SO I AM NOW OFFICIALLY A SUU THUNDERBIRD! I GOT INTO THEIR COMMUNICATIONS GRADUATE PROGRAM AND I START IN JANUARY. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO GET MY MASTERS DEGREE AND IT IS WIERD THAT I AM TO THAT POINT IN MY LIFE. A LOT OF PEOPLE WONDERED WHY COMMUNICATIONS....WELL I ALWAYS LIKED MY COMMUNICATION CLASSES IN COLLEGE AND I WANTED TO STUDY SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN EDUCATION TO OPEN UP NEW OPPORTUNITIES. I STILL PLAN ON TEACHING FOR NOW BECAUSE I REALLY, REALLY LIKE IT! ANYWAY, THAT IS MY NEW NEWS..............AND WE WILL SEE HOW IT GOES!

Yay for Christmas! I just finished decorating and I'm so excited! I love this time of year, the music, the lights, the shopping.........and of course the Christmas spirit! We are going to the Kurt Bestor concert on December 12th and I always look forward to that. Anyway, I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas season! Enjoy the Holidays!

So I went to New Moon today and I have to say I am like the teenie-boppers and I am in LOVE with Taylor Lautner! He is sooooo cute and buff and he truly made NEW MOON worth it. If you haven't read the books go just for him.........it's worth it! (I will admit I am a Jacob fan!)

My 7th graders crack me up

So I have to say I really, really love teaching my 7th graders! Of course they can be a little wild but they are funny too! I have one class in particular that really cracks me up and makes me laugh. I can have fun with them and yet they still know when to get back to work! Anyway, I have a really funny student and I always have to make sure he is on task. I was walking past his desk today and he hadn't started yet so I told him he hadn't even started and he better get to work and he said "No Miss Nielson, that's just a fragment of your imagination my assignment is done!" I could not help but laugh! I have heard a lot of excuses in my teaching career but that is by far the best one yet! Anyway, that is a typical work day for me and I love it! They keep me entertained!

This is my sweet baby girl..............o.k. my niece but close enough! I love her to death and I absolutely never get sick of seeing her. She is the sweetest baby ever and her smile just melts you! She is a ladybug for Halloween and it is soooooo cute! I will have to post pictures of her costume. Her name is Halle Jae and she is almost 8 months. I was there at the hospital when she was born so it has been really fun to watch her grow! I have 8 nieces and nephews. My oldest nephew will turn 14 years old in a few weeks and she is the youngest! I love being an Aunt..........when they get naughty you just give them back to their parents! Sometimes I wish that would work with my school students:)

Yay! Mariah Carey came out with a new album and her new song "I want to know what love is" is AMAZING! That is like my favorite song by Foreigner but Mariah's pipes can really sing it great! If you haven't heard it look it up, I love it! I heard it on the radio and it totally made my weekend! I have been listening to it over and over for the past couple days. I am such a music freak it's not even funny!

This is my great friend and cousin Bre. She is a great friend and she came up and stayed with me last night. We always have fun! This is a pix of her and I when she got engaged in the limo hence while I am holding her hand. Bre your awesome!

So I had to add a picture of Pompeii because as a history major this was one of the COOLEST parts of my trip to Europe. For those that don't know...........Mount Vesuvious erupted (volcano) in AD 79 and the ash buried the people of the city of Pompeii. It's crazy because their bodies were preserved in the positions they were killed in. This may be a little morbid but it honestly is very fascinating history. Look it up! So a re-cap of my life...........I took the GRE last week and it is over and done with and I passed! Thank goodness! I am in the process of applying to SUU's interpersonal/ corporate communications program so we will see how that goes. Teaching is great, my kids are awesome this year (knock on wood). I am loving the fall season it's my favorite........Football, Halloween, Fall leaves, Thanksgiving, Christmas.......I love it!

My Life as of now.......

My life can be quite a crazy one! This past summer I have had the joy of being the babysitter to my brother Brady's little baby Halle. She is a sweetheart and I will miss not seeing her everyday! I live in downtown SLC and I love it there. I work out in Herriman at Fort Herriman Middle School. I teach 7th grade Utah Studies and I have to say there is never a dull moment with 7th graders. This will be my 2nd year teaching there. So since I have my bachelors I am at the point where I realize I need my masters degree so I will be pursuing that this year. Wish me luck! I have an awesome room mate named Annemarie and she is a teacher too! All in all life is good and I enjoy the adventures each day brings!

Europe Cruise '09

This is me and my cute dad having dinner on the cruise boat on formal night. I went with my parents and my friend and her parents. We traveled to: Italy, Monocco, Spain, and Africa. It was so much fun and I am so sad it's all over!

My best friend Courtney and I and her sister Kristen ran the half-marathon. We winded down foothill, sugarhouse, and downtonw S.L.C. It was a beautiful morning! Even though my legs are hurting a bit now it was totally worth it! My friend made us matching flower headbands, we had a great time together, running and chatting. We hope to do it again next year!

When I went to Las Vegas, Rod Martin (who was an awesome linebacker for the Raiders in the 80’s) was signing autographs. I got an autograph then asked for a picture with him too and he asked if I wanted to wear one of his superbowl rings for the picture! He has two rings and they are amazing. It was so cool to put one on!!!

Me & 80's NFL Raiders player Rod Martin

So my friend Breanne and I went to a Cougar basketball game in November and hardly anyone was there so Cosmo was roming around the stadium to try to get everyone pumped up so I took advantage and got a picutre with him. GO COUGARS!

Something I love about Ephraim is that 5 minutes away is the beautiful Manti temple. It is my favorite temple I absolutely love walking around it in the spring time with all the flowers, it's so amazing!

Some of the family at the Sanpete County Parade! From left to right: my brother Tyler, his daughter Ashlee (behind him), my dad, mom, neice Krista in back, sister-in-law Jen, and neice Katie on her lap.

I need to find a picture with my entire family. I love hanging out with my family we are very close and my neices and nephews are so darn cute! I have 7 1/2 neices and nephews ranging from 13 years-4 years. 2 Nephews and 5 neices, soon to be 6 neices. Yep we went from a male dominating family to a girl dominating family and I love it!

This is me and my roomies from B.Y.U. As nice as it is to be done with the stress, homework, etc. I have to admit I miss my college life at times. I can't believe it is all over!

Work Life

So I just decided it was time to get a blog because pretty much everybody else has one and I enjoy looking at them. So my first post I thought I should talk about my knew career this year.............Teaching 7th grade!!! I love it! I just graduated from B.Y.U in August of 2008 and I took a job at Fort Herriman Middle School teaching 7th grade Utah Studies. I work with amazing people and the school is only 4 years old so it's nice and new. The kids have a lot of energy but they are overall very good and very fun to work with. They leave me with a lot of funny stories everyday. For example...........this week I had the students correct a short quiz. I kept looking at one of my "known-to-be-off-task" students because he was writing on his hand. Since I always call him out I tried to be suttle and said "I don't want you to do anything else but correcting your quizzes!" This didn't stop him, so I finally went over there and stopped everything to ask him what he thought he was doing, he then told me that he didn't have a peice of paper to write the quiz on, so he used his hand! He had 10 answers all over his hand! And that is how the majority of my sweet little 7th graders minds process. He didn't think through how he was going to turn in the assignment (he wasn't to fond of the idea of chopping his hand off) but by darn he was going to write that quiz down somewhere even if it meant sacrificing his hand to be completely overtaken by black ink! Anyway, my first year of teaching has been very adventurous and I have really enjoyed the experience!