Fat Guy in a Little Coat

Yes, I just quoted one of the most idiotic movies known to mankind: Tommy Boy. Somehow I manage to watch this movie in the wee hours of the morning every time I go home and visit my family. And for someone reason at 3:00 a.m. I find it absolutely hilarious. But that is beside the point. The point is for the last four months I have been the fat guy in the little coat. I have a peacoat from high school which is a bit too small. When I'm wearing it, it looks fine, but if you take a look at the lining inside my coat it is a disaster of ripped seams repaired by me, the girl who doesn't know how to sew, with frantic whip stitches. Everytime I put on the coat before leaving the house I would find myself humming the tune of fat guy in a little coat, fat guy in a little coooaat. It was great for my self-esteem. Thankfully, I found a new coat on clearance this weekend and will no longer refer to myself as a fat guy in a little coat. To commemorate the special times we had together and the way that coat warmed my soul, I would like to play a tribute:

Pleasant Grove?

Pleasant Grove always seemed like a nice enough place. After all, it is called the City of Trees and it is P.G. that hosts the quaint Strawberry Festival every year. I've actually been meaning to go there for some time to visit Patina's and get a pink donut from Daylight's, but that becomes less appetizing as the days pass. You see on my forty five minute drive to school, I pass through P.G. At first my thoughts were, I need to go check that place out! There is nothing I love more than finding the hidden treasures in a small town. Just ask Rory about my love for Kearny, Nebraska. I adore it. Well, after a week of driving by P.G., planning my weekend visit, I noticed a terrible stench. An overpowering, putrid stench that has remained in P.G. for at least two weeks now. It's as if a sewage pipe exploded, but nobody noticed. So I took the liberty to write the P.G. Chamber of Commerce a little note. It went like this.

To whom it may concern:
I have been interested in paying a visit to your town for some town. However, the town seems to be suffering from some sort of sewage problem. It makes Pleasant Grove seem very unpleasant. Will this situation be remedied in the near future?

Cordially,
Lauren

Until I get a letter of response I will be wearing a clothespin on my nose and buying a brand new air freshener.

Student Teaching

I'm doing my student teaching at Timberline Middle School and am really excited for the semester. To give you an idea of what it's like to teach middle schoolers, I'll tell you a bit about my first day.

Day One: After introducing myself to the class, my mentor had them ask me questions in Spanish. I was asked the following questions:
Do you want to go on a date?
Do you drink alcohol?
Do you smoke illegal drugs?
Do you have feet?
Do you eat?

I can tell this semesters going to be great one. lol.

Family History

This summer we decided to start learning a bit more about our family history, specifically my Dad's family since the majority of my Mom's and his parents are done. My Dad is a convert so that involved starting with square one. My Dad is 100% Irish, which is something I really identify with. I love our Saint Patrick's Day traditions, corned beef, and spent a fair amount of my childhood doing the jig. I even own a copy of Far and Away, Riverdance, and The Secret of Roan Inish. I'm pretty sure that right there proves I'm hardcore Irish. Anyways, despite my love of everything Irish, I am a bit irked at my ancestors. For some reason unbeknownst to me, they decided to all be named the exact same thing. Every single one of my realtives are named Daniel, Thomas, Catherine or Mary. Not even kidding. Except for Mabel Mackey, which is such an original (and awesome) name that it was a pleasure to research her. She's the only Mabel Mackey. Ever. To make matters even more complicated, everyone with the last name McGrath lived in the same town in Ireland. And to further complicate things, they all moved to Chicago. So after researching all 57 Daniel Rooneys we completed a five generation pedigree chart. In order to continue we will be setting sail for Ireland in 9.5 years. It's going to be awesome.

Tina's Wedding

La tía de Rory se casó con un hombre de Puerto Rico que se llama Pedro y por eso estoy escribiendo en español. Era un día bellísimo y ellos eran una pareja muy linda. Ellos se casaron en el templo de Bountiful y el abuelo de Rory fue su sellador. También fue nuestro sellador. Era la primera vez que fui a un sellamiento que no era mía, y fue una experiencia muy bella. El espíritu era muy fuerte y el cuarto era lleno de amor.

Fall semester 2009 consisted of about two things:

1. STUDYING LIKE CRAZY

Married life is wonderful. It's actually the best thing ever. The only time it's not the best is when your husband has to work until 9:00 at night, because than you actually have to study. No matter how hard I tried to get distracted from the hours of homework that lay ahead of me, it is impossible when sitting in a ten by ten foot apartment by yourself. Usually Rory came home and I cried out exasperated, "Why didn't you answer your phone?" and he would find approximately ten text messages and three missed calls. Pathetic, I am so aware. Then I would distract him from his homework for the next few hours until he would say, "Maybe we should start studying in the library," which always got me right to work because the only thing worse than studying in a ten by ten foot apartment by yourself is studying in the library.

2. SLEEPING

Most married couples think staying up past 10:30 is absurd. We, however, count ourselves among the young whippersnappers and often find ourselves falling asleep at the unearthly time of 12:45. I would not advise this because it leads to falling asleep in the most awkward places, and missing all of your 8:00 classes. Just ask Rory.

Unfortunately blogging was not numbered among our daily, weekly or monthly activities; but, for all my faithful followers- er, followerer- aka mom, i'll give a little synopsis of the happenings of fall semester 2009. Can I just say thank goodness it's over?

VICTORY

Ok, so this is just a tad late, but I figure it was such a monumentous occasion, it deserves a post anyways. On September 5, 2009, the Brigham Young University Cougars were set to face the Oklahoma Sooners in a "neutral site" game in the Dallas Cowboys new stadium. Leading up to the game, very few were hoping for a win, but instead a loss that was not too lopsided. In the first half things took a turn for the better for BYU. We blitzed OU quarterback Sam Bradford and on a clean hit, took him down just after he got rid of the ball. Bradford landed awkwardly and hurt his shoulder. He was taken out and didn't return for the rest of the game. With just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter BYU was down 13-7. Cue Max Hall. He led the cougars on a 78 yard drive, which included a fourth-and-4 conversion, ending in a 7 yard touchdown pass to Mckay Jacobson. THE CROWD GOES WILD! Oklahoma had time for one last drive. With a few seconds left they kicked a field goal attempt that landed short. WE WON!! 14-13, we beat the number 3 team in the country! For students from a university awarded Most Stone Cold Sober for the past twelve years, Provo was out of control (still stone cold sober). People were honking everywhere and making tons of noise. Lauren and I returned home like a good and normal married couple. After a couple minutes Lauren looked at me and could tell I was getting antsy. She looked me in the eye and said "Do you want to go out and see what's happening?" I was like a kid in a candy shop. We drove around, going first to Condo Row where there was a huge dance party, with about 500 people, and music blaring. They even pulled out a Sam Bradford Pinata which people began to beat. I was fortunate enough to grab the leg and keep it as a souvenir. Then we headed over to Lavell Edwards Stadium and discovered another 2000 people. Rumors then began flying about when the football team would get in to the airport. We decided to get some rest before they got in so we could be ready to cheer when we got there. By rest I mean going to bed 12:15 AM and getting up at 1. We got there and cheered until we were hoarse. I finally got to bed around 3 AM and slept like a log. I didn't need to dream that night because my dream had come true; we beat Oklahoma.