the end

I've decided to "kill the blog" as Wes says. Clearly I'm not using it as much (or at all) as I used to. I loved my blog as a single college student, but I guess my interests and time allowances have changed. I'm sort of going through a "get back to a natural way of life" kick, and with that I'm trying to use less and less technology. This is extremely difficult when your husband is Wes. Love you Wes!

Anyway, with all this being said, I'm going to try and maintain relationships with human interaction. I haven't been doing very well at building friendships or even maintaining them. So my apologies. I'm turning a new leaf.

Keep it real people! So long LOVESTRONG.

a guilty blogger

Lately I have noticed several bloggers close up shop and exit the blogging world. I'll admit, I've been tempted to do the same. It seems like there are too few minutes in the day, and I don't like doing half-hearted posts when I know I should be working on other things. I feel guilty for blogging and guilty for not blogging.

But tonight I'll be a dedicated blogger so let me fill you in.

Work has been getting progressively better and better. I am doing more and more with the patients, assisting on procedures, injections, etc. I'm training for the new doctor coming in the fall. As far as I can tell, I'll be her full time MA which will be fantastic. I find women's health fascinating and from the beginning would never have imagined ending up at a clinic like this. I have dabbled with the idea of paramedic school a couple of times, however the timing just doesn't seem practical. I'll be taking the written cert exam for my EMT-IA during the summer. That will be a huge thing to check off my mental list.

Wes and I woke up for the 6:00am 4th of July hot air balloon launch. It was amazing! Why are hot air balloons so cool?! Maybe I should bag the paramedic thing and go for a hot air balloon pilot's license. Temptations, temptations.

Well, until the next major holiday!

a random post, but a post nonetheless

Exhibit A: My arm. My classmate missed the vein. Just a little. In fact, the catheter was sticking straight out of my arm. I took this picture almost two weeks after he tried the stick. I'm proud to say I haven't missed a stick yet, but I only go for the really big AC veins.

Exhibit B: Rachel on top of Half Dome. Just found this little treasure on my camera and had to share.

Exhibit C: Wes sleeping. He likes to wrap himself up like a bean burrito.

growing green & giving shots

A few months ago Wes read an Ensign article talking about growing your own food/being self-reliant/blessings of hard work etc. He took it to heart. Last time I checked gardening wasn't a commandment, but still we decided to give it a go.

We spent an FHE filling and placing seeds in these planter boxes. We started with bush peas and were so upset when we hadn't see any of them sprout after about 2 weeks. We were sure we had killed them, as I usually do with my plants. But now look at them!



We've also added a green pepper, basil, carrots, squash and tomatoes. Talk about efficiently using space eh?

With this rain, the planter boxes have been just soaked all the time. We have to haul them up the stairs for protection from the rain and then back down to get some sunlight. Its annoying especially when they are so heavy and sopping wet. That last sentence made me think this garden is parenting practice.

My EMT IA (Emergency Medical Technician Intermediate Advanced) class is going great. I don't like giving up my entire Tuesday & Thursday night but the class is moving quickly. I've been bleeding a lot. After mastering shots and blood draws, we moving on to IVs. I've got swiss cheese arms. I think I have small veins or something, because people miss all the time and I'm bruised! Wes has these gorgeous garden hose veins and he won't let me anywhere near them. Not even one little poke Wes?

i'm all graduated

Boy does it feel good to be done. For those of you out there who think the madness is forever, I say to you I feel your pain, but the end does come.

Did I love my major? Heck yes.
Am I so glad my diploma has BYU stamped on it? You know it.
Would I encourage Caroline to come to BYU? YES.
Is Samuelson my home boy? Not quite.
Is that another Cougar First Down? You betcha.

TAP

Last week Wes was inducted into BYU's chapter of Tau Alpha Phi. It was a big, fancy deal. He's totally a frat brother now.

Not only was he inducted, he was nominated President of TAP. Wes declined so he could take the Web Master position. I can't wait for the first frat partay! Apparently it is a tour of the underground Physics lab. Particle accelerator here we come. Woot!

My March Madness

Hey all.

This month has been in a word, a whirlwind. As the whirlwind settles down, the documenting process of our lives picks up.

Student teaching ends on Monday. What an experience! The daily drive to and from Spanish Fork has been the worst part. I'm sick of filling the car up every week! But there sure have been some good times in Mr. Stahle's and Mrs. Troyer's classroom. And there are some names I can never name my child now.

My TA job also ends this week. I really enjoy helping out with the EMT certification. It is so nice to teach BYU college students after coming from a class of 40 sophomores. I look forward to helping with it next year.

The MA job is.... coming. I'd be lying if I said it was butterflies and roses all day. It's not. Being the new girl is the worst thing ever. This position makes me feel bad for ever being mean or expecting too much from the new people I trained. Sorry to any of my past co-workers who are reading this (Rachel). At the clinic, right now I'm pretty much stuck in Medical Records. The clinic is going EMR (electronic medical record) so I've been scanning charts and I will continue to do that for the next month most likely. Need to pay my dues. Bottom of the totem pole thing.

I'm actually looking forward to just having work. It will be nice to make some money and not have to count the seconds until I have to be at the next checkpoint. I like being able to focus on one thing, and not feel like I'm spreading myself thin.

Wes has been stellar throughout this past semester. He has his own load of school and work to carry, but he also has been making dinners and doing dishes for the past few months. He also helps with the RS Activities and drives me all over Provo. I'm looking forward to taking care of him for a change.

So it seems like I've triumphed over my own March Madness. I graduate in April. I have a full-time job lined up. In addition, my bracket is winning in the family pool! Bragging rights!

spoiled spoiled spoiled

February is a good month for me. My birthday falls just 4 days after Valentines Day, which means that I pretty much get uber attention for the entire week. February 14-21 is all about ME. But Wes went above and beyond this year.

For Valentines Day Wes bought me a white rose that marked the beginning of a fun (and difficult) scavenger hunt around our apartment. I loved it. He also gave me these TOMS, two Down East tees, two cookbooks (gluten free) and the orange jacket. Like I said. Spoiled.

On my birthday Wes sent me flowers to my classroom at Spanish Fork High. They were such a surprise! My students sang to me (with a little assistance from Mrs. Scott, ah hem, thanks) and gave me a hard time about my "boyfriend." We left that evening for a little get-a-way to St. George where there were no lesson plans or coding homework. Wes and I were lazy, lazy, lazy. Let's just say we barely made it to 1:00pm church.

Wes also gave me this heavenly shampoo. Like I said. Spoiled.

I am spoiled, but lately there have been several things to celebrate. I passed the dreaded Praxis exam and got a real, full time job. Monday I start as a Medical Assistant at Utah Valley's OB/GYN clinic. I'm excited and this is such a giant step in the right direction for us.

please reinstall the filter

I ran into funniest roommate ever Jessica today on the RB stairs. She said, "I enjoy your monthly blog posts." I immediately went into denial. "I know, I'm just so busy, blah blah blah, at least I post more than Marie, blah blah blah."

And yet here I am with the monthly report.

Student teaching is a thumbs up experience thus far. My work load is decent but not overbearing. We just finished the most boring unit, Healthy Self (mental health). I guess I shouldn't say its boring, it includes topics like suicide, personality, grief, defense mechanisms etc. However, sometimes the lessons are kind of downers. It is difficult to get the kids excited about discussing emotions. But I guess that is what a good teacher does. They take unappealing topics and make them interesting.

The next unit is Nutrition/Fitness and I'm totally pumped to teach it! There are so many neat learning activities to use with this content.

Classroom management has been better than expected. There are always a few kids in each class that seriously struggle with listening, focusing and executing. I find myself occasionally doing the stand and wait thing. I'm also trying to figure out how to handle the completely inappropriate comments from the peanut gallery. I have one specifically challenging student who claims to be homosexual. His comments are rather colorful. I'm not blaming his interrupting behavior on his sexual orientation, I'm blaming it on his inability to filter his comments. In fact, I'm pretty sure he has completely removed the filter.

Wes continues on with work and school. Today he received his first real credit card which we are quite excited about. Time to start establishing credit, we better get swiping that AmEx huh Wes?

a night at the DI and a night with Rachel

We spent Friday night feeling guilty about not having a fun/exotic date planned. Even though we're married we still feel pressure to go out and do something awesome on Friday. I used to give Wes a hard time about not planning anything, so I told him I would do the planning this weekend. Friday night rolled around and I only had a few lame-o dud ideas. We ended up perusing the DI about an hour before they closed. Wes found Pictionary! He spent the rest of the evening wiping down and gluing the board and box together. It is as good as new. Now all we need, as Wes said this morning, is "someone to cream at Pictionary."

