Christmas!

This was on our drive home. We headed out kind of early so Paul could get to his mom's and learn how to play with the tablet he got. The furry black spot behind us is Jack. Luckily he does well in the car for our 2 hour drive. (P.S. I took him to the vet and he's 60 pounds now!)

I haven't updated in a while, our computer at home has stopped working. The computer turns on but there must be a short with the screen, it's to the point now where it stays black. I hope I don't have anything too important saved on there.

I have 2 weeks off for Christmas break. I'm not sure what I've done this past week. Today is Saturday, Christmas and we're all playing with our new gadgets. We are at my parents house this year, we came over on Thursday and will leave tomorrow after church. I'm glad I have another week off; I have tests to grade and seats to rearrange.

Christmas is quite different at my parents house than at Paul's. We have a snacky dinner on Christmas Eve and went out to a Christmas program put on by my parent's friends, the Wards. Then this morning Summer woke up at 7 but Dad convinced her to wait until 8. By the time we started presents it was closer to 9. At 10:30 we went to Uncle Bruce's for the Williams family brunch. It's getting smaller now that most have grandkids and do stuff with their families.

We were both very spoiled this year for Christmas. Jack came with us but we didn't get him anything for Christmas. It's just another day for him. I got Paul tickets to a Jazz game but my dad topped me with a season ticket to the BSU games for next year. :-) Paul got me a Bosch, since I only have little hand beaters. I'm excited and now I can get ride of my blender and food processor since it has those too.

playing with our presents...

Snow, snow, snow

I have this week off of school for Thanksgiving Break, and guess what it did? SNOWED! It snowed a lot on Sunday and some more on Monday, but it wasn't too bad. I am very glad I have all-wheel drive this winter, but the roads were very doable. However, today (Tuesday) it was a blizzard! Literally! The news kept saying, "If you don't need to be somewhere, don't drive." So, I had to cancel lunch with my friend and schools were cancelled.

Jack and I were outside for a bit today. We didn't build a snowman but we did check the mail. I shoveled our front porch and attempted to shovel the steps. We don't have a side walk so I just smashed the 6"+ of snow to make a path through the snow. I shoveled the porch this morning at 9 then had to do it again at 12! It was completely covered again!
Jack LOVES the snow. He's definately a snow dog! Shadow, however, hates snow. Don't all cats?

My family is supposed to come up tomorrow night for Thanksgiving. That's could be a slow going drive. The turkey Paul got for work is in his office fridge. The road to his office was closed today! Hopefully we can get to his work before Turkey Day!

Park City & Birthday 2010

We went to Park City for the weekend as my birthday celebration. We stayed at Westgate Resort, at the Canyons. There was a little bit of snow but it was really nice weather. The first night we went to a haunted house that was "6 feet under main street!" All I can say is I was ripped off, and it was only $7.

We hit up the outlet mall the next day and went ice skating! I tried to do a fancy arabesque and ended up on by stomach, with a bruise on my knee. I guess ice skating isn't like riding a bike...

(He fell and I was wiping the ice off. I promise!)

We got some Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on Main Street (<3>

When we got back Paul's mom was making dinner and homemade spud-nuts in lieu of a birthday cake for me. They were so good!

I could have sworn I took more pictures! : ( But I know Megan did! So I'll just have to get them from her.

A trip to rexburg and Butter Braids

Our school did a fundraiser to raise money for our dance department. Particularly in need of a new dance floor since we've moved to a new school that doesn't have one. Any-hoo the students raise $11,500.50! Amazing! The top seller sold 51 butter braids and a student in my class sold 50, needless to say she was bummed. BUT! My class took 1st place in total sales! (Woo hoo my class!) I would love to say I encouraged but I didn't; I did by 2 from a student in my class though. So we won an ice cream social at some point!

