Happenings

Are you surprised that I'm posting?  I know I sure am!  I guess this is what happens when you have two weeks off of work (!!!!) and you just don't want to clean the house, again.
Clint and I have been having so much fun going to work, sleeping and the occasional trip to see family.  For Halloween we stayed home and handed out candy to our cute neighbors.  There were some pretty cute costumes!  I think my all time favorite was a family dressed up like the Incredibles (yes, I'm talking about you Patrice!).  Amazing...or should I say incredible? :)  Clint and I carved pumpkins, which I haven't done in ages!  Sure was fun, but oh so messy!

(Mine is the ghost...Clint found an Angry Bird pattern online that he just had to do!)

For the holidays we switch off whose family we go to each year.  However, our families live about 5 minutes away from each other, so really we are just switching off who we spend more time with (so far, it has worked very well!).  Well, this year was my family's turn to endure us for Thanksgiving!  My Grandma was able to be there, which was so nice.  It had been awhile since I had seen her.  We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, jello (can't live in Utah and not have Jello!), rolls, corn, green beans, and red cabbage (it's a German thing?  Tastes a lot like pickles...).  Oh, and don't forget the pies...I think we had a pie for each person!  On Friday, Jessica and I braved the crowds and went shopping.  It actually wasn't that bad.  I think a lot of people had already gone the night before, so it was just like a busy Saturday.  That night we went up to Temple Square to see the lights.  Gorgeous as always.

(Clint really needed a hair cut in this picture!  Don't worry, he got one last week...)

On Saturday my Grandma taught us how to make Liebkuchen, which is a German honey cake.  I have been wanting to learn for years how to make this!  I'm glad my Dad was so persistent on us making it.  For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's very similar to gingerbread, but better.  I wish I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy helping Grandma!  I have already eaten all of ours.  Don't worry, I gave a few pieces to Clint.

Work is going great.  I love my schedule this year.  Because I'm only part time I only work in the mornings.  I have two classes each day, and I wouldn't have it any other way!  I am slowly getting the hang of my Chemistry class.  It's one thing to know the information and another to actually teach it.  The nice thing about it is I only have 17 kids in that class!  They are an awesome class.  I still love what I do, but I don't always like doing it.  Does that make sense? 

We will be with Clint's family for Christmas this year.  Christmas is one of my favorite holidays.  This year it has been harder to get into the Christmas spirit.  I don't know what it is, but it has just been harder.  I find that I have to remind myself that Christmas isn't about the presents or the house being decorated or treats being made (although, I made some pretty yummy ones this year!), it's really about remembering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I have always loved the story of Christ's birth.  So simple, yet so profound.  Before we could open presents on Christmas morning, my Dad would read the story to us from the Bible and remind us that even though we receive presents, to never forget the True Meaning of Christmas.  This is something that I have carried onto my own little family.  At first Clint thought it was weird, but now I think he secretly likes it.  I know our Savior lives and that He loves each one of us.

 

 I hope each one of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I Know, I Know...

I'm a slacker!  I haven't blogged in, oh, about a year :)  Wow, that was awhile ago, huh?  Well, let me update you on what has been going on in the past year....are you ready?  This might be a very l o n g post...

I started teaching high school science last August.  I have to be honest, I didn't love it at first; I didn't even like it.  I had a very challenging class full of freshmen.  All they wanted to do was talk, complain, and talk some more.  It was a hard first few months.  Thankfully, I got a Christmas Break :)  That energized me and the second half of the year was a LOT better!  My challenging class and I got to know each other better and we came to an agreement.  They would let me teach, and I would let them talk the last 10 minutes of class.  It worked about 85% of the time, which I was so grateful for!  At least they were progressing!  By the fourth quarter I loved teaching.  I felt like it was where I belonged and needed to be (which I had my doubts at the first).  I will be teaching again this next year and I will teach Chemistry and Earth Systems.  I will miss teaching Biology.  I don't feel as confident teaching Chemistry or Earth Systems, but Biology is where I know the most and feel the most comfortable.  I will for sure be stepping out of my comfort zone this next school year!  I'm very grateful that I work with some amazing teachers that help me so much.  I don't think I would have survived this past year without them.

Clint still works at the bank, and is loving it!  At least, that is what he tells me :)  I think it's kind of weird that we both have 'grown-up' jobs.  I still feel like I should be in college going to school!  I don't feel 'grown-up' at all!

I have been really bad about taking pictures this past year.  I don't even have any from Christmas or Thanksgiving!  I sure hope someone has a picture of us somewhere during those times :)

My family always goes up to Temple Square in SLC around Thanksgiving time.  This year, we did it the day after Thanksgiving.  There were a LOT of people there, but it was so pretty!  It had been a long time since I've been there to see the lights.  There's just something about seeing Christmas lights on trees that makes me smile :)  I did get pictures of this event, so not all is lost! 

As you can see from the picture, my brothers are crazy!  They like to wear shorts in the winter...  We were only missing two people: Chloe (Jer and McCall's daughter) and Jared.

In March we went with some of my family to St. George and visited some historical sites (my Dad is big on historical sites and has always wanted to see the ones in St. George).  We went to the Temple where we saw many couples that had just gotten married (so cute!).  Then we went to the Tabernacle and listened to an Organ Concert.  It was so cool!  It's amazing what you can do with an Organ.  Then we went to Brigham Young's house and took a tour.  It's a small, but quite cute house! 

In April we decided to be adventurous and hike Angel's Landing in Zions National Park.  Our friends had done it earlier that month and Jenny and Josh (Clint's sister and her husband) had done it the month before so we were feeling a little left out :)  They kept telling us how pretty it was and I think we just wanted to see it for ourselves.  That is one HARD hike!  The sign right before the trail head says something like if you are scared of heights and are out of shape to not do this hike; we didn't listen to this advice.  We didn't think we were THAT out of shape.  Boy, were we wrong!  I could barely make it through one switchback without having to stop and catch my breath.  But, as soon as you reach the top, it's so worth it. 

The view is spectacular.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

We made the mistake of going on a free pass day, so there were a lot of people there.  Note to self: always know when free pass days are and don't go on that day!  I'm not sure if I would ever do that hike again.  Maybe in a few years when I have forgotten how much pain my knees were in the next day.

We made it to the top!

In June Clint and I went to Disneyland!  I hadn't been since I was 6 and Clint hadn't been since he was about 12.  I have always wanted to go again (I don't remember a thing from when I was 6) and we had been talking about going since we got married.  This year, everything just fell into place so we went!  I love Disneyland!  It's amazing what they have done with the place.  My favorite ride was Space Mountain and I loved the 3D show It's tough to be a bug.  But, I think my most favorite part was the Jedi Training show that they do.  It is awesome!  I loved it and I wasn't even apart of it!  They pick kids from the crowd and they get to 'train' to be a Jedi.  Once they have 'trained' Darth Vader, Darth Maul and Storm Troopers come from out of the ground.  Each kid gets to 'fight' Darth Vader.  There was this little girl about 4 and she went right up to him and wasn't scared one bit.  I would have been scared!  It was so neat!  Ok, so maybe I'm a little bit of a nerd, but they did awesome on the costumes and voices.

We spent three days there going between Disneyland and California Adventure.  It was the perfect amount of time.  We did EVERYTHING that we wanted to do, and then some more.  It was so nice to get away from everything and just have some time to ourselves.  It was nice that we didn't have to worry about anyone else, and we could just do what we wanted to do.  Clint was so good at going on rides that were more for little kids than for us.  But, you are in Disneyland, you have to go on them!  (Like It's a Small World, etc.)

Classic picture front of the Castle.  It was cloudy and kind of cold in the mornings.

My favorite Disney movie is Peter Pan, so of course we had to go on the ride!  Don't I look so excited!  I think this was the best one in Fantasy Land

This summer we have had something going on each weekend whether it is hiking, camping, or family stuff.  It sure has been fun, but it makes the summer go by a lot faster!  And it makes it a little harder to put in our front yard.

We hiked Kanaraville Falls with our ward.  You walk up a river through a slot canyon.  The water was FREEZING but it was fun to get out and do something!  Plus, it was absolutely beautiful which makes it worth it.

And, of course, summer isn't summer without a trip to Bryce Canyon :)  I still love it and marvel at how beautiful it is.  We didn't get there until about 7pm and went on a short hike.  It was the perfect temperature and not a lot of people were there.  We camped at 'our spot', which is still gorgeous as ever.  Good times!

Well, we planted a garden again this year, and it is doing a lot better than it was last year!  Our corn is actually growing and doesn't look sickly.  It's still not perfect, but we are learning something new each time so hopefully each year will get better than the previous ones :)  Clint and his Dad are going to put in our sprinkler system this weekend so that we can finally start on our front yard :)  I am so excited to have grass instead of dirt and weeds!  Other than that, our life is pretty dull!

I promise I won't wait another year to update what has been going on with us, but I can't promise when it will be!