My neices and nephews

Are the cuteset kids in the world! My sisters just posted some great pictures of them.

Cole, Madison, and Tenley are my oldest sister, Mylee's, kids. They live in Idaho Falls. I sure miss them!

Ryder is my newest nephew His mom is my younger sister Lindsay. He is so much fun!

Look how handsome he looks here.

My Awesome Week...

It's too bad you can't put sarcasm in writing. If I could, the word awesome would be heavy with it. It all started on Thanksgiving with the passing of my Grandma Gray. She died at about 3 am last Friday. It is a mixed blessing as she has battled Alzheimer's for years. It makes me happy to know that she has her memories back and is with those who went before her, including her son who died just months after he was born. She will be missed and my thoughts are with my Grandpa, dad, aunt, and uncles who are of course very sad. I hope they can find comfort at this time.
As if that wasn't sad enough (which it is), on Tuesday on may way to my parents house to go to her viewing, I was rear ended and the good samaritan (sarcasm again) who hit me chose to drive away. The truck had a temporary plate and I couldn't get a plate number or 4 wheel over the curb to get away. This is where driving a big truck vs. a mini cooper comes in handy. I guess if I wanted to be able to flee the scene of the crime, I better get a truck. Luckily, I am certainly ok and my car has only a fairly minor dent and no scratches.
This week, I definitely believe in karma.
That night and the next day were the viewing and funeral for my grandma. It was a very sad, hard, and emotional day. It was great to hear about and remember the kind and loving person she is and look forward to seeing her again. I also got to be around a lot of family, some of whom I hadn't seen in a very long time and I know my grandma was happy we were together.

This is me, my cousins, and aunt at the funeral. We all made bracelets using pearls from a necklace that belonged to grandma.

This is me and all of the grandkids (except for 2 who couldn't make it) and a few great grandkids as well. In all, there are 24 of us. We love you Grandma!
The good news is, "things can only get better".

My 6 Quirks - I was tagged!!!!

Ok, so my sisters have tagged me into this and I have been thinking about my quirks, some that I can share and maybe some that I prefer not to!!! I am curious to see if any of these were new to those that know me and I feel as if I need to preface some of these with "I'm weird, I know" But I guess we all have our quirks. So here goes

1) The most obvious one, and for anyone who knows me even a little bit this will not be a surprise. I LOVE MOVIES! I know Lauren put this, but I have to steal it and proudly say that I am better at memorization here than she is. I love movies and they are pretty much constantly on in the background anytime I am at home. Cleaning, lesson planning, cooking, you name it. This leads me in to my #2:

2) I have to have the TV on to fall asleep. I can go to sleep without it, but it takes me a while to shut down my brain. If the TV is on, I am out in a matter of minutes every time, literally. But, it has to be something that I have seen before and therefore am not invested in. Just something to drown out the voices in my head:)

3) I eat my food one item at a time. I start with one thing, and then move on. If I have a hamburger and fries, for example, I always eat the fries first (while they are hot) and then the hamburger.


4) Vegetables. The only vegetable I do eat is raw carrots and lettuce occasionally. I have tried several, and no go. It's a texture thing. I can't do lettuce unless it is crisp, romaine lettuce in a properly prepared salad (meaning prepared by me, and with no other vegetables on it), otherwise it is too wilty, rubbery and tasteless to me. YUCK.

5) The clock in my bedroom is always set very fast. It is currently set 25 minutes ahead. This is to lessen the shock of the ungodly hour that I have to wake up. In my mind, I wake up at 6:35, when in reality I wake up at 6:10

6) I don't like when plans change at the last minute. If I have something planned with someone, and they bail out or decide they want to go to a party instead of the movie we planned on, even though the party will be more fun, I really don't like it. I had my mind set on the movie, and now I have to change my mind set... Not enjoyable for me.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas, yet again! I am so excited, overwhelmed, a little stressed, but almost giddy. I get to spend this Christmas with my entire family this year. I have been looking forward to this for 2 years. It will be tons of fun, and I am thinking we need some fun activities... stringing popcorn, making ornaments, gingerbread houses, making wrapping paper (with brown craft paper) - just some thoughts. Any other ideas or thoughts for fun family christmas activities? I can't wait to be together, relax and have fun at my favorite time of year.

Halloween Party time

Last night I went to an awesome Halloween dance/party. There were some fantastic costumes: Sarah Palin, Operation (yes- the game), a few paying their respects to Heath Ledger in the form of the Joker (and he even had a little fight with Batman) and many others. But my friends had some great costumes as well: Miss Conception and Juno. Some people sure are creative.

Halloween

Happy Halloween to you all! So, today went much better than I expected! I dressed up as Crest toothpaste. It was really easy and fun. My students were FANTASTIC! We had a parade, an assembly, a book report, class party then the day was done. WOW! It really was a fun day. One of my favorite costumes was a 4th grader who dressed up as Angel Moroni - complete with gold body paint, a trumpet, and brass plates. AWESOME! Only in Utah.
Hope your Halloween was spook-tastic!
P.S. - When a Stranger Calls is one of the scariest movies I've seen in a while. (either that or I am becoming a wuss in my old age...)

Serendipity?

So the other night my roommates and I went to DQ and got frozen hot chocolate. I hadn't tried it before but I was told I was in for a "treat" (literally). I have heard of the frozen hot chocolate at the famous Serendipitys in New York and was curious to see how the Dairy Queen version would be. Let me tell you - it was delicious! I highly recommend it - especially since the small size is only 99 cents!

My first blog!

Ok, I finally am a member of the blogging world... Being a school teacher is a busy, all consuming job. My goal is to get some of my memories down since the days seem to go faster than I can blink. I have so many great stories and experiences in this stage of my life. So fasten your seat belts... here goes!