Texas and Life

In December, Tommy graduated, and since he didn't get a job in Hawaii, we moved to stay with my parents so that he could apply to the more abundant job market of the mainland. Tommy eventually got an internship with TMobile which started in June. Since I'm his wife, I came with him, instead of staying with my parents. But because it's summer, I haven't been working, and I have no car (since we only have one), so I've been a bit bored. Plus, I'm a people person.

Texas is a very interesting place. Since we are close to Dallas, there aren't beaches or mountains, so I'm not really sure what to do here, even on the weekends when Tommy isn't working. One day, our first week here, I decided to take a walk. There is a mall pretty close to our hotel, so I've gone there a few times to spend time/give myself something to do. Anyway, I thought there was another mall close to where we are staying, so I decided to walk there. It wasn't a mall, it was just a shopping center, so I decided to keep on walking to explore, in hopes of reaching a mall (besides the one I already knew about). I ended up walking for three hours in the heat, which was probably somewhere around 7 miles, and getting slightly lost (not completely, but I didn't want to backtrack). That day, I was very grateful for the shade. And I did get very sunburned. My feet were also very tired.

We have been going to a ward at church with a Chinese Group, so most of the meetings are in Chinese, and they have interpreters for Sacrament Meeting. We meet at the same time as the ward, but in the Relief Society room. Anyone in the Dallas mission can come to this ward if they are attending the Chinese Group.

I applied for my Texas teaching license early because my Washington one took so long to get, but Texas was really fast. Our first Sunday we went to the ward that our boundaries are in, and I was able to find a ride from someone in that ward from an email group. It was really nice of her to take me, but I haven't seen her since, and I think she has moved to Utah by now, which is where her husband is from. Anyway, I applied to all of these districts and positions here, but I haven't even received one phone call, and school starts on Monday, so I don't think I will be having a full-time teaching job here. 

(Speaking of licenses, I'm rather excited because I found out I can apply to a lifetime teaching certificate in New Jersey. This is good news because it means that I can have a license that will never expire. I've been thinking about and wanting a lifetime certificate for a while, and yesterday I did a little bit of research and found out New Jersey offers them. I'm not kidding that I'm excited about this. It's helpful in case I ever want to take a break from teaching or we move out of the country at some point- I don't have to worry about keeping it up/maintaining one. This makes it much easier for applying for a teaching license in pretty much any other state since expiring licenses is bad news. They make a lot of trouble to get back- with my mom, she worked probably 8 years to get hers and get highly qualified status back, which is crazy. Which is painful to her because at the time, she didn't know WA had a lifetime certificate as well, so if she'd had that, she wouldn't have had all this other mess. I am learning from her mistakes and trying to avoid that mess!)

I have had two interviews in Washington, however. One I flew back for, and I would have been working on the same team as Sarah's first grade teacher. They didn't call me back, though, so someone else nailed that interview. Then, on Friday, I had another interview but I didn't really want to spend $500 just to interview again, so we did it over FaceTime. If I get that position, I should be hearing back probably today (or maybe tomorrow, but I think today). I knew for the other job that I wasn't going to get it- it wasn't pessimism, I just had the thought that it wasn't going to be for me, and that feeling was right. For this one, I know the interview went a little bit better (ironically, since it was over FaceTime), but I'm not really sure. Meanwhile, we're waiting to hear back about 2 job interviews for Tommy, as well as a position approval at TMobile. So we might end up staying here in Texas for a while, we could end up back in Washington with one of the jobs, or somewhere else for the other one. I'm just glad that things are falling into place because we have been praying for a full-time position for Tommy for a very very long time. As for me, I can work anywhere, and while I prefer not to sub, it is still a possibility for me. (Ironically, the TMobile headquarters are about 20 minutes away from where my parents live and we drove all the way to Texas for this.) It's been really hard the past year, but we've been okay and had a lot of help and support from others, especially my parents. On Sunday I read this article and it was really helpful and applicable to our job situation. So I made that our home evening lesson for Monday.

