Happy Belated Halloween

This was too cute not to post. Every week I give my class a new poem to memorize. This is one of my students, Emily, performing the poem "Fraidy Cat," by Matthew M. Fredricks. She is such a doll.

More Prop 8

Here is an NPR article on some of the consequences of redefining the definition of marriage. If you live in California, vote yes on prop 8!

When Gay Rights and Religious Liberties Clash : NPR

Yes on 8 video

Proposition 8

It's not very often that I get involved with political things, however this is something that I feel strongly about.

www.protectmarriage.com

If you live in California, you should Vote Yes on Proposition 8 to keep marriage only between a man and a woman. If you do not live in California, encourage your California friends to vote yes on Prop 8.

I'd like to make it clear that, for me, this is not about discrimination. I don't deny that people have agency to make choices for their life. This is about legally preserving the definition of marriage as it is in God's eyes and as it has been since the beginning of time.

Most of the following information I got from a website I read and from a conference on the subject.

Six Consequences if Proposition 8 Fails

1. Children in public schools will be taught that both traditional marriage and same-sex marriage are okay. This will cause serious problems for parents that want to pass on their heritage, beliefs, and values to their children. This would also include changing the way that sex-education is taught in schools.

2. Churches will be sued if they refuse to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings that are open to the public. Do you want your Church to change their religious beliefs because of a law? True doctrines that were right yesterday can’t be changed and made right to day, because God in never changing. God was always perfect and will be always perfect.

3. Religious adoption agencies will be challenged by government agencies to give up their long-held right to place children only in homes with both a mother and a father. Catholic Charities in Boston has already closed its doors because of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Preventing the Catholic Church and others from acting as they see morally right will cost the tax payers millions more to do the same job. Not to mention, think of all the children that could have been placed in good Christian homes and would be denied the opportunity.

4. Religions that sponsor private schools and which provide housing for married students will be required to provide housing for same-sex couples, even if it runs counter to church doctrine, or lose tax exemptions and benefits.

5. Ministers who preach against same-sex marriages will be sued for hate speech and could be fined by the government. It has already happened in Canada, one of six countries that have legalized gay marriage.

6. It will cost you money. A change in the definition of marriage will bring a cascade of lawsuits. Even if courts eventually find in favor of a defender of traditional marriage (highly improbable given today's activist judges), think of the money – your money, your church contributions – that will have to be spent on legal fees.

If we don’t act by Voting Yes on Proposition 8 then millions of people and their descendents will lose core religious beliefs and priceless heritage.

Vote YES on Prop 8

Roomies

Here is a shout out to my current room mates, Vicki and MaryAnn. They are the best. I love them, and I love where we live.

The other night we got to talking about how many room mates we have had since we graduated. We decided to see if we could remember all the ladies we have shared a home with throughout the years.

I left everyone else hanging in the dust in this contest. I'm not sure I should post such things here, but counting my mission companions and the 12 girls I shared a room with when I was on my Freshman study abroad program, I have had a grand total of...drum roll please.....

64 room mates!!! (22 of which I had as a Freshman!) So, for all of you who have had the privilege of living with me, I say thank you. Without you, I might not have the collection of random mugs that I have today. ;-) J/K Love you girls!

Forever Young

Since I've already updated briefly, I figured I can now bore you with silly little details from my every day life. Recently my friend Kathy moved out of my apartment, and my friend Vicki moved in. With the move, we've been making some home improvements. I bought a new desk and put it together myself (with the help of my trusty assistant). My roommate, MaryAnn, informed me that it is a rule that you wear the hardhat anytime you use a tool kit. So, here you have it.... my home office construction gear, documented.

I can't decide if I look more like one of the village people or a bobble head gone awry. Ha.


One of the other home improvements we made was having our carpets cleaned last Saturday. We moved all of our furniture into the kitchen (which made it sound like a sound proof recording studio). While the carpets were getting cleaned, the roomies and I hit the pool for the last time this summer. After they were all clean, we waited for the carpets to dry; and waited, and waited, and waited. When the night came they were still wet and we could not move the furniture back into the bedrooms. Because of this, Vicki and I got the privilege of sleeping in the kitchen and dining room. My mattress ended up underneath the kitchen table. So, I decided that if I had to sleep under the kitchen table, I was going to do something I hadn't done since I was 10.....BUILD A FORT. So along the theme of forever young, I repeated one of my favorite childhood past times and I built a fort out of the kitchen table to sleep under. Here's the proof:


Moral of the story: When life forces you to sleep under the kitchen table, build a fort.

Summer Days Slippin' Away...

Well, my friends, I am finally writing an update of the summer. Summer has come and gone and I am back to teaching. Highlights from this summer:

1. Going with my best friend Vicki as she went to the temple for the first time. This was so special to me. 2. Visiting my family in Arkansas. My Niece Calie is getting so big! As an added bonus, I got to go to the Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban concert. (June 2008)







2. Working for Elderhostel for 7 weeks this summer. (June-August) What an INCREDIBLE experience. I met the most wonderful people from all over. Each week we lead a group of 26-50 people around Utah doing activities such as: Ropes course, Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, hiking Timponogos caves, 7-Peaks Water park, hot air ballooning in park City, Olympic Park, Park City Mountain Resort, Stewart Falls, Sundance, Temple square (We had some awesome experiences here, Heber Creeper, and Floating the Provo River.


























3. Going to the Stadium of Fire in Provo for the 4th of July. This was such a patriotic experience. I'm proud to be an American. (And to top it all off, the blue man group and Miley Cyrus came and performed with Glenn Beck as the MC).





4. Visiting my friend Amanda and meeting her baby Savana for the first time (out of the womb). Amanda and I were friends in Highschool when I lived in Idaho. We were also room mates at Ricks College our Freshman year. She just moved back to Utah from Hawaii this summer.


5. Brian Regan show at Thanksgiving Point


6. Jack Johnson concert at USANA amphitheater.





7. Boyz II Men concert and the Scera outdoor shell in Orem (August 28, 2008). This was probably the best concert I have ever been to. I was not expecting just how fun it would be. Talk about a blast from the past. I am a born again Boyz II Men fan!

Kids Village Graduation

Another year has come and gone! I can hardly believe it. By the energy level of my students at school, it is apparent that the end of the school year has arrived. After this weekend, only 4 more days of school. My kids had their graduation program last Wednesday. I gathered the class around to give them one final pep talk before they performed. As I had them all sitting there looking at me, I was overcome by emotion and I began to cry. It kind of caught me off guard. I told them that no matter what happens in life, or where they go, I hope they always remember that Miss Carrie loves them. Instantly they got up out of their chairs and shouted "Group hug." Next thing I knew I was being swarmed by a bunch a wiggly, adorable, 2-4th graders. I sure do love my class.
I'm attaching our (first ever) Kids Village Music video along with the slide show that I made. I struggled finding the perfect song, for the slide show portion, that encompassed how I felt about these guys. After prayer and a lot of thought, I was lead to the perfect song. Enjoy!

Puerto Rican Paradise!

Wow, It's been a while since I last wrote! We just had spring break and my best friend Vicki and I headed out of Utah and hit up beautiful Puerto Rico for 8 days. (April 10th-18th) We went with Vicki's Brother, Scott and friend Leanne. We were able to stay with a friend of mine who lives in Puerto Rico (Jorge Hernandez). Jorge and I served in the same mission.

Puerto Rico was incredible!! Some of the trip highlights included the following:

*A sand dollar throwing competition on the beach. All was fun and games until my hand had a hit and run with Vicki's sand dollar.

*Going to "Las Justas" (The track/dance competition of all the universities). Puerto Ricans are certainly spirited. You would have thought we were at the world cup and not a cheer/dance competiton by the way they cheered and celebrated.

*Salsa dancing in Old San Juan. I danced with this 70 year old grandpa. It was great.
*El Murro

*Attending church in Spanish and singing all the beautiful hymns in Spanish.
*El Yunque rainforest.

*Collecting beautiful shells as well as finding a "Concha garden" full of beautiful concha shells.

*Kayaking in the bioluminescent bay at night on the Island of Viequez. It was incredible to see the plankton light up like that. It was like swimming in a magic glow stick!

*The Island of Culebra. We spend 2 days here. This was by far my favorite part. The island was amazing. Small unspoiled environment. White sand beaches, crystal clear turquoise warm water, beautiful reef and snorkeling, hiking, palm trees, etc. We practically had the whole island to ourselves. There was no one on the island. At almost every beach we went to, we were the only ones. Even the huge popular beach (flamenco) had only a handful of people on it. It was the perfect time to go. We snorkeled, drank pina coladas, hiked, explored, etc. I even saw a baracuda and picked up my first star fish. We hadn't planned on spending the night on this island, but once we got there we knew we couldn't leave, so we made friends with the life guard on the beach who helped us get a place to stay and a good deal on our rental car extension. We didn't have anything for sleeping over. It was a great adventure. We stayed at this cute little place called La
Hammaca. It was so great the whole thing.

*The boat trip to Monkey Island. We called up Captain Paco who for $40 took us out for the day on his tour boat to Monkey Island. It was such a blast. I got to drive the boat, that was exciting. The girls tried some fishing off the back of the boat. We became our own concha/maraca band and jammed to the music. It was a blast. Paco was so fun. We got out and snorkeled and collected TONS of starfish off of the ocean floor and put them in the boat and got pictures with them. We snorkeled over a ship wreck and that was pretty cool. There were tons of fishies. Then we parked the boat just off the shore of Monkey Island. There are 1,200 monkeys on the island. They use them for scientific studies. We saw HUNDREDS of monkeys. It was so cool. What a memorable, incredible experience.

*Pina Coladas. I learned to LOVE these. Everywhere we went we were asking for Virgin Pina Coladas. It turns out that Puerto Rico is the birth place of the Pina Colada. We drank 9 or 10 while in puerto Rico. As soon as we got back to Utah, we went to a latin market and bought the stuff to make our own at home.

*On the day we were to come home we missed our flight by 10 minutes. After a lot of drama and tears and a threat to have to pay a $568 penalty, we finally got a flight out later that day on a better airline with only 1 layover and it didn't cost us a penny.

The whole trip was incredible!! I'm sure I've said that like 3 times. I wish you could have all experienced it too!

"Miss Carrie, will you marry me?"

Today was back to the old grind after a long (yet far too short) weekend. But just when I thought I didn't want to be back at work, one of my students goes and does something to make me smile.

Today, seven year old Cameron (the knight in shining armor pictured on the right) came up to me at the end of math and said, "Miss Carrie, I want to ask you something." I leaned down and he whispered in my ear "Will you marry me?" Which was followed by a big smile and a sparkle in his big blue eyes.

I laughed and said "Cameron, I think you're a little young for me...maybe in 10 years." Then I said, "well, let's see, how old are you?" He stood up straight and said, "I'll be 8 this year" (His birthday is not for another 9 months ;-) I said, "Well, I guess 10 years is too soon. How about 20? If you still want to marry me in 20 years, Cameron, you're on."

He smiled as he bounced away and said, "Great, I'll start planning the wedding rehearsal"..."and the cake"..."and the ring." I asked what kind of ring he would get. He then responded "I don't know, I probably won't even marry you...you're too old for me."
The whole conversation made me laugh and I remembered why I love working with kids so much.

Weekend of Love

What do you get when you stick two crazy girls in a car to Las Vegas on Valentines Day? You get the Road trip of love, followed by the weekend of Love.

Vic and I drove down to Vegas for the long weekend. We officially termed it the road trip of love because of several reasons.

First, we both wore red and valentine's apparel. Second, we ONLY listened to love songs on the whole trip down. It was amazing. Third, we only were allowed to eat pink, red, white food. (And some brown for chocolate). Fourth, we brought with us some items of love including the following: One heart to heart conversation game. One magic "Date Ball," The book "Mars and Venus on a Date," and we placed gel hearts on Vicki's car windows. On the way down we stopped off to visit our friend Jason in St. George. It was fun. Great times.

I can't tell you how great it was to get away from the grey skies and snow of Provo. I have to remind myself that I chose to live there. Vegas has been sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60's.

We enjoyed our time shopping, eating, working out at 24-hour fitness with Vicki's sister, reading, running errands, and going to the stratosphere and Bellagio water show (my personal fav).

Last night after going out for Thai food with the Porters, we went down to the strip and rode the "Big Shot" on the stratosphere. It was nuts. I have never screamed harder on a ride before. They shoot you up in the air and when you look out all you can see are city lights below you. Talk about a rush.

Today has been such a relaxing Sunday...first one of those in a while. That pretty much sums up the weekend of Love. I hope yours was equally exciting.

Hinckley Challenge

http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/index.php?clear=true

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days to honor President Hinckley who lived 97 years. My room mate went and bought us two cheap copies and we have embarked on the adventure. This time I am looking for the theme found in 3 Nephi 27:27. Characteristics of the Savior. If we are to be like Him, we must really know Him.

This is so you can monitor my progress with me:

Life is Good!

We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet!

On Sunday January 27th "Our Prophet" passed on to the other side of the veil. He will be missed greatly. I will always remember "My Prophet" who has guided me through my adolescence and helped me to follow the Savior. I am profoundly grateful for his life and example.

At his passing, some of the members of the Quorum of the 12 said of President Hinckley: “We will miss his wit and his wisdom, his leadership and his love. However, we cannot but rejoice in his reunion with his beloved Marjorie, with his parents and other family members who have gone before, and with the prophets of God, both ancient and modern, among whose eternal ranks he now stands. As the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles we echo the voice of the Master, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant. … Enter into the joy of thy Lord.’ ” I second their statements.

This is a Video tribute to him. It contains some of my favorite memories of President Hinckley. His testimony of the savior given in his conference talk titled "My Testimony" and it also contains the video clip from the time I went to General conference in October 2006 and everyone stood in reverenced awe as we cried our way through the hymn "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet."