Teachers in Training

I've been noticing a recent trend in all of my teacher education classes. There seems to be a greater tension in these classes than in any other I've experienced. I believe this is because most of us are in our last semester before student teaching. With each class period, we come closer to being on our own. With each assignment, we scramble to understand how to apply this in 3 months. With every reading, we wish for photographic memories to permanently imprint the contents into our brains. Trust me, there is no feeling quite like a classroom on the brink of hysteria. One of these days, our classroom is going to spontaneously combust in nervous energy. It's really quite terrifying.

Speaking of Plan B....

Alright, I would just like to say that I used "sporadic" in the title of my blog for a reason...yeah, so it's been two months since I've posted. My excuse: I don't have any adorable children to blog about. Anyway, excuses aside, I have some big news:

Remember how I was saying that I was going to Houston to do my student teaching....well, that's not happening anymore. It's not that I applied and didn't get in, I just really thought both options through, prayed about it, and came to the conclusion that I should stay here to finish up. I feel really good about my cooperating teacher - I'll be student teaching at Lakeridge Jr. High in Orem. I really love my ward and my roommates. I'm not going to lie - I am not loving the prospect of another winter here, but hey, you do what you gotta do. Anyway, just thought I should officially inform everyone. I turned in my student teaching application today. If all goes well, I'll be teaching next year!

Fireworks and the PoGP

I don't often post to my blog because as I told Christy, not a lot happens in my life, but the fact that I was remonstrated by her gave me a little comfort that people actually read my blog, so...I'll try to be better.
Today, I have several things on my mind.
1) I am extremely excited that B. Rae and McKay are in Utah and that all of my family is coming up to visit this weekend (all of my family excluding Dan, that is). Happy Independence day to me! :)
2) I love my Pearl of Great Price class! True love. We've only had class 4 times and I already have 10 pages of notes, front and back. I don't know how prolific people can get with notes, so maybe it isn't a big feat, but for me, that is A LOT of notes. Everything we talk about is just priceless and I scribble furiously, trying not to miss a second of it. The professor helps unpack the symbolism in the garden of Eden and the tree of life and I feel like I'm learning so much about the plan of salvation. It's funny because usually after a period of spiritual growth, we start to get complacent and our spiritual knowledge seems to plateau. Like we feel that, "Oh yeah, we've got this gospel thing down. I'm pretty set." And then WHAM!!!! There's another mountain of knowledge in front of you that you need to/want to climb. I'm loving this class.
It also really makes me want to go through the temple. We reference the temple so often, but a lot of it is the professor saying, "For all you temple-goers, pay attention to this." And I'm just like...I WANT TO BE A TEMPLE GOER!!!!! I was talking with Nathan, my cousin, the other day about the Pearl of Great Price and he said that it is basically all about the temple. And I really feel that from what I do know about the temple. I just wish that I could add upon this knowledge that I'm gaining in class. Although, yeah, I will eventually, and I'm sure that when I do go through the temple I'll be so much more prepared and so grateful for this class.
Patience, Becky, patience.

A Little Kelly Hysteria

So, yesterday I went to a Kelly Clarkson concert at UVU. I was pretty excited because before this I hadn't ever been to a "real" concert (I mean, one that wasn't a choir concert or one that wasn't just local musicians). It was outside, so of course it had been rainy all day, but Chad and I were determined not to let it "dampen" our spirits...hahaha, I kill myself. :) So Chad dropped me off by the line and then went to park three miles away. I got in line by these girls from Wyoming who had driven down just to see the concert. I kind of befriended them (actually I had to ask them if I was in the right line and they were nice enough to talk to me like I was a grown-up) and after we got into the field and set up our blankets, they asked if they could stand by us. So while we waited through the preliminary acts, namely Utah's Got Talent (what, are you kidding me? nope, it's real.) and a conglomeration of random Orem community persons (the mayor, the President of UVU, someone from a local bank, radio personel, etc.) who all wanted their 30 seconds of fame, we played cards with the Wyoming girls.
And finally.....Kelly came out on stage!!! Woohoo!!!! It was so awesome! I didn't realize how many Kelly Clarkson songs I actually knew, but she sang a bunch of her really famous ones like Breakaway, Since You Been Gone, Behind These Hazel Eyes, Because of You, and then her really famous new ones, My Life Would Suck Without You and I Do Not Hook Up. It was soooo fun because you could sing along to most of the songs and she's so legit! She's awesome live, she really is a rockstar. Like, none of this Taylor Swift, her songs are nice but her voice is crap live. She really is up there belting the crap out of her songs. It was really cool. And even though it did rain for a little while, this huge rainbow appeared in an arc right over the stage, and then a double rainbow appeared. Not kidding. So basically, it was awesome. :)

