Graduation and Beyond

On Saturday the 19th I somewhat graduated from BYUI. Somewhat because I still have to do my student teaching in Las Vegas. Graduation was pretty much uneventful, but good at the same time. On the Friday evening before graduation my parents and I went to the graduation banquet. We had some great food and I really enjoyed listening to the music and President Clark’s talk. He is a pretty good speaker. Then I went back to my almost empty apartment to finish packing things up and stayed for my last night at BYUI. I woke up super early to get ready for the days activities and before I left my roommate, Shelley, gave me flowers and a BYUI Mug. It was so sweet of her. I was very glad to have her still there and she was able to come to my commencement as well. I struggled greatly to stay awake during commencement. Elder Richard G. Scott was speaking and even though I was enjoying the things he was saying fatigue took over as well as being very cold in the auditorium. After commencement I went to take pictures with Shelley and then marched for convocation. It was a nice short ceremony where I got my “fake” diploma and a rose. After that my parents took me to Wingers and then to get a few more pictures. That was my last day spent at BYUI.

 This Saturday I am leaving to go to Las Vegas for 3 months. I am both excited and scared out of my mind. I have an apartment in Henderson that is 2 bedrooms and a bathroom in each. I will have 3 other roommates and they are all teaching English as well, but at different high schools. I am teaching at Desert Oasis High School – the Diamondbacks!

This high school seriously looks and seems more like a college, but I will know more after I actually get there. My cooperating teachers are Mrs. Welch and Mr. Gibson. They are both department chairs of their subject. Mrs. Welch is the English and Mr. Gibson the health. Mrs. Welch called me today and she just seems so nice and helpful. She really helped calm some of the fears I had. She scared me when she said that she had heard I would be teaching math as well. I said “Oh no, no, no I don’t do math!” She laughed and said she better talk to the health teacher about my schedule then. I know it sounds like my school will be quite the commute, but google maps says it is only 6.6 miles away. I guess the traffic is bad. I will keep everyone updated on my upcoming adventures via Las Vegas!

This isn't my actual apartment but it is one of the apartments at this complex...It gives a good general idea of what it looks like. :) It is nice huh!

