"The Christmas Update"

I decided to do my update, which realy is a recap of 2009, in the form of a scrapbook- ah the blessings of having a sick day in the middle of the week! Life is great- read the last page of the update...

Yep, it's December.

First- a few random thoughts:
As Student Council Advisor (which I love doing, by the way, even though it can be stressful) I get to do a lot of new things- such as be in a parade, choreograph a dance to a random song for an assembly, host Middle School dances (yes, the awkwardness still exists and it kinda rubs off), go to State Football Playoffs for 3A High School, or be in charge of donut sales, oddly enough. I am picking up on many "hot" new things that "the kids these days" are "into." Ever since the Halloween dance, I have been OBSESSED with Lady Gaga's Paparazzi: watched the music videos (as distrubing as they are) numerous times and I HAVE to listen to it EVERY time I am in the car. It's ridiculous.
What is with the blog trend? Maybe it's just me, but does it seem like a few things are happening with blogs? I'm sensing that blogs are becoming 1) an online journal- like PERSONAL journal that EVERYONE can read. Like TMI journal. 2) the single person, turned married person, turned parent person updating ONLY to post pics of their ADORABLE little baby and to tell us that their toddler has now gone poo in the toilet three times!!!!!!!!! What happened to this person's identity? Is there no longer a need for us to know about you? Only your child(ren)? Let me say ahead of time- you may stone me if I do this (when I have children) 3) Seinfeild-esque commentary on the world (guilty as charged). This I personally have no issues with- obviously. 4) updates on everyone in their family, what vacations, events, etc which again, I have no issues with.

Now on to the MEATINESS:
I want to post about so many things, but I'm going to be writing the Christmas update in less than 3 weeks, so I'd rather be lazy and just not update at all. Here's a quick recap of the past months:

Sept: School MADNESS. This year caught me COMPLETELY off-guard and Chad and I felt very unprepared to teach when school started. Nevertheless, we persevered and are loving this school year. We took a quickie trip to the D-Land as a final hurrah since we decided not to renew our annual passports :(
Oct: Tuacahn finished mid-month and following suit from last year we took our annual Fall Break Trip. Since we had just hit up the D-Land, we decided on San Francisco. My grandmother has been in poor health since the end of August and we needed to pay her a visit. Luckily, both my sisters decided to come out as well, so we had a fun vacation with family and visiting my grandma. We also hosted a murder Mystery Dinner on the 30th with my sisters, their husbands, and a couple friends of ours. We had a blast! We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood this year with the neice and nephews. Lots o fun!
Nov: Where did Nov. go? We took a quick trip to SLC at the beginning of the month, are still battling with students, I had the opportunity to go the Hurricane High School State Football playoffs- we lost with 2.9 sec. left- SO SAD, but was well worth it! Chad played set for the HHS musical and was unable to attend the game with me, but he had a great time. We decided last minute to spend Thanksgiving in SLC with my family. We had a FANTASTIC time and got TONS of great deals on Black Friday!
Dec: today was long, but we are looking forward to our two week break for Christmas (17 days and counting). We are also anticipating a funeral sometime soon, please keep my aunts and uncles and parents in your prayers. Keep looking for the update for the Christmas Card (pics included)- it will be titled: Annual Christmas Card update. Better get the Christmas Cards ordered, huh?

Oh, and for those wondering, the last one was a hoax, I am not pregnant, nor am I trying to be so. :)

A few things...

No, I haven't fallen completely off the planet, and no, this isn't an update post. However, there will be one soon, I just don't feel like doing one right now. This is a "A Few Things I Just Don't Get" blog, such as:

Adult female sleeopvers (out of towners are different- I'm talking in town friend sleepovers). Not that there's anything wrong with them, I know quite a few people who do this, but I just don't get it. Can anyone explain the draw to it? I personally like to sleep in a bed, in my own home (if I'm in town), with my husband. So maybe its me. The kicker though, is when people complain about it afterward, like "I couldn't sleep at all last night." or "I stayed up way too late and am SO exhausted today."

Facebook Posts. First and foremost: FACEBOOK IS RUINING SOCIETY. There, its out, although, this isn't the first time I've said it. What is with the posts that are like "I'm so [insert feeling here], but I'm not going to share anything about it." (I'm am guilty of doing this once- mostly because I chickened out because a family member asked about it and I didn't want to share.) or "I totally got married like 5 minutes ago." (So, go be (in the best sense of the word) with your new spouse- get off FB) or "I just want EVERYONE to know I'm pregnant." What happened to the old fashioned mass text, um, I mean mass email, um, what is it called...oh, phone call... that's what it is!

Those are the only two for now, but stay alert my friends, there will be something that comes up soon enough. Oh, and I just wanted everyone to know.... I'm pregnant.

Picture Post: 4th or 6th- how about both?

Picture post! I've seen this post two ways, so I did both!

1- Go to the 4th (or 6th) folder in your pictures.
2- Pick the 4th (or 6th) picture in that folder.
3- Explain the picture.



4th folder- only had 2 pics- odd, I know- but here it is: This is Chad and me at a University of Utah Football game in November of 2007. We had palnned on buying tix and going, but my dad got us tickets for free and admission to an "exclusive" tail-gate extravaganza. We had planned on it being a typical November game: freezing, rainy or snowy, kinda miserable but good fun. It turned out to be about 70 degrees outside and I was hot in my three layers- we Southern Utahns were VERY grateful! It was so fun! I was really glad we could go!




6th folder, 6th picture: This is Thanksgiving 2007 at my parent's house. All of my Utah siblings were there with their families and we are playing a game called Pit. It is a Titus Family favorite- I grew up playing this game. Its a game where you have to get 9 cards of one kind (each kind is a different plant: wheat, barley, etc) but you start out with 9 different cards (its a little difficult to describe breifly). You have to trade with your opponents to get the spcific cards you want to win with. It gets loud and competitive- SO MUCH FUN! Dad took the picture- we sometimes let him play, if he promises not to sabotage everyone!


If anyone else wants to do it, awesome! I don't tag!

Slideshow

I used Photoshop Elements for the first time (yeah, I've had it since December!) and created a slideshow with a few highlight pics! Go me!

Whoa- where has summer gone?

We've had almost two months of summer and I've posted once- WHAT IS THE DEAL? The funniest thing to me about it is that I really haven't been that busy, but when I get into the summer groove (or lack thereof), I don't do much. Anyway here's the synopsis of the summer:

May: Chad found out on the 18th that he was needed to play in the Tuacahn orchestra for the summer- rehersals started on the 19th. I was slightly bummed because we had some travel plans that had to be postponed indefinately, but it has turned out ok. School ended on the 22nd! The last couple of months are always so busy and stressful, but I'm always sad when it ends. My mom and grandparents were able to come down for a quick visit (22nd- 24th). It was really nice to be able to host my family at our home. That is one thing we absolutely LOVE about our home- hosting! We left on the 24th for a trip to Las Vegas and So. Cal. We enjoyed a BBQ at Doug and Kay's home with all of Chad's brothers and their families! It was very nice! On our way out of Vegas (Memorial Day), we hit some MAJOR traffic a little south of Vegas at the Primm exit (mental note: don't travel south out of Vegas on a holiday weekend). Well, being in a manual car, Chad's left foot was killing him with all the stop and go traffic, so we stopped and wasted some time at the factory stores there (I totally didn't mind!)! While we were there, we RANDOMLY ran into my cousin David- awesome- didn't know he even worked there! It was FANTASTIC! We eventually got back on our way to L.A. We then spent 3 days at Disneyland! We met up with one of Chad's fellow workers @ Tuacahn and his sister while we were there and had a BLAST- they were a lot of fun! I also made Chad take me to the beach! It was wonderful! We spent a few hours on the beach and then drove up to the Newport Beach Temple. It was very relaxing!

June: Chad Resumed rehersals for Footloose when we returned from our vacation and I had a few conferences to attend- one in St. George and one in Las Vegas. Both were fantastic and really helped the time fly by for the first few weeks of summer. We headed to Vegas for a Father's Day and Max's birthday BBQ. The last part of June was VERY uneventful and VERY boring. We left on the 27th for a week-long trip to Salt Lake to visit my family. We took Hayley's two oldest kiddos with us. We had a blast! We were basically non-stop for 8 days! We were able to:

-go to Kangaroo Zoo (indoor blow up slides and such)
-visit the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (via an open house)
-visit Discovery Gateway and play in the Olympic Fountain
-shop at some fantastic stores :) including IKEA- LOVE IT!
-go to Chuck E. Cheese (which I was wary of because I remember them behing super ghetto, but it was SO enjoyable!)
-go to Jungle Jim's (an indoor amusement children's park- kinda ghetto, but super fun- adults ride for free if they can fit on the rides)
-attend the birthday party for Darek who is now one- and TOTALLY adorable (but I'm not biased)
-go to Hogle Zoo with family and our great friends David and Veancha!
-watch fireworks at the annual Eaglewood Golf Course 3rd of July celebration (hadn't been in 4 years- good times)
-fly in dad's plane with Dad, David, Veancha, and Mallory (Chad got to take off! So cool)
-watch some freaking awesome Cake Boss totally obsessed) and some random (awesome) Japanese Reality show with Americans on it (help me out Mandi).
-play with fireworks and eat good food on the 4th of July
-relax

The trip lasted from June 27th-July 6th and it was fantastic! We had hoped to do some more "adult-ish" things, but with nieces and nephews around, it was a bit difficult. Everything was well worth it! Oh, and Chad made a friend- Truman- the 18month old that Mandi babysits! It was adorable!

July: We got home on the 6th and decided that it was time to have a Harry Potter party. We got a new TV (flatscreen, beautiful) and have gotten a bunch of BluRay DVDs since Christmas- including the first 5 Harry Potters. We had slowly been watching them and invited our friends, The Rowley's and their kids to come over for dinner and watch the 5th Harry Potter. Colby and Stephanie had also been planning on coming up to see Footloose, so they came, as well as Kendall- a friend of Chad's from his Greenshow days. We made lots of food and treats and had a great time watching the movie and playing the Wii! I also found out that my home wasn't completely baby-proofed- although I did do a good job. The only thing I forgot about was the fridge, but Ryan helped me take the things off that he shouldn't be able to reach! We had an unexpected, enjoyable visit with Chad's parents. We went out to Springdale and had lunch at Oscar's and had a great time chatting with them. We met up with them again at Grandma Baker's home for dinner and the whole crew (minus Thomas, Baylee, and Jax) headed to Tuacahn to see Fooloose. Colby and Stephanie stayed with their kids until Monday (the 13th) and we had a really enjoyable time with them- as always. We visited the St. George Temple Visitor Center (a first for Chad and me) and it was very uplifitng and inspiring. Max and his friend Jessenia have been visiting since Thursday (the 16th) and will stay until Monday (the 20th). They are all at the play tonight, so I had time to catch up- and I think I'll try putting together a slideshow of our summer stuff! It has been very fun to have family around so much this summer and build friendships with people in our ward.

Chad and I are gearing up for another school year already. We are less than a month away from school- we start on August 13th. Chad goes back for meetings beginning on the 10th, and I have meetings beginning on the 5th. As short as the summer has seemed, I am excited to get back into my groove, it'll be a new groove, but every year is! I'll be the department head this year as well as the advisor for the Student Council. I'm very excited! It will be a fun year!

Wash DC pics- Finally

As promised, here are the pics from DC. They are highlights and I wanted it to be a slideshow with audio about the trip, but my program isn't working right, so I'll have to modify it later. Enjoy!

Darek and Ian and Alex

This is actually the third post of the day. Keep going below to read the other two- they are my Adventure updates!

