Light the World

I decided to do the "Light the World" challenge this month to try to remember what this time of year is really about. There were recommended things to do everyday online for this challenge. My family did a group text daily to report to each other what we did. I want to document what I did, so I can remember for next year. Some days were definitely harder than others to come up with and do service. In fact, the end of the "Light the World" challenge tells you to pick one of the acts of service you did and make it a goal for 2017. I haven't gotten around to that yet... 

December 1st- Andrew and I babysat Simon and Esther so Jeff and Lindsey could go to Jeff's work party.

December 2nd- Andrew and I wrote a thank-you note to Logan and Julia who let us stay at their house while we were there for Thanksgiving.

December 3rd- I wrote Grandma and Grandpa Langlois a thank-you card for the Christmas money they sent me.

December 4th- We donated to the general missionary fund.

December 5th- We took 2 names of kids from sub for Santa at Andrew's work and got them giftcards for things they need.

December 6th- I posted a scripture on social media. (I don't think I had ever done this before.) 
D&C 18:10-11

December 7th- We donated boxed/canned food to help those who are starving in Utah.

December 8th- I texted a friend that just had a baby and is having a hard recovery. 

December 9th- I donated all the change in our "change bag" to penny wars at school. (All the money goes to struggling families within my own school.)

December 10th- We did sealings at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We brought family names to do.

December 11th- I wrote 7 cards to family members. Most of them were thank-you cards to Andrew's family for throwing me a baby shower, but one was to our niece who got baptized. (We weren't able to make it to the baptism.)

December 12th- I made cookies for the people Andrew sometimes carpools with to work.

December 13th- I sent my friend, Kaitlin, an e-gift card to her favorite pizza place for her birthday.

December 14th- I purchased a picture of the Savior to put in the nursery.

December 15th- I put together some Christmas gifts for coworkers. I felt really bad because last year I did nothing.

"This 'winter' I'm grateful for you. Have a very merry Christmas!"

December 16th- I invited two newer couples in our ward over for a game night.

December 17th- We bought neighbor/home teaching/visiting teaching Christmas gifts.

"Wishing you a holiday season full of peace, joy, and hope (soap)."

(We crossed out hope and wrote in soap.)

December 18th- I made cookies for Andrew's Sunday school class.

December 19th- I emailed my nephew, Alex, who is on his mission in Romania.

December 20th- "Be a mentor or tutor to someone." I was extra patient during math with some students who didn't quite understand the concept.

December 21st- I got my friend, Brighton, a cookie from Swig (her fav) to wish her luck on a licensing test she has been studying for. 

December 22nd- We went to the temple.

December 23rd- I went to the store and got treats to make a dessert for the family coming over. Does this count?

December 24th- We stopped at The Corner Bakery to buy my Mom a fresh chocolate bundt cake.

December 25th- How sad is it that I don't know what I did on Christmas day! I did make jello for the Christmas dinner...? I helped set the table?

I wasn't perfect at this and have plenty of room for improvement.This was a really neat experience for me though and I plan on doing it again next year. (Maybe I'll even be able to donate blood next time because I won't be pregnant!) Sometimes, I worry too much about money and this helped me step out of that mindset a bit. I have been blessed and can bless others because I know that God is the person I have to thank for everything I have. #lighttheworld

Pregnancy Probs

This post is more for journaling and so I can remember what pregnancy was like.

I feel blessed in that I haven't really had any morning sickness and I haven't thrown up once. I know so many people face challenging pregnancies and I'm so glad that I'm not one of them.Pregnancy does take some getting used to and I want to keep track of some of the things that I've dealt with this pregnancy.

1) Bathroom Constantly 
This definitely comes in spurts. For a while I was waking up several times a night to tinkle and then it stopped for a while. Now, it's back and not just at night, but during the day as well. Sometimes it is tough while I'm teaching because I have to go to the bathroom so much. The longest period of time I have to wait is from 7:55-10:45 and as soon as I let the students out for recess, I immediately dash to the bathroom. I'm not used to using the bathroom often in public places because I never had to, so this is new to me.

2) SLEEP
Especially in the first trimester, I could sleep forever! In fact, my bedtime changed for several weeks to like 8:30pm (no joke). No matter how hard I tried to stay awake past this time, it wouldn't work. Now I'm coming close to the third trimester and I still find myself to be exhausted. I think teaching has a lot to do with it. By the time I get home each night, I am so sick of standing. My bedtime might not be 8:30pm anymore, but it is almost always 9:30pm. It's so early that Andrew stays up usually two or more hours after I go to sleep. 

3) Charley Horse
Until now, I have never had a charley horse. Man, who knew these were so painful? I have now had 2 just this week and they are starting to take their toll. Luckily, I had a doctors appointment yesterday and discussed this with the doctor. It turns out I'm calcium deficient and now I take a calcium vitamin 3 times a day. Hopefully these vitamins will kick in soon because I don't want to have another one! It's a horrible feeling to be woken up in the middle of the night with such throbbing pain. In fact, they have been so painful that my calf/leg hurts for a few days after the charley horse. Apparently these are really common during pregnancy. The doctor also told me that this would help with my shin pain. I've always had shins that bother me, but lately they have been extremely sore at the end of every day. Hopefully that will change!

4) Baby Bump Comments
This has been a big adjustment for me. Usually weight isn't an okay topic to discuss, but suddenly when you're pregnant it is. Obviously I'm not mad that I'm getter fatter because I'm growing a child, but I find these conversations quite awkward. "Ooh, looks like you're starting to show Jenna." "You are so small, you must be carrying him more in your back." Nobody has been offensive at all, but I just don't know how to respond. I'm always caught off guard when people I hardly know make comments about my baby bump. I need to think of what to say so that I just have an immediate response on-hand because it happens so often. 

Also, I'm not one that will post pictures of my baby bump  weekly or monthly or ever probably. My friend did say that I'll want to look at them later though, so I recently took my first baby bump picture. (Can't believe I'm posting it here, but this is my journal!) 

In this picture I am almost 24 weeks pregnant. (3 days shy) 

5) Fighting off sickness
I got a cold about 2 months ago. (Not surprising especially when I get a nice view from the front of the classroom of students picking their noses.) It wouldn't go away. In fact, when I went to Spokane for Thanksgiving it was worse and I had had the cold for 3 weeks at this point. I actually ended up having to get on a prescription for a sinus infection. This cold took over a month to get over! It felt like I was sick for SO LONG and it wasn't fun!

I am excited to pop a bit more mostly because pants are uncomfortable. Regular pants aren't an option at this point, but maternity pants fall down all day and drive me crazy! I have tried the band you wear around your waste with regular pants (and unbuttoning the top button), but that isn't ideal either. Again, I have been very fortunate with this pregnancy! I wish it would go by a little faster so we could meet him! 

Procrastination

It's the last day of the month and I haven't blogged twice yet. I can relate this to visiting teaching. It seems like the end of the month always comes so quickly, and I am scrambling. (Which is why the 3 people I visit got something dropped off at their houses yesterday.)

I have often heard others refer to "nesting" while pregnant. I think this is starting to happen to me. Lately, I have been really into getting our house spic and span and ready. I feel EXTREMELY busy, but I think that is related to the fact that I just got back from an 8 day vacation to Spokane and our laundry/bills/chores are never-ending.

The first thing we recently did to our house is add curtains to our living room. Wow, if I had known what a difference this would make, I would have done it months ago. We put sheers up almost immediately, but now with curtains on-top of that it feels so homey and we actually have privacy. I don't see when someone is walking by on the trail outside. I have tried taking pictures, but most look tacky and cheap. In person, you'll see that they actually look quite elegant. (Well, as elegant as Walmart can get.)

While I was away on a girls' weekend, I left Andrew a long list of various paint jobs to do throughout the house. He spent several hours and applied numerous coats of paint, but we still have quite a ways to go. I'm thinking we'll do some painting this weekend... (He doesn't know that yet :)) 

Lately people have been asking me a lot how the nursery is coming and what furniture and baby accessories I have. This question has actually been a bit stressful to me because until this past week, we really had nothing. While in Spokane, my sister-n-laws threw me a surprise baby shower. I got SO many adorable little baby boy clothes and it made me so excited! At the shower, we made some onesies. Check them out below:

I thought of a great answer to "how is the nursery coming?" Black Friday deals! We decided to wait and see if any of the items we wanted went on sale and sure enough, our carseat and stroller did. We purchased them and got over $100 off. The carseat and stroller arrived yesterday and I was giddy and made us open them immediately. In fact, the stroller and carseat are still out in our living room cluttering up the space, but I love to look at them and imagine a little (let's be real.. big) baby boy in them. (I think my neat freak self will come out later this evening and put them away.)

I know we still have plenty of time to finish getting everything ready, but I can hardly wait! I wish we could fast forward time, but I'm sure it will be here soon enough. Here's to blogging before December 31st next month!

Branching Out

Recently someone asked us about good local restaurants near us in Pleasant Grove. I was kind of embarrassed when I didn't have a response. When we get something for dinner, we typically just stick with pizza. If we actually go to a restaurant, we have our "usuals" and don't ever really branch out. These places are typically chains that you can find in many cities. Yes, Cafe Rio and Red Robin are both on the list.

As I've been thinking about why we don't branch out a couple of things have come to mind. First of all, I don't like to spend money on food I can't guarantee that I will like. Secondly, when we have branched out (which is extremely rare), I usually find myself disappointed and mad at myself for choosing that place.

Lately I have been into "Cupcake Wars." One of the winners of "Cupcake Wars" is from Pleasant Grove and has a store within 5 minutes of our house. We were recently at a party and someone there heard we were from Pleasant Grove. Their first question was, having you been to Cravings? They couldn't say enough about how amazing this place was.

After that, I looked into "Cravings" some more and I found out that there are twin sisters who went on cupcake wars together. One owns the cupcake place, and one owns a bistro. Usually when it's date night and my turn to decide, we get pizza or cafe rio and watch our favorite T.V. show which to be honest is getting old. This week date night was different. I think Andrew was pleasantly surprised when I told him I wanted to eat dinner at Cravings Bistro and then top it off with a cupcake at Cravings Alisha's Cupcakes.

I tried to document the occasion with pictures, but daylight savings kind of ruined that idea. It was black outside when we ate dinner. I tried to take pictures inside of each of the places, but they were crowded and even with a flash the quality was poor. I didn't even attempt a picture of us. I have had a miserable cold and you can still tell I've blown my nose too much when you look at my face. The pictures were a bust. You'll have to go for yourself to see.

One thing I noticed when looking up the Cravings Bistro menu online is that the menu said that if you order a grilled cheese, expect at least 15 minutes for it to cook. At the actual restaurant, we counted 3 signs talking about how long it would take and that this isn't a fast food place. I read some reviews online, and that was the one negative comment I consistently noticed.

I decided to order the Thanksgiving grilled cheese. It had green beans in it, potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and probably more. It was delicious. It even had a cranberry dipping sauce, but who likes that? I felt a little stupid because when I ordered the Thanksgiving Dinner, I was expecting a Thanksgiving meal with mashed potatoes and gravy. I was shocked to see it was a sandwich. Andrew ordered the Philly Cheesesteak grilled cheese and before our food came I made him promise to give me a taste before devouring his.

We shared fries between the two of us and I actually liked the fry sauce which is rare. Usually I can only taste the mayo in fry sauce which makes me want to gag. We were both happy with our meals and jumped in the car to head to get our cupcakes. I had looked at the menu beforehand and was looking forward to a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake, but there wasn't one.

The Better Than....(This is really what it's called) Cupcake was out of this world though and left me very satisfied. Andrew got a banana cheesecake cupcake (which of course I tried) and it was a big hit. We noticed 15 people at the cupcake place who were also with us at the Bistro. It seems like my "creative" date idea is common.

For our date "activity" I told Andrew I wanted to hang curtains. So practical and I blame pregnancy and nesting. I am sick of just having sheers in our living room though especially when it is so dark at night. I feel like our neighbors can see everything we are doing. The curtains look quite nice. Pictures to come.

I will branch out more now when it comes to restaurants. In fact, we both want to go back to Cravings which is an excellent sign. I will use my resources (internet reviews) before suggesting a new place, but I already have 2 more local places on my "want to try" list.

We're Going to Be Parents!

August 1st. That is how long we have known that I was pregnant! That feels like forever ago. I wish we had documented the day we found out with a picture, but that was the last thing on our mind. In fact, I wasn't even going to take a pregnancy test because I didn't want to be disappointed again.

My period was a few days late starting, but it had been 4 days late the month before and I got a negative test so I was trying not to get my hopes up. I actually had Andrew go buy the pregnancy test at like 9:30pm which is pretty close to my bedtime. He came back with a two pack. Little did we know, we wouldn't need that extra test.

I took the test and was floored when I saw a plus sign. I immediately screamed to Andrew who didn't really believe me. Taking pregnancy tests has been a monthly thing for us for about a year now. In fact, I finally had to tell myself to stop buying them and wasting money on the "find out early" tests because they kept coming back negative. The first couple of months, I took like 3 tests a month because I thought for sure I would be pregnant. My Mom never had any problems and I figured I would be the same way.

It took us awhile to get over the initial shock of the positive pregnancy test, but we were SO excited. Of course before I even knew I was pregnant, I calculated out when the due date would be in case I got pregnant that month. April- Perfect! 

At my first appointment, the doctor told me that my due date was April 7th which is the end of Spring Break for me. At my second appointment, the doctor moved my due date up to April 3rd. This date has me a little nervous. I'm really hoping that we don't have our son on April Fool's Day. Either way, it seems like we planned the pregnancy really well with spring break and less than 2 months left of school.

Although it seems like we planned it perfectly, we are just really blessed. I will get 6 weeks off of school after having the baby, so if I have to go back to school at all this year, it will only be for the last week which is a huge blessing. We found out this week that we are having a baby boy and we are thrilled. 

I am a little picky with names and I think I can blame teaching for that. When you teach 30 students a year, some names are not an option. Luckily we have some time to figure that out. 

I saw a Doctor in June of this year to try to figure out why I wasn't getting pregnant. They took my blood and did some tests. It turns out that I am Vitamin D deficient. (I blame Rexburg) Who knew that this deficiency could keep you from getting pregnant? I had no idea and I had even been taking prenatal vitamins for quite awhile which have Vitamin D in them. The doctor suggested taking 500mg of Vitamin D a day. At first I was a little skeptical. It really couldn't be that easy of a fix? 2 months on Vitamin D did the trick. We feel so blessed. It obviously could have been something much more serious.

I sometimes feel bad even saying that I had "infertility" issues because ours were pretty short term. I know that some people struggle for years and years and I can't imagine how hard that must be for them. Honestly, I don't know why we had to go through this and why we couldn't just get pregnant the first month we tried. I also know this happened for a reason. Maybe it was to teach me to be more sensitive to others and know how to relate a little bit with those who struggle with this problem long term.

This December marks 4 years of marriage for us. That is a long time for a Mormon couple to wait to have children and some people have been loud with their feelings and opinions about our lack of children. None of these people were intentionally trying to be mean, but sometimes I think it's important to remember that you don't always know what someone is going through.

We have had home/visiting teachers ask us, "Before I start the lesson this month, I just wanted to ask if you guys even want to have kids? I know you have been married for a long time and I wasn't sure. The lesson is all about families and so I didn't know if I should share it." This broke my heart. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love kids. I started babysitting when I was 9 years old. My profession also involves 30 children for 8 hours a day.

In a group setting at a church activity, I was asked in front of 10 other people, "So now that you bought a house, does that actually mean that you'll start trying to have kids?" This comment really got to me and made me feel extremely awkward. At this point, we had been trying for 9 months and it's hard to know how to respond.

I have also had others tell me, "Jenna, I don't know what your plans are, but now would be a good time for a teacher to get pregnant because then you could have your baby in the summer." I would have loved to have responded with, "yeah, we have been trying for quite a while now. The summer would be a great time." Instead, I awkwardly nodded and changed the subject.

Now, I do need to add that we have not been trying to have children the entire time we have been married. In fact, we waited quite a while which was up to us and what we felt good about. 

The point of this post was not to be grumpy. In fact, we are as happy as ever with a baby on the way. We feel like we're living in a dream and it still feels very surreal. I'm sure that in April when I'm waking up to cries several times a night, it will finally hit. I also bet that in April I will be as happy as ever, if not happier because my dream of becoming a Mom will come true. Also, watching Andrew be a Dad will about melt my heart. He is so good with kids and I've seen him play with complete strangers babies and I just know I married a man who will be the best Dad possible. Can we fast-forward time to April now please? I want to snuggle our little guy. In fact, we sometimes joke that we will argue over who gets to hold the baby because we'll both be so in love with him. We are open to name suggestions....

Parent Teacher Conferences

October is always a stressful time for me and probably all teachers. I don't think college adequately prepared me for what parent teacher conferences are really like.

Here is my checklist for how to prepare for parent teacher conferences: (You're welcome new teachers.)

• Get PLENTY of sleep beforehand. Being at the school from 7:00am-8:00pm TWO days in a row really takes it out of you.
• Bring deodorant/a brush/makeup to reapply/possibly a toothbrush. After trying to maintain the attention of 30 distracted students all day you'll need it. No parent wants to see what you ate stuck in your teeth either.
• Pre-plan your professional outfit, so the morning of you don't have to change several times.

Here is my checklist for things that have worked well to do for/during conferences:

• Provide candy for the parents and students. I like to start on a very happy note and very few people have passed up my candy offer. (I buy the good stuff... aka Reeses)
• Always start the conference with something you love about the student. This shows the parents how much you really care and know their child.
• Have water nearby. Talking all day and into the night takes its toll.
• Have things to do between conferences or when someone doesn't show up for their appointment. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be huge gaps in your schedule and nobody would take the last appointment you have available BOTH nights, but it happens.
• Keep a clipboard handy during conferences to take notes of things parents bring up, so you don't forget. By the end of 2 days of conferencing, my clipboard was full.
• I learned this tip from another teacher. When it is time for the conference to end, stand up and start walking the family to the door. This way, you can keep up with your schedule. Obviously you can't always do this, but sometimes it's really helpful. It's easy to fall behind when people come late. (Yesterday someone came 2 hours early and took 25 minutes of my dinner break.)

Here is the list of how to recover after conferences:

• Tell your husband how much you have enjoyed the special treats and surprises he got you last year at parent teacher conferences. Mine was smart and surprised me again this time with ice cream, chips, and root beer.
• Don't plan on doing anything strenuous the day after conferences. I made sure that everything was planned out for today because I knew I would be too exhausted to think about lessons.
• Go to dinner. Andrew and I have been planning on going to dinner the day after conferences (today) for several weeks. This has given me something to look forward to all week. By the way, Texas Roadhouse couldn't have hit the spot more tonight. Yumm... Still recovering and hardly able to move after eating so much, but worth it.
• Give yourself a "lazy day" with your appearance. I set my alarm later this morning and wore a ponytail. After 2 days of full-on makeup and lots of hairspray and hard work on my hair, I deserved a break.
• Last but not least, enjoy the 3ish months you have off until the next Parent Teacher Conferences. (February) 

New York Part 2

Tuesday was our long tennis day. We watched tennis for over 13 and a half hours. We had tickets to the day session as well as the night session.

