its all worth it.

I have come to realize that work is a lot of...work. 

It is time consuming, demanding, stressful and hard. 

I have definitely learned this at my first {almost} year at my job. 

I didn't realize that party planning at a school could be that stressful! 

But it has been, especially this summer. A lot more work than I wanted to sign up for. 

The demands of my summer job were really stressful and hard and most days I absolutely hated it. 

I think a big part of that was because the kids were missing. 

I do so much every day to help the kids, and without them, I was real annoyed in Draper most days. 

I realized this one day last week when I got the best compliment I could have ever dreamed of...

We just hired a new lady to be apart of our team and one day she excitedly told me that her best friend had a student that was in the 7th grade at my school last year. 

This was exciting to hear because this 7th grade boy was just my absolute favorite. 

We bonded over BYU Basketball and I think I cared for him a little extra because he was just so sweet and unfortunately he has had a pretty rough life growing up. 

He lives with his grandparents and the grandma is the best friend to my new coworker. 

 This student ended up having a rough year too and decided not to return to APA. 

However, the coworker relayed to me that the grandma had inquired about me, wondering if she had met me yet. 

She explained how her grandson had a hard time at APA and yet the only person at the school to make a difference for him was me. 

That I was one of the only ones who acted like I cared about him and really helped him make it through the year. 

It was such a humbling experience and immediately made me get teary eyed. 

And in that moment I realized that its all worth it. 

Everything I do at school, the stress and the sometimes annoyance of my job, all went away knowing that I do make a difference. 

Its a really odd feeling but I know that I love these kids. 

I love that I have 165 kids that I feel like are mine. 

School starts on Monday and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little excited. 

a night {or many nights} at the ball.

 My life has slightly turned into Cinderella!

Ive havent necessarily been scrubbing lots of floors or gotten carriage rides but I have attending more fancy Balls then I ever thought I would. 

Our culminating events for our Amabassador program at school is the school ball. 

Now this is no ordinary school dance. The students dance the waltz, foxtrot and the cha cha.  

And its always go big or go home with the decorations, set-up and fun for the dances. 

Within the three APA Schools, we have successfully had EIGHT dinners and balls in the last three weeks for five different grades. 

That means lots of late work nights doing prep work and then doing the actual event! 

 One thing that I have a love/ hate relationship with about our events is that we are on a very tight budget and so we are responsible to make all of our decorations! So in the past few weeks, I have gotten more DIY savvy than I ever thought. 

Hot glueing boxes with glitter, making decorative pillars, spray painting till my fingers were sore and black and flowers! Geeze! In the past month we have assembled boutonnieres and corsages for about 600 students. Hence I have become an expert on floral arranging. 

We had two formal four course dinners for the 8th graders at my campus. Making me in charge of all the decor and set up and assuring the night went as smooth as possible! The only bump in the night was when my heels broke. 

The last two nights have been our grand finale ball at the La Caille Restaurant for our 9th grade class. I felt like I had been transported to the Swiss Alps or was on a date on the Bachelor...

 

We had a a five course meal with escargot! It was my favorite ball yet because we have a stellar group of 9th graders. With only 28 students in the 9th grade class it has been so easy to get to know them and just love each one of them. Especially when the boys showed up in their tuxes and the girls in pretty dresses. 

Our school does an amazing job in the dance department. They attend dance classes each week and at the ball are able to do the waltz, foxtrot, cha cha, cowboy cha cha and the best one--Gangnum Style line dance which is so fun! Having these dances makes it so that each student is included (they have to dance!) they all know how,  so avoiding awkward dancing situations and builds their confidence.

 I loved watching them dance and see their talent, excitement and enjoying being there. 

Now with the dances over I am so exhausted and a little sad. I have loved working with my Ambassador Team so much the last few weeks and of course I don't mind ever mind dancing and having a party to attend!

 It has also been such a great accomplishment to work hard on something and see it come to fruition and better yet--the students love it! 

Now, only three weeks till summer! 

be a builder in every way

The last couple of weeks have been really hard and yet very rewarding at APA.
My job is starting to get really busy. I had to lay everything out in an attempt to get organized.

But I do love that everything I do is really fun, like our Sock Hop.

 

 However, I forget that working at a school brings a lot of challenges.

We strive so hard to uplift our students and engrain in them that they are capable, smart and have the capacity to change the world.

We openly focus on how much we love the students so they know that we are there each day to support them and help them.

But of course they still live in the harsh world, with all of its challenges and no matter what we do at APA they are still able to make their own choices.
 

A few weeks ago we expelled one of our 9th grade students.

She was 6 months pregnant. And fourteen.

On Tuesday we discovered one of the 8th graders had brought marijuana to the school.

Slowly throughout the day, as we called in more students about it, we discovered 5 others that were directly involved. They are all indefinitely suspended until they go before a board of parents to decide their fate at our school.

I cried going home that day. I have come to love each of these students.

And the child that brought in the drugs was one of my favorites. He is a pretty sweet boy and I have also come to know his mom who I know works so hard to help her children despite her lack of education. And lets not forget about her fight against cancer.

It's so rough and breaks my heart.

I hate watching them make poor choices which basically dooms them.

 

On the flip side, we still had some amazing moments at work this week.

It was kicked off by Staff Appreciation Week.

 

Full of breakfast and lunch each day, free massages, door decorations and an auction with our staff bucks.

We also had the annual Caring and Sharing Assembly.
We have an assembly at the Jr High almost once a week. At these assemblies we say the Pledge, sing the 1st and 4th verse of the National Anthem, repeat the Builders Poem and sing the Builders Song.
This is our Builders Poem:

I saw them tearing a building down, A gang of men in a busy town.

With a yo heave ho and a lusty yell, They swung a beam and the sidewall fell.

I asked the foreman if these men were as skilled, As those he would hire if he were to build.

He laughed and said, “Oh, no indeed, common labor is all I need,

For they can wreck in a day or two, what builders have taken years to do.”

So I asked myself, as I went my way, Which of these roles am I to play?

Am I the builder, who works with care, Measuring life by the rule and square;

Or am I the wrecker who walks the town, Content in the role of tearing down?

I’ve made my decision; I’ll start today,
I’ll be a builder in every way.

 

And so, a "Builder" is the schools theme--again focusing on bring others up, working hard and building others. We have these monthly awards, but our Caring and Sharing Assembly was awarding students from each grade on being the "Builder of the Year"

It was such an incredible assembly that again, made me so grateful to work at this school. I loved that this assembly focuses on awarding those students that strive each and everyday to be a builder. And that the school takes time to recognize their accomplishements and achievements in front of everyone.

It was a little cheesy with Josh Groban "You Raise Me Up" playing in the background after each name was read. But it was also so humbling to see these children recognized--that had no idea--and then to have their families there, in tears, to congratulate them.

I noticed that not one single student called was white. Rather a whole slew of different races and most of them you could tell didn't have a ton of money, the parents didn't seem to know English and they seemed so humble and beaming with joy. It was very inspiring to see and frankly, made me cry.

I loved seeing these students awarded and having a bright future ahead of them for working hard and making good choices. And I loved being a part of it in a very small way.

 



I got me an award!

Do I blog too much about my job? 

I don't care, cause in case you haven't gotten the memo...

i LOVE my job. 

I am always excited to come to work. It might get a tad stressful every once in awhile {like today since the Principal is gone and I am in charge!!} but I dont ever have a bad day. It doesnt matter what else is going on--a blizzard and freezing cold weather--it doesnt affect me {too much} cause I am really happy to be at an amazing school with such awesome students. 

Yesterday, I wasnt able to attend a staff meeting because I was running one of our events for the 5th and 6th graders. But halfway through our Principal pulled me inside for what I thought was just to give an update on my events. 

But it was just in time to be presented this from our 9th grade leadership council. 

It got me all teary eyed! 

I was so surprised to get this little award and it meant the world to me.

Just add it to another reason why I love this place. 

{however, spelling my name wrong...dampened it just a bit :) }

mi new trabajo

Sometimes when I am at my job, I think I am at church.

Not because Im surrounded by that many Mormons or white people.

But because at my school there are so many dang acronyms!

I work as the CDD at SNA of APA.

{I cant wait for my head shot to go up on the bulletin board}

 

Sheesh!

I guess my school was founded by members of the church.

I usually always get a little annoyed when people brag about their jobs, but I feel like its finally my time to brag about my job.

I freaking love my job.

I know I blogged about it before, but I am seriously so happy with my new position as the Character Development Director at my school.

I basically get to do all of the fun things at school. Help plan the 9th grade bake sale and winter dance, take the leadership students to see A Christmas Carol at the U, go on field trips to the Capitol, make the morning announcements {which is secretly my favorite part} and the best part...I dont have to do any prep or grade papers!

And to top all of that off, I now work with one of my best friends, Mo Milla! Monica got a job at SNA about three weeks ago and we love it! We sit in the office together and try our best to get our work down while chatting the day away.

 

However, the hard {slash, also really awesome}part of this new position, is that I am also the Assistant Principal. Since the school is founded on both Academic Development and Character Development {which is me!} I am the number two in command at school.

This means I sometimes have to put on a mean face and handle some discipline.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes its easy to yell at the students to get to class and be strict when they have to call home for the 50th time that day for not doing there homework.

But then there are the tough times, like what happened to my last week.

 

One of our students, who kinda has an anger problem, was sent to the office for stealing pliers.

I brought him into my office and tried my best to explain why stealing is bad {especially pliers by a kid who threw desks last year!!} and then told him he was going to be suspended.

He bursts into tears!

Yikes.

After giving him time to compose himself, I bring him into the hall to call home about his suspension.

Before I know it, my angry and suspended student is running and flailing down the hallway!

He is running away!!!!

I dont know what to do but follow after him trying not to distrurb classes as I am trying my best to yell "Stop running! Come back here right now!"

But he didnt listen.

 He rounds the corner and runs outside!

Looks both ways as he is trying to plan his best escape route and then runs some more.

So I continue to follow!

 Running after him, and yet also scared to actually catch up to him (since lets be real, he wasnt running all that fast) but I didnt really know what to do if I caught up to him!

What would I say to him? What if he tries to kick me?

Once I see him turn around one part of the school, I went back inside for some back up.

Luckily, our Guidance Counselor was there ready to deal with him, so I turned it over to her.

Its always an exciting day at SNA!

 

When I am not doing the Assistant Principal role of my job, my favorite thing has always been trying to help and support the students as best possible.

Like when I helped a crying 9th grade girl work and comfort her when he friends were being mean to her.

I got a note in return for that one. And many more. Stuff like this always brightens my day and makes me absolutely love working at a school.

I want to try my best to blog about funny things that happen at school.

Cause you know there is never a boring day with these kids!

 

 

Also, I know I havent been the best at blogging lately, but the other day I went through my google reader and noticed soooo many of my friends that havent updated their blogs in months {some even years!}. And to do some "spring cleaning", I unsubscribed from many blogs. But did I miss a memo here? Is blogging all of a sudden uncool? lame? I guess replaced with instagram....It made me a little sad. I dont want blogging to be uncool!

Halloweeeeeen!

I always say Halloween is one of my favorite holidays...you get to dress up in a fun costume and {when youre single} you just get to go out and dance. 

What could be better??

However, its also a holiday that always sneaks up on me. 

Before I know it, the big day is in like 2 days and I am always without a costume. 

Not too many other holidays do you have to do so much prep for, other than Christmas, and Im usually a last minute shopper anyway. 

This year my roommates were all going out to a party and I was about to sit home with no costume which is basically preposterous! So within minutes, with their help, I gathered a cat costume!

And it was a pretty dang good cat costume if I do say so myself...

So here are the White House roommates out dancing the weekend before Halloween

I LOVE my roommates. We all get along so well and I love that we are kind of a hodge podge put together but we all just fit so well with each other. 

And I love living with my cousin Angie. Sometimes I feel robbed of an extended family since I have grown up without much of grandparents and then since my family is so big and we have been the banished family members in California...so its just so fun to have my cousin here and share my last name with someone. 

However, on actual Halloween I had a pretty awesome costume...

At my school/job the students have to wear pretty strict uniforms everyday and were not allowed to wear costumes on the big day and so weeks prior the Jr High Staff decided dress as the students on Halloween! 

I will admit, I felt really ridiculous getting ready in the morning! 

{but at least my outfit was already planned out!}

But the students reactions were so worth it! They were so shocked and freaking out and loved it! However it was so difficult to tell the students and teachers apart all day! Especially as the youngest staff member, I was told by staff and students that they kept mixing me up with the only blonde student at the school. 

It was so much fun, and the staff enjoyed taking pictures together way too much!

I am still really loving my job and everyone that I work with. Like really love the staff everyone is so great and it just makes me extra happy to be at work. 

One month down and Ive already gotten a promotion too!

About three weeks ago I interviewed for a teaching opening at APA. I didnt get it....but its cause there was an opening as the director for the Character Development program at the school. The head school directors thought I would be a better fit and actually, I couldnt agree more. There are lots of parts of teaching that is just too stressful and although this position will be hard and stressful too its also really fun and I am so excited.  So starting in January I will be the Director and basically the #2 go to person at the Jr. High. 

Basically I really like my job. And Halloween. 

Living the life has changed...again.

I guess its time to set the record straight and make a formal announcement. 

My blog is changing one more time. 

I am officially living the SLC life. 

If this comes as a shock to you, it is most definitely a shock to me too. 

I never thought I would be living back in the Beehive State. Nor did I think I would enjoy it

 {gasp! however its only been a few weeks}

Sometimes it seems surreal, and other times it seems just normal. 

So I'll take that as a good sign. 

Heres the run down of how this turn of events has all gone down.

About two months ago I was in Utah for my Uncles funeral and as I already knew I was going to be unemployed come the end of the month, my cousin approaches me about finding a job at a charter school in Utah in which he has a connection. 

Utah!? No way. I am not moving back there, I think to myself. 

However, it intrigues me and I keep in touch with said cousin. 

As I go visit Utah during my unemployment {previously blogged about in last post} I get a phone call from the charter school asking me to come in for an interview. 

Im sorry, I didn't even apply for a job. 

They give me a tour of the school, meet with a few people, inform them I am interested in working at a school in any form possible...ding ding ding. 

I am then sent over to meet with more people for an open position. 

I meet with these people for over an hour and hit it off right away and felt so comfortable with them. 

The principal walks me out and tells me he would love to hire me. 

What!?
This is insane. 

In the meantime another cousin had been trying to persuade me to move to Utah {unbeknownst about this unexpected job interview} 

She has been checking out some places and keeps me up to date. 

I come back to LA and the first thing the next day the charter school calls and offers me the job. 

Then my cousin texts me and says they landed a house in SLC and if I decide to move I have a place to live.

I did no job hunting, I did no house hunting.
And all of a sudden I have both.
With a type of job that I have really wanted.
And so I accepted the job as the Jr. High Secretary/ Ambassador Program Assistant/ Dance Instructor at American Preparatory Academy.

I was so hesitant to actually pull the trigger and go through with taking this job and {ugh..} moving back to Utah. Which really was the last thing I ever expected or wanted and definitely cried a lot about it. And hence couldnt even tell anyone cause it was too difficult to even think about.
But the more I thought about it the more I realized it was just too good to pass up. Almost too good. Things worked out so well that it wasnt just a coincidence. I know the Lord was watching out for me and mastered this whole scheme.
And so even if moving to Utah wasnt my plan, and leaving California and some very, very important people there was very difficult, I know that this was the Lord's plan for me and have faith that everything else will work out.
I've been here for a week and so far its been really good. Ive got some really good running spots.

And a really cute house with a cute room with blue walls.

So come visit me.
Now the truth is finally out...living the SLC life. 

family vaca photo overload

A couple of weeks ago Kelly and the kids came out for the annual summer vaca. 

Those Utah kids need some beach, cousin and leebee in their life. 

I miss my first summer living here since I was unemployed and able to hang out with them all day every day. 

But now that I am some sort of an "adult" I cant do that. Luckily, I was able to take two days to spend time with Kelly and the kiddies. 

We managed to fit a lot of fun things in, a lot of it included pool time, which alone is super fun. 

{also dont be deceived by those tan lines...i aint that tan yet. those are permanent lines from my sunburn which happened on this trip. true story}

And I painted all of the girls' nails! Definitely one of my favorite things to do.

We hit up the Dodger game, which almost deserves its own post. 

{BAH. Kate. She kills me.}

{Mia doesnt take group photos. I dont know whats wrong with her...so we did a solo one later on}

And the best part...every single member of my family was in Dodger Blue!!! 

I seriously could not have been happier. 

Look at that sight! 

Literally this photo brings me so much happiness. 

I love that we were so decked out repping our boys in blue. 

Even the baby! and all the kids!

looove 

Obviously you can sense my excitement. It was awesome. 

We went to the beach. And froze. 

Ella was my cuddle buddy. 

We decided that freezing in Malibu was not worth it since we had a nice pool back at home in the hot valley. 

So away we went. 

Olvera Street was the next day, which involved some complaints by the kids for every possible fake toy that they were selling. I dont think they appreciated the charm of the oldest street in LA or all of the Mexican candy that is sold there. However, the train was pretty fun. 

{Me and Drewbie. I love holding their hands}

{yes i had to hold his face to take a decent picture with me. he is getting too cool}

I cant even remember what else we did. Just hang out and enjoy being with my favorite kids. 

Seriously, the crack me up! 

I was literally depressed for a few days knowing they were gone. 

And no trip is complete without Drew getting hurt. He got stung by a bee. Too bad I dont have a picture of his "jumbo finger" which is the only thing that made him stop crying. 

Come back soon! I miss you!!