Playing house

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Our pretty star got cut out of this image, oops. Although our tree may be small, it makes our house feel like Christmas! Since school is out, and I am SO glad it is (cause I don't have to go back next semester), I have been playing with the house and doing some painting (update on the art blog).
This is where I've been doing my work. Welcome to my tiny studio! If you can't tell, this is a kid's table. Ha! I found it by the dumpster and grabbed it thinking I might use it...It doesn't really fit with our house or me, but because our green ottoman is small too...it might just work! After sitting here for a while my back starts to hurt, but it has some kid's name written in crayon on the top, so I don't mind messing it up!

This is my favorite corner of our house, yes I have a favorite corner. One day I arranged our books by color and I love to look at them! I know I'm a grown up, but I love playing house!

Give Thanks

So we had a gggrrreat thanksgiving break, wish it wasn't over. On thanksgiving day, david was getting everything set up for the turkey and asked where the 4 gallon jug of peanut oil was that we had bought on tuesday. I didn't take it out of the car cause it was HEAVY. Unfortunately, that meant our oil turned into a solid block of ice, as close as oil can get to ice. I didn't think about it getting down to below zero at night. Oops. Our oil took a nice hot bath for a while until it was ready to use....It was about 20 degrees outside, but that didn't stop todd and david. They were so worried about dangerous flames that they lowered the turkey down on a broomstick. There were no fireworks, would have been exciting though.
We ate with some friends and todd and kristi. It was awesome! Everyone contributed and I am thankful for all of them!
The boys and their broomsticks.So I am dumb sometimes. I've been feeling a little sick in the mornings. On Friday when I went to work, I was feeling really tired and wierd. A little numb actually and dizzy. I actually fell asleep for an unknown amount on time....at work. Well this morning I did the same thing. After taking the same medicine I took on thursday...it suddenly dawned on me my symptoms might be being caused by the medicine. I finally noticed the big moon on the label and the little words that said "night-time." I am such a dork for taking drowsy medicine in the middle of the day. I kept falling asleep at church and had to give the lesson in relief society. By then, I was feeling it. I crashed at home after laughing at my stupidity.

Cause to celebrate

Last Sunday was david's birthday!!! For several years, Mark has been making David a doughnut cake. Apparently it's a tradition they adopted from the cartoon Johnny Bravo. This was my first time trying to make this. It's usually made in a circle cake pan, but we don't have those so I tried it in a pie pan. It worked for the most part. However the last layer completely crumbled when I tried to take it out. So I mixed it with icing and sculpted a doughnut out of it. It tasted good...mostly. Well David liked it so I guess that's the most important thing. Happy birthday to David!!!! He is the best man on earth.

Rewards

I feel bad about my last post, I sound pretty cynical. I was just having a bad day. So I think I should share a rewarding teacher moment to make up for it.

My students did these blind contour self portraits and then chose a color scheme to water color them. They turned out pretty awesome so I set up an exhibition in the school hall. I had to choose 4 from each class to display because of limited space. One little boy's painting I thought was awesome so I took it to display of course. I handed back everyone's paintings and this little boy raised his hand with a concerned look on his face. I came over to him, he asked where is painting was. I told him I thought it was so beautiful, sincerely, that I wanted to display it in the hall for everyone to see. He agreed that was ok. As I walked away I saw a HUGE smile light up his face. I found out later that day this boy has had a hard time in school. He has some learning disabilities and hasn't really been recognized in school. My heart warmed up knowing that a simple thing like choosing his picture could make him so happy. This is his painting, he's in fifth grade.

AHHHHHHH

So sometimes I get the urge to do something drastic to relieve me of this stress. I've been in control of the classroom for a few weeks now and every day is different. Some days I come home ready to conquer the world and others I feel like the world is caving in. It's pretty much a flip flop from day to day. I can't decide either if I'm just stressed and hormonal or if I'm really not liking this. At first I thought, oh these kids are so cute how wonderful. And now I'm frustrated a lot. It's mostly my fault cause I haven't figured out how to manage 6 classes a day with 45 kids in each class with many in each class with ADD, learning disabilities, English issues or whatever. Plus I'm starting to really dislike the school system.

