Conversations Today

1. We had a field trip today at the courthouse and capital building. If you know downtown Salt Lake very well, you know that you have to drive right pass temple square to get there. This what a little boy and I talked about:

Brayden: "Miss H, do you know what that building is? It kind of looks like a castle right?"

Me: "Yeah, that's the temple. It kind of does, huh?"

Brayden: "Do you know what people do there?"

Me: "Kind of." (So as a teacher, I'm not really supposed to talk much about religion. I'm still trying to figure out where the line is so when kids talk to me about stuff, I kind of struggle cause I never know where they're taking the conversation...)

Brayden: "You know, if you want to learn more about that building and the people who go there, you can watch our church's conference this weekend. It's kind of boring, but I can give you a game to play. Or, you can come to my house and watch with us. My mom likes you so she won't mind!"

2. At the courthouse, one of the court Marshall's talked about their job. He was talking about how sometimes his job can be kind of boring like when they have to sit in their car for a few hours to stake out a person. One girl (from my class of course) raised her hand and said, "So is it true that whenever you are just sittin' in your car you eat a lot of doughnuts?" Good thing the guy had a sense of humor!

3. An argument that went something like this:

Ashley: "Miss H! Jen said I was like Snookie and now she calls me Snookie! I think I'm more like Sammy because Snookie is skanky!"

Me: "Wha?!"

Daniel: "Snookie peed in a pot outside a club. She's stupid."

Ashley: "See!"

Me: "Wha?!"

Daniel: "If you're Sammy, I call I'm Pauly D."

Oscar: "And I'm Vinny!"

Tasiah: "I'm JWoww! Who are you Miss H?"

Me: "Wha?!" (and secretly thinking that Oscar really does look like Vinny)

Daniel: "Miss H doesn't even know what we're talking about."

Uh, yeah. West Valley. I guess I'm just thankful no one wanted to be The Situation.

4. Best one of the day: text from my brother. "I GOT MY CALL!!!!!! 6:30 tomorrow night!!!!!!" I can't wait!

Update

This weekend I participated in 3 events I'm sure every other person in Utah participated in (I checked on Facebook, and it's true. Except for my aunt Cristina, she bought rugs instead)

1. I saw the Hunger Games. It. Was. Fantastic. I read the book a while ago and I am happy to report it followed the book really well. There were a few things, but what can you do? Plus, I feel really creepy typing this btw, at first I was like "Isn't Peeta supposed to be good looking?" then I was like "Oh, okay". And every time I looked at Gale I could only think "Miley".

2. I went to the new City Creek Center. It. Was. Fantastic. My brother Scott said it best, "There's river inside the middle of the mall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The things of this earth man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I learned from my visit that I need a summer job. One to keep my mind off the fact that this place is located 5 min away from where I live. Two because I'm pretty sure I will go bankrupt if I don't because that place is located 5 min away from where I live.

3. I went to the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. Spring has my permission to start now.

P.S. I am going to this over Memorial Day weekend! My first lindy adventure!

I'm super excited to see these guys, these guys, and ridiculously excited to see these guys (she's my favorite!.

The best weekend ever...

My aunt Cristina tagged me in her awesome blog I didn't know she had (maybe I knew...maybe I forgot?) and I LOVE being tagged. But, I have to tell you about "The best weekend ever" first, then I'll get to the tag.

Thursday was early out which was pretty spectacular. Then I only had to go to work for 3 hours on Friday. It was great. Then I packed myself up and walked on up to the Trax stop by my house and rode to a stop across the street from this lazy guy's work so he wouldn't have to pick me up at my house. (L-A-Z-Y) Anyway, we picked up a couple of other and headed up to Logan for a big lindy weekend called Harlem Nights. I rode a nice 2 hour car ride with some nerds. Real-life nerds who talked about Sci-Fi books they're reading and economics and something about inflation (tuned them out). Cute boys who wear big glasses and make a few Dr. Who references are as far as my nerd tolerance goes, I guess.

We pulled up to the place in Logan and jumped right into 2 workshops with Dan Newsome and Gaby Cook from Seattle. They taught us different swing out stuff and partnered Charleston. I only ever watched these two on youtube so seeing them in real life was like...awesome. Then we had a nice dance. I danced with Dan Newsome...whaaa!!! And he commented on my swivels...double whaaaa!!! (k, so my swivels don't look that good like the video)

Then my dear amiga Samantha picked me up and I spent the night at her totally awesome aunt's house with her. It was great. The next morning I was waaayyyy too tired for some more workshops so Sammie and I hung out in Logan and visited her equivalent to Disneyland...Hastings! I probably could have spent like $100 there, but I controlled myself. (thank goodness)

Then after a lot of arm twisting and awesome persuasive skills (5th grade is teaching me things!) I convinced Sam to come with me to the Saturday night dance. It was at Elite Hall in Hyrum with a nice spring floor (think hardwood trampoline) with a live band. That dance was probably one of the best I've been to. For reals. We watched Dan and Gaby perform the dance from video above (here it is again), the USU swing team, and a couple of competitions. Super fun. During the dance, it starting snowing like 7 feet outside so when we got back to Sam's house, we had a choice to either run in wet shoes or take off our shoes and run in barefoot. Naturally we chose to take off the shoes. Good freakin times. So during the whole weekend, this was the only picture I took.

Straight up.

So we left Sunday morning, drive not nearly as bad as the ride up (less nerd-talk, more sleep). It took me Sunday and Monday to catch up on my sleep, but it was worth it!

Monday, my roommate Annalie and I went to Village Inn to get some good President's Day pie. I love pie.

So, that was the best weekend ever. Totally worth the money and the nerd-ness.

P.S. Do you want to come dancing with me yet? Have I convinced you it's like the greatest thing ever? Dan and Gaby have a website called http://www.freeswingdancelessons.com/ with videos and all. Go check it out and then you can come with me!

Happy February!

I know it's only Wednesday and I might be jinxing myself, but this has been a very good half of a week so far. Here's why:

1. I got paid! In my school district (like many districts) contract employees get paid once a month. In December, I got paid for January on the last day before the break (before Christmas) which is super great for the holidays, but super lame for the last week and a half for January. Needless to say, this paycheck was welcomed with open arms and an open wallet.

2. I was observed by my principal and had my evaluation on Monday and it went really, really well.

3. My usual troublemaker has been behaving surprisingly well this week. We've had our moments, but for the most part he is finishing his work and staying in his seat. Hallelujah!

4. My class gets 15 laptops! K so maybe I found out about this last week, but I got really excited about it today while my kiddos were fighting over the computers to research their revolutionary war battle. ("We're so sick of looking up stuff in our books, Miss H!") P.S. I still haven't told them about the laptops. They just think they're in the running and the principal and computer guy are going to come and observe them to make sure they are responsible enough. Ha!

5. We are writing persuasive letters to the principal. Two boys are working together to write that they want goal posts to play soccer with in the field. They quoted Martin Luther King Jr. Yup. MLK. It was adorable and made me very happy/proud to see that sometimes my class actually remembers things they learn about.

6. I got new music. I love new music like a fat kid loves cake.

7. This happened at my school on Monday. I had no clue it was happening, but good thing the news was there to capture it for me. This little girl is adorable. Her teacher is in the background crying (I would be bawling my head off!) You can watch the video here. (Cause what would my blog be without video links...and parenthesis.)

8. I just love February. Most single girls hate it, but I love it. I love Valentine's Day and all that comes with it. I love the activities I can do with my kids. I love all the cheesy Valentine's Day decorations in the stores. I love wearing red and pink. I love listening to love songs. I love watching love movies. I love reading cute blogs about why others love their "valentine" and how they met and dated and fell in love and got married and had 6 kids and still love each other (super sweet and gets me teary-eyed all the time!). I love eating heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting. I love handing out Valentine's. I love cutting out hearts and buying cute paper from the craft store. I'm just not one to eat ice cream, watch a chick flick, hate all the boys who never called me over the years, and feel sorry for myself. Nope. I save all that for March, the worst month of the year :)

Let's hope the rest of the week is great too! Happy February!

Not me, but I think I need some red tights now. gettyimages.com

Hey Jude Blackout

In order to protest SOPA and PIPA, I will not be posting a new post in the next 24 hours...oh wait I guess I already don't do that...aaannnndddd no one reads this blog anyway?!?! (Since when?) ;)

If you are reading, go here

3 random thoughts

My friends and I went to this concert (Fictionist) the other night. During all the crowd surfing, my poor friend/roommate Annalie was getting her face squished into inappropriate places. Poor Annalie. But, it was a fantastic show! Here's to a year of good concerts and more super fun times with friends. (Here's my cyber shout out to Coldplay to come, if not to Utah, to some place close and that's NOT happening during end of level testing time. Thanks!) (Also, I didn't record this video)

In other news, my tires got slashed. I think it happened in the Target parking lot. How I made it home without noticing is a mystery and miracle only my unobservant self could handle. Anyway, I had to get new tires. Should I be more upset? Probably. I had to get new tires anyway.

