Thanksgiving etc.

Disclaimer: I wrote this right after thanksgiving but couldn't find the camera to upload the pictures for a while and then I just didn't get around to it so here you go, not even current but here is an update sorta!

The policy of Joe's school is pretty much that they push the kids really hard and then they take a break so for Thanksgiving he had the whole week off which was awesome! We decided to go down to Salt Lake and spend the week with my family and it was lots of fun! I love my family and spending time with them, it's so much fun =) We went down on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and stayed for a week. Sunday we went to church with my parents and then had Sunday dinner with them and my Grandma Cole and my cousin Matthew and his wife Angie. I was so excited to show Grandma my latest crochet project.

Side story here:

When we were in Utah at the end of August and Joe got hired over the phone (yeah!) my mom and Grandma had just sorted through Grandma's basement and had found a box of yarn and a partially completed blanket that my Great Grandma Cole had been working on when she passed away (before I was even born).

This white part is what she had done- her work is so intricate and beautiful!

In the box was also this pink yarn that is the same weight as the white that she had already done and she had already dug out the end of the yarn and stuck the right size crochet hook to match the white in it. Pretty much mom and I decided that it was just waiting for me to finish the blanket for my little girl =)

I decided that first of all there was no way that I would be able to match her gorgeous work and I wanted to really keep her work as the star of the blanket so I decided to keep it really simple and use the pink to finish the two edges. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out although I can't take the credit for it really. But it is a really cool blanket of stories- my great grandma started it, my grandma taught me to crochet and I got to finish it =)

Return to normal blog post here:

So I brought the blanket down to Utah and showed it to my Grandma Cole while we were there. On Monday Joe and I went over to Grandma's house and got to go through her collection of baby blankets- She has something like 25 (I didn't count so I am sure that I am wrong, it was a wild estimate) and she has crocheted the edging on a baby blanket for the first child of each. It was so much fun getting to look at all of them, there is such variety and they are all sooooo cute! But what was the most fun for me was getting to look at the intricate crochet work on each of them. I went through and chose out about 10 to pair down from there and I think each of those had a different crochet pattern on them! Seriously people it is really impressive. I had so much fun getting to just look at them all and talk to Grandma =)

Ultimately this is the one I chose:

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Grandma!!!! We love you!!!!!!!

I honestly can't remember exactly what we did the rest of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday- I know that Mommy and I were running around doing stuff the whole time but I couldn't tell you exactly what (unless I really sat here and thought pretty hard but I think u will survive without knowing). Wednesday Mommy and I got to make our pumpkin pies together! Yeah!!! So fun! Making pumpkin pies together is a tradition that my mommy and I have and pretty much we don't let any one help us, it is our special thing and it is lots of fun!

Thursday of course was Turkey Day! We spent the morning cooking etc. and had the meal at Mommy and Papa's new house this year. It was a pretty small group of us this year- just 12 I think but it was fun.... and that meant there was more leftover pie for us!!!!!!!

Friday Mommy and I did some Black Friday shopping, nothing too extreme ( we didn't leave til 10 am) but hey if you can get a good deal why not? We figured that all of the crazies were pretty much done by that point. We also did some baby shopping that may not have necessarily been on sale but I needed and it was more fun to buy with my mom so I did =) I guess it should be noted that Papa and Joe spent Thursday morning and Friday working around their yard and at Grandma's house- good work boys =) Friday night we started decorating Mom's house for Christmas- so much fun for me- i love going through their Christmas stuff =)

Saturday morning Joe and I got on the road and took a detour through Logan to go see my brother Adam and his family. It was fun to get to sit and talk with them for a while and Adam made us scrumptious sandwiches for lunch- yum! Then on to Boise we went.

