All in one

Just a warning, there are quite a few pictures on this posting! But, I guess that makes up for not posting in a while. Ok, so it's been a long time. Anyway, lots has happened.
First of all, our house is DONE! We are all moved in (well, our stuff is all in our house, wether we we have put it all away yet is the question) and we LOOOOVE it! We have no idea how we fit so much stuff into a one bedroom apartment. The only thing that I am not happy about is our rock on the front of our house. That is NOT the kind we picked out! But, whatcanyado? The only time I remember that I don't like it is when I leave and come home. So, that's not too bad.

The front of our house.

Front entry and our shoes : )

Living room, dining room, kitchen and stairs.
This was before they cleaned up so that is why there is dirt on our floors.

Hallway. Our one and only one!
You can kind of see the guest bathroom and a closet (love it!)

These are my absolute favorite things about our house! No more going to the laundry mat or to my in-laws to do laundry. I have my very own washer and dryer! And a room to stuff all our dirty clothes into :) The dryer in the picture isn't ours. They ordered the wrong kind, so we had to wait for 2 weeks before we got "ours". It was nice of them to let us borrow one they had.

Just to let you know, they are MASSIVE! I don't know if I was just used to tiny washer and dryers, but I can put a whole load in plus more! It's like heaven.

Sheep Festival

Every year, my best friend, Lori, comes down to watch the Sheep parade. We love it! It's a fun tradition. But, this year, the parade just wasn't as good. One year, the sheep got away and started going down one of the busiest roads here in our town. Funny! But, not this year. So, we are re-thinking our annual sheep festival tradition. We just weren't impressed. Allwell, it was still fun to get together like old times!

Me and Lori.
(Her aunt calls us chocolate and vanilla)

The sheep.
I think it's so funny how a town has a parade where they herd sheep down main street and that I actually go and watch it!

Volleyball

My sister plays for her high school volleyball team, and they won State! It was a good game! They played Lone Peak, which is their biggest rivalry, so it was even more intense. My sister called me Saturday morning and told me that she was playing later that night and if we could come. How could I say no? So, we drove and watch them win! It was well worth the drive.

They even had their mascot there (Go Vikings!).
What's funny about this is that this is the exact same costume they had for the mascot when I was in High School, which has been almost 6 years, and it was way old then.

Ready to play!

Auntie Wendy

My Aunt has been battling Breast Cancer for the past 8 years, and it finally caught up to her. She passed away the end of September. My family and I went to California for her funeral. Even though I knew she didn't have much longer, it was still hard. She fought hard. I had the opportunity to go with my Grandma, aunts and cousins to help dress her into her clothes. At first I was a little scared to do so, because I don't do so well with dead people that I have known (I don't know anyone who really does). Anyway, it was the most spiritual experience I have ever had. I know that we are here on Earth for a reason and that there is life after death. I know that I will see my aunt again someday.

Although the circumstance wasn't that great, it was nice to see the family that I rarely get to see. I have the most amazing family and I wish I lived closer to them.

Me, Jess, Auntie Siggy (my grandma's sis), and my Grandma Tia

"The Pink Ladies"

We all had pink scarves and worse pink ribbons to honor my Aunt. I have never been so proud to wear pink in my life. (For those of you who know me, I'm not a huge fan of pink, but now I am)

Me, Cole (doesn't he look like Edward from Twilght??), Jess, Jared, and Keenan is in front.

My Dad, his brother and Sisters and my Grandparents.
(It's wierd not seeing my Auntie Wendy in that picture.)

This is the only picture I have on my computer of her. Isn't she beautiful? Even though we didn't talk very often, I still miss her. She seemed to always be laughing and having a good time no matter what.

Well, that is all the pictures for now. I will be done student teaching on Tuesday (yay!) and then it's time for me to start look for a job (boo). This year for Thanksgiving, we are going to my parents'. Each year, we go to Temple Square in Salt Lake the day before Thanksgiving. I am excited! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and eats lots of Turkey and yummy food! I know I sure am ;)

It's a House

School has started once again and it's sad to see summer go :( I am doing my student teaching, and so far it's not that bad. I'm student teaching with two teachers (one for chemistry and the other for biology) and they are both very nice and pretty laid back about things, so I don't think I will have a problem. Clint is still working (which he loves) and is going to night school three nights a week (not too bad).
This past week we found out that my sister-in-law, McCall, is pregnant! It came as a surprise because they just got married in June, but we are so excited! My little sister, Emily, is the most excited, I think. She called me as soon as she found out and was practically screaming. Kind of funny. No, this doesn't mean that I am pregnant or will get pregnant any time soon. It's not that we don't like kids, it just hasn't happened for us, yet. Plus, why have kids when we have nieces and nephews? It's a good deal, I think. We get to have all the fun and then give them back to their parents once they start crying or need their diaper changed :)

Anyway, our house is going up so FAST! It's been about five weeks since they started digging, and they are finished framing it. Here are some pictures of it going up!

Foundation! It had rained the day before and that day so it was SO muddy!
They poured the bottom of the basement (I have no idea what they call it...the floor?) Anyway, we were so excited! We walked all over it and started planning out what we are going to do with it. We came up with five different plans of how to finish it. We probably won't do any of them and come up with a completly different plan! But, it sure was fun to see it. (Clint had no idea I was taking the picture)

And then two days later, this is what it looked like! That space is the stairs going down into the basement.

And then 3 days later this is what had happened....

And the next day after that we had a roof! So much FUN!

This is what it looked like on the inside...kind of messy, but it's starting to look like a real house! (This is a picture of me standing in our dinning room looking into the living room/bedroom.)

This is the back of our house after they had finished framing (it only took them less than a week...fast!) There was a tractor in the way, so I couldn't get a real good one.

And this is the front! Every time we go out to see it, we get more and more excited for it to just be done! It has been fun to see the whole process of building a house, but it doesn't help that I'm impatient! Right now, they have all the windows in, the electrical is completed and they should start sheet rocking (spelling??) this next week. I have to say, I was a little worried about building where we are building because it is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but each time we go out there, we spend like 2 hours just walking around. The sunsets we have seen are absolutly beautiful! I think I can get used to that!

Summer Fun

Wow! A lot has happened since I last posted...well, not really, but it seems like quite a bit for us!
First of all, my brother, Jeremiah, got married to McCall in June.

For some reason, we aren't all looking at the same camera!
(There were lots of people with their cameras there...oh so much fun....)

Me, Jessica (yup, she's my sister!) and our cousin, Megan (she just got home from a mission...she's so cool!)

My family! I think this is the first picture of all of us together.
Jared, Mom, Dad, McCall, Jeremiah, Jessica, Me, Clint, Emily and Spencer.


Fourth of July

For July 4th, we went up and spent the day with Clint's family. Clint's Grandparents had a huge party with ALL of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There were only 6 that weren't there out of 91. That's pretty impressive! It was fun to see lots of people that I don't know or only met once when Clint and I got married. But, it was HOT! It was kind of funny because people would follow the shade around to sit in so they wouldn't burn. I didn't get a lot of pictures because all we did was sit around, eat and talk. Afterwards, we watched the fireworks with my family and then drove home because we had to be back for Church the next day (I don't think we will EVER do that again!)

These are some of my nieces and nephews. They are SO CUTE!
(That's my brother-in-law in the back making a face)

Jenni, Josh, Jax, Julie, Joan and I'm sitting behind Joan. This is my In-laws' yard which is HUGE and so nice to have a big party like this in. In the back my dad-in-law made a play house which is just so cool and the kids love it (if you make the picture bigger, you can kind of see it).

Penrod Family Reunion

For Clint's family's reunion, we went up to Strawberry Resivoir (by Heber) and went camping and boating for two days. We had a blast! My brother-in-law half owns a cabin up there so we were able to stay in it and have a real toilet and Clint and I were able to sleep in a real bed (now, that's my kind of camping!) Anyway, we went tubing, had fun in the sun and just enjoyed each other. I love my nieces and nephews, but after this trip I'm almost glad that I don't have kids yet! I don't know if I could handle them! Well, it's a good thing they start out small and usually come one at a time. Everyone except one sister and her family were there (they are in Texis right now and couldn't make it up)

The water was FREEZING especially after you got out because the wind was blowing. These kids were so cute! They all huddled together with their teeth chattering.

My niece tubing! She was so funny! She always wanted to go faster and faster.
Oh, I love to tube! I just love boating.

Me and Clint goofing around.

Some of the boys got up early on Saturday morning and went fishing. My niece decided to go with them and she had a blast! She loved catching those fish and touching them and you could tell (she kind of smelled like fish when they got back).

After we ran out of gas for the boats on the second day, the kids had just as much fun playing with the tube as they did riding in it!

The cabin we stayed in. Way nice and had the most beautiful view! There was a huge deck on the back of it with a firepit in the middle which is where we spent our evenings. It was perfect, except for the excessive amount of flies! They were just annoying.

A House

So, Clint and I have decided to build our own house and we are WAY excited (and a little nervous)! It has been going very fast. We signed the papers last Tuesday, approved our house plan on Wednesday, and they started digging the hole on Thursday...crazy! We have become those people who go and look at their hole in the dirt at least once a day, if not more. But, we love it! We are sad that we aren't living closer to family, but we know this is the right step for us to take right now. It's kind of scary and fun all at the same time having to grow up!

The Hole

What's New

So, I've been such a slacker at this whole blogging thing. I think it's just the whole writing stuff down! My journal isn't that fantastic, either. A lot of it has to do with the fact that our lives are boring and busy.

Anyway, enough of the excuses, let me tell you what's going on in our lives right now! We just went to San Diego this last weekend (see following posts) and had so much fun! It was nice to just get out and DO something! Plus, now I have something to scrapbook for my mom-in-law for Christmas! (each year for Christmas, her kids scrapbook some pages of that previous year for her, and since we don't have any kids, our pages are pretty plain. This last year, I did a page of Clint and I doing funny faces...that's right, a whole page of us making goofy faces...I don't think I can do that twice in a row unless I do it every year and then it would become our tradition! Hmmm...something to think about).

Well, Clint got a perminant job at State Bank, so we will be living here for quite awhile! At least 3-5 years, if not longer. We love it here and have felt like we need to stay here to raise our children, so we were looking for an excuse to stay. We are so blessed to have a good job, especially the way the economy is! Now, our next adventure will be finding a house. We can live in our apartment until Clint graduates with his MBA (which isn't til next May) so we have some time. But, it would be nice to have our own place with our own washer and dryer! It's just time to move out of an apartment and into something bigger. Not that we need something bigger right now (I'm NOT pregnant) but someday we will and it would be nice to be prepared for it!
I'm still working and am waiting to student teach this fall. I want to just get it done with! I'm nervous, scared and excited all at once. Tomorrow I am taking the Praxis PLT test (which I should be studying for right now...) I'm not exactly sure why I have to take it, I just know I have to take it, so I am.

Well, that's about it on our end for now! My brother is getting married later this month so I'm sure I'll have pictures to post about that! I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Sea World

On Saturday we went to Sea World, which was my Favorite part of our entire trip! My favorite animal is the Orca whale, or the killer whale. I don't know why, but I have always loved them. When I was little I wanted to be just like Jesse in Free Willy (I secretly still do, but not really). Anyway, it was a BLAST! We forgot to charge our camera's batteries the night before (we though we had a lot more power left than we really did) so our camera died about half way through the park. But, that's ok. That just mean we have to go back ; )

Tiff, Dave and Jenna. Jenna got a wheelchair because yesterday we did so much walking! (Not sure if you noticed or not, but she's about 7 months pregnant) It was no nice to have that wheelchair! Not only for Jenna, but we got really good seats at all the shows.

Save a species! We didn't get to save a species that day, but maybe another day!

Me and Shamu!

Shamu can jump HIGH! It was so cool!
After the show, people were walking up to the glass to see the whales up close and personal (as close as you can get) and two of the whales swam by and splashed them! It was so funny! They were SOAKED. All the people had such suprised looks on their faces. Ah...such good times!

Clint, Tiff and Flamingos.
Did you know that the reason why they are the color that they are is because they eat shrimp? True fact! So, I guess that means be careful what you eat!

I promise I did put on sunscreen, I just don't think my nose got a whole lot of it because it is burned! I look like rudolf the red nosed reindeer!
So, now that I have been to Sea World, I want to be an whale trainer....just kidding, but I really think that would be the coolest job ever! You get to play with animals all day long. Clint even said that if that's what I really wanted to do we would go wherever we needed to go to let me do it. Awww...what a nice and supportive husband! But, I think I'll stick with what I'm doing now for the time being.

ps-Sea World is now my new favorite place in the whole world! Ok, so not the whole world, but pretty close! : )

San Diego!

For our graduation present to ourselves (and in much need of a vacation!) we decided to go to San Diego for a weekend. It was SO MUCH FUN! Our friends, Dave and Jenna, came with us which made it even more fun! I was a little worried that we would get sick of eachother by the end of the weekend, but we didn't...at least, I didn't. My grandparents live in Wrightwood (a small town in the San Bernadino mountains) so we drove there Thursday night and stayed the night. Firday morning we got up and headed to San Diego. We decided that since we were in the area that we would go to the the San Diego Temple. It was BEAUTIFUL! If you ever get the chance to go, do it! It's a lot smaller than I expected. The pictures make it look so much bigger, but it was still very pretty. It was windy, but the weather was perfect. While we were there, we saw four brides and grooms....so cute!

The San Diego Temple and pretty flowers

Clint and Tiffany

Dave and Jenna

After the temple, we headed to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. We got there at 3pm and figured that was plenty of time to go through the entire thing by 5 (when it closes). We were so wrong! If you ever go, make sure to have at least 3 hours inorder to see everything! It's a self guided tour of the ship made into a museum. It was way cool and HUGE! I had no idea how big it was. In all our pictures we look kind of dumb because they give you head phones and a thing that when you put in a number it tells you about the item or area (the numbers are on signs everywhere). It was nice because we didn't have to listen to everything if we didn't want to. The only problem was when we wanted to talk to eachother it was kind of hard to hear!

Tiffany and Clint decked out in our self-guided tour attire.

On the top of the carrier, they had a lot of planes and helicopters to look at. Some you could even get inside which was so amazing. Clint LOVED this! He kept talking about the movies that he and his Dad would watch with this kind of stuff in it.

Clint and Dave.
I'm not sure what this plane can do, but I think it was pretty cool because they both wanted their picture taken next to it.

This is a wax person pretending to be the captain. I thought it was kind of funny! When you walked by him, he started talking about various stuff. I don't remember what he was saying because by this time it was closing time so they were asking everyone to get off the ship.

A lot of the planes looked like this. If you look closely you can see that the wing is bent up in half. I think by doing it this way it saves on a lot of space so that they can fit more planes on the deck. But, if I'm wrong and you know the reason why, let me know!
Anyway, it was a good experience. I had no idea how BIG these aircraft carriers really are! As I walked up all those stairs I thought that the people on these ships have to be in real good shape. If not, they would be soon!

After looking at the aircraft carrier, we went to the beach! It was very windy, and not that warm, but you can't go to San Diego and not go to the beach. So, we did. We made sandcastles and mine and Clint's was the best, until the ocean came and ruined it : ( But, we still had a lot of fun! After the beach, we went to our hotel and got cleaned up and then went into Old Town and ate at an amazing Mexican resturant called Cafe Coyote. I'm not sure if it was so good because we were all extremely hungry, or if the food really was good! But, I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys mexican food. Clint says that I was born in the wrong country because I love tacos, rice, bean, enchilladas or anything mexican (except the really spicy stuff-I don't like it).

Their sandcastle....

And our sandcastle! (so much cooler....it even has a place for 'people' to walk up to it)