It's Official....

Well...Spring break is officially over in just a few hours, but we had a productive spring break. (Thank goodness for year round school, here in the valley of the sun, because we get a nice 2 week spring break).

The week started off with T becoming an official Aggie.
T and I took a tour of the campus and it made me feel really old! It just doesn't seem that long ago that I was a Utah State Aggie. Where have all the years gone?? After the tour we decided to look for off campus housing. T decided that she wanted to live off campus and in the long run it will be much cheaper. She chose to live in Old Farm Town House houses. The apartment will have 6 girls in it. It was fun apartment shopping with T and before I know it, I will be back up in Cache Valley moving her in. I hope that she has the best room-mates and best experience ever!
While in Utah we visited my grandpa who just turned 91 last week. I always make it a point to stop and visit him whenever I am in Utah. My grandma has been gone for 4 years now and grandpa is really missing her; he talks about being with her soon. He still seems so young at heart! I hope that I am around when I am 91. If I live to be 100... I am going swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel!
While in Utah I always stop at Pai Tan Trading! It is the best store ever for home decor ideas and holiday decorations. I wish Arizona would get a Pai Tan Trading. This is C trying on a very flowery wreath that we found in the clearance aisle.

Utah also is home to modest dresses!! Shopping for a prom dress in Utah is way less stressful than shopping for one in Arizona. (MENTAL NOTE: for future prom dresses and wedding dresses, since I have 2 more daughters attending proms in the next few years.) Since prom time in Arizona comes when the weather is absolutely divine, prom dresses here tend to be strapless. T unfortunately doesn't feel comfortable in strapless dresses, and having to modify them is a pain, so finding dresses that are modest is a special treat!! Here T is trying on the dress that we eventually bought. She bought hot pink high heels at Charlotte Russe and the dress shop sold her a hot pink polka dot sash. Her boyfriend is going to wear a hot pink tie and vest.


Okay... and this is how I spent the last 5 days of spring break and my birthday!!
I had sinus surgery the day after we got back from Utah. My father-in-law tells me it will be the best present that I have ever given myself. Hmmm... will this top a massage...doubt it! But maybe I will be able to breathe, smell, and have less sinus infections.

I did it!!! I actually did it!!

I have been a runner for a couple of years now. I started by running with my friend Jill early in the mornings before school. We would run three miles or so through our sub-divisions and neighborhoods. Last year Mike joined the gym, and I started going with him to run on the tread mill. In the back of my mind, I always wanted to run in a race, but didn't know if I had the stamina or courage to do it. My goal was originally to run a 10k. Some girls from my ward encouraged me to start running with them on the weekends, they were training for London's Run 1/2 marathon. (London's Run for those of you who aren't from QC...is an annual race held in memory for London Solomon, a little girl who died from cancer. The profits from the race help other children with cancer in the QC area). I signed up for the half marathon, with Mindi, Jennie, and Lindsay. I still had doubts but was excited for the race!!

This is me at the starting line. It was a cold morning in Queen Creek, although the sun was shining. I had my i-pod ready!

Here I am with Mindi and Lindsay the first few minutes of the race. Jennie broke through the crowd and set her pace. Jennie wanted to finish the marathon in less than 2 hours. I never could catch up to her. A few minutes later, I plugged my i-pod into my ears, and took off at bit faster pace. Mindi's had knee problems and I was so proud of her. She ran the whole race in pain! I loved running through the country on the country farm field roads. It was so awesome to see bystanders, people that I didn't even know cheering me on! Along the path, every so often was a poster of a child or someone in our area with cancer. One of the posters said "Running is way easier than cancer!" It showed a little girl with no hair sitting up in a hospital bed. It made me think of the people in my own life that have been affected by cancer...my grandma, my sister, a friend, and a mom of one of my first graders, who died in October. I can't imagine being a mom and having to say good-bye to my children. I will never forget how she would bring her children to school, with a face mask on and a cute bandanna wrapped around her hairless head. I felt pretty good all through the race, until mile 11! At mile 11 I thought I was done!! I could see the finish line in the distance, and knew that it wasn't much further, but wondered if I really was going to cross the finish line. THEN THIS SONG started blaring into my earphones......

