Lights at Mission Inn

So after the smashing good time we had at my apartment for my grandfathers turning the big 8-3, a few of us headed down to the Mission Inn to see the lights before they are turned off until another year.

Family in front of the all lit up Mission Inn


Evidently they have an ice skating rink in the pedestrian mall during the holidays

California Christmas lights

Birthday Party Time!!!

I am the Eagle...

Wednesday night my cousin Gary got his Eagle, the highest rank in Boy Scouts of America.

Congrats Gary!!!

Merry Christmas

I had a pretty low key Christmas this year but received more than I expected:

1. a cool tool tote from my uncle Brent for my new apartment

2. this cool Quik Pod that attaches to my camera so that I can take pictures of myself

3. a gift card to Victoria's Secret

4. a gift card to my favorite store Target
5. all 3 Austim Powers movies, yaaa babay!!

6. The very cool Planet Earth DVD set

7. and watching Dash, my brothers dog, be silly

100th Post!!

Just thought my avid fans and readers would like to know that I have reached my 100th blog milestone.  The time went quickly for me and hopefully for you as well. 

So I would like to hear from a few of them that are too shy naturally to leave a comment: Robin, Cindy, Brooke, Loretta, Joan, Holly and any others I absently forgot but you know who you are:) 

Guess what I have?....

Having lived in So Cal my entire childhood life, ages 0-18,  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have been to Disneyland.  But all of that is about to change.  We went Monday evening and for some crazy reason ended up buying annual passes.  So now if I'm in the area of Anaheim and have an itching to go to the most Magical Place on Earth, I can.  

My mom and dad in the second  row enjoying Space Mountain

Me in front of all the Christmas decorations on Main Street

Cupcakes

Sunday night my YSA branch was supposed to have a potluck and Fireside. Are we supposed to call them Firesides anymore or Devotionals?...Anyways, we had the potluck and I brought these delicious cupcakes.
But then we went into the chapel for the Devotional by our Institute teacher and he wasn't there yet. So we all sat and quietly chatted while we waited and waited. Our Branch President said we would wait 5 more minutes and then figure something out if he didn't show. So 5 minutes later with no speaker present, our Branch President gets up and says, "well, I hope this was edifying, now lets go eat dessert."

There's a BOY in the girls locker room!!!!!!

True Story:

Names have been changed to protect identity

Part I

A boy goes into the boy's locker room and tells Mr. Scott, "I need to talk to Ms. Leigh." With all the commotion and crazy stuff going on in a boys locker room, Mr. Scott responds, "well okay, go find her."

So said boy, lets call him Silly Billy, goes outside to the PE area to find Ms. Leigh. She is nowhere to be found, so he asks a girl where he could find Ms. Leigh. Girl answers by saying she thinks Ms. Leigh is in the girls locker room. Who knows what Silly Billy is thinking at this point but he needs to talk to Ms. Leigh and she is inside the girls locker room.


Part II

Ms. Leigh and Ms. Laura are having a friendly conversation in the coach's office inside the girls locker room. Ms. Leigh glances at the window separating into where the girls change their clothes, and to her surprise there is a boy staring back at her with a look of desperation. Ms. Leigh jumps out of her chair and proclaims, "there's a boy in the locker room!!!!" She zig zags through the TA's office into the locker room, grabs the boy by the shirt and pulls him into the equipment room. Ms. Laura hops out of her chair because she thought Ms. Leigh said, "there's a fight in the locker room!!!" She looks through the glass into each row, checks each mirror but is unable to locate the fight or any sort of unusual movement. She steps into the TA's office to get a better view when she sees Ms. Leigh whisk a boy past her into the back room where they keep the equipment.

Part III

"What are you doing in here?!" demands Ms. Leigh. Silly Billy sheepishly states, " I wanted to know if I could go to the band room to practice for our upcoming concert?"

"Yes, just go, go go." Ms. Leigh responds as she pushes him out the back door.

Note Worthy

So I have two incidents that happened to me today that I believe are note worthy to blog about, at least somewhat funny.

1. I went swimming for 30 minutes at the gym today. That is note worthy in and of itself but not my story. After I got out of the pool and showered I was trying to discreetly change in the corner of the locker room. I was almost done when an old Asian lady comes to the locker right next to mine and starts changing out of her swimsuit, saggy body right in front of my face in all its glory. This sweet old lady had no inhibitions.
2. Went to do some less active visits with the other branch missionary and couldn't remember the exact house. Picked which one we thought was correct and proceeded to knock on the door, ring the bell and even peek through the window when a man in his 40's answered the door in a robe giving us the evil eye. We said, "sorry, we think we have the wrong house." Crusty eyed man responded, "yes, I think you do too." We asked where the Garcia's lived, he pointed next door and we ran off his porch laughing the whole way.

Ants are the spawn of Satan

I woke up this morning to find Monomorium minimum crawling all over my freshly cleaned kitchen counter. That would be little beady-eyed ants for those of you who don't know the official scientific name. I had made some cupcakes on Sunday for my visiting teachees, and the leftovers I covered with aluminum foil and set on the counter. Lucky me I woke to this...

Not lucky ants got sprayed to high heavens and ended like this.

Vandalism is of the Devil

That's right little boys and girls, vandalism is a tool of Satan and should be avoided at all costs. Don't for one second think that is cool or fun to go to a middle school on the weekend and tag on the walls.

Or put mud in the drinking fountain
Or throw rocks at the lights above the doors going into the locker rooms causing the light bulb and surrounding glass to break and shatter everywhere.

Don't do it, don't think about doing it. Because we will find you, you little suckas, and then you'll be sorry!!!

Corteo

Circus acts amaze me. Maybe it is the unnatural things they do with their bodies. Or perhaps it is the cabbage smell, you know....carnies....small hands. So anyway, last night I went to Corteo for the second time, but this time with my family. Again, I was in awe with most of the acts and performances, but my sister on the other hand thinks she could do most of them quite easily. She either is talented beyond what is evident to me or has a very high view of her abilities.

Oh Christmas Tree

I'm not one to get into the holiday spirit much with lots of decorations and gifts, and I pretty much can't stand Christmas music. Well, I like Christmas hymns that are sung at church, it's those dumb commercial songs like Here Come Santa Clause, Deck the Halls, Up on the Rooftop, Rudolf, Jingle Bells, etc... I am much a fan of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels We Have Heard on High, We Three Kings, Silent Night and my fav O Holy Night.

So, where I'm heading with this is that I was debating back and forth if I wanted to get a tree for my apartment. Last week I bought a wreath for the door... and a cute snowmanwhich I though was very Christmasy of me. Above and beyond any of my expectations for myself.

But I finally decided that I did want a Christmas tree with decorations.

It is very simple and not extravagant but I like it that way.

Where did all this energy come from?

I've been trying to hit up the gym as of late and have made it 2 for 2 so far. I worked my lower body yesterday, so needless to say I walked around a little stiff today. When I got home today I decided to go to my apartment complex gym, jump on the treadmill and run for 15 minutes. I wasn't sure I would make it this long because I've got a bit of a hurt ankle. Last week while playing basketball with my students I got tripped up, sort of rolled my ankle, heard a pop, and saw my face fast approaching a big metal pole. Luckily I saved my face from a nasty impact but my ankle has been a bit sore since. But today on the treadmill I fought through the discomfort and when I reached 15 minutes I kept on going. When I got to 20 minutes I kept on going, and when I got to 25 I figured lets make it an even half hour. Way to go self!!

PE Conference

I love my job, I really do, but every now and then it is nice to have a day away from my students. Today was such a day as 4 of us 5 PE teachers went to a conference created by and for PE teachers. Good thing because I don't think I could have handled one more conference or development day where we talk about vocab or math strategies.

Okay, so I have to admit that I thought our presenter was a bit hokey at first as he started off with, "clap 3 times...clap clap clap. Stomp 3 times...stomp stomp stomp. Clap 3 times...clap clap clap. Stomp 3 times...you get the picture. But after doing some fun and easy icebreaker games and warm up activities it was pretty cool. One thing I came away with is the desire to teach/trick my students into learning square dancing. Our presenter did this is in such a natural organic way that it just might be feasible with my students, and fun to boot. Also, I have a much better understanding of the California State Standards for Physical Education and how to break them down. So thank you to my principal for shelling out the big bucks for us to attend.

Sunday Driving

Now I've heard of the expression "Sunday driver" and have seen it first hand by my grandfather, but today I saw it in a whole new definition. I was driving home from church and coming up on a four way intersection, where there was a middle divider dividing the left turn lane from oncoming traffic. As I approached I past a car but they were on the wrong side of the divider and she was now in the left turn lane but going the wrong direction. Luckily all the other cars were going straight and none had to go into the left turn lane as it was now blocked. I felt a bit of concern and nervousness as to how this situation would be rectified, hoping an accident would not ensue seeing that I would probably get hit in the event, but they lady waited for all the cars to stop at the red, drove past us, did a U-turn and returned to the left turn lane but in the correct direction this time.


Reminds me of my dad driving in Austin this past week where he cut a left turn too short and ended up on the wrong side of a middle divider. With everyone in the car screaming at him and the headlights of a car approaching, he was lucky enough to cross the divider as it was only a 20 foot stretch of grass with no curbs. Good one dad!

Go Cougs!!!

A month long postponement and the threat of rain made for a very low turnout for the BYU vs SDSU football game today. The game was originally scheduled for Oct 27, but then those crazy fires took over and they couldn't very well have a football game when evacuees were being housed at the stadium. Then it was pouring rain all day Friday with the threat to continue today. Both probably factored into the reason why only 20% of the stadium was full. But that doesn't matter as long as the Cougars won. And they did, 48-27!!!

Me and my mom enjoying an Aztec stomping by BYU