Friday, September 24, 2010

Early Morning Seminary . . .

It's 5:35 a.m., it's as dark as night outside and we are awake and driving to our first class. We're surprisingly happy and alert and the radio is playing nothing but good songs.  I try to be positive and decide that this must be a sign.  Seminary is going to be GREAT! 

Just as we come over the hill and begin to see the temple, the broken bells song we've been enjoying blares from the speaker "It's too late to change your mind" over and over again.  All of the positive thinking that I'd been desperately trying to hold on to melts away in an instant and I can't help but want to cry. 

"What am I doing?  Is this some kind of joke, seriously?  Me . . . a seminary teacher?  Do you have any idea how much my seminary teachers hated me, how much seminary I skipped?  Just ask my mom, she'll tell you.  She got calls from my teachers all the time because they would watch me drive out of the school parking lot.  I knew they saw me too.  I would wave to them as I did it. It's true, I was a total brat.  This is payback isn't it?"

No matter how much complaining I did, it didn't change the fact that I had in fact said yes and that it was too late to change my mind.  So, I put on the best face I had and we walked in. 


The students started to arrive and I would love to say things went great, but to be honest things were a little awkward.  The kids just stared at us when we asked them simple questions, I made the mistake of asking "Are there new scripture mastery cards every year?" (I told you I never went) and I had a hard time remembering the kids names.  We walked out of our first class feeling like completely uncool teachers. 

Don't feel too bad for us though because that was the worst day by a long shot.  Our 8 students warmed up to us a little bit more over the next few days and the lessons just got better and better.  The participation was there, we figured out how to run our class and by Thursday I started to feel like this might not be so bad after all. 

Our lives outside of Seminary on the other hand took a serious turn.  I only show you these pictures because this is absolutely NOT how we run our home. By the end of the week we both looked at each other and died laughing because our house was such a disaster.  Can you blame us when our schedule looks something like this all week?   


  • Wake up
  • go to seminary
  • go back to bed for a little while 
  • go to work
  • come home
  • find something for dinner
  • prepared next days lesson
  • go to bed
  • repeat 
We could barely stay awake at work let alone come home and be expected to clean and make dinner and do all of the other daily chores that you wouldn't even think about otherwise.


By Friday our dinner became completely unhealthy and random.  We would both come home, look in the fridge and just shove in our mouths the first thing we saw that sounded good. This particular night Matt pulled out apple sauce, orange juice, toast, mac and cheese, and sun chips.  Lovely. :)

When you're running from place to place and you don't have time to think about anything except how good a nice soft bed will feel as you drift off to sleep, the hallway becomes a great place to throw your clothes as you head that direction.  Seriously I think this is like 2 days worth of clothes.

Matt and I were so exhausted by Friday that upon returning from work that evening we jumped right into bed.  We pretty much slept our whole weekend away and it felt GREAT!  We woke up for about 5 hours on Saturday afternoon to celebrate our successful first week of seminary with a little lobster and a lot of cool people.  It was our wards annual clambake and it was just what we needed.  One of our students even came up to us to say hi.  I couldn't help but think to myself,  "See, we are cool!"     


Wish us luck as we begin week number 2 in a few short days.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

End of Summer Outings!



We got up close a personal with a few very large animals at the Stone Zoo.



(That's a baby flamingo. Aren't they ugly!)

(Handlebar mustache: Ba, ha, ha, ha!)


When we came out of the building that housed the little monkeys (above) it started to downpour. We weren't quite as prepared as this little family so we got soaked as we ran for our car. It was kind of fun.



Ever been raspberry picking? We went for the first time and had a blast. Well, Matt had a blast while it took me a little while to get over the mass amounts of bees hovering over the bushes.


I got over my fear pretty quick when a cute family from our ward came to say hello mid squeal and run action. (Super embarrassing!)


And finally, a first day of school shot for us, bright and early at 5:20 am!


That's right, we're early morning seminary teachers and we started school this week. If we survive the next few days I'll give the new calling a post of its own. It's gonna need one. ;)

Monday, August 30, 2010

Summer Lovin


I've been able to enjoy this summer so much more than summers in the past. You see, we have central A/C in our apartment and it's heavenly. No more loud window air conditioners and coming home to a house that's 100 degrees. No more waking up in the middle of the night sweaty and uncomfortable, and no more loud neighbors who you hear all night long because your window has to stay open. It's been GREAT!



We've enjoyed walks in the evenings, fresh fruit salads, our favorite summer shows, Boston street performers, the beach and even a few trips to Kimball Farms.



That being said, Fall is my favorite season and I seriously can't wait! I just need one more beach day and I'll be 100% ready.




Sunday, August 29, 2010

Boston Lunch Break



When I'm not chatting it up with my mom and sisters or window shopping on my lunch break I often get to people watch which is one of my favorite things to do in Boston. The kids are particularly fun. They get so excited over the smallest things and I often find myself wishing I had my nieces and nephew with me to share in the fun.

Here's just a little of what I get to enjoy on a nice summer day around noon (ish).




This is just one of the many fountains that you will always find people playing in. I say people because while they all look like children in this picture, I have quite often seen an adult or two (in their work clothes) running in and out. :)





I work right next to the aquarium where you can walk over and watch these super cute seals swimming back and forth, back and forth. I just can't figure out why they only swim upside down though. Crazy!




I live for my Lunch break! Sometimes it's the only thing that gets me through my day.

Side Note: The day I took these pictures was a particularly funny day. I was on the phone with my mom, standing on the grass just out from the water fountain. As soon as I hung up the phone and started to pull out my camera the sprinklers came on and shot me right in the leg. I was so confused for a minute that I just stood there. Then, realizing that yes I was in fact getting wet, I jumped in the air and took off running for the pavement. A business man walking by saw the whole thing and was laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall over. I think it's safe to say I made his day.