These Is My Words

The book club I'm a part of decided, mostly on a whim, to read this novel by Nancy E. Turner. I didn't know anything about the book besides the subtitle, but it turned out to be one of the best books I have read in a very, very long time. Never have I read a novel that taught me so much about life, death, pain, love, marriage, and motherhood. I came away wanting to write more beautifully in my own journal and to live stronger and better. And how could I not love a book with a heroine named Sarah? This is a MUST READ! The love story puts Twilight to shame!

Dinner Group

This summer my roommate Annelies, who is a dietetics major, suggested that we start a dinner group. So we asked around in our ward and formed a nice little group of 3 guys and 5 girls-- that is now 2 guys and 6 girls. Although, a little low on men, this dinner group has been fabulous! We eat together 4 days a week and only have to cook once every 2 weeks. Some highlights have been homemade manicotti, pulled pork sandwiches, enchilada soup, gingerbread waffles, and last night's Hawaiian themed meal. I really enjoy cooking once every 2 weeks. And it's much more fun to cook for a group than just for yourself. Plus, it's a great opportunity to  try new recipes that I know I love, but have never made myself.... like last night's special, Teri Chicken. I think next time, I'm going to make California Roll Sushi! Yum! And then I want to try Chicken Tikka Masala. But both of these are complicated-- and especially with the sushi, difficult to feed 8 people. Do you have any easy, yummy recipes that feed 8?

Sitting in Utah While Teaching in Korea!

For the last month I have been teaching for Eleutian Technology. I co-teach an English class with Jeong Hyunjin (a Korean English teacher) using a program that is similar to Skpe. It is so much fun!

Gangsta Rollin'

So the other day, some friends were over at our house deciding what to do and one suggested Gangsta Rollin'. I'd never heard of it myself, but I guess it consists of riding around the neighborhood on bikes, scooters, or skate boards acting like gangstas in a very un-gangsta sort of way. They needed a boom box though, so I let them borrow mine--an antique from my 12th or 13th birthday, if I remember correctly.

They would need batteries of course, but lo and behold, there were 6 DD Energizer batteries already in place-- from about 10 years ago at family camp! And they still worked!! I didn't actually go on the roll, but I was so amused by the whole ordeal, I had to take a picture (which I hope they don't mind I'm posing here). Honestly, I don't know what to say. It's so bizarre, I'm now speechless.

Smells So Good You Could Eat It!

One thing I love about summer is the roses. A velvety, sweet rose feels so good on my face, I almost want to take a bite! Don't worry, I didn't do it. But I do know you can buy edible flowers to decorate wedding cakes with. And rose oil is supposed to be pretty healthy. They even make supplements from rose hips. So maybe it's not such a crazy idea after all.

P.S. I have 4 blogs on my dashboard and accidentally posted this on the wrong one-- a shared teaching blog with English majors at BYU. Luckily, I caught the mistake quickly! That could have been bad!!

Update

For any of you who care to hear about my life and for some reason may not already know this information, here's the quick update:

• I got a job teaching 8th grade English part-time at Diamond Fork Jr. High in Spanish Fork, UT
• I'm working for a company called Eleutian teaching English to Korean students over the internet.
  
• I'm also working as a technical writer again--still trying to finish up that personal finance course!
• This spring I learned to geocache with my friend Brian and we've found about 20 caches around Provo. (On Friday we went on the Provo river trail and now I have 25 mosquito bites on my legs!)
  
• I got called to be 1st counselor in the Relief Society Presidency in my ward, which I'm really enjoying.
  
• After running a 5k I lost motivation to run, but hope to regain it this week. (The picture is of me on a hike to Stuart falls the same day as the race.)
  
• I'm in a book club with a bunch of really great people.
• After training with Nebo District for 3 days, I'm very excited to become a professional teacher!
• This summer I hope to hike to the top of Y Mountain and Timp and go to Timp caves and maybe even swing another camping trip!
  
• I feel myself changing, growing, and moving forward.
  
• I love my roommates, my friends, my family, my ward, my town, my life!

Job Hunting

Supposedly 2009 is the worst year to graduate from college since the 80s. What luck! I now can empathize with anyone who has looked for a job longer than a month, because that's where I am. Interview 6 and 7 are this week, and I'm hoping they will bring good luck.

It's funny to go to so many interviews because sometimes I wonder if I'm getting better at this game or not. And it really is a game. I swear they try to trick you. In my last interview, the principal asked me, "If you were in our shoes, what would you look for in a teacher?" Fair enough. That's a good question, and I answered it. But then he asked, "How would you be able to tell? How would you know from an interview whether or not the person was what you were looking for?" What would you say? I hesitated and then said, "I don't know." Luckily, he took over from there and didn't force an answer. Whew!

The truth is, that question targeted exactly what I've been thinking about: how well does an interview represent me as a teacher anyway?! I come in, sit down, answer questions as well as I can. But does that mean I'm a good teacher? Really teaching takes so much more: planning, assessing, multi-tasking, classroom management, the ability to understand 13-year-olds. Can you really tell if someone can do that or not from an interview? I'm glad I'm not a principal!

Seven Years of Plenty

On Thursday and Friday of last week I graduated from BYU with a B.A. in English Teaching. Wow! The time since I first arrived as a freshman has flown by! Of course I did have a two-year break when I served a mission in South Africa-- but that included, these past seven years have been unquestionably the best of my life!

I remember being a wide-eyed freshman and thinking there could be nothing so wonderful as college. I lived with my friends, I chose my classes, and I did my homework wherever I wanted. I loved walking around campus, eating lunch by myself in the sun, and meeting friends to study in the library (we had a special spot on the 4th floor in the Asian section). I learned quickly that if you were smart, BYU campus offered lots of free food, interesting lectures, and a million ways to have fun (the best was the Honors Great Works discount cards-- $2 for any show in the HFAC!!). That first year my most memorable classes were HP 200 Freshman Writing with Deirdre Paulsen, MFHD 210 Human Development, and Book of Mormon. I would come home from class every day SO excited to tell my roommates what I had learned. I was such a nerd! :-)

BYU is also the place where I have grown the most spiritually-- as much as my mission or more. It is the place I first seriously studied the Book of Mormon, where I learned that there is no line between study and faith, and where I learned from the lives of those who lived as Christian scholars. I always had faith, but at BYU I learned how to live my faith.

More than anything I will remember the people of BYU. My roommates: Becca, Kelli, Tiff, Aubrey, Abby, Sabrina, Lia, Ashley, Annelies, Amanda B., Amanda S., Jessica, Sarah, Julianne, Jenny, and now Allison. Whew! That is a lot of people!! And each one touched my life and taught me important lessons. At the Humanities Convocation on Friday morning, one of the speakers did a tribute to her roommates at BYU. I thought about how my roommates are tribute worthy and how I will keep in touch with them for the rest of my life.

I will always treasure my two years with Becca, Tiff and Kelli (I was a bridesmaid for all three of their weddings)-- and my third year with Kelli. We had so much fun and got through a lot together. The girls really are fine in 99! And my 2nd year in the Colony (342) with Kelli, Lia, and Ashley was one of the best at BYU. I learned SO much from Lia and Ashley about faith, confidence, and prayer.

My roommates at BYU before my mission were so wonderful, I was worried about returning after all of them had moved on. But I was blessed with even more treasured friends. Annelies who I had served with me in ZA wanted to room together, and that was the best thing ever! I tell Annelies all the time that she's such an easy roommate, my future husband has quite the standard to live up to. Living with her for 2 years straight has taught me so much about listening, love, and letting things go because she listens to me, loves me even when I'm stressed, and lets every dumb thing I do go.

Then there is Jenny. I invited her to live with Annelies and I a year ago, and I had no idea what a blessing for me that would be. We're in the same major, and Jenny started her internship teaching 7th grade 4 months before I began my student teaching. Jenny was my advisor, coach, and counselor as I got through student teaching. She's my current empowerment partner!

The two "random" roommates I've gotten the past two years--Amanda Bagley Lewis and Julianne Dana are both kindred spirits. I don't understand how you can find friends that fit you so perfectly, but these girls do. I feel so strongly we were destined to be friends. I lived with Amanda in Wellington II #32 and then Julianne in Victoria Place II #13, and each holds a special place in my heart. They are "forever friends"!!

And this is just skimming the surface. There have been SO many more dear friends, ward members, co-workers, and professors that have changed my life. BYU has made me who I am today, and just like the student who spoke at commencmenet said, I will never be able to "move on" from BYU. It will always be a part of me. I know there are lots of great univserities in the world, but I can' t think of any that would fit me better than BYU. Go Cougars!


(Note: The title of this blog does suggest that the next seven years of my life will be lived in famine. However, my life before these past seven years was also wonderful, so I really don't think the cycle of bounty and famine is at work in my life.)

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.