Someday...

...I will go here:

If I wrote a bucket list, this place would be pretty close to the top. It is one of my life goals to go to Africa someday. It is just so intriguing to me. I think it would be pretty amazing to go there and teach or work. I am secretly crossing my fingers that Griffin will get called to Africa so I can live vicariously through him until I can go there my self.

New Project...

Yesterday as we were out and about we stopped at the Distribution Center because my mom needed a few things. She was here this weekend helping Griffin recover from some oral surgery. I picked up the new Personal Progress book and journal. I've been looking for ways to set some spiritual goals, besides reading my scriptures and saying my prayers everyday. As my mom and I got talking, it turns out she is working on doing Personal Progress too, so we are going to be doing it together. We are starting out on Knowledge. It is neat because in the guidelines it says that you can work as a mother and daughter, passing off each others' experiences and projects, etc. I am excited to be working on something continuously to improve my spirituality. Anyone want to join?

P.S. With the new version of the program, you get a scripture marker ribbon in the color of the value you complete each time you finish a value. So, since my mom is in the Stake Young Womens I asked her if she could send me a ribbon every time I finish. We'll see :)

My luck has run out...

I still have all four of my wisdom teeth. For the past few years, every time I would go to the dentist he would say something to the effect of, "Well, you have at least a year until you need to get your wisdom teeth out."

Until last September. He said, "Within a year you will need to get them out."

Well, ladies and gentlemen...I think my luck has run out.

Back in December it felt like one wisdom tooth was coming in...

This weekend, the left side of my mouth has been considerably sore. Dang.

Thanks, wisdom teeth. You are about to ruin at least a week of my break in March.

How did I miss this?!

ksl.com - Meteor lights up early morning sky, alarms Utahns

A few months back there was a meteor shower, which I was aware of, but I did not know that it caused such a commotion right here in our very own backyard. Watch this video, it is crazy!! Griffin was over at our house last night and he showed us this video and told us that he was woken up by it and that people were outside of the dorms screaming and thinking a bomb was going off or some disastrous thing like that. It happened in the middle of the night but Brian and I have no recollection of this event, whatsoever.

Let's hope we'll be able to hear our own children in the middle of the night.

Bonding with Winter...

In the now four winters I have spent in Utah, I have not done one thing that has to do with snow, minus sledding. But on the Martin Luther King holiday I broke that tradition and we went snowshoeing. It was way fun! We went with Rory and Lauren up to Sundance and went on some of the trails up there. One of the trails we went on led right to a few of Stewart Falls, which we have hiked before, so it was cool to see it frozen! It was bit hard at times, especially because we were in the mountains, in the snow. Well, maybe no one else thought it was hard, but I sure had to stop a few times otherwise I think my heart would have burst out of my chest. It was a fun adventure, enjoy the pictures!

In front of Stewart Falls, fitting isn't it?

Stewart Falls- it looked frozen but we could still hear water flowing, which was kind of neat.

About to start on the "Whoa Nellie" trial...Brian, Rory and Lauren preparing...

And of course, Brian exploring off the beaten path :)

You can't put a price on life...

Brian and I try to be very good at budgeting our money. We plan our meals so that we only spend a certain amount. We prioritize things we need to buy over several months. We don't go to the mall, ever. We don't go to movies. But we realized something awhile ago that is so important. Don't get SO caught up in plans and budgets that you don't have time to have a life.

A girl in our ward told a story in sacrament meeting about a boy who was sent to explore a castle holding a spoon with 2 drops of oil. The man who sent him said to be sure to not spill the drops of oil. When the boy came back after exploring the castle, he still had the oil, but when the man asked him what he saw in the castle, the boy could only answer that he saw nothing. The man then sent him back, urging him to be sure and observe the beautiful paintings and art in the castle. The boy did and came back with no oil. The man said that the trick to life is focusing on what is important, but still taking time to live life and enjoy it!

So, when we do decide that we want to do something fun for ourselves, we don't feel bad. We don't do it all the time and we need it sometimes! Case in point (another one): Tomorrow we are buying a digital antenna for our TV. Why? So we can watch the Olympics in February! (and the Biggest Loser, of course). It helps that the one we are getting is only $10.99

Settling in...

Since my last post, we have been BUSY getting back into the swing of things. We got back from our awesome trip to Texas the day before school/work started for both of us! We got back on a Sunday night and went right back to normal life on Monday. As a result, there aren't any pictures in this post, just an update.

Brian is back in school and working. He is taking some good classes this semester and is enjoying work. His new shift is at 6 am...a bit earlier than he's used to, but I think he likes it! He has been busy for the last couple of weeks organizing his schedule of classes and work.

I am back into teaching full swing. These past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Just getting back into planning and preparing has been crazy. Also, I am coming up on my last BYU observations and working on my Teacher Work Sample (the final project for my internship). Brian calls it a dissertation for elementary education majors...and he's not far off! Talk to me after February 20th and I will be one relaxed lady. I am still loving my teaching experience. My class is so great and I just love the kiddos!

Since we've been back we have been busy getting our new apartment organized. We are so excited because we got our first washer & dryer! and we have organized our second bedroom (i.e. mission control of our life-office, schedules, homework, work, etc) We have also decided to make it our "family" room in the fact that we are going to put tons of pictures up of our family and friends. Love.

Yesterday we spent the morning finding the best deals at the local grocery stores and finding where the best prices are. We're funny, we love that! We also try our best to eat healthy, so we look for good prices on healthy things. Brian always makes sure we have a green vegetable with out meals. I don't buy sugary cereals, etc. And we just found this great bread yesterday that has only SEVEN ingredients. That is legit bread. Real bread. And it only cost $1.59. No high fructose corn syrup or 25 other ingredients that you can't even pronounce. Happy day. We also bought a 20-lb. bag of brown rice, instead of white rice.

We both have made goals to attend the gym more regularly this year as well. We go at different times because it just works out better in our schedule and last Thursday night I learned an important lesson. Don't forget to wear your wedding ring (don't worry, not the engagement ring, just the band ;) because if you don't, boys will flirt with you. I related the following story to Brian when I got home and asked, "Well, were you wearing your wedding ring?"

Case in point: I was running on the treadmill in the cardio cinema and this dude gets on the treadmill next to me. He looks over and starts asking me questions like, "So, what movie is this?" "Is this treadmill broken?" (it wasn't). Then he says, "So, I like to look over at the person running next to me and see if I can outrun them." I politely turned to him and said "I don't think you'll have a problem outrunning me." He continued to make comments about the treadmill, the movie, etc. Sorry, but I can't make small talk while I'm running, can you?

On Friday night we had a fun date night. I got 2 movie gift cards from my school for Christmas, so we went and saw Leap Year. We would recommend it-it is a typical romantic comedy, but it is cute and PG! You just never can tell these days, so we thought it would be pretty safe and it was. We went to Wendy's after for Frosty's...yummy.

Yesterday we had a "lay around the house and do nothing day." In the morning, we watched some Looney Tunes that Brian has on DVD. I cleaned the house a little. We went grocery shopping. We watched Full House, Harry Potter and the Sandlot. We had grilled cheese and soup for dinner. It was awesome.

No school or work tomorrow. Lovely.