New Look

Well after many hours of trying to figure it out I finally have it, a new look! Let's just say I'm grateful for a mother than understands all of this stuff so I'm not stuck with the hum drum llok of before. Hope you like it :)

Worth Remembering

This boy was one of my Kindergartners this past year and putting it mildly, he was difficult. He was a good kid he just had a hard time with school. He loved to give hugs and and on most days was fun to have in class but on more than one occasion I had to pick him up and take him to the office for a time out.

Why is he worth remembering you ask? Well on the very last day of school I went in to help in his class and one of the activities that his teacher was doing was having each child say what their favorite thing about Kindergarten was. There of course was the normal responses of recess, playing, lunch etc. When it was his turn without thinking about it he said his favorite part of Kindergarten was Miss Blocker!

Now to be perfectly honest I dismissed it just thinking, "oh that's cute". But for some reason I've been thinking about it and I'm a little more flattered now than I was then. Granted he is only in Kindergarten so the chances of his even remembering me in the long run are minimal but for now anyway he thinks of me as the best thing about his first year of school!

It's great knowing that I helped someone have a better day :)

My Accidental Hobbie

I didn't set out to be the family photo collector/editor but here I am. It started because I wanted to make movies for Christmas presents last year and surprise surprise, I only got as far as loading and editing pictures. In my defense that's A LOT of pictures to work through!!

As you saw in the last post a lot of those pictures brought us a lot of laughs but there were some that reminded us that sometimes we weren't so bad. Just to defend our honor I share some other pictures with you.....

We used to be cute, maybe.

Maybe this summer I'll get around to finishing those movies :)

Some Real Winners

So Kimberly brought over a box of some of the pictures she had when I was working on the wedding video and I've only now gone through them, which is unfortunate since we came upon some real doosies like this one:

I say this with sisterly love but doesn't she look like a rat? Kylee and I still can't stop laughing over this one :)

But then we decided it must just come by heredity....

Don't worry, all is fair in me saying this cause soon after we found this we found these beauties from a trip we took to Seattle. I won't tell you what movie we were inspired by, you'll have to figure that one out for yourselves.

And just so it would be fair:

I don't know what's worse the fact that I appear so serious about what we are doing or the fact that I used to tuck my shirts in! Hideous!!!

But hey we all need a good laugh now and again :)

Summer Vacation: Day 2

I'm only two days (if you don't count Memorial Day) into my summer vacation and I have to say I have been unusually productive. Knowing it was coming but not realizing it was coming so soon I moved out on Monday. I decided Sunday after church that I was ready to be done with the stress, I started packing that night and by 2:00 Monday afternoon I was done.

I am just moving home for the summer so I can save a little money which I dreaded for a long time, not because I don't like it but because of all the "how old are you?" looks and comments. After all the stress building up the last year though as soon as I had everything out of the apartment it felt like someone hit the release valve and let the stress out. I feel so much better!!

Besides finding places to put things and cleaning I'm starting into my summer reading. I have so many books to read that I don't know where to start. I have my list of books that I just bought that I want to read and then I have all of my books I've just rediscovered in my move that I am anxious to read and remember. It's so exciting!!! I have to be in the mood to read and it comes so rarely these days that I have to embrace it when it does. Luckily it hit me a few months ago and is continuing strong and hopefully will continue throughout the summer.

For the books I have finished I am writing my reviews on the side of the blog for those that are interested in reading. Among the books I'm hoping to concur (I use that word cause they are big) are:

Jane Eyre

Wives and Daughters

and maybe, just maybe Les Miserables.

I don't know if I can emphasis how excited I am about this. I have just been waiting for this day!!

P.S. If you don't have the time to devote to the books at least watch the movies of these two below cause you will not be disappointed. They are great stories but besides that just look at that man on the cover!! He's amazing and well worth your time :)

 *I know this video is kinda cheesy but I think it works nicely since it's kinda hard to find what I want 

Freedom

After a few rough days, as you can tell by my previous posts, school has finally ended and summer vacation has begun!!!

The end of the year is always a bitter sweet thing. Even though your exhausted you seems to only remember the good time that you had throughout the year but not this year. In all honesty this really was a great year. I had a lot of fun, I made lots of friends, I became more confident, I had more responsibility and I enjoyed it all. Despite all of that it was an exhausting year and I wasn't sad to see it end and am relieved to finally have a break. I guess after 5 years of this you begin to realize you will see the kids again in a few month so it's okay.

I am way excited for my summer though because I am determined to have fun, be productive and finish some of the things on my Bucket List. I don't have any definite plans for June just yet but I am looking forward to the Scottish Festival the 9-10. I've never even heard about it before but it sounds like it could be fun and since it's the closest I am going to get to Scotland for a while yet you better believe I'll be there :) June is going to be all my local fun and then for July I'm heading to TEXAS!!!!

It seems to be turning into a yearly tradition to go on a trip and that's pretty cool. Last year I went to Washington DC and this year I'm going to Dallas, Texas! I am going to stay with a cousin who has invited me down (THANK YOU CHESNEY) and am going for a month! I am so excited for this much needed vacation and the chance to see someplace new.

I was a little worried at first not knowing what Texas has to offer but I've been doing some research and there seems to be plenty to keep me busy while I'm there. Maybe if I have too much fun I'll find me a cowboy and just stay :) (I'm joking really I know that would never happen)

JUST MAD!

I'm not really an angry person, I consider myself rather patient person but lately I find myself getting angry a lot. Angry at life, angry at myself, angry at the weather and the stupid snow that ruins everything!! I don't even know why!

It's getting harder and harder to sit by and watch everyone's lives progress while my life continues stagnant. It doesn't even have to do with marriage anymore it's just life in general. I don't know what to do with myself and find my courage to get out and try new things quickly slipping away. Maybe angry isn't the right word but just intensely frustrated.

I hate that I have become a Debbie Downer and every entry on this blog is my venting, it's just getting harder and harder to stay positive when just about everything that I look forward to and am excited about ends badly and I'm just tired of having every hope crushed.

My sister got married last week and I kind of anticipated it being a hard day but as it got closer I became excited and didn't think it would be that bad. That morning at the temple though proved to be as difficult as I had anticipated. It was a nice sealing but I half way through all I could do was concentrate on not crying. It was just sad. I don't know if it was sad because things were changing or if I was just jealous because I could no longer picture myself in that situation. I didn't feel jealous so I don't know. It was a rough morning though.

The rest of the day went all right and by the reception the weather had turned perfect and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday though was another not so great of day. We went over to Nick and Kimberly's to watch them unwrap presents and got to see the pictures and that was depressing. I hate having pictures with my siblings because I hate standing next to the three of them and being about the size of two of them. Being stressed, frustrated and yes maybe just a little depressed I have been eating more than I should be. I think it made me feel better to know that at least now I had a reason why nobody would want me or even want to go on a date with me cause if I looked like I did when I came home from the mission the only reason would be because of my personality which we have evidence here can be a bit intense, strange, dark, etc. etc. but oh well cause at least I have a couple of friends that tell me otherwise and I value their opinion enough to know that they might be right:) I have bad days, everyone has bad days I'm just dumb enough to publish mine on the Internet. But please don't think it is to get your sympathy because it honestly is not I just need to vent and writing things down is the most therapeutic (I honestly feel a little better already)