The Joy of Children

Every time I get get frustrated with school and have many negative thoughts, I do work in an elementary classroom and I am reminded why I'm trying to become a teacher. While I admit that I had no idea how much work it was to be a teacher when I started this journey, I also had no idea how rewarding it could be. I had a second grade placement this semester at Rolling Meadows Elementary School, and it was by far my favorite to this point. I love second grade!!! I was so sad to leave, and the kids were so sweet when I said goodbye. They all made me great cards telling me they love me and will miss me, and wishing me Merry Christmas. They also made me this great poster, which unfortunately is no longer in one piece, thank goodness I took a picture! Also, thanks for the snow! I have a great tree and lots of Christmas spirit now.

Lacking that Spirit

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I start getting excited for it in July, maybe sooner. My radio has 100.3 programmed, and I usually tear out the decorations the day after Thanksgiving (still like one holiday at a time folks). However, this year I am finding it hard to find my Christmas spirit. WHERE'S THE SNOW!!!!! I know in a few months I will be cursing it, but I need it to bring me my spirit! I could never live where it didn't snow at Christmas... BTW, for anyone who actually looks at this blog, I will return soon. One more week of the semester and I may start functioning normally again.

Another Year!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Another year older and wiser. Hope you had a great day!

Happy Anniversary!

I have a lot to post about the last month, but I wanted to first say Happy Anniversary to my sister Devin and her husband Jonas. It has been three years already! They had a destination wedding at beautiful Lake Tahoe, and it was a great ceremony and celebration. Hope they had a good weekend celebrating, and best wishes for many more years! Love you guys.

I was her one and only bridesmaid, I love that dress.

Wonder who she looks like in our family huh...

Concerts, Birthdays, and Fireworks

Gotta love that Wrangler butt!!! Last week my mom, friend Julie and I went to see George Strait at Usana. It was awesome! Jullianne Hough and Blake Shelton opened for him, and they sounded great too. We sat on the lawn, which I would highly recommend if you want a great concert on a budget. The only downfall to the night was I spent a good chunk of George filling out a witness statement for the guy I turned in that peed on an old lady's blanket. Seriously sometimes I wonder what the #*&% is wrong with people. Other than that we had a lot of fun, the music was amazing, and you all should be jealous:)

July 16th was my niece Maya's birthday(the smile on the right) so Nick and I took her and our other niece Sadie to Liberty Park to play. It was so much fun, I definitely recommend it to anyone with kids. There is a fun fountain with lots of different water spouts to play in, several playgrounds with fun stuff, and a pond to feed ducks.The girls were great when they weren't fighting with each other:) Afterwards we went to Maya's official birthday party to swim and eat lots of good food.

July 24th is my grandpa's birthday, so we decided it would be fun to take him to a Bee's game for baseball and fireworks. It was so hot! It turned out the team that the Bee's were supposed to play canceled, so two high school teams played, but they were really good so it was still fun. Plus we get two more Bee's tickets, a Jazz ticket, and a Miller Raceway ticket to replace the game we didn't get to see, so it was worth it. The fireworks were great, and overall it was a fun night!

This is the gang that went to the game, my sister and her husband Jonas, my mom and Larry, and me and Nick.

We had pretty good seats too, for the game and the fireworks.

At Last...

Many of you who have known me for a while may remember this lovely purple Civic that my mom drives. I'm pretty sure she bought this 1994 Honda when I was in junior high, which would have meant it was pretty new then. Well, over 200,000 miles later, Mom finally gave in and bought herself a new car...

Ta Da!!! This is the new ride. She hasn't decided for sure on her name yet, but she is so cute. Mom has been looking at this car for three years now. I think the dealership knew her by name:) She finally decided last week that the price and timing was right! She was a little bummed because they had to ship it up from Vegas so she had to wait until today to get it, but it was worth the wait. It is Mom's first new car since she bought her Mustang when she was 17, she deserves it!

Fun at the Zoo

The week of the fourth Hogle Zoo had military appreciation days, so we loaded up Nick's sister Heidi's girls and headed up there. It was great to get in free, but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea that day. It was packed but we still had a great time. The girls were great the whole time and it was so fun to see how excited they got for the animals. Luckily it wasn't very hot either. Here are a few pics of the girls on the way to the zoo, stay tuned for the after:) Gracie in her glasses, complete with bottle... Maya was so ready to go, I could feel her impatience even though she didn't say anything...

The girls were so cute and excited to look at every animal. I love this first picture because of Gracie's reflection in the glass, you can see how impressed she was by the monkey:)

This was the view on the way home after a few hours of sun and lots of exciting animals... Aww silence...