One of the three jobs I've had this semester has been working as an ESL teacher for Provo School adult ESL program. I taught the level 5 students, who have a pretty good understanding of English but need to work on mechanics and vocabulary. At the beginning of the semester we had about 15 students but through the course of the semester that number went down to about 6, which dropped to 5, then 4, until for the last few weeks I was left with my most stalwart 3 students: EunJung, from Korea, Alejandra, from Mexico, and Manuel, from Mexico. I had so much fun teaching them and I really grew to consider them my friends. It's been a privilege to get to know them and help them on their English-learning journey. We had the semester graduation on Wednesday and I was happy to award each of them with certificates of completion, as well as a few other awards. I'll definitely miss them next semester!

Jaime's Birthday Surprise

As I mentioned before, Jaime's birthday was December 1st, the same day we won our football championship. That's a pretty good birthday present, don't you think? We had some cake, and she and I did some fun things that afternoon. She was very appreciative of the great birthday we'd given her. Ha. She didn't even know what was coming.

Her birthday was a Thursday, so we told her that we had some special birthday plans for Friday night with just our roommates and Angela, who is pretty much a roommate anyway. Now, before I continue, let me just say that there are several other people that I wish could have participated in this activity with us. We were limited to car space, though, so they weren't able to come. But I still love them.

About a week before her birthday, though, they (Angela, Whitney, and Jaime) found out that they had an intramural basketball game Friday night. Grr... I am not very understanding or patient when it comes to conflicts with the amazing birthday surprises that I plan. We had to adjust our plan so we couldn't do the birthday surprise until Saturday. We told Jaime to be ready at noon, which in the end was a very smart move because it totally threw her off.

Early Saturday morning, though, the other four of us packed the car then woke her up at 6:30 in the morning and told her she had five minutes to brush her teeth, put a bra on, put her shoes on, and get in the car. We started driving south on the freeway and it wasn't until we got to Nephi, I think, (which is about an hour south of us) that she figured out we were going to Las Vegas! She said she'd had some other ideas but they were all ideas that could be done after noon. Haha. Sucker.

Backing up for a minute, the night before, I started packing her bag while she was still at work. I tried to take things that she wouldn't notice were missing so when I took the scarf she'd told me she wanted to wear for our birthday activity, I was relieved that it was pretty much buried under other scarves anyway. She wouldn't even notice it. Wrong. That night as she was getting ready for bed, for some reason she decided to get her clothes together for the next day. Which she never does. She noticed the scarf was missing and freaked out. I tried my best to not talk to her because I knew she'd know I took it. I'm not very good at denying things if she accuses me of them. Finally I told her just to drop it. She realized I had it (still had no idea why) and finally let it go. So the next morning, we're driving around and we tried to get her to guess where we were going. The first thing she said? "I can't, because someone stole my scarf!" Mental note: if you steal her scarf, Jaime will never forgive you.

If you'll remember, about four months ago a group of friends went down to California. On the drive back, as we were driving through Vegas I had the idea to buy tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show for Jaime's birthday. We saw our first Cirque show in February, Viva Elvis, and we all LOVED it, so I knew she would be super excited and I was pretty sure I could get the other girls onboard with me. That was four months ago. It took me about a month to remember to talk to the other girls when Jaime wasn't in the room. We bought our tickets in October and have been sitting on this secret ever since. My favorite holiday all year is my birthday, but I think my second favorite holiday might be Jaime's birthday, just because I love trying to think of a super cool surprise for her. She usually tries to figure it out, and she often does. Not this year. She had no idea, which made it even more fun!



We stayed at Aubrey's grandpa's house in Mesquite, Nevada, which is about an hour outside of Vegas. We got there early enough to to take a nap, since most of us had been up since about 6 that morning. We then got ready and headed down to Vegas.

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, which is becoming a Vegas tradition.

This time we saw The Beatles: Love at the Mirage hotel. Jaime's dad is a huge Beatles fan so she grew up listening to them. The show, as expected, was amazing. I was in awe at what the human mind can create. The show is so interesting visually with the sets, costumes, routines, tricks, and special effects. It is incredible to me that before that could ever be created, someone had to first imagine it and then figure out how to build it. We humans are an impressive breed.

After the show we walked over to the Bellagio to see the dancing fountains, easily one of my favorite things in Vegas. On the way there we ran into this pretty tree. The lights were so cool! All of Vegas was decorated for Christmas, though I was a little surprised that it wasn't decorated more than it was. For a city that thrives on over-the-top, I thought the decorations were pretty typical. They were beautiful, just not the typical Vegas mind-blowing beautiful.

Happy birthday to my best friend!

Saturday night, Happy Sumo happened. Happy Sumo is a sushi place that all my friends are obsessed with so they organized a night for everyone to go together. I've tried sushi before and I'll admit, I wasn't the biggest fan. It was fine, but nothing spectacular.

