An Adventure & Amanda

Oooooooooooh life. Actually let me clarify: ooooooooh life in Wisconsin. When we first moved in Mike told me about this crazy woodchuck that kept digging holes in his storage shed.  I had no idea that woodchucks were actually real until Friday when I noticed a strange beaver-like animal wandering around the shed.  I told Mike and he got this crazy look in his eye, grabbed his gun and fired off a few rounds.  The "poor" thing ran around whimpering and I had to go inside because it tugged a little at my heart-strings. Well that was Friday morning.  The rest of the weekend consisted of "woodchuck watch out" as we realized that the woodchuck has 5-6 babies.   **Sorry for all you animal lovers out there.   This afternoon Kyle went missing and I found him climbing through the bushes with his handgun looking for more woodchucks.  This happened: Yeah, I don't even like animals but I couldn't quite stomach the dead woodchuck.  Poor little guy n...

You pass people on the highway eating slices of cheese.   People say things like "beg" and "knoo" [[translations: "bag" and "know]] You wake up at 5:30am to Mike yelling about a black bear in the front yard Towns consist solely of a bar and gas station The country to pop radio station ratio is 10:1 You can still see the sun even though it is 9:30pm Your water tastes like copper because it comes from a well There are hidden cheese factories between towns I cannot believe we have only been in Wisconsin for one week!  It feels like we have been here for months.  Last week Kyle went to work and I went out to find work.  I narrowed my search down to three options: The Dollar Tree, Wal-mart, and a daycare.  After being offered a job at Wal-mart, I shamelessly begged my way into an interview and an eventual job at the daycare.  I am going to be designing the summer program for the "school-age" kids (5-12) with another girl.  So far I am ...

Things I like about Wisconsin: No matter where you live, you will have a forest in your backyard. Albino squirrels The laid-back-sit-around-the-campfire-while-grilling-steak lifestyle Lack of traffic. Waking up to a bajillion birds chirrping [pretty sure there is a mockingjay out there somewhere] Friendly, hard-working, people The back country roads and rolling hills and green trees for miles on miles No matter where you look, you will see some body of water. Shootin' 22s in the backyard There is a DQ in town The wide open spaces Things I dislike about Wisconsin: Midwest storms including (but not limited to): "heavy rainfall, damaging winds, large hail, and possibly a tornado." There are not direct roadways between the cities.  To get from New Richmond to Hudson we have to take Highway K to Highway A which merges with Highway I which then turns into Highway E and somehow we end up on Highway U...what. We pulled into Wisconsin  late  Saturday night. ...

Okay so maybe I'm being too dramatic about this move but it has been a whirlwind of a month:    From classroom prepping to dumpster diving for cardboard boxes to winning a national championship to spending a week vacationing in Colorado- we have had a busy few weeks!!! Now we are in the car Wisconsin bound!  I think I can speak for Kyle as well when I say we are pretty nervous.  We have heard many good things about the area we are moving to- cheese curds,  lakes galore, wide open spaces... it's just that Wisconsin is uncharted territory for us both. All we've ever known is the west. That said we are excited and grateful to be going on this adventure together. Lately I've realized that in these times all I can do is make the most of the journey. This means learning to laugh when the situation might not be ideal. That said,  I think this will be a very memorable summer. Kyle and I have our bikes, tent,  and each other so bring on the unknown-for bet...

There seems to be a common theme of frustration whenever I talk to anyone who has been applying for internships.  Believe me, I mean it when I say "I know how you feel." Thursday night Kyle and I cried some tears of joy as we realized that our seven-month trial of patience and faith was finally [[hopefully]] coming to an end...a happy end.  Kyle has been diligently applying for internships since September and even though he had submitted 100+ applications and had many contacts/promising outlooks nothing was working out .  I tried to be very supportive of Kyle through the entire process but may have hit a breaking point when I "filled" out my calendar for May and realized the great unknown that was post-May 3rd. Okay fine. So we'll just stay in Utah for the summer and work.  Kyle and I both found jobs and I even started making a Utah Summer Bucket list. Then Thursday night Kyle was working on his computer when all of a sudden he got really serious and ...

Well, I am finally a college senior.  I MADE IT. Although I am beyond excited to be done at BYU, I felt a little melancholy as I walked across campus today.  My freshman year was not the smoothest and as I reflected on how I could have made this experience better, I decided to pass my knowledge along.      1. GO TO CLASS.  Most freshman classes have 200+ students and so taking attendance is impossible.  Initially I saw this as an opportunity to sleep in, watch Lost , and ultimately ditch class.  I am here to testify that missing class is not worth it .  It is oh so tempting but I promise that you will look back three years later and kick yourself when you look at your grades.      My friend put it in a really motivating way: tuition costs about $2,375.  Let's assume you take the average freshman load of about 14 credits.  That means that PER credit you are paying about $170! You can buy 34 Little Caesar's...

Okay, okay, I'm sorry.  I realize it has been a while since I have blogged.  In fact, I have started several posts over the past month but for one reason or another I never finished them.  So... what have  I been doing during this hiatus anyways? Well, for one, I've been changing students' lives.     [[whoops, was that dramatic??]] Fine, maybe I did not change the world or alter anyone's life trajectory for the better but I have been consumed in teaching 31 sixth graders...and let me tell you that is not an easy task.  Emilee and I pull up to the school on our first day and we see girls wearing MAKEUP and lockers...they have LOCKERS (and pinterests and iphones and attitudes; what .)  Emilee is borderline crying and I am nervously laughing.  I think we were both about to hightail it back to our favorite 2nd grade class. But looking back on our experience I have decided that sixth grade is like that boy you just can't figure out- you have...