To grandmother's house we go

My sister, Stacey, recently posted on her blog some memories she has of my grandma and her house in Panaca, NV (If you have never heard of it, it is a little town in Lincoln county between Pioche and Caliente). My grandma passed away in February of 2007. But I felt like she was already gone the last few years of her life. She suffered from Dementia and Alzheimer’s. I feel so grateful to have such fond memories of her before she got sick.

when I was little I loved going to Panaca. My grandma's house was like a mansion! There were rooms everywhere and it was the best house to play hide-and-go seek in. Depsite the fact that I had cousins and sisters just a few years older than me, the only kid I got to play with was my little brother. Appearently I wasn't good enough to play with the older girls. I remember one time my aunt made my cousin play with me and she wouldn't let me do anything I wanted to do; we had to play by her rules. Looking back now it is really funny, but at the time I always wished for the day that the older girls would let me play them. Thant's ok though, because Brett was always a fun playmate!

My grandma was the best cook. And I swear, she was always in the kitchen making something. Still, to this day, whenever I smell certain foods I feel like I am back in grandma's kitchen, sitting on a bar stool and watching her hum as she cooked. (My grandma always hummed while she cooked.) But she did have a temper. You could often find her swearing under her breath or telling the kids to "get out of the damn kitchen."

I loved going into her room and going through all of her things. She had tons of scarves and necklaces and nail polish and lotions, and rings, everything to keep a little girl busy. My grandma was an "Avon lady" and had tons of Avon stuff around her house.

My grandma had the most beautiful yard filled with flowers. If we ever visited in the spring we could always count on seeing tulips in her front yard.

The first thing I wanted to do when I got to Panaca was go to the "merc" (the little grocery store in Panaca). They had a penny candy section where you could get all sorts of little candies for a penny. Grandma kept a jar in her kitchen where she put her spare change. She would let me borrow one of her coin purses to fill up with coins and off I went to walk to the Merc.

Memories of Panaca:

• Eating ginger snaps out of the cookie jar
• Waking up to the smell of "Hot Cakes"
• Helping grandma make her famous focaccia bread. (I always got to make the holes on top)
• Sitting at the bar watching her cook
• Being yelled at to go outside and play
• Playing baseball in the big field behind her house
• Climbing Court Rock

Moss fights in the spring (natural swimming pool)

Learning how to drive

Being banished to the sun room to eat ( stole that one from Stacey)

Closing off the basement to make it pitch dark and playing games.

Eating Swan's ice cream bars and being yelled at for eating to many

Being yelled at for eating...period

Sitting by a nice warm fire place

Sitting in the big blue recliner chair in the sun room, eating my penny candies and watching cartoons with Brett

Unfortunately things change, houses get torn down and people die. The sweet memories of our childhood are all we have left to remember good times by. I am so thankful for the wonderful memories I have of Panaca and my grandma, Laura Marie.

half way there

Well, it has been a really long time since I have posted on here. I have officially made it half way through my student teaching and I may just survive the other half. I can’t believe how fast the past 6 weeks have gone by. I have been more busy then I have ever been (and it doesn’t help that I spent almost 3 of those weeks dog sitting for various people –I think I have become the official dog sitter) I think I have come a long way from where I was at the beginning and I am getting really excited to have a classroom of my own. The kids are amazing. I was surprised how quickly I got attached to them (even if some of them do smell).

I love Sunday dinners at my house because it I get to spend time with my family, but it is pure chaos. Last Sunday my brother-in-law’s brother came with his two daughters so in total there were nine little kids running around. To keep them entertained their parents sent them outside to play in the water with the hose. None of them had swim suits so they decided to just strip down to their underwear. It was hilarious! I would post pictures but I am sure none of you want to see little kids running around in the backyard without any clothes on :) So, instead here is a picture of them with their clothes on

Change, Change, Change

My normal uneventful life has been somewhat eventful these last couple of weeks. They say change is a good thing. If that is true then my life is supposedly going great!!

The Missionary
My little brother left for the MTC last Wednesday. He is going to Kiev Ukraine. He will be a stellar missionary but I still worry about him getting enough to eat, staying warm at night, etc. Brett has more personality than anyone I have ever met (if you have ever seen any of his movies he and his friends made you would know what I mean). He is very likable and gets along with just about everybody. The Ukraine is so far away and two years is a long time. It takes a lot faith and trust in the Lord to know that that is where he needs to be.

