10 People who have influenced me

1. Grandma Afton

My Grandma was the most stubborn lady I have ever met, that's where I think I get it from. But she influenced my family every day by simply being a motherly figure. She helped everyone, before she helped herself. That, in my opinion, is what made her sick. But ultimately, she made sure everyone and everything was ok before she let herself reach ultimate happiness.

2. Grandma Dee

If anyone has met my Grandma, you know that she is the most welcoming person on the planet. Everyone is welcome at her home anytime. She has always been there for me. She never missed a gymnastics meet or cheer competition. She graciously takes care of our dog every single day. She provides family dinner every Sunday. She has made Brian one of her own grandchildren. I can honestly say I talk to my Grandma 6 days a week. I am an incredibly lucky girl to have had such a strong relationship with her.

3. Grandma Jean

There is not a more loving, soft spoken woman on the planet. I have never heard her raise her voice. She has supported my Grandpa through all of his crazy adventures and ideas. She has a beautiful mind and a fantastic artist. I have never spoken to her where she does not mention how proud she is of me and what I have chose to do in my life. You can sit with her for hours and talk about anything, and she will listen and give her advice. It breaks my heart that as I am writing this, she is slowing slipping away to a better place. I wish I could speak to her one last time just so she knows what an influence she has been to me if my life.

4. My Mom

I already gave a whole spill on my mom a few posts ago so I won't repeat myself. But what girl can say that her mom is not an incredible influence in her life.

5. Shannon Miller

Growing up, she was my gymnastics hero. She was never flashy in what she did, but she was always a rock. She was the exact gymnast I wanted to be. I still have her poster in our basement. Being like her was what motivated me to keep going when times got tough.

6. Mrs. Gherke

She was my first grade teacher. Looking back, the thing I loved most about her was how much she loved kids and how she made everyone feel like they were her favorite. That is what I strive to do with my kids. Every kids deserves a chance to learn and that is what she taught me, even as a 6 year old little girl. I have carried that throughout my life and into my career as a teacher.

7. Jerolee Maudsley

Jerolee changed my life. She took a chance on me becoming president of my sorority. Before then, I honestly never thought of myself as a leader. I remember her telling me the night I was called as president that she never questioned her decision. She taught me when it is time to butt in, and when you just have to let things run the course. Her believing in me brought out traits that I never thought I had. I am proud now to be a leader when needed. Her most important lesson came the last officer meeting we ever had..."Save your fork, because the best is yet to come" Leave it to Jerolee (aka Nipper La Mesa) to nail it on the head. The best was yet to come, I just needed her to push me in the right direction.

8. Anita Archer

I have never met her personally, but she has completely influenced how I teach my kids. She has this magical touch to keep every child engaged. She believes every child can learn and she proves it in her teaching style. She is engaging to watch as an adult. Her energy is addictive and it makes me want to be a better teacher every time I watch her.

9. Marjorie Hinckley

She never seemed to be in the spot light, yet some of her words and advice are incredibly powerful. One of my favorite quotes by her is "I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived"

That is exactly the life I trying to live.

10. Brian

What can I say? He is my biggest influence. He calls me out on my crap, he stands by me in my decisions, he supports me in my loves and passions, he allows me to be me (and loves me for it), he pushes me outside of my comfort zone to become the best person I can be and he will be an amazing father one day. I love him.

5 passions

University of Utah Sports

It is what I grew up with. We never missed football games, basketball games, or gymnastics meets. As a little girl, I wanted so badly to be a gymnast at the U. Obviously that didn't work out, which is ok. My brother played baseball for the Utes from 1998-2002. Now, my entire family (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) all have season tickets to football and basketball. We are even adding a new member to the family who was a cheerleader. It is in our blood and there is no way it will ever leave. It's just too bad my husband can't convert :)

Utah Jazz

You cannot be a Utah'n without loving the Jazz. It is the only thing that brings the entire state together. Usually we are all split 50/50 with Utah and BYU. But when it comes to the Jazz, we all get along. One of my all time favorite moments was watching John Stockton hit "The Shot". Every Jazz fan will forever remember that moment.

St. Louis Cardinals

Baseball is my first love. I grew up at the baseball field watching my brother play. We were raised as we were with the Utes, cheering for the Cardinals. Red is good (Cardinals and Utes) and Blue is bad (Cubs and Cougars)...that is all we knew. This past season was honestly the most exhilarating few weeks of my life. The night of Game 6, I actually stopped breathing for close to a minute when David Freese hit is game tying triple in the bottom of the 9th. I was crying and that hard. I thought it was over. Then to have to go through it all over again in the 10th, going down...only to have Freese step up again and hit that Home Run. I have never been so happy in my entire life. I am so lucky to have experienced 2 World Championships in the past 6 years. It has been incredible.

RSL

This is a new passion that absolutely stems from Brian. He played soccer growing up, and was completely stoked when Salt Lake got a soccer team. He has been going to games since the beginning, and once we met he started taking me. Soccer has grown to be something I love watching. It is completely different from any sport most American's enjoy, which is why there is always the battle of soccer lovers vs. soccer haters. But once you understand it, it is absolutely a blast to watch. We are going into our 3rd year of having season tickets. We started with having 6 tickets in our group, to 8 last year...and now this year we have 23!!! We are so excited to have our own little cheering section.

Teaching

I already gave my spill on teaching in my last post. But I must add that teaching has to be the most frustrating job in the world, and at the same time the most rewarding. I honestly can say I am changing lives every day I go to work. That keeps my passion going when times get hard.

Dream Job

The cool thing is, I actually already have my dream job.

Teaching.

At one point, I thought that medicine was the way I should go.

It wasn't.

I was meant to be a teacher.

It is something that has just come naturally to me.

I get to work with kids, which I love.

And I never have to work weekends or summers.

That is what I call a dream job.

The hardest thing I have ever experienced

I consider myself pretty lucky that I have not experienced a lot of hardship in my life, so I really can't say that anything has been incredibly hard to handle.

But when I look back, I consider 2005 my hardest year.

I started dating a boy (my very first real relationship). We had lots of fun and I felt comfortable with him as we were friends first. I was still so young that I honestly didn't think much into the future. After a few months of dating, he broke up with me. I had never dealt with a break-up before, so I didn't know how to react. Initially, I was sad...not necessarily because of the break up, but because I was losing a friend. For the first few months, I missed him. I think it would have been easier, but my best friend had left for the summer also. I found myself surviving every day.

Luckily, I had been called as president of my sorority. I made a choice to dedicate myself to that. Serving others was the best remedy for loneliness. That alone got me through the summer.

Fall came, and different feelings came. School, sorority and football all came back, and that meant that the life I had with him came back. Sadness quickly turned to anger when I found out some stuff that had gone down with him. I found that the feelings had not disappeared, only were suppressed. I was sad and lonely, and he had moved on. He wasn't crying every night because he missed me? What?? How could this be??? I was mad at him, but really I was mad at myself.

Eventually, I got over it. We started being cordial to each other, and that turned into hanging out in a group, then hanging out alone. It was confusing but I just went with the flow. To make a long story short, I started to fall again, slightly. Christmas Eve 2005 came around, and that meant the past year of my life had been dedicated to this boy. We went to a movie that afternoon, and I wondered if this was the start of something...again. As we were sitting in the movie, I noticed he was texting someone. Turns out, it was another girl. He was making plans to see her that night. I just shook my head thinking "You are such a fool, Emily". As he drove me home, I remember thinking "This will be the last time I will ever be with him" I was right.

I felt nothing. No sadness, no anger, no jealousy...nothing. That was exactly what I needed. It kicked my butt into gear. I do remember New Years Eve very vividly that year. It is the night that I made a decision to live my life. I stopped worrying about boys. I lived my life for me.

Guess what happened 6 months later...I met Brian.

And I have been happy ever since

5 things that make me happy right now

Brian

My paper chain countdown in my classroom

Exercising

the Jazz (1/2 the time)

Soccer and Baseball soon to begin

10 things I would tell my 16-year-old self

1. Be Yourself.

2. Quit gymnastics the second you realize you don't love it.

3. Get involved with everything, even if you don't think it's the cool thing to do.

4. Join choir and stick with it

5. Take as many college courses as possible before you graduate

6. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!

7. Find a hobby you love

8. Keep the same healthy lifestyle you had when you were in gymnastics.

9. Stick with your guns and become a teacher. You are really good at it

10. Enjoy every moment of being young and don't worry so much about what is happening right now. High school is fun, but the best times are yet to come. College is going to be the best 4 years of your life as long as you are true to yourself, are open to love and have a direction in your life.

Relationships with my Parents

Mom
My mom is probably the most reliable person on the planet. I don't think there is anything she would not do for her family. She taught me to always do what is right, to be on time, to stand up for what I believe in, to never quit. She taught me to stick to it when times get tough. She always emphasized the importance of going to school and getting my degree. She taught me to be a Utah fan :) She showed me what unconditional love is. But the most important thing she has ever taught me is that Friends will come and go, but Family is Forever.
Boy was she ever right.
My mom was always there for us growing up. She was always volunteering at our schools, going on field trips, helping with homework, driving us to gymnastics meets and baseball games. No matter what we decided to do, she supported us and became our biggest fans. She was the perfect mom, and a mom I want to become one day. Now she is taking on a new role of Grandma...and I think she secretly loves is more :) I can't wait to have my kids spend time at Grandma's house one day!

Dad
My dad comes off as rough, but he is the biggest baby on the planet. Along with my mom, he is incredible reliable. I think he has maybe missed one day of work in the last 5 years. He is the hardest worker I have ever seen. He did whatever it took to provide for our family while we were growing up. I remember him working all day, only to go work another job at night. Then on the weekends while we would all play, he would work Saturdays. Oh and so my family could continue to do what made us most happy (attend Utah sporting events) he would work as an usher at the games. I don't think my dad ever sat with us for an entire game until we were grown up. He is the ultimate family man. As I am the only girl, he loves me (probably more than my brothers) As I was growing up, he had to famous lines for me every time I would hang out with friends, go on dates, etc. "No matter how old you get, you will always be my little girl" and "You're the only daughter I have, and the only one I'm going to get" The first one ran through my head as I walked towards him on my wedding day. It truly is what made me so emotional. I am so happy my dad had the chance to walk me down the aisle.

My parents were and are not perfect, but in reality none of us are. But what was perfect is they loved each other, brought us into the world, and raised all of us to be good people. What more could I ask for?

3 Legitimate Fears...and how they became fears

Snakes and Fish

I find anything that doesn't have legs creepy I guess. But I have always thought snakes were creepy, and my fears have been realized since we moved into our house. We live behind a canal and a field so we get snakes in our yard all time time. I won't let Bella out by herself during the summer for very long for fear she will get bit!

As for fish, I think it is totally weird that they can live underwater. I love boating, but sometimes the fear a fish may swim by me or nibble at my toes is enough to keep me out of the water. Another example was when we went to Hawaii. We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. If you have been there, you know it is not very deep. So as your are snorkeling, the fish are right by your face. It freaked me right out. I actually decided to sit out the rest of the day because I could not get over my fear to be that close to them. I think they are beautiful, and if they are a good distance away from me I am ok, but I can not get close to them.

Mice

When I was a kid, we lived next door to a older man. The older he got, the less he took care of his yard, shed and garage. One spring, we did our normal spring clean out to get our patio and yard ready for summer. When we took the tarps off the patio furniture and started opening up lawn chairs and such, we found at least 20 dead mice. We had never had mice in our house. Turns out the old man's shed next door had a little colony and they moved over to our yard during the winer. I will never forget seeing mouse after mouse pop up. Ewwww!!!!

Scary Movies

I have never liked them. I would watch them with friends growing up, but I would always hate it because I would have nightmares. When I was little, my cousin Andrew had a birthday party that was Shark themed. We watched Jaws. It terrified me so much that I called my mom to come get me. After high school, my friends all went and saw The Ring on Halloween night. I ended up in my parents room for the next 3 nights. I went to the drive in with my friend Stevie and her friend and they wanted to watch "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". I sat in the back seat with my eyes closed and ears plugged the entire time humming 'I am a Child of God" to myself the entire movie. They said it made it creepier for them, but I didn't care. After that night, I refused to ever watch a scary movie again. I don't even watch the trailer when it comes on TV. It is not worth sleepless nights.

Clowns

When I was a baby, I had to have surgery to open up my tear ducts in my eye. I don't remember this obviously, but before I went in, they brought a clown in to try and cheer me up. My mom and Grandma said I screamed bloody murder so they clown left. It must have left an impression because I can not stand them to this day. I usually turn my head when they come by at a parade. I never go to the circus because of them.

That is 4. Oops.

20 Random Facts

1- I jumped off the high dive at age 3, but now am terrified to dive into the water

2- I've never seen Star Wars

3- I didn't eat M&M's until I was almost 23

4-I have broke 16 different bones, dislocated my shoulder, sprained both ankles multiple times, developed cysts on my feet...but I have never had a single stitch.

5- My right hand is about 1/2 inch bigger than my left due to breaking my growth plate in my elbow when I was 6

6-I never had braces

7- My wisdom teeth have yet to grow in

8- I went through 4 majors in college and ultimately ended up doing exactly what everyone said I would...teach

9- When I was little, I would speak with a Spanish accent all the time

10- My ear lobes are not connected to my head

11-I didn't miss a day of school until I was a junior in high school

12- I rarely buy anything full price

13- I LOVE the feeling of a clean house

14- I watch Ellen every day after school

15- I love being 20 minutes early to work

16- I cry at everything...that I get from my mother

17- I sound like a foghorn when I blow my nose...that I get from my father

18- I secretly would LOVE to be on American Idol...too bad I am not any good

19- I read or do some sort of puzzle every night before I go to bed

20- I could survive on doughnuts, cookies, cakes, pastries and Diet Coke.