The Haitian

This is my new friend, Roosevelt Richard. He is attending the BYU ELC and just moved to Provo from Haiti a couple months ago. (Hence, he has the nickname, "The Haitian."
We took this picture, but I told him he looked too much like a thug
so I made him smile for the next shot.

Much better, don't you think? He just set a date to be baptized last night. March 15th! I'm so excited! Remember how I love to travel? Now I really want to go to Haiti, but the good old USA doesn't think that's a great idea. Stupid "Political Unrest"

I got tagged :(

I thought I could escape being tagged, but I guess it was inevitable. Thanks a lot Karissa. So here is what people probably don't know about me.

1. In 6th grade, the boys wouldn't let the girls play sports with them. Most of you know me well enough to know i don't back down from a challenge (Well, unless it's my brother, Brandon, challenging me...I've come to terms with the fact I can't beat him in anything.) So in retaliation, a bunch of girls, including myself, started the Buffalo Club. The sole purpose of this club was to race onto the boys field and charge them like a herd of buffalo. We would steal the ball they were playing with and throw it over the fence. If we couldn't play with them, they couldn't play at all. My poor, poor 6th grade teacher.

2. I have the uncanny ability to sound exactly like Cameron Diaz in "My Best Friend's Wedding" when she is karaoking complete off tune to "I just don't know what to with myself." (Private Performances are available upon requests)

3. I love watching "The Hills" on MTV. It's my guilty pleasure.

4. I use to be TERRIFIED of spiders. I would pay my brother (good, sweet, manipulative brandon) at least $2/spider to kill them. Then it got too expensive to maintain that phobia so I just got over it.

5. I've totaled two cars, plus gotten in a couple other fender benders and have had 5 speeding tickets. It was a long time ago though. I think...I THINK....I've learned my lesson.

6. I have an itch to travel. I'm always up for a road trip, even if it's somewhere lame like Pocotello. When I start making my millions as a teacher, I'm going to travel the world.

7. I have a love/hate relationship with scary movies. (Pete made me watch "Invasion" with Nicole Kidman on Saturday. FREAKY!) I hate them, and yet, I just can't stay away.

8. I am some what afraid of heights. Pretty ironic considering I'm 6'3"

Ok. That's me. Tag on Anndalyn, Liz, Brooklyn Bell :), and Bethany!

Now Accepting Applications!

My bestest friend is back on the market!!! I'm now accepting applications for any guy who thinks he might be lucky enough to date someone as awesome as my BF. I'm not going to lie...the application process is extremely rigorous and tedious. But it's well worth it if you get her in the end. Trust me.

*uneducated and/or unemployed need not apply

Breaking Up is Hard to Do!

I dedicate this post to one of my very bestest friends. (You know who you are)

Since I seem to have ample experience in the, I now consider myself an expert on...

How to quickly get over an ex:

1. Watch a lot of The Office. Nothing soothes the soul like a little Michael Scott.

2. Spend hours driving in your car contemplating your next move in life while listen loudly to "Get Out of My Life! Bre's Ultimate Break-up mix, vol. 2"
*Best Friend: You'll be receiving your copy in the mail shortly. ;)
(the drive can also be substituted with long hot showers...which ever one clears your mind more)

3. Become really good friends with really good looking guys who: love spending time with you, love you for your quirks and humor, and tell you that you're pretty. (special shout out to my fellas, Pete and Jerry!) They'll help you realize that there are better men out there for you.

4. Take you're aggression out at the gym. Not only will it calm you down, it'll give you a killer body! and besides... "exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy! Happy people don't just kill their husband" Reese Witherspoon - Legally Blonde.

5. Go Cruising! Nothing gets you over an ex and helps move on to the next like a cruise ship and a sexy tan.


6. call your best friend...day or night.

Trust me....one (if not all) of these things will work! I should write a book on this subject. Maybe then I'll get on Oprah.

Lessons from Idaho

1. Be careful when letting people drive your new car...they might just drive it into a snowbank and get it stuck.

2. Be careful when hiking through the woods when there's snow on the ground...with one wrong step, you might end up waist deep in the snow.

3. When wanting a nice, quiet, relaxing getaway, make sure you know that the place you are staying is also housing about 75 people for a family reunion. We were woken up every morning at 7am by fun kids running around.

4. If you play the banjo, you are considered a HUGE hit.

5. Sleeping on an air mattress in an unheated basement in Idaho in the winter may cause sleep deprivation.

Idaho Trip Pictures!

A group of us went to Idaho for President's Day Weekend. 2 guys from my ward and 6 girls. (They claim they didn't plan it that way. I'm not sure if I believe them...) We had a little to much fun. Here's pics of our adventures!

I was nice enough to let Mike drive my car.
Mike somehow managed to get my precious vehicle stuck in the snow! (don't worry...my car is just fine) This is the track marks that he left. I'll have to post the video footage of it getting pulled out of the snow. It was quite an adventure.)

I'm pretending to surf, but really I'm standing on a sled. Shane is nice enough to push me down the hill. :)

Shane and I snowmobiling. It was my first time. LOVED IT!

Me and MikeThe Crew all bundled up

Shane with his 6 wives...I mean, friendsMike with his AngelsWe hiked to a lake in the Tetons. It was an AMAZING sunset!

The Field Trip

No worries. Everything went A-ok when we went bowling. None of my students hurled themselves down the lane. It went so well, we scheduled three more trips! I love going on field trips.

Field Trip Tomorrow

I'm taking my students bowling tomorrow. We did a practice run today. We talked about the rules of bowling and then set up some pins in my classroom and they took a little ball to practice knocking down the pins. My students found it more entertaining to dive and/or throw themselves into the pins rather than the balls. I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight about chasing my students down the lane, before they throw themselves into the pins and get sucked up the machine.

Hmmm...why did I think this was a good idea to go on this field trip? Apparently I didn't think this through. I'll update to let you all know how it goes!

aspire to be higher

One of my student's mother told me that at home, he's been saying, "When I grow up, I want to be so big like Miss Bell." At least I inspire my students in some way...

Super Bowl

So I'm sure not many will agree with me, but I absolutely LOVED the outcome of the super bowl. (Because I'm impartial to the teams in the NFL, I chose to root for the underdog.) The plays seemed all very familiar. I'm pretty sure the Giants coach got some of those last minute plays from watching the byu vs. utah game.

The commentaries afterwards cracked me up, especially when the reporter interviewed the Patriots coach. He asked questions such as:

"How does it feel having a perfect season, just to lose in the last minute of the super bowl?"
"Where do you think it went wrong for your defense in that last minute?"
"What are you going to tell your team now that you lost?

The coach looked like he was going to hit the reporter. It was great.

*Did you see how the patriots coach walked off the field before the last play? He left his players to face being the losers alone. What a loser.

did he really just say that?

Today we had a "Student of the Month" assembly. At the beginning of these assemblies, a grade level usually performs a song or a skit for the skit with a character building theme. This month seemed to be on friendship. Fourth graders took turns saying what a good friend does. A little boy, apparently really nervous, said:

"Don't be sensitive towards others feelings!"

I got a really good laugh out of this. Wouldn't life be very interesting if we weren't sensitive towards each other? Perhaps I will do a test and I'll be really insensitive for the rest of the day. I bet I'll make lots of new friends.