First Day of School - For Real This Time!

My TOTALLY AWESOME Cuz, Anisa, does this each year at the start of the new school year.  I thought I would copy her cool idea and do it too.  (Pardon my picture it was 7:00am in the morning, and I was not happy about having to student teach!)

Yep, it's official - I started student teaching today.  Oh how I hope the Lord helps me through these next 60 days.  I have meant to do this for so long, now the day has FINALLY come, and I don't want to do it anymore.  59 more days....and counting.  Yes, I am seriously counting down the days.  60 days seems so far away...

However, my mentor teacher told me that by the end of student teaching I will be loving it so much I won't want to leave.  HA!  We'll see about that!

Just in case anyone cares to know what I am teaching, I will be teaching a lot of different subjects.  Well what are those subjects???  On what is called "A" day I will have two advanced cooking classes, lunch period, prep period, and then will observe a pro-start cooking class.  On the opposite day, "B" day, I will have an adult roles class, sewing (which I am completely nervous about), lunch, prep period, and then a fashion strategies class.  I don't know how I feel about all this, it's only been one day.  I'm sure time will tell, and so will my attitude. ;)

Please Read!

I am single, and I have a lot of single friends.  I have a particular single friend named Carrie.  She just wrote an AMAZING (in my humble opinion) blog post about being single.  I think a lot of people who read my blog need to go to her blog and read her post on, "What Not to Say to Single People."

Please go here.

Some of you probably won't read it, and some of you may.  To those who take the time, I say, thank you.  

West Yellowstone and a Cowboy Hat

I love my parents.  I love my Daddy, and I love my Mommy.

These parental folk of mine are what is known as "tight wads."  There is nothing wrong with that.  Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.  They are hardworking middle class folk who know how to budget, and are true savers.  Everyone should take a lesson from them.

I recently took a week long trip with my family and extended family to Yellowstone//Jackson Hole//Tetons.  It was a very enjoyable trip.  We had a lot of fun, and I would go again in a heartbeat.  However, the timing was not so great for me with work and money.  (Sheesh - is it ever for anyone?)  I usually don't buy much when I travel, except for the necessities, and FOOD.  I don't see the need to buy anything, therefore I take lots, and lots of pictures and count those as my souvenirs.  I feel I have become like this because my parents are very much this way.  As a child I don't remember ever having the chance to buy anything on a trip.  It's cool now, I am older and can see that most little souvenirs are basically junk, collect dust, and later get given to good will.  (I'm hoping my sister will soon see this - she is big on buying souvenirs when traveling...to each their own I suppose.)

I imagine we don't always want to turn out like are parents, but in the way of spending//budgeting I hope I can truly turn out like mine.  A classic example of their tight wadness is what I would like to share today.

As our family trip was coming close to an end we spent one of our last days in Yellowstone National Park.  After leaving the massive park we had to drive through the small touristy town of West Yellowstone.  The few streets were lined with many shops offering loads of souvenirs, clothing, and one store in particular - cowboy hats.  My Mommy dearest was pooped from the park and found a bench to read as my Daddy, Sis, and I perused the shops.  Each shop looked the same, and they were all starting to blend.  I was quickly done with perusing through each shop as they all ended up having the same thing in each one.  We were beat and tired by this point, and we still had about a two hour drive back to our cabin.  As we were getting ready to leave the small town my Daddy wanted to go back to a particular store to buy him a cowboy hat.  The rest of us just wanted to get on the road.  I happened to be driving at this time and kept asking my Dad what he wanted to do.  We are driving the few streets as the talk back forth went a little like this,

Libby:  "Dad!  Do you want me to go back to the store?"
Heff (aka Daddy):  "I don't know, Ellen (that would be my Mommy) can I get the hat?"
Ellen:  "Do whatever you want I just want to go back to the cabin and we still have two hours to drive!"
Libby:  "Dad - SERIOUSLY what do you want to do?"
Heff:  "Okay, go back to the store.  Oh wait what is this store? They have belts and cowboy hats.  Let me run in there real quick."
Libby//Ellen:  BIG SIGH! (As the car is stopped at now a different store.)
Heff:  "Well that store was too expensive.  Let's just drive to the store I originally found the hat in."
Ellen:  "So, how are you going to pay for this?"
Heff:  "I guess I will use my piggy bank money."  (Dad pulls out a huge Ziploc bag with lots of quarters.)
Libby:  She sees//hears the Ziploc bag and starts laughing so hard that she wets herself...just a tiny bit...she does have a little bit of self control.
Ellen:  Starts to laugh because Libby is laughing so hard she is wetting herself and gasping for air like a walrus.
Heff:  Suddenly becomes very embarrassed about his Ziploc bag of quarters, and says, "Never mind, I don't want the hat.  This is going to look funny with me counting out quarters."
Ellen:  "Oh stop it.  You want the hat, so you should get it."
Heff:  "But, I don't want to count out the quarters in front of people!"
Libby:  Still laughing uncontrollably!
Ellen:  "Fine!  I will go in with you and help count out the quarters.  Besides you will never see these people again, so why should it matter that you are counting out quarters?"  (Good on you Mommy - of course these people will never see us again, but I'm sure they will have a grand time making fun of the man who counted out a bunch of quarters just to pay for a cowboy hat.  If they make fun, so be it.)
Heff and Ellen leave the car, find the store, find the hat (he just had to have), and take their sweet time counting out quarters to buy his precious cowboy hat.  Meanwhile Libby just sits in the car laughing.

