Goodbye Rexburg Forever!

My family came to visit us in Rexburg for almost a week!!! It was great! They've never come to visit. Instead of Cara and Todd flying home, they drove home with them, but first traveling to see family, including Dena. They'll be traveling until mid August and then they'll finally be home in Texas.

While they were here, we showed them around town to places like campus, the nature park, and jamba juice. Yeah. That's basically it. Rexburg's not that exciting. Also, we didn't have any furniture or even a table in the kitchen because my roommates were moving at the end of the month and took the furniture to sell it at a garage sale, so all we had were a few lawn chairs and my banana chair. It was a fun visit. The last night we all played laser tag.

The day they left, I also left to...Provo! Yep, I actually did it. My friend, Caitlin, came up from Provo to help me make the drive cause I've never driven out of town before and didn't want to do it myself. I did actually drive halfway which was pretty exciting. My poor old car barely made it because it refused to stay at the 75mph and would even slow down rather than pick up speed on downhills. But we made it. It just took 5 hours instead of 4.

I've been here for four days now. Everyday we go around town with me driving so I can get to know the city. It's not that bad. Almost every road is 4 lanes so it's different than Rexburg (of course). I prefer Rexburg's streets. I also have a GPS which I couldn't survive without, even though it takes longer to get places cause sometimes it takes me down the longer routes for some reason. Or it will tell me that a place is on the right when actually, it's on the left. They're not always reliable. Caitlin has been my GPS lately for the most part. She doesn't have classes for a month so we travel together. I've been to a few stores and the library, and an elementary school.

I also applied to 3 more school jobs since being here. One job is an elementary school library assistant!!! How exciting is that!!!!! I SO want it!!! And it's $10/hr. Cross your fingers!!!!

We went to our ward for the first time. It's small right now since it's the summer. Summer classes are still on at BYU, so the ward will be a little different in about 3 weeks. By then it will be a new semester. We've had about 4 guys talk to us and introduce themselves, but no girls thus far.

We also went to ward prayer on Sunday night. They did a few spotlights and then said a prayer as we all kneeled on the floor. It's just weird cause no one knows us. One guy we met in sacrament meeting came up to us and told us about things about ward prayer. But that was it. So we left right afterwards. Things should be different once more new people are added to the ward when the semester starts fresh.

We can't move into our new apartment until August 15, so I'm living with Caitlin's family, with her mom and brother. They're all very nice. Her mom is super nice and treats to me dinner and we all just went to the theater to watch Captain America tonight.

Ziggy

Remember I posted about my goose, Ziggy? The one that lives in the nature park here in Rexburg? He's mine and Cara's favorite goose. I used to visit the park every week just to see him and feed him bread. Cara hasn't seen him since July because she went home to Texas for the school break. Well, we went down there to see him in January and never saw him. He was missing. We kept going every now and then throughout the winter but he'd never be there. We were hoping that maybe he just went somewhere warm for the winter and he would eventually return. And we were hoping that he wasn't dead. All his geese family is there still, though.

Well, Todd told us that he saw a newspaper article on it. (I also researched it online and found out the same info.) It said that two geese have been stolen from the nature park to do pranks on students. Some byui students stole the geese, put them in some girl's apartment (Tuscany apts), and let the geese destroy the apartment as a prank. But that's all that I know and so far, the geese have not been returned to the park. I just want to KILL whatever IDIOTS messed with our goose. Without Ziggy, there's no point in going to the nature park ever again.

We are now into the second week of summer semester (for Cara anyways). Living in Rexburg, I still go by that. My winter classes finally end in another week. Then I have a month and a half break until my next class starts. I have just two more classes, plus an exam, until I graduate in December with my Masters in Library Science.

I can't wait until the end of July because two great things are happening: My family (parents and younger brother, Travis) are coming up to Rexburg to visit and take a tour of campus and the town. It's about time! Cara and I are way excited. Then, they are going to drive Todd and Cara back down home. Their classes won't start back up until January.

The other great thing is that I am gonna move to Provo at the end of July!!! Caitlin, Cara's roommate from last semester, is going to go down there with me and we're gonna be roommates! I want to move down there because there are actually people my age there and Rexburg has no social scene. And given my age, I need to move if I ever wanna find someone to date. I'm so ready to move on in life!!! We already got an apartment to live in when we get there. Caitlin even has a house down there in which we'll live until we can move into our apartment. :) I'm so ready!!! Goodbye Rexburg!

Also, I was youtubing people doing covers of the song "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green and I found this guy who has an amazing voice (Thomas Andrews) and he is suuuper good looking. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpSW6LQ0Esw (he says the "S" word a few times in this video). If you liked that, you should check out some of his other videos, especially his cover of Hey Jude. That's the best one. We entered his name into the Ellen Show to be another person she puts on her music label. He's so talented. (Also beware that he says the F word a few times in the Lion Man song, but just mute those cause it's worth hearing it). Just check it out. Comment. Give him views. ;)

Quit a few things have happened since I last posted. Cara is now up here with me for school. She's living with awesome roommates. One of them, Brittany, lived with her before and she just returned from a mission in Uruguay. She has one more roommate named Caitlin. She is wonderful, too! So finally both her and I have great sets of roommates, which has never happened before. I spend all my time at Cara's place and pretty much only go home to sleep. My roommates aren't ever home anyways cause they work and snowboard all the time.

I've also learned more songs on the guitar. My latest one is Grenade by Bruno Mars. I've never performed before in front of a crowd, well, not with the guitar at least (piano plenty of times), and especially never sang before. But I did a couple weeks ago. I performed at Sammy's (a local diner on mainstreet that just opened up). It's open mic night every Tuesday. I'm not nearly as nervous to get up in front of people as I used to be. Even so, I was nervous enough that my throat was dry so I didn't sound very good. So I don't care to post the video to facebook, but if you haven't already, go to my profile page and watch the video of me singing the song in Cara's bedroom. I love singing!

I'm also a substitute teacher for the elementary schools since housekeeping isn't giving me many hours. I've substituted for two different teachers as well as two different special needs children (both 2nd graders). One special needs girl has Ret's disease and she doesn't function like a regular kid. She doesn't respond to you and can't eat on her own. So you have to help her eat and help her grasp things. She is able to pick up her sippie cup on her own. The other boy was a handful. I'm not sure what's wrong with him, but he doesn't sit still for long, and he doesn't do the same schoolwork as the other kids. He learns the alphabet using flashcards with pictures and he likes to put together puzzles. He will run out of the room and you have to chase him down. During the last few minutes of the day we were headed outside to get him to his bus, and he ran away from me and the bus and ran towards the school and when I caught up with him I grabbed him and made him come. He got a yelling at from a teacher.

One technique I used that I remembered from going to elementary school was the game Quiet Water Still Water. That actually works! While the kids are in a line in the hallway and you need them to shut up, you tell them we're gonna play a game. You say "Quiet Water Still Water 1,2,3" and you pick the quietest kid and then they come down and say the words and pick the next quietest kid. They love it! But subbing isn't the easiest job. Sometimes they're good but other times they won't listen and they're a handful. Sometimes there's an aide in the room and that helps.

I was also offered a full-time paraprofessional job this week! The lady that works with that special needs kid with Ret's disease, is quitting in a couple weeks. She and this other lady both thought that I would be perfect for the job. So I start on the 22nd. It'll be from 8-2:30 every weekday. I just watch after the girl (her name is Tessa) all day. I'm supposed to write down everything she eats, how she acted all day (happy, sad, etc), what we worked on (helping her grasp things, reading a book to her, walking the halls, etc.) It's for her family to look at. It's $9.45/hr (maybe more since I have a degree) and benefits! This is my first real professional job. I'm excited about it. I can even do homework or whatever during the time that she naps.

Christmas Tree

Yesterday my roommates and I put up the Christmas tree. My roommate chopped it down, so it's real. In decorating it, I got lots of sap on my hands. So I googled how to get it off, and found out to spray your hands with Pam. It really works!! It came right off. The tree is very holey. My roommates called it the Charley Brown tree.

In other news, I found a job I applied to online called TypeWell. It's a program where a transcriber (me) would sit in a classroom and type what the teacher says in real-time for a deaf student. The deaf student would also have a computer so they could see everything I type (my computer transfers what i type onto their screen.) It's for the BYUI campus. I had to do a typing test where I typed everything on the screen for 5 minutes. They wanted no errors, but I made 4. And they wanted at least 60wpm and I typed it in 67 wpm. Then I took a grammar test which consisted of probably at least 40 questions and I missed only four. Then there was a listening test and I had to type out everything I could remember. I didn't get results on that one, though, because a real person had to grade that later.