My Life this Semester

So most of you know that this semester is my last semester at BYUI and man it has been a busy one. I do have my student teaching still in Las Vegas, which I still have not received my placement for so I’m a bit distraught about that. I am really excited to go to Vegas and try out something new and I can’t wait to teach, scared to death, but still very excited. I have been so worried about my ability to do this, but after this semester I feel so much better about my competency to teach. I have had some great English classes and health classes, plus an amazing class called personal achievement that is meant to help anyone about to go through a transition in their life. I will talk about that one more later. I have learned and done so much this semester that I want to write all about it. First side note: I went through 9 semesters at B YUI without ever giving a sacrament talk. I thought this was a bit interesting. Anyway, so I’ll start by saying I took the praxis in November, which is a test that is 120 questions long and takes 2 hours determines whether you can teach in the state you test for or not. I took one in Health and English and I passed them both! I got a 780 on my Health one and I needed a 630 to pass. So I did awesome! I was 40 points above average. When I got done taking it (it only took me an hour so I stared at the wall for another hour) I felt very confident and said that was a way easy test. The English one; however, I was not so confident about. I got a 171 and needed a 158 or something like that to pass. I was cutting it close. So in my English 430 class I was able to do a few really cool projects that will help a lot when I become a teacher. I wrote a two-week lesson plan on comparing literature to movies based on literature. It was fun to do. Then I wrote a unit on the new up and coming young adult fiction The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I also created a lit link for that book which means a website that has URLS for all the websites that might help a teacher when teaching that book in their classroom. The most intense class was probably my English 450 class. It is Rhetoric Studies, basically the study of writing. For this class I had to apply for a job as either Editor in Chief of a magazine board or a sponsoring editor. I have not had much experience in editing so I wanted to be a sponsoring editor. I had 4 other people on my magazine board and we “competed” business wise with 18 other magazines that were being created in this class by other students. We had to do everything that we would if we were out in the business world proposing a magazine idea, convincing the publisher the need for this magazine and then actually creating it. We also had to write for all the other magazines. We needed at least 1200 words published in other magazines by the time the semester was over. For my magazine we created “Jubilee!” It is bases on traditions throughout the holidays. The edition we did was for Christmas since it got published in December. We had a great start, but really struggled later on in the process, let’s just say if you don’t have an editor in chief that knows what she is doing and isn’t very good it is very hard to work together and get it done. In the end it turned out fairly ok, but if I hadn’t been so busy and so shy about standing up to the “boss” then I know it could have been designed a lot better, because surprisingly I’m actually pretty talented in that area. I will post the link to my magazine so you all can see it.  I will also post the links to the three magazines that I got published in. I wrote an article for the Graduate’s Grind on the BYUI learning model, one for Now and Forever on unique gifts for bridal showers, and one for Fitzen on 5 steps to preventing the freshman 15. I had a lot of fun writing for the other magazines. It made me almost want to write for a magazine for a living, but not quite. The health classes were normal and I learned a lot, but nothing that special. Now for my favorite class of the semester, Personal Achievement. When I registered I had 12 credits and that’s all I needed, but I have a scholarship so in order to keep it I had to take 14 credits. So I added a two credit religion class. I looked at the syllabus and it looked awful, so I dropped it for a general studies 101 class. I thought it would be so easy and probably a waste of time, but I didn’t care I just needed two more credits. Well, I was in for a big surprise. It ended up changing my life. I was given some very thought provoking assignments that were very time consuming. I was a bit mad a first that this class took so much of my time, but after a while I didn’t mind because I loved it so much. We read an amazing book and wrote a Personal Creed Document. This PCD is a guide for the rest of our lives and helps us during any transition in our life. I loved this class and I can’t even express how much I learned from it. I am very happy and grateful that I made the switch and took this class. It not only helped me learn and grow, but it taught me a way to teach my future students values without religion. For our final we had to take all the parts of our PCD and create one cohesive document that we could always have and refer to, but it had to be electronic since it was an online class. I decided to make mine into a website. I spent 3 straight days on it, but it looks great and I’m really glad I have it. I will also post a link to that. Well that about sums up my semester! In just a few more days on Saturday, December 19, 2009 I will be graduating and moving on to my next adventure in life. And yes, I will be completely single with not even a guy in mind to marry, but that is ok I now realize after almost five years that I wasn’t supposed to come to BYUI to find my husband, but to gain the learning experience I did, to change my spiritual life, to gain amazing friendships, and become a better disciple of Christ. Thanks to all who have helped and supported me throughout this long, challenging adventure.


This website is to the one I created for my PCD
http://www.wix.com/bubblecam/personal-creed

This is the magazine my group created
http://www.wix.com/Chicera/Jubilee-Magazine

This magazine has the article I wrote on freshman 15
http://fitzen.weebly.com/

This magazine has the article I wrote for the Learning Model
http://graduategrind.weebly.com/

This magazine has the the article I wrote about bridal shower gifts
http://www.wix.com/FarWest/NowandForever

Crazy Face-Painting Date

So I’m usually good about making sure I have plenty of dates throughout the semester and I have had quite a few this particular semester, but my roommate, Shelley, has not. In fact, I hope she doesn’t get mad that I wrote this on my blog but, she hasn’t been on a date since before her mission. That is until last weekend when I use my magical powers to ensure her a great date with a great guy! I have this friend, Mitch Empey, who is just a great guy. He is so good and someone that I knew Shelley would like. He dates all the time so it wasn’t hard to get him to call Shelley up and ask her on one. Well, this easy set up of course can’t ever be that easy. Turns out I got set up as well by Mitch. He called up his friend Nick Horton and we doubled. Mitch has a knack for coming up with the most fun, practical, economically great dates. He planned for us to do face painting. I was pretty scared at first, but it was tons of fun. Shelley got to paint Mitch’s face first and she turned his face into a huge beautiful butterfly. Mitch turned Shelley’s face into the British flag, which was so completely awesome. Nick painted a bunch of Mario kart symbols on my face. Then it was my turn. Despite my lack of artistic ability I painted an amazing rainbow and cloud on one cheek followed by a leprechaun on the other. Mitch was jealous of it, but Nick was less than thrilled to have a rainbow and little green fellow on his face. We then went to Broulim’s, where of course we were forced to go with our unique painted faces, to buy things for a dessert competition. We got some pretty funny looks. We came back, made dessert, watched the movie Elf and then ate the banana cream pie and Oreo pie. It was rather fattening, but we had a lot of fun. Shelley, I think even likes Mitch a little and might be hoping for another date possibly. I’m such a good matchmaker. :)

