The House That Built Me

This past Friday night I got to go to the Miranda Lambert concert here in Salt Lake. Let me just say that I LOVE Miranda! She is one of my favorite country artists and I love her country twang when she sings and the emotion she puts into her songs. I left the concert feeling very proud to be a strong, independent, small town, country girl!

These aren't the greatest pictures ever but at least it's proof I was there:

 Some of my favorite moments from the night:

• Miranda saying she wrote the song "Baggage Claim" in a state of being PISSED OFF!
• Realizing how much more down to earth and real country singers are then other celebrities
• All the mentions of her hillbilly or hick a** husband Blake Shelton :)
• The feeling of confidence I got and being able to relate to her through her songs
• Her singing "The House That Built Me"

In fact, "The House That Built Me" is probably one of my top 5 favorite country songs of all time and is my inspiration for this next section of this blog. (If you are not familiar with the words then you should first read them here).

I have spring break in 2 weeks and get to go home for an entire week to the good 'ol San Luis Valley and to the house that built me. Almost two years ago my parents moved into my grandparents house and the house my father was raised in. I've had mixed emotions about this move over these past years. It's hard leaving the place you were raised in and have so many memories. It's like the song says, I can't go home again but there are times I long to go back just to see it one more time and relive the memories. It's also hard going home to La Jara instead of Alamosa. For those who are unfamiliar with the area, let me fill you in. Alamosa is where I lived almost my entire life. It's the "city" of the valley and at least has a movie theater, Wal-Mart, bowling ally, several restaurants, and a population of about 10,000. La Jara has a population of under 1000 and has no stoplights. There are maybe 3 places to eat and 1 grocery store. As barren as it is, I've learned to love it.

Just recently I've discovered that where my parents live now is still home and a place that I never lived, but was still raised. This is a house that I hold very dear to my heart. It is here that my small town, country girl roots sprout from. It is where I learned to ride a horse, drive a tractor, brand a cow, siphon water from a ditch to irrigate, shoot a gun, and discover the enjoyment in climbing a hay stack. It is where I learned how to work, get back up onto a horse after falling off, correctly white wash a fence or wash windows, fix a fence, and get cows back into the field. More importantly, it is where I've gained a love for my ancestors and where I come from; where I've learned how important family is and how much I love them. It is where I'm proud to be from and constantly long to go back to (well, visit anyway :) ).

This is the House that Built Me:

 

I also miss my old house where I was raised very much. My parents moved right when this song came out and it made me cry several times thinking about not going home to the house I grew up in. But going to this concert and listening to Miranda sing it this time, has helped me realize that I still get to go home. I've never technically lived there, but it is the house that built me!

Viva Las Vegas!

Have I mentioned how much I love teaching because of all the breaks you get?!! I will never be able to go back to a job where you only have 2 weeks off a year. This past week I had a 4 day weekend. Monday was MLK day of course but the Friday before, we had off just to have off. Apparently elementary schools have to align with secondary schools who ended their term so we had the day off. It was called a recess day. Although I don't fully understand it, I'm not questioning it! So having a 4 day weekend usually means some sort of road trip for me and this time is was LAS VEGAS!
I know I don't live that far away from it, but I must admit that this was my first time visiting Vegas. I've driven through several times but never went down to the strip or anything. I went with my good friend Kristen who has been several times since her brother and his family live there and I don't think I could have gone with anyone better who would have shown me a true Vegas experience :)

We walked through the Bellagio and saw the botanical gardens,

then saw several of the fountain shows.

 

We walked a little of the strip as well. There were some interesting conferences and events going on this weekend but we managed to avoid most of the creepers. 

 

We had a delicious breakfast buffet that messed my stomach up for the rest of the day Friday (surprise, surprise), played some bingo, and spent plenty of time in the casinos. I think I only lost about $10 :). I have pretty good self control but can definitely see how gambling is addicting. Getting a bonus or free spins on a slot machine was very satisfying and I wanted to just try one more! I did win my money back a few times at least.

Saturday night was the highlight of the trip for me. You can't go to Vegas without hitting up a show and we decided to see Celine Dion. My friend Kristen is a huge fan and has seen her several times. I'm not as big a fan but am not ashamed to say I love me some Celine as well. We did have to wait in the stand-by line for a couple of hours but it was definitely worth it. The show was awesome and made me even more excited and anxious to see Titanic in 3D!!

We also hit up the outlet malls, ate at the very delicious Capriotti's sandwich shop, and stayed up way later than I normally do. It was a wonderful trip and I'm glad I was able to go. Now it's back to work for a long 5 weeks before another day off, but who is counting? :)

Work Update

I haven't written about work lately so I thought I'd give a little update. Overall, it's been going really well. For the past month, I've been teaching the older kids basketball. It has been very fulfilling watching them improve and get better each time. I'm constantly impressed how quickly kids pick up on things. Other teachers keep telling me how fun it is watching their students play basketball on the playground and to see how excited they are about it. Then today, one class wanted to do soccer really bad for their free day so we did. I then had students coming in all throughout the day asking to borrow a soccer ball to take out to recess. This is why I teach. I still have some extremely tough days and hard classes but at least I know I'm getting through to them!

Christmas 2011

I know Christmas was over 2 weeks ago so I figured I better blog about it before I forgot what I did! I don't want to bore anyone with a long description of the 10 days I was home so I'll just cover the highlights.

Colorado had a nice snowstorm just before I headed home so we were able to have a white Christmas which was awesome.

A couple of weeks before the break, I found out my car wouldn't last much longer. So on Christmas Eve I went out and bought myself a nice Christmas present, a car! It's a 2010 Hyundai Elantra and I love it.

I loved having Christmas on Sunday. It was a nice reminder of why we celebrate it. 

We took our time opening presents too. We didn't start until after church so we were done opening them at 4 pm. It was fun taking our time and enjoying the reactions of others.

The rest of the break was spent sleeping in, shooting guns, riding the ATV, watching movies, and eating WAY too much food. I enjoyed spending time with family and finally having time to completely relax and not worry about teaching. But now it's back to the real world and hoping 2012 will be another good year! 

A Miller Thanksgiving

I realize this post about Thanksgiving is a bit late (and long) but it's worth writing about. I think I was more excited for Thanksgiving this year than I've ever been. I couldn't wait to go home and see my family. I had also been sick a few times over the past month and really needed time to rest, which I got. It also lived up to my expectations and turned out to be a very Miller Thanksgiving.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, one of my best friends got married and I went to her beautiful luncheon. She looked gorgeous and I was glad I was able to attend. It was also nice to catch up with some friends and to see Kristina's family as well.

After the luncheon Sarah and I headed to Colorado. Most of the drive was in the dark which wasn't too fun but we made it safely. I did get pulled over for speeding which wasn't cool but the nice cop decided to let me off with a warning since it was Thanksgiving. I sure was thankful too! We met our family in Durango and spent the night so we could spend Thanksgiving day at my Uncle Monte's house like we've done for the past few years. It was nice seeing some of his family and of course the food was delicious!

Here are all the Millers loading up on the Thanksgiving feast. It was also really cool because this was the first year where everyone there had the last name Miller (there are lots of girls in the family so that hardly ever happens).

 I also spent a large majority of the day playing with the kids. I don't see them often so it was fun getting to know them a little better.

Friday was spent at home in good 'ol La Jara, Colorado. We woke up to snow so we rounded up some of my dad's snow gear and enjoyed pulling each other on a very old sled in our pasture. Dad and I also had fun doing 360s and fish tailing with the ATV (We act like children I know but for anyone wondering, I take after my dad in that fact). A very dirty snowman was made and a snowball fight followed as well.

The rest of the day we played games, went to Alamosa, and ate. I also got to catch up with one of my friends which was awesome.

Saturday we planned on heading to Alamosa as a family to see a movie and go out to dinner that evening. Our plans would soon change, however. We had a nice breakfast together then spent the morning hauling Christmas boxes down from above the garage. We took decorations to my Grandma's nursing home to spruce up her room and visit then headed back home. I went inside to grab a bite to eat. Maybe 5 minutes had passed since we had been home when all of the sudden Sarah screamed, "He fell off!" My first thought was that we barely got home, what could my father possibly have fallen off of? We all ran outside to see the ATV flipped over onto its side and my dad on the ground wincing in pain. Apparently he took the 4 wheeler out for a quick spin, saw a tiny patch of snow left over from the day before,  and decided to try to do a 360 on it. Well as soon as he hit dirt, the ATV turned onto its side and my dad fell off. He complained of his side and back hurting and he had a hard time breathing. Mom decided to call for an ambulance because we didn't know what he injured. So being a small town, the ambulance came 15 minutes later at which time my dad finally got himself to stand up. He was a bit embarrassed, especially when a neighbor stopped by to see what was wrong. He wanted us to take him but we didn't know how bad he was hurt so mom went with him in the ambulance to Conejos hospital. The 3 of us girls went inside and waited a long 4 hours to hear of his fate. Finally mom called to tell us he broke 3 of his ribs and would have to spend the night in the hospital. So we went and visited him and had to say bye to him there since we were leaving in the morning. I'm glad he wasn't injured worse. He was mad it happened at all but it was totally something he would do...or me. (Once again, I take after my father by doing childlike things). Our family plans were a little ruined at that point so mom spent time with him in the hospital while the sisters went out to dinner in Alamosa.

We left Sunday morning and drove back to Taylorsville and start the countdown to Christmas break (only 2 1/2 more weeks left!). As for dad, he is fine. He just had to take it easy and not go to work for a few days. He also got to see how many people care about him because he got bombarded with visitors and phone calls. This Thanksgiving was definitely one I'll remember. I hope Christmas is just as exciting although not having any injuries would be preferred!

I'm Only Human

This past week teaching has been crazy! I had a bad cold last weekend and the effects of it came during the week. I had really bad chest congestion which caused me to lose my voice. My guess is that I had laryngitis. I did ok with my classes on Monday but started really losing my voice during my last class. Because it was Halloween I of course ate lots of candy which didn't help the matter and while I was at a party that night, my voice completely gave out. I worried that night about how I was going to teach the rest of the week. I teach PE, so I have to talk if not yell most of the time. On my way to school I came up with the plan to just have my students watch a movie. I've had problems with my voice before and powered through it but I knew I could not do that this time. So I found an episode of the Magic School Bus that was about muscles and that's what my students watched. It only lasted 25 minutes so they were still able to do some physcial activity as long as they were good about listening and not talking while I tried giving directions. I powered through Wednesday which I probably shouldn't have done because my students Thursday had to watch Magic School Bus too. This means I watched the same episode 14 times! It was hard to stay awake. Besides that, I had two nose bleeds during classes. Anyone who knows me and my nose bleeds know they are no small matter. One I was able to control after about 5 minutes while the students were doing a game, but the other I had to run to the office and tell them to get someone to watch the kids while I took care of it in the bathroom. Dumb nose! By Friday I could talk loud enough for most to hear but still had to strain to talk loud.

All I know is that it was quite an adventerous teaching week. The teachers were really good about telling their classes to be on their best behavior and most were very sympathetic. I'm so glad I have really great teachers at both schools. After about giving up one day a teacher came to me and said, "I think you are still doing a wonderful job and remember, you're only human!" Those were some very simple but encouraging words. I realized that I can't do it all. Sometimes I need to do what I can to rest and heal and that is ok! I also felt good when I told a Kindergarten class that I had been sick so my voice sounded funny. A little boy then said, "but you still look beautiful!" I love little children :)

On a more postive note, my weekend was great. Sarah is off partying in Boston so I've been able to relax and really rest my voice at home alone. I also got to see my girls this weekend which was awesome. With the hustle and bustle of life, it's hard to get together with friends so I'm glad we were able to.

This picture is old but it's the most recent one I could find. LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

One of the best things about being a teacher is all the breaks you get (and I seriously don't know how we would function without them). This past week was Fall Break or UEA and I took full advantage of the break. On Wednesday, me and three friends headed off to Disneyland. We stayed in St. George the first night then left early so we were at Disneyland/California Adventure for 3 days. We then headed home exhausted but satisfied on Sunday. I do feel sorry for my students on the Monday after, I wasn't too energetic or patient.

The break was awesome and very needed. I loved being able to get out of Utah for awhile and relax at the happiest place on earth. It was amazing and really quite ridiculous how many people from Utah were there though. UEA really should stand for "Utah's Exodus into Anaheim." I swear every other family I saw had BYU or Utah attire on.

Disneyland at Halloween is absolutely amazing and I enjoyed all the decorations and special things going on. I also love how clean it is! It's truly magical how everything stays so neat and tidy.

I won't go into too much detail about the whole trip because that would take way too long. One of my uncles likes to make a Top 10 favorite memories list for trips so I'm going to do that. Some things will not make sense to you but oh well. They are in no particular order but are the most memorable experiences.

1. Amber having to hold hands with a guy we met in line on our very first ride.

2. Having the perfect seats on Soarin' Over California and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

3. The worker on the canoe named Mercedes.

4. Our planned pictures on rides. Splash Mountain was the best.

5. The rhyming and very talkative worker in Fantasyland that we had for 3 different rides.

6. World of Color

7. A worker saying, "Just like Beyonce, to the left to the left" while directing people where to walk.

8. Rosey's confession on the tram that she backed Jill's car into a pole.

9. The new Star Tours

10. Trying to keep a serious face for pictures on rides but failing miserably.

11. And this one I just couldn't leave out so there will be eleven. Me eating dinner with the Asian man.

And just for your enjoyment, here are a few other pictures from the trip: