So it's been awhile...

I realized it has now been over A YEAR since I last blogged...I wanted to be better at that so I thought I would do a little bit of catching up. Obviously it's hard to go back through everything that has happened in the last year but here is our 'catch-up.'
     APRIL 2012 I started my last semester at BYU-Idaho and I was so excited! Majoring in Elementary Education, I had a class this semester where I went to an Elementary School down in Idaho Falls every Monday, Wednesday, Friday all day long, helping and teaching in the second grade. It was very tiring! Then I had the rest of my classes on Tuesday/Thursday.
    MAY 2012 my older brother Trevor and his wife Carrie got married! It was so fun to go back home to Seattle to be with family and see my brother and new sister-in-law get married in the temple. The reception was beautiful, Carrie did an amazing job, and there was lots of dancing! So much fun!

      JULY 2012 I finally graduated!! Everyone in my family, besides Trevor and Carrie, were able to come drive out to Rexburg for my graduation. My family stayed for a few days and made a big trip out of it. They brought our cake topper and we got to eat it on our year anniversary, and it actually wasn't too bad. We also went up to Yellowstone and went white water rafting in Jackson Hole! I have always wanted to do that, it was my first time, but super sad Chad had to work :(. Trish and Scott drove up from Logan the day for my graduation as well. Sora Lee was also able to get a few fun shots for me for graduation pics weeks before. Not to mention, it was also our first year anniversary!! That went by fast! Chad booked us a room at the themed hotel in I.F., Venice, and it was so much fun! We later went down by the falls and made ourselves a little lunch and had a picnic. It was a beautiful day! (which I can't find any pictures of our anniversary right now but it was cool!)

 We went to the train tracks, where it all began and Chad proposed, I said goodbye to baby Hudson and the Smedas when they moved to Arizona, and we went to the oldest rodeo in Idaho in I.F.!

We of course had to make our last trip to Bear World before we moved next month! And went down and saw the King Tut exhibit down at the I.F. museum.

July was filled with lots of fun because I graduated and it was nice and sunny outside! We also had lots of fun with our Rexburg married friends before we moved.
     AUGUST 2012 consisted of a lot of packing. I hate moving so much!! Its annoying to pack everything, get them all to fit in boxes, not to mention finding all the boxes, and make sure nothing breaks! Luckily nothing did! We moved around the 15th of August down to South Jordan, UT where I would be doing my student teaching in the third grade in Herriman the coming Fall. Here are some pictures from moving, old vs. new. Definitely an upgrade, and so much more space in each room! Love the kitchen so much! And the bathroom is awesome, huge tub!!

   OLD                    Kitchen                  NEW

OLD                  Front Door               NEW

OLD                Bathroom                   NEW

OLD                    Bedroom                  NEW

                                                   New Apartment Complex San Tropez and the pool

                                                             Our front room full of boxes

      Me Student Teaching and my new amazing school!               Disney's UP house right by my school!

     OCTOBER 2012 we went to a Halloween party with Allie and Jeff Merrill and their friends which was so much fun! Chad and I dressed up as cops. We also went to a couple haunted houses, one a haunted circus in Sandy with just us two and then Friday the 13th in SLC with Trish, Scott, Dennis and Megan. That was so fun! Chad's brother Brock came to visit, finally got to meet one of his brothers! 2 more to go. We went out to eat, bowling, went to the Brigham City Temple open house and all sorts of stuff. We started getting our apt together bit by bit, buying more and more furniture. Went to a BYU vs. Utah State football game at BYU, cheering for different teams of course ha. Went to the pumpkin patch right across from our apts and picked out pumpkins together to carve, carved them for Halloween (although we were late again this year, but not as bad as last year.)

      NOVEMBER 2012 we celebrated both our birthdays! Chad 24 and me 23. My mentor teacher and the kids in my class were so good to me and gave me tons of gifts, it was so much fun and one of the best birthdays ever! One girl's mom in my class made me a turkey cookie, so cute!! We also went back up to Rexburg for Thanksgiving this year and it was so much fun to see our old married friends that we miss hanging out with so much, my sister and her fiance Jordan were also able to join us since they stayed in town for the holiday.

