Gingerbread contest

One of the traditions is the gingerbread house making contest, except we don't do houses. Annie made the christmas quilt, Troy the plane, Jill and Elise the cute house. I forgot to take a picture of the towers by Grant and Les. (check Jill's blog) My entry is the gator. (because it was so great, I included a comparsion photo). The gator is an ode my parents. Notice the trees, blocks, and hose in the back, even some mulch.

Christmas Break

Wow, what a vacation. I attended concerts, basketball games, dance class, gymnastics, clean up throw up, and delivered christmas for a needy family. Sounds exciting doesn't it. I spent my time with family, my sisters Annie, Jill, and Colette. Annie has four children, Jill has one girl, and Colette has a boyfriend who spent Christmas with us. The nieces and nephews kept me on my toes. We all went to a NC State Basketball game. Shopping, wrapping, and shipping presents or Annie's personal assistant. Jill would bring her daughter, Marissa over to play with Annie's youngest Evan. Adorable. Annie's family somehow managed to get strep throat, but were all better by Christmas Eve.
The family did my two favorite traditions, gingerbread house contest and nativity story reactment. Love it. It was hard to not have my parents there, but THANK YOU for technology. We were able to skype them with webcam during present opening and put them on the big screen and my parents were able to watch us with the webcam opening presents. I love computers.
I did finally receive my grades. A A A i am a straight A student again.

Colette and Marissa
Evan is super cute!
Tessa is making a gingerbread house.

First Semester Done

Yikes, I can't believe I finished my first semester of graduate school. Officially, I sent my last final in this morning, hence why I have time to update my blog. I love it. I know that I have two A's so far, I am hoping for the three A, it may be a B+. We shall see.

I leave to go home on Wednesday to North Carolina. I can't believe it. I am ready to share my Christmas spirit in the south. Although my sister said it was 80 degrees compared to the snow on the ground here in Salt Lake City and 30 degrees outside. i better bring my shorts home.

I am dealing with the snow better. I spend the weekend at my brother's house. We enjoyed spending time together. We finally figured out to make DVD's on my computer. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by my family again.

Sidenote: I am so glad that my friends in Washington State are doing well. It freaked me out to see one of my students (graduates from last year) on CNN last week. She was being evacuated from her home. I truly hope they are doing well now. I have seen some crazy photos of Bremerton and Silverdale flooded. Make sure you have your food storage and emergency kits ready.

Temple Square Lights

First Basketball Game at the U!

I finally attended a University of Utah Basketball game. I was in heaven. They played Utah State and dominated them. Lindsey(left) and Lexie (right) went with me. Lexie is my roommate and Lindsey is her twin.

It Snowed and ready for Christmas!

At first, I was not happy about the snow. Yes, I know I live in Utah now, but I have had some bad experiences with snow in the past. I tried to change my negative ways and embrace the snow. I will be ready next time. I even bought a ice scraper thing for the car, with extended arm and brush. Very exciting! I should have taken pictures of the snow, it was magical. I will be ready next time. I will be buying some boots and a snow coat. Small steps!

I felt like I should share my resolves for the month of December. Normally, I don't have time to focus on Christmas for whatever reason. It can be a very stressful time. After driving around with some friends last weekend and critiquing CChristmas light decorations, I decided that this year would be different. My new focus for the month is to focus on serving others and the true meaning of Christmas. I will be doing a 12 days of Christmas with my sisters and other acts of service to bring the Christmas spirit back in my life. I have already resolved to be a temple volunteer next year, after Christmas to help continue that spirit throughout the year. I am enjoying this time in my life to reflect on the good things that have happen to me. As I as told my students, "I never said it would be easy, only that it was worth it!" (yes, I know I stole this from somewhere else, but it works just the same.) I can't wait to take pictures of Salt Lake Temple Square lights. It will be amazing!

This will be my first Christmas without my parents around because they are serving a mission in Australia. I am going home to Raleigh, North Carolina to spend Christmas with family. I am excited and scared, but I welcome the challenge.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, it seems that this fall is going fast for me. I can't believe it is Thanksgiving already. Well, let's see. Thanksgiving, I went to Brian (my brother) in-law's house for dinner, the Youngs. They were so kind to let me join their family Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, they have a tradition of playing bingo with prizes for the winner. I never knew Bingo to be so serious. It was a blast. Afterwards, I went to Sherrie's (my sister) house to hang with her for a bit. I promised her that I would go shopping with her at midnight at the mall. One of the malls opened at midnight. I have never been shopping on Black Friday. I hate crowds, annoying, rude people, etc... Sherrie and I only lasted an hour because the places we went didn't have as many deals as we had hoped. It was insantity. Inside the mall it was difficul to move. I understand my mothers and daughters and families were there, but there was unusual amount of teenagers and guys there. There weren't even shopping, they were there to hang out at the mall. Who does that, get a life? Whatever

Friday afternoon, we, the bartholomew's in utah gathered together. (Brian, sherrie, and myself plus their families) We went to the Clark Plantarium and wandered around. We were able to enjoy the IMAX presentation of Santa vs. the Snowman. Super cute. Some hilarious Star Wars parodies in there. All of us return to Sherrie's house for games. Traver (5 years old) beat everyone in Apples to Apples. (fair and square). He doesn't read enough, he just picks random cards.

