hmmm...

lately ive been thinking about how cool of a concept godparents are.

i didn't know a whole lot about the roles and obligations of godparents so i looked it up. here are some things i found--

*giving kids godparents is traditionally a catholic thing, although similar ideas can be found in other religions.

*it is not limited to catholics, or religion at all. anybody can give their child a godparent.

*the godparent is to help the child on their spiritual journey.

*the godparent is to pray for their godchild.

*the godparent is to take a special interest in the child, and they usually have a good bond.

*back in the day, when people more often died young or unexpectedly, they godparent would take care of the child if anything happened to the parents. being a godparent today does not automatically mean someone is bound to this, unless it is done legally.

*in the above situation, ^ it is expected that the godparents make sure the child is being well cared for if they are not doing it themselves.

*sometimes godparents and godchildren exchange gifts or cards on occasions such as birthdays, christmas, fathers day and mothers day.

*godparents are expected to be a good role model for the child.

*you want the godparent to have the same religious ideals as the natural parents.

*godparents are to act as sort of a "second set of parents" for the child.

wikipedia says,

"The modern view of a godparent tends to be an individual chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child's upbringing and personal development."

i read a few discussions online and some people kept in touch with their godparents and had very special bonds, and some didn't. either way they all agreed that it is always a positive thing for everyone involved.

one man said, ""For me, it was important that there was somebody outside my immediate family who had a special concern for me."

i was excited to learn all of this and i think it could be so beneficial for the child... so i decided i want my future kids to have godparents! but when i brought it up to mike he didn't like the idea because it's traditionally a catholic thing. i explained to him that it's not necessarily anymore, but he still doesn't like it.

kids aren't coming anytime soon but its just something ive been thinking about.

is it weird that i want our kids to have godparents even though we're lds? is it worth it trying to convince mike that we should? is it disrespectful to our religion, adopting another religions traditions?

what do you think friends??

The spring break life.

Spring break is THE.BEST.THING.EVER. It was not this good as a kid. I appreciate boredom so much more as an adult.
The 4 weeks previous to spring break were pretty crazy. I taught my class all by myself nine times in only a month. Nine is almost ten and ten days is two weeks and two weeks is equal to HALF of a month. Basically I taught as much as the teacher that I work with did.
And let me tell you, teaching is a lot of work. It's not as easy as it looks.
On top of teaching my class, I still had school and scouts and a husband to keep up with.
Lets just say by the time spring break came around I had many knots in my back and many dishes in my sink.
But do you know what? I'm proud of myself. There is no way I could have even tried to teach a class before I started at Burke. And I did a good job. I am so lucky to have worked with to 2 amazing teachers these past 2 years. I have learned so much from each of them. Last year I told the teacher I worked with that she taught me just as much as she taught the kids, and I sincerely meant it.
Teaching, I felt all grown up. It's a good feeling, having important responsibilities, and having 24 precious kids relying on you.
But it's also a good feeling to be careless and FREEEE>>> cue spring break!
My spring break consisted of...
Sleeping in!
Schoolwork... I started another online class the monday of spring break. On top of my other classes. Then I wondered.... Why?
Baking and cooking :)
Playing with the nieces and nephews. Love them so much.



Spending time with the hubbs. He still had work, but it was so nice to spend the evenings together instead of school.


Finally visited sprinkles cupcakes. The verdict: They are delicious, probably the best cupcakes I've ever had, but they are not worth 15 bucks for 4 cupcakes.


Saw some movies-

Limitless review by me-Good movie. It kept me interested and excited the whole movie. The ending didn't quite sit right with me... But it was a good movie. I give it 3 3/4 stars.

Beastly review by me-You know exactly what it will be from the previews. And I thought it was cute. I did not take Mike with me, but he would probably give it 1/2 star. I give it 3.
Can someone explain to me why AMC is still in business with Harkins competing with it?? AMC only does student discount on Thursdays, and movie watcher card is not that awesome. Harkins rocks because they have student discount every day! Seven dollars a ticket compared to ten. pffff. Plus if you buy a loyalty shirt you get a free popcorn every time you go for the whole year. Annnndddd if you buy a loyalty cup, a drink is only one dollar, but if your cool like Mike, sprint gives you a dollar off any concession so it costs nothing. FREE drink and popcorn every time we see a movie. To think... I used to go to AMC. Scoff.

