Busy Weekend

Friday, August 24
PLC & Planning
Every Friday, students only come for half of a day of school. (Yay!) But while they go home, we still have to stay, planning and preparing for upcoming events and the next week's content areas. Which to me, isn't all that bad...except I currently don't know a lot of what anyone is talking about. There are lots of different tests and programs that we have to do in our classrooms. They've been mandated by the district.
I'm not in the loop quite yet as to what is going on; all the "behind-the-scenes" stuff. Take my word, it's overwhelming when you want to ask questions, but have no idea about what questions to ask. It was a bit over my head. We'll see how the weeks go as I gain my footing in the teaching world.

Adam's Reception
Later in the day, Nate and I went through Price to go to Woodland Hills for a reception. One of my best friends got married in the Salt Lake Temple earlier that day. I'm so happy for him!!! He's been a really close friend since high school, even though we've mostly talked via phone and email. Crazy how things work out. Anyways..about the drive.. We started our long drive around 4:30. pm. Interestingly enough, while driving, there were more  mountains and trees on Hwy 91 than there were on Hwy 40. Very cowboy-esque, feeding grounds, nobody for miles. We got to Woodland Hills around 7:30ish. Their colors were red and gold.
 It was so great to see Adam and his new bride! They're finally married!! I am still baffled that his WHOLE family (except Ben, due to his youth) remembers me from years past. I've met them all maybe twice? His mom gave me a big hug, and his two younger sisters did too. I was really cool. I love his family!

 He explained that he couldn't let her be the only one wearing all white with silvery glam on the left hand. He wanted to as well. Lol!

Congrats Adam and Cera!

On the way home to Vernal, I convinced Nate to let me see my friend Michelle from the good ol' Snow College days. She gave us a tour of her new home with her hubby, Kyle. We split off, Michelle and I talking about baby stuff, my niece and college reminiscing, while the boys were upstairs talking about Dave Ramsey, finances and insurance. Completely different worlds! But was a lot of fun and well-worth it, even though we stayed longer than we should have.

Thanks Michelle! We'll have to visit again sometime!

Nate's Birthday
On Sunday, August 26th, Nate turned 24! For the next two months, Nate will technically be 'two years' older than me. He feels weird being 24, like he's getting old or something. You're not babe, promise! I remember when I first met Nate and his roomies downstairs, my roommates and I all thought that they were between the ages of 24-26. Then later we found out they were all around the age of 21 and 22, fresh off their missions. That was an entertaining year.

 Make a wish....

Happy Birthday Nate!
You mean the world to me! I'm grateful for your patience and support during this busy time for us as we deal with your schooling and my teaching (for lack of a better description..) drama. You push me to do my best and respect you a great deal. I don't know where I would be, had I not married you. My family loves you to death and you come from a great family. I love you!

First Days of School

Aug 20 - Aug 24
The last two weeks of school has been crazy trying to figure out everything that I need to start the school year. Fortunately, I've got a great team of teachers helping me out. I managed to get my room together for the most part:

The first three days of school were quite interesting. I had a couple students cry, one student throw a temper-tantrum, lots of leg hugs and even a student coloring on his desk. By the time Friday was over, my throat was getting sore. I was reminded of some things that happened in my student teaching experience in 1st grade and learned a lot about teaching them RIGHT AFTER summer. The next 177 days of school will be an adventure for sure. 

When I got home on the first day of school, I came home to a candlelight dinner with flowers from Nate's parents and sisters.

I love you Nate!

Everything August

August 19

The next day, we went with Tania to a friend's homecoming and then came back to my parents' place for dinner. My dad made a wonderful brisket with potatoes and corn on the side. My side of the family has 5-6 celebrations all within a 12 day period. We've got two wedding anniversaries, three birthdays and with Nate joining my family, one more birthday. So we decided to celebrate it all on one day, hence the name "Everything August". :) Everyone opened cards and gifts, even Nate. M & J's card to him, was priceless!

"Nate, we're glad you were born so you could marry Jessica and be a part of our family!"

I brought my dad's unfinished quilt down to show him:

After everything was distributed, we went to my mom's current place of residence to say hi. When we first got there, she was pretty lucid, I was a bit surprised.

She was so excited to see Chloe, as usual. We joked that we could now leave since Chloe was there and pretended to leave for just a second. The next thing we know, Chloe is crying extensively. I tried not to laugh, but it was too funny. 

 Gradually, her lucidness (is that a word?) declined, but she still enjoyed her granddaughter.

We talked and eventually Nate, Boomer and Mike (for a bit) all fell asleep.

When it came time to leave, it was really hard on everyone. She feels she is being left behind every time and I feel terrible about it. But what can you do?

My fam headed back to my parents' house for cake and then Nate and I had to head back to Vernal.

Happy August!

High School Friendlies

August 18

Every year, my friend Katie throws a party for our friends from our high school days to get together before school starts. This year, I was actually able to go! Nate and I drove from Vernal to Salt Lake. Along the way, we saw this...

 Fire!!!

After stopping by my parents' house, we drove off to the party.

It was good to see everyone again and catch up. I even saw some that I haven't seen in a LONG time.

I was highly entertained watching Court's 8 mo. old baby try to steal all of the treats and grab everything.

 Stuart and Katie Ferrin, the hosts

It was soon announced that both our friends Kyle and Glen were engaged within a week's time frame.

Congrats guys!

 Tania came too!

Most of the group + spouses, significant others and friends

 Some of our friends either left before the big picture was taken or came afterward, like Rachelle, Alan, and P Thor

 Jace's fingers playing with Molly's teeth led to....

 ...putting his whole fist in her mouth. Lol.

 He's a cute kid.

Em's Party

August 12

On Sunday, we drove to Emily's house in Ogden as a kind of 'goodbye-good luck' party. Nate and I were going to be in Vernal and Ash was going to New Jersey for a year to be a nanny.
Oh the times of change..
We talked and laughed while waiting for dinner.
**Photos stolen from Em's blog**

It got time to eat and it was delicious!
Somehow everyone wandered inside to do more talking.
Personally, I was feeling overwhelmed with the coming school year and didn't feel prepared to start or anything. I stepped outside for a minute to collect myself (I don't like having people see my cry, for whatever reason). Nate came out to talk to me. He's such a great, caring guy.
After my random nervous breakdown, the rest of the family came out with floats: orange, cream soda and root beer. They were yummy!

I don't remember what everyone was talking about, but I soon found myself jumping with Jenetta.
Which led to two more nieces and a nephew jumping, which somehow led to this...

tackling of the aunt/pony rides.

Tis fun!

Shaely is scared of Maya the Husky, but alas Jonathan was intrigued and kept touching her fur and then getting nervous/excited. Lol He's so funny. I stayed until 9 before making the drive back to Vernal where I would exist alone in our apartment for 5 1/2 long days WITHOUT Nate. It was good to see family and catch up on life with the Warburtons..and Jensens. :)

The BIG Move

The day before we moved out, I spent my time packing up the last of our stuff. That night, our friends, Scott and Amanda, our home teacher, Scott Fowler and the Farnsworths came over to help us load everything into Larry's horse trailer. We are so grateful for everyone's help and support in this big step of our lives.

The following morning, we got up at 5-5:30 so that we could meet Larry and Barbara in Brigham City by 6. We didn't get there until 6:30, but still...that is too early for me. Nate and I drove ahead of Larry, making sure to stay with him. On our way through Heber we saw seven of these:

It was so cool to see.

Nate wanted to stay close so that Larry could catch up, we drove pretty slow. We showed up at Vernal around 10:30/11. 

 Our awesome helpers!

Larry just wanted to get done, so even when he probably should have taken a break, he didn't want to. He just kept going. Our new bishop and my team leader with her husband showed up within the next 2-3 hours and Larry was already done. Crazy! We went out to eat at A&W before Nate's parents headed back home. 

We then proceeded in the afternoon to begin unpacking everything. I just wanted to start figuring out my classroom. Later that night, the Bishop invited us to dinner at his house. It was a really nice gesture and we appreciated it so much. We ate zuc-ghetti, peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers and cantaloupe for dinner with frozen yogurt for desert. 

We Found A Place!

August 6

After much driving to and fro, Nate and I finally found a place to live in Vernal. It's not cheap, but it's the cheapest that we've found. It looks like this:

Great, right?

Just kidding. This is our place.

It's right across the street from the temple.

We're excited!!!

Before the big move...

Nate and I moved to Vernal on August 10th, but before then a lot happened...

Aimee

I managed to hangout with my friend Aimee for the first/last time in Logan. And it was a blast!

The first day we hang out that week, we got lunch at Panda Express and then we went shopping. 

We stopped at her duplex to see her pets. I had no idea she had any! A snake and a sugar glider. The sugar glider is super cute, especially when she is asleep in Aimee's pocket. We went to my apartment to see Fish and his spastic habits. Before long, she had to go back to work, but it was so great to catch up with her.

The second time, I just finished changing the oil in my car and out of the blue I get her call. She wanted a gal pal to go with to look at cars for her "newly driving" sister. When we finished, we continued to hang out by running errands and getting costa vida for lunch. The last time, I was gathering stuff to move and teach my class and called up Aimee to come with me. We stopped by Taco Bell and the Book Table. It was a lot of fun. 

The Andersons

Nate and I have probably hanged out with Aaron and Kenz the most this summer. Nate and Aaron went to high school together and when all of us were dating our significant others, we were a part of the same group of friends. We love them! We played Cranium at their place and then the following night, continued the game with dinner at our apartment (on the day I got the job offer). The girls won!!! Score! It was extremely close though. Lots of laughs, screaming and peculiar mannerisms. Hah.

On another night, Nate and I had dinner at their new place, watched the Olympics and the guys went fishing in the river out back. 

Nate had long ago promised to take me horseback riding this summer. We were going to go camping too, but his dad's truck broke down the night we were going to go. So...his dad was able to get it fixed the following morning and we went riding that night. We invited the Andersons to come with us. We took turns riding Winchester and Sandy. I couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear, I was so excited when I was riding.

Spice destroyed the bucket of grain as we tried to catch and tie up Winchester and Sandy. Lol

It'd be a cute silhouette if not for the stop sign :(

It was getting dark and so we decided to catch the fireworks at Wheat and Beet Dayz. It was an interesting show. Not as great as the Logan production earlier in the summer, but that's okay. When they started, for some reason the firework went off on the ground instead of the air. It exploded above the audience and part of it went towards a group of cars. No one and nothing got hurt, luckily.

Shopping

After Aimee dropped me off the first time, Barbara, Ashley and I went shopping. It was fun to have some much needed girl time. I bought a lot of teacher clothing and did a little splurging. I needed it. Around 5, Sara picked up Nate and met us at Twizzleberry. 

(All of this happened between Aug 4th to Aug 9th)