School and Bathroom

Well, it's official....Lynette has graduated and I am finally finished with all of my classes. We are now getting ready to take off on our journey to Texas. What a wonderful time of life! Well, I am here to actually post some pictures of our bathroom. I will have to post later to talk more about how things are going but right now I will just post pictures of the bathroom.

I'm Done!!!

About 14 months ago I started a masters program through National University (located in San Diego, CA). It was a Masters in Education. Each class was a month long, jammed packed but flew by quickly. Our "capstone" or thesis project was to write the National Board Certified Teacher portfolio. (Teachers who do this don't have to re-certify for 10 years and in Utah get an extra $1000 a year for 10 years) I'm not able to submit my portfolio because I haven't been teaching the required amount of time. For this portfolio we had to video tape ourselves teaching, discuss how we assess our students, with specific examples of two students, and discuss how we work with parents, the community, continued learning, and our leadership opportunities. Last night at 6:30pm I turned in my portfolio!!! It's over, I'm finished, it's completed!!! I can't believe it. There was a time when it was questionable whether or not I'd finish a BS. There are multiple reasons I decided to do this program, it was fast, I was single when it started, and I get paid more (about $200 more a month!). It's been just about the only thing on my mind...what will I do now? Here's a list of things I've missed the last 14 months and can now "get back into:"
-sewing
-reading for fun (if you've read anything really great lately let me know)
-exercising (it's happened a bit on and off)
-getting into one or two TV shows (probably LOST and Bones or AI)
-teaching my classes at school
-leading the ward choir
-staying in touch with long lost friends
-etc, etc, etc

The official graduation is May 1st but I'm celebrating now. You're all welcome to celebrate with me. Oh and please call me "Master Lynette" :)

Spring Fever

Well, after reading Mark's post, I am definitely wanting to get out and get doing some spring activities. I wish I could stay in Utah this spring/summer so that I could continue to play softball, go biking, and enjoy the Utah mountains, oh well, can't have everything I guess. I will just have to learn how to enjoy the beautiful Gulf Coast. :) I want to go mountain biking but at the same time, I still want to go skiing. This must be the problem with spring in Northern Utah. I recently came back from New Mexico for my Nerd Squad Competition (Chemical Engineering Car Competition) and the weather down there was beautiful. No snow and a mountain near by to go biking. Side Note: We did win the competition so we will be headed to Philadelphia this coming November. (BYU came in second).

Anyway, I will tentatively be headed up the mountain this weekend to go skiing to get what will most likely be the last ski trip of the season. Well in my indecisiveness I will have to just figure out what I want, Spring Skiing or Spring Biking!

7th Graders and Sewing

Most of you know that I teach the cooking and sewing classes at a regular Jr. High. Well these last two days have been out-of-the-ordinary exciting (sewing with 7th graders is always exciting). On Monday I had a 7th grader put a sewing machine needle through his finger. It wasn't your normal "needle through the finger" either, it was one of the worst I've had. When the girl sitting next to him called me over I had to cut his finger away from the machine, there were two (2) strings going all the way through! (Bytheway, the needle went through his finger nail, it always goes through the side of the nail, not the nail itself) So a few of the girls were freaking out so I had this young man go into the other room to clean it out and get a band aid. Well, when I went into the other room to see how he was he was just sitting there staring at his finger. As I got closer I noticed that the threads were still there. He couldn't bring himself to pull them out so I had to. (It's a good thing I have a strong stomach) I kinda felt like a doctor taking out stitches, it was kinda fun. Anyway, we got him all cleaned up and back to sewing, which he wasn't to excited about. Then today a couple students in another class were talking about it and then all of the sudden this kid walks up to me holding his finger with blood all over it. I was a bit shocked but sent him in the other room to clean it off and get a band aid. It was kinda like deja vo (sp?). Again, as I went in he was just sitting there. I didn't think his wound was that bad, it didn't go all the way through his finger, but as he took off the paper towel I noticed the needle still embedded in his fingernail! I asked him if he could pull it out and he tried but then said he couldn't. So once again, it's a good thing I don't faint at the sight of blood b/c I had to take tweezers to it to remove it. He was in pain and I asked him if he was going to pass out but he said he wasn't. Good news. This group of 7th graders have been so careful, they are only with me until Friday. Why all the trauma now? Just to put your nerves at ease, I located these boys later in the day and they were still alive with their fingers still attached! Happy endings are my favorite!

My First Attempt

So.... I have never done this before. This is my first attempt and I thought I would let the Weston Family know a little more about me. So I am finishing up my Junior year in Chemical Engineering and it's a lot tougher than I thought it would be as a married man, but with a little more focus and hard work, I am sure that I can pull through. As most of the family knows Lynette and I are headed to Corpus Christi this summer and we have recently been looking for apartments. I am extremely glad Lynette and I did not have to do this to find our first apartment. Thank you Bryan and Joanne! Anyways, we are getting pretty excited about it and are still trying to find that apartment. It doesn't help that the company has not mentioned anything about when I am to start, so, we try and guess. We are looking to be able to take a week before I am to start and visit some of the family on both sides. We might even be able to see "Wicked" in Missouri (my brother lives there). It is going to be a wonderful experience to be in Texas. The company name I will be working for is called Celanese Corporation. They work in Chemicals, Polymers, and other products. It's a company similar to Dow Chemical, but about 8 times smaller, only a 6-7 Billion dollar company instead of a 48 Billion dollar compnay. They came to the school about 2-3 years ago and since that day I have been very impressed with them. The two representatives that they had were wonderful people who I thought did a great job of selling their company. I set the goal to get an internship and it came true. They are a great company and they called me last week and let me know that they wanted to take me and the other interns skiing at Solitude. It was incredible! 15 inches of new snow, mid-week, no lines. It, again, was awesome! I will have to post a picture of me at the top of the summit, but as for now, just know that I went to Solitude. Well, that pretty much gives you some info into my life at the moment. Hope you all enjoy.

Good News!

The school I teach at has been battling with the school district as to whether or not we have to implement the MYP-IB (Middle Years Program-International Baccalaureate). We met with the superintendent today and were told we don't have to do it! I could go off on why we're so excited about this but I won't. Look it up if you're interested. Happy Day!!!

Changes

Ok, I know, it's been like 500 years since I last posted. So much has happened since that wonderful chaco's post. There have been times I've been about to post but the task has been too daunting. But I've finally overcome my fears and just decided to post. I'm not going to promise this is going to be a regular thing but I'll try. Here goes on an update for the last 6 months.

End of August 2007: Anthony Vance and I start sitting next to each other in church (it's magical)
September 2007: He asked me out on our first date on the 15th. (Again magical)
October 2007: We break up but get back together a week later. (He couldn't stand it not being magical)
November 2007: Anthony proposes on the 15! (Need I say it again - totally magical)
December 2007: We get married on the 15! (The 15th is a pretty magical day for us) We honey mooned at Brian Head (lots of relaxing and skiing) We enjoyed our first Christmas and ran our first 5K together.
January 2008: We found ourselves living in the basement of my parents house with reality settling in.
February 2008: The 15th marked our 2 month anniversary

So, that about sums up my last six months. There are times I can't believe I'm married and have a husband. If you had told me six months ago that I'd be married before my half birthday (march 8) I never would have believed you. But it's true and I love it. It's so fun to wake up next to your best friend. And it was definitely worth the wait!!
(I'm trying to attach pictures but I'm not sure it's working. If it does they may be in random order. But they are pictures of us playing DDR while dating, our wedding, skiing on our honeymoon, and our first christmas (I made UofU pj's). I'll post more pictures later. I should have done a slide show but I don't know how, oh well.)