One day...

One day I will get caught up on my grading, sleep, put in time at the opera, and find time to blog-and all this because of my trip to Peru. But was it worth it??? Definitely!!!

General Conference

I just love General Conference weekend. It is one of my favorite times of the year. It is such a blessing to be able to listen not only to 15 men who are called as Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, but also to additional General Authorities, General Auxiliary, and other General Officers of the Church. Every message is truly inspired, comes directly from Heavenly Father, and has something that pertains just to me. This past weekend was General Conference and I feel spiritually rejuvinated after having had the opportunity to participate in each general session. I look forward to the Conference issue of the Ensign and the chance to read and re-read the messages that were presented. I am so blessed!

Sometimes life surprises you with an unexpected blessing

Is the title of this post an oxymoron? I wonder... I don't think people really expect blessings to come into their life. I think maybe it's more of a hope that they will come.
This past week has been so crazy. Monday was an early day at work as I had my last day of reading tests to administer. Luckily this time they were at North Cache so I didn't have to travel between schools like I did for three days last week. I tested kids and did some other test stuff all morning then taught Rolando in the afternoon. It was a long day. At the end of school, I went to make some copies and as I was walked back to Amy's room, I met up with the principal. He is funny. Every time I see him, he tells me I was so close to getting the job I interviewed for and that it's great having me at the school. He also told me that the next time a job came up, I'd have it for sure. I told him I'd be holding him to that! Back in Amy's room, I was making plans for Rolando when the Ancient World Civ teacher came in to tell Amy that the other Geography teacher had taken a coaching job in Minnesota. Amy ran down to the office to make sure they got me to fill in for him. They'd already called someone else but she convinced them to call him back and tell him it wasn't going to work out. After a lot of back and forth and problem solving, I got the job. I'm now a long-term substitute at North Cache (again) and I'll be here until the end of the year. I'm super excited and pray every day that I will be blessed with a miracle and have the opportunity to be given a job for next year.
I started teaching on Tuesday morning. The kids are handling things pretty well. I'm lucky to have a few kids in each class that I've taught before. It will be good to get into a routine with them and I'm confident things will go well for the rest of the year. I've had some classroom administration/paperwork issues but they weren't terrible and I think I've got most of them worked out now. The biggest thing that's been thrown at me is that I'm switching rooms and moving into the main building. The two Spanish teachers want to be next to each other and since I'm just getting things settled, they figure that now is a good time to do it. So today is the big moving day and I hope things go well.
In the midst of the stress of starting subbing again, the Stake RS Presidency and I travelled to Salt Lake on Wednesday for Auxiliary Leadership training in conjunction with General Conference.
It's now three days later and I'm back to finish this post....
So we went to Salt Lake for our meeting and it was a crazy trip. First, it snowed that day. Second, we left late. Third, there was construction. Fourth, we had a hard time finding somewhere to park. Combine those things and what do you get??? One basket case of a backseat passenger (me) and four late people to the meeting. We ended up sitting in the balcony of the Tabernacle which was ok but I definitely prefer the main floor. The meating was really good though and I'm grateful we caught as much as we did. Our adventures continued after the meeting as Jean and Kristie trekked all over Temple Square to find a bathroom, I drove Jean's Envoy, we ate at Crown Burger, and more and more snow was encountered as we got closer and closer to Logan. Needless to say I was so happy to be home and able to go to bed for a few hours before having to get up for school.
Thursday night was Project Runway night and man did those producers throw some curveballs our way. Our favorite designer and one of our favorite models got sent home the week before and we were bummed. But our sadness was not long lived as a number of surprises came to pass and the coolest designer and one of the funniest models were brought back! Too bad the model got voted off again but awesome designer is still there and I hope he's there for the rest of the season.
By the time Friday rolled around, I was exhausted and ready for a weekend. The classroom move went better than I expected. Now I've just got to put it all back together but I think I've convinced the Michelle's to help out with that. I got home from school that afternoon and napped for the first time in forever. It was much-needed, especially with my swollen eye. (The cause is still somewhat of a mystery). That night Bergs and I quickly put together some VT Easter gifts, delivered them, stopped to see Michelle and work and then drove back to Richmond so that I could turn off my candle warmer and not have to worry about it possibly causing a fire in the school.
All in all, it was a great, exciting, tiring, stressful, surprising, blessing-filled week!