We decided that since I will be 8 months pregnant for Christmas we probably didn't really want to drive for 5 hours to visit family- not that I couldn't but it would be extremely uncomfortable so we are spending Christmas as our own little family in Boise this year. In the past we have always traveled to spend Christmas with my family and we were in little apartments so we had a two foot tree. We weren't really planning on getting a bigger tree but we got out our little tree and the thought of spending Christmas around it got pretty depressing so I started searching Craigslist. We found a big (it turned out to be bigger than they had said) pre-lit gorgeous tree (not just crepe paper) in our price range! Yeah!!!!! So we rearranged our living room to fit it in and expose our fireplace for the Christmas season (it is wood burning so we haven't used it but it is cool to have for Christmas). Maybe in the future we will actually buy a tree topper or more ornaments but this year I dug out my collection of dollar tree ribbon and we put on what ornaments we have and the lights make it look pretty =) so it is fun. Maybe I will do a Christmas photo tour of our apartment sometime and show off all of the cool things we have but I better make our stockings first.

I know this is getting to be a long post but I just have to squeeze this in- the first weekend in December Joe and I found ourselves driving yet again but this time to Rexburg because Joe's best friend Jake Walz (the guy who set us up) FINALLY got married!!!!!! for real he did we were there and saw it happen!!!!!! So we went and were sooooo happy for him and Jen, they are so cute together and it was fun to see them so happy. And after the reception we were able to stop by and see most of White Christmas by the Playmill (put on in IF) It was great to get to see even more friends. It was a quick trip but was totally worth it!

And just for kicks and giggles here is a belly pic for those of you who care to look:

Hee hee this is Joe wearing an "empathy belly"

Concession

I am finally conceding. Here are a couple belly pictures. Any unkind comments that may come to mind just remember that if you share them with me you will have the wrath of a pregnant woman upon you. =)

This one we took when we moved to Boise I was either 19 or 20 weeks I honestly can't remember.

Two months later I am significantly larger. She moves a lot and enjoys kicking her daddy. I haven't reached the too uncomfortable stage although sleeping is getting much harder. I had another Dr. appointment last week and everything is going great and now I am down to two week visits which is crazy to me!

Here I am at 28 weeks.

ok, ok, I know I am really bad at updating the blog. Here's the thing- I do pretty much the same boring things every day and so I feel like I don't have much of anything to say most of the time. Things are going good for us and we are pretty well adjusted to living in Boise now. Joe is still enjoying his job even though it is a lot of work. The end of quarter is in like a week so it is crunch time for the kids to play catch up and then sometime the following week is parent teacher conferences. He pretty much works an 11 hr day on average. It's always fun when he can come home early though.

I pretty much stay home and find things to occupy myself. I go on a walk a few times a week (which may not seem like much of a feat but combine being pregnant and having bad knees- my options for exercise are limited). And I clean around the house, cook, and then I always have projects going- it's in my nature I don't handle doing nothing very well. Thankfully I am crafty. I was originally planning on maybe substituting some but I have had some really negative experiences with being a last minute sub in the past and I just don't know that I could handle something like that in combination with being pregnant- needless to say the fear has gotten the better of me. Also by the time that I felt settled enough here to do it the schools in the area already had an established sub list. I should have just gotten on it right away but I didn't so that is life.

Like I said we're pretty boring people and that is why this blog hasn't been updated in a while.

What a Week!!!

Ok, so it took me like two weeks to get this written and posted but here it is!!!!

Sorry that it is kinda a novel!

Some of you may have already heard about our week or atleast parts of it, but we have had quite a week full of wonderfully crazy events. I will do my best to give you the low down- here we go!

(P.S. as you read this keep in mind that I was also 19 weeks pregnant )

Sunday Aug. 28, 2011

We taught our last primary class for the summer and then got on the road to Salt Lake to come spend a couple of days with family, we had monday-wednesday off from Playmill and my sister Robyn and her family were also in town from Wisconsin visiting so we wanted to make sure that we got to see them. After sitting for three hours at church and then sitting for 5 hours in the car I quickly realized that sitting for extended periods of time while pregnant is not so fun. But i got to see my family which was great =)

