Where Does Your Food Come From?

So today I was in line buying groceries at the Walmart in Payson, and the couple behind me had a cart FULL of food. I mean full! It was stacked very neatly about two feet above the edge of the cart. I complimented them on their nice stacking job, and we started chatting. I found out they were from Delta and had family coming into town, hence the abnormally large purchase.

For those of you who may not know, Delta is a small town about 1.5 hours south of Payson, and has no discount stores. In fact, the Walmart in Payson is the closest one. But this is not a blog about the evils of Walmart or large bargain chain stores (sorry Ben).

The guy told me he works at an egg farm (I can't remember if he actually used the word farm or not... maybe it was an egg plant?....wait that's the vegetable. Never mind.). Then he pointed to my Sunny Meadow Farm eggs on the conveyor belt and said, "Those are our eggs." Wow! I had no idea my eggs came from Delta. I told him I ate his eggs all the time and asked him if they supplied all of Utah. He said, "All of Utah and most of California. We process about 900,000 to 1,000,000 eggs a day." At this point my mouth dropped. I asked, "So how many chickens are there?" He said, "We have about 1.2 million birds." (I like how he said birds instead of chickens, lol!) I thought there would have been fewer birds than eggs, but I guess you can't work the chickens too hard.

Anyway, this just got me thinking about how little I think about where my food comes from. I know I ate strawberries from California today, and an Saturday I ate blackberries from Mexico. But where do my bananas come from? Where is my yogurt made? And where are the cows that give the milk to make that yogurt? Something to think about the next time you're at the grocery store.

What Girls Do Best

Recently, Julianne, Annelies, and I threw a bridal shower for Jenny. And we had so much fun doing it! The menu included glazed pears, blackberry chocolate cake, a cheese ball and crackers, apple cinnamon bread, and lemon water. (You really should click on the picture so you can get a better look at that cake!) There were coordinating cups, plates, utensils, and the room was nicely decorated. As we were enjoying the shower, we talked about how boys would NEVER do this. And, in fact, later a friend reported that when she told some guy friends about the party, they said, "Wow, the poor girls that had to plan it!!" She said, "No, they had fun planning it!"

This relates to another idea I've been thinking about-- the power women have to create beauty and show compassion. Elder Uchtdorf talked to the Relief Society about this last conference:

"The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you....You are choice daughters of our Heavenly Father, and through the things you create and by your compassionate service, you are a great power for good. You will make the world a better place."

I don't intend to imply that men cannot be creative and compassion. Indeed some of the most creative and compassionate people I know are men. However, I believe woman have natural capacities to be creative and compassionate in unique ways. i am so grateful to be a woman. There is nothing I find greater happiness in than being creative and compassionate.

A Slice of Humanity

I keep thinking over and over again about how I see a slice of humanity every time I step into my classroom. For 45 minutes at a time, I share lives with 110 other human beings. I'm not sure if my students' lives necessarily represent those of the whole human race, but even though they are 13 and 14 years old, they face the challenges of the world: sickness, pain, death, violence, drug abuse, crime. Usually I feel pretty unaware of the suffering in the world-- or at least I feel like it's far away. But ever since I started teaching, I feel it near.

They have taught me so much. One of my students' mom passed away last week. I didn't know what to do or say, especially when she walked into class for the first time after it happened. But her guy friend, who sits a couple desks behind her just said, "Hey Cherie (name has been changed), Mr. Soandso is really mad at your class for..... blah blah." And they went on to have a friendly conversation about guitar class. I just watched and thought, "Wow! He knows exactly how to act--NORMAL!" And yet, I, a supposedly older and wiser 24-year-old, just stood there awkwardly.

It's just amazing to me how I really do see the whole spectrum of emotion, maturity, and life's problems in my little Payson classroom.

Cell Phone Saga

Since my mission, I have had precisely six cell phones. Six cell phones in less than two years. That is an average of one cell phone every 3.6 months. It has been a blessing and a curse, the consequence of having a company phone (the company my dad works for), but not being part of the company.

The amazing thing is that only one of these six phones was damaged--phone #1. That phone died when it fell out of my pocket as I got out of my car on a stormy day. I didn't know I had lost it until I came back to my car, and it was sitting in the door handle. A kindly person, intending to help, had put it there. But unfortunately, it was the prefect spot to get permanent rain damage.

So I got phone #2. But only a few months later, the company switched from Verison to Sprint. Thanks to my dad, I got a really cute, hot pink Sprint LG. I sold phone #2 to my roommate, who still uses it to this day.

I loved phone #3 with all my heart. It was small. It was pink. It received love texts from a few summer flings. Okay... maybe that's an exaggeration. But after about 6 months of phone #3, the company switched back to Verison, and got us Blackberries--phone #4. Great, right? Well, sort of. I'm not the technosavvy type and was tired of having to reload my contacts into my phone every 3 months. But, hey, it was free. What do you do? So, I buckled down and learned how to use a Blackberry. I gave phone #3 back to Sprint to recycle it. If I only I had known what an ironically tragic mistake that was.

So after a couple months of Blackberry, I find out that, because I'm at the end of the totum pole and the company needs to switch out some numbers, my number AND phone are going to be swapped out. So, I get another blackberry--phone #5, with a new number (luckily only phone number change 1).

So, then we come to phone 6. After two and a half months of phone #5, it turns out that the company needs to terminate my service. So, I signed up for my own cell phone plan with..... Sprint. Yes, back to Sprint. And I got a free phone with the service, luckily. Yes, I was the one who decided to change numbers. I mostly did it because I thought it's time I have an 801 number if I plan on teaching in Utah. But it's such a shame I hadn't kept phone #3, because it was a lot nicer than phone #6.

So that is my cell phone saga. And, ironically, even though it was annoying to change phones so many times in two years, now that I'm locked into a two year contract and am looking towards two solid years with phone #6, it feels like much too long to wait to get a new phone. :-)

Things That Make Me Feel Old

• Two of my students are writing biographies about a famous person who is one year older than I am.
• A guy at FHE told a story about how he and his friends started a school-wide food fight, and I felt sympathy for the administration.
  
• When I went to check out a DVD in the LRC I almost passed as a professor (I wished I could have because then I could have checked it out).
  
• I clearly remember events from 15 years ago.
  

40 Things You May Not Know About Me.. But Probably Do :-)

So, I couldn't think of 100 things. KaRynn did, which is amazing. Forty will do for me. Besides, isn't 40 a symbolic number that signifies completeness or something?