Ok this all sounds bad. Really there are some rewarding things I've seen so far. Some have just done some really wonderful art. It's a great feeling for them to grasp a concept. I also love that elementary students always say "hello mrs. chinn!" when they pass me in the hallway. So among all the craziness, I can find some things to smile about I guess=)

and here's jessi's painting: (also on the art blog and facebook I think)

no talking in the art class please sir

I feel like I should update. This week was craaazy and no signs of slowing down. This semester has no speed limit. I'm student teaching at an elementary school with a great man. He is super smart, knows ALOT, is wonderful with kids.

However those kids I'm teaching are to die for cute. I always imagined teaching upper grades, but I love the little kids! and they are so creative! I've already noticed boys draw aliens, lightning, explosions, and things eating people. When you ask them about their pictures they tell you incredibly detailed stories about it. I laugh inside.

I finished the painting for Jessi and Ryan wedding present. I'll post a picture later. One goal for myself: update art blog. I kind of stopped using it. I've got another commission from a friend for a painting. The more the merrier! more yes! I need more!

Stained glass biz

I just finished my stained glass class. I'm thrilled to have learned how to make it! Although I cut myself almost every class, I think I'll keep doing this. I just need my own soldering iron =) These are my projects, the colors aren't very accurate, but just imagine pretty colors. I learned how to make pendants, which means our christmas presents are already done =)

tribute

3 years ago today I was a fresh naive missionary entering the MTC excited and totally unaware of what was coming. The next year and a half was the best time of my life. So I've been thinking about all the things I learned in my service as a missionary. I am who I am today in great part because of this incredible journey. So...some valuable things I learned...

I learned Spanish and Papiamento

I learned how to love people I didn't know

I learned to love people I didn't like

I learned to work even though you're dead tired

I learned to follow the Spirit even when you're not sure why

I learned to give comfort even when it makes me uncomfortable

I learned to hate contention

I learned to rely on the Lord first

I learned to love the scriptures

I learned to talk to strangers!

I learned to make delicious food

I learned you are strongest when on your knees

There are so many other lessons learned from the incredible 18 months I spent among the islands of the Caribbean. I think about the people there every day. I still think about moments, good and bad, from the mission. I wish I could see their faces again and hug them tightly. I am so grateful that I decided to serve. Aside from deciding to marry David, it was the best decision of my life.

Speaking of David...he is in El Salvador. This opportunity came up suddenly and I immediately told him to do it. We were a little hesitant cause he had to pay his own way, but it's worth it for preparing to apply to medical school. He's with a BYU venture company called 2ft. prosthetics. They go to struggling countries to provide a cheap alternative to expensive carbon fiber prosthetics. They figured out how to produce a prosthetic limb for only 20$ using PVC pipe. Amazing. So David is gone for 2 weeks with them really as their spanish man. He is the only in the group that speaks the language, so he's doing lots of translation. I'm alone until August 1st and being without him for one day has already made me appreciate what he does around here. I have taken him for granted.

Oh and he took my camera with him, and it's already been stolen. Oh well.

June rocks

The month of June rapidly flew by and soon eclipse is coming out! (which is the culmination of my summer experience...and the colorado trip). This month was very busy with the Utah Valley marathon, my praxis exam (teacher certification), my huge research paper, our one year anniversary, and a visit from my mommy!

I know it's late but I had to do a tribute to my wonderful husband of one year. We've been together for a total of 6 years so here are 6 things I love about you.

1. You prop the door open for me when you know I'm on my way home.

2. You eat my bad cooking graciously and tell me it's delicious.

3. Dr pepper, pizza, playing golf, and watching football make you a happy man.

4. You scratch my back when I don't ask for it, and sometimes when I do =)

5. You are such a good sport when I make you do things you don't want to do...like shop and eat vegetables.

6. And your number 1 priority is me, your wife, and making me happy.

I love you babe. Here's to many more years of a rockin' marriage!

disclaimer...we are drinking welch's white grape juice in our private balcony hot tub at our park city resort

Happenings

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We've been busy bees lately...the utah valley marathon is finally over. Last weekend David got hardly any sleep and was working all night to make sure the marathon happened. We were up really late on Friday night cutting hundreds of bananas and oranges for the runners. There are so many things that go into events like this that people don't think about. Next year...I'm gonna run it! David sounds like he'd like to run it next year too =)

I've also had the pleasure of doing some wedding stuff with Jessi like seeing her try on dresses! It's hard to choose because she looks perfect in all of them. Jessi got the beautiful Kirk genes. At first I was a little freaked out to think my little sister is getting married, but now it just seems normal. I got a video of him proposing but you can't really hear anything until we cheer at the end, but it's worth watching, it's sweet =). They're so beautiful together it makes me sick, they're gonna have super cute babies.

My friend Lauren commissioned me to do a painting for her little sister's graduation present. I'm really happy with how it turned out and am anxious to do MORE paintings for people who will pay me =) So if any of you would like a painting...I'll do whatever you want, you can email me and we can talk about prices =)

So I did one of those little video things that has what we've been up to lately, AND "the proposal." In their video he is singing to her, you can hear faintly singing sometimes, it was adorable. All of us were perched in a horse trailer nearby so jessi wouldn't know we were there. She was very surprised, not by the proposal, but all the people watching her.

running into summer

We finally did our half marathon on a cold snowy hailing spring day. It hailed and rained freezing rain on us the whole way, but we finished holding hands even though we couldn't bend our frozen fish stick fingers. I'm so lucky to have a husband that would suffer through it with me. When we finished he sounded ready and willing to do another! So this may be a thing of ours now, but in the future I hope it's on a day with less depressing weather conditions. The back of my shirt said "If you can read this, then you're right where I want you." Everyone that passed us got a kick out of it even though I was thinking, dangit obey the shirt. Afterwards we got free french toast breakfast, a free massage, and lots of other free stuff. Plus we felt pretty darn good about ourselves. We'll start training for the next one eventually, for now we are enjoying not having to obey a running schedule.

I love SPRING!

The semester is finally over and we are trying to relax. I start spring classes on tuesday so we don't have much of a break, BUT it's nice to get a few days at least. Today david was sweet enough to take me to the tulip festival at thanksgiving point. It's an annual thing they have each year at these gardens where thousands of tulips and other flowers are planted and blooming. It's GORGEOUS. We wandered around found stroop waffles which I haven't had since my mission. I'm just so happy to be outside and feel the sun again.

one year older and wiser too

I am now 24 years old. I realize how young that may seem to some people, but I indeed feel old. Regardless of my age, I like to think of myself as carefree like I was when I was 15. However now I have lots of responsibilities that get in the way of me having fun. Nonetheless I managed to have a grrrreat birthday. Mom came to visit and introduced us to green smoothies. I think they're delicious and even David is willing to have one every day =) He's not much for vegetables, but when they're disguised in a drink...he's more accepting. We had dinner at PF changs and mom took me shopping for some MUCH needed clothing. (THANK YOU!) It was SOOOO wonderful to see mom again. She's gets more beautiful with age =) I hope my aging follows my mother's.

I found some OLD pictures that made me laugh and want to be a kid again.

and happy birthday to Todd too =)

april fools!!!!!!

I'm sorry I got all of you SOOOO good. Actually I'm not that sorry. I've always wanted to actually trick someone on april fools and it finally worked. Sorry to get your hopes up, but we will ACTUALLY be pregnant eventually and I'll make sure when we inform you it won't be in text message and it won't be on april fools. =)

so since all of you didn't know each other's reactions...i thought i'd share a quite motherly reaction.

From me to mom:

I'm not pregnant, April fools

Mom's response:

I was wondering! Still confused. The NOI part is true?

Me:

No mom, I'm not pregnant, april fools, like the opposite of not pregnant.

Mom:

Whew!! Honey the opposite of pregnant IS pregnant.

Me:

Yes I know. Meaning I am.

Then I called mom because she really wasn't catching on. She screamed and was laughing thinking I really was pregnant. She said "on purpose or accident" and I said on purpose...because I'm actually NOT pregnant. It took a second and she realized she was fooled. Then I laughed because she tried to cover for her saying thank goodness I wasn't pregnant and then trying to make it ok. Oh mother, I knew I'd get you the best.

Mimi screamed, chris believed me easy, jessi and dad didn't fall for it, and I totally got erin and juli's hopes up. And the funniest part to me is...none of david's family believed it, but my family gulped it up =)

I love you all, I laughed really hard this morning enjoying our prank, hope you did too =)

MUAH!

hair today gone tomorrow

I got a haircut!!!!!!!!! wooot! Since yesterday I've been through a love hate relationship with this cut. I loved it right after, then I changed my mind, I loved it again, and then hated it. But now I really love it! I got my very first hair straightener yesterday to be able to style this "do" and so far I haven't burned my hair off...so far so good! I love having a fresh haircut!

laugh out loud time

this guy is hilarious. this video has only been posted a week or something and already has 2 million views. It's a guy serenading strangers through a roulette chat and improving about them...it's so stinking funny.

run for red

this saturday was super fun! In the morning david and I helped with a local 5k run called run for red for the american red cross. We were also promoting the utah valley marathon he's on the committee for. We had fun and best of all, didn't have to run! =) Later we got a call from uncle brad and aunt shirley who were in town! they came over to visit for a while and we had a great time catching up. It was so good to see them! We love you!

i'm also debating about cutting my hair...i'm dying to. i kind of like this hair...we'll see what happens!

almost 24

I'll be 24 years old in april! Geez. So I've made a list (that's not done yet) of 24 things I want to do in my 24th year. I really stole the idea from elsie blaha. But I got started early even though I'm not 24 yet. =) I'm still adding, but I hope I can actually do all I want to do.

running running running

We are in our fourth week of the marathon training. It hasn't really been that bad. We were both so proud of ourselves when we ran 5 miles straight last friday. Neither of us had ever run that far at one time. We felt pretty accomplished. Each friday in our training schedule adds a mile. Thankfully it's getting warmer outside so we don't have to do like 30 laps on an indoor track. It's been fun too to practice our finish line dance for the day of the marathon. We'll hold hands and run across it together =) Most days I feel like this woman and want to lay down and nap after such long runs.

David has recently snagged some great opportunities and is helping manage the Utah Valley Marathon in June. He's in charge of something, but it will give him lots service hours he needs for medical school as well as a cool t-shirt. He also got a spot doing research about knees or something. I can't remember exactly what it is, but he'll be starting that sometime soon I imagine.

I've also have laughed SOO hard watching this video david and I saw on America's Funniest Home Videos, so watch it and laugh yourself: (she just got her wisdom teeth out)

he went to jared

So Valentine's day was made special by my thoughtful husband. He locked me in the room on Saturday so he could finish his surprise but it was worth it. so here are a series of the happenings...I first had to go through the prints he made to understand clues. He used printmaking skills he learned at an Evening for Educators I made him go to. The last print said "He went to Jared" and I was confused.
I opened our ottoman in the living room to find a lovely box with earrings in it! lovely!!
as well as some M&Ms which you can't tell in this photo say "R&D 6/20/2009" and "sealed forever" how sweet

He then took me to Rodizio's Brazilian grill. For those of you unfamiliar with this Utah phenomenon, it is a brazilian buffet type thing where men with huge sticks of different grilled meats come around and cut off hunks for you. A little indicator on your table can be left on green to tell them you want more meat, or red to say you want a break. It was freaking delicious and we had a fabulous time. Really, if there's good food, then we'll be happy =)

I recently made 2 homemade sketchbooks which I'm happy to say only cost me $4.70. I have a bunch of different kinds of art paper left over from classes and I just cut some of it up into stack and had it bound. Now I have two homemade ones with lots of different paper so I can do lots of different things in them! hooray!

grilled cheese please

I recently made a recipe for a dressing that a woman gave me on my mission. It is delicious, easy and we've been putting it on everything from salads, chips, and sandwiches. I even saw David dip some string cheese in it when he thought I wasn't looking. So here it is so you can enjoy its deliciousness:

I guess this could be called...cilantro ranch dressing

1 Packet of buttermilk ranch dressing mix

1 c. mayonnaise (light mayo =)

1/3-1/2 c. buttermilk

1 c. fresh cilantro, chopped

2 cloves crushed garlic.

Basically throw this stuff in a blender and voila! I put it on our grilled cheese sandwiches and they tasted ridiculously fancy and yummy.

Tuesdays are my day off of work and I only have one class in the morning. It quite possibly my favorite day of the week. I do laundry, clean the house, make stuff, and at night David and I watch Lost. One of my most favorite things to do is open the windows when it's sunny. I love sunlight! Especially since we're so deprived of it during winter in Utah. I'm twitterpated with thoughts of springtime and actually feeling the warmth of the sun again!!

And I love my hubby David, the end.

My husband rocks every day

This weekend was especially fun thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.! We had an extra day to play so we took advantage. Sunday we taught sunbeams again...one SPECIAL little girl Autumn will stand up and dance while we do singing time, she is very dramatic and very hilarious. However she is hard to control. I took a little girl to the bathroom while david sat with little Autumn. When I came back another teacher told me I better look out cause Autumn was all over my man, kissing and hugging him. For a three year old, she flirts like a teenager.

Anyway, David has been dying to go camping. While our current weather situation remains below freezing, we made compromise so I did not have to freeze outside. David happily set up our tent in the living room, opened our windows, and turned down the heat. Oh and he set a fan in front of the tent so we could get the full feel of the outdoors without leaving home. So we made a giant nest inside and read ghost stories and watched the ultimate camping show...LOST. It was actually one of the better sleeps I've had in my life.

Then Monday night I had to work til 930, making me hungry and tired. David picked me up and on the way home said...what was it you wanted me to heat up for dinner? I thought...c'mon david you know better. We came inside to a beautiful supper fit for food network and a huge beautiful bundle of flowers waiting for me. Did I forget to mention candles too? I made an unfortunate klutz mistake and left my leather purse leaning on the candle holder...It burned a nice crispy black thing on my shoulder strap...poo. BUT all was well because I have a wonderful husband who takes care of me when it's not a special occasion =) That's the best.

We also bought a desk and dining room table and chairs! Our old dining table would flip on you if you leaned on it because it wasn't screwed down...now we are safe when we eat. And we have a place to study!

Help

K so I have homework in my second language acquisition class that I need some of your help with. So I'm hoping you will all visit this site:

www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

and look around and stuff it says. Go with a sense of humor, you don't have to make any in depth analysis of anything. Just comment here about what you think about it, or some thought you may have. That's all.

Yes I'm white, and I like camping.

We just survived the first week of school. I finally got to the doctor about my eyes. Ever since September I've been having infections and have not been able to wear my contacts. Everyone thinks I'm the girl with glasses now. So the doctor said I have an infection on my coronia or however you spell that, and it's clouding my vision (another problem). I'm on some new drops and hopefully I will be back to contacts soon! I hate wearing glasses!!! I took contacts for granted.

In other news...we have been called to teach the Sunbeams!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Last week we substituted for their class and it was the hardest 2 hours of my life. They just graduated from nursery and are used to playing with toys and snack time. We had them the first sunday for their transition to primary. Not cool. They ran around the room and had a hard time sitting still. I guess they thought we did a good enough job that they decided to leave us here. HELP! I miss nursery already. I prefer stinky diapers and snack time.