Ho! For California! (Lost and Found)

I must have started this post in the Fall of 2013. It's now May 2016, so with the saying, "better late then never", enjoy my writings from 2013 and then when I pick it up again in 2016!

Written in 2013:
Now, for a much needed update. In the last year Daniel and I have moved about 5 times. We have fully mastered the art of packing and living out of suitcases. We realize now that this will be good practice for all the vacations we will one day enjoy. :)

Daniel and I moving from our Vegas BYUI Apartment.

January- May

For the beginning part of the year Daniel and I lived in the BYU-I student teaching housing in Southern  Las Vegas. We lived about five minutes away from the high school I was teaching at and I bummed a ride off of my friend Lulu to work. She and I were both teaching at Silverado HS and we had worked together during our coursework at BYU-I so it was a wonderful situation. Lulu saved my sanity on a daily basis. It was so nice to talk to her about all the student-teacher dramarama. 

Student teaching wasn't that bad. Really! I loved it. I had great mentors, my students were lovely, and I finished off my undergrad happily and successfully. The daily ups and downs are sometimes overwhelming but the weeks move so quickly. I had 11th graders for Honors US History, Freshmen Studies, and 12th grade English Proficiency. 

Dates of Importance-

President's Day Weekend AKA Birthday Party part 23

Mi madre came and visited us for my birthday and to attend a Vegas Singles Activity. We had fun gorting about and showing her our habitat. We went to Cheesecake Factory, and then had dinner with my Aunt on Sunday.

K-T and Jeremy Webb came down for a visit from Arizona. We laughed and chatted till the wee hours of the morning, then Jeremiah went to a Ultimate Frisbee tournament. We got to watch Jeremy play for a while. It was so nice to see them. :) I may have been so tired from a long week of student teaching and totally fell asleep on the field. I wasn't even embarrassed. 

In April, Daniel and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We planned it together so that we would have everything set and ready to go for our special adventure. We basically had no money, and we didn't really want to go to far. Living in Vegas makes going away to a hotel seem lame. At least when you are poor college students. Anyways, we rented canoes to paddle the Colorado River just south of the Hover Dam. Along the way we enjoyed hot springs and natural saunas. It was cheap, fun and adventurous and the perfect anniversary for D and I. 

I wrapped up my student teaching in May, but official graduated in April.... but I walked in December. Needless to say, I think there may be an easier way to handle this situation BYU-I. Upon finishing, we moved from the school's housing. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay in the school's housing even though the apartments were empty over the summer. The housing office reported that it would violate the honor code. What an original response right? While we found this to be very annoying it does make sense. Only students can live in student housing and we were no longer students. So out we went. 

We packed all our junk into two piles. One pile was put in a trailer and driven down to California. The other part went to my Auntie Michelle's in Northern Vegas. We enjoyed a short weekend spent playing CA state government and unpacking the trailer. Daniel applied for a CA driving license to help him get residency and I applied for my CA teaching credential. YAYAY!

June-July

Our Vegas summer was an abominable summer. While we loved living with my Aunt and Uncle, we absolutely rather disliked our jobs and the famous Vegas heat. Really our jobs weren't that bad... we were grateful to have them. We were able to save a ton of money and start off our California adventure with a savings lump. However, the people we worked with and the clients were less then pleasent. I would like to take the opportunity and apologize to those who had to listen to my complaining. Thank you for still being my friends! It was pretty miserable. Hopefully, we will never have to venture into that type of work again. As well, my respect and patience for customer service reps has been reenforced. 

We had fun with my Aunt Michelle and Uncle Bill. Auntie taught me the art of picking out good See's and Uncle took us hiking. We loved playing with Buddy.

July- Present

About a week before we were planning on moving from Vegas to CA, I got a call to interview for a school in Chula Vista.

(This is where I had left off in 2013 and am finishing three years later in 2016. It's all for posterity right?)

Written in 2016:
So, I was about to tell about my first real grownup job. It's a great story, and it's strengthened my faith and knowledge that Heavenly Father knows and loves all his children. On the day I received the call from my future employer, I had brunch with my brother Taylor and his then GF. During our conversation I told them how I had been apply to schools all summer, but  probably wouldn't get a job because I had to take two big tests to earn my CA teaching credential and wouldn't be able to do that until we moved there for Daniel's graduate schooling. "I may not be able to work in schools right away, so I will do whatever I can while I work out my credentialing", I remember saying.

After brunch I was wandering around a LV mall trying to stay cool after returning a present for Daniel that was too big. I received the phone call from the principal's secretary, Belinda, and she asked if I could interview on Monday. Daniel and I had plans to move out on Wednesday the following week, so I asked if we could do it later in the week. She transferred me over to my future employer who said, "School starts Wednesday so it needs to be Monday." I called Daniel to check with him and he was ecstatic. We decided to pack up and move the next day. We then called our current boss to tell him that our last day would be Saturday instead of Tuesday. Finally, I called Belinda back and confirmed an interview for Monday.

We hurriedly packed, cleaned, and hung out with Daniel's friend Craig one last time. Then it was off to CA!

I was so stressed for this interview. Daniel helped me prep everything including my portfolios and we  drove down about 45 minutes early. When I walked in I was interviewed by two teachers and my future principal. I did my best, and they were kind a guided me through a few of the questions. I'm sure it was obvious that this was my first interview. At the end I asked a golden question a teacher friend from church suggested the day before. Sister Barton suggest asking, "So do you have any concerns that might prevent me from getting this position?" They all shook their heads and said no, you're a wonderful candidate we will be in touch tomorrow.

The next day was agonizing. I read two books as a way to distract myself. However, they didn't call. Around 7:00 pm I lost hope and wrestled with the disappointment and defeat. Then the next day I called to check up.

Belinda answered and said she would have the principal, Ms. Pedroza call me back. When she did, I was told I was hired! She explained everything I needed to do and told me she had pulled my application from over 100 others because I went to a high school she had once worked at. She was actually my assistant principal when I was a freshman. She was very impressed with my interview too! During my time at Rancho del Rey she often mentioned this connection and it was always a reminder to me to be grateful for the Lord's planning.

My first teaching semester was insane, while Daniel's first semester of grad school was pretty laid back. He said the first year was a review of his undergraduate program at BYUI. I think he even had to reorder some of the books he used during his bachelors. He did so well! He's an amazing learner and approaches studying head on. He doesn't procrastinate! I admire that about him.

In one of his classes he was approached by a fellow student who asked him where'd you do your undergrad? This was Jared Jashinsky's sneaky way of checking if Daniel was LDS. He saw his G's poking out and used BYUI as a check! We became great friends with Meghan and Jared Jashinksy and miss them now that they are in Georgia for Jared's doctorate program.

My first year of teaching was ROUGH. I was use to a lot of support and constant validation during student teaching. In your own class the only feedback you get is from students and sometimes from a walk through observation. I also didn't mesh as well with some of the 8th grade attitude. I would hand it back to them when appropriate, and I'd like to think I kept my cool most of the time. It's just so grating after a while. I can totally understand why almost 20% of teachers quit after the first five years. A few of the kids lied to my face, or tried to get away with blatant cheating. Most were sweet and hardworking. The greatest thing was, I loved them all. Even the ones who would go home and lie to their parents about turning in work, then the parents would send me nastygrams via email. I loved them and did my best to correct the situation and help the student in the future. I learned a lot about parental love, especially about Heavenly Father's love.

Some many times I've made mistakes, but I still feel Heavenly Father's love. He always loves us, even when we hurt others or ourselves. I felt his love for my students and for myself everyday. My experiences as a teacher, especially during that first year helped me prepare for parenthood.

I will continue on in another post! This is getting crazy-long! Adieu!