Adventure #7: SLC #?? (March 20-22)
We flew out of and back into Salt Lake City, not because we are crazy or wanted to drive an extra two hours, but because an amazing event happened for Mandi and her family. Really our DC trip dates revolved around this particular event. Mandi and Ryan recieved the blesing of having twin baby boys, Darek and Ian, enter their life on August 22, 2008 for adoption. They were born prematurely at 25 weeks. Darek was thriving, but Ian had been in the NICU since birth. He had good days and bad, eventually was taken off his ventilator and Ryan and Mandi started making plans to have him transferred to PCMC in SLC. Unfortuantely, very suddenly Ian passed away on October 7, 2008. Through this whole experience of losing thier child, Mandi and Ryan have been so blessed. They were able to have both the boys legally adopted (which it is apparently is quite unheard of for people to want an adoption to continue after their baby has died) on March 17, 2009! As members of the LDS church, the adoption meant even more joy and happiness- Mandi and Ryan were able to have both the boys sealed to them in the SLC Temple on March 21, 2009. What a special day for our family. I am so grateful for eternal families and so happy that Darek and ian are now part of our eternal family! Darek was also blessed on March 22, 2009 at church. The whole family (minus Jen and the kids) were able to be present for this, so our family sang during church on Sunday after the blessing. What a fantastic weekend!

Adventure #8: SLC#?? (March 27-29)
We had previously had some plans in SLC this weekend that were cancelled, but we had promised to take Tyson and Anna up for Alex's birthday party, so we packed everyone up in our car and headed to SLC again! We helped set up for Alex's birthday party- A Mario themed party! It was so fun! There were 16 4-6 year olds in Mario and Luigi hats with mustaches or Princess Peach crowns running around. It was hilarious! We helped wrangle kids, pass out candy, do activities, set up, clean up, and had a blast doing it all! We also went to see Monsters vs Aliens. Red Box this one folks, all the funny parts are in the commercials. We noticed the weekend before as we were driving home in snow, that our tires were bald. So, we put new tires on our car and headed home in the snow on Sunday afternoon, once again. Fun filled, busy weeked!

Up next:
Las Vegas #?: April 3-5
Easter in Hurricane, Vol. 1: April 10-12

An update on us- we are super happy, still loving our jobs, home, friends, etc. We are so content with life. We have had some scares with jobs (as everyone else has). We're putting our faith to the test right now as we plan for next year. As of right now, rumor has it that I'll be staying full-time at my middle school (HUGE blessing) and Chad will have at least 4 of 7 periods at Hurricane Intermediate. He will not be continuing the piano lab at Fossil Ridge. There is speculation that the piano lab will be shut down completely at Fossil Ridge and move to Hurricane Int. with him, but at this time it is speculation. We are prepared to downsize and cut back or to move if Chad's job is cut back. We are praying for Chad to be Full-time at Hurricane Intermediate right now! We'll find out next week (most likely) about our job situation. Also, I've been sick (cold-like sumptoms)for the past month, or so I thought, come to find out that it's been probably been allergies the whole time-LAME. So my body is adjusting to Zyrtec again- I am one of the 10% of the population of Zyrtec takers who metabolizes one of the ingredients into a heavy sedative. More to come- and watch for a couple of slideshows coming up.

Spring Break!

Warning- LONG, with a slideshow to come.

