Happy Christmas!

I feel so sick right now and I love it! To explain first I need to say that every year as long as I can remember my family has been packing up and driving down to Utah for Christmas. This is where both of my parents are from. Every year since starting school at BYU, I've had this time of limbo between the end of finals and when my parents get here. They are coming today. They are also bringing me something better than any Christmas present. They're bringing my sweetie, Daniel. As the weekend has gone on I have gotten more and more excited to where I have now literally made myself sick waiting for them. I can only remember my sister ever getting this sick on Christmas Eve. My stomach is literally doing flipps. I wonder if he knows how excited I get to see him.

I must say though that I have truly loved my time by myself. My last roommate left Saturday afternoon and I've had the apartment to myself since then. It has been so nice to be relaxed and quiet for a day or so. I love to have the time to myself to just sit and think and get excited. Each year at the end of the semester I get rather stressed. Planning for Christmas and finishing my classes and getting everything together seems to overwhelm. Then I have this calm before the holidays start. It is a time I take to remember things that I love.

So anyway, I hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas and New Year!

The Heat

Dear Reader,
I just wanted to write a post saying how awesome my roommate is. Her name is the Heat. She is awesome. I was just sitting here, using her computer this very second. She was sitting beside me when, all of the sudden (yes I say all of the sudden instead of all of a sudden) she jerked. This jerk wouldn't have been much except she was holding her water and it spilled all over the part of the seat she wasn't sitting in. To wipe it up she just moved her bum around the chair. Yes, she's awesome.

Also, an amusing quote that she said lately is, "Cream cheese is a secret ingredient for lots of delicious meals." This would not have been weird, except that it came out of the blue! And she said it like I was in despirate need of this information.

Don't you think that a person that does things like this is awesome? Because I do!
Sincerely,
Maggie Jo Timothy

PS. Which do you think is better, Maggie Timothy or Maggie Jo Timothy?

Something Short

So my posts have been really long lately and I just wanted to write something short on here really quick. I decided the other night that one of my favorite things is to see something performed live. I love live concerts, plays, musicals, and operas. I wish I were more adept at finding things like that to go to that don't cost too much money. Well, that's it on that issue.

Growing Up

***Disclaimer: To my sister. I am nervous about posting this blog just because I don't know how you will take it. I am just writing my reactions to what I percieved you to be saying. If I am wrong in some way or I hurt you I apologize right now.****

I'm not entirely sure how this post will go. I feel as though there are many thoughts in my head and I'm not sure how to get them out correctly. This post contains my personal reactions to my sister's post "9 things I do differently now that I'm not a psycho BYU co-ed Mormon ." There are two parts to this post:

Part 1:

I admit that my initial reaction was not a happy one. In fact, I was royally upset. I percieved my sister's blog to be saying that BYU is a place that is too sheltered from the world. Perhaps even that it is difficult to become the person you want to be in that environment. I have known many people in my life that have challenged me in my decision to go to BYU and also in my decision to have my religion. Therefore, I get rather defensive. Recently I went up to Oregon State for a visit and a guy I met there told me to my face that I was a sell out for going to BYU. He said something to the effect of there's no reason that people should try to go there like they do because it doesn't help anybody. The social environment is detrimental to people. I was a little upset because he has never actually lived here. Why is it that I always here all these negative things about my school from people that haven't actually GONE to my school? Now my sister, whom I love and trust, thinks the same thing.

Here is my philosophy, BYU is an LDS school. Being such it should be expected to be a center for LDS thought. If it were a Jewish school it would be a center for new Jewish thought. If it were a liberal school it would be a place for new liberal thought. I am frustrated with people who complain about BYU not being liberal enough. It isn't a liberal school. With that said, I don't feel that people are close minded here. Maybe this is my experience alone, but I have met many very open people living here with very different ideas about life and religion than my own. (Yes they are Mormon too.) Granted there are people that are close minded, and ignorant. You would get that at any school though. Take the good with the bad. That's the kind of world we live in. You like where you live because of how you live and who you are. People can be content just about anywhere if they are living in a manner that makes them happy. It is a personal choice not the choice of the masses.

Most of that was just tangential and I'm sorry, but I've been mulling that one over for a while now. I thought I might as well just get it out into the open.

Part 2

Growing up. I think really that's what my sister's blog is about. I will admit that I had to rush off to work right after having read her blog. I spent two hours stuffing envelopes with money for the taste pannel tomorrow and had plenty of time to think. That's what I came up with. Here's my take on the topics discussed in her blog:
1. Defining yourself/prayer. Everyone has a point in their life that they HAVE to chose who they are and what they believe in. I think my sister's done it. She's made her decision. Bravo to her.
2. Lame activities/Support. This one goes off more on what was said in the comments section, but I have also been to many lame activities. Dances, I'll admit, I have stayed away from, not really ever having liked my experiences there. Also having been put in charge of many activities I personally thought were lame I know how much it means to someone if people actually show up to FHE when the only thing planned is the flour game.
3. Try to convert others. Again a timeless life lesson. Having been forced into many different social circles in the past I know what it means to have a friend that just appreciates you for who you are. I can't say I've ever converted anyone, but I can say that I have good friends that know what it means to live an LDS lifestyle. I think this lesson can be learned with no respect to where you live. BYU or somewhere else, the lesson will come.
4. Judging others. Again that just comes from growing up. Here, there or anywhere.
5. Peer Pressure. This one made me laugh. Peer pressure is overcome at different stages in life. I think of my sister as a completely independent woman who makes up her mind about many things on her own. To be pressured into not doing something by her peers seems so amusing to me.
6. Sarcasm. I personally have NEVER liked sarcasm. I have consciously tried to stay away from it, even though it pops in every once in a while. I'm glad she stopped.
7. Sleepy Sundays. I think the real message here is that she decided that she would make her Sunday more meaningful. I get this from her comments later, not the actual post itself. I personally disagree about the THREE hour nap for myself, but whatever helps you the most on Sunday.
8. Feel Guilty. I think that this is also a lesson learned in time. Being able to have an accurate picture of yourself is a very hard task. To be able to say, "I'm not what I should be, I'm not what I could be, but I'm not what I used to be either." Is difficult. By that I mean, having the appropriate perspective. I think people everywhere have this problem. Not just at BYU.
9. Opening my friendships. I will admit that at college, once you are in your major you are basically locked into a certain social circle. I'm glad my sister now can accept more people as friends. I think this was a cause of some disagreements between the two of us my freshmen year.

All in all, I'm glad my sister can see herself grow. I think it's amazing. I still disagree with her on a few issues, but for the most part I'm just glad it happened. I hope everyone, myself included, can strive to become more introspective, whether it be at BYU, CU, or anywhere else on the globe.

My Sister

This post seems to be out of place with the other one. I really do feel everything I say on this one. I guess that's one of the great things about families. You can respectfully disagree with each other and still love each other tremendously.

I love my sister. Does anyone know how absolutely amazing she really is? I don't think people around her actually do. I try to convince her, but she never agrees with me. I think she is wonderful. I love her.

Katie has always been my hero and sometimes idol. When we were younger I wanted to BE her. I have shaped my life after hers from taking the violin to wearing my two pairs of sox rolled down the "cool" way. I have followed her into the jaws of a dog and back. To me she seemed brave, fearless, undaunted, and courageous. I would do anything she asked me to. She protected me.

When we moved to Spokane I always percieved her as the popular daughter. In my mind she quickly made friends whereas I struggled. Then I watched her go into highschool. She was so fashionable. Her friend and she were always around the cool people in school. I had a hard time with friends when I was younger having had two "best friends" that decided they were too cool for me. I wanted to be just like my sister. She was popular, pretty, funny, and impressive.

Today I still see my sister as so much older and more sophisticated than myself. She has a career and a car and really nice clothes. She knows what's up in her life. She is in charge as she always has been. This whole time I have wanted to be just like her.

As time has moved on I am now finding out how my perception of the truth was completely different from hers. She has insecurities and fears that I formerly knew nothing about.

Now I see how different we are. This whole time I have tried to be her I find I am not. Don't get me wrong I am happy being me. That's a long hard road I think everyone has to travel. I still see her as a fashion expert. To me she is still brave, classic, chic, undaunted, fearless, sexy, and beautiful. I don't think that will ever change. I love her so much. She is so amazing. She is my sister.

Grotesque

****Disclaimer: Extremely Long, Emotional post. I couldn't cut any out. Sorry****

Much to my surprise I found out in my nutrition class today that I am grotesque. This startling news was doled out by a bunch of angry women and men. Mostly just the other females in my class. Here's how my nutrition class went.

The final subject in my nutrition class for the semester is energy balance and weight gain. I don't really like my nutrition class, but this topic is one of my least favorites. I think it is the least favorite of most women, but usually for a different reason than my own. I don't like it because I honestly don't care. I am how I am and I think that's ok. I also don't like it because it tends to get women extremely worked up and I try to avoid those situations. Anyway, we calculated our BMI (body mass index) before class and I went into class knowing mine is in the 18 neighborhood.

Today we go into class and everything starts out normally. I'm learning about different types of obesity and different energy balances. Then they start talking about BMI. Here's where the train wreck started. Our professor told us about the different cutoffs that the National Health Board have come up with for various weight classes:

• Unerweight <19
• Healthy Weight 19-25
• Overweight 25-30
• Obese 30-40
• Severely Obese >40

I was a little surprised to see that I am in the underweight category. He explained that the cutoffs were based on mortality rates for each of the BMIs, healthy weights being associated with the lowest mortality. He asked the class why in particular the lowered BMI would be associated with a higher mortality rate. Snide comments came out such as, "People that are that skinny just fall through the cracks in the sidewalk and get trampled on." That was seriously a comment that came from someone in my class. My professor tried to mitigate these comments by saying that low BMI is also associated with diseases that might cause death. For example, someone with cancer, at the time of death has lost a lot of weight and would thus have an extremely low BMI. I was a little upset by all the negative comments about me being too skinny and dieing, but honestly I've always been skinny so I'm used to comments like these.

Then came the real clencher. My professor introduced a study that was done at a university on attractiveness levels of each gender. He presented this to the class to try and make the point of the unrealistic expectations that society has for body shape. Forty men were shown photos of 50 women from the neck down with different body compositions. They tested waist to hip ratio and BMI vs. attractiveness level. Waist to hip ratio didn't seem to matter, but BMI accounted for 73% of the variation in attractiveness level. The highest level in the statistical model was found to be at a BMI of around 18. He then went off on how this was an unrealistic goal. Then comments were shouted out about men only liking grotesque, prepubescent girls that weren't really women at all. Keep in mind that I have a BMI of 18 and was sitting listening to how grotesque I am! I was so mad I didn't even know what to say.

I'm not complaining that I'm skinny. I'm just noting how incredibly rude some people are when they feel attacked. It's not like I was shouting out how all the other women in the room were fat lards that needed to go to the gym and eat right once in a while. I don't think that, but even if I did I wouldn't be shouting it out to the rest of the class. I think my professor could have handled this situation in a much better manner.

Raw Meat

I went to Otto and Sons Inc. today on my class fieldtrip. It was pretty awesome. I didn't think it was going to be, but actually I was intrigued by the meat processing industry. Otto and Sons Inc. is the "exclusive meat supplier for McDonald's". They also supply meat to Nestle, Kraft, and Chipotle (a Denver based restaurant company). I thought that was an interesting fact because people in the United States feel that the meat industry is corrupt and that you can't trust your meat to be safe. Let me tell you that this is so far from the truth.

My friend Jonny read "Fast Food Nation" and was trying to tell me how corrupt the meat industry was and how they were always trying to cut corners. All I can say to that was, he read an expose of one person's experience of one factory. That person was also trying to sell a book. Like any activity, you're going to get some people who don't do what they're supposed to. Do you think that the restaurants would buy the meat if it didn't pass microbial tests? I say NO. If he wants to believe the word of one person without actually researching the truth about government regulations in the United Sates, I guess I can't force him to see the truth.

Here's my attempt anyway. First of all, companies know it's bad for business to be putting out food that would harm the consumers. People stop getting food from a place that has been connected with bad food. It would put them out of business. People want to produce something they can be proud of and if they want to stay in business for any length of time they also want to produce something the consumer will buy. Consumers stop buying damaged goods. Secondly, since the infamous Jack-in-the-Box outbreak the US government has really cracked down on the meat supply and it has become much MUCH safer. In fact, what I found out was that most of the contamination that people get from restaurants that serve meat now is actually from the bathroom. Yeah, that's right, other people in the bathroom that don't wash their hands. Kinda gross, but it's true. You should see all the tests they do on the meat coming into the facility and going out of the facility. Tests run constantly.

Also, I think that my sister should give up being an aerospace engineer and design new equipment for food processing. She'd be so good at it! It SOUNDS lame, but honestly I have been so amazed at all those machines working this past semester as I've gone through the processing plants. It's pretty cool. Well, actually she's going to go to grad school so she'd probably be WAY too qualified for that job. Katie, you rock.

Big News

Over the Thanksgiving Break, I got engaged.

Holiday Festivities

I was reading my sister's blog yesterday and it hit apon something I've really been thinking about lately--the holidays and money. I know this is a big stresser for many people this time of the year. Personally I find it to be rather hard to go into the holiday season without the money I would like to have to buy Christmas presents. I feel that right now in my life I am more poor than I have ever been before. Also with the way my future is looking I'm only going to get even more poor.

Here's the catch though, I have found more things for my family this year than ever before. In the past I've always been in the "What do I get them?" frame of mind. This year, I haven't even been to the mall to look for stuff for presents, but I know all the things I would LIKE to get for my family.

Also, I feel that I don't want to get much from my family. I mean there are things that I know would be really nice to get, but let's face it, my family is spending tons of money on me already. Do I really need anything more? I already have so much.

Even with all of these feelings running through my brain, I am looking forward to this holiday season more than I have since I got to college. I don't know why, but along with missing Dan right now, I miss my family even more. All the traditions, and all the security. I simply can't wait to have time to just be with my family. I mean no family is perfect, but mine is pretty awesome. I think they are great people to be around. I feel so homesick! I can't wait to go home! I love the holidays! It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Getting Sick

I am kinda hesitant to actually write anything on this blog now because I know it wont elicit the response of my last one. Actually I wasn't expecting very much of a response on the last one.

Anyway, I'm sick. I've been sick for a full week now. I'm blaming all of this on Dan. Sure he wasn't the one that gave me the sickness, but it's still his fault. Weekend before last we went up to Logan to see his brother and sister in law get sealed. I was sleeping in their boy's room (they have two absolutley precious little boys) on the bunk beds. The older boy got the sofa bed in the front room with grandma and grandpa. Anyway, in the middle of the night Travis, the younger one, woke up scared. I let him climb in the bottom bunk with me to sleep for the night. Did I fail to mention that HE was incredibly sick? He coughed right in my face a few times in the night. So yeah, it's Dan's fault. Also compounded with this sickness was that last night I decided that I wanted to eat chocolate so I went out and bought four candybars on sale and ate ALL of them last evening. This morning not only do I have a cold but I fell kinda gross in my stomach from all the chocolate.

The worst part about all this is that Dan thinks that getting sick is all in your head. He says that people get sick, but they chose to let it effect them. Like when he got mono and didn't know it until he tried to donate blood and they wouldn't take it because of his mono. So perhaps to an extent he is right. On the other hand, I'm not the only one in the world that gets sick. I am most definitely sick. I can't help that. I have tried to keep going as usual, but the fact of the matter is that I don't have as much strength as a healthy person would. So I'm sick and I can't even say anything to him. I think it stems from the fact that his whole family consisted of healthy children. That's just my theory though.

At any rate, I'm sick and I want to be better right now. I wish it worked like that.

I'm A Girl

Recently I have noticed an opinion in myself and those around me that is quite startling. I'm not sure how or when this opinion was formed but it has been firmly intrenched in the attitude of those around me. What is this upsetting opinion you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. It is the opinion that being girly is not ok. I understand that being ANNOYINGLY girly is, well....annoying. Talking really loud in a group of girls and squealing and making noises of that sort kind of makes me want to vomit. (I used to do this, but I have found the actions not to my liking.) I don't recommend that to anyone.

I think this opinion arises from the perspective that to be girly means to be annoying/brainless. I propose a different view. To be girly means to be a girl. There's not a girl I know that doesn't get excited when someone she's interested in shows some interest back. Also to be a girl can mean lots of other things including, being compassionate, clever, classy, and chic.

I understand the negative attitude displayed about being girly. I have just one thing to add though. I'M A GIRL! I like being a girl. I like sitting down when I pee. Also, I like getting excited when a boy likes me. I like feeling comfortable falling asleep in a boy's arms. I like getting excited to see a boy that I love. I don't think that there is anything wrong with any of these. So let me ask you all out there, is being a girl wrong? I say no. I'm going to keep on being a girl. That doesn't mean that I'm going to go around giggling mindlessly or making that sighing noise during a romantic movie.

I guess the bottom line here is: I'm a girl so it's ok if I'm girly.

Registration

Registration is the worst time of the year. You never get what you need or want and you have to just settle for what you really don't want. I just sit infront of my computer feeling my frustration level rising. I would like to get this secretary job in the computer science department that my roommate knows is going to open up. I need the 8AM-12PM block of time open for it. That means that next semester I'm going to have a fair amount of evening classes. Not that bad, but have two three hour labs on top of all my regular classes. It doesn't seem like I'll be able to get them all worked out without any conflicts. I don't know how I'm going to fit all of my classes in before I transfer, but it will happen, I know it will. I will do whatever it takes to get into the classes I want, even if that means I have to sacrifice my first child. Well, maybe not that far. Maybe.

After the registration frustration I went to my classes. We got a HUGE section to read about dairy. I mean I love milk and probably this will be the most interesting part of the class, but that is A LOT of material to cover. I'm going to have to know so much! After that I went to my food law class. We went over the take home test. I HATE FOOD LAW! I spent 3.5 hours in the library on that test and I still think I didn't do so hot becuase he asked lame questions. Questions that highlight a tiny part of the CFR. By the way did I ever say how much the CFR is lame in and of itself. Too much to know and read through that doesn't say much. Lame!

On the plus side I don't have work today. That means a whole afternoon open to go take my stats test and study for O-chem. I'm sure it'll end up being a pretty ok kinda day. Thanks for letting me vent.

Mittens

Ok, so this post might just be lame, but I wanted to dedicate some of my blog with the belongings that I spend the most time with in the winter.....my mittens. I love my mittens, they are soft and warm and I couldn't last the winter without them. The other day I was on campus and some guy tried to make fun of me about wearing my mittens and it didn't work at all. The thing is that once I wear my mittens I never take them off. From the months of November to February it's a pretty safe bet that I'm wearing them. I got these little treasures of delight either my junior or senior year of high school. Since then every winter nobody really sees my hands. They now have permanent marker on them from my job last year and are starting to get holes in them, but I fixed the holes yesterday and I don't mind the black marker. I would probably be worried by the marker, except I don't know if I can ever get a pair of mittens that are so good. They are thick, but not too thick. Two layers of soft, thin polar fleece wrap my hands in a delightful warmth. Anyway, I'd like to thank whoever gave these little delights to me a couple of years ago. They never knew what a source of joy they would be in my life.

Fall Rain

It has been a real fall week here at the BYU. As I was walking up to campus the other day I decided that I am in despirate need of something. I need a new coat. Anyone that knows me might be thinking right now, "Reah right you need another coat. You already have three coats." They would be right about the amount of coats I have, but I feel that just one more would do the trick. I'm going to describe the coats that I have to you and you see if you can figure out where the hole is that would be fixed by another coat.

1) I have a beautiful green wool coat that I bought myself last winter to wear with nice clothing. It is mid claf and I wear it on Sunday's over my church dresses. It kind of looks like a dress and it is beautiful. It's not very practical though so I don't feel safe wearing it during the week where it could get dirty/ruined.

2) I have a rain jacket. This rain jacket is great. It keeps the rain off of me without making it too hot. It's just one thin layer of jacket so if it's cold then I have a hard time with it.

3) I have a snow/winter coat that is really warm. My parents bought it for me when I was a senior in high school and it is truly amazing. It is so warm. There is no way I'm getting cold in that thing. I love it.

