Brief update

Really, I should be grading papers, as that’s what a prep period is for, but it’s Friday, and I’m seriously distracted…and my red pen died and I don’t feel like walking to the office to get another one.

We haven’t posted in forever, but I promise we have really good reasons! Remember how I posted about getting a teaching job? Well, it started the Monday after we got married and I’ve been wicked busy every since. All I do is lesson plan and grade papers and I go to bed at 9 every night. I lead a boring, but busy, life. My students are giving me a run for my money, but aren’t as terrifying as I thought they would be. I have this one really cute junior who is a moho in the making. I seriously want to ask him if he has a blog just so I can read it, but I’m pretty sure that would be crossing some professional boundary. My juniors are adorable and my seniors are adorably puntable (ie. I want to punt them out the window because they won’t stop whining about the fact that they have to grow up and take notes and actually be accountable for life). I was walking through the hall the other day and one of the students said, “milk is my favorite drink…after beer!” I had to run into another teacher’s classroom to keep from busting out laughing in the hallway. Oh the rising generation—kinda scary if you ask me. I’ve confiscated 15 cell phones (4 in one period just today) and 8 ipods and we’re only 2 weeks in to school. Hopefully after January (when the semester ends and I’ll only be planning for one class instead of 2) I’ll be able to have fun again…

Married life is treating us pretty well. I like the fact that we don’t have to abide by the *cough* wretched *cough* I mean “divinely inspired” BYU honor code anymore and no one has to go home at midnight. We’re still lacking a few furnishings in our apartment, but hopefully those will be coming within the month barring any unforeseen expenses. Once we get some couches we hope to have some more gatherings at our house.

Well, I know it’s lame, but that’s about all I have for an update at the moment. At least it’s something right?

S.

Mr. and Mrs. Drex

We're married! More to come when life slows down...as if that will ever happen ;)

S.

Clash of the Titans...but not really

Time for a mini-update just so you know that we’re still alive and haven’t been buried under a barrage of wedding plans…although, it’s come close ;)

We flew out to DC on Thursday and have gone nonstop since. We’ve been helping Drex’s parents get the house ready for the wedding along with eating tons of great food. The combination of heat and humidity is killer, but I’m so glad to be out of Utah and I’m relishing the diversity of the East. I’d almost forgotten that my hair curls in the humidity and it’s been uber fun trying to hid all the baby curls that keep popping out around my ears and at the back of my neck—too bad all of my hair isn’t curly :P

Best thing ever (aside from the whole getting married thing) happened on Friday though. I was offered a full-time teaching position up in Jordan School District. I’ll be teaching government classes and one section of US history, which is a major blessing. I was starting to despair that I wouldn’t be teaching this year and I’m a chronic worrier so I was starting to worry about how we were going to make ends meet and everything, and God saw fit to answer my pleas and the prayers of others (thanks!!) and soften the hearts of the administrators in my favor. When I listened to the voicemail offering me the job I was shaking so badly I could barely hold the phone. Drex’s mom wanted me to call them right back but I could hardly speak. Poor Drex had no idea what was going on when I walked in the room because all I could do was show him my shaking hands…it took me a second to be able to find my voice to tell him that I had been offered a teaching position. I’m very excited.

My family flew into town this weekend and they met Drex’s family. It’s been an interesting experience, but I think it’s been positive overall. I think my family is still a little agog over how upfront and straightforward Drex’s mom is, but I think they’ll get used to it over time. My mom and my sister about died when we went shopping with Drex and his mom and she made some absolutely shameless comment to the store clerk. It was totally awesome.

I’m sure we’ll have more updates for you after the wedding, or Drex might even have something to say before then. We can’t wait to see many of you at the reception!

Oh, and just so that Samantha doesn’t feel like she’s the only irreverent one in church…today in Relief Society we were talking about how the Brother of Jared was prepared spiritually to see God and the faith that that took etc. My sister, who is 19 and was recently released as the RS President in her Single’s Ward, turned to me and said, “How do you prepare for God to give you the finger?” I about died. It’s a good thing RS was last or I’m pretty sure I would have gotten absolutely nothing out of the rest of church.

S.

feeling a bit broken, bruised in places and hoping to be able to heal and keep moving forward as planned...that is all

S.

spirit or irrational obsession?

I had two bad days in a row, which doesn't often happen to me. They had me melancholy, retracted, confused, and frustrated enough that I have spent some small amount of time trying to figure out the root cause rather than just waiting for the feeling of gloom to pass. Typically my psychological makeup is such that things just roll off my back and I can move on with life, but when things stick I know there's something up. There's also the fact that a stupor of thought typically leaves me with similar feelings of confusion and frustration, so there's the possibility that there's something the Spirit wants me to do differently.

Salad has talked to me before about the bone-deep desire she has to teach, and how frustrating it is that she can't find a teaching job. Some measure of that desire blindsided me on Wednesday, except that my passion and my desire lie in singing. I have been taking voice lessons for quite a while, I've been in choirs since high school, and it's typically been enough for me. All of a sudden I have this ache to do something with my singing, though. I don't know that being in choir will be enough to fill it. It's like...I want to be in a musical, or working on writing music specific to me, that I could sing and that would be mine.

Part of my frustration is that I buried my dreams of musical grandeur a while back. Music is not a logical career path, so I convinced myself that I wasn't going to pursue it as anything more than a side hobby. Part of that was reasoning that choir was okay, because it was a joint commitment between all the members of the choir, but that any solo pursuits were essentially pointless. Two days of frustration have thrown all of that out of whack in my mind. Why not do more with what I have? Would it have to be to the exclusion of more logical pursuits, or could they be done at the same time? Would it be wrong or selfish of me to want to pursue music with a bit more gusto? And if I did decide to do more with music right now, how would I go about it? I don't know the first thing about the things that would probably satiate this feeling.

And then I have to wonder if this is really Spirit spurring me on, like it mostly feels like, or if it's my own obsessive nature shining through randomly. And is there a whole lot more to my melancholy and overall feeling of BLAH, or is this the root of the problem? Am I spinning my wheels even thinking about it?

Meh.

In other news, Hairspray was fantastic, fabulous, and amazing.