Looking Back and Moving Forward

2008 was a great year for my family and I! This has been a year of so many blessings! I am so grateful for all of them, including:
1) Marrying my best friend in the Mesa Temple. It was a wonderful day! I am so blessed to have Rick in my life! He's wonderful (especially when he picks up after himself) and my life would be so much duller without him.
2) Finishing my first year of teaching. It was HARD. I never knew how much strength you needed, both emotionally and physically, in order to be a teacher. This is what I have to say about my first year teaching: It was probably one of the toughest things I have done in my entire life (thus far). Teaching 7th grade Social Studies at Landmark Middle School in Glendale was extremely tough. I survived though, and that's the most important thing. I ended the school year, and I wanted to go back to teaching. I needed to prove to myself that I could be a good teacher, and that students could learn from me. I did not feel like I accomplished much last school year, and this school year has been a complete turn around for me.
3) A new family. I guess that this goes with marrying Rick, but I have become a member of a great family. The Chappells are great people and it's so nice to be close to them and have family around.
4) A great family ward. The Bethany Home Ward here in Phoenix is great. I have two callings, Webelos Den Leader and Valiant 9 Teacher. We have some good friends here in this ward, and I hope that we can become more active in our callings and better friends with others.
5) My two new nephews. Luke Bradley Layton was born in December and Oliver Ruben Smith was born in October. I am such a lucky auntie!

Now for 2009, I have so many things that I would like to accomplish in this upcoming year. I have to tell myself that I need to prioritize and do those things that are the most important first. So, here is a list of things that I would like to do in 2009.
1) Change my life around to eat healthier and exercise 3-4 times a week.
-My doctor told me that I needed to lose weight, and I told her that I agreed. I have joined Weight Watchers, and Pure Fitness Gym in an attempt to lose weight. It's going slow. I know that I have to stay consistent and that I need to be stubborn. I am not going to be perfect when it comes to losing weight, but that doesn't mean that I still can't achieve my goals. I just have to "endure to the end".
2) Budget our money and time better.
- The housing market isn't that great for people that own homes, but if you're looking into buying in the near future (us), then it's good. Rick and I want to try to save up as much money as possible this year to get some debts paid off so that we can focus on putting more money into savings. I would really like to save a lot of money this year also. My good friend Kara, on her blog, gave some good suggestions of things to do in order to save money, including a couple of websites (my favorite: couponmom.com).
-As for budgeting our time, I keep thinking of a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks and I keep thinking about how I spend my time and how it could be spent better. Like, how I should make time to plan my Primary Lesson before Sunday so that way before noon church, I can read "The Holy Temple" and my scriptures and write in my journal.
3) Take a sewing class-- learn to sew
-This is something that I really want to do. I am so excited to be taking classes in the next couple of months. :) I need to learn to sew. And I am so happy that I will be taking classes this year.
4) Plan meals out every week.
-I would like to plan my meals out much, much better this year and take advantage of something that I haven't used in a year or two--- the crockpot. Our goal is to limit our eating out to 1 time a week together. I know that we can do that. It is simple and easy, it just takes planning and not being lazy.
5) See Rick graduate.
-February 27th. And get a good-paying job.

Here are a few things that I would like to accomplish this year. These are mostly would I would call my temporal goals. My spiritual goals are more like: Go to the temple at least once a month, go visiting teaching every month, read my scriptures every day, read "The Holy Temple" this year and do better in my callings.

Christmas!

So, it's been awhile. :) There's no reason that I haven't written in this blog for two months except for this... I am lazy! I've also been busy and I've had to prioritize. So, recap of December. We had a wonderful time in California with my family. We had a great Thanksgiving in the Gila Valley also. I really enjoyed the time that we spent with our families. It was sad to leave California, but it's okay, because it's not like they live that far away from us. So first of all: California Christmas!
Here are some pictures:
Rick and Oli. So cute. Oli would always fall asleep in Rick's arms. Aaron, Rick, Casey and I in front of the train ride.... This was probably around the time when Casey peed all over Rick's shirt. Ha Ha!

Casey on the race cars with Uncle Aaron. He's having a blast!
In front of Camp Snoopy-- Ray, me, Rick, Oli, Sarah, Casey, Aaron, Russ, and Bethany.
Me, Casey and Sarah around lunchtime... That's why Casey looks so crabby. I think it's because he's hungry.

Casey having a great time at Knott's Berry Farm. I think that he enjoyed it! Casey is in dismay. He looked at our gingerbread house, and then the directions and then at the house again and said, "That's not right".
Casey "helping" with the gingerbread house.
Casey surrounded by his toys and playing with the laptop that Aunt Sarah got for him!
Casey, Rick and Liam playing with the blocks.

Me holding Oli and feeding him. He's so cute. :)

Overall we had a great Christmas! It was so nice to be able to spend time with family. Rick had to go back to work the next week, but that was okay. It was nice to be able to relax at home and get some things organized and figured out for a while.

October and November

It has been forever! Not much has happened in the past couple of months. Here are the highlights: Phoenix Zoo ( we love zoos!), visiting the fun and fabulous Hansen family, visiting my family in California (Welcome Oli!), Halloween, Cub Scouts, etc. I do have another calling to add on to being the Webelos Den Leader. I now teach the Valiant 10 class on Sunday. It is so much fun! The kids in our ward's primary are awesome! I've had a fun time subbing, and now it will be better with being a permanent sub. Here are some pictures from the fun times that we've had the past couple of weeks. They describe everything better than I do in words!

With the HUGE giraffe... this one's for Kajsa! Me in front of the nice lake. It was so hot that day, we just spend most of the time in the shade!
Over at Erin's place for dinner.
Rick and I with CUTE Cole. He is the funniest little baby!




Rick and Cole... such a cute picture! Cole is so darling, especially with his mouth and tongue like that! :)
AND NOW.... Family Pictures!


Trying to talk to Casey about something... is he listening? I don't think so!
Rick and I... really cute picture of the two of us. :)
Carpenter Family... complete with Rick, Casey and Oli.

The family again... cool view.
Russ, crazy Casey, adorable Oliver, and of course, beautiful Bethany.. yes, she just had a baby a few days before this and she looks amazing!
Another one of the family... looks pretty cool.Family again... different view. And the last one....

Trying to figure out which one we like the most. So, I have started exercising! YAY! I love it! And I am doing Weight Watchers so that I can do better with losing some weight. Hooray! I don't have work tomorrow!

June San Diego Adventure Trip!

I realized that I never put on the blog about our adventures in San Diego. So, here goes. We got married on Saturday and then we went to church on Sunday (of course, everyone in our new ward was like, "why are you guys here?" It's okay though because I told them that it was Rick's fault.

We left on Monday morning to drive to San Diego. Our friend, Traci, got us two days in her timeshare, which was really nice, especially the pricing of it. We figured since Rick only had about two weeks off of school, and one week off of work, that we would do a quick little honeymoon, and then we he's graduated go somewhere else.... (like New York, where he served his mission) or to Disneyworld, because we think that it sounds like fun.

So the trip from Phoenix to San Diego was about 6 hours, and it was soooo boring! I was seriously bored out of my mind. We made it to San Diego, that night we went to Hard Rock Cafe. It was so much fun, even if it was a little bit loud. I got steak, and it was one of the best steaks I've ever had before. Of course, we both got sick from the food and traveling all day.

Then on Tuesday, we got up early and drove to the San Diego Zoo. The place where we were staying was downtown San Diego, and it was super-close to Balboa Park. The zoo was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed it. We used some coupons, and Rick's uncle's gift to us (cash). After the zoo, we walked downtown for a bit, and decided to see a movie. We saw "The Incredible Hulk", stopped by a bookstore in the mall there, read for a little bit, then walked over to Friday's. I love Friday's restaurant, and Rick absolutely loved their ribs. It was a really good dinner. Then we walked back to our hotel, and stayed inside for the rest of the night.On Wednesday, we went to La Jolla on the way up to Rancho for the upcoming reception on Friday. I remember going to soccer tournaments when I was younger, and in between games a few of us would go to this cave store. You would walk down these steps to this beautiful type ocean cave. Well, I was on a quest to find it, and we did. It didn't have all the beautiful sea shells like it used to, but we decided to walk down and saw the cave. The cave was gorgeous. Here are some pictures that we took. (Yes, I know that we are wearing matching shirts. They were part of a gift from some friends)
We then travelled up to Rancho, stayed in a hotel for a few nights over there, and then came back to Phoenix and life. Rick graduates in March, so we've been trying to save our money to go on a trip to DC and New York. We would fly out to Washington DC, spend a little bit of time with my sister, Sarah, and then go up to New York. I think that it would be a lot of fun, and Rick and I really wanted to go. Well, Rick approached me earlier today and said, "You know what would also be fun? Disney World!" And I completely agree. Oh well, we'll see where we can go in March.

Ramblings of the Week

So, I love the fall season. It is finally starting to get a little bit cooler here in Phoenix (so it's in the 90 degree range right now). I am optimistic about life and school. I am really tired and stressed with all of the school drama that is going on, but I am happy with my classes and the other more important part of my life ---my family and Rick. My parents got a new German Shepherd puppy and she is the cutest little thing in the entire world. I love the little thing! Here is her picture.
Her name is Kim.I can't wait to go to Rancho in a month to meet her! My sister is also expecting a baby, so of course, we're excited about that too. Now, I was excited about just one dog... My brother Aaron, just got a new puppy too. His name is Strider (yes, from Lord of the Rings). He is absolutely cute too. Here is his picture:



Here is his cute little picture. Isn't he the cutest little furball. While I am writing about cute things, here are a few more of my favorite cute things.

Rick, my hubby:
Here is one of my nephew when he was little and still really, really cute. I love the kid a ton!




There are other things that I enjoy besides Casey, Rick and the puppies. I love reading and talking on the phone to friends. I love sending pieces of flair on facebook. I love teasing my good friends and hanging out with them. And other random, random things that make me happy. I've decided that Cub Scouts are alright, once you rein them in and lay the smackdown. I am so excited for this upcoming weekend. For some reason, I am super-excited about it, and I am not exactly sure why. I hope that everyone has a good weekend and talk to you later!

Wake me up when September ends....

I know, I know. It's only the first week of September, but I am so looking forward to our district's Fall Break in October. Woo-hoo! The past couple of weeks have been really busy. Me with starting up school, and Rick finishing his finals. But, we made it through! We're both a little annoyed at the moment. So, we've been watching Dragon Ball Z for about 6 weeks now, and we have the first 3 seasons on DVD. Well, I am pretty sure that I ordered Season 4 about 2 weeks ago, and it is still not here yet. Everyday I run down to the mailbox in anticipation of getting a nice package so we can start watching the show that we've been slowly obsessing over. It had better come soon, or someone is going to pay.
I am trying to cook more this week than the past couple of weeks. It's really hard to be a housewife and a teacher at the same time. I can't imagine trying to throw in a kid or two to that equation, it must be tough. We recently encountered a song and video on youtube that we really liked (the song, a lot). I am kind of embarrassed to admit that it is by Avril Lavinge (not a huge fan of hers), but this is really sweet song. It's called "Fall to Pieces", and Rick found the guitar chords so that he can serenade me with this song. Of course, in order to practice the song, Rick had to get a brand new guitar this past weekend at Sam Ash. It was a great deal, of course, but he had to get it. It's fun though, he's really enjoying playing with it.


We had our first Pack Meeting for Cub Scouts with Rick in charge. It was a ton of fun. The kids really enjoyed it, and I liked it also. We finally got our broken dishwasher fixed. It's amazing how much a clean sink effects the rest of the apartment. I know that it seems like I am rambling, which is true. I am rambling. I don't know exactly anything wonderful and great that has happened, which is okay. Will update everyone on any news, etc. that may be exciting. We live pretty boring lives here in Phoenix, we'll try to look for something fun to do.

August

So, it's been a month, and I know that I've wanted to write in this more than once a month, but I've been super-busy. School is fine so far. My feet kill me, and my throat has been bothering. It's only been the first week, so hopefully it will get better. We had a fun time the past couple of days. We went out to eat with our friends Kellen and Erin and there cute little guy Cole. We are so happy that they are living in Mesa! So close! We went to Rainforest Cafe, which is a little overpriced but still a fun atmosphere. We went to California about a month ago. My mom took me clothes shopping for school--- it was a lot of fun. And then, I had my birthday. I turned 23 on the 8th for my platinum birthday 8-8-08. It was fun. Rick took me out to eat at Black Angus, then he took me shopping, and then we went home and relaxed for a bit. I had a great time.

In our new ward, I am the Webelos Den Leader in the Cub Scouts and Rick is the Cub Master. Rick is fine with it, because he's all into scouting. Me, however, I was confused. I thought that all the dens were animals, so when they asked me to be the Webelos leader, I thought "What animal is that?" It has been a lot of fun, working with the 10 year old boys. They're really wiry and energetic, but I can deal with it, I do teach 7th grade.

My students so far this first week are alright. I made a lot of mistakes my first year of teaching, and I am absolutely determined not to make them again. I am working hard, and I am showing the students who is in charge. Nice kids..... so far. It's only been the first week though. Rick is doing well. He's almost done with his semester at school, he just got a small job as a translator in the school district that I work in, and he is working hard with his IT job at the moment. I am so proud of him. So excited that he graduates in March! Only 5 more days until my first paycheck since May! Woohoo!