~33~Blogger Behind the Screen (Part 4)

In my previous "Blogger Behind the Screen" posts, I've brought you into the various aspects of my life-my family, where I grew up, my profession, and now in this last installment, I want to share with you my love story.

In March, 2004, I was in the spring semester of my freshman year at Augsburg College.  It was a typical weekend night-going to a party with some friends.  Little did I know, this night would forever leave a mark in my heart.  On this same night, a handsome man, was on a trip with his frat to their annual convention in Minneapolis.  Through a twist of fate, this handsome man and I ended up at the same party and crossing paths.  We caught each other eyes, and he walked up to me and we started chatting.  To my dismay, I discovered that this man, named Jake, was from Iowa and not from Minnesota.  Despite this, we exchanged information at the end of the night and parted ways.  I never expected to hear from him, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I did!

Our 1st New Years together, 2005 

We quickly formed a special connection-talking for hours every day about anything and everything.  This was not an ordinary relationship!  Although we knew that maintaining a relationship so far apart from each other would be hard, we also knew that our connection was too strong to ignore and they had to give it shot.  For the next 4 years, we maintained a long-distance relationship, taking turns driving to see one another every other weekend.  Over this time, I got to spend a lot of time not only with Jake, but with his friends as well and they soon became not just his friends, but OUR friends. 

After I graduated from college, I wanted to move to Iowa to be with Jake and started to apply for teaching jobs.  I had interviews with several Twin Cities districts and with the Ames school district in Iowa.  The only job offer that I got however, was from the St. Paul school district in MN.  I felt that I couldn't turn down a teaching job and signed a contract.  After another year of long distance, and us wanting to become more serious in our relationship, I knew that if we were ever going to be able to move forward, we needed to live in the same state.  At the end of the school year, I decided not to renew my contract and made the big move down to West Des Moines, IA where Jake and I got our first (and current) apartment together.  

Spending time together in Ames, IA

After almost 2 years of living together, and 6 years of dating, marriage had definitely been discussed several times. We had done some ring browsing together, but never settled on anything.  In the fall of 2010, we decided to participate in a local promotion held by one of the local jewelers, called a Diamond Dash.  In this contest, we raced around downtown Des Moines with many other couples in a huge scavenger hunt.  The grand prize was a $10,000 engagement ring.  While we didn't win the prize, we did find a jeweler that we love.  With the help of our amazing jeweler, Shelly, I we found the perfect setting.   Jake purchased the ring, and I was left to sit on pins and needles, wondering when I'd be presented with it.

March 13, 2010 was just an average Saturday and I left for my shift at the Y.  Little did she know Jake had started orchestrating an amazing proposal the minute I walked out the door.   After getting off work, I walked in the door to find Jake down on one knee with the ring and our apartment glowing with candles.  Jake, who had kept keepsakes of our memories the past 6 years (cards, ticket stubs, pictures, gifts, etc), had them spread out all over the apartment!  

He also had picked up dinner from Macaroni Grill-the first meal I had made for him.  He even had the first movie we'd watched together, "Hardball", playing on the t.v. I of course started crying at the beautiful sight and Jake said the most beautiful words. I of course said,"YES!!!"  We ate dinner together, and then headed out to meet with our friends to celebrate.

15 months later, we were married in a beautiful ceremony, on June 25, 2011.  We will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary exactly one week from today.  In honor of that, I will be taking after a fellow June 2011 bride and blogger of Forever and a Day, to do a weeks worth of blog posts about the various aspects of our wedding day from getting ready-to our honeymoon. 

Photo taken by Imagen International

~30~ Blogger Behind the Screens (Part 3)

The mediocre teacher tells.  

The good teacher explains.  

The superior teacher demonstrates. 

The great teacher inspires.

-William Ward

In 1992, I was inspired.  I was just 7 years old, yet it was then that I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up: a teacher.  I was in the 2nd grade in Ms. Erickson's class.  I can't quite pinpoint what it was now, but there was just something about her that made me want to be just like her.  She inspired me to want to inspire others in the same way.

As I continued through school, having more experiences and outlooks on life, I was still determined to become a teacher.  I loved the feeling I got knowing that I helped someone. Once I reached college, these feelings never subsided.  I considered other majors for a bit, but kept coming back to elementary education.  At my college, Augsburg, licensure covers grades K-8 and so I was required to choose a middle-school specialty area.  I initially thought about social studies (WHY, I have NO idea!! After all, it is my worst subject), but soon came to the realization that math was the area I had the most interest in.

