Love Story meets Viva la Vida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys
This by far my new favorite Jon Schmidt song. I just love it love it love it!

Winter Semester 2009

Hey everyone that reads my blog....so basically Mindy and mom,
I just want to give an overview of what I've been up too this past semester. Things have been going well and some crazy things have happened. I have awesome roommates! I should post pictures, but they are all on my camera and I haven't downloaded them on here yet. All that takes so much time. So I have two of the same roommates as Fall, Allyce and Carol. I also have two new roommates, Abby and Sheri. Abby makes my life basically complete! I love her too death! She is 18 and it is her first semester her. I think it is so funny that she is a newbie and I'm almost graduating and we get along so well! Sheri, is great as well, she is just the sweetest and so nice because she has a car and takes Abby and I places we need to go. She also has great advice and is fun to talk with. We three have great times. Allyce hangs out with us more now but still in her own world at times. I feel bad for Carol, she just doesn't seem interested in joining our fun. So besides roommates, my ward is pretty cool I have the best FHE brothers! They are so fun. My classes are awesome. Ok that is a lie, some of my classes are awesome. I'm in Health Methods and I love that class. It is with my favorite teacher Marie. It is 3 hours 3 times a week and I still love it! I don't like my education class I don't like the way he teaches and I don't get anything he says. My literature classes are really hard, but I'm starting to have more fun in them and my community health class is alright not great and not bad. I have made a lot of friends in my classes that is a plus about upper level classes you all in them together. Boys..... So now the story of boys.... I have been on a few dates. Most good some not so good. I creepy boy really liked me and asked me out and I went, but that was the end of that! I like a boy right now. I actually like two boys, but one is eligible to date and the other is not. Anyway the one I can date I have been on three dates with. He is so nice and sweet and basically everything I'm looking for in a guy. I don't know if things will go anywhere because he is really shy and scared of girls, but he is one year older than me. He opens up to me a lot and we have some great talks, but I don't think he knows I like him... He took me snowmobiling the other day and it was so fun! He claims that I ran into a tree and fell off. But it is so not true! I just got scared and turned of the snowmobile and decided to take a nap in the snow because I was so embarrassed lol! I'm not so good with driving things, it freaks me out. The place we went to through was so beautiful! I loved it! I have pictures but they too are on my camera. So far it has been a pretty great semester. I seem to play a whole lot more than I probably should, but I think that is what has made me so happy this semester. I have gotten out and done stuff and actually have fun! I forgot what that was like. Well, I can't think of too much else to say. Oh I love St. Patrick's Day so i'm glad I got to deck out my blog for the occassion! Well I hope everyone else is doing well! Love you all,
Millie

Share the Love

So I commented on my mom's page so I could get something from her. So now I guess I better put it on my blog. I don't know what to make yet, but it will be cool. But if your interested leave a comment.This is how it works...
The Rules
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.
2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenter's on this post, you can still play along. Please take the button and post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

Twilight Vs. Harry Potter

Lately I have been considering whether or not I'm cut out to teach English. It is a very difficult subject especially when it comes to analysing novels or poetry. I'm currently in a couple literature classes and after reading so many books and so many poems I finally got fed up and asked the question who cares! What makes this book so important to analysis? What makes this book worth my time? Why can't we just read for fun, why do we have to have meaning to everything? This question has been on my mind for a while and I think today everything clicked. What is art? Some say it is personal opinion others say there are consequences by making art personal and that is it would lose importance. No one would think art is grand or want to make art, because there would be no guidelines to say what art is. It would not be competative. So should art be personal preference or should it be regulated? If it is regulated than is it our job to analysis whether or not it fits the criteria of art. Right? So to make this connection to myself I thought about books I have read and decided where they fit. Did they fit into the sit and enjoy the fluff category or did they fit into the art category. To determine my criteria I used the two examples of the Twilight series and the Harry Potter series. Twilight was very poorly written. The grammer was horrible, the plot line fun, but one book did not fit to the next. Connections were not made and was simply a piece of work for people to enjoy and maybe have a few fantasys of their own. Now compare this to Harry Potter. It is vastly different. Harry Potter still has that sci fi story line, but is it a book you would actually take into and English class and discuss. I find that answer to be yes. This is why. The author was brillant and though through every moment in the book. She had to have know the end way before the middle. Every event had a significant purpose throughout the series and concluded with everything coming together. She did not kill off a character without a purpose, she did not have a tragic event without an overall purpose. It was thought out, it envoke emotion, caused deep thinking and caused change. So now looking at this and defining what book is considered a work of art the final question is asked.... Who cares? Why does it matter if a book is considered art or not? In an English class we teach our students grammer, how to write and speak and we teach the art of thinking. We could do this many ways, but we have chosen to use literature to show how culture, thinking, and humans interact. Great books that really do fit the title of great art can teach our students so much if we teach them correctly. I have noticed that even though this subject may be very difficult for me it probably is because it causes me to think deeper than I have been asked to think before. Why did Christ teach in parables? It was because only those that seriously wanted to know the meaning could find it. You have to look deep to make the connections and find the purpose same goes with great literature. The problem is the students do not learn how to think if we have them read the book and then have them create a poster on a topic of the book. What do we get out of that. Nothing they are just doing another mindless activity. Yet, if we were to have them read the book and then get with a partner and have them find specific examples from the book that can be related to their life and have them write an analytical essay on how we can use that book to answer an important question of society or of self than they are learning and also learning how to think for themselves. This takes me to a different subject that I have been very frusterated with for the last few weeks. The lack of quality learning in todays public schools. Are we teaching our students to think for themselves or to learn how to BS themselves through life. Currently at Madison High School in Rexburg it seems quite obvious that it is the latter. I'm working with a few students there and as I help them with math they wait for me to do their work. They say they get it until they get to a question that is different than the others and they ask how do I do this? Someone shows them and they continue to work until another question is different. The problem is if we were teaching them how to think through problems they would be able to know how to go from question to question by themselves. How do I teach my students to think and figure it out on there own rather than just telling them how to do it? I think that is the key for every teacher to learn. Anyway, that is just some of my thoughts I have had lately. I know I won't know everything that I need to know before I go out and teach, but I have learned that I can't not yeild to the way everyone else is doing it I have to go above and beyond and really take the time to teach the students right the first time.

My Various Hairstyles

So I have been going through my pictures tonight and I couldn't believe the many different hairstyles I have had! So I thought I would share them all with you. There are some I can remember that I haven't found the pictures for yet. I'm wondering if they never got transfered to my computer. Well here they are!

Honestly I can't remember all my hairstyles but it was after the babies were born and moved in to Grandmas.

This was right before my lastest cut! I don't have a picture of my most recent hairstyle yet :(

This was in the year 2007 in the summer I had very blonde hair with natural sun highlights

This was when I had really blonde hair and it was fairly long and Ijust wanted to see if you could see the purple that was underneath. YOu can't really see it.

I Finally got my hair from cherry red to this color. It was a happy day.

Ok this is just a joke it is actually my friend Marie's hair.

Also another joke no I never died my hair pink, but the bottom has been violet before.

This was in 2006 I believe in the fall. It was still fairly long and blonde.

This was Winter of 08 I went super platnium after my hair looked like fire.

I don't remember when this was It was in late 2007 or early 2008 I'm not quite sure. I want to say late 2007. I love this color!

I do have a shirt on but it is a tank top and can't see the straps, but this is my new cute after I died my hair in attempt to get rid of the cherry red this was actually the second attempt I got blonde highlights.

This was the biggest mistake of my life. I went Cherry red in the summer of 2008. Huge mistake!

I love this color. IT is probably my favorite! THis was my first attempt at getting rid of my cherry red hair.

I have it pretty blonde here. It was in 2008 so I'm guessing right before I died it Cherry Red.


If you want to vote on your favorite that would be great. I will late post a short hair photo so there can be a vote on short of long hair for me! Thanks everyone!

Tribute to 2008!

So I have been so bad at keeping up with this whole blog thing. I don’t know how to add anything or even change my background. After having pink poke a dots mixed with Thanksgiving leaves together I decided to emergency call Becca and have her fix it. I am hopeless I guess when it comes to taking the time to figure out all the html stuff. Well I finished fall semester. It went by so fast I can’t believe I only have 3 semesters left! I am very excited. I learned so much this semester and can’t wait to learn even more. My education class where I actually taught at the middle school was a real eye opener and my school health programs class was too. I just can’t believe how hard teaching really is and how much there is to it. I know teachers are smart and that it isn’t the easiest major, but I had no idea there was so much to putting together an actual classroom and dealing with so many different personalities of children. I successfully managed to get by with the 5th graders and learned so much from them, but realized they must likely didn’t learn much from me. That is going to have to change! The main thing we learned was that the students should be doing all the work not the teachers. Funny thing about that is that the teachers do so much work to get the students to do all the work that the teachers are too exhausted to do any work doing class anyway.
Other than classes things are going well for Christmas. I loved getting to spend some time in Utah even though it was for less than 24 hours. The babies are cuter than ever and Becca now has a ring on her finger! It is so shiny and sparkling! I love it so much! She seems very happy and I am so glad that she found the one that makes her complete. She deserves the best! The engagement story is pretty amazing too, but hopefully she has posted a blog entry with the details about that.
So funny story… We got home from Utah today and we had a huge wind storm while we were gone. I looked out the back and there was no possible way for the cats to get into their little house. I felt so bad for Bonkers that I put some food and water in side by the door for her to warm up and have some food while I cleaned off the back stairs and shoveled a path to their house. I made a path for her and when I came back inside to let her out she had disappeared! Becca and searched the whole house and couldn’t find her anywhere! Well we looked and looked and mom and dad came home from the store. Dad started looking cause we really didn’t want Bonkers to be stuck inside the house during the night since she isn’t trained at all. We finally gave up looking and decided she most have somehow got outside when April left for the store. I went to bed and it was about midnight and I heard mom call dad saying the cat was behind her jetted tub. Well this is a complicated works of pipe and wood pieces so we couldn’t get her out. We tried cheese, ham, yard stick, turning on the jets, flashlight and finally the winning item a spray bottle. She finally ran out into the bedroom we shut all the doors and opened the back door that cat ran so fast you would think her life depended on it. I felt so awful for Bonkers I wanted to cry. I know she has a thick coat but she looked so cold out side. Anyway it was just so funny that Bonkers picked such a perfect hiding spot and that it took so many of us to try to get her out.
So the weather has been very interesting this Christmas. We have so so so much snow! It will for sure be a very white Christmas this year! I am excited about the snow but it is not fun to shovel or to drive in. I slept most the time in the car when we drove to Utah because I decided if I was going to die that day I didn’t want to know about it. I’m very glad we made it safely too and from Utah. It is so nice to have Becca here from Christmas I was very sad when I thought it was just going to be me and my parents. I’m really excited about Christmas this year now. I am with family and the snow has made everything so beautiful! I just really feel like it is Christmas now. I wish I was able to do more for charity though. I guess I got busy and the snow distracted me. I really wanted to do something, but another problem is I never know what to do. I feel like this year I have been so blessed that I really should give something back. I know that I will never be able to repay Christ for all he has done for me and my family, but it would be nice to show some gratitude this Christmas through helping others. In my D&C class there is a girl whose niece is only 3 years old and she has cancer and is at St. Jude’s Hospital. She is the cutest little girl with such a bright warm smile. Every time I saw a picture of her I cried. I couldn’t help but think of all the children in the world that suffer so much when they are children yet they are so happy and act as if nothing is wrong. It just touched my heart so much I wish I could give every child at that Hospital a huge hug and tell them how much I loved them even though I didn’t even know them. But I do know them they are all my little brothers and sisters and it brakes my heart to see them go through something so painful. It just gives me a slight little glimpse of how Christ must have felt when he chose to give his life for every one of us. When I see a child in pain I want to do anything in the world to fix it to take the pain away. Christ obviously felt the same for each one of us. He knew of the pain and sorrow we would have to experience if we came to earth and gained a body so he sacrificed himself to take that pain and sorrow away from each of us. How can you deny such love he has for us. I have truly learned the real meaning of the Atonement this year. It has truly been a great year and one filled with trial after trial but I would have never learned this much without those trials and with each struggle came numerous blessings. I will never forget this year and the love my Elder Brother Jesus Christ has for me. A lot of you know that I struggle with self-worth I struggle with depression and I read in the Ensign that was dedicated to be all about Jesus Christ that if we truly understood the Atonement we would never doubt our worth or the worth of someone else. I do not fully understand the power of the Atonement, but I do know Christ loves me so much he gave his life on a cross for me. He knelt in pain in Gethsemane for me. He loves me THAT much. How can I ever look at myself in the mirror and say something bad about myself when Christ thought I was worth his life? This Christmas I am celebrating my older brothers birth, his life and his gift to all mankind. This next year I want to do everything I can to help bring my knowledge to as many other people as I can. They deserve to know the happiness that I know. I don’t always remember this, but I do know it and I bear testimony of the truthfulness of it. I know that in life we struggle and that it is not easy. There is no easy part about it, to think that I might get to live with my Heavenly Father and Big Brother again in the Celestial Kingdom, makes it all so worth it. Everyday there is something special about it. I just need to find it and never waste a moment of the precious life I have been blessed with. I have the most wonderful family one could ever want. I have a beautiful home to live in. I have clothes to wear, food to eat, and opportunity to learn. Nothing is really held back from me. IT is up to me to take advantage of every opportunity I have. We all have opportunities lets use them and see what a difference we can make in this world in the year 2009. Thank you everyone for being in my life and loving me. I could never go through life without my family and friends. Thanks for making the year 2008 so memorable and do able!

My First Voting Experience

Ok so this years election was a pretty big deal. So much stuff about an african american being president, a female being president or possibly even a mormon. Can it get any more dramatic? This is the first election I have ever payed enough attention to, to become passionate about politics. It was interesting talking to friends and family about views and how much anger comes up. I used to avoid debates, but I can see how easy it is to support your view when you feel so strongly about it. For the majority of my life I have felt non-important. Like what I say or do doesn't matter to anyone because I'm too little or I don't know cause I don't have true experience, but I observe and I watch things and pay so much attention to detail I think many people would be surpised at how much I really do know. My education has given me many blessings. Yes, knowledge would be number one, but I also have aquired the skills to stand up for myself. I have a tendency to become quite a pushover and people take that to mean that I don't care about issues. The truth is I care I just choose to stay quiet for sake of the peace reasons. This election I was able to vote and I felt like if I did not vote I could not have any power to complain about any outcomes. Well, the long lasting drama came to an end and Obama became our first african-american to be President of the United States. Honestly I don't have much to say against this man, but I am worried about many ideas he may have for this country. The more I learn in school, the more my eyes are open to the concerns in the world. I could say much on this subject, but I'll just leave it to the fact that I don't mean to offend anyone when I support my views on things. Everyone has their own view and I would never want to take that away from someone. Politics is such a touchy subject, but lets not let it tear american up. Instead we should use it to help bring us together and unite those that all want to stand up for what they believe in. I am so proud of anyone that put forth any effort at all to promote prop 8 in California. I didn't care as much of if it got passed as much as I was touched of how much it brought the church together in standing up for something that we feel so strongly about. That is where I believe change begins is when we all agree on supporting one cause. The fight will not end here. Whether it passes or not, one side will always be fighting. We just can't back down when we know what is right. I am proud to say I'm American and I will never stop fighting for this country to become what I know is capable of it becoming. It was built on freedom and that is what gives us the right to state our opinions in the first place. We should not give up any of that freedom to let the government have any more power over us than it already has. Please watch closely to how Obama runs this country and fight for it if anything ever comes up that may take that freedom away. I will support President Obama as long as he never takes my rights away.