...Also...

Bethany Moffitt is going to BUY HAWAII!! AHHH I'm so excited for her.

Thanks for reading all.

Mike got a letter in the mail..

That looked like this...

And I knew what it was. He wasn't home from work, so I got all excited and cleaned the house and put it where he could see it right when he walked in. When he walked inside I was waiting for him and I started yelling at him to "OPEN IT! OPEN IT!"

And he got into ASU! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Okay okay, now your thinking that I am crazy for being SO excited that he got into ASU, which isn't hard. You are thinking right. Yes, he kept telling me that It's not that big of a deal and we both knew he would get into ASU.
But I am still so proud of him. He works SO HARD in school. He works full time (with his commute and lunch break, he is gone for 10 hours everyday). AND he is going to school 2 credit hours short of full time. He does everything he can to get straight A's. I love his motivation.
I am so excited that he is moving forward with his education. With him transferring, it feels like the end is finally in sight. Kind of.
We celebrated by eating at Neilsons. (Were we celebrating or did I just not want to cook?? You'll never know!) Neilsons is the bomb. They have the best fries ever. You know how people argue about who has the best french fries? In n out, burger king, wendys, mcdonalds, red robin blah blah blah... Neilsons are seriously the best. Also their grinders are heavenly. PLUS it was TURTLE TUESDAY! Caramel custard with fudge and pecans. My.favorite.thing.ever. Neilsons should pay me for this post.

On a more serious note, I just finished this book...

I highly recommend it. Holy cow. Did you know in 1994 there was a holocaust in Africa and over one million people were brutally slaughtered in only 3 months? I didn't even know that happened.
This is an autobiography of one of the survivors. I was a little hesitant to read it because I thought it would depressing. It was not. In fact, it is one of the most spiritual, inspiring books I've ever read. Read it. Come borrow it from me if you don't want to buy it or library it.
Recap:
*Mike is going moving from MCC (yuck) to ASU (Wee)
*Mike is smart and good at school
*Neilsons is bomb
*Read Left to Tell

Thanks for reading. I love you all.

Once upon a time I had some friends...

And we were tight. We hung out 1, 2 or even 3 hours a day. I had dreams about them. Then they went away and I will never see them again.... because we finished Prison Break. And my friends weren't really my friends. I just pretended. Now we don't know what to do with ourselves. Homework I guess.

Also, I have fantastic news...... Soon I will be an auntie!! My childhood friend/adult friend/ nextdoor neighbor is having a BABY! And I will name it Merlin! When it cries in the night, I will punch a hole through our closet and crawl through it into Hillaries closet and into her bedroom and take her baby! Then I will rock Merlin until he falls asleep and train him to call me Auntie. I love babies.
Some random thoughts going through my head:
Vicks is the bomb
So is Meagan Bredsguard for making us sugar cookies that Mike broke his fast with.
I have had this lame cold and I am hoping and praying that I am getting better... I haven't held my baby niece for 3 weeks!! I am missing out on her childhood!
My bangs are now too long for me to wear straight across. Mike is happy about this. I don't know if I should start wearing them to the side or trim them again. What do you think??

An 8-year-olds interpretation of Mike and I

Hahahahah Gotta love the little sister..

Christmas

I was debating whether to tell you all about our Christmas... but this is also our family journal.. blah blah blah. This was our second Christmas together and it was amazing just like the first. I have 2 weeks off of work and I'm actually keeping myself busy trying to do a 14 week online class is 2 weeks. So far so good.
Mikes sister and her husband came down from Alaska so we got to hang out with them quite a bit. We're secretly (or not so secretly) hoping that they will move closer to us! Christmas Eve day we went desert romping with our friends Chase and Bethany. The weather was perfect and there was even some mud. Then for dinner we ate pizza with the Grubbs clan. We read Luke 2 and went off to see the Christmas lights. This is an absolutely terrible picture of everyone in it... but it's the only one I have so... deal with it! Jamie and Dave are magically see-through and everyone else looks scared or painfully uncomfortable! Oh how I love the awkward picture!

After we saw the lights with the Grubbs we went straight to my parents house. This year we decided to not do Christmas morning because there is just too much to do on Christmas day. So all the Robinsons gathered at my parents and did gift exchange with each other. It's so fun to see people open up gifts. My mom got my dad a kiack (spelling?) and the nieces and nephew loved it. They put all of their new toys on the front of it and just sat in it the whole night. So cute.

Christmas morning came and Mike woke me up at 6:30 because he couldn't sleep anymore. hahahahha what a little kid. We opened our gifts from each other a played around with them. Mike is so good at gift giving! And I am so good at gift getting! I got so much new kitchen stuff! A magic bullet and electronic can opener from Mikey, a wheat mill and wheat from mi madre, pampered chef stuff and a stinkin adorable homemade apron from my sister in law jessica, and a matching apron and pot holder from my in-laws. SHEESH! Good thing I love to cook! I'm excited to try the things I haven't already used! Anyway after our gift opening and eating our very own Christmas cereal, I busted out my brand new beach cruiser scooter, and Mike busted out is old pink razor and we scootered on over to my parents. We hung out there for a little bit and scootered on home. Then we went to my in-laws and guess what we did.... MORE gift exchange! Mike and Dave set up my father-in-laws brand new sound system and it sounds amazing.
We ate Christmas lunch/dinner with the Grubbs and then went to my Grandmas. We used to all go over to her house but the family has gotten so big that we can't all fit, so she does Christmas lunch at her church building. This year was especially fun I thought. It's always good to see family that we don't get to see as often as we used to.
One of my favorite traditions-- Every year, every family on my moms side makes a paper with kind of a sum up of their year. Then Grandma Jean makes copies, enough for everyone and we all get to take a little book home, and read and look at pictures from everyones year.
Handsome Rhett.

Santa comes every year to scare all the kids. Why is it that kids are always scared of Santa??? Who knows but it's hilarious.

These are a few random pictures from the holiday break... Don't mind my double chin.

Brenly is the most precious thing. I love to hold her when she is sleeping.

My favorite things about Christmas--
Family, family, family
Food
Picking out gifts that you know someone will love, and watching them open them.
Decoration
Kids excitement
New things
No work for 2 weeks
...and...
Remembering the birth of Jesus Christ.
Already counting down the days until next Christmas!

Heres to you old bag--

I got myself a brand new dream-purse for Christmas this year. I first laid eyes on it on October 6th of this year. It was true love. But I didn't buy it, it was too expensive. Then it went on sale on black friday. Mike and I braved khols just to get it for me. I was so excited. My dreams were coming true. When we got to khols it wasn't there so I looked for it online when we got home. It wasn't there either. My heart cried because I thought they didn't make it anymore. Slowly but surly I moved on. A week before Christmas I went to khols to spend some of my khols cash that I had to use that week. What did I see???? MY bag. We danced together and I bought it. Mike said I couldn't use it until Christmas so I had to wrap it up and put it under the tree. The point of all this is to tell you how much I love this bag.
Today I was cleaning out my old bag and I started remembering all the good times we had together. I was a little sad to clean her out and put her in my closet.
I remember when I bought her. I found the bag when I was shopping with Bethany. Mike and I were engaged, and the wedding was getting closer. Mike called me and asked what I was up to and I told him I just bought a new bag. He was disappointed that I was spending money. It was the first time I felt like our finances were combining, along with the rest of our lives.
All of my make up and other wedding supplies were in this bag on my wedding day.
I took it on our honeymoon.
I started working at Burke with this bag.
I took it on all of our trips: California, California, The cabin and Hawaii.
It has held my camera to document all of our good times.
I have hidden small Christmas and birthday gifts in the zip up side pocket, like Mikes ipod.
Yesterday I wore it to my grandmas Christmas party and Rhett looks at my new bag and says in a confused way, "Esther, where's your old purse??" My four-year-old nephew doesn't remember a time before I wore that purse.
We have had so many good memories. We were inseparable.
While telling Mike all these bittersweet thoughts I started crying. Bawling. WTF??? This purse signifies engagement and wedding and the beginning of our marriage. It has been so good, I don't want to say goodbye to it!
Heres to you old bag-- We shared many good times. I will always look back on you fondly.

And heres to you new bag-- I can't wait for what we will experience together.
Also you are beautiful.