Sunday, April 27, 2014

Easter


So my Easter weekend included spending time with this crazy girl, it is quite rare to have a serious moment with Elise.
She showed off her AWESOME rock climbing skills at the park.  Before the rock climbing, we flew some kites, and when I say "we", I mean I.  Elise lost interest in her kite pretty fast.  Rachel and I were determined to get the kite up in the air, so even amid  some close calls with a dive bombing ladybug, eventually she made it up, and it was beautiful.

  

We dyed Easter eggs Saturday afternoon with the girls and then after the girls went to bed Rachel insisted that we all participate in making Ukrainian eggs.  My first objection was that I do not have a creative bone in my body.  My second objection was that I was sure I didn't have the patience that such a process would require.  But I couldn't say no.  So after staring at the egg for a good 30 minutes without a clue what to do, I looked at some sample pictures to combine a few ideas.  The process was actually pretty impressive.  You have to be very aware of what you want on your egg and in what color.  You melt wax in a kistky and then etch your design onto the egg.  But you must only etch in the order that you are dying the egg from lightest to darkest.  Once you have finished dying the egg you melt off the wax using a candle, and unveil your magical creation.  It turned out better than I thought and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  So who knows maybe next year I'll be at it again. MORE INFO

Before the Ukrainian eggs, my brother-in-law showed me how to setup a drip irrigation system for my sister's newly created planter boxes.  While it will probably be a long time before I'm worrying about plants, I loved learning something new.  

 Isis also got the chance to hang out with just Rachel and I.  

It was a nice weekend to get away.  Now here's to surviving the rest of the school year.



Sunday, April 6, 2014

Busy, but Good.

Busy, but good seems to be my constant go to phrase in responding to people about how things are going. Sometimes I don't enjoy how busy I am, but I need to step back and realize that it really is a blessing to be busy.  The weeks seem to fly by with work, clubs, tutoring, institute, the temple, and attempts to be social. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I have only had one completely free Saturday during the last three months.  So here are a few of the highlights from what I've been up to during this quickly passing first quarter of 2014.

January
WASHINGTON


Seeing as I live in Arizona, and the valley of the sun at that, I don't experience much of a winter.  So, I thought I should join the rest of the nation's suffering and expose myself to winter.  Actually I just needed to visit my good friend Michelle.  She just bought this beautiful home. We had a great time catching up and even ventured over to Oregon. All in all it was a GREAT get away.

Also, I went skiing for the first time courtesy of my friend Kelson.  I had a fantastic time, even though I took a few spills. And I won't mention the disaster when we decided to attempt a blue run, but still I survived and wouldn't mind trying again.  I loved that this picture wasn't posed but simply happened.  Don't worry I was completely fine, I had more graceful moments but obviously those were not captured.






February
JURY DUTY

So towards the beginning of January a jury duty notice arrived in the mail. And to be honest I was pretty excited about it.  Everybody seems to complain what a headache it is or how annoying it is to spend the day showing up for jury duty, but to me it seemed like it was more of an opportunity than an extreme inconvenience. I attempted to act indifferent towards having to go when it got brought up at work or with friends, but secretly inside I was excited for a new experience.  Perhaps other than when I’m voting do I feel so a part of the system. 

The Selection Process

So the night before I had to call and listen to see if my group number was listed on their recording, and indeed it was, group 4004 was to report at 10 am to the Maricopa County Superior Court. Let me tell you, a random selection of 70 individuals from across the county makes you very aware how good you've got it. The simple questions that were asked and individuals inability to respond with a  coherent sentence was rather astounding.  In addition to the admision of previous run ins with the law, the selection day proved interesting. Going from 70 to 50 to 30 then to 15, I was selected to be juror number 3. The case was a second degree murder trial and lasted from February 3 to February 20th.  Going to court nearly everyday added a little bit of variety, and made me want to always be on this side of the law.  The proceedings in court only vaguely resemble what we see on TV or in the movies, as to be expected.  We heard from doctors, the medical examiner, two witnesses, the detective, and the defendant.  After 20 pages of notes and 2 hours of deliberating we, as a jury, came to the decision of not guilty.  The burden of beyond a reasonable doubt is a very serious weight to have on your shoulders.        

March
MARATHON
After watching my friend finish a full marathon last year in March after I finished my half marathon, and then in October I saw my dad finish his second marathon.  So somewhere around the second week of October I got an email offering a discounted registration for the Phoenix marathon and idiotically signed up.  Well after 4 months of intermittent training I finished 26.2 miles on March 1st. I could have cried my dad was waiting a mile from the finish and ran with me.



Also Michelle happen to be in town that weekend, so it was great to have additional support.  Plus I made her be a guinea pig with a new recipe.  This Moroccan chicken turned out fantastic, it was so tender and smelled AMAZING.











ALAMOS

So I sponsor three clubs on campus one of which is the International Club.  The International Club in turn is sponsored by the Sister Cities of Scottsdale.  They needed a teacher to help chaperon a trip over spring break to Mexico, and no not the Cancun Mexico, it was a mining town at end of Sonora.  But I loved my seven days in quaint little Alamos.  The students were fantastic and seemed to have a great time, minus a couple of minor sick days.  I officially felt old as I offered pepto bismol and advil, in addition to pulling band-aids out of my purse.  I enjoyed just walking the cobble stone streets and brushing up my Spanish a little.  The 16 hour bus ride home was one of the least pleasant bus rides of my life, and will be ok if I do not have to be on a bus for that long ever again.  BUT hey it is all a part of the experience.





SOUP KITCHENS
The two other clubs I sponsor are KEY club and KIK (Kids Inspiring Kids) both of which are service oriented.  They are great kids, and I'm glad that I get to work with them.  Within a week I spent 10 hours working at two different soup kitchens.  I will be ok if I don't see canned chicken for a VERY long time.  But the service aspect of it was inspiring to watch these kids serve in different capacities.   Experiences like this give me hope for this generation.

 
SEDONA

Sometimes I just need to get out and enjoy the fresh air.  Ok let's be honest not sometimes, I need it at least on a weekly basis.  So last weekend we headed up to Sedona for a quick day trip.  We did two great hikes and the weather was marvelous.