October Joys!

Hello my fellow readers! It’s me again…of course who else would be writing on MY blog. So now that I can count my blog as a homework assignment I have an excuse to spend time writing for it. The problem is coming up with things to write. My life really isn’t the most interesting life at the moment, but I’ll feel you in on all the juicy stories that I can formulate. Let us begin with the story of the Bootstrap Tyrel. He is quite a handsome lad, but lacks in some areas…Like communication. We have been on several dates 5 to be exact and yet he still has not decided whether or not he likes me. He is so weird. I thought I really, really liked him, but now I’m not so sure how strong my feelings are because he isn’t very proactive. I do all the work in the relationship. I’m afraid I’m pushing him too much. I’m trying to be patient. I don’t know how patient I should be though. He says he doesn’t know who he is. I would agree with him on that one. I know it is important to find yourself before you commit yourself to another. It is good that he is being cautious because I don’t want to get hurt because he is a confused little kid like Ben was. We have another date on Wednesday so I guess he is going forward just very slowly. My roommates have a plan though. They even have a song for us. “Yo ho, Yo ho Eternal life for me!” They want a pirate themed wedding and Missy wants to be the bar wrench, or something like that. Sounds fun sort of. Anyway, moral of the story is don’t go for confused guys it leaves you standing at the alter in a beautiful dress and mascara running down your face. Ok so it wasn’t that bad yet, but it could have turned that bad.

Ok now moving on to the next adventure of Millie. This story we will call “Something Wicked this Way Comes.” Halloween is a wonderful time of the year. Fall has begun and the air gets chilly the nights are darker earlier. We all dress up and pretend we are someone else for the evening on

 multiple occasions throughout October. We will begin with Masquerade Ball. For those that aren’t aware of this little fact BYU-I has never let us wear masks on campus for Halloween or any dance. This year they threw their first Masquerade Ball. I had the perfect mask but I was missing the perfect guy and the perfect dress. Well time was pressing on and I had yet to find either. Never the less I did not let it bring me down. I had a blast playing mom for my roommates and helped them look beautiful for their special night. I’ll post a few pictures for those that have not yet seen them. They left at 8:40ish and I locked the door prepared for my night of pj’s, popcorn, and Eastwick. Around an hour and 20 minutes later I hear, “ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring” I go to the door and three beautiful girls walk in with masks and ball gowns on. I told them it was way too early for them to be home and they were bummed about the lack of guy turnout and décor. So they all piled into a car and went off to get Ben and Jerry’s and a movie to bury their loneliness in. I went back to my room to my own pity party.

Wahoo! Two stories down are you all still reading? I hope I have not put anyone to sleep and at least made a decent attempt to make my dull life sound exhilarating and readable. So who wants to read about adventure number 3? (I do, I do) We will call this adventure “Lost in the Straw.” I bet you can’t guess what this one is about.

That’s right the Straw Maze! So the day after the big happening Ball that turned out to be a smash (literally smashed the hopes and dreams of attending an actual Masquerade Ball at BYUI) I wanted to do something other than study for Diseases. So I called up my momma and told her she should bring the kids up and go to the straw maze. She did and we all went and had some fun in the Hay (straw) –what is the difference really? The kids (Caleb and Noni) were way too good with directions. Before we knew it we weren’t lost anymore and back at the beginning. Noni and Caleb did feel the need to begin a massive straw fight though. We all ended the day with straw in our underwear and itchy to the max. We were all hungry so we stopped at New Fongs for dinner. It was yummy, but not very good service. We have had such bad luck with that lately. Then my roommate and I went and rented two supposedly scary movies. The first was very scary it was called 1408! Yikes, still creeps me out. The second wasn’t scary just really dumb it is “Rose Red.” Well that is the end of that exhilarating adventure.

