I've been tagged:

Here's to my first tagging experience:

TEN YEARS AGO:
I was living life fully as an experienced 11 year old. I was in 6th grade, living in Decatur, Indiana. I was attending Adams Central Middle School (or "Amish Country Middle School" as we had coined ourselves.) I was excelling in my math class (weird, I know) and doing well in my English class with Mrs. Schwartz. I hated art and gym, and continued to make a fool of myself in both classes. I had just barely moved from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania almost two months ago. I was at an extremely awkward stage of life, but the fact that I had upgraded from my spectacles to contacts just two months prior greatly improved my appearance. I was still somewhat upset with my parents for moving me two states over, but was really enjoying the small branch we went to. The school was kind of a joke, though. We were way behind compared to what we were learning when I moved from Pennsylvania.

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED!

I can do better than 5:
1. Round Rock, Texas
2. Mt. Airy, Maryland (We lived in Gathersburg before this, but I was so little it doesn't really count)
3. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
4. Decatur, Indiana (2 places in Decatur, but the move caused a change in school districts between my 6th and 7th grade years)
5. Goodrich, Michigan
6. Provo, Utah
7. Bixby, Oklahoma (Lived with my sister and her family for 4 months)
8. Provo, Utah
9. Orem, Utah
10. Soon to be: West Lafayette, Indiana!!

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST!
1. Finish chapter 14 of the 5th Harry Potter
2. Pick up my house
3. Get ready for dinner
4. Prepare my Primary lesson for tomorrow
5. Get some homework done

I ENJOY!
Relaxing, talking to my husband, dancing, singing, scrapbooking, cooking (sometimes), taking hot baths, playing with my nieces and nephews, and marking things off my to-do list.

TWO BAD HABITS!
1. I am a nail biter and I can't stop. I keep trying to break this awful habit, but I haven't been successful.
2. I am addicted to Diet Coke. It's a disease...Seriously, whenever I have a headache it's the only thing that makes me feel better.

FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME!
1. I've been to Paris, France.
2. I used to want to be a veterinarian when I was little. I quickly changed my mind when someone informed me that I would have to work with blood and guts.
3. My husband first told me he wanted to date me when we were in a women's restroom at Provo High.
4. To clarify #3, I was a janitor at Provo High and so was Chad. We often did our rounds together so that we could talk.
5. I really want to work with old people when I grow up. They're my favorite.

FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD!
1. Subway Sandwich Artist (Yes, that was my title. It was printed on the sleeve of my purple work shirt.)
2. Janitor in the Clyde Building on BYU campus. I worked from 4-8 AM. This was the worst job, ever. I averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night for 3 months when I came down with mono and had to quit. It was awful.
3. Nanny for my sister in Oklahoma. Probably the best gig ever. Get paid to play with nieces and nephews? Couldn't beat it! It did get a little crazy when I had to watch the 3 kids for a few days while my sister and her husband went to look for houses in Michigan. It was fun playing mom but it was exhausting. Best birth control ever.
4. Dishwasher at Legends Grille from 8-11:30 PM Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I quit after two weeks.
5. Janitor at Provo High - Where I fell in love with my husband, so I have to say it was good. I have some great stories. If you want to hear them, just ask: cleaning out urine in the garbage cans in the boys bathroom and spit wads from the walls, teacher's complaining of rashes on their bums because of the toilet cleaner, busting a picture frame in a teacher's classroom. Yeah, those were good times.
6. Manager at The Pita Pit
7. Research Assistant and Teacher's Assistant for a BYU professor
8. Writing Fellow
9. Personal Assistant to the residents at Courtyard at Jamestown Assisted Living Facility - My favorite job in the world. I work with the best people...
Wow, that's a lot of jobs.

I hope you enjoy reading this. I sure had fun reminiscing. Just so you know, I have lived so many places that it took me about 15 minutes to even remember where I was when I was 11.

I tag Mindy Hill, Jessica Richardson, and Lindsay Moore.

I may have spoken too soon:

Chad had a pleasant surprise on Friday afternoon when he went to the mailbox. Inside was my acceptance letter from IUPUI! He rushed over to campus so that we could open it together and I was very relieved when the first word I read was, "Congratulations!" =) I'm in and very excited about it all.

Chad also decided a few short hours ago that he will in fact be attending Purdue. He bought his plane ticket to go out for orientation in April, right before graduation. We feel very good about our decisions and are excited to be graduating in April and moving to Indiana the first of August.

Another bit of good news. We bought our tickets to Mexico!!!!! We'll be leaving Friday June 13th (pray for our safety in the sky) and coming back on Sunday the 22nd. This will hopefully be a summer of fun and relaxation before we begin our rigorous master's programs in the Fall.

Yay for good news!

Playing the waiting game...

Well, for those of you keeping tabs on my grad school applications, I am still waiting to hear back. I sent in my applications the first week of January, and they weren't due until February 1st. I thought that by sending them in so early, I would maybe hear back quickly. That has not been the case, however. I know that the applications are at the right place and that they're being reviewed, but I don't know when I'll get an answer. The secretary at IUPUI said she couldn't give me a definite date, but that it would be sometime before March 31st. I'm trying to be patient, but have found that I'm not good at this waiting game.

Primary

Chad and I got called to teach in the Primary last year during the spring. We taught the cutest little kids, ages 4 and 5 for about 7 months. Well, at the beginning of this year, we were asked to switch to the 10, 11, and 12 year olds. Needless to say, the experiences we've had thus far have been vastly different from our younger crowd. The older ones really want to understand and ask great questions. But, we don't get to color every week. Our last week as teachers of the 4 and 5 year olds, we had a little photo shoot just so we could remember the kids in our class. This is my little tribute to them. As soon as I get pictures of our new class, I'll put them up here. (I should let you know that this is only part of our class. We had about 10 on the role and usually we had 7 or 8 of them show up. This day, we only had 6.)

They wanted to make silly faces. So we did...

From left to right...Lexi (purple), Eve, Andi, Christian, Billie, and Kaci (pink, yes they're twins)

The Jorgensen Clan

While Chad and I were in California, we were able to stay with Dave, Rachel, J.D., Jacob, and Pablo for a few days. (By the way, Pablo is the unborn child. And we are so excited!) It was so good to see all of them. We actually had their names for Christmas this year, and they had ours so it was fun to exchange in person. The best part was watching the boys open their Road Rippers:

My apologies

Whew! So, for those of you that actually read this, I must apologize. I posted like 6 times today. It's just that I had so much catching up to do and so many fun pictures to show people! So, if you're not interested, just skip all the posts below. One of my New Years resolutions is to post twice a week, even if I don't have much to say or show. I just think this is one of those great ways to show my friends and loved ones what we're up to.

The Madonna Inn

So Jeff and Cindy's ring ceremony was at the Madonna Inn, which is apparently THE place to stay in that part of California. It is a really cool place, built in the 40's. The whole place is pink chairs, carpet, bathrooms....pink everywhere. All of the rooms have themes, too. Well, Chad and I were supposed to stay at Jeff's parents' house, which was totally fine with us, but Cindy's parents ended up surprising us with a one night stay in one of the rooms at the Madonna Inn! How nice and totally unexpected! Our room was called "The Old World" and was basically made of rock. All of the furniture was red, the sink and shower were waterfalls, and there was a fireplace! So unique and beautiful! Here's some pictures, but I must say the pictures don't do it justice: