she is adjusted and attatched to them or else she is going to get very confused. Overall, it is better and in a little while life will adjust and it won't be as weird without her. I have however had to stop Brian from going on KSL to look at dogs, and snakes, and rabbits, all of which he thinks would be great. One day they will be, but not today. (Yes Caleb and Sarah one day we will have snakes, they are cool and Brian has had them before but I will not make you see them or play with them because I love you just that much!)

Spring Break!

Spring Break is FINALLY here. It was so nice last night to not have to set my alarm. The weather is perfect for a spring break. Warm, and sunny. I have a mountain of school work to catch up on but still to be able to have some time to breathe is nice. Brian has Friday and Saturday off so we are going to just play all weekend. Also in good/sad news. Marley has found a new home. My boss' daughter and husband were looking to get a dog. They came up on Saturday and met Marley and will be coming tomorrow morning to get her. It is sad that she is going but we hope it will be better for her. Not wanting to send her away stinky I gave her a bath which should be an olympic sport. See you have to get in the shower/bath with her and basically hold her in place while you soap her up and then attempt to rinse her off, usually I use a cup but I forgot to grab one so I had to actually turn on the shower to rinse her off. She did not like this she kept trying to get out of the shower. Once we were done I let her go which meant shaking water all over the bathroom and running around the house. Now she is out on the balcony in the warm sun being mad at me for the horrible thing I did to her. *eyeroll* I wish her new family the best of luck, she certainly has a lot of personality.

I know I have been a horrible blogger lately. Somewhere between working 50 hrs a week and going to school full time that blogger got forgotten. Really nothing that exciting is happening. We are still trying to find a home for Marley, my schedule seems to keep getting busier only increasing the need for her to find a new family. We have posted an ad on KSL but no luck yet. If anyone knows anyone that wants a dog, she really is a good one...just a little needy. Lets see it was 4 degrees this morning in Cedar, and we have about 2 feet of snow on the ground... thats right Spring Break is next week and it feels more like December. And last in exciting news (as exciting as it can be when all you do it work and go to school) we bought a new kitchen table, I guess it would be a kitchen table set since it comes with 4 chairs. It was on sale at wal-mart and we had been thinking about getting it for a while so Brian spent last night putting it together which he loved.

Picture Tag

I got tagged, you are supposed to open the 6th picture folder, and then the 6th picture in the folder, and blog about it. This is Marley when she was about 7 weeks old, with her Monkey, that has since been replaced with a new monkey because she destroyed that one. Her monkey is asbig as she is in the picture, she is about 3 times as big now! So cute!
I tag Mom/Dad, Morgan, Sarah, Karen, and Erin

A Sad Realization

So Brian and I have come to the realization that Marley needs a new home. She has severe seperation anxiety, not normal puppy being left anxiety but real seperation anxiety. For example today I went to class for 1 hour, Brian was home with her the whole time. And when I came home she would not let me leave her sight. I went to the bathroom and she threw herself against the door and cried. Example two, I took the garbage out and in the course of 1 min she had frantically scratched at the carpet in front of the door. So she will be going to new home where she is NEVER alone not even for 2 hours. A girl that I work with boyfriend we think is going to take her, he is home all day and works nights, at which point she is home while Marley sleeps. Sigh, it is sad but hopefully this will be better for her and less stress on her poor little puppy brain.

A Post for Mom

You are not too ADHD for a cruise and you asked what do you do on the boat. Silly mom. There is tons to do! It depends on what cruise line you do. Some have ice skating ranks, or shows, or games like shuffle board, and they all have swimming pools. And you only spend 2 days on the boat. The point is to relax, so yes read a book. Then the other days you are off the boat seeing cool stuff like Mayan ruins. And if you think a week is too long, try like a 3 or 5 day cruise. Oh and you eat really well, and its all paid for so when you go to dinner at night it doesn't matter what you order. See its perfect. I know I know relaxing is hard. you want to go and do and see ALL the time but it is okay to sit by a pool and read, or go see a movie... they even have LDS cruises where you can got to seminars and stuff. I think a cruise would be perfect

A Post for Mom

I should blog...

But about what? Lets see... I am going on a cruise. Okay not just me but Brian and I are going on a cruise. We got a killer deal on both airfare and the cruise. The week of May 17th are will be in the Caribbean. We get to go to the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Belize, and the Isle of something. The coolest part about this is that while in Belize or Mexico (we can choose) we are going to go see Mayan Ruins! I am so excited. May can not come soon enough. The only downside to a cruise, is tanning. See I don;t want to burn the first day and then be miserable all week, so I have resigned myself to having to go tanning prior to the cruise. I hate the idea of tanning. The whole concept seems awkward and hot and claustraphobic to me. But I will do it so that I dont turn into a lobster while on the cruise. I am very excited!

Parenting 101

Today while taking Marley for a walk I hear this crying as we turn the corner to walk down the street. About 3/4 of the way down on the otherside of the road I see a little boy he can't be older than 4 standing outside this house crying, trying to get in what is obviously a locked door. Keep in mind that it is snowing/raining ice pretty heavily, I have on my big coat with the hood up and am still freezing. So I stop to see if this little boy gets into his house, I wait and wait (for a good 2 min) and no one comes to the door. There were cars in the driveway but I think maybe no one is home, maybe this little boy is confused, who knows, so I cross the street and go to stand at the bottom of the porch stairs. The little boy, still hysterical, turns to look at me. So I tell him my name is Kelsey, this is my dog Marley, and ask him if he lives there. He turns around and continues to cry and try to get in the house. At this point I notice, he has no shoes on. It is raining ice/snowing I am freezing and this 4 year old is standing outside for what is now turning into 5 min with no shoes on and a t-shirt. So I keep trying to get him to calm down enough to tell me what has happened I am also determined not to leave until we figure out what is going on. As we approach the 10 min mark I am about to walk up the stairs and knock on the door myself, when it opens and a very angry looking mother opens the door and pulls her son in. I explain that I had heard him crying and trying to get in and with no shoes or coat in this weather didn't want to leave him outside not knowing if he was okay. She responds with, "Just a little timeout" and shuts the door. Just a little timeout? Okay now I know that I am not a parent, but first of all if you are going to lock your 4 year old out of the house in the front yard dressed the way he was you run the risk of people getting concerned and stopping. 2nd a timeout is like sitting on a chair, or a rug, or the stairs not being locked out of the house. I would also understand if she had sent him outside, til she was ready to deal with him but at least give him shoes and a coat, or if it had been nice outside. And lastly, don't lock him out for almost 10 min. I was really grumpy, I hadn't touched her kid, I had intentionally kept my distance, grr. I don't know maybe I am overreacting. All I do know is this, if I did that at work I would get fired, and 10 min is a really long time out for a four year old.

Texas Road House

Brian's sister gave a gift card to Texas Roadhouse for Christmas. Brian works all day to day so we decided rather than battling the crowds of people going out tonight we would go out on Thursday, Brian's day off. It was so nice to just get away from Cedar. We went to St George and saw Brian's aunt and uncle and our friends Jay and Julie before going to dinner. It was tasty. We go the valentines special and it came with a catus blossom appetizer. I am not usually a fan of eating onions but the blossom was really good. I hope everyone has a good Valentines day, single or not.
I am falling asleep so Im going to stop for now

20 things I learned in college... outside the classroom

This post is inspired by a recent post on my friend Alli's blog. So here goes 20 things I have learned in college not in a classroom

1: 2 people fit in a twin bed, after about 3 nights you adjust and are actually really comfortable

2: When you have roommates that drink Saturday night don't plan on showering Sunday morning, they will have thrown up in the shower

3: At 4 am there are no cops on the road between Las Vegas and Cedar City, so you can drive over 100 and be just fine

4: Random day trips with your friends, solve all the worlds problems

5: If you want a boy to ask you out, bring him In and Out Burger

6: Don't tell your roommates you plan on wearing sweatpants on a date, they will lock all your clothes in another room except for the 1 outfit they pick out.

7: Puppies are cute but a house-trained dog is better

8: Getting married is the greatest thing in the world, sitting home alone while your husband is at work isn't

9: Midnight trips to Denny's for cheescake are worth loosing sleep over

10: Being narcoleptic may sound cool but it isn't

11: Trust your gut instinct... its usually right

12: Just cause your married doesn't mean that girls nights aren't necessary

13: People will surprise you, usually in a good way

14: Getting to talk to your Mom as a friend, and wanting to cancel plans with people your age to hang out with her is one of the coolest things ever.

15: Bouncing checks is worse then bouncing a debit card

16: A person cannot live on Top Romen, and PBJ only.

17: Don't tell people you think in movement rather than words... they will think you are crazy.

18: Going for a walk is a great stress reliever

19: Every lesson, and talk you ever heard on dating was a waste of time. (Unless taught by Angela Bennett or Anne Bills cause then it wasn't really on dating)

20: Just when you think you have your life plan all in place the Lord tweeks it, and life is better than you ever thought it would be.

Stupid People

Stupid people really bother me. Okay not all stupid people just certain stupid people. Mostly stupid people who are given any ounce of authority. Like take my English professor... we are supposed to be working on critically, and logically thinking about/discussing topics. Yesterday in class we were supposed to be having class discussion on certain topics. The first was if Torture should be allowed. I managed to keep my mouth closed while rather than non-biasedly leading a discussion our ex-marine teacher refused to hear any arguments against torture. I resisted the urge to play devils advocate. I didn't pull out the Law Dictionary definition of torture (yes i know it). I didn't whip out ex debate arguments. I sat on my hands. BUT the next topic was whether or not community service hours should be a requirement for college graduation. I tried so hard to keep my mouth shut... but I couldn't. Having been the student representive on the commitee that is trying to implement service learning at SUU, and for the statewide organization to promote service on college campuses, having read pages, and pages of research. I couldn't do it. I gave up raising my hand, I gave up letting my professor finish a sentence. The only thing I didn't give up doing was flowing. Which is basically a nerdy debate thing where you track your argument, and your opponents on paper so you know that you have defended all of your points and attacked theirs. Im sure my class thinks Im crazy. But my professor was being stupid. He had no real arguments and I thought it was ridiculous that he was facilitating the discussion but un able to keep his un-educated mouth shut.

Crate Training

I know I write about Marley a lot but she takes up a LOT of time. We are currently crate training and it seems to be going well, we have yet to actually lock her in her crate, we put her bed and toys and treats in the crate and just leave the door open. She seems to like it, and yesterday we were gone for three hours and we came home to her laying in her crate and a house not destroyed. There were no packing peanuts on the floor, the garabage had not been raided. It was lovely. Today we are going to trying closing the door while we are gone for very small amounts of time. Hopefully it helps. Have a good weekend everyone!
Love
Kelsey

Breaking Blogging Rules

So I know that blogging twice in less than 30 min is lame but I remembered something I had to say. I was sitting in English on Thursday and it 2010, of which there are about 30 sections all with different writing topics. You can take writing about baseball, shakespeare, satire/humor. Well I ended up in Writing about Sucess. This class is a rah-rah motivational class. We talk about Tony Robins (he's a big motivational guru my father owns many of his tapes) on a weekly basis. The teacher even has similar handwriting to Dad. It is creepy. But on Thursday we were watching a video blog that Tony had but on and he was talking about how to actually make your New Years resolutions come true. For most of the video I sat there thinking... this is a Family Home Evening lesson we had once. But his last "tool" I thought was interesting was to "Give more than you Receive" So if any of you, like myself, at times find yourselves stuck in a rut, or get down on yourselves or maybe can't seem to stick with your goals. Maybe stop thinking about them so much, stop trying to figure out a hobby to fill your time with so you feel less useless, and focus completly on someone else. See what happens.
And yes, I struggled to come to terms with the fact that the rah-rah I have mocked for years has valid points.

Last Night

Last night Brian and I slept on the floor in front of the bathroom, with the door about a foot open. Why? Because Marley was sick...again and after throwing up and going to the bathroom in the house three times in 2 hours. We decided to put her in the bathroom. BAD idea. She howled, she cried, she scratched and it didn't stop for almost 20 min. So I went in there with her which helped her calm down and curl up on her doggie bed. But if I left she cried, so Brian and I slept on the floor where she could see us but still be in the bathroom from about 2-7 last night. The things we do for the stupid dog. She is just so darn cute I can't help it.
Also if anyone ever wanted to invest in property now in Cedar City would be the time to do it. Brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bath town homes are currently selling for less than 100,000. Just thought Id pass the word along.
Other than that nothing is going on here, school and work. Hope all is well with your worlds!

Improtu...

So on Saturday we were supposed to go to St George and hang out with Brian's friend Jay and his wife Julie. But our plans fell through, so at 3:00 pm on Saturday we go in the car and drove to Salt Lake. Now when I called my mother to see if they wanted to dinner when we got into town. She asked if there was any particular reason why we wanted to go to dinner and were coming up. I told her nope we were just bored and thought dinner would be nice cause we could hang out and talk. She translated this into... Brian and I have an announcement and of course the only thing we could possibly be announcing would be a baby. We got to Mom and Dad's in Sandy and within 2 min of walking in the door my mother can't take it anymore and asks if Im pregnant. Which I am NOT. But it was funny. Dinner was fun we got to give Mom and Dad a hard time about some of their dating stories. (According to Mom necking in the 70's was standing and hugging... or of course the classic Dad and the gum on Mom's date) Then on Sunday after church we headed up to Brian's parents and had dinner at his grandparents house. It was a fun night. I took a nap while Brian played ping pong with his parents. This morning we woke up early and headed back to Cedar for work and a mountain of homework. It was a fun weekend though and it was really nice to get out of Cedar, even if it was 30 degrees colder in Salt Lake.

A bad idea.

So in case you are ever sitting in a class, lets say Art for Elementry school teachers. And you are supposed to be drawing the fruit that is in front of you and the shadows to learn about "value" and shading. And you happen to HATE drawing, and hate sitting there. And the teacher comes around to see how everyone is doing. And she asks you how things are going. Do NOT tell her that you are frustrated and that this is your own personal Hell. Do NOT tell her that you have an art learning disability. Do NOT tell her that in 7th grade your art teacher finally told you to put anything on the paper, she didn't care what, and turn it in. Even if you think she is only the sub for this week, and she will just roll her eyes and walk away. This is all a very bad idea. It results in her sitting next to you. Trying desperatly to prevent you from doing it wrong. Trying desperatly to tell you how to make the stupid shadow. (Yes thank you I know it should be an eliptical shape...) Until eventually she quietly realizes what so many before have realized, you really are disabled and she stands up and leaves you alone. But you can tell that she is a little disappointed... her life theory, that everyone CAN do art if they are taught and encouraged rather than judged, that all eveyone needs is a little self confidence has been challenged. All because you had a really bad idea... You could have just kept your mouth shut, smiled, said everything was great. But you didn't. Maybe it was years of frustration at being forced to do art and failing miserably, or the fact that it is 5:00 pm and you are still at school, or the fact that you vowed to teach art in a different way rather than simply drawing what is put in front of you. Whatever the reason it probably isn't good enough to justify this very bad idea. Just in case you ever had that thought...

The Vacuum

First of all I would like to say that the cheesecake was not a disaster. Never have ever followed a recipe as exactly as I did with the cheesecake. But it worked out really well.
If you find yourself in the market for a new vacuum. I would like to suggest the newest Hoover 5 cylinder vacuum. It is cheaper than a Dyson but works just as well if not better.It has a retractable cord, . It has unique, slick orange trim that makes it look fit for the space station. AND if your husbands are anything like mine you will never actually use the vacuum yourself. He will use it on a regular basis and find things to vacuum so that at least one of the extra tools is used. It is a brillant plan. So if you hate vacuuming, or even if you dont (I don't mind it) you will never do it again if you buy this vacuum.
Note to any husbands, fathers, brothers: You may read this and think that you may be exempt from the power of the vacuum. I think not. It is a very manly vacuum... something about it draws guys in...

Happy Birthday!

Today is Brian's birthday, sadly he works today from 1:30-10:00pm so it is limiting the amount of birthday fun that can be had. We were going to go out on Saturday but Marley was really sick so we stayed home. However so far today we had Lemon Poppyseed muffins for breakfast, and opened presents. Now I am going to attempt to make cheesecake so that tonight we can have that. Hopefully that cheesecake works... I will update later on how disasterous it was.

A Problem Solved

Yesterday I wanted to kill Marley. Okay not kill but someone could have come and taken her away and I wouldn't have cared. I was done. She was acting HORRIBLE. At around 11 ish she stopped listening, started going to the bathroom (like 5 times) in the house, chewing on EVERYTHING, Bitting, I could hardly keep up with her. Then at noon, she crashed fell asleep, an hour later woke up and was WONDERFUL. Then something dawned on me. Everyday at around 11 ish, and then again around 6ish, I want to kill the dog. Then I thought well she is a puppy and part Australian Shepard (aka I have lots of energy dog). Maybe she gets so much energy that she is literally not capable of controlling herself. A memory came to me of Jonah's "puppy fits" except she doesn't have a big cirlce house to run in... So today at 11:30 after taking Brian to work we went on a walk/run. We went for a half hour. She came home and was WONDERFUL. Tonight we will go on another walk/run and then maybe just maybe she will not have so many problems. Because she really is doing well. She sits, she comes, she has to be reminded but she doesn't bite, she goes to the bathroom outside, she stays, she goes to bed. Except for 2 hours a day.
In other news, if anyone would like to total our car, feel free. It has developed ANOTHER problem. Now in addition to: the engine light being on, exhaust in the car when you start it, a clanking noise. All of which no one seems to be able to explain or fix. The break lights don't go off. But just the breaklights. Yesterday the car died while I was at work. So today we jump started it and took it to the Dealer who sold us the P.O.S. car to see if they can figure it out. We shall see what they say and how much it will cost to fix it. (Good thing I just got a 3,000 refund check for finacial aid).
And lastly (sorry this is such a long post): Yesterday I stayed awake in ALL of my classes (I had drugs of course). This means that I stayed awake sitting for 3 hours in the morning and then for another 3 hours from 2:30-5:30. It was amazing! I love Ritalin :-).
We will be seeing the Sandy family this weekend! We are excited.

First Days Back

It has been a long 2 days. Yesterday I had only one class at 8:00 am. Then it was off to run errands, and head to training for my SECOND job. Where I watched 2 videos: 10 things every child needs, and How to Calm A Baby. LAME and it took three hours. With no drugs in my system it made for a long three hours. But then I got to go home and do some homework, and take care of the dog. Who is either the stupidest animal ever, or extremely smart and slightly stubborn/Spiteful. Im going with the second and I'll tell you why. She knows that she is supposed to go outside to go to the bathroom, she goes to the door, she will even come and get you if you don't notice that she needs to go. Now she is a puppy so sometimes by the time I see her she has gone by the door but she is getting better. EXCEPT for when she doesn't get what she wants. This usually means that I take something away from her like the WII remotes, my car keys, Brian's waterbottle that she opens and drinks out of, etc etc. It seems that after taking things away from her and telling her no. That she likes to go to the bathroom in the house. And I am convinced she does it on purpose. She never goes and hides to go the bathroom like she used to, oh no she does it right in front of me. Where ever I am. The beast can wake us up and tell us she needs to go to the bathroom and can wait while we put on shoes to take her out. But conviently whenever she doesn't get her way she suddenly forgets to go outside. She is a brat. But very cute.