Going to 1st Grade

So, let's just lay this on the table. Teaching is hard. Teaching in a Title 1 school that houses the homeless shelter kids is hard. Not getting emotionally charged and wanting to chew some of the parents out is hard. I love teaching, but it is hard. (Ahem, Utah legislatures that don't agree with this, please come visit me in room 2226, Washington Elementary). 

This has been an interesting and extremely stressful/emotional school year over in the third grade. The year started off with a slight meltdown in my principal's office with lots of tears and then feeling like a complete idiot. Don't get me wrong, I love my little kiddies, but something just has not clicked this year. I have literally spent the last 6 months figuring out what in the world I was going to do for work next year and teaching was not on the "list of possibilities." I don't think an hour has gone by that I have not thought about this. (You may think that is an exaggeration...sadly, no. Just ask Don, my mom or my mother-in-law whom have had the pleasure of witnessing lots of not so attractive melt downs).  I will not bore you with the long list of job possibilities I have spent endless hours pondering, nor go on with this post that may or may not be a little dramatic. 

So, onto the good stuff....I LOVE first graders. Seriously, how could little people who still believe in leprechauns and Santa and try to sneak potato bugs in from recess not be adorable? Last week I found out that the district where I work would be giving our school funding to add a new first grade class next school year. I immediately knew this opening was an answer to alot of prayers and alot of sleepless nights. As you may have gathered, I will be teaching first grade next year. And I am over-the-moon excited!!!

A little here, a little there...

In the words of my mother, to make a short story long...

Luckily for me, Don is very financially savvy. Minutes a few days after we got married, Don insisted we set a budget. (Apparently he knew my love for shopping...) We knew someday we wanted to buy a house and live somewhere that had a full-size oven and was bigger than a shoebox (aka the apartments we would live in for the next two years). So, we set up an account for our house fund. By the time all of the other expenses had been paid for, trust you me, hardly anything was going into that account, but we knew we had to keep putting a little here and a little there into that account.

Fast forward two years. For the next part of the story, we'll let the pictures do the talking.

Welcome to our new home. (Complete with full-size oven!!!)

Saving a little here, and a little there somehow brought us to here. We'll close on the house at the end of March. We're very blessed and very excited and still pinching ourselves.

Finals are coming....

....the house is getting messy. Please bring us food, as we are starving [because there is no time for grocery shopping]. If you haven't got any food then an SOS text will do. If you can't send a text, then good vibes will do!

(hummed to the tune of "Christmas is Coming [the goose is getting fat...you know, that one]).

anyone out there?

well, it has been a while....life has gotten busy! anyone else agree? for one of my classes this semester we are required to post our thoughts on a weekly blog. while i was doing it tonight, i remembered mine and don's little blog. so, in an effort to continue avoiding reading a highly boring interesting article for my class tomorrow night, here i am. when i read people's blogs, i like to look at their pictures. i assume you're probably the same. while we have taken quite a few pictures in the last 6 months, none of them will appear tonight. sorry! if you are done reading, i understand.

here's a recap of where we've been the last 6 months...

March:

• we celebrated our 1 year anniversary (wow, that year went fast!)
• we moved into a new apartment in the village (married student housing)

May:

• Don graduated with a bachelor's of arts in political science and asian studies at the university of utah
• Jen started her first semester of graduate school at the university of utah in the idet (instructional design and educational technology) program
• Don started an internship in the governor's office

June and July:

• we caught up on some much needed r & r
• went camping with some friends in wyoming
• visited don's aunt and uncle in connecticut
• met up with jen's family in rochester, ny to see some of the church history sites
• visited niagara falls
• visited bear lake

August:

• we cried a little at the thought of how fast the summer went
• don accepted a full time job at the governor's office as a policy assistant
• jen went back to school teaching 3rd grade 
• jen and don started fall semester at the u in their respective grad programs

September:

• we moved (yes, again...) to an adorable apartment in the capitol hill area
• don can walk to work in 2 minutes
• jen can walk to work in 5
• we only have 2 boxes left to unpack!!
• we celebrated our 18 month anniversary (again, time is flying)

the next time i am procrastinating homework i will post pictures!!!

Sleeping Well Tonight

The last few months, weeks and especially days have been a whirlwind! Nearly a year ago, we started figuring out what we would be doing for grad school. Where we would go....when we would go...if we would go at the same time...etc. We visited a few out of state schools, did alot of research for various programs and came to the conclusion that we would try to stay in Utah for school so that we could both get our masters degrees at the same time. Then came all of the applications complete with essays (tons of them), recommendation letters and alot of waiting (4 months to be exact, ah!). I am happy to announce that we finally, finally, finally have all of our plans finalized....(a good way to kick off our One-Year-Anniversary-Weekend).

....Don will be doing a MPA (Masters in Public Administration) at the U (contrary to the original plan of law school)....
....I will be doing a Masters of Education through the Educational Psychology department focusing on Instructional Design and Educational Technology which includes a Multimedia Endorsement (kind of a mouthful!)...
....and the best news of all, we have full-ride scholarships! (Don received an amazing scholarship called the FLAS which is a foreign language scholarship that allows students to do an intensive study of a foreign language and Asian culture alongside their normal course work.).

We are extremely blessed. Extremely!! And, we are looking forward to a good's night sleep! (The first in many weeks). We are now gearing up for moving in 2 weeks, which is another story for another night. It involves a crumbling balcony and our relocation 200 feet away.

Gardening...

For whatever reason, I have become obsessed with the idea of gardening. Apparently when you get married you all of the sudden become domestic and like to do things such as cooking and gardening--both of which I had absolutely zero interest in growing up. Our apartment complex has a community garden that you can rent a space in for the summer. Last summer we couldn't do it because we were in DC for 3 months, so I have been looking forward to this for nearly a year! 

Luckily, my mother-in-law and I have been taking a gardening class at Red Butte Gardens, which has been helpful. However, you know its bad when you are in the beginning gardening class and still at times don't know what the teacher is talking about! I have started the "early crops" in trays in our kitchen. I won't mention that it has taken up half of our counter space, and at the moment just looks like trays of dirt soil. 

This is going to be a grand adventure! And for those that know me, a great exercise of patience!! More to come on that...once the seeds decide to sprout. (They should hurry up already!)

Happy planting!

a look back on february

Last time this year I was up to my eyeballs in stress getting ready for our upcoming wedding...and moving...and getting my ESL endorsement, so I am happy to report that this year's February was quite uneventful! Don and I both submitted applications for graduate/law school programs and applied for scholarships. Collectively, I think we have written about 15 650,000 essays this month. We are keeping our fingers crossed (and stalking the mail man) while we wait to hear back! We can say that no matter what, we will be in Utah for at least two years! 

Valentine's was nice and relaxed this year. Because our anniversary is in March, we opted to go smaller for Valentine's Day and bigger for our anniversary. We enjoyed candlelight Chipotle (we may or may not be a little obsessed with Chipotle). Don gave me the cutest black and white polka dot pencil skirt (oh how I love polka dots) and I gave him some new dress pants. Aren't we romantic? :) Don was sly and had a dozen roses delivered to work, that was romantic! Plus my kids were totally intrigued. 

In addition with being obsessed with Chipotle, we are slightly (which means alot) obsessed with Granite Bakery...especially their sugar cookies. I gave them to my class this year as a little valentine treat (they must be introduced to the finer things of life, such as Granite Bakery, at a young age). We got a dozen cookies for ourselves and they may or may not have been finished off by the end of the weekend...

We did attempt to make our own homemade Granite bakery cookies...not as good. You can't repeat the real thing. But they turned out cute and we had fun doing it!

Our attempt at homemade Granite Bakery cookies. Just not the same!

Candlelight Dinner of Chipotle.

With March well under way, we are looking forward to....

• Our 1st wedding anniversary
• Don's spring break
• Warmer weather
• Green Great Harvest bread for St. Patrick's Day (seriously)
• And some fun and exciting changes to be announced later....(no, not a baby)