Waterproof Mascara

I ran out of mascara about a week ago. As I was at Smith's, perusing my options, I saw the little blue tube of the brand I used last time. I was pretty happy with it, so I didn't look too closely, just grabbed it and left. When I got home, to my utter horror, I discovered that it was WATERPROOF mascara....DUH DUH DUH!!!! They need to advertise these things better. The only difference between my old non-waterproof kind and this fiend was that there is a small band of black around the waterproof kind, whereas there is a small band of silver around the normal kind. They should have bright yellow warning stickers, flashing red neon lights, and possibly a recording of a man with a deep voice saying, "KEEP AWAY!"
Waterproof mascara is the bane of my existence. I believe they put actual tar in the little tube. I understand that as it is waterproof, water alone will not remove the goo. But shouldn't water and a whole lot of soap do some damage? I will tell you, it does not. Even my eye make-up remover that is neither water, nor soap, but some sort of oil conglomeration does not do the job. The one way to fully remove the stuff is to scrape it off each individual lash with your fingernail. And more often than not, the lash off along with the mascara. I feel that this cannot possibly be good for my eyes.
As I was standing in front of the mirror last night, trying increasingly desperate methods to free my eyelashes from this mess, I pondered what good waterproof mascara could possibly have. I know for a fact that it doesn't help you when you're swimming. True, it doesn't all wash off like other mascara, rather it slightly fades into two nice dark circles under your eyes. But instead of washing that dark circle off easily once you know it's there, you have to pull a scouring pad out of your bathing suit and scrub with Dial soap until it's gone.
I've tried living with this waterproof business for a week, but I can't take it anymore! As cheap as I am, I would rather buy a new non-waterproof mascara for a couple bucks than become eyelash bald.

What happens after Valentine's

Valentine's weekend was awesome for several reasons:
a) I crashed my parents' date and went with them to a movie - Inkheart, which was really good even with Brenden Frasier.
b) There were always good treats around - favorites include Mom's apple pie, the strangely huge cookie from Mom's visiting teachers, fun size Snickers and Twix, and some really good sugar cookies from someone in the ward. Don't worry, I didn't eat ALL of that on Valentine's Day alone.

c) It was a long weekend and I didn't have to go back to school until Tuesday.

Unfortunately, even though I actually did homework over the weekend, I came back to school with a rough draft of a research paper due on Thursday, a google earth virtual tour due on wednesday, and a group presentation on feminist literary criticism on Thursday. Not to mention the 15 page handbook due on Tuesday as my final project for Classroom Management. I've been getting discouraged lately with myself in my major. I don't think that I have made the wrong decision, but I'm just realizing how much work it will be to be a great teacher. It's easy to be a bad teacher, but it takes a lot to be a great teacher. I don't want to come up short and fail my future students.
I've been stressing about this a lot lately, but I had a good talk with Dan, my older brother, yesterday that really helped me out. Among other things he reminded me that almost anything worth doing is going to be an effort. And while I'm worried that I'm going to fail my students, Dan told me that if he does something wrong in his job, he could kill someone, give someone cancer, and ruin his whole career. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little better about my choice. :) Anyway, hope everyone had a great Valentine's day.

Photo Tag

So...I've been "photo-tagged". Since Rachel and possibly Sarah are the only people who read this anymore, I won't bother tagging anymore people. But this photo was taken in between my Mexico and London trips (that explains the tan-ness and the hair braid thing). There was less than a week in-between the trips, so we had a big party one night so I could see all of my friends, especially the people who had come home from missions while I was in Mexico. The two guys with me are Jon and Tim Hilton. Jon and I look pretty normal, and Tim actually looks pretty normal for Tim. :)