Prior to graduation, I student taught for 14 weeks in a multi-age classroom with grades 1 and 2.  I absolutely LOVED it.  I enjoyed getting up everyday and going to "work" so much that Sunday evening would roll around and I'd be ready to go back to school because I missed my kids.  I learned so much from both my cooperating teachers and the students and I knew I had made the right choice.  (I will mention that student teaching wasn't my first experience in the classroom-I had to complete 140 hours of classroom practicums prior to student teaching).

Two months after graduation, I was hired for my 1st real teaching job in St. Paul, MN at a humanities magnet.  I had 18 4th graders-all of whom I will remember forever! I don't think I'll ever forget any of my students, but I think there is something special about your very first class.  It was an extremely tough year as I navigated my way through teaching all on my own.  There were even times that I questioned what I had gotten into.  However, by the end of the year, I had a great group of students who had come together and built a sense of community in our little classroom, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment-I had survived my first year of teaching!  With me wanting to move forward in my life with Jake, I made a decision to resign at the end of the school year and move to IA.  This really was an easier choice than I thought it would be because our school was facing major cuts and I would have probably been let go regardless.

Finding a teaching job in IA proved to be much more difficult than I had imagined.  The first step was transferring my teaching license, something I put off for way too long.  In the meantime, to bring in income, I took on a temp position working for an insurance company doing quality assurance while doing private tutoring to keep up my teaching chops.  After a little over a year of that, I finally had my licensure in place, and was ready to start subbing.  Little did I know this was perfect timing.  Only a week or so after meeting with the associate superintendent, I was called back not about subbing, but a very recently opened job position as the Title I Math teacher.  I was thrilled! I went through a week long process of interviewing and then was hired!  I am now about to start my 4th year in the district and I am absolutely loving my job! The kids make it all worth it and I get so excited helping them to make sense of the math world around them.  My hope is that throughout my career, I will be able to have the impact my 2nd grade teacher had on me-that I will inspire just 1 of my students to do something great.

~20~ Blogger Behind The Screen (Part 2)

A few weeks ago, I started to interject some posts about me amidst the crafting posts. If you missed Part 1, you can find it HERE.

Lake Harriet & the Bandshell

As you might remember from my first "Blogger behind the screen" post, I grew up in Minneapolis, MN.  And when I say that, I really and truly mean the city of Minneapolis, and not a suburb (like Edina, Fridley, Chaska, Burnsville, Woodbury).   I may be a little bit biased, but I honestly think that Minneapolis is one of the best cities to live in.  I love everything about it: the lakes, the parks, the lakes, the restaurants, the lakes, the theater and the arts, oh-and did I mention the lakes?  Some of my fondest memories growing up occurred at or around the lakes.  The house that I grew up in was only about a mile from Lake Harriet and every summer, my dad and I would go for bike rides around the lake together.  Summers were also spent down at the lake where we'd go swimming, visit the gnome who lived in the tree by the outhouses-leave him a letter and come back a few weeks later to see if he'd written back, buy ice cream cones at the bandshell and listen to live, free concerts.  And of course, we'd ride the trolley, one of the old historical street cars that would run throughout Minneapolis back in the day.  When Jake and I got engaged and were planning our wedding, I knew that I wanted to make Lake Harriet a part of our day-and be able to show our out-of-town friends why I love my hometown so much.  As it would happen, some of my favorite pictures from our wedding were taken at the lake.

Wedding Party Picture on the Trolley

Aside from the lakes and the great parks that Minneapolis has to offer, they also have a great art scene.  Love and support for the arts is very evident in Minneapolis culture, and I'm extremely grateful to have been exposed to and influenced by this!  In Minneapolis, public schools are organized by magnets in which each school specializes in a certain educational philosophy or program.  From kindergarten through 3rd grade, I attended an International Fine Arts magnet school, that emphasized language, music, dance, and theater.  Starting in 1st grade, all students are required to learn how to play a stringed instrument.  My instrument of choice: the violin. (weird, an Asian playing the violin, I know).  This little nuance of the school however, led me to continue playing the violin into my adult life.  Shortly after I started playing the violin at school, my parents enrolled me in private lessons, which led me to play in a city-wide, reputable orchestra, to receiving a music scholarship in college, and now playing as a member of an amateur adult orchestra in Iowa.   In addition to playing the violin, I also dabbled in piano, ballet, and was given a lot of exposure to great theater.  In high school, a city-wide program gave me the opportunity to attend several high quality, professional play performances at well known theater companies such as The Guthrie Theater, Theater in the Round, and The Jungle Theater for free with family and friends.  I honestly believe that had I not grown up in Minneapolis, I would not have the fortitude and fondness for arts that I do today.

Minneapolis is such a beautiful city that offers so much to anyone and everyone.  It is so much more than just the Mall of America, funny accents, and cold winters.  Minneapolis boasts diversity, Minnesota nice, architecture, a large business hub (did you know we're home to Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, Gold Medal Flour, Kelloggs, and several other HUGE national companies??), and of course, we cannot forget, stunning nature.  Minneapolis is home.  It always has been and always will be for me.  One of my absolute favorite things is when I drive home from IA and come up over the hill on I-35 and see downtown Minneapolis all lit up.  It's then that I know I'm home.

~16~Blogger Behind the Screen (Part 1)

Now that we're 15 posts in, I thought it might be time to have an interlude from all of the crafting and tell you a little more about the blogger behind the screen: Me!  And of course, what better place to start than the very beginning.  Now in general I would say that I live a pretty boring and average life.  Nothing all that exciting or out of the ordinary happens to me.  However, I do have one noteworthy story; and I'm talking the kind of story that is 1 in a million and would get you on reality T.V. shows like Amazing Race and Survivor, just because it's so amazing! (Ok, time for me to go eat some humble pie.)

My Family

When I was just over 4 months old, I was adopted from a small province in South Korea by 2 loving Minnesotans who like any new parents, were very excited to be bringing home a baby girl.  Unexpectedly though, I arrived 2 months early.  I was originally supposed to arrive in October, but a baby slotted to be in the cohort of August adoptees got sick and I got his/her spot.  My mom got the call letting them know I was on my way just 2 DAYS before my arrival.  I landed in Minneapolis on August 8, 1985, welcomed by a very eager family.

Fast forward 3 years.  Like many toddler girls, I was enrolled in a local pre-school gymnastics class.  Among the other girls was another cute little asian girl, named Lauren, who also had a caucasian mom.  Moms being moms, they asked each other what nationality their girls were and found out that both of us were adopted from South Korea.  In my family, adoption day is equivalent to a birthday, so naturally that realization lead to my mom asking when Lauren's adoption day was.  Amazingly, it was also August 8, 1985!!  Now adoption flights aren't exactly a dime a dozen, so it is safe to say that we had arrived not only on the same day, but on the same plane. (This was later proved using family video footage of the arrival at the airport as well as pictures)

And it doesn't end there!  Many people of Scandinavian descent have a skin condition called Vitiligo, in which pigment in the skin is lost.   Both my mom and Lauren's mom have Vitiligo on their hands, which they noticed, but brushed off, chalking it up to being a common trait of their heritage.  The final piece to this story, is when Lauren's mom saw my mom's maiden name (which isn't common) on her checks and recalled having some distant relatives with that same name.  After a bit of research, it was confirmed.  My great, great grandpa, and Lauren's great, great grandpa (I think that's right) were brothers-making Lauren and I distant cousins.

Initially bonded by this tie, Lauren and I (as well as our moms) soon became best friends. We loved not only that we were connected through life circumstances, but also theoretically by blood.  We have always told people that we knew each other before we even knew our parents.  To this day, I am still amazed when I think about 2 little girls born to 2 different women, who end up traveling across the ocean on the same plane, arriving in the same state, living 2 miles from each other, enrolling in the same gymnastics class, and being distant cousins!  I mean seriously what are the chances of that happening?!

Lauren and I in 2007 at her going
away party before she left for D.C.

A few years later, Lauren and her family moved to another state due to a job transfer, but we remained very close friends-visiting each other once a year when we'd reunite for Korean Culture Camp, and as pen pals.  I still have several of Lauren's letters saved to this day.  I of course was delighted when Lauren moved back to Minneapolis prior to the start of 7th grade and we were able to really strengthen our friendship even more.   Our hope is to travel together back to Korea some day to see where we both started our lives and to potentially search for the people who initially made our current lives not only possible, but wonderful.  I couldn't imagine doing this with any other person (aside from my husband) because she truly is the only person who completely understands this desire and aspect of my life.

Over our 26-almost 27 year friendship, we have spent most of our lives living in separate states.  However,  no matter where we are, what we are doing, or how long it's been since we've seen each other, our bond has never wavered.   Lauren is not only my friend, she is and always will be my family.  

Sisterly Love

Lauren as my Maid of Honor