Camping at Washington Lake

Tami and Jerald invited Matt and I to go camping this last weekend up at Washington Lake. We had a blast!! Tami and Jerald were our lifesavers because Matt and I are retarded when it comes to camping and we didn't hardly bring anything. We loved being able to hang out with everyone and enjoy the great outdoors. Thanks Tami and Jerald for inviting us! We love you guys!

Trish and Tyler came up also, and it was fun to see them and get to hang out with their kids.

The guys all went 4-wheeling, and they were really tired and dirty when they got back.

Mom and Dad came up for the day on Saturday. My Mom was a trooper with her broken knee to come all the way there, and we were glad to see them.

Matt was having a blast playing with the kids. He thought he was one of them for a minute. Too funny!

Thanks for inviting us Tami and Jerald! We had a blast!

Here we go again....

So it is almost that time of year again, and I have to start setting up my classroom. This year I moved to a brand new school, so it has been a lot of fun to decorate and organize all of my things that I accumulated over the last year. I have cupboards and countertops in my classroom this year, so everything feels totally different. I am loving it!!

Tami and Sarah came to help me put up my tree. I totally appreciated their help! I couldn't have done it without them!

Here are some pictures of my walls in my classroom. It is a lot more fun to decorate your second year of teaching because at least you have some idea of what you are doing.

My classroom theme is Frogs and Bugs....if it helps things make more sense to you while you look at the pictures.

The drawing on my whiteboard is from Emery and Stella. I was able to babysit them for a little bit while Lisa went to the doctors. They were great helpers!

Thanks to everyone who helped me. I'm not ready yet (far from it) but it is all coming together!

Memory Lane Tag

Memory Lane.... the tag that gets everyone involved. I got this from my cousin Stephanie and I thought I would play the game.
Here's how you play:
1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory of you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

I Was Runnin'

So, for some of you that may not know....I am planning on running in a Half Marathon this August, and I have been training for the last 7 weeks to get my butt in shape so that I don't die half way through the race! Thanks to Trish for talking me into doing this with her (I hope she is still planning on doing it). I am actually really glad that she suggested it to me, because it has given me a reason and motivation to get into shape.

It has been a long 7 weeks, but I am totally seeing improvement in my body and my stamina. Now, I don't want to fool any of you into thinking that I can run straight the whole time without walking at all, so I will be totally honest with you. When I am running, I usually run for about a mile or two, then I walk for a minute, then run again for a mile or two. I could probably keep going without walking, but the only thing that keeps me going is knowing that I have a walking break in a mile or so.

This last April, before I started training, I ran a 5K for my school's fund raiser and I was dragging!! Matt ran it with me, and he beat me by a good 10 minutes. I finished the race, huffing and puffing, at 43 minutes. Last weekend I ran a 5K in 31 minutes. I was very impressed with myself that I had improved so much in the last 3 months!

Yesterday I ran the longest distance that I have ever done!! I ran 7 miles, and I was still able to walk afterward! It was long and boring, but with the help of my trusty IPOD, I was rocking out to all my favorite artists for a little over an hour. I didn't run it very fast, and I averaged about 11 & 1/2 minutes a mile, but I was impressed with myself that I could actually run for 7 straight miles!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July with our friends Brad and Amy and their little boy Rylan. We went to dinner at Applebee's and then we went to Sandy Days. It was really fun, and they had awesome firworks there (or as Rylan calls them "Awesome Works")! I felt bad for poor little Rylan because he was really tired, and he wasn't too happy at Applebee's, but he loved the Awesome Works!!We loved watching the fireworks, eating snowcones, and just hanging out on the grass watching Rylan make friends with all the little girls that were around us. It was a blast!

Matt and Brad - they think they are pretty cool.

Amy and I getting ready for the fireworks.

They had a live band that was pretty good too.

Here is a video of Rylan jamming to the live music with the glow sticks that the people next to us gave him.

He was having a blast!