We all make mistakes. I just hope yours isn't your front tooth.

The curious case of getting a crown for a tooth. Worst mistake of my life. Since I killed my tooth (too many soccer balls to the mouth) in 8th grade my lovely front tooth has been more yellow than my other teeth. Me, being the vain person I am, have tried internal and external bleaching to no avail. My wise dental friend said a crown would look so much better. I believed her and felt it was wise to take advantage of my parents’ insurance and get my front tooth crowned. I made my appointment. The doctor neglected to tell me some things like…your face will be numb for 5 hours, I’m going to shave off basically all of your front tooth, this is not reversible, you can’t floss, you can’t bite with your front teeth, or even wear your retainer. Umm…so if I can’t wear my retainer for a month my 3 years of braces and thousands of dollars just goes down the drain..right? No big deal. Nevermind the imminent threat that temporary crowns have a tendency to pop off at inconvenient moments, like in public. Oh. Fast forward nineteen hours from leaving the dentist office and I’m eating a sandwich. By eat I mean I am on my third bite and POP! Was that my tooth? Why yes it was. Is the dentist busy for the next several hours. Oh. So I’m supposed to go around with my fake tooth hanging out at work. Oh okay, no worries. The dentist fixes my tooth (it feels much more secure might I add) and he tells me to just eat oatmeal for a month. Out of a straw. New weight loss program?? I think so. Now I shouldn’t neglect mother. Mother thought it was very funny because it was the end of the world. I had made a terrible mistake, I want my old tooth back and it is in the dentist rubbish bin. Never mind the fact that I mourned my lost tooth with tears, my mother laughed. And laughed. Even at night prayer when I wasn’t doing anything she burst into a fit of laughter that lasted longer than the prayer. Let’s not forget Hal. He is the tooth color matching guy. My teeth are apparently off the charts white. And transclucent. He said he’ll have a hard time matching it and doesn’t think he’ll get it right on the first time. Hal has been doing this for 35 years and the PRINCE of Saudi Arabia has used him. The Netherlands have used him. And he doesn't think he’s going to get my tooth right. Has my regret increased? Yes. Do I think it will look better than my old tooth? No. Biggest mistake ever. To look on the positive side I do appreciate front teeth. Always chewing with the side and avoiding certain foods and not flossing sucks. Things I never thought I’d be grateful to do. We all make mistakes. I just hope yours isn't your front tooth.

May the Fourth be with you!

A long long time ago in a galaxy far away Saturday was MAY THE FORTH be with you (get it…May the force be with you…May Fourth). Naturally, a party needed to happen. I slaved away in the kitchen all day (after a morning run and labeling the tulips). Party food included: pizza the hut, pretzel light sabers (with chocolate and caramel), the dark side salad, wookie cookies (no bakes), Chewbacca croutons, padme popcorn, vader veggies, C-3PH2O, and so on. I dressed up as Princess Leia, Tatjana as Yoda, Amber as a Padawan, and Tyler as Darth Maul. After our delicious dinner we watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Tyler and Amber fell asleep but were very awake for their tickle war after the movie. Tatjana and I just watched and laughed. We then proceeded to talk for about two hours even though we were all ready to go to sleep. Aren't friends great?

Bang Party and St. Pattie's Day

We had a fun Bang party with Tyler, Amber, Tatjana, and the parental units. We all wore bandanas and talked like cowboys. It was a fun but very long game. Amber the outlaw ended up winning. I woke up Sunday morning to a trail of Shaun the Leprechaun's footprints. They naturally led to a box of Lucky Charms. Dad said that he followed the trail earlier and couldn't find them, lol. Sunday was an interesting church experience. We had a missionary who served in Ukraine speak. I was surprised at how much of his testimony in Russian I could understand. I like his advice about scripture study: you read until you feel the Spirit and then you read a little bit more. I wish I had that advice when I was a misisonary. At least I can apply it to myself now! He also told us, "What are you afraid of? You can be cleaner." In Sunday School we talked a lot about how revelation in the scriptures applies to all and about pride. The elders taught Relief Society and went over chapter six a lot. I like how they said that "Information leads to Inspiration." We had Tatjana and Amber over for green rolls, leprechaun casserole (green beans, tomato, beef, green mashed potatoes and cheese), and green seafoam jello. We then played several rounds of the vonderfullly gud game Dutch Blitz.

