Day 1: More Random Facts About Me Than You Ever Wanted To Know :)

So, I'm horrible at staying up on a blog. Honestly, I don't know why I even have one... (yes I do... Camille, I blame you :) Loves!) But since I do, I might as well use it. To get me going, I decided to do the oh-so-trendy "30 Day Challenge (most recently demonstrated by the oh-so-lovely Lauren!). So here I am with Day 1: Post a picture of yourself along with 15 random facts.




1) I love Harry Potter. I know all sorts of random trivia, have read the books several times each, make a dang good Hermione, and went to a pre-screening or mid-night showing for 7 of the movies. (The above picture is me next to Dan/Emma/Rupert's hand/foot/wand prints at the Chinese Theater)

2) I'm very much a girly-girl (I think it was forced upon me as an only daughter)... shoes :)... (ask me how many pair I have... I MIGHT tell you...), though I've got a crazy tom-boy streak surrounding sports. Particularly NCAA Football/Basketball (NBA as well, though less extreme). I've shocked guys more than once when I've started throwing out stats, theories, etc. And I can build a mean bracket in March.

3) I played a year on a comp team for softball. We won. But I can't stand watching the game! BORING (and baseball... though the atmosphere is fun). I'm more for playing volleyball and basketball... but I did pretty much everything.

4) I'm EXTREMELY competitive.

5) I remember all the small details. Not just what people say, but also what they were wearing, how they were standing... etc. It may have something to do with the fact that I remember things in movie form... as an observer rather than an actor... does that make sense?

6) There is nothing I hate more than losing connections. Because of this, I'm in contact with a lot more people than most of my friends. While it was regular in HS/early college for people to contact me when they had questions about someone else, I STILL have people calling me for people's numbers/current locations, etc. since I always seem to know.

7) There is nothing I love more than making new connections and building new friendships/relationships.

8) I have a hard time believing that anyone likes me as much as I like them... as friends or otherwise. Because of this, I've unintentionally passed up some amazing opportunities which I didn't learn about until later.

9) I don't have a lot of confidence/self-esteem in general.

10) I LOVE to travel and have been in 16 countries and 30 states. I have a goal to go somewhere new (big or small) every year. I started this in 2006 and have so far been successful! ('06-Puerto Vallarta, '07-Study Abroad to Paris+5 other countries, '08-Thailand, '09-doubled up on 4 of my previous European countries and added 6 more, '10-Seattle, '11-Hawaii)

11) Speaking of traveling... and my SA... I have a bit of an obsession with all things French. But you probably already knew that.

12) The arts are my life. Music (singing, piano, flute, guitar... listening... arranging... composing... teaching...), dance (12yrs ballet, swing from Jr. High into college, ballroom from HS into college, teaching after school at the elementary school I teach at). Humanities in general really... the arts, art history, cultural backgrounds, literature... (call me crazy, but I love analyzing a good poem!)

13) I've wanted to be a teacher as long as I can remember despite my family trying to convince me to become an engineer or lawyer or SOMETHING (I'm one of those people who really could have gone into anything and done well. Don't hate.). And a mom. But (obviously) that opportunity hasn't arisen yet (I can't decide if teaching makes me more or less baby-hungry?)

14) I started off as an English-Teaching major and sometimes still wish I had done it. I plan on getting my Masters in English with an emphasis in Children's Lit. I want to write a book. And more poetry. (Actually, I have written a picture book. I just haven't done anything with it... confidence, remember? Yeah... I'm scared...)

15) I have the greatest friends and the most wonderful family ever. Seriously. Don't even try to argue. And my two best friends are probably my mom (we had way too much fun this summer) and my youngest brother (15, 6'4" and a crazy teen... yet he and I have this awesome bond and always have!)

Oh... and I'm a TRUE BLUE COUGAR!!! :)

Mother's Day Muffins

So my mom and I saw this muffin tin at IKEA a while back... but we didn't get it.
(I don't know if you can tell, but the muffin cups are tall and skinny... super cute...)

And there are really cute paper cups to go with it.

