An Overdue Update

Well, here's the scoop: twelve of us went on an awesome vacation, thanks to my awesome parents. Here's who went: Mom and Dad, me, Ben (my brother) and his wife Amy and his two kids Jake and Elly (age 2 and 1, respectively, at the time), and Erica (my sister) and her husband Doug, and Alif (my brother) and his wife Nikki and kid Justin (age 11 at the time). So I made a video of a bunch of pictures from the trip. Yay! Here it is. This is the first of hopefully a few good updates.

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.