I found some (what I think are) CUTE teacups. They are totally vintage and perfect for juice in the morning. I've had medium feedback thus far. Rachel wasn't sure why I wanted teacups and I think Wes thought they were an odd purchase as well. But Wes is so great, he just plays along and helped me look for matching saucers. We used them last night when Rachel came over for computer help, which turned into movie night. We watched Iron Man 2. See Rachel's blog before continuing with this post.

http://rachelrweiler.blogspot.com/

We laughed SO hard this morning when we saw Rachel's post. Wes immediately starting drawing up a picture of Rachel. You'll also need a basic understanding of Iron Man 2 to appreciate his work.

Behold. Rachel... the Russian.

On a completley different note, things are going quite well with student teaching. I have two mentor teachers (one better than the other) and also work with a co-teacher. We team teach the first period and then each teach alternating periods the rest of the day. I'm starting with the Healthy Self unit, then will teach Nutrition/Exercise and end with Sexuality and Reproduction. We're pretty limited with what we can teach in this last unit. Utah is the most conservative state when it comes to SexEd and Nebo School District is the most conservative school district in the state of Utah. Wonder how I'll answer all their questions...

The students are hilarious. I find myself chuckling at least once every class period. Management hasn't been a huge issue yet. Did I just jinx myself? For the most part they contribute and are engaged. The random comments are awesome and I had forgotten about the high school drama. I have one student who is a "Cornerstone" student with means that he lives in a Juvenile Detention Center and is permitted to come to one high school class every other day. That's my health class. When he proves that he is safe to himself and others, they let him start coming to more and more classes. I don't know how to treat him differently, so I don't. I treat and teach him the same as the rest of my students.

I've also learned that even though I have invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in learning how to teach, sometimes the people with the jobs are less than qualified. I wish those who were burnt out would retire and let us "green" teachers have a chance for a few years. (I'm trying to subconsciously talk one of my mentor teachers into retiring...)

I think this will be the quickest semester of college ever.

Christmas was fun. Provo is the same.

I can't believe the break is already over. I also can't believe that today is the first day of a new semester and I did not buy any books, am no longer working at Teacher Ed and did not have to print out a schedule and wander the halls locating classrooms.

But before I start highlighting the present, I'll briefly recap the past 2 weeks.

Wes and I had our first Christmas morning here in Provo. I had no idea how excited I would be about it all, but I woke up at 6:00am and convinced Wes it was a reasonable time to start opening presents. (I actually tried to get him to open presents on Christmas Eve. He said no.)

I found a little sparkly surprise in my stocking, some diamond earrings! I also received lots of cute clothes for student teaching. Wes is great at picking up my hints...

We headed to SLC for the Christmas Day Visiting Family Marathon. We may have to rethink this for next year. But maybe Wes will surprise me by singing Mele Kalikimaka and we'll spend Christmas in Hawaii. Maybe, at some point in the future, right Wes? We visited several homes and our family spoiled us left and right.

Some notable moments:

Kirk received sky-diving gift certificate from fam. We're tying to help him get that bucket list whittled down. He's also working on the will, so if he dies during sky-diving, at least everything is divided. We get Caroline!

Uncle Scott plays "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" on trumpet (an unexpected addition to the program, way to spice things up!)

Wes skis for the first time! We went to Alta for the Ski Free After 3 deal, but we also didn't know it was the Ski Free and Freeze Something Off deal. Caroline and Rachel accompanied us, but none of us lasted very long. I think we were all crying in pain as our toes and fingers thawed in the car. Wes got jipped, which means we will be taking another skiing trip soon. He did great by the way! Only fell one time and it was because Rachel led him into the pit of doom and powder, which he was not prepared for.

Rebecca and Janeel beat Clayton and Wes at pictionary. Monumental.

Caroline gets her wisdom teeth out. Oh goodness. The stories are just too funny.

Tomorrow is my first official day in Spanish Fork High School. I've already scoped the paraphernalia and know which sweatshirt I'm going to be purchasing. I know, I've got all the critical bases covered.

The public schools are still finishing up last semester, so I'll observe and help this week and part of next. When their new semester starts, I'll be in charge. Can't wait for the stories that come from teaching a high school health class.