Not in Rexburg!!!

Oh hello dear blog! Sorry for the neglect. It’s been a busy few months, but I'm sure you understand. 

Here are some pictures to illustrate what we have been up to the last few months!

I walked at graduation in December. I was asked to lead the processional for my college, which was pretty neat.

My mom and Emily helped us drive home. We stuffed both our cars and a small uhaul with all of our stuff, and then embarked on the I-15. If it wasn't for my mom, Emily and Jedidiah Parker, we would have never left Rexburg. They helped us pack, clean and move! Thanks guys! You rock! 

Our little journey took a lot longer then expected. We ended up leaving late too. We were hoping to get to Vegas in the early evening, but we were about 8 hours late. We didn't get in until 4 am!!! My mom, Daniel and I switched off driving and Emily supplied us with tunes, so we were able to endure the nasty drive. Upon our arrival at Auntie Michelle's, we promptly passed out. We woke up, and after a yummy breakfast, Emily, Daniel and I went to unload and drop off our uhaul trailer. The rental was about 100 bucks, and included a months rent for a storage unit. That worked out nicely, because that was how long our break was. After that we were CA bound. Thanks Auntie Shells for letting us crash at your house!!!

Our break was lovely. We ate, partied, and slept- A LOT!! I think we were able to catch up from all the late nights at school, and store some sleep for the months to come! We went on a few dates as well. There were only a minor amount of sibling fights, all of which were absolved quickly. We saw Les Mis and The Hobbit. Both were outstanding! We had to talk my mom and Emily into seeing The Hobbit but they totally loved it. 

Check out this Les Mis video. Daniel and I giggled. Sorry for the swears. 

We went to Point Loma for a day. We checked out the tide pools, then ran up to the lighthouse. We were smart and brought a lunch. It was lovely, but a tad chilly. We loved exploring and crawling around on the rocks. I may or may not have slipped. I may or may not have slipped twice. Don't wear flats to the tide pools friends. 

Daniel is cute!!!

After a month long relaxing break, we headed back to Vegas. Sadly, our plan didn't quite work out. When we drove down from Idaho before Christmas, we parked our Subaru at my Aunts house, because we really only needed to use one car while we were in CA. Sadly, on New Year's Eve Daniel's car died. :( It was an old car and the cost to fix it would be greater then the value. We were bummed. Luckily we had a few friends who were willing to drop Daniel off in Vegas on their drives up to BYU. So it all worked out in the end. Daniel came up with our friend Jeff, and then drove down the next day with the Subaru. So now we are a one car family, but it's working out better then we could imagine. I usually get a ride to school from my friend who's student teaching also. 

Unfortunately, Daniel's car died just after we filled it up with gas. So we tried to siphon it out... That didn't go to well. Daniel tried for a few hours, but in the end it wasn't worth it! We had to get going. 

We left right after this... but not before one of my mom's neighbors could offer Daniel some weed. HAHAHAHA

Upon arriving in Vegas, we met our managers and we unloaded the car. As soon as we could we hurried over to our storage unit to grab some sheets and things. 

So we get to the u-haul storage unit, and try to use our access card to get into the building. However, we moved in we were misinformed about the access times. We were told that we would have 24-hour access to our storage unit, but this was FALSE! We tried in vain to get in from several entrances, and even called the u-haul help line. Just so you know, if you call the help line, all they can do for you is reserve units. LAME. Just then Daniel noticed what he thought might be a u-haul worker. So we drove our car around. However, it wasn't a worker, it was some thug siphoning gas from the trucks! I didn't see him, but Daniel did. When we were driving around he hid under one of the u-haul trucks he was stealing from. So we went to the other side of the u-haul lot and called the po-po. We gave them a description, but as we were talking to the police, the siphoner drove away. What a wonderful first night in our new city! We almost get in a show down with a siphoner thug, hours after we were trying to siphon Daniel's car. We were disappointed that we couldn't get into our storage unit, and were therefore blanketless. 

After the whole ordeal, we decided we better just go get some food and make the best of our night. So we went to wal-mart, bought some food and came home to settle in for the night. 

So because we were lacking in bedding, we decided to make a nest of coats and towels and two twin beds. 

The next few days were spent unpacking and unloading. We were lucky to have Daniel's friend, Craig. He helped us with all the heavy lifting!

Since our move, we've been studying and teaching. I love the kids, and Daniel loves not working at Melaluca. All is well!! 

Oh to be timeless!

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . ." 

F. Scott Fitzgerald

I love classic literature. Why you may ask? Because it's survives. Despite drastic societal changes it remains relevant to the human experience. 

For instance, everyone has probably met a Tom or a Daisy. If you haven't, BEWARE. 

You know F. Scott was on to something with the Great Gatsby because there are five films inspired by the book, and a sixth on the way. I hope it's not rate R! 

Dog Poop

This is my last semester at BYU-Idaho. I feel great! At times it's been painstaking, but like anything worthwhile, you adjust, move on, keep working, try harder and it all works out in the end. Really it does! Is giving up easier then preserving? Yes, definitely, but it's not always the best decision. My freshman year at BYUI I cried the day I realized I couldn't play the cello everyday like in high school. I'm not a quitter. This semester, I finally have my cello up here, as I completely moved out of my mom's house. Constant practice isn't apart of my routine anymore, but I still have it up here. Weeks often go by before I'm able to run scales, and play hymns, but I try to keep some skills and my love alive.

Giving up on a musical instrument, an interest, or a skill can be hard, but we should never give up on a relationship. Often times I have absolutely had to distance myself from someone to avoid opening my heart to constant hurt. This is natural! I definitely re-realized that this weekend.

It was a hard weekend, as most family gatherings with my Dad's side of the family are. We stayed at my mom's house for the majority of the weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend much time with mom. She was away with her sisters, leaving Daniel and I to play parents. My siblings were fine for the most part, but the biggest issue was my mom's dog Deet. The poor doggie was having serious issues. I'm not sure if she just missed my mom, or was mad at my siblings for not giving her enough attention. Maybe the lazy bums neglected her and didn't let her out enough. Whatever the reasoning, Daniel and I spent the first half of our weekend cleaning up dog excrament. Seriously so gross! The final straw was when we woke up Friday morning to 4 separate piles!! One of which landed right on my computer case. So Daniel and I really switched up the gears. After banishing the Deet to the patio, we throughly cleaned and then rolled up the carpets, then placed them outside. I now recognize that this physical cleaning up of dog poop is symbolic for the weekend. Dog poop happens. You just have to clean it up, and teach the dog better habits. I won't quit on the Deet, and I won't quit being charitable to my family. No matter how much poop gets in the way.

Wedding Sit-rep

This is a part of a really long letter I wrote a Sister Missionary! I hope you like it!

So The wedding was lovely!!

So the whole week before the wedding we were worried about rain. It rained ALL day Wednesday, which was the day we took bride and groom pictures with our photographer, Diane Jones. She asked me to move up my appointment because she was worried the lighting would be bad. So we did! I moved everything up two hours, which was a near miracle. It was totally worth it because the pictures are fabulous!

Thursday, we ran errands for my mom and worked hard on cleaning the house for company. I can't even remember all that we did. It was a long, long day. That night we had dinner with my Dad's family. My Aunt Kelly and Cousin Kelsey came, my Grandma Sue, and her husband, Larry, who I call bonus Grandpa. Not all of Daniels family was in town yet, but his brother brought his family, so there were 6 nieces and nephews there! I have 19 now! CRAZY!! And his parents were there all week. It lovely! We had El Napalito’s and Vigi’s cake. YUM. Though delicious, it was not good pre-bride food. We ended up eating the leftovers for 5 days.

The next day we ran errands like crazy. I picked up picture frames, ordered and picked up pictures, finished decorations, and tried to start laundry. It was CRAZY! Most of my mom’s family got in late Thursday night so it was nice to see them and run errands with them. It was raining like MAD Friday. There was thunder, lighting- the whole deal. So I had to decide if we would still have the reception outside. MEH. It was really, really depressing. Daniel and I really wanted to have dancing, and we wouldn't be able to if we did so inside. So I called the DJ to talk to him about it. Here is some good old wedding drama. So I had been calling this guy for a month plus. Okay I was a busy bride so I only called him twice. He never called me until he returned my phone call on Friday. I asked him if he had to say no to any other jobs. He said, “well actually I'm double booked. I'm supposed to do the stake dance as well.” WHAT?! Ha I was super put-off. So I told him, because I was worried about the rain, and that he would have another job I'd be okay with not using his services. I was a little POed. So I made a playlist and asked Katie to bring the playlist from her wedding. And we officially moved the wedding to inside my mother’s house, with a hope that we could still do it outside.

That evening we went to Daniel's family's rental home in Oceanside, right by the pier for dinner. It was lovely! My family couldn't really linger because we had so much to do. After dinner I went home and finished the endless decoration making. YAYAY! Emily helped a lot! The poor girl sacrificed her whole spring break to help me. She’s a gem!

By the time I got home, my Uncles and cousins had moved out all of my Mom's furniture! CRAZY! The rental furniture had been delivered, but we just left it at the Broberg’s. My Mom's family did everything! And hopefully my Madre leaves a ton of it packed, so she doesn't have to re-pack it later when she moves in July.

I started working on all the soda labels, finished the playlist and finished laundry. I went to bed late without finishing all my little chores that I still had to do. .  I hadn’t even packed for the honeymoon yet.  Whoops! Which I kind of did that on purpose.... I'll tell you about that later.

The next morning, I got up super early and ran over to the Brobergs. The grass was really wet. There was a puddle on the tennis court.  And it was sprinkling. :( So I officially said “Ok, let’s do it inside.” I then went to work on little details. I started the cake topper, and the soda labels. Then I quickly showered and ran off to make my appointments. I had my Mom grab my temple bag and a snack because by then it was 11:30 and I was supposed to be at the temple by 12. Traffic was horrible from Lecuadia to Manchester so I went for the 101 then hoped on the freeway. I was late... lol. As usual. I tried to time that perfectly but oops. We were ready for the ceremony by 1 though! :) Our sealer was Brother Zollinger. He is a sweet man. Before the ceremony he talked to us for a while in the Celestial room. hahaha I was already crying! We went into the Sealing room, and I was a goner. The ceremony was short and sweet! And I said YES! YAY and then we were married. That's the best part of this whole story. We're married now!! YAYAYAY!! :)

After that we got to go out and meet our families! My Dad didn't want to come to the temple, so we didn't take as many pictures at temple. Just big group shots. The rest were taken at my Mom's house. Everybody left and Daniel and I took a few pictures together on the temple grounds.

Then it was on to the reception!

On our way home we hid our car in a RANDOM place on Rancho. HAHAHAHA My mom and her family are notorious for destroying newlywed’s cars and luggage... So I wanted to avoid that at all costs. Our friends Eve and Jed were kind enough to come pick us up on their way to my Mom's place. We then dined in the backseat of their Volvo on the fish tacos they bought us. While D finished his food I ran inside and packed for the honeymoon. Hahaha that bag went straight to Jed who drove it back to our hidden car. HA! No one had a chance. After that we had to take pictures! That took a while, but was really fun! They are so cute!!

We barely finished pictures in time for the ring ceremony. That went just great! The bishop spoke for a few minutes about why we were having a ring ceremony, and what it meant to be married in the temple. It was just short and sweet. Then on to the reception!!