Tuesday was actually quite disappointing for us though. Rain was in the forecast, we found out our super expensive front row tickets were for doubles, and the matches weren't exciting. 

We tried to switch our tickets, but couldn't. The first doubles match was Mattek-Sands and Salfarova vs. Muhammad and Townsend. It wasn't even close and the team I was hoping would win got smoked. 

The next doubles match we were excited about was Makarova and Vesnina vs. Klepac and Srebotnik. Makarova and Vesnina won the gold medal in doubles at the Olympics only a few weeks prior. It wasn't a super exciting match, in fact we went and got food for a good chunk of it. (By the way, these gold medal winners ended up losing later on in the tournament.) 

The last doubles match of the day we were really looking forward to. It was the Bryan brothers vs. F. Lopez and M. Lopez. It was fun tennis to watch especially after a kind of flat day. Unfortunately, it started raining twice during the match and the players had to leave the court and wait. Luckily it didn't rain too much, but the rain definitely impacted the final outcome in my opinion. Before the last rain suspension, F. Lopez was QUITE angry. He was able to cool off during the suspension and came back playing way better and then won. I was sad. Louis Armstrong Stadium is actually being torn down and they are rebuilding it with a roof next year.

Apparently Feliciano Lopez is known for being really attractive. One hyper lady in the crowd was screaming at him after the match asking him if she could have his shirt. She did this several times with no response. She then tried screaming it in Spanish. It was hilarious. 

We were seen on T.V. by my parents, grandparents, and Andrew while in our amazing seats. I was stoked because I finally made friends with the person sitting next to me. We talked a lot. In fact, Andrew wasn't sure if he saw me on T.V. or not because I was talking to some random lady when he saw me.

Can you tell rain is coming?

Being that close to the players was so cool, even though I would have preferred to see singles. We got to hear what they said to each other in between points. Joel's Spanish came in handy and he was able to translate what the players were saying to each other for me. There was one instance where I got too excited and screamed, "out." Luckily the ball boys actually called the ball out and did it at about the same time as me because it would have been really bad if it had been in and I screamed, "out." Oops. I got a little into it.

After our day of disappointments, we knew that the night session would be amazing. Much to our dismay, it wasn't. Wozniaki played Sevastova and killed her. The Djokovic vs. Tsonga match gave us a lot of hope, but ended abruptly when Tsonga retired unexpectedly. We left that evening wanting more, yet exhausted. 

We were quite high up, but could still see just fine.

Wednesday morning we had some time to explore some of New York before the first match. We decided to go to the new world trade center. Wow, it was tall and we went up to the 102 floor. The views were incredible. I got some pictures, but I don't feel they do it justice. This building is very nice and well done. On our way back to the subway, we got pizza because we had been craving it since the last time we had it. (Also, buying food at the U.S. Open is so expensive!)

It's so tall!

This pizza didn't compare to night #1.

We got to see some intense, sickening tennis after that. We first saw Konjuh vs. Pliskova which was another blowout. They were followed by Murray vs. Nishikori. What a match! It turned into a 5 set thriller and Andy Murray LOST. I was ecstatic. Andy Murray is not my favorite because of his temper. In my opinion, he was acting like a baby. He couldn't stop swearing. He complained about a butterfly on the court. Then he complained about a moth on the court. What did he expect? This was outdoors. There was a loud sound that happened a couple of times which pushed Andy over the edge. He talked to the chair umpire at every changeover for a while. In fact, he even had a U.S. official come and talk to him. After this fit, I was so glad he didn't pull out the win. We actually ended up having to leave a little early in the 5th set because we had tickets to see "Wicked."

It was my third time seeing "Wicked," but Joel had never seen it. He seemed to really enjoy it, as did I. Glinda had an AMAZING voice when she tried. She was quite silly, a little too silly, in a lot of the play though. So glad we went. 

We had a good chunk of time on Thursday to explore New York some more before flying out. We headed to Central Park right away. Probably not our best idea. By this point in the trip, we were wiped. We tried walking around and were too tired. Central Park was pretty though. According to my phone, most days we walked at least 5 miles! I almost didn't bring shoes other than sandals which would have been a huge mistake. I ended up getting blisters from walking so much.

Central Park. It reminded me of "You've Got Mail"

We ended up heading to a pizza place. Surprise surprise. Joel and Andrew's boss used to live in New York and said this is the best pizza there--Grimaldi's. We liked it, but we liked Rosa's better. The cheese was very different. (It didn't sit well with me.)

We love that pepperoni is totally normal and acceptable in New York. It seems like here when I say that's what I want, people always think it's too plain. They know what's best in NY.

This pizza place is right under the Brooklyn Bride.

We ended the trip by going to Times Square. We did some shopping at H&M and then rushed back to make it to the airport. Of course our flight was delayed. By the way, the La Guardia airport is the grossest airport I have ever seen. I made it home at about 11:45pm on Thursday night. Teaching bright and early Friday morning was rough.

New York was great. I could NEVER live there though. I can't imagine EVER driving there. Also, strangers aren't quite as friendly as they are here.

Joel is already talking about going back to the U.S. Open again next year. I would love to go again, but who knows when that will be. Going was one of my bucket list items, so now I can die happy. 

P.S- I promise my next post won't be about New York! 

New York Part 1

I have been dreading this post only because I know it is going to take forever to compile. I have so many pictures from my trip and we were there for 5 nights, but hopefully it will be worth it. 

We left early on Saturday, September 3rd. We didn't arrive in NYC until 6:50pm. Right off the bat we had problems with public transportation and ended up tracking down a taxi.

Upon arriving at our airbnb, we were both startled. It wasn't at all what we were expecting and didn't seem to be in the best neighborhood. Our keys weren't where they were supposed to be and when we finally opened the door a strong smoke smell filled our nostrils. We walked into a hallway full of junk. The picture doesn't do it justice.

After reaching the third floor and our actual room, we were pleasantly surprised to see a queen sized bed as well as a futon. We were just expecting one bed, so we were thrilled with the sleeping arrangements. We always locked our door immediately when at the airbnb. One thing we were excited about was a shared kitchen. It was so disgusting I didn't really step foot in it after my first look. Mold, gross dishes, you name it. Also, I was worried about getting athletes foot while showering, so I put down a towel in the shower. This caused so many BUGS. By the last day, there were over 50 in the shower. SICK. This is not an exaggeration. You get what you pay for I suppose. We didn't have a horrible experience because we were rarely in our room. This was like a third of the price of a hotel.

We were starving and wanted some good NY pizza. We had done some research during our long layover and headed on a bus to Rosa's in Queens. It was absolutely AMAZING and worth sitting on a crowded bus for several stops. In fact, this was our favorite pizza that we had while in New York. Take me back!

(I wish both of those pieces were for me!)

We stopped on our way back to our place to get some breakfast and snack items at the store. Everything is so expensive in New York. I definitely don't miss that!

On Sunday, we headed to a YSA branch. It was really small and happened to be fast and testimony meeting. It was cool to hear people bear their testimonies outside of UT. We brought a change of clothes and packed a lunch to head to the Statue of Liberty right after. 

The Statue of liberty was an experience. I'm glad we did it, but the lines were long and it was hot. We bought our tickets Saturday and got to go in a faster line which helped. We also went to Ellis island which was neat. We watched a movie about what happened on the island.

View from from behind on the island.

Picture taken from the ferry.

View of the city. It looks so serene. It's not.

The Statue of Liberty excursion took longer than anticipated and wore us out. We were starving by the time we got back to Manhattan. We only packed lunch. My purse was full of our church clothes all day and my arm was actually sore from carrying so much. We headed to Shake Shack for dinner. 

While at dinner, we decided to watch some tennis on Joel, my brother's, phone. While we were watching, a lady came and started watching with us. She then mentioned that she had tickets for that night and asked if we wanted them. We said yes and headed to Arthur Ashe Stadium to watch Novak Djokovic, the number 1 men's tennis player in the world.

This is how we rigged up watching Nadal while we ate. He ended up losing by the way which devastated both of us. We never got to see him play in person.

Arriving at the U.S. Open was better than I imagined. What a sight. It was much different than I pictured. We were astounded by how much land there was devoted to tennis and how nice everything was. It was definitely a ritzy atmosphere. We found our seats (near the top of the arena) and soaked in every moment.

We got home late Sunday night utterly exhausted, but set our alarms early to head back for more tennis. On Monday we had "general admission" tickets meaning we didn't have assigned seats. We got there nice and early to get really good seats. This was one of my favorite days of tennis that we watched. 

It was so crowded!

We got to see some really great matches. First we got to see Halep vs. Navarro which was an excellent match and made me really like Halep. We then got to see Wawrinka vs. Marchenko which was a thrilling match and involved some serious racket throwing. The last match we saw Monday was Karlovic vs. Nishikori. This match was less exciting. Karlovic was not playing well at all and it wasn't very close in the first two sets. Karlovic is so tall that he really seemed to struggle moving around the court.

Some things that I learned while watching tennis... There are U.S. Open employees keeping people in their seats at all moments. They get REALLY mad if you try to get up in the middle of a game. You can only leave during change overs, so after every 3 games. They take their jobs very seriously. There were people from all over the world and English wasn't spoken by everyone. I was really hoping to make friends with the people sitting next to me, but they spoke German (I think?). Applying 4 coats of sunscreen wasn't enough to prevent a sunburn. That New York heat is really something. We also filled up our water bottles at least 4 times to keep cool. 

That is where I will end part 1 of our trip. Plenty more to come!

