Hair Did

I finally did it! I've been wanting to cut my hair short for such a long time ... and oh boy does it feel good! haha I tried out this new hair salon in Orem called Platinum studios because I heard you can get 15 bucks off if you mention this blog called C.Jane.

"The Lord is pleased with every effort, even the tiny daily ones in which we strive to be more like Him."

-Elder Christofferson Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Life Shmife

Once again, I really shouldn't be blogging because I really do have a million things to do before I start school this week, but I really wanted to take a break...

I don't necessarily have many new things to say. Instead I'd like to share a few excerpts from my blog over the past couple of years. While reading them tonight, I felt like I literally went back to that time and remembered the spirit that I'd felt at various times in my life. I realize that the spirit works in so many different ways and one of them is through remembrance. I also think of how far I've come: I'm finished with college; I have a career in something that I am very passionate about; I've overcome feelings of doubts, fears, and inadequacies; I've developed better understandings of gospel principles, specifically the Atonement; I've accomplished a few of my goals and dreams; I've learned how to fully forgive; I've learned to accept others and love as Heavenly Father loves his children; I've gained more confidence in myself and more importantly in this Gospel.

On Doubt:

"Everything worth believing goes beyond everything that we can be sure about. Doubt is not healthy because it focuses on ourselves. It cuts the lifeline between us and God. Doubt is like a child because when it demands attention it demands for even more. Brother Millet challenged us to stare our doubts down and feed our faith. He gave the example of Jacob and his son and how his faith was not shaken by the anti christ. 'Doubt not, fear not.' Pray for God to banish all doubt and all fears-- God loves those prayers and He answers them."

On love:

"We had a ward fast today for Dave Chalk, a guy in my ward who has cancer. He has the most positive attitude and is so strong. I felt the tremendous love of our Heavenly Father today at church through the spirit and through the testimonies that were given. First of all, I felt His love through my bishop. He is amazing and you can feel his love radiate to each person. Imagine Heavenly Father's love for me. His love for you. His love for Dave Chalk. His tremendous love for each one of His children. I gained an even greater appreciation today for Joseph Smith and that even though he had many imperfections, he brought about so much good into this world, in fact, he restored the only true gospel to this earth. This really touched my heart today because lately I have been focusing so much on my imperfections and flaws that it was starting to eat away at the spirit. I know that despite my imperfections, I can bring much good into this world."

On meekness:

"I learned that meekness is a christ-like attribute that is essential for those who want to stay on the path of righteousness. If we are meek, then we do not get offended by others or take offense. If we are meek, then we do not get agitated easily because we are not absorbed in ourselves. Instead, we are thinking of others and loving our neighbors as God sees them instead of as objects. I guess it all comes down to what we want. Do we want happiness or do we want to be miserable? We can be happy by simply not letting ourselves get frustrated. We can be happy by developing our relationships with others and focusing on the now. We can be happy by not focusing so much on ourselves. It all comes down to what Christ would do."

On the Gospel:

"Tonight we had a fireside and they talked about how peculiar we as BYU students are in the UK. We stand out by the way act and we dress. Our standards and morals shock most of the people here. The couple missionaries said that we open the doors for the missionaries here and are so grateful to have us. I have never felt more peculiar in my life, even more than when I lived in New Orleans and was the only Mormon at a catholic school. I feel so out of place here, but I don’t feel like that at church at all. I have a ward family wherever I go. A Scottish sister read Ephesians 2:19 where it says we are no strangers or foreigners. Our differences are not so great because we have the gospel. Today was wonderful. I gained a stronger testimony of the gospel and God’s love for each of us. I felt that every thing came together for me since I saw the gospel in action in a different part of the world. I kept thinking in my head, 'There is no way the gospel is not true.'"

Love you all!

"Getting to Know Ms. Hansen"

Ok, I should definitely not be blogging right know because I have about a million things to do before school starts next tuesday. I just wanted to update y'all and share my Voicethread introducing myself to my students. I am excited and anxious to start school. I'm curious to see how this year will turn out. Wish me luck!

Skyping with the Girly Bugs

Can I just say that I LOOOOVE Skype? It really is the closest thing to hanging out with my family with out actually "being" there. I love all of my cute nieces and I just wish we all lived closer. And I love you too Amy bug!!!

The Yearbook is complete!

It's done it's done!! I have loved being a yearbook teacher this semester! Other good news is that I was offered a full time position for OHSU for the next school year and I am so stoked and so grateful. I'll probably look for a place in SLC so if you know of any good areas let me know.

Me and some of my students threw this promotional video together for the yearbook and the students are so excited to get theirs.

Yearbook Promo Video from Teacher 2 Open High School on Vimeo.

Yes, Please

Me and Amy totally forgot we made this little gem of a video last semester, Fall 2010. You'll notice that me and Amy tend to switch sweatshirts a lot. Enjoy!

Bocaj

look at top right hand corner please

Graduaticion

I am so excited for my family to come in town for graduation! It's hard to focus with work when I am getting so antsy for them to get here.

Check out how far we have come, Freddie! The twins are graduating from college- who woulda ever thought?

freddie: loving, always happy, sees the positive in everything, spiritual, handsome, giggles, he ping ping.

Country Strong

Me and Amy had such a great day today. Watched some conference, went to Guru's for breakfast (which was amazing), did some spring cleaning, visited our roommate Kayleigh in the employee lounge at Office Depot, then we made some muddy buddies to take with us to go see "Country Strong" at the dollar movies. I really enjoyed it, and the music was amazing, and the acting was really good. I just couldn't get over that one of the main actors, Garrett Hedlund, had learned to sing and play the guitar just 6 months before filming the movie-- his voice is incredible!

For some reason watching that movie made me and Amy really inspired to write music. Amy's been saying she wants to start writing music so I've been trying to encourage her for a long time to do so, thus we ventured on down to the Maeser Building on BYU campus. And we thought we would be inspired to write music tonight? Yeah right. We just ended up acting really weird and made a video instead. Just don't take this too seriously all right? Actually, don't take it seriously at all.

And what I want to know is: What the HECK is Riverclap?

OHSU

I am so excited to be a part this cutting edge school. I love, love, love my job and my coworkers and students!

You all know how much I love technology, and then to add teaching on top of that? Oh boy, life is good right now.

Youtube Dump

Please forgive this youtube dump of all of the stuff I get carried away watching multiple times in a day.

I looooovee Casey Abrams and I've loved his voice since his first audition. On American Idol this week, he just proved again why he is so amazing. The 2 videos below were strangely my 2 favorites during the night. (also I'm really digging Lauren and Pia)

I don't know why but I can't get enough of this song-- I had never been a fan of Haley's until this week. Hopefully she keeps it up and that growling of hers down.

I also thought this was a pretty genius...

I stumbled upon this and I was captivated from the start!

I also think I would be so embarrassed if this happened to me, but it makes for a pretty great show.

Yearbook

Goofing around taking some pictures of myself for my yearbook class, making macaroni and cheese... In the third picture you can see me freaking out because the fire alarm went off. We have the worst stove burners ever!

And a winning shot... woo hoo!

Visual

I found this so interesting.

Making a Web Page

In case you were wondering what I do for my job... I make a whole lot of these:

A Blast From the Past

Looking back on my college years, I think of how much I have grown as a person and all of the crazy cool experiences that I have had. Of the friendships that I hold dear to my heart, of the truths that I have been taught of the Gospel, of the Knowledge that I have gained oh so much of-- I would have never have imagined as a kid just how much fun College would be and of all of the friends that I have had and how smart I would get (haha). It was hard for me to make friends as a teenager since I went to several different high schools (I was the girl who ate lunch by herself in the library) and so I didn't really know what it would be like to have "good" friends. All I can say now is WOW--I am blown away at the GREAT friends that I have made. I'm sure you all know that my best semester at BYU was study abroad in Europe. I get goose pimples just thinking about it. I wish I could write a caption underneath every photo below, but that would take too long. But, I hope that it is evident that I look 100% happy through them all, because I am.

I had to do it

Cute little Amy Bug. I took her to get a makeover and facial from my friends over at Dillard's and they made her look so beautiful! We had a night on the town and went to a Mocktail Party. I've been to so many that it was like de va vu. Maybe I'm just getting too old for dance parties.

I don't know why but people listen to whatever Amy tells them to do-- She got a bunch of people to have dance offs and, bless their hearts, they were not very good hahahaha

makeup

The lighting is horrible, but I think my friend Lauren did a really great job with my makeup. She just got a job at Estee Lauder.

Getting a facial and your makeup done is the equivalent to getting your hair shampooed at a salon. It is so relaxing.

Triple Hot Chocolate

I decided to take my work somewhere else that is not in my "bedroom office." So I went to Border's and got the most delicious Hot chocolate I've ever had. I would recommend getting it (especially in this 5 degree weather in Provo). It has white chocolate shavings on top with some chocolate stick. mmmmmmm

Amy is a genius with music. She made me this mixed cd and it is amazing. Here are some songs that are on it:

Kelly Clarkson- Irvine

Bon Iver and St. Vincent- Rosalyn

Brooke Fraser- There's Something in the Water

Feist- You're All I Need

Black keys-Things Aren't Like They Used to Be

Black Keys- Lies

Here is an fun song that we warm up to in Zumba:

The Black Eyed Peas- The Time of your Life

The Holiday

Ok, ok. You are probably sick of these... but I'm not! Here is a movie trailer my sister Emily made from the Holidays.

St. Louis: A True Story

Gotta love the new iMovie. I threw this bad boy together in a few minutes.

If I could choose one thing that I enjoy doing the most, it would be hangin' with my family. There is nothing else like it, and I would say I lucked out a lot. I would also say that Christmas gets better and better each year. It's because there is usually a new grandchild or two and we are always in a different city. This year, me and all 6 of my siblings, 6 nieces, 1 nephew, 3 brother-in-laws, and mama Nancy all stayed under one roof at Jessica and Scott's gorgeous home in St. Louis, Mo. Can you say FUN? The days consisted of a few visits to the movie theatre, chatting, playing games (the celebrity game seems to be the fave), eating, cooking, browsing at the mall, playing with the kiddies, relaxing with a good book (I have started the Harry Potter series!), doing crazy stuff in the basement, me and Ethan playing Life (the new electronic version), frozen custard, curling my nieces hair every day, admiring each other's crafty talents, beating Super Mario 5 times on the Wii, Amy doing weird stuff in her sleep, watching disney movies on a laptop, secret santa exchanges, Walmart runs, gossip magazine readin, playing with "the claw" and other xmas presents, watching youtube videos, and mainly just sitting around and enjoying one another's company.

I got to take my sister Jessica's kids' annual pictures for her living room wall.

(Jane, Sophie, Grace, and Ethan)

And here are the beloved family pictures for 2010:

7 kids + Mom

7 grandkids + Mom

and a little lagniappe...

Welcome Back

This video made me happy.

Tomorrow, tomorrow

I am starting my new job tomorrow and I am quite anxious. I am so grateful that I found a job and cannot wait to get busy. I am teaching a Journalism Yearbook class and doing some curriculum development for a Web Essentials and Web Design class at Open High School of Utah. I finished my lesson plans for the first few weeks of the yearbook class. I'm not too sure how it is going to work since I kind of made this class from scratch. Overall, it's going to be a very busy next couple of months with this job while looking for a full time job for the Fall. I'm applying to D.C., maybe Houston, maybe Atlanta, maybe even Seattle or Portland or maybe Africa. We'll see. I would love to head to the east coast though. What do you think? I am [SO] ready for a change of scenery.

....Here is a song Amy threw together the other day...http://picosong.com/cgN/

Happy Monday! I'm off to Zumba!

"And then I fell into a manhole"

I am waiting for Amy at school parked outside of the TEE building, talking on the phone with Sarah, when I hear someone banging on the window. I look around and Amy is screaming at me. I hang up and go out to see what Amy is yelling about and there I see her pointing at a huge manhole. It seems that she dropped her keys into the manhole right next to where I was parked. My first thought was, "great, she has the only pair of house keys." (I had lost mine a couple of days before." Second thought, "ok, ok let's call BYU or Provo City and figure out who would be able to help us." Third thought, "We are at the perfect building on campus (technology and engineering building) with probably some of the best resources, let's put our problem solving skills to good use."

As Amy started to calm down, she points to the license plate next to ours, and lo and behold ...

It's a fish.

She then says, "let's go fishing!"

So we run upstairs to the woods lab. We find exactly what we needed. We find a huge long wooden pole from a trebuchet. We then strap on several magnets looped around a paper clip with duck tape.

As we are walking back out to the car, we started laughing because we found exactly what we needed and we knew it was going to work.

We got the keys on our first try!

It is probably a combination of our cajun blood and engineering background that attribute to our great problem solving skills.

(And you are probably wondering why this post is entitled "And then I fell into a manhole." It's an inside joke we have with a few friends in the ward because the first counselor's wife gave a talk for the first time and the first thing she said was that she fell into a manhole while she was texting. I guess no one else thought it was as funny as me and Amy because no one else was laughing. Hence, we thought is was ironic that Amy's keys fell into a manhole.)

To end, here is a picture of me and Amy g-chatting with Eleanor and Sarah after the ordeal...Happy Friday!

New Car

It's been months since I've had a real blog -- so here I go. Thought I would start out with the car that I bought while I was student teaching last semester. It is THE best car I could have asked for and I feel so blessed to have found the perfect one for the perfect price. My old bishop helped me find it at his car dealership. He really is such a great father figure to me and takes really good care of me.

At Gene Harvey, my bishop works with his 2 brothers, who were so sweet. They even took a picture of me in front of the car for a calendar that they send to all of their customers. I am so glad that they documented this. Amy is in the front seat if you can see her.

If I could express into one word how I feel about having a car, it would be FREEDOM! I finally feel like an adult. After 10 years of public transportation, begging for rides to the grocery store in the snow, waiting at the bus stop in front of a bar in New Orleans hoping I wouldn't get killed-- I can finally get to places with no hassle. However, I do miss walking to places so I can daydream, not paying for gas, and how it built some character in me. I am trying to pay it forward by giving people rides when I can. I could also say that I feel quite spoiled because I don't deserve this.

Oh and did I mention that I got my driver's license a couple of weeks before the big purchase?

I would say all in all it was a good year in 2010. Along with a new car and a driver's license, I also finished my "dreaded" student teaching (a.k.a best semester of my college career) which led to me graduating in December. I learned from this experience that my calling in life is to help kids, specifically secondary school students. I LOVED my students and have been back a couple of times to visit and it fills me up with so much joy when I see them. Most importantly, and this is going to sound cliche, but I learned that if I try hard enough and trust in the Lord, then I can do anything. I accomplished tasks and problems that I never thought I could do/face.

It feels pretty surreal to be done. It seemed just like yesterday that I was idolizing my beautiful older sisters and how graduating like them seemed so distant.

As for the new year? It's gonna be a great year. The next chapter in my life includes new goals, new jobs, new adventures, and I am ready for the Lord to guide me in the direction He desires most for me. Having a plan scares me and I am trying to do my best, but if I could see for just one second the Lord's plan in comparison to mine, I know that I would hands down choose the Lord's plan.

Have a great new year and let's DREAM BIG 2011!!!

Stay tuned for "What I did over Christmas Break"... (a sneak peek can be found here and here)

A Day in New Orleans

A Day in New Orleans from Laura Hansen on Vimeo.