Photo taken by my Mother Dearest on her cell phone. (Never thought I would see the day my Mom took a picture on her cell phone...but then again I never thought I would see the day my dad paid for something with quarters.)

My Daddy couldn't be more proud of his cowboy hat that was bought in West Yellowstone, MT.  Montana - that is the real reason he wanted the cowboy hat...according to him all (or a lot of) cowboys come from Montana.  Who knew?

And So I Live to Blog Again...

Where in the world of small town USA have I been?  I have been asking myself that same question for months!

For months I have fallen behind in my blogging.  Something just ain't right when I stop blogging?  So, I begin again.  The question is, where do I begin?

Summertime is almost over and I review the many wonderful things that have happened in just a few short months.  Let me begin by rewinding as far back as April.  We all know that summer in this part of the country starts fairly early.

About 14 years ago a certain movie came out, called Titanic.  My girlfriends and I happened to be "big shot seniors" in high school.  We were young and in love (maybe just me) with the actor Leonardo Dicaprio.  To see a movie about the historic Titanic intertwined with a tragic love story made us girls delight in joy.  We would brave the crowds and go see this movie.  We went, we saw, we cried (a lot), and we talked about it for days (and possibly longer).  So it was, 14 years later they re-released this classic tale in what they call 3D.  My girls and I reunited for the re-release, and were just slightly disappointed to see that the ending was still the same - Jack let go, and died again!  Buggers.

Did you know the world just witnessed a rare solar eclipse in a very small town known as Kanarraville?  The small town of Kanarraville happened to be the one and only spot in all the world that the ring of fire could be witnessed in all it's glory - people were referring to the town of Kanarraville as the "Sweet Spot."  Fortunately this town is where my family roots lie.  I was able to witness this exciting phenomena because my brother owns a home there.  A massive party was thrown in his back yard, and friends and family came from all over.  I have never seen this small town so crowded with people, and the traffic to leave town was out of control!  My favorite part of the evening was the moment the sun and moon aligned to allow for the perfect ring of fire.  The cheering in the town sent chills up my body.

The 4th of July is always a wonderful time of year in my family.  This grand holiday is almost more celebrated then Christmas in the Williams household.  My family loves to come together and celebrate our freedom in small little Kanarraville.  The town has some wonderful traditions that have continued to live on for years and years.  My favorite part of the day is when we do our "cook out" (that's what my family calls a BBQ).  Back in the day we would gather at my Papa and Granny's house - now that they are gone and my brother lives in Kanarraville we congregated there.  This year the food was spectacular.  Always is.  However, I tried my hand at a new cake recipe and think I hit success!  The chocolate cake was so rich and sweet that my cousins wife who is pregnant and is on the brink of gestational diabetes saved up her sugar intake just so she could eat my dessert!

It's inevitable.  Each year I have a birthday, and I just keep getting older!  This year I turned 32.  32!  Can you believe I'm in my early 30's.  Some people would say I act a lot younger, and then there are some who would say I am close to death.  Whatever age I may be I just can't seem to win.  At any rate, my birthday was another success.  More than just "another day."  I ended up having to work for my first time ever in all my birthday having years.  After work a few of my close friends kidnapped me (not really) and took me to Mesquite (against my own will - kind of) and paid to have me gamble.  I played BINGO for the first time ever and even got lucky enough to win 18 dollars.  Score!

To top off my summer I just recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone for my first time ever!  I know right, it took me long enough to get there.  The week long trip was with family and extended family.  We rented a big o'l cabin in Driggs, ID, and felt like kings and queens living it up.  The week was filled with lot's of driving (it had to happen), eating so much/well that I probably just gained 10lbs in one week, visiting National Parks, seeing an array of wild life, and having some great reunions with family and friends I haven't seen in ages.  Vacations are always much needed, and this vacation hit the spot on my summer.

Lastly, a great time was had by all when I got to attend my first ever performance of the much loved play, Wicked.  Now I have a little bit of culture...it still is going to take eons to catch up to my sister, but I'm working on it.  The play Wicked was absolutely amazingly awesome!  I cried like three times, yes three times.  I have to say it was the best weekend ever!  (Stay tuned for that blog post...it's quite a funny story.)

The summer months are coming to an end.  School is about to begin and this will be my final semester of being a college student.  I thought I would never get to this point.  And believe me, it has taken FOREVER to get to this point.  I begin my student teaching August 27th and have sadly already counted down the days until I finish.  (If you were in my shoes you probably would too!)  Along with student teaching I am down to just one job - working on Grounds Crew just until student teaching starts, and then it is back to the Testing Center for one last semester.  What is going to happen at the end of the semester....nobody knows, I don't even know!  Let's just focus on the time at hand cause it's scaring me to death to think of my future!  Until then, thanks for reading about my wonderful summer time fun!