This past weekend I went to Rexburg for a bridal shower. It was also an excellent excuse for us old roommates to reunite. Catherine sent her love from VA but the rest of us were able to get together!
First we got our nails done. I had a little girl take our picture while her mom was getting her nails done. Her mom kinda ripped on her afterwords for talking to strangers (she lacked class as she got after her 7 year old). Haha I wanted to say something but I couldn't think of anything snarky enough to say. But that's why Kami's head is cut off.

Again, this was taken by a little girl. I got tired of waiting and just closed my eyes.

The shower was at Lindsey's house. The crown on her head says "Girls Night Out." She loved it.

Student funny of the Day

A kid was doing a presentation on the lake he chose to do a poster on. In doing this research he learned about a group of people called Uros. He said they built small islands out of a reed native to that lake. He said, "Any time someone new came they had to add on to their little island. They didn't have many visitors." : ) It was just kinda cute.

School is in

I can't believe we're done with our 5th week of school! This week was a 3 day school week because Thursday and Friday are teacher inservice days. I'll get caught up on future lesson plans and grading of some projects.
Paul officially started his "new" job with Landview Fertilizer on the 1st. He's doing the same thing, ProGreen and Festive Glow, but his office moved and the owner's changed. I think it will be a good change for Paul, a good chance for his to make the business BOOM! (or at least grow a little).
Not a whole lot of news other than that. We got a new car on the 25th of September. We got a Subaru Outback because it has all wheel drive and still gets good gas mileage. So far I love it!

No more long hair!

Well I did it. I've been wanting to cut my hair for a while, but Paul said he'd divorce me if I did. He was working at the Cassia County fair and ran into a lady we know. He said her hair was short and dark and he liked it, so he suggested I cut mine. I wanted to do Locks of Love, which requires 10 inches from tip to tip, originally I thought it was 12. Anyway, I had already scheduled a haircut for the following week and told her I was going to color it, too. After walking around with a ruler next to my hair for a while, I decided I could lose 10 inches.

Before:

After:

I like it alot. It's different getting used to not pulling it out from under a hoodie or anything. Hopefully it makes me look a little older (that's what I was going for. I don't want to be confused for a high school kid anymore!)

Collage of our trip

Mexico

Here are some videos from the trip:

Dolphins jumping while we're at dinner.

It's a whale's fin and if you look closely you can see the spray.

The rest of July

Some bonding between Jack and Paul. Jack has to stay in the laundry room or entry way because it's tile and he's a dirty dog.

I got home from Vegas very early on Friday 7/16. That night we went camping with Jack. We also went with Jen and Kenley Nebeker and Chris Leiser and one of his dogs came. Jack slept in the tent with us and made it very warm- he puts off more heat than I expected! But he did keep my feet warm. It was a quick but fun little outing.

The next week was nothing special until Wednesday when Hyrum came home from his mission to Brazil. Paul took a pepperoni and olives pizza from Maxie's to the airport for Hyrum, but I think Paul ate most of it. Everyone was excited to see Hyrum and the gifts and stories he had from his strange country.

The following week, I went to Girl's Camp from Tuesday 7/27- Friday 7/30. It wasn't a horrible experience like I've heard some people have, but it was very different being a leader vs. a girl. I'm really there to be the "bad guy," making sure they get out of bed and to where they need to be. They did some neat things that were different from when I was there- I think they're food was way better! We had roast beef one night and crepes! (I didn't take any pictures...)

This week I have a math class from 8-4 everyday that the state is requiring, so they're paying for the 3 credits. It's hard coming from a Singapore Math Conference, which our school "believes in," to something the state is making us take and doesn't really go along with how we teach. Oh well, it helps toward recertification!

More vegas

Statue of Liberty out of Jelly Beans
at New York, New York.

Thad drove and took home all our books.

No room to shop for his family..

Tami, Debbie, Lisa, Cherrynn
Me, Renee, Melissa and Thad

4th of July and Vegas

For the 4th we lit hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks at Paul's parents house. It was fun. We did that on the 3rd and my family came up. My mom, sisters, and I went swimming while my dad and Paul played golf. Then we went to his parents that night. On the 4th we went to CSI and watched the fireworks with Amanda, Chris, Alexa, and Chloe.

