Spring Break

For Spring Break we drove down to St. George. We being me, Andrew, Melanie, T-roy, and Michaelene.
Here, Melanie and I are entertained at a Chevron bathroom. The air dryers were really powerful so we got under them and blew our mouths full of air!
W went hiking at Zion National Park. We are headed to Angel's Landing.
Me on the edge of a hugely terrifying cliff, trying to look happy about it, next to a dead tree. I'm scared of heights.
Melanie stuck her foot off the edge cuz I was freaking out. Can you see? Over the root you can see the ground -- very far away!A stud using the rope as he climbs to Angel's Landing.

The really scary narrow part coming up. I was pretty sure that I would die. Or that Melanie would die. How would I tell my parents?
As far as we went. We would have gone farther but it was pretty icy. These guys were sliding down the rock face and they had little spikes in their shoes. So we didn't make it all the way to the top.A reward for being brave and making it along with everyone else. :D 11 weeks!
And that, my friends, is Angel's Landing.
Doing some Yoga (warrior 2) at a Zen pool when we were on our way to the Emerald Pools. Then I did downward dog and Andrew was sad he missed seeing my butt sticking out. What a turd.
Here are the love birds. Me and Andrew, and Michaelene and T-roy. Those stinkers think they are so cool just cuz they are getting married 20 days before us. But really, they aren't.
So Melanie tried to jump over a "puddle" and splashed. So I made fun of her. And when I jumped I slipped and hit the rock hard. It was hilarious! I was so wet. I was laughing really hard. It was definitely good for my abs to laugh that hard. Six pack, here I come! But then I got cold. That stunk.
After our long day of hiking, me and Andrew were pooped.

On Sunday we went to Dixie Rock. Andrew and I wanted to explore more, but we had to stay with the group. Check us out in a slit in the rock!



And there we are on top of a rock.

A precious moment captured forever. I love this picture. It is my facebook profile picture.
And we went to the St. George Temple on Sunday. I have never been on the grounds there and it was so beautiful! The flowers were blooming. It was very peaceful. I am excited to go to the Temple soon!



Because we were in St. George, we had to golf. We went to a driving range and hit a few buckets of balls. I must admit that this picture of me is hot.
But not as hot as Andrew! I could have watched him golf all day! He is way handsome and I am madly in love with him!

Melanie golfing (and missing the ball - check it out). Thanks for taking these pictures Mel!

It was a really fun trip. I was glad that I got to spend time with Melanie and Andrew. Unfortuneately, it wasn't very long, and now I'm back in freezing cold Logan.

The accompanying pictures

Here is Andrew in his space suit... LOVE IT! ;)

I'm in love! I'm in love! And I don't care who knows it!

And I quote the movie Elf. It is fantastic. I think Buddy the Elf is hi-larious! Especially when he dances around and jumps across on the crosswalk, and even when he puts maple syrup (bleck) on everything. And I think he copied me in his quote: "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." Except lately, I haven't been singing Christmas songs. It is more like...
AND I-I-I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU-U-U-YA-I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Let me tell you why I'm in love so much. Because I'm madly in love with my fiance! Let me tell you how awesome and absolutely amazing he is!

We went to his house in SLC on Sunday to visit and make his mom (who just had surgery) feel better. Andrew needed to find his toga from 6th grade to take to my family's toga party that evening. He found an old astronaut jumpsuit from 5th grade, and went to try it on. Oh my gosh. The sleeves went to mid arm and the legs to mid calf, and he had a super wedgie. It was so awkward! But so dang funny cuz he was strutting around, posing, and just being a goof ball. I love him! I would post a picture, but his parents took it and that might be embarassing for him. Maybe I'll email his mom and get one anyway; it's not like he checks my blog. I love that he is such a goofball.

I have been a bit of a grump the past two days. Last night after he dropped me off, I went home and then I got a text that read: "Sorry if I kind of pushed you out of the car. I had to poop." Oh my gosh, I almost died laughing. Andrew, I so didn't need to know that! But I laughed and I love that we can be that open with each other.

Continuing on with my grumpiness, all day I have been getting sweet texts from him about how pretty I am, and how much he loves me, and how excited he is to marry me, and that really made me feel happier and less grumpy. Sometimes he is so sweet. :D

Anyway, the point is that I just love Andrew and I feel so blessed that he is in my life and I am so excited to marry him and to get to know all the really weird things about him that his mom won't tell me cuz she doesn't want me to call the wedding off.

Thoughts About Teaching

On Thursday I was sitting in the library with Andrew and chatting. Actually he was venting and I was listening. He needed to vent because he hates his English class and thinks his teacher is an idiot. Now, I don't think I would go that far (I only call stupid drivers idiots), but he had some great points about the idiocy of his teacher. Now, I won't tell you what his issues are with her, but I will tell you the things that I think can help me as a future teacher. Andrew said that it made a lot of sense for teachers to teach a concept, give you a variety of examples of great use of the concept, and then have you go out and try it out. Apparently, this is how engineers think. It is also what we were talking about in my Teaching Writing class, and it was good to hear it from someone who isn't just teaching me educational theories. I can see how this applies to English and engineering, but now I'm trying to figure out how to apply it to history education. History is usually taught chronologically and sometimes topically. I guess you can teach that way with skills that historians use. Let me know what you think if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Which brings me to my next thought about teaching. My current major (History Ed) will make me a secondary teacher, in high school or junior high. Sometimes I am not quite sure if that is what I really want to do. I met with two of my professors and we ended up talking about historical things for about an hour and I got a list of about 10 book recommendations. My profs were both like, "Man, have you thought about grad school?" Yes, I have, but never really seriously about doing it soon. "Sarah is the kind of student I like to talk to. She's not here to complain, but is here to ask questions and express interest." Why complain? Profs are there to impart knowledge and they are such interesting people! "Dr. M, Sarah wrote this paper last semester about Black anti-Semitism during the Detroit race riot of 1943." "Really? That is impressive." And so on. I'm not meaning to brag, but they have planted a few thoughts in my head. I would be happy wherever I end up in my job. But, I have started thinking about timing, and I wish I could see how things would turn out, but that doesn't work. I have never thought about graduate school this seriously. I would love to be a researcher or a professor or a high school teacher. I'll figure it out. I just had to get that out.

Ahhhh, LIFE

Ahhhh, life. Yes, life. I am doing really really well now! After a brief trauma, I am now doing awesomely. Congrats to all my cousin-in-laws and future aunt-in-law who are pregnant. Yay for you.

On Saturday night, Andrew and I went to see Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare, put on here at Utah State by five Actors from the London Stage (http://www.nd.edu/~aftls/ for info on their current tour). What this troupe does, is use five actors to act out an entire Shakespeare play, which means that everyone plays about five roles. I saw them a few years ago doing Hamlet. It makes things sometimes very confusing, but also really amazing to see how much voice, slight costuming, and body language can create an entire character. Everyone playing multiple roles made things even more hilarious. Shakespeare is still hard to understand, and Andrew said it was sometimes hard to figure out what they were saying because of the language! Now he knows of my suffering!

More about my Shakespearian sufferings... We had to draw numbers out of a hat in class to determine which play we are studying we will do a critical analysis on. God is cursing me. I am writing about Henry IV, which is hard. Really hard. Histories are just difficult. I wish I could be writing about Twelfth Night, but no. Oh well. I'm meeting with my prof today and I think that things will be all right.

I'm also reading a really great book. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It is really great, and it is hard to put down. It is about some historians researching a Dracula myth, and right now, there are people dying as supposed warnings. We'll see how it ends. Andrew said it sounded like secret combinations, but I have heard great things about it and am really enjoying it. It is SO SO nice to read for fun, and to not just read stuff for school.

Less than 100 days (sorry, no exact count yet) until The Wedding!

A Tribute to Wal Mart Employees

As much as I do not like Wal Mart, there are two employees that have gone above an beyond in making sure my Wal Mart experience. So here is a shout out to Beverly and Marsha.

Christmas season, 2007. My roommate Maren and I were on the hunt for mistletoe. It is important! Especially for college girls in need of a guy. So our search took us to Wal Mart. There was no mistletoe in the Christmas decor section. Weird, I know. So we asked this sweet old woman named Beverly where the mistletoe was. She looked at looked, but her search was in vain. We told her it was all right and walked away. Minutes later, we here a shout: "WAIT!" and here comes old Beverly hurtling down the store, mistletoe in hand. What a great Wal Mart associate. So we nominated her for a Superb Employee at Customer Service.

Trip with the parents to Sacramento. I had told my parents the day before that I was going to get married, and we had to stop by Wal Mart for a belt for my dad, cuz he forgot it. Anyway, we get to the register, and there is this tall black woman working there. I think her name was Marsha, or something like that. My dad talked to her a bit, and then he asked if they sell wedding dresses as Wal Mart. Marsha said, "No." And Dad said, "She thinks she wants to get married." Then, Marsha turned to me, and in her kick butt awesome accent said, "Girl, don' chu let no one steal you' thunder." It was awesome. Marsha's advise has become immortalized among me and my roommates.

So that is my tribute to the Wal Mart employees. Yay them!

And here is a picture of my cute gecko, Grendel. I thought this was adorable. :D Yay Grendel! He eats crickets. That reminds me, I need to feed him today.

Pictures of What I'm Up To

Hello everyone. 16 weeks and 1 day! WOOT!!! Then I get to marry the above featured hunk!

Enjoy some pictures of my latest loco adventures. The next two pictures are my hands doing something I like to do. I am reading a rather nerdy book.


The next two pictures are of the ring that Andrew got me. Beautiful! I love it. It is really sparkly. I especially like how it is so good for distractions during boring classes, or frustrating classes, or anything in general that needs to divert my attention. I am way distracted by shiny things as it is, but now it is even worse.


The next picture is of me and Andrew at a wedding luncheon, first pretending not to like each other and then pretending to like each other.


And those are my latest loco adventures! I must admit that blogging is way more exciting than doing my homework, which is going pretty well for the most part. I'm sick and tired of sitting and tired of people giving me chocolate. I'm going to get fat. I'll have to start starving myself so I can be anorexicingly thin for my wedding. ;) Just kidding. I really don't have an eating disorder. And if I did, I would want to be bulimic cuz I like food a lot.