Also, check out my after school class's newspaper. I love it! Not too shabby, eh?

Word of Wizzum

"When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer-no matter how eloquent the oration."

-President Uchtdorf

Yeah, I'm so going to this next New Year's Eve

Lindy Focus is a big, week-long Lindy Hop bash for New Year's here in the United States. They have workshops and performances by professionals and there's just a whole lotta dancing. There's another big bash in Sweden called "Snowball" that happens for New Year's too. I guess Snowball sent a video to Lindy Focus to wish them Happy New Year, so this was their response.

I am so going this year. Who's with me?

11 in 11

2011 was very eventful. You wouldn't know if you read my blog though...here's an update of my life in 2011. I didn't think this post would be this much effort. Oh well, enjoy! (There are a lot of movies involved in this post. You don't have to watch any of them, but if you have some time to kill...)

11. Favorite movie you watched

I cried during both.

10. New Favorite TV series

Zombies? Yes please!

9. Favorite restaurant you tried

La Jolla Groves in Provo. It was delish! If you go, try their lemon cake. It's tasty and pretty! Here's a picture:

8. Favorite new thing you tried

L I N D Y H O P !

And I LOVE it!

(each letter is a video)

7. Favorite gift you got

A new classroom! I thought it would take FOREVER like it did in 2010, but I was so exciting to get my new job in June. This is my room I got in August. It looks different now (stuff on walls, messier, no boxes in the back), but I still love it. Annnndddd it comes with it's own bulletin board in the hallway and cute kids to fill it.

6. Fun vacation:

Bear Lake-July: Raspberry shakes, tandem bike, mini-golf, volleyball, gross but pretty lake, FIREWORKS!, great times with my family.

Vegas-June: Gross pollution, pretty casinos, fun sites, long but entertaining drive, Las Vegas Temple, "I seeeeee Londooonnn I seeeee Saaamssstownnn", awesome fun with friends

5. Fun concerts

I didn't go to as many as I did in 2010, but I did take advantage of the great Rooftop Concert Series in Provo this summer. (clicking on the pictures will give a you video of concert highlights. Just sayin'. Also, I wish I could take good pictures, but I can't. So I got all these pictures from this blog.)

Fictionist I've heard of Fictionist before, but after this concert I fell in love with them. They performed during their Rolling Stone Cover contest. We all yelled "put Fictionist on the cover of Rolling Stone!" while they filmed. This was a super fun concert. I went with my friend and we were all wired afterward. It was a good summer concert kick-off.

The Abbey Road Show This was my favorite one! Basically it was a bunch of local artists who got together and performed the Beatles Abbey Road album. I love the Beatles so I totally loved this. It was amazing. And they performed my favorite song at the end (click picture, 2nd song) with fireworks. 2 of my favorite things.

Joshua James Um, I went. I watched. I fell in love with his voice. His song "Coal War" is one of my favorites.

Imagine Dragons I went to this concert with 3 of my lovely cousins. Even if it was supposed to Neon Trees, I still had a blast. This was the craziest rooftop concert I've seen so far (moshing, lead singer crowd surfed) My favorite part of this concert though was the opening act The Neighbors. I had to buy their cd after they performed.

The Lower Lights So I don't have a video from this concert from this one, so I linked to their show last year. The weather turned bad so we had to move inside the parking garage. It was still an amazing show. I can't wait for their new cd to come out.

A few weeks ago, I went to the Lower Lights Christmas concert. Again, it was amazing.

So as you can see, my concert going experience was positive. Maybe annoyingly positive? Oh well.

4. Best accomplishment

2 things:

1. I bought a car. Well, technically I bought it December 31 2010. It's silver and pretty. I felt like a real grown up signing the papers and signing up for insurance and all that goodness.

2. I moved to Salt Lake to a cute house. I love it!

3. Favorite picture

Family pictures August 2011.

2. Favorite memory

So many favorite memories:

-New car

-Visiting friends in Cedar

-Crazy family times

-Getting a new ward

-Being Relief Society 2nd counselor

-Turning 23

-More rounds of interviews

-Saying goodbye to my very first class

-Getting a new job!

-Pie, pie, pie

-Dropping my brother off a SUU

-Meeting my new class

-Fun times with friends

-Moving to Salt Lake

-Spending time my brother in Salt Lake

-More fun family time

-So many more memories

1. Goals for 2012

Lots of goals. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

Yeah for blogging!

It's time for an update. Here's the important things to know:

1. I love, love, love my class. My kids are the best. They make me laugh all the time!

2. I moved to Salt Lake. It's pretty great. My commute is now 20-30 min. That's an extra hour I have each night. I'm still not sure what to do with myself during that extra hour. My house is adorable. It's an old house and my roommate decorates it all cute. I'll post pictures late.

3. I just got my bangs cut.

4. I'm addicted to dancing. I go all the time. In September, I attended the Utah Lindy Exchange and danced with all kinds of people ALL weekend long. I got about 8 hours of sleep that whole weekend. So worth it. I want to go to Texas next. To dance with these people. (mainly with the guys like 3:48, 4:40, and 5:05)

...and that's about it. I'll be updating more often. I promise!

Here's this to hold you over until my next post:

Caption: Hey ladies, you've been naughty this year. Looks like all you're getting for Christmas is some Cole. :)

Merry Christmas!

Dear Blogging World,

I've been working in my classroom/attending meetings/spending all my money this week. I will post pictures of my classroom and such soon! This year's gonna be great!

Road Trip?

Confession: I have never traveled east of Utah

Confession 2: I have secretly obsessed over Andrew Bird for like 3 years now. (Genius)

August 10, Boulder Colorado. Anyone? Anyone?

Another video to watch HERE

Oh yeah I guess I have a blog

Sooooo, I have been busy. Sorta. The last week of school was NUTS. I am going to miss those kids like crazy! They were little pains at times, but they are so sweet.

Just look:

But don't be fooled cause most of the time they look like this:

I cried on the last day. Borderline bawled. It was sad. I'm gonna miss these kids.We had a great year together. In another post, I'll upload the movie they made for science. It's pretty spectacular. It was sad to part from Calvin Smith Elementary, but I know I was there for a reason and I learned a lot and met a lot of great people there.

In other news...I got a new job! I was so worried I would have to apply and interview all summer again. I will be teaching 5th grade again (ah yeah) at Whittier Elementary in West Valley.

I don't know about living situations just yet, but that's the great things about life: it's all exciting and can change just like that. But, I know that the Lord is looking out for me and I will go where He needs me to be.

I got a new ward. It's great. I love my bishopbric. Theyare also great. I got a new calling. Goodbye institute, hellloooooo Relief Society. I'm the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I love it. When I got set apart, the bishop informed us that there are a potential 560 singles in our ward boundary. We basically had 2 weeks to meet at least everyone who attends the ward so far (150ish). They have this goal to split the ward by the end of the year, so it's our job to find everyone. It's a big job. Real big. But I am excited and I am ready for a good old challenge.

I got back from Vegas a week ago. Why Vegas? Why not. I went with my friends Brittany and Sam. It was fun. Next month, I will be visiting my dear Malaina in California. I cannot describe my excitement. Let this movie help me out.

So I will post my pictures of Vegas in a later post. But I will share that I stayed here:

Like from THIS (I love him. Confession: I was supposed to marry him.)

Also, I turned 23. I celebrated by dubbing this week "Pie Week". I've been feasting on pie and taking a shower at like 1:00 every afternoon. It's been good.

Anyway, here's my Viva Las Vegas Picture. I took this after spending all day on the strip. I took of my contacts that night and there was a layer of gunk on them. Viva Las Vegas!

I dare you not to love this

I'm more of a blog stalker than an actually blogger

I am a blogging s-l-a-c-k-e-r. I don't have any excuses to give as to why I haven't been blogger. But, in case you are wondering, here's what's been going on.

This girl is back!!! I've missed her tons. So happy she's home!

I spent the night in Cedar because get this, my brother is going to SUU! I'm super excited for him. Anyway, Cedar was fun. I stayed with this girl in her super amazing bed and breakfast apartment. Good times.

Since I am on a one year contract with my school what that means is that after June 3, I am jobless. I have been working on updating my resume, gathering recommendations and letters, and just basically getting ready to apply everywhere again. I am confidant and I am actually kind of excited. It feels like kind of an adventure. Who knew?

I've been on my Lindy hopping craze. I dance 2 nights a week and I wish I could go more! I've learned to swivel so I look more legitimate. I almost bought a plane ticket to New Orleans to dance at The Fleur de Lindy at the beginning of April. It was too much money though.

I love watching videos on youtube and trying to figure out how I can be like the pros. It's fun.

This is my favorite video of my favorite couple, Thomas Blacharz and Alice Mei:

I just want to dance like this. That's all I ask...ha! If you ever want to go dancing with me, give me a call!

I've also been trying out blues dancing. Not as fun as Lindy, but still fun. You can come blues dancing with me sometime too.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on with my life.

Dos cosas

1. Why my class is awesome:

We have been talking about electric circuits in science. I assigned them to construct a quiz board where if you answer the questions correctly, the light will light up. This is what they brought back today. Pretty cool eh? The piano is pretty ingenious. She attached brads from the music to the keys on the piano with wire. When you play the right note, the light will light up.

2. Today for Music Monday, I give you my lady Regina Spektor. My mom is so funny. She says "Every song I listen to by her starts off good, but then she all freaky!" Haha. Here's a not so freaky song, with super good lyrics and a good message. It's called "The Call" from The Chronicles of Narnia. I love this song!

Music Monday: Brandon Flowers

I know I've already blogged about Brandon Flowers, but after hearing a guy in my ward quote a Killers song in his talk yesterday at church I've been listening to The Killers/BF all day. Love him!

I can't wait for The Killers new CD, but I love Flamingo. Plus this song is so great. Plus did I mention that I love him?

"No sequins, feathers, low v-necks, or male high heels"

A few years ago, I kinda got all excited about some Lindy Hop videos on Youtube (I even blogged about it) Well, I've secretly (maybe not so secretly) wanted to learn how. My ward's Relief Society president Lindys and Hops like a pro so I asked her where I could learn. She invited me to go to these classes they do once a week at BYU. They say that at these classes there are no sequins, feathers, low v-necks, or male high heels. I'm all for that.

I went last Tuesday and holy cow IT IS SO MUCH FUN!! For reals. I only learned a few things, but I was mostly amazed at all the neat dancing. Dayla, the RS president, told me they asked her to coach a beginning team. She told me to try out, I was kinda skeptical because of my previous dance experiences, but she talked me into it. They started off the auditions with a super fast song...think of the first video I linked. I was like "heck to the no". Then they all got in a circle and did all these crazy lifts and dips and spins and claps and stomps and again I was like "heck to the no". Not because it wasn't super awesome, it was because I was still like "k, is it rock step triple turn or rock step turn triple?" So I just watched. Let me tell you, this does not equal this. It's not even close.

Anyway, I realized I was pretty much way over my head in this whole auditioning thing so I decided to leave and wait until I could do those crazy lifts and dips and spins and claps and stomps. I told Dayla my plan and she told me the team she was coaching was going to be for beginning beginners like me who want to learn, and that she was going to put a good word in for me. Later that night, she texted me and told me I made the team.

So long story short, I need to buy me some Keds (cause that's what Lindy Hoppers wear yo!)

Music Monday: The Swell Season

K so I blog about music a lot. (I also start my posts with "K so" a lot) I love music. So I decided to share my love on my blog. Each week I'll share a song of the week...maybe more. Not that anyone really reads anymore, at least I'll have documentation of my life, right? Anyway, I give you The Swell Season.

Have you seen the movie "Once"? If you haven't and you're not a fan of the "f" word or love stories that don't end the way you want it to, I don't recommend it. But the music--holy cow! I love the soundtrack. The two main characters are played by Glen Hansard (Irish) and Marketa Irglova (Czech), two musician friends. Glen Hansard was the lead singer of the Irish group called The Frames and after the movie, they had Marketa Irglova feature in a few of their songs. Glen and Marketa then formed their own group called The Swell Season.

This song, "Falling Slowly" is like my favorite song ever. Like I can't even explain or describe how much I LOVE this song. It won the Oscar for best song and American Idol can't get enough of it (those versions are almost as good, Kris Allen's is actually the superior version from AI, but not even close to the real thing) The song originally comes from Once, but they tweeked it a bit and rerecorded it as a Swell Season song. The video is from a few years ago, but still amazing!

Enjoy!

(p.s. If you like this, you should check out the whole Once soundtrack. You won't be disappointed!)

New Year's: Look Not behind Thee

This year will be a great one! I foresee some big things happening in 2011 and I am super excited! One thing is a little project my brother Scott and I are cooking up. It is a true Houghton specialty to cook up little business ideas. He's using it as he DECA project this year. I hopefully will have my end of the deal set up by next week. Basically it's a new blog...hopefully I can be better about updating that one! haha. Stay tuned for that.

Until then, I give you a great message for the new year. Happy New Year!