The Perks of Life!

So Long 2011

2011-12-31T19:23:00.005-07:00

I seriously can not believe another year has come and gone. I still remember New Years Eve 2000 like it was yesterday. I had a rocking sleepover with all the neighborhood besties. We stayed up all night waiting for the world to end, ate pickles, and banged all of my mom's pots and pans. Who does that?! Oh man were we cool. :) I love the end of the year. I feel like my life hits a pause button for a small moment to reflect on all of the happenings of the past year. And as much as I thought my life was bliss as a 13 year old girl back in 2000 (which it was) I now realize my life is more perfect than it has ever been. I am one lucky girl. Here's to all of the should have been blogging moments of 2011. (new year's resolution 2012, show some much more needed blogger loving)

Girl's Favorite Things 2011. Epic this year. D went all out and reserved a condo in Midway. I'm pretty sure we'll have to fly to Bora Bora next year to beat this year's weekend.

Mom's favorite thingssss = hand crafted jewelry keeper frames, charming charlies, shower spongie, and the list goes on.... She forgot we call it a favorite thing and not things party, I think we'll just call her Oprah now. D's favorite = Tommy Girl and a yellow butterfly magnet. Tender moment. Aubrey's favorite = 101 things every kid should do and a journal to track our doings. So fun. Erin's favorite = Gorgeous framed vintage photos of the temple. World's greatest thrifter at her finest. Love the picture! Shay's favorite = super cute earrings that every girl in my school wants. My favorite = Purse with a copy of the parable of the purse, and a love letter from our lovers to go in our purses.

We loved this house so much that we wanted to pose in front of it. On a side note, we saw a lot of deathly looking runners go by as we were snapping away. I asked my mom if we should offer them a ride home. Then we found out they were on mile 99, yes 99, of a 100 mile race. I was humbled. And I don't know why they turned down a car full of cute girls but for some reason they opted to finish the race rather than get a ride home.

The best husband in the universe scored some serious bonus points for writing this letter. My mom asked us to share our favorite sentence without getting emotional, yeah right!! And yes his cursive is better than my typed papers.

Life changing experience. So lucky to be a part of Oaklee's grand entrance. Enough said.

Friday, February 18th, 2011. 7 days before she found out heaven is for real. I totally agree when people say you don't know what you've got til it's gone. This was the happiest I've ever seen my Grandma. Too bad the night had to end, but wow I am so so grateful that Caleb and I for whatever reason decided to spend our entire Friday night in Grandma Great's room. Not even all the riches of the world could buy a night like that one.

The husband's wish for me to have a little more fun with Halloween came true. He even let me pick out his costume. My intent was for us to be Jesse and Norman from A River Runs Through It. Caleb's new wish is for me to never pick out his costume again. My bad.

I ran the ~~hardest~~ most fun races of my life.

Caleb figured out why my childhood vacations to Kansas really were as good as I say they were.

My job has exponentially increased on the DILY scale. Best job ever.

Porter showed his killer bball skills to my kids. They dubbed him the next Harlem Globetrotter in the making. My students still fight over who gets to play with the personally autographed yellow Porter basketball. He's that cool.

Caleb is definitely the favorite around here. For some reason whenever I show up alone I instantly get the where's Caleb question kiddo attack.

And he is thinking of switching his major to expert wood crafting maker person. I think he should opt for the host of what not to wear.

All of my family in the same picture. Say what?! Oh wait, we've added two more since!! Freaking love all of them.

Went to the game wearing one color, came out cheering for a different. Still so fun though.

Caleb and I thought it would be so cool to give Emry a bunny for her birthday. I don't know if her dad thought the same. He babysat that bunny while Emry was on vacation, and meanwhile the bunny died. Emry has since told Caleb and I over and over that if she ever goes on vacation again, we get to babysit her bunny. Want cool presents for your kids?! Invite us to their parties, you'll love us so much afterwards. Just kidding Mike, you really aren't that bad of a bunny babysitter. Some things just take time. :)

I saw Seth a.k.a. my most favorite cousin ever twice in the same year. This blue knight is the bomb.com.

I overly loved living only five minutes away from the sister's house. Starbuck's vanilla steamer cravings and baby snuggling wishes love it too.

And best of all, I got to spend another perfect year with the man of my dreams!!

2011 you rocked!!!
And I am so excited for 2012. Bring it!!

Great Friends!

2011-11-06T21:46:00.006-07:00

Halloween weekend was celebrated with some of our great friends. Sam and Penny Yarbrough invited us up to the Yarbrough Manor at Fish Lake. Until we actually got there I, Caleb, didn't think it existed because Sam always conveniently invited me when I couldn't go. :) But this time we were able to go and it was awesome! We got to catch up with the Wangsgard's as we carpooled together. It is always great being around Dave and Sarah, except for when Dave thinks I'm hitting on his wife. I can totally see why he would be intimidated by me though, so I can blame him, hahaha. Anyways, we also go to see the McKinley's who we haven't seen for ages! It was so fun to see their son Maximus Primus and their baby girl Avery. They have such an awesome family and I am very jealous of them. I got to entertain Max during breakfast the first morning by throwing grapes as high as I could and catch them in my mouth. Max loved it, but what he loved even more was when I taught him to throw grapes at his Dad :), I need someone to pick on Danny when I'm not there. Oh and there is a beautiful stream that flows right past the cabin and so Max always wanted to go and see it and I would walk out there with him and this is one of the pictures I got of him. It was mid smile. He was frowning when I told him to smile, and then I was trying to make him laugh and caught the transition face. Oh well, he is still a very cute kid. Good job Jessie!

We had a lot of fun playing Quiddler, having Ticket to Ride tournaments (luckily Jessie didn't win any of these, I think she lost her edge), and Penny surprised us with a Micheal Jackson dancing game for the Wii. Surprisingly Dave was pretty good at this. Even when it wasn't his turn he was off in the corner practicing his moves so he could compete with Danny and Penny. Sam on the other hand was the same old Sam who loves to dance no matter if the game tells him he is good or not. (just playin cowboy.)

The guys were able to get away here and there and play some fuseball. I have to admit that I was a charity case in that game and that Dave was kind enough to accept me as his teammate. Danny is abnormally awesome at fuseball, Dave is an awesome defender, and Sam would just rock my face on offense. We had a tournament with fuseball and Dave and I ended up loosing the last game after many great comebacks.

Lastly, we got to go out on the lake and do a little fishing in the freezing cold weather. I guess there is a part of the lake where the mountain dips and it is called the saddle. Sam said we would catch some fish there and Dave was able to catch a humongous 10" rainbow trout. Unfortunately we threw it back in and didn't eat it.

It was such an awesome weekend to just relax and enjoy the company of many great friends we have made. Thanks Sam and Penny for putting that together. We love you guys.

This past weekend Lauren and I finally hung out with our long lost friends Billy and MacKenzie who just got back from Houston, Texas a year ago and decided they wanted to hang out :). It was so fun! We went to Zupas and then did what we do best, just talk the night away. We were able to catch up on their lives in Houston and they convinced us even more that Texas would be a great place for the future Perkins' family. It is always great when you can have friends that you don't see for over 2 years and pick up like you just saw them yesterday.

We played the game Quiddler with them, which is like a scrabble card game, and I ended up loosing by a lot because I challenged the word "zoon" and lost quite a few points. Besides me loosing again, it was a lot of fun!

Also we hung out with Trent and Erica who are hilarious. They have an awesome house, and an even more awesome dog! Bry is a boxer and is two years old and absolutely cut! His muscles bulge everywhere and so Bry, the dog, has inspired me to start working out a little more. Let's see if that happens :) We hung out at their house talking and wrestling with Bry. Lauren learned what a boat that paddles is called, a paddle boat :). After talking for a bit we went to go see Moneyball which turned out to be a pretty good movie. I might just watch an inning of baseball now.

Anyways, we are very grateful to have the friends that we do. Anywhere we go we can count on great friends to be there. Hopefully we can be friends until we're 50, then from there on who knows :) right Dave.

Good Hail! I ran 26.2 and liked it.

2011-09-18T22:15:00.009-06:00

Mom I wrote EVERY detail, and then some, just for you. Missed you. :) And please don’t ground me permanently even though somehow both camera batteries were dead. Caleb’s phone does just as good as our DSLR right?!

Friday was crazy. I thought running against schools like BYU and Boise State was scary, I guess I didn’t know what scary was back in my college days. My pre-race-jitters hit an all time high and I think the people around me could sense those feelings. Everyone was trying extra hard to show me the love. Mr. Herzog went out of his way to make sure EVERYONE knew what I was doing the next day (great, no pressure at all to finish) and he counted down the hours more than I did. Thanks. All 930 students wished me good luck. Somehow the staff was also informed, couldn’t have been Herzog, about my madness and they gave me a super cute running jacket- maybe they knew what was to come the next morning, or maybe they just jinxed me... Some students also showed the love by bringing me way too many candy bars. I’ve taught them so well about pre-race fuel, or maybe I was really grumpy and they know how to give me a cheerfulness fix, or maybe they just wanted extra-credit. I have no idea who would’ve ever told them they would be my favorite students and get bonus points if they brought me candy. ;)

Friday night Caleb was being sooooo sweet to me. I feel bad now because I’m pretty sure I was ornery. And we all know what happens when I’m in a bad mood, no bueno. We drove up to Logan to pick up my packet. Caleb made me sphagetti for the 25^th night in a row, I drank enough water to stay hydrated for an entire year, and all I wanted at this point was for the race to just finally begin.

My dad called me a million times through out the week, or maybe his extra nervous first-time marathon runner daughter called him a million times to get some more wise words of advice, I can’t remember now, but Friday he told me he scored big at D.I. and found the perfect clothing bag for me to keep all of his sweats in. Yes, his sweats. I love mine too much. Heaven forbid I might loose some of my ten year old, bleach stained, torn sweats. So I turned to the next best thing, my dad’s sweats. I am so nice to him, no wonder I'm his favorite. He brought me the bright orange trick-or-treat pumpkin bag with his sweats (which was the best idea ever because it took us all of five seconds to find that bag at the finish line), I popped some sleep meds, and zoned out.

Fast-forward to 3:15 am. I slept like a rock, and only dreamed one bad thing, the stick on the trail turned into a giant Rattlesnake that bit my ankle and I died. I woke up and was delusional. I heard something really loud outside, RAIN!!! But I was so confused because it NEVER EVER rains like that in Utah. GREAT!!!!!! Notice my dad's mountain man jacket he let me wear?! He must have really liked our Halloween costumes from last year.

Caleb drove me to Logan and I got right on the bus. The only thing I was thinking about on the bus ride was the huge need to go pee feeling I had. I swear I was going to pee my pants. Seriously, enough fuel in my bladder to hydrate your mom’s cow… The bus ride up the canyon seemed like 52 miles, definitely not 26, and the long ride was not helping the mental note that I knew I was about to run down what we just drove up. The old man next to me was really tired and didn’t say one word. We got to the start and the bus driver stopped the bus and everyone just sat there. I was so confused because I knew we were at the start but no one was getting off the bus. I was at the back of the bus and was the first to stand up. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy because I stood up, I yelled to the bus driver something like hey I am about to pee on your bus, can you please open the doors so I can get off?! I got off the bus and realized the bathrooms were a quarter of a mile up the road, I guess that’s why no one was getting off because they knew eventually the driver would take them to port-a-potty land. I peed in the bush and made my way to the heated tent.

30 seconds before the gun went off, the skies thought it would be funny to pour an ocean on all the runners. It lasted long enough to get my shoes soaking wet, and went away. Glad you cared. Right then I decided that if I wanted to have a positive experience, I couldn’t let the monsoon bring me down. I turned on my music and started dancing. (Dancing in the rain, bucket list check.) I was completely SHOCKED when I ran past the mile one sign because it felt like I had been running for 60 seconds. Then all of the sudden there was mile 2, and 3, and 4…I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the miles were flying by. I got to mile 6 did a double take with the course digitial clock and my time, thinking there was no way I was really running sub 8 minute miles. OOOPS!! I was feeling sooo good but knew if I kept up that pace for much longer I would either die, or I would be hating life come Mile 18, so I slowed my pace. The canyon was so beautiful and peaceful. At mile 8 the rain hit really hard again. It continued for, don’t even worry about it, TEN MILES.

After I got over the fact that my hair was ruined, I was cold, my shoes now weighed at least 20 lbs. each, I couldn’t see, my ear filled with water and ruined my niece’s left-ear head phone I was wearing, it felt like I was wearing a swimming suit, I couldn’t feel my legs because they were so cold, I made the mental note to be the Tigger in life that my mom always taught me to be. And started thinking something like, the faster I run, the faster I finish, the faster I get to be with Caleb, the faster I’m out of the cold rain, the faster I can go back to bed, and the faster I get to take a hott shower. Mile 13 was at the bottom of the canyon and my time was right around 1:45ish. I was feeling good and knew that if I kept my pace I would be in good shape for qualifying for Boston. This was a good motivator to keep moving. At mile 14 I saw my dad and sister and couldn’t have been more happy. My dad must have been really worried about me cuz he kept asking me if I was okay and really wanted me to put on his jacket. He seriously has been the best coach through this entire process and he was more worried about the rain, coldness and hail than I was. Bless his heart I've caused him a lot of stress and anxiety the past 7 days. At mile 15 I saw Caleb and was freaking out!! Then I noticed the scenery and road I was running on looked very familiar, it was the exact road I ran on for my first leg of Ragnar, freaking out even more. I wanted Caleb to know he had a super hott sexy wife even in the rain, so I picked up my pace again. BUT I guess my spirits needed a humbling fix, almost as much as BYU needed a humbling fix after they scored their one and only touch-down yesterday and were cheering as though they had just won the superbowl, they lost 5,000 to 10, or something like that, boy were they humbled, so back to my running, it started hailing!!!! I was humbled and slowed way down.

Andy and Shay, Caleb personally made this video just for you two.

I continued to see my cheerers every few miles and was feeling good. Then it happened, I hit the wall at mile 18, and tried to ignore the fact that the entire mile was a hill. I may or may not have walked all of it. :/ Somewhere a long the run a lady runner next to me told me she could hear the water in my shoes sloshing around!!! Oh my luck sometimes, it's okay to not be jealous. Eventually I made my long way to mile 21 and ran into Caleb and Caitlyn.

Caitlyn was a complete rockstar and drove all the way to Logan to pull me a long the last five miles. She seriously was my saving grace. She just did a marathon this summer and so she knew the exact feelings I was having. We carried on and met up with Aubrey at mile 23!! Wahoo another person to pull me a long!! I think the race people got confused with their distance calculations and I’m pretty sure the last 3 miles was actually 10 miles. Eventually I finished and was quite emotional, in a good way, crossing the line. I loved the marathon so much that despite my muscles screaming bloody murder when they come close to stairs, I can’t wait to do it again. My time was right around 4 hours, and if your math skills are any better than mine, you know more than I know that I slowed way way down the last few miles. But oh well, I feel good and I know I gave it my all.

26.2. Whoo whoo!!

Thanks to everyone who’s had to put up with my race anxiety for the past 90 days. It was well worth it and I can’t wait to do my next one!! And a special thanks to these people! Best motivators, coaches, supporters ever. And as a side note, my dad told Caleb and I a few weeks ago that he heard a song on the radio that he really likes. He started singing it and it's Beyonce's Single Ladies song. No joke! Caleb and I have since been making bets on what radio station my dad listens to. Apparently it's the same radio that plays LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem because all he kept saying was to just keep shuffling. Everyday I'm shuffling... Which was funny because I lost track how many times I listened to that song on repeat to get pumped for the race, before and during...

I wait all year for the 4th...

2011-07-11T14:43:00.010-06:00

If there's one day in the year that I seriously know how to "live it up", it's definitely the 4th.

And if there's one holiday that completely deserves a double x-l long post, this one is it and I didn't disappoint.

I freaking love everything about the holiday.

I especially love fast and testimony meeting during the month of July. (I'll never forget how Sarah Stelter hit it home for me this year.)

I love taking the time to think about what freedom and being American really means. thank you chris.

I love waking up to run an early race, cheering at the parade for who knows what just to get that one piece of taffy, barbecuing and pooling it in the afternoon, playing and acting as though no one is watching as the sun slowly fades into the dimness of the night, the anticipation for the first big boom and lit sky, the smell of smoke in the air (yep I really just said that), and of course the grand finale- the kind that in this case the city of Bay Village spent way too much money on- but was well appreciated.

Really though, I.freaking.love.all.of.it.

It's on cold long winter days that I dream and wish about the 4th.

So when it's here, I kind of feel like it's deja vu, the entire day, and I hate it when the day comes to a close.

This year was especially fun.

Caleb and I flew to Ohio again.

Nothing beats fireworks over the lake and chasing cute kiddos who we definitely don't get to see enough of.

And extra bonus, Andy had the entire week off to entertain us, or more like make fun of someone just because they forgot how to spell the word rink. Oh wait who won that Qwiddler game?! That's what I thought.

Playing and waiting for that first big boom. Totally feel so lucky that we got a group shot.

A NORMAL picture of the chief and me. Say what?!! Yep, normal, it is possible.

I seriously love my brother so much and feel like it's an honor to claim him as such. I loved being introduced at church as Andy's little sis.

Maybe one day I'll be half as cool, kind, wise, loving, hard-working, super-heroish (any person who saves other people's lives on a daily basis should be called a super hero right?) and funny as he is.

Love her.
Can we please be neighbors?! No more of this 2,000 miles away crap. Texas needs doctors too.

And we had fun attempting to get a picture of me and all the spunkiness that surrounded us for 6 days.
Notice how Caleb rocked it on the face painting this year.

Hottness. end of story.

And even more hottness.
It boggles my mind that we are standing in front of a lake, not an ocean.
Caleb thought Jaws was going to be in full-attack mode any moment because the lake is just that big.
And we decided that lakes in Utah are way too over-rated and should be called puddle hoppers.

Marin. Couldn't get enough of her.
And please don't ever burn your fingers again. Your mom and I might just have a heart attack.

We loved us some beach time and humidity time. And Tessa and Carlee loved them some mermaid time.

I love summer nights. The feel of being content and knowing that life is good. Porter feels the same way, especially when Caleb is around.

And it ain't no 4th of July without some funnel cake loving, horse riding, money wasting, carnival sporting, good time.

I loved this trip. It was the perfect summer recipe.

Caleb is still wishing Tessa could've been our lap child on our flight home. She has a good time telling Caleb your mom jokes. We forget that she's just two.

Buffalo wild wings, Quiddler, Settlers, and the food was a hit, just like always.

Thanks Andy, Shay, Porter, Tessa, Carlee and Marin for adding the perfect week to our summer.

And yes I'm already counting the days til next year's 4th.

Proud to be American are we.

365 times 3

2011-05-15T00:40:00.014-06:00

caleb and i celebrated three years.
i will never forget the first time i saw caleb- i had major butterflies and became a true believer in love at first sight.
i wanted him so bad.
apparently caleb wanted me too, so thanks to his friend's smart thinking, caleb's keys were chucked at me and we exchanged numbers.
i then went on a date with the man of my dreams and thought about him every second of every day.
we went and saw pick-a-dilly-cowboy and kissed, and i was head over heels.
i started skipping class for this crazy boy- something my mom couldn't ever get me to do on days "she was bored" when i was in high school.
i cut myself from the track team, cuz suddenly, hanging out with a cute boy was way cooler than running for three hours everyday.
we bought air soft guns, went on slurpee runs, hiked the Y, dressed up as if we were going to the prom-only to find out we weren't (thanks elliot and danny), sat hand-in-hand at general conference, cooked dinner together, became a frequent visitor of "the park", tripple-dog-dared each other to do the stupidest things, danced in the moonlight under the stars, sang our hearts out to "You have Stolen My Heart" by Dashboard over and over with the windows rolled down, stayed up way too late, hiked the hot springs, cheered proudly at the BYU football games, told stories of our past, had fun living in the moment, dreamed about our future, and best of all, fell in love!
never in my life had i wanted anything more than for him to be mine.
after a year of dating, the stars aligned, and my fairytale wish came true.
had i known then, what i know now, i would've wanted him even more, and that is something i didn't think was possible.
may 1, 2008, he became mine for forever.
and because of all this, i am the luckiest.
we celebrated by going to vegas, again.

escaping just the two of us is the best thing ever- even if all we do is master the art of sleeping and eating.
caleb even figured out the best time to go to the buffet...
10:30. you can get your fill of breakfast food, then if you wait long enough, they will bring the lunch food out and you can eat lunch in the same sitting. we definitely worked the system. and i'm pretty sure we both ate enough calories to not eat for an entire year. gotta love vegas buffets.
caleb is beyond the best husband i could've ever dreamed up.
he makes me dinner (more than i make him dinner), never misses a friday night date night, works super hard in school (15 credits of engineering this semester often turned into a 60 hour week for him), listens to me, gives the best advice, makes me laugh all the time, makes me feel safe, helps me clean, lets me buy another pair of running shoes just because they're pink, wins the favorite uncle award every sunday, will one day, hands down, make the best dad in the world, and my most favorite thing...
he loves me no matter what.
i thank my lucky stars everyday that he is mine.
and here's one picture from the special day.
it's not the best picture from the day, but in a way, it's one of my favorites because we were so happy... and it shows in this picture.

and that happiness continues to grow more and more each year.
happy three to us!
love ya babe!

I wonder... are krispy kremes free in heaven?

2011-05-08T13:09:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knew my Grandma knows she loved Krispy Kremes.
In fact it was one of the last conversations I had with her.
It was back in February and my Grandma had just fallen.
The hospice nurse who had been so graciously, honorably, and delicately taking care of my Grandma's tired body knew her time was short.
So my mom encouraged me, and all of the siblings, to spend some last precious moments with the most amazing grandma a grandkid could ever dream up.
I will forever be grateful that I listened to the wise words of my mom and I will always cherish those last moments.
I climbed into her bed to help keep her warm- the same bed that I sat on just a week prior to for the weekly bachelor roundup party where my Grandma told me her oh so sure prediction of who Brad would pick- and we carried on a spacious conversation.
It was clear to me that a piece of Heaven was close to her.
She kept saying there were too many people... there's just too many, she said.
I asked her if she had seen Grandpa yet, and she excitedly, but quietly said not yet, I keep looking. (It seemed like she knew she would see him soon, and that thought makes me so happy. No one ever deserves to be a widow.)
My Grandma then tried to sit up in bed- something she hadn't done in almost 24 hours- to get her krispy kreme.
So I tore off a tiny bite sized piece of her all time favorite treat/ breakfast meal and placed it on her tongue.
She then said ewe, what's that?! Maybe if I knew how to make her a cup of coffee, it would've tasted more normal to her.
It was then, that I knew we were losing her...
So last week she had a birthday.
Her 87th birthday to be exact.
As I drove past the Layton Hills exit I was talking to my dad on the phone and he told me I had to stop and bring some home in hopes of brightening the gloomy day for my mom.
The only reason I ever got off that exit was to get the grandma great her krispy kremes.
Something I tried to do at least once a week the last few months.
I ordered six doughnuts, rather than twelve, to share with Caleb, my dad, and my mom, knowing that the other six could be shared in Heaven.
I pulled up to the window after ordering and waited, and waited, and waited.
Finally after five minutes of sitting there an older gentleman opened the sliding window and asked how he could help me.
I told him I ordered six doughnuts and wanted to pay.
He then closed the window and came back with twelve doughnuts.
He handed me the box and said, these are on me today.
I then got a little teary eyed because it was one of those moments where a- I was already emotional because I had been thinking about the grandma great all day, b- he had no clue why I was even there, c- I get extra emotional when people do something really nice when I'm already emotional- especially when it's someone like an old man- shouldn't i be doing the kind act for him?!, d- that pill does crazy things to me, and e- getting something for free is so sweet when you live off a teacher's salary :) and f- I totally knew my Grandma so played a part in this.
It's just too ironic how it all happened.
The poor guy probably was wondering why he gave such a crazy person twelve free doughnuts.
I told the gentleman that my grandma was his bakery's #1 fan.
I also told him that she had just passed away and today was her birthday.
He simply replied with, bless you and your family.
I love this story.
I love the little things in life that help keep the memory of those who we love and have lost, alive.
I keep thinking about "You never know what you got til it's gone."
Yep, I love my grandma great more and more everyday.
My turn, Love you more!
In memory, we celebrated.

Happy Wifey Day

2011-05-08T12:48:00.000-06:00

The day that Lauren and I got married Lauren's brother let me know that even if my new wife and I didn't have kids yet I still need to celebrate this day for her because she is the future mother of my children. Well to celebrate our anniversary and Mothers Day we took a nice warm trip to Las Vegas!
We have been enjoying just laying around:) Lauren said yesterday, after our three hour nap, "We are so lame to drive 400 miles to just sleep and be lazy!" Although it may sound like we are lame it has been a much needed break. I just got done with finals and she has been working very hard with track and normal work.
Any who since the only reason I ever blog is to retaliate to dumb seminary teacher friends in Nephi about my bad grammar (eat up all that beamish Danny, yep brammar, bad grammar!), I decided to tell my wife how much I love her.
Lauren you are a very hard worker. I cannot believe how much you will dedicate yourself to your work and now coaching track. I know that you apologize for venting to me about your days but it does show how much you care about your students and the success of your school.
You are such a sweet girl. Watching you childhood videos really helped me realize even more how soft your spirit is and how much you care about others. (even if you did have your hair cut like a little boy:) )
And lastly, ( I have to wrap this up because your are getting suspicious of why I'm in the bathroom this long) I love you so much because I know when you are the mother of our children that you will do anything that you can to make sure they are happy everyday, that they are mindful of the gospel, that they look the best they can everyday, and that they will succeed in everything they put their mind and heart to. Lauren you are beautiful, you are amazing, and I am so glad that you are mine!
Happy Mother's Day!! I hope you continue to enjoy Vegas!

Love you...

for all the "Kicking Cancer in the Butt" people...

2011-05-04T21:51:00.016-06:00

Yesterday I read a quote on fb that really made me think about life...

All of us have a thousand wishes, to be thinner, to be bigger, to have more money, to drive a cool car, to have a day off, to have a new phone, to date the person of our dreams.

A cancer patient only has one wish, to kick cancer.

Quote via Denise Evans.

So when a staff member was struck with the sickening and heart breaking news that cancer will soon end his life, the entire school pulled together- to kick cancer in the rear. We are trying to raise $30,000 to give to the family who will soon- much much too soon- lose a husband, a friend, a chaser away of monsters in the dark, a handyman, a financial establisher, and one great dad.

Cancer sucks, that's all there is to it. Part of the fundraiser activity allowed for the students to buy a ticket to place their names into a drawing in super high hopes for the chance to pie a teacher. The school raised a ton of money doing this. Perhaps this sends a not so good message about all us teachers. I volunteered to be pied and here's the result... Thank you to my iphone this image was captured, and thanks to my iphone this image is blurry. So it goes.

Mom I promise you succeeded in teaching me the importance of making sure my socks match when I put them on in the morning. I don't know how I ended up with one pink and one white. But don't worry, Mr. Herzog said there are at least 30 white socks in the lost and found in the boys' locker room and he can find me a pair that matches.

I can only imagine how many p.e. kids who hate me for the fact that I make them run one class period each week- cuz heaven forbid we should exercise once in a while- were wishing and dreaming they were this kid at that moment.

The pie rubbing culprit was nice- everyone at school said he was too nice.
Granted I threatened this kid's life, or maybe just his P.E. grade, if he got the idea of rubbing the pie in my face as if I were a baby being lathered with lotion. I think he comprehended well.

Back to the cancer thing... I don't fully understand the disease- it's too sad to fully comprehend it in my opinion. I can't imagine being a doctor having to tell an 8 year old girl that she has a brain tumor that is inoperable. Even more so, I can't imagine having the tables flipped and being the one to hear such news. This topic and conversation has been discussed multiple times in my health class. It's a topic where the bell rings too soon and we- for just a small moment- contemplate what it would be like knowing we were living our last days. Life is much too often taken for granted. Everyone needs to watch an episode of the buried life on MTV. It puts things such as life into a good perspective. (I fully understand that the words good and MTV shouldn't be used in the same sentence, but "The Buried Life" is that good, that I am allowed to break the rule of using the two words together.)

What would you do if you had three months to live? I would hold on to Caleb and never let go.

With that being said... if you have nothing to do with your life this Friday night the 6th day of May, come to Roy Jr. (5400 South 2100 West, Roy, UT 84067) for a spaghetti night (5-8 pm) in the honor of this lovely family. Plates are just 5 dollars or 20 dollars for a family. The kids at my school needed so much extra credit that we now have enough spaghetti to feed well over 6.000 people. So come!!!! Please and thank you. And let's all continue to kick cancer in the butt!!!

Ombre and The Gimp

2011-03-03T22:48:00.007-07:00

First things first, Happy birthday to my cute SIL Andrea!!! Considering it's close to 11:00 pm, I wanted to give her a shout-out rather than call her and wake the likely sleeping baby.

I didn't know what the word ombre meant until my hair stylist used the word to define what I was describing. I showed her this picture, (picture via D, we are super huge L.C. fans around here, and my sister knew exactly where to go when I told her I wanted the "melting" look. ) and so my hair stylist did exactly just that with my hair. She really is a miracle worker, every time I tell her what I want, she gets my hair to do just that. If only she were available every morning around 6 am, life would be bliss. I said goodbye to my nasty zeebra looking roots and hello to my hott "melting" roots.

The ends still have tons of blond, which I love, but the top doesn't look zeebra-y.

And just for the record, my hair is getting longer. I keep thinking it is NOT growing because I know for certain that my hair doesn't grow past my shoulders, it doesn't think it's possible or something like that. I am trying to retrain its thoughts by taking multi-vitamins, but I don't know if it's working. And Brooke, the greatest hairstlyist ever known, a.k.a. my hair stylist, told me again today my hair is getting long. (You have to understand long for me, is much different than long for someone else.) I didn't believe her but then Caleb reminded me of this picture and the emotional day I had once upon a time where I literally chopped all of my hair off, I cried...

Moving on... meet Mr. Gimp. Caleb and I were just talking a few weeks ago about how we have worked hard our entire marriage to try and always have medical benefits. (I knew for certain that if we ever dropped our benefits, we would get pregnant that day, and I would be super stressed because I strongly believe timing is everything and plus babies cost a pretty penny without benefits. Me plus stress equals huge mess.) In fact, up until I got a teaching job, it seemed like most of our paychecks went towards benefits(JetBlue, not to name names or anything), and they were benefits that we never used. Knock.on.wood. I should've known we cursed ourselves with that stupid conversation. Here we are a few weeks later and we have since paid five co-pays (and become "frequent-flyers" at the Instacare, exact words of the receptionist) in the last seven days for various things. But now more than ever, I am so grateful that we have paid every single month for the dang benefits, because things have happened and finally I feel like it's payback time. Things such as Caleb trying to beat up his friends, which caused a major carpet burn, which then got infected, which then led to a major staph infection, which then led to me thinking Caleb's leg would soon be chopped off. Don't worry, it has not been detached yet. Then Caleb got the marvelous idea of wanting to run blind on the treadmill. Brilliant right? He took one step which led to him landing flat on his butt, flying off the treadmill, which then caused his leg to get caught in between the wall and the belt, which led to a huge burn on his ankle, which then made the Staph. infection super happy because it had that much more room to grow. I'm sure you all wanted to hear that. But wait there's more, Caleb was being super nice despite me being really ornery and he took it upon himself to demolish the garbage truck sized box the treadmill came in. A few stomps on the box later and Caleb landed on his hand with his arm locked in place causing his radial head bone to be crushed. Ouch!!! Suddenly our $1,000 dollars off on the treadmill sale isn't so sweet anymore, j.k. I love my treadmill, I treat it like it's my baby just so ya know. (And according to brother dr., you're more likely to break a bone if you land with your arm straight rather than bent, so word of advice... bend your arm!!!) but still I thought there was no way in heck that my husband's king-kong sized bones could/would ever break... Yep I was wrong. Caleb:1, Me:0. In fact I had zero sympathy for Caleb when it happened, and he knows it too, remember I was ornery. It was a bad weekend. So we meant with a good ol' orthopedist who said we should say our prayers and hope Caleb's bone heals properly otherwise we know what he'll be doing with his spring break. So fun.

So here's the hott cast with my even hotter husband.

And one last thing, because my Grandma went home to finally be with Grandpa again this past weekend, we are reminiscing about her life this coming weekend. Which means the Ohioners are flying in. Can you say freaking Wahoo!!!!! I can't even tell you the last time my entire family was sitting in the same room... Remember this picture???!!!

I get to do this again... but this time she'll look more like this...

Lucky freakin' me.

More about the most loving, funny, amazing grandma later.

Christmas is too far away...

2011-02-21T23:07:00.007-07:00

Pretty much my husband rocks.
Tonight I didn't have to pack extra clothes for the gym after work tomorrow because Caleb came home with this today.... (I think my English teacher taught me that that the words tonight, tomorrow, and today should not be used in the same sentence, but you get the vibe.)

(And yes 95% of the time I wear gym clothes to work, but due to the fact that it's 9 million degrees plus one inside Gold's, I change into clothes that aren't exactly jr. high gym teacher appropriate.)

Which means when my alarm goes off at 5 am, I get to walk right down the hall to the next bedroom and pound out my run. Caleb knows me too well, and he knew that there was no way I could wait until Christmas to get this precious baby. All he's heard about for the past while is this dang treadmill, so when he saw it was discounted quite a bit for the holiday, he came up with a plan, one that scored him extra big bonus points in the husband department.

Caleb was trying so hard to be all cute and surprise me but I wasn't having any of it. He walked in with a new water bottle and said it would come in handy for my new treadmill. I didn't believe him for one second that he actually went and bought me a treadmill. I laughed in a not so humorous way and told him I didn't appreciate him trying to be funny and play a cruel joke on me. My bad for not being very nice.

I finally caught on and understood him when he asked if he could borrow my dad's truck to go pick something up. And I couldn't be more excited!!

This treadmill freaking rocks... Thanks to I fit live and google maps, I can pretend to wake up in Paris and run the streets of Paris, or I can even run Heartbreak Hill in Boston and watch the course while the treadmill adjusts to the intensity of the course. And the best part, the treadmill doesn't time out after an hour which means I don't have to start all over on my time and mileage. Beat that Golds... no bitter feelings towards you at all. Your days are over and our friendship is being replaced starting tomorrow.

P.S. That Caleb of mine is quite the guy, it was his birthday last week but yet I'm the one who is getting spoiled. Thanks babe!!!

Faces

2011-01-26T12:53:00.003-07:00

Caleb and I are constantly trying to make the best "Tessa face". We can't get enough of this little girl and her faces. She is so cute at the age she is right now. I hope I never forget her personality as a two year old. We just wish she didn't live so dang far away. I bet you can't find the same face twice...

And my absolute all time favorite Tessa Face...

I sometimes wish time could freeze this little angel so she could stay like this forever, or at least until she moves closer to Utah. She is so sweet and loving. Her faces make me laugh. Sometimes through out the week I see a certain face on someone and then I am reminded of a Tessa face, and I can almost hear her say "Guess what LaLa" in that oh so sweet and cute Tessa voice. I love you Tessa!!

Life...

2011-01-17T15:41:00.009-07:00

I am really good at not blogging and then blogging a huge post... so with this post I'll continue my oh so famous trend. Here's a look back at the past six months.

Caleb and I took a much needed break at the end of August to the Caribbean. I'll never forget my first experience snorkeling in the ocean at Sting Ray City. I've seen lots of pictures of the crystal clear blue water, but never imagined that the Ocean could really be like that in real life. Go watch Finding Nemo and put yourself in the movie. And bonus, the water was warm!! I remember the water in Cabo from our H-moon was cold, so the warm water was so nice.

(I know the quality of this picture is horrible... it was taken with an underwater disposable camera and then I scanned it into our computer. Beats paying $60 to the guide for his picture.)

I freaked when we first got in the water and saw the dozens of sting rays swimming around us and the only thing I could think about was how the crocodile hunter died... and then our guide told me the only dangerous thing to do around these animals would be to freak, so I freaked out some more because I couldn't stop freaking out when they would swim right against my body, but somehow I survived and can't wait to go back.

Here's a picture of our table. The babe and I totally lucked out with who we sat with and have since made 8 new facebook friends. Wahoo! No really tho, these people were a hoot. We will probably plan another cruise reunion with the same crowd. And bonus, the two couples behind us just happen to be from North Carolina, and just happen to be LDS... so Caleb and I weren't the only ones on the ship who didn't drink the night away. We became pros and meeting for midnight cone runs and boggle throw-downs. And funny story... these fun and crazy people also went to Sting Ray City when our ship ported at the Cayman Islands. However, when they got in the water they saw ONE sting ray (member how C and I saw dozens?!) and it was bleeding...well their guide proceeded to tell them that just meant there was a shark in the water close by! Right, just a shark. Good thing we didn't get stuck with that group, I would've had a heart attack right then and there, seriously.

Caleb pays for a cruise to do this all day and all night. Sit on the deck and watch the waves go by. He loves the Ocean.

And I pay for a cruise to get me some chocolate melting cake. And two cups of ice creams is so much better than one.

And everyone knows I can't talk about our cruise without posting a towel picture. And don't mind my lovely fried skin. And just in case you were wondering, I finally faced my fear and went to the dermatologist this week. Thanks to a story from KSL, and my idiotic epidemiology professor, I thought for sure I had skin cancer and was going to die. Just ask my mom, bless her soul it has been quite the drama filled week thanks to me. But long story short, I do not have skin cancer. Moving on...

The week we got back from our cruise, the whole job thing went down. Now that one semester's down I can honestly say I'm living my dream job. Love going to work everyday. Plus chasing 7th and 8th graders all day is a good way to burn calories. Bonus! We may or may not play tag some days for P.E.

Cindy snapped this picture right after I got off the phone with the boss and accepted the job. Talk about being on cloud nine...

Then Haloween came, I know I know, you've already seen this, it's not like I just posted about Halloween two posts ago! :) But I figured since Caleb is so proud of his job well done, I'd score bonus wife points by posting his lovely work for a 2nd time. Love ya babe!

And then Thanksgiving came. We spent the day with the Perks and it was lovely. We played Indians and Pilgrims. My new favorite food is sweet potatoes. I never liked the orange potatoes (potatoes shouldn't be orange) with marshmallows on top growing up, but for some reason this year I couldn't get enough of them! Thanks Sarah for the picture.

And sometime between then and now, Caleb made this lovely cake for Luke and Sarah. It's CandyLand, but I'm sure you could tell. After all, Caleb calls himself a pro. now and you better not call him anything else. Cake Boss has nothing on him.

On Friday December 3rd, I turned 23! I don't know why I put an exclamation mark because 23 feels old. I spent the day at work. My cute sister Aubrey made a poster with pictures and gave it to Mr. Endicott, who is in her ward, to hang on the gym doors. By the time I saw the poster, everyone else in the school saw the poster and the word was out. So pretty much, I was wished Happy Birthday 888 times that day. Best birthday ever. (Yes, Roy Jr. has 888 students right now and I know because that's how many newsletters I print off...) When I got home I felt like crap. I think a case of Pneumonia hit me. I went to bed and didn't get out of bed until the next Tuesday. Caleb was bummed that I was such a bummer on my birthday that we celebrated my birthday for pretty much the next two weeks straight and then Christmas came. So you could say being sick (which has happened way too many times this winter, negative of being a teacher) finally worked in my favor. I was definitely more than spoiled this birthday.

Here's the only picture I snapped of the celebration. My mom took me shopping and to Cheesecake Factory a week before. Which makes the celebration three weeks long. I love some just me and mom time. Really I tell her everything and am always asking her for advice, because her advice is like no one else's. She knows everything there is to know and she's always right. I am so lucky to call her mom.

Then we celebrated Christmas. #1 perk about being a teacher, summer, #2 perk, Christmas break!!! I loved being lazy and hanging with the fam everyday. Santa came again this year. This guy doesn't say a word as a school bus driver, but once that Santa suit is on him he comes alive. I laugh about that every year. The nieces and nephews are lucky to make memories like this, and I am lucky to watch. It really is so magical.

Caleb spoiled me again for Christmas. He got me an I-phone. Poor guy tried so hard to surprise me but he forgot the small fact that my parent's cell phone account (yes I'm still on their account, please don't judge) is linked to my email. No matter how hard I try to act surprised when I know the truth, it doesn't work. But I did pull a sweet surprise off by getting C an I-pod touch. He had no idea and he loves it. We spent Christmas Eve at Sarah's and then slept at my parents. I loved every minute of the holiday. Caleb also got me a hot pink electric razor scooter. This one was a HUGE surprise. Caleb did get bonus points for this present. My dad has a red one and said C could borrow it this summer. I dream of the day when it's warm enough to ride our scooters and get some snow cones or ride to the parade on the 4th. Oh summer...

And then New Year's was here. Caleb and I went to a party up at the Cowboy's (a.k.a. C's bff, Sam Yarbrough) condo in Park City. I was dreading the party because we've done this in the past and I wasn't a huge fan, but this year it was great. This isn't a picture from the party, (forgot camera for the 1,214th time) but you get the idea of what our midnight looked like. :)

And now it's today. Martin Luther King Jr. day and life is grand.

-My Grandma, who is slowly slipping to the "other side" and is officially now on Hospice, still finds a way to make us laugh by wondering why my sister D would buy her two-year-old shoes that have bud light on them. (Buzz lightyear apparently sounds like Bud Light when you're close to 90 years old...)

-My niece Tessa called and is expecting her mom to come pick C and I up so we can go to nursery with her on Sunday. Don't worry Shay, we only live 2,394 miles away, and I know because I

once drove every single one of those miles. And if you're ever bored, go here and look at pictures of Tessa. Caleb and I spent an hour doing this the other night. Every face she pulls is different. And her smile kills me. I just wish you could hear her laugh or say Caleb's name. Miss her.

- Caleb is putting his mad engineering skills to use by rebuilding my parent's kitchen. He has been there a lot, which means I have too. So much that my mom used the word "freakin" the other day. I chuckled inside. Love it. And mom sorry in advance for posting this.

-I finally switched my Provo gold's membership to the gold's up here in L-town. Which fyi, I now pay close to twice as much! Gold's is such a rip off. But paying that much every month sure is a lot of motivation to go to the gym. Plus, I'm preparing for this and would love for someone to join me in the crazy journey... http://www.laytonmarathon.com/register.html.

hint hint to all you runners out there. You know you want to.

- And the greatest news of all, Caleb and I have seen the true power of what fasting and prayer can do. Caleb's dad will finally get to come home this week, after spending more than 40 days in a California hospital, and being "paralyzed" (term the nurse used when Caleb answered the phone back on Dec. 9th). He is kicking Guillan Barre Syndrome's butt. Go Paul!! We love you!!

-And I now remember why I hate writing freaking long posts. Here I am 2 hours later, 10 proof-reads later, just finishing. I thank Mrs. Haslam, senior year English class, for my OCD-ness of perfecting my blog. The end.

- And P.S. I always have a hard time finishing a blog post!! Anyone else struggle with this? I feel like I need to say amen or something... It just feels weird ending, like I am writing the end to my life's story, cuz we all know our blogs are pretty much our life's stories. So I'll end with this...

-The end... :)

for this i am grateful

2010-11-29T22:17:00.004-07:00

The man, my most favorite person in the world (obviously), and for his ability to make me laugh everyday.

The parents. My next most favorite people ever. I say a prayer of thanks everyday because they are my parents. Seriously, I am blessed.

The other parents. For their wisdom and love.

And a few others... my crazy fun loving siblings and sibling inlaws, my health, my running shoes- and all of my shoes for that matter, my job, the sun, summer time, vacations, memories, my knowledge, my faith, and my life. :)

Happy Holidays 2010!!! So happy that the fun is just beginning...

It is a Small World After All

2010-11-15T09:55:00.003-07:00

Just want to document the ironic-ness of this past weekend.

Situation 1...On Friday night, Caleb and I had an In-n-Out/ game night with our sweet friends Dave and Sarah at their place in Salt Lake.  Throughout the night we were talking about all of our scattered friends and what's going on in everyone's life. We got the low-down on Brayden and his new fling. Caleb was quite upset that he had to hear about Brayden's dating situation through the grapevine so he proceeded to text Brayden. Brayden didn't respond to the text- which I don't blame him because Caleb's initial text wasn't very nice. Anyways... a few hours later we decided to walk to 7-11 to endulge ourselves in this season's first cup of gas station hot cocoa. As we were standing outside of 7-11, guess who pulled up... Brayden. Brayden who we hadn't seen in weeks, who we were just talking about, who lives in Provo, pulled up to a random 7-11 in the middle of downtown SLC at 11:30 at night. I couldn't stop laughing because the randomness and the timing of the situation. So crazy.

Situation 2... On Saturday I went to a bridal shower for one of my besties from college.  I lucked out and had 5 of my 6 classes my last semester with Kristen.  She is so much fun to be around and I look up to her in many ways. Kristen has told me all about this guy whom she has fallen head over heels for. It's been a lot of fun to hear all about their love story and this Andrew guy whom I had never actually met- so I thought- just heard lots about. The bridal shower was so much fun and I love getting together with the "fab five" as Kristen calls us. Kristen told everyone the very creative and very cute way Andrew proposed. This guy is such a charmer. So the night went on and Andrew showed up to the house at the end of the shower. He walked in and I was caught off guard because I totally know him, but never put the two and two together that Kristen was marrying "that" Andrew- the Andrew who lived next door to Caleb at Raintree. In fact one of my roommates married one of his roommates. My apartment was constantly playing pranks on his apartment. Saran wrap on the toilet, sardines in the celing... Pretty crazy that here we are four years later and he is marrying Kristen. Love it! They are such a cute couple and I couldn't be more excited for them. I couldn't get over the ironic-ness of this situation and continud to laugh all night. Especially since the one story I remember Andrew telling was the first story Caleb said when I brought up Andrew's name.

Situation 3... After the bridal shower, I called one of my roommates to tell her the crazy story.  It had been quite a while since I talked to Ashley, but I had to call and tell her the craziness of the night because I knew she'd understand the level of craziness. I talked to Ashley for a few minutes and then our call ended. 60 seconds later I was driving down University Avenue with Caleb and we got stopped at a red light. I looked over and guess who I saw sitting in the creamery... Yep, Ashley. Here again timing is everything.

Caleb and I have been getting a kick out of these situations because it's so rare that things like this happen, let alone three different situations in just 24 hours.

So for the record I had to write these stories down so we can look back and hopefully laugh some more.

Ohio

2010-11-10T21:27:00.004-07:00

Pictures say it all...

So I'll start with this one, and make it extra big, because I love Carlee's extra big grin, and Porter's cute dimples.

Caleb knows how to rock it on the haircut. And I so wish that the picture of Tessa and C had sound. Her laugh kills me.

I spy 3 cups of Malley's Hot Fudge. Yep, Porter drank (or drunk, IDK...) all three of them. That doesn't include the fudge that was in his sundae.

Caleb was willing to drive to Vegas for this moment... but lucky us, we got to go to Ohio instead.

Love her.

Tessa's famous face with our amazing hostess.

Maybe they have an announcement to make?! Or maybe they each just downed 48 wings.

Totally Shay.

Love Porter's grin.

See Marin's dimple. I miss her.

Carlee wanted to go bowling on her birthday, but was so sweet and decided to wait for us so we could join in on the partay. I've never seen someone as excited to go bowling as her.

Caleb and I fell in love with little Miss Tessa's personality. 2 going on 20.

Despite his super hectic schedule, Andy is a great dad and always makes time for the kids. They are lucky.

One of our many many dessert outings.

And that's how the tip-toppiest apples get picked.

Caleb always showing the love.

The glitter fairy brought glitter to Carlee in the middle of the night so I could do glitter toes with her.

Proof that I'm not the only one who cuddled Marin and fell asleep doing so. I truly believe that there is no way to get closer to Heaven than by holding a newborn. Speaking of... I had a dream last night that we had a little baby girl. Why do we have to wake up from those dreams?!

Us... until next time. Such a fun trip, already looking forward to the next one.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-30T18:45:00.003-06:00

Last night was the annual Coil Family Halloween Party. I'm usually not all that into dressing up for Halloween but Caleb is trying his best to change that. He desperately wanted to do my make-up, so I let him. He said he was going for the Dead Lumber-Jack Skeleton look. Right... I'm sure you caught on to that.

My dad apparently got Caleb's memo. Minus the make-up-ness of it.

P.S. In T- minus five hours... my family will be at the airport with signs and open arms welcoming home Chris from his 2nd tour of duty to the Middle East. Bless his wife and children. It's been a long year, but they made it and the end has finally come!

The Picture...

2010-10-26T21:43:00.011-06:00

... speaks for itself. First time holding Marin.

And I'm in love with her. The rest of the pics will be up tomorrow.

we be trippin' in ohio

2010-10-20T19:22:00.018-06:00

All days of the year I definitely wish Andy and Shay lived in Utah. There family is just too dang cute and we have way too much fun when we are with them- and we are also famous for staying up way past bedtime when we get together. However, for all those days we miss them, it sure does make it 'that' much more special, exciting, fun, magical, memorable when we do get to see them. Caleb lucked out this year and had an entire week off from school for Fall Break which just happened to fall over my UEA break. So what's a couple like us to do with that much time off?! Fly to Ohio of course. (You have to say Ohio just like how it's sung in the fifty-nifty states song because that was always by far my most favorite state in that song to sing. It's also the part where all kids yell, rather than sing.... and D, I bet you totally just broke out into singing that song so you can see what Ohio sounds like. :))

It has been quite the fun adventure to follow Andy's family around from Maine to New York and now Ohio as the eastern U.S. isn't something I was accustom to until his first year of med school. Something I've learned from all of the trips out East is that Utah has NO trees, and the East is just one giant forest. I've seen this forest before, but never this time of year. I was in awe. Seeing the colors on the huge tress from the plane and ground is a site I'll never forget. So on to the trip...

We arrived Tuesday around dinner time. Tessa couldn't wait to tell me how she didn't ride a horse and Carlee did. Which is something she proceeded to tell me me at least 15 more times on the ten minute drive home from the airport. Each time getting more and more excited as she said "Guess what Lala?!" Her mature talking skills kill me. She wasn't shy at all, which is something I was concerned about being that she's only two and hasn't seen us in a while. Kudos to Skype for helping us with that one. Carlee was the first to hop out of the car at the airport and greet us with a big bear hug. I keep thinking she can't get anymore pretty, but it just keeps happening. And Porter couldn't wipe the ear-to-ear grin off his face, dimples and all, the entire trip. (Minus Friday night at dinner when he broke down in sadness and worry that Caleb and I only had one more day left before we were on our way back to Utah. He had been counting the number of days and bless his heart, he hates saying goodbye! Probably more than I do, which is A LOT! This made me cry. Oh how I love Porter for his sweet, tender, and sincere heart. I know he's only six, but seriously, whoever gets to marry him one day is a very lucky girl. Luckily he was off by a day and we had one more day than he thought so we were done with the tears and ended the night with building a fort for him to sleep downstairs with Caleb and I.) When we arrived home from the airport I went straight for Marin. Oh. my. heck. Kind of ironic, but I'm pretty sure birth control creates motherly hormones (do those even exist?) in me that make holding a newborn so magical, but holding her was so great I don't even have the words to describe it. She is the absolute PERFECT baby and Shay is lucky to have her as the fourth child of the family. You could say my trip consisted of holding Marin, napping with Marin, rocking with Marin, sleeping with Marin, staring at Marin, smelling Marin, playing with Marin's soft crazy-cute hair, pretending Marin was awake so I could take her out of her crib (sorry Shay), and holding her some more. She never cries and is so content. She loves laying on her belly which made for some great snuggling time. Let's just say she did not help my baby hungry-ness at all. She is so cute and is at the stage where she is beginning to coo and her dimple shows every time she does so. She also smiles anytime you make eye contact with her and talk in that high-pitched soft baby voice. Too bad I don't have the mechanics yet to feed her, otherwise I just might have taken her home with me. Caleb played with Porter, Carlee, Tessa, and Molly 24-7. He is now a champ at "playing" littlest pet shops, painting fingernails, cutting Porter's hair, piggy-backing on the scooter, sleeping with Molly (the dog), lifting Porter up to reach the tip-toppiest apples in the orchard, wii of course, bedtime stories, tutoring Porter's 1st grade class, downing 50 wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, squeezing his giant self inbetween two car seats because his nephew and niece want to sit by him that bad, and the list goes on. For whatever reason, we were on a huge sugar kick this trip. Did you know it's possible to get high off of fudge?! Just ask Porter. He drinks the stuff like it's water and the Malley's owner supported him in doing so. He also thought that anytime we hinted at a word that started with an "F" that we were talking about fudge. Definitely Grandma Kaylee's little grandson. The joke of the trip turned into where are we going for our pre-meal dessert, our during meal dessert, our after meal dessert, and our late night dessert. Shay has also been listening to Katie Perry's "Teenage Dream" song too much as she was living back in her teenage days. She wanted to prank call someone. That idea didn't work so then she wanted to create a music video. It didn't happen either, but she may or may not have laughed so hard until she snorted thinking about ideas and songs we could do. Andy and Shay are known for introducing Caleb and I to addicting games. This time around it was Quiddler. Super fun and super addicting. We stayed up til the late hours of the night playing and coming up with words like "qua". Yes that is a word and it has something to do with a President's position. Good times. This trip was perfect and visiting the Coils in Ohio gets better and better each time. Andy even had time off of work. He always makes me laugh and is a great brother to turn to for advice on anything. He's so smart and I feel so lucky to know that if I ever have a question or a problem, he's there with the right answers. He sometimes tells disgusting gross E.R. stories at dinner time, like the size of a bread loaf type of stories (inside joke), but I forgive him. He's a great brother and I've ALWAYS looked up to him. I blame him for my nacho and slurpee addiction because he was good at taking his little sis for a drive just to talk, but somehow we always managed to end up at 7-11. One day, we'll all be within a day's drive distance from each other. But until then, saying goodbye never gets easier. In fact it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard. It always makes me question why we go, because really, it's that hard. Typing this makes me cry. Looking at our pictures makes me cry. And whether we hit a deer or not on our 4 o'clock am trip to the airport and destroy the front end of Shay's car, going back home makes me cry. Getting on the airplane to leave those sweet little kids who I love so much makes me cry. I just miss them. We all do. And gosh dang it all, if the trip wasn't soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, then it wouldn't be soooooooooooooooooooo hard to leave. But it is what it is, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to visit once again even if we had to have a "see ya later" moment. Memories were created and I will forever cherish the days we get to spend with the Ohio Coils, even if it is literally only a few days each year. Because those days are magical. And I definitely think all the coil siblings who haven't seen Ohio need to try really hard to make it there within the next 18 months. Just saying...
Blogger isn't allowing me to upload pictures so I'll post those soon!

MIA

2010-10-02T12:25:00.005-06:00

I've been MIA for way to long... so here it goes.

THEE job...
Some friends have been asking me about how the whole job thing worked out so here's the infinity long version... just warning ya in advance.
I guess you could say my dream came true this past summer as I didn't have a job for the first two months of summer. I became way too accustomed with day-dreaming in the lazy river at Lagoon, having time to work-out every morning, sleeping in, chilling with the sisters, becoming the favorite aunt, learning how to be a chef (for the first time I can actually say I enjoy cooking when I have the time), staying up way too late watching netflix, and doing a whole lot of nothing. But the time soon came when I started to worry about the whole job thing. By mid-July, I realized there were tons of people applying to the not so many jobs that were available. I had a couple interviews each week and was often told there were several hundred overly-qualified applicants that applied for the ONE position that was available. (As a side note, I wasn't looking for teaching jobs as I was in one of my many stages of not wanting to teach because I was fed up with the whole idea for several reasons.) Anyways, by the end of July, lucky me, I found a job. I was working as an office manager for a PT office in Salt Lake. I loved the atmosphere, loved the people I worked with, and loved the duties of the job. It was an ideal job except for the pay... I was frustrated that I had worked so hard my whole life, graduated High School with a 4.0 gpa, earned a full-ride scholarship, finished college early, blah, blah, blah... only to be working at a job that paid a little more than minimum wage. Don't get me wrong, so grateful was I to actually have a job, but oh so frustrated that my hard work only led to this. I never thought that the reason I went to college was so I could be a receptionist. I thought that was something you could do without having a degree. So why'd I go to college?! You get my vibe.. Then one night I met up with my college girlfriends at Cheesecake Factory. We talked for hours about teaching and about the job market. One of the girls was lucky enough to find a teaching job. She was so excited and her pay sounded a lot better than my job. And we all know teacher's make next to nothing, which means, I was pretty much making nothing, but enough to pay for the gas to get me to my job, seriously!... So the next day the man and I were lucky enough to escape to the most pretty place I have ever been to on Earth, the Caribbean (which I still haven't even posted about, oh man, so behind). Due to my conversation with the ladies from Cheesecake Factory, I thought a lot about teaching while we were on the escape. Which leads to the main point of my story, I'm getting there, promise.

I told you this story was infinity long...
So we return on Thursday August 19th. Friday the 20th I start looking for teaching jobs again. I make the usual round to all of the district websites and one job catches my attention. Roy Jr. High for the SECOND time had a job posted for P.E. and Health. (I remember seeing the job posted back in May, but didn't apply because, well, I was going through one of my "phases".) I casually called Aubrey, the sister who lives in Roy, and told her the news. I told her I applied but didn't have my hopes too high as I figured they had already found someone and just hadn't taken the job posting off the site yet. For all I knew, school started the very next week! Aubrey being the way she is, was ecstatic, she must have known what was about to come, I sure didn't. So fast-forward to Sunday, Aubrey is sitting in church and talks to one of the English teachers from the school who lives in her ward. He informs her the job is indeed for a female teacher to run the girl's locker room and the school still hadn't found anyone yet. Monday morning comes and I am at the jr. high by 7am to physically and personally hand my resume to the principal. I get to the school and am told he's out buying breakfast for the faculty meeting. Great, just my luck... The secretary said she "didn't know" if they had hired someone yet (kind of weird I thought) but was told I could stay and wait for the principal to return. Considering I had been MIA from my new job for an entire week, I knew I couldn't be late to work which started promptly at 8 in SLC. I asked the secretary to please give the resume to the Boss and I would call later that day. So I speed down to 5300 S in SLC just in time to make it for work. Get to the office and find the situation a little ironic. No cars in the parking lot, office is locked, lights are turned-off, no one is around. I found this all a little weird considering we always had patients at 7 am on Mondays. Great just my luck again... I so could've been sitting in that principal's office right about now, but no, instead I'm just sitting in the empty parking lot getting a little frustrated. 45 minutes later I proceed to drive back up north. I am now thinking this situation actually might work in my favor. If I had the day off, then I could go back up to Roy. At 9, my phone rings, it's the PT office calling to say I needed to come back to work because we did indeed did have patients that day, but not til later. You think?! Thanks work, glad you keep me posted on life. I drive back down to SLC and call back to the jr. high on my way. The same secretary answered the phone and I told her I was the gal who dropped my resume off at 7am. I asked her if she knew if the school had done interviews yet for the job, she told me they had. Huge bummer! I figured it was over, until she asked me to hold. I was on hold for what seemed like forever. So forever passes and she comes back on to tell me the principal would love to interview me! I was excited and a little caught off guard. So now I had to ask for time off from my new job, sticky situation considering I just got back from a week's vaca. But what the hey, they didn't even try to inform me about the morning situation, so I figured they owed me big time. I told them I had an "appointment" Tuesday afternoon and they said that would be fine. So Tuesday afternoon comes. I interview at 3:30... And things went great! One of the most comfortable interviews I had been in. Which I had been in quite a few this summer, so this is saying something. The principal told me they had interviewed several candidates, but I was the last they had interviewed, so they would make their decision with the next 30 minutes and call me! How crazy is that?! 40 minutes passes, yes you better believe I was watching the clock like a hawk, and no call. I figured I didn't get it. My phone rings, it's the principal, and he offers me the job!!! What in the world?! I really couldn't believe it. School was starting the very next day!!! I was freaking out. But there was a catch. I technically am not qualified to teach P.E. as I am not fully endorsed in the subject. And Weber School District law states that if the principal wants to hire someone, but interviewed a candidate who is more fully qualified than their top pick, they have to fore go their top choice and hire the more qualified person. This all stands UNLESS, the person you want to hire can offer something that no other candidates can bring to the table. Back to my interview, I was the ONLY candidate who offered to help coach. The school was looking for a girl's track coach, but didn't tell their candidates this, and I led them to believe I was just their girl! (It boggles my mind that out of a dozen candidates for a Health and PE position, no one else even offered to coach. But how lucky for me!!! And I'm so glad those three hour daily track practices in college finally paid off...) It was now 5 and I knew I had to make it back to SLC by 5:30 to tell the Physical Therapist I wouldn't EVER be back to work. This was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Just not the type of person I am.
But five weeks later, I can honestly say I haven't thought about that night in the P.T. office since then. I LOVE my job. It's a complete turn-around from my experience last year. The teachers are super nice to me and have done nothing buy try to get to know me and help me in anyway they can. The principal is always checking up on my needs and has gone completely out of his way to help me. This is so unlike last year. And on top of all of this, teaching PE is like the cherry on top for me. Teaching PE is a very low-stress, but very exciting job. I teach all 7th graders, boys and girls, yes all 350 of them, and love it! On Mondays I run with every class period, and by the end of the day, I run a total of 12 miles, and I get paid to do so! Love it! So I guess you could say my days are spent running around playing ultimate frisbee, kickball, flag football, you get the idea, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
This experience has been one of those times where you look back and say "Oh, I get it now." And for all of those times I was shot down in the teaching field, stopped looking for a teaching job, or even wondered why I had gone to college, I get it now, and someway somehow it all works out and it just makes sense. If only I knew this six months ago. But that's life and my life is grand.
And just in case you are wondering, my nephew Porter who lives in Ohio has been super busy because his days are consumed of being too excited for his favorite aunt and uncle, Caleb and Lala, to arrive. 11 days we get to escape again. And for the first time I get to meet precious little Marin. And I. Can't. Wait!!!
Life is beautiful.

Never Too Old!

2010-09-21T21:17:00.007-06:00

So I am jumping in here to write a quick post about my parents adventure at iFly. This last Fathers Day it was also my mother's birthday. All of us kids decided that we would pitch in and get Grandma CiCi (Cindy) and Poppy (Paul) tickets to go to iFly in Ogden at the Solomon Center. I knew that my mom would be excited to go because no one is too old in her family to do anything. :) (Quick side note. When my grandmother was alive we all went to a cabin to ride snowmobiles for a family vacation. My grandmother was living with us at the time and she insisted that we not rent her a snowmobile because she wouldn't be riding one. All of us began to laugh and then she proceeded to say, "What? You don't think I can ride one!"... she was 83+ years old and wobbled a lot.) So that explains why my mom was ready to go. My Dad on the other hand is "Strong Like Bull" and can do anything he wants :) Later they both caught on that it was a two sided gift, they got to try something new together, and we got to watch and laugh. Nevertheless, it was very fun for all of us when we went on Labor Day to iFly.

Enjoy the pics & videos :)

They are smiling now :)

Putting in earplugs for the wind noise I guess.

P.S. My wife's eyes make the stars look like they're not shining. And when she smiles, the whole world stops and stares for a while, cuz she is amazing!!!

In Love

2010-08-20T21:38:00.007-06:00

In love with this little girl that is. And when the opportunity arose to watch her overnight Caleb jumped at it. In fact he was willing to battle against my mom over who was going to take her for the night. He won. Amelia received VIP treatment from the greatest uncle ever. Wow is she loved! After giving her a bath, Caleb painted her toenails and fingernails, fancied her hair, read her a storybook, and rocked her to sleep. They both loved every minute of it, as did I. Lucky am I to be married to this man.

And lucky were we to spend a week on this ship. More about the cruising soon.

Lucky #13

2010-08-10T22:04:00.016-06:00

Marin makes # 13 on my side! She is beautiful and perfect in every way. All I think about is wishing I could squeeze her. Too bad she is 2,000 miles away, but that doesn't make me love her any less.

Images via.

Already you can tell the Coil fam wouldn't be complete without her. And they thought they were done after three. Looks like that ought-oh turned out to be one of the most precious gifts. The big man upstairs definitely had a plan, and a great one indeed... Now if Caleb and I can just do some little convincing with #5, all will be well. :)

In other news...
- I love my new job and feel blessed to actually have a job. I have reaffirmed my love for carrying on conversations with the elderly.
- Caleb's man Dave Sparks tied the knot yesterday. Of course his wedding wouldn't have been complete without all of the groomsmen and bridesmaids jumping in the pool during the last dance. And to top it all off, Dave threw Ashley into the pool in her dress. Yep that's Dave for ya, and one wedding we'll never forget. Lovely. And just in case my family remembers what Dave said at my wedding luncheon about Caleb... let's just say things are even now and Caleb probably didn't help Dave's father-in-law feel anymore confident in Dave marrying his daughter. But Dave so had it coming...
- In 72 hours Caleb and I will be leaving on a much needed vaca! Even after watching shark week we are still excited, but might bag the planned snorkeling. Sitting on the warm beach with my man sounds mighty fine to me. Our flight is a red-eye on friday the 13th. Ughh... let's hope that lucky #13 really is lucky.

-Peace & lucky #13.

so long

2010-07-30T17:25:00.004-06:00

Wednesday was bitter-sweet.
We had a party with this gang.

And at the end of the night we had a "see ya later" moment with Elliot and Emily. They are moving clear across the country so Elliot can attend Cornell Law School. Emily and Elliot pretty much became family when Caleb and I lived in Provo- a long with most other people in this picture. We spent many fun nights battling at ticket to ride and settlers. We often talked about how we all met and and how lucky we all are to be such great friends. Suddenly it seems like everyone has grown up- notice the TEN month old cute baby Jessie is holding, yep we're all growing up. Good friends have moved away and we all have to be adults now and live in a grown-up world. Sigh.... Caleb and I feel like these good-byes have been happening more often then we would like and we hope they stop soon! But we do have a lot of great friends who live in really cool places. Maybe one day we can visit everyone.
Billy & MacKenzie Oslund- Dallas
Ben & Katie Holm- Chicago
Danny & Jessie McKinley- Nephi
Elliot & Emily Hales- Ithica (I don't know how to spell that.)
Caleb & Lauren Perkins- Layton...
It has kind of become a joke that everyone moved to these new adventurous places and Caleb and I ended up in Layton. But I'm happy and happy to know that where ever life takes us, we will always have these great friends whom we can remain close with and look forward to the times when we'll be back together!

-Peace and 'oh the places you'll go'.

mr. creative and such

2010-07-27T22:31:00.008-06:00

Pretty much my husband rocks.....

Because he made this....

It's the deathstar from Star Wars. Jackson is a lucky boy to have an uncle bake a cake for him. And I am a lucky girl to be married to the kind of guy who would spend an evening baking a cake for his nephew. :)

Jackson loved it. Sarah also baked him a cake so that lucky boy had 2 cakes just for him on his birthday.

I've said it a billion times before and I'll say it a million more. Caleb will make a great dad. Seriously I scored big in the "father of my future children" department. We were lucky enough to babysit cute Amelia for a night. We loved it and so did she. Caleb adores her. Caleb had the grand idea to take Amelia to Antelope Island.

Caleb loved it (the island) so much that he wanted to take the Tyler's back for the day when we were lucky to babysit them as well. Poor Abbie stepped in a sink hole type thing and got her whole shoe covered in great salt lake mud. Oh man, talk about a distinctive smell, a smell that only something like the Great Salt Lake could produce. But we still had a grand time searching for buffalo, watching the kids rope, feeding the chickens, and listening to Caleb's crazy stories about that island.
I love this picture of Preston, Madi, Abbie and Luke. They are so much fun to be around and always know how to make Caleb and me laugh.

Caleb got a great shot of Abbie doing her thing. The thing that she did so naturally, roping that is. I was much impressed by this cute cowgirl.

And I love Luke on his tippy-toes trying sooo hard.

My heart longs for the day when our kids will be in these pictures and Caleb and I can love our own kids as much as we do our nieces and nephews. But for now we'll keep on enjoying the magic that happens when we spend our days around these fun, cute, loving little ones who fill our lives with happiness.
-Peace, Mr. Creative, and the kiddos.

So Long.

2010-07-13T23:43:00.005-06:00

Did you hear that tonight was the SERIES finale for "The Hills"?! I am sad and Caleb couldn't be happier. It all started with L.C. on Laguna Beach my sophomore year of H.S. Thanks for being there through the good, the bad, and the ugly- but mostly the good. At least there will be more to come with Whitney Port and Olivia Palermo.
-Peace and so long Hills.

Sisters...

2010-07-11T20:53:00.008-06:00

Sister will you ..

..Make Believe

..Play Dress-up

..Let me be the Princess

..Tell me Stories in the Dark

..Always be my Friend?

(Quote via D.)

I am so lucky to have the sisters I have. We are known for laughing til we pee our pants, reading each others minds, watching and gossiping about the latest "Bachelor" and "The Hills" episodes, calling each other to talk about who knows what for hours, and be there for each other like no one else is. I love my sisters so much and count my blessings everyday that I have the sisters I have. My mom snapped a cute one of Aubrey, D and me today. (Erin and Shay missing.)

This past Monday the fam went fishing to my dad's famous spot at Strawberry Reservoir. I love escaping to the beautiful world that lives beyond S.L. valley. The places where cell phone service doesn't exist and you know God is magical because of the beauty of nature that surrounds you. It was a great time. You may have heard about "the fish." The fish that is pretty much famous by now because it was caught by the one and only world's greatest fisherwoman, my mom. Anyways, D and I opted to sit on the shore with the kiddos and do some good ol' craw-dad fishing. D rocked it to say the least. And the one thing I will never forget from sitting on the bank that night is Cameron. Cameron- who is seriously one of the toughest little boys God ever made- screamed like a little girl after D pulled out the first Craw-Dad. He was probably expecting to see a fish but we all know those ugly little craw-dads look nothing like a fish. He did not know what to do with himself, except scream. D and I were laughing sooo hard because we didn't know that little guy had that scream in him. It was one of those moments where you wish you had a video camera out because we would've won jackpot on America's Funniest Videos. Anyways the screams, the laughs, and the beautiful night continued on. There came a point when the kids were done with the outing, but the men wanted to stay and fish. So my mom, D, and I packed up D's car and the boys went back out on the lake while we proceeded to go home. Earlier D had taken out the backseat in her car so they could fit more equipment in their car. This left room for three carseats and two adults. One problem with this, we had three carseats and three adults. My mom being the protective mother she is said she wouldn't drive home unless everyone was in a seat belt. So D and I sat in the front seat together for the entire two hour ride home. It wasn't too far into the car ride home that we realized we weren't little girls anymore, even though those days of being young and sharing a bedroom together seem just like yesterday. Our butt cheeks soon became numb and I was practically sitting on D for the rest of the trip. It only made for more laughs and more memories.

I love you Aubrey, D, Erin, and Shay!
-Peace (and sisters).

I am the luckiest...

2010-06-16T23:20:00.025-06:00

Because I belong with them. My sisters and I were fretting over getting a family picture done while everyone was in town. Chris is in Afghanistan, stuff came up, our photographer went out of town, so all in all it didn't happen... at least not professionally. But I still love this picture and I know life doesn't get much better than this! Totally us. The Coil fam.

Luke and Porter win for hitting the "most crazy face" pose.
You can still see a smile in this boy's face and hear his innocent giggle even when he's sticking his tongue out and his eyes are closed.

I think Porter looked over and saw where the wild things are... "And when he came to the place where the wild things were, they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth, and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws." ( I can still hear my dad in his deep , change of tone reading voice, say that line to me. Whenever he picked out the book to read when I was little, he picked this one.) Very impressed that Porter got his veins to stick out in his neck just for a picture. And Shay you look way too cute for a crazy face picture, you must have not seen those wild things.

Oh how I wish to have a child's imagination again...But I guess that's one of the joys of being a mother, an aunt, a grandma, or an old person... we have these little people in our lives to remind us of the sometimes not so real, but yet perfect, loving, playful, innocent, sweet, and never-ending happy times that we can dream of, or through the eyes of a child, that we can live . And that makes us the luckiest.

And So It Begins...

2010-06-14T22:08:00.019-06:00

Summer that is! Caleb and I were so looking forward to May 28th, 2010, the last day of me teaching and the last of living life in Provo, and the first day of living back in our homegrown fields and the first of the trip. The trip that made it possible for the first time in two years for all of my siblings to sit on the front porch together, sit at the same dinner table and talk, play games with everyone, and do the usual chillin' that we do best. Andy made it back to Utah for the first time since my wedding and the trip was perfect (minus Chris serving in Afghanistan still...).
The last day of school was bitter-sweet. The day went a little like this. Sweet because students attended all of their classes for only 15 minutes each. Sweet because we laughed and signed yearbooks. Sweet because the boy who was the main source of my stress for the last five months of my life finally broke down and apologized and proceeded to tell me I was his favorite teacher. Sweet because school then ended at 11:15. Bitter-sweet because I hugged my mentor teacher, also one of my heroes, said goodbye and cried. Bitter because I cleaned out my classroom completely and took down everything that I devoted my life to for the past four years. And finally bitter because I turned in my keys to the principal and she proceeded to say, "Well, LaurEL, this is it..." Seriously did she just call me Laurel?! Trying to hold my sometimes not so nice blunt personality inside, I set the keys on her desk, turned and walked out of her office, and left the school. I walked through the hollow halls for the last time feeling a little empty, but mostly feeling gratitude for my sweet, unforgettable students who I hoped to change for the better, but ended up changing me for the better. So that concludes that chapter of my life and I'm still waiting for the next one to begin...
On to the trip!!! Wahoo is what I say to sum it up. Every minute of the week was spent creating a fun, loving, and lasting memory. Ticket to ride, chats til 2 am that consisted of Andy giving me and my man advice about life, princess tea parties, front porch laughs, crazy and unimaginable untold stories of Andy's E.R., teaching Preston how to play Scum (Boggles my mid that I now have a nephew old enough to play grown-up games), Heber Valley Girl's camp, Smoot Park barbecues, favorite things, chic flicks, FOOD, and the list goes on.

We laughed until we cried (or til some of us snorted)... Love this picture of my mom. Looks like she doesn't have to create a seminary lesson! Wahoo!My brothers doing what they do best... making fun of me. How many millions in a billion again?! Come on I haven't been in math since my H.S. days. By the look on Mike's face I'd say he enjoys making fun way too much...
Love this picture! These two became besties...
THE Cinderella, the Cinderella who lives in the castle at Disneyland, made her way to grandma's house for the tea-party. Magical day and lucky girls.
My favorite spot in the whole house with one of my favorite people.
Love him and his curiosity about life.
Lucky me. Sitting at a table with my five favorite girls. This was the annual Favorite Things Party... deserves a whole post for itself... coming later.
Heber Valley Girl's Camp... My family's true colors came out when Caleb was voted to be the first to swing onto Shark Island.
Future dad in the making... here again no announcement intended.

Granny's Drive-In, best milk-shakes ever and great place for some manly bonding. My brothers are good dads and I really look up to their examples. Millie had never met Andy until this trip but yet this super shy little girl was so drawn to him. As was Tessa drawn to Mike. That says a lot about their loving fatherly skills... (After posting this I now remember one afternoon in Chicago did happen for the two families. But a few hours from a year ago doesn't count. :))

Lunch at Beaver pond. Love Porter's face. He is on top of Luke who is on top of Caleb. Caleb gets a constant work-out when we're around the kiddos but he wouldn't trade the time for anything. The train goes on from there.

All I wanted was a "cute" picture. So what does Caleb do?! Start shoving fruit snacks in my mouth. Whatevs.

Minute-to-win-it! Porter and Carlee love this game! Shay and Andy can get them to do anything if you just say the four magical words. We set up some fun games at camp.

Ropes course and my husband's sexy calves. Yeah baby!

Porter and Carlee can not get enough of this guy even when the word studying is involved... funny thing cuz I can't either. Okay time to be serious, we can't get enough of these spunky kids! Soooo fun.

By the time the week was over my mom's camera load surpassed 1,300 pictures! The week couldn't come fast enough and then suddenly it was gone. Saying goodbye is almost impossible for me to do anymore so Shay has taught me to end on "see ya later". Hope that see ya later comes soon! Caleb has been blessed with the gift of tongues yet again in his life and is enjoying his new job with Jet Blue. As for me I'm enjoying my days off and have spent most waking hours with my sisters and mom making up for some much over-due girl time. I even read "The Hunger Games" and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I was always the girl who hated reading but now that I get to read for "fun"... it really was fun and I can't wait to start book 2. I'm still on the lookout for a job so keep me in your thoughts and send any ideas my way! Life is good!
-Peace.

My Mom Is Better Than Yours

2010-05-09T21:51:00.008-06:00

I once heard that having a loving mother and having a good relationship with your mother is like winning the lottery. If this is so, then I hit the biggest jackpot in the world! My mom is the nicest, sweetest, smartest, and the most spiritual, talented, and loving person I know.

Here are the top ten reasons why she is the greatest...

10. Her hugs are magical and make any bad day quickly disappear.

9. She makes it known that she will forever be one of my best friends. Her play dates with me always made my girl drama with friends go away. She was famous for randomly checking me out of school just to go shopping because she was bored and wanted to play with me. :)

8. She was always so supportive of anything I ever wanted to be and do. She is still this way and always helps me to see the light at the end of the tunnel or the blessings to my trials. She sacrificed much of her time to run me to soccer games and track meets my whole life.

7. She loves my dad very much and always made this clear to me and my siblings growing up. This made a difference in my life.

6. She makes the best fruit smoothies, fried chicken, chicken alfredo, cherry pie, grilled chicken, chicken enchiladas, mashed potatoes, sunday roast, sack lunches (especially for field trips) and the list goes on and on and on.

5. She always made sure we had the cutest clothes for the first day of school, the prettiest dress for Prom, fulfilled our wants and then some each Christmas, and made our house the place all of the friends wanted to be.

4. Traditions... Fried Green Tomatoes, Hunting = Anne of Green Gables, Favorite Things, Road Trips, Cherry picking in the summers...

3. She can carry on a conversation with anyone because she is just that friendly. I have to have a full-on conversation with her at least once a day otherwise my day just doesn't go right.

2. She loves the gospel very much and her spirit radiates. She is constantly reading her scriptures, sharing her testimony, and serving others.

1. She loves me so much and shows it! She understands me like no one else does. She even knew when I had kissed someone just by the look on my face. We can have several silent conversations just cuz she can read my mind! Must be a mother's love.

I would not be the person I am today if it wasn't for my mom! I love you more mom!

P.S. My mom is better than yours! :)

My Girl

2010-05-06T21:37:00.007-06:00

Is So Hott!

So I have had a lot of time on my hands since I finished my semester and am waiting to start my new job. Free flights here we come! With this time I have started to organize our second bedroom, a.k.a. Lauren's Closet, to prepare for the move in a few weeks. While I have been cleaning out bins, getting rid of old papers, and some trash, I have stumbled across a lot of Lauren's elementary school projects, letters from brothers, and "cute" pictures. Some of my favorite findings were of Lauren's 4th grade Journal and Poetry book.

"I am going to be Grapes for Halloween..." (After Halloween)... "It was fun being Grapes, next year maybe I can be Raisins :)"

" My best friend is Andy Bush Coil. He's my brother and I love to call him ABC because those are his initials. We have a secret sign."

"Tomorrow we are running the mile, it wont be too bad because it is at 9:00 am in the morning... My brother can run 4 miles in 18 minutes, he's on the track team! Go Mike!"

Awesome Poem... "Splish Splash, Splash Splish, Flip Flop, Flop Flip, Fish Swimming, Jump Fish, Fish Splashing..."

I also found some of her old High School notes to boys and to sister 'n' laws. They were interesting to read and to see who Lauren had a crush on. In addition to those notes I also found letters from her brothers and loved hearing how much they cared for her.

Looking through all of these memories and school work it made me think of how hard Lauren has worked her whole life to make something of herself. Well last Friday Lauren graduated with a Bachelors of Science, School of Secondary Health Education. (Probably not the official name) Lauren hasn't felt like she has accomplished much with graduating as a Secondary Health Teacher because she has not been able to find a job for next year...yet. I think she may feel like the last 4 years of school have been a waste and she could have been in another program, (talking to Lauren for a sec) but after watching you today, Lauren, I know that the last 4 years were not a waste. You did a wonderful job teaching even if you were nervous with me there. You are an awesome teacher and you have added a new achievement to your list of Life's achievements. Congratulations Lauren on graduating from college! You're awesome!

Can you take a guess at which shoe is hers?!

And Congratulations to my sister 'n' law Andrea and all of our friends who have also graduated. That is such an awesome accomplishment that not everyone can say they have achieved, and some of you are the first out of many generations to achieve that goal.

Really quick back to my girl! It wasn't only Lauren's graduation it was also our 2 year Anniversary. Because my girl only has 20- days left of this school year, I surprised her with a trip to Vegas that she desperately wanted to go on. I kept telling her we would stick around for the weekend, but I finally broke the surprise to her when I realized she needed a sub and couldn't just miss work. Here are some pictures from the vacation.

Oh and one more thing, since it has been two years we have been thinking a lot about our future and guess what? WE'RE NOT PREGNANT :)

Did you really think we would announce something like that on a blog..... hahaha

Teaching...

2010-03-26T22:40:00.009-06:00

What do you do when two BIG boys start a full on fist-fight in your class?
What do you do when boys say provocative comments to their teacher in Spanish?
What do you do when a mother emails you and states that her son now wants to go and get drunk due to the fun time he had participating in a drunk goggles activity in your class AFTER you spent an entire week talking about the negative effects of alcohol?
What do you do when you're in the middle of teaching the grieving process and a girl raises her hand and says her dad died the day before due to a heroin o.d. and you find out she's dead serious?
What do you do when a parent shows up at parent teacher conferences and is a total crack head- literally?
What do you do when you're sitting in an IEP meeting and a parent asks you what a fraction is?
What do you do when you find a note being passed between a 12-year old girl and boy which talks about how good it was to be in bed together until 6 am?
What do you do when a student asks for you to do her laundry because her family has no washer and dryer and kids are making fun of her stinky clothes?
What do you do when you find out your 13 year old student ran away with her 25 year old boyfriend because he got her pregnant?!
What do you do when you call home to talk to your worst student's parents and all you get is no hablo ingles?
What do you do when you find out your student's address is listed as "Utah Lake" because his/her family is homeless and they live in their car?
Maybe you become clueless like me but YOU ALSO BECOME SO GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE.
Teaching in Provo, UT has been nothing of what I expected. It has had its ups and downs and unfortunately I feel like lately I've been focusing on the negative side to my job. Unfortunately a billion good things can happen in a day but when I talk on the phone to my mom at night, or come home and tell Caleb about my day, I tend to focus on the one negative part of my day. I have a lot of disrespectful boys who behave unlike anything I have ever seen in my entire life. And I don't know what to do with them. Despite these boys, I can honestly say I love teaching. Today I taught a lesson about how people can choose to be a "Tigger" or an "Eeyore" in life. My mom has always encouraged me to be a Tigger in life and for the last forty days of my teaching career (yep, pretty sure these will be my last forty days of standing in a 7th grade classroom and teaching all day, definitely bitter-sweet... but I'll talk about that later) I am going to focus on the positive, because there really is a lot of positive that has come from me being a teacher and when all is said and done, it's the happy moments I want to remember... thus I am writing about these experiences. When the boys do behave in my class and speak a language I can understand, there is something magical that happens in my classroom. Despite a lot of my students not being members, I feel like the spirit has been in my classroom on several occasions. My mom reminds me constantly that everything I teach to my students follows right a long with gospel principles, so of course I will have the spirit to help lead and guide me with what to teach. I love getting notes from students which state they were able to get their dad to cut their alcohol or tobacco addiction because they went home and told their fathers to buck up. I love when a student sends me a note stating that I have been like a big sister to her this year (lucky for me, she has been in three classes of mine) and I have changed her life in ways I'll never know. I love reading my student's bucket lists and realizing they understand their lives can one day be better, and I may have partially helped them realize that. I will never forget how my students see me in the hall and run up to give me a hug and then find out that is the only hug they've gotten that week. I loved opening up my Christmas present from Maria. It was a dried flower and she wrote a note saying she wished she had more to give but that's all she had. It caught me dead in my tracks last holiday season and I love her for what she has to go through everyday. I wish I could take her home with me. And perhaps the one moment I will never ever forget deals with parent teacher conferences. It was towards the end of the night and a mother showed up all alone. I could tell she was tired and stressed. She told me she was Mercedes' mom, and as soon as she told me who she was I replied and told her Mercedes is a lovely girl and I have loved having her in my class. I told her there is something special about Mercedes and I feel like she has taught me more than I have taught her and am a very lucky teacher to have her in my class. I told her Mercedes is always on my mind and I try really hard to put a smile on her face and make her happy. (Mercedes had just moved to DMS a few months prior to this experience. She was living with her dad in Florida when he unexpectedly died. She was then forced to come to Utah to live with her mother and she was having such a hard time with life.) The mother broke down right then and there and mumbled a thank you. She told me I was the only teacher who knew Mercedes' story because I cared enough to ask. She also told me I was sometimes the only person who would have a personal conversation with Mercedes at school. Seriously?! This moment made everything worth it and I broke down then and there too- which doesn't happen a lot. I hugged the mom and told her she doesn't need to thank me, but I needed to thank her. I will take 200 crazy boys any day if I get to teach even just one Mercedes. Remember when I talked about how my life's mission as a teacher was to make a difference? Mercedes is my hero and I will never forget her.
At Thanksgiving dinner last year we all went around and did the traditional grateful speech. I said I was grateful for my 5th period that came in right after my 4th period. 5th Period reminded me on a daily basis why I actually became a teacher... to teach, not to babysit. This semester I'd say the same thing about 7th period. They are my saving grace to my 6th period. Unfortunately 6th period has seen a side to me that I did not know existed deep down inside of me. Luckily I do have some respectful people in 6th period and they try to make me feel better about my job. Just like me, their mouths drop wide open when the boys behave in the way that they do, and the girls feel for me as a teacher having to deal with the crazy boys. A girl wrote this poem and gave it to me this week... it was everything and more that I needed this week.

Mrs. Perkins is the best, Mrs. Perkins is better than the rest.
She is a heath teacher of mine, lucky for me she is one of a kind.
She is kind of a push over and a bit of a softie, but in the end is awesome like Rockie.
Sure some days she may be snappy but other than that most of the time she is happy.
Mrs. Perkins runs track like me, she runs track which fills me with glee.
She may have stress but that's because sixth period's a mess. (Charlie, Gerardo, Kevin V., other Kev V., ANGEL, Jorge, Francisco, Elesvan, Jesus, Roberto, Demetrio, Augustine, and yes sometimes even me...)
We're not the best but she is nice and the respect she gives us comes at no price.
She is tired of kids telling her what to do (Alexis) and I know sometimes she wants to hit them with her shoe- which are always hot by the way.
Well anyway, i just wrote this to say I hope this makes Mrs. Perkins' day!

Yes Jaelyn, this made my day. Here's to the good, not the bad. I will forever be a better person because of my experience this year...

Weekends!

2010-02-15T20:47:00.011-07:00

This post was started clear back before Christmas but because I've been such a slacker, I decided to just add to it and it just became way long. Two posts in 24 hours... wohoo. Here it goes. Remember how in my last post I was complaining about how crazy life is? Well let's just say Caleb and I live for the weekends. I get really depressed come Sunday night around 11 pm because I know what's coming for the next five days! Pure craziness and long 16 hour days. Big sigh. Our cute old landlord whom I like to call Grandma Maxine always wonders why we're never in Orem most Friday evenings and Saturdays... well I say it's because we're home. Home as in we go back to where we came from and we forget about work and school for a period of 24 hours. And we wouldn't want it any other way. The weekends are a chance for us to get away from our crazy lives and be with the people who we love most. So here's a look back on the past few months and what's been going on. a.k.a. much needed blog catch-up time. Our lives on the weekends...

Caleb's Dad had a lot of hotel credits that were going to expire back in December. So thanks to him, we were able to go away for a weekend to a hotel in Salt Lake. It was fun to chill with Sarah and James, and Andrea and Luke. We went out to dinner and spent the rest of the night telling stories and playing TTR.

The highlight of our Christmas... Andy had our name and bought us these matching bunny costumes. He couldn't believe they made bunny suits in Caleb's size... so he couldn't resist. When Caleb and I were opening our presents he got a head start. When he saw that his present was some type of a pink material he quickly handed the present to me thinking they got mixed up. Nope, just a pink bunny suit for him. Two months later and he still likes to sleep in his.

I enjoyed Christmas break way too much and spent my days doing a whole lot of nothing! Christmas was fabulous. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and then headed to the Perks to be with them for Christmas morning. We were spoiled this year by everyone. We had a lot of wii tournaments and played many games. Andrea and I talked a lot about that brand new baby that is growing inside of her! I am so excited for her! We also played Settler's a lot and I let Sarah win a few times. Another highlight included seeing The Blindside with my parentals. I loved it so much I ran away with my sisters over the break to go see it with them as well. It is now on my top five list. Love it!

My family was able to escape to my sister's backyard, a.k.a. the mountain, for some good ol' sledding time. Jake, Caleb, and the kiddos all made it to the top of the hill before the rest of the adults were there to supervise. Of course Jake and Caleb being the way they are dared Luke and Abbi to go down the tallest, steepest hill first. And being how that these kids would do anything and everything my husband tells them to do, they agreed to his dare no questions asked. Not even kidding you, after snowboarding for several years, this was NOT the type of hill I would even attempt, even if I plowed the whole way down, it was just that steep. And mind you there were rocks, or should I say boulders, and trees you had to dodge going down this hill. Anyways they went down and somehow survived. Fun times.

The Sunday before Christmas Santa found us at the Lawson home. This Santa becomes a lot different person in that costume compared to when he drives his school bus. It's always fun to sing songs and see the excitement on the nieces and nephews faces. And sometimes the not too excited face. Funny side note. My dad spoke in church a few weeks back and I went to go listen. Mike showed up with Amelia who happened to see Santa at church. She made the exact same face and started to cry again. She must have known it was the man behind that red suit!

Caleb found some time over the weekends to join in on my dad's hobby and create a wooden bowl. It turned out lovely and his mom loved it christmas morning.
We rang in the new year with all of these people up at Caleb's friends million dollar bachelor pad. It was good to see people who we hadn't seen in a long time.
We were smiling and laughing the last second of the year 2009 and kissed the first second of 2010. Just the way it should be.
I love this girl and can honestly say I made another bff in the year 2009. She teaches English at Provo High which is right up my ally. She teaches the older siblings of my kids. Thus she gets to hear me vent a lot and gives great advice.

We were able to celebrate this cute girl's birthday. Sammie's personality is my favorite and she always brightens my day anytime I get the chance to see her. She is also in LOVE with Caleb. She really acts like his girlfriend. As soon as she realized he bought her a present she became all bashful and got the cutest grin on her face. If you click on the image you can see her bashful face. I will never forget this face or this moment.
Amelia also had a birthday and turned one! One word to describe her = precious. She too loves Caleb a lot.
We were lucky to babysit this lovely girl for a night. Caleb and I were having so much fun with her that we didn't put her to bed until close to midnight. Oops. Considering one o'clock church was the next day and Em did not get the chance to have a nap, I would bet my brother wouldn't agree, but it was totally worth it. Caleb bought her a chocolate milk shake and he is her favorite too now.
We had fun making funny faces.

This is Emry and Amelia's new dog. She is my new buddy and I wish she was mine!
Caleb feels the same.
This girl had a birthday too. Madison Joy is growing up so fast. I still remember the day she was born. It was magical. I was only twelve years old, but yet felt so "old" because I became an aunt for the second time, and was so excited to have a niece! She had tons of dark hair and looked like an Eskimo baby. You wouldn't know now with all of the gorgeous blond locks she has. And now she is ten! Crazy! Madi was the perfect little doll for me to dress-up and curl her hair, what happened to those days?! Caleb and I were able to go up and spend a day with the Tylers. We went to the Airforce Museum and played Clue. Caleb had never played before and now he loves it! Aubrey even went and bought it for him for his birthday. We love you madi! And just an f.y.i., madi is obsessed with Caleb too. Noticing a theme? All I hear when my nieces and nephews are around and Caleb is not... Where's Caleb? Even when I flew 2,000 miles and surprised Porter and Carlee by knocking on their door they answered and said... Where's Caleb?!
And happy b-day to P-man! We didn't get to celebrate Porter's birthday with him (oh how we wish), but thanks to skype we do get to see him a lot more! This boy cracks me up. Just a few things about Porter...Everyone deserves to have a big brother just like him. He really is the kindest big brother I know. He's always concerned about the well being of his sisters and would do anything for them. He even shares his treats and toys with them, which is something I've noticed most six year-olds struggle with, but not Porter. He is Caleb's partner in crime anytime they get the chance to be around each other. We love you Porter and hope to get to see you soon!

January is the month of birthdays and my mom is a part of that. We were able to celebrate her special day with her. She is my rock and I don't know what I would do without her. Her testimony is beautiful and she is the best seminary teacher ever. She wouldn't ever say it herself but her students love her and think the world of her. One girl even wrote a note saying she wishes she had a mother who was just like her. Her motherly love radiates and God knows that so he has put her in this calling. Anytime I go home I find a new note laying around from one of her students thanking her for the difference she is making in their lives. This week she told me that everyday before she walks into the seminary building she sits in the car and says a prayer. She prays not for herself, but for her students. She prays for them to feel the spirit and for their lives to be touched. She is such a selfless woman. Any person who wakes up at 5:00 am everyday to volunteer their time to serve the Lord is truly amazing... and I get to call her mom. I am lucky.
D and Jake have made the trip down to our place a few times recently to do dinner and a Settler's tournament. There isn't a lot of entertainment here for the kids, so Sammie resorted to the floor and Cameron followed behind. All of the adults get so into the game that we don't always make the best babysitters. One night it became really quiet and we found the kids upstairs chillin with Grandma Maxine. She had no idea where the kids came from but she sure knew what to do with them. She showed them her toy room and they were up their for a good five minutes before anyone of us even noticed.

And most recently... this bundle of joy and her mother unexpectedly came into town. It was the perfect surprise. I was able to get a substitute for school and play with them, my sisters, grandma and mom for four whole days! Shay and I have always had a special relationship and I treasure our friendship and especially treasure any time I get to spend with her! Tessa has the cutest personality and I love her laugh and love how she says bad guys.
Here's to life and what we live for... the weekends.

70

2010-02-14T21:21:00.020-07:00

70!!!! Do you know why that number is significant today?! 70 degrees was the outside temperature Caleb and I got to bask in today! Caleb and I went away for lover's weekend to Vegas. It was perfect. It was exactly the emotional and mental break I've been NEEDING for way too long now. My blog has been neglected for the past two months. Noticed? Yep I'm pretty sure that is because besides sleeping hours, I am home for only one hour Monday through Friday. Life is crazy. And I'm not trying to complain because I know I brought all of this on myself, and I really REALLY do love the EMT class I'm taking right now, and I know it will only make our future better being that finding a teaching job in the Jordan and Davis school districts for next year is impossible, but seriously a break was much needed. So we escaped. Escaped to vegas out of all places, and it was good. It was Caleb's first time going to Vegas. We got into Vegas Friday night when it was dark. As soon as went around the last bend just north of Vegas and could suddenly see the strip and all of the lights, Caleb's excitement was just like a little boys. It was fun. We stayed at the Rio. I totally recommend it. It was very clean and the room was extremely nice for the decent price Caleb found. The sheets were pure white, which is what I prefer in a hotel room and it smelled normal. We had a fun time visiting many restaurants, walking a long the strip in the sun, watching the Olympics and playing rounds of farkle. I love the random conversations Caleb and I have when we are in the car for six hours just the two of us. He is the perfect Valentine for me and I'm the luckiest to have him.
Caleb also turned 25 this week, which means it was three years ago on his b-day that we met. I went to his surprise birthday party at MIDNIGHT, I guess he was worth the late night, and officially met him. He then thought he needed to date all of the other girls in the ward before me. Two months later Caleb game me a shot at things. This is how it all went down for those who read this and don't know the story. Ok so I know that excludes all of you... but I'm going to write our love story anyways because I've never officially put it on here and it's fun... Pretending that the two had just gotten in a huge fight, Elliot threw Caleb's keys out of their third story window in their apartment so that Caleb would have to go and pick them up. (Caleb had just mentioned to Elliot that he thought I was cute, so Elliot being the wise man he is had a solution for this.) I had just gotten back from track practice and was sitting out on the grass in between our apt buildings eating a slurpee by myself. The keys just happened to land by me, and Caleb just happened to get my number, a long with all of my roommates who showed up in the middle of our conversation. I'll never forget the first thing he asked me... (As I was drinking my slurppe) Caleb said, sweet slurpee, where'd you get that. My reply... uhh 7-11. I think he was nervous. Anyways, we went on a date the next Friday and the rest is history. A year later I finally convinced Caleb that I was the girl he had been dreaming about his whole life and he agreed!

Perfect Weather! I don't remember what hotel this fountain is at. Some cute couple asked us to take their picture and then they offered to take ours. Glad they did because it ended up being one of the only pictures we have of us together from the trip.

Tastes Around the World. The Coca-Cola Factory has 16 different Coke flavors from around the world to taste. It was interesting.
Caleb loves the look of the NY-NY Hotel. And he's going to try and sell this picture he took with his mad photography skills.
And I love the Belagio...

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe... also a first for Caleb. There was a beautiful black dress Brittany had worn to some type of awards thing. I thought of you Shay!

Chillin. My favorite part of the trip. He was the perfect driver for the perfect passenger. Happy valentine's day to everyone! We love you all!
Don't remember the last time my mind was stress free. This felt nice. Bring it on 7th graders.
And per Caleb's request... He really wants the picture of his lion in here. He took three pictures of the lion on separate occasions. They must have a thing. Just for you babe.

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage...

2010-01-04T22:27:00.012-07:00

NO This IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

But oh how I wish somedays...

So we all know how this song ends, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. Things sound so simple right?! But whoever wrote this song forgot a bunch of stuff like first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes graduate from college, then comes get the man through college, then find a secure job, then find a job that has stable benefits, then save up a lot of money, then travel a little bit to far away places, find a cute place to bring a baby home to, THEN comes the baby in the baby carriage. So I'm baby hungry. Can you tell?! This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately, maybe this is because I spent the majority of my Christmas Break home a lone with a whole lot of nothing to do. This gave me a lot of time to think, and the one thing I kept thinking about was our future children. I even had two dreams about the little ones that will one day join our lives. These were the kind of dreams that you don't want to end, the ones where you wake up and become a little sad because you realize you were only dreaming, the ones where you want to go back to sleep! I wonder, when will we get to start having our little ones?! What will they look like? What will they sound like? Will they have dark hair, red hair, blond hair? Maybe I think about pregnancy because I have three sisters/sister-in-laws who are pregnant. Will my kids even have cousins their age?! Will my dad be around to seal them in the temple when they get married? I wonder sometimes. One thing I don't ever wonder about though is Caleb and his parenting skills. I already know he will be the best dad in the world, I just know. The way he treats the 14- soon to be 17, nieces and nephews we have is pure bliss. And I know that one day, one day we will have our own little family. It's easy for me to sometimes want time to pass and the future to quickly arrive. It's easy to always be wanting more or wanting to move on to the next step in life. But for now, I will keep living in the moment and loving the time the husb and I have just the two of us. Yes, I will keep dreaming about that one day, but enjoy these days too. Life is good ya'll. Today Caleb gave me a message from Emily, she reminded him that it's been five weeks since I've posted! Since that post, a lot has happened, I became one year older and wiser too, enjoyed a splendid christmas, and had a fabulous night kicking in the new year. I will talk about all of these soon. But for now, at least you all know what's been on my mind. Babies, but like I said, no announcement intended, at least not for a few years.
-Peaceout.

Seattle

2009-11-24T22:25:00.006-07:00

Did you know Seattle was the first city in the world to play a Beatles song on the radio? And did you know it is illegal to walk about in public in Seattle if you have a cold? And did you know Seattle built the first revolving restaurant in 1961? And one more thing, did you know Seattle sells more sunglasses per capita than any other major city in the nation?! (Kind of funny for a city that rarely sees the sun.) And what about this one, according to Elliot, if you were to fall asleep and suddenly wake up in Washington, you'd really think you're in Norway. I didn't know all of that either but what I do know is that Seattle is one energetic, fun, jazzy, beautiful city. Caleb and I were so lucky to get away for a few days with our bcff (best couple friends forever) to go see Caleb's good friend/mission buddy get married. We stayed in the Waterfront Marriott and the word "waterfront" couldn't describe the hotel any better, it was literally right on the ocean. I was also able to catch up with some cousins who I hadn't seen in years. We were long overdue for a vacation so it was so nice to relax, listen to music, tell stories, laugh, and explore a place we had never been before.

The first night there we ate at a seafood grill right on the ocean. From where we were sitting we could watch the ferry boats load and unload. It was the coolest thing to watch. People would be driving on the city streets one minute and then drive right on to these boats the next minute. I hadn't ever seen that before and I'm sure most people in Seattle would think I'm a freak but it was so cool! Maybe they would think snow plows were pretty cool if they came to Utah.
Our peeps. A bunch of Layton boys came up to Seattle for the Real game, so it was fun to see some of them in Seattle.
The handsome prince charming, Ben, and his lovely bride Katie. Katie Holm is now her married name and if you didn't catch it, she is married to a ben, pretty sweet I think. Their wedding was so beautiful and they are such a cute couple. Easy to see they are happily in love.
Ben and Caleb were nicknamed "the twin towers" on their mission... can you see why?
A wedding isn't a wedding without dancing. You know it.
Space Needle.
The cutest couple in the world, jtlyk. Photo courtesy E&E photography.

Our drive home consisted of this. Everyone who knows me knows that I despise nothing more than snowy, slippery, cold driving weather! Caleb drives way too fast in this type of weather for me to stay at ease, thus I did most of the driving. At one point my average speed was 15 mph. Caleb put our hazards on because I was going so slow. Once he suggested that we might get pulled over for going too slow, I tapped on the gas a little harder.
Despite the Idaho State Police having nothing better to do than to give the man and I EACH a speeding ticket - merry christmas to us- we had a great time! Emily and Elliot are famous for making us laugh. It's always a good time when we're with them and we're not looking forward to them moving away next year. :(
And because we have had several requests, I need to post these pictures. Sorry they're only a month late. On boo day this year, Caleb's dream came true, he became black. Caleb and I hosted our first real party, a murder mystery dinner date night. It was a great night with the friends we love most and look forward to the many more parties to come.

Princess for a day... again

2009-10-12T17:39:00.037-06:00

I'm back, jtlyk (just to let you know) and jtlyk my husband made that one up and it is totally spreading like wild fire so you should use it too, but back to the first jtlyk we don't have internet at our home right now. And the school district internet service filters out tons of stuff including pictures on blogger, so here I am sitting at UVU finally writing. So, do you all remember the story about my wedding photographer?! If not then let me remind you... he got paid bucco bucks and did a horrible job! Yes, we got some good pictures from our wedding day, but the whole story is just plain ridiculous to say the least. So here's the deal, from the very beginning. My man and I decided to have our reception at The Chantelly Mansion in Layton. The very first time I went there to meet with the coordinator, I fell in love with a wedding album that was displayed there. Head over heels type thing... cover to cover the book was filled with anything a girl could ever want in her wedding album. The pictures were perfect. The coordinator went on to tell me about how that album won "Utah Wedding Album of the Year" and continued to blabber on about how wonderful this photographer was. WAS IS THE KEY WORD IN MY LAST SENTENCE! So I meant with this photographer. I told him I loved candid photos. His reply was something like oh great we have a package that works perfect for you. (Total salseman looking back!) Grrrr. And in this package my assistant, who is a great photographer, will be the peson on your wedding day walking around capturing those "candid" moments you love. So along comes our wedding day and guess what, no assistant! I had to remind our photographer we paid for the princess package which covered the cost of a 2nd photographer. He then handed a camera to his wife! In addition, Caleb and I did the whole pre-shoot thing, totally reccomend it, and at this pre-shoot thing we were supposed to do my bridals. Somehow my photographer "forgot", and when I asked him when we were going to start shooting bridals he said he had another appointment he had to be to in 20 minutes! Lame! And I won't even get started about the pictures being pixilated in our wedding album. So, luckily Caleb has a best friend named Sam, a friend who knows how to take really really REALLY good photos, and a friend who was kind enough to let us take a whole Saturday away from his life to do a shoot! So here they are.

P.S. Every girl deserves to be a princess for a day again. There's just something magical about putting on that white dress and getting all dolled up.

Caleb told me to work the camera, I tried.

I prayed so hard, and it worked, the sunset was perfect.

Need a photographer?! Call Sam. He did soooo great. These pictures are jpg format, so not the clearest/greatest resolution. Sam gave us a c.d. with over 500, yep I said that right, 500 pictures on it. And the fastest way to get all 500 on a cd is by uploading them as jpegs, so once I narrow down my favorites Sam will do the whole touch up thing and the pictures will be better quality. Maybe just a reason to post them twice. :) Totally kidding. And Emily a deal is a deal. I updated now you get to blog! Welcome to the blogging world! Also, did everyone see Nie Nie on Oprah and ball like I did? She's amazing.

And one more thing, the first couple out of our gang had their baby! Max is his name. He is super super cuter. Caleb is already jealous of him because he came out one little toned (toned in the muscle areas that is) dark haired, cute, handsome boy.

We got to see him when he was only a day old. Congrats to Danny and Jessie and thanks for the picture (again).

Hold it, hold it, hold it........Danny Stinks

2009-09-07T16:37:00.008-06:00

I am sorry to any other viewers of my wife's blog. I will only bash my friend once and then be a gentleman and keep to my own blog. (http://lamegreen.blogspot.com/ trust me it is awesome)

Anyways, Danny McKinnley gets on his "Wife's" blog and makes an absurd comment about my grammar skills. I will say I am not the best, but "School House Rock Boy" when did you become King of grammar and listen to everything I say? (You might notice that is a run-on sentence, what's the song for that School House Rock?)

Secondly, the blog off was for the trip that we took like 2 months ago. You blogged and put pretty pictures and everything. I didn't blog about that. I blogged about more important issues at hand. Oh and sorry if there aren't any pictures or coloring books on there. I will keep that in mind for my next post for those who can't read that well.

Thirdly, I am going back to the first accusation again. When have you just sat there and listened to me. If you are talking about Text Messages this accusation needs to be deleted from the records. Who has good grammar in texts? I don't think any one does JTLYK! (Just To Let You Know, I made that one up. Tell your kids. Use it its, oh sorry School House Rock, it's awesome!)

Lastly, I want to leave a good part of this post because my sweet loving awesome beautiful princess school teacher wife will probably want to delete this if I dont have anything nice on it. (I so want to punch you right now Danny. Hooks AWAY!)

On Saturday Lauren and I woke up with the determination of buying a car. We have been wanting to get a Cross Over for a while and we just haven't been able to make it work. So after talking to one of my friends at work, I knew how we could get the car we wanted.

We went over to Ken Garff Nissan "Last of the Little Guys"... wait... wait for it... "We Bend Over Backwards". (Maybe I don't know). Anyways, we went there and started to test drive the Muranos that they had there. We fell in love almost instantly. None of them were black :( You know how Lauren is about having thiings that are black. Black car, black shoes, black toe nail polish, black husb... Moving on. We looked at a few and then crunched the numbers and walked away as owners of our Sweet New MURANO! It isth stho awesthome! Like OMG. (That's Oh My Gosh Danny and not a Typo!) But I am sure you all want to see a picture of it. Well in spite of Danny I will not post one for him... Only Jessie and Max can look. CLOSE YOUR EYES DANNY!

Ok Ok sorry to dissappoint. (You're so lucky Danny that my wife just got home and I can't seem to post a picture that fast!) Picture will come soon. You stink so much danny I can smell you from Centerville!

sMiLe

2009-09-04T15:31:00.005-06:00

Today is Friday and I am leaving my job with a smile on my face. Yes I love my job and I love what I get to do everyday. If I had to do any job in the world without pay, I would be a teacher, a Health one of course. My students have changed my life and already made me a better person. There is so much I want to tell everyone and soon I will. But for now just know that I leave my job a little better, a little happier, a little more humble, and yes I leave with a smile on my face. A smile which reminds me that the next day I get to wake up and do it all again. And that makes me, soooo lucky.

I'm Officially Mrs. Perkins for 8 hours of the Day!

2009-08-18T21:04:00.009-06:00

Yep Mrs. Perkins. I'm still not used to that, I even introduced myself a few times to my students as Lauren. Oops, I'm working on that one. So ready or not, school is here! Tonight was back to school night, and I survived! Wahoo. Tomorrow is the first day of school and I am actually really excited! All I want to do is make a difference. To me, health is life. I hope to teach my students how to make wiser, healthier decisions. I want to help them contemplate the "is it worth it" factor of life. Is it worth it to wear your seatbelt? Is it worth it to get in the car after you had a few drinks? Is it even worth it to drink? Is it worth it to get high? Is it worth it to hang out with that certain group of friends? My classroom, thanks to my bff, is really starting to come a long. I have a before picture, and almost an after picture. Oh and the cute little dancers who think I am some awesome dancer who gets to be their instructor, bless their hearts. They made me nervous because they all probably dance better than I do, but I am choosing to have the Tigger attitude on the situation and make the best. Heck, how lucky am I to have my dream job?! Enough said.

Caleb and I were fortunate to have one last little getaway with his family before the big year starts. We went up to the beautiful Bear Lake to meet his family. We stayed in a condo at ideal beach and had a grand time. Despite the cold weather, and the even colder water, yep it was like winter but in the summer, we did have an ideal time. Thanks to his whole fam for the awesome chit-chats, delicious food, raspberry shakes, fun games, funny jokes, and great memories. (Sarah did you know they make maple syrup?! Ha ha.)

And one more thing. Today in my faculty meeting, Mrs. Ungerman showed this video about Stephen Covey's philosophy of the 90/10 principle. This is exactly what my mom has taught me my whole life. I would recommend watching it. Attitude is powerful and at times it can make or break everything in life!

Cabin Getaway

2009-08-04T23:15:00.013-06:00

Caleb and I were able to put work aside and take a much needed vacation to spend a few days and create new memories with our greatest friends. Lucky for us, Emily's parents were kind enough to let us crash at their cabin for a few nights. Each night was spent playing games of ticket to ride, developing even more game hate towards each other, story telling, and of course laughing until our stomachs hurt and tears were coming out of our eyes.

Here's a picture of pretty much the coolest people in the world.
Danny McKinley and his cute pregno wife Jessie, Braden who will only be womanless for a few more weeks, Elliot and Emily Hales, us, and Dave Wangsgard and his cute girl Sarah.

Boys will be boys and find joy in...
Shooting paintballs at each other, hot pink ones I must say.

Jumping off the dock to test how cold the water in the lake is. I guess there's nothing exciting about simply putting your hand in the water to see how cold the water is... great photo opp taken by Jessie

Showing off for the ladies. See the tennis ball?! Awesome photo thanks to Jessie again.

Taking their wives out to dinner at Chili's. Funny side not. I asked our waitress to take this picture. After the picture she turned to me and asked, "Are you two together?" And I guess I looked at her with a confused look and said "What, am I with him?" as I point to Caleb. Obviously she meant Caleb considering he was the only person I was sitting by. But the question caught me so off guard because we're married, and I thought maybe the rings, the arm around the shoulder and us paying together on the same ticket pointed towards a theme. Maybe not? She probably thinks I don't want to even claim my own husband as mine. Hello, I love to show my man off any chance I get. Kind of funny though. We laughed.

So she took this picture of us, because "we're together." :) Like Caleb's shirt? It says smoking is toxic, I've taught him well.

Kissing snakes, but more importantly finding an opportunity to show
off their muscles.

Showing off some more. Yep, that's a kneeboard, hence the word knee, Dave didn't understand. He turned the thing into a feet board.

Caleb also found time to show off. He was trying to be all cool by standing in the canoe. His friends like to say he does that because it sinks or tips over when he sits down. I'm beginning to think they are all right.
Here's the before...
And this is always what the after picture looked like. Just kidding, Caleb was fine standing in the canoe, it was when people came by on the waverunner to create big waves, that the thing would tip over.

When walking downtown in Jackson, Caleb found the perfect snack for himself.

Other highlights of the trip included the float down the Snake. I stayed back with Jessie and Emily to have some much needed girl talk. I think there's a reason why most people sit in a fishing boat or float in a raft to go down that thing, they came back with blue lips, goose bumps, and shaky knees. This picture made me laugh, they were all trying SOOO hard to get the air out of the tubes. They kept finding new ways to sit on the tubes to push the air out, but their methods just weren't working too well.

As you can see, we didn't have fun at all. Totally kidding. This was one of those trips where you couldn't wait for it to come, and then it came, and went away way too fast. Driggs is a beautiful place. Palasades, the lake we went to, could be called Paradise. That was the lake my dad grew up by and is the lake where he spent is boyscout days learning how to ski. I told him he is in so much trouble for never taking his children there, and he better take us all there soon. Living in a one stoplight town would be so hard, and I could never do it, but having places like Victor, Idaho that you can visit to get away from life with some of the people you love most is so nice. Who ever knew that people in smalltowns serve icecream with square scoopers rather that circular shaped scoopers?! Now we know. Despite the bees, my ultimate fear, and mice, my other ultimate fear, the cabin was great. Yep that's right, mice. Caleb, Jes and I saw a mouse in the cabin. Danny heard a scream and thought it was a girl, but nope it was Caleb. Caleb grabbed the fire sword thing to stab the mouse, but Danny beat him to the punch. He hit the thing with a box, looked at it, and the mouse went into seizure mode, feet in the air, body shaking, and it died. Suddenly the mouse that grossed Jes and I out, made us feel sad that it died like that. It must be a girl thing and being able to kill a mouse simply by looking at it must be a guy thing. :) The boys cooked the entire vacation. And by using the word cook I'm talking, pancakes, waffles, hasbrowns, eggs, barbecued chicken, steak, potatoes and the list goes on. We ate better meals on the trip then we have all summer.
Palasades, a.k.a. Paradise
She loves him, he loves her.
Thanks for the memories babe!

Indeed they are heroes!

2009-07-28T21:47:00.007-06:00

As you can all see below, Caleb thinks I need to post more about our lives. I agree, but unfortunately we are camera cordless right now, don't know what happened to it, but I'm sure we'll find it soon. And just as a side note, I'm sure we will find it soon because we are moving soon, August 22nd to be exact! Wahoo! So here's my pictureless post for now.
Something got me thinking... Last week Caleb and I were driving down good ol' I-15 southbound near American Fork main street exit when suddenly a car coming towards us northbound flipped in the air, bounced off the barrier, and landed in the southboud fast lane. How did it happen? I don't know, but what I do know is those barriers don't always do their job, and unfortunately someone's life was probably ruined that night. Luckily we had just switched lanes and we weren't driving in the carpool lane anymore because we had to exit off the freeway to drop off Luke who was riding with us. Anyways, we've all been in situations like this. It was one of those moments in time that gives you the shakes, forces your blood to pump at 90 mph, makes your legs feel like jello, and your heart skips a beat or two. The first words out of my mouth were, "Caleb go and see if those people are alive." I feel extra sad Caleb and Luke had to see that and I know it brought back horrible memories. We said many prayers that night. Unfortunately Caleb and I have seen a few bad accidents these past summer months on the freeway. We now know it's never a good sign when you're driving on the freeway one way, and there is no traffic coming towards you the other way. That is a creepy kind of haunting feeling. We've seen lifeflight on the freeway 2 times in the last four weeks. So sad! So back to what I've been thinking. Last spring I finished my CPR class for school and now I have these cards that give me the the title of a certified first responder. I am trained to stop in situations like these and hold heads still until help arrives, give CPR if needed, reduce shock, and most importantly calm people down and try to make a very bad situation a little better. Uhh, I don't think I could ever do that. It takes a special person to do that! Someone who can step in and assure people that everything will be okay when their world comes crashing in on them. Anyone who knows me knows I don't deal well with bodily fluids especially snotty noses. I am also a very blunt person and I would probably say things that wouldn't calm people down, but rather make the situation worse. For these reasons, it's fair to say I'm kind of the black sheep of the fam. My blood must be different than my siblings and here's why. My sister and brothers have at some point devoted their entire lives to saving and helping other peoples lives. I'll start with Aubrey. Aubrey was an EMT for Farmington City Fire for several years. She went on several calls up Farmington Canyon, we all know what Farmington Canyon + Friday Nights + alcohol + ATV's equals. And then there's Mike. Mike who served as a police officer in Dodge City, Kanasas. Dodge city... the city that has a higher crime rate (per capita) than Miami, Florida. Mike who was the first to the scene to start CPR and comfort a family when a three year old little girl was backed over by a bronco in the snow-cone parking lot. And of course Andy, Andy whose whole life career has been spent and will be spent in an Emergency Room, helping people when their world is crashing down on them. And the best part about this story... they love helping others and they wouldn't want things any other way. They know how to take control and calm a situation down when all heck has broken lose. So here's to them. My heroes.
It's a pretty sweet honor to be called a hero. I googled the word 'hero' and here's what I found.

A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.

And I said this post would be pictureless, but I love this picture of Carlee and Tessa going to visit Andy at work in their costumes. Never knew skunks could be so cute. So here's to you Aubs, Andy and Mike, thanks for making really bad situations a little better. The world needs more people like you.

Our Life Isn't Lame!

2009-07-28T16:55:00.001-06:00

Yo girl........ We need another post. Its been since June 15th. Can you get on top of that :)

Thanks and I love you!

-Caleb the Great

Friends and Fondu

2009-06-14T22:54:00.011-06:00

Caleb and I love chillin' with our friends. It's not uncommon to come home from work and have a ticket to ride tournament, join in on the wednesday movie club, which by the way isn't always on wednesdays, make dinner together, or even sit and watch our favorite t.v. series. We are overly lucky and blessed to have the friends we have. Despite all of the game hate we have developed for each other, our nights usually end in laughter and a comment like..."when can you hang out again?" Friday night we decided to spice things up, or maybe it would be better put if I said "sweeten things up", and try out Elliot and Emily's fondu maker. There's nothing better than rice crispy treats, strawberries, pretzels, marshmallows, bananas, and of course CHOCOLATE! A fondu maker is now on my "needs" list.

We tried hard to make it look pretty. :)

Thanks Elliot, Emily, Danny and Jes for all of the great times!

Miss Kelly Clarkson

2009-06-14T22:06:00.011-06:00

The sisters and I had a fabulous time at the Kelly Clarkson concert on Thursday. Lucky us, the soggy rain even decided to take a hike and go around the event. We enjoyed nachos, dr. pepper, chirros, and of course our favorite muse of Miss Clarkson. Miss Clarkson has a true and amazing talent. We all love her music and had a great time dancing and singing our hearts out. It's been way too long since I've been to a concert like this and even longer since all of the five girls have been together to share a moment like this. Shay and D, the divas of the family, pushed their way through the crowds to get us right in front of the stage. Thanks to the boys of the family, and mom, for taking on the kids for an evening so the girls could shake our booties one more time.

Coolest thing ever. As soon as the rockstar began to sing, a double rainbow formed behind the stage.

Aubrey, D, and Shay prepared for the weather in style!

My favorite part of the concert was when she sang "My Life Would Suck Without You." Thanks for the party girls! Love you!

Hmmmm, where to start?!

2009-05-19T18:55:00.018-06:00

Okay so I started a post a whole week ago about the triathlon I competed in. I was planning to finish that post sometime soon after that, but oh wait, I have seriously not been at my house except to sleep until now. So here goes the story of my life, or more like the story of the past 10 days in which a lot has happened!
First, I competed with my sister Aubrey and my sis-in-law Sarah in the woman of steel triathlon. We had so much fun and the weather was perfect. Throughout my life my dad was always my #1 fan. Through my 8 year soccer career and 10 year running career, I can count on one hand the number of times he wasn't there telling me to run a little harder and coaching me to do a little better. This tri happened to be one of those times. Fortunately for me, Caleb took on that role and stepped up to the plate. He probably got just as good of a workout as I did because he ran from point to point finding that perfect place in which he could cheer me on and give me the encouragement I needed to push a little harder. Caleb had fun too, so much fun that he signed up to do a triathlon with me in August. Yaahooo! I love going to workout with him and we both push each other. We always end up racing each other on the track, then he wants to do pushups and I want to do situps, thus we both end up doing situps and pushups. My only wish is that he could've chased me on the track in high school, I swear my mile time is the fastest it's ever been. Probably not, but anytime I speed up to pass him, he speeds up too, and that's how the whole run goes on! I guess I just feel a higher level to impress when I'm running next to the man of my dreams.
The famous woman of steel tri athletes! Love them.

Yes it's Pink, and Yes I love it too... a lot! Except for when its chain comes off when I'm riding it up a hill. It's working on it, or maybe the rider is. :)

The dreaded hill.

Thanks for the fun tri day everyone. Shay you were missed so much. And D I'm so happy we get to do one together in August.

Second, Caleb and I took last Friday off and had a four day weekend. What do you do when you have no work for four days, no school, no church lessons to plan, no wedding receptions to attend, and no plans?! Head to Montana of course! My Grandpa Coil just celebratd 85 years of life so my dad's family held a big party for him. My dad has no family that lives in Utah so when we get to see them, it's a BIG deal. Caleb finally got to meet most of my dad's family. We spent the weekend playing Cubb, flying kites, climbing walls, telling jokes, and listened to storys about my ancestors who came across on the Mayflower, literally. And my favorite thing, I was in the car with the people who I love most for 17 hours. I love being able to spend time with my hubby and parents knowing that we're all stuck in the car with nothing else to do besides chat, and sleep of course. But really, I love hearing my dad's stories about bears and his childhood memories, and my mom's stories that she tells from when I was little. Caleb also shared mission stories which I always love. It was fun to get aways and have nothing to worry about besides relaxing and having a good time, and that we did.
My mom grabbed Caleb and I to get a few cute pics.

She flew a kite and laughed like I've never seen her laugh before. I will always remember this.

He climbed the rock wall that is just... on my uncle's living room wall!

We played this game called Cubb for a very very long time. We enjoyed it so much that Caleb and my dad went and bought the wood as soon as we got home and made 2 game sets with the help of the tools from Matthew's wood shop. I don't even know where/how to begin to explain the game other than you throw the sticks to knock down the blocks. Sounds fun huh? Well surprisingly it is.

Like father like son. Love them so much.

And all of this because two people fell in love. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We got home late Sunday and ended the holiday weekend with a much needed bike ride on Monday and a party for Paul's 3rd birthday. We barbecued at the Perk's, played some more cubb, ate frog-eyed salad, and sat in front of the fire to roast some marshmallows. Thanks for the fun day everyone. Happy birthday Paul!

And finally, the best news ever, we get to see Shay, Porter, Carlee, and Tessa very very soon! It's been way too long and Utah just isn't the same without them. Porter do you think Caleb has time to finish riding his bike to your house before you get here?! Love you guys.

And one last thought... I came across an amazing video last night. Many of you know I started to play the piano in first grade. I took lessons up until ninth. I still love it and am lucky to keep up with some music on a fancy keyboard. Well a few years ago, I was playing the Waterfall by Jon Schmidt. My dad didn't know the title of that song, but he recognized the tune whenever it was played. Well one Saturday afternoon he heard it playing in the chapel while he was doing his bishop duties. Anyways, long story short, he walked into the chapel to see who was playing the song that he had heard me play on the piano over and over again everyday and little did he know, that man playing the song happened to be Jon Schmidt himsel! My dad said something like that is my daughter's favorite thing to play on the piano and Jon replied... well good because I'm the one who wrote that song. Jon had just recently moved to Centerville with his fam and was trying out the grand piano at the church. Because of that, I was able to go meet Jon at the chapel. He played a few songs for just me and my parents. He then asked me if I would like to babysit for him, and of course I did. The first time I babysat at the Schmidt house I was very surprised to not find a grand piano in their home. The joke then became, wow, you are one of the greatest players in the world, and yet you don't even have a grand piano in your house. After seeing this video, I'm pretty sure Jon has access to several grand pianos. :) This song is called Love Story (as in Taylor Swift's Love Story) meets Viva La Vida by ColdPlay. One day, one day.

Waaaahhhoooooo!

2009-05-06T21:30:00.008-06:00

many things are bringing me excitement right now.
1. i am so lucky. one year ago he became mine forever!

on may 1st, we celebrated 365 days! we had a fun anniversary. we spent the weekend in park city, and no we didn't contract the swine flu. caleb bought me my first "teaching outfit" and a beautiful ring, and i bought him new b-ball shoes and some much needed clothes. we spent a few hours in a jacuzzi under the stars talking about the past, present and future. and little did i know, cindy, my mother-in-law, has had our wedding cake in her freezer for the past year. she got it out and caleb and i shared a bite. it was fun and brought back so many great memories from our special day.
2. i finished school! i didn't walk but am planning to do so a year from now. i know many of you are wondering why i didn't walk so here's the deal... all of my girlfriends who were in the program with me, who are now my close friends, aren't done until a year from now and i would love to celebrate with them next year. and two, the scholarship i was awarded after high school is good for four years, thus i can go to school one more year for free. if i would've walked and received my piece of paper which declares me a college grad, my scholarship would end. and the more schooling/credit hours i get beyond my bachelor's degree, the more money i am guaranteed as a teacher. every penny counts. so i signed up for some fun and EASY night classes for the fall, 1- piano (i'm so excited to start playing again especially since mom and dad bought me a nice keyboard for christmas), 2- aerobics (for those who haven't heard, i'm now teaching aerobics and health next year, and i've never taken an aerobics class before so it will help me teach the class. and as a side note, the principal at DMS originally wanted me to teach DANCE aerobics. ha, i bet most of you are laughing right now including me. we settled on the class, minus the dance part. maybe i'll let my students play dance dance revolution for class somedays.), 3- chemistry! i want to finish my chemistry endorsement just to have a guaranteed job for the future.
3. the woman of steel triathlon, which is just 11 days away.
4. the 4th of july, my favorite holiday.
5. many long bike rides and runs this summer with my man.
life is good. we are happy and sooooo in love.

Dixon Middle School Health Teacher = Me!

2009-04-08T22:01:00.022-06:00

Yes it's official, I've been hired! I'll start from the beginning.... being that this is my last semester of school, I started applying for jobs clear back in January. And because the plan all a long has been to move to SLC this summer, I applied with Jordan and Granite school districts hoping to find a job up North. Well, a few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised. The principal from Dixon Middle School called me and asked me if I would be interested in interviewing for a teaching position for next year. Now realize, I first sent out my application/resume in January looking for a job, and 3 months later I got the call. So of course I was interested in interviewing, I was ecstatic. The principal then told me the school was in Provo. Provo??? How did Provo School District get my name/application? To this day I do not know. But long story short, I interviewed and got the job! Yes, staying in Provo for another year was not a part of my plan, but I now know it is a part of someone else's plan, that someone else being the person who knows my plan from beginning to end, someone who has a hand in all things, and someone who gives me great comfort when my plan changes. But, wow... what a huge blessing this job is and will be. Why?
1- The week I got the call, one of the Utah State Legislators came and talked to one of my education classes. She told me flat out I would never find a job teaching only health. She said I had to have a "Plan B" because my "Plan A" would not work out. I was really bummed out... but guess what I get to do next year, teach health and health only! BLESSING!
2- Caleb and I will actually get benefits now! We haven't had any sort of medical benefits since we've been married. BLESSING!
3- It's no surprise that teachers don't make a lot of money but Provo District is actually one of the higher paying districts in the state. BLESSING!
4- In this struggling economy right now, many school districts have hiring freezes. In addition, a lot of first year teachers have been laid off and do not have a job for next year. I was starting to look for jobs at community health centers, but no need to worry anymore! BLESSING!
Okay so if you can't tell yet, I'm so EXCITED. I'm excited to get in the classroom and do what I do best. I'm excited to talk to seventh graders all day long about healthy lifestyles. Nutrition, eating disorders, self-esteem, relationships, teen dating violence, drugs and alcohol, fitness, and the list goes on and on.
Picture my life next year...

