Big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York, New York, New Yooork!

In case you haven't already decoded Jeff's encrypted messages about being "In the Empire State of Mind," it is official that we are going to NYC next year. Jeff got into Columbia University for dental school, so we will be there for four years. Jeff got an email yesterday and received his packet in the mail today. We still are in disbelief but extremely excited! Jeff didn't even want to tell people until he officially received his packet in the mail because he said it just didn't feel real. He's worked very hard and he deserves it. After talking about it since the acceptance, Jeff is confident this is the school he wants to attend for dental school. President Cecil O. Samuelson talked to Jeff's pre-dental class last winter semester and advised them all to apply to at least one school they didn't feel qualified to attend. Columbia was Jeff's school that fit into that category. I guess President Samuelson was advised to do that from his dad, which resulted in him applying to Johns Hopkins and getting accepted. It was advise he continued to follow as he searched for jobs and applied to teach at Duke Medical Center and was given the job. Jeff decided it sounded like good advice, so he applied and got in! It's not going to be cheap, but it definitely will be an experience we will never have again. Let's just say in our excitement we've heard Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" song over and over and over again. The next step is for me to find a job. I am excited that I get the chance to teach again in an urban environment since that's what I went into teaching to do. I guess it worked out better than we could have ever imagined it would.



So anyone want to come visit us next year?



Can you believe that will be our home?

Do you want to know why my skin is so beautiful...

So I was talking about teaching in Washington, D.C. to my students. I was telling them that the class was a lot different than ours. They noticed that the students all had dark skin and they said well some people in our class have dark skin but not skin that dark (I don't have any African American students in my class, which is pretty typical for our entire state). One boy started pointing out who had dark skin. Some of the people he pointed out were white but had dark complexions, but others had dark skin because of their parents diverse nationalities. I said we are lucky that we have so many different and beautiful students in our class. This girl comes up to me and says "do you want to know why my skin is so dark and beautiful?" I asked her why and she informs me that her grandparents are Italian. I gasped and said, "Oh so that's why. I've been wondering why your skin was so beautiful!" She grinned and said, "Yep that's why it's so beautiful." Super, super cute...

Crying in Class

So yes...I started to cry in my class today. Not sobbing crying, or even tears running down my face crying. But if I hadn't stopped myself, I am sure it could have gone that far.

It's no secret that I have one interesting student in my class. Because of his unique (cough, cough) personality, most other students stay away. However, the girl that I have him sitting next to is an angel. I have always thought she was very nice and pleasant, but the more I see her interacting with him the more I think she's simply magnificent.

Today in class she was his partner for centers. She was so patient and really tried to help him focus. Every time she read a word, he'd do his usual quirky thing and say "What?" She'd repeat it and emphasis her pronunciation. The interaction went a little something like this:

Her: "Clock"
Him: "Huh?"
Her: (slightly louder) "Clock"
Him: "What'd you say?"
Her: "Cl-o-o-ck, k, k" (slowly enunciating each sound)
Him: "What?"

Well you get the point. Sadly that was not the end of their conversation for that particular word. But what really brought me to tears was her intuitiveness.

He didn't want to do his vocabulary, so I tried to convince him it was sooo easy. He doesn't enjoy writing, so he didn't want to write any vocabulary words. I knew that my learning objective wasn't to see how well he spelled the vocabulary words but was to see if he knew how to apply the words, so I told him all he needed to do was draw lines to the words instead of writing them. The girl noticed I said that and she turned to me and said, "Oh, so we don't have to write them?" He turned to her and said matter-of-factly, "Oh, no no no. You don't have to write them. Just draw lines to the words." I leaned behind his back and while see was still looking at me I mouthed "Write it" as I moved my hand in a writing motion. She nodded slightly. I told him, "But you know some people can choose to write it if they want to." She turned to him and said, "Thanks for telling me, but I think I am going to choose to write it." Then she looked at me and smiled. What seven year old actually is discrete enough to do something like that? Any of my other students would have responded with something like,"Teacher I can't hear what you're saying," as I was trying desperately to conspicuously mouth my directions.

It was after that moment that I started to cry. I just walked away, but I truly felt blessed to have her in my class. I think sometimes when people going into teaching they forget that the purpose of teaching isn't always to change students' lives. I have learned a lot from my students and I know I still will. Some have really touched my heart and show me the type of person we all should be a little more like.

This student is truly a kind soul.

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today...

I want to be part of it,

New York, New York!

So Jeff's already on his way to UNC and will be heading off next to interview at Columbia in New York City, UNLV in Vegas, and UCSF in San Francisco. Holla!

Jeff's big fat black rain cloud

So the UNC news was a little too good to be true...Jeff saved up to buy both of us All Sports Passes for the BYU football games. Sadly, the UNC interview falls exactly on the same day as the BYU vs. Florida State game here in Provo. Jeff was so upset he looked up the other two interview days for UNC to see if he could reschedule for a later date and oddly enough...they just so happen to be on the same day as the other two big home games for BYU. Jeff feels that his sacrifice of missing such an important game should automatically earn him a spot at UNC. And as for me, welp...oddly enough I am a basketball fan that will now be attending the Florida state football game without Jeff. Lame. Way to rain on our parade UNC...

GO JEFF, GO JEFF, IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY...

Okay it's not really his birthday but it's almost like his birthday. Yesterday he got a really nice surprise - an interview invite to UNC. Whoot whoot! September 19th is the big day and I'm sure he'll do great. It's exciting to get any invites, but UNC is considered to be one of the top five dental universities in the US. Since they are a state school, they are very bias towards state residents. Only 7 out-of-state applicants got in last year, so this interview invite is great news! This is an exciting time and we're really stoked to figure out where we will be next year. Yay Jeff! He's worked so hard and deserves a big pat on the back for a job well done. So if you happen to see him any time soon, feel free to give him one...

MDon's Pancakes and the Guac that Rocks!

So I love making breakfast meals. I think there is a reason why they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day - because it tastes the best! Pancakes are one of the breakfast foods that Jeff loves, so I've tried several varying recipes. However, I could never get more of a response from Jeff than "Yeah...they're good." (Which we all know really means...they just taste like normal pancakes.) No one wants to just make normal tasting pancakes. BORING. So we found out the recipe to Jeff's favorite pancakes - McDonald's. I didn't believe him that they tasted better until we made them and they totally do! The secret ingredient is...SPRITE! Weird, huh?



We have also been obsessed with Chipotle's guac. If you haven't ever had it...well you're missing out on some pretty awesome guacamole. Nothing else at Chipotle is fabulous enough to make us crave it, but that guac...mmmm, delicious. We found the recipe for that too! The secret with their guac is you don't put any tomatoes in it (like a lot of the recipes on The Food Network...tomatoes, bleh). So we made that too and let's just say we will be having the guac that rocks for a long, long, long time.

If you want to be as cool as us, you can make the same guac too.

4 avocados
1 jalapeno
1/2 of a red onion
1/2 of a lime (juiced)
1/2 teaspoon salt
(And a little lemon juice, but not a lot. Just mix it all together in a food processor. It's super easy.)

Success is just so sweet...

Well...he did it! Jeff took the DAT and… alright, hold on. First things first, I know most spouses like to pat each other on the back (even when they do something mediocre), so that’s what I’m going to do. Jeff actually did an awesome job. He’s worked so hard and deserves to be noticed and appreciated. Since Jeff doesn’t like tooting his own horn, I’ll just have to do all the tooting (as weird as that sounds). His scores were…

Perceptual Ability Score: 25 Percentile: 99.8

Total Science Score: 24 Percentile: 99.1

Academic Average (overall score) Score: 23 Percentile: 98

Ironically enough, his best section in the sciences was in biology, which has always been his lowest scoring science section. However, the studying paid off and he scored a 26 in the bio section and was in the 99.6 percentile.

After the test Jeff shakily picked up the score report from the proctor (he was still in shock at his test results). She was surprised to see such great scores and told Jeff that she’d never seen anyone leave with scores like him. Yay! Who knew?! Jeff is a genius! We’re excited to move onto the next step of applying to dental schools. Now maybe we can choose a school instead of crossing our fingers and hoping to just get into one. Jeff has worked hard studying and this definitely wasn’t a random coincidence. We’re just glad that all his dedication has paid off.

So basically, you can start referring to Jeff as Dr. Youngberg. WAA WHOOO!

Countdown to the DAT

We are T Minus 3 days and counting...

Good luck babe!

