Crazy little thing called LOVE

Pretzel making night at FHE

There are very few moments in a teacher's life when her students are totally captivated by what she is saying; when the students' eyes are 100% riveted on their instructor; when it is so quiet in the room that, aside from the teacher's own voice, one could hear a pin drop. These are moments to be treasured and never again forgotten.

I had this experience today. It didn't happen in just one class, or two, or four...but all six of my classes. Seventh grade and eighth grade students alike were attentive and fascinated for at least 5 minutes straight. No one was hitting each other, talking to each other, yelling out stupid comments, or looking at the clock. Girls AND boys were waiting with bated breath to hear every word that came from my lips.

Is anyone curious as to what I was teaching?

Actually, I was telling them a story. It was a story entitled, "How my sister's fiancee proposed to her over Thanksgiving break." Honestly, I had NO IDEA how much these brand new teenagers eat up this kind of material.

I don't know if it's too much to hope that I will ever teach a lesson on MUSIC that will get a similar response.

Introducing the future Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton!

Christina and Jeremy got engaged last night! I am so grateful to Jer for allowing our family to play a part in the proposal. It made it really fun and I felt so honored to take part.

We had to keep some pretty big secrets from Christina in the two days leading up to the proposal...

The proposal began with the mail. Jeremy had us plant a letter in the condo mailbox. He made it look like one of the letters he sent her when he was a missionary. It had an airmail sticker on it and the return address was written in Chinese. Originally, Tina was supposed to go down and get the mail when she came home from work. Well, we ran into some technical difficulties in that area. She had just gotten back from an eight hour shift at Buckle in the University Mall on Black Friday and she was EXHAUSTED. She begged not to go and said she'd get it later. Without saying anything to anyone, she went and got in the SHOWER. My whole family was a little panicked...we kept looking at each other and saying, "What are we going to do now?" A bunch of people were waiting for this proposal to get going in order to make it all work! I was sending texts about a mile a minute to Jer and the others involved.

Finally, my dad went down and got the mail at Jer's request and then slid the letter under the bathroom door for her, telling her that a letter came for her. When she first saw the letter, she assumed it was a misdirected letter from Jer's mission and she just continued getting ready. We were all dying out in the living room! When she finally looked closer to find the date, she saw the letter had never actually been sent and she started to get suspicious.

Inside the envelope was a poem leading her to her first destination. She was told to go to the place where they first met, which was Heritage Halls at BYU. There waiting for her was the friend who set the two of them up, Meg, and Ryan, another freshman year friend of theirs. For those of you who don't know, Meg and Jeremy went to high school together in Kaysville and Meg and Tina became close friends at BYU ballet camp when they were about 14. She introduced the two of them when they all came out to BYU as freshman. Meg and Ryan handed her a rose with a clue attached to it.

The next clue led her to the Marriot Center where Tina and Jer competed in Dance Sport in a class competition doing the Swing. They won fourth place! Waiting for her there were my sister and me with her next clue. Jer also asked us to share why she was important to us, and that was a really sweet experience for the three of us.



Her third clue led her to the emergency room at Utah Valley Hospital. When they were freshman, Jer and Tina hiked the 'Y' late at night with some friends and Jer passed out. Tina had to rush him to the ER at midnight. My parents were waiting there for her with her fourth rose and clue.

The next poem led her to a car dealership in Orem where Christina and Jer first saw each other after Jer's mission. I don't think that's where they were first supposed to see each other, but they ran into each other coincidentally. Her roommate and close friend, Lauren, was there waiting with the final clue.

The final clue led her back to the condo where Jer, Meg, and Ryan had set up candles and rose petals. Meg and Ryan made themselves scarce for when Tina arrived and Jer was waiting for her with a dozen roses. Attached to each rose was an envelope containing a reason why he loves her. We all waited outside in the lobby until we got the go ahead to come and congratulate them!

Here's the happy couple, post engagement:


And here's the "treasure" (besides Jer) she received at the end of her scavenger hunt all over Provo! The pictures absolutely do not do it justice...it is exquisite!



Here are some fun little videos we took after he popped the question. Too bad the person videoing kept asking them obnoxious questions...




Congratulations, Tony and Tiny!

I'm Grateful For...

...my hottie tottie mommy...


...sparkle toes...


...Annie being here!

We always have fun with hair when the sisters get together!

...holiday movie time...

We saw, "Blind Side" with our Dad and Jared. What an incredibly inspiring movie.

Stay tuned for more gratitude...

Wide Open Weekends

We had a ward Thanksgiving dinner and talent show. Tessa and I have been meaning to sing a duet together for a while now, so we figured now was as good a time as any. It's a popular country tune with a millrace #3 twist.

I tried to upload our performance, but it's a little too long. If I ever figure out how to get it on here, I'll post it. For now, here is a copy of the lyrics:

Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about?
Who’s dated in Provo and never struck out?
Called a girl to ask her out on a date,
But find she just got a man and you’re too late?

Many precede and many will follow
Many dates may leave you feeling hollow
But don’t forget amid the dating strife
“A date a week for the rest of your life!”

Chorus:

We need less
Wide-open weekends
Less roommate movie nights
We need cute boyfriends
Come on and choose the right.

A lot of rich teachers live here in this ward
You’re afraid these women you simply can’t afford.
But don’t give up if it’s hard for you to reach her
If she’s from Millrace, she’s probably a keeper

Chorus

Now girls, it’s time for us to talk to you
There are many things on a date that you should do
Tell the boys that you love goin' out with them
And if they earn it, just kiss 'em at the end!

Chorus



Above is a picture of one of the cute center pieces...I heard the girl who did them got everything at the dollar store!


Thanks to my mom's belt from the eighties and our friend Mindy's boots, cow girl hat, and belt buckle, we were sufficiently countrified for our debut performance as a band.


Oh little Tyler...Martha! We love her.

Rob loves pictures with his mouth open.



We had STOMP come to our talent show!

A walk down memory lane with the song, "If We Hold On Together."


We have so many talented boys in our ward who write their own songs and sing them. Be still my heart!So this is us. Yee-haw.
Luke played his ukulele and sang a song about "dropping your love on me like a mango" or something like that and it was so adorable.

Let's be honest...someone playing "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on the saxophone is hot. It just is.

We also had a juggler, a person playing the guitar and harmonica at the same time, two girls showing how they could put on gym shorts over their jeans by jumping directly into them, and more. It was a great night!

P.S. Here are two of the cutest children ever. This is unrelated to this post, but I just got these pics off my camera and I simply love these tiny human beings so much!

Scripture Power

I had a difficult day again at work today. The occasions have been rare where I have shut myself into my office and cried after a hard class, but today was one of those times (luckily during my prep period).

Tonight, as I was preparing for a Sunday School lesson, I came across a scripture that really popped out at me in Jacob 7.

It said this:

24 And it came to pass that many means were devised to ^areclaim and restore the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth; but it all was ^bvain, for they delighted in ^cwars and ^dbloodshed, and they had an eternal ^ehatred against us, their brethren. And they sought by the power of their arms to destroy us continually.

Over the years, I've learned the importance of applying the scriptures to my own life, and this particular scripture seemed very appropriate considering the day I'd had. I decided to change some words in order to apply it more directly to me:

24 And it came to pass that many means were devised to reclaim and restore the [5th period students] to the knowledge of the truth; but it all was vain, for they delighted in [passing notes] and [goofing off], and they had an eternal hatred against [me], their [teacher]. And they sought by the power of their [obnoxious behavior and disrespect] to destroy [me] continually.

You may be thinking, "How is THAT helpful in regaining morale?" Well, read on.

