Puppies and Horses

So I have had Geronimo for about 6 1/2 months now. He is 2 1/2 years old and the dorkiest horse I have met. He has such a funny and mellow personality most of the time, but is also the herd leader so he has to be the first one to look out for danger. This means that he is usually the first one to leave the barn if he thinks something might hurt them. While he is a bit jumpy, he is only mildly so. He doesn't have a major freak-out, and it is always easy to handle him. Yesterday Dad and I went out to work with the horses (on an extremely windy Taylor day) and poor Geronimo got traumatized. :) Dad was going to work with Lucy and in the end Geronimo got a bit spooked, which involved him bolting a bit. Even with his little bolt he was super easy to handle and just made me fall in love with him a little bit more. So while we were out in the wind Dad asked if I wanted to thrown the saddle on him, so after I bit I decided sure why not. So he went in and got my saddle and we put it on him. I don't know if it was Dad, the wind, or the combination of both but he was a bit more difficult than usual to put it on him. Then Dad goes, "Get up on him." Ha, in the wind and after you have him all sorts of traumatized? ... Okay. :) So I went inside and put on my boots, just in case he wound up on my toes while I was getting on him. So I came back out and did a little test mount. Totally fine, just a little tense on his part. So then I get up on him. A little bit of a startled step forward, but Dad had him and he was fine. :) So I rode him around for maybe 10-15 minutes. He was a little jumpy, but nothing bad. For the first time being on him ever, and as far as I know I am the first person to ever get on him, he was great. Dad told him he better get used to it, because it was going to be happening a lot more in the future. He was pouting a bit, his lower lip was sticking out and Dad was making fun of him, but he did great. I just love my dorky horse. Dad took a couple of pictures with his phone, but since we just had the halter on Geronmio, he had the lead rope so couldn't take great pictures. So yes that is me on my horse, even if you can't see my face!

 So, I never posted about this, just because first I didn't want to talk about it, and then I just haven't posted in forever. Back in October my 7 almost 8 year old Amadeus died. I have lost dogs before, but this time was the hardest. I had had him the longest and had the strongest bond with him. Usually it is about 6 months before I get a new puppy. Well after just a couple of months I realized I needed a new puppy, the hole he had left was a lot bigger than usual and I needed something to fill it up. I knew I wanted another German Shepherd so I started looking. I checked the classified ads and looked at breeders websites. I found two breeders that were in the valley that I emailed. One offered me a purebred puppy for about 1/3 the usual price. One of her females had gotten to two of the males and had one sable male puppy (which is what I decided I was going to get). After looking at the possible fathers and the mom online, I just didn't feel good about him. The other breeder had a litter to be born in about a week. I had been looking at her website several times since about December and decided to tell her I wanted to reserve a puppy. She told me that I was the fourth person to reserve a male, and she wasn't sure how many males the female would have as she usually had more female puppies than male puppies. Well on the 26th of January she emailed me and said that the mom had had 14 puppies, 9 males and 5 females!! I had my puppy. :) So the first weekend of April I will get to go pick up Glock and bring him home. I had to come up with a "G" name as this is the G litter.

Happiness

So it has taken me a long time to realize this, I have slowly developed this understanding over the past 2 years, but happiness is not a place, it is a state of mind. It is something you decide to be. Sure there are elements that may help you be happy, but in the end it is a personal choice. You just have to decide that whatever the circumstances you are in, you are just going to try your best to be happy. Obviously there are times and situations where you have to remove yourself and change things to be happy, but that is part of life. Ultimately, happiness comes from within yourself, not from the things around you. As a Latter-Day Saint I have always been brought up knowing that you can't find happiness in drinking, partying, sleeping around, or anything like that.

Why do I bring this up? Well I have had friends in the past and friends now that seem to forget this. People who have been raised in the church like I am, but through various circumstances and reasons are looking for happiness in other places. I have had "tipsy texts" or drunk calls from friends who I dearly love and care about. They are some of the people that I care most about and truly want them to be happy. They are people that I know are truly amazing people who can do incredible things with their lives. For different reasons they become unhappy with their life and think that they will find happiness by "going off the deep end" and/or going inactive. It has been awhile since I have had a really close friend do this and I had almost forgotten how hard it can be knowing that they are not going to find true happiness in the course they are taking. It is hard letting them know that I care about them and will never judge them on their choices, but knowing that ultimately they are not going to be happy in their current direction. I can honestly say that I do not judge these friends, I know from my own life that things happen that make you feel like you aren't going to be happy in your situation and that something has to change. When you feel like you have tried everything else, I can understand why they would feel the need to change the way they do. It is not our place here to judge others for the things they do, but rather to let them know that we care about them and want them to be happy, even if we do not agree with the choices they are making. And hope that eventually they really will find the happiness that they are looking for and deserve to find.

Long Time No Post!

Alright, where to begin! So last I posted I was still working at the high school. (Oh how I miss that.) Right before Veterans Day my dad informed me that I was being moved to the elementary school. After a horrible day, yeah he told me first thing in the MORNING, I went to the valley and the next Monday started at the elementary school. During that last day at the high school I spent the whole day either sobbing or trying not to cry. Poor Joey worked in on me crying in the office. Pathetic.

So the first day at the elementary school I was in the 1/2 class doing Math Lab. Most boring day of my LIFE! Next day I was moved up to the 3/4 class. Hey guess what you guys, they really did not need me up there! Another boring few days. Oh guess what the 5/6 teacher quit, so you are filling in until a new teacher is found. Yep I was a fill in teacher for a few days. It was actually pretty fun. Then I was moved to the Kindergarten to be a personal aide for a new... girl... *monster child*. After about two months of that and telling the bosses *AKA my dad and step-mom* that I was not cut out for this position I had a lovely break down and convinced my poor dad that it was not working. So now I am in the 2/3 class and my dear cousin Drew has taken over the girl. It isn't as exciting as the high school, but it is much better than Kindergarten. I have now, this year, been in every class but the 4/5 classroom.

Alright that gets us to the present day work wise. (Well down and dirty fast anyways!)

ACK!!

So I am sure most of us have been in a class and thought "why the heck do I have to know this??" I know I have been, but dealt with it and moved on. You realize, especially in high school, that you learn things that do not feel applicable to you and your life. Especially in life. And you want to know what? Some of those things really are NOT applicable to you and your life. Can anyone tell me when you are really going to use the quadratic formula? Anyone? I mean really. Sure I can still sing it to myself... -b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac over 2a. Whatever. Have I used it since then? Nope. Okay but what about surface area? Volume? Area? Heck yeah you use them. If I want to figure out how much paint to buy to paint a room, I need to know how to figure out surface area. If I want to fill something up and find out how much I can fit in there, that is volume. So yes, you use those things, correct? Unless you are my high school students are would rather waste the money that they do not have and will not make by just buying a bunch of paint, or run to Home Depot a billion times for paint.

You try to teach these kids and realize that you have to do things in a way that they can relate to. There are many teachers out there who use rap to teach different math terms to their kids. There is part of me who loves this idea, "Hey I can get them to learn it using something they like!" Then there is another part of me that says, "What the heck, why do I have to subject myself to something I hate in order for them to learn it? If they want to learn it, they need to apply themselves more." However, there is the problem. They do NOT want to learn it. They do not CARE if they learn it. Why should they? What is in it for them? What is the point? What good is it going to do them?

How do you inspire a bunch of kids to want MORE out of their life than they see around them? I cannot imagine being happy working at Burger King for the rest of my life, or living off of minimum wage. No I am not a snob, but hey you know what? I LIKE driving my truck. I like going out to dinner every now and then. I LIKE not living paycheck to paycheck. I plan on being able to retire at a decent age and having retirement set aside. It frustrates/irritates/saddens me that these kids are totally cool not having goals or aspirations. They feel that they are entitled to certain things, but do not take advantage or responsibility of the things that are rights. How can you have a free education shoved in your face and ignore it? It isn't like I loved high school, but I went and did my best. Am I ever going to use the calculus I learned? Probably not, but you know what, I like having that knowledge in my brain. I like knowing why when I jump on a trampoline the airplane over my head sounds different. (Thank you Mr. Flaherty senior year Physics!) Here I am 23 years old and putting myself thousands of dollars in debt to get an education. Yes, I complain about homework and how I will be in school FOREVER (and I will be), but at the same time I LOVE learning new things. There are days where I want to throw certain textbooks in the fireplace and yell "BURN BABY BURN!!" while I enjoy the bonfire that results..., yet I love gaining new knowledge. Am I the most intelligent person on Earth? No, just sitting around some of my cousins is dang good proof of that!! :) I will admit that I probably do not always reach my full potential, but I at least have some desire to improve myself and to get an education.

I have a billion more things running through my head right now, but I also have a billion more things that I need to get done today.

The Weirdest Kids on the Earth....

I swear, I have THE weirdest kids on this planet. Honestly. I love them all, but they are crazy. I decided that I really need to keep a record of the things that happen around here. Not only are the kids crazy, but we are too. Today, the first day back after Fall Break, was insane. I had moments in the junior high room where I just got soo depressed about the things that they do not know. (Did you know that Gettysburg is a disease??) Only a couple of them really could tell me ANYTHING about the Civil War. All I got from them was that it was fought between the South and the West? or East? or North? Or maybe it was West side against East side.... And it was fought because of slavery. Okay, that I was expecting. In today's world, everyone is taught that the Civil War was fought because of slavery. Welllll no not really. Yes, slavery was an underlying cause, but that is not why it happened. However, that will be another blog... ;)

Not only did they not know about Gettysburg and the Civil War, but there is a sad lack of any sort of awareness. Most of them had never even heard about "Remember The Titans" let alone seen it. I decided we need to watch it next semester when we talk about Civil Rights. Only two of them had seen "Amazing Grace". I told them I would give extra credit if they watched it at home and wrote about it. I doubt any of them will, but at least I tried! There are so many good movies that could honestly do some good for them! Yes I am a bit of a movie person, but hey a little entertainment never hurt anyone! (Apparently I REALLY like exclamation points...)

