...and the Rest of 2011

Holy...Where did this year go?! It seems like I was just enjoying summer vacation and BAM... It's Christmas break. I can't believe how busy life can be, and I'm constantly finding myself hoping it would slow down. There's always so much to do and never enough time to do it in. My class this year is AMAZING. Possibly one of my funnest classes ever! There are always some super needy kiddos in there, but I do what I can to teach them and get them to second grade with as much knowledge as possible. In August we went to Maui for a week before Cynthia took off to college and then as soon as we got back, school started. In September, I went to Northern California with Ray and we bought him a new commuter car (He desperately needed one), and then the week after I returned, I went to Southern California to the happiest place on earth with my mom, my sister, and her cute kids. Since then I've just enjoyed being home trying to take care of church, house, family, and all the craziness that comes with those things. I'm afraid I'm not very good at any one of them, but I try and that's all that counts (I Hope!) I absolutely love this time of year-except for the weather- and love spending time with my family. The excitement of Christmas and the traditions that come along with it have changed over the years, but that's always something to count on... change. I love that I can make new traditions with my family. Our new traditions include pizza on Christmas Eve and opening a new book on Christmas Eve, as well. The last one will definitely come in more handy when there are little kids in the picture, but that can all wait a couple more years! I hope all of you have an amazing Christmas and enjoy all the excitement, fun, and family that comes along with it!



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Catalina Island

Just after school got out, my mom and I decided to take a little vacation. She didn't have much time off of work, so we decided on Catalina Island. Neither of us had been there before and I had no idea how to even get to the island or where to stay or what to do there, but we had a ton of fun! I found a hotel online and hoped that it wasn't dirty or full of bugs! It turned out to be an awesome place to stay, away from the main part of town, so it was quiet and fun. The only problem was it was clear at the top of a hill with no elevators and my suitcase weighed at least 60 pounds. Luckily, I didn't have haul it up, just down! The first day we got to the island and took a night boat ride to the other little town on the island called Two Harbors. We had dinner there and went to a little store. As we were waiting to get back on the boat you could see the halibut and some sharks swimming right under the pier. Some of the men there were spear fishing the halibut and it was cool to watch. The next morning I signed us up for parasailing. My mom was super scared, but it was so much fun! I would love to do that over and over again! The rest of the day we just shopped all of the little shops and had some yummy seafood. On the island there is Descanso Beach Club where you can rent cabanas or chaises for the day. We rented a couple of chaises and did nothing but sit in the sun all day. Needless to say, I ended up with probably the worst sunburn of my life. I had blisters from my knees to my ankles, but boy was it worth it! It was the best part of the whole trip! We also rented a golf cart, a must have on the island and pretty much the only way to get around. Some kids on a boat told us it takes a really long time to get a car or a truck to the island so everyone pretty much just drives those. There is one grocery store there, a Von's, and the aisles are barely big enough for one little cart to get down. There are about 7 aisles and they are really tall, but narrow. I would imagine that if you lived there you'd get a little sick of the tourists! Once we got back to San Diego we went to Seaport Village and World Famous. My legs hurt so bad it wasn't much fun to do anything, and I wasn't in the best mood! But it was such a fun trip and I'd love to go back there anytime! The rest of my summer has been pretty uneventful, but that's just the way I like it! I'm ALMOST ready to head back to school, I think!

April 2011

April was an awesome month. It went by way too fast, though! During the second week of the month I had spring break, so we loaded up and headed to California for the week. We stopped in Vegas for the night on our way down and just hung out there for a while. When we got to California we went to Knott's Berry Farm and the Orange County Swap Meet and enjoyed the 90 degree temperatures!



Since the next weekend was Easter, we went down to St. George to my mom's condo. It was super relaxing and fun to be with everyone although we missed Cody and Chris and their family. We had an Easter egg hunt at the park and went swimming at the condo.







This last week there was a lot going on at school. We had our last field trip of the year to the BYU Bean Museum and attempted to go to Rock Canyon Park afterward, but the weather was FREEZING so we had to head back to school early. The next day was our school's 5K. I woke up early to get ready for it but there was way too much snow on the ground and it took a lot of convincing to get me to go, but I had fun and it was good to see the cute kids from my class who went to run. I wogged (jogged and walked) the whole thing, but finished in 45 minutes and wasn't dead last so I was okay with that! I forget how hard it is to run on the road and not a treadmill.



This week Ray heads off to China for a couple of weeks. I hate when he's gone, but I may just head to St. George again if I can get away with it! I L.O.V.E that place and hope to move there someday! But for now, if the weather warms up, this place works too. :)

Our MESSY House

So for the last about 6 months, every Friday and Saturday are the days we work on our house. It's so frustrating constantly having men there working and the dust is literally never-ending! Things are FINALLY starting to come together and today is new appliance day! I am a little worried about Ray moving food from one refrigerator to the other without my help, but hopefully it's not a complete disaster when I get home tomorrow! I'm so excited to have one full functioning CLEAN kitchen... Unless you've gone through this, you truly don't understand the mess of it all. Needless to say, I'm not always the happy person I should be come the weekend.. I almost dread the weekend more than Monday because it means never-ending cleaning up dust and junk! But the house will be beautiful when it's finished and it's looking better every day! Here are a couple of the rooms that we're working on right now.

DeCeMbEr

Wow! I can't believe December is nearly over! It completely flew by, but was a lot of fun. On the 13th we celebrated MaKenna's and Doug's birthdays. We tried to pull off celebrating both separately and started out at MaKenna's in Provo for bowling at Fat Cat's. After finishing a game, we drove back to Salt Lake, picked up Cynthia and Doug, and went out for some Chinese food. It was a crazy, but fun day and luckily it was the last week of school for me before Christmas break so I was getting used to a little crazy!

For Christmas Eve we went to Marcie's house and had dinner and watched the kids open their Christmas Eve pajamas. Her girls were so excited that I was pretty sure they would never go to sleep. Even little Cooper was a little bit out of control. They definitely make Christmas fun! On Christmas morning it was just me and Ray, so we woke up and opened our presents, made breakfast, and then went back to sleep. His kids came over at about 1 o'clock and they opened their presents. All Cynthia wanted was Despicable Me and watched it about 3 times after she opened it. Then we decided to go get some dinner and go to a movie later that evening. The only place open was Panda Express (which was fine with me, cuz I love it), and then we went to the movie. We had a fun Christmas and enjoyed being home although it was a little weird to not go to Lyman for the first time ever. We will head there this weekend for a big New Year's Eve party with everyone and I can't wait! Happy New Year Everyone!

2010

So it's obviously been a while since I've posted anything. It may be because it's taken me since I got married just to get the house in a somewhat livable order... Just in time to remodel! I'm actually very excited to have everything ripped out and new things put in. The house we live in has green shag carpet from the seventies and wallpaper EVERYWHERE. No really, in every room of the house. I told Ray I wouldn't be pulling that off, so he'll have to pay someone to do it! I can't wait to actually paint and have all 3 bathrooms working! WOOHOO! I just started a new school year and I have a really cute class with A LOT of boys! They are a little hyper a lot of the time, but it makes life fun. During the summer we have gone to California a few times and I went to Texas for the first time (and hopefully the last time) ever. And yes, I drove across the whole dang state and it only took about 2 days! Thankfully my mom came with me and actually drove most of the way. Ray bought me a car on eBay, and it just so happened to be in Houston. So I signed my mom up for the drive and we had a TON of fun! Right Mom?! Right now I'm on another trip to California and am sitting in the airport for a good few hours so I thought I'd catch up. As you can see, not much is going on! I have quite a few pictures to post, but that'll have to wait til I get home. Hopefully sometime this century.. I gotta teach primary tomorrow!

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The Wedding

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My wedding day was both the happiest and one of the saddest days in my life. I knew I couldn't get married without my dad there, so we did it in the hospital. The staff went all out decorating my dad's room and the hallway around his room. We had sparkling cider and cake at the hospital and all of the nurses and doctors made my day so special. I feel so grateful to them for allowing me to be married in a very unusual place!