Valley Ventures: Santa Anita Park

Well its the holidays and so my family finds themselves at the horse races.

{We couldnt go during Thanksgiving this year due to Laura's birthday being on actual turkey day this year, and for some odd reason she vetoed going to see the horses on her birthday. Whoulda thought??}

As a result we were able to venture to Opening Day at Santa Anita Park.

Lets just say this park is a bit classier than Hollywood Park.

And a lot more crowded! I was shocked at the amount of people.

And the horse races never disappoint.

 

We took the rest of the fam this year.

 

Not all of them loved it as much as me and my Dad...

This boy loved it! Until he realized none of his horses were winning their races. He shed a few tears. Good thing mom told him we had been "cheating" by reading up on the races in the program. Whoops.

 

We did see Gene Simmons

 

And found the bugler! I got my picture with him at Hollywood Park too!

I was so excited to see him again.

 

We stayed for about 5 races and each one of us picks a horse to cheer for.

My horses won twice!!

I could have won a lot of money on those races...

{Doesnt that smile just melt you??}

 

Its so fun. I like to pretend that now I know a thing or two about horse racing.

 And its unreal how excited you get when you cheer for your horses when ten minutes ago you knew nothing. And the people watching! Never disappoints.



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!

the spirit of Christmas.

I have a really big confession.

I have not felt very Christmas-y this year.

I have always loved parties, celebrations and holidays. But this year I just have not gotten into the spirit of Christmas.

This year has just gone by way too fast. I guess thats what happens when you get older right? Time flies by even faster.

{Wasn't it just Thanksgiving? Didnt I just move to Utah? Shoot, wasnt it just my birthday!?}

 

So Ive been in denial that its really Christmas time.

My mind set has always been if I pretend its not happening then its not going to happen.

Ive always had this mentality.

For instance, I hate cold weather. So during my BYU winter days, I wouldnt wear a coat to school. Cause if I didnt wear a coat or gloves then it would mean that its not cold out. I could pretend it wasnt cold so that I wouldnt have to face the fact that I now lived 30 degree climate. {Ive been scolding too many times by my family to stop wearing flip flops in cold weather}

So accordingly, if I refuse to listen to my Christmas music and I dont look at any lights that means Christmas wont be coming this year. Or at least not so fast, right?

Wrong-o.

Its Christmas Eve.  And I havent even listened to Justin Bieber's Christmas album.

Ive robbed myself and will have to wait a whole 'nother year to enjoy it.

Yesterday as I was getting ready for church I decided to bite the bullet and listen to some Christmas messages on my Mormon Channel app.

And of course that always helps put things into perspective.

I have been so busy trying to figure out life and just get by and adjust to a new life and a new job but of course its always important to remember the why of Chrismas.

I watched this video that brought my tears as I tried to do my Sunday make-up.

It was so sad and heartbreaking but with an incredible message to remember a baby that was brought into the world to give peace and joy to all.

Christ came into this world to hold us, carry us through trials, lead the way and guide us through this life. He knows us and loves us. Christmas isnt about being a bit of a bah humbug or the year flying by too fast but about celebrating the gift of the Savior into this world.

And what a special gift to have and more importantly, to know.

 

"To catch the real meaning of the 'spirit of Christmas', we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the 'Spirit of Christ'."

Thomas S. Monson

The Best Christmas Ever, Dec. 2008



Salt Lake TWO

Back to more exploring of SLC...we saw so much! 

We went on a tour of the Conference Center. 

And a tour of the Joseph Smith Building. And learned so much of its history. I had no idea it use to be Hotel Utah! It always amazes me how beautiful that building is. It opened as a hotel in 1911 and housed many US Presidents as they stayed in Utah. We also saw the Joseph Smith movie which gets me into tears every time. 

On Sunday morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word at the Tabernacle. I wish I could go every week. The tabernacle and the songs are just so beautiful. Such a great way to start your Sunday. 

And walked around Temple Square lots. There is something about living close to the temple that I just absolutely love!

I think my favorite part was exploring the Salt Lake City Cemetery. 

Remember weird obsession...but this time its even cooler cause 14 of the 16 Church Presidents are buried right here in SLC.
The cemetery was created in 1848, just a year after settling SLC. The cemetery is so cool looking with so many old and worn headstones. Such character up in there!

I loved stumbling upon headstones of people that were born in Europe and crossed the plains to Utah after joining the Church. Such dedication, devotion and faith to do so many outstanding things.

We loved running around and finding all of the headstones of important Church leaders and presidents.
The pictures can speak for themselves of what we got to see.
{Presidents}

{This one was actually my absolute favorite. Such an amazing legacy and epitaph.}

It was soooo exciting. Until we got to like President 12...I lost a little steam. And when we wandered for like 20 mins trying to find President Hunter. It became a little tiresome. 

{Prominent Mormons}

Although Archer was not a prominent members, I loved this headstone. It was made of wood {although preserved} and on the back explained that he was a carpenter from England and had expressed upon joining the church that all he wanted was to come to the Salt Lake Valley. He came into the valley with the very first handcart pioneers, however died shortly after.

We loved finding all of these headstones and just being in awe of all of the church history. It made me love and appreciate the gospel a little bit more that day and in away helped the history of the church become more alive {no pun intended.}But seriously, I was in awe.

Seeing all of these historical significant places and learning so much helped me become more excited about my new home. It is full of history and oh so pretty.
However, the snow this past week has made me second guess. 

my new stomping grounds

I am blogging a little out of order here...but a few weeks ago Rudy came into town during my fall break {loveeee working at a school!} and so we were able to do some sight seeing of my new town. I love that Rudy loves to go to museums with me! It made for the best tourist weekend. 

We were able to go to soooo many places! I loved seeing all of these great sites and learning more about the pioneer history of Utah.

Rudy's great great great great..etc...grandpa is Truman O. Angell and he basically designed alllllll of Utah. Like seriously, ever single plaque shows that he was the architect. His legacy lives on through the Salt Lake Temple, the Beehive & Lion House, the Capitol building, the city arch on State St., and the first buildings of the city where City Creek now stands. It was really cool to see how much he influenced this city.

one of the first places we went to was the Beehive House. 

This house was designed for Brigham Young living quarters as well as his office while serving as Territorial Governor for the State of Dessert and President of the Church. 

It is so beautiful inside! I would never have thought that the building would have been so ornate for so long ago.

}Did you know that the pioneers created their own language!? Ya, neither did I...but here is the BOM in that language}

{BY's bed, cane and hat}

{Brother Brigham was a carpenter, and these were his tools}

This was the office for President of the Church and was also used as the office for the presidents up until Joseph F. Smith. Both him and Lorenzo Snow died in this home. Many important doctrines were revealed in this room. (most of which I cant remember now) 

We went to the top of the Church Administration Building to see the view of SLC.

I had forgotten how amazing that view is! Being up there did remind me of my sweet Grandma Jytta and how much she loved being a volunteer there. It was such a clear day and such a beautiful site. 

From there we went to Brigham Young's gravesite. Our Church Admin tour guide told us how to get there {you see that street, go up there, past the yellow car and the red car and the blue car but not past the yellow house....haha}

I loved that his gravesite was right in the heart of the city in such a peaceful and serene park. 

We also hit up the Church History Museum.

A little overwhelming but so interesting. 

I just love knowing that pioneers settled this land and being able to see the transformation of the Salt Lake Valley. One of the things I thought was the most fascinating were the remnants of the night of Joseph Smith's death.

{The watch that save John Taylor's life, the cane which Willard Richards beat back the mob and the guns the Prophet Joseph used to shot back. WOW.}

I also learned that the Saints had their own money system in SLC. President Young use to sign each and every money note that was distributed throughout the city.

However my favorite part was the section of the Church Presidents. We worked so hard on memorizing all of their names and learning what they focused on most while President. 

I think we were there for like 3 hours. 

Dont worry, we went and saw lots more sites too!