Do you see the gaping hole in my coat coverage? Well, if you don't I'll tell you what it is. I need a jacket that would be warmer than the rain jacket and not as warm as the winter coat. I decided this because the other day when it wasn't raining, it was just really cold I decided to go onto campus with my winter coat on because that rain jacket was NOT keeping me warm enough. Well, I got about half way up the hill and I was about to die I was so hot! Then when I was in my class I took it off and got cold! It was ridiculous. Anyway, I know if my grandma read this she'd probably tell me that I have enough coats and I'm just complaining. Well the truth is that she's right, and I know it. All I'm saying is if I had just one more coat I'd be happy as a clam temperature wise this fall/winter. Also I realize that it doesn't get as cold in Oregon as it does in Utah, so that new coat I was describing would be pretty good for Oregon or Washington if I end up there. Anyway, that's what I decided the other day.

Teaching a Pig to Sing

My dad likes to "discuss" issues in life. His discussions have two scenarios.
1) He already has his mind made up. You have come to a different opinion than he has. He thinks that if he repeats the facts of the situation to you again, you will suddenly say, "Oh you are right! How could I come to that stupid opinion?"
2) He doesn't really have an opinion on the subject being "discussed" at all and just dances around you trying to make you worked up.
Either of these scenarios ends up making one or both of the people involved upset.

My grandpa does the exact same thing.

It is for this reason I learned early on about "dicussions." My mom always says (and recently said this to me again), "You can't teach a pig to sing and if you try it'll just make the pig annoyed and you frustrated." This is my feeling on "discussions." If you have an opinion that you've come to after having looked at the facts that's great. I can have looked at the EXACT SAME set of facts and come to a completely different conclusion. That doesn't mean that one opinion is right and the other is wrong. It is based on the different experiences people have in their lives and the different perceptions they have on those experiences.

I have no problem with discussions where the aim is just to see what the other person thinks. In fact I think that this is one of my favorite pass times. I once told one of my very good friends when I first met him that my hobby/pass time is just to talk. He later admitted to me that when he first heard this that he thought it was stupid, but now he realizes that I just like to hear different ideas. I think it makes life interesting that people come to different opinions after having reviewed the same set of data. Learning about something from a different perspective is like exploring. I love it.

What I don't like, however, is someone that thinks they are doing this, but in actuallity is trying to test me or change my opinion. I would say that in general I have thought a lot about my opinions. I like to think about things and test them out before I form an opinion on them. Opinions are just that. An opinion can't be right; it can't be wrong. I can't always tell when someone is trying to do this until I am in the conversation. Sometimes it comes in subtley when the person just tries to keep telling me the same things over and over or when they try and convince me of their correctness (again an opinion isn't right or wrong). Other times it is blatant when someone says to me, "well you're wrong."

I have encountered a few people in my life that like to debate topics. This can be ok if one or both of the people involved is willing to change their stance on an issue. In my life experience, this rarely happens. I have seen most people's debates be rather similar to my father's type number 1 discussions. I find this to be a pointless exercise. The other person has made up his mind and I have made up my mind so trying to change opinions or go over facts again doesn't teach me anything and it doesn't teach them anything and it ends up frustrating one or the other of us. That is something I will never understand.

My shortcoming in this area is that I get very worked up when I get into this situation. I can feel myself getting worked up and so then I just have to close my mouth and say to myself, "well, this is something I'm just not going to do with this person again." I think that a lot of times it would be better if people in general (myself included) could just take a second and ask themselves, "What do I want to get out of what I'm saying right now?" or "What's the purpose of this conversation?" I think a lot of unnecessary words would be taken away.

Next time you're talking to someone just take a second and ask yourself, "Am I trying to teach a pig to sing?" (Not that the people you talk to are pigs, but you get the picture.)

Something New and Different

Last night a really good friend moved into town. A group of kids from Spokane threw him a party and invited me to come. So I went. It was great to see the kids from Spokane. I really enjoyed that part. Since emerging from my Middle School self-conscious phase, I have thought really highly of the kids I grew up with. I was mostly surrounded with guys who had really high standards in my LDS group of friends. I ended up being one of the guys. It's cool with me. I'm glad I got to be their friend. Anyway, last night was really hard for me though because at one point in my life I had a crush on three of them. Nothing ever happened with any of them, and now I've moved on to being with one of the most amazing guys I know.

Here's the rub though. I want to be friends with these guys now. I don't have many friends here in Provo anymore. Looking back at it I realize that I am in this situation because of the choices I made last year. I have only a few people here that I am so close to and care so very much about. I wouldn't give them up for anything. Anyway, going to that party last night made me so uncomfortable because there were tons of people there. I, unlike my sister, do not enjoy big groups of people. This makes it hard to branch out and make new friends. I don't know how to become close friends to these guys that I used to be so close to because I don't want to go over there with big groups of people. Plus, it feels weird to try and talk with the guys one on one now. I'm not sure why and perhaps I'm wrong in this feeling. I guess I just need to think about it more or something like that.

So anyway, I just realized that none of this has a point. So I'm going to stop now.

Washing the Car

So I haven't washed my car since I drove it from Spokane, WA to Provo, UT. Needless to say it was pretty bad. Today they told me they didn't need me at work. I decided I'd finally get my car cleaned. I did the worst job cleaning my car ever!

Here's the story:

I went to wash my car on the carwash off Freedom. I get there and nobody else is there, that's cool, whatever. Then the manager comes out and is cleaning the stall next to me. I think nothing of him being there. So I start washing. I'm thinking about how much I LOVE washing my car. I really do enjoy going there. My favorite part is the foam wand. I could spend hours using that thing. I would have too. The only thing is that while I was doing that this red headed college age man starts rollerblading around the place. Immediately I think that I don't like him being there. Then I thought to myself, "There's no reason to not like the kid, he's just skating." So I keep going about my business. I'm right to the foam wand (the aformentioned favorite part) when I look up and the kid skates THROUGH MY STALL. I didn't like this at all, but I didn't really know what to do about it except give him a dirty look. So I did. I'm half way done with the car when I have to go put more quarters in. When I do that the kid again skates through my stall, but this time it's WITH HIS WEINER HANGING OUT! He was holding it and smiling at me. Instantly I'm upset. I always used to ask myself what would I do if I were in the situation of girls that are being harassed. I never had an answer. I was so embarassed! It was weird. I didn't say anything, but then he kept skating around behind the place with his dick out. I resolved to tell him to go away. It took so much effort to get the words to come out that I actually screamed them. "Go Away!" I think the kid must have seen the manager in the stall next to me look up because he said, "Sorry" and skated off. I could barely rinse off the car fast enough to get out of there. I was afraid he'd come back and hurt me or something. It was really scary. I was going to go talk to the manager to tell him to look out for the kid and make sure I didn't get assaulted for yelling at the psycho, but I couldn't. I was too nervous. I got in my car and tried to drive away. My foot was shaking so bad I couldn't work the clutch in my car so instead I drove around to the front of the place in plain view of the road and the other customers (a mom cleaning out the inside of her mini-van, and a guy washing his SUV) and I decided to try and dry off my car and get sufficiently angry to be able to get rid of my shaking hands. Well it worked. I was so mad. Who really decides that on a Tuesday afternoon it would be a good idea going around skating and exposing yourself to people? What sort of deranged psycho does that? Anyway, so now I know what I'd do if I were sexually harassed. I'd yell at them to leave me alone.

My car is now all streaky with dirt and none of the bugs are gone, but at least I'm alive, and not raped or anything like that.

I'm in the Library!

So I'm studying in the library. I study on the fifth floor in the carols in the back. This is the farthest place you can go from the door. That means that it is really the quietest. I like it. Unfortunately today I have to do some research for my nutrition class. This means that I must study in the periodicals section. YUCK! Periodicals is infamous for being a social studying place. Many people get dates and meet people here. I guess it's fine if you want to use the library for a social life, but as for me I'm going to stick to using it for a study place. I just turned around and saw this couple behind me hugging and kissing. The guy was all over the girl! It was gross. This is exactly why I study on the fifth floor. In a carol. By myself.

Lessons Learned

With the exception of talking about Dan a little, I've tried to steer clear of personal stuff on this thing. This post might be another slight deviation from the plan, but a friend taught me a lesson yesterday that I'd thought I'd already learned. It was pretty good to be reminded of it and I wanted to try and pass it on to everybody else. So here goes.

Relationships are fluid becuase people are fluid. Everyone is changing and going in different directions and so it follows that their relationships will as well. It's ok when things change. You are a true friend when your actions are motivated by a true desire to see the other person doing what's best for them and being happy.

It's so funny to admit that I hadn't known all that before. I thought I did, but it was so understatedly shown to me yesterday that perhaps I didn't understand the meaning behind those words.

So to all my friends out there. Ones that I keep close to me and those that are farther away, I wish you all the best. I want you to be happy and to make the best decisions for yourself. Whether my presence in your life is big or small just know that I care about you and that I'm always worried for you. Thank you for being my friends.

A Little Pearl

So I stumbled across this poem today. Max Ehrmann is one of my favorite poets. He may not be the most noteworthy or the highest on the list of American Authors, but what he's written for the most part resonates with my heart. Desiderata is probably his most famous poem written and I like it, but there are many others I've found equally worthy. Anyway, here it is:

A Prayer

Let me do my work each day; and if the darkened hours of despair overcome me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation of other times.

May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood, or dreaming on the margin of a quiet river, when a light glowed within me, and I promised my early God to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years.

Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments. May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world knows me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as shall keep me friendly with myself.

Lift up my eyes from the earth, and let me not forget the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn myself. Let me not follow the clamor of the world, but walk calmly in my path.

Give me a few friends who will love me for what I am; and keep ever burning before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope.

And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life, and for time's olden memories that are good and sweet; and may the evening's twilight find me gentle still.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Flour Explosions

I've had a lot to do with flour in my life. Here are two recent incidents with flour in my life:
1) Last night for FHE we had a flour war. It was awesome. At first we played by the rules with these little bags of flour in nylons. When you hit someone with them they would make a mark on you and then you were dead. It was pretty cool because we could just use the nylon flour balls over and over. But our FHE dad bought a 20 lb bag of flour to fill up 13 little nylon bags. Needless to say he had a ton of flour left over. In the end that flour bag was empty and everyone was covered in flour. We were so sneeky and we got our FHE dad wet too so the flour truned into paste. It was pretty cool. The only bad part was that I got a hand full of flour right into my eyeball. Yes, my eye was open and now it's all red. Kinda gross, but worth the fun.

2) Last week my class went on a field trip to Deseret Mills flour milling company. It was really cool to go there and see how flour is made. My mom used to grind her own wheat occasionally when I was little. Then she would make bread out of it. When she did it a distinct smell would permeate the whole house. I loved it. When we walked into the "roller room" where the flour is actually ground that smell was everywhere. I was in heaven. Anyway, the whole mill has hardwood flooring and is kept pretty clean. I thought that was just to ensure clean flour. Aparently this is not the case. I found out that flour mills are pretty dangerous because they are suseptable to getting burned down. The question in my mind was, how could this be? I'm sure you are all wondering the same thing. Well here's your answer. Flour is made from the endosperm of the wheat kernel which is very high in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (ie. sugars) are very flamable substances. If or really when the flour gets in the air it has a big supply of oxygen. One little spark say from a maching and......KABOOM, the whole place explodes! Amazing. So how do you ask, do they prevent this from happening? They keep the place very, very clean.

So anyway, just incase you wanted to know. Flour is AWESOME.

Car Accidents, Brain Tumors, Death

So in my family, if you get a headache it's quite possible that it's a brain tumor. If you don't hear from someone it's prefectly logical that they got in a car accident. Death is not out of the realm of possibility. Well, actually only two of those three have ever actually HAPPENED before, but that doesn't stop my mind from jumping to those conclusions. One time, when my mom was out later than I thought she should be at night I was almost in hysterics when she got home. I know this makes me sound neurotic, but I'm just telling the truth. In my family as long as I can remember the rule has been that when you're traveling you call and tell the people you left that you made it ok. Also, you call mom to tell her you made it ok. She worries, it's just better that way. That's ALWAYS been the rule.

So all of this preamble is for a story about Dan. The other day he drove from one side of Washington to the other by himself. I was expecting him to finish driving at about 8PM. That's when I also (as previously mentioned in the rules for travel in my family) expected him to call me and tell me he arrived ok. The call never came. At 10PM I decided that I would call him, just to make sure he was ok. Nobody answered the phone. I was a little distressed about this, but I didn't worry too much. Then at 11PM I called again. No answer. At this point my mind automatically jumps to all the irrational possibilities that could have happened to keep him from answering the phone. Again, I realize that I'm neurotic, but that's how my mind works.

So anyway, I finally just have to go to bed because I have class in the morning. I'm seriously worried about him the next morning. Then I'm mad at him for not having called and then I feel bad for being mad at him in case he really DID get in an accident and is in some hospital somewhere. I got a message later that afternoon from Dan that said he just forgot to call and tell me he was ok. HE FORGOT! At first I was a little upset about this. Then I realized that his family might not have the same rules as mine does so I just let it drop. I hope from the nine zillion messages I left on his phone he realizes this is a big deal for me and doesn't forget again. That night was way stressful for me.

The Egg Drop Soup Miracle

So this morning I had to get up early to do my homework for classes. It was rough, but I did it. Then I went to class. I am totally stressed about my chemistry class. I have a test that I'm probably going to be taking friday night for it and I am so far behind. I don't think I'll be able to catch up right now. Oh well, that's what I get for practically taking a week off of classes. After Chemistry I went to my stat lab. I can't stand being in classes with people that are slow. I mean I should be more patient because sometimes I'm the slow one in the class, but some of the kids in this class couldn't even follow the directions for opening crunchit. These were step by step kinda instructions and they couldn't figure it out. Also, one of the kids in there is taking the class for the THIRD time! I was pretty frustrated. Maybe it was because I was tired and hungry though. (Just so you don't freak out Mom, I had an apple and cottage cheese and toast for breakfast.) So I was walking home and thinking about what I wanted to make myself for lunch and I was just so sad because I didn't want to cook for just myself. Then I came home and witnessed a miracle!

My roommate Heather made egg drop soup and left some in the fridge for me with a note on it. I was so happy! I really do have one of the best people to live with ever! She's so thoughtful. I need to be more like her. Anyway, thanks Heath!

So nothing about classes

Nobody wanted to comment on frogger? Oh well, I guess drama is always more interesting than someone almost getting hit by a car.

As for my boyfriend, his name is Dan Whiting and I'm really glad that my sister likes him. He was here all last week and his plane flight just took off 36 minutes ago. Right now I'm kinda depressed, but that's to be expected. It turns out that this week was great! I didn't really do anything in my classes, so that's why this post doesn't have anything to do with my classes.

So my sister has told me many times, "Never have a long distance relationship." She's right. People told me this summer that this coming year would be hard without Dan here. I thought, yeah, of course it'll be hard, but I'm strong, I can make it. Plus, I love my major and what I'm doing at school. I'll be fine. Well, I don't think anyone that hasn't tried it will be able to know how hard it really is. I made a rule for myself that I wont cry when I'm saying goodbye to him. That's a super hard rule to live by. But I did it again this time. I also cried all the way home this time too.

I don't know what you all would like to know about this kid, or even if anyone cares anymore. I've probably bored everyone around me with details about him. Here are a few that I recently picked up. While on his mission he and another missionary got a hold of a broom. He said to the other one, "Hey let me hit you with this." And the other kid said, "ok." So he did! Wow, 19-21 year old boys are SO SMART! What was the thinking behind that one?

Well, I guess that's it for tonight. I have so much work to get done just for this week. I'm so behind in my schoolwork. Oh well, c'est la vie!

Frogger, Homework, and a Surprise!

So I was hit by a car when I was in the fifth grade. I went to the hospital and was out of school for about two weeks. This has been a defining moment in my life. People think I should have gotten over my fear of crossing the street and getting hit by a car. I haven't yet and I probably wont. I remember being in all that pain and I'd rather not do it again. I do NOT like to cross the street outside of those little white lines of security and I definitely don't cross the street when the red hand is showing us the warning that "you will get hit if you cross now." (At least that's what the red hand means to me.) With all this in mind let me just say that I live two blocks south of the BYU campus. This means that I have to cross two pretty busy streets to get to campus. I feel like everyday I am in my own personal game of frogger. None of the people driving their cars on those two streets are ever paying attention to what they're doing. (This is my personal feeling about all drivers in the United States. They're doing and/or thinking about too many other things while driving.) At any rate they're not looking to see if someone is going to be crossing. If you just step out in front of one assuming they'll stop you'd be wrong. A couple of days ago this theory was proven correct. I saw someone almost DIE trying to cross 800N. He stepped out assuming that the right of way protection that those little white lines gave him would keep him safe, but he was WRONG! He realized that a car on the street did not in fact see him and so he had to run back to the sidewalk. I'm sure he saw his life flash before his eyes. He obviously never played frogger as a kid.

My second subject is homework. I have spent approximately ALL DAY SATURDAY doing homework. I have an estimated 3-4 hours of homework left. How crazy is this?! Sometimes I'd rather give up and decide that I'm not doing school anymore. On the plus side I'm going to get 100% on my second quiz of my organic chemistry class. That's pretty exciting. I'm off to a great start!

Surprise! My boyfriend is coming on Monday! I am so excited. I have been counting down the days on this blackboard in my apartment for about a week now. I'm so girly I can't even stand it, but I haven't seen him in three weeks and I miss him so much. Things with him and me for this school year will be pretty rocky since he's going to be in Oregon and I'll be in Utah. I hope I'll be able to go the whole year and get pretty good grades. That's really my goal for the year. Just make it through with pretty good grades. High aspirations huh? Yeah, I'm awesome.

Water

Ok, so water is officially the coolest thing EVER! Well, maybe not.

Anyway, in one of my classes we go to different places around Utah that have to do with food. Today we went to the Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant. At first I thought this field trip would be lame because it's just to go see water. Well let me tell you, it is not! They went through and showed us all the things they do to purify the water that they get out of the Deer Creek Reservoir. First of all it made me think more about people that go boating on that reservoir. That doesn't sound like things I want in my drinking water. (Don't worry the genius that thought up the filtration and purification system figured out how to make sure it's not in our water.) My favorite part of the tour was when they showed us how they filter the water. They don't just use regular filters, which is what I always imagined they did. No, no, no my friend! They use Anthracite Coal! I know that probably none of you care about this, so I'm not going to go into all the steps of water treatment, but we saw when they cleaned the filter and it was AMAZING!

One other thing I have to mention. The water treatment plant has the safest water supply around. They use these things called daphnae (I'm not sure how to spell that) which are little water fleas and they pump their water through the container that they live in and if the daphnae start jumping all over the place and moving erractically then they test the water for toxins. Also, they have this fish tank that is partly partitioned into two spaces. The fish can easily swim to either side, but one side is smaller than the other and also without folliage. So the water is pumped through one side and then has a 15 minute delay being pumped to the smaller side. If all the fish swim over into the delay side then they know somethings up with the water. PS. Fish are VERY SENSITIVE to toxins. Oh man, this plant was so amazing and I've only told you all two things about it! I know that this probably isn't the most entertaining thing for all of you, but I thought it was cool so I wrote about it. Hope you enjoyed it!

One last thing is my new cool word I learned today:

flocculation.

It not only sounds cool and is fun to say, but it's a pretty interesting process as it turns out.

New Changes and the Academic World

So I was just going to be done with my bolgging career when my summer ended. I mean I'm now back at BYU and I have no stories about little kids to relate to anyone. Then I heard that people were actually reading this thing. I thought that was interesting. I mean, I'm pretty sure that my blog isn't all that awesome. I do the bare minimum (but at least I write posts in it). I was asked to keep up with it during the school year so I figure why not.

So here's how the first day of classes went: I had three classes yesterday. My first class was statistics. It will be the regular big auditorium lame class that I have to take just to graduate. Then I have organic chemistry. Now this class scares the crap out of me. I'm taking the second half right now and just barely passed the first half. I asked two of my major professors (one was my academic advisor) if I should retake the first half or just go on and they both said don't look back. I talked to the professor of the class yesterday and he tried to be reassuring by saying that if I just spent 12-18 hours outside of class studying I should be fine. (Just so you know if I do 18 hours out of class a week that turns out to be six study hours for each hour of lecture!) And my last class of the day was Nutrient Metabolism. This is a class for my major. I'm not too excited about it though because it's really a nutrition class and I couldn't care less whether what people eat is nutritious. I only care if it gets to them quickly, safely, and if they like it. Oh well. Day one is a dud.

Day two will totally make up for it though! I have two classes on my Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are Food Commodity Processing and Food Regulations and Quality Assurance. This probably seems totally boring to everyone else in the world, but I went to my classes this morning and I must admit they got me SO EXCITED! I get to learn so much stuff in these classes. They seem like kinda big time committments, but I don't even really care. My food commodity processing class is a lab class and we go on a field trip aroud this area once a week. This week we are going to a water treatment facility in Orem that prepares drinking water for us. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, that's about it for the academic side of my life here.

The Spokesman Review!

Today a girl came in from the Spokesman Review and took photos of my first class of the day for a special interest project she was on! How exciting! My class might be in the paper! Well, it probably wont, but the kids were really cute in that class. By the end of the day I was so glad she came for the first one and not the last one. We made "fossils" out of plaster of paris in my last class today, so it probaly would have been a cool one to photograph. The only problem was that 5 minutes before the end of class one little boy said he had to go to the bathroom. I said, fine go. Then all the parents came to pick their kids up and I forgot about him. That is until HIS mother came. He ran out from the class room to give her a hug bare bottomed. Pants and undies around his ankles. I saw her face and I was so embarassed! I assured her that her child JUST went to the bathroom and wasn't walking around like that all day. She said it was ok becuase he was still learning all the bathroom rules at home and had done that before. I was relieved. Just imagine if the photographer was there! Yikes!

Baking Soda

Today we made VOLCANOS! The kids were so excited about this. They'd been waiting all week. We first made the volcano out of sand clay that dries as hard as a rock. The volcano was shaped around a film container. The little black ones you get your rolls of film in. Then they decorated them and then we went outside to have them errupt. Well, really it's just baking soda and vinegar colored red. So when I was going down the line each kid asked me what that powder was that I was putting in. When I told them baking soda they all asked things like, "can you eat it?" I answered all their quesitons until I got to the last kid, Diego. Instead of asking a question he said, "One time we mixed water and baking soda because my bum itched so much." All I could say was, "Wow, that sounds like your mommy really knows what she's doing!"

Over the Limit

Today in class Cooper said that he had to go potty and so I told him to go and to remember to shut the door.  He was gone for a while (little kids are really slow going to the bathroom on their own).  Then he walks into the door of the class, wearing only his undies.  He yells out to the class, "I'm wearing my new underwear!"  Everybody could see and was checking out his new underwear so I said, "That's great Bob the Builder underwear, now you should go and put your shorts back on."  Little kids are so excited about cool undies.  It's pretty cute.

Here are some more!

Ollie
Justina

Again both girls.    I feel worse for Ollie, but Justina makes me think it may have come from her father/grandfather's name.  They are best friends and the cutest little girls, but man those names are weird.

Sad Story

Today in class a little boy I was helping turned to me and said, "My mommy says my daddy moved away and isn't coming back."  I said, "What do you mean?"  He said, "Daddy had to go and he wont come back."  I wanted to cry!  I don't know why his dad has left, (divorce? death?) but either way I felt so bad for him. 

Indecent Exposure

Today, while I was in class, a little girl fell off the chair she was sitting in and hit her head.  She was really hurt and crying uncontrollably.  While trying to get the rest of the class to do something so I could help her I picked her up.  I was carrying her out of the class to check her head and everything when she gave me a hug and was sobbing on my shoulder.  Just as I turned to tell the rest of the class to keep coloring, her hand accidently went right down the front of my shirt!  It pulled it out and all of the sudden the whole class was flashed a glimpse of my bra!  Yeah, it was great.  Nobody has personal space with three year old children. 

Creative Kisses

It happened again today! This happened to me once last year and I thought it was a once in a lifetime experience. I was wrong.

Today, at the end of one of my classes one of my little kids was leaving. He ran up behind me to say good bye and he wrapped his arms around my legs at his height and gave me a hug and a kiss. Now if you know how tall these small children are I'm sure you've already figured out where the kiss landed. Right on my bum! Yes, I was kissed on the bum today. Don't you wish you had a job where people were kissing your bum?

Another time (this was last week) a little boy was leaving and his mom was trying to get him to say thank you and goodbye. She kept saying, "What do you say?" This has happened to him in many situations and he didn't quite know what to do. Instead of saying the intended response he just blew me a kiss. Like that's the customary thing to do when you're leaving. It was so cute!

When Walls Attack

First off let me say I'm sorry for not updating this in a while. I've been kinda busy with stuff lately and haven't even gotten on the computer. There have been tons of cute stuff happening, but I just haven't written any of them down. So I thought I'd take a second and write one.

I was in pait potpourri (the title of one of my classes) and I was leaning down to tape something to the floor. My hand slid down the door post and I got a HUGE sliver from the wall. I had to go get it out because it was so big and rather painful. I went down to the office while I had another lady working there cover for me. My director could only find a sewing machine needle (as far as needles goes they're pretty big) to get this log sized sliver out of my finger. It hurt, but I was ok. I went back up to class with a band-aid on my bleeding finger. One of the little boys noticed it and asked why I now had a band-aid. I told him it was because I wasn't careful and the wall hurt my finger. Well, for the rest of the day I could get NONE of my children to even touch the walls. They didn't know how it could hurt them, but they still didn't want to risk it. It was so cute!

BUGS!

This has been the most tiring week I've ever had working. My "BUGS!" class is also my most tiring class I've ever taught this week. I have ten 4 year old boys in that class. That is probably all I need to say about being tired. But let me just give you an idea of how hard it is to try and corral ten 4 year old boys for an hour. I've learned that anything can be a weapon. A plastic sandwich bag can be a weapon. I know you don't believe me. You are probably asking yourself how is a plastic sandwich bag a weapon? Well, if inside it is your fist and you are telling the boy next to you that it is really a rocket launcher, then it is a weapon. Clothespins (now this is an easy one to see) are grenades. I spend most of my time trying to keep them from killing each other. Then while they are fighting with each other this evil thought pops into my head saying, "if I did just let them at it and they killed one of the children, at least that would be one less I had to wrangle down!"

But here's something kinda cute that they do. Wile they color their projects one of them will yell out, "Hoity Toity!" Or something else that means absolutely NOTHING. Then another one will ask, "Who said 'Hoity Toity'?" Then the first little boy will say he said it and then the whole class will errupt in laughter. They laugh like this is possibly the funniest thing they will ever hear in their entire life. This was kinda cute the first time, but after a half an hour of this, I mean really.

