Aptitude Test = 1, Danica = 0

Yesterday my kids took the EXPLORE test, which is basically a pre-ACT with an aptitude section. When they get the results next week they'll get an overall score, individual test scores (science, math, English and reading) and they'll also get a chart showing which career sets they are most interested in and how their scores should line up with that.

The idea is to get them thinking about the future and preparing to make educational adjustments. For example: a kid may realize through the aptitude test that he fell into the science category ("I'd like to go to a science museum." "I like seeing how things work." "I'm interested in nature." etc.), and then it will show him that A. His scores are looking good and to keep it up, or B. His scores are a little low for someone who wants to be in a field of science and to kick it into gear. It's a pretty cool test, despite the fact that it takes away two days of instruction.

It got me thinking about the aptitude tests I took in middle school and the jobs that they indicated for me:

• Lawyer
• Gryffindor House (zing!) jk I'm totes Ravenclaw :(
• Public/Government Service
• Writer or Editor
• Teacher (no surprise there)
• Research Assistant
• Psychology
• Manager

Those tests did a pretty good job and there's no question that teaching is for me. I love it. I know I complained and doubted quite a bit last year - but this year its so much better and I LOVE being here. I LOVE these kids. I LOVE the school environment, the fast pace, the constant change. 

But what if I wasn't a teacher? What would I be when I grow up? What are my ideal jobs? None of THESE showed up on my aptitude test results!

• Pinterest Pro. I don't know what that is but I want to be it. 
• Personal Shopper. My cousin Sally commissioned me two weeks ago to find her a modest, cute dress and it was the most fun ever. She got a super cute lace number from ASOS that I suggested!
• Writer - books, blogs, news column. I just love to write. As long as it's something I care about.
• Personal Trainer - I actually looked into this over the summer because I knew The Beard would be starting school and if I was gonna take a second job, it would be this. 
• Playlist-Maker. The Beard made so much fun of me when he saw how many playlists I have. Happy, Sad, Rainy, Morning, Summer, Nighttime, Anger, Sleepy, Yoga, Singalong, Love, Workout, + 20 more. I get a little ridiculous. I maybe had a makeout playlist in college. MAYBE.
• Coach. I'm not terribly awesome at sports, but I love sports, I love learning and strategizing with sports and I love working with kids. 
• Makeup Artist/Esthetician. I love all things makeup and beauty, and I love giving tips and recommendations. 
• Therapist/Life Coach. I've always loved helping people talk through their problems and find solutions. 
• TV & Movie Critic. I absolutely love watching TV and movies, and I LOVE analyzing and talking about them.

If you want to make any of these dreams come true and could use my help with Pinterest/Shopping/Closet Editing/Writing/Working Out/Music/Sports/Makeup/Life/TV you just let me know. I'll take care of you.

What did your aptitude tests say? Is that where you're headed? What is your ideal job?

Please tell me I'm not the only one who wants Pinterest to be a full-time gig. 

27 is the new 12

This handsome guy is turning 27 today.

I'm stealing this genius idea from my friend Katie because she did it for her husband Dash and I just loved it so much - so in honor of The Beard and his 27 years, here we go. 

If Ryan was a Pinboard:

 

Happy Birthday, Beard.

You're my favorite.

Back to School Playlist

Today is the last "free" day of working in my classroom! During these three days, I've had faculty meetings, department meetings, a couple of PTA-provided meals, front office paperwork, and the remaining time is mine in my room to decorate and plan lessons. That means lots of Pandora, Grooveshark and Netflix Office Episodes to keep me motivated and awake.

Here are my latest tunes keeping me sane for your audio enjoyment:



Pompeii - Bastille
Great song to sing along to with a fake accent and punch-dance in the car.



White Nights - Oh Land
I skip around my room hanging stuff to this song. 



Gold - Britt Nicole
This is cheesy but the first time I heard this song on the radio I thought "Man. I wish all my kids knew that." It's a song that gets me motivated to love and help these little psychos.



1940 (AmpLive Remix) - The Submarines
The interesting layered sounds of this song just get me!

Pandora Station - The Gorillaz.
These songs are fast-moving and fun - my go to mix for a grinding 2 hour lesson planning session. 



Album - Marina & the Diamonds - Electra Heart. I've had this album on repeat for weeks. The Beard HATES IT. But I love the upbeat dance tempo and clever lyrics. Great for high-activity work.

