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.