It's Back!!!!

That's right. It's indestructible, unbeatable, unchangeable. The wart is back. How? How should I know! I've frozen the unsightly little parasite over 20 times (if you include every doctor visit), and I have yet to see even semi-permanent results. Without fail, six months pass, and the little guy decides to pop up again. However, I've determined its origins: student teaching. I've decided that after handling the papers of 12 year-olds for three and a half months, I was bound to touch someone who had a wart. Unfortunately, no one mentioned that in those intro-to-student-teaching classes where they instruct you about the hazards of working in the public education field: shootings, parental threats, no child left behind horrors, long nights of grading, classroom management, the flu, cold season, driving in the snow, and rooms that can't maintain a season-appropriate temperature were all covered. But this? Not once.
Luckily, my husband was a lifeguard, which means he has a history of seeing and dealing with warts. His home remedy is the best I've come across--duct tape. With any luck, by the time Jo comes to Utah, she will actually be able to stay in my home rather than bunking up in a hotel where she is safe.

PS - I decided this blog didn't need a picture.

PPS - Whitney, don't touch their hands.

Thinking of You

I saw these in the store today and thought of you!

PS - Whitney, I think we have all agreed that it's time you checked in so we can (once again, haha) make sure you are still alive.

Lovely

Happy Valentine's Day to the ladies that I love!

What NOT To Wear

So, since Sarah is having some difficulties finding the perfect wedding dress, I thought it might be helpful to show a few styles that can be crossed off the list:


Here is where you can find this beauty with the charming sleeves.

Here, if you can see around the veil, you can find this magnificent button-down and frill-top bodice.

Here is another piece of amazingness if you want to stick to the great sleeve theme.

And to end on a good note, I just wanted to show one that I really liked (barring modesty issues). I am really starting to go for that whole lace look, as long as it is kept fairly simple. (Sorry but I lost the link). Sarah, I hope that helped! =)

not too heavy, not too fluffy, not too disney, please

Planning a wedding is a combination of fun and frustrating and overwhelming. Part of me wants to do everything to make it just *perfect* and part of me just wants to throw my hands up and do it next month without any planning.

The challenge of the past two weeks has been the dress... Ah, the dress. It's one of the few elements, in my opinion, that needs to be just right. I've even surprised myself with how much I've known about exactly what I want in this area. But there's one small problem: it doesn't exist. All along, I've thought that it wouldn't be a problem because my sister's amazing wedding dress maker would help me create the perfect gown. Well, after two weeks of trying, I finally got in touch with her. I just got off the phone with her and she's not taking dress orders until July. :( Maybe I'll just order a dress from JCrew and add sleeves myself.

Boo.

Business Plan

So, as I have been applying to various jobs this week and thinking about how much I want to be in Utah to help Sarah with wedding stuff and hang out with the 4WMs, I came up with a master plan. Actually it came to me as I was walking out of Target with my bottle of contact solution after picking up the most pathetic-ever paycheck from WS.

How amazing would it be, I pondered, to be able to work with your friends instead of having to make new friends at every place that you work? I also realized that if I could come up with an outstanding business proposition (besides our long-term goals with Oganawambula), there might be a way that we could all live near each other and work together - never to be separated again!

Here's the plan that I came up with using our various talents and interests: An education consulting business for NGOs.

Brilliant, right? Here's what we do - we plan effective and amazing education plans for NGOs that run schools and/or orphanages in other countries. In my mind I see us also expanding so that we could provide training, etc. for those educators as well. I think that so many NGOs go to developing countries with high education goals, but may not have the best plans. We would, in conjunction with any government guidelines, develop a curriculum that is extremely effective using the local society and culture as our guide. Here are the various duties:

Whitney and Jen - You would each basically be taking over the development of the actual curriculum with Whitney's focus being on earlier education and Jen working on intermediate education (Jen, I was thinking we would bring on Kate, Jeannine, and whoever else as consultants if you feel the need to discuss and prepare with people who have experience in other disciplines). This curriculum will be fairly detailed and we will focus on meeting and expanding individual government standards while using whatever local resources we can (good for the local economy) and focusing on the cultural needs of the area.

Sarah - Your focus would be on marketing us to our various clients and donors. You (along with me) will identify organizations and countries that may need our expertise and then you would work on the most effective ways to market our services to them, as well as to the various individuals and communities where this would be happening (to engender public good-will).

Me - Along with any of you 3, I will identify those places where we would be working, with an emphasis on researching and understanding local culture, customs, etc. I would get that information to Jen and Whitney to help in their development. I would seek out resources (local, if possible) that J and W see fit to use in their curriculum, including various textbooks, and perhaps local academics, etc. to help with any consulting that we would need.

We would all need to travel, of course, but we would fit traveling requirements to various needs (families, future children, etc.).

So - what do you think? I think it sounds amazing. Is anybody worried that all of this was going through my head while I was supposed to be paying attention to the road on my way home from Target? Haha.

Anyway, I will go back to my job applications now. Hopefully I can continue to bring the same enthusiasm to that area...

Just Saying Hello...in Cyberspace

I often have an urge to write a blog, but then I stop simply because I don't feel I have some extraordinary event to reveal. However, I decided today that blogs didn't have to be "intensely interesting"--I could simply tell you all about life. So I will title this list "Things from Recent Life."

1. If your husband wants you to watch a film that he claims is great and he loved it when he was a kid, be afraid. Usually these movies are not what he remembered them as. Actually, it goes both ways: we've both vowed never to watch a movie the other found "amazing" as a teenager.

2. There is nothing more thrilling than having a student say,"I adore this" in reference to Shakespeare. Did I hear that correctly? And then to have a guy say, "It's pretty cool actually." Be still my heart. But I suppose anyone would enjoy writing like "My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound." Ok, at least I do. So pretty.

3. The older I get, the more I cry. The slightest thing sets me off. I cry at songs, pictures, movies, etc. In fact, I saw Rudy again and cried when he got accepted into Notre Dame. Literally cried. We sang "I Know My Reedemer Lives" in church, I saw President Hinckley's name at the bottom without a death date, and I couldn't get through the rest of the song. We saw Dan in Real Life this weekend, and I cried at the "card" his daughter made him and then when he told all his daughters how they reminded him of his late wife.

4. I made banana bread. I actually used all the brown bananas in the freezer and made banana bread. Why is this important? Well...it's mostly for Jo's sake: I had to prove to her that I eventually get around to doing something with the pile of bananas in the freezer. Also, in anticipation of Sarah's wedding, I realized Jo would be in my house, and I had to start get rid of the cache I've collected.

And those are the big events of the month. I know, I know...you wish your life were as thrilling.