Because I Can

I'm going to learn how to:

-play the guitar

-SING (la la la)

-take beautiful pictures

-be a much better seamstress

-speak French or Italian...or both

-dance, ballet specifically

-be a better person

I Need A Vacation!

So I'm taking one! Fall break (a mini spring break in Utah) is Oct 16th and 17th so me, Kat and Lizzy are going to Vegas! I'm SO excited! The last few times I've been there I have gone for work, this time is just play, shop, lay out, shop and eat! (some of my favorite things) I was thinking of going to DC but Hannah tells me that her brother will be in town and if I can't have ALL of her attention, I'm not going. I'm sooooo excited! Las Vegas has an H&M and being that I'm single and selfish, I plan on doing some damage. I'd love to say that I'll bring you something but, let's face it, I won't. Have a great day!

Sick Mormons

Every morning I use the freeway to drive to work. And every morning I pass a billboard for a store called "Husband and Wife". Yuck. It's intimate apparel and gifts...but not "dirty", apparently it's "tasteful". You have no way of knowing this but I just walked away from the computer for 6 minutes to throw up a bit. Every time I see the billboard I just think about how weird it is living in Utah. Sex stores for Mormons? Really?!? Is that really necessary? The answer is no. I can promise you that if I ever get married, you will never catch me in a store like that, EVER. Thank you, that's all I have.

Beer me.....

Sigh. Life keeps getting better. The Office is back, tomorrow is Friday and my friend Sarah is coming to town this weekend. Please leave your thoughts about tonight's episode in the comments section, I'm so curious to know what you think! I thought it was great and I LOVE JIM HALPERT. It's true, he needs to know me.

Jealous? Of course

This is what I was doing last night...what were you doing? I went to the tour with Kat, her momma and her sister, Lizzy. It was amazing! I'm totally inspired to take up dancing, but it won't last. I was "seriously" thinking of taking swimming lessons after the Olympics. These things never last for me, but the thrill of last night will most definitely last. Ahhhh, I'm inspired.

My Last Day

I went to funeral yesterday. My friend's boyfriend passed away, I had never met him but it seemed like he was a really amazing guy. Before the service started Eliza was looking over the program and commented about how much she disliked the typical funeral music. The two congregational song were "Every Life that Touches Ours for Good" and "God be With You Til We Meet Again". Eliza then set about the task of picking the songs for her funeral....a little morbid but necessary. I am a sheep so I grabbed a hymn book and started working on the program for my funeral. Here's what I'm thinking:

Songs: Nearer My God to Thee, Battle Hymn of the Republic, I Need Thee Every Hour....the list is not done yet

Speakers: My dad (speak about the atonement and the plan of salvation), my sister Meghan (tell embarrassing stories about me to lighten the mood) and one of my friends (someone who wouldn't fall apart)

Special presentation: yesterday there was a picture slideshow of his life so I think something really awful/amazing would be if there was a slideshow/clip show of all my old sign song performances.

Ok, so maybe this isn't the lightest topic for a post, but the events of yesterday really got me thinking. I want to be prepared so that my funeral is everything I would want it to be. Fingers crossed that no one reading this post will have to attend my funeral service any time soon, but if you do, I think you would laugh quite a bit. I love you!

I miss DC :(

Sigh. I talked to Hannah today and was just reminded how much I miss her and DC in general. The right coast is pretty much amazing and I think it fits my personality really well. The sucky part is that I can't just pick up and move, for 3 reasons:
1 - I am in a one year contract teaching at UVU
2 - I am a senior, it would be dumb to leave now
3 - I feel like I need to be in Utah right now

I guess I'll see you again, eventually, DC. Until then, I love you!

I'm grateful for.....

This week I was able to have a wonderful heart to heart with my Kat and as always, there were tears. Those are my favorite friends though, those friends that I can laugh AND cry with. She said that her home teachers had given her and Travis a challenge for the next two weeks. The challenge being to not ask for anything in their prayers, only to express thanks. She suggested I give it a try. This is tough so I immediately started protesting about how I wouldn't ask for anything for myself, but I still wanted to make sure I prayed for others. Her reply? "Heavenly Father knows your wants and needs, He knows what you want for other people." Ok, she has a point. I've been doing this for about 4 days now and I have to tell you, I feel a lot better. I thought I was generally pretty good about expressing my gratitude before but now I see how many things I was leaving out. So, thank you Kat for once again opening my eyes and helping me to draw closer to Heavenly Father...I love you!

My Girls

This is Naomi, she's 17 months old and she's a runt. She was born 2 months early but has had no problems that you might expect a premature babe to have. She's totally rad. For a long time she only had her eye teeth and looked like Dracula every time she would do one of her big smiles. I love her personality! She's feisty and daring. I thought that when Elisabeth got pregnant with Naomi that I couldn't possibly love her as much as I love Haven....but I do! It's amazing how we can always make more room in our hearts for more love.
This is Haven, she's 3 and incredible! She was born one week after me and it was one of the greatest late birthday gifts I could have asked for. She is such a sassy lady and she's so smart! Whenever I call to talk to Elisabeth I make sure to also talk to Haven and now that she's a bit older we can have actual conversations. Once when I called she was hitting Naomi with a flashlight so I asked to speak with her. I asked her why she was being mean and she said, "I had hot dogs for lunch". That apparently gets you out of any sticky situation. I'm her favorite aunt because I buy her a present every time I see her and my presents are GOOD. Love is totally something up for sale to the highest bidder.

I love these girls!

Reason #974

If you are reading this, obviously you know that my summer was a bit drama filled because of one guy in particular.  It's totally over now EXCEPT that I am currently being haunted by him and his name.  I see him several times a week at random spots on campus and I see/hear his name everywhere.  Honest.  Yesterday I was telling this to Eliza and luckily, she was actually able to experience it first hand.
I had kind of a crappy day yesterday so she suggested dinner and we settled on Applebees.  We were being seated and the host was putting down our menus and said, 

"Your server will be (insert his name here)" and Eliza immediately said, 

"This table isn't going to work for us."  I was off in La La Land because I didn't hear that first part but I caught on after the host said, 

"Excuse me?" and Eliza said, 

"This table is not going to work for us, we need to not be in this server's section."

This girl amazes me.  She jumped on that so fast!  I love her, this is just reason #974.  We were then seated in Steph's section and she was just lovely.  Of course, the group that was later seated behind us had a boy with the name (insert his name here) and Eliza and I just had to laugh.  I need a reality show, this just doesn't happen everyday.

But guess what.....it's almost Friday.  I get to see my family tomorrow at another of my brother's football games.  Phew.

Problem Child

I have a student in one of my UVU classes who I can't seem to get under control!  How ridiculous!  This is a university (my sister claims it's not, but hey, it's in the title) so I didn't expect to have any behavior problems.  She is always texting in class and if I call her on it, she tries to hide it.  The frustrating thing is that she sits the closest to me!  AND she always talks to the girl next to her.  On Monday I asked them to stop talking but she kept right on so I called her out specifically and she was really rude back to me.  Sigh.  I guess I'll just have to slap her next time.  I had hoped it wouldn't come to that.  (Yes, I actually did.  And no, I won't actually hit her).  I'm going to have to be "an adult" (boo) and before class tell her that if she continues to disrupt I will have to kick her out of my class.  Oh please disrupt!

What do I Title this One?

I have no idea what to title this one because it's just a post about my thoughts recently.  I have been doing some serious big girl shopping lately.  I am now the proud owner of a giant bookcase, a beautiful bed frame and this week, I will become the proud owner of a living room set.  As I looked around my spacious room at the super cute arrangement I have come up with, I realized that these things don't make me happy.  They never have and they never will.  I guess I couldn't hack it as some 87 year old's trophy wife.  Here's the deal, I now have a full realization that my career and my things don't determine or define me as a person.  My relationships with people do.  I hope that all my loved ones know exactly how I feel about them because I try my very best to always be improving our relationship.  This is a tough road for me to be traveling right now because my career IS taking off and I am thankful for this great blessing, but I think it would make a lot of other people much more fulfilled than it makes me.  I keep relating my new furniture to the idea of "setting up a single life"....am I going to be the next (MUCH less spiritual) Sheri Dew?  It's possible.  Until then, I look forward to an amazing year of teaching, playing with my friends and figuring myself out some more.  There's always more room for that!  If you're reading this, I hope you know I love you!  ( And thanks for all the support, it's been tough lately)

Ketchup

Ketchup, catch up...whatever.  My past few days have been super busy so I have a lot to post today!  Let's start with Thursday:

I was coming home around 12:30pm from watching "Penelope" with my lovely ladies, Eliza and Elyse.  I was pulled over!  I knew I wasn't speeding so I pulled over, got my license and registration ready and tried to keep my attitude in check.  Come to find out, I was pulled over because my license plate light was out.  Serious?  I wanted to be in bed!  Not getting a lecture from a bored cop!  Lame.

Friday I took Elyse to my brother's football game in Woods Cross.  They decisively killed the other team, 49-7.  My super stud little bro kicked all 7 extra points and they had him kick the final punt.  He is amazing, this is his first year and he is doing SO well.  The best part though....two kids from Woods Cross came over to our side and were making a ruckus (which was dumb because they were losing so badly).  After them being there for a few minutes, their train ran out of steam and they just kinda hung around for a bit.  Some of the boys from Mountain Crest noticed them and, for lack of a better term, bum rushed them.  It was hilarious!  They crowded around the two boys and made their lives very uncomfortable for about 30 minutes.  I can't believe the two boys stuck around so long.  I totally stopped watching the game and focused all my attention on the display in front of me.  The thing that finally drove them away was all the kids taking pictures with them.  Awesome.

Saturday morning I got up at 7:30am, boo!  I went to Eliza's stake activity which was breakfast and a free movie at the Wynnsong Theater.  Before going in they had popcorn, soda and a ton of free candy for us so me, Eliza and Luke loaded up my purse and went in to see "Traitor".  It was good, definitely better than I thought.  What a cool activity!  I just bummed around for the rest of the day.  I needed it!

Tonight I'm going to dinner at my friend Sarah's house and I'm excited, she one of those rare soul mate sort of friends.  She's married now so she's set in that category but it's always a good time when we get together.  Have a great week!

The Day Has Come

My resume was on my parents computer and I just spent the past 17 minutes on the phone with them. They traded off the phone as they struggled to locate the document and then I gave them a crash course in attaching a document to an email. Yikes. This was straight off of a movie, I swear. I hoped this day would never come and it has. My parents are completely out of the whole technology loop. For example, my mom is frightened of texting. My dad looks at his phone curiously whenever we send him one and says things like, "my phone doesn't normally make that sound." I love them :)

Luck O' the Irish

I'm walking to an interpreting assignment today, minding my own when I hear, "Hey!" I pay no attention because "Hey!" is not normally for me, my friends have more sense than that. But it was for me. Some girl again says, "Hey!" and then follows it with, "What's an Irish boys name?" Huh?!?! So I say, "Patrick". Utah girl #1 turns to Utah girl #2 and they scream "PATRICK!!!" and then continue on their merry way. They didn't even say thank you. Honestly, someone get me a reality show, stat.

Say Cheese!

I had a nice surprise yesterday at the high school where I teach....my school pictures are in! They were waiting for me in my box and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. Junior high and high school produced pictures like this:But that is not the case this year!  Mine are cute, until I get my computer and scanner unpacked you will just have to imagine it.  I know you spend a lot of your time thinking about me anyway, so now just switch the background to some weirdo blue, green and black combo and then BAM! you have the picture that will grace the yearbook.  I'm stoked.  I may just take the scissors to my yearbooks and do some ghetto style photo shop, copy/paste business.

Starring...RACHEL!

I've thought this for a while but now it's time to let the public know....I've decided I need to have a Reality show about my life.  I'm not going to do anything to pursue an actual show but those of you that know me know that I provide PLENTY of fodder for a show.  My life is so ridiculous that there would be plenty of material and sometimes I think that all the stupid stuff that happens to me couldn't be penned by some writer.  My life is just far too humorous.  

This idea first came to light when Kristy and I spent every waking moment together.  We did and went through some really crazy stuff and were addicted to "Laguna Beach", therefore the idea of us having a Reality show came to light.  It would have been awesome.

Where Kristy is now married and has a little babe on the way, my life is far from your typical 26 year old Mormon girl in Utah.  I say and do some of the funniest thing and I'm pretty sure we'd have a hit show if someone would just follow me around with a camera already!  It wouldn't be racy enough for MTV or VH1 (they have some really slutty stuff sometimes) so I'm sure it would have to be on an old lady channel like Lifetime.  Sigh.

A few months ago there were auditions held here for the show The Bachelor and Shanna dared me to go.  I didn't, for 2 reasons.  I'm not going on some show where I could potentially "fall in love" (quotation marks added because their relationships never last beyond the finale of the show) with some non-LDS guy.  AND, hello!  I need my own show, Rachel will not share the spotlight with 24 other girls.  Thanks for reading, I love you.

Retail Therapy

I don't have a problem.

I can quit at anytime.

I'm totally in control.

All my friends are doing it.