The next verse originally states the following:

25 Wherefore, the people of Nephi did fortify against them with their arms, and with all their might, trusting in the God and ^arock of their salvation; wherefore, they became as yet, conquerors of their enemies.

Take out a few words here, add a couple more there...and voila!

25 Wherefore, [Ms. Houston] did fortify against them with [her] [patience], and with all [her] might, trusting in the God and ^arock of [her] salvation; wherefore, [she] became as yet, conqueror of [the bad attitudes of her students].

Now all I have to do is remember, remember...

Laugh so you don't cry...

It's the little things.

It's the little things that can make you love your job more than any profession on earth. It's also the little things that can drive you so crazy you find yourself stuck with a borderline migraine for six hours after you get home from school.

Like a student yelling out food words every 12 seconds throughout an entire class period. Once you've heard the word 'tacos' for the 12th time in 20 minutes, you start to wonder if there could be anything less annoying than that (though who would have thought you'd ever have to consider how annoying it would be to have your student calling out 'tacos' for 45 minutes straight?).

Then, when I threatened, "If you yell out the name of a Mexican food one more time..." (because he was also saying 'burritos'), I got accused of being racist for singling out Mexican food (which REALLY doesn't look good when literally half the class is Latin American). Of COURSE that's not what I meant. So OF COURSE when I correct myself to say, "If you yell out ANYTHING...," I get words like desk, chair, pencil, etc. It took this particular student getting all his participation points for the week taken away and a failing grade to finally stop calling stuff out.


Yesterday, I was passing back assignments that the kids had not yet completed. I hadn't looked at them or graded them until I began passing them out. I came across one assignment that had been written all over with phrases like, "I'm having a bad day. I want to go home" and "I hate this [assignment]" and "I HATE THIS CLASS." I looked at her and said, "Wow, Carly." She was obviously embarrassed and said, "I was having a bad day." I responded, "Well you don't have to take it out on me. I don't think students realize how hard it is to be a teacher sometimes." Today, when I began grading the assignments, I noticed some editing on her paper. She had crossed out the word 'hate' in "I hate this class" and replaced it with 'love.' On the part where she had written "I want to go home," she crossed out every thing except "I want" and wrote, "to say I'm sorry." I had to laugh. I did feel better, especially because she is a student who normally seems to enjoy singing.

The same day she ranted and raved about how awful my class was, however, I had one student (from the same period!) come up to me after class and say, "Ms. Houston, I just wanted to tell you how much I liked class today." Then, she gave me a hug. Things like that don't happen very often and it caught me off guard. The hard part about junior high is you can give two people the same lesson and one can absolutely hate it and the other love it. You can't please everyone. I kind of hate that, but you definitely resign yourself to it.

Despite the hard times, my kids make me laugh every day. Today, I was trying to figure out if the bell to start class rang or not. Half the class thought it hadn't and half thought it had. We kept going back and forth and one kid finally said, "Okay, let's flip a coin. Heads, it rang, tails it didn't." He really did get a coin out and flipped it. I thought that was witty.



During seventh period when I felt another headache coming on, I had one kid come talk to me and I told him I couldn't deal with his talking today and he needed to promise not to talk during class. I said, "You have to say, 'I, Paul, promise not to talk.'" He raised his right hand and put his left on an imaginary Bible. What a smart alec. It did no good, by the way. I still had to send him to a back room for 5 minutes during class. I turned around at one point only to see him peeking through the window at the class to make them laugh. I don't know what to do with him because he makes me laugh half the time, too. I tried to call him on it since he had apparantly sworn on and imaginary Bible to be good and he said, "You don't know if that was the Bible I was swearing on." (Good point).

Dancesport Pics

Excuses, Excuses!

It's that time of year again!

Every time I send home "the letter" telling parents about our upcoming concert for the 7th graders, I get all kinds of "what if?" scenarios that are, for the most part, aimed at one purpose alone: to get out of the concert. Sometimes they're joking when they ask me these questions, but more often than not, they're serious. Either way, it gets old REALLY fast. They almost never have a legitimate reason to ask the question; they simply want to know what would happen. Here are some of the questions I got today:

• What if between now and the concert your mom dies?
• What if you have a sore throat and can't sing but can still go to the concert?
• What if you come down with a strange disease that makes it so you can't move any part of your body?
• What if you come to the concert not dressed in what you told us to wear?
• What if you have to leave halfway through the concert?

Oh, the joy!

I learned today that teachers can't wear all black, lest they be accused by their students of turning "gothic." I had a red scarf tied around my waist, a red bracelet, red earrings, and a red necklace, but I still got told I looked gothic by my kids because I had on black pants, a black shirt, black shoes, and a black ribbon in my hair. I'm surprised they even know what that is. Now, "emo" is the replacement for the goth craze that was all the rage for the rebels when I was in high school.

Congratulations, Tina!

Looks like the fake tan (and a heck of a lot of talent, blood, sweat, and tears) paid off!

Today, I got to see my little sister and her partner, Caleb, place first in the pre-champ smooth competition at BYU Dancesport!! The smooth comp consists of three dances: the waltz, the foxtrot, and the tango (I think). Christina was absolutely stunning and brought me to tears during the final round of the waltz. Hopefully I'll be able to get some from someone who was there.

After placing first in pre-champ, they will no longer be able to perform in this category. They've "pointed out" and are required to compete at the higher level now.
In the picture above, she and Caleb did a dramatic drop to the floor during the tango that was soooooo cool!

She made some other exciting strides during this competition. She competed in the amateur smooth comp (one level above the pre-champ category) and placed fourth, which was a first for her. She also made it to the semi-finals of the amateur standard competition, which is the highest level they do at this competition for standard as well. This was another first. The standard competition consists of the vienese waltz, the quick step, and the tango.

Some more exciting news...a costume designer saw them perform in smooth and told her they would like to sponser her. She'll wear this designer's dresses with his logo on them for advertising purposes when she dances at future competitions. Then, she gets to keep the outfits (which can be worth over $1,000 sometimes. Those dresses are not cheap!). Cool, huh?!

So I've been debating on how tacky it is to brag about your own flesh and blood. I know people hate it when parents go on and on about their kids. I realized I'm doing much the same thing whenever I brag about my sister. Please forgive me this once...I'm just so proud of her because she truly has worked her tail off to become successful in ballroom dance, and she brings so much joy to everyone who watches her.

I love you, sis!

I'm Growing Up!

This morning, Christina came to help choreograph in my concert choir first period at 8:00 a.m. Now, I love my sister more than anything, and I think she's beautiful beyond reason, but I'll be honest: She looked orange. It's her dance sport ballroom competition at BYU tonight and all the dancers do things like mystic tans to achieve the ballroom "look." I had to laugh when I saw her. She also had obviously just rolled out of bed and was working the messy ponytail look with her bright orange face and hands.

Well, it didn't phase any of my 13-14 year old male students.

In third period, I had one of my seventh grade boys come running into class and say, "Miss Houston, why can't your sister come for OUR class?!" I replied, "You haven't even seen her before!" He said, "Yeah I did! The boys in first period came out of class and said your sister was really hot so I came to look and she IS!!" I just rolled my eyes and said, "Oh, grow up!" And he said, "But I AM! That's the POINT! I AM growing up!"

All DAY I was fielding comments from my boys about my hot sister. The middle school grapevine works quickly! I even had our boy's P.E. teacher tell me at lunch that one of his students informed HIM of how hot Miss Houston's sister is.

In other news, I had a cute seventh grade girl come up to me at the beginning of class and say, "Guess what, Miss Houston? I'm going to college!" She had gone to some sort of meeting to get on track for college, especially those who often have less opportunities for whatever reason.