Adventure #6: East Coast- Take 2 (March 12-20)
With Chad and I both being teachers, we are blessed with quite a bit of vacation time. Given that we don't have any children yet, we are even more blessed to be able to travel relatively hassle-free, very often. Our Spring Break was spent in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. I had been there twice (when I was 17 and again when I was 21- hmm- I just realized that I've been every four years since I was 17, weird) but Chad had never been. We both really enjoy U.S. History, so were STOKED to go! We were able to stay with Aaron and his family. We had never met little Trevor yet, so we were really hapy to get to meet him and to play with the other kiddos again. It was nice to be able to play with the niece and nephews that live so far away!
We left on Thursday right after school and drove to SLC to catch a "shuteye" (they don't call them red-eyes on JetBlue) to NYC. The flight was fine, other than my lack of sleep, even with NyQuil...We arrived in NYC at 5:20 a.m. and found a place to curl up and sleep on the floor since we had a 4-hour layover. We slept pretty well, got breakfast, and boarded our flight to DC. Jen picked us up at the airport and we spent the rest of Friday playing with the kiddos, sleeping, playing, eating, etc.
Saturday Aaron took us to his office to show us the view. Um- UNBELIVABLE! We could see the whole of DC as well as the Iwo Jima memorial from his office! Totally surreal for us! We took his car while he studied and drove into DC to check out the National Mall. It was rainy, but there were NO crowds, and the monuments in the rain are a completely different experience from anything I'd ever experienced. There is an incredible amount of pride and respect as we walked to each of the monuments. I was incredibly emotional at the Lincoln Memorial for so many reasons. I stood and silently weeped. I was pondering the incredible strength of Lincoln, Dr. King, Jefferson, and all the people who stood for civil rights when it was dangerous for them to do so. I was also thinking of Mandi and her family- the adoption of their sons was on my mind and how impossible it would have been without the courage of great men and women. We were also able to see the rest of the monuments on the Mall. It was really fun for me to watch Chad have this experience for the first time! He was so giddy about everything! It was fantastic!
Sunday we went to church with Aaron and Jen. Let me just say this- his ward is a perfect example of what an LDS ward should be. We love our ward in Hurricane- it's the best ward we've ever been in, but his ward made us jealous. It would be reason enough for us to move out there if we could have a ward like his! WE got to play more with the kids. Kevin LOVED Uncle Chad- always wanted to to be held my him, no matter what. It was so great!
Monday we headed out early to take a tour of the Pentagon (which was much loser to DC that I thought it was for some reason- I hear that it's in VA and I think, "Oh, so its a little ways away." Nope, just on the other sie of the airport...) It was not as awesome as we thought it would be, but given that you can't just walk in- you have to have background check and set up a time through your congressman to do it, it was well worth it. It was an incredible building and we were able to visit the 9/11 memorial inside the building. We headed over to George Washington Univeristy and ate breakfast over there then headed over to Chinatown and the International Spy Museum. It was pretty sweet! I love museums, but they are so hard to do. Give me 10 miles of monuments and I'll walk it- up and down hills, stairs, etc, but 3 hours of marble and concrete floors is so hard on my back and hips- it's insane! We hit up an awesome Chinese restaurant afterward- complete with real (dead and skinned) hanging ducks at the front of the restaurant. It was fantastic food (a VERY close second to the chinese food we had in Heber City last spring break) We then walked down to the White House, stopped at Ford's Theare and Hard rock on the way. After the White House (we only looked- unfortunately- no tour:() we walked over to the Jefferson Memorial. At this point, we were exhausted! We sat for a little while and took in the sights, and then headed back to catch the Metro home. This was our longest day. We saw and did so much- it was absolutely incredible! We were very grateful to Aaron and Jen for letting us use their Metro Cards and for the Metro at all. We wouldn't have been able to do half as much without it! To give you an idea of time frames- we had our Pentagon tour at 9:00, were done around 10:00, got to GWU around 10:15, over to the Spy Museum around 11:30, ate Chinese at 3:00, got home around 8:00.
Tuesday was another early day, unfortunately, not early enough. We missed our 9:00 tour at the Capitol, but were able to hit the 1:00 tour with the Intern at Matheson's office. So we headed over to the National Aquarium in the mean time. It wasn't very impressive, but when you live on the west coast, it's hard to beat what you've alredy got... We also went to the White House Visitor Center (while we were there Mandi texted me to tell me that the adoption was official- I totally started BAWLING then and there- Chad looked at me and got all worried- but then I let him know and he started laughing at me...I'm such a nerd). It was really interesting to see the original maps of DC- the Potomac River came all the way up to where the Washington Monument is today. Interesting, huh? Then we went over to the Capitol which was amazing! We took underground tunnels from the Congress Buildings to the Capitol. There was a video we watched that EVERY Middle School U.S. History student should watch- I'm going to look into getting it for my school. We were able to see a lot of the Capitol. Funny story- while we were there, we saw police posted like every 6-10 feet. Didn't think anything of it, since we had never been there. One of the rooms that we saw had been closed because of a luncheon and the Rotunda had been as well. We would get hurried along if we stopped to look at anything, so at first it was kind of rushed. Eventually we got to see everything (including the statue of good ol' Brigham Young) and went on our merry way. Come to find out the next day...Obama was in the luncheon at the Capitol, so the diverted tours for a few hours. Unbeliveable... We took pics outside of the Capitol, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court. We then walked over to Untion Station, ate dinner, walked around for a while and caught the metro home. Another memorable day.
Wednesday was a little more chill. We didn't have any early morning tours, and the weather was finally going to be sunny and warm, so we headed to the National Zoo with Jen, Karissa, and the kids! What a great Zoo! We saw pandas! Pandas! It was great! We spent 4 hours at the zoo and headed over to the National Archives. Um- wow, there is a reverence there that is amazing. It was incredible to see the documents that shape our country. We had heard of a great place to eat called Old Ebbit's Grill from some of the locals and wanted to go, so we went. It's a VERY popular place, with good reason. It's been around since 1856 and was popular with a lot of the presidents and still is with quite a few senators and congressmen. We had an hour and a bit wait for the two of us. In face we had enough time to go over to walk two blocks Macys, look around for a bit (and so I could pee) and get back in time to wait for a while longer. It was well worth the wait! The atmosphere was unique and the food was amazing! And the funniest thing about it was that our food cost the same amount there as it did at Union Station. I'd take Ebbit's any day! Aaron picked us up from there and took us over to the FDR memorial. Again, one of the presidents I've always had great respect for. It was very different at night than during the day, but we really enjoyed it there!
Thursday was our last day and we were EXHAUSTED at this point. We hadn't hit any Smithsonian Museums, so we Went to the National Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum. We had a great time at both, but by closing time, we were done. 8 hours of marble floors had taken it's toll. We took the Metro home and played with the kids for the rest of the night.
Friday was a travel day. We had such a great time while we were there. It was hard to go home, but exciting as well. We loved waking up to the cute Christopher and Emma voices every morning (spoken as a person without kids)! Even though we did so many amazing things we felt like we didn't do as much as we would have liked. Next time- National Cathedral, Masonic Temple in Alexandria, National Harbor (more than a drive through it), more Smithsonian Museums, King's Street in Old Town Alexandria, and much more...

Life is Busy

Hey again! Here's an overview of our month. It seems as though I've only got time about once a month to update my blog- weird.

Adventure #5: Anniversary- Volume 3 (March 11, 2009)
Since we got married, we have been away on a trip for our anniversary. This year it didn't fall during spring break, but we planned a trip anyway for the week following. I wasn't planning on doing anything except pack because we left right after school on the 12th for our trip. I came home, began cleaning up, paying bills, packing, etc. Chad didn't get home until about 6 p.m. or so and I was getting stressed out (those of you who know me pretty well, know that when I have something big planned and things are not going as planned, I tend to freak out a bit- ok a lot). When he got home, he had brought me a bouquet of lillys, daisys, and roses (my three favorite flowers) and my favorite drink (Bolthouse Farms' Green Goodness). I obviously lightened up and realized we needed to spend some time together, so we went out to dinner. I ended up staying up until 1:30 a.m. packing and getting ready for the trip, but we had a fantastic time together! The longer I am married, the more I enjoy it. I didn't like being married at first (again, not a surprise to most) but as we are more comfortable in our life and with each other, marriage gets easier and a lot more fun! We are so excited for what the next year will bring us!

Some catch up

It's been a couple weeks so I thought I'd get on and catch up with life.

Adventure #3:
My Birthday! I turned 25 on the 23rd of February. I wanted to share some pics from the day. Chad spent the night before making a surprise in the kitchen and wouldn't allow me in (which was KILLING me). He made my cake (pics below) and took me to dinner at Mongolian BBQ in St. George. We watched a movie and just chilled. It was the perfect b-day!

Adventure #4:
SUPAF!
For those that know Hayley, you've heard of SUPAF- it's been her life for the past month! Chad's bands were able to perform and sounded great! It was a huge relief for Chad to have it done with, and as such, a big relief for me as well! The kids were great and loved having the opportunity to perform.

Both of my sisters did a "Pay it Forward" post and I entertained the idea for a minute (or less). The idea is making something for someone else- from scratch and sending it to them. Well, the only thing I make from scratch is dinner and I'm not sending it in the mail folks, so sorry, you don't get one of those posts from me...:(

Upcoming Adventures:
Anniversary, Volume 3- March 11, 2009
East Coast, take 2- March 13-20
Salt Lake, number ?- March 20-22 and March 27-29


My Wall-E cake. We've become big fans of Wall-E since we saw it last summer. Handmade by Chad!


