I guess I should probably give another update, although not much has changed, including how the snow outside looks. The snow hasn't melted for about six weeks now, and I'm beginning to feel like one of the kidnapped brides in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I always wanted to be one of those women, and now I'm a little appalled at the thought of it, especially having to be Millie!? Yuck.
Anyhoo, this semester has been an easier semester so far. I'm currently working with a classmate to design an educational app for 3-5 year olds. It's fun. Let's just say this Masters is way more fun and enjoyable than my English Masters. I do miss the literature though.
In my day job as an instructional designer, I don't get to do something as cool as design an education app, but I am working on a course training elementary teachers on how to teach reading. That's fun. I'm sure glad I found instructional design.
I'm about to grade a batch of student papers this week. Always a little bit of agony.
I'm still plugging along as choir president, but was released as visiting teaching supervisor. I'm glad I have been in choir; I've gotten to know some people better than I otherwise would. Although, now that our ward has done away with the "apostate" Singing Sunday School (20 min of choir practice during Sunday School and the last 20 minutes were the sunday school lesson), our choir numbers have drastically reduced. Understandably.
No dates. And that reminds me of a funny analogy that my family told me about. Elder Oaks shared this woman's analogy in a regional conference in Provo, and I found that it fit perfectly:

The situation of a Church member who is single can be illustrated by a simple analogy. Imagine that your favorite hobby is stargazing and you’ve just joined a stargazing club. You come to your first club activity eager to participate. It’s a cold night, but you’re not concerned: most of the club members are wearing club jackets, and you’ve been told you should be able to get one as well. But there is no jacket for you. You ask about it, and you are told to keep looking and that if you do your best, you will find a jacket when the time is right.

Meanwhile, you are getting pretty cold and a little worried. And you notice that most of the other club members are talking about how nice and warm their jackets are. In fact, throughout the evening the topic surfaces continually in various forms: how to wash and dry your jacket, how to add extra pockets, how to mend it, and so forth. Some of the club members notice you don’t have a jacket. “You really need a jacket for these activities,” they tell you. “Why don’t you have one yet?”

Well, my day job has slowed down quite a bit in the last week and a little, enabling me to move out of my parent's place due to their return from their mission, and into the basement of my cousin's house. I'm happy to have my parents back and the basement is a great place. I'm very happy to stay there while I do some house/condo/townhome shopping.

I would prefer a house, but it is turning out to be quite difficult to find one. I don't want something old, but everything new is huge! I don't want to deal with HOAs, and I do want to have a small yard.

The more I look though, the more it seems like I will have to go with a townhome because a house just doesn't seem to work.

I got another calling as choir president in addition to visiting teacher supervisor. Makes Sundays a little stressful having to get all the music out and the prayers picked and the meeting started. I think once I get the hang of it more, I will come to enjoy it.

It is still pretty brutal trying to get through paper grading for BYU-I, but when has grading ever not been a trying experience? :)

With the extra time, I'm also enjoying my classes more and learning more.

I can't help but include this little analogy of being a teacher so that you can get an idea of what my day job is like when we're trying to get our clients to give us the information we need:

So FUNNY!

I couldn't resist posting this for all the word geeks/U2 fans out there:

These people are putting out a book about scrabble words. What an ingenious way to advertise your book.

Update: Okay, perhaps this is only funny when you have been sleep deprived by all your homework... He does a pretty mean Bono a la 1997, though.

I listen to the Harry Potter series as I exercise and I just finished the 5th book (one of my least favorites-along with number 2). On that note, I saw this on Pintrest and had to post it.

For all the 80s music fans out there, I got a big kick out of this one.

I realize that the lyrics are bless the rains down in Africa, but it is still hilarious.

I'm just about to head over to my former apartment to finish the last bit of moving and cleaning. I have moved into my parents' condo for a year while they are serving a temple mission in Washington DC. I'm the spoiled one, I know.

Before I begin the massive cleaning, I just wanted to share one thing for a flashback to the 80s:

These are some really cute and creative videos of kids telling their versions of a family story.

Btw, episode 6 is hilarious.

I saw this on awkwardfamilyphotos and couldn't help but have to post it. Hilarious.

Yay! Things have slowed down a bit and the sun is shining.

I saw this funny picture on someone's blog and thought I would repost.

Well, it's been a while. I don't have to go in today until 11:00 so I thought I would post something hilarious that my friend Jen showed me.

On this website they discuss a new internet series "Portlandia," where they do little skits about indie designers, locavores, those who only eat organic, etc. Here is the link to a website that links to the three video skits. My favorite is the second one about chicken.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/portlandia-put-a-bird-on-it-know-your-chicken-137921

A friend sent me this from a site about funny facebook conversations. I got a kick out of it.

I found this comic and thought it was very funny, although I have always found "The Yellow Wallpaper" a little too close to my fears about mental illness.

I thought this was funny. I do love Christopher Walken.


 
I was reminded of this reading when I stumbled upon something similar in this glorious treasure of remixes of U2's music. The apple fruitleg version of "I Still Haven't Found I'm Looking For" is hilarious. It takes a bit to get into it, but then it is similar and pretty funny.

This has probably already made the rounds, but I found it hilarious. Once again, why did I choose my field?

As an online teacher, I no longer have to worry that I will react like this when a kid's cell phone goes off (I can't believe he answers it!!!!)

After meeting with an owner for 2 hours to discuss the budget, she still insisted the home owners association did not need to raise the fees. Preposterous. We are not getting enough in to pay the bills. I walked away feeling like the accountant for Walter Matthau's character on A New Leaf. A must see if you have never.

The very hilarious part I am refering to starts at 5 minutes, 30 seconds in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udUyUQvu5w4&feature=related

My friend let me know about this and I had to post it. I am a huge fan of all the noise of Irish dancing-I even took an Irish dance class at BYU, but I could never stand Michael Flatley, aka Lord of the Dance. In honor of him... (so well deserved):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LsQ5gcf_fo#t=0m25s

(I can't embed it.)

Well it was a rough first week trying to get in the groove of doing the class, but things are looking much better today.

In honor of the fact that I am now teaching an English class (unfortunately not a literature one), I decided to post this in case anyone hasn't seen it yet: Jane Austen Fight Club (with yet another appropriate blog background change).

I chose this new background because it reminded me of this.

I was able to set up the "classroom" for one of my sections and they are still figuring out the other one.

I saw the eye doctor yesterday and for the first time-since I was born probably-my eyesight had not become worse. Wahoo.

I saw this on awkward family photos (see link on side of blog) and maybe because of all the weddings I've been to lately, this struck me as extraordinarily funny. Why are they in a tub? Who would do this?

So I was just introduced to this site where the author posts pictures from pretentious furniture/home magazines and pretends to be the married couple Elaine and Gary who live there and write captions for the pictures they take of their home (does that make sense?). There are some gems. Here are some of my favorites.