So is this too long of a post should I separate them into different posts? I still have a few more events to “blog” about so this will probably be the longest post ever! Next we have the lovely Shelley’s birthday. This story is called, “Lime Skirt gone wrong.” Her birthday happened to fall on the same day as our ward Halloween dance. We still wanted to do something special for Shelley so this is how the day went. We started by making a fast trip to get finishing touches on costumes and food for the later chocolate fondue party. We then picked up Shelley and Missy to go to Applebee’s for dinner. I had a delicious strawberry pina-colada drink with the orange chicken bowl. It was so good and I had leftovers for the next two meals. Then we came back to the apartment and got all beautified in our costumes for the dance. I was a 20’s flapper girl! I was hot. We went to the dance and can I say lame! The best moment was when Shelley (who was Rita Skeeter from Harry Potter) was dancing and her costume went array. She was wearing a lime green skirt that needless to say was too small and took two of us to get it on her. As she was doing a slide as part of a dance move “RIP!” The slit of the skirt ripped all the way up. She heard it and felt it and ran to the wall. Missy with her huge ball gown wrapped excess skirt around the back of Shelley and escorted her out the door. She went home changed skirts and came back.

Man, this would only happen to Shelley and especially on her birthday! After the dance I came home to find my dr. pepper spilled on my bed, through my pillow, through my quilt, through the sheets, through the mattress pad, to the foam pad. I had an emergency laundry trip right then. Then we had the chocolate party and then I stayed up until 2 in the morning to write a paper. The end.

The concluding story is called, “Spooks, murder, and mystery!” It was a dark and chilly night the leaves making a slight crackle in the wind as we slowly and cautiously walk towards the creepy dark house. No one looks to be home as we walk into the abandoned home. There are warnings “Enter if you dare”…”turn back now.” We decided to take the risk knowing each of our lives were inevitably in danger. After all we were there to solve the murder of Tom Dooley. What we didn’t know was who amongst us the murderer was. We approached the kitchen seeing a glow and finding the room full of cobwebs and bats. The table was set for our discussion on who did it! After some arguing, frisking, searching of pockets, and a radio announcer we found the murderer. It was none other than Tiara Diamond, Tom Dooley’s fiancée. Yet, after further investigation Tiara wasn’t Tiara at all, she was Hope, Tiara’s twin sister. She wanted revenge on what Tom did to her sister, who previously was admitted to an insane asylum. After taking care of Hope we were led up the stairs out onto a dark balcony. We looked around with suspicious eyes wondering if anyone would try to push us over the edge. The host began to speak of Bloody Mary and the suspicion grew intensely. We were led back into a dark room where the only sound that could be heard was scary music from the surrounding speakers. The games had begun. Another murder was found after several more of us bit the dust! I was scared wondering when it would be my turn to die. After another long series of events at least I was allowed to leave in one piece. I walked slowly to the car, stopping ever so carefully to turn to see if I was being followed wondering if the murderer decided to not let me go free after all. I turned to see no one and arrived home and breathed a sigh of relief.

The last story was indeed based off of real events on the night before Hallow’s Eve. One can never be too careful when going to a Mormon Murder Mystery Bash.

