If I Ain't Got You

So, I have officially applied to the Math Ed Master's program at BYU. The application was due on Sunday, but I buckled down last week and finished it late Thursday night [Thanks Sarah for the support and help! :) I love you!]. After I'd submitted it, I got an email asking that I fill out a survey about my online application experience. One question asked about my reasons for pursuing a Master's. I was allowed to select as many of the given answers as I wanted, as well as write in an answer for "Other." Well, I decided to be quite honest and write in "I'm still single..." [I did select a few of the other options as well, like "desire to be in academia" and "personal motivation or goal"]. Then, two questions later, it asked why I chose to apply to BYU. I selected a few of the options ["social atmosphere," "religious atmosphere"], and again wrote in "I'm still single..." Haha! Sarah and I laughed about that for quite a bit.

Anyway, I don't know when I'll be hearing back about that, but I'll keep you all posted. Now that I've applied, I know that I'll either get in or not - I'm not sure which is scarier!

In other news, today (3/3/09) is Square Root Day! [Get it? 3 times 3 is 9... Heh heh heh...] That only happens 9 days every century! I think that's pretty sweet. And next week is Pi Day [3.14] - We'll be celebrating in the Jr. High by eating pie. Awesome! AND, now that it's March, I can say that I graduate [and turn the big 22 (Ooh, a palindrome number!)] NEXT MONTH! Yikes!

Currently, I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath. I've found that I've forgotten a lot of the details since I read it in high school.

Today I went to the temple with Elizabeth. A ward group came in with family file names RIGHT before we were going to go into the font room, so we had to wait quite awhile... But it was worth it. We were still in and out in a little over two hours.

And, as if this post isn't random enough, here are some awesome pictures from the last month or two...

This AWESOME picture is of my AWESOME friends Jeramy, Mike, and Owen. Yes, they are testing out gliders at Babies R Us. And, yes, they are loving it. They went baby shower shopping with me, and I think they enjoyed it even more than I did [before this trip, I didn't think that was possible...].

And, this is a picture of Melissa, Yuka, and I on the night that Yuka left to head home to Japan. It was so much fun to have her come visit us, and we sure miss her. She definitely keeps things hilarious.
Another shot of Melissa, Yuka, and I beore Yuka left. We were supposed to do funny faces, but I decided to pull a "precious face" instead. Heh heh heh.
Ooh, here's a good one! This is my friend Andrew [donning a lovely flowered apron - Thanks mom!] piping white chocolate onto the Oreo truffles we made. He'll probably kill me if he finds out I posted this picture online.
And, lastly, just a picture of me. And our turtle Dimitri in the background. He's a pretty good turtle. We're excited for the warm weather - we're going to take him on walks outside!

What Hurts the Most

So, my weekend turned out to be pretty good. We had a fun formal dance on Friday night for our ward, so Becky and I got all dressed up and went with a few friends. It turned out to be a lot funner than I expected, and there were SO many people there! We were combined with my old ward [Shout out to BYU 23rd!], so I got to see a lot of old friends which was, you know, SUPER AWESOME! :)

On Saturday, I got to sleep in for a bit. When I got up, I made myself some pink heart-shaped pancakes, and served them with strawberries on top. How precious, no? I was able to relax for most of the day. I went out to dinner with Melissa and her brother, and then went to a dance with some friends of mine that night [this one was casual, so that means I didn't get to dress up, but I did get to rock out harder!]. It was a LOT of fun, and I appreciated the opportunity to go out and do something that night.

Today was another great day! I absolutely loved not having to go to school, and I actually felt sort of productive. I worked a lot on my grad school application [I'm almost finished!!], and I made rolls and granola, and I went grocery shopping, and I spent some fun times with my roommates, and our friend Barrett came over, and Meliss and I went out for frozen yogurt with the guys [All y'all are my favorites! Thanks for being amazing!]. Oh, and I discovered this awesome website. Check it out...It's quite a time-waster, in the best way. Heh heh heh.

Tomorrow, I get to teach Geometry, and Pre-Algebra (twice!). It'll be a long day, but it'll be fun. Oh, and I think we're gonna try to hit up the basketball game tomorrow night. Sweeeeet.

And, now that's it's ridiculously past my bedtime [again], I'd better peace out. It's been real.

Reflection

So, Tuesday's classes went really well! I was quite a bit nervous beforehand about how everything would turn out, but the students were generally well-behaved, and even our 5th period class didn't turn out too bad. I was definitely pleased. :) It's been so much fun teaching this semester - I'm so glad that I'm enjoying it as much as I am!

Today, we gave our Pre-Algebra kids a review sheet for the test they'll take tomorrow. They seemed to generally understand what was on the review, so I'm excited to see how they'll do on the actual test. I hope, given that we taught them half of the lessons for this chapter, that they will perform well and demonstrate a good understanding of the mathematics. We shall see...

Tonight, I had the pleasure of going to an honored seniors dinner for a select few people in my major. Some of the faculty were there, and we were able to eat, talk, and generally enjoy ourselves. It was really good to see a few of the people who I haven't seen in over a month [spending all day every day in a Jr. High will do that to you... :)]. I enjoyed hearing how well everyone else's student teaching is going, and hearing about their post-graduation plans. And the faculty gave a nice little talk about the merits of going to grad school, and talked a teensy bit about BYU's Math Ed Master's program, too [In case you're wondering, I'm still working on my application for that. And, you know, I can take all the prayers I can get right now.].

Welllll, anyway, that's about all that is new and exciting in my life. We have a big ward formal dance tomorrow night, which should be a lot of fun to go to. On Saturday, I'll probably be hanging out with Melissa for part of the day. I think she said she wanted to go to a movie, so that would be fun. :) I love my roommates! I've been so blessed to have had such amazing roommates every year here. Sweeeeeeet.

And now that it's entirely way too late and hours past my bedtime, I'd better go hit the hay. Tomorrow is Friday, which means grading all day! I LOVE grading - I'm way excited! :)

Ain't That Just Like A Dream

Oh, and PS- One of our 5th period students turned in an assignment today. We taught a lesson on probability two weeks ago, and assigned them to write and solve their own probability situation/problem. We've received a few back so far [these students don't do homework, so this will probably be their only out of class assignment this term...], but the one we got today was awesome. For one, it actually made sense almost! It was probably the best one we got back. And the title? Definitely this: "Whatz the probability to get a white cup cake!"

My life is complete.

Can't Stop Now

I had a GREAT day today! I got nowhere near enough sleep last night, which always makes things interesting. Mike called me this morning on my way to school just to wish me a good day. I taught my lesson on percent of change, and the students seemed to understand! I still have so many things to learn and improve on, but I really am loving teaching! I didn't think I'd have this much fun with it, so it's quite a pleasant surprise. :)

When I got home, I cleaned Dimitri's tank so Melissa wouldn't have to worry about it when she got back [She was in Alaska for the weekend for a friend's wedding. I turtle-sat while she was away. And now she's back and that makes me super happy!]. I did some laundry, and made dinner [easy-peasy tuna melt sammiches], and at least THOUGHT about the lessons I'll be teaching tomorrow. I'm a little teensy bit nervous on account of our cooperating teacher will be away at a conference, so we'll be handling all of her classes all day long! We shouldn't have any problems, except maybe 5th period. I really do love those students - I know they're capable of doing the work. They just have trouble focusing, sitting still, listening, thinking before talking.... You know. Hopefully we'll be able to hold our ground and not let things get out of control.

This evening for FHE, we brainstormed ideas for our group's video. It sounds like it's going to be funny - I think we're going for a cheesy 70's LDS film type of deal. With a Chinese leprechaun. Awesome!

And, now I'm going to try to get to bed. I've got a load of laundry to finish up for tomorrow, and I need to review some of my lessons, but I don't have any other obligations this evening. Maybe I'll be able to land 8 hours of sleep tonight? Solid!

Lastly, here's a picture from about two weeks ago. Our friend Yuka was in town from Japan. Here we are dropping her off at the Greyhound station... [Sorry for the poor quality - I stole this picture from facebook]:

When All Is Said And Done

A brief update about recent goings-on in my life [This is for you, Jeramy - Holla!]...

I am student teaching this semester, and I absolutely L-O-V-E it! Yes, the days are long, but I'm learning so much every day. I love working with the students, and I love seeing them finally "get" it. This week is the sixth in the semester, which means we actually get to take over classes full time! Hooray! We're starting with Pre-Algebra, and then taking on Geometry in about two weeks, too. We'll be teaching full time until the middle of April. Our cooperating teacher also has a Pre-Algebra Essentials class (pretty much just remedial pre-algebra), and an advanced Algebra 2 class. We won't be teaching those full-time, but we will do some fun activities with them. :)

So...I've pretty much decided what I'm going to be doing with my life come September. I'm planning on doing the Math Ed MA program at BYU. Fuuuuuun stuff! I took the GRE a few weeks ago, and I've been working on the online application. It's due in 3 weeks [Yikes!]... I don't think I'll have any big problems getting in, and I'm excited to see what this whole experience has in store for me. I know I'm going to learn so much. It's daunting and it's scary and I don't quite know why I'm supposed to be going to grad school, but at the same time it's new and exciting and it just feels right.

However, despite figuring out my life after August, I still have NO clue what my summer plans will be. I've got everything figured out up until April 24th. Then I graduate. I'd really love to stick around here for at least a little while this summer. I really love Provo/campus in spring, and I fear that if I go home I'd drive myself crazy. Don't get me wrong - I love my family and my friends back home [Shout out to the 585! Represent!], but I kind of get a hankerin' to leave after about 2 weeks of being there. Anyway...I've thought about staying here and TAing for a class spring term. I don't know if I'm allowed to do that since I'll not be taking classes and I'll be in that awkward transition stage from undergrad to grad student. Buuuut, we'll see. I could just go travel Europe with Mommy. That would be fun! :)

Anyway, I've got to skedaddle to bed. I've been up WAY too late the past few nights [...and it's been completely worth it! I've been hanging out with my very bestest best friends Mike, Owen, and Jeramy. I love those guys!]. I'm teaching a lesson in Pre-Algebra tomorrow about percent of change. Should be interesting...

Here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure. The first is of me and Melissa before Christmas break when she, Becky, and I all wore matching outfits to church. I love us! The second is of me, Melissa, Becky, Brian, and Derrall, all wearing our fun Christmas-y clothes. Aaaand, the last is of Mike, me, and Jeramy when we went up to see the lights on Temple Square in December. :) Rock on!

Hello, Goodbye

Things on my mind lately:

Thanksgiving. Zac, Sarah, Logan, Jonathan, and I all went up to Paul, Idaho for Thanksgiving. It was absolutely fantastic and relaxing and heavenly. I didn't think/worry about school the entire time we were up there. I was able to finish a book (Mr. Darcy's Diary) that I started before the semester even started - I'd been about halfway through the book for over 3 months, and I finally had time to sit and read. :) We also went and saw the new Disney movie, Bolt. I enjoyed it; Jonathan fell asleep about halfway through - Ha! Mostly, it was good to just relax and spend time with my AWESOME family! I love laughing at the hilarious/stupid/absurd things my family says/does. It's one of life's greatest pleasures.

Christmas. I think I LOVE this holiday! Last weekend, I put up our Christmas tree. Matt and Erin gave it to me (Thanks guys! I love you!) when they moved back home this summer. It's awesome, and it certainly adds some Christmas cheer to our apartment. While I was walking home tonight, I could see it in the window from the other side of the block and it made me really happy. :) Also, on Sunday night, Melissa, Brent, Jeramy, Mike, and I went up to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was my first time going, and I absolutely LOVED it! If I had to describe my feelings in one word it would be joypeacehopeloveChristmasTempleAWESOME! Yay!

Grad school. Umm...I think I want to go to grad school? Or rather, I think I'm supposed to go to grad school. So, through that whole "aligning my will" thing, I WANT to go to grad school. Right? Isn't that how it works? Ha! Call me crazy... Better yet, give me advice, pray for me, and support me as I try to figure this whole thing out. Yikes!

Boys. Always. Always, always, always. Tonight I was with two different groups of good guy friends and, by some random coincidence, they both asked me for relationship advice. Weird, right? Since when am I the queen of relationships? Since, uh...the 12th of Never. Right. But anyway, we were able to have some good conversations, and I feel better about this whole feeling-like-I'm-eternally-single thing. It'll happen when it's supposed to happen, and until then I just need to hold on to my britches and enjoy the ride.

Finals. Yes, there are officially 7 days of classes left this semester. Hallelujah! Finals will be over in 2.5 weeks. And, though it's weird, I'm entirely not stressed out or worried or nervous. I'm just kind of rolling with things and loving it. I feel like I'm kind of cheating the system because I'm not going school-crazy like every other person I talk to. It's a strange/new/unreal feeling, but I like it. :) Still, wish me luck and pray that things will work out well.

And...that's a wrap. I'm off to bed.