Monday Aug. 29, 2011

Joe was waiting to hear back from a high school in Idaho Falls about a phone interview he had the previous week and he felt strongly that he needed to go in and introduce himself to the principal so that they had a face to put with the name so he got up way early and followed the prompting by driving up to Idaho Falls only to find out that that was not the job for him so back down to Utah he came. We were bummed out of course but this was job number 5 that didn't work out and while we have been heart broken and frustrated and confused we have tried our best to just follow what we feel prompted to do and just trust that the Lord has a plan for us. While Joe was driving back I did sneak in some little shopping/ browsing with my mommy and sister which was fun. When Joe got back I had found another job opening that was just posted and so he sent in an e-mail application with all of his information. Then we enjoyed the rest of the day with my family.

Tuesday Aug. 30, 2011

My mom, sister and I got up and went and got manicures and pedicures (we all miss asia....) and while I was there Joe sent me a message saying that he had gotten a call asking him to do a phone interview about 45 min. later and of course he said yes! So he spent that time quickly reviewing all those terms educators like to hear and looking up some stuff on IB since this school focuses on that. When we got back he said that he felt like it went really well and they had said they would either call back later that day or the next. The rest of the day we spent adventuring with my family. My mom had found that they were doing free tours of the Governor's Mansion and that was the last day for the season so we went and saw it. It was really cool, if i remember correctly it was built in the late 1800's and it has a lot of fun quirky history. We weren't alowed to take pictures inside but here we are outside.

Then we went to Gardner Village, Robyn had never been and I think it is just a fun place to go and walk around even if you don't buy anything.

hmmm.... i'll have to try and figure out who had those pictures..... Robyn? Mommy?

Wednesday Aug. 31, 2011

Well, the school didn't call back on Tuesday but then this morning the vice principal called back, and what did she say? Oh you know just what I have known all along, that Joe had all of the qualities that they were looking for and that he should expect another call later today either with a few more questions or to extend a job offer.... the next two hours were very tense and in the mean time I am thinking " We have to get Robyn's family ready and out the door so that they don't miss their flight. If Joe gets this job we are going to drive straight to Boise to try and find a place to live because we have to be back in west tomorrow and then Joe would start on monday... etc. etc." Well at about 10 am they called back and finally someone got smart and offered him the job!!!!!!!!

*Insert happy dance here =)

By 11 am we were in the car and on the road to Boise to try and find a place to live since Joe had to start work on Monday morning at 9 am. We got to Boise a little after 4 and went to find the school to at least glance at it and then use that location as a starting point for finding a place to live not too far away. So funny story (well it was to us but maybe you had to be there... I'll let you decide). We were sitting at the intersection and the gps on my phone (because i am directionally challenged, and it has come in handy alot lately) tells us that the school is ahead and to the left. So we look up and to the left and see a school with a big old cross on top and the fence in front has a sign for North Star Charter School on it. It was a really long light. We started laughing and talking about how it had never occured to us that it might be a religous school but that it didn't really make a difference, I mean I went to Catholic school for a while. Then the light changed and we went through the intersection only to realize that there was another sign on the building that we just couldn't say that stated that that building was actually a Lutheran Pre-school. I guess that North Star just uses their fence for advertising! So then we drove ahead a little bit and found the school which seemed really nice from the outside. We managed to go see a couple apartments that evening before offices closed and then we went to dinner and got a hotel for the night.

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011

We got up bright and early and saw a couple of places then ended up applying at a place that we had actually seen the day before. We got on the road and then got a call from the complex saying that we had been approved and could move in on Sunday (thank goodness!). We drove like crazy (so sick of driving at this point) and managed to get to West Yellowstone by 5pm because we had two closing shows of Joseph to do that night! It was quite the whirlwind but we did it!

As if we haven't had enough things going on I also felt the baby for the first time tonight. I was sitting there during the show, it was the reprise of the song of the king (the Elvis one) and the music swelled and got really loud and then I felt the baby. The best way that I can think to describe it is that when swimmers get to the end of the pool and they do the somersault thing to turn around. It felt like that was happening inside of me only on a tiny scale of course.

Friday, Sept. 2, 2011

We got up really early (not something I do well or often if you know me...) because we had to be in Rexburg by 9am for my last doctors appointment before moving (thankfully we knew that we would be moving one way or another at the end of the season so we had scheduled on last appointment right before we would have to move to give me a little time to find a new doctor wherever we ended up). This was a 19 week appointment instead of the typical 20 week but they still did the ultrasound and all that. It was fun. I love looking at my baby and hearing the heartbeat =) We got to find out the gender right away because the baby was being very cooperative for that but then refused to give a profile picture for the rest of the appointment. Anybody curious what we're having? Chances are that you have already heard one way or another since I am slow about getting this post up. But drum roll please......

We are having a little GIRL!!!!!!!!! She was not being very modest and the very first thing that came up on the screen the moment that they put the ultrasound on me was that she is most definitely a girl! She also gave us a high five and thumbs up it was cute =) They said that everything is looking great (and they really did check everything trying to get her to turn to get a pretty profile but she wouldn't let them, the best shot they got she had the umbilical cord right in front of her face). Right now she is measuring in the 32nd percentile (but all of the girls in our family are small so I wasn't surprised) and weighs about half a pound. =) Our little girl =) One funny thing I have to share is that when we were leaving the doctors office Joe made me promise to not go to crazy, hee hee hee. He knows that I like dressing little girls up.... but I will be good.

Then we picked up our moving truck and got on the road and then had to stop because the truck was so bad and then John (Joe's dad) switched us and vehicles and he took the truck back for us and got a better one while we went ahead and got on the road to West Yellowstone so that I could get packing (since we had done exactly none at this point). I had Joe's help for a bit then John got there with the truck and we recruited the Playmill boys to come help us move the furniture and stuff we had packed at the point into the truck. Joe told them they had to help or else we wouldn't tell them what we were having- it worked really well! After Joe went to work (thankfully it was my night off!) Trudy came over and helped me for a while and with the help of those people I had packed the entire apartment in 6 hours flat. That's right, I'm a stinkin amazing packer. That night was the Playmill dinner after the shows and so we shared our news about our little girl with everyone at that point. Everyone was excited for us but I will admit that about 2/3rds of them thought that it was going to be a boy.

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011

Joe got up really early (I had had such a week, keep in mind I'm pregnant and had this week, that my body finally said "I'm done" and I could hardly move) and went over to the apartment (we stayed at John and Trudy's since our place was packed up) and got all of the rest of the stuff packed into the truck and then cleaned up the apartment to move out standards. The nice thing was that we had cleaned so much when we moved in that we knew even if all we had done was wipe everything down it would be better than when we moved in. Then there was a matinee of Dirty Rotten (my off show) so I did the laundry and then came over to the theatre for our last two shows of the season which was High School Musical. Then after the show we had to clean and strike all of our equipment. Thankfully between last summer and this summer I had developed a much more organized system so this went relatively fast. Then home we went and crashed into bed... we were probably asleep within about two minutes.... I kid you not.

Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011

Well, our plan was to be on the road by 9... the thing is I always tell myself with loose timelines that if we leave within an hour of that time we are doing great. And so when we got on the road around 9:30 I felt like we were doing just fine. It had been such a long week and I was so exhausted that I wasn't too sure about me driving for 6 hrs + by myself and so John and Trudy were nice enough to come along to help us as drivers which was great. We got to our apartment complex just after 4pm then signed a never ending lease. Joe has a couple of cousins in the Boise area that came and helped us unpack the truck in literally 45 min. It was amazing and we were so grateful for their help because there would have been no way we could have done it by ourselves- especially since I am pregnant. Once we got the truck unpacked Laura and Kevin (Kevin is Joe's cousin) even had us over for dinner so that we didn't have to worry about it. So sweet!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Joe's first day of work as a teacher!

So pretty much that is the sum of the crazy journey that has led us to now living in Boise, ID! I know that that was a lot to read but that is what happened! Joe did the math and for all the big trips that we did in that week it added up to 2057 miles that we put on our car. Thank goodness we have a reliable car! It was quite the whirilwind but we feel very blessed to have this opportunity and to have things work out so smoothly (for the most part). Joe is really loving his school and is working really hard and long hours but I think he is doing great. The school is a public charter school which he really likes because the students care more and parents are more involved but you don't get the snobbiness that sometimes comes with a private school. I'm adjusting slowly (I'm not the biggest fan of change in general) but figuring things out. We really like our apartment and ward so that helps too. We still have to figure out insurance and doctors which is never fun but we'll figure it out!

Just a little* update

Tuesday night was Playmill Prom. This is more of a pseudo Halloween dance that the Playmill cast has every year one night after a show. You get put into couples and come up with a costume pair. Obviously since Joe and I are married we get to be each other's prom date =) It's always hard to figure out what to be because you want it to be creative so that you win... and this year we did! We dug up a couple of trench coats and hats and went dressed as flashers with a special message. It was pretty funny everyone was anxious to see what message we had under our coats but we made them wait a while before they got to see. Most people guessed that we were secret agents which I can see but then they laughed even harder when they found out what we were.

Once we had everyone there we decided it was about time that we showed them the message under our coats and this was their reaction:

Because this is what they saw:

I think that Joe might be just a little bit excited, what do you think?!

(Some people thought that this meant we are having a boy- we don't know yet but this was a gag gift a Playmill player gave us a while ago so we had to incorporate it)

And no this is not a prank- although it would have been a pretty good one =)

I am 14 weeks pregnant and we are expecting our little bundle of joy (mixed with worry and sleep deprivation) around January 27th 2012. We feel very blessed that Heavenly Father is entrusting us with one of his precious little ones and we can't wait to meet him or her.

Nothing much to say but I'll say it anyway

Well folks I don't really have much of anything to say we are still in West Yellowstone working at the Playmill and that takes up most of our time. I really should be more outgoing and make Joe take me on adventures around but... I like to sleep... alot..... and so when u are at work until 11:00 pm or so u sleep in when u can. So mostly we don't do a whole lot other than spend a ton of time at this place:

Yesterday though we did run away to the grand old town of LaGrande Idaho.... look it up clearly it was a BIG get away.... Actually though it was fun as it always is. Every year our friends the Walkers have the Playmill group out to their place for a BBQ at their place for the 24th. It was filled with good food and fun times as always =) After we had devoured our way through all the food we headed over to the Merrill's house which is sorta in Rigby but not really.... another BIG town.... (if you don't know that I am sarcastic then u should

understand at this point that both of these towns are tiny- I was in the country folks.) Once everyone got there the blowing up of things commenced. Firstly dry ice bombs. If you have never seen this before go drink some two liters of soda and find someone from the country.... they will show you what it is all about- but let them do the blowing up so that you keep all of your appendages. Basically you take an empty two liter of soda, put some dry ice in it, add a little bit of water and QUICKLY put the cap back on then either throw it far away and run to a safe distance where the cap will not hit you when the bottle explodes, or put it inside a homemade cannon to shoot it in the air to watch it explode, or before you put the dry ice and stuff in you tie the two liter to a rock so that once you are ready to go you toss it in the water and it creates a depth charge. If anybody doubts that I have been initiated into Idaho culture this mini-tutorial should convince u. Don't worry mom I let the Idaho boys do it. I will never concede that you can call Jello a salad however.

Then of course we did traditional fireworks because well.... who doesn't love fire? =)

it's not frigid anymore!!!!

Hooray! It's almost july and we are not freezing to death anymore it's a miracle! To me that is the big news but I guess it might interest other people to know that we are done with rehearsals and all three shows are open! Which is great because now we can breath every once in a while! yeah! i guess that breathing is a good thing or something! Now our life is shows at night and box office a couple days a week in the morning. There are more box office staff this year so we won't be working as much as we did last year. No other news to report just here in the tiny town of west yellowstone and glad that it's not freezing anymore!

It's June!!!!

Hooray it's June! Which means that coming up are Lauren's birthday, Adam's birthday, My birthday, and mommy and papa's anniversary (34 yrs?)! In other important news the sun made an extended appearance today AND it got up to 65 degrees!!!! Kinda sad considering that when we left Vegas it was in the 90s but hey that is the warmest it has been here thus far. Basically the sun came out and that is a miracle. The end.

p.s. daisies are the happiest flowers

Opening Weekend

Well HSM (High School Musical) is open. Wonderful shows, lots of fun. We're surprised at how much we're enjoying the show. Being in the corner can be overwhelming at times but at least we have each other to move forward. On to Joseph this week for it opens Saturday. Joseph should fall together fairly easy and HSM will continue to evolve as they perform before audiences.

Oh, its been snowing for the past four days or so. Welcome to summer in Montana.

In case anyone is thinking that I don't update my blog- this is true but allow me to give a couple excuses:

1. I have no children and let's face it most people get on friends' blogs to look at pictures or read funny stories about their children.

2. This is our work schedule at the moment

AM Rehearsal 9-12

Afternoon Rehearsal 1-5

PM Rehearsal 7-9:30

3. When we are not in rehearsal we are usually still working or scarfing food down real fast. Also by 9:30 we are pooped and if we don't go home and unwind then go to bed we try to hang out with the cast and make them realize that we are not married fuddy duddies.

4. I like sleep more than I like blogging. hmmmmmm maybe that could have covered everything. If you really know me you understand that that really covers everything- I like... correction (oooohhh but you have to say it with the funny accent Robyn..... sometimes I think that my sister is the only one that has any clue what I am talking about) LOVE sleep

If anyone still checks this blog I owe you an apology- I am really bad at updating this blog! It seems like Joe and I have been running non-stop since we got married and if you don't believe me then just consider the fact that we have been married less than three years and have moved 7 times since we got married. Crazy much?! We certainly keep on the go so you will have to forgive me for my lack of blogging. On April 1st we finished student teaching! YEAH!!!!!!! That means that we are officially graduated! That is such a weird thought! I can't believe that we are actually done with college, am I really old enough for that? I mean Joe is but he's four years older than me! I actually completed college in only 4 years unlike the average college student but I knew exactly what I wanted to do before I went to college and so I did it! I have known for years that I was supposed to get a degree in Elementary Education and I am glad that I have done it! I worked so hard but I made it! Not to say that Joe hasn't worked hard too but I'm the one that writes the blog so I write what I know. I just have to toot my own horn here for a minute- I graduated college with a cumulative GPA of 3.874. Some of you may be thinking but Lesley is smart and it comes easily to her- well then you have no clue what a hard worker I am. I had to work harder than you can know, unless you are Joe because he lived with me for three of the four years of college.

We are now at the Playmill Theatre for the summer and it is going to be quite the summer as always! Today was the first day of rehearsals and I always forget how fast paced we work here. Things are still fairly tame for me at the moment during rehearsals but once we start into run throughs and mics it will be pretty crazy for me. This year we get our own apartment so we are practically right next to theatre which will be very convenient but we because it is west yellowstone afterall we have spent quite a bit of time cleaning before we can move in- i think we should be able to move in for reals tomorrow.

Sorry for the scatterbrained not very exciting update but I guess it's better than nothing right?

WE'RE DONE!

Crazy right but it's true! Joe and I are both college graduates! Although we are still waiting on our diplomas! Let's just hope none of our teachers change their minds!!!!

Howdy Folks That Still Check This Blog =)

April 1st! so close! yes normally teachers dread that day because let's face it april fools day with a bunch of kids is not something a normal person would look foreward too but april 1st is our last day of student teaching! woot! woot! I know kind of silly because I haven't even updated this blog all the way and now we are at the end of another journey! We moved to Vegas at the beginnning of January to complete our student teaching and finish up our college career! Joe has been teaching a math class and a theatre class and i have been teaching a fifth grade class. it has been a crazy adventure for us both but we are near the end and grateful for the experience. We have definitely learned alot, things we would do and things we would do differently but mostly right now I am grateful that it is almost done! I know I know live in the moment but right now my moment is spent stressing and thinking about lots of other things and so I am anxious for this moment to be over! If I could get paid for stressing we would be billionaires.... alas tis not so and so we just keep trudging along.

And most of all... Today we had our Work Sample review.....

drum roll please..............

Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh! (thank you emperor's new groove!)

in case you didn't catch that we both passed with flying colors.... i will have to refrain from putting the video of how loopy Joe is tonight though. He was up really late last night finishing his...

We have a week and a half of student teaching left then we will head to the burg for the teacher job fair there and hopefully impress some people!!!

and just because.... here is a random picture of us to prove that we are still alive =)

This above picture proves that joe is still barely alive. Just kidding, although he did manage to break a ceramic plate by trying to make homemade potato chips in the microwave. (keep in mind that this plate survived all of my college roommates plus marriage for 2 1/2 yrs. ) Yeah, he's got skills =)

This picture was taken about a month and a half ago- hence the jacket, i don't need it anymore =)

Updates Part 2

So on Friday December 17th we had convocation and then Saturday morning we had commencement in the BYU-Idaho center. Well I've already written about that so why bring it up again well just to give the rest of this a little context (plus I didn't mention that that week was also finals and we packed up our entire apartment in boxes so that when we loaded up the Uhaul later it would be easier)- That same Saturday that we had convocation we drove down to Utah got on a plane and wound up in California. How did we just wind up in California you ask? A stinkin awesome summer job where we worked our butts off (although not literally unfortunately) that's how! This summer (as most of you probably know) we had the opportunity to work at the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone MT. Well Beauty and the Beast ended up being a huge hit and so they added a few extra shows of it (which ended up included one day where we did the show three times and it is entirely possible that I may have gone a little ..... well a lot loopy that day). Anyways the point is that it was a successful summer and because we had such amazing employers who loved us all so much they flew us to California and took us to Disneyland for a couple of days before Christmas. Don't believe, neither did we but they really truly did! So if you've ever heard good things about Roger and Heidi Merrill it's true they rock.

So I wrote too many words right there for an appropriate blog post and thus- here are some pictures..... Oh yeah, did I mention that while we were there Anaheim California got the most rain that it has had in 50 years? Oh that. That is why we look the way we do, no we didn't go on a wet ride, that we just how much it was raining but the catch phrase that the group developed (out of an "i'm here and we're going to have fun gosh darn it!" attitude) was "Magic doesn't get wet"

After Disneyland we went back to Utah for Christmas and had fun celebrating Christmas Eve with my extended family at Aunt Allison's house and then Christmas day at Grandma Cole's. I love my family so much and I love being with them, even if it does end up being a crazy time (how could it not be with the Sampson nut factory present?) I love my family!

ok.... now i just have to.......... "Hello, Crazy nut speaking how may I help you?" .... hey Chris, the banana is for you...... ok I combined two stories but if that didn't make you laugh there is either something wrong with you...... or you are not a Sampson kid and you have no clue what i just wrote about!

*I started writing this blog post a long time ago and am just now getting back to it because the fifth graders shared too many germs with me and I am spending my Saturday sick in bed but what I was going to say is that: I am especially grateful now for the opportunity that we had to spend Christmas time with my family. We stayed with my grandparents and parents and it was so much fun to spend time with them all. On February 13, 2011 My amazing Grandpa Cole passed away and I will be forever grateful for the memories that I have of him and his love.

The day after Christmas we had arranged to have a "Christmas" with the Bidwell family since we were down in SLC and Benny and Katie live there too, so John and Trudy came down. Well the night before we were texting figuring out when we were meeting, etc. and Benny joked about meeting at the hospital because Joe was going to be an uncle (p.s. Katie was 8 months pregnant). Well we thought no way! She's got almost another month to go! Well wouldn't you know it the next morning she had baby Samantha and we ended up meeting at the hospital! She's a cutie though so I'll forgive her for coming early (and Katie will celebrate! although a dec. 26th birthday does complicate things in the future...).