                            

     DECEMBER 2012 its starting to get really cold now, lots of snow, Christmas season, set up our Christmas tree, went to the new Scheels and rode the indoor farriswheel, saw Erynn Stapley and the BYU performance of Christmas around the world, said goodbye to one of my best friends Lindy because student teaching is over and she is going back to California, and said goodbye to my mentor teacher and students :(  Went to the Festival of Trees in Sandy with Morgan and saw lots of cool stuff. Chad and I went to see the lights at Thanksgiving point and Temple Square this year. I was so glad because I have never been to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights! Chad and I had our own little Christmas and opened presents from each other before we flew back home to Seattle to spend Christmas this year with my family back home, it was too bad Trevor and Carrie couldn't make it this year with us. We decorated cookies, opened presents and had lots of fun. We got to see Sierra perform (kinda...) at Newport High's assembly just before break started, but the music wouldn't work which was sad so they tried the best they could to do their routine. While I was there I was also able to see the drill team perform, man what a difference it has changed sooo much since I was on it only just 4 and a half years ago!

      JANUARY 2013 Chad went back to Utah early for work while I stayed through the new years and spent it with friends and family, longest we had been apart from each other since married. New Years was spent chillin and slurpees with Lindsey, Erynn, and Mitra. Then Erynn and I threw Lindsey a bridal shower at my house and it was a success! I got to finally meet Haley Jones' boyfriend Spencer and we went to downtown Seattle, the three of us, and rode the new ferris wheel and did the underground tour, first time! When I got back home I started substituting for the Jordan School District and I also started up clogging again, now at Greg Tucker's studio in Orem once a week.

Then I finally got to meet Chad's Dad and stepmom Elizabeth! They drove all the way out to Utah for just a couple days from South Carolina! They are crazy. And they brought a new puppy for Bekah and their family, he is so cute, his name is Rooney.
Haley Jones finally took me skiing up at Sundance where she works! She has been promising to teach me for about 7 or 8 years now haha. It was tiring for my first time but so much fun!!

     FEBRUARY 2013 Mehren came to visit Utah and I was able to see her for her birthday at Texas Roadhouse. For Valentine's Day Chad took me out to dinner at Red Lobster, first time, and to see Warm Bodies! I got him a cute little Valentine's Day basket of goodies. We also made our pink eggs in an egg sandwich, a tradition. Chad's other brother Erick and his wife Kristen came and visited from Florida, now one more brother to meet! Dennis and Megan came down from Logan too and we all went bowling together. Chad and I volunteered at a BYU vs. USU bball came for concessions. And I started up a new little project to do whenever, I started a cross-stitch, we'll see how long it takes me ha.

                                       Megan                           Erick                             Kristen

                                        Dennis                       Brittney                           Chad

     MARCH 2013 I got to see Cressida, Brynn, Shannon, and Callen Stapley come down from WA and ID to see Brynn perform at the Nationals Ballroom Competition, which they got first in one of the dances that I got to see! That was so fun to see them all and spend some time with them. We also went out to eat with Billie, her daughter, and her mom, which is always fun to get together and have little reunions. Then it was our big adult moment, we had to get a new car because ours was starting to die out on us and we found out that we basically had to get a whole new engine, which would cost more than the car is worth, so we bought a new car! A 2011 Nissan Sentra and we love it. It runs so much better. It was St. Patrick's day so I decided to make green eggs and green waffles, turned out fun, and then watched the Luck of The Irish. And I finally got to use my Christmas present from Chad that I have been waiting for, a full body one-hour massage! Thank you sweetie! But of course I wanted him to enjoy it as well with me so we both went in and had one done.

 And that pretty much leads me to where I am today! I'm currently still substituting while looking for a full time teaching job for next school year. Chad got promoted to a bartender at the Olive Garden, yes a bartender haha but he makes all the drinks, not just alcoholic that much. It is a better pay, but he will still serve sometimes too. He is also looking into starting this school year to get into the Fire Academy at UVU. Just living and loving life. Loving that its starting to get warmer here! Although I am sad Chad and I never made it up to snowboard again this year...next year! And now it is the end of March! I am hoping I will be able to be a lot better with blogging now, shooting for once a month, because this was a super long post! But I want to have this as my online journal, since I really hate to write in a journal and I love to have the attached pictures for me always to look back on the things we did years down the road. ;) LiveLaughLove

This Past Week

This past week has been a bit crazy for me, and stressful. Getting ready for my last semester of college with signing up for classes for the last time! And then this week has been geared a lot towards my student teaching for this coming fall. I got the acceptance to be placed somewhere in Utah, which was my first choice, so we are happy about that. Thursday night were the principal interviews. There was a representative from each partner school with BYUI and all the students that will be student teaching soon had to interview with them to see where they will be placed. I interviewed for the Granite and Jordan school districts which are both south of Salt Lake. I have more of an interest going to one of the Jordan schools, but we will have to see. I am so excited! Not so much that we have to wait about another month before we find out our final placements. And then 7:30 Saturday morning I had to be at the school to take my PRAXIS exam, which I have to pass before student teaching and getting my teaching license. I was really nervous for it so I hope I did well. I have to take two different tests and that was my first one, next one will be in April. Again I won't know those results for another month either. But I am sooo glad that both of those things are off my shoulder now and I can get back into school and focus and all I can do is just wait for both of the results! Its crazy to think how close I am, I can FINALLY see the end!! :)

Sickness, Valentine's Day, President's Day Weekend

Chad and I were both sick this last weekend. Just not feeling well at all! I say Chad got me sick but he says he didn't, but oh well haha. So we just stayed in our apt all weekend, sleeping, watching supernatural and other movies, resting, and just chilling. Our apt got messy cuz we were so sick we did not want to move. It seemed like almost all our dishes were dirty by the end of the weekend, so thats what i did monday, took like an hour to wash all of the dishes after feeling better. This weekend kind of reminded me our first week in our new apt after getting married and coming back from our honeymoon. We were both super sick, throwing up and everything for days! Not fun at all, but was pretty funny that it happened at that time, we didn't even get a chance to finish unpacking everything before that. At least this time there was no throwing up.

Then on Tuesday was our first Valentine's Day together! Even though we were engaged last Valentine's Day, we were not able to be together so we didn't really celebrate. It was fun being married and having a Valentine :). I went to teach my clogging class in the morning, Chad dropped me off and picked me up. And when I got home he had a little surprise for me. He got a dozen of beautiful red roses, my favorite sour candies, Valentine's day chocolates, a little stuff animal cute puppy holding a heart "i love you", and the movie The Wedding Singer. Good movie! He told me we could only spend 5 dollars on each other! He lied to me...ha.

  

And then I gave him my gift. A solid chocolate heart and these pretty cool cards I made. It was made of playing cards and I had typed out 52 things that I loved about him. It took a little while to make but it turned out really cute and he loved them! I had found the idea online and thought it was a really good idea.

Chad had to work all day so he didn't come home till late, so Morgan Fridley and I had a little "date" and went to see The Vow since it came out that day and it was really good! We saw Alyssa and Chris there too.

Then I went home and made my strawberry rice crispy treats that turned out pretty cute. When Chad got home we were going to make a nice dinner, but it got so late so we decided to just the next night since he didn't have to work. So then Wednesday we had our Valentine's Day dinner of steak and scalloped potatoes that Chad made for me! So sweet.

 

Now its Friday, done with school for the next three days. Monday is presidents day. And I wanted to go to Utah so bad! There is a much needed break from school and Rexburg, and its midterms so its that time.. And it would be fun to go see Chad's family again and go see our new little niece Aubrey that was born Christmas Eve since we havent met her yet. I was also hoping to go see my good friend Haley from back home thats down at BYU cuz she just got home from her mission and still havent seen each other yet. But I guess those things will just have to wait till sometime later....

last Friday night

This past Friday night Chad and I went over to our friend's, Chris and Alyssa Smeda's apartment for some dinner, we had hamburgers and fries and played a few games. I brought over dessert. I got the recipe (yes off pinterest haha) and its really good. Oreo cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes. So good! Definitely a keeper :) and its super easy to make too, and cheap. I suggest them to everyone! After our dinner and dessert we played one of our new favorite fun games that Chris and Alyssa introduced us to, Wits and Wagers. Its a trivia game where basically no one would know the answers to any of the questions, thats what makes it so fun, and then you bet on each other's answers. I won 2 out of the 3 rounds btw. haha. We played a couple other games as well. Thanks to the Smedas again for a fun night!

         

its going to be a looonng semester...

So the first day back at school was on Wednesday, and I pretty much have like all my classes on this day. I was so worn out even like half way thru the day. Now that we have had three days of school, I am exhausted. I am taking 8 classes, two of which are dance classes and then on top of that I am teaching a dance class. Also one of my classes is a practicum where I have to go to the schools for a couple hours and help and do whatever they have me do pretty much. At least for right now I don't have that class until the second half of the semester. But I can already tell, my schedule is packed for the whole day and I am TIRED!! haha. Its going to be a good semester cuz then after this one only a few more classes left next semester and I graduate and then I am out of here! But for now...im gonna pretty much die by the end. Or maybe I'll get used to it ;) haha