Game and Happy Christmas!

Here is some "game" Amy sent me which I am doing out of boredom... you have to use the first letter of your name for everything.

1. What is your name: Heather

2. A 4 Letter Word: Howl

3. A Boys Name: Harry (Potter!)

4. A Girls Name: Hannah (Abbott)

5. An Occupation: Healer (at St. Mungo's)

6. A Color: Hot pink

7. Something you wear: Hats

8. A Beverage: Hot Chocolate

9. A Food: Haggis (maggoty)

10. Something found in the bathroom: Hair potion

11. A place: Hogwarts

12. A Reason for being late: Horcrux Hunting

13. Something you shout: "Hold your hippogriffs!" - Hagrid, Order of the Phoenix, p. 20

Bye Bye!!

Well! Long time no blog.

So first of all, I competed in many, many dance competitions during the past month or so. Maybe I'll post videos later. But here is a picture of me and my parter (this is posed, but we actually do this in our foxtrot routine).



Now secondly, I had to say goodbye to Keith yesterday. She's been in Utah about 2 1/2 months, maybe a little less. So much has happened since she came. I mean, to her, primarily. She got her learner's permit and then her driver's license, which is awesome! Also she got her license 10 days after her first time driving... isn't that crazy? I never knew someone could learn to drive that fast. But she did! Here's a picture of us together after one of my dance competitions.


And so yesterday, I took her to the airport. She's never flown before, so I talked her through everything - security, concourses, finding your gate, getting on the plane, little blue screens to find your connecting gate, etc. Then she went through security, and I watched her go, and almost cried. It was like watching my child leave home and hoping she is ok. But I know she will be.... <3

Math, math, math

I've been teaching math nonstop. I am student teaching at Provo High School, which is about 5 minutes (driving) from my house. Today was the end of the quarter, thank goodness! I've been so stressed out, because I have kids coming up to me every day, trying to find out how to get their grades up (particularly to pass the class). I've been handing out test retakes, private tutoring students, and correcting makeup tests, quizzes, and homework. I got so stressed out from this and other things that I was starting to have ulcer symptoms again (I was having horrible symptoms during finals week last April). So now I'm taking Pepcid AC every day and I'm feeling better.

By the way, the bulldog is the mascot for Provo High. That's why it's on this post.

Full House

I haven't blogged in a wayyy long time. Anyway, there's a bunch of people living with me right now... and I love them all :)

Mom and Dad bought a house as an investment/for me to live in, and then Alif got a job in UT and so he, Nikki, and Justin came and lived in the house too. And Keith ("kaytch") is here too and so there's 5 of us, plus Maddie, in the house... it's fun!
Also, I've been student teaching. It's pretty exhausting but kind of fun, and it means I'm this close to having my bachelor's degree! I'm also teaching ballroom dance to 1st-3rd graders at Spring Creek Elementary and tap dance at a studio in Payson.

My latest project has been fixing all my music, cause it got all weird when my computer broke and Alif reformatted the HD for me. I have some stuff missing, and double of some things, and so I'm organizing it. About 5 hours into it, it looks like I'm 1/3 of the way done.

General Conference was great!!!! We played Conference Bingo which really helped us all pay attention.

What you do is you listen to conference and if you hear a word (or sometimes if they were talking about it without saying the word) you put a piece on that thing on the bingo card (you all have different cards... there are 12 on the about.com web site) and then when you get bingo you get a piece of candy. We started over every two talks or so. We also colored during conference, which is a conference tradition for me. I have a collection of coloring books just for that specific purpose. Anyway, I learned a lot. I still need to watch the 2nd Saturday session (we TiVod it), but I will.

One more thing: Halloween is coming soon!!! What are you going to dress up as?

Playing catch-up

A funny story, followed by all the necessary updates of my life. Or, the ones I thuoght to write, anyway.





Story: Holly replaced all our liquid hand soaps with new scents, scents I've never used before. I wash my hands thoroughly before I eat, as was the case tonight with my hot dog. The hot dog was seriously unappetizing though, because every time I took a bite, I smelled flowers.

Frustrated, I went to wash my hands with a different soap, another scent bought by Holly. I came back ready to eat, but every bite still tasted like flowers! I was on the verge of yelling at Holly, when I noticed the boquet 12" away from my face. I actually was smelling flowers. Oops.

Updates, in no particular order:

1) I got a boyfriend and dumped him.
2) I visited Massachusetts for 3 weeks and it was amazing.
3) My asthma is getting worse and I need to see a doctor and try to get a nebulizer for home.
4) I'm getting a house.
5) I'm dancing about 6 hours a day.
6) I'm competing in Provo on August 9th and in Las Vegas on August 14th and 15th.
7) I read Inkheart and New Moon (totally unrelated books). Both very good.
8) I will post videos of my dancing soon. I think.

Still in MA

So Keith and I are video-documenting our planning sessions for the Harry Potter party. Some of what I've been doing here is editing the videos. However, I have also had the opportunity to enjoy the company of some wonderful friends while I'm here. I have got to see lots of people at NEDC (my old dance studio), Jean, Ben, Sis. Dolan, lots of people at my old ward, and most particularly the Duffeys. Also of course Jessica (she drove me here from Portland, Maine) and the Cordeiros (because I am staying with them). I've also got to see some of the FHPF, namely Brianna, Krystin, and Feech, and I will see the rest of them soon enough at the party! I really hope to see more friends before I leave. MA is so great!

Here's a picture of my video editing.

In Massachusetts

Mostly, we've been cleaning. Yesterday, we cleaned Keith's room for like 4 hours. It was a success! One corner of her room is now clean. *sigh*

Today we raked leaves, and Keith vacuumed, and now I kinda wanna just watch a movie. And eat stuff. Yum.

Bye bye!

I'm going to Massachusetts today for 3 weeks! I'm so excited. I'll be staying with Keith ("kaytch," a girl) and dancing in my old dance studio's recital, etc. I'm so, so, excited! Now I need to pack.

Bye, Cyrena!

I've been really terrible about blogging lately, so here's an update, finally.

Last week, we took Cyrena to the MTC. I got to go see her off and cried minimally. I'll miss her lots, but I'm really glad she's going on a mission. She'll help so many people! I've written to her already like... 6 times, or something like that. Well, here's a couple of pictures from the send-off.

Visiting Jake and Elly

One of the greatest benefits of having free time (finals are over!) is that I get to see more of my beautiful niece and adorable nephew! (Actually, I have two nephews, but I don't get to see Justin very much. He lives too far away.)

Here are some videos of my latest visit. One is an actual video and one is a slideshow. Enjoy!

More dancing

For my final, we danced all three dances (samba, rumba, and paso doble). Even though I've already posted the samba and rumba, I think these are slightly better videos because it's just me and Cameron, and my friend Steve walked around the room to video us. Plus, I've gotten better at the dances. So here they are!

Paso Doble! I did my best in this dance. I think my footwork was especially good. Also, Cameron looks angry because he's supposed to. It's the bullfighting dance, and he's the matador.

The samba! My timing is a little off at the beginning, but I think I've improved a LOT since the competition.

And the rumba. We always do well in the rumba.

My bird is really smart

Today, Mom was saying something about how Erica can be hard to deal with.


Samantha interrupted.
"Don't say that about Erica!
"Sometimes she just gets agh!
"Just say 'I love you, Erica!'"


I swear, that bird is smarter than all of us.

Dance galore!

So, I've got a lot of dance stuff to get out of the way. I've honestly been trying to update, and keep getting part way into the post, and then I have to go leave. So here it is!

1) About a month ago, I competed in a local competition in preparation for THE BIG ONE. The big one, by the way, is DanceSport, which is held at BYU. In the local competition I did surprisingly well, placing first with my fun partner Cameron in the silver-level waltz. I also recieved ribbons in the foxtrot and the paso doble, but that was pretty much by default, since not many couples entered. Still, though, a first place! Pretty ribbons:

2) I've recently become a part of a tap dance ensemble (performing team)! It's very, very exciting. To check the web site, go to http://www.footpoetry.com/ - but it's not nearly finished, so don't expect too much!

3) DANCESPORT!!!! It was so, so fun. I competed 3 events, and made it to quarter-finals in the rumba, which was the event for the level above us.

The Rumba, which I danced with Cameron, and made it to quarter-finals.

The Samba, which I danced with Cameron.

This video I didn't mean to upload, but surprise! These children can REALLY dance. I figured if I spent all that time uploading it, I may as well post it. These pre-teen kids are way better than I am. They're dancing the Paso Doble.

The waltz, which was the first dance of my Novice Standard event (the fancy, schmancy, paid for a coach, bought a dress, etc. etc. event) - I danced this with Jared.

The Quickstep, which was the second (and final) dance of my Novice Standard event. (Obviously, still with Jared, since it's all one event.) Note: this dance was kind of a disaster, but you can't really tell that much in the video.

I wannt a smoothie!!!

Apparently, while I was teaching dance yesterday, my roommate cleanded out the freezer and threw away my bananas which I keep in there to make smoothies. :(

Wait... men's? Are you sure?

Apparently, I shouldn't be allowed to attempt to use public restrooms by myself. I went into the men's room today. Twice. (I did NOT do this on purpose! I was very surprised both times to see men coming out of the restroom until they informed it was I who was mistaken.)

Cinderella

Last night, I danced in a ballroom competition. We danced the waltz and quickstep. Our waltz was quite good, but our quickstep had some problems. It doesn't matter though, because I had fun! Besides, we actually got to compete this time. We've had problems with missing our competitions in the past. I thought we were good overall. This is the dress I wore.


After that, I got to go teach ballroom dance at someone's ward activity. It was really fun, and they gave us food and chocolate, so all in all, yesterday was quite good.

Dancing, finally!

I got my video to work! This is me doing the waltz with one of my partners, Curtis, last semester. Hopefully I get more fun videos up soon!

Ouch.

Guys in social dance complain a lot about girls resting on the guy's arm. Well, now I'm taking the class "teaching methods of social dance" and I have to do the guy's part. I now know why they complain! Plus, guys' arms are heavier. Ouch.

On the bright side, there's free cinnamon rolls outside today at Brigham Square! Yummmm!

New arrival/weird job

First of all, my neice, Elizabeth (Elly) Rose was born Wednesday, Jan 30th! She was 7 lbs 11 oz. and 19.5" at birth. I'll post pictures and stuff later. She's cute though!

Second, know what's weird about my job? Everything! I get paid to let people stare at me sitting still. And then there's the fact that it takes place in the HFAC (Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center). There's people singing in the hallways. And today I was leaving work, and some guy was like, "Me! Why doesn't anyone ever pay attention to me?" quite loudly. He was not on a cell phone and did not have anyone with him. For a second I thought he was crazy. Then I realized he was a Theater Arts major.

Going to drive home?

I was at a middle school today, mentoring a 12 year old girl. When we were walking me out to my car, someone stopped us and said "where are you girls supposed to be?"

I was a little confused.

"Uhh... I'm leaving?"

Then she looked confused. So I said,

"We just got done, I'm mentoring her.."

"Oh! I thought you were a student! Okay, nevermind..."

...so yes, I got mistaken for a middle schooler today. Great.

Tag!

Amy tagged me twice, so I'm going to do just the second one.

A. The Rules are posted at the beginning. B. Each player answers about themselves. C. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people, posts their names

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago:

1. Dance (competing for the first time at TWO studios)
2. Gymnastics (competing for my first year)
3. Swim team (going to swim meets and stuff)
4. Homeschooling... but I have no idea what I was learning about.
5. Babysitting!

5 Things On My To-Do List Today (for tomorrow):

1. Figure out what's due tomorrow
2. Do the things that are due tomorrow
3. Practice Latin dance
4. Catch up on reading I didn't do
5. Clean my room

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Kettle corn
2. Milk, chocolate milk, any milk at all
3. Hot chocolate
4. Ice cream
5. Homemade stuff my roommates make... and share

5 Things I'd Do if I Were a Billionaire:

1. Buy mom and dad a house
2. Pay for my own education
3. Buy myself a house
4. Build a treatment center
5. Get everything that I have that's broken, fixed.

3 Bad Habits:

1. Touching my face
2. Losing everything
3. Depriving myself of sleep

5 Jobs I've Had:

1. Babysitting
2. Mcdonald's
3. Dance TA/teacher (no pay)
4. Private tutor (no pay)
5. Art model

5 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

1. I take my calculator with me, even on vacation, or to visit Ben and Amy
2. There's a painting of me in my room, and I didn't paint it
3. I love to read adolescent literature... and I read it all the time.
4. I'm going to apply for grad school at BYU
5. I used to play chess competitively (even though I didn't like it)

I tag only 3 people, because I don't know anyone else that isn't already tagged:
Holly,
Mary Beth,
Jessica.

In which all my friends get married

So, the first wedding this break was Brittney and Craig. Their reception was SO AMAZING. I have honestly never liked a reception so much. For those who don't know, Brittney was my dance teacher last year and now is my friend.

Brittney and Craig


Brittney and her dad


The second wedding was Katie and Jeff.
For those who don't know, Katie was my apartment-mate from July to December. We were really good friends. She's a dancer and a Math Ed. major like me.

Katie at the bridal shower I threw for her (we were playing a memory game)


Katie and Jeff


And the other weddings are Summer and Andy (Summer used to be my apartment-mate), but they had no reception here, and Judd and whoever he's marrying (I will go to their reception on Saturday--oh, and Judd was my dance teacher this semester).