Goodbye Maeser

As you well know by know, I have LOVED teaching and coaching at Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy. Well, the time came to break the news to my students. "How could you do this?!" "Don't leave me!" Yes, it was a little dramatic. Sad for my students, obviously, and sad for me. My students and I have a great working, respectful, and fun relationship with one another. We know how to have fun, but also when it's time to learn.

The time has finally come to say goodbye. My last day teaching was 3 weeks ago and it was a sad day. I got some going away presents as well as a few parties. In fact, a few kids in my afternoon class came in late carrying a cake and singing "God Be With You Till we Meet Again." Sad, yet hilarious.

These are a fantastic bunch of kids. I guess I shouldn't say kids; they ARE in high school. How can you not love these guys?

I've been in and out of the school over the last few weeks to finish up a few things and of course they are excited to see me. In fact, I went to play basketball with my team one last time and I took off early to make it to another commitment. My mistake was having a sub come in for me and walking out the gym without saying anything. Next thing I know the whole team was behind me and then proceeded to smash me with not one sweaty group hug, but two!

This last Thursday I went to the Maeser Sports Awards Banquet to present letter awards to my basketball girls along with the head coach and other assistant coach. Unknown to me they also presented me with an award and said a few words. Super nice.

As I was sitting in the gym and school for the last time during the awards I kept thinking how much I'm going to miss my students and fellow faculty members. Why was I leaving?? I love that place. But, I'll just do what my headmaster said and let him know when I'm ready to come back! Problem solved.

Warning: This may make you laugh uncontrollably

So if you've ever heard of the Daily Universe, you probably went to school at BYU. And you probably realized reading it was a waste of time. Do you remember this story? One to never be forgotten. The BEST part of the paper, however, is the Police Beat. Each week the newspaper publishes stories about why people call the campus police. Sometimes all you can say is, "Are you serious?!" Or other times all you can do is laugh hysterically. Here are some of my favorites (the best part is in bold):

March 4: Microwaves from Helaman Halls were moved into the hall lounge, where someone destroyed them by running food in them for a considerable amount of time. When officers responded they found the ruined microwaves along with charred remains of a burrito.

May 9 A suspicious male was reported in the JRCB 2nd floor men’s restroom. Upon investigation police observed a toilet seat covered in miniature marshmallows. The marshmallows were thrown away. There was no damage.

May 15 A resident at Wymount complained about a radio nearby being too loud around 10 p.m. When police arrived at the neighboring tenant’s apartment, they found the tenant talking to her mother on speakerphone. The call was terminated.

May 14 While at a bus stop a female reported a male saying that if the bus did not get there soon he would not make it to his storage unit in time to get the money he needed to buy beer. If the bus was late, he would have to steal the beer and if cops got in the way, he would do whatever needed to get it with his meat hook. Police calmed the man down upon arrival.

Jan. 20: Officers received reports of students climbing trees in front of the McKay Building. When officers responded, the students told police they had not been climbing the trees, but had just been looking up in them for a geocache. The geocache was located while police were present.

March 2: Officers received a report of a van with fogged windows and seats removed from the vehicle. The caller suspected lewd acts were being committed in the van. Upon arrival, the officers discovered 10 fully-clothed individuals watching a movie.

My First Experience with a PhotoBooth

You should try it! It's so much fun! My roommate Allison and I helped at a wedding reception the other night and this was our excitement for the night before leaving. If you haven't been able to tell yet from reading my blog over the last several years, I seem to find joy in life in the smallest of things. You could say I'm easily entertained, but I don't see it that way. There is so much in life to experience and do, so why not start now?

the 80s.........still??

NOW this is what I call good music! There must be something wrong with me because I have been consistently listening to 80s music since last August. I don't just mean a little bit here and there. I mean like all the time. Sad thing is I mostly just listen to Pandora. I don't really own any of my own 80s music. Until recently that is.....

My dad gave me 7 (SEVEN!!) CD's of purely 80s music from the top Billboard songs. You don't even know how excited I was. Shoot, I've only listened to like three of the seven CD's too.

Then I got this fantastic CD you see on the left from a certain someone who has been willing to put up with my craziness for the last several months. He picked the right CD! I've already listened to it like 5 or 6 times just in the last week.

My question is this: will I ever get sick of listening to 80s music....??

The Living Planet Aquarium

I only have 3 weeks left in Utah (yikes!) I have a Bucket List of things I'd like to do. So far I've only done 5 of the 30 things I'd like to do. The Aquarium was one of them. I went yesterday with my sis and bro-in-law. It's pretty small but they also have pretty cool things to see. I liked the jelly fish, octupus, sting rays (I pet them! Yes, I am like a child at the petting zoo.....no shame), seahorses, sea turtles, sharks, penguins, caiman, electric fish, piranha, anaconda, four-eyed fish....Ok, I liked it ALL, besides the nasty giant spiders and cockroaches of course. There was an exhibit called Animal Superheroes where there were various animals/insects on display with "superpowers." It was crazy the things some of them could do. Basically, if you haven't been yet, you need to go! You'll love it!

Our favorite photo op: