Vacations all I ever wanted!

May 3rd-departure! Justin, Josh, Heather, Matthew and I take off from Salt Lake. Destination-Orlando, Florida!

Sidenote---departure was quite an adventure! We were supposed to leave SLC at 4:50 but due to "mechanical difficulties" we did not leave until 9:30! Thankfully there was some compensation given, food vouchers from Delta made the long delay a little more bearable as well as a flight voucher on another Delta flight. We finally landed in Orlando around 4 a.m. and still had to get our rental cars! We finally made our condo at 5 a.m.-whew!

Our first day was spent relaxing by the pool. Our resort had a plethora of fun pools so we definitely made good use of them! We needed to rest this day so we took it pretty easy.

Tuesday morning, Heather, Justin, Matthew and I headed out to Aquatica (Seaworld's waterpark). We surmissed that we went to Orlando at the perfect time-after Spring break but before schools were let out. The outcome? Little to no wait lines at the slides! We had a great time there, the rides were way fun! There is even one where the tube goes under water into a dolphin tank, it was crazy being so close to the dolphins! That evening all 5 of us went to Seaworld. We played with the Stingrays that evening and watched the Shamu "Believe" show. That's a big fish! After Seaworld we went out to eat at Giordanno's-a Chicago favorite of Justin's. Deep-dish pizza is so heavy! We each had one piece and were completely full. We had 4 pieces leftover, which in a to-go pizza box weighed what felt like 5 lbs! (Unfortunately, I dropped it upside down getting out of the car, it was that heavy! But it was still edible, no worries.)







Wednesday we took it easy at the pool, then headed to the Orlando Temple. Although it was closed for cleaning it was still gorgeous to look at! That afternoon and evening we went to the pool, which was again relaxing and fun.
Thursday, Justin and I headed out to Kennedy Space Center. We spent a loooonnng 5 hours touring the area and watching an IMAX movie. Justin was really intrigued by the space specs NASA had to offer. They were launching a space shuttle in 4 days so they had both launch pads occupied with space shuttles. My favorite part about the adventure was the drive into the Space Center. It's located on Merritt Island (I believe...) which is a natural animal refuge. So alongside the highway were alligator filled small canals. Seeing the alligators out in their natural habitat was crazy! After we left the space center we headed south about 20 minutes to go to Cocoa Beach. It was a very pretty beach!



Friday Justin and I headed back to Aquatica then met up with Heather, Josh and Matt for an afternoon at Seaworld. The highlights from this trip to Seaworld: feeding the dolphins, watching the Otter & Sealion show, and especially the dolphin show! Seaworld is a great place!





Saturday we headed back out to Cocoa Beach to visit the Pier and then back to our resort to soak up the sun for the last time! That evening we went out to dinner for Heather's *26th* (sorry sis!) birthday (May 10th).




It was a wonderful trip, thank you Josh and Heather for inviting us!!

Graduation!

I know you've all been dying for me to update our blog.... ;-) ... I blame it on our internet. It's quite in and out which makes blogging rather frustrating but we've actually had quite a bit happen in our little lives lately that make blogging worth the effort!

So about a month ago I finish student teaching at Sprucewood Elementary! Whoo! There was about a week between that time and graduation. During that time my parents and my aunt Betty came out. I spent a lot of time with them while they were out, it was a lot of fun! Thursday, April 23rd we attended BYU's commencement then my parents, my aunt, Heather, Justin, my mother-in-law and sis-in-law went out to a yummy dinner at P.f. Chang's. Then the next morning I had early morning graduation (8 a.m.!) and offically became a college graduate as I walked across the stage! It was a wonderful feeling but nearly immediately afterwards I couldn't believe I was done with my formal education. I loved learning and going to classes and feeling like I was working towards something. That got me thinking about getting a Masters in education...but I'm not quite sure that will ever pan out.




The week after graduation was kinda weird! I actually stayed pretty busy getting ready for our vacation and going to the spa everyday! My sweet hubby got me a combo package (facial, massage, eyebrow waxing, manicure and haircut) to a spa in Lindon. I had fun making those appointments and getting those treatments, it was quite relaxing! But at the same time spending all day by myself gets lonely! I need to find a job soon!

Justin's Birthday!

Well this last week a lot happened! Tuesday was St. Patrick's day ...which doesn't really keep us busy but I made sure to wear green when teaching elementary school kids. My 6th graders showed up with green spray-painted hair and head-to-toe green clothing. That's a great perk of teaching, the kids LOVE every holiday!

Wednesday was a half-day of teaching for me then I went up to BYU for the Teacher Fair. That was interesting, I stopped by several district booths and handed off my resume/letters of recommend to them. Though some of the districts were helpful, most of them only said to go online and fill out an application. Of course districts are posting openings at the beginning of April and I won't know where we will be until the end of May so who knows if there will be any positions left at that point. Oh well, I will find work one way or another! But anyway, I ran into two freshman friends on campus that I pretty much haven't seen since freshman year. It was great talking to them and catching up. I liked being on campus again :-) Next time that happens will be graduation! Anyway, Heather and Matt came down that afternoon and helped me put together Justin's birthday cake. It was fun visiting and decorating a cake together, it is one of our favorite things to do.

Then Thursday was the big day! Justin turned 28! He's getting old ;-) He opened his presents before I left for school at 7 am. His spoils from me were a new watchband, 3 blu-rays, and a white dress shirt. That evening we went out to Chili's with Justin's friends then back to our apartment for cake and ice cream. It was a full day and very fun. I think he enjoyed his day. But we kept the party going till today!

Yesterday we went to Brandon and Amanda's for Justin's family birthday party. Amanda cooked a great meal and we really enjoyed our time visiting with our family. AND on a GREAT sidenote...I found out yesterday that I PASSED my teacher work sample! This was a HUGE assignment (25 pages long) and had I failed I wouldn't be graduating so it was a big relief to know I passed. We went out to Tucano's for lunch today to use Justin's free birthday meal and that pretty much wraps up the end of his birthday celebration. Hope we can always be able to celebrate our birthdays for so long!

AND more exciting news came our way this week. Justin officially received his first acceptance letter for the MBA program he applied to in Illinois (North Central in Naperville) and he found out that he will be able to stay with his company all through the summer (originally he was probably only going to have a job through May 1st). Lastly, what I think might be the best news, my sis and bro-in-law are going on a work trip to Orlando May 3-10 and had a 2nd bedroom in their condo and invited Justin and I to come along! I really wanted a vacation as my graduation present but with grad school around the corner and so many uncertainties it didn't look like it was going to get to happen. We just book our tickets yesterday! Heather and I are going to head up to N.C. May 10th and stay there till the 15th so I will get a whole 2 weeks vacation! Hopefully I will be able to find some kinda job before I leave for the vaca so I can start it when I get back. Or not...maybe not working for a while wouldn't be such a bad gig ;-)

Warning: I'm not in a very cheerful mood...

I'll try to be upbeat but we'll see how it goes.
Good news: last Wednesday I turned in my teacher work sample (capstone project of my major) and it is such a relief to have that off my shoulders!
Bad news: Last Wednesday I started my 2nd block of student teaching in a 6th grade class. I was very excited for the new environment since I didn't feel like I had a superb mentor teacher 1st block. Well so far this new mentor teacher and situation has me really missing my old mentor teacher. So far I'm not a fan of year-round schools and especially how this 6th grade team breaks up each subject by teacher (so the students are rotating for each subject to a new teacher). I've always thought I am pretty flexible when it comes to teaching but I really am not a fan of how flexible these teachers are with their schedules. I function well when there are procedures and set schedules to follow, this 6th grade team has no set schedules but rather very loose guidelines they try to follow. I am really just dying to graduate and get a job. With the way this experience is going so far I'm not even sure if I want to teach when I graduate. It is overwhelmingly depressing me.
Good news: I have only 34 days left of this semester and student teaching before I graduate though!

I think it is so important to keep hope in your life, especially when everything seems to not be going your way. We are unsure about where Justin will be going to grad school, if he'll be able to find a job while he's in grad school with the way the economy is, if I'll even be able to find a job once I graduate. There are so many uncertainties in our life at this point that I feel all we can do is hold our breath, pray and have hope in that things will turn out for our good. I know that when I am surrounded by negative & hopeless people that my paradigm shifts to also constantly dwelling on the negative. But each day brings with it challenges but moments of sweetness as well. When those sweet moments occur it is so important to focus on them and be consumed by them instead of the more obvious challenges. It isn't always easy to do but it makes all the difference. This is what I need to focus on doing during this student teaching experience. Any words of advice?

Valentine's and President's Day!

Whooo-hoo! Our weekend has been sooo much fun! Justin and I have enjoyed a wonderful 3 day weekend packed full of fun things but it will sadly be over in 11 hours :-( ...


Anyway! Our weekend began as follows:

-Friday, my sis picked me up from student teaching and I got to hang out with her and Matt till Justin picked me up. We made yummy cookie cakes for our hubbies! Then Justin picked me up and we went to our Marriott downtown SLC and checked in, got ready then ate dinner at The Roof restaurant. The food was delicious, unfortunately I feel like buffets are wasted on me but we stayed there for a while trying to let food settle so we could keep going back for more! The deserts were scrumptious...yuuummm I want to go back just thinking of them!




-Saturday we woke up bright and early (darn our bodies and their internal alarm clocks!) but were able to rest in bed before getting in our suits and going to the hot tub. This Marriott has their hot tub on the 2nd floor, surrounded by huge floor to ceiling windows so while it was a wintery/snowy wonderland outside we were nice and toasty in the hot tub...ahh relaxing! We got ready and had another yummy (breakfast) buffet at the hotel. We then packed and headed up to Park City for some outlet-store shopping. We hit nearly every store and racked up on the President's Day weekend sales! We headed back to Provo around 4:00, and upon arrival back to our lovely abode I found a gorgeous bouquet of flowers on our counter. I get so excited over flowers ever since I took the Floral Arrangement class at BYU so needless to say I LOVED these flowers :-) THEN...(I know this day seemed to go on forever...) we went to our Stake's Valentine's Dance to babysit in the nursery for half an hour then we danced for a little bit. After the dance, we rented Nights in Rodanthe then finally fell asleep! Whew! Have any of you seen that movie yet? I thought it was very typical Nicholas Sparks (and very reminiscent of Message in a Bottle) but it still was a tear jerker at the end!

Then we had today together again (Justin took work off today). We slept in then Justin went grocery shopping (thanks sweetie) while I spent hours slaving over lesson plans for this week! Then Justin finally took me out for some (wishful) home decor shopping. I feel like our apartment is pretty blah! I wish it were brighter, bigger and better decorated! Vern Yip can I qualify for Deserving Design?? We saw a matinee of Taken-very good!- then had ice cream at Sub Zero. Interesting place! They make your ice cream custom order-like Cold Stone-but everything is liquid until they release liquid nitrogen into the bowl and it freezes everything instantly. I would love to have them come to my classroom, my students would learn about science and enjoy a delicious treat! It was a pretty neat place. We would recommend it!

It was a busy and full weekend but so much fun! It stinks that we have to get back to the real world tomorrow! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and Valentine's Day!

My poor, neglected blog!

I have been horrible at posting lately! Justin and I have been busy since the new year began with work and student teaching. Things probably don't seem that much busier for Justin but things have become pretty crazy for me! I am student teaching in a 3rd grade class at Draper Elementary, so I leave each day at 7:00 am and get home around 4:30 and spend the rest of the evening planning lessons! Whew, it is a lot of fun though. I only have one more week in this class and then will be placed in a new school in a grade between 4th-6th. Those older kids scare me... the 6th graders at my school look like they could be my age! How am I supposed to manage and discipline students who look like they are my peers?! I am fully in charge of my class this week and the next and it is taking some getting used to-- having only 30 minutes before school and after for preparation is not enough! Anyway, besides those events we are doing the usual. Justin is playing intramural innertube water polo and basketball through our ward. He's trying to get me to do the water polo... not so sure about that... winter time is not prime bathing suit time!

We went up to Justin's sisters house in Kaysville a few weekends ago for our nephew's 1st birthday party and his older brother's basketball game. We were thoroughly entertained by the 5 year olds running around on the court! Jacob is a great sport and fast runner! He never gave up even when the lil' guy on the other team would not stop defending him!

We're excited for our first Valentine's Day together as a married couple! Justin better watch out though...I had one of my 3rd graders ask me to be his Valentine. We have exciting plans for Friday night...when we decided to celebrate the holiday instead of Saturday night. I'll share the details after this weekend :-)

Justin and I also got certified for CPR this past Saturday....that was an...experience. It was good to learn everything that we did but it was a very high-risk environment! We both left feeling very stressed and worn out from the written test and the practicum! We are certified none-the-less!

We are kinda boring probably and this is probably a boring post....sorry! I'll do better--or try to--from now on!

the Holidays

Christmas for us was wonderful (& busy) this year! My parents came out from NC for 2 whole weeks during the Christmas break and we had a great time together. They stayed at my sister's house in West Jordan so Justin and I were making daily trips up there to hang out with everyone. We played the wii, decorated gingerbread houses, saw a couple movies, had a great Christmas Eve together and spent the night that night for Christmas day. Justin and I woke up around 6 a.m. and waited a little while before waking everyone else up. There were so many presents under the tree and having so many of our family members there it took quite a while to open all our presents! Justin's got his big gift, a blu-ray player (though he's been using it since Thanksgiving), brown shoes, shirts, emergency preparedness supplies, some movies...and a few other things. Justin got me a beautiful right-hand pearl/diamond ring & a black jacket, I also got some exercise pants, really cute ugg boots, jeans, and some other things. It was a great (& white) Christmas and we were truly blessed with how many blessings we enjoyed over the Holidays.

After Christms, my oldest sister and her family drove out West and we were able to spend New Year's Eve with them in West Jordan. We played games and had food but Justin and I left to come home in time to see the ball drop and sip some sparkling cider in the comforts of our own home. So Happy 2009 everyone! Sorry it's so late!

Since then Justin has started back at the ol' job routine and I have begun my Student Teaching at Draper Elementary in 3rd grade. Commuting there so far has been a pretty hairy situation. On a clear day the drive would take around 30 minutes but because of winter weather and accidents the drive has taken around 1.5 hrs-2 hrs. Ah! My day is much longer now than it usually is. But so far I am loving working with these 3rd graders (though they could pass as 6th graders in my book). I can't wait to be a college grad and teaching full-time!

The snow has been so much fun (though hard to drive in!) and so beautiful. Tuesday night Justin went out to scrape his car off for the next morning and recruited me in the effort. There had to be over a foot of snow on his car! A snowball fight insued then came the desire to make a snowman. I began to make one and Justin decided to help, however after he smashed my perfectly round snowball I strongly encouraged him to make his own snowman while I made mine...haha. Here are the end products!:

Mine:
Justin's:


Last night Justin and I went on a triple date to Salt Lake for dinner at Stone Ground then ice skating downtown. We had so much fun with our friends and chasing each other around the rink. I'm proud to admit that neither of us fell, though I did some pro-skating manuevers while I was in the process of nearly falling. Justin was impressed ;-)

Anyway, that's whats been going on in our lives lately! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break!