Double Mission Call!

As most of you already know, Kyle and I both put our mission papers in. I received my call to the Florida Jacksonville mission in late July. Kyle received his mission call to the California Oakland Mission, Spanish speaking just this past week. I report to the MTC September 10th and Kyle October 29th. I am so excited to go, but also extremely anxious and scared. I feel ready but homesick and heartbroken. I miss Iowa and comfortability and Kyle already. How sad and pathetic is that? I know a mission is what I need to be doing right now, but the heart still aches. I could go on and on, blubbering like a baby but I won't. My life is changing fast. I leave in less than a month, and there seems to be a million and one things left to do. Wish me luck!

the summer after graduation

So this summer was a new and exciting adventure. Guy moved in with me in the end of May and made life interesting with his constant Good will stops on his bike. Amy came over most evenings and the three of us would just veg in front of the t.v. Then Kyle would get off work and the three of us would head to his much cooler apartment. There I would make dinner for the four of us and they would enjoy Mario kart and other fun games on the wii. I am not much of a video gamer, so I enjoyed my evenings cuddling with Ruby and reading a good book. (I read several books this summer, all of the Anne of Green Gables series.) This is how our lives went for a few weeks, then Guy got a job and amy was busy with work and I started my nanny job. From then on most evenings were just kyle and I. My job was fun. I nannied for a family with two children, a boy 11 and a girl 6. The family is from India, hence the picture of the Indian Hand art, henna. The grandma stayed for about a month and did the henna on my hand. It lasted for about 3 weeks. I taught "school" three times a week for an hour each, we did swimming lessons, weekly trips to the library for books and goods, Tuesday morning movies at the dollar theater, Friday afternoon movies at the Library and swimming and even bowling whenever we could fit it in.




Also, this summer, my brother Sam got married to his beautiful wife Amber. The first picture here is a picture Kyle and I took at the reception, obviously it was zoomed in too close, but I still really like it. The next picture is my cute family. Sam and Amber, Melissa and Morgan with son Eli, Emily and Pete, Gordon, Mom and Dad, Guy, Amy, me, Ginny and Beth. Such a nice little family.



After the reception, Kyle and I headed back up to Des Moines to go to Adventureland with the branch. I had so much fun. I loved all the rides and only wished the lines were shorter. We hung out with two of Kyle's friends from Boone, so it was nice to wait in line and chat with them. The next weekend Kyle and I met in Cedar Rapids to stay with some friends the Hansens. Kyle H and Jess met us down there too. Casey and Amber have a little pool behind their new home and we showed that pool more excitement then it will see all summer. The boys all took turns jumping off the small deck onto floatation devices. We have a lot of hilarious video of belly flops and leading with your butt. The six of us always have fun together and we have already scheduled a reunion party in November of 2010. Can't wait!

Graduation!

Well, as you can see, it has been a really long time since I blogged. I think after I graduated college, I decided that I really didn't need to do anything with my life. I surrendered to utter laziness for a few weeks.
So I graduated from Iowa State University on May 10, 2008. I am now a certified Special Education Elementary Teacher. Sounds pretty impressive, right? I didn't do anything for my graduation except have dinner with a few very special individuals (kyle, me, amy, mom, dad, pete and emily and kyle h, he took the pic). I didn't walk through with a gown and hat, I didn't care. I mean graduating from college is a big deal, but I was really just excited to be done. Done with student teaching, done with working at the Hawthorn and done with school work in general. Of course, I am a teacher, so the school work will never end. But I did want to blog just to commemorate the occasion.

THE END!

Today is my very last day as a student teacher. I am filled with many emotions. I am so happy to be done, I want to laugh. I am also sad to leave teaching behind. I have enjoyed it immensly. Teaching is something I always wanted to do but hadn't really experienced yet. I received great joy from teaching as well as frustration. But I can say with certainty, besides being a mom, this really is what I want to do when I grow up.

With the end of teaching comes thinking of the future. I feel confident in the direction I have chosen, but that doesn't mean I'm any less scared. My graduation is in two days. I will be finished with college. I can remember graduating high school and the anxiety that came when I thought about going to college. Being finished with college was the last thing on my mind. But now I'm here and I feel slightly emotionally unprepared.

After graduation, for the month of May, I have no idea what I am going to do. I will be a Special Education k-6 teacher. I could possibly substitute teach, since most schools will still be in session. But I honestly want to just lay low for a while. It may be irresponsible not to have a job but I feel like I have run long enough, I can take a little bit of time to catch my breath.

After May I would like to Nanny or in the least just find a job. At the end of the summer my lease will run up and I will once again be moving home. From home I will leave to go on a mission. I am excited about a mission and excited for the experiences I will have. I feel happy for seemingly having plans and aspirations. The only thing holding me back right now is my sorrow at leaving my best friend. I am filled with this inner voice that keeps telling me that my time is running out. It whispers to me to soak it all up, remember every happy moment, use my time wisely. It should be a blissful summer, but that will make the going even harder, and I'll miss him. But life goes on, things change. I have more adventure waiting just around the corner.

Thanks family and friends that supported me as I made it through those four years of college. Of course, I have graduated quite yet. :)

The Final Countdown!

  Well, folks the end is almost here.  I have literally seven days of teaching and seven days of work left.  Holy cow!  I can't wait for the sweet moment when I will finally be done.  Its been a good four years, but my time is drawing to a close.  This last month has been absolutely packed.  My schedule is still the same, teach all day and work until 8 or 8:30 four nights a week.  I have also added in the stress of getting my mission papers completed.  Why the time crunch, you may ask?  I lose insurance in two weeks.  At that point in time, all the doctor visits that are necessay would be way too expensive.  Now you wouldn't think going to the dentist and doctor would be that big of a deal, but as Kyle so clearly stated today, I am simply a baby in these matters.  I was explaining to him that I was hungry because I only ate about two bites of my lunch because I was so nervous for my 3:00 doctor's appointment.  Last week I went to the dentist and the morning of was spent in at least ten minutes in tears on the phone to my mom.  That's what mom's are there for, so their 22 year old daughters can call and cry about going to the dentist.  Seriously people,  I have an irrational fear.  Anyway, I go to the dentist again tomorrow for the inevitable fillings I will receive and I go back to the doctor's on Wednesday for test results.  Then on Thursday the day before I graduate, it is one more visit to the dentist to have my one and only wisdom tooth removed.  If that tooth ever gave me any wisdom, it will be gone soon.  And while I vent to you all about my hard life, there are three boys in the livingroom playing Nintendo Wii Mario Cart.  What a life. I love it.  Have a good day everyone, and I'll let you know how the rest of my semester ends up.  Love ya.

Kyle's Birthday Celebration!

I'm sorry to say that Kyle's Birthday was several weeks ago and I am just now getting some pictures up.

We had a great time together when Terry, TT and Katy made the trip down to help celebrate Kyle's birthday on a Saturday evening, just four days after the actual event. Kyle's actual birthday was pretty sad. I had to work, and poor Kyle was left by himself for most of the evening. I did come home eventually and promptly threw in a frozen pizza for dinner. What a sad state of affairs! He did appreciate hearing from several family members who remembered what special day it was. Saturday turned out to be much better. We celebrated at Red Lobster and as always, it was quite the experience. I always find it amazing. And Kyle and I have now been there three times together, these are the only three times ever. This just added to the excitement of Kent's gift. Thanks Kent and Kate and Afton! On top of the great dinner, Kyle also ended up with a nice jello cake and a lovely evening. The following pictures are just a few from the happy event. Of course, I had to put Kyle and I at the top. It actually is my blog, if you forgot. :) Thanks everyone! We love you all!

Shan's Thoughts on Beauty

Today I found myself cleaning. In the process, I found some very interesting things. I want to share one, but as a reader you are not allowed to think less of me in any way. Also, please don't feel obligated to make any sort of comment. This is not a contest to see how many compliments I can receive. It is merely an insane gesture to let you all know a little more about me. Fasten your seat belts, it may be a bumpy ride.
So I found this little scrap of paper that I am pretty sure I wrote during Sacrement meeting one day freshmen year.
"There are so many beautiful people in the world. But whether or not they are beautiful depends purely on the person observing. For the most part, people have pretty much the same opinion. A beauty is a beauty. Then there are the sub par individuals who are beautiful because someone loves them. But back to the regular beautiful people. What makes them so beautiful? There are a million different traits tht combine to make a masterpiece; the curve of the neck, the line of the nose, the shape of the eyes. All of these things can be different but for some reason come together into perfection. There are those who possess a few of these. They seem to have one or two of these traits that give them the air of almost being a beauty, but not quite. They do seem to gain the rest when someone loves them so much that they become the most beautiful girl in the world. Its almost like the saving grace of Christ, bringing as much the rest of the way as needed."
"I have always wanted to be one of those girls. When I was younger, I knew I would never be beautiful. Even at a young age when I was skin and bones I knew that the curve of my neck and the line of my nose weren't it. But I wanted to be that girl that was unexplainably attractive. For some reason she had something. Something that couldn't be named. For some reason she was mysterious and beautiful. I don't know if I've achieved this. I've been told by the only two people I've ever mentioned it to, that I have. But they were good friends, why would they crush me? It doesn't really matter. The truth is, I'll never be satisfied. I say that, but I need to learn to be satisfied. To love me. Maybe someday."
Why I shared? I don't know. But I hope you learned something.

Spring Break!

Yay! Spring Break is finally here! This means that I have approximately seven weeks until I graduate. That is almost too hard to comprehend. Am I really that close to the end? I was reflecting on my college career resently. I've lived in six differently places in Ames, had nine different roommates, friends have come and gone, too many first dates, one real bf and a cat later and I am feeling pretty good. College is suppose to be the best years of your life. I'm not really sure about this, ask me again in ten years.

I act like I am done with college but I still have a few hills to get over. I started my second student teaching placement. Sixth graders. I'll either love them or hate them. Don't ask, its too soon to tell. Within the first week, I have already had some ups and downs. But Spring break couldn't have come at a better time.

The picture above is from K's house. We visited some friends and the parents and katy last weekend. I always enjoying visiting k's home base. After this particular picture kyle and I were dancing around the livingroom, listening to some records. Kyle knew all the words and we both laughed as he sang and I tried to dance. Good times. Sometimes a little break is all you really need.

Valentine's Day!

Kyle has done it again! Kyle gave me a three day Valentine this year. On Wednesday, Kyle took us to our new favorite resturant, Red Lobster. He had to work till close on Thursday, so this was a nice surprise to celebrate Valentine's Day a day early. At dinner he informed me that I would be receiving Valentines in three phases. Obviously, dinner was the first phase and I was pretty dang excited for the second and third phases.
The second phase was Kyle showing up at my elementary school with a beautiful bouquet of Lilies. I wasn't able to see him, but a coworker bombarded me at lunch and said that I needed to be very nice to my boyfriend. She proceeded to tell me that the most gorgeous bouquet was sitting on my desk. I gotta say I was more than a little surprised. Sure, maybe he'd get me flowers, but I never expected the display I saw waiting for me. I had lots of visitors that day who came in to check out my beautiful flowers. My favorite visitor was a janitor. He looks, and I am not even joking, just like Santa Clause and I have enjoyed chatting with him on several occasions. He walked in and said, "Wow, I guess he really likes you!"
The third phase came the next day at dinner. There had been some things at Kyle's apartment that he had told me not to look at. So I did a great job at averting my gaze, but at one point we were on the way out and there was this big red basket sitting near the door. I looked at it and blatantly asked what was with the basket. Oops, not suppose to see that. The basket was part of the gift as seen above. It was filled with hot chocolate mixes (my favorite), mint herbal tea(love it), a couple headbands(can't live without them), and the first season of Scrubs, which if you haven't seen it, go watch it...hilarious.
I told him after all this, that I didn't need another Valentine's Day gift for the rest of my life. What did I get him? A t-shirt of his favorite band, Anberlin. :) Haha! I love you, k!

Update!

My life feels very full right now and I am loving it. I seem to thrive when I am staying busy. I feel happy and excited but anxious about the future. I am currently student teaching, and I am having the most fun I have ever had. I love this. I am in a special education room for grades k-4. I love to teach and learn. I have fallen in love with so many of my sweet little guys. I can't wait to be doing this full time and actually get paid for doing it. Right now I teach from about 8-4 then go to work from 5-8. Add in workout time and a shower and I am pretty much ready to go to bed. This schedule works well, but my two closest pals, K and Ruby, are feeling it too. When it comes to them, I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day. If I could I would stay up till all hours just to be with them, but my little guys at school notice when I think things are a little too funny when they probably shouldn't be. Funny story. Its about that time, so I need to be crashing. So, if you happen to check out the blog, drop me a note!

Birthday Cake!

For my birthday this year I decided to get an ice cream cake. I had never had one, mostly because my birthday is January. But this year I made a stand and defied the cold. The top picture is the guys trying to figure out just what to do. I wanted to blow out candles, and we all know birthday girls get whatever they want. Unfortunately we didn't have any, so the next picture shows what we used instead, matches. Brilliant. It was quite the adventure trying to light them all quickly enough for me to blow them out without them totally melting my cake. I loved it. The cake, on the other hand, was a let down.

I had a small party for my 22nd. My sister Amy(in tan), her roommate Melissa,(in black), Kyle, Kyle and Jess all came over to have some food and play guitar hero. It was really entertaining. Of course, I played horribly and they both picked it up amazingly well for their first time. It was a lot of fun and even Ruby seemed to enjoy the company.

Kyle's Big Surprise!

Happy Birthday to me! If you know Kyle, you know he loves surprises. I, on the other hand, get very anxious when I know a surprise is coming. I spend so much time trying to figure out what the surprise is and how exactly it is going to effect me, I can never just enjoy it. Well, this time was a little different. Kyle wouldn't tell me anything significant except that it was big. So of course I was excited.

I had recently found myself unable to workout in the workout room at my cafe that is there for the residents of the surrounding apartments. If you know anything about my schedule this semester, you'll understand why it was perfect for me just to workout after work and not have to add going somewhere to my already packed schedule. So I started shopping around to buy an elliptical for myself. I figured having my own would be worth just the anxiety of trying to workout at the rec or some place else. That's where Kyle's surprise comes in. My awesome BF took it upon himself to get me my very own Elliptical for my birthday. Of course some people may say that this is a horrible present to get your already extremely self-conscience girlfriend, but obviously you don't know me very well. I could not have asked for a more perfect gift. I enjoy working out, I want to workout. And in the end hopefully it will give me a little needed boost of confidence. So calm down everyone, I love the present. And I am very much enjoying it. The pictures are Kyle and Kyle assembling it in my livingroom. It took them over 2 1/2 hours while I waited with Jess in my room. You guys are awesome!

Katelyn!

We brought in the New Year by having Katelyn come stay in Ames. I met the Griffith parents in Parkersburg on Friday. I was thankful for their thoughtfulness at bringing her halfway. Well, Katelyn and I were just like two little girls on a weekend long sleep-over. Kyle worked both Saturday and Monday, so I introduced Katelyn to all the wonders of Ames, mainly Hyvee Chinese, Kyle and I's favorite thrift store, Goodwill, and DVDs at the public library. We had a lot of fun picking out 5 great chick flicks and proceeded to watch them, inspite of Kyle.

We celebrated New Year's Eve will pizza coutesy of Katelyn and watched That Darn Cat, I had never even heard of this movie, and delightedly laughed through the whole thing. We enjoyed bubbly at midnight in our Goodwill bought wine glasses. Since Kyle doesn't have cable we listened to the count down on the radio, while both Kyle and Katelyn participated in some ritual that involved opening both the doors. Thanks TT! We had a lot of fun and we loved having Katelyn around. I look forward to a crazy year and I will try to keep you all posted on what is happening in my world. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

What an exciting year 2007 has been. I finished my next to last semester at Iowa State. That seems to be the most exciting thing I can think of. It was one of the most stressful semesters of my college career. Of course, the summer before was also full of tears. I took an American Sign Language course, that still out weighs any class I took at ISU in the difficulty category. Needless to say I am glad that is all behind me.