The fruit and flower basket Mandi sent to me! Tasty fruit and beautiful flowers! And there were balloons! The balloons are still goin' by the way! AWESOME!


This is a pearl and diamond ring Chad gave me for my birthday! It's beautiful and I am VERY spoiled! It was a great birthday! My husband is the best!


This is the Electric Bass and Electric Guitar we got in January for my birthday. I've wanted to learn to play for a while, so when one of the local music stores was closing, we took advantage!


One of Chad's band's performing! So proud!


Rallying the troops before leaving!

Long weekend

Last weekend was a great, relaxing weekend. We enjoyed a day off of school. We were able to see Inkheart (infinitely better than the book) and Taken (highly reccommend) and got a ton of reading i, caught up on house cleaning, and some digital updates. We always love spending time together, so it was wonderful.
Thus begins adventure #2:
It has nothing to do with the weekend, it actually has to do with going back to work. We woke to numerous power outages on Tuesday morning as we were getting ready for work. The lights went on and off for a while before Chad left. I grabbed a flashlight to be sure I'd have light to finish getting ready and not a moment too soon because the lights went out for good not 5 minutes after I was done. So we started the day off at Hurricane Middle School with the lights out- always fun at a school. During the first period of the day, there was a big commotion in the hall. I stepped outside to find that the classroom next to me was flooding into the hallway. AWESOME! We evacuated the class into mine while teachers and students worked in the dark to get the water under control. Never a dull moment when you teach! Woo Hoo!

A Tag, and other stuff

Seven things I can do:
1. Teach. I think I'm pretty darn good at my job, but there is always room for growth.
2. Cook. I am a really good cook. I like to do it for other people though and I am always scared that whatever I make will turn out horribly, so I'm never the first to taste it.
3. Organize. I was the kid in High School that everyone gave their binders to at the end of the quarter when we had to turn them in. Yeah, same goes for now. I have to have my life organized or else I go insane. You can ask Chad.
4. Dress well. This may be a silly one, but it is not a skill everyone has. I like to look good and I know how to put things together.
5. Give gifts. I am a great gift-giver. I like giving people gifts and I spend time finding something that they will like. I don't like getting gifts though. I would rather give.
6. Cleaning. I haven't been so great lately, but I like to clean. My house usually smells good and is clutter free. I like my space to be clean so that I can function. This is probably a shocker to my parents because this was NOT the case as I was growing up.
7. Spelling and Grammar. I'm kind of a jerk about this one. It bugs me when educated people don't know the rules of grammar and spelling. I think it is so important. Therefore, I have really great gramar and spelling. Last time I wrote something like that I made three or four spelling mistakes. I'll be reading through this once, just to make sure.

Seven things I can't do:
1. Relax. The only time I relax is... yeah, you get the point. I am generally worried about something. Even on vacations, I'm worried about timing, what to do, make sure things run smoothly. I need to learn to relax.
2. Socialize. Its not that I don't like to, its that I would rather not deal with the drama that goes along with socializing. I tend to be the kind that sticks at home. Lately I've been much better and I actually like it!
3. Exercise. I am healthy, but I don't exercise often. I am very lucky to be thin by nature, but I know that won't be the case forever.
4. Little kids. I can if I have to, but the only little kids I really like are my nieces and nephews.
5. Juggle. Chad really wants me to learn (since he can), but he was mean about it the first time he tried to teach me, so I've backed off from it. I may try again.
6. Play guitar, or bass. Chad got us those for my birthday (early) and I'm learning to play now.
7. Fix cars. This is a skill that I will eventually build- when I restore a '64 Ford Mustang Convertible.

Seven things I say most:
1. I love you.
2. Shoog.
3. Where's my purse?
4. Where are my keys?
5. Where are my sunglasses?
6. I'm not going to compete with you (when my students are trying to talk over me).
7. Meanie Face!