Sorry most of this post was complaining. But honestly this class made me want my first child to be a girl. I'm afraid that if I had a boy like the ones in this class I may not want to have another child and I think that would be sad. If I have a girl then I can be easily broken into being a parent and then I could handle four year old boys.

Telling Someone's Age

Small children have a very hard time telling the age of the adults around them. I assume that the only people reading this are people that I personally know, but for those strangers that may just be wandering around I am 20 years old and I look it.

The other day I had a girl in my class that asked me if I had any kids that were going to the camp. I just told her no, that I didn't have any going to the camp. She then asked me if that was because they had all grown up and moved away. I wonder sometimes.

Getting Sick

So getting sick when you teach little kids is probably the biggest ego boost you'll ever get. I was gone from class yesterday and I came back today. All the moms came in and said all their little kids kept asking about me all night. Two little girls that I teach are sisters and they decided to make me a card telling me that they missed me. It was so cute. I wish I could show all of you. They drew pictures of me with my red hair and my apron on. Adorable! Then I teach triplets this week and their mom said that even until bedtime she still heard, "What's wrong with Miss Margaret? Does she have a fever? Does her tummy hurt?" It was so cute! Then in class today all the kids asked me, "Why did you get sick?" Like it was something I chose to do. Anyway, its nice to know you're missed.

Sorry everybody, no posts today. I got to work and had my whole day prepared for and everything and then I got a migraine about 10 minutes before my first class. I took some tylenol(the only thing on hand) and had Holly, the girl that works in the office, teach my first class in the hopes that it would get better, but, of course, it didn't. I was so mad, but I had to go home. So I didn't get to teach at all and I'm out of a day's pay. RETARDED!

Lessons about Jesus

If my classes go anything like last year's classes, this will one of many posts on what religous things kids say in my classroom. Jesus in the classroom is a hard subject for me. I am a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints and as such do believe in Jesus Christ and the atonement. I have my beliefs and my faith, and I know that children have theirs too. I try to respect everyone and not crush anything that any parent may be working for. The hard thing is that little four year olds don't really understand that they're not supposed to talk about it in the classroom. Here's what happened today:
Me: "Ok, I need you all to color a piece of construction paper and then bring it up to me to hang on our bullitin board."
Then they all start coloring for quite sometime. Suddenly out of nowhere:
Landen: "Miss Margaret, I saw Jesus today!"
Me: "Well, that's nice." (Slightly confused because this 4 year old is seeing Jesus.)
Landen: "I saw where he died."
Me: "How very interesting." (Knowing I'm not supposed to be saying anything and also wondering if Landen thought that Jesus had actually died somewhere in Spokane.)
Landen: "That's what I drew for our bullitin board."
He brings his picture to me. It is a green piece of paper with crosses written ALL OVER it. I figure I can't just say, no I'm not putting that up, so I put it way at the top where none of the kids really notice it. Then he and a little girl start talking between themselves about Jesus and what happened on the cross. I was floored by how much they knew and how much they 100% believed. Kids are so pure in their beliefs sometimes. Landen just said it because he was thinking about it from his other classes earlier that morning. (Perhaps Bible school?) He doesn't see the difference between the two classes, in both he's learning stuff and he probably talks about bird watching and monster masks when his bible school teacher is telling him about the atonement. All I can really say is, how precious.

Parent's Power of Persuasion

Today while making monster masks, I let the children use feathers to decorate their masks. One small child, Elliot, would NOT touch the feathers. I kept just saying that everybody was getting their masks done so much faster and that he needed to get to work. Finally I went over and asked him WHY he wasn't gluing the feathers on the mask. He said to me, in an alarmed voice almost to tears, "Bird feathers are poisonous!" He was sincerely concerned that all the other kids in the class were now going to die from feather poisoning or something. At this point I had a decision to make. Do I tell him the truth that whoever told him that was lying, or keeping in mind that it was probably his mother telling him this, do I play along? I decided the latter would be my best bet, and proceeded to lie right to his face. I said, "Well, Elliot, THESE feathers went to the factory and were cleaned so all the germs are off them and then they put on this special antidote to the poison on it so we can touch them without dieing."

Ladybugs and Death

See if you can follow this conversation and how quickly it can change subjects. Today we were talking about ladybugs in Sky Creatures.
Me: "So what do we know about ladybugs?"
Acer: "They're red!"
Naomi: "They have black spots."
Mary: "They have eyes."
Landen: "They can fly."
Brynn: "One time (Any comment that starts with "one time" is going to lead you away from the actual topic to a new topic very quickly.) One time, there were these ladybugs in my backyard and they were chasing my dog."
Me: "That's very nice Brynn, does anybody know anything else about ladybugs?"
Cody: "My grandma used to have a dog named Daisy Mae, but she got sick and died."
Judy: "We used to have a guinea pig, but then the cat ate it."
Allison: "Our cat died too!"
Then I got to hear all about the dead animals that these small children had known in their lives. Ah, the wonders of minds that don't stay on one track for more than three seconds!

Matters of the Heart

One project today was to make a book about shapes and colors. I gave each student a sheet of shapes to color in and cut out. They all did the best they could. One small child worked so hard at coloring, and did a really good job. When it came to cutting out though he was having some troubles. He cut all of the shapes (square, triangle, circle, rectangle) into pieces and just felt kind of bad about it so he decided that his heart shape was going to be cut perfectly. He worked and worked and just at the very end he made a mistake and cut right into the middle of the shape. Distraught he says to me, "Teacher I broke my heart!" This was cute enough, but then the little girl sitting next to him says, "You mean by love?"

Lessons on Starfish

Today in Sea Creatures we made starfish masks. Before we started the project I thought we should talk a little about starfish. This is how the conversation went:
Me: "Raise your hand if there's something you'd like to share that you know about starfish. Acer (Yes, that is some child's name) what do you know?"
Acer: "Starfish live in the water."
Me: "That's right! (I'm excited because this comment actually applies to starfish) Diego, what do you know about starfish?"
Diego: "I saw a starfish once, I got to touch it."
Me: "Oh, well that's nice. Sara, what do you know?"
Sara: "When they're out of the water they're dead."
Allison: "Yeah, and when my daddy bought me one the arms fell off real easy."
At this point I decided that we had "learned" enough about starfish and went on with the project. At the end when we were wrapping up and the parents were there to pick up their kids I thought we should try to learn something again about starfish, hopefully the idea that they live in the water was one they could remember. So I ask, "What did we learn about starfish today?" Acer excitedly yells out, "When they're dead their arms fall off real easy!" Great, just what the parents wanted to hear.

Disclaimer

I put this blog up just so I can let all you know how cute my little kids in my classes are. I promise it wont have much else up or really anything all that cool. The stories are ones I thought were funny and/or endearing. I hope you read and enjoy.