Happy Birthday Kenzie!

I love this girl! And today she is 15 years old. Watch out boys and drivers, she has one more year until trouble begins. J/K But seriously, this is one special kid! She is one of the sweetest, accepting, giving, sensitive, talented, beautiful girl I've ever met (along with my other nieces).


Oh, and she is quite the entertainer! She loves to pose for the camera with different faces. There are more pictures where this came from!

I love you girl! Happy 15th birthday! I'm glad that you're a part of our family.
P.S. She gets the shoutout on my post because she leaves comments...now you know what to do if you want a shoutout on your birthday. :)

I love Primary!

I started teaching primary today. They called me a couples weeks ago and I was so excited! I taught the 7-8 year olds in our last ward and it was so fun to see the kids as they were preparing for baptism, and I knew that I would miss being in that class when we moved. Well, they called me to the same class in our new ward and I couldn't be more thrilled.  I prepared my lesson and was so excited this morning to teach. I remember when I was called as a teacher after high school, I didn't put that much thought into my lessons and I went with the attitude that they were sunbeams and wouldn't remember anything that I taught anyway.  But after being in a single's ward for 5 years and going back to a family ward, and thinking about my future children, I've realized how essential it is to teach children about the gospel. I think that one of the most important callings in the church is to teach primary. For some of the kids, it's the only foundation that they get and it's teaching principles to them that they'll remember for the rest of their lives.  With that new perspective, I've put a lot more effort into my lessons and tried to make it memorable. So I was so excited to get to teach today, and taking all of the good memories from my class in West Jordan, I just knew that today would be fantastic and that I would be making a difference. I apparently blocked out the bad memories of my last class but those repressed memories were brought to the surface today. 7-8 year old boys have an attention span of about 3 minutes, and they can find many stories that they claim to be relevant to the lesson. With the many interruptions, and the many attempts to get back on track, I think that all in all it turned out pretty good. I'm so amazed at all the things that these kids know and have been taught in their homes. They really are good kids and I'm so excited to be able to be an instrument in their learning. One other thing that I love about primary is getting to sing all of the songs in sharing time. It is so fun to be able to sing along with the kids. And I have to give a big KUDOS out to all that have been or are in a primary presidency. You guys work hard to teach the kids and to make things fun for them and that's a big job! Thanks for taking on that challenge. 

Simply Sushi

I came back to West Jordan this weekend to pick Scott up and while I was here we decided that since he had worked so hard all week, we would treat ourselves to dinner. Scott had his heart set on sushi and had bragging to his co-workers all day that that was what he was having for dinner. He told me that he didn't want to be a liar and so he said that he would like it if that's what we did. I have to admit, that's what I wanted for dinner. When I was here last weekend, I went with my mom to Smith's in WJ and they have added a new strip mall next to the grocery store. I noticed that they put in a place called Simply Sushi: All you can eat sushi. So I told Scott about it, and we decided we wanted to try it. We've tried many places around the valley and have had some great sushi. When we went to this place, we walked in and the people running it looked Polynesian. Scott mumbled "Just what I was afraid of." You see, most of the time the really good sushi is made by Asian people. It's not that we have anything against Polynesians, we really love them, we were just worried about the quality of the sushi. The only place to sit was at the sushi bar, so we sat next to a cute little family. We decided to go with the all you can eat, which gives you an hour to eat all that you can. We ordered some sushi and it was heaven! We were so impressed with the sushi and with the service. I don't think I've ever eaten at a place with such friendly service. We were so pleasantly surprised! We left full and knowing that it was a good thing that we moved to Price, we would be regulars in that place. So if you like sushi (which we understand that most don't) we fully recommend this place. It was a great experience.

On to the next topic, all of you know how much I love my dog. He has been my comfort through some pretty rough times and we have a special bond. So, today while Scott was at work, my mom and I decided to go to Joey and Rhonda's house to take them a pie and see how Joey was doing after his little procedure. We decided to take Cosmo with us, which we do a lot of times. He's a good dog that has been housetrained and is getting better with the obedience. So we get there and Joey and Rhonda's puppy Minnie got all excited and was jumping on me and my mom. Meanwhile, Cosmo is scoping out the place and sniffing around. This is not uncommon for him to sniff a place out, but that's all he usually ever does. So I'm standing there on their carpet and all of a sudden I feel something wet on my foot. I look down and Cosmo, the dumb dog, is peeing my foot. Ok, not just on my foot, but on one of my favorite pair of sandals that has a leather sole. It's times like these when I wish that dogs could talk because I would love to know what he was thinking at that moment. Needless to say, he got in big trouble and followed me around the rest time with his ears back and he wanted me to hold him. He knew he was in deep trouble! So I'm racking my brain trying to figure out why he would do that. Was he trying to pee on the carpet and I moved my foot there right before and it happened to be in his aim? As I was driving home I was talking to my mom about it and I think that I figured it out. Cosmo is very possesive of me now that I don't see him all the time and he follows me around and wants my attention a lot. I think that since I was giving Minnie attention he wanted to mark his territory. And unfortunately for me, I am his territory, or so he thinks. So if you think of it that way it's kinda cute, but not cute enough to not get punished. He ruined my shoe.

The need to be green

Now that we are in Price, we are getting used to some different things around here. One of the weird things that we really miss is being able to recycle. We were able to recycle so much of our garbage in West Jordan, and I'll bet that 1/2 of our garbage went into the recycle bin. But here, we don't have that opportunity and we take out our garbage so much more often than we used to. But to be honest, that's really the only way that we are green.

On to another subject, the price of gas makes me so sick. I fill up my tank when it's half full and it costs me $30, and I almost hyperventilate every time I fill up. I still get 35-37 mpg but the thought of gas lately makes me sick.

But on to some good things...I actually really like my job so far. I can't afford to not look for something else, but it would be fun to keep as a part-time job. It's so good to get out of the house and do something, and make new friends (and make money). Not to mention I'm not sitting at home thinking about how much I miss home. There are a lot of girls my age that are married, and it's fun to get to know some new people. When I interviewed the manager also told me that I would have to work one weekend day a week and I picked Saturdays, and on my first day, they told me that my schedule would be Monday thru Friday, so I feel pretty lucky right now. It's turning out to be better than I thought.

The best thing of the day is that as of today, Scott and I have been married for 8 months. I can't believe it's been that long! Everyday I'm reminded of what an amazing man I have as my companion. I really feel lucky for what I have.

Days of loneliness

Scott and I were able to go to West Jordan on Sunday. We couldn't leave until after church because we had to speak (this was the 4th time in a year for me, speaking in Sacrament meeting, it's not my favorite thing). We went to up because Scott is working in Salt Lake all week for Webb Audio Visual which is where he worked before we moved. This is a HUGE blessing in our life. The Lord really is looking out for us and he continues to surprise me with his blessings. Unfortunately and fortunately, I had to start my new job today so I had to drive back to Price this morning. This was not the easiest thing to do. I'm having a hard enough time adjusting to a place where I don't know anyone except the people in my ward. But it was really hard coming home and knowing that I would be here all alone for 4 days. Luckily I only have to work until 3:30 on Friday so after that I plan to head back to WJ for the weekend to pick up Scott. It was so great to be home this weekend and spend some time with my dog...and my family of course! He followed me everywhere the whole time I was there, it was so cute. But, I made it home to Price (to find my new flowers to be dying and still not knowing how to save them), and I had my first day at work which turned out to be ok considering the circumstances. But the apartment is so quiet and I really hate have Scott so far away. Call me sappy, but it STINKS! But on a better note, I'm getting more excited for my new nephew to come in September! It's so fun to see Rhonda grow and know that the baby will be here so soon. And I was so excited to find out that my sister-in-law Sandra is prego as well. I couldn't be more excited to have a baby coming on each side of the family!

Happy Anniversary!

For those of you that know my parents, you know how great they are! Today is their 39th anniversary and I think that's such a big achievement. They are two of the best people in my life and they continually bless my life. I'd also like to make a shout-out to all the dad's on Father's Day, I have a great dad and a great dad-in-law that are great examples to me. Thanks for all you do! Also to all of the men who are not only fathers but are patriarchs of a families with children or without, it's such a great responsibility and you are much appreciated for taking that challenge and guiding your family.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Today is Scott's 26th birthday. The picture is from last year but I thought it was cute. Scott has been a little uneasy about turning 26 since one of our friends made a comment to him a few weeks ago. We were out to dinner and she asked how old he was and he told her that he was about to turn 26 and she said "When you turn 26, that's when your melabolism catches up with you." So we ate a great dinner last night (roast beef and mashed potatoes that I made for the first time) with banana foster for desert (omitting the rum). But I'm pretty sure his metabolism isn't going to change overnight, but it's giving me concerns since I'll be turning 26 in July, it's going to be even harder to drop some pounds! I won't embarrass Scott with listing all of the big and small things that make him so great, but I am so grateful to have him in my life and I'm grateful to my mother-in-law and father-in-law for raising such an outstanding person. He got so many of his values and qualities from them that make him so wonderful. Happy Birthday Scott, I love you!

Virtual Tour (Continued)

Our kitchen is so retro! It reminds me of my parents kitchen before they remodeled it. But it's more than twice the size of our last one, and we have a kitchen table that we can leave up which is nice compared to when we had to put a cardboard table up and down each time we ate. Thanks to the Dahl's for the table and chairs!

Our bathroom is also more than twice the size of our last one, and it has a bathtub, not just a shower. And once again, it's pretty retro.
Our bedroom actually fits all of our furniture without being so cramped and we have a door to our bedroom, quite the upgrade.
These are my shoes. This is only about half of them, they are mostly summer shoes. The other half are in the walk-in closet.
I think that we got a pretty sweet deal on a place, even though it's a bit old fashioned, everything fits nicely (except our extra room which will not be shown on the tour, but at least we have a place to store our stuff). We feel blessed with what we have here!

A virtual tour of our new home

We decided that it would be good to share some pictures of where we live since most of you will probably never see it. The first two pictures are taken at the top of a big dirt mountain/hill right next to the city of Price.

This is a picture of the east side of the city.

This is CEU campus

This is our front door with Scott eating an ice cream bar.

These 2 are of our living room, with the free leather couch that we got, it's so comfy!

To be continued....

This Week

This week has been one full of mixed emotions. I'm definitely going nuts staying home all day everyday and I can't wait to start a job but I only have a week and a half left. For those of you that don't know, I'll be working at Sorensen Communications with is a relay service for deaf people. It actually pays pretty decent for a job in Price and we are feeling blessed that we even have that job for me right now. I can work full-time and we'll have benefits. We didn't anticipate that it would be so difficult to get a job down here in the field that I studied. People here take these jobs and never give them up, they live and work here forever, which makes it hard for people like me to get into something. But I am still looking, I would get paid more to work in the social work field, so who knows what will happen in the future.

I'm still trying to adjust to the small town and some days are rough. There are some days that I don't want to be here in Price (even though I know that's where I'm supposed to be), but I know that most of that is due to the fact that I'm stuck at home. I know that once I start working that I won't have time to think about stuff about that.

My mom came to see me on Wednesday which was a lot of fun. Scott and I went to lunch with her, which was a treat since we don't ever eat out anymore. My mom spend a rainy day here with me and went to Walmart to buy a few things. She bought us some great flowers for our landing. They are so pretty (as seen above). One pot has pink daisies and the other one looks a bit like a daisy but not quite the same. They make me happy everytime I walk outside! I have the best mom in the world, and it's not even worth contesting so no one should even try. :)

Scott's aunt, uncle, grandparents and cousin came down to Price on Tuesday and it was so great to see them. Scott's cousin Jamin came down to look at CEU, we are hoping that she will come down to school, we'd love to have her down here with us.

One of the great experiences that we had this week was to go to a care center for older people and have church with them. We went on Sunday and were able to help with the program for Sacrament meeting. There was such a great spirit there and we felt so lucky to be there. We then to our own ward and there we signed up to do a program for family home evening over there. There are 3 older couples that are assigned to the care center, they come to all of their church functions, but each ward in the stake takes turns helping with Sacrament meeting, Relief Society and FHE. We were talking to one of the couples who helps and the man Brother Gardner was saying how great it was so serve there and how he really regarded it as a sacred place because it was the place where people were preparing for the sacred experience of moving on from this life. Scott made the comment that the veil is so thin in a place like that, and it's so true. The people have almost fulfilled all that they were meant to in this lifetime and I'm sure are anticipating moving on to see their loved ones. One of the women who lived there was sitting in her wheelchair and there were 3 empty seats behind her and after having this conversation with Brother Gardner, she said "If you need any help, these 3 men behind me can help." Now we aren't sure what her mind is like, she seemed perfectly sound, but the romantic in me wants to believe that she was seeing angels. What an amazing and sacred experience that would be! This whole experience gave me a new view on care centers and dying. I'm so glad that we took the opportunity to go and feel the spirit there!

little lad dance (berries and cream)

For those of you that liked the video below and would like to learn some happenin' moves, check out this video! P.S. I don't even like starbursts but I would eat one just because the commercial is so funny.

Starburst Commercial

This is by far one of my favorite YouTube videos. It always makes me laugh. Thanks kids for introducing me to it!