It was so beautiful! My Aunts, Mom and Andrea Monahan, and many others TRANSFORMED the house! It looked like a garden cottage. It was adorable. I’m so lucky to have many talented people who care about me and my family!

During the reception Daniel and I greeted people for the first part. That was really fun!

 Here is what we told people, as everyone would always ask us, "Okay, what's next?" We'd say "We'll Daniel just graduated in Health Science and wants to get a masters in Epidemiology." They'd say, "What's that all about?" “Epidemiology is the study of diseases. He would study diseases like Swine flu, to see how and where they started from." "Oh, that's interesting. And Maddy, are you going to finish at BYUI?" "Why, yes! I only have two semesters left, so I'll graduate in December of this year. Then I will do student teaching in Las Vegas." "Oh how wonderful!"

 :) Those are our plans as of now. We don't really know what we'll be doing after that. Daniel’s going to apply to graduate school, and he is preparing to take the GRE. He'll start applying this fall for to start in Fall 2013.

I have a two huge teaching tests I have to take and pass next month. They're long and expensive, so hopefully I pass! :)

We had pasta dishes for dinner, and a float bar for dessert! It was really fun. Our family friends, the Dugger’s, set up a photo booth for us. I'll send you some pictures of that once I get them from Mimi... she's the one who took them for us.

Sister Farnkopf made our cake. It was soooo good!!! I want a piece of it right now!!! It was red velvet and chocolate with buttercream frosting. We asked her to put fruit on top, and it looked beautiful, almost as good as it tasted.

Daniel and I waltzed for our first dance. We took a dance class together this last semester, so we did alright. We then did some swing dancing! We threw the bouquet from my mom's workout room balcony. lol little Morgan Sterner caught it!!  By then it was getting late, so we ran off to get changed. We decided to ride off on the Andrew's double seated bike so that my family wouldn't trash my car! hahahaha

It was the best night ever!!! This might be weird, but I miss planning. I loved it! Now I’m an old married woman now!

New Start

We're married!!!!! YAY!! I just sent a letter to Hermana Bingham, with a detailed wedding play by play. So, I'm thinking I'll edit that letter down and post it here.

Our wedding was fabulous, and I'm so grateful for the many friends and family who journeyed from a far to come. Best day ever! :)

It's been a busy, busy semester. It's almost midterms? WHAT? That's crazy. I think the beautiful weather makes time move faster. Really it's gorgeous here. I'll have to post some pictures. :)

Daniel's been working really hard at Melaluca, a call center where clients call in and order health products. He gets to speak Spanish every day and gets a nice product check! He's also been studying for the GRE, and is looking at Epidemiology schools. There are quite a few in Georgia, California, on the East Coast and in Washington. So who knows where we will be Fall 2013!

If you want to find me, just look on campus. There are three-four places I haunt these days, including, the scheduling office in the Manwaring Center, the McKay Library, the Smith and the Ricks buildings. Good thing we live 15 minutes away from the Ricks! I'm usually on campus from 7 or 8 am to 6 pm. Then it's time for the homework marathon.

Daniel and I enjoy being busy beavers! We're unpacked and mostly organized too.

Daniel is the most amazing packer and unpacker. He packed 3 large boxes worth of childhood paraphernalia, summer clothes, and odds and ends, as well as our wedding gifts into our car. Then the dear lad spent the first few weeks of his spare time unpacking and organizing. I did my best to help on weekends, but really, Daniel's the real champion!

That's just a brief update on the happenings!

Honeybadgering our way through finals week.

So this is Daniel's week of undergrad classes, and finals. When asked about how this makes him feel he says, "SO EXCITED!" Lucky boy! He's the smartest, and such a hardworker. To reward him for his graduation, I think we shall get married. HA JK. Those to events just happen to fall rather close, but don't really correlate.

Anyways,
I'm excited for the semester of never ending group projects to be over. Ironically, I'm about to enter into the longest enduring group project of my existence... hahahaha at least I'll have the best partner ever.