Well, the reason that I am posting this morning (and without any pictures) is because I was supposed to meet one of my students at school at 8:15 so that we could go over some math she wanted to understand better, but of course I was 5 minutes late, and she probably stopped waiting for me because I am a terrible teacher and am always late when I am supposed to be on time. So I thought now would be a good time for an update. This month has been wonderful already, and we are only into the second week! My new roommate Rochelle moved in with us, and I don't know how we have lived without her. She brings such a great everything into our apartment and I love her to pieces! So yes, we have five girls living in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment now. How do we survive you might ask? Well, we are all amazing, so that's how. :)

School is going great! We have 12 more days until our Holiday Break (miracle!). We are doing a math countdown, and each day I turn over a card on a bulletin board that I have written a math problem on the back of. The first student who can get the answer to me in my hand gets a treat. So far it has been fun, and they are learning, while I am quietly celebrating the fact that I have a two week break just around the river bend! I love it! My students are great, and I couldn't ask for better kids. Well, maybe a few of them could change a little bit...:)

My ward is still wonderful. We had a Christmas party this past Friday, and I will have to post a picture from that. Rochelle, Sarah, and I dressed up in our fanciest getup and wow did we look stunning :) We ate a delicious meal, Chelsea thought the meat was especially delicious and decided that she would save a massive piece of lettuce from the salad in her teeth while pronouncing to our whole table how wonderful the meat was. We died laughing because of course she had no idea that she was saving that lettuce, and then she couldn't get it unstuck which made it even better. haha. (Chelsea...if you read this don't be mad at me for telling that story.) We cleaned the church on Saturday morning, which is something that I would like to participate in more often because I am trying to become more service oriented. I love serving and need to look for more opportunities to do so. And some of us went over to our Bishop's home to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional last night, which was wonderful by the way. I love listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing. They are incredible. If the group that I am singing in for our ward Christmas program next week can sound an eighth of how amazing the mo-tab choir sounds, I will be happy. haha However, while practicing our song last night, we sounded...interesting. I asked Joe on a scale from 1-10 how we sounded while practicing. He very hesitantly gave us a 6.5. We have a lot of work to do.

Speaking of Joe...he had a choir concert this past Wednesday, and Chelsea, Rochelle, and I thought that it would be a great idea to attend. It was wonderful!!! An orchestra played while they sang, and it was just beautiful! They even played a song from Harry Potter!! How much better can it get! Then Joe also invited me to his work Christmas party, which was so much fun. We went over to his coworkers house, and we started off by watching Mickey's Christmas Carol. Then we played a gift exchange game, and Joe ended up getting Bacon Popcorn and I got a fleece blanket, haha. Then we had a delicious Lasagna dinner and watched Elf. What a fun night. The only downside was that the party ended around 8:30, and Joe was still not feeling well, so he was going to just drop me off at my house and go home and go to sleep, but I forgot my key to my apartment and none of my roommates were home. So I went over to his house, watched two movies while he slept, and went home at midnight when Sarah got home. Whoops.

Things are great. I love my life. I am happy. I hope you are too. I have to go now. :)

We are not normal...

I love my roommates. They are so silly. And so pretty.

Chelsea did my hair for my really fun date! I love her.


Candice came to visit me! Oh, and so did Moroni. I love love them.

Remember Veterans Today!!!

I am so so so grateful for all Veteran's today! Especially for my Papa Dee, because he served in the Navy during World War II. I love him so much, and I am grateful for the service that he provided for this country during that war. He was interviewed for the newspaper this year, because he is 89 and still kickin' with an incredible memory of everything that he experienced. What an amazing man!


At Cascade tonight, we are having a Veteran's Day presentation honoring the many men and women who have served in the military, and I can't wait to see what amazing things these students and teachers have come up with for this program. I got to hear the song that the 5th graders are singing during the program and it almost made me cry because it is just kind of difficult to even imagine what loss and heartache some families have to go through, especially if they lose their loved ones. I am so so grateful, and I hope we can all remember them in our thoughts today!

Update!!

Wow! This year is just flying by! It's crazy to think that I am in my first year of teaching and miracle, I only have 3 more terms until summer break!!! haha! Not that I am counting down or anything, because of course I love teaching, and I still love changing my classroom around, and of course I love love my kidos! They are so great and they make me laugh all the time! I had to go do an observation today at a different school, and as I was walking around the classroom seeing what the students were doing, one of the boys in the class came up to me and told me that he really liked the way I styled my hair!! I said thank you of course, but I still can't stop laughing! I just love the things that kids say. I wish I was a funny as they are sometimes :)

Speaking of my students. I actually had them vote on what they wanted me to be for Halloween. My fifth graders chose things like a Clown, Guitar, Egyptian, Cruella DeVille, M&M, Witch, Statue of Liberty, Murderer, Gypsy, or my personal favorite...a dead cow!! My third graders chose things like witch, princess, Elizabeth Swan, ghost, zombie, super girl, or my other two personal favorites...a yellow glob or a Mexican!! haha Seriously...how much more hilarious could it get! I actually ended up being Dr. Slaughter, which is quite comical if you ask me. It's such an advantage being able to use your last name for so many awesome things. Especially Halloween!


We had a really fun Halloween parade at school, and then our ward party for church was Friday night and some creepy, crazy, cool things went down at that party. We had an awesome chili cook off, with delicious corn bread, and apple juice. There was a costume contest where we had to line up in two lines facing one another and dance down the middle of the two rows one by one in front of the judges. Of course Sarah (my roommate) and I made it look easy strutting our stuff as Dr's Slaughter and Thrasher :) Great last names, what can we say... And then Joe (aka Ron Burgundy) taught a large group the Michael Jackson "Thriller" dance, which was really amazing if I do say so myself. What a great teacher... Here are some of the awesome costumes from that night.









Then on Saturday, I had a few school related things to take care of, some relaxing to be done, and then we got our costumes ready for a way good time at Michael and Ashley Sanderson's Halloween Bash! We were supposed to go with a date and dress up as a couple from the past...(Romeo and Juliet, Scooby Doo and Shaggy...you get the idea.. haha) and so my date and I decided to go as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox so that he could call me "Babe" haha! So clever I know! We had a ton of fun, we ate chili, again, treats, and played fun games! Finally we were informed that we were going to a haunted house, but unfortunately my date does not get along well with scary things, so I ended up taking him home at 9:00 and I read Harry Potter for the rest of the night! It was fun, but I hear the haunted house was way way way scary!

Babe and Paul Bunyan

Superman and Lois Lane

Celebrity and Paparazzi

80's man and Lady Gaga

Oh! And did I mention they had Caramel Apples at this party!!!!!!! (The way to my heart!)

Rewinding back a week, I had the chance to go visit some of my good friends in REXBURG!!! I haven't been to Rexburg for a way long time, and it really felt good to go visit, especially in the beautiful fall weather! I stayed with my beautiful bestie Melissa and we had a blast. We went to Guitar's Unplugged on Friday night, followed by a fun bon fire. On Saturday we went for a really great walk to our favorite breakfast tradition GREAT HARVEST!! We ate yummy cinnamon rolls and pumpkin muffins and Hot chocolate! What could be better! Then we got some work done for school, and then went and had a fun night playing games with Sydney, Thomas, and Matt!

Chelsea, Wade, Kellie, and I had a blast decorating even more cake balls for Halloween! Chelsea is always coming up with more creative, fun ways to decorate those delectable balls of cake and it's so fun helping her!




And for the most fun of fun I have had for a really long time...JOE AND I WENT TO THE LADY ANTEBELLUM CONCERT IN SALT LAKE!!!! IT WAS SO SO SO FUN!!! Great music, excellent company...What more could you ask for?? And I don't know if any of you have heard of David Nail, but he opened for Lady A, and he was INCREDIBLE!!! We had such a blast!!!

Emiliana Esperanza (aka my baby sister!)

This beautiful girl that I have posted a few of my very favorite photos from this year of...is none other than my favorite little pumpkin noodle head sister in the whole entire world who I love with my whole heart and I couldn't live without!!! Whenever I need someone to talk to, she is always willing to talk. She has the biggest heart and the most hilarious humor!! And guess where she gets it!!?? From me of course!! I just want to tell her how much I love her though. She is such a huge part of my life and it hurts my heart that I do not live closer to her! I am so proud of all she does, and I hope she knows how big of an influence she has on my life! And how beautiful she is!!!!! What a sweet heart!!! I can't wait to see her!!!

Cakeballs, Friends, and Mr. Harley P. Fluffernutters :)

Isn't life just wonderful...I am still enjoying my job, although sometimes I find it hard not to just to throw out the homework and play games all day with my students. Chelsea is eating some beautiful, fresh looking cucumbers with tasty, delicious seasoning on them right now and my mouth is watering, so I might need to go take a food break really quickly. Oh wait, she is so sweet. She is graciously giving me one as we speak. What a sweetie! Well, anyways, we have been super busy lately, mostly perfecting the delicate art of cake ball designing, as well as working hard to find men to marry by the end of the year. Our first goal is coming along much more swiftly than our second goal unfortunately. We are working hard on both, nevertheless. :) The following are a few pictures from the past few cake ball experiments! Let us know what you think!!!





As far as the friends part of my blog post goes...just know that I do have a few, and even though I don't have very many pictures of them, hopefully I will in the near future. (Especially with my most exciting adventure in October coming up this next weekend....more about that later!) But we did have a really fun chocolate fondue party, where we just wanted to have a little get-together and share some yummy food with one another! (Notice, I am not in any of these pictures)



And this lovely long-bodied friend of ours is Kyle. What a great guy. I know he may look like a weirdo because he is so tall and lurky. LURKY (ler-kee) adj. 1. Funky. But he spends most of his precious time over at our amazing apartment now, because he doesn't really have much of a life of his own. As a matter of fact, he is coming over tonight to watch the movie The First Daughter with us. Another great thing about Kyle is that he set up our bunk beds...what a sweetie :)


And now the announcement of all announcements...all of you are wondering, "Now who is Mr. Harley P. Fluffernutters?" Well, let me tell you. He is our new....BUNNY!!! And he is so sweet. We fell madly in love with him the first moment Kellie brought him in the door. He loves to cuddle and his newest adventure has been exploring underneath Chelsea's bed. We even took him over to visit Chelsea's brother Trevor and her cousin David. Mr. Fluffernutters (for short) loves to ride in the car. He is the cutest little dwarf flop bunny in the whole wide world and we love him to pieces! And most importantly, he loves us!!!

Miss Slaughter :)

From the second I stepped foot into Cascade Elementary School, I knew I loved it. I loved the outside of the school, I loved that their were little children that hopefully I would be teaching walking around outside with their little backpacks on, I loved that the secretary was so so so nice when I went in a introduced myself, I loved seeing rules and kids work hanging on the walls in the halls of the school...everything was awesome. And now I love having a key to my very own classroom. It's like my own little world in there! I can set it up however I want to, rearrange the desks so that the kids come in frantically trying to find the right seat everyday while being timed to see how fast they can move...it's just the most wonderful thing ever. The kids come everyday now knowing that the teacher who they once thought locked kids in closets and murdered people because of her last name and now gives them tootsie rolls and is the most wonderful teacher the world has ever seen (ok, maybe that was an over exaggeration). It's truly a beautiful thing, and I love love love every second of it. Hopefully pictures of my classroom soon to come :)

Where I Belong....Apparently :)

Where to even begin...I don't know really, but I have picture this time to prove that I actually have been quite busy the past couple of weeks! I guess it all started when I came to visit Chelsea in Provo to check out my options and see if I really felt good about moving to Utah...and can you guess what finally made my ultimate decision?? ;) Chelsea is an amazing cook, and she made me the most delicious food when I came to visit her, and I don't have a picture of it, but the sandwiches that we had were divine! I couldn't say no to moving in with this wonderful girl!

We went to check out our options of choosing which apartment we wanted to move in to, and the following pictures are the result of our final move! I love love love our apartment! It did not come furnished, but through acquiring a few things, stealing...I mean borrowing...a few things, and just adjusting until we can find better furniture...I would say we are doing pretty good. The apartment came with a refrigerator, dishwasher, washer and dryer, we couldn't really say no! What a great location as well!

And we love to make yummy treats in our awesome kitchen!! Sour cream sugar cookies, with purple frosting!

