Forever Grateful

This is my 5th Thanksgiving in a row away from my family. I've spent these 5 years with friends instead, staying in as well as traveling to Phoenix once. I've been blessed by others willing to take me in for the holiday. But I have been blessed in hundreds of other ways as well....here are a few of the things I am incredibly grateful for.

My Family

My parents provided me with absolutely everything. They paid my way through college. They supported me while I struggled to find a job post-graduation. They want the best for me. They fly me home for Christmas and big family events. They've given me the life I wanted...happy, safe, secure, and loving.

My brother, Jay, married Lindsay in 2012, giving me another brother and five sisters. I couldn't have asked for Jay to marry a better girl than Lindsay! And I couldn't have asked for a better added extended family! A year later, they were sealed in the Nauvoo temple. 

My Job

I absolutely love being a preschool teacher. Those little munchkins have so much to learn and they are discovering new things every single day. Plus, the things they say crack me up to no end! One little boy always says, "I'm a sweetheart!" when you pick him up. Another girl never stops laughing and calling you a "silly goose" when you do anything remotely funny. 

It took me four and a half months to find a job after I graduated from BYU. I interviewed at at least 5 different places until I finally got someone to bite. And I am extremely grateful that I got the job at A to Z Building Blocks. It is exactly the place for me. My co-workers are fabulous, my boss is the nicest woman ever, the work can be hard some days, but the rewards outweigh the struggle. This job has given me the reassurance that I chose the right path all those years ago in the college career counseling center. 

My Roommates--Past & Present

 Oh I have had my share of roommate struggles, but the past few years have been pretty darn fabulous. These roommates have taught me a lot. And we've had a TON of fun. They're my best friends and I'm so glad to have met them through random experiences! 

Food, Clothes, Housing, etc...

I'm writing this post as a pumpkin pie bakes in the oven, it's aroma wafting up to my second floor bedroom. I have cabinets full of food, a closet full of clothes and shoes, bookcases full of books, movies, and other entertainment, I have a (semi-working) laptop, a cell phone, a bicycle, a bus pass, a warm bed with lots of blankets, a beautiful two-story apartment, and essentially all the things I could ever need. I am incredibly blessed to have these things, when so many have so much less than me. I think I'm poor, but really, I'm rich. I am so lucky. And so thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends! What are you grateful for?

Lessons from my Preschoolers: Part Two

Lesson 8: Keep the Medicine Cabinet Well Stocked

I have worked with these kids for 2 and a half months now. I have been sick more times in this short period of time than I have been in the past 8 years at least. It's one cold after another. I keep the Kleenex company in business. Last month, I landed myself in the Urgent Care center only to be diagnosed with a double ear infection and a popped eardrum that started as a sickness my kids gave me. And now I have the remnants of a cough. I have learned that I must always have DayQuil, cough syrup, cough drops, Kleenex, and BandAids in stock. 

Lesson 9: You're Gonna Hear Them Roar

I drive a short bus for the preschool/daycare in which I take school aged kids back and forth throughout the day. On one particular run, I am left with a handful of elementary school girls on the bus. They love when I plug in my iPod and one day last week, "Roar" by Katy Perry came on. They were ecstatic! Hearing their little voices, completely too high and off pitch, warms my heart. And the words they are singing are empowering too.

You held me down, but I got up

Already brushin' off the dust

You hear my voice, you hear that sound

Like thunder, gonna shake your ground

You held me down, but I got up

Get ready, cause I've had enough

I see it all, I see it now

I've got the eye of the tiger, a fighter

Dancin' through the fire

'Cause I am a champion

And you're gonna hear me roar

Louder, louder than a lion

'Cause I am a champion

And you're gonna hear me roar

Lesson 10: The Simplest Ingredients Make the Most Fun

This week my kids painted with styrofoam cups. They loved it to pieces! Some made the Olympic rings, others made rainbow patterns, and some made flowers. One little guy made one for me. It's quite the abstract piece, but it definitely makes a statement :)

Another day this week, I brought baking soda, vinegar, a bowl, glitter, and a glass Coke bottle to school with me. Their little smiles and shrieks when we made mini volcanoes made my heart happy. I love to see kids enjoying learning. We talked about why these ingredients make a "volcanic" reaction and we played with the ratios of ingredients to see if some ways were better than others. It was fantastic!

Lesson 11: Each Kid Needs Something Different

The biggest thing I have learned about working with kids is that each child is different. What works for one kid may completely mess up another child. Some kids respond to a harsh voice, some kids respond to a soft voice. Some kids need constant monitoring and things to do, while others can occupy themselves for quite some time with no trouble at all. It is a huge learning experience. I have to figure out how each of my 22 children respond and remember every single one of them. I'm still learning, and I think I will continue learning for quite a bit longer!

Lesson 12: Dinosaurs & Magnetic Building Tiles

These toys are my best friends. If you have enough of these for the kids during certain times throughout the day, you are absolutely set! My kids are OBSESSED with these! Definite crowd pleasers! 

more lessons to come...

Lessons from my Preschoolers: Part One

I've been working at a preschool since the beginning of September. I have stories upon stories piled up about the crazy things my kids have done and the silly things they've said. It is literally never a dull moment. Even nap time can be exciting! 

This group of 3-5 year olds have taught me SO much in such a short time, so here is part one of the lessons I have learned from playing with kids for hours on end.

Lesson 1: Kids Have Two Speeds

Slow as molasses or lightening fast. And they use these two speeds at the most inopportune of times. You tell the kids to put on their coats for outside play and there is ALWAYS one kid who grabs his coat off the hook and just drags it around behind him. And then there are the kids who are practically Olympic sprinters; impossible to catch. They always keep me on my toes...like seriously, I almost never get to sit down.

Lesson 2: Children are Brilliant at Hiding

The possibilities are endless for kids who are three feet tall and only weigh 36 pounds. And, you see, the preschool I work at is in an older house. There are literally hundreds of places those kids can fold themselves into and I would never find them. I have found kids behind the radiator, in the cabinet under the sink, in a cubby behind a jacket, in a shelf behind a box of blocks, and inside a play kitchen stove. They are extremely creative and can have me stumped as to their whereabouts for minutes on end. And one kid even just flew the coop one day, sprinting out the front door...that was interesting.

Lesson 3: No Matter How Perfect Your Classroom, Kids Will Destroy It

    

The staff doubles as the cleaning service at our preschool/childcare. I spend quite a bit of time cleaning (kids are nasty!). And those kids spend almost no time at all making a massive mess. Books all over the floor, dress up clothes in a massive pile, emptying their shoes of sand on the carpet, cutting tiny pieces of paper, and don't get me started on their occasional bathroom accidents...

Lesson 4: Playdough is Your Best Friend

It is seriously the best distracting device for preschoolers. They will sit there and make dinosaurs or pizzas or people for quite some time. It gives me plenty of time to do my cleaning or to rotate new clean toys into their play areas. It's fantastic.

Lesson 5: It Takes Two Teachers to Trap a Kid Outside

We have this wonderful hill outside in our playground. It's really fun for the kids but torture for the teachers. You see, if you need to stop a kid (for instance, he hurt someone & needs to be talked to), that kid can just run up the hill. If you try to get the kid by yourself, he'll just run down the other side when you walk up...you always need two people to trap a kid outside. Always.

Lesson 6: Boring Things for Adults are Exciting for Kids

Exhibit A: they sat and watched for 30 minutes.

Lesson 7: Kids are Sweethearts.

We made a Thanksgiving Tree this week, with the kids each making a couple leaves saying what they were thankful for. One of the leaves said they were thankful for Miss Jessica & Miss Jenna (that's me!). I love these kids! 

More lessons to come...

Temporary Hobo

I have been exiled.

I am not allowed in my apartment. At least not for now. And when I am allowed back in, I risk dying of paint fumes. 

Yep, my apartment is getting completely repainted. Every single square inch of it. Which means, I had to pack up all of my stuff, shove it in the closet and cupboard under the stairs, take down all my precious posters, photo frames, & their (expensive) command strips. It looks very boring & like no one actually lives there. And this is just the beginning. I'll have to stay like this for the foreseeable future because I'm also getting brand new carpet throughout the ENTIRE apartment & I refuse to put all of my stuff back where it belongs, only to pack it back up again for the carpet installers...

So I am a temporary hobo.

I pulled out my burlap sack and filled it with clothes, books, my computer, chargers, granola bars, & Monsters University gummy fruit chews. 

I turned my closet into a makeshift library.

And I practically turned myself into Harry Potter pre-Hogwarts by stuffing the rest of my stuff into the cupboard under the stairs. 

And then I was on my way.

I'm extremely grateful for free wi-fi and an abundance of electric plugs. I'm writing this blog post from the student union of the university I graduated from just 4 months ago...surrounded by terrified freshmen and their just-as-terrified parents. It's quite a sight.

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7 hours later...

I almost did die of paint fumes. And I was only in the apartment for 5 minutes to grab a few things...& they're only half way done painting...

And they painted over my beautiful accent walls of purple and green, which may be the most depressing part! :( It's very blah now, which I find incredibly sad.

So I'll be a hobo for a few days longer...

My Man Rick

It's weird to mourn a fish, right? Too bad.

That little guy was a great friend to me....he was a great listener. 

He came to our apartment in November 2011, as a prize won at a Japanese festival. Our friends had won him & about 15 or so other goldfish and were giving them out for free to people in our apartment complex (Rick outlived every single one of those other fish by well over a year!). We got two of the fish and almost immediately, two of our roommates thought it would be fun to have pet goldfish who lived in the toilet...

But Jessi saved them before they took a swim down the pipes. 

We figured they wouldn't live long, so we just got them a plastic tupperware bowl to live in. Jessi googled care instructions & we boiled their water before changing it & got them top-of-the-line fish food from Big Lots. 

I wanted to name the little guys after my favorite TV show. One fish was bigger than the other so I just assume he'd be male and the other female, so my idea was to name them Kate & Rick. But Jessi wanted to name one, so she named the smaller one Ciel and the bigger fish became Rick.

Side note: its a good thing I didn't get to name the smaller one Kate, because it died a couple weeks later, seemingly of an infected eye (it was inflamed when we got her). And if you know anything about my show Castle, Kate pretty much died in the show soon before we got the fish. That would be too much for me to handle.

Anyway, Rick became our man of the apartment! He was a great conversation starter too!

We were scared for his life the summer before his first birthday, due to a psycho-roommate who over fed him & lied about the food "spilling" into his bowl. What was she doing feeding him anyway?!? And the food can was far too short in comparison to the bowl to "fall in." So yes, we had an obese fish for a bit, but we put him on a diet and all was well again.

We celebrated his first birthday, the miracle birthday, on November 10, 2012. We went all out. Katilyn baked and decorated a big cake for him in the shape of a goldfish, with little goldfish surrounding. There was Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream and Goldfish crackers as dessert & appetizers. We played Gold Fish & Pin-the-Fin-On-the-Goldfish. 

It was a birthday fit for a king. We really spoiled the little guy. And he probably didn't know the difference from the day-to-day.

Rick survived weeks alone while we went on vacation. He was there for the long nights studying at the kitchen table. He helped us celebrate Halloween & Christmas. 

Our little man would amuse us with his bubble making sounds & the little flips he did when he got new, clean water. Rick was always excited, always swimming around like mad. 

It may be a little strange to become so emotionally attached to a goldfish, but he was family. And I'll miss him lots. He passed away today, just after turning 21 months old.

Rest in peace, my fishy friend. 

My Little Home

I've lived in this new apartment of mine for just over 3 months & I'm still trying to make it my home, to make it feel like someone lives here, to make it feel warm, and inviting.

I wanted to give my apartment character but also do a few things that I found on Pinterest. I was also extremely amazed at the things left in my apartment from previous tenants! There were some great candles, pillows, and picture frames left behind. I also inherited three irons, an ironing board, a fake Christmas tree, an exercise bike, a curling iron, a flat iron, & a billion different cleaning supplies. I am amazed at the things people were willing to leave behind!

So, here is what I've done to my little apartment! I'm completely falling in love with it!

isn't it the cutest little place you've ever seen!?!?

i bought quite a few mason jars to do some random things with! this is just an old book's pages rolled into the jar, with a heart cut into the middle! 

i didn't see the point in hiding my athletic stuff, so the basketball & volleyball have found a home in my living room, in the entertainment center! 

added some color with my art stuff on one of the shelves in my living room

talk about character! yep, those are 40s flapper rubber ducks accompanying my dvd collection! 

this shower curtain was left behind by a previous tenant, and it just happened to perfectly match the towels and bath rugs i already owned! 

a little bit of history

i can't not have my elephants!

a home is not a home without some art and pictures!

cute little key-catcher left behind as well!

my sister in law's family gave me the adorable little jar on a candlestick and i filled it with animal crackers (it was originally filled with baby oreos, but those disappeared quickly!). and then i just added two mason jars with tea candles (found in my kitchen drawer along with a flame wand!) for my dining table! 

I've still got quite a few things I'd like to do & a bit more wall space to fill, but it's really starting to feel like home to me. Some people see apartments as extremely temporary & don't think they deserve the time to be made into a home, but I LOVE this apartment! And I think it can only get better!

So go hit Pinterest, and make your house into your home!

I've also had quite a fun time making hand drawn mugs! I've done a few for friends & then a few for myself of course! It's really great to have something personalized & to have pride in the fact that you made it yourself!

Castle & Beckett....with Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock in the background

Jared Padalecki & Misha Collins of Supernatural (Jensen Ackles on other side)

White Collar's Matt Bomer; Castle's Nathan Fillion & Stana Katic; Jared & Misha of Supernatural; Patrick Dempsey; Castle silhouettes

Wreck This Journal

I was walking in Provo the other day and came across this graffiti spray painted on the sidewalk. Provo is a special place in that almost 100% of graffiti is either clever, intriguing, or hilarious. I thought this was a great sentiment.

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About a year or so ago, I discovered something called Wreck This Journal that looked to be incredibly fun. You basically just completely ruin the book, which hurts me simply because I love books so much. But I made an exception with this one, since it really wasn't a book but a creative journal. And its brilliant! 

I got it a few weeks ago & I'm about halfway done with it. It has really given me a creative outlet & made me think out of the box. It is an EXCELLENT gift for perfectionists, children, teens, and young adults. You can find it on Amazon or in your local bookstores. 

Here's a few pictures of what I've done so far! So fun! Painting, drawing, coloring! 

this is actually from google...

also from google...

ok....i actually did the rest myself :)

my roommate burned it on the stove....the whole apartment smelled terrible