Our Wedding Day--Temple Pictures

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect. It was a gorgeous day, we had no problems (that I was aware of), and best of all, my best friend and I were sealed for time and all eternity.

The day was filled with love and happiness, just the way it should be. And it started at my favorite place. The temple.

All of the beautiful people who came to celebrate with us. 

My parents who have been such an inspiration and blessing in my life. I'm quite grateful for their example of a loving marriage. So sad this picture doesn't include my dear sister, Kimberlee, who was stuck in Navy school when we got married!

My new family! Quite blessed to have such a welcoming and loving family to join into!

Our beautiful wedding party. Seriously, could you ask for a better looking bunch? 

What can I say, I love the small details!

Random Musings As Told By Me and My iPhone

I've been telling myself that I will be more diligent in writing on here, but I think we all know that's not going to happen anytime soon. All the things that deserve their own post that I don't have the energy to write are included here. The very random things going on in my head are as follows:


1. I was riding in the car and the CD player kept skipping and I just had the feeling that it was a sign that the car was going to explode. That's a normal conclusion, right? So I just turned off the CD and listened to the radio.

2. MY CLASSROOM IS LOOKING GOOD! Ch-ch-check it out!

This back corner will be my reading area (I think). I'm trying to come up with something cool for the kids to sit on/under in that corner, but I haven't quite decided on anything. I also am finally starting to like that orange wall. At first I was a little sad because orange is far from my favorite color and it's hard for me to match colors with it, but it feels good now!
And sorry for the poor lighting. I promise better pictures will come when the whole classroom is finished.

So happy with my cursive alphabet! Now I just need to relearn how to write in that style so I can teach it properly!
If you look really closely, you can see the little owl border on the bottom section--my class theme is owls! I kind of love it. Also note how Spencer helps me--by building castles out of unifix cubes (but really he's been oh-so-helpful:)).

Not sure if this little guy is finished yet or not. I may add some more pennants? triangles? things at the end to make it come down the side of the door a little.

While I'm very proud of the progress that has been made in the room, there is still so much that needs to be done. I'm looking forward to August when I can actually start spending my legislative teacher money and actually get this show on the road! Until then, I'm working on paper craft and decorations for my classroom. I'm just losing a little steam.

3. For the past three weeks and the next two weeks, I am in summer school in Provo, and Spencer has an internship in Bountiful. So we're been living apart for half the week so he doesn't have to commute during rush hour every day (it turns a 45 min drive to an hour and a half). I wish I were more dramatic and put my foot down when we came up with this plan so that Spencer just drive up every day, but I am much too worried about gas money and other expenses to have him stay with me. As a result, I'm home alone three days of the week, and I actually find it kind of liberating. Weird, right? There are definitely some aspects that I can't wait to be done with, but I've always worked best with a little bit of space when I need to get things done. Like when I needed to finish my stupid Humanities class (which I did, by the way--B+ baby!), I can't imagine being able to do that if he were home. And now I just make a mess in the living room as I work on a project and don't have to worry about it being in anyone's way. This all just makes me want to have a bigger place to live so that I can have a craft room/office space to do my own thing. I'm getting a lot done, but I can't wait for my husband to come home every night. Just two more weeks. I can't imagine how military wives do it.

3.5 Since I don't have to worry about my husband making fun of me, I'm all caught up on Pretty Little Liars! Except now the new season has started and I don't have cable and they don't get added on Hulu. I guess I'll wait until next year when Netflix puts them up:)

4. One of my good friends and former roommates, Megan, just got married! I met up with her soon after she got engaged and asked if anyone was going to throw her a bridal shower/bachelorette party with her friends. When she said no, I offered to throw a bachelorette party! I really enjoying throwing parties and planning things, so this was seriously a treat for me. I don't know why but it seriously took all day Wednesday (the day of the party) to set up, and I am incredibly grateful for two of my best friends, Kenzi and Mariah, for helping me. Life. Savers. For the party we had mocktails at my apartment and then we left on a scavenger hunt! I was exhausted by the end of the night, but I was so happy to spend time with my friends and with Megan one last time before she got married and moved to Oklahoma!

Some of the pictures are too small to see the details, so I've included them below:)
(Top left) pictures of Megan and her fiancé Ryland and a "soon-to-be-Mrs." banner, and our ugly couches.
(Top right) the mocktail table, framed picture says "Hello. Also, I love you." and the canvas says "Make the driving force in your life love." 

4.5. I guess I should include a little mention of their wedding, which was beautiful! They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 13. She was a beautiful bride and I was so lucky to be one of her bridesmaids! She is one of my favorite people and I am so happy for her forever fairytale marriage! Their reception was at Cactus and Tropicals, which is a greenhouse/nursery filled with exotic plants. It was gorgeous. I love going to weddings because I love seeing people get married, but also because it reminds me of the beautiful day that I married the love of my life.

Her flowers seriously blew me away! Here's my little bridesmaid bouquet which I couldn't get enough of!

5. We recently bought some Dr. Pepper, and my life has been SO great. I'm not addicted, I promise.

6. Summer school! Is almost over! Right before starting summer school, I learned that I might have enough English language learners in my class in the fall to complete my TELL requirements (for my minor that says I am qualified to teach kids who are learning English), and that I might not even have to go to summer school. This was really exciting for me because it meant I wouldn't have to live apart from Spencer this summer. But when I contacted the BYU liaison responsible for the interns in my school district, she was double checking the required number of kids in a classroom and would get back to me. She never got back to me. My hopes were up and then they were crushed. Needless to say, I was a little bitter about going to summer school at first. I was barely doing anything, only working with 5 or so kids in a guided reading group, and then sitting at the back the rest of the time. Well that's still all that I'm doing, but I'm feeling much better about it! I have one little girl who moved into the school in the middle of last year and has some serious motivation problems. Like she used to break down and cry all the time problems. I was reading with her the other day, and I noticed that she can't read numbers. She has them memorized but can't recall them without counting up to them. So now during math time (which she wasn't being successful in because she can't read the numbers), we now practice flash cards of the numbers 1-10, and she's doing a lot better! A little success for her is helping her in other subjects, but it's also helping me find reason to stay in summer school!

7. A couple weekends ago, we took a trip up to a cabin with some of our young-married friends from church. It was nice to get out of Provo and away from technology and be surrounded by friends. As fun as it was, it was not without challenges. On the way up, we hit a deer. Or I should say, a deer hit us. We saw it just as it ran towards the road. Spencer swerved and braked as much as he could, but the deer kept running for us. It hit the fender and the hood, but only really damaged the fender. It was kind of terrifying and the stories that we shared after about deer-accidents made me very grateful for how minimal the damage was. And our insurance is amazing and we now have a brand-new(ish) looking car.

8. Last week, when Spencer came home, I surprised him with a new shirt and a date planned (thanks for the idea, Kenz!). He was so happy, which just made me so very happy. We went out to Cafe Rio and then saw Divergent in the dollar theater. That book was just so good, but the movie seriously felt like it was on fast-forward. It had such great potential and it fell flat. I don't know what I expected though, that is usually the case with book-to-movies. But dinner was fantastic, so the night was still a success. And the new Cafe Rio is very spacious and classy:)

9. I've seen more snow this month than should be seen in June. Luckily, it didn't snow down here, but you could see it on the mountains. Summer is for SUN, not snow. I didn't enjoy the 45* and rain either. 

So that's been my life the past few weeks. Summer is flying by, but we are loving it every second of it.

The Reception!

We had so many friends come out to help us celebrate, and we are so grateful for them!

These cute kids kept bringing us acorns... Uh, what are we supposed to do with these? And it's not like I had pockets that I could discretely deposit them into...

I advised Spencer not to shove cake in my face since we were getting married the next day and I was worried about my dress getting dirty... but that didn't stop me from getting cake all over him.

 

One thing I wish someone had told me? Don't be afraid to chuck that bouquet. It doesn't go very far on its own.

Last looks before the wedding day!

The Little Engine That Could

WARNING: I am a rambler and I don't have the energy to control it for this post. Forgive me?


I can do this!

I just submitted my last two papers for my class! Which means all I have left is the final! So I (technically) have 8 days just to pass a test. And that's all I care to do--pass. But really I only have 5 days. Still not bad though. Except that on Wednesday I am throwing a Bachelorette party, Thursday I am up in Bountiful as my brother-in-law, Connor, goes through the temple, and Friday I am in Salt Lake all day for Megan's wedding. So I need to be done Tuesday. And early enough Tuesday that I (we--shout out to Kenzi!) can get stuff ready for the party! Meanwhile, I'm trying not to stress out over this final, setting up my classroom (because I finally have keys!), figuring out if I actually have to do summer school, living by myself for 3.5 days of the week, and trying to relax about the idea of taking time out of this busy weekend to go camping. So individually all of these things would be super manageable, and even enjoyable (with the exception of my final), but since they are all compounded and overlapping, I'm dying.

But seriously, I can do this! I'm so pumped up right now! I just need to resist the urge to look through Pinterest for classroom decoration ideas. And resist even more not to work on the projects I've already found.


Let's backtrack a little to the beginning of this week. Monday, I had my first day of training for the district! I'd like to say it was useful, but it wasn't... But they did feed us and pay us, so I can't really complain. Let's talk about the food for a minute. We get there at 8:30, by 10am they have snacks and drinks for us. 12pm, lunch catered by Zupas (love that place). 2:30, have some Goldfish and candy! They spoiled us. And we're talking like all of the Alpine District Elementary schools went to this training. That's a lot of people, a lot of food, and even more money they put into this.

Tuesday, our training was at our schools. Which meant we worked as a grade level team all day. Except for the two hours I spent with the new teachers and our facilitator figuring out our finances, classrooms, and iPads. (They were short one iPad, so I volunteered to not get an iPad right now because I don't need it, which hopefully means I get a brand new one come the beginning of the year...). Highlight: I got my classroom and school keys!

Wednesday, I wrote 1.5 of my 2 papers, and I spent three hours writing my name in books. BORING. But it's done and I've officially started moving in! I've also decided on a theme, which is kind of exciting. I was originally just going to do a pattern and a color scheme, but all the 3rd grade makes t-shirts and that would be difficult without something to put on them. So I'm decorating with OWLS! Isn't that cute? I think so. It's one of those that has a ton of supplies and ideas out there, but isn't too common in the schools around here. And I have an orange wall, so my colors wouldn't really have gone too well with that (I wanted red and a light aqua/mint-y color). SO yeah. I feel like a teacher. Highlight: Class theme--DECIDED.

And then there's today. Started the day with some summer school, that I'm not sure if I even need to be going to (I am going to have an English Language Learner in my classroom, so as per our original instructions, that's all I need for the assignments, but the coordinator is double-checking and the other side is taking forEVER to respond). Then I bought a bunch of things that I might return, but I need husband's opinion first. There was a coffee table from Target that I saw a couple months back that was on sale for $100 and I was super tempted by it, because, well our coffee table is atrocious. Well I was wandering around Target today and found it for $60.

I originally turned it down because it is practically the same color as the couches and the walls, which creates for a lot of drab, but the price made me have to try it. I also bought some more throw pillows for our couches to get past the ugly floral, but I don't know that we need NEED them. I don't know how I survived when I was single, I can't make any decisions anymore without asking Spencer. Like what kind of cookie we need in the house, I couldn't decide so I called Spencer. He ended up telling me to pick what I already had in the cart, but I guess I just need some affirmation in my life! The good news? I resisted spending $20 on party supplies that will be thrown away after next Wednesday. Highlight: spent a lot of money after saving some money.

Tomorrow we leave for a camping trip with our young-married friends in the ward. We're going up to some cabins, so it's not too camp-y. I'm excited to spend time with these guys, but still freaking out over the time it is taking out of my small study window.


And that's my life, in a not-so nutshell.


Now on to some much needed cleaning and a jam-session with Pandora! T-minus 5(ish) hours til the hubby is home!