Why I appreciate Chelsea

She always updates her blog to give me a little bit of distraction during my prep period. I still proceed to lots of other people's blogs but she is the only one I can truly count on (funny that I am writing this since I NEVER update my blog for my reader's enjoyment). Also, thank you to Carter...you look like a model, if that was a major you would be in it! :)
Well, I guess I should actually do some work now...

TGIF

Seriously, by the time the end of the week comes I generally feel like all of the energy has been quite literally sucked out of my body, right along with my patience, organization skills, and desire to ever teach again.

Thank goodness for the weekend!!

Student teaching is....well...basically, it sucks. There are day when I enjoy it, but most of the time I feel overwhelmed and underpaid (ha, ha). No thanks to my mentor teacher who I have seen for maybe an hour total in the last two and a half weeks (I have only been here three and a half weeks and they generally ease you in nice and slowly). For me, baptism by fire, baby! I was given about zero seconds notice for the first couple times I taught, but I have now caught up and am ready for action.

The kids are funny, but I have to try not to let them see that I think most of the stupid stuff they do is funny, or else what's to stop them from continuously doing it. Part of the problem is that I am just as immature as they are. For instance, when the principal comes into my forty student class (yes, they are all that big) and asks if anyone wants to transfer into the new teacher's class--Mrs. Balls--I find it hard to keep myself from giggling right along with the pubescent sixteen years olds in my class. Seriously though, unfortunate name for a high school teacher. What was she thinking? Or how about the time in the middle of my lecture when one of my students shouted out "Is that your wedding ring?! How much did it cost?!" Hmm, is that a compliment or an insult? Of course, then the rest of the class had to start yelling out about how they wanted to see my ring. Anything not to talk about history.
Then there is the kid that in the middle of my lesson asks me if women can have beards because someone told him that Abraham Lincoln had a sex change operation. This is in mu HONORS class. I seriously think kids might be getting progressively dumber. One of my students told me that Barack Obama was the president...right now. Close, but not quite.

Anyways, they keep me laughing because I pretty much never know what I am going to get out of them. But seriously, thank goodness for the weekend.

I hate these, but I am bored...

4 Jobs I have had:
1. Lifeguard/swim instructor
2. BYU library goddess
3. World's best nanny
4. Hollywood video...if working for my two week's notice counts

4 Movies I have watched more than once:
1. Two Weeks Notice (only thought of that because of my previous comment)
2. Muppet Christmas Carol...no better way to start the season
3. Love Actually (edited, of course)
4. Remember the Titans

4 Places I have lived:
1. Temecula, CA
2. Provo, UT
3. London, UK (I count it...I had a mailing address)
4. National City, CA...a.k.a. "the ghetto"

4 TV shows I watch:
1. LOST!!!
2. The Office
3. Psych
4. Grey's

4 Places I have been:
1. London
2. Paris
3. Florence
4. D.C.

4 People who text me regularly:
1. Chris
2. Chelsea
3. My Dad...always with perfect grammar and puntuation
4. No one else loves me

4 of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Tortilla Soup made by my mother's hand alone, no imposter's will do
3. Cereal
4. Lasagna

4 Places I would like to visit:
1. Sweden, Chris talks very highly of it
2. Hawaii
3. The rest of Europe
4. The rest of the world....

4 Things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Christmas, always looking forward to Christmas.
2. Jamie coming home from Brazil
3. Perhaps finding a career path I will enjoy.
4. Graduating COLLEGE!!!!!! Stole this one from Leandra, but it was my thought exactly.