The Case of the Mysterious Text Message

While I was in LA I got a mysterious text message informing me that Elder Cherrington of the 5th quorum of the 70 would be visiting my ward on Sunday, along with the Stake President. I tried, with as much information as I had with me in LA, to find out who sent it. It didn't work though and I was left to wonder if it was really true. I was finally able to discuss it with Bergs on Saturday and we decided it was probably true because if it was a joke it was really a stupid joke that wasn't even slightly funny. As I got to church on Sunday, Pres. Hobbs pulled up in his truck so I figured that that much of the text was true. Then, while I was waiting to go into the chapel, I saw Elder Cherrington. It wasn't a lie after all!!! He ended up speaking to us, along with Pres. Hobbs, and our biship. It was a fantastic meeting and it was really cool to have a general authority visit my small ward. Sunday night I got to hear Elder Cherrington again as he spoke at a fireside in the stake. Both of the talks were soooooo good. After the meeting, I talked to him for a few minutes. You see, his wife was my second grade teacher. My class was the only one she ever taught. She ended up getting pregnant during that year and decided to stay home with that baby as she'd done with their other kids. He said that class is very special to her and he'd tell her hi from me. He also told me to stop by and visit her sometime, which is something I just might do one of these days.
So the mysterious text turned out to be legit, I did find out who sent it, and I had the chance to hear a general authority speak twice in one day. It was a great Sunday!

A Recap of Amanda's Adventures in LA: Days 5 and 6

By the time Friday night rolled around, I was way too tired to blog so I'm catching up now. Warning: This may be a long post.

Friday started out with breakfast from Starbucks. I had some delicious hot chocolate and a zuchinni walnut muffin. I do love me some Starbucks. We then drove past FIDM so I could take a picture of the Project Runway billboard. We'd seen it the first day we went to the fashion district but hadn't had a chance to snap a picture until then. The first order of business, once we got to the district, was to drop Patti off in children's land again. Then mom, Tommy, and I headed back to our preferred parking area and dropped off the car. First we went to one of the dress stores we'd visited a couple of times and bought a dress and then the rest of the morning was spent shopping for fabric, jewelry (which we bought tons of), scarves, and a dress for Violetta (the lead). Patti met up with us as we were busily purchasing yards upon yards of laces and other fabrics. After we left that store, we took our goods back to the car and then headed to the Subway for lunch. It turned out to be pretty good. Maybe it was just that we were so hungry but I was pleased. Following our lunch, we headed back out into the district to make our final purchases. We went to a trim store and then Patti and Tommy went across the street to an upholstery store where they both picked up some great pieces. With our shopping in the district pretty much completed, we headed back to the car and set out on a journey to find Mood. Mood is the store that the designers go to on Project Runway and since becoming hooked on the show, I just had to try and make it there while in LA. So, we drove to Mood and when we finally got there, I was super-excited. I had mom take my picture outside of it and everything! Going in the store was a little overwhelming. There was so much beautiful fabric; I just had to touch it all. Before heading to LA, I'd made up my mind that I would try and buy some fabric from Mood, just to say that I had done so. So in the midst of being overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, I picked out a fun piece of fabric. It's not something I would probably have picked right off hand but the more I looked at it, the more I loved it. I picked up 2 yards of it and now I just have to find the perfect pattern to use. I'm torn between a skirt and a blouse; I guess I'll see what inspires me in my search for a pattern. After Mood, we had enough time to go to another store that Patti had heard about called F and S Fabrics. It turned out to be great as well. We were able to get some fabric to redo the kids' uniforms with for Sound of Music, which was really good. There were so many fun fabrics there that it made me want to make even more bags. Plus, they have a whole section dedicated to 1940s neckware. Apparently movie designers use the store a lot which is cool in and of itself. Then there was the button section. Oh my were there some cool buttons! Mood + F and S= FABRIC and EMBELLISHMENT HEAVEN!!! By the time we left F and S, we were getting hungry. Our food goal for the night was to eat at a nice sit-down restaurant and things kind of went that way. It did take a nearly 2-hour drive through parts of LA and Beverly Hills just to wind up at Marie Callenders, which was actually kind of close to our hotel, to accomplish that goal, but we did nonetheless. The food was pretty good and the building was really cool--nothing like the Marie Callenders we have here in Utah. Our last stop of the night was the Fed Ex store where we shipped three or four more boxes of fabric back to the Opera. It was a long day but so much fun. That night we also said good-bye to Tommy as he was leaving at quarter to seven the next morning. I'm excited to see him again in a few months.
Saturday, we got up, got everything packed, stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, and headed to the car rental place. We finally found it and got on the airport shuttle. There were five other people on the shuttle, two of which spoke German. They were carrying on a conversation, in German, and I have to confess that I eavesdropped. Well, I eavesdropped as much as I could with my limited German speaking skills. From what I gathered, the woman was telling the man about times she had been late to the airport and one time in New York specifically--nothing super exciting. It's not like they were spies or anything. Or maybe they were and the story about being late to the airport was a ruse...just a thought! (Lol ;o) ) Anywho, when we got to the airport we attempted to check in at the curbside kiosk. My mom gave the dude our information, he issued us our boarding passes, tagged my suitcase, took it in to the airport and then disappeared. So there we stood with two more suitcases waiting to be tagged and no one to help us. We waited, tried to get some help from another airport worker who was rude to us, and waited some more. Finally Mr. Rude Airport Worker decided we weren't complete idiots and decided he'd try and help us. My mom figured out the original airport worker hadn't paid attention and believed that we'd only had one suitcase between the three of us instead of one suitcase each. After sorting that mess out we made our journey through security where Patti was cut-off by a rude Asian woman which more than filled our quota of rude Asian women for the week She then had to be wanded with the metal detector because of her knees. (She's had them both replaced). In Salt Lake they have some type of booth thing to go through which is super fast but apparently Salt Lake is more high-tech than LAX because they're still doing things old school. By the time we got checked in we had about 45 minutes to wait. Mom and I found a souvenir shop where I picked up my customary postcards, keychain(s), and pen(s) to add to my collection. As we waited to get on the plane, I saw a women that I swear was Cloris Leachman (think Young Frankenstein) in an airport wheel chair while my mom discovered, after a phone call to Logan, that it was SNOWING in Utah. Great! I thought as I looked at my outfit which was not appropriate for snowy weather. It came time to board and as we walked through first class, guess who we saw??? Yep, Cloris Leachman. I am certain it was her. I have no idea where she was going but I know she wasn't staying in Utah because someone pushed her rapidly through the Salt Lake airport in the wheelchair after we landed. The flight wasn't as great this time because of the weather. We ended up circling the airport for a half hour or so and then had to wait before we could taxi to the gait. I got a wee bit airsick as well but it wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before. It felt great to back on familiar soil though, and we even saw some Loganites waiting at the baggage claim! The drive home made me a bit sicker but stopping at Maddox for take-out cheered me up and by the time we pulled in the driveway, I was pretty good. We ate our shrimp stakes, I unpacked, started some laundry, and waited for Bergs to come get me. Since my flight got in early enough, Bergs, Michelle, and I got together at Starbucks so we could see each other before Michelle's trip to Disneyland. It was a great way to top off the week.
I had a blast in LA and am so thankful that my mom let me tag along with them. I learned a lot, realized how much of a Utah girl I am, and just recognized how truly blessed I am to have what I have. It was so great seeing Tommy again as well. I'm excited about the eight (8) pieces of fabric I got and the skirts which I'll be making in the near future. I'm a little sad that we weren't able to make it to Disneyland like we'd hoped but I had so much fun anyway that it's ok. There were so many fun adventures that it would be hard to pick a favorite. It was just a great vacation all around!