For my birthday, we got tickets to Six Flags. I guess I have always wanted to go, and I told Tommy, "How can you live in Texas and not go to Six Flags?!" It was pretty fun, although we ended up only going on one roller coaster because the lines for all of them were so long. We went on 8-10 rides, though, so that's pretty good for the day. We had fun, and after we got back to the hotel we went out to dinner to a real Texas bbq place. It was pretty good. We sat at the bar because there wasn't any seating anywhere else, and they didn't even card us! I was surprised, but also excited. (Not like we drink, anyway.)

Overall, Texas is rather boring and fairly hot (although it's mostly bearable), but the people here are really friendly- unless they are in their cars. People are really aggressive drivers here. It's kind of crazy. It's also crazy how all the main roads are about 6 lanes because they have 3 lanes going in each direction...with a median in the middle. So there are lots of places to U-Turn, which is fairly helpful.

My sister Sarah was in Texas with her friend for a month, staying with the friend's grandma. As fate would have it, we ended up in the same city. So it was fun because we got to do things with the girls a few times, spend time with people we know,  and explore Texas together a little bit. 

We are pretty close to the temple here, which is a good thing, (20-30 minute drive), and I must say it's prettier in person than looking at it from the pictures. It's one of the 3 with the slanty roof (Las Vegas and Boise are the other two). 

That's pretty much the scoop of our lives. The most exciting thing is watching job opportunities finally unfold for Tommy. I'm rooting for a specific one, but I won't say what it is. (And I haven't mentioned what the others are, anyway.) But it's exciting to know that we're finally going to be settled in a little while. 

Life, Creepy Crawlies, Cars, Easter

(Okay, I know this post is really random. That's how my brain works. And I had a lot of catching-up to do, so I did it in one post.)

This past week, Tommy has had school off. It's been really nice, even though I had work. We got to do a lot together after I finished work. He starts school again tomorrow.
I have 6 more weeks of teaching left of the school year. (This means only 5 more weeks of planning! WOOHOO!)
He has 7 weeks of Summer A (the summer semester is cut in half with a 5 week break in the middle).
Plus 2 more weeks of an extra SAP class his professor voluntarily teaches (I think unpaid) to help students get SAP certified. 2 weeks of 8 AM to 8 PM.
9 weeks of school. Hard weeks. Busy weeks. Crazy weeks.
I'm so scared. When he's in school and super busy, life is more than just a little hard for the both of us. At least he got a week to relax to the max.
The next week, we head to Hong Kong for just under 2 weeks. I'm really excited to go.
Tommy got his extension approved the 2nd time around, thanks to help from many faculty and professors on campus. (He started school before the 9 semester rule, so he's in that middle group who was applied the rule, but sometimes have a hard time finishing.) He is double majoring, which isn't grounds for staying another semester, so basically he had to talk about why those classes would help him in his future career. We are just really grateful his appeal (actually, re-appeal) was accepted, and he can graduate in December.

A few minutes ago, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. At first, I thought it was a cockroach. But as I stared at this creature that seems to somehow blend in with the carpet (perhaps the texture), I realized it's a spider. I do not know what kind, but perhaps it's the one that laid egg sacs on our ceiling. I have been staring at it. And it just moved again. I don't usually mind spiders, but this one seems a little creepy to me.
...

Okay, that was an ugly one. After I checked out what it was (and it was bigger than I thought), it crawled away, and across the door. So I opened the door up in attempt to help it go outside. It crawled around and ended up on the cement by the door. So I then opened up the screen, and out it went. I think it did not exactly want to be around me, either. Good bye, spider. I'm glad I did not kill you and that you are outside where you belong. Please don't go into someone else's house, or back into mine. Some people aren't as nice to me.

