Much Needed Update

What a past couple of weeks...let me tell you.

So this drought of posting all started with the journey from Canada back down to Provo. Before leaving Jason and I figured it would be a piece of cake that I would simply find some willing friends, rent a truck from home depot for only $20, and move into our apartment with absolutely no problem.

Wrong.

It looked great at first, lets be honest. I had my very willing friends who I was SO grateful for, BUT on the day that I wanted to move there was no truck. I would just like to give a shout out to the individual who had the home depot rental truck from the early hours of the morning until home depot closed. Thanks, 'preciate ya. This put quite the damper on our move in. I had to enlist the help of more friends as Jason and I decided the best way to move in would to be to rent a U-Haul for a few hours. So after sleeping on the floor for a few more nights, we waited for the weekend, we got our U-Haul, and our wonderful friends moved us in within hours. So....THANK YOU to the Colt and the Ricks families for helping us!

In other news, I survived my first week of teaching! Phew.... It was rough. Even though I'm only teaching half time and have 2 subjects, it's still been a really hard adjustment. I love my school and the people that I work with. The only downside is my school was built in 1954 and is the oldest school in our district. Other schools were chosen before ours to be re-built that weren't as old. This is pretty much a major bummer since our school has ZERO air conditioning. Yep, that's right. So on those days it's 98 degrees outside, it's around 92 degrees in my classroom. Awesome. The district even made a phone call out to all our students that if the heat was affecting them, they would be excused from school last Thursday and Friday. This whole heat issue has been something I've really had to get used to. The first couple of days I didn't understand why I felt so sick. Then I realized that I was getting so dehydrated throughout the day that it was making me sick and exhausted. Over the next couple of days I figured I needed to drink at least 5 water bottles a day to even keep up with how hot it is in my classroom. Pretty ridiculous, but we're surviving. We're hoping to get swamp coolers this week in our classrooms, so keep your fingers crossed!

Here are a couple pictures of my classroom...mostly for my mother :)

I have to look at this picture at least a few times a day

Nothin special, but I love it! I share a room with a teacher who is half-time in the morning, hence all the teacher desks.

Moving on, I am SO glad to have Jason back. He came home a week ago and I couldn't be happier to have him here, especially for my first week of teaching. He has been such a wonderful support. He starts the accounting program tomorrow and it's going to be a very intense 8 months in the Junior Core for him. He's ready to work hard and I know he's going to do great in this program.

Good luck to everyone else starting school tomorrow!

First Day Nonsense

An hour ago I would have said that this was one of the most uneventful days of my life.

An hour ago I would have told you how absolutely BORING my New Teacher Orientation was this morning. Literally, it was one of the most painful things I've ever been to. My district is great, don't get me wrong. But I was so tired and I had no idea that the thing would go from 8am-4...

Needless to say it was a long day. I got there a half hour early and didn't know anyone. So I made a friend with a really cute elementary school teacher. We all met in an auditorium for the first 4 hours. Don't worry, the temperature reading on this auditorium would have, no doubt, read no higher than 40 degrees. We were all freezing! No one could pay attention (maybe I should say I couldn't pay attention...) and it was, in general, just a long morning. We had lunch with our principals which was great. I'm really looking forward to working with her and the rest of the staff.

After lunch we had "workshops". Although these were full of great information, I was not happy with the fact that some of the instructors were treating us/talking to us like we were in 7th grade. No I'm not going to call back to you when you yell out "1-2-3, all eyes on me!!! Please face forward, class!". That was like... 12 years ago. I also refuse to use the word "kiddo" every other word when I am speaking about my students.

One of the only appealing parts of my day was coming home and finding this:

Sorry ladies, he's mine.

So about an hour ago things got real interesting. I innocently put clothes in the washer and returned to the room I'm staying in. Within minutes I smell smoke. I called out to Hilary and as we peaked into the hall, there is smoke billowing out from underneath the utility room. That end of the apartment is slowly filling with more and more smoke. Because I'm a genius, I immediately ran to the utility room and opened the door, only to find the whole room was filled with smoke and my $130 anthropology dress was trapped inside the washing machine.

It gets worse.

Then the fire alarm starts going off in the apartment. The smoke is still coming and Hilary and I ran outside and called non-other than 911. Thankfully unlike a recent dream I had where I called 911 and the phone rang and rang and rang...and rang, they answered and sent out not one, but 2 fire trucks and 2 ambulances. Before they got there I realized not only was my macbook inside, but the brand new macbook Pro that we just bought Jason. No way those babies were going down in flames. So I did everything they tell you not to do and went back in to the apartment and grabbed my stash.

The fire department finally arrived and we let them do their thing...They cleared all the smoke out of the apartment, removed a door, and notified us that although there were no flames, they had no idea where the smoke was coming from. We all concluded that something is definitely wrong with the washer. And don't worry, my dress survived. So did Hilary.

PROVO!

I start school tomorrow...

I'm freaking out...

But I'm also super excited!

AHHHHH!!

In other good news, I GOT MY WEDDING RING BACK! Finally, after what feels like forever without my beautiful wedding ring, it's fixed and better than ever! Jason surprised me with a band on top and our jeweler did an amazing job.

It's absolutely perfect!

I'm so glad that the drive here is over. I was lucky enough to get to stay with my bro and sis in law in Rigby for the night and made the rest of the drive today. I'm so happy to be back and to get into a solid routine with teaching. I'm also super excited for our new apartment! Not going to lie, I stopped by our storage unit and was severely overwhelmed by just how much STUFF we have. Thursday should be an interesting day, hopefully I will be able to secure some recruits to help me! If you're in Provo and available Thursday afternoon, I will love you forever...not that I don't already. CALL ME!

That is all for tonight. I'm staying with one of my bestest girlfriends in Provo and I have missed her so much! Today was filled with emergency shopping, stir fry, home made cookies, and a wide selection of wonderful movies on TV. I've missed this place....

Speaking of missing, I miss this guy...

Leaving...

Well today was my last day at the DQ. It's been a wonderful job for the summer, but it's time to move on! We were so blessed to be able to work at the Dairy Queen with family and make good friends with some of our co-workers. Thank you to everyone!

We've been packing up our things here and it's making me so sad! We're so excited to go to Provo but I am DEFINITELY not looking forward to Jason staying 10 more days while I head down to start school. Cheesy, sappy, ooey gooey...but I'm going to miss him lots and lots.

I'm getting so nervous/excited for everything that's coming. I'm so anxious to get into our new apartment next week! We're so excited for the place we've found and for the raving reviews we've heard about it. We're just hoping it's as good as we think it is.

Stay tuned for pictures of our new place and new adventures back in Provo!

Great for Sharing

I just had to share this story...

So Jason had to drive in to Lethbridge today to get things for the DQ. He called me on his way home and told me he had a surprise for me.

When he got back, he handed me this package - torn at the edge and half eaten.

I said, "Why thank you, Jason! Did you eat some of them?". To which he replied, "Well it says right on the bag it's 'Great for Sharing'!"

Smart man.

I love him.

Summer is ending :(

Well, the summer is coming to a close :( I'm sad! We've had so much fun being here in Cardston.

This past weekend was a blast and I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of it. Cardston has something called "Heritage Days" where they celebrate the town's...well, heritage, for a week. There are pancake breakfasts' at different places around town every morning and a parade on Saturday. Because Jason's Dad is the President of the Agricultural Society, we got passes to the Rodeo's on Friday and Saturday night. We had so much fun!

Today Jason's parents left for an Alaskan cruise and I had to say goodbye to them. It was sad to say goodbye, it's been so wonderful to spend time with them and to be in the place where Jason grew up. We're so grateful they were willing to put up with us for the summer while we saved money for our upcoming school year. We owe them big time for everything they did for us!

Saturday I'll caravan down to Utah with some friends of ours. It will be a VERY long 11 hour trip, but I am so excited to get back to Provo! On Monday I have New Teacher Orientation at my school and I'm really excited. We have teacher work days every day next week so we can get ready. I've been keeping in touch with the other teacher in the FACS program and she sounds great! This year will be really tough getting used to teaching on my own without a cooperating teacher or supervisors to help me, but I feel really lucky to be at the school I'll be at. Then the kids first day is the 22nd! It's all happening so fast but I'm ready to have my own classroom and be a part of the school. I'm also really excited for Jason to start the accounting program. I know that he's going to do great! While we were in Provo for Mike and Jill's wedding we picked up some new suits for him to look all professional and handsome in.

I thought I would take a break from lesson planning and packing to update everyone, but I must return! All our friends in Utah, we cannot wait to see you! To our friends in Canada, we'll miss you :(

On to new adventures!