The Weekend

This weekend was actually somewhat eventful for us, considering the fact that we don't usually do anything extravagant. . . some married couples are cool and plan fun dates and all that kind of stuff. . . we are not one of those couples! But this weekend was fun. On Friday we stayed home and watched a movie, Law Abiding Citizen was on TV, that show is crazy! Saturday we slept in a little and we both had school/work stuff to do in the morning, but later in the afternoon we decided to take a drive up to Sundance because it finally snowed and we wanted to test out the skills of the Subi! He ran like a champ until we tried to turn around in a parking lot that had about a foot and a half (that might be a slight exaggeration!) of dense snow on the ground. Luckily some nice people were there and helped pull us out.

Jared got a little wet from trying

to get the car free!

Later that evening we went to dinner at PF Changs, thanks to my parents for the gift card from Christmas! We opened up our fortune cookies and got some pretty good advice

Ironically, we are going out of town this weekend (more on that later), but I wouldn't necessarily call our destination exotic. . . especially in the winter time. Also, we are hoping to get some good news as a result of this trip, so the fortune cookies happened to be spot on this time!

After dinner I got together with some of my friends for a girls night. My friend Emily threatened me until I agreed to let her paint my fingernails. . . which lasted approximately 20 hours or so as I just took the nail polish remover to them about an hour ago, hehe sorry Em! It was good to catch up with the girls, and Jared had a fun time watching some weird zombie movie (28 days or something, it sounded creepy!) while I was gone.

Today our friends Chase and Dana blessed their baby boys, so Jared and I went up to SLC for that. Chase and Dana are some of our closest friends up here, so it was great to be able to share the special day with them and it was fun to meet some of their family! After church we watched football and after getting in our fill of "Axe Men" (my bro-in-law will appreciate that!) we are off to bed. . . a pretty successful weekend by our standards! :)

With Chase and Dana

(observe the nail polish. . . ha)

I'm holding Tate and Dana is holding Porter,

cutest twins in the whole world!

2012

I was going to post about our holiday activities, but I can't find the camera cord so since I can't post any pics or videos, all I will say is that Christmas with Jared's family was super fun and we were lame and didn't do a whole lot worth reporting for New Years Eve ha! Maybe when I can find the camera cord I'll post about the holidays, but until then I'll post about 2012.  I'm not a huge fan of setting "New Year's Resolutions," in fact, I can't even think of a time when I actually sat down at the beginning of a new year and made goals, yep I'm that cool :)  This year will be no different, so instead, I'm going to write down a list of things that we "will do" and things that we "want to do" during 2012.


Things we will do. . . 

1. We will pay off our student loans, only 4 more months to go baby!
2. I will finish writing my thesis-of-doom and graduate with a Master's Degree!
3. Jared will get a roof rack for the Subi. . . already has half of it now
4. We will pay off my car loan
5. I will continue to make dinner most nights
6. Jared will continue to go on lots of bike rides
7. We will be moving up toward the SLC area, not sure where exactly, but somewhere north of Provo!
8. I will turn 25, the big quarter century year!
9. Jared will turn 28 this year. . . nothing special about 28, other than it sounds old ;)
10. We will watch the rest of the second season of The Walking Dead
11. I will exercise only when I feel like it, which is not often haha!
12. Jared will continue to curse the crappy Utah drivers on his commute to work.
13. We will be watching alot of basketball in the next four months and then alot of summer Olympics after that!
14. I will continue to watch our budget like a hawk because I'm a little OCD when it comes to finances
15. Jared will design some sweet stuff at work and will likely pick up some free lance projects on the side
16. We will spend alot of evenings hanging out and relaxing together, we just aren't the most social people on the planet!

Things we want to do. . .

1. We want to get some new couches, we are thinking a sectional
2. I want to fly back to Cleveland sometime over the summer so that Jared can meet the rest of my extended family back there
3. Jared wants to get fog lights for the Subi
4. We want to see the Hunger Games movie
5. I want to find a new apartment that is big enough to fit my piano
6. Jared wants to find a new apartment that is big enough for all of our biking and camping junk!
7. We want to go on a fun road trip somewhere with friends
8. I want to get a job as an adjunct professor at BYU teaching math (this is a freakin long shot but it would be cool!)
9. Jared wants to get a job at REI Headquarters (another long shot, but this is a list of "wants" people!)
10. We want to go to see a Jazz game when they play Jimmer's team
11. I want to learn how to cook some good German food like schnitzel and spaetzle
12. Jared wants to design a christmas card for us this year (I don't know if he really wants to, but I'm going to make him!)
13. We want to do something cool for our anniversary this year as we've always been too busy with school and family stuff the past couple of years

And last but not least

14. I want to get pregnant. . . totally depends on where we are at toward the end of the year and what I feel like I should be doing with my career at that point in time, but we aren't gettin any younger folks and we want to start having kids sometime in the next couple of years.

So there you have it. . . not a list of resolutions, but a more realistic list of things we will do and a somewhat far fetched list of wants :)

Oh yeah, and I want to get a massage, that sounds pretty amazing to me right now. . .

Sheet Music

I've been in STG the past couple of days and since I haven't had much school stuff that I've needed to work on, I've been spending alot of time on the piano. My friend Kayla, who I talked about in my previous post, asked me if I would write down the sheet music for a cover version of the Titanic song I made up several years ago. I found a cool program on the internet that lets you create yoru own sheet music so I've been spending the last two days writing the sheet music for the Titanc song and also writing down the sheet music for the song I played in that video. I'm pretty happy to get it written down. Not that I think anybody even cares to have it, but I'll post the sheet music on my post as proof of my skills! :)

Here is my Titanic Remix, had it not taken me forever to get the sheet music program thingy figured out I would have recorded a video of me playing it so you could hear it, but I didn't want to take the time, just trust me when I say it sounds pretty good :)

I called the song Endless. . . don't really remember why, but I did :)

Piano

This will sound kind of funny but a friend of mine reminded me the other day that I used to write my own songs on the piano back in the day. I took piano lessons for about a year or so when I was 8 or 9, somethin like that, but it didn't last very long because I hated practicing (shocker ha). In high school I picked it up again after I heard this same friend, Kayla, play the Titanic theme song on the piano. I don't know why, but I thought the song was so dang beautiful on the piano and I was determined to learn how. Haha, I was terrible at reading sheet music so she just showed me what to do with my hands and I memorized it by ear. It took me about 3 months to finally get it down but I was really proud of myself when I did! My poor family, that's the only song I knew how to play so they probably wanted to break my hands after hearing it a million times! I learned a couple of others songs that Kayla showed me how to play and then I started just messing around and coming up with my own stuff. I made really crappy recordings of those songs, and it made me laugh going back and listening to them again today because they aren't all that great, when at the time I thought the were awesome :)

I took lessons again for 5 months or so and got better at reading music. I eventually bought my own piano which is currently sitting in my parents basement.  I still can't play a ton of songs, and I'm even worse now because the only time I ever play is when I'm in STG, but I seriously love playing the piano. I'm pretty sure God knew I would need some outlet for my emotions so he led me to Kayla, who got me back into playing. I love how when I'm mad I can just slam it and get everything out, and I love how when I am sad I can play it slow and sad. I love how I can play it happy and upbeat, or I can play a hymn and show reverence. Whoever created the instrument is a genius and I'm grateful that I'm able to play, even if I'm not the best and there is no way on this planet I would ever play for a lot of people (I tried that a couple times and it was pretty traumatizing).

The last time I wrote a song was way back in 2008. I've actually got a video of it, which I'm grateful for and part of the reason I'm blogging about it because I don't want to loose it. I've never written any of my songs down on paper, so I've forgotten how to play most of them, but at least I have this video if I ever want to go back and figure it out again.

PS- If you are one of my students and reading this post for some reason, I'll have you know that I had to use proportions to shrink this video down so it would fit in the post, take that!!




In 20 years when we can afford it, I want this piano. . . I'll just keep dreaming until then!

The Past Week

Well this semester is pretty much over for me. I finished up teaching my class this past week, and now I just have to grade the final. I have to say that this semester has probably been the best semester I've ever had in either my undergraduate or graduate program. I really enjoyed student teaching, but this semester was even better because I only taught two days a week compared to teaching every single day. Plus, it's a heck of alot easier teaching a class full of college girls as compared to teaching a class of hormonal teens!! :)  I really did love my students this semester and I am sad to see them move on, but I am excited about my class next semester and to get to know more students. Some things I learned from teaching this semester

- Just because you are teaching at BYU doesn't mean you can't have any fun in class!

- Some lessons seriously suck, but your students forgive you and you do a better job with the next lesson

- Never give candy to your students, especially in an 8 am class. . . they start acting a little crazy by the end of class!

- Be careful when asking about what is happening in the lives of your students, it may turn into an hour conversation about their love lives haha!

- Don't be afraid to make a mistake or laugh at yourself in class, it puts everybody else at ease

- Being genuinely interested in getting to know your students goes a long way in creating a comfortable environment in class

- My drawing skills are freakin terrible and will always be the source of entertainment to my students

- My students are alot smarter than I am, I was constantly blown away by some of the stuff they came up with throughout the semester, it made me proud!

- Alot of other things specifically related to math but nobody wants a to continue reading a boring list like that!

We went to a Christmas party for Jared's work on Thursday and it was actually pretty fun. . . minus the live band, not that they weren't good, but the party was inside of a green house and the band was so loud that you literally had to scream at the person next to you if you wanted to try and talk to them. Next time they should provide an acoustic band or something! We hung out with Jared's friend Kristopher and his wife Chelsey at the party. Jared and Kristopher went to school together and Jared was able to help Kristopher get a job up at Axis 41 a few weeks ago. Kristopher and Chelsey are a really cool couple and I can see Jared and I hanging out with them in the future quite a bit. They live in Lehi, which is where we are looking to move to after this school year so it would be nice to have some friends up there already when we make the move. Everybody at the party got a Blueray player as a gift from the company which we were pretty stoked about, thank you Axis!!

Lets see other random tidbits. . . Jared is still loving his job (although I swear our families don't believe us when we tell them that, I don't think either of us has had a conversation with our parents where they didn't ask us if Jared is still liking his job haha!)  He's definitely not loving the commute, but he carpools with Kristopher from Lehi to SLC so I think that is helping. We've paid off $3,000 in student loans. . . only 10K more to go, ugh! I am supposed to write a final paper for this dang 1 credit seminar class that I am taking this semester (last class I ever have to take!) but I can still get a B in the class if I don't write it, so I'm seriously thinking about bagging the paper and taking the B instead! Yesterday Jared decided he was going to replace one of the blinker bulbs in the Subi, turned into quite the project. He had to take off the entire bumper, pull out the headlight and then replace the bulb and put everything back together. I went out and helped him for a while and I was pretty impressed with his handyman skills, nothin more attractive than seeing your man do manly things like fixing the car, ha!

I've still been spending alot of time over at my friend Dana's helping her with her twins. They are getting so big, 2 months old now! She probably thinks I'm crazy for wanting to help her so much, but I have the time and I love hanging out over there. I used to be scared of even holding tiny little babies before helping with the boys, and now I am pretty much pro at feeding, burping, changing diapers, swaddling, holding, and putting them to sleep. Thanks to the twins and Dana I'm gonna be super mom when we have a kid! :)

We are heading up to Washington to Christmas this year. We are excited for the break and to be able to hang out with Jared's family! Only down side is the drive, but well get some books on tape which will help the time pass. During the past couple of weeks my favorite part of the day is right after dinner when we turn on the Christmas tree lights and the side lamp in our living room. It makes our apartment feel so cozy and homey. Most of our nights are really low key around here, but its just how I like it!

Coins for Kids

I honestly have no idea who even reads my blog, so I'm not exactly sure how far this will reach, but I wanted to spread the word about a non-profit organization called Coins for Kids. The goal of the organization is to provide Christmas for kids in St. George whose families can't afford any gifts. My family has been involved for over 10 years ago, just shopping for kids and helping to wrap and deliver presents. Some of my most favorite Christmas memories are from volunteering with Coins for Kids. A couple years ago Jared and I volunteered to deliver gifts to the families. He dressed up as Santa and I was his Elf, we had to stuff pillows up his shirt to plump him up haha. You can't even imagine the looks of joy on the kids faces when "Santa" knocked on the front door!

My dad is one of the main organizers of Coins for Kids now and he told me this morning that they are about $75,000 short of their goal of $125,000. All of the money that's donated to Coins for Kids goes directly toward providing Christmas for over 2000 kids down in STG. You can donate online at the link below. Please help out if there is any way that you are able to do so, even $5 will go a long way!

http://www.coinsforkids.net/

Just Dance

I decided that there needed to be an entire post to the amazingness of this game and to the picture and video footage we have from playing it over the break! My dad definitely wins the award for best dance moves. . . too funny!!

My dad and brother shakin it with my 

extremely coordinated husband ;)

The video quality is terrible, but my dad was 

crackin us all up with his facial expressions

and killer moves!

The girls. . . we all look like fools but oh well!

Haha Drake definitely didn't want anything 

to do with the dance party