I went with 7 fellow teachers to a Singapore Math conference in Las Vegas from the 12-15th. While there wondering the strip we wondered to the Venetian. Upon arrival I could have sworn I saw my 4th grade teacher from Hawaii (Miss Togashi) and guess what?! It was her! She was there with my old PE and art teachers. That was crazy! She looked exactly the same but is married. What a small world.

I'm currently in the airport waiting to head back to Boise. 6 of us drove from Twin in an Impala so I got front and center :) That's going to be a long drive tonight at 11 or later..

We went to a show, Cirque de Soliel, La Reve. It was AMAZING! One lady has been to Europe and wasn't as impressed as I was, but it was the most spectacular thing. I would never dream that people could do that in a theater with water.

It's July already?! Quick updates

This is my garden. I have lettuce, beans, corn, and watermelon growing! However, I have that many plants planted that aren't growing... :(

I can't believe it's JULY! Time sure flies when you're having fun.. or something. I don't know what I've done with my month off. I've read quite a few books and rented quite a few movies. I was supposed to get my wisdom teeth pulled the Monday after school got out but he said they're right on a nerve; since they aren't bothering me yet he said it's not worth risking nerve damage to pull them. Perhaps I'll need them pulled and get nerve damage then, but no need to risk it yet.

The day after that was a sad day for me. One of the kittens, Opie, (2nd generation) got hit by a car in front of our house. That was sad enough but she left 6 kitties behind (3rd generation) who weren't even 2 weeks old yet! I brought their box in and tried to feed them the kitten milk I ran out and bought. But it didn't work so well. I was sad and overwhelmed so I called the Humane Society, they said bring them in with the milk. And I did. Then Liz called and said she'd take care of them. It had been about 2 hours since I took them to the shelter... I called back to get the kitties.. and they'd put them all to sleep! I felt like a murderer.. if I hadn't been so lazy or if I had asked Liz first, they could have been alive.

This is Opie nursing the kitties.. hard to tell but there are 6 babies in there with her.

I was better the next day when I found our other cat, Ham, (2nd generation) apparently had kittens in our neighbors hay stacks and brought them to our deck, there were 4 and there were older than Opie's.

It was like the week of the Cat.
Shadow (1st generation) jumped in the shed once while I was in there and hissed at the kittens. Apparently she's not a fan of her grandkids.

So that's how my first week off was. The second week I'm not sure what I did but I did hike 8 miles in about 4 hours. The young men are doing a 50 miler but in 20 hours (crazy!) They invited the Young Women to go to a practice hike. So one laurel, the president, and I went. We only did 8 miles before our hips were killing us. It wasn't even a hike since we walked on a paved road, but my hips killed me for the next few days. I took Jack with me and he did very well. He was thirsty the whole time so he stopped at every puddle to drink. He found a ditch and climbed in, thinking it was safe since he could touch. But he doesn't know what a current is. It was pretty funny watching him slowly get swept away, he got out alright but I think he was a little confused about what had happened.

The Elder's Quorum had a "golf" party down by Paul's grandparents. I took Jack to that too. This is a picture of how tired he was; he has a burger on his face and is still sleeping.

Let's see... what else.

My mom made two trips in June- one with Brittney and one with Summer. Really they just wanted to see the kittens.

Last week we bought 6 maple trees and planted them so we can say we have some trees on our property. Paul dug a "creek" from the northeast corner of our property, under the driveway and circle drive, around the corner by our bedroom, past the garden, all the way to the southern irrgation ditch. His plan is for it to look like this, kind of. Our goes through our grass so we won't the curbing like this one. We have PLENTY of rocks to line the stream with though, compliments of the rock quarry we live on. Also, he'll have the grass go right up to the edge of the stream. It needs some work because it looks like this at the moment:

We bought some bushes on Tuesday so it looks a little less like a dirt field. Only a little though. Do you see them in the picture?

Tuesday night at midnight was the premier of Eclipse. I was told the line would start at 7 by the lady who works at the movie theater. So Retha and her sister-in-law and I went to dinner at 6 then to the theater. There was only 1 other group there. We were very tempted to leave and come back but what time should we come back? Amanda said last time she got there a little after 9 and the line was already huge. This time the line didn't really start forming until 9... Next time I'm waiting until 9. But it was fun, we played card games most of the time. Amanda and Liz joined us later and since we were so close to the front we got good seats all next to each other. The movie was amazing.

Winding up to wind down

I have 6 1/2 days left of school :) 1 is a field trip to the park and another is a field day put on by PFA, so really it's less than that. I'm very excited to get to sleep in and be "unstressed" for a while. I don't really notice stress with my day to day activities but my attitude at school is different when I'm stressed. I have to remind myself to smile sometimes (my poor class).
Paul brought home the stone from Upper Valley Stone, or something like that, to create a legit. front porch and back deck. I'm very excited. It means we're 1/16 closer to grass!!

Brittney graduates college next weekend, so we're going to my parents house for Memorial Weekend. My grandparents will be there too, so it will be a full house. We're going to take Jack :) That'll make for an interesting 2 hour drive, especially since we don't have a kennel for him. Don't worry, we bought puppy training pads for the car floor mats but he usually barks when he needs to go. Hope he keeps that up!

Notes from my students

Like I mentioned, today was write your teacher a note day. I got Reeses from one girl, because they know they're my favorite! This was a poem written for me by Keelie:
Mrs. Stanger

She is my teacher

And a wonderful creature

It was her first year,

and she jumped into it just like a pool

And taught us many great tools

Mrs. Stanger, she's way cool

She's always enthusiastic

I think it's fantastic

Mrs. Stanger has a great attitude

And I would like to show my gratitude

How cute is that!? I got some cute cards and sweet notes about how I was the best teacher one girl had ever had (that's such a compliment!) I got lots of notes saying they wish I could be their teacher again next year :)
One of my students who struggles made a cute card using the foam letters. It says: Mrs. Stanger You are a cool teacher. I was surprised to get one from him!

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is teacher appreciation week at my school. Monday was sign up to give teacher's treats at their faculty meeting day. I have to say I had the best peanut butter and chocolate bars EVER. Today was bring your teacher flowers day. I have quite the boquet. Some students picked them from their garden, some students picked them from a bush, one even cut a branch off a tree at her house (it was a pretty smelling flowered branch). I also got roses, tulips, carnations, and lilies. It's pretty. One student brought 6 roses and as I was letting them into the class she was giving one to another student :) So she gave me 5 and the other girl gave me the other 1, I thought that was kinda funny. Friday they're supposed to write notes and things. I'll be sure to add any good ones!

Weekend projects

For mutual last week we went around to places, taking pictures for time capsules we're making. The girls took pictures with their "dream cars" and favorite candy bars. We also hit up some scenic spots in Twin. It really has some pretty natural features, that make living here not so bad :) This is me trying to be a photographer with my tiny Nikon Coolpix.

While Paul slaves away in the yard getting ready for a sprinkler system, I had some projects of my own. We still had the original silver toilet paper holders and towel rods in our bathrooms. Needless to say, like anything original with the house, they were pretty nasty. So I bought some new ones at Home Depot and put them in over the weekend. The one that didn't go so well was a new rod where there hadn't been one, in Paul's bathroom. I swear I measured. But it's crooked. Oops.. Not sure how to fix it! But I became rather frustrated with anchors coming out of the wall before I could get the screw in. So now the screw is stuck with the bracket in between. I had to walk away a few times.

Other than that, Paul picked up a piece of furniture when he helped a family move a while ago. It's what I wanted in the laundry room... kind of. This one was older and smellier than I'd imagined. So I repainted and re-hooked it. I also ordered vinyl lettering that says "THE MUD stops here."

It has some charm.. from the 70s.

Ah! Those are pretty scary hooks!