Student Teaching
I have survived my first week of student teaching. I am at Carwright Elementary School in a 4th grade classroom. The teacher is going to be really great to work with and will make the experience quite enjoyable. I haven’t done any actual teaching yet but in the past week I have gotten to know the students and the classroom environment and look forward to spending the summer with them. I had the students fill out an interest survey to help me get to know them better. One of the questions was, “What subject are you good at?” One of the students answered English, but spelled it “Inglish”. I laughed out loud when I read it –maybe he is not as good as he thinks he is! The kids all have a lot of personality and are pretty well behaved. I thought I would have all of their names down after the first week but there are 29 students and it doesn’t help that there is a Karen, Caroline, Catherine and Kaitlin –I am having a little trouble with those ones.

Moving
Don't get too excited, I am not moving out of my house, just into a different room. My brother, Andy and his family are moving here from California. And since they haven’t found a house yet they are going to live here. I don't mind moving rooms at all, there is just one small problem -the closet in the room I am moving into is smaller than mine. It is not that I am a total shopaholic, I just have a hard time getting rid of clothes. I have clothes that I have had since I was a freshman in high school. I haven’t worn them in years but I can’t bear to part with them. I keep them with the mind set that maybe one day the occasion will arise where I will need that particular item. So this past weekend I have had to make some big decisions and part with a lot of clothes that I am not ready to part with (sigh).

The Tassel's Worth the Hassle

I did it! I graduated from college. My commencement ceremony was this past weekend and it worked out that my brothers were in town for the weekend so my whole family was able to attend. Even though I still have my student teaching to get through it was exciting to be at graduation and celebrate this great accomplishment. As I was sitting there in my cap and gown surrounded by the other graduates I started thinking about my freshman year of college when I would wonder if I would ever make it through college. But here I am four years later with a college degree (almost) and looking back it really wasn’t that hard. I just have one more speed bump to get over now...student teaching. (I had a teacher in college who, whenever he gave us an assignment that appeared difficult, would always say, “Don’t think of this assignment as a mountain to get over, it’s just a speed bump.” So that is what I keep telling myself when I think about getting through student teaching; it is not a mountain, just a speed bump.

This is my parents and me the day they dropped me off in Reno my first year of college....


and this is my parents and me at the end...

Cinco de Mayo

Today was a great Cinco de Mayo. I ate LOTS of yummy food and I learned an important lesson about graduation announcements....

This Saturday is my graduation ceremony. I didn't plan on sending out announcements, but at the last minute I changed my mind. When I went by the bookstore to pick some up there was only five left. Seeing as how graduation is in five days I should be grateful I am even getting that many. So, I have five announcements to send out and have to decide who gets them. I would make my own, which, if I have more time would be pretty easy. But if I had more time there would probably be more announcements left for me to buy. Next time I graduate from college I will be sure to buy the announcements sooner so I can avoid this issue all together.

Confession

I am addicted to...


This semester has been one of my easiest semesters of school which is great, but I am left finding something to do with all of my extra time. I have picked up a few addictions to help me waste my time. I definitely could be doing more productive things with my life but they probably wouldn't be as fun as...

Sudoku


When I first heard about this puzzle game I had no interest at all in it. But now I LOVE it!! I feel like a total nerd spending a couple of hours a night working on these puzzles but they are a lot of fun. Try it, I know you'll love it!

TV


This might be an ok addiction to have if I was watching anything remotely worthwhile....but I'm not. With all this extra time on my hands I have gotten addicted to two mind numbing pointless reality shows: The Hills and Keeping up with the Kardashians. Both of these shows basically follow around rich people who do nothing but travel, play and show the world all of the drama going on in their lives while all along getting paid to do it. It is stupid and pointless and a waste of time but I love it and I can't get enough of it.

American Idol


I didn't put American Idol under the TV category because I don't think it belongs under the same category as The Hills and Kardashians -at least it serves a purpose. This is a hard show to commit to since it is on two nights a week, but I still make sure I watch it both nights. I don't know what I am going to do once the season is over -I may have to pick up a new addiction. Any suggestions?

American Idol disappointment

I am a pretty big fan of American Idol. I watch the show every week, I call at the end to vote for contestants and I get upset when the people I like get kicked off. I have a few favorites this season, one of which is Michael Johns. He is a great singer and performer, someone who I thought could win the whole competition. So I didn't watch the results show on Wednesday because I didn't think they were going to kick anyone off -it was a special Idol Gives Back charity event thing to raise money. Anyway, so I am driving to school this morning listening to the radio and I heard shocking news....Michael Johns got voted off the show!! I couldn’t believe it. This guy is really good; one of the best this season. He has great performances every week. (Here is this week's performance.) He will probably still go and make it big, like most of the good ones do, but I think he could have won the whole thing. Maybe last week wasn't his best performance but there are definitely worse contestants.