Thanksgiving in Chicago!

Justin and I left Wednesday morning for Thanksgiving with the Blackhams! I won't give an hour by hour replay but I will touch on the highlights :)

Thursday: Thanksgiving bowling games then the dinner in the evening. It was a yummy dinner! We had a great time visiting with family and relaxing after eating so much!


Friday: We did the Black Friday shopping! This was my first year going out on Black Friday. I've always dreaded shopping in super crowded places but it wasn't really all that bad. We didn't go out till around 11 a.m. and we took Kristen (Justin's little sis) shopping so she could get some of her Christmas shopping done. We went to the mall, Target (great deals on dvd's!) and the Outlet malls. I think since Justin and I weren't shopping for anything on our lists it made the experience more pleasant and less stressful. Justin did end up getting a big ticket item for his Christmas. I won't reveal it until he officially opens it on Christmas :-) A few more highlights from Friday... eating lunch at Portillo's....yuuummm, walking downtown Naperville and looking at all the pretty lights, and seeing Twilight with the whole fam. Dad Blackham was a trooper! We all liked the movie, I'm more interested in reading the books now! (I know, gasp, I haven't read the books and I saw the movie)
Saturday: Justin and I went downtown Chicago pretty much all day. We walked to Millenial Park then up to the Magnificant Mile then went up the John Hancock building then walked over to the Oriental Theatre and saw the Marshall Field's window displays. It was such a fun day in the city! We definitely walked off our Turkey dinner that day! That night we went out to eat with the DeMille's for a farewell dinner.

Can you find us??

We got back in town Sunday and decided to get out all of our Christmas decoration. Turns out I don't have nearly as much decoration as I thought I did! Soooo... Justin and I went shopping at JoAnn's tonight for some decorations. They had all their Christmas stuff 60% off! I don't understand why they put their stuff on such a sale before Christmas but I sure love it! Now we just have to get a tree this weekend and trim it :-) orrr put decorations on it. I'm excited because we already have a lot of presents to put under our tree! I just wish our place was a little bigger so we could fit a nice size tree in it instead of the midget one I'm sure we're going to have to get. Oh well.. maybe next year we'll be in a bigger place! We're sooo excited for Christmas! Next Thursday (I think) is my last day of class, I can't believe it's so soon! But this time of year is sooo fun....just hope it snows soon!

It's almost Thanksgiving..already??

It feels like life has been moving at warp speed ever since Halloween! This years Halloween was very fun for us! I participated in Westridge Elementary school's parade (where I am doing my practicum student teaching) and it was a highlight to see all my 4th grader's all dressed up in their costumes. I was a pirate (again) and Justin was a sales representative (it was a hit at his work). After school Justin and I went to my sister's house in South Jordan to see my nephew dressed up for his first Halloween (check him out! http://whitmer-family.blogspot.com/) he was the cutest pea in the pod I've ever seen!


Since Halloween... life has been pretty busy but yet I can't remember what we've really done...
I've been during my practicum student teaching since October 28 and it will end this coming Monday! The time has flown by and I've been able to learn and grow tons. The last month I've definately felt my low's when it comes to my capability as a teacher. But thankfully yesterday I was able to teach all day (my mentor teacher was out for that day) and it went so nicely! The kids were great, I was able to really enjoy my time teaching and let my personality come through-finally! It makes such a huge difference to be the only teacher in the room and be able to teach the kids all through the day (instead of just random 30 minute lessons). It has been great but I am really looking forward to what comes after practicum ends...Thanksgiving, 2 weeks of class then CHRISTMAS! (I also took the Praxis exam this last Saturday, cross your fingers that I passed!)


Justin has been working his tail off as usual. His company is in a huge transition right now, merging with another company. Justin interviewed for a new job with a company called Logoworks in American Fork and got the job. However, after some careful thinking we decided that staying with Icon (now known as Pinnacle) would be the best decision for the steps we are going to be making in the near future. He is working on MBA program applications...gotta get those in soon!

We saw Madagascar 2 last week-we recommend it! It got some great laughs out of us even after we'd had a long and hard day :-)

We are so excited for Thanksgiving in Chicago and spend time with Blackhams and DeMille's! The countdown: 6 days!

Zoo, Football, & Halloween!

I don't have much time to post but I wanted to put up some pics from our life lately! We went to Hogle Zoo in SLC a few weekends ago (school assignment and for fun), then we went to Logan for the USU vs BYU football game (so much fun-we cheered for our own teams but in the end the best pulled through!) and lastly we carved pumpkins this past Monday for FHE and decorated our lovely little home! Life has been fun and busy lately!

Memories!

I think I was tagged by Jolee for this (& if it was another Amy..that's ok--I wanted to do this anyway). Here are the rules: Go into your picture files and open your 4th folder and download the 4th picture onto your blog!!! Write your memories of the photo.



This was the picture I found! Here's Justin and me from Thanksgiving in Chicago with the Blackhams last year. This picture was taken in front of the Bean (a very reflective sculpture in the shape of a ....Bean!) It was sooo cold and windy! But we were dressed up because we were going to see Wicked :-) which was incredible! Then Justin and I changed into warmer clothes and explored the city at night. We saw the traditional lighting of the HUGE christmas tree downtown chicago and got some yummy hot chocolate. I was so excited to be seeing the city with the man I loved and he was such a great tour guide! We are going out to Chicago again this Thanksgiving so I am of course very excited again!

I tag: Heather & Amanda

The Power of Teaching

I don't have much time (still 4 lengthy assignments to get done today!) but I just wanted to get my thoughts out about what I'm feeling right now.

Lately I have been so overwhelmed by all the assignments that are required in the el ed major. Between unit planning and assessment plans and the teacher work sample...everything piles up and makes teaching seem like an extraordinarily impossible profession. (With the exception of a few teachers who actually make teaching seem worthwhile and do-able!) Between all the assignments due today and tomorrow I thought I would take an hour to attend the Power of Teaching seminar, today's being presented by Brad Wilcox (I have him for a class and have grown so much in love with him as a teacher!). Plus I definitely needed a boost of optimism about teaching right now.

The seminar was spectacular. Todd Holman, a well-known stained-glass artist, was the topic of the seminar. He overcame struggles with his extreme stuttering much due in thanks to his 2nd grade teacher who encouraged him to express his words through other means (art). After watching a video about Todd, Bro. Wilcox introduced Todd to his 2nd grade teacher-who just so happens to be Bro. Wilcox's mother. They had a touching reunion and then Todd spoke about his thoughts of teachers. He said that he believes in the life to come that teachers will be loved and hugged by all their students. That thought alone made me feel that I was in the right place, the right profession. Admist all the assignments and stresses and doubts that I have seriously had recently about teaching, a glimpse of hope came through the words of this man. I am so grateful that I attended that seminar and was able to see the purpose once again in why I chose this profession. I feel so inadequate and unconfident most times anymore in regards to teaching. It is a hard, very hard profession with much work required. But the thought always comes to mind 'I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.' I know teaching is worth it!

Now it's back to the library will I will undoubtedly spend the entire afternoon!

Las Vegas by Justin

Now that we have the internet, we can catch up on all of the fun things that we've been doing. So before our great trip to San Francisco, we took a brief weekend trip to Las Vegas at the end of July. We should figured we had better hurry and get all of these short trips in before Amy started school again - so here are the pictures:

Same picture from our 1st trip to Vegas together but just one year later and married!



We decided to rent a car for fun - this is what they gave us! Ok, not really - we just happened to see this on display so we took a picture :)



We always have to get some Gelato when it's available!

The internet!!

We finally have the internet! We asked a couple upstairs if we could join on their connection and while it isn't super fast, it is the internet! I feel so much more connected now :-)

Classes started again today. I was relieved to see how easy it was to get back in the school mode. But there are more things to juggle now besides just school so it will still take a little while to get into the new groove. I was thinking about it today and I'll be glad when my life doesn't get disoriented and completely changed every few months. Change is good and fun but I like having steady patterns for a while. Oh and I had to buy books today. That will be another thing I'll be glad to not have to do...hopefully ever again!

Yesterday Justin and I got back from San Francisco. It was such a fun trip! We went to Alcatraz, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradelli Square, China town, the Golden Gate Bridge... and walked everywhere in between. We learned that solely relying on public transportation can be... interesting and that it is nearly impossible to dress for San Francisco's weather! But we really enjoyed our hotel and it's location. I think my personal favorite was seeing the seals at Pier 39 and all the chocolate from Ghiradelli Square. I know Justin's favorite part was going to Alcatraz. That boat ride was pretty fun, we could see really thick fog off in the distance then before we knew it we were in it and couldn't see anything anymore then all of a sudden we were right in front of Alcatraz. It was pretty eerie because of the fog--made the perfect setting for the prison. We want to watch 'The Rock' and 'Escape from Alcatraz' now that we've been there. I think it would be interesting to find out a little bit more about the prisoners that were there also. Anyone know anything about Robert 'Birdman' Stroud?? We don't but we want to find out.

I love our trips together! They create such fun memories. I am especially excited about all the pictures we took this last trip. I should be better about getting prints made and scrapbooking them...maybe someday when I have more time!

Here are some pics from the trip:The view from our hotel room window
waiting for our tour to Alcatraz
the fog!... going to Alcatraz

Justin's really cool shot at Alcatrazanother very cool shot by Justin--these cyclists were riding down Market to protest oil dependency