Except it is spectacular. I went for the company, with no plans to even order anything, but I ended up ordering two rolls and I wished I could've eaten two more. It was so good. I guess sushi is one thing that really matters where you get it. No more cheap sushi for me.

Don't worry, I became a Happy Sumo VIP this morning. I'm that dedicated.

Intramural Champions

Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that our flag football team was awful in the regular season but tore it up in the tournament? Well, I even underestimated our fabulosity.

We won the freakin' 'ship. Intramural Champions!

Just in time for the championship, we had our best turn-out ever from our fans. Jason, Erik, Aubrey, and DeeAura all came to support us. There were also several people there supporting the other girls on the team, including Whitney's mom and step-dad who drove down from Roy to watch the game.

They asked for it. Take pictures of yourself with my camera and it's published for the whole world to see.

That day was Jaime's birthday. I was nervous about having a game on her birthday because losing would have meant a bad mood for a birthday. Not a good idea. Good thing we won! We all came back to our house afterwards for some cake. Jaime's in a Portuguese class this semester and has to do several Portuguese or Brazilian cultural activities. She was in a bit of a bind at the end of the semester, needing activities but not finding them. I googled Brazilian recipes and found a Brazilian carrot cake to make for her birthday. Cultural activity: check. Tasty treat: check. It didn't even taste like carrots, really. 

Feliz Aniversário!

Two very wonderful events have happened in the last two weeks:

1. We got a Christmas tree! Aubrey's parents let us borrow an old tree that they had in storage. It's about four or five feet tall and leans severely but it is gorgeous. For Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago Aubrey, Whitney, and I went to pick up the tree and some decorations. When we got home Jaime, who was doing homework, joined us as we decorated it together.

Everyone had a job.

Aubrey: Put the hooks on the ornaments.

Jaime: Continue to do homework.

Kaley: Lights. I had a couple moments of frustration with some uncooperative lights but in the end I got them all to work. No need to worry.

Whitney: Get the tree to stand up straight. Her job was the hardest and in the end impossible to fulfill. She did manage to get it fluffed out and looking beautiful, though.

Finished product. This tree brings me sheer joy every time I see it. Seriously.

2. I downloaded 100 classic Christmas songs for 4 dollars from Amazon. That's right, friends. That's 4 cents a piece. Add in the Michael Buble Christmas and the ever-present *NSYNC Christmas and I've got some serious Christmas cheer goin' on over here.

Thanksgiving State of Mind

Happy Thanksgiving! It's an all-year state of mind, right?

This year for Thanksgiving I spent it with my Utah family, the Zogmaisters. I've gone there every year since I came home from my mission and it feels almost as good as home.

Jaime and her mom carved the turkey. It was Jaime's first time, which of course needed to be documented. It was a tasty turkey.

To keep them entertained while everyone else cooked, the kids made fruit turkeys. Here's Haizyn showing me hers while eating the pieces off of it.

Here's a close-up. Cute, huh? I guess they usually make them with gumdrops but Jan decided to go healthier this year and I think they turned out just as cute and you don't have hyped up children afterwards.

Jaime's sister Michelle decorated the basement (where we ate) before dinner. Each person had a personalized turkey placemat. On the tables were also cut out hands of all colors on which everyone wrote things they were grateful for and then put them on the grateful tree on the wall. It looked really cute and gave everyone something to do besides eat.

Here's our very colorful, pretty healthy Thanksgiving spread. I made the broccoli cranberry slaw. I really didn't eat a lot more than what's on that plate but I was uncomfortably full for hours afterwards. I don't know what it was that filled me up so much.

 The big, happy family. I mean big as in number. Not size. Although James is pretty big.

Here's my Top 5 Thankful list for this year, in no particular order:

1. Three Jobs. The schedule is really terrible but I'm very blessed to have three well-paying jobs all related to what I actually studied in school. They're intellectually stimulating and fun at the same time. And unlike my Wells Fargo job, I actually feel like a better version of myself when I'm at work.

2. My surrogate family. From the second I came back to Utah after my mission, the Zogmaisters have taken me in as one of their own. They've welcomed me for Thanksgivings and Christmases, birthdays, campouts, concerts, and pretty much any other family event you can think of. I'm quite positive that several of Jaime's nieces and nephews actually think I'm their aunt.

3. Good roommates and friends. I have a group of about 8-10 girls that I consider sisters in every sense of the word except the biological one, of course, though several of us get asked on a regular basis if we're sisters. Apparently, having brown hair and brown eyes is all you need to look related. Especially with my family being so far away, these girls have become my support, my cheerleaders, my confidants, and my fun for the last two years and I love them so much. They make me better every day.

4. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am overwhelmed daily by the unfailing patience and mercy that my Savior has for me. Through the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon, words of the prophets, personal prayer, and church meetings I am continually strengthened and uplifted. I have never once felt like I didn't know my purpose in life. Even though my path in life has changed and I am constantly re-evaluating whether or not I am heading in the right direction, I have always known and will always know that I am here to gain experience and knowledge so that I can someday return to live with my Heavenly Father.

5. My real family. From 1600 miles away I feel their love and support. They are always excited to see or talk to me and they happliy change their plans for entire weekends when I come into town just so we can be together. My heart yearns for them on a daily basis and I am so grateful for the chance I will have next year to see them much more frequently than I do now.

On a less official note, I am also grateful for a beautiful Christmas tree and Christmas music, a garage, boots, a laptop computer, wireless internet, my bed, my spacious house, a working CD player in my car, new music, Friends DVDs, muddy buddies that I made last night, mascara, concealer, sunny winter days, home-cooked meals four times a week, coupons, and being able to teach every day.

Have you ever had those times when you just freak out for no good reason? I mean, there's a reason. It's just not a good one. You're insanely rude and crazy to people you love because you legitimately feel crazy inside and have to get it out, though once you do get it out you wish you hadn't because you've done some damage to people who don't deserve it. Once you finally calm down, you realize it was all so dumb in the first place and why again was it so hard to keep it inside? And why again did that no-good-reason even upset you?

No? No one?

Well, it happened to me last night. I woke up this morning feeling terrible and wondering why I don't have more control over my emotions, especially when there's no legitimate reason to be upset. And even though I'd already apologized to those whom I was rude to, I still feel so awful about it that I can't let it go. This has happened before and it was also very late at night....My poor future husband. Middle of the night is when Crazy Kaley comes out. I hope he can handle it. And I hope I can learn how to handle myself.

I have an internal conflict.

Sometimes I look at some pretty cool blogs with gorgeous pictures and witty writing that have 9000 followers. I think to myself: I could do that. I could write that well and I could edit my pictures so they were pretty. Then maybe I'd get more than 8 people looking at my stuff. I don't know why I would want that - it's not like I'm looking to make money off of my blog. It just makes you feel nice, you know, to know that people think you're interesting. I guess it's a popularity contest between me and the rest of the internet universe. Right now I'm losing miserably.

But then I think...meh. I don't really care enough to take the time required to make my blog something people would want to read even if they don't know me. Especially since I don't really have any special talents, like food or crafts or talents. I mean, it's not like I can just make a blog about how gorgeous I am. That's all I've really got going for me anyway.

So I'll just have to content myself with that fact that about ten people read my blog. I'll just have to remember that hundreds of unsuspecting pedestrians see my stunning beauty every day without my even realizing it. I'm touching more lives than I know.

On the other hand, I can make a blog post about how beautiful these flowers are. They're from my thoughtful friends for my birthday. One of my favorite things in the world is fresh flowers in the house. (I'm different from Margaret Tate that way.) My husband will realize this and bring me flowers at least twice a month. His wife will be the happiest wife of all.

Thinking about how I'm not reaching my bloggorific potential makes me think about the lack of -orific anything I have going right now. Let me explain.

Growing up, I always wanted to be a singer. I know every child wants to do that, but I never grew out of my wish. I still wish I could be a singer. In college I got rejected from the music school four times which, I hate to admit, took a little toll on the good ol' self-confidence. Other than that, I never put forth the effort to keep singing. I wasn't in choir in college because I didn't make it my first year and never tried out again. I haven't stuck with my piano-playing and I've never learned to play the guitar so my songwriting abilities are pretty limited. In short, I never accomplished my dream and the likelihood is that I never will.

Usually, I'm ok with this turn of events and I accept it as God's hand in my life. It seems I've been put on a different path, leading me to more glamorous things. Like teaching. Sometimes, though, I wonder if it's really God's will that's gotten me here or just my lack of effort. Could I have done something pretty amazing with a music career if I'd just tried a little harder? If I'd knocked a few more doors or been a little more persistent? Is this a result of my own laziness or is this really what's right for me? What else am I missing out on simply because I wasn't willing to put forth the effort? 9000 blogger followers, apparently.

I'm not sure how to stifle the "I could've been so much more than this" feelings that creep up in my mind and heart sometimes. Maybe that's God's way of telling me that I need to get my butt in gear and actually work for something. Or maybe it's Satan's way of trying to make me feel like what I'm doing right now, which I can recognize is totally worthwhile, is not as good as something that wouldn't have really been very good for me. Sometimes it's just hard to sort it all out.

How do you deal with your disappointments?

I check my blogger dashboard every day and I check my comments. No one has commented in weeks. Geez. It's as if I haven't blogged in weeks.