Twilight Update

I questioned my judgement after hearing from all the people who loved the movie. So I saw it again tonight to give it another chance. I liked it a little better. But I guess I just needed something different--characters, acting, music, something. I will agree, however, that they did a few of the scenes really well. Sorry Lynley and Raquel. Maybe if I keep watching it over and over I will love it eventually.

P.S. For anyone who thought I was serious about liking the girl singing the vampwolf song, I was not serious. My mom questioned my taste in music so I thought I should clarify. Perhaps my comment was not saturated with enough sarcasm to make it clear.

Twilight...What a Disappointment

My dreams of Twilight bliss on the big screen have been crushed. Unfortunately, the midnight viewing I dragged Jared to last night only made it necessary for me to reread the books in order to wipe the awkward, twitchy performance from my mind.

On a more positive note: I discovered a rockin band called "The Bella Cullen Project." They really bring the story to life. This cover of their song "vampwolf" is my favorite. Better check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnfFUZr7J8

Please Stop Stalking if You are Crazy

I am out of the loop on the news but everyone is talking about "blog stalking." I don't know why anyone would want to stalk me, but I guess it's possible right? So I have three requests. First, if you are creepy stalker then please stop stalking me. (If you are a nice stalker who I may not even know but you just like to read my blog and don't want to look in my windows or kidnap me, then please feel free to read on!) Second, could someone explain to me why everyone is going private all of a sudden? And third, I am stealing a great idea from one of the blogs I read. (Thanks KK & Company...hope you don't mind.) I do not want to go private. I think it's fun to connect with people I know through blogs. So, in order to avoid that, I am just going to take out the personal information I have put on my blog so far. Anyone who is linked to my blog can help me by please taking my last name off of your contacts list. Just put my first name or the name of my blog. That way I won't get stalked by weirdos and that would be great. Thank you!

Sniffling, Sneezing, Coughing, Aching, Teaching

The Bad News: After our big sleeping-outside-in-the-freezing-cold adventure, I got seriously sick.

The Other Bad News: Making a sub-plan is torturous and it's better to just suffer and be miserable than to take a sick day.
The Good News: I made it through Friday.

I'm going to bed.

TrU Love

Due to my recent induction into the Ute Fan club, and after the fantastic TCU game, I spent a freezing night on Friday with Jared and his buddy Beef in line for BYU/Utah tickets. We camped out without a tent or sleeping bags. We had some camping chairs, a couple pairs of socks, some blankets, and a bag of spicy chex mix. Luckily one of our line "neighbors" just so happened to have an extra tent set up (weird...) and they said we could sleep in it. It did nothing to alleviate the excruciating cold and warm my poor frost-bitten feet. But I guess that trying to sleep on hard cement inside of a tent is better than hard cement outside of a tent or sitting in a camping chair for 12 hours. Unfortunately, our other line neighbors were rather vulgar, drunk, and smoking something out of a bong. They became progressively more loud and disgusting as the night wore on. But perhaps the heat from their countless lighted cigarettes kept me from losing any of my digits. (And the smoke possibly increased my chances of developing lung cancer...) But, despite the cold, smoke, and pornographic conversations, it was a pretty entertaining experience. And it proved to be all worth it because we got tickets! They now lie in our special "ticket" box, right alongside Mr. Neil Diamond. Go UTES!

The Friday Night Line--Jared was in line at 1:00 PM Friday and our tickets are still standing room only. Some people camped out from Thursday night until Saturday morning. Crazies.

"Sleeping" Arrangement (They're not really sleeping...they're just closing their eyes because of the blinding flash I surprised them with.)

The Saturday Morning LineUs: Freezing cold, pissed that people were cutting in line, but almost to the ticket office.

My Classroom (Boring unless you're a teacher...maybe even then)

Here are some pictures of my classroom. I am mostly putting these up so that I will remember how I had everything set-up. (Thus the detailed explanations...for my own benefit.) That way if I need to remember someday, here it is. Also for my teacher friends, I enjoy looking at other people's rooms cause I need ideas, so maybe you'd like to look at mine.


This is from the hallway looking in. I'm so excited because this year I have windows! Last year my classroom was a windowless hole.

You can see that I have tables this year. They are an awkward shape but I love them! SO much better than desks! (I don't have to wonder if my little angels have something like a dangerous weapon hidden in their desks.) For me and anyone who cares...the big blue bulletin board will be a word-wall for their sight words and their science vocabulary words. For now, however, the vocab words are on the white board as you can kind of see. The green ones are the vocab for the unit we're doing right now on Earth's Surface. The blue ones are their math words. The red things are the centers they have to do for the week. The yellow words are their sight words which I give each spelling group every week whether they are high or low. (I figure my kids still spelling "cat" need to at least have some exposure to the fifth grade sight words.) One each table you can see they have a little tote. Those have colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, glue, scissors, and crayons in them. Underneath each tote there is a laminated sheet. I do team points by just having them keep their point sheet and an overhead marker at their desk and they give themselves points when I tell them to. So much easier! The team with the most points always gets to line up first etc., and at the end of the week they win a free homework pass. This shows the kids cubby underneath the green science bulletin board. The purple board is for math. You can also see my smartboard which is right next to the math board. I am so lucky to have a smartboard this year. They are awesome. I need to try and use it more. It's kind of hard to switch my thinking into the technology realm. I have used it for a lot of cool stuff though.
Close up of the math and science boards. On the math board you can see venn diagrams the kids made comparing multiplication and addition, and multiplication and division. It's part of our literacy framework to incorporate literacy instruction throughout the curriculum. So I taught them graphic organizers during math. On the science board they wrote their questions about earth's surface before we started the unit (kind of like the K of KWL) and then they made a Volcano Vocabulary page.
I was so excited to have computers this year! The kids use them for centers, we have a math practice program called fastmath, and they've been doing research on them for a project. The red board is the Social Studies board. Right now we are learning about how a bill becomes a law. We did a shared read about the process, then practiced summarizing and put it up on the wall. The weird dragon thing hanging from the ceiling is not mine, it was there when I moved in. I just left it up.
On the yellow cupboards are the recess equipment chart where they check their equipment out using their clothes pin from the behavior chart. Next to that are my jobs. I have president, vice president, and then two equipment monitors. The president gets to lead the pledge, run errands, and always be first in line. Basically it's just a list of the kids who I ask to help me when I need it. I can't keep track of complicated jobs. The two lists are our rules. "Be Respectul, Be Responsible." The first day of school they came up and wrote the specific things that fit under each of those rules. The blue cupboards are the math word-wall. As soon as we are done with our vocab words they will go up there.

This is the easel that I use for interactive writing. Right now we are writing about how to round a number. They are learning how to write a "how-to" (first, next, last) plus reviewing what we've learned about rounding. The shelves are my classroom library. Not gigantic but sufficient. The books on the white shelf are mostly series like Junie B. and Lord of the Rings. The books on the ugly brown shelf are categorized by genre. What I really need to do is get some stickers on them indicating reading level or something but I can only do so much! Those green signs on the wall are for centers. One tells what they need to write down about the story they listen to in the listening center. The other one with the whiteboards on the wall is the "mystery-word." It's a scrambled word that they have to use to make as many 2 letter, 3 letter, 4 letter, and 5 letter words with. Then they try to figure it out. After, they add up their "points" by a little math code thing on their mystery word page. Each week I tell them how many points they need. It's just word-work (but don't tell them that...they think it's awesome.) The white chart paper on the wall are the rules for center time that we wrote as a class. They basically say "do your work and don't bother the teacher unless you're bones are broken and sticking out." (Obviously I really guided them on what the rules should be...haha.)

This is my "desk" where I pull literature groups, guided reading groups, and spelling groups during center time. I have 4 lit groups, 1 guided reading (for kids at least 2 grades below grade level), and 5 spelling groups. When I pull spelling groups I give them their test and then give them their new spelling list and sort page for the week. Then a mini-lesson on the pattern or thing they're working on that week. For center time they also have to do spelling centers. There are four things they do--one for each day. Then they turn their spelling centers in to me when they come to their spelling group. For reading groups, I pull 4 of the groups just twice a week, and then the guided reading group every day. They have assignments from reading groups that they have to work on during center time also. Needless to say, I am pressed for time just a little bit to fit 10 groups in during the week and the kids stay busy during center time cause they have lots to do! (At least they are supposed to stay busy...) The cubbies under the word-wall are extra cubbies that were for students one year because of an enormous class size. Now, unfortunately, they're permanent and so I try to use them for my shelves. I have the kids keep their math books (orange) and science binders (blue) in some of them. The rest I just have organized by subject for me. (Math, ELD, Centers, Science, etc.)

Last but not least, this one goes out to Mrs. Wallace. Mrs. Wallace was my favorite high school teacher who has this sign in her room. We always thought it was weird but now I've decided I like it. It depends on how you look at it as to what it says. So if you have a positive attitude, it will say "succes is now here." Okay maybe I'm lame. But I hope one of my kids becomes a teacher in the future and remembers that sign and puts it in their classroom.

So that's it for the ridiculously detailed tour. I know that was probably boring if you even lasted this long. But it really is for me to remember because I'm liking the way my class is set up this year. So if I retire for a while and then go back, I will remember how it worked. All you other teachers, I want to see and hear about your class too!

It's a Boy!

No it's not. I'm totally lying and not even a little bit pregnant. But I am back to blog again! And I have pictures this time! It has once again been forever since I blogged. This is because my life has been taken over by my job. Apparently teaching in Rose Park, SLC is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT job than teaching in Pleasant View Utah. It's like night and day, black and white...English and Spanish you could say. I have never worked so hard or long in my entire life. College was a breeze compared to this job. After days and nights and mornings and evenings and even afternoons of working and crying and yelling and complaining and grading and planning, I think my hard work and long hours are finally starting to pay off. (I use the term "starting" loosely.) I literally am at the hardest school I could be. Probably 95% of our students are ELL students. (English Language Learners) We have the most gang activity in the city in our blessed little neighborhood. Our school has already been vandalized multiple times. In fact, one of my students was on in-school-suspension the first day of school for vandalism. I have one white student in my class. The majority of my kids are Hispanic. I will need 14 translators for SEP conferences next week. Many of our kids don't have things they need like clothes, shoes, or even food. (Pardon the following teacher lingo...) On top of all of this, our school does not have any traditional "programs" except for a math program (mandated by the district of course.) This means that I do not have a basal reading program, a social studies or science text book, or a spelling program in place. Our school is based on the CELL/ExLL framework which basically means that we have to integrate all of our content area instruction with our "language arts." In other words, we don't teach "reading." We teach Science by using supplemental Science texts to work on reading strategies. We don't just teach math. We write about math and teach it that way. That's a very over simplified way to explain it. But the point is, even though the concept is amazing in my opinion, it is HARD. Also, our school district is being sued currently by the OCR because they feel we are not addressing the needs of ELL students. This means that the all powerful education gods have given us strict laws to teach 45 minutes of ELD (English Language Development) to leveled groups of ELL students 5 days a week and these laws are to be obeyed at all costs. What are the native speakers supposed to do during this 45 minutes? Good question...we're still working on that... And lucky us, our school is being observed by the OCR while they decide whether or not we are up to par since we do not have any traditional programs. Our school also did not make AYP last year which means if we don't get amazing scores this year, we will be taking even more orders from "the man" next year. ON TOP OF THIS, I am required to take two classes this year in order to even be eligible to teach at this school. (One of them is the class from Hell.) AND ON TOP OF THAT this school has the most professional development in the state of Utah. That means meetings, workshops, sub plans, and more meetings. Wow, I didn't even mean to talk about all of those things in this blog. But I did. Sorry to all of you who, if you're even still reading, are bored out of your minds. This is really just a journal where I can vent and I will someday be able to remember the horror. (Okay not horror...just being dramatic...) In conclusion, I will just say that this year is proving to be a challenge. But despite all of this, I am actually starting to see some success in my classroom. I am also learning tons and will be a much better teacher if I survive the year. I don't know how anyone lasts in this profession for 30+ years. God bless them. (Everyone please pray that no one from my school or district reads this blog cause I might get fired....on the other hand....maybe that's not a bad idea....) Next on my agenda for today...I love Salt Lake. I really do. There is always something to do, we love our ward, we even love our tiny apartment. The following pictures are some of our apartment; please note the cinder block walls. After those there are some pictures of the night Jared and I tried to go to Body Worlds which is in Salt Lake right now. They were sold out so we went and hung out at the library and took some fantastic red-eye, blurry pictures with the camera I conveniently had in my purse for once, bought a year pass to the planetarium (I love IMAX movies and it was only $50 for both of us for a year!), saw an awesome IMAX about the Alps, and ate at the Sky Box. I need to get some pictures of my classroom up soon too. But for now, enjoy!

Yes that is blue styrofoam in our window. Classy.How did I get a nail into cinder block walls? Super-human strength.Notice the mini-stove. Yes it's actually real! (Raquel, I know you love collecting miniature things so you can have it for your collection if you will trade me for a real grown-up sized one.)

We were a little bummed that we didn't get to go to Body Worlds. But at least we got a picture of the sign with Jared sitting on the ground to show his disappointment.

Just practicing some modeling poses. We need to practice due to our future plans of breaking into the fashion business. (Just ask my brother Andrew about our fashion sense...) We decided we will either do that or run for President and Vice President. We'll let you know when our "future" gets closer.

I've gotten really good at the "mad teacher face" shown above due the fact that my class is OUT OF CONTROL. Hopefully it doesn't get stuck that way...

UTE UTE UTAH

My BF Raquel and I both started teaching fifth grade this year. And we both dropped off the face of the blogsphere when school started. So I know I'm not the only one who is having a hard time finding time to do ANYTHING besides create lesson plans and grade papers. Teaching is seriously hard. Anyone who disagrees that teaching is hard or has some problem with the public school system, you try it for a year and then tell me what you think. Nothing has ever worn me out like teaching. And going from Pleasant View to West Salt Lake is like a whole different job. So, needless to say, my blogging time/energy is limited. But hopefully I'll settle into a routine and feel like I'm keeping my head above water soon. Then I'll be back. I promise. P.S. We love our new apartment and living in Salt Lake. I am shocked at how much I like Salt Lake cause I always thought I was a small town girl. But we are having a blast. P.S.S. The Utes won on Saturday and I am becoming a much bigger football fan than last year. Sorry Heidi--I love the Utes. Molly if you're reading this, I totally forgot to call you. I suck. I'm sorry. We gotta hang out soon though!

Don't Worry

We survived moving. We're still alive. I love my new job. I'm B-U-S-Y! More to come.

Home Sweet Home

On Wednesday Jared and I went to see our new "apartment." After seeing it I will be referring to it instead as our "compartment." When we walked in I started laughing because I couldn't believe it was really that small. (In my illustration you can see a bird's eye view of us standing in our living room with me having a bad hair day and laughing--yeah I have wicked paint skills.) But, despite the size, we are totally excited. We might even purchase some new furniture and decor to liven up our asphalt tile floors and cinder block walls. Moving in 4 days. Whoo hoo! It may be miniature but it's all ours!

One Year!

Yesterday was our one year anniversary. Jared was at a fire in Grantsville and I didn't know if he would be able to come home in time. So I was on the phone with my mom at 11:00 PM Saturday night, complaining about how Jared might not make it home and he hadn't called me yet. Right after I hung up with her, Jared walks through the door with a dozen roses, a bottle of sparkling cider, and a serious fire odor. I was so happy! So we spent yesterday eating our not-too-appetizing wedding cake, hanging out, cooking dinner, and playing with the rats. Yeah not the most extravagant anniversary but it was Sunday so we couldn't do much. It was just so nice that he went to all the trouble to make it home in time and we were able to spend time together. Even after a whole year, I still can't believe how blessed I am. There isn't anyone in the world that could be more perfect for me. He is everything I could have asked for and way way more! Okay...getting mushy...I'll stop. I just can't believe how fast this year has gone. Everyone says that the first year is the hardest. All I can say is that if that's as hard as it gets, I can't wait for all the years to come because marriage rocks!

I'm Back

Okay so I have sucked at blogging lately. I was trying to download some pictures of the last couple weeks but for some reason it won't let me. So instead of pictures I am going to blog about Breaking Dawn. As some of you may know, I am a big Twilight fan. The last book in the series was released at midnight on Friday. Coincidentally Jared was at a fire overnight in Grantsville so I decided I would go get my copy and read while he was gone. I went to Walmart at 11:30 and got in a BIG line. I was so paranoid that I would get up there right after they handed out the last book. Luckily, however, there were plenty and I got one and made some friends with the other Twilight fanatics in line. I went home and read until 5 in the morning. I slept till 1 PM. Then I woke up and read until 7. I made it through all 750 pages in less than 24 hours. It was awesome. Yeah while I was reading it I was thinking, "wow this is really cheesy and ridiculous...but I LOVE it!" So now I'm giving a shout out to all you Twilight fans and recommending that you read the last one for sure. And if you couldn't get a copy, just call me. You can borrow mine cause I'm finished. :)

Solo Sleeping Finale

It has been a crazy, long, fast, fun, sad two weeks. I have had so much fun with my family but have been missing Jared a lot. Jenny and I had fun chilling by our pool and watching lots of movies while my parents were gone. When my parents got back, I went with Jenny and my Mom to St. George to shop and see Les Miserables at Tuahcan. It was awesome. I helped my dad do some yard work and we went to see the new Batman Movie. Andrew even joined in some fun family bonding which mostly involved eating lots of food. I have pictures but I'll post them when I get home. I don't have my cord with me. And here is the great news...Jared will be home sooner than planned. Tomorrow around 4:00 PM I will be a happy woman! I'm so excited to see him. Leaving will be a little bittersweet, however. It has been nice to be home and see my family. We don't see them that much since we're so far away. I will miss them after our last two weeks of bonding. Hopefully when we move closer (in a few weeks--yay!) then we will see them more. Well, now I'm off to endure my last night of sleeping alone. Hopefully this will be the last one for a long time.

Help

Can someone tell me why my pictures are all stretched out on my slideshow at the bottom and how to fix it?

On a less worthless note...

I finished Les Miserables about 12 minutes ago. It is probably one of the best stories of all time and is now on my favorites list. I even cried at the end. I don't know why I didn't appreciate it when Mrs. Wallace forced me to read it...

I am at my parents' house...

They are gone. I miss my husband. I should be working on stuff for school. I have been saying that all summer. Instead, I watched a marathon of Law & Order. It lasted many hours. I am worthless.

I'm an Idiot

I swear I am an 80 year old woman. It took me FOREVER to figure out how to put a slideshow on my blog. Even my mom said it was easy (no offense mom). Obviously I'm not the brightest crayon but I did figure it out and there is now a fully functioning slide show of wedding pictures at the bottom of this blog. Please feel free to view it and then tell me how dumb I am cause it shouldn't have been hard enough to keep me up until 12:08 in the A.M. Or you can just be nice and say, "Good job Amy! We are glad you're teaching young children!"

Fire and a Paper Chain

When Jared started fire fighting this summer, we knew there was a chance he would be leaving on a two week tour. On Wednesday, we were up at Bear Lake with his family when he got a phone call saying "get back here now, we're leaving for California." So we throw our stuff in the car, hurry back, and I drop him off at the fire station and go home alone. I thought I would be okay if he left. But as I pulled away from the station, I cried my head off. Two weeks is a long time! (I don't know how you military families do it!) So I got a pizza and a movie, locked the doors, got my pepper spray, and slept with the light on. Yeah my grandparents live upstairs but I'm a chicken. (They did offer to let me sleep upstairs but I decided to be a big girl.) The next day I packed up the rats and headed to Nephi. Now me and Jenny are hanging out while our parents are on vacation. (Any creepy person thinking that's an invitation to break in, we have two MEAN guard dogs, two vicious rats, and I lift weights...so don't even think about it.) It will be fun to spend some time with Jenny. But I miss him already! In the words of Brian Dansie, this sucks worse than any suck that has ever sucked. I'm ready for him to come home. I think I'll make a paper chain to count down the days.

P.S. I cut my hair short. Pictures are coming soon.

I Have a Stalker

The last day of school I gave my email address to my students so they could keep in touch. A few of them have emailed me. One of them is a little over the top. He has emailed me telling me he cried his head off for days when school ended, said he had written a new series that was coming out in bookstores called "Lightning Kid" (yeah right- he can't even write a sentence correctly), invited me to his dance recitals (ballet to be exact), and now this: The email subject was "I Miss You" and it included this message and picture. Creepy.

I MISS SO MUCH

New Blog

I have a desire to share my new vegetarian views. I know some people (you know who you are) might refer to me as an "environmentalist wacko." But I don't care. The more I think about it and the more I learn, the more I realize this is important! So, to spare those who don't feel like hearing about it, I'm starting a new blog. This will be entirely dedicated to my new diet. It will include reasons to become vegetarian, how to do it, and easy recipes that are delicious and humane. I would love any additional recipes, ideas, and your feeback. If, however, you want to continue wallowing in your ignorant, animal ingesting, hormonally altered existence, then do not click HERE.

Warning: Whining Ahead

I used to love Sundays. With Jared working, they have turned into the L-O-N-G-E-S-T days of my life. I don't know why. I am usually okay every other day but Sundays are really hard. Especially when he doesn't get home until 8:00. I think it's because this was usually the one day we didn't have to go and do anything and we could just stay home and be together. Now I just stay home, don't have anywhere to go, and I miss Jared. I really shouldn't complain because I am so blessed and I know that some husbands are gone for way longer than mine. Plus he did get enough time off in the mornings to go to Sacrament meeting. But I miss him. And he will probably be leaving on a 14 day tour to fight fires in California sometime soon. Then I will really miss him. I'm glad he's having this opportunity to be a fire fighter. But I'm glad it's just for the summer.

Utes and Shamu and Teacher Sweaters

I found some pictures from December that reminded me I should post about our first Christmas together. I couldn't decide what to get Jared. I wanted to get him something good but he's hard to shop for. Jared is a die-hard Utes fan and they were playing in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. He had mentioned going and I, being the football fan that I'm not, wasn't very excited about it so he dropped it. I woke up one morning with the great idea to surprise him with tickets. With some encouragement from my friend at work, I called and bought the tickets and I booked hotels...excuse me...Motels for us. Since it was before Christmas, it had to be an early present. I am so bad at keeping secrets like this but I managed to hold it in until the day he finished finals. At school, I had one of my girls with really bad handwriting and spelling transcribe a letter to Jared.

It said:

"Dear, Jared do you whant to go to the pointseta bull with Mrs. Madeo? She wants you to go so much you can go to sea wold, beach, zoo. You can ride the troly and eat in little Idly. You will have to dive to sandeago do you want to go? Ceck yes or no in the box. it will be SO SO much fun!!!

from: Jane*"

(*names have been changed to protect the innocent)

When he got home from school that night, I was sitting on the couch acting as if I was correcting papers that my students had written. He sat in the recliner and was doing something on the computer. While I was "correcting papers" I kept handing him papers and saying "oh my gosh this is so funny you have to read this one." By about the fourth paper I handed him I could tell he was getting annoyed. So then I said "Okay just read this one last one" and I handed him the letter. He read it just because he is too nice to tell me I'm driving him crazy. He was so confused at first but then I pulled out the tickets and handed them to him. He was way surprised and excited to go.

We left a few days before Christmas. I think the game was on the 22nd or 23rd. We drove to Vegas and stayed with my cousin Maranda. Then we headed to San Diego. When we got there we checked into our motel. Needless to say, going with the cheapest Super 8 I could find was probably not the most sanitary of ideas. For reasons why please refer here. We crashed for a couple of hours and then saw that the clock on the nightstand said 4:00. I think the game started at 7:00 so we figured we would ride the trolley down, get something to eat, and then make it to the game about an hour early. We got off the trolley at Qualcomm stadium. Right when we got off the trolley we had to go through a security checkpoint and found ourselves in the parking lot of the stadium with the guard saying "no re-entry." Wonderful. Next we looked at our phones to check the time and realized that the clock in the motel had been an hour fast. It was actually 3:00 when we left. We were four hours early to the game, couldn't get into the stadium yet, couldn't leave the parking lot, and there was nowhere to eat. We wandered around for about 3 hours, even waving at the players as they arrived (yeah we were there before the players...) until they finally opened the gates and let us in. We ate some ginormous polish hot dogs, and then found our seats. Lucky us...we were seated next to some very drunk U students and could barely see the field. We decided to take a walk up to the very top of the stadium to kill some time and see if maybe we should just sit up there instead. When we got up there, a man randomly said to us "Hey if you guys need some seats you can come sit by me...I've got a bunch of unused tickets." We thanked him and when we went to find our new seats they turned out to be like 12th row on the forty yard line. Thanks Mr. Nice Man who offered us your seats. Unfortunately I don't even remember if we won or lost. (I usually end up watching the people around me more than the game.) I think we won. But either way the game was really fun. (Funny story about the game and Amy being stupid: I could not figure out why I smelled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all around us. I kept asking Jared who was eating PB & J. Finally he realized that what I was smelling was beer. For some reason it smelled like peanut butter sandwiches to me. It was my first beer-smelling experience. You might not be surprised to hear that I am from Utah.)

(**Okay looking at this picture of the score board I think we won.**)

Since we went to the football game, I got to pick what we did the next day and I picked SeaWorld. We watched the shows, petted dolphins, got attacked by seagulls while eating lunch, and saw tons of animals. I was in heaven. The Shamu show was a little lame. But overall it was a really fun day and we were surrounded by tons of other Ute fans there for the Bowl Game. And the best part was it only cost $3,000,000 a ticket to get in. Okay so I'm exaggerating but I'm blown away by how much theme parks charge.

That night we ate the best Italian food I have ever had at a dumpy looking restaurant in Little Italy. The next day we drove to the beach for a little while and then headed home to make it back in time for Christmas in Nephi. I wish we could have spent more time there. San Diego is beautiful. I hope we can go back sometime soon! Keep watching for a future flash back post of our New York expedition.

P.S. Jared also surprised me for Christmas with some fabulous Christmas teacher sweaters from D.I. My husband is the best. I can't believe I put this picture on cause I look like trash but you just had to see one of the sweaters. Do you think it's slimming and matches my softball sweats and Ute t-shirt? The next day I wore one of my sweaters to meet Andy's girlfriend. I think she was impressed. (Here's to Mrs. Ogden!)