1. I am the only member of my family born outside California. I was born in Utah Vally Hospital-- a BYU baby.
2. In middle school I played the French Horn, and when I was in 8th grade I took tap dance lessons.
3. I did a study abroad program in Nauvoo studying 19th century American lit. We drove from Utah and then toured the east coast starting at Williamsburg and ending in Kirtland, OH.
4. I have had 15 roommates at BYU.
5. I make my bed almost every day. Even if I don't make it in the morning, I make it when I get home from work... sometimes I even make it at night. It's just so much better to get into bed at night when it has been made.
6. I have been an ordinance worker at the Provo Temple every Saturday morning for the past year.
7. In the last couple years I took up oil painting as a hobby.
8. Even though (and perhaps because) I am an English major, I hardly ever read in my free time...unless you count other peoples' blogs or Church magazines.
9. My Grandma Sheranian taught me to knit, but the only project I ever completed was a 1 foot square doll blanket.
10. During the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002, I went to Washington D.C. I went with my mom and my cousin Becca and her mom. Every day we went to museums and memorials, every evening we went to a different mall in the VA suburb we were staying in, and every night we watched the olympics.
11. I haven't lived with TV (meaning standard channels or cable) in the past 3.75 years... and even before that it was on and off.
12. I am closer in age to my mom's youngest brother than she is to him. He's 8 years older than me, and she is 14 years older than he. So I'm good friends with my aunts.
13. I only read the first Twilight book and feel just fine about that.
14. I have to get enough sleep. Or I get mean.
15. I have two quilts on my bed. I pieced one for my laurel project and my mom pieced the other as a post-mission gift.
16. I have been in 5 countries besides the U.S.: Canada (Niagra Falls), England (London airport), Senegal (Dakar airport), South Africa, Swaziland. I know England and Senegal don't really count.... to bad, because I wish I could have seen both those countries. Even my claim to seeing Canada is sketchy....
17. That's right, I've never been to Mexico, even though I grew up a 2 hour drive from the border.
18. I resisted joining facebook for 6 months after my mission, but finally gave in.
19. On my dresser I have a cute picture of my dad kissing my mom on the cheek. I really like it.
20. The other day I bought 5 pairs of shoes at Payless (for $100) but later returned two pairs.
21. I wrote a course on personal finance, but have never balanced my checkbook. Ha ha!
22. Just so you don't get the wrong idea, I have good money sense and have always been a natural saver. I even put birthday money, when I was a kid, into my bank account instead of buying toys.
23. I hate the taste of papaya. It takes like my vomit.
24. Fourteen is my lucky number. I decided it would be when, as a 5th grader, I won a cake walk by standing on the number 14.... but later found out that it's a lucky number according to J.R.R. Tolkein as well.
25. I love animals. If an animal gets hurt, I cry. And puppies, kittens, and bunnies make me more excited than anything.
26. I owe my mother a lot. While pregnant with me, she was put on bed rest for a long time. Then, after I was born, I had really, really bad colic for 3 months and didn't stop crying except to eat or sleep. I hope karma doesn't work in this case.
27. Even though I have lived in my apartment for 9 months, I still can't help but take pictures of Mount Timpanogous. I have taken picture off my balcony probably over 15 different times. The view always changes.
28. I love, love, love dark, dark chocolate. 80% coacoa content Lindt bars are what I'm talking about. It's the real deal.
29. My mind usually works in efficiency mode. I alwasy think about how I can streamline, save time, save resources, save energy, save trouble, make things easier.
30. When I was born, my parents lived on 50 South and 700ish East in Provo... less than a mile from where I live now.
31. I may have been named Rebecca except for the fact that my cousin who was born 2 months before me got that name. :-)
32. Since I began student teaching, I get to practice my Spanish every day with a woman name Alceira who vacuums my room. She barely speaks any English at all. It's funny because I will forget and ask her to leave the door open, or something. Then I realize she didn't understand me at all, and we laugh. She teaches me Spanish, and I teach her English
33. I couldn't enjoy a roller coaster (meaning I refused to ride them) until I was about 16. Even now, I have my limits.
34. I have never gotten a ticket for a moving traffic violation.
35. I did get a $50 parking ticket when I was in L.A. over winter break.
36. I have never fallen asleep in class, watching a movie, or reading a book. Literally. If I'm that tired, I either don't go, or stop reading or watching, and go to bed.
37. I usually drink warm or hot water instead of cold.
38. The only time I was ever hospitalized was when I had my tonsils taken out when I was 7 years old.
39. One of my favorite genres of literature is Latino American lit, especially YA Latino American Lit.
40. My favorite food combination is bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter. Try melting a few chocolate chips, stirring in some peanut butter, and dipping a banana in it. I tell you, it's heaven!

Exahustion

Teaching is so physically exhausting! I told my roommate the other day it's the only profession for which you need a degree to perform manual labor. I was so wiped out during prep, it was only the thought of dirty shoes that kept me from lying down on the floor. Luckly, there was a faculty party after school today. So after some chicken, potato salad, and homemade ice cream, I sprung back to life so I could write two lesson plans and prep my classroom for tomorrow.

But the day brought success. I love the sound of 27 pencils moving on paper. I love it when students show me their work to get approval. I love it when I realize that every single person in the room actually listening to what I say. (It doesn't happen very often and is scary when it does.)

Some of my challenges:
--Teaching enthusiastically after lunch, when I feel more like a nap.
--Knowing how to respond to student behavior.
--Using time effectively if there is an extra 10 minutes at the end of class.
--Giving enough time for the slow students while keeping the fast ones busy! (If you have an answer, please let me know... reading and homework don't seem to work, at least not yet.)
--Feeling confident in front of the class I feel least connected to and most threatened by.

Some things I've learned:
--You can't take your goat to school or all the kids will ride it around. (If you leave it at home, they can' t get your goat.) That one Jenny told me.
--Spelling on a white board is not the same as on a piece of paper.

Now and Then

Now that I have started student teaching, I'm back in middle school/ jr. high every day. It has been quite interesting. It's fun to see what's different... and what is exactly the same.

Different....

• iPods (we thought walk-mans were cool)
  
• cell phones (my friends had pagers)
  
• boys in tight jeans (they were baggy in my day)

Same....

• they still play hacky sack!!
• passing notes
• drama-- oh so much drama!
• people still like Korn
• the boys are still smaller than the girls
  

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter (melted)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream melted butter and sugars. Add other stuff. Bake at 350 for 10 min.

This recipe is traditional, but it really makes the best cookies-- much better than the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package. My sister KaRynn got it from her friend Jessica.

Highlights from Mission Emails

So I went to a going away party for some girls in my ward who are leaving on missions and got thinking about my mission. So I decided to read some of the old emails I wrote as a missionary-- and got caught up reading for over an hour. Here are some of the highlights:

March 5, 2007

The elders here are crazy-- great, but crazy. Elder Tonkin (from Capetown) who has been on mission for 9 weeks and Elder Dolder (from Washington) who has been out 6 months. On Tuesday night, they made some ginger beer. They live with a member, Sister Pearlman, and we were at her house for supper. So they split the costs 50/50 with Sister Pearlman and made 20 liters of the stuff. It's supposed to be like rootbeer, except ginger flavored. (I've had it before (not homemade) and it's really good.) Anyway, you make it with yeast and let it bubble for about 2-4 days and then bottle it and refridgerate it. If you let it sit for like a week, it actually does turn into real beer, so you have to be careful. Anyway, it's about 36 degrees celcius on average in their boarding (around 90 degrees F-- I don't know conversions.. I just know celcius). So after 2 days, Elder Tonkin took a sip and it was already alcoholic!!!! LOL. Elder Dolder said it smelled like beer in their boarding for two days! And, the most appaling part is that instead of throwing it out, they gave it all to Sister Pearlman, who took it to work to give out to peopl!!!! LOL! I was shocked! So they elders are running the brewery here in Berea!


August 14, 2006

I think it was the day we began contacting, last week, we got a call from Pres. Hill with a referral (Sharon De Beer). We taught her last monday and it went extremely well. We've been praying for her and I've been feeling good about her. But then she canceled our appt. on Saturday, which was disappointing. She said she would still come to church though and Pres. Hill was picking her up (She doesn't have a car.) SO, she came to Stake Conference yesterday (we had a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake with Pres.Monson, Elder Nelson, Sister Lant, and Elder Snow) and really enjoyed it. She told me as we sat down before the conference, "I was speaking with Garrith (Pres. Hill) as we were driving here and he told me about the rules you follow in your Church. I do drink, but I can give that up. And I drink coffee, but I think if I quit that now and just drink regular tea to ease off the caffine for a few days... I can go to only Rooibos (Mormon-approved tea)." She also said things like, "So how do you join the Chruch" and "when do you have baptisms?" LOL! I love those questions! So we showed her the baptismal font and introduced her to the members.

Then, last night, we visited her. She had not only read everything we asked her to, but also 1Nephi 1-4 and she had done the questions in the back of the pamphlet!!! We comitted her to baptism and she set a date for herself for October 7th because she wanted to be baptised around her birthday. It's a little far, but not too far away. She has had an extermely hard life.... been severely abused, and has lived a life of poverty. But things are going really good for her now and only going to get better. She works grinding plastic in this big machine all day and loves it (shows you want she's been forced to do for work in the past considering the job is wonderful to her). When we told Pres. Hill's dad, Brother Bob that we were going to commit her to baptism last night, he started to cry. He's the one that asked us to talk to her initially at a funeral she was at. He is so sweet. He knows how much she needs the gospel in her life.

It's amazing how quickly things change. The Lord really is in charge. It's been such a mercy to be part of Sharon's conversion in the gospel... and there are so many out there just like her.... ready to hear and just need the invitation.