Misunderstandings Create Conflict

New post at Sarah's Scripture Study Blog: Misunderstandings Create Conflict

Peer Pressure in The Book of Mormon

New post at Sarah's Scripture Study Blog: Peer Pressure in The Book of Mormon.

Evan and Sarah's Day O' Fun!

Yesterday day was a CRAZY day that lasted from 6 AM to 11 PM. Nearly 300 miles were driven and fun adventures were had by all. By the time I got home at nearly 11 at night, I was bombed.

I left my house around six AM to go rock climbing with Evan and some friends. Evan made sandwiches, we ate breakfast (which Evan made), and we were on our way! We had gone rock climbing earlier this week at an outdoor rock climbing park in Kent, so it sure was nice to back on real rock again! North Bend at Exit 38 is where we went climbing. It is honestly such a beautiful place to climb! It has a fantastic views. The pictures I took hardly do it justice. I couldn't help but take the time to do a trail run between climbs because it was so beautiful!





We taught our friend, Tyler, how to rock climb and belay. He did pretty well climbing for his first time! (I apologize for all of the pictures... I happened to take a lot.)



Here's Evan rappelling off the climb I led. Of course, he also led the climb. It was WAY too easy for him to top rope it!


Earlier in the day, Evan and I were matching almost EXACTLY. We were both wearing khaki pants and black shirts. Needless to say, I changed before we left.


This is my "belaying" while Evan was retying the rope at the top of another climb, before he rappelled down. Sadly, everyone was either climbing or belaying while I was climbing. One of these days I'll actually get a picture of ME climbing rather than being the only photographer.


Here are some gorgeous views as we hiked down the mountain... I love living in the Northwest!





After rock climbing, we made ourselves a little lunch and then headed up the other side of the mountain (Mt. Rainier side) to go shooting. I know it may be weird to some, but I really love guns and shooting them. Maybe it's the fact that I was introduced to James Bond at a tender age and grew up obsessed with James Bond and well-done action films. Maybe it's just that I love going shooting. Who knows. Either way, the fact remains that I enjoy shooting and don't do it very often. So, it was fun to shoot with the boys. (DISCLAIMER: I do not condone the using of guns to kill innocent victims.)






NOTE: The gun was not loaded during the following pictures.



Once we got done with shooting, I got a call from my friend, Christina. She offered to give Evan and I two tickets to "Whose Live Is It Anyway," the LIVE version of the Television show. All crassness aside, it was a humorous show, much like the one you see on Television. It was a lot of fun! And The Moore theater in Seattle is absolutely gorgeous.



Evan and I ended our day by eating Jack-In-The-Box. In light of my recent post about junk food, it made me laugh (and CRINGE!) that I ate there. C'est la vie!

Flood of Junkfood Puts Greeks at Risk

I recently read the following article about the rise of junkfood in Greece, thus decreasing life span and increasing the risk for many health problems. The following is a synposis of an article I found incredibly interesting. I knew that junkfood and fastfood has been a major problem in America. (This article quotes a study done in 2004 that suggests that over 66% of Americans over 20 years old are overweight. And that was in 2004, can you imagine how much worse it is now?) This article truly opened my eyes to other countries and their battle of the bulge.

Most people have heard of the the Mediterranean diet. It has long been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer. Sadly, this diet is in retreat in its homeland.



The traditional diet, low in saturated fats and high in nutrients like flavonoids, was based on vegetables, fruit, unrefined grains, olive oil for cooking and for flavoring, and a bit of wine - all consumed on a daily basis. Fish, nuts, poultry, eggs, cheese and sweets were weekly additions. Red meat, refined sugar or flour, butter and other oils or fats were consumed rarely, if at all.

Research on the diet took off in the 1990s, as scientists noted that people in Mediterranean countries lived longer and had low rates of serious disease despite a penchant for patently unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking. But that protection is now seen as rapidly eroding.



A generation ago, the typical diet in all Mediterranean countries complied with nutritional recommendations by the World Health Organization that less than 10 percent of calories should come from saturated fats and that less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol should be consumed per day.

Today, the typical diet in all of the countries exceeds those limits significantly, Schmidhuber said. In Greece, average daily cholesterol consumption has risen to 400 milligrams from 190 in 1963.In 2002, England found that 31-34% of 12-year-olds in Greece were now overweight.

Unfortunately, many countries throughout Europe are following this same junk food trend!

Being overweight, particularly being obese, is associated with a wide variety of medical problems, like diabetes and liver disease. Many doctors throughout the Mediterranean (and the world) are finding more and more problems linked to this lack of proper diet and exercise.



All of this makes me think... what are we doing with your bodies? A few months ago I posted about the BBC show entitled "You Are What You Eat" (<-- Find post here). If you are what you eat, then is America a bunch of walking hamburgers, French fries, chocolate milk, and whatever other junkfood we choose to ingest? We know that what we eat does affect our bodies (including our MENTAL health) in a major way, but are we willing to follow what we know to be true about diet and exercise? Or, are we going to let our tastebuds determine our fat count? Sometimes I think I'm too lazy and I go with the latter.

