It's official...

We FINALLY had our housing acceptance from UCSF's student housing! We will be leaving Provo June 30th and moving to San Francisco. This is what it'll look like:

I'm really, really excited that we'll be living in a forest. Helllooo trees! I've missed them so much being in Provo for so long. It'll be so wonderful to look out our window (we get to be on the third floor, whoot whoot) and just see green!

Jeff also officially graduated! It's been a couple of weeks since graduation, but I thought I'd post about it anyways. We had an awesome time with friends and family and Jeff is now enjoying life as a free man - no obligations until August.

My family was able to help my sister move into her dorm at BYU for spring term that same weekend, and we're enjoying getting to see her a lot more now that she's at the Y (even if it'll just be a couple months before we move away).

I get finished teaching the last week of May and unfortunately have to finish some graduate credit classes in June. The classes will feel like I'm still teaching since they'll be from 8am-4pm everyday, which is quite unfortunate. But they'll be finished on the 25th and then...LET THE FUN BEGIN!

We're also stoked that this month is the last month we are working as Resident Assistants. We still have to pack up our apartment and my classroom, move it all to CA, buy furniture for our apartment, and I still have to find a job. Bleh...but it's all very exciting!

We'll miss our friends and family in Utah, but we're very excited to move onto the next phase in our life.

A Change Would Do You Good

So...we are changing our plans. We are moving to San Francisco for the next four years and Jeff will go to UCSF for dental school. Hurray!

Hopefully people will still visit us even if we aren't going to be living in New York. I mean who wants to live in New York anyway right now? I mean look at it...

Miss Honey or Ms. Trunchbull?

So I had parent teacher conference last week and all went well, which is good because I heard some horror stories from my co-workers. I was also told a cute story from a parent. One of my students was watching Matilda, turned to her mom, and said, "Ya know Mom, if my teacher's hair was a little different color, she'd be Miss Honey!" I guess that's always a plus to be thought of as the nice teacher instead of the evil teacher in the movie. It's always hard to know how your students perceive you, especially when they're getting frustrating and you're stressed. But it was good to hear another mom say whenever she gets upset with her boys (I have twin boys in my class) they always tell her, "Mom stop yelling! Our teacher never yells at us when she's upset." Hopefully my students next year will think of me the same way...it will be very different teaching in NYC and I'll have to adjust culturally once again. You forget while you're teaching mostly LDS students how different their lives are compared to kids everywhere else in the country. When I was testing my students during reading benchmarks, I was reminded of this unique situation I've been teaching in. My student had read a book and I asked him the same question I'd asked the other students and said, "What kind of person was his dad?" The right answer and the one most students respond with is that he's a good person and they proceed to explain why. This particular student answered, "I think he's a missionary." I was a little confused and asked why he'd said that and he replied, "Because he helps people." What a good answer! Then I started to laugh because I can only imagine what a non-LDS teacher some where else in the country would have thought about this student's answer. I know that will be me when I enter into another culture in NYC. I felt it once and I know I'm going to feel it again - like an outsider. I'll be the different one. I'll be the one that isn't in the "club." It's been so comfortable understanding what my students are always talking about because it's things I talked about when I was eight as a mormon child. This next year will be good, but it'll be so different. I've enjoyed seeing what education can be like in good communities, with stable families, and lots of supportive people. I've realized the huge difference involved parents can make in children's education, and I've realized what type of parent I want to be. Each morning as I drive among the picturesque mountains, I feel like I'll really miss this beautiful rural community I've grown to love and respect. I know I've learned a lot and I know these experiences have all been for my own good.

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...