Comings and goings: I'm it.

My friend Nanci tagged me for lists of 4's. I think it's the first time I've ever actually been tagged. But I've done a list of 4's before on my own...I'd link to it, but I truly can't remember when I wrote it and I honestly don't feel like digging through my old posts.

So, I will do a long-winded Celia special: a variation on the 4's. That's how I like it anyway.

Jobs I've had
The longest job running job I've had is piano teaching. I started teaching when I was in 8th grade for $5/lesson or $20/month. The most students I ever had at one time was my senior year of high school. I had 20 students that year, and I had to travel to their homes since my mom was teaching at our home. It worked out well, though I had to drop cross-country because of it. I don't know how much I was charging at that point. I took a little hiatus during college and I only taught 4 people (at different times) in the 5 years I was there. Though I didn't do much with it, it proved very handy as I traded out half of my month's rent in return for teaching two of my students one year. Now I have 10 students and charge $50/mo. (though I'm sure I could charge more...)

The shortest (and worst) job I've ever had was working at the Tomato Farm the summer after my freshman year of college. Man was that horrendous! I lasted only two weeks (if that!). I kept trying to tell myself "you can do anything for 3 months", but in the end I decided it was not worth $8.50/hour. I was willing to work 40 hours a week at McDonalds plus take on an evening hostess/waitress job over that. It was just looooong hours doing nothing but standing on high riser platforms, picking suckers off gigantic 3 story tomato plants in a very hot room with lots of people who didn't speak English. My feet always hurt. I felt like total white trash. They actually shut the plant down not long after I quit when they were discovered having illegal immigrants filling the majority of their jobs.

The best job I've had...well, that's tough. My cooking job at New Haven probably provided me with the best experience possible for real life. Between cooking and working with the girls, I gained valuable insight into life, relationships, and how important good food is...

But I also loved my Teacher's Assistant jobs with Dr. Lynn Scoresby and Dr. Terry Olson. They were two of my top 3 teachers at BYU. I really grew a lot from helping them. Scoresby hit it on the head during one of our staff meetings my third year working with him. He was summing each of us up with one word and he told me that I was neurotic. Interesting. I didn't take offense to it, because I knew it was true. So I've tried to work on that. I think I've become less neurotic over time. Olson is probably the most compassionate teacher I ever had. And the material for his class (Leadership and Self-deception) and class discussions were life and perspective changing . If I were to have obtained a Masters at BYU I really would have loved having him as a mentor and pursuing research and writing built around his theories.

And how could I leave out teaching in China??? It was an essential piece to my adult transition, self-realization, and real world experience. I always worried if I hadn't done that (or something like it) I would have felt jealous of my future RM husband. It was an eye opener, and I have never felt more gratitude in my life for the little things (and big things) I had been blessed with. Individual (flushing) public toilets (with toilet paper), daily showers, a good education without having to leave my parents at the age of 5, no soldiers monitoring my daily activities, drinkable tap water, etc.

Movies
The movie with the best soundtrack (and good message/ great acting) I've seen (and the only movie I purchased when I was single) was Remember the Titans. I have since gotten over my desire to pop it in and view it whenever, but the soundtrack is still amongst my most listened to albums.

The movie that got better with each successive viewing had to be Napoleon Dynamite. The first time we saw it in the theater with my in-laws, I thought, "Yeah, it's ok...but I don't know why theric is soooo jazzed about this..." But by the end there were so many quotable lines...and then that dance scene clenched it for me. The second viewing was the absolute best viewing experience for me.

I guess another classic that I would love to own one day (because of it's re-watchability) is The Princess Bride. The acting was supreme and the writing was so witty and timeless. "You rush a Miracle man you get rotten miracles."

The only movie I've ever walked out on in the theater was What Lies Beneath. The previews freaked me out and I psyched myself out before the movie even started. It felt so tense at the beginning I left about 10 min. into it. Another movie that freaked me out (but I stuck through it) was Minority Report. If I had been watching it on my own I would have left the theater...

Places I have lived
I felt really blessed to grow up in Snowflake, AZ. It was a good town. We knew everyone. It felt very safe. I was able to participate in just about everything I wanted in the way of extracurricular activities. One of my friends who attended a large Mesa High School said they pretty much had to choose one thing and stick with it since there was such stiff competition and so many students. I got to do multiple sports, multiple choirs, photography and more. The only thing I regret missing out on was a home economics course. They stopped offering it, and in reality I was so entrenched in music and academics I wouldn't have taken it anyway.

My first experience living somewhere other than Snowflake was when I lived with my sister and her husband one summer in High School. They lived in my Grandma's basement in Mesa, and they needed some nannying help. My sister was teaching and my brother-in-law was finishing up difficult pre-dentistry requirements in school. I helped take care of my niece in the day and worked at Hollywood Video at night. They were awesome. I didn't have a car and they commuted me back and forth (I think it was 1/2 hour away from their house or something).

Our first married apartment was a studio in Reno, NV for the summer as we sold Dish Network. We had a pretty sweet set up. A mattress we pulled out of an over sized dumpster. A coffee table we pulled out of the DI truck (we still have it) that we propped up on cinder blocks for Matt's computer, a lawn chair (also from the DI truck), and our 13-inch TV we got for our wedding was propped up on another gift's box. Electricity was so expensive (in our minds and for our budget--$100/mo.) we tried really hard to just use our $10 box fan. We broke down and used the AC when it hit 90 degrees in our apt.!!

And we bought our first house here in McKinney, TX. It's been a good little house and has suited our current needs well. The area is good enough, though it is too far removed from family.

More to come: