I need a cold shower...

The Yuma house has had quite the exciting week. After a long weekend, all of us girls slept in Sunday morning and woke up late. Excited for the unsuspecting boys of the 37th ward and our weekly serenade of "Easy Like Sunday Morning," we were a little disturbed by a funny smell in our basement. Convinced it was Natural Gas, Tricia called up a friend who may or may not have worked with heating who told her to turn off our gas.

At this point, we were not so concerned. We figured it was something that we could deal with after church but decided to call our friendly Questar office.

The first implication that something was wrong was when I joked with the Questar man "we may or may not smell Natural Gas in our house. Is that a bad thing??" To which he replied "You need to evacuate your house now."

Um... What? We have church soon. And we are all in various stages of showering and getting ready for church. And now we have to leave? But stay close enough for when the technician comes? Wow.

Tricia and I headed to my Grandma's and continued to get ready there. Questar man called right as we were finishing up and we headed home. Little did we know we were about to get the most inconvenient news of our entire lives....

(that was a bit dramatic. maybe just the most inconvenient news of the past few months or so)

Questar Man was Creepy McCreepster. He had weird eyes, a huge beer gut, and was about 60. Once he got down there and got started he started saying all sorts of Creepy things. He asked about 3 times if there were 4 girls who lived there. He walked into my bedroom where I had some extra props from Halloween and said "Is this your bedroom? What is that bone for, to beat your boyfriends?" So at this point Tricia was getting ready for church and I ran into her room and told her she would be punished if she left me to go to church. Then he tells us his daughter went to T-ville High so Tricia and I thought we'd have some non-creepy middle ground. Oh no. He says he's "heard about Taylorsville girls" and brings up the stat that T-ville was allegedly had the highest rate of teen pregnancy and asked if we were "one of those girls".

Then it just got funny. He couldn't find anything wrong with the heater so decided to check the water heater. He had to get a machine from his car and I think he took a shot of heroin or something in the truck because when he got back, it was over. He said the machine also doubled as a breathalizer test and made T breathe on it. Then he shoved about half the thing down his throat and started wheezing all over it but nothing was registering on the machine and he was getting genuinly ticked off. When he finally (about an hour later. We had way missed the first of church by now) got around to testing our water heater, he informed us that it had been leaking carbon monoxide into our house for who knows how long! Then he red tags our water heater and essentially tells us we'll die if we turn it back on. Fantastic. After I signed all of the "I will not sue if I die from turning it back on" papers, he finally packed up his breathalizer tester and moved on.

So we were in a bind. Our landlords live in the United Arab Emirates now so I emailed her knowing I'd get a response in about 12 hours about what to do. So the first email went out on Sunday afternoon. When I hadn't heard anything by Monday, I called a plumber who was a family friend who gave me an idea of what it would cost and when he could do it. Still no word Monday from the landlords. Email #2 went out Monday night. Still no word. Tuesday I finally call their son (who we were threatened with close to death if we called for a reason less than death) who told me to go ahead? But? He didn't really know??

Yea, encouraging. So I scheduled the plumber for Wednesday without having any idea if it was okay with them or how this would get paid for or what. Tuesday night I get a call from the son who's emailing the mom who hasn't read our emails because she forgot our names and didn't think they were important. So they decided that her husband was going to call me at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning to give me the specifics of the heater he wanted.

If you're counting, we're now on day 4 of no heater. And I have a plumber coming at 1:30, which means I made sub plans and took half of a precious personal day for this. And they want to call me with specifics at 7?? Nice. So he calls me at 7 and just wants me to ask some questions and asks if I've looked for a better deal. I call the plumber with the questions and just decided to go for it. Whatever. Screw what everyone thinks, I want a hot shower.

So I left school and the plumber came and not only do we now have steamy hot water, we have better water pressure.

Wow. That was not an important story that I was able to drag out into a huge blog! I have a gift.

TAGGED!

I got tagged by Tricia! (I should kick you. You're about 3 feet away)..........
The rules are:
* Link to the person who tagged you (Tricia-licious. triciamerlin.blogspot.com)
*Post the rules on your blog
*Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
* Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
* Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
* Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

Okay, here goes:

1. I am really weird about things matching. Everything in my wardrobe for the day (including under-things) has to match. While I'm teaching I usually use a marker that matches what I'm wearing. I pick out colored paper to copy assignments based on what I'm wearing. I change up my purse every day to match. I used to pick my lotion based on what I'm wearing but luckily I'm not THAT crazy anymore.

2. I can't NOT finish a book. Even if I hate it, I can't leave it until its done. I'm reading a book right now that totally sucks and I'm really sick of it but I can't put it down. I read tons of books but I can't stop until they're done no matter how lame they are.

3. I sing like a maniac in my car. At the top of my lungs. And I dance. But I only do this when I'm alone and people in the cars next to me get a really good show.

4. If something gets stuck to the bottom of my foot, I FREAK out. If I step on tape or a post-it or anything gets stuck on the bottom of my foot I seriously look like I'm having a seizure because I can NOT get it off fast enough. For some reason that drives me CRAZY.

5. When I was younger I took a nose-spray medicine called Beconase and it seriously messed me up. If anything even smells remotely like it I want to die. If someone uses it in the morning I can smell it like 6 hours later. I bought mascara that slightly smelled like it and I had to throw it away to buy a new one. I can't stand it.

6. When I was younger I was deathly afraid of fire drills and sleepovers. I thought fire drills meant that everyone I loved was burning up and I thought if I slept over at someone else's house that my family would die or something while I was gone. I know. I was crazy. I finally had to have counseling in like 4th grade. It makes me laugh now but I was terrified back then!!!

I tag.... Anyone who needs to kill some time and wants to talk about themselves!

2 in one day! I need a life...

Here are the rules:I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.
Here are the questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? LOVESAC
2. Where is your significant other? WHO??
3. Your hair color? BROWN
4. Your mother? FUNNY
5. Your father? INTELLIGENT
6. Your favorite thing? FAMILY
7. Your dream last night? FORGETABLE
8. Your dream/goal? HAPPINESS
9. The room you're in? BASEMENT
10. Your hobby? COLLEGE-FOOTBALL
11. Your fear? SNAKES
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? TEACHING??
13. Where were you last night? HOME
14. What you're not? TIRED
15. One of your wish-list items? SHOES
16. Where you grew up? T-VILLE!
17. The last thing you did? BLOGGED
18. What are you wearing? HOODIE
19. Your TV? VH1
20. Your pet? TRICIA
21. Your computer? PINK
22. Your mood? BORED
23. Missing someone? NAH
24. Your car? MAZIE!
25. Something you're not wearing? UNDERWEAR! (JUST KIDDING. NECKLACE)
26. Favorite store? TARGET
27. Your summer? AMAZING
28. Love someone? EVERYONE
29. Your favorite color? GRAY
30. When is the last time you laughed? TODAY
31. Last time you cried? LASTWEEK (?)

Why I love First Graders...

This, my friends, is why I love first graders. Meet Ethan. Ethan makes up Kung-Fu moves during recess and then performs them for me. Ethan is probably the funniest kid ever. He writes stories in his journal about catching ghosts with heat-seeking nets. I call on him every time he raises his hand because I KNOW something good is coming out. Please enjoy the moves.

The Foo-age.

The Sneak Attack

The Slicer-Dicer

Last, but certainly not last, the Flying Bat.

Please enjoy.

We're the Warriors from Taylorsville High!

Yes, Erika, I did steal this from you. It just was making me laugh way too hard.





1. Did you date someone from High School? Same as Erika! Yes, but not until a few years out of high school.



2. What kind of car did you drive? Oldsie! My brown and pink oldsmobile. And then the white Kia.


3. What was your most embarrasing moment in High School? Oh mercy. I have far too many to count. I think the kicker would be when I rear ended Adam Woods (Paul's older brother) on 5400 S. by the school on my way home from the baseball state championship. I was wearing my officer sweater and bawling and everyone was driving home from the game and honking at me.


4. Were you a party animal? Not especially. We did have some good times, though!


5. Were you considered a flirt? Probably not a very good one!


6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Concert choir for life! Except most of us did it for the trip to San Diego and oh, it was worth it.


7. Were you a nerd? I'd like to think no, but I probably was.


8. Were you on any varsity teams? I was captain of the Varsity Awesome Team, but that's about it.


9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Never! I don't even really remember getting in trouble.


10. Can you still sing the fight song? We're the Warriors and we're the best. We've got courage deep inside. Just look at all the things we've done and all the victories we've won, our school is #1 we say with PRIDE! We are always above the rest, and that is the reason why we'll fight for the gold, and win for the blue we're the Warriors from Taylorsville HIGH! W-A-Double R-I-O-R-S!