 And what will make this blog post what it is today...is the wonderful news that I am about to share with you. I GOT A JOB!!!! After a lot of hard work and dedication on my part...just kidding...I really just got this job because of the following people in this story. So I moved to Orem really thinking that I would probably be able to find a job, not quickly and not a teaching job, but that I would find one that would pay my bills and I would be able to live here. So I started applying for everything...from Olive Garden to Famous Footwear to this really interesting teaching position teaching Koreans English over the internet at really crazy times in the morning...still checking up on actual teaching positions in the Alpine School District. Well, there was actually a 3rd grade position that I had applied to and was quickly sent an automatic email saying that the position had been filled. Later on in the week, however, the 3rd grade position was open again, so of course I applied. I ended up talking to my grandma on Wednesday I think, and she told me that I needed to go introduce myself to the principal at that school. So I went to Cascade Elementary on Thursday to introduce myself. Mapquest is my best friend...and told me that this particular school was 4.96 miles (9 minutes) from my apartment approximately, which is a pretty awesome little detail in this story. I got to the school and introduced myself to the secretary...Hi, my name is Megan Slaughter. I just moved to the Orem area and I applied for the third grade teaching position at this school and just wanted to come introduce myself. I saw that the principals door was open and I heard him ask the secretary...Does she have a resume? Secretary: Do you have a resume? Me: I actually have one in my car (I know...I am awesome). So I turned in my resume....a few hours later...I received a phone call from the principal thanking me for dropping by to introduce myself and if I would be interested in coming in for an interview the following day, Friday, at 4 15 for an interview. I said of course and that was that. Chelsea's mom just happens to be a teacher and so we decided to call her for some interview tips and find out some of the possible questions that they might ask me so that I would be prepared for the interview. She helped A TON!!! So all day Friday I applied for more jobs just waiting for my interview...actually dreading it....but excited as well. I got ready for my interview....wore by far the cutest outfit I probably own right now....said a very sincere prayer that I would not massacre the interview and that everything would work out how it is supposed to....and set off to conquer that interview! I walked in actually feeling very confident...which is unusual for me. The interview went really well, and I left feeling really great. I wowed those interviewers like it was the easiest thing I had ever done....haha...just kidding. But I did feel surprisingly great about how the interview had gone. The principal had also said that the interview should only last about 15-20 minutes and I was there for 30, so I think that is a positive thing. Chelsea and I then left to go to Green River for Afton's baptism, and as 7:00 p.m. rolled around and while we were driving through Heber, I received a phone call where I did not recognize the number...and by the way, I don't really remember everything he said because I was trying to keep my composure rather than scream into the phone, so this conversation is being paraphrased...."Is this Megan" yes "This is Doug Finch (the principal)" Oh hi. "I was just calling to thank you again for being proactive and bringing your resume in and introducing yourself" Oh it was no problem. "Well I was just calling to let you know that we were very impressed with you in the interview today, and to see once again how interested you are in the teaching position." I am still very interested. I feel that it is a very great program that you are implementing. "Well then I just wanted to let you know I can't offer you the position until I have spoken with the human resources department and had you application approved, but read between the lines, I want you to be there on Tuesday morning. The other teacher who was in the interview also wanted me to tell you that she would come in anytime on Monday to help you organize your classroom and your lesson plans for the week." I couldn't even believe what I was hearing, and Chelsea could hear what he was saying and she was practically screaming as well while texting everyone that we knew to tell them that I had gotten the job. I think I spoke with him for at least 20 minutes...but it seemed like an eternity before we finally ended the conversation and Chelsea and I screamed for what also seemed like an eternity!!! What an exciting day though!!! I still am in shock, but I am excited, but still terrified. It is going to be a great experience, and I can hardly wait to get started. I will have lots to share after this week, and I just can't wait!

When we got to Green River, our good friend Ruth came over and we stayed up until 4:30 in the morning just catching up! What a great person that Ruth is. Then we got up and I prepared my talk for Afton's baptism, and then we ate delicious spaghetti that my Aunt Nancy made. Afton's baptism was really great, and my talk actually went well....after I stopped crying. All I have to do is look at my sister Kristy and I start crying. My good friend Kimberly Wilding sang a really beautiful song...even though she said she was so parched. Lynzi gave a really good talk too, and it was just a special experience for Afton I think. Then we had to get ready to head back to Orem, but first we had to take silly pictures :)

Chelsea couldn't wait to get out of there!

Cute little parents

And that is where I am at as of this moment...wish me luck...even though I know that no one makes any comments on any of my posts, so I really don't even think that anyone reads them. But this is mostly for me anyways, because I love writing...so there you go.