Lipstick and Legos

For Christmas each year, my siblings and I draw names for gifts.  We are all immature enough to require presents, yet mature enough to not want to buy one for everyone.  Such well rounded individuals... our parents must be so proud.  Anyway, my sister drew me this last year, and she gave me something I am cherishing more and more with each passing day.  This book has a simple prompt in it for each day of the year, and you repeat through it for three years.  Some of the prompts are easy for me to answer, but some are quite difficult.  This last week I came across one that was difficult and it's been bothering me for a few days now. Most prompts take me 1-3 minutes to fill in.  This one? Over and hour.  And that was for the first two.  As I thought about that for a bit, I was struck at how readily I can come up with things to say about others.  If someone came to me and asked me to list three nice things about anyone I knew, I could ra...

Our previous house was a split entry home.  While I loved the home, I loathed that split entry.  Hauling kids, groceries, car seats, etc in to the house got really old, really fast.  I dreamed of the day when I would have an organized and beautiful mudroom where we could put all the crap away BEFORE entering the house.  Just the thought of cubbies and bins and hooks got me all kinds of worked up.  As we were designing our home, we got to the portion where my mudroom would be located.  The cost of putting in what I envisioned was ridiculous, and therefore vetoed by Mr. Hodges.  He did, however, promise to build me one later.  Well friends... LATER HAS ARRIVED! It only took like 14 tantrums, 8 episodes of tripping over kids shoes in their bedroom, a handful of curse words, and a hernia surgery to get the ball rolling.  It was totally worth the weight. Special thanks to our go-to guy, Kurt Wilson, for helping us out.  He and Dewy have p...

I keep getting asked about certain things I use regularly, so I decided to share a few of them here and why I love them.  This post is not sponsored, but rather me yelling at you to buy in because they are awesome and you need them.  All of you.  Here we go. 1. Maybelline SUPERSTAY MATTE INK lipstick. I love lipstick.  I think being overrun by boys makes me overcompensate with bold lipsticks and pencil skirts, but whatever.  I have UNHEALTHY amounts of lipstick, and have tried it all.  NYX? tried it.  Victoria Secret? that too.  Avon? of course.  And everything in between. A couple months ago, my dear friend turned me on to these, and I've never looked back.  I wish there were more color options, but I have at least found three I'm obsessed with.  I love these because they stay like lipsense, cost $6, and don't dry out my lips like other lip stains do. If you love shiny gloss, you're gonna need to add gloss on top because these ...

My entire working life I have followed the same track record--work for a company for four years, then move on.  I was nervous about starting a "career" where quitting after four years was frowned upon.  Over the course of my nine years of teaching, I have changed my specific job a handful of times--cheer coach, student government advisor, 8th grade English, 9th grade English, honors English. Those changes and the ever rotating clientele kept everything surprising and fun.  This year, however, I'm doing something I've never done before.  And when I started, I was nervous as all get out. I was made aware of a job opportunity in the fall.  It sounded exciting and challenging, and after talking it over with Mr. Hodges, I decided to apply.  They hired me, obviously... cause who wouldn't?...and it has been baptism by fire.  The job title wasn't entirely clear, as the position is completely new.  My first task was attending a meeting along with the 11 ...

Slammed By: Colleen Hoover This book is one of my favorites to suggest to people, solely due to the reaction I get when I tell them the plot.  Basically, a teacher and a student fall in love.  I know, I know... gross.  Before you go getting all judgy and acting like I can relate or something stupid, allow me to elaborate.  The main character loses her father at the beginning and her mom, who is now the sole provider for the family, gets a job that requires them to move to another state the summer before her senior year.  As they pull in to their new home, the neighbor  boy across the street bolts over and asks her little brother to play.  That boy's older brother also ventures over to offer to help them move in.  The two get to talking, he is obviously smoking hot and probably has great abs, and he asks her out.  They spend the next few weeks together before school starts.  Then, on the first day of school, she walks in to her 3rd peri...

It was Thanksgiving 2011, and I was standing in a monstrous line outside of Target in Orem with all the Tuckett girls.  I don't recall the time, but I know it was very late.  I was the cheer coach at the junior high during that year, and while I was freezing in that ridiculous line, I received a text message from one of my cheerleaders that rocked me to my core.  One of my students had died.  The cause? Suicide.  That was to be my first experience, as a teacher, with that epidemic. Natalie had been my student as an 8th grader and again as a 9th grader.  She was beautiful, funny, sassy, and had lots of friends.  It just didn't make sense, and in my experience, it rarely does.  I immediately did was most people do when receiving that news--I raked over all my memories desperately searching for the signs that I must have missed.  Natalie wasn't a straight A student, and I hadn't noticed any differences in her academics.  She had participa...