October 13, 2013

I wish I had more to talk about from these last couple of weeks but Kyle and I are pretty predictable people. Not too many exciting things happen when you are consumed in work and school. That is us...work and school.
 Lucky for me my work is school. I love teaching my 1st graders. We have finally gotten into a good hum and routine. (and they have learned not to ask me when it's time for recess) :) It took me until about the middle of September to get things figured out. I still learn things that I'm supposed to be doing or not doing all the time and learning all of the programs that the school uses. I have had 3 unannounced observations already. My principal has said that I have a great class management system and that she is glad that I am doing as well as I am as a first year teacher. The other first grade teachers have been great to go to for questions and help. It's also nice to have Abigail at the school because sometimes I get embarrassed with some of the questions I have but I feel more comfortable going to her with some of my silly questions. My mom has also been a great help. She comes in sometimes at the end of the day and helps me with cleaning up my classroom and helps me with whatever I need.
Kyle is still super busy with working at 6 in the morning everyday and going to school. Both of those keep him pretty busy. He still has some pretty hard classes even though it's his last semester. He has gotten awesome grades on his tests He also is working with some other students doing research for a professor on the physiological effects that energy drinks have on people while exercising. He is pretty much done with his grad school applications. He only has 2 left but they are so time consuming that they are hard to finish. He just has the essays that are required left. Kyle is seriously a champ for all the things he does. (especially for putting up with me)  When we finally get to see each other on Fridays we are both pretty worn out from the week that we have become pretty boring during the weekends.

First picture of Kyle and I off my new phone. We're finally catching up with some technology. 

Some other things that happened in the last couple of weeks...We got to see one of my friends and her husband get sealed in the St. George Temple. That was pretty cool. We got to watch conference, I had my birthday, 25!!! Yikes! I sure don't think I should be this old already. We moved our records to a Mesquite ward because Kyle has been coming down on the weekends. I have only been in Cedar 13 days since August 13th and most of those days are just Wednesday nights. On a good note this week will be the 8th week of school so only 8 more weeks until Kyle is done in Cedar. We helped Kyle's brother and his family move this weekend and that is something that I am not looking forward to AT ALL...I decided I hate moving. We are lucky that we don't have 2 kids to move like they did and that it's just us.

We had some not so good news at our apartment building in Cedar. On of the nicest old neighbors we have was beaten by another person on the 9th. The crazy thing was that Kyle had seen and talked to the "bad" guy earlier that morning before he attacked our neighbor. He had seen the "bad" guy coming and going from the old man's apartment and had said, "hi" to him before. He said that when he was going to work he had seen him waiting by the old man's door and thought that maybe he had gotten locked out or something. The man had made some noise and Kyle stopped to say hi, but he didn't seem in his right mind. The guy wouldn't talk back and put his hands up kind of like warning Kyle to stop. Kyle didn't have a good feeling about him and told him, "sorry man I'm going to be late for work" and started to walk to his car. When he was walking away the man started to yell and swear at him. When he got to work he told his co workers how weird that encounter was. Kyle got off early from work and went to go home before he had to go to class. When he got to the apartments there were cop cars all around the parking lot. He approached one of the officers that he was familiar with from campus and asked what was going on. He asked if it was about the guy in the green shirt and white hat. They said you identified the criminal and had him fill out a statement of what had happened to him that morning. The man had attacked out neighbor around 8:12 am and Kyle had gotten off work at 8:30. So there was a lot going on when he had gotten back to the apartment. He said there were crime scene investigators and when he went to our apartment he said he could see the blood all over the ground and there was a lot. The younger guy had attacked our neighbor and one of the news articles said he was stomping on and kicking his head and that he died from his injuries in the hospital. I'm just glad that Kyle was listening to the Spirit. He said he had a really bad feeling about the guy and walked really fast to his car to get away.

This is the picture from the news story. You can see our apartment door. The second one on the top floor. It happened right by the handicap sign... :( 

I had to work the week of the 4th of July so we stayed in Cedar. On Thursday the 4th we went over to the Swanson's and had a BBQ. Then on Friday we headed up to Panguitch Mountain...Or up just by the lake. Kyle's extended family has a cabin up there. We had dutch oven Friday night and I kinda got sick. The power went out, and we roasted smores. Then Saturday we got up had breakfast and then went fishing. Everyone caught a fish but Gage caught the biggest.

The weekend after the 4th Kyle went down to Overton to go golfing and to spend some time with family for his dad's birthday. I had to work, like usual and Friday night I made these snickers cupcakes. They weren't the best but one day I'll be better. 

An update on my classroom. My mom, Abigail and the girls came and helped me organize my classroom. They had shampooed the carpet and everything was in a corner. We moved everything around to actually look like a classroom. I have been working on it a little at a time. I had no idea it was so time consuming to get everything done. Abigail has helped a lot these past couple of weeks. Lori also came in one day to help me out too. 

Aug. 3 I had to go into Vegas to take a test and I also finished up all of my paper work at the school district. Then the 10th I had another test here in Cedar, and Wednesday August 14th was my first official day of work. We had an on boarding conference for all of the new hires in CCSD (1,800 of us) at the Venetian in Vegas for two days and then I had a zone meeting in Vegas on Friday. I was in Vegas for 3 days and am so glad I got a job in Mesquite and that I don't have to drive into Vegas everyday. It was HORRIBLE having to drive there. Thursday I was smart enough to stay at Shad and Amanda's. When I got home to Cedar...it was so relieving and I was so glad to see Kyle again.  

The last month or so...

Memorial Day Weekend we headed up to Panguitch.Kyle's grandparents had a garage built and we all pitched in to paint it to save some money. The garage is huge and has an apartment upstairs...

Mitch and Randall

Kyle and his dad...I didn't want Kyle to get paint on his shorts so he put the suit on :)

upstairs working on the machine

We went fishing at the lake on the hill...I caught 3 tiny fish...

Our first date was at Krave...I love any type of ice cream so on June 10th we have to go to celebrate

Wednesday June 5th we went to Jared's graduation...I didn't get a picture of him though. I was too slow.

Thursday June 6th I went and helped Abigail with her classroom and then Cathy told me where my classroom would be.... :) WAHOO

It has some work to look good but I'm excited to get it all put together. 

 Later Thursday night we went to Lindsay's Graduation 

Utah Summer Games opening ceremony. That night we played croquet with Brad, Eliza, Shawn, Kaylee, Claire, and Austin. We watched the fireworks and then headed over to the TIKI SHACK :)

June 28th and 29th we went up to Yankee Meadow to camp and go fishing. It was so pretty and  perfect weather...we had yummy food, and good friends. We now know we need to invest in an air mattress. It's not worth sleeping on the ground no matter how many blankets you have :)

May 16th

After A LOT of waiting and praying...I had a phone interview with Cathy Davis the principal from Virgin Valley Elementary. 20 minutes after the interview I was offered a position at the school as the new 1st grade teacher. I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!! A little overwhelmed but non the less ready to have a "real" grown up job. 

Kyle still has one semester left at SUU so I will be traveling back and forth from Mesquite to Cedar. Luckily Kyle's grandma has a Condo in Mesquite that's less than 5 mins away from the school. She said I can stay there if I want so I'll be staying there a couple of nights a week to save on gas. It's only 16 weeks until the semester is over. I'm dreading being away from Kyle so much but I keep saying others have had it worse. I'm just glad that we will be able to save before Grad School and that I'll be able to finally use my degree. 

California Trip May 10th - 14th

We took a trip with Kyle's family to California. We headed out early Saturday morning; with Kyle's parents, Kayla, and Lindsay. We met up with Grandma Annie, Robin and Geniel with Great Grandma Lillian.  We met them for lunch for Grandma Lillian's Birthday and then went and visited with Grandma Lillian at her house. After that we headed down to Dodger Stadium. :) 

Promo day, bring your dog to the park day.

My first Dodger Dog

Picture for Grandma Annie, She loves Ethier

Signing autographs, sadly we weren't close enough

First pitch, by the Skateboarding Dog

 Sunday was Mother's Day... We had breakfast and then headed to Huntington to go to sacrament meeting. After church we stopped at the New Port Temple. We then went and walked around the beach for awhile and then had to get back to where we were staying so Lori could get some things done and the rest of us went and explored the resort. 

This was when we were walking around where we were staying... Such a pretty view

Monday we went to Disneyland, then out to dinner and a little shopping at the the mall, then swimming that night.

Tuesday the girls walked down to the coast highway...to do a little shopping but ended up just looking. Everything was way expensive. The men went golfing. We then packed up and headed home!