My Birthday! 23!

So yesterday was my birthday and I turned 23. I'm not usually one to go around and tell everyone that its my birthday but when someone at work said "happy birthday" to someone else, I asked if it was their birthday, and they said it was just a joke they say. So, I I told them that it was actually my birthday.

And my students knew it was my birthday because I had it written on our classroom calendar. So in my second class, randomly one of my students pulled me into the hall telling me he had to talk to me, and then when I went back into class there was a cake and my students sang 'Happy Birthday' to me. I was so surprised and I felt so loved by my sweet students. They even all signed a card for me. So cute.

The day before was actually one of my students birthdays so they got him a small cake as well. We all enjoyed eating cake together, and forgot about doing our lesson for about 45 minutes of class. Oops. Oh well, sometimes I think relationships are more important than education, right?

They told me that in Hispanic countries it is tradition for the person to take a bite of the cake. For some reason I believed them, and as I took a bite a student pushed my face into the cake. All in fun.

My entire class, at least those that were there yesterday. Such sweethearts to make me feel special. They all pitched in a couple of dollars to pay for the cake and chips and drinks.

And of course Nate spoiled me again for my birthday this year. I guess that is something I'll have to get used to. But I don't really mind, as long as I can do something special for his birthday as well.


As many of you know, I LOVE cooking, and you can find some of my favorite recipes here. I knew I was getting the meat grinder attachment for my kitchen aid, but Nate found a wonderful deal on KSL for that and 3 other attachments for really cheap on KSL. I'm so excited to try them all out. Tonight we will be making chicken burgers with fresh ground chicken sausage and ratatouille. (Stay posted for the recipes).

Nate also invited a couple of our favorite friends over for treats. Because I'd already had cake twice, from my students and from the staff at Heritage, Nate decided to get danishes from Costco instead. They were delicious with a side of vanilla ice cream. Afterwards we played catch phrase. The girls won the first 3 games and the boys won the last.

What a happy birthday to me. I feel SO blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life, willing to spoil me on my happy day. Thank you!

Travel Bug.

While browsing pinterest I have become addicted to looking at pictures of beautiful places throughout the world and it has made me get the travel bug really bad. However, Nate and I have other big plans in the future (no, not a baby yet) that will cost a lot of money, and traveling to Europe might not be an option for a while.

But I've come to the decision that when the time comes we shouldn't just travel to Europe for one or two weeks (there is WAY too much I want to revisit, and new things I want to see). But instead we should move over there! Okay, don't freak out, I only want to move for a year, maybe two (or three.) And this is how we can do it. I can teach English!

Now don't go off on me and say something like everyone wants to teach English in Europe so they can study. What makes you think you're special enough? Want to know WHY I am special? Because I already teach English in the United States, and by the time this plan would actually come to pass I'll have at least like 3 years of experience, (okay more, cause if the big money spending plans come to pass, we'll probably have to be in Utah at least 5 to 6 more years) and I speak German already. (Side note: I've decided I need to study. Although I do LOVE not being in school I do miss German and my linguistics/TESOL classes, so I'm in the process of deciding what to study first and how to study and I'm going to try spending at least 30 minutes to an hour of my free time at work studying.) And the last reason I am so special goes along with the first, but I minored in TESOL and I have a certificate and everything. And according to this website these things give me an advantage.

Anyway, there are tons of tech jobs in Germany that are available and I'm sure we could find one in Austria too, for Nate to take. And I really wouldn't mind living in Germany either, so that would be perfect. Okay, that's my life goal right now. I know its so far away, and I'll still have to get over there in the next 1 to 2 years, but I think I would be very happy looking forward to living there in 6 years. Okay, now I just need to pass this plan off with Nate too.