Spring Break

This week was Clark County school district spring break and what a needed break it was. There are three and a half weeks left of my student teaching and I am so ready to be done. I spent most of my week going to the nearby rec center to swim every morning and teaching lessons with the sister missionaries.

Wednesday I went crazy and spent the entire day cleaning. I deep cleaned EVERYTHING and it felt awesome! My diligence inspired Justin is some way because when he got home we went shopping and he bought a ton of new shirts at Kohls (he NEVER buys clothes for himself) and we also got new pillows and a mattress pad. We are that much closer to finishing the bed...we can't find a bed frame or a box spring anywhere! And I've killed one too many giant spiders in our apartment as of late so the sooner we get off the floor, the better. I called my mom last week and told her that when we finally get a box spring and bed frame this will be the first time in our MARRIAGE that our bed will be off the floor. #gazelleintense 

Thursday I got my hair done again. I didn't think she put enough blonde in the last time so she agreed to do it again. I like it much better now! I also went to the mall and spent the rest of my birthday money and giftcards. I love that! Friday I put in a Mary Kay order - the first one in months! During the summer I'm going to work my business in this area and see what I can do. Justin and I watched "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and we quite liked it though I wouldn't necessarily recommend it...we are pretty hard up for entertainment over here. 

Saturday we exercised in the morning and then got ready for a baptism. We were put in charge so we went down two hours early to set up and there were wedding decorations up in the relief society room where the baptismal font was! Luckily the wedding was over so we could clean it up and there were no problems. The gal that got baptized is about my age with a two year old and she's been attending a different ward for 8 months! So we hope she acclimates to our ward okay. Justin conducted the meeting and I had an opportunity to bear my testimony. It was cool that she was baptized this weekend because of the symbolism of baptism and the resurrection of Christ. 

We went to Target after the baptism and then went to The District which is like the glorified version of Hemming Village in Rexburg. You can walk around all these different shops and restaurants and there's  no street for cars so you just walk around. It has a really fun atmosphere. We look forward to eating at the restaurants in the future! 

For Easter I made Mom's Sunday dinner - yum! We had sirloin tip roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green jello, and I made strawberry pretzel dessert. Our Easter sacrament service was really nice. Justin and I taught Gospel Principles and showed the "Because of Him" video. I absolutely love that video! It is so inspiring. The music is awesome and the message of Christ is powerful and true. 

That was pretty much our Easter weekend and my spring break. I am so excited to go home to Arco this weekend for our annual girl's weekend. I miss Idaho. I miss Idaho air and water and weather. And I haven't seen my family in forever so I'm excited! Until next time!

Highlights! It took four hours...

Las Vegas Sun

We got some self-serve fro-yo at The District - YUM!

Sportin' our new Target looks

Stuffed French Toast with Strawberries - YUM!

We LUUUURRRRV each other 

Sunday Dinner!

#nofilter #noshame

Happy Easter! #becauseofHim

Grand Canyon Trip!

This weekend was our Grand Canyon trip with the Rose family plus Keaton! Jon, Laura, and Clara and Joe flew into town on Wednesday. We had to ask The Brooks to help us transport everyone to our house since our car wouldn't fit everyone. We had chicken burgers and pasta salad (artichoke, olives, tomatoes, and basil = yum!) for dinner at our place. Thursday Justin and Joe hung out all day at The Strip while I was at school. We had the "Staff vs. Student" basketball game after school and they came to watch. I score the first five points of the game (woot woot!) with a three-pointer and a layup. After that it turned into jungle ball; the students were being super aggressive and the teachers were getting angry! It was a close game and in the end the staff won. It was a fun time!

Butterfly exhibit in the Bellagio

Watching the fountain show

We went to a buffet at the Bellagio and met up with James and Bonnie. Turns out you need to be aware of food containing alcohol at this buffet! As I was filling up my dessert plate I wasn't looking at the signs next to the food I was just looking at what looked good. I had a few bites of everything and then later James told me the eclair I had a few minutes ago had alcohol in it! I thought he was teasing me but sure enough, above the pile of white chocolate eclairs there was a sign reading "Contains alcohol - Bourbon." It was an honest mistake but really funny.

Buffet time!

On the balcony of Jon and Laura's hotel room

Laura, Jon, and Clara

Keaton flew in that night and he and Bonnie stayed the night at our place while everyone else stayed at a hotel. Friday morning Jon picked up the 15 passenger van and Keaton, Bonnie, and I enjoyed Nutella and strawberry pancakes! Around 9 we loaded up and were on our way by 9:30. We hit the Hoover Dam and later lunch in Arizona at In-N-Out. This was Keaton's first experience with In-N-Out so that was fun. We continued on and when we were about an hour away from the Canyon we went to "Bearizona:" which is a similar park to Bear World in Eastern  Idaho. We drove through different sections of the park and saw big horn sheep, wolves, bison, and arctic fox. We walked through an area that's more like a zoo than a drive through park and saw bears, goats, bobcats, otters, porcupine, and fox. The bears were fun to watch as they were climbing trees and playing together. With the goat enclosure we were allowed to walk through it. The mama goat bleated and two other goats came RUNNING and sprawled under her belly and started drinking her milk: it was HILARIOUS!

Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam...check out that water line!

Playful bear cubs

From there we stopped at a Safeway to get food for the next day. Our "cabin" was an unexpected surprise. We followed the directions on Laura's phone and when we saw what we were staying in everybody was a little apprehensive: it looked like a regular trailer house. But when we pulled up and actually went inside it was awesome! The place was completely decked out. The kitchen had a lot of old-fashioned components to it that was very nostalgic. There was a telescope and lucky us, Bonnie worked as a telescope operator for the physics department when she was at BYUI so she pointed out some planets to us. Unfortunately it became overcast when the sun really went down so we didn't do much with the telescope. They had horses and carrots for us to feed them. We had taco salad for dinner and Justin made peach cobbler for dessert. We sat around the fire and told a bunch of funny stories. That was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. It got really windy so we put out the fire and went inside to chat quietly so we didn't wake up Clara. We were all pretty exhausted so we were all in bed by 10. Our mattress was amazing...but of course we would think that after sleeping on an air mattress for four months! p.s....we found a mattress for free last week: it was propped up against the dumpster at the same spot the couch was put when we found it a few weeks ago. We have no shame: we took it in and we have a real mattress again! Now we just need a box spring and a bed frame and maybe (if it's cheap) a head board. Slowly but surely!

Feeding the horses!

This horse was hogging all the carrots

Our "cabin"

Peach Cobbler!

Saturday we had a quick breakfast, packed up, and were out the door by 8:00. We did Mather Point first: a lookout near the visitor's center. It was gorgeous! My favorite part of the Canyon was watching Keaton respond to the scenery. He was loving it! Justin hung out with Joe most of the day so I could hang out with Keaton and we had lots of fun. We did a "Trail of Time" hike that is just a 1.2 mile (2 km) "hike" along the rim of the canyon where every meter is 1,000 years so it takes you back 2 billion years which is the oldest rock exposed at the bottom of the Canyon. Along the way there were rocks from each of the formations of the Canyon which I really got a kick out of. Sometimes the family would ask me how the rock formed so I had fun explaining about the Canyon, how it formed, and what rocks are involved. From there we hit the Bright Angle Trail head and hiked for about an hour. We got to a certain point where Jon and Laura, Justin, and Joe turned around so Keaton, James, Bonnie, and I pressed on. I wanted them to see the first cabin stop of the hike where there's a restroom and water so we started running after we split up. We hustled down but after five minutes we could see we wouldn't make it to the cabin so we turned around. We hiked all the way to the Hermit Formation so we made it through four of the nine formations in the Canyon. We rode the bus back to the visitor's center, had lunch, and then explored the shops at the visitor's center. We rounded everyone up by 1:45 and we were on our way home.

We hiked down to the Hermit Shale

Mather Point

Mather Point

Next to the Coconino Sandstone Formation

Mather Point

The Four Brothers

Bright Angel Trail

Mather Point

Bright Angel Trail

A storm came in just as we were leaving.

Along the "Trail of Time" hike

The morning sun makes for the best pictures

I was really happy Keaton could join us. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him!

After much contention and a long day of driving (which we can all laugh about now...right?) we finally made it back to Vegas. We determined we would meet up at BJ's Restaurant around 8 PM. Justin offered to babysit Clara so Jon and Laura could go out with the rest of us. After dinner everyone was exhausted so we decided to take everyone back to the hotel to get some shut eye and to pick up Justin from babysitting. Since Keaton didn't get to do any of The Strip on Thursday night because he got in so late we decided to suck it up and take him to see a thing or two! That was the right choice: Keaton loved it! We drove up Las Vegas Boulevard and we saw the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. We enjoyed people watching from the car until we parked at the Bellagio. After meandering through traffic and crowds of people, we barely made it to the fountain show which looks really nice at night. We walked through the casino and watched people lose a lot of money and then went to the butterfly exhibit. From there we headed home after a long exhausting day!

Sunday morning we drove Keaton to the airport and then went back to bed until it was time for church. We were exhausted! Everyone accidentally left all the Easter candy they brought so we ate it all night while watching Netflix. Good times!

This week is my spring break and I am thrilled! I went swimming this morning at the nearby rec center for a half-hour. Phew! It was a workout! I'm excited to get back into swimming. Here's to enjoying the rest of my spring break! After that it's just a few short weeks of student teaching and I am done! Also, ladies: I'll be making a Mary Kay order this week. If you'd like me to get anything for you let me know this week and I'll bring it to Arco when we get together for our Girl's Weekend. Until next time!

General Conference Weekend

Wow...what an inspiring General Conference weekend we just had! Justin and I watched most of the sessions at the stake center with the missionaries, other ward missionaries, and an investigator from our ward. I loved the talks so much. I took pages and pages of notes. Sunday morning session was especially inspirational to me. I'm so grateful for living prophets who guide us in these latter days!

Friday night Justin and I attended the temple with our ward for ward temple night. Tuesday and Saturday night I went to teach with the sister missionaries. We have new assignments as ward missionaries for people to visit. We really love our calling and our ward! 

Girl's basketball open gym last week went well-ish. I didn't have as many girls attending as I would have liked so I'm still trying to recruit. Today, however, I had a great turn out and some of my students came even though they are guys. It's been fun! This week our school is doing a "Students vs. Staff" basketball game that I'm playing in and I'm so excited! I've been talking trash to my students all week. 

We are scheduled to get our tax return this week and thanks to Justin's accounting skills we are going to get a nice one! Woot! 

This week Justin's brothers and Keaton get to come visit us and we are going to the Grand Canyon. I've been reading "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon" for the trip. I've read about people dying from dehydration, drownings, flash floods and literally falling off the edge in the canyon. It's so interesting but slightly unnerving as we are visiting at the end of the week...  But we are very excited to have family come down and we can't wait!

That's pretty much our update. Nothing new has really happened. I'm teaching about earth history right now and the students are doing month-long CRT testing so nothing exciting there. Student teaching is way too long in my opinion and I'm totally over it. Until next week!

We Did Something Crazy!

There is so much to write about. Last Wednesday I had my student teaching portfolio review. In the morning I was expected to teach a regular lesson and I was told that some random BYUI faculty would eventually show up to watch me teach. In the morning one of my students came in to get some missing assignments and she had a friend with her that I didn't know. I asked her what her name was and she told me and then she said, "Everyone talks about how awesome you are." I said, "That is very kind of them," but inside I was like WAAAAAAAA!!!!! That made my life. The BYUI faculty didn't show up until 3rd period but I was ECSTATIC when I saw who walked through the door! I have three top favorite professors from school and one of my top three walked through my classroom door! Ahhhh! I almost started laughing on the spot I was so happy! He and two other faculty with my supervisor sat in the back of the classroom and watched me teach the next hour. I had the kids doing stations so I was able to chat with my teacher and he had so many positive things to say. I left after 3rd period to meet with the other student teachers at a nearby church building where we waited for our turn to be interviewed. They have been known to ask questions like "How did you plan to get all your students to 100% understanding?" within the unit we showcased to which I'd like to respond, "How do YOU plan to get all YOUR students to 100%?" because lesbehonest the answer is "It's impossible to get 100% of my students to 100% understanding," but I had prepared to come up with some "fluffy" answer anyway...well I go in for my interview and they didn't ask me ANY hard questions. It was the easiest thing ever. They loved my portfolio. They thought it was immaculate and that ALL student teacher portfolios should be based off of mine for reference (WOOOOOOT!!!!!!). They were "effusive" (to use one of their vocabulary words) in their approval of my performance so far. They were very complimentary and it was very encouraging. Go me! #totallyrockingstudentteaching

After the portfolio review my fellow student teachers and I went to Cafe Rio to celebrate. It's weird because we've proved ourselves to the school so we've "passed" student teaching... but we still have seven more weeks of teaching to complete...so it's weird but whatever. I went to get my hair done after Cafe Rio. I used my birthday groupon gift card to get my hair styled and highlighted. I love my new style and color, but I wanted more blonde...so I may go in again in a month to put more in but we'll see. After getting my hair done I taught a lesson with the missionaries to an 11 year-old who is very excited about going to church and learning more about the gospel! I love going out to teach with the sisters. It is such a fulfilling experience to share my testimony with so many people!

Before...

During!...

After! I love the layers; they add so much.

Friday we went out to dinner with Trisha and Travis. That was fun to see them for the evening while they spent their weekend in our neighborhood. That was all we saw of them as they were busy with their own adventures but we were grateful we got to see them while they were here.

Saturday I spent the day driving the missionaries around to meetings they needed (they were at the end of their miles for the month) and then we attended the General Women's Conference that evening. Oh my goodness....it was so amazing! The meeting was incredible; the spirit was so strong! I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a women's meeting so much in my life! I saw that Mom went with Shae and it made me miss going to events like that with family. Seeing the mothers with their arms wrapped around their daughters in the choir made the whole congregation teary. Priceless!

Sunday we had an interesting 5th Sunday combined 3rd hour meeting. Some "guest teachers" came and taught about depression. They referenced Elder Holland's talk last October Conference "Like a Broken Vessel." Based on what they taught it sounds like there are plenty of people out there who have depression but they are not diagnosed! That's sad because it's very treatable. The lady that taught was great because she currently treats her depression to the best of her ability but she still has hard days so she is very relatable to those who struggle. She also recommended some books that I wrote down for that day when I have kids and they are making me a crazy person in which case I could very well go through a spell of depression. It's good stuff to know and nothing to be ashamed of! I'm grateful that our society is becoming more aware that mental illness is metal illness the same as a person with cancer or diabetes has illness. Thanks to modern medicine 80% of people who seek treatment for their depression find reprieve. Anyway...just good to know. 

Sunday night we did some visits to people in our ward. We visited my visiting teacher Rachel just because we felt like seeing their family and we noticed they are in a similar situation we were in a few months ago...they moved here the same time we did and had to leave everything behind just like us! Their sweet family of seven children was there enjoying the TV but having to sit on the floor. Well...Justin and I found a free couch just a week ago, so the next day I asked her if we could give her family our sectional! She said they were looking to get a couch in the near future but until they upgrade they agreed to use it for the next little while. They need it more than us! We got done with work on Monday and helped our friends Christine and Todd Brooks move into their new apartment. We worked hard for two hours moving furniture out of the storage unit into their upstairs apartment. After we were done moving we went out to eat at Red Robin and then used The Brook's trailer to take our sectional over to Rachel's house. Their family was SO HAPPY. It was such a good feeling seeing those sweet kid's faces light up that they didn't have to sit on the floor anymore! They are so sweet...and they are basically the Von Trapp family. Every one of them can sing very well and each is talented in ballet, cross country, music, and the like! They are performing in stake conference in a few weeks. 

So now we are enjoying our free couch that we've moved in from the back porch along with a little more space since the sectional is gone. My supervisor observed me today and gave me all 4's out of 4! Oh, and yesterday I started my first day running girl's basketball open gym. Only a few girls showed up so as it continues throughout the next seven weeks or so I'll get a better turn out. Tonight I'm going out with the sisters again to teach another lesson to another investigator. Justin and I look forward to general conference this weekend. Both our families did special food for it so we're going to make some fun food. That's it for an update!

Prepping for some skills and drills.

Our couch for now