What have I been up to?? Let me show you...

Oh dear... looks like I'm not all that great at this blogging thing. I need to be better. It's like a journal I always have good intentions to do it but I just never get around to it at the end of the day. It has been on my to do list for several weeks now and I'm finally getting it done. Well there is just too much to share so I better get on with it. School started.. I am LOVING it. The kids are just so darn cute for their own good. I will tell you about school in a minute but to show you some of the things I did before summer ended....

I got a call at about 5:50 on my last week of summer before school started. As I was laying in bed I thought...who in the world is calling me this early ( I am not a morning person ). Well it was Bryan. He was up early, had read in the newspaper that a new cascade falls hike was re opening and wanted to go hike it. I had my first staff meeting that morning so we were hurrying. We got up there just in time to see the sun rise and it was BEAUTIFUL. Here are a few pictures from that little trip. Although I'm not a morning person that was well worth it. We had a lot of fun.


School started a couple days after that and I have absolutely loved it. I haven't taken any pictures of my classrooom yet... I will get some though so that I can post them. But I have taken some cute pictures of a few of the kids. The most kids I have had are 17! It doesn't sound like a whole lot but then if you consider that 10 of those kids were under the age of 18 months I think you understand. The youngest child we have is 6 weeks old. The oldest is 4. Me and one of my staff members are in charge of the preschool part of it while my other two assistants are trying to handle the babies. It can get hecktic but for the most part we have handled it all really well. Here are a few of my kids. I just love them to death...


So far I just love my job. My hours are 8-2 Monday thru Thursday and I have all Fridays off (which is SO nice). I have a great staff and the kids make me laugh everyday. You never know what to expect.

Over labor day weekend my family went up to participate in our annual sale ... Swiss Days. I took a few pictures of what it looked like in case nobody has ever been. Which by the way if you haven't I highly suggest it. Its so much fun and there are so many cute booths!

Mom and Dad loading the truck before we left!

Usually it doesn't look this calm. Usually there are people all in the booth and lines of people waiting to get into the booth as well. Swiss Days is a lot of fun but there are some vicious and crazy shoppers up there! We had a little over 700 stitches going up and came back with about 1/3 of that so we thought we did really well at the sale. For those of you who don't have any idea about this family business and stitching that I'm talking about here is a link to our website so you can understand a little better what it is we do. Plus thats good advertisement right? Thanks to Bryan who designed and put together our website for us. It's a lot of work.

http://www.livewellstitches.com/

After Swiss Days was over I was only a couple hours away from Logan so Cicely and I met up and we made a weekend trip up to Logan to visit Bryan and McCabe. It was a lot of fun. I just love it in Logan. I hope I get to live there one day. Its beautiful. We had fun and will probably make another trip within the next while.

My parents made a quick trip to the temple this past Friday and I thought since I had the day off I would join them. While I was waiting for them to be done with their session I just sat out on the grass of the temple and enjoyed the weather, did some thinking, and did some reading. It was so peaceful and relaxing. It was great. This is a picture I took while enjoying my beautiful surroundings...

Just to mention the other things that are keeping me busy after work everyday:
* I'm taking 6 credits through SUU at the school district so that I can get closer to getting my ESL endorsement.
* I just got 3 new piano students this week filling me up completely taking me to 15 piano students. That definitly keeps me busy everynight after work. It can get pretty hecktic but its good extra income and I love teaching piano.
* I just got called as Relief Society President in my ward. It will also keep me busy but will be a great blessing in my life. I was Relief Society President once before in my previous ward and I absolutely loved getting to know all those girls better. This ward is all new people so it will be interesting.
* I'm still trying to learn some spanish on my own ...its been one of my goals for a long time and I've got a good start. Rosetta stone has become my good friend as I've been doing that.

Most nights I don't get home til pretty late and its always a full and unpredictable day but so far I've loved it all and its been great! Hope everyone is doing great! Until next time...

