Anticipation

I’m sitting here on Christmas Eve morning,
Waiting for those who will come without warning.
Brothers, sisters, and children galore,
Will soon come bounding through the door.
With smiles, hugs, and presents for all,
Each doing their part to make Christmas a ball.
This week will be filled with many ambitions,
Trying to fulfill all the Christmas traditions.
But of them all, the one we will never forbid,
Is McDonald’s breakfast with Jordan and Cyd.
There is one more thing that would make my heart glow-
If only it weren’t thirty below.

Wedding

On the weekend my family and I went up to Edmonton for my brother’s wedding. It was beautiful. Cold, but beautiful.

My brother, Ryan, and his best man, Hunter.

The two sweet girls...Ally and Grace.




The entertainer - Nicole's brother Julien.




The Wedding Ceremony.

Their first married kiss.




Dancing



















The new happy family.




Ally: tired and sick.

Pictures stolen from Ryan and my dad.

Seriously going to win!

Here is another seriously so awesome giveaway from my fave blog:



P.S. I will get back on the blogging train again soon. Apparently I am still super busy.

Relief

After many weeks and endless hours of work, my paper is finally finished! I have never had the experience of “eating, breathing, and sleeping” something, but I have definitely done that with this stupid paper. I worked in a group with two other people, and we literally went to work, class, then met until about 10ish most nights, and then went to bed. I even dreamt about APA format, wondering if I left enough spaces or had the margins just right. It was the most annoying thing ever, but I can safely say it is finished, and all we have left to do is present after Thanksgiving, which will be a piece of cake.

I don’t know if I could have survived it without my wonderful husband, Tyler. He has really stepped up his role by helping me at school, keeping the house clean, doing laundry, shopping, cooking, and preparing meals/ snacks for my group… The list goes on forever. He has been an amazing helper, which makes me love him even more!

So, with all that out of the way, I am going to put my feet up this weekend, get a pedicure, and just relax…

Tip Junkie

Have you checked out Tip-Junkie? They have tons of giveaways everyday for 12 days.

ugh...

Sometimes I wonder if I am crazy or sane,
For taking a walk down master’s degree lane.
I’m starting to feel a great deal of stress,
From a paper – 30 pages, 20 sources, no less.
Not to mention finals and many a test,
To see if I am performing at my best.
The time spent reading book after book,
Is seriously killing my straight hair look.
I need more sleep, which means less time
For straightening my hair - what a crime!
Can I still be a great teacher to the little ones?
Oh yes, I am taking out the big guns –
Movies, games, and rewards galore,
Although it does mean more trips to the store…
I make them run to burn their energy away,
In order to teach them nicely all day.
I still love them, and they love me
Even through this trial of a master’s degree.
I often wonder if this stress will ever stop,
Because the other day I drank an entire pop…

*Disclaimer I have not had pop in over a year, so this was a big deal.

Fight for the right

Janae

15

Tyler

20

Basically if I ever get into a fight with my first graders, I better have Tyler fighting on my side!

Poem of the Week

The Witches

On a cold and spooky night,

Three young witches took flight.

They grabbed their brooms and their hats,

Completely ignoring their beloved cats.

Out the window, they did fly

Up into the darkened sky.

All the fun they had in mind,

Was hindered by what they saw behind.

Three black cats on broomsticks small,

Following behind them all.

Curious, but not willing to stop,

They found a home and perched atop.

Down the chimney, like Old St. Nick,

They jumped and ran through very quick.

The witches were fast, but the cats were quicker,

And with every step the witches felt sicker.

In the dark, they ran and crashed,

Couches and tables all got smashed.

They saw the cats behind them still,

Ran through the kitchen and cups did spill,

Down the hall and through the door,

Hoping to see those cats no more.

Across the street and into a school,

They saw more witches! Oh, how cool!

Now they had a perfect disguise,

A Halloween party, to the cats’ demise.

The cats left sadly, and began to squeal,

For all they wanted was a little meal…

BOO!

Well, I think I have finally regained my breath and strength from a crazy, and incredibly spooky, night last night. But, let’s not start there. Let’s start at the beginning…a very good place to start.

Monday: Went to first grade class, and then master’s class. Pretty uneventful.
Tuesday: Started off with a bang as I fried off part of my hair, for the third time, and realized I had to buy a new straightener (especially with school pictures coming the next day). I was really upset about this, mainly because the one I had was not cheap. I mostly blame Carmen Electra for making it look so wonderful. So to all of you hair straighteners out there…beware of the Kiyoseki. Luckily, I have the most wonderful husband ever, and he let me buy a new one that day. Along with a wonderful husband, I have a wonderful hair lady at the Cutting Corner in Rigby. She just so happened to have a new professional, amazing straightener in - the FHI Heat. It was 2/3 of the price of my Kiyoseki, and came with a guarantee – if I don’t like it, I can bring it back to her, no questions asked. Luckily, it was amazing, and made my hair feel so much healthier, which made me very happy! After all the drama of hair straighteners, I saw the most incredible, and cheesiest, movie ever. Yes, you guess it…High School Musical 3. I love those movies, I admit it. Once you get over the fact that they are incredibly cheesy, how can you not love them? Of course I bought the soundtrack the next day…don’t judge me.
Wednesday: Went to first grade class, and then master’s class. Pretty uneventful. Although, I did get my midterms back, and passed with flying

c o l o r s !
Thursday: Went to first grade class. Tyler was nice enough to come help. Spent hours getting ready for the Halloween party. Missed The Office…thank goodness for Internet.
Friday: Braced myself for a day of craziness. Very surprised by the calm, cool children who walked in my door. Halloween didn’t officially start until 12:20. I was very happy about that…they weren’t. Tyler helped all afternoon this day, too. Once the costumes were on and the children were transformed into the likes of Hannah Montana, Dragons, Werewolves, Brides, and more, the party began. These were my two favorites:

Little Devil

Cute Dragon

We started off with a classic game of freeze dance, while waiting for the parent helpers to arrive. When they arrived we broke off into five different activities, including…

Bean Bag Toss

Candy Walk

Ring Toss

Halloween Jingo (That's the game Tyler AKA Mr. Ricks is playing in the background)

Decorating Cookies

Then the games finished and the parade began. While we were all lined up ready to go, I decided I wanted a picture of everybody. But, in order to save time trying to get them in a picture group, I just videoed them. I realize I went a little fast, but after a few views, you can see them all. Notice the bratty bride in the middle and the many complaints of sweaty heads. Maybe now they’re grateful we didn’t wear costumes all day. Too hot. After listening to the video, I hope my voice doesn’t sound like that when I talk to adults. I’ll call it my first grade voice.

Funny Story: After the party, we were only left with about six kids, and then after the first bell, only two. Since they were two of my favorites, I let them decorate an extra cookie. Here’s how the conversation went:

Red Riding Hood (to Mr. Ricks): Give me the frosting!
Mr. Ricks (trying to instill some manners into this child): What do you say?
Red Riding Hood (refusing to give in): Give me the frosting!
Mr. Ricks (never giving up): We say, ”Give me the frosting ______”?
Dragon (feeling so smart and proud): /g/!
Apparently they weren’t saying the sound /g/ at the end of frosting…it was hilarious.

Finally the bell rang, and all the children left, giving Tyler and me time to clean up the mess. After 392 hours, my classroom is finally back to normal, leaving me exhausted, sweaty (my costume wasn’t much cooler than theirs), and ready to go home. Is Halloween over? You may wonder…but it is surely not. Some of you loyal readers may remember a long time ago when I said we were going to try to be more social by inviting people over at least once a month…? Well that never happened. But finally, I invited another teacher from our school, Georgia, and her husband, Wes, to have a spooktacular Halloween time with us. Not knowing what they were getting themselves into, they agreed. So we started off casually enjoying a Jack-O-Lantern Pizza (well, not so much Jack-O-Lanterny when you trade the pepperoni for ham, but oh well). After that, we all got up our nerve to go to the Haunted Mill (where Tyler and I had our first date). I guess I forgot how scary it actually was, because wow, was it scary. If I hadn’t gone before we left, I probably would have peed my pants with fear. They were pretty good at scaring us, and really good at annoying us. Sometimes the monsters wouldn’t let us pass, or would follow us for excessive amounts of time. Two times we got out of the mill, and thought we were free, but no, we had to go back in for another fearful experience. Finally we were free, and left. All of us coughing and sneezing from the excessive amounts of fog machines and dust. Luckily, we were all alive, and intact. Nostalgia aside, I don’t think we will ever go back. After being scared to death, we decided it would be great to stop being scared, and enjoy a little Mario Kart. That helped to restore my lungs, breath, etc. When they left, I got ready for bed, my head hit the pillow, and literally three seconds later, I was asleep. I couldn’t even finish one page of my book. Boo urns. Now, with Halloween finished, a serious sugar detox begins…

How can teeth be self-righteous?!

Is... an... awkward... thing... for... a... dentist... to... say... after... having... a... curry... dinner...

Yesterday we watched one of the funniest movies of all time.


It made me laugh out loud almost the entire time. Not a lot of shows can do that, you know. So far only The Office, Arrested Development, Friends, and Baby Mama have been able to accomplish this amazing task. Tears came, I was laughing so hard during the above quote. Ricky Gervais is one of my new favorite funny guys. Pretty much anything he said was funny, simply because of his voice, tone, and his sweet sweet smile.

At first I was a little (okay a LOT) sad to watch this movie, because I was originally going to see High School Musical 3 (I know I’m lame, get over it) but it was sold out. But I was very pleasantly surprised that Ghost Town was so incredibly awesome. All in all, we give it two thumbs up.

We also rented another incredibly spectacular game... Wario Shake It! It has unbelievable effects. Check it out for yourself.



WARIO! Let's go!

Flowers

These flowers are so pretty,
Bought with Tyler’s love.
I’m writing this little ditty,
About the flowers up above.
On day one they looked pretty sad,
I thought they had no chance.
On day six, they are really rad.
They make me want to dance.
A part of me feels a bit gloomy,
Knowing they won’t forever last.
I wish they could stay in our roomie,
But they seem to be fading fast.
Now I guess I’ll have to treasure,
Each moment they are with me.
For they have brought me such great pleasure,
Since our third anniversary.

On a more personal note...

Have you ever seen someone walking on the street or somewhere, and thought to yourself – “Wow, I wish I could just be her!”? You don’t even really know the person, but you just feel that she might be more “normal” than you. Well I do that a lot – I think, “wow it would be so nice to have her life and see if she thinks the same things that I do.”

Well, we had stake conference today and to me the central message was being positive and happy. This is something I have struggled with for a lot of my life. I have never had a very high self-esteem or been happy with myself, for various reasons. Currently I am unhappy because we are still living in Rexburg, a town I dislike a lot, waiting for our life to start. I feel like we should have already moved on from this point. We have been married for three years now, and most of the people I know who have been married that long have at least one, if not two, kids. I am constantly on Tyler’s case begging him to hurry up and graduate, and sometimes blaming him for me being miserable. I know it’s not his fault; it’s just where we are in our lives. I want to just jump ahead into the future. I was talking to Emily, a good friend of mine, and she was telling me that she has learned to stop waiting for their life to start, because right now is their life. It could take a lot of time to get to where you think your life begins (a life like my parents have – with a house, kids, careers…). She has made the decision to just be happy and enjoy this part of their lives because it’s either that or be miserable waiting for the time to pass. And honestly, I am sick of being miserable about it. So…I am turning over a new leaf. I am going to accept this as our life, and enjoy it. During my time browsing other people’s blogs, I have found my new mantra. I am going to recite it everyday to get some self-worth back.

I am all of these things, and more, and so are all of you.

New Discoveries...

I just discovered how to change the fonts, colors, sizes, etc. So I did a lot of experimenting in this blog. Reader beware...

I just sat down to type my research paper review, and decided I would much rather do this instead (especially since I know Jordan and Cyd are dying for an update…). This has been such a long week. I feel like I have been going and going without a break, so I am really looking forward to tomorrow, when I can just do nothing. Okay, where to start…

I had two midterms this week which I studied my butt off for. I have no idea how I did, so we’ll just have to wait and see and hope for the best.

Tyler left early Thursday morning to go check out graduate programs at the University of Idaho in Moscow. Luckily I have been busy enough to not be too lonely. However, when my chef leaves, I resort to Bajio, Carino’s, toast, and macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs (which I am eating right now). Yummy…

This week I discovered a few great things:

1. Cherry Italian Sodas are delicious.

2. Avon has the best mineral foundation for $24 cheaper than Bare Minerals. I bought eyeliner, 8 eye shadows, blush, and translucent powder for only $26. I can barely believe it. That’s like Wal-Mart prices for the vain and prideful who refuse to buy important things from there. So all you Bare Minerals users out there…stop what you are doing and go buy Avon’s mineral foundation. It’s only $7 and the best thing you’ll ever buy.

3. Being a teacher has many benefits. Some of which include no tax on school purchases, and 20% off at Barnes and Noble. But this week Barnes and Noble is giving teachers 25% off anything in the store. Needless to say I stocked up on my books I want to read. I bought these:



But I am sad I have to read these first:


4. I got my MAT scores back today, and scored in the 51st percentile…meaning I passed and can continue my graduate program. I also got my official acceptance letter today. The program has been so disorganized and crazy that about half of us weren’t accepted until recently. Thankfully, all the work I’ve done so far has not been for nothing. I get to keep going to class and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

And now I am going to finish my work, so I have time to play when Tyler gets home.

O.c.t.o.b.e.r = L.o.v.e

Today marks the day when, three years ago, Tyler and I got married. Also on the 13th was our first date four years ago. So we kind of have two anniversaries in one week. I thought I would have class all night, but was able to take my test and leave. Since Tyler didn’t go to his class, we actually get to celebrate…kind of. We’re just going to go to dinner, tonight, then we plan on going to the Haunted Mill next weekend (that was where our very first date was…it scared me to death, but I’ll still go back).

We decided this year to not get each other gifts, but find something that we both want—which is turning out to be harder than I thought. For those of you who don’t know us very well, we really don’t have a lot of common interests, so to find something we both want is tricky. I would love a pedicure, or a new pair of shoes…but Tyler doesn’t seem to think that would make him happy. I’m not 100% sure why… I’m sure we’ll think of something come Christmas.

I saw these two rhymes about people who marry in October:

“Married when leaves in October thin, Toil and hardship for you begin.”
“If in October you do marry, love will come but riches tarry.”

I have to say they have been very true for us. Everyone always says the first few years of your marriage are the hardest…and wow, would I have to agree. The first three years have been so difficult. We have had our fair share of problems – many involving “riches”, but it’s safe to say those are getting under control. Don’t get me wrong, we have had some wonderful times, too. Some of our favorite memories are:

Our cruise to Mexico
Road trips to Canada
The Eastern Idaho State Fair
Endless nights of working at my school (both of us)
Playing Nintendo for days at a time
Watching 24 for 24 hours straight

All in all, it has been an amazingly rough and wonderful ride, and we are looking forward to the exciting things coming ahead!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I get sucked into things pretty easy, and saw this contest. Of course I had to sign up. Handbag Planet is giving away a purse every hour tomorrow. So how sad would it be to not even try? Go to the website, sign up, and win.

Chef Ricks

I just have to take a minute to say how much I love this guy.


Today I came home from teaching and then from an exhausting class (complete with a midterm), starving at 8:00, and he had a delicious dinner ready for us. This happens pretty much every night. Tyler has taken over the cooking. I make the list, he shops and cooks. Love it…love him!

Oh yeah, and on top of cooking, he always makes sure our apartment is clean. Again…love him!

Picture Tag

You have to stop what you are doing and take the following pictures NOW. No excuses! If you don't have time to blog just take the pictures NOW and blog when you can!! No cleaning, re-arranging, just have fun taking the pictures!

1. Kitchen Sink
2. Favorite room
3. Fridge
4. Closet
5. Laundry room
6. Self Portrait
7. What you or your family are doing
8. Dream Vacation
9. Favorite Shoes
10. Bathroom

1. Kitchen Sink - Luckily it's Saturday, so I already cleaned most of our apartment.


2. Favorite Room - I almost put the bedroom, because I love to sleep. But I changed my mind at the last minute and chose the living room/family room. We love to play Nintendo and watch The Office—one of the few things we have in common!


3. Fridge – Pretty empty...pretty typical.



4. Closet – Because our apartment is so tiny, our closet is so full of random things.


5. Laundry Room – Again, because our apartment is so tiny, our laundry room consists of a washer and dryer stuck in the corner of the kitchen. I’m getting used to it...



6. Self Portrait – This is my “I hate science” face. (see number 7)


7. What you or your family is doing – I am studying for my Language, Literacy, and Neurology class. We have midterms this week, and I may or may not make it.


P.S. I don't know why this picture is turned-it's normal on my computer.

8. Dream Vacation – Honestly, at this point I would be happy anywhere WARM. It started snowing today and I shed a tear. It barely became fall, and now its winter. I want to move…


9. Favorite Shoes – I couldn’t choose one pair. Here are my reasons: the madden girl shoes are so cute, but are, as my mom calls them, “one hour shoes”. Any longer than that, and you might as well cut off your feet. So after that hour, I will wear flip-flops for the remaining 23 hours.




10. Bathroom - Pretty clean—except that the sink has a leak, and all of our stuff from under there is shoved behind/around the toilet. We can never get a hold of our landlords, so it might be like that until we move out. Also, the bottom drawer is broken, but Tyler promises he will fix it today. We’ll see…



I have seen a lot of “tagging” on blogs, and this one has to be one of my favorites. I saw it on Diane’s blog, and decided I had to do it. I unofficially tag everyone who reads this, but officially I will tag: Allyson, Becca, Kari, and Kate.