Lazy Day

Today is a lucky day for me, all but one of my classes were cancelled and luckily all the classes that were cancelled were my morning classes! So, I have to stroll up to campus around 3 to take a test (which will be easy), and go to my last class. Lucky Duck, I know!

I know I should be studying for aforementioned test but I feel like being lazy. I'd like to talk about my new job! It was crazy, but I think I'm going to love it. The kids are so sweet, and it doesn't bother me much that they're throwing things at me, spitting on me, scratching me, etc. because I know I'm helping them. I'm learning a lot of parenting skills that I can use when I have chilren of my own, which I'm grateful for. If any of you want a fun, rewarding job, let me know! We are desperate for staff!!

I'm still pumped for Bulgaria, too! We are just awaiting some form of letter of recommendation from ANYONE so we can apply for the internship. We know we'll be accepted, it would just be nice to have an official "yes" from someone so we can get goin' on saving up and getting passports!

Friends, Fun, Excitement, & Crazy Men

I packed so much into this week it seems like it has lasted for a month's time. Sunday, I went to my good friend Caleb Hustedt's mission home-coming. It was so great to see him! I was so proud that one of my friends served a full two year mission and returned with honor. He got to meet Tony for the first time, and that was cool. He had a fan club of girls following behind him, so he'll be just fine adjusting to the dating world :).

On Wednesday (Halloween), I had a job interview at the House of Hope in Provo. It is a women and children's home for mothers who are drug addicts learning to form bonds and appropriate attachments with their children. I was hired on as a Child Development specialist working with the children to help them develop social skills that will cause them to develop normally...mmm, sounds much better than shoe associate at Sears, doesn't it? Yeah, definately. I also worked Halloween night, which I thought would be a blast because they had trick-or-treating at the mall, but it was so lame. No one came to shop, and they only gave out candy upstairs so Cecilia and I were bored out of our minds.

Because of this new job I have, I had to drive to Salt Lake City to get some tests done. So, Friday morning, I drove up there, leaving early so I would make sure I made it on time. Of course, I got there way too early and had nothing to do so I walked to the McDonalds across the street to get a drink and use the bathroom. The bathroom situation should have been a red flag to me that I was in a not-so-safe kind of place. I had to have someone escort me to the bathroom because you couldn't get in without a token. I had never seen anything like that before, especially not at a McDonald's! So, I did my thing, got my drink, and started walking back to my car to wait for my appointment. As I approached the crosswalk, I heard a man yell "Hey! Do you have change for a dollar?" I looked over at him and responded with a no, because I didn't. "Well, do you have a dollar?" he said. "Nope, I'm sorry" I replied and I began walking quite briskly in the opposite direction. The man began screaming at me saying things like "I know you have a dollar! Just give me the dollar! Everyone's got a dollar with them!" He was following me during all of this, so I began walking faster. He started walking faster. I began running, and he started chasing me. I was running as fast as I could with this man behind me screaming at me and chasing me. Luckily, I got my keys out in time and got in my car and locked it. The man ran up to my car and started pounding on my windows insisting that I did have a dollar with me. By this time, I was bawling my eyes out and shaking like crazy as he tried to open my door and pound my window in. Luckily, there was a cop that saw the whole chase and came to my rescue. He grabbed the crazy man and threw him in his car. The cop asked me if I was okay, and I said I was, and then he took me into the building where my appointment was and explained to the receptionist what had happened. She gave me some free hot chocolate and I sat there safely in a big office, grateful for policemen.

I still have my internship to look foward to. We've completed our applications and we're both just waiting for our letters of recommendations to come so we can submit them. We recently found out that for me to count this as an internship for school, we have to stay there for 14ish weeks. This thought scared me at first, but after talking to Tony about it, 14 weeks is perfect. I'll have the language down and by the time I get over the culture shock, I'll still have a while to enjoy my time there. Learning Bulgarian with Tony is really fun, and I feel like I'm pretty good at it. I'm so excited about this opportunity, even though my family doesn't really support the idea. Luckily everyone here LOVES it and wants to help us out, which is fantastic. Nobody can stop me from going. It won't make us poor, and if it does..well, we're poor now so it wouldn't make a difference. As far as our future family, we'll be just fine. We'll both get good jobs. Heck, I have a decent job now! Anyway, enough ranting. We're going to Bulgaria and that's that.

България!

Yesterday I had a splendid day! My classes all went well, I got to see Tony a lot, and best of all--the internship fair. I went to this fair to see what kinds of things MFHD majors do with their lives, because honestly, I wasn't sure. I walked in planning on finding a local Utah company that I could get hooked up with for a short time. I dragged Tony along, hoping he would be some moral support. I walked through all of the booths, and somehow spotted one that said Bulgaria. The girl at the table told me a little about the program, and it sounded so wonderful! (They WANT me to teach music to these little Bulgarians in an orphanage!) Really, it just feels like the right thing for me to do. Everytime I think about us going, I just get goosebumps and I feel so great. So, probably fall of '08, Tony and I will head off to the land of dyuners and plain yoghurt. :)

I'm so excited it isn't even funny. I've already learned a little Bulgarian, and Tony is more than willing to teach me. We promised the coordinator that I'd be semi-fluent by the time we arrived in Plovdiv. I am so so excited!

Sunday of Youngsters

This past weekend was VERY relaxing. I'm grateful that I had the time to re-charge over the weekend. Probably one of the more interesting things that happened was the Primary Program on Sunday. Each child gave a scripture and a little blurb about how they can serve their family. There were some humorous responses, of course, and it was nice to laugh a bit during our meeting. This program included such hits as "Hee Hen"(...this is my beloved son "Hear Him") , "Faith is like a little Seep", and "I know that My Reedemer Limbs". The way the sunbeams sing the songs can by itself make me laugh all day long. My favorite part about it, though, was it was one of those very few and far between times where you could tell some of the kids felt the spirit. It's always nice to see that happen because you can tell it really touches them. Then, of course they were hoolagins during class because they had to sit so still in front of their parents. We did a lot of let-your-crazies-out dancing, which seemed to help.

Even though sometimes those kids just frustrate me to no end, I still love 'em and I'm glad I can be a Sunbeam teacher. :)

The Late Show with Hollie Anderson

I'm surprised with my recent spells of insomnia that I haven't posted a new blog sooner. The reason for both the lack of sleep and lack of blogs is probably because this weekend was simply nuts. I worked Friday through Monday and had little time to do things like homework, spend time with Tony, and sleep. Luckily, that is all over and now for the rest of the week I only have 8 hours of work to look forward to. Even though this weekend was packed, I still managed to sneak in some fun here and there.

Friday was half work/half play..but mostly work. I woke up early (for me) and went to the infant development lab where I now volunteer. To me, that is play. It's actually quite interesting what we do. It begins by cold-calling mothers (we have birth records) with babys a certain age. This is an age-held-constant study so we only study babies all around the same age at a time. The mothers volunteer to bring in their little ones, and we hook 'em up to some awesome machinery. This is a net full of electrodes that we strap on to these little guys and gals. This isn't an acutal picture from our lab (this girl is way older than the babies we're testing now).

After we're done strapping them in and calming them down (c'mon, you know you'd be freaked out if a bunch of people strapped that thing to your head!) we go into our observation booth and show them a series of big dot, little dot, low pitch, high pitch. We start with the big dot and the low pitch, and the small dot with the high pitch...then, we switch it up on them to see if their brain detects a change in the material. It's complete nonsense to those who don't know what we're studying. We often get a lot of puzzled mothers after having watched the little "show" ask us what we are doing. No brainwashing --don't worry! It's fascinating research and I'm glad I can be a part of it!

On Saturday, Tony and I both woke up, relaxed for a bit, then headed out to the mall. I had recently recieved a gift card and I wanted to use some of it! We each got several things from the mall, and we had a pretty good time together. Tony started feeling sick, so that wasn't fun, but other than that it was really nice to get to go shopping.

We are both still pushing through school trying to finish in one piece. I've been having some hard nights lately that keep me up into the wee hours of the night, but overall we're doing great.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!

Blah

Since I'm positive only 2 people read this blog, I feel like I can write a little more freely without offending or depressing too many people.

Today I was in the BYU library, partly doing my homework, partly talking to my sister online, and partly shopping for clothes and makeup when I was having a nice (kind of uneventful) conversation with my sister and all of a sudden she attacked me. I asked her about a buddy icon she had on her profile and she responded with "nothing. now don't go and tell mom like you always do". I will admit, I've played the part of tattle tale when dealing with this particular sister. Posting obscene messages on myspace for the world to see not only ruins an individual's reputation, but the family's as well. Not to mention that it was highly offensive. So, I decided to inform my parents of my sisters embarassing and immature behavior. But regardless of the few times I've "tattled" on my sisters I don't see my self as a so-called "tattle-tale".

My sister proceeded to tell me that I always "tell" on them all the time, and that I make my parents hate my younger sisters. This attack went on for about 5 minutes until I finally just quit talking. "Squeaky clean" is what my mom refers to me as, according to my sisters.

I remember when it was just Andrea and me around. We shared a room, always played together, and we were pretty good pals. Even though I was only 6 or 7 years old, I promised myself (and my teddy bear I always talked to at night) that I would be the best big sister for Andrea. I wanted to always be her friend, and be someone she could always "play with". It really, really broke my heart today when my sister told me that I am the opposite of what I intended on being. I'm not really sure what I did wrong. I always thought being "squeaky clean" was a good thing, I always did it to be a good example to those around me, especially my sisters. When faced with a decision, I often thought about how my sisters would see me if I chose to do or not do the thing at hand. I guess my efforts were all for not.

I hope that one day I can have a positive influence on someone. My sisters included. Maybe as they grow up and mature, they'll understand. I have no idea..I've never had a big sister, which is why I always wanted to be the ideal one.

Best Weekend Ever

This week has been very nice to me. I only worked two days, my first class this morning was cancelled, I have from Friday to Monday off, and this weekend is going to rock. Simple as that. Friday I am going to sit around, do some homework, watch some Rachael Ray, and take it easy. Saturday--I'll probably go to work with Tony, watch conference, and then while he and his dad are at the Priesthood session, Tony's mom and sisters are taking me somewhere for my birthday (which is on Monday). We're going to stay the night at his family's house Saturday night for conference the next day, which is also when I open my presents from his family! Then! Monday I get to open presents from Tony. This weekend is going to be so much fun. Not because it's my birthday, though that's a plus, but because I get to relax and spend time with family.

Happy Conference Weekend, everyone!