Thankful for...

Life.

Health.

Sweet husband.

The knowledge we have.

Family.

Time to spend with family.

Church.

The opportunity we have to grow and change.

Dreams and hopes for the future.

Those brave brave pilgrims who courageously came to America.

Our little apartment

Work.

Good friends.

Coke.

Christmas decorations.

The privilege Mikey and I get to go to school and better ourselves. I need to remind myself that it is a privilege a little more often.

Little people.

Two working cars.

Free time.

Passions and interests.

It's sad that it sometimes takes a blog post for me to remember how blessed I am. Looking at the list the things I am most grateful for, I realize again how unbelievably lucky I am. Right now, I'm especially thankful that I am busy. It means that I am working hard and progressing. I am becoming the person I want to be. I don't have time for self pity. The best part of being busy is when I'm not anymore. Having four days off to do nothing and everything is pure bliss. At the end of Thursday, Friday, Saturday I told Mike, "I like this day."

And I still have the end of today.

I ran a 5k on Saturday.

And I am proud of myself.

In high school when I was "in shape" aka dancing an hour a day 5 days a week I could barely run a mile.

I trained for 4 weeks.

I have no idea what a good time is so my only goal was to not walk at all.

I'm a wimp, okay.

I finished in 38 minutes.

I don't know if that is good or bad, but I'll take it.

It feels really good to accomplish something that I've been working hard on and something that I've never been good at.

I'm thinking...

Spank me for not posting in ages. Some thoughts I'm currently thinking: 

Mikey's sister is having a baby and it's a .....

BOY!

She lives in Alaska and since she couldn't tell us the gender in person, she ordered some cupcakes with the color of the gender in the middle. She was on the phone and we all took a bite of the cupcake... BLUE! BOY! I love when people make an event out of things. Celebrate life! 

I'm thinking I miss this lady and I'm so excited for her to come home for Christmas and for us to go to costa vida and eat frozen yogurt and do nothing all day during the break from work and school. 

I'm thinking that homework is the worst.

I'm remembering our awesome homemade Hallows Eve costumes of Phantom of the Opera and Christine Daae.

I'm remembering our pumpkin carving with Hillarie and James.

I'm thinking James' Darth Vader pumpkin was awesome.

 And I'm thinking my batman pumpkin is kinda lame.

I'm thinking that I love working with 1st graders. I have so much fun with them, singing songs and playing games and seeing their genuine excitement for learning. I could just take all those little ninos home with me.

I'm thinking I have been watching a little too much of this lately. I'm a bit addicted and I take the characters problems way to seriously.

I'm thinking I love this little precious so much. I am so lucky his mama lets me snuggle with him for hours on end.

I'm thinking that my husband is weird.

Lastly, I'm thinking I love Snively.

school, work and pinterest make me neglect you little blog.

 Fall is here! Hallelujah! Hillarie and baby Rhone and I had a craft night! We went to good ol' dollar tree and I made these little cuties. And I made a baby headband and put it on Rhone, Duh.

 

One great thing about having a little apartment is that just a few decorations make our whole home look festive.  

Next on the fall to do list:

 

Italian soup from Pioneer Woman 

 

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese 

 

Pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon syrup 

And classic melt in your mouth pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. This ones not a link because I already have the best recipe written down in my recipe binder. Credit to the one and only Meagan Breadsguard. 

Have I ever told you how much I love being an aunt?? It just might be one of the very best things about my life. I love when Mike and Lincoln play ping pong together. 

I also love taking them out on their very own birthday dates just like my Aunt Cindy always did with me. We took Roxy out to Chick-fil-a and had a grand time playing with "mommy and daddy" sauce packets. They liked to swim in the water cup, go to sleep all snuggled up in the napkins, make breakfast for each other, it was a fun time. Then we went to the dollar store and she got to pick out anything she wanted. It makes her think we are so cool. Birthday dates next: Stella turning three and Rhett turning five.

Speaking of birthdays I just had mine! I declare that my birthday always has been and always will be the best day of the year! Even when I was hurling all day on my 13th (?) birthday it was still awesome. Everyone makes me feel so special! We ate some yummy and free food at Joes BBQ and I had a class and then afterwards we went to my in-laws for a bit. They got me and ice cream cake!!! I felt so honored that they would do that for me. They treat me like I am and always have been part of the family. I have the best in-laws ever. Thanks everyone for making my birthday so happy! Mike, Sara and work friends, Kat and her first grade class, Hillarie, Grubbs clan, and mom aka Baby Nan. 

Now I am going to live up my fall break off of work!

Reminisce

On Mondays the MCC library is full of missionaries using the computers to email their families and friends. When I see them I smile. I hope they are writing letters to their mothers, who I know miss them so much. But mostly, I hope they are writing letters to their sweethearts. And then I want to cry for their ladies. It brings back the memories of almost 5 years ago, living for those weekly emails. Reading them over and over. Mike left right before Christmas break, and I didn't get a letter for a full two weeks. I had no idea how he was doing and it drove me nuts. At this point, he could only write letters, not emails. I remember literally sitting by the mailbox waiting for the mail to come and almost crying when there wasn't a letter from him. Pathetic. But when there was a letter, it was instant happiness. Honestly though, having him gone was terrible. Before he left, we talked or hung out every day (minus a one month break up) for more than a year. He was my world. Then all the sudden he was gone and I didn't even know what to do with myself. Oh how I'm glad those days are done. As crappy as they were, I look back on them so fondly.

  

It's crazy how he left as a boy and came back a man. I don't think we would have gotten married if he wouldn't have gone. We both had to grow up a little, by ourselves. I had to experience certain things to figure out what I really wanted. Then when he came home, even if I didn't know it at the time, we were ready.