Last night, I went to a hip hop hustle workout class at 24 hour fitness. It is taught by the girl's P.E. teacher at my school, Shukria. I had such a blast. We actually learned choreography!! I stood in the back and rocked out knowing that no one cared what I looked like. It definitely does not come naturally to me like it does for my sisters. Today in first period, in order to bribe my boys into behaving, I promised I'd (make an idiot of myself) and show them some of the hip hop I learned.

The kids put on the cutest assembly where they performed the "Thriller" dance (perfect for Friday the 13th) that they learned in their P.E. and dance aerobics class. It was so fun to see such a successful project from my collegues. They did amazing work with those kids in a very short period of time, and that's not easy in middle school. The kids even had make-up and teased hair and they turned out the lights and used the spotlight and all kinds of crazy things!

Because you had a bad day...

I don't know what happened.

I woke up and started the day just like any other day. How did things go oh, so terribly wrong?

Maybe it was when I walked in to school in my brown pants and orange, red and brown shirt only to discover that fall colors day is actually tomorrow, not today.

Or perhaps it was when 85% of my 2nd period students wouldn't sing stupid Jolly Old St. Nicholas, even though they all know it like the back of their hand. There isn't much I can do with them to help them sing better if they just look at me. So I lost my temper. I sounded like Miss Hannigan. Then I felt terrible.

It could have been when I yelled at the whole class after that for not taking a writing assignment seriously and making them all read books for the last ten minutes of class, only to discover after looking through the rest of the assignments that the ONLY group that didn't take it seriously was the one I happened to look at first. Everyone else had done a great job.

On second thought, it might have been when in my next period, a student whined 8 times in a row that I always teach them cheesy music. I ignored it until my fuse blew. I then informed her that she was being rude. I'm ashamed to admit that I was livid.

Upon further consideration, I think it was when I impulsively told a secret at lunch time because I got too excited not to share it and then I got myself and other people in big trouble.

Or, it could have been finding out that an ex-boyfriend just got engaged. That's always fun.

But maybe the icing on the cake was when 4 of the students who made my life miserable last year came to visit me after school. I asked if any of them were doing choir in high school and these were some of the responses I got: "You know I don't like singing, Ms. Houston! I never sang last year" (as if she needed to remind me) and, "I'll be honest. I just wanted to go to Lagoon. That's the only reason why I did choir. And, I liked the people in the class." At that point I replied, "Well, I'm glad at least you got to go to Lagoon."

I'm going to dinner with my roommate tonight, so I just hope I don't get food poisoning. I'm currently in my cozy red pajamas, in my cozy bed, ready to read a romance novel until it's time to go.

If anything can turn the day around, it's that.

7th Grade Boys Meet Miley Cyrus

It's experiences like the following one that make me feel old.

We did an activity in my classroom where students had to circle around to four different pieces of butcher paper hung around the room and write a comment on each one in response to the prompt written at the top. One of the posters said, "What is the name of a song that has gotten you through a difficult time?" When I took the posters home to grade, I noticed a particular song that was mentioned by several boys. It was the song, "Party in the U.S.A." I assumed it was some thug song with a good beat. I also noticed that all the boys who wrote down the song were friends with each other and most are resident wise guys in my classroom, even though they aren't all from the same period.

It wasn't until days later that I figured out what song they were referring to. It's an upbeat Miley Cyrus song that includes lyrics such as, "Noddin' my head like 'Yeah'. Movin' my hips like 'Yeah'." Moving my hips like what? Anyway, aren't my little tongue in cheek 12-13 year old boys charming? I should have docked them points for not taking my assignment seriously, but it was kind of funny.

Even more funny was the fact that today during flex (a period of time during the middle of the day when kids can either remediate or do enrichment activities), I had a group of 7th and 8th grade girls gathered around the piano passionately singing, "The Climb" by Miley. It's interesting how something so laughable to the boys is so meaningful to the girls.


I guess Party in the USA is not much better than what was popular to girls (and not boys) when I was in junior high. Does anyone born in the early 80's remember singing these lyrics, sung by a popular male trio? "In an mmm bop they're gone. In an mmm bop they're not there." I guess some things don't change...like sentences that don't make sense being popular in middle school.

Rambling

It's amazing to me how sometimes in life, what you thought you wanted so desperately is actually not at all what you ended up wanting a few years down the road.

When I was a senior in high school, I thought for sure I wanted to be an actress on Broadway. My freshman year of college, second semester, I decided it was not the right path for me. I don't know that I wanted it much less, but I knew I needed to go in a different direction. Now, 8 years later, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than in my classroom teaching music. Living a life in the theater is not what would make me the most happy. I wouldn't trade my job for that one. How could I have convinced my naive little mind at the time that being an actress wasn't going to always be the most treasured goal of my heart? Was the pain I suffered over failed auditions in vain?

I spend so much time agonizing over not having the things I think I want to desperately. What if, a few years down the road, I don't want what I thought I did? What if I am suffering now about something I won't treasure in the future?

In conclusion, I've learned the following: Love the present. Don't fear the future. Take losses in stride, knowing that one day, you may be grateful for losing what you lost because it led you to something that ultimately makes you so much happier.

As the old saying goes..."Come what may...and love it."

Gravity

My roommates from 2 years ago (Angela, Celeste, Brie) and I decided to take a roommate trip to Salt Lake to see the cast of So You Think You Can Dance season 5 live in concert! It was a fantastic evening.

We started out with dinner at Applebys. If the look on my face is a little strained, it's because I had not 30 seconds before this moment dumped my entire cup of ice and water on my lap. I think the waiter made me flustered! While the title of this blog post is in honor of one of the dance routines from the concert, it is also appropriate for my clumsy water incident.


Below is Briana and me with my refilled glass. Notice how wide Briana's eyes are open in this shot. She was consciously trying to avoid the problem she had in the picture above. Nice work, Beamer!


Outside of the E-Center before the show...

The stage...
The dancers...
They announced briefly at the beginning that we weren't allowed to use flash photography, but guess how many people followed that rule? The above picture really was taken without the flash; I'm sorry to say, however, that I had to take one for the team and break the rules in order to get the pictures below. I just couldn't go to the concert and not come home with a decent picture for my roommate Tessa of the addiction dance. So, Tessa, this one's for you!



As far as these four pictures are concerned, I have no excuse. Guilty as charged.


Brie, Angela, and Celeste, I'm so grateful we became roommates. I can't believe how well our living situation worked out, even though Brie and I didn't know the two of you. Thank you for your friendship and a rockin' girls night out!

Guess Who?

I thought my authentic Anne hat would be foolproof. It turns out that it's rather misleading. These are the guesses I got from students today on my costume:

Pipi Longstocking
Jessie (Woody's girlfriend from Toy Story)
Wendy (from the fast food restaurant)
The Raisen Girl (?)
Strawberry Shortcake
Annie
Goldilocks
Gretel

There were a few faithful girls who were able to guess who I was without prompting. I read a little excerpt from Anne's House of Dreams for each of my classes. It was a part where Anne is talking about how she never thought she'd get married because she was too homely. Turns out no junior high kids knows what the word "homely" means. She then says she thought the only man who'd marry her would be a foreign missionary who was desperate because not many women would live a life among cannibals. Turns out all junior high students know what cannibals are.

I think Anne is just hilarious.

Wasn't Halloween LAST week?

Oh the things teachers do!

Today, we're having four published authors come to Dixon for an assembly and book signing. Their names are Jessica Day George, James Dashner, J. Scott Savage and Lisa Mangum. So, today is dress like your favorite book character day at Dixon. I'm going as Anne of Green Gables again, but this time I have an authentic Anne hat, thanks to our trip to PEI in June!