Concert of a Lifetime

Brad, Aaron, and Aj came and performed at my school today.

They performed all sorts of different songs..

Format, She Doesn't Get It

Country Road .. John Denver

Bubble Toes by Jack Johnson combined with Bob Marley Stir it up..

But when Taylor Swift You Belong With Me began....

There were screams and swaying to the music, and boys and girls were singing every single word.

It was amazing.

I got the chills even.


Aaron was incredible on the drums and spoons.

Brad played the electric guitar except Country Road, and Taylor Swift, in which he sang his heart out.

Gosh I love him.

Aj sang the rest of the time.

I gotta get the footage from Brooke, then I'll woooooooo you.

I made it through my first week of Lead teaching in Student Teaching. I made it, and now I just have ONE week left, ONE observation left!! Can you even believe it? I am done after that. Minus the sailing class and Stats class I will be taking. Done done done. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. Being in someone else's classroom and trying to fit in, in so many different ways. The epitome of difficult. The epitome of fear. The epitome of love at first sight when those kids see you.

Now they are even more in love with me, because I just had a concert. All for them.

We even wrote them a song.

Here are some quotes I heard while they were performing.

"They are so hot!"-Girl, obviously in love.

"These guys are AWESOME!!!!"-Boy as he stood and did I love you in sign language with both hands.

"Oh my gosh, they are the Jonas Brothers!!" -Girl telling her screaming friend.

"Please have them come everyday."
"YOU GUYS ARE THE COOLEST EVER!!"

Afterwords, the 'band' was talking to each other....talking about how their audience loved them so much!!!

I was like, "EASY guys, don't get too excited, they were only 8 years old...of course they loved you."

No but in all honesty, they played so well, for Aaron just meeting Aj minutes before performing, and Aj and Brad totaling about 2 hours of practice time. I think they would make a great band. But I am biased as Aaron is my brother in law, and Aj is my husband's best friend....but still I think they did a remarkable job and I never want to forget it in my entire life. It was nerve racking to combine my worlds of Brad and Family with School and Kids, but I want to do it again sometime. I know it is something my children will be talking about until I leave. School of Rock style....should I start a class band? I know I've got some singers due to the belting that occurs in the morning when the National Anthem comes on the loud speaker.

P.S. I have some more exciting news for you.

But I'll wait for that. It's information you can't handle.

PPS If you want to see a clip of Brad playing when he was my boyfriend....here ya go!


Click here to rock out.

Success in many things

Things are going better. I don't feel so stressed and uptight.

I don't cry when Brad tells me he likes it when I do the laundry..meaning he hates it when I don't do the laundry. Doing the laundry means folding the laundry, because we don't really have a washer and dryer to physically do the laundry...

I feel....like I can do this.

Two and 1/2 weeks left of student teaching. I can do this.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have an observation, then I have class, then I have a game.

A game where its the tournament.

And then Friday is a big day too.

Brad, and tentative others are coming to play at my school.

Not like play on the playground...

but like play in the band play.

Brad, electric guitar and vocals

Aj, acoustic guitar and vocals

Aaron, drums and vocals

for 80 second graders. I'll take a video :)

Tomorrow I'm going to talk to them about music, being in a band and all that good stuff...kinda as an intro to the band.

Summer told me to stop doing so many spaces on my blog. She said just to write longer paragraphs, that would help her focus better. So I'm trying Summer, I really am. Look I did almost oup there we go 3 lines.

But paragraphs aren't real life, choppy short sentences are real life, because every thought I have is interrupted by another one..in my own head, then I teach 8 year olds and they can't sit still if their entire life and family's life and dog's life depended on it, so my thoughts are constantly interrupted. So the fact is...I'm trying to stay focused longer.

Gosh that was a long paragraph. Golly jeepers. Okay, we went to Park City awhile back. Boy did we love it. Kelly and Natalie and Liz were our friends who invited us. Thanks again Kelly. . We loved it!

Kelly and Natalie seem to be excited that I am taking the picture but Natalie just wants it to be over so she can eat her chicken finger. Chicken's don't have fingers, so that term should be voided.
She finally got the chicken finger, now she has distracted Kelly in order to take his fries.
Oh goodness, she got the fries and now Kelly is mad, but he cannot show his madness on camera so he suppresses his anger using techniques he learned from AM. Thats Anger Management class.
Natalie pretends that it was a joke, that it was all fun, Kelly laughs to appease the cameras but really he is so angry inside.

But seriously, they are dating and in love. Can I say that on here? Can I? Is that okay? I said it..

Enough about Natalie and Kelly. More about me....and Brad. I went down a black diamond. I lost my ski in slow motion. Brad only laughed. I hate modules. Wait, mojuls. Whatever.

You see,

I had to pee,

so I stepped into the stall to wee,

then I pulled down my britches and said yipee,

finally I can pee!

Then something happened you see,

suddenly who would come in but another SHE!

I was very naked and said ahhhhhhheeeee!!!

The she could do nothing but say Sorreeeeeeeee!!

That's what happened to me,

when I had to pee.

Pretty sure she saw everything...but we are all girls right? Me holding feminine products wasn't too traumatizing for her right?

Was that too much info? Oh gosh I should have stopped with the pee poem.

Regardless, I took some ski footage. While skiing.

And, I really like avocados.

Just when I feel like I'm going to give up...

I have a three day weekend....

Or I win 500 dollars....

Or like today, our landlords sent us back our rent money, because apparently we never have to pay rent again here. Isn't life wonderful?

So richer and happier due to the long weekend and lots of Brad time...I feel refreshed and ready, even when he hits the other boy in the crotch. I can deal with this. Life is okay. Life is good.

But I think the main thing I have realized from all of this... Life is too short to not just take a breather and realize, I can find the good in all of this.

My life could be so much worse, and I can control if it gets better.

Sometimes, I feel like I am stretched to my limit, but I just have to relax and realize that God won't stretch me toooooooo far.
Sometimes I feel like I am such a mess. Nothing is working, everything is falling apart. But I have to realize to take a step back and think about what I do have. And be positive.
Sometimes life is too big, its too much and I can't take it anymore. Its up in my face and I don't know what to do with it...

But that's when I say..."I can do this. I am a strong person. I am capable."

Ps if you feel this was motivational, good, that was my objective.

I almost...

I almost walked away from student teaching yesterday.

I almost threw in the towel.

My tear ducts produced more tears than humanely possible.

I stood up to her in a way.

And my score reflects that.....she was mad at me for doing that.

Brad told me, "Honey, what's more important your pride or getting a good score."

So I have decided to stop trying to stand up for myself.

But quitting with only three weeks left seemed stupid.

Life isn't about a score.

Life isn't about whether or not I am a perfect student teacher.

But yet I realized it is about the Lord, my family, and my passions.

One of those being teaching.

But I had a basketball game after student teaching, and I decided I love doing a lot of things, so if teaching didn't work out, I can do something else.

I have an etsy shop.

I oil paint.

I scrapbook really well actually.

I am a great babysitter.

I play basketball faithfully.

I have an incredible family with 15 real life siblings....

who has that? Nobody.

Nobody I know at least.

I grew up in the mountains learning how to move pipe, ride horses, preg check a cow, play basketball volleyball do dance cheer run track, be the president of many clubs, fish, swim in dirty nasty lakes, cook, clean, be the salutatorian of my graduating class, have 19 million boyfriends, all of the time, be the winner of 7th grade ping pong, drink spiked punch at a drama play, watch many different animals being born, raise rabbits, chickens, birds, cows, horses, llamas, fish, frogs, peacocks, dogs, cats, deer, and turkeys.

In college I have played on at least 50 teams at different times. One time I was on six teams. I have worked 40 hours a week with two different jobs while going to school and getting a 3.5 GPA. I have been to nearly all of the US states and one time I went to Canada, US and Mexico in less than 24 hours. I have been to Peru and lived there while I worked in an orphanage. I survived Peru after being attacked and beaten by three men in masks.

I am married to Brad who is ranked number 6 in physics out of 400. He plays the piano, drums, percussion, guitar, electric guitar all excellently. He has been in like 5 bands. He has a 3.7 GPA as a junior in college. He got scholarships for spring summer because of his excellent GPA. He writes me songs for my birthday and valentines. He comes from a broken home with so much drama for any one person. He is sleeping next to me now and I will have you know he is a very good person to sleep with. He plays soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, racquetball, ping pong, volleyball, and football. He volunteers at a health clinic. He got all As on the spanish test 2 years after his mission. He served a mission in Honduras where he lost 70 plus pounds. Wahoo!! He is an incredible man, and I am married to him.