Dreams Come True

This week I get to do something big on my bucket list-- go to the U.S. Open! This has been something I have wanted to do for a while now, but the timing has never worked out. When I was attending BYU-Idaho, I couldn't miss my first week of school to go to a tennis tournament. The timing isn't ideal this year, but it's workable.

My favorite sport to watch and play is tennis. I can thank my brother, Joel, for this. Joel played in high school and is an excellent tennis player. I know I'm biased because I'm his sister, but he is a member of a tennis club and plays regularly. The good news is that Joel is going to the U.S. Open with me! It will be fun to be in New York City with someone who cares about tennis as much as I do.

I believe we have tickets to watch 4 sessions of tennis. One of those sessions we splurged and bought really expensive tickets. In fact, we will be sitting on the first row. I can hardly wait. I wish I knew who would be playing each other.

Every year my family fills out a U.S. Open tennis bracket. As much as I know about tennis, I never seem to win. I think I get a little too emotionally involved when filling out my bracket. It's hard for me to decide who should win. This year I have Andy Murray winning (I can still change my bracket until midnight tonight though so that may change). Murray is NOT my favorite player because of his poor sportsmanship and attitude on the tennis court. He swears constantly and gets really upset. It's sometimes funny to watch, but I don't think it's very classy.

While in New York, Joel and I have tickets to see "Wicked" on Broadway. I have seen "Wicked" twice, but Joel never has. I can't wait. We also plan to do a little sightseeing when we aren't watching tennis.

As excited as I am for this trip, it's also going to be a lot of work to go. I have to write sub plans for 3 days! Bleh. Not my favorite thing to do. Luckily I know my sub and know that my class will be in good hands. I'm also a little bummed because the following week, Andrew will be going to WA for a hike with his brothers. I will be gone for 5 nights and a little less than a week after I get back Andrew will leave for 4 nights. Too bad our trips didn't overlap.

I'm absolutely devastated that Roger Federer will NOT be at the tournament. He is by far my favorite player for a couple of reasons. #1 Roger is even-headed. He rarely gets angry. #2 Roger has not one, but TWO sets of twins. I love that he is a family man. I have always jokingly said that my dream would be to be Roger's nanny. How cool would that be!

Arthur Ashe Stadium is calling my name. Don't be surprised when my next post is about the U.S. Open because I can almost bet it will be. Yes, this dream of mine definitely deserves 2 posts.

Back in Session

School started yesterday. I'm surprised at myself. I'm blogging right now and am completely exhausted. We don't have any fresh fruit. The milk is nearly gone. The laundry needs attended to and the kitchen is a mess. I forgot what the first couple of days are like.

I have been so nervous/anxious/excited that I have been waking up at 1:45am thinking it's time to get going for the day. I'm hoping that this won't happen tonight, but who knows.

I think things are more crazy than last year because school started on a Monday this year. I've always been a fan of easing my way into the school year and starting school on a Wednesday last year was perfect.

I'm excited for the year ahead though. My class definitely has a much different dynamic than last year. They are chatty, but very smart. Also, the girl to boy ratio is INSANE. I have 18 boys and 10 girls. Too bad it isn't 18 girls and 10 boys. haha. I did just have 2 boys move though, so it used to be 20 boys and 10 girls.

I have never been more ready to teach content. It gets tedious teaching routines all day, but they are definitely necessary. It will be nice once the routines are past us though and we can just focus on learning. :)

I didn't make too many changes to my classroom this year. I need to take some pictures. I will post them eventually, but that is low on my list at this point. Here is a picture of me from yesterday morning. Notice that it is still kind of dark outside.

And no, the lab coat is not a fashion statement just in case you were wondering. All of the teachers have them and we were asked to wear them the first day. They say our new school theme for the year on them: Launch into Learning. (By the way, I am the one who came up with this saying which is funny to me. Did not think this would be the new theme.) Our theme ties into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics). We are going to be doing some projects this year that cause the mind to think in different ways and to use problem solving.

It's time to put my feet up. Tomorrow will be here before I know it. I know my hard work from last year will pay off eventually and that hopefully my second year will be easier!

Blur

I'm in denial that it's August. What happened to July? Not working this summer has been so relaxing yet busy at the same time. Our house is looking unrecognizable. All 3 of the upstairs bedrooms are now painted! The fresh white ceiling and walls makes a huge difference. I love our blue walls in the master bedroom. The room was blue before but very dirty and in dire need of paint. We went with a slightly different blue and I LOVE it. I'm glad Andrew convinced me to stick with the blue. Notice the curtains. Not pictured well, but they are black out curtains and at noon they make it seem like midnight.

Not having to look up at blood splatters all over the ceiling anymore is a relief.

This is the old master bedroom blue. I had to buy so many paint samples to finally make up my mind.

One of the bedrooms upstairs was SO dark and of course the ceiling was that same dark color. I decided to go with a light and airy color to make the small room seem bigger. I love how it turned out. Here is a comparison of the new and old color.

