[HUGE] pumpkin & jazz game

alisa's boyfriend, kevin, and his buddies just moved into a new place in sugarhouse. it has two ginormous pumpkins in the garden. alisa took one to school to show her kids one day. she had it in her car waiting for kevin to help her move it and take it back to his place. well, he couldn't one night, then left for st. george the next. and it was starting to stink up her car. so, alisa and i used our muscles (and a wheel barrow) to get it out of her car and halfway to the guys' backyard. that bugger was heavy!

alisa with the massive pumpkin

me and the pumpkin
friday night alisa and i got to go to the jazz game. they played the sacramento kings. we got the tickets for free from our friend tremaine. thanks tremaine, you're great! jazz did awesome and came out with the win. we love the jazz and always have a blast when we get to go to a game. brittany and jackie also got tickets from our friend, jared. it was perfect that we all got to go to the game, for free. love when that happens. we met up after the game and just happened to be matching.

GO JAZZ!

jazz doing their thing against the kings
me, britt, alisa, and jackie after the game

{rexburg}

it's impossible for me to update my blog regularly. i'm sure the three of you who check my blog are well aware of that by now. i wish i could say that will change and i am going to try and be better. but that would just make me a liar. :)

last weekend i had the chance to go up to rexburg for my old roommate, lindsey's, bridal shower. i met up with jess in pocatello and we drove up friday night. brittany, linds, and kaylee were in a movie when we got there, so jess and i decided we should go craigo's. it's the yummiest pizza place in rexburg, so naturally we had to make a visit. we stayed at a hotel and the girls came over after the movie and we had some good girl talk.

saturday morning we went and got our nails done before the shower. it was brittany's very first time. she loved every minute of it.

linds and britt waiting to get their nails done

jessica, brittany, lindsey, kaylee, kami

roomies fall 2007 (missing catherine)

it was fun to spend some time with the old roommates and catch up on life. jess has been married now for two years and lindsey is getting married in november. so, out of the 5 of us that were together it's me, britt, and kaylee left. i think kaylee will be the next to get married, but we'll see. none of us are dating anyone, so it's fair game for all. :)

saturday night we went to idaho falls for dinner at johnny carino's. that's our favorite place as roomies to eat. after dinner, kaylee, britt, jess and i went to shelley to the haunted victoria theater. it was awesome. but, i'll admit, i do not love going to a haunted house without grabbing hold of a strong manly, man for protection. i think we all laughed more than screamed throughout the whole thing, besides brittany. but, even without a guy to hide behind, i still had a great time with the girls.

i hadn't been to rexburg in over a year, so a visit was well overdue. going back makes me remember all the good times i had in rexburg at byu-idaho. so many good memories that i'll have forever.

the [start] of something new

This summer ended up being somewhat of a stressful, but fun one. At the end of June I was laid off from Med One Medical. They claimed they didn't have a job for me anymore. This happened one month before my lease was up at my apartment. Yes, I started to feel the stress of everything. We were in the process of house-hunting, but the pressure of not having a job and paying for rent really set in. Everything combined was too much to handle. But, it was one of the best things that happened to me.

I spent majority of my days looking for jobs and sending my resume in. But since it just happened to be around the 4th of July and summertime, I definitely took advantage of having the free time. And it also helped that Alisa had the summer off too. We made a few trips to Lagoon a Beach and caught some rays. I went to Colorado and hiked a freaking mountain! Went to Lake Mead and surfed for the first time. And I got to sleep in. Which I really loved. (Though I would still wake up by 9:00 every morning, bleh).

This all happened in the month of July. I was let go on June 30, and went through two and a half weeks of sickening stress. I didn't know what was going to happen- how long I would be unemployed, what I was going to do about moving, etc. Alisa and I planned it out that we could move in with her parents for a few months until I found a job. That way we could get free rent and then still be roommates. Kevin, Alisa's boyfriend found a duplex on KSL. We went and looked at it on Tuesday morning, and by Thursday we were signing the lease and moving in. It's up near the Capitol, right by Beck Street. Nice, quick, easy access to I-15 for me. It's a great central location for Brooke, Alisa, and me.

Back to the Job Searching...

I'd been searching on craigslist, ksl, indeed, jobseeker, etc. I kept seeing an ad for Challenger School and a few different people had mentioned it to me. The requirements were to send a resume, cover letter, and short essay about my views on America. This caused me to get nervous about the essay and what exactly they were looking for, and so I put off sending it in. Signs kept coming around and I couldn't avoid it any longer. So, I finally sent in my resume on July 15th. The following Tuesday morning I got a call from Challenger School. They wanted me to come in for a test at their Corporate office. So, that afternoon, I went in. I filled out an application after taking a test. Oh man did I feel stupid afterwards! When I left I for sure thought I wouldn't be hearing back from them because of my test scores. But I was wrong. The next day, Wednesday, I got a call from Heidi. Heidi is the Headmaster at the Farmington campus of Challenger School. She called to set up a teaching interview. So, the next morning, Thursday, I went in and read a book and taught a little lesson to the 4 year old class. It went very well, and before I left she offered me a job.

Soooooo, now I am a Preschool Teacher at Challenger School in Farmington. I started work last Monday with training. We spent 7 days in Sandy doing workshops. It was very informative, so I hope that I can apply everything to my class when the students come. I spent all day getting things ready in my classroom. So far on MWF I have 13 students and TTH I have 10. I am really excited, but oh so nervous at the same time. It is my first year teaching at Challenger, so of course I am still learning everything. But, I am also all by myself and don't have a co-teacher like most everyone else. So, needless to say, this will be interesting. Tomorrow we have Preschool Orientation, so I will get the chance to meet some of my students and their parents. Exciting!

Well, that is all for now. I need to finish my lesson plans! Hope you enjoyed the update! :)

Uncompahgre Peak

This past weekend I made my way to Colorado with some friends for quite the adventure. We went to hike Uncompahgre Peak, part of the San Juan mountain range. Which is the 6th highest peak in Colorado, at 14,309 feet. We camped just outside the small town of Lake City, Colorado.

Uncompahgre Peak

Saturday morning we arose, bright and early [5:45 AM bright and early] and made our way to the Nellie Creek trail head, where we would begin our journey. The hike was beautiful and the views were absolutely amazing! I couldn't believe what I was looking at when we got to the top of the peak. You could look out and see for miles and miles. Tops of mountain peaks, snow covering in some areas, beautiful blue skies and white clouds. It was absolutely unbelievable!

Amazing view from the Summit

Dave and I... and a mouthful of bagel sandwich, mmm.

{Thanks to Dave, I made it to the top. I thought I was going to die. He was so nice to stay back with me until we made it all the way. What a sweetheart, huh? Haha.}

Heading back down, with a great view behind

After the hike we went back to our campsite and decided to get in the river. The guys enjoyed skipping some rocks and having races to see who's stronger, blah blah. The water was freezing and the air was very warm. I decided to get in the water a little bit to try and cool down. As I was bending over getting my arms and legs wet, I heard a THUD, then blacked out. I opened my eyes, not sure of what happened and heard Kyle say, "I think I just hit her in the head." I responded, "Yeah, I think you did." Then, as I'm still bending over, I look up to see a steady stream of red blood falling into the water, from my head. Turns out, as I was getting wet, Kyle was skipping a rock. And that rock hit me right in the head. :) Luckily, Hillary, who is a nurse, and Dave were there very quickly to my rescue. With some pressure and pad, the bleeding stopped in no time. Now I am just left with a small cut and bump, that is slightly tender.

The aftermath of boys playing with rocks.

Saturday afternoon Dave, Hillary, Mike and I went into Lake City for lunch. We ate at a bar and grill called Cannibal Grill. It was very tasty. We were all pretty pooped, so we took an afternoon nap. We finished the evening off with some bocce ball and pizza. Then of course we had to end the night with a fire and smores.

Playing some good ol' bocce ball.

Sunday we took a longer way to get home. We took the scenic route through the mountains and saw some INCREDIBLE views. This weekend has opened my eyes to nature and how beautiful it really is. It's amazing what is out there and so many people will never experience that beauty. I'll let the pictures do the explaining. Unbelievable.

Dave & I in front of the San Juan mountains, from Slumgullion Pass.

{Old Mine along the back roads. Beautiful lake and valley. Top of a rock peak.}

Oh, and I can't forget. I'm so proud of my Pathfinder. We were off-roading most of the time and the pathfinder handled it like a champ. First time going four-wheeling and off-roading like that. So proud. And Dave was an excellent driver the entire weekend. I loved the ride from the passenger seat. :)

I Made It!

Well, as you know I went down to Moab last weekend for the Canyonlands Half Marathon. Don't worry, I didn't run a half marathon. They also have a 5 Mile Run. Yep, that's what I did. I was pretty nervous about running because I didn't do as much training as I should have. Not to mention I was sick the entire week before and was struggling to even breath! So, needless to say I wasn't sure how the race would go.

Saturday morning came, very early. We woke up around 6:30 to be at the shuttle spots by 7:30. Then we had a long, freezing wait at the start until race time, which was 9:30. Luckily we were able to wear our sweats and jackets until the Sweat Truck took off at 9:00. That half hour about killed me. It was SO cold.

Alisa and I ran the 5 mile race together, mostly. I was feeling good, but had to take a break around 3.5 miles. I told Alisa to keep going. I tried to catch her, but my shoes started hurting my feet. {Unfortunately I wore my old ones instead of my new ones. But, I didn't get blisters like I was worried about.} So because of my feet I had to walk a little here and there. I finished in 00:56:51, which put me at a 00:11:25 mile. To me, that is fine! I was just happy to finish under an hour. And for my first race, I didn't want to set any expectations that I wouldn't be able to meet and then get all discouraged about it. So, I set the goal to finish. And doing it in under an hour was in the back of my mind, but mainly, I just wanted to finish. :)

After all the running was said and done we went back to our cabin to relax. Brooke met up with a friend she went to school with and they invited us to go Jeeping with them. Alisa and I wanted to take a nap because we both had headaches. So Brooke went and we laid down. Our friends Skyler and Kevin came down with us. While we were running they were riding. A dirt bike and 4-wheeler. They got back and the four of us went to eat at Zax. It's a fun Pizza, Pasta, Sandwich place. Since this was my first trip to Moab I wanted to make the best of it, and go hiking, somewhere! So, we talked the guys into going to Arches National Park. We were pressed for daylight, so we didn't do the full Delicate Arch hike. Instead we just went to the 'Viewpoint' and a few other cool places.

Moab is beautiful! I definitely want to go back and take more time to enjoy everything there is to do there! We were there for only a short weekend, so time was very limited. But, it was a good time nonetheless.

Here are some pictures of our fun weekend!!

GaNgSTa'S

Alisa and me waiting before our race.

Still waiting, final minutes before the race began.

We all made it! Alisa and I ran the 5 mile and Brooke ran the half marathon!

Balanced Rock {that you can't see} with Skyler & Kevin

am i ready for this?

in 11 days i am running a race. nothing extravagant like a lot of people have done, such as a marathon, or even a half-marathon. i am running 5 miles. yep, 5 miles. but for someone like me, who is not a runner and really only does it to keep in shape, 5 miles is a LOT. i've been running, working my way up, and it sucks. my feet hurt, my legs hurt. really, i have nothing to complain about though, because i am only running 5 miles, not 13.1 or 26.2. {i'm not sure you'll ever hear me say i'm running a half marathon}. we will see how these 5 go to see if i have any desire to run more on another occasion. i'm doing this with my roommate alisa, friend brooke, and friend grayson. alisa and i are running the 5 miles while the other two are being troopers and running the half. so i think it'll be good to have a running buddy, but i also think she might leave me in the dust. i enjoy running when i have things to vent and think about. but running 5 miles just to run 5 miles, no thanks. what was i thinking? maybe how fun it would be to go to moab since i've never been. or that it might be fun to run in an actual race. who knows. haha, i'm sure it won't be that bad, i hope. i will post about it and let you know.

i promise it'll come

i do plan on posting about my cruise. there is just so much to tell that when i think about actually doing it, i get overwhelmed and decide to do something else instead. but, it will come, eventually. i will say this, though. i had an absolute amazing time and can't wait to go on another cruise again!! hopefully i don't have to wait too long before my next one. the Caribbean is fantastic. the water is beautiful and i love it. love, love, love it. in the mean time, here are a few pictures until i get to adding more. :)

Break dancers on the ship. "Fresh Bananas"

Scooter gang in Cozumel, Mexico

My souvenir from Cozumel. :)

Mardi Gras night on the ship, with Chuck, Brett, & Devin!

Ready for the zip line in Isla Roatan, Honduras!!

hope you enjoyed the preview! the pictures uploaded faster than i was anticipating, so maybe i'll post it sooner than i thought. lucky for you two people who look at my blog. thanks, mom. :)