Tessa. My BFF Forever.

It's Tessa's birthday today.  She's seriously the best little sister anyone could ever ask for.  I can not imagine life without her.  Here are some of the reasons I love Tess.  

She always has an awesome attitude, even when times are tough.  

She likes to watch sports with me.  And she came to BYU.  

She has the coolest/weirdest talents.  

 She likes going to concerts with me.

She's always got me laughing out loud.

She has the best booty.

She's my favorite ski buddy. 

 She loves America, and she loves going fun places. 

She went on a million hikes with me and only complained once. 

She accomplishes any goal she puts her mind to.  

Really though--always laughing!

Our names just go together.

She loves hanging out with me and my parents.  

She lets me cut her hair. 

She's just so pretty.  

We have the same brain which often leads to us saying the same things and dressing the same.

 Again...

and again.  

I really don't know what I'm going to do without this girl being there for me basically every second this next year and a half.  I'm so happy for her though and her decision to serve a mission.  She is going to be such a great missionary.  She is going to bless so many lives.  I know that the message she is taking to the people of Argentina is true.  God loves us and has a plan for each of us, and right now His plan is for us to be apart.  I know this is starting to sound dramatic, but people!  She is my BEST FRIEND!  You don't just go without seeing your best friend for 18 months unless it's for a very worthy cause (a mission just so happens to be the only qualification...).  Anyways, happy birthday Tess.  You're the bomb.com.  

Fear = Hate

A couple of weeks ago I had to read an article for my math methods class.  It was talking about why kids hate math and what we, as teachers, can do about it.  The article started out addressing the fact that most of the time students hate math because they fear it.  They don't know how it works, they don't want to make a mistake, so they hate it.  Of course!  This made me start to think about some of the things I strongly dislike (I really don't like the word hate...).  There's really only two things I strongly dislike, but the dislike is pretty strong.

First of all, there's my strong dislike for endings.  I dread the end of summer, the end of the semester, Christmas break, my practicum month, basically the end of anything good.  As I got thinking, I dread them because I fear them.  I fear losing relationships with people I think are great!  I fear losing my fun schedule that I've finally created.  

I also dislike snakes.  I'm highly terrified of them.  They are creepy, and slithery, and dangerous.  They're the worst.  

As I looked at these two things and thought about things that other people don't like, I was convinced that hate directly correlates with fear.  So, to get over disliking things we don't like, we've got to get rid of the fear of them.  Bringing it back to my teaching life, to get kids to like math, I've got to help them to not be fearful of math.  I've got to make it fun, exciting, and relevant.  So, to conquer dislikes, we've got to find ways to get rid of the fear.  Anyways, I just thought this was very interesting, and I love when I'm able to make connections between my schooling and my personal life :)

   

Fall Loves

There are so many things I love about fall.  The cool crisp air.  Sleeping with the window open.  All of these things: 

All things pumpkin.  Even if it's your stairwell.  haha!

Hikes.  The colors are unbelievable! 

Homemade salsa.

The cool, crisp air.  On bikes.  

Football season. 

Colorful sunrises and living with these girls. 

Parties on parties on parties.  

Fresh apples and Farmer's Markets.