So my life is good. I do have a good life. A life some people will never have.

So I guess there is a reason I am alive.

There is a reason I am teaching.

I am teaching because I am good at it, and the kids adore me.

The like me a lot.

I make them laugh.

They think I am pretty.

They think I dress cute.

They tell me my hair is beautiful.

They cry when I leave them.

They write me so many letters and notes I don't have room enough to store them.

My teachers that I work with like me too.

I would do anything for them.

Because they once were just like me.

So I do have a purpose.

No matter what anyone thinks, says or does to me....

I am a teacher and a person. I am real.

And I have real feelings.

After reading back on things about me, I realized I have never done this not even when I am down on myself, I wont say anything good about myself, its too tooty of your own horn.

But now that I have, I can do anything.

Because I am very capable of anything.

And some people, think I'm great.

Turn up the volume to hear who Faith wants to be when she grows up.

And really if all I have is Faith, I will make it.

And Brad.......he is the core of my existence. :)

She is so scary...

I'm getting observed tomorrow.

In every single way it scares me.

She sits back there with her scary laptop and her scary fingers typing away.

I try to ignore her but she is just so darn scary.

All of us other teachers think she is nice, and we probably would hang out with her if she wasn't our CFA AKA Observer.

During the lesson, everything goes wrong, maybe it doesn't go wrong normally, or maybe you just only notice it when she is there watching you.

She makes us better teachers...but she is just scary.

The whole lesson you are thinking of how she is critiquing you.

You write on the board and you are thinking that she is critiquing how you wrote, what you wrote and how long it took you to write it.

You walk around the room watching her out of the corner of your eye, watching her watch you.

Oh my gosh, I teach better when you aren't watching me, I promise I do, but you will never know, because you are never here when you are not watching me.

I don't get sweaty armpits when you aren't watching me.

Man, why are you so scary.

Sometimes I pretend you are my mom, nodding and approving everything I do.

Then I sit down with you after, and you tear me apart....you tell me everything I do wrong.

You start by telling me the things I did right, but that's just a trick.

You just bring me up before you drop me down off of a 50 million feet tall Eiffel Tower.

Like I said, I would be friends with you....if you weren't so stinking scary.

In the end, you will make me better, but right now...I'm just scared of you.



Dedicated to my observer: For her safety I will only tell you her name starts with an A.

I am writing this as I prepare for my lesson plan that I will teach with my observer watching tomorrow.

It helps ease my soul to write a little about her.

Maybe share the pain....you know like when you are crying and you tell your sob story to your husband, friend, or mom then when you get done you are like, that was too long and why did I even cry about that, everything is better now, all I had to do is tell you.


I will probably still get sweaty armpits tomorrow every time a kid talks out of turn, and doesn't follow directions. I just want them to be perfect and they aren't...and it gives me sweaty armpits.

A Big Fat...

This week was ....stressful.

I thought I wouldn't be able to do it.

The teacher fair was Friday.

I prepared 15 resumes.

15 cover letters.

30 letters of recommendation.

And 5 specific resumes, 5 specific cover letters whephs...

That was hours of work.

Hours of printing.

While Brad was trying to sleep....

He likes to make the sound of the printer....

nrrrraahhhhhh cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee un un un un un un un un un un slllllllllllllll clunk

hes pretty good at it.

Cuz I'm pretty good at printing while he is asleep.

Then I yelled at him....

Well it was Thursday, I was stressed about interviewing and being on my best game the next day......

We make fun of me now, we can laugh about it now....

Cuz I was worried I wouldn't get ANY interviews.

And I got 4!!!

I know...standing ovation.

Anyway we were driving in the car and the convo was very basic, it went like this.

Brit, you are amazing, why are you even stressing, you are amazing you will do great!-Mr. Relaxed I have no worries man.

Brad, You don't know anything! You go to school, you do your homework, and then you turn it in! That's not real life! I am real life!-Brittany in a fit of rage.

Okay, I don't know anything.-Brad

Brittany puts her hand on Brad's shoulder.

I'm sorry, I overreacted.-Brittany

Silence....

Silence......

We moved on, and didn't talk about it until Sunday, where Brad said in a girly voice....."you don't know anything!"

Then we both laugh...

now its over.

Wow, on to the main topic here...

A girl from work, Lynda Freeman...she sells Mary Kay, and she emailed everybody last week telling them about a meeting where they gave out prizes and had a cash drawing.

I thought I would attend.

But Brad had a game in the morning, flag football, so I was late to the meeting where Mary Kay tries to get you to be a consultant and sell Mary Kay.

But when I got there, they took good care of me and got my items to receive a pedicure.

I sat next to one of my friends from work who was also attending.

I had butterflies the entire time..thinking about this cash drawing at the end.

You see.....we are very poor right now, and we have to move out end of April.

And we found a place we love, but the deposit is 700 dollars!!

We were going to ask to borrow money, but I have never done that in my life, so that was out of the question for me, I would have rather just found a cheaper dump to live in.

But I cry every time I see a leech in my sink.

Or everytime I wish I had a dishwasher.

I know that I deserve better, I work hard and I know that I deserve a tub.

And I know that I will have a full time job with benefits come September, so we can afford a place with a beautiful back yard and a garage and a tub and a washer and dryer and two bedrooms, and a dishwasher and no leeches in the sink.

I know I can afford that.

But the deposit is 700.

Something that I don't have saved up right now for various financial circumstances that have occurred.

So I made sure I prayed out loud, and extra hard this past week, #1 that we could get the house we applied for, and #2 that somehow we could find that money.

You know where this is going don't you?

Tosha's birthday was also on Saturday, happening as I was sitting with my newly painted toes waiting for these prizes to get over with and this cash drawing to occur.

We filled out this blue paper.

I'll never forget filling it out.

I was so nervous, my hands were shaky. My pen didn't write very well.

I didn't put my address like I should have.

I didn't read what kind of person I am, I just checked a box and handed it back to the lady I should have handed it to.

Then I waited.

I waited as they collected all the blue papers, which were the ticket to your cash drawing.

I had butterflies so bad, I was even starting to sweat.

I looked at the clock, it was 11:25, Tosha's lunch started 25 minutes ago, I was so late and they were going to be so mad at me.

I decided to leave.

I started to gather my things.

Then I decided to wait.

I waited.

Kept looking at the clock, oh my gosh I am going to miss the whole lunch.

My mom and sisters are all waiting for me, texting me, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

My stomach is turning.

They have this stack of blue papers.

The lady pulls one out.

She says, "Okay the winner's name starts with a B."

Its me, Its me, I know its me. I can feel it.

People with B in their name raise your hand, she says.

Me and one other girl raise our hands.

Tell me your names, she says.

I say, Brittany, shaky and almost in tears.

She says, Becky.

Congratulations....

BRITTANY!!!!!

You just won 500 dollars cash.

I walked up.

Everybody was smiling and hugging me.

She counted out 500 dollars in twenties.

I tried not to cry, as I prayed deep inside.

That may have been luck to some of you, but to me it was my prayers that I said out loud every night.

That was for many reasons that I cannot explain.

That was not luck, but yet fate.

And as I held the money up and shook it for all to see, I said, "Thank you so much, so so so much."

I was saying thank you to many people, but mostly God.

I waited until everything was over, then I ran out while Brad was waiting for me.

He joked with me saying before, You know you have a 1 percent chance of winning.

I jumped in the car, money hid.

He said joking as he drove away, "So did ya win?"

"TOTALLY DID!!!" As I showed him the cash.

He double took me and said, "What? Really?"

No, this cash is fake!! YES YES I WON!

I walked in to Magleby's Fresh, apologetic and happy.

I said to the table already eating their food, "Sorry I'm late, there was a 500 dollar cash drawing and I wanted to wait for it."

Then I started to walk away.

Sally was taking a bite of her food and she said, "Did you win?"

At that point I threw the 20s on the table and said, SURE DID!!

Everybody screamed and clapped....

Brooke hugged me.

My mom started crying, cuz she knows all of the drama, she knows I was praying.

Then the rest of the day, I glowed and said many silent prayers.

So a big fat miracle occured.

And a big fat thanks to Mary Kay and the man upstairs....up a lotta stairs.

Before he gets home...

I thought I would post a little blog, before he gets home and starts demanding all that stuff ... hugs, kisses, food. :) You know what husbands do.

I told you we were going home.

To my home.

Standrod that is.

And home we went.

Brad drove the whole way.

I was a grump so I ended my grumpiness by sleeping 2/3 hours.

My dad baptized Ian. He was super cute. Saying things like.....how many people are there in China that are baptized. You know the normal stuff a child genius would think of.

This is my sister Summer at the baptism. She doesn't put any pictures of her pregnant belly on her blog. So I told her I would do it for her readers...so they believe that her belly is growing. And grow it does. She always dresses super adorable, and when I am pregnant (when not now, and not if) I am going to wear sweats...amap. Thats 'as much as possible.' Im all for acronyms.

And here that belly is again......here comes that baby with no name yet...Girl though, it is a girl
Oh didn't you know that Rosie, our dog....had puppies. 7 to be exact. If you want one give us a holler. They are mutt's and they are free...although Rosie is half german shepherd...the rest mutt...but mutts are genetically proven to fight off disease and all sorts of bad stuff better....and be better cow dogs...if you were interested in that.
Shad...oh shaddy shaddy poo. He was in the play My Fair Lady, which I love the movie and loved the play. No he didn't have the lead role, we was: A drunk, A nice gentleman, and a great dancer. But Shad, seriously if it wasn't for you 18 people wouldn't have came, and really....thats pretty good attendance for just an extra, so basically you are famous, and I don't believe any other role in that play got that much support. Its like you got the support for DD when you only really deserved the support of an almost A cup.

Thats not true, you deserve all of the support in the world.

I'll make Brad look at the floor next time we come, so he doesn't make you fall out of character and laugh...but who knows, the audience may have thought you were supposed to laugh right there...who knows.

And she...doesn't she make you just melt because she is so stinkin cute.

She found my heels...and just went crazy.

Posing anything we told her to, and just a doll.

And to finish the Standrod trip off......here is her blue round eyes and demanding for attention look...about to say, "Brit, come here and get me a drink, and a piece of brown bread with jam and butter on it".

She's two, and I feel like she is 45, but a bossy 45.

Took this yesterday.

Sometimes he doesn't do his hair.....

Sometimes it looks great...sometimes not so much.

If my hair grew as fast as his....I would be cher. You know like the singer.

But this face right here....

Could really get anything it wanted.

Sometimes

Sometimes when Brad wears his glasses at night...I wish I had them too.

See don't I look more .....sophisticated teacher like?

Brad just looks so cute in them.

Handsome...smart.

Ps he got a 100 percent on his physics test today.

He is too smart.

But at the same time he isn't very good at writing my lesson plans.

But I guess I think for 5 year olds, he thinks for himself :)

I miss the five year olds.

Bad.

Not that I don't love 2nd graders. I do.

But I miss singing, "Im bringing home a baby bumble bee"

And I miss her calling me Mrs. Clarks.

And I miss my mentor teacher.

I miss everything.

Today I taught fractions..it went well.

I burnt my tongue on Slab pizza.

Go there. Get bbq chicken. Its the freakin best. Its right on 8th north.

Thin crust but its a quarter of a pizza. Sooo goody.

Ian is getting baptized this weekend.

Don't worry. Ill keep you posted.

Playing.

We have been playing a lot lately.

I handed in the TWS yesterday. All 500 pages.

Just kidding its like 50 or something.

We had this date night. . These are all of Brad's guy friends that brought their dates...fiances... (I almost typed finances...which is kinda true..fiances are your finances...or more like an investment... a bad one if you find out they suck at cooking after you get married.)
This is my hair. Brad wouldn't be serious....and this is a laptop picture... Probably the day that my student said, "Mrs. Clark your teeth are white." At lunch I looked in the mirror to check and make sure they were not lying.

This is Heather playing Catch Phrase. This is Kevin, they are newly weds.
They only got in a few fights...

This is Brenna and Eli. They will soon be newlyweds. We were playing hedbanz. Its a creative fun way to say headbands. Its from the 1500s. Queens and Kings played it. Brad's person was Tarzan, he didn't even get it even after I sang ahhhhoooooahahahahhahahhahoewwwww.

I was Princess Di.

Brad's friend Jeff's girlfriend Brenda told me that her mom went on a date with Ted Bundy.

Then I read about him and got freaked out.

I thought about all the dates I went on before Brad.

A random guy asks me out...single date.

He could have killed me.

I got lucky.

On a happier note.

I switched student teaching placements.

I miss Kindergarten.

Every single thing about it.

But 2nd grade will begin to come naturally.

I graduate in April.

I'll send you an announcement.