Cruisin'

Bradley and I had a WONDEROUS time on our cruise. We ate waaayyy too much food, ordered room service, had our drinks filled all day long, and just enjoyed relaxing. We sat out on the pool deck, enjoyed the beach and snorkeling on the cruise ship island, and walked around the fun shops and sights of Nassau, Bahamas. Whoever invented cruises was a wonderful person. It is so nice to have everything done for you and to be catered to all day long. We had a great weekend!

 Leaving the Port of Miami!

 Sweet View!

Great Stirrup Cay: Cruise Ship Island

 Nassua, Bahamas

The Queens' Staircase

 

Hanging on the ship!

We really had a fun time. We can't wait until our next cruise! Happy Three-Year Anniversary Bradley! I love you!

Photos by Masters

If you haven't seen my facebook yet, you are in for a treat. My dear friend Amber Masters took some pictures for us before she moved away today (tear!). She is an amazing photographer! (check out her page here) Here is a little preview of our pics! If you want to see more, just head over to my facebook. I wanted to get some pictures of our beautiful Florida life before we leave this August, and I love the pictures! Enjoy!

Teaching Middle School

I really need to start keeping track of these things.

Me: Okay ladies, for a homework grade you need to take your grammar tests home and get them signed by your parents. Bring them to class tomorrow or you will miss homework points!!

Student: (raises her hand) Mrs. J, how many points will we miss when we don't do it?
..............................


Me: Ladies, please work on your assignment! If you don't waste time in class, you won't have homework.

Student: We aren't ladies...
.............................


Student: How many points do I lose if I only do this much of my homework?
............................


Student:  Mrs. J, what's the point of learning this? I am going to forget it after the test anyways. Why don't we just have a free period?
...........................


Me: Please sit down and be quiet so I can take attendance. If you are talking, you will lose class participation points.


Student: (yelling and on a daily basis) OH MY GOSH MRS.J I LOVE YOUR OUTFIT! IS IT FROM ANTHROPOLOGIE? I THINK I HAVE THE SAME DRESS!! YOU ARE SO CUTE!


Me: [To Student] What did I just say about talking? Please listen!


Student: What? I wasn't talking...
.............................

My students just love school. and me.

New Job

Well kids, I got a new job. Many of you probably didn't realize that I lost my old job, but who would ever want to talk about something lame like that? So anyways, I got a new one.

I am now a TEACHER. Say whaat?? Yes it is true. For all you non-believers out there, I actually AM using my English degree for something. I am the 8th-grade English teacher at Bais Yaakov(or Beth Jacob) School. It is a Hasadic Jewish middle school/high school school for girls. It has definitely been a WHIRLWIND.

For those of you who don't know, teaching is HARD. I for some reason was under the assumption that this job would be easy because of the school. I thought that the girls would all be hard-working good listeners. HA. Just because it is a religious school with very strict rules does NOT mean that the students care about learning and give you the time of day. I definitely had a learning curve with trying to figure out how to run my classroom and get the girls to trust me and listen to me. The first week was extremely trying for me, but I believe I am coming into my own. And I am DEFINITELY learning a ton about the Jewish community, which was before very unknown to me.

It has been a really interesting experience. I feel like I learn something new everyday, whether it be about their culture or about the best way to run a classroom. I can see now why all the girls I knew who taught in Utah were so stressed out all the the time. It is definitely trying! I have to say though that I am liking this job a lot more than my last job. My last job was a lot of sitting at the computer in silence trying to figure out the foreign language that is html. Now I get to do what I love to do: be surrounded by and talk to people all day! I love leading a classroom and teaching about books, grammar, vocabulary, and all things English!

I actually get to do some editing as well! I am the editor for the school "student journal". I am in charge of editing the submissions, which are short, non-fiction stories sent in by the high school students. It has been fun to continue editing and use it in a different light.

I will give more info on my job as time goes on. For now I am just trying to keep up and understand what everyone is talking about around me!

Also, for all you BYU-goers, be looking out for this year's version of the BYU student journal Americana! I will be PUBLISHED with my paper from my senior seminar class!! Although it is just a small student publication, it is cool that I can say that I will be published! Woohoo!

Now I can add on more thing my degree has given me: editor, teacher, AND writer! Bring it, world.

Key West Half-Marathon

So I know it has been about a month, but I am finally prepared to write about my half-marathon! In order to make this race the best experience possible, I decided to run it in Key West, Florida. I have ALWAYS wanted to visit Key West, and I must say, it is BEAUTIFUL!! I love it there. I could live there. It's awesome.

So I ran the race on January 22, and drove down with the lovely Bradley along with our friends Amber and Danny. Brad and Danny were the designated photographers while Amber and I ran our little hearts out. I have to admit that I was very nervous for this race. I had no idea what to expect! I had slacked a little with my training at the end (I was running all the time, but I most I ever ran at once was 8 miles...eek!) and I was starting to get really sore with my side where I got surgery a while back, so I was nervous that my side would be aching the whole time. However, fate stepped in and I wasn't sore AT ALL! The race actually went AMAZING! I felt tired, but I never felt like I couldn't finish. I felt like I had a good pace the whole entire time, and I even felt like I was speeding up for the last few miles. I made sure to drink enough water and Gatorade throughout, which definitely helped me by the end of the race when it was getting hot.

The race started at 7:00am, but since it was a really small race, there weren't any sort of rules about us needing to be there early or anything. True to Marianne fashion, we arrived at the race BARELY on time (about five mins early or so). The only sad part was that the guys just had to drop us off and we totally forgot to get a before picture. Somehow, and I don't know how, Danny randomly snapped this picture of me at the very beginning! He was just taking random pictures of the crowd at the starting line, and we didn't notice until going through the pictures later that I was front and center! (not that I am easy to miss, being five inches taller than everyone).

These were both at about mile two or three...I can't remember exactly. Still having fun!

I truly don't know how Amber does it, but she actually looked cute in a lot of the pictures the boys got of her running. I was just happy that I didn't look like I was dying! It was really an amazing experience though. I was definitely tired by the end, but I made it through the whole race without stopping! I did walk fast through some water stations so I could drink Gatorade and water, but I never stopped moving! It was really so fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone. I really want to run another one. Who knows, I may even run a full marathon! It depends on where we move to for dental school. I think a full marathon here might be a little much with the humidity, but somewhere cooler would be so fun! Here are some pictures of our weekend adventure!!

About mile 5

The finish line is in sight! And yes, I passed the girl below at the very end. booyah!

Can't wait for the next race and the next trip with my Bradley!

Christmas in Florida

This year, we were lucky enough to spend Christmas in Florida with some of the Jurgensmeier family. I only had a week off from work, but the family was able to be here all week. We made sure to make the most of our time!! We went snorkeling, paddle boarding, learned to skim board, went on an airboat tour to see some gators, and overall just enjoyed the sunshine and the amazing weather!

Although the Jurgensmeier's didn't get here until late on Christmas Eve, we were able to have a small get together at the beach with some ward members during the day. How weird to spend Christmas Eve at the beach in 80 degree weather! It was our first experience paddle boarding, and Brad and I became a little obsessed with it.




When the family finally arrived, the fun began! We spent Sunday opening gifts, going to church, eating good food, playing games, and taking walks on the beach. Monday was spent just at our beach across the street from our apartment. Brad, Bryce, Kevin, and I (kinda) spent time learning how to skim board and soaking up the sun.


Tuesday was the day for our Air boat ride! We drive up to Sawgrass Mills Recreation Park, which is part of the Everglades. It was a bit chilly that day (chilly meaning you could wear long pants and maybe a sweater), so it was a perfect day to skip the beach. We saw a Gator and enjoyed some Everglades scenery. Then we did some shopping and played some games later in the day.

It sure was windy on that airboat ride!!

There was also a little zoo at the place we did our airboat ride, so we had fun walking around seeing and even holding some animals! We got to hold a baby alligator and a python!






Wednesday we went down to Key Biscayne, the first in the chain of islands known as the keys. It is only about a half-hour drive from our apartment. After getting lost for a bit, we found a fun little snorkel spot where the water was only about a two-feet deep for a long ways out. We also got to watch a bunch of people kite surfing in that spot, which was fun!

Thursday was probably MY favorite day. We drove down to Key Largo where we booked a snorkeling trip off of a Catamaran. The boat drove out about four miles and we snorkeled around the coral reef. It was so fun! The water was so shallow you had to wear your life jacket to keep you from touching the bottom. We even got to see a Sea Turtle! We had an awesome day.





Friday was another beach day around our place. Our friends were nice enough to loan us their paddle board for the day so we could teach the family. It was a fun day just paddle boarding, skim boarding, and soaking up the sun again. We were so lucky to have perfect weather pretty much the whole time the family was here.

Everyone left on Saturday, and Bradley and I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from the crazy fun we had all week! It was a great time, and we were glad that Karen, Dee, Kevin, and Bryce could come for Christmas!