And since then, my mom has mentioned several time that she wishes she HAD gotten it.

So I bought 2 of them for her for Mother's Day (and cups, of course).

And made muffins for breakfast.

And they were so good, I thought I'd share the recipe :)
(I mixed and matched a few recipes I found online)

Orange Cranberry Muffins
375 degree oven
10-12 minutes**
Yeild: 12

3/4 cups dried cranberries
Juice of one orange
- Put juice and cranberries in a small saucepan. You may want to add just little water if you don't get much juice (liquid should cover about half the berries). Simmer for 5 minutes to rehydrate the cranberries. Remove from heat.

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tb orange zest

- Mix together well in a medium bowl and set aside.

2 eggs (at room temperature)
6 oz. cup of Orange yogurt (I used Yoplait's Light Orange Creme)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
- In a small bowl beat eggs well. Add yogurt and oil and mix thoroughly. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until moist. Consistency will be more like an extra sticky cookie dough than a batter.
- Fold in cranberries and separate evenly into lined or greased/floured muffin tins.

3 Tb sugar
2 Tb flour
1 Tb COLD butter
- Cut together with a fork and sprinkle over each muffin.

Cook and ENJOY***!


**Cooking time will vary. Muffins usually take 20-25 minutes to cook. The provided time is when using these tall, skinny muffin tins and a convection oven. Just watch and learn! :)

***As always, best when enjoyed still warm. May be made in advance and frozen. If frozen, thaw overnight then reheat in the oven, covered with tin foil.

Something To Smile About :)

So remember back in High School when Ken Garff decided to be a big name and donate a car to a lucky student?

Yeah... I wasn't that student...

BUT

As a teacher I now know that Ken Garff does more than just cars...

He does bikes!

In fact, my school gets 6 bikes to give to lucky students as part of the "Road To Success" program.

That's a drawing every 6 weeks during the school year
(none of that waiting around until the last week stuff).

There was a drawing today
(okay, the 6 weeks hasn't been perfectly consistent, but that's the general idea)

It also happened to Dr. Seuss' birthday today.

The Mayor came.

The Superintendent came.

They read their favorite Suess books to the kids.
(2 assemblies... I'm not sure what they read to the older bunch, but my chillins got HOP ON POP and MR. BROWN CAN MOO, CAN YOU? Very entertaining, I must say...)

The Mayor mixed up the bike raffle tickets.
(Students earn one each week they read at least 20 mins/day, 5 days/week -- TWO raffle tickets if they read all 7 days)

The Superintendent picked a raffle ticket.

"Do we have Ms. Turner's class here?"
(My kids squeal a bit and all raise their hands)

"This is a girl's name..."
(The girls all sit a little taller... some of them bouncing on their pockets...)

"Is there a C.?"

You should have seen her face.

Priceless.

Complete shock turned to radiant joy as she stands up.

She is visibly SHAKING as she walks to the front.

She can barely contain herself!

They congratulate her, shake her hand, send her back.

She bounces back... waving... with a huge grin.

Then she turns and gives me a big thumbs up :)

It was awesome.

She comes from very, very little.

As in at Christmas when all the kids were getting awesome toys and Gameboys and puppies, C. got a new shirt and a pair of jeans.

And was super excited about it.

Now, she gets to go pick out her new bike.


Even better is that she is an AVID reader. She LOVES books. ESPECIALLY Dr. Seuss.

I can't think of a more worthy recipiant...



But the VERY BEST PART?


It's her birthday today.

Happy Birthday, C!
You'll never forget turning 7 :)

Back to the Real World...

'Tis the season for trying to remember what goals we set last year, wondering why we even set New Years Resolutions since we always forget them and then go on making them again...

...oh the human race...

And yet I do it too. Mind you I figure that if I write them down, I have no excuses for forgetting, right? :)

I always set smaller "goals" (really just things I want to do) for the Christmas break. Things I want to do to maximize my time off and enjoy this time of the year.

Some of the things I had on my list (which I completed) this year include:
See the lights at Temple Square
Knit a scarf (ok... I cheat... I use a loom... and I'm not quite done yet)
Do a puzzle (technically I did 2... one with Jessie and another on my own)
Make mint fudge
Make our traditional Holiday food items with Mom (Christmas braids, candies, etc.)
Finish my book (I've been so tired and busy lately that I'd had it sitting around forever)
Give really meaningful gifts
Be social on New Year's Eve
See friends in town (missed seeing Camille's crew -- I was sick -- and Katie's crew :( -- hopefully I'll catch the Pondster before she heads back to Cali)

I really wanted to go skiing over the break, but it just didn't happen.

Other things I did:
Spoiled the Cal-bear :)
Went to Narnia (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and out to Chili's with some friends
Finally re-watched INCEPTION (still soooo good!)
Saw A BEE MOVIE
Played lots games (and never won :( -- except for Mario Kart...)
Watched a bunch of LIE TO ME episodes
Music, music and more music
Family time! :)
Watched a few traditional Christmas movies
Cleaned and organized to make construction a little more sane
Worked out
Slept in



And tomorrow... it's back to school.

The good thing about this is having a schedule.
And institute is starting up again.
And Thursday is Temple Night.

It's already after 11?

Darn.

I better go to sleep...

Grateful Charts and Open Hearts

So I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but it required a poster. And I seriously have gone to get a poster for it several times and whichever store I happened to go to has been out of single poster boards.

SERIOUSLY

But then last night I was driving home from a night out with some old roomies (Can I just say I love Nancy and Alyse? I don't see nearly enough of them! And then I happened to end up seeing old roomies Kamie and Brett too... crazy love!) and just got thinking about various things (driving in the car is the best time for me to think) and just felt like now was the time to do it. No matter what.

So I got home, raided the craft closet and was able to find a very large piece of construction paper. It'll do. For now.

I sticky-tack-ed it up by my door and wrote across the top:

I AM GRATEFUL FOR...

Now, any time I go through my door (in or out) I write something I'm grateful for. And I try to put something that is IN THE MOMENT.

For example:
Just now I wrote "memories of Camille"
(yes Mills... YOU! You must say we have a lot... and I'm letting my hair go curly tonight but it was doing something funky on top -- new hair cut -- so I stuck in a claw... which I haven't done FOREVER)

Anywho.

I love it already.

I have a lot to be grateful for...and remembering that really does open my heart.

Life is good.

☼

And I go in/out of my room a lot (11 times in one day! 22 things on the chart!)

☼

And I wrote the start date on the chart. It might confuse some people though. I most definitely agree with this! (sidenote...this same blogger just gave birth to the cutest little boy! I'm super happy for them!)


♥ LOVES TO YOU ALL! ♥

Good "Pointe"!

How many times in your life do you think you’ve heard the phrase:
“a broken heart and a contrite spirit”?

A LOT, right?

But what does it really mean?

That was a question that came up in institute a few weeks ago and so we turned to the dictionary... HERE…

…easy enough to understand, right?

OK – How about “broken heart”?

(You can’t find it in the dictionary)

But for all you dancers out there, I had a thought.

…A “POINTE” TO MAKE, REALLY…

(and if you don’t happen to be a dancer, you still can read it)

***ahem***

New pointe shoes are beautiful:
Smooth. Clean. Seemingly perfect.
But they are HORIBLE to dance in:
Extra slippery. And they give you terrible liines. (note exhibit A)

(exhibit A)...EW...

In order to get a nice line, you need to beat the shoes up a bit.

YOU HAVE TO BREAK THEM IN

You have to bend them and work them. They’ll get a little dirty. The satin on the platform starts to rub off and fray.
But your lines are SO MUCH BETTER! (note exhibit B)

(exhibit B)

The “broken” shoes are molded and willing to work with the wearer’s will.(alliteration not intended)

And so it is with us.

Our hearts represent our desires. Our motives. Our purposes.

And they are the “pointe shoes” worn by our Savior.

Once we’re beaten up a bit we make not think we “look” as good…
…but the results can reach perfection.

Let Him mold you. Let him shape you and break you in. Let him do this and your will will become his own.