Update

I am officially horrible at this. Everytime I look at one of my friends' blogs I get that small sinking feeling of guilt at how long it has been since I've posted anything. It's not that nothing has happened... in fact, my life has been crazybusy pretty much since I've written last. I guess it's better that I'm living my life instead of blogging all the time... but here is an update for those who are still hanging in there with me...

SCHOOL/WORK
Teaching 6th grade
LOVE my class
Tired all the time
Loving the paycheck
Hating the correcting/grading
Learning something new every day

CHURCH
Still choir director
Still learning to love being choir director...
Activities Committe Secretary
Missing Alyssa at BYU
Loving the ward

OTHER
Excited for fall
Not excited for the cold
Falling in love with the TV show Glee
Also in love with the soundtrack from Glee
Newfound love for the TV show The Office
Tired all the time (still)
Learning to get used to that :)

Happiest Place on Earth

This post is really late, but I wanted to make sure that I put a few pictures on here from our semi-annual trip to Laguna Beach, California. This year everyone on my dad's side was able to come, so there were over 30 of us! It was so much fun... I wanted to post all my pictures, but I took probably 200, and I'm pretty sure that would bore everyone :)




Our family took up the entire floor of our hotel!



Our family - Josh, me, Jacob, Dad, Mom, Ben, Lauren, Alyssa



The boys showing off their cute (white) legs.



Part of our sandcastle that we make every year... complete with hot tub.





We got almost every adult and plenty of the grandchildren in the ocean at one time. Even grandpa got in for a while!

Aaron, Cooper and Josh on the beach.

Jacob pretending that he's on Pride Rock during our walk to the Tide Pools.

The family at the Jack Wyland Gallery

Josh, Cooper, Will, Karaline, me, Lauren, Alyssa, Ben, Jacob, Samantha, and Emma. I may be the oldest in this group, but I'm definitely not the tallest. :)

Emma with her collection of sea shells.

The beautiful ocean. Sigh.

Some of the cousins at the hot tub.

Sisters forever. Dang, we're cute.

We wanna go back! Laguna is definitely the happiest place on earth for the Andrus family.

FINALLY!!!

As most of you know, I have been looking for a teaching job for a couple months now. As I went through college, my professors all said, "don't worry-- you'll definitely have a job by the time you graduate."

Uh, wrong.

My casual job search quickly turned into a panic as I looked and looked for jobs and found out that not only were many districts not hiring, but some were even letting teachers go. I checked the postings daily (or more), traveled to at least 15 schools to try to get my foot in the door, and ended up going through 7 interviews.

And now...

I HAVE A JOB!!!

Yesterday I got a surprise phone call from a principal who had interviewed me about a month ago. She ended up having a position suddenly open up, and remembered how fabulous I was. (Well, who could forget???) She offered me the job, and after a hectic couple of hours trying to figure out my life, I said YES!

I am going to be at Oak Hollow Elementary teaching... 6th grade. I know.

I am so excited to be over the interviewing process, and I'm hoping that the stress of starting my career won't happen for a couple weeks, so I can just enjoy this for a while. :)

The Countdown Continues...

Only 11 days until graduation! Yay me!

Positive Thoughts

I'm getting to that point in my life where I have to make a lot of scary decisions. I find myself overwhelmed and stressed at times... ok, a lot. So I decided to write a post of things that are going well in my life and that make me happy. So without further adieu...

Things I am thankful for/happy about... (in no particular order)

- chapstick
- only having 27 more days of student teaching left
- only having 35 more days until graduation!
- David Archuleta
- California
- my ipod
- not living in Logan
- getting to sing in the Saturday afternoon session of general conference next week!
- my family
- Costa Vida
- flip flops
- free rent/food (thanks, mom and dad!)
- getting to go to Atlanta for my graduation present
- the beach... in California
- warm weather
- my car
- slippers
- YouTube
- graduating from college (uh, did I already mention that?)
- American Idol
- America's Next Top Model
- roller coasters
- when 1st graders tell me what they REALLY think about something
- blogs
- DVD's
- getting my bachelor's degree (seriously, I'm wearing my graduation cap right now)
- the color green
- the Sandy Library
- movie soundtracks
- my digital camera
- my queen-size bed
- the gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

I could probably think of other things, but this post has gone on long enough, don't you think?

Happy March!

I love how I decide to start a blog at the beginning of the busiest semester I've ever had. I apologize for how bad I am at this. If you are still checking this blog to see if I've done anything, good for you.

Well, it's March. YAY! Today was so warm and lovely... by the end of the winter I am SO depressed because of the cold and the lack of sun. Hopefully spring will be here to stay. I would so much rather see this...

than this.

Things You Can Learn from a 10-Year-Old

So my first block of student teaching is done, and my second one has started. A couple weeks ago, I said goodbye to my fourth graders. I had mixed feelings about leaving them - on the one hand, it's nice to move on to something new. On the other hand, first grade is SO different! As I tried to figure out how to sum up my fourth grade experience, I decided to make a list of things that I learned from hanging around with 10-year-olds for two months.


1. 4th grade boys still have cooties.

2. Nothing is worse than having to stay inside for recess to finish your math homework that you didn't do the night before. Seriously, it would be so much more fun to go outside in the -20 degree weather and watch your hands turn into little icicles.

3. Sometimes, you just forget to bring your backpack to school.

4. Or your shoes. No big deal.

5. Hanging out in the hall is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

6. Hanging out in the lunchroom is not.

7. It's hard to understand why teachers get mad when you ask if you can go to the bathroom and then stay in there for 25 minutes so that you accidently miss the spelling test.

8. "Miss Andrus Ball" is the absolute funnest thing to do for P.E. time.

9. It doesn't get any better than taking the colored paper from the classroom and folding it into... stuff.

10. It would be better to die than to have to hold a girl's hand for the dance concert!

11. "Shrimp Poppers" taste a lot better than they sound.

12. So do "Chicken Pieces".

13. There is nothing wrong with spending all of the classroom money that you have earned for the entire year at once... on Silly Putty.

14. Sitting in the bean bag chair during silent reading is by far the coolest thing you get to do at school.

15. Learning how to do long division is probably the worst torture that you could give a kid.