Remembering the Little Things

Excitement is in the air as the season --everyone loves—approaches. The crisp smell in the air of harvest reminds me of fall as I walk to my morning classes. The leaves turn brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows. As students are bustling to class I can’t help but hear the crackle of dried leaves crunch as the footsteps walk over them. Yep it is fall soon to be winter as the air gets cooler and sweaters get thicker. What is it about this time of year that everyone gets so excited about? Is it the joy of playing in the piles of leaves, the anticipation of heaps of candy on Halloween, the soon to be feast of turkey, stuffing, and serving after serving of pie, or is it the special feeling that Christmas will soon be around us? For me it is all of the above! Let me add more reasons to what makes this season the favorite of them all. Despite the numerous holidays there is something that changes in people. Amazingly we become more charitable, willing to help others, and are generally happier. Yes, I’m implying that this all happens long before Christmas. Kids are helping neighbors rake up the leaves; neighborhoods pass out candy and goodies to children, and families gather together to celebrate. The months of January through August just don’t have this excitement and happen to be more selfish times of the year. I think that is what I love about this season out of all the others, I can feel a change. Heavenly Father was absolutely ingenious as He planned the seasons and how the earth changes through time. Have you ever seen something as beautiful as the drive through Sardine Canyon in the fall or snow capped mountains in the winter, the Gardens in the spring, and of course the colorful summer. I know at times I get so caught up in the world and what I must accomplish each day to remember to step back and look at the beauty God gave us to enjoy everyday of our lives. How often do we stop and look at what surrounds us? Do we notice the squirrel gathering acorns for the winter, the leaves changing colors, the ground becoming harder, the colors in the sunrise or sunset, how the wind causes different sounds like a whistling in the trees, the laughter of children down the street, or a group laughing over a silly joke. Do we notice the people around us the one who is smiling because they just got a promotion, the one that is crying because they lost a loved one, the one that is putting on a face but is really hurting inside begging for someone one to help. How often do we take the time to observe the little things in life that make it so wonderful? How can we be more charitable and really give our life to God without noticing these things? We must observe we must pay attention to the little things so we can add to them and be grateful for the beauty and emotion that engulfs us each new day. Take the time, step out of the world to take a grander view of life. Notice not just the overall big picture, but also the tiny little details that create the overall elaboration of the big picture. I would like to take this time to thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with such a beautiful place to live in, for a family so fun to celebrate with, and friends that always make me smile. It is through small things that great things come to pass. Enjoy this season make it the best, celebrate to the fullest, give more than you ever gave before, push yourself to make this the happiest season of all!

With all my love,

Millie

Fishing Trip!

So this last weekend my roommate Heather and I decided it would be fun to go camping. So my friend Jessica and Heather and my sister April all headed up to Island Park for a weekend of fun. We stayed with my Uncle and his brother-in-law at their cabin so that we wouldn’t have to sleep outside in the freezing rain. I was so proud of myself too I made my very first dutch oven dinner! I was worried about it because I have only seen it done. I made chicken, vegetable, and potatoes. Then I made pull apart rolls and after dinner we made apple and peach cobbler. It was soooo good! Took a long time to cook though. After dinner we played some games, clue and balderdash. For the first time in my life I won balderdash! I was thrilled about that. After that we got ready for bed and watched a movie. I was lying on the floor when a mouse decided to run across it and I jumped up and made April move over on the couch to make room for me. That night I got into my mummy bag and surrounded my self with utter protection against sharing my bag with any unwanted creatures that might try to break in and enter private territory. Needless to say I didn’t sleep well that night. We woke up super late and by the time we were ready and downstairs Floyd and Ralph had made breakfast. We ate and headed off to fish the day away on Ralph’s boat. We went up to Henry’s Lake. It was so cold and stormy, but we toughed it out. We found a really good spot that was protected from the wind on the lake and fished there. Heather caught the first fish. It was a pretty good size not huge but good. I caught the next two and wow they were huge. I’m really not trying to brag because with 8 worms dangling in that lake it was pure luck that those fish came to mine. So the first fish took that bite and my fishing pole curved a little and in my head I was thinking oh crap what on earth do I do now! I said “um I think I have a fish” I started reeling it in but it resisted like crazy. Ralph was on one side of me and Floyd on the other both had a net in their hands and both were giving me directions like crazy. I really didn’t think I was going to be able to keep the fish. I wanted to say someone else takes my pole, but I stuck with it. I finally got it in after a very strong battle with the 4 and a half pound, 24 inch cutthroat fish. Floyd insisted that Ralph’s scale was off and it was really 5 pounds. I guess fishermen are supposed to bend the truth a little. The second fish was a huge surprise to me, but luckily it wasn’t as big of a struggle as the first one. This fish was the same weight and two inches longer than the last. It was very pretty. I named the second one Cloud Dancing and the first Snow bird. I felt so sorry for the poor fish. They had no idea what was coming. I almost cried I think. We were all getting pretty cold around 4:30 so we headed back at 5. It was a fun trip. It was quite the adventure getting those fish into my apartment freezer I must say. I’m glad I caught them though it gave me something to give my Dad for father’s day! Well I think I’m caught up for now. Hopefully I’ll write again soon.
Snow Bird Me holding Snowbird Snow bird on left Cloud Dancing right

California Once Again!

A couple days after Yellowstone it was off on another adventure to California! It was my second trip to Cali. I was pretty excited about it. I wasn’t however excited for the drive there and back. My mom, dad, April, me, Caleb, Noni, and all of Noni’s bedroom and toyroom, stuffed into the van. My it was a tad too crowded for my liking. We stopped in Winnemucca, Nevada to spend the night. Wow now that was an interesting town for of shady motels and casinos. We were all so tired though that we all zonked out pretty fast. We started the day again on the road and met up with Mindy and Garry at Doner’s Summit. It was a gorgeous place, but I felt it was a little creepy because of the history of the place. It honestly scared me a bit. We finally after hours in traffic made it to the hotel. I had gotten very sick the day we left. SO I was so excited to just sleep in a bed! But my family had other plans for me. It was Ellie’s birthday so we had a pool pizza party for her. She got lots of cool toys. She was so excited. The next day we went to San Francisco. IT was so much fun! We went to the Academic Science something or other and went to the Aquarium and the Rain Forest. Caleb seemed to enjoy it the most. Then we went to go see the Golden Gate Bridge. After that we all hustled back to the hotel and church to get ready for the open house. I was so exhausted and sick by this point I just wanted to collapse but I kept going. The open house was awesome. Lots of food and fun plus dancing. The dancing probably was the best part. Every one of the brothers or sisters of the bride and groom had to dance to their song with their significant other. Since April and I were the only ones without one we danced with our nephews Logan and Stockton. I got Stockton. He loves to dances! He would sway to the beat and giggle up a storm! Caleb was being so stubborn. Ellie and Noni were constantly trying to get him to dance with them. He would run away from them. It was so funny to watch. On Sunday we took the day easy. And went to Becca’s apartment to open gifts, we went to the Siepert’s for dinner and then went to Oakland to see the Oakland temple and the sunset. It was so, so pretty. Monday was a pretty fun day too. We went to the redwoods, and Sana Cruz. We went to the beach and had some good food. Then we went to Chuckie Cheese which I have decided I really do not like. Then it was one long drive back home. The whole trip was way fun, but once I let my body rest my sickness totally came over me. I was in bed for a few days. I did way more than it could handle at the time. It was so good to see Becca and Steven after they had been married for a week and see that they still loved each other lol! I was worried for a little bit because they didn’t seem to ever kiss and I’m like come on guys you are newlyweds you have to at least act a little like it. So then they wouldn’t stop kissing in front of me and I totally regretted saying anything! Well that is it for that trip.

Yellowstone!

So after the wedding festivities were all over I decided to convince mom and dad to take April, her kids, and I to Yellowstone. We were all really exhausted, but had so much fun. It was a blast seeing Caleb get so excited about the waterfalls and the animals. He was so so camera happy. He is a pretty good photographer too. I can’t believe how much he has gone up. Yellowstone was way fun and I’m glad I got to go and spend a day with nature. Becca might kill me for saying this, but when I told her we were going to Yellowstone for Memorial Day she said she was way jealous. I said “Oh don’t even go there, You get to be in Lake Tahoe doing things that I most certainly cannot do!” She laughed and said yep that is true. Yep it was a great day!