Boyfriends Through Time...

As you know I went on an AMAZING trip to Boston and Philadelphia with some of my favorite people in the whole world: JHAT teachers. JHAT=Jordan History Academy of Teachers this group was specifically 4th and 5th grade teachers. Here is a link to amazing teaching ideas and movies staring us using the strategies we learned. JHAT. I had many boyfriends on this trip and it was a delightful experience.



On the trip it became kind of a joke that as one of the single ladies, I could find a boyfriend. It all started in Plimouth on the Mayfower II. John Alden was on the ship. The Mayflower II is set in 1620 shortly after the Pilgrims arrive and lucky for me John Alden is still single. So of course I took a picture of him with me. So he was my first boyfriend. True Tammy and I share him, and he did get a little embarrassed, but he is an amazing boyfriend.





On our bike ride from Lexington to Concord I luckily found another boyfriend...sadly I do not know his name. I do however know he was a good soldier at the dawn of the Revolution.





Later that day we got to see Mr. Thoreau. It is true that perhaps he was not looking for a wife and that he wanted to live his days deliberately in the woods near Walden Pond in a simple way, but how could I resist such a man as Henry David Thoreau.





As we continued on our trip I acquired more boyfriends. On the Freedom Trail I found Robert Newman. He was the one who put the lantern in the Old North Church for Mr. Paul Revere. William Dawes also made that midnight ride lest we forget... Mr. Newman was not so keen on sharing me with my other boyfriends so I did have to say he was my one true boyfriend.





Also on the Freedom Trail and now onto the war or 1812 I found another boyfriend. Perhaps one of my favorite experiences from the trip was to go onto the USS Constitution. That is where I found my FAVORITE boyfriend of the trip. The USS Constitution is the longest running commissioned naval ship still afloat in the world. There the people running the ship are Naval Officers in our current Navy. Some are dressed in naval uniforms of today where as others such as my boyfriend are dressed as if they were in 1812. I still am a little giddy thinking of him, true story ...the saddest part about it is that I do not know his name.




Valley Forge and an awful winter brought me to my next boyfriend. He perhaps is a little old for me, but he will do the job through that hard winter. "Welcome to winter at Valley Forge."





I also acquired a Ranger boyfriend. He was stationed at Valley Forge near George Washington's Headquarters. Ranger Rick at the Adams National Historic Park was not nice, but this fellow was and so he became my boyfriend ...He is quite adorable if I should say so myself.





John Dunlap was a boyfriend that got everyone involved even Reid. I knew this adventure was a success then. John Dunlap may drink a little too much and spend his time in the City Tavern where we met, but he had an important job to do with the Declaration. He was the printer to the Declaration of Independence. I do enjoy him.




My last boyfriend was a tour guide of sorts in Philadelphia. He was flustered by all the Utah teachers. I do have a funny look on my face, but He was a good end to my week of boyfriends. Alas, too bad this wasn't real life.






One more boyfriend who will always mean a lot to me is my Movie Star boyfriend Matt Damon. He grew up in Boston and went to Harvard for a time. I did not see this, but Pam S'ua texted me this as she took the Harvard tour from Harvard students. He lived in this apartment. I only went to the campus, on a self guided tour so I did not see this, but still worthy to add to this boyfriend post.

School's Out For Summer?

School ended Friday. "No more teachers, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks." In the last few weeks I have been having some sort of dream or perhaps a nightmare of sorts about school almost every night. Why at the end of the year and even after school is done am I having these dreams? They are typical teacher dreams of forgetting what you are going to say, or where your room is, or moving rooms...no wait that is what I am doing and have to finish tomorrow. Often they include teacher's from my school.

It is the first day of school. I am in my classroom. There is something different however. I have 30 students but I also have a team teacher. We each have our own teacher desk. The other teacher won't let me do anything and acts like I am incompetent. Well it might be true since I came to the first day of school dressed in a hospital gown. So I had to be very careful not to bend over and keep the back of the gown shut.

This is the closest thing I have ever come to a dream where I am naked, or in my underwear. I understand that for many people they are quite common, but for me I don't remember having them. I often dream that I am falling or loosing my teeth. Yikes.

Here is the one from last night. Still makes me a little skittish.

My school was like the one from Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. It was tall with one room stacked one on top of each other. The difference was that there were two sky scrapper schools next to each other. What they were trying to do was connect them with a play area on the 77th floor...where I was. We had to strap the kids in harnesses to play on a black top area with no railings or anything to keep them on this area connecting the two buildings. I also had to be strapped into one of these, but my strap did not latch very well and I thought I was going to fall. If you know me, you know I am not afraid of heights per se, but I am afraid of falling.

Let's see if this trend continues tonight...I hope not.

