See y'all in 18 months!

Well, this is it. I'll see you later. And for your enjoyment, I included 3 attempts at taking a picture for the missionary plaque...

"C'mon. Be serious. Try looking at the flowers. Don't move your head! Just look at the flowers."

"...Uhhh, now try smiling! (Sheesh.)"

"...I give up."

Happy trails, all y'all!

An update in pictures: signs of Spring?

Well, Spring finally came.

Grandpa gets to wrestle with the boys on the trampoline...

And the kids had a fun time hunting for eggs around the yard.

Mikey was the prop of choice when showing off Grandma's flowers.

But then....more snow came.

The snow left. And I am sometimes the bouncing pony/tiger.

And we have fun playing games on a Sunday afternoon.

Micah was a champ at this.

Mom easily defeated me. Where am I, you may ask? That blob in the lower right corner is my hair and body flying towards the ground. I'm just glad there was no doggie doo where I backflopped onto the grass.

Can't you just feel the intensity?

*cough*

*gasp*

*wheeze* (my trademark squeaking breathing sound that I make, typically when I'm swimming breaststroke)

How do Rick, Collette, Emily, and Megan DO this?!

Running is much, much harder than swimming. You never stop. There's no intervals. You just keep going, and going, and going...

At least that's the goal. I had to stop and walk a bit here and there. And I didn't pick a very smart route, won't be doing that again. I thought it'd be smart to make a route that had sugarhouse park at the end of the loop, so if I felt I couldn't do much more, just cut through the park, if I can do more, go around, etc. This route involves running along 13th. For a while. I don't like 13th at 7:30 in the morning. The crosswalks across the entrances to the freeway were almost impassible. By the time I got to the park, I felt spent.

According to the paths I took in the park, I ran about 4 miles. You guys do, like, 8 on a "short" day!!!

technology class.

I'm dying in that class. I'm not really sure what to do about it. Let's just say that given 3 hours to do one measely assignment is way too much time. For example, the video posted below just needed a minimum of 6 pictures, some transition effects, and background music. Oh, and it had to do something with education...

I ended up trying to imitate vihart.com's videos. Apart from some "ahem"-ings, lousy explanations and drawings, sounding corny like the narrator in "Lambert" I think it's ok. I would never ever actually use it in my classroom.

I liked my song choice. My first choice was "O Fortuna" but I didn't have it, didn't want to pay for it, so...

When will I ever learn?

So, as most of you know, I decided that I ought to serve a mission. Because I'm 22, still single, literally an old maid! So I figured I'd meet some 19-year-olds out in the field. A mission will also help me develop some social skills (something we mathematicians and nerds are almost entirely without). I'll learn how to budget, plan, live with trying companions (Michael McLane, anyone?) Maybe I'll have a few companions teach me makeup and hair 101. So when I come back, I'll be married within a few weeks. I don't call it a mission. I call it marriage prep.

I'm going to Houston, Spanish-speaking. So I will basically be learning to speak Spanish with a southern drawl ("Hola, y'all?"). Or as a friend calls it, "cowboy espanol!"

Dad made a comment that with three kids who serve missions, you'd expect one of them to go to South America Spanish-speaking, one in the states, and one abroad somewhere. So it makes sense I go almost as far down south as I possibly can, yet stay in the states, and speak some Spanish.

Honestly, I'm grateful for the spanish. It'll be a really useful skill for when I come back to the real world and teach. I always feel bad for students who are lost, simply because they don't understand the language. Not because they don't understand the concepts.

And I'm excited to go out there! But I get to wait 'til June 8th.

Oh, and I need to finish up a few more weeks of swimming before I get too obsessed with this.

Oh, and I just read the title of my post, and remembered why I was going to post anything at all: Instead of a long story, I'll just make it short: I wasn't sure how my coach would react when I tell him I'm going on a mission. (He kinda wanted me to stay and train for olympic trials) But when I went to his office (a little scared, I confess), and told him, he was happy and proud of me. Hence the title of the post: when will I ever learn that he's this amazing coach and person?

Technology Class

Today we're learning how to do the most simple tasks.
Then we started to learn how to do photoshop.
Needless to say, I lost focus... But I ran out of time to make it epic. Boo hoo.