The Many Adventures of Bethany and Chad

Christmas Card

2011-12-14T13:39:00.001-07:00

Top Moments Christmas Card

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5x7 Folded Card

2011-09-24T22:36:00.001-06:00

Bold Dots Thank You Card

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Stationery card

2011-05-30T22:58:00.001-06:00

Hello World Blue Birth Announcement

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Update...

2010-12-03T23:21:00.002-07:00

So, I've decided to shut this blog down. The picture and video loading seems to be a nightmare on this, so I've started a shutterfly account. I'll do the baby update on that one. Check out the pics and video there!

http://www.bethchadandgryn.shutterfly.com

Wha??

2010-11-28T20:20:00.002-07:00

I know, "its about time..." right? The past two months have been a whirlwind of joy, sorrow, confusion, chaos, adjustment, joy, joy, and more joy!

Here's an overview of October:
I was on maternity leave, which, for me, was absolutely wonderful! I had lots of time to do things for my husband that I hadn't prior to having Gryn. I loved spending mornings laying in bed with my little boy (still do).
Chad was working and jealous of every moment I had with Gryn. He worked really hard with his piano students to make sure theeir recital went well and they sounded fantastic!
Gryn got more and mmore adorable everyday and I'll update him later.
We decided to spend fall break in Salt Lake since no one had seen Gryn since he was born. We had a very enjoyable time and loved having the R & R as a little family.
We spent the following weekend in Las Vegas for similar reasons and our great-niece turned 1, so we went for her birthday!
Halloween came and went- I'll post a pic of the little guy in his costume when I get around to scanning it.

Overview of November:
I went back to work on the 4th, so I had asked if people wanted to come down and watch my kiddo when I went back so that 1) we didn't have to pay as much for daycare before Christmas and 2) family could get lots of one-on-one time with him. My mom and sister jumped at the opportunity and so my mom came down on the 2nd and stayed until the 10th to hang out with the little dude. I went up to Salt Lake with my mom on the 10th and went to a conference on Autism the 11th & 12th. I came back with my sister on the 14th and she stayed with us until the 19th. Gryn had his two month check up on the 17th. We saw Harry Potter in Salt Lake and headed to Las Vegas on the 24th for Thanksgiving. Hurricane High School's football team went to State for the third year in a row, against the same team, and for the third year in a row, they beat us with 3 seconds to go. It was tragic. We have two days left of November- crazy enough. We are so excited for the holiday season, especially now that we have little Gryn in our lives!

Bethany update:
I'm back at work! Its been good being back, but I have struggled to get into a groove that works for me!
I have learned that I can do a lot more on little sleep than I thought I could, even though we're only up once a night.
I have a few likes and dislikes that have stuck with me since my pregnancy- still like mustard and marshmallows (not together) and dislike olives, sadly.
To answer the question "Do you love being a mom?": I don't know how to answer that question. I never thought I'd have a child and I have a very negative assiciation with the title "mom." I am EXTRAORDINARILY happy to have Gryn in my life and he makes me SO incredibly happy, so I guess the answer is I am happy to have a child.

Chad update:
Chad is working really had to make his Band and Piano students sound the best they can.
He absolutey loves his baby boy more than anything in the world and loves to help as much as possible!

The next post will be an update about the baby and there'll be pics and video...

Lazy days

2010-10-06T19:29:00.005-06:00

I've been unmotivated when it comes to blogging, and I don't have the slideshow done yet, so this is not as awesome as it could be.

Today is Chad's 31st birthday! It's been pretty low-key- Gryn and I went and bought some decorations (including 3-D Star Wars plates) this morning and got him a Chocolate Cake from Costco. His big gift is coming tomorrow with dad- an xBox 360- he's been asking for one since his birthday last year, so we found one for cheap and it comes with controllers, so he's REALLY excited! I'm happy to have Chad in my life- he's a wonderful husband and an amazing dad!

I had my 2 week check up and I am recovering quite well from giving birth. I'm about 10 pounds away from being back to my pre-pregnancy weight, which makes me SO happy. I looked at my school picture from August and OMG, my face was SO puffy! My body is back to it's normal cold self, I'm sleeping in pants and a sweatshirt again- so lame. I kind of liked being able to sleep in a tank top and be comfortable!

Gryn had his 2 week check and he is doing great! The doctor said Gryn is absolutely perfect, which we already knew, but its' good to hear from someone else! He's back up to his birthweight and a little bit more and has grown an entire inch! His specs are 8 lb 10 oz (40th %ile) and 21.5 in long (73rd %ile) and his head is 15 in which is the 63rd %ile. The dr. was quite pleased that he was already up past his birthweight since he was so big at birth.

A few things about Gryn:

He turns his head when we talk to him!

He growls when he's annoyed- like when he gets the hiccups or is uncomfortable.

He spends more and more time awake and we love it!

He drools when he sleeps!

He started focusing on the little sheep on his swing today.

He attended his first concert where dad performed and was incredibly amazing! He slept through most of it.

He also experienced rain and cold weather for the first time as well. He didn't like that I put a beanie on his head- he was SUPER cute though!

Our favorite thing is that he makes a face that looks like a duck. Its so dang cute!

I'm so happy that fall has arrived- finally! It's been so bizarre that its been so hot! I'm also really enjoying the time at home with Gryn. I hope I am ready to go back to work when that time comes!

I just took a video of Chad and Gryn, hopefully I'll be able to post it!

Oh, and we had family pictures taken over the weekend- here are a few favs.

Two in a row...

2010-09-29T20:42:00.002-06:00

Here are some videos of the little man. I'm not sure which is which, but we were having some wonderful floor time this evening. Gryn is becoming more and more animated everyday and when you talk to him while he's awake on the floor, he kicks and moves his arms around- its SO awesome! I'm going to try to get all the pictures I can in a slideshow as soon as possible so that everyone can see the changes in him already. I'll also have an update on Monday with height/weight, etc- we both have our two week checkups, so we'll be busy, but it'll be awesome!

A Whole Week!

2010-09-24T15:01:00.008-06:00

I'm finally getting around to posting about the little dude!

Chad and I have spent the past week holding Gryn almost non-stop- its horrible! We love watching him sleep but most especially watching him look around at his new world while he's awake! Needless to say, we are absolutely in love with this little guy! For two people who never thought they would ever want children, we are extremely satisfied with our decision to have this little baby join our life!

A bit about the babe:

He is incredibly chill! He hangs out wide awake now for hours, just looking around, taking everything in. He has some dark hair and we hope that it stays. He has blue-gray eyes and looks like his daddy. The only time he cries is if he is EXTREMELY hungry, otherwise, he is easy! We're still getting used to our days and nights, but he usually sleeps for about 5 hours after his second feeding. He couldn't be more perfect and we couldn't be more blessed to have him in our life!

The specs:

Gryn Titus Baker was born at 9:40 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2010. He weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

The story, short-ish version:

Words cannot describe the amazing beauty of the whole experience! We did have some scary moments, but the whole experience was wonderful. We had an appointment on Thursday the 16th with our midwife and my belly measured smaller than it had the previous week. We were sent to have an ultrasound to look for fluid around the baby. He was supposed to have 10 cm around him, the tech could only find 3 cm (as it turns out, when my water was "broken", there was actually NO fluid around the baby which made matters scary later on during the birth). We were sent to Labor and Delivery to be monitored, but with the info about fluid, our midwife wanted us to stay or come back at midnight to be induced. We decided to stay and get the process going.

I was given a mild induction med around 9 p.m. I didn't start feeling the contractions until about 11:00, at which point I was givena sleep med so that I could get some rest. I rested between the contractions, which were really mild. Around 3 a.m. I was given the second dose of meds, at which point the contractions became extremely painful and would only let up for about 5 seconds before the next would come. The worst part of it was that Gryn's heart rate would drop from 180 bpm (ish) to between 90-120 bpm each time there was a contraction. By 5 a.m. the contractions weren't letting up, I was exhausted, and Gryn wasn't doing well, so Laurie (our CNM) was called in. We opted to stop labor to give baby a rest. I was able to sleep for about an hour which made all the difference in the world.

The contractions started up again on their own at 6 a.m. and were surprisingly bearable! We breathed through the contractions until about 8:45 and began the process of pushing. Gryn was born @ 9:40 a.m. via a natural, unmedicated birth. Chad was with me the whole time as was so supportive and loving! He was absolutely fascinated by the whole process. He watched our baby be born and could hardly contain himself when we saw him for the first time. We had a plan for what we wanted to have happen with this birth and unfortunately we didn't have that happen. I do feel a little bit ripped off that I didn't get the experience of driving to the hospital in a panic while breathing through contractions, but am very glad that we were able to bring our baby into the world safely.

And finally, THE PICS!!:

Always Hungry- even just after birth:)

A very happy and proud daddy. I LOVE watching them together!!

A very UNHAPPY baby- this is the first time he was away from me after he was born. I was able to hold him for over an hour before they took him to be weighed and measured.

Again- eating his hands... hes an eater! It took him little time to catch on to breast feeding.

Eyes open- this is our favorite time- he's so aware of everything around him!

This was the setup that broke our hearts. Gryn was jaundiced and had to be under the lights for 24 hours. We could only hold him to feed him and burp him and he had to wear these goggles that covered his eyes. I will admit, I cried when they brought all of it in.

I would be laying in bed or sitting in the rocking chair and I'd look over and see his little feet sticking out of the plastic tub/bed. It was the only redeeming part of having him under the lights.

The day we came home from the hospital, all the UT cousins were able to come and meet Gryn. We were talking and looked over to find all the cousins crowded around the swing oogling over their new "baby Gryn."

I think this is precious, Chad and Gryn having a very pleasant conversation. We love that Gryn makes eye contact now and that he looks when we say his name.

This is a picture of the bili blanket we had to bring home with us. We opted for the blanket so that we could actually snuggle with him, rather than stare at him under lights, it was much more bearable.

This is what we refer to as "milk belly." We say it with a deep gravelly voice. He gets this look each time he eats.

This is my FAVORITE look. Just after he's eaten, we get about an hour or two of him wide awake. When he's back to falling asleep, his hands come up close to his face and he gets this look. It's absolutely precious!

This is just after his first sponge bath at home. He was not happy about being so naked.

So, after his bath, I was unable to get his diaper on quickly enough and the wet spot behind us on the couch is the pee stream- awesome. And no, I didn't learn my lesson, he has peed on the sheets and his pjs- twice. I'm getting much better at this diaper changing stuff!

We'll keep taking pictures and hopefully I'll have time to keep up on the posts, at least while I'm on maternity leave. We are totally in love and I can't help but hold him all day while Chad is at work.

2010-09-11T10:20:00.003-06:00

Alright, I know I promised weekly pics, but, getting ready to leave my classroom for 6 weeks has really taken up all of my time. Getting the house clean has taken up the rest of my time, and then Chad and I have really needed some quality time together, so that's taken up the last bit of time, blogging is the LAST thing I have been thinking about. So, now my plans are done, the house is clean, Chad is on the couch next to me, and I can finally post another pic and give an update.
We are 39 weeks and 3 days today- only 4 to go... hopefully! At our 20 week appt, Gryn was measuring at a due date of today, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen. Our CNM is out of town this weekend, so I'll be spending my time on the couch, reading.
Pregancy update:
I feel like pregancy info is just TMI in general for the majority of the population. When other women tell me their "status," my brain goes, "ok, I totally didn't need to know that- just tell me if you think the baby's coming or not...." However MOST women don't like that kind of info- for some reason they use the terminology that is just gross or, TMI, as I think of it. So in my way, heres the update:
Yes, the baby's coming soon. My estimate is Monday. If you want details, call me. We're extremely excited and can't wait to see the little guy!

Our update:
Last weekend we cleaned the house so that we're able to just relax for the next little bit before little dude arrives. We also cleaned and organized Chad's classroom so that he's relaxed and able to be comfortable with a sub there when the time comes. I have finished planning my classes (day-to-day) until Christmas break- a HUGE relief. I have completed 11 IEP meetings and have 5 to go, however, I don't think I'll get those done until after baby comes.

Thats pretty much it. We'll be chillin' this weekend doing what we can to hold off until Monday, but Murphy's law will probably take effect and we'll have this kid today. We'll keep you posted :)

Last Preggo pic? Let's hope so!!

2 Weeks & 5 Days (or 19 ish Days)

2010-08-26T20:19:00.006-06:00

The past 8 1/2 months have flown by! I've decided to do my posts on Thursdays after our final baby appts, just to keep everyone updated- and I know that right now, that's the only reason anyone looks at this- you just want the pics and baby news...
Gryn news:
We are measuring right at 37 weeks, no "Dr. check" this week- it wasn't necessary, and she (our midwife) is convinced that we are in the clear for Labor Day weekend and anticipates we'll deliver on time or about a week late- I don't mind this news (yet) as I still have SOOOO much to do to get ready for my sub. I can use the time!

The ugly news is that I am Strep B positive and will have to have an annoying IV the whole time I'm laboring at the hospital (boo). Chad and I decided we wanted the least amount of tubing/wiring attached to me as possible, so it was disheartening, but I know it's important to be healthy, so Gryn can be healthy when he's born. The good news about the Strep B strain I carry is that it can be killed by anti-biotics that are NOT a part of the "cillin" family- very good news!
We took the stroller and car seat out of their box last night and put them together, we'll have some adjusting to do to bring little dude home, but its ready! We are so excited! Everytime we see and/or feel him move around, we just can't help but get excited because we're SOOO close to having him here! Gryn's bag is packed and ready, however Chad's and mine aren't. That will probably be one of our weekend projects!
Chad news:
USF ends on Saturday. It will be a relief, but also sad. It has been a great season, despite the lack of zest in the music. Things are faling into place at Hurricane Intermediate and the struggles with classes are either finally coming out or are just subsiding as the adjustments are made to Intermediate School. Chad performed twice for the Cabaret, a USF after show. He played a xylophone piece and did a juggling number with some LED lit juggling balls. Each year they have a final show with favorite performances from the season. Chad hasn't ever been chosen in the past, but BOTH his acts were chosen for tonight's final show! He will be the opening and closing performances! I am SO dang happy for him! He is SO excited to perform these numbers again! (I missed the juggling act the first time and am bummed to miss it this time, but the show doesn't start until 11:00 p.m. which means we wouldn't get hom until about 1:30 or so and my body cannot handle that right now.)
Beth news:
I'm looking bigger and bigger! I'm not uncomfortable unless I forget that I'm pregnant and try to do something I would normally need abdominal muscles for! My time of sleeping well has probably ended. I've been battling a head/chest cold for a week now and it is finally beginning to clear up. I haven't been able to take anything and I can't sleep on my back, so breathing at night has been a NIGHTMARE and Gryn usually kicks for about 20 minutes everytime I turn over. So, I'm adjusting to the sleeplessness, but know that the time is coming where it will be much worse than it is now, so I treasure what sleep I do get! Really this has probably been the worst week of pregnancy, but I think it's just because I'm sick. My 4th period class is convinced I will either go into hard labor during class or that I will deliver my baby in class- its quite comical actually! I'm done planning for 1st quarter and with 2/3 of my sub notes for 1st quarter, so now I can focus on getting IEPs written and done- 4 down (completed), 2 written, 10 to go. Yes, that's a total of 16 that will be finished within the first 5 weeks of school. When I come back in Nov. I will be so bored, it's kind of crazy. I will only have 8 IEPs to hold for the rest of the year and I will have nothing to plan for because I'll be planned through Christmas break. I've learned a lot about HS kids vs. MS kids and I REALLY like the differences! My team is great, our paras are WONDERFUL, and I really like teaching Read 180. So in essence, life is good! As always.

Ok, now for the pics:

Me, 37 weeks. Yes, the belly is dropping. And yes, this shirt (albeit maternity) is working REALLY hard to cover my belly. Pretty sure this is the last time I'll be seen wearing it. And looking at last week's pic, maybe I was arching a little, it didn't feel like it though. Weird.

"Travel System" Step 1: In the box, no problem!

"Travel system" step 2 (Chad): Ok, it's all out of the box, how do we open it? Oh, the red locking device on the side. Wait, theres only two wheels... oh, nope, here they are. Ok, whew.

"Travel System" step 2 (Beth): This one's already put together! Awesome! Oh wait, no- attach canopy, check, unwrap base, check. This peice to the right doesn't fit ANYWHERE! Riiiight, that would be the stroller tray. Adjust straps, just in case, check. Figure out how the seat goes in the base......................... yeah, still working on that............................... no, don't take it, Chad, I've got to know how to do it once it's in the car............................. *click* YEAH! Got it! How did I do that again?

"Travel System" Step 3: Done! Now, if our Nurse Midwife is wrong, we'll still be able to bring our baby home from the hospital anytime!

In all reality, it wasn't too terribly hard, we had fun goobing up about how "our baby will sit in that" and such. Totally ridiculous! And speaking of goobing stories, here are two, for the road:

Last night a girl brought in her 1 week old baby to our birthing class. Little tiny baby girl was in the back making sweet newborn noises and Chad looks at me all teary and goes- "I can't help but think of our little baby making those noises. I can't wait to hear them!"

We (I) ordered a personalized Mickey Mouse blanket for Gryn. It arrived the other day and Chad missed seeing it the night it arrived. The next morning, I showed him as we were making breakfast and getting ready for the day. He stopped, came over and hugged me and the belly and was like "We are totally going to use that when we take our baby to Disneyland. I can't wait to take him to Disneyland." Again, all teary and sweet about our little dude. P.S. I don't think I'll get to hold our child. Ever. So keep that in mind when you come to see him. His dad may be hogging him.

I LOVE that Chad is the gooby one about this baby! I don't get teary very often about much and haven't gotten very teary over thinking about our baby- I get teary when I think of everything that can go wrong in the next two weeks. I am SO dang excited to have this little guy in our home and share in parenting with Chad- its going to be AWESOME!

36

2010-08-18T17:56:00.006-06:00

That's right- only 4 weeks to go! Or less, depending on what this baby decides to do! Here are the pics, you can tell that I am getting bigger... I am not arching my back at all in this pic or sticking out my butt- FYI.

Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, I did get a haircut: added bangs and got a better A-line- I love it, however, I really want it short again. Not super short, but short. We'll see what I go with after I've lost the baby weight and my face isn't so pudgy. I also went darker as well, it just seemed like it was time for a change with the hair!

And we are now taking bets on when you think little dude will arrive.
The due date: Sept. 15.

Bets are 50 cents. Unless someone wants to up that...?
We're looking for date and time of day (morning, afternoon, evening).

I'll re-post in a bit, I don't have time to put ours on right now, we've got to leave for Cedar. Anyway, I'll also update you on the other parts of our life when I get a minute!

I totally just figured out how to see this and change the font and font color, etc. I feel so super lame for NOT knowing until now. Everything after this was posted later...

So. Our Life. We started school one week ago. It has been a busy week! Chad played two shows and two after shows on the second and third days of school. Being the wonderful wife that I am, I told him to call me on his way home so that he didn't fall asleep in the car, which meant that I was up just as long as he was. It was worth it though- I like my husband! Saturday was a parade and pool party with Chad's band kids. In between, we attended a funeral for Chad's co-worker's husband who died very unexpectedly just before school started. It was a very reflective time for Chad and me about what is really important in our lives. After the late nights and early mornings and high emotions, Chad slept for about 4 hours on Saturday night to get caught up on sleep.

We have both really enjoyed our classes and are really looking forward to an awesome year. On top of teaching, I am getting prepped for my sub, which means I am planning ahead for all of 1st quarter and a few weeks into 2nd quarter. It just easier for me to plan ahead until Christmas Break and have all my copies, etc done so that my sub is ready and doesn't have to worry about anything AND so that I don't have to worry about crazy planning when I get back to school. It also means that I have about 12-15 IEP meetings to hold before Sept. 15. So I'm keeping busy! Everyone tells me that I should be taking it easy these last few weeks before the baby comes and I totally agree, however, it just isn't possible as a teacher :)

As for our 50 cents:
Chad's money is on Sept. 12 early in the morning (before 7 a.m.).
I think that as soon as my IEPs, sub plans, USF, and our birth classes are done (this would be around Sept. 2) and I am able to relax a bit, the baby will be born. However, looking at family birth patterns, my money is on Sept. 13 in the late evening (7 p.m. or later).
If you want to place a bet, leave a comment with your guess, you'll get at least a dollar out of it if you win!

We'll keep posting belly pics weekly until there is a baby to post about!

The Belly

2010-08-11T17:38:00.004-06:00

In an effort to keep family and friends updated and involved in the last 5 weeks of my pregnancy, I have decided to take weekly pics and post them of the belly.
Today marks 35 weeks, only 5 more to go! It seems like it came so dang fast! We are SO excited. I am getting nervous about Gryn coming early, plain and simply because I am not ready for my sub! I'm putting off being completely ready for the sub because I know that as soon as I am ready and can relax, he'll make his way here shortly. Chad's quarter is on Aug. 31 or Sept. 1 no matter what. We'll see what happens!
In other news, today was our first day of school. Uneventful, pretty chill for both of us- hardly the climax to meet the buildup that we've had going on. We enjoyed meeting our new students and reuniting with the old ones. We're excited to get this school year started! Chad is crazy busy with school and Shakespeare- he's got multiple rehersals and performances until about midnight tomorrow and Friday then we'll be doing another parade on Saturday morning followed by a swim party for the parade kids. What a way to start out the school year! We are tired, but happy!

Yeah, I'm THAT person...

2010-07-26T21:21:00.005-06:00

You know what I'm talking about: I am not a fan of posting just about baby stuff, but I'm going to anyway because people just seem to want to know...

The Grind (non baby):
I finish up Summer School on Wednesday this week (THANK GOODNESS) and will be setting up my classroom at the HS starting Thursday. Chad is playing for USF and is now bored with the show. Its a decent show, but anytime you play something over and over, it gets annoying! He has been at his school practicing all sorts of percussion stuff for hours and hours everyday while I'm at work- I went over and listened to him after I got home today and he sounds so good, I really love to watch him play because I know he loves it SO much. He's also working on some awesome juggling tricks!

The Grind (baby):
Our "Birth education" classes start on Wednesday evening, making the whole having a baby thing even more real! We are getting more and more excited for our little Gryn to join our family as we get closer to September.

We finished the baby room last night! We had shelves to hang, the twin bedding to put on the bed, the valance to put up, new clothes and blankets to de-tag and wash, and dots to put on the walls. It looks more like a boy's room than a gender-neutral room, but we can add some pink and purple and use it for a girl too, when the time comes, I guess.

The view from the door of the baby room. And yes, that is a porcelain doll... in a BOY'S room. I've had that doll since I was about 14 (I think). The designer's name is Titus Tomescu and I fell in love with the doll as soon as I saw it. I am displaying it until it is no longer safe to display outside glass.

The finished closet. You can't see, but the dresser is completely full of preemie to 3 month clothing. The shelving on the sides have 4 more rubbermaids full of clothes from 3-2T and about 1500-2000 diapers and two boxes of bulk wipies from Costco. We've got a swing, playmat, high chair, some toys, a bouncer, an infant bath sling, travel bed, bumbo chair, and other things I can't even think of. The best part: most, like 90% most, of it has been gifted/handed down to us. We are SO blessed and SO set on stuff for this little guy!

This shelf is for all the stuffed animals we have been given or toys we have bought. The bunny blanket in the middle was hand-made by a co-worker of mine and I really hope that Gryn loves it as much as Chad and I do. It is SO adorable!

We put the valance up on this window and bought circle declas for the wall instead of painting or putting up pictures, we really like how it turned out!

I will admit that this pregnancy has been so easy in the scope of everything. I can't complain about anything! I still see my reflection and do a double take, pregnancy was never in the plans for me, so it's hard for me to see myself and realize that its actually ME and not some other cute pregnant lady and that its MY child growing in there.

I've been feeling the extra weight more this week than ever (and I'm getting the "water retention pregnancy face", which I do not appreciate) and my time out and about is getting shorter and shorter before I get exhausted, but I keep thinking 7 more weeks and my body will start the process of normalcy again...

I sometimes get annoyed when I have a baby in my ribs or kicking my bladder, but all I can think is: poor little guy, how can I be annoyed- you're the one thats all squished, not me. Poke me as much as you need- I don't mind!!

I also have a very supportive and loving husband who thinks that this whole pregnancy thing is absolutely beautiful and is always understanding and positive about my situation. I'm super lucky!

And by the way, after looking at other peoples' ultrasounds, I think we are going to have the cutest baby ever! I didn't think I'd be able to tell that much of a difference form one ultrasound to the next, but I can, and Gryn is way freakin cuter than other people's babies! And yes, I am biased beyond reason, but really, I think he's going to be absolutely adorable!

Need I say more?

I'd like to think that I'll post before the big day, but with my track record of "blogging," the next post very well may be pics of our little dude. 33 weeks- only 7 to go!

The Vaycayshun

2010-07-26T19:33:00.011-06:00

We just went on our last "official" vacation of the summer. We have one more trip to Las Vegas before school starts to visit with my best friend from my childhood years, but psychologically, we are in back-to-school mode. We told ourselves that this was our final vacation before school and baby and we are ready to be back. Its a little scary but really exciting at the same time.

The Trip:
We drove to Barstow, CA on Friday night last week and spent the night there. We headed out early on Saturday and spent the day at SeaWorld. We had a lovely time going to the shows and feeding sea animals.

Me, watching the sharks. I think.

Sharks. I'm sure those are sharks.

Watchin "Shamu Rocks." We watched the earlier show ad I even sat in the "soak zone" however, we did not get soaked, actually we didn't even get wet. All we got was this girl's hair whipping my leg the whole time because she couldn't leave it alone. Ugh, by the way, I think long hair is generally gross. I don't like it touching me.

Sunday we had planned on going whale watching and thought we planned accordingly, but boy were we wrong! We left an hour and a half before our boat was to leave (we were staying about 15 miles away). The boat was delayed 20 minutes and we still did not have enough time to drive park and walk to the boat. I was SOOO mad! We ended up rescheduling for Monday morning at 9 a.m. We re-vamped our plans and went to an outdoor mall, saw Inception (SO worth it, everyone should go see it), had dinner at The Cheescake Factory and headed over to the OC Fair where we were catching a Train concert!

We entered the Fairgrounds and my oh my, we must have looked like we were from a small town because neither of us had EVER seen a fair like this before. We could have spent days discovering the fair- I wish we would have known it was going to be so huge, we'd have spent the morning there!

The concert was FANTASTIC! Train is a group I have been a fan of since their debut and this was the second time I was able to see them. This particular show was the biggest the OC had ever had and that Train had ever played! We were so glad to be a part of it! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

This was taken during the concert by Train- its their tradition during the song It is Love... anyway, i freakin joined Twitter just so I could get it...I'm THAT LAME!

Us, after the concert, Chad took video, I'll try to get it going. I looked for the picture that had the least amount of pregnancy pudge face. Note to self and others who are pregnant- COLORS are best, don't wear white. Bad choice.
*Chad bought this Turkey leg after the show- gross. He bit into and got some bones. I was soo grossed out, and I had to hold it on the way back to the hotel while he drove. I almost threw up on it.

Monday we woke early, checked out of our hotel and left again for whale watching. Even with commute traffic, we made it in plenty of time and ate a tasty breakfast on the pier while we waited for the boat to be readied. We spent two and a half hours on the boat looking for whales, dolphins, and sea lions. We weren't able to see any whales, but we saw lots of dolphins and a few sea lions. We also saw some HUGE fish, I'm not sure what they were, but they lurked in the water like sharks!! We loved being out there! Dad had given us a suggestion on lunch the day before, so we headed out on the pier off the beach and ate at Ruby's Diner, a cute little 50's style restaurant. We watched a bunch of fishermen just outside and had a great time just taking in the ocean and spending time together.

Open Ocean. This was a little scary for Chad and me. We are land people and deep water freaks us out. But we really did enjoy ourselves.

Sea Lions. We did see them in the actual ocean, but they were hard to catch with the delay on our camera.

These are the giant fishes we saw, I did a random shot, but we got them! They look like sharks!

Us on the boat. We really had a great time!

Us on the pier in front of Ruby's!

We left from Newport Beach to drive to Las Vegas to spend the night with Colby and Stephanie. We were so nervous about driving through Baker in the middle of the day, so we broke out the rest of our water and turned off the AC. We made it without any problems and went swimming that evening at Doug and Kay's. It was wonderfully relaxing! We spent the next day hanging out with our nieces and nephews!

I'm sure we have much more in the way of documentation for this trip, but I think it is via video and I don't have the energy (or desire) to post the video. And really vacation video is only interesting to those who were on the actual vacation, in my opinion.

3 weeks and 5 days...

2010-07-15T23:37:00.008-06:00

Chad and I realized tonight that we are getting back into "teacher mode." That's right, the title is the amount of time until school starts for us. I have begun teaching summer school- just finished up the first week. I'm grateful to be able to start getting up early and getting my body ready for the transition back to school. I'm sure I'll be exhasuted the first couple of weeks, but I'm excited to get going at the HS.

Its almost been two months since I posted, so I'll give an update (with pics):)

We left the last day of school for NSL and spent a week visiting with family. It was wonderfully relaxing and we always love spending time with mom, dad, and Mandi's family. We were also able to spend some time with some of my old friends. We really enjoyed ourselves.

A few short days after returning from NSL, we headed to Las Vegas for Thomas' graduation. We are so proud of him and can hardly believe that he'll be off to college in the next few weeks. We loved spending time and catching up with family and friends.

Us with Thomas just after graduation- so awesome!

My mom and Mandi's family came a few days after we returned from Las Vegas. They threw me a baby shower and helped get Gryn's room, clothes, blankets, diapers, etc ready. It was so fun looking through all the clothes, blankets, towels, etc. It made it so real. We played some baseball (in the dusk and dark- scary!), hiked at Zion, played poker (I heard Mandi laugh harder than I've ever heard her laugh in my life- it was hilarious!!), did some shopping, and just relaxed.

Crib set just after Chad had put it all together.

The closet, already fully stocked. We have a wardrobe for the kid for about two years! And tons of diapers, however those will probably only last a few months :) I wasn't able to turn it, sorry.

This is the crib set done. We still have three shelves to hang, so I'll have to post a "finished product" picture.

Zion National Park.

Chad started rehearsals for the Utah Shakespearean Festival while the fam was here. his show started July 2 and he is really enjoying himself. Its always wonderful to watch and hear him perform because he loves it so much!

We had planned a short trip to NSL again to have the 3D ultrasound pictures done. It ended up being worth it, but was a NIGHTMARE to get figured out. We had three full days with no shows or rehearsals. The day we were supposed to leave (I was waiting in Cedar for the show to get over- with all our stuff) they called an impromptu rehearsal for the next day and Chad couldn't miss it, so we had to go back home. We had to leave the next day, which cut our trip short, however we were able to sit on our front porch that night and watch the fireworks in Hurricane- complete with homemade strawberry ice cream and brownies!

We went to our ultrasound and Gryn would not show us his whole face, just profiles, so they asked us to come back the next day- the day we were leaving. We went back and this time was worse than the first, we got feet, hands, and nose- thats it. We had to reschedule again. We left to go back home and found that the only time we had to do the u/s again was over the weekend. We went home Thursday night and went back up to NSL on Friday after Chad's show. It was ridiculous. However, Gryn was much more cooperative the third time and we were able to go to Lagoon and Lagoon-a-Beach with Mandi's family. It was a nice trip up again, even though it was short and we had to go home for an evening.

We were able to go to Alex's baseball game while we visited. Little kid sports are SO cute!

We found these cute boys at Lagoon, think their parents will let us keep them?

This was taken 7/10/10, just a few days before I hit 7 months. We are officially two months away, 9 weeks and little guy will be here!

The little dude. He looks so happy and content snuggling. We're excited to see him outside the womb :)

Another bebe pic. His eyes are open in this picture- the tech was amazed at how much his eyes were open while we were seeing him. We are totally enamored with this little guy and can hardly wait for Sept.

Flippin us the bird. Yeah, this is what we got on day two of trying to see his face.

Yep, the bottom of his foot is covering his face. Unbelievable. This is the view we saw the most of.

We are off for an amazing pre-baby, pre-school vacation on the beach this weekend, it will be wonderful. I'll update a little more when we get back.

New Post

2010-05-23T16:44:00.003-06:00

I just had a huge rant going, but I decided to erase it and be at peace. All I will say is: please respect my choices. I know that not everyone will. If that be the case, please keep your opinions to yourself unless they are truly productive and helpful. I know it is difficult and that I am guilty of not heeding this, but am trying to be better.

In other news, we are 4 days away from being DONE with school. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I am very excited to move to the High School next year, especially since I will only be teaching one subject. In all my (3) years of teaching, this has never happened, so I'm not sure what I'll do with all my prep time! I am looking forward to working with the team there and somewhat more mature students. I am very excited that I get to follow this group through High School. I will have had them for 5 years at the end of High School- how lucky am I? As part of the end of the year, Chad always has an end of the year concert and his kids did SO well. His Intermediate Band will be moving to the middle school next year and he is VERY sad to lose them. This is the first group he's taught both years of band to, so theres a feeling of ownership there.

Summer is going to be busy, busy, busy. We were looking at our schedules and noticed that after June 6th, we will only have about three days to do any traveling together this summer. I will be attending workshops and teaching summer school at the end of summer and Chad starts rehersals for the Utah Shakespearean Festival on June 15th. We'll be working hard to get the house ready for Gryn- get all the stuff out of the front room and into his bedroom! We are really looking forward to that! Once Aug. 6th hits, there will be no more time to prepare for baby, we'll be back to work and he'll be here within a month of that!

Speaking of baby... we are 24 weeks tomorrow- almost to the third trimester. I am waking almost every morning to Gryn moving around and watching my belly move with him. He seems to know the difference between my hand and Chad's and always stops moving when Chad puts his hand on my belly. I spent an hour this morning laying in bed feeling him move around- just enjoying the time with him. It's miraculous and wonderful. My pregancy is great, I feel great, Gryn is doing great, we (mostly Chad I think) are very blessed! I hope I can say the same about my delivery! The one thing I am not enjoying is my belly being rubbed- in fact my students are going to make me a sign or shirt that says "DO NOT TOUCH" over the belly. My students are wonderful and fascinating to me, but that is another story for another time.

We have been asked quite a few times if we are excited about this baby (weird) and rest assured everyone, we are VERY excited for him! We are not as traditional as most with announcing everything that happens with my pregnancy and we have so much going on right now that it's not the ONLY thing we talk about, but we are still very, very excited. Hopefully next month we'll have another picture to post of him, we'd love to get a little peek at him again. No pics of me yet, my mom and Grandma are the only ones with those, I've been told my many women who have had babies that I am not very big for as far along as I am. Not sure what it means, but we'll get around to taking a picture of the belly at some point!

Toad Friend

2010-05-06T22:39:00.003-06:00

Since we've lived in our lovely home, we've had this toad who is like our Punxsutawney Phil- once he comes out of his winter hibernation, we know the weather is going to be consistently fairly wonderful! We call him Toad Friend. I suppose we could name him something more creative, but we're sticking with Toad Friend (there is a serious lack of originality when I name things- hence the cat of my teen years: Baby Kitty, seriously, it's kind of sad). Now unlike most amphibians, this toad is unafraid of us, we can walk right up to him and even touch him (at least I think its a him, don't know how to tell the difference) and he doesn't hop frantically away like other amphibians.

Tonight it was very windy (weird for a place called Hurricane...) so Chad went outside to put our garbage cans away. He came back in holding a handful of green goop (or so it looked like from my point of view). I asked with a bit of disgust, "Honey, what are you holding?" He turned his hand so I could see it and it was TOAD FRIEND! He was just hanging out in Chad's hand, chillin'. He had been hiding behind the car and Chad almost ran over him with the garbage cans (SAD), so Chad picked him up and brought him in. I was SO happy to see our Toad Friend! Well, we were worried that he would warm up too much from being in Chad's hand and being in the house, so Chad put him back outside. Imagine, if you will, the scene in Lord of the Rings where Bilbo is leaving the ring for Frodo. The ring doesn't want to leave Bilbo's hand and it is sticking to it as it slides slowly down to the floor. That is what it was like for Chad to get Toad Friend off his hand. We watched him for a minute and felt extremely guilty as he watched us close the door. About 20 minutes later we wanted to see if he had gone to eat some of the crickets or if he had hopped off. Chad opened the door and I couldn't see him, so I thought he had gone, but Chad made this sad noise and I looked down- Toad Friend had hopped up to the door and was sitting at our door- like a dog or cat would if they wanted to come inside. OH MY GOSH, we felt SO BAD putting the dang toad outside! Its a toad, it lives outside, but we felt so sad that we couldn't bring him inside mostly because we didn't want to find a toad (especially Toad Friend) dead in the morning from overheating or something... We decided we need a toad door, if only it wouldn't act as a scorpion door or spider door too.

There's the story of the evening. And a picture of Toad Friend. The end.

Long time?

2010-04-28T22:48:00.002-06:00

It feels like a long time since I posted las, but it really hasn't been long AT ALL- it just seems like it. We are 20 days away from the last day of school... and EVERYONE can feel it. There isn't a teacher in the district who doesn't want school to end...I'd put a quarter on it!

What that means for Bethany in Special Education is: NO prep time and lots of headache. We are right smack in the middle of State End of Level testing which means that we pull out each kid who recieves Special Edcuation services to either test them in a smaller setting, read the test (or allowed parts) to the students, or both. Luckily we have great Paras who help out a ton, but most of the testing falls on us as the teachers. This time of year is also transition time, meaning we have to get our files ready to send to the next school. Luckily for me, I can fix a lot of the files next year at the IEP meetings I hold for the students I keep on my caseload when I move to the High School. This year for some reason as well, we've had a lot of 8th graders qualify for Special Ed services, so we're STILL holding IEPs, which for me is EXTREMELY frustrating because I was done with all but 3 of mine by the end of 1st semester. And on top of it, I still teach, believe it or not. So I come home pretty exhausted everyday. Anyway, I'm ready for my break. Love my job more than words can describe and I'm SUPER grateful to have what job security I have, but I'm definitely ready for the break.

What this means for Chad in Band is: REHERSALS and pass-offs. Chad's last concert of the year is coming up, so its crunch time for him. He spends long hours before and after school getting music finalized and making sure kids know their music during after school sectionals. He is so good with the Intermediate School kids; they would be crying right now if I were their teacher! He is busy arranging for the concert and what to do afterward. He is also playing in Forever Plaid with some locals here in Hurricane, so we haven't seen much of each other the past week or so.

We are SO looking forward to having a two week break! Yes, just two weeks, give or take. Chad has decided to work for the Utah Shakespearean Festival this year again. His rehersals start June 15, so we actually get some time off between the end of school and the start of his summer job. The first in our whole marriage! Usually rehersals start before school is out, so we don't really get a break. I will have a week off and then have an early June Math workshop to attend. Then I have NOTHING until July 12 when I start teaching summer school. I hope I welcome the work rather than resent it! I'll be working Monday-Thursday from 9-3:30 for 2 weeks and then Monday-Wednesday from 9-3:30 of the third week. Meanwhile, we plan on making sure everything is set for September so that when school starts in August, we aren't going crazy trying to get everything figured out at the last minute.

We have enjoyed the beautiful weather of Hurricane, including the wind because we've been able to get outside and fly our kites! Hopefully, the weather will be nice enough that we can take some morning hikes in the next couple of weeks and first weeks of summer before I'm too pregnant to go!

A Scrapbook Update

2010-04-20T23:58:00.005-06:00

I've decided to post the scrapbook page with pictures of camping and our little guy and a little info about both of them. I've decided to hold off on posting the other pages until the end of the year though.
We are really enjoying life and watching our little guy grow.
March weekends were all spent out of town- two on Spring Break, one in SLC for a wedding, and one in SLC for a birthday party! We were also able to spend Easter with family in SLC.
We were just able to have Mandi, Alex, and Darek down for the Annual Kite Festival in St. George! It was a lovely weekend and the weather was fantastic!!!
I was offered a job teaching at Hurricane High School in February and decided to take it. I am very excited about the new job and having the new experiences with the older students! I will also be teaching summer school for two weeks in July.
Chad will be staying at Hurricane Intermediate with roughly the same schedule as this year. He has decided to accept a percussion job for the summer for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. I am quite relieved- I was worried about him working though October with our little boy being due in September.
We are 5 weeks away from being done with the school year! We are both looking forward to having the time off to relax and get ready for little bebe.
We are loving life, things really couldn't be much better!!

And now for the pictures!
Click on the scrapbook pages to get a closer look at the pictures and details about camping and Gryn.

Lucky me

2010-04-08T09:45:00.002-06:00

I don't have to post the story of telling the gender of my baby- my sister did a great job of doing it, so if you'd like to know and read about it, click here :)

Teaching

2010-04-06T15:36:00.002-06:00

I've come to understand that of all the jobs in the world to pick, Teaching is just not one of those "9-to-5" jobs. I dream of going home at contract time, grocery shopping on "easy days" or during reasonable hours, hiking Zion after work, or just reading in the evening.
Most of the time however, I do not come home at contract time, in fact when I do eventually get home, I usually bring something with me from school to get done (however in the past three years, I have gotten MUCH better at leaving work at school). By the time I leave the school, I am so utterly spent, the idea of hiking almost gives me a heart-attack, reading usually puts me to sleep, and I can't think of being in a grocery store for fear that I'll snap!
While this may seem like a complaint, I really love my job. I can't imagine what it would be like to sit and read or go hike or even come home "on time." I especially can't imagine what it would be like to NOT work. I would be SO empty.
So on this day when contract time ended 50 minutes ago, I am still at work, blogging, so I don't have to work.... for a few minutes anyway. I think I'll go home and do laundry, then scrapbook for March and do another post. That'll be my fill for the week!

Its almost April :)

2010-03-24T20:30:00.004-06:00

For those of you wondering about that last post, that was the way we announced to our families (and friends) that there will be a child joining Chad and me in September, provided everything goes "as planned." I put that in quotations, because we all know how plans go...
As for the month of March, Chad and I were able to take a road trip for Spring Break this year. We decided that we'd love to drive to LA and up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco and camp along the way. We figured this would be the last time we'd want to do it without an RV for a while, so we packed up our tent and camping gear and set off. It was extraordinarily relaxing falling asleep and waking to the sound of the ocean each night and morning. We had a wonderful time together!
A few "highlights" of the trip were:
- Flying our kite on the beach!
- Having a picnic breakfast on the beach!
- Being the entertainment for the whole campsite when a raccoon decided to go grocery shopping in our ice chest (it stole the ENTIRE carton of 18 eggs- luckily it dropped them but did manage to steal one out of the carton and take off)
- Not knowing where we were going to stay each night. We would just find a beach, pay the fee and camp. It was great!
- Stopping every 5 minutes because each part of the coast was more beautiful than the next or there was something amazing to see (like a bunch of elephant seals sunning on the beach).
- Learning that the child inside me doesn't like curvy roads after eating (I know it was the kiddo because I don't get motion sickness- EVER).
- Spending so much time with my husband.
- Having Chad participate in some of the things my family did when I was young.
- Reading aloud to each other on the way home.

That kind of sums up my feelings about the trip- it was wonderful!
Our March will continue to be busy, we have been gone every weekend so far this month: two for spring break, one for a Wedding reception, and one more for a birthday party. Everyone will be sure to think we're inactive in our ward...

April brings us Easter in Hurricane again! Also, my cousin and a roommate will be coming to visit! Then we have the Annual Kite Festival! We are SO excited! Oh, and we'll probably find out what kind of bun we're cooking- blue or pink.

I have already made scrapbook pages for January and February which will give an idea of what life was like for those few months since I dropped off the planet. I'll make my March one and then post all three together and hopefully I'll find time to create one or two for the road trip with pictures... we'll see how much time I can set aside! And I'll post the newest picture of the bun- we got to see it again yesterday!

Huh?

2010-02-25T20:41:00.008-07:00

"The Christmas Update"

2009-12-16T14:26:00.004-07:00

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.

2009-12-01T20:26:00.003-07:00

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...

2009-10-25T11:39:00.002-06:00

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?

2009-07-25T17:55:00.005-06:00

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

2009-07-19T00:23:00.003-06:00

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?

2009-07-18T22:15:00.003-06:00

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

2009-06-01T20:36:00.005-06:00

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

2009-04-03T14:09:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-04-03T12:47:00.003-06:00

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

2009-04-03T12:36:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-08T20:39:00.010-06:00

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

2009-02-22T20:50:00.003-07:00

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

2009-02-16T14:29:00.003-07:00

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!

2009-02-09T17:27:00.004-07:00

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

2009-01-05T22:12:00.003-07:00

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.

Digital Scrapbook Fun!

2008-12-28T23:03:00.004-07:00

I have created an album of our wedding using my new digital scrapbooking program! It's the first one and is kinda lame since I'm just discovering the software, but people have requested on facebook that I post wedding pics, so I'm doing it here. And P.S. Digital Scrapbooking is the way to go...I'm just getting into it, but holy crap, I should have asked Santa for one of these a long time ago! I HIGHLY recommend it!

The Christmas Update

2008-12-28T15:54:00.002-07:00

I decided to do an update online this year instead of killing even more trees...so here goes:

Jan. 2008: We began the 2nd half of our first year teaching. We were living in St. George in an adorable 3 bedroom apartment. Life was good!
Feb. 2008: Teaching got a bit stressful for Beth with a crazy parent and with the changes happening at her school. Beth also turned 24. We welcomed a nephew, Kevin, on the 20th.
Mar. 2008: We celebrated our 2 year Anniversary with a Trip to Park City for a few days during spring break. It was beautiful! Beth finds out she will NOT be asked back to PVMS, so we start searching for jobs throughout the state of Utah.
Apr. 2008: Um...Easter? We headed to Las Vegas for Haven's 1st Birthday party! We did lots of job interviewing all over the state, but are both offered jobs in Hurricane, UT. YEA! We still have jobs!
May 2008: Our first year of teaching FINALLY ends. Actually it seemed much faster than we thought it would! Chad finishes up with a piano recital and Beth with End of Level testing. Beth is relieved to begin at a new school next year and Chad is excited to start teaching Band!
June 2008: Chad begins playing percussion for Les Miserables at Tuacahn. He is excited to get into the music scene in St. George (its a small world that you must work your way into). Beth is enjoying the time off of school and is busy finding a place for us to move. We traveled to Las Vegas for our nephew Judd's wedding! It was beautiful! We welcomed a nephew, Brayden, on the 3rd.
July 2008: Hell on earth. Really that's all I want to say...just kidding. Beth has a scare with a job transfer, but gets to keep her SpEd job at Hurricane Middle School. We visit Zion National Park and both get scooters! We find a cute 4 bedroom house to rent (only .7 miles from Beth's school). We are scheduled to move on July 31st. 4 days before we move, Beth's trusty Escort passes away on the side of the freeway (just in time for her before contract-days meetings begin) and we are a few days behind schedule in the "packing to move" department. Chad is assigned the overwhelming job to finish packing, find a fridge, reserve a U-Haul, and research new cars while Beth is at meetings. He did a fantastic job and Beth chilled a little! The move was smooth and were lucky enough to have help from Beths family and some friends! We traded in our two dead cars for a living one the day we moved into the house!
Aug. 2008: We go back to work on the 4th and school begins the 12th. We both already love the environments of our new schools and really enjoy teaching in Hurricane. Beth's whole family came to town the 15th-ish; we had family pictures taken, a birthday party, and the first of many NERF wars to come. We welcom twin nephews, Ian and Darek, on the 22nd (born July 3rd). We are back to "normalcy" in our lives! Oh, and Chad is still working Les Miserables...
Sept. 2008: More normalcy...school is going great for both of us. We travel to Salt Lake to meet one of our two new nephews.
Oct. 2008: We celebrated Chad's 29th birthday! Unfortunately, tragedy hit the next day when our little nephew, Ian, passed away. We spent 5 days in Salt Lake with family and for the funeral of little Ian. We took a planned trip to Disneyland with Beth's sister Mandi, nephews, and parents over fall break. Chad's time with Les Miserables is FINALLY over just as we leave for the funeral. We enjoyed dressing as a pirate and Darth Maul for Halloween!
Nov. 2008: Lots of time working this month. Beth went to a New Kids on the Block concert with her cousin and sister Mandi. We also took a VERY impromptu trip to New York over the Thanksgiving Holiday. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable month. We welcomed a new nephew, Jax, to the family on the 24th!
Dec. 2008: We hotsed a Christmas party for Chad's family on the 12th and we really enjoyed having everyone at our home. We also enjoyed having family at Chad's first ever band concert as a conductor! Beth was VERY proud! We headed up to Salt Lake for Christmas Break on the 19th (and had an adventure getting there!) and have really enjoyed our time with family! We are still awaiting the arrival of the last nephew of the year...we'll see when he comes! Santa was very good to us this year and are grateful for all that we have!

We love our little home in Hurricane, our ward (we teach the 3 year olds), our schools, the people we work with, and the relationships we are building! Life is fantastic!

I have been working on getting NYC pics into a slideshow to post here, but have been a bit busy. I got a digital scrapbook program for Christmas and am currently working on getting ALL my pictures from the past three years on to my new computer. I'm really excited to get going on it!

Pictures

2008-12-03T21:59:00.002-07:00

I have spent the better part of three hours uploading picures on to my computer. Not because my computer is slow, but because we took 454 pictures in New York and still didn't get everything. I am also upload pictures from my old computer on to my "new" computer. I put new in quotation marks because I've had the thing for a year and a half, I just haven't taken the time to put all my old pictures on it. So, expect some serious updates with pictures within a few days- hopefully Saturday won't be crazy, so I can do it then!

P.S. New York was AWESOME! If you can handle big crowds, crazy drivers, and no dirt, I HIGHLY reccommend a visit! Especially during the holidays! Everywhere is better during the holidays!

Tag...I'm it...

2008-11-21T15:06:00.003-07:00

Both of my sisters tagged me on this one... so here goes (an P.S. I'm not tagging anyone else, If you want it, you got it!)

Here are the rules: you need to type 7 things about yourself that you don’t think anyone knows and then choose 7 people to tag at the end and leave their link.

I am pretty vocal about my life, but here goes-

1: When I am REALLY angry, I throw stuff. Keys, balls, pillows, a can, whatever is closest. I have yet to throw anything breakable. However I have done some damage, and am working on changing this!

2: I really dislike when people say "It takes a special kind of person to do that." when I tell them I teach Special Education. Freak, it takes a special kind of person to be a full time Wal-Mart checker, what the heck?

3: I actually used to eat red meat and pork at one point in my life. Thank goodness for that change...

4: I can be crafty and outdoorsy. I am currently in the process of making a tree-skirt for my christmas tree. Its going to be AWESOME- I'll post pics when I'm done! I have always enjoyed hiking, but since I married Chad, I enjoy camping more. However, I do still have my unfounded, ridiculous fear of ANY bug (except the praying mantis for some reason) which doesn't go over well living in Southern Utah.

5: I have impeccable spelling and grammar skills. It works out well for me since I teach middle school Language Arts, but is sometimes annoying because everyone misuses things- biggest peeve: 's and -s (totally different: -s is plural, 's shows ownership).

6: I go INSANE without anything to do. On the flip side of that I also go INSANE when I have too much to do (i.e. when I'm stressed). On both sides, I end up sleaning like mad- ask my parents, their house was immaculate the first time I had finals in college. I guess that's why I'm so clean and organized all the time- I'm INSANE all the time!

7: I don't want to be the parent of an infant. This may come as a shocker because I love my infant nieces and nephews, I just don't want to keep any for myself! Yes, I do want children, just not infants. I also don't want to stay at home with my kids (see #6), I like to work and have "Bethany time". I am a teacher and will be in school for only 1 hour more than my kids everyday and I will have all the same vacations as they will, so bring on the kiddos, just no babies please.

There you have it. There are plenty more that I could share, but they are a little too personal for a public blog!

2008 is...

2008-11-20T15:40:00.003-07:00

The year of the Nephew, not the rat or donkey, it's nephew. The final toll is in and we will have 6 new nephews by the end of the year!

And they are (oldest to youngest):
Kevin David Titus (Feb. 20, 2008)
Brayden Alan Winslow (June 3, 2008)
Darek Ethan Wood (July 3, 2008)
Ian Jacob Wood (July 3, 2008)
Jax Layne Baker (due to come on Tuesday, Nov. 25)
Baby Boy Titus (gender confirmed today and I should've bet on this, I was the ONLY one who was sure it was a boy- due to come on Saturday, Dec. 20)

Thanks to all our married sibs (every married sibling on BOTH sides had a baby this year)- we appreciate y'all taking the pressure from us-anybody up for dibs next year? C'mon, you know you want it!

Wow!

2008-11-18T18:45:00.005-07:00

Chad and I are doing this thing where we are home for a weekend, and then leave for a weekend, home, leave, home, leave...I'm looking forward to this weekend- its a home weekend! However, the last couple of times we have been gone for the weekend have been great!

In fact, last weekend was AMAZING! I went up to SLC for the weekend, by myself, and had a great time. I took Mandi and my cousin Leslie to the New Kids on the Block concert and it was FANTASTIC!!! What a blast from the past. I remembered all th words from their old songs! Mandi and I were total nerds, but we had a great time. It was also Leslies first concert- lucky her! I am still a HUGE fan of Donnie- gotta love the bad boys. Since I was coming up, my mom and I threw a shower for Mandi as well, which had a great turn out, we were very happy for her!
Chad stayed home so that he could catch up on his "man" stuff. We have a difference of opinion on a lot of movies, so he likes to have weekends by himself where he can get his fill of violent movies and video games and eat red meat and fish. He really enjoyed himself as well!

The time previous to that, we headed out to Las Vegas. We spent Halloween night with Hayley and her kids (they were adorable by the way) and left on Saturday morning for a wedding in Las Vegas (P.S. Chad was Darth Maul and I was a pirate for Halloween). It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time catching up with some of Chads friends from High School. We also spent some time with Colby and Stephanie- they set up the spare room for Jax! It was really exciting. We always love being with their family!
We ate at the Cheesecake Factory (Man I love good food) and wandered around the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. We also hit the Bellagio (my fav). They always have a seasonal display (it's huge) made from flowers and plants. This one had a huge mill, giant pumpkins, a really cool fountain, metal trees that were also fountains, a giant ent (that's a talking tree for you non-Lord of the Rings readers), and tree nymphs. It was beautiful. We'll have to take a trip down to see the Christmas and winter ones!

Pictures of stuff will follow!

Our next weekend trip will be over Thanksgiving break. We decided on a whim to go to NYC for Thanksgiving to take part in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (ah the beauty of being childless)!! We depart on Tuesday the 25th (we're taking a red-eye out of Vegas) and coming home on the 30th. We have a good friend who lives out there that has graciously offered to have us for Thanksgiving dinner with his family and we are SO excited. Chad has never been to NY, so it'll be wonderful! I'll post when we get back!!

Update

2008-10-25T21:41:00.002-06:00

With all the recent events, it's been hard to domuch of anything but catch up at work. So, here goes:
Oct. 6: Chad's B-Day! We had dinner with family on the 5th and I took him to The Olive Garden for dinner. It was a nice relaxed evening.
Oct. 7: Ian passed away. It was an emotional day. I don't remember much other than the phone calls from my mom and sister.
Oct. 8-9: Again, not much there. It was hard to focus on teaching...
Oct. 10-14: I decided to give up on trying to be at school since I wasn't productive and I wanted so badly to be with Mandi, so I went up to SLC to be with family. The funeral was on the 14th. Ian was a perfect little tiny baby and I am grateful to have the belief that he will be a part of my family for eternity. My sister and brother-in-law spoke at the service and my nephews and niece sang the song that Pam (a most wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father) was singing to Ian when he died. Throughout it all, I feel that Mandi and Ryan held up very well.
Oct. 15: We came back to Hurricane to teach the last day of the quarter and to enter our grades before our trip to Disneyland. This had been planned since August and i was a bit unsure about going, but we decided to stick with the plans and go. We left at 5 p.m... Originally it was to me Chad, me, Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. Unfortunately my grandpa had a gallbladder attack and they were unable to go. My parents invited Mandi to come with us and she and Ryan decided it was a good plan for her to take Alex and Darek too!
Oct. 16-19: Disneyland. It was so fun and really relaxing to be there. It was so fun going with tiny little Darek. Chad held him most of the time with the exception of after water rides. It is very sweet for me to see that interaction him and our nieces and nephews. Alex was great, he is such a crack up! And it's always nice to be with family in a place like Disneyland! We took everyone on a tour of Disneyland, wich was a cool expereince, even for people like us who go ALL THE TIME! My favorite thing about the trip was that we had to buy mickey ears at Build-A-Bear for Darek! We also found his Halloween costume there- a Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) outift! Needless to say- he is adorable in it! I'll post pics of all the nieces and nephews after Halloween.
Oct. 20-25: Back to real life and responsibility! This was a difficult week. I had lots of behavior problems and felt like I was an underpaid babysitter (which sometimes I believe that's what teachers are.... thats a different story for another time). But at the end of yesterday, I felt much better about my situation as a teacher. We had a lot of catch up to do at school and finally took the time today to unpack from our away time! The best news though is that its a Saturday night at 10:00 and my husband is at home! NO MORE LES MIS!! Its really nice that he can be home in the evenings again!
That brings me to current again! WOO HOO! We've got Halloween plans and a wedding for Chad's friend in Vegas next weekend, so it'll be a good one!

Yep, I'm a princess...

2008-10-25T21:38:00.000-06:00

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

A Heavy Heart

2008-10-07T20:11:00.002-06:00

Life is precious. I realize tonight (as I have in the past on such occasions as this) that life is not to be wasted on such trivial things as broken TVs and the "hardships" of work. But to be spent on forgiveness and love, gratitude and service, prioritizing. Unfortunately, it is true hardship, trial, and sorrow that brings this realization.

Ian Jacob Wood was born on July 3, 2008, 15 weeks early. He suffered some trauma during birth which caused him to be in the NICU. He fought to stay alive and was a miracle just because he was alive. Ian lost the fight this afternoon. Ian was a sweet baby and brought so much excitement and joy into his family's life. Few of us ever met him, but we all had an unconditional love for Ian and his brother the moment we were told that they would join our family. My heart is heavy as I try to imagine the pains my sister and her family are experiencing right now- Ian Jacob has left a hole in all our hearts. We will miss him very much.

Please keep Mandi, Ryan, Alex, and Darek in your thoughts and prayers during this heartbreaking time.

TV

2008-10-05T15:36:00.003-06:00

We finally got cable set up at our house after 3 years of being without TV. Its been a little overwhelming- we're not used to the noise and all the stuff associated with TV. We were pretty excited because for the first time in 3 years, we'd be able to watch conference. Well on Wednesday, our TV started looking like we need 3-D glasses to watch TV. We have had to watch movies on our 19" TV for the past little while...bummer... So hopefully dad will be able to fix the TV when he comes, or else we'll have to get a new one. And after having a 51" TV, it will be EXPENSIVE...

1st Quarter

2008-10-05T15:26:00.003-06:00

The end of the 1st quarter of school is only 8 school days away (thats 10 total days)!!! After the end of each quarter, Washington County School District (WCSD) is kind enough to give us a vacation. At the end of this quarter we get two days off. Well, back in March, Chad's department won teacher team of the year for WCSD and each member got a free 3-day, 2-night trip to Disneyland for 2 people. SO, my parents called us and asked if we were able to go to Disneyland in October and we said yes! On October 15th, we will be heading to Disneyland! My parents and grandparents (how cool is that?!) will be going with us. Anyway, I am very excited. Yea for a vacation! Oh and only 4 showings of Les Miserables until we go- Chad (and I) is (am) very excited that the show will be done!!

Nieces and Nephews

2008-09-20T17:45:00.012-06:00

This is an "I'm proud to be an auntie" blog. The reason I do this is because by the end of this year, between my family and Chad's family, we will have added 6 babies to the family. The babies are not the most important thing, it's that we love that our family is getting bigger and that we can be a part of our neices and nephews lives. Chad and I are so happy to be the(favorite) aunt and uncle of all these kids! It is so much fun for us to watch our nieces and nephews grow!

My brother, Aaron, and his wife, Jen, added a baby boy, Kevin, to their family in February. My sister, Hayley, and her husband, Mike, added a baby boy, Brayden, to their family in June. My sister, Mandi, and her husband, Ryan, were called three weeks ago to adpot twin boys. Mandi brought the first one, Darek, home on Sept. 4 and we went up to meet him on Sept. 5th! The second twin, Ian, is still in the hospital in Virginia (they were born at 25 weeks and are still very smal., but ever so adorable). Chad's brother, Colby, and his wife, Stephanie, are due to have a baby boy, Jax, in late November/early December. My brother, Aaron, and his wife, Jen are due to have another baby in late December. The gender of this baby is yet to be determined. I have my money on it being a boy, which probably means it will be a girl. We'll see. Here are pics of the new additions and then some...

Uncle Chad entertaining Kevin. He is a sweetheart- we don't get to see him ever he lives in Maryland...sadness. That's Mike in the background with Brayden.

The second nephew this year, Brayden. He is a chubby little low key baby. He weighs 16 lbs 8 oz @ 3 months old.

Twin #1, Darek, with a very excited Aunt Bethany and sharing nap time with Uncle Chad while we were visiting. My husband is so cute!

Twin #2, Ian, still in the hospital- we can't wait to finally hold him (and spoil him too)!

I don't have pics of the unborn babies yet.. but here's the rest of the (Titus side) kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa Titus.

Left to right: Alex (5), Emma (2), Grandma holding Kevin, Tyson (almost 6), Anna (above Tyson-almost 4), Christopher (3), Papa holding Brayden. Ian and Darek were added to our family about two weeks after this picture was taken.

I also have pictures of (some of) the Baker side kiddos. We love being involved in their lives and participating in their activities, it's such an honor that they want us around too- we love them so much!

Baylee (almost 3) with Colby watching Thomas and Lottie!

Lottie (15) cheering! She is one of the captains of the cheerleaders this year (as a sophomore). She's such a cutie- it was fun to finally see her perform, we are proud!!

Thomas #11 (17) on the sidelines- he played almost the enitre game last night and it was his birthday! Thomas is also one of the captains of the varsity team. P.S. he is awesome, we are way proud of him!

Judd and Britney (both 20) at their wedding in June. They are a great couple and we are so happy and excited for them!

All in all thats pretty much them. We don't have up to date pics of Kevin (18) or Haven (1 1/2), so we'll have to work on that. So the take home message- we love our nieces and nephews!

Pictures- FINALLY!

2008-09-20T16:42:00.007-06:00

These pictures have taken me forever to post! Life has been busy with all the new changes and posting pics hasn't been priority. We are surprisingly at home in Hurricane. In fact we really love it. The environment at work is so amazing for both of us and we are both doing what we love to do. We have a FANTASTIC neighborhood and ward and just love the people here. We live about 15-20 minutes away from Zion National Park (if you ever want to come out, let us know- you can stay with us)! Life is so good for us right now, we are very happy. Chad is still working Tuacahn, but only has 10 shows after tonight! We are excited to be on a regular sleep schedule! Enjoy the pics- (a disclaimer to the pics- I am not a professional.... and we LIVE in our house, it's not a museum, so there are things out...crazy, I know)

This is the front of our wonderful home. We LOVE not having to share walls with our neighbors and that we have a garage! I didn't realize how picturesque the sky is- beautiful!
No, our house is not on a slant, apparently I was having some trouble. This is the first room you see when you walk into the house. We got to buy a cute little red loveseat! I was excited!This is the living room. Chad was taking a nap...To the left is our awesome TV (which now has cable- by the way, bad choice...). You can see the kitechen/dining area in the background.
The kitchen/dining area. We love having the space to keep our table out to its full size all the time.

Here's our kitchen. We had to give up kitchen space from our last apartment (our kitchen was huge in our last place), but we have more storage here. Also, the fridge is ours, we had to buy one for this house, our landlords "don't do fridges." We found this one used for $200- we were pretty happy about it!

These are the storage areas in the kitchen. The one on the left is big enough to walk into! Yea for storage!

Keeping with tradition, we had to set aside a room for the neices and nephews! This is our playroom. There is a TV to the right that you can't see that has a Playstation2 and Xbox hooked up to it. We have to be the favorite aunt and uncle. This room is to the left of the sitting room. We have a lot of windows in this house which is nice, unless you're taking pictures...

This is the guest room/office. Again- awesome big window, not so good for the pics. This is where Chad spends a lot of time- hence the messiness...

I promised Chad that if we got a 4-bedroom house that one could be an instrument room- so here it is. Our (I say our...but really, do I play on them?...not really) drumsets and any other instrument we have goes in here.

The spare bathroom. The floorplan of the bedrooms and bathroom are almost identical to our last apartment- so if you never got to see it, this is pretty much what it looked like, minus one bedroom.

This is the master bedroom. No, we don't have a blanket on our bed right now- Chad is picky and can't sleep hot, so I get to put a blanket on my side until the weather cools off a bit. The bathroom is off to the left, it's nothing special- we had to give up a LOT of master bathroom space...I was sad. Oh, and dad, notice whose clothes are NOT on the floor...yeah, that would be mine. And no I didn't just clean them up for the picture.

This is the back of our house. We have a cute little backyard filled with lots of plants. It's pretty awesome. We have two pomegranate trees (can't WAIT for those to be ripe!! They're my fav.), a peach tree, and a pear tree, which means we get LOTS of awesome bugs...not my fav...but we also get hummingbirds like crazy. One favorite of the hummingbirds is right outside the dining room window, so every night at dinner we get to watch hummingbirds!!

This is the little patio in the back. The window above the chairs is the window in our living room. The door on the left goes into the dining room and the door on the right goes into our bedroom!
Last, but certainly not least, out garage. The top picture is of my cute little scooter which has gotten me the nickname "Morotcycle Mama" with my co-workers. I love it! The second picture is Chad's bike. He loves it when we ride together- its cute and fun! The bottom two are our new car (its a 2006 Chevy Cobalt 5-speed). We were very sad to lose our cars, but really love this one. My dad calls the color "ticket red" but we have not gotten any tickets yet- we'll see what happens on our drive to CA in October!

Hanging in there...

2008-08-23T22:08:00.004-06:00

We have had a busy month...I will do a better update next Saturday/Sunday but here's the last month in a nutshell:
Chad gets new scooter.
Chad crashes new scooter and sprains ankle 5 min. after buying scooter.
We begin packing our apartment right after we get home from Zion.
Bethany goes back to work July 21st for SPED time @ Hurricane Middle.
Beth gets a scooter.
We are packing our apartment.
Chad is working Les Mis and The Sound of Music @ Tuacahn 3-5 nights a week.
We apply (and are approved) to move into a house on July 31st.
Beth's car dies on July 27th- not sure why. We now have 4 vehicles- only our teeny scooters work :)
Beth goes back to work for District SPED meetings July 28-30th. Beth crashes her scooter after one of these meetings- just took some skin off the knee and bruised her ENTIRE calf...both scooters still work- no worries!
We are STILL packing our apartment.
We begin looking for a new car on July 28th.
We find a car July 30th- and they will take the truck and car from us as trades!
We move into our new home on July 31st (they even put new carpet in for us- its a rental)!
We also finalize the car on the 31st. Yea for our cute new car!
Mom and Dad (Titus) come to St. George for "baby Brayden's" blessing.
We have lots of family time from Aug. 1-3 (i.e. no UNPACKING time).
Chad and Beth go back to work for Quality Teaching Time and Teacher Prep time on Aug. 4th.
Beth goes CRAZY living in a house full of boxes and an unorganized classroom and unpacks the house on the 4th, 5th, and 6th in the evenings!!
Steph and the kids come on the 8th and spend some time!
School starts Aug. 12th- we are busy prepping and organizing our lives at school!
Aug. 15-17 Beth's whole family is in St. George! Yea for meeting a new nephew and having family pics...someone is now bound to get pregnant so that the pictures will be outdated! (P.S. that person is not me...it's actually my sis-in-law Jen- due Dec. 20).
More craziness of getting back into the "back-to-work" routine.
Meanwhile, Chad is still working Les Mis 3 nights a week.

Which catches me up to current. As I said, I will give details next week. We don't have internet at home and the internet at school won't let us get onto facebook and myspace, so if you are waiting for us to reply to that, we will have internet (and TV for the first time in 3 years) hooked up next Saturday! I will post pics of our new house, scooters, car, etc. as well. Love to all-

Zion National Park

2008-07-15T22:42:00.007-06:00

Chad and I (and Chad's friend Kent) went camping at Zion National Park on Sunday night. We got to Zion on Sunday afternoon and went to hike the Narrows (my fav @ ZNP) but just as we got to the entrance, the whole sole of Chad's water shoe came off :( So we turned back and went to the Emerald Pools and Weeping Rock. We camped out Sunday night and Monday morning, we packed up early and headed out to Angel's Landing. It was the most incredible (and difficult) hike we have ever experienced! I highly recommend it if you're up for it and if you're not afraid of heights! We enjoyed beautiful views, adorable little critters, some creepy bugs, good company, good food, and some wonderful memories!

This is the view of The Narrows as you're coming in. It is absolutely gorgeous and serene. The water was REALLY murky and a bit gross this time around as you may notice. Usually the water is crystal clear.

Me- all by my lonesome since Chad's shoe broke. I decided to hike in a little bit by myself.

Chad and Kent touching the 2,000 year old water dripping at Weeping Rock.

The view from Weeping Rock into Zion Canyon.

Chad being very manly and making dinner on Sunday night!

We were about 10 feet away from these two deer as we started our hike to Angel's landing!

"See, I'm fine babe!" What you can't see from this picture is that this rock juts up from one of the "21" switchbacks from hell and that if I took one step off the opposite side I was standing, I would have fallen to my rocky death.

The final ascent to the top of Angel's landing. As you can see, this is not a hike for the faint of heart. There was a point where there was only about five feet of rock and a chain to hold on to and on either side- 800 to 1200 feet of death.

Chad being VERY cautious at the top of Angel's Landing and enjoying the view down!

Me being not as cautious as Chad :) You can't see down well enough though...

A very happy Bethany at the top enjoying the view!!!

The view of the Virgin River from the top, as well as the shuttle stop at Big Bend into the Temple of Sinawava- entrance to The Narrows.

The view down Zion Canyon toward the Visitor Center from the top- this was by far my favorite view!

The Rest of the Weekend

2008-07-10T23:30:00.002-06:00

We went up to Salt Lake for two days- just a quickie trip to get out of the heat and visit family. We went up on Sunday and left Tuesday morning (the 6th-8th). We had a great time! It's always nice to be with family and we hadn't been up since April. We went up to go to Lagoon, but it ended up that we went to the Gateway with my nephew, Alex, instead- a stellar choice, seriously!

There is a train you can catch from Woods Cross (abt. 5 min from where my parents live) that goes into Salt Lake. It is a commuter double decker train called The FrontRunner. So we decided to take the train- what 5 year old boy wouldn't prefer that?- into Salt Lake and catch Trax to the Gateway so that we could meet my mom at Discovery Gateway. What a cute place- Chad and I totally want our house to be like this place when we have kids- all hands on kid sized stuff- a house, grocery store, garden, water area, building area, a real friggin helicopter, you name it! Awesome!

We ate lunch, finished up at Discovery, went to the fountain- the most popular place at the gateway- then had some ice cream (after all, what kind of Aunt and Uncle would we be if we didn't have ice cream?) and Alex showed us the Clark Planetarium. We lamented about how there is NOTHING like these places in St. George and it is sad. We would so enjoy something like this all the time. I guess we'll have to take more trips to Salt Lake!

We took the train home, went to dinner, and then to Alex's T-Ball game. Ok, kid sports are THE BEST! We've watched Tyson play soccer and video of Anna at her dance recital, and now Alex at T-Ball. There really aren't any words to describe the entertainment it provides and how sweet it is because they are so proud of themselves!

My parents also saved their box of fireworks for when we were there! It made me so happy because, like I said, they are my FAV! Ok, enough rambling...here are pics:

This is our "flying things" invention we put together at Discovery Gateway. We were proud that we got all of the pieces moving! FYI- Discovery is kind of like The Exploratorium in San Fransisco (for those of you who have been there), just geared toward a younger audience.

The two pics above are of us with Alex on the air med helicopter @ Discovery Gateway! So fun!

This is us on the moonscape at the Clark Planetarium (notice the EARTH in the background- yeah baby!!)
Alex and me sucking on our rock candy on the train back home! Yea for rock candy- it's the best!
Chad in a very "Big Brother is watching" pic, sucking on his rock candy on the train home.

Alex on his last batting of the game- he gets to run everyone in, so ultimately he's the only one that gets a home run. T-Ball rules are friggin' weird, but it was cute!!

Happy 4th of July...a few days late

2008-07-10T23:13:00.001-06:00

Chad, Tyson, and Bethy- a pic from the camera phone- these are not as easy to take as I thought. Maybe it's just my phone.
Tyson and the hand sanitizer he got from the parade- he was very proud! As he should be!
Anna: "Bethy, look at my new shirt!" Bethy: "Anna, your shirt is so cute!" Anna: "Its a United States of America shirt!" Bethy: "*Laugh* Oh, is that what it is?!" Real dialogue about Anna's shirt.

Our 4th of July weekend was so much fun! This is the first summer (out of 4) since Chad and I have been together, that Chad didn't have some kind of show he was performing in on the 4th! It was AWESOME! We went up to Cedar City for the annual 4th of July "Parade"- it usually consists of a bunch of ATVs, Trucks, and Emergency Vehicles driving down main street- that's what it was this year again, we musn't break tradition! It was fun- we met with my sister, Hayley, and her family to watch the parade.

Chad and I took off for a bit to check out scooters in town and decided to go to a movie. We took the niece and nephew to Wall-E since we hadn't seen it! Oh my gosh- it was so cute! I definately reccommend it to anyone! We then got 5 buck pizza (our fav) and took it to The Greenshow!

We went back to St. George- tired from the long day- and staked out a spot for fireworks at the park. It was great! I love fireworks!

I love this holiday because if it wasn't for this day Chad and I wouldn't have ever met (probably), so it always makes me happy! Also, y'know, we wouldn't have the freedoms we have...eh...

All for Naught

2008-07-10T23:08:00.001-06:00

As I said in my last post- all the ranting and breaking down was for naught- everything did work out as it needed to. Chad interviewed for Tuacahn High School (one of two interviewed out of 25 applicants- I'm very proud of him!!) and ended up not getting the music position. He will stay part time at Fossil Ridge Intermediate doing piano and part time at Hurricane Intermediate doing band! Yea! I will stay at Hurricane Middle doing special Education! Yea!!! The power of prayer works- living proof! I am very appreciative to the interim director of SPED for all the hard work she did to keep me!
We are currently looking for a house in Hurricane (to rent, not buy) so that we can move by the end of the month! We are very excited about life today!!

New Job??

2008-07-03T21:54:00.000-06:00

This morning, as I was putting phone calls in to perfect our perfectly planned life (I don't exaggerate) I recieved a phone call that tore apart my perfectly planned life. I am a planner and a solver. I plan things WAY ahead of time so that if a problem arises I can solve it before a deadline. Well through careful planning and prayer, Chad and I had felt that our life was going great- we both had full time jobs in the same town, we could afford to move out there into an actual house, we had a timeline for moving, getting back to work, going to necessary meetings for work- all the things I do to keep myself sane. We had started looking in papers and online for homes to rent in Hurricane and I decided to call on them today. Almost every single number led to the same house- one that we came upon by accident and really thought was a cute house. It was right next to where I was going to be working, great rent- perfect for us, fate (as it were) was intervening!
Not quite so...I hung up with the landlord of the house and immediately answered a call from the Principal at LaVerkin Elementary School informing me that I would be working at her school next year- I had been reassigned. I had heard no such thing and asked politely if she could repeat that. She did and was entirely confused, so we both hung up and made our phone calls to the district office. I found out, quite to my dismay, that it was indeed true and that I would be teaching 3rd grade at LaVerkin Elementary next year. I spoke with the interim director of special education later tonight (she quite literally called in the middle of a breakdown I was having) and I feel somewaht ok with the situation at hand. There are still issues at hand that need to be settled, so I may yet be able to work in special education- but everything is up in the air- and for those of you who know me well- that doesn't work in my world...I NEED TO PLAN!!!
I am entirely conflicted for many reasons- I don't know about teaching 3rd grade- it has never been a goal EVER to be an elementary school teacher- my passion is special education. But if I didn't have a dual degree, I wouldn't have a job right now, as I am reminding myself constantly- I am lucky to have a job. I do have a feeling that the ranting and breaking down will all be for naught- things will work out the way they need to.
Thanks for listening-I'll keep you "posted" (he he) on the situation!

Family

2008-07-03T21:24:00.000-06:00

It has been a while sit I sat down to bog. My mom, sister, and nephew came down and stayed with us from the 22nd until the 27th. They really came to see my new nephew, but I like to think they were her for me...just kidding. We went on a shopping spree to buy my niece, Anna, a new wardrobe since she hit a growth spurt and didn't fit into any of her summer clothes (and as you may know, St. George is a place where a summer wardrobe is a MUST-HAVE!!). It was lots of fun- all the girls went shopping while the boys went to my sister's house and played video games- we are obviously a very gender specific family!
We also went to a place called Jumpin' Jacks. For any St. George Residents with children or not- this place is AWESOME! It's an indoor place with the blow up play equipment (like slides and obstacle courses and boxing rings where you use gloves the size of Kansas) that you would find a carnivals and outdoor festivals. This is a place where parents take their children during the hot St. George summer days to play. Well for BORING adults, you can opt to sit and "watch" free of charge. Or if you're an AWESOME adult, you opt to play with the kids for $5. My sister, Mandi, by brother-in-law, Mike, and I opted to play. Mandi and I did an obstacle course together. I wish we would have had someone with a camera on us- it was hilarious. First we couldn't get up because we were awkwardly big and once we finally did, we toppled town the slides instead of gracefully flowing down them. Everyone ended up playing-it was ridiculous fun!
My dad came for about 5 hours on his way home from a business trip- he threw out his back and could hardly move two days before he left on the trip and then had huge weather issues coming home from the east coast- poor daddy! He made it to St. George, met the new grandson, and then got in the van with everyone else and headed home! Poor guy...
We BBQed and watched movies together, saw shows, spent lots of money, held the baby, played with the kiddos, etc. Its always fun to have family around.
About 2 hours after my family left, Chad's brother called and asked if they could come visit that night. We had planned on them coming to see Les Mis with their daughter, so we had already started laundry and they came around 9:00 on the 27th. We played games with them, saw Get Smart (which was MUCH BETTER than I had originally thought it would be- I was impressed), I got to see Les Mis with them. We always love having them around. They left the morning of the 29th. They are such wonderful positive people- I need to be around them more!!
It was an eventful week. Needless to say, Chad and I crashed when all was said and done. It was a very fun week!

More Vegas Fun!

2008-06-21T15:42:00.000-06:00

We made a quick trip to Las Vegas again- this one was much "quicker" than the last. A few weeks ago I found out my best friend , Leslee, from childhood was going to be in Vegas for a few days. I had not seen her since I was 19 (I know...SOOO long ago) so I talked with Chad and we decided to make a trip down to see her and meet her boyfriend/may as well be fiance, Chris. We met them at Mandalay Bay and went through the Shark Reef (which was pretty awesome- not Sea World, but in the desert, I'll take what I can get). We also went over the the Bellagio to check out the seasonal plant display (super cool, as always) and over to the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace. It was so great to spend some time with them and get to know Chris a little bit. We also went to see Beauty and the Beast that my sister-in-law, Stephanie did all the choreography for- it was wonderful! She did a great job! I've included a few pics of the time we spent with Leslee and Chris.

They take a picture of you in front of a green screen and then you can choose the background you want when you buy the picture. I have such a wierd huge pointy nose in this pic. It makes me wonder if my nose always looks like that in pictures...

Yea- friends in Vegas!

You know you're a Titus/Mallory when...

2008-06-21T15:11:00.000-06:00

Last week I was rummaging through my picture box (3 ft long, 1 1/2 feet wide, 5 in deep- it took a while to get through all of them...) and came across a few pics that just made me laugh. My nieces look quite a bit like me- see below.

This is me on my 4th(?) birthday. When we asked my niece Anna who this picture is of, she said, "That's me!" (Refer to the pictures on "The Long Awaited Arrival" for pictures of Anna- it's a bit crazy how much she looks like me.)

We also asked Anna about this picture. She had wised up a little and said, "Bethy?" We asked who the baby was- "That's baby Brayden!" Of course, we are so silly, how could we not know?

The picture on the top is of me on my blessing day. The one on the bottom is my niece, Emma, wearing an hierloom blessing dress. Look at the faces.

We all know that these little girls will be the cutest little kids ever- and now I don't need to have kids because I know what my little girls would look like!!

The Weekend

2008-06-12T15:54:00.001-06:00

We spent our weekend in sunny Las Vegas! Chad is from Vegas and we've spent a fair amount of time there in the past three years. We have come to love staying with Chad's brother Colby and his family. On the 6th, 7th, and 8th, we got to participate in the wedding festivities of Colby and Stephanie's oldest son, Judd! The kids were married at the Las Vegas Temple and had pictures with everyone afterward- they looked great, tired but great! The reception was great- lots of food, candy, music, etc. The whole thing was beautiful, fun, and relaxing. We ended up staying two extra days just to hang out with Colby and Stephanie. We went to the park and had a picnic, played croquet, and ran through the fountain with Baylee- my personal favorite! Stephanie also does a stretch/toning class every morning at her home (she is an awesome dancer and I hope I look as great as she does when I am her age)! Both mornings we were there Chad and I BOTH did the class- It was awesome, we're continuing the moves she taught us at home so that we can both "have bodies of greek gods (according to Chad)" by the end of the summer (yeah...we'll see). We also got to spend some time with Chad's aunt and uncle- they are great, understanding people- we realy enjoyed our time with them. They have two adorable dogs- we left wanting to get dogs when we move in July/August. We got home and are struggling to get back into being humans with responsibilities again.

The Long Awaited Arrival!

2008-06-04T15:37:00.000-06:00

After 9 long months of waiting (especially the last few days) - Brayden Alan Winslow has finally joined the posse of our awesome nieces and nephews! He was born last night at 9:45 p.m. weighing 8 lbs 1 oz and measuring 20 in. long. His big brother and sister Tyson and Anna have been staying with us since Monday night and were very excited to hear from their dad last night that "their new baby" was born! Much to Tyson's relief, the big bump that was mom's belly is gone (that was his first question)! Chad and I took the kiddos up to Cedar City this morning to meet their new brother! Brayden is very mellow and even tempered. He gets a little angry when you take his hands away from his face and he likes to suck on his fingers! His mom is really happy that she FINALLY got a baby with dark hair. Here are some cute pics of Brayden and the new "family of 5!"

The whole family!

He's still squishy and looks like a little old man!

Brayden Alan Winslow- he's pudgy and cute!

Tyson and Anna are excited to bring their new baby home!

"Anna you have two brothers now- you're not going to be able to handle it." -A quote from Tyson as we were visiting!

Anna's voice gets about three pitches higher when she even talks about Brayden!

Uncle Chad will be notorious with Hayley's kids as the "comfy uncle." He's warm and comforatble, so babies naturally fall asleep on him. As soon as I held Bradyen he was wide awake! I guess I'll be known as the bony ice queen (according to Chad).

Uncle Chad holding and feeding the smallest/youngest baby he's ever touched!

My two favorite St. George Nephews...cuties!

My First Days of "Freedom"

2008-05-28T19:14:00.000-06:00

School is officially out! Chad and I (barely) survived our first year of teaching and are EXTREMELY happy to have some freedom! I took advantage of Saturday by staying in my pjs all day! I think I was 12 the last time I did that...it was AWESOME!
We had a BBQ with Hayley and Mike on Monday at "the secret park" close to our apartment. The weather was weird- sunny one minute, then cloudy and windy the next. It got increasingly better though! Unfortunately, since then I have been in meetings but I am getting paid to be there, so it all works out! I am praying that the Winslows will call tonight with baby news so that I don't have to go to the meetings tomorrow, if not, well, tomorrow is the last day anyway.
Chad has loved not having me around- let me explain: he has this strong urge to watch violent movies, something I cannot do without getting really distraught. We rented 7 movies for him so that he can get his fill of violence for a while (it makes me...happy?). I'm out.

Blog, the first

2008-05-22T18:47:00.000-06:00

Both my sisters started blogs, so I decided I would join the group. Well, this was created in February or March, something ridiulous like that- I obviously have kept up on it. Anyway, I'm finally going to give it a shot, now that I have a bit more free time on my hands (school is out tomorrow)!! I'm shooting for one a week...we'll see!