Spring Break 2013

Spring Break finally arrived just in the nick of time! My current beau, Leighton was sweet enough to buy me tickets to fly down to Mesa for an early birthday present. Sorry I don't have any pictures...I didn't take any. But just so you don't feel bad, here is one from when I went down last time... Monday I flew down to Mesa after a 2-3 hour delay. There was a problem with our plane down in Mesa so they had to unload everyone and switch planes. Then they flew up to Ogden Utah and we scurried ourselves onto that plane. There was a young girl who I believe had some sort of concert performance in which she was performing. They literally ran off the plane once we landed in Mesa. I enjoyed my flight by talking to a very entertaining and chatty 64-year-old from Hyde Park, Utah. She is one of those riotously entertaining Mormons who swears. She was telling me about her two awful ex-husbands and how good her new boyfriend, or "gentleman friend" as she put it is. She refuses to marry him though, says she is too old. They have lots of fun trips planned, including one to see grasshoppers frozen in a glacier in Montana. Leighton Carroll was waiting for me at the airport with lots of hugs and lots of food. He brought me: a Jamba Juice, a Wendy's chicken sandwich kid's meal, an extra chicken sandwich, and a PB&J sandwich. Bless his heart. We drove to his ward variety show and I was able to watch Leighton perform a skit- who's on first but Bishopric version. It was pretty funny. Tuesday we woke up terribly early to have family scriptures at 6am before Leighton headed off to work. Catie took me and the dog for a walk. I worked on homework until I was captured away to go to a giant mall with Leighton's mom (Liza), older sister Jill and her two young children Emery and Clarissa, and 13-year-old Catie. We made it to a whole of two stores: the Rainforest Cafe which was very decked out in rainforest-ness and Burlington Coat Factory. They have more than just coats- I didn't know that. I was sad we missed out on the Forever 21 and H&M in the mall, but oh well! Once Leighton got home we went with the family (Liza, dad (Wayne), Matthew (18), and Catie) to watch "The Rise of The Guardians" at the dollar theatre. It was a fun movie with really deep parallels to the Gospel. We made homemade pizza after that. On Wednesday we (Jill & kids, Catie, and Matt) went to the Phoenix Zoo while Leighton was at work. I love their zoo! It felt like a safari. I almost went on a camel ride for only $4. I wanted to wait for if I went again with Leighton though. They had cute elephants and giraffes, these funny things called dick dicks, a rhino, a lion and lioness, a tiger and a jaguar, and a whole bunch of monkeys. One monkey put a palm branch on his head and walked around with it there. I also was so very close to a sting ray; so creepy! I really liked the zoo and the animals looked so very happy. We ate lunch there. For dinner Leighton's home teachers took us out for dinner at a very Mexican mexican place. Everyone in the restaurant was speaking Spanish and I got the smallest tacos that I have ever seen in my life. Afterwards we went to the temple and participated in a session. There are lots of signs in the Mesa temple which I like: The Glory of God is Intelligence, Those who seek me shall find me, etc. They also have this double staircase leading up to the Celestial Room with murals of American Indians on the sides. Once we got home from the temple we played Bang with Matthew, Catie, and two of Matthew's friends. Thursday morning was terribly hot but we still went to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve to see the water and the birds. We (Grandma GG, Liza, Jill's kids, Catie) all had out umbrellas and didn't make it very far with the kids. It was 92F and they weren't wanting to move very quickly. Thursday was March 14th, aka 3.14 aka PI aka pie day! We made oodles of pies. Oodles being: apple, banana creme, blueberry cheesecake, and lemon. The crusts weren't the best, but they weren't my mother's. GG had a great suggestion so I had Leighton take me to the dress rehearsal of The Easter Pageant at Mesa Temple. We were able to sit on a blanket and watch them perform under the stars. My favorite part of the pageant was the real lambs and donkey that they used. It is kind of a song and dance sort of show, so it was interesting, or at least not what I was expecting. So I was attempting to waltz with Leighton, and me having two left feet, met my left heel with Leighton's sharp toenails. He got me good and felt sooo bad. I thought it was kind of funny. He promptly went to clip his nails, find a bandaid, and apologize a billion times. Friday my flight was at noon. I was in a silly mood from lack of sleep so I spent a good part of the morning being a sass and tickling Leighton and teasing him. We also worked very hard picking citrus trees so that we could make: orange juice, grapefruit juice, and lemonade. I then flew home and that was that.

My Teaching Philosophy

My professional goal is to change the world in a simple way, one high school student at a time. As an adolescent educator there is a wonderful chance to influence youth, our nation’s future for good. I am ecstatic to begin teaching and share my passion for languages and health. As a health teacher there is a significant opportunity to change health behavior for good and help students to become more confident and aware. Teaching languages to adolescents provides them with a different point of view and helps them to be more tolerant of others. Taking French language classes truly opened up my eyes to the world around me. It helped me to get out of that teenage “spotlight” effect and realize that there is an entire world out there besides my life—a world that is big, beautiful, and diverse. My French classes helped me improve my grades in other classes and created within me a desire to reach out and be more inclusive. I want to provide students with a safe learning environment where they can learn that we are all different and that it isn’t bad to be different. I want to show students the world of possibilities that lie before them. I simply want to be the teacher that every high school student wishes they had; one who is intelligent, enthusiastic, caring, motivational, and unforgettable. Teachers really do make a difference and I want to be that one teacher that we all remember who made a difference in our lives. By teaching children well a legacy of future leaders who can help to stabilize our decaying world is created. Every day we are in need of more and more strong and talented people leading out in our community and I want to help shape our future’s leaders. My teaching philosophy is to teach French and to teach it well. I believe in allowing all children an equal opportunity to succeed in my classroom.

Pumpkin carving

Longboard making adventures

So I got this crazy idea in my institute class to make a longboard. Yup, make as in by scratch. I thought I'd post some photos of the progress. First we glued the boards together

Then we added some curves

Next we cut it out so it looked like a board.

Then we had to sand it and such.

And make the edges smooth.

And then I gave my board a tattoo.