Spring Break... The Surprise

2009-03-31T21:38:00.007-06:00

THIS IS A VERY VERY LONG POST, BUT I WROTE THIS SO CALEB AND I HAVE RECORD OF ONE OF THE MOST FUN TRIPS EVER, SO I UNDERSTAND IF YOU DON'T READ THIS BUT THANK ANYONE WHO DOES...So remember how I was way excited about Spring Break but had nothing more to say about what we were going to do for Spring Break?! Well here's the story, from the very beginning. A while back Caleb and I were at Sarah's and Sarah asked us how Shay was doing. My response sadly enough was I don't know, I haven't talked to her in a while. So on the way home that night, Caleb started talking about how much he really missed Andy, Shay, Porter and Carlee. He then expressed the idea that instead of going on a cruise (we had been saving up to buy cruise tickets for our one year) he'd rather go visit my brother and his fam. I was so excited because I had really REALLY been missing Shay and Andy and would even get very emotional at times because I missed them sooo much. And I was especially excited because Tessa is going onto 9 months and we had never meant her. So long story short, Caleb bought plane tickets to Ohio. We thought it would be most fun to surprise Shay and just show up on her doorstep and ring the doorbell. (We wanted to surprise Andy too but being that Caleb is not 25, we had no way to rent a car, so Andy got to be our taxi to and from the airport.) I talked to Shay on the phone one time after we bought the tickets and she kept saying how she was homesick and was missing everyone, so I hurried and ended the conversation before I spilled the beans. Mom, Aubrey, Erin, and D also all knew of our trip and talked to Shay several times but, their lips were sealed and Shay never caught on to the hints that they sometimes couldn't hold back because of excitement. I DIDN'T KNOW THAT MY SISTERS, MY MOM, AND I COULD KEEP A SECRET LIKE THAT, BUT WE DID IT!!! So moving onto the trip... I arrived to Ohio first (Yes Caleb and I were on completely different airlines, like I said, Caleb booked the tickets and I'm still not exactly sure how that happened.) and the surprise went something like this. Andy picked me up and when we arrived home he told me to wait in the car for a minute while he went in to distract the kids so that when I rang the doorbell Shay would answer, not Porter and Carlee. So I rang the doorbell and Porter and Carlee answered and their faces were priceless... the first thing Porter said was "where'd you come from and where's Caleb?!" They were so excited Andy had to contain their excitement so they didn't ruin the surprise. Andy told me Shay was feeding Tessa up in Porter's room so I ran upstairs. By this point Shay knew a visitor was there but she thought it was one of Andy's friends or something. I walked into P-man's room and said hi. Shay looked up and casually said hi. Then she paused for a second and then the tears started flowing. I then got a much needed hug from her and finally got to kiss Tessa's cute soft cheeks. I then proceeded to tell her a story about something and when I finished she said, "What did you just say because I really wasn't listening because I can't believe you're here!" So the surprise was a success and the trip was an even more success! We had way too much fun. Andy is my hero. He was at the hospital every night until ONE IN THE MORNING but would still come home and want to play a game of Ticket to Ride, tell us crazy stories about the E.R., and then stay up some more to play Mario Kart with Caleb. Shay was a good sport to let us invade her house unexpectedly for a whole week and eat their food. It was good to finally just get to talk to her, stay up late and eat milkshakes with her, and laugh with her about the stupid things we always laugh about. Caleb and I couldn't get enough of Porter, Carlee, and Tessa! Caleb became a professional at putting them to bed as they always asked for him to tell them their bed time stories. Then Carlee would wake him up early the next morning to play with her. He was always so excited to wake up and start another day of fun games, laughter, and make-believe. The trip was great, the only thing that could've made the trip better would've been to have the whole fam together. Carlee said to me at least once a day something like, "Lala you forgot to bring Grandma-Great!" or "Why didn't you put Grandma Kaylee in your suitcase?" and "Can you put my Utah cousins on a plane?" And just for the record, I'm happy to say Carlee still has her cute little southern girl accent, and yes Caleb and I still thought it was priceless. It was so fun to get to see Tessa's personality. I don't remember her crying once and she would always laugh really hard anytime she saw Caleb. Porter is growning into a little man. He's smart, is still soooo nice and has his tender heart. Ohio was fun, and it was so good to finally get to see the people who we've been missing most.
Pictures...
Bridge in Kirtland

Nolan K. Whitney Story

The First School of the Prophets

Best Buds

The bright blue eyes, chubby cheeks, happy smile and laughter we already miss...

My lover for life. It was so fun to get to spend all day together.

Thanks Andy and Shay for the fun vaca! Miss you guys and hope you come here SOOON!

Lately

2009-03-14T10:37:00.016-06:00

Caleb and Eliot have been working on their sweet dance moves.

We have been riding our bikes. The weather has been so nice! And if it looks like I was riding really slow, that's because I was. This was at the end of our 15 mile journey and I was tired. Caleb was bored so he pulled out the camera.

Amelia was blessed. That was such a fun day. She is the most beautiful baby ever! Erin is such a good mom. Mike did a great job and it was also fun to see him conduct the meeting.
Oh and I cut my hair, you can see in this picture it's pretty short, but it's been a lot of fun. Caleb calls me his punk wife now.

Caleb is becoming quite the cook. On Valentine's he locked me up in our bedroom for two hours while he made this meal. I'm not a big steak fan, but I liked the steak a lot! And the potatoes were the best potatoes I've ever had. Sorry mom.

He also claims he won the Perkins pizza competition by making his chicken alfredo pizza. It was good, but I don't know if he won. :) Thanks Shay for creating the idea.

What else... February was a fun month. We went up to Aubrey's house one night. Caleb took Preston and Luke to the Nickle Cade, and I took Madi and Abbie to Fat Cats. My Grandma made a bet with me for who would get the final rose on The Bachelor. I voted for Melissa, and she voted for Molly. I guess we both won and lost. How does that work?! We went and saw the movie "Taken" with Danny and Jessie. I recommend it. And thanks to them and that night, we were introduced to Sub Zero. Caleb and I are now addicted. I'm not even a big ice cream fan, but sub zero, wow that's a different story. We also had a fun night with Caleb's friends and their wives at Comedy Sports. It was my first time ever going, I laughed a lot. I finished the last of my lesson plans for next year. I now have lesson plans written for an entire semester! Oh and holy cow, I have less than 20 days left of school ever! I definitely have senioritis right now. Yesterday I literally failed a test. I've never done this in my life. I just want to be done with school and I almost am! Next week is Spring Break. A much needed break. Caleb and I are so excited. But more about that next week. Caleb and I are happy. We're happy to be moving to Salt Lake. We're happy to be closer to our families. We're happy summer is knocking on the door step. Caleb and I have almost been married for a year and we're falling more and more in love everyday. Caleb did try to kill me once but his attempt failed. Okay so not really, but you need to watch this video of us up at my parents cabin. Totally Caleb. Click here.

my man is 24!

2009-02-09T21:04:00.009-07:00

caleb had a birthday yesterday. we spent the weekend up north and had a great time. saturday the birthday boy was spoiled by my mom. she made ribs and cheesy potatos. she also made the extra effort to go all the way to nielson's for frozen custard, our favorite. d made a yummy salad and aubrey brought a fab cake. we spent the evening chasing sam and emery, playing settlers, laughing at dumb things (sweedish fish and highway patrolman on bikes), talking about the future, and reflecting on the past. sunday was just as good. i made taco salad and took it up to the perks. it was fun to see how big alanna is getting. the boys were full of energy as usual. sarah spoiled caleb with a chocolate cake. caleb received some fun presents, but he said the best present he's ever gotten is me. so i was thinking... it was two years ago that i first met caleb. i was invited to his surprise party that took place at his apartment at midnight! it was fun, but every other girl in the ward showed up so i figured nothing would ever happen. well we all know the ending to that situation and the beginning to this fairytale. caleb is such a blessing in my life. i love having good night kisses, but especially love not having to say goodbye at night. i love falling asleep next to him, and hate it when he falls asleep first. (it takes me a long LONG L O N G time if he's not awake with me.) i love it when he grabs my hand. i love that he is working very hard so that our family can be blessed in the future. i love his laugh. i love his gentleness when he holds my new nieces and nephews. i love the way he chases little kids around. i love what he brings to life. life is bliss.
picutres of my birthday man

this is the bike jersey my madre bought him. oh, can you tell it's red? why you ask?! because caleb got accepted to the u! he starts the engineering program this fall. finally the end to provo/orem, the beginning to salt lake. i can't wait.

mike and erin always know how to create a good laugh. they found these for caleb. the card said "we decided to get you a lip, ear, and nose reduction for your birthday!" ha ha, good one. and just as a side note, the card in this picture is the card my dad gave to caleb. it says, "good news, we finally found some volunteers to jump out of your cake naked." then it shows an old lady standing in a birthday cake. that made us laugh too.

and this is a picture of his best present ever. us. the end.

February Already?!

2009-02-05T22:16:00.003-07:00

January has come and gone, and I don't know where time is going. It seems like there is not enough hours in a day. This semester is CRAZY for both Caleb and I. I somehow managed to take 19 credit hours again and Caleb's classes are hard to say the least. :) So maybe time going by fast isn't such a bad thing after all. I just hope it finds a way to slow down once the summer comes. Yesterday the temperature got up into the fifties. I almost wore shorts because it felt so warm.
January events:
1- Thanks to Kylee and Tim, Caleb and I became obsessed with the game "Settler's of Catan." That officially declares us as nerds. We love it so much that we play just the two of us, even though it technically is at least a 3 player game.
2- We rode our bikes outside for the first time.
3- I crashed on my bike for the first time and Caleb laughed really hard. He laughed so hard he couldn't even pick the bike up off of me.
4- We attended the most ELABORATE wedding we've ever been to and probably the most elaborate wedding we will ever go to. It was such a beautiful, fun day.
5- I made a new friend, Kristen. I hope to be friends with her for a long time, and plan to be.
6- Caleb applied for the University of Utah!!!
7- I started looking at housing up in Salt Lake! I am finally starting to see the end of the "Provo/Orem Chapter" in our lives.
8- I had a fun girls night out with mom, the sistas, and the nieces. We went to the musical "The Wizard of Oz." I missed Shay, Carlee, Erin, and Emery. D and I laughed so hard we were crying.
9- Caleb gave me money to buy a new shirt, I came home with two new pairs of red high heels. Figures.
10- I graduated from Sunbeams to CTR 7. I learned I do not know how to control six 7 year olds at one time. I pray I can control thirty 13 year olds at one time.
11- I started my last semester of my bachelor's degree!
12- I registered for the Woman of Steel Triathlon.
13- I was able to watch my dad perform a wedding. First time since I've been married. Neat experience!
14- Samantha turned two! Porter turned five! Madison turned nine! Mom turned... I don't know! Amelia was born!

Happy Birthday to the Best Mom in the World

2009-01-22T21:36:00.004-07:00

So today is Mom's birthday! I don't even know how old she is now, but that's okay because no matter how old she gets, she'll always be the same fun, loving, energetic, caring mother that I've always had.
Reasons why you are the best Mom in the world!
1. You would come check me out of school and tell my teachers I was sick or we had a "family emergency", and then take me shopping. Ha!
2. You have always been the person who I can turn to for ANYTHING! Not a day goes by that I don't talk to you on the phone at least 3 times.
3. You can look at me and know what I'm thinking! Remember my first kiss, you didn't even have to ask.
4. You always know how to make things fun. I have so many memories of you laughing so hard that you pretty much peed your pants!
5. You're not afraid to show your love towards dad, that has affected me in ways you'll never know.
6. You always made sure I had nothing but the best for dinner!
7. You always made sure I had a cute new outfit for special occasions.
8. You've supported me in everything, even my wild and crazy school dreams. You show me how to always focus on the positive!
9. You've shown me how to be a successful, fun, energetic, caring, loving,protective, happy mom.
10. You've always been there for me and forever will be! Without you, I would not be the person I am today. And I definitely wouldn't have received an "A" on all those papers you wrote for me.
Love ya more! Happy Birthday!

My Awesome Wife!

2009-01-07T19:27:00.003-07:00

I am not a huge blogger and I think this is the first time I have ever written on one. Nevertheless, I just wanted to write on here and let my wife know how much I love her and care for her! She is so wonderful. Any time I am having a hard day or I am sick she goes out of her way to take care of me and I appreciate it very much. I am also very proud of her because she is working hard.. very hard, to get the best grades and get going with her career. This last semester she got straight A's. Now Lauren works very hard to get these grades and she is very smart... sometimes we might question that when she calls hatchback cars, hunchback cars. Or pronounces Penelope.. Penny'Lopy. I still love her very much and am very glad she said yes. Our 8 months married have been awesome and the years to come will be even better.

LOVE YA BABE!

sis·ters

2008-12-18T21:34:00.009-07:00

The other day I had an experience which reminded me just how lucky I am to have the sisters I have. Because most of us are so invested in this thing we call "the blogging world," I'm sure most of us know who Stephanie Nielsen is. For those who don't know, Stephanie and her husband were in a plane crash back in the summer. The crash was so horrific the pilot died. Stephanie and her husband survived, but Stephanie burned over 80% of her body. So sad! Anyways, my mom received an email from a friend the other day that had an updated article about Stephanie's recovery. It was very sad but very touching. The article talked about how Stephanie was in a medically induced coma for over four months. She woke up wondering who Sara Palin was and why she was always on TV. The article also talked about how the only thing that was bringing Stephanie comfort at night was listening to her mom and sisters in the room talk. I'm sure most of us girls can relate to this feeling, sometimes our Mom and our sisters know the right things to do and say to bring us comfort. (Stephanie is recovering at the Huntsman burn center now, so her mom and sisters can be close to her.) Stephanie wasn't able to speak for a while, but once she was able to speak, she said to her sister, "I'll find a way to pay you back someday." And the sister said something like, "It's okay Steph, you just have to promise you'll move close to me once you get out of here so we can raise our families together." (Stephanie was thanking her sister and telling her she'd repay her because the sister is the one who has been taking care of the Nielsen's children during the recovery process.) Anyways to make a long story short, D came in the computer room at Mom's when I was reading this article. She asked what I was doing so I told her to read the article I was reading. We both sat in silence for a few minutes and then D read the part about the sisters and broke down crying, so I of course started crying too. It was at that moment that I realized D, and all of my other five sisters a long with Mom, share such a special bond. We would do anything in the world for each other. D tells me often she'd give me her hair if I ever needed it. This is kind of a joke, but it's so true! My sisters are my best friends and just like I said before, I am the luckiest. My sisters are people who always stand by side, and make me laugh when I feel like I need to cry. They are people who get "it" and understand life. Wow, how lucky am I, how lucky are we?! I love you all!
As a side note... my SEVEN finals are done! And even better, only one semester to go and I'm done with school! Only one more time will I ever have to face the dreaded finals week, unless I decide to do my Masters, but let's just not think about that right now. Mom likes to tell me I'm only graduating so I can go back to school. It's true, but as a teacher I will have the easy and fun part, so I think. We'll see. :) Also please everyone pray that the whole internship thing works out. An internship means I don't have to do student teaching, and I WILL get paid, and WILL get full benefits my first year teaching right out of college!

BeSt BiRtHdAy EvEr!!!

2008-12-11T23:04:00.008-07:00

Considering my birthday was over a whole week ago, I guess it's finally time I write about it. So it's official, I'm 21, now Caleb and I can really party, wink wink. But really, 21st Birthday equals best birthday ever. I woke up in the morning to find our living room glowing. I figured Caleb had left the t.v. on or something so I went out there to turn it off and this is what I found...

Definitely no t.v., just Caleb's black light! It's official, I have the most creative husband in the world. He wrote my card on a big piece of poster board with a highlighter. He laid out all of my presents on the couch and turned on the light. As you can see, the light made my card and all of my presents glow! It was so cool, and so fun. So what did I get for my birthday?! The PINK bike I've been wanting forever. My mom got me some new asic running shoes, yay, and also a super cute vest. Caleb and his parents also surprised me with bike shoes and clip in pedals. The shoes are of course, pink and black. And thanks to Ash I got a gift card to Forever 21, my favorite store. Wow! I am blessed.
Here's a picture of my PINK bike!

As my day went on, it only got better! I went to school, but did not have to work! Yes, I took the day off. Caleb did have to work so I decided to go up and eat lunch with Mom and Dad. Dad even took the day off, I'd like to say just for my birthday, but I think he went hunting that morning. :) But at least he didn't go back to work, in fact he worked on my bike and my shoes for a few hours that afternoon. Anyways we went to Cafe Rio, my favorite, and they gave me a very sweet journal which they each had written in. They said the journal is for Caleb and I to write in only for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and one day, babies! Best idea ever. It was fun to read their notes. Thanks mom and dad!
Next I came back to Provo and Caleb had another surprise for me... he ordered us tickets to The Forgotten Carols! I always talk about this, and even listen to the music all year round. Yes, I'm one of "them" and I'm proud of it. But I will admit I love the music so much more when it actually is Christmas time. And guess what?! It's that time of year. These songs are what make me feel the true spirit of Christmas. We had awesome seats. It was perfect, perfect, and even more perfect!
Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes. From the time I walked into my first class and by the time I left, I had 6 new text messages, and four new voicemails. The kid next to me finally said I think something's wrong, your phone won't stop buzzing! I felt the love from everyone... so thanks Dad, Mom, Aubrey, Chris, Andy, Shay, Mike, Erin, D, Jake, Jessie, Ash, Sarah, Paul, and Cindy. And a special thanks to Porter who sang the entire birthday song to me, Sammie who repeated Happy Birthday LaLa over and over, and Paul and Jacko for the sweet messages. They all made my day! And BIG thanks to my babe who made the day PERFECT!
And just for the record Andy and Mike, no need for the suggestion of knee pads, elbow pads, or a helmet, I have successfully clipped in and out of my pedals... yes withOUT the help of Caleb, and this has occurred on more than one occasion! So.... ha.

Eating Disorders

2008-11-13T22:37:00.004-07:00

I love being a Health Education Major! Health is something that we use all day, every single day of our lives. Did I use geometry, geology, astrology, biology, algebra, etc. today?! No. But hello, I decided how much sleep I was going to get, what I was going to eat, how much exercise I would do, whether or not I was going to wear my seat belt, how I would handle situations, what I would do about my stress, how would I treat others, and the list goes on and on. This semester I am taking a class that is for Secondary Health Ed. majors only. In this class we split up all of the standards for the Utah State Core Curriculum. I was assigned a standard that deals with Nutrition and more specifically eating disorders. The idea is for me to gather as much information and resources as I can, make copies for everyone, and then give those copies to the other students in my class. It's been fun gathering this info and I've learned so much. My only hope for when I am a teacher is that my students will walk out of my class a better person than when they walked in. I hope that I can influence them to make healthier choices so they can live LONGER AND HAPPIER lives! The video below came from one of my good friends. She suffered from an eating disorder for over 14 years. So sad. She is amazing and I definitely consider her to be one of my heroes. She is now teaching in California and I'm sure she's changing the lives of many young people over there. Here's her story and the AMAZING video she made. I can't wait to use this in my classroom. Statistics prove I will have at least three students each semester who suffer from an eating disorder (Statistics say three but I would say more). As a teacher, if I am even able to influence one of those students' lives and help them for the better, then that will be good enough for me and my teaching mission will be fulfilled.
And on a side note, thanks to everyone who comments on my blog! I love reading your comments and I appreciate them. I know I am not as good as commenting as all of you are, but I am working on it... Just know I do read your blogs and I think about you all. Yay for blogging which keeps us all in tune with each other. I love you all!

This other video comes from Dove. Dove has an organization which promotes woman's health and focuses on the adolescent population. They are trying to teach that what we see in the media is not REAL. How great is that?! If only it worked...

Game of Crazy 8's

2008-11-09T23:43:00.010-07:00

I made Caleb do this post with me, he is Blue, and I am Pink!

8 TV shows I LOVE to watch:

1. The Hills (I hate to love it!) Iron Chef of America, and that's not a joke.
2. The Bachelor (Good times with the sistas!) America's Next Top Model, ha ha. So true :)
3. The O.C., when it was a show. Best **** Sport's Show
4. And / Dirtiest Jobs
5. that's/ Sports
6. all Shark Week!
7. I Food Network Channel
8. watch! Caleb controls the t.v. while I do my "stuff" like blog! History Channel

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. CAFE RIO/ AppleBees
2. My Mom's Kitchen (No this is not a restaurant, it's free and it's dang good!) The Pie
3. Olive Garden/ "Yo Mama's house", which consists of IHOP, Cafe Rio, Up Chuck A Rama, and the world's best roast and mashed potatoes, oh and cream gravy, I love you Kaylee!
4. Polar King/ Doug and Emmy's
5. Cow Town (Oh the Kansas memories!)/ Buffalo Wild Wings
6. The Garden (We ate there on "The Night," a.k.a. the night my hubby proposed!)/ Lauren's Hooters, a.k.a. our apartment kitchen.
7. Cheesecake Factory (Good times in Texas!)/ Yes I agree, cheesecake factory.
8. Bucco De Beppo / CJ's. Oh my!

8 Things that happened Yesterday:

1. Went to primary program practice w/out Caleb. I, yes me alone, had to control our sunbeams for a whole two and a half hours! Craziness. Took Engineering Test.
2. I took a very long shower! I LOVE LOVE LOVE long showers but I never wake up early enough to take long showers. I even had time to shave my legs!/ Took a short shower. Thanks for the no hot water left.
3. Went to the last BYU home game! And ran into Uncle Clay! Dad you missed out. Same.
4. Watched 2 hours of Anat. and Physiology online. Went to library to work on boomerang.
5. Surprised Caleb... he was studying at the library for three hours and when he came home I had over a dozen candles lit, rose petals were everywhere, and our wedding song was playing and we danced! I shook my booty! Typical Caleb.
6. Dinner at Taco Bell. By the time we even thought about din din, it was 9! And we had no food in our apartment! I know, great end to a romantic evening, NOT! But the quesadilla was really good!
7. Went grocery shopping! No worries, we have food now. Went toy shopping for Christmas!
8. Found the b-day present I want! Bought over $250 of new clothes! What?! Are you serious? Yes...

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. Being a Mom! Being a dad!
2. Caleb becoming a dad! LaLa becoming a mom!
3. Having children! (Same thing I know, but I am REALLY looking forward to this.) Wait, are you pregnant? No way! Good and I'm going to bed!
4. My parents having even more grandchildren! (And now Caleb really is going to bed and refuses to play.)
5. Graduation!
6. Bahamas cruise for our one year!
7. Becoming a secondary school health educator!
8. Living in a house someday and having a dog and a big yard for our kids to play in!

8 things on my wish list:

1. Windsor Willow Hot Pink Road Bike, Black Saddle and Black Tape, 54 cm to be exact! Wink, wink.
2. Hugo Red.
3. Toy Poodle!
4. Andy and Shay moving back to Utah!
5. A new car!
6. Completion of a marathon!
7. Learn how to swim! lol
8. Tickets to Wicked!

8 People I'm Tagging:

1. Mom
2. D
3. Shay
4. Erin
5. Aubrey, you can play on Mom's blog, or even better you can start your own!
6. Andy, answers are pretty interesting when you smoke weed!
7. Dad
8. Kylee and Tim, and everyone else who wants to play! Love you all!

Friday Night Date Night

2008-11-07T23:11:00.002-07:00

Today in class Caleb sent me a message saying he was going to take me on a date tonight and surprise me! Caleb knew this week was a long hard week for me. I was probably a little grouchy because I had 4 tests in 3 days. I was also very tired and in much need of a fun get away date night. And I was so excited because it had been a really long time since we went on a "Friday Night Date Night." In fact, I was so excited that I went on a shopping spree and bought a whole new outfit. (I was planning on just buying a new shirt, but I found pants for only $12 at Forever 21, the best store ever, so then I had to buy new boots to go with the new pants, and they were on sale too! And I haven't been shopping in a very long time, so my shopping is very much justified. Right mom?! You taught me well.) Caleb got home from work and off we went. He started driving towards Salt Lake and I had no idea where we were going. He then went on I-215 and we went to Midvale- I think- and ended up at The Pie! Caleb always talks about The Pie and how Paul would always bring home the yummiest pizza and breadsticks. I had never been to The Pie until tonight so this was a fun surprise. The food was good, the atmosphere was fun, and it was even more fun to be on a date just me and my babe!

Six Months!

2008-11-01T15:15:00.000-06:00

So here's the story. Everyone has such fun stories and cute pictures from Halloween on their blogs. I wish I had some cute pictures of Caleb and I that I could post, but we don't! That's becasue taking cute Halloween pictures requires actually doing something for Halloween. The fact of the matter is, we did a whole lot of nothing for Halloween this year. We joined Porter's club! (Get better P-man, we love you!) This past week was so crazy, Caleb and I didn't even feel like doing anything last night. No cosutmes, no pumpkins, no candy, nothing. Just dinner and a good ol' scary movie back at our apartment.

But today, today was such a fun day! Happy six months to Caleb and me! Caleb and I decided to go see a movie. Well, there aren't a lot of movies out right now that we want to see. So I talked Caleb into seeing "Mama Mia" with me. Ha, he probably won't EVER go to another movie I suggest. But it's something to laugh about. Oh and by the way, he wasn't the only male in the theater. Afterwards Caleb asked me what I wanted to do. I said go to the beach, I wanted to go back to the beach just like our honeymoon. So Caleb being the creative person he is, took me out to the boondocks of Utah Lake. We sat on a dock on the shore of Utah Lake and had a fun night eating our pizza and talking about Life. Oh boy, where is the time going? The last six months have gone by so fast, I guess times does really fly when you're having fun. I found some cute pictures of us from when we were dating, it's so fun to look back at all of the memories we've made and I look forward to the many more to come.

Reminiscing Through Photos

2008-10-16T21:54:00.005-06:00

Two posts in one day! I was going through all of the pictures on Mom's computer and came across the pictures she took of me in my dress. So before Caleb and I got married, I wanted Brooke to practice doing my hair. I came home one Saturday and Brooke did my hair. I was so excited that I put on my dress. Mom was then even more excited so she got out her camera. Then Shay was the most excited so she suggested we all go down to temple square and take pictures. And that we did! There are a few things I remember about that day... One, it was SOOO cold outside thus we did all the pictures inside the JSMB, which I just don't dig the green and blue carpets with the gold trim. Not my style, but still fun pictures. Two, it was the general young women conference that day thus there were thousand's of girls on Temple Square and I got so many compliments on my dress. Three, I was able to wear my dress just one extra day which makes a total of 3 times! (Once on this day, once on our pre-shoot/bridals day, and of course on our wedding day.) 4, I was on cloud nine and still am. P.S. All of the pictures that are on my blog from my wedding are pictures my mom took. Yes she is AMAZING with photos and definitely knows how to work a camera. But I am so excited to finally receive my professional album and pictures. I know, it's been five months, Caleb and I are good at procrastinating, and we also told the camera man to take extra time and don't rush because we want our pictures to be Perfect! And he is definitely taking his sweet little time. So, more wedding pictures will hopefully follow.

Fall Break

2008-10-16T19:43:00.009-06:00

This week is Fall break and Caleb and I did not have school today and do not have school tomorrow! We came home to my parents house last night to spend some time with them. Last night just happened to be the Viewmont/Layton football game at Viewmont. Dad always goes so he invited us to go along. Caleb was of course cheering on his own Layton High and I was cheering for Viewmont, and Viewmont won 9 to 0! No surprise. We also sat by Coach Thompson because he and Dad get a long really well. It's crazy when those two are together they will talk about nothing but fishing for a whole two hours. But Coach Thompson did say he would help me get a job next year. I love it! So far Mr. Tennis, my H.S. principal, also Caleb's bishop growing up, Dr. Homer, the Davis principal, and now Coach Thompson will all help me get a job. Hopefully this will work out and I can teach at either Viewmont or Davis! It's so ironic that I am so excited to be done with college only to go back to High School. Crazy. But I am definitely excited to have a job with a steady salary, even though it won't be a lot, and good benefits.
So the plan for today was to hang out this morning and then head back to Provo for work. However, my mom being the way she is told us we both looked a little "sick" this morning and needed a break from work. Ha! And just a little side note, my mom was also the kind of mom who would come to school and check me out just to go shopping because SHE was bored. In fact, sometimes she would come to school and get me and I wouldn't leave with her because I was the type of girl who hated to miss school because I hated having to make up my work. My teachers were always a little confused when I would be called to the office to leave and then would return back to class and not leave! But my mom does know how to talk me into not going to work. And yes, her strategy worked for Caleb too! So we both stayed in C-ville and had a way fun day. It was so nice to finally spend a whole day with my mom and not have so much stuff going on. Lately things have been so busy I feel like when I come home I don't even see my mom. And she didn't have to teach early morning seminary today so she wasn't even tired! We went to IHOP for breakfast per Gradma's request. My mom and I then went shopping and I finally found some cute clothes that Caleb actually likes. It's soooo hard to find good looking clothes for a 6'6" guy. Caleb usually does not like any of the tall clothes I pick out for him, but today I scored. My mom then needed a new camera because her old one broke. So we went and got her a new camera and had fun taking pictures today. Here are a few. And yes, it was so nice to have a full day break from both school and work. Love ya mom!
Here are a few pictures with the new camera!

Sammie sure does love Max

And we sure do love Sammie!

And this picture is not from today, Mom took this at the cabin last week and I LOVE Emry's hat and thought this picture was so cute of her.

Caleb always tries to be tough in pictures while I just try to look cute. Oh well. I guess that's why we "balance" each other out.

Happy Fall Break to us! Life is great!

Long, overdue, much needed update!

2008-10-11T22:42:00.004-06:00

So good news, yes, Caleb and I are still alive! Life is so crazy right now, and school is so busy, there are days where I am so glad I just make it through the day alive. And I can't believe it has been an ENTIRE month since my last post! Wow. Things are going by so fast, but that is good. The sooner this semester is over, the better. I definitely think this has been my busiest semester ever, yes even more busy than the semester I was engaged and planning my wedding. (Maybe that's because I have the greatest mom and sisters in the world who know how to get things done.) But the best thing about this semester is knowing that at the end of everyday, I get to come home and be with my BEST FRIEND! Caleb is the BEST husband to me, and I am the luckiest! Time is going by so fast, and like I said, so much has happened. So just a few much needed updates...
First, D had her baby!!! And he is PERFECT. Cameron J is his name and he is beautiful. Last weekend Jake went hunting and D was home alone. Caleb and I thought it would be a good weekend to get away because it was the one weekend where we wouldn't have to find substitutes for our Sunbeam class due to conference. Thus we went and stayed the weekend at D's house! It was so much fun and I think the only time I wasn't holding Cameron was when he was eating or when he needed his diaper changed. The girls also all went out during the Priesthood session for the famous, annual girls night out. We did something different this time, and instead of going to Deseret Book, we went to Tai Pan Trading! Great idea D, and thanks to mom for the fun Christmas decorations. There were just three things missing, Shay, Miss CarCar, and Tessa. :(
Next Happy Birthday to... EVERYONE! Seriously, so many birthdays have happened lately it's crazy, but fun. First, Happy Birthday to Danielle back on September 26th. I've been so involved with her new baby, I kind of forgot about her birthday. But I do love her so much and am grateful for our friendship! I was always her little shadow growing up and she still is the person I can turn to for anything. D brings fun and enthusiasm to this thing we call life. She is a great sister to me. I love how her and I can just look at each other, and not have to say a word, but know what each other is thinking. I guess you could say we're pretty much professionals at having "silent conversations." Happy 24 D!
Next, happy birthday to Carlee! I call Carlee my little "firecracker" niece. She really is such a bright, fun, exciting bundle of joy. She is so smart, it's hard to believe she just turned three. Everyone misses Carlee so much and I will never forget the year Carlee was known as Kaylee's piece of "velcro" in the Deuel Creek ward. Nor will I ever forget her cute southern girl accent. And just as a side note, Carlee has never lived in the South but you would think so by the way she talks. I love it! Happy 3 Carlee!
And happy birthday to Andy Bush! Andy turned 30 and I think he actually graduated from diapers this year. Ha :) Just kidding, more like med school. Wow, Andy is Mr. AMAZING. He is a great husband, dad, uncle, friend, brother, doctor, and the list goes on forever. Andy and I were always very close growing up, despite our nine year age difference. He was my pal. I have many good memories of 7-11 slurpee runs, late night nachos, skyline drives, wrestling meets, Hobbitville and more. When Andy left on his mission I had a really hard time with it. He gave me a pair of his wool hunting socks and I slept with them everynight for the whole two years. I get homesick for him now and feel like sometimes a pair of his hunting socks would be nice! Happy 30 ABC!
Happy birthday to Abigail! Wow Abbie is getting so big! She started kindergarten this year and rumor has it, she is the smartest one in her class! No surprise. Abbie has such a sweet spirit. Anytime Abbie runs through the door she goes up to everyone in the room and gives them a huge hug and kiss. She is such a light in everyone's life around her, especially mine! Happy 6 Abbie!
And last, but not least, Happy Birthday to Luke! Lukers is so funny! He has such a fun personality. I love to hear Luke talk, and I especially love to see his ear to ear grin that is ALWAYS on his face, even when he is crying! Luke is so cute, and I've never known anyone to be as picture perfect as he is. Happy 4 Luke!
And finally, HELLO to all of the Coil cousin bloggers. I am excited we found all of you and it will be so good to see what's going on in the life of the Coils.

Christian the Lion

2008-09-12T18:06:00.004-06:00

D my sister shared this video with me, and I absolutely love it In fact the first time I saw this video, it kind of made me a little emotional. I'm weird I know, but at least I admit it. I asked Caleb if we could have a lion and he said he'll talk to our landlords. :) If you're going to watch this video, make sure you first turn off my music at the bottom of my blog, that way you can get the full effect with the song that's in the video.

Wedding Day Caught on Tape

2008-09-11T18:54:00.008-06:00

My mom was reminiscing through some old videos today and found this one and posted it on my blog. That was such a fun day! Good memories! Oh and by the way, this was Andy recording. I totally had no idea he was taping me, and I was clearly bugged with the questions he was asking me at first, but now it's fun to look back on the morning of the BIGGEST GREATEST day of my life.

And yet again, Andy is the last one laughing!

2008-09-10T21:00:00.008-06:00

So this funny thing happened... and before I get into too much detail about this story, please understand I love all of the special people in the world. I would never be one to sincerely make fun of them. They all have such sweet spirits and are great people and always make great friends, for example, Ian Harr, I love that kid! Anyways, with that being said, take this story how you want, but please with NO OFFENSE! So I received a text message from my brother-in-law Jake that said, "In 2009 the US Government will start shipping retards away. I started crying when I thought of you. Be strong, wear your helmet, and run fast lil buddy!" I got this and laughed and instantly replied with something like "I'm glad you were thinking of your friends who sat on the short bus with you when you got this message, but too bad I was just the bus driver, but thanks anyways for the memo." This text soon became the joke of the family and I wanted to send this message to the ultimate jokester of the fam, the one, the only, Andy Bush. So that I did. Later that night Andy called me and left me a voicemail. He left me a super long message that said, "Hey that message you sent me could not have come at a more worse time. I just got done helping my last patient for the night. This patient was a seventeen year old boy who has the body of about an eight year old, and the mind of a ten year old. The sad thing about this kid is he understands he is handicapped, but knows there's nothing he can do to be "normal." He was sitting at his high school orientation with all the other kids who attend his school when he had a grand-mal seizure. (I don't know what a grand-mal seizure is, but that's what Andy called it.)He was rushed to the hospital, I was able to get his body back under control, and when I walked out of his room, the first thing I did was look at my phone because it had buzzed earlier, and read your message. Sorry Lars, but I just don't think your message is very funny... Click, and that's the end of the voicemail."
Oh my heck, did I feel horrible?! First of all, that story made me SOO sad, and second of all, this whole thing was just a joke. Anyone who knows Andy, knows EVERYTHING is a joke to him!! He's always trying to be funny. I tried calling him back and he didn't answer. I left several texts that night and I got no response. Caleb and I were so surprised. We were totally thinking, wow, Andy really has changed. What did medical school do to him?! Even with the given scenario, we thought he would still laugh! Anyways, the next day comes and still no response from Andy! Another day goes by and Andy finally calls and leaves me another message... he said his whole story was a JOKE! Yes, Andy made that whole story up. Are you kidding me?! I had been feeling like the most horrible person ever for the last 48 hours! Turns out Andy's last patient was some crazy guy, but he wasn't special, he was just drunk. And yet again, Andy is the last one laughing... He thinks he's so funny, but I sure don't! ;)
Here's the latest picture of Andy! Oh how precious... P.S. That is a smoking pipe in his mouth, but I'm sure you already knew that due to my lovely artist skills.

[kol-ij]- an institution of higher learning

2008-09-02T18:39:00.004-06:00

Yes, summer is over and it's that time of year again, back to school! This semester will be pretty tough for both Caleb and me. I am taking 20 credit hours, yes I will be in class 20 hours of every week for the next four months. I am doing this so I can graduate sooner and be DONE! Don't get me wrong, I like school, well kind of... I love my Health classes and love learning ways to make my life better. I just don't really like all of the homework that accommodates these classes. I guess it's kind of funny I want to be a teacher, and go back to school, even after I have that signed piece of paper which declares me a college graduate, a certified Secondary Health Educator. But ultimately I like to say I'm going to college so I can be a smart mom. I would love for my kids to be able to say, "I have the smartest mom on the block!" Plus, these health classes benefit my life so much, it amazes me. I don't recall using any of the skills I learned from my Algebra, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, or a lot of the other classes which for some reason, somewhere, someone thought were essential in life, and are now required for yet again, that signed piece of paper. But health, that is something I use everyday! As for Caleb, he's starting all of the classes for Engineering... so his schedule consists of math, chemistry, and so on. We so hope we can just SURVIVE the semester. I'm sure in a few years from now, we'll look back and just laugh at the CRAZINESS our lives will be full of this semester. Wish us luck!

4 Months With My Best Friend!

2008-09-01T18:14:00.001-06:00

Happy 4 months to Caleb and Me! Yes, it was four months ago today that we were sealed together forever! I can't say it enough, I am the luckiest girl alive! Caleb is my best friend and I love spending every single day of my life with him. My favorite part about being married is not having to say goodnight. When Caleb and I were dating we were together all the time, and it was so hard to have to say goodbye at night and have a goodnight kiss on the door step. I still love kissing Caleb goodnight, but even more so, I love not having to say goodbye at night. I love waking up in the morning to see him laying beside me. As for Caleb's favorite part about being married... I better not go there! :) Caleb and I have grown so much over the last four months and our love gets stronger everyday. I am excited to see what the next months and years have in store for us. I am excited to start a family with Caleb. I am excited to live with Caleb forever, and I am excited eternity has no end. I know there will be hard times, but it's the hard times that will make us even stronger. I love this saying, it best describes our relationship...
Girl says : Do I ever cross your mind?
Guy says: No.
Girl: Do you like me?
Guy: No.
Girl: Do you want me?
Guy: No.
Girl: Would you cry if I left?
Guy: No.
Girl: Would you live for me?
Guy: No.
Girl: Would you do anything for me?
Guy: No way.
Girl: What would you choose, your life or me?
Guy: My life.
The girl runs away and the guy stops her and says, "The reason why you never cross my mind is because you're always on my mind. The reason why I don't like you is because I love you. The reason why I don't want you is because I need you. The reason why I won't cry if you leave is because I would die for you. The reason why I'm not willing to do anything for you is because I'd do everything for you. The reason why I choose my life is because you are my life."
Happy 4 months to us, Love you Babe!

God Be With You Til We Meet Again Dallin

2008-08-24T22:15:00.007-06:00

It has been a crazy, bitter-sweet weekend. Our weekend started out with another softball game for Caleb and I. Our team played really well, but thanks to our seventy year old ump, who doesn't know the difference between a ball and a strike, and can't even see well enough to see the difference between an out and a safe, we lost by one run. Still tons of fun though. Yesterday was Danny Mckinley's and Jessie George's big day. Danny is one of Caleb's best guy friends. Danny and Jessie were married in the Manti temple, and Caleb and I had the opportunity to attend their sealing. It was perfect and the Manti temple is GORGEOUS! Danny and Jessie looked so good and we are so happy for them! Yay for being married!
Here is a picture of the cute couple.

Caleb and I had the opportunity to speak in church today, and we were also in charge of Sharing Time with the Sunbeems. Last night, when Caleb was finishing the final touches on his talk, he received a text message from a mission buddy saying that another good mission companion was killed in a plane crash. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on Friday, 22 August, a King Air 100, with ten aboard crashed shortly after take-off in Moab, Utah. The plane was in route to Cedar City, Utah. All on board died in the crash. The victims included nine associates of Southwest Skin & Cancer and the pilot. They had traveled to Moab early that day to provide cancer screening, cancer treatment, and other medical services to citizens in Moab. Southwest Skin & Cancer provided similar services to nine communities in Utah, Arizona and Nevada. On board was Dallin Elsworth, Caleb's good mission buddy. Dallin was a pre-med student who worked with this doctors office which was headed by his father. Both Dallin and his father were on board. Dallin leaves behind a wife who is currently a little more than eight months pregnant with their first child, a baby boy. So sad! Caleb and I were very fortunate to hang out with Dallin and Kamber a little bit before they headed down to SUU about a year ago. We hiked to the Y with them and laughed so hard telling crazy stories the whole way. Out hearts go out to Kamber and the Ellsworth family as well as all the other families who have been affected by this tragic event. Caleb has many fond memories of serving with Elder Ellsworth in the M.T.C. as well as Argentina. Caleb says he is a better person for having known Dallin.

Caleb talked about this tragic event in church today. He also talked about his brother Paul, who died in a car accident 2 years ago when a car crossed the median on I-15, striking Paul head on. Paul had only been married just over a year at the time of his accident. Caleb has had more trials than I would ever be able to handle. But he is the strongest person I know. His talk and testimony touched so many lives today and especially mine. He really does see the bigger picture of things and has a solid testimony of the plan of salvation and eternal families. He knows God has a plan for Dallin on the other side and obviously needs him greatly to help the progression of the gospel with those who have passed before us. We are grateful for the knowledge of the gospel and the comfort it brings to our lives during difficult times. If you're reading this, please remember to keep the Ellsworth's in your prayers. God be with you til we meet again Dallin, and may God by with your family during this difficult time.