Las Vegas High...School is ready to start

It is incredible how fast time passes and how far behind you get on letting people know how life is. It seems like just yesterday I was arriving in Las Vegas to student teach at Basic High school. Today 8.5 months later I am now officially a contracted teacher with the Clark County School district. The district is the fifth largest in the United states, and of the 44 high schools I interviewed at Las Vegas High School and was selected to teach foods and nutrition in their Family and Consumer Science department.

Since the day that Shalee Wells called me and offered me a position with their staff at Las Vegas High School I have constantly had teaching on my mind.

LAS VEGAS

I have got it everywhere...on my skin, in my hair, on my car, in my head, my email, my background on my computer, my finances, my phone...basically....IT IS TAKING OVER MY LIFE!!!!! arrrgh!

Yea, I am staying, but it isnt going to be easy....I am about ready to just QUIT! TOo Many decisions and too much paperwork, and too many people to talk to, and NOT ENOUGH TIME or energy.

The Elders asked me for referals today....I told them to give me a week. AS if I don't have enough to do...j/k. I havent been asked to refer anyone since I came home from my mission....it is sad! About time, that's all I gotta say!

Anyways...Send me your blogs!!!!!! and somebody tell me how to add blogs to my blog....I dont want to have to type in your information everytime I wanna see your BLOG....PLEASE!!!!!

Here Goes Nothing

So G-Day is quickly approaching. I have less than a month left before I am officially a College graduate. I am now making this blog public and I wanted to show a little about me so that those of you who don't know much about what is going on in my life will be able to get to know the CRAZY life of Jen in a way you havent had the opportunity to do until now. As for the last blog entry I put in (hopefully you read it) I have decided to stay in Las Vegas for a year and teach-I am not sure if that will turn into two years or if I will beg for another option...but the Lord is indicating that this is where I need to be and I am ready and willing to go where he wants me to go.

So here goes nothing....

I started College in 2001 when Ricks College was officially changed to Brigham Young University Idaho. My first semester the twin towers fell in New York, and I experienced a whole new world-completely foreign to me as a lowly farm girl from Montana. I found my first job, and made sure I could pay for school....Now nearly seven years later I find myself looking back and wondering if that 18 year old girl had any clue as to what she was getting into. I fully expected to be married before leaving college. I never thought about what would happen when I graduated from college a single white female at the age of 25...I never realized it was a possiblity. Now I am facing reality-I am single, educated, and extremely employable. So here are some pictures for you to get to know my personality a little better

Crazy and fun, while at the same time reserved....

No boyfriend or marraige yet...just alot of good guy friends

My favorite places in the world...

all in all I am a family person...

to sum it up....This is me-

Frustrated

Disclaimer: This post was never published, even though I wrote it way back when. I am now including it as a reminder of where I have been and where I am going. There were some really tough times back in Vegas, and this was one of the first signs it would be tough. Was I right to complain? Who really is the judge to say yes or no....all I know is I moved on, and we had a good student teaching experience. I am sure I did some frustrating things too, but since me, my little quirks and I are being totally honest with you, I am publishing this post, unaltered.

I am frustrated and annoyed with my roommate. I never could figure out how when I lived back at home I didn't have a roommate and I didn't have to have one. Now that I am at school and am paying to live I am forced to live with someone. I hate having to shut out the lights at night because I have a roommate who goes to bed at 9:00 and can't handle a darn noise during the night. I hate having to shut my computer off because the small humming noise it makes keeps her awake at all hours. I hate having to get up an hour earlier than she does so I can get ready in the morning-even though we leave at the same time-just because she never even let the thought cross her mind to be courteous to me and let me sleep in....I hate knowing that the second the bathroom door closes behind her is the second that I lose any hope of looking decent for the day because she monopolizes on the bathroom and likes to do everything naked while I am outside wondering what is taking her so darn long. I hate her messes, I hate her opinions about my friends, and her empty promises. I don't hate her by any means, we are friends, we do a lot of things together, but it is always her way or I am going to hear about it, and I am annoyed by her today. I don't want to graduate from college and move back in with a roommate...I should be able to find sanity and be able to live comfortably. Yea you probably think I could move my computer out of the room or shower at night right? Well think again...the other roommates can't stand my computer out of the bedroom because it isn't attractive...I had it out there for a few weeks and I know it frustrated one of them a lot-also taking a shower at night runs water and the other girls complain that is sounds like it is in their bedroom.

I am just complaining today, but I am frustrated and I had to get it out before I head off to school to teach. This morning I woke up early enough to take a small shower before I headed off and as I woke up-20 minutes before my roommate wakes up, she woke up too and tells me that she is leaving early this morning...why couldn't she tell me that last night, or tell me that she is not taking a shower so that I can plan around it since I have to always plan around her. So I guess I am used to people making me decision for me....so now I have to make one for myself and I can't seem to do it.....this sucks!

Now That I am here

Now that I am here it is a dificult thing to decide what to do with my life. Several months have passed since I started this blog, but I am still struggling with my decision. I have about six weeks before I am supposed to come to a decision that apparently is very dificult for me. I have thought about it alot and there are things that scare me about separating myself from everyone and everything I have ever known and permanently staying here in Vegas. There are things that I love about the idea of living here for a few years and things that I absolutly dread. The same goes for anywhere else I might go. I am a family gal...I need the family attachment to make me feel important and loved. I need access to the temple to keep me safe, and i need good friends that lift me up and help me on my way.
So I made a list of pros and cons about staying here and about going somewhere else.
here goes the list for staying...
Temple access
Job Security
Singles wards and lots of opportunities for good friends
pleasant weather
Place to start over
good pay
no family
no true friends
no grass
no mountains and water
it is Vegas...
The list for going is next...
Family
Friends
Cheap housing
already existing unconditional love
no singles
harsh weather snow/and hot sun
no job opportunities that I know of
pay????
I have to move again...($$$$$)
Temple is not easily accessible
So Now comes the time to make the time to make the decision. I pray often to know what to do and I think that the decision is my choice, the Lord has said that where I decide to go is where the Lord will prepare the way for me. I have to make the decision and present it to the Lord, but I have to decide first and that for me is the most dificult part.

...No road ahead and we are going way too fast...

This is a new point in my life...I am getting ready to graduate from college and really move out on my own. I know that I live out on my own while going to college but there is something so much more foreboding and unreal and scary and exciting all at the same time about going to Vegas and becoming a real professional, living my life, and making real decisions for my future...who knows what is going to happen.

I am just excited and a little bit anxious about being along for the ride....It is like that feeling you get when dad used to drive really fast over those bumps on Moise Valley Road and you felt like your stomach was jumping up your throat...It is exilirating and a little frightening at the same time.

I had an experience the other day where one of my friends took

me on a little road trip outside of Rexburg. She told me she wanted me to see this hill that she loved that was on the outskirts of Rexburg. As we are driving (and believe me I thought she was a "conservative" driver) she starts to speed up, the road is flat and there are few hills, no shoulder and no one coming...She keeps building up speed and I am getting a little nervous that her car can't stay on track going so fast and all of the sudden I look ahead and there is nothing, no road, no place to go...and then we are going down and I got that feeling again, the fear and anxiety mixed with pure thrill and enjoyment....It Scared me to death, and while I liked it the conservative collected part of me freaked out a bit when she turned around and took me back down the hill.

Though I will probably never go on that road again,

I do know that is how I feel right now about Student Teaching,

graduating, and making real life decisions that so far I have avoided-not sure if it was

purposly or not, but I have avoided them.
So here goes...this Blog is dedicated to me and this rollercoaster I feel I am being thrown off of...feel free to stay along for the ride!

About Time....

Times are changing and I am facing some serious decisions in my life. For the first time in my life, I don't have a real plan. When I graduated from high school in Fort Benton Montana I knew that I was going to college, I knew that and I knew I was going to come to Brigham Young University Idaho. When I turned 21 I knew without a doubt that I was supposed to serve a mission, I knew that I would be in the MTC for two months and then fly down to Antofagasta Chile for a total of a year and a half. I planned to come home and earn money before returning to school, but several months before I left the mission I knew that I was going to go to school right away and trust that the Lord would help me find the money necessary for my schooling. I knew the day I came home that I would have to fix my car, unpack my stuff, pack my stuff and head off to school within less than a week, that I would be starting a new adventure and that I would finish school in several years.

I knew then that my major would be Home and Family Education with an emphasis in Spanish Education. I know now that I am going to student teach in Las Vegas Nevada come January, and that I gradute from BYU-I in April...but what comes after is what really scares me. I guess it is not so much what I am going to be doing, but where do I want to do this? Is Nevada a place I want to stay for a long time? How about Montana....is that an option? There's always Washington... maybe Graduate school... Is marraige something that might come along? Where am I going to be able to be part of a young single adult program or be part of a good singles ward?

I think I think I think I think tooo much!!!!!

So a little bit about myself...I am 24, almost 25. I was born and raised in Montana on a potato farm. I am the oldest of 7 children and I was the first to leave home. Mom and Did still live on the farm in Montana, three of us are gone from home, and one is about to leave. My brother Justin and I are at school at BYU-I...we both went on missions to Chile, and I have only been in school about a year and a half longer than he has. Melissa is number three, she came here to school for a semester, but is now married and living in Washington with her husband Jeff and our first nephew Jackson. I still send my important mail home to Montana because I am moving soo much with college life and all, but soon that should be changing. I hopefully will have my own place, my own job (that I love and I chose to have) and I will be a part of a community again. Mom is a little sad that I probably wont stay as close to home as I have been the past several years though I know she is happy for me. Dad needs help on the farm, his hired hands are fewer and fewer every year.

I suppose the most important decision should make me happy and help me become better in my field as a professional. No matter what happens, I have to be happy with what I am going to do....this blog is my journey from now until then....whenever and wherever I am...