Jake's Birthday + California

This week was SUCH a busy one, but it was also incredibly wonderful!

On Monday since it was Memorial Day I had no classes, so I stayed home and worked on homework, packed for my trip, and did some organizing for our move in two weeks. While Jake was at work I made him a birthday cake and started dinner in the crockpot, ran some errands, and then came home to start setting up for his "surprise party".

When Jake got home from work and was in the shower, I finished setting up the living room. I hung a "Happy Birthday" banner on the wall, got out our folding table and chairs, and covered it with a tablecloth and got his birthday presents out. When he came out of the bathroom I shouted "surprise!" and blew a party horn I had bought, and Jake nearly jumped out of his skin! It was too funny. We enjoyed our Crockpot Pesto Ravioli (the recipe is on my Kitchen Adventures tab) and then had a cherry chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday was Jake's birthday, so I woke up early and went to the donut shop to get him a maple bar for his birthday breakfast. Anyone that knows me well knows how much I despise donuts, and how I usually try to avoid donut shops. So this was kind of a big deal! Jake was very happy with his yummy breakfast, so it was worth the trip.

I went to my classes and then came home to finish packing for my trip to California, and then Jake took me over to the pick-up location for the Salt Lake Express. I rode the bus for several hours, just listening to my iPod and reading for one of my classes. We were just passing into Utah when we drove by another Salt Lake Express broken down on the side of the road, and pulled up to help. Their bus had completely shut down and there was a busload of people needing to get somewhere, so our driver took them onto our nearly empty bus. It was a group of foreigners going to some convention, and they spoke absolutely NO English. A translator with a microphone was yelling at them for the next TWO HOURS of our trip, until we got to the Salt Lake Airport. He was so loud that even with my headphones in and the volume turned up all the way I could still hear him! That was the longest two hours of my life. Ugh.

My mom's cousin Elaine picked me up at the airport around 10 pm and I stayed the night with her, and then came back to the airport Wednesday morning. I flew from Salt Lake to  Las Vegas to Burbank, and when I got off the plane Carly's parents were waiting for me at the baggage claim area. We got my luggage into their car and then headed over to Carly's terminal to wait for her to land! All day Tuesday and Wednesday I had been praying that my flights would be on time, since I was scheduled to arrive just 40 minutes before Carly did. So if either of my flights got delayed, I could miss her arrival! My prayers definitely worked, since I wasn't on time--I was 20 minutes early to Burbank! It was such a relief to get there in time.


We waited for what felt like years, and then finally we were told that Carly's plane had landed! Passengers started getting off, and then finally Carly was there!! She walked through the gate and I ran up and we hugged each other and cried (of course).

I hadn't seen Carly since September of 2013, right before I left for my first semester up here in Idaho. 21 months. I am so incredibly proud of how hard Carly worked as a missionary! She has changed so many lives, and gained such a strong testimony of the gospel.

We went to In n Out for lunch after leaving the airport, and then back to Carly's house to meet up with her grandparents and open presents. Carly LOVED the embroidery I made her, which made me happy since I had worked on it so hard!

On Thursday, Carly and I went with her mom to the Los Angeles temple and did a session. It was so special to be able to go to the temple with Carly, since I hadn't taken out my endowments before she left for her mission, and she was gone when I was preparing to take mine out. So we FINALLY were able to do a session together! After the temple we went to the Glendale Galleria and Americana for some shopping, lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and just laughing and having fun together.

On Friday we went to Disney California Adventure since Carly's mom had won tickets for us!
Neither of us had been in about 3 years, so it was super fun to go see all the new stuff that had been added since we last went and just explore. Cars Land was one of the new things we hadn't seen yet, and it was AMAZING! You felt like you were really inside the movie.

Saturday I went over and watched Frozen with Carly; her first "real" movie after coming home, and then I had to head home to finish packing and get on my flight back to Salt Lake City. It wasn't as hard to say goodbye as I thought it would be; it didn't really feel like I was leaving, so that made it easier. And we have texting and FaceTime now so the distance won't be as difficult as it was when she was serving her mission.






When I landed in Salt Lake, Jake was waiting for
me. I was SO HAPPY to see my husband again! I missed him so so much, and just hugging him again made me feel 10 times better and like everything was ok again. We went to Ross and Ulta, and then over to Temple Square to meet up with my girls Kasey and Kenzie! It was so fun finally getting to meet them!

















After Temple Square we went to Target, and then over to Jake's Uncle David's house to spend the night.

We were up (sort of) early on Sunday morning to get back to Rexburg, and it feels so good to be back home. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight; something I always take for granted and miss SO MUCH when I'm gone!

A Crazy Week

This past week was a busy one filled with planning out our packing strategy for moving in a few weeks, finishing up paperwork, lots and lots of homework, and preparing for my trip to California this upcoming week, since my best friend Carly gets home from her mission! I am SO excited to see her again.

On Friday Jake and I saw Pitch Perfect 2 as an early birthday present for him, and it was awesome! Usually sequels make me nervous, but this one was definitely just as hilarious as the first.

On Sunday Jake was released from his calling as the financial clerk of our ward! He turned in his building keys and helped to train the new clerk, and he is now officially done with that calling. It was an awesome opportunity for both Jake and I to receive blessings for the work Jake did, but we're both ridiculously happy that he gets to come home right after church now and we'll have more time together on Sundays, our one day of the week where we get to relax together.

This Week's Spiritual Thought

This past week Jake and I finished reading The Book of Mormon for the first time together! The first of many times we'll read scriptures together, I'm sure. Everytime I read this book it strengthens my testimony of how true I know this church is; that it's Christ's true gospel. I'm so thankful for all the things this gospel has blessed me with, including my own eternal marriage.

A Long Week

This week was a pretty nice one for Jake and I. Jake worked a lot as usual, and I had my hands full with school assignments and classes. Once Jake gets home from work he launches straight into homework for his two online classes, and I'm usually still working on mine, so the evening hours in our little apartment are pretty quiet. However, we still make time to actually be with each other. We read our scriptures together, of course, and we've also started reading "regular" books together. Right now we're reading Paper Towns by John Green, and LOVING it! We take turns reading a chapter or two aloud to each other when we're cuddled up on the couch or right before we fall asleep, and it's just a really relaxing way for us to enjoy each others' company.

On Wednesday I taught my first solo lesson at the middle school! I was assigned to teach about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, and I spent a lot of time the weekend before I taught brainstorming and trying to think of an awesome lesson idea. Finally, an idea hit me and I ran with it! The kids got to play “detectives” by looking around their classroom for clues (puzzle pieces) to put together the who, what, when, and why of the assassination. Once the clues were found, they were to copy the information onto their detective note sheets, and be prepared to teach each other. For this portion of the lesson, I used a method recommended by one of my TA’s for my ED361 class called the Jigsaw Method. One kid from each previous group (who, what, where, when, and why) was put into a new group. This meant that no one else knew the piece of what happened to Lincoln, so they were all relying on each other to teach the other pieces of the puzzle. This was a great way for the kids to practice sharing what they've learned, and for me to see if they actually absorbed the information from the clues! 

The lesson was a little rough the first time through, as they always are, but the feedback my teacher gave me was all positive and she was pleased overall with what I'd done. The second time around went MUCH better, and everyone was happy! I'm so proud of myself for accomplishing my first solo lesson without too many bumps in the road, and that the kids were actually able to learn something from me.

On Friday, a massive storm hit Rexburg. Starting around five, right after I picked Jake up from work, the sky just opened up and we got a TON of rain! We needed to go grocery shopping, so we waited a few hours hoping that it would die down enough for us to venture outside...which it did, but not by much. Trying to get all our groceries to the car while holding an umbrella, pushing a grocery cart, and trying to dig keys out of Jake's pocket was a pretty intense adventure!

Saturday Jake worked from 9-5, so it was a pretty long day for both of us. My hours were filled with homework: outlining a paper for one class, reading and analyzing articles for another, and reading two books for two other classes, along with working on a research paper. I took small breaks between assignments to watch some TV or look at Pinterest, so my brain wouldn't completely melt.

That evening, we went to an Academy of
Comedy performance on campus. It was an improv comedy show put on by a group from the university, and it was surprisingly funny! It was only $1 so it was definitely worth the price!

We have church at 8:30 am, and usually get up between 7 and 7:30. This morning, however, we slept through three alarms...so we didn't wake up until almost 10:00! We both just had to laugh about it, because our week had been so long that we needed a lot of extra sleep apparently!

This Week's Spiritual Thought

This week in my education class, we were talking a lot about how the power of giving choices to our students when they act inappropriately. Instead of saying "sit down and shut up!" we can approach them and say "do you think you can handle yourself where you are, or do you need to move to another seat?". We discussed the idea for a while, and one of my classmates made the comment that agency is an eternal and extremely powerful principle. I really liked that, and it made me think about how when I teach, I'm going to be teaching other children of God. So, I should treat them like they are precious and important to God's Plan.

April Scrapbooking Pages

Want to see scrapbooking layouts for previous months? Check them out here!

We're Moving!

We've got some exciting news! After being very unimpressed with our current housing since last Thanksgiving/early December, Jake and I are finally moving! Our contract at Cambridge Court ends in June, and we didn't renew because we found a new place to live. It's directly across the street from our current complex, but there are SO many benefits to this place it's insane. The rent is significantly less, we'll have 50-60 more square feet, a balcony outside (which means I can have a little garden!), free laundry, and the possibility of having a pet if we pay a pet deposit. There are virtually no downsides to us moving since we really don't own a TON of stuff and there's only two of us, so we jumped at the chance for a better home. 

Since it's right across the street, once Moving Day arrives (June 12th) we don't even need to rent a moving truck! Jake has some friends that have regular pick-up trucks that we could borrow to move things like the bed, dresser, and entertainment center, but other than that we'll just fill up our car and make a few trips across the street to get everything over. Neither of us planned on moving until we were done with school and were leaving Rexburg, but things change (what a surprise) and we wanted to take this opportunity at making our lives a bit less stressful and frustrating.

We're excited for this next adventure!!