This Time A Year Ago

Wow! It has been a long time since I blogged. A lot has happened and as I sit here, it seems that I finally have time to talk about it. This time last year Sarah Rose got married. She was a beautiful bride and Jayce was a handsome groom. (I'm thinking of doing "a year in pictures" post to try to catch up). After the wedding school started and I was super busy working in the testing lab, teaching 6th grade, and helping kindergarteners with computers. I was also going to school, finishing my masters. No wonder I didn't have time to blog. September turned into October and we went to Disneyland with Mark and Marsha and I continued on with my busy schedule. November of course we had Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Somehow I always find time to shop! During November, my teaching partner adopted a baby and decided to quit teaching. I taught 6th grade full time until after the Christmas vacation. January and February were spent proctoring a test and finishing up my thesis. At the end of February my thumb/wrist was so sore and beyond just letting it rest until it healed, that I had surgery. That pretty much wiped out the month of March. Bonnie, Bob and their children came over for their spring break and we ended up getting the stomach flu together.... the families that puke together-stay together! In April, I wrote the last 2 chapters of my thesis and continued on with my BYU classes for my ESL endorsement. Around the middle of the month, I went to Cedar City and finished my thesis with my department chair. About a week after that I went back to "defend". I passed without having to do any revisions and was really happy! In May, I graduated from SUU and finished up my ESL classes. My washer broke and I spend a few weeks taking my laundry to the laundry mat. Toward the 3rd week of May, I got a new washer and dryer, and had finally finished all of my classes! I remember thinking that I would not know what to do with myself once school was out. I had the washer and dryer delivered on the same day as I finished my last class... life was really looking good! The following Saturday, Kathleen, Sarah, Jayce, and I went hiking. It was during the hike that I found out that the house was on fire. Joe and Eric were home sleeping and luckily the alarm system woke Joe. Eric was woken up by Marty who drove all of the way home from Orem. My new washer and dryer were ruined and I was back at the laundry mat for another month. June was spent cleaning up from the fire, going to New York with Joe to see 8 Broadway shows, going to Chicago, Arkansas with Kathleen,Eric, Sarah, and Jayce. Joe and Marty took a trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. In July, Carolina came from Italy! We are so glad she is with us and we are excited to spend this school year together. We spend the end of July and the first part of August going to Sequoia National Park and Yellowstone. I wanted her to see a few places before school started. I can not believe how brave Italian girls are! Carolina auditioned for both advanced women's choir and the productions class. (She made it into both!)California, and Yellowstone. The house is still not back to normal. It has been a very slow process, but we get a little closer every day. Joe received his mission call a few weeks ago! He is going to New York! He will go to the same area that we went to in June. He will be teaching the gospel in Spanish! He leaves November 14. We are very excited for him! He is thrilled! This year at school I will be administering "the test" and doing a few things in between like working with the ESL students on a special computer program. School starts on Monday. I did not even go into the school building the entire summer. I really wanted to have a vacation! Today I cleaned up the computer lab, and wiped off the tables. I even vacuumed the floors and put number stickers on each computer. Monday I will hang up the pennants that I collected throughout the summer. I am hoping for a less stressful school year and so far it seems that I will have my wish!