Let's Get Down to Business (to defeat! The Huns)

It's October, and with that we have entered into six months of weather perfection here in Arizona.  Today I took advantage of that by going for a 6.5 mile bike ride.  It was the first time I've ridden my bike in at least 4 months but I don't plan on letting that happen again.  In fact, I've decided I am going to start training for a sprint triathlon.  I came home from the bike ride and started researching local ones and have decided to do one on Thanksgiving:

http://www.active.com/triathlon/goodyear-az/10th-annual-sport%EF%BF%BDs-authority-southwest-valley-family-ymca-thanksgiving-day-relay-sprint-tri-du-2013

400 yard swim (easy), 12 mile bike ride (after today feeling like that won't be that bad) and then finishing it off with a 2 mile run.  The run will probably be the most difficult part but that's what training is for. :)  I'll keep you updated on my training!

Has it really been four years?

Today is yearbook day at school. I am probably in the best mood I have ever been at school. My yearbook is filled with students telling me that they will miss me and that I have been their favorite teacher this year. I've even had a few students who weren't in my class come and sign my yearbook and say that they wish they had had me this year. I'm gonna miss PG next year. I've definitely had an amazing first year.
Some of my favorite ones:
"I am so glad that I had you as a teacher. You made my least favorite subject one of my favorites this year. I will miss you and I hope you have fun at your new school."

"Ms. D! :) You are probably one of my all time favorite teachers! You are the best! I am gonna miss you so much next year! If you were teaching next year I would be in your class for sure! Thanks for everything."

"Mrs. Dunc! Well this year has been crazy! You've been the best teacher ever! Thanks for teaching me so well! I'll miss ya next year... things just won't be the same! Love ya Miss Dunc!"

"You are the best math teacher ever! I learned more from you than any other math teacher. you are so-o fun and awesome it makes me go glad face. I hope you have an awesome, fantastic, wonderful, & any other happy word summer."


There are others, but I'll stop. But seriously, I have loved so many of my students this year, and I will never forget them. It has been sad to say goodbye to them today. Signing yearbooks today has really brought back memories of senior year. It is weird to think that it was just four years ago that I was sitting out in the hallways signing my friends yearbooks. This feels a lot like that year since I am leaving Utah for good in about a week. That is right! I am leaving Utah on June 8th. Lindsay and I are driving back, so we'll make it home in time for my birthday! I keep forgetting that my birthday is coming up so soon. Kelly gets home on Saturday so she will already be there. Then Emily and company come on the 17th! Tamara is coming out to visit me July 1-15th, and we are going to take a roadtrip to New York. Then my cousins are coming out for a few days in mid July, and then I will be driving back to Utah to move out to Arizona at the end of July! It is going to seem like a short summer but that is because it is jam packed with fun things. I can't wait to get it started. :)

Ciao Bella.

Not Quite New

So I may not be new to the blogging world... but it's been awhile. My most successful online posting was definitely back in the days of Xanga when I was in high school. Every year or so I go back and read through a bunch of them and am always amazed at what I wrote. I wish I had that for college (though I do have real journals) and so now I'm determined to start up again.

I'm at a crossroads in my life. I graduated from BYU about a month ago, though it has felt like I've been done for over a year. I've been teaching Geometry and Algebra 2 at Pleasant Grove High School for the past year. There are only four days left in the school year and I can't believe it is really coming to a close. It has been an amazing year. Sure, there have been some really tough times with the Devil Spawn (re: my A2 Geometry class) but there has also been a lot of fun with my other classes. I got to go to Prom again! How many 21 year-olds can say they've done that. (Ok, I know a few, namely the college kids that snuck into our Prom). I have students who come in and spend their lunch with me... because I'm just that awesome! (Ok, they aren't my students... but they are Andrew's... and they really *do* love me). Though I've been looking forward to the summer for awhile, I will definitely be sad to say goodbye to my kids, because yes, I do call them my 'kids,' and not my students. I purchased a yearbook though, and I'm excited to get it tomorrow and for my kids to come in and sign it. I'm even going to go to Yogurt Bliss with a few students when the school year is over. I've also enjoyed working with the fellow teachers at the school. I've made a lot of friends and it truly is a great school.

That being said, I've made the decision not to come back to Utah in the fall. It no longer feels like I'm at the right place in my life to be in Provo. This year has been hard with me working and not in school, and I don't want to do it again. It's too hard to live in a college town and not be a college student. I've thrown around a lot of ideas for my future, and until about an hour ago I was pretty sure I had decided to move to Gilbert, Arizona, whether or not I got a job for next year. (I've applied to two schools in Gilbert that I would *really* like to work at). I would only be and hour and half from Emily, Duane, Ainsley, and Eli, I would be in the warm sun, and I would be surrounded by a lot of LDS singles. It seems like a great idea. I've been working on getting my certification in Arizona, and if I get one of these jobs, I would definitely move there. I've even been trying to convince Kelly to move there with me. She just graduated from law school and could move somewhere at the end of the summer as well. :)

The only reason I'm even considering another option is because, just tonight, I saw that there are now two job openings at Naperville North, the high school I attended. That was always the dream! I would absolutely love to go back and teach at my high school. The jobs are both part time (.6 and .7) and are both for Algebra 1 (which is not ideal) but still.. it would be a stepping stone. It would mean moving back in with my parents though, and I'm not sure that I could handle that. After living on my own for four years, it would be a rough transition. I love my parents, but it would be hard to go back to having parental supervision all the time. I'm not sure I could handle it.

So I don't know. I'm still trying to keep my options open. I've spent hours applying to schools in four states, and am currently working on getting certified in Arizona and Illinois (in addition to my Utah certificate). I'm sure whatever ends up happening it will be a good year next year (because I won't be in Provo...) but I wish I could just decide.. or even that it would be decided for me.

Anyway, this is going to be an AWESOME (but short) summer. I'll blog more about that later. As it's now after one am on a school night (only four more days!) I shall be signing off now.
Ciao bella!

Kelsey's Bridal Shower

So today I threw my first bridal shower! It was for Kelsey Bischoff, one of my dearest friends and forever roommates. We met all the way back in freshman year when we lived across the hall from each other. We were roommates last spring term, and life was great. It was then that she met Dane, and through some meddling, they finally started to date in July. Yes... I will admit that they still would have dated even if I hadn't intervened, but I am convinced that I did speed up the process, at least a little bit. They've pretty much been engaged since January (I mean.. they had the date for the wedding and all,) but Dane officially proposed on Monday April 25th. The reason this was a big deal was that Kristen and I wanted to throw her a bridal shower before we all split up for the summer. (I'm going home, Kristen was going to Finland/Russia and then to Wisconsin and Kels was moving up to Salt Lake) We figured out that the only weekend that would work was the day after Kristen got back from Finland (today).

Kristen and I started to plan the shower before she left, but mostly we figured we would just get everything ready the morning of. Kristen's flight was supposed to get in to SLC around 9 on Friday night and her and Kels were going to drive down in the morning.

Lo and behold when I walk out of school on Friday I had a voicemail from Kristen saying that her flight got canceled and that she wouldn't be in Utah until 7:30 on Saturday evening. (Problem: the bridal shower was supposed to be at 3!) Since there were just five of us, we decided to push the shower back until 9 that night so that Kristen would have time to make it.

However... this left me planning everything! I was a little nervous/stressed, but in the end I think it worked out. We played some fun games (Do you know what you're eating?, Wedding Pictionary, Make a Dress, and How Well Do You Know Your Fiance?) and it was lemon themed since Kelsey is the biggest lemon fan I know. My favorite was the last game. Earlier in the week I had Dane over and I interviewed him for the game. I filmed his responses and edited them into a movie on Friday night. I filmed Kelsey's responses as well and I'm planning on inserting her answers into the video as well and giving it to them as part of their wedding present.

All in all, it was way fun. In the end it was just Kristen, Kelsey and I left at my apartment. Both of them were spending the night. It was our one last hurrah before we all separated and we had so much fun. I'm really going to miss these girls. I still can't believe that Kelsey is getting married and Kristen is going on a mission! Their lives are certainly going to be exciting these next few years and I'm excited to experience it with them.

Ciao Bella.

Summertime and the livin's ez.

I love life! I love summer! It is finally warm and is supposed to be in the 80s and sunny all next week, which is perfect for my birthday which is coming up in 6 days! Don't know what I'm doing to celebrate yet, but you had better believe it is going to be awesome. :)

So good news to all of my non-existent followers out there: I made it to the gym yesterday, and I just got back from going today. I got sidetracked so only had time to go for 30 minutes yesterday, but it was still good. Today I went swimming for an hour for my cardio, and then went in the steam room afterwards which was good.

So last night turned out to be a way fun night! My roommate Courtney from freshman year texted me and wanted to go to dinner with Kristen and I last night! I haven't seen her since last year, so we got to work organizing something to do last night. We decided to host a 'breakfast for dinner' party. Kristen invited a girl, Sarah, from work, and two of her old FHE brothers, Jonathan and Bradford. They brought along Bryan who is in their new ward at Cinnamon Tree. Then I invited Tamara and Nichole who also brought along Daniel. Then roommates Lindsay and Kelsey were also there. We made french toast and scrambled eggs and cut up some watermelon. All in all I would say it was a pretty successful dinner. Then we played catch phrase for awhile until it was time to leave for the movies. We went to go see "The Losers" at the dollar theater. It wasn't the greatest, but it had some funny moments.

Then this morning I got up at 8 to go to our ward temple trip. We had been planning on going up to the Mt. Timpanogas temple, but it is closed for cleaning so we went to Provo. Afterwards, Emily, Kelsey and I went to Spoon it Up to get some fro-yo. I told them it was reminiscent of my youth and going to Baskin Robbins after our ward temple trips.

Ciao Bella

Life

So I'm currently supposed to be finishing my homework for Mthed 308... or at the gym. But what am I actually doing? Finally starting the blog I thought I would start a long time ago. Don't expect updates all that often, I'm pretty bad about being consistent with things like this. But I suppose I should start with an explanation regarding the title. I am currently in my last term of classes, meaning that in 13 days I will officially be done with classes for the rest of my life... or at least until I get a masters. I have a teaching internship at Pleasant Grove High School in the fall where I will most likely be teaching Algebra 2 and Geometry. So even though I'm 20, it seems as though I'm supposed to be a grown-up by now. I'm not really sure when this happened; freshman year seems like last week sometimes. My roommate Kelsey is graduating in August and then going on a mission, and life is starting to get real. So even though I don't feel like I'm an adult, in less than three months I am going to be responsible for the education of over 100 teenagers. I'm incredibly excited for the opportunity, but definitely a little nervous about it as well. After spring term is over I'm headed home where I'm going to enjoy my last month and a half before I'm supposed to be responsible. :) I plan on spending the month of July in my pool and anyone home for the summer is welcome to join me!

So now more on current life. I love my ward!! I moved into Park Place for spring term with my best friend growing up, Kristen, and Kelsey who was in our ward freshman year. The ward has been super social and this is probably the best semester I've ever had at BYU. I'm hoping that someone will want to sell their contract and that I will be able to move back into the ward for fall semester. I've spent a lot of time going to intramural games. My ward is super into them and there are two ultimate frisbee teams, two soccer teams, and a softball team. I've gone to all the soccer games, most of the frisbee and finally made it to my first softball game last night. I love how much of our ward goes out to support everyone at the games. Last week the two ultimate teams played each other and our bishop even showed up to support the teams. The league of shadows may have emerged victorious, but I will always be a quick like a ninja fan.

I've also finally gotten back into exercising regularly. I'm back on the elliptical, resistance level 10 and incline 6. The first two days I did 3 miles in 32 minutes then 4 miles in 32 minutes. Then on Wednesday I went 7.05 miles in an hour. Then yesterday I went 7.75 miles in an hour. That is the one problem I have is that I always try to beat what I did the day before but sometimes it is just a little out of reach. The goal for today will be to beat 7.75, and I guess I should just believe in myself, but as long as I get over 7 miles I will be happy. I don't know why I didn't work out as much last semester; now that I am going again I am loving it! Last week I went and played sand volleyball with some new friends and it was so much fun. It definitely made me think of the swimmers and of freshman year, but it was awesome. I've yet to be on an intramural team and I figure this is kind of my last chance to do it. I want to be on a volleyball and maybe even basketball team for fall. I went and played ultimate with some people in my ward on Monday after FHE and it was fun. I love summer and being active!

I've also started to run into a lot of random people of late! A couple of weeks ago I was at YoZone (which I am whole-heartedly addicted to) and I pulled into a parking space and a car drove up behind me and honked (because they wanted the spot.) Danielle looked over and thought she knew who it was, but then he rolled down the window and I hear, "Ashley Duncan? Is that you?" I looked closer but I couldn't really see who was in the driver's seat but I said, "yes" and he was like, "its James Porter!" This is a kid I went to EFY with like five years ago. He came in to YoZone and we caught up and it was awesome. Then on Friday I went to Acoustic Explosion and ran into Josh Mora, a kid I haven't seen since freshman year! Also there was Weston, a guy who was in my ward last semester and who I had not seen since then. It was way random, but it was a lot of fun. I've also started to see a few boys from freshman year around campus and its a little strange. Every time I log onto facebook there is a notice that "so and so is now friends with so and so and 39 other people." I'm excited to have a reunion in the fall with the ward and get to hear about everyone's missions!

Alright, I really shall get back to doing homework now so that I can make it to the gym in time. There is a play-off soccer game tonight at 6:15 that I wouldn't want to miss! I'm definitely their good luck charm and they would lose without me. ;)

Ciao Bella.