I quit

Today is the last day that I work at Lehi Legacy Center as a swim instructor. I quit my job two weeks ago because I wanted to spend my summer writing lesson plans and getting ready to teach 8th grade English. Oh yeah, did I ever tell you that I am going to be an English teacher this fall at Vista Heights Middle School? I might have forgotten to mention that small detail on here, oops! Anyway, I will miss teaching swimming lessons and especially miss stealing towels from the lost and found. From this picture it looks like I came out with about 16 towels (give or take, some are my own). Awesome. If you see any here that look like yours, let me know. They probably are if you swim at Lehi Pool and left a towel ;)

Loves

Shark Post - duh da. duh da. duh da duh da duh da

I have a freakishly abnormal obsession over the idea of swimming with great white sharks. If I could hitch a ride to South Africa and get in a cage where a bunch of these sharkies were trying desperately to eat me but couldn't because I was in a cage, my dreams would come true. So of course if I wake up at 1:30 in the morning and can't go back to sleep, I go straight for the shark videos on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites with my man Michael Rutzen. Cool stuff

Now if I could be a shark tamer like this guy, that would be pretty awesome too.

Loves

Some Easter Flowers For You

This Easter season I feel overwhelmed by the beauty of the world around me. How miraculous God's creations are.

Happy Easter :)

Loves

I like to take long walks on the beach

Yeah yeah yeah, I don't care if it's a little cliche - I still dig the beach walks.

And yes I did take this picture, thank you very much.

Tonight I was sitting outside on the grass looking at the ocean. It's such an eerie feeling to be so small and to see such a large magnitude of vast dark water that lies beyond the safe sandy shore. To realize that the edge of where I am standing marks the place where the sea begins. To know that the ocean covers more of the earth than the land. How small and insignificant we are in this big world that we live.

Tired Burrito

I'm tired. But I ate a burrito today. Awesome.

You know you gotta question the nutritional value of something when it's bigger than your arm.
In other news, I watched kids and did homework all day. And I sat behind Mitt Romney at church. I believe in America. And The Weepies. They are a cool band. The end.

Loves

As I sit here and think

Clearly I am avoiding homework once again. Clearly. But it's days like today that cause a girl to stop and think about what's important in life. So let me explain to you my inner reflections by first laundry listing my day:

1. Watched kids that I love

2. Watched kids that I love on the trampoline

3. Watched kids that I love at the beach

4. Brought a kid home for a nap

5. Attempted to go surfing and was advised by my man Mitt Romney that the waves were breaking to close to the shore and to avoid surfing if I wanted to keep my back intact

6. Body surfed instead

7. Ate dinner at the burger lounge

8. Answered my nanny kids question that yes, I am indeed single because I have not decided if I want to marry a man with a mustache or not (he's into mustaches lately and trying to figure out if he should have one when he grows up. he just figured that I am probably having the same dilemma. Cute)

9. Read Splat the cat

10. Put kids to bed

Honestly, today was perfect. Absolutely perfect. And then I thought about what I am doing with my life. Why is it that I choose to be a teacher and give up this life of luxury? It is simply this, I want to do something more with my life than sit in a pretty house and have nice things. I want to be a contributor to society. I sort of weigh it like, I could help 1 or 2 kids grow up or I could help many kids grow up every single day. If I can be a positive influence for good in the life of that one student who needs a helping hand, I will be satisfied. I guess I just realize that I can do more good being a teacher than being a nanny. And that is why I chose to teach.

Loves

Meet Liv

Yep, I named my camera Liv. Not only do I admire Liv Tyler's modern elegance, but if I were to declare a global objective for this blog it would be to not be afraid and live. It just seemed fitting to name my adventure capturer accordingly. Now only if I knew enough about my new friend to actually do it some justice. *sigh*

Ok ok, enough with the muck already. Onto bigger and better things. I am currently at the nanny fams in sunny California listening to the breaking ocean waves mixed with some Regina Spector while bloggin. Awesome. So as you know I was a little bummed when I found out I had missed The Bahamas and Hawaii all in one day, but coming to California and finding out that I was being sent to my favorite beach home ever made up for the sorrow. Meet my casa :)

Pretty little house isn't it? I love it. I love the spanish tile, the white walls and furniture, the clean linens, the fluffy couches, the big yard. If I could imagine Heaven, it would be this house mixed with all of the people that I love and never ending Nelson's Frozen Custard. Now I told you a lot that I love about this house, but I haven't told you the best part. The most magical thing about this place are the two surfboards located upstairs and the beach that is right out my back door. What am I going to do every morning before I go nanny? You guessed it.