So I guess I passed everything, now I'm waiting for my sponsor (my future employer) to give his compliance that he will pay $400 for me to take the course. It's a required course consisting of 29 online lessons that teaches you short hand (like a stenographer) so you don't have to type out everything letter for letter. If you do well in the course (which takes 1-3 months to finish) then I'll be hired on with the campus. It pays $15-30 an hour. I'll probably get around at least 12 hours a week.

The biggest thing, though, is the risk. After the course, I have to pay $300 to own the TypeWell software. And buy a stenographer desk and roller bag to carry both computers in. (but i'm thinking, shouldn't the deaf person already have their own computer that we'd install the software on? I see no reason in me having to hang on to it for them or buy them one). It said that the future employer is usually the one to provide the computer for them, if not then I'd have to and I don't want to do that.

Another bad thing is that I'd be using my own laptop for the job/course training, and I have the worst laptop ever when it comes to typing. I'm having a super hard time just typing this blog post in because it's really hard to do with this computer. My mouse keeps jumping everywhere all the time because it's super sensitive and therefore, it keeps cutting into my previous sentences and erasing them. I'm always making errors. It's not going to cut it on the job or training. So I don't know what I'll do. And it's been two days and I still haven't heard from my sponsor to see if he'll pay the $400 for me. But if he'll pay the fee for me, then I'll start the classes in january and hope to do well. If not, I guess it's no loss because I guess I won't be out the 400. It said nothing about having to pay it back if we don't pass!

Also, I started volunteering this week at the elementary school's library, just around the corner from where I live. I really liked it. She had me get the MARC records from the Library of Congress's database online and save them into the computer. This is the records that tells you what the book's about, the author, subject matter, and a bunch of random numbers and info. She said you use that record to make a bar code to put on the book later so you can scan it when someone checks the book out.

I got to help out with that, and later she said we'll cover the books in plastic. Four classes of 1st graders came in today and the librarian read them a Christmas book while I worked on the records. While the librarian unexpectedly stepped out for a few minutes, the students wanted to check books out. I had watched her do it, so I was able to check them out! The kids even have their own library cards (the librarian keeps them, though, or else they'd lose them.) So I first scan their card, and then the book, and I keep their library cards. So it was pretty fun.

I'm also on the substitute teaching list, but I still haven't gotten to do it yet because teachers won't call you unless they know you. So hopefully with this, teachers will know who I am and I can start subbing soon. I 've already seen several teachers today because they bring their students into the library. That is definitely going to help me out. I'm excited for that, too, because I went in to two classrooms to observe to get an idea if I'd like it or not, and I think I could handle it.

My roommate's the one with the milk (Carrie) and the one behind her with the red shirt (Dakota). Zoe is the one about to take a drink and she is Carrie's sister.

My New Place!

I found a place on bulletin board on the BYU-Idaho website. It was for a place near campus next to Smith Park. There are only two girls that live there, plus me. Because we split the $565 rent a month between the three of us, we only pay $190 a month, plus electricity which shouldn't be that much. This is the best deal ever! I even get my own room (which if I didn't I wouldn't even consider the place), and my own bathroom/vanity! And the two girls are really nice. One will be 27 next week and the other is 21. They're best friends. They work at Olive Garden in Idaho Falls together, hang out together, and live together. So they're not home very much. But I don't care cause I like having the place to myself.

The pic above is the outside of my apt

This is the top floor that I live on. My door is on the left. There are four apts on this top floor.

There's not normally a mattress in the living room. My roommates were laying on it while we watched a movie last night (The Princess and the Frog)

This is my bathroom

Ziggy

Remember I told you about me and Cara's goose we named Ziggy at the nature park? We met him in July I think. Since they have good memories and love people, I've been going to the park about once or twice a week to see him so that he'll remember me. I've gained his trust enough that he now lets me pet him! It was so exciting the first time. He's a little leery of it, though, cause he backs away slightly, but he still lets me. He also comes over to me when I come feed him and he has no problem with me hand-feeding him bread. I have pics that my friend took. It's too bad that Cara wasn't there for it. She's home in Texas on her off-track. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I eventually leave Rexburg for good. I wish I could take him home with me.