hello, my name is ms. lenhard. i am your substitute, and i am a nazi.

i remember the good old days when i was in school and my teacher was going to be gone. total freedom! a day wasted! i could do whatever i wanted, and no substitute could stop me! well, im here to tell you that I am now the substitute that i prayed didnt exist.

im not sure if it was the fact that i was subbing for two days at a middle school in general, or that the majority of the boys were significantly bigger than me, or that i was afraid i might show up wearing the same shirt as some girl at the school that terrified me last week. it may have been the age, or the fact that the teacher next door in a school with only dividers for walls kept yelling and screaming at the kids could hear if we got too loud (which would inevitably make him come and yell at me). no, im really not sure. all i know is that i almost started to cry as i made my way through the long hallways that brought back quite a number of unpleasant middle school memories.

but somehow, i survived. of course, i was mean. very mean. one of the kids sincerely asked if i have ever been in the military before. i didnt take ANYTHING from them. i was kicking kids out of the classroom left and right! and all the while, i was thinking, 'man....i would HATE myself right now if i was one of the students.' it is really hard to draw the line between friend and teacher, and that is something that i never learned how to do with 14 year olds during my studies. i mean, i can bond with 9 year olds without a problem. but you get past the 5th grade and i just dont know what to do with them. i never thought it would happen, but i finally realized how it must feel to have a teenage child who assumes you dont understand when really you were only there a few years ago. and yes, those gross slang terms and sneaky ways still exist. i know all the tricks.

so now, a week later and well versed as a sub, i am the permanent sub for the class in which i student taught (the fifth graders). if you didnt hear any of the stories, this was a class that taught me more than any other class has. it made me hate teaching some days, but ultimately proved that if i could handle this class, i could handle any. and man, i am a meany. i have set up all sorts of ways to try to reward the kids, but they are so out of control that they cannot have even 10 seconds of free time...it really is sad.

so i had quite the talk with them. i let them know today that for the next 10 days of school (their last 10 days, when all they do is play) will not be pleasant if they so much as look like they are off task. i made sure they understood that as far as i was concerned, i am now the teacher and i can ban them from whatever fun activity i want. and boy, they were SO well behaved for me! if there is anything that i was taught at byu, it is that you have to stick to your guns and be "as mean as you possibly can in the beginning. let nothing go." then, after they are used to following rules, ease up. unfortunately for these kids, we only have 10 more days together. i like to think of this as the testing grounds for next year. you know, practice to see if i can stick to my guns like i say i will. i want them to have fun, but these kids just HAVE to learn respect and self control before they can be allowed to do anything else. they have to learn it somewhere, and it obviously hasnt happened yet. let's keep our fingers crossed that i do some good while cracking the proverbial whip over the next 2 1/2 weeks.

power to the big sis!

just thought i would publicly thank bethanne for helping talk me through the world of htmls and other computer stuff that i dont completely understand. now my blog isnt so stinking skinny and helter-skelter (yes, i did just say that)! and with that little tidbit, it is time for bed. thanks, sister! i love you!

that hurt, charlie!!

okay, so i just thought i would share this video from youtube, seeing as how it is one of my favorites of all time. i'll go ahead and post my other all time favorite, just because i can (and also because i kind of want to watch it again...) anyway, please watch them both....they will definitely be worth your time. but don't take my word for it...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=THfiHQZVSw0

(sorry, i cant figure out how to put the video directly on my site, so go to the links!)

the birthday countdown...

Get this widget!

the gilmores

so i got home from subbing today, totally exhausted from the classes of 30+ 9th graders in each class, and i came across a later episode of the gilmore girls, my favorite show of all time. now, i will be the first to claim that i know far too much about this show as it is, but when brad started asking me questions about the series (im sure just to make me think he is actually interested, when really it just means he gets to cuddle and take a quick nap), and i realized that i was mixing lots of things up. i used to be able to see any given episode of the show, and i could tell you the story line, season, and main characters and love interests at the time. now, i cant do that. SAD STORY. i even came across an episode a while ago and i had never even seen it before! the moral of the story is this: i need to buy the rest of the series. i have seasons 1 and 2 (which i have already watched), but i REALLY want the rest of the series so that i can become overly familiar with the end of the show much like i am with the beginning. plus, i havent seen seasons 4-7 since they came on on tv, so it's time. the problem is, though, that i want to buy a bathing suit, and it would cost almost the same as the 5 seasons of gilmore girls on amazon.com. so which should i buy right now and which can i wait on until the end of june when i get paid for subbing? i dont know what to do!! i guess the perfect solution would be for me to encourage all of you adept readers to buy the seasons for me for my birthday (only 28 more shopping days, people!) so i can buy the bathing suit and all will be well, but i cant force you to get me anything. but i sure would be happy if you got them for me! :)

back to school, back to school...

wait a minute....just kidding! i dont go to school anymore! actually, even though im not going back to school, i am back in provo after a VERY short road trip to california. i know everyone (and when i say everyone, i really mean the only person who reads this regularly, namely bethanne. i love you! :)) has been waiting on pins and needles to hear how i have survived for the past week or so, still jobless, and also if i made it through a short road trip to visit brad's family. of course, this is not the first time ive been to cali, and i know his family very well (in fact, brad was the last member of the family that i met), but it was still really good to be there (ps...the picture above exudes exactly how i feel and use my time while unemployed, in case you were wondering).

first of all, i need to back it up a few days and update everyone on the job status. i was finally able to get everything figured out for substituting, and i officially was put on the sub list on thursday afternoon. within 2 hours, i had already received 5 job offers. two of them were for friday (when i was going out of town) but the other three are for this week coming up. since then, i have also gotten called for another 2 jobs in a week and then i am permanently subbing for the lady i student taught with in january the 2 weeks after that. hopefully the jobs will keep coming in, because i REALLY need the money. i am going to be one happy girl when august 5th rolls around and i get my first real paycheck! :)

anyway, so brad and i went to california for the weekend. we went for 2 reasons:
1. brad's best friend from growing up, kyle, got married on the 3rd and he and ashley had their reception on saturday. he obviously wanted to be there.
2. brad's car had to be in california to pass emissions so that they could officially register the car. everyone was so excited for him to get the car in march that they overlooked the emissions testing stuff, so we drove back for the weekend to get that taken care of. it was also cheaper for me to drive with him than for brad to fly or drive alone, so i tagged along just for fun :).

we left at about 5am on friday morning and drove....a lot. thankfully everything was fine except for the freak snowstorm in the middle of nevada, but it was a loooong 9 hours to his hometown (about an hour north of sacramento) up in this adorable little town called nevada city. the views are beautiful and thankfully, unlike utah, everything is green, so i enjoyed it a lot. i did manage to get a really sore throat throughout the wknd, and i wonder if i have developed an allergy to pollen since i left good ol georgia (there was pollen EVERYWHERE at his house). alli was also able to come up and stay saturday night so we caught up as much as possible. we went to kyle and ashley's reception and had a really nice time, and we were actually able to just relax for the weekend. well, for the most part. we did have quite the ordeal with brad's car...as we were driving to california, the check engine light came on. this happened when they originally brought the car to utah, and they found out that it was due to an oxygen sensor malfunctioning in the car (probably because of the drastic change of elevation). anyway, we knew that if that light was on, his car automatically would fail. so, being the sneaky boy that he is, he manually turned it off. after all, he already knew why it was on, nothing major. well....big mistake. when we got it tested, it failed because the act of turning off the light triggered a computer response that blocked 4 things from being tested, so they failed. a car can only fail 2 things max, so we were out of luck. so we desperately drove around for 40 miles to restart the system (as was suggested by the emissions guy) but when we got back at 5 on the dot, he was already closed and long gone. luckily, he agreed to come back and check again on saturday (he is one of brad's father's clients, so he was very nice to do this). yadda yadda yadda 2 hours later and a mean practical joke played on the girls, brad found a fuse that was not working, fixed it, and the car passed without a problem. i called brad while they were there and he told me it would cost $4000 to fix and we would have to buy plane tickets home, and we (the girls all at the store) FREAKED out. especially since he only paid $3000 for it. thank goodness it was all a joke (one that we found out later after lots of worrying all about it) and all was well. so that is that. whew.

we also had a mother's day bar-b-q for his family and watched i am legend. i cried again. so sad!! unfortunately the weekend ended as fast as it began. we left at 8:30 this morning after a quick mother's day breakfast, and drove until we couldnt stand it any longer. now im sitting in my bedroom with a swollen lymph node in my throat and poor brad has tons of homework to finish tonight. im pretty much terrified about my first day subbing tomorrow, but hopefully they wont totally tear me apart. theyre only 4-6th graders....what harm could they do? ha.....oh boy....

unfortunately for me (and you, of course), i took very few pictures this weekend. what with not feeling too well and running from place to place the whole time, the only photo op was at kyle and ashley's wedding. here is one of the four of us (im the one in the yellow dress, if you can't tell), and then an apparently "GQ" shot of kyle and brad. anyway, enjoy, and keep your fingers crossed that i dont cry while subbing tomorrow!

unemployment opportunities

while i was growing up, my parents always felt that i should be able to stay a kid for as long as possible, so i was able to survive high school and all of my many extra curricular activities without the stress of an after-school job. however, once i graduated from high school, it was time to grow up and start supporting myself. i spent my first summer on my own looking relentlessly for a job, but to no avail. finally, 3 months and 15+ interviews later, i was offered a position on campus that worked well with my schedule. this job trained me to do many things, and i felt as though i was set for life. of course, life for me went up to graduation from college, and then.....nothing. i had no other plans. i wanted to go to texas, but that probably wont be happening soon now that i am weighing my options.

so i graduate from college with a degree and i feel like i have nothing to show for it. of course, as an alumnus i am no longer allowed to work on campus (yes, i checked. print services will not allow it), so i immediately fell into a predicament: although i have enough savings to get me through the summer, i have no job. yeah, yeah, my life may sound great to you. but you have to understand something....i have lived my entire life running from one extracurricular activity to another. in college, i went from school to work and back, with some playing and sleeping thrown in on the good days. i relished those christmas breaks when i could sit and do nothing, but even then i was getting the new semester figured out, trying to make ends meet with tuition, and applying for scholarships. and i cant forget to mention that i was woken up every morning by 7:30am because my time was valuable and i was needed for various errands and bonding moments with the rents. of course, i loved these times, but this has been all i have known for at least the past 8 years since i began high school.

so i started my first week as an almost-graduate with a long list of to-dos and i was ready to make a difference in the world. however, by the third day or so, i was B-O-R-E-D. yes ma'am (or sir, depending on who is reading this), i was bored. of course, family coming into town made things a lot more fun, but when i wasnt with them, i had nothing to do. i think it would be much more exciting if i had someone with which to waste time, but brad has school and work so i am officially out of friends. i have managed to try several new recipes, master (as much as i can at least) the art of mariokart for the wii, almost finish a book (of my choice, no less!), clean out all of my boxes, work out, lay out, catch up on any show that i have missed in the past semester, and wash my car.

but i still feel like an unemployed bum.

so what now? find more recipes? go shopping? both of those include things like bathing suits or ingredients, which cost money. no job=no income. therefore, i cant waste any on impulse buys (which makes me sad....i love those!). i have tried several times to sign up to substitute, but either no one will answer when i make an appointment or they wont let me until at least next tuesday. i feel like a jerky jerk because i just want to play as soon as brad is done, but i need to be sensitive to the fact that he has things to do. still, it's kinda fun to play house and dote on him and everything. i commend him for being so stinking smart (all A's again this semester!), but he sure does live the good life. im an amazing cook, so he really lucked out.

so my to-do list for tomorrow is as follows:
-drop things off at DI
-pay tab at cougar creations
-print off brad's slides for class while he is at work
-call about recharging my air conditioner in my car
-harass kelly services until they answer their stinking phone and let me sign up to sub!
-think of some fabulous dinner with which to prove my domesticity
-go to the gym (if i can get the key from brad)
-change the utilities over before they get shut off tomorrow (cross your fingers that they wont!)
-put away clean laundry
-watch as much gilmore girls as possible

please note that all of these things (except for the last) will probably take all of 2 hours to complete. now i know why people sign up for cake decorating classes. what else is there to do nowadays? any ideas?