-4........ why should that be an important number to know? Well that's how cold it was the day that Joe and I moved out of our apartment in Rexburg, mind you it had warmed up from the night before when we had been cleaning. Our front door was a metal fire code door, and it was one of the things that we were supposed to clean for the white glove checkout before they release you (or any of your deposit). So the night before we left I was trying to clean the door. You would think that this would be a simple feat given the fact that I had a Mr. Clean magic eraser. Well in that crazy, absurd, ridiculous, painfully cold Rexburg weather that was not the case. The moment the cleaner hit the door it instantainiously froze and formed frozen droplets of cleaning solution on the door. After trying a few other things i finally decided that there was only one solution. Mission terminated. The next day during our checkout the manager wanted me to try cleaning it again. I showed her what happened and we both gave up. It should be noted that they were incredibly impressed with the super clean bathroom- Joe managed to completely get rid of the toilet ring that always manages to be present in a rental. Ta Da!

still not up to date but closer!

My Brain Says......

You know those books or children's toys that go:

The cow says mooo.

The dog says ruff.

The chicken says cluck cluck.

The duck says quack.

The cat says meow.

The giraffe doesn't really make a noise.

The camel spits. (ok i just added that one in there for laughs, but if anyone ever comes across a children's book with that in there buy it! because that is stinkin hilarious!)

Well right now my brain says a lot of different things. Most often this is how my book reads.

My stomach says feed me real food.

My fingers say stop using me as white board erasers.

My knees say "You have knee problems woman! You chose the wrong profession!" (They have an attitude)

My feet say cute shoes are not worth wearing on most teaching days.

My stress induced cravings say give me chocolate.

My brain says ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (to the infinite power)

p.s. When did 5th graders become such tweenagers?!?!

Updates part 1

So I know that an update has been a long time coming and so here we go! ( I feel like I should say off to the races or something because it has been so long since I updated y'all it is going to be a race trying to remember everything)

Last semester was our last semester on BYU-Idaho campus. It was a wild wild ride and we stayed incredibly busy. Joe also decided that he wanted to be in one more show on

campus especially because one of his favorite people to work with (Roger Merrill) was directed Arsenic and Old Lace which is one of those plays that was on his list of wanting to be in. He was cast as Johnathon and had a blast doing it. (Even if washing out the hair color from his hair every night did make for a ruined (just for Robyn- it's ruint!) shower curtain and a perpetually dirty tub!)

I kept plenty busy taking 17 credits 6 of which were my senior practicum class where I taught in a third grade classroom in Rigby two days a week. I had a wonderful time at a great school with a great co-operating teacher and great kids (if I could have stayed I might have). It was such a blast and as I always suspected I love teaching third grade! It was very funny teaching in a predominantly mormon area though because once I taught a lesson about welcoming people to your community when they move there. I had the students create a list of things that they would do to welcome them. Among the things listed were "my bishop will welcome them into the ward" and "my mom will bring them bread"! Oh how kids make me laugh!

Because we knew that this semester would be bringing us to Las Vegas for student teaching and we were unsure what our lives had in store for us after that we decided to walk for graduation at the end of the fall semester. Basically we get to hold on to our diploma covers a little bit longer than everyone else. I know a lot of people that if they don't walk before they student teach end up never walking and I have worked too hard for that!!! So officially we graduate in April but we have done all of the commencement stuff already. We got to be the first group to have commencement in the new BYU-Idaho center (it is pretty impressive and is about like the conference center just with a few less rows).

p.s. Special thanks Mommy, Papa, Robyn, Esther, and the baby boy in Robyn's tummy for making the special trip to be with us!

I think esther may have been slightly tired at this point what do you think?

Expect more updates later because there is still plenty to tell you about but I have to teach in the morning so nighty night!