The Results Are In!

I am so excited to officially announce that my Praxis PLT test score is in and... I PASSED!!! This was my final test out of 5 to certify me to become a teacher and I passed. It is an essay and multiple choice test based on how I will handle situations in my classroom. I took it the day before my birthday. So... now all I have to do is complete student teaching and I can officially become a teacher! :)

Viva Las Vegas!

I am not expecting this to be read, because I haven't written for so long, but I have some time and lots of things to say! :) It was a crazy winter semester, but I loved every second of it. I should have written, but chose to take in every second of the semester and found no time to blog. That was one reason, the other was that the Internet on my laptop didn't work last semester so honestly I wasn't on the computer much. We have wireless Internet in our apartment in Vegas and the connection is fabulous, so maybe I'll write a little more. Our apartment is nice. It's big, and I feel safe most of the time (when the doors are locked). :) My roommates are awesome. There are only four of us, but we have so much fun together. We play cards every night, but it's in our apartment, not out on the town... yet! :) We have a great pool and hot tub and find ourselves laying out on Saturdays and in the hot tub at nights. (Well, the few we have been here). My school is only a few years old and it's nice. The students are awesome. You can tell by the way they talk, dress, and act that they are from the fabulous city of Las Vegas. :) There is quite the difference between students from Idaho and students from Vegas, use your imagination. :) One of my students wrote some *#&*&*!@ words on the bathroom stall about my teacher. We think the most frustrating part is that she used incorrect spelling and grammar. :) Honestly, I love the students, but I am having a hard time with the administration and the teachers. The principal uses suggestive language about every other word and I feel is very unprofessional. The teachers are great when the students are around, but before school, after school, and in the teachers lounge I hear things I was not prepared for. I guess I have lived a pretty sheltered life. Before going to Ecuador they gave us all of these papers about culture shock. I didn't really experience culture shock in Ecuador, but I sure have in Vegas! :) I will have a fabulous three months here and be excited to come home. I had thought about serving a mission, but think maybe I'll be getting some questions here and can have my mission be here. I am praying harder than I have ever prayed and reading my scriptures more than I ever have. I am learning to keep the Spirit with me, when it's hard with others around me. Today we woke up and made fruit smoothies for breakfast. We got lots of sun while we were at the pool and my tan is coming along just like I hoped it would. Tonight we are going to the adult meeting for Stake Conference and after we are going to a sports bar to watch the Jazz game ( we don't have a TV at our apartment). I will keep you posted on the adventures here and get some pictures up soon. I guess I better go get ready for the day.

Muneca's! My favorite tradition!

I had a great New Years Eve. I went to a friends house with a bunch of people from high school and we ate lots of food and caught up on what we are all busy doing. The best part was a tradition from Ecuador that we celebrated. I stuffed some clothes with newspaper. Then you write bad habits that you want to discontinue and you put them in the muneca (doll). Then at midnight you burn it. It symbolizes that you will stop your bad habits. It was such much fun (a little colder that last new years, but still fun). This year we actually put the muneca on the snow, which was not possible in Ecuador. I am so excited for 2008. I have lots to look forward to and so far it’s been a great year.

FHE

FHE (Family Home Evening) is so much better when you are really with your family. I like it at college, but it's just different. Tonight we took pictures for our Christmas card. I honestly can say that we didn't mean to fall that way, but it really happened. Good times!

I'll Be Home For Christmas!

It’s so nice to be home for such a long, fun Christmas break. I’ll be home for 3 ½ weeks. That is the longest that I will be living at home until I am graduated from college and officially move back. I am going to try to have a productive few weeks and not be too lazy. I want to exercise on the elliptical (that I didn’t know my family had). I have lots of parties and friends to see. I have lots of babysitting little Lukester to do. I have to wrap all of Santa’s presents (I’m his/her elf). I have shopping to be done and lots of organizing I want to do. I also want to watch some movies with Stockton and Cabe and maybe Brynlie and Caleb as well. I am so excited to be home. It really feels like Christmas now. I love this time of year and want to spend the rest of the Christmas season with family and friends. It’s good to be home and I’m going to try to live up every moment of it.

When I'm old...

I decided this morning that when I am old and have money I NEED a garage. Okay, I don't really need one, but I really, really want one. This morning I got ready and so five minutes before I was going to drive to class I decided I should go start my car. (Usually I do it before this, but I forgot.) When I went outside it was freezing. (The high today in Rexburg is 16 degrees... brrrr!) I started my car and went out five minutes later. None of the ice had come off my car at all and scraping it wouldn't work either. It was way to frozen. So I took the keys out and began walking to campus. I don't live that far away, but it felt far today. As I was walking, I had my first encounter with "frozen nose hairs" in 2007 (since I began 2007 in Ecuador.) For those of you who haven't experienced "frozen nose hairs" it's quite the experience. See, the liquid in your nose freezes, because it's so cold. Then as soon as you get inside your nose starts running, because it isn't cold anymore. Anyways, cold days are here in Rexburg and I have a feeling it's going to be a long winter! But I am willing to take it for all you skiers and snowboarders... so... bring it on! What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger... right? And I can wait a few years for the garage. I just hope it's sometime in the future!

Finally...

You probably won't believe this, but last night I wrote a blog about our fun, family trip to Cancun! I had just uploaded pictures and my computer shut off. Don't worry, it's been doing this lately. It will just shut off in the middle of whatever I am doing. Since I have discovered it I have been saving everything to my roommates jump drive so I haven't lost any homework, but it's so frustrating. I am taking my computer in to get fixed this weekend and will hopefully have it back by next week. A little ironic that it's during finals week?! I just got a very positive, happy email... so I am going to try to do the same. I can use the schools computers or my roommates (like I'm doing now!) It's really not that bad, but I won't be able to post any pictures. At least I wrote something though! :) I going to try to keep this a habit... but we'll see!