What are you guys listening to? What should I add to this list? I'm always looking for new tunes to blast in my classroom (The Beard can't grumble at me there!!).

Wish me luck - Monday is our first day of school!

How Sirius XM Saved Our Marriage

Marriage is Compromise. Words we all say and nod emphatically to, until we are actually faced with it. Compromise. The dirty word. Because no one REALLY wants to compromise.

Music is something that I thought The Beard and I agreed on while we were dating. We had Journey, Jay-Z and BSB singalongs in the car, and he'd give me approving nods & grins when my ipod shuffled to Reel Big Fish or Arcade Fire.

Once we got married, we spent a lot more time driving around in the car. It quickly became apparent that the common ground we thought we had in the musical arena was skinnier than we thought. The Beard only wanted to listen to country and sad hipster crap folk music. I wanted to listen to a wide variety of pop, alt rock and techno - aka "GARBAGE" to The Beard.

We had legitimate fights over Bob Dylan and Lady Gaga. Like real, hurt feelings fights. Do I think that Lady Gaga is a musical genius and her art is the voice of our generation? Absolutely not. She's a crazy person and terribly autotuned.  Do I reserve the right to listen to her when I want to get all pumped up and crunk for the party I'm headed to? YESSSSSSSSS. I super do.

On the other hand, do I absolutely HAVE to listen to raspy, untalented alcoholic white men cry-sing breakup lyrics over metallic-y acoustic guitar like some emo hipster in high waisted cords and vintage floral grandma sweaters? Please, no. PLEASENOOOOO.

It was a dark time in Holdaway History. Enter Sirius XM.

We no longer argue Joshua James v. Jessie J.

We listen to 80s on 8 and The Beard turns into Prince reincarnate.

We listen to 90s on 9 and do all the moves to "Bye, Bye, Bye." You guys still know them too.



We hold hands and skip into the sunset because we never have to fight over music again.

We got 99 problems but our tunes ain't one.

How to Dress to Avoid a Nursery Calling and Q&A

It was our first Sunday in our new ward - or so we thought. I was excited. I got all dressed up - my game plan being that they would think (accurately) that I was vain and pretentious and a terrible choice for Nursery. Yet, the second we sat down, a member of the bishopric beelines over to us and after hearing where we live says abruptly "Oh this is the wrong ward." Okkkkkkkk. Well I successfully dodged nursery for at least one week, right?

So enough about avoiding divinely inspired callings. My cute friend Dany tagged me in a Q&A, which I always love. I can blog without having to think too hard about it. Check out her blog for cute stories and great beauty posts.

/favorite song off the top of your head, and provide a link if you can!

Right now... probably Second Chance by Peter Bjorn and John. It was a great packing/moving/driving song and I've listened to it probably 1000x in the last 2 weeks. Don't let the weirdo music video turn you off. Close your eyes if you have to.

. 

/who do you look up to most, and why?

I actually look DOWN to this person, in more ways than one. She is younger and shorter than me, but my sister-in-law Haley is already as good a person as I can hope to become. She's so warm and kind - people just love her. She's is such a good person and her testimony is so visible in the way she lives her life. She's responsible and mature, way better with kids and old people than I am. She is so beautiful and fun, which is why everyone, girls and boys alike just want to be around her. I want to copy her optimism, charity and general attitude. Lucky for us, she's engaged to a guy we love and we get to double with them weekly now. :)

//if you could change one thing that has happened to you, what would it be & why?

Happened to me - meaning I had no control? Most of what I regret is stupid decisions I've made, but I'd say probably getting the job in Mapleton. They gave the job to the intern who had taught that grade level all year - which makes sense. I just think sometimes about if I'd been given that job and we'd had another year in Mapleton to take it easy, have easy jobs, save money and figure life out. 

//what is your favorite memory?

This doesn't sound all that special, but I love it because it's when we both kind of started to realize we loved each other. A few weeks after The Beard and I started "officially" dating (but really we were still just hanging out), he turned to me one night when we were hanging on the couch watching The Office no doubt, and said "Ok. I'm taking you on a real date Friday night. Wear something nice." I think I smiled every second until he came to pick me up that Friday night. He's put on a nice shirt and his "fancy" jeans and HE HAD EVEN SHAVED HIS SCRUFF (this is pre-full-always-beard days) OMG. He took me to our favorite little Italian place - La Dolce Vita in Provo, then to see Easy A. We ended the night just laughing and talking until way past Honor Code hours. I'm pretty sure I smiled for about a week afterwards.

//spillllll - what's your guilty pleasure?

Crunching Wint-O-Green Mints. Again, Dany knows about this one. I used to go through literally a hundred a day. I'm falling back into it again lately. I smell minty and delicious all the time, but my jaw is aching. 

//any beauty secrets that you're currently loving?

It's way too hot to wear melty, thick makeup, so my thing lately has been a super light layer of moisturizer and a very light dusting of loose powder foundation. Streak free, Holmes!!!

//most embarrassing moment

Oh easy. Dany was even there for this one. The National Anthem Incident of 2008. The girl who was supposed to sing it didn't show up, so my coach asked me to sing it. Don't know why. I said, "Sure, why not?!!" because I was the team clown/goofy/attention hungry probably. I forgot the words approximately 2 seconds in, due to the pterodactyls in my stomach. So I did what any rational, self-possessed teenager would do - lower your volume and mumble until you remember it. Classic way to honor our Beautiful America. I'm sorry Uncle Sam. 

//favorite thing about YOURself - gloat as you may, we love you no matter what!

I hope I have a good sense of humor and a quick wit. I really like being funny. That means more to me than anything else. That's what I really want to be described as when people say "What's Danica like?" "Funny." But not "Funny LOOKING." Gotcha Dad. We all know you were thinking it. 

 

Why are Christmas Songs the Creepiest?/My Santa Baby Wishlist

There are several traditional Christmas songs that I find incredibly creepy.

1. "Baby It's Cold Outside" is definitely about date rape.
2. "Last Christmas" is about a clearly unstable person who was in love with a slut and obviously didn't have any idea that he/she was repulsed with her/him.
3. "Blue Christmas" and "Baby Please Come Home" are so desperate I get embarrassed just listening.
4. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is cute I guess, but I can't get past how disturbing that would be for the kid. Like scarring, probably. 
4. "Santa Baby" is just a glorified little girl thinking she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger, but her 'daddy' is really Santa and the "little girl" is a wannabe seductive greedskank.

I don't know why we don't just listen to the perfection that is NSYNC's Christmas album.

Despite all that, I love Christmas and I'm getting all kinds of excited, just like everyone else. The tree is up. We have completed Christmas shopping for everyone but each other. Copious amounts of hot chocolate are disappearing from our pantry. Fun all around.

So if I were a creepy, slutty, greedy "Santa Baby" singer, here is what I'd be crooning about:

Really gonna need some booties. I'm thinking sleek black for school, rugged western for leggings and sweaters when I'm off duty. 

Drop waist dresses are killing it right now. Almost bought one for $15 (!!!) at Downeast a couple weeks ago but it was too short. Depression set in rapidly.

 New frames. I picked out an awesome pair at my eye exam last month and then chickened out at the last minute. I hate wearing my glasses, but now I'm obsessed with these so hopefully I'll wear them more when I inevitably buy them.

 A stunzo leather jacket. Every cool girl has one.

 I never wanted a wedding band, and haven't ever worn one. But when I saw this bow wedding band, I wanted it. That could be a wedding band right? It definitely won't be anytime soon, but maybs someday. 

 Bloggers have been bombarding the blogosphere (alliteration anyone?) with oh-so-chic printed sweaters right and left. Totally behind this one.

 

A tweed or boucle structured Chanel-esque jacket. But could I even pull it off? The dilemma.

 

Cap toe heels. D*&$ you, JCrew.

 

 

 The R2D2 case, obvs. I guess I'd need an iPhone first. But honestly I want the case more.

See? It's not ONLY clothes. Kate Spade makes the cutest iPad cases.

  

I'm trying to write more, and to take my writing seriously, because I really love it. I just need things to write about and something that forces me to write. 

 

I just wanna do everything Eliesa does, so I naturally fell in love with her new leather satchel/backpack/statement bag. Now I want one.

All images (and many, many, many more that I want) I gathered from my reservoirs of boards on Pinterest.

What I really want for Christmas is for Pinterest to create some sort of folder/organizing system for all 10 recipe boards, 6 outfit boards, 8 holiday boards, 5 home design boards, and any other type of board I choose to create in the not-so-distant future.

Follow my Pinterest account. I pin so much and so often. You won't regret it.