1. How long have you been married? 8 months
2. How old is your spouse? 23
3. Who eats more? Chris
4. Who said I love you first? Chris
6. Who sings better? Me, but Chris sings louder, which makes me think he would disagree.
7. Who is smarter? When it comes to VW's and the seventies, Chris is your man. When it comes to random facts that are usually incorrect, I 'll be there.
8. Who controls the TV remote? We are not big TV watchers, but Chris likes to be in control of things.
9. Whose temper is worse? Ha ha, I don't know...different things bug each of us...but probably mine.
10. Who does the laundry? Me. Chris says he doesn't understand how to work my Mom's fancy washer and dryer. Sure. But he will separate colors and whites quite nicely.
11. Who does the dishes? We both do. But me a little more often.
12. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Chris does.
13. Who cooks dinner? Usually me.
14. Who is more stubborn? It's a tie. A definite tie.
15. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Um, depends.
16. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine.
17. Who has more friends? Probably me, people just love me.
18. Who has more siblings? Me.
19. Who wears the pants in the family? Chris, but he lets me try them on every now and then.

Bye Bye Love

This has been a week full of goodbyes to people that I love. It started with a goodbye to Rachel Gilman as she left for the MTC to serve her mission in Argentina. We shared a lot of good times together on Study Abroad, as roommates in a crappy Condo Row basement that was flooded for the majority of our time there, in San Francisco, and tons of other places. I will really miss Rachel, but I know she will be an incredible missionary and I am grateful for her example.




Next I had to say goodbye to a bunch of me family members that I won't see for a while. Hopefully we will see each other during the holidays, but apparently when you get married you have to share holidays between the two families. I am not sure how I feel about this.
Anyways, one of the hardest goodbyes was to my niece, Emily. I am pretty sure she couldn't care less, but I am going to miss her. It was so fun having a little kid in the house again.



On Thursday, I had to say goodbye to Kara, as she and her husband are moving to San Jose for a new job. Unfortunately, I had to rush off to work so we only had about a half hour to visit, but anytime with Kara is a good time. From pillow talk to FHE vidoes to hot tubbing in a bathtub, we always have fun together. Good luck in California, I wish I was there too.

Lastly, yesterday was my last day at the pool, which was both good and bad. I am glad that I don't have to sit in the sun and sweat all day anymore, but I am going to miss lots of the people that I worked with.

So now it's a one week break and then a new adventure...student teaching.

Emily

After we finished painting, the other half of our weekend was spent in Saratoga Springs with my family. Both of my brothers have birthdays this week, and my sister just got back from Alaska this week so we figured it was a good time for everyone to get together. All of the siblings were in town, and my Omi (grandma) came up too. However, the main event was Emily, my niece. She is just over a year old and precious! She likes me pretty well, but Chris on the other hand...let's just say she has some warming up to do. She gives him this real dirty look every time he tries to pick her up. I tried to console him by telling him that she probably just has a crush on him and doesn't know how to control her feelings. He seemed to buy this.

Anyways, she would never smile when I tried to take a picture of her, but here are some anyways.

Before and after...

So most of you know that ever since we got married, Chris has been working the swing shift Wednesday through Saturday, which means we basically never saw each other, especially on the weekends. Since he always worked weekends, I volunteered to work a lot of weekends also. But a few weeks ago Chris was offered a teaching position with the company he works for which meant that he would have a normal Monday-Friday day shift. He started last week, which meant that this last weekend was our first real weekend together as a married couple. Pathetic, I know.

To celebrate, I made Chris do chores. That is why he loves me so much. Well, we just moved into a house and the previous tenants had painted the walls an avocado green color. We decided to spruce up the paint to a more neutral beige. This Saturday we did the living room. About halfway through Chris was losing morale so I had to promise him that my mom had already offered to help me with the bedroom. Now I just have to convince her....

Here are some before pictures.


And here are the after pictures, I think it looks pretty good.



Chris wanted to stand in this picture to act as a reference point, I guess he thought my pictures made the walls look like midget walls or something. But as some other exciting before and after news of this weekend, I was finally able to convince Chris to shave his beard!!! Well, down to the length of stubble anyways, unfortunately, I don't have any "after" pictures of this momentous occasion.

So sorry!