Oh and we had a mini lesson in junior high history about how long decade, score, century, and millenium each are...Of course only one kid had ever heard of a score and knew what speech it is in. "Four score and seven years ago..." Which makes me think of "Four s'mores and seven root beers ago..." Are you out there Alyssa?? :)

Perhaps one of the reason the kids are the weirdest kids is because they have the weirdest teachers on earth... This morning in morning meeting Joey was giving one of the girls a hard time as it is her birthday tomorrow and she didn't want anyone to know. He told her we would get the Chippendale dancers to come in for her. I started laughing and pointed to he and Michael and said, "Yeah Chip n' Dale." So Michael put his hands up and started swinging his hips which was followed by Joey doing the same. Of course by this time I was just cracking up. I don't think most of the kids caught it, but it was hilarious. Then Michael said that we weren't supposed to tell about his night job. Yeah these are the guys I work with.

Not only do we harass the kids but we harass each other. My co-workers in the high school decided that I was the popular girl in high school. HAHAHA. Yeah. Right. Joey was teasing me and said he has been thinking about taking me out on a date so all of his buddies would think he hooked up with "some young, hot thing". I don't think his wife would like that very much... He then went on to tell me that his buddies are already talking about me.... Yes how would you like to go from being over-weight in high school to suddenly being a high school teacher and having the kids say you are the hot sexy teacher. It is weird and totally hilarious.

Ohh okay so today's craziness with my high school kids. So we were giving one of the boys a hard time as he and his family went to Disneyland over break and he wasn't terribly excited about it. We asked him if he had a good time and he sort of shrugged and said sure. We asked if he got to hug Mickey and he said that they didn't see him. We asked about Minnie and he asked, "Who?" "You don't know who Minnie Mouse is?? You know Mickey's girlfriend??" "No." "Well did you see anyone, Goofy, Pluto??" "Well, I think I saw the dog." .... "Matthew you should be banned from Disneyland. You aren't even allowed to enter through the gates." I think I saw the dog. Seriously? Then later, when all the kids were back inside, Joey, Jeanette, and I were talking about it to each other from across the room. Mathew said something about Snow White and we teased him about how he know Snow White, but "just the dog..." Well Ambsey heard us talking about Snow White and "the dog" and pipes up, "What are you talking about Snoopy about??" Yeah Snoopy. Gotta love these kids.

Anyways, there is a brief glimpse of my crazy, crazy kids! Oh yeah, the picture at the top is one of our high school kids, wrapped up in duct tape.

Trying New Things

So last week I broke out of my comfort zone and tried something new. Amazing, I know. I know several people who have started doing zumba and loved it. I had been looking into taking a class, as they have a couple here in Snowflake/Taylor. So last Tuesday I decided I would take the plunge and do it. I looked up the address of where it was held at and about a quarter 'til 8 got in my truck and headed towards the end of Snowflake. When I got into my truck I got this nervous feeling. "What if I make a total idiot of myself????" Okay that was really the only thought going through my head, but it was repeated over and over and over... When I pulled into the parking lot I wondered if I was in the right place, until I saw the earlier class inside the windows. Then I sat in my truck and wondered if I should go in....

Eventually Jackie pulled up and I went in shortly after she did. At 8:15 it started. Holy. Cow. It was sooo much fun!!! True, my hips do not typically shake and shimmy (seeing as how my left hip pops in and out of place), but it was a blast. I had a hard time with "Keep your toes pointed forward!" FORWARD??? IN??? WHAT!!!?!?!? My toes do not point forward or in! They point OUT. Try starting dance at 3 years old and then at 23 have someone you are not supposed to turn those toes out. Ha. Yeah, doesn't work so well for me. So my toes remained pointing out. After an hour of dancing, getting some of the moves easily, and totally messing others up, I was sweaty and felt great. The next day my arms were sore. Yeah, my arms, weird huh?

Anyways, it was great fun, and good for me to try something new. My next step is to go to the Singles Ward up here on Sunday... I have never been big on the Singles Ward thing, but I decided to give the Snowflake one a try. I am kind of feeling the need to have SOME sort of interaction with people my own age. Who would have thought?? :)

Long time no blog...

So, I have obviously not blogged in AGES. Even now I am not entirely sure what to blog about! It is more of a "where the heck do I begin??" sort of problem. Life has become even crazier than it ever has been before in most ways. Things are changing, life is moving on and I am going crazy! :) 


Today I got on ebay and picked out a saddle. A saddle? Yes for my crazy carrot hungry Geronimo. I have the hardest time with him discerning what his previous owner has done with him and what he just accepts. He has such a great personality. Yesterday he had a saddle on him and I just kind of hopped up while leaning on the saddle. He was a little unsure but didn't bolt or anything. I could probably get up on him without too much of a rodeo. I can't wait until he is ready to ride. :)