I like the way it makes me feel.

It's my life, I can do what I want.

Did I Just.....?

I went to my very first Institute dance tonight. I have conflicted feelings about the whole thing so I'm not going to disclose much of an opinion, but I will give some highlights.

1. Apparently an Institute dance on a Friday night is similar to an LA hotspot. It was crowded and people were outside begging to get in. It was quite pathetic on their part.
2. Just a good rule in general - if you leave the dance floor to grab a cookie, DO NOT dance by the refreshment table...it's just bad manners and it makes me feel awkward.
3. Some random guy came up to our group and shook hands (weird!) with 2 members of my group and then proceeded to dance with us. He was a slightly worse dancer than my sister, Elisabeth, and that is hard to do. When a slow song came on, he extended his hand to me, I looked at him in horror and told him I hate slow dancing. Luke and Eliza say I'm going to hell. Oh well.
4. Before they let you in, you have to sign a dance card promising that you won't dance inappropriately, dress immodestly, etc. I kept mine in my back pocket and I'll probably keep it forever. That little card prevented me from doing the kind of dancing I actually wanted to do.
5. Mormons like super lame techno music. I didn't know some of the music, yet a lot of people seemed to enjoy themselves. I hate those people.
6. Dancing stupidly with good friends is the best cure for an odd week. I'm cured!!!!
7. Why are Mormons obsessed with ballroom dancing AND then doing that dance style while a song like "YMCA" is playing? I had to resist the urge to trip or maim several ballroom couples tonight. It's totally lame and I think most of them do it to show off. Yuck.

I'm sure I'll have more gems to add to this list as I remember them and talk to Eliza more, but all in all, I had fun!

Provo Lingo

I was walking/running to my Linguistics class today and I ran right past the Institute of Religion. I ran past two guys who were obviously just leaving Institute and as I ran past, they both gave me the once over. The once over is looking at someone from head to toe. Girls typically do this on a daily basis to other girls. We're just checking out all aspects of each other's outfits and thinking rude things and making judgments. No big deal. After these boys gave me the once over, I heard one of them say, "So, are you going to find your E.C. this weekend?" For those of you who may be unaware, E.C. means Eternal Companion. Barf. Like it's camping or something....and don't look at me and then ask the E.C. question! PS-the picture is just for visual appeal and should not be interpreted as Heaven.

Why yes, I am a Business Major

So my friend Katie and I were walking through the quad type area at school today and we noticed a group of people all eating hamburgers. So we got in line. A woman approached and asked if we would like a sticker. Sure. We had walked into the opening social for the Business School and were in line to eat their food. We paused for moment to see if we were going to go ahead with the free food or skidaddle. Free food is free food and we could both whip out business terms if needed (we have both interpreted business classes, it's basically the same as taking the class). It was an excellent hamburger and a super delicious cookie. I think it was made pretty obvious that we are not business students when we took our food and promptly walked away to eat it in peace, away from their little social. I appreciate the hospitality of the Business School but will not be inviting them to any Deaf Studies events, there are too many boys in business and they eat more than girls, hence more costly for the department. That's good business sense, maybe I should go into business.

Pressure

I was just informed today that my dear, dear friend is making my blog her computer's home page. Great. Now I have to be witty, clever and an all around delight in at least 5 new posts every week. So, here goes for the newest installment.....

I'm PISSED! It rained most of the day yesterday and a bit today and as I was driving I noticed that the mountain tops have SNOW on them! Last winter was absolutely heinous, it lasted six months! I refuse to let it begin any earlier than November 1st this year. Ridiculous. Or, as my sister says, redick. (say it out loud and yeah...)

On a lighter, less pissed note - I went to a 4 hour lunch today with some girlfriends and it was delicious and wonderful. We are all interpreters so it was a lot of hands waving, people staring and sharing of stories. Good times. At one point we had everyone on the food line looking at us, which you know I love. Why do you think I've stuck with interpreting? People stare and I revel in it, just kidding! (No, I'm not)

I'll close this post with what is probably my favorite scripture. This summer I did a lot of personal study and one day I opened my scriptures and this one caught my eye - D&C 6:36. It says, "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not" and I repeat it to myself throughout the day to help me to remember that He is mindful of me and my circumstances. Life gets easier when you know that there is a plan for you; it helps that fear subside when you look to Him for everything.

I love Julie, Joby and little baby Rachel (I know this one is a boy but COME ON, I have to keep lobbying to get you guys to name one after me)