Saturday was a great day as well. I was able to take Taylor, Halle, and Traver (Sherrie's kids minus one) to see the BEE movie. They loved it. Personally, it was ok. It had funny parts, but wasn't amazing. I listened to the Utah vs. BYU football game, which is everything here. (serious rival). It was a close game, but BYU won in the end, on two horrible ref calls. I don't mind losing fairly, but on bad calls, I hate games that end on questionable calls. It taints the win for the winner. Later, I was able to spend some time in the Salt Lake temple with a friend, Celeste from my ward. I haven't had a chance to see the Temple Square lights, but apparently everybody and their dog sees them the Sat after Thanksgiving. TRAFFIC was horrible in Salt Lake City.

Small side note-in the past few days, I have noticed that there are more crazy drivers here. I already go 5 to 7 mph over the speed limit, but I am passed by very quickly by alot more cars than expected and not slowly but fast. I think this past week, I have counted over 20 cars going on 85 mph on the freeway. (65 mph). I dont' even want to talk about running red lights and the acceptance of turning left on red lights of 2 or 3 cars. I laughed the other day when I overheard some Utah drivers talking about how bad drivers are in New York. Having been to New York, the drivers are better there then here. New york can merge 10 lanes into 3 lanes in no time flat because they understand taking turns or one after the other. In utah it is every man/woman for himself. I am scared to drive in the snow with these people. I am praying for a mild winter.

Feeling Better

Ok, I have been busy. I attended a clogging competition for my nieces in Salt City. They both won first and second places in different age groups and competitions. It was interesting experience. It is a whole another world. I love it.

Then, somehow I got strep throat. It is not fun being sick. I have had something off and on for the past three weeks, which is very unusual for me. I had to sequester myself, for awhile and was told to slow down and take care of myself better. I don't know what to slow down from, I don't have a social life currently in Utah yet. It didn't help that I was sick, whatever, I think sickness forces me to slow down. I am trying to be better. I decided to get a massage to help me reduce my internaliziation of stress. The massage therapist told me i was really uptight and it was going to take more than one session. Surprise! I knew this.

My brother, Brian and his family came up to visit yesterday. We went to the This is the place park and wandered around. Very peaceful, they built a little hertiage village that shows how things were back then when the mormons first settled Salt Lake City. It is great for Kids.

Halloween

I spend Halloween going to class, but I dressed up and then quickly drove to my sister's Sherrie house to trick or treat with Traver, Breelyn, Halle, and Taylor. I wore the infamous ORANGE Dress. I was from the 1960's or 1970's, you decide.

Freedom Writers

So today, Utah Education Association had a huge conference and their special guest speaker was Erin Gruwell. For those that don't who she is, here is a quick synopsis. She was a new young teacher at an urban city school in Long Beach, CA. A true story of Dangerous Minds, where the teacher changed student lives. Her students wrote in journals and they published them as Freedom Writers(yes, like the Freedom Riders of the 1960's). Primetime live did a story on her and her students in 1997, before the book was published. Then, the story was turned into a movie called Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank. As I watched the movie, it was like watching my teaching style with my students in Bremerton, Washington. (I do miss horribly). Anyway, I attended the conference to hear her speak. She is amazing, then one of the student, Maria, spoke, she was also there. I was able to meet both of these women and they signed my book. If you could pick any teacher that I relate to, she is it.

Thriller

My roommates and I went to see Thriller, the dance production for Anneke's birthday

Family Adventures

The Halls, my sister Annie and her family, came to Utah for their vacation. We were able to spend time together as a family. Sherrie and her family (Tuckers) live in Riverton and Brian and his family live in Payson. We visited BYU campus, Bridal Veil Falls, Sundance, Salt Lake City temple, conference center, the Joseph Smith movie. While everyone was here, Halle turned 8 and was able to be baptized.

Ranting #229

Cart abandonment
I have recently moved to Utah. I have lived and visited numerous places inside the United States and Europe and Central America. (In my travels,) I have noticed there is a major epidemic of grocery carts not being returned. Everywhere I go in Utah (Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Smith‘s Albertsons, etc…) there are carts in the parking lot just sitting there alone abandoned by people. Why would cart abandonment be a problem? They take up precious spaces. Situation: You are driving in the parking lot and found a great spot close to the door and BAM, there is a cart in it. Nobody wants to park in a space with a cart. Another danger of carts in the lot are damage to vehicles. Carts hurt cars, it is a given fact. I have seen the wind blow hard enough to move these lost carts into cars. Who pays? You do! Don’t think sticking them in the medians is helpful either. It is an eyesore to drive into a parking lot and see carts scattered about. What is the deal? Walk the cart back to the store or in the outside cart returns. Stop being lazy! It takes a few seconds to quickly return the cart. It is not that difficult to walk the cart back to the store or put in a cart return in the lot. I start wondering why individuals would not return their carts abandoned in the parking lots. Do people think stores pay people to clean up after each other? They don’t. My students used to complain because I made them clean up after themselves and one stated, “Isn’t that why we have a custodian?” Custodians do the deep cleaning and could spend their time more wisely disinfecting things than having to pick up someone else’s trash. I tried to teach my students responsibility and consequences of actions. I would ask people in the world to be the example. Recently, I asked my sister about this new-found epidemic. Other than laziness (which is clearly a problem), she stated that there are many mothers who don't wish to leave their kids in the car while returning their cart. Another reason, but not a good reason to leave the carts alone in the parking lot.
I would like to address this reason. First of all, park next to a cart return. Stores provide cart returns in the parking lot to lessen the amount of cart abandonment. My mother hated to walk far to return the cart; she parked close to a cart return for this reason. There are many stores here in Utah and other places that will offer help or assistance when taking bags to the car. Please use the customer service offered to you. These people get paid to help you take your bags to your car and return the cart. Third, many mothers all over the country are finding ways to return their carts, why is it a problem in Utah? A simple song, “Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, Clean Clean up everybody do their share!”