Graduation

When I got my cap and gown from the Hinckley Center, I still had my hot roller-curlers in my hair. The employees helping me bet me $30 to go to commencement wearing the hot rollers. I told them the least I'd do it for would be $75. They couldn't get enough people to raise the money but the offer was still on the table. tempting, very tempting.


My grandpa shumway was able to come.



This is me as I was walking into the Marriot for commencement. I got a bloody nose during Elder Christofferson's talk so I had to walk over a row of graduates and climb up a hundred stairs to get to the bathroom. how embarrassing!


Lucky I had Kath to stand in line with and sit by! We thought of going to the same college to "walk" together...just as a joke. We didn't end up doing it.


New Zealand Graduates! We'll change the world, one school at a time.

Daisy

I recently found out that my dad hates our dog's name.

Every time he has a client come over for a meeting and Daisy barks at them coming in, my dad quickly excuses her as: "My wife's dog"

"You know you've been around a lot recently when Daisy doesn't bark at you when you come over" -A friend

Daisy doesn't usually bark at females

She spends most of her time upstairs on her folded up mattress pad my parents assembled for her. But once she hears someone's in the kitchen, you hear her come running. And she follows you around the kitchen. You're by the fridge, she's right there with you. Opening a can of tuna? Her favorite. She's right at your heels. We should have named her shadow.

I refuse to reinforce this "shadow" behavior, so I have taught her to lie down in the next room. And she will, no matter how I say it, she knows to leave me alone. If she is patient and I am no longer irritated by her breathing down my neck...er...ankle...then I award her with the empty can of tuna or whatevs before I leave the kitchen area.

I saw shitzu pups for sale at a local grocery store and thought of how my mom has ALWAYS wanted a shitzu. Instead we got Daisy. I guess we'll keep her.

She's 77 in dog years. that's 11 adult years.


lousy pics, I know. But I had to show a side shot to capture the essence of this dog's mass.
(Cute nephews, though, right? christmas 09.)

SPRING

I allowed my existence to be forgotten
as I sunk into the small bud I once was,
remembering the springtime of childhood.
Spent in the boughs of apple trees
with a friend.
That was our kingdom, where shoes were a disgrace
and clean knees sparing lines of green never lasted.
The smell of dirt, the sting of a scratch,
the taste of the milk-white ends of grass
accompanied our simple symphony of laughter

I'm Reading this book (no spoilers)

I decided to do this new thing. Where I will start reading a book without reading the summary on the back or the reviews or ANYTHING. It's so tempting but it gives me a nice clean slate so I don't expect or predict anything prematurely.



Funny how different this approach is from my mom's, who reads the LAST CHAPTER of the books she reads before she is even halfway through. It's like starting elementary school and deciding to go to college real quick to be sure it's worth the effort.

Ok now that I've used that analogy I guess it kind of makes sense but IT'S SUICIDE.

Shaking it up in Logan

This morning I was getting ready for work, planning to take the natural gas vehicle then drive straight to Logan from there for an interview. 15 minutes before I leave, my dad says he is coming with me.

Normally, I would not respond, dread every moment beforehand, and just "get through" anytime my dad drives me anywhere. Because he always has an ulterior motive. This time I was glad he wanted to come. I usually enjoy long drives by myself, but I welcomed the thought of having another human along for this trip. So we arranged a time and when I was back from work and he was ready to go.

His ulterior motives were: Pepperidge Farms and visiting his old friend. My dad loves to go to Pepperidge Farms in Logan and stock up on their cookies, available in bulk. "Dad, which would you say you came to Logan for mostly: to visit Tom or get cookies from Pepperidge Farms?"
"To visit Tom."



When he said this I was kind of sad he didn't say Pepperidge Farms because that would be awesome. But then I let what he said sink. My dad is a good person.

Seriously though. My dad is the best.

Why my dad is cooler than your dad:
1. He knows everything about the surrounding areas he's lived or frequently traveled.
for example, we were driving through this random canyon and I asked him what the name of the canyon was. "Sardine Canyon." Whaaa?
2. If you want to know a phone number to any local grocery store, neighbor, relative, or other location he may have called at least once in the past, he'll tell you the number.
3. He knows everything about our ancestors and their life stories. We drove through a town near Logan where my Great-great-grandpa first settled after he came to the SL Valley. He proceeded to tell me his life story and the stories of his descendants that stayed behind in Logan. (My great-great-grandpa is the reason you are alive. He built mills in cities where your ancestors probably lived, which fed them and therefore kept them alive and therefore allowed you to exist.)
4. He sticks with people. (I am the worst at this.) He has stayed in contact with a friend he's had since his freshman year in HS. He baptized him into the church when they were 18 but he turned atheist a few years later, which would be a heck of a reason to not want to be someone's friend anymore! Ew, right? But here they are, in their 50's, still friends. That is a big heart right there.
5. He lets me listen to songs like "Bleeding Love," "So Complicated," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Already Gone" on the radio and pretends to like them. "Who sings this?" is usually a good sign that he can handle it. Silence means change it.
6. He has me for a daughter!



and oh my HECK we felt an earthquake while we were up there! A 5.0 magnituder hit Randolph, which was like 50 miles east of us. We were sitting down at a restaurant and we felt like the ground under our chairs was moooving. it felt like this: Ssshhakkke shake ....shaakkkkee. "Did you feel that?" I asked my dad. "That must have been an earthquake" he responded, then told me about the last time he felt an earthquake, 35 years ago in Mexico.

Oh by the way. My interview went AWESOME. The guy I interviewed with is my mom's 2nd cousin. After realizing this connection I felt totally at ease, like I was talking to my cousin. and I was. We left Logan 4 hours after my interview ended because I decided to make my dad's ulterior motives my own ulterior motives too. And it was just what I needed in my life right now, something totally unseemly. Love you dad, even though you never read my blog and that is probably good because I mostly make fun of you. (each word is a different story. Just click one. Promise you'll laugh.)

You get away with so much more as an adult

than as a kid.

For example, I was browsing the books at the book fair with a 5th grade class when the most obnoxious and troubled 5th grader began to copycat me. He holds a dear place in my heart because back in the day, I was the most obnoxious and troubled 5th grader. So I let him copycat me. And I hate when people copycat me, I get very impatient and I explode. (Ask Katherine about the first time she echoed everything I said) Knowing where he was coming from and that this was the response he was seeking, I acted the opposite. He followed me around, touching everything I did, responding to the other students as I would. Then I began messing with my hair, slapping my face, and doing things that would make him stop. He finally decided it wasn't worth it and walked away. A few minutes later, I found myself by the fun toys and pens with a variety of squishy, slinky, and feathery tops. I started to play with them and in no time the o & t 5th grader was mimicking me again. I stopped and started to walk away when a lady working at the bookstore got mad at the boy.

Compare, side by side, the same person. One is an adult, and one is 12. The adult will get away with anything short of murder. The 12 year old will not get away with anything other than cookie-cutter, calm, collected behavior.

(OK I know I am totally exaggerating here, but you get my point)

I am so glad I'm an adult. Those younger years were a hard time for me. And maybe it is just being a student that requires quiet behavior? Yeah I am glad I'm the teacher now, seeing it from their point of view. fun.

Do you ever just want to die?

Well that is how it was for me this morning.

Then I walked into a classroom where 7 chicks just hatched. and they were all chirping and cuddling each other, looking like a big ol fluff ball of sunshine. Of the 7, 2 were black and they are my favorite. The kids named the first chick "omelet." clever kids. (Their teacher spelled it "omlet" and it drove me NUTS!)



Don't ask about what this chick left behind that still makes me cringe every time I look at my hand.

The next 6 posts

will be about my cruise to mexico! We drove to my cousin's house in Brea last Friday and got home late last night. So enjoy the dozens of pictures and have lots of fun reading about how much fun I had.

Cabo San Lucas

YO AMO MEXICO!


This was our favorite place. We Kayaked to a beach where we snorkeled! There was hundreds of colorful, big fish swimming right up to us. So cool.


And remember how I said in an earlier post that I wanted to open my eyes from sleeping and see that view? Well I literally opened my curtains and saw the same rock formations. soooo cool. what a coincidence.

Puerto Vallarta

A statue of whales

The ciudad

We went ziplining in the jungle! Here's us in our gear! We went down 11 ziplines 100 feet above ground and it was so freaky. See-through tree platforms ahhh!

The jungle and the truck we drove 2 hours in to get there

Mazatlan

We just got a taxi and toured the town. It was the best. My dad just spoke spanish to the driver the entire time while the 3 girls (mom, gina, me) sat in the back seat.

Mazatlan is a shrimp fishing town. Look at those massive shrimpsies!

Gina didn't love the seafood. My parents got a virus from it we think.

The cathedral

The daily towel

a monkey hanging from the curtains. Yikes.

two? elephants?

the easter bunny came by for a visit!

We don't know what this is but it looked cross-eyed.

of course the frog

The meals

escargos

ensalade

surf & turf...I ate 3 lobster tails :)

We ate. so. much.

I am taking a break from lots of types of food for a while.

Last Song

A week ago my mom, dad, sister, and I drove to Brea, California to stay the night with my cousins.

Luckily we arrived in time to catch the matinee showing of "Last Song" with Miley Cyrus.
It's everything you expect a Nicholas Sparks plot to be.

I'm back!
boy do I have a lot to tell YOU.

April Fooling

Cute fifth grade boy, class clown, with a fro that looks like a weeping willow, kept taping paper "fish" to the backs of students and made a humongous one for Mrs. Draper.

He made one for me too, but I always caught him before he could successfully attach it to me.

Walking out of the school, a coworker said, "You have something on your back." I smiled at the thought of froboy's stealth.

I have no idea when he could have done it, because it had to be after I put on my coat at the end of the day. When I removed the fish, fastened with duct tape, it had a note on it:
*
"Ha Ha
I got you.
--Liam"

(*pshyeah my cellular can't take pics. But I wanted to capture the shape of his paper fish and the glimpse of duct tape. The fish is now taped to my mirror, it makes me giggle.)

Shape Ups

How much would you have to get paid to wear sketchers shape ups for one week?




My sister's response was if she could tell people she was getting paid to wear them, she would do it for $20. If she couldn't, she'd do it for $150.

Daffodils

don't close up when it's dark outside. They just stay open, all night!



such a pwetty, fwendwy fwower.

blogger STALKAGE: are you a victim?

Whenever I overhear the word "blog" leaving someone's lips, I think of how badly I want to visit their blog!

So I did some stalkage and found a few of the ones I've been on the prowl for. (I always forget I'm on the prowl for them once I get online but this time was DIFFERENT!)

So go ahead, do some stalkage yourself. Check out my blog list and fall in love with the people I love. Isn't it fun when you are on a friend of a friend of a friend's page? so fun. Share experiences please.

Profundo

Sorry this blog isn't more profound.

You can find profound posts here and here though.

Oh Disney, you've done it again.

This is a video illustrating how Disney uses templates to produce movies. So interesting!

600 palabras

I am learning Spanish! I don't know if it will really work. But I have this itouch app that teaches me 100 words per day and so far I am retaining 75% of what I learn! So when I go to Mexico on Saturday we will see if it can be applied to real life...I will let you know how it goes.

Unless you hate children:

If ever you are having a bad day, just go where there are children. My bad days end at 11:45 when I walk into a second grade classroom.

silk ties dying on eggs!

Guess what happened last night.

I tie-dyed easter eggs!

But not like hippie craziness. Literally used a TIE to dye them. Turns out so beautiful and you get this big confidence boost like "wow. I am an artist."
borderline plagerism, but you get the idea.



HERE'S HOW!

Materials and Tools
Small- to medium-size raw eggs
Glass or enamel pot
Silk ties, blouses, or boxers, cut into pieces large enough to cover an egg
White sheets (or pillowcases or old tablecloths), cut into pieces to cover silk-wrapped eggs
Twist ties
3 tablespoons of white vinegar
Warm water
Vegetable oil
Paper towels
Tongs or spoon

Silk Tie Easter Eggs How-To
1. Cut silk into a square (or a piece) large enough to wrap around a raw egg.

2. Wrap a raw egg with a piece of silk, making sure the printed side of the material is facing the egg. Silk can still be used if it doesn't fit perfectly around egg.

3. Place the silk-wrapped egg in a piece of white sheet, pillowcase, or old tablecloth and secure tightly with a twist-tie.

4. Place the egg(s) in an enamel or glass pot. Fill pot with water to cover eggs completely. Then, add three tablespoons of white vinegar.

5. Bring water to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for 20 minutes (longer if you plan on eating the eggs).

6. Remove eggs from water with tongs or spoon and let cool.

7. Remove silk from cooled egg.

8. For shiny eggs, wipe with vegetable oil after completing step 7.

Resources
Silk goods such as ties, blouses, and boxers can be purchased at rummage sales or thrift stores. Silk can be reused on eggs.

win a gift card already.

Just do this by midnight today.

My brother is the PR for the American Fork hospital so just go on the facebook page, become a fan, and post any basketball/byu related picture. You will then have the chance of winning a $25 gift card AND 2 movie tickets. There are only like 4 pictures so we have a good chance guys.

This is the picture I posted:



You can't even tell what is going on huh.

Current occupation...of my mind

Just this cruise my sister and I are going on. We got a steal of a deal steal so it just made sense. (cents?)



10 days away. And I feel like the past two days have gone by sooo slow. Sunday feels like a week ago. Can I just hibernate for 10 days do you think? Then the next time I open my eyes I will see:



magical things.

And my pops and I are going zip lining in the jungle! Of course my mom and sis are being wussies and won't go. "waahhh I can't handle adventures!" Those stinkers. Oh man I can't wait to have something else to think back on and just treasure.

twelve

I was teaching a small group of 5th grade boys today and as I was drawing shapes and congruent lines they started laughing...like they had this inside joke about what I was drawing.
me: Will you stop acting like you're twelve?!
boy1: I am twelve!
we all start laughing
boy2: I'm going to wet my pants!

Yep. Sometimes I have to re-realize that they are twelve.

Happy St. Patricks!

Oh how I love our fam tradition of St. Patrick's day.
Ever since I can REMEMBER we've always had

• corned beef (which daron referred to as "red cow" all night. "Hallie. Pass me the red cow.")
• cabbage
• carrots
• onion
• soda bread with raisins

Then we kind of just do these things out of the sake of greenness, not necessarily an irish thing:
lime italian soda...errr...lime IRISH soda
this cake junk...which I never love (no offense mom) but it's green! It's white cake with surprises of pistachio pudding and green whipped topping!

And of course beer on tap! JK got ya.

Some of the things that happened during dinner:

1. chasing my nieces and nephews around, pinching them. They were wearing green but who made that rule anyway.
2. My brother was disciplining my nephew: "That is why I have to be strong with you right now, Ty..." Ty: "But I'm stronger than you are!"
3. Seth bringing a "wand" and casting three HP spells on everyone. I couldn't stand it anymore, the kid needed more to work off of! So I had him get my iTouch, we looked up wrote down 18 of our favorite spells. His favorite is the Imperious Curse, one of the three unforgivable. (IMPERIO!)

Hope you wore green. Either way, consider yourself digitally PINCHED!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians! (no spoilers :)

Percy Jackson is a son of a mythological god! And for all he knew he just had adhd and other behavioral disorders (see how easily we can relate.) But he gets introduced to other half-bloods and mythological peeps! It's a lot of fun. They go on these quests to defeat evil.

Just look at these characters! Don't they look so interesting? They really are.



I got hooked when I had to sub for fifth grade. They are reading it as a class and while they were doing an assignment I started to read it. I kind of skimmed at first because I didn't want to commit to what I knew would be a serious addiction.

But here I am, having read four of the five books! Can't wait to start the fifth. The fifth graders see me with a different book every day and we have so much fun being nerdy together. One student just bought The Ultimate Guide; a handbook to the Percy Jackson & The Olympians. Guess what we'll be doing at recess tomorrow?

Loving this song right now

I let it sing me to sleep and when I woke up guess what?

It was playing in my head.

moments

my family was gathered in the front room, having an enjoyable conversation. I come out from behind the couch and pretend to shoot everyone.
brother: what was THAT?
Gina: that was Hallie.

At costco:
On our way out, in the "receipt check" line, I find it irresistible to push every button of the vending machines lining the wall. So I do, as quickly as possible.
I happened to be wearing my red pants that day.
Gina: "I think what you wear affects the way you act"

Dropping by Gina's apartment, we pull up to an identical Honda civic. (Gina drives one) It is gray. Gina's is dark blue.
Gina, on her way out of the car: "One morning I tried to get into her car thinking it was mine. I was so confused."
Mom: "For such intelligent girls, you two are totally ditsy"

This is what I think about the snow

Substituting kindergarten on Dr. Seuss's bday.

their real teacher told them yesterday that they were going to have a birthday party for Dr. Seuss today. And they had great expectations.

She gave me a video to show them, of the still frame shots of a boring dr. seuss book, does that count for a birthday party?

Not according to the cute lil 5 year olds. All the live long day and as I finally put in the movie, I never heard the end of it:
"If it's a birthday party there must be a CAKE!"
"Teacher where is the cake?"
"Teacher I'm HUNGRY!"
"Teacher when is the party?"

So I stopped the movie, apologized, told them the movie was the party. Poor little chillens. I would've made them a cake if I knew that is what they expected :) a red and white stripped cake. with a cat face. and whiskers. edible whiskers.

Another dose of vid for ye

So in watching that vid I posted last, I thought how cute taylor swift music video clips were. so my friend nat and I looked it up and we love it. So will you. Just watch it ok? And don't be mad that I posted three videos.

So last year

but I found this to be very clever and entertaining! It's the top 25 songs of last year all mashed up.



And I like 2008's as well:



It's good besides the random "disturbia" clips. Ew, right?

my gramma

has a key to the stake center.

Where's the nearest kinko's gramma?

"Oh, you don't need to go kinko's!" So she drove gina and i to the stake house this morning so gina could make copies of her resume and letters of recommendation.

kehehe sneaky gramma.

it's funny how you learn more about people after spending your whole life with them

that is how i feel on this trip with my sister. i have seen sides of her i haven't seen before and i love her more because of it.

I went on this trip knowing my needs and wishes would come second...for the first time in my life probably. the purpose of this trip was to make my sister's life as easy as possible. And after hours spent alone, waiting, while she was in interviews or visiting new sites that would be her life from now on, I realized these are the places that would tear us apart, move her away from me. And here I am, encouraging it all along.

roadtrips save my life

Hallie, what were you just doing?

Oh, nothing. I was actually just getting some lemons.

Lemons, huh. From the store?

Oh, no no no. Just outside! I picked them from my grandmother's tree and they are so ripe my hands smell like lemons and they are as big as a softballish! Now I'm going to see if her grapefruit, orange and tangerines trees are ripe.
...haha yeah. All ripe and I am eating them ALL!

Oh Hal I am so jealous of you right now! Anything else cool going on?

Well There is this bird that I woke up to...I thought it sounded like a car alarm. He's still chirping away! I found a video of his brother, looks like he's a clever little mockingbird!




well sounds like you're having fun in Arizona Hallie. Just out of curiousity, what temperature is it right now?

Let me see...oh, well it's only 9am but it's 56.3 degrees.

For favorite posts on Grandma/Arizona visits:
see here,
here,
and, my personal favorite: here

The Rec!

It was snowing yesterday so I got ready to go to the indoor track at BYU.
Well I called beforehand just in case and it was closed till noon =(
So my mommy gave me $4 to go to the orem recreation center.

I love the rec! That's what we call it. It brings back fond memories of swim team, childhood swimming lessons, oh man here's a good one:
I was like five and I was in swimming lessons. two of my aunts and my mom were watching us from the balcony and there was a metal railing right in front of them. I didn't want my aunt to watch me so I would move in a place and align the railing between our eyes so it would make her blind and not see me.

Anyways so flash forward back to yesterday. $4 for ONE visit!?!? What a load of [insert word of choice]! I went to the Zumba class where there were like 100 ladies dancing crazy and it was fun to just dance crazy. Then I'm like. I want to listen to my own music and do my own thing. So I did the elliptical next to an old man. I look around. There is no one my age here. They are all old people. Oh well though right?

When I got home I realized. I DIDN'T GO IN THE SAUNA! I really wanted to go! And I paid $4 and didn't go to the sauna! I really wanted to detoxify my skin. So I turned the shower on blazing hot and filled up the tub that way instead of through the faucet. And the air in there was so thick. So I made my own sauna of sorts. It sufficed. Prolly better than being in an enclosed spaced with old people. Yeah I'm claustrophobic too. Oh good I'm glad it worked out that way now that I think of it =)

2 oz, Medium.

My parents and I were watching the weather together.
Gina had just left, announcing how she was angry, but for no apparent reason.
Dad looks at me and says: "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine"
"You're holding your hand up to your forehead, something's wrong"
Something was wrong. He just didn't know what it was and I wasn't going to tell him...because he would share his opinion and that would make the situation worse.
"Want me to make you some of that fish?"
This is weird...my dad never cooks, let alone for someone else!
"Nah, I don't want that"
"How about some chicken" Mom offered
"I don't want any of that"
Dad, walking over to the fridge. "Oh, here's some hamburger!"
"Yeah, I'll just make myself something in a minute"
Pulling out his steak that he brought home from going out Tuesday "Have this steak! There's gotta be 3 ounces in this piece."
Took out weigher, weighed it.
"OK, two ounces!"
"Are you sure dad? Don't you want it?"
"Of course I want it but I want you to have it because I love you"
I almost lost it right there. Over a two ounce piece of medium steak. My dad is a sweetheart.

One of the best parts of being at elementary school

Is having an unlimited supply of Bill Nye available.



They have hundreds of episodes at my disposal.

What's wrong with you, Hallie?

I have yet to get into the olympics.

Is anyone really into them?

1:41

I'm not a fan of phone conversations.

I wondered what the average talking time on my phone was, so I averaged my last 50 calls. A minute and forty-one seconds! In that amount of time you can most definitely state why you called and/or what you want with me.

< 3

Happy Valentine's Day!