Seven Goals for the New Year:
1. Relax
2. Travel any chance I get.
3. Remember Birthdays
4. Spend quality time with Chad
5. Read more
6. Exercise more
7. See the National Parks around me

Seven reasons I fell in Love with Chad:
1. I have real conversations with him.
2. He's so damn charming.
3. He makes me laugh.
4. He was different than anyone else I had dated before.
5. He's freakin gorgeous.
6. He supported (and still supports) my decisions.
7. We have so much fun together.

Seven things I love to eat:
1. NY Cheesecake
2. Grilled Cheese
3. Olives
4. Pineapple
5. Veggie Chili
6. Anything that didn't moo, oink, or flap it's gills
7. Smoothies

P.S. I posted the NYC pics on my Facebook for those of you that would like to see them. If you don't have a faceook and would still like to see them, just leave me a message and I'll send you the link. Also, Chekc out Neil Gaiman. I'm infatuated with his work. He wrote Stardust and Coraline (books made into movies) and others as well. I started his newest: The Graveyard Book- which won a Newberry award- last night and was completely captivated within the first two pages. His writing is a little dark, but very enjoyable. Happy President's Day!

Its FINALLY February!

January was long. That's really all I have to say about that. We took a couple of weekend trips to Vegas (I got to go to The Gap! YAY!) and we spent lots of time with extended family. We had lots of fun. We welcomed Max back home from China and went to Jax's blessing. What a sweet little baby he is! We always love spending time with family!

I realize that the title of our blog is The Many ADVENTURES of Bethany and Chad- so I'm going to be more diligent in recording our adventures (like our NYC adventure in Nov... yeah, where is that? you ask. My bad...). And I'm going to remember to take may camera EVERYWHERE I go so that I can have pics.

So, February Adventure #1: Hinder concert.
We don't get many concerts here in Southern Utah (I wonder why...), so when the opportunity present itself, we go. Usually it's the King's Singers and such, but we had the good fortune to go to the Hinder Concert with a friend of mine from college. I don't know many Hinder songe, but I was totally game. It turned out to be pretty awesome! The openers (The Veer Union and Theory of a Dead Man) were fantastic- Chad and I enjoyed Theory of a Dead Man the most- which was refreshing. Concerts where people come totally wasted or stoned (or high) are really amusing to watch. There were numerous bras thrown on stage and the phrase of the night was probably "F*** yeah, St. George, Utah!!!" All-in-all it was fun to go listen to some good tunes, scream our guts out, and share some time with friends. Oh, and small venues are the best, every seat is good! Here are some pics!


Here's a fuzzy picture of Jax- he's cooing and smiling at people now- it's adorable!


This is a picture of Hinder performing- they were totally wasted.... In case you don't know who they are- they're well known for "Lips of an Angel."


Here's our Fav of the night- Theory of a Dead Man.

Back to School: January 2009 edition

The Christmas break was fantastic! We started off our trip with an adventure- we hit a huge storm outside Scipio and I woke up to our car sideways and sliding on the freeway. We ended up in the median, down a hill, with no phone service in the car. We were both unharmed and our car was perfectly fine, we did have to stand outside in 18-degree weather for 2 hours getting a tow truck. What can you do? We were very blessed to be unharmed and many people stopped to make sure we were okay.

We finally made it to Salt Lake and were able to enjoy a few days before Christmas. Santa was very good to us this year! We really enjoyed our time in with my parents, sister Mandi, brother-in-law Ryan, and newphews Alex and Darek. We had a great time relaxing, shopping, and playing games together (especially the Nerf War!). The weather was horrendous until the day after Christmas, so we missed taking a trip up to see my grandparents in Idaho (sometime soon grandma and grandpa!!)

We came back on Saturday the 3rd and welcomed our new little Sunbeams on Sunday to our class. It's going to be an interesting year of teaching our cute little 3-year-olds!

We were both a nervous about going back to school today, since we had such a fantastic break. However we both had great days back at school! My classes went really well and the students were quite pleasant. Chad had a similar experience. We both really enjoy our jobs and love the schools where we teach this year! We are very happy and very blessed to be in the place where we are! We hope that 2009 will bring us as much fortune and as many blessings as we were given in 2008.