New Job and a Reason to Celebrate

I've been weighing a big decision as of late... here's the scoop! I've been interviewing up in Alpine School District for teaching jobs. Since we moved farther north the 30 minute commute to school each morning and afternoon is long and getting expensive with gas prices lately. This has been a long and drawn out process the past 3 months. I was supposed to have a decision made by April 15th but without making this a long and boring story. Let's just say, I am horrible at making decisions and Alpine district was being very difficult. But in the end on Thursday, I decided to accept the new job in Alpine District. YEA!!! I'll be working at an elementary school about 4 miles from my house in American Fork. I'll be doing pull out resource, so it will be a little different than what I'm doing now, but a lot less work, prep time and stress. They won't give me all of my years of teaching and I've come to accept this is just apart of being in the education field. Stephen however has a much different opinion about this. He tells me that when he becomes president of the United States he will put teachers salaries at the top of his agenda!:) One down side is I have to pack up my classroom...again. The 4th time in 5 years. I'm also very sad to leave so many good friends teachers, students and parents. I have really loved working in Springville. Another down side is I'm leaving behind 119 sick days...that I've earned the past 5 years. Well, make that 118 days. After all that stress in making a decision, I decided to call in sick and take Friday off. So my mom came down and we spent the day together. We went to a good friend Sasha's graduation at BYU then went to lunch with my sister Allison. Later that evening Stephen and I went up to Salt Lake to see Ryan and Karen's new little baby girl Laurie! She's so adorable. But most of all I just had a relaxing day! It was great!

Where is Spring?

This coming week we're heading into May, but still Spring seems like it will never come! Just last Thursday we had more snowy weather! Is it still March? I want it to warm up...and stay warm! Despite the colder weather, Stephen, I and our friend Jarom went hiking up Rock Canyon on Saturday. I was so excited to finally spend some time in the outdoors, even though I had to wear my jacket most of the time. There was no green grass or leaves on any of the trees and we even ran into some mountain snow. It felt so good to be up in the mountains. I wish I had pictures to share, but my camera is currently in another location. :) We had some beautiful views though! We passed a lot of rock climbers and even went exploring in some small caves. I love the Utah mountains! Especially because you can hop into your car and be there in about 10 minutes! We've now decided this is a good Saturday tradition. Anyone up for going next week?

Being Tagged

Well Amy, I did not forget about you... It's just taken me a while to respond to this.
What were you doing 10 years ago? I was a senior at dear old Davis High and recovering from knee surgery about this time of year
5 things on my to-do list today
1. go to the gym
2. get oil changed in car
3. clean bathrooms
4. go to the bank
5. do ESL homework -yuk!
5 snacks I enjoy
1. chips and homemade salsa
2. homemade fruit smoothies
3. chocolate milk
4. Reese peanut butter cup ice cream :)
5. veggies and spinach dip
3 bad habits
1. I fall asleep anytime I sit down to watch movie or t.v. no mater the time of day or where I'm sitting. (huh Kasey-even a hard kitchen chair can put me to sleep)
2. Stephen says I worry way too much about the little things.
3. I love to clean... it's kind of sad. Watch out if I'm in a cleaning mode
If I won a million dollars, I would...
First I would, pay off student loans, car etc. I would donate some to a good cause (cancer research or something) After that I would be a loving wife and buy Stephen an airplane so we could travel and see the world!
5 places I have lived
1. Pleasant Grove, UT
2. Orem, UT
3. Provo, UT
4. Logan, UT
5. Fruit Heights, UT
5 jobs that I have had
1. Special Ed teacher @ Brookside Elementary
2. Private reading & math tutor
3. EFY Coordinator, Building Counselor & Counselor
4. Part-time K-1 teacher @ Cache Valley Learning Center
5. Deseret Book
5 things you don't know about me
1. I'm an organization freak! One time when Stephen was out of town, I organized his clothes in the closet and drawers. He just laughs at me!
2. I make lists for everything! I even write things on my list that I've already done just so I can cross them off. I makes me feel sooo good.
3. As of late, Stephen and I have become addicted to The Office. The first time I saw it I thought it was really stupid. I have now repented of that fact.
4. The only bone I've broken was my collar bone when I was 9 years old.
5. If I could live in my pajamas all day long, I would!

Free Car Wash?

We had a busy Saturday this weekend, but managed to find time to laugh. I had gotten a free car wash from work a few weeks ago, but with all the crazy weather we hadn't used it. Our car was looking pretty sad and dirty. So we decided to use the 'deluxe car wash' because we were heading down to Springville for a wedding. After a long day we head into the automatic car wash. The water starts to spray, which shortly after we realized that the seal around the windows on Stephen's car was not quite what it used to be. We quickly scrounged to find some rags and napkins. As we were laughing and talking we noticed that the car wash had stopped. Since we couldn't see out our car because of the soap...we figured that this 'deluxe' wash was just giving it time to soak. While trying not to get dripped on by the soap, we're wondering why it was soaking for so long. We concluded that it was a top of the line 'deluxe' car wash. We'd never seen one that stopped and let it soak. After a while, when the soap had finally cleared the winshield, we saw that the bars had stopped right in front of us and all the lights had turned off. We realized something was not right, however we didn't dare get out for we're afraid the water would start up again. So continuing to let it 'soak' we had to back out of the car wash and go around the block to find another car wash where we could at least spray the soap off. Stephen was a little annoyed, but I couldn't stop laughing. What an ending to a crazy day!

Our New House!

We did it! We were able to close on our new house on my birthday last week! Quite the birthday present. Can you believe it? We are now officially home owners and I guess I'm supposed to feel more grown up. But it's still all sinking in. We're so excited to be here. We moved a little farther north to the thriving metropolis of Pleasant Grove. It was sad to leave some of our friends from our old ward. It's been great to unpack in our new place. We would both have to say it's quite the change from our first tiny old apartment. We love having a garage, a dishwasher, a heater that works and doesn't wake you up when it turns on, having a little yard of our own and lots of extra space. Here are a few pictures we snapped before moving everything in. I'll have to put more on once we get all unpacked and somewhat decorated.

Stephen checking out the front door!

I've loved cooking in my new kitchen! Especially now that I have a fridge!

Here's the view from the out side! We've loved having a 2 car garage!

Weekend in Vegas

Stephen's company has had him working down in Vegas the past 3 weeks, which is way too long to be away from home, but I was lucky enough to go and visit him one weekend this month! We had a great time. I really had never been to Las Vegas. (Strange I know---living so close here in Utah) I think we pretty much saw it all in the 3 days I was there. It was so warm down there too! It was around 65 degrees which felt so good coming from all the snow storms and cold weather we've been having. One of the fun things we were able to go do was to have lunch at "Top of the World" in the Stratosphere. It was on the 108th floor of the hotel and the entire restaurant rotated which, through your entire meal, gave you a view of the entire city. It was a beautiful view and we had some exotic food. We decided to be daring and try what they called Kobe Beef. I was glad it was only an appetizer, because I didn't have the stomach to each much. It was a thinly sliced special cut of beef they served raw. We also got tickets and went to one of the many famed 'shows' of Las Vegas. We went to see 'O' Cirque du Soleil. It was incredible!!!! We sat in the back at the very top, but it was really awesome. It was a mix of trapeeze artists, sincronized swimming, diving and contortionist. The stage would change back and forth into a swimming pool. My favorite part was when they got on to these little swings. They would get going really high and shoot off and fly about 30 feet into the air. They weren't done...then they would bend, twist and turn and then land into the water with a perfect dive. I've never seen anything like it!

One of the best parts of the trip would have to be how we randomly ran into Stephen's little brother James who is serving in the Las Vegas West Mission. We thought it would be great to see him, but after talking with the mission home realized it probably wouldn't happen. We decided to choose a church where we new he probably wouldn't be at and one that we didn't have to get up too early for. Just a few minutes before the sacrament mtg started in walked James..aka Elder Holden and his companion and they sat on the front row. It turns out, it wasn't his ward, but a man they had just bapitzed the night before was apart of the ward and they were confirming him in sacrament mtg. It was so neat to be apart of that and to see and talk with him. He looks so good and you can tell he is very missionary minded and immersed in the work. He didn't quite recognize Stephen when he shook his hand. We had a wonderful time down in Vegas with the palm trees and sunshine!

Keys??? Who needs them?

As of late, I think Stephen would agree that I've been pretty absent-minded about loosing my keys. I look back now and just have to laugh, but at the time I have to admit I was pretty stressed and had to do some thinking to figure out how to break in. If this had only happened once I wouldn't think much of it, but the fact that it happened twice in less then a week caused me reason to ponder.
The 1st time: With school being crazy the past few weeks, I needed to run in on a Saturday(Mistake #1) to get a few things done. I had only been there an hour and just needed to make a few copies before heading home. I grabbed some things and went to the workroom which was locked. (Mistake #2) When I came back, my classroom door had shut locked with all of my things inside, keys, phone, purse, everything. I didn't know what to do and was the only one there. Steve had left his phone charger in Las Vegas, where he was working, and his phone was dead. Without having my cell phone, I didn't know anyone's phone number. I went through the school and found an classroom that had been left open and got on the teacher's computer and emailed him and then used the phone to call my parents. They helped me by calling my uncle who lives about 10 minutes away to get ahold of Stephen. After being stranded for 2 hours out of my classroom. Stephen came to the rescue and picked me up.
The 2nd time: This last weekend I planned to fly down to Las Vegas where Stephen's been working to spend the weekend with him. He decided to pull off the car key and leave it home since he wouldn't be needing it. Without thinking, I grabbed his set (without a house key) and walked right out and locked the door. As soon as the door shut I new what I had done. I headed into work. That afternoon, I got off work early so I could break in and get to the airport on time. I was lucky to find an old ladder our manager had behind the shed and uncovered it from the foot of snow. I climbed in our 2nd story bedroom window which was thankfully unlocked. I'm glad it was the middle of the day and most everyone in the complex was gone. I put on quite the show.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

This past week has been a time for reflection with the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley. I am so grateful to have blessed to be born in the fulness of times, with living prophets, temples and eternal families. President Hinckley was an amazing man. As I look back in my life, he was the prophet of my testimony. I recieved my own witness of the truthfulness of the gospel during his call as a prophet. He will stand as a legacy of Temples. There are millions who now can recieve the blessings of the temple. I have been eternally blessed by the temple when I married my best friend and eternal companion. He was a prophet of God and I have a tender spot in my heart for this great man who has worked so hard to fulfill this calling. He was a man of Christ-like love, strength and humility. I am greateful that he is now able to be with his charished wife, Marjorie and can kneel at the feet of our savior. I am grateful for his example, testimony and faith.

Our First Anniversary

Time seems to be just slipping away! Stephen and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary on Sunday! I can't believe we've already been married a year! We had a great time and celebrated the entire weekend! It was so much fun! He surprised me and got us a room at the Anniversary Inn up in Logan. We drove up there Friday night and spent the night in the Swiss Family Robinson Room. It was a fun theme room where we got to sleep in a tree and the ceiling lit up like stars. The next morning we got ready and went to the Logan temple. It was wonderful to spend the morning there and remember our wedding day. What a beautiful day and definitely not as cold as the 9 degree weather we had. After doing some sealings at the temple, we went to lunch at the Bluebird (a fun old restaurant in Logan). What a great weekend! Some things we've learned in our first year together...
1. No matter how old you are...trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up is a continual process.
2. Men and Women think differently...to say the least.
3. Stephen "used to" think he could understand women.
4. Men say exactly what they mean. No more. No less.
5. When 10:30 rolls around we're usually asleep.
6. It's okay to eat some 'experiments' for dinner.
7. It's not easy, but sure worth every day!
8. Some things are definitely worth waiting for! :)

Temple Square

I love to see all the Christmas lights this time of year. It's fun to just drive down the street at night and see everyone's houses all lit up and in all the different colors. Sometimes it justs makes me smile!!! One of my favorite traditions is to see the lights at temple square. We were able to go down there one Sunday night this month and walk around. It's always so beautiful to see the grounds all lit up. What a peaceful place it is...even when it 20 degrees outside.

Serving Together

My family always does some type of service project around the Christmas holiday season. This year we tried something new! It was really a lot of fun. We went to the Utah Food Bank up in Salt Lake and helped sort food. We went through pallets of surplus food brought in from stores in the area. We went through and packed boxes to make sure the food was still in good condition. It was amazing to see what the food bank was like and a fractions of all that goes into it. We had a fun time and even the little kids were able to help out. We sure are getting to be quite the big group when we all get together! It's the best!

Christmas Come and Gone

I can't be believe how fast Christmas has come and gone. I love this time of year!!! It's been a busy month with lots of parties with family & friends, cookie making, Christmas lights, decorating, and all the other festivities that come along with this wonderful season. Here are a few of the highlights..

We had a fun get-a-way up to the cabin. There was lots of snow and lots of playing. We have a great sledding hill right in the back. It was pretty bitter cold, but we endured and had a blast. It's pretty amazing to sink into snow up to you hips. No one got hurt and only one run into a tree! Later that evening, we(I should say the parents) put all the little kids to bed and we had a great time figuring out the new wii game system. It's amazing how competitive the 'adults' became. We played everything from tennis, baseball, and bowling. But I'd have to say the boxing is what really got our heart rate up. It was great to see even mom and dad punch it out in a match.

Surprise

We had a great Thanksgiving last week! We started out the week with a little surprise. We decided to fly to Michigan and spend the holiday with Stephen's family. They had no idea we were coming for the big feast. We let his brother and sister know we were making to trip... just to make sure they would be around when we got there. We took a red eye flight out Tuesday night and got into Detroit early Wednesday morning. We made the drive up to Midland and first stopped at Stephen's brother's house. (They live just a few minutes away and didn't want to miss the look on everyone's faces.) We walked right in the front door and said hello. They were busy in the kitchen with all the holiday preparations! I wish I had a pictures of the look on their faces. It was great! Jaws dropped and a few 'what are you doing here's' were said! I loved it! It was so much fun and well worth it all, in those first few minutes. We had a wonderful trip out there that went by way too fast. Here are some of the highlights! We loved eating lots of yummy turkey and mashed potatoes. We were able to see Grandma and Grandpa Wilke. Played a competitive game of dominoes. Went out to lunch and shopping with all the girls and stayed up to the wee hours in the morning playing x-box! We sure do miss them all and cherish the time we're able to spend with them. I really realized how fun it is to be spontaneous and surprise others! It's great!

Planes & Pilots

As of November 10th, 2007, Stephen officially got his private pilots license! YEA!!! I was so excited for him. This has been something he's always wanted to do and he has been working since this summer to get his license. Stephen put in his required hours and passed all of his tests (which took all day long). When he got home he found a surprise....what a great reason to celebrate!

I would have to say that Stephen's a little kid at heart. He couldn't wait to take me up in the air and show me all that he had learned. I decided to give in and he couldn't wait...so we took a little flight this weekend. It was so much fun! I couldn't believe it. I had never been in a plane so small! It still amazes me that such a little machine can fly so high and fast. I wasn't too nervous at the time, but now I think back and realize that we were about 9,000 + feet in the air. I could almost reach out and touch the clouds. It's a little scary, especially for someone like me who is afraid of falling from heights. We ended up going from Spanish Fork all the way up to Logan. It was so beautiful! You could see the snow capped mountains for miles and miles. We had a great time! Here's a few pictures of our fun adventure!

Spare Time???

Stephen keeps asking me what I like to do in my spare time when I'm not teaching or involved with school. Amazingly I really had to ponder this question. Do I have spare time? What do I like to do? Cooking? Well yes, but not when I get home at 5:30 starving and want to eat asap. My motto then is... I'll eat whatever is quick, easy and available. Cleaning? Well, I do enjoy living in a clean apartment and the satisfaction of it all. Although, I do have to admit that sometimes when I get frustrated or just have to let out some stress I do go into the cleaning mode. But as of late, I decided I really enjoy digital scrapbooking. It's taken me a while to find the 'spare time' to sit down and figure it all out. I've done a few random pages. The first one took me over an hour to do because I don't really know how to use the program. But it's coming....slowly and hopefully it gets a little faster and easier. I'm just a beginner at all this, but here are a few pages that I've put together in my 'spare time' :)

Happy Halloween

I just have to say that Halloween always brings out the little kid in you. I guess I sometimes forget that working in a school everyday. I'm surrounded by kids all day long. I love to see how excited they get around every holiday especially around this time of year. I think I've been bringing some of that contagious excitement home. Stephen thinks I'm weird at times, but oh well. This last weekend we were able to get dressed up for our annual family Halloween party. We've done this the past few years and it's always so fun to see everyone all dressed up in their costumes. I don't think Stephen has had to dress up since he was little. He wasn't quite sure about it all. But, we had a great time eating pizza and enjoying each other's company. Here's a few pics of everyone!


Watch out...here comes princess Leah and Darth Vader!

What a cute group of kids!

I love this time of year!

I guess it's been a while since I've last written, but I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go. The past couple of weeks have been great! I love this time of year with General Conference and the all the leaves changing. I always hate to see summer go, but I love the fall.
The past few weeks, Stephen has had a "normal" 8-5 shift at work. It has been so wonderful to have him around more and to be able to see him each day! I think I've been spoiled. (Having a swing shift and only seeing each other a few hours in the night has been harder than we thought...for both of us.) Stephen has had more trainings on this temperary shift at Fidelity before taking his series 7 test on Friday. We are glad the test is now over and I'm proud to say he passed with flying colors! YEA! We found every excuse to celebrate all weekend long.
I had a short week at work this week. Our district took it's Fall Break on Thursday and Friday. It's been so wonderful to relax and not have to worry about school. I've been able to get some things done at home. A great catch up time for projects I don't usually get around to doing. But like I said before we played extra hard this weekend.
On Friday, we had tickets to a local community play of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was so fun. They performed it in an old outdoor amphitheater made of rocks with a live headless horseman. We had a great time and it really got me into the Halloween mood. Then on Saturday, we met up with a bunch of my friends from USU and went to Frightmares at Lagoon. We had a great time catching up with everybody and riding all the amusement park rides. However, I can tell I'm not as young as I use to be. My body isn't able to handle all the spinning and twirling from the rides. But needless to say it was fun to catch up with people I haven't seen for a long time and to play all day.

Reasons to Smile!

It's pumpkin carving time!
Stephen passed his last exam for work on Friday.
As of Friday, my classroom finally has heat! Yeah, the kids and I have been wearing coats all day as of late.
We had our first snow storm of the season!
Lots of family and good friends so close around us.
Eating yummy peanut butter cup ice cream.
Watching a good dose of 24 in bed with Stephen.
No student's this Friday!!!!
Doing dishes....maybe if I smile at them, they'll clean themselves!

First Blog

Friends and Family... I decided I'd jump on the bandwagon and try to figure out this whole blog thing. So I hope this works. I figure this is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family who don't live near us! Plus... it will give me something to do in the evenings when Stephen is at work till the weee hours of the morning. :) We're enjoying the cooler weather we've been having this past week. Especially since our swamp cooler in our apartment went out. If it had to die...now was the perfect time and not when we had 100+ degree weather in July. It was great to have a short week with the holiday on Monday. We enjoyed the long weekend. It was a wonderful surprise to find out that Stephen didn't have to work. I loved being able to spend the day with him around. We spent most of the weekend with the Dent family up at the Cabin. It was so nice to get away up to the mountains and spend some time relaxing and laughing. All the adults brought up their high school year books which were hours of entertainment. I probably haven't looked through mine since high school. But we had a great time looking for mullets, finding girls with big poofy hair and reading the sappy love notes previous boy/girl friends had written. Lets just say we learned lots about each other!!! Oh those were the days...I'm glad to say I never have to repeat again. :) Stephen's been enjoying flying lately and has been working on getting his private pilot's license. He's already got 20 hours of flying time and is almost half way there. He's pretty disappointed though, because all the planes are being serviced and he hasn't been flying in 2 weeks. He looks forward to it and it gives him something to work towards when he has his days off. School & Scouts seem to be my life lately and is keeping me pretty busy. I have quite an interesting little group of kids this year. With only being in school 2 1/2 weeks... I have one little girl who reminds me of Dori (off of Finding Nemo) she's just not quite all the way there (but then I guess I teach Special Ed), another boy who has left our school campus everyday at lunch time this week and it took us over an hour to find him on Friday. We almost had to have the police involved! Then I have another little boy who my aide and I had to chase for almost 15 minutes around the school because he got in a fight. We finally caught him out back by the dumpsters. Ahhhh the joys of my job!