Maybe the next time I see the missionaries at the library, I will pass them a little note that says something like,  write your girl a nice long letter. Tell her everything thats going on, and don't forget to tell her you love her. It will make her week. 

top 5 best phone pictures

  My phone is an old one. It's a flip phone (remember when those used to be so cool?) It has a crappy CRAPPY camera. But it is always with me so it takes some dang good pictures. Enjoy the top 5! 

5th place goes to: corndg license plate. You rock. 

 Once upon a time I was looking through a craft book from the 80's or something and I found some AMAZINGLY awkward crafts. See for yourself. 

4th place goes to: The card that barfs "get well soon!" 

3rd place goes to: This cool kid with the crafty hat!

2nd place goes to:   My eyes, nose and mouth photoshopped on to Mikes head. If you ever wonder why we don't have kids yet, look at this and you'll know why.

1st place goes to: Me loving brand new baby Rhone! I am so happy he is here so I can hug and love on him! Props to HILLARIE for pushing him out and being such a good mama.

 And here are some real pictures of the precious. And of my excitement to be an auntie!

So precious!!

callings, books, mcsteamy.

Last week I got released from my calling as a den leader in Scouts. Sad face. I will miss those little dudes.  And we got called as nursery teachers. Mike has a good attitude and I am trying to let it rub off on me. I'm having a hard time with it because will miss Relief Society! We always have such fabulous lessons. And lets face it... when you are a nursery teacher, you are separated from the rest of the ward and nobody knows who you are. At least the kids in our class are freaking adorable so it will be fun i suppose.

This summer I have had so much heavenly free time and I've been reading some good books. I always appreciate when people share some book reviews because I'm always looking for good reads. So I will share mine with you.  

The Maze Runner Series: 5 stars! I loved them both and I'm so excited for the third one to come out in October.  

   

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: 4 1/2 stars! Charming. It is written only in the form of mail letters, which had me a little skeptical at first, but they did it oh so perfectly.

Frindle: 5 stars! I read this book in 5th grade and again when I found it at bookmans last year. I had been trying to convince Mike to read it, but he never did. So on our way up to flagstaff a few weeks back I brought it along and read it to him in like 2 hours. For the third time it did not disappoint. So cute and
hilarious!  

I read another book called Fallen but I won't even put a picture up because it was lame. And so unoriginal.

And I am halfway through Matched and so far I'm likin it! 

  Also, a follow up on my terrifying dentist appointments: not even that bad! I never thought I'd say that. With my old dentist my fillings would pop out, and his drilling always hurt, so I switched, and I love this new dentist. I never knew you could feel complete numbness while they are drilling on you! I went to THREE dentist appointments this past week, and one was a root canal and one was drilling and a crown fitting, and they were the best appointments I've ever been to! My odontaphobia is slowly decreasing. And good news, I can chew on both sides of my mouth again, and it is a glorious feeling. Also my dentist looks like McSteamy. Seriously.

Workschool starts up on Wednesday and I am pretty excited to get to work in my new classrooms. Yes, classroomS. I'm kinda nervous that I won't be full time in one classroom this year, because it just works so well that way. I am working with ELL first grade and ELL second grade! I've always done third so I'm excited to learn new things from new grades and two teachers that I haven't worked with. Woot woot for education!

odontophobia

This is me right before i go to the dentist..

and i am terrified. i take good care of my teeth, always brushing twice a day and flossing at night. i just returned from my first visit in two years and it looks like this is what my near future will consist of...

2 crowns

1 root canal

1 cavity

multiple appointments 

fear

pain

pain

fear

i started crying right in front of her when she gave me the estimated cost of everything. embarrassing. there goes the money we've been diligently saving for school.  

i suppose i should be grateful that i even have a dentist, and that i don't look like these nastys...

but i'd rather just wallow in my own misery. 

In Honor of Harry Potter..

I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight. Actually 12:45. What am I, 18 again? Let me tell you though, for the first time with the movies, I loved it.  

Neville is my favorite.

Beth got killed by Voldy

In honor of Harry Potter being awesome, i changed my name to the sorting hat! 

And I shall sort some peeps.  

First is Hufflepuff 

 Now if you thought Hufflepuff was for the people who weren't good at anything, you thought wrong. 

Students belonging to this house are known to be hard-working, friendly, loyal, and non-judgemental. They value patience and fair play rather than social status. And might I remind you that other than Griffindor, they had the most students that stayed and fought Voldemort at the ending battle.

In Hufflepuff I place my dear husband Michael for his work ethic, loyalty and the way he always withholds judgment.

And also Hillarie, for her loyalty and nonjudgment

And Olivia, for her loyalty and friendliness

Next is Ravenclaw 

 Ravenclaw House prizes intelligence, creativity, resourcefulness, cleverness, knowledge, and wit in its members. Often, they are known for being academically motivated. 

"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure."
—Rowena Ravenclaw

In Ravenclaw I place...

Jennifer for her resourcefulness and smarts,

Jordan for her wit and creativity

 And also, Bethany for her cleverness and wit

Gryffindor

 

Gryffindor house is known for their bravery and chivalry. They contributed many members to the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledores Army. Their bravery, however, is viewed by Snape and others to be arrogant and reckless.  In Gryffindor I place...

 James for his bravery and arrogant recklessness.

I also place my brother Curtis, for his chivalry and recklessness

Clark, for his bravery and comic relief.

Last but not least, Slytherin.

 

Slytherins tend to be ambitious, strong leaders, and achievement-oriented. They also have highly developed senses of self-preservation. 

In Slytherin I place.... myself.

For my selfishness and ambition. Also my love for Draco Malfoy. 

I will leave you with these cute little Gryffindors.

Where would you be sorted?