Too bad I had already painted the ceiling white in this picture.

Taping the ceiling and baseboards was tedious. The 3rd bedroom is this same color, so no need to post a picture. There were so many holes in the wall. Just on one wall alone, I had to patch 20 different places.

You would think that we're done painting now, but we are not. We are taking a break from painting for a bit though. 

July also included a run. It was supposed to be a 5k, but was only 2.98 miles. It was the Provo temple to temple run. The race starts at the old Provo temple and ends at the new Provo City Center Temple. It was SO crowded. I think over 13,000 participated. The entire run was me trying my hardest to dodge walkers, strollers, scooters, etc. It is a Pioneer day tradition, but this year Pioneer day was on a Sunday, so the race was Monday morning. On your race bib you could write a name of one of your pioneer ancestors which is neat.

I ran for James Henry Denning.

Near the starting line.

Near the finish line.

The month ended with a bang. I went with my parents to Burley, Idaho to watch my Dad complete the Spudman triathlon. It was fun because my friend from BYU-Idaho got a teaching job near there, so I spent the night before the race hanging out and catching up with her.

So proud of my Dad! He was injured not long ago and was unsure whether or not he would ever be able to run again. He is determined and has taught me so much about setting goals and reaching them.

I'm disappointed in letting myself slip and not blogging twice in July. I have a feeling August will be just as busy with school starting up, but expect 2 more posts! (fingers crossed)

Las Vegas

One of the goals we set this year was to go on vacation alone. We did it! A couple years ago at a county fair, Andrew spun a wheel and won us a 2 night vacation to Vegas. We FINALLY decided to use it.

We got 2 free nights at the Plaza Hotel and had to go to a 90 minute presentation about time shares. 

We weren't super good at documenting our trip in Vegas with pictures, so bear with me. We got to The Plaza on Thursday, June 23 around 5:30pm. Unfortunately the trip we won did NOT include airfare, so we "got" to make the drive. The drive was long and quickly affected my mood. Poor Andrew. I kept wishing we were only going to St. George. Luckily Andrew suggested 20 questions which kept me occupied for a few hours. The book we got on CD lasted for about 5 minutes even though I helped pick it out. (I have never liked those. They always give me a headache and you have to turn them up extremely loud.) On the way home, I started reading my book out loud which helped pass the time. I Am Malala is an amazing book and I had a hard time putting it down.

Once we got to Vegas, we were starving. We headed to Shake Shack and were pleased with our meal. We then walked quite a ways to Ghiradelli's ice cream. I didn't hide my disappointment well when we walked all that way (in 110 degrees) only to find out that they discontinued my favorite Sundae. (Peanut Butter) On our way back to the car we stopped at the Bellagio to watch the water show.

Shake Shack

Salted Caramel Sundae instead of Peanut Butter :( 

The light show

Friday morning we had to go to the 90 minute presentation. Yipee. After that, we headed to the temple for a session. The air conditioning was blasting which was a relief. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was 115 degrees. We couldn't resist a stop at Jack in the Box. Why don't they have these in UT? Friday night we met Andrew's uncle and cousin at a buffet-- Harrah's. I am pleased to say I didn't make myself sick by eating too much. I'm surprised by my self control in this situation. 

We were feeling tired when we got back to The Plaza and strongly considered not going to the show we had free tickets to. In the end, we decided to go. Mostly because I said, "Did we really come all the way to Vegas to stay in our room and watch T.V.?" The show was in our hotel and called "Lovers or Losers." It didn't start until 10:15pm which is 11:15pm our time.

"Lovers or Losers" is a game show and we were asked to be contestants. At first we were hesitant, but we decided to go forward with it. There were 5 different rounds and 3 couples in each round. In each round there was a different game and I'm so glad we got called up in the fourth round. Our round was basically catch phrase. Andrew was blind folded. We spun a wheel and got the category Holidays. All of the words I described were either specific holidays or words related to holidays. 

We did pretty well. "Santa Claus" caused some grief and Andrew guessed Jesus based on my description. The audience had a good laugh about that one. They all knew we were form UT and thought it was hilarious. Candy was also problematic and Andrew continually guessed Reese's-- my fav. (Good man) We ended up winning our round by the skin of our teeth. We got 60 points and another couple got 55 which is just 1 question less than us. We won a 7 night trip to Mexico! Boy were we glad we didn't stay in our room and watch T.V. Our trip doesn't include airfare. All we know is that we have to fill out some tax paperwork and send it in. We will then get to choose from 19 different resorts. Can't wait!!

Saturday morning we stopped at Panera on our way out of town. We had a gift card and it was delicious. Vegas was fun to visit, however we weren't too sad to leave. Our eyes hurt from all the smoke and our clothes smelled horrendous. We haven't missed being woken up at 2:00am by partying, drunk neighbors either. We did enjoy spending time together though and it looks like we get to do it again, but next time in Mexico!