This Just In

You know my below blog about the key drama? You might find yourself asking, "now what did you do Jaimie?"

Well after a fun filled day of nannying (and it really was! The gateway, McDonalds, and gingerbread houses:), I came home, got out of my car, and realized I had my nanny families car keys in my pocket. If you find yourself asking, "how?" I would gladly respond that,

I don't even know.

I just laugh at this point. Good thing they had an extra pair of keys because I was not looking forward to the 40 min drive back to Holiday Utah. And good thing they just laugh too :) Oops!

Some major car keys drama

So far during the week of finals I:

1 - Thought that I had locked my keys in my car at my nanny families house. This resulted in me having to call my Dad to make the 45 min drive to SLC with me spare key. Of course this happens the night when I had oh so much homework to do. When I got home, I discovered that:

2 - I had locked them in their car and not mine.

3 - Lost my spare key about 4 different times throughout the week. One day, I had to take my parents car to school because of lost keys.

4 - Finally today after my final, I realized I had locked my spare key in my car at my parents house 35 minus before I was supposed to leave to go to the nanny people's house again.

Oh the key drama!

Blog readers, my question now is what have you done under major stress which resulted in even more stress???

I patiently await your answers

I Work at a Pool

I teach swimming lessons at the Lehi Legacy Center. I teach a parent child class, little kids, and one week every month I teach adults. Sometimes my 3 year old kids say something to me like this:

Me - Ok guys, show me how you can blow your bubbles (look at kids in class and see Alice just standing there). Alice, why aren't you blowing your bubbles?

Alice answering in an innocent voice - oops sorry, I was going potty.

I laughed. I heart my job :)

Sleeping to the Sound of Breaking Ocean Waves

My first experience with my nanny family was in California. The start of my employment with them began with a dinner eating steak outside and watching the sunset on the ocean. This is that same view:

I have this picture because over the weekend, I revisited California for the first time since I quit my nanny job. It was so nice to sit and reflect on all of the things that I have done over the last year and think about how I have grown. As a few of you might now, going back to California with them presented me with a lot of anxiety. It was a big relief to face some of the fears that I had previously had. In the end, I found myself having a delightful time. Nothing makes me happier than being by the sea. On a walk to the beach, I commented, "I can smell the ocean." My little girls grandpa made the rebuttal "yeah, it stinks. Smells like seaweed." I smiled and said "I'll take it." And then heard the response, "It's good to have you back Jaimie." It's fun to have worked so closely with a family and develop a love for them similar to that of my own. They are good, good people.

On this trip, I stayed in this room:

I show you this picture because my nanny kid came in and said to me:

"This is the room that uncle A uses. He sleeps naked you know"

Awkward.

Despite knowing that I was sleeping in uncle A's bed that he sleeps naked in, I had a wonderful time in California. Nothing does the soul good like getting some vitamin D in the midst of all of the winter drudge. I'm glad I had the courage to go on this trip; it was well worth it.

What did YOU do this semester?

This morning I woke up, looked at my big stack of books for school, then got excited about how I get to sell a big bunch of them back so that some new students can figure out that they hate them too. The books at the top of this picture are the ones that I am going to SELL. Woo hoo! I hated some of those. I mean really, I can only take so much early puritan writing. Boring! But, if you know me, you also know that I am not a book hater. The bottom row shows the books that I will keep and lovingly place on my wooden bookshelf that my Dad made me when I was in Junior High.

The books that enter into that honored location called juniper wood bookshelf are:

The Remains of the Day (one of my favs. Good read)

New British Poetry

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Brick Lane

The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

Hawthorne's Short Stories (I realized how much i LOVE Nate Hawthorne this year)

The Blithdale Romance (another good read)

Frederick Douglas

Leaves of Grass (Ok so I already owned 2 copies of this, but I did revisit it as was required for class so I included it anyway)

Wow, this semester flew by and then dragged by and then flew by again. I'm happy its almost over and I can reap the rewards of another one down and then just one more to go. Gosh, can you believe that after this semester, I will become a teacher??? I can't wait to start my big kid adult life soon :)

Sick of Being Sick and Ode to Mr. Blog

With a dozen kids running around over Thanksgiving, I eventually caught the nasopharyngitis (thanks for the new term Matt).

I don't know if this is the same for you, but sickness seems to invoke a careless attitude towards fashion. As shown in exhibit a -

Exhibit A

Apparently from this picture, I am wearing plenty of layers and I'm sporting my new warm maroon socks with Christmas holly on them. My feelings about this - everybody needs a few pair of Christmas socks that your Mom gives you after black Friday shopping, yes? Yes. And in all reality, who cares if I have been running around in the same shirt since Sunday? Who cares if I wear a coat all over the house even when not going outdoors? Does it really matter if I fashion my beanie for an entire day in class? All I know is that throughout this whole ordeal, I sure am thankful for the kleenex that has become my constant companion.

BOO FOR BEING SICK

But!!! On the flipside, sickness means I got to pay a little attention to my dear friend Mr. Blog. I've been thinking lately that Mr. Blog and I need to spend some more quality time together. This thought process came about because I will admit it, I have a blog fetish. I religiously follow a couple of blogs like Nienie, Darlyblog, and Lauren. Sometimes I look at these people and think, "if only i were better, more witty, cuter, cooler, had more fashion taste, was more fluid of a writer, I could have a cool blog too." But you know what? I don't care. It doesn't matter if I walk around sporting the same outfit for practically 3 days because I am sick. It doesn't matter if I don't have a big exciting life filled with high adventure (at least currently). It doesn't matter if I don't have a husband or kids to write little cute things about. I am what I am right now. And I can choose this day to give my blog as much of a voice as I have in me to write. I look forward, from this day on, to the challenge of articulating the development of myself and those I love through the creativity of this external thing known as my blog. I am what I am, with my mismatched clothes and all, and it is good.

The Emerald City (aka Seattle)

I sort of fell in love with Seattle last weekend. Here is proof of my love affair