1/4 of the school year is over. yes, that's right, i look forward to summer all school year long. this school year's going well. i have bigger classes than last year, but i think the students are even a little better than last year. (or is it perhaps that i finally know what i'm doing now?) i've heard every year teaching gets better and it is true. the biggest difference was from the first year to the second. that was just a different world altogether. this year i feel like i'm actually starting to like my job. i can see how people who teach for a long time actually like it. it's hard people. it's just hard.

tyler has had six interview offers so far. and he's received one admissions offer! it's a d.o. school in fort lauderdale, florida. so proud of him!

once again i'm a single bachelorette this weekend while he's off doing his thing. but i'm looking forward to Fringe, passing out probably by 8:00, sleeping in, and having nothing on my schedule for tomorrow. hope you have a great weekend too.

i am seriously obsessed with my cabin. and hebgen lake. and west yellowstone. 

beautiful. demi lovato, eh, but the dancing, beautiful. so thankful i get paid to dance every day. oh yeah, this guy

gets back TOMORROW!

i love fall. i love the crispy coolness in the air. i love boots and scarves. i love the orange, red, and yellow. even though nothing compares to summer (especially for teachers) the beginning of fall is perhaps my favorite time of year, as far as weather and nature are concerned. i can't wait for it. i will soak up every minute of it before winter. (10 more days til tyler gets home.)

I love this country. God bless America.

i'm feeling pretty sorry for myself. yesterday was my second anniversary and i spent it on the couch with a big bag of doritos, watching countless episodes of keeping up with the kardashians. (can i just mention how ridiculous they are? who wears $75,000 earrings in the ocean? it's so entertaining.) anyway, it was pretty crappy.

i feel single again. but not the fun single with exciting escapades with other single girls but just the boring pointless single. blah.

five months. that's how long cumulatively tyler and i have been apart since we've been married. i guess i agreed to all this though, so i really can't complain...much.

although life's been less than pleasurable lately i have had some really cool experiences where some serious prayers have been directly and quickly answered. so thankful for prayer.

today i went to my very good friend, anna's baby blessing. two frightening things happened.

1) i spoke to armenians for the first time in four years.

um...armenian...yeah. i suck. i couldn't understand 25% of what they said and my grammar was horrible! it was not fun. but i accept that i'm not a missionary anymore. i'm a wife and a teacher. it's not my job to know armenian as perfectly as i once did and i'm ok with that. it still kind of hurts though.

2) i held a tiny fragile baby.

so precious and adorable, but let's be honest, babies scare me to death. now i grew up basically a part of the babysitter's club. i was always babysitting and i loved it. but now that i realize i could (and probably should) be a mother by now it freaks me out. the longer i'm married and the longer i teach the less appealing having a child seems. there's nothing attractive about it to me. i could go on and on and list 100+ reasons why i don't want kids, but let's face it, tyler's going to make me do it eventually, so i better just buck up.

thankful for a break from work tomorrow...so i can go to the pool and watch some more kardashians...and perhaps clean the house and be productive.

i can do hard things

yes, i can completely assemble a king size sleep number bed from six boxes all by myself.

yes, i can fix the broken footrest on our couch using four wire hangers.

i can learn 150 new student names in one week.

i can teach 150 students every day.

i can teach for eight hours every day in a non-air conditioned building.

i can live apart from my husband for six weeks (for the third time since we've been married).

yes, i CAN do hard things! and so can you.

oh the dreaded middle of august...i knew this was coming all summer and yes, it's as crazy if not crazier than i thought it would be. who moves from texas into a brand new apartment and prepares to teach a new school year all in four days? me.

i'm really overwhelmed right now with everything i have to do in a limited time frame. the list is endless. but i'm actually more overwhelmed with all of the help that i've had. the only time i've cried in the past two days (yes the only time) was when i just couldn't believe how much help i was getting. it seems as though people are more than willing to help me this week. my mom, brother dave, brother jim, sister-in-law kristi, and their two kids helped me move in all day yesterday. and it was not easy, at all. there was a lot of sweating, exhaustion, and of course some cussing from my brothers. then my mom came to my apartment today for six hours and unpacked while i was at work. she's coming back tomorrow to finish.

there were more than enough complications as i went back to work today. my school laptop that i turned in at the end of the year was given to someone else and my keys that i also turned in were lost. yeah it was stressful. but what i was amazed at was all the help. office staff that didn't have to help me, did. and everything worked out.

and no one wants anything in return. there are angels around me.

tyler's brother jeremy got married in the denver temple. we flew out there and had a blast with tyler's family. his reception was unlike any i'd been to before: jeans, hot dogs, and volleyball. very fun to go to. tyler got rocked by the flight home; he threw up four times! poor guy. i felt so bad for him. throwing up is bad, but throwing up in a small enclosed area with people all around you is even worse.

so yeah, this is us trying to be goofy but instead i look pretty normal and tyler looks like he's gonna puke. (foreshadowing of the flight to come?)

the day we got back we had to move apartments. ugh. so we're living with another couple in a 2 bedroom for a week. roommates! it's actually kind of nice because the guys are gone so much.

tyler got his first medical school interview offer! i'm so proud and excited for him. i have a week left of summer and it's definitely crunch time to get ready for school...

padre island, tx...white soft sand, green water, perfect waves, warm temperatures. very ideal.

johnny d's by the sea...amazing seafood. tyler LOVED his blackened redfish and this guy is a little hard to impress. it was delicious. crab cakes to die for.

padre island is a well kept secret! i had never heard of it before but it is definitely near the top of my list of favorite places. we drove two and a half hours from san antonio and spent the day on the beach, eating out, and wandering corpus christi. fabulous.

we finally found an apartment! *sigh* the last month of endless searching, uneasiness, and countless calls is over. we will be living in eastside holladay, just a lovely little 10 minute drive from my work. no more 1.5 hour drives to and from work each day and no more ulcers from driving on the freeway in snow. it's a miracle i never got in an accident the last two years. i'm really happy with what i found. i'm looking forward to this school year as tyler will just be working too (or playing video games all day as he likes to call it). BUT i am still not ready for school to start again. four more weeks people...yuck. til then i will continue to bask in the glory of this thing called summer.

all i have to say here is that SPOTIFY is amazing! has anyone else tried this? if you are obsessed with music like i am, you can not pass this up. get it. now.

there are many strange things that happen during the summer. besides my sleeping schedule becoming 2 a.m.-11 a.m. (or 12 p.m.) my eating habits are equally as absurd. i become the queen of snacking. i'm home all day. why not? there are quite a few things i can eat in just two days...an entire box of cheez-its, at least (at least being a key word) one big pack of sour patch watermelons, half a family size bag of cheetos, and an entire pringles can just to name a few. tyler got tired of me finishing off the snacks so soon and put the cheetos where i couldn't reach them.

a recent obsession of mine is bluebell ice cream. i'm obsessed with the strawberry cheesecake and cookie dough. why is this lovely deliciousness reserved only for texas??

summer is almost half-over. time is flying by.

i finally forced myself to buckle down yesterday and begin preparing for this school year. i've been dreading it since school got out. i'm really anxious about this school year and i don't know why. i know it's like riding a bike though. everything will be fine once i get back into it.

med school applications are RIDICULOUS! tyler applied to 29, yes 29, schools. do you know how much time and money that means? his primary apps are in and now he's working on secondaries, which means another 70-80 bucks and 3-4 essays, multiplied by 29.

i continue to fill my days with workouts and pool time. the wives of the reps down here are really social and do a lot of fun things together. i spend hours at the pool daily chatting about bachelorette and other equally important things.

speaking of bachelorette, we didn't bring our tv down here and it's been interesting. i miss it a lot and then i feel ridiculous for missing something so unimportant. so i've been forced to read. yes, i'm an english teacher and i don't like to read. i struggle to watch some shows on our painfully slow internet. publishing this post will probably take several minutes. and i cook and clean like a good wife.

i think the thing i cherish the most about summer break is sleeping in. oh how i do not miss forcing myself out of bed at 5:30 a.m. every morning.

life's good...

Bob's Burgers in Albuquerque. So spicy!! Even Tyler couldn't handle it.

Look closely and you can see my hand print. That's what he gets for not wearing sunscreen and having a hot bod that his wife can't stay away from.

What is that face??

The Riverwalk! Downtown San Antone - a beautiful walk along a river lined with amazing restaurants.

one drawback of tyler's job: late nights. i'm sitting here alone at 11:30 p.m. stuffing my face with quesadillas and watching countless episodes of extreme makeover: weightloss mostly to entertain myself and distract from all the creepy noises in an empty apartment...

so this is summer

no alarm clocks in the morning. good, big, real breakfasts. sweaty workouts. big pool and hot, hot heat. the smell of sunscreen and hamburgers. naps in the sunshine. yogurt and blueberries. eating pineapple until my tongue stings. snickers ice cream. bachelorette and sytycd. delicious dinners. late nights with an amazing boy. so THIS is summer.

so this post was supposed to be about how awesome portland has been the past few days, but instead i can tell you about san antonio, tx!

friday night. i'm all packed. my car is loaded up. 11:00 p.m. i'm thinking about my drive the next day and trying to sleep, but i can't. tyler calls me. he says not to drive up the next day. the office is moving to san antonio, tx in a few days.

i cried. i had been waiting six weeks for school to end and to see my husband again! are you kidding me? i have to wait two more days?! i couldn't handle it.

two days later, tyler drove through salt lake, picked me up, we stayed in albuquerque, and then made it to san antonio. it's pretty amazing here. it's hot and the pool is awesome, so yes, i'm loving my life.

it feels soooo good to be with tyler again. and i love summer, even in san antonio instead of portland.

i just cut two inches off my hair. i feel like it's sooo short! am i crazy? everybody knows my loooong hair and now i feel like it's just regular long. but long does not equal pretty. and let's be honest, it was not lookin' good.

i have the hardest time with hair. what girl doesn't? lighter or darker? shorter or longer? curly, wavy, or straight? and let's not even get started with bangs!

so i know that last post was supposed to be my last until i left for portland, but ya, i get bored so i blog. anyway, school is done! tomorrow is half-day/yearbook day, and then i'm off...can't wait!!!

goodbye utah

it's about freakin' time. two more days in this wretched condition and then i'm off to portland.

i'm really happy that the end is near, but time almost seems to drag even more as i wait for the final days to pass. i'm super ornery. i get irritated really easily. people are buggin and my patience is wearing thin. i'm trying to be a nice person and be pleasant to be around, but seriously! i'm dying to be with my husband again. (or is it because i'm on my period?) anyway, i feel like i'm single again, and uh, it's not fun. i miss seeing him every day. i miss his smile and his laugh. i miss his big arms around me. i miss how i feel complete with him.

goodbye utah! i will NOT miss you! hello portland...

I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of this deep dark tunnel...5 more days of school...8 more days til I'm with Tyler. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...


Hmmm...kind of wish we were in Tucson again this summer...I mean, I'm excited for the cultural and beautiful Portland and all, but c'mon! Rainy, cloudy, and 60's compared to sunny and 90's? BTW, anybody have good suggestions for things to do in Portland???

why does knowing i only have two weeks left not even feel much better than when i had six weeks left?

for the love! i'm dying. slowly slowly dying away. i feel mentally like i did physically when i drove three hours in the middle of the day in the middle of summer in the middle of arizona...without air conditioning. suffocation.

i've been trying to keep myself busy to make time pass quickly. i've been volunteering at the ymca, helping kids with homework. i like elementary age kids but they actually seem harder to teach because they're so adhd. they're always moving around and can't focus. they're a little cuter than jh kids though. i also went to an african dance class recently which kicked my butt. it was fun to be the student again though.

i miss tyler so much it's unreal. but then i think about my friend jenna who won't live with her husband again until september, and i don't feel so bad.

seriously i want to poke my eyeballs out. but i won't. i'll carry on and continue my pathetic countdown: 9 more school days and 14 days til i see tyler.

on a brighter note, i'm glad the world didn't begin to end today because i'm very much looking forward to my tv lineup this week: ai finale (i'm definitely team scotty. he's a natural, although i can't handle the way he holds the mic.), bachelorette and sytycd premieres.

in other news, tyler now has two siblings out on a mission. his brother talon entered the mtc on wednesday, getting ready for the netherlands/brussels mission. (his sister is in russia.)

carry on, carry on, carry on!

sonya tayeh - you're a freak! pure genius and inspiration. can NOT wait for sytycd.

um hello! one of my favorite singers and one of my favorite choreographers TOGETHER...can it get any better? (oh yeah, don't mind the awkward camera angles.)

ok, FOR THE LOVE! time: i hate you right now. i'm trying not to be a debby downer right now, but seriously i am d.y.i.n.g waiting for school to end and to be with tyler again. will i survive? we will see...

what do you like about being a woman?

two of my favorite women

since i became a woman i've realized something: we are keeched!

"keech" is the armenian word for jipped, short-changed, screwed, whatever. keech just sounds so much better.

really, i'd rather be a guy! in general (of course there are always exceptions) we get paid less, we're less athletic, we're emotional and generally less stable, we bleed in our underpants accompanied by abdominal pain that's guaranteed once a month for a whole week, we have to take birth control, sex is painful and sometimes frustrating, we have to continually dodge the outside world's attack on our self-image and self-esteem, we have to be pregnant for nine months that's accompanied by permanent damages to our body, we have the pain of a human being come out of us, etc., etc., etc.

and according to my friend, doug rasmussen, men are better than women at everything. (i won't even get started on that maddening conversation.)

keeched i tell ya!

so i try to be positive and think about the things i really love about being a woman. and sometimes i sit and think and think and think...

there are things i like. i feel like we're generally more spiritually inclined. we're more compassionate and loving.

but i'd really like to be more proud of being a woman and learn to love it! i want to be glad i'm a woman and stop wishing i was a man. (this sounds weird, doesn't it?)

so help me out, what is it that you really love about being a woman?

dance concert #4 is over.

it was kind of a disaster.

the main stage crew member didn't show up. (i won't even get started on the stage crew this year.) the music was low on the stage so the dancers could barely hear it; one dance had to start over in the middle. the black lights fell half way off the stage. students broke performance rules.

i told myself, i'm never doing this again. (yeah, i said that last time too.)

but...the students were happy and excited. the parents loved it.

and i'm just glad it's over.

it's funny how the things you dream of doing when you're younger aren't quite as glamorous as you thought they would be.

ah...four more weeks...

(am i seriously not even half way done with my separation from tyler?? you've got to be kidding me!)

sometimes gossip is a good thing?

This last week was pretty painful. But I feel like the worst is over. I usually miss Tyler right away and as time passes I forget about him. No! JK. But it gets almost easier for me. He is the opposite. So yeah, he doesn't miss me right now.

So why is gossip a good thing in junior high? Well because you can tell your first period students that your personal ipod and expensive dock that you use for dance every day was stolen from the auditorium and it will take about three hours for them to be returned to you.

I was pretty panicked when I opened my locked closet door in the auditorium and found my ipod and dock missing. I hardly made it through first period, crying in front of my students (embarrassing). So word got around fast and those that were responsible at least had enough guts to return my equipment by lunch time. I still don't know how they got in there or when and why they were in the auditorium but now I've learned my lesson to keep my stuff with me always. And I've learned that gossip can be a tool in a junior high.

Can not wait for this week! That's right, I've got it on my calendar.

Missing my husband. Ugh, time is crawling...

P.S. Here comes the blogging. Time away from Tyler = a lot more of Jodi on the blog.

Finally Tyler is a college grad! So proud of him.

Aubrie givin the grads high fives on their way out

BYU! It's been good...

that cap just barely fits. love him!

some of the crew: me; the grad; my brother dave; niece aubrie; the grad's dad jim, brother talon, and uncle bob

oh yeah!