Fun stores: Mood, F and S, Jasmine Jewelry

Interesting experience: Trying to check into LAX

Really cool tourist-type attraction that I wish I could have seen in the daylight: the La Brea Tar Pits

Amanda's Adventures in LA: Day 4

Wow, I'm tired. It was a long but very productive day. We started with crappy breakfast from the hotel this morning, and promptly decided never to eat there again. Then we hopped in car and drove over to FIDM where I jumped out and ran in to buy 5 more flower headbands. We began our journey in the fashion district at the dress store we bought a number of dresses at yesterday. Today we picked up at least 10 more. After arguing with the woman that ran it, we headed deeper into the district, dropped Patti off in childrens' land and went to some stores we'd visited on Tuesday/Wednesday and bought a couple more dresses. Next we hoofed it down to one of our favorite stores and bought even more dresses. That finished off our dress buying for the day. Lunch was at El Pollo Loco again where I decided I didn't want to eat any more crazy chicken on this trip. Following lunch we hit the ground running again and bought lots and lots and lots of fabrics. It was fabulous! I found three really cute pieces and am very excited about them. Tommy picked up some great stuff. We're hoping that tomorrow Patti has that much success. The last thing we had to do in the district was pick up our various purchases from various stores, which made for an adventure in and of itself. Finally, we had everything and headed back to the Fed Ex. Six boxes and one long package later and everything was packaged to be shipped to Logan. Tonight's dinner was at In-N-Out burger and all I have to say about that is YUMM-O! I'm really happy that we made it to the In-N-Out on this trip.

Favorite Stores of the Day: May Queen, Sal Tex, and J & S Fabrics

Favorite Purchases of the Day: My awesome skirt fabrics and all the taffetas and organzas we got

Fun Experience: We found this random store with a pretty good collection of organzas. We went in to check it out and ended up spending at least an hour in the store, buying yards upon yards of fabric, and meeting a really nice man who owned the store.

Amanda's Adventures in LA: Day 3

It was a great day today. We started out with breakfast from the McDonald's drive-through, which we ate on the way to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. We decided it would be a lot better than the crap we ate yesterday morning. At FIDM, we stopped first at the bookstore. Patti was hoping to find some good fashion books but they really didn't have anything. That didn't stop us from buying some fun stuff though, and I'm excited about little goodies I picked up. As we left the bookstore, we saw some racks of clothes outside on the corner and went to check them out. It turned out to be some type of scholarship fund store. There were a lot of clothes in the store, but the best part was the $1 a yard fabric and all the trims we found. We made a good haul of stuff and were really glad we stopped in there. After FIDM, we headed back over to the fashion district and made some great purchases. We got some basic supplies at B.Black and then headed on down to men's wear where we ended up with 8 suits for $300 dollars. It was awesome! But our mass-quantity purchases were just beginning because the next stop was a formal dress store where Tommy got some great ball gowns for Traviata. Following a quick lunch at McDonald's we hit another couple of stores then a wholesale store where we bought over a dozen more ball gowns. It was so crazy! By then we were pretty worn out so we made our way to a Fed Ex store so we could ship our goods back to Logan. That pretty much ended our day's adventures, or so we thought. Leaving the Fed Ex store, we started talking about what we wanted to do for dinner. We contemplated ordering pizza back at the hotel. That seemed like an ok idea but we kept driving anyway to see if we could find anything better. We wanted to eat at a cafe we'd driven by a couple of times but couldn't find a parking spot so that was out. Thirty to forty-five minutes later and numerous denied attempts at left-hand turns left us with our last resort of some crazy Chinese restaurant by our hotel. It was nestled amongst a number of Mexican stores and it looked a little shady--the Chinese worker even described the food in Spanish to us! We ordered anyway and came back to the hotel. It was probably the worst Chinese I've ever eaten. It just didn't have much flavor and wasn't super hot. Ick! Oh well, it was a great adventure, especially after we saw the fried sardine looking things. We've just been chilaxin at the hotel for the remainder of the evening as we regain our strength for another day of shopping. Woot!

Fun stores of the day: FIDM bookstore and scholarship store, Jennifer's Dresses, and May Queen

Crazy experience of the day: random Chinese restaurant