Well blog friends, I talk big but really my reality is that I have 100 homework assignments to do this week. I shouldn't be on here but I really wanted to post some pics up for my mama and share a few thoughts. But reality sets in and I gotta do 800 years of homework and hangout with the homework boyfriend that I have been trying so hard to neglect. You know, I talk about how this place would be Heaven under the right conditions but having to do homework and not being able to enjoy it fully is like, well you know.

Girl Meets Camera

There comes a time in ones life where they realize that they don't have kids or a husband so therefore, they are perfectly justified to spend $450 on a camera. I mean, its not like I am a dude who got chewed out by Pres Monson for buying toys instead of getting married (See here for more details about Pres Monson). So yeah, it's totally legit for me to buy a camera, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too as I purchased my little Canon Rebel T1i (priced at $700 from Costco, but I am a big believer in buying stuff for cheap off of ksl). Here it is, see!

What this means is that this is the last time you will ever see pics taken off of my little mac. Woot! It also means that when I go to La Jolla on Friday, I will actually have a chance to capture some of the beauty around me and hopefully at least give it SOME justice this time around.

So I've been thinking about a few names for my new baby. I figure just because I don't have my own kids doesn't mean that I have to be left out of the naming world, right? I mean I have a few names up my sleeve that I like that need to go somewhere because they are just that good. Some names I'm considering (in no particular order) are:

1. Lola

2. Rogue - Like off of x-men. My camera would definitely be a yobbo (British term for thug) with a name like Rogue! Woot!

3. Kirk

4. Ramona

5. Liv - I really like Liv Tyler. And also the name is like the word live which means to exist. What better name to give this little sucker than something that symbolizes life. Yeah, deep.

6. Ferngully

7. Xavier

8. Rufas - The name of the first dog I ever owned. One day he got lost and we spent all day driving in the car to find him. It wasn't until years later that I found out my parents took him to the vet to be euthanized because he bit a neighbor kid in the butt.

9. Gretta (thank you hippyhames.com for that suggestion)

Don't worry folks (because I know you are sitting on the edge of your chairs), the name results will be posted later once I have reflected deeply about this issue.

I hope all of you are having a terrific Sunday. I know I will be looking forward to some family dinner and dinking around with (insert camera name here).

Loves

Oh yeah, oh yeah

It's Friday night and i'm at the nanny fams. Awesome. Ok, maybe not so awesome. But one good thing about tonight is that instead of doing homework, I may have found the coolest blog ever. Eeeever. This is it. If you get a chance, hop on over to her street art page followed by the about me page. Make sure to watch the movie about her at the bottom of the about me page (and here are some more abouts for your enjoyment in case you didn't get enough. aBoUt. AbOuT. aBOUt). Now if you don't feel as inspired as I do from this chick, then well maybe you're just not cool. maybe. Ok fine, you are still cool if you don't like her. I guess.

Next piece of information. Last week my nanny family said to me "Jaimie, instead of going to California this year, we might take a boat trip to The Bahamas." Well this was ok for me, I went to The Bahamas last year and loved it. Remember?

(The boat. Aka, yacht)

Or how about when I did this in The Bahamas

Ok so then this week the nanny fam says, "You know, instead of The Bahamas, we might go to Hawaii." Me, in Hawaii??? Yes please! I've never been to Hawaii before. I pictured that it would be something like this -

(Macs are cool little toys, yeah?)

But alas, I got word yesterday that the final destination really is just California. Now usually California would be pretty cool, but when you compare it to The Bahamas or Hawaii, its a little bit of a let down. I guess beggars can't really be choosers though. I will enjoy seeing chief Julie down in La Jolla and hopefully snapping some pictures of the beautiful masterpieces of food that she makes.

So bloggie buddies, who do you read that I should know about? Any favs that you have?

Loves