And then the summer fun begins... Waa-Whoo!

Say What?!

With the school year coming to an end, my students started delivering presents to me. My favorite part was the thank you notes from the second graders. I'd received one that told me "You're the best Queen" and inside it said "To Mrs. Queen Yongbrg" (yeah let's just say not a single student finished the year able to correctly spell my name). But there are also humorous pictures in the cards as well. One student drew a picture of me, very tall of course, and a tiny, tiny boy beside me (he looks more like a preschooler than an 8 year old). I was patting him on the head with a speech bubble that said, "I like you." He's the class clown, and let's be honest everyone loves people that are funny. I guess he picked up on that too.

But as I continued to receive cards and pictures, I was very speechless when a cute girl in my class handed me her card with a picture folded inside. Looking at the crayon drawing, I realized I was in the picture and the girl was drawn a lot smaller beside me. She had a speech bubble that said, "graet bod!" I read it again because what second grade girl would write a note saying that to her teacher? I took it home to have Jeff confirm what I'd read was correct. He got a good laugh out of it. Jeff told me to hang on to it because I'd probably want to read it when I am pregnant :) After his confirmation I remembered hearing her say it at recess to another little girl, so there was no denying it - she must be telling me "great bod" in her picture.

Is that weird or what?

This is why I love teaching elementary school...

Jeff and I laughed our heads off when we watched this! Kids are super crazy.

So we're famous...

Well, at least our hands are famous! Jeff was going to class on Wednesday and decided to grab a Daily Universe. As he started flipping through the pages, he stopped on one page that had an artcile about how marriage license fees would not be increased. As enthrawling as that headline sounds, amazingly, the article was not what grabbed his attention. Instead, there was a picture in the middle of the article that seemed very familiar...a little too familiar. Jeff thought to himself, "That picture looks almost exactly like one of our engagement photos!" Then Jeff, like Scooby and Shaggy, started putting two and two together and sniffed out the real solution to this mystery. He realized the hands in the picture look so much like...wait! They were our hands! It was our picture!

It turns out that Jeff's mission buddy that took our engagements is a photographer for the Daily Universe and used our picture. We are very flattered, but I must say we are not that surprised we were chosen. I mean...come on...have you seen our hands? At this point, we are considering changing our career path to superstar handmodel! What do you think? I like it. But if you are hesitant to agree, just look for yourself. The picture that was published has been on the left side of our blog this whole time. Yup. We knew all along that it was golden. You can't deny the attractiveness of those hands, and if you can, well...really what do you know? Have your hands been in a major publication? Yeah...that's what we thought.

*Oh yeah...you may have also noticed that our...umm...Christmas Saga was never quite finished. Well, let's just say it was super fun, and we'll end it there. Blogging in depth about vacations is way too much work, and really who cares (at least that's what I think because I hated blogging about our Christmas. Too much happened).

The Magic of Disneyland

So after we'd checked into our very spacious handicap hotel room, we were able to experience all the magic of Disneyland at Christmas time. We rode the classics like Space Mountain, Star Tours, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Splash Mountain, the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World. However, there were a lot of new attractions to experience this time. Disneyland is transformed into a wonderland of holiday lights, garland, Christmas trees, and holiday magic at Christmas time! The Haunted Mansion is transformed into a ride with a The Nightmare Before Christmas theme. WE LOVED IT! My favorite part was where you suddenly smell gingerbread and you look down and see a gingerbread man rising from a coffin with little x's for his eyes. As I describe it, I guess it sounds a little morbid, but it really was just very clever and hilarious. I only wish they'd keep the theme for the whole year, but it probably wouldn't be as special and cool...needless to say, we rode the ride several...okay, okay, A LOT of times.

However, our first ride on it was the absolute best and couldn't be beat, at least in my opinion. When we walked into the first room of the house (where they shut the doors, turn off the lights, and the walls begin to get taller), the lights turned off and a scary man started talking. As we heard the first sound of thunder crash, a little boy behind us let out a piercing shriek and burst into tears. The incident only became more entertaining as his parents tried to console him by telling him to look at the cool pictures on the walls, which just happened to be the same horrifying pictures that were growing taller before our eyes. The boy became hysterical and gasping between sobs he screamed, “I DON’T WANT TO BE IN THIS HOUSE ANYMORE!” It was just too must amusement for us to handle. Me, Jeff, and his dad laughed the whole time at this poor child’s traumatic experience. As the doors opened, the boy said he wanted to leave, but before his mom could try to dissuade him, Jeff’s dad turns around and says, “Oh, you’ve got to stay because you’re making the ride so much more enjoyable for us.”

We also were able to go to California Adventures, which had most of my highlights for the trip. The ride SOARIN’ is absolutely the best ride in both parks. It’s not scary or super thrilling, but it is exhilarating and breathtaking. The best is being on the top hang gliders because you can’t see anyone’s feet above you. My favorite part of this ride was the smells! Really I think all amusement park rides should use smells. They are so wonderful. You smell oranges and pine trees during this ride! Yummm! The ride is indescribable. You just have to experience it for yourself in all its awesomeness. Really, I want that ride in my own home someday. It’s just that awesome. California Adventures also has two cool tours. The Mission tortilla tour is great because they give you a hot tortilla at the end, but I loved the Boudin bread tour the most. They give you a sample of the bread at the beginning, but you also learn the secret of the delicious sourness of Boudin – they use part of the starter dough that was first used 200 years ago! No wonder! The mystery has been solved! (Plus it was lunch time when we had the tour, so we all got Boudin bread bowls after the tour!)

We learned on our trip that at Disneyland you can also see celebrities. Who knew? Triple D (Guy Fieri) happened to be there from the Food Network. He was filming a show in one of the Disney candy shops, and we could see him through the window. Jeff’s dad had a perfect view above the crowd since he’s a towering 6’4”. He is a huge Triple D fan, so he throws up his hands, makes the rock on sign, and screams, “Yeah Triple D!” We got a good laugh at it, but we all were surprised when Triple D stopped what he was doing, looks out the window, and makes the rock on sign back! A Disneyland worker that was on crowd control informed Jeff’s dad that they will cut that out of the segment for sure (I guess some people think it’s fun to try and ruin people’s days). Travis quickly responded, “He doesn’t care. That’s not why he did it.” And it was true. He didn’t care.

Out of all the crazy fun adventures, I think the most magical part was when they lit up Sleeping Beauty’s castle for the fireworks. For Christmas the castle was decorated to look like there was snow and icicles on it. After they light up the castle, they start playing a song about believing and then suddenly snow starts to fall. You look up and realize it’s coming from the rooftops of the shops on Main St. and that it’s not actually snow but soap suds. Jeff’s mom said she thought it was so magical she almost started crying. So I mean really…how much more magical can you get? However, you could tell most the people at the park were Californians because when the snow started to land on people they quickly brushed it off. Ahh…true Californians – snow haters.

Basically, we loved Disneyland at Christmas time and we can’t wait to go back!

Spacious rooms, showers, and the beginning of F-U-N

I know, I know, I stink at blogging. But in true Jeff fashion I am wasting my life away watching retarded comedies, today its Joe Dirt, and since I have seen this many times I am gonna try to update the masses. I decided that since Christmas was amazing I am gonna write more than one blog about it.

We left the Saturday after finals early in the morning and drove straight on down to L.A. It wasn’t such a bad drive until we hit San Bernadino. That is because it wasn’t until we were about 8 hours into the drive that I realized that we had forgotten the map to the hotel we were gonna stay in. With some quick thinking on my part I texted Joey who lived his whole life in the greater L.A. area. This may come as a shock to some of you but, there are so many freeways in L.A. that nobody has them all memorized. So with a little help from Joey we got ourselves a more than just a little lost. Take home message / Late Christmas gift to all, never get directions through texting, most of the time you are already past the exit you should have taken by the time the planets align and the message gets to you. Once we were completely lost we called Whitney’s dad, luckily he was near a computer and led us safely to our destination. La Quinta.

I have seen our beautiful La Quinta hotel in Orem from the road. I always figured it was your normal hotel with unlimited doughnuts and small boxes of frosted flakes in the morning. However, this one that we stayed in was huge. I am positive that it was bigger than our apartment. It was a handicapper room so everything had to be spaced out so that a wheelchair could move around. We had two T.V.s, a couch, a living room, and a bathroom. I only mention the bathroom because it was crazy. Apparently handicapped people get to shower sitting down on a bench. Needless to say, I want to be handicapped.