Good News!

It is a huge relief to be able to say... I have a job for next year!

I'm staying at the same school, so you'd think that wouldn't have been much of an issue... but you'd be wrong. Since I only had a one year contract I had to reapply for my job. Besides the other hundred people who applied, there were two other provisional teachers. The three of us were going for two jobs. And, of course, the rumors were flying. One week there was no hope, and the next week there was no reason to worry. It was exhausting.

Finally knowing that Mike and I will not need to move in to my parent's basement or a set up a tent under an overpass or something is nice. So is the fact that we now have some security. Unlike last year, I actually get a full contract this year. All teachers with less than three years are provisional, but this means that I have the job until I don't want it any more, or if something catastrophically bad happens.

Another perk is that I will no longer be teaching all four grades. In case it's not immediately apparent- that's not super easy. To illustrate... My district has a New Teacher Academy every other month. A woman I from my home stake (a very cool English teacher from Lehi) is one of the people in charge. She came over to give me a hug and say hi. When I told her what I was teaching, she grabbed my hand in an encouraging squeeze and said, "Oh, honey. I'll pray for you." So, the change is I will only be teaching 9th (2 classes), 10th (1 class), and 12th (3 classes). Not a huge change, but it will dramatically reduce my workload.

Perk number three is that I will be teaching mostly 12th grade classes. I love my 12th grade class! I'm hoping I've just found my niche and this isn't just a good mix, but I've had a lot of success with them. At the beginning of the year it was tough to keep them awake, but now they argue over who gets to read parts in class. We just finished Hamlet, and as they requested we had a Hamlet Omelet party on the day they did their presentations. It was so fun! And, they did such a good job! Like, it made me tear up a little bit because I was so proud of them. Yeah... I get like that sometimes.

Status Updates

Research Papers: Graded.

Plagarized Research Papers: Three. One may be accidental. All fully documented. Thanks Google.

Punishment/Course of Action for Plagarized Papers: Not yet decided. (Yes, should have already been decided... but still not.)

Apartment: Messy. But, the papers are graded.

Curtains: We have some in the living room now!

Car: Oil changed. Even with discounts I got suckered into paying $70. But, no more lectures from my concerned father.

Other car: Rescued from accidental abandonment at the park and ride.

Sleep: Far above weekly average.

Harry Potter Series: Finally finished. It is perhaps a small miracle that no one (including those chatty 7th graders) gave away the ending before I could finish it. Not sure why it took so long to get the motivation to finish it.

Husband: Adorable. And late for work. ;)

Self: Happy, happy, happy.

Number of Hours Until Mini-Vacation: 1.5. Cannot wait!

Reasons Why Spring Break Needs to Come NOW

• I don't even hear the alarm clock anymore.
• Those American culture research papers will continue sitting on my front room floor until I get real motivated... which won't happen until I get some sleep.
• My tolerance for a certain 10th grade girl who alternately colors in coloring books and braids friendship bracelets during class is no longer existent. I may ask her to leave. Maybe she can go hang out in the daycare where her talents would be appreciated.
• I want to make more curtains!
• I need to finish reading the 7th Harry Potter book...
• The real reason I went to work today was because the English department bought me Costco chocolate cake for my birthday.

For My In-Laws

I heard the grossest story ever today. About gross teenagers doing gross things.

Let's just say...

Someone saw something nasty in the elevator.

Compare and Contrast

A lot can change in a year.

Last February...

I was living alone in a strange little garage apartment, and I liked that... until February. That was not a good month. I hate February always, but that one was particularly bad. Lauren was out of the country... and I missed her. I was too busy to hang out with friends... or they were too busy to hang out with me... it's unclear and unimportant at this point. Of course, there were lots of wonderful people who were around and supportive. Susie and I had some bad day student teaching stories to share, because, by February, the honeymoon period was definitely over with the 7th graders. By February, I was, you know, getting kids suspended (yeah, I'm hardcore). In order to stave away the gloom, I started reading lots of blogs, including my now sister-in-law's. Which is really what led to this February being so much better, because that's what threw Mike back into my life.

This February...

I'm living in a cute little apartment with my best friend in the whole world. And, I'm going to make us some adorable curtains... eventually. I don't have time to get bored since I'm teaching the entire spectrum of high school English (if I missed anything in my own high school education, I've learned it this year).

This February, I got to enjoy the true spirit of Valentine's day... meaning I wanted to buy Mike everything in the world and make him cookies with little heart sprinkles. He, by the way, is the king of doing adorable things.

First off, we started things on Friday night by exchanging gifts and going to see The Lightning Thief. I got him an iPod cover and some tie hangers, and he got me a book and some chocolate (which is, you know, perfect). Saturday we spent a lot of our gift card money, which was very fun. And, Sunday was great. For breakfast, Mike made me heart-shaped M&M pancakes and I made him some tasty potatoes (thanks Lauren!). Then, we snuggled up and listened to a good chunk of Catching Fire. We went to church (yay for church), and then we came home and he showed off his culinary skills some more with...

Shrimp appetizer.
Lobster.
Steak.
Roasted broccoli.

Yeah. He doesn't mess around with the being romantic stuff.

And it doesn't end on Valentine's day. This very week, he sweetly agreed to come with me to my 3 day professional development conference in July... at the Utah Shakespearean Festival! Hooray!

I never would have guessed last year how much better this February would be, but it's a pretty significant improvement. I'm pretty excited about it all.

A Very True Story

Once upon a time, there was a young girl who loved to read. This girl (Aubrey was her name), read many, many books: books about historical events, books with lovely descriptions, books with mysteries. But, her favorites books always had something to do with love, and they always had a happy ending.

As the girl read these books filled with love stories she began to imagine what her own happy ending might be like. At first she was fearless and bold, and she imagined a handsome knight in shining armor who would be kind but brave, intelligent yet humble, and funny, but never at someone else's expense. But, as the girl grew up (and read more books) she learned that such a person was hard to come by.

She met many knights, but none of them were what she was looking for. There were handsome knights, funny knights, knights who spoke like poets, and even a few dastardly villains in disguise, but none of them were the type of knight that a girl who reads books would want to sweep her off her feet. In truth, the young girl began to despair that the love stories she had read were purely works of fiction.

Then, one day, when the girl had nearly stopped believing in the books she read, a very special knight appeared. And he was everything she had ever dreamed of... plus some. The knight did sweep the girl off of her feet, not in the way she had imagined, but in a better way. Before very long, the knight and the girl were married.

The day of the wedding was beautiful and perfect in every way. And, at the end of the beautiful and perfect day, the knight and girl rode off into the sunset as far as they could go, and when they got to the ocean, they stopped. They stayed in a lovely place

And he bought her lovely jewelry (the kind she had always wanted).

And took her to nice places to wear her new jewelry (and which also delighted the knight, who loves a good prime rib dinner).

And they had adventures in places that were exciting and a little shady.

He bought her overpriced tickets to see a mummy (and then comforted her when there was no actual mummy and just a mummy case).

And he even shared his ice cream with her.

And, basically, they were very, very happy. The end (for now).

How We Do It

I do believe I said I'd write about buying Mike's wedding ring. I think I'll also write about buying mine. Just keep in mind, we like to keep things adventurous. And mildly shady in some cases.

My Ring: Truth be told, we were secretly semi-engaged for a good chunk of time. We (read: I) were pretty sure we were crazy because things had happened so quickly, so this was a time wherein we considered, hypothetically, what it might be like should we get married. We liked that, so then we moved to officially engaged but the kind where you only tell your families because there isn't a ring, and in today's world people need that blingy proof. Eventually we decided we couldn't go on not telling everyone in the whole entire world that we were in love and getting married, so we went to Claire's and bought a fake engagement ring. Now armed with a $7 ring we made visits, sent out mass texts, and changed the facebook status. We also made an appointment with the Mysterious Jeweler, recommended by one of Mike's sisters.

MJ runs a very cool, and very unusual business. I quite liked him, and I love my ring. But, getting the ring was still an unusual experience. Firstly, it's important to understand that he is a jeweler jaded by the industry and doing his part to right some wrongs by doing things very differently. He only accepts customers through recommendation and does every thing by custom design, and doesn't make you pay the outrageous amounts most jewelers do.

The unusual part of the experience came from how careful he is to keep things low key. Our instructions for getting to his office were something along the lines of:
Go to the bank across the street from the gas station on X street. There will be steel doors propped open, enter there. Go up the stairs to the second floor. Turn right. There will be a blacked out door on your right. Knock on it and I'll let you in.

Is it just me, or does that seem a little ominous? I admit I asked Mike if our jeweler was also a drug dealer. He wasn't. He was very kind and helpful though, and capable of interpreting my desire for a "swoop" ring. The ring he made for us is gorgeous and I love it very much. And he delivered it just before the fake ring permanently turned my finger green.

Our experience with Mike's ring was strikingly similar.

Mike's Ring: The reason we didn't go back to MJ is because Mike wanted a tungsten ring, which we couldn't get from MJ. It turns out, in fact, that we couldn't get it a lot of places. I started searching the websites for all the jewelry stores I knew of in Provo, and most of them didn't carry tungsten rings, or only had a few to choose from. In desperation, I turned to google, which promptly directed me to a company that specializes in men's tungsten wedding bands. Perfect. I send the link to Mike, who immediately finds what he wants. Oh, and did I mention they were having a huge sale that day? So, I call to find out where they're located and we set up an appointment to look the ring over, get it sized, etc.

Address in hand, we head off to the jewelry store. Or, the mall? Or, a small rented office? Nope. A huge house in the middle of a bunch of other huge houses. We were slightly confused, but we went to the door anyway. A tiny kid answers. Odd. Then a man comes to the door, introduces himself, and invites us in. He takes us to the basement (totally weirded out at this point, wondering if I've found a murderer posing as a jeweler) where there are lots of dead animals mounted on the walls (does not help the creepy factor) including a moose with a Santa hat (that made Mike happy) and, finally, a display case full of tungsten rings (phew).

Again, things worked out fine. Mike found exactly the ring he wanted, and the price was about a third of what I had expected.

We've been really lucky, and I'm not going to lie, I hope that streak of good luck holds up.