Speaking of these things, there was a grasshopper head in my dim sum yesterday. I cut it in half to share with Tommy. When I picked up my portion, there was something that fell out. I ate my dim sum, while staring at this thing. I couldn't help but think it looked like a grasshopper head, but that it was probably part of the veggies inside. I really wasn't sure. I picked it up to show Tommy, and then it shot out of my chopsticks and landed by his plate. Then he picked it up and I told him what it reminded me of. He looked at it, and said it was. Frankie and Felicia, who are from Malaysia, were with us, and said it happens quite often there. That was a first for Tommy, who has only seen it in movies/TV shows. It was also a first for me. He called over the waiter and told them. They crossed that off of our bill and also gave us free egg tarts.
I had eaten that piece, and I don't think the body was inside, but it's still a little gross to think that the head was touching stuff that I ate. I tried to tell myself that it was okay since I once voluntarily ate a mealworm in a Bio Lab class in Idaho. (It was fried, salted, and for extra credit. So I did it.) But I think they are a little different. And also, I did it voluntarily, for something.

In my last post, I talked about not going anywhere for Christmas. My dad had a bunch of extra sky miles that he ended up using for plane tickets for us. (I think both of my parents really wanted us there.) It was fun, and I can't believe it's already Easter! I love Easter. I love what it represents and reminds us of. Anyway, 4 months have passed already. January...February...March...and now April is closer to being finished than it is to beginning.

Stacy left on Wednesday morning. She's transferring to Provo. I don't know who I am going to play with this summer. It makes me a little sad she's gone. In some ways it's good, but in a lot of ways, it's just sad. I'm happy for her, though. Getting her to the airport was crazy. She had a ride, but then that person's car broke down and couldn't take her. Tommy came to town that day to get his computer looked at and met up with me after work. We went to Wal-Mart, and then we went to a movie. We BARELY missed the bus after our movie, I think. So we had to wait a really long time and we got home at 10:00 PM. Stacy still had no ride. But a little while later, our neighbor came and offered to let us borrow their car since he had to work. I had to be to work, and Tommy didn't feel comfortable driving, so he went along in the car, but got someone else to drive her. (I rode the bus, because I felt uncomfortable with the possibility of traffic and being late. Especially since we were taking a field trip that day to the Bishop Museum.) I also felt bad, because Stacy had been locked out of our apartment, with no phone, after having gone to the beach. She called me during the movie from a friend's phone, and I didn't answer, but the second time, I knew what had happened, I left, and I called her back. I ended up calling an RA to come open the door. Everything turned out okay, but that poor girl had a hard day and a run for her money.
This story illustrates why I would like to get a car now, because I am tired of these kinds of things happening. Also, I want Tommy especially (but also me) to enjoy the island before we have to go. I don't know when he's going to start grad school, but he's not applying to UH because he cannot get a scholarship there, so it costs too much money. I'm a little sad about that. It's really hard to think about leaving. So I want to make the most of the rest of the time we have, and the bus doesn't go everywhere, and takes a lot of time.

Well, I think I hit the bulk of it. Today, we ended up joining another ward for Sacrament Meeting because the building where we meet was having its floors redone. It was a last minute notice, so we only had Sacrament Meeting, and then went home (the other ward continued everything, but we would have been too much for them to handle). It was funny, because I was supposed to play the piano for Sacrament today, and teach a lesson in Relief Society. I didn't end up needing to do either. I tried to not get annoyed about it, since I had put in a lot of extra preparation, which could have been used for other things. So I prayed that I wouldn't have a bad attitude about it. I ended up telling myself that it was okay because I learned more than I would have had I known I didn't need to do either. This is true. So then I was okay. (Especially since I need more piano practice, and playing the piano today would have been slightly stressful, because it always is. I don't really like playing while people sing- it is a difficult thing to do.)