11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mrs. Hanks for SURE. I'd also throw in Mrs. Hyde our senior year English teacher who said the immortal words "P is for Poo. A is for what you're NOT going to get in this class. R is for Regret. T is for the Time you've wasted. Y is for You're in trouble."



12. Where did you sit during lunch? I think mostly the Commons, D-hall, Dees or Wendys. Or Jeff Porter's house.


13. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Loved it, but no.

14. What do you remember most about graduation? I mostly remember other stuff. Like Sr. Dinner Dance and how TICKED OFF Laura and I STILL are that we picked a lame theme and not NSYNC's Gone. And Sr. Breakout. But I don't remember too much about actual Graduation day. I do remember the squirrel talk and being really really hot.

15. Where did you go for Senior Skip Day? I think every day for me was Sr. Skip Day. But I distinctly remember a bunch of us at my house making a big breakfast.

16. Have you gained weight since then? Ha ha! No! I've actually LOST weight which tells you how Chubbs McGee I was in high school!

17. Who was your prom date? I only went Senior year. Derek Fulton!

18. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? (Wrong answer Ersie, You WILL go.) Oh don't worry. I'm planning on PLANNING my 10 year reunion. Blasted officers.

19. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Not much. I think you just kind of have to make it through high school once and have a good time!

See Amanda Calm...

Okay, now that I am calmed down and settled and feeling exponentially more intelligent than my last post I thought I'd fill you in with some updates.

SCHOOL/WORK (yes, they are the same): Boo ya. Apparently staying put in first grade. This is good news considering that the thought of going back to third grade was giving me a RyanAir-Barcelona-Flight type feeling. I loved my class last year. Don't get me wrong I totally loved them, but I didn't like teaching third grade. In first grade I get to teach letters and sounds and do part of my lesson with a puppet. No, not kidding. His name is Cletus the Cowboy and my students LOVE him. Seriously. I also get kids like Ethan who makes up Karate moves (aptly named The Flying Bat, The Sneak Attack, or the Cutter Lutter) at recess. Or Krishawn who tells me my earrings are fly and when we talked about the L sound kept singing the dirty, dirty Lollipop song by Lil Wayne. First grade is where it's at, yo.

HOUSE: Awesome. No battle. We got the best possible house in the best possible location with the best possible roommates. We are having a great time. Our ward is awesome. The commute to work isn't as hellish as I thought. We all had a crush on the Comcast man only because he was the bringer of cable and internet. It's perfect. ANNOUNCEMENT: House party. Our house. Friday night. Be there or be square. It's gonna be HOT HOT HOT.

DATING: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good times, good times.

AMANDA IS A MORON UPDATE: So I went to the Utah vs. USU game last weekend and was running to hug Ashley Brems Buck and totally ate bleacher. I fell in the middle of the Aggies section and looked and felt like a total moron. Is anyone surprised??

Okay, I promise pictures will come soon. Of the house and the game and whatever else I can think of. I'm just happy life has calmed down and football season has started and I can't stop watching. Oh so happy. Nothin beats a diet coke and a good game in our wood-panelled basement.

Come to the house party.

That is all.

See Amanda stress.

I think first grade is dumbing me down. I can only think in simple sentences:

See Amanda stress.
Amanda teaches first grade.
Amanda loves her class.
Amanda has lots to do for her class.
First grade has not enough kids!
Third grade has too many kids!
What is Amanda to do?
The principal thinks Amanda might teach third grade.
This makes Amanda sad.
Amanda still teaches first grade, but could teach third grade any day.
This would take lots of work.
Amanda might cry.

See Amanda stress.
Amanda moved to a new house!
Amanda has a nice house.
Amanda loves her house.
Amanda loves her roommates.
Amanda loves her new ward.
Amanda moved during the second week of school.
What was Amanda thinking?
Amanda has no internet.
Amanda has no TV!
What is Amanda going to do?
Amanda needs to find some hobbies.
Amanda works a lot at her new house.

See Amanda stress.
Amanda always stresses at the beginning of a school year.
Amanda does lots of work.
Amanda doesn't get paid for lots of work.
Amanda should quit teaching and become a nurse.
Amanda works all day and all night.
Amanda would like a break!

See Amanda stress.