The latest happenings in the life of Me

It has been about a month and a half since I last blogged and there has been SO MUCH going on since then that I am now about to catch all of you up on. I have pictures, stories, and news to share so lets get started shall we? I will pick up from when I last blogged. Last all you bloggers knew I just graduated and had a birthday celebration... well, about a week after graduation a few of my friends and I had a LOST party. This may not seem a big deal to most of you, but to us...it was the end of a chapter of our lives. haha. McCabe, Bryan, Cassie and I all have watched LOST faithfully and it was the season finale. To celebrate we got together at my house and watched the finale and had Dharma Initiative food (for those of you who know what that is) and I made this LOST cake to go along with the theme of the party. I thought it turned out pretty good.

That very same week I got a very exciting phone call. I had interviewed for a teaching position for a preschool run through the school district that I had really wanted and I got it! They called me and offered me the job and I accepted right away! The preschool is called Even Start and it is a preschool for kids whose parents are learning English. While their parents are at school, they are at my school learning their ABC's and 123's. I have met some of the parents and kids and I am so excited. I think there will be some challanges (as every job has) but I really think I'm going to enjoy it. These people are so humble and thankful and really hard working parents and I can't wait to help make a difference by helping to teach their kids! The preschool is at North Elementary and I have been going in almost every day this month trying to get my classroom ready and set up...it is ALOT of work. You see, the teacher before me kinda left this program in chaos and I swear some of these cupbords haven't been cleaned out since the 1980's ... So I have spent a lot of hours there and a lot more to come but it will all be worth it!

Along with getting my class ready I am taking some summer classes... I know, I'm crazy. As soon as I graduate college I go straight back to school. BUT it is a great deal and I would be stupid if I passed it up. I am getting my ESL (english as a second language) Endorsement. If you get this you are "more qualified", keep your teaching license updated, and your salary will raise automatically by having this endorsement. Now that I have this job with the school district they have this program where instead of paying ridiculous tuition they will pay everything but the class fee's (which is about $45 per class). So for 3 weeks in June I have class from 8 in the morning til 4 in the afternoon everyday. One week down and two more to go! It is actually not to bad...I love learning all this information but sometimes I feel like the picture of this girl below. I just want to get out and be having fun in the summer, not be in class all day. But hey, it will be good for me in the end.

Now...for all of you who know me I am a MAJOR dog lover. They are my favorite animal and I just love them. I had a dog all growing up but when I was about 16 he died. Ever since then I have been wanting to get another dog but my parents won't let me. I was really itchy to get a pet though...so instead I got the lowest possible mantience pet I could think of...a turtle. Everybody meet Duncan...

At first he was pretty camera shy and wouldn't come out of his shell... but once I got him out walking around in the grass he was fine.

Why the name Duncan you may ask? Well I looked up some names online for some ideas and I had a list of them that I liked...Bryan helped me narrow it down and we both liked Duncan the best. Bryan was so nice...he came and helped me pick out the turtle, then built him a cage, and made it a good home for the little guy. This is the picture of the cage Bryan built Ducan. (The only sad thing since getting Duncan is he bit me one day...I guess I was holding him too much...but let me tell you what...it was PAINFUL. I never wish anybody to get bitten by a turtle. We were reading and some box turtles have up to 2 tons of pressure with their jaw during bites. Yeah... it hurt pretty dang bad. I was screaming and crying and my neighbor heard me and thought I was dying. Duncan is a little guy but he sure can be fistey. He was grounded to his cage for awhile after that but I forgave him. And I learned my lesson.)

And last but NOT least.... our trip to Vegas. My cousin works for the Blue Man Group. He does all the lighting for them. I was asking him about it and said how fun it would be to go so he got me 2 free tickets to go see them. So last night Bryan and I took a trip to Vegas to see The Blue Man Group. It was a ton of fun to see them and we had a lot of fun. Thanks David for getting us those tickets! I highly suggest going to The Blue Man Group someday to all of you have thought about it. It is a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of us right before the show next to The Blue Man group poster.Well like I have said I have been keeping pretty busy going into my classroom this summer, as well as summer classes, and I still teach piano on top of that so I keep really busy but I have fun too! That is my life the past month or so and I will update you again soon!

Celebrate good times come on!

Last weekend was quite the party! On Friday and Saturday I had my graduation and then the next day was my 22nd birthday! I have tons and tons of pictures to post so instead of writing a whole long post about all the festivities that went on during the weekend I will just post the picture and comment as I go.Two of my favorite girls from the block. Man did we have some good times together. It was good to see them again. Karli (in the middle) was due with her baby any day when it was graduation. She put me in charge of helping her if her water broke during our walk in to graduation. Man am I happy that she was able to hold off on going into labor.

The whole crew from the elementary ed block (at least most of us).

Yay! We did it!

I had some really good memories with this group of ladies! It was good to see everyone again!

Me after just receiving my "diploma"! (Really it was just trick...it was the holder for the diploma with no diploma saying that I would receive it in 6-8 weeks. But let's not get into that... It was still a good day!
Me with my parents after graduation!

Me and My Grandma Lyman after graduation.

My Grandpa Keate and I.

Mark and Krista with me. I was so happy they got to come down for my graduation. Krista just had her baby a week and a half before. They are two of my favorite people though so I was so happy they could come!

My brother Joe, me, and sister Krista. I have another older brother but he couldn't make it to the actual ceremony but he was at the lunch we had after graduation!

After graduation my parents threw a party for me. We had a big lunch to celebrate my graduation and my 22nd birthday!

Bryan came over to my house for the lunch and party! We had a lot of fun!

Anne came over too! I have such good friends!

After the lunch we opened presents and had a little party... This next picture is one of my favorites. While I was opening presents I looked up and saw these expressions on my nieces and nephews faces. Haha... I think they were getting sick of watching me open presents...I think they like it better when they are opening presents on their birthdays!

I have the best family in the world. Haha...nothing can buy these priceless expressions.

Later that night my friends threw me a surprise birthday party for my birthday at my friend Cassie's house. It was a lot of fun.


Josh was so nice and made me an amazing decorated cake with his sister. This is them singing happy birthday I'm trying to figure out a tactic to blow out all 22 candles.

Here I go.... And it was a success! All 22 candles! A lot of smoke ... but I did it!

All the smoke was coming into my eyes...I had to dodge it.

Well folks, there's all the pictures I have. It was a great weekend and I had lots of fun! Thank you to all my family and friends that supported me in graduation and did so much for me on mygraduation and birthday! I have amazing people in my life! It was a great weekend!

I would like you all to meet....

I would like you all to meet...RUBY!

(that's what I've named this beauty)





On Wednesday I bought MY very own car. Never have I ever had my own car. I have always used the family car and just taken whatever was available and that has been nice but I decided its time to get my own. I love Ruby! She has been good to me so far....and she better be good to me for a long time because geez cars are expensive. I've taken really good care of her thus far and I have a feeling that she'll stick with me for quite awhile through the thick and thin. There is a lot of potential in this new relationship of mine and I just wanted you all to meet my new friend.

Baby Rachel, Logan Trip, and New Adventures

At the beginning of last week, on April 12th, my new niece Rachel Enid Corry was born. She weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is a beautiful little girl with tons of thick black hair. When she was born they put her in the NICU because of extremely low sugar levels and too high of a red blood count. Mark (my brother in law) was able to participate in a lot of the procedures and other things they had to do to help Rachel and even help deliver her. There was one point in one of the procedures for Rachel that Mark was assisting with and Rachel stopped breathing. I can't imagine how Mark felt during that time to see his brand new baby stop breathing right in front of him but they got her back breathing in less than a minute (although it probably seemed forever to him) and she started improving. It seems as if there was problem after problem with Rachel her first week and she had to stay in the NICU and be closly monitered, but now she is home and doing well. I had to go up north to Logan this weekend for some job interviews etc (which I will tell you about in a minute) and was able to make a quick stop to go visit baby Rachel in the NICU on the way. Below are some pictures I took of my visit.

I love my new little neice Rachel!

As I mentioned earlier I made a trip to Logan this weekend. Bryan and Cicely came with me and we met up with McCabe once we got up there. I arranged earlier to go to the school that I have been interested in getting a job with and meet with the principal. We made a weekend out of it and had a lot of fun! I spent all Friday morning at the school with the principal, he showed me around the school, introduced me to some people, had me teach a class for about 5 minutes, and interviewed me for about 2 1/2 hours (it was a LONG interview). Anyway, after it was all done he gave me some feed back on if I would be able to get this teaching position. He said they liked me a lot, I was good with people, impressive, very confident and comfortable in a classroom setting and that he would really like me to teach Kindergarten there starting in August. Now, he has to do a few last interviews before the word is final but he said that I would be very tough competition for the job and to start planning on getting ready. I will get the final word probably by this Friday so I'm trying not to get to excited in case of a slight chance of not getting it, but its looking pretty promising that I will be able to start teaching at Thomas Edison Elementary School in Logan starting this August. Everyone cross your fingers for me and I will keep you updated as soon as I know if I for sure have the job!

After the interview was over it was time to play! While we were in Logan we went to the Logan Zoo (yes, Logan has a zoo believe it or not... there are a lot of birds but they have some other pretty cool animals too. The picture below is sadly the only picture I took while at the zoo. If you are ever in Logan and would like some entertainment the zoo only costs $1.00 and only 50 cents for kids. haha. It was fun ...nothing like Hogle Zoo in SLC, but its a zoo and it was fun).

We also went to Gossner Factory where they make the famous squeeky cheese, flavored milk and all kinds of cheeses. I highly suggest the "Cookies and Cream" flavored milk. Yummy. We also were able to make it in to do some Baptisms for the Dead at the Logan temple (one of my favorite temples ever by the way! So beautiful!) We watched a movie, went to campus, cooked dinner, went out to eat, went to the park, etc. It was a fun trip and I just love Logan!

A lot is going on right now and some big things are happening in my life. It can be stressful and scary at times but life is good and I'm loving every minute! I graduate in a couple weeks and will officially have my diploma. I sent out graduation announcements about a week ago and getting things ready for that as well.

This is the picture I sent out with my graduation announcements.

I just want to thank all of you for your support in everything that is going on in my life right now! Big things are happening and I couldn't do it without the support of my friends and family! I'm ready for life's next adventure for me! I'll keep all of you posted on the job and everything else! Hope all is great for everyone! Talk to you soon bloggers!

Easter Weekend

Well... Easter is a big deal in my family. It is one of the favorite holidays we all look forward too. This is because of a few reasons...

1. We get to hear from our amazing church leaders with a great conference weekend! Man were the talks good this year. I can't wait to get the May ensign and re- read all the talks!

2. Tons of family, food, and games always going on.

I was pretty excited about this Easter bunny cake. I have always wanted to try making a fondant cake and so I thought I would try it out this weekend. So....here it is and I thought it turned out pretty cute.

This picture is of me and my nephews while listening to Saturday session of conference. I love these boys :)

and the last reason is what we like to refer to as ...

3. The mother of all Easter Egg Hunts. Some of you may know this but you see, every year my parents save up their money for this. When I was little we used to hunt for eggs with candy, quarters, and if we were lucky a few $1 and $5 bills. Well, as the years has gone on my parents have made it a tradition to raise the dollar bills a little bit more. Each year the highest bill went up and up and up. We are now at $100 dollar bill being hidden in one egg and down from there. I sure put on my "A game" when it was time for the hunt this year (but really its all luck of which eggs you pick). I felt really good about me getting the big bill this year. Well, unfortunately it didn't happen but my total winnings was $103 so I was pretty happy about that. It is a fun tradition my family does each Easter that they save up for and all us kids look forward to. It was a fun easter weekend and it was fun to have all my family in town.

This is a picture of the Grandkids before the kids Easter egg hunt. I didn't get any pictures of the adult Easter egg hunt. Sorry. If you can't tell those are Easter bunny glasses...it was pretty funny with all of them wearing them.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Spring Break 2010 Adventures

Hello Blogging World. It's been almost 3 months since I have posted and its about time I sat down and did a post. I have had a lot going on in the past 3 months...mostly a lot of work. I have gone up to Logan and interviewed with school districts up there as well as here in Cedar. Job hunting consumes a lot of my thinking time and takes up a lot of time applying, interviewing, researching, etc. so it was nice when this week Spring Break finally rolled around. Now, I am officially not an SUU student so I really didn't have spring break. However, all my friends did....So I justified to myself it should be my spring break as well. I canceled all my piano students, I didn't substitute teach at all, and I basically played all week. Here is a glimpse at my spring break.

