Silly facebook..

So I'm browsing facebook today, and this is at the top of my page (it was an advertisement for an IQ test and it randomly selected 4 of my friends). I died laughing, I think its pretty funny. It is 5 of the 9 of us from my Master's program. I especially love that Skylee's says "awesome?" because that is her trademark word!!! its too perfect :) I hope I always remember the joy that this brought into my life!

Its Skylee, Jen, Maria, Emma, Me from left to right.

Awesome?

Genius?

Stupid?

Idiot?

???

A sign? I don't think so.

Thomas' first day of work (it was awhile ago but I haven't been updating a lot) looked like this:

http://mayorsampressrelease.blogspot.com/2009/06/courthouse-closes-due-to-air.html

Incase you don't want to read the article, just read the last part of the address. Yeah, so the courthouse closed after 2 hours of his first day of work, and didn't open up later during the day. He went in for his second day of work, and it was still closed for the day... of course Thomas interpreted it to meant that he isn't supposed to work, that I am supposed to work and support our family and that he should just stay home! He says that's what Heavenly Father was trying to convey to us when the air conditioning broke. I just laughed and told him that was one dream that would never come true!!

Nothing else too exciting is going on- this weekend we're headed to Arizona to visit Thomas' mom and sister and grandparents, and then next weekend we're going to San Francisco for 4 days! Thomas has never been, and my friend Michelle (that I haven't seen in years!) is meeting us there with her husband. I love summer vacations :)

I'm a muggle

But I wish I was a witch! Thomas says that I am Hermione... I guess I kind of have to agree. Anyways, last week I read Harry Potter 6, and I started a HP Movie Marathon on Friday! Friday: Sorceror's Stone, Saturday: Chamber of Secrets, Sunday: Prisinor of Azkaban, Monday: Goblet of Fire, Today: Order of the Phoenix, Tomorrow at 9:45AM: Half-Blood Prince! I am so excited. I am not a crazy hard-core (billion HC) fan, but I am a little HC fan. I decided that before the 7th movie, I will read all the books in order. I've only read them once and I think it'd be fun! This is what happens when I'm not in school. I'm also reading the Twilight series over again... and some Mary Higgins Clark murder mysteries on the side. Its so great to leisure read again- I love reading! Especially by the pool.

I also love Zumba- and have been keeping it up in California for the most part... I have renewed my committment this week and now it is time to keep that committment. Thomas will be home from lunch break in 1 hr 15 minutes, so that's enough time to Zumba for an hour and shower before its lunch time! This is the life :)

Surf, Sun and Studying

Well I have been in California for a week now and have officially gotten a lot completed!

1. Read Harry Potter#6 (to refresh for the movie)

2. Read chapter 1 of the PRAXIS study book

3. Gone swimming in the pool (and tanned.. yay!)

4. Spent a day at the beach

5. Played guitar hero

6. Watched 3 Harry Potter movies

7. ZUMBAed almost every day

8. Eaten lots of ice cream

So.. as you can see, I have been quite productive this week. I don't know how much more productive I could be, but I'll definitely say it's time for me to get in gear and starting DOING SOMETHING! The longer I postpone studying for the PRAXIS and writing my thesis, the longer I am in school and don't have a salary job... I have to keep reminding myself of that :)

Thomas is doing great and loves his internship with the D.A. of LA County. He enjoys going to court and watching, and he is thinking he definitely wants to be a prosecutor. He changes his mind rapidly, but this is better than when he was considering not even being a lawyer after law school... so I am very supportive! He said if he was graduated he could even get a job fairly easy, at least in Arizona, where he was looking today. So that's very hopeful!!! Plus I like the idea of Arizona.... its nice there, and then Coralee and I can go into a joint SLP-Audiology business together because we'll both have our degrees! And of course I'll hire Emma so she can stay in the U.S... anyone else want to join!?

ZUMBA revisited!

The Martin clan has been reunited this week, and we have all been enjoying eachother's company. I got the Zumba DVDs that I ordered and we tried it out last night- the girls loved it! Today we did Zumba for over an hour. This picture is me and Shyler taking a break... I've posted some videos below for your viewing enjoyment! Zumba can be enjoyed at every age- depicted here are ages 4 to adult!

There is a random bird noise in "Shh!" and this is the move that goes with it:

Shh!!!

Even Ethan liked dancing to Zumba...

Don't worry, these videos can't be found on Youtube, you must have the link to be able to view them.

A weekend of tries, and some successes!

So, Friday was my first day off of school- it looked like this. I worked with my palatometer clients a few hours in the morning, went to Zumba (for the first time in a week... it kicked my butt!) and then I went to lunch with the "palatometer crew" (Ann, us clinicians, and Andy- he engineers the hardware and software). Then we all went to do a presentation on our clients for Dr. Fletcher- the inventor of the palatometer! I'm such a professional, I know!

Then I went boating with Jen for 6 hours! Rachel came for part of it, we had so much fun. When Iget pictures I'll post a few! I am really good at getting up on water skis, but wakeboarding was ridiculously hard for me! I tried about 6 times, but my arms were just too tired to hold on. I think it was mostly Zumba, plus being outside all day.. I haven't been in the sun for a long period of time in years. Literally. So I gave up, but just for the day! Then I tubed with 2 other girls for quite awhile... until we were too tired to even pull ourselves back up onto the tube was we were flung off. Then we had somewhat of a "leisure" ride back to the dock, until the end where Jen's mom tried multiple times to get us off. By that time we were like crying and laughing at the same time because we were SO tired and SO determined not to let her win and get us off! Needless to say, today (2 days later) I am still barely able to move my back and arms. SO SORE!!!

Wakeboarding was try #1 and it was not so successful. However, today I taught my first Relief Society lesson (try #2), and I would say it was a success! Especially considering that the bishop sat in.. just a little more to add to my initial nervousness. But after a few minutes I felt in my element and loved every second of it. I think it went really well- we dug fairly deep into the doctrine and a lot of personal experiences were shared which made it very meaningful. I'm really looking forward to improving my teaching skills and learning more from the lessons to come!

Karma?

I cannot lie. For years I sat in Relief Society with some of my roommates and made fun of how ridiculously frilly and fluffy our singles ward RS lessons were. I mean for crying out loud, "RS Table Centerpiece Coordinator" was a calling! Not even joking. Needless to say, it was always sickeningly overdone. I guess it doesn't help that I'm not really a super girly girl... Our teachers at the time were also kind of the cliche "nothing really matters because we are daughters of God and that's all that is important" type of teachers, so all we ever talked about was our divine worth as individuals and future mothers. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that these things are important and a very wonderful part of the gospel- but after looking at crazy doilies, lace and flowers and being told that it doesn't matter how much I mess up because my divine worth makes it all ok in the end I got kind of sick of it. I like lesson with some MEAT and ESSENCE! I want to LEARN something so I can keep bettering myself and progressing in the gospel. So... to wrap up a ridiculously long (and seemingly negative- although its not- I love RS!) story, my roommates and I always joked that I would be called as a RS teacher. Or even worse the centerpiece coordinator... well thank goodness the latter does not exist in my married ward at BYU. I did get a calling today though... RS Instructer!

Now I am actually really, really excited. I love teaching- I have taught in nursery, primary, and obviously for 4 years at EFY I was teaching multiple lessons a day. It will just be interesting to teach adults instead of 0-18 year olds... To make it even more interesting, I have been feeling for about 4 months that I would be given this calling. I am just SO grateful that it didn't come while I was still in classes! My first Sunday teaching is next week, and I will have been done with classes for 3 days. The Lord definitely knows what He is doing, and for that I am extremely grateful. I don't know if I could've handled a single thing more during the past school year, and I'm glad I didn't have to try!

ZUMBA!!!

Zumba has changed my life- it has revolutionized the way I exercise- I don't

even know I'm exercising but I'm losing inches faster than ever before! I have

been going almost 2 months with Jen, and now Dani has joined the past few

weeks. We all love it! I posted some videosfor your viewing pleasure. The

first is a sample dance, the second is to prove how well it works :)

Unfortunately, most of the songs and dances that we do are not available

on YouTube. Our instructors are hard core and work us to death! We judge

how good of a workout we get by how far down our ponytail gets sweaty...

average for me and Jen is about halfway between the rubberband and the

tips of our hair- although I have had my hair wet with sweat from root to tip

before! I know- gross- but I'm just demonstrated Zumba's effectiveness :)

It is such a blast, I'd recommend it to anyone. I'm back in my skinny pants

and have no love handles! :) Plus I feel great. We are always inviting new

people to come along- join us one day! We go about 5 days a week. Its an

unforgettable experience and an AMAZING workout. I will NEVER use an
elliptical or arctrainer again (and I used to swear by those..)

Swine flu and other delights...

So Maria's "fun and/or exciting news" moment in class was when she told us that her roommate has swine flu! That's not exactly what we wanted to hear- one "degree" of freedom is a little to close to home for my taste :)

Today was my "2nd to last day." It was my 2nd to last day of school. I took my 2nd to last final today- woke up at 5:30 am for some STRANGE reason. and I have no idea what I did from 5:30 until 8 when Dr. Fujiki emailed our test out... seriously. Ok I texted Jen because she was up too.. she ate a and cleaned her room during that time but I did neither. Those 2 1/2 hours are a mystery.... Then I had my 2nd to last class period! It is wrapping up fast!!!!

Well now I am going to watch a movie with my husband- I forgot I had one of those. A husband and movies... those are foreign objects in the life of a ComD grad student.

Playing "House"

Well we are house sitting again up in West Jordan; Thomas has been up here all week but I had to stay in Provo for work and school :( I got to come up for the weekend again and it has been fun! Kaiya is the craziest dog..right now she has her nose pressed against the railing of the kitchen (it is a bi-level house and she's one level above us looking at us) and one of her nostrils is pressed against the rail so she is breathing really loud just through one side of her nose. Thomas has been taking her out for a long bikeride (she runs) in the morning, and a long walk in the afternoon- but today we just did the walk because we were helping Heather and Daniel move. She gets SO excited to go on a walk that she wears herself out running around while we try to put her collar on... it took almost 5 minutes to get her collar on tonight! So ridiculous.

This week was Debra's birthday so we are doing dinner with her tomorrow... I'm making "Dirty Sand"! You know Dirt with oreos and chocolate pudding? Well her and I don't like chocolate pudding, so I'm making "sand" with vanilla pudding and worms, and oreos on top! And I got a super cute shovel and pail to eat it out of. We used to make it all the time for the missionaries- so I thought she would enjoy it tomorrow :)

5 more school days... I can't believe it! I am ready for it to be over. I have a job lined up for the next school year, working doing speech and langauge therapy with kids in a charter school about 10 minutes away from our apartment. Pays pretty well too!! I'll also be doing my internships next school year, and finishing my thesis. Its so nice to only have a few things left on my "to do" list to check off, but unfortunately they are things that take like a year to get done!

We are excited to head to California (Thomas the 17th of June and me the 3rd of July). I will be in Ohio August 4 to the 18, so that will be great! I am excited to go home and see my family and friends. And Jill get married!!! But for now, it is time for me to eat my orange, and watch a movie with my lover! :)