"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default."
-J.K. Rowling

Now I have read this quote many times. And every time I am just as inspired by it. I am terrified of failure. In fact, that is my biggest fear about teaching, and I won't delve into that because I try not to dwell on my fears. (Ha. I say that, but I don't do that.) Anyways, this quote is so powerful to me. This idea gives me courage to keep trying, because like Rowling says, if I am so afraid to fail that I never enter a situation where failure is a possibility, I've already failed. So I might as well try, even if it means I could fail. There's no point in not trying, right? Plus, I find it oddly comforting that someone I admire so much can so candidly admit to failure, and knowing that I am not the only one who ever fails. 

I also recently read a speech given by Mitt Romney about how failure can often be a path to success. So maybe they're on to something, because all these super successful people are advocating failure. But then again, they're all super successful so they don't really need to worry about failing anymore, do they.

Either way, fail on! 

Hahaha JK JK I actually am not nearly successful enough that I can welcome failure, and so still try to avoid it whenever possible. Am I jinxing myself? Tyler doesn't believe in that.

Guess what today is. If you guessed Tyler’s birthday, you’re right. So far, all we’ve done is gone grocery shopping so he’s having a pretty uneventful birthday. My day was a little more dramatic, as I tried to bake Tyler his favorite type of pie and was so frustrated with the pie crust, which I had to redo at least five times, that I ended up having a temper tantrum like a two-year old and throwing myself on the ground. Guess I’ll be buying pie crust from now on. There was also a huge thunder storm. It was big, and so sudden. First it was just dark, and in minutes it started pouring and thundering. It was like the tropical storm we got caught in while we were in Maui, only this one wasn’t tropical. But Tyler loved it, it doesn’t rain here enough for him.

In other news, we have moved into our new apartment and I began student teaching! So our week looked like this: Monday we got home from Moab. Tuesday we moved into our apartment. Wednesday I started student teaching. It’s been pretty crazy. Student teaching is scary and takes so much work, but I already love it. I don’t want to say too much on the internet, because I hear all sorts of horror stories of people blabbing about work online and ending up in huge amounts of trouble, so I’ll just say this. I love student teaching and the people I work with are great, and the students are amazing.

Our apartment is old and falling apart (nothing new there) but it’s bigger than our old apartment and it has a dishwasher, a garbage disposal, and washer and dryer hookups. I didn’t realize how convenient it is to have a dishwasher until I had one, and the garbage disposal is so nice too. But the washer and dryer are the real amazing things. We got a set for really cheap off KSL, and it is the best. I can do laundry whenever I want! I don’t have to worry about other people dumping my clothes out or about needing clean clothes and not being able to use the washing machine for a week. I can do the laundry in the kitchen. Need I say more? The other really cool thing about our apartment is the stove/oven. It’s a gas stove, and the first time I used it, Tyler offered to show me how to turn it on. I brushed him off, because come on. I’m a grown woman, I can turn on a stove. But then it turns out I actually didn’t know how to turn on the stove. I feel so legit whenever I cook though, because I’m literally cooking on a fire. On a fire. It’s crazy! It’s like camping every day! (Although, unfortunately the stove always burns my marshmallows).

Those are the cool things about our apartment. I probably shouldn’t dwell on the not so cool things of our apartment, but I think it’s kind of funny. Like how the lock on the bathroom door is on the outside. But the bathroom door doesn’t shut anyways even if you wanted to lock it. And there’s a big dirt ring in the backyard where the previous renters road 4-wheelers in circles. There was a bucket of diseased water under the kitchen sink that I had to wash out, and it was disgusting. The water was brown and filled with scum and it was so gross. But overall it’s pretty nice.

Anyways that’s it for now. Happy birthday to Tyler, the most amazing husband in the world!

 This picture is actually from his birthday two years ago. Time flies, yes? 

Once upon a time when I was a young and in college I took a geography class. I actually took a lot, but this one was just basic physical geography. One of the introductory questions was, "if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?" I was fairly unambitious then, and I honestly had no interest in travel for some reason. So I just wrote, "somewhere warm and dry, no snow." The professor thought that was pretty funny and I forgot about it. I remembered that the other day though, when I was thinking about everywhere I want to go. I went from being content to stay where I was to wanting to see everything. I don't know why it changed and I don't know if it's for good or bad. Is it better to be content with how things are or is that apathetic? Is wanting to travel everywhere too much like being ungrateful for what you have? I guess like everything else in life it's a balance. But for the record, here's a brief list of places I'd like to see: Japan, Machu Picchu, the San Juan Islands, Arizona, southern Utah, the Oregon Coast, Tennessee, and Europe (I want to see a lot of European countries but I haven't decided which ones I want to see most).

So speaking of traveling, we just go back from Moab with Tyler's family. I love southern Utah. The first time we went, I didn't understand why people from all over the world would ever want to come to Utah, but I get it now. It's one of my favorite places.

First we went to Little Wild Horse Canyon. It was so empty, we only ran into one other group of people, and they were mostly kids between one and five so we were able to pass them. The slot canyon part was a lot skinnier than I remembered it being. I wondered if the rocks moved closer together since the last time we went, but that's not super likely.

Then we went to Goblin Valley, and it was also super empty.

If you look closely,  you can see a little rainbow above the hills.

Canyonlands

This one would have made a better picture if I could have taken it from further away. To give perspective, this is at the Shafer Road viewpoint place, the one where you walk down some steps out onto the rock. I don't know if that description actually helped. I tried. I'm not a writer.

Arches National Park

The Delicate Arch

Devil's Garden

So this hike I thought was really scary because last time we tried we turned around, the wind was so strong I felt like I'd be blown off the cliff. But when I went back this time, it wasn't even scary, and it turned out to be worth it. The Double-O Arch at the end was really cool. The Dark Angel was disappointing. Or else we got it confused with a different rock and didn't actually see the Dark Angel.

We looked for Tyler's hat but couldn't find it. 

The Double-O Arch

 Apparently all the men on the trip were having a contest to see who could climb the highest and do the most daring feats. I know mom always doesn't like watching Tyler climb all over the arches, so she would not have liked seeing how high everyone was going on this trip. But luckily we all made it home safely and the pictures turned out cool.