Happy Easter! I am so grateful that Jesus Christ descended below all so that he could ascend above all, and allow us to be with Him if we follow and obey Him. Just think of the lowest place you've ever been in your life- the darkest. He experienced that, and everything else from everyone. He knows every single person's feelings, as well as the pain from sin. That blows my mind, how much He must have truly hurt (because I think that really helps put it into perspective). He knows. He still followed Father's commandments, and did not "remove the bitter cup." And then He literally rose 3 days later, and broke the bands of death. I am so thankful. And so filled with love toward Him. I'm thankful for everything He did. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I feel so joyful and honored to call Him my Brother, for He is! And He lives!

Work

Uggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That's how I feel when I come home from work, most of the time. Especially when I've worked 8 hours ON the clock.

Growing up

Being a "grown up" isn't always fun. I've said for a long time that I wouldn't ever grow up, but I'd be an adult. I had to grow up anyway. This week.
My family left on Thursday morning for Idaho, where a family reunion was about to take place. They got to Rexburg that night and saw my brother, John, and his girlfriend, Emily. Then, on Friday night, they camped (as part of the reunion), and on Saturday they ate and visited and did family reunionish things. Saturday night they set off for Utah to visit friends and family.
How did I have to "grow up?" I had to stay home to work. This was the week of my life I've been absolutely dreading up until this point. Not only did I have to stay home because I was on the schedule (because I didn't know in time to request a week off), I also had to stay home for work because even if I COULD request the time off, I wouldn't have been able to because I need the money. This thought stirs wretched feelings inside of me every time I think about it. Okay, not really, but it doesn't make me extremely happy. It's the part where I remember how I don't want to be an adult and I never asked to become one, anyway.
I know this definitely sounds like a complaining session (probably because it is one), even though I don't want it to.
There are some really good things about being an adult, like:

• Having great friends for life who I met at BYUI,
• Being able to drive,
• Having more available access to money (although I never do spend it because I'm always saving it for school),
• Being about to help children,
• Knowing how to cook and not mess it up,
• Having knowledge,
• Going on hikes when I would like to.

Well, there are good and bad things about being a child, and there are good and bad things about being an adult. I guess when the bad times being an adult come my way, I become extremely reminiscent of my childhood. It's something I have to work on. I take challenges when they come my way. Sometimes I just like the sound of being 9 or 10 again. (Although I wouldn't have all the great friends I have now, who are people I can't live without!)

When it all boils down to it, though, I am always grateful that I am me and that I'm not anyone else. I like being me, and I have fun doing it.

My Recent Life

Okie dokie....I have a feeling this may possibly be a long-winded entry, so prepare yourself...
I deferred fall semester because I needed more money to pay for school. I worked ALL the time and pretty much didn't have a life. I'm with the Issaquah School District as a sub Ed Assistant, so it's pretty good practice and experience for me since I'm an Elementary Ed major. It also pays very well. My nerdy job? Working at Staples. Now one would normally say that working at Staples isn't that nerdy because it's just a retail job. However, I'M WORKING WITH OFFICE SUPPLIES, HERE. As a matter of fact, on the schedule, I was under both Cashier/Customer Service AND Office Supplies... When I punched in at work, the title said "Office Supplies Expert." And it is sadly true. I know more about office supplies than the average person...a lot more. I'm not sad that I know stuff, but I have to admit, and will be the first person to do so, that first of all, office supplies are not that interesting, and secondly, it's a nerdy thing to know a lot about those particular things... Anyway...work=money, two jobs= no life, and Emily=enough money to pay for school.
While I was home, I had the awesome chance and opportunity to do a lot of missionary work with my coworkers, especially Sarah. She committed to baptism and then dropped the missionaries because she did not feel ready. That's okay, because I KNOW she felt the Spirit, and I know that she will get baptised one day. (Hahaha. I just spelled "baptised" the Canadian/English way. I'm not changing it. Just because I do stuff like that every once in a while and actually like it a little.) I also had other missionary experiences with my coworkers, and found out that one was baptized when she was 13...which was 7-8 years ago. She's less active, and I think that the gospel would really help her life and guide her, as well as answer a lot of questions. Actually, I know that. I brought her to a FHE activity with me, but unfortunately it was a combined activity in Redmond, so she didn't meet the missionaries because they weren't able to go (Redmond is in the Everett mission, and we are in the Seattle mission). We had a really great talk on the way there, and she feels the influence of the Holy Ghost everytime she hears the story of Joseph Smith. Sharing the gospel is one of my favorite things to do. It makes me so happy. I was so incredibly blessed to be able to have many chances to share the gospel while I was home!
Cassie, my friend, got married on January 2nd in the Denver temple. She married a pretty cool man, Timmy. They're great for each other. I have known Cass since I've been at school, and let's just say that from the beginning, we hit it off really well. Tiffany, my other friend, and I, flew into Denver on Wednesday, December 30, for Cassie's wedding. We all had a BLAST together. We saw "The Princess and the Frog" on New Year's Eve, which was fun. (We also did other random things, and almost got kicked out of Walgreens.) Tim is from Roseville, CA, and his family drove to Denver. On their way there, they slipped on ice and rolled their van. It ended up totalled. His sister, Megan, also ended up breaking her jaw, but that's the worst that happened. They were really blessed, and ended up getting to Denver on Thursday night instead of Wednesday afternoon. (Unfortunately, Megan had to fly straight back to California, in order to get jaw surgery, and also had to get a deferrment so her jaw can heal.)
Cassie's and Timmy's wedding was great. Since it was in the temple, Tiffany and I couldn't go in for the actual wedding and sealing part, but we were in the annex building next to the temple, and we just waited for them. (By the way, there were a lot of people getting married that day.) We also helped with pictures afterward. That was fun, minus the cold feet and frozen toes. Cassie's brother-in-law Kevin stated that he didn't think the bridesmaids were supposed to be the ones to get cold feet. Hahaha. That was funny. On the subject of Cassie's family, I love them- they are great!
Cassie's and Timmy's luncheon was fun and good. Tim's friend Keith talked about Tim a bit, and I gave a bit of a speech on Cassie. I am really not a serious person. I really am not. The reception was also good and a lot of fun. It looked really nice. Cass chose the colors eggplant purple, cranberry red, and chocolate brown for her wedding. Not everything ended up being those colors, but it still looked great anyway. And not tacky or cheesy, considering the fact that it was in a church gym, and some receptions in church gyms can be silly looking.
Tiffany, Keith, and I decorated their car- a blazer. It was actually rather lame. Post-it notes work when you have a lot more and they don't have a Peter Rabbit design on them. We were looking for a window marker, and much to our dismay, could not get ahold of one. To make matters a bit more hilarious, Tim's parents showed us a window marker they had in their car that we could have used- AFTER the reception and Cassie and Tim left...on OUR way home. That was a good night. Some drunk person started texting Tiffany almost illegible texts, but we deciphered them. Those texts brought us great amusement. Even though drinking alcohol is not a good thing, drunk people are really funny.
I am now at school. We started classes on Tuesday. It's only the first week and somehow I already feel behind. LAME. I like most of my classes though. They are really fun. For the most part. I AM taking 18 credits, so it's possible I might have some near-death experiences this semester...from homework. Just kidding. It'll be a bit hard, though. 3 more semesters after this one!!! (By the way, I seriously can't believe that- it's so close and I know I have time, but I don't feel ready yet.) I've seen a lot of people on campus who I know. I love that about coming back to school. I really love BYU-I and the atmosphere of it. Even if the "I" stands for "Iceburg." Plus, now John, Matthew, and I are all here at the same time. That's fun.
I like my new laptop. If I would have had even more money, there's a chance I would have gotten a Mac, but I went the more temporarily inexpensive route and got a Dell...it's white with yellow polka dots, adorable, and pretty much me. That makes me happy.
Remember how I said this was going to be really long? Well, it is.
I want to go to Hawaii.