I knew I could do it!! This was my motivation!!

A few minutes later....Mike catches me running down victory lane with Katy Perry in my ears and a smile on my face.

Here I am!!! I did it!! I actually did it!! I finished the race in 2 hours 14 minutes. It felt so awesome to finally reach a goal that had been in the back of mind for a while.

This is my sister in law, Noelle, who ran the 10k with her friend Rhonda, as they run down victory lane.

Here we all are! We finished.

Christmas Cards 2010

Joy And Magic Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Cruisin.....The way life really should be!!

I have to be honest with everyone. I am just not that good at blogging anymore, it has taken me 45 minutes to download the pictures from my cruise. Either my Java needs updating, or I need the memory on the computer increased. I find it so frustrating!! To me it is so much easier to facebook, I can add a quick comment, add pictures and be off in just a few minutes, and I haven't even farmed on my farmtown farm for weeks. But the whole purpose of my blog was to journal the life happenings, for family and friends far away, and for my posterity. SO... here is a quick post.

Just recently, Mike and I celebrated our anniversary/my graduation on a cruise in the Western Caribbean. It was the best week of my life! We have decided that we are going away every year some where together.

This is Jamaica!! My most favorite stop.

The homes you see up on the hill, belong to Mick Jagger and Barbara Streisand.

Mike and I on a charter boat cruising the Island of Jamaica.

We climbed Dunn's River Falls. To climb it, you have to make a human train, and you walk up the falls. (see below)

This is us in the falls!!

This is Mike playing with the turtles in Grand Cayman.

Below is a picture of Mike and I in Hell in Grand Cayman. Behind us is a field of black coral.

This is our cruise ship, just before the storm hit Grand Cayman Island. The storm is the aftermath of Hurricane Jean, that hit Cancun Mexico and brushed Cuba, while we were on our cruise.

This is me in Grand Cayman.

While in Cozumel, Mexico, we visited the Mayan ruins. It is amazing to think that these things are still standing. This Mayan temple was built around 1200 A.D. You still could see the stucco and streets that they used. It was truly amazing.

There were lizards every where!! This guy was the hugest! I can't imagine eating him, but the Mayans ate them. I heard they tasted like chicken. (Don't they say that about everything though)

This is our ship. We cruised on the Carnival Liberty! Here we are in port at Cozumel. We had a balcony room. It was so awesome eating breakfast on the balcony, watching the dolphins play off the ship, watching the clouds move in, and the stars' and moon's reflection fall onto the ocean waters. The Caribbean waters are so blue!!
Mike and I had such a fantastic time on our cruise. He always thought that he would be restless on the ship, but there were so many things going on all times of the day. Most nights we ate in the dining room, but one night we ate at the Sushi Bar. There were two formal nights on ship, where we got to get dressed up in cocktail dress and suit. It was fun to see everyone all dressed up.
The three days we were at sea, we spent time lounging in the sun on the top deck and each of us read. One day we had a couples massage, afterwards Mike went and sat in the men's sauna, and I went and sat in the steam room. It was raining at the time, and it was fun to be inside watching the rain pelt the windows, as I sat soaking in the steam.
On Tuesday night it was Mardi Gras Night, and we went and did the Conga, and the cruise assistants were throwing beads.
My favorite thing to do at nights after dinner was go sit in the Flowers Lobby, and Mike and I would dance and listen to this girl and guy sing. She had the most amazing voice!!
We saw comedy shows, a movie on deck, which happened to be playing at midnight, played bingo, and went to see the dance productions. It was fun to be around and meet so many people from so many different places. We met the nicest couple from Barbados, who sat by us each night in the assigned dining room, Dawn and Harry. We became friends, and met up at Mardi Gras and the comedy show.

Now that we have been home for a couple of weeks, I find myself wishing that time could go backwards, and I could be climbing the waterfall again, or having dinner in the Golden dining room with Harry and Dawn, or reading my Jodi Polcoult book on the deck. I hope I am cruising again soon. It was awesome to just reconnect with my husband, not worry about kids, school or anything else. When people ask me my favorite thing about our trip, it is hard to name one thing.

To see more pictures, check out my facebook page. I posted over 45 of them. :)

Arizona is Grand...

Arizona has many things to offer and lately has been in the news. We decided to show the girls one of the grandest things that our state has... the Grand Canyon.


M had been wanting to visit the Grand Canyon, especially after she learned about the history of Arizona in school this past year. The view into the canyon is really breathtaking!! There is one part at the park, that you can pay to walk on glass over a section of the canyon and look down as if you are floating above the canyon, but it ended up costing more than I was willing to pay, so we just walked and drove along the canyon so that the children could see different views. (Although, if you have ever been to the canyon, it pretty much looks the same, at least to me, no matter what view or sight you are at.)

You do realize as you look over into the canyon, that it is an amazing sight and what a miracle that wind, water and help from God can really make some something so magnificent.

Time flies when you are having.....

Braces off... Tiffany now after 4 years of orthodontic work now has a beautiful smile. Calla just got her braces on, and looks really cute. Next post, I will show the new brace face!!




Prom 2010. Tiffany was asked by JJ Holcomb to the prom. He called us and asked if she had a date and then a few minutes later came over and stuffed her truck cab full of balloons. Inside some of the balloons were words that asked her to the prom. The five couples all went to Carrabas Italian Restaurant for dinner.

This is the Mafia pose!

Tiffany and JJ

Tiffany in her dress!

Northern Arizona University Graduation. Here I am walking into the ceremony to receive my masters degree in education. I didn't think I would be emotional but I was. I got a little teary eyed as we were walking on. I can't believe that my 2 years of hard work is finally over!! I graduated Summa Cum Laude getting a 4.0!

Here I am being hooded. This was very exciting for me! I never thought that I would want a master's degree. I have thought of the different things that I now can do with my degree. I can teach at Junior College or Community College, something that I think I would really enjoy! With my Reading Endorsement I could exclusively teach reading in the elementary schools as a specialist. Time will tell. For right now, I am perfectly happy teaching 1st graders how to read, write, and tell time!
This is my colleague, Maria Martinez, she teaches in my building, along with a couple other girls who have also been working on their master's degrees with me. Maria and I pushed ourselves this last semester and doubled up on classes so that we could graduate in May instead of December. It was so fun to graduate with a friend!!!
While doing my master's degree, I met some other teachers who became dear friends of mine, Jenny and Dawn (2nd from right and far right). They also pushed themselves to finish early with Maria and I. We had several classes together, and would often have stress meetings in the parking lot after class. It is so nice to be able to study, work hard, and have friends who are feeling the same stresses as you!

Things do come in 3's....

The saying is that things always come in 3's....and it's usually bad things right? Well I have 3 good things that have happened to us recently.

#1 Graduation:
Yes! I am officially counting down the days to MY graduation. This is the reason, I have been absent from bloggy land for the last nine weeks. I decided that the short term sacrifice of taking 2 graduate classes together would have long term benefits; mainly not attending graduate school this summer. Because of this, I found out recently, that I can walk on May 7th rather than wait until December. I am very excited about getting to walk in the graduation ceremony! It's even more fun, because I am graduating with a couple of friends who have been completing their master's degrees too. In addition I am graduating Summa Cum Laude! Something that I am really proud of, because I have studied so hard.


#2 Braces off!!

T finally got her braces off after 4 LONG years! She has a beautiful smile now. (Her sister is now starting the orthodontic process)


#3 T Got a Job!



T finally got a job! (isn't that sad, that I would be excited about that) She is working part time at a make and take pizza restaurant that recently opened up near our home. She works about 15 hours a week. She has always been good about saving, and buying things that she wants with her babysitting money. SO now she has started her college fund! Also, now that she is driving, she realizes that driving has it's privileges and it's disadvantages. She is contributing by putting gasoline in the truck, since she drives to high school, and likes to cart her friends to the mall. Hopefully, she will also help with a small portion of the insurance fund, since the rates went up after her rear end collision! (another post at another time)