31

31 things I did in my 31st year...
1-JHAT CLASS-learned a lot about History and teaching.
2-Learned my Love of Dr. Who-Who doesn't love time travel in a telephone booth?
3-New Bookshelf-I have way too many books.
4-ESL Endorsement--ok its done tomorrow, but close enough.
5-JPAS--totally got an awesome score.
6-California 4 times-all in So. Cal and all for different reasons.
7-Disneyland Universal Studios-had fun and would love to go again sometime.
8-RS President and Released-learned a lot.
9-Family Ward-left the singles ward early
10-IPAD-bought one and love it!
11-Fell in love with song REWIND by Goldspot-Listened to it many, many times on my ipod.
12-SUU master's classes started-took 2 and got As in both!
13-One new Sister-in-Law and one more on the way.
14-Moved classrooms for the 3rd year in a row--and probably will not be my last move in the school.
15-Zion NP, ST. George Temple, Shakespeare Festival-had a mini vacation loved both!
16-Class won contest of food drive
17-Started Laser Hair removal on my legs.
18-Scar on leg from Ropes course and overcame fears-falling from heights, not heights is a fear of mine.
19-Apline Coaster-Staycation during fall break.
20-Copper Mine-Biggest open pit copper mine on my doorstep and this was my first time there.
21-Survived one of the hardest classes of my career-love them and want the best for them, but is ok to say adios!
22-Went through 2 frequent shopper snow cone cards-I love snow cones!
23-Flood from upstairs neighbors,and their smoke--oh wait they said they were cooking...so glad they moved.
24-New oven-one burner from my old oven did not work so I had to buy a new one. It is so nice!
25-Watched every episode of "How I met your Mother"-I think its pretty funny.
26-Real game-first time back at a REAL game and first time at their stadium
27-pass of all passes-purchased the pass and have used it several times for Laser Tag.
28-Portable-my classroom this year was a portable. Don't really want to do that again.
29-neice in my class-She is adorable and I loved having her.
30-only one within dating age at new years without a date--yucky pda
31-Army Men left on my doorstep-Some great friends left some army men at my door as a joke. It made my day!

On a side note I went to Baskin Robins for my Birthday to celebrate turning 31!

Table 9

As the day of my brother's wedding is approaching--as in 3 more days--I am kinda feeling like I am sitting on table 9. I am happy for him and all, but being the single person I am--I belong on Table 9. He and Donnie are going to be very happy and have a good life. It will be a nice wedding after many hours in the car and many hours back. My brother is fantastic and I love him and want him to be happy. For the rest of us...Enjoy!

Top Ten List

As inspired by my friend I got set up on a date with. Here is my top ten list.

TOP TEN WAYS YOU KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE DATING WORLD TOO LONG...

1. When you have been set up with someone on a blind date with someone you already know.

2. When you know someone who has written a dating book.

3. When other single people (often younger) are giving you lectures about why you are still single.

4. When a co-worker who is 20 years older then you tries to make a pact that when you are a certain age you will get married to each other.

5. When you have friends who have been married 3 times before you can get married once.

6. When you are the last child in your family to get married.

7. When your nieces and nephews set you up on dates.

8. When every other single person in your dating pool is either 10 years older or 10 years younger than you.

9. When all viable options for dating already have been married and have kids and are on round two when you are still on round one.

10. When people assume you have been married before because nobody is single this long.


**Disclaimer, most of these are true to my own experience. If you have any others to add to my list, please let me know. I have had some good laughs thinking about it this last week or so.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
When you have friends who set you up with someone in a different state.
When you haven’t been on a date for many months to year+.
When nieces and nephews get married before you.

Blind Dates

Usually they are just ok, sometimes with a good story, rarely is it good. I just had two of the three I these. Good story and a just ok one maybe a little better than ok but I will get to that. So first start with my good story. I had an amazing ward 10 years ago at BYU the 198th. I had good friends, crushes and mutual likes. My cousin Kathleen set me up with 2 fellows this last week. One was a friend from this 198th ward. She didn't know I have known him for about 10 years. Had a crush on his roommate and his other roommate often tried to ask me out but I always dodged it. Both are now married. My date is the only one still single out of that group When he saw me he said "you know you have been in the dating world too long when..." it was funny. We had a good time, caught up on whats going on in our lives and of common people we knew. I enjoyed myself.
The ok date was probably more than ok but maybe not that good. He is a nice guy we had fun and somethings in common but there just wasn't the essential spark. Not saying I wouldn't go out with him again but... Life is such that we live hundreds of miles away from each other we have some things in common but also have some differing opinions about some big ticket items as was shown by some of our conversation. That's is all well and good because even if it did work out I wasn't completely sure I wanted to give up my life here anyway. I have a good job and a mortgage. I would give it up for someone who was the love of my life but not really until there was a ring on my my on my finger. So there you go.

forbiden fruit

So I have finally done it. I got an ipad after the declaration I made almost a year ago that I was going to get one. It is an ipad 2 not the new ipad. I decided that the extra 100 dollars wasn't worth it for me. Many people disagree, but for my purposes its fantastic. I had my name put on the back-because I am cool like that. So I pretty much think apple products are amazing. I have many of their usb cables all over. I have one at school, home, backpack etc. My grand total of apple devices that I use on a regular basis is 5. So here is the run down...
ipad-pretty much going to use it for everything. I don't own a computer myself so this will do most everything I want a computer to do.
MacBook pro-it belongs to the school, but I use it daily for school and home use.
ipod touch- got it through JHAT and use it for daily ipod type stuff like listening to music, games etc. I will also admit that I use the free text app to call my phone when I forget where I put it down.
iphone-probably used the most, but good news is I often am where I can get wi-fi free or am already paying for it.
ipod classic-so this one was my first true owned by me apple device. Still love it, amazing still. I use this for car trips and such since it can hold 80 g of data.

If I were to get a new one it would be a shuffle since they are so small, but really do I need it? Probably not.