It all started with Pi Day. Some of you may ask...who celebrates Pi day?? Well, when you are part of my group of friends it is a must. On Pi day we made a new kind of pie. It was a Sunday evening and we had very few ingredients in my house and very well couldn't go out on a sunday to buy ingredients for the pie. We were going to make apple pie, but there were no apples. The only fruit we did have was...grapefruit. So what did we do? What better day then on Pi day itself to experiement with a new kind of pie. Grapefruit Cream Pie. It does sound gross, I know. But surprisingly ... it is very very good. If you don't believe me there are witnesses. Me, Bryan, McCabe, Cassie, and Cicely all ate it and it was delicious. If any of you would like to try it sometime, I would be happy to share the recipie or make you the pie. Don't be shy to ask.

Ta da ... I would like everyone to pay special close attention to the modern art piece I created in the middle of the pie with the grapefruit rinds. I thought it added a nice touch.

The next couple of days we spent the nights together playing games, watching movies, talking, and planning our next adventures. In past discussions my friends have always shared fun memories of lake qwitchapa (spelling?) just out west of town. I being the apparently sheltered person that I am have never ventured out west of town 10 minutes to visit this infamous place...and this is what it looked like.

You know how most of the time people say that pictures don't give a beautiful place justice? Well... in this case I would have to say that this picture was very generous of its beauty. I really did like the lake...but I don't remember it being this pretty in real life when this picture was taken.

Then came Thursday...we all went down to Zion. Now this may be hard for some of you to believe but I have a confession. I have never been to Zion before either. I always joke with everyone that I have been to Europe on 3 separate vacations but never been east of Utah (which is true) and hardly any places that are practically in my backyard (such as Zion) It's sad, but true. Well we planned to hike Angles Landing. I had heard horror stories of this hike so I was a bit nervous. Especially when I saw this sign at the beginning of the trail...For those of you who can't quite make out the sign it says " Warning! Falls from cliffs on this trail have resulted in death!" ...this is not exactly the happy welcoming I want to see as I start off on the hike.


For those of you who have been on the hike...this is Scouts look out. This is the spot right before it is the time to hold on to all the chains for dear life just trying to get to the top of angels landing.

After most of the chains are done you get to this kind of landing...but no...its not the end of the hike yet... I stayed sitting at this landing for quite some time (which by the way is 99% all the way through the hike) and said I didn't want to go the rest of the way. I was mad at myself for saying this because I wanted to go the rest of the way but I will now explain my reasoning... As I was sitting on this rock almost done with the hike...we were waiting for others to come down the trail where we had to head up to finish the hike. Keep in mind this part we have to climb up is snow covered and very slippery (there were a few parts of the hike with snow but not bad, this part however was completely covered) Well, while waiting on this rock I was watching the people come down this part I had to go up and this guy slips on the slippery snow and starts sliding down not able to stop himself and comes feet within going off the edge of the cliff. Yet again...not a very comforting thing to see. I wanted to finish the hike so badly though, I had come so far. So Bryan, calmed me down, talked me into finishing the hike, and helped me go the rest of the way. He also found a way where we didn't even have to go through the snowy part so it was much much safer. Thanks Bryan! I would have been so mad at myself for not finishing. I guess it was good I was cautious about being safe, I didn't want to be a baby ... but kind of was.

Here McCabe is juggling on the top of Angels Landing. Don't worry he was safe and a safe distance a way from the edge...not many people can say they have juggled on the top of Angles landing though. Amazing hike by the way for all of you have not hiked it ... I highly suggest it. It's beautiful. Not to mention Walters Wiggles gives you quite the work out!

We were all pretty sore from the Hike the next day...but did that stop us?? NO! The next day we went down to St. George and went Ice Skating at the Dixie Igloo! Most of us were beginners or have only gone a few times. It was so much fun ... I would like to say I looked something like this on the ice....

But I think I looked more like this...

Although...by the end we were all getting pretty good. And Bryan and I were even trying to attempt some pretty cool moves. Attempt was the key word there. He was doing pretty good. I still need work. Charles was ice skating backwards by the end (which is way harder than it looks) and we were all becoming pretty dang good. It was a lot of fun. I am going to go again some time soon.

It was a fun week of Spring Break! Now back to reality...