some pictures

Mikes sister Jen-Jen is such a good photographer. She used us for one of her projects for her photo class. 

She wanted a vintage love story feel. So I kept singing "if you get there before I do, don't give up on me. Ill meet you when my chores are through, I don't know how long Ill be... yada yada yada." 

Check em out.

Today the weight of my semester and work caught up to me. I have been fine with my work load until this morning from 8 until 11:20. It hit me like a load of bricks. I was exhausted.  exhausted. The thought of getting off work and going to school until ten PM didn't help. Then the most glorious of lunch breaks saved me in my despair: a voicemail from my teacher canceling class! Instead of class I read some book, took a nap and watched some private practice. and ate five oreos. And I am alive again! I will kick the last month of this semester in the @%#!

Spring break is a gift, use it wisely.

Yes ma'm

Desert with mia familia and some family friends.

Me on a giant grill. Because that's your first instinct when you see a giant grill. Lay on it.

My favorite girl ever.

Roxy is "jus tastin da ice cream"

 My favorite girl again.

Mike taking some ukelele lessons.

Desert bbq yum yums.

"The wow factor"

Mike and James have been watching a little too much storage wars. If you don't know what that is, it's one of those shows where people buy things and try to make money off of them. When they find something great, one guy calls it "the wow factor". James has taken this idea to the extreme. They searched every corner of goodwill muttering things like, "is it the wow factor?" "could this be a wow factor?" "I think I might've found the wow factor". This is them looking for a pair certain pair of jeans that one guy on the show dubbed "the wow factor".

I made some yum yums.

Zucchini frys with mozzerella sauce

Carmel popcorn

apple cinnamon muffins

 pulled pork bbq sammies. and picnic in our front yard.

 Sometimes a girl just needs to do something funky with her nails while watching "my fair wedding".

 And sometimes a girl just needs to see a movie solo at a random matinee showing.

 And sometimes a girl just has tons of homework to do.

But when it's all done, it feels so good.

Farewell spring break! Until we meet again in 2013!

one of those great days...

 Yesterday was one of those great days. The kind I want to remember. We woke up early for a Saturday, got some homework and cleaning done and went grocery shopping so we felt productive. Then we just played the rest of the day. The weather was absolutely perfect and Mike needed some new socks so naturally we rode bikes to target and fro yo. When we got back, we played with these little dolls   

Went home, Mike and I cooked dinner together in our tiny kitchen, bumping into each other. After din din went to popcorn and soda, I mean movie (the popcorn and soda is the real reason I go). We were going to invite some friends but on second thought we just wanted to be with each other. After we came home I baked Mikes favorite cookies and we stayed up late snuggling and watching Chuck.

When we got into bed and got all warm and snuggly under the covers I looked at Mike and said, "this day was perfect". It takes imperfect days to get perfect ones like yesterday, and I am grateful.

Lumberjack

I am officially a Lumberjack! I start NAU's elementary education program with an emphasis on early childhood tomorrow. I am taking my classes at South Mountain Community College but earning my bachelors. I am so very excited. It took a lot of thought, a lot of prayers, and  a lot of time to decide if I wanted to continue forward with my education at this point in my life. I am thrilled about my decision to become a college graduate and an elementary teacher. It is going to be so hard working full time while taking 13 credit hours a semester and still being dirt poor, but the hard things are the things worth doing. At least that is what i am telling myself. I might think otherwise when I am neck deep in homework and sleep deprived, but once that passes, my education is something I will never regret. Wish me luck! 

Go Lumberjacks! 

*Esther doing a swinging motion with her fake ax*

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.