I know, I know, just call me Kara Barnard....I haven't posted in ages. We were out of town and then we moved like the day after we got back and we haven't had internet until last night. So as far as I am concerned none of you have blogged for the last two weeks either because I haven't been able to read it. :)

Anyways....I have to go to work right now, but I promise to post some good stuff soon.

Swim lesson highlights thus far...

I finished my third session swim lessons this morning, which means I am halfway done with teaching lessons for the summer. There have definitely been some funny moments that I thought I would share. Working with three year olds on a daily basis confirms my belief that three year olds are a whole different species from the rest of humans, they sure are funny though.

My top ten:

10. Watching any number of students attempt the butterfly stroke for the first time. Bless their awkward little body convulsions.

9. The little boy, goggled and geared up ready to go, who would greet me every morning with a handshake and a "It's nice to see you again." He was five.

8. Little girl who no matter what bathing suit I was wearing would say "Ooooh... that is my favorite color. I love that swimsuit." Black, blue, red, you name it. She really liked me.

7. The same girl as above who came up to me in the middle of class and full of smiles tells me that the water makes her tickle...(just guess at which inappropriate body part she was pointing at when she told me this)

6. "Oh, oh, my wee-wee!" Another little boy after practicing gliding. I'm telling you, three year olds have no filter.

5. Brighton. A little boy who would arrive way too early for his class every day, so he would proceed to follow me around during the class I was in the middle of teaching and shoot me creepy smiles while saying random things like "My dad has a truck..." Okay?

4. The boy who would cry and try to climb out of the pool every time I looked at him or tried to talk to him. It's so nice to be loved.

3. The really overweight ten year old in my level one class (the rest were five year old girls) who would grunt loudly every time I tried to make him kick or paddle or even float...I mean floating doesn't even require exertion.

2. Trying to carry as many toddlers as possible at once down the waterslides while trying to also convince them all that we were not going to die and that they were actually having fun, despite the fact that they were screaming for their mommies.

1. The best moment of all time...Picture this..a class of four, three year old boys. I decide to let them try out lifejackets, thinking this will be something fun and new. Well, I get three of them strapped in and let them start swimming while I turn around to strap on the last one. All of a sudden I hear screaming and crying. The first three boys have managed to flip over onto their backs without any idea how to flip back over onto their tummies and are floating out to the deep end. All three of them are balling. Plus, all the parents are watching. Luckily, they found the situation just as funny as I did. I was sure I had scarred them for life, but then I learned another great truth about three year olds...their capacity for holding grudges is just about equal to their attention spans.

Camping

Last week we went camping in American Fork Canyon with Mitch and Ashlee. It was really beautiful and green. We lucked out and got an awesome spot, even though we had to cross a creek to get to it...you should have seen Chris and Mitch throwing things across the water, including our full cooler. Mitch kept assuring us girls that it was ok and he wouldn't drop anything because he's a football player. The night was full of adventures, from the drunk girl named Lexi who kept trying to invite us to come drink some drinks with her for her birthday, to the one man tent and queen size air mattress that all four of us slept on. Yes, it was quite an interesting night. It was ok for Ash and I since we were squeezed in the middle, but I am pretty sure both of the boys spent little to no time actually asleep or even touching the air mattress. I wish I had taken a picture of the set-up. But here are some pictures from our adventure.


I think this picture is so typical of us...Me trying to tell a stupid joke or something and Chris patting me on the back and saying "Ok...sure, dear..." or something equally supportive.

The newest (and prettiest) member of our family

We finally bought a new car!! She is a true beaut! She is a '96 BMW 318 ti...I have absolutely no idea what that means, but I think she is really cute. The only problem now is that she is a manual transmission which means I have to re-learn how to drive a stick. I am just excited to be done with Julio finally...those of you who know who Julio is will totally understand. The girls I used to nanny liked to call Julio, "P.O.C.", acronym for "piece of crap." This is a welcome change.