Back To School Night

Last night was back to school night for me. To be honest, I had only slept about 3 hours the night before (not for lack of trying... I've had sleep problems for years and its been aggravated the last month or so), and I was SUPER tired and really just didn't feel like having to get everything all ready.

I stayed after school in spite of the tiredness putting up my students artwork introducing themselves and their interests (in German, of course!) with their very best self-portrait. Below you'll find a picture of their self-portraits I posted on the bulletin board outside my classroom. Since I had a little bit of extra room at the top, I decided to make speech bubbles and have the students saying positive phrases about German class auf deutsch.



Here's a picture of the seating arrangement I did in my classroom before the start of the school year. I took this right now (forgot to take pictures last night).


And here's a self-timed photo taken today of me in front of my classroom. Horrible angle, horrible picture, but you get the idea, right?


Anyway, so the school year is going MUCH better! I'm a lot less stressed (although that is still there), and feel more like I have a better idea of where I'm going with class and what I want to achieve this year. This week is busy with starting a new fundraiser (selling Entertainment Books if anyone wants to buy one!) and having various meetings for our German exchange this coming spring. It's busy, but exciting!

Locks of Love

Off and on throughout my life, I've had long hair. (See above picture circa 2001)Generally, I'll grow my hair out for a year or two and then chop it off. (see below picture circa 2004)



This is a pattern I repeat often mostly because it's expensive to get my hair cut, my hair is fairly healthy (I rarely blow dry it or straighten it) and so I only get it cut once every 1-1/2 years or so. For years, I've wanted to donate my hair to locks of love or some such organization that would provide wigs for children who are in need for whatever medical reason. 7 years ago, my sister cut TWENTY INCHES off my hair randomly late one night and I wasn't able to donate it. This process of cutting so much of my hair off has been repeated SO often, but I just haven't had the opportunity to donate that hair.

Recently, it's come to my attention that my hair is starting to get long again from the last time I cut it, April 9th, 2007. This time I am consciously making the decision to donate my hair to locks of love. Even though I want a hair cut RIGHT NOW, I've decided to grow it out for a few more months to make sure that it's good and long enough. And then I'm going to donate it to Locks of Love! Check out their website to find out more information about this non-profit organization. I'm really excited to donate my hair. I know that it's for a good cause.

(In the picture below you can sort of see how long my hair is getting, although it's grown at least another inch since this picture was taken at my sister's wedding. Also, consider that my hair is anywhere for 4-6 inches longer when pulled straight. It's getting long! I'll try to get a more recent picture of my hair! )

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

A few years ago, I read about and posted an article in my blog for International "Talk Like A Pirate Day." It seemed that this funny phenomenon has now turned into a big deal every September 19th. So, in case you haven't heard... feel free to talk like a pirate as much as you want today!

Here's a blurb about how this day began I found on Wikipedia:

International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Portland, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, me hearty!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.

In order to use this in my German class today, we learned about a FAMOUS German pirate (Klaus Störtebeker, pictured above) who was a very famous pirate back in the late 1300's. We also learned to use a few German pirate phrases they may have used back then, namely "Du Pfeffersack." (You sack of pepper!) We used these phrases and our list of other German phrases to play a game (they can ONLY speak German while playing games) after watching a fun "You Are A Pirate" video in German. My students learned a lot and were able to have fun! Arrr, matey... für Piratentag!

Dog Bite Update...

(Photo taken the day after the bite)

It's been 4 days since the dog bite and the bite marks on my forearm are looking MUCH better. The swelling has definitely gone down! The bruise on my tricep is horrendous-looking, but it definitely is not as swollen, nor does it feel as bad as it did.

As for my neighbor, he is acting like nothing happened... as if it were not a big deal. He has been letting his dog out on occasion to roam free, even though we told him how much it frightens us. (Too bad animal control has yet to show its face, otherwise I think he'd reconsider allowing his dog to run loose!) Consequently, my sister's four kids can't be outside and neither can our dog because he doesn't care. He admitted that is dog is a "nervous" dog and he wishes he wouldn't have purchased her. Well, you did buddy! So, accept the consequences. It seems like this will turn into a bigger deal than I want it to or have energy for! I'm really hoping that he'll pay for my hospital bills and my dog's vet bills without a hassel. Also, I hope that there is something done with his dog. As a dog lover, I feel bad requesting to kill a dog. Maybe just give the dog away to someone else. Granted, research shows that if a dog has done this once, chances are he/she will do it again. Oh, also did I mention the dog who bit me is about to have puppies? Yeah, yet another dilemma!

Two days later...


No, I swear my wrist is not usually that messed up... that's the next day after the bite, once the swelling had gone DOWN a little bit.


Fancy's nose today...


Check out this bruise... In my German classes, I told this story to my students in German. They thought it was a made-up story (as are many of the stories we tell in German class), until I showed them this bruise. They all couldn't believe it! Honey, neither can I! The yellow is obviously where the dog's teeth were.

I Got Bit By A Dog!

Yesterday I was just minding my own business walking around my yard and talking to my friend, Ashley. Near the end of my conversation, my dog came walking up to me to be pet. I started petting her only to look over and notice the two neighborhood hoodlum dogs (one male and one female) saunter into my yard. Within the past three months, they have attacked my dog on at least FOUR (maybe even five) occassions. My dog always does her best to defend herself, but when there are TWO dogs against one, it's not always easy.

Yet, I digress. As I see these dogs walk into my yard, I immediately yell a few times to tell them to "Go home." Of course they don't listen or care and walk right past me to where my dog is. The female dog (some might call it a bitch), pounced right on top of my dog for no apparent reason! She just started biting my dog and gnashing her teeth. My dog tried to fight back, but this other dog apparently was on a mission with her little boyfriend to take down my dog.

Well, this obviously upset me very much. I was yelling to the female dog to stop and get off, at which point she bit me on my wrist. (See image below... those dots on my arm are puncture marks, which swelled up much worse within a few hours of this picture.)



Now, this both made me EXTREMELY mad as well as frightened me. I tried even harder to get her off of my dog by gently pushing her. She turned around and sunk her teeth into my upper arm, grabbed a hold, and hung on for dear life. The picture below was taken right after it happened, but you can already see the imprint of her mouth in bruises on my arm. Thank goodness her teeth were not more sharp, otherwise we would have had more problems. Needless to say, I ran away from this situation to get more help, because I did NOT want to get bitten worse by this dog.



I was SO angry, though! My family's dog is so sweet. I left the situation just as the other dog was wrestling my dog to the ground. Once again, my dog tried her hardest to overcome, but to no avail when she was fighting a dog this mean. Below you'll find a picture of what the dog did to my dog. We had to take her to the vet to get stitches and antiobiotics. All I'm saying is that the owner BETTER offer to cover the vet expenses.



This is me after I got back from the hospital. When I called animal control, they suggested I go to the hospital to get a shot and antibiotics just to be safe. All I'm saying is that I don't have medical insurance currently (I will in a month!), and the owner WILL pay my hospital bill that I wouldn't have had to pay if his stupid dog didn't bite me. Evan was sweet enough to take me to the hospital and wait there for hours until they treated me. He even took me out to dinner afterward. Here's a picture of the bruise, post-hospital.



The thing that is scary is that I live with my sister, who has four children. What if that would have been her child that got bit instead of myself? I love dogs. They are one of my favorite animals, but should a dog like this be around children or even people for that matter? I'm just not sure.

Sarah's Scripture Study

I know that a few of you have noticed that I have another blog, although I haven't formally told anyone about it. A few months back I really kept feeling like I should keep a scripture journal. Around that same time, there was a talk in the Ensign about sharing the gospel via blogs or the web. (Side note: This was actually a concept I'd heard about back in December when it first was spoken about at a BYU-Hawaii graduation. Since I was living in Hawaii, I heard a lot about this talk!) I kept procrastinating doing both. Well, one day as I was reading my scriptures, I felt the impression that I should combine the two in the creation of a scripture/spiritual blog. I did and feel good about it.

I have to be honest that at first, I was a little nervous to create said blog as well as post anything to it! I always worry about seeming to pushy about my beliefs. However, I realized that in creating my blog, I'm not trying to push my beliefs on anyone. I'm merely sharing my spiritual thoughts with others!

Thank you to those who have written me about how my scripture blog inspired you to create your own testimony blog. Hearing those comments really helped me to know that the creation of my blog has an impact!

If you're so inclined to read something else I've written, you can find the link in the top left or else you can go to: http://sarahsscripturestudy.blogspot.com. Enjoy your day!

First Week of School...

Wow! This first week of school sure was eventful! After my first day of teaching German, I had a slight panic attack. Thank goodness Evan was kind enough to take me hiking and get me to lighten up. All I have to say is that I'm incredibly grateful for supportive coworkers, especially my former German teacher, Gretchen LaTurner. She has been SO kind and helpful to me these past couple of weeks. She's shared her resources and plans with me. She's allowed me into her classroom to observe. I am so grateful for her!

I've come to realize this week that teaching German will be a lot of fun, but also a LOT of work. Teaching English is easier because it is your native language and the students' (most of them anyway) native language. With English, you're building on prior knowledge. You're adding to it. However, with German, you're building on nothing. You are digging the hole, you're pouring the foundation, you're framing the house... the works! I'm creating something from scratch.



This realization first sent me into a bit of a panic and then made me realize that I need to work even harder than I have been to teach these students. Thankfully, I was able to have Blaine Ray in my classroom on Friday. Blaine Ray is the creator of TPRS, Total Physical Response Storytelling, a successful method for teaching foreign languages to students. He was kind enough to coame to our school free of charge and work with my students (so that I could learn his method better). I couldn't believe it when at the end of a class period on the 4th day of school, one of my students told a story in German for the last 4 minutes of class. It was amazing!

After having Blaine in my classroom, it has put a new spin on how I want to teach German. This means, revamping all of my plans in order to improve! So, that is what I'm going to devote some time to today. I still feel overwhelmed, I still feel like I'm not sure where to go from here, but I know that I'll get it all figured out. All of the foreign language teachers at my school said that